Saturday quiz
Damn. This week I was, for once, beaten by political journalist John Rentoul, who scored 8/10; I scored 7/10, and did not know the answers to questions 3, 8, and 9 (in fact, I should also have got no. 9 right, but I had forgotten about his existence).
Sam Melia and Laura Towler
Most readers will know the facts of the case: Sam Melia sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 2 years, of which he will probably have to serve 8-12 months, while Laura Towler struggles with her child —soon, two children— everyday life, her house (she may have a mortgage, I do not know), and her small business. Therefore, a crowdfunder was set up to help her at such a time of crisis. That fund has now reached, at time of writing, £58,972, and still rising. Excellent.
https://www.givesendgo.com/sammelia
The monies raised will go towards helping the couple survive the year ahead, and get them back on their feet after Melia is released. In addition, no doubt a small part of the money will be directed to helping him while he remains in prison.
Anyone can send modest sums to those in prison, via an official programme, using a debit card: see https://www.gov.uk/send-prisoner-money. To use that service, you need the prisoner’s name, his official prison number, and his date of birth. I have no idea of the date of birth of Sam Melia, but Laura Towler, Mark Collett, or Patriotic Alternative would be able to supply it (I am myself unacquainted with the couple, or Patriotic Alternative people, so have no contact details).
Message about Sam Melia from Laura Towler
Laura Towler has posted a message about her husband’s present situation:
“We can now write letters to Sam
I’ve just spoken to Sam. He is in HMP Leeds. He won’t be staying there for the whole of his sentence but it might take a while for him to move. He’s safe and has made friends. He’s been exercising and reading a lot. He says the worst thing (other than missing us) is that it’s quite boring, although the library is pretty good. He said he would appreciate letters from people to help pass the time. Please don’t get too political or the letter won’t get through.
Samuel Melia
A3370FC
HMP Leeds, 2 Gloucester Terrace, Stanningley Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS12 2TJ
You can include a stamped address envelope in the first letter if you want him to write back.
We can also send him books from their preferred suppliers and also email him. I’ll provide some more information on this shortly.“
The “men behind the wire”
I also happened to see the following, which may have been written also by Laura Towler (if not, then by associates of hers):
“I know I have posted about Sam a lot over the last few days but here are the addresses for Sven Longshanks and James Costello who are both serving time for the same public order offence as Sam. Sven will be out this summer hopefully but Costello still has over two years of his sentence left to serve, so he needs us the most.
It’s sometimes difficult to think about things to write as you can’t get too political but they are both intelligent men with an interest in history, literature and culture. They might appreciate a poem you like, information about what’s happening on the outside, or even just a message to say you are thinking about them and they are missed.“
Details below for both James Allchurch (“Sven Longshanks”), and James Costello.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/15/uk-white-supremacist-jailed-over-racist-podcasts
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-67443775.
Incidentally, “Sven Longshanks” (imprisoned for having published internet podcasts) also has a crowdfunder, both to help him survive in prison and to get him back on his feet when released (expected to be this spring or summer): https://www.givesendgo.com/SupportSven.
Also incidentally, I myself am due to be sentenced this week, in my case in the magistrates’ court, and for the political offence of having breached the Communications Act 2003, s.127 (recommended for repeal by the Law Commission but still at present on the Statute Book).
Tweets seen
David Atherton says that “the law” is trying to shut down “the debate“. Behind “the law” and the Bench, and the CPS, and the police, is (in 90+% of such cases in the UK) the Jewish/Zionist lobby.
Also, this is not a “debate” but a war (so far a cold war most of the time).
Ha ha! I’ll have whatever that Andrew Gimson scribbler is drinking! More seriously, where do they get these people from?
Ah, I see now: the Daily Telegraph and Spectator. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Gimson].
Is that the “Westminster Bubble” or a Conservative Party bubble? Both?
Imagine thinking that the little Indian money-juggler is the best available, or the best that the British people deserve…
Incidentally, many imagine that I just hate Israel and anything to do with it. Not so, as such. I like some of the Israeli town planning, and the efforts made to green the cities and towns; also, I like some of the modern architecture, and some of the agricultural, horticultural and hydrological techniques and projects (irrigation, de-salinization etc).
By the same token, I have only limited respect for many of the Arabs of the wider region (I have been to Egypt, Qatar etc several times, and, in the past, had occasional dealings with Kuwaitis and other types, as well as a few visits to Tunisia).
However, the Jews should never have been allowed or encouraged to take over Palestine and turn it into the state of Israel, and their brutal repression of the Arab inhabitants (including mass killings, deportations, and other “ethnic cleansing”) has been, in effect, a 76+ year war crime.
“What goes around comes around“, as the Americans say, and I think that the time will come when Israel will face fleets of drones and missiles, numbered in the tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands.
Tel Aviv may, one day, look not unalike to Gaza today.
“Macron discussed with French politicians a possible French invasion of Ukraine.
The leader of the French Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, told reporters that the topic was raised at a meeting between the president and the heads of political parties.
According to him, Macron allowed the entry of French troops into Ukraine if the Russian Armed Forces break through towards Odessa or Kyiv.
“There are no restrictions and no red lines,” concluded Jordan Bardella (National Rally). “I arrived excited and left even more worried,” concluded La France insoumise coordinator Manuel Bompard,” writes L’Indépendant.
Also in Paris, they are now discussing issuing permission for French special forces to cross the Ukrainian border, to create a “strategic dilemma” before the Russian Federation. And French Foreign Minister Sejournet said that Kyiv has not yet asked Paris to send troops, but “nothing cannot be ruled out in the coming months.”
Ha ha! What’s that? Revenge for Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow, 212 years on? Madness.
I shall be sorry to see Paris destroyed, if it comes to that, even though it has become largely a poubelle (rubbish bin). France may have its force de frappe (independent nuclear deterrent), but if it ever uses it, Paris and all other major French cities will be annihilated.
The French discussions, though, do seem to give the lie to the outpourings of Grant Shapps and others. Macron is obviously not expecting a Kiev-regime advance in 2024; au contraire… he expects Russian advances upon Kiev and Odessa. So do I, though whether they will be in 2024 or 2025 (after the US and UK elections this year) is an open question.
God. Biden is in a world of his own. He really is gone…
In respect of the Israeli war crimes in Gaza as well.
They show their true character…
Yet “they” (both in Israel and outside Israel, inc. the UK), continue to whine about (and demand “reparations” for) what Germans, Poles, Ukrainians etc did or did not do to Jews in Eastern Europe, 80+ years ago.
The Harry Formerly Known As Prince, and Meghan Mulatta. What a pair.
Now that the late Queen fades from memory, it is time to move to a republic.
Also, people from poorer countries outside Europe can live off small amounts of food-money, because they are accustomed to making their money stretch. I have had to do it myself a few times in the past, but it seems to come naturally to those such as a Nigerian girl I met in the 1980s, when she was a tenant of someone I knew. She would go to the street market a mile or so away in Peckham (South London), buy rice or potato by the sack, cook it with some hot spices and sauce etc, maybe add some small amount of protein, or not even that, and bingo…dinner served.
In fact, I seem to recall the same was true of a West Indian girl, another tenant of the same landlord, and also in the 1980s. She had been sacked for theft by her employer, the wife of an MI5 officer (she denied that she had stolen anything, but was sacked anyway), and was another one with basically no, or very little, cash.
I myself am not naturally a thrifty person, but I have blogged in the past about how I have had a few (in the American word) “hardscrabble” times in my life. You adapt, one way or another…
“Last week, I told you about the Labour Party’s plan to import divisive, America-style culture wars into Britain —how the party plans to hardwire a toxic woke ideology into our civil service, schools, universities, and prevailing culture.
This week, I’m going to tell you how Labour also plan to make their political and cultural revolution permanent —by taking power out of the hands of the elected government in Westminster, out of the hands of the masses, and giving it to unaccountable quangos and civil servants you will never be able to vote out of power.“
[https://www.mattgoodwin.org/p/labours-plan-to-upend-democracy]
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable” [John F. Kennedy]
The present “Conservative” Government has to be removed, and the Con Party stamped on, but Labour under Jewish-lobby puppet Starmer is going to impose an “elected” dictatorship. It will be all but impossible to change that path by the usual Parliamentary/electoral methods.
The SNP is led by a Pakistani Muslim. Scottish Labour is also led by a Pakistani Muslim. What is strange is that Muslims only comprise 1.4% of the population of Scotland (about 75,000 out of 5.4M), yet two out of the three main System parties in Scotland have Muslim leaders. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland#Population.
I favoured Brexit, but saw that it was (deliberately) mishandled from the start. A journalist in 2017 visited the civil service office that was meant to be planning for a smooth withdrawal, only to find it shut. That says it all.
“We are where we are”, in the commonly-heard phrase. For me, Britain’s main strategic move must be to withdraw from NATO before some lunatic starts a Third World War, and at the same time to pursue an independent course combined with a close friendship with the Russian Federation.
Russia can supply us with oil and gas at cheap rates, maybe even cost-price or below. It could save us.
Yet those mild anxious or protesting tweets have led to a flood of Twitter/X “woke” idiocy, as in the tweet below by one Andy Walsh:
Ignorance posing as wisdom…
Money, in vast amounts, wasted on the “Covid” panicdemic/scamdemic, on no-hope stuff such as “Ukraine” (the Kiev regime), money wasted on Israel and the UK Jewish lobby, huge sums expended on the upkeep and health of millions of migrant-invader parasites, money in even greater amounts wasted on a largely-useless State educational system. Further vast sums spent on pointless “Defence” hardware.
As Goodwin says, all spent without much real benefit to the majority of UK residents, especially the real British.
As said earlier and previously, I shall be sorry to see Paris turned into a wasteland of irradiated ash, even if in recent years it has become rather a poubelle…
“The Russian Ministry of Defense publishes footage of the destruction of S-300 air defense missile launchers of the Ukrainian army using an Iskander missile in the area of the city of Pokrovsk. Over the course of a month, UAF air defense systems and radars were systematically destroyed.”
Late music