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Diary Blog, 5 November 2025, with thoughts about a European war, the next UK General Election, and Islamist terrorism in the UK and throughout Western/Central Europe. Also, the latest about incompetent/negligent/dishonest solicitor, “Mark Lewis Lawyer”

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Afternoon music

Thought

Today is the 5th of November, the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot.

Tweets seen

If the NWO/ZOG elements ruling parts of Western and Central Europe foment a war with Russia, and if that then turns nuclear, do not expect the USA to “have your back”, as people now say.

Of course, the number of Islamist fanatics willing to take direct action, or act as support squad for terrorists, is small, perhaps as small as 1% of the whole Muslim population, and perhaps only 0.1%. There are, in the UK, something like 4M-5M Muslims in the UK, so that would mean that between 4,000-50,000 are a serious danger. It also means that the others are not, but is it acceptable to us to harbour even 4,000 dangerous individuals, let alone 50,000? Those numbers, of course, will increase, along with the expansion of the Muslim population via both births and immigration (whether “legal” or not).

As regular readers will know, I have always been opposed to extreme Jew-Zionist elements, but the UK and Europe harbour several different enemy elements, not just one, nor even two.

“Terrorism” can take many forms. It can be, for example, just blacks attacking English/British people for reasons not purely political or religious, and the perpetrators may be crazed or semi-crazed.

See also my assessment of the pathetic “Prevent” programme, penned as long ago as 2018:

One Man’s “Extremism” is Another Man’s Struggle for Liberty and Justice

…(and LibDems 13%; Greens 12%).

That translates to a Commons with about 401 Reform MPs (fairly massive majority), 71 Labour, 56 LibDems, 45 SNP, 27 Cons, 14 Greens (etc).

Does anyone really imagine that the domestic political situation will suddenly change, and that Lab or Con will suddenly rise up again? I doubt it, and I doubt that that will happen. Indeed, after the Budget of “Rachel from Accounts and Customer Relations” Reeves, there is every chance that Labour will sink lower in the opinion polls. The once-great Conservative Party, meanwhile, is a not very interesting irrelevance. Its one strong card is the pensioner vote, but many of “a certain age” (not only 66+ but —I should say— 55+) look upon this country and despair…and blame both of the main “old parties” for what has happened and for what is continuing to happen.

There is also the point that, by 2029, many of the 2024 Con voters will have reached the end of their lives. They will not be voting.

Reform is underwhelming, but is the only game in town (in England) that is not Lib, Lab, or Con, that has a chance at all, and that is not basically a more-or-less pro-Muslim offshoot of Labour (Corbyn’s “Your Party”, and Galloway’s “Workers’ Party”).

It is an open question how many MPs might be gained by the two small offshoots of Labour, and by the Greens. Perhaps a total of, in the region of, 20 or 30. Not more, as far as I can see.

So far, Corbyn’s “Your Party” has not appeared in opinion polling. It may eventually get 2 or 3 MPs, it may get 10 or more. Hard to say. Of course, anyone voting “Your Party” would otherwise vote Labour or Green; the Reform ascendancy will not be affected.

However, Reform’s time in the sun may be very limited, should it reach government. Tice and Farage (and Matt Goodwin) are almost ludicrously pro-Jewish lobby and pro-Israel, and that may help them into government by limiting the msm opposition to them. However, in government it would be a very limiting factor, in my view.

Likewise, Tice, the likely Chancellor, has refused to rule out dumping the Triple Lock on State pensions. If the Triple Lock goes, so does about 3/4 of the Reform vote. A Reform government might well be a one-term government.

Then there is migration invasion. Reform has pledged to remove some “illegal” immigrants, “small boat” invaders (or some of them) etc, but that will not touch most non-Europeans in the UK; certainly not those born here, and not those here “legally”. That makes Reform almost a waste of space even if they could remove the hundreds of thousands of “illegals”.

Out of a Reform government, though, as an offshoot, might grow something better.

Incidentally, I see quite a few tweets from anti-Reform tweeters all saying about how tactical voting can prevent Reform getting seats, as at Caerphilly. Not very convincing.

Caerphilly was a long-time Labour stronghold, but Plaid was usually/always in second place, and not only in the Senedd constituency; also in the Westminster one: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caerphilly_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2020s.

The Plaid candidate was also a strong one, with roots in the area going back half a century.

In most English constituencies, there is no one obvious alternative to Reform or the main System parties. In 50-100, the LibDems would be the beneficiaries of tactical voting and, to some extent, already are. That is unlikely to be the case in most.

If Reform can get even 250 seats, far less than a Commons majority, it will still cripple the main parties. Give the LibDems 100, and all the other parties will have to split the 300 remaining. Lab and Con might split between them about 200 or so.

More tweets seen

[“IS THERE REALLY RACISM IN THE NHS?… Let me tell you a story, my partner works in a dementia care home, to circumvent paying decent wages they import Africans en mass via an agency , they subsidise their accommodation and some meals too, (my partner gets no help with her accommodation or meals and is on minimum wage) none of the 5 that were brought in can speak English clearly which causes frustration for sometimes hard of hearing dementia residents desperate to talk to someone. There is no time spent with the residents , they sit for hours on end with zero stimulation or interaction from staff who just congregate in a staff room for a chat, my partner (not a carer) sometimes hears heartbreaking stories from the residents and nearly all of them relating to not being able to understand what the carers are asking them to do. This overuse of agency staff from other countries is common in the NHS too where similar complaints have been reported, so instead of labelling us all as “racists” why not consider employing people WE CAN FUCKING UNDERSTAND! and pay them correctly.”]

I happened to be in a large NHS hospital recently a couple of times (not as patient). Dystopian. Car parking near-impossible to navigate and also very expensive.

The hospital itself was a giant rabbit warren, expanded several times over the decades, and with yet more building going on, but without even a basic reception or information desk (despite the huge size of the complex), and no-one working there had much idea even where any particular unit was, or how to get there. Signage terrible.

Endless corridors filled with mostly non-European staff (in uniform) and masses of very poor-looking, drably-dressed English people, presumably mostly visitors. A vision of a kind of hell, in short.

I hope that that dystopian vision is not the future for all or much of our country, but I rather feel that it is, unless something truly truly radical happens fairly soon.

[“Yesterday in Westminster, I asked the Chancellor if she would publish a tax contribution breakdown by nationality. We know the data exists, as Restore Britain has obtained the same unpublished information for ethnicity through FOI requests (see below). The gasps in Parliament were telling. How could someone even dare to ask the question? What a monster Lowe is… I’ve previously asked the minister about the analysis, and I was told… “HMRC do not publish individual level analysis of Income Tax brackets by (a) ethnicity or (b) nationality.” They may not publish it, but they certainly have it – as we’ve proven. So why the deception? Why won’t the Government release nationality stats on tax? Are Somalians paying the same amount of tax on average as Australians or Americans? I doubt it, to be honest. It’s a scandal. We’ve got some of the data. Now we must demand the nationality figures.“]

“Mark Lewis Lawyer”— latest

Long-term readers of the blog will remember the quite many posts centring on the egregious UK/Israel-based solicitor, Mark Lewis. Anyone not au fait can use the search box on the blog. The same goes for successful libel claimant, James Wilson, whose matter Wilson v. Mendelsohn, Newbon (deceased) and Cantor not only ended well for him, but badly for the Jewish defendants, one of whom killed himself (he had deceived his wife about the case and stood to lose his home after having been misadvised), and another of which now stands to lose his home, he having been misled as well as misadvised by negligent, incompetent, and thoroughly dishonest Jewish lawyer and Israel fanatic Lewis (probably with others).

Wilson won his case after he was conspired against by a whole pack of Jews, several of which are prolific (and, of course, pro-Israel etc) on Twitter/X. Details about them can be found, as noted, via the blog search box.

Latest tweets:

Believe one Jew and not another (closely connected with the first one)? Nein danke!

At one time, long ago, there were effectively no Muslims in New York City (or State) and, while there were many Jews, they were largely kept in their box, unable to take over politics, the legal system etc. That was, as I said, long long ago…

Look now. As a matter of fact, look at the way London has gone and is going.

All races that presently exist must eventually be subordinated to the rule of a super-race that does not, at present, exist.

The task of present-day European humanity is to create the conditions, not for that super-race, but for a racial grouping that will be the ur-foundation for the coming super-race.

More music

Late tweets seen

We have plenty of walls and, when the right time comes, people will know what to do at the direction of a social-national government.

Were he not a sinister little power-crazed bureaucrat, Starmer-stein would be a joke.

I was once a great supporter of the NHS (and the BBC, for that matter). I have not changed, they have, and indeed have become utterly useless much of the time. Said more in sorrow than in anger; both, really.

Ha. Not sure I agree with point 3. Polls show young people are generally more tolerant of mass immigration than those of my age (69). I attribute that (if so) mainly to the brainwashing they all get in the otherwise ineffective UK school system, especially the State-run schools.

Pretty silly of those “tolerant” young people, though. I wonder when it will dawn on them that mass immigration is a major reason why their work is badly paid (huge low-grade labour pool), why working-age State benefits are worth less now than they were in 1985, why rents are sky-high and council housing all but unobtainable (massive demand from millions of immigrants and their offspring added to existing English/British demand).

Late blog post by Nick Griffin

https://nickgriffin544956.substack.com/p/remember-remember-the-5th-of-november

Well worth reading.

Late music

[Soviet T-34 tank in action, Eastern Front/Ostfront, 1943]
Alt-Right, Bob Moran, Campaign Against AntiSemitism, Conservative Friends of Israel, daily blog, Defence, diary blog, free speech, historical, historical revisionism, Ian Millard, Jewish lobby in UK, Katie Hopkins, Labour Friends of Israel, Matt Goodwin, Rishi Sunak, Russia and Russian relations, society, Tommy Robinson, Tommy Robinson, Uncategorized

Diary Blog, 23 April 2024

14 Comments

St. George’s Day

Morning music

[Blues and Royals, London]

Tweets seen

Why would any organization want to subject its staff to a programme of socio-political brainwashing by Jew-Zionists, especially a dishonest and malicious pack such as the so-called “Campaign Against Antisemitism” [“CAA”]?

The next time that the “CAA” “executives” Falter and Silverman give sworn testimony in a criminal or civil legal case, they should be robustly cross-examined about finances, including how much they themselves are being paid for their disgusting activities.

The “CAA” is effectively a volunteer arm of the Israeli Embassy in London.

There must be an investigation into, not only that recent piece of street theatre by Falter, but also into, and more importantly, the hooks that the “CAA” cabal have got into the police, CPS, TV people, radio people, and newspaper scribblers, not to mention both “Labour” and “Conservative” political facades, right up to the little Indian money-juggler presently posing as Prime Minister.

More tweets

That chart shows very clearly just how disastrous, economically, the war with the German Reich was for Britain. If only Britain had had real statesmen able to see ahead, unlike stumbling, bumbling Churchill, whose military and naval ideas were rock-bottom (Gallipoli in WW1, and in WW2 Norway, Greece, Crete, Singapore etc), and whose social ideas were antiquated and unreal.

As the under-rated historian Correlli Barnett said in several of his books, after 1945 the UK had the choice of trying to maintain its worldwide Empire and being a major power, and/or of regenerating its economy and particularly its industrial manufacturing sector, and/or of creating a Welfare State. Only two (any two) of the three were possible of full achievement, but Britain tried to undertake all three simultaneously; that strategy failed, or partially failed. It had not the means (because of the War) to succeed in all three. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlli_Barnett.

Entirely typical of “them”. In the UK, such harassment and covert hostility is undertaken in a similar manner, mainly via Jew-Zionist groups such as the “Campaign Against Antisemitism”.

Apart from all the other lies of Gideon Falter, if he claims that he was taking a stroll after having attended a synagogue, that must also be untrue. Other Jews have said that Falter was out and about long before what the Jews call “schul” would have ended.

Also, as a former long-term near-Central London resident, I am unaware of any synagogue in the area around where Falter was performing his political street-theatre nuisance (in Aldwych); and even if I am wrong on that, as far as I know Falter lives mainly in the St. John’s Wood neighbourhood of NW London (quite close to my one-time home in Little Venice, London W9). There is a large synagogue in St. John’s Wood Road, and another one in Lauderdale Road, Maida Vale. Both far from the Aldwych/Kingsway area of London; miles away. How would any stroll take him that way, even forgetting about the ex-MOSSAD security staff and the film crew?

Falter, like all his “CAA” co-conspirators, is a liar, and an abuser of the legal system (and mainstream media) of this country.

More tweets

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ck7l3zy7z3no

“Insp Parker-Phipps, whose laptop battery was “dying”, put the order in place at 10:00 GMT on November 26, but accidentally dated the form for November 24.

Mr Robinson’s defence lawyer, Alisdair Williamson KC, told the court there had been a “litany of catastrophic errors” in the Met’s handling of the incident.

Questioning the inspector, Mr Williamson said: “This document is not correct is it?

“Can we have any confidence that there was a lawful order in place?”

To which the inspector replied: “No.”

Giving his ruling, District Judge Daniel Sternberg said: “I am not satisfied there was a legal authorisation.

“There is no case for you to answer.”

The hearing was attended by numerous supporters of Mr Robinson who filled the public gallery.“

[BBC]

So the policeman directly in question, of the rank of inspector, wrongly-dated the crucial document? He also admitted —without equivocation— in court not only that he had wrongly-dated the document but, further, that that probably meant that the Order purportedly authorized had thereby been rendered unlawful.

What an unusually-helpful police witness. “Tommy Robinson” must have been born under a lucky star. Or something.

Much truth in that, but the elephant in the room that “Robinson” never mentions is the pervasive Israeli and Jewish influence in the UK.

Like Katie Hopkins, and a whole host of other “alt-Right” and similar activists, Robinson always seems to take the Israeli/Jewish/Zionist side of a false dichotomy.

There is a Jewish police organization which seems to have plenty of influence: see below— “CAA” liar Gideon Falter influencing (?) former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, at Scotland Yard:

Finchley Road, so again in that Swiss Cottage/St. John’s Wood part of London.

No different from what Jewish terror squads did in Palestine/Israel in the 1940s. They blew up buildings, kidnapped and murdered British soldiers, and “ethnically-cleansed” whole villages, towns, and cities.

In Europe, Jewish terrorists even tried to poison the water supplies of London and some German cities, as well as attempting to bomb London indiscriminately, trying to kill as many British people as possible.

Incidentally, such Jewish terrorism, and other “activism”, did not come about by reason of the events of the Second World War. In 1933, as soon as the NSDAP under Adolf Hitler came to power, the web of “World Jewry” declared war on the new Germany. They, if you like, drew first blood.

More tweets seen

Australia now is very different to the affluent and generally relaxed country I saw in the late 1960s. Controlled and tied down in so many ways, and far more stressed. Sydney itself has twice or more the population it had back then (then about 2M, now 5M+).

Another aspect that strikes (and puzzles) me is the almost caricature “Aussie” accent many now sport, including most of their politicians. That never used to be the case, not to that extent, as far as I can recall. There was a “strine”, yes, but it has become more accentuated, in fact almost become a joke, as one can hear from the woman in that clip.

From the newspapers

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-asked-man-pub-guess-32649993

“A furious mum glassed a man in the face at a pub after he guessed she was four years older than she was.

Joanne Dodd launched her attack on Carl Cooper after he suggested she might be 43, when she was actually 39. The pair were having a light-hearted exchange in a Manchester pub beer garden before Carl went to the toilet to try and get away from an offended Joanne. But when he returned, she ran towards him twice and pushed her wine glass into his face, leaving him with a 10cm cut that narrowly missed his eye and needed stitches, as well as an injury to his thumb.

Manchester Crown Court heard Dodd was suffering from ‘low self esteem’ and was drinking heavily at the time of the attack. The mum-of-one pleaded guilty to inflicting grievous bodily harm, facing up to three years in jail under sentencing guidelines. But Judge Elizabeth Nicholls instead gave her a suspended sentence, explaining that despite there being no excuse for the crime, she could see that Dodd, who has no previous convictions, was a ‘hard working woman’, ‘loving mother’ and posed ‘no risk to the public’.

“Dodd was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 12 months and was ordered to complete 180 hours of unpaid work and pay £800 in compensation to her victim.“

[Daily Mirror]

So a woman who twice pushed a glass into the face of (what seems to have been) a complete stranger poses “no risk to the public“?

I suppose that it could be argued that the sentence is not unjust: the victim will (presumably) get that £800, and 180 hours of serf labour is pretty stiff, but the idea that such a defendant poses “no risk” is surely demonstrably untrue.

I suppose, also, that the only way to test the verdict of that judge is the method suggested by the judge to the jury in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury:

“she says that when in drink, he hits her and kicks her; well, gentlemen of the jury, let’s make him tipsy…and see!“

I think that the courts must start getting tough on violent crime, including violence committed in social settings such as pubs, and not infrequently by drunken women these days.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/homeless-woman-living-disused-bus-32651909?int_source=nba

“A homeless woman says living in a bus shelter with her boyfriend and mum is safer than being put in temporary housing with drug addicts.

 ‘I’ve got a chest of drawers, a carpet.’ The family will now have to move out after Transport for West Midlands announced it was demolishing the bus shelter within weeks.

Destiny added: “They’ve said we’ve got a month left and they’re going to destroy it. I’ve been in here a long time, I don’t want them to destroy my home, we haven’t got anywhere else to live. If the council doesn’t help us we’re going to try and move into another bus stop.“

[Daily Mirror]

Britain in 2024…

More tweets

Ha ha. If that little twerp thinks that the millions of Ukrainians now living in Poland, Germany, and many other countries are going to return to the brutal, corrupt, and shambolic dictatorship of Zelensky and the regime in Kiev, let alone join its ebbing armed forces, he is living in a land of fantasy.

Either this summer or later, there will be a general advance by Russian forces, moving north and west across Eastern Ukraine; perhaps even an approach or “podstup” near to Kiev itself, which region is now heavily defended.

The Kiev-regime forces are now entirely on the defensive, without the ability, troops or other means to attempt an advance, still less any offensive, after the failure of the last and half-hearted one in 2023. All they can do is launch occasional missile attacks on Russian territory, with the aim of causing a certain amount of damage to refineries, train lines, bridges etc.

Late music

Crowdfunder

If you are able to donate to my crowdfunder (to defray the Court-imposed costs of my recent free speech trial), thank you; if not, please share the link:

https://www.givesendgo.com/GC14J

Alt-Right, Brexit, Conservative Friends of Israel, daily blog, Defence, diary blog, elections, free speech, historical, Ian Millard, immigration, Jewish lobby in UK, MPs, Party Politics, Paul Golding, Reminiscences and Musings, Russia and Russian relations, society, The Great Replacement, Uncategorized

Diary Blog, 24 February 2024, including some thoughts about Ashfield constituency and Lee Anderson MP

10 Comments

Morning music

[river Moskva, upstream of Moscow]

Saturday quiz

This week brings a narrow victory over political journalist John Rentoul. He scored 5/10, but I trumped that with 6/10. I did not know the answers to questions 1, 2, 3, and 8.

From the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13118755/Fertility-rate-plunges-time-low.html

“Women are having fewer children than ever before, official figures revealed today. 

Office for National Statistics data shows the fertility rate — the average number of children a woman has — in England and Wales slumped to 1.49 in 2022. 

It marks the lowest figure since records began in 1938, laying bare the reality of the ongoing baby bust that threatens to cripple the economy. 

Not a single one of the 330-plus authorities in both countries has a fertility rate that is above ‘replacement level’, according to MailOnline analysis.“

[Daily Mail]

When one considers that (overall) the blacks and browns etc are having children, the birthrate among white people (“the people formerly known as British”) is seen more clearly as being at a rock-bottom level.

See also: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/26/the-tide-is-coming-in-reflections-on-the-possible-end-of-our-present-civilization-and-what-might-follow/.

More from the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13119039/MP-Bob-Stewart-conviction-racially-aggravated-offence-quashed.html

“An MP has had his conviction for racially aggravated offense quashed after he told an activist to ‘go back to Bahrain.’

Bob Stewart, MP for Beckenham in south-east London, made the remark towards activist Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei during a row outside the Foreign Office’s Lancaster House on December 14 2022. 

Last November, Mr Stewart was convicted for a racially aggravated public order offence and was fined £600. Following the conviction, Mr Stewart lost the Tory whip and has since sat in the House of Commons as an independent. 

Now, following an appeal, his conviction has been overturned today at Southwark Crown Court.”

[Daily Mail]

One has to wonder how absolutely stupid are the police and Crown Prosecution Service that this was ever brought to a trial. Mad.

Incidentally, note that the Daily Mail wannabee “journalist” scribbler spells “offence” as “offense“, American-style, in the first line. Newspapers have declined in every way since the 1970s.

As for my own conviction under the very stupid Communications Act 2003, s.127 (trial was on 17 November 2023), I am due to be sentenced in a few weeks’ time. After that, I shall have 3 weeks in which to decide whether to appeal to the Crown Court.

Tweets seen

Britain Occupied territory

For me, what is most alarming is that dim people like Hoyle can get to some of the highest-status positions in our country and society.

At least he is an animal-lover in his private life. I can approve of that.

Paul Golding/Britain First is only partly correct. While Islamism is a threat to the UK, so is Jew-Zionism, which is far more embedded in the power structure. Paul Golding always attacks the one but not the other, which may be one reason why Britain First has a poor electoral record; most recently, 1.6% at the Wellingborough by-election, only 8th out of 11 candidates.

At Wellingborough, Britain First’s 8th-placed position came after Labour, Conservative, Reform, LibDems, an Independent, Greens, and another Independent, only beating the Monster Raving Loony and two more Independents. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellingborough_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2020s.

Only one caveat: I do not know whether those numbers are inflation-adjusted.

“By sending long-range “Taurus” cruise missiles to Ukraine, they will make Germany part of the Ukrainian conflict, German politician Sara Wagenknecht told the German media.

“You really think that if we deliver more weapons, the Ukrainians will be able to drive the Russians out of Crimea? Do you think Russia, a nuclear power, will allow that? If we bring war to Russia with German weapons, then we will also bring war to Germany,” she said.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahra_Wagenknecht. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahra_Wagenknecht#Refugee_policy. Interesting.

Sara Wagenknecht only finished her secondary education in 1988, a year before the collapse of the DDR (and, incidentally, the same year in which I myself saw the country, though only briefly), so she could not have been a member of the Aufklärung (the foreign intelligence component of the State Security apparat or “Stasi“). Had she been older, one might wonder.

Lee Anderson, and Ashfield (Derbyshire)

The maverick MP has been suspended from being under the Conservative Party whip.

Naturally, I do not agree with his statement that London is “run by Muslims”. Sadiq Khan is from a Muslim background, but has been pretty much in the Jew-Zionist pocket for many years.

It would be more accurate to characterize Sadiq Khan as “anti-white”.

As to Anderson himself, I suggest that he is trying to bolster his position vis a vis the General Election expected later this year.

Until 2019, Ashfield had always been won by Labour since its inception in 1955, with one closely-run by-electoral exception in 1977. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashfield_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2020s. “New Labour” and Gloria de Piero changed all that.

David Marquand, a former MP for Ashfield (1966-1977; he is still alive, at 89): “Originally a tentative supporter of Blair’s New Labour, he has since become a trenchant critic, arguing that “New Labour has ‘modernised’ the social-democratic tradition out of all recognition”, even while retaining the over-centralisation and disdain for the radical intelligentsia of the old “Labourite” tradition.” [Wikipedia]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Marquand.

Marquand defected to the SDP and then was honourable enough to step down as MP, not contesting the by-election.

In fact, Marquand was himself rather intellectual:

“Marquand addressed Britain’s relative economic decline in The Unprincipled Society (1988) and The New Reckoning (1997). He argued that this decline was caused by Britain’s failure to become a developmental state like France, Germany and Japan. In those countries state intervention had encouraged industrial development and had facilitated the necessary adjustments to competition. Britain, however, was wedded to an economic liberalism which prevented the state from undertaking the necessary measures to meet the country’s developmental needs.[7] In The New Reckoning Marquand claimed: “The economies that have succeeded more spectacularly have been those fostered by developmental states, where public power, acting in concert with private interest, has induced market forces to flow in the desired direction”.[8]” [Wikipedia].

In fact, Ashfield is not quite as “safe Labour” as the history might suggest superficially. Gloria de Piero won in 2010 by a majority of under half a point (0.4%, 192 votes) from a LibDem.

While de Piero’s majority increased in 2015 (as the LibDems imploded), in 2017 she beat the Conservative candidate by less than one point (0.9%, 441 votes). An Ashfield Independent came third with over 9% of the vote.

In 2019, Lee Anderson won convincingly: 39.3% of the vote, followed in second (27.6%) by another “Ashfield Independent”, Jason Zadrozny [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Zadrozny], who has had a chequered political and personal history. In third place came Labour, with only 24.4%.

Zadrozny is going to contest the seat at GE 2024.

So far, apart from Anderson (who may or may not be standing as Conservative Party candidate, depending on whether he gets back the Conservative whip), only the Ashfield Independent and Reform UK are presently known to be likely to stand at GE 2024, but a full field is almost guaranteed. There may be a dozen or more candidates.

At first, I thought that Anderson could probably be written off as post-GE 2024 MP, but now am not so sure. He has now (whether by design or not) distanced himself from the unpopular Conservative leadership —and possibly from the equally-unpopular Conservative Party— is anti-EU, anti-migration invasion etc, and is now known nationwide. He must have at least a chance of retaining his seat. If he does, and if he also retains it as a “Conservative” MP, he might be one of 100 or even as few as 50 such MPs. Who knows what might then happen?

[Update, 13 October 2024: In the end, what happened at GE 2024 was that Lee Anderson stood as Reform UK candidate, and won handsomely with 42.8% of the vote. He is thus now one of 5 Reform UK MPs. The Labour candidate came a poor second with 29%; third place, with 15.7%, went to that Independent, Zadrozny, who faces yet another Crown Court trial soon, in February 2025: numerous charges of fraud and income tax evasion, as well as possession of cocaine): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashfield_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections_in_the_2020s].

More tweets seen

(April 2023)

(February 2024)

“Bye...”

They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha Ha!

Richard Tice

“Mr Tice said there is “anger amongst ordinary folk about the state of the country”.

He said: “There’s no love for Keir Starmer, there’s just a deep rejection and utter fury with the toxic Tories.“

[Daily Express]

To that limited extent, I agree with Tice.

Late music

[painting by Victor Ostrovsky]