- “Germans won’t get the Right-wing government they voted for” – It seems like almost any kind of coalition is possible – except the Right-wing government that Germans actually voted for, says Elisabeth Dampier in the Spectator.
- “CDU and SPD condemned to betray their voters in the next Coalition of Failure, as Germans continue to abandon the cartel parties in droves” – On Substack, Eugyppius dissects the aftermath of Germany’s federal elections, predicting a shaky CDU/SPD coalition that’ll only boost AfD’s momentum.
- “Germany is stuck in a centrist trap” – The political extremes in Germany are gaining ground, writes Wolfgang Munchau in UnHerd.
- “France has just proved J.D. Vance was right” – Shutting down conservative TV stations in the name of “diversity” only confirms that the French progressive elite can’t handle dissent, says Gavin Mortimer in the Telegraph.
- “Trump puts Macron in two embarrassing positions at the White House” – Donald Trump appeared to humiliate Emmanuel Macron when he didn’t greet him on his recent arrival at the White House, and perched him by the side of his desk in the Oval Office, reports the Mail.
- “France offers nuclear shield to Europe” – French jet fighters armed with nuclear weapons could be posted to Germany, reveals the Telegraph.
- “A continent led by donkeys” – Europe’s independence from the US will be hard and expensive, warns Ed West on his Substack.
- “Furious Zelensky ‘screamed at Trump’s envoy’ over woeful mineral deal” – Zelensky has torn into Trump’s Treasury Secretary over a proposed deal that would trade Ukraine’s mineral wealth for vague security promises, reports the Mail.
- “BBC Gaza documentary cameraman appears to celebrate October 7th attacks” – BBC cameraman Hatem Rawagh – credited on its controversial Gaza documentary – posted tweets celebrating the October 7th massacre, according to the Telegraph.
- “BBC ‘poured £400,000 into controversial Gaza documentary’” – The row over the BBC’s controversial Gaza documentary has deepened after it emerged the corporation spent £400,000 on its production, reports the Mail.
- “BBC bias is not just inept, it’s becoming sinister” – The BBC’s problems of bias are not just systemic and have now reached the point of being sickening and shameful, says Danny Cohen in the Telegraph.
- “Hamas official admits he would not support October 7th attack now” – A billionaire Hamas official says he would not have supported the October 7th attack against Israel today had he known the destruction it would bring to Gaza, according to the Mail.
- “‘Tories must be willing to disengage from international law’” – In the strongest hint yet that she would be willing to leave the ECHR, Kemi Badenoch will say at a speech today that activists cannot be allowed to use international law to further their agenda through the British courts, reports the Telegraph.
- “Violent burglar avoids deportation over ECHR right to family life” – A violent Lithuanian burglar has avoided deportation after claiming it would breach his right to a family life under the European Convention on Human Rights, says the Telegraph.
- “Trump-Starmer meeting: three things PM will say and two he won’t” – Keir Starmer’s Oval Office meeting with Trump will see him trying to steer the President on to the subjects of Ukraine, defence spending and tariffs, while attempting to avoid free speech, writes Steven Swinford in the Times.
- “Boris Johnson calls for 3% defence spending” – Boris Johnson has called for Britain to increase its defence spending to 3% to help guarantee Europe’s security against Russian aggression, reports the Telegraph.
- “Woke banks are Putin’s best friends” – Ethical investing has threatened our security by removing support from vital defence suppliers, says Andrew Orlowski in the Telegraph.
- “One in 10 peers paid for political advice by companies” – Ninety-one members of the House of Lords have been paid by commercial companies to give political or policy advice, reveals the Guardian.
- “Fury at the police force that refuses to fight crime” – Public fury has erupted over the Met Police’s approach, or lack thereof, to fighting crime in the capital after a streetwear brand marketing stunt saw Gen Z yobs take over police cars, reports the Mail.
- “The British police are deeply hostile to free speech” – We have become almost blasé about the police showing up at someone’s home because they have posted something somewhere that someone else found offensive, says Tom Slater in the Spectator, because it happens so often. But we really shouldn’t be.
- “Starmer’s AI tsar invested in firm given £2.3 million government contract to snoop on social media” – The Government’s AI tsar was an investor in a company awarded £2.3 million of taxpayers’ money to create a platform that trawls social media for “concerning” posts, reports the Telegraph.
- “Jonathan Reynolds apologises for describing himself as a solicitor” – The Business Secretary has apologised for describing himself as a solicitor despite having never finished his training, says the Mail.
- “MP Mike Amesbury is jailed for sucker-punching a constituent” – Former Labour MP Mike Amesbury has been jailed for 10 weeks after admitting to drunkenly “sucker punching” a constituent in the street, reports the Mail.
- “The Runcorn by-election will be Reform’s first real test, and it risks puncturing Farage’s bubble” – Mike Amesbury’s removal is a golden opportunity for Reform to prove they’re on the march in Labour’s heartlands, says William Atkinson in the Telegraph. But expectations are so high, it will need to win the seat.
- “Churchill portraits removed from Parliament after Labour’s victory” – Portraits of Winston Churchill, the Duke of Wellington and more British heroes have been removed from the Houses of Parliament after Labour’s election win last summer, according to GB News.
- “Parliament could be moved onto huge floating barge as MPs debate future” – The House of Commons and Lords could be relocated to a floating barge on the Thames as the cost of repairing the Victorian palace soars, reports the Express.
- “Who runs administrative agencies?” – On Substack, Dean V. Williamson argues that while the ‘Deep State’ might sound plausible, it’s actually political appointees at the top of administrative agencies who truly shape policy.
- “We don’t need ‘postliberalism’” – Real reform in western societies doesn’t call for new solidarity but its opposite: a new spirit of blasphemy – against the state cult of Human Rights, writes Travis Aaroe in the Spectator.
- “Why Ed Miliband is to blame for Britain’s disastrous smart meter rollout” – Britain’s woeful smart meter rollout can be traced back to a decision made by Labour during Ed Miliband’s first stint as Energy Secretary, says Tom Haynes in the Telegraph.
- “Auto manufacturers are getting out of EVs. When will the Government follow?” – Failure to row back on the 2030 target to ban new petrol car sales could crush what remains of the car industry, warns Matthew Lynn in the Telegraph.
- “BP to abandon green energy target and ramp up oil” – BP will this week abandon plans to radically increase green energy generation and instead ramp up oil production, according to This is Money.
- “Chilling warning issued as new coronavirus found in China” – Leading doctors have reacted to the emergence of a new coronavirus, calling its spread to humans an “eventuality”, reports the Mail.
- “Double standards in COVID-19 vaccine science” – On Substack, Dr Raphael Lataster calls out Jeffrey S. Morris for claiming to be “critical of both sides” on COVID-19 vaccines – while conveniently skipping any real scrutiny of the pro-vaccine narrative.
- “FDA approves Pfizer drugs with inadequate safety and efficacy data, and then regulators work for Pfizer” – On Substack, Vinay Prasad exposes the revolving door of corruption between the FDA and Pfizer, where regulators approve drugs with dodgy safety data and later take up lucrative jobs at the company.
- “Trump says feds who don’t respond to Elon Musk’s email will be fired” – President Trump has backed Elon Musk’s demand that federal employees write a five-point email detailing what they did last week, with those who fail to respond facing termination, says the Mail.
- “Apple to invest $500 billion in US as it scrambles to beat Trump’s China tariffs” – Apple has said it will spend $500 billion and hire 20,000 new staff in the US as the tech giant scrambles to avoid the threat of Trump’s tariffs targeting goods made in China, according to Business Matters.
- “Trans police officers to be allowed to strip-search women” – Police have revived plans to allow transgender officers to strip-search women, reports the Telegraph.
- “It’s time to reform the Gender Recognition Act” – If Labour politicians like the Scottish leader, Anas Sarwar, want women’s spaces to be sacrosanct, then they must eventually address the source of this legal absurdity, writes Iain Macwhirter in the Spectator.
- “Sam Fender is right about white privilege” – Reform’s standing in the opinion polls is what happens when a governing class is seduced by the otherworldly and simplistic fantasies of academia, says Patrick West in the Spectator.
- “Even a ‘literal communist’ like Ash Sarkar knows the Left is in crisis” – After years of demanding conservatives explain who their funders are, woke activists are facing similarly tough questions, notes Brendan O’Neill in the Telegraph.
- “‘The dictator from across the pond, Sir Keir Stalin’” – A deep fake video on X shows Trump and Elon taking turns roasting Starmer.
Trump and Elon roasting Starmer, Has the UK become the modern day Germany ? (deep Fake) Satire, hope you like
— Anti WEF Agenda (@AntiWEFAgenda) February 23, 2025pic.twitter.com/US3EORhRTx
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” It seems like almost any kind of coalition is possible – except the Right-wing government that Germans actually voted for, says Elisabeth Dampier in the Spectator.”
Give it a rest. Did anyone who voted CDU/CSU/FDP think they would get a “right wing” government. About 20% voted for a “right wing” government – the rest are idiots or lefties.
Yep, older people, young women and the migrants who can vote are hardly likely to have voted AfD. What a let down, despite the significant gains AfD have made this election it doesn’t make any difference going forward. It’s obviously a case of, ”Meet the new boss, same as the old boss…”
”Following his party’s victory in federal elections on Sunday, Friedrich Merz, the likely next Chancellor of Germany, rejected overtures from President Donald Trump while calling for “independence” from the United States and accusing Washington of election interference.
On Sunday, German voters firmly rejected the former leftist governing coalition of Social Democrats and Greens in favour of the supposedly conservative Christian Democrats and the populist-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
However, the successor to Angela Merkel and likely incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose party came first in Sunday’s vote but fell well short of a majority with just 28.5 per cent of the vote, was quick to reject a right-wing alliance with the AfD in favour of a left-wing coalition and to distance himself from Trump and America in general.
“I am communicating closely with a lot of prime ministers and heads of EU states, and for me, it is an absolute priority to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that we achieve independence from the U.S., step by step,” Merz said per state broadcaster DW.
“I never thought that I would ever need to say something like that, on television, but after the latest statements made by Donald Trump last week, it is clear, that the Americans — at any case these Americans, this administration — mostly don’t care about the fate of Europe one way or another,” the CDU leader added.
Merz went on to accuse the Trump administration of having committed election interference, likely hinting at key Trump ally Elon Musk, a vocal supporter of the anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany party,
He said that the “interventions from Washington were no less drastic, dramatic, and ultimately no less brazen, than the intervention that we have seen from Moscow.”
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2025/02/24/likely-german-chancellor-rejects-trump-accuses-u-s-of-russian-style-election-interference-calls-for-independence-from-america/
One of the problems that I see with western democracies is that there is a large part of the population, typically older people who consider themselves to be moderate and “centrist”, who are failing to understand what is going on.
They don’t realise that the people who run the main parties are not the same kind of people that used to run them. These new leaders are not the sensible, reasonable, post war, early boomer generation that used to lead these parties. They are completely different. More detached from reality, more self self.serving and more mediocre.
So these snoozing oldies as one might call them, just don’t realise what is being done and less so the harm that is coming down the line. They think that if they carry on voting for the same parties they have always voted for, life will carry on as it has, not realising it’s the complete opposite.
Their once sensible parties have the most radical transformative.policies – radical socal agenda, net zero, mass immigration, mass censorship, and warmongering..
Western civilisation is being driven off a cliff because a big chunk of our population is completely asleep at the back oblivious to it all.
100%
And there is a appreciable part of the population, typically younger people, that still believe in this stuff, the stuff that has been shown to be unrealistic, causing catastrophe.
There are a lot of snoozing oldies but have you tried to engage with the young. Too many have become depoliticised or else they mouth whatever they last heard from a D-class celeb (probably with her tits hanging out at the time).
I find young people to be fairly clued in and therefore a bit cynical. But on the whole not much different to when I was young a good few decades ago now.
This.
Boris Johnson calls for 3% defence spending
Mr Johnson demonstrates, yet again, that he has no clue…….
As we stand, today, we are effectively defenceless as a country and I am not alone in saying that.
‘The last time the UK spent more than 5% of its GDP on defence was in the height of the cold war……Each defence review since 1957 has led to cuts to the defence budget in real terms. Reductions in the military budget continue because, previously, nothing presented a sufficient sub-nuclear threat to the nation deemed significant enough to reverse them. Those cuts are now so deep that the nation is on the edge of being unable to defend itself’
Kenton White, The Defence Journal
The MoD says 3.6%
‘The UK needs to spend 3.6 per cent of GDP on defence if it wants to modernise its military while protecting its nuclear deterrent and meeting Nato obligations, according to internal Ministry of Defence calculations.’
‘The 3.6 per cent figure would raise spending to about £93bn and take the UK closer to Poland, which shares a border with Ukraine and spends more than 4 per cent of its GDP on defence annually.’
‘…with any conceivable budget, even if it is a little bit more than 2.5 per cent . . . we will not be able to address [the UK military’s] lack of readiness, war stocks and so on’
https://www.ft.com/content/42912734-5688-41ea-9194-d759c321da52
But 3.6% is nowhere near enough.
‘In 2015, the British Army’s headmark output was to be a warfighting division…….The current British Army actually fields half of one heavy brigade’s worth of equipment, split between two, and one regiment of artillery.’
‘Today, the UK promises to provide a UK Strategic Reserve Corps. A corps is formed of a minimum of two divisions, plus corps echelon troops that collectively amount to a third division’s worth of equipment…….With one UK brigade already committed to Estonia, the actual forces available for this corps appear to consist of one under-strength brigade which is short of enablers, and a deep recce-strike brigade double-hatted as both the divisional and corps fires group.’
https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/closing-saydo-gap-uk-land-power
And that is before we even think about war stocks of combat supplies and the ‘industrial resilience’ to sustain and replenish those stocks.
The Royal Ordnance Factories comprised thirteen industrial sites in 1984. BAE Land Systems now has only one such site.
This country, if it wishes to protect its own borders let alone muster a forward defence based conventional deterrent now requires to spend at least 5% of its GDP annually on defence.
It will not.
We are defenceless……..
We are a little bit more diverse though, and much more LGBTQXYZEIEIO friendly, and that’s what really matters.
We also have a massive cadre of very senior officers, so our leadership must also the best, because we’ve got (much) more of it.
Glad I binned it when I did, it was farcical 13 years ago, I dread to think what it’s like these days…
Didn’t you know, politicians only have to proclaim a vision, and it’s done!
Well, that’s been the idea, but it doesn’t appear to be working any more: Ukraine, Jabs, Scottish Independence, Heat Pumps, Cheap Electricity, an overwhelming love of EVs!
The demise of MAGA. And SHE should have won, in 2016.
There are all sorts of tricks the government can play with numbers. Cameron-Clegg added the cost of security services to defence spending to try to get to 2% but comparative numbers were not updated, of course.
The 2023/4 Tory increase in defence spending plans hod to cover military aim to Ukraine as well as a number of unfunded commitments.
For honest budgeting we need more detail and numerate MPs. We need journos interested in reporting the truth, but we all know how unlikely that is!!!
This is where you get the money from and the SDR is looking at it:
‘….greater investment in digital transformation, listing three urgent tasks for digital decision makers: replacing antiquated IT systems; improving the quality and shareability of data; and recruiting and retaining scarce, in-demand skills.
“The challenge is vast. Defra spends more than three quarters of its digital budget maintaining ageing systems. The MoD in part relies on kit dating back to the Cold War for defence inventory management,” he will say.
However, the Passport Office’s response to its post-lockdown backlog, improving its systems and operational management, show “it can be done”‘
“He will argue that issuing and collecting Council Tax via a Netflix-style digital platform would eliminate the duplication of effort and costs across local authorities, making for a more streamlined system and reducing annual spending from £1.11bn to around £8.5m.
He identifies other public services that could make savings and efficiencies – registrars could reduce annual spending from £110m to £0.85m through the introduction of identity verification platforms which would eliminate the current requirement for each of the 1.5 million births, deaths and marriages across England and Wales each year to be registered face-to-face.
Professor Thompson will also target Housing Associations, which manage nearly a fifth of the UK’s housing stock, arguing that a sector-wide payments and arrears service could reduce annual expenditure from £200m to £1.5m, and allow staff across the sector to be redeployed in front line customer facing roles.
“Public services are heading towards a cliff – staying the same isn’t an option anymore,” Professor Thompson said.
“Part of the problem is the massive duplication of corporate activity between public services, which wastes many billions each year, prevents our services from working effectively together, and directly defunds crucial front line services such as social housing, teachers, doctors and nurses, social care, and police on the street.
“But there is a way to for government to persuade public service organisations to adopt common ways of doing some things – by working with the private sector to develop standardised, digitally-enabled services’
https://news.exeter.ac.uk/research/exeter-expert-to-outline-radical-reforms-to-uk-public-services-that-could-save-millions/
The easy part is the spending as Viv Nicholson showed sixty years ago. The part that governments of any colour never do is to spend wisely and that’s assuming all the kickbacks are within “reasonable” limits. So carrying on about percentages is in fact simply bullshit.
It’s a start:
‘Among the new measures will be a new military strategic headquarters, chief of the defence staff, who will formally command the individual service chiefs for the first time and will “now be central to investment decisions between the services, along with the defence secretary and permanent secretary”, the MoD said.
The ministry has opened recruitment for a new standalone national armaments director (NAD) to help fix the “broken” defence procurement system and enable the MoD to better invest in new weapons and other technologies.
The NAD will be responsible for reforming defence procurement and delivering a new defence industrial strategy. They will be asked to “ensure the armed forces are properly equipped to defend Britain, to build up the British defence industry and to crack down on waste”
https://www.publictechnology.net/2024/10/30/defence-and-security/government-pledges-biggest-reform-of-mod-in-over-50-years/
“Germans won’t get the Right-wing government they voted for”
Government of the Left, by the Left, for the Left.
You can have any government you like, as long as it’s Left, Far Left, Extreme Left, Green Left, Bonkers, Schizoid or Bat-Shit Crazy.
Sorted until the next voodoo election.
Ve haf vays to make you suffer
I find it somewhat amusing.
Something like schadenfreude, I expect.
Anyone who voted for any of the Uniparty parties expecting a “right wing” government is deluded. I’m not even convinced that a lot of the people who nominally right-leaning parties are actually that “right wing” – I think of the six million who voted Tory here, lots of them are “soft left” at the least. The rich world, with maybe the exception of the US which is more polarised, has moved left.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/2018802/Parliament-restoration-riverside-thames
Floating barge? Seaworthy or not, let it ‘float’ away with the
criminals / shysterpoliticians on board, as far away from our shores as possible! That’s what they did in the good old days, shipping them off to the likes of Australia…or better still, dump them down the salt mines of Siberia. They could try an honest, hard days graft for once!Sink it?
Brutally simple – I love it!
How much better to represent selling the nation down the river.
Nailed it.
I will gladly second.
Of course if said barge was to inexplicably loose its moorings and a disaster occur, well… accidents happen.
“BBC bias is not just inept, it’s becoming sinister”
The People’s Commentariat is deepest Red, Rainbow and Gaza-Green.
Someone please pull the plug pronto on this state-sponsored panderer to international terrorism.
“On Substack, Dean V. Williamson argues that while the ‘Deep State’ might sound plausible, it’s actually political appointees at the top of administrative agencies who truly shape policy.”
Of course there’s an element of the bureaucracy wanting to perpetuate itself but I don’t buy all the hand wringing from politicians- I reckon in general they are quite happy with what the agencies do. Something to hide behind and blame.
“Britain’s woeful smart meter rollout can be traced back to a decision made by Labour during Ed Miliband’s first stint as Energy Secretary, says Tom Haynes in theTelegraph.”
I can’t read the Telegraph (actually not sure I’d want to) but I presume they mean that the rollout has not proceeded fast enough – the assumption being that dumb smart meters are solving some problem or other. I’m sick of the Telegraph.
“Jonathan Reynolds apologises for describing himself as a solicitor”
Next up, Sir Two-Tier apologising for being described as a Prime Minister.
Dream on.
Now hang on – he doesn’t know he is the prime minister now, he keeps calling the leader of the opposition PM! Must be quite alarming for him to be in that ‘illustrious’ position – it’s certainly frightening for us!
Another step towards the Truth about COVID Jabs:
https://open.substack.com/pub/lionessofjudah/p/wealthy-french-businessman-died-from?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=3hvv8j
Who runs administrative agencies?
How do you know when the public sector is far too large?
This is how you know:
‘The Environment Agency asked the Trent Valley Internal Drainage Board to cut weeds and de-silt parts of the River Smite in Nottinghamshire last year following complaints from residents and businesses about flooding.
But a week after the work began, the agency visited, ordered it to be halted and told the drainage board to refer itself to police for a potential breach of environment regulations.
The Environment Agency said while it was not clear if water voles were present at the time of the work – because a survey had not completed – their presence could not be ruled out.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqly3549gxro.amp
I’m from the government and I’m here to help….or not really…..
“Hamas official admits he would not support October 7th attack now”
And what did he expect while he was supporting it? Israel to agree to mass suicide and abandonment of the land in return for releasing the hostages?
“Furious Zelensky ‘screamed at Trump’s envoy’ over woeful mineral deal”
He’ll be screaming even more today, after this:
Ukrainian parliament rejects resolution supporting Zelensky