Morning music
Saturday quiz
Well, a good week— 9/10, thus trumping the 6.5/10 claimed by political journalist John Rentoul. I did not know the answer to question 7.
Talking point
Tweets seen
Not just “illegal” migration-invasion (which is only 5%-10% of all immigration into the UK).
For someone such as John Rentoul, the political landscape is effectively unchanging. There will, he imagines, always be a “Conservative” Party, a “Labour” Party and a can’t-decide “dustbin” party (LibDems). There will, he thinks, never be radical or revolutionary change in the UK.
For the John Rentouls of this world, mass immigration is good or at least OK, and it is mainly beneficial, with a few small problems along the way. After all, in Hampstead and Highgate (socio-political) hurricanes hardly ever happen…
Rentoul voted twice for “Boris”-idiot to become Mayor of London: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rentoul. ‘Nuff said…
Meanwhile, in the real world…
The Westminster Bubble journalists such as John Rentoul seem to have missed the main point about GE 2024, i.e. that “Labour”-label did not “win”; the “Conservative” Party lost, and it lost because the voters wanted to bin it. Labour’s fake “landslide” was merely an unavoidable by-product of that, as was the non-existent (despite the huge increase in seats) “LibDem upsurge”.
In reality, out of every 20 eligible voters, 8 decided not to vote (because there was no party they felt able to support, mainly). Of the remaining 12 that did vote, only 4 voted Labour, and many of those did so not because they really supported Labour but because they wanted to stamp on the last 14 years of “Conservative” misgovernment. Also, 3 of the 12 voted Con, 2 voted Reform UK, 2 voted LibDem, and (almost) 1 voted Green.
My point here is that voters voted primarily to bin the Cons.
Rentoul and his type are assuming that if, in 2028 or 2029, the voters want to bin Lab, they will revert to voting Con. Maybe not. Maybe they will, even if not much convinced, turn to Reform UK, whatever its flaws.
Look at that Techne UK poll. Both Lab and Con down 2 or 3 points, but Reform UK up 3 points. It is not improbable to imagine Reform UK getting 20% of the vote, and 25% is not impossible.
Hung Parliament territory, with the existing FPTP voting system.
What if the population were to turn like a school of fish, and 30% were to vote Reform UK? Still hung Parliament, but with Reform UK challenging Labour for the position of being largest party in the Commons.
Naturally, I could only support (or lead) a social-national party, and Reform UK is far from being that, but one can see that events (particularly the catastrophic and continuing migration invasion) may propel Reform UK higher over the next few years, and that will move —has already moved— the “Overton window”. Next stop— social nationalism.
“Following weeks of criticism Starmer, Reeve’s and Rayner have just said they will no longer accept freebie clothes. Just reread that. Unbelievable statement considering all the criticism they piled on Boris and co. Such bloody hypocrites. Nobody knew about Reeves and Rayner having kept schtum as Starmer had to admit he took free suits and wife Victoria took free dresses from Labour donor Lord Alli. The public will not forget. This is already a wounded government. All on the take. Starmer led the way. Increasingly unlikely he will survive.”
The present rabble are just another face of the overall System, just like “Boris”-idiot, Sunak, Truss etc. No real difference, just different aesthetics.
Looking back on my blog posts (re. Starmer, going back several years now), I think that I can claim to have been the first, or one of the first, to see what was coming down the line (as with “Boris”-idiot).
The sheer ineptitude does not surprise, in fact, though the very early and very public unmasking of Starmer (as unfit to be Prime Minister) does. I thought it would take longer for his deficiencies to become apparent.
Late tweets
“The Times reports that it’s now more expensive to power an electric car than to run a petrol or diesel vehicle.
Stats show using a public rapid charger cost 24.1p per mile, 16.4p for the slower public charger compared with 14.5p for petrol and 12.5p for diesel.
Homes which have a home charger are in much better shape due to dramatically cheaper electric meaning the journey will be between 2p to 7p a mile. But in cities three quarters of tenants and residents live in flats and terraces and therefore can’t have a home charging unit fitted and will have to use public chargers. This will turn out to be a big political issue as people will simply refuse to buy electric cars. The good news is that Ed Miliband will lose his job.
Electric car sales have stalled in the UK and fallen by 44% across Europe. The Times worked out that a London to Penzance return powered by super charger will be £148 compared with petrol at £89.”
https://twitter.com/thecoastguy/status/1837254905066815946
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 