Afternoon music
Talking point
Tweets seen
Our animal friends.
[“Extraordinary testimony from Oliver Robbins to the foreign affairs select committee:
- he was subject to “constant pressure” from No 10 when he arrived in the foreign office to get Peter Mandelson in post asap.
- fcdo was urged to allow Mandelson’s appointment as ambo without usual vetting process – but dept pushed back and it eventually went ahead.
- Downing Street took a “dismissive” attitude to vetting & Mandelson was given access to fcdo, low classification ID & higher classification briefings before he was actually granted clearance.
- he confirms he had not told anybody in No 10 about the UKSV decision.”]
That translates to a Commons with about 355 Reform UK MPs (solid majority), 78 Greens (very weak official Opposition), 74 LibDems, 49 Cons, 45 SNP, and 23 Lab, meaning that 380 persons currently sitting as Labour MPs are not so far from losing their jobs, losing their status, and losing their salaries, expenses, perks etc. Once again, on those figures Starmer would lose his own seat.
Our animal friends.
Says it all. The only mistake in that 3-4 minute clip is where he says that Starmer is a solicitor (he’s a barrister).
Both System parties are running out of road, indeed effectively have run out of road.
All voters on 7 May should vote elsewhere than Lab or Con— whether Reform UK, the loonie fake-Greens, Independent candidates, even the ridiculous LibDems led by a show-off buffoon.
For the red squirrel problem, breed and/or release pine martens, who prey only on the greys (not a full or final solution to the decline in the red squirrel population, but would stop the steep decline).
As to the ever-reducing proportion of real (white, European) British people in Britain, another solution, or other solutions, may be required.
When I lived for several months in Egypt, about 28 years ago, I realized myself, and also was told by others, that the locals not only are careless about the lives and welfare of animals, birds, and sea-life, but actually take pleasure in hurting and killing them. You may or may not decide that the blame lies with backward Islamic culture (they might have developed that way under some other religion/culture), but that is how they are.
Many of the other backward peoples of the Earth are no better and, now that we no longer control them via European imperial rule, we cannot ameliorate, in “their own countries”, the symptoms of their backwardness. What we can do, however, given the will, is to prevent them coming to the UK and other parts of Europe, and also remove or eliminate those already here.
[“This is a man who desires nothing more than to be admired, whose entire shtick revolves around presenting himself as a hero worthy of envy and emulation (lest we forget, he ‘identifies with Gandhi and Martin Luther King’). To people like Maugham, any perceived diminution of what they believe to be their exalted status feels like a mortal attack, which is why every loss must be spun as a win, and black must be made to be white if the facts threaten his self-image.
He’s just the latest in a long line of people on social media who think they’re dealing me a fatal blow by telling me I’ve lost popularity, that my legacy is tarnished or that former fans hate me. None of these people appear to grasped yet that I’m completely indifferent to being disliked by people I’ve never met, especially those I do not respect because of their online behaviour or what I believe to be their irrational and illiberal views.
Maugham is a textbook narcissist who can’t believe that everyone else doesn’t live life with an unceasing thirst for validation from complete strangers. In spite of the fact that we’ve never met, and that as the years have rolled by I’ve been very open about the fact that I find his public behaviour increasingly bizarre, he seems to genuinely believe that the loss of his approval will cause me anguish. In reality, it’s a welcome source of ongoing entertainment, so long may he continue.“]
I wish people in this country would not use Yiddish words in ordinary discourse but, leaving that aside, J.K. Rowling is quite right about that Maugham person. Anyone who (like me) saw his appearance a few years ago on Christmas University Challenge (alumni version of the famous TV quiz show) could not fail to be struck by Maugham’s combination of massive self-esteem and equally huge ignorance on pretty much any topic or question.
I fear that, in this country, the status of “KC” (King’s Counsel), has become as devalued as that of “Professor” and others.
Late tweets seen
[“Facial recognition isn’t the end point, it’s the infrastructure.
Let me explain.
Step 1: introduce the technology for a “reasonable” purpose
crime prevention
public safety
efficiency
Step 2: normalise it
“law abiding citizens have nothing to fear”
only used in limited cases, nothing to worry about
Step 3: expand its use
more locations
more databases
more integration with other systems
Step 4: connect it
ID systems
Digital banking Currency
Travel
online access
public services
Step 5: enforce through it
access granted or denied
movement tracked
behaviour monitored
By that point, it’s no longer optional, that’s how digital control systems are built through layers.
Once the infrastructure exists, it rarely stays limited.
What it’s used for today is what it makes possible tomorrow.“]
I see no reason to change my 2016 assessment of Trump as “a loudly-squawking parrot in a gilded cage, guarded by a phalanx of Jews“.
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 