I am old enough to remember those little shops. One in particular, in Caversham Heights, near Reading, early 1960s. The sweets were dispensed by the owner, I think an otherwise-retired old fellow, who sold them in small white-paper bags. A wide range, but I either bought small boiled sweets (very small balls of hard candy), or a kind of chewing gum that came with collectable cards depicting (and explaining) battles of the American Civil War of the 1860s. I wanted the cards, not the gum.
Very gory, those cards (as I discovered only when I belatedly read law, 20 years later) were the subject of a legal case (as to whether they counted as “obscene” because of their bloodsoaked content), which case went as high as the House of Lords (House of Lords Judicial Committee, the forerunner of the present UK Supreme Court). That was around 1965, only a couple of years after I used to buy the cards.
I remember that all my friends (who also bought the cards) favoured the Confederate side, but I (alone, I think) favoured the Union. Not sure now, over 60 years later, whether that was because the Union side was more efficient, or more advanced in weaponry, or just because I wanted to go contrary to the views of the mob.
The sweetshop in question was actually made out of the front part of an ordinary late-19thC house, which (I see from Google maps and streetview) has now reverted to being just a house again.
I also remember the little sweetshop because, aged about 7, I sheltered in that tiny shop after I (God knows why, now, but it would have been in self-defence) hit another boy, and then was sought out by the much older, and rather fearsome, brother of the same. In the end, the older boy caught me outside but, after I explained that I had hit his brother in self-defence, he was very reasonable, and let me off. Maybe I had dormant barristerial skills even then (or at least the ability to get out of scrapes)…
Tweets seen
Among others I was widely criticised in the summer for tracing the riots to the fact “we’ve let too many people into our country who hate who we are”
Labour politician here blames conservative for linking immigration with crime while knowing the gvt won’t give us, taxpayers, data on crime by migration & then blames conservative for “dog whistle politics”. People have had enough of this constant gaslighting https://t.co/n5wNFJoNNJ
Thangam “Debbonaire”, an ex-MP who uses a fake name (her real or original name was “Singh”, but she changed it by deed poll, presumably wanting to sound less “ethnic”), and who was kicked out by the voters at GE 2024, is invited onto TV to opine about immigration and public order etc. Why? She has no real locus standi any more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thangam_Debbonaire.
What you see on Twitter/X/Westminster today is many of the same people who blamed “far-right thugs” for “misinformation” in August now saying citizens have no right to ask legitimate questions about new information that has come to light, including when, exactly, it was known by…
Working-class men in the West have been smashed on two sides as elites & global firms offshored jobs to exploit cheap migrant labour overseas then imported masses of low skill migrants to exploit cheap migrant labour here at home https://t.co/nn4u7GO5aF
The people instinctively know that the System parties are rubbish, but also feel that, equally, there are no credible non-System parties for which to vote, only the very underwhelming Reform UK. Certainly, there are no credible social-national alternatives.
Look at what “they” are doing in Gaza, in the West Bank, and elsewhere. “They” always do such things when they have power. That is why “they” must never have power and, whenever they do have power, must be removed from having power.
South Korean and Qatari armies held a joint exercise. The South Korean army was represented by K2 tanks and K9A1 self-propelled artillery units pic.twitter.com/72H0FqqTEH
Terrible, but good to see that the lady’s companion animal was also rescued.
US has funded 73% of military costs associated with Israel’s war on Gaza
Washington has provided $22.76bn in military aid to Israel since the Oct 7, 2023 to Sept 30, 2024, according to analysis by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs… pic.twitter.com/fbH5kUDuuh
It is absolutely bananas what we are doing to the UK economy. Think we’re importing lots of high skill workers? That’s a little bit of the blue bar. The rest is a low-skill, low-wage Deliveroo economy that’s sapping our prosperity https://t.co/KPXX4VnTqTpic.twitter.com/MDlOxk1o9h
Big tax. Big debt. Big borrowing. Big state. Big welfare. Big immigration. Big regulation. All to get to small growth of around 1.5%. Britain's not working and it's the British people, as usual, who will have to pay the price.#Budget24#Budget2024
The state of Britain is so frustrating that it is tempting to shout “Full Communism Now!“, but that, of course, is not the answer. I recall that the Dowager Lady Birdwood opined that I was a “national bolshevik” (when I was aged about 18, around 1975)!
Don't complain about how much welfare benefits cost. Over 40% of Universal Credit goes to people who are working. No one working should need UC. No one is even trying to solve the real problems in the UK.
True, but the “welfare” bill would be very low were it not for the existence of literally millions of non-white parasites in the UK, both the migrants and the children and grandchildren of migrants and former migrants.
Talking point
More tweets
Former MI6 officer: Unknown air defense system led to failure of Israeli attack on Iran!
Alistair Crook, British diplomat and former MI6 officer:
“The Israeli planes, which were supposed to destroy the air defense systems with long-range missiles at the first stage, did not… pic.twitter.com/VReGzmGgb2
🇱🇧 The Israeli army blew up several neighborhoods of the Lebanese city of Deira with the explanation that it was destroying Hezbollah's infrastructure , reports the Lebanese media. pic.twitter.com/48FgsYilBS
Russian drone drops a net disabling Ukrainian drones in the skies of Donbas. The war in Russia – Ukraine has accelerated the capabilities of drone warfare. pic.twitter.com/KgHcsr5QhY
[1938— Adolf Hitler enters Vienna to popular acclaim after the overwhelming vote of the Austrian people to join with National Socialist Germany in the new German Reich]
Talking point
[comment from a report in an American news magazine]
The Conservative Party misgovernment is more or less at an end now. The next battle will soon start, the battle against the overall “woke” nonsense going to be spearheaded by the Labour Party in government: “trans” nonsense, multikulti nonsense, migration-invasion, Israel/Jewish lobbyism and, encompassing all of those and more, the attack on free speech and freedom of expression.
Tweets seen
Blowback is a great podcast on the Iraq War.
“The invasion of Iraq in 2003 constitutes the greatest crime of the 21st century. The war killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and the country plunged into a cycle of violence and misery that endures today.”…
A reminder that, in international affairs, there is sometimes no “good” option but only “bad” or “worse” options. Sometimes the “least worst” option is also the (relative) “best” at that particular time.
In the example, leaving a terrible tyrant like Saddam Hussein in place might be “bad” (arguably) but deposing him, destroying Iraq, and further destabilizing the region, thus also causing millions to flee westward, might be described as “worse” or even “worst”.
Well they have been for some time
— Sue🐱🐴🐔🍃💚🍃 🏴 🇬🇧 🇨🇦 (@sw18780774) June 29, 2024
🚨DOVER INVASION UPDATE🚨
Over 300 illegals in the last 3 days have crossed the channel in dinghies
Saturday: 77 illegals in 1 boat Sunday: 217 illegals in 4 boats Monday: 85 illegals in 2 boats
13,574 migrants in 272 dinghies have so far crossed the channel this year, an 18%… pic.twitter.com/uBHagV2n43
Most Britons are willing to at least give a Starmer government the benefit of the doubt
Have high hopes and think they will do a good job: 21% Do not have high hopes, but willing to give the benefit of the doubt: 35% No not have high hopes and think they will do a bad job: 33%… pic.twitter.com/9JQTZgNzBd
So we are asked to believe that two Reform UK GE 2024 candidates have only just discovered, in the latest case two days before the General Election, that they disagree with their Reform UK colleagues or ex-colleagues?
To me this looks like a set-up, maybe co-ordinated, maybe not.
The latest defector is one Georgie David. I wonder what her provenance might be. She does not look very European in the Sky News photo.
If those two candidates really are against the UK being mainly white Northern European etc, how stupid must they be to have joined with Reform UK in the first place? I might add that the pair are, obviously, though in a minor sense, “traitor” types by nature, to defect like that only days before the “off” (to put it in racing terms).
I doubt that the defections will have any effect on the General Election. In fact, I doubt that the barrage of anti-Reform propaganda being put out by the Conservative Party will do more than perhaps dent a little the Reform UK vote. Even if it did, it would not help the Con Party; any Reform-leaning voters in doubt would not vote Con anyway, but more likely abstain.
More tweets seen
I remember Obama visiting downing street just a couple of days before he announced the election. I think sunak was ordered by the Davos lot to hold an election, get there man starmer in so we can have a war in Ukraine. The chess pieces are being moved into their final position.
Likewise, I happened to be in Qatar for a few days in early 2001. On leaving from the old (now replaced) Doha Airport, I was just being driven to the steps of my plane in a limousine when I noticed that Air Force Two (with Colin Powell on board, as I later discovered, though probably not aboard at that exact moment), was parked right next to it. In retrospect, part of the diplomatic build-up to the invasion of Iraq which occurred 2 years later.
There are always small events, and there is always chatter, before larger events occur. One reason why it is so suspicious that the Israelis claim that the events near Gaza in early October 2023 came as a complete surprise to them.
Labour policies in a nutshell…
🚨 Trans rights over women’s rights 🚨 Immigrants first, Britons last 🚨 Net Zero & higher bills for all 🚨 War first, peace last 🚨 LGBTQIAP+ gender ideology 4 all kids 🚨 Davos first, Britain last
Rachel Reeves. Labour Friends of Israel. Poses as “competent”. Ran up very large (interest-free) debt on her House of Commons credit card, then refused for years to repay. Freeloader and cheat.
Shut these sick events down , we the ordinary public have had enough of this nonce shit https://t.co/u0xpR2pvhf
— Tommy Robinson 🇬🇧 (@TRobinsonNewEra) July 1, 2024
Tommy Robinson. Even a stopped clock is right once or twice per day.
From Sept 2020 @GuidoFawkes reported that in a 1988 edition of Socialist Lawyer magazine, the words of Sir @Keir_Starmer.
All main System parties are signed up to the Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalergi_Plan (nb. the “usual suspects” habitually vandalize Wikipedia, so bear that in mind).
👏🏼👍🏻🇬🇧
— 🇬🇧#VoteREFORMUK🇬🇧 I want my country back! 🇬🇧 (@ItParachute) June 27, 2024
— David Morgan 🏴 #StayFree (@david_r_morgan) July 1, 2024
My own experiences have been both worse and far more significant (because my own free speech struggles have been over serious socio-political postings, not silly “dog gives Hitler salute” video clips): see below
I don't think he can live. But you have rescued him and that was the best that you could do. I think you must have reassured him that he was not lost in some dark mysterious place, causing him pain. Às a pet cat he would have looked to humans for help.
Mark Lewis left Britain because antisemitism meant he did not feel safe?
But he returned to spend a week in court representing people who joke about the Protocols, being Nazis, and fleeing to Argentina?https://t.co/oq8y9GCyCA
The old adage about how investigators should “always follow the money” applies a fortiori to the egregious Lewis.
Nina Power is bankrupt after losing a defamation case. Her co-claimant Daniel Miller is already bankrupt. Both defendants in my case are heading for bankruptcy. They are all former clients of Mark Lewis who decided to take cases to trial and lost. @MLewisLawyerpic.twitter.com/LVJ4tmvbv9
As I have said on the blog previously, I pity anyone who instructs Lewis as solicitor (at least anyone who does not have a rather simple and easily-won, indeed “open-and-shut”, case).
— Damian Lyons Lowe (@DamianSurvation) July 2, 2024
The only two where the range is relatively unimportant are Labour, which is (however unmeritoriously) on track for a massive win, it seems, and the LibDems, who seem likely to do modestly well or quite well purely by default, by being the “dustbin” or “tactical vote” choice.
All the rest? Either getting a bloc of significance, or almost nothing. Even the Con result will be very different on 34 MPs (a near wipeout) compared to 99 MPs (very poor but still just about in the game).
Last week Starmer said, “Handouts offer less dignity to people than earning a living through work.” The same Starmer has accepted £76,000 of handouts including concerts, parties, sport games, hotel stays and clothing. https://t.co/oNsXDQWteY
Starmer and his cabal are a collective waste of space, but this time next week they will constitute the “politburo” of an “elected” dictatorship.
Nebenzja: Residents of Gaza on the brink of starvation
" The situation on the ground is not only worsening, but it is bringing the people of Gaza to the brink of starvation. This is a sad reality, which is directly indicated by the estimates of the UN World Food Program, which… pic.twitter.com/N2ac9COlcD
— S p r i n t e r F a m i l y (@SprinterFamily) July 2, 2024
Everything that was published about the terrible conditions was true. I have already proposed a much simpler solution – the introduction of the death penalty "
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir commented on reports of concentration camps for Palestinian… pic.twitter.com/jNX10O5MIU
— S p r i n t e r F a m i l y (@SprinterFamily) July 2, 2024
“Everything that was published about the terrible conditions was true. I have already proposed a much simpler solution – the introduction of the death penalty “.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir commented on reports of concentration camps for Palestinian detention, where Israeli soldiers tortured, deprived of food Palestinians.”
[Israeli Jew, and government minister, Ben-Gvir]
Ecce “the simulacrum of the human“…
A Palestinian youth made a video documenting his life in Gaza before and after the war. pic.twitter.com/1hOldX1BGZ
— S p r i n t e r F a m i l y (@SprinterFamily) July 2, 2024
Interesting poll tonight from Reuters/Ipsos: Trump with 39%, Michelle Obama with 50%.
— S p r i n t e r F a m i l y (@SprinterFamily) July 2, 2024
The latest trick of the Deep State “war party”…
Donald Trump, if he wins the elections, could abandon the expansion of NATO to the east , especially to Ukraine and Georgia, writes "Politico".
▪️Trump is also thinking about an agreement with Vladimir Putin on which countries will be able to join NATO in the future.… pic.twitter.com/q6PDsY9Vyq
— Global Info Factory (@GlobalInfoFact) July 2, 2024
Makes me wonder whether the “war party” is somehow drugging Biden to make him seem even more demented, with the idea that he will be pressured to step down in favour of a candidate more likely to be able to defeat Trump.
Aren't we always being told by the US and Israel that only terrorist set up command centers in the middle of highly populated cities so they can hide behind civilians? I mean wasn’t that the whole Israels Hamas spiel for why it was OK for Israel to bomb neighborhoods, hospitals,… https://t.co/iGVri5fZ95
— Jacqueline Anne Thompson (@ThatsJacqueline) April 14, 2024
Tel Aviv, other cities, and some thoughts about “new” cities
The events in Israel/Palestine have sparked a few thoughts.
Not very beautiful, but it is impressive all the same, when one thinks that, 150 years ago, there was very little if any urbanization, though the port of Jaffa, the original town in part of the location, has existed for 1,800 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffa.
“In 1906, a group of Jews, among them residents of Jaffa, followed the initiative of Akiva Aryeh Weiss and banded together to form the Ahuzat Bayit (lit. “homestead”) society. One of the society’s goals was to form a “Hebrew urban centre in a healthy environment, planned according to the rules of aesthetics and modern hygiene”.[32] The urban planning for the new city was influenced by the garden city movement.[33] The first 60 plots were purchased in Kerem Djebali near Jaffa by Jacobus Kann, a Dutch citizen, who registered them in his name to circumvent the Turkish prohibition on Jewish land acquisition.[34]Meir Dizengoff, later Tel Aviv’s first mayor, also joined the Ahuzat Bayit society.[35][36] His vision for Tel Aviv involved peaceful co-existence with Arabs.[37][unreliable source]
On 11 April 1909, 66 Jewish families gathered on a desolate sand dune to parcel out the land by lottery using seashells. This gathering is considered the official date of the establishment of Tel Aviv. The lottery was organised by Akiva Aryeh Weiss, president of the building society.[38][39] Weiss collected 120 sea shells on the beach, half of them white and half of them grey. The members’ names were written on the white shells and the plot numbers on the grey shells. A boy drew names from one box of shells and a girl drew plot numbers from the second box. A photographer, Abraham Soskin (b. 1881 in Russia, made aliyah 1906[40]), documented the event. The first water well was later dug at this site, located on what is today Rothschild Boulevard, across from Dizengoff House.[41] Within a year, Herzl, Ahad Ha’am, Yehuda Halevi, Lilienblum, and Rothschild streets were built; a water system was installed; and 66 houses (including some on six subdivided plots) were completed.”
Note, though, how even those first steps by the Jews were accompanied by the acquisition of land by subterfuge: “Jacobus Kann, a Dutch citizen, who registered them in his name to circumvent the Turkish prohibition on Jewish land acquisition“… [Wikipedia].
[Jaffa]
[Jaffa in foreground, with Tel Aviv in background]
The city of Tel Aviv grew rapidly as Jewish immigration increased in the 1920s and 1930s:
[Shadal Street, Tel Aviv, 1926]
[Rothschild Boulevard, Tel Aviv, late 1930s]
[Allenby Street, Tel Aviv, 1940]
It could be argued that, like so much of the world, Israel/Palestine would have been better had it stayed under European, in this case British, rule (the British having conquered the region during WW1, and then administered it under League of Nations mandate).
I have seen other “instant” cities, at least cities which have been founded from effectively nothing and then have mushroomed quite quickly (in historical terms). Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe) for one.
Incidentally, “Harare” was, pre-1980, the name of an African “township” (poor suburb outside the city).
[Jameson Avenue, Salisbury —now Samora Machel Avenue, Harare— in 1970]
[jacaranda trees in Salisbury, Rhodesia, now Harare, Zimbabwe]
I remember well how struck I was when I saw the flowering trees and bushes almost everywhere in the central and near-central parts of Salisbury. I have never been able to discover what were the quite large dark-green trees with football-sized spherical orange flowers that I saw quite often in 1977. Very beautiful.
[Monomatapa Hotel, Salisbury, Rhodesia, built 1974. I recall having a couple of beers there in 1977; someone abseiled down it for charity the same year; incidentally, that building project was completed despite UN sanctions]
In a way, a city such as Salisbury (now Harare) was even more impressive as a testament to human enterprise than somewhere such as Tel Aviv, which after all grew upon an existing port, Jaffa (or Yafa; the Jews call it Yafo). The location of Salisbury was almost terra nullius; only a few African tribesmen were in the area at the time of its foundation as a fort in 1890.
Population increases are always key. The present Harare has over 2M inhabitants; Tel Aviv (including autonomous suburbs etc) about 4M.
Another city, where I lived for a full year [1996-1997] is Almaty, Kazakhstan, founded (like Salisbury) as a fortified stockade in the late 19thC and called, by its Russian founders, Verny. Now, a city of over 2M inhabitants.
[part of Almaty, Kazakhstan]
[part of Almaty]
I find rather fascinating cities —and whole states and societies— which grow from almost nothing in a relatively short space of time. One, which I saw in its construction phase, was Milton Keynes [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Keynes]. I knew it for a few months in early 1977; on returning a few times about 30 years later, the difference was incredible. Whole suburbs where only fields were before; a railway station where none existed before; a population of over 250,000 (in 1977, only a few thousand); bus services (in 1977, effectively non-existent); filling stations; large modern hotels.
I appeared as Counsel a couple of times in the years 2002-2007 at Milton Keynes County Court; in 1977, there was no such court; neither was there the whole Central Milton Keynes district where the Court and the railway station etc are now located.
I saw Doha, Qatar, in 2001. A sleepy and not unpleasant city. When I returned in 2008, Doha was already unrecognizable, a city of concrete and skyscrapers. Since then, a further transformation along the same lines. A kind of Manhattan-look in the desert, and on the Red Sea.
One thing I can say which is positive about the Israelis is that much —not all— of their town planning is pretty good, from what I have seen from photos etc. Many of their suburbs and towns seem well-planned, with trees, parks and leisure facilities.
Of course, the foundation and sometimes fast development of cities has a flip side: cities can sometimes disappear quickly as well.
Last year UK government spending on refugees, asylum seekers & illegal migrants rose by £600 million to £4.3 billion — equivalent to 28% of the foreign aid budget (The Times)https://t.co/m5XM4gD08f
This government of Sunak (with those of his predecessors) is a disaster. There is every chance that the Israel-lobby Starmer-Labour replacement will be as bad, or even worse.
🇮🇷 Note that the Iranian army did not participate in the strikes. They have their own arsenal of various drones and missiles, which is different from that of the IRGC. pic.twitter.com/pxZXAlLDk5
— S p r i n t e r F a c t o r y (@Sprinterfactory) April 14, 2024
Saudi Arabia🇸🇦 and Jordan🇯🇴 cooperated with the United States' surveillance & intervention efforts to protect Israel🇮🇱 from Iranian attack. pic.twitter.com/EsJNtzGYiX
Saudi Arabia is a useless, corrupt, decadent and hypocritical pseudo-theocracy.
Djibouti is host to more foreign military bases than any other country in the world. The US, China, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Germany, France, and Italy all have troops there. How did this happen? Why are the world’s largest imperialist powers so interested in this tiny… pic.twitter.com/pzfA7Unxu8
— Kevin – WE THE PEOPLE❤️ – DAD🦁 🐉 🔥 (@bambkb) April 14, 2024
“Retired General Wesley Clark speaks about the USA’s plan to DESTROY 7 countries within 5 years in the Middle-East.
“Did you know that the USA wanted us to completely destabilize the middle-east and turn it upside down? Did anyone ever tell you this? Has there been any public dialogue about this? Did Senators or congress denounce these plans!? NO, they have not!!” “They told me that they were invading Iraq and I asked, WHY!? They said, ‘sir, it’s much worse than that, we’re going to destroy 7 countries in 5 years’ : We’re going to start in Iraq, then Syria, then Lebanon, then Libya, then Somalia, then Sudan and we’re gonna finish with Iran.
The USA and allies already destroyed and demolished every country on this list except Iran – Who are the real terrorists that are terrorizing the entire planet? How can you hear this and not immediately think : Who the fuck is controlling the USA military and what is their real purpose? Who do they work for?
If you can’t use your critical thinking skills then you really don’t stand a chance at figuring shit out. The mainstream media creates your perception of reality on behalf of the globalists. The media is their strongest weapon of deception. Please STOP letting others shape your view of the world. Use your own brain and understand that we are up against a group of people/cult that runs and controls our world in secret. It’s OBVIOUSLY not easy to see through their deceit or else they wouldn’t have been in control of our planet for 100s, if not 1000s of years.“
Most of which is effectively as said by me on Twitter (until the Jewish lobby had me expelled in 2018), and on this blog since late 2016. NWO/ZOG.
Palestinians could be seen tearing down the separation wall in West Bank, following Iran’s attack on Israel. The wall was built to prevent Palestinians from entering into Israel, according to Israel’s Defence Ministry. pic.twitter.com/Rta05DB9cJ
Just a reminder. I support neither side because neither side supports White Europeans. Let them redact each other. Hail Victory⚡️⚡️ pic.twitter.com/OyGoxPbEue
I did quite like Calvin Robinson, until it emerged that his 'traditionalism' stops at the point the convicted conman Cyrus Scofield popularised the Christian-Zionist heresy.
Another day, another climate change lie exposed. 👇
“The sea level rise experienced in recent decades was supposed to lead to shrinking shorelines and inundated coasts. Instead, satellite observations reveal the globe’s island coasts expanded seaward (net) by 402 km² (155 mi²)… pic.twitter.com/sh8DkQAAgj
— Senator Gerard Rennick (@SenatorRennick) April 12, 2024
Interesting. White women who date blacks statistically have lower IQs than black women who date Whites. pic.twitter.com/9u27BH08Wx
Al-Jazeera showed a video showing a triangular-shaped object launching/intercepting missiles over northern Israel
The most popular versions are that the video shows the secret development of the US Army TR3B or TR-6 Telos. pic.twitter.com/mmVaKtLQ3h
— S p r i n t e r F a c t o r y (@Sprinterfactory) April 14, 2024
The state of California, after the closure of borders by Texas, becomes the main destination in the United States for illegal migrants from Mexico pic.twitter.com/bJ0bqnNszf
— S p r i n t e r F a c t o r y (@Sprinterfactory) April 14, 2024
— S p r i n t e r F a c t o r y (@Sprinterfactory) April 14, 2024
It seems that the vast majority of cruise missiles and drones (though 99% seems very high) were destroyed in the air either by Israeli forces or by US, UK, French, Jordanian and Saudi aircraft. Such cruise missiles and drones are quite slow. If, however, the Iranians were to use the hypersonic missiles they are said to possess, then it might be a very different story.
Also, my mother's a fierce benevolent woman in her late 70's who thought Jack Monroe was amazing. £12pm may be buttons to JM but for her it was a significant amount to spend. Just wish my Mam wasn't (self admittedly) a shit cook. Everything she made from JM's books was inedible😂
I personally cannot judge as to whether, or to what extent, “Jack Monroe” is “sad, bad, or mad“, in the well-known phrase. Maybe a bit mad and a bit bad…but that is just my opinion, based on what I have read, and 66 years of life-experience.
The more I read about “Jack Monroe”, the more I think “bad” rather than “mad”, in fact.
Yeah I know. It was the perfect storm 😂 If my Mother had better taste we'd both be non the wiser about Jack Monroe and her decade long dupe. My Mam is just the tip of a very large iceberg unfortunately.
As I have blogged previously, some of the photos seen on Twitter of the food made from the recipes of the “Bootstrap Cook” seem to be a “dog’s dinner” at best; some have made me feel actually unwell. I don’t mean when made and eaten (I would not make stuff like that anyway, still less ingest it) but just the mere sight of her “food” on Twitter.
I concede that I am not very domesticated and, until I married for the first time (in 1990), had mainly eaten cold food when dining at home (in my twenties and early thirties). In fact, I am still not much of a cook, though I can offer to my readers the following idea, which is relatively cheap, rather tasty, fairly healthy (though admittedly rather high-fat) and, best of all, can be made from start to finish in about 45 mins:
That “zucchini bake” can be added to; you can add whatever vegetables are around— mushrooms, broccoli (inc. stalks, if grated or sliced), carrots etc. The only essentials are eggs, butter, zucchini/courgettes, salt, pepper, and cheese (any kind, but cheddar works well, maybe with some parmesan). Some basil helps.
I do not think I shall make a regular thing out of suggesting recipes. I would probably run out of the things that I myself have actually made in my whole life after a week or two. Still, I hope that the above is useful for someone.
About £5 to serve 4 people, or one person four times. Basic, yes, but I think that it stacks up pretty well against the offerings of “Jack Monroe”…
I'd been a fan since not long after Hunger Hurts – I own Monroe's first book – until I read Awfully Molly.
My brother seemed to think she was dodgy but I just couldn't see it.
Guess by the time she contradicted a previous tweet or part of her back story I'd forgotten it.
Oh Monroe's recent blog post emulating Hunger Hurts & claiming to be too poor to buy soap was a bit of final straw too.
Watched Monroe host a BBC TV show during the first lockdown – she tweeted she was paid a lot & was saving most of it at the time – where did all that money go?
I looked at a few tweets by that stupid “Susan Macpark” woman. A Scottish pseudo-“nationalist” who, however, supports migration-invasion by backward non-whites. Crazy. She often flings vituperation at others, either tweeting that their parents must despise them, or simply insulting their intelligence (despite the unthinking tweets that she herself puts out).
I suggest Susan that you read the “just giving” page of .@frugally_minded and then understand it’s her money that Jack Monroe took, never donated to charity, and refused to refund even though this lady is in desperate need. Maybe donate a little yourself.
That Macpark bitch will not give a penny. Guaranteed.
As to “Jack Monroe”, I have no idea whether she will return to Twitter (more likely than not, because she can then plough on, publicizing her stuff to those who are unwilling to question; she will simply try to ignore the gathering storm), or whether she will just think “well, I have £2,000-£7,000 a month coming in from 600-700 mugs on Patreon, plus maybe another few thousand from other sources, so why bother with Twitter?“
If only the blacks, browns, Chinese, and especially the Jews in our country would understand this.
Taking the knee, for something that happened 2 years ago, in another country. This is how ridiculous we are led by a hostile media. https://t.co/x8cxnpjyt6
The fact that they immediately caved because (God forbid) Harry Kane might get a yellow card, underscores yet again how all the sanctimonious virtue signaling is empty nonsense.
How about just abandon it entirely and concentrate on the actual football instead? pic.twitter.com/tEKgjxQvNl
There should be a cultural purge in the UK, starting (arguably) with the absurdly overpaid, smug, mass media football pleb-fest talking heads. Lineker etc.
As far as that specific building is concerned, I do not entirely agree. Architecture should be about both form and function. The form, in this case is (in my opinion) not so different in both cases, and I expect (though I have never been inside) that the function is better (for today’s purposes) in the replacement building. Admittedly, it is rather ugly, but so was, in my view, the building that it replaced.
Famous missionary explorer David Livingstone was a bit like that.
Only person I know who died with it was an elderly man (83) went into hospital as he was having trouble walking, appeared to be on the mend after a few days then tested ‘positive’ in hospital and was dead 4-5 days later. At no point was anyone allowed to visit him. Very strange.
Absolutely this. Imagine the difference that could have been made for this couple if even a fraction of the Patreon/tip jar/spite donation/'legal fees' that Monroe has pocketed could have gone to them.
Isn’t it brilliant that the only verifiable decent outcome that has arisen from Jack being on Twitter was completely by accident, and as a result of her own vanity, and the spite she throws at the people who are much poorer than she is who she has been ripping off for years.
“...and I can’t understand why she does it“? Really? how about “because she is getting £2,000-£7,000 a month for free, from (as of today) 667 mugs, for doing absolutely nothing but proclaiming that she is (in some unspecified way) ‘campaigning’ etc)”…
She's been caught scamming astronomical amounts of money from people, using provable lies & manipulation to make them donate. Luckily, she's more or less cancelled now. https://t.co/5hWJLdCMUI
Yet the 667 mugs (as of today) are still paying out £3.50-£10 —or more— each month to her, incredibly.
Besides Jack Monroe being a two-faced, narcissistic, dishonest, duplicitous, abusive, lying and grifting grief-thief for the last decade all whilst duping well-meaning people out of cash they can ill afford??
“Oh what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive” [Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, A Tale of Flodden Field].
2) Jack pretending to be poor while the pictures of her own house that she has shared on social media show that it is full of seriously expensive stuff – tens of thousands of pounds of high-end furniture, electronics, appliances and clothes?
3) The endless lies that she herself posts, including this absolute banger from yesterday which was clearly a confected story that she could use to explain why she’s about to have really expensive Farrow & Ball paint and wallpaper in her new home: pic.twitter.com/hJiMkauTVq
Ha ha! Incredible, yet at the same time almost inevitable. The “Bootstrap Cook” wanders lonely as a cloud through Southend or nearby, only to meet someone, by Fate or chance, who will no doubt (in this fairy-tale) “gift” “Jack Monroe” everything she needs or wants for the decoration of her new home.
Well, I am myself rather susceptible to tales of wonder and magic —and sometimes incredible “co-incidences” do happen— but, having now read a number of conflicting fantasies from the tweets etc of “Jack Monroe” (tweeted or said to interviewers over the past decade), I think it only fair and sensible to doubt this one (too).
It's really rubbing it in, isn't it? She'll literally talk shit about anything for hours but completely fail to address the important stuff.
— Stella Maris, Trans Trans Woman Extraordinaire 👠 (@N0v3mberSmith) November 21, 2022
“I was never able to paint colour on the walls in my rentals” is my new favourite Monroe lie, replacing Georgia Church Suppers.
So long as 667 mugs continue to shell out up to £10 monthly for absolutely nothing but to be part of the “Jack Monroe support echelon” or virtue-signal club, she will be laughing all the way to the bank (or the paint and wallpaper shop), even if (as no doubt will now happen) the msm “Bootstrap Cook” career on TV, radio, and in the Press ends, with the producers, journalists, and publishers running for cover (as I expect they already are).
As someone with an autism diagnosis who is a carer for someone else who is autistic, I don't believe that Jack is actually autistic. Her diagnosis stories are many and varied and her takes on autism are frankly, bullshit. She's certainly no advocate for autistic people.
— Stella Maris, Trans Trans Woman Extraordinaire 👠 (@N0v3mberSmith) November 21, 2022
The whole “Jack Monroe” supporters’ clan/defensiveness thing on Twitter reminds me of those who even now insist on wearing a useless facemask.
I absolutely agree. This generation though seem to have taken a leaf out of her book on Oppression Olympics.
— Stella Maris, Trans Trans Woman Extraordinaire 👠 (@N0v3mberSmith) November 21, 2022
I live in 🇨🇦 and I have been following your blog because Jack’s behaviour reads like a classic narcissist. You have clearly shown her lies, backpedaling and when she gets caught, she says her mental health has been affected. You are not a troll, don’t let the 🛩🐒 get to you.
Molly, the suicide post was purposely evasive yet pointed as to incite reaction from her diehard fans. It was a cheap disgusting manipulation. A transparent attempt to silence and intimidate valid factual criticism.
“Amelia” is very typical of many in the UK today: wants to tick the “right” boxes, and believes any old crap if the “right” (pseudo-socialist) noises are made. She favours Owen Jones! (‘Nuff said…). See also: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/04/a-brief-word-about-owen-jones/.
Let me make it easier for you (even though you’ve buggered orf) my real name is Pablo Garcia but I go as Paul. Spanish dad, English mum.
DM for any other detail you need for your lawyer.
I’m quite well off so should be good for you. Maybe better than Hopkins 😘
The allegation now is that “Jack Monroe” is using dozens of “sock accounts” to interact on Twitter while pretending to have left (having deleted, for the (?) time being her main “@BootstrapCook” account).
Seems plausible to me, looking at the myriad of Twitter accounts with zero or few “followers” that have popped up in the past days and weeks, all attacking critics of “Monroe”.
Thank u4 yr posts. I am autistic, & am horrified at much of jack monroe’s behaviour & her “I’m autistic so I can’t lie” claims. Shes clearly exploiting the poor &needs to be held2 account4 her https://t.co/DoGSi7AJ1V’ve done a great job of showing the evidence of her narcissism
Saw an extract, about a minute long, of a TV comedy/drama called The Larkins, a remake or re-adaptation of the well-known 1980s series The Darling Buds of May. Except that the husband or boyfriend of one of the characters is now black! The series was set, originally at least, I believe, in the late 1940s!
Typical ludicrous rubbish.
We hear much about “cultural appropriation“, but our own culture and indeed history is being taken over, basically stolen from us. Behind all of this nonsense, really, is the (((you-know-who)))…
“Aubrey Allegretti, political correspondent: Kwarteng starts by pinning the blame for inflation and spiralling energy bills directly on Putin.“
[The Guardian]
Well, after all, it could not be the fault of the Boris-idiot government, which all but shut down the UK economy for 2 years for no good reason, while doling out free money like a drunken sailor…oh, wait a minute…
“Aubrey Allegretti: Kwarteng seeks to turn the last 12 years of Conservative economic wisdom on its head and present the government as new and radical – rather than hanging on the coattails of the last one.
He lays out his central point that “growth is not as high as it should be”, arguing this only leads to less money to fund public services, relying on higher taxes, and so on.
“We need a new approach for a new era” should be seen as nothing less than a bid to reinvent the Conservatives and present them as a party of change – to avoid being blamed for the mistakes of the past. (Despite, of course, Truss having served in the previous three Conservative governments.)“
[The Guardian].
This mini-budget is completely mad. The result can only be roaring inflation, higher interest rates for businesses and mortgage-payers, and before very long a huge spike in house-repossessions as people default on the mortgage commitments taken out in easier times.
Reducing tax for those earning over £140,000 —about 3x or 4x the average pay? That is just ridiculous and will be applied to purchase of hedging assets (including paying off any mortgage commitments such higher-earners may have).
Stimulation of the economy requires more money at the bottom end, where people are almost compelled by circumstances to spend on goods and services, not at the top end of the income scale.
Today, the pound sterling is down, as I write, by about 2%. Interest rates for UK government borrowing are rising steeply.
A budget of this sort does nothing for the poor (however defined), nothing for the bulk of the population, and only helps those already affluent or wealthy.
Indeed, it might be said that the “middle ranks”, meaning people without much capital, working for a modest living, paying off a mortgage, paying for children and a household, will be hit very hard.
If only there were an existing, tightly-controlled, social-national party, —even if small— and with credible policies and people. One does not exist. Somewhere soon down the road might come a “1929” moment. That was what started the NSDAP and Hitler on its path to glory (ultimately, tragic glory, but that is another question).
[“At the end stands Victory!“]
[Germany 1945— “We are fighting for the future of our children“]
Hilary Mantel
The authoress, Hilary Mantel, has died.
I was struck by this, seen on her Wikipedia entry:
“In an 2013 interview with the Telegraph, Mantel stated: “I think that nowadays the Catholic Church is not an institution for respectable people.”[5] She continued in the interview to say: “When I was a child I wondered why priests and nuns were not nicer people. I thought that they were amongst the worst people I knew.” These statements, as well as the themes explored in her earlier novel Fludd, led some to question her work in Wolf Hall, with Bishop Mark O’Toole noting: “There is an anti-Catholic thread there, there is no doubt about it. Wolf Hall is not neutral.”[46].”
I myself had no contact with Roman Catholicism as a child. Indeed, I do not think that I even knew any Roman Catholics until I was in my early 20s. All the same, the few impressions that I had then were not favourable, as when I was in Ireland aged about 21 and had left Tralee station to walk or hitch-hike to the mountains. A small car approached, the first one since Tralee. I stuck out my thumb, only for the miserable-looking bastards on board, a thin, rat-faced and bespectacled Catholic priest, and a thoroughly nasty-looking nun (who was driving), to pass me without even a glance.
After a week or so in the sea-mountains, I returned the same way. Again, a car approached. The same car. The same occupants. I thought that this time they would stop, having seen me the previous week. No. Straight on past, not sparing me a look.
Miserable bastards, whom I hope met a miserable end.
Incidentally, I did get a lift eventually, in both directions; on the journey out, from an attractive dark-haired young Irishwoman who would not accept a chocolate from me because it was Lent.
The years spin past ever-quicker. That was in early 1979, all of 43 years ago now.
Tweets seen
Interest rates face their sharpest rise for more than 30 years as millions of households face huge increases in their mortgage costs https://t.co/kYpBCYqQaQ
It means that almost four million households who have climbed on to the property ladder since the global financial crisis face significant increases in their monthly bills
Sir John Gieve suggested the Bank and the government are pulling in different directions.
The chancellor is poised to announce more than £30bn worth of tax cuts on Friday in the mini-budget as the government freezes corporation tax, reverses the rise in NI and cuts stamp duty
🗣️ “They are trying to slow down the economy. The rhetoric we’ve heard so far from the new government is that they want to speed it up by increasing borrowing”
The thing is, the billionaire will use every loophole possible to pay absolutely nothing and HMRC looks the other way, while the one on 50k has tax taken from them automatically and if you even owe 50 pence, you’ll get a brown letter through your door 🤣 https://t.co/EzxeSjaYgr
Exactly. Both above tweets are right. The income point however leaves out the main difference between the few and the many, the capital held by each group.
The average Joe has no, or virtually no, capital. In fact, if you leave aside any equity value in residential property owned (usually just one dwelling, and Average Joe himself lives in it), most British people really only have a tiny amount of capital, a few thousand pounds, or even just a few hundred.
The wealthy few however, are often not at all dependent on income as such, certainly not income from any ordinary job. Their capital, invested in real property, or shares etc, is the key to their wealth. Careful investment and accountancy can mean that Average Millionaire/Billionaire Joe has almost no taxable income at all, while in any given year, his capital might have increased by 20%, 50%, even 1,000%.
The wealthiest of all have seen their capital increase hugely since the last financial crash in 2008; The Elon Musks (from about USD $2 billion to about USD $277 billion— in just one decade), the Jeff Bezos’s etc.
People like that laugh at the very idea of income tax. It is simply irrelevant to most of them. Look at the Duke of Westminster, small compared to the mega-billionaires, but still worth £10 billion -£20 billion. Then compare that to the Average Joe, who might (or might not) own, even including his house equity, maybe £200,000 or so. £1 for every £100,000 owned by the Duke of Westminster, and maybe £1 for every £1,500,000 owned by Elon Musk.
Hmrc wanting self employed people to submit tax returns every 3 months from 2024 🤡 literally no point in working hard in the uk at all between taxes and the state of the place
I myself had a great many problems with HMRC long ago. Partly but not entirely self-inflicted, and all now (long ago, over a decade ago) resolved to my satisfaction. I never ever encountered a bureaucracy as shambolic (as well as, in some cases, unpleasant) as HMRC. Not in Eastern Europe, not in the former Soviet Union, not in the USA (which came close, at times).
Had a letter from HMRC saying I owe £824.80 for 2021/2022. Logged into my account online and it says I owe £53.20.
Looks like an hour on the phone again ringing HMRC on my next day off. 🙄
I have decided to be more like the royals. I shall in future only pay tax voluntarily. If they, who are infinitely richer than me, can do this, then so can I. Fair's fair! I shall be informing HMRC of this decision immediately!
Look at them: Charles, Anne, Edward, Andrew, Harry (formerly known as “Prince”), William. Are any of them beyond mediocre in intellect, character, or in any way other than unearned and unmerited wealth? Most of them do not even pay taxes.
Meanwhile, Kelvin McKenzie, formerly of the Sun “newspaper”, exposes his ignorance once again:
McKenzie seems unaware that there is more to tax than income tax and inheritance tax. To give the obvious example (obvious at least to anyone better-informed than McKenzie), everyone pays VAT, a tax which is a major contributor to State funds, and is paid disproportionately by the poorer part of the population.
Hey Meghan remember your sister Samantha the sister who raised you and watched over you b/c Doria was always MIA you dragged this poor disabled woman through the mud you didn't even invite her to your wedding #MeghanMarkleExposedpic.twitter.com/BSoSCKa3UH
I have to admit that I have little interest in the minutiae of it all, but from the ruthless, Ayn Rand, callous self-interest point of view, the Mulatta has, as they say, “played a blinder”.
I think he took an irrational self-damaging decision @shaun_hutchings, in the full knowledge that it was so. That doesn't mena he smears his excrement on the wall, or thinks he is a poached egg and demands toast to sit on. But the decision was mad. https://t.co/PbqhbeYXdH
Putin’s decision to invade, as such, was not a mistake, but the decision to invade without proper preparation, without a proper plan, without having eliminated Zelensky, and with no proper logistics in place, was more than a mistake. It was criminally negligent. The GRU and General Staff should be purged, cut to the bone. Start again, as Stalin did.
It could have been done swiftly, with minimal hurt and damage.
This 12yr old Tory government are playing Russian Roulette with British finances. They’ve decided that the best way to solve the financial crisis is to give more money to rich people. Who’ll pay? Tory supporters have already paid with their souls #minibudget2022#stockmarketcrash
Put a short-term boost into the economy, win an election, to hell with the long-term economic consequences. This has been the Tory way for as long as I can remember- and that’s a long time now. Cocaine economics. #stockmarketcrash
True, but remember how Blair, and Brown in particular, worshipped the banking “industry” (sometimes useful but basically parasitic service industry).
More thoughts about the “mini-Budget”
Seems that “the markets” are dropping like a stone.
I mean, a simple-minded, almost cretinous Budget, announced by a woolly-headed ****** posing as Chancellor of the Exchequer; then we have a semi-educated half-caste with a “degree” in Hospitality Management posing as Foreign Secretary, and a stupid and ridiculous woman (who only became an MP on her back), actually posing as Prime Minister….what could possibly go wrong?
Jesus Christ! Is that stupid lot the best “the great Conservative Party” (in the words of Disraeli, his sentence ending “which destroys everything“…) can do? And is that hopelessly banal package of economic measures the summation of their thoughts?
Late tweets seen
The war in Ukraine has reshaped global energy markets. Gulf states—especially Qatar—are likely to be the big winners https://t.co/Ww9nATJ1jC
Every single value you claim to be ‘defending’ in Ukraine was absolutely demolished by your government over the past two and a half years. It was criminally immoral and totally unjustified. But you went along with it all the same. https://t.co/jt6QfvTu6o
Liz Truss. The latest clown to pose as Prime Minister of the UK.
…I'll be on @mrmarkdolan@GBNEWS at 8:30PM tonight talking about why it is chilling to witness, in a supposedly liberal democracy, the cancellation and demonetisation of campaign groups who dared to fight the orthodoxy.
I remember when, in the 1980s, a load of caravan-dwelling “travellers” decided to camp on Hampstead Heath, near the opulent house of “socialist” humbug Michael Foot. Suddenly, the great champion of the “rights” of the Gypsies and “travellers” (Irish tinkers) was against them camping near his house…
Ian Robert Millard 