"...what I thought of at that moment as the abominable conditions of some modern English hospitals - the noise, the cruelty, the indifference, the uneatable food, the petty tyranny. If this was enlightenment and reform, what must eighteenth-century Bedlam have been like? Of course, my pen was running away with me..."
Monday, August 31, 2015
The banners are a publicity stunt
Public emoting employed by London Mayor candidate Sadiq Khan MP. Of course he does not put forward any suggestions of his own. Merely states that other politicians should pay attention.
Let us pay attention to the images he broadcasts.
They are banners on display at football grounds in Germany "welcoming" refugees.
Germany is a German-speaking country, and yet the banners are in English. Many Germans understand English of course. But if these banners were genuine we would expect them to be in German would we not?
They cannot be intended for the actual refugees themselves as they are penniless refugees unable to afford the price of entry to expensive football games.
Therefore we must assume that the banners are a publicity stunt by the Germans aimed at the international media and not a spontaneous reflection of popular German opinion.
Ah, but the Germans are "taking in" 800,000 refugees the left will tell you.
Can we see some assessment as to which country, Germany or the United Kingdom, is doing more to help refugees from troubled countries around the world.
Not just the banner waving and the politicians emoting.
But whether Germany is meeting its commitment to foreign aid as a proportion of their national budget.
And can we have a commitment that the 800,000 "taken in" by Germany are going to remain in Germany and be supported by Germany and not given documents that allow them to travel around the EU.
Sunday, August 30, 2015
I am listening to Katherine Jenkins singing Laudate Dominum from Mozart's Vespers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J8rKIS-66E
Demand positions
One must commend the wisdom and courage of the Home Secretary Theresa May in thinking the unthinkable (free movement is not practical) and saying the unsayable (Schengen must be dropped): http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/news/uk_news/National/article1600186.ece
It is an old saying, but the difference between England and Continental Europe is that they believe in philosophy whereas we believe in common sense.
On The Papers on BBC News Channel this morning Alice Arnold ("broadcaster") said that Theresa May was "being tougher than Cameron".
On the same programme Mihir Bose (London Evening Standard) said "these could be demand positions on Europe".
They could also be demand positions on the Conservative leadership contest.
We know Dave is gone by end of 2019 latest.
We know that behaviour by potential candidates during the European Referendum is going to determine, largely, who wins the leadership (no open Europhile is ever going to get the top job - I would rather the party destroyed itself than fall into the hands of a Ken Clarke).
We know that if Labour opts for Corbyn they are out of it for ten years or so and our candidate will sail through the 2020 general election, whoever we choose.
So who better to back than Theresa May? We have not yet seen the full range of choices, but she is early into the race and by claiming the Eurosceptic ground is thus establishing a proprietary advantage. And for all of Dave's witterings about working time directives and the like, the EU referendum will be enthused by arguments about movement of people and the way in which Labour saddled us with EU agreements where we have destabilising amounts of immigrants arriving here.
It is an old saying, but the difference between England and Continental Europe is that they believe in philosophy whereas we believe in common sense.
On The Papers on BBC News Channel this morning Alice Arnold ("broadcaster") said that Theresa May was "being tougher than Cameron".
On the same programme Mihir Bose (London Evening Standard) said "these could be demand positions on Europe".
They could also be demand positions on the Conservative leadership contest.
We know Dave is gone by end of 2019 latest.
We know that behaviour by potential candidates during the European Referendum is going to determine, largely, who wins the leadership (no open Europhile is ever going to get the top job - I would rather the party destroyed itself than fall into the hands of a Ken Clarke).
We know that if Labour opts for Corbyn they are out of it for ten years or so and our candidate will sail through the 2020 general election, whoever we choose.
So who better to back than Theresa May? We have not yet seen the full range of choices, but she is early into the race and by claiming the Eurosceptic ground is thus establishing a proprietary advantage. And for all of Dave's witterings about working time directives and the like, the EU referendum will be enthused by arguments about movement of people and the way in which Labour saddled us with EU agreements where we have destabilising amounts of immigrants arriving here.
Corbynmania is Alice In Wonderland politics
I am quite prepared to believe that Corbynmania is Alice In Wonderland politics: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/29/tony-blair-corbynmania-alice-in-wonderland
But if we are living in an Alice In Wonderland world, who is Tweedledum and who is Tweedledee?
Step forward Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper.
But if we are living in an Alice In Wonderland world, who is Tweedledum and who is Tweedledee?
Step forward Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper.
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Why can Spain control its borders and Italy and Greece cannot?
Very interesting graph by the New York Times about the European "migrant" (by which they mean refugees, displaced persons and asylum seekers) crisis: https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/637677847046410240/photo/1
Note, the United Kingdom is shown as flat-lining, which is not accurate - in the last 12 months the United Kingdom took in 330,000 economic refugees, economic displaced persons and economic asylum seekers.
But notice that Spain is also flat-lining. And yet Spain is a front-line Mediterranean country. Why can Spain control its borders and Italy and Greece cannot?
More about the United Kingdom figures: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34071492
Note, the United Kingdom is shown as flat-lining, which is not accurate - in the last 12 months the United Kingdom took in 330,000 economic refugees, economic displaced persons and economic asylum seekers.
But notice that Spain is also flat-lining. And yet Spain is a front-line Mediterranean country. Why can Spain control its borders and Italy and Greece cannot?
More about the United Kingdom figures: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34071492
"Not one of them has mentioned immigration yet. Its the elephant in the room"
Fascinating Newsnight yesterday with James O'Brien and the Labour leadership: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b067xc46
Two focus groups gave their opinions on the candidates.
But as one participant said: "Not one of them has mentioned immigration yet. Its the elephant in the room".
The Labour leadership contenders are pretending that the number one issue that concerns the voters is of no importance.
Two focus groups gave their opinions on the candidates.
But as one participant said: "Not one of them has mentioned immigration yet. Its the elephant in the room".
The Labour leadership contenders are pretending that the number one issue that concerns the voters is of no importance.
This is of course a serious issue, but it is amusing nonetheless: http://www.derrynow.com/news/you-are-not-just-bigots-you-are-stupid-bigots-judge-tells-derry-men-who-thought-they-were-abusing-an-orange-parade-only-to-discover-it-was-the-salvation-army/38789?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=article_share&utm_medium=web
Is there no limit to the stupidity of the left? (Sinn Fein or Páirtí na nOibrithe is a Marxist party).
Is there no limit to the stupidity of the left? (Sinn Fein or Páirtí na nOibrithe is a Marxist party).
The refugees, displaced people and asylum seekers of the world
Osmosis is the the movement of a weak solution to a strong solution through a semi-permiable membrane.
It is an elegant formula - the weak solution continues to flow through the membrane until the strong solution has been dilated to such an extent that there is no difference between the two.
We can adapt this principle to explain what is happening in terms of population movement between Europe and Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
The refugees / displaced people / asylum seekers from Asia, Africa and the Middle East will continue to flow through the semi-permeable borders of the EU until living conditions (in terms of food, safety, housing, education opportunities, employment opportunities etc) are equal.
It is not a case of "good" Germany taking 800,000 or 8 million or 80 million in one year then saying that's it, we've done our bit, now be grateful and stop mentioning the Second World War.
While there is a marginal difference between Asia / Africa / Middle East on the one hand and the EU on the other the flow will continue - indeed must continue, and continue at an escalating rate.
Therefore unless the movement is checked we can expect ALL the populations of Asia, Africa and the Middle East to attempt to enter the EU until either living conditions in Asia, Africa and the Middle East have been massively increased or living conditions in the EU have been massively reduced so that there is no difference between the two.
Given the current state of Syria is there any reason to believe that all the 22 million people of that country would not seek to enter the EU if they could? And all the 30 million people in Afghanistan, 6 million people in Libya and 6 million people in Eritrea? And all the populations of war-torn countries next year, and the year after, and the year after that?
That is why those commentators who are using emotional arguments about refugees, displaced people and asylum seekers are profoundly dishonest and, in the true sense of the word, abusive people.
They need to say at what point the borders should be closed and the flow stopped. Or if they do not believe the borders should ever be closed and the flow ever stopped they need to be honest enough to say that also. What we cannot have is the vague implication that the flow will stop of its own accord, because it will not.
And those commentators who believe in completely open borders need to be honest enough to explain what that will mean in terms of increased competition for finite resources (medical care, education places, housing) and the impact it is going to have on everyone's way of life in terms of social cohestion, commitment to democracy, respect for western society etc.
Because the inevitability of unchecked global osmosis means that our society is not going to stay the way it is now - we will be forced to share everything (everything note) we have with the refugees, displaced people and asylum seekers of the world, all of them, until either they become like us or we become like them.
This may well be a right and honourable path to follow, but can we please have the electorate informed of what is happening so that they can make a proper democratic choice without the emotional blackmail that is being peddled on programmes such as Dateline London.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m93g
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4515049.ece
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21662597-asylum-seekers-economic-migrants-and-residents-all-stripes-fret-over-their-place-looking?zid=309&ah=80dcf288b8561b012f603b9fd9577f0e
It is an elegant formula - the weak solution continues to flow through the membrane until the strong solution has been dilated to such an extent that there is no difference between the two.
We can adapt this principle to explain what is happening in terms of population movement between Europe and Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
The refugees / displaced people / asylum seekers from Asia, Africa and the Middle East will continue to flow through the semi-permeable borders of the EU until living conditions (in terms of food, safety, housing, education opportunities, employment opportunities etc) are equal.
It is not a case of "good" Germany taking 800,000 or 8 million or 80 million in one year then saying that's it, we've done our bit, now be grateful and stop mentioning the Second World War.
While there is a marginal difference between Asia / Africa / Middle East on the one hand and the EU on the other the flow will continue - indeed must continue, and continue at an escalating rate.
Therefore unless the movement is checked we can expect ALL the populations of Asia, Africa and the Middle East to attempt to enter the EU until either living conditions in Asia, Africa and the Middle East have been massively increased or living conditions in the EU have been massively reduced so that there is no difference between the two.
Given the current state of Syria is there any reason to believe that all the 22 million people of that country would not seek to enter the EU if they could? And all the 30 million people in Afghanistan, 6 million people in Libya and 6 million people in Eritrea? And all the populations of war-torn countries next year, and the year after, and the year after that?
That is why those commentators who are using emotional arguments about refugees, displaced people and asylum seekers are profoundly dishonest and, in the true sense of the word, abusive people.
They need to say at what point the borders should be closed and the flow stopped. Or if they do not believe the borders should ever be closed and the flow ever stopped they need to be honest enough to say that also. What we cannot have is the vague implication that the flow will stop of its own accord, because it will not.
And those commentators who believe in completely open borders need to be honest enough to explain what that will mean in terms of increased competition for finite resources (medical care, education places, housing) and the impact it is going to have on everyone's way of life in terms of social cohestion, commitment to democracy, respect for western society etc.
Because the inevitability of unchecked global osmosis means that our society is not going to stay the way it is now - we will be forced to share everything (everything note) we have with the refugees, displaced people and asylum seekers of the world, all of them, until either they become like us or we become like them.
This may well be a right and honourable path to follow, but can we please have the electorate informed of what is happening so that they can make a proper democratic choice without the emotional blackmail that is being peddled on programmes such as Dateline London.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m93g
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4515049.ece
http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21662597-asylum-seekers-economic-migrants-and-residents-all-stripes-fret-over-their-place-looking?zid=309&ah=80dcf288b8561b012f603b9fd9577f0e
She could have been talking about Dateline London itself
"It's totally corrupt" wailed Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on Dateline London this morning.
She could have been talking about Dateline London itself, since the discussion on migration was completely one-sided and promulgated an extreme "everyone must be given access, Western people are all guilty" view.
No mention that the United Kingdom has already taken a record amount of economic migrants over the last 12 months.
No attempt to present any other side to the issue.
You NEVER see a journalist sympathetic to UKIP featured on the programme and yet UKIP won the United Kingdom EU elections and in terms of EU representation Nigel Farage is the British Prime Minister.
I think my patience with the BBC is running out.
The bad things (especially political bias, but also Andrew Marr's luvvie sofa and, less seriously, the endless exposure of the smug and odious Stephen Fry) outweigh the good things.
Certainly I want to see Dateline London taken off the air.
And I want to see the government move forward with serious reforms of the BBC - after Dateline London this morning I would be happy to see the BBC reformed out of existence.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m93g
She could have been talking about Dateline London itself, since the discussion on migration was completely one-sided and promulgated an extreme "everyone must be given access, Western people are all guilty" view.
No mention that the United Kingdom has already taken a record amount of economic migrants over the last 12 months.
No attempt to present any other side to the issue.
You NEVER see a journalist sympathetic to UKIP featured on the programme and yet UKIP won the United Kingdom EU elections and in terms of EU representation Nigel Farage is the British Prime Minister.
I think my patience with the BBC is running out.
The bad things (especially political bias, but also Andrew Marr's luvvie sofa and, less seriously, the endless exposure of the smug and odious Stephen Fry) outweigh the good things.
Certainly I want to see Dateline London taken off the air.
And I want to see the government move forward with serious reforms of the BBC - after Dateline London this morning I would be happy to see the BBC reformed out of existence.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m93g
Friday, August 28, 2015
Frank Field MP is worth listening to - here he is on the World At One: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p030zjd7
Justin Forsyth works for a tainted politically-biased "charity" and so his views are suspect.
Justin Forsyth works for a tainted politically-biased "charity" and so his views are suspect.
Fit and healthy men
Report on Channel 4 News about Eritreans "fleeing" Eritrea: http://www.channel4.com/news/africas-north-korea-why-do-people-flee-eritrea
And yet the men shown on the film seemed fit and healthy. They were not disabled, or chronically short-sighted, or wearing incontinence clothing. They were fit and healthy men.
So why are they "fleeing" across continents?
Why are they not doing what men and women should do when faced with an oppressive regime that is terrorising them - why are they not taking to the hills, organising themselves into a free force and fighting against tyranny to bring democracy and human rights to their fellow citizens?
When the Germans dropped millions of bombs on London in 1940, creating a terror far worse than anything in Syria, did the population of London run away or did they fight back, young and old, in every way possible?
When the Germans invaded and occupied France did the French people simply accept this or did they fight back with the Free French forces and the Resistance?
When the German grip on Poland (a reign of terror if ever there was one) weakened in 1944 did the population of Warsaw use the opportunity to commission people smugglers to get themselves out, or did they take part in an uprising?
Why are the Eritreans and the Syrians and the North Africans, all those fit and healthy men and women able to walk hundreds of miles towards the bright lights of the West, why are they incapable of taking the necessary action to free their own countries?
Or as young and middle-aged men and women are they simply inadequate failures, incapable of organising themselves and building their own future?
And yet the men shown on the film seemed fit and healthy. They were not disabled, or chronically short-sighted, or wearing incontinence clothing. They were fit and healthy men.
So why are they "fleeing" across continents?
Why are they not doing what men and women should do when faced with an oppressive regime that is terrorising them - why are they not taking to the hills, organising themselves into a free force and fighting against tyranny to bring democracy and human rights to their fellow citizens?
When the Germans dropped millions of bombs on London in 1940, creating a terror far worse than anything in Syria, did the population of London run away or did they fight back, young and old, in every way possible?
When the Germans invaded and occupied France did the French people simply accept this or did they fight back with the Free French forces and the Resistance?
When the German grip on Poland (a reign of terror if ever there was one) weakened in 1944 did the population of Warsaw use the opportunity to commission people smugglers to get themselves out, or did they take part in an uprising?
Why are the Eritreans and the Syrians and the North Africans, all those fit and healthy men and women able to walk hundreds of miles towards the bright lights of the West, why are they incapable of taking the necessary action to free their own countries?
Or as young and middle-aged men and women are they simply inadequate failures, incapable of organising themselves and building their own future?
Expressive, sonorous, achiving full stature and maturity
I have always regarded Nick Jonas as flim-flam, not worth a second's serious consideration.
But this has made me think again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paQx8cBxBjg and again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5AQWOeCUho
Expressive, sonorous, achiving full stature and maturity.
But this has made me think again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paQx8cBxBjg and again https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5AQWOeCUho
Expressive, sonorous, achiving full stature and maturity.
You both need to take responsibility
Paul Flynn MP is absolutely right, the raising of false hope is directly contributing to the tragic fate of migrants.
Therefore individuals such as Owen Jones (Guardian) and Alan Travis (Guardian) have direct responsibility for the asphyxiation of the 71 unidentified migrants in the back of a van on the side of a road in Austria.
The deaths of thousands and thousands of migrants is an international crime for which, in the fullness of time, one hopes there will be arrests and trials and punishments (long heavy punishments one hopes).
However it is not just the people smugglers and other direct enablers who are guilty.
Just as someone who shouts "fire" in a crowded cinema is responsible in law for the deaths of those trampled to death in the subsequent stampeded, so those liberal-left voices saying migrants should be allowed to enter the EU and indeed enter the United Kingdom must also share responsibility for the deaths that subsequently ensue from the mass migration across EU borders.
Let me talk directly to Mr Jones and Mr Travis:
Sirs, in the Hyza refrigeration van that contained the 71 suffocated and decomposing bodies of migrants there were the remains of a two-year-old girl. By encouraging the idea of open-door immigration into the EU ("We need the west to take responsibility for disaster zones it helped create, like Libya and Iraq") you are directly responsible for the death of this little girl. Had she and her family remained in a refugee camp she would no doubt have grown up in a limited, boring and hard environment but at least she would have been alive.
You helped encourage her family to push into the EU by whatever means possible in the hope of "a better future".
You both need to take responsibility for ending this poor little life.
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Alan Travis is the Lord Halifax of our time
Let's give up says the Guardian's Alan Travis (and all the Labour leadership candidates) regarding immigration: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/27/migration-figures-what-do-the-numbers-really-mean?CMP=share_btn_tw
Good job we didn't have to rely on Alan Travis and his ilk in 1940 - he would have opened the doors and waved the Germans in.
Alan Travis is the Lord Halifax of our time.
Appeaser, coward, elitist establishment fixer.
Good job we didn't have to rely on Alan Travis and his ilk in 1940 - he would have opened the doors and waved the Germans in.
Alan Travis is the Lord Halifax of our time.
Appeaser, coward, elitist establishment fixer.
They are giving the country away
It pains me to say this, but a Conservative government is no better than Labour when it comes to enforcing the public will over immigration.
They are giving the country away.
http://www.sunnation.co.uk/im-not-allowed-to-say-it-but-migrants-are-swamping-the-uk/?CMP=spklr-_-Editorial-_-TWITTER-_-SunPolitics-_-20150827-_-Politics-_-228406375
Someone, somewhere, needs to be given the sack.
And I think it needs to be Dave.
As the Norwegian saying goes, a rotten fish stinks from the head downwards.
They are giving the country away.
http://www.sunnation.co.uk/im-not-allowed-to-say-it-but-migrants-are-swamping-the-uk/?CMP=spklr-_-Editorial-_-TWITTER-_-SunPolitics-_-20150827-_-Politics-_-228406375
Someone, somewhere, needs to be given the sack.
And I think it needs to be Dave.
As the Norwegian saying goes, a rotten fish stinks from the head downwards.
Point out to a Conservative government the bleedin' obvious
Why does it take a Labour MP (a LABOUR MP to use Kinnockian histrionic emphasis) to point out to a Conservative government the bleedin' obvious: https://twitter.com/frankfieldteam
Mr Brokenshire and Ms May need to reconsider their position in the light of the latest immigration figures.
Another unfunny comedian
Another unfunny comedian giving us the benefit of his political analysis: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/27/how-will-labour-top-losing-the-election-by-losing-its-own-leadership-contest?CMP=twt_gu
Despite the branding that describes him as "Scottish" Frankie Boyle is both Irish and a republican, and therefore we must assume he has been brought up to hate English people.
I would prefer the media not to give this person any further platform to air his views and certainly I do not want to see him sitting on Andrew Marr's sofa.
Despite the branding that describes him as "Scottish" Frankie Boyle is both Irish and a republican, and therefore we must assume he has been brought up to hate English people.
I would prefer the media not to give this person any further platform to air his views and certainly I do not want to see him sitting on Andrew Marr's sofa.
India is storming ahead as the world's third biggest economy
If India is storming ahead as the world's third biggest economy is it unreasonable to expect economic migration from India to the United Kingdom to come to a complete stop and indeed to go in reverse (perhaps we could prod a few Indian-born bottoms so that they move towards the departure lounge at Heathrow): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-34063295
And as India is growing economically can they please start taking in refugees from Pakistan, Iraq and Syria.
And as India is growing economically can they please start taking in refugees from Pakistan, Iraq and Syria.
Immigration STILL rising
How on earth is immigration STILL rising: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34071492
It is not enough for the government to say that the figures are disappointing. We need to see changes in the government, and if necessary a change of Home Secretary. Why on earth do ministers not have the character or the personality to ensure that policies are enforced?
Also note that non-EU immigration is HIGHER than EU immigration!
This indicates we have a government that is not in control of THE MAIN ISSUE THAT CONCERNS THE ELECTORATE.
Can we please have deterrent custodial sentences for students and others who overstay their visas - by deterrent I mean in excess of five years.
And why are so many Chinese people being allowed into the country? 89,000 in the last twelve months. We have ZERO obligation to allow Chinese migrants in (and China does not allow significant immigration into the People's Republic).
To say I feel pissed off by these immigration figures is an understatement.
It is not enough for the government to say that the figures are disappointing. We need to see changes in the government, and if necessary a change of Home Secretary. Why on earth do ministers not have the character or the personality to ensure that policies are enforced?
Also note that non-EU immigration is HIGHER than EU immigration!
This indicates we have a government that is not in control of THE MAIN ISSUE THAT CONCERNS THE ELECTORATE.
Can we please have deterrent custodial sentences for students and others who overstay their visas - by deterrent I mean in excess of five years.
And why are so many Chinese people being allowed into the country? 89,000 in the last twelve months. We have ZERO obligation to allow Chinese migrants in (and China does not allow significant immigration into the People's Republic).
To say I feel pissed off by these immigration figures is an understatement.
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
The government has lost control of immigration
In answer to this question asked by ITV This Morning I agree with Nigel Farage that the government has lost control of immigration.
Eight million foreign-born people is far too high. Ridiculously high and means the end of social cohesion and the end of any realistic chance to manage absorption and assimilation. Left unchecked it will result in the formation of ghettos and escalating rates of inter-communal violence.
I would like to see the Conservatives and UKIP work together to come up with imaginative and radical policies to reduce the numbers of foreign-born people in the United Kingdom.
If you break-up disapora communities you will reduce the "pull" factor for foreign migrants.
Especially I want the ending of "birthright citizenship" to be examined seriously: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-33962029
http://www.itv.com/thismorning
Is the Labour movement going into meltdown?
In his misery and despair Nick Cohen (Observer) turns on his own people and trashes his own political home: http://standpointmag.co.uk/node/6196/full
Is the Labour movement going into meltdown?
Some quotes:
Like many from the Left’s dark corners, Corbyn does not believe in the human rights of “us all”.
...a sickness on the Left has spread from the fringes to the mainstream…
The malaise on the modern Left becomes evident…
...the liberal Left announce their political correctness and seize on the smallest sexist or racist “gaffe” of their opponents.
…in Labour’s case the centre ground is as polluted as any derelict site.
…the hypocritical, and in my view despicable, strain of thought that Corbyn represents…
…the ugly turn much of left-wing thought has taken..
…Blair has discredited Blairism, and Corbyn’s rise is a reaction to his decline.
…Blair has destroyed his democratic “legacy” more thoroughly than his enemies ever could.
Unless Labour changes very fast and very soon, it will cease to be a force for good in the world.
Is the Labour movement going into meltdown?
Some quotes:
Like many from the Left’s dark corners, Corbyn does not believe in the human rights of “us all”.
...a sickness on the Left has spread from the fringes to the mainstream…
The malaise on the modern Left becomes evident…
...the liberal Left announce their political correctness and seize on the smallest sexist or racist “gaffe” of their opponents.
…in Labour’s case the centre ground is as polluted as any derelict site.
…the hypocritical, and in my view despicable, strain of thought that Corbyn represents…
…the ugly turn much of left-wing thought has taken..
…Blair has discredited Blairism, and Corbyn’s rise is a reaction to his decline.
…Blair has destroyed his democratic “legacy” more thoroughly than his enemies ever could.
Unless Labour changes very fast and very soon, it will cease to be a force for good in the world.
It is good that Burnham, Cooper and Kendall have this feeling of being dispossessed
The scandal over "entryism" into the Labour party continues: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34047788
Many people in Labour feel they are having their party taken away from them.
It is good that Burnham, Cooper and Kendall have this feeling of being dispossessed.
Because this is what the rest of us experienced when trying to oppose the "entryism" of mass immigration.
The post-war Labour party was built on entryism of Labour voters from third world countries, displacing the white working class and tipping the balance in the left's favour in many marginal constituencies.
If you questioned migrant entryism and gerrymandering the left screamed "racist" at you to close down discussion.
Now the left screams "Tory" at Burnham, Cooper and Kendall when they try to question what is happening.
The aim is different, but the weapons being used are the same.
Many people in Labour feel they are having their party taken away from them.
It is good that Burnham, Cooper and Kendall have this feeling of being dispossessed.
Because this is what the rest of us experienced when trying to oppose the "entryism" of mass immigration.
The post-war Labour party was built on entryism of Labour voters from third world countries, displacing the white working class and tipping the balance in the left's favour in many marginal constituencies.
If you questioned migrant entryism and gerrymandering the left screamed "racist" at you to close down discussion.
Now the left screams "Tory" at Burnham, Cooper and Kendall when they try to question what is happening.
The aim is different, but the weapons being used are the same.
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
A large percentage of the party is going to feel devastated...
Labour activist Luke Akehurst argues that we are just at the start of the battle for the Labour party: http://labourlist.org/2015/08/the-battle-for-labours-soul-this-leadership-election-is-the-start-of-that-battle-not-the-end-of-it/
This is so true.
There are years and years of infighting to come.
registering your core support – which Corbyn clearly excelled at...
Burnham believed to be running 4th in London, the region with the most votes...
Whoever wins, this has been such a polarising election for activists that a large percentage of the party is going to feel devastated...
The vitriol of the online debate – made easier because people are insulting strangers from behind the safety of a keypad – must not be allowed to poison the atmosphere of local branches and CLPs...
Accepting the result also doesn’t mean we have to allow the captain to carry on steering us towards an electoral iceberg...
This is so true.
There are years and years of infighting to come.
registering your core support – which Corbyn clearly excelled at...
Burnham believed to be running 4th in London, the region with the most votes...
Whoever wins, this has been such a polarising election for activists that a large percentage of the party is going to feel devastated...
The vitriol of the online debate – made easier because people are insulting strangers from behind the safety of a keypad – must not be allowed to poison the atmosphere of local branches and CLPs...
Accepting the result also doesn’t mean we have to allow the captain to carry on steering us towards an electoral iceberg...
Article in the Economist about how Schengen is tearing the EU apart: http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/08/economist-explains-18?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/whytheschengenagreementmightbeunderthreat
Schengen is not a sustainable policy and needs to be reviewed and replaced.
Schengen is not a sustainable policy and needs to be reviewed and replaced.
Monday, August 24, 2015
Chinese brands
With the fall in the price of many Chinese stocks there are presumably bargains to be had by United Kingdom companies wanting to snap up Chinese brands and enter the growing Chinese market: http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21662092-china-sneezing-rest-world-rightly-nervous-causes-and-consequences-chinas?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/thecausesandconsequencesofchinasmarketcrash
Hey, don't flatter yourself
Andy Burnham interviewed on Channel 4 News denied that "entryism" into the Labour party was a major issue, despite an upgrade in the crisis talks being held by acting Labour leader Harriet Harman: http://www.channel4.com/news/
Waffling around the subject, Mr Burnham tried to make out that the entryists were Conservatives.
This is of course a feint.
The "entryists" are not hundreds of thousands of Conservatives but hundreds of thousands of socialists. You know, the sort of people Labour is supposed to represent. Andy Burnham cannot actually attack all these genuine lefties, even though they are not voting for him, so he has to pretend that the problem is swarms of Conservatives.
I do not know any Conservatives who have registered to vote in the Labour election.
Conservatives I know are supremely indifferent to the Labour party.
Like Gabe Cash rebuffing Ray Tango in the famous shower scene, Conservatives can say to Andy Burnham Hey, don't flatter yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlFP7DfLma0
Waffling around the subject, Mr Burnham tried to make out that the entryists were Conservatives.
This is of course a feint.
The "entryists" are not hundreds of thousands of Conservatives but hundreds of thousands of socialists. You know, the sort of people Labour is supposed to represent. Andy Burnham cannot actually attack all these genuine lefties, even though they are not voting for him, so he has to pretend that the problem is swarms of Conservatives.
I do not know any Conservatives who have registered to vote in the Labour election.
Conservatives I know are supremely indifferent to the Labour party.
Like Gabe Cash rebuffing Ray Tango in the famous shower scene, Conservatives can say to Andy Burnham Hey, don't flatter yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlFP7DfLma0
The United Kingdom should insist on compensation
If the EU persists in attracting migrants through incompetent social engineering policies (the Schengen area for instance) the United Kingdom should insist on compensation for the cost of clearing up the chaos that is accumulating on our borders.
This view is crazy and uncosted: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/23/politics-migrants-europe-asylum
This view is crazy and uncosted: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/23/politics-migrants-europe-asylum
An immoral tax
Capital Gains Tax is an immoral tax and should be abolished.
It would be a key area in defining Conservative policy compared to a Labour party lurching to the left.
https://www.gov.uk/capital-gains-tax
It would be a key area in defining Conservative policy compared to a Labour party lurching to the left.
https://www.gov.uk/capital-gains-tax
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Tony Parsons: 'Corbyn will not be leading New Labour or Old Labour, just Dead Labour': http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/6602685/Tony-Parsons-says-Corbyn-will-lead-Dead-Labour.html?CMP=spklr-_-Editorial-_-TWITTER-_-SunPolitics-_-20150823-_-Politics-_-226338322
Economists are reported to be backing Jeremy Corbyn's economic ideas
Over forty economists are reported to be backing Jeremy Corbyn's economic ideas: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/22/jeremy-corbyn-economists-backing-anti-austerity-policies-corbynomics
They include David "Danny" Blanchflower who when asked by an audience of IFAs what investment he would recommend told them to invest in a stout stick with nails in the end since he believed that society would break down as the recession got ever nastier (actually the recession didn't get nastier - under Conservative guidance the recession has disappeared).
They include David "Danny" Blanchflower who when asked by an audience of IFAs what investment he would recommend told them to invest in a stout stick with nails in the end since he believed that society would break down as the recession got ever nastier (actually the recession didn't get nastier - under Conservative guidance the recession has disappeared).
Saturday, August 22, 2015
The most extraordinary act of self-harm ever committed by a major British party
"...nightmare for Labour in which a mere 7 percent of its MPs positively support their leader" - John Rentoul writes about Jeremy Corbyn for Politico: http://www.politico.eu/article/corbyn-calamity-labour-leadership-race-uk-blair-hamas-murdoch/
"His election as leader would be the most extraordinary act of self-harm ever committed by a major British party, and will scar British politics for decades" - my goodness, those are harsh words.
Things are being said in this leadership campaign that cannot be unsaid.
No mention about all the money the new supporters are bringing into the Labour party - 300,000 newbies paying at least £3 each means Corbyn has brought a million pounds into Labour.
"His election as leader would be the most extraordinary act of self-harm ever committed by a major British party, and will scar British politics for decades" - my goodness, those are harsh words.
Things are being said in this leadership campaign that cannot be unsaid.
No mention about all the money the new supporters are bringing into the Labour party - 300,000 newbies paying at least £3 each means Corbyn has brought a million pounds into Labour.
Vote Burnham for Leader and Vote Watson for Deputy
"Labour has changed for ever" the noble Lord Prescott tells us via the Sunday Mirror: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/john-prescott-labour-needs-pm-6301908#ICID=sharebar_twitter
A lot of non-sequential comments followed by the advice Vote Burnham for Leader and Vote Watson for Deputy.
It is one blokey Labour establishment figure (handy with his fists) endorsing another blokey Labour establishment figure (nifty with a football) with fat bloke Tom Watson put on the slate 'cos he'll bring along his Drenge CDs.
I'm afraid this will not do for a modern political party that aspires to government.
We need an effective Opposition, not an Oasis tribute band.
A lot of non-sequential comments followed by the advice Vote Burnham for Leader and Vote Watson for Deputy.
It is one blokey Labour establishment figure (handy with his fists) endorsing another blokey Labour establishment figure (nifty with a football) with fat bloke Tom Watson put on the slate 'cos he'll bring along his Drenge CDs.
I'm afraid this will not do for a modern political party that aspires to government.
We need an effective Opposition, not an Oasis tribute band.
Ice-picks at dawn - the Labour purge is underway: http://newint.org/blog/2015/08/21/labour-purge-is-underway/
Are you or have you ever been...
Are you or have you ever been...
A truncated fragment
Incredibly hot day - the heat and humidity oppressive, the silence unnerving, the sense of presentiment prescient.
I parked in the village by the ancient coast (discernible by the land on one side of the road being lower than the other). I looked around the church, and photographed the exterior of two farmhouses. Then I turned my attention to the hill, and the trees at the summit.
Walking up the track my plan was to continue until challenged and told to clear off.
Eventually the manor house came into view. Pevsner says it is a truncated fragment and was originally three times larger. A rainwater head gives the date 1630.
Approaching the house I was challenged immediately.
Very elderly gentleman but active, moving quickly across the lawn.
I explained I had seen the church and wanted to look at the outside of the house.
He was very welcoming, pointing out the architectural details, the great blank wall where the rest of the house had originally stood, the magnificent chimney stacks. He apologised for his wife not being up (she was having a lie-down). He offered me a cup of tea.
One of the hottest days of the year, but I had the sense that summer was draining away.
Barry Sheerman MP said "it's a mess"
On Sky News earlier today reports of a Labour party "crisis" meeting next week to discuss the suspicion and uncertainly surrounding the validity of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of the Labour "selectorate".
Interviewed by Sky News, Barry Sheerman MP said "it's a mess" (has he told Harriet Harman it's a mess?).
Also interviewed, Stephen Bush (New Statesman) said about Andy Burnham "his campaign has been a disaster".
Interviewed by Sky News, Barry Sheerman MP said "it's a mess" (has he told Harriet Harman it's a mess?).
Also interviewed, Stephen Bush (New Statesman) said about Andy Burnham "his campaign has been a disaster".
Friday, August 21, 2015
Is he going to include the Conservative party in the apology?
Regarding Jeremy Corbyn's apology on behalf of the Labour party for the deception that led to the waging of the Iraq war, is he going to include the Conservative party in the apology?
We were deceived as well.
Indeed, New Labour would not have got the vote through without the lies told to the Conservative party.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/20/jeremy-corbyn-apologise-iraq-war-behalf-labour-leader
We were deceived as well.
Indeed, New Labour would not have got the vote through without the lies told to the Conservative party.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/20/jeremy-corbyn-apologise-iraq-war-behalf-labour-leader
Under Ms Harman's watch the Labour party has messed up
Channel 4 News this evening considered the supposed "infiltration" of the Labour party: http://www.channel4.com/news/
Acting Leader of the Labour party Harriet Harman has been touring broadcast studios today telling us that the Labour party's checking and vetting procedures are "rigorous, fair, robust" and there was nothing to worry about (the Burnham team had been threatening legal action).
However Cordelia Lynch on Channel 4 News revealed that only 50 people in the Labour party are doing the checking and vetting.
There are 600,000 members and registered supporters to check. There are 50 people doing the checking. Therefore each checker will have to process 12,000 individuals.
This is not really possible is it? Even as a rubber-stamping exercise it would be impossible. If each checker were to spend 20 minutes checking each member/registered supporter it would take 4,000 hours (or 333 days working 12 hours per day).
Therefore we must conclude that Harriet Harman is having us on.
The procedures are not rigorous, fair, and robust. They are not even flimsy token gestures. They are ridiculously inadequate.
Under Ms Harman's watch the Labour party has messed up.
Acting Leader of the Labour party Harriet Harman has been touring broadcast studios today telling us that the Labour party's checking and vetting procedures are "rigorous, fair, robust" and there was nothing to worry about (the Burnham team had been threatening legal action).
However Cordelia Lynch on Channel 4 News revealed that only 50 people in the Labour party are doing the checking and vetting.
There are 600,000 members and registered supporters to check. There are 50 people doing the checking. Therefore each checker will have to process 12,000 individuals.
This is not really possible is it? Even as a rubber-stamping exercise it would be impossible. If each checker were to spend 20 minutes checking each member/registered supporter it would take 4,000 hours (or 333 days working 12 hours per day).
Therefore we must conclude that Harriet Harman is having us on.
The procedures are not rigorous, fair, and robust. They are not even flimsy token gestures. They are ridiculously inadequate.
Under Ms Harman's watch the Labour party has messed up.
Is this not a chilling statement?
BBC News Channel has just shown Anita McVey interviewing James Bloodworth (Editor of Left Foot Forward) about the current purge in the Labour party.
James Bloodworth openly admitted there would be innocent casualties, and said they would be "regrettable".
Is this not a chilling statement?
Walter Duranty, when talking about Stalin's purges excused them on the grounds that "you cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs".
And why is Owen Jones not being challenged on his ambivalent support for the Labour party? - this is someone with an adulatory approach to Ken Loach (just quoting Ken Loach was enough to get Grace Coles expelled from the party).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2NnkN5Ng2g
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34014496
James Bloodworth openly admitted there would be innocent casualties, and said they would be "regrettable".
Is this not a chilling statement?
Walter Duranty, when talking about Stalin's purges excused them on the grounds that "you cannot make an omelet without breaking a few eggs".
And why is Owen Jones not being challenged on his ambivalent support for the Labour party? - this is someone with an adulatory approach to Ken Loach (just quoting Ken Loach was enough to get Grace Coles expelled from the party).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2NnkN5Ng2g
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34014496
I wonder if any journalist has the nerve to ask Jeremy Corbyn about the news North Korea is going onto a war footing: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-34013475
"It has asked MPs to go through lists"
On BBC News 24 this lunchtime presenter Anita McVey talked to BBC political editor Carole Walker about the Labour leadership contest and the number of members of the party being expelled for not being "Labour" enough.
Carole Walker said that the "review" process was being toughened up by the Labour party and said "It has asked MPs to go through lists".
This is very significant is it not?
As the MPs are almost entirely opposed to Jeremy Corbyn (to the point of threatening a coup if he is elected) it is not unreasonable to assume that these MPs going through lists are weeding out Corbynistas and looking indulgently on anyone who looks as if they might vote ABC (Anyone But Corbyn).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34013497
Carole Walker said that the "review" process was being toughened up by the Labour party and said "It has asked MPs to go through lists".
This is very significant is it not?
As the MPs are almost entirely opposed to Jeremy Corbyn (to the point of threatening a coup if he is elected) it is not unreasonable to assume that these MPs going through lists are weeding out Corbynistas and looking indulgently on anyone who looks as if they might vote ABC (Anyone But Corbyn).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34013497
A case study in why young Labour activists are supporting Jeremy Corbyn
"Not that I think my choices will matter much or be of
interest to anyone" says young Labour activist Calum Sherwood, writing about why he is voting for Jeremy Corbyn: http://calum-sherwood.tumblr.com/post/126998111544/how-im-voting-in-the-labour-leadership-election
Far from being of no interest, Mr Sherwood's views are a case study in why young Labour activists are supporting Jeremy Corbyn.
Note the extraneous information we are given - Geordie living in East London; socialist and vegetarian; work in education research; Labour CND exec committee; interest in LGBT voting records; outspoken support for Palestinian rights etc. I hope Mr Sherwood does not think I am being patronising when I say his adoption of causes and issues seems to be based on how cool and trendy they are in terms of lifestyle adornments, not on their intrinsic worth. And it is obvious that his support for Jeremy Corbyn fits this pattern of poseur politics (that sounds dreadfully dismissive I know, but I AM making a serious point).
Jeremy Corbyn is the political equivalent of the Super Dry brand - "designed but not designer", "faux-vintage and authentic", "the styling is done for you" (I am quoting Imogen Fox here).
In terms of the left-wing luvvies who sit on Andrew Marr's sofa on a Sunday morning Jeremy Corbyn is "the label most likely to be worn by a papped celebrity carrying a Starbucks".
We have seen the Labour leadership manifested as a war criminal (Blair).
We have seen the Labour leadership manifested as an incontinent spendthrift (Brown).
We are now about to see the Labour leadership manifested as a fashion icon (Corbyn).
Far from being of no interest, Mr Sherwood's views are a case study in why young Labour activists are supporting Jeremy Corbyn.
Note the extraneous information we are given - Geordie living in East London; socialist and vegetarian; work in education research; Labour CND exec committee; interest in LGBT voting records; outspoken support for Palestinian rights etc. I hope Mr Sherwood does not think I am being patronising when I say his adoption of causes and issues seems to be based on how cool and trendy they are in terms of lifestyle adornments, not on their intrinsic worth. And it is obvious that his support for Jeremy Corbyn fits this pattern of poseur politics (that sounds dreadfully dismissive I know, but I AM making a serious point).
Jeremy Corbyn is the political equivalent of the Super Dry brand - "designed but not designer", "faux-vintage and authentic", "the styling is done for you" (I am quoting Imogen Fox here).
In terms of the left-wing luvvies who sit on Andrew Marr's sofa on a Sunday morning Jeremy Corbyn is "the label most likely to be worn by a papped celebrity carrying a Starbucks".
We have seen the Labour leadership manifested as a war criminal (Blair).
We have seen the Labour leadership manifested as an incontinent spendthrift (Brown).
We are now about to see the Labour leadership manifested as a fashion icon (Corbyn).
Thursday, August 20, 2015
He just waffled about the process being conducted by experienced officials in the party
Ben Bradshaw MP (one of the candidates for Deputy Leader of the Labour party) rather gave the game away on Newsnight when he said he did not know why people were being expelled from the party: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk25
Kirsty Wark pressed him on the criteria being used, and he just waffled about the process being conducted by experienced officials in the party.
But of course, everyone in the Labour party is self-evidently a political being, and so it is inevitable that political choices are being made however impartially it might be dressed up.
Not since the days of the Witchfinder General has there been such terror stalking the land: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98gzk6VSzfU
Kirsty Wark pressed him on the criteria being used, and he just waffled about the process being conducted by experienced officials in the party.
But of course, everyone in the Labour party is self-evidently a political being, and so it is inevitable that political choices are being made however impartially it might be dressed up.
Not since the days of the Witchfinder General has there been such terror stalking the land: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98gzk6VSzfU
The purity of Labour dogma is obviously being policed
According to Channel 4 News this evening members of the Labour party are being purged and expelled simply for quoting Ken Loach (testimony from Grace Coles, interviewed on the programme): http://www.channel4.com/news/labour-supporters-purged-from-leadership-vote
This has of course happened before.
In 2005 the 82 year old Walter Wolfgang was manhandled from the Labour Party conference simply for heckling Jack Straw.
Ms Coles said she would never vote Labour again.
Also interviewed, Labour "adviser" John McTernan said that Jeremy Corbyn was not fit for political leadership.
The purity of Labour dogma is obviously being policed.
But quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
This has of course happened before.
In 2005 the 82 year old Walter Wolfgang was manhandled from the Labour Party conference simply for heckling Jack Straw.
Ms Coles said she would never vote Labour again.
Also interviewed, Labour "adviser" John McTernan said that Jeremy Corbyn was not fit for political leadership.
The purity of Labour dogma is obviously being policed.
But quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Wise words from Tim Montgomerie: http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/9611932/capitalisms-most-dangerous-enemies-are-on-the-right/
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
German policy towards migrants posing as "refugees" is not based on rational decision-making
Channel 4 News this evening had a report on migration into the EU, with the news that Germany is due to accept over 800,000 migrants this year.
The implication was made by an official from the United Nations that other countries should match Germany's "generosity".
It is important to realise that the migrant crisis in the EU is caused by the Schengen policy - without Schengen migrants would not travel to the EU as they would know they would not get any further than the border nations.
It is also important to understand that German policy towards migrants posing as "refugees" is not based on rational decision-making, and still less is it based on generosity. German policy is entirely warped by the memory of the German government (enthusiastically supported by the whole German people) in the years 1933 to 1945. German behaviour 1933 to 1945 was so atrocious that the shame of that experience makes rational decision-making towards non-Germans impossible. If the German government were even mildly unwelcoming towards non-Germans immediately there would be international screams of protest. "You see" the argument would go "these people have not changed. They are still evil Nazis. Their crimes still stink to high heaven. They are still the pariah nation in Europe, untouchable by good wholesome Europeans." This outcry would be so painful to German politicians that they will go to ANY lengths, however irrational, to avoid being compared to their 1933-45 forebears.
Thus we see migrants in Germany reaching 800,000 and perhaps doubling next year, and doubling again the year after that and so on and so forth.
That is an insane policy and not one the United Kingdom should emulate.
http://www.channel4.com/news/
More http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33972632
The implication was made by an official from the United Nations that other countries should match Germany's "generosity".
It is important to realise that the migrant crisis in the EU is caused by the Schengen policy - without Schengen migrants would not travel to the EU as they would know they would not get any further than the border nations.
It is also important to understand that German policy towards migrants posing as "refugees" is not based on rational decision-making, and still less is it based on generosity. German policy is entirely warped by the memory of the German government (enthusiastically supported by the whole German people) in the years 1933 to 1945. German behaviour 1933 to 1945 was so atrocious that the shame of that experience makes rational decision-making towards non-Germans impossible. If the German government were even mildly unwelcoming towards non-Germans immediately there would be international screams of protest. "You see" the argument would go "these people have not changed. They are still evil Nazis. Their crimes still stink to high heaven. They are still the pariah nation in Europe, untouchable by good wholesome Europeans." This outcry would be so painful to German politicians that they will go to ANY lengths, however irrational, to avoid being compared to their 1933-45 forebears.
Thus we see migrants in Germany reaching 800,000 and perhaps doubling next year, and doubling again the year after that and so on and so forth.
That is an insane policy and not one the United Kingdom should emulate.
http://www.channel4.com/news/
More http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33972632
Mr Blunkett told us that Leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn was very good at opposition, particularly opposition to his own party
On BBC News 24 this lunchtime Anita McVey described David Blunkett as a "heavyweight", which seemed apposite. In a short film Mr Blunkett told us that Leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn was very good at opposition, particularly opposition to his own party (that was a barbed comment). Political Editor Carole Walker, interviewed live and competing with the noise from a road digger, said that so far the interventions by Labour grandees were having little effect.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news
The Daily Record newspaper is now backing Corbyn: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/record-view-jeremy-corbyn-offers-6276844
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news
The Daily Record newspaper is now backing Corbyn: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/record-view-jeremy-corbyn-offers-6276844
We can go into the EU referendum with the political establishment divided
As a Conservative campaigning for a Corbyn win this is heartening news: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leadership-race-corbyn-win-is-done-deal-predicts-paddy-power-as-it-pays-out-on-bets-10461114.html
Perhaps we on the right should put up a banner "mission accomplished" like George W Bush did.
Now we can go into the EU referendum with the political establishment divided.
Perhaps we on the right should put up a banner "mission accomplished" like George W Bush did.
Now we can go into the EU referendum with the political establishment divided.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Ed Sheeran should be commended for his English patriotism: http://time.com/3993695/ed-sheeran-lion-newest-tattoo/
The "slanging match" between Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper
On Channel 4 News this evening reference was made to the "slanging match" between Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper in the Labour leadership contest: http://www.channel4.com/news/
Why have relations between the two candidates deteriorated so badly?
Is it possible that they had a secret agreement?
Perhaps that each would urge their supporters to give second preference votes to the other?
Is it possible that Yvette Cooper's team have delivered on that promise, and now learn that the Burnham team have not, and yet they cannot denounce the Burnham team because the deal was squalid and secret and would make everyone look bad if it came out?
The existing Labour party must have been canvassed by now - the only new canvassing is of the last-minute surge of supporters (widely assumed to be pro-Corbyn).
Has Burnham deviousness just scuppered the Cooper and Kendall teams?
Why have relations between the two candidates deteriorated so badly?
Is it possible that they had a secret agreement?
Perhaps that each would urge their supporters to give second preference votes to the other?
Is it possible that Yvette Cooper's team have delivered on that promise, and now learn that the Burnham team have not, and yet they cannot denounce the Burnham team because the deal was squalid and secret and would make everyone look bad if it came out?
The existing Labour party must have been canvassed by now - the only new canvassing is of the last-minute surge of supporters (widely assumed to be pro-Corbyn).
Has Burnham deviousness just scuppered the Cooper and Kendall teams?
Did Matthew Norman really call David Miliband "The threadbare sock puppet of Blairism" ?
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/if-you-believe-david-miliband-has-the-answer-for-labour-the-question-is-whats-wrong-with-you-10461122.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/if-you-believe-david-miliband-has-the-answer-for-labour-the-question-is-whats-wrong-with-you-10461122.html
Monday, August 17, 2015
Things must be getting serious in the Labour party for David Miliband to break his aloof, self-imposed silence
My goodness, things must be getting serious in the Labour party for David Miliband to break his aloof, self-imposed silence: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/17/jeremy-corbyn-liz-kendall-labour-leadership-david-miliband
"distance lends some clarity and perspective" says Miliband senior, although one suspects distance actually lends fuzziness and confusion.
"how to tackle the secular stagnation in median wages; how to redistribute power to cities to spread economic wealth; how to modernise the education curriculum for a creative age; how to build a secure, low-carbon European energy future; how to make the welfare state an effective springboard out of poverty; how to combat humanitarian catastrophe where it occurs and before it becomes an immigration crisis on the shores of Europe" - what a long list of questions, and no answers.
" I shall be casting my first and second preferences for them this week" - so he is still a member of the Labour party is he? Does he intend to return? Will we be seeing a post-exilic Miliband coterie arriving in Lyme Regis like James Duke of Monmouth in 1685?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/James_Scott,_Duke_of_Monmouth_and_Buccleuch_by_Jan_van_Wyck.jpg
"distance lends some clarity and perspective" says Miliband senior, although one suspects distance actually lends fuzziness and confusion.
"how to tackle the secular stagnation in median wages; how to redistribute power to cities to spread economic wealth; how to modernise the education curriculum for a creative age; how to build a secure, low-carbon European energy future; how to make the welfare state an effective springboard out of poverty; how to combat humanitarian catastrophe where it occurs and before it becomes an immigration crisis on the shores of Europe" - what a long list of questions, and no answers.
" I shall be casting my first and second preferences for them this week" - so he is still a member of the Labour party is he? Does he intend to return? Will we be seeing a post-exilic Miliband coterie arriving in Lyme Regis like James Duke of Monmouth in 1685?
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/James_Scott,_Duke_of_Monmouth_and_Buccleuch_by_Jan_van_Wyck.jpg
Apropos Ed Miliband's possible intervention, this made me laugh: https://twitter.com/Richard_Carr/status/633242423783759872/photo/1
Sunday, August 16, 2015
Gordon Brown's speech
I watched Gordon Brown's speech live on BBC News 24: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33950405
Presenter Maxine Mawhinney called it "rambling".
It was a clunking speech from a clunking performer.
You could see it had been written in a hurry as the imagery was hackneyed and unconvincing and the flow was stilted.
Were we really meant to believe that the non-Corbyn contenders are the heirs to Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi?
And what a nasty cheap shot to bracket Jeremy Corbyn with Hezbollah and Hamas.
I am a Conservative and have no political liking for any of the Labour leadership candidates.
I am more than ready to throw mud in their direction.
But I do not believe that Jeremy Corbyn is anti-semitic.
I say that as a friend of Israel (and someone quite happy to bless Israel).
I do think Jeremy Corbyn is too caught up in revolutionary socialist theory, and that leads him into awkward hypotheses, but this is all on an intellectual level - it is ridiculous to make inferences about anti-semiticism based on a superficial reading of what are quite dense revolutionary arguments.
Presenter Maxine Mawhinney called it "rambling".
It was a clunking speech from a clunking performer.
You could see it had been written in a hurry as the imagery was hackneyed and unconvincing and the flow was stilted.
Were we really meant to believe that the non-Corbyn contenders are the heirs to Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi?
And what a nasty cheap shot to bracket Jeremy Corbyn with Hezbollah and Hamas.
I am a Conservative and have no political liking for any of the Labour leadership candidates.
I am more than ready to throw mud in their direction.
But I do not believe that Jeremy Corbyn is anti-semitic.
I say that as a friend of Israel (and someone quite happy to bless Israel).
I do think Jeremy Corbyn is too caught up in revolutionary socialist theory, and that leads him into awkward hypotheses, but this is all on an intellectual level - it is ridiculous to make inferences about anti-semiticism based on a superficial reading of what are quite dense revolutionary arguments.
Gordon Brown is intervening in the Labour leadership election.
As if that went well in the Scottish referendum.
Presumably we are now going to see record surges in support for Jeremy Corbyn.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33950405
As if that went well in the Scottish referendum.
Presumably we are now going to see record surges in support for Jeremy Corbyn.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33950405
Saturday, August 15, 2015
The decline and fall of the Labour party
This is a very interesting look at the decline and fall of the Labour party: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/14/strange-death-labour-britain-liberal-britain
However there is no mention (because the left cannot admit it, even to themselves) of the role of immigration in destroying popular support for the party.
Multi-culturalism never achieved traction. The ordinary people were bludgeoned by the law into giving it lip service, but it was always destested. And yet even now the left is persisting with a pro-immigration stance that is destroying it ("They come for asylum and security and opportunity, and they are perfectly entitled to do so, if not by the law of the land then by the principles of justice and human decency").
However there is no mention (because the left cannot admit it, even to themselves) of the role of immigration in destroying popular support for the party.
Multi-culturalism never achieved traction. The ordinary people were bludgeoned by the law into giving it lip service, but it was always destested. And yet even now the left is persisting with a pro-immigration stance that is destroying it ("They come for asylum and security and opportunity, and they are perfectly entitled to do so, if not by the law of the land then by the principles of justice and human decency").
Friday, August 14, 2015
Demand that BME people pay their taxes
On the Today programme this morning an interesting piece on the way in which migrants disappear into the black economy: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qj9z
Yes, the rich need to pay their taxes.
But we also need to demand that BME people pay their taxes as well.
Yes, the rich need to pay their taxes.
But we also need to demand that BME people pay their taxes as well.
Thursday, August 13, 2015
An easy way the government can defuse the pressure of illegal migration
On Channel 4 News this evening there was a report on the "Jungle" at Calais, interviewing people who have a delusional idea of conditions in the United Kingdom and the welcome they are likely to receive.
Here is an easy way the government can defuse the pressure of illegal migration.
Send Information Officers from the British government into these informal gatherings of migrants (in Calais, Lampedusa, Kos etc) and explain to them that they are not wanted in the United Kingdom, and also explain the reasons why they are not wanted. Please stop all this treading on eggshells around this issue. The migrants are risking their lives in pursuit of a fantasy that does not exist nor could ever exist - therefore it is much kinder to tell them the truth before they risk life and limb.
http://www.channel4.com/news/
Here is an easy way the government can defuse the pressure of illegal migration.
Send Information Officers from the British government into these informal gatherings of migrants (in Calais, Lampedusa, Kos etc) and explain to them that they are not wanted in the United Kingdom, and also explain the reasons why they are not wanted. Please stop all this treading on eggshells around this issue. The migrants are risking their lives in pursuit of a fantasy that does not exist nor could ever exist - therefore it is much kinder to tell them the truth before they risk life and limb.
http://www.channel4.com/news/
To gratify or indulge an immoral or distasteful desire
On BBC News Channel earlier Labour leadership candidate Yvette Cooper said she was not going to "pander" to the Corbyn supporters.
Of course, if Corbyn subsequently loses the election the myth will grow up that Blair "stole" the election from the left by using the politics of fear.
"Pander" means "to gratify or indulge an immoral or distasteful desire".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33880848
Of course, if Corbyn subsequently loses the election the myth will grow up that Blair "stole" the election from the left by using the politics of fear.
"Pander" means "to gratify or indulge an immoral or distasteful desire".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33880848
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
For the Bennites there are only pure binaries
This article on LabourList by Richard Angell (Director of Progress) is worth reading for this one line alone: "For the Bennites there are only pure binaries".
It seems a shame that the Labour party is about to adopt Bennism a year after the poor fellow died.
http://labourlist.org/2015/08/the-hard-left-is-not-the-heart-of-this-party/
It seems a shame that the Labour party is about to adopt Bennism a year after the poor fellow died.
http://labourlist.org/2015/08/the-hard-left-is-not-the-heart-of-this-party/
Warning Labour is facing the wilderness
Jon Cruddas warning Labour is facing the wilderness: https://www.politicshome.com/party-politics/articles/story/labour-facing-wilderness-working-class-voters-switch-ukip-says-jon
Interesting that he identifies UKIP, not the Conservatives, as the enemy.
"Mr Cruddas spoke out as he published the latest findings from his review into why Labour lost the general election. It showed that the party's support among its "socially conservative" working class voters had collapsed in the past decade as they switched to Ukip. He blamed Labour's failure to address their concerns on immigration, welfare, national security and the economy. At the same time, the polling showed Labour had seen its support increase among more liberally-minded voters."
Interesting that he identifies UKIP, not the Conservatives, as the enemy.
"Mr Cruddas spoke out as he published the latest findings from his review into why Labour lost the general election. It showed that the party's support among its "socially conservative" working class voters had collapsed in the past decade as they switched to Ukip. He blamed Labour's failure to address their concerns on immigration, welfare, national security and the economy. At the same time, the polling showed Labour had seen its support increase among more liberally-minded voters."
Mr Cruddas spoke out as he published the latest findings from his review into why Labour lost the general election.
It showed that the party's support among its "socially conservative" working class voters had collapsed in the past decade as they switched to Ukip.
He blamed Labour's failure to address their concerns on immigration, welfare, national security and the economy.
At the same time, the polling showed Labour had seen its support increase among more liberally-minded voters.
- See more at: https://www.politicshome.com/party-politics/articles/story/labour-facing-wilderness-working-class-voters-switch-ukip-says-jon#sthash.x3JBzGK0.dpuf
It showed that the party's support among its "socially conservative" working class voters had collapsed in the past decade as they switched to Ukip.
He blamed Labour's failure to address their concerns on immigration, welfare, national security and the economy.
At the same time, the polling showed Labour had seen its support increase among more liberally-minded voters.
- See more at: https://www.politicshome.com/party-politics/articles/story/labour-facing-wilderness-working-class-voters-switch-ukip-says-jon#sthash.x3JBzGK0.dpuf
"Labour. Can you hear that? Yes. The world is laughing at you."
Hardeep Singh Kohli: "Labour. Can you hear that? Yes. The world is laughing at you."
Rather harsh of Mr Singh Kohli.
As someone who lived through the Conservative long dark teatime of the soul, looking back I realise the wilderness years were necessary.
As Ronald Reagan said, it is only when you have been in the deepest valley that you can appreciate being on the highest mountain top.
Rather harsh of Mr Singh Kohli.
As someone who lived through the Conservative long dark teatime of the soul, looking back I realise the wilderness years were necessary.
As Ronald Reagan said, it is only when you have been in the deepest valley that you can appreciate being on the highest mountain top.
I am reminded of Schumann and his Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins
Observing the Corbyn campaign and the Blairites doing battle I am reminded of Schumann and his Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins.
Schmann said: "Our purpose ... is to remind our readers emphatically of the distant past and its works. ... Then, to attack as inartistic the immediate past, which is concerned merely with encouraging superficial virtuosity."
Which is more or less the essence of Corbyn's appeal. Corbyn is a poet-philosopher pointing to the distant promised land. He is most emphatically not a practical pragmatic politician who wants power (and all the compromises and guilt that goes with power).
And because he is not a practical pragmatic politician the Labour establishment doesn't understand him, and so they cannot deal with him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B0s2Fx4lyc
Schmann said: "Our purpose ... is to remind our readers emphatically of the distant past and its works. ... Then, to attack as inartistic the immediate past, which is concerned merely with encouraging superficial virtuosity."
Which is more or less the essence of Corbyn's appeal. Corbyn is a poet-philosopher pointing to the distant promised land. He is most emphatically not a practical pragmatic politician who wants power (and all the compromises and guilt that goes with power).
And because he is not a practical pragmatic politician the Labour establishment doesn't understand him, and so they cannot deal with him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B0s2Fx4lyc
Is Jeremy Corbyn a talking fossil?
Recently I have been reading A Passage To England by Nirad C Chaudhuri.
The book is an account of Chaudhuri's visit to the United Kingdom in 1955 and his impressions of the country. He was particularly interested in social conditions and the newly-created Welfare State. Remember that Chaudhuri was not by any means a friend of Tory England and was dismissive in his book about Winston Churchill in the House of Commons.
There is an interesting view of the Labour party, in which he describes those lefties who always must have a sense of grievance, even though they had no real grievances left.
He calls these people "talking fossils".
Is Jeremy Corbyn a talking fossil?
He seems to fit the description.
What do the Swedish crime statistics tell us about the success or otherwise of multi-culturalism as a policy: http://www.bra.se/bra/nytt-fran-bra/arkiv/press/2015-08-05-polisanmalda-hatbrott-okar.html
Letter from Tony Blair about Jeremy Corbyn
On Channel 4 News this evening Krishnan Guru-Murthy described the letter from Tony Blair about Jeremy Corbyn as "amazing".
It is in truth amazing:
“The party is walking eyes shut, arms outstretched over the cliff’s edge to the jagged rocks below... If Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader it won’t be a defeat like 1983 or 2015 at the next election. It will mean rout, possibly annihilation.”
What on earth does Tony Blair hope to achieve by using such lurid language?
http://www.channel4.com/news/
It is in truth amazing:
“The party is walking eyes shut, arms outstretched over the cliff’s edge to the jagged rocks below... If Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader it won’t be a defeat like 1983 or 2015 at the next election. It will mean rout, possibly annihilation.”
What on earth does Tony Blair hope to achieve by using such lurid language?
http://www.channel4.com/news/
1,980,000 EU nationals working in the United Kingdom
Earlier today on BBC News 24 Anita McVey reported that there are now 1,850,000 unemployed people and 1,980,000 EU nationals working in the United Kingdom.
Therefore if we leave the EU and require the 1,980,000 foreigners to leave the 1,850,000 unemployed will be able to find work.
And can the left stop screaming from the rooftops that we are not taking enough migrants. ALL the 1,980,000 EU nationals here are economic migrants, no different from the jungle dwellers in Calais. We have far too many economic migrants here already without taking any more.
Asylum seekers are not of course economic migrants. They are the responsibility of the first EU country they arrive in. If EU countries are not happy with this arrangement they need to reopen the treaties and conventions they signed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33881387
Therefore if we leave the EU and require the 1,980,000 foreigners to leave the 1,850,000 unemployed will be able to find work.
And can the left stop screaming from the rooftops that we are not taking enough migrants. ALL the 1,980,000 EU nationals here are economic migrants, no different from the jungle dwellers in Calais. We have far too many economic migrants here already without taking any more.
Asylum seekers are not of course economic migrants. They are the responsibility of the first EU country they arrive in. If EU countries are not happy with this arrangement they need to reopen the treaties and conventions they signed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33881387
What the extreme left of the party did in the Greater London Council in May 1981
It would be ironic if as soon as Jeremy Corbyn becomes leader of the Labour Party there is an immediate coup against him by the parliamentary Labour party: http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2015/08/12/labour-mps-to-launch-coup-against-jeremy-corbyn-on-day-one
Ironic because that was exactly what the extreme left of the party did in the Greater London Council in May 1981.
The moderate Andrew McIntosh led Labour to victory in the GLC elections. Within twenty-four hours he was deposed, and replaced by Ken Livingstone. The entire left caucus slate was then elected.
This is what the Labour party is like.
This is what they must never get back in.
Ironic because that was exactly what the extreme left of the party did in the Greater London Council in May 1981.
The moderate Andrew McIntosh led Labour to victory in the GLC elections. Within twenty-four hours he was deposed, and replaced by Ken Livingstone. The entire left caucus slate was then elected.
This is what the Labour party is like.
This is what they must never get back in.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
By 2020 Corbyn will be over 70
Steve Richards in the Independent about Jeremy Corbyn: "By 2020 Corbyn will be over 70. He has no experience at the top of
British politics. On the basis of his own statements he would not go
into that distant election with the manifesto he currently espouses. He
points out that Labour is a broad church. To keep the broad church
intact Corbyn would have to disappoint those cheering now or preside
over some form of schism."
Over 70 is old.
Not since Henry Temple in 1784 has someone begun his Prime Ministerial career aged 70.
Winston Churchill was Prime Minister in his 70s but he found it a struggle. People in their 70s get ill. They get tired.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/if-labour-wants-to-win-again-in-2020-it-needs-to-unite-and-distance-itself-from-the-past-10448994.html
Over 70 is old.
Not since Henry Temple in 1784 has someone begun his Prime Ministerial career aged 70.
Winston Churchill was Prime Minister in his 70s but he found it a struggle. People in their 70s get ill. They get tired.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/if-labour-wants-to-win-again-in-2020-it-needs-to-unite-and-distance-itself-from-the-past-10448994.html
The night very black
Yesterday evening I attended a meeting with a small charity I do voluntary work for. During the meeting I began to feel very uncomfortable with a heavy tightness in my chest. It was a warm evening but I felt cold.
End
of the meeting I walked back to my car half a mile away - this was about 8 o'clock. As I walked I felt
progressively worse. By the time I got home the pain in my chest was
unbelievable and I thought I was having a heart attack.
After
consulting with my brother I dialled 999. An ambulance arrived and in
this vehicle various preliminary tests were done. Then I was taken to the local hospital for more tests including blood tests and scans and an
x-ray (all sorts of wires connected to me and a drip and a clip on my finger).
They could not find any obvious reason for the pain but said it
was not a heart attack. Given a pain killer in the drip which made my chest tolerable. Wheeled on a trolley down long gloomy corridors for the x-ray, then back to A&E again.
Discharged at 2am, the night very black. I went home by taxi, the young taxi driver more helpful and solicitous than any of the hospital staff. Very grateful to get home, and felt as if my life had been given back to me.
I went to bed at 3am. Painful night and hardly any sleep. I got up at 7am and went to work (it is a new job and I can't risk taking time off sick so early).
In pain most of the day. Luckily I was in an office on my own, as I was falling asleep at my desk. And yet I managed to get a reasonable amount of work done.
Monday, August 10, 2015
Alastair Campbell about Labour under Corbyn
This is so harsh by Alastair Campbell about Labour under Corbyn: "...just a party of protest that marches, campaigns, backs strikes, calls for ministerial resignations, more money for every cause going, shouts and bawls and fingerjabs but is ultimately powerless..."
There is screeds and screeds of it here: http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog/2015/08/10/nice-guy-good-mp-making-the-weather-but-it-has-to-be-abc-anyone-but-corbyn-labour-is-finished-if-he-wins/
There is screeds and screeds of it here: http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog/2015/08/10/nice-guy-good-mp-making-the-weather-but-it-has-to-be-abc-anyone-but-corbyn-labour-is-finished-if-he-wins/
just
a party of protest that marches, campaigns, backs strikes, calls for
ministerial resignations, more money for every cause going, shouts and
bawls and fingerjabs but is ultimately powerless - See more at:
http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog/2015/08/10/nice-guy-good-mp-making-the-weather-but-it-has-to-be-abc-anyone-but-corbyn-labour-is-finished-if-he-wins/#sthash.3HbYTvca.dpuf
just
a party of protest that marches, campaigns, backs strikes, calls for
ministerial resignations, more money for every cause going, shouts and
bawls and fingerjabs but is ultimately powerless - See more at:
http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog/2015/08/10/nice-guy-good-mp-making-the-weather-but-it-has-to-be-abc-anyone-but-corbyn-labour-is-finished-if-he-wins/#sthash.3HbYTvca.dpuf
This is a very sensible article by Mira Bar Hillel: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/despite-what-lord-rogers-says-robin-hood-gardens-is-too-ugly-to-live-in-we-need-to-demolish-the-estate-10447619.html
And this is very good news: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/campaign-save-forgotten-salford-chapel-9822722
And this is very good news: http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/campaign-save-forgotten-salford-chapel-9822722
Identity cards
I think as a temporary measure to deal with the illegal migrant problem identity cards are necessary.
Not permanently, but certainly for ten years at which point the legislation must be renewed or allowed to lapse.
https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/0an2rtom1j/InternalResults_150806_Calais_migrants_Website.pdf
Not permanently, but certainly for ten years at which point the legislation must be renewed or allowed to lapse.
https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/0an2rtom1j/InternalResults_150806_Calais_migrants_Website.pdf
Sunday, August 09, 2015
The Guardian is going downhill
It seems the Guardian is going downhill following the departure of Alan Rusbridger.
I know "bitch" is a term of abuse, but I am puzzled by the word "BASIC".
What exactly is a BASIC bitch?
And why the capitals - is the word meant to be shouted?
Nosheen Iqbal works for the Guardian.
https://twitter.com/NosheenIqbal
http://www.theguardian.com/profile/nosheen-iqbal
Showing real leadership
Philip Hammond is showing real leadership: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/aug/09/african-migrants-threaten-eu-standard-living-philip-hammond
The Labour leadership candidates who are attacking him need to tell us how far they are prepared to see taxes rise to pay for destabilising levels of illegal migration and how low they are willing to see wages drop (and don't be fooled by the minimum wage scam - when Labour was in government no companies were prosecuted for undercutting the minimum wage).
They also need to understand the link between poor productivity in the United Kingdom and the importation of cheap labour.
The Labour leadership candidates who are attacking him need to tell us how far they are prepared to see taxes rise to pay for destabilising levels of illegal migration and how low they are willing to see wages drop (and don't be fooled by the minimum wage scam - when Labour was in government no companies were prosecuted for undercutting the minimum wage).
They also need to understand the link between poor productivity in the United Kingdom and the importation of cheap labour.
It is time for the Labour party to come to its senses and elect Liz Kendall
It started off as a giggle, as a bit of fun.
Now the Corbyn juggernaut (bandwagon does not seem adequate as a description) seems unstoppable.
He may well become Labour leader.
And by a fluke (the Tories taking an excessive pro-EU line and alienating millions of voters) may well become Prime Minister.
What would a Corbyn government do about the monarchy?
Would the 70th anniversary of Her Majesty's accession be celebrated in triumphal style in 2022?
Or would the monarchy be abolished within the first thirty days of a Corbyn victory? (the extreme socialists would have to do it quickly before opposition could organise).
Perhaps it is time for the Labour party to come to its senses and elect Liz Kendall.
Mind you, reading the Independent today about Jeremy Corbyn wanting to bring back Clause 4 does make me wonder whether he is deliberately trying to sabotage his own campaign and is secretly aghast that what started as a protest has taken him so far.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-to-bring-back-clause-four-contender-pledges-to-bury-new-labour-with-commitment-to-public-ownership-of-industry-10446982.html
Now the Corbyn juggernaut (bandwagon does not seem adequate as a description) seems unstoppable.
He may well become Labour leader.
And by a fluke (the Tories taking an excessive pro-EU line and alienating millions of voters) may well become Prime Minister.
What would a Corbyn government do about the monarchy?
Would the 70th anniversary of Her Majesty's accession be celebrated in triumphal style in 2022?
Or would the monarchy be abolished within the first thirty days of a Corbyn victory? (the extreme socialists would have to do it quickly before opposition could organise).
Perhaps it is time for the Labour party to come to its senses and elect Liz Kendall.
Mind you, reading the Independent today about Jeremy Corbyn wanting to bring back Clause 4 does make me wonder whether he is deliberately trying to sabotage his own campaign and is secretly aghast that what started as a protest has taken him so far.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-to-bring-back-clause-four-contender-pledges-to-bury-new-labour-with-commitment-to-public-ownership-of-industry-10446982.html
Saturday, August 08, 2015
Good for the nation
The performance of the England cricket team will be good for the nation.
Successful sportsmen inspire the public and the public create the atmosphere in which additional successes (economic, cultural, political) become possible.
The inspiration of sporting success reassures populations of their national greatness.
Furthermore, it appears that the performance of the national teams (football, cricket, rugby) is directly linked to the state of society. People are "taken out of themselves". Their cares and worries do not seem so important.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/33833833
Successful sportsmen inspire the public and the public create the atmosphere in which additional successes (economic, cultural, political) become possible.
The inspiration of sporting success reassures populations of their national greatness.
Furthermore, it appears that the performance of the national teams (football, cricket, rugby) is directly linked to the state of society. People are "taken out of themselves". Their cares and worries do not seem so important.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/33833833
I really enjoyed Lord Lexden giving a lecture on the Earl of Shaftesbury on the Parliament Channel earlier today (first broadcast on 30th June).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b061cjqd/speakers-house-earl-of-shaftesbury-lecture
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b061cjqd/speakers-house-earl-of-shaftesbury-lecture
Is it not the case that Jeremy Corbyn is doing well because of his grammar school education?
Is he not an example of how grammar schools used to propel working class people to the top of institutions?
https://theconversation.com/why-corbyn-is-winning-and-how-labours-moderates-can-stop-him-45339
Is he not an example of how grammar schools used to propel working class people to the top of institutions?
https://theconversation.com/why-corbyn-is-winning-and-how-labours-moderates-can-stop-him-45339
His momentum has been based on what in marketing we call "early adopters"
Has Jeremy Corbyn peaked I wonder?
He was always the "none of the above" catch-all option, but he has used the opportunity to sketch out a reasonably coherent programme of policies and build momentum.
But his momentum has been based on what in marketing we call "early adopters". And the problem with early adopters is that as soon as momentum builds and less "hip happening cool" supporters join the cause the trendsetters lose interest ("been there, done that..."). That is the fatal moment when a campaign can fall between two stools - too many young trendy hipsters moving away and not enough mainstreamers coming in to build critical mass.
Remember the salutary experience of presidential hopeful Howard Dean in 2006. His trajectory was very similar to that currently being followed Jeremy Corbyn, until mainstream endorsers (from political establishment, media, entertainment luvvies) made him look uncool. Then like Icarus he crashed and burned.
When the creepy-crawlies (not an exact term, but I mean those people in every party that always gravitate to the centre of power) start jumping on the Corbyn bandwaggon the early adopters will start jumping off. And yet critical mass is impossible without the heliotropic creepy-crawlies. Indeed Blair constructed his movement entirely composed of creepy-crawlies.
And the Economist makes a very valid point - Corbyn is a conservative (small "c") not a radical (that's why I sneakingly like him) and this truth will eventually out.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/07/corbyn-says-his-campaign-has-captured-anti-austerity-mood-labour-leadership-election
http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21660599-labours-prospective-next-leader-may-be-partys-hard-left-he-no-radical-jeremy
He was always the "none of the above" catch-all option, but he has used the opportunity to sketch out a reasonably coherent programme of policies and build momentum.
But his momentum has been based on what in marketing we call "early adopters". And the problem with early adopters is that as soon as momentum builds and less "hip happening cool" supporters join the cause the trendsetters lose interest ("been there, done that..."). That is the fatal moment when a campaign can fall between two stools - too many young trendy hipsters moving away and not enough mainstreamers coming in to build critical mass.
Remember the salutary experience of presidential hopeful Howard Dean in 2006. His trajectory was very similar to that currently being followed Jeremy Corbyn, until mainstream endorsers (from political establishment, media, entertainment luvvies) made him look uncool. Then like Icarus he crashed and burned.
When the creepy-crawlies (not an exact term, but I mean those people in every party that always gravitate to the centre of power) start jumping on the Corbyn bandwaggon the early adopters will start jumping off. And yet critical mass is impossible without the heliotropic creepy-crawlies. Indeed Blair constructed his movement entirely composed of creepy-crawlies.
And the Economist makes a very valid point - Corbyn is a conservative (small "c") not a radical (that's why I sneakingly like him) and this truth will eventually out.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/07/corbyn-says-his-campaign-has-captured-anti-austerity-mood-labour-leadership-election
http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21660599-labours-prospective-next-leader-may-be-partys-hard-left-he-no-radical-jeremy
Friday, August 07, 2015
Tremendous news reporting and live interviews
The fall of Kids Company is producing some tremendous news reporting and live interviews.
Yesterday Channel 4 News had an incredible interview with Alan Yentob - not since Chris Huhne was cornered on the Today programme have I witnessed such bad-tempered spluttering and barely suppressed anger from a personage with a highly-developed sense of entitlement.
And today Channel 4 News interviewed Camila Batmanghelidjh slippery and twisting and turning every accusation against the accuser but never quite managing to be convincing.
And WHAT is the story behind Alan Yentob acting as Ms Batmanghelidjh's "minder" when she was being interviewed by the BBC - surely he should be sacked for behaving in this way and attempting to subvert a public broadcaster.
http://www.channel4.com/news/
Yesterday Channel 4 News had an incredible interview with Alan Yentob - not since Chris Huhne was cornered on the Today programme have I witnessed such bad-tempered spluttering and barely suppressed anger from a personage with a highly-developed sense of entitlement.
And today Channel 4 News interviewed Camila Batmanghelidjh slippery and twisting and turning every accusation against the accuser but never quite managing to be convincing.
And WHAT is the story behind Alan Yentob acting as Ms Batmanghelidjh's "minder" when she was being interviewed by the BBC - surely he should be sacked for behaving in this way and attempting to subvert a public broadcaster.
http://www.channel4.com/news/
Thursday, August 06, 2015
I am just asking a question here, but was there any connection between Camila Batmanghelidjh and the shadowy Iranian exiles group Anahita?
Were the Batmanghelidjh family supporters of the Shah? Did they take large amounts of money with them when they left Iran, and who did that money belong to? Were they connected in any way with "humanitarian" activity among Iranian boy soldiers held as prisoners of war in Iraq during the 1980s?
I am just asking these questions, I do not have any answers and it may all be supposition.
Were the Batmanghelidjh family supporters of the Shah? Did they take large amounts of money with them when they left Iran, and who did that money belong to? Were they connected in any way with "humanitarian" activity among Iranian boy soldiers held as prisoners of war in Iraq during the 1980s?
I am just asking these questions, I do not have any answers and it may all be supposition.
You would think that with all the money sloshing around the City someone would be generous enough to bung a few million at the historic St Bride's Library right on their doorstep: http://www.thebookseller.com/news/major-cutbacks-st-bride-foundation-library-308857
Or perhaps one of the media groups could step in.
Or perhaps one of the media groups could step in.
Those Labour leadership candidates who think re-nationalising the railways would be a good thing need to talk to commuters who remember British Rail.
It was not a good experience - you just have to look at the figures for movement of freight from rail onto road to realise there was something seriously wrong with the service people got.
In the surveys of those who want to re-nationalise can we have a breakdown between those who have experienced a nationalised rail service and those who have not.
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/main-topics/politics/renationalising-rail-would-pay-for-itself-burnham-1-7396584?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
It was not a good experience - you just have to look at the figures for movement of freight from rail onto road to realise there was something seriously wrong with the service people got.
In the surveys of those who want to re-nationalise can we have a breakdown between those who have experienced a nationalised rail service and those who have not.
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/main-topics/politics/renationalising-rail-would-pay-for-itself-burnham-1-7396584?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
Wednesday, August 05, 2015
The closure of Kids Company
Channel 4 News led this evening with the closure of Kids Company: http://www.channel4.com/news/uk
Mayor of London Boris Johnson was interviewed and said "...loads and loads of kids I think have been helped..."
Note the crucial Freudian "I think".
He does not know whether loads of people have been helped.
Is it not the case that so effectively has the pro-BME lobby become that anyone attempting scrutiny of a pro-BME organisation is immediately suspected and accused of being racist.
And thus pro-BME organisations are not scrutinised (but thank goodness for Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings).
In the studio former Kids Company employee Leo Schwartz was asked whether he saw anything improper during his time with the organisation. He immediately (and rather too quickly one thought) said "I was not involved in the finances". Note he did not deny improprieties may have been going on, just that he was not involved.
It seems that a very large chunk of the £3 million of public money given to Kids Company last week has been already spent paying "wages and salaries".
Can we have an assurance that no public money has been spent on "expenses" for Kids Company personnel, and if money has gone on "expenses" legitimate receipts were submitted.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson was interviewed and said "...loads and loads of kids I think have been helped..."
Note the crucial Freudian "I think".
He does not know whether loads of people have been helped.
Is it not the case that so effectively has the pro-BME lobby become that anyone attempting scrutiny of a pro-BME organisation is immediately suspected and accused of being racist.
And thus pro-BME organisations are not scrutinised (but thank goodness for Michael Gove and Dominic Cummings).
In the studio former Kids Company employee Leo Schwartz was asked whether he saw anything improper during his time with the organisation. He immediately (and rather too quickly one thought) said "I was not involved in the finances". Note he did not deny improprieties may have been going on, just that he was not involved.
It seems that a very large chunk of the £3 million of public money given to Kids Company last week has been already spent paying "wages and salaries".
Can we have an assurance that no public money has been spent on "expenses" for Kids Company personnel, and if money has gone on "expenses" legitimate receipts were submitted.
Libertarianism is exerting an unhealthy influence over social issues
In a report on the possible legalisation of prostitution on Channel 4 News no mention was made of the ideological drive that is behind the make-prostitution-legal campaign.
Extreme libertarianism is exerting an unhealthy influence over social issues.
This warped ideology will result in many vulnerable people being placed at risk, and yet it has subtle and persuasive arguments ("It's about freedom") that are difficult to counter unless you have been trained to unpick them on a philosophical level.
http://www.channel4.com/news/uk
Extreme libertarianism is exerting an unhealthy influence over social issues.
This warped ideology will result in many vulnerable people being placed at risk, and yet it has subtle and persuasive arguments ("It's about freedom") that are difficult to counter unless you have been trained to unpick them on a philosophical level.
http://www.channel4.com/news/uk
Can Ms Harman make available the Labour party's "dirt files" from this period
On Channel 4 News this evening we saw archive film of Edward Heath conducting the European "national" anthemn: http://www.channel4.com/news/edward-heath-abuse-allegations-brothel-ipcc-expose see also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIYTS7hOpUo
In an astonishing report, mention was made of a dossier kept by former Secretary of State for Social Services the late Barbara Castle. This dossier apparently recorded Heath's involvement with the evil PIE organisation, so presumably current Labour Leader Harriet Harman will be able to throw light on what was going on. Can Ms Harman make available the Labour party's "dirt files" from this period (please do not deny these files exist - both the major parties have them in a M.A.D. balance of power).
In an astonishing report, mention was made of a dossier kept by former Secretary of State for Social Services the late Barbara Castle. This dossier apparently recorded Heath's involvement with the evil PIE organisation, so presumably current Labour Leader Harriet Harman will be able to throw light on what was going on. Can Ms Harman make available the Labour party's "dirt files" from this period (please do not deny these files exist - both the major parties have them in a M.A.D. balance of power).
The important thing was to be seen in photo opportunities with a BME person
Michael Crick points out that Kids Company is a big problem for Labour too, and this may make Commons scrutiny difficult.
Of course, the reason David Cameron was so obsessed with Camila Batmanghelidjh is because she was so obviously "diverse" and BME. After years of the left screaming "racist" at any party that even mildly questions whether immigration is a good thing, it was probably a relief to have a large woman of color to act as a human shield. Whether she was competent or even honest was beside the point - the important thing was to be seen in photo opportunities with a BME person.
Perhaps we can now accept that BME people are not intrinsically worthy or deserving or even interesting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33787201
Of course, the reason David Cameron was so obsessed with Camila Batmanghelidjh is because she was so obviously "diverse" and BME. After years of the left screaming "racist" at any party that even mildly questions whether immigration is a good thing, it was probably a relief to have a large woman of color to act as a human shield. Whether she was competent or even honest was beside the point - the important thing was to be seen in photo opportunities with a BME person.
Perhaps we can now accept that BME people are not intrinsically worthy or deserving or even interesting.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33787201
Tuesday, August 04, 2015
The Reverend Dr Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, effectively told us on Thought For The Day (BBC Radio 4) this morning that he did not believe in miracles.
I suppose he thinks the Resurrection was just a conjuring trick with bones.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ys8r3
I suppose he thinks the Resurrection was just a conjuring trick with bones.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ys8r3
Nick Pearce (Director of IPPR) must be out of his tiny mind if he thinks we are ever going back to open door immigration: http://www.ippr.org/nicks-blog/dusting-off-the-sangatte-playbook-a-humane-practical-course-of-action-in-calais
The arrogance of the man!
This is why Labour must never get back in - they are all itching the fling the doors wide again and rub our noses in diversity.
The arrogance of the man!
This is why Labour must never get back in - they are all itching the fling the doors wide again and rub our noses in diversity.
It would stink
Channel 4 News this evening led with the shocking allegations against former Prime Minister Edward Heath: http://www.channel4.com/news/ipcc-probe-child-sex-abuse-claims-against-sir-edward-heath
If there is any substance to the allegations will this have any effect upon the EU referendum?
The European project was so totally identified by Ted Heath in his day that it would be difficult for the YES side to use any footage of entry to the EEC.
It would be like Jimmy Savile signing the Treaty of Rome - it would stink.
If there is any substance to the allegations will this have any effect upon the EU referendum?
The European project was so totally identified by Ted Heath in his day that it would be difficult for the YES side to use any footage of entry to the EEC.
It would be like Jimmy Savile signing the Treaty of Rome - it would stink.
Monday, August 03, 2015
Firm action
The government is to be commended for the firm action it is taking over the migrants attempting to enter the country illegally: http://news.sky.com/story/1529362/clampdown-as-70-percent-of-calais-migrants-reach-uk
They are also to be respected for the decisive way in which they are protecting the interests of ordinary people in the United Kingdom - it is the poorest communities who feel the impact of migrant floods.
They are also to be respected for the decisive way in which they are protecting the interests of ordinary people in the United Kingdom - it is the poorest communities who feel the impact of migrant floods.
Shocking news regarding Ted Heath.
Rather explains why his Trust wanted to wind things up and get rid of his house.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2223978/Sir-Edward-Heath-Arundells-house-sold-flops-tourist-attraction.html
British leadership will have beneficial effects on the continent of Europe
This is a very interesting report by Peter Spence, Economics Editor for the Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11731694/Brexit-vote-could-trigger-European-free-market-chain-reaction-say-Swiss-and-Icelandic-MPs.html
Not for the first time, British leadership will have beneficial effects on the continent of Europe.
If the United Kingdom takes a stand others will join us.
Not for the first time, British leadership will have beneficial effects on the continent of Europe.
If the United Kingdom takes a stand others will join us.
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