O, TO be in England Now that April ‘s there, And whoever wakes in England Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough In England—now!
I agree with the implied statement of political journalist John Rentoul: this week was a touch more difficult than usual. He scored only 2/10; I trumped that with 4/10. Still not very good. I did not know the answers to questions 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 10.
Tweets seen
🔴 The Army’s flagship museum will not be decolonised, its director has said – as he declared that Britain should not be ashamed of its historyhttps://t.co/rRJjNMFOVX
🧠 Scientists have revealed new details of how the eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2,000 years ago turned the brain of an ancient Roman into glasshttps://t.co/vjuSmWJ2nL
Interesting and arguably depressing. A small-scale example of what globalism is doing on the larger scale— local people frozen out or marginalized for profit.
Oooo look, it's the alternative universe festival where the VBI exists, Jack Monroe is a cooking expert, and Thrifty Kitchen didn't tank! Please can just one of her groupies, who insist it exists, show me the VBI? 🦄
I suppose that events such as the Hay Festival are planned months ahead. The promotional literature is printed, contracts are offered etc. The mass of the msm and public have only begun to wake up to the fakery and lies around “Jack Monroe” since late last year.
All the same, it does not say much for the Hay Festival organizers’ nous.
Does the above mean that “Jack Monroe” is getting thousands of pounds to appear? I do not know.
I know Hay-on-Wye very well, and have been there many times, starting in the 1970s, but have never been there when the Festival (I always call it the Hay Literary Festival; maybe it has changed its name) has been on.
Considering how seriously she takes herself, sometimes I think Jack Monroe being the laughingstock of the whole internet is a good punishment, until I remember she scammed people on carers allowance into funding non-existent “legal action” 😞
— Kelly Jackson | It’s More Fun In Your 30s (@Kelly_Jackson88) April 14, 2023
Yet the hard core of 460 utter mugs is still there, sending “Jack Monroe” thousands of pounds monthly via Patreon, despite all the evidence that she is a fraud, or near-fraud etc.
Peak “woke”? A UK-resident Nigerian “grifter” travels to New York City in order to have a photo taken of himself trying to insult a building. Meanwhile, New York yawns and moves on; in fact, does not even notice “Femi”.
I remember well my days in New York (intermittently from 1989-1993). You have to be a lot more mad (in either sense) than “Femi” even to be momentarily noticed. Look at the passers-by in that photo. Not even bothering to look round at him.
Still, it enables “Femi” to keep pretending that he is some sort of political and social commentator, rather than an unemployed and possibly unemployable “grifter”, without any influence whatever.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said that Moscow's armed forces will be able to advance deep inside Ukraine if Bakhmut falls. https://t.co/c0DtD2btoP
Looks like a de-blocking operation around Bakhmut may be more likely now that the larger offensive has been delayed or cancelled. If the Russians continue applying pressure at different areas the Ukrainians will be forced to send the new brigades and equipment to stop it.
🇷🇺 Fighters of Russia's Wagner mercenary group have captured two more areas of the eastern city of Bakhmut, Russia's Defence Ministry said on Saturday pic.twitter.com/xRo2vwURij
Idly perusing Wikipedia, I saw that the Danish Army now consists of about 25,000 men (and women), 63,000 reserves, and about 600 tracked and wheeled armoured vehicles.
Modest on the world scale, of course, but I now see that the British Army, once mighty, now has only 82,000 active personnel, little more than three times the Danish equivalent, and only 30,000 reserves.
In fact, proportionately, Denmark has far more troops than does the UK, because the population of Denmark is less than a tenth of that of the UK.
Of course, mere numbers are only part of the story in the contemporary era, where technology plays such a big part. All the same, numbers are still part of the story.
At the end of the Second World War, the total strength of the British Army was over 3 million, and even in 1980, just before the Falklands campaign, 159,000 active and 63,000 reserves.
The notional 82,000 active troops in 2021 would be the lowest muster since 1780. Of course the population was then a fraction of what it now is: even in 1801, when the first British census was taken, England and Wales had only 10.5 million inhabitants (and Ireland about 5 million, interestingly).
As said, numbers are only one factor. As said, technology is also key. So, however, are factors such as morale, motivation etc. Those, at least, have not changed since the time of Napoleon, and indeed of Clausewitz. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Clausewitz.
One hears of and sees, in the cheaper newspapers, stories of how drug abuse is rife in the British armed forces, not to mention drunkenness (that, of course, is scarcely a new problem!).
The British armed forces overall have about 10% of their numbers women. How effective they are is a question for others to answer.
As to the Army generally, one sees reports that of the 82,000 active soldiers claimed, only about 50,000 are actually fit for duty. In any case, very many are what the Americans call “rear echelon” forces, not frontline fighting men. Not that that means that those rear forces are useless. Napoleon himself pointed out that “an army marches on its stomach“, and in the modern era a fighting spearhead needs a very broad rear support, everything from supply and logistics to pensions and banking.
Still, at a time when the clownish political leadership of the UK seems intent on provoking Russia, I wonder how our forces would, if push came to shove, stack up against at least the more elite Russian contingents.
[members of the elite Air Descent Contingent march in Red Square]
Britain and all Europe should be standing with Russia at this time. Contra Zionism. Contra Islamism. Spiritual Eurasia, contra mundum, if necessary.
Sadly misguided. The places where the “hundreds of thousands” need to go, suitably prepared, are not the beaches of Kent and Sussex, but the TV studios, radio stations, the “newspaper” propaganda offices, the Westminster monkeyhouse, and other System installations of importance.
The ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people through the eyes of a child. This was their Jerusalem home.
I’ll ask you again @Keir_Starmer – what is the Labour Party position on ethnic cleansing and the actions of the apartheid state of Israel? pic.twitter.com/G4KD5yX5Jz
Wherever Jews have power, non-Jews eventually become victims or slaves. Look at history. The ridiculous thing is that, in the UK, many of those who oppose Jewish supremacism in Israel or occupied Palestine, effectively support the Jewish lobby in Europe, eg in the UK itself; they pay lip-service to the “holocaust” farrago, in particular, and applaud the Zionist efforts to destroy free speech.
Controlled-opposition kingpin Farage. Was he paid millions, or tens of millions, offshore, as a reward for stabbing his own Brexit Party in the back in 2019, thus ensuring a Boris-idiot “Conservative” government (and ensuring, also, the binning of Corbyn, so that the Jewish lobby could retake control over the Labour Party)? Maybe (I do not know). Will he get a “peerage” (absurd and almost valueless though they now are)? Maybe (I do not know). Farage’s crony, Claire Fox, is already elevated to the Lords…
So if you still need a booster after been fully vaccinated, testing after been fully vaccinated, and hospitalisation after been fully vaccinated, and masks, social distancing and lockdowns all after been fully vaccinated?
Then it’s time to admit that you’ve been FULLY CONNED.
Griffin is right. He must be— he is in agreement with me!
Good to see resistance in Rotterdam and Vienna.
Wien! Not a government window in Vienna should remain intact until the Covid police state is stood down! Kristalltag jetzt!
Keep our beautiful culture alive, listen to and enjoy classical music and especially teach your children to love it. Arthur Sullivan : Victoria and Merrie England, Suite No. 1 from the ball… https://t.co/Sid3cIfrHx via @YouTube
A rare week, in which John Rentoul beat my score. This week he scored 7/10, but I scored only 5/10, a far worse effort than usual. I did not know the answers to questions 3, 6, 7, 9, and 10 (I should have known no. 7, but the mind was blank, so there it is…).
Sadly, very true, though “Left wing” (eg “socialist”) is not fully accurate, certainly not the full story. The Jew-Zionist element has a near-stranglehold, as it does over the msm. In fact, not so long ago, the fake UK “charity” known as “Campaign Against Antisemitism” or “CAA” was advertising for “volunteers” with their own Wikipedia accounts to “edit” (vandalize) Wikipedia pages.
Wikipedia is one of the best resources on the Internet, perhaps the best, which makes it all the more irritating that Jew-Zionists and others are using it to spread propaganda.
It is absurd, also, that the mainstream UK newspaper, the Daily Mail, cannot be cited as a source for anything, yet rubbish publications such as the Sun, Mirror, even Morning Star, can be! Incidentally, I have no reason to be kind to the Daily Mail, as you will see if you google “Ian Millard barrister Daily Mail”!
Perhaps @franssmith11.More likely failure to compy will prevent travel, debar you from higher education, cause problems for your children. They don't want to have to feed or house you, & they know human rights campaigners don't pay much attention to marshmallow totalitarianism. https://t.co/LK0YuNPxsM
Also, we see that the trend for the State to “outsource” things has now led to the “Boris” etc weaselling that the facemask nonsense will largely end (in law) on 19 July 2021, while at the very same time telling the public that they “should” carry on being scared facemask-wearing rabbits, and also telling —or nod-and-winking— to large supermarkets etc, and airlines, that they should effectively demand that their customers continue to be muzzled.
Screw that, and screw all companies demanding facemask use! Rebel any way you can, especially by boycotting those companies. Vote with your feet, and with your wallet or purse!
My latest interview – on *why* the free countries of the west , especially in the Anglosphere, are willingly handing over their former freedoms and taking the yoke of submission. https://t.co/TBznvEdHKd
Excellent by Freddy Gray. People and institutions which used to guard freedom now combine to attack dissent. America’s Maoist mutation https://t.co/bManYD8RVs
Not exactly, @policy_uk. Rather ore that, having spent my childhood in an indebted rather grey and resource-poor country which had to count every penny, public and private, I must either now accept that this was not necessary, or fear we are in for a repeat of it. https://t.co/iHaFIkLZp3
After 2008, “austerity” (which was the policy not only of the part-Jews David Cameron-Levita and George Osborne but also of Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling), was completely wrongheaded. Now, though, we see almost the opposite —but skewed— policy of vast sums spent, not on useful infrastructure, nor on real education and upskilling, but on schemes over the past 19 months to keep the population at home, eating delivered junk food, drinking heavily, and watching TV.
Totally agree Peter. Or just basic things like paving. Even in Oxford, one of our wealthiest cities, it is appalling.
— UK public policy failure (@policy_uk) July 16, 2021
I too live in one of the wealthier parts of England, yet the roads are falling to pieces, and public services have been cut to the bone.
Early afternoon music
These people should be on our side! When I lived in Kazakhstan (1996-97), I knew several former Russian VDV (Air Descent Contingent…special forces) people. Very solid people.
(and in most of the USA, minimum-wage workers cannot afford even a one-bed apartment!).
The same or similar problem exists in the UK. Topping-up pay via Universal Credit is quite wrong; it subsidizes poor-paying-employers vis a vis employers who pay decently. Pay must be sufficient to live on. A measure of State-paid Basic Income will also have to come into existence, because the nexus between pay and work is very loose now, and many do not have paid work at all.
Stonehouse was a sensation when exposed as a fraud who had not died, as everyone thought, in 1974, in the sea off Miami Beach (a rather unlikely place to drown anyway). His espionage for socialist Czechoslovakia was not exposed —to the public— until well after his death.
That was an age when politicians, though hardly honoured, were still regarded as basically straight people. The later tidal wave of mediocre and hopeless idiots had not yet filled the Commons. That was another reason why people were fascinated by Stonehouse’s attempted (and very nearly successful) scam.
Other reasons why l’affaire Stonehouse became a sensation, briefly, were because it coincided with that Reginald Perrin TV comedy series, and also because a few other cases of international (British) fugitives had been news for years, notably that of Ronnie Biggs [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Biggs].
I recall that, when I had to visit the British High Commission in Gaborone, Botswana, in 1977, at age 20, I noticed a small golden plaque by the entrance stating that it had been officially opened by John Stonehouse in 1966, when he had been a minister in the Colonial Office and its successor, the short-lived Commonwealth Office (from 1968, joined with the Foreign Office in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office).
Strange to see that inscription, nearly three years after Stonehouse’s disgrace (but history is history, something both the “BLM” idiots and Zionist Jews might note).
The Daily Mail piece also contained the assertion that one Ernest Fernyhough, PPS to Prime Minister Harold Wilson, had also been (one of a number of Labour MPs) spying for the Czech StB (external intelligence organization). His treachery is new to me, and I see that Wikipedia does not mention it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Fernyhough.
I imagine that Stonehouse, who was a bit of a Casanova, and a gambler generally, might have been a fairly useful agent for Czech Intelligence, willing to take calculated risks.
As to the book, to be released on 22 July 2021, I might buy the hardback edition via Amazon when it is put on secondhand sale in a few months. RRP is £25.99, but the book can be bought at £18.99. Maybe when there are good, or as-new, used copies for £2 or so. Or, if you like, “when you get down to 90 kopecks, wake me up again”.
Despite that Daily Mail piece having been interestingly written, it contained one schoolboy error by the author (of both the book and the article): speaking in the strict legal sense, Stonehouse did not commit, as the writer claims, “treason”; his alleged espionage crimes would have been charged, had he been charged, under the Official Secrets Act(s) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Secrets_Act#United_Kingdom].
What a co-incidence! The new Secretary of State for Health, and also the person posing as PM, are apparently both now “self-isolating”. Of course, that has nothing to do with 19 July 2021, the day after tomorrow, and the (latest, so-called) “Freedom Day”…
The most enthusiastic supporters and promoters of the TORY lockdowns! https://t.co/cnyQ5nAZZG
— TheEndOfEverything (@EternalEnglish) July 17, 2021
The organized trade unions, what’s left of them, are basically just System-run, politically-correct, advice organizations, of very little use to British people whether employed or not.
I myself am not a member, nor even supporter (as such) of Patriotic Alternative, but the negative attention that PA is getting from “the usual suspects” makes me think that they are at least on the right track.
I don't think we need to worry about this, comrades. They can carry on protesting. Before the next election we'll have Macron close a couple of mosques and the masses will vote for him again. https://t.co/jPnFmciGw2
— Climate Warrior🐬 #ClimateJustice🇵🇸🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈 (@ClimateWarrior7) July 17, 2021
I missed Bastille Day, so here’s to Macron meeting with Madame Guillotine!
Late music
Last word tonight
Listening to BBC World Service and, once again, appalled by the poor standards now, as compared to the 1970s and 1980s, when I was a regular listener. Then, mostly interesting and erudite programming, and including some entertainment, of which some even entertained me. Now, endless black “music” or other ghastly trash, and “BLM”-style nonsense propaganda. 90% of the output now is rubbish.
Ian Robert Millard 