Tag Archives: journalistic standards

Diary Blog, 8 May 2025

A few thoughts out of season

I read a couple of pieces in the online-only Independent newspaper and its connected Indy100 site. Semi-literate, semi-educated. Examples? In the Independent, in an interview with the ex-MP, Mike Amesbury, Amesbury described the three days he recently spent in prison as “…surreal…like an out-of-body experience“, which the Independent‘s scribbler, one Ellie Crabbe, wrote down as “an outer body experience“. No sub-editor (if they even have any) corrected Ms. Crabbe’s egregious mistake. Appalling ignorance. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/reform-labour-amesbury-runcorn-chancellor-b2745519.html.

Meanwhile, in the Indy100, one Harriet Brewis, described as “ the Chief Reporter at indy100, covering everything from scientific discoveries to online trends. She previously worked on the Evening Standard’s news desk, heading up the coronavirus blog throughout 2020 and writing the website’s leading stories“, writes that a lake in California has returned after long absence, the water having been extracted by “the greed of colonialists“! Ha ha… Is this an English news outlet, or a Cuban one?

The water extraction was in the USA of the late 19thC, as the article does say, so “colonialists” is a bit anachronistic, arguably, and not really accurate anyway, however bad the treatment of the local Indians/Native Americans may have been.

I might add that that report was published somewhere else a year or two ago. I recall reading it, or some version of it.

Ah, I see now that it was first published a year ago. Well, OK, and it is quite interesting, but do subscribers (I am not one) pay to read stuff recycled from over a year ago? https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/tulare-lake-2024-2671911762.

Standards in all areas are, overall and collectively, dropping like a stone, as I noticed and/or predicted many many years ago, in the 1990s.

Talking point— the decline of the Conservative Party

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/07/massive-earthquake-in-politics-could-lead-to-tory-extinction-says-hunt

Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt has said the Conservatives cannot rule out becoming extinct because of a “massive earthquake” in politics that is seeing the fracturing of the old two-party system.

Senior Conservatives are increasingly alarmed about polls that show support for the party plummeting, while Reform UK is soaring.

Some Conservative party sources said there appeared to be “very little dynamism” within Conservative Campaign Headquarters about trying to turn the party’s electoral fortunes around, while many local activists and some agents have already made the leap to supporting Reform.

On Wednesday morning, a YouGov Westminster voting intention poll put Reform on 29%, Labour on 22%, the Conservatives on 17%, the Liberal Democrats 16%, and the Greens 10% – suggesting the Tories are now flirting with fourth place in popularity.

[Guardian]

In fact, the Conservative Party may well soon be in fifth place in terms of numbers of Commons seats (after Reform, Labour, LibDems, and the SNP).

Talking point— the decline of the Labour Party

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/07/disability-benefit-cuts-to-hit-700000-families-already-in-poverty-dwp-forecasts-show

The government’s planned disability benefit cuts will hit 700,000 families who are already in poverty, according to internal Department for Work and Pensions forecasts obtained by the Guardian.

The figures, sourced under the Freedom of Information Act, are in addition to the projected 250,000 people who will be newly driven below the poverty line by the cuts, as set out by the government’s impact assessment in March.

Disability rights campaigners called the new disclosure “truly shocking” and said the changes would push people even further away from having the means to find work.

The DWP estimates that 3.2 million families across Great Britain will lose out under the plans in 2029/2030, about three years after the cuts are due to take effect. Of those, 700,000 will be families already categorised as being in relative poverty, when taking housing costs into account.

[Guardian]

So that is some of the human and social cost of the policies of Starmer-stein, Rachel Reeves, and Liz Kendall (all members, incidentally, of Labour Friends of Israel). What, however of the political cost to Labour?

We see Labour already languishing in the opinion polls below 25%, in some at only 22%. I have already blogged about the fact that the UK population now has about 20% of its population non-white, and that those voters (those eligible and actually voting) probably now provide the vast bulk of Labour votes.

Since Starmer-stein lied his way to the office of Prime Minister in July 2024, his misgovernment has alienated the “average white families”, those above State Pension age, those approaching State Pension age, almost all British workers at or below average incomes, anyone concerned about the racial and cultural degradation of the country, anyone concerned about developers trashing the green countryside, and anyone at all concerned about the migration-invasion of between half a million and a million immigrants and/or invaders every single year.

Now, in addition to the above, Starmer-stein’s regime is about to hit not only the various types of disabled person, but also their families and others. The biggest hit will come in 2028 and 2029, just when the next general election is probably going to be held.

[“But I voted Labour last time! Never again!“]

The result of all of that is that Labour will quite likely have (a trend forecast on the blog quite a while ago, a few years ago) votes mainly from (some of) the “blacks and browns”, and (some of) the public service workers, including (some of) the NHS workforce. Even the 18-24 demographic generally is turning away from Labour.

The electoral result may be that Labour can only score 22%, maybe only 20%, at the next general election. The Conservative Party, on present showing, may not even achieve that. The LibDems are the default “alternative” or “dustbin party”, so will pick up votes from both, but mainly from disaffected Con voters; perhaps 15% or so overall. Greens and several others will take (combined) about 10%-15% of votes. That leaves maybe 30% of the whole available for Reform.

Nature abhors a vacuum. If Reform gets to 30%, with Con and Lab both in the 20%-25% range, the earthquake will have happened. Reform will be in government with a 30 or even 50-seat majority, Labour may have fewer than 140 MPs, and the Con Party may slump to as few as 25.

Once the main System parties are displaced, the only real alternative to Reform, after 2029, will be real social nationalism.

Tweets seen

So less money for the Treasury (which means it will have to be found from elsewhere), and more unwanted immigrants coming to the UK (and don’t believe the nonsense about “short-term working” etc…).

The Starmer-stein and Rachel Reeves fake “Labour” government is a disaster in every way.

Under the surface, its attitude is probably unchanged. Snoopers.

As blogged previously Matt Goodwin may be a Father Gapon for our times…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgy_Gapon#Bloody_Sunday

The above nonsense is only part of huge wastage. The “Covid” scamdemic/panicdemic “Test and Trace” programme alone was 4x worse. About £38 billion. I favour government spending, in principle, but the devil is in the detail. The kind of idiots who get into System politics in the UK are simply not capable of running anything properly, or of making the right decisions.

Mason has been examined previously on the blog. A System asset of some kind or other, but one who, for whatever reason, likes to be thought of as radical or even revolutionary. He always supports police-state measures; he did it during the “Covid” scamdemic/panicdemic, he did so when the BNP was rising up, he even did so when UKIP looked like becoming a major party. He certainly did so in relation to Greece, when the popular Golden Dawn social-national party was repressed by the fake “Left” or “socialist” party, Syriza, when the latter was in power. Syriza quickly sold out to international banking and the EU. The Golden Dawn people, many of them, still sit in prison.

There is something deeply unpleasant about Paul Mason. Deeply suspicious, too. Look at his Twitter/X timeline over the past few days. Incidentally, he is part-Jew: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Mason_(journalist)#Early_life_and_education.

What interests me more, though, is the revolution after the revolution…

Late tweets

Electoral Calculus suggests that those numbers would result in a Commons in which Reform would have 421 seats out of 650. Labour would have 92, the LibDems 56, the SNP 43, and the Cons only 8. Eight MPs… Surely terminal for the Conservative Party. https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll.html.

Diary Blog, 18 January 2024

Morning music

[Vatican]

From the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12975439/PETER-HITCHENS-starter-10-University-Challenge-festival-political-correctness-questions-no-one-possibly-answer.html

…the transformation of the popular but difficult University Challenge into a festival of political correctness, some of whose questions are more or less impossible to answer, and many more (I suspect) are only answered because so many teams now train for them.”

Yes. I have noticed the change over the past months. Absurdly specialized questions in mathematics and physics etc. Also, the fact that the students often seem stumped by fairly basic questions of history and geography.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12976455/Alan-Cook-oversaw-prosecution-innocent-postmasters-rolled-smart-motorways-tried-sell-LV-private-equity-predators-DID-away-it.html?ico=mol_desktop_home

Typically-useless British business drone parasite.

Tweets seen

Britain needs a social-national rulership, and what Nietzsche termed “a revaluation of all values“.

What a horrible tribe.

Ferried to the UK by the Border Force (or “Farce”) ship amusingly (?) misnamed the BF Defender. “BS Defender” would be more accurate.

More from the newspapers

https://www.mylondon.news/news/west-london-news/man-pushes-someone-onto-london-28465398?int_source=nba

A passenger was pushed onto the tracks of a West London Underground station by a man who then walked off. The incident happened at around 9.30am on Wednesday, January 17.

The victim was stood on the eastbound platform of Westbourne Park underground station when they were approached by a man and pushed onto the tracks. After shoving them onto the tracks, the man casually walked away and left the scene.

Detectives are investigating the serious assault and have released a CCTV image as part of the investigation. British Transport Police believe the man in the image could help.”

[sought by police]

[My London]

London 2024. What will it be like by 2034?

Incidentally, I note that, once again, one of the “pay peanuts get monkeys” wannabee “journalists” of the Press has written “was stood” rather than the correct “was standing“. Standards of literacy in journalism, as with everything else in contemporary Britain, have fallen through the floor.

https://www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world-news/brainless-fraudster-turned-up-driving-28464010

A fraudster tried to impersonate would-be drivers in theory exams even though he looked nothing like them. Christian Kabungulu used the driving licenses of paying customers to fool Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency officials at London, Essex, and Berkshire test centres eight times between June 2021 and December 2022, the Old Bailey heard on Thursday, January 17.

But the brainless scheme, which involved posing as people, his own defence counsel conceded, ‘he did not look like’, fell apart when officials twigged he was a fraud.”

[“brainless” fraudster]

[My London]

More wonderful “diversity”. Why is the “brainless” invader even here? Why is he allowed to stay? How can the present society even be maintained, let alone advanced, when much of the urban population of the UK is similar to that?

More tweets seen

That tweeter suggests that Con Party might have 41 seats after the GE. My own attempt to predict it via Electoral Calculus (on the same figures but including EC’s Scottish seats prediction and my own “tactical voting” estimates) leaves the Cons with only 36 seats. Almost existential for them, especially as hardly any people under 50 (about 10%, according to YouGov) will be voting for the Conservative Party. https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll.html.

The British electoral system moves slowly over the years, but it really looks as though the Conservative Party is on the way out. It happened to the once-mighty Liberal Party after the First World War; and look at the SNP, in the other direction: the SNP took about 40 years after its foundation (early 1930s) to get a single MP (1970) and then another 45 years (2015) to get more than a handful of Scottish seats.

Incidentally, the YouGov figures also suggest a possible/likely LibDem bloc of 30 seats, double what they now command. That despite an opinion poll level of only 8%, re-emphasizing the importance of concentrations of votes. Seems that Clausewitz was right even off the literal field of battle.

As to Reform UK, the prediction indicates either no seats or 1 seat, despite the 12% polling. However, the night is young. Matt Goodwin does not rule out 15%, most of which would come out of the 2019 Con Party vote. Above that level, seat gains become possible, certainly if Reform UK managed to get 20% at the GE. If the Conservative vote continues to slide, 15% is quite likely, 20% not impossible, even if only as a despairing protest vote from “Middle England”.

Reform UK is not social-national, merely conservative pseudo-nationalist, of course. Also pro-Israel, and pro the Jewish lobby. Still, I am hoping that Reform UK does well, because that will help to destroy the Conservative Party (one of the two main System parties) and so destabilize the System as a whole. Again, a good showing at the GE by Reform UK will help to shift the “Overton Window” a little towards my way of thinking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window.

and at sea…

and inland…

France used the guillotine until 1977: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillotine#Retirement.

Incidentally, the criminal, though obviously non-white, may or may not be “Muslim” as claimed in the first tweet.

I myself have met a number of Ukrainians in the past and almost-present, from (in the 1990s) people at ministerial-ambassadorial level, right through to riff-raff parasites (in more recent years). Only one out of the whole lot was a decent person. I concede that that is purely anecdotal but, for what it may be worth, there it is…

Paris, like London, has effectively fallen. Macron is in (((the usual))) pocket, and merely presides over burgeoning chaos. Only Marine le Pen has a chance of getting on top of this (not that I agree with all of her policies and views— her father was better).

Incidentally, my view of Macron, written and published on the blog nearly 5 years ago: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/09/on-recent-events-in-france/.

Events since 2019 have only reinforced my view.

Happened to see that tweet by accident, if you like. Nothing on mainstream news (that I have heard).

Conservative voters are becoming more, not less, concerned about immigration. Between 2011 & 2020, they were 20-30 pts more likely to cite immigration as a top issue than Labour voters. Since 2020, that gap has grown to 50 pts. And those who have left the Tories for apathy are especially worried about it”. https://mattgoodwin.org/p/this-one-map-tells-you-a-lot-about

Many Labour voters are also “concerned” (horrified) by the migration-invasion of Britain, but are also “concerned”, perhaps more, about cost-of-living, housing, the slide in the standards of the NHS, education etc (though immigration impacts on all of those issues). Much depends on how questions are put, and whether people understand how different issues are in fact connected.

Quite…and “I wonder” which group is behind most of that repression? …

I notice, by the way, that Sam Melia of Patriotic Alternative is the latest social-national political figure to be facing trial on a basically political charge: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/16/uk-man-with-hitler-picture-used-sticker-campaign-to-stir-racial-hatred-court-told.

Look at that last tweeter. She is so typical of the pseudo-liberal shallow thinkers who so often think of themselves as educated and intelligent (and “up with the times”, of course). Lives in Newbury, Berkshire, a place scarcely impacted by the migration-invasion. Probably comfortably-off financially, as well. Typical msm type, on the face of it.

That tweeter claims that only a “relatively small number of people are very anti-immigration“. Well, recent polls indicate that about 35%-40% of the British or UK-resident population think immigration the most important politico-social issue facing this country, so on that basis alone immigration is a very great concern for well over a third of voters.

If you take out non-white UK residents, that would be well over 40%.

That, however, is not the end of the matter. The other 50%-65% are, most of them, still “concerned” about immigration (taking out non-white votes, maybe 75%?) but, when asked to prioritize, have put cost-of-living, NHS, and housing or other topics above immigration. Many would still say that mass immigration is in their top five issues.

I believe that I saw an opinion poll recently to the effect that about 80% (without the non-white votes maybe 90%), have at least fairly considerable concerns about the invasion and occupation.

In other words, tweeter Penny French/Penny Horwood is the one in the “small minority”…

Rees-Mogg does not seem to know the history either of England or of his own party. The Conservative Party does not go “back to the early 18th Century“, as Rees-Mogg says in that clip, but only to the 1830s, over a hundred years later.

It is true that a faction of the Whigs in the 1780s, friends of Pitt, are sometimes regarded as the ancestors of the Conservatives, but they were not so called at the time, which anyway was at least 50-60 years after the “early 18th Century” suggested by Rees-Mogg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Party_(UK)#Origins.

[abusive “carers”]

…and the four monkeys concerned got between 4-6 months imprisonment each, so will be out in between 2 and 3 months. Pity they cannot be taken out over the Irish Sea in a helicopter and pushed out, 50 miles from shore.

Jez Turner of the London Forum got a year in prison for merely making the semi-humorous suggestion that Jews in the UK should be expelled, as happened in the reign of Edward I (13th/14thC). Sven Longshanks (James Allchurch) got longer merely for running a free speech Internet “radio” podcast show.

Where are the priorities of the CPS and judiciary?

There are wider questions of course, such as whether care homes of all sorts should be (as they now are) cash cows for exploitative profiteers such as, in the past, Duncan Bannatyne (the Dragon’s Den know-all/know-nothing), or run and organized quite differently.

Wider still is the question of the general —and quite apparent— slide in standards since Britain became “multicultural”. We just do not need such backward populations in our European lands.

Horrible evil old cow.

Despite that, Russia is winning, slowly, in Ukraine. It has the positional and strategic edge now. The Kiev regime can only decrease, as the Russian forces increase in both size and tactical skill.

So long as Russia has its nuclear arsenal, the West will always pull back from direct attack by NATO (NWO/ZOG) forces. Before the USA changes that caution to recklessness, it should consider what the USA would look like without its top 50 cities…

Ukrainians have joined the losing side several times in key moments of their history, and now they are again working against their interests, said the former adviser of the President of Ukraine Zelenskiy Alexey Arestovich.

“Our problem is that in the turning points of our history, we bet on the side that loses. The point is not to bet on the winners, the point is that, again and again, we don’t bet on our interests.”

Late music

[Victor Ostrovsky, Spy Games]