More interesting to me than the content of the above (not uninteresting though it is) is the fact that Katie Hopkins has been allowed back onto Twitter.
I also am minded to return to Twitter, and with “blue tick”, mainly in order to promote my blog, but also in order to mock (simply by being back on Twitter) the Jew-Zionist pack that had me expelled in 2018; also, to irritate the self-promoting would-be “celebrities” etc who managed to get those blue ticks previously.
2 working weeks, and still scammer Jack Monroe hasn't made promised refunds. Looking more & more like deliberate fraud. https://t.co/oRfTEzMRwS
I would not go quite as far as that, in that I am unsure as to whether “Jack Monroe” had fraudulent intent right from the start. I concede, though, that her evident lack of interest in paying back monies taken (or even engaging with former donors) does give a rather poor impression, at the very least.
Heads should be authorised to call parents who aren’t feeding their kids into school and the government should provide a cheap weekly recipe menu to hand out to them. Jack Monroe @BootstrapCook I’m sure could design a good one.
Her recipes have always been dire and nutritionally terrible, but I used to think she was okay until all the revelations these last few months. Dreadful and so disappointing. 😪
This thread. “Jack” Monroe is the biggest con going. Fawned over and encouraged by the media, Oh So Sensibles, and dim and sheltered Islington Set types. https://t.co/tcjlnv4d5c
Even pre-fame, Jack Monroe was a liar and a con artist. Some very interesting, if unsurprising tea being spilled over on Tattle. pic.twitter.com/5oFSH4wITa
As I sid in May 2020 :'Think of Rishi Sunak as a smiling salesman of payday loans 'Happy to help!’ he says as he hands over the wads of notes. But it will not be the cheery face of Mr Sunak that you see when the time comes for repayment, but the hard countenance of the taxman.'
The Government should build council houses. And people on housing benefit should be removed from private rentals.
This will reduce the housing benefit bill long term and reduce rental prices in the private sector as it'll no longer be distorted by Government subsidies. https://t.co/bxXsFcLpdb
I have held similar views, and have expressed them, for some 40+ years.
I am working today, but here's a sneak peek at 2018. Remember, it's bad when Tories say you can eat well on a tiny budget, but absolutely fine when Jack Monroe is trying to sell her cookbook. https://t.co/nqpBk0apw8pic.twitter.com/BK0b2xnarR
I have come to the conclusion that “Jack Monroe”, aka “Bootstrap Cook”, is about 1% positive for society, and 99% negative…
The more I have learned about her, her behaviour, and her whole contrived sales pitch, the less I have been inclined to be favourable to her and it.
Many people really want to “believe”, though, and prefer to shut their eyes to the facts. As of today, and despite months of increasing online and even msm disquiet around the “Jack Monroe” “brand”, 665 mugs are still remitting to her up to £10 a month, every month, via the website Patreon.
More tweets
Why are we going to be paying more taxes
I didn't consent to your lockdowns, I didn't consent for you to send all of our money to ukraine or 11bn for climate rubbish, I didn't consent to you spending billions everyday on illegals
I agree with her on those particular points (but not on many others), though I struggle to accept that a self-describing “journalist” seems to be only semi-literate.
I may be mistaken, but I think that I read some time ago that she was a student at Durham University. Literacy seems to be dying out in the UK, as witness the product of all the “Justins” and “Emilys” scribbling for the online Daily Mail and other news outlets.
💥 Staff were “scared” to go into “abrasive and controlling” Dominic Raab’s office, the former head of the Foreign Office claimed today in an explosive intervention in the bullying rowhttps://t.co/SwkB1r4KIl
Re. the behaviour of half-Jew Raab, people should also be asking the question as to whether Raab behaves like that because he is not up to the job. It is a frequently-seen phenomenon in people who want the status of a powerful job but who are not really up to doing it.
The rise of Dominic Raab is even more baffling than Gavin Williamson’s. Just as charmless, obnoxious and unpopular in the party and doesn’t even have Williamson’s mastery of the dark arts. Sunak didn’t need to promote him but did, because he’s weak and has no judgement. https://t.co/zVmXrJBjpo
Blackout in Rivne after Russian missile strike at electrical power infrastructure in the city, – mayor Oleksander Tretyak https://t.co/L8ZkTEOzor#Ukraine
As I predicted, Russia will now run an “oblique war” strategy, just as the Americans have done in the past in some parts of the world. In between the first Gulf War and the second, the actual invasion of Iraq, the Americans, via both sanctions and other measures, followed by missile attacks, did what one analyst called “breaking every bone in Iraq’s body without killing it“. That meant degrading and eventually destroying the electrical power infrastructure and, inter alia, the water and sewerage systems (the latter, in Baghdad and elsewhere, relied on electricity, not gravity).
Ukraine was already a “failed state”, more or less, before this war. Now it is a facade, propped up by Western aid, arms, ammunition and military training help. Economically, it is on its knees. Now, its electricity generation and distribution systems are also being reduced.
I would not write off Russia in this war.
Explosions reported so far in Kyiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih and Zhytomyr.
Air defence active in Sumy Oblast, Poltava, Rivne, Lviv.
News on the car radio this morning: there are now over 8 BILLION humans on Earth. In 1960, the figure was 3 billion. In other words, the world population is now not far from triple what it was only 62 years ago.
The detail is important, though. The rate of increase has slowed almost to a halt. Also, most of the population of the world is in a small number of countries: China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and a few others; and most of the increase in population is also in those and a few other countries.
The population of the USA has grown greatly in the past 60 years, but is now growing by only 0.1% annually. The same is true of many advanced countries. Some are not growing at all, others are growing only because of non-white immigration, but their core ethnic group is declining. Russia. Germany. UK. France.
I have previously mooted the idea that the number of human or humanoid souls rushing into incarnation (so as to experience the type of civilization we have presently while it still exists) has perhaps, arguably, come to a halt. That is, if you like, a “spiritual” explanation for the material effects noted in that newspaper report.
It is possible to lay the foundation, or the foundation of a foundation, for a later much higher level of evolution, a “super-race” if you like.
“You carry in your blood the holy inheritance of your fathers and forefathers. You do not know those who have vanished in endless ranks into the darkness of the past. But they all live in you and walk in your blood upon the earth that consumed them in battle and toil and in which their bodies have long decayed.
Your blood is therefore something holy. In it your parents gave you not only a body, but your nature. To deny your blood is to deny yourself. No one can change it. But each decides to grow the good that one has inherited and suppress the bad. Each is also given will and courage.
You do not have only the right, but also the duty to pass your blood on to your children, for you are a member of the chain of generations that reaches from the past into eternity, and this link of the chain that you represent must do its part so that the chain is never broken.
But if your blood has traits that will make your children unhappy and burdens to the state, then you have the heroic duty to be the last. The blood is the carrier of life. You carry in it the secret of creation itself. Your blood is holy, for in it God’s will lives.”
[SS Verlag: material for instruction of the Hitlerjugend]
A lot of people have messaged me in the last few weeks upset about having been scammed (by various people/schemes) and I'm far from an expert, but I have put a page together with resources that might be helpful – https://t.co/8H84xr2Hm6
BREAKING: A senior U.S. intelligence official says Russian missiles crossed into NATO member Poland, killing two people.
A Polish government spokesman did not immediately confirm the information, but said leaders were meeting on "crisis situation." https://t.co/W1hhjwa6ez
Either this incident was accidental, or the explosions are a false flag by the Zelensky regime, created to drag NATO into war with Russia. Either way, it was plainly not a deliberate attack on Poland, and thus should not trigger Article 5 of the NATO treaty.
In any case, now that states such as Poland, the Baltic states etc belong to NATO (which should never have happened), Article 5 should be abrogated. It is now nothing less than a dangerous trigger mechanism which may put all of Europe (and quite possible both the USA and Russia as well) to sword and flame.
This situation has been caused, at root, by the reckless NATO support for the Kiev regime. This is not our fight, and never has been.
“Jack Monroe”, the “Bootstrap Cook”: an assessment
I have blogged (briefly) previously a few times about the person known as “Jack Monroe” (originally Melissa Hadjicostas, half-Greek Cypriot), whose rather clever nom de plume is “Bootstrap Cook”.
The name Jack Monroe is now her official name, it having been adopted by deed poll.
In the past, I was content to be at least neutral towards “Bootstrap Cook”, in that I felt that anyone putting almost anything into the public domain that might help the millions of financially-struggling people in the UK deserved at least a chance.
Incidentally, this blog is written in the English language, and therefore does not refer to a woman (whatever her views or proclivities) as “they” or “them”.
“Ideological” criticism of “Bootstrap Cook” has come mainly from two directions. The first group would be those connected to or supportive of the “Conservative” regimes of 2010-present. They tend to say that there is no justification for the campaigning of “Bootstrap Cook” to raise State benefits etc, and that any food poverty that exists exists because the individuals subject to it cannot “budget” properly, or do not know how to cook cheap wholesome food.
An ignorant point of view (though not without a small kernel of truth, as with many basically lying narratives), which infuriates many, especially when expressed by the likes of Iain Dunce Duncan Smith, the MP who has also been a huge expenses blodger and fraudster, and who claimed vast amounts on his Parliamentary expenses (even a £39 hotel breakfast) while —as Secretary of State for the DWP— taking money away from people living in real poverty.
The second group who tend to criticize “Bootstrap Cook” are those who agree with much of her campaigning on benefits etc, but who say that she actually “enables” attacks on benefit recipients by reason of her claims that a family of 4 can be fed well on £20 a week or less.
Now, however, a third group has joined the fray, being those who claim that they and/or others have been taken for a ride by “Bootstrap Cook”, and that she is a “grifter”, or even an outright fraud, who has sold goods and services which were never delivered. These critics also claim that much of the “Bootstrap Cook” back-story is untrue, or embellished.
For example, it is said that “Bootstrap Cook” was either never in poverty herself, or was so for no more than 18 months. It is said that at least part of her financial difficulties were caused by her own (apparently past) alcohol and/or drug abuse. It is said that she makes up implausible stories about her past financial predicament, such as “having to” sell her little son’s beloved dinosaur toy to raise money (really? How much money would that raise? £1? £2? And how cruel is that, assuming the story to be true?).
It is also said that her parents are not badly-off financially, that they own buy-to-let property, and that her paternal grandfather was a millionaire. In other words, that “Bootstrap Cook” always had a financial lifeline. I have no idea whether, or to what extent, that may be, or may have been, the case.
Recently, following a storm of criticism on Twitter, “Bootstrap Cook” deleted her Twitter account, though others claim that she is merely taking a 40-hour “rest” from Twitter, and will return. Why 40 hours and not (as with Jesus Christ) 40 days, or whatever, I have no idea.
One aspect that interested me, as a former barrister, was the tendency of “Bootstrap Cook” to threaten some of her critics with legal action. A few years ago, “Bootstrap Cook” sued Katie Hopkins in libel.
Ms. Hopkins had libelled “Bootstrap Cook” entirely mistakenly as to the facts, had no defence whatever, and should have backed down and got out with minimal damage when she could have but, like many maximalisti, found sorry the hardest word, and so was hammered: £24,000 in damages, and very large legal costs. Ms. Hopkins had to sell her house in St. Leonard’s (the best residential district in Exeter) in order to pay those legal costs.
“Bootstrap Cook” retained as her solicitor Mark Lewis, the Zionist Jew who now lives in Israel, though he has also a professional foothold in London. His no-win no-fee cases have often been controversial.
I have to wonder how nice a person “Bootstrap Cook” is, if she is on friendly terms with someone such as Lewis.
As soon as people started suggesting, a month or two ago, that “Bootstrap Cook” was somewhere between “grifter” and fraudster, out came the Twitter threat that Mark Lewis and libel would be wheeled out (frankly, not so much of a threat— by no means have all of Lewis’s cases been brought to a successful conclusion, and when he was censured and fined by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority about 4 years ago, his Counsel said that his fine should be reduced because his only possessions were his clothes, a mobility scooter. and a private pension worth £70 a week).
In fact, when “Bootstrap Cook” threatened libel action against Conservative Party MP Lee Anderson [Con, Ashfield] (in May of this year), nothing ever came of it, as far as I know:
“Food journalist and activist Jack Monroe hinted at legal action against Anderson after he commented in an interview that “She’s taking money off some of the most vulnerable people in society and making an absolute fortune on [sic] the back of people”.[36] [Wikipedia].
The Guardian says “sues“, but the Independent said “hints at suing“, and I have seen nothing on the Mark Lewis Twitter output to the effect that he ever was “instructed” (the Guardian, again) on the matter. He may have been, he may not have been. I might add that all the news reports are from 15-16 May 2022; nothing since then.
Was Anderson right, though? As I have said, I was willing to cut “Bootstrap Cook” some slack, because in recent years, the past ~15 years, the social security system has become inadequate, pay for work has also become generally inadequate, and millions are struggling both to eat and keep sheltered and warm. My view was that any useable advice was, well, useful.
I still think that (despite the fact that, to me, many of the recipes of “Bootstrap Cook” do look like a dog’s dinner, and despite the fact that many disagree with her costings etc).
More serious criticism is that she has actually been making a pretty good living out of Patreon donations, while never or rarely providing the extras offered in exchange.
When I last looked, “Bootstrap Cook” had at least 800 Patreon donors giving a minimum of £1 a month. £800 a month. In itself not bad. When you consider that the suggested minimum is £3 a head, the total increases to £2,400 a month (perhaps). I have seen a tweet where the tweeter claims, truthfully or otherwise, to have been donating £44 a month. Well, you see the point. “Bootstrap Cook” must have an income from Patreon alone of between £800 and (?) perhaps as much as £8,000 a month. Or more. That’s before one takes into account book sales, other donations, paid (?) TV appearances, other appearances etc. We do not know.
Not that “Bootstrap Cook” claims poverty, these days. No, she claims, as I understand it (and perhaps truthfully) a degree of “precariousness” in her life and finances, and she is certainly not alone in that. It is almost the norm in the Britain of 2022.
“Bootstrap Cook” has a number of defence mechanisms. One is to threaten defamation actions, but the more usual tactic is to claim the shield of disability, and she has about two dozen options there.
A further defence tactic is, I read, to set her fanatical fans (she apparently calls them “flying monkeys“) onto any critics, and I have certainly seen tweets where mentally-disturbed fans have come close to suggesting violence against anyone daring to utter critical words.
The problem here is that “Bootstrap Cook” has become a totem for a certain tribe of virtue-signallers. Not really “the poor” but more the sort of people who like to think that they are socially-progressive etc. Facts do not matter to those people, belonging to the “right” tribe does. cf. “Covid”, Ukraine, “Black Lives Matter” and, of course, “FBPE/Remain/Rejoin” etc.
When you consider that someone who claims to be able to feed a family of 4 for £20 a week might be said to be, arguably or in effect, saying that UK benefits are perfectly OK and need not be increased, is that really something positive or not?
Some tweets seen about the issues raised:
Updated with recent events, plus Jack's responses to the ONS, Lee Anderson, Patreon and Georgia Church Suppers allegations.https://t.co/j4p8QUznId
I simply don’t understand how you can read this article, made from HER OWN TWEETS, and think Jack Monroe is anything other than a grifter https://t.co/WTCmHTdHD5
— Kelly Jackson | It’s More Fun In Your 30s (@Kelly_Jackson88) September 19, 2022
Why on earth would any Tory politico want to silence Jack Monroe? She plays straight into their message that ‘the poor’ can eat on £20/wk and are just too thick to budget & cook. Plus, she has made little to no impact on public policy. (Rhetorical tweet, obvs!)
Claiming you can't afford to put the hot water on, have unscrewed the lightbulbs and are using solar lights, and haven't bought shampoo for two years in order to gain internet points and cash donations, is also wrong.
Giving people "money-saving" advice that is going to cost them *more* money is wrong.
Not making an effort to make sure people understand that you've mistakenly given the wrong advice and pointing people to more accurate advice, is really, really wrong.
I have very good intentions. I *intend* to write book reviews and advice for people querying, to be supportive of other writers, especially those newly agented.
I don't actually do that, though. And because I don't, I don't expect to be held up or praised for it.
Jack Monroe wasn't hounded off of Twitter because of some anaemic roast potatoes. She's left because too many people were raising questions about her lucrative Patreon, murky charitable donations and questionable finances. Jesus, people are gullible.
As many have noted, this whole Bootstrap Cook thing is more like a creepy cult than anything. It’s as if a lot of fairly affluent or at least not poor people have decided that supporting “Bootstrap Cook” —right or wrong— validates their evenings of going out, their Netflix subscription, their holidays in Cuba or Costa Rica, their new cars, and in fact their whole comfortable existence.
In fact, it reminds me of the “indulgences” sold by the Roman Catholic Church before the Reformation.
Not that that is necessarily the fault of the “Bootstrap Cook” herself.
I've not much to say on the Jack Monroe issue except that if a government minister tries to tell someone how to survive on a box of cornflakes and a tin of sardines, they tend to get pilloried for it.
Just… bloody hell. The tide really does seem to be turning on Jack Monroe. Interesting that she was approached for comment and declined, same as with my blog. https://t.co/vfjJXHKlaE
(Past caring if Jack Monroe's fans abuse me as did for 48 hours few week back).
Authentic, knowledgeable women in poverty now could offer useful, genuine insights into experience but overlooked and devalued while Monroe's more acceptable celebrity face of poverty is prioritised.
Well, if you can believe that the “royal” Mulatta is a sadly-abused “princess”, then believing that a poverty campaigner, who seems to be making “a nice little earner” out of it and naive followers, is a modern Joan of Arc, must be easy enough.
It was absolutely nothing to do with “the far right” and everything to do with the revelations that she’s lied about a lot of things and taken money off a lot of people in very shady ways.
I followed #bootstrapcook's 'Wintry chicken broth' recipe word for word and not only did the meal cost me £4.61 more than she suggested it came out looking like this. I want a refund! pic.twitter.com/EK2ev0rh8g
Let's say you agree to pay the Times £x per month and in exchange they promise to send you a code to access their online issue – but they never send the codes. Would you see a problem there? Read the Patreon page and see if you agree the comparison.https://t.co/LUPccSWorV
No John, it appears that you don’t understand what it is. Each payment tier system means a certain amount of rewards/content in return. Jack has received money every month & has not honoured the obligations that Jack pledged. No rewards/content for TWO years.
What about the rest Anthea? The shop was open until a few days ago. What about the Patreon money? The funds raised for the libel case that hasn’t happened?
How had she helped others? I’m seeing a lot of upset people who have given her money over the years. They’re feeling ripped off. pic.twitter.com/H6Y00rtGVs
The only ‘attacks’ I’ve seen have been requests for financial transparency or refunds. She says she had death threats but then again she says a lot of things. Some of her supporters, however, their behaviour has been abhorrent.
There's a whole community of Jack watchers on a website called Tattle. Any updates are there. Have to say, they don't seem a right-wing crowd. Better characterised as working-class mums who seem pissed off about what they see as grifting.
She was caught out as a habitual liar, grifter and generally an abusive individual who was too happy to play the disability/race/victim cards, and too many people were questioning where all of the donations went.
She's never done that herself though. Her recipes and weekly shops would lead to malnutrition pretty bloody quickly. Not enough calories, or protein. And she has storecupboards and freezers full of food that aren't included in the performative £20 asda shop. It's a dangerous lie.
Her recipes are shit and she only keeps within budget because the portions are toddler sized. Totally dishonest and unsustainable. No one uses her recipes though, because as mentioned, they're shit.
Because you need to be a parent in order to… count calories. Some of Jack Monroe's meals are less than 200 calories per portion. Her best meals are in the region of 400-500 per portion. It's not enough. You too can eat cheaply, if you starve.
Well, that’s enough. There are hundreds of other tweets in similar vein.
As blogged previously, my view is that Bootstrap Cook’s stuff may well be of interest to many, though —as already said— much of it looks to me like carbohydrate-heavy food often presented like a dog’s dinner.
I do not think that “Bootstrap Cook”set out to defraud anyone, and it may be that she has no such intention now, but it does seem that legitimate questions about her fundraising have been asked by a number of donors, but not answered by her.
If people think that they are somehow accomplishing something by subsidizing the not-uncomfortable lifestyle of that person, then that is their business, in a sense, but it is legitimate for others, arguably more clear-minded, to ask “where is the money going?“, “is any of this true?“, and “are people being tapped for money under false pretences?“.
I can also see that her fans seem to be, almost entirely, not the truly poor but more those who are not “poor” but who support her “non-binary” profile, the “gender bender” aspects, and the general “government must do more for the poor” activism aspect.
I think that it is legitimate to question, not only “where the money went” (or goes), but also, whether in reality Bootstrap Cook has actually influenced government, or large enterprises such as ASDA (it seems that one or two supermarket chains were actually paying her for advice or consultancy or something).
Poverty is a huge problem in the UK now. Anyone claiming to be expert in it must expect searching inquiry.
Is this all really just a morning TV virtue-signal writ large? After all, at the end of the day, the decisive question is what government does or fails to do.
I personally have no animus against “Bootstrap Cook”, but my view of her has certainly become far less positive over the years since I first heard of her.
I do think, also, that if you claim that a person can feed healthily on £5 a week, you are really playing into the hands of swine such as Dunce Duncan Smith, Esther McVey, Therese Coffey etc.
I think that anyone wanting to help “the poor” could probably do so more effectively via GoFundMe or local foodbanks than by subsidizing the lifestyle of “Bootstrap Cook”. Perhaps I am mistaken, but that is my firm view and opinion.
On a wider point, we have in the UK this msm thing whereby TV channels or shows like to have a “go-to” list. Brexit discussion? Call Farage. Free speech discussion? Call Toby Young. Poverty discussion? Call Jack Monroe. And so on.
Thus you get “activists” who are really just “famous for being famous activists”. The Caroline Criado-Perez phenomenon. A hundred thousand or a million Twitter followers but, outside Twitter etc, really unknown and without real influence.
Of course, the msm now like to feature (supposed) “experts” who are, if possible, young, female, and black. “Bootstrap Cook” is not black, but as “Meatloaf” once opined, “two out of three ain’t bad“…
Well, there it is. I prefer to concentrate on other and larger issues really, but felt that I should examine the above first, after the recent Twitter storm in a teacup.
For clarification purposes this is a live poll so results don't necessarily represent public opinion. However, the latest results are: * still 81% re bankers bonus cap * still 82% re 45% tax cut for the rich * 88% re recall of parliament * 87% re govt loss of control of economy
All that the doomed “Conservative” Party had to do, to consign Labour to the bin, was select a leader to succeed “Boris”-idiot who was even slightly competent. It failed to do so. Endex.
Here's what the UK's new electoral map would look like if tonight's YouGov poll were repeated at a general election. pic.twitter.com/HbGJQywCB2
The implications are clear: either the Con MPs get rid of Liz Truss as soon as they can, and put in someone who at least looks semi-competent, or the Con Party will be near-finished by next year. Same goes, of course, for Kwarteng, Cleverly, and Coffey.
More tweets
I’m not sure you can call people angry and bitter, and then in the same tweet hope that they meet an unpleasant fate in an alley, all while still trying to maintain your own moral high ground. But I’m pretty new to Twitter, so I’m still figuring the moral maze out… https://t.co/KgZ3iqCdN9
Jack Monroe pulls apart tweets that suggest people can live off a cheap bag of pasta or oats (rightly so) but SHE reinforces this ideology with her £20 weekly Asda shops. They do not contain enough nutrional/calorific value for one person, never mind 2 to 3 people!
Look at ANY of the weekly shops she has posted. There is a good reason she doesn't follow it through with a FULL meal plan for the week. She states a few times that she'll post a meal plan or recipes for the week later on but they never appear. The idea that you can continually
COVID held a mirror up to society. As most of us were forced to slow down, we noticed it was not the mega rich or obscenely paid super stars that we relied on, but the dismissively termed ‘unskilled’ front line workers. We can’t now allow them to be forced into ‘working poverty.’
Ha ha. Yes, that ghastly little bastard Schofield is one of the worst people on TV in the UK; and, yes, it is peak contemporary Britain, just like…well, there are just too many examples around…
An eloquent warning from the former British ambassador to Moscow, in 1997 'Does Nato really have a future at all? Is enlargement really no more than a substitute for policy, the thrashing about of an organisation which has lost its raison d’etre? 'https://t.co/p1MZFFPTCG
: 'Over the centuries one great power after another has threatened the stability of Europe….in 1815 and…1945.. the victors were intelligent and self-interested enough to bring the defeated as equals into the comity of European nations.' https://t.co/p1MZFFPTCG
A good example was seen the other night. A new detective drama called Karen Pirie.
Set partly a few decades ago, partly in the contemporary era, even the older setting, in St. Andrews, Scotland, decades ago, had a black character appear. In a small town in what seems to be a bleak part of Scotland (I have never been there). Then we are introduced to the two detectives now investigating the cold case. One a small Scottish woman, the other a black or half-caste…
I do not have a great deal of patience with films or TV shows. If they do not catch the interest after 15 mins, switch— OFF. I gave this one 20 mins. A bloody bore, poorly conceived and worse-acted.
This evening, I saw an old episode of Wycliffe [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wycliffe_(TV_series)]. All characters more or less credible, and what I like best about Wycliffe is that it manages to catch the atmosphere of Cornwall well, from what I recall from when I lived there. It does not rely on cliche (most of the time, at least).
Late tweets
The UK's economic woes appear to be a story of fiscal recklessness that's forced the Bank of England to stabilize crashing financial markets by buying up government bonds.
The real story is actually more complicated, and it all comes down to pensions https://t.co/H0wFKJe8IQ
But you’ve now borrowed short-term money to buy volatile financial assets.
The thing that was so good about pension funds — their structural long-termism, the fact that you can’t have a run on a pension fund: You’ve ruined that! https://t.co/Q6dEeBI8Ztpic.twitter.com/qTFzhEjNYT
➡️A margin call earlier this year when rates rose, which depleted the pensions’ collateral buffer ➡️Liz Truss's catastrophic mini-budget led to long-term interest rates spiking 100 basis points https://t.co/8vucDdxTDQpic.twitter.com/PeAj4jmPt1
But the questions about what happened in recent days run deep, are far from relevant only to the UK and are most certainly not over https://t.co/25jsfBV8mH
The BOE may have left itself hostage to misfortune with its actions.
The risk is that it finds itself in a standoff with markets, with pressure increasing to hike borrowing costs before its next meeting, which might tip the economy over the edge https://t.co/FLzsjzcWzr
In the month since I wrote about “Jack Monroe”, the “Bootstrap Cook”, the storm around her murky financial arrangements has become fiercer yet. A few tweets:
Oh look, yet mire Jack Monroe bootstrapcook lies exposed. She's gifted donations to fund legal action and not even followed any pre-action protocol & got in touch. That money's been spent…. ❄️❄️❄️❄️⛄️ https://t.co/LrXqDsDB1b
In light of Jack Monroe @BootstrapCook's latest "working class" lies, it's worth retweeting her dad's comments regarding his professional landlording, which also reveal he has no bank debt, ie mortgages. Not surprising given he inherited 3 of his millionaire dad's 12 properties. https://t.co/7BrPnLiVtA
He is sometimes described, inaccurately, as having become a “pro bono” lawyer who works for free, out of quasi-charitable motives, whereas he in fact seems to work on a “no win no fee” basis, which is not at all the same thing.
“Jack Monroe” has tweeted that she still has several/many months in which to sue the MP Lee Anderson and the politico Martin Daubney. In theory, up to a year after the alleged libel, but the relevant Practice Directions do say that the courts will still expect any claim to be made expeditiously, so not, e.g., 10 or 11 months after the alleged libel.
The courts may (probably will) penalize even a successful defamation claimant (“plaintiff”, as was) in both award and costs if the action is not brought expeditiously.
Why are you tagging bootstrapcrook? ,she is literally doing the tories work by claiming you can feed a family on 20 quid a week, she has ripped of 1000s of working class people who have been paying into her patreon and received NOTHING, people are complaining and getting refunds
Part 1 of my new Jack Monroe blog is up now, complete with slideshows – I am very excited about the slideshows! The next part will follow shortly. This time with alt text.
— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@StellaMoris1) August 20, 2022
Deborah Key. Imogen Harvey-Key. I can only speak for myself and my daughter but any right thinking individual, who believes in true democracy and freedom of speech, should add their name.
— Deborah Key 💙💙 #DeathByBrexit #NoComradesUnder1K (@princesdeb) August 27, 2022
I am 55. I do not remember the U.K. being in a more desperate state that it is today – and I lived right through Thatcher.
I, aged 23-34 at the time, do not recall the Thatcher years as horribly or exceptionally bad, though many do. I agree with the rest of the tweet, though.
How about removing standing charge, de-linking electric from gas prices, removing VAT, ofgem protecting the consumer rather than the energy companies and the govt strictly regulating these companies as they originally promised. No monopoly should be allowed to fleece the public.
Read that newspaper report and tell me that the 12-month (in reality 5-6 month) sentences on both defendants constitute justice. I am by no means a “hanger and flogger”, and disparage unduly lengthy sentences but, were I the sentencing judge, I should have been thinking in terms of years, not months. Maybe 5 years. Also, if available (I am not up to date on the law) a confiscation order to compensate the abuse victim who (also) had £57,000 stolen from him. I wonder how it was that that theft could even have been allowed to happen. Seems that there might be a systemic problem if that can occur.
I accept that one cannot get a full picture from a newspaper report but surely, on any reading, 12 months, meaning a maximum of 6 months in custody, must be seen as unduly lenient, to say the least.
Some truth in that, but many women who are mothers are neurotic, often highly so, while some childless women are not. Grey area.
‘Why does she want top protect excess profits of oil and gas giants and why is she doing that by borrowing extra and not by taxing oil and has companies more?’
Peymana Assad says Labour are ‘struggling to understand’ PM Liz Truss' approach to solving the energy crisis. pic.twitter.com/4psDAUHait
'There's lots of [wheelchair] users with medical equipment they've got to run. They're looking at seriously increased costs.'
GB News viewer and wheelchair user Jack Milnes discusses how the cost-of-living crisis impacts people living with disabilities. pic.twitter.com/nS7MNPXJ6D
'These are grim figures. 6.8 million…that's the highest number since records began.'
GB News' Katherine Forster reports after new NHS waiting figures reveal that a record 6.8 million people were waiting for treatment at the end of July.
I have never actually watched GB News, except on clips seen on Twitter. The presenters are less —if you prefer, even less— smooth than those seen on BBC, ITV, Sky etc.
I have no idea how many people do watch that channel, but I am quite surprised that it is still going.
🔵 NEW: UK Charity @TrussellTrust is urging new Prime Minister Liz Truss to address the #CostOfLiving as their research found a worrying number of people on benefits are struggling to feed themselves.https://t.co/QaJcgpZLb4
🚗 34% said they have fallen into debt as they couldn’t keep up with essential bills and 23% said they couldn’t afford to use public transport or the cost of fuel to travel to work or travel to essential appointments, or do the school run.#CostOfLivingCrisispic.twitter.com/MkW5rvVjmu
📦 @TrussellTrust revealed #FoodBanks in its network provided 50% more parcels to help people across the UK in recent months, compared to before the pandemic and says the UK Government’s £15 billion support package is no longer enough.https://t.co/KldbbvAicb
🌿 Emma Revie, chief executive at @TrussellTrust, said “The Government must act now to protect people from harm. This means at least doubling the additional support offered to people on the lowest incomes.”https://t.co/QaJcgpZLb4
The death of a longstanding head of state, particularly one viewed for decades as “iconic”, marks a milestone in the history of that state, whatever one’s socio-political views.
Tomorrow, I may offer some more directed thoughts about the near-future direction of the UK. In the meantime, I wish only to say “Vale!“
Well worth reading, especially by MPs, especially by Conservative Party and (Starmer-) Labour Party MPs.
This day in 1940, the NKVD (Soviet secret police) began the execution of 22,000 Polish officers and intelligentsia to prevent a potential future Polish military. The shootings started in the evening and ended at dawn throughout April and May. #WW2pic.twitter.com/oqvVhRO8Jl
The photo shows, I think, the inspection carried out later (in 1943) by the German forces that had invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, and so also the part of Poland taken by Soviet invaders in 1939. Some international experts from Switzerland and Hungary took part in the exhumation.
The massacre itself was carried out by the Soviet NKVD in 1940.
See also:
“At the beginning of 1944, Ron Jeffery, an agent of British and Polish intelligence in occupied Poland, eluded the Abwehr and travelled to London with a report from Poland to the British government. His efforts were at first highly regarded, but subsequently ignored, which a disillusioned Jeffery later attributed to the actions of Kim Philby and other high-ranking communist agents entrenched in the British government. Jeffery tried to inform the British government about the Katyn massacre, but was as a result released from the Army.[65]
In 1947, the Polish Government in exile 1944–1946 report on Katyn was transmitted to Telford Taylor.[66]
In the United States a similar line was taken, notwithstanding two official intelligence reports into the Katyn massacre that contradicted the official position. In 1944, Roosevelt assigned his special emissary to the Balkans, Navy Lieutenant Commander George Earle, to produce a report on Katyn.[24] Earle concluded the massacre was committed by the Soviet Union.[24] Having consulted with Elmer Davis, director of the United States Office of War Information, Roosevelt rejected the conclusion (officially), declared he was convinced of Nazi Germany’s responsibility, and ordered that Earle’s report be suppressed. When Earle requested permission to publish his findings, the President issued a written order to desist.[24] Earle was reassigned and spent the rest of the war in American Samoa.[24]” [Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre].
As blogged a day or two ago, Soviet agents, pro-Soviet “useful idiots”, and/or Jews, were trying, as late as the early 1980s, to pin the guilt for the Soviet massacre at Katyn on the forces of the Reich.
Tweets seen
Under the plans, the government would fly asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing and settlement. Britain would pay Rwanda millions as part of any deal
Mirabile dictu! At last, Boris-idiot’s government may be doing something which which I may be able to agree, depending on the detail. Much later, perhaps, we may be able to remove millions of others from the UK to Rwanda or other such countries. They would be more suited to life outside Europe.
It might just save our country’s socio-ethno-racial future.
Whatever one may think of the present shambolic UK government, if the proposed scheme gets going on a large-enough scale, that will cook Labour’s goose for good, I should think.
You can see now why Ukraine is vital to the plans of NWO/ZOG. That is why, despite the alleged war crimes, despite the terrible destruction and harm being done, Russia must fight on to topple the Zelensky regime.
You're not looking in the right places. Corporate media doesn't send its journalists to war-zones that aren't under total control any more. https://t.co/GlH5H8S3Vd
— TheEndOfEverything (@EternalEnglish) April 6, 2022
These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of April 6, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/B3kt6fpMOa
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) April 6, 2022
Terrible losses, assuming that the figures are accurate. Tanks lost are about 5% of all tanks operational in the whole of Russia; as for the soldiers, though, no more than 2% of the overall active strength. Very bad losses, all the same.
Graham Linehan
I saw recently that Graham Linehan, the former scriptwriter, was feeling sorry for himself because “trans” fanatics had had him “cancelled”, and because his wife left him, it seems, once he had little money or income left.
As a matter of fact, I had never heard of Linehan until he was scathing about me on Twitter several years ago. I had only vaguely heard of Father Ted, and certainly never seen it.
I have to say that his present troubles could not have happened to a more appropriate person; I see that quite a few Daily Mail readers seem to agree with me. I do not agree with the Daily Mail scribbler who refers to him as “this decent man“, even though I agree with Linehan about the “trans” nonsense and associated lunacy.
In the American phrase, “what goes around comes around“…
A few other self-appointed enemies should muse on that.
Late tweets seen
The trouble with this kind of intense propaganda is that it leaves the authors nowhere else to go. They want WWIII against Russia & they're just not going to get it. So, what now?
Inside horror ‘torture chambers’ set up by Russians to ‘murder Ukrainians’ https://t.co/1ZkvUutmce
— TheEndOfEverything (@EternalEnglish) April 6, 2022
What makes “EternalEnglish” so sure that a world (nuclear) war will not happen? I am beginning to think it quite likely, the way that NWO/ZOG is pushing Putin.
Where there is a keg of gunpowder, a single spark can cause a mighty conflagration (to recycle Lenin’s well-known words).
Yes, Twitter and those behind it have made their point— you exist on Twitter (Facebook, Instagram etc) at their convenience and command. One “wrong” tweet or message and BANG, you’re gone.
Even people basically on the right path do not see that they are being played and used in a bigger game.
Boris Johnson says, "there's a limit" to No 10 support in the energy bills crisis, if only there were limits to how many migrants are in 4* hotels, to covid and other govt fraud, to int'l aid we give to those richer than us and our enemies, to money spaffed on diversity. If only.
Ian Robert Millard 