Tag Archives: The Times

Diary Blog, 3 February 2025

Morning music

[Soviet painting of the Socialist Realism school, depicting Stalin and Voroshilov in the Kremlin]

Talking point

Arabic might be considered the richest language in words based on its complexity. According to The National – the United Arab Emirates’ leading English-speaking news outlet – on average, a single written word in Arabic has three meanings, seven pronunciations and 12 interpretations.

Not merely a philological curiosity; it means that the meaning and/or intent of the Arab is not necessarily clear-cut.

True, the same word in English can have several meanings (some words can, that is), but I do not think that that is quite the same, mainly because, in English, the meaning is usually obvious from the context. Also, it applies to a relatively few words, not “the average“.

Something for the Arabists in the Foreign Office to consider, if they have not all been purged, and replaced by Zionists (which may well be the case, looking at UK representation in Ukraine and Israel in recent years).

Tweets seen

A few years ago, I posted on the blog my experience, sometime around 1994 or 1995, of having visited the UK’s biological research laboratories at Porton Down, Wiltshire, in company with the then Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK, who later became both an unsuccessful candidate for the Presidency of Ukraine and the director of a biological facility in Ukraine (he was a biochemist/microbiologist by training):

Bill Kristol [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Kristol#Early_life_and_education].

It’s always “them”. Every. Single. Time.

ELON: YOU COULD EASILY POWER THE ENTIRE US WITH SOLAR Elon: “You could actually power the entire United States with a 100 miles by 100 miles of solar.” Joe Rogan: “So you could just pick some dead spot that you fly over, cover that sucker up with solar panels, and charge the whole country, 24/7?” Elon: “Absolutely. We need batteries, but yes. It’s not hard, meaning it’s very feasible. The sun is converting over 4 million tons of mass to energy every second, and it’s no maintenance. That thing just works.” Source: The Joe Rogan Experience, October 2023, @joerogan.

Very interesting from the point of view of American autarky and isolationism.

Reform UK

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/02/reform-uk-can-win-scores-of-labour-seats-in-england-and-wales-says-study

Reform UK can win scores of Labour seats in England and Wales, says study.

Analysis of a mega poll shows Keir Starmer would lose more seats than Tories amid voter discontent with main parties.

Labour faces losing scores of seats to Reform UK across England and Wales as a widening section of ­voters lose faith in the mainstream parties, according to a new analysis seen by the Observer.

With senior figures in the Labour party now privately talking about a “change of era” in which more ­moderate voters are turning to Nigel Farage’s party, new research on Reform’s influence suggests it will take far more seats from Labour than from the Conservatives on ­current trends.

Reform would win 76 seats if an election were held now, according to a constituency-by-constituency model. Of those, 60 would be won from Labour, including seats across the “red wall”, as well as in Wales and across the south of England.

However, the analysis also reveals that even a relatively small further swing towards Reform from Labour could see the party pick up another 76 Labour-held seats.

The narrow Labour lead in many seats means it is susceptible in the event of a high turnout among Reform voters, a surge in Reform’s support, or a drop in Labour turnout.

The huge study, commissioned by the Hope Not Hate campaign group, has been carried out by the Focaldata polling company using a mega-poll, or MRP, made up of almost 18,000 voters.

Its analysis of almost 4,000 ­voters currently minded to back Reform found that one in five were “moderate, interventionist” voters who were unlike those who had backed Farage at the last election or supported Ukip or the Brexit party in the past.

[The Observer/Guardian]

So there it is. Reform could end up with 152 seats even on present polling and trending.

As frequently noted, Reform is part of the journey, not the ultimate destination, but this news, overall, is very good.

I only believe stock exchange speculators when they start jumping out of windows.

You may as well ban cars because a few lunatics deliberately or carelessly misuse them to hurt others. There must be literally billions of knives, even of the type(s) mentioned, in the UK.

Most knife crime is done by “the blacks and browns”, followed by other ethnic minorities, yet contemporary msm scribblers, talking heads, Westminster Bubble drones want to get rid of knives (or certain types of knife)?! Get rid of those doing the crimes. Get rid of them.

That Tom Calver person is, apparently, a Times columnist. No wonder people do not want to pay, for content of that sort.

Laughter, the best medicine“…

Over the past few decades, the newspapers have gradually filled with idiots of the Tom Calver type, all trying to present themselves as “serious” commentators. Some, such as pro-Jewish lobby and pro-Israel expenses cheat, Michael Gove, even made it into government.

As for “celebrity” Idris Elba, is there “some chance” that he might be biased? I merely pose the question.

Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad“, and Britain certainly has gone mad. Not so much the “broad masses” of the population, but mainly the Westminster Bubble, the msm scribblers and talking heads, the ivory tower fake academics etc.

In the words of Katie Hopkins, “Batshit Bonkers Britain“…

The world has changed out of all recognition since 1951.

Talking point

More tweets seen

More music

More tweets

At last.

Look at the odd man out— the “Conservatives”. I think that they are in a death spiral.

Of course, the System MPs (rather than voters) will fight to keep FPTP, but proportional representation is an idea the time for which has finally arrived.

Looking at it another way, it is certainly the aged who still support FPTP, because they have grown up with it, are used to it and many of them are too stupid to see that its time has gone.

As is she…

That is more or less my view, too.

I wonder how many of those in charge are Jewish? In the USA, psychiatry and psychology are heavily-Jewish areas, but I do not know whether that is also the case in the UK.

“I spent the weekend in an act of ‘wild service’ helping to restore nature & maybe helping to heal some if the urban/rural divide.

In an event organised by @StEthelburgas & @letterstoearth_, a group of urbanites came together in the glorious welsh countryside to plant hedges & trees.

The method of planting 100’s of metres of hedges to connect up existing habitats (copses, ponds, areas of scrub etc) cleverly balanced allowing the land to be used for farming whilst giving more connected space for Nature.

The thing I wasn’t expecting though was crossing cultural divides. Witnessing some of the farmers on twitter & in the media who repeat culture war bait about hating both Nature & urbanites in the countryside had coloured my impression of farmers more generally. However, our host Dave was so kind & welcoming to his land & seemed genuinely touched that we had come out to help plant & restore; the jar of homemade honey he gave to each of us was a wonderful reward for a weekend well spent.

Trees add so much to a cityscape or suburb, not only to the countryside.

Just had a look at that Brooker person. Supports the malicious and mainly Jewish “Hope not Hate” cabal, U.S. Democrats, Jess Phillips etc. Oh, and “anti-racism”. Retweets likely State asset and faux-socialist Paul Mason. Seems unclear what, if anything, he knows about the environment (etc).

Sounds like a box-ticker (at best)…

Talking point

National Carrot Cake Day

Carrot cake was introduced in the UK (or reintroduced, having been known from at least the 16thC, probably much earlier) on a large scale in the early 1940s days of food rationing, to use vast stocks of carrots (unrationed) in lieu of sugar. It then became popular, and has remained so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrot_cake.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom#Second_World_War_1939%E2%80%931945.

More tweets

“Carpetbagger Kemi” steering the “Conservatives” straight into a crash landing, or just a crash.

LibDems, as usual, the “dustbin” or “cockroach” party, surviving and even thriving by reason of not being Con or Lab label…

Electoral Calculus suggests that those figures might mean Labour largest party (237 MPs), Reform UK second (148 MPs), Conservatives 125, LibDems 78, Greens 6. So Labour could form a weak minority government with LibDem and SNP (etc) support.

On those figures, the Con Party would not even be the official Opposition, thus weakening their shattered credibility further.

For Reform to be the largest party in terms of seats, its vote will have to increase to at least 27%, if not 28% or more. https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll.html.

Diary Blog, 22 November 2023

Morning music

[VDNKh, Moscow]

Tweets seen

Incidentally, I am told by a reader of this blog that The Times has printed some kind of report about my recent trial. I refuse to pay even a small amount in order read the sort of rubbish put out by the contemporary “British” newspapers, so I do not know exactly what is the content of that report (I can guess, pretty much, anyway), but what strikes me is that it has apparently only appeared today, five days after the trial itself. Hardly “breaking news”.

I wonder what will happen with the newspapers in the UK. Several years ago, Rupert Murdoch gave the paper versions of newspapers only until about 2025 to survive, and certainly one rarely sees anyone buying a newspaper these days. I occasionally see an elderly person (always elderly, meaning 70+ if not 80+) buying a newspaper in Waitrose; not so often though.

The quality of journalistic language, let alone analysis, has fallen through the floor despite (?) the now almost exclusively graduate entry. Poor English, and little background knowledge, are patent.

I read somewhere that newspapers are still functioning because the online versions both take subscriptions, and make money out of advertisements; also, the mainly young “journalist” scribblers are paid very modestly. The only highly-paid scribblers now are the “celebrity” columnists, or so I read.

I myself last bought a newspaper about 25 years ago.

Hunt and Sunak had little choice, politically. Opinion polling puts the Conservative Party on about 20% for the 2024 General Election. Most of that consists of State Pensioners. Without the pensioner vote, the Conservative Party is toast. It may be that it is anyway, but being seen to pander a bit to the most obvious interest of those over 65 is a desperate way to shore up, at least to some extent, that core vote.

Incidentally, using Electoral Calculus, the difference between (A) a 20% vote and (B) a 15% vote is (A) 57 Conservative MPs (Lab 508) and (B) 19 Conservative MPs (Lab 541).

Were the Con Party able to rise to a support-level of 25%, the result might be 125 Con MPs (Lab 452); on 30%, 219 Con MPs (Lab 360).

https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll.html.

For Sunak and Hunt, the (for now) retention of the Triple Lock is a no-brainer, of course. However, it will not save them. The best they can hope for, I think, is a hard defeat next year. It is an open question whether that defeat will prove almost, or actually, existential.

Isaac Levido“? Well, wouldn’t you know? Every. Single. Time…

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

London. Zoo.

https://www.mylondon.news/news/uk-world-news/faces-london-criminals-who-ripped-28153239?int_source=nba

Three train robbers who battered a victim for their £36 chain in a spate of 14 violent thefts have been jailed...”

[My London]

[the defendants]

More “diversity” in our wonderful new multikulti society…

I wonder what our society will look like in 20 years? Or 50? Thankfully, I shall probably not be around to see 2043, and certainly not 2073.

Late music

[Paris under German military occupation, early 1940s]

Leadership, Dictatorship and The Need For Effective Government

Dix5gSdWkAAinaz

A woman journalist or opinion-writer of whom I had not previously heard, one Clare Foges, has suggested in an article in The Times that the leaders of the UK and Western Europe might learn from political “strongmen” (she cites an eclectic mixture: Trump, Erdogan, Putin, Duterte).

About the Writer

Having not previously heard of the writer, I did a quick Internet search. The surname suggests a Jewish origin, and someone of the same name posted this online in 2000:

https://www.ancestry.co.uk/boards/localities.ceeurope.austria.Prov.vienna/167.588/mb.ashx.

It seems that Clare Foges wrote speeches for David Cameron-Levita and others prior to the 2010 election and immediately after it. She has also written at least one book for small children.

Having now read a little about her, I should say that she seems to have some intelligence, though perhaps not enough, or not enough knowledge, for the matters she discusses in print. Her understanding of society and politics seems shallow. She gave an interview to the Evening Standard in 2015. In it, she proposes, inter alia, better pay (!) for MPs, who “give up well-paid careers” etc. Ha ha! She really should take a look at the collection of misfits, also-rans and chancers who comprise many (not all, admittedly) of the more recent MPs!

https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/clare-foges-the-woman-who-put-words-in-david-camerons-mouth-10437029.html.

Indeed, in 2017 she herself wanted to become an MP, for the fairly safe Conservative seat of the Isle of Wight, but withdrew after having been shortlisted:

https://www.conservativehome.com/parliament/2017/05/exclusive-foges-joins-fox-in-withdrawing-from-isle-of-wight-selection.html.

In fact, the then-incumbent MP had hardly “given up a well-paid career”, having been a geography teacher in comprehensive schools for most of his life:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Turner_(politician)#Early_life_and_career

and that MP (also an expenses freeloader…) then “stepped down” after having “become a laughing stock” by reason of his quasi-matrimonial situation:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/11334299/MP-battling-to-save-seat-in-toxic-Tory-rebellion-after-fiancee-moves-in-with-his-aide.html.

In short, my provisional view is that the writer of the article is, at 37 or 38, someone who for whatever reason has fallen between the cracks, who might have become something in the political realm, even perhaps an MP (and after all, her background as pr/”comms” “intern”, sometime children’s book writer, “Conservative” speechwriter, amateur poetess and (?) professional scribbler on politico-social issues is no worse than that of many “Conservative” or “Labour” MPs, and better than some) but has not.

The Issues Raised

What are we to make of this article suggesting that the UK needs leadership informed by “strongmen”? Duterte is the Philippines leader who has presided over a campaign of extra-judicial killing of drug gangsters etc. Erdogan is the political-Muslim Turkish dictator (by any other name) who is dismantling the legacy of Kemal Ataturk. Putin and Trump are too well-known to need any introduction even to those who take little interest in politics.

The main issue, surely, is that government must govern. It must be effective. Ideally, there will be checks and balances: law, due process, civil rights, property rights (within reason); however, in the end, a useless government has no right to exist.

Political leaders (including dictators) emerge for reasons. In broad brush terms, Putin emerged because Russia under Yeltsin had become a chaotic mess. Pensioners and other poor people were starving or dying from cold or lack of food, by the million. Public sector workers were being paid almost nothing. Jew carpetbaggers had flocked to Russia like a cloud of locusts (or vultures) and were stealing and cheating everything, pretty much. “Russian” Jew “oligarchs” ruled from “behind the throne” and had tricked their way into “ownership” of vast oilfields, diamond and gold mines, heavy industries. Putin began to claw back some of that. Pensioners who had been getting (USD) $5 a month under Yeltsin, now (2018) get $400. People are at least paid for work. Chechen and other gangsters have been stamped on and many killed or imprisoned. Russia has flourished compared to the 1990s.

Erdogan is someone for whom I myself have little sympathy, not least because I value the legacy of Kemal Ataturk. However, Erdogan has improved the lot of the poor, we read, while the economy has improved under his rule.

Trump likewise seems an egregious person generally, and even more egregious as a leader of a government and as a head of state. However, his rise (fuelled by his own huge fortune, of course) was not based on nothing. Many people in the USA are living in poverty. I read that 40% of Americans now require US governmental foodstamps! Many jobs (as, increasingly, in the UK and elsewhere) are “McJobs”, precarious and badly-paid. The drug epidemic is out of control. Illegal immigration had run wild since the 1980s. Whether Trump can deal with these problems and others,  with the “separation of powers” American system, is doubtful, but the dispossessed and marginalized, among others, voted for him to try.

The Missing Leaders

Clare Foges cited Trump, Putin etc, but not the controversial leaders of the 20th Century: Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Mao etc. They all took harsh measures but also did a huge amount that was positive. Hitler in particular saved Germany from degradation, removed Jew exploiters from the economy, the professions, the mass media; built autobahns (the first in the world); created air and airship travel routes; vastly improved animal welfare; planned new and better cities and national parks; put Germany to work and (for the first time) gave workers rights such as decent breaks at work, Baltic and other holidays in Germany, and also foreign holidays including cruises. Decent homes were built on a huge scale.

3396AD3500000578-3561575-Hitler_had_lived_in_Munich_just_before_World_War_I_and_remained_-a-1_1461778976380.jpg

an-automobile-on-the-sweeping-curves-everett

Chancellery2DietrichEckartBuhneVW3

Britain could do worse than follow Hitler’s lead, introducing some updated and English/British form of social nationalism.

Stalin was far harsher as a leader and as an individual than Hitler or Mussolini, though Mao might be considered far worse (but of course he was non-European). Stalin however (like Hitler) was put back domestically by war. Stalin did recreate the industrial sector, which was booming before the First World War but which Bolshevism all but wiped out as a thriving economic sector. Stalin’s major mistake (apart from his cruelties and brutalities etc) was to allow the agricultural sector to be ruined via Collectivization, the legacy of which is only now being very slowly erased.

Mussolini did a huge amount for Italy. His posturing on balconies etc is what people now think of when his name is mentioned, but he eliminated the Mafia (until the Americans caused its revival after 1943, releasing the imprisoned leaders and followers), started to get rid of the terrible urban slums (unfortunately more were created as a result of the Anglo-American invasion of 1943); Mussolini also created an advanced scientific and industrial sector, mainly in the North. Famously, he also greatly improved the railways, and “made the trains run on time” (both truth and metaphor). Now, the wartime propaganda of the Western Allies and Stalin is all that most people outside Italy know– Mussolini as clown. Ironic that a real clown (the leader of the Five Star Movement) is now a major political figure in Italy!

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

Britain 2018

The UK has been pretty much left to rot since 2010. The Blair government, though repressive and in the pocket of the Jewish-Zionist lobby, tried to modernize infrastructure generally. New buildings were constructed: hospitals, libraries, schools. Credit where due.

The David Cameron-Levita-Schlumberger government of idiots was not only the most pro-Jewish/Zionist government Britain has ever had, (until Theresa May became Prime Minister), but also the least-effective of modern times (again, until that of Theresa May?). It not only failed to do anything new and decent, but also failed to maintain that which already existed, in every sector, from libraries and schools to the air force and navy.

The lesson surely is that government must be effective. If it is not, the State stands in peril. The people eventually demand action. They are beginning to demand it now.

The article by Clare Foges is, it seems to me, a sign of the times, or a straw in the wind. The political times in Britain are a changin’…

Notes

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/3tMvnMp3DFW3z99Zvc7WC3T/clare-foges

https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/clare-foges-the-woman-who-put-words-in-david-camerons-mouth-10437029.html

A critical article from the New Statesman:

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/elections/2018/07/sorry-clare-foges-dictatorship-isn-t-just-character-flaw-it-s-crime

Another critique of her views:

https://www.property118.com/clare-foges-anti-landlord-the-times/comment-page-4/

She was desperate to become an MP but no-one wanted her:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/11436355/Sir-Malcolm-Rifkind-resigns-Kensingtons-next-MP-might-be-this-woman.html

Another Clare Foges article. She seems to be very much of her time, meaning 2010-2015, as in this Cameroonesque piece of sort-of social Darwinism. I think that Clare Foges can be written off as a serious commentator.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/put-feckless-patients-at-the-back-of-nhs-queue-5hnlqqstg

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2267901/Clare-Foges-The-raven-haired-poet-ice-cream-seller-wrote-PMs-big-speech.html

Further thoughts, 6 December 2018

According to the Daily Mail, Clare Foges is “a devout Christian”. She may still be of part-Jewish ancestry (see above). My other query about the “devout Christian” bit is how does a “devout Christian” want to put IVF couples ahead of people needing NHS treatment for serious conditions just because they drink, smoke etc? Is that “Christian”? Even evil Iain Dunce Duncan Smith is said to be “devoutly Christian”…Yeah, right!

In the end, I suppose that it scarcely matters whether Clare Foges is this or that…and I just noticed that her Daily Mail bio was written by the egregious Andrew Pierce, so we can probably discount it…

Incredibly, she is appointed OBE!

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/labour-blocks-david-cameron-speechwriter-claire-foges-from-joining-party-to-oust-jeremy-corbyn_uk_58d90195e4b03787d35a3d08?guccounter=1&guce_referrer_us=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_cs=Y57ohgKaElO9EWmxBHKC1w

Looking at her photos and her behaviour, I think that she is probably at least partly-Jewish.

Her Twitter comments (read the thread):

https://twitter.com/ClareFoges/status/985813260824989696

She has not tweeted since April 2018.

She writes in The Times, but also as freelance pr person…

http://www.finelinelondon.com/

She has certainly written columns in The Times [of London] several times, but is not on that newspaper’s list of its 29 “key” columnists. I have just taken a look on the Internet, and not seen anything online written by her as Times columnist in the past months (since August 2018), though her Linked-In profile avers that she is still a Times columnist. I did see a piece from November 2018 published in The Sun “newspaper”.

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/clare-foges-906a4676

Update, 9 November 2020

I have just seen that Clare Foges has been writing a column for The Times about once per week in recent months. I had not noticed, never now reading that newspaper (does anyone?I suppose some still do).