Afternoon music
Reform UK in 2025 as against the SDP in 1981
That idiot, Brian Coleman, says in another tweet (by his co-pannelist, Tessa Dunlop), that he “used to be important” and is now “a has-been“. The second point may be so, the first only if you think that having been, long ago, a councillor in the Borough of Barnet (North London) and/or a member of the London Assembly, is “important“.
Wikipedia says effectively nothing about his parentage, background, education, or any work or profession: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Coleman.
Wikipedia does mention Coleman’s membership of Conservative Friends of Israel, and his numerous instances of intemperate and violent behaviour, for at least one of which he was convicted of assault (though given a remarkably lenient sentence, on the facts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Coleman#Conviction_for_assault).
Coleman was also a pretty bad expenses-blodger.
One wonders why the Jeremy Vine Show is interested in the comments of such people. His claim that Farage is and Reform UK is a “sideshow” shows Coleman’s complete lack of political nous. He says that he is old enough to remember the SDP, and how, after riding high in opinion polls, it imploded after less than a year in 1981.
He seems to think that the voters will somehow go back to the “Conservatives”. Really? I doubt it.
Yes, I too recall the SDP [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democratic_Party_(UK)], I being nearly 5 years older than Coleman. The reasons for its failure were several, but to my mind the main one was that its policies were pretty much the same as those (much of) the Labour Party, the Liberal Party, and even the non-Thatcherite part of the Conservative Party.
Another point is that the SDP (rumps of which struggled on until 1988) was led by people who were the opposite of charismatic.
Leaving aside policy, the key difference between the SDP in 1981 and Reform UK in 2025, 44 years later, is the surrounding socio-political background. While the UK in 1981 was suffering from mass immigration, and on a large scale, the scale of that immigration was still minor compared to that of the past 25 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_immigration_to_the_United_Kingdom.
In fact, even that alarming graph does not tell the true or full story. For one thing, the pre-1945 figures would include those white/English/British people born in parts of the British Empire; also those born in various parts of mainland Europe.
Again, the later parts of that graph, showing a steep rise, are yet not entirely showing the true racial/ethnic picture, because huge numbers of blacks, browns, Chinese etc (or half so) are now being born here in the UK to parents either recent immigrants or themselves born here, and those millions are not “foreign born” in that sense.
Not even just migration-invasion; also migration-occupation.
Another point is that living standards, though suffering a blip in the early 1980s recession, were not steadily declining, as is now the case for most people. Also, society had not collapsed in other ways in 1981, or the later 1980s, contrary to what is now the case. The monarchy, armed forces, educational standards, police, courts etc were still broadly as they had been for decades, indeed to a fairly large extent as they had been since late-Victorian times. Look now!
As to Parliament itself, it may have been flawed in 1981, but still worked more or less as it had done for the preceding century. MPs had not become total “grifters” and expenses-blodgers, because that system was not yet in place to the extent it later was.
Also, MPs were mostly either from trade union or teaching/academic backgrounds (Labour) or armed forces/landowning/business backgrounds (Conservative). A different ethos. For most of them, politics was a field they had come into from somewhere else. The present-day MPs are, many of them along the lines of: Oxford/Cambridge PPE or similar degree, political adviser, a bit of fake charity work maybe, maybe a bit of local councillor activity, then MP. Result— rubbish.
In a word, the voters are very angry with the state of everything in this country. They know Farage is a bit of a snake-oil salesman, they know Reform UK MPs are unpolished, inexperienced etc (and have not had the training of many System MPs). The voters, however, are voting in anger against the System parties rather than for Reform as such. They know that Reform is merely the best of a bad bunch. They are voting for change, too, not for specific Reform policies. Indeed, in supporting remigration/repatriation etc, the voters are well ahead of Reform UK, well ahead of Farage, well ahead of Matt Goodwin.
In other words, that Coleman character has completely misread the situation.
Tweets seen
Well, I can agree with Coleman on that point.
Again, similar story as in other recent polls: Reform 368 MPs, Labour 126, LibDems 59, SNP 38, Cons 30: https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll.html.
Those and many other criminals need to be put up against a wall.
Here, I part company with Goodwin. After all, M&S has just posted a pre-tax profit of over £300M for the past financial year, and the other big supermarkets are in a similarly-fortunate position. Fewer staff, more self-service etc. Am I really supposed to get upset over those huge organizations losing out on even higher profits?
When it comes to small shopkeepers, it is different. The shoplifting upsurge really is hurting them.
The problem with making “minor” thefts punishable by harsh penalties is that it blurs the distinction between minor and major crimes, as in early 19thC England: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_Kingdom#Background. The adage was “hanged for a penny, hanged for a pound” (not completely accurate— the threshold triggering the death penalty was in fact, until 1832, not one penny but 12 pence, i.e. one shilling).
Incidentally, shoplifting did attract the death penalty 200 years ago, if the value of the goods stolen was high enough.
Goodwin and Reform seem to be drifting, in recent statements, into a kind of George Osborne, Dunce Duncan Smith dead-end, a position not far from that of the Con Party. Probably a mistake. If Reform starts to look like a copy of the Con Party, it will falter and fail.
Similar, yet again, to all recent polling.
That would place, inter alia, both Moscow and Petersburg within range of heavy missiles fired from Kiev-regime territory. Germany is asking to be devastated yet again. Why? Is the NWO/ZOG infliuence in German politics that strong? Must be…
There comes a time when you need to stop “poking the Bear”, because the Bear will not tolerate it, or you.
The world is not without kind people…
More about Macron
Many readers will have seen my 2019 assessment of Macron, contained within the following now six-years-old blog post:
In that blog post, I go into Macron’s background etc. Now, I have been referred to recent tweets about him:
[“I used to have a flat in Paris and a chateau near Albi, and my children went to school in France after Hill House in London, so I know the French scene from a native perspective. I am also blessed with friends in Switzerland, Italy and Germany, and it has to be said, Brigitte Macron’s frustrations, which have recently been on display as a result of the camera capturing her pushing her husband in his face in Vietnam, have been a source of understanding amongst the political classes for some time. This is neither the time nor the place to delve deeply into the Gay Paree scene, to which only Noel Coward could do justice. My YouTube channel, on the other hand, allows me to penetrate more deeply into the hard partying of Emmanuel Macron and his circle of elite and very handsome gays, including Gabriel Attal, whom he appointed as Prime Minister and who now heads up his (political) party in the National Assembly, and the renowned counter tenor Philippe Jaroussky. If anyone cares to pick up this thread, I’d suggest tuning in to my YouTube channel at 4pm this afternoon.”]
[from Lady Colin Campbell: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Colin_Campbell].
Late tweets seen
Very interesting.
[“Allies of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have reacted sharply to his words about lifting restrictions on military supplies to Ukraine, writes Politico. ” The chancellor has come under fire from within [his] own ranks for vague statements about whether Germany is ready to provide Ukraine with long-range Taurus missiles that can strike deep into Russian territory ,” the publication said.“]
I should think so. For Germany to supply the Kiev regime with ever-more-powerful weapons might eventually result in Germany again becoming a battlefield, or even a charred and irradiated ruin.
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 