Tag Archives: NHS

Diary Blog, 24 January 2023

Afternoon music

[painting by Russell Flint]

On this day a year ago

From the newspapers

The msm has started to report the absolute epidemic of persons, not infrequently even young people and/or sportsmen, dying suddenly, usually from heart attacks, but is still not correlating those deaths with take-up of the “Covid” “vaccines”.

I blogged a while ago about my own two younger brothers (two and three years younger than me, so in their early/mid sixties), one living in the London area and one in Sydney. Both lifelong and avid golfers, in one case also an amateur player of team sports, both “vaccinated”, both “boosted”, and both taken to hospital last year as emergency cases, having suffered heart attacks (and neither ever having had any history of heart or circulatory problems).

As already blogged, both of my brothers had to have heart by-pass operations (one a triple by-pass), and both did recover, but compare that to me, who has had a fairly or even very sedentary lifestyle for the past 13-14 years, and who takes no real exercise, though I do try to eat a relatively healthy diet most of the time, drink only modestly these days, and do not smoke (or, needless to add, abuse illegal drugs in any way).

Admittedly, I have done regular exercise in the fairly distant past, pre-2000— swimming a mile every couple of days (for much of the late 1980s and also the 1990s); Taekwando (mid-1980s); snorkelling; almost-daily running (late 1970s); trekking in Ireland and Wales etc (late 1970s, 1980s, 1990s); also, occasional other exercise in the 1980s and 1990s (parachuting, scuba etc).

Having said that, no-one who saw me, or a photo of me, in the past 10, maybe 20, years would imagine that I had ever done any exercise! Neither have I had any “Covid” “vaccination” or “booster”; in fact, I have actively resisted the official “invitations”.

I have never had “Covid” (or maybe I have, for a few weeks only, last year…not sure), and I have —as yet— not collapsed with a heart attack; I doubt that I shall.

More newspaper stories:

Well-deserved, no doubt.

Tweets seen

In a way, it is incredible that “Jack Monroe” ever built any sort of public following, looking at the food she usually produces, and the obvious fakery around it (“I can make food for 11p!” and “I can feed a family of four well on £20 a week” etc).

“…and then there were none“…

Exactly. “Jack Monroe” is a kind of stage character, but purporting to be real, despite everything being fake, meaning her “backstory”, her lifestyle, her ever-shifting sexuality, her very limited cooking skills, her behaviour, her fluctuating politics, and indeed her very name.

As blogged previously, the typical “Jack Monroe” supporter is over 50 and probably over 60, probably though not necessarily female, not “poor”, not “struggling”, white English or Irish, or sometimes Scottish, and in many cases —though certainly not all— with mental health problems. I have yet to see any of “the young” (say under-30) or any non-whites, or anyone genuinely “poor”, supporting her. “Reasonably comfortably-off Guardian and Observer readers” probably covers most of that waterfront.

More tweets

The UK is so screwed now that it is hard to believe. The social care sector is disordered to an extent that is much worse than a bad joke, because far too serious; as for the NHS, it is plainly not functioning properly; nor is it administered properly. It is really not good enough for some people to keep bleating Owen Jones-style trivialities about “defending our NHS” etc. “Our NHS” is to a large extent a disgrace now.

Ukraine

Late tweets

John McTernan is always wrong about everything. The msm should havce kicked him into the gutter long ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McTernan. Incidentally, since the Grenfell Tower blaze, McTernan has stopped advocating the near-abolition of the fire service. Waste of space.

http://adam.curry.com/art/1543753587_mkXBrvrY.html; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalergi_Plan.

They are violence and conflict. “Character is destiny” [Heraclitus].

As to pathetic Sinn Fein and the other Irish parties, which are acting as puppets of the New World Ordcer and the Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan, what can one say? De Valera and Michael Collins must be turning in their boggy graves…

Same in the UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark etc.

They should be prevented from reaching our shores, by State force if necessary,

Late music

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentina_Lisitsa]
[German Tiger tanks advancing, Kiev area, 1943]
[“Come with me, and I shall show you where the Iron Crosses grow“]

Diary Blog, 23 January 2023

Morning music

[the Great Wall of China— what an incredible achievement]

We are now, apparently, in the Year of the Water Rabbit. I myself was born in the Year of the Fire Monkey [1956].

On this day a year ago

Tweets seen

Quite. What matters is that the people have a health regime that actually works, and which is actually available to people. The NHS is increasingly in a state where it really does not work properly.

That is not going to happen, for several reasons, but mainly because “Jack Monroe” now has only one substantial and regular source of income, i.e. the 635 utter mugs donating to her regularly on Patreon, and thus bringing in tens of thousands of pounds each month.

The propaganda is constant now, now that we are in the period 2022-2055. Look at the idea that people will be paid to turn off heating or electricity. It’s mad. The whole point of having gas or electricity is so as to be able to keep warm, use appliances etc.

…people giving a rentier-parasite maybe half their take-home pay in return for being allowed to occupy some cramped urban hutch. Sick society.

I have been, in the past (pre-2009) self-employed (as a barrister in England), employed offshore (i.e. not having to pay UK income tax), and at other times employed in the UK, paying UK income tax.

The worst of the three possibilities is when someone is employed in the UK, and having to pay UK income tax, especially when having also to pay out to rent a house or apartment, and/or commute, a fortiori when having to lay out money for a long commute by rail, perhaps even —as at times in my own case— for a long-distance First Class season ticket.

Once someone has paid income tax, he or she has those unavoidable chunks taken out: rent, travel costs, costs of suitable clothing, other costs such as lunch money etc. The last may seem small, and not everyone will have to pay for restaurants or whatever, but even a Pret or the like might add up to £5, or more, per working day, say £1,000-£2,000 a year.

No wonder many, especially on modest earnings, decide (if they can) to opt out, throwing themselves on the admittedly rather strained mercies of the State by applying for small State cash benefits, but also having most if not all of their housing costs paid, having Council Tax paid, and not having to pay out for long distance or other travel, nor for formal clothing, for lunches, and for other incidental costs. Also, of course, not having to pay income tax.

For many employed people, once those chunks are taken out of gross pay, there is not a lot left, especially when one considers that those on the lowest income levels do not pay for basic NHS dental work, or prescriptions.

Poor levels of pay in the UK are a disgrace, and poor-paying employers are having their profits underpinned via Universal Credit etc paid to employed but underpaid employees. It’s quite wrong.

In the case of a “poor” pensioner, just retired from, say, a modest or low-level job, that person will be entitled to, from April 2023, about £200 per week State Pension and Pension Guarantee Credit, Housing Benefit (if applicable), Council Tax Benefit, free medical and basic dental, various extras such as Cold Weather Payments, special one-off Treasury giveaways, free bus travel etc; the upshot being that that person might well be far better off (albeit on a low level) than he/she was the year before he/she reached State Pension age.

For younger people, the best option (especially if not paying out for rent) is to get off-grid as far as possible: do work that pays in cash or in kind, or start a small business that pays (eg car repair), use (if you can afford the capital outlay at the start) renewable heat and power via solar, pico-hydro and the like, and keep outgoings small. You do not need the often-useless “advice” of such as “Jack Monroe” to do that. Commonsense does most of the heavy lifting. Cheese rather than smoked salmon, water rather than wine.

True, that kind of “off-grid” lifestyle will not get you a Rolls-Royce, or a Mercedes SUV, or holidays in Barbados; you may have to settle for a £1,000 clapped-out estate-car, and no overseas holidays, but in return you have freedom, and that is worth rubies.

Incidentally, I am not exactly describing myself. For one thing, I am now already 66, and so beyond official “working age” anyway, but in the past have experienced almost every kind of working and non-working scenario.

So much depends on one’s own exact circumstances. For example, take the stringent rationing of the Second World War, as it was in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom. Not everyone was equal.

Those best-off in WW2 Britain were probably not only those with money (who could pay for quite good dinners and lunches in the better hotels) but also and especially those in country houses, who might have had the money and space to stock up on tinned food (as Dennis Wheatley —https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Wheatley—had advised in his pre-war newspaper column).

Such people would have had enough land on which to grow fruits and vegetables for themselves, and might well have the possibility to shoot game birds, rabbits, hares, even deer, and also fish for trout, salmon etc. They could also easily raise chickens for eggs, despite the paucity of chickenfeed, while the rest of the population was rationed to 1 egg per week.

Anyone in a country house would quite likely also have a wine cellar, which, if replete with Claret, Burgundy or Champagne —and adapting Sam in Casablanca— “sure takes the sting out of being occupied ” [or rationed].

Today, the same applies, pretty much. Had I a country house today, I would certainly be stocking up on tinned food (which in many cases is OK almost indefinately from the safety point of view, though only at peak quality for 5 years or less). I should also be reserving at least an acre per person for vegetables etc, and would be planting, or maintaining any existing, fruit and nut trees and bushes.

I should also be filling my equally-hypothetical wine cellar. Basic or bland food tastes a lot better with a bottle of Chateau Margaux washing it down…

When my wife and I did have (a lease of) a country house (on the Cornwall/Devon border, about 20 years ago), there existed a large number of plum and apple trees, producing a quantity of fruit quite impressive, bearing in mind that they had not been maintained, pruned etc for decades.

With war again now looming on the horizon, together with social collapse, I would, were it possible, relocate back to the South West of the UK and also, were it possible, buy a country house (and follow my own advice above).

More tweets

Ha. Quite.

…and note my blog of yesterday’s date.

The floor is too low. I think that it should be somewhere around £10M. As to the percentage, probably 1%.

Early evening music

Late tweets seen

Important results.

Late music

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veselin_Stoyanov]

Diary Blog, 19 January 2023

Morning music

On this day a year ago

Owen Jones

1,000 mugs? I mean “patrons“… “Jack Monroe” must be envious. She now has “only” 635 utter mugs still subsidizing her lifestyle.

Seriously, though, who on Earth would send money to Owen Jones?

Apart from anything else, Jones has made several hundred thousand pounds (perhaps even half a million) from his books, owns his own apartment or house, and has all sorts of income streams, but the Patreon one alone has been bringing in between £36,000 and well over £100,000 a year.

Then there is his Guardian column. I do not know how much he gets for that, but I would think at least £50,000 p.a., possibly a very great deal more.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Jones.

The faux-“revolutionary”, and System-licensed neo-“Bolshevik” cosplay.

My own assessment of Owen Jones, published in 2019: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/04/a-brief-word-about-owen-jones/.

Britain, home of the “grifters”, from Owen Jones and “Jack Monroe” through Julia Grace Patterson and many more.

Puzzling, though, nicht wahr? I mean, imagine that you are the sort of deluded mug who sends money to “grifters” like Owen Jones or “Jack Monroe”. What part of “Owen Jones is already making an income of £100,000+ a year” impels you to think “I know what to do with my small disposable income— send Owen Jones (who makes £100,000 a year or more) £10 or £20 a month extra“? I have to admit that I find that mentality utterly incomprehensible. There are so many dim and/or deluded people around.

From the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11650449/Married-father-sexually-assaulted-girl-16-wearing-school-uniform-jailed-six-months.html

“Diversity” blah-blah…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11648377/Law-student-told-sound-like-youre-feeling-bit-sorry-nurse-dying.html

“Our wonderful NHS”…still clapping?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11647941/Science-Museum-removes-trans-inclusive-Boy-Girl-display-featuring-fake-penis-chest-binders.html

Jesus H. Christ.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/19/jacinda-ardern-resigns-as-prime-minister-of-new-zealand

Apparently, Ms. Ardern has somehow acquired, during her years in office, about £25M (no-one seems to know how, or from where), so for her it may make sense to live “the good life” while still relatively young. She represents the transnational conspiracy, not the New Zealand electorate.

Tweets seen

Andrew Neil makes the point, but at the end of the day, a corrupt Kurdish carpetbagger like Zahawi is not really British, nor European, and has no real understanding of our way of life (as it was before the migration-invasion). He is certainly “Wily” and “Oriental”, but no “Gentleman”, in short.

“Jack Monroe”— the show rolls on

I have no more information than is publicly available, but it seems to me that most of the msm, and most of the “celebrity” crowd, are cold-shouldering “Jack Monroe” now, leaving only the pitiful mugs subsidizing her on Patreon. Somewhere between £2,250 and £27,940 per month. My guess is still about £6,000.

Adapting the well-known words of Lady Caroline Lamb about Byron being “mad, bad, and dangerous to know“, “Jack Monroe” has become “mad, bad, sad, and dangerous to know“…

As in a Ponzi scheme, the “Bootstrap Cook” will pay off the most persistent complainants, at least pay them some money, before any small claims are filed; she can use the monies still (incredibly) flowing in from others.

Meanwhile, “Bootstrap Cook” has found a fortuitous deflection-mechanism— tweeting prolifically about the resignation of Jacinda Ardern in New Zealand, and about how wonderful she supposedly is or was. “Useful idiots” are already tweeting in support. Nothing said about the totally “woke” nonsense that has taken over New Zealand because of Jacinda Ardern and those behind her, and nothing said about the dictatorial “lockdown” policies she spearheaded.

Now she compares herself to any and all abused or supposedly abused women, deflecting from the storm of criticism of her “grifting”.

As for the “rape and death threats“, I have no idea whether Jacinda Ardern received any, or any credible, ones; I have not seen any evidence that “Jack Monroe” has received any at all.

Basically, “Jack Monroe” has spent a number of years taking money from people, tweeting prolifically, doing the odd interview or photo-shoot, drinking heavily and also (allegedly, plausibly) snorting cocaine, going on jaunts here and there, occasionally speaking to audiences for (apparently) up to £15,000 a time, and spending like a drunken sailor.

More tweets

Lisa Nandy, a mixed-race System drone and freeloader, half-Indian and a member of Labour Friends of Israel. Her smug manner reminds me all too clearly of the Blairite Labour MPs of 20 years ago: expenses fraud Hazel Blears and others. Nein danke.

More tweets seen

Incidentally, what does it say about System-drone journalists such as Emily Maitlis that they cannot, apparently, see through the fakery of “Jack Monroe”? What else has escaped them?

Not sure that I agree with tweeter “@NicolaRSpurr” here about “Jack Monroe” being basically decent; the more I see about her the less I think she is at all decent. Quite mad, of course, as well.

Ha ha! Peak “Jack Monroe” (?).

As Oscar Wilde put it, “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery“…

Ecce the latest “Jack Monroe” fan: “CEO, Interplanetary Expeditions Ltd. | Space technology transfer broker | R&D in advanced space propulsion systems; cooking; flying; music; Republic of Liverpool“. Not sure whether to add “bullshitter” to that list. Maybe, maybe not. In either case, does not seem to be anyone noticeably “poor” or “struggling“.

Jewish behaviour, or merely Jew-Zionist behaviour?

Not so surprising, perhaps, that the daughter of Tony Curtis is rather odd: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Lee_Curtis#Personal_life.

I think that “Jack Monroe” has three main goals at present:

1. to deflect all the criticism of her lying and “grifting” by clinging, albeit implausibly, to the Jacinda Ardern resignation and to the wider topic of how women are supposedly trolled on Twitter etc (which seems odd— many of the worst Twitter trolls are women, usually anonymous; at least they think so);

2. to try to retain or regain her reputation with the msm journalists and “celebrities” who made her into a sort-of “celebrity” herself;

3. to keep going her Patreon scam as long as possible (she is making tens of thousands monthly from it).

Actually, I think that, unless some kind of criminal or civil action impacts her, “Jack Monroe” has pretty much had her “15 minutes of fame”. I cannot see what more, new, or interesting, she has to say, really.

The main matter of importance now is to do what we can to ensure that, after whatever is going to happen in the next few years, Europe is rebuilt as a fully European space.

Late music

[Neuschwanstein]

Diary Blog, 16 January 2023

Morning music

On this day a year ago

From the newspapers

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/twins-separated-birth-find-each-28960150?int_source=nba.

Amazing story.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11638389/Half-universities-peddle-woke-agenda-students.html.

UK universities need a chistka (purge).

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/shepherds-bush-pub-assault-james-stephenson-leg-broken-b1052834.html

Another example of how public services in the UK just do not work any more. The victim of a bad assault, a woman, had to lie under blankets outside a pub for 2 hours, waiting for an ambulance that never turned up. Eventually, she had to take an Uber minicab to hospital.

Adding insult to injury, the police, until pressed, did not bother to gather easily-available cctv evidence.

Finally, the defendant (finally caught after the police had been pressured to actually do their job) was let off with a suspended sentence (albeit with a stiff financial penalty by way of compensation for the victim).

There was reasonable mitigation, yes, but the crime was both violent and unpleasant in itself and, also, the victim was left with continuing —and quite possibly permanent— disabilities and pain caused directly or proximately by the actions of the defendant.

If this continues, UK society will become a jungle.

Jack Monroe

Those who follow the “Jack Monroe” saga have noticed that she never, or at least rarely, admits to having bought expensive items for herself out of the monies she has available to her from several sources; she always either “finds” them, remarkably, or buys them for a song (for a tenth or less of the normal price), or is “given” them by friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, or strangers, or has acquired them via “exchange” for unspecified “services“.

As for her having been “in full time work for the best part of 2 decades“, that seems unlikely, but is a question of definition.

“Two decades” brings us back to early 2003. At that time, “Jack Monroe was 14 years old. She left school at 16 (~2005), working in a chip shop and a Starbucks before joining the fire brigade in Essex in 2007 as a call handler. She left in 2011, and was thereafter, for ~18 months, “on the dole”.

“Jack Monroe” worked for her local newspaper in 2012-2013, and also blogged, after which she got a book deal worth, I read, £25,000, with Penguin: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Monroe.

So there we have 7-8 years of intermittent paid work, not quite the 10+ years she claims.

Since 2013, “Jack Monroe” has been (it seems) mostly or completely self-employed, as scribbler, blogger, TV talking head etc. To what extent that counts as “full-time work” is an open question; if yes, then the total is about 17 years; if not, about 7 or so, as said.

As previously noted, Jack Monroe both claims poverty, and so asks for the public to send her money, but also says sometimes that she was in poverty (while on State benefits for 1-2 years), but not now.

Since about 2013, “Jack Monroe” has been in receipt of monies from a number of sources: TV and radio appearances, Press interviews, about £100,000 royalties from her several books (most still in print, I think), deals with ASDA and other supermarkets, and substantial donations (eg from 634 —at time of writing— very misguided people sending her £3.50-£44 each, monthly, via Patreon),

It is claimed by some on Twitter that “Jack Monroe” is “downsizing” (as she puts it) not because she cannot afford the c.£4,000 a month rent and other expenses of her present home but because she is buying a new but possibly smaller home; some say paying the full price in cash. I have no idea whether that be so.

At what point do the 634 mugs still subsidizing her via Patreon start to think why they are still funnelling cash to this very unreliable “grifter” and fantasist, who has recently been in the Guardian laughing about how, when drunk or drugged, she would buy four large pieces of furniture in a few days “for a laugh” or some such.

Is all that is required, for “Jack Monroe” to receive donations from naive mugs, for her to snarl occasionally on Twitter about “cost of living” or “wicked Tories“? Even if they are (and no argument from me on that), how does that either seriously oppose “Conservative” policies or “help the poor“?

“Jack Monroe” has claimed to have been working on a measure of how “the poor” are disproportionately affected by inflation, something she calls (from one of the Discworld books of Terry Pratchett) the “Vimes Boots Index“, but it seems that that might be just another fantasy; in short, another lie.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boots_theory.

Other tweets seen

A truth unacknowledged by those born with a silver spoon…

(((Simon Harris))) has to live, after all (I suppose) (whoever he is).

May be useful to people; I do not know.

An ethnic minority carpetbagger in Government will be protected, as far as possible. Others, English, less connected, poorer, would face sterner measures. I recall a colleague at the Bar, in 2007, telling me about a Devonian fishing captain that he had defended, and who (along with his few crew) had decided to evade tax on profits of fish caught. The man was apparently a heroin addict. They all pleaded guilty, the crew got off with suspended sentences, but the captain received a sentence of, if I recall aright, two years’ imprisonment. The amount was tens of thousands (perhaps about £20,000), not the millions of the Zahawi case.

Historical revisionism

Ostalgie-musik

[Grenzpolizei DDR (East German border guards). Maybe we in the UK need something similar in order to stem the migration-invasion]

It often seems that the UK now has effectively no border security. Untermenschen from various countries invade our territory without difficulty, and when “intercepted” (ferried to the UK, or met at the beach), taken to a 3* or 4* hotel, thenceforth battening off the British people for the rest of their lives.

The very best that can be expected of 99% of the migrant-invaders is that they will be totally useless; more likely, most of them are criminal and even murderous.

Late tweets seen

No Western news agencies or TV stations seem interested in finding out how the Kiev regime is treating captured Russian soldiers.

Late music

Diary Blog, 14 January 2023

Afternoon music

[The Bund, Shanghai, 1930s]

On this day a year ago

Saturday quiz

Well, this week a modest 6/10. Still enough, however, to beat political journalist John Rentoul, who scored 4/10.

I did not know the answers to questions 4, 6, 8, and 10. I should have known question no. 4 too, having been there as a child and I think maybe even having been on that canal.

From the newspapers

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/10/donkeys-neglected-animal-deserve-their-moment.

Donkeys are beautiful, in their own way. Friendly and humble creatures. Probably my favourite animals, after cats.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/13/andrew-brigden-andrew-tate-online-safety-bill.

Pseudo-liberal scribbler wants less freedom of expression online. Was there ever an era in which so many self-describing “journalists”, “creatives” and, indeed, “radicals”, wanted not more free speech but less?

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaby_Hinsliff.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jan/13/paul-johnson-obituary.

Sic transit gloria mundi… Paul Johnson, almost if not actually obscure to the public of 2023, was a major political, or socio-political, voice in the 1980s, 1970s, and indeed 1960s. I can recall seeing him on TV in the early 1970s, sternly extolling the potential virtue of having a State-controlled or subsidized newspaper which would be such a newspaper of record that it would only print the unvarnished truth of what had happened in the world. As people say, “good luck with that“… That TV chat was, of course, some years before Johnson turned away from socialism, and embraced Thatcherism.

I heard little of Paul Johnson in the 1990s, and his star faded (in the public eye) to the extent that I was actually surprised, some years ago, to discover that he was still alive.

The type of person who thinks his own views terribly important, to the extent that at least some others in the msm or System politics also think him important for a while, more important than he really is. Still, a prolific author, and certainly someone who influenced the uplands of British thought, though not the views of the man-in-the-street, for several decades.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Johnson_(writer).

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11633669/Former-Labour-MP-Simon-Danczuk-frolics-hotel-swimming-pool-28-year-old-Rwandan-fiancee.html.

It could be said that the meaning of the words “Simon Danczuk” is “disgraceful“.

Rassenschande

How much did the freeloading bastard get from the Daily Mail? He was always in the pocket of the Jewish lobby, so I expect that he gets a few crumbs thrown to him.

Incidentally, the bastard is ten years younger than me but looks ten years older. His life and lifestyle have caught up with him.

At least his godawful ex-wife, Karen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Danczuk, is now forced to read about him while sitting on the dole in depressing Manchester. Thank God she failed to follow Danczuk into the Westminster monkeyhouse (which seemed quite likely at one point).

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Danczuk#Parliamentary_career

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11632497/Shocking-moment-Bandidos-biker-gang-members-killed-motorcyclist-wearing-rival-colours.html#comments.

On the facts, certainly murder, not manslaughter. The jury must have been idiots. How was that not “intending to kill or to cause really serious injury [the victim then dying as a result]”?

The sentences were also far too lenient.

Tweets seen

Incidentally, I was just watching a 1970s episode of Crown Court, the facts of the case revolving around an overworked and slightly disorganized Accident and Emergency department of an NHS hospital. Plus ca change?

Very true, but of course the hell of it is that Jewish-lobby puppet Starmer’s fake “Labour” will be no better, and quite possibly worse.

Never give “scientists”, academics, or bureaucrats too much influence or power.

I blogged recently about how I refused the “vaccines” for “Covid”, and —despite a now rather unhealthy and sedentary overall lifestyle— am still fine, whereas my two brothers in the UK and Australia, lifelong sports and golf players, were both “vaccinated” and “boosted”, and both (in the same week last year) had to be taken as emergency cases to hospital, having had heart attacks (btw, both now OK after having had heart by-pass operations).

Co-incidence? Karma? Or what? I know what I think.

More music

More tweets

“The Harry Formerly Known as Prince” and “Meghan Mulatta”. What a bad joke it all is.

Paid for by her mug supporters.

Ha ha!

As yet, and as far as I know, the Jew-Zionist self-publicizer and resident of Israel, Mark Lewis, who was her solicitor on a previous occasion years ago, has not come out of his kennel in recent months to defend the “Bootstrap Cook”.

“Jack Monroe” was threatening to sue Con Party MP, Lee Anderson, in May 2022, and all her friends in the newspapers were writing about it, but since then it has transpired that not only has she not taken even the first steps to suing Anderson, but that she launched a crowdfunder in May 2022, and raised money on that basis to sue Anderson (and the commentator Martin Daubney), but has kept those monies for her own use, as far as can be seen.

The police should be investigating “Jack Monroe” on suspicion of having committed fraud.

Another idea struck me.

“Jack Monroe” lives in Essex, in the Southend area. Her father is a rentier who rents out a number of houses there. He was, I read, once a fairly high-ranking member of the fire brigade there, and also holds an MBE. He may (I do not know) be a freemason, as also are so many responsible officers of the police. Is that a factor in “Jack Monroe” not being (as it at least seems) properly investigated? Again, I cannot say, either way.

Or maybe “Jack Monroe” is just not a “celebrity” any more, and so the non-existent “Essex Police Celebrity VIP Twitter Squad” can no longer give her special attention (as “victim” of the emerging truth)? (Only taking the joke further…).

Incidentally, my own experience of the Essex Police, from six years ago almost to the day: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2017/07/13/when-i-was-a-victim-of-a-malicious-zionist-complaint/ (blog post written six months later).

I, on the other hand, find it odd how so many of the remaining hardcore “Jack Monroe” supporters are zealous supporters also of the present inflated nonsense around “LGBTQXYZ”.

I still remain interested as to why there are, as it certainly seems, no young or even young-ish (say under-30, under-40) “Jack Monroe” supporters, and no ethnic minority supporters either, with the exception of a handful of Greek Cypriots I have noticed on Twitter (she herself is half-Greek Cypriot, her original name having been Melissa Hadjicostas).

I have previously suggested a couple of reasons why no ethnic minority people seem to support the “Bootstrap Cook”, one being that many of them know real poverty only too well to accept her nonsense, and the other being that few of them would look at the food of “Bootstrap Cook” with anything other than contempt.

There may be other reasons.

Unbelievably, there are, as of today, 634 utter mugs still sending between £3.50 and £44 a month each to “Jack Monroe”. No wonder she can spend money like a drunken sailor! The puzzle is why so many apparently crazed virtue-signallers want to enable it.

Those people are too kind…

Perhaps“?! Ha ha!..

Late music

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zara_Levina]

Diary Blog, 12 January 2023, with thoughts about the NHS, and NHS strikes

Afternoon music

[painting by Jack Vettriano]

On this day a year ago

NHS

As blogged previously, I am all in favour of the NHS principle of “free at point of use”, but the fact is that the NHS, as it is (i.e. not in theory), is simply not working. Not working properly, and scarcely working at all.

It may well be that more money is required, but even now the NHS consumes nearly half the governmental budget (I see 44% as the proportion).

It may well be that nurses should be paid more. What about doctors? I see that GPs are mostly paid over £100,000 a year, some over £200,000, and for a service that is now lamentably poor.

As for hospital doctors, though the most junior (in the first year) receive only about £32,000 p.a., that rises rapidly to over £50,000 and, for consultants and surgeons, well over £100,000.

Ambulancemen (paramedics), (and women), get more than nurses, and do (from what I have seen) a very good job indeed.

As said, nurses and paramedics have a case for wanting more pay, but I cannot see it as morally correct for them to strike, leaving patients without care, even with some kind of skeleton service still running.

As for the NHS generally, it plainly needs to be changed to a service that genuinely puts patients first.

In the past decade, I have seen enough (though not as patient) to convince me that the maladministration in the NHS has to be rooted out. I should say that that is the main problem, not the staff as such, and not money as such.

Few people would want the UK to have an American-style health service, though it also has merits, which I saw when my first wife (an employee of the U.S. Federal Government) needed urgent surgery— and had it within a day or so of being admitted to hospital, and she was admitted the same day that she experienced pain bad enough to seek help. In the UK, that surgery would probably have taken weeks if not months to organize.

Likewise, I recall that my first wife was advised, on another occasion, to get a scan, and was given a choice of five hospitals within a 20-mile radius of home. The same year (1990 or 1991), King’s College Hospital in South London, a major UK teaching hospital, had to have a public appeal to buy a scanning machine, and that appeal ran for several years.

Again, the wife of a friend of mine in New Jersey was paralyzed after a woman driving a car in a supermarket parking lot (at only 5-10 mph) drove into her bicycle. Thanks to being heavily insured, my friend’s wife was able to stay at the Kessler Rehabilitation Center, where the Superman actor, Christopher Reeve, spent time a few years later [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Reeve#Hospitalization]. An excellent “facility”, as Americans say, and in heavily-wooded and peaceful grounds.

Still, the American system, under which about 40%-50% of the population are uninsured or under-insured, is unjust, and not what we in the UK would like to see.

There are, however, alternatives. The French system, for example (which I have also seen a little) seems to be far better than the NHS and, to take just example, has done away with “wards”— patients almost all have their own rooms, or shared rooms, and have done for about 40 years.

A friend in Brittany when I myself lived there (pre-2010) suffered from a heart condition and had already been treated by the NHS. On seeing the French specialist for the first time (taken the 50-mile journey to Brest and 50 miles back by taxi, at State expense, incidentally, rather than having had to drive himself), he was asked what medication he was presently prescribed, and replied. The French consultant raised his eyebrows and said “I think that we can do a little better than that“…

We are often unaware to what extent the NHS rations healthcare; the more advanced techniques and drugs available elsewhere are often not available on the NHS.

What we need is to keep the “free at point of use” principle, but ring-fence an “NHS tax” from income tax, so that those monies are usable solely for and by the NHS, not diverted to “aid” for the Jew Zelensky’s dictatorship, not diverted to other projects or services etc.

Also necessary (to some extent), along with better administration, is attitudinal change in some staff.

Tweets seen

I recall seeing that idiot in the hat shouting through a megaphone, in Whitehall, when I was last in London: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2022/06/30/diary-blog-30-june-2022-including-impressions-of-a-trip-to-dystopian-london/.

If they really received the full ration (call me a cynic…).

What use is SIS/MI6 when it has neither the will nor the capability to bump off Shamima Begum and her sort? Especially when it also failed, inter alia, to predict the fall of the Shah of Iran, failed to predict the Falklands invasion, failed to predict the fall of socialism (inc. the Soviet Union) etc.

It’s “FERBER“, not “FABER“…(get it right…).

American. Don’t know if lawful in the UK. If lawful, should not be.

Some suggestion that the Ferber website was hacked some time ago. May or may not be true.

The wildlife emergency in the UK must become a government priority.

From the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11627311/NHS-offers-remote-GP-job-85-hour-amid-claim-doctors-want-patients.html

The NHS has been accused of ‘wanting less and less’ to do with patients after it advertised a series of remote-only GP roles for £85 an hour.

The work from home job offers general practitioners a three-month contract with the chance ‘to provide online digital consultations’ via video or phone calls to patients, with pay of just under £3,000 a week or almost £13,000 a month.

It comes amid mounting evidence that ‘telemedicine’, while convenient for doctors, can be ‘disastrous’ for some patients.”

[Daily Mail]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11626977/NHS-emergency-care-crisis-laid-bare-999-response-times-worst-ever.html

More tweets

“Jack Monroe”

Probably because the virtue-signalling Guardian readers, while pleased to have a copy of one or two “Jack Monroe” books prominently displayed on a kitchen bookshelf, are certainly not going to actually make, let alone eat, her swill.

I shall look forward to that. All the online “grifters” should be rooted out. Ausrotten!

More tweets

Late tweets

Seems to be a genuine and worthwhile cause: https://www.gofundme.com/f/depher-cost-of-living-support-uk?qid=a6d81c76d0fb2349f78e7a06652165a6

Late music

[Scottish Highlands: a 19thC baronial-style lodge]

Diary Blog, 9 January 2023

Morning music

[Akademgorodok in winter]

On this day a year ago

The Harry Formerly Known as Prince

Caught a few minutes of the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme. Some talk about “Harry” and Meghan Mulatta etc. The programme played a short part of an interview with the self-exiled former “royal”. His self-delusion is patent, saying that “the whole world” is waiting to hear from “the Palace” in reply to his accusations.

The idiot obviously thinks that the tawdry soap opera involving him and Meghan Mulatta is centre-stage in the world, whereas in reality it is just a side issue, a kind of entertainment for the masses in the UK and USA etc.

I really think that he has burned his boats now. He has become more or less a ventriliquist’s dummy; when he speaks, 90% of what is said is what the Mulatta wants to have said. Pathetic over-privileged idiot.

Tweets seen

Hardly anything is working properly in the UK. That has in fact been the case for years, but now more people are noticing. The System is determined to destroy everything worthwhile, so that a kind of semi-dictatorship (ruling over a mixed-race population) can be instituted. The Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan.

“They” must be worming their way back in. (((they))).

“Jack Monroe”

[Update, 4 July 2024: please note that the above now-deleted tweet referred not to “Jack Monroe” but to yet another online fake and “grifter”, Julia Grace Patterson, on Twitter/X as “@JujuliaGrace”]

She [Julia Grace Patterson] worked in the NHS for about a year or so as a junior doctor, but now just makes money online by selling stuff and getting donations, tapping into the public concern about the NHS really not working properly. A crazed facemask fanatic too (she made money selling facemasks, and forced her young son to wear one even when walking in the park). Rather unpleasant.

As I have often said previously, never trust a medical doctor who is primarily a socio-political activist.

Keywords? “Swill“, “dog’s dinner“, “inedible”, “horrible-looking“; “unhealthy” etc. My keywords, more direct than those actually used in the above-mentioned review.

More tweets seen

I rarely mention my family or living relatives on the blog, but I shall make an exception, pro bono publico.

Both my younger brothers, one in the London area, one in Sydney, Australia, had themselves “vaccinated”, and I think one at least may have been “boosted” at least once if not twice. Neither had previously had heart problems. Both have now had to have heart bypass operations, one being a triple bypass. Both were suddenly afflicted, both had to be taken into hospital urgently (last year).

Both are now OK, but, in my opinion, the events cannot be mere co-incidence, i.e. that they both developed serious heart probems after having been “vaccinated”.

Incidentally, their ways of life and diet are very divergent, one (in the UK) eating a healthy diet, the other an unregenerate old-time Australian one consisting largely of steak and booze, with scarcely a vegetable in sight.

As for me, I refused the “vaccine” several times in 2020-2021, thank God, and have no heart problems; neither (as far as I know) have I had “Covid”, though there was a period of a few weeks last year when I had a terrible flu-type ailment, and difficulty breathing at times. Maybe that was it. I rarely get anything like that, and when I do, it usually goes within a day or two. My only medication, BTW, was the odd Lemsip, with top-grade Manuka honey.

More music

More tweets

I was just looking at the latest “Jack Monroe” supporters on Twitter:

Much the same as previously: retired or near-retired minor academics, a soft-headed C. of E. vicar, marketing bods, IT bods (mostly retired), “retired HR marketing lady“, “artist“, “retired maths teacher“, “interdisciplinary researcher…lecturer, University of Kent“, “Email Marketing and Social Media Marketing Strategist“, “retired lab technician“, “widower and drum nut“, “Anti-racism. Anti-fascism. Pro LBGTQi. Pro-Choice. He/His. #BLM Fuck TERFs.“, “Francophile“, “Founder + CEO :@CareersWeek |@NCWUganda |@NCWGhana |@NCW_Foundation |@Green__Careers“, “makes films/writes things/proudly dyspraxic“, “Full prof./cis white woman“, “craft, nature, 90s music, musicals, books, chocolate, coffee, mushrooms, proud child/dog mum, mediocre business analyst“, “writer who loves to cook and travel“, “CEO Western Biological Labs in Monterey, but a citizen of the world with a base in UK [probable parody account]”, “Arts reviews, views, and opinions“, “golfer and retired maths teacher“, “Retired Chartered Engineer. ‘Citizen of nowhere’. Probably woke“, “retired company director” [etc].

In other words, mostly people over 50, with many over 60; quite a few rather loony-sounding types as well, but what leaps out is, as far as one can see, a complete absence of anyone young (under 30), an almost-complete absence of anyone under 40, a complete absence of anyone likely to be “poor” or “working class”, and a complete absence, it seems, of anyone from any recognizable ethnic minority.

The conclusion —as when blogged before re. this— is that the “Jack Monroe” supporters are basically “middle-class” virtue-signallers, most of whom probably read the Guardian and/or Observer, most of whom at least think of themselves as well-meaning, and socially conscious, most of whom seriously think that “Labour”-label would be very different from “Conservative”-label.

If I had to guess, I should imagine that most if not all the pro “Jack Monroe” crowd support the UK rejoining the EU, support the Kiev regime of the Jew Zelensky, support the facemask-wearing nonsense, support the toxic “vaccines”, support the “refugees welcome” migration-invasion (and of course they cannot see —or will not see— how mass immigration impacts pay, benefits, NHS, social services, transport, schools, and housing); they no doubt support the “LGBTQXYZ” and “trans” stuff too.

More tweets

I think that those claiming that they were cheated by “Jack Monroe” should take legal action in the Small Claims Track of the County Court. Limited (or no) liability for costs if not successful, but every chance of success (on the facts as put out on Twitter anyway). Perhaps with damages expressly limited to £1,000. No need to pay out for solicitors and/or Counsel.

It would also ensure much Press coverage, quite likely not very favourable to the so-called “Bootstrap Cook”…

[me, 30+ years ago, in 1992]

Caveat: now that I am no longer a barrister (see https://ianrobertmillard.org/2017/07/09/the-slide-of-the-english-bar-and-uk-society-continues-and-accelerates/), and it having been some 15 years since I was last in court, any “advice” I give (meaning mere opinions and/or observations) must come with a “non-governmental health warning”. Naturally I do not keep up with law and procedure as would a barrister still practising.

More tweets

In fact, if anyone wants to give a little cheer to someone genuinely poor/struggling, that lady “@frugally_minded” has a crowdfunder: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/heather-booth-3?utm_term=Gde7678Nq

Only when the MPs who are enabling the migration-invasion face consequences themselves will anything even start to be done to stop and reverse the invasion.

They are not “Romanians“, though, but backward “Roma” Gypsies; something completely different. Non-Europeans, albeit with Romanian or other passports.

Late music

Diary Blog, 31 December 2022

Morning music

On this day a year ago

Saturday quiz

Well, once again my score beat that of political journalist John Rentoul, who scored 6/10 as against my 8/10. I did not know the answers to questions 3 and 9.

From the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11586577/University-tells-students-hard-conversations-deny-white-privilege.html

As with the NHS, the BBC and other institutions, it may be necessary to tear down the universities and then to rebuild them from scratch.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11585077/BBC-warping-modern-Britain-allowing-woke-viewpoints-dramas-report-warns.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-11585557/An-orphaned-wildcat-cub-saved-life.html

Tweets seen

Well said. Even now, as society starts to crumble quite visibly, the many “refugees welcome” idiots still think that mass immigration is wonderful, and that everyone in the UK can have high pay and/or high State benefits and/or high State and private pensions, even if not enough individuals or companies are paying in enough to sustain the payouts.

The same people often think that a more advanced society can be built on a population increasingly consisting of backward peoples and races.

Also, few want to confront the gradual collapse of the UK as a “society under law”.

Also, few want to address the gradual collapse of standards in politics, education, healthcare, law, policing etc.

Same goes for NHS and other healthcare, roads, rail services, the legal system, policing, social care, quality education etc.

OK, but is there any point in leaving the UK unless there is at least a chance of a better life elsewhere?

Looks as if quite a few people are waking up…

Interesting historical note seen

Louis-Ferdinand Céline: “Céline is widely considered to be one of the greatest French novelists of the twentieth century, but remains a controversial figure in France due to his antisemitism and activities during the Second World War.” [Wikipedia]

The UK-based half-Jew Zionist hypocrite Oliver Kamm has said, in effect, that Celine should be “cancelled”:

Writing in The Jewish Chronicle in September 2021, Oliver Kamm described Céline as a “French literary hero [who] needs to be forgotten”.[92] [Wikipedia]

Kamm has tweeted and/or written against me in the past, e.g. supportive of my wrongful and unlawful disbarment in 2016, and I have exposed his hypocrisy on several occasions on the blog.

The lost manuscripts of Céline have been described as one of the greatest literary discoveries of the past century, but also one of the most troubling” [Wikipedia]

New Year’s Eve message

Happy New Year to all well-intentioned readers of the blog.

Late music

Diary Blog, 30 December 2022

Morning music

[aerial shot of ruined Warsaw, 1940s]

On this day a year ago

A cautionary tale about electric cars

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11583677/Why-Britains-electric-dream-driving-distraction-One-motorist-reveals-how.html

Amusing to see affluent idiots like that porcine woman journalist (I remember seeing her commentating on TV years ago— she was constantly pumping out pseudo-“Conservative” and/or “austerity” propaganda during the David Cameron-Levita years) suffering a little by reason of her own virtue-signalling and/or lack of thought or preparation. England has too many of such silver-spoon scribblers. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Mills_(journalist).

The readers’ comments appended to that Daily Mail story are telling.

Another idiot

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11584095/Man-stashed-17-700-chimney-cash-burned-ashes-wife-lit-fire.html

More from the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11584103/More-misery-motorists-spending-filling-car-wrecking-potholes-roads-slashed.html

£400M slashed from road repair budget” yet billions wasted on the regime of the Jew Zelensky, and so also on prolonging the war in Ukraine. Mad, but also stupid— our roads need repair. It is not a minor matter, but one that affects tens of millions of British people.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/dec/03/why-inheritance-is-the-dirty-secret-of-the-middle-classes-harder-to-talk-about-than-sex

Very true. I raised the issue repeatedly when I had a Twitter account (before the Jew-Zionist lobby conspired to have me expelled in 2018); I believe I have blogged about it as well.

In socialist Poland in the 1980s, which I visited a few times, the population was divided, not only by those pro or anti the socialist government, but also, and in more immediately-practical ways, by those who had access to hard currency (mainly U.S. dollars, but also Deutschmarks etc) as against those who did not. Even a few dollars regularly made the difference between having the means to live semi-decently, as against having to struggle.

That’s the divide in the UK now, but with inheritance as the touchstone.

Ukraine

As can be seen from that map, the front is now essentially frozen, indeed literally, despite recent relatively minor advances by the forces of the Kiev regime.

What is more important is not shown on the map.

20% of the pre-2022 population of Ukraine is now living beyond the pre-2022 borders— in eastern, western and central Europe, and in Russia itself.

Ukraine now has a mainly non-functioning electricity-generating and distribution network.

Gas supplies, formerly supplied from Russia, have been halted.

Industry is mostly not in operation.

Agriculture, though continuing, cannot export most of its production.

The Kiev regime only fights on because it has become a complete NATO (NWO/ZOG) proxy, fuelled by shipments of arms, ammunition, petrol/diesel, medical supplies, clothing, other equipment and, of course, money, in vast amounts.

On the Russian side, the problems are different: indifferent military leadership, apparently-poor officership at all levels, low morale among troops, and apparent uncertainty within the high political leadership. Above all, no clear and expressed strategy in relation to ultimate war aims and how to achieve them.

In terms of presenting itself to the peoples of the West via public relations or propaganda, the Kiev regime has “played a blinder” from the start, meaning early 2022; the Russian effort in public relations has been wooden and ineffective by comparison.

NHS

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-64038636

A care agency boss has described the NHS as “a joke” after a disabled man was forced to wait for 48 hours in A&E.

One of David Williams’ clients, who has severe epilepsy, had been taken to the Grange Hospital near Cwmbran, Torfaen, complaining of chest pain.

Mr Williams said he had to wait in a chair with no food for 36 hours.

Aneurin Bevan health board said delayed hospital discharges and winter viruses had led to longer waits at A&E.

Mr Williams, the responsible individual and director of Prestige Care Agency Services, said the NHS was a “failed system”.”

[BBC Wales]

I don’t think it was any fault of the hospital, I think it’s a fault with the system.”

He added: “There’s a fear of destroying the myth that the NHS is fantastic and the best in the world… I think it needs a fundamental shake up.”

It does.

Tweets seen

The “safety first” mob have totally taken over, but not today or yesterday; years ago. Example: the hysterical tightening of laws by both Major and Blair, with the aim of all but removing firearm weapons from members of the public. Why? Because (in the whole of history in the UK) there were TWO gun massacres (Hungerford 1987, and Dunblane 1996), though in fact since the “gun laws” were tightened (and almost all privately-held handguns confiscated) there has been another such “spree killing”— in Cumbria in 2010.

1. “Dr” Louise Raw is far from being the brightest tool in the box, despite her supposed doctorate (said to be a Ph.D. based on one particular strike in London in 1888); 2. it raises the Twitter profile of Ms. Raw (and to her that is apparently important); 3. under GoFundMe rules, she can use any monies donated any way she wants, for political or even personal purposes, and the donor mugs will have no say in that.

Incidentally, Meghan Mulatta is not “black” but a half-caste (or “mixed race”, if you prefer). You don’t have to take it from me— look at the words of the Mulatta herself:

She identifies as mixed race, often answering questions about her background with “My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African American. I’m half black and half white.””

[Meghan Markle, Elle magazine interview, cited in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meghan,_Duchess_of_Sussex#Early_life_and_education].

Late tweets

At times over the past months, since I really began to look at her activity, I have thought that “Jack Monroe”, “Bootstrap Cook”, tries to “push the envelope” of outright fantasy/lies out of pure devilment, as if to say “I wonder how far I can go before those mugs twig?“, as with her Grenfell Tower “firefighter” fantasy (she did once, long before Grenfell, answer the telephones in some fire call centre, but in Essex, not London); then there was her “I am so poor that I have to boil soap to make shower gel” etc, followed by the implied subtext, “please send me —and my disabled child— money“.

Incredibly, as of time of writing, no less than 647 utter mugs are sending the “Bootstrap Cook” between £3.50 and £44 each and every month via the Patreon website. Thousands of pounds each month. In fact, 647 is an increase of 4 since yesterday; amazing when you know how “Jack Monroe” has been forensically exposed for months on Twitter.

Reading a few tweets, one realizes how dim many of the “Jack Monroe” supporters are. Interesting demographically, though. Few young people, and few of any age who are —in any sense— “poor”.

Christmas University Challenge

Once again a match between two teams of alumni (Balliol v. Hull). I thought semi-final, but I now see on Twitter that it was the final.

The winning team, Balliol, was this time no worse than me, though I should say no better. Overall, I think that I still got more than both teams together. I did OK, I think, if I myself say so; after all, there are 8 of them playing.

Late music

Diary Blog, 21 December 2022, with thoughts about foreign students at the Bar of England, about Jeremy Clarkson and “Dr.” Louise Raw, and about the continuing Ukraine situation

Afternoon music

On this day a year ago

Interesting vlog

A few comments.

There have always been a certain, and in fact fairly high, number of foreign students qualifying at the Bar in London. Many go back to their own home countries to practise law. Some become leaders of those countries, one such leader having been Lee Kuan Yew, who “invented” Singapore as we know it today: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Kuan_Yew. Others too became not only national leaders but also founders of states: Gandhi was called to the Bar in London, as was Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_Jinnah.

In Malaysia, it is a tradition that those who can, go to London to study law, and they have a particular affection for Lincoln’s Inn (my old Inn, at which though, thanks to the Jew-Zionist lobby, I am now effectively persona non grata).

Lincoln’s Inn is, even today, the Inn of Court to which most if not all Malaysian students apply, by reason of the fact that the first Prime Minister of Malaysia was a member: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunku_Abdul_Rahman.

Many of the Chinese names read out in that vlog are probably from Singapore, Hong Kong, or Malaysia, where the legal system is a derivation from the English.

Having said that, it is disturbing that there are so few English names. It may be, in part, because most of the English students pass the exams and then are Called to the Bar in the Trinity Term (Summer), rather than the Michaelmas Term (Autumn).

I have to admit that, while I saw some very low-quality black and brown barristers when I was practising at the Bar in the early/mid 1990s and then again in 2002-2008, I also saw some pretty rock-bottom English ones.

I do agree with the vlogger, though, that all barristers who are practising in chambers in England should be English or (real) British.

Incidentally, for those readers of the blog unaware as to why I am now no longer a barrister, please read the following: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2017/07/09/the-slide-of-the-english-bar-and-uk-society-continues-and-accelerates/.

Twitter

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11559991/Twitter-colluded-Pentagon-run-network-fake-accounts-world.html

Tweets seen

Most of the push for censorship and repression comes from the Jew-Zionist lobby.

I favour the “free at point of use” principle of the NHS, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the NHS is just not fulfilling its proper role. It is no answer just to say that more money is needed. More money may well be needed, but the whole thing has become a bureaucratic mess which is delivering poorer and poorer outcomes.

The “panicdemic” and, overall, all the nonsense which the NHS espoused (the facemask nonsense being just one) has broken something in the connection of the people with the NHS.

Hollywood is another Augean Stables, which should be cleansed, no matter what.

I did not know anything much about Sean Penn until today, when I read a bit about him. Needs a good kicking. Horrible bastard, it seems. I was also unaware, until today, that he is a half-Jew.

Ukraine

The war would have ended some time ago without the huge arms shipments (and transfers of cash) from USA, UK etc to the Kiev regime.

The items referrred to are those that Americans call “potbellied stoves”.

The Russian side is probably looking now at a stable front during the cold weather, assuming that it becomes really cold, with renewed advances in summer 2023.

While the strategic view is superficially not good for the Russian side (most of Ukraine as a whole remaining controlled by the Kiev regime, and most of eastern Ukraine too), the fact is that Ukraine is on life support. The electrical power system is being reduced to rubble, industry is almost at a standstill, something like 10%-20% of the population has fled, and both the armed forces and civilians are being kept going by the vast influx of aid from Western states, NGOs, and private charity.

Russia continues to control most of the coastal areas of the Sea of Azov and Black Sea, as well as Crimea, and most of the Donbass region.

As blogged some time ago, Russia needs to cut the Gordian Knot of this bogged-down attritional battle/war in the southeast of Ukraine. It has started by applying “oblique warfare”, mainly by reducing the electrical power system throughout the whole of Ukraine, but that alone will not achieve a breakthrough. Kiev remains the main target. Somehow, Kiev has to be taken, something which would have been not too difficult 8 or 9 months ago, but is far harder to accomplish today.

The alternative is a peace treaty, or at least a ceasefire, but the Kiev-regime side will not agree one without a withdrawal of all Russian forces, as well as delivering the (almost all Russian) population of Crimea into the hands of the Ukrainian/Kiev side. Impossible.

There may be an escalation in 2023 by the Russian side, something on a large scale.

More tweets seen

As the above tweets imply, it will be interesting to see how many “socially progressive” (in their own little minds) mugs send money to “Dr” Louise Raw in order, supposedly, to sue msm loudmouth Jeremy Clarkson and others.

Actually, I have just clicked the GoFundMe link posted by “Dr” Raw: in less than a day, she has raised nearly £6,000 of her £15,000 goal, from no less than —at time of writing— 125 utter mugs.

As the first tweeter, Barbara Rich, above, tweets, it is hard to see what could be the cause of action. Clarkson’s comments in the Sun “newspaper”, impolite though they were, do not amount to defamation (if I recall them aright), but are “mere vulgar insult”— not actionable. As to those remarks being “hate speech“, well that is not, in itself, actionable, and is also very much “in the eye of the beholder“, so to speak:

There is no cause of action here recognized by law, and not even (moving to the criminal realm) incitement. It is very doubtful that anyone would really be incited to chuck poo at Meghan Mulatta or to drag her through the streets (even were she in the UK, and even if she had no bodyguard force to protect her).

Most British people do at least distrust the Mulatta, and also despise both her and the “Harry Formerly Known As Prince”, but Clarkson’s remarks not only do not but could not amount to incitement of any kind.

As to lack of an identifiable claimant (“plaintiff”, as was)— that too. “Dr” Raw has no locus standi; who does? Only the Mulatta herself, were she foolish enough to get involved in “Dr” Raw’s hopeless idea.

I see that the GoFundMe says that “Although the legal route is expensive, I have received a lot of support already and have a team of lawyers who have agreed to review the case.

Note “review the case“.

Of course. It is an easy few thousand pounds for any barrister or solicitor (perhaps a cynical one) who can see that there is no chance, but who will provide an erudite and beautifully-printed Opinion or Advice saying (with much citing of case precedents, statutes, and obiter dicta) that the claimant (if there is any claimant as such) has no case.

When I was a practising barrister, I not infrequently had to (try to) save potential claimants from themselves by formally/informally telling them that they would be wasting their money. Sometimes they listened, sometimes they did not (would not). Sometimes people simply insist on going to law.

Once, about 28 years ago, I was asked to advise on whether a matter, already considered more than once by the Court of Appeal, the High Court, and (originally) an arbitrator, might go to what is now the Supreme Court of the UK (since 2009: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_Kingdom; https://www.supremecourt.uk/about/history.html), but which was then still called the House of Lords (Judicial Committee). The brief was (literally) heavy, and the fee more than acceptable.

I found that there was no possibility of being able to take the matter to the House of Lords, and spent a couple of days writing a detailed Advice to that effect. That resulted in the potential claimant (already declared a “vexatious litigant” by the Court of Appeal) storming into my London chambers, storming past the Clerk and others, and demanding that I explain (again) why he could not take his —in any event, hopeless— case to the House of Lords. A colleague who was there was so concerned (that I might be assaulted by this large, heavily-bearded, and very angry, man) that he volunteered to help me elucidate the issues to the furious would-be litigant (who, after 20 minutes or so, stormed out and off).

There were several similar though less incipiently-violent incidents with other clients unable to accept reality. I expect that many barristers have had similar experiences.

Incidentally, the reason I call Louise Raw (who has more than once tweeted very silly things about me) “Dr“, in quotation marks, is that (as I have already blogged about in the past), in England, it has always been accepted that the title “Doctor” should not be used as a title by people who have simply had a doctorate, such as a Ph.D, granted to them after having spent a year on some course or other, and (presumably) written a thesis.

The title “Dr” should, as a general rule, only be used by bona fide academics, bona fide scientists attached to recognized institutes, persons in holy orders, or by medical doctors (in fact, medical doctors often do not actually have a doctorate— the “Dr.” is simply a courtesy title in their case).

There is no law about all that, it is simply custom; it is considered infra dig in England to use the title, usually. In Germany etc, no such custom exists. Thus Joseph Goebbels was “Dr. Goebbels” because he had a doctorate in Philology from Heidelberg [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels].

I have no idea from what university “Dr” Raw got her doctorate, which was apparently based around her thesis about the strike, in 1888, by women employees at the Bryant & May match factory in East London. “Dr” Raw has always been rather reticent about where she studied (though I have no reason to doubt that she has a “doctorate”).

Likewise, I have no reason to suppose that “Dr” Raw intends to keep for her own use the monies raised by her GoFundMe appeal. It does occur to me, though, that the appeal raises her (?) faded political profile on Twitter. Perhaps that is her motivation, or part of it.

I might add that some MPs and others, meaning some (other) odd types seen on Twitter, also misuse the “Doctor” title.

Late tweets seen

Hard to believe that the editor of a major trade publication could be so unaware.

Christmas University Challenge

As on previous occasions, I have to say that I scored far better than the teams of alumni (Durham and York) this evening, all or almost all of whom were possessed of professorial status (if not knowledge— at least outside their narrow, mostly scientific, specialisms).

A few tweets make the point:

Very true. Tends to be, or so I was once told, the place for people who wanted to go to Oxford or Cambridge but were rejected. I once, in the late 1980s, met an entirely ridiculous man at a dinner party in Blackheath. I was at the Inns of Court School of Law at the time, belatedly; he was a barrister, possibly already QC. No doubt competent in the law, but otherwise a complete idiot. Durham graduate. Later, he was not only QC but also a Recorder in England and, I believe, a civil/commercial judge in Hong Kong, among other things. I believe from what my then girlfriend told me that his family were prominent in the (English) Civil War. Is that typical of Durham University? I do not know.

I see from Twitter that I am not alone in finding the teams on Christmas University Challenge egregiously ignorant. This evening, one team did not know the (old-style calendar) month of the Bolsheviks’ 1917 Revolution (i.e. October Revolution); they, or the other team, also not only missed the Second Symphony of Shostakovitch but (one of them) thought that Tchaikovsky had written it! In 1927!

Another fairly easy question that seemed to puzzle the teams was the name of a famous “female Anglo-Iraqi architect” (Zaha Hadid, now deceased). I mean, how many can there be? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaha_Hadid.

Late music