Tag Archives: State pension

Alt-Right, Campaign Against AntiSemitism, daily blog, Defence, diary blog, elections, environment, free speech, Ian Millard, Jewish lobby in UK, Party Politics, Russia and Russian relations, Sam Melia, Sam Melia, society, Sven Longshanks, Sven Longshanks, the Great Reset, Uncategorized

Diary Blog, 29 May 2023

3 Comments

Morning music

[painting by Laurent Parcelier]

Reminders

Diary Blog, 15 January 2022, including an outline of the failure of the latest Jew-Zionist attempt to prosecute me
The Slide of the English Bar and UK Society Continues and Accelerates
When I was a victim of a malicious Zionist complaint…

Statement

Readers of this blog who spend time on Twitter may have noticed comment triggered by the tweet below, tweeted recently by the small but well-funded (and malicious) Jew-Zionist org known as the “Campaign Against Antisemitism” or “CAA”:

In fact, that report is not entirely accurate.

I was intending not to blog at all about the above-misdescribed matter.

For one thing, the whole thing is an absurd abuse of the law, and I was intending to simply ignore it, so far as the blog is concerned.

Secondly, though the matter is in the magistrates’ court, and so involves no jury (and is under the conduct of a single District Judge), I am very aware of the need to avoid publishing anything which might be taken to be a contempt of court.

Having said that (and contrary to what can already be found, misleadingly, on Twitter), I can say, for the record:

  • that I am presently charged with five counts under the Communications Act 2003, s.127, i.e. it is alleged that 5 of the (so far) over 1,500 blog posts published on this website contained material that was “grossly offensive“;
  • that the allegations relate to five alleged blog posts dating from 2021 and 2022;
  • that the complainant is, nominally, expressed as “The State“, i.e. not the “Campaign Against Antisemitism”, nor any individual;
  • that I have not been, at any time, actually arrested in relation to the present matter (a couple of Jews on Twitter have tweeted, falsely, that I was arrested); nor was I ever under arrest in relation to the equally-malicious and false claims made against me by the “CAA” (and/or its poundland inquisitors) in previous years, notably in 2017 and 2021;
  • that in fact, and in relation to the present matter, I was simply summonsed by post, a couple of months ago, to appear at the magistrates’ court at Southampton on 23 May 2023;
  • that I did appear on 23 May 2023, for half an hour;
  • that I have pleaded Not Guilty to all charges;
  • that, in relation to the present matter, I have never been interviewed by the police; in fact the police did not speak to me at all about the allegations wherewith I am now charged;
  • that any trial of the matter (if there is a trial at all in the end) will not take place until much later in the year, possibly November or December 2023, or even later, on some date in 2024; the learned District Judge has not yet made any order as to date of trial;
  • that the present matter, depending on whether a trial actually takes place at all, and on whether at any such trial I am found guilty on any or all charges, and on whether (if found guilty on any of the charges), I then choose to appeal any conviction and/or sentence, may only determine in 2024, or even 2025;
  • that there will be one or more preliminary (procedural) hearings;
  • that, in the meantime, I remain (since 23 May 2023) on unconditional bail; and
  • that this blog will continue to be published both before and after any such trial.

I regret that, for reasons to do with avoidance of any contempt of court, I cannot at present go into detail about a number of related facts which I daresay the readers of this blog would find interesting.

Eventually, meaning after the final determination of this legal case, I shall blog about it all.

In the meantime, I doubt whether I shall blog further about the matter at all, not until after any trial.

Finally, I have to say that that “CAA” website report itself does seem to come close to the line on contempt: see https://www.gov.uk/contempt-of-court, and some tweets by Jews supportive of the “CAA” have certainly crossed that line.

Incidentally, readers may be aware that, with the advent of an “Online Safety Act” (as yet only the Online Safety Bill, but expected to become law by late 2023 or early 2024), the very concept of “grossly offensive” online posting will have been superseded by a very different legal framework based around “harm done”.

Support “the men behind the wire”

Tweets seen

GB News, though, is 99% “controlled opposition”. Useless.

Anyone of or over State Pension age who votes Labour-label now is a turkey voting for Christmas, not because the fake “Conservatives” are somehow kinder, but because the Con Party desperately needs the pensioner vote, and will therefore continue to pay for it!

Without the votes of the over-65s, the Conservative Party would only have about 50 MPs, maybe even fewer. Call it a “devil’s contract”, if you like: the Triple Lock will continue only so long as there is a Conservative Party government but, conversely, the Conservative Party in government will only continue so long as the over-65s stay on board, and that means only so long as the Triple Lock stays in place.

If the “Conservative” Party loses the pensioner vote, that vote may not go to Labour, but mere mass abstention (or a LibDem protest vote) would be enough to sink the Con Party electorally, and possibly permanently.

More tweets seen

I never had much time for Trump, and for various reasons, not least the fact that, as President, he seemed to be a squawking parrot in a gilded cage, guarded by a troop of Jew-Zionists, but at least he, if re-elected, would not escalate the Ukraine war and would probably take away Zelensky’s ricebowl (arms, ammunition, other aid, cash bungs). That would effectively end the war.

For the infantry, warfare is changing fast, and becoming even more dangerous.

Look at that. The UK in the worst position, except for Poland.

London. Zoo.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12135751/EXCLUSIVE-Met-officer-allowed-shoeless-sweet-thief-drag-female-cop-hair-blasted.html

“Britain’s Police Federation today blasted a Met officer who allowed a suspected sweet thief to drag a female cop by her hair and throw her into a wall in an attack that sparked ridicule on social media.

The video saw a female officer swung around by her ponytail by an enraged 26-year-old woman in Willesden, north-east London – while her male colleague repeatedly pleaded ‘madam’ in a futile attempt to calm her.

Chiefs say it is evidence of officers being too afraid of repercussions to use the force needed to apprehend violent criminals.“

[Daily Mail]

The SS might have machinegunned not only the “suspect” but those standing around and cheering-on the untermensch…

More from the newspapers

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/we-need-to-talk-about-just-stop-oils-class-privilege/

Very true. I have blogged repeatedly over the past few years about the connected “Just Stop Oil” and “Extinction Rebellion” crazies: see, eg, https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/08/16/the-extinction-rebellion-levellers/; and https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/10/09/extinction-rebellion-greta-thunberg-cressida-dick-and-the-madness-of-protesting-crowds/; and https://ianrobertmillard.org/2020/09/08/diary-blog-8-september-2020-including-further-assessment-of-extinction-rebellion-as-well-as-of-tim-crosland-and-plan-b-etc/; and https://ianrobertmillard.org/2021/08/25/diary-blog-25-august-2021-with-more-about-extinction-rebellion/.

Incidentally, I have heard little of late about or from Greta Nut (thank God). I suppose that she is now yesterday’s news. Maybe she has served most of her purpose now.

A few tweets seen about Greta Nut:

Are (((they))) still promoting her from the shadows? Odds-on…

Greta Nut is but one of the monkeys put forward for msm use; look more closely at the organ-grinders behind her.

Note the “help me” (i.e. “send money to me“) gormless expression, similar to that employed by, eg, “Jack Monroe” (when extracting more money from mugs some years ago by pretending to have cancer).

Greta Nut is a total fake, a kind of promoted Schauspiel for the easily-fooled.

More from the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12135667/Russian-leaders-former-supporters-say-faces-growing-threat-Wagner-mercenary-army.html

“Vladimir Putin is facing a growing threat of a coup from the fearsome Wagner mercenary army and anti-Kremlin rebellions on the border regions of Russia, the despot’s former supporters have said.

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin is acting with unidentified figures within Putin’s circle in a bid to oust the dictator, war analyst Igor Strelkov, ex-defence minister of Donetsk People’s Republic, claimed.“

[Daily Mail].

I do not know. It is true, though, that the central power of the Russian state has rarely been so weak.

More tweets seen

I suppose one could say “one out of three ain’t bad“. Pity the two women escaped being hit.

Interesting. I can recall having a few anxious landings but only as a passenger. In fact, I was once on the flight deck of a commercial aircraft as it landed at Heathrow (in good weather), but very long ago; as we all know, security concerns and regulations would make that impossible today. Really very interesting for me.

Late tweets seen

https://twitter.com/DegreyOfficial/status/1663037360324616192?s=20

Ha ha! I like the sentiment at least…

In fact, it is the Zelzal: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelzal-3. The range, though, is below 150 miles, so (to me) of limited interest.

A typical Kiev-regime thug. He speaks as if Russia were not a nuclear power, and a major one.

It cannot have escaped Erdogan’s notice that the NATO, aka NWO, powers wanted him to lose the recent election, while Putin supported him.

Russia cannot “lose”, though admittedly that is, to some extent, a question of definition.

See also: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10531509/Senior-SAS-officer-vows-hang-doctors-politicians-nurses-responsible-plan-demic.html

Late thought

“It is impossible to suffer without making someone pay for it; every complaint already contains revenge” [Nietzsche];

Late music

Alt-Right, daily blog, Defence, diary blog, free speech, historical, prepping, Reminiscences and Musings, society, the Great Reset, Uncategorized

Diary Blog, 23 January 2023

5 Comments

Morning music

[the Great Wall of China— what an incredible achievement]

We are now, apparently, in the Year of the Water Rabbit. I myself was born in the Year of the Fire Monkey [1956].

On this day a year ago

Diary Blog, 23 January 2022

Tweets seen

https://twitter.com/belfaststeve/status/1617432962655727616?s=20&t=WcaNsQorAvE2g9VO_z_epQ

Quite. What matters is that the people have a health regime that actually works, and which is actually available to people. The NHS is increasingly in a state where it really does not work properly.

That is not going to happen, for several reasons, but mainly because “Jack Monroe” now has only one substantial and regular source of income, i.e. the 635 utter mugs donating to her regularly on Patreon, and thus bringing in tens of thousands of pounds each month.

https://twitter.com/RealBlackIrish/status/1616340363475550208?s=20&t=WcaNsQorAvE2g9VO_z_epQ
https://twitter.com/Michael53418170/status/1617260409441878019?s=20&t=WcaNsQorAvE2g9VO_z_epQ

The propaganda is constant now, now that we are in the period 2022-2055. Look at the idea that people will be paid to turn off heating or electricity. It’s mad. The whole point of having gas or electricity is so as to be able to keep warm, use appliances etc.

https://twitter.com/RealBlackIrish/status/1617455540283609088?s=20&t=WcaNsQorAvE2g9VO_z_epQ

…people giving a rentier-parasite maybe half their take-home pay in return for being allowed to occupy some cramped urban hutch. Sick society.

I have been, in the past (pre-2009) self-employed (as a barrister in England), employed offshore (i.e. not having to pay UK income tax), and at other times employed in the UK, paying UK income tax.

The worst of the three possibilities is when someone is employed in the UK, and having to pay UK income tax, especially when having also to pay out to rent a house or apartment, and/or commute, a fortiori when having to lay out money for a long commute by rail, perhaps even —as at times in my own case— for a long-distance First Class season ticket.

Once someone has paid income tax, he or she has those unavoidable chunks taken out: rent, travel costs, costs of suitable clothing, other costs such as lunch money etc. The last may seem small, and not everyone will have to pay for restaurants or whatever, but even a Pret or the like might add up to £5, or more, per working day, say £1,000-£2,000 a year.

No wonder many, especially on modest earnings, decide (if they can) to opt out, throwing themselves on the admittedly rather strained mercies of the State by applying for small State cash benefits, but also having most if not all of their housing costs paid, having Council Tax paid, and not having to pay out for long distance or other travel, nor for formal clothing, for lunches, and for other incidental costs. Also, of course, not having to pay income tax.

For many employed people, once those chunks are taken out of gross pay, there is not a lot left, especially when one considers that those on the lowest income levels do not pay for basic NHS dental work, or prescriptions.

Poor levels of pay in the UK are a disgrace, and poor-paying employers are having their profits underpinned via Universal Credit etc paid to employed but underpaid employees. It’s quite wrong.

In the case of a “poor” pensioner, just retired from, say, a modest or low-level job, that person will be entitled to, from April 2023, about £200 per week State Pension and Pension Guarantee Credit, Housing Benefit (if applicable), Council Tax Benefit, free medical and basic dental, various extras such as Cold Weather Payments, special one-off Treasury giveaways, free bus travel etc; the upshot being that that person might well be far better off (albeit on a low level) than he/she was the year before he/she reached State Pension age.

For younger people, the best option (especially if not paying out for rent) is to get off-grid as far as possible: do work that pays in cash or in kind, or start a small business that pays (eg car repair), use (if you can afford the capital outlay at the start) renewable heat and power via solar, pico-hydro and the like, and keep outgoings small. You do not need the often-useless “advice” of such as “Jack Monroe” to do that. Commonsense does most of the heavy lifting. Cheese rather than smoked salmon, water rather than wine.

True, that kind of “off-grid” lifestyle will not get you a Rolls-Royce, or a Mercedes SUV, or holidays in Barbados; you may have to settle for a £1,000 clapped-out estate-car, and no overseas holidays, but in return you have freedom, and that is worth rubies.

Incidentally, I am not exactly describing myself. For one thing, I am now already 66, and so beyond official “working age” anyway, but in the past have experienced almost every kind of working and non-working scenario.

So much depends on one’s own exact circumstances. For example, take the stringent rationing of the Second World War, as it was in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom. Not everyone was equal.

Those best-off in WW2 Britain were probably not only those with money (who could pay for quite good dinners and lunches in the better hotels) but also and especially those in country houses, who might have had the money and space to stock up on tinned food (as Dennis Wheatley —https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Wheatley—had advised in his pre-war newspaper column).

Such people would have had enough land on which to grow fruits and vegetables for themselves, and might well have the possibility to shoot game birds, rabbits, hares, even deer, and also fish for trout, salmon etc. They could also easily raise chickens for eggs, despite the paucity of chickenfeed, while the rest of the population was rationed to 1 egg per week.

Anyone in a country house would quite likely also have a wine cellar, which, if replete with Claret, Burgundy or Champagne —and adapting Sam in Casablanca— “sure takes the sting out of being occupied ” [or rationed].

Today, the same applies, pretty much. Had I a country house today, I would certainly be stocking up on tinned food (which in many cases is OK almost indefinately from the safety point of view, though only at peak quality for 5 years or less). I should also be reserving at least an acre per person for vegetables etc, and would be planting, or maintaining any existing, fruit and nut trees and bushes.

I should also be filling my equally-hypothetical wine cellar. Basic or bland food tastes a lot better with a bottle of Chateau Margaux washing it down…

When my wife and I did have (a lease of) a country house (on the Cornwall/Devon border, about 20 years ago), there existed a large number of plum and apple trees, producing a quantity of fruit quite impressive, bearing in mind that they had not been maintained, pruned etc for decades.

With war again now looming on the horizon, together with social collapse, I would, were it possible, relocate back to the South West of the UK and also, were it possible, buy a country house (and follow my own advice above).

More tweets

Ha. Quite.

https://twitter.com/RedSisterr/status/1617501194557231105?s=20&t=WcaNsQorAvE2g9VO_z_epQ

…and note my blog of yesterday’s date.

The floor is too low. I think that it should be somewhere around £10M. As to the percentage, probably 1%.

Early evening music

Late tweets seen

Important results.

Late music

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

animal welfare, Boris Johnson, daily blog, Defence, diary blog, elections, Liz Truss, MPs, Party Politics, society, the Great Reset, Uncategorized

Diary Blog, 9 October 2022, with thoughts around Liz Truss possibly freezing the UK State Pension

3 Comments

Morning music

[The Palace of Westminster]

On this day a year ago

Diary Blog, 9 October 2021

5 years ago on the blog

Football Lads’ Alliance March

The “grey vote”: Liz Truss adviser advised “freeze State Pension“

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/08/freeze-pensions-slash-nhs-schools-matthew-sinclair-liz-truss-adviser

Well, there it is. Anyone not wealthy, and over the age of 65, as well as quite a few people of lesser age, who votes for the Conservative Party, is now a turkey voting for Christmas.

During the currency of the 2010-2017 governments, David Cameron-Levita realized that the only reliable demographic voting Conservative was that of “older people” generally— the older the voter, the more likely was he (or she) to vote Con, and also the more likely that that voter was to actually vote at all.

UKIP and, also, Farage’s other and later vehicle, Brexit Party, were mainly made up of fairly grey-haired and mostly ex-Conservative members and voters, people who at least vaguely realized that the Conservative Party was actually helping to destroy Britain, as the young Disraeli once wrote [“the great Conservative Party, that destroys everything“] and wanted a party that reflected their views better.

The trend is more or less the same now, except that UKIP and Brexit Party do not exist in any real sense, though Reform Party has taken up some of that slack.

Cameron-Levita and his cronies knew that fewer and fewer “younger” people, especially voters under the age of 30, were voting Con. That underlined the need to consolidate the Con vote in older age-groups, and especially the group that not only mostly voted Con, but could be relied upon to cast a vote, those in receipt of a State Pension, meaning those over 65 and some over about 62 (the eligibility age being slowly raised over time).

There were other factors: the older sections of the population were also those more likely to own a house or other dwelling outright, having either never had a mortgage or having paid it off while in their fifties, typically. The rise in nominal money-value of residential property therefore benefited that same group of older people.

The older sections of the population, especially the pensioners, were also those who favoured Brexit the most.

It is widely accepted that the general elections of 2015 and 2017 were won by the Conservative Party entirely by reason of the pensioner vote.

“In the 2017 general election age became a clear dividing line in British politics: older voters overwhelmingly voted Conservative and younger voters backed Labour.

The data shows that there are still some clear patterns along these lines, although the waters are somewhat muddied by a move away from two-party politics.”

[YouGov: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/10/31/2019-general-election-demographics-dividing-britai].

“The average age of the Conservative voter is such that the steepness of its “age curve” (the increasing probability of a person at 2017 voting Conservative given their age) is now almost certainly steeper than the natural degree to which people “get” more Conservative as they age. This is important as it suggests that new cohorts of voters cannot replace and replenish the ranks of the Conservatives, even if they do naturally get more Conservative over time.”

[https://wpieconomics.com/insights-archive/newsletter_blogs_polling-and-the-conservative-loss-of-political-ascendancy/]

See also: https://www.varsity.co.uk/opinion/22276.

The Conservative Party induced that reliable pro-Con voting bloc to carry on voting Con by introducing the “Triple Lock”, by which State Pensions would rise by the rate of inflation, or average pay, or 2.5% a year, whichever of the three was the greatest.

That obviously suited most pensioners very well, and secured those two election victories.

Poorer pensioners who received both State Pension and Pension Guarantee Credit were also served not badly, because the State Pension was covered by the Triple Lock, while Pension Guarantee Credit would still increase in amount, though only in line with inflation.

Rishi Sunak suspended the inflation part of the Triple Lock in 2021 (for financial year 2022-2023) [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53082530], thus —if you like— cheating pensioners; he also thereby broke the election pledge the Conservative Party made during the 2019 General Election.

Sunak, best known for his “panicdemic” “free money” giveaways, probably has that Triple Lock default, or sleight-of-hand, to thank for his not being ushered in as Conservative Party leader in 2022.

The vast majority of actual Conservative Party members are either pensioners or not far from becoming so. The, so-to-speak, “Indian giver” was basically given a slap by the Conservative Party pensioner membership. Had he not cheated the pensioners, Sunak would almost certainly be Prime Minister by now.

I’m laughing…

Now, it seems that the Liz Truss government may or may not continue with —that is, reinstate— the Triple Lock after 2023 (she still says yes…), but State benefits including Pension Guarantee Credit may or may not be uprated in accord with inflation— they may even be frozen.

“Under the triple lock, pensions increase by the highest of earnings growth, price inflation or 2.5 per cent a year.

The government temporarily suspended the wages element of the pensions triple lock for 2022-23 to avoid a disproportionate rise of the state pension following the pandemic.

…former chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed the return of the triple lock in May, and prime minister Liz Truss has since said she is “fully committed” to the lock.

…“With inflation into double-digits, average earnings (total pay) of 5.5 per cent isn’t expected to be the deciding factor in next April’s state pension increase. The state pension is likely to increase by around double this at over 10 per cent, confirmed in September’s inflation figure published next month.”

…“While prime minister Truss committed to reinstating the triple lock in the immediate term during her leadership campaign, questions will remain over its affordability and whether the triple lock will survive in its existing form in the manifestos of all parties ahead of the next general election.”

[FT Adviser]

Can Liz Truss be trusted or relied upon? I think not (and her husband knows not!).

One thing is for sure— if Liz Truss or woolly-head Kwarteng short-change the “grey vote” any time between now and the next general election, that “grey vote” will either vote elsewhere or even just abstain, though it is ingrained in most of those of pensionable age that they should at least vote, as a civic duty.

There is also the point that house prices are forecast to fall, perhaps significantly, in 2023.

The Conservative Party is now around 20% in the opinion polls. Most of that hard-core 20% is composed of the “grey vote”. “Mess them about” by interfering with the State Pension and/or Pension Guarantee Credit, and the Con vote nationally, at a general election, might fall to as low as 10%. Then it would be “Goodnight Vienna” for the Conservative Party.

Tweets seen

Quite. Meaningless “exam passes”, “degrees” etc. Is James Cleverly any better or worse a Foreign Secretary for having a “degree” in Hospitality Management? It might even be “worse”…

https://twitter.com/telephonisttm/status/1578674940244504576?s=20&t=or3UHRd2Qau67cH3n5D27A

Subhumans.

https://twitter.com/Harley_Ride/status/1578735479549140993?s=20&t=or3UHRd2Qau67cH3n5D27A

More music

More tweets

Britain needs social nationalism. It alone can give the people what they need now and what they need for the future of their children.

Late tweets seen

I agree with both.

https://twitter.com/BernieSpofforth/status/1579132178461782016?s=20&t=5rcuPBUkxNBtgALcc0q-BQ

Social nationalism’s chance to rise up, and destroy the enemies of Europe’s future, will soon arrive.

Late music

Bob Moran, daily blog, Defence, Jewish lobby in UK, Liz Truss, Party Politics, Reminiscences and Musings, Russia and Russian relations, society, The Great Replacement, the Great Reset, Uncategorized

Diary Blog, 5 October 2022

6 Comments

Morning music

[the source of the Danube: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Source_of_the_Danube]

On this day a year ago

Diary Blog, 5 October 2021

Tweets seen

A side-effect of workers moving out of care work to other work would be that care work would then only attract people with no other choices, forced to do care work by being, for example, pressured by the DWP.

Interesting video, rather idealistic. If the British Empire still existed and still ruled, the Arab-Jew problem in Palestine would be contained, and Israel would not be a centre of a manipulative web across the world.

I thought Elon Musk too intelligent to buy into a massive scam such as Twitter.

Making the best of it

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11282329/Cornwall-pub-turns-lights-replaces-CANDLES-reduce-soaring-energy-bills.html

That report reminded me of when I was first in Almaty, Kazakhstan (in 1996 and 1997). I lived on one of the main boulevards, Prospekt Lenina. There were frequent power cuts or, as the Americans say, “outages”.

I bought some candles for my 12th-floor Soviet penthouse apartment, and that was OK, though I nearly got stuck in the lift one day when there was a power cut the moment I stepped out of that lift, having returned from my office. The power did not return until about midday the next day, so that was a lucky miss for me.

In fact, my area of the city was not so badly affected as others, being within the “Presidentsky” district, where the then Presidential Palace and major embassies were located. Usually, the power cuts involved one or two areas at a time, with other areas continuing to receive electrical supply. Where I lived was certainly given preferential treatment, but still lost power fairly often.

I remember well that I was due to dine with three people one evening at a small and little-patronized Georgian restaurant in a quiet lane not too far from my home, a place almost in the countryside.

When the time came to meet those people, I was sitting in the empty restaurant. They arrived together, a young American in the Peace Corps, and two local Russian girls who were employed by an American organization; I had met them previously.

No sooner had they sat down than the electricity was cut off. The owner of the place, a Georgian lady called Bella, hurried to put out quite a few candles.

In the restaurant, with its wooden walls and lack of traffic noise (the lane outside was deserted), this created a kind of 19th century environment. One of the Russian girls started to play the piano which was there. Mainly Chopin.

In the candlelight, it was like being in a scene adapted from Chekhov or some other pre-revolutionary author; perhaps a country estate circa 1860 and in a Russia not yet hit by modern warfare or the shocks of violent revolution. Charmant…

That evening has always stayed with me.

More tweets

NHS… 2022

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11283465/Grandmother-claims-spent-SIX-DAYS-chair-E.html.

Still clapping?

More tweets

Very clever. Funny, but also sad and also true…

Still slightly favourable on defence and “terrorism”? How? Why? The armed forces seem incapable of stopping migration invasion across the Channel, and are too small to stop any conventional invasion. The present ZOG (Zionist Occupation Government) is pledged to continue to waste billions funnelling money and arms to the Jew-Zionist regime in Kiev.

What about “terrorism”? The Muslims are not taking over the British cities via “terrorism” but via their birth-rate. The Jews continue to send their teenage children to Israel, there to be trained in the use of firearms, as well as in techniques of streetfighting, but are not even monitored (much) by the UK Security Service on their return to the UK.

More tweets

https://twitter.com/GaryHughes2242/status/1577714076075134986?s=20&t=tbjedG6gUxjKPvEZbV2nAA

James Cleverly, proud possessor of a McDegree (in Hospitality Management) from a McUniversity, and who has never done much else (except work his way up in the TA) drones on. That half-caste is Foreign Secretary, believe it or not. This country is so screwed, and in so many ways.

I must do a blog article, in my Deadhead MPs series, about Cleverly.

Thinking about who would vote “Conservative” now.

Some would. People whose income is well above the norm, perhaps; those on £150,000+, and who are also voting out of purely personal self-interest . Then —the largest group— those who want to vote specifically against Labour, and see a Con vote as the only effective way to do it.

Are there any other groups of “Conservative” voters now? I think not. The last 12 years have seen no effective policy or action on the immigration problem, whether in general or specifically re. the cross-Channel migration-invasion. As for that trad Con strongpoint, “law and order”, we have seen police numbers cut, courts (in the hundreds) closed down to save money, a huge backlog of trials, and legal aid cuts which have effectively denied millions the right to access the legal system.

Yes, a lot can happen in the two years before a general election has to be held, but it cannot really be said that Liz Truss has any popular mandate, and things look likely to slide even further from here: utility bills, mortgage payments, whatever may hit the UK by reason of the wrongheaded anti-Russia sanctions and military adventurism.

Even the mainly self-interested “grey vote” of pensioners and those nearing State Pension age might pause before placing their crosses next to the Conservative Party candidate, now that it has emerged that the young Liz Truss actually wanted to abolish the State Pension, and who intends to slash other benefits relied on by pensioners.

I assessed Rory Stewart in 2019, when he was a candidate for the Conservative Party leadership. I also updated it, and continue to do so. A large number of people have read that assessment. See https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/05/03/will-rory-stewart-mp-be-prime-minister/.

This England

Saw an episode covering 2020. Not as good as the previous episode. Too many scenes with patients suffering (supposedly) from “Covid”, not enough scenes about the political infighting. The drama stuck to the official or accepted (?) narrative(s). Not much questioning of that.

Late tweets seen

There is an epidemic of serious heart problems caused by the so-called “vaccine”(s).

Late music

[painting by Konstantin Korovin]
Alt-Right, Boris Johnson, daily blog, Defence, diary blog, free speech, MPs, Party Politics, Russia and Russian relations, society, The Great Replacement, the Great Reset, Uncategorized

Diary Blog, 14 August 2022

21 Comments

Afternoon music

On this day a year ago

Diary Blog, 14 August 2021

An extract from the blog of exactly a year ago:

“The System needs at least two “major parties” (even if their combined membership is only about 600,000, i.e. 1% of the UK population) because it preserves the facade of a binary choice, the facade of supposed “democracy” etc. So fake Labour has to exist, just as fake Conservative Party has to exist, in order to fool the mass of the people into thinking that they have a real choice. They do not have any such choice.“

Also:

“Labour, like the “Conservatives”, has to exist and pretend to put forward a bunch of policies, when really both parties have been stripped of real policy, real difference, and even real politicians (look at the pathetic deadheads now crowding the Commons and Lords alike). You want to see what “ZOG” looks like? Just look at “British” political parties and MPs today.“

Nothing has changed.

“Covid” “vaccine” uselessness

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11108521/Covid-19-weve-jabbed-poleaxed-virus.html.

Cashing-in pensions

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-quits-nhs-pension-pay-27734990.

Leaving aside the immediate issue reported on (fuel inflation), it should not be possible to “cash in” a private pension below X-age. If I am not mistaken, the right to cash-in was brought in, or made much easier, when the part-Jew, George Osborne, was Chancellor of the Exchequer.

A private pension is to help someone of pensionable age, clearly. It is not just a long-term investment of some kind. It is against public policy in the broad sense to allow pensions to be simply cashed-in.

In fact, it is contra public policy in practical terms as well, quite apart from the ethical aspect, or impact on the individual, because someone who cashes-in a private pension but then later, at or above pensionable age, becomes poor enough to require State “Pension Credit Guarantee”, will have his or her State Pension augmented by Pension Credit so that he or she receives a minimum of £185 per week (as well as other benefits, such as Housing Benefit etc if applicable).

In other words, not only the individual but also the State itself will, in that instance, lose out financially.

“The world is not without kind people”

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/mrs-hinch-home-rent-free-27735161.

“The world is not without kind people“, says a Russian proverb. One sees that constantly, despite also seeing contrary news.

Look at the story about “Mrs. Hinch”. She has given away a £600,000 house simply because she wants to help a family, and “does not need” the capital proceeds of any sale.

Remarkable. I have no idea whether her husband is wealthy; she herself is said to be “worth” about £1.5M (presumably discounting the donated house).

It was not clear to me, on skimming the report, whether the house donated has actually been transferred, or just given to live in rent-free for as long as permitted. Either way, very generous.

If only the very wealthy of our society, those possessing tens, hundreds, or thousands of millions, were as kind-hearted.

More tweets seen

[in an ideal world…]
https://twitter.com/EternalEnglish/status/1558779915939586049?s=20&t=FRyZnXXUXVLlZV_9Z6-ctg

London. Zoo. Monkeyworld.

“Full-term abortion“. Murder of babies born, or being born, or about to be born, and perfectly capable of living a full human life in most cases. Straight murder. Legalized.

Will any of those Australian MPs be held to account in an appropriate way?

https://twitter.com/BernieSpofforth/status/1558773404102234112?s=20&t=FRyZnXXUXVLlZV_9Z6-ctg
https://twitter.com/EternalEnglish/status/1558772796863414272?s=20&t=FRyZnXXUXVLlZV_9Z6-ctg

“Racism” against white Europeans is now considered OK; but any perceived mere criticism of Jews, or non-whites, is not only not approved of by the System, but may even be criminalized by biased law and enforcement.

“They” worm their way in everywhere, if not stopped.

Educated guess: of those 19,000 or more migrant-invaders, not one will actually be —in any way— someone who benefits the British people, but let us be kind, and assume that 1% benefit the UK (somehow). What about the other 99%? Guessing (but I think reasonably) further: of every 100 migrant-invaders, at least 10, maybe 20, will turn out to be criminal and/or terroristic; the remaining 79 or more will just be completely useless millstones round our collective neck.

I was not too pleased about Neil Oliver when he did Coast, especially his —not always well-informed– occasional anti-“Nazi” historical (or ahistorical) comments, but he has certainly redeemed himself in the past couple of years.

Not that I agree with everything he now says, but no matter. He is in general on the right track. I may be an “idealist”, as some have called me, but I do have pragmatic aspects as well.

https://twitter.com/EternalEnglish/status/1558752143603007488?s=20&t=FRyZnXXUXVLlZV_9Z6-ctg

Ask “Robert Maxwell” or Jeffrey Epstein. Oh, no— you can’t, because they snuffed it under mysterious circumstances. Ask Ghislaine “Maxwell”, then. Oh, no— you can’t, because she is in prison for much of the rest of her horrible life, and afraid of being murdered (as was, she thinks, her father) by Israeli Intelligence killers.

Liz Truss and Priti Patel, and Keir Starmer (etc) should be wary of being puppets of Israel and the Jew lobby. It’s one rouble to get in, but two roubles to get out…

https://twitter.com/EternalEnglish/status/1558751173355741184?s=20&t=FRyZnXXUXVLlZV_9Z6-ctg

Temperature variations

Incredible how varied the UK can be in terms of temperature. Where I live (Hampshire coast) the temperature at 0900 hrs this morning was 22C, in London at same time it was 33C, but in Edinburgh only 16C.

More tweets seen

Eddie Izzard is as much a woman as a pantomime horse is Red Rum.

Late tweets seen

I do not usually approve of rowdy behaviour, but if a few frustrated Brits in Greece were to give the idiot a kicking, I have to admit that I would not be upset about it.

Incapable of creating a civilization, incapable of maintaining one even when provided to them, and most of them incapable even of simply living decently as unwanted “guests” in the civilization created by white Europeans.

Late music

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Lilburn]
[New Zealand, South Island]
Boris Johnson, daily blog, diary blog, free speech, Jewish lobby in UK, society, the Great Reset, Uncategorized

Diary Blog, 14 July 2021

6 Comments

Covid passports

The gloves are off. The NWO/ZOG emergent transnational police state is coming into plain sight now, mainly disguised as a parcel of health and safety, and biosecurity, measures.

The creeping “virus” tyranny is ultimately no better than, and in the future will be worse than, the tyrannies of the past. Anything is now justified in the essential removal of the emergent tyranny and its puppets.

From what I have heard recently, there is already a creeping refusal-of-service ethos spreading across the NHS. This is one version of a declaration of war on the British people by its own government, and by the salaried officials of that government. So far, only one side is ready for that war.

Grand Cross Commander, for services to ZOG, NWO and Common Purpose.

More Covid scammery

I happened to see a tweet by a typical Twitter virtue-signaller, citing a Guardian report about 1,500 NHS workers having died “with” Covid in the past (I think) 18 months.

Well, that is very unfortunate for those people and their connections, but then look at the numbers. The NHS employs about 1.6 MILLION people in the UK as a whole. In other words, about one in a thousand NHS staff has died “with” Covid. The chances are that the vast majority really died from other causes. In any case, the proportion, even on the bald figures, is about the same as in the general population.

As Mark Twain said, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics…

Late tweets

I have never had any “app” (and certainly not that one!), nor the Covid vaccine(s), nor a Covid test, and I shall be ditching my (rare) use of facemasks, together with the facemask nonsense, next Monday.

That is Tracy Brabin, apparently a former actress [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy_Brabin], and who took over the Batley and Spen seat, left vacant by the assassination of MP Jo Cox in 2016, in what amounted to a rigged by-election, in that the other main System parties and UKIP agreed not to put up candidates. Now she is “metro-mayor” of West Yorkshire.

These people, these System puppets, may be idiotic, but give them power, even over bus stations in West Yorkshire, and they will use, misuse, and abuse those powers to the maximum in order to pursue an agenda…

Late music

[The Ride and Death, by Arnold Bocklin]

basic income, society, The Great Reset, the Great Reset, Uncategorized

The Urgent Necessity for Basic Income (or its equivalent)

4 Comments

Preamble

I have blogged previously about the need for Basic Income (see Notes, below).

One important point is that the nexus connecting work and pay is loosening in the more developed countries. Already, computers, automation and modern business streamlining have led to the situation whereby, apart from actual unemployment, there is huge underemployment. In the UK, we see, in big picture terms, that the poorer half of the workforce is still being paid less in real terms (the latest statistics suggest about 7% less) than was paid in 2007 for equivalent work.

Now, there is a headlong rush into greater automation and, crucially, to Artificial Intelligence [AI].

Working Tax Credits as Government Subsidy to Poor-Paying Employers

Even before the financial upheaval of 2007-2008, it is clear that the “market”, as “hidden hand” mechanism, delivering adequate pay for required work, was not working properly or as old-thinking economic theory suggested that it should. Employers were unwilling or in some cases unable to offer pay high enough for employees to subsist on, let alone live decently on.

The answer of the Blair-Brown governments was to offer employees “working tax credits”, i.e. a form of “welfare”/”social security” for those in employment, the purpose of which was (and at time of writing still is) to top-up inadequate pay to a determined level. A more limited measure, Family Credit, claimable only by families, was in operation from 1986-1999.

The most obvious drawback of Working Tax Credit [WTC], i.e. that it in effect subsidizes poor and poor-paying employers out of general taxation, was either not foreseen by self-styled financial genius Gordon Brown, or was ignored by him and/or Tony Blair. Adding insult to injury was and is the fact that some of the worst-paying employing companies are also those most adept at avoiding tax liability: transnational enterprises such as Amazon in particular.

In other words, an employee is forced (by circumstances) to work for pay which is not enough for that employee to live on, even at a very basic level. That pay is then topped-up to a minimum subsistence level by Working Tax Credit, which is paid for not directly by the exploitative employer but by government, and so by general taxation. Low-paid employees pay little or no income tax now, but still pay so-called National Insurance, which is today just another or extra income tax in all but name. Put simply, the low-paid worker is paying out for his or her own Working Tax Credit, at least to some extent.

The poor-paying employer has no incentive to pay decently, because the government will stump up enough to keep the employee in place.

Real-terms pay now, for very many people, is inferior to what was paid in the 1980s and 1970s. Conditions of employment are also worse in reality (though that aspect is not part of this blog post).

At present, 5 million people in the UK receive WTC, while another 2 million are entitled to receive it but, for whatever reason, do not apply for it.

Other Government Top-Ups to Pay

In addition to basic Working Tax Credit, people in low-paying jobs and who have children can get extra money via WTC , as can disabled workers.

Persons who are disabled or unwell (including employed persons) can receive Disability Living Allowance, which is not means-tested.

Persons who have children are also entitled to Child Benefit, regardless of capital or income (up to £50,000-£60,000, tapering).

Persons of the age(s) specified can receive State Pension regardless of whether they work or not; moreover, whether or not they have ever worked.

Limited Elements of Basic Income Already Embedded in the Existing System

  • State Pension, paid whatever the individual’s capital or income, and whether or not the individual is working (employed or self-employed) or not and (if you include Pension Guarantee Credit), payable regardless of how much the pensioner has paid in via National Insurance;
  • Child Benefit, paid regardless of income (under £50,000 p.a.);
  • Disability Living Allowance (and its successor, “Personal Independence Payment” or PIP), paid regardless of capital or income to qualifying persons (and this is not the place in which to examine why politicians and Department of Work and Pensions [DWP] civil servants often choose vulgar names for State benefits and programmes: cf. “Jobseeker’s Allowance” etc).

Advantages of Basic Income

  • Simplicity. A Basic Income would mean that most of the existing DWP structure could be dispensed with: the vast edifice of “Jobcentres” (office buildings), filled with DWP staff engaged in adminstration, and the snooping upon, monitoring, “assessing” of claimants etc. The absurdity of it is that many claimants are only getting about £75 a week anyway. The present Kafka-esque set-up really should be and can be junked. Probably 90% of the present 85,000 DWP employees can be made redundant. The financial savings from that, decommissioning of buildings, running costs etc would be in the tens of billions annually; the untold billions paid by the State to useless and dishonest private contractors, such as ATOS and Capita, would also be saved;
  • Security of Citizens. It has been shown in overseas pilot studies (eg recently in Finland) that having a Basic Income, even if small, gives people a sense of security only available until now to those with an inherited private income. Yes, some people will decide to loaf all day, maybe even drink all day, but others will do paid work, start small businesses, improve their cultural level, volunteer locally or far away etc. The idle and/or useless are like that under the present system anyway and are costing the State money even now, both directly and indirectly (eg via the costs of policing, NHS, prisons etc);

Doubts Often Expressed about Basic Income

  • “People will not want to work if they get money for nothing”: well, most wealthy inheritors of capital, most of those living off trust incomes etc do seem to want to work in some way, or to set up businesses, or at least to write, paint, or other similar activity. Don’t disparage writing or other artistic activity. After all, Harry Potter, which snowballed into a huge industry employing, altogether, many thousands and even tens of thousands, came out of the mind of one lady, a single mother on State benefits; J.K. Rowling herself has said that, under the punitive present benefits regime, she would have been messed around so much that it would have been impossible for her to sit in cafes with her baby writing Harry Potter. True, some people will simply loaf. They do that under the present system. Don’t think that there are no costs to the State and society now (even if actual benefits are cut off): police costs, court and legal costs, NHS costs, too;
  • “The cost to the taxpayer”: the cost of Basic Income would be little more than the present “welfare” (social security) system, once you take into account the huge savings on DWP and HMRC bureaucracy, savings by not using useless/dishonest outsourcing organizations, the economic benefit of people spending more, stimulating the economy, setting up new small businesses;
  • “People getting Basic Income money that they do not even need”: firstly, what people “need” is, beyond the basic level, something subjective. Apart from that, there is no problem with clawing back monies paid to those above a certain income. All that need happen is that a maximum level of income (all income) for recipients be set. All persons above that income level to be taxed or super-taxed to the same level as Basic Income received. The level might be a total (including Basic Income) of £30,000, assuming Basic Income of perhaps £15,000 per year. In that case, the person would be taxed the £15,000, leaving £15,000. Yes, there would be apparent unfairness at lower income levels, whereby it might be questioned why work, when you could simply receive the (in the example given) £15,000 and not work. However, even then the recipient does gain, via extra security in case of job loss or illness; alternatively, the threshold could be set higher, say at £50,000 p.a.

Variations on the Basic Income Theme

Instead of money alone, Basic Income could include benefits paid to certain persons, such as free housing for persons receiving less than a certain income. The danger here is in the complexity and cost, as under the existing system, as well as monies wasted going to landlords charging excessive rents. It may be that the way forward is to add to the existing (in the UK) more or less “free” (at point of use) health service, free education at primary and secondary level etc. Examples:

  • free public transport, whether local or regional;
  • free car insurance;
  • free domestic utilities;
  • free NHS or similar;
  • free education.

Basic Income as Necessity

It is clear that, in the UK, relatively few people at present are purely living off what they can earn by work or by investments and/or trust income. 7 million are eligible for Working Tax Credits, millions more are children, retired people, disabled and not working, unemployed etc. For many, working for pay does not cover the basic necessities of life, let alone provide a decent human existence. The State already recognizes these facts.

The explosion in artificial intelligence and robotics will turn the screw. For example, there are at present 356,300 taxi drivers and private hire drivers in the UK. The technology already exists to replace them. It is unlikely that more than a small percentage will still be doing such work in, say, 2030. That’s just one group affected. Groups as diverse as farmers, lawyers, surgeons, pilots, security guards will all be made, as groups, largely redundant.

Basic Income is not just the right thing, but the necessary thing.

Notes

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/what-happened-finland-scrapped-benefits-13950300

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_benefit#United_Kingdom

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

https://ianrmillard.wordpress.com/2018/07/27/what-do-people-need/

https://ianrmillard.wordpress.com/2018/10/27/the-revolution-of-the-robots-and-ai-means-that-basic-income-is-inevitable/

https://ianrmillard.wordpress.com/2017/12/03/the-general-shape-of-a-future-society/

https://ianrmillard.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/basic-income-and-the-welfare-state-some-ideas-and-reminiscences/

https://ianrmillard.wordpress.com/2017/03/29/aspects-of-the-new-society/

https://ianrmillard.wordpress.com/2017/09/16/priorities-in-state-funding/

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/taxi-and-private-hire-vehicles-statistics-england-2017

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/universal-credit-basic-income-california-2563380

https://basicincome.org/news/2016/09/netherlands-debate-about-unconditional-basic-income-in-parliament/

Update, 11 March 2019

People generally are now waking up to both the desirability and the practical possibility of Basic Income:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/11/scrap-tax-free-personal-allowance-and-pay-everyone-48-a-week

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6886461/Unemployed-people-happier-income-scheme-no-likely-job-experiment-reveals.html

Update, 8 September 2019

The necessity for Basic Income is spreading, but not yet to enough people. Many still think that it is “expensive” (probably the same people who believe that the answer to a recession is to “cut spending”…). There is, however, dissent…

https://twitter.com/DerorCurrency/status/1170523619023147009?s=20

Update, 4 November 2019