Morning music
Tweets seen
Translates to a Commons with about 260 Reform UK MPs (about 66 short of a bare majority), Lab 106 (very weak official Opposition), Cons 104, 51 LibDems, 46 Greens, 45 SNP, 12 Plaid [etc].
So much for the “Burnham Bounce” the msm scribblers expected.
I blogged, after the Makerfield by-election, that Burnham’s supposed popularity, an entirely contrived idea anyway, would not travel far outside Manchester. I think that it is becoming obvious that that is so.
Farage is under attack for his various sleazy connections, but people are voting, or intending to vote, Reform not because they much agree with or much like Farage or Reform, but precisely to hit out at Lab and Con, to do them down. An anti-System tendency.
I saw Annie Machon once, with her then boyfriend David Shayler. They jumped onto the platform of a bus I was already on, in Baker Street, at the traffic lights at Marylebone Road. I believe that such buses with open platforms no longer exist; what a pity— brilliant and useful design.
I have no idea whether that was their way of throwing off surveillance, or whether they just wanted to catch the bus. I recognized them immediately.
At that time, Shayler and, by association, Annie Machon, were fairly if briefly famous, and were in the newspapers fairly often. Must have been around 2002. I think that they were on their way to what had once, in the mid-1990s, been my old stamping-ground, the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand.
Small world. I later spoke, in 2017, at the London Forum, where Shayler also gave a talk about half an hour before me, though I did not actually meet him or exchange any words with him. By that time, he had already been —and then not been— both a sort-of transsexual “cosplay” and, by his own account, the Son of God.
Actually, I quite enjoyed Shayler’s talk at the London Forum.
As for Annie Machon, I believe she lived in Iceland for a while, though her Wikipedia entry does not mention that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Machon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Shayler
[“The Government has confirmed that its so called ‘independent’ Digital ID Advisory watchdog, will not have its minutes published.
We are expected to carry out parliamentary scrutiny on one of the most significant erosions of our civil liberties for decades, and yet we are not told the group budget, member selection process, or given the minutes from their meetings. Journalists have also been excluded from advisory panels.
The Government must give us answers on this sinister policy, and rethink its current course.“]
We do not really live in a democracy but in a thinly-disguised oligarchic tyranny.
That bastard Ellwood is one of the worst criminals in this country. If the UK becomes a radioactive wasteland by reason of a pointless and unnecessary war with Russia, a major part of the guilt and blame will be his.
What is often forgotten is that the sale of fighter jets is not merely a matter of the aircraft themselves but also of the technical add-ons and training that usually form part of the sales package.
“Journalists” (scribblers, talking-heads etc) in the UK are mostly scavengers and similar riff-raff.
Farage must be odds-on to win the by-election. He got a vote-share of 46.2% in 2024.
At GE 2024, the Con Party put up their (former) MP candidate, retired actor and Garrick Club member, Giles Watling, at Clacton; he came second with 27.9% of the vote. Labour put up some young African, which was a deliberate insult to the English people of Clacton; the African got 16.2% of the vote.
Since 2024, Labour’s popularity has sunk, and I doubt whether the expected replacement of Starmer by Burnham will change much; it might even compound Labour’s problems.
As for the Conservatives, they have, it seems, now decided not to stand a candidate at the by-election. They may be afraid that their 2024 27.9% would sink to somewhere around 20% or even 15%. Whatever the truth of that, their absence must mean that Farage is a shoo-in. He may end up with over half, or even three-quarters, of the vote.
I cannot recall a (former) “main party” in the UK ever failing to put up a candidate at a Parliamentary by-election.
I have just now read that Labour will also not be standing a candidate at that by-election, and presumably for the same reasons— fear of getting a very humiliatingly-low vote; maybe about 10% of the overall vote. Farage is thereby guaranteed to get something like 75% of the vote.
[“Tories will never have an easier by-election again. Everyone else has stood aside. And they still don’t think they can win. No courage, no fight, no desire to change a frankly disastrous narrative. If they’re down to 40 seats it’s entirely their fault. Every single message or policy they put out is appalling. The strategy suicidal. Under anyone else they’d walk Clacton.“]
Not sure that I agree with the lady’s conclusion, but the failure to stand a candidate does scream out “we are afraid of getting a tiny vote“; same goes for Labour.
Late tweets
Our animal friends.
NATO and the EU are pushing hard. One day, Russia may decide to push back equally as hard, or harder.
[“Ishchenko: To avoid war with Europe, Russia must eliminate Ukraine as a Western war platform.
ALL PARTIES INVOLVED IN THE CONFLICT ARE NOW MANEUVERING BEFORE WAR – THE BRITISH ARE LEADING THE CHARGE TOWARDS WAR.
Currently, Britain is actively pushing towards a major European war. They have already made their decision. And, judging by the reactions of their nominal allies, Germany, Finland, and the Baltic states share this view. Poland is afraid, but also shares this sentiment.
A new phase of escalation may only begin after the war in Ukraine. And, judging by the determination of the British, who are organizing provocations at every turn, they will ultimately lead things to war.
A significant portion of Western Europe is, in one way or another, prepared to support the British plan for a major European war with Russia.”]
I think that the Kiev regime may only disappear when Kiev itself disappears; and that may happen.
There is something of the absurd about a tiny and unwarlike country such as the Netherlands fomenting war so assiduously.
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 