First thoughts
Was listening to the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, specifically to some Italian woman, an EU drone from the (Italian) Democratic Party [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(Italy)], in respect of Italy/EU having blocked a vaccine export to Australia.
This was apparently an EU action, rather than a simply Italian one, but it reminded me that, over the years, I have heard from several people foolish enough to contract with Italians and Italian companies, including very large ones. Keywords? Dishonesty, unreliability.
Better news
“A pesticide believed to harm bees won’t be used in England, after it had been approved for temporary use in January.
The government had authorised the emergency use of a product containing the chemical thiamethoxam, because of a virus which affected sugar beet seeds.
But that protection won’t be needed now, as the colder weather means there’s less risk to the crop.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-55566438
I would sacrifice the entire sugar beet crop if that were necessary to protect the bee population.
Wolves
Lone wolves, and wolf packs… lone wolves are feared, but wolves do better as a pack. Wolves are remarkable creatures, loyal and resilient. They never let their injured or wounded comrades fall into the hands of enemies, but kill them themselves in order to save them from that fate.
Morning music
Tweets seen
More about biodynamic agriculture and horticulture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodynamic_agriculture
https://biodynamiclandtrust.org.uk/what-we-do/about-biodynamics/
https://www.trvst.world/inspiration/what-is-biodynamic-farming-and-why-is-it-important/
https://www.biodynamics.com/what-is-biodynamics;
Like something out of Lord of the Rings.
“Those whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad”…
Incidentally, that tweeter, George Aylett, was Labour candidate for the constituency of South West Wiltshire in 2015. He received 13.5% of the vote and came third (after the Conservative Party and UKIP candidates): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_West_Wiltshire_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s. A politics graduate (University of Hull), he works at the University of Leeds: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/georgeaylett123.
Can you imagine what would happen to already-declining Labour if Dawn Butler became leader?! Still, few are without any good qualities at all; she seems to be a target of the Jew-Zionist lobby, so she cannot be all bad! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_Butler#Political_controversies.
Aylett does have a point, though. The justification for dumping Corbyn was that another leader (as it turned out, Jewish-lobby puppet Keir Starmer) would be more popular with the public, more “electable”. Seems not…
Russia, trains, and elderly rural inhabitants
I saw this:
It is not clear where the train in the above film is located. Possibly in the north of Russia, or the Urals region, though the use of the word taiga for “forest” seems to indicate a Siberian location.
Ah, got it: the settlement of Soyga is in the Lensky district of the Arkhangelsk oblast (a large area akin to a typical American state in area), in the far north of Russia): see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oblasts_of_Russia; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkhangelsk_Oblast; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkhangelsk; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lensky_District,_Arkhangelsk_Oblast
That German news documentary reminds me of a film I saw over 20 years ago, Bread Day [on British TV possibly shown as Bread Train]:
“True to its title, Sergei Dvortsevoy’s Bread Day spans the course of 24 hours, specifically in “Township #3” in Zhikharevo, located 80 km from St. Petersburg. As revealed by the opening title card, this former worker’s settlement is now all but abandoned, save for a handful of pensioners and some rambunctious goats. This fateful day starts with a small group of these aforementioned elderly (primarily women) convening in the middle of nowhere during winter, in order to take delivery of a train carriage that they then proceed to push along the tracks through the blistering cold and thick snow.” https://eefb.org/retrospectives/sergey-dvortsevoys-bread-day-khlebnyy-den-1998/
The settlement or small village in Bread Day was only 50 miles from St. Petersburg; the settlement in the German news film shown above is more remote, somewhere hundreds of miles from Arkhangelsk, which is a city of nearly 350,000 inhabitants, and which has airports, and a seaport, as well as a train to Moscow, 700 miles to the south.
A Soviet person once told me (c.1980) that you only had to go about 15 miles from the then Leningrad to find yourself in villages without running water, though almost everywhere had electricity: “Socialism means Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country” [Lenin].
Since the collapse of socialism (1989, though the Soviet Union limped on until 1991), the rail system in Russia and other republics declined in most respects. While some express and other trains are now more efficient, branch lines to “unimportant” places have been more or less left to rot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_in_the_Soviet_Union. A less organized version of what happened in the UK during the Beeching era of the 1960s, but on a vast scale. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeching_cuts.
Of course, the train branch lines in Russia are also symptomatic of the decline of the Russian countryside, which was not always very prosperous even in Tsarist days, but was hit and mortally wounded by the socialist policy of Collectivization from 1928 onward: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collectivization_in_the_Soviet_Union.
Since the fall of socialism, since people in the rural areas have been free to relocate to cities (including Moscow), the rural areas have fallen even further into the swamp. Population loss (especially of the young), ageing population, services of all kinds declining or abandoned.
More tweets seen
Peter Hitchens has fallen victim, not to “the virus”, nor to the vaccine, but to the Twitter curse of getting caught up in pointless arguments on a personal basis. There is a lot going on in the world; focus on that.
Of course, he is right that, not the virus but the government measures shutting down society and economy for over a year, are already impoverishing the UK. Look at the fuss over the modest 1% NHS pay rise proposal. It could have more a great deal more had the government not wasted enormous amounts on almost if not actually pointless “virus” measures, in particular the ludicrous “lockdowns”.
Commentary by Mark Collett
More tweets
Late tweets
In 10, maybe 20, certainly 40 years, most of Europe will look like that. https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/26/the-tide-is-coming-in-reflections-on-the-possible-end-of-our-present-civilization-and-what-might-follow/
Late music
Final word for tonight
It will be recalled that, a week ago, I notified my blog readers that a certain NHS consultant from Essex (I have blogged about his abuse previously, but let’s just call him “Dr. Dim” for now) had tweeted, falsely accusing me, as well as persecuted singer-songwriter Alison Chabloz, and also a professional photographer, Jo Stowell, of threatening to release details of his home address publicly, something which not only was not so, but also would be impossible for me in view of the fact that I do not actually know that address (nor even in which town or village he lives)!
“Dr. Dim” (NHS consultant psychiatrist) then received numerous tweets from persons who had obviously seen and believed his false, libellous and harassing tweets (at least one other, though mentioning no names, is still up on Twitter, or was, as of yesterday).
I made official complaint to Dr. Dim’s NHS employers last Monday. As a result, “Dr. Dim” has removed that particular offending tweet (the one naming me, Alison Chabloz and Jo Stowell), no doubt forced to do so by his employers. He had already been forced to remove an earlier tweet about Alison Chabloz; his employers relayed to her, I believe, his “sincere apologies”.
We shall see now where this goes. “Dr. Dim” (who himself has mental problems) has been tweeting, unpleasantly, about me for several years (together with a little Zionist group on Twitter). I now have a number of different possibilities in terms of official and/or regulatory complaint, and also the possibility of taking direct civil legal action. We shall see.
Update, 22 December 2025
See also:
“Dr. Dim” features quite prominently in that blog post, and under his real name.
Ian Robert Millard 