Morning music
Battles past
Statement
As regular readers will know, I am now, once again, the target of a malicious and politically-motivated attack, this time a prosecution, instigated by the so-called “Campaign Against Antisemitism”, a very small but well-funded group of fanatical Zionist Jews.
I made a statement about this previously; see https://ianrobertmillard.org/2023/05/29/diary-blog-29-may-2023/.
I now see that there have been a couple of tweets inaccurately stating that I am to be tried this month. Not so. Any trial (if one is actually held at all) will be held in November or December 2023, or possibly even in 2024. In the interim period, there will be at least one brief and purely procedural hearing.
A nuisance, of course, but since the latest malicious attempt was publicized (by the “CAA” goblins themselves, on Twitter and on their website), there has been an increase in the readership of this blog. Silver lining?
Nadine Dorries and the Mid-Bedfordshire constituency
I was considering the Nadine Dorries situation.
At present, Nadine Dorries remains MP for the constituency of Mid-Bedfordshire. She most recently, in 2019, was re-elected with nearly 60% of the vote, and had previously usually achieved over 50%: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid_Bedfordshire_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s.
A safe Conservative Party seat, which she has represented since 2005, and which has been good to her— good salary, hugely-inflated expenses, time out to appear on I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here for a very large fee, and to write about a dozen cheap novels.
She was able to employ at least two of her three daughters on very inflated salaries (via MP expenses) and has been investigated several times by the police. On at least one occasion, the file was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration for prosecution. However, she has wriggled out of trouble every time.
Now, having announced her immediate resignation [see https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65910896], Nadine Dorries has not in fact done what is necessary, i.e. to apply, notionally, for “an office of profit under the Crown“, usually either “Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds” or “Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead”.
The delay is plainly because Nadine Dorries was, or so she claims, offered a peerage by the former Prime Minister, Johnson, which offer is now worthless. That she was offered a peerage was apparently the case; her nomination for a peerage was one of those deleted from the list, supposedly by decision of Rishi Sunak.
It seems clear to me that Nadine Dorries announced her “resignation” because she was sure of getting a well-paid sinecure as a “baroness” in the Lords— ~£350 a day without any need even to pretend to do anything for it, plus well-subsidized and palatial surroundings in which to meet people, network etc.
In theory, Nadine Dorries could hang on as MP until the next General Election, getting the salary, the expenses etc, while doing nothing. Perhaps she will.
Nadine Dorries was only too happy to jettison the loyal —and possibly stupid— voters of Mid-Bedfordshire. Unsurprising. As soon as her then-husband and father of her children developed multiple sclerosis, she (in effect) abandoned him, after 23 years of marriage: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Dorries#Personal_life.
I was just comparing Nadine Dorries [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Dorries] with the MP, Stephen Hastings, who held the seat from 1960 to 1983: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hastings.
Hastings’ biography includes Sandhurst, and WW2 action with the Scots Guards, the early SAS, and the shambolic but certainly sometimes courageous SOE, later followed by 12 years with SIS/MI6.
Naturally, Hastings was born with a silver spoon compared to Nadine Dorries. No argument. Eton, Sandhurst, the expectation and inheritance of several large, or arguably even great estates. Financially, and in terms of useful connections, he had it far easier than Nadine Dorries, born into relative poverty in Liverpool.
All the same, which of the two really would be better as MP?
In fact, that sort of decline in standards has happened across the board since about 1989. Compare Jo Grimond, for example, with Jo Swinson. Both Liberal/LibDem leaders, but what a contrast! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Grimond; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Swinson.
Again, one was born into affluence, indeed into riches, and never had to struggle financially, but the point is which of the two was the more fitted to be an MP and political leader.
Incidentally, I noticed that Stephen Hastings wrote an autobiography, Drums of Memory. I have just ordered a used copy, and for the knockdown price of £1.75 plus a couple of pounds postage. Pretty good value for a hardback book in apparently almost new condition. Will look forward to reading that, assuming it actually arrives (my last purchase, Anna Karenina in Russian, has been refunded by Amazon because of some problem with distribution).
Tweets seen
Nadine Dorries is just one symptom of a completely decadent and corrupt political system in the UK.
More tweets
Money thrown at the feet of the Kiev regime. Meanwhile, in Britain, people cannot get medical treatment or decent housing, and the roads are falling to pieces.
From the newspapers
“The head of the Army is considering scrapping centuries-old ranks such as Rifleman and Guardsman because they are masculine.
In an attempt to make regiments more inclusive, General Sir Patrick Sanders is poised to break hundreds of years of battlefield tradition.
Historic titles used by world-renowned Guards regiments and even his own regiment, the Rifles, could be ditched in favour of gender-neutral ranks.“
[Daily Mail].
Are we actually supposed to pretend that the British Army still has some kind of useful role?
More tweets seen
If “Jack Monroe” did that, she might trigger an avalanche of similar claims, together with even more negative publicity.
Her pseudo-celebrity supporters are ebbing away. Weak waste of space Alice Beer is the latest. Jay Rayner cut “Jack Monroe” loose nearly a year ago now, and Nigella Lawson later followed suit.
None will denounce her, but will just show her the cold shoulder.
I suppose that “Jack Monroe” will try to leverage whatever she can to stay in the public eye to some extent, as with her unexplained appearance on BBC Question Time recently, and she needs that public exposure, if only to keep onside the hard core of donor-mugs who are each sending her between £3.50 and £44 a month via Patreon— 411 utter mugs as of today.
God. What a loonie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_O%27Reilly.
Britain 2023, where Max Hastings looks like the most principled journalist imaginable…a measure of either how Hastings has grown since he covered the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, or of how far British public life has slid into the mire in more recent decades.
If mortgage rates continue to rise, there will be a rather British non-violent political upheaval. There must be millions of people who do not really “own their own home” as they think they do, because they have a mortgage on the property.
I have just seen a statistic which claims that nearly 28% of the UK population are homeowners without a mortgage or loan against the property, while nearly 38% are “homeowners” but with a mortgage or other loan against the property (I presume that the remaining ~34% are either renters or are too young to take title to real property).
38%. That means, in theory, 38% of the voters, too.
People may not like or trust the Labour Party or the LibDems (or others), but the Conservative Party has been in power since 2010. If mortgage rates continue to rise, there will be a backlash against the Conservative Party not seen even in 1997.
Another, and this time not very inventive “Jack Monroe” lie, that reporters and stray peasants are besieging her home. She must have lifted that from the life of van Gogh.
“Jack Monroe” is so patently fake that it defies belief, and a huge number of stupid mugs still fall for her nonsense.
Venn diagram of “Jack Monroe” mug-supporters: 1. comfortably-off Guardian-reading virtue-signalling naifs (mostly aged 55+); 2. the mentally-unwell; 3. the LGBTQXYZ crowd on Twitter.
“Jack Monroe” works on the —often-true— assumption that the public cannot check up on the veracity of her stories (mostly a pack of lies) and that most “journalists” (scribblers) are too lazy to check.
At least it is not radioactive, yet.
The Americans know that even a limited Russian nuclear strike on the US mainland would send their whole society into freefall. Many of their cities are already powder kegs ready to blow. Racial and social war is just below the surface.
Russia is winning the strategic war.
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 