“Scientists have grown an entity very close to a human embryo — without using sperm, eggs or a womb.
The embryo even released enough of the hormone pregnant women produce that turns a pregnancy test positive, resulting in a positive test result in the lab.
Researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel made the complete models of human embryos from stem cells generated in the lab after building on previous research where they had made mouse embryos.“
[Daily Mail]
“The simulacrum of the human” creates another simulacrum of the human…
Is that the best the rotten “Conservative” Party can come up with, yet another attack on the sick and disabled etc? Yes, there are some fraudulent claims, but the vast majority are not fraudulent.
Basic Income has to come, and with it an end to this nasty and pointless “jump through hoops or starve” way of running a “welfare” system.
As for Andrew Pierce, if ever an msm scribbler deserved a kicking, it must be him.
Moreover, most of the jobs on any of the websites noted above will also be on the others. The total is probably only around 15,000; perhaps not even as many as that.
Bill Gates claims he doesn’t know why he visited Epstein Island…..
With the CEO of Thames Water stepping down weeks after giving up her bonus over sewage spills, and with the government contingency planning for the firm's collapse, our poll last month found 47% of Britons have an unfavourable view of UK water companieshttps://t.co/61nuPefYcMpic.twitter.com/oTf4F5Ll3s
A typical “Jack Monroe” supporter: not “poor” (in fact, quite comfortably-off), a pseudo-socialist virtue signaller, living in comfortable surroundings, extremely rude, and “of a certain age”…[“Laura Davies:over 30 years’ experience in cross-sectoral and cross-organisational strategic planning and delivery. Chair of the board of trustees for Sheffield Hallam Students’ Union. Former vice-chair, non-executive director and trustee of numerous higher education and representation charities in the North West of England.“]
Probably one of the Common Purpose rabble too.
The travel abroad of women liable for military service in Ukraine will be limited in the same way as the travel of men is limited , Zelensky's representative in parliament Fyodor Venislavsky said.
We are talking about female doctors and pharmacists who are required to register…
Putin and Bin Salman agreed to reduce oil production.
During a telephone conversation, the President of Russia and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia agreed to reduce oil production. pic.twitter.com/D0Jb6Gw7vD
It's so important that we have these debates about the extent to which human beings are prepared to be controlled – on an individual level – in relation to our consumption of energy. Other channels often assume ' the science' is settled and we must all comply. Stop splashing… https://t.co/j8jxFwGb9y
The Ukrainian army can break through the remaining defense lines of Russia by the end of the year, the director of the analytical division of the US intelligence services said. pic.twitter.com/Rn5HTo9Dji
If that were to happen (which I doubt)— goodbye Kiev…
Lieutenant General Andrej Mordvichev, commander of the Center group, received the rank of Colonel General by presidential decree. So, we can say that General Mordvichev is one of the youngest generals in the Russian army, he is currently 47 years old. In addition, since February… pic.twitter.com/EU4Ha9hrgW
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine completely ignored the first speech of the new Minister of Defense
Everyone in the hall is absolutely not interested in what he says there, everyone is busy with their own business. One of the "deputies" even managed to come up to take a picture… pic.twitter.com/R0q9fmJSmz
500,000 Ukrainian military have already died , Irish MEP Claire Daly said at a meeting with NATO leadership.
– You said that Ukraine is gradually conquering territories. But that's not true. Half a million people died . Now they have begun to mobilize even the limitedly fit and… pic.twitter.com/gZshhIPO2u
Western sanctions against Russia hurt Europe itself
Europe, like the rest of the world, confrontation with Russia is not cheap, writes The Telegraph. The confrontation has led to rising costs of living across the continent, runaway inflation and economic stagnation, and…
“Western sanctions against Russia hurt Europe itself Europe, like the rest of the world, confrontation with Russia is not cheap, writes The Telegraph. The confrontation has led to rising costs of living across the continent, runaway inflation and economic stagnation, and politically it is increasingly dividing the region.
As another winter approaches, European energy prices are rising again, exposing cracks in the economy once again. There is growing concern in Germany about the damage the conflict is doing to the country’s once well-oiled economic machine, partly dependent on cheap energy supplies from Russia.
The belief that Europe can emerge from the situation relatively unscathed has always been a self-deception, the author of the material summed up. Also illusory were the expectations that sanctions would break Putin. After all, the European economy continues to weaken, and over time, sanctions can finish it off.”
Late music
[Museum of Natural History, the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, in winter]
Ah…a terrible result for me too this week, one of the worst in the past several years of doing this Saturday quiz. I was even beaten by political journalist John Rentoul, who scored 4/10 points; this week I could manage only a mere 3/10. I only knew the answers to questions 3, 6, and 10. Had I thought longer, I should have got numbers 5 and 8 as well, but there it is.
Incidentally, question 6 may have been wrongly-put anyway (though I still got the answer); some people think that the phrase in question only originated in or about 1964, not 1956. I certainly thought so until today.
Crazed butch lesbian attacks woman, and causes lifelong injury and pain to victim. Gets minor fine and a suspended sentence of 34 weeks. Britain in 2023.
Notice how the Daily Mail headline falsely claims that the criminal has been “jailed for 34 weeks“. No. She has not been imprisoned at all.
The US Weapons are only made to make a profit as they are no good on the battlefield says a former officer, Lost the ability to make good weapons over the past decades as didn't think they would fight this type of war. Only with defenseless countries with no air defense .
The Russian Aerospace Forces attacked targets with "smart bombs" in the Beryslavsky district of the Kherson region, where the Armed Forces of Ukraine place their reserves, equipment and ammunition depots There were powerful explosions pic.twitter.com/swTdO9XodF
The next batch of civilians caught before sent off to 2 weeks NATO bootcamp.
This is horrible….Zelensky making money and gaining influence on the internet while his men fight a conflict they can't win. pic.twitter.com/rldoJ2dnGV
The Kiev regime no longer has adventurers and chancers, and would-be mercenaries, lining up to volunteer, not now that a posting to the front line means a death sentence, so the regime has widened the scope of conscription, and has press-gangs operating, pulling potential cannon-fodder off the streets.
When the US government is much more concerned about the Russian-Ukrainian borders that it forgets it has it's own. pic.twitter.com/TtPMr8Yza8
Georgia should stick to walnuts and wine, and leave war to those capable of engaging in it seriously.
"It's a great job"
"Get all your bills paid for, get a huge salary for no minimum work standards or hours, fill up your second home, employ family members, obtain ££ contracts for your friends, and personally enrich yourself at the expense of the country and everyone in it." https://t.co/kVjbXQWEnz
Piers Morgan talking about “where the line is” on satire, i.e. as to when should it not exist, when might it even be deemed unlawful. Of course, Morgan is just another msm moneygrubber and careerist who knows that, to continue his lucrative nonsense, he has to keep in with the Jew-Zionist cabals which, to a large extent, control and/or influence the TV industry and the msm in general.
TV shows have, for well over 60 years, “offended” the British people. No redress…
…and guess what group, more than any other, has “offended” the British people, slandered them, trashed their beliefs, culture, and way of life? That’s right…
Morgan even has the gall to claim that he supports freedom of expression, presumably excepting from that any situation where a Jew, or a group of Jews, however small in number, claims “offence” (and the “Campaign Against AntiSemitism” is really very small, just a handful of Jew-Zionists tweeting and causing trouble, making false and malicious complaints to police, Twitter, MPs, cafes or local authorities showing anti-Zionist films or hosting anti-Zionist comedians etc; but wealthy Jews stumped up £600,000+ last year so that the “CAA” could continue with what many call “lawfare” against freedom of expression).
ISRAEL
Catholics successfully defend their church from Zionist extremist group 'La Familia', who attempted to sieze Mar Elias Monastery by force
In recent months, priests have been stabbed and assaulted, cemeteries desecrated and churches set on fire in Israel pic.twitter.com/pW8k5YbK9u
You held a screening of 'Moulin Rouge' at Westminster Abbey? Why? Will the Leicester Square Odeon now be holding regular Evensong? https://t.co/8cKXFM3gni
The Church of England stopped being a spiritual organization many many years ago. The pro-Israel, pro-Jew-Zionist C. of E. under Welby is merely the gravestone on top.
The Labour Party, under Jewish-lobby puppets Starmer, Rachel Reeves, Yvette Cooper etc, is on track, arguably, to form a government in 2024 (though the fat lady has not yet sung), but that fake “popularity” is wholly by default, because we the people have, at present, a Conservative Party regime so corrupt, shambolic, and useless that even fairly hard-core former Conservative Party voters are either voting elsewhere or, in far greater numbers, abstaining in by-elections.
The “Labour surge” in the opinion polls is purely that— contempt for the Conservative Party government’s uselessness, which has been the case since the 2010 election that brought the part-Jews, David Cameron-Levita and George Osborne to power.
That shambolic inability to govern properly continued under (also part-Jewish) Theresa May and then (this becomes ridiculous) part-Jew Boris Johnson and his cronies. Then, of course, we endured a few weeks of utter nonsense under ignorant little careerist “ho” Liz Truss and her “African at Eton” Chancellor, Kwasi (aka Woollyhead Trussbanger). Liz Truss was then sacked (by any other word) and replaced by Indian money-juggler Rishi Sunak, arguably the least convincing of the lot (apart from, obviously, Liz Truss and Woollyhead Trussbanger).
In the above-noted circumstances, and after 13+ years (except during the “Covid” “panicdemic” of 2020-22) of “austerity” policies, which were actually counter-productive, it is scarcely surprising that people are more than unenthusiastic (contemptuous, despairing) about the Conservative Party.
There again, Starmer-Labour is now not even promising much of a change from the policies (if they can be so dignified) of the present Conservative Party omnishambles. In fact, the difference is mostly meaningless hot air from Starmer and, mainly, Rachel Reeves.
Labour Party rank-and-file members (who numbered, under Corbyn, about 600,000, but who now number about 385,000 and that number falling fast), may well think “what is the point in tramping round streets canvassing etc, just so that a ‘Con-lite’, Jewish-lobby, Starmer government can be installed and then carry out policies almost identical to those of Sunak?”
This is the moment when, if we had a truly open “democracy”, a social-national party might sweep the board. However, here again we come up against the well-entrenched Jew-Zionist lobby, which makes sure (so far) that anything even mildly “national”, let alone social-national, is demonized, using all the msm puppets and controlled outlets, and ranging from news to (unfunny) comedy. One example would be Baddiel, perhaps, arguably, describable as “the unthinking man’s Jonathan Miller“.
Reverting to the semi-rigged battle between equally-misnamed “Labour” and “Conservative”, it seems to me that, in the expected 2024 General Election, the most important factor will not be ideological division, nor any enthusiasm for either System party, but how many voters will abstain, and where, and why.
The steady and fairly considerable outflow of Labour Party members will not be decisive at its present rate, not before 2025. About 5,000 per month. In 17 months (i.e. until the last possible date of the next general election), that might be 90,000, out of 385,000 members at present.
It may be that, in a general election, voter abstentions on the Con side will be fewer than at the recent by-elections, and that there may be many more than expected on the Lab side. Also, that Starmer and Rachel Reeves and Yvette Cooper will be quite literally hated so much that many may either abstain, or vote non-Labour, simply to prevent their having power.
I do not describe myself as a “conspiracy theorist”, but it is certainly true that, in the years since I have been running this blog, most of my predictions or those with which I have agreed, have indeed come to pass.
That one sounds like an enemy of the British people. The System gave him an OBE. What does that say? That the System itself is also the enemy of the British people.
“Starmer didn’t inform us that he was joining the Trilateral Commission while serving in the shadow cabinet. If he had, we would have put a stop to it, like we did when he tried to take an inappropriate outside job”—@schneiderhomehttps://t.co/pkUoFOw2cs
🇵🇱 Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki expressed his fear that the fighters of pvk Wagner who are stationed in Belarus will invade Poland under the guise of illegal migrants. pic.twitter.com/uwrYBdKIPw
Not “insane” exactly, but signed up to a transnational conspiracy which has taken on certain shibboleths: the “trans” nonsense, the whole “Covid” “panicdemic”/”scamdemic”, the “holocaust” farrago and other Jewish-lobby propaganda, “standing with” “Ukraine” (Kiev regime), “Black Lives Matter”, “refugees welcome”, and so on.
Incidentally, interesting that “I stand with Ukraine” is a construction only ever seen otherwise in “I stand with Israel“…
If this isn't racism then nothing is. Yet @lisanandy@Peston and @UKLabour not only think it isn't but ridiculously believe it's racist/antisemitic to call this – or any of Israel's racist policies, racist.
— The Rt Rev'd Mojito🍹 (@childofeternity) July 29, 2023
My view is that there is nothing wrong anyway with being “racist” or “antisemitic” in a defensive way. There is certainly nothing unlawful about either, as such, in England, as judges have repeatedly confirmed.
Hate the Tories, but can't vote people like @lisanandy into power either. I am officially politically homeless
— Repeal The Gender Recognition Act (@WomanRoaringXX) July 29, 2023
If you vote Labour now and/or in 2024 (not in 1926, not in 1945, not in 1966, not in 1979, not even in 1997, but now, or next year), you are voting for people such as Lisa Nandy, Keir Starmer etc, who are so intellectually dishonest that they cannot distinguish a man from a woman, cannot distinguish themselves from Sunak and his pack of idiots on policy, and who, just like the “Conservatives”, are totally in the pocket of the Israel lobby.
Putin right now will give exhaustive answers to questions about the grain deal, Ukraine and the special operation – journalists of the Kremlin pool pic.twitter.com/tWUANBtaQ0
At the moment there are no major changes at the front — Putin
“I think that this is due to the fact that the enemy has withdrawn his assault units to the places of restoration of combat capability,” Vladimir Putin said. pic.twitter.com/WIZAJDDLjS
Just so you know, the Leopard is superior to the Abrams. The Abrams uses German technology for some of its parts.
And both of them do not come in comparison to the superior T-90, which has proven to be more efficient and effective than the leopard which hasn't registered a shot. https://t.co/ztMFlTj6SP
🇷🇺🇷🇸 The victory of Russia over Ukraine will be the defeat of the collective West, – Serbian President Vucic
The West cannot allow Ukraine to be defeated, because together with it, "America and the European Union, that is, NATO and the collective West, will be defeated." pic.twitter.com/y1Bt4wdHqb
Sanctions against Russia have mostly hurt the EU, the UK, and the USA, not Russia. Western and Central Europe is facing economic and socio-political meltdown if inflation continues to rise and incomes to drop.
Russia (unlike Ukraine) is a world nuclear power, with maybe 6,000 usable nuclear weapons; it has hundreds of millions of people, and territory nearly twice the size of the USA (and over 70 times the size of the UK).
Much of the world outside the NATO alliance is at least neutral towards Russia, and many states are with Russia on Ukraine.
Russia is benefiting financially from oil and gas sales to non-sanctions countries, and they are benefiting from trade with Russia, trade much of which was formerly USA-Russia or EU-Russia.
Ukraine simply cannot “win” against Russia, however many tanks and other pieces of equipment are supplied to the regime in Kiev. It is a logical impossibility. The only possibilities, in the medium-term, say up to 2030, are Russian victory over the whole of the eastern part of Ukraine, as well as Crimea and the Black Sea coastal zone, or a stalemate, after which US/EU/UK support for the Kiev regime will eventually fall away.
The next US President will probably scale back US support for Zelensky and his regime, and will almost certainly not increase it.
The UK’s police are now largely useless. As blogged previously, I am not going to blog prior to trial about my current prosecution for blogging the truth, not in detail anyway, but I am more than irritated (“livid” might cover it) that the policeman (who shall remain anonymous for now) who at present is, it seems, effectively to be the only witness against me at any trial (the date of which is uncertain but, if held, will probably take place in the Autumn or Winter of this year) is also part of, or even possibly the head, of the very “neighbourhood policing team” which was totally useless in preventing the theft of a wheel from my car nearly 5 months ago, or in detecting the perpetrators (despite some evidence having been provided or available to the police).
Instead of doing their proper and rightful job, the police sneak around at the behest of the Zionist element, snooping on Twitter and socio-political blogs, and interfering with free speech.
Tweets seen
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called "dangerous" the appearance of PMC "Wagner" on the territory of the Republic of Belarus pic.twitter.com/JGSKHgCFQ3
The Chinese military has begun simulating "total war" scenarios amid rising tensions with the United States, the South China Morning Post reported, citing scientists involved in the project. pic.twitter.com/DKkSV679dc
“A North London woman who threw urine at her neighbours’ front door while they were on holiday then called them ‘dirty white people’ will do 100 hours unpaid work.”
[My London]
[The “North London” woman]
More “diversity” to be “celebrated” (?)…
More tweets seen
Well the UN seems to think it ok. And other countries like Denmark.
What's your thoughts on the masses of stories like this Sadiq?
Oh and U.K. government think Rwanda is done for BRITISH to holiday in……https://t.co/4w5EjtBSAz
The Rwanda policy was never going to work on the mass scale. The shambles of a political and judicial establishment just used it as an electoral football. Now, it may never happen at all.
Every day, hundreds of migrant-invaders cross the Channel. Hardly any are being deported, whether to Rwanda or anywhere else. Britain is changing, sliding, deteriorating, and being invaded, before our very eyes. Just look around you.
Indeed, the cross-Channel migration invasion is only a fraction of the full problem, which also involves other kinds of non-white entrant to the UK, and also births to those already here.
Britain has already changed out of all recognition in the past half-century. In another 50 years, there will be nothing worth saving.
“The state pension triple lock is here to stay – but people may eventually have to wait until the age of 70 to claim it, the Work and Pensions Secretary said yesterday.
In an unusual intervention, Mel Stride moved to reassure pensioners that a commitment to the triple lock will be included in the next Conservative manifesto.
But Mr Stride also suggested younger people may have to work for years longer in order to claim it.
Downing Street committed to honouring the triple lock this week, despite warnings from economists that stubborn inflation could result in a 7 per cent rise in the pension bill.
Mr Stride went further, saying the Conservatives were committed to the triple lock in the long term.”
[Daily Mail]
People over 60 are the Conservative Party mainstay, both in membership and electorate. Lose that bloc, and there will be no Conservative Party to speak of. Rishi Sunak dropped the Triple Lock a couple of years ago, for a year. He will not make that mistake again, not if he wants to stay posing as PM.
Speaking personally, though I myself am (since last year) of State-pensionable age, I am less affected either way, partly because I only get about half of the State Pension maximum (by reason of having spent many years overseas).
Still, that 70-year pension age possibility is absurd. It raises again, the probable need for some kind of Basic Income.
“This morning I smiled as my happy, lively five-year-old son skipped into the school playground, babbling excitedly about presents for his approaching sixth birthday.
Not too long ago it was an altogether different story. From March 2020, the cumulative effect of three oppressive lockdowns over 12 months led to a transformation in my son that was painful to behold.
His attention span, enthusiasm for learning, even his burgeoning vocabulary — they all but collapsed under the isolation and loss of routine that characterised each lockdown.
That’s why the declaration this week by the former Health Secretary Matt Hancock that Britain must be prepared for more of the same in future pandemics — but with wider, earlier and more stringent lockdowns — filled me with horror and fury in equal parts.
Horror because as a mother, I was a near helpless witness to the corrosive effects of these restrictions on my son, and anger because history has shown us all too viscerally that, deployed unwisely, lockdowns can be as fatal and damaging as the virus they are meant to suppress.“
[Daily Mail]
Instead of little Matt Hancock being punished appropriately for his espousal of the “SAGE” committee rubbish (“lockdowns”, “social distancing”, the asinine “Rule of Six”, the facemask nonsense etc), the System has rewarded him with huge amounts of money via book deal(s), guesting on I’m a Celebrity etc. I should love it were he to be punished.
Hancock will no doubt be applauded by the sort of loonies who came out of the woodwork in 2020/21. They cannot wait for more of all that garbage, together with “15 minute cities” and the rest.
The denizens of the Westminster monkeyhouse fear only one thing, pretty much. Need I spell it out?
“Police have launched an appeal after a man pushed a woman and grabbed another passenger by the throat on a District line Tube just outside Mile End station.“
[Evening Standard]
More of that wonderful “diversity” to be “celebrated”…
Paddington
I was just indulging my Google Earth streetview addiction (again). This time the Praed Street/Eastbourne Terrace/Bishop’s Bridge Road area of Paddington.
Had I just teleported to Praed Street, I should scarcely have recognized it after even 16 years (the last time I saw it, when I appeared at Central London County Court near Regent’s Park, and stayed at what was then the Edgware Road Hilton at the junction of Edgware Road and Praed Street).
When I lived in Little Venice, very intermittently, from 1976 through to about mid-1990s, Praed Street, especially between St. Mary’s Hospital and Edgware Road, was a rather neglected area. Now it bustles. New buildings, new shops.
The area to the west, by Paddington Station, also very different. The old Great Western Hotel, dusty and neglected, is now another Hilton. A few shops and cafes that I recognized, in the side streets.
Eastbourne Terrace now totally different, with some buildings gutted and awaiting rebuilding, others completely new. The one that used to house John Brown Engineering, which Gorbachev visited in, I think, late 1984, is now gone, as far as I can see. Other buildings are new.
I noticed all the new buildings around Bishop’s Bridge Road, though the one that used to house Red Star Parcels (the parcel arm of the old British Rail) is still there, though evidently refurbished. I used to know a very eccentric person who worked there, one Gaster, who had been sacked from his job at the Foreign Office in 1939 or 1940 and then interned on the Isle of Man as a dissident (for being against the war with the German Reich).
Gaster (I think possibly part-German, another possible reason for his WW2 internment) always reminded me of one of those bureaucrats or politicos in the Soviet sphere of influence, reduced to the ranks and made to work as a forester or parcel operative (as it might be). Wonder what happened to him? Long gone, I should think. ~44 years ago, and he must have been 60 or more then.
I see that the roundabout under the Westway, near to Little Venice, is still recognizable, though, and the lay-by (featured near the end of Withnail and I), is still there.
Idle thoughts…
I remember walking down Edgware Road about 40 years ago with a lady whose office was near Paddington Station. She suddenly let out an expletive, followed by “I’ve lost an ear-ring“. Said ear-ring was an emerald, and set in gold. I think quite old. I suggested that we retrace our steps, though not holding out much hope. We did walk back, eyes on pavements and roadway. We had nearly reached the Circle and District Line station opposite the rail terminal when she suddenly pounced like a bird on something in the gutter. Her emerald ear-ring.
In fact, perseverance like that does, sometimes, pay off. I recall one time when I was with my younger brother at Newbury Races. About 1973. I was maybe 17, he was perhaps 15. Things must have been slacker, or less nanny-state, then; I do not think that anyone ever stopped us from backing a horse.
Anyway, the race was run. My horse lost, and my brother’s also lost, but less badly, having come in second. Still, that was no good, and he threw down his bookmaker’s ticket, a colourful oblong card about five inches by two. We walked away to go back to the stands or paddock. Then there was an announcement— “Stewards’ Inquiry“… Five or ten minutes later, the winning horse had been disqualified, and my brother’s placed 1st. He had won, but had no ticket to prove it. He spent half an hour or more wandering amid thousands of discarded tickets, like a wading bird. Incredibly, he found his ticket amid that multitude, and collected his winnings.
Surely most thinking people can see that the Ukrainian situation is not normal, not even a “normal” war? The transnational NWO/ZOG system is funnelling cash, as well as arms, ammunition etc to “Ukraine” (the Jew-Zionist Zelensky regime in Kiev). Why? There is a whole agenda behind this.
Well, this week, political journalist John Rentoul scored only 4/10, but I did little better at 5/10; one of my worst efforts. I did not know the answers to questions 1, 2, 5, 9, and 10, and though I did get the answer to question 7, it was a pure guess (having said that, I really knew the answer to question 1 but, by reason of tiredness, could not bring it to mind).
I happened to see on TV a minute of some meaningless speech by the part-Jew, part-Levantine liar and chancer currently posing as Prime Minister.
One often hears that “all politicians are liars“, with which view I do not agree anyway, at least not un-nuanced, but even in the ranks of what Hitler called “dirty democratic politicians“, “Boris” Johnson stands out as a liar on an epic level of untruthfulness.
What does “Boris” sell? Hope? Not really. Just a vague “it will all be OK” nothingness. There is not even any skill to his untruthfulness. It is the lying of the con-man whose victims really know that they are being conned.
In the speech, of which I saw and heard a short TV clip, “Boris” emitted words empty of meaning, belief, or even basic plausibility. He is someone who (contrary to what was said about him by the sycophantic msm years ago) has little real culture or education, or even intelligence.
The prime ministers of the past certainly varied in ability, culture, and intelligence, but most of them, in retrospect, were at least plausible as real prime ministers. Take the 1960s/1970s: Macmillan, Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, Wilson (again, by then in poor health), Callaghan, and finally Margaret Thatcher. All very different inter se, but all able to lay claim to at least some genuine weight. What a contrast to Boris-idiot.
Incidentally, I noticed that that TV report showed “Boris” either arriving or leaving somewhere. Surrounded by guards. At least half a dozen; I think maybe seven or eight. Very indicative of the fact that not a few people would like to have a go at him. Again, a huge contrast with the past.
Look at the picture below: September 1966, and Prime Minister Harold Wilson is holidaying modestly in the Scilly Isles. Accompanying him at the quayside at Hugh Town, St. Mary’s (island) is one solitary bodyguard (almost out of shot, at right), pistol concealed under a jumper tied around his waist in cricketing style.
[Prime Minister Harold Wilson, 1966, Hugh Town, Scilly Isles. Always willing to pose with members of the public, even those without a vote. I am the (just)10 year-old boy on the far left of the photograph]
Wilson was far from universally-popular. In the area where my family lived (Berkshire/Oxfordshire border) he was pretty well disliked, to say the least. Not despised though (by most), I think, and no-one (as far as I know) wanted to attack him physically, or assassinate him.
People in the 1960s might not all have supported, or even trusted, Wilson, but few would think that he was nothing but a total incompetent, who had lied outright to become PM, and then continued to do so while in office, and while accomplishing absolutely nothing.
That kind of criticism of Basic Income always comes from those who have never been desperate for a few pounds, and/or those who have never been angry at being stuck in the Kafka-esque bureaucratic snoop-state which is the world of the DWP.
for @IndyVoices@JohnRentoul gently demolishes idea that a minority Lab gov would go for PR. I read @JGForsyth Times article + it was stock op-ed piece used when there is little else much to say. Had PR come in in 2010 biggest beneficiaries would have been UKIP, BNP not LDs
…which is why System creatures such as Denis MacShane (fraudulent ex-MP, Jewish-lobby puppet) oppose proportional representation— it is too democratic.
There have been growing parallels, since the late 1960s or early 1970s, between Britain and the society of Weimar Germany in the 1920s. Not exact parallels in all areas, but enough to make one think.
There’s one answer only, but one cannot promote it online…
Hey Biden, Bojo what about sanctioning Israel? What about confiscating Zionist oligarchs’ assets? Don’t you want to apply the same rule to Russia and Israel? pic.twitter.com/nr7K2pnKth
It is not down to the British government to rebuild Ukraine, it is the British government’s duty to make sure that Brits have enough cash to feed their children… pic.twitter.com/jw7DgQlkJm
Everyone in Britain still acts as if this was a normal government. Instead it is a project of deliberate destruction, of laws, of institutions, of anything that stands in the way of a PM who just doesn’t want to be held to account. https://t.co/4SL5k12M0m
— Annette Dittert (@annettedittert) May 20, 2022
In other words, a pseudo-elected tyranny, with part-Jew, part-Levantine criminal “Boris” as pathetic yet sinister tyrant.
Had the GRU and other Russian state organs done their job properly, Zelensky and his cabal would have been eliminated days before any Russian troops crossed the artificial frontier.
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 present356,300 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.
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…
Social inequality is inevitable in any human society. All that one can hope for and, more pertinently, legislate for, is a decent and reasonable measure, so that inequality does not become excessive or grotesque.
Social inequality arises out of and is maintained by inequalities in both capital and income. Today I address only income. My contention is that the maximum post income tax income must be capped at (2016 values) £200,000 per annum. Needless to say, only a relative handful of UK citizens actually receive anything like that after tax; the average is closer to £20,000. Still, it is important that the huge incomes which a few have, be lopped off at that level or, arguably, at one even lower, for the preservation of some sense of social contract in society. That is a more worthwhile reason for this policy, rather than just the (often criticized) aim of raising more tax revenues, which might not even happen, taking things in the round.
The work of all citizens should be valued, by society, by the citizens themselves (valuing the work of others and having a modest pride in their own contribution, too). When a few award themselves or are awarded incomes in the many hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds per annum, the whole fabric of society is gradually ripped to shreds.
There is another and oft-discussed policy to complement the above maximum-income cap. That second aspect is the concept that the pay of the highest employee or office-holder in an enterprise or a public service should not exceed that of the lowest-paid employee of the same body by more than a certain decided multiple. To my mind, that multiple should be 10x, that referring to post-income-tax income.
The above two policies will go far to knitting society together. There will be anomalies, special cases etc, but the important point is that the general idea will be accepted by all or almost all…and will work practically.
Ian Robert Millard 