Well, 6/10 this week, and so once again beating political journalist John Rentoul, who scored 5/10. I knew the answers to questions 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 10. I did not know the answers to questions 2, 4, 7, and 9.
Tweets seen
Within the last 15 minutes, from two sources, I have received information that Boris Johnson is allegedly close to bankruptcy.
An unverified assertion from an unknown and doubtful source who quotes two other supposed and unknown/unverified sources. Conclusion: probably bs, but it would be nice if it were to turn out to be accurate.
Russian planes shoot down Ukrainian ones from a safe distance
ARMED forces of Ukraine cannot match the Russians in the air because the planes of the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation launch their air-to-air missiles without entering the enemy's air defense zone.
Bill C-11 (the Online Streaming Act) has received royal assent, having passed in the Canadian Senate. Trudeau now has absolute governmental control of online censorship. He’s not a liberal. He’s an authoritarian. A wolf in sheep’s clothing.#BillC11pic.twitter.com/Zpw73BiCnd
I have been waiting for several years for just one Canadian to step up (’nuff said…). So far, seems that that one hero does not exist…
The Skyhook retrieval system was used in the 1940s and early 1950s by American and British military to enable an airplane to pick up personnel from the ground without landing. An absolutely hardcore military rescue operation. pic.twitter.com/IX6NHQXkTQ
Important questions. While I myself am totally in favour of the NHS idea of health service (“free at point of use”), in principle, I am even more in favour of a health service that works. Increasingly over the past decade or two, I have been forced to conclude that the NHS does not work, or at least does not work properly.
Reuters reported that the United States has seized a shipment of Iranian oil at sea in recent days.
The agency added that Iran seized another oil tanker in response to this US action. pic.twitter.com/BSSfMLAEtK
British intelligence reports that the latest Russian missile attacks were aimed at destroying Ukrainian reserves amassing for a counteroffensive pic.twitter.com/XX7SD3XRYv
Kyiv is moving the date of the counter-offensive to May because the weather conditions are expected to be better then, said the representative of the local government of the Zaporozhye region, Vladimir Rogov . "Their counteroffensive could also be the last order that Ukrainian…
Translation: “we have a crumbling army that has to use press-gangs to enforce enlistment, we have no suitable people for deployment as officers, we have insufficient armament, and we are running out of ammunition.”
Tactics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to undermine high-rise buildings in Artyomovsk/Bakhmut pic.twitter.com/0QZoPgL8Bh
Prigozhin spoke about the situation in Artyomovsk PMC fighters advanced 100-150 meters. The enemy holds 2.98 km of territory. Wagner stormtroopers lost 94 people today. According to the founder of the PMC, large losses were caused by shell shortage . “Losses should have been… pic.twitter.com/yGqV804Xru
In case of aggression, Belarus will be protected by 1.5 million military men , – State Secretary of the Security Council of the country Minsk did not waste time and was well prepared for possible provocations of the West pic.twitter.com/1wsC7cTYCM
In Kiev, it was proposed to hold early elections for the Ukrainian president The reason for this was the inadequate leadership of the country by the current President Zelensky. “Zelensky cannot solve the tasks of protecting Ukraine, its people, which means that martial law… pic.twitter.com/eevnbx7TLf
In the Western msm, we hear much about the possibility of a palace coup in Russia, but nothing about the arguably greater possibility of an internal putsch in Ukraine, against Zelensky and his cabal.
"Russia is on the brink of catastrophe." Prigozhin issued an ultimatum to Shoigu and threatened Putin with military mutiny
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the PMC "Wagner", wrote a letter to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, demanding to provide ammunition. Prigozhin gave an ultimatum… pic.twitter.com/QDdtj5wVNy
The Wagner Group has done most of the heavy fighting so far. How can it be left without ammunition?
It takes a lot to shock me. And I am well aware of the Guardian's and especially Rowson's form. But I still find it genuinely shocking that not a single person looked at this and said, no, we can't run this. To me that's the real issue. pic.twitter.com/1QHfjGW6Ok
Anti-Semitic cartoon by @guardian showing Richard Sharp (who is Jewish) leaving the BBC. Absolutely vile and wouldn’t be out of place in 1930s Germany. Why do you keep doing this? pic.twitter.com/AqhyPCXeEE
— Bella Wallersteiner 🇺🇦 (@BellaWallerstei) April 29, 2023
Ha ha” “They” are all screaming now…the (((usual))) “claque” in operation, yet again.
The disingenuous "41p a portion" recipes, so enjoyed by privileged Guardian readers, need to stop. Reality is *much more expensive* both in terms of ingredients & cooking costs. This is no different to "30p Lee" but is presented as helpful & even as anti poverty. #TheBigHelpOutpic.twitter.com/QxcAmWAMT5
The voting system is rigged, designed to produce seemingly “fair” or “balanced” results overall (between 2-3 approved parties), but in fact not reflecting the true views of the electorate:
See also:
The biggest single voter movement was from Labour to non-voting.
I still don't understand why someone whose only previous experience is money-making – and not arts, or culture, or broadcasting – would think he was in any way suitable to head up the UK's most significant cultural institution.
“The Home Secretary has scolded a police force for sending five officers to a family-owned pub to seize a collection of golliwog dolls, it was revealed yesterday.
An anonymous complaint was made about the White Hart Inn in Grays, Essex, and 15 dolls were seized because their presence was a suspected ‘hate crime‘.”
[Daily Mail]
The same Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, who is married to a Jew, and recently appeared at the Jewish-Zionist snoop and strongarm squad, “Community Security Trust” [“CST”], vowing to crack down on any (free?) speech that mentions Jews or Jewish behaviour…
“Jewish communities are to be better protected from vile antisemitic attacks with a £1 million funding boost and a new dedicated police taskforce.”
Note the vituperative and not very “official” language.
“The new funding will bring the total amount allocated through the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant to £122 million since 2015.”
The simple and harmless pleasures of the past, such as the 1960s Black and White Minstrels (not my usual kind of entertainment but that is not the point), are now the target of brainwashed and joyless “wokes”, some of whom inhabit the remnants of the (?) all-but-useless police forces.
head of the DPR Denis Pushilin visited Artemovsk/Bakhmut “The city is being liberated by the Wagners, the enemy spares neither the city nor his own,” said Pushilin. pic.twitter.com/4yHBN3LKRf
Wenn diese Derivatenblase platzt dann ist Deutschland und die Europäische Union am Ende, gefolgt vom Rest der Welt. Dies könnte die Supernova sein, die das gesamte globale Finanzsystem detoniert. Dann sind eure Einlagen auch nicht sicher. pic.twitter.com/MmHL4lXzFX
The whole Western finance-capital model, as it has existed since the late 1980s, is a house of cards ready to collapse.
Since Ashley Biden’s diary is now confirmed as authentic, we can safely conclude that Joe Biden is something very close to an incestuous pedophile. Or is there another way to look at it? pic.twitter.com/PGxc4N5kjE
The Macron visit to Beijing has been wildly misrepresented in the Western media. The Ukraine lobbying was always going to be a dead letter and the French knew that. The real purpose of the trip was to position Europe for the new multipolar world. https://t.co/UYzyU03Int
I would love to see warmongering one-time soldier Ellwood [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobias_Ellwood] removed from Parliament. An unpleasant character altogether, and one who not only seems to want war between the UK and both Russia and China but also has a Reserve role in the notorious online propaganda outfit, the 77th Brigade, in the rank of Colonel or at least Lt.Col., rather higher than the rank he held as a Regular officer (Captain). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/77th_Brigade_(United_Kingdom).
His parents’ origins and work overseas seem to be slightly mysterious; he himself was born in New York City, and was educated in both Bonn and Vienna, at the time (1970s/1980s) both major centres for Cold War intelligence and espionage activity.
Looks as if that “grifter”, Amanda Solloway, may have to return to working in Sainsbury’s or somewhere. Incredible that someone like that could even be an MP; she even made it briefly —for a couple of months— onto the lowest rung of the Government ladder as a PUS [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanda_Solloway] under that clown, “Boris” Johnson.
Amanda Solloway’s Wikipedia entry has been heavily massaged over the years to delete damaging material. I see that any mention of her “controversial” husband (maybe now ex-husband or “partner”…I forget) has been expunged. Other material about Amanda Solloway herself has been removed.
— UK Polling Report (@PollingReportUK) April 8, 2023
Looks as though former Labour MP (and total ignoramus), Claudia Webbe [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudia_Webbe] will also be heading to shelfstacking or the dole queue…
So both Truss and Woollyhead Trussbanger (Kwarteng) seem likely to stay on as MPs. There really is no justice in this world.
Of course, his every action shows that Jewish-lobby puppet Keir Starmer would (probably will) make a rotten Prime Minister, but then look at the last half-dozen.
Russia has taken Bakhmut. When the admin centre (town hall) is taken the town has fallen.
Right now we have a mop-up exercise against stiff resistance.
To get the town back, Ukraine has to conquer the town hall again.
— Make Peace Now; alternative news (@AlternatNews) April 10, 2023
Simplistic, but it is clear that the Russian forces, spearheaded by the Wagner Group, are now very much in the ascendant in the Bakhmut/Artyomovsk sector of the overall south-eastern front.
More than 75% of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut) is under the control of Russian units as stated by the head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin. 🇷🇺
— Польский Казак 'Z.O.V' 🇵🇱❤️🇷🇺 ☭ (@pktr_Ruski) April 10, 2023
A Russian🇷🇺 Lancet loitering ammunition hits another US🇺🇸 155mm M777 howitzer heading towards Bakhmut. Ukrainians 🇺🇦 flee upon realizing the fate of the Howitzer. pic.twitter.com/5KIvvfAxFd
— David Morgan 🏴 #StayFree (@david_r_morgan) March 24, 2023
We haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of understanding the sheer evil that permeates this world..
— David Morgan 🏴 #StayFree (@david_r_morgan) March 23, 2023
Perceptive, from someone as young as that.
On the other hand, do not forget that there is also good in this world, and that, in the Russian proverb, “the world is not without kind people“.
They don’t care how much debt they rack up because they have no intention of paying it back.
The global financial system is on the verge of collapse and it’s the average working person that will be left to pick up the pieces while the rich get richer.
— David Morgan 🏴 #StayFree (@david_r_morgan) March 22, 2023
Eddie Izzard says trans people will get through ‘tough times’ as he blames right-wing for ‘stirring things up’ – in short, Eddie is annoyed that many people aren’t just immediately submitting abjectly to his demands | The Independent https://t.co/DkT0XwQP8D
I'm so sick of people like Eddie Izzard trying to slander pple for knowing the difference between men and wmn. No matter the political beliefs, this topic affect so many groups: women, gay/lesbian, parents, teenagers, did they really think we would all just step back, insane.
Why is it so many of these gender activists say they want an open debate but then immediately vilify & condemn anybody with an opposing view worthy of debate as a transphobe. To have a debate you need to allow the opposing viewpoint to be openly discussed https://t.co/Ay9UQaQMfp
The whole thing, the “trans nonsense”, has mushroomed from being a situation, or problem, affecting a tiny handful of people, to now being an absurd fad supposedly affecting millions and, also, a way in which the transnational conspiracy can close down free speech in a specific area and generally.
It has become a building block of the “New World Order” [NWO], as can be seen by the way in which trans nonsense propaganda has been used against, inter alia, Russia and Putin.
As for Eddie Izzard, another very negative factor in British society.
✍️ 'We may be too British to protest, but an unfair rise in the pension age calls for resistance' | Writes @sambrodbeck
All very good, but most people in the UK have nowhere in which to grow their own food, not even a small garden. A half-acre garden is a relative rarity. Still, a worthwhile enquiry.
That “Boris” Johnson could become an MP was ridiculous, that he could become a Cabinet minister was almost unbelievable, and that he could become Prime Minister was a disgrace. The whole present Parliamentary system is a bad joke.
As for Nadine Dorries, what can one say? A stupid “ho” with a brain the size of a pea, but not so stupid that she could not tear the **** out of her Parliamentary expenses; she even gave her daughters non-jobs using her expenses: £60,000 a year for one of them alone.
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"Russian forces attacked northern and southern stretches of the front in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region on Friday, pressing on with their offensive despite assertions from Kyiv that Moscow’s assault was flagging near the city of Bakhmut."https://t.co/Kw3lG6sLqx
The more I look at the way the “West” is going, that is in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, UK etc, the more it seems to me that, somewhere not far down the line, a kind of civil war, a kind of culture war, a kind of race war, a kind of (new-style) class war, all mixed together, is almost inevitable.
Stop being so tolerant and non-judgmental. It's been an absolute disaster.
“Vladimir Putin‘s ‘martyr complex’ is so out of control there is a risk he will embolden Russia to use nuclear and chemical weapons, a think tank has warned – amid rising concerns over the Kremlin’s ‘hysteric rhetoric’.
A new report published by the US think tank Heritage Foundation has highlighted a growing risk the Russian president will ‘make one of the most fateful decisions of the century’ in the face of his faltering invasion of Ukraine.
The study, named The US and Its Allies Must Understand and Respond to Russia’s Nuclear Threats, explores the actual likelihood that Putin will turn to using weapons of mass destruction.
Russian generals are understood to have discussed the use of tactical nuclear weapons in November, but is said to be cautious about the use of long-range weapons.
However, Russia has ‘increasingly portrayed the West as an enemy and appears to now accept tactical strategic nuclear weapons as an option for deterring further escalation of combat.
The country is understood to have between 1,000 and 2,000 nuclear weapons of varying sizes.
The use of such weapons is seen by Western nations as a last resort, but the report states Russia may turn to tactical nuclear weapons ‘early in the exercise or at mid-point’.
The report outlines four situations in which Putin would turn to nuclear weapons; pre-empting an attack on Russia; use against Russia; a threat, such as a cyberattack on Russia’s command-and-control systems; and an existential threat to Russia from conventional or nuclear weapons.
It says: ‘Russia has failed to defeat the Ukrainian military and is now focusing on forcing the capitulation of the civilian population by attacking electricity and water supplies.
‘It is therefore plausible that Russia will not only threaten to use, but actually use, a weapon of mass destruction to target civilian resistance in Ukraine.
‘Russia is focusing on destroying Ukraine’s power infrastructure, and with the nuclear industry now producing around 60 percent of pre-war power, a Russian attack on nuclear power stations to cut off electricity and create an improvised nuclear incident is a real prospect.’
It has also warned that the use of chemical weapons against metro stations in eastern Ukraine would be ‘devastating’.
The report cites the use of chemical weapons in Syria as evidence of Russia’s willingness.
It has also highlighted Russia’s efforts to ‘weaponise refugees’ and create mass flows of people into Western countries to the point they become ‘overwhelmed’.”
[Daily Mail]
The growing escalation by the NWO (NATO etc) is concerning; the flow of advanced weapons to the Kiev regime, together with ammunition, non-military aid, and cash.
If I had to guess, I should put the chance of the use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine by the Russian side at about 30%, depending on how the war goes in the next few months. Any chance of Crimea being lost would make their use almost inevitable, but that raises the question of where such weapons might be used— on the battlefield, or against cities? Could Kiev be completely flattened? If so, what would be the NATO (US) response? All-out strategic response? Unlikely but not impossible. Limited but major conventional response? Maybe, but probably not. Nothing much? Possibly.
Russia would not hold back if subjected to serious or sustained Kiev-regime attack on its own unquestioned territory, eg in Central Russia.
As to a full strategic nuclear exchange between NATO and Russia in general, my view would be that that is at present no more than a 5% chance, but that is a very pessimistic assessment. Horses win at 20/1 all the time.
“‘I know I’m being sent to my death’: Ukrainian soldiers admit ‘we are just getting killed’ as they defend Bakhmut…and say Russia can already ‘taste victory’.
Ukrainian soldiers have painted a bleak picture of their on-going defence of Bakhmut, the small eastern city that has become the target of Europe’s bloodiest infantry battle since the Second World War.
Kyiv‘s soldiers have said they knew they were being sent to their deaths when they were given the orders to go to the city, and admitted they are ‘just getting killed’.
The Jews usually degrade, or even destroy, other societies over time. Now it seems that they are quite close to breaking up their own, Israeli, society, only 75 years after its foundation.
More music
Tweets seen
Destroyed Ukrainian T-64, 2 armored vehicles and 1 trucks somewhere around Bakhmut pic.twitter.com/7FE6ZYJVvy
Would that, and the whole situation around that, have been seen or even conceivable in the 1980s, 1990s, even a decade ago? I think not. The West is not, mainly, being pressured by outside forces, but is falling apart internally. Maybe that is often the way of things, thinking of the Roman Empire, the gradual collapse of Sovietism etc.
🔴⚠️A week ago, 🇺🇦 militants blew up the only bridge from #Bakhmut at the exit from the city and now the wounded are being transported by swimming – on rafts
Which ultimately leads to even greater mortality – the seriously wounded do not have time to get to the hospital and die pic.twitter.com/veymU8DK81
Like a scene from Stalingrad in 1942/1943. War is hell.
Ukraine’s best soldiers are dead. The battle at Bakhmut will destroy another 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers. What is left of weaponry is in the hands of untrained conscripts.
The Russian Su-27 veered near the spy-drone to force it away as it was about to enter a zone the Russian military had declared off-limits due to the on-going military action. The US was obviously spying on troop movements below, to advise Kiev's forces.
It has been clear from the start, over a year ago, that the Americans have been feeding a large amount of direct battlefield intelligence from satellites etc to the forces of the Kiev regime. Had that not been so, the Russian forces would have had greater success in the field.
This comes close to the USA being a direct participant in the war. Madness.
US and European officials estimate 120,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded, however, Kiev keeps actual numbers secret. Poorly trained rookies "just drop everything and run," and a "shortage of ammo including shells and bombs"is a problem, said a Ukrainian official.
Forced diversity always weakens structure, design, organization…whatever you want to call a succeeding entity. Force individuals into the line….and what happens to the end result?
Unbelievable! Numerous disturbing videoes have been shown on world networks of Ukrainian war crimes, using human shields, targeting civilian homes and public places, and murdering captured POWs, and yet, Lindsey Graham cites Russia for war crimes to keep the war going…insane.
Business News: European banks saw their shares nosedive, Wednesday. Trading had to be halted for a number of bank stocks due to the steep losses. Shares of the embattled Swiss bank, Credit Suisse, hit another all-time low for a second day.
The finance-capitalist system is inherently unstable, and linked in such a way that (as with an uncontrolled reaction in a nuclear power station) panic a fear creates an unstoppable or almost unstoppable momentum.
Imagine though, if a banking sector collapse internationally co-incided with a European war beyond the Ukraine borders. That could be the trigger for a social-national and pan-European upsurge across the continent, enabling the extermination of evil powers and person, and also the foundation of a new and better society in the long term.
More thoughts around Russia and Ukraine
The missing factor on the Russian side, domestically, is real determination on the part of the ordinary population. That would change if any one of two things were to happen: a direct conventional-arms attack (by Ukraine or its Western quasi-allies and backers) on any major Russian city, or a large incursion onto unambiguously Russian territory by forces of the Kiev regime (or foreign forces).
Either of those two events would probably trigger a large scale and probably (tactical-) nuclear response by the Russian leadership.
Russia values Kiev as one of the birthplaces of the Russian state [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27], and I think that the leadership will try to capture the city intact, if possible, but if the Russian leadership felt that the Russian state itself were in existential peril, their response might be to destroy Kiev rather than face extinction as a state, as a people (a collection of peoples, but Russified and Russophone), and as a distinct European/Eurasian culture.
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They hate that there are young people out there who see through the lies and the propaganda. And they REALLY hate that some of us have found a voice. We are the primary group they want to demoralise, since we are the next generation. Their attacks won’t work on me. Night all. ❤️
— David Morgan 🏴 #StayFree (@david_r_morgan) March 15, 2023
At 16 I can see through the lies, they are scared of us the power is in our hands
I am available for less than £1.35 million for the easiest presenting gig on television, I have done it before, and I have the added benefit of never ever being controversial. #bbc#garylineker#matchofthedaypic.twitter.com/ORg83orebR
Ha ha! I can vaguely remember David Icke reading out the football results on — was it Southern TV? Wikipedia says BBC, so maybe BBC South— sometime around 1980 or so. Not that I would have been interested anyway.
I did not hear of David Icke again until 1990 or 1991 (looking at his Wikipedia entry, maybe the latter year), when I returned one time from the USA, and a friend mentioned as an example of something or other “David Icke“, and I replied “who?” (I had forgotten the name of the young man reading out the sports news a decade before). My friend laughed and said “you must be the only person in England who has not heard of David Icke!“. At that time, he was completely unknown in America.
A few years later, September 1994, I was invited as a birthday surprise by another friend to what turned out to be David Icke speaking at the Wigmore Hall in Marylebone, London, only a short taxi ride from where I then lived in Little Venice.
A quite good and very impassioned speaker, and dressed —if I recall aright— in his famous purple tracksuit, Icke was introduced by a remarkably attractive woman (about 35-40) who said that he was something like “the greatest thinker of our time“. I found that his speech did not quite live up to that billing, but was all the same interesting. My friend also bought me, as a birthday present, a signed copy of The Robot’s Rebellion from the stall in the foyer.
Icke used to follow my Twitter account (and I think that he was only following about 100-200 other people and organizations, so he must be rather perceptive!…). That ended when a pack of Jews had me expelled from Twitter in 2018. Icke himself was (as I had predicted would happen) expelled from Twitter later (by the same or similar Jews), but is now back: https://twitter.com/davidicke.
I would not endorse everything that Icke says or has said, but much of what he says is correct, and has been proven to be, e.g. the following:
“Why do we play a part in suppressing alternative information to the official line of the Second World War? How is it right that while this fierce suppression goes on, free copies of the Spielberg film, Schindler’s List, are given to schools to indoctrinate children with the unchallenged version of events. And why do we, who say we oppose tyranny and demand freedom of speech, allow people to go to prison and be vilified, and magazines to be closed down on the spot, for suggesting another version of history.
Of course the “usual” (((usual))) influence has contaminated Wikipedia, so its “facts” in respect of anything such as Jews, the “holocaust” farrago, and the Second World War, Hitler etc, are often not true facts at all.
The apparently intermittent dementia of the US President at such a time is more than concerning. Stupidity played a large part in the unwanted (by most people) start of the two really major wars of the 20thC; will actual dementia play a part in the start of the next such war?
Fury over plan to turn historic Dambusters HQ into refugee detention centre: Historians and locals blast ‘absolutely insane’ Home Office bid to use RAF Scampton ‘for 1,500 asylum seekers’https://t.co/OaAIzXII3U
Ironic. The same sort of people who are forever tweeting (or spouting on (((TV))) and in the (((Press))) about how Britain fought off German invasion in the early 1940s —and leaving the argument about that aside— are usually “refugees welcome” dimwits who want the UK to be a dustbin for the whole world. At present, they are certainly succeeding. I wonder whether they will like the eventual results (to them personally, as well) of their virtue-signalling “activism”?
More tweets
Act 2: Tracey & Caz explain that fascist group Patriotic Alternative have been supporting them with advice & social media, although they say they don’t know what PA stands for. pic.twitter.com/0831AEI5If
I have seen tweets from the usual self-describing “Left” suspects saying that even a critical interview like that should not be allowed on TV, because Patriotic Alternative (etc) are “fascists“. It just confirms the total irrelevance of Corbyn-style pseudo-socialists in the post-1989, post-socialist political space.
The British people, especially the poorer ones, are just ignored by the System, and nowhere is that more obvious than when it comes to mass immigration and migration-invasion.
…preferably with a good kicking as a not-golden farewell!
That sounds like a threat @SeanKellyMEP You should know that people, especially us Brits, don't respond very well to threats. Furthermore, by making unnecessary threats you re-emphasise the centralising, authoritarian and arrogant nature of the EU in Brussels and some of its MEPs https://t.co/AcOoQj7n94
Join with Russia if the EU turns even more against Russia.
Join in amity with Russia, cut ties with the EU completely if necessary, leave NATO, chuck out US spy bases and air bases.
The EU is not, on the whole, a Europe worth saving anyway. With Russia on one side and the UK on the other, the EU states will have to come to heel eventually, and give us what we want and need.
This cartoon is incredibly stupid but very helpful, in revealing the mindset that never learns that you can’t have open borders and a welfare state. pic.twitter.com/qE1QIa44dV
— ParentChain #BorisTheBoss #SunakOut (@parentchain) March 16, 2023
In fact, Plymouth has a minority Conservative Party-ruled council. 25 Labour, 23 Conservative, 9 others.
The tree vandalism is appalling. I know Armada Way, which is a long and mainly traffic-free avenue connecting the central part of Plymouth to the famous Plymouth Hoe where Drake played bowls before defeating the Spanish Armada in the late 16thC.
The bit of Armada Way where I often was has thankfully been spared the axe, and is closer to the centre of the city. I often appeared at the County Court there (the building also contains the rather busy Plymouth Crown Court).
[the very 1950s (though actually built 1963) frontage of Plymouth County Court]
Plymouth could be a fantastic city, with its water frontage, and its rural hinterland, but somehow isn’t. It has problems of crime, drugs, drunkenness etc, and the local council is completely incompetent. I used to park at the very top of a multistorey car park quite near the court building. The Plymouth Council owned that car park. In about 6 years of parking there (about once every couple of weeks), the lift worked once, I think. Once out of 100-200 times. A small example but, I think, telling.
Plymouth Council is riddled with both freemasonry and Common Purpose, so often the nests of the mediocre. As with other councils with those characteristics, such as Birmingham, Plymouth Council is both incompetent and corrupt.
Incidentally, if anyone wonders why I always parked on the open top floor of that car park (about 10 storeys high) despite knowing that the lift would almost certainly be inoperative, well, there are a number of reasons. I like being able to park where there is always a spot, in a space almost always free of any other cars, not having to bother with other cars’ owners, people parking or leaving etc. In fact, about the only time I ever saw another car up there, it turned out to be that of a rather attractive lady barrister I knew slightly from court, Rebecca something-or-other. Secondly, I enjoyed the view. Thirdly, it is my long-held habit— I always park at the top of multi-storey car parks.
Disgraceful. Government, central and local, must step in, but it abdicated its responsibilities years ago. Buy to let and other similar forms of exploitation have to be stopped.
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BREAKING:
The headquarters of the Russian security service FSB in Rostov is on fire after a major explosion.
As for Poland and its leadership, I can only think of Hegel, who wrote that “the lesson of history is that people do not learn the lessons of history” (may not be exact quotation, but near enough).
Late tweets
BREAK: Boris’s spokesman confirms he has been reselected as the conservative candidate in Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Local sources say he was reselected earlier today by a panel of his local branch. https://t.co/aPG6KKXr4W
So the “Conservative” Party panel of Uxbridge and South Ruislip have reselected a part-Jew who was born in New York City, brought up in the USA and Belgium mainly (except when at Eton and Oxford), who did time (a few weeks) on a kibbutz in Israel, who describes himself as “Zionist“, and who has a long history of disgraceful and dishonest conduct in his personal life, as a journalist of sorts, as MP, as Cabinet minister, and finally as Prime Minister?
What am I missing? Not that he is some kind of great brain, as once was thought by easily-fooled people. As for real intellect and culture, forget it.
Still, at least it looks as if his time as MP is very limited, if the opinion polls can be believed:
Unfortunately, instead of being put up against a wall and shot, the bastard is going to make millions out of memoirs, speeches, after-dinner ramblings etc.
Interesting to see. One of the worst aspects (culturally) of the Ukraine conflict is the ghastly music (I do not know what it is called), a kind of (?) Slavonic “rap”, and played constantly by both sides. At least the “turbofolk” played during the Yugoslav/Balkan war(s) was not completely offensive to the ear.
Well, not quite as bad, anyway…
The Russian equivalent of turbofolk (I think it can be called…apologies to any musical experts reading), which I well remember from when I was in Kazakhstan (1996-1997):
The Guardian that became a cheerleader for the 2020-2021 police-state “Covid” measures: “lockdowns”, facemask nonsense, and Boris-idiot’s own contribution, the ridiculous “Rule of Six”.
And of course they used a White child with blue eyes for this advertisement. Of course.
Denmark has taken on a special responsibility to rebuild the city of Mykolaiv in Ukraine. Hear 🇩🇰 Ambassador to Ukraine Ole Egberg Mikkelsen tell more 👇 pic.twitter.com/tQQ5UxE1h6
Well-meaning silliness. Mikolaiv, or Nikolayev, will probably fall back under Russian control before very long; after that, I expect that Russian authorities will rebuild the city.
Incidentally, the Danish Ambassador and his government might be better advised to use their time, money, and power to prevent Denmark being further swamped by non-European savages.
I am willing to accept that the Ambassador’s own motives are probably reasonably good or charitable, but this is wrongheaded. Better to stop funnelling arms to the corrupt and vicious Jewish regime in Kiev, which merely prolongs a war Russia cannot lose.
🗓 Today is the 9th anniversary of the Crimean status referendum.
On March 16, 2014, Crimeans made their historic choice on the basis of universal suffrage – the ultimate triumph of democracy.
Well, this week brings another victory over political journalist John Rentoul, who scored 5/10. I myself scored 8/10.
I did not know the answers to questions 1 and 9 (in fact, I did “really” know the answer to question 9, but could not bring the name to mind, so did not award myself that one. #MoralHighGround…).
“Ensuring lockdown and quarantine rules were stringently enforced became something of an obsession for Matt Hancock and the rest of the Cabinet as Covid cases continued to spiral throughout 2021.
Leaked messages from his WhatsApp account show the Health Secretary, Boris Johnson and Priti Patel reacting to examples of police down on rulebreakers with almost childlike glee – hailing the cases as ‘brilliant’ and ‘superb’.
Hancock, Priti Patel, and that useless nerd Simon Case, all deserve a good kicking at the very least. The same is true of all ministers and MPs involved in the “panicdemic” nonsense.
One of the comments of the Daily Mail readers says it all:
“Emily1848, Birmingham, United Kingdom, moments ago
So now we see the contempt and actual joy with which Hancock, Patel and others felt and acted as they destroyed our freedoms and futures. All this mockery of the populations suffering at their hands, and yet they couldn’t even do their bloody jobs competently either!“
[Readers’ Comments, Daily Mail].
Lenin was right: “a revolution without firing squads is not worth much“.
Tweets seen
RT (Russia Today) was banned from all mainstream social media platforms because of its ties to the Russian Government.
If these people had a single shred of credibility, the CIA-funded corporate press outlets would face the same fate.
But they won’t, because they only want you…
— David Morgan 🏴 #StayFree (@david_r_morgan) March 4, 2023
Just so we’re clear, the Ukraine war truly started in 2014 when the CIA funded and armed a rebel group that went on to overthrow the then president who was working to strengthen ties with Moscow.
If you only get your news from the corporate media, you probably didn’t know that.…
— David Morgan 🏴 #StayFree (@david_r_morgan) March 4, 2023
Until recently, Russian people did not think of Ukraine, or Belorussia (now Belarus), or the Baltic states (the “pribaltika“), or other areas such as Kazakhstan (where I myself once lived for a year) as “foreign“, but rather as (during Soviet times) part of the same country as Russia, and/or as (since 1991) “the near-abroad“.
Western civilizations are only built by Westernkind. Nonwhites do not build Western civilizations whether they're born in them or not. Western civilizations only exist because White people exist.
It goes further than that. Non-whites not only could never build our white European culture and civilization, nor its American, Australasian and other offshoots, but also are unable even to maintain what our peoples have already built.
That is the point of importance at present, as our white European and European-origined countries are swamped by non-whites. As the proportion of non-whites in the population increases, the level of the culture and civilization not only will not rise, but will start to fall; disastrously so.
You can see that everywhere now: in the UK, in Scandinavia, in the USA etc.
I have entered one of my paintings in a contest for a scholarship. Medical school is expensive & winning this would mean the 🌎 to me. You may vote once a day. It is a lot to ask of total strangers, but just think of all the good karma you will earn💜🩺 https://t.co/m2F8wAkH5F
— Gwen of the North Ice, ⭐️ 🐭 Bureau of Akabol (@GwenNorth14) February 15, 2023
Humza Yousaf, the man who wants to be Scotland’s New Leader of the Scottish “Nationalist Party” thinks that there are too many White people in Scotland.
This is what happens when you empower foreigners, they move to eradicate citizens from their home land. pic.twitter.com/5mtBOQjf1a
Presumably meant to write “being“, not “not being“.
Would it matter if 99.99% of the UK population were to disappear, so long as the remainder (about 7,000) were both white English/British and on a decent cultural and behavioural level? I say not.
Can those figures be accurate? They seem remarkably modest.
Most of the World refuse to buy Western propaganda promoting #US#NATO Proxy War. Argument for continuing to pour arms into the conflict is based on Ukraine winning the War -The only winner will be NATO + Arms Industry, while more+more poor Ukrainians die + country is destroyed.. pic.twitter.com/llCQrgH7wK
The Irish labelled far right from the media and politicians for simply opposing mass unregulated immigration.
Vast swathes of Western Europe is now unrecognisable, crime soaring, all because of the same thing, it's common sense to oppose! pic.twitter.com/sCFthMn0c4
— Phil – Retired of Guildford (@surreycorner) March 3, 2023
Brave and brilliant actions. The most obvious enemies of the British people (apart from a few particular ethnic groups) are many “journalists” (scribblers), most TV talking heads, some lawyers, and most MPs.
That characterization of the 1980s is only, at best, a half-truth, I think, though I personally was not involved in ordinary (even radical) politics in that decade.
I knew people in the mid/late 1970s who belonged to the National Front and the League of St. George. Mostly very reasonable English (and a few Irish and Scottish, or other) people. The “knuckle-dragging” “skinheads” (etc) did exist (elsewhere), yes, but were a small minority.
Many of these demonstrators are NOT 'far-right', that is abuse. They are concerned parents who don't want their daughters raped by your pals! https://t.co/yeTWgxFuQV
— D. William Norris – Contra Tyrannos (@dwilliam9940) March 4, 2023
“Far right” is, anyway, just a meaningless label. “Social-national” is more accurate.
Israel’s finance minister just called for a Palestinian town “to be erased.” This disgusting rhetoric will get more innocent people killed. The extreme, right-wing Israeli government is creating the conditions for more violence and undermining democracy.https://t.co/n0CEi3V6Qf
The Israeli state was born, in the late 1940s, out of ethnic cleansing, murder, torture, intimidation, theft of land and housing, in fact every kind of criminality, all carried out by Jews who were the sweepings of the ghettos, criminal gangs, prisons, and concentration camps of Europe.
The Israelis covered up much of that, and spread the largely fake “holocaust” farrago around the world to create sympathy for the Jews in Israel and elsewhere. Now the ingrained evil is coming out very obviously, to such an extent that even some Jews (Sanders being one) cannot bear what is happening.
Emily Thornberry, aka “Lady Nugee”, a porcine freeloader who has a property portfolio (with her part-Jew husband) worth £5-10 Million, and who “earns” money from renting out houses etc, in addition to the MP salary, the generous Parliamentary expenses etc.
Emily Thornberry personifies much of the problem people have with Starmer-Labour. Not just the Jewish and Israeli connections, but the overall impression (I think accurate) that so many of these Labour MPs are people not far distant in lifestyle, money, and views from the “Conservative” MPs they claim to “oppose”.
cf. Rachel Reeves, Yvette Cooper, Jess Phillips etc.
In fact, or in my opinion, the only reason Emily Thornberry joined Labour in the first place is because she had a massive chip on her shoulder from her father having abandoned his wife (her mother) and Emily Thornberry herself, and the mother and daughter then having had to live for some years in a council house (and in what is generally an affluent town, Guildford , in Surrey, which must have stung even more). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Thornberry#Early_life.
I think that that mixture of snobbery, reverse snobbery, chip-on-shoulder resentment, and hypocrisy comes out in her pronouncements at times, such as her notorious “white van man” and “St. George’s flag” comments.
Like many people, I want the Conservative Party to be annihilated, certainly electorally (it’s a start, anyway) but, in our rigged binary electoral system, that does mean a massive Labour landslide, an “elected” Starmer-Labour dictatorship that might make that of Blair-Brown look mild.
There is no way out of this. We, the British people, have to grasp the nettle. The Conservative Party, destroyed, will lead, eventually, to the destruction also of the Labour Party, perhaps via the uprising of a new social-national party not yet in existence.
I had thought that a hung Parliament might be the best result in 2024 (if that is when the next general election comes), but now I think that the only way is to kill off 90% of the Conservative Party seats, even if at the expense of a huge Labour Party majority in the Commons.
That might also lead to extra-Parliamentary action.
More tweets seen
Jack Monroe has ripped off patreon members for almost 3 years – if she doesn't want grief from people complaining she should close it down, and refund every penny she's taken.
Interesting because she hasn’t tweeted in two weeks and even then it was nonsense about pens. But you keep defending somebody who begs for money under false pretences 👍🏻
Whether she is also a lesbian or “non-binary”, as “Jack Monroe” has claimed to be at various times (when convenient or lucrative), I have no idea.
“Dr” Moffett (not a medical doctor, nor a working academic) lives in Africa, so I suppose it is not inappropriate that she emulates the ostrich of legend, and buries her head in the sand, not wanting to see the truth…
More tweets
#Ukraine's former Prosecutor General has launched an astonishing attack on President Zelenskyy after being forced to retreat from #Bakhmut
Yuriy Lutsenko, with the Territorial Defence, says he and other troops are angry at the lack of drones and air defence. pic.twitter.com/8HM6TNnHYh
The Russian commanders asked Zelensky to allow civilians and others to leave, but their offers were ignored.
If Ukraine had accepted the Russian peace proposal in Ankara last year, https://t.co/NCfBr69XW1, They would not be the smoking ruin they are today. So who has benefited from this war? US arms manufacturers and no one else, just like the Pharma companies and the Covid disaster.
— Micheal McConville (@reasonoverfear) March 4, 2023
That is all that Russia wanted from the start— an end to NATO encirclement.
🇺🇦🇷🇺 Col. Doug MacGregor Reacts to Zelensky Saying America May Need to Send Their Children to Fight in Ukraine
This man is not fit to be mayor of London, he does not respect the views of the public and he smears anyone who does not share his authoritarian views. Basically he does not care what the people affected by his policies think. https://t.co/MBpFeuvwQ2
James has asked me to promote this clip from our interview, it demonstrates how he has been suppressed on social media. I am happy to do so, please listen. https://t.co/i38NPRyN1c
Nadine Dorries is another corrupt ex-minister (and expenses cheat/fraudster) who deserves a good kicking.
I had a meeting yesterday with a constituent who has had his life ruined by the vaccine and now has less than 5 years to live. When will we investigate the massive ongoing damage done to our people by the experimental ‘vaccines’? https://t.co/ah9aHIne7l
UK births dropped in 2021 as they have in all heavily vaccinated countries. Why would anyone want a booster? Why did the government want to roll out the experimental vaccine to children? https://t.co/sPKei5ilyZ
You realise you’re getting older when… the MI5 Director General looks like a geeky 6th former bunking off school for the afternoon. ☹️🤷🏼♂️#MI5pic.twitter.com/2AQI2SVh5U
Just because the Country we live in has armed Ukraine, it doesnt mean we agree with any of it and back Ukraine either. I personally only know about 1 person that actually wants to get involved in the Ukraine mess and his IQ isnt very high to put it politely
Russian Forces are slowing closing the Cauldron on Ukrainian Forces still in Bakhmut, there are reports Defenders in the City have begun to Withdraw but there is now less than 2 Miles separating the Russian Positions with all Roads in and out of the City under Artillery Fire. pic.twitter.com/z7sk9SLE7z
With time, especially in view of the spike of Russophobia in the West last year, it has become apparent that the #Salisbury events were just a trial run for a more systematic information and psychological operations campaign aimed at demonising Russia.
'We cannot be told what to do by Government. That truth is final and can only be denied by those who either don’t know it … or who do know it and are lying.'
That idiot is such a hypocrite that he probably does not know that he is a hypocrite.
Incidentally, reading Clooney’s entry in Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Clooney], I realized that I have seen not one film or TV series featuring him. That must be why I was puzzled, many years ago, when I kept hearing things about him on the TV; I was thinking “George Clooney? Who’s that?“.
He has good taste in domestic property, though. His house on a river island at Sonning, Berkshire, is very classic (Georgian), and in a beautiful location across the Thames from some of the grounds of the school I unwillingly attended in the nearly 4 years 1970-1973; and his house on Lake Como, in the Italian Lakes region, is also beautiful and in a beautiful place.
Trust in science is plummeting. While major disagreements lead to major discoveries, science is degenerating into dogma by calling any disagreement as "misinformation." A revolution of sorts by courageous citizens can revive the science: https://t.co/vW3aIRTvao
— Dr. (Prof) Amitav Banerjee, Epidemiologist (@amitavb1) February 5, 2023
The evil and yet idiotic “SAGE” “scientists”, msm “me too” groupthinkers, and UK “health” bureaucrats would have been right at home in early Renaissance Italy, insisting that the Sun goes around the Earth and describing the truth as “heresy”.
'They invited us in to watch our mum die. We didn't even know she was ill.'
Tony Stowell shares his story of losing his mother after she was put in end-of-life care in a care home 'without his family's consent' during the Covid pandemic. pic.twitter.com/hRBSmOfoMh
State “quiet killing” of hundreds of thousands of elderly people thought of, by the State, by ministers and by most MPs, as simply “surplus to requirements”.
'There's been some fun and games going on behind the scenes. It is not good for a political power to have a citizenry that is properly aware of its constitutional powers.'
The Brits are fighting back. No to LTN,s. We don't want to live in controlled Zones with fines for those who dare to leave watched by CCTV cameras. Its time for free people to fight back and say No More. We also demand #FreedomOfSpeech#Resist No to this Dystopian Nightmare. pic.twitter.com/Oq2xM9iEzn
This is beyond the pale. And all because this woman had the temerity to criticise Jack Monroe, and share alternative cost-saving methods that she had found effective. https://t.co/Lbmuju6W21
— con questi nuovi ritmi americani (she/her) (@racheledini1) February 5, 2023
“Jack Monroe” attracts the very worst supporters on Twitter, perhaps even worse than the “FBPE” loonies. Her core “constituency” is not “the poor”, but the unpleasant and/or mentally-disturbed.
Snap, is it a sock? Is it a sock showing how absolutely vile Jack Monroe can truly be under the guise of anonymity? @frugally_minded please take no heed of this twat. It says more about their mindset than anything else.
I think that there are at least half a dozen regular “Jack Monroe” Twitter “sock accounts” regularly posting while she pretends to be “taking (another) rest from Twitter”.
She has over half a million followers, her compulsive spending is funded by the public,and she is someone who made her name by giving advice to others about managing their budgets. Yet it turns out she cannot manage her own finances, let alone 'big Maths' or 'forensic detail'.
— Stella Maris, Trans Trans Woman Extraordinaire 👠 (@N0v3mberSmith) February 5, 2023
It took me a while to realize the extent of it, but my opinion now is that “Jack Monroe” is, or has become, an outright fraud.
Incidentally, the new book by “Jack Monroe”, Thrifty Kitchen (which seems to consist, judging from what one reads in the msm and on Twitter, of recipes from the BBC and other sources already available for free online), is not selling.
At present, according to the Amazon Book Sales Calculator, only a few dozen copies a day, if that (about 600 per month) are being sold on Amazon (which must be the major outlet). In fact, nearly new copies (the book was only released a few weeks ago) are available on Amazon for as little as £7.
I was interested to see the reviews on Amazon. The 5* ones (about 70%), may or may not be genuine, and have only a handful of up-votes each, suspiciously, whereas the 20% of reviews awarding only 1* (with some wishing that they could award zero stars) have hundreds of up-votes: 400, 500, or more. Telling.
All the same, 498 utter mugs are still signed up on Patreon to send her a total of between £1,743 and £21,912 per month (probably in the region of about £5,000, realistically). The very silly, or outright loonies, I should imagine.
That composer, of whom I had never heard until today, seems to have been one of the millions displaced by the large-scale disruptions and dislocations of the 20th Century.
Stray thought about the NHS
I suppose that, as usual, I have to preface my remarks by repeating that I do favour the core principle of the NHS, i.e. that it should be free at point of use.
Beyond that, I was just trying to think of any other service or product which is defended mainly on the ground that it is free or cheap. Air travel using “low-cost” rubbish airlines, such as Ryanair? I suppose that that is one.
I understand that what people do is pay a ludicrously-small amount (eg £50, £20, or even £10) each way for the flight, but then have to accept that everything usually provided gratis is charged for, and that the flight will land a long way from where you really want to go, such as “Paris Beauvais” airport (Beauvais is 55 miles from Paris) or, I think in the past, even “Paris Amiens” airport (Amiens is 160 miles from Paris by road or rail).
Still, I see the point. Hard to complain about £10 each way London (Stansted) to/from La Rochelle, even if the service etc is near rock-bottom (though I concede that I myself have never used Ryanair). Incidentally, La Rochelle Airport is right by the city.
What else do people accept almost purely on the basis that it costs little? Not much, I think. State primary and secondary education? Possibly.
Still, Ryanair flights do arrive as promised, much of the time. Can the same be said of the NHS? I fear not, or often not, these days.
No-one (except perhaps the ultra-wealthy) wants to swap the NHS for an American-style system, but there are alternative systems that might be examined. What is not helpful is for people to shout out meaningless slogans about “our NHS” etc, to refuse to see what a poor service it is often —not always— offering now, and to refuse to think about how (beyond simply funding it better) the NHS might be improved.
Interesting. Is that a ploy to get “Boris”-idiot back? Or maybe some of them want sinister “let’s bomb Russia” candidate Tobias Ellwood as PM. That would solve all our problems— permanently…
Fascinating watching the Tories destroy themselves with no outside help. It is not as if the opposition are particularly popular with the general public.
While it is true that Labour are only popular by default, in a basically unfree and binary system, they are still well ahead at present.
I am not so sure that the Conservative Party might not be electorally better-off ditching the Indian money-juggler, and even going back to “Boris”-idiot, but better not that latter; they really need someone relatively untainted, and someone British/English, i.e. not non-white. That might not save them completely re. the next general election, but it might be enough to produce a hung Parliament.
I sense that Labour is, even in these conditions of shambolic incompetence in government, not truly “popular”, but many people are becoming desperate for something. If only there were a proper social-national party, credible and organized, but there is none.
A new Conservative Party leader would mean yet another unmandated or unvalidated PM, the fourth since 2015 (or fifth, if you include the first two years of “Boris”-idiot). What price “democracy”?
Not going to lie, am fascinated by the @bootstrapcook thing. I noticed her because of the @AsdaServiceTeam PR lies, but its actually staggering the level of batshit and fraudulent she got away with. Her sock puppet use is mental. Utterly batshit.
The “Jack Monroe”/”Bootstrap Cook” situation continues
People like this, thinking they're doing the best for the 'wonderful desperate people' at breakfast club. Now they'll be armed with thrifty tips and some extra smugness. pic.twitter.com/F4pyHKanJB
“@frugally_minded” is a woman who was cheated by “Jack Monroe”, and who, despite being now in a parlous financial state, has been refused a refund by the so-called “Bootstrap Cook”.
Yeah, it's vile. She's also sneered at social housing in other tweets, and said she was so relieved that she didn't have to apply for it. As well as being a habitual liar, she's a snob. Sadly, her fan base are mostly middle class people like her, and so they can't see through her
No, she regularly claims that she is working class – she isn't, she even describes herself as middle class. You don't suddenly become working class just because you signed on for a few months. She was never a single mum either – she's a co parent, and has supportive parents
She blocks anyone who asks reasonable questions about her patreon including those who've requested a refund, charity money, PayPal, backstory, and anyone who questions any of her provable lies.
I saw an interesting allegation, which may or may not be true, to the effect that “Jack Monroe” is now subscribing to her own Patreon donation appeal, in order to keep the numbers up and prevent the perception that she is being abandoned by her real donors (hundreds of utter mugs).
— ♥️ never Tory 🚫😡Toxic & Cruel. (@Politics1951) January 3, 2023
Quite. There are a number of recognized defences to an action in defamation, one of which is “Truth” (formerly called “Justification”).
Apart from that, as that tweet implies, many potential claimants (“plaintiffs”, as was) will not want their business and life generally, exposed to public view. That of course applies a fortiori to those who may have unethical, or even criminal, matters to hide.
There is a further matter, which is that a claimant claiming that he/she has been defamed will have to spend much money bringing the matter to court, money which can only be recouped (and it may not be) from a wealthy, or affluent, or at least solvent defendant, or one who at least owns valuable real property.
We hear much (mainly on Twitter) about how people can sue others using litigation insurance etc, or “pro bono” lawyers. It’s not as easy as that.
Firstly, litigation insurance will only be available where it is thought that a claim is not only well founded in law and fact but also where the putative defendant has assets, or income, that might satisfy any claim.
You can see where that leaves the “Bootstrap Cook”— up a gum tree. The last thing she wants is forensic and/or judicial examination of her allegedly dishonest and/or near-fraudulent “grifting” cottage industry.
In any event, most of those criticizing her probably have next to nothing, certainly not enough to satisfy the legal costs (and award of damages) flowing from a successful defamation action.
The house owned by Katie Hopkins had to be sold to cover both the actual award to “Jack Monroe” (£24,000) and the costs of the claimant (£300,000), most of which went to her lawyers, meaning to her solicitor and —I think, two— Counsel.
Incidentally, “pro bono” properly refers to cases taken by a lawyer for no fee, not the “no win, no fee” speculative type; as when one of my tutors at degree level, who was an Old Etonian, appeared pro bono for Eton College in a 1980s High Court matter involving, I believe, land and trusts.
Someone like me, without real property, valuable assets, or much of an income, is effectively “unsueable”, unless the claimant were willing to accept that any award made, and costs which might top half a million pounds (bearing in mind appeals etc) would be irrecoverable. Of course, what at least used to be called a “prohibitory injunction”, and/or a “mandatory injunction” (those being orders to prevent a repeat of any alleged libel, and/or to order the taking down of the libel complained of) might be ordered, true, but at what cost!
All those tips are good – nothing unsafe about them. My mum used to have a glass rolling pin to fill with cold water. We are so far removed from making things for ourselves, that it seems alien to us.
Because she's not helping only herself. She is patronising & adds to the narrative that the poor are stupid, when she calls herself a working class woman & takes up that space she takes it from actual working class women
So tweeter “@sarahcam3ron”, apparently one Sarah Cameron, thinks that “Jack Monroe’s” suggestion of using a mallet and a chisel or knife to open a can (when you can get a new basic tin can-opener for a little as £1 in a cheap supermarket, or a used one for 20p in a charity shop) is good advice for “the poor” (seen as a “huddled mass” yearning to be preached to). These “Jack Monroe” fans and partisans believe what they want to believe.
In fact, the same tweeter seems to think that the bad behaviour of “Jack Monroe” is de minimis in the face of larger injustices in society: see below.
Extraordinary unjustified cruelty against her, especially when so many people in power enable the deaths & suffering of 1000s. Tories prevent hungry children being fed, destroy the NHS, 1000s die from austerity & Covid. Jack writes a book, & she’s the villain. Ffs.
“Jack writes a book“? Try “Jack fleeces hundreds, indeed thousands, of people out of money most cannot really afford“. In any event her ‘recipes’ are largely carb-heavy slush that must be hard to stomach for many, from what I have seen.
Does anyone not totally loony think that a nutritious feed can be had for (as “Jack Monroe” claims) 11p per person? Even hardcore Con MP Lee Anderson only claims he can make such for 30p, and I (admittedly no cook) doubt whether anyone can make a decent lunch/dinner for less than about £1. I suppose a slice of toast with a Burford Brown very large egg on it— that would cost about 70p.
Frankly, I should rather have a peanut-butter and lettuce sandwich or two (cost? maybe 40p, if that) than any of the stuff I have seen from the “Bootstrap Cook”— and it would also remind me of when I was 10-11 years old and had that (with some slices of rock melon) every day at Middle Harbour School in Mosman, Sydney, in 1967, sitting outside in the warm sun.
Other tweets seen
Melibe viridis is a carnivorous sea slug with a gelatinous vacuum cleaner for a head. 😮 pic.twitter.com/STJbC1e2c4
.@seosquinn. Nobody has to take my advice. Hardly anybody ever does But the idea that a battle is now raging for the soul of Britain, which we cannot desert, is just piffle. What struggle there was ( not much) ended many years ago . People should stop dramatising themselves. https://t.co/ZhtW9RmgWv
It would not matter were a kind of mundane Ragnarok to take place, so long as the 1% —or 10%, so be it— of the population left at the end were relatively cultured, reasonably capable, and European.
What "disabilities", what "disadvantages"? It's not about envy, it's about morals and her lack of them.
Using disabilities as an excuse from reprehensible behaviour is vile. But many have come to expect that from Jack Monroe.
She even tried to make #Grenfell all about herself.
Her ‘alcoholism’ back story is riddled with so many elements that just don’t add up. 200 units of alcohol a week? Then stopping completely. I word in healthcare and this would literally kill her.
There are bigger issues facing the UK than “Jack Monroe” allegedly scamming a few thousand well-meaning or virtue-signalling “mugs” out of a total of maybe (?) £6,000 a month. Yes. No argument.
There are bigger issues facing the UK than “Jack Monroe” (to use the Essex argot) “blagging” her way to a mass media semi-“celebrity” profile in the Guardian or on TV. Yes. No argument.
Having conceded the above, I just find it absolutely infuriating both that that person seems to have cheated all those people, some genuinely “poor”, out of money, and also that the msm scribblers and talking heads in this country are so dim and negligent that they accept many poseurs and/or frauds at face value, without checking them out; and that applies not only to the “Bootstrap Cook”, but to many many others, from “Boris” Johnson and Iain Dunce Duncan Smith, Liz Truss and Woollyhead Trussbanger (Kwasi Kwarteng), to relatively obscure individuals such as Aisha Ali-Khan (featured on yesterday’s blog: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2023/01/02/diary-blog-2-january-2022-2/).
More tweets seen
@TrussellTrust having looked at the “tips” from @bootstrapcook in the book you’re planning to distribute to foodbank users I’m both concerned and deeply insulted. These tips are dangerous and patronising, as a food bank user myself I’d be insulted by this book.#thriftykitchenhttps://t.co/IMbrxeTfsa
No, you don't need to break your paring knife to open a tin: just buy a tin-opener—cheaper. You don't need to buy tins of spaghetti hoops & rinse them; just use dried spaghetti. Nor do you need to boil down soap to make shower gel; just wash with soap (which is no cheaper anyway)
As someone whose income is low & who has in the past been pretty skint (I was a dance teacher, guys), I empathise with poor people. But I also recognise that this has become another form of victimhood culture.
Awful too. Essentially saying that hopefully a book urging poor to budget better/embrace hideous 'tips' – supposedly purchased by those in poverty – will secure Monroe, from a middle class background with limited experience of poverty, a home. Mercenary! https://t.co/y5LDvlB73T
They are steeped in a long history of condescension and poverty tourism. Wealthy imagining poverty they'll never understand, judging behind thin veneer of helping, providing tips of no value because they write about an existence they've never had. It's harmful because rather than
challenge poverty it ultimately accepts it. Claims Italian meals can be had by poor from spaghetti hoops – ignoring lack of money to buy good ingredients, to travel, go to restaurants, even get a take away. It's a lie! Masks horrors of poverty to satisfy fantasies of wealthy.
“Jack Monroe” has surely descended into the realms of Monty Python now. Nutritious lunches made for only 11p a head, opening cans using a knife and a hammer, or mallet (the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, ROSPA, must love that one), and her various weird and not very wonderful “tips” reading like a dystopian Blue Peter charade.
I think that it is no accident that most of her supporters on Twitter seem to have mental problems of one sort or another. Many seem pretty stupid as well. Example? See below:
I spent about a month using my lads pen knife (that hook like blade similar to the bottle opener) to open cans when my can opener broke. I had the money to get one but just kept forgetting and I don't open that many cans without ring-pulls these days.
Ffs, of all the things to get angry about. It goes to show that those fuckers have never struggled…and to be honest neither have I to that extent but it doesn’t stop me imagining or empathising. Happy new year Jack Monroe x
People are angry about “Jack Monroe”, and the reason is that she has been making a good living by pretending to care about “the poor”, while taking money from, in some cases, genuinely poor people, and not even giving them what she promised, and because her food looks to many like “Mahashma Gandhi”, a dog’s dinner of beans and noodles mixed with curry powder etc.
Below, someone with more sense:
I've been poor and even homeless for a while so I saw straight through Jack Monroe immediately and I can't understand why so many people on my timeline fell for it. Does it have something to do with her being a middle-class person's idea of what a person giving advice would be?
The only poverty she campaigns against is that of her own "faux poverty".
Jack Monroe is a scammer and fraudster – why not ask her how many copies of the cookbook actually made it to foodbanks after this little cash grabbing stunt?
Day by day more evidence emerges that lockdowns were a catastrophe. When will those responsible admit they got it horribly wrong? You know who you are!
She is right, just as I and others were. People, many of them, don’t want to hear that. No, our national economic problems, they say, are caused by “Covid”, by Putin, by the war in Ukraine, by “climate change”, by anything other than the 2020-2021 ridiculous lockdown shutdown(s) of the UK for up to 2 years.
Enjoy your 11p “Jack Monroe” dinner in the dark and cold, once you get that can of ASDA cheapo spaghetti hoops open with a mallet and knife! And don’t forget to bring a couple of forks to the feast!
Late tweets
MFA spox #Zakharova: Ukraine, with its fertile lands & rich natural resources, through efforts of current #Kievregime pursuing a nationalistic Russophobic policy, has become one of the poorest European economies and is on its way to becoming a new colony of the #collectiveWest. pic.twitter.com/t6tCrXwx8Y
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.
“Biden’s non-binary nuclear waste guru who stole a woman’s suitcase from a baggage carousel was pictured the same weekend in Minnesota attending an LGBTQ student activism conference.
Sam Brinton, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition, was photographed wearing a black evening gown with two of the event’s coordinators.”
[Daily Mail]
The USA is even more mad than the UK.
Oh, wait a minute…next up, Eddie Izzard as an MP (?)…
The continuing storm around “Jack Monroe”, the “Bootstrap Cook”
Very hard-hitting tweets, but maybe required reading for some sadly misled people in public services, charities etc, who are still apparently unaware of the storm around “Jack Monroe”, the “Bootstrap Cook”, which gained strength in July/August 2022 and has scarcely abated.
I think that some people in executive positions at charities etc, mentally bought into the whole “Bootstrap Cook” thing many years ago, and do not want to see how it has now become a very tarnished “story”.
Having now seen more material over the past two months, I think that that assessment was more than fair. Perhaps I was too lenient.
This is not a matter which concerns only “Jack Monroe” and the many people who are alleged to have been cheated by her. This is a matter of considerable public interest and concern.
People have to have reasonable confidence that, when they donate money to a cause, or transfer the same, in order —or partly in order— to receive goods and/or services, that they are not being lied to, bamboozled, treated as “mugs”, and cheated out of money.
One of those allegedly cheated by “Jack Monroe” is a lady (not known to me other than via her tweets) called (I believe) Heather Booth (“@frugally_minded” on Twitter), who says that she donated monies on the Patreon website to “Jack Monroe”, but received neither the goods promised nor the refund(s) later demanded.
That lady, who with her disabled husband is now in a terrible financial situation, has not only not been refunded by “Jack Monroe” but also has had to contend with online trolls since the behaviour of “Jack Monroe” has become known online. Whether “Jack Monroe” herself was involved in that, I have no idea.
As to the overall “Jack Monroe”/”Bootstrap Cook” situation, it seems to me that the responsible regulatory officers (eg for fundraising and/or trading standards) should investigate it. There may well be a need also for the police to investigate whether any offences around alleged fraud have been committed.
Other tweets seen
Love the new Elon feature where accounts that repeatedly report others, give themselves a shadowban & deboost.
Looks as though some Jew Twitter-trolls from North London may be about to experience the beginning of the end…
Fritz Baumgarten (1883-1966 German artist) How lovely, the goings on and the happiness in these vignettes from this illustrator. Advent Calendars pic.twitter.com/hB91DL5Q0w
The FGM-148 Javelins that are being provided to Ukraine and then sold to our enemies in South America can shoot down commercial airlines. https://t.co/pSIwCboNvG
Now the idiots in the Westminster monkeyhouse are also sending more arms, hundreds of millions of pounds-worth more, to the Kiev regime. Both evil and stupid.
I’m unsure if this is a good or a bad thing for each religion just an interesting observation
Please refer to previous comment, mutatis mutandis.
Just saw a video of a woman in China giving birth while stuck outside a hospital that wouldn't let her in bc she didn't have a Covid test, in Guilin. Baby looked healthy. Crazy
Indicates, as much as any poll can, 18-24 months before a general election, that it may be that the Conservative Party will lose badly but not catastrophically.
It was only weeks ago that the Con Party was on 20%; now 30%. Labour Party has slipped back slightly, and LibDems have slightly improved, to 10%.
Of course, under a proportional representation system, that might give the LibDems 65 MPs, whereas of course, under FPTP voting, 10% gives between 0-20, maybe more MPs, depending on how many votes are concentrated wherever. UKIP got 12% of the vote in 2015 and only 1 MP (a previously-elected Con Party MP) instead of the 78 that might have been expected under a pure PR system.
Despite much noise from Farage, it is clear that, so far, Reform UK is not breaking through. That may be partly because Farage himself is a busted flush, having stabbed his own Brexit Party supporters and candidates in the back during the 2019 General Election. Also, in my view, because the new-ish “Reform UK” is playing the same sort of pseudo-“libertarian” and Brexit tune as did Brexit Party and UKIP before.
The national mood has moved. People want public services that work, not the right to try to become low-tax “entrepreneurs”. What most white British (especially English) people want, but unconsciously, is a form of social-nationalism suited to UK conditions. There is, however, no party even approximating to that.
Looking at that opinion poll, it may be that people are now seriously starting to assess Labour, which is aping most “Conservative” policies and, as someone once parodied Starmer, “we approve of workhouses but they must be run in a fairer way, and more efficiently.”
Rachel Reeves has, over the years, repeatedly said that she would be even harder on the unemployed, sick, and disabled than have been the Con Party governments. She is also a member of Labour Friends of Israel, like Starmer and all his Shadow Cabinet.
On immigration, Labour would allow in even more blacks and browns.
On free speech, Labour would be even more restrictive (hardly surprising, bearing in mind the powerfully poisonous influence of the Jewish lobby on Labour now).
All that, however, does not let Sunak and Con Party off the hook. Many previously Con voters are likely to see the present government as a shambolic mess, and therefore to abstain, or to vote LibDem. That may not result in many (or any) new LibDem MPs, but may have an effect in some Con constituencies.
Likewise, the Reform UK candidates are probably not going to become MPs but may well take votes away from Con Party in marginal constituencies.
It is clear to many that the Government is rubbish, but that the Opposition is also rubbish.
The Conservative Party has never scored as low as 30% in any general election. The closest was in 1997 (30.7%), which resulted in 165 Con MPs (in a slightly larger Commons— 659).
A few percentage points makes a big difference at this level. In 2001, the Con vote was 31.7%, and MPs elected numbered 166, just one more than in 1997, but in 2005 the 32.4% vote-share resulted in 198 Con MPs (in a 646-member House of Commons).
In 2010, David Cameron-Levita’s Con Party achieved only 36.1%, but had elected 306 MPs (out of 650).
The oddity of British elections is shown by the fact that, in 2017, Theresa May’s Con Party achieved 42.3%, yet only had elected 317 Con MPs (out of 650). The devil is very much in the detail.
In 2019, Boris Johnson’s Con Party received a 43.6% vote, not much more than in 2017, but the number of Con MPs jumped to 365.
All the same, once the percentage vote goes below about 35%, the number of MPs elected starts to plummet; below 30% would probably mean fewer than 150 Conservative Party MPs, below 25% a near wipeout.
At 30%, then, the Conservative Party is still just about in the game.
Incidentally, reading about Cecil Parkinson in that blog post from a year ago, I looked up on Google Earth the street and house where he was born (and probably brought up): 4 Edward Street, Carnforth, Lancashire. I have rarely seen such a poor-looking street in the UK. To go from there to the Cabinet, as a Conservative MP at that, took some talent, whatever one may think of him otherwise. He was truly at least a spruce, if not an oak, of his own generation.
Margaret Thatcher was told of Parkinson’s sex scandal (his former secretary pregnant by him) by Parkinson himself. Despite that, she wanted him to become Foreign Secretary but he demurred and accepted a lesser post, though still in the Cabinet (but he felt impelled to resign when the scandal became public knowledge): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecil_Parkinson.
It is not impossible to imagine that, had he accepted the FCO post, then not resigned in 1983, Parkinson might well have become Prime Minister eventually.
Times have certainly changed, when one looks at the tangled mess of sexual scandal, incompetence, and corruption around “Boris”-idiot’s tenure in office.
Parkinson was a relatively competent minister, whose achievements included, when Secretary of State for Transport from 1989, the initiation of the Crossrail project.
Apart from that, it strikes me how necessary it is for a politician, in the words of the Spice Girls, to “really really want” to become Prime Minister, if ambitious. A vague wish or preference is not enough.
David Davis had at least two chances to seize the Conservative Party leadership in the past decade, but was just not hungry enough in the end.
Likewise, after Chamberlain resigned in 1940 (after Dunkirk), Lord Halifax was the obvious successor, but at the meeting chaired by Chamberlain and attended by Churchill (and Brendan Bracken), Chamberlain spoke against Churchill as PM but Halifax then expressed what he claimed was his own unfitness to become PM (he was Foreign Secretary at the time).
Churchill at first kept silent (a tactic previously advised by Bracken) and then more or less crowned himself.
What a difference that made!
Had Halifax become Prime Minister, an armistice with the German Reich would have been agreed by Autumn 1940 if not before. Britain would therefore have become neutral, in effect, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union the following year. There would have been no London Blitz, no bombing of England, no later and terrible carpet bombing of Germany, no Atlantic War at sea, no Normandy landings, no years of rationing in the UK. Very likely, Germany would have destroyed the Soviet regime and toppled Stalin in or after 1941.
These things matter. Even when (as in the UK today) there is really one System “political class” split into two main and rather similar parties, it still matters which party is in power, and it also matters who exactly is Prime Minister.
“The director of the Wellcome Collection, Melanie Keen, was appointed in 2019. A year later she pledged to be courageous in dealing with the most contentious items on display there.
The announcement was welcomed by some Twitter followers but attacked by several others. “An act of cultural vandalism to close without even having any idea of what will take its place,” wrote one.
“Is there no one who can get rid of these cultural vandals instead or does the rot go all the way to the top? Is this the prelude to whole museums closing because their collections aren’t woke enough?” another asked.“
[reported in the Guardian]
Yes, let’s indeed “get rid” of those vandals.
Incidentally, this is the “Melanie Keen” who has closed down the museum:
[Melanie Keen]
Wouldn’t you know?
“Melanie Keen (born 1967) is an arts professional and the director of the Wellcome Collection.[1] She has worked extensively in promoting the Black Arts Movement in the UK.[2]“
[Wikipedia].
In other words, an enemy of our culture, and of our history.
Tweets seen
Modernity has resulted in making otherwise healthy people so sad they will willingly kill themselves while calling the world beautiful. What a grotesque parody of a civilisation we have created. https://t.co/YP8icuvKTL
Nobody in the aristocracy is being oppressed, and yet the school was able to brainwash her into thinking she was a victim. What a remarkable enchantment. pic.twitter.com/u1Pf0SlDCg
— The Great Translation Movement 大翻译运动官方推号 (@TGTM_Official) November 27, 2022
I’m in Beijing at the scene of the protest. Mostly young people. They’re chanting no to Covid tests and yes to freedom. Large police presence. Also people hold white papers like in Shanghai – symbolic protest against censorship. Lots of honking cars in solidarity pic.twitter.com/aCbqGNzn4t
Hard to know whether this is the start of another great upheaval in China or whether the protests will just be repressed, as they were in 1989.
In any event, seems that at least the more aware Chinese are against more “panicdemic” “lockdown” nonsense.
I myself opposed the UK equivalent in 2021-2022, openly opposing the facemask nonsense (rarely wearing a facemask, and doing so as carelessly as possible when forced to), not getting “vaccinated”, not taking “social distancing” at all seriously, and mocking the whole nonsense as much as possible, both in person and online. As for the ludicrous “Rule of Six”, invented by “Boris”-idiot, that never applied to me; by reason of my generally anti-social preferences, I was never in a situation with more than six people present during 2020-2022.
— Yesterday's Britain, A Better Britain. (@YesterdaysBrit1) November 27, 2022
Not all better, but many things were better. Above all, Britain was British.
Modern First Class degrees the equivalent to being a billionaire in Zimbabwe. Education not provided through the educational system. https://t.co/TIBwwT1sCi
Exactly this. Our police were quite happy pushing middle aged women around at the protest I went to in Nov 2020. The local media called us "dangerous people". Wankers. https://t.co/Zcwf8Idio6
Hard to know whether, or to what extent, this whole problem has been created by sheer incompetence, or whether it is deliberate, conditioning the masses to accept rationing. The plan may be to blame Putin; alternatively, to make the sort of claims acceptable to Greta Nut and the affluent eco-terrorists, i.e. that British people going without electrical power (etc) is somehow “saving the planet” (or whatever).
The dumbing-down of BBC Radio continues. Radio 3 this morning misdescribing Wagner’s Prelude to Act III of Lohengrin as, simply, the “Prelude“.
A small matter, yes, but a slip like that would not have happened 30 or even 20 years ago (though I concede that Jack de Manio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_de_Manio did nearly get the sack from the BBC Home Service (forerunner of Radio 4) in 1956 for mispronouncing the region of the River Niger [pron. “nee-zheer”] as “nigger“).
Late tweets
If your rulers take away your human rights, limit your access to vital information & force you to take experimental drugs, you don’t live in a democracy.
When the same rulers remain in power and decide to stop doing those things, guess what – you still don’t live in a democracy.
Yes, other countries should avoid the EU dictatorship by doing what our government did: Left the EU and immediately placed every citizen under house arrest, denied them medical care, silenced and cancelled dissenting voices and intentionally killed thousands of people. 🙄 https://t.co/GRPCrEFS0x
Ten years screaming from the rooftops what the Decarbonizationists were really after and now it’s too late to stop them. It’s already in the works here. @braxton_mccoy and @Gabby_Hoffman have done stellar research on where 30×30 is taking us.
Meanwhile, the ultra-wealthy few are buying up land, eg in the UK. Particularly land in the prime agricultural counties. James Dyson is only one example. He has bought vast tracts of Lincolnshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and other counties. Mostly in one loosely-connected group.
They can do anything to you now and just claim "oh, we're sa ing the world. Don't you want to SAVE THE WORLD?" Weird how it always involves unlimited power for them, though.
Just as the WEF says “you will own nothing, and be happy“, which is strange, or not so strange, when you see that the richest are multiplying their riches. Bezos, Musk, many others. That is why it is comforting when one realizes that those billionaires, some of whom own hundreds of billions of UK pounds or US dollars, are still subject to the Primal Karma of mankind that Buddha noted— old age, sickness, and death. Death is the Great Equalizer, and I found it oddly comforting when I read that the rather unpleasant Steve Jobs had snuffed it.
The conspiracy behind those billionaires (and of which they may well be unaware, in fact) does want the peoples of the Earth to be “happy“, in a sense. Not right now, before the worldwide government has been totally clamped down, but later. The reason is simple: “happy” (complacent, brainwashed) people do not revolt, do not even question. They will be given a hi-tech version of the “bread and circuses” that kept the plebs of Rome quiescent most of the time. Circuses? I mean such as I’m A Celebrity, Love Island, “reality” (unreality) shows of all sorts, increasingly vulgar, increasingly divorced from any actual reality. That, and also globalized televised sports spectaculars, such as the World Cup.
I have been loving the scalded reaction to Musk’s new Twitter regime; not least, the reaction on Twitter itself. From the Jew-Zionists in particular. They call themselves, between themselves, “J-Twitter”. Now they fear that, not only will they be unable to repress the free speech of others but also that they themselves may be “cancelled”. Ha ha! “J-cancellation”!
Neil Oliver: Our so-called leaders tell us our lives must be filled with hardship while they warm themselves in centrally heated homes paid for with our taxes, and look forward to Christmas parties… paid for by all of us. That is not leadership. That is an abusive relationship. pic.twitter.com/a5LHPyUhl4
Ian Robert Millard 