Guardian

Has The Guardian become the most boring newspaper in Britain?

Formulaic, constipated with outdated views, dull.

It is also becoming annoyingly repetitive (for instance, the Owen Jones article published today about the Spanish elections is identical to the Owen Jones article published a while back on the Greek elections - presumably he did a find-and-replace check substituting the word "Spain" for "Greece").

I would stop buying it except that we need a thick liner to the cat's litter tray.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk

God Bless The Prince of Wales.

I was glad to read that Prince Charles is scrutinising "secret" activity by the government:  http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/15/revealed-prince-charles-has-received-confidential-cabinet-papers-for-decades

The question:  Who will watch the watchers?

The answer:  HRH The Prince of Wales.

Otherwise those people (all parties) will get away with murder.

Of course, they hate it.  The politicians cannot stand the idea that there is an institution that is more important than they are.  An institution that prevents them assuming complete power over us.

I saw this headline and said to myself:  God Bless The Prince of Wales.

His body language was at variance with his statements

 
On Channel 4 News this evening "entertainer" Tinie Tempah (Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu) was interviewed by Krishnan Guru-Murthy.  

Mr Okogwu, answering a very leading question from Mr Guru-Murthy, agreed that his immigrant background meant that he had a very strong work ethic.

And yet his body language was at variance with his statements.

All the time he was praising the work ethic of immigrants he was touching his chin and looking to the right.

And I thought:  you lying toad.

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

Pass the sick-bag

In the Left-Wing Luvvie Slot on the Andrew Marr Show this morning (presented by Emily Maitlis) has-been singer Chrissie Hynde actually name-checked Angela Eagle.

You couldn't make it up.

Pass the sick-bag, as they say in elderly Conservative circles.

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

Donald Trump has done us a favour

British politicians need to be careful about the abuse they are hurling at Donald Trump.

He could well be next American President.

In the early 1990s there were those around John Major who attempted to interfere in the American election on the side of George Bush senior, and Clinton was so enraged that Anglo-American relations suffered as a result.

And Donald Trump is quite right to say that there are parts of London where people do not feel safe - I was born in Weedington Road in Kentish Town and I definitely do not feel safe going back there.

Would any police feel safe going onto Broadwater Farm Estate even today?

And if the streets of London are so safe why did former Labour Minister Harriet Harman have to wear a flak jacket when walking (with a police guard) in Peckham High Street http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/1583485/Harriet-Harman-in-stab-vest-for-Peckham-walk.html

The problem with idiots such as David Cameron and Boris Johnson is that they have NO IDEA what it is like to live surrounded by Muslims.

As someone who as a teenager grew up in the Dallow Road area of Luton, I can advise you that living among Pakistani-heritage people is an extremely unpleasant and unsafe experience.

Donald Trump has done us a favour by drawing attention to a serious problem that hoity-toity stuck up British politicians are too grand and important to bother themselves with.

Obviously the American election is nothing to do with me.

I am not American and I do not have a vote.

But for what it's worth, this blog supports Donald Trump for USA President.

The minimum wage has now become the average wage

On Sunday Politics (Yorkshire and Lincolnshire) there was a report from Boston where migrant labour has led to local wage rates plummeting:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01hq1h6

They actually said the minimum wage has now become the average wage.

If you increase the supply of labour the price of labour will fall.

Equally, if you stop the supply of labour the price of labour will rise.

Rivers of blood, predicted as far back as 1968

Leytonstone tube stabbing is a terrorist "incident" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35018789

Rivers of blood, predicted as far back as 1968.

Labour retains a safe Labour seat.

Big deal

Big effing deal, as some would say.

And yet the Corbyn supporters are cockahoop - exultant and triumphant and talking about new paradigms.

What we signed up to with the vote earlier this week

On Dateline London the discussion, inevitably, was about Syria.

There seemed to be serious misconceptions about the nature of "Islamic State" and the reasons why the United Kingdom has joined the onslaught against the evil organisation.

Since Hiroshima the unstated principle of Western foreign policy has been that any attack by a non-Western enemy upon a Western nation will result in overwhelming, indiscriminate and terrifying punishment.

Ho Chi Minh defies America? - hundreds of thousands of yellow people are killed and south east Asia is bombed back to the stone age.

Saddam Hussein threatens the West - hundreds of thousands of brown people are killed, Hussein is hanged, and Iraq is comprehensively trashed.

Muammar Gaddafi sponsors terrorism in the West - Libya gets a beating and Gaddafi is killed and thrown on a rubbish heap (metaphorically).

There is no "after plan" to any of these scenarios.

You threaten the West and you will get a beating.

I have doubts about the effectiveness of this policy.  I have doubts about the morality of this policy.  But it is what we signed up to with the vote earlier this week.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m93g

The vote in favour of military action was a mistake

The Oldham by-election was a referendum on the House of Commons vote to join in the Syrian war.

Don't give me all the guff about the polls saying public opinion is in support of the war.

Effectively you had the immigrant community in Oldham combining with the ordinary voters (of all parties) and the core 2010 Labour vote to elect the Labour candidate because Labour was (on the whole) the party that said no to the war.

This is problematic for Conservatives such as myself who think the vote in favour of military action was a mistake.

One does not want to side with the "terrorist sympathisers" of the Labour party.  Still less does one want to encourage in any way the Muslim community.  And so the only option is to remain, on the whole, silent.

But the war is a mistake. 

And I was appalled watching the debate to hear speaker after speaker advise we should let in more Syrians.

The terrorism in Paris and now in America was a result of the failure of multiculturism (the terrorists were from local immigrant communities).

And yet we are being advised that the answer to the failure of multiculturalism is yet more multiculturalism.

I'm afraid the proponents of multiculturalism are fanatics.

The proponents of multiculturalism are insane.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35014665

The "anti-bullying" campaigning of Mr Johnson

One can understand that Ray Johnson, in coping with the suicide of his son Elliott Johnson, should work through the anger stage of his grief and hit out in all directions in an effort to relieve the pain he is feeling.

But increasingly the "anti-bullying" campaigning of Mr Johnson in itself amounts to bullying:  http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/03/tory-bullying-claims-cameron-distance-youth-group

And why is Mr Johnson trying to pre-empt the findings of the inquest into Elliott Johnson's suicide?

Why is he so desperate (because he sounds increasingly desperate) to be judge and jury in the case and to have "guilt" safely apportioned before the Coronor has given his opinion?

This doesn't look right.

Conservative politics at the youth stage is trivial

I am sad Grant Shapps has resigned:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34952981

For the record, I first joined the Conservative Party age 16, first started going to meetings age 14, first self-identified as a Conservative age 10 (in a mildly Labour-voting family living in Dallow Ward in Luton).

In all the time I have been involved with the Conservative Party I have never experienced any bullying or seen any bullying of others.

I am sorry for the parents of the person who committed suicide, but I think they should stop blaming the Conservative party and look for other reasons.

A young man does not casually commit suicide.  There would have been indications beforehand that his mind was disturbed, and surely his parents would have noticed those.  Certainly one would not expect a young man to commit suicide for trivial reasons.

Because Conservative politics at the youth stage is trivial.  It is more a social club than a political movement.  There are no high stakes, there are no life-or-death issues, there are no all-or-nothing moments.

There is nothing to be gained from rising to the top of Conservative Future - most past National Chairmen have gone nowhere, whereas David Cameron has got to Prime Minister without even being a member.

I did meet obnoxious people when I was involved in Conservative youth politics - and all I did was leave that branch and join a neighbouring branch.

Things are different where real power is concerned.  I note that Wes Streeting MP complains in this article about bullying within the Labour Parliamentary Party:  https://www.facebook.com/wesstreetingmp/posts/899934880056082  We know that Gordon Brown bullied the staff who worked for him, pushing people off chairs, using mobile phones as missiles to throw at people etc.

But no "young" Conservative has any real power, and no-one takes young Conservatives seriously, not even other young Conservatives.

The Andrew Marr Show this morning featured American actor Tom Hanks

The left-wing luvvie slot on the Andrew Marr Show this morning featured American actor Tom Hanks:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0080bbs  (he told us about his admiration for Hilary Clinton).

Earlier in the newspaper review one of the guests was liberal American author Stanley B. Greenberg whose latest book is America Ascendant (self-described completely without irony as "A Revolutionary Nation’s Path to Addressing Its Deepest Problems and Leading the 21st Century" and supposedly about how liberalism is now triumphant in the USA):  http://us.macmillan.com/americaascendant/stanleybgreenberg

I am afraid this morning's Andrew Marr Show, with its self-satisfied liberal Americans and lickspittal Scottish groupie was so odious and repulsive I felt nauseated.

It was like that scene in the Aviator when the young Howard Hughes goes to a meal with the Hepburns and experiences rich liberal Americans, wallowing in the vulgar fatness of wealth in a way only liberal Americans can manage, showing off and admiring each other and announcing with confidence "We are all socialists here":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z1pPyarKhA

I am listening to the Ryan Adams cover of Taylor Swift's 1989:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcJ_ECyEK4I&index=1&list=PLNylmjSqT6s2580qPCToutMAUDvD4_wxX

What would happen if Apple were given a confidential commission

I have only had my iPhone 6S for a few weeks but already I feel I cannot do without it.

It is so well designed and easy to use.

And it makes me wonder what the world would look like if Apple were to design more elements of our life.

What would an iCar look like?  Or an iSchool?  Or even an iSupermarket.

And whether Apple could tackle institutions and organisations.

For instance, Conservative Future will need a relaunch following the takeover by Central Office.

What would happen if Apple were given a confidential commission to create a new Conservative youth movement - cool and shiny in design and appearance, completely digitalised, irresistible to young people aged 16 to 24 (but no tinkering with policy please - we need to reconfirm Conservative values and British national identity).

John McDonnell has given a speech

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell has given a speech this week:  text of speech

Talking about the 1950s and 1960s he asks the question:  "...why is it that so many things we took for granted back then are no longer available to our children’s generation?"

He has not yet realised that open door immigration is incompatible with a welfare state (including health care, education, unemployment benefit, social housing, public transport, public libraries etc) paid for out of general taxation.

Huge increases year on year in the population (and so in the numbers of claimants) reduces the amount of welfare available.

The only way to maintain 1960s levels of welfare with 21st century levels of immigration is to have huge rises in taxation to keep step with the rises in immigration.  As the taxation paid by post-1997 immigrants does not cover the social benefits they consume (and cannot do so, since the whole point of importing cheapo immigrants is that they are paid minimal amounts of money and so do not pay much in the way of tax) this must mean that non-immigrants must subsidise the social consumption of immigrants.  This social-economic model is not fair nor is it sustainable.

Mr McDonnell goes on to say "...we need government to understand and accept the strategic role it has to play in our new economy... a process that will see us work with businesses, entrepreneurs, scientists, trade unions and wider civil society to shape the economy of the future".

This sounds like the Little Neddies that operated under the umbrella of the National Economic Development Council of the 1960s and 1970s.

Perhaps Mr McDonnell should be reminded of Enoch Powell's speech to the South Kensington Young Conservatives on 30th November 1970:  "You can neither intervene, not withdraw from intervention, by half-measures".

The EU has become a belief system, a religion, an ideology worshipped for its own sake

On Dateline London earlier today the Belgian-French journalist Marc Roche talked about the Schengen Area with such fanatical insistence that one doubted his rationality.

Increasingly I am of the opinion that we are not dealing with normal people when considering EU enthusiasts.

The EU has become a belief system, a religion, an ideology worshipped for its own sake not for any benefits it might bring.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06q6yxz

John Reid (former Labour Home Secretary) is of the opinion that the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn is incompetent:  https://www.politicshome.com/party-politics/articles/story/former-blair-minister-lashes-out-corbyn-and-incompetent-labour

Our Lady of the Holy Souls.