“You’re struggling to understand something. The problem, is that everyone assumes that you know what’s going on. And they’re looking to you for guidance/leadership. It’s an uncomfortable sensation, which is making you feel even more uncertain and insecure. But your lack of understanding is based on a lack of knowledge. You don’t possess all the facts. This weekend brings an opportunity to make some subtle enquiries. Once you know more, you’ll be able to guide everyone in the right direction. It’s epiphany time.”
[Daily Mail]
Amusing, if nothing else…
“The stars in their courses fight on the side of the just” [Chinese proverb].
Some regular readers will be aware that I am standing trial today, a prosecution brought by the Crown Prosecution Service [CPS] but in fact contrived by the serially-malicious “Campaign Against Anti-Semitism” or “CAA” after the CPS and police initially refused to prosecute me in 2021-2022 (see the blog post above for 15 January 2022).
However, not one of those malicious and cowardly Zionists is giving evidence (even of their usual perjured sort) against me. Indeed, there are no prosecution witnesses at all giving evidence against me (bar some formal police evidence on paper). Likewise, it is not alleged by the Prosecution that any “harm” has been done by me or my blog; neither is there any named “victim” or “aggrieved person”, not even of the (((usual))) contrived sort.
I am charged under the notorious “bad law” of the Communications Act 2003, s.127, recommended by the Law Commission for repeal, and which will soon be superseded by the Online Harms Bill when it becomes the Online Harms Act.
I have never been arrested or questioned in respect of the charges, and the summons to Court came via the post. A contrived and politically-motivated prosecution.
I refused Legal Aid and will be representing myself. The reasons for that are both practical and philosophical. I have decided not to invite any supporters or well-wishers to attend. I therefore stand alone against the (corrupted or suborned) forces of the State.
For reasons connected with propriety and any potential notional contempt of Court, I cannot blog in detail about the overall matter until the trial process is at an end (probably on Monday 20 November 2023, but possibly on a later date). However, I wanted to make an initial statement in case there is any attempt to interfere with the publication of the blog.
Wish me well.
Update, same day: Well, sadly, dear readers, the case went the wrong way for me. I shall know my fate by February 2024. Whether there will be an attempt to shut down the blog for a period of time after that, I do not know.
I shall not be blogging in detail about the case or today’s hearing until some time in 2024.
Liz Kendall is absolutely evil to suggest the government’s plans to deny access to free prescriptions and dentistry etc. for benefits claimants are not going far enough. One of the most rotten right-wing MPs of all: this is absolutely disgusting.
Labour's Liz Kendall is on record as saying the the Tory Party's latest benefits crackdown doesn't go far enough. And there was me thinking Labour were on the side of working people. Not anymore. Both parties are cheeks of the same arse with just a small crack between them.
When I lived in Little Venice, on and off until 24 years ago, there was a large houseboat, where Branson was said to have lived once. Beyond Blomfield Road.
[above: Branson’s former boat at Little Venice, or one very similar; I think the same]
I was told that that he owned a house right by where that houseboat was berthed.
[above: the Regent’s Canal at Little Venice, not far from where I once lived; also not very far from where the previous photo was taken]
Virgin Australia, and other Branson-founded businesses, are also said to be teetering on the edge of insolvency.
I have no particular animus against Branson. He certainly seems no worse than other big businessmen, and in some ways seems better than others in the public eye. His courage cannot be questioned, after his ballooning exploits, and he is certainly willing to try new things in business. I do not particularly like some of his socio-political attitudes, and he is obviously mainly interested in making as much money as possible; that is, however, scarcely unusual in the business world.
At one time, 1989-1993, I was a fairly regular flyer on Virgin Atlantic, flying from the UK to Newark Airport in New Jersey. Not bad (for an Economy ticket), and more convenient for me than Kennedy Airport (which I also used, when other airlines had cheap tickets), because I then lived in Middlesex County, New Jersey, about half an hour by car from Newark Airport. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middlesex_County,_New_Jersey
I was rather surprised to see that Branson’s enterprises employ as many as 70,000 people all over the world. I do not know how many of those are in the UK.
I do not see why the UK Government should give his airline £500M, even as a loan. Airlines are going to be a drug on the market (almost worthless) for some time into the future. Any loan to Virgin Atlantic would probably be money thrown away. Admittedly, that is true of most of the money now being pumped out by the present government of fools, but why add more? Also, it seems that Branson himself has not paid tax in the UK for 14 years. Not exactly an incentive for a government looking at public reaction.
Coronavirus: an interesting view from Israel
“A similar pattern – rapid increase in infections to a peak in the sixth week, and decline from the eighth week – is common everywhere, regardless of response policies“
That would be more or less forever. I don't think people will put up with that. The government needs to understand that there is a limit on how long it can impose severe restrictions on personal freedom and normal economic activity. https://t.co/bJjRreGiyP
I understand the government cannot admit its mistake or immediately end the throttling of the economy and the stifling of personal liberty. But nor can it drift vaguely onwards, offering no hope of an end. There is a limit to how long people will put up with such things.
Hitchens has come to the same or a similar view to my own: this government of incompetents, advised by complete idiots, is starting to understand what it has done, i.e. pretty much killed, already, the UK’s economy (not to mention civil rights and the proper rule of law) but cannot, politically, simply whine that it got it wrong.
So comes the idea that there has to be an “exit strategy“, rather than the UK just resuming what is left of normal life overnight (by far the best idea). The Government (from its own standpoint) needs to pretend to be authoritative, in charge (and not, well, a bunch of idiotic mediocrities advised by similar ones).
Maybe so. I don't in any way suggest Sweden is a perfect nation. There is no such place. But I think its Covid-19 policy is better suited to a mature, free, law-governed nation than the schemes adopted here by Al Johnson and his committee of mediocrities. https://t.co/dQSNuuCOhy
I can think of several sane reasons for not doing such a thing, one of them being that it will soon be forced on us by the same people who accidentally wrecked the economy and left civil liberty lying unconscious on the ground. https://t.co/11DqwcMenq
I can think of one reason why a citizen (though perhaps not a very good citizen) might wear a surgical mask if required by the cretinous “authorities” of this poor country: it would be an excellent way in which those who commit crimes could stay undetected. I do not say that criminals, from shoplifters to bank robbers, will not still be detected and arrested (though, I hazard, in fewer numbers), but it will be harder for the prosecutors to get convictions in situations where not only have the accused allegedly been wearing masks but also where all other people at the alleged locus or loci were wearing similar masks! Eyewitness and cctv evidence will be almost worthless.
Below, Peter Hitchens teaches a little logic and commonsense to a lady evidently devoid of both:
Where did you read that and on what research was it based and how much protection did it say it gives? Locking yourself in the bathroom for the rest of your life would also stop you spreading the virus, but one must ask what the proportionality of such an action would be. https://t.co/VOZiybfYKu
I can't quite work this into a coherent thought, but Richard Branson pleading for state subsidies, the same Richard Branson who sued the NHS in 2016, right now, as people are being encouraged to donate to the NHS as if it were a charity and not a state health service, is… wild.
Not sure that I agree entirely with the last tweet, above. If Branson were to be allowed financial assistance for his companies in return for stumping up some sum in lieu of taxes previously avoided, it would be analogous to an individual not paying, say, car insurance and then, after an accident, being allowed to pay some money and then be treated as if he had paid previously.
Branson is a union buster. He’s paid no personal income tax to exchequer since moving to the Virgin Islands 14yrs ago. He sued the NHS. Virgin Healthcare paid 0 corporation tax while being handed £2bn worth of NHS & local authority deals. He deserves 0 sympathy. He’s a parasite. https://t.co/zPOY6t9cEs
Very interesting analysis of virus panic by Australian TV commentator Andrew Bolt. Brief, carefully-argued, powerful (and as far as I know, no equivalent in the UK) https://t.co/MjTSoMak3p
Why can't the government admit its mistake and immediately end the throttling of the economy and the stifling of personal liberty? Pride? Stupidity? Please enlighten us @ClarkeMicah
My latest conversation with Mike Graham of TalkRadio on the Covid-19 crisis : the damage to the police from this episode is irrevocable. https://t.co/R1emla9AAr
Yes, if the speaker or interviewee is a dissident (I mean a real dissident, not a faux-“revolutionary” joke like Owen Jones or Ash Sarkar), a radio or TV station faces “sanctions” (i.e. punishment for not self-censoring), or may even be shut down.
Did you really believe that we live in a (mythical) “free country”?
More Coronavirus nonsense exploded…
“The UK has today announced 449 more coronavirus deaths – the fewest for a fortnight – taking Britain’s total death toll to 16,509.
England declared 429 deaths and a further 20 were confirmed across Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. And 4,676 more people have tested positive for the virus, taking the total number of patients to 124,743.
The day’s death toll is a fall on the 596 fatalities announced yesterday, Sunday, and half as many as the day before that (888). It is the lowest number for a fortnight, since April 6 when 439 victims were confirmed.
Although the statistics are known to drop after a weekend, the sharp fall adds to evidence that the peak of the UK’s epidemic has blown over.” [Daily Mail]
“It comes as a leading expert at the University of Oxford has argued the peak was actually about a month ago, a week before lockdown started on March 23, and that the draconian measures people are now living with were unnecessary.
Professor Carl Heneghan claims data shows infection rates halved after the Government launched a public information campaign on March 16 urging people to wash their hands and keep two metres (6’6″) away from others.” [Daily Mail]
Looks like I was right…all the way along, in fact…
The government of fools
As I blogged before, it is clear the pack of mediocrities and idiots now in government are afraid to take the decision to end the toytown police state called UK “lockdown”. They are avoiding having to take responsibility. The same is true of Boris-idiot, who (surely obviously now?) is hiding out at Chequers until the “crisis” he himself has partly manufactured is over or seen to be almost over. He can then reappear as clown “conquering hero”…
Unexpected? Maybe not
Britain was [X] to vote to leave the European Union:
Looks as if people are now unsure (at least more of them than previously) as to whether the EU was a “good thing” for the UK. Hard to say. Presumably, 13% are “Don’t Knows” or similar. On the other hand, in the actual EU Referendum of 2016, while there was just the binary choice to Leave or Remain, 27.8% failed to vote. Were they “Don’t Knows”?
Is anyone listening out there?
UK announces 449 more coronavirus deaths – the fewest for a fortnight as leading expert argues Britain's crisis peaked BEFORE lockdown and claims fatality rate could be as low as 0.1% You don't say https://t.co/w0oMiJmvKD
https://t.co/812hTfz5SX Carl Heneghan at Oxford has called for liberation of the people asap
— Alexei Romanov #NotABot – In a Castle on a Cloud (@AlexeiRomanov13) April 20, 2020
The question as always is whether the result is proportionate to the action. If you wore a goldfish bowl over your head at all times @_rp_77 , I am sure a lot of people would benefit. But is that a good enough reason for you to be made to do so? I think not. https://t.co/GkjaFiSRDp
@notacunnigplan, I’m not a Tory or a contrarian. I disagree with innocent people being treated like convicted prisoners because I was brought up in a free country,not out of ideology or a futile desire to make mischief. I disagree with needless economic ruin because it is stupid. https://t.co/VeZThbbMyX
Urgent question now is not rows over who messed up over the virus in the past. It is that people can't be expected to put up with this level of restriction & this amount of economic damage, indefinitely & without hope of an end. There's a limit. Drift will bring us to that limit.
Very interesting analysis of virus panic by Australian TV commentator Andrew Bolt. Brief, carefully-argued, powerful (and as far as I know, no equivalent in the UK) https://t.co/MjTSoMak3p
People may ask of me, “if you think that the government-mandated lockdown is a poorly-conceived and petty-tyrannical measure, and likely to half-wipe out the UK economy as well, why do you yourself obey it?”
My reply? “I am broadly going along with the lockdown nonsense because:
I find talking with (let alone being lectured by) the police (most of whom are poorly educated and as thick as two short planks) a bore, so I want to minimize the chance of being stopped on the local roads (mainly semi-rural or rural) around here, or on visits to the nearby small local town;
Almost nothing is open anyway, and I am not a partygoer, public (or private) sunbather, team sports enthusiast or general rambler on foot (these days).
On that basis, I may as well only make occasional shopping forays.”
Ian Robert Millard 