Labour - A Study In Cowardice

Once more we are informed that Rachel Reeves is asking spending departments of Government for cuts. There have been tax rises, but little investment. Pensioners, the disabled, those on or below the poverty line, and most recently WASPI women, all have been turned away. They will have to make do with less. It does not have to be this way, and well she knows it.

Someone bereft of ideas, versus ...

The Starmer Government has itself stuck in what Simon Fletcher called a “Right wing doom loop” in a recent Byline Times article (read it HERE). Ms Reeves has pinned her hopes on growth, but growth is not forecast to occur any time soon. Her embrace of economic orthodoxy means more needless austerity, more wasted years of poor economic performance.

That it does not need to be this way has been known for more than 85 years, since the first publication of The General Theory Of Employment Interest And Money. John Maynard Keynes’ ideas, and, indeed, his prediction of where over-reliance on economic orthodoxy would lead, were not lost on a new generation of economists, as J K Galbraith later observed.

He later put this directly in The Age Of Uncertainty: “In 1937, recovery from the Great Depression was slowly under way; production and prices were rising, although unemployment was still appalling. The men of sound judgment now asserted themselves. They moved to cut spending, raise taxes and bring the federal budget into balance”. There was more.

“The few Keynesians protested; our voices were drowned out in the roar of orthodox applause. As the budget moved towards balance, the recovery came to a halt. Presently there was a new and ghastly slump, a recession within the Depression. It was entirely as Keynes had predicted. The men of sound judgment had made our case”. Pages 219 and 220 in my edition.

What is Ms Reeves doing? It looks very much like “cut spending, raise taxes and bring the … budget into balance”. And the forecast result, no growth in the foreseeable future, or even a recession, is, once again, exactly as Keynes would have predicted. The mistakes made in the USA in the late 30s were only countered by increased spending, this time on war.

... someone who was never thus constrained

The Keynesian remedy - running a deficit when the economy needs supporting - is known to any economist, or economic thinker, in the UK, Europe and elsewhere. It is available to any economy with control of its own currency - like the UK. For a country whose infrastructure is in such a run down state after fourteen years of Tory neglect, it seems a no-brainer.

Yet Starmer and Ms Reeves appear unable, or unwilling, to embrace the approach that served the Labour Government of the immediate post-war years so well. Britain was virtually bankrupt by 1945, yet Attlee and his team brought the Welfare State into being, along with a series of nationalisations, and of course the NHS. Plus, yes, more or less full employment.

Instead of actually taking action, though, we are assailed by a deluge of press releases masquerading as policy. One day it is the deeply dislikable Wes Streeting telling how he is transforming the NHS; today has brought Lucy Powell claiming, and as Treeza might have said, I am not making this up, “We're turning the tables to put ordinary people at the front of the queue”.

One slice of meaningless drivel after another. What does Powell’s assertion even mean? And all the while, there is a daily slew of bad faith knocking copy emanating from our free and fearless press. In a routine show of hypocrisy, they slate anyone they deem to be “talking the country down”, while they constantly talk the country down. But only when Labour are in charge.

As Simon Fletcher has observed, Labour is “relying on an argument that growth in the future will deliver a resolution to the country’s problems”. But what they are doing is not bringing growth, and in the timescale required, is most unlikely to bring growth. Thus they are talking themselves towards defeat, and worse, enabling the far right con men of Reform UK.

Keynes had the answers. His legacy still has them. Hello Rachel Reeves.

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Behold Lord Tobes Of Bellend

And so it came to pass that the time of year meant party leaders nominating a variety of the undeserving and otherwise underemployed as new members of the House of Lords, the Other Place that the current Government was so keen to abolish, but now, seemingly, isn’t. Labour has put forward thirty names, but most of them will escape scrutiny, thanks to Kemi Badenoch.

As ever, at times like this, the opposition rides to your rescue: Ms Badenoch, not content with making herself and her party look less credible with every week’s PMQs, has put forward one name guaranteed to put those of Charlotte Owen and Ross Kempsell, ennobled at the behest of disgraced former occasional PM Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, in the shade.

Because the latest name in the Tory prospective peerage frame is none other than the loathsome Toby Young, who has for many years been full value for his nickname of Captain Bellend. I first observed the deep and sincere affection his peers in the media held for Tobes some years ago.

At the launch event for the HuffPost UK, Zelo Street was there in the auditorium, sitting in the back row as the launch presentation and debate began. Some 20 minutes later, the entrance door to my left opened, someone walked through it, and a chorus of booing ensued. What, I asked the bloke to my left, was all that about? “It’s OK, it’s only Toby Young” came the reply.

It got worse: Tobes was apparently having difficulty finding a seat. The disruption was brought to a swift end when Arianna Huffington recognised The Great Man, and no doubt also knew about all the snarky abuse that he had dispensed in her general direction. “Would you like to join us?” she asked, at which point Tobes thought better of making an even bigger arsehole of himself, and found himself a seat with remarkable swiftness.

That is the memory coming to the fore every time our free and fearless press attempts to polish the turd that is Captain Bellend: the foot-soldiers of this industry have a rather lower opinion of his munificence than their bosses. So most of the crap being spoken about him in reaction to the peerage nomination can be taken with one gigantic piece of salt.

Pride of place in that department goes to the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph proclaiming “Free speech champion Toby Young awarded peerage”. As Billy Connolly once said, there’s going to be some swearing … FUCK OFF. Anyone and everyone has the right of free speech. But all too many on the right don’t like actions having consequences.

It gets worse, as a perusal of Tobes’ Wikipedia entry demonstrates: “Young has admitted using cocaine at the Groucho Club in central London, and also supplying drugs to others. He was subsequently expelled from membership of the club in late 2001 for writing about the cocaine use of friends he had supplied with the drug during a 1997 photo shoot for Vanity Fair”.

Any more minus points? “Young has come under criticism for comments he made on Twitter … These included what an Evening Standard editorial called ‘an obsession with commenting on the anatomy of women in the public eye’”. And how’s this for vanity? “Young is reported to have edited his own Wikipedia page 282 times over the course of six years”. Modest with it, eh?

Maybe this comment from Dawn Foster sums up Tobes’ true place in the establishment pantheon: “Young seems to think he is held in high regard by free school advocates. When I mentioned his name in the course of interviewing a former Department for Education employee for the piece, my interviewee headbutted the restaurant table in exasperation. I have found the sentiment, if not the gesture, to be common among his ideological comrades”.

That is merely reinforced by the knowledge that he was taken on, and then sacked, by the Times, under the editorship of Charles Wilson. This part of his career trajectory he shares with Bozo The Clown, someone else who is full of crap and gobby with it. He’s called Captain Bellend. Because he’s a bellend.

Lord Tobes of Bellend, of the borough of Leering in the county of Misogyny. Because they couldn’t find a horse called Incitatus.

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BBC Farage Promo BLOWS BACK

Whether well-intentioned or not, what the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason did, live on air last week, was to polish the political turd that is Reform UK’s self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage to the point of apparent endorsement, or at the very least, acceptance of his legitimacy. It did not take long for reality to intrude on this establishment love-in.

Chris Mason

Here’s what Mason said: “Never before have we seen a man as rich, with a megaphone as large, so willing to get stuck in to politics not just at home but abroad, and that is pretty profound in its consequences. Little wonder Nigel Farage’s domestic political rivals are fretting, frankly, about just how influential he’s proving to be at the moment”. Added to that was another telling remark.

“Nigel Farage is a man who is a master of political storytelling”. The problem with that comment, and Mason should know how serious a problem it is, is that Farage is, as I have concluded after observing so many of his claims, a congenital liar, in addition to being a racist bigot and a con man.

Worse, Mason’s knowledge of media history is woefully lacking. Maybe he never heard of Max Beaverbrook. Or perhaps he forgot about Rupert Murdoch. Maybe he also missed who is handing Farage that large megaphone of which he speaks. That would, whisper it quietly, be the BBC, which has once again given Mr Thirsty a seat at the Question Time table to dispense his lies, bigotry, and worst of all, his false prospectus.

What Farage is so keen to dispense to his all too easily persuaded followers was demonstrated in the aftermath of a deadly attack on a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg. A man drove his car into the crowds attending the market: thus far, five have died, and more than 200 have been injured. The suspect was originally from Saudi Arabia. Cue Farage.

“We have allowed people who hate us and our values into Europe. Christmas is their target. Any guesses why?” he mused on Twitter, X, or whatever his pal Muskrat is calling it this week. He’s not making accusations, you understand, he’s just a concerned citizen asking the kinds of questions that lead those being dog-whistled to the conclusions required by Himself Personally Now.

The problem for Farage was that, although the suspect was Saudi Arabian, he had arrived in Germany to take refuge because he was an ex-Muslim, someone who had renounced Islam. Worse still for the occasional MP for Clacton, the suspect had endorsed German far-right party AfD, and had spoken approvingly of Stephen Yaxley Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson.

This mildly inconvenient fact has been brought to us by, among others, Shashank Joshi, defence editor at The Economist, who has told "German attack suspect: 'I can say from experience, everything that [Tommy] Robinson says, what Musk says, what Alex Jones says, or anyone who is called radical or right-wing extremist by mainstream media - they are telling the truth’”.

Joshi goes on to quote further from Der Spiegel. “The alleged perpetrator A. is obviously a fan of the AfD, according to an evaluation of … his social media accounts by the SPIEGEL. Eight years ago, he wrote on Twitter that he wanted to start a project together with the AfD: an academy for ex-Muslims”. Musk has endorsed AfD. Farage has endorsed them too.

Even former Murdoch editor Andrew Neil has urged caution: “The Saudi doctor behind last night’s deadly Christmas market massacre in Magdeburg appears to be not quite what many on social media rushed to assume”. And why target a Christmas market? Isn’t Christmas a Christian thing? So it is. But Jesus of Nazareth is also a revered prophet in Islam.

So those killed and injured could quite easily be non-Christians. None of this helps get Mason and the wider BBC off the hook, of course: they keep giving Farage the megaphone, then say “look, he’s got a big megaphone”. Overnight, Farage has shown the BBC who they are promoting. Lying, dog-whistle racism, and the con that is Reform UK. Not a good look.

Nigel Farage has scored more than five million views with that Tweet. The dogs have been whistled; more rabbit holes dug. Hello BBC Farage fans.

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Snivelling Streeting’s Dead Cat

Whenever Labour leader Keir Starmer, or one of his ultra-loyal lieutenants, briefs a dead cat to our free and fearless press, one is reminded of a classic line from the mini-series Smiley’s People, which dates from more than forty years ago, in the days when the BBC could be relied upon to produce classic and memorable television. It comes as Smiley grills an old colleague.

He is questioning former “lamplighter” Toby Esterhase, when the latter fires back “Kindly answer me something. Who is speaking here? Is it George Smiley? Is it [senior civil servant] Oliver Lacon? Who is speaking, please?” It is a question that entered yet again at the weekend, when the deeply dislikable Wes Streeting moved to smear NHS staff by inference.

Moreover, he did so in the pages of the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph, under the headline “Streeting vows to root out NHS anti-Semitism … Health Secretary will urge regulators to discipline doctors and nurses expressing ‘racist or extremist views’ about Gaza conflict”.

And so someone - whether Streeting himself, someone on his behalf, or one of the Tel’s luckless hacks - instantly fell foul of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, which states that criticism of Israel, as one might criticise any country’s Government and actions, is not in itself anti-Semitic. The thought also enters that Mr S may be chucking the dead cat to distract from his own shortcomings, or that someone else, whisper it quietly, may be speaking.

But let’s see what else the Tel has been told, however predictable and pathetic. “Wes Streeting has called on regulators to strike off doctors who bring extremist views about Gaza into the workplace in a crackdown on anti-Semitism in the NHS” … The Health Secretary told the Telegraph he would enforce a ‘zero tolerance approach’”. Two things here.

One, if there is to be a crackdown on anti-Semitism, it must not only exist in the NHS, but must also not be taken seriously at present. But neither Streeting, nor the Tel, does any more than cite a few personal opinions. And Two, if he’s “calling on regulators”, then it is they who take the appropriate action. So Streeting isn’t going to “enforce” anything himself.

So when the Tel says “A number of NHS medics have been reported for anti-Semitic activities … Jewish doctors in the NHS have reported a surge in anti-Semitic abuse from colleagues since Oct 7 [one assumes that is ‘Oct 7’ in 2023]”, that is for the relevant disciplinary processes to be applied, and the regulators to take decisions as a result, but not for Streeting to interfere.

Which brings us to the question of who is speaking. Is it really Streeting? Is it one of Starmer’s inner sanctum? Is it someone like, oh I dunno, Morgan McSweeney? It was the latter who has been quoted by “sources” not unadjacent to Himself as being involved in actions to discredit former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn by playing the anti-Semitism card. Rather a lot.

And why go running to the Telegraph, a title that has veered so far to the right that it now regularly gives space to Reform UK and its Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, someone who I concluded long ago was a congenital liar, a racist bigot, and a con man? Did Streeting take that step of his own accord? Did other titles turn down this particular Dead Cat Opportunity?

If whoever is speaking is not an elected MP, then perhaps they could rectify the problem by becoming one. Meanwhile, maybe Wes Streeting, or someone on his behalf, could confirm that this apparent attempt to cause voters to Look Over There has nothing to do with what his former opponent Leanne Mohamad had just told her Facebook followers.

“I have sent a letter of complaint this week to the Electoral Commission and Redbridge electoral services outlining serious irregularities on the night of the count on July 5th in Ilford North, raising questions regarding compliance with electoral law and guidance. I have retained Bindmans LLP and specialist King’s Counsel on this issue”. Which could result in a by-election.

A by-election which Wes Streeting may well lose. I’ll just leave that one there.

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Reform UK - A Hundred Thousand Mugs

Reform UK’s self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage last week used his season ticket for BBC Question Time, a show whose currency has been fatally debased under the watchful eye of Robbie Gibb, who should never have been let in the door, and host Fiona Bruce, whose determination to “both sides” anything and everything is tedious in the extreme.

Farage’s appearance was despite his assertion some time earlier that he was boycotting the Beeb, a claim which turned out to be yet another flat-out lie, to go with all the other flat-out Farage lies. But one claim that appears to be true is that Reform UK now has a membership in excess of 100,000. Or perhaps that should be worded “for some value of membership”. Why so?

Ah well. Reform UK is not a political party in the same way that Labour, the Lib Dems, and even the Tories are. It is a limited company, and as a visit to Companies’ House confirms, those with “significant control” are Farage and his deputy Richard Tice (he’s not very nice). You pays your membership fee and you takes … no control whatsoever. No vote. Nothing.

This is despite Mr Thirsty telling anyone not yet asleep that he was going to give up control of Reform UK by divesting himself of his shares. That was at the time of the party’s, sorry, limited company’s, conference back in September. Press and broadcasters alike swallowed the Farage propaganda, with the BBC’s example being particularly good on the grovelling.

Under the headline “I'm giving up ownership of Reform UK, says Nigel Farage”, readers are told “Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has revealed he is giving up ownership of the party ahead of its conference this weekend”. Ownership? Indeed. “Unlike most political parties, Reform was established as a private limited company, with Farage holding the majority of shares”.

There was more. “He said this was done to fast-track the creation of the Brexit Party, now Reform UK, in time for its victory in the 2019 European elections. The company structure also allowed him to ‘to stop the party being hijacked by bad people,’ he told BBC Radio Kent”. Or, as most political parties call such things, representative democracy. But do go on.

“The Clacton MP will continue to be Reform UK's leader but said: ‘I no longer need to be in control of Reform so I'm surrendering all of my shares’ … Reform UK is planning a major overhaul of how it is run at its Birmingham conference, with Farage claiming he was ‘giving ownership of the party and the big decisions over to the members’”. Which meant what, exactly?

“For the first time, members will be able to vote on policy motions, including to adopt a new constitution, which sets out party rules and the responsibilities of the leadership”. And to that I call bullshit. Why so? Just one question, Sir … how much control has he given up, as at December 9th? Have a guess, Reform UK members. It’s a nice round number. A very round number.

Let’s mosey over to the Companies’ House website, and bring up Reform UK Party Limited. That’s the one with registered number 11694875. Then “People” and “Persons with significant control”. This reveals that there are “2 active persons with significant control”. One is Nige’s deputy Tice, who owns “More than 25% but less than 50%” of shares. And the other?

That would be Farage himself. He owns “More than 50% but less than 75%” of the company’s shares. Which means either he is taking a very long time to surrender that control, or he was just lying back in September, and the media establishment amplified his whoppers accordingly. That’s why I consider him to be a congenital liar, as well as a racist bigot and a con man.

Which leaves those 100,000 plus “members” of Reform UK where? Exactly where they were before: unable to exercise any control over the party’s, er, sorry, limited company’s, leadership, handing their money over for very little in return. And that’s why I conclude that every one of those “members” is just another mug, another mark, being played along by the Farage flannel.

What our free and fearless press chooses not to tell you. No change there.

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Fawkes’ Sick Reeves Obsession

The greatest efforts of the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog churned out post after post of knocking copy aimed at Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner. They would get her; she was going to be yet another scalp for The Great Guido. And little good it did them. Ms Rayner is still deputy leader; their smear campaign got them nowhere.

It is the kind of abject failure that the Fawkes massive is unable, or unwilling, to consider as it goes after yet another senior Labour politician who just happens to be a woman. This time, the target is Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and indeed the first female to hold that job. The pretext for this latest smear job is that Ms Reeves claims to be an economist.

In this she has some of those inconvenient things called facts in her favour: she has a Master’s degree in economics from the LSE. She is therefore correct in calling herself an economist. Much of the Fawkes moan about her is over her job titles since graduating. Big deal. As any fule kno, job title and what skills are actually required and used are very different things.

But that thought has not been allowed to enter chez Fawkes, as a succession of bad faith sneers has brought forth “Reeves Pushed ‘Economist’ Myth To Win Seat” (she won it as the Labour candidate, Fawkes folks), then “Pressure Piling On Reeves Over CV Farce” (it wasn’t), and then “Starmer Keeps Schtum On Reeves LinkedIn Fiddling”. Which got them precisely nowhere.

But they had to pretend that their obsession was justified, and so we got “Guardian Gets Excuses In Early For Reeves”, telling readers “The press is piling pressure on Reeves”, with a link that cites Themselves. And on it went, the next effort titled “Tories Target Chancellor Over Career Edits”. Except that her career had not been edited. So was that the end of it? You wish.

Later the same morning came “Labour Veteran: CV Edits Are A Good Thing”. That afternoon bought an alleged “Exclusive”, with “Retail Banking Reeves Signed Legal Documents Claiming To Be Economist”. Which she was, and is. On it went, the following morning bringing “Reeves Reeling From Economist Claim Fallout”. Which she wasn’t. Yet the obsession continued.

The next day brought “Latest Desperate Reeves Defence Line Deployed”, with The Great Guido still calming “Pressure is still piling on Rachel Reeves”, which it wasn’t. One day later, it was “Reeves’ Real Customer Relations Role Revealed”, then later the same day “Reeves’ Economist Myth In Labour Candidate Contest”, the Fawkes rabble now recycling old attacks.

But enough; you get the picture. And to make it worse, in the very next breath, the Fawkes blog is extolling the virtues, such as they be, of Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. A congenital liar, racist bigot, and con man. But this should surprise no-one: they were cheerleaders for disgraced former alleged PM Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

Rachel Reeves can still legitimately call herself an economist. Which is more than a whole succession of former Tory Chancellors could do. Like Winshton, who conceded that he did not know much about economics, but that shooting Montagu Norman would have been a good thing. There were others.

Long-serving Chancellor Neville Chamberlain was not an economist. Nor was Harold Macmillan. Nor were Selwyn Lloyd, Reggie Maudling, Tony Barber, Geoffrey Howe, John Major, Ken Clarke, George Osborne, or, indeed, Kwasi Kwarteng. And nor is Farage, the latest to be championed by The Great Guido. But that’s not the point: this is the kind of creepy obsession that would earn lesser mortals a visit from the Police and a suggestion to desist.

I am not Rachel Reeves’ greatest fan, and have passed adverse comment upon a variety of her decision making since Labour won this year’s General Election. But what the Fawkes rabble, whether encouraged by Staines, or by his successor Ross Kempsell, sorry, “Lord” Ross Kempsell, is doing, this sick and creepy obsession is bang out of order. But it should surprise no-one.

Because Guido Fawkes is part of the press establishment. This is how that establishment moves against its hate figures. I’ll just leave that one there.

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Farage + Fawkes = Violence Hypocrisy

The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog, now overseen by “Lord” Ross Kempsell, were in their element last Friday, talking up the far right for all they were worth, while jeering at those rotten Labour people who were, of course, total poo. This version of the far right was Reform UK, and their Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage.

Violence? What violence?

“Reform Kicks Off Runcorn & Helsby Campaign With Amesbury Sucker Punch Letter … Reform Running Punchy Runcorn Campaign” leered the Fawkes post, going on to proclaim “Reform is out of the traps early with a new letter campaign across Runcorn and Helsby. The party has gone for two visual elements: A massive picture of Nigel and a snapshot of sitting MP Mike Amesbury ‘allegedly’ thumping a constituent”. All first name friends, eh?

There was more. “The expectation is of course that a by-election is inbound”. They think that Mike Amesbury is going to go to jail for a significant stretch, do they? And that on the back of previous Fawkes headlines “‘Frodsham Bruiser’ Amesbury Suspended” and “Helsby Hellraiser’s Greatest Hits”.

But then a problem enters: this is yet another example of The Great Guido using the same tactics as their fellow members of the press establishment, choosing not merely what to publish, but what not to publish. And when it comes to Reform UK and gratuitous violence, the Fawkes massive are likely to end up in one of those Very Difficult Positions.

That’s because James McMurdock, the Reform UK MP not as well known as Farage, Richard Tice (he’s not very nice), Rupert Lowe, and 30p Lee Anderson, and who is sitting on a majority of just 98 votes in the constituency of South Basildon and East Thurrock, has a past which does not sit well with his usual smiling bonhomie. Because it includes domestic violence.

Ross Kempsell, sorry, "Lord" Ross Kempsell

This from the Guardian: “The Reform UK MP James McMurdock was apparently detained as a teenager for repeatedly kicking his then girlfriend, it has emerged, despite him previously claiming she was hurt after he pushed her …[he] spent 21 days in a young offender institution after kicking the victim ‘around four times’ in an incident outside a nightclub in Chelmsford when he was 19”. Who hasn’t confused pushing and kicking in the past?

And there was, once again, more. “Later in July, the mother of his former girlfriend told the Mail that the new MP was ‘a monster’ who had ‘left marks on her body’, saying: ‘It took two security guards to pull him off her.’” Reform supporters have been busily passing it off as a youthful indiscretion.

And yet more. “According to a copy of the court register extract, the magistrate explained that McMurdock was given a custodial sentence that ‘was not suspended in light of serious nature of the offence’. Such an offence ‘requires immediate punishment’, the extract said, adding that a pre-sentence report appeared to show a ‘lack of willingness to comply’”.

Before The Great Guido joins the “20 years ago” chorus, perhaps Stanies, Kempsell (sorry, “Lord” Kempsell) and their pals could explain why it would have been OK for Farage’s pals, but whatever Rachel Reeves may or may not have been employed to do 20 years ago is fair game to dig up and rake over again and again and again, ad infinitum, and indeed ad nauseam.

The Fawkes rabble are stinking hypocrites. But you knew that already.

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Allison Pearson - Get The Nanoviolin

This week, the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph has been in maximum pearl clutching mode after Essex Police paid a visit to their increasingly batshit pundit Allison Pearson. There has been much howling, and indeed gnashing of teeth, on the subject of FREEZE PEACH. But the Tel has not, for some reason, put the reason for the visit front and centre.

Most of what has been served up tells us that Ms Pearson is a victim. Thus the asymmetric world in which the likes of Ms Pearson get to threaten legal action and try to have their critics’ livelihoods ruined, but play the victim when it comes the other way. She has even been backed by the loathsome Toby Young and his so-called Free Speech Union. But here a problem enters.

No-one has circumscribed Ms Pearson’s free speech. Nor have all too many of those speaking in support of her bothered to find out what this is all about. One might have thought that all those so-called journalists would have made that their first priority, but that thought would have been misplaced: that’s not how our free and fearless press operates these days.

So what did happen to cause Essex Police to rock up on Ms Pearson’s doorstep? Ah well. It was left to the Guardian to lay out some of those inconvenient things called facts. “Daily Telegraph readers have woken up this week to successive front-page headlines alleging a grave threat to free speech, triggered by a star columnist’s ‘Kafkaesque’ encounter with police”.

Do go on. “The rightwing broadsheet described how Essex police had told Allison Pearson on her doorstep last weekend that she was under investigation for allegedly stirring up racial hatred in a tweet last year. The Telegraph and Pearson say they are unaware which post caused two officers to knock on her door at 9.40am on Remembrance Sunday”.

They’re aware now. “It is an alleged retweet by Pearson of a photograph posted several months ago amid heightened tensions over the policing of Gaza protests. It shows a group of people of colour posing with a flag on a British street, flanked by three police officers”. There is more.

“The photograph angered Pearson, who allegedly wrote a tweet condemning the Metropolitan police: ‘How dare they … Invited to pose for a photo with lovely peaceful British Friends of Israel on Saturday police refused. Look at this lot smiling with the Jew haters’. In fact, the picture is from Manchester, sources confirm, and thus the officers pictured are from Greater Manchester police and not the London force”. Telegraph journalism at its finest.

And yet more. “The implication that the Muslims pictured are antisemitic and supporting Hamas is undermined by the green and maroon flag they are holding. The flag is used by supporters of the Pakistani political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). It also, rather clearly, has the word ‘Pakistan’ written on it”. Ms Pearson eventually deleted the Tweet.

So let’s summarise. She claimed it was the Met. She was wrong. She claimed that those depicted were “Jew Haters”. She was wrong. Moreover, as the complainant pointed out, “Each time an influential person makes negative comments about people of colour I, as a person of colour, see an uptick in racist abuse towards me and the days after that tweet are no different”.

But, as the Guardian points out, “The Telegraph and Pearson castigated police and said the visit was an affront to free speech and freedom of the press. Their disbelief was shared by senior lawyers, the former Telegraph journalist Boris Johnson and other leading Conservatives, as well as Elon Musk”. Bozo and Muskrat. Who can’t bother checking their facts first.

At no time has Allison Pearson had her right to free speech curtailed or otherwise restricted. What she and her pals at the Tel have now discovered is that actions can have consequences, even in the asymmetric world of the media elite, who are all too used to shitting on the little people and getting away with it. This time they got a nasty shock. A shock called reality.

Ms Pearson might just think twice next time. So might her supporters.

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So Farewell Then Paul Staines

Of all those asymmetric worlds out there, none compares with that inhabited by the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog. The Great Guido has claimed in the past that he doesn’t resort to such things as legal threats, but here on Zelo Street we know that this is total crap (see HERE). Then comes Staines’ claim that suing him is a nightmare.

The Great Guido as thirsty as ever

Why so? Well, his defence is that the Fawkes blog is hosted somewhere offshore of the UK, that it’s registered likewise, and that he lives in Ireland. But the inevitable question then enters: as the blog’s contents are directed almost exclusively at a UK audience, and the Fawkes “newsroom”, such as it be, is believed to be in London, why shouldn’t he be sued here?

At which point Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity, enters the scene. What he said in a radio interview on the subject of Gaza, Israel and Hamas has been repeated, and indeed creatively reinterpreted, by a number of media outlets, not least the Daily Mail. Vince, one of those people with the means to go to law, has already secured an apology and damages from the Mail.

Now he has the Fawkes massive, as well as former London Mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey, and Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice (he’s not very nice) in his sights. And his action against The Great Guido has proceeded to a meanings hearing, which happened earlier this week. Staines claims he decided to stand and fight, as if he had any choice in the matter.

Given that even the Mail, not usually given to being an easy pushover in legal matters, has decided to settle and say sorry, one has to ask if Staines’ decision to resist such a way out is wise. Nonetheless, he’s launched a fundraiser, claiming “We’re going to make a stand and defend free speech and the reporting of the actual words he said”. FREEZE PEACH!

No-one, of course, is trying to restrict Staines’ freedom of speech. But that freedom can have consequences, and those have, on this occasion, led to where he is now. So far, so predictable, but now into the mix has come the announcement - via Press Gazette, and not thus far reported on the Fawkes blog - that Staines is stepping down from his position as Fawkes editor.

Ross Kempsell, sorry, "Lord" Ross Kempsell

Here’s what PG has to say: “Guido Fawkes owner Paul Staines is stepping down as editor this week after 20 years leading the political blog. Staines is passing the reins over to Lord Ross Kempsell, Guido contributing editor and former chief reporter. Kempsell has been appointed to the role of publisher”. Note Staines is described as Fawkes “owner”, which will not change.

There was more. “Staines will become founding editor, no longer involved in the day-to-day running of the site. The news was announced ahead of Guido’s 20th anniversary dinner being held this week”. Another reminder that the Fawkes blog, far from being outside the media establishment, is very much a part of it. And what of Kempsell, sorry “Lord” Kempsell?

Anyone unsure of just what a nasty piece of work “Lord” Ross Kempsell, ennobled via the recommendation of disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, really is, may usefully be referred to this blog’s analysis of his modus operandi from October 2017. When it comes to unpleasantness, Kempsell’s past form is nothing to sniff at.

But his praise for Staines is risible. “Paul’s decades of hard work has built an extraordinary media brand with unparalleled influence inside Westminster and beyond. Paul did nothing less than single-handedly revolutionise political reporting in Britain. Loved by its readers and feared by its competitors, Guido is constantly growing in reach and impact”. Hard work? Paul Staines?

Staines wouldn’t recognise hard work if it jumped up in front of him and kicked him in the undercarriage. Feared? That’s a straight-A Fuck Right Off. And “revolutionise political reporting”? Would that be the lying, the calculated smearing, the constant favouring of increasingly far right views to the exclusion of all else? So all will change, but nothing will change.

Except that Dale Vince might just clean Staines out. If he weren’t so eco minded, Vince might find himself renamed Cillit Bang.

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Robert Jenrick - Dutch No Master

Last week, there was a Europa League football match hosted by Ajax Amsterdam; their opponents were Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv. So far, so procedural, except that after the match, accusations of anti-Semitism were made, together with talk of a modern-day pogrom. Supporters of the visiting side were portrayed as victims. And then those accusers fell silent.

Why that should be was not hard to see: as Ian Fraser put it, “A pogrom is an organised massacre of an ethnic group e.g. of Jews in Russia and eastern Europe in the late 19th & early 20th centuries. The photo shows an Israeli football hooligan tearing a Palestinian flag off a Dutch person’s home in the 21st century”. It was not the only piece of bad behaviour by those supporters.

Ori Goldberg summed up the mindset that led to talk of pogroms: “Israeli football fans go on a rampage in Amsterdam, tearing down Palestinian flags and shouting racist slogans … Then, of course, we are surprised. How is it that when we do such things we suffer the consequences? How is it that we are attacked? How is it that the Dutch police doesn't recognize that we are on a mission for peace, that we are good while they must be bad?”.

There was more. “Events last night in Amsterdam are presented as a ‘pogrom’ here in Israel. We do not occupy the same plane of existence as the rest of you. Our actions have no implications. We can never be the cause of anything. Everything happens to us. Only we are real. Murderous solipsism”.

Ben Sellers pointed out that supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv had been involved in violence in Athens a few months ago. Rafael Shimunov confirmed “They're engaging in [the] theater of ‘victimhood’, supporting a historically violent, racist fanbase who came to [the] Netherlands to assault and incite violence against Arabs, then flipping it to claim the reprisals and anger in return are simply targeting Jews”. And then came Robert Jenrick.

Jenrick, a deeply immodest individual with much to be modest about, had already tried his luck as he dribbled “Meet Jason Hoganson. Jason was jailed for hitting his ex-girlfriend. Keir Starmer let him out early. Within hours of his release, the police got another call, saying he’d assaulted her yet again. Now he’s on the run. Who could have seen that coming?” Maybe Jenrick could.

Especially as the Labour “40% of sentence” early release excludes crimes such as that described. Hoganson had been released after 50% of his sentence had been served, a move introduced by the previous Tory Government, of which Jenrick had been an unswerving supporter.

Having demonstrated his less than consistent relationship with reality, Jenrick then turned to the disturbances in Amsterdam, claiming “These weren’t ‘clashes’. It was a modern-day pogrom. And another warning to the West about the consequences of mass migration and failed integration. Wake up before it’s too late”. The BBC’s report was not good enough for him.

That’s the same BBC report that resorts to using the infamous phrase “on both sides”. The responses to Jenrick’s crude Islamophobic opportunism showed that this was a campaign destined to not necessarily to his advantage, with comments such as “You’re an idiot”, “You’re a nutcase”, and “You lost to Kemi Badenoch. Best sit this one out” standing out.

No use waiting for Robert Jenrick at Barking. He’s beyond there already.

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So Farewell Then US Democracy

We may not like the verdict passed by voters in the USA, but it is their right, their call, and their majority preference that Combover Crybaby Donald Trump be returned to the White House for another term as President. What creative propaganda was fed to the electorate we may never know. What we do know is that Trump is not fit to serve a burger and fries, let alone his country.

His all too recognisable mental decline has been on view for some months. His mind is failing him, and those who have backed him to the hilt with their millions know it. They know he is not up to the job. Yet they supported his re-election; Trump is easily flattered, and his business empire almost bust. He gets some praise, some money, and his backers bend the USA to their will.

It is easy to look two years forward to the 2026 midterms, and reason that all will be corrected as the GOP loses waves of House and Senate seats, thus bringing into play those checks and balances for which the Constitution is rightly famous. But Trump has also told his fans that they will not have to vote ever again. He showed you who he was; believe him the first time.

For those in the USA who will suffer the bigotry, the misogyny, the uncaring authoritarianism, some did warn us, like Mehdi Hasan: “People - including top US journalists, perhaps especially top US journalists - don’t quite get how bad it’s going to be. How beyond term one it’ll be. How bad the Musks and RFKs will be. I don’t think even I fully accept how bad it’s going to be and I have been shouting how bad it’s going to be for years”.

Here on the other side of the North Atlantic, though, the problems will be very simply trade and defence. Trump is threatening swingeing tariffs on anything coming into the USA. Maybe NAFTA will not survive. So countries in Europe, inside the EU or not, will have to learn to do without that market.

That is, of course, easier said than done. But it must be done. It will not be easy to do, especially as, more or less at the same time, European countries that had seen the USA as The Great Protector, the one country that underpinned the NATO alliance, will have to learn to look after themselves, singly or, more likely, collectively. Which probably means via the EU.

Those countries will include Ukraine, as Trump has repeatedly voiced his backing for the gangsterist régime of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, and his disdain for the Government in Kyiv. US aid for Ukraine will wither away; either Europe allows the country to be annexed by Russia, or does something to prevent that. Trump’s USA will not ride to our rescue this time.

So where does that leave the UK, with its Government, headed by someone formerly so enthusiastically pro-EU, but now implacably opposed to closer ties with the European Club? Keir Starmer has to realise two things here: One, there is no point cosying up to Trump, who couldn’t give a crap about him. And two, he can’t ride the European Club horse and the Special Relationship horse at the same time. He has to choose one, and only one.

He must also learn to shut out the howling of our free and fearless press at even the mention of closer ties with the EU. Because he has little choice, when faced with an isolationist USA, but to mend fences with the EU, and forget his repeated refusal to countenance rejoining the bloc. In this, Trump and his gang have unintentionally done the UK a great service.

In the meantime, he will fulfil his promise for the USA to engage in no more wars, and instead keep those wars within his own country - a war on women’s rights, a war against ethnic minorities, a war against anyone opposed to his power grab, and a war against the freedom of speech he falsely promotes.

And those countries that have embraced neoliberalism can, in the meantime, reflect on its failure to deliver Trump’s opponents the White House. We might usefully consider re-reading The General Theory Of Employment Interest And Money, whose embrace saved the West from revolution after World War 2, while The New Great Dictator gets on with laying waste to the USA.

Europe needs to look after itself. And the UK has to choose - wisely.

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Oh Tommy - The Bard Of Belmarsh

And so it came to pass that Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, was taken from Police custody to Woolwich Crown Court to face charges of Contempt of Court. Lennon had been told not to repeat untrue comments about a Syrian teenager, Jamal Hidazi. He ignored the ruling and repeated the untrue comments. A lot.

Yes, the same person who rocked up on my doorstep in the dead of night and claimed - dishonestly - that I had “told lies about him” had been told, by a Judge, not to repeat lies he had been telling about a teenager who just happened to be one of those Scary Muslims™. The BBC report tells you all you need to know about the case, and why Lennon has now been jailed.

“The hearing on Monday was the culmination of events that date back to October 2018. That month, a video went viral showing how Jamal Hijazi, a Syrian in West Yorkshire, had been attacked by another teenager at school. Yaxley-Lennon then posted his own response to one million Facebook followers alleging that his investigation had established that Mr Hijazi was a violent thug, a claim that was untrue”. And there was more.

“The Yaxley-Lennon video spread widely and the Syrian teenager and his family received death threats. Three years later, Mr Hijazi won £100,000 in damages when the High Court ruled Yaxley-Lennon’s claims against him had amounted to defamation. The court imposed an injunction on Yaxley-Lennon, banning him from making the false claims again”. So what did he do?

“In February 2023, Yaxley-Lennon, who founded the long-defunct English Defence League (EDL), began repeating the claims and went on to post online a film claiming he had been ‘silenced’ by the state. That film may have been viewed at least 47 million times”. Very brave of him. Or maybe not.

Because, as the report also tells, “Eventually, this July, the anti-Islam activist showed the film to thousands of his supporters in London's Trafalgar Square, saying he would not be silenced. The following day he left the country”. Only now had he returned. The Judge was especially severe on Lennon.

“Jailing Yaxley-Lennon for 18 months, Mr Justice Johnson said: ‘In a democratic society underpinned by the rule of law, court orders must be obeyed … Nobody is above the law. Nobody can pick or choose which laws or which injunctions they obey, or which they do not. Even if they believe that an injunction is... contrary to their views they must comply with the injunction’”. So out came Lennon’s fans to redefine reality in his favour.

There were attacks on the court artist, because Lennon and his fans did not consider the likeness to their taste. There were appeals for more money, despite Lennon having pleaded guilty, which fact was also ignored by his faithful followers, who have decided he is a “political prisoner”.

Talk of “two tier” policing, justice, and of course Keir Starmer, followed. And the deeply sinister calls for the Judge’s hard drive to be examined, because, well, you know, nod’s as good as a wink to a blind bat. Worse, the attacks on the Judge have featured his photo, as well as demands to know where he lives. Which, one hopes, is being gathered up by Hope not Hate.

One might be disappointed to see that group being distracted from Lennon and the rest of the populist far right by whining at those showing empathy for innocent civilians in Palestine and Lebanon being blown to pieces, incinerated, targeted randomly by snipers for shits and giggles, bulldozed, and all the rest of the bad behaviour indulged in by the IDF.

Stephen Lennon is not a political prisoner. He is not a fearless independent journalist exposing the truth. He has not exposed grooming gangs. He has not exposed corruption. He broke the law, and the law won. So he has been transferred to Belmarsh Prison, where, who knows, perhaps he will write a book about his struggle. While the rest of the world forgets about him.

The time of Stephen Lennon was for a time, but not for all time. Now he has been banged up and can harass no-one. Just rejoice at that news.

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Oh Tommy - Wheels Coming Off

And so it came to pass that Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, arrived back in the UK from his brief exile in Spain, and was not nicked. He was pleasantly surprised, and continued to promote his rally in London, scheduled for today. But into each life a little rain must fall, and for Lennon it came pouring as he journeyed to Folkestone yesterday.

The Great Man had been instructed to surrender himself to the cops at the town’s Police station. This he duly did, and was charged under the Terrorism Act, having declined to give the rozzers his phone’s PIN. But all was not lost: he was bailed in advance of a future court appearance. Then came the really bad news: he was nicked again, and this time he wasn’t walking free.

Having skipped the meanings hearing for his Contempt of Court charge, what is called a Bench Warrant had been issued for his arrest. And what better place to execute said warrant than down the cop shop? Lennon was then remanded in custody, to the great relief of all those people who wished it had happened rather earlier. So what happens to his London victory rally?

And this is where the wheels began to come off. “ADMIN POST - TOMMY HAS BEEN SENT TO PRISON!!!” told his account on Twitter, X, or whatever Muskrat’s calling it this week. But Lennon had not been sent to prison: he had been remanded in custody, which is not the same thing. And his delegate confirmed this: "We can confirm that Tommy is now being held on remand until Monday where he will appear at Woolwich Crown Court at 10am”.

But his rally would go ahead. “Demo day has arrived, sadly without Tommy in attendance, however we'd like to reiterate his message, to stay calm, don't react to provocation, we're here not only for him, but most importantly to pay respects to Peter Lynch, and support the families of the political prisoners”.

Lynch was one of those jailed for violent disorder in the wake of riots earlier this year, who later died in prison. He is therefore now a cause celèbre for the far right. He pleaded guilty; he was not a “political prisoner”. This means nothing to Lennon and his hangers-on, though, for whom the law must be applied in full for Scary Muslims™, but not for white people.

So what effect did Lennon’s detainment on the Kent Coast have on the list of the great and the good prepared to speak at his rally? Minor thesp, failed chanteur and not-even-getting-out-of-the-noise-floor politician Laurence Fox perused that list and decided that they were not significant enough people to warrant the presence of Himself Personally Now. He would not be attending.

Lennon’s adoring fans have not taken the news at all well. Also, the level of paranoia has reached new heights among them, exemplified by someone using the Twitter handle “No to ECHR & ILLEGALS … No to BBC Licence Fee” whining “Just had our coach from Leicester CANCELLED!!!!! THIS GOVERNMENT ARE A COMPLETE JOKE!!!” As if.

Yet the faithful will still turn up, still pony up their hard-earned cash, still watch Lennon’s tedious videos, with their distant relationship to reality. Brendan May mused “To all Tommy Robinson fans - he's being held in prison until Monday, so this is a reminder that now is the time to send him all your savings again, so he can spend it on his next luxury holiday to Cyprus next year. You know what to do!” LBC host James O’Brien was on the same page.

“I have been arrested, please send me your money … I have not been arrested, please send me your money … I am on holiday in a very expensive hotel, please send me your money … I am not on holiday in a very expensive hotel, please send me your money … Nice ‘work’ if you can get it”.

One Tweeter summed up the whole charade: “Tommy Robinson moved the date of this far-right march to coincide with his court date & handed himself in knowing he’d be detained. This gives him endless excuses to play victim for the knuckledraggers & gives Laurence Fox an excuse to pull out. Tommy Cultists - you got played”. Lennon has taken them all for mugs.

The law may have finally caught up with Stephen Lennon. That is all.

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Israel - USA Has To Call Time

As I’ve noted previously, time was when the state of Israel got a free pass, whatever its armed forces and security agencies got up to. A small country with so many hostile neighbours, who would rather it did not exist at all. So it was when the IDF fired first in the Six Day War; likewise the retaliation to the Yom Kippur attacks. But the free pass no longer holds.

So when the response to October 2023’s Hamas attack went way beyond going after the perpetrators, protests began in earnest. They have not ceased since, as most of Gaza has been reduced to a rubble-strewn wasteland, with indiscriminate bombing, rocketing and shelling of civilians continuing round the clock, for apparently no more than shits and giggles.

But those who could stop the killing, the maiming, and the destruction of health and even water supplies, with little or no aid getting through to those in need, did nothing. This included Governments in North America and throughout Europe, the chief culprit being that in Washington, DC. Israel gets away with it, it carries on killing. It gets away with it again, so carries on again.

The Biden administration could call time on what has become a rogue state, whose defenders howl down those of inconvenient thought by smearing them as anti-Semites, attempting to have them removed from jobs, or deselected from being able to run for re-election. But here a problem enters: the people are not listening to their leaders’ attempts to smear those showing empathy.

And the people are in no mood to let pass the horrifying litany of armed forces using tens of thousands of human beings for target practice. So exporting lethal weaponry to Israel so that it can be used to blow people to bits, incinerate hospital patients, and bury many more under the remains of collapsed buildings is generating growing and sincere opposition.

What fuels the opposition in ever-growing amounts is the way those acting on behalf of the Israeli state, after getting away with shelling, bombing and rocketing defenceless civilians, push the boundaries a bit further, hence the shelling, bombing and rocketing moving on to helpless hospital patients. And they got away with that. So now the offensive has moved to Lebanon.

Yes, to another sovereign country. Not the occupied territories, although that was unforgivable enough. Now, entire suburbs of Beirut, populated once again by defenceless civilians, are being levelled, while the leaders of the supposedly civilised West do nothing. Those leaders do not even say Boo in response to the latest, and probably lamest, Israeli excuse note.

Levelling apartment blocks in Beirut was because of a bank. As the BBC has reported, “At least 16 airstrikes were recorded across Lebanon against buildings with Al-Qard al-Hassan (AQAH) branches, Lebanon’s state media reports, including two strikes close to Beirut airport”. Yeah, right.

Let’s just stop and think for a moment. If someone were to take out a couple of dozen branches of Barclays, NatWest, RBS, Lloyds, or whoever, would that have any effect on the capacity of those banks to make loans or provide other financial services? In any case, AQAH has said “there was no cash at branches to be destroyed by Israeli strikes”. This is yet another lame excuse for terrorising civilians. And it’s high time it was stopped.

Some bemoan the fracturing of political allegiance, with Tories losing ground to the more forthright bigotry of Reform UK, and Labour leaking the support it took for granted to Independents, the Greens and others. Still our Government blethers about Israel having the right to defend itself. But this went beyond self-defence long ago. This is genocidal action with intent.

And it is action which that supposedly civilised West is enabling by sitting there and doing nothing. What happens next? Bombing, shelling and rocketing a bit more of Beirut? Trashing the city’s international airport? Destroying the port facilities? Massacring some UN peacekeepers?

The USA contributes the most to the Israeli war machine. So it’s the USA that has to tell the Israeli Government to desist. Sooner rather than later.

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Farage Migrant Threat = MORE LIES

Maintaining his public profile is proving challenging to occasional MP and Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. So it was that The Great Man decided to resort to what he does best - talking well, but lying badly. This was accomplished by claiming that someone who is not in the UK had in fact arrived in the UK, and made a death threat against him.

Also, the target of Farage’s latest pack of lies was one of those Not White Chappies, he had a distinctive gun tattoo, and was most likely one of those Scary Muslims™. So, including a video from the Not White Person, off went Nige. “This illegal migrant has made a threat on my life and is now in the UK. He is the kind of person we are letting into our country”. This was not true.

There was no illegality, the individual concerned was not a migrant to the UK, because, whisper it quietly, he was not (yet) in the UK. So he was not “the kind of person we are letting into our country”. So far, so straightforward, and so dishonest. Farage being a racist bigot, congenital liar, and con man, film at 11. The lie was so blatant that not even his own media outlet was buying it.

Yes, Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”), being thus far the only broadcaster or press source to report on Farage’s latest lies, could not stand up his claims. His followers on Twitter, X, or whatever Muskrat is calling it this week, lapped it up, though, some asking Mr Thirsty when he was going to join the calls for mass deportation. That’s as in mass deportation of people who are not white and/or are Scary Muslims™.

So over to GB News. “Nigel Farage has claimed an ‘illegal migrant’ has made a threat on his life after a video showed a young man making aggressive hand gestures while talking about the Reform UK leader”. Aggressive hand gestures? Ooh yes, that’s an instant deportation. In Farage world, that is.

Do go on. “The Clacton MP, who was twice assaulted on the 2024 General Election campaign, broke his silence on the heavily-circulated footage tonight”. Broke wind more like. It’s just attention seeking. Have another go. “Farage had earlier highlighted how TikToker Mada Pasa was posting about his attempt to reach the UK by crossing the Channel”. And?

“Pasa, who is believed to originate from Afghanistan, posted more than 60 videos about his journey across Europe … He gained nearly 20,000 followers, amassing 230,000 likes and millions of views”. Yes? Yes yes? Yes yes yes? “There was no evidence from the video to suggest Pasa has reached British shores”. Even GB News admits Farage is lying.

But there was more. “The Reform UK leader also shared Pasa's video which was riddled with expletives … During the video, Pasa said: ‘English man Nigel. Don't talk s**t about me. You not know me … I come to England because I want to married with your sister … Don't talk about me more. Delete the video. It is not good my friend, you do not know me. I am going to come to England”. He’s not in the country. Also, he’s taking the piss.

Any more? As if you needed to ask. “Pasa was heard saying ‘pop, pop, pop’ after making hand gestures and headbutting the camera … He added: ‘I'm TikToker, I'm not gang, I am not mafia I am Mafia's Papa.’” In other words, he’s just another attention seeking bore. Bit like Nigel Farage.

Nigel Farage is still a racist and congenital liar. But you knew that already.

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New Tory Leader WON’T DO REALITY

As Labour gets itself mired in yet more factionalism and infighting, Keir Starmer need not worry, well, not for the next few weeks: to prove that he is the luckiest of generals, the opposition has ridden to his rescue, as the contest to lead what is left of the Tories has spat out the one name from those competing who was prepared to remain in the real world.

In the last ballot of Tory MPs before the final two candidates are offered to the party membership, James Cleverly, thought to be the front runner, was eliminated. This left a choice between a wacko, and, er, another wacko: the two names going forward to a ballot of members will be Kemi Badenoch, and Robert Jenrick, neither of whom appears to have a handle on reality.

Sadly for Jenrick, he has already been cursed by the endorsement of formerly totally out of his depth Brexit negotiator “Lord” David Frost, who memorably asserted “I’m backing Liz Truss for PM to lead the talented team that will deliver for Britain … It would not be possible for me to serve under Penny Mordaunt. I don’t believe a Government led by her could succeed”.

He is backing someone prepared to flat-out lie in order to get ahead: Jenrick has asserted that in 2010, when the Tories returned to power, Britain was bankrupt. It was not. He dog-whistles about migrants including “bad people”, which, for those not yet attuned to his modus operandi, means more of those Scary Muslims™. But he has one way to stave off criticism.

And that is to follow the lead of disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, who has now been called out repeatedly for lying in his new book, and has responded by getting suitably righteous and denying that he has ever lied about anything. Sadly for Bozo, and indeed Jenrick, Peter Oborne has the receipts, and has documented the lies.

But that is as nothing when put alongside the inversion of reality offered by Ms Badenoch. Like her claim that “pavement dining” was a “Brexit freedom”. Well, sorry to disappoint you Kemi fans, but eating outside, whether just for a mid morning coffee and pastries, or full meals, happens here in Portugal even in mid-October, and the country is not leaving the EU any time soon.

Indeed, across the river in Lisbon, there are food and drink outlets where most, sometimes all, seating is out on the street. But such is the Kemi Badenoch reality warp that it is, when dutifully churned over by the political editor of the Daily Mail, a “Brexit freedom”. Then there is her habit of claiming that she did not say what she actually said. As with maternity pay.

As the BBC has reported, she “has suggested maternity pay has ‘gone too far’ and the government needed to interfere less in people's lives [and] said statutory maternity pay, set up to support mothers for 39 weeks after having a baby, is a ‘function of tax’ which she called ‘excessive’ [adding] We need to have more personal responsibility - there was a time when there wasn’t any maternity pay and people were having more babies”. But maybe she didn’t.

“She later said she had been ‘misrepresented’, and she was making a wider comment about cutting regulatory burdens on business”. The Beeb has helpfully set out exactly what she said, just in case. It’s almost as if some media outlets know in advance that what she says may later be denied.

The joke from a Labour source asking if Cleverly’s elimination from the Tory leadership contest can be declared as a gift is actually deadly serious. We have a main opposition party which may be about to appoint a leader who is so obsessed with dog-whistling that his policy platform is indistinguishable from Reform UK and its Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage.

And the alternative? Someone who has a habit of “off the cuff once too often”, but then becomes testy and even hostile when her “mis-speak” is pointed out. The Tories have been a wacko party ever since Bozo petulantly expelled the last remaining reality based MPs. Now they are giving their members a choice between one wacko candidate … and another wacko candidate.

The main problem is that the right wing press will consider them credible.

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