It is foolish of Jeremy Corbyn to think that nuclear weapons have anything to do with defence

Jeremy Corbyn's tiny little "no" (hardly more than a reflex rather than a considered reply) ruthlessly seized on by Sarah Montagu on the Today programme, may have mortally wounded the Labour leader: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p033z83d

To be fair to Mr Corbyn, if I were Prime Minister I do not think I could order nuclear weapons dropped on people.

I do not think any normal person could (possibly Blair could, but obviously he is not normal).

But it is foolish of Jeremy Corbyn to think that nuclear weapons have anything to do with defence.

Possession of nuclear weapons is a symbol of "great power" status - the price of admission to the great power club is £100 billion (and possibly cheap at this price).

Therefore no government could give up nuclear weapons without inflicting on the people of the United Kingdom precipitate national decline and humiliation akin to the Suez crisis.

And any party that inflicted such a wanton national humiliation would be severely punished (or possibly killed off altogether) by the electorate.

A triumph of mobilisation

Endless analysis of Jeremy Corbyn's speech to the Labour Party Conference.

On Channel 4 News Jon Snow interviewed a gathering of women and young people:  http://www.channel4.com/news/

However it is important to realise that the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader was not a triumph of democracy, nor was it a triumph of authenticity - it was a triumph of mobilisation.

Conference-goers will be familiar with the way in which organisers chivvy people into the front rows to make the hall look full.

It is the same principle with the election of Jeremy Corbyn.

An opportunity was afforded to all the marginal lefties to vote their candidate into "power" and they seized that opportunity.  And because they continually doughnut their hero wherever he goes it looks as if the Corbyn movement is massive. But the sum of the marginal lefties is still far far short of the number needed to elect a government, even if you throw in all the disgruntled "Red Tories".

That little group of women and young people on Channel 4 News filled the camera, but when the camera zoomed out you could see it was only a little group.

I have lost about half the hearing in my left ear and just have a faint whooshing sound.

And the last time there was a super moon I experienced the same.

Isaiah 49.6

At Sung Eucharist this morning:

Wisdom, Love, Might;
Boundless as ocean's tide,
Rolling in fullest pride,
Through the world far and wide,
Let there be light!

A vain and silly man hopelessly out of his depth

On the Andrew Marr Show this morning the left-wing luvvie who was interviewed was Michael Fassbender who praised convicted terrorist Bobby Sands - and not for the first time it struck me how degenerate our society is becoming.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was also interviewed, and there was a point where all his sober gravitas fell away and he became a giggling camp leftie amazed at his own good luck.  You can see it for yourself on iPlayer at 39:38 into the interview.  "Is it so disastrous... is it so disastrous... is it so disastrous..."  And I thought in that moment he gave himself away.  This is not a serious politician, still less is this a leader.  This is a vain and silly man hopelessly out of his depth.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06fwqc5/the-andrew-marr-show-27092015

Am I right in thinking Corbyn is an Irish name?

Why is the Labour party so relentlessly anti-English?

http://news.sky.com/story/1559465/corbyn-pays-tribute-to-sinn-fein-revolutionary

A counterpoint:  http://www.progressonline.org.uk/2015/09/26/looking-for-a-new-england/

Present Volkswagon with a bill for the unpaid tax

It is important to realise that the Volkswagon emissions scam has not just cheated car owners and damaged the environment.

Volkswagon has also defrauded Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs.

Vehicles with lower emissions pay a lower rate of car tax in the United Kingdom.

Therefore, it is likely that purchasers of Volkswagon cars have been paying car tax at a lower rate than they would have had the emission rates not been rigged.

It would be invideous to chase car owners for the extra tax due.

But it is perfectly reasonable for the British government to present Volkswagon with a bill for the unpaid tax.

Ray Massey writes about the scam in the Daily Mail:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3246834/UK-drivers-sue-Volkswagen-billions-Class-action-threat-fiddled-diesel-tests.html

Big birds

Early morning, about 7am.

After about an hour I always stop to have a little walk around, since the drive to work is so tiring.

Looking up, I saw on top of the battered old Victorian warehouse a line of big birds.

Not a merl of blackbirds, still less an exaltation of larks, but a humble flight of pigeons.

How grey the morning seemed, but these birds cheered me up.

Very interesting interview with Nigel Farage on Newsnight this evening:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk25

Labour is becoming the toxic party:  http://labourlist.org/2015/09/jon-cruddas-labour-is-lost-in-england/

Civil war in the Labour party

Kim Howells, Labour MP for Pontypridd between 1989 and 2010, warns of civil war in the Labour party:  http://leftfootforward.org/2015/09/former-minister-warns-of-civil-war-in-labour-party/

Drivel

Sometimes I leave the television on after Channel 4 News because I am working on e-mails in the other room and have not had tome to switch it off.

And I have to tell you that most of the output of Channel 4 is absolute drivel.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/posh-pawn

When the Germans said they would take 800,000 migrants this year were they telling lies?

I am confused by the behaviour of the German government.

They have already said they want 800,000 Syrian migrants this year.

They have also said they intend to take 500,000 migrants per year for an unspecified time into the future.

Now we learn that the German government is bullying central European states over the distribution of a mere 120,000 migrants.

When the Germans said they would take 800,000 migrants this year were they telling lies?

If they were not telling lies why do they not simply take the 120,000 migrants as a first instalment of the 800,000 migrants they say will be welcome this year?  No need to bother anyone else.  Take them into Germany and keep them in Germany.

However, if the migrants (together with their descendants and dependants, since the 800,000 they take will soon double and even triple as family members claim their human right to a family reunion) are to be imposed on other EU nations then an important constitutional issue is at stake.  Artificially ramping up the population of the EU must imply an eventual allocation of citizenship to the majority of the migrants (since history demonstrates most will not return), with a consequent impact on the electorates of the EU states the Germans are bullying.  Therefore the imposition on the four bullied nations of central and eastern European must be unconstitutional.

And while we are discussing constitutional issues, has the German government gained the permission of the German electorate before they give their country away?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34332759

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33988013

The most notable aspect of the Ashcroft serialisation is how implausible it all is:  https://twitter.com/suttonnick/status/646430694051344384/photo/1

Wing

First there were reports that Tony Blair was too right-wing (an insult to right-wingers) and so Gordon Brown took over in a restoration of Old Labour.

Then Labour lost the 2010 election and Ed Miliband took over as left-wing Red Ed the puppet of the unions.

Then Ken Loach said Ed Miliband was too right-wing and flounced off to form a new People's Party.

Then Labour lost the 2015 election and Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader with a massive mandate to be as left-wing as he likes.

Then Arther Scargill condemned Jeremy Corbyn for not being left-wing enough.

And this evening Channel 4 News reports that a major Labour donor complains that Jeremy Corbyn is far too left-wing and he wants his money to be used to fund a new right-wing Labourish party.

Confused?

It's a good job Goldilocks stuck to tasting porridge and did not go into political punditry.

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

The plants seemed to shiver

My new job (three days per week) means I have to get up at 5 each morning and it is a long drive to get to the office - but the money is so good it is worth the effort.

Usually I stop half-way to stretch my legs.

And on one of these little walks I noticed this flower bed.

Keeping up a pretence that it is still summer.

And yet the morning was so chill that the plants seemed to shiver.

A couple more weeks and the show will be blackened with frost.

The other two days a week I work for Alec Nussbaum (not the Institute).  Although I suspect that it is not Alec Nussbaum who is paying me.  But over the last few years I have never been really sure who is paying me.

Integrity and high ethical standards

I find the "revelations" about David Cameron today very encouraging:  http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/21/david-cameron-pig-head-lord-ashcroft-unofficial-biography-drug-taking-claims

Unlike the sleazy easy-access for rich donors under New Labour, David Cameron said NO when Lord Ashcroft tried to call in favours.

All parties need to support him at this moment, as this is a valuable step in the clean-up of British politics.

I would like to see Jeremy Corbyn giving the Prime Minister credit for not giving Lord Ashcroft a place in the executive, when the temptation to do so must have been very strong.

Personally I have never been happy over Lord Ashcroft's big donations to the party as I feared he would call in the favours at some point.

I was wrong in my suspicions and I should have trusted David Cameron more - he has proved he has integrity and high ethical standards.

As for what happens at university, we have all done stupid things in our younger days. 

And having seen Isabel Oakeshott on Channel 4 News, why was she not challenged over her slap-dash research?  Presumably the Piers Gaveston society had other members she could have done some fact-checking with?  Or was she uninterested in attempting corroboration because she suspected the story was false?

Red Tory

On Sunday Politics Arthur Scargill attacked Jeremy Corbyn for being too right-wing:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b019cdmh/episodes/player

He virtually called him a red Tory.

Earlier on the Andrew Marr Show Justine Greening described the Corbyn plan to renationalise the railways as "an ideological joyride":  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0080bbs

Turkey is a booming economy with strong cultural, linguistic and ethnic links with Syria and Iraq

Abdel Bari Atwan was wrong to blame the West for messing up countries in the Middle East on Dateline London earlier today:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m93g

The United Kingdom ruled Iraq for less than ten years, and did not rule Syria at all.

For centuries, until 1918, the imperial power in the region was Turkey.

Turkey is a booming economy with strong cultural, linguistic and ethnic links with Syria and Iraq, and is a safe haven by any standards.

If refugees pass through Turkey on their way to somewhere else the moment they leave Turkish territory they have ceased to be refugees and asylum seekers and have become economic migrants.

And thank goodness for Alex Deane providing some much-needed balance to the programme.