[Hitler enters Vienna in 1938, after the Anschluss, and to general acclamation]
Tweets seen
"Terms like 'far-right' are now being stretched by liberal progressives to try and silence, stigmatise and shut down voters who question the established consensus among elites. Many voters can now see this"https://t.co/dmSQkhk9mG
By my use of Electoral Calculus, that might translate to Lab 476 Commons seats (overall majority 302), Con 68 (official Opposition), LibDems 62, SNP 13, Reform UK 4, Plaid Cymru 4, Greens 2 (Northern Ireland 18, Others 3).
What kind of “democracy” is it, though, when a party (Labour) might get 39% of the popular vote, yet get about 72% of the seats in the House of Commons (476 seats)? A strict 39% of seats would be 253 seats.
Another party (Conservatives) might get 19% of the popular vote, meaning, on strict mathematical equivalence, about 124 seats, not the mere 68 conferred by FPTP voting.
As for Reform UK, its present or forecast 17% should confer (under proportional voting) about 111 seats. The forecast under FPTP voting— a mere 4.
There again, the LibDems, with only 10% of the popular vote, are forecast to have 62 seats, almost the same as under a strict proportional allocation (65).
Can such an electoral system even be called “democratic”? Open question.
The DDR was a strange little country, in which I spent a couple of days in 1988; actually, not quite as small a country as commonly imagined: about 42,000 sq. miles, as against England’s 51,000, but with an overall density of population about a third of England’s (the UK as a whole has about 94,000 sq. miles).
Thérèse Coffey's constituency is on a knife edge. Lib Dems, lend your votes to Labour and a grateful nation will thank you. This needs to be reciprocated by Labour up and down the country. This is a generational opportunity to crush the Tories once and for all.#politicslivepic.twitter.com/yuNfo47v8l
— paulusthewoodgnome 🇺🇦💙 (@woodgnomology) June 12, 2024
Interesting both in itself and re. the tactical voting point.
“Two men have been jailed for a total of 67 years for shooting and stabbing to death an 18-year-old in east London.
Awadh Saleh and Rio Burton-Devine, both aged 25 from east London, were found guilty of the murder of Abubakar ‘Junior’ Jah, 18, at the Old Bailey today.
Judge Mark Dennis KC sentenced the pair to 36 years and 31 years respectively for the ‘brutal and cowardly’ attack in 2021.”
[defendant]
What will London be like in 2034 or 2044?
The System parties have no real answers.
Late tweets
This seems like a bit of a tipping point / watershed moment. My gut tells me that a decent proportion of Tory voters were waiting on this moment – using it as a test to see if Reform really could be considered a legitimate political force.
By my use of Electoral Calculus [https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll.html], that actually puts the Cons in a marginally better position than other recent polls, by reason of the slip in Labour’s position, but it still means Lab 466 (overall majority 282), Con 70, LibDem 70, Reform UK 4, Greens 2.
Were Labour to recover to 40%, the number of Con MPs would reduce to 51; were Labour to rise to 41%, the number of Con MPs would be a mere 42.
https://t.co/ImFdML1ebM Nigel Farage’s Reform party has overtaken Conservatives in a poll for 1st time. Tories were pushed into third in the survey, by pollsters YouGov.The findings will come as a blow to Rishi Sunak after a disastrous election campaign & risks triggering panic
— ML ie @randlight which has been deactivated why ? (@LightfootMarg) June 13, 2024
ITV Debate tonight – When questioned by Reform UK's Nigel Farage on why should the public trust the Conservatives on immigration, Tory Penny Mordaunt calls on the recent Prime minister's record to defend her – the Tories are a joke!#itvdebate#VoteReform#NigelFaragepic.twitter.com/DdEiD5IEPk
Penny Mordaunt is campaigning not so much for the Conservative Party as for her own political career (in fact, her career full stop, for she has no other). It seems 50-50, at best, that she will be re-elected anyway.
Labour is as dull as ditchwater, as witness its pathetic Manifesto for the General Election, but I do not think that it much matters now. The main aim of 80%+, maybe even 90%, of the electorate is to get rid of the Conservative Party not just for the next 5 years but permanently. Starmer and fake Labour will only fail to sweep all before them —by default— if something so devastating happens to their campaign that it is hard to imagine what.
Late music
[a rainy night in Tunis; I last trod that pavement in 1986]
“As alleged triple murderer appears before magistrates, all eyes were locked on the bearded, scruffy man in the glass-shielded dock. But he never looked at a soul.“
[Daily Mail]
[the alleged triple-murderer]
[alleged victims]
[alleged victim]
The matter now being sub judice, there can be no comment.
“Has ultra-woke National Trust been neglecting historic village beloved by Harry Potter fans? That’s what villagers in Lacock, Wiltshire, say as idyllic houses fall into disrepair.
No, they’re fed up because they believe that the National Trust, which owns pretty much every building in Lacock’s historic centre, including 88 tenanted houses and the abbey, has lost interest in the village.
The complaints come amid claims that the Trust has been diverted from its core role of preserving historic buildings, instead promoting woke educational programmes about the slave-owning past of previous owners and emphasising LGBT issues.“
[Daily Mail]
When Britain has a proper government, the enemies of our people’s future will get what’s coming to them.
The very fact of part of Ukraine being a war zone should preclude Ukraine from joining NATO (under NATO’s own rules).
I think that the Americans, meaning the leadership or ruling circles, are starting to realize that they are pushing Russia too hard and that, if push comes to shove, Russia just might hit NATO states with strategic nuclear weapons in the end. No matter that most of Russia’s 6,000+ weapons might not launch successfully, or reach their targets. Several hundred could. That means every American city of any size wiped out. Don’t do it. Pull back from the brink.
Once dementia sufferer Biden is removed from office next year, there will be an opportunity for the USA to re-evaluate this whole situation, stop funnelling arms, ammunition, and money to the Kiev regime, in effect take away Zelensky’s ricebowl. The war would then cease almost immediately. Russia can have the territories between the river Dnieper and the Russian border, as well as Odessa and the Black Sea littoral. There would then be a fully-Ukrainian state west of the Dnieper, probably based on Lvov, but north of the strip of land along the entire Black Sea coastline.
More music
[Belvedere Park, Tunis, where a fairly youthful Millard rested once or twice]
“Jack Monroe” “recipes”: mix a tin of cheap sardines with curry powder, add any old bits and pieces and some yoghurt. Microwave and enjoy! (or not…).
Someone more artistically-talented than me ought to do some satirical caricatures of typical “Jack Monroe” supporters: all over 50, most over 60; the aged lesbians; the “whiteknighting” middleaged or elderly men; the mentally-afflicted; the radical LGBTQXYZ crowd; the naive and affluent middleaged women (Guardian-readers, and mostly living in France, or the English countryside); the msm scribblers and talking heads, “celebrities” too lazy to see or publish the truth. No young people, no ethnic minorities, and no-one with any working palate.
Gov fraud impacts the rich and poor. Jack Monroe fraud is specifically targeted at the less well off & disabled. In other words the most vulnerable of society. If you care less about those, get off the topic.
— Questions From Readers (@FromReaders) June 18, 2023
“PilgrimTucker”, with another “Jack Monroe”-supporter argument: “Conservative MPs commit fraud, so why pick on poor little stunted “Jack Monroe”, who only rips off the disabled, poor, and elderly a bit?“…not very convincing. Not true, either. Many of those tweeting or blogging about the “Jack Monroe” fraud carousel often also criticize the Conservative Party and other scammers.
You love what she stands for? Lying and grifting her way through her followers money? Mistreating animals? Humiliating her son? What is it you think Jack Monroe does? Occasionally say 'Tories bad'? Wow, so ground breaking. Much revelation.🙄
“Mike Hunt” is either another pathetic late-middleaged “white knight”, or “Jack Monroe” herself under one of her many covers: see the tweet below from the same Twitter account…
She sat at home pissed out of her head and enjoying some lovely ❄️
Other “grifters” seem to make a living solely by tweeting “fuck the Tories” and similar fairly frequently, then begging for money for their “activism”. Mugs send money to “Supertanskiii” and others on Twitter simply for that (there are usually also tweeted-about medical conditions).
Mugs and utter mugs…
His name is Mike Hunt – these socks get more pathetic every day!
Incidentally, three days after “Jack Monroe” made up her latest pathetic lie, about how Fleet Street (?) national Press reporters, and members of the general public, were supposedly ringing her doorbell, and peering into her windows, and had even driven her out of her home (together with her son who, it now seems, rarely stays with her anyway) because “trolls” were “bullying her” (pointing out online that she is a thief and fantasist), still not one Press story has emerged about her, with the exception of the cut-and-paste “report” (pretending to be an interview) in the pathetic online so-called “newspaper”, Wales Online.
More “Jack Monroe” lies.
Many are alert to her lies now, but there are also many mugs still willing to believe whatever absolute scheiss “Jack Monroe” comes out with:
She says a lot of things… have you any idea is any of them are true? Do you just believe stuff strangers put on the internet after you've emotionally invested in their sad story? If so, I have a bridge to sell you.
In fact, who has told “everyone” where the liar lives? I myself have seen nothing at all, on Twitter at least. It is hardly a secret that she lives in some affluent area near Southend-on-Sea (she herself has repeatedly said so), but no more detail than that.
Do you actually know where Jack Monroe is right now? I don't, but her long history of pathological lying suggests that this is yet another one of her chaos dramas.
Except it will have cost her to get legal advice, possibly prepare a case and/or negotiate with the other party.
— RolySwansea @ b s k y . s o c i a l (@RolySwansea) June 18, 2023
Hey Roly, Jack Monroe is a thief and a liar. Hope this is direct enough for you. Email address/details are all on my page for when she “sues me for libel”. Can’t wait to see how she pays and also for her to have to show her finances in court to prove my theft accusation false.
— Kelly Jackson | It’s More Fun In Your 30s (@Kelly_Jackson88) June 18, 2023
Ha ha! Tweeter “Roly Swansea”, yet another long-term “Jack Monroe” supporter. Ticks some of the usual type of boxes: “PhD candidate; media; training; ESOL teacher; Wobbly; he/him; Poly; Daddy; Vocalist“…
Completely ignorant of both the exact case and facts thereof and how libel cases are launched and paid for, but that does not stop him from advancing an (ignorant) opinion as if it is accurate fact (and condescendingly “explaining” as if he himself is not totally ignorant of the subject-matter and as if his “explanation” is not absolute rubbish).
My understanding when I donated was it would be used for the case. After I donated you said if it was taken on a no win no fee basis you would give to charity. You didn't proceed with the case so not sure why money wasn't just refunded or at least more transparency.
There is in fact no evidence (beyond the word of a long-term liar, “grifter”, thief, fantasist and fraudster) that any of that money was given to any —unnamed— foodbank as claimed).
Hundreds have contacted Jack Monroe by private message & via Patreon chat. She either strings you along or blocks you. I say this from personal experience as a former £40 a month Patreon & received fuck all. It’s a grift Amy and you’re being sucked in.
Credit to Jack, it works.
— Questions From Readers (@FromReaders) June 18, 2023
Good grief. Imagine sending £40 a month to that fraud!
I'm still amazed at how thick the middle class are, that they think Jack Monroe @BootstrapCook making novelty poverty 'food' for the @guardian readership is somehow fighting poverty. If they want to help, stop giving Jack Monroe money and give it to actual poor people.
When you see how easily thousands of mugs have been tricked by one not very believable woman, it becomes clear how millions could be tricked by all the “Covid” nonsense, broadcast relentlessly by governments around the Western world.
Funny and cleverly-satirical video.
More music
Thought for the day
“Alle Schwankungen müssen am Ende ertragen werden, alle Schicksalsschläge müssen überwunden werden“
[“in the end all fluctuations must be endured, all strokes of Fate overcome“]
[Adolf Hitler, speaking in Hamelin in 1933]
[“At the end stands Victory“]
More tweets
It is absolutely extraordinary that someone that ran the Bank of England can believe Brexit is to blame for this inflation rather than endless borrowing & printing money, relying on foreign energy imports, followed by a proxy war with the worlds largest energy exporter. pic.twitter.com/l5we2WHs4W
A System insider such as a former Bank of England Governor (part-Jew, incidentally) knows why he says what he says. As I predicted about 7 years ago, either Brexit would become “Brexit In Name Only” [“BRINO”], or there would be a concerted push by the System and its drones to “mess things up” enough so that the people would want the UK to re-enter the EU at any cost. Now look…
Maybe so. But being Mark Carney is another way of saying "created an economy in the form of a ponzi scheme based on unsustainable debt with my mate George Osborne, & then blamed Brexit." https://t.co/J6L6f5tP15
I'm a newbie to Twitter but have to say I'm surprised about some of the nasty replies on your thread regarding Jack Monroe. You've every right to try to get your money back but now that you've explained your case you can carry on with it without resorting to Twitter anymore.
“Neil Marsden 1973” is probably another one. Following 17 Twitter accounts, and not being followed by even one person.
I never said that, but another excellent try at putting words in my mouth. For the record I don't want Jack Monroe to face violence. Just refund everyone, public apology, close Patreon, retire from public life & get a damn job.
“Jack Monroe” will never close her Patreon account so long as (as of today) 413 utter mugs are signed up to send money to her every month…
Le Monde: Ukrainian units trained in the Baltic republics according to standards NATO cut in half in the last offensive According to the French newspaper, Ukrainian army units that were trained in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia lost almost 40% of their personnel and equipment… pic.twitter.com/dV2JxcrLAb
British intelligence officers recognized the high efficiency of the defense operations of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the southern direction.
Untrained or scarcely-trained Ukrainian recent civilians being sent to the front line and ordered to perform unnecessary and stupid actions by incompetent superiors.
I have to admit that I find modern China fascinating —from a distance— though I have never been there (I have been to Hong Kong and Macau, but never to mainland China).
[Chinese pastiche of a town with “Tudor” buildings; looks a bit like the centre of Hereford]
2/2 The president also visited the building of the restored Mariupol Philharmonic — he examined the situation inside the building and assessed the quality of the work performed: “Comfortable, beautiful”https://t.co/uYfVai6mQO
#Putin meets with ppl of #Mariupol They were taken aback bc this was very unexpected. He is asking them if they like the new buildings that have been built for them. pic.twitter.com/wyKGT2zhNI
Interesting. I have blogged a few times about the day in 1994 or 1995 (I think 1995) when I visited the partly-privatized but still heavily-guarded Porton Down biolab campus in Wiltshire, UK, with the then Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK, a trained scientist who was later both a Presidential candidate and director of a biochemistry and biosecurity institute in Ukraine [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serhiy_Komisarenko].
Many Russians know what’s happening. This 92yo woman says TV has brainwashed Russians to hate the West, support Putin & act like animals in Ukraine. Asked why she’s not brainwashed, she says, “I’ve lived thru 4 wars. I can think critically & analyze.”pic.twitter.com/rtdUCts3sp
Well, OK, but that old woman can express her views freely on the streets of (?) Moscow, and have them broadcast without repercussions. If she had been in Kiev, and had opposed the regime of the corrupt Jew Zelensky, she would probably, almost certainly, have been arrested; the interview would certainly not be broadcast or allowed to be put on social media. Everyone involved would be arrested.
So who is “brainwashed“? The Western msm is more or less brainwashing people in the UK, USA etc, though many are “thinking for themselves” and not supporting the war or the Kiev regime.
Watching a few academics on here lose their marbles over a book they've not even read is a sight to behold! Do look around and note what happens when you appear to challenge the orthodoxy. And grab the book to explore for yourself!
Bolloxs…..you think the govt going to pay for illegal immigrants, no it'll be pushed onto everyone and struggling hard working families to pay. Lineker won't be paying he'll use loophole to get out of it, while others lose their homes
Not on small boats. Lineker represents 16% of Britain at best. Most people support the gvt. But progressives like Lineker also tend to dominate Twitter so what you are seeing on here every day is a sort of progressive worldview on steroids https://t.co/rzJ8dfbg4J
The Twitterati were all so shocked to find that there was a majority in favour of Brexit (meaning,mainly, in favour of stopping immigration), and that America voted Trump in 2016.
Lineker is a good example of the luxury belief class. High paid elites (often dodging tax, indulging in selective outrage e.g. Qatar ok but not Con gvt) who preach luxury beliefs to garner status among other elites but do not have to live with the effects themselves https://t.co/iJvCHhEYwz
The fantastic BBC Singers, Britain’s only professional chamber choir, to be disbanded in July to save about £1.5m, only a tad above Gary Lineker’s annual BBC salary. Strange priority for a supposedly public-service broadcaster.
I obviously have skin in the game here but I'd gently point out there's a whole chapter on the negative economic effects of Thatcherism. The new elite let down the country economically, culturally and politically, it's not either/orhttps://t.co/G3C3UtcvJuhttps://t.co/YnjmIqirjv
Britain has always had an elite. The difference between the old & the new elite, however, is that whereas the former broadly shared the cultural values of the masses the latter, who are increasingly embracing radically progressive values, do not. https://t.co/2X0J8vP2gP
I do think Jeremy Hunt is sounding dangerously out of touch with much of the country. Families are not experiencing a "pinch" – it's the sharpest decline in living standards since the 1950s.
As I blogged yesterday, Jeremy Hunt seems to have a political cloth ear.
Goodwin’s tweet about “1950s” is not quite right though. “1940s” would be better. It is a linguistic point. The 1950s were when Britain began to exit from the terrible privation of the unnecessary war against the German Reich. The poverty of Britain was actually worse in the decade (and especially the 5 years) after the end of the war than it had been during that misconceived war. The decline in living standards during the war itself lurched lower in 1946, 1947 and did not improve, substantially, until about 1954 or 1955. The last remnants of WW2 rationing ended in 1955.
Incidentally, it is interesting to note that many poorer Brits actually had a better diet during WW2 rationing than they had had in the prewar 1930s.
Some of the (pro-immigration) replies to Goodwin’s tweet are unintentionally hilarious: idiots saying that the UK “needs” immigrants, that the UK is not “full” (despite housing covering more of our green fields daily), and one pro-invasion tweeter (one of the most vituperative) who lives on the Costa Tropical in Spain!
I think there a is a very strong consensus that this and the reduction of BBC World Service output is a serious mistake. I wonder who made the call.
According to some tweets I saw, the decision was made by some black woman, by name Lorna Clarke: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/lorna-clarke-3a19b415. She, it seems, is actually the “BBC Director, Music” and formerly “Head of Rock and Pop“.
“How has this been allowed to happen? Early last year, the BBC’s music review recommended an extraordinary restructure. Alan Davey, the recently departed controller of BBC Radio 3 and the Proms, ceased to have direct responsibility for the classical ensembles that are now under the control of former head of rock and pop Lorna Clarke, while [Simon] Webb, the former director of the BBC Philharmonic, is the new head of orchestras and choirs in England.
The BBC’s timing is as calculated as its strategy is callous: ensembles struggling to recover from the pandemic, exhausted from keeping the show on the road throughout, three of the ensembles without a permanent director and all contractually gagged. There is not one single champion for classical music left at the BBC in any position of power or influence. Herod has been left minding the creche.
I no longer know if the BBC is a public service broadcaster; I don’t recognise it any more, or its values. If it no longer exists to do that which others cannot or will not, then what is it for? After 23 years of constant change, the ensembles of the BBC have never been more agile, flexible or willing to adapt, and they represent tremendous value for money in the grand scheme of the BBC’s budget and our licence-fee payment.
The role of cultural patron is not optional, and the responsibilities as custodian of music ensembles do not give the BBC permission to dispose of and dismantle them without serious public discussion, not to mention honest, transparent internal debate. The values and behaviour of what we are told repeatedly is “our BBC” must matter to all of us as much as the content.”
[Paul Hughes, in the Guardian]
Apart from the actual absurdity of having blacks and merely business-trained persons in positions of power in the cultural sphere, this damage goes right back to the 1990s, to John Birt [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birt,_Baron_Birt] and Greg Dyke [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Dyke]. Those two, who knew and worked with each other, both had poor educational and —initial— work backgrounds, yet were allowed to take leading positions in British television and radio.
“Ilya Yefimovich Repin (Russian: (pre-1918: Илья Ефимовичъ Рѣпинъ) Илья Ефимович Репин, pronounced [ˈrʲepʲɪn];[a] 5 August [O.S. 24 July] 1844 – 29 September 1930) was a Russian painter.[1][3][4][5][b] He became one of the most renowned artists in Russia in the 19th century.
PMC "Wagner" is attacking, trying to take the fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Bakhmut into the cauldron This is reported by the officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: ▪️“In the Sobachovka area, the Wagners are trying to close the ring and are advancing along… pic.twitter.com/yKlfUS0Jsg
Polish Ambassador to France Jan Emeryk Rościszewski: "Either Ukraine will defend its independence today, or we will be forced to enter into this conflict." pic.twitter.com/1noohyDhjy
If Poland fights against Russia in 2023, that would trigger a Russian response which might mean that there will be no Poland, and certainly no Warsaw, by 2024. In fact, Poland being now a member of NATO, it might just trigger WW3.
The SNP may have had its day in the sun, but it could reinvent itself if it became more social-national, opposed mass immigration and migration-invasion, binned non-whites/non-Brits such as Humza Yousaf as candidates and office-holders, and announced a policy of leaving NATO and closing down all RAF/USAF bases, as well as submarine bases, while asking Russia for closer relations. None of that will happen, of course.
A gentle reminder that @NicolaSturgeon invited this cretin into power to protect herself in Holyrood. Another one of her many many failures as first minister. Slater shouldn’t be allowed on a PTA never mind be a government minister. https://t.co/U9MlhXH8M2
The idiotic woman even wears a rainbow scarf. Like a red flag, a warning signal. Just looked her up on Wikipedia; she is actually Canadian! How mad is that? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorna_Slater.
Oh yes. I recall once running late at Gatwick, only to be told by some simpleton in uniform to remove my shoes! I only caught my plane because it was delayed by engine trouble.
Even worse are the self-important armed police, strutting around with their Heckler & Koch MP5s or other weapons. So, if there are suspected terrorists, will they just open up with automatic weapons in a crowded terminal? I hope not. They are basically there “for show”.
Ian Robert Millard 