Tag Archives: Newport

Diary Blog, 2 August 2025

Afternoon music

Honourable men, honourable soldiers

I happened to read the Wikipedia piece about Hermann-Eberhard Wildermuth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann-Eberhard_Wildermuth.

On 12 August 1944 Wildermuth became “Fortress Commandant” of Le Havre in France. This came as a disappointment; he had hoped for a corps. Before taking his new command, however, he swore the ‘customary oath’ to Hitler: to defend the fortress to the last man, and only to surrender with the authorisation of his superiors.[3] This oath to Hitler was, broadly speaking, respected by Wildermuth. At his interrogation by the British in January 1945, he stated that his aim had been to deny the Allies the use of the port, and to tie down as many Allied troops as possible, and that this had been achieved to his own satisfaction, since two British infantry divisions and about 150 tanks were assigned to the siege of Le Havre for almost fourteen days. Furthermore, while Wildermuth personally surrendered to British troops on 12 September, after being wounded in the thigh, he refused to order the surrender of the garrison on the ground that as a prisoner of war he no longer had any authority to do so.[4]

Prior to the early September launch of the British-led Operation Astonia to take the port city Wildermuth had requested that French citizens be evacuated before heavy pre-assault naval and air bombardment commenced. His offer was rebuffed by Lt-General John Crocker, in command of the 1st British Corps which had laid siege to the city. Crocker would later argue that if Wildermuth cared about the civilian population, he could have surrendered the garrison before the bombing began, and that acceding to Wildermuth’s request would have served only the German interest, by gaining time and removing potentially disruptive French civilians from the defended fortress.[5]

[Wikipedia]

Another, but far more junior officer, Lieutenant William Douglas-Home (whose elder brother later became a Conservative Party prime minister), was also at Le Havre at the material time:

Despite his opposition to the policy of requiring the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany he was conscripted into the Army in July 1940 and joined the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).[7] He went to 161 Officer Cadet Training Unit (161 OCTU) in the buildings of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, where one of his colleagues was David Fraser. At Sandhurst, he was critical of the war, which he said had been unnecessary.[8] Douglas-Home was commissioned in the Buffs in March 1941.[9] While an officer he stood in the three parliamentary by-elections.

Douglas-Home was assigned to the 7th Battalion of the Buffs, which was converted to tanks as the 141 Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (141 RAC). In the Normandy campaign, 141 RAC was assigned to I Corps, a British formation within the First Canadian Army. In August, First Canadian Army was directed to mop up the German forces cut off in various sea ports in Normandy and Pas de Calais. In the first week of September 1944, the Allies moved against the port of Le Havre. A German garrison under Colonel Hermann-Eberhard Wildermuth was dug in on the hill overlooking the city. Wildermuth had been ordered by Hitler to defend Fortress Le Havre to the last man, and not to surrender.

When the Allied forces invested the city in advance of the planned aerial bombardment and subsequent assault, Wildermuth asked the British commander if the French civilians could be evacuated from the city, but that request was refused. Lieutenant (acting Captain) Douglas-Home was near Le Havre, awaiting the completion of the aerial bombardment. He was to serve as a liaison officer in Operation Astonia, the Allied attack on Le Havre. On the second day after the aerial bombardment had started, he learned of the German request to evacuate the civilians and the Allied refusal. The consequences of the bombardment were apparent to the waiting Allied forces and Douglas-Home refused to participate in the attack. He gave two reasons:[citation needed]

  • The unconditional surrender policy, which he thought compelled the enemy to fight to the end.
  • The refusal of civilian evacuation was morally unacceptable to him.

which created a moral obligation for Douglas-Home and he declined to participate.

The aerial bombardment of Le Havre lasted four nights, killed over 2,000 French civilians, 19 German soldiers and levelled the city. The Germans surrendered after two-days’ fighting and I Corps moved on to Boulogne, which was also subjected to a heavy aerial bombardment. At that time Douglas-Home, who had been placed under supervision (he did not consider himself at that time to have been “arrested”) wrote to the Maidenhead Advertiser and the publication of his letter in the newspaper prompted his formal arrest and detention.

Because of the article in the Maidenhead Advertiser, the Allied forces besieging Calais allowed the civilians to be evacuated from the town before it was subjected to a heavy aerial bombardment and final assault. Dunkirk was allowed to remain in German hands, with the besieged force bottled up, until Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. In the wake of the publication, the British became sensitive to indiscriminate bombing of occupied cities and towns, although that consideration was not extended to towns and cities in Germany.

[Douglas-Home] served 8 months, initially in Wormwood Scrubs, then completing his term in Wakefield Prison.[11]

Captain Andrew Wilson, M.C. also served in 141 RAC. In his autobiography Flame Thrower, published in 1956, he recounts this incident and its consequences. Wilson wrote his story deliberately in the third person:

Even when he sailed with the regiment to Normandy, William had continued his private war-against-war. While headquarters were near Bayeux, he had written to the newspapers about some German ambulances shot up by British fighters. And what he had written was true. Wilson had seen the ambulances, riddled with bullets on the Tilly road.”

[Wikipedia]

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

Worth remembering at the present time.

Saturday quiz

Well, not so good this week: 3/10 (or 3 “and a third” out of 10 if using the same calculation as political journalist John Rentoul, who claims 2 “and a third”). I knew the answers only to questions 4, 8, and 10 and (like Rentoul) also guessed one word of no. 1. On a few other questions, I came close “but no cigar”…

The policy even fails on its own terms, because of problems of definition and determination.

Good God. Even worse than I had thought. Equivalent to Hiroshima, Dresden etc in WW2. The (Israeli) Jews, as well as (((those))) in the UK, USA etc supporting the devastation/genocide/ethnic cleansing, surely stand guilty of war crimes by any reasonable definition.

Wall. Squad. End.

[“NEW PIECE In my latest essay in @TheSun I ask –what holds a civilisation together? In Ancient Greece, Pericles warned they only survive if leaders maintain the trust of the people In Ancient Rome, Cicero warned states will soon collapse if they don’t put their own people first In Britain today? We are witnessing the very opposite of all this. An out-of-touch ruling class that’s imposing an extreme policy of mass uncontrolled immigration and broken borders on everybody else, prioritising foreigners and pushing its own citizens to openly revolt.”]

Only lunatics are now volunteering to be sent to the crumbling front-lines of the Kiev regime. A death sentence.

…and the half-Jewess and Israeli agent Ghislaine “Maxwell” has apparently been moved from a high-security prison to a “Club Fed” in Texas. Is that the prelude to a Presidential pardon? Looks as if the (((usual))) fix is in.

See also:

More about Jew-Zionist fanatic “Mark Lewis Lawyer”, Patron Law, Jewish barrister Beth Grossman etc

A pack of Jews, abusing the English legal system (yet again).

For background about previous Mark Lewis defaults, see also:

Lewis is both incompetent and dishonest. Anyone who employs him as a solicitor (if anyone still does) is an idiot.

Incidentally, and for those unaware of the matter, the above tweets refer mostly to the libel case Wilson v. Mendelsohn, Newbon (deceased), and Cantor. Wilson, an academic from the North of England, won his case despite a whole battery of Jews giving, in effect, perjured or tainted testimony. The witnesses (all Jews, all Israel fanatics) disbelieved by the trial judge included vituperative barrister Simon Myerson (dismissed, in effect, as part-time judge in 2024, because he was unable or unwilling to stop harassing people online), Daily Star scribbler Adam Cailler, one Joanne Bell (prolific on Twitter/X as “@jobellerina”), and Nathan Comiskey (another keyboard “warrior” for Israel) as well as the defendants.

Pete Newbon, one of the defendants, a sadistic and crazed Israel fanatic who trolled people mercilessly online, as well as committing various (other) crimes (his employer, a university, had already disciplined him for his appalling behaviour), committed suicide during the trial because he had not told his wife that their house was on the line. It appears that Mark Lewis and/or other Jewish lawyers had misled one or more of the defendants as to their downside risk. Dishonest, or simply incompetent? The Solicitors’ Regulation Authority is going to pronounce upon that soon.

Now, it seems that “Mark Lewis Lawyer” (solicitor) and Beth Grossman (Counsel, of Doughty Street Chambers in London) are refusing to disclose evidence about their behaviour during the course of the proceedings. It could lead to serious consequences for them, though Lewis is so washed-up now that it might not make much difference to him. Well, time will tell.

See also:

Something really has to be done about “the situation” in this country.

Late tweets seen

Order must be restored.

[“In case you’re not from the UK, this weekend there are yet more public protests against broken borders and mass immigration —in Islington, Manchester, Newcastle, Cannock, Portsmouth, Southampton. The mainstream media barely report on them. Politicians ignore them. But such is the level of public disillusionment with what is happening to our country that these protests are now becoming a persistent feature of our national life, which in itself shows both how out-of-touch the political system, and how febrile our once unified and stable society, have become.“]

[“Bookmark this tweet. And trust me. What Labour are about to do is approve ALL asylum claims so they can make it look like they are dealing with the backlog, while taking illegal migrants out of hotels and putting them in private housing to try and hide the costs. This is not dealing with the backlog. It will only incentivise many more to come. It will end up being a total disaster, much like their hapless “smash the gangs” strategy which I said in May 2024 would also be a total disaster.“]

As I have been predicting for a couple of years now on the blog…

As if that ridiculous monkey knows anything. Still, for once he is right, probably. The war may continue for another year. The Kiev-regime frontlines may last out that long, but in the end will crumble and collapse. Russia can take and should take all of Ukraine east of the Dnieper.

Historical video with music

[Marshal Zhukov inspects the ruins of the Reichstag in 1945 Berlin— don’t allow the Zelensky Jewish cabal, or American adventurists, to drag you into a similar situation]

Late talking point

Late music

[“Bitter is my native land“]
[Levitan, 1882, Vladimirka]
[“Let’s say goodbye, even if it hurts…”]
[painting by Victor Ostrovsky]

Diary Blog, 3 February 2023

Afternoon music

[painting by Volegov]

On this day a year ago

Great Continental Rail Journeys

Was just watching one of those Michael Portillo rail journeys on TV, Vienna to Trieste. Interesting. Vienna railway station looks better now than the old one that I saw a couple of times in the 1980s.

More interesting to me was when Portillo mentioned that, in the several decades before the First World War, the population of Vienna had increased by 5x, but that the Jewish population of Vienna had increased by no less than 35x! That explains much.

The six cities of Europe with the greatest (absolute) numbers of Jews today (as of a couple of years ago) are Paris, Moscow, London, Kiev, Budapest, and Marseilles. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_population_by_city.

From the newspapers

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/23295326.newport-cousins-knocked-man-brutal-city-centre-attack/.

[“Newport cousins“]

“TWO thugs left a man unconscious after they kicked, punched and stamped on him as he lay helpless on the floor during a brutal city centre assault.

[South Wales Argus]

“Diversity”; our wonderful multikulti society…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11707959/Lockdown-fallout-pushes-UK-economy-perma-stagnation-Bank-England-warns-tax-burden.html.

Well, there’s a surprise (not).

Apart from anything else, older British people do not want to work for rubbish pay or, if on better pay, to be taxed through the nose so that money in huge amounts can be wasted on the sort of rubbish we saw during the “panicdemic” of 2020-2021, or on migrant-invaders posing as “refugees”, or on any other rubbish.

I agree with them (though I am now 66 anyway): I say— live on a lower spend-level, re-evaluate, live (as far as you can) off-grid (or at least cut off from the HMRC, DWP, professional and other leeches such as lawyers, accountants, estate agents etc), and plot the end of this society while seeding a new one.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11709517/Russian-casualties-Ukraine-nearing-200-000-officials-say.html

The city [Bakhmut] sits on an important confluence of supply routes and, when fighting started at least, was seen as a vital staging point for assaults further into Donbas – particularly the nearby cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk.

Now, though, the battle is more symbolic than practical. Most analysts agree the blood price that Russia has paid trying to take Bakhmut – thought to be more than 100 troops per day – is not worth the value of capturing it.

[Daily Mail]

Perhaps but, if that city is so unimportant, why are the Kiev-regime forces also trying so hard to win there —at the cost of a similar number of casualties, probably— ?

[state of play as of 2-3 February 2023]

Kiev remains the jewel in the crown. If Russia can take Kiev and Kharkov, the war will be almost over. Maybe later this year.

Tweets seen

As I predicted, “Jack Monroe” will soon be supported only by loonies and the terminally naive.

Assuming that tweeter “@DaveMayhem” is not, er, “Jack Monroe” herself (she uses dozens of fake Twitter accounts).

In a way, the whole “Jack Monroe” thing has become a quite clever near-fraud, which has extracted rather large amounts of money overall.

Incidentally, that “DaveMayhem” tweeter (“Jack”?) uses the irritating Americanism “hate on“, rather than simple “hate“. Another black mark.

I have no idea whether “@ChrissieClarky” is another “Jack Monroe “sock account” or just another pro-“Jack Monroe oddity. Birds of a feather flock together, after all.

Actually, the “mental health” defence is quite clever because, first of all, it enables “Jack Monroe” to do more or less as she pleases— take money from the naive and well-meaning, drink herself silly, take drugs, spend money (mostly donated) like a drunken sailor etc; secondly, it gives a “reason” for the above defaults and, thirdly, makes any critics (or even those just trying to get their money back) seem like “bullies” and “trolls”.

When “Jack Monroe” closes down her Twitter account (as she has done at least three times even in the last few months) her supporters blame “trolls“, “bullies” etc, rather than noticing that, that way, she can avoid answering embarrassing questions about her extraction and misuse of money…

I see plenty of the well-meaning saying that “Jack Monroe” should stay off Twitter, and/or get “help”. Why would she do that? It has been Twitter, and her whole social media facade, that (together with msm promotion) has built her “career” as a supposed champion of the food-poor, and has given her (via Patreon etc) an income of —at least— several thousand pounds a month and possibly as much as £40,000 a month, but probably around £6,000 a month.

There were at one time 800 “mugs” paying “Jack Monroe” between £3.50 and £44 a month via Patreon alone! Partly due to Jewish TV cook Nigella Lawson’s promotion of her; Jay Rayner, the Jewish restaurant critic, was also applauding her at one time, but seems to have belatedly seen the light in recent months.

Even at time of writing today, 497 utter mugs are still signed up to her Patreon “grift”. That is actually a couple more than yesterday! Average (?) £10 a month = about £5,000 a month. A “nice little earner”…

More tweets

Expect (even more) pervasive shambolic maladministration, uncontrolled embezzlement, and rampant corruption.

The chief of demons, he casts out demons“…

#Zelensky.

Discuss…

More music

[painting by Jack Vettriano]

More tweets seen

Back in May 2022, “Bootstrap Cook” was threatening all and sundry (including MP Lee Anderson) with her Jewish lawyer, but since then the lawyer in question (Mark Lewis), who may or may not be retained at present, has not emerged from his kennel to bark at anyone, at least not publicly, and it is now pretty obvious that, despite more “Jack Monroe” Twitter lies from time to time, Lee Anderson and Martin Daubney are not going to be sued by her.

See also: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/11/update-re-mark-lewis-lawyer-questions-are-raised/

Peel away the lies from “Jack Monroe” and there is nothing left, it seems.

More fake “refugees” (migrant-invaders)

So the biggest groups are Albanians and Indians now? Are any of the bastards arriving in rubber boats even arguably “refugees”? I doubt it.

More tweets

Partly true, though not the full picture. There is too much housebuilding, especially in the south of England; there is too much pesticide/herbicide use; the water companies are a disgrace; there is still a push for ever-more-intensive farming.

That stupid bastard, Tobias Ellwood, will not be happy until the UK is a stinking radioactive ruin.

I begin to think, looking at him now, that he is possibly part-Jew; not sure.

More music

Late music

The Newport West By-Election

On 4 April 2019, a by-election will be held at Newport West, the former seat of Labour MP Paul Flynn, who died recently.

Paul Flynn was generally well-regarded, except by the Jew-Zionists, who deplored his principled opposition to Israel and to, in 2013, (the then) H.M. Ambassador to Israel appointed despite being a Jew and admitted Zionist (and so perhaps having dual or conflicted loyalties: see Notes, below). Flynn retweeted my tweets once or twice, I think, when I still had a Twitter account, but also criticized me once. Well, de mortuis nihil nisi bonum, so we’ll say no more of that.

Newport West

The constituency was created in 1983. It was won that year by the Conservatives, who received 38% of votes cast (Labour 36.6%, Liberal Party 24.2%, and Plaid Cymru 1.2%). That result turned out to be anomalous, in that Paul Flynn won for Labour in 1987 and held the seat until his recent death.

This is a Lab-Con marginal. The Liberal Democrats peaked in 2005 at 17.9% (third place), plateaued at a similar figure in 2010, slumped to 3.9% in 2015 (fifth place) and collapsed further (to 2.2%, again fifth-placed) in 2017.

Plaid Cymru is irrelevant here, peaking at 7.2% in 2001 but usually found at or near the bottom of the poll at under 2% (and sometimes under 1%).

UKIP peaked here in 2015 at 15.2% (third) and again achieved a third place in 2017, but on a miserable 2.5%.

Other candidates have stood occasionally over the years (Green, Referendum Party, BNP and Independents), but are not even marginally significant (BNP 3% in 2010, beating UKIP).

As to the only significant contenders, Labour and Conservative, Labour’s vote peaked in 1997 at 60.5%; its lowest ebb (apart from 1983) was in 2015 (41.2%). So much for the “personal vote”. After Corbyn replaced Miliband as Labour Leader, Labour’s vote increased, in 2017, to 52.3%.

The Conservative Party vote stood lowest in 1997 (24.4%) and highest in 1987 (40.1%). Its 2017 vote, at 39.3%, was the Con best since 1987, though the Con vote has held up above 30% (perhaps surprisingly so) since 2010.

Opinion

There are several reasons to think that the Labour vote will sink back: a new and untested candidate, the death of a fairly popular longstanding MP, Labour’s perceived pro-mass-immigration stance. Also, the fact that Labour is sending out mixed messages about Brexit in a constituency which voted Leave more heavily than the UK average (nearly 54%). The “Corbyn factor” seems, so far, to have been a positive rather than a negative.

If I were putting money on this, I should probably still back Labour to win, though the Conservative candidate may do well and might just do it. As to the others, they can probably all easily be written off. The interesting side-bet will be how high or low UKIP scores. My guess? Under 5%, anyway (if UKIP stands at all; if not, the Con candidate will be boosted, probably).

Notes

The 2016 EU Referendum results were not directly voted for or collated by constituency, and in Wales the vote was arranged by reference to local authority boundaries, in this case designated as “Newport”, not “Newport West”. I have taken the Leave vote relating to Newport West as standing at or about 54%, but other estimates have it as about 56%.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_2016_United_Kingdom_European_Union_membership_referendum#List_of_constituency_results

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newport_West_(UK_Parliament_constituency)

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/labour-party/analysis/102182/analysis-brexit-set-dominate-newport-west

https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/17465965.newport-west-by-election-to-be-held-on-april-4-following-death-of-paul-flynn/

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

Afterthought, 1 March 2019

Candidates have not yet declared. It is unknown whether any candidates of a broadly “nationalist” character will stand. UKIP is a possible but not inevitable contender. What would be significant would be anyone standing for the “Independent Group” of MPs. That group is not yet registered as a party (and may never be); until it is, it cannot put up candidates under “Independent Group”, but only as “Independent”. Having said that, if a candidate were to be endorsed on TV etc by the rebel MPs as the candidate, in effect, of the Group, then that would have an effect. It would split the Labour vote and almost certainly let in the Conservative candidate, though it is just on the fringe of possibility that, in a 3-way split of main candidates, the (in effect) IG candidate might just win. Hard to see it happening but not totally impossible.

My guess is that the “Independent Group” will not put up a quasi-IG candidate, because

  • voters would not know what his/her policy views might be (except pro-EU Remain, which is the minority view in Newport West);
  • there would be little time in which to select a candidate and, because of the disorganized way in which IG has been established (step up, Chuka Umunna…), there are no selection procedures in place;
  • any IG candidate (in all but name) would be likely to go down in flames, so this is a battle that the IG MPs will probably sidestep.

Update, 4 March 2019

The candidature listing is still open. So far, 6 candidates have declared: Conservative, Labour, Plaid Cymru, Green, and two wild cards, “Renew” and “Abolish the Welsh Assembly”. The obvious non-declarers, so far, are the LibDems, UKIP and anyone adherent to the “Independent Group”. However, as stated, there is still time in which to declare.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-47414610

Update, 6 March 2019

Update, 9 March 2019

The candidate list is now complete:

  • Labour – Ruth Jones
  • Conservatives – Matthew Evans
  • UKIP – Neil Hamilton
  • Plaid Cymru – Jonathan Clark
  • Welsh Liberal Democrats – Ryan Jones
  • Green Party – Amelia Womack
  • Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party – Richard Suchorzewski
  • Renew – June Davies
  • SDP – Ian McLean
  • The For Britain Movement – Hugh Nicklin
  • Democrats and Veterans Party – Phillip Taylor

I see no reason to alter my view of the contest as expressed in the blog.

Update, 30 March 2019

I was just considering to what extent, if any, the meltdown of the House of Commons over and around Brexit will affect this by-election. The obvious protest vote would be for UKIP, which as noted above only scored 2.5% in 2017, though it managed 15.2% at its 2015 peak. Both were 3rd places. To win, UKIP has to beat both main System parties. On paper, that is near-impossible, but we are in interesting times.

Update, 2 April 2019

Update, 5 April 2019

The result was that Labour won with nearly 40% of the vote, but less than 38% of those eligible could be bothered to vote. Labour’s candidate was thus endorsed by only about 15% of those eligible.

The Conservatives came a fairly but not very close second. UKIP came third (again). “For Britain Movement” got less than 1% and came right at the bottom of the list of 11 candidates.

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