May another major war in Central and Western Europe be averted, and that already raging in Eastern Europe come to an end.
A Merry Christmas and Yuletide to all well-intentioned readers of the blog.
A reminder that our time on this Earth in any one incarnation is limited and that we must do what can be done to create the basis for a quantum leap in human and planetary evolution.
[Alternativ fur Deutschland election poster, which reads “We protect your children“]
Very amusing, but that AfD poster makes an important point, which is that the core of our political philosophy must reach out to the future, to the as-yet-unborn generations who will eventually make a quantum leap in human evolution.
[Germany 1945— “We are fighting for the future of our children!“]
“You carry in your blood the holy inheritance of your fathers and forefathers. You do not know those who have vanished in endless ranks into the darkness of the past. But they all live in you and walk in your blood upon the earth that consumed them in battle and toil and in which their bodies have long decayed.
Your blood is therefore something holy. In it your parents gave you not only a body, but your nature. To deny your blood is to deny yourself. No one can change it. But each decides to grow the good that one has inherited and suppress the bad. Each is also given will and courage.
You do not have only the right, but also the duty to pass your blood on to your children, for you are a member of the chain of generations that reaches from the past into eternity, and this link of the chain that you represent must do its part so that the chain is never broken.
But if your blood has traits that will make your children unhappy and burdens to the state, then you have the heroic duty to be the last. The blood is the carrier of life. You carry in it the secret of creation itself. Your blood is holy, for in it God’s will lives.”
[SS Verlag: material for instruction of the Hitlerjugend]
More tweets seen
While in Ukraine there are daily blackouts because of Zelensky, Moscow is shining brighter than ever.
Goodwin talks much about the Muslim population, but Muslims do not generally own newspapers, radio stations, newspapers, or major businesses and finance houses in the UK.
The Muslim problem in the UK is largely one of numbers, and is real enough, but far from the whole national problem of the UK.
What would happen if —and as may happen— Nigel Farage and Reform UK do achieve a breakthrough, and Farage really does become Prime Minister (perhaps in 2028 or 2029)?
In that situation, the question devolves to “what then?“.
The country will still be full of migrant-invaders, even if migration-invasion were to be halted overnight. The country will still only be about 80%, perhaps by then only 70%, European (i.e. “white”). The Jewish/Zionist lobby will still be in positions of power in finance, business, mainstream media, the legal system, and politics. The country will still be in a situation of societal and cultural degeneracy. The country will still be in a continuing and serious economic decline.
Social-nationalism is the only alternative to the dystopian collapse of society which can already be seen, in outline, in the UK.
Reform UK is a way out of the immediate dead-on-its-feet present political mess made by the System parties, and may presage a shifting of the Overton Window among the public as well, but is only part of the journey, not the destination.
As I predicted on the blog even before he became Prime Minister, Starmer is incapable of doing the job even to a mediocre extent. Hopeless, as well as being a 100% puppet of the Jewish/Zionist/Israel lobby.
Starmer is now saying that local elections due in 2025 may “have to be” “delayed”. Banana republic tactics.
Starmer, and/or (((the lobby))) behind Starmer, intends to enfranchise 16-y-o voters. A desperate and ill-advised ploy. Those young people will not necessarily vote Labour. Under Corbyn, they might have, but that was years ago. Among the young, the young (real) English, the “Overton Window” may be moving faster than among the older population. As for Starmer himself, he has no mental flexibility (as I predicted). For a former senior barrister, he is or seems very slow on his feet. A box-ticker.
Starmer may think that those aged 16 or 17 will vote Labour. As Labour now is, I doubt it. What future have the young in contemporary Britain? Not much. That may translate into radical protest, albeit possibly of a lazy “slacktivist” kind. Reform UK is pretty much the only game in town, unless you count the Greens.
Good point, if obvious. The voters have clutched at the “Boris”-idiot pseudo-Conservative straw, the “Labour” straw, so why not the Reform UK straw?
The public, in a sense, are to blame. They are more interested, even now, in rubbish such as football matches, The X Factor, Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, Strictly Come Dancing, and similar garbage, than in the fact that a million non-whites are invading this country every year, or in the housing crisis (connected to the invasion, of course), or in the slide in educational and cultural —and behavioural— standards.
There again, those —often (((those)))— who control or influence the mainstream media are the real villains of the piece.
The West, not noticing the new reality in the conflict in Ukraine, is making a total mistake and will pay a heavy price for this mistake, said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban pic.twitter.com/gHVCQHyfy4
Hypocrisy unlimited. The Leeds-based Jew-Zionist barrister Simon Myerson is a prominent member or supporter of the two main Jew-Zionist Israel-lobby groups that have persecuted me over a decade or more, namely the “Campaign Against Antisemitism” or “CAA”, and “UK Lawyers for Israel” (“UKLFI”), the memberships of which overlap to some extent. Both have complained about me, maliciously, either to the Bar Standards Board or to the police, or both, as well as to Twitter/X and others. See below:
As for Myerson himself, he was sacked as a Recorder (part-time judge) in the Spring of 2024 after having failed to temper his outbursts on social media.
[“Get down there where you wanted to send me, you unclean spirit“]
Incidentally, Myerson himself was threatened (by others) with complaints to the Bar regulators, some years ago, and immediately activated the “usual” “victim” mode, whining about people wanting to deprive him of his living just because of his tweets (which, he whined, were part of his private, not professional, life)! Self-awareness— zero.
This reads like an atrocity we may expect from the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan but it's about the IDF in Gaza … pic.twitter.com/Blx1dvjM71
Thanks to those pointing out to me that this is an event that was reported in 2012, which I failed to notice whilst reading the article. It makes it kind of even worse, in a sense …
There is no peaceful or “constitutional” way of removing Starmer and his cabal of Labour Friends of Israel evildoers before a general election is called, and that might not be until 2029.
Without the monies effectively gifted to them by the West over the past 80 years, the Saudis and other Gulf Arabs would have nothing. Backwardness dignified by unearned riches.
Merry Christmas to all well-intentioned readers of the blog.
Tweets seen
December 25, 1991 AD
On this day, 32 years ago, the flag of the Soviet Union was lowered, the Russian flag was raised over the Kremlin, and the last president of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev, resigned. The next day, on December 26, the Soviet Union officially fell. pic.twitter.com/niyt5X3pnh
The number of Israeli soldiers killed in the escalation of the conflict with the Palestinian movement Hamas since October 7 has reached 485, the Israeli army announced.
The Israeli regime's warplanes bombarded al-Maghazi camp in the center of Gaza . So far, 80 Palestinians have been martyred. pic.twitter.com/0GvlB9WnD4
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has expressed deep concern about worsening food security in the Gaza Strip, where some 2.2 million Palestinians face hunger.
Joseph Borrell: Putin has decided to continue the war until the complete victory in Ukraine, we must prepare for a high-intensity conflict. pic.twitter.com/6wcblE10Uh
The United States expanded its territory by a million square kilometers.
Potentially resource-rich new lands include areas of the continental shelf in the Arctic, Atlantic, Bering Sea, Pacific Ocean, as well as in the Gulf of Mexico and the Mariana Islands. pic.twitter.com/ol5vEEraq0
The United States, against the backdrop of growing confrontation with Russia in the Arctic, declares claims to part of the region
Yesterday, Washington announced plans to claim a significant portion of the seabed in the Bering and Beaufort Seas as “its own.” The United States… pic.twitter.com/2ruiQ56sFB
The Palestinian news agency Sama published a video and reported that IDF units had completely abandoned Beit Hanoun along with all their equipment. pic.twitter.com/pcPZ8VPNSp
Hezbullah attacked Israeli forces in the vicinity of the Mitat barracks Also, the Israeli “army” announced today the closure of several settlements in the Eastern Galilee.
Hundreds of homes were destroyed and billions in damage were caused to more than 20 (Israeli) towns on the Lebanese border as a result of Hezbollah attacks.
The entire border area with Lebanon is deserted, and taxes paid compensation amounting to about 21…
“The enemy celebrates when we are divided, I demand that the leadership restrain the campaigns”
🔴 Political and social instability is observed in Israel after heavy losses in the Gaza Strip. Israel has already announced hundreds of dead officers, but…
“The enemy celebrates when we are divided, I demand that the leadership restrain the campaigns.”
“Political and social instability is observed in Israel after heavy losses in the Gaza Strip. Israel has already announced hundreds of dead officers, but the number of ordinary soldiers killed has not yet been disclosed.
Yesterday at the cabinet meeting there were also great disagreements and criticism of Netanyahu.
Protests from the families of the hostages are intensifying, knowing that without a ceasefire their loved ones will not survive the war in Gaza.
The economy is knocked down, there is a huge decline, large numbers of Israeli settlers in the border areas of Gaza and Lebanon have been displaced and are unlikely to return anytime soon.”
Map of military operations in Ukraine at the end of 2023 from ISW
The American Institute for the Study of War indicated in red on the map the territory that is under the control of the Russian Armed Forces, and in blue – what the Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to occupy during… pic.twitter.com/jQ89yPDY5o
“Map of military operations in Ukraine at the end of 2023 from ISW The American Institute for the Study of War indicated in red on the map the territory that is under the control of the Russian Armed Forces, and in blue – what the Ukrainian Armed Forces managed to occupy during its counter-offensive.
For the sake of such “success,” the Kiev regime destroyed almost 160 thousand military personnel, hundreds of tanks and aircraft, and never overcame the tactical defense of the Russian Armed Forces.”
2024 will see, by grace of God, a general Russian advance across Eastern Ukraine; an advance to, and northward along, the Dnieper, and then towards the Kiev area. If so, that may precipitate a collapse of the Zelensky dictatorship.
We can’t unmute to listen to her crying We’re all guilty of this ALL OF US ! This is one of thousands of children that there limbs were amputated
Meanwhile, in the UK, the Jew-Zionist supporters of Israel pretend to be “afraid” (of mild or non-existent “antisemitism”). They constantly whine (or, more often, demand) that people such as myself be dragged into court for having the temerity to criticize both Israel and “their” behaviour. In a month or so, I myself am to be sentenced, having been convicted of publishing [the truth] on this blog.
It has been revealed that the order for Israeli tanks to fire on houses containing 12 Israeli captives in Kibbutz Be'eri came from this man, Brigadier General Barak Hiram.
Well, this week brings another victory over political journalist John Rentoul; he scored 4/10, but I trumped that with 6/10. I did not know the answers to questions 4, 6, 7, and 8.
Tweets seen
MSNBC. Ukraine cannot get to conflict termination until they can conclusively defeat the Russian Army in the field. Time to relook US and NATO policy. Ukraine being battered to death by Russian drones, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles. pic.twitter.com/pKnRdWh9S8
Even were Ukraine (the Kiev regime) able to defeat Russian forces, decisively, in the field, which is unlikely, that result would only then lead to the use by Russia of tactical or even strategic nuclear weapons, or to the decision to use fleets of bombers to reduce Kiev to rubble. Putin cannot accept the loss of “captured” territory in the “Russian” areas of Ukraine (Crimea and the Donbass), whatever happens
This is an absolutely brilliant forensic takedown of the fraud that is Jack Monroe. Please read it and share it far and wide. I’ve been attacked on many occasions for pointing out what a charlatan she is, this document shows just how bad her behaviour is. https://t.co/JjCDITdjSj
Typical of the Church of England in 2022— slab-faced lesbian priestesses preaching the gospel of “woke”. Time to disestablish this institution.
Twitter
The layout seems to have changed overnight. No longer is there a “latest” (tweets) column, allowing one to peruse a timeline in sequence by subject. This is very poor, eroding much of the point of Twitter.
More tweets
🚨 | As more elderly end up in hospital with hypothermia ‘afraid to put the heating on’ we can never remind the public enough of political failures.
Nick Clegg in 2010 saying nuclear not an answer because it wouldn’t come online until 2022.
Clegg and his Spanish lawyer wife now live in one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in the USA, near San Francisco. He betrayed the British people before taking the Facebook shilling (in fact, millions) and fleeing to the United States.
Amazingly, supporters of Rcn leader Pat Cullen are *still* claiming she did well in this exchange with me on BBC Question Time. They tend not to link to the actuality: https://t.co/Y1dcTYhGo3
Pro-life supporter Isabel was standing silently in a public street. Approaching her, a policeman asked: "Are you inwardly praying?" When she said she might have been, he arrested her. @seatradelaw on why Public Space Protection Orders should worry us all.https://t.co/oCRWEJmJ0w
Scott Ritter on the death of negotiation due to Merkel's admission that the West cheated Putin about wanting a peaceful resolution but really wanting time to prepare Ukraine for war. 8 years of incessant bombardment by the Ukrainian gov against the people of the Donbass resulted pic.twitter.com/9rs0957Hqa
— #CeasefireNow #BDS #Yemen #Kashmir #Assange (@ChristineJameis) December 16, 2022
Scott Ritter: "The provision of the Patriot air defense system to Ukraine will not change the outcome of this conflict. Ukraine is going to lose, and it is going to lose badly." pic.twitter.com/nduWuqoWrw
The kefuffle around the crowdfunder launched by “Dr” Louise Raw to (ostensibly) sue Jeremy Clarkson continues, with people not only saying that it is doomed on its own terms (for legal reasons, and as I pointed out a few days ago on the blog), but suggesting that the whole thing is a “grift” or near-(?) fraud by Louise Raw, something which I doubted when I wrote about it (if only because it seemed to me that it would be difficult to get away with a blatant fraud of that sort). Maybe I was too kind.
As to why gofundme was used instead of The crowdjustice platform, I also believe that refunds are possible via crowdjustice to the campaign donors
You’re quite right that the money will be paid out to Louise Raw, unless she has nominated a Beneficiary in accordance with GFM’s terms and conditions. If she had, that would appear on the crowdfunding page. Once in her control, she has no contractual obligation to account for it
Oh and this claim about “every single penny” isn’t strictly true, as GFM charge platform fees for using their service. Also, donation of a surplus fund in this form deprives charities of Gift Aid that UK taxpayer donors might otherwise lawfully claim on their donations pic.twitter.com/uRBiGdXIbV
I had thought that Louise Raw would not want to taint her “militant” or pseudo-revolutionary image to her mug followers on Twitter by keeping some of the money for her own use. On the other hand, the said “woke” mug Twitter followers are usually pretty dim, as can be seen in some of their responses to the legal critique of this doomed attempt to sue Clarkson.
Come to that, look at the fundraiser promoted by Roanna Carleton-Taylor on behalf of “grifting” fake “historian” and “journalist”, Mike Stuchbery (along with some Paki-stani solicitor whose name I forget). They raised about £12,000, which as far as I know has never since seen the light of day.
Unless I discover otherwise, I shall believe that, on the balance of probabilities, those monies were split between “Roanna” and Stuchbery, with the solicitor getting a bit by way of “professional fees” (for doing almost nothing but sending one letter to Tommy Robinson). Certainly, no legal action was ever launched. About 800 “woke” mugs donated to that crowdfunder.
Stuchbery still has over 88,000 Twitter followers, though Roanna Carleton-Taylor has apparently withdrawn from online activism (I have no idea whether or not the police took an interest in her and/or her husband’s other activities, as claimed by some people). Anyway, there it is.
Then, of course, we have —what increasingly looks like— a continuing and outright “grift” by the so-called “Bootstrap Cook”, who calls herself “Jack Monroe”.
As of today, 643 mugs, donating regularly via Patreon, are closing their eyes to the very telling exposures of “Jack Monroe” which have appeared since, especially, August 2022; they are supplying her, in aggregate, with monies amounting to some sum between £2,300 and £30,000 each month. Maybe, at a pure guess, about £6,000 or so, monthly. Probably taxfree, too.
“Jack Monroe” also had a crowdfund appeal going from May 2022, ostensibly in order that she could sue MP Lee Anderson and political activist/commentator Martin Daubney. People donated, but (quelle surprise) the “defamation case” has never been initiated, and the monies donated have disappeared into what might be called the “Jack Monroe” lifestyle fund…
“Jack Monroe”, despite everything, not only still has that cadre of 643 utter mugs sending her money every month, but also has no fewer than 563,000 “followers” on Twitter.
Even that ridiculous West Indian woman who caused a fuss recently at Buckingham Palace, and who literally “cosplays” as a tribal African, not only managed to rip off £170,000 before people started to look into the affairs of her blacks-only “charity”, but also, tellingly, has since then managed to get hundreds of mugs to donate another £36,000 in order to help to buy “her charity” a house. Unglaublich!
In other words, those “grifters” have not at all been damaged by what some have been calling outright theft of donated monies, because they make the right sort of “politically correct” or “woke” noises.
Perhaps that is what will happen to Louise Raw’s crowdfunder, i.e. a small amount will go to a solicitor, and Counsel, in return for a nicely-written Advice advising that legal action against Clarkson is impossible, after which Louise Raw will (I speculate, of course) keep whatever is left, perhaps donating a thousand or so to a domestic violence charity (on the publicized record, for public show).
Louise Raw is notably reticent with some information, e.g. as to her own background, including where she studied for her “doctorate” (if any) and her first and Master’s degrees (if any). It may be that she never will give information as to where the bulk of the monies raised went (or shall we say “disappeared”?). All she would have to do, on that hypothesis, is to say that the monies went to suitable “good causes” and that the “good causes” “requested no publicity” or some such. “Jack Monroe” has tried that one in the past, and the mug donors just accepted it as true, so…
More tweets seen
Legal grift. It has the added bonus of getting you the approbation of the Good People who think Good Things.
The first tweet above of course refers to 1. The absurd Marlene-something-posing-as-African; 2. “Jack Monroe” (and her dog’s dinner “cooking”); 3. Dr. Julia Grace Patterson (was very briefly an NHS doctor, now lives off “grifting” and/or selling useless facemasks etc); 4. Either Louise Raw, or notorious fox-batterer Jolyon Maugham, the narcissistic New Zealand-educated barrister and “activist”, and his largely pointless “Good Law Project” (anyone who saw his lamentable ignorance on Christmas University Challenge recently might prefer to keep their money).
Incidentally, I just saw a few tweets by “Jack Monroe” about how hard it was for her (supposedly a recovering alcoholic) to find mince pies in the supermarket made without alcohol. Surely a quasi-professional cook would make her own, especially at Christmas? Oh, well, there it is.
She is attempting not only to crowdfund but to crowdsource the victims of the proposed harassment claim, as if that would be effective in any way, given the wording of the statute
Those refer to Louise Raw and her stupid (or maybe not so stupid, if indeed it is a “grift”) crowdfunder.
I was just trying to remember what were the best fees I myself ever got for one-off written Advices when I was at the Bar. I do not include advice given when I was a salaried lawyer overseas in the late 1990s (Kazakhstan, Caribbean, elsewhere), and provided to large companies such as Raytheon, because I was then charged out at about USD $400 an hour, but that money went to the law firm(s), not me personally.
I think that the best fees for basic written Advices that I myself ever had were somewhere in the region of (in the money of 15-30 years ago) somewhat short of a thousand pounds (you could/might double that to put it in the money of 2022), so fairly modest compared to Counsel in the best —or best-padded— chambers.
I do recall, when working in Charleston (South Carolina) in 2002, telephoning to London to ask the Clerk of one of the top company law chambers in Gray’s Inn as to how much a written Advice from one of their QCs would cost. The document in question was 17pp long, but the only important bit consisted of only two paragraphs, and on only one page. A few alternatives were offered, but the bottom line was— £4,000 to £5,000. Again, maybe you would have to increase that by 50% or even 100% today, but even so, the £15,000 appealed for by Louise Raw seems high, particularly in view of the non-commercial subject-matter.
Twitter’s new feature comes into its own as it shows that Louise’s tweet is heading towards 100,000 views with 0.01 percent positive engagement pic.twitter.com/sAfUZWI9Ss
“Wokes” such as “Dr” Louise Raw always claim to be speaking up etc for the people, but the said “wokes” seem to forget that they chose the losing side re. Brexit, in the 2017 and 2019 General Elections, the 2016 US Election etc. Not that I myself favour Trump or the “British” Conservative Party, or even mishandled Brexit, as such, but the “wokes” are in a Twitter (etc) echo chamber where they refuse to even listen to, or see, any views contrary to their own; indeed, they try to “deplatform” people, as do the Jew-Zionists. Louise Raw is a prime example of an “I’m not listening” “woke”. No wonder they always get things wrong.
Incidentally, Louise Raw is on Twitter as “@LouiseRawAuthor”. “Author“?Technically so, because she has had one (non-fiction) book published, a decade or so ago. Is that really enough, though, to validate a self-description as an “author“? Maybe in her world, just as it seems to be OK, in her world, or mind, to call herself “Doctor” based on a “doctorate” granted (if indeed she has one) on the basis of the same subject-matter as her sole book, a strike of match-factory girls in London in 1888.
I have made just criticism in the past few years of, inter alia, Aaron Bastani and Ash Sarkar, and their idea called “Fully Automated Luxury Communism” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_Automated_Luxury_Communism], but (despite not having read the book), I apprehend thatone of its basic premises is that the benefits of modern technology and productive techniques have been arrogated by a tiny minority of finance-capitalists. If my understanding of the book is correct in that regard, then I certainly agree with that view; indeed, it can hardly be denied.
Books such as The Spirit Level [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_Level_(book)] have shown how inequality in the “Western” world has grown since the 1950s and particularly in recent decades. Numerous studies have shown how the remuneration and wealth (capital) of corporate owners and the highest strata of executives has become grotesque.
In the 1950s, in the USA the typical disparity between the pay of highest-paid and lowest-paid in a company was about 15:1. Now it is hundreds to one and, in not a few cases, thousands to one. That is without even getting into share options, capital gains etc
The same is true of the UK. There are many large companies where the top executives are getting a million or more a year (many millions in some cases) in salary alone, while the bottom-level employees are on something like £15,000. A ratio of at least 70:1, and in many cases hundreds to one.
It is not a question, for me, of inequality alone (some inequality is inevitable and indeed good) but of inequality so great and so unfair that it amounts to inequity.
We see how some of the wealthiest capitalists on Earth (Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Elon Musk etc) vie with each other to build their own space rockets, not to do anything truly worthwhile with them but to take what amount to joy-rides into space, accompanied by other hugely-wealthy individuals. Meanwhile, their own employees live on pennies, in many cases unable to pay their rent, feed their families properly, or achieve even a modestly-comfortable standard of living.
The fruits of scientific and technological innovation must be shared more equitably.
“Hopper“, not “Hooper” (and “they’re“, not “their“) (etc)…but never mind. It’s Christmas.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, has called for compassion for migrants crossing the Channel in his Christmas sermon and praised the "extraordinary" RNLI and Border Force crews.https://t.co/eFvqEid5Kbpic.twitter.com/2rVwAVCttu
“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.” [Matthew 7:6]
…or, more likely, has decided to turn a Nelsonian eye…
It is entirely misplaced and wrongheaded “compassion” to invite into the UK (or to tolerate an unwanted invasion by) those who, most of them, despise British people and/or hate us, and who will be, at best, a heavy millstone round the British neck, forever.
Justin Welby will have to suffer no detriment by tolerating the migration invasion. No, that burden will be borne by the British poor, mostly.
I was going to keep the blog short today, and concentrated on purely Christmas topics (and one does after all have other things to do on Christmas Day), but the world has impinged on my retreat…
Free speech. Catalyst was the sentencing of Alison Chabloz for Holocaust denial which I thought did more harm than good. A lot of other things to do with censorship and forms of hate speech being criminalised. In the long run I don't see a benefit to it, more the opposite.
Naturally, Christmas, as we know it in the UK and/or “Anglosphere”, is largely what people today often call “a construct” or “social construct”. You see in magazines or online quite a lot of historical detail about that.
In the UK, perhaps especially England, we have a fairly closely-defined idea of what Christmas should be: the Christmas tree, the angel or star atop the tree, carols, Santa Claus in his red suit, sitting in a sleigh in the sky, itself pulled by flying reindeer.
As many will know, the Christmas tree tradition, in England, dates back only to 1834, when one was installed at Windsor Castle; the tradition dates back longer in Germany, to the late Middle Ages.
As for the fairy atop the tree, that may be connected with the late Roman cult of Mithras, though that seems to me to be contrived, in view of the fact that the Christmas tree tradition itself is of recent historical origin. I would not say, though, that I am really qualified to pronounce on that aspect.
As to red-suited Santa with his sled or sleigh, reindeer etc, that is a conflation of ancient traditions, 19thC traditions, and “traditions” which come from as recent a source as 1930s American ads for Coca-Cola: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus.
In Russia, the 19thC saw “Grandfather Frost” emerge, a tradition at least half-heartedly kept up in 20thC Soviet times as an alternative to the usually disapproved-of and sometimes suppressed Russian Orthodox Christmas religious holiday (which takes place a couple of weeks after the Western one by reason of the fact that the Russian Orthodox church still uses the Julian Calendar).
I believe that some Christian occultists aver that the “Santa in a sleigh” picture has an underlying reality in that the Cosmic Christ travels spiritually around the world for the “12 days of Christmas”, assessing the overall spiritual condition of the world. Perhaps.
My own view is that it does not really matter that our 20thC/21stC idea of Christmas would seem slightly odd to Victorian England, and downright alien to the English of Tudor times. It is our mental picture, our idea of what is sacred, our idea of what is worthwhile. It encapsulates what has gone before, and is of social and personal value.
Whatever the origins of Christmas as we know it, and however “inauthentic” some may claim it to be, the fact remains that we regard it as sort-of-sacred, even if in a sense it is not, and that includes the “Father Christmas” or “Santa Claus” figure in his red robes, even if he does only date back, in that form, to 1930s Disney and Coca-Cola. We do not like it being changed for obviously socio-political reasons.
Ghastly
Saw a few minutes on TV of some ghastly Christmas thing in Westminster Abbey yesterday. Some weird fellow looking like a Scottish down and out strumming on a guitar and, er, singing, while queen-to-be Kate accompanied on a piano. Not quite sure what the whole thing was, because I only saw a minute or two of it.
The Mezzotint
Saw a BBC adaptation of the M.R. James story, The Mezzotint. My expectations were not, if truth be told, high, but in fact this was an excellent short film. The original story was written in 1904, but the adaptation was, seemingly, set in the 1920s (judging by the props, clothes, and some music heard).
Even the fact that, typically for today, they shoehorned a non-European into the story (an anglicized Indian, or Anglo-Indian), did not jar, the way it was done. Pretty good.
Whether it be called Christmas or Yuletide, the essence is the same.
No more wars within the European family and, now that Sovietism has perished under its own weight, no more wars with Russia or the Russian people.
Tweets seen
We need a proper public conversation about just how INSANE the rules in the first lockdown were to make sure it never, ever happens again. Let's start it on Twitter. I'll get the ball rolling: I was stopped by police when I sat down by myself on the grass after a run
Yes, I now no longer assume that any constable I see: a) understands any given law, b) has the intention of minimising disruption to members of the public.
Impressive that the police managed to turn a number of law and order Tories off them…
Quite right. In my several interactions with the UK police since I became more active politically online —in the past decade— I have come to realize, rather to my surprise, that the British police (often all-too-easily misled by the Jew-Zionist element) quite often have no idea, or proper idea, of the laws of this country, or of the liberties that still exist under those laws. As for knowledge of history, geopolitics, race and culture generally, forget it!
The worst cruelty was not letting people be with their loved ones as they died – simply no words for this totalitarian cruelty
…and almost all the “civil rights” types, the (often Jew) “human rights” lawyers, the usual suspects of those and other sorts, as well as those working on TV, radio, or in the (again, supposed) “free Press” etc, backed the police state measures! Apart from those (such as me) not, or only peripherally, in the public eye, almost all of the self-proclaimed or supposed defenders of rights, “democracy”, decency, “freedom” etc went the same way, and became, almost overnight, sycophants of the police state. Or were they in reality always puppets of the System?
There have been a few well-known public figures or personalities who, in the past nearly 2 years of “Covid” socio-political madness and repression, have stood up for both liberty and the proper rule of law (law, not mere laws, in a “society under law” rather than a society merely “with laws”; even North Korea and Stalin’s regime have or had laws…).
There have been some others, less erudite but perhaps more able to engage the mass audience; people such as, recently, Maajid Nawaz [
The monks who hammered a wooden stake into the mouth of the philosopher Giordano Bruno (in 1600, following long investigation, incarceration, and trial by the Inquisition), did so apparently believing that they were doing something good (because their cruel “measures” were done in order to prevent Bruno from further blaspheming and so further imperilling his soul). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno; and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno#Imprisonment,_trial_and_execution,_1593%E2%80%931600. (Bruno was then hung naked upside down and burned at the stake).
People often do very wicked and/or cruel things either in the belief that they are not wicked, or because the measures taken are believed to be necessary in order to support a greater good, or to protect society, or an institution of society.
The execution of Giordano Bruno was 500+ years ago, but (to give only a few examples of the syndrome), electric shock therapy is still practised widely today; abuse of psychiatry for reasons of socio-political control did not stop with the Soviet Union and the Serbsky Institute [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serbsky_Center] (Google, eg “Tavistock Institute” and “Tavistock Clinic”); and torture for allegedly “good” reasons has been practised even within the past couple of decades by the USA and other supposedly advanced states, as well as by the obvious examples such as Israel, Saudi Arabia and other Arab and/or Muslim states, North Korea etc.
“Prison Planet” Watson
I do not rate very highly, from the ideological or socio-political point of view, vlogger Paul Joseph Watson (for one thing, he never says anything critical of the Jew-Zionist cabals, or Israel, and never defends those under attack by those elements for dissidence, people such as Alison Chabloz, Jez Turner, Ian Millard…etc), but credit where due…
More tweets seen
Interesting, seems a Chris Whitty advert for boosters in the Cinema showing the SpiderMan film 🍿provoked a reaction!
The main reason people are still wearing facemasks in shops etc is because, at heart, British people are very law-abiding, at least usually and…when they think they are being watched…
Perspective. Hospital beds occupied by Covid patients (around 5%) have been at roughly the same levels since the beginning of September. pic.twitter.com/XFEopuZhbI
Ukraine, as a fake “state” in the past few decades, is basically now, in terms of its set-up since 2014 especially, a Jewish-Zionist capture. The most important players in Ukraine, politically and economically, are Jews. The mass of Ukrainians are not of particularly high culture, and are easily fooled, ruled, and exploited, and they certainly have been…
For Britain, as part of NATO, to get into conflict with Russia about Eastern Ukraine, the eastern part of a territory inextricably linked to Russia for over 1,100 years, is absurd, and might lead to terrible consequences in the UK, should actual (strategic/continental) war result from all of this.
I would say “get Boris out!“, but most of those tweeting to that effect want Jewish-lobby puppet and false alternative Keir Starmer in Downing Street, together with Yvette Cooper, Rachel Reeves, and the rest. Nein danke!
There is no true democracy, or anything approaching it, in the UK.
They may not have had the technical resources of today but, at their best, they could really make films back then.
I think that I may have blogged en passant in the past about how I saw Bette Davis a few years before her death, when she was on the (I think) South Bank Show with Andrei Tarkovsky and maybe someone else as well; filmed at the South Bank Centre in London. That was about 4 years before her death. Sometime in the mid-1980s. In fact, despite her age, she outlived Tarkovsky, who died only a year or so later (1986), aged only 54. Tarkovsky had been only about 5 or 6 years old in 1938 when Jezebel was released.
The public were kept back (mostly not allowed into the building at all). Even inside, there was tight control. I was there just to meet someone else but I was introduced by a third party to the (British) chief of Bette Davis’s security (there was a whole expert team guarding her) and he said that I could stand there next to him as she came through with her “lady in waiting” and a couple of other people. An almost fossilized —and rather imperial— figure, aware of her status, rather like the last Queen of Naples.
It was amazing to see how various unwanted people, mainly autograph-hunters, kept trying to get to her, only to be expertly and diplomatically (though firmly) blocked by the guard team. One fellow even swung down (literally) from an external concrete stairway as a small side door was opened! He too was stopped, autograph book and pen in hand, and still tried to persuade the dinner-jacketed guard to let him through! All the while, the guard chief and I stood about 12 feet away, and Bette Davis + small entourage closer yet. Interesting to see. The chief of security remarked to me, as she passed by, something like “there goesa living legend“. A bit of a cliche, of course, but true.
I should say that Europe, including the UK, would be better if it had only a tenth of its present population, if that population consisted of ethnic Europeans with the right attitudes— traditional, yet willing to march into the future.
It might be said that I should not write about ordinary political matters on Christmas Day, but the news having just been announced yesterday about Brexit, a few more words are needed.
As I said yesterday, “Boris” has decided to put on the mask of a tragi-comic Chamberlain rather than a tragi-comic Churchill. He says now that he has, belatedly, delivered Brexit. Of sorts, arguably. It is all rather underwhelming.
This goes beyond BRINO (Brexit In Name Only) but not very far beyond.
Having said that, the agreement has pretty much shot Farage’s fox as far as the EU is concerned. I think that, though opposition to EU norms will continue on the fringes, this means the end of Brexit and EU matters as central in UK political discourse. Effectively the end of 20 years of Brexit/EU being political drivers in the UK.
To a large extent, the agreement has also shot Labour’s fox re. the EU, too. Labour under Keir Starmer has become almost invisible. Unsurprising. Starmer-Labour has, with minor carping, supported the “Conservative” Government on almost every issue in the past year, from the “virus” messaging and the facemask nonsense to Brexit. It seems that that support will now continue in the Commons vote on this agreement (next week, unless delayed). The agreement will thus be approved, with minor rebellions on the fringes.
As far as the general public is concerned, this agreement will draw a line under Brexit, politically.
The agreement seems to cover most of the factors important in the public mind, such as (by implication) the Roma gypsy element looting the UK from foreign bases, and also the low-paid foreign workers, Poles etc, coming to the UK as of right; the food standards now staying where they are (because the UK will not drop below EU norms, so no American chlorinated chicken etc).
It looks as though animal welfare in farming etc is covered (the UK is ahead of most of the EU states in that respect anyway).
Yes, there are sacrifices made: the fishing part is not very good for the UK, though at least there will not be the first Anglo-French naval engagements, in the Channel, since Napoleonic times. Britain’s fishermen have been, to some extent, sacrificed for the wider good. That means that the head has ruled the heart, fishing being only 1% of the UK’s GDP.
Also, British people will (or may) find it less convenient to live or work in EU states, though most live rather than work (retired people etc) and that happened even before the UK joined the original EEC in 1973, though on a smaller scale. People just had to apply for a carte de sejour in France, and the equivalent elsewhere.
There will be some grumbling about this from both “Brexiteers” and Remainers but, as a major political issue, Brexit has been finally put to bed.
First of all, language people use in this area can be quite emotive, e.g. talk of Christians ‘usurping’ or ‘sanitising’ a pre-existing pagan festival. There’s a tendency to ascribe a collective agency that never existed to ‘the Church’ or ‘Christians’ when it comes to Midwinter
The minds and behaviour of early medieval people weren’t software programmed by a Church that exercised total control. The Church showed sporadic interest in popular celebrations, but its main concern was Christian rites and belief – not suppressing all pre-Christian legacies
(The later concepts of sacred and secular may not be especially relevant here, but we can’t rule out the likelihood that pre-Christian societies (just like Christian ones) had many behaviours and practices that simply lay outside the realm of the sacred. This is a complex debate)
For example, when people compare Christian saints with pre-Christian gods – often implying that saints simply ‘replaced’ gods – what they’re really referring to is saints filling the same niches as the former gods in a spiritual ecology common to most pre-modern societies
Most pre-modern European societies had broadly the same concerns, the same areas of uncertainty, and the same spheres of life where divine protection was sought, before and after Christianity. Furthermore, societies often celebrated the pattern of the seasons in similar ways
In time, as people became culturally accustomed to it, Christmas came to play the same role as whatever Midwinter festivals existed before it, and earlier traditions receded
A plausible scenario is a mixture of sacred and profane festivities existing in parallel in early England, with pre-Christian elements fading gradually as they became less culturally relevant, and Christmas traditions becoming richer as society acquired a Christian identity
So without getting into the extent to which Christmas is ‘pagan’ or not, let’s be careful about the language we use and the assumptions we make, because the nature of the evidence – and of human belief – is often insufficient to support them…
Merry Christmas to my blog readers (and to the pagans among you, “Merry Wolfmoon”! I hope that I got that right…)
Farage: did he stab his own candidates in the back for a knighthood?
It doesn’t remotely matter what we think. Nige and Boris did a deal- right after Boris said he wouldn’t do a deal with Nige 😂 IT’S HAPPENING https://t.co/FLQYudZOR6
My reading of Farage is that he would prefer a million or two stashed in BVI or Panamanian accounts to an official honour of that sort, but who knows (either way…)?
Aimez-vous Brahms?
Interesting article on falling life expectancy in the UK
“Austerity in the UK was a political choice made in the summer of 2010. Its effects have been devastating.”
“The UK has reduced public spending to 36% of GDP by the end of 2019 from a peak of 41% in 2006. Today, rates of public spending in the UK as a whole are only a fraction above those of the US. Almost every other country in the EU spends more on its public services than the UK does; almost every other country in Europe now has a lower infant mortality than the UK.” [The Correspondent]
“A man has been accused of attacking 16 cats, nine of which were killed over the space of eight months in Brighton.
Sussex police charged Steven Bouquet, 52, a security guard, with 16 counts of criminal damage relating to the wounding or killing of 16 cats between between 2 October 2018 and 1 June 2019.
The charges are part of Operation Diverge, the force’s investigation into a number of cat deaths in the city of Brighton and Hove.
Bouquet, who was also charged with possessing a knife in a public place, is due to appear at Brighton magistrates court on 23 January.
The South East district crown prosecutor, Sally Lakin, said: “Following a spate of attacks on cats in the Brighton area, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has authorised Sussex police to charge Steven Bouquet with 16 charges of criminal damage, relating to attacks on 16 cats, nine of which were killed and seven were seriously injured.
“The allegations relate to incidents which took place between 2 October 2018 and 1 June 2019. This is a complex case and this decision was made following a careful review of all of the evidence presented to us.”
The CPS said it had carefully considered which charges would be most appropriate in the case and concluded the defendant should be charged with criminal damage.
“This does not in any way detract from the seriousness of the offence or the great distress these incidents will have caused the owners of the cats,” the CPS said. “However, under current legislation, cats and other animals are deemed as property.”
The charge of animal cruelty was thought inappropriate as the defendant was not the owner of the cats. It would also attract a lesser sentence than criminal damage.” [Guardian]
Not a very Christmas-y story, but one which deserves to be reported more widely (and no comment from me, the trial process not having even started, let alone concluded).
Ian Robert Millard 