Tag Archives: Sarah Wollaston

Diary Blog, 4 November 2022

Morning music

Probably my favourite Johnny Cash song.

If Johnny Cash were a town, his road sign would very likely say “Cash— twinned with Vysotsky” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Vysotsky; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Cash].

Incidentally, while writing this, I found out that, contrary to what I had read and heard previously, Johnny Cash had no American Indian/Native American ancestry at all but was mainly of Scottish and English ancestry (see that Wikipedia article). Another surprise is that he was apparently a distant cousin of the (UK) Conservative Party MP, Bill Cash [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Cash].

On this day a year ago

See also: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11387999/Merseyside-Pensioner-not-survive-winter-living-squalor-cost-living-crisis-hits-hard.html

Britain 2022— migration-invasion

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11388857/Boy-13-allegedly-raped-hotel-refugees-Waltham-Forest-man-30s-arrested.html

Britain 2022— worthless “university” degrees

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11388619/Fifth-bar-staff-went-university-fuelling-fears-modern-style-degrees-worthless-study-shows.html

One in five bar staff are now graduates and experts say it is because university leavers find it increasingly hard to find professional work.

Nineteen per cent of bar workers went to university, compared with 3 per cent 30 years ago, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) found.

The research, based on data from 6,000 workers, also found that 17 per cent of waiters are graduates, compared with 2 per cent three decades ago.

The same is true of 14 per cent of retail staff, 15 per cent of care workers and 24 per cent of security guards.

It comes amid growing fears that many youngsters are taking ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees, which do not properly prepare them for professional work. Around half of young people now study for a degree.

[Daily Mail]

Not a new problem but one which has undoubtedly become worse over the years. I had a friend in the mid-1980s who told me that all of his colleagues in the Covent Garden branch of Oddbins (a wine —and other booze— chain, now pretty much washed-up) were graduates, as was he himself (in his case, from a leading dance institute).

My solution to both the general dumbing-down (which I noticed when in practice at the Bar, talking to or listening to younger barristers), and to the “Mickey Mouse degree” problem, would be as follows:

Firstly, the State must assess students based on a number of criteria. Those assessed as being in the top 10% to get full grants, both tuition and living; the next 20% to get grants, but at a lower level; the rest to get free tuition but no other help.

Secondly, more (free and/or indeed paid) vocational training for a number of jobs; successful completion to be regarded as degree-equivalent. Examples: medical careers, police, Army, many business-related fields. This was the case until quite recently even in what are now regarded as “degree-only” professions. For example, up to the late 1970s, it was possible to be Called to the Bar without a degree (by doing a 2-year, rather than 1-year, Bar Finals course). The same was true of the solicitors’ profession.

It would be short-sighted for the State only to fund the hard sciences, or quite strictly vocational degrees such as law or medicine, but there have to be priorities set, and if (as now) there is a near-emergency in relation to shortages of nurses and doctors, then that is one area that must surely be prioritized.

The whole educational field needs a reboot. Some parts of it, indeed, just need “the boot”.

Tweets seen

I have mentioned hypocrite Bryant several times over the years on this blog. No point in exposing his deceit again…

As blogged previously, the NHS is a fine idea, is still often good, but is now a shoestring service, the main selling point of which is that it is free at point of use. It needs root and branch reform.

Britain 2022— the decline of philosophy

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11389953/Should-save-dying-stranger-know-eat-MEAT.html

Worth reading that report, because it shows how simplistic ideas can make monkeys out of what Hitler called “erudite apes“.

Trans nonsense— more pushback

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11389979/Should-let-people-identify-dragons-plants-DISASBLED.html

I was onto this issue years ago on the blog: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2018/11/15/when-reality-becomes-subjective/.

More tweets

Liam Fox: corrupt, a Conservative Friends of Israel member, not a nice person in several ways. Blots like this purport to rule over better people.

Never trust a doctor who becomes a politician: Liam Fox, Sarah Wollaston, Hastings Banda (fed opponents to the crocodiles), Papa Doc Duvalier (murderous dictator of Haiti), David Owen (CIA/NWO), Che Guevara (murderous Communist revolutionary) etc.

The more I read or hear about “Jack Monroe”, the “Bootstrap Cook”, the less (it seems to me) her whole story and set-up stacks up. I recently blogged about her (I do not accept the stupid “they” pronoun nonsense), and so have little to add today.

“Ukraine” is merely the convenient field of action for the latest NWO/ZOG attempt to control Russia. The struggle has been going on since at least 1989, and arguably far longer.

Late tweets seen

…”the lunacy of their solution“…which, in relation to the “panicdemic” meant shutting down the economy of the UK —and much of the Western world— for 1-2 years (now, a year or three on, about to cause a massive recession and maybe slump), making everyone wear completely useless facemasks, making people line up outside supermarkets 6 feet apart (until the were inside…and while going to the pub opposite was fine…); not to mention the ludicrous “Rule of Six” made up by “Boris”-idiot, and then of course, finally, the “vaccinations” and “boosters”, which scarcely impact “Covid” but which have caused an epidemic of heart attacks and other “excess deaths” across the world.

..as are the “Conservatives”. Two faces of the System.

Pathetic, nicht wahr? Here we have the very richest man in the world, valued at USD 195 BILLION (£171 Billion) i.e. $195 thousand million (!), an intelligent man, and not a conformist, yet he is allowing a pack of Jews to dictate to him, and/or (via large companies and advertisers) to blackmail him.

Note the (((typical))) desire to censor, to punish, and to recruit sneaks and informers.

I used to know parts of the Netherlands fairly well, about 40 or so years ago. My Dutch friends have, over the years, seen their city (Amsterdam) and country trashed, and their way of life ruined both culturally and economically: migration invasion, toleration of marijuana (etc), and a pseudo-liberal multikulti State and society which pretends to be terribly compassionate etc, but has evil at its heart. The medical and health system is but one example.

Yes, there are still foreigners who move to Amsterdam, think it wonderful etc, just as there is always a new generation of naive provincials who come to London, and think it great (for a while).

By the way, some readers will recall that the Jewish lobby got Alison Chabloz banned from entering France for 40 years, if I recall aright.

Late music

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

Three Blind Mice, See How They Run: Conservative Party MPs Defect to the “Independent Group”

Three Blind Mice, See How They Run

Three Conservative Party MPs, Anna Soubry, Heidi Allen and Sarah Wollaston, have defected to the Independent Group. All three have cited “no-deal” Brexit (which they oppose) as the triggering fact.

I have blogged twice already about IG in the past few days and also blogged recently about possible splits in both main System parties:

https://ianrmillard.wordpress.com/2019/02/14/will-both-main-parties-of-the-system-split-will-new-parties-emerge/

https://ianrmillard.wordpress.com/2019/02/18/cabal-of-7-zionist-mps-leave-the-labour-party-good-riddance/

https://ianrmillard.wordpress.com/2019/02/19/the-independent-group-of-mps/

The three apparently intend to sit as Independents. They could have done that without pledging allegiance to IG, so presumably they look forward to IG becoming a registered political party, so that they can fight under its banner with a greater chance of retaining their seats in the House of Commons.

Heidi Allen

I start with the least experienced but also (the one I take to be) the best of the three. Heidi Allen has shown, in her stance on social security/welfare issues, that she has a social conscience lacking in most Conservative MPs (though her actual voting record has been patchy); in other areas she has shown a certain shallowness (she seems to favour so-called “refugees”). In other areas yet, I also disagree with her views: she is pro-EU and pro-abortion.

Her constituency, South Cambridgeshire, is safe Con territory, which she has made more safe: in her 2 elections, she has garnered 51.1% and 51.8% of the votes cast, whereas Andrew Lansley, her predecesssor, only got between 42% and 48% in his 4 elections (1997-2010).

How many votes will follow Heidi Allen, I have no idea. At one time, the Liberal Democrats showed strongly in South Cambridgeshire: their vote did not collapse in 2015, despite being at half of its 2010 level, and recovered slightly to 18.6% in 2017. Labour got 27.2% in 2017.

If Heidi Allen faces a new Conservative candidate, she will probably go down unless a large number of former LibDem and Labour voters switch to her. An uphill struggle though not impossible.

Anna Soubry

The oldest (62) and best-known of the three: a former local TV face, mainly in the East Midlands region. She was a TV reporter and presenter from age 25 to age 39 (1995), after which, having graduated in Law in the 1970s, she became a barrister, doing criminal cases. As far as I know, she was in the lower ranks even of the criminal Bar, but practised for about 12-13 years until elected to Parliament in 2010.

Anna Soubry seems to be one of the “fiscally conservative, socially liberal” crowd (anathema to me, of course): eg she favours both fracking and “equal marriage” (marriage of gays and lesbians).

Accused by many —and more than once— of having been drunk at Westminster (she denied the allegations), she threatened on Twitter (before I was expelled), to sue me, for referring to her as “the MP for Plymouth and Angostura”! That threat never materialized. Perhaps it was just the drink talking…

Anna Soubry is known for her rudeness of speech and for her opposition to what she is pleased to call “xenophobia”, i.e. she either supports or does not oppose mass immigration into the UK.

Broxtowe, Anna Soubry’s constituency, is a Con-Lab marginal, held by Labour 1997-2010. Anna Soubry scored 48.6% in 2017, perhaps helped by her numerous TV appearances on BBC Question Time etc. The Labour vote was 45.3%. Majority: 863. The other parties are of no importance. Anna Soubry might be able to get enough votes to win through, but the more likely result is that Labour takes the seat next time.

Sarah Wollaston

The most independent, superficially, of the three, Sarah Wollaston was selected as candidate following an “open primary” election held by her local Conservative Party branch. She was helped to election by her former occupation as a doctor (general practitioner), the profession consistently rated as “most trusted” in opinion polls.

Like the other two examined here, Sarah Wollaston is another one who is “fiscally conservative, socially liberal”, favouring “choice” (ie pro-abortion), not opposing mass immigration, supporting “equal marriage” etc (and calling its opponents “bigots”). Indeed, she is rather intolerant of opposing views: she blocked me on Twitter, without my ever having tweeted to her, but I cannot now recall whether her intolerance was triggered by my opposition to mass immigration or whether it had something to do with the “holocaust” mythus.

Sarah Wollaston is not as strongly pro-EU as the other two MPs, but seems to oppose mainly the “no deal” or “WTO” exit/Brexit path.

Sarah Wollaston’s carefully-crafted “liberalism” does not seem to extend to the poor or those in receipt of State benefits. She mostly voted for the punitive measures introduced by Iain Dunce Duncan Smith and his cohorts (eg bedroom tax, eg removal of lifetime tenancies of council housing).

Sarah Wollaston’s constituency, Totnes, is the only one of the three which I know personally. I appeared in 2006 as Counsel in the small magistrates’ court there several times (on behalf of South West Water, the utility company, which stood accused of minor corporate offences), and have many times visited the town. Totnes could be described as a town for affluent, well-educated (many bookshops, a Rudolf Steiner school nearby) and somewhat liberal-minded people.

Politically, Totnes has been Conservative since 1923 (though the present seat was only created in 1997, the previous one having been expunged in 1981), with the Liberals and then Liberal Democrats coming in strongly in second place until 2015. The LibDem vote collapsed then and did not much recover in 2017. In 2015, UKIP took second place with 14% of the vote (LibDems last out of five), while in 2017, Labour was second on 26.8% (LibDems third).

Sarah Wollaston’s vote has been consistently higher than scored by the previous Conservative MP, Anthony Steen (his father changed name from Stein), a rich Jew who had to resign during the pre-2010 expenses scandal.

Sarah Wollaston has the best chance, out of the three defector MPs, of retaining her seat. She is a truly local candidate (has lived there since the early 1990s), reflects the socio-political attitudes of many locals, and will probably be able to rely on many former LibDem and Labour tactical votes when opposed by a new Conservative candidate. However, in what could be a fairly tight 4-way split, anything is possible.

Final thoughts

These three MPs will sit as Independents until or unless the Independent Group becomes a registered party. The only one I would put any money on to retain her seat would be Sarah Wollaston. In any case, all three have a fallback position: Heidi Allen’s family has a successful motorbike paint company, Anna Soubry’s personal “partner” is a director of the Morrison’s supermarket business, while Sarah Wollaston remains a doctor (though non-practising since 2010) and her husband is an NHS psychiatrist.

Notes

https://ianrmillard.wordpress.com/2019/02/16/tactical-voting-the-only-way-around-the-first-past-the-post-electoral-system-but-it-may-be-pointless-anyway/

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/20/tory-mps-defect-independent-group-soubry-allen-wollaston

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Allen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Cambridgeshire_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Soubry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broxtowe_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Wollaston

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totnes_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s

https://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?constituency=Totnes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Steen

Afterthought

The fact that the absurd, leaderless, policy-free “Independent Group” is now already running at 14% in the opinion polls tells me that the British people are getting desperate for change, perhaps any change. Social nationalism is now in with a real chance.

Twitter reaction

https://twitter.com/donklion/status/1099097602254127104

https://twitter.com/DavidvanRooyen/status/1098229479598669824

Update, 7 August 2022

Well, much water under bridge in the intervening three and a half years.

As we know, the General Election of 2019 swept away the members of the “Independent Group”, which by then had changed name to “Change UK”: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_UK.

Of those mentioned in the above blog post, Anna Soubry came third, with 8.5%, at the General Election [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broxtowe_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s], Sarah Wollaston managed a second-placed 28.8%, having defected yet again, this time to the LibDems [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totnes_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2010s], and Heidi Allen, who also defected to the LibDems, decided to step down before the General Election: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidi_Allen#Parliamentary_career. The LibDem then selected came a fairly close second in that election.