Afternoon music
On this day a year ago
Tweets seen
This savage and unforgiving conflict will probably see huge escalation in 2023, especially in view of the refusal of the Kiev side to negotiate even a ceasefire unless Russian forces withdraw from all areas of mainland Ukraine and Crimea.
The Kiev side probably hopes that Putin will be deposed, and the war thus (?) ended. It may not work out that way, even if Putin does leave the scene.
The “Jack Monroe” Twitterstorm (etc) continues
A not atypical “Jack Monroe” supporter tweets. “Screenwriter and novelist” (unpublished?), and of a certain age. I have yet to see a Twitter pro-“Jack Monroe” defender who is either “young” (under 30) or in any way “poor”.
I have covered the Monty Python-esque “Jack Monroe” “advice” previously, in several blog posts, so do not want to repeat it all today, but the sheer nonsense of it is incredible (e.g. make a dinner for 11p per head; e.g. open cans using a knife and a mallet or hammer; e.g. make a curry by mixing a tin of peaches and one of chickpeas with some curry powder, and heat in a microwave, etc).
The many tweets below are worth considering:
Very modest— I doubt that “Jack Monroe” is pulling in less than ยฃ6,000 a month from Patreon alone.
Incidentally, if anyone wants to support, with a one-off ยฃ5 or so, a genuinely-poor and struggling couple, that lady (“@frugally-minded”) has a crowdfunder: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/heather-booth-3?utm_term=Gde7678Nq.
Having been “down there” in the pit of actual poverty a few times in my life (thankfully never for longer than a few months at a time), I am well-qualified to advise people how to really survive and even somewhat thrive in such circumstances, but I prefer not to publish openly my very valuable and learned/experienced advice. ‘Nuff said!
I notice that the number of “mugs” sending “Jack Monroe” between ยฃ3.50 and ยฃ44 each month via Patreon has now fallen to 623, as of time of writing; that’s about 25 fewer than yesterday. 25 mugs woke up (at last).
Stray idea
If you take as a notional starting-point the idea that there are about 40 million people of or over the age of 21 in the UK, and if you consider that the UK has an area of about 92,000 sq. miles, which is about 60 million acres, then that works out at, very roughly, 1.5 acres per person.
Now let us assume that the State took ownership over about 4%-5% of that land, in other words less than a tenth of an acre per person, allotted to any applicant such a plot, and let such people use the land allotted to them in a manner akin to an “allotment” (or, if they want, to do nothing with “their” land, which would help wildlife at least). It might have a huge effect, as well as helping poor people to feed themselves.
See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotment_(gardening); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden.
The details might need refining, and the concept would need organization, but I think that the basic idea would work.
Incidentally, if any object that the idea involves “expropriation”, I reply that that is so, but it would merely redress a small part of the balance from the time of the “Enclosures” of common land, and/or the “Highland Clearances”. The aim is, however, not backward-looking “revenge” but forward-looking policy.
From the newspapers
“Santander is changing its degree requirements in an attempt to increase socioeconomic diversity in the workplace.
The bank will no longer require a 2:1 degree for graduates as recruiters try to find the ‘best candidates from a wide range of backgrounds’ – meaning those with third class degrees will now be able to apply.“
[Daily Mail].
These are the type of backward bastards flooding into the UK with the acquiescence and/or connivance of the (((occupied))) “British” Government.
Maybe Santander will offer some of them a job.
More tweets
Ha. Not the only time the egregious and self-publicizing Jewish lawyer, Mark Lewis (now an Israeli resident and citizen), gave what at least some of his clients (as reported on Twitter and in the Press, and seen by me) regarded as duff advice.
I blogged about Mark Lewis, several times, years ago: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/11/update-re-mark-lewis-lawyer-questions-are-raised/
The Anti-national Covid Service. How sick, that untermenschen of his sort taint the work of very many good people in what is left of the NHS.
Twitter, home of the nut
Today’s total nut on Twitter is…”Ninawildflower”
Incredibly, seems that that Twitter account is not a parody-account.
…and any parent who (as that one claims) forces his child to be the only one in his school to wear a facemask is not only stupid but cruel and/or crazy, and should face some kind of intervention by the school or others.
More tweets
That has been my impression. Apart from which, this whole idea that “poor people” —or others— need books of recipes is rather odd in the age of the Internet, when thousands of recipes of all types can be accessed in seconds and without payment.
I see from Twitter that, in face of the continuing and indeed increasing Twitterstorm, “Jack Monroe” has, once more, tried two of her favourite tactics— feigning illness, and withdrawing from Twitter interaction until the hue and cry dies down. She has done that (combination) frequently before, the last time only a few weeks ago. She always returns quite swiftly, ready to ignore the many cries of “will you refund the money you took?“.
Cookery books are bestsellers, quite often, but I wonder how many people (I presume mainly women) buy them but then never actually use them to make things? Not a rhetorical question. I actually do not know.
I do recall seeing, as a child of 10 (in 1967), several massive coffee-table-size books in the kitchen of my aunt-by-marriage, in Mosman, Sydney. I still recall the title of one: Larousse Gastronomique [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larousse_Gastronomique]. A huge and thick hardback book.
I have no idea whether my uncle’s wife ever actually cooked anything. I certainly never saw her make anything there, and that kitchen was as pristine as the rest of her large house on the side of a bay (Middle Harbour). There again, she had a cleaning lady and no less than three Norwegian au pairs (there to “assist” with her two adopted children— a baby and a small child), so perhaps the lack of mess or detritus was not surprising.
There was in fact one time I when I saw the said relative make something; in a holiday beach house at Palm Beach (in the area now called the Northern Beaches, the very northmost part of the Sydney area, but it was not called that then). The food in question was lobster with home-made (I think) mayonnaise, the first time I had eaten either; consumed outside. I do not recall having either lobster or proper mayonnaise again until I was in my twenties.
See also: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Larousse-Gastronomique-Hamlyn/dp/0600620425.
Late tweets
Sunak is actually proud of having participated in the lockdown/shutdown of the “panicdemic”, and proud of having sprayed money around like a drunken sailor!
Meanwhile, sick people are not being adequately helped, migrant-invaders continue to be ferried across the Channel, many are suffering financially very much, and the UK’s environment is being degraded.
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 