Tag Archives: Ignat Avsey

Diary Blog, 31 January 2026, including a few more thoughts about the Gorton and Denton by-election

Morning music

Saturday quiz

Well, this week a very narrow victory over political journalist John Rentoul. He scored 6/10, whereas I scored 6.5/10, having adopted Rentoul’s own habit of giving himself a half-point where appropriate (in my case, in regard to question 3). I did not know the answers to questions 1, 6, and 9.

In other words, I won this week over Rentoul, as the racing people say, “by a neck, cleverly“.

A “blast from the past”

While weeding old emails to save space, I happened to see the following one, sent by me to BBC Radio 4 PM and Sky News nearly 16 years ago, in 2010 (when I occasionally emailed my thoughts to the msm; I should not waste my time these days):

​”pm@bbc.co.uk

​news@sky.com;​info@libdems.org.uk​

The LibDems have now without doubt and in the time-honoured phrase, “sold their birthright for a messs of pottage”. They have lost all credibility, all integrity and for what? For baubles of supposed power which mean little or nothing.

There will have to be installed at No.10 a “clegg flap” of sufficient dimensions to facilitate the passage of Clegg’s swollen head. Or will clegg be expected to use the tradesmen’s entrance? Also, will Clegg also inherit Prescott’s gardening leave and set of croquet mallets?

As with the honorific office of V-P in the USA, the office of “Deputy PM” threatens to become a park spot for unwanted and, in Lenin’s well-known phrase “useful idiots”.

The Conservatives havee taken all the significant ministerial posts. Loyalty of the LibDems has been bought cheaply indeed, as 20 of the 56 or 57 LibDems MP’s get some kind of salaried (ie, thanks to their MP salaries, double-salaried) employment as notional part of the new government.

Meanwhile, the new semi-elected dictatorship will stay in power for 5 years thanks to imposition of the inflexible 5-year fixed term. Long live “freedom”! A government “elected” and “negotiated” into power which in reality was only put there by the 10.5 million Conservative votes out of 29 million. The people who voted LibDem have been mostly betrayed and tricked.

The LibDem negotiators were a notably poor lot: a little ex-banker, the buy-to-let parasite “Seven Houses” Huhne etc. All careerists.

The LibDems should have simply stayed independent and let the Conservatives go alone into minority administration. Now the Conservatives will do as they please, throwing out a few crumbs from time to time to their LibDem serving class.


One can see that, interpenetrating the supposedly open recent election was the real, concealed System, pushing for Cameron to take over as PM, as witness the very feeble LibDem/Labour negotiations, the fact (now emerging) that “senior Labour figures” did not even seriously try to come to a proper alliance with the LibDems, the fury of both Conservative leaders and the mass media talking heads when it seemed that Cameron might not make it, etc.

This government will be the most pro-Zionist government ever in the UK, eclipsing even those of Wilson, Thatcher and Blair. Also, connectedly, the least independent from American policy. That much is obvious.

In the campaign, Cameron said “vote LibDem, get Gordon Brown”. That now looks ironic and, indeed, mendacious.

I predict that this may well be the end of the LibDems UNLESS, perhaps, they can somehow still get, in the end, proportional representation, which is to almost everyone in this country (except the party now in undemocratic power) the fair way to go.

As for The Party Formerly Known As Labour, what is their legacy after 13 years? A country where the gulf (I do not say gap) between rich and poor is far greater than it was even in 1997; a country where “Labour” now admit that they imported millions of non-whites even in the past 13 years, AND QUITE DELIBERATELY to subvert the race, culture and civilization of the UK. Etc.

The medium term future of the UK after 2015 must lie, ideologically, in a blend of Socialism, National Socialism, reasonable and regulated private enterprise, decent welfare procedures, New Age/Christian/Grail and environmental concern. A synthesis of the collective with individual human rights (real human rights, not the Cherie Blair/Harriet Harperson shadows of rights). Rudolf Steiner’s Threefold Social Order can be a partial template.

In foreign policy, the EU scam will obviously collapse or radically change in time. The UK must join in free but close alliance with white Northern Europe, Scandinavia and Russia.

A real “New Order” can then emerge.

[email from 2010]

If I say so myself, that email has held up well over the years, overall, though not perhaps in all the detail.

Tweet seen

Brothers Karamazov. I notice that he is reading one of the (post- Constance Garnett) Penguin English-language editions, which (though updated in 2008) was translated from the Russian about 30 or 35 years ago (early 1990s) by a now-deceased good friend of mine, Ig Avsey, of whom I have written on the blog a few times:

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/dec/09/ignat-avsey-obituary

More tweets seen

Unsurprising, in view of the control and/or influence “they” have in and over the USA…

The [Israeli] Jews continue with their sadism and brutality.

[“The former commander of the 1st Royal Tank Regiment, Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, admitted that his country’s tank forces would not withstand a war with Russia:

British tanks could be destroyed in the event of a war with Russia. And if we don’t increase the size of our army and adapt our tactics, they could indeed destroy one of the pillars of our defense”

He’d better have said this to his government. After all, it’s doing its best to provoke a war.“]

That ex-officer is one of the major scribblers (in the Daily Telegraph) apparently seeking war with Russia. His idea of such a war, however, seems to be a 1940s or 1950s one, rather than one in which London and other British cities are incinerated within an hour.

See also:

Yes, that Jew certainly thought he was a VIP— very “important”, with almost limitless money, private jets, political influence, whatever; he even had supposedly “royal” princes acting as his flunkeys. However, in the end, he was chucked into a prison cell, killed (almost certainly) and sent “up the chimney”. Something that should give pause to other exploiters.

I blogged about the Gorton and Denton by-election yesterday, and previously.

I see that one opinion poll has Reform UK and Labour vying for the seat, rather than Reform and the Green Party. Maybe, and Labour did hoover up half of the votes cast less than 2 years ago, in 2024.

On the other hand, the Labour “brand” is collapsing, arguably has already collapsed, and Labour’s Gorton and Denton result of 50.8%, 2 years ago, might well collapse to 25% or even 15% at the by-election, depending on turnout, and also on how many Muslims (Pakistanis) shun Labour and vote Green because of the pro-Israel, pro-Jewish lobby policies of Starmer-stein and his Labour Friends of Israel (mis)government.

Also, depending on how many white voters (about 68% of those eligible) are angry enough at the crazy decline of the UK —even over the past 2 years— to either vote Reform or to just not vote at all.

For me, it seems quite likely that Reform can do this, though I concede it might be close. What might swing it is that Reform may be able to get the votes of about half the white English/British voters who vote, so about 35% of all voters who vote. The remaining ~55% (leaving aside minor parties, and the Con, LibDem etc) will be split between Labour and the Greens.

Incidentally, I see that several msm commentators are saying that Matt Goodwin was a poor choice as Reform candidate. I do not see that. He is energetic, well-prepared, articulate, has a high public profile by reason of his TV and online activity and, despite having grown up mainly in Hertfordshire, has quite a few Mancunian links and connections.

I think that some msm scribblers just dislike Goodwin; Dan Hodges in particular. Also, Goodwin is gathering traction, and there may be envy in the mix somewhere.

I myself have no time for Goodwin’s pro-Israel, pro-Jewish lobby views, but some of his other views (not the crazed American-style anti-Welfare State ones) are not so far from a few of my own.

Anyway, Goodwin is surely the standout candidate in the by-election.

Mark Hehir gofundme appeal

I blogged about this case yesterday; a London bus driver who chased after and apprehended a thief/robber, but who himself was later arrested (!) and then (despite not having been charged with anything) dismissed by the bus company, Metroline.

Well, an MP raised the matter on radio, and a gofundme appeal was launched a couple of days ago. It is already, at time of writing, over £16,000: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-mark-hehir-the-hero-bus-driver.

The world is not without kind people” [Russian proverb].

More tweets

[“My grandfather lived in this house

I remember cycling after him down the road as a kid and I couldn’t keep up – he was so big and strong

He worked at Farmer Norton’s steel factory on Silk Street in Salford as a chargehand

When my parents divorced, my brother and I would visit here a lot

It was a confusing time, I wasn’t quite sure what was going on

Like everybody else in my family he was working-class

On the other side, my maternal grandmother grew up in Llanelli, Wales, in complete poverty

Her father, my great-grandfather, worked down the mines

She sang in the local choir and was so good she became one of the first women to win a Blue Riband at the Eisteddford – a big deal

She was then sent to sing for the troops – during World War Two – which is where she met my maternal grandfather on a boat in the Indian Ocean

He was from working-class Brixton and fought for the Chindits, behind enemy lines, in Burma

All my grandparents were the same

They all struggled

They all worked hard

They all played by the rules

And they all believed in Britain

Visiting my grandad’s house yesterday was emotional

I thought of that boy who struggled to keep up with his granddad

I thought about how lost and confused I felt at that time

And now here I am standing for Parliament

Not only the first person in my family to go to university but actually standing for Parliament!

Many people on the Left want you to think that I am a bad person with divisive views

But it’s not true

I just want to live in a country where people like my grandparents are treated with decency and respect

Where people who work hard, who play by the rules, and who contribute to our country are put first – where they belong

This should not be controversial

This should not be a lot to ask for

But our politicians lost their way

So I am asking you to question the narratives you are being fed and, if you would like, come and join me in this positive and optimistic campaign to turn our country around“]

[Matt Goodwin]

Fanatical pro-Israel Jews, abusing the law and procedure of England (etc) for tribal and personal benefit. Conspiracy. “Lawfare”.

See also:

Andrew Windsor— Jew’s flunkey.

See also:

A risible attempt by Dan Hodges to —impliedly— criticise Matt Goodwin for not having sufficient local roots to be a candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election.

I do not recall Dan Hodges or others making similar criticism, in the past, about other candidates in other UK elections, some of which candidates, black or brown, or Chinese, and even having been born in various parts of Africa or Asia, or in Jamaica, or Guyana, have little or no connection with their constituencies of choice, or even with this country in general…

Our animal friends.

Late music

[Volegov, Quiet Evening]

Diary Blog, 24 September 2020

Wikipedia

Many complain about the Jewish lobby bias on some topics covered in Wikipedia. This is why— Jews recruited to censor articles and distort both current events and history:

Expect Wikipedia to be even more pro-Zionist from now on, its pages on many socio-political topics contaminated and distorted.

Incidentally, do not be misled: the bias goes far beyond “information about #antisemitism“, as claimed. Pages on modern and ancient history, religion, geography, biography, political organizations etc.

Wikipedia should be aware also of the fact that, in the notice above, Jews are specifically asked whether they are able to edit Wikipedia; in other words via their own private Wikipedia accounts. Wikipedia will have no idea whether an edit is honest or whether it is part of this co-ordinated campaign by a very malicious group of Zionist Jews.

Addendum: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/war-of-words-16-august-2018

Some tweets seen today

This made me laugh:

https://twitter.com/nastymutant/status/1308858635343323137?s=20

https://twitter.com/TheMikePatrick/status/1308748332576186369?s=20

The contemporary equivalent of the banana republic, with its cliche 99%-in-favour plebiscite.

https://twitter.com/PatriotActive66/status/1308345832492724226?s=20

Little Matt Hancock tries to joke his way out of one of the many absurdities of what now passes for “policy” under this toytown tyranny of an “elected” dictatorship.

https://twitter.com/SirAristos/status/1308372868879855618?s=20

Geirr Tveitt, one of Norway’s great composers, treated shabbily after 1945 because he favoured European race and culture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geirr_Tveitt

One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom-fighter…https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/right-wing-terrorism-increasing-teens-taking-part-police-neil-basu-a4554516.html

More tweets seen

https://twitter.com/WowbangerP/status/1309129131909623808?s=20

I hope that the poor saps who criticize me occasionally on Twitter are noting how often I have been proven right since I started writing this blog nearly 4 years ago. I was blogging over a year ago, maybe longer, about how almost everyone, misled by the msm, was thinking of Boris Johnson as a strong leader-type, when his whole history shows the reverse, a weak man without ideas, principles or resilience, untrustworthy, incompetent and without leadership qualities.

An idea worthy of G.K. Chesterton: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton

https://twitter.com/CUnderbants/status/1309130605230272514?s=20

Incredible that there are people who apparently need to ask “why was ‘lockdown’ a mistake?“, but there again, if you are fairly comfortably off, do not need (for whatever reason) to work for money, perhaps live in the country or outer suburbs and have little social life, you may not have been affected much if at all by the stupid “lockdown” imposition.

Indeed, you may have enjoyed the sense of peace and quiet as society all but shut down, as Nature reasserted itself. If you are or were in that position, your life was not much strained, assuming that you have at least some income. Deliveries of food and drink, ordered online; other shopping ordered online; books, DVDs etc. For those with higher incomes and better properties, there was always the swimming pool and tennis court in which to while away the days…and so on.

Such people can selfishly (not necessarily consciously selfishly) turn blind eyes to the shutdown of industry and commerce, to the terrible shortages affecting charities such as animal charities, among others, and to the socio-economic disaster created but which has not yet arrived (that will be in 2021-2022). They can also, perhaps, ignore the cost in pain and death of the semi-closure of the NHS, which has affected those with non-Coronavirus conditions.

Well, writing a letter or email may have some limited effect. I can only think of one fairly recent event that got the MPs off their chairs pretty excitedly, but having no wish to be bored by police nuisances at my door (again, it having happened a few times in 2017-2018), I do not think that I shall cite that event here.

Interesting video seen

Memory Lane

I hope that the readers of my blog do not object to the inclusion of some personal reminiscences. Having Saturn in Scorpio, I do tend to think back rather a lot. As the Germans say, “Ruckshau“.

I was just recalling former times, triggered by an email from someone.

 Many many years ago, I had a —now-deceased— friend, a lecturer at the language centre of the University of Westminster, who lived in the London Borough of Barnet (I think he was within that borough— North Finchley). A good fellow, a noted translator of Dostoyevsky, called Ig Avsey: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/dec/09/ignat-avsey-obituary

In the late 1980s, I occasionally stayed overnight there (on a very uncomfortable and ancient leather sofa in the drawing room, a cold room decorated with Ig’s collection of massive railway clocks). When Ig remarried in 2000 (a very unsuitable match, to a youngish Russian woman resident in Latvia), the couple came and stayed overnight at the large country house of which my wife and I had a lease, in Cornwall. That was in 2002, I think. Once was enough, to be frank! Sadly, “there’s no fool like an old fool” when it comes to women…

In fact, another person with whom I was slightly acquainted also lived in that area, not far from Ig; Gerald Brooke, who was swapped for the Krogers in 1969: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Brooke; https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/moscow-farewell-to-agent-kroger-1478278.html.
Brooke was a lecturer at the same language school (where I studied part-time for a while in the early 1980s).

Ig lived in a small close called Wolstonbury, which backed onto a golf course or land near a golf course. A strange menage. For a while, a fellow we both called “Uncle John” lived there too, a former student of Ig’s and an Oxford grad, but middle-aged and, like Ig, divorced. They always reminded me of “The Odd Couple“:

“Uncle John” was a very English person, who was still under the thumb of his ex-wife, Alla Figoff, a Leningrader by origin, and who was in fact another of my occasional teachers (Russian Conversation, I think). Alla lived in their former marital home, an apartment in Devonshire Place (in the West End), while Uncle John was living in one room at Ig’s place…and their two children were both at expensive schools paid for by Uncle John (Marlborough, I think; maybe also Bedales or Benenden, I cannot now remember).

Alla was killed, years later, in a fall from her balcony when she was full of whisky. Uncle John then met and married a very wealthy woman and resumed his place among the palatially-housed.

Ig was a good fellow, whose translations of Dostoyevsky were much-praised (one or two had, amazingly, never been translated previously, such as In the Village of Stepanchikovo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Village_of_Stepanchikovo).

Ig had been born in Latvia, his family having fled Russia during the Revolution and Civil War of 1917-1922. Fleeing Soviet forces again during the Second World War, he spent time in Germany before ending up in Britain when aged about 14, sometime around 1952.

Ig Avsey was the kind of Russian (or part-Russian: he was always rather secretive about his family) who is able to work at a project devotedly for years, without pay or plaudit; one thinks of Mitrokhin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Mitrokhin.

Ig took a year’s sabbatical in order to translate The Brothers Karamazov for Penguin Classics. A decision which brought honour but was financially pretty disastrous. The year, taken on full pay with the blessing of the University, became a second year in which the University reduced his salary to half-pay, then a third on no pay at all. The money paid by the publishers did not begin to make up the shortfall. Ig was a perfectionist who wanted to get it right. For him, Dostoyevsky was the greatest of the Russian writers, I think. He would not compromise.

At the same time as Ig was translating Karamazov, at least two other translations came out, but they were little more than potboilers, produced carelessly because the market seemed to be hopeful. One even used Americanisms such as “district attorney” and “chief of police”! In pre-revolutionary Russia! In fact, Ig did consult me about a couple of odd things (to do with such designations).

The University eventually had enough of the endless absence and Ig was more or less forced into retirement. I do not think that his Penguin contract was very generous either. He was only getting pennies for each volume sold; how many pennies, I cannot recall.

Society needs people like that.

More tweets seen

https://twitter.com/thisislaurat/status/1309091116575268864?s=20

So the BBC is now trying to make heroes out of the Jew thugs, gangsters and terrorists known as the “62 Group”…

The BBC is infested, contaminated.

Doctor Zhivago

Saw Doctor Zhivago for the first time in a few years; on BBC Four, the only good BBC TV station. Still a magnificent film, despite the relatively few flaws which could easily have been remedied by better pre-filming research, e.g. Communists calling non-Communists “Comrade“, which is erroneous (it would have been just by name or via the title “Citizen“).

Late music