Afternoon music
From the newspapers
“Come on, Rishi! Ditch the bland jargon and show some fight with a breathtakingly bold agenda, writes STEVE HILTON“.
An opinion piece by Steve “Hilton”, about whom, inter alia, I wrote a piece on the blog, 5 years ago: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/08/10/les-eminences-grises-of-dystopia/.
Now the “blue sky” Hungarian-origined “thinker” —resident in California at last hearing, having left the UK and taken on U.S. citizenship— opines about the 2024 UK General Election.
He writes that “…somehow I don’t think Sunak does accept the inevitability of defeat.
You don’t get to be in his position, with all the success he has achieved in his career and his life, without exceptional drive and determination. I simply cannot believe that someone that impressive – Oxford, Stanford, Goldman Sachs, Prime Minister within seven years of becoming an MP – is content to just drift out of office without a fight.“
[Daily Mail]
Those words alone show how out of touch “Hilton” is, and how easily dazzled. Yes, Sunak got a degree from Oxford University (after having been at Winchester College, where he became Head Boy, it would be almost surprising had Sunak not gone on to Oxford). So what?
Sunak then went on to Stanford University, and graduated with an MBA. OK, but so what, really?
Indeed, and in all fairness, Hilton’s own academic achievement, coming from his level of poverty or near-poverty in childhood, was more creditable than that of Sunak: Christ’s Hospital (school) on a bursary, followed by Oxford University.
“Hilton” then praises Sunak for having worked (for about 2 years or so) at the Goldman Sachs financial outfit. Not everyone thinks that that is a recommendation, but “Hilton” is no doubt dazzled by the money Goldman Sachs pay some of their staff.
“Hilton” himself was brought up in a fair degree of poverty, by a mother abandoned by her husband; she and her son survived only by reason of the State benefits that “Hilton”, as well-overpaid and useless adviser to Cameron-Levita’s “Conservative” government (2010-2015), later did his best to take away from other poor, sick, and disabled people.
As the Germans say, “put a beggar on a horse and he rides it to death“…
As to Sunak’s money, much of it has come, directly or indirectly, from his marriage to a super-wealthy Indian, daughter of an Indian billionaire. Anyway, as far as I am concerned, I do not, without more, respect money-jugglers. Maybe “Hilton” does.
It must have been galling for “Hilton” to forever be around the wealthy and politically-powerful, including his own wife, Rachel Whetstone [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Whetstone], yet have only the hanger-on’s level of influence, and nowhere near as much wealth, though at Downing Street, “Hilton” was paid or overpaid some £200,000 p.a., (worth maybe £240,000 p.a, in 2024 money). Good pay, yes, but a high salary is not the same as having serious capital.
“Hilton” also forgets to note that Sunak is “in his position” purely because two other idiots, “Boris” Johnson and Liz Truss, had to resign. Sunak (like Truss) has never led his party into an election; the Premiership was simply gifted to him.
“Hilton” goes on to write that ” Now, after years of chaos, Britain seems to be on the right track. But, make no mistake, a Labour government would set things back. What’s needed now from Sunak is energy, aggression and inspiration – and then he could pull off an even greater upset than John Major achieved in 1992.”
Absolutely asinine.
“Hilton”, the not very successful spin-meister, seems to imagine that, if only Sunak and the “Conservatives” were to really attack Starmer and his crew, the electorate will rally round the Cons. A brainless “analysis”, though I agree with Hilton that Starmer really offers nothing but a change of personnel.
As for “Britain seems to be on the right track“, from where does “Hilton” get that idea? It flies in the face of facts flagrantly obvious to anyone with eyes and any perceptiveness at all; Britain is quite obviously not “on the right track“.
A million unwanted non-Europeans, mostly (at best) parasites, entering the UK every year; a health service on its knees; a police service unable or unwilling to do its proper job, but at the same time all too eager to “cosplay” as a poundland Stasi or KGB, snooping on tweets and blogs; poor pay for most, and a continuing squeeze on the State benefits which sustained the young “Hilton” and his mother; a housing crisis caused or made far worse by the all but uncontrolled mass migration invasion; potholed and unrepaired roads and highways; a government throwing money and military support at “Ukraine” (the corrupt, brutal, and shambolic Kiev regime of the Jew Zelensky) and Israel; filthy rivers…it just goes on.
I suppose that the Daily Mail paid “Hilton” well for his little piece of “analysis”, if you can even call it that. Money wasted.
To my mind, whatever Sunak now says will either accomplish nothing to mitigate what must surely be a catastrophic election result for the Con Party, or may well make it all worse for them.
So far, a disastrous General Election announcement, with Sunak all but washed away by heavy rain; a visit to the Titanic museum in Belfast (you couldn’t make it up!); and now the announcement that, if re-elected, the “Conservatives” will reintroduce mandatory 1950s-style conscription (with a few semi-“woke” tweaks) for all (?) 18-y-o young men (and women?).
As I noted on the blog yesterday, the “National Service” idea seems designed to appeal to some kind of “false memory” delusion in some 70-100 year old Con Party voters, rather than being serious policy.
As I noted yesterday, after a date in 1957 no young men born after August 1939 were called-up (drafted), and call-up ceased in 1960 (though a relative few served until 1963).
So someone today would have to be at least 85 to have actually experienced the former “National Service”, which varied much.
For example, one of my uncles served, on an easy and almost 9-5 basis, as a lecturer in the Army Education Corps; his son, my slightly-older cousin, not seen by me since 1970, became a lecturer at Oxford University and then senior lecturer (mainly American Literature, I think) at Edinburgh University; he has apparently also written a number of books on literature, published by Oxford University Press.
Meanwhile, another uncle, circa 1950, was some kind of accountant in the Pay Corps, based in places such as North Wales, as far as I know. Hardly thrilling. Other and less fortunate conscripts, though, found themselves fighting in swamps and mountains against people out to kill them. Korea, Malaya, Cyprus etc.
At any rate, that “National Service” idea alone has probably cost the Con Party a million General Election votes overall.
With everything so wrong in the country, Sunak goes with conscription as his Big Idea?! He really should have stayed in the world of corporate finance, juggling money.
I think that “Hilton” should go home to California, if that is where he now mainly lives, and stop trying to comment on a British society and political landscape which he no longer understands, if he ever did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rishi_Sunak
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Hilton
https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/08/10/les-eminences-grises-of-dystopia/.
Tweets seen
The importance of that is less in the limited material damage done, and more the fact that, despite the devastation of Gaza, despite the huge number of casualties (mostly civilian), despite the Israeli ground invasion, despite everything, the Hamas organization in Gaza remains able to fire rockets capable of penetrating the defences of Tel Aviv and causing at least some damage.
What goes around comes around…
Au contraire, that is exactly what Starmer-Labour can do. Yes, they have no publicly-palatable plan, and secretly are planning to do a Cameron/Osborne Mark 2, but up to the 4th of July they will just rely on the hatred and contempt felt by the voters for Sunak’s hapless bunch of clowns.
Most people want rid of the “Conservatives”; the fact that Labour will also be terrible in government, maybe worse, scarcely impinges. Only 5 and a half weeks left before the General Election. Postal voting will be happening from about 3 weeks from now. Time is not on the side of Sunak and his party.
Goodwin makes the mistake of imagining that the general public is as interested in the minutiae of policy as he himself is.
Not quite Die Fahne Hoch!, but an interesting straw in the wind, all the same…
“Britain is in its worst financial position in 70 years” Bloomberg quotes the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) Johnson, who said that the next British government will face problems not seen since the 1950s and that politicians have three ways out of the crisis: painful spending cuts, tax hikes to 80 maximum or significant increase in debt.”
“Labour”-label will probably continue to degrade public services, social security etc. The spending cuts of 2010-2015 began, or began to be planned, under Labour’s, Gordon Brown’s, government in the years prior to 2010.
Look at Rachel Reeves. Is she someone anyone at all would trust to be decent or “caring”? I think not.
If the pensioner bloc believes Labour, that further weakens the Conservative Party ahead of the election.
Incredible. The wonders of Nature…
Our cat friends.
Kick away his (financial) stick. (actually, that clip is from 3 years ago).
“At the beginning of the MPs’ expenses scandal, in June 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that Rosindell “claimed more than £125,000 in second home expenses for a flat in London, while designating his childhood home 17 miles away – where his mother lived – as his main address”, and between “2006 and 2008 claimed the maximum £400 a month for food”.[13] [Wikipedia].
Rosindell also blocked the Parliamentary bill that would have stopped animals being used in circuses. What a horrible person.
Sadly, Rosindell’s seat is Romford, Essex, a safe Con Party constituency.
“This guy is blatantly trying to lose the election – it all fits: Prime Minister reveals radical plan to force 18-year-olds to serve in the military for 12 months – or give up weekends to carry out civil duties. The authoritarian arrogance of this is breathtaking enough and it’s what the Cult wants to impose eventually in an expanded form. But to announce it now is another ruse designed to open the way for his one-party-state fellow operative Starmer into Downing Street.”
Exactly. The NWO/ZOG wants Starmer-Labour to be “elected” (under a rigged system) and to become, thereby, an “elected” dictatorship: fake communitarian, pro-Israel, pro-Jewish lobby, pro-NWO/ZOG, pro the Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalergi_Plan], pro-mass migration-invasion of the UK and the rest of Europe, pro-repression of free speech.
The mask of Evil is dropping.
Not sure which is the more ridiculous— James Cleverly as MP and Cabinet Minister, or James Cleverly as “chocolate soldier”, Lieutenant-Colonel in the Reserves (TA, as was). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cleverly#Military_service.
“Thinking about why the Tories have called the election early despite clearly being in for a drubbing, I agree with @AMercouris of the Duran: the entire establishment is most worried not about Tory v Labour but about the possibility of alternative parties making gains, however small.
The more time that goes by, the more the voters realise how much they hate both the Tories and Labour. If these are the only choices, vast swathes of the people will simply stay away from the polls (as they stayed away from the recent local elections). But if there are alternative candidates from Reform and the Workers party, and those parties have the time to organise their campaigns while the war criminals continue to become ever more unpopular, there’s every chance they could win a few seats.
Even without winning seats, they could prevent Labour from getting its landslide by gaining vote shares in many constituencies that Labour hopes to take from the Tories.
Getting a stable Labour government installed on a low turnout seems to be the main aim of the ruling class right now. It’s been clear they’ve been grooming Starmer as the next PM for a long time. He’s 100% their man – a servile lackey who will commit any crime required and an ultra-zionist. And he has the huge advantage of trade union backing at a time when more and more anti-worker measures are going to be implemented and more aggressive wars launched.
A hung parliament would be a nightmare for this agenda, as would a parliament with anti-EU and/or antiwar troublemakers putting pressure on the ‘uniparty’ loyalists and exacerbating the crisis of legitimacy by making embarrassing demands from the back benches.
Anyone considering whether / how to vote should remember that this election has no ability to solve any of our problems, which stem from the capitalist system itself – from the global capitalist crisis of overproduction (and consequent poverty, unemployment and inflation) and from the desperate imperialist war drive.
The only useful thing you can do with your vote is use it to back Workers Party or independent candidates if they STAND AGAINST NATO, OPPOSE THE LABOUR PARTY, AND OPPOSE THE GENOCIDE IN GAZA.
If we can get a few anti-Nato, anti-genocide MPs in Parliament, it will be a major irritation to the establishment, and a permanent reminder to the British people that their will is ignored by the vast majority of their ‘elected representatives’. If we can help deny Labour the huge majority that the corporate media are confidently predicting, so much the better.”
I agree with the basic premise, but not with the conclusion there. If the Con Party can be all but wiped out this year, left with only a risible rump of deadhead MPs, that may unbalance the whole “2 main parties” System scam, leaving a vacuum that social nationalism may then fill, though not immediately (because no real social-national party exists).
So at least a third, and maybe half of the British public are complete idiots, and/or turkeys voting for Christmas…
One can only speculate as to the group-karmic consequences of the continuing Israeli war crimes.
Late talking point
“…If such authentic souls, such honest anthroposophists can be found … then an upward movement and dynamic will arise. If such souls do not appear, then decadence will take its inexorable downward course… Today humanity stands before a great crisis: either it will see all civilization collapsing into the abyss, or else spirituality will raise civilization up by the power of the Michael impetus, through which the Christ impetus works, thus continuing, enriching and sustaining it.‘” [Rudolf Steiner 1861-1925].
Said one hundred years ago this year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Steiner
Five years or so ago, when I wrote the above blog post, I highlighted a number of possible events that might end, or almost end, our present civilization. A possible and possibly contrived pandemic was one, and one of the others was nuclear war.
Since 2019, the push, mainly in the West, for war, especially war with the Russian Federation, has become almost a clamour.
We look at, perhaps particularly, the First World War, and ask “why on Earth did they do it?“, it seems so senseless on looking back. Yet look now: a ridiculous contrived Russian ogre has been conjured into existence, supposedly threatening Central and Western Europe.
The fact that Russian forces have failed even to crush the corrupt and shambolic regime in Kiev seems not to have dented the “Russia threatens us” narrative. The Russians may have been unable to take or destroy Kiev, but they, we are told, now certainly threaten Warsaw, Berlin, Paris, and London.
There again, Russia today is merely and ordinarily nationalist; there is no inherently-expansionist Marxist-Leninist ideology, as there was during the currency of the Soviet Union.
The whole idea is senseless.
More and more powerful missiles and other arms are being given to the “Ukrainians” (the Jew-Zionist regime in Kiev). Only today, a Russian nuclear early-warning station was destroyed.
Be under no illusions: nuclear war on the strategic level might be triggered by only one incident, leading to an intercontinental nuclear exchange within days. Such an event or series of events has been foretold in major staff college war games over the past 60 years.
Were such a catastrophe to happen, the way back for our whole civilization would be long and hard, if it could even take place. Almost everything we know and live among would cease to exist. 99% of the world’s population, certainly Europe’s, would not survive.
There are forces of Evil behind much of this.
Pull back, before it is too late.
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 