Tag Archives: dendrology

Diary Blog, 23 August 2025

Afternoon music

Saturday quiz

Well, this week brings another victory over political journalist John Rentoul, who scored 4/10. I scored 7/10. I did not know the answers to questions 1, 6, and 9.

Tweets seen

[“The reason Substacks and new media are thriving is because millions of people are utterly sick of the same liberal centrist dross being served up and shoved down our throats —from the BBC to much of the MSM—and then presented as some kind of “insight” when, in reality, it reflects the worldview of a 5-10% elite minority who still think we are living in 1997 and have failed to see that, actually, people don’t want liberalism on steroids. This elite minority is filled with people who went to the same schools, the same universities, who all basically think the same, live in the same postcodes, and are so obsessed with conforming to the Groupthink or their own social status that they never come close to representing or understanding the wider country. The only thing they want to do is maintain a dismal status-quo that was largely built by this elite class to serve the interests of this elite class. You can criticise me, that’s fine, but this is also why we are now one of the largest independent politics newsletters in the West (http://mattgoodwin.org), and why many others are also emerging, because people see through the Blob and they’ve had enough of it. Because they are the ones having to live with the reality of what this elite class has done to the country —an elite class that now also has the gall to say “yes we get your concerns but don’t be too annoyed/we don’t like your tone”. Do you see how utterly deluded large parts to legacy media now look to everybody else? Look for example at the stuff your own paper has been pushing on immigration. It is so obviously biased and disconnected from the mounting pile of evidence that it is embarrassing to read and, even worse, the reason you won’t change your tune is because you view the truth as “low status” and everybody can see it. Do you have one columnist, a single columnist, who genuinely reflects the mood of the average voter right now? Nope. Hence why the Tories are collapsing. Hence why legacy media is haemorrhaging viewers and listeners. Hence why liberal centrists (sorry, “conservatives”) are sitting around, scratching their heads, wondering why nobody is interested in them anymore. Still, the failures of MSM are what is driving the success of new media and the realignment of politics so keep doing what you’re doing …“]

Finkelstein, a Jew-Zionist who has “done rather well” for himself while the UK has gradually been sliding into the mire over the past decades.

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

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

We are the “Noticers”…

Good, but not enough.

The “rubber boat” invaders are only 5% of the overall problem; indeed, if births to non-Europeans are taken into account, even less.

I think that the British people have largely made up their collective mind: Farage and Reform are slightly underwhelming, but are the only game in town to vote for in order to hit out at the System parties that have done so much damage. Everyone now knows that, at every by-election, and every local election, from now until the next general election, and then at that general election, the way to stamp on both Lab and Con is to vote Reform.

The Reform vote at the next general election will probably be between 30% and 45%, and even the 30% level will be enough to sink Starmer-stein and his Labour Friends of Israel regime.

“Labour” ceased to be “the party of the working man” a long long time ago, and certainly no later than 1997.

Travelogue by train

Animal magic

More tweets seen

An utter cretin.

I shall be interested and amused to see the progress, if any, of the new party being set up by Corbyn and the comedic-named Zara Sultana. I am told that about a quarter of Labour members will join, defecting from Starmer-Labour. A quarter of members, maybe, but I apprehend that only about a tenth of Labour voters, if that, will defect at the next general election. At present, official Labour is registering about 20%-28% in the opinion polls. That seems to put Corbyn-Labour on maybe 2% or 3%. I doubt that Corbyn’s new party will attract more than 10% of the entire election vote; maybe 5%. Even 10% may not result in more than one or two MPs. Corbyn himself, and maybe Ms. Sultana, in both of whose constituencies the vote may be more concentrated.

[“If you are not from the UK then you should know there are currently dozens of protests happening right now across the country against illegal migration, broken borders, the sexual assault of our children, and the fact our own government is using our own money to outbid our own people in our own housing market by bankrolling private firms to put illegal migrants into the heart of our communities with more favourable rental contracts, all while giving us a bill of £7 BILLION a year and calling us “far right” if we say anything about it.”]

Impressive, but no more so than the one that stood in the garden of my parents’ house at Reigate Hill, Surrey, circa 1980. The house itself was called Sequoiah (the Native American name for giant redwood). I think that tree was about 100 years old at the time.

Late music

[Victor Ostrovsky, Distraction]

Diary Blog, 9 May 2025

Morning music

[Hampshire]

Talking point

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/may/09/sadiq-khan-to-announce-plans-to-build-houses-on-london-green-belt

Sadiq Khan is announcing plans to build on parts of London’s green belt, in a dramatic shift in housing policy aimed at tackling “the most profound housing crisis in the capital’s history”.

In a major speech on Friday, the mayor of London is expected to say the scale of the challenge, which could need about 1m new homes built in the next decade, requires a break from longstanding taboos.

It marks the first time city hall will support the strategic release of low-quality or inaccessible green belt land near transport links in order to provide hundreds of thousands of new affordable homes.”

[Guardian]

Very sad. Apart from that, when they talk about “low-quality or inaccessible land“, what “low-quality” means in this context is simply land on the edge of built-up areas, which may not always be very scenic (but could be, with political will to improve it). “Inaccessible land” is still better than the same land being built on, and its very inaccessibility provides a haven and sanctuary for animals, birds, insects etc.

This is what happens when a country is invaded by a million migrant-invaders per year (legal or illegal)— pressure on land, transport, public services etc increases, housing becomes unaffordable, and life becomes stressed and unpleasant. Look around. The evidence is all around you.

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

Talking point

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/may/09/more-than-a-third-of-uk-agricultural-soil-degraded-by-intensive-farming-report

European and British soils seriously degraded by intensive farming.

Experts found 60% of the EU’s agricultural soils had been degraded, with about 40% similarly damaged in the UK.

More than 60% of the EU’s agricultural soils are degraded due to intensive agriculture, with similar damage to about 40% of British soils, a report has found.”

[Guardian]

More music

Tweets seen

Disgusting pair. I hope that the sentencing judge passes a suitably condign sentence. I hope that I do not read “Sycamore Gap vandals escape prison“. This was a horrible and destructive crime, an act of evil; there was also huge economic damage to the surrounding region (I have seen figures estimating damage of up to £1M).

Just a tree? So tie them to a tree for a few weeks, or months (in winter).

I don’t care whether migrant-invaders are legal or illegal, or whether or not they break UK laws while battening upon us. I just want them all gone.

Yet another opinion poll placing Reform UK in government, potentially. According to Electoral Calculus, a Commons with 314 Reform UK MPs, 168 Labour MPs, 63 LibDems, 39 Cons, 36 SNP (etc). Reform 12 short of an absolute majority, but on the cusp of a working one.

https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll.html

[“Let’s put emotions aside for a moment. The United States .. like any sovereign nation .. has every right to reclaim its independence, pursue its national interest, and break free from parasitic entanglements that have long drained its dignity and resources. What we are witnessing today may be the first real attempt in decades by parts of the American establishment to free themselves from the stranglehold of the Zionist lobby. But here’s the irony: the very idea that America might make decisions based on its own interests has sent Israeli officials into a frenzy. Why? Because for decades, they’ve treated the U.S. not as an ally, but as a tool .. a weaponized servant to carry out their ambitions, silence their critics, and whitewash their crimes. And now, as the leash begins to loosen, their panic grows louder. Let’s be clear: This isn’t a battle between good and evil. It’s a clash between Racial superiority and religious superiority One seeking global domination through lies, manipulation, and media .. driven illusions , Blackmailing , assassination The other aiming to reassert global control through , brute force, and economic imperialism We now stand at a crossroads for America: Either the United States, through Trump, succeeds in imposing a model of sovereign imperialism based on American supremacy… Or Israel unleashes its old playbook .. media manipulation, financial pressure, political chaos .. to manufacture another storm, just as it did when JFK tried to challenge their influence and paid for it with his life.“]

It’s a mad mad mad mad world…

Americans call such behaviour a “chimp-out”, I believe.

More tweets

Interesting. Plaid is of course not truly “national” or “nationalist”, but more akin to the SNP in Scotland. Its basic premise, that Wales should be an independent state, is of course ludicrous, especially but not solely from the economic point of view.

Having said that, I can see why Welsh voters in Wales are going for Plaid (the apparent tautology is in fact not so, because a great number of voters in Wales are not Welsh, being either non-European —non-white— or English, mostly the latter; there are a few other small groups as well).

I think that Plaid is making hay because the main System parties, Lab and Con, are perceived as both hopeless and not “local” (to Wales). That was not always so (in relation to Labour) but I think it probably is so now.

As for Reform’s upsurge in Wales, it follows the rise in support for Reform in England and even in Scotland.

In Scotland, Reform is rising up, but another consequence of the drastic fall in support for both Con and Lab is that the SNP may survive, however unmeritedly, and may be able to increase its Westminster representation from its present 9 MPs (out of 57 Scottish seats) to something like 30; not quite the 56 out of 59 it had in 2015, nor even the 48 out of 59 it had in 2019, but still respectable, and a plurality of the 57 Scottish seats that now exist.

Put another way, people across the UK are binning Con and Lab, and I do not see that changing.

The YouGov poll is about the Senedd (Welsh Assembly) elections, not Westminster voting intentions, but must have relevance to the next general election.

“Diversity”…

https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/25090957.wapping-conmans-8-5-million-scam-funded-19-supercars/

More “diversity”…

https://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/25149347.notting-hill-carnival-zombie-knife-attack-teen-convicted/

Late tweets

One of the best polling results yet for Reform.

Running that through Electoral Calculus (notionally putting LibDems at 15% and Greens at 10%): Reform 375 MPs; Labour 121; LibDems 62; SNP 38; Cons 25. A Reform government with a very large majority of 49 (working majority of about 59).

I keep seeing Labourite and Con Twitter-twits’ tweets saying “still 4 years to go“, as if the main System parties will somehow regain public trust before 2029. Are they serious?!

Late music