Tag Archives: Lincoln

Diary Blog, 19 October 2024, including a few thoughts about the sentencing of protesters in recent months

Morning music

[Dresden 1945]

Saturday quiz

Well, this week brings another victory over political journalist John Rentoul. 6/10 as against Rentoul’s 3/10. I did not know the answers to questions 1, 2, 5, and 6.

Tweets seen

See also: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/scientists-reveal-jewish-history-s-forgotten-turkish-roots-a6992076.html

New research suggests that the majority of the worldโ€™s modern Jewish population is descended mainly from people from ancient Turkey, rather than predominantly from elsewhere in the Middle East.

The new research suggests that most of the Jewish population of northern and eastern Europe โ€“ normally known as Ashkenazic Jews โ€“ are the descendants of Greeks, Iranians and others who colonized what is now northern Turkey more than 2000 years ago and were then converted to Judaism, probably in the first few centuries AD by Jews from Persia. At that stage, the Persian Empire was home to the worldโ€™s largest Jewish communities.

According to research carried out by the geneticist, Dr Eran Elhaik of the University of Sheffield, over 90 per cent of Ashkenazic ancestors come from that converted partially Greek-originating ancient community in north-east Turkey.”

[The Independent]

Explodes the very notion that modern-day Jews have any right at all to the lands of Palestine by reason of ancient occupation. They’re fakes.

https://twitter.com/NextWaveAmerica/status/1847391333004300484

but if Ian Leslie [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Leslie_(writer)] is so very clever, how is it that he and —apparently— John Rentoul think that Starmer, Rachel Reeves, Yvette Cooper etc are “basically decent“?

Members of Labour Friends of Israel, expenses cheats and freeloaders, buy-to-let parasites, and general moneygrubbers, who want to institute a police state of a dystopian kind (prison time for free speech; encouragement of mass immigration and migration-invasion; enforced weight-loss injections as a condition for getting unemployment or disability benefits; euthanasia; abortion; and much much more).

Sounds hopeful. I’ll take 10,000. (only…sort-of…joking).

They don’t like it when it happens to them...

God save any civilians, women, children, and animals, under such a brutal bombardment.

Cuba will eventually just crumble to dust under the present system.

Anyone who uses Lewis as a solicitor can expect double-dealing, incompetence, negligence, and dishonesty.

Mark Lewis is a man of straw. When the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal fined and reprimanded him in 2018 (after which he scuttled to Israel, though he keeps returning here to make money, despite the “antisemitism” by which he claims to have been targeted), the Tribunal lowered the level of his fine because, as his own Counsel said to the Tribunal panel, Lewis owned only his own clothes, a ยฃ70 a week private pension, and a mobility scooter! Even his car was not his own, but provided to Lewis by the “antisemitic” British taxpayers via the DWP-funded Motability scheme [https://www.motability.co.uk/].

I wonder whether they will still be laughing when it happens to the homes of their own families?

[SS-men escort non-combatant Jews out of the Warsaw Ghetto during the Ghetto Uprising of 1943; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising]

As a former barrister (unlawfully and wrongfully disbarred in 2016 at the instigation of the Jewish lobby), I can see that what is happening is that many people involved (often only peripherally or online) with the protests and so-called “riots” of 2-3 months ago are now sentenced to terms of imprisonment (often years rather than months) for having done not very much; in some cases, almost nothing.

I am presuming that most of those sentenced will have had the benefit of legal advice from solicitors and Counsel.

The problem lies in the narrow legal view taken by many lawyers. I suspect that many of the lawyers involved looked at the political climate (eg the intervention on TV by “Tel Aviv Keith” Starmer in July or August), looked at the evidence, and then advised their clients to plead Guilty in order to mitigate the sentence.

All good advice, or would be in a “normal”, non-political, case.

The fact is that most of the sentences being given are absurdly harsh, even taking the charges at face value.

In my opinion, the defendants in most of the recent protest cases, at least the ones about which I have read, would have been no worse off, probably better off, had they pleaded Not Guilty.

I concede that one cannot these days rely on the good sense of the traditional British jury, because the brainwashing of the public continues apace, but still I believe that a jury trial would have given many of those charged a good chance of acquittal.

A gamble, true, to plead Not Guilty, but in these “political” cases not so much, because the “message” from on high seems to have come down, “lock them up“… I do not really believe that many of those defendants have been given a real diminution of sentence of a (or the, notional) third.

My own free speech trial in November 2023 (sentence, March 2024) was different, not having been connected to any violent or noisy protests, but it was still a “political” case (instigated by the malicious Jewish/Zionist/Israel lobby).

I republish the details here below but, in short, I pleaded Not Guilty to all 5 similar charges, was found guilty (by a District Judge sitting alone) on all 5 counts, and was sentenced to a financial impost amounting to ยฃ734, and to a period of, in effect, probation, involving 15 “rehabilitation days”. In the event, the financial penalty was one-third crowdfunded for me (the rest paid off over the past 6 months in instalments), and the “15 days” turned out to be about half a dozen meetings lasting from 20 minutes to a couple of hours.

All now water under the bridge, and the blog continues to be published daily, but would I really have got a lighter sentence had I pleaded Guilty? Frankly, I doubt it. For one thing, the malicious nature of the whole prosecution would not have been laid bare before the Court.

Anyway, there it is…

Late tweets seen

Late music

Diary Blog, 27 August 2023

Afternoon music

Battles past

Tweets seen

True, but that does not, or need not, imply that Putin, or any one individual or force (e.g. Kiev-regime intelligence service) is behind all of those events, though of course those thought to have been dismissed could only have been dismissed by Putin.

Not “claims“; it is simply a fact. In fact, the same happened with Gordon Brown (who went on to lose the 2010 General Election), Theresa May (who went on to win the 2017 General Election), “Boris” Johnson (who went on to win the 2019 General Election), and Liz Truss. Now Rishi Sunak. If a Prime Minister resigns, there should have to be an “immediate” (arguende, within 3 months) general election.

In front of those young girls as well. What an example for them.

Strange. Were they afraid that she might have fleas?

The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” [Shakespeare, Julius Caesar].

I part company with the Bard at this point; I think that both the good and evil live on.

As for Wagner Group, without Prigozhin and Utkin there is no top leadership so, as an independent “band of brothers”, Wagner Group, the so-called “musicians” or musikanty, has effectively passed into history.


Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson is convinced that it is already too late for the Armed Forces of Ukraine: “Because of the failure on the fronts, the troops may rise up against the head of state Volodymyr Zelensky.

Former adviser to the head of the Pentagon, Douglas McGregor: The current situation of the Ukrainian army can be compared to the situation in which the Wehrmacht found itself in 1944. Then the German army lost its air support. Therefore, although it had good weapons, even tanks that had just come off the assembly line, it could not fight effectively. The same is happening now in Ukraine.

I watched about 15 minutes in total of BBC News and Sky News. Just hard-to-believe propaganda about how Ukraine is supposedly “winning”. Just rubbish.

More music

[Kennet and Avon]

More tweets

A small, almost pathetic demonstration. Young, metropolitan types. 200 at most.

Again, small and unimpressive, and almost identical to the Kiev display. Who is co-ordinating it all? Soros?

Olaf Scholz said that Germany is currently experiencing “unsatisfactory” economic growth. According to Bloomberg, the German Chancellor believes that the problems are related to the country’s dependence on exports.

The agency notes that Scholz refused to allocate funds to fight the crisis due to lack of money and the growing debt of Germany. At the same time, Scholz added that the country has “good prospects” in terms of the economy.

Earlier, the German media noted that in Germany there is a deep economic crisis and this country, as a “locomotive”, is pulling the entire EU to the bottom. Germany’s GDP declined, among other things, due to higher energy prices and spending on Ukraine.

Late tweets

Egypt, Italy, Florida…where else? London? The Jew Zelensky has ripped off hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars.

Late music

Deadhead MPs, An Occasional Series: The Karl McCartney Story

This is the latest in my occasional series about those whom I consider to be “deadhead MPs”. The lucky politico this time is Karl McCartney, MP for Lincoln 2010-2017.

 

I would not usually bother with someone who is no longer an MP and who is very unlikely to be returned to the House of Commons. In McCartney’s case, I have decided to make an exception. The reason is because McCartney’s combination of brash overconfidence, unpleasantness, personal moneygrabbing and expenses blodging, lack of interest in the poorer part of society and unimpressive academic and work background is now, and has become, over the past decades, almost typical of MPs (and by no means only on the Conservative side of UK System-politics). That such people can become MPs is an indictment of the selection and election procedures in place in the UK.

Lincoln is considered to be an “ultra-marginal” and a “swing seat”. In 2010, McCartney and the Conservatives won with 37.5% of the votes cast, as against 35.2% for Labour and 20.2% for the LibDems (BNP 3%, UKIP 2.2%, English Democrats 1.3% and an Independent on 0.5%).

In 2015, McCartney was re-elected: Con 42.6%, Lab 39.6%, UKIP 12.2%, LibDem 4.3%, TUSC 0.7%, Lincolnshire Independent 0.6%. The key points were the collapse of the LibDem vote by 16 points, the non-appearance of the BNP and English Democrats, and the rise of UKIP —by 10 points, though that was modest bearing in mind that the BNP and EDs did not stand. Both Con and Lab increased their percentages.

In 2017, the result was Lab 47.9%, Con 44.7%, UKIP 2.6%, LibDem 2.6%, Green 1.2%, and two Independents (0.6%, 0.3%). A pattern seen in many constituencies: UKIP slumping back to a 2010 or pre-2010 level and the LibDems failing to recover from the 2015 debacle and indeed slipping further. While the Con vote percentage did slightly increase –2 points– in 2017, Lab did far better–8 points higher. That despite the UKIP slump, despite McCartney favouring Leave/Brexit, despite the appearance of a Green candidate likely to impact the Labour vote. It is hard to escape the view that the Con loss was the result of popular judgment on McCartney himself.

McCartney was exposed from 2010-2017, in various ways, as unsuitable.

A lecturer at the University of Lincoln blamed McCartney’s laziness and complacency for the loss (see Notes, below) and was too polite to mention McCartney’s alleged porn-trawling (though that was, admittedly, in 2014), his employment of his wife at ยฃ50,000 a year via Parliamentary expenses, or his expenses generally.

On 28 February 2013 McCartney apologised to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) for the content of notes he had sent to staff. The notes were described by IPSA Chief Executive, Andrew McDonald as ‘abusive’, ‘offensive’ and ‘condescending’. McCartney’s apology stated, “I apologise unreservedly to IPSA for my comments” [Wikipedia]. and

“The following month he claimed that IPSA’s incompetence had forced MPs from all parties to borrow money and that he had had to ask his parents for financial assistance.[30] McCartney also said that he had been told by a “senior IPSA official” that the organisation intended to “damage MPs as much as possible,” a claim that IPSA said was “wild ..simply untrue.” [Wikipedia].

An idea of McCartney’s character can also be gained from the Twitter exchange printed in a local newspaper: https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/lincoln-news/bitter-row-breaks-out-twitter-1447360

The readers’ comments section under that newspaper report was harsh:

Poor old Karl. He really needs to wipe away those tears and get on with his life. He is an arrogant, rude and bitter loser. And they are his good points. Lincoln and the Conservatives are better off without him. Ignore him Karen.”

and

Happiest day last year was when he walked away in a huff and refused to speak to anyone or congratulate at the election result which pretty much summed everything up.”

As to what McCartney is doing now, I think that the answer may be “very little”. I notice that, as I write this piece, around 1800 hrs, he has already tweeted or retweeted 29 times today, so far. His website seems to say that he will be the Conservative candidate at the next general election. It is hard to know why. One can only speculate as to why the local Conservatives have chosen him. He was a lay magistrate at one time; he is a Freeman of the City of London (see Notes, below), having “worked with”, his website claims, more than one Lord Mayor in the late 1990s. Freemason? I do not know.

McCartney obviously did pretty well financially in his 7 years as MP: salary of (then) about ยฃ70,000 pa, and wife’s salary (paid out of his expenses claimed) ยฃ50,000 pa; also possible other (outside) sources of income (I do not know about this). His overall expenses alone over his time as MP totalled well over a million pounds. He does not appear to have a job at present (there is nothing mentioned on his website); perhaps his wife has found another job, now that her well-paid work as her husband’s assistant has gone.

Readers of The Lincolnite (online newspaper) were as harsh as those commenting on Lincoln Live (above):

“A totally useless MP, more concerned about himself and his expenses than he ever was about Lincoln – amazed that they’ve reselected this waste of space.

John Bercow (Speaker, House of Commons) summed him up nicely with this in a parliamentary debate when McCartney let himself (and us) down yet again:

“Mr McCartney, calm yourself. Be quiet, young man. We do not need to hear from you. You add nothing and you subtract from the proceedings.”

Then there were the abusive notes (for which he had to apologise) he sent to the parliamentary expenses staff when they queried his expenses.”

and
Unvelievable! [sic] A sure fire way for the Conservatives to lose votes.”
and
 
It’s not what you know but who you know ,Roll your trouser leg up, funny handshake and fancy apron crowd.”

What are McCartney’s chances of getting back as Lincoln’s MP? Very slight. I have blogged elsewhere about the impact of Brexit Party (and slightly revived UKIP) on the Conservative vote, assuming that Brexit Party contests a general election. That alone would sink the Conservatives in an ultra-marginal such as Lincoln.

Another point is that present Labour MP, Karen Lee, who worked in shops for years before spending 14 years as an NHS nurse, still puts in some shifts at a local hospital, donating her NHS earnings to charity! What a contrast to greedy, moneygrasping and “entitled” McCartney! His work in the City of London in the 1990s was obviously so unimportant that even his own website says almost nothing about it (neither does he seem to have done much outside Con politics in the decade up to his election in 2010).

In addition to all that, Karen Lee is local in origin, whereas McCartney was born in Birkenhead, “Murkyside” (Merseyside), and was educated there and in Wales.

Well, there you are. My latest “deadhead MP”, who is hoping to resume his place at the trough soon. Over to you, voters of Lincoln…

Notes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_McCartney

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Lee_(politician)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-30230261

https://labourlist.org/2014/11/tory-mp-favourites-graphic-porn-tweet/

https://politicalscrapbook.net/2014/11/karl-mccartney-mp-and-twitter-porn/

https://www.anorak.co.uk/352433/money/karl-mccartney-shocked-that-politicians-can-be-treated-like-any-poor-sod-waiting-for-benefits.html

https://www.karlmccartney.co.uk/

https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/former-lincoln-mp-karl-mccartney-111161

https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk/news/lincoln-news/bitter-row-breaks-out-twitter-1447360

https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24790/karl_mccartney/lincoln/votes

https://adrippingtap.wordpress.com/tag/karl-mccartney-mp/

https://thelincolnite.co.uk/2019/03/lincoln-conservatives-re-select-karl-mccartney-for-mp-candidate/

https://www.conservativehome.com/parliament/2019/03/mccartney-selected-as-the-candidate-for-lincoln-his-former-constituency.html

Note re. “Freeman of the City of London”:

In England, the most established borough freedom is that conferred by the Freedom of the City of London, first recorded in 1237. This is closely tied to the role and status of the livery companies. From 1835, the freedom “without the intervention of a Livery Company” has been bestowed by a general resolution of Common Council, by “redemption” (purchase), at one time for an onerous sum. Now the Freedom can be obtained by servitude, by patrimony, by nomination, or by presentation via a Livery Company. Freedom through nomination by two sponsors is available for a fee (known as a “fine”) of ยฃ100, but is free to those on the electoral roll of the City.” [Wikipedia]

Update, 1 May 2019

I am writing this update just after 1400 hrs. McCartney took to Twitter today at about 0600 and, by my reckoning, has, in the intervening 8 hours, tweeted or retweeted at least 52 times (I think that I have left out a few retweets). Quite a few of his tweets and retweets seem to be about “anti-Semitism” in the Labour Party. McCartney must have been part of the “Friends of Israel” crowd (like 80% of “Conservative” MPs). He obviously wants to remain (((onside))). I have no idea whether Lincoln’s deadhead former MP actually has a job at present. I doubt it. He seems an extremely unpleasant person either way.

Update, 18 July 2019

In the article above, written for The Lincolnite (local online newspaper), McCartney again obsesses about “anti-Semitism” in the Labour Party, saying that Labour peers have raised the issue again. Well, about 50 or 60 have, out of 179…

I wonder whether the voters of Lincoln share McCartney’s obsession with speaking out in favour of the Jewish lobby? I doubt it! As for the rest of his article, the Lincolnite needs a sub-editor to correct spelling errors (“buses” is right, “busses” is not) and grammar.

Some of the few readers’ comments on the above article have been unkind:

FAT303

Why are you giving this failed Tory a voice he spent 1000s on a letter folder, and employed his wife as an assistant on 45k a year. He doesnt give a toss about us he just wants his expenses back…
 
and
 

“Graham R Peck

I am assuming the Lincolnite has decided to join his very early election campaign hence the article. I assume we will get more of the same until a General Election. As it stands he is a nobody and yet has got 3 times more space than the sitting MP who represents which Party? Well blow me
 
Seems that McCartney and his wife, a local councillor, are living rather well off the hump, despite having had their joint income reduced since his 2017 election failure:
 
 
 
Update, 3 November 2019
 
Well, it seems that McCartney’s leech-like tenaciousness in Lincoln might (against the odds and all reason) pay off. Corbyn-Labour is suffering a crisis of public confidence, while (by reason of that) Boris-Idiot and the misnamed “Conservatives” are riding high in the opinion polls.
 
People vote (mainly) according to party label and national trend rather than for or against the individual candidate. That plays to McCartney’s advantage here, however unfair that may be. At present, the Conservatives are favourites in the betting to retake Lincoln (1/2) whereas Labour is on 11/8:
 
He remains not universally popular in Lincoln, though:
 
 
Update, 24 November 2019
 
Update, 26 November 2019
If I myself say so, it was rather prescient of me to have included Karl McCartney in my Deadhead MPs series, inasmuch as the tides have turned, at least temporarily, in his favour, which means that he may well be back as MP for Lincoln (well, MP for His Own Benefit, His Wife’s Benefit, and, maybe, Lincoln) by 12 December.
The betting odds have McCartney favourite to retake the seat on Polling Day. That must reflect the general/national public sentiment against Labour, mainly, as well as McCartney’s pro-Brexit stance in a Leave constituency.
Brexit Party is standing, but is probably of no great significance now, Farage having shot his own party in the head (now at 3% or so in the opinion polls). UKIP stood at Lincoln in 2017, but only received 2.6% of the total vote.
Update, 13 December 2019
Well, the voters of Lincoln have evidently eaten too many potatoes. McCartney has been elected again as MP. He must be celebrating his return to paid “work”, generous (whatever he says) expenses, and perhaps to getting his wife back on the gravy-train (ยฃ50,000 pa as “assistant” or whatever, yet again via expenses), though the rules were changed for MPs elected in or after 2017, so it may be that he at least will be prevented from blodging in that way.
McCartney was elected this time because the Brexit Party candidate withdrew on his own initiative. What an idiot…his (guessing) several thousand intended votes probably did it for McCartney, who beat the far better Labour candidate, Karen Lee, by about three and a half thousand votes.
Update, 5 July 2024
The people of Lincoln have finally removed McCartney, who came a very poor second in the 2024 General Election: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2020s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2020s

He will have to find another job, if he can.

Update, 29 January 2026

After McCartney lost his seat again in 2024 (he scored 23% as against the Labour candidate’s 43.8%; Reform scored 18%, so even had Reform not stood, McCartney would still have lost), he tried to be selected as Conservative Party candidate for the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral contest, but did not make it onto the shortlist; in any event, the ex-Con Party ex-MP, Andrea Jenkyns, standing for Reform, soundly beat the Con Party candidate, by 42% to 26.1%: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Greater_Lincolnshire_mayoral_election

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_McCartney#Post_Parliament

McCartney is now 57. His loyalty to the Jewish lobby and the Israeli cause may have helped him stay as MP for a total of 12 years, but his political career, such as it was, is now at an end.