Thomas Hollis

The reason I went to the National Portrait Gallery in the first place was to see the 2012 acquisition of the Joseph Wilton sculpture of libertarian Thomas Hollis.

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw69565/Thomas-Hollis#sitter

The Grayson Perry Who Are You? exhibition.

While I was in the National Portrait Gallery I had a look round the Grayson Perry Who Are You? exhibition.

It was meant to be seditious "fun", interposing Grayson Perry artworks among the great art of the past.

You can see what Grayson Perry was intending:

All this historic art shit is no better than my shit as I have proved by putting my art in with them.  You fucking gormless chavs are just impressed by the frame not the art.  You could put an unmade bed in an art gallery, call it art, and the fucking punters wouldn't know the difference.

I am paraphrasing Mr Perry of course, but it is how I imagine he speaks.

And of course, it is just a variation on the Emperor's New Clothes joke.

Mr Perry is a bully, but we must not let him bully us.

We are completely entitled to like accessible art if we want to - it is OUR National Portrait Gallery, not Grayson Perry's.

Ms Bennett expressed herself in a clumsy way

Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party, has come under a lot of criticism for her comments about international consumption:  http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21637420-green-party-growing-force-british-politics-if-only-it-was-more-world-green

She does however have a point.  It is not possible for every person in the world to have the same consumerist lifestyle as the average person in the United Kingdom.  Even to give every household in the world access to basic electricity would involve power generation that would poison all of us.

Furthermore, it is not possible for the average person in the United Kingdom to maintain a relatively high standard of living when faced with globalised competition.  The elites (all societies and including the readers of the Economist) will be alright.  But the ordinary people are going to lose as the protective barriers (trade, nationality, migration etc) are removed to satisfy globalisation ideology.

And although Ms Bennett expressed herself in a clumsy way, the poor in India are perhaps better equipped to cope with what is going to happen as they have the compensation of a fatalist philosophy.

James Bloodworth in the New Statesman about the lack of social mobility

A rather empty article by James Bloodworth in the New Statesman about the lack of social mobility in British Society:  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/12/forget-immigration-big-issue-2015-should-be-death-social-mobility

Although he describes the problem competently enough, he fails to analyse it convincingly.

For instance:  "...the political class has acquiesced in the slow death of social mobility for one very simple reason: the vastly unequal outcomes they almost all accept as de rigueur render all notions of "equality of opportunity" null and void."  If he were familiar with Exodus by Professor Paul Collier he would know that research indicates increasing rates of immigration and "diversity" erode trust between and within communities.  Therefore in a society where there is no trust it is unsurprising (if despicable) that the political class only looks after their own.

Also "...wealth concentrates when the returns on capital are higher than economic growth" (here Bloodworth is quoting Piketty).  In the United Kingdom ordinary people have been able to accumulate capital assets through private house purchase.  It is not the hoarding of capital assets by the elite that has destroyed social mobility - it has been the collapse of incomes due to the reckless expansion of the labour market that has made the accumulation of capital assets (both property and shares) increasingly unaffordable by most C1, C2 and D households.

This holiday does go on.

I am now drinking flat champagne (technically flat, although it is still fizzy despite being one of the bottles opened on Christmas Day).

As if anyone is going to believe Mervyn King is an impartial commentator:  http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/dec/29/labour-government-not-responsible-crash-bank-england-governor-mervyn-king

He and Gordon Brown worked hand in glove.

They crashed the economy together.

This is a Labour former Home Secretary talking:  http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/6216773/david-blunkett-labour-immigration-mistakes.html?CMP=spklr-125803398-Editorial-FBPAGE-The%20Sun%20-%20thesun-20141228-Features

Network Rail is ALREADY nationalised

I hope all those lefties who want renationalisation for ideological reasons were paying attention to the closure of Kings Cross station and the chaos at Finsbury Park.

Network Rail is ALREADY nationalised, and yet it produced a fiasco such as we have seen in the last few days.

There may be valid social and logistical reasons why the railway network should be publicly owned, but please do not argue that efficiency is going to improve.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-30614195

"Cold Christmas pudding put in a blender with cream and brandy butter makes a very nutritional smoothie".

Daily Telegraph Women's Editor Emma Barnett is a privileged media toff

Emma Barnett (Women’s Editor for the Daily Telegraph) is by all accounts a privileged and educated person ("She writes news, comment and features across the channel and the newspaper. An award-winning radio presenter, from October 2014 she will present a weekly Sunday show on BBC Radio 5Live. Emma also makes Radio 4 documentaries, guest presents Woman's Hour and sometimes appears on the telly.").

Therefore is seems unusual that she should write such a wilfully ignorant article:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11307743/I-took-on-a-racist-and-he-threw-his-hot-chocolate-at-me.html

For all her obvious education Ms Barnett does not seem to have received any instruction in the Classics, otherwise she would be familiar with the phrase In vino veritas.

The drunken young man whose "racist" views she found so offensive was simply telling her what he really thinks.  Loosened by alcohol from usual constraints and inhibitions he voices what is in his mind.  Freed by drink from fear of repercussions he acts in the way he wants to act - which includes verbal and physical violence towards the classes of people he sees as tormenting him.

If Emma Barnett knew more white working class men she would know that what this young person said was remarkably mild and absolutely representative of their views towards immigrants and privileged media toffs (for in his eyes Daily Telegraph Women's Editor Emma Barnett is a privileged media toff).

Of course, all violence must be regretted.  The violence of the thrown hot chocolate must be condemned.  But equally the passive-aggressive violence of the toffee-nosed media do-gooder (as Ms Barnett must have presented herself) should also be condemned.

That Emma Barnett was thinking violent thoughts is revealed to us in her phrase:  "My temples throbbed as I felt unable to suppress the urge to silence him."

Thank goodness Emma Barnett does not have dictatorial powers otherwise the young man might have been silenced for good.

And do these words not sum up for us the immense disconnect in this country over immigration?  We have the words of the majority (crudely but sincerely expressed by the young man) contrasted with the media elite represented by Emma Barnett whose one urge was to silence him.  One can be appalled by this exchange on public transport, but one cannot deny the claim that the majority of working class people are not allowed to talk about immigration.

Of course it is possible that the working class majority in the United Kingdom will remain silenced on a permanent basis.

But it is equally possible that their anger will explode, in which case Emma Barnett might have worse things thrown at her than hot chocolate.

Jeremy Thorpe, when leader of the Liberal Party, protected Cyril Smith

A report on Channel 4 News this evening suggested that Jeremy Thorpe, when leader of the Liberal Party, protected Cyril Smith from investigation over his crimes against children.

All this needs to come out.

http://www.channel4.com/news/

Why is the investigation into Lord Janner not being reported in the mainstream media:  http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5424/lord-janner-faces-re-opened-police-probe-into-child-sex-abuse

There's not even an "innocent face" from Sally Bercow.

Objectionable to his own party

Kenneth Clarke appeared on the Andrew Marr show this morning followed later by Peter Mandelson.

And I wondered which one was most objectionable to his own party.

Certainly Ken Clarke should not be offered a peerage.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0080bbs

Assassination

On Dateline London Polly Toynbee raised an equivalence between a film fantasising about the assassination of the North Korean dictator and Hilary Mantel fantasising about the assassination of a Tory Prime Minister.

She fails to realise that there are enough oddballs who cannot differentiate between fiction and reality, and Hilary Mantel's fiction may well encourage someone to act on her (carefully mediated) suggestions.

If the assassination of Tories is fine to fantasise about, can we please legitimise fantasising about the assassination of left wing members of Parliament?

Just so it's fair.

Report on illegal immigration by Michael Crick on Channel 4 News

Rather fatuous report on illegal immigration by Michael Crick on Channel 4 News.  It had nothing new to say.  It just seemed to be a copy of what has previously been reported on Newsnight.

Illegal immigration is a crime and illegal immigrants caught in the United Kingdom should be subjected to very heavy sentences (ten years) - that would deter immigrants.

Then, to insult our intelligence, lefty Tom Copley appeared in a report on rented accommodation, telling us that the rented sector needed to have the same "protections" as the rest of Europe.

IF conditions in the United Kingdom are so bad WHY are countless thousands of illegal immigrants nearly killing themselves to leave Europe and get here?

http://www.channel4.com/news/

You could call all celebrities whores

We've had celebrity politicians, and celebrity chefs, and even celebrity priests.

Now we have celebrity whores:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30547066

Although I suppose you could call all celebrities whores, even the Rev Giles Fraser.

If ever someone looked guilty it was Lucy Powell MP

WONDERFUL interview of Lucy Powell (Vice-chair of Labour's 2015 General Election campaign) on Daily Politics on BBC2 just now.

She was very effectively skewered by Andrew Neil.

Refusing to answer the question made her look shifty and evasive.

Her entire response was to tell Andrew Neil to mind his own business (but his business is asking politicians awkward questions).

If ever someone looked guilty it was Lucy Powell MP, and you could tell she was barely able to keep her temper.

Wonderful television.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

Cuban Health Paradox

Article by Margot Sanger-Katz in the New York Times on the supposed "Cuban Health Paradox":  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/upshot/can-cuba-escape-poverty-but-stay-healthy.html?rref=upshot&smid=tw-upshotnyt&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

There is not so much of a health paradox in Cuba.

It is by all accounts a poor country.  It has basic healthcare, but the materialist consumerism of the West is missing.  Therefore they have less lifestyle diseases caused by obesity, lack of exercise, urban stress.

The United Kingdom during the Second World War experienced severe rationing, and yet the population was far healthier than it is today.

Nick Timothy

I do not like the way Nick Timothy is being treated:  http://www.conservativehome.com/parliament/2014/12/theresa-mays-special-adviser-has-been-removed-from-candidates-list-after-refusing-to-break-the-code-of-conduct-for-spads.html

Manipulation of the candidates' list is far too common in all parties (including UKIP).

It is time the Conservative Party devolved candidate selection down to constituency associations with no gerrymandering from Central Office.

Polycarbonate

I am fascinated by the potential of polycarbonate in architecture:  http://www.dezeen.com/2014/09/13/polycarbonate-house-massachusetts-manfredo-di-robilant-alessandro-armando/

But I wonder if any architect has designed a polycarbonate structure in the gothic style?

A house perhaps based on the Bishop West Chantry in Ely Cathedral (or the Bishop Alcock Chantry).

“If this carries on we risk civil disruption"

Important contribution to the political debate by Tony Booth:  http://www.newsweek.com/2014/12/26/tony-booth-miliband-win-your-dreams-292914.html

“Reducing immigration would be the first thing,” says Booth, an unreconstructed socialist who, on every subject except Europe, is about as far-removed as it is possible to be from the ideology of Ukip. “I don’t believe Britain can accommodate 200,000 people every year,” he says. “If this carries on we risk civil disruption, and religion will come into it and all that bollocks. This is not about race. If you made the argument economic, I think more people might listen. But we haven’t got the balls to tell the EU to piss off.”

"Consume" authenticities

This is interesting:  http://staffblogs.le.ac.uk/consumingauthenticities/2014/12/17/introducing-the-project/

Of course, people "consume" authenticities all the time, it is one of the main ways in which they can achieve self-actualisation.

The Emperor Augustus revived the Roman state and founded the Roman Empire by reasserting the traditions of the past.

The Establishment by Owen Jones - 4 (Chapter 4)

Chapter 4 The Boys In Blue

Page 133 "During the 1980s... the police had been trained to treat working-class people as the 'enemy within' ".  Who is supposed to have done this training?  Was it via seminars or tutorials or home study courses?  Or is this just a ridiculous assertion that has no basis in fact?  It also takes no account of the huge landslide victories won by the Conservatives in the 1980s.  These would have been impossible without support from working class voters.

Page 147 Owen Jones gives no motivation for the police bias against BME people.  For instance, do the police overtly or covertly seek to recruit racists?  Or are ordinary people conditioned to become racists once they have entered police employment?  Or are they indifferent to race issues, but persecute BME people because they are secretly paid a bonus to do so?  Owen Jones, unless you explain a motive for an action you must not claim that the action fits your hypothesis.  Because it is equally possible that BME people are stopped and suspected more than other groups because they commit more crimes.

http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-establishment-by-owen-jones-3.html http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/the-establishment-by-owen-jones.html
http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-establishment-by-owen-jones-2.html

Labour referring to the 1930s in Prime Minister's Questions

The problem with Labour referring to the 1930s in Prime Minister's Questions as some kind of economic benchmark is that very few people alive today can remember the 1930s.

In the 1980s it had some resonance as most people over 50 could remember the economic conditions.

Now it is just an historical event that they may, or may not, have been taught about in school.

Someone aged 20 in 1933 would be aged 80 now.

The former home of Wilfred Owen is now Grade II listed:  http://www.shropshirestar.com/news/2014/12/16/wilfred-owens-shropshire-home-gets-listed-status/

If the majority want you there you can be an expat

"When is an immigrant not an immigrant?" asks lefty politics academic Rob Ford (University of Manchester) https://twitter.com/robfordmancs

There is a simple and straightforward answer to this:  when the interloper is in a country with the consent of the majority of the host population.

If the majority want you there you can be an expat.

If the majority don't want you there you are just an immigrant (and an unwanted one).

It all relates to democratic consent.

Whooping up the appointment of the first Anglican woman bishop

Is it not ironic to see all the atheist commentators whooping up the appointment of the first Anglican woman bishop?

And is it not a matter of shame for the Church of England that the decision to include women as bishops was the result of back-stairs dealing, highly convoluted "representation", and a sort of "go away and vote again until you agree with us" non-democracy?

Does this not undermine any moral authority that Libby Lane might claim?

Tom King is a racist

Is it not highly offensive, bordering on racist, for Labour student activists Tom King (SOAS) to tell English people how they should run their affairs?  http://king-tom.tumblr.com/post/98092514386/regional-devolution-will-make-english-voices

Tom King is Welsh.  He is from Swansea.  The Welsh already have their devolved assembly, and he should confine his opinions to that.

And is it not typical of non-English people that his solution to "the English problem" is to chop England up into regions so Labour can do their usual divide-and-rule trick.

If Tom King cannot concede that English people are entitled to the same expression of their nationality as Welsh people and Scottish people then Tom King is a racist.

Effectively calling Ken Loach a racist

"...there wasn’t a single black or brown Briton in the entire film" whines Satnam Virdee (Professor of Sociology at the University of Glasgow and Deputy Director of the ESRC-funded Centre for Dynamics of Ethnicity CoDE based at the Universities of Manchester and Glasgow).

He is talking about the Ken Loach film The Spirit of 1945 and effectively calling Ken Loach a racist.

Perhaps Professor Virdee could be directed to the many thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of crowd photographs taken in the United Kingdom from the invention of photography up to 1945.  He can then show us all the black and brown people he claims were resident in the country.  Unless he is claiming that they have all been meticulously scraped off the negatives.

http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/the_politics_of_class_and_the_long_shadow_of_racism

The Establishment by Owen Jones - 3 (Chapters Two and Three)

Chapter 2, The Westminster Cartel

Page 63 et al - the Establishment is presented by Owen Jones as an ideology, but no proof is offered.  It is probable that there are ideologues (of all persuasions) within the Establishment, but the truth is much less sinister although still problematic.  The Establishment is a large informal network of individuals who hold power and influence and intend to remain in power and influence helping each other out, giving opportunities for the progeny of people they know, recruiting into their ranks those who who cannot be silenced by any other means.  There is no over-arching conspiracy.  There is just the same old corrupt behaviour that asserts itself in every society, including those of the former Eastern Bloc, when scrutiny is inadequate.  The difference is that the British Establishment for historical reasons has acquired a patina of respectability.

Page 81 - discussing Len McCluskey "A proud Scouser, rarely clean-shaven and with an imposing frame, his tub-thumping speeches at political rallies often draw a rapturous reception from true believers".  proud Scouser... imposing frame... tub-thumping... rapturous reception... true believers - did an Oxford alumni really write this cliche-ridden sentence?  The failure of the publisher to amend this line demonstrates the cultural cringe our society has towards The Establishment's Oxbridge graduates when they are no more elite or skilled than the rest of us.

Chapter 3, Mediaocracy

Page 89 - referring to the 1992 general election "...an earlier speech made by the Tory Home Secretary, Kenneth Baker, alleging Labour plans for an 'open door' immigration policy".  Even as far back as 1992 the Labour plans for unrestricted immigration were known.  It rather makes their subsequent apologies for immigration seem cynical and false - we must never let these people back in.

Page 90 - Angela Eagle MP (and Shadow Cabinet minister) "It's a media that's ideologically driven by its owners who have particular views that you or I probably wouldn't agree on an awful lot of the time".  This claim that the media is ideologically driven is silly.  The Morning Star is ideologically driven but hardly anyone buys it.  If the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph were ideologically driven then how does Owen Jones account for their popularity compared to the Guardian or the Daily Mirror?  Newspapers exist to make money.  If people didn't want them they wouldn't buy them and the Daily Mail would end up with the same circulation as The Independent.

To be continued.
http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/the-establishment-by-owen-jones.html
http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/the-establishment-by-owen-jones-2.html

Does he think we are all cretins?

Paul Mason on Channel 4 News has just pointed out that the building behind him is the Parthenon.

Does he think we are all cretins?

Does he think we might confuse the Acropolis with Carlton Hill Edinburgh or Centennial Park in Nashville Tennessee?

http://www.channel4.com/news/catch-up/

Can we make this Yvette Cooper idea retrospective please - all individuals born outside the United Kingdom and entering the country since 1997:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11293435/Yvette-Cooper-Foreigners-applying-for-a-British-passport-should-present-clean-CRB-checks.html

My goodness.

Michael Heseltine is on Daily Politics talking about loyalty!

A lecture on loyalty from a two-faced git like him.

You buy a present for someone and then badly want to keep it

Secret Santa time in the office.

Have you ever had that experience where you buy a present for someone and then badly want to keep it yourself?

This is for one of the campaigns managers.

It looks excellent - Enoch at 100 edited by Lord Howard of Rising.

The Establishment by Owen Jones - 2 (Introduction and Chapter One)

Above:  on display in Kings Parade some of the codified stratification of the Establishment - although the Establishment's soft power is much more complex and subtle than mere colours and badges.

Finally I have finished The Establishment by Owen Jones (this has taken me a long time to read not because it is unreadable, but because other reading projects have intervened).

The book was a big disappointment.  Instead of writing a much-needed expose of the Establishment and how they get away with it, Owen Jones has simply invented his own "Establishment" and written about that.  And you've guessed it, the Owen Jones Establishment is just his own views and prejudices mashed up and reheated and served with a tiny bit of new garnish.

Some examples (page numbers refer to the hardback edition):

General point - there are only seven references to immigration, and all of them make the assumption that immigrant communities are the victims of the Establishment.  And yet immigration is one of the key ways in the post war period in which the Establishment has divided and controlled and suppressed the working class, all the time presenting it as some uncontrollable elemental force as if it just happens without anyone making decisions.  But because this does not fit the Owen Jones view of history he ignores it (therefore we are justified in saying Owen Jones is as much an Establishment stooge as any of the people he condemns).

In the Introduction (page 6) he talks of the Establishment having an ideology of neo-liberalism that led to the privatisation of nationalised industries.  This rather overlooks the fact that the old nationalised industries were stuffed with Establishment figures who were unaccountable, dictatorial and ran huge swathes of the economy as if they were an extension of the civil service.  They were privatised because they had become a self-serving vested interest, not because they were a socialist.

Chapter 1 The Outriders.  It is wrong to define Margaret Thatcher as Establishment.  She was anti-Establishment through and through (state-educated, a woman, a scientist, a corner shop grocer's daughter, a denizen of a dull Midlands provincial town, a Methodist - in terms of education, occupation, social origin, geographical origin, religion etc she was an outsider).  The Establishment ferociously attacked her candidacy as leader, wanting William Whitelaw (Winchester, Cambridge and the Guards).  The first significant opposition from within the Conservative Party came from Sir Ian Gilmour Bart. (Eton, Oxford and the Guards) who while still a member of her Cabinet said in February 1980 "In the Conservative view, economic liberalism à la Professor Hayek, because of its starkness and its failure to create a sense of community, is not a safeguard of political freedom but a threat to it."  The first MP to openly rebel against her leadership was Sir Anthony Meyer (Eton, Oxford, Scots Guards) in November 1989 providing the stalking horse that enabled Heseltine and the rest of the "treachery with a smile on its face" clique to wade in.

Page 21 - it is wrong to attach so much importance to Madsen Pirie who was at the time little more than a self-important pipsqueak.  Margaret Thatcher's commitment to the free market came from her own convictions (she was perfectly capable of thinking these things out for herself) as well as from Enoch Powell who had independently of Hayek had come to the same conclusions (see the Simon Heffer biography).  If Madsen Pirie and the Adam Smith Institute were/are so influential why are they largely ignored today? (when was the last time we saw Madsen Pirie or Eamon Butler on Newsnight or Channel 4 News).

Page 23 - "the staggering increase in living standards and the greatest, most stable economic growth this country has ever seen" was not because of public ownership of key industries and utilities.  The post-war boom of the 1950s and 1960s was generated by the need to repair the colossal damage caused by the Second World War.  By the early 1970s this renewal was petering out, leading to the economic and social problems that decade is renowned for.

To be continued.

http://afroml.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/the-establishment-by-owen-jones.html

Joey Barton about Lewis Hamilton

One must agree with Joey Barton about Lewis Hamilton:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/joey-barton-berates-tax-exile-and-poor-role-model-lewis-hamilton-over-sports-personality-of-the-year-win-9925747.html

"He should never have won. He is a terrible role model to any Britain. What precedent does that set. Bad day in our history."

Whether they win Basildon or not

I am not a member of UKIP and it is nothing to me whether they win Basildon or not.

But I wish they would stop apologising.

Everyone knows what they are like.  The support they have gained has already factored in the unpolitically correct candidates.  It's the language you can hear in any pub (maybe not wine bars in Islington and Holland Park).

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/14/ukip-defends-candidate-kerry-smith

The problem with Hilary Mantel is not that she is a good fiction writer.

It is that she is such an awful historian.

"Meticulously researched" my arse.

We are not allowed to talk about immigration

Article by Ben Riley-Smith in the Daily Telegraph reveals that Labour intends to suppress any discussion of immigration during the election campaign:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11293433/Revealed-Labour-MPs-told-not-to-campaign-on-immigration-in-secret-Ukip-strategy-document.html

Is this not proof that we are not allowed to talk about immigration?

These policies affect everything.

They affect everyone.

And yet there is to be no discussion.

There is no need for this kind of slur

Am I imagining things?

Or is there a similarity between the Guardian cartoon of a shadowy top-hatted global speculator and a German cartoon from the 1930s of a shadowy top-hatted global speculator?

I am not in favour of globalisation, but I do not think it is part of a conspiracy by greedy speculators.

You can unpick the economic processes and understand why it is happening and introduce policies to moderate it.

There is no need for this kind of slur, and the Guardian should know better.

A great comfort

This news is a great comfort to me:  http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2014/12/12/newday-pope-dogs-go-to-heaven.cnn.html

It also makes sense, since God Is Love and dogs have so much to teach us about love.

And I knew this anyway, before the Pope said anything.

"David’s already planning for Ed’s defeat":  http://ericjoyce.co.uk/2014/12/david-milibands-not-so-cunning-plans-for-a-labour-defeat/

EU's directive on landfill

Emma Lewell-Buck MP and funeral poverty:  http://www.emma-lewell-buck.net/mps-back-emmas-call-for-funeral-poverty-bill/

And is it not the case that people burying relatives in their back gardens will violate the EU's directive on landfill?

What is Ed's view on this?


What is the UKIP view?

Andy Burnham rattled on Daily Politics about the privatisation of Hinchingbrooke Hospital under the last Labour government.

Nick Clegg's goad at PMQs has obviously touched a nerve.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

"Diversity has a dark side"

Very important interview on Newsnight with Professor Sir Paul Collier (University of Oxford) discussing the liberal case for limiting immigration http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk25

"Diversity has a dark side" said Sir Paul.

He is the author of Exodus:  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Exodus-Immigration-Multiculturalism-21st-Century/dp/0141042168/ref=sr_1_1_twi_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1418339095&sr=1-1&keywords=collier+exodus

And all the holier-than-thou posturing Labour does over how they respect women:  http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/london-young-labour-chairman-dan-young-arrested-for-late-night-assault-on-his-girlfriend-9899712.html

How many leading Labour figures have been photographed with this person?

Is this him?  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqYHhYp1DvGl-ik70a9YNgVvz8xb-ju0YKBqJtfN6F0DidMm2OsvOlKMem4FPjBY_P6H0H3TwxWDAgn5GWHCb55MKyuPmiQtQGkaRut0EUsh8sBF-YlGVD6zdunhVjkXrG7nvR2A/s1600/London+UNISON+Labour+Link+Ed+Balls+MP+and+Ken+Livingstone.JPG

Christmas this year has taken me entirely by surprise.

Article by Conor Pope on Ed Miliband's speech earlier today:  http://labourlist.org/2014/12/miliband-announces-deficit-reduction-as-first-election-pledge/

The Labour message is basically "same as the Tories only we would do it slightly different".

In November Mr Pope wrote an article entitled "Why splits on the deficit are still hurting Labour".

Channel 4 News item on the cereal cafe in Shoreditch

I also saw the Channel 4 News item on the cereal cafe in Shoreditch http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/12/in-defence-of-the-smug-cereal-cafe-owners-and-the-mugs-who-eat-there/

And I also thought the interviewer was asking inane questions in a bullying way.

He should have had a plate of cold porridge tipped over him.

On a serious note, I suppose what the interviewer was trying to elucidate, in his cack-handed manner, was the way in which an area of London was being colonised by outsiders against the wishes of the local people who feel they are being "swamped".

As someone who comes from an old (genuine) East End family I can sympathise with this view.

Prime Minister's Questions, taken by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg

In Prime Minister's Questions, taken by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, reference was made to the Roman god Janus.

As I am sure you will know, Janus was associated with the Rites of the Salii - twelve patrician youths, dressed as archaic warriors who made a procession round the city, dancing, and singing the Carmen Saliare to mark the opening of the yearly war season which started in March.

Earlier on Daily Politics Nick Robinson told us that the General Election campaign will start on 30th March.

Is this Jungian synchronicity at work?

"In order to succeed Labour needs to have a 'pro-business, pro-worker' agenda" says Chuka Umunna this evening, channelling his inner Peter Mandelson.

"'It is not a question of how big the state is - it is a question about what it does" - which is code for Labour cuts if they win the next election (we would do the same as the Tories only slightly different).

The hyperbole surrounding the publication today of the CIA report

In all the hyperbole surrounding the publication today of the CIA report one needs to keep in mind that there has not been an equivalent attack on America following 9th September 2001 http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/12/09/3601209/cia/

Disregard the conclusion "Torture didn’t stop a single terrorist attack" - it is not possible to prove a negative.

Following the attack on the World Trade Centre western governments and their security agencies took all necessary steps to prevent a recurrence.  That message got out and the supplying and servicing of the terrorists dried up, leaving only the fanatics.  And as we have seen, there are not enough fanatics to prevail against us.

American Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld said on 18th September 2001:  "We'll have to deal with the networks. One of the ways to do that is to drain the swamp they live in, and that means dealing not only with the terrorists, but those who harbour terrorists." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/specials/attacked/transcripts/rumsfeld_091801.htm

That policy worked.

The dreadful state of the Labour party in Scotland

Channel 4 News has just reported on the dreadful state of the Labour party in Scotland.

Many of the constituency Labour parties have become hollowed out shells.

"When you used to weigh the votes at elections, what is the point of recruiting members" explained one commentator.

Except that members are the way you canvass, and canvassing (above all election techniques) is the way to win.

Mr Mandelson tells Labour

We know the Labour party is in trouble when it looks to Peter Mandelson for advice:  http://www.progressonline.org.uk/2014/12/09/laying-the-foundations-for-a-labour-century/

"...they also want policies that are aspirational and not motivated by envy or resentment of those who are better off" Mr Mandelson tells Labour (in other words you need to get intensely relaxed about rich people).

"...don’t like a ‘them and us’ mentality where you have to be for the ‘bosses’ or for the ‘workers’" (so Owen Jones can get stuffed).

"...do not confuse the importance of protecting people with protectionism of economies and markets" (in the aggregate immigration is good, so stopping bothering about those left behind).

Tony Blair in 1996 "my project will be complete when the Labour Party learns to love Peter Mandelson."

Break the lefty indoctrination of the teaching profession

This is a very welcome measure to break the lefty indoctrination of the teaching profession (which starts with selection for teacher training - unless you jump through the requisite ideological hoops you do not get on the courses):  http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/dec/09/college-of-teaching-government-nicky-morgan-david-laws

This is Anglea Merkel's coalition partner:  https://theconversation.com/bid-to-force-immigrants-to-speak-german-in-their-homes-wont-help-integration-35212

Once immigrants speak the language of the German host culture they must perforce think the thoughts of the German host culture.

Language assimilation must be followed by cultural assimilation, however much the migrants might resist.

Get them out of here.

"Of the 4.9 million immigrants living in Britain in 2013, 49% came from EU Member States and 51% from non-EU countries."

So please do not tell me the United Kingdom cannot get immigration under control.

Target the 51% from non-EU countries and get them out of here.

http://bnegroup.org/images/uploads/publications/files/Managing_Migration.pdf

On Daily Politics Chris Bryant MP is sneering at the Prime Minister's use of the Chelsea Pensioners on his official Christmas card.

He told Jo Coburn that the Prime Minister should have a religious theme (something I would agree with, I always send cards which feature the Nativity).

However when Jo Coburn challenged Chris Bryant to tell us what he has chosen for his own official Christmas card he claimed he could not remember.

Presumably it is a picture of himself in his underpants.

Is Amazon experiencing imperial over-reach? http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/technology/to-gain-the-upper-hand-amazon-disrupts-itself.html?hp=&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0

I am concerned that India is not conserving its built heritage:  http://www.deccanchronicle.com/141130/nation-current-affairs/article/19th-century-french-era-building-collapses-pondy

Hidden away on Radio 4 at 5pm on a damp cold Sunday afternoon

I looked through The Observer today, but no mention of Jeremy Thorpe.

I looked through the Owen Jones book The Establishment and how they get away with it, but zero reference to Jeremy Thorpe in the Index.

But hidden away on Radio 4 at 5pm on a damp cold Sunday afternoon was Tom Mangold's riveting documentary on the Thorpe scandal http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04wz633

It is a case study on how the establishment gets away with things.

It should be required viewing on all university social anthropology courses.

I suppose it is too much to expect heads to roll, even at this late stage.

An establishment cover up

Was there an establishment cover up?  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30349535

One should not overlook the Thorpe scandal on the grounds that he was persecuted for acts which later became legal.

The wider picture is of a Liberal party in which illegal acts were regarded with a permissive eye.

Which presumably allowed individuals such as Cyril Smith to be given the same permissive licence.

One would hope that the BBC will produce a drama based on this scandal.

Peder Balke exhibition of Norwegian landscapes

Above:  the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, seen from the balcony of the National Gallery.

I went to see the Peder Balke exhibition of Norwegian landscapes at the National Gallery:  http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/peder-balke

North Cape 1840s, the moonlight forming a dazzling pyramid.

North Cape again 1840s, the sky darker, the cliffs less frosted, the moon-pyramid more ominous.

North Cape 1845, ferocious waves dominate the cliffs.

North Cape 1852, the moonlight forms a dome.

North Cape 1860s, ethereal use of ice to suggest the outline of the cliffs.

North Cape 1870s, almost monochrome.

Balke shows you how to see.

A compromise might be possible on the subject of immigration

Significant comments by Lord Tebbit on Daily Poitics yesterday:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04tqcfk

Perhaps a compromise might be possible on the subject of immigration.

EU migration allowed on the understanding that they are integrated, with a corresponding cessation to all non-EU immigration.

On This Week last night the Reverend Richard Coles quoted from the Magnificat:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04tqb5x

Which is a step forward I suppose.

Was Lord Rennard a Young Liberal?

Andrew Neil on Daily Politics will be looking at the life of Jeremy Thorpe.

No doubt various grandee Liberals will be wheeled out to tell us what an inspiration Jeremy Thorpe was when they were Young Liberals.

Was Lord Rennard a Young Liberal?

Was he inspired by Jeremy Thorpe?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

Margaret Thatcher chose...

This is the time of year when all the old Christmas Number One's get replayed.

It is worth noting that in 1983 Margaret Thatcher chose Only You by the Flying Pickets as her favourite record of the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgDKtLPp46s

The Establishment is suppressing things

Hardly anything in the news about Jeremy Thorpe.

A sort of hagiography by David Steel on the PM programme on BBC Radio 4.

Nothing on Channel 4 News.

One could almost think that the Establishment is suppressing things.

Danny Finkelstein talking

It is really offensive to watch a programme such as Daily Politics and have Danny Finkelstein talking as if he is the official representative of the Conservative Party.

This person is not a Conservative.

He has never been elected by anyone to anything.

He is just a crony and illustrates the problem we have with modern politics.

I switched the programme off because he was so nauseating.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

The solutions suggested by Sunny Hundal are silly

The problem of Labour's eroding support is real, but the solutions suggested by Sunny Hundal are silly:  http://labourlist.org/2014/12/ed-miliband-is-losing-his-base-does-he-know-how-to-get-it-back/

Just supposing "economic populism" works and Labour gets back into power promising all sorts of economic goodies.

How long before they get knocked off course by the markets?

How high will interest rates go because lending to the United Kingdom government becomes high risk?

How many homes will be repossessed?

How many small businesses will go out of business?

And in the following election how long will Labour be out for, because it can't be trusted with the economy?

Russell Brand IS a hypocrite

I think people who use their great wealth to commission legal action designed to silence and intimidate their critics are beneath contempt:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/russell-brand-threatens-to-sue-the-sun-for-calling-him-a-hypocrite-over-rent-claims-9899571.html

In my opinion Russell Brand IS a hypocrite.

The Chancellor's Autumn Statement

One of the most significant announcements in the Chancellor's Autumn Statement is the proposal to extend the cathedral renovation fund to parish churches.

At the moment churches are applying for lottery funds which usually means they have to provide "access" and "community use".

These requirement are being used by wreckers within the Church of England to rip out pews, abandon high altars and generally trash Victorian interiors.

Renovation funds that do not require drastic internal reorganisation will be most welcome.

Church of England congregations are still the Tory party at prayer, but Anglican clerics are almost all of them lefties who delight in smashing things up in the name of progress and bullying people in the name of "diversity".

Ed Miliband is quite right in Prime Minister's Questions

Ed Miliband is quite right in Prime Minister's Questions to say to Cameron that if he does not deliver on immigration reduction he does not deserve to be re-elected.

There is no reason whatsoever for non-EU immigration to be rising.

I will not be voting for a government that is not working EFFECTIVELY to reduce immigration (by effective I mean something actually happens).

The garden city concept

The phrase "garden city" is being bandied about without a great deal of accuracy.

I hope the inhabitants of Bicester realise they will have to get used to temperance pubs.

And the Chinese seem to have a very hazy idea of the garden city concept http://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2014/dec/02/garden-cities-china-chengdu-letchworth?CMP=share_btn_tw

Personally, I feel the garden city has never been enough - we need to commitment to the ideals of Garden First In Land Development  http://www.londongardensonline.org.uk/gardens-online-record.asp?ID=CRO092

Isobel Hardman writes about the perspective from abroad:  http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2014/12/no-10-eu-leaders-are-on-pms-side-after-polish-minister-criticises-immigration-plans/

I was disappointed by the Prime Minister's speech on immigration, but not entirely surprised.

It is shaping up to be a Harold Wilson style fudge and fix.

Happily we are wise to all that now.

Atheism is officially un-British

This is excellent news! https://newhumanist.org.uk/articles/4792/is-atheism-a-british-value-the-department-for-education-doesnt-think-so

Atheism is officially un-British.

Not that there should be any doubt about this, since the Church of England in England is Established and everyone (whether they like it or not) is co-opted into Anglicanism. 

Is it possible we are winning the culture wars?

The time has run out

"With the polling as bleak as it is however, one wonders if the time has run out to change people’s minds" says Ed Jacobs in this very cogent assessment of Labour's position on the economy:  http://leftfootforward.org/2014/12/the-figures-that-should-worry-labour/

Ed Balls bungled his way through Opposition with all that flatlining nonsense when he should have been coming up with credible alternative policies.

All along his line has been "we'd do the same only slightly differently".

Not good enough I'm afraid.

Say the name "Gordon Brown"

In any game of political word association say the name "Gordon Brown" and the mind immediately responds with "Gillian Duffy".

That is his legacy, however unfair it might seem.

The drama, the hubris, the fact that is was televised.

No amount of worthy other stuff can compete http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/12/01/gordon-brown-best-moments_n_6247014.html?1417442140&ncid=tweetlnkushpmg00000067

The Labour party does not look good

You would think Emily Thornberry would have more sense than to try to defend the indefensible http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/28/emily-thornberry--van-driver-brother-ben?CMP=twt_gu

But let us play silly-buggers for a while and pretend Andrew Sparrow is honestly reporting the news, and not indulging in lefty image manipulation.

IF it is daft to regard Emily Thornberry as a chav-hating snob then why did Ed Miliband sack her from the Shadow Cabinet and announce he was more angry than he has every been over the tweet?

Either way the Labour party does not look good.

More angry than he has EVER been?  More angry over a tweet than over the dead children of Syria?  Than over the 800k users of food banks?  Than over the on-going collapse of Labour support in Scotland?  Than over the way the bankers have got off Scot-free from crashing the banks?  Than over the way the LibDems lied about tuition fees?

Does Penny Mordaunt want to be a stand up comedian

Is this supposed to be funny?  http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/tory-politician-says-the-word-cock-six-times-in-parliament-wins-award--l12mKXJK_e

Does Penny Mordaunt want to be a stand up comedian instead of an MP?

The Portsmouth North Conservative Association needs to tell her to fuck off.

#CameronMustGo demonstrates the weakness of the left

Article in the Independent in which James Bloodworth castigates the immaturity of the #CameronMustGo hashtag:  http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/cameronmustgo-step-away-from-twitter-and-close-down-your-laptop--a-hashtag-will-not-win-the-next-general-election-9895602.html

However he overlooks the essential hopelessness of the #CameronMustGo campaign.

These people are tweeting to each other because they have nothing else they can do.

#CameronMustGo demonstrates the weakness of the left, not its strength.