The BBC's open hostility to the incoming Trump administration

I am disturbed by the BBC's open hostility to the incoming Trump administration.

The behaviour of the national broadcaster may be doing serious damage to the interests of the United Kingdom.

I am not willing for my taxes to used by individuals in the BBC to propagate their extreme "liberal" (sic) views.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38575592
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38589427
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38582441?intlink_from_url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/78080d81-2849-497e-bc3a-bf364626456b/donald-trump&link_location=live-reporting-story

Angus Robertson asked a clever-clever question about the expected demise of the Northern Ireland Assembly

At Prime Minister's Questions the SNP's leader Angus Robertson asked a clever-clever question about the expected demise of the Northern Ireland Assembly requiring the postponement of Article 50:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-38586483

Far from holding us up, it is encouraging to think that the entire Brexit process could be carried out during a period of direct rule of Northern Ireland - far from getting a veto, or even having their views consulted, Sinn Fein have ensured they will have NO voice in the Brexit process because they will have no official status in a devolved administration.

Looking at the Irish situation from a wider perspective, Brexit means effectively the ending of any logic to the power-sharing process.

The Good Friday agreement was based on the assumption that the border between the Irish Republic and the United Kingdom would fade in importance as each country became provinces of the EU.

This is not now going to happen.

Personally I think it would be good to have a hard border with the Irish Republic and certainly I want to see the ending of the automatic right for southern Irish people to enter the United Kingdom and vote in our elections.

Since Brexit the world has changed

When even the party of open door immigration is wheeling out their most left-wing leader ever to announce (in a half-hearted way so that you suspect he had his fingers crossed) that free movement might possible need to end you know that things are changing:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-brexit-eu-immigration-high-pay-latest-chaos-single-market-a7520366.html

Forget the qualifications and the weasel words.

Focus on the fact that he had to address the subject in the first place.

Since Brexit the world has changed.

A nation state requires political parties that are nationalist.

As we have seen today, the Labour leadership is not capable of expressing nationalism.

Therefore they will have nothing relevant to say to the British people.

How many of the current House of Commons will be able to turn themselves into nationalist poiticians?  Less than a third one suspects.  We are in a pre-1973 world (even perhaps a pre-1968 world) when it comes to the new language politicians will need to learn.

Moral leadership

Have just finished reading The Czar's Madman by Jaan Kross.  It is a wonderful book about the stand of one principled individual against a monolithic state that will tolerate no dissension.  Obviously my reading of the book was coloured by the Brexit struggle.

Point One of Timo von Bock's draft constitution:  The Christian faith must be the foundation of our social order.

It is a point we need to take notice of as we plan the post-Brexit nation state.

And yet the Church of England is in no condition to give moral leadership.

Since John Major, bishops have not been appointed on the advice of the Prime Minister.  Bishops have appointed themselves.  And like all self-perpetuating elites they have become corrupt.

I would like to see Theresa May reasserting control over the appointment of bishops so that the connection between the Church and the People is restored.

How diminished she looked

SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon interviewed on the Andrew Marr Show this morning:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04nrnpx

And I thought how diminished she looked.

Not for the first time she mentioned that a million people in Scotland voted Leave.  It was almost as if she wanted to use this fact as a reason why she is not able to press on with a second independence referendum.  As most commentators agree, if she called a second referendum she would lose.

The Leave vote has profound long-term implications for the SNP.

The revival of a British nation state offers a rival nationalism to the SNP's variety of Scottish nationalism.

If handled well, British nationalism could prove to be more appealing than the lightweight Scottish variety with its ersatz narratives.

Perhaps Ms Sturgeon already feels support ebbing away.

I thought we were going to see an end to political campaigning by charities

What are we to make of the claim by the Red Cross that the United Kingdom is facing an humanitarian crisis?  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-38538637

Is the United Kingdom really on a par with Syria, Somalia and Eritrea?

Or is this political grandstand by a supposed "charity" that is stuffed full of Blairite placemen and cronies and is playing domestic politics with the money that the public has donated thinking it is going to a good cause?

I thought we were going to see an end to political campaigning by charities?

Time to take the Red Cross charitable status away.

The game is up for the pro-immigration ideologues

The appearance of Michael Gove on Dateline London earlier today immediately promoted that programme to the first rank of news and current affairs analysis.

Mr Gove advised us that Sir Vince Cable (former LibDem MP and Minister) had written an article critical of free movement.

You can read the article on the New Statesman website:  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2017/01/why-its-time-end-eu-free-movement

When even fanatics such as Vince Cable (and he is a fanatic, for all his measured delivery) abandon their commitment to free movement you know the game is up for the pro-immigration ideologues.

Since the 1960s the left has used immigration as a way of diluting the British nation state, with the aim of destroying that nation state.  But the British nation state has proved to be too resilient.  As a Powellite Conservative it is a sweet moment when even fanatics such as Vince Cable are indulging in self-criticism.

The siren voices softly insisting we stay part of the single market

Weasel words from SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, offering to "co-operate" with Brexit so long as the United Kingdom stays part of the single market:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-38528058

No-one should be fooled by the siren voices softly insisting we stay part of the single market.

The intention of these people is to keep the United Kingdom so close to the EU that a future pro-EU government (perhaps a Lab-Lib-SNP coalition) can take us quickly back into the European Union with the minimum of fuss.

That is why we need to leave the single market, whatever the economic circumstances.

Brexit must be permanent.

Brexit must mean Brexit.

An attack on British democracy

Channel 4 News this evening led with the alleged Russian hacking that is supposed to have influenced the American elections:  https://www.channel4.com/news/russian-hacking-controversy-in-us-elections

Senator John McCain has called Russian interference “an unprecedented attack on our democracy”.

When President Barack Obama interfered in the British referendum on EU membership was that an attack on British democracy?

Back of the queue indeed!

I hope Theresa May makes it clear to the Obama family that they are not welcome in the United Kingdom after 20th January.

And if by any chance Mr Obama does turn up in future years at Heathrow, can we make sure he is at the back of the queue for the passport checks.

No-one told him because they did not trust him

"We do not yet know what the government will set as negotiating objectives for the UK's relationship with the EU after exit" complains Sir Ivan Rogers in his petulant resignation letter:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38503504

Did it occur to Sir Ivan that he did not know what the negotiating objectives were because he was not told them - and no-one told him because they did not trust him.

And the idea that the civil service is impartial is ridiculous.  Over the last fifty years no Eurosceptic would ever get anywhere in the civil service.  They would be frozen out immediately.

Quisling

We are used to thinking of Channel 4 News as a biased organisation purveying news tainted with barely disguised partisan opinion.

However, this evening Jon Snow really confronted Nick Clegg with the logical impossibility of civil servants negotiating Brexit when they do not believe in Brexit.

Sir Ivan Rogers is a very distinguished figure and one hesitates to apply the description "quisling" to him.  Nevertheless, I cannot think of any other word that will do.  He is a quisling - his allegiance is not to the United Kingdom but to the EU, and he is so immersed in pan-European ideology that it is difficult to see him ever holding a public appointment again.

https://www.channel4.com/news/brexit-nick-clegg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38498839
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quisling

The current position of the left

In an otherwise rambling article in the Guardian Jeff Sparrow pins down the current position of the left:  ...the left – a movement dedicated to social transformation – has become the defender of a status quo that no one much else likes.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/02/trump-brexit-left-progressives-aghast-they-should-be-emboldened

2017

In 2017 we look forward to the first formal steps in unchaining the United Kingdom from the corpse that is the EU.

In all the negotiations that lie ahead we must keep in mind that the Leave vote was a revolt of the ordinary people against the hypocrisies and corruption of a society degraded by the worship of money.

If liberty is to be a solid and lasting possession it must be gained by patient years of working and waiting.

Services to the Leave campaign and the Brexit result

It is the time for national honours to be awarded.

I would like to make an award of my own - to Dateline London for services to the Leave campaign and the Brexit result.

Throughout the campaign the programme presented a seemingly endless parade of foreigners with varying accents and ethnicities almost all sneering and jeering at the British people in a way most calculated to annoy the viewers and persuade them that whatever the arguments of the referendum this claque of foreigners must have their faces smacked (metaphorically).

So thank you Dateline London guests, and keep on what you are doing.

Brexit will be more final for your efforts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b087kcr8/dateline-london-31122016
https://twitter.com/gavinesler
https://twitter.com/AgnesCPoirier
https://twitter.com/steverichards14?lang=en
https://twitter.com/abdelbariatwan?lang=en
https://twitter.com/StrykerMcGuire

A significant point is being conceded

Very little comment in the news about the Pakistani planned expulsions of millions of migrants:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-38457236

And absolute silence from all the usual pontificators.

Nothing from Sundar Katwala (British Future sic), usually so keen to give an opinion on these matters.

Nothing from Shami Chakrabarti (former head of Amnesty International and now Corbyn toady in the House of Lords).

Nothing from Yasmin Alibhai Brown (Independent writer).

And little evidence of Hope Not Hate no-platforming Pakistani academics at British universities.

Of course all these people (and many others) are master exponents of Molierean Tartuffery.

Nevertheless, a point is being conceded here.

That it is possible for a nation state (one with a huge diaspora population in the United Kingdom) to expel millions of migrants and nobody says a word.  They look the other way.  They pretend it isn't happening.

Of course, it would be unthinkable for the United Kingdom to forcibly expel millions of migrants.

But we could usefully expel a hundred thousand or so (and we more or less know the ones we don't want).

Therefore I repeat - a significant point is being conceded here.

https://twitter.com/sundersays
https://twitter.com/libertyhq
https://twitter.com/y_alibhai
https://twitter.com/hopenothate

Conflicts that are nothing to do with us

Guardian writer Owen Jones appeared on Sky News Press Preview and made a comparison between the old fear of Soviet Russia exerting an undue influence on left-wing movements in the West, and the new Russia of Putin exerting a supposedly equal influence on right-wing movements today.

This is a false reading of history.

Soviet Russia had a communist ideology that it was determined to export to the rest of the world.  It was a direct threat to Western nations.  It had to be confronted, and the useful idiots that supported it needed to be negated.

There is no such necessity today.

Putinism is not an ideology that has any relevance or appeal outside Russia.

Russian foreign policy may be expansionist, but it would have to expand a long way before it began to touch us in the United Kingdom.  Let them keep the Crimea.  Let them take the Baltic states (look how insultingly rude the leaders of those states were to the United Kingdom during the Brexit referendum).

There are already signs that imperial-overreach is beginning to curb Russian expansionism.  Imperial overreach is a self-correcting mechanism in international affairs.  As we only too well know, empires might deliver prestige, but are extremely expensive to maintain.

We need to be careful about Russian expansionism, but not get involved in conflicts that are nothing to do with us.

http://news.sky.com/video/sky-news-press-preview-10648649

https://twitter.com/OwenJones84

Israel

On the whole I think it is shameful the way the outgoing Obama administration is treating Israel.

Obama was only ever a token President - and everything he has done has been tokenistic and without substance.

Now in his last days his administration is talking abusively knowing they can scuttle away and not face any consequences.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/28/us/politics/john-kerry-israel-palestine-peace.html?_r=0

I am sorry to see Michael Gove leaving the government:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/michael-gove-justice-secretary-theresa-may-cabinet-a7136191.html

Theresa May's government

Alec Nussbaum:  "You can't judge Theresa May's government by the senior appointments she makes on the first day.  When Margaret took power she was obliged to stuff her Cabinet with wets like Walker, Prior, Gilmour and the rest.  Only when we see who the junior ministers are will we know the real ideological direction Theresa May intends to travel along."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36785814

A priority for Mrs May

And so today Theresa May will become Prime Minister.

I welcome her appointment.

And like many others I am speculating about what her policies might be.

Obviously Brexit.

And as a practicing Anglican I trust that Christian principles will guide her decisions (and perhaps she can reassert Prime Ministerial control over the appointment of bishops so the senior clergy do not continue as a self-appointed elite).

But one of the key areas Mrs May must address is the issue of immigration.

The referendum (as Sundar Katwala pointed out in one of his tweets months ago when he thought Remain would win) was a referendum on immigration.

And the people voted no to immigration.

That vote must be respected.

Above all, the continued existence of ghettos must be brought to an end.  Gently one hopes.  But robustly if necessary.

Post-war immigration has meant, for ordinary English people, the appearance of ghettos in every city, suburb and town in the country.  Not just one wave of ghettos, but a continuing process of ghetto-generation so that nowhere is safe from this blight.  Ghettos have even appeared in the rural countryside in the last ten years.

These ghettos have not been addressed honestly as a public evil.  Instead we have been told that they are vibrantly diverse communities to be celebrated as part of the (now discredited) policy of multiculturalism.  Anyone who spoke out against the creation of ghettos has, heretofore, been called a "racist".

This must stop.

Ghettos have appeared as a result of government policy over the last sixty years.

They must be dealt with as a result of government policy.

No more ghettos.

Therefore a priority for Mrs May must be the development of policies to stop the creation of new ghettos and disperse the existing ghettos.  In particular this must mean the ending of family visas enabling the importation of south Asian brides.  As for those Eastern Europeans already here, the young men can stay (they will be absorbed into the population easily) but it must be made clear that they will not be allowed family visas - if they are missing their families they can travel in the opposite direction.

Immigration policy is going to be a key test for Mrs May and her government.

If it does not stop, and the ghettos start to be removed, her name will become anathema to the majority of British people and large sections of her own party.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/688834/Theresa-May-stop-migrant-crisis-PM-vows-end-free-movement-EU

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/theresa-stand-eu-immigration-160712074543697.html

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/38e535f6-4443-11e6-9b66-0712b3873ae1.html#axzz4EHXufOJu

https://twitter.com/sundersays