Category Archives: permaculture

Diary Blog, 26 October 2025

Morning music

[El Greco, Adoration of the Name]

Cartoon of the day

Tweets seen

It seems clear that Labour Party members are, yet again, the foot-soldiers of a political army the heads of which ignore their views and preferences.

Once again, we see the influence of the Jewish and/or pro-Israel lobby, which is pervasive in our corrupt political system. In the Labour Party Deputy Leader contest, “they” made sure that they won. How? By backing both contenders. That is their usual method.

After what the Israeli Jews have done in Gaza (70,000+ mostly civilian dead, hundreds of thousands injured, tens of thousands of homes, shops, hospitals, schools, universities, and roads destroyed, embargo on food, water, and medical supplies, and military behaviour that can only be termed perversely sadistic), the priority is, apparently, recovering the remains of a small number of deceased Jewish hostages…

The hostages should never have been taken, or should have been released at an earlier stage, but when one looks at the behaviour of the [Israeli] Jews in Gaza etc, one can see why the hostages were kept as a bargaining counter and collective human shield (that idea did not much work, though, because the Netanyahu government and its armed forces carried on bombing Gaza anyway, heedless of the safety of the hostages).

[“Colombian mercenaries of the Armed Forces of Ukraine complain about long delays in payments and even their complete absence after receiving an advance, and ask the Colombian authorities to take them out of Ukraine Among other things, in the report, the mercenaries talk about the lack of rotation when debt accumulates — meaning there will be no debt after the mercenary’s death.“]

Interesting, but my own fairly youthful taekwando training (I was 28) ended with a cracked rib and waking up in pain for about 2 months. The pain mostly disappeared after a short time each day, but the old joke is true— it does hurt when you laugh…

Martial arts were never my thing, but the real exponents are fascinating. I did a short self-defence course about 30 years ago (1995 I think, when I was about 38) and with a small group of others, was taught by a renowned Japanese master called (as far as I can remember) Dr. Honda, who held black belts in various Oriental martial arts disciplines, including a rare honorary Dan rating which I believe was held by few if any others, or so we were told; told also that Honda was in the Guinness Book of Records, but I do not know whether that was so.

Dr. Honda was 84-y-o, but looked more like 50-something. He was only in the UK for a brief teaching tour. A dryly humorous person in an appropriately inscrutable way, he was like something out of a film. He could move, especially his arms and hands, quicker than the eye could follow.

Dr. Honda could put large and —at the time— fairly fit people like me (I swam half a mile to a mile nonstop, several times per week, then) on the floor in a split second, keep that person down using only a thumb or a couple of fingers, and if you struggled, could cause immense pain just by very slight pressure of a digit; I presume that he was expert in locating pressure points of the nervous system. Amazing person.

More tweets

See also:

and

Starmer-stein making much of the “fact” (if it is a fact) that ONE untermensch is (supposedly) now going to be deported. How many more came in today, or yesterday? A hundred? A thousand? More yet?

I once had a chat with a scientist who was working on nuclear fusion at Harwell (I think it was). I asked him how long it would be before electricity from fusion reaction was a practical reality. He said that he could not hazard a guess. That chat was in 1978…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Chronicle_of_Ancient_Sunlight

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarka_the_Otter

[sculpture of Tarka the Otter, Bideford, Devon]

Henry Williamson, by any other name an English National Socialist:

Henry William Williamson (1 December 1895 – 13 August 1977) was an English writer who wrote novels concerned with wildlife, English social historyruralism and the First World War. He was awarded the Hawthornden Prize for literature in 1928 for his book Tarka the Otter.

He was born in London, and brought up in a semi-rural area where he developed his love of nature, and nature writing. He fought in the First World War and, having witnessed the Christmas truce and the devastation of trench warfare, he developed first a pacifist ideology, then fascist sympathies. He moved to Devon after the Second World War and took up farming and writing; he wrote many other novels. He married twice. He died in a hospice in Ealing in 1977, and was buried in North Devon.”

[Wikipedia— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Williamson]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Williamson#Politics

All the System parties now have small memberships. The fake “Conservatives” have officially somewhere between 100,000 and 120,000, but probably well below 100,000. Active members are very few now.

To a large extent, the whole “democratic” political system in the UK is a kind of mirage, a view completely unreal. The supposed “credibility” of the “main parties” is founded on a mere projection of “credibility” and “importance”, which is totally fake. Look at the last half dozen Prime Ministers of the UK.

Monied elites“? Largely (((you-know-who))), of course.

https://www.fightingfund.org/stopthecaa

A good point by Jayda Fransen, and one about which I have wondered in the past.

We can point the finger, and with some justice, at Sweden and the Swedes (for behaving as total “cucks”), but we have to say that other countries and societies, not least the UK and the British, are or have been little better.

[before]
[after…]

A metaphor for white European, or European-derived, societies trashed and ruined by the untermenschen

Salus populi suprema lex esto. “The welfare of the people is the highest law” [Cicero].

Looking at her background, Katie Lam will inevitably be conflicted, as Shakespeare alluded to in The Merchant of Venice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katie_Lam#Early_life.

Inevitably, she will partly be in favour of European values, but also partly inclined to trash them.

[“People who are not-British, who are not from these islands, do not have a moral right to stay here. If they break our laws, if they do not contribute to our economy, if they impose enormous financial costs on British taxpayers, they should go. And by “go”, I mean back to their countries of origin. This means we should leave any international convention or court that prevents us from doing that. This is either a functioning nation-state or it is not. This will be a major fault line at the next general election. Whether you believe in the principle of national preference (putting our own people first), or whether, like much of the Establishment, you believe anybody and everybody has a moral right to move here, live here, and remain here forever, while imposing billions in costs on the British people and our children. This debate, one way or other, will settle the future of our country. Do not sit it out. Do not support fringe parties or figures that will go nowhere and merely help those in power. Focus your energy in a place that matters, in a place that will make a real difference. The future of your country now depends on it. This debate is coming one way or other. And the Common Sense majority have to win it or our country will simply be ruined.“]

Raise the banners!

Late thought

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold” [Yeats]

Late music

[Arnold Bocklin, Triton and Nereid]

Diary Blog, 4 October 2025

Morning music

Saturday quiz

Well, a modest 4/10 this week, but still good enough to beat political journalist John Rentoul, who scored only 2/10. I got the answers to questions 2, 3, 5, and 9 (no. 3 being a semi-guess).

Talking point

This was a party that predated, by nine years, Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF); it was formed in 1923, after Mussolini’s famous March on Rome: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Fascists; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotha_Lintorn-Orman; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Union_of_Fascists; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswald_Mosley.

Tweets seen

The world is not without kind people” [Russian proverb]

Talking point

Many readers of this blog will know that I have been subjected to a decade or more, about 13 years, of (relatively) low-level persecution by malicious Jew-Zionists. That includes (though not exhaustively) my having been nominally disbarred in 2016 (nominally only, because I had abandoned actual Bar practice in 2008 anyway), and includes also my more recent free speech trial (2023) and sentencing hearing (2024):

The sentencing hearing was in mid-March 2024, over 18 months ago as of today’s date.

The Jew-Zionist liars and perjurers of the so-called “Campaign Against Antisemitism” [“CAA”] wanted the state to punish me for telling the truth and, also wanted to shut down my free speech and, especially, to shut down the blog.

In the event, most of “their” evil intentions never came to fruition: the blog has continued to be published (as it was even throughout the process of prosecution, trial, and sentencing).

More tweets seen

…and, as previously blogged, indicates not support for Reform as such, but disdain, disgust, even hatred, of the former main System parties, Lab and Con, both of which are on life-support, especially with (real) English/British voters.

The question is not whether the train will hit the buffers, but when.

Talking point

Hitler talked about that in the 1940s. Now it is fairly well-known. On a completely veg diet, it is possible to feed 1 person for a year from food grown on a very small area of land, as little as a quarter or even a fifth of an acre, depending on climate, soil, irrigation etc.

Some studies suggest that, under optimal conditions (climate, soil, technique etc), even a tenth of an acre, a tiny plot (<4,000 square feet, or a strip 40 x 100 feet) , can be enough to sustain 1 person over a year.

A heavily meat-centred diet requires over 3 acres per person, 20x to 100x the area, compared to a fully-vegetarian diet.

A middle way might include some eggs, fish, chicken etc.

This is why the UK has to import a great deal of its food: too many inhabitants, combined with a mainly part-carnivorous population.

More tweets

Allison Pearson is a dim scribbler who cried, and whined in her newspaper column, when a policeman came to her door regarding tweets she posted, yet she goes to demonstrations and marches with the same malicious Jew-Zionist liars, perjurers, and Israel-lobbyists who have been trying to shut down free speech in the UK for decades, and particularly in the past 25 years; groups such as the “Campaign Against Antisemitism” [“CAA”].

Jenrick, a Jewish-lobby puppet whose origins, and rise to wealth and prominence, are very obscure, and very hard to understand given his limited abilities, may be part of some hidden scheme.

The people of Iran would have been better off had they remained under the Shah’s rule, but that is history nearly half a century old. As it is, any change of regime now would probably put Iran under American —and so Jewish/Israeli— rule, in effect.

Late tweets seen

The news I see from China is either impressive, or worrying, or appalling. Sometimes two or three of those at once.

[“The events in Georgia are actually part of a new Western plan to invade Russia’s “comfort zone” in the Caucasus. The West is trying to divert Russia’s attention from Ukraine and open a new front against Moscow. If Russia loses support and alliance with Tbilisi, its geopolitical position will be greatly weakened, and it is possible that it will have to enter a new conflict.”]

Some Muslims think that music is “forbidden”; not all, though.

The other 39% think that Israeli behaviour is OK because the Americans also bomb civilians quite often…

I wonder what the figures are for American non-Jews. Presumably more critical of Israel and the Israeli Jews.

Translates to a Commons with (about) 438 Reform UK MPs; massive Reform majority, of course; Lab 86; LibDem 48; SNP 34; Cons 16 (etc).

I see tweets here and there to the effect that 2029 is over 3 years away, and a general election could be held even 4 years from now, in late 2029. Also, that much can change politically in 3-4 years. True, but does anyone expect the migration invasion to stop or even slow in the intervening period? I think not. Is the UK economy likely to improve or even stabilize between now and 2029? I think not. Is anything much likely to improve in the UK between 2025 and 2029? I think not.

Late music

[Raphael, The School of Athens]

Diary Blog, 5 March 2025

Morning music

Tweets seen

[“Ending the Ukraine conflict rather than focusing on who is to blame for it is a priority for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko: https://vk.cc/cJlNPn“— TASS]

[“US President Donald Trump unveiled plans to develop a missile defense shield dubbed `Golden Dome’ as he delivered a speech at Congress“— TASS]

[“Here’s another example of Broken Britain. Ilford South. In this area, almost 70% of people in social housing were born outside the UK, of whom only 46% are in work. Fewer than half of people in this area were born in the UK. More than 40% were born in Africa/Middle East/Asia. Close to 30% of people here do not identify as British or English but with a ‘non-UK identity only’. More than half of residents are Muslim. https://mattgoodwin.org/p/broken-britain-in-10-insane-maps“— Matt Goodwin]

Katie Hopkins

More music

(incidentally, if any readers are perplexed by the introductory reference to “the brave Kazakh soldiers” and “their home in the sunny Ukraine“, that does not refer to Kazakhs from Kazakhstan but to Cossacks. In Russian, both are spelled kazakhi, but they are not related ethnically, the Cossacks being Russian/Ukrainians based along the rivers of southern Russia and Ukraine, mainly, the Don Cossacks being, maybe, the most famous).

[“Палехская шкатулка” (“Palekh Box”) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palekh_miniature]

More tweets seen

[“Live scenes from inside Labour as Rachel Reeves plans to cut welfare spending.“]

This is not a Labour government; it is a Labour Friends of Israel government.

[“No! Wait! I voted Labour in 2024! I have always voted Labour!“, cried the mug…]

“Rachel from Accounts and Customer Relations”…an evil ugly woman.

[“Three people that really grind on me. 1. Two-Tier Keir, the hypocrite, claims Brits enjoy free speech—yet the second we speak out, we’re in cuffs. 2. Rachel Reeves is a VILE money grabbing cow, who laughs at pensioners struggling. 3. Angela Rayner, claims there is plenty of housing for people, but continues to give said housing to immigrants while our people struggle on the street.”]

So, leaving wider questions aside for the moment, what should be done with those three traitors?

[“How has Rachel (£22 billion black hole) Reeves found £28 billion for Ukraine?“]

Quelle surprise. A Jew-Zionist regime in the UK “finds” (steals from British pensioners, unemployed, disabled, sick people etc) billions of pounds to send to a Jew-Zionist regime in Ukraine…join the dots…

Kill off the fake “Labour” government. Replace it with social nationalism.

Environmental initiative

Homes for hens.

More tweets

[“Breaking: President Trump ordered a pause to intelligence sharing with Ukraine, a move that deprives Kyiv of a key tool in fighting Russian force.“—Wall Street Journal]

More good news.

Russian forces were advancing anyway; have been for some months. All the same, the traffic lights now seem to be turning green, all at the same time.

[“NEW: UK, Germany and France issue joint statement on “catastrophic” humanitarian situ in Gaza, warning Israel could be in breach of international law by halting entry of aid. “We call on the government of Israel to abide by its international obligations to ensure full, rapid, safe and unhindered provision of humanitarian assistance to the population in Gaza.  “This includes supply of items such as medical equipment, shelter items, and water and sanitation equipment, essential to meet humanitarian and early recovery needs in Gaza, but which face restrictions under Israel’s “dual use” list. “A halt on goods and supplies entering Gaza, such as that announced by the government of Israel would risk violating International Humanitarian Law. “Humanitarian aid should never be contingent on a ceasefire or used as a political tool. We reiterate that the civilians of Gaza who have suffered so much must be allowed to return to their homes and rebuild their lives.“]

“They” (((they))) can never be trusted.

The Israeli Jews know that they will not face serious repercussions from the UK, France, and Germany, because the Jew-Zionist lobby has a stranglehold over the political, legal, and mass media milieux in at least the UK and France.

[“GOVERNMENT ADVISOR WARNS: UK ON THE BRINK OF CIVIL WAR!

The United Kingdom is “explosively configured” for mass unrest. That’s the chilling warning from Professor David Betz, a top government advisor and security expert. He’s not some fringe conspiracy theorist—he’s a trusted advisor to the UK Ministry of Defence and GCHQ. And he’s sounding the alarm: Britain is heading toward a breaking point.

What’s fueling the chaos? Mass immigration, collapsing legitimacy, and a government unable—or unwilling—to defend its own borders. The people feel betrayed, and Betz warns that if things don’t change, civil conflict could erupt within five years.

WHEN THE SYSTEM FAILS, HISTORY SHOWS WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

WHAT THIS MEANS:

Social order is eroding, and the government has NO plan to control the fallout.

Warnings of civil war are coming from insiders—not just commentators.

Even Elon Musk is now saying “civil war is inevitable” in the UK.

HAVE THE GLOBALISTS PUSHED BRITAIN TOO FAR?

This is no longer a warning. It’s a countdown. The establishment has created this disaster—now the people must decide how to respond.“]

[Jim Ferguson]

Justice will then be meted out.

[“Russian troops liberated the community of Privolnoye in the Donetsk region over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported: https://vk.cc/cJml2e— TASS]

[“CIA Director John Ratcliffe has confirmed that the United States cut off intelligence sharing with Ukraine, Fox News journalist Jacqui Heinrich said: https://vk.cc/cJmCUU— TASS]

[“The military supplies arriving from the US at the logistics hub in the Polish city of Rzeszow are no longer transported to Ukraine but are redirected to a nearby base of the US 82nd Airborne Division, the onet. pl news website reported: https://vk.cc/cJmJcD“— TASS]

So American military supplies are still arriving near to the Poland-Ukraine border, though not at present being sent to Ukraine itself.

[“Go go go… Purbeck, Dorset . The first legal release of beavers into the wild in England. @channel4news tonight“]

Diary Blog, 21 July 2024, including the Andrew Malkinson wrongful conviction case, and about Helen Pitcher and her role in the Criminal Cases Review Commission scandal

Morning music

[Lincoln’s Inn, New Hall]

Helen Pitcher and the Criminal Cases Review Commission scandal

https://www.theguardian.com/law/article/2024/jul/18/ccrc-chair-helen-pitcher-rejects-call-to-resign-andrew-malkinson-case

The chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission has rejected calls from the justice secretary to resign after a report on its handling of the Andrew Malkinson case laid bare “a catalogue of failures”.

The new justice secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said Pitcher was “unfit to fulfil her duties” and that she was seeking her removal in light of the findings. It is understood that she made her position clear to Pitcher on Thursday morning in the hope that she would resign.

But Pitcher said she was the “best person” for the job and that she had no intention of standing down.

James Burley, who led Appeal’s investigation into Malkinson’s case, said the report was “utterly damning” and detailed “a catalogue of failures by the CCRC”.

He said: “No one can doubt now that the CCRC is a broken safety net which sets the bar unreasonably high for innocent prisoners trying to clear their names. The CCRC must be completely overhauled.”

[The Guardian]

[Helen Pitcher, useless “quangocrat”]

I had never heard of Helen Pitcher, so I looked her up online: https://www.legalwomen.org.uk/helenpitcher.html.

Helen Pitcher OBE Chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission talked to Bhini Phagura from Raydens solicitors about her career.

Tell us about your career progression which led to your appointment as the Chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission:

I studied law at QMC London and used this degree as a basis for a career in commerce, where I rapidly progressed up the ranks to become an Executive and Divisional Director in Grand Metropolitan. I retained a footprint in the law in various roles related to Standards, Fairness, Equity and Diversity.

Well…wouldn’t you just know it?

There’s more:

The first role I held in parallel to my Commercial career was as a lay representative of the Professional Conduct and Complaints Committee of the Bar Council.” [now split into the Bar Standards Board and the Bar Disciplinary Tribunal].

Yes, there is usually at least one useless woman of this sort sitting (well-paid, too), but doing nothing, when a Bar Disciplinary Tribunal sits. In 5-person tribunal cases (as mine was, in fact wrongly— it should have been a 3-person tribunal, which has no power to disbar) there are usually two such women (they always seem to be women, as on benches of lay magistrates), invariably a pair of unsmiling and stupid “bookends”. Useless box-tickers. See also https://ianrobertmillard.org/2017/07/09/the-slide-of-the-english-bar-and-uk-society-continues-and-accelerates/.

I also became a lay representative on the Employment Appeal Tribunal and still hold this office.

I then joined the Queens Counsel (as it was then) Selection Panel and rapidly became its chair. Whilst there we improved the Diversity Statistics.

Again the “diversity statistics“… Why am I not at all surprised?

I held this role for 9 years. On stepping down, I decided not to apply for another role as I also had a burgeoning Consultancy and Portfolio Career. About 18 months later, however, an advertisement for the role of the Chair of the CCRC (Criminal Cases Review Commission) was brought to my attention.

Last year the role of Chairman at the JAC (Judicial Appointments Commission) became available. A Headhunter contacted me having uncovered my background on LinkedIn. I checked with the MoJ that there was no conflict of interest and submitted my application. On December 31st following a Justice Select Committee earlier in the month, I was appointed and took up the post on January 16th [2023].”

My role as chair involves leading the Board, ensuring appropriate oversight on governance and providing appropriate challenge and support to the executive. I am also involved in some of the most senior appointments.

I have rationalised my portfolio (which was a Commitment I gave to the JSC) in order to ensure I have the appropriate amount of time to devote to this key role.

You are holding this role for 3 years from January 2023, what are your aims/goals?

The strategic aims were already set, however they are due for a refresh as the period they covered draws to a close. These aims, which are developed in conjunction with the Board and executive, are on our website and thus in the public domain.

Our primary purpose set out by statute is to recruit on merit, our secondary (and no less important role) is to assist the rest of the judicial system to increase the diversity pool. It is for this reason that I also chair the Judicial Diversity Forum, which has a clear action plan to achieve its aims.”

So the secondary role is as important as the primary one? How muddled and wrongheaded is the stupid woman?

[Legal Women (online-only) magazine]

The interview is rather badly written, unfortunately, with superfluous upper-case here and there; as can be seen, it is the product of an Indian woman.

Well, there we have it. That greedy and plainly incompetent Pitcher woman has made a whole career, and no doubt a very lucrative one, out of “diversity”, tokenism etc. First of all, in her own person, by being a “token woman”, or one token woman, on commercial and quango boards. Secondly, by being a Trojan horse for more “diversity” and “inclusion” (etc) in important public offices.

Helen Pitcher, who seems to me to be a useless “diversity” box-ticker, has, inter alia, sat in the seat of judgment over employment appeal cases, over the cases of supposedly defaulting barristers etc, and has even been (and apparently still is) the head of the body which appoints judges, including those at the highest level.

cf. Paula Vennells [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Vennells] and Dido Harding [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dido_Harding] and many many others.

Helen Pitcher is, at time of writing, doing, and of course getting paid for doing, several different jobs simultaneously. She is probably making between half a million and a million pounds a year. For what? Ruining various bodies? Ticking various “diversity” and “anti-racism” boxes? Shoving our society further into the mire?

Look at how Helen Pitcher is clinging on to her CCRC role, presumably in order to maximize the money she gets before she is forced out. At least, that seems to me to be her motivation. Very telling, if so.

This latest scandal, including Helen Pitcher’s “march through the institutions”, is so typical of the way in which things generally have been allowed to develop in the UK in the past 30+ years.

You can see the way the UK is going, at least partly because of stupid and over-promoted women such as Helen Pitcher (and, yes, also men, not infrequently)— straight down.

God knows what state this country will be in in 2029 or 2034, let alone 2054 (which last I shall not have to witness, thank God, not from the Earth plane anyway).

[Update, 14 January 2025: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/jan/14/andrew-malkinson-calls-miscarriage-of-justice-watchdogs-ex-head-shameless.

Andrew Malkinson calls miscarriage of justice watchdog’s ex-head ‘shameless’

Helen Pitcher resigned from the CCRC saying she had been ‘scapegoated’ over Malkinson’s case

Emily DuganTue 14 Jan 2025 19.51 GMTShare

Andrew Malkinson has called the former head of the miscarriage of justice watchdog “shameless” as she resigned from the job saying she had been “scapegoated for entirely legitimate decisions” taken over his case.

Helen Pitcher handed in her resignation as chair of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) on Tuesday afternoon after learning that an independent panel had concluded by a majority of two to one that she was no longer fit to be chair.

In a letter to the justice secretary she said she felt that she had been chosen as a “scapegoat at an early stage” for the Malkinson case and that “a head had to roll and I was chosen for that role”.

Malkinson said: “Helen Pitcher’s attempt to portray herself as the victim here is shameless.

The Guardian revealed that Pitcher had been in Montenegro promoting her property business in the weeks after Malkinson’s conviction was overturned and the organisation was in crisis after its failure to apologise to him.

[Guardian]].

Her property business” (as well as all the rest)?

Helen Pitcher thus managed to blag another 6-7 months’ pay and expenses, and pension contributions, when she should have resigned in mid or early 2024.

Shameless” indeed, the horrible and avaricious old hag.

Tweets seen

Summary of the Israeli strike according to what is known so far: – Approximately 25 F-15 and F-35 aircraft, accompanied by refueling planes, flew about 2000 kilometers toward the city of Hodeidah in Yemen.

– The strike was carried out in 8 waves.

-The attack destroyed fuel depots, inflicted damage on the port, and destroyed a power station north of the port.

– The fire is still burning and is expected to continue for several more days.

– There is a power outage across the entire region.

– The message of the strike is clear: this is not a strike on military targets (which has been done by the coalition over the past 9 months) but an attack on the already struggling Yemeni economy, causing significant economic damage.

– The attack on the port is a direct response to the damage Yemenis have caused to the port of Eilat.

– The message to the rest of the Middle East is also clear: the Bandar Abbas port and the Kharg Island, from where most of Iran’s oil is exported, are in Israel’s sights, as well as the port of Beirut.

– Israel has decided to take off the gloves; this is not a minor strike like those in Iran.

– The Houthis are threatening to retaliate, but it is unclear what the threat entails, as they have already attacked Israel 200 times.”

[Open Source Intel]

Middle East, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, Far East. All now under threat of major regional wars.

Ukraine lines are collapsing. After 380 billions of aid pledged to Ukraine since the war begin; 118 billion are direct military aid; many countries literally emptied out entire inventory countless military units to give their weapons to Ukraine. Ukraine is STILL losing grounds everyday. Lost 5 towns in the past 48hrs. The fortress city of Krasnohorivka is falling as we speak; Russia threatens cut the Oskil Frontlines in half with the likely capture of Pishchane. Still not collapsing? This is not collapse of frontlines, then what is?

More tweets

Back to the UK tomorrow. I’ve never had such dread about Britain. Coming back to London and knowing how unpleasant it’ll be. The demographic changes and feeling that [the UK] is most against Brits. The lack of functional media. The feeling something big has to happen to restore order.

[Charlotte Gill]

Plenty of Twitter-twits replying to all that and saying how wonderful London still (?) is, but I lived in (mostly) Central or near-Central London, on and off, for 22 years (1976 to 1998, though spending also many years either elsewhere in the country or overseas), and I should not want to live there today: see https://ianrobertmillard.org/2022/06/30/diary-blog-30-june-2022-including-impressions-of-a-trip-to-dystopian-london/.

I have not been to London since that brief visit in 2022, and am glad of it. I no longer have the Rolex watches I had 25+ years ago (or want them, or need them, or can afford them) but, if I did, I think that they would not stay on my wrist very long in the London of 2024.

Why can people who should know better not accept the truth that is in front of their eyes? In a word, deluded.

One aspect of London that seems to have radically improved in recent years, though, is the public transport network. New lines, new trains, new ways of travelling around the conurbation. Crossrail/Elizabeth Line for one. I do not speak, however, from personal experience of the new lines, just from what I have read online.

Well over 20 years ago, in 2000, I happened to meet and get to know (somewhat), in Bournemouth, a young blonde woman (20 or so) I first encountered in a photography shop, and who was very proud of her father, vice-Chancellor of (if I remember aright) Lancaster University. She talked about him rather a lot, and thus I learned that (again, if I remember aright) his salary was over £200,000 a year, which would be pretty good even today, by most people’s standards. In fact, the Bank of England online calculator shows that you could almost double that in today’s money. So today— maybe £400,000.

The tertiary educational sector in the UK has been a kind of “rotten borough” for a long time. At least 30 years.

Matt Goodwin

I notice that the “alt-Right” (?) academic and commentator, Matt Goodwin, has retweeted a tweet about the UNRWA by the malicious and publicity-seeking Jew-Zionist org, “Campaign Against Antisemitism”. Foolish. The credibility of that malicious cabal is shot; even most pro-Israel Jews are against its activities and behaviour. By retweeting the “CAA”, Goodwin risks his own credibility too.

More tweets

My understanding was that Japan had withdrawn from whale hunting in the Southern Ocean, and would only be whaling in Japan’s own Exclusive Economic Zone [EEZ]. Maybe I was too optimistic: see https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/30/asia/japan-whaling-mothership-kangei-maru-intl-hnk/index.html; and https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/may/02/japan-whale-meat-industry-kangei-maru-mother-ship.

Background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaling_in_Japan

I do not trust Japanese intentions.

The Japanese only have one new whaling ship, though…

Many of us are well aware of what will eventually have to be done, but we are “not allowed” to say it, let alone do it…

Late tweets

I agree with that. Michelle Obama? Maybe not so easily defeated. All the blacks would vote for her, for a start.

If anyone other than Trump takes on the U.S. Presidency, the Americans will be staring civil war in the face. The rest of the world (as well as the USA) will be staring at, quite likely, a world war, starting (like the first two “world” wars) in Europe.

An omen.

Late music

Diary Blog, 18 November 2023

Morning music

[Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire]

Announcement

As announced yesterday, the magistrates’ court trial to which I was made subject went badly for me. I cannot blog about that at present.

I am presently due to be sentenced at the end of January, or in February, of 2024. After that, I have 15 working days, i.e. three weeks, in which to serve any Notice of Appeal. Any appeal hearing, before a Circuit Judge (sitting with two magistrate-assessors), would be a complete rehearing, which would probably not happen until the Autumn of 2024, perhaps not until 2025.

I shall decide in February 2024, post-sentencing, whether I shall appeal.

Saturday quiz

Well, a poor score this week, a mere 4/10; I see that John Rentoul scored similarly. I knew the answers only to questions 2, 3, 4, and 7.

From the newspapers

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/24778179/moment-teen-kills-army-veteran-bus-station/.

SHOCKING CCTV footage shows the moment a teenage boy killed an 82-year-old Army veteran with a single punch.

Omar Moumeche, who was 16 at the time, attacked Dennis Clarke at Derby bus station after the veteran told off his friends for messing about on an escalator.

The pensioner suffered a fractured skull as well as a bleed on the brain and died in hospital nine days after the assault on May 6, 2021.

Moumeche, now 18, was found guilty of manslaughter in July, with the judge sentencing the killer yob to two years in youth detention at Derby Crown Court today.

No further action was taken against two other teenage boys who were arrested at the time in connection with the attack.”

[The Sun]

[the defendant]

Omar Moumeche“? So… Algerian, presumably. Why is he even here? Why is his family here?

Life certainly is cheap in Britain’s wonderful new “diverse” multikulti paradise…

Imagine what this country will be like in another 30 or 50 years. I am actually glad that I shall not be here to see it.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12763583/Care-home-nailed-window-shut-stop-holding-Mums-hand-ex-BBC-star.html

Thus Britain, through the gradual acceptance of stupid “laws” and “rules” (invalid and/or misinterpreted) becomes a multikulti and “biosecurity” “poundland” police state.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12764141/Man-alive-EXECUTED-Death-Row-Alabama-failing-lethal-injection.html

The only man alive who can tell you what it is like to be EXECUTED after three Death Row staff in Alabama spent 90 agonising minutes trying – and failing – to give him a lethal injection.”

[Daily Mail]

The U.S. Constitution is a bad joke in most respects. Here is one example. The 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution forbids “cruel and unusual punishment“. Then look at what has been found to be not “cruel and unusual,” such as these ghastly lethal injection executions and, of course, the classic one, the electric chair, which can take several minutes and may fry someone alive, in effect.

The U.S. Constitution, looked upon by most Americans as if holy writ, when in fact it was just a document cobbled together by a bunch of freemasons (many of them), partly (it is said) in a New York City tavern.

https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt8-4-9-10/ALDE_00000975/.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair#Botched_executions.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12762433/four-million-kardashian-style-surrey-mansion-scotland-yard-notorious-corrupt-commander.html

Another symptom of the rot in plain sight now in our society.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12763029/gang-thugs-kick-punch-police-officer-McDonalds-Kingston-London.html

…and again…even more “diversity”. How wonderful…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12763249/migrants-dover-channel-crossing-rwanda-unlawful.html

A total of 356 asylum seekers were intercepted by Border Force officials from seven boats and escorted into Dover, Kent, throughout the day.”

[Daily Mail].

…and still they come. Migrant-invaders. Migration-invasion.

Tweets seen

The wrongheadedness of the “austerity” drive since 2010, which badly damaged the UK economy, especially in the years 2010-2015, but was sold to the unthinking British people as “necessary”.

That was a long time ago. The world is now overpopulated, and particularly with non-Europeans. A reduction of the world’s population to about 10% of what it is now is very desirable, but of course the remaining population has to be mainly ethnically European.

Talking point

More tweets

I do not know the details of the case, but the penalties do seem extremely heavy, just speaking generally.

See also: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2021/01/19/diary-blog-including-thoughts-about-prepping-on-the-individual-level/; and https://ianrobertmillard.org/2021/02/03/diary-blog-3-february-2021-including-more-thoughts-about-prepping/.

You carry in your blood the holy inheritance of your
fathers and forefathers. You do not know those who
have vanished in endless ranks into the darkness of the
past. But they all live in you and walk in your blood upon
the earth that consumed them in battle and toil and in
which their bodies have long decayed.

Your blood is therefore something holy. In it your parents gave you not only a body, but your nature. To deny your blood is to deny yourself. No one can
change it. But each decides to grow the good that one has
inherited and suppress the bad. Each is also given will
and courage.

You do not have only the right, but also the duty to pass
your blood on to your children, for you are a member of
the chain of generations that reaches from the past into
eternity, and this link of the chain that you represent
must do its part so that the chain is never broken.

But if your blood has traits that will make your children
unhappy and burdens to the state, then you have the
heroic duty to be the last. The blood is the carrier of life. You carry in it the secret of creation itself. Your blood is holy, for in it God’s will
lives.”

[SS Verlag: material for instruction of the Hitlerjugend]

[SS-men take their sacred oath at midnight, Munich, 1940s]

More tweets

If I am not mistaken, that is the India/Pakistan border. Both sides indulge in military march theatricals, a strange macho posturing performance.

“They” can never be believed.

Late music

Diary Blog, 9 July 2023

[Windsor Castle]

Battles past

Tweets seen

While I have no reason to think that “Captain Tom” was other than “well-meaning”, that whole thing was just a ridiculous “silly season” kind of story, and was pushed by the mass media because it tended to validate the idea that NHS service is wonderful and that the NHS was only failing in its main mission because overwhelmed by the “Covid” virus (that in fact, statistically, killed very few people).

I was always suspicious of the hangers-on, especially the daughter, who now turns out to be yet another “grifter” or even fraudster, like so many around today: “Jack Monroe”, “Supertanskiii”, Jolyon Maugham, “Man Behaving Dadly” etc. Hundreds of this or that type are on Twitter alone.

As for the NHS, the cartoon below seems to encapsulate the public debate:

The NHS principle (“free at point of use”) is one I support, but it is clear that the NHS has lost its way. It —like the Welfare State generally— cannot work when mass immigration causes an endless line of new demand for its services. Also, maladministration has been patent for years, indeed for at least two decades. At present, the NHS is not really “doing what it says on the tin”. It is now a very hit-and-miss service.

They never really tried. Yet another political scam. The Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan requires Europe to be invaded by non-Europeans, particularly blacks and browns, and to be ruled by Jews and part-Jews. Look around you…

As far as the Channel migration-invasion is concerned, once a small number of boats were sunk (by Britain’s otherwise now-pointless Royal Navy), and that fact publicized, few others would even try; but the existing political system is either too weak, or implicated in the Coudenhove-Kalergi conspiracy, to take the initial harsh decision required.

Thus, instead of sinking the boats of the invaders, the Navy ferries the invaders to Dover, assisted by other corrupted organizations such as the RNLI, the Coastguard, the Border Force (“Farce”) etc.

More tweets

Whatever one may think of Johnny Mercer MP, his wife gets full marks both for loyalty and humour.

Point proven. Not that humour is everything, but it helps.

A very worthwhile charity.

Guess which countries will suffer the most if a major conventional war breaks out in Eastern Europe and then Central Europe? Germany and Poland. Naturally, Germans are concerned. As to the Poles, God knows.

Good grief…

Afternoon music

More tweets

I agree almost completely. The NHS is an object-lesson in maladministration, particularly the hospital sector.

As blogged previously, the Kiev regime is running out of cannon-fodder.

Crazy Jewish woman, who holds herself out as being an expert in international relations and foreign trade, displays a complete lack of understanding, perhaps wilfully.

If Ukraine (Kiev regime) is allowed to join NATO, before very long there will be a situation created which might trigger “Article 5”, meaning that there would be war between Russia and the NATO states. The UK might then be subject to attack by strategic nuclear weapons. Nein danke…

That is, in fact, Zelensky’s only real chance of achieving any sort of “victory” in this war, to have a revolution in Russia, thus collapsing the front-line; as in 1917, when Russia was facing the Central Powers.

Russia has money coming out of its ears. The economic sanctions put in place by the EU, USA and UK have actually strengthened the Russian economy and strategically-hastened the fall of the post-1945 international order. The sanctions have mainly hit the taxpayers of the Western powers.

Russia needs to strengthen its culture, and cut back on the products and values coming out of Hollywood, New York and other such centres of decadence. Films, TV, pop music etc.

Late music

[Akademgorodok, near Novosibirsk, Siberia]

Diary Blog, 3 July 2023— riots in France, climate change propaganda, and banks censoring and repressing their customers

Morning music

Battles past

From the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12256949/Banks-warned-protect-free-speech-Jeremy-Hunt-said-deeply-concerned.html

Banks are to be warned by ministers that they must protect free speech as increasing numbers of customers are having their accounts closed for holding allegedly controversial views.

The Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is reportedly ‘deeply concerned’ that lenders are blacklisting customers they are deemed to hold contrary political beliefs and social values.

The controversy flared up last week after Nigel Farage revealed his long-standing account had been closed by his bank, while a vicar was dropped by another lender for questioning why their branches were displaying Pride flags.

[Daily Mail]

I have blogged about this previously. Farage is, as the report notes, not alone. Repression on freedom of expression by banks (bank staff) has been a fact for a few years now. Laura Towler, Sam Melia, and Mark Collett, all of Patriotic Alternative, had their personal bank accounts closed. Straight political bias.

The only thing that will stop the trend to censorship and repression is if bank directors, managers etc are held accountable directly. The same goes for MPs, msm talking heads etc.

Incidentally, maybe 99% of the repression of freedom of expression in the UK comes from the malicious and manipulative Jew-Zionist element; certainly 90%+. See, for example, my own experiences, published at the top of this blog post. “They” are almost always the troublemakers, if you investigate the matter.

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/sicilian-farmer-oranges-bananas-mangoes-italy-tropical-2417532.

Rosolino Palazzolo, a 44-year-old Sicilian farmer, has just finished picking the first pitanga (Surinam cherry) and acerola (Barbados cherry) on his farm in a tiny village called Terrasini, close to Palermo. He looks at the bright cherries in his hand, smiling proudly.

These fruits would normally be found growing along the equator but, in the past few years, climate change and year-round warm temperatures have led to a produce revolution in Italy’s deep south.

Italy is turning into a tropical country. That’s why I also grow papayas, mangoes, passion fruit, baby bananas dubbed ‘bananito’, black sapote [a soft, orange-fleshed fruit], annona [custard apple] and even coffee and chocolate plants,” Mr Palazzolo [says].

Tropical fruit is the future of Italy’s agriculture; it will save the country from the negative effects of rising temperatures and crazy, wild rainfalls.”

The farmer still grows traditional fruits such as pears, citrus fruits and peaches, and vegetables such as tomatoes and courgettes, but in smaller quantities due to the tropical-like climate that has taken hold in Italy, particularly in the south.”

[i newspaper]

Interesting. Adaptation to a warmer climate.

Tweets seen

La France— réveillez-vous!

The only way to stop the epidemic of drug abuse in the West is to eliminate the users. Poppy cultivation cannot simply be banned everywhere, because opium derivatives are used for essential products such as morphine. India and Australia (Tasmania) are among the larger producers of legally-farmed opium poppies. Afghanistan accounts for about 80% of the illegal trade.

Eliminate all rioters in the field.

Typically misleading Sky News. In fact, it was not “the hottest June ever in UK” (as seen in that tweet) but the hottest June since records began, which was only in 1884. As the report does say, previous hot-June records were reached in both 1940 and 1976. Even the headline, “hottest June on record“, though technically correct, is misleading, because many will assume that records go back to maybe 1700 or so, which is not the case on a reliable or consistent basis.

In historical terms, 139 years (1884-2023) is almost nothing.

We know that there were relatively warm periods previously in recorded European history, notably in the “Mediaeval Warm Period”, often estimated as having happened from about 950 AD to about 1250 AD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_Warm_Period.

Before that, there had been a “Roman Warm Period” running from about 250 BC to about 400 AD: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Warm_Period.

There was no measurement of temperature then, but warmer climatic conditions can be inferred from forms of agriculture known to have been current, and from animal and plant remains, tree rings etc.

There are various theories as to why those historical periods were warmer than other times before and after, but one thing is for sure— it had little or nothing to do with “carbon emissions”. These were societies without very large populations (the Roman Empire at height may have had 60 million inhabitants), without the internal combustion engine, without industry except on a very small scale, and without the widespread use of coal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal#History.

Those two warm periods hosted higher levels of civilization and culture than the cooler periods on either side of each. Be careful what you wish for.

More tweets seen

Again the technically-correct but very misleading “on record” assertion.

I agree with that tweeter about the sheer audacity, as I think I would term it, of the online fraud and “grifter” “Jack Monroe”.

That sheer gall is what really sets her apart from the numerous other online “grifters” around— her sheer criminal audacity, as well as her relentless use of about half a dozen tactics: pretending to be an “activist” for “the poor”; various mental and physical problems (useful to be able to blame critics for making them worse, though most if not all of them are non-existent); pretending to be short of money and/or living in poverty (rather than a house, possibly with a sea view, in a rather expensive Essex suburb); attaching herself to this or that group as expedient— LGBTQXYZ, disabled, “poor”, struggling single mother (despite her affluent family living in the same area), “socialist” (despite her false “feed a family for £20 a week” claims, “cosmopolitan” (despite rarely having been outside Essex), and displaying little or no obvious knowledge or education), etc.

Then there are the fake biographical details, such as having taken a leading role after or even during the Grenfell fire incident.

What is truly amazing is how many people, even some journalists, still believe all of her rubbish.

I still fail to understand why a black woman in Bristol is (I think) still facing Crown Court trial for allegedly having crowdfunded for legal costs to make a civil claim that (allegedly or apparently) never happened, and then having (allegedly) kept the monies raised for her personal use, but “Jack Monroe” raised monies similarly, supposedly to sue Lee Anderson MP, then did not even send preliminary formal complaint to Lee Anderson, and quite plainly ripped-off the said monies for her own uses, yet (so far) is not charged with anything. Why not?

Late tweets seen

Well, wonders will never cease. I agree with all of that.

The directors of the banks should be held accountable, directly.

Please refer to previous comment.

Eliminate all rioters in the field, then deport their base populations to somewhere outside Europe (maybe to French Guiana).

Late music

Diary Blog, 20 April 2023

Morning music

[Adolf Hitler, 20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945]

A worthy appeal

https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-save-the-bees-and-the-planet

From the newspapers

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-increases-shelling-air-strikes-bakhmut-ukrainian-general-2023-04-18/

Tweets seen

So the name Land Rover, one of the most recognized and recognizable brands in the world, is going to be dropped. Who on Earth makes stupid decisions like that? What sort of people run such companies?

Land Rover history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Rover.

…aided and abetted by the Jewish lobby embedded within individual countries such as the UK.

He is right— I myself am often too polite to those who do not deserve it.

Perhaps, perhaps not. I wish that Michael O’Leary himself would die off, though. A thoroughly unpleasant-seeming individual: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_O%27Leary_(businessman)#Controversy.

More of the same lying propaganda that has been swirling through the UK and the rest of the Western world for many years, particularly in the past decade.

Looks like at least some of the old Soviet propaganda was not too wide of the mark…

They built cities of marble but, later, untermenschen invaded and crawled over the magnificent ruins…

Kiev“. Note the guard force. When some supposed VIP goes to Kiev to meet Zelensky or one of his cabal, and to create a photo-opportunity, the streets around are deserted, except for any sole “local person” allowed to approach the foreign visitor to thank him for his country’s “support” (arms, ammunition, money); as when “Boris” Johnson visits.

So, those deserted streets. Are they cleared as a security measure, or has a large part of the civilian population of Kiev fled?

As relevant to Britain in 2023 as a comic novel, or a film about “Ruritania”.

Meanwhile…

More of Stoltenberg in Kiev, in Mikhailovskaya Ploshchad (Square), which is in central Kiev, near the Foreign Ministry and the British Embassy, among other headquarters and diplomatic installations. Still no “real people” (locals), only bodyguards, Army, police, TV crew(s), and Press photographers. Of what are they so afraid? Can it be that the Zelensky regime (and/or NATO) is not as popular, even in Kiev, as it likes to have portrayed?

The ancients would have called an event like that a sign from the heavens…

More from the newspapers

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/apr/20/labour-warpath-targeting-benefit-claimants-disabled-starmer.

I have never expected much from Starmer. For one thing, he is a puppet and mouthpiece of the Jewish/Zionist lobby, even as compared to other System politicians. Also, he is as dull as ditchwater.

Beyond that, I have noticed (and have long blogged) that Starmer’s general attitude to the past 13 years of “Conservative” misgovernment has been to say, in effect, “we support workhouses, but they should be run more efficiently“.

Starmer is not only not a “socialist” in any meaningful way, but not even much of a social-democrat. A different label from the Conservative Party, but little else substantially different.

In fact, looking at how Starmer vacillates, fails to make up his mind (even as to what is “a woman”!), and tries to evade difficult moral choices, while mouthing “me too!” on various issues, I can see what a rotten Prime Minister he would make, just as I saw —years before most people— what a rotten PM “Boris”-idiot would make.

As time goes by, my view against Starmer becomes less and less favourable, not that it was actually ever favourable.

More tweets

Late tweets

Bakhmut today, Kiev the day after tomorrow?

Was that a purely Chinese decision, or did elements of the Russian state unfriendly to the Wagner PMC/Wagner Group advise the Chinese —covertly— not to sell the weapons?

Late music

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

Diary Blog, 24 March 2023

Morning music

On this day a year ago

From the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11896135/Killer-robot-dogs-controlled-soldiers-MINDS-trialed-Australian-army.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11896725/Fury-woke-barristers-refusing-prosecute-eco-warriors.html.

So much for the “cab rank rule” (see the report).

As for the barristers noted particularly in that report— one Jew, one half-Jew. As many now realize, (almost) “every single time“…

Tweets seen

On the other hand, a wise man once observed that one should not throw away one’s crutches until one is sure that one can stand unaided.

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“.

More music

[the River Cam at Cambridge]

More tweets

Ha ha! “I’m lovin’ it!

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.

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.

See also: https://www.growveg.co.uk/guides/growing-enough-food-to-feed-a-family/; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden.

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.

More tweets

Late tweets

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.

Late music

[SS-Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler at the Berghof, Obersalzberg]

Diary Blog, 19 March 2023

Morning music

On this day a year ago

From the newspapers

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/19/paradise-almost-lost-bypass-threatens-to-destroy-cambridge-farmland-rich-in-wildlife.

Cambridgeshire seems to be yet another “rotten borough” from the point of view of protection for trees and wildlife.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11876457/PETER-HITCHENS-Making-women-wage-slaves-suits-except-women-children-course.html.

Very true.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/19/if-we-get-out-of-here-it-will-be-a-miracle-a-family-at-war-in-the-hell-of-bakhmut

Untrained or scarcely-trained Ukrainian recent civilians being sent to the front line and ordered to perform unnecessary and stupid actions by incompetent superiors.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11873873/Stunning-replicas-London-New-York-Paris-sprung-China-no-one-lives-them.html.

I have to admit that I find modern China fascinating —from a distance— though I have never been there (I have been to Hong Kong and Macau, but never to mainland China).

[Chinese pastiche of a town with “Tudor” buildings; looks a bit like the centre of Hereford]

Tweets seen

Good to know that cultural institutions are being maintained and rebuilt.

Interesting. I have blogged a few times about the day in 1994 or 1995 (I think 1995) when I visited the partly-privatized but still heavily-guarded Porton Down biolab campus in Wiltshire, UK, with the then Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK, a trained scientist who was later both a Presidential candidate and director of a biochemistry and biosecurity institute in Ukraine [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serhiy_Komisarenko].

Well, OK, but that old woman can express her views freely on the streets of (?) Moscow, and have them broadcast without repercussions. If she had been in Kiev, and had opposed the regime of the corrupt Jew Zelensky, she would probably, almost certainly, have been arrested; the interview would certainly not be broadcast or allowed to be put on social media. Everyone involved would be arrested.

So who is “brainwashed“? The Western msm is more or less brainwashing people in the UK, USA etc, though many are “thinking for themselves” and not supporting the war or the Kiev regime.

The Twitterati were all so shocked to find that there was a majority in favour of Brexit (meaning,mainly, in favour of stopping immigration), and that America voted Trump in 2016.

As I blogged yesterday, Jeremy Hunt seems to have a political cloth ear.

Goodwin’s tweet about “1950s” is not quite right though. “1940s” would be better. It is a linguistic point. The 1950s were when Britain began to exit from the terrible privation of the unnecessary war against the German Reich. The poverty of Britain was actually worse in the decade (and especially the 5 years) after the end of the war than it had been during that misconceived war. The decline in living standards during the war itself lurched lower in 1946, 1947 and did not improve, substantially, until about 1954 or 1955. The last remnants of WW2 rationing ended in 1955.

Incidentally, it is interesting to note that many poorer Brits actually had a better diet during WW2 rationing than they had had in the prewar 1930s.

Some of the (pro-immigration) replies to Goodwin’s tweet are unintentionally hilarious: idiots saying that the UK “needs” immigrants, that the UK is not “full” (despite housing covering more of our green fields daily), and one pro-invasion tweeter (one of the most vituperative) who lives on the Costa Tropical in Spain!

According to some tweets I saw, the decision was made by some black woman, by name Lorna Clarke: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/lorna-clarke-3a19b415. She, it seems, is actually the “BBC Director, Music” and formerly “Head of Rock and Pop“.

Education: Copenhagen Business School“…How odd.

That black woman who, on the face of it, knows little or nothing about serious music, made the decision. Even the Guardian has printed criticism of it: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/14/classical-music-bbc-orchestras-singers.

How has this been allowed to happen? Early last year, the BBC’s music review recommended an extraordinary restructure. Alan Davey, the recently departed controller of BBC Radio 3 and the Proms, ceased to have direct responsibility for the classical ensembles that are now under the control of former head of rock and pop Lorna Clarke, while [Simon] Webb, the former director of the BBC Philharmonic, is the new head of orchestras and choirs in England.

The BBC’s timing is as calculated as its strategy is callous: ensembles struggling to recover from the pandemic, exhausted from keeping the show on the road throughout, three of the ensembles without a permanent director and all contractually gagged. There is not one single champion for classical music left at the BBC in any position of power or influence. Herod has been left minding the creche.

I no longer know if the BBC is a public service broadcaster; I don’t recognise it any more, or its values. If it no longer exists to do that which others cannot or will not, then what is it for? After 23 years of constant change, the ensembles of the BBC have never been more agile, flexible or willing to adapt, and they represent tremendous value for money in the grand scheme of the BBC’s budget and our licence-fee payment.

The role of cultural patron is not optional, and the responsibilities as custodian of music ensembles do not give the BBC permission to dispose of and dismantle them without serious public discussion, not to mention honest, transparent internal debate. The values and behaviour of what we are told repeatedly is “our BBC” must matter to all of us as much as the content.”

[Paul Hughes, in the Guardian]

Apart from the actual absurdity of having blacks and merely business-trained persons in positions of power in the cultural sphere, this damage goes right back to the 1990s, to John Birt [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birt,_Baron_Birt] and Greg Dyke [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Dyke]. Those two, who knew and worked with each other, both had poor educational and —initial— work backgrounds, yet were allowed to take leading positions in British television and radio.

More cultural vandalism

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/19/metropolitan-museum-art-reclassifies-russian-art-ukrainian.

Repin “reclassified” as “Ukrainian”!

Thankfully, Wikipedia still has him, as of today, as the Russian he was: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Repin.

Ilya Yefimovich Repin (Russian: (pre-1918: Илья Ефимовичъ Рѣпинъ) Илья Ефимович Репин, pronounced [ˈrʲepʲɪn];[a] 5 August [O.S. 24 July] 1844 – 29 September 1930) was a Russian painter.[1][3][4][5][b] He became one of the most renowned artists in Russia in the 19th century.

Repin was born on 24 July 1844 in the town of Chuguev, in the Kharkov Governorate of the Russian Empire, in the heart of the historical region of Sloboda Ukraine.[10][11][12] His father, Yefim Vasilyevich Repin (1804—1894) served in an Uhlan Regiment of the Imperial Russian Army. He fought in the Russo-Persian War (1826–1828), the Russo-Turkish War (1828–29) and the Hungarian campaign (1849).

[Wikipedia]

Alison Chabloz

More tweets

Poland reprising its 1939 performance? Madness.

If Poland fights against Russia in 2023, that would trigger a Russian response which might mean that there will be no Poland, and certainly no Warsaw, by 2024. In fact, Poland being now a member of NATO, it might just trigger WW3.

Late tweets

The SNP may have had its day in the sun, but it could reinvent itself if it became more social-national, opposed mass immigration and migration-invasion, binned non-whites/non-Brits such as Humza Yousaf as candidates and office-holders, and announced a policy of leaving NATO and closing down all RAF/USAF bases, as well as submarine bases, while asking Russia for closer relations. None of that will happen, of course.

The idiotic woman even wears a rainbow scarf. Like a red flag, a warning signal. Just looked her up on Wikipedia; she is actually Canadian! How mad is that? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorna_Slater.

All this stuff, dozens of things included, is part of the gradual approach of something which will go well beyond the traditional “police state”.

Oh yes. I recall once running late at Gatwick, only to be told by some simpleton in uniform to remove my shoes! I only caught my plane because it was delayed by engine trouble.

Even worse are the self-important armed police, strutting around with their Heckler & Koch MP5s or other weapons. So, if there are suspected terrorists, will they just open up with automatic weapons in a crowded terminal? I hope not. They are basically there “for show”.

Late music

[Tunis late at night, in winter; rain]