- “Liz Truss announces her ‘trimmed’ honours list of 11 people” – Liz Truss announced her resignation honours last night, nominating three close associates for peerages and eight for honours, reports the Mail.
- “Aviva boss who vets senior white male recruits awarded damehood” – Amanda Blanc, the Aviva boss who was ridiculed for declaring she discriminated against white men, has been made a Dame in the New Year’s Honours for her services to business, gender equality and Net Zero, according to the Telegraph.
- “Giorgia Meloni named ‘Man of the Year’ by Right-wing Italian newspaper” – Libero says country’s first female PM has won “the war of the sexes” and “not only broken the glass ceiling, [but] dissolved it”, says the Telegraph.
- “David Hume was no racist, academics tell Edinburgh University” – The philosopher was actually an implacable and vocal opponent of slavery, according to David Ashton and Peter Hutton, reports the Times.
- “Lineker’s Star is Fading” – In Country Squire, Jack Watson predicts Gary Lineker will disappear from our screens in 2024.
- “We Don’t Like Children Anyhow” – In his latest Substack post, Dr David McGrogan sets out the conservative case for reducing parents’ reliance on the state for childcare.
- “The West may now have no option but to attack Iran” – In the Telegraph, John Bolton says the only way to rein in an increasingly out-of-control government in Tehran is to punish it, ideally with rockets.
- “Slash funds to sports bodies pushing gender ideology, report says” – A new Policy Exchange reports urges the Government to cut funding to sporting bodies that promote gender identity ideology, reports the Mail.
- “Rishi Sunak is brutally snubbed by Southampton boss” – Rishi Sunak was present as the Saints extended their unbeaten run to 17 games, but the manager ignored him, says the Mail.
- “Reform U.K. support climbs to 10% as Tories fail to turn tide” – A poll of nearly 2,000 voters shows Labour heading for a Commons majority if an election was held today, with the Tories support ebbing away to Reform, according to the Telegraph.
- “Let 2024 be the year we champion true democracy” – In his Mail column, Boris Johnson asks: “How can we claim moral superiority over autocracies when judges here and in America seek to take power from the people?”
- “Women raped by Hamas ‘found with nails driven into thighs and groin’” – New devastating accounts of sexual violence and torture enacted on defenceless Israeli women by Hamas terrorists amid their brutal October 7 attacks have emerged, reports the Mail.
- “UN sends more asylum seekers to Rwanda – despite opposing UK scheme” – Officials in Rwanda announced they had welcomed 153 people who had been evacuated from Libya under a UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) programme, according to the Mail.
- “Europe on alert for jihadist attacks on New Year’s Eve” – The Hamas massacre in Israel and war in Gaza have fuelled a new wave of radicalisation, intelligence experts warn, reports the Times.
- “Boris Johnson wishes GB News viewers a Happy New Year” – The former Prime Minister has issued a New Year’s message to GB News, where his new programme will debut shortly.
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https://x.com/danwootton/status/1807413108110938514
I have only seen the Dan Wootton clip – smarten yourself up lad – and it is good. Nigel Farage was however mesmerisingly good. Thirty-five minutes off the cuff, honest, forthright, and no flannel. I have not heard a speech like it in my lifetime.
Absolutely first class.
Farage’s Sunderland speech is on YouTube. I’m off to bed.
I watched the Reform Rally speeches last night and Zia Yusuf was a breath of fresh air. Call me sentimental but he came across as passionate and sincere. Ann Widdecombe was forthright and statemanlike but we need younger, inspirational contributors to the debate.
Agreed.
Coal Oil Gas Trounce Wind Solar – latest leaflet to print at home and deliver to neighbours or forward to politicians, your local vicar, online media and friends online. We have over 200 leaflet ideas on the link on the leaflet.
Renewables are a pipe dream for eco nut jobs. Every Winter we get weeks of cold calm weather. Short dull days, so hardly any solar. I make candles as a hobby, Iv’e started to store them.
The press acts in dishonest sneaky ways to rig the system in favour of established power.
One clear way is calling anything that opposes establishment dogma as “far right” or “populist”.
It’s deliberately done to frighten voters because they know very well it brings to mind certain political movements of the 1930s.
The term is applied systematically to anyone who opposes the technocratic agenda.
In some cases, like Trump, they go even further and openly suggest he is a dictator, that will end democracy.
True but still the People are beginning to break through, like in France. The press and MSM are getting desperate and sloppy and even the most propagandised are beginning to wake up.
“Classical historian Mary Beard says that populism has always been fuelled by “dissatisfaction and discontent””
Sounds a lot like the People voting the incumbents out because the People don’t think they’ve done a good job. Reminds of something. Democracy? It’s clearer than ever that large numbers of people don’t really believe in democracy as the lest worst political system, it’s just a convenient vehicle to hide behind, as long as the right sort of people with the right sort of ideas get to really run things.
Yes. We are being far too independent in our thinking and not listening to the “right” views. David McGrogan comments on the Sceptic podcast about the attitude of many of the political class, ie that we shouldn’t have access to alternative views. I’m proud to be labelled “populist” because I interpret it as meaning “democrat” in the true sense of the word. (I’m also resigned to being called an anti-vaxxer, virus-denier, climate-denier, etc. because that’s what comes from being a free speech absolutist.)
The election result in France was on the BBC news last night. I counted the words ‘far right’, only mentioned 2 times….
Exactly. I have always been a little to the right of centre, what used (and I emphasise ‘used’) to be considered a typical conservative voter. Now, with my views not having changed, they are considered ‘far right’. Strange times.
Strange times indeed.
The trouble with that is that the public at large doesn’t differentiate between populist and popular.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/01/at-least-30-reform-candidates-have-cast-doubt-on-human-induced-global-heating
Well, that’s Reform stuffed then; nobody will vote for them now that The Guardian has exposed them as heretics 🙂
Only 30?
There’s two things here:
This means no Guardian subscribers will vote for Reform.
It also means no Reform UK voters will take up Guardian subscriptions.
They didn’t think it through!
https://news.sky.com/story/nigel-farage-speech-interrupted-by-banner-showing-smirking-vladimir-putin-13161154
‘Led By Donkeys noted Mr Farage’s comments from 2014, where he told GQ magazine Mr Putin was the world leader he most admired.’
What’s really going on?
The world leader he most admired…….words fail………
‘Everyone in Russia learns to live with a feeling of helplessness. You have to get used to the fact the government doesn’t care about you and will try to harm you.
One reason why Russia opens these criminal cases against activists is to ruin their lives even from afar.
I stayed quiet out of fear for my safety. It was clear that this criminal case was mainly an attempt to silence me. I knew there were more risks involved if I continued to do my activism publicly, so I stopped.’
‘This fear might sound silly to people unfamiliar with how Russian citizens have had to live since the start of the invasion. But since Feb. 24, a lot of Russians, particularly those opposed to the war, have felt like the ultimate bad guys. While the Russian government hunts us down, many democratic countries don’t want to let us in, close our bank accounts, and tell journalists poisoned on their territory that they should have been more careful.’
‘Elena Kostyuchenko, Natalia Arno, and Irina Babloyan, have long worked to expose the Kremlin’s lies. While traveling through Europe in the last year, each was poisoned by unknown toxins.’
‘Kostyuchenko’s book on Russia’s descent into fascism is due out in a few weeks, and the German police have told her the publicity may do her no favors given that whoever was sent to kill her in Ukraine or Berlin could well be incentivized to try again.
Kostyuchenko has written her own recollection of her suspected poisoning in Russian for Meduza. She urges any other Russians who have fled their homeland and now reside overseas to be careful and to immediately report unusual physical symptoms to medical professionals — also to get in touch with The Insider, which is actively investigating all suspected cases of poisoning.’
https://theins.ru/en/politics/264280
The world leader he most admired……..
‘Who put that up there? Someone at the Columbine Centre needs to get the sack.’
I do not doubt for a moment that Russia is not a utopian garden of Eden and that life there may not always be a barrel of laughs. On the other hand, as I understand it when Putin rose to prominence the Russian Federation was something of a corruption ridden basket case and it does seem that Putin has made huge efforts to hold the federation together and build it into a stronger country albeit that his operating methods are open to question. There are some in the west who would like to see the Russian Federation broken up and thus ironically it may be Putin’s success in strengthening the Federation that has lead to the West giving huge support to Ukraine in the hope that this will break the Russian Federation. Having regard to the old adage ”what does not kill you, makes you stronger” the West’s thinking on this could of course end up having the opposite effect.
I have to wonder if Starmer or Sunak could have done what Putin has managed to do? Indeed I do wonder if, as seems likely, we end up with a Starmer Government, whether at the end of 5 years we will not look to Russsia and wonder if life there is all that bad?
The Putin Paradox by Richard Sakwa. Very instructive on the mess Putin inherited, and how he has steered a way through it.
A Knight of the realm putting poison in Britain’s underpants? Good Lord! I suppose it’s possible but it does seem somewhat unlikely, certainly to me?
You have evidence that Putin had access to those underpants or that he gave a direct order to do what you allege of course?
Or, if it is proven to be Russian, it couldn’t possibly be rogue security services still operating using the Soviet playbook could it?
Of course, rogue CIA operatives are not unknown and nor are CIA sponsored assassinations, neither are false flag operations to discredit Russia.
Just saying.
“You know that the Russians, because of our sanctions, have the strongest economy they’ve ever had. They are now immune to sanctions. Putin is more popular than he was when we started attacking.”
Robert Kennedy Jnr.
I think you are confusing Russia with Ukraine.
Wait! What? Starmer has a ‘dinghy policy’? And, it’s apparently to hope it rains? Jesus…
HA ha , he is so thick he doesn’t realise it’s the WIND that stops them.
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/arctic/2024/06/back-ussr-soviet-flags-wave-svalbard#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20tradition%20has%20been%20revived,in%20both%20Pyramiden%20and%20Barentsburg.
‘The Soviet flag on the mountain peak of Pyramiden was hoisted on on June 21. The flag is 5 by 3 meters and larger than any Norwegian flags on the archipelago where Norway has the full and absolute sovereignty.’
What’s really going on?
Not content with Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, the Baltic States, the Russian ‘Union State’ now has designs on Norway as well!
‘“The application of Soviet symbols in Barentsburg and Pyramiden are framed as a key part of Arctikugol’s development of tourism, while at the same time it serves as a strategy to bolster Russian presence on Svalbard and evoke ideas of Soviet greatness and historical revanchism,”
Professor Kari Aga Myklebost, UiT, Arctic University of Norway. 30 June 2024
Context: “Pyramiden is an abandoned Soviet coal mining settlement on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard which has become a tourist destination.”
As for flags on mountain peaks: “Sir Edmund Hillary flew the Union Jack when he, along with Tenzing Norgay, completed the first successful ascent of Mount Everest on 29 May 1953″. This did not signify a land grab by the British.
“‘My electric car has been soul-destroying – I can’t wait to go back to petrol’”
I notice that 2 of the EV owners in this article have their EVs on a lease deal and plan to wait until the end of the lease deal and then hand them back. This seems to add weight to the argument against the outright ownership of an EV; lease one, borrow one or hire one but do not buy one. Lease deals for private users seem to start at about £300 a month, although when the huge depreciation on EVs is increasingly factored in, these lease costs may well rise.
If this argument is correct then you need to be looking at paying £4000+ per annum to have an EV on a lease deal. This raises a huge barrier to motoring for many low and middle income earners. It is also a huge amount to pay for vehicles which many of these owners are reporting only have a much lower range than advertised, so much so that they are only suitable for local utility travel and do not fit the bill for carefree long distance leisure motoring.
It seems that the incoming Labour Government is hell bent on getting rid of petrol/diesel (ICE) cars as soon as possible. Whether they will up the tax and restrictions on ICE cars so as to ‘drive’ them off the road, I do not know, but if EV uptake is low they may well take such action. Many at the lower income end will be forced to give up motoring. or at least give up car ownership. I think that there will be an increasing number of Community EV Car clubs set up so that you can borrow one from time to time (Boris bikes for cars) and indeed that seems like the only way I will ever drive an EV.
It is a huge economic and social change for our Country and I am not sure people realise that this is what they are voting for on Thursday?
I was chatting to a friend who leases an EV via the firm he works for, so it’s a very attractive deal financially. He said there was no way he’d pay market price with his own money for an EV.
So yet another type of subsidy for EVs. The government is forgoing tax on benefits in kind.
I believe a lot of EVs are “purchased” this way. At our firm it’s done by salary sacrifice so typically employees are saving 40%.
My neighbour has one which he openly admits is a tax saving measure. His is a plug-in hybrid which is never plugged in.
I think they get cheaper than normal electricity too
Battery Bangers are crap. End of.
I was telling my friend with the EV about milk floats – he’s foreign and young so had no idea what one is 🙂
If motoring becomes impossible the economy will grind to a halt. For millions of people public transport cannot get them to their workplace.
All the factory and warehouse workers will be working from home. No problem!
😀 😀 😀
Thanks Hux, you have made my day.
That makes evs a ‘disposable item’ like a mobile phone, have it for three years then get the latest model, THE most sickening outcome for the environment !
Quite a list, where to start.
Marine le Pen thrashes Macron, best news this week.
Starmer hopes July will be wet to deter Channel crossings. The sea is wet you idiot, it’s the strong winds that deter crossings. Talk about thick.
Italian study finds reduction in life expectancy after covid jabs. You don’t say Sherlock.
Summer covid wave building. Fearmongering bullshit. Go away.
My electric car is soil destroying. Well we did warn you.
Almost half of Labour voters in step with gender laws. I fail to see how this can be judged.
Google jigsaw increases online censorship. F*ck you Google.
Nice one.
“Italian study showing a reduction in life expectancy with increased Covid vaccination has been published”
“Summer Covid wave ‘building’ after rise in hospital admissions”
I don’t believe this is a coincidence.
Bird ‘flu, H5N1 due late Autumn / Winter 2024.
Starmer hoping for a wet July because that keeps people inside and not getting vitamin D from sunshine which of course increases susceptibility to ‘flu and colds.
H5N1? Oh noes!
Do you realise how many people died in the terrible worldwide outbreak of H5N1 from 2004?
Nearly 250!
Two hundred and fifty? A Super Pandemic then?
“Muslim entrepreneur and former Tory Zia Yusuf just gave THE SPEECH of this election campaign for Reform UK”
“This is a movement for British people of all races and faiths who love their country – a movement for those who want to see British values protected”, said the Pakistani Muslim millionaire who made his fortune in Britain.
“A star is born!”, gushed Dan Wooton, forgetting that Muslims are permitted by Islam to say and do anything in order to establish The Global Caliphate.
Get ready for the “Bait & Switch”…
Well maybe but on the other hand I personally know various foreigners very well, including a lapsed Muslim, and have done for many years, and they are either very good actors or they love this country and both love and live what used to be its values more passionately than a lot of white British metro liberal champagne socialists I know. So this bloke might be for real – as far as that’s true of any politician.
Milktoast.
I just call things as I see them, based on the evidence in front of me
👍👍
So it will be better if we stick with what we’ve got and don’t take any risks!
Cobblers!
Vote reform, see what we get, let’s face it, it won’t be any worse!