Trump Is Gaga - Say So, BBC

There has been a marked reluctance at some media outlets to call out the deteriorating mental state of Combover Crybaby Donald Trump. He rambles incoherently, has difficulty walking in a straight line, seems disoriented, forgets names and places, mixes up names and places, and lies as often as he draws breath. So it was when he rocked up in Davos this week.

He gave a speech, but for The Donald, just reading out what has been written for him is never enough. The off-piste moment was never far away, and so it came to pass. This is, verbatim, part of his shambling delivery.

“But equally importantly, we're cracking down on more than $19 billion in fraud that was stolen by Somalian bandits. Can you believe that Somalian, they turned out to be higher IQ than we thought. We say these are low IQ people. How did they go into Minnesota and steal all that money? We have, you know, they’re pirates, they're good pirates, but we shoot them out of the water just like we shoot the drug boats out.” Drug boats in Minnesota?

There was more. “They're not pirating too many boats lately, do you notice? When they go out into those boats, they want to take over a billion and a half dollar tanker, load it up with oil, and they say, ‘We're going to blow up your boat, they have powerful weapons.’ You hit the side of the boat, you blow the whole thing up. The insurance companies are petrified, so they say, ‘Just give them the boat, we'll give them money instead.’” Eh? Er, do go on.

“And I don't do that. We blow them right to hell out of the water. We see them going out, we blow them out of the water. We don't have any pirates so much anymore. We do. They won't be there long. We've cut down with the hitting of the boats that are loaded up with drugs, including submarines.”

So not in Minnesota, then. And there was yet more. “Can you believe they actually buy some, they call mini subs. Very fast. They're meant for drugs. We've knocked out to them the Democrats. They were fishing. You have ruined somebody's fishing. We can't, I would say, a submarine is not a fishing boat. You don't fish. But we've knocked down drugs by water. The oceans, the sea, by 97.2%. Think of that.” Anyone still hanging on in there?

Because he wasn’t finished. “And I actually say, ‘Who the hell are the 3%?’ Because I would not want to be piled in one of those boats. We knocked them down and now we're going to start on land. We're going to knock it all out. The land is the easy part. What we did on sea is incredible. And that's our great military.” He’s not all there. But not all media outlets are saying so.

Tom Nichols at The Atlantic was saying so. “No one can be watching this Davos speech and reach any conclusion but that the President of the United States is mentally disturbed and that something is deeply wrong with him. This is both embarrassing and extremely dangerous”. Aaron Rupar added “Trump is now confusing Greenland and Iceland”. Three times.

Adam Schwarz noted “Trump in Davos, Switzerland: ‘Without us, right now you'd all be speaking German’. German is the main language of Switzerland”. Vatnik Soup concluded “While his entourage is in Davos and nobody is controlling his output, you can clearly see Trump as he is: A demented old man in cognitive decline. A mad king. Listen to this and tell me this couldn’t be any elderly man rambling in a nursing home”. So what of the BBC?

Faisal Islam’s report from inside the room did not make any mention of Trump’s incoherent rambling. It did talk of the speech taking a dark turn, but not of the disbelief among those watching. What happened? Has there been another of those words behind the scenes from Robbie Gibb?

We are told that “Trump is shaking the world order more than any president since WW2”. There is a fact check of his “free-wheeling speech”, together with its “contested claims”. The Corporation’s website tells “US allies won't forget Trump Greenland crisis”. But his clear cognitive decline is seemingly off limits. It should not be. Trump is not fit to be President.

As in, yet more unfit than he was at the beginning of his first term. He’s declining before our eyes. Tell us, BBC. That’s what you’re there for.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Zack Polanski And Anti-Semitism

The Green Party, in no small measure because of its new leader Zack Polanski, is advancing in the opinion polls. One recent survey suggested that Keir Starmer could be vulnerable to losing his seat to a Green opponent. And then, by total coincidence you understand, the nudges and winks began, the first signs of a concerted attempt to pin anti-Semitism on the Greens.

But here a problem entered: Polanski is Jewish. What to do? Fortunately for anyone needing to see the direction of travel, help was on hand from the so-called “Anti-Semitism Czar”, “Lord” John Mann, who is hot on the slightest hint of anti-Semitism, providing someone explains it to him first, nice and slowly. “Lord” Mann suddenly decided to go after Polanski.

In doing so, he revealed the Modus Operandi: “he refuses to deal with antisemitism in his own Party”. Owen Jones spelt out what is likely to happen next. “Expect the state to try and do over the Green Party on bogus claims of institutionalised antisemitism. This could involve John Mann, and certainly the EHRC … whose Commissioners are handpicked by the government”.

And for those whose first thought is to dismiss Jones’ take as a step too far, he added this: “You might think that trying to crush the only political party led by a Jewish person on grounds of antisemitism is just too ludicrous to pull off. But I would not put it past them”. After all, as he observed of “Lord” Mann, “He's not Jewish, and he is lecturing the only Jewish party leader on antisemitism”. Mann, meanwhile, got a little tetchy with Polanski.

“Perhaps you can identify which antisemitism you have dealt with inside your party as leader? And every manifestation of antisemitism that I have chosen to ignore”. Well, apart from not defending Polanski against the recent cartoons showing him with A Really Big Nose, there are other instances.

Like now disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson authoring a novel which “was also criticised for depicting Jews as ‘controlling the media’ and being able to ‘fiddle’ elections, an evidently antisemitic trope”. Like Jacob Rees Mogg referring to Oliver Letwin and John Bercow (who are both Jewish) as “Illuminati”, an old anti-Semitic trope.

Like Suella Braverman talking of “Cultural Marxism”, a Nazi-era anti-Semitic slur. Like Priti Patel using the phrase “North London Metropolitan Elite”. Maybe I failed to notice “Lord” John Mann’s interventions in all these instances. Nor did I notice “Lord” Mann being on the case of Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage over recent allegations.

But all those instances were from the right, while Polanski is most definitely on the left of the political spectrum. Moreover, he “has stated that he believes that the Gaza war is a genocide and should be treated as such by the UK government”, thus drawing to the Greens an increasing number of voters who empathise with the plight of the Palestinians and are critical of Israel.

On top of that, “He has expressed the belief that the British government conflates Jewish people with Israel, and that this ‘makes [him] feel less safe as a Jewish person’”, which will infuriate those running the Labour Party, some of whom actively undermined former leader Jeremy Corbyn in an attempt to throw the 2019 General Election.

Polanski has said he could not imagine supporting a coalition Government led by Keir Starmer, which will also infuriate the pro-Starmer cabal. But having “Lord” Mann going after him is risky, especially as “Mann faced criticism for allegedly perpetuating racial stereotypes against Romani people and travellers in a booklet he produced on antisocial behaviour in 2007”.

No matter, “Lord” Mann has carried on taunting Polanski, playing the victim and suggesting a meeting. File under pointless. But, as Mrs Beckermann tells Charlie Croker in The Italian Job, it wasn’t an accident. Whether it is low grade clowns like “Lord” John Mann, or the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press, the smearing of Zack Polanski will get worse.

The Green Party leader needs to learn from what happened to Corbyn. Because Mann has let slip that this is what is intended for Zack.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Labour Weasels On Venezuela

Combover Crybaby Donald Trump, the living and still breathing definition of an amateur human being, has ordered the armed services of the United States to, effectively, invade Venezuela, which is a sovereign state. Added to this minor breach of international law, he has had the country’s President, Nicolas Maduro, kidnapped, along with his wife.

This is in addition to several acts of piracy upon the high seas, where oil tankers that had loaded up in Venezuelan ports, along with their cargoes, were boarded and seized. Could the charge sheet get any longer? Don’t ask: Maduro has been put on media display, in a flagrant breach of the Geneva Conventions. Worse, Trump did not get Congressional approval beforehand.

But he did consult with the oil industry, so for him, that’s all right, then. He has decreed that the USA is going to “run” Venezuela, which may interest those who remember the chaos in Iraq, when the USA decided to “run” that country. Whichever way you slice it, this is illegal and corrupt behaviour several times over. Which brings us to the international community’s response.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro - whose country is in the line of fire, remember - was unequivocal: “A clan of paedophiles wants to destroy our democracy. To keep Epstein's list from coming out, they send warships to kill fishermen & threaten our neighbour with invasion for their oil”. China has demanded that the US release Maduro. So has Iran.

So, New New Labour, what is the UK Government response to be? How would a confident Government, sure of its interpretation of international law, respond? What would a statesmanlike Prime Minister and his cabinet colleagues do? What would a seasoned human rights lawyer, like Keir Starmer, have done? What would Nietzsche have done?

Sadly, the New New Labour Government, so quick to approve the Israeli removal of water and electricity supplies to Gaza in another display of collective punishment, does not operate on such a lofty intellectual plane, and so the response, when it eventually came, was craven in the extreme.

Here’s Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper: “The UK has consistently rejected Nicolas Maduro’s legitimacy, and called for a peaceful transition of power in Venezuela. I have spoken to our Chargé [d’Affaires] in Caracas, and travel advice has now been updated to advise against all travel to Venezuela … As the Prime Minister has made clear, we support international law”. So you’ll be condemning the US breaches of that international law, won’t you?

As if you need to ask. Instead of any kind of condemnation, Mike Tapp, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Migration and Citizenship, has appeared before the inquisition of Sophy Ridge of Sky News, where he was asked if he would condemn any move by the Trump gang to annex Greenland. “We’re not going to give a running commentary”. Christ on a bike. And it got worse.

He couldn’t say Trump should not invade Greenland? “Diplomacy is delicate, which means we're not here to give a running commentary in the news”. It’s not an intellectually demanding call. Flagrant breaches of international law should be condemned. And what of the UK’s Prime Minister?

Here it comes, per the Guardian. “I want to get all the material facts together and we simply haven’t got the full picture at the moment - it is fast moving”. Meaning he spewed out a word salad of excuses rather than show a hint of backbone. Also, he needed to talk to Trump first. And there we all were believing that the UK was a sovereign state. Silly us, eh?

Steven Swinford of the Murdoch Times has, since then, asserted “Britain will refrain from criticising the US over the capture of Maduro amid concerns about angering Donald Trump”. Airstrip One Redux. He wants to seek closer relationships with the EU, but with his tongue firmly up Trump’s arse, the EU might not want to know. Diplomacy is delicate, dontcha know?

What will it take for New New Labour to get it? Invasion of Greenland? Invasion of Colombia? Handing Ukraine to Putin? Voters who have left Labour will not be returning if this is the level of leadership on show.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

And So This Is Christmas

The world is now a more dangerous, more unequal, more unjust, more authoritarian, and more uncaring place. Peace is in short supply, except in the fevered minds of more of those Here Today And Gone Tomorrow Politicians. And you can forget goodwill. Where it will end we know not. But end it will, with the grim certainty of night following day.

Christmas tree in Lisbon's Praça do Comércio

Centre stage is the most corrupt régime of any modern and allegedly democratic nation, that of Combover Crybaby Donald Trump. This only occasionally coherent, rambling, terminally vain, and obscenely unpleasant being is about to start a war with Venezuela. Over oil. It will not end well for the USA. Meanwhile, Trump is driving the economy off a cliff.

Those cheering him on are an increasingly compliant media, and the ranks of the obscenely overmonied, who care about themselves, and not about the 98% who are becoming poorer by the day. The political and media class in the UK also cares, mostly, about itself, and not about the 98%, but imagines itself to be in touch with those hard-working people it likes to talk about.

But it isn’t: our media elite likes not-even-one-dimensional politicians like Wes Streeting, somehow unaware that the voters dislike him intensely. The media class likes political operators like Morgan McSweeney, unable or unwilling to confront the reality of Labour’s poll numbers, and that half Labour’s membership has got fed up and left since Keir Starmer became leader.

Fewer members means fewer people to canvass, leaflet, persuade uncommitted voters, and get the vote out. There were hints of that problem in the 2024 election results. Voters know that they are being taken for mugs by New New Labour; many are backing Reform UK and its self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. But here a problem enters.

The UK had a congenital liar, racist bigot and con man as PM before, and look where supporting the disgraced Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson got us. Farage, like Johnson, and like almost all the others in the political and media class, does not give a flying foxtrot about the proles. Some in that media class also treat their audience like so many mugs.

Santa driving his tram. Ho ho ho

Who might exemplify this approach? Step forward Gammon Broadcasting News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) to freely pump misinformation, and, indeed, disinformation, to an audience that can no longer tell fact from fiction. GB News’ approach was deliciously busted recently when their “host” Carole Malone, another deeply unpleasant being, was caught defaming live on air.

Sadly for Ms Malone, she had defamed Doria Raglund, whose better-known daughter is the Duchess of Sussex. The “please don’t sue us, we didn’t mean it, honestly” on-air sort-of-apologies were a thing to behold. But a serious point had been made: this illustrated the contempt in which the media class holds ordinary people. A contempt which has been exposed elsewhere.

And that is in the reportage, and associated punditry, concerning the actions of the Israeli Government and its armed forces, mainly in Gaza, but also in the illegally occupied West Bank, Syria and Lebanon. This time, though, smearing those opposed to slaughtering tens of thousands of human beings as anti-Semites is not working. Because the public can see what’s going on.

This, in turn, brings us back to Starmer and the Labour Together cabal that put him in power. They treat the voters with contempt, and are clueless as to how they get those voters to return. Meanwhile, the Greens make steady progress under Zack Polanski, because he is listening to voters, and cares about them. So it is that we reach Christmas 2025.

With a media and political class, many of whom want to pursue policies that will make the 98% yet poorer. A Government like so many rabbits caught in the headlights. An electorate battered by harsh reality, and a tsunami of bad faith media actors. And little prospect of improvement any time soon.

Feliz Natal e Boas Festas, as they say here in Portugal. Eat, drink, be merry, and hope for an end to the period of elite stupidity. That is all.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Labour’s Loves Long Lost

So with the Government polling well behind Reform UK, a limited company under the control of self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, and now also polling behind a revitalised Green Party, someone in the Starmerbunker has clearly decided that action must be taken to attract voters back to The Red Team. So what is on offer this week?

Shabana Mahmood ...

What would the Labour Party, of which Harold Wilson said was “a moral crusade, or it is nothing”, offer voters? What would a sensible and inclusive party have done? What would Nietzsche have done? Sadly, Labour no longer operates on that intellectual plane. Moral crusades are out. Dog-whistles are in. Performative cruelty and aping Reform UK is also de rigueur.

And so it came to pass that Shabana Mahmood, recently elevated to Home Secretary, told how she was going to be tough on migrants, if not on the causes of migrants. Asylum seekers will only be able to remain in the UK temporarily. If their country of origin is deemed “safe”, they may be deported. And their jewellery may be confiscated to pay towards their accommodation.

This, Ms Mahmood has told, is the only way to see off “dark forces … stirring up anger”, which is not only muddle-headed, but total horseshit. All the changes will do is to embolden the far-right to try and drag migration policy further in their chosen direction. It will not move Labour’s poll numbers, well, not in an upwards direction. Reform UK will profit; so will the Greens.

What else is on the menu? This from the BBC: “Those granted asylum will have to wait 20 years to apply to settle permanently. Previously, they could begin this process after five years … Human rights laws around how the right to family life is interpreted in migration cases will change”. Yes, New New New Labour is going to get tough. Really tough. And it’s really pointless.

If the asylum system is not working, as Government sources are suggesting, then there is stuff all use blaming the poor souls who have endured warfare, prejudice, and the danger of crossing the Channel in an inflatable boat. The system should be overhauled so it works, asylum applications are processed promptly and the amount of accommodation needed reduced to a minimum.

... and her real boss

Instead, the jewellery grab has been confirmed by A Home Office Source: “We will not seize items of jewellery at the border - we aren’t coming after anyone’s sentimental items of jewellery. But where people have a large number of high-value items, we would expect them to contribute to the cost of their accommodation”. No seizure at the border. But maybe somewhere else.

Well, one hates to go full Neil Kinnock, but here we have A Labour Home Secretary of Pakistani heritage - A Labour Home Secretary of Pakistani heritage - scuttling round newsrooms issuing deportation threats and signalling a weakening of Human Rights legislation. Farage and his fellow bigots will think that all their birthdays have come at once.

And it is they who will claim credit for New New New Labour coming over all tough. While Reform UK’s poll numbers may not improve as a result, those voters leaving Labour for the Greens will continue to sap the former’s numbers as they boost the ratings of the latter. Whoever dreamed up this reprehensible set of measures has damaged Labour badly. Very badly.

So it should come as no surprise that increasingly well-regarded Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is not the only name being touted as a replacement for the beleaguered Keir Starmer. Angela Rayner, a genuinely caring and effective politician, is another name in the frame. The only counter of the Morgan McSweeney cabal is to suggest Wes Streeting.

Who is so popular that he almost lost his seat at the last General Election. Thus the cluelessness of McSweeney and his acolytes: while hacks in and around Westminster like Streeting, very few others do. Moreover, McSweeney’s only successes thus far have been in breaking the rules, plus smearing his own party leadership, and throwing the 2019 General Election.

With him effectively in charge, Labour is doomed. No change there, then.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Maccabi Tel Aviv And No Anti-Semitism

Here’s the BBC scene-setter: “The government has said it is ‘doing everything in our power’ to overturn a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending a football match in Birmingham and is exploring what additional resources could be required. On Thursday, Aston Villa said the city's Safety Advisory Group (SAG) decided that fans of the Israeli club should not be permitted to attend the Europa League fixture on 6 November over safety concerns”.

What, then, was the problem? “On Thursday, West Midlands Police said it had classified the fixture as ‘high risk’ based on current intelligence and previous incidents, including ‘violent clashes and hate crime offences’ between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv fans before a match in Amsterdam”.

Dead right there had been hate crime offences. Like the Maccabi Tel Aviv “fans” chanting “Death to Arabs … we will win, we will win, let the Israeli army win … fuck the Arabs … we will take your girls, who love to party … when we rape them, we will shout ‘today is death’ … you’re the whores of Arabs … we are ashamed of you … we will fuck you … and then drink your blood”.

In addition, let us not forget, to the physical violence meted out by said “fans”. Taking all of that to Birmingham, finding a few non-white taxi drivers to rough up, going looking for brown people to kick, it does not require much application of the grey matter to see why the decision was made.

But whoever was speaking for Starmer and his beleaguered Government, this was merely an excuse to claim it was all about WAAAAH WAAAH WAAAH ANTI-SEMITISM! BBC again: “‘No one should be stopped from watching a football game simply because of who they are,’ a government spokesperson said.” Meaning what? And, right on cue, Heeeeeeere’s Keir! Go on PM: “we will not tolerate antisemitism on our streets”. This is total crap.

But This Was The Word, and so it came to pass that new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood declared “Antisemitism is a stain on our society that shames us all. Every football fan, whoever they are, should be able to watch their team in safety. This Government is doing everything in our power to ensure all fans can safely attend the game”. It’s not about anti-Semitism.

Aston Villa has a significant Jewish fanbase. They are, as with all other Villa fans, allowed to go to the match. It’s NOT about anti-Semitism. It’s about being able to safely Police a “high-risk” fixture where the visiting “fans” have significant previous for violent and racist behaviour. This simple fact was not allowed to enter the out-of-touch world of the Pundit Establishment.

And who would like to, er, kick off for the assembled hackery? How about Michael “Oiky” Gove? “Jews not welcome in Birmingham: official”. Conflating Israelis and “all Jews” is an anti-Semitic trope, as per the IHRA definition. Who else would care to fall into this trap? Have a guess.

Yes, the Mail’s not even slightly celebrated blues artiste Whinging Dan Hodges, and his missing question marks: "The Maccabi Tel Aviv ban has become the acid test for this government. Are Jews going to be properly protected on the streets of Britain”. Conflating Israelis and “all Jews”. That’s real anti-Semitism. Well done Dan. Open mouth, insert boot.

And while Tim Shipman of the Murdoch Sunday Times, Kevin Schofield of the HuffPost, Jon Sopel of LBC, and Camillas Tominey and Long were valiantly attempting to toe the establishment line and gaslight the public, the pollsters at YouGov brought bad news: despite the “agree with what we say or you’re an anti-Semite” line, a majority of the public agreed with the ban.

By a majority of 42% to 28%, with Labour supporters registering a yet bigger margin of 47% to 22%. As Rivkah Brown put it, “Politicians and pundits can scream until they're blue in the face that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans are innocent victims of flagrant antisemitism, but the British public knows what's up”.

The public does indeed know. It’s an operational decision by those in and around Birmingham and Aston Villa. Once again, Starmer loses the room, and so do a worryingly high number of journalists. Do better, folks.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Oh Tommy - Now Threatening MPs

Infamously, Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, now self-appointed Oberscheissenführer of Reform UK, claimed after the 2016 EU referendum that the result had been achieved “without a shot being fired”. As so often with the far-right, he was lying: Labour MP Jo Cox had been murdered by a Britain First supporter. And Ms Cox was not the only MP to be killed carrying out their duties.

Tory David Amess was, like Ms Cox, murdered at a constituency surgery, as recently as 2021. Both killers were given whole life sentences. Which brings us to yet another incoherent self-pitying outburst from Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, in response to an MP doing nothing more than asking a question in the House of Commons.

Daisy Cooper, who represents the constituency of St Albans, which returned her to Parliament last year with a vote share of 56.6%, used Prime Minister’s Questions this week to pass adverse comment on Lennon, which, given she enjoys Parliamentary Privilege, and Lennon is so supportive of free speech (ho ho ho), one might think would not cause him a problem.

Here’s what she said. “The far right, hate preacher Tommy Robinson, who is currently on trial for allegedly refusing to comply with counter-terror Police, claimed that his legal costs are being paid by Elon Musk. It is outrageous that a man who has so much control over what people read online every day could be funding someone who stokes far right extremism on our streets. If this was Putin, the Government surely would act”.

Daisy Cooper MP

So what say the great champion of FREEZE PEACH to that? As if you need to know. “WHAT A DISGUSTING PIECE OF SHIT!!! This lying (citation needed), censorious (lie), authoritarian (even bigger lie) masquerading as a liberal democrat is none other than the Deputy Leader of her party”.

Lennon’s schtick is that Ms Cooper has not posted sufficiently, or perhaps that should be “not in accordance with his requirements” about Grooming Gangs. About which he later claimed “the fact that the MAJORITY of 'grooming gangs' are in fact MUSLIM”, which is another lie.

Ms Cooper maintained her stance in an interview with Andrew Marr on LBC. Which only sent Lennon off again. “CALLING OUT THIS LYING, SLANDERING PIECE OF SHIT FOR WHO SHE IS … I don't give a shit about you, you're a crybully and filthy smear merchant … What a piece of filthy shit she is … Her 'values' have led to the industrialised rape and enslavement of generations of British children”. Another one to keep.

Because that last sentence is actionable. And it gets worse: above a video clearly showing Ms Cooper’s Commons intervention, he sniggered “We have them rattled [Elon Musk] just wait till I get my not guilty verdict”. And another one to cut out and keep: that is a nailed-on threat against the MP.

Those of us who have had this SOB rock up on their doorsteps in the dead of night know what that means - either he’s going to attempt to confront Ms Cooper, or he doesn’t mind if one or more of his followers confronts her, or both. Thus the asymmetrical application of free speech in Lennon Land: he can have it, and get away with anything he says, but anyone exercising it to pass adverse comment on him is a legitimate target for intimidation.

So complete is Stephen Lennon’s commitment to keeping women safe (ho ho ho) that he has no problem with threatening, defaming and intimidating them, merely for exercising the same free speech right that he claims to support. But then, he was lying about that one, too. Ms Cooper is probably going to have to step up the security around herself and her staff.

Not that Brave Tommy gives a shit about the consequences of his self-pitying rantfest. In addition to him being a bully, a liar, a racist, and a serial player of victimhood, he’s also a stinking hypocrite. He would be little more than a tiresome irrelevance, except that he is also a malign influence on others, some of whom may take his rant as a green light for more intimidation.

It’s high time that Lennon’s little wild west show ended. This time for good.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Morgan McSweeney Pisses Down His Leg

So the Labour Party Conference is once more upon us, but not, for those running the party, at the moment they would have chosen: not much more than a year after being returned to power, poll ratings remain stubbornly low, and stubbornly behind Reform UK and its self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, with internal dissent never far from the surface.

And it is the manner in which potential and actual dissent is being addressed that shows us just how shameless, clueless, and detached from reality those who run the Labour machine have become. They think they’re still the bees’ knees, while all too many of their potential supporters have stopped listening.

At this point, a message from the distant past arrives. Lyndon Johnson’s observation “Did y’ever think ... that making a speech on ee-conomics is a lot like pissing down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else” should be ringing out long and loud in the ears of Morgan McSweeney and his cabal. What they’re doing seems hot to them, but not to anyone outside their magic circle. Rather, it does no more than invite ridicule.

The Labour whip has been restored to John McDonnell and Apsana Begum, fourteen months after it was removed because they declined to back the two-child benefit cap. No, it doesn’t show a new generosity of spirit. But it does remind the world how authoritarian and intolerant Keir Starmer and his coterie of hangers-on became, and so soon after the election. Another fail.

Not even the blessed Tone was so intolerant of dissent. But the Blair years did produce policy proposals that went down like the proverbial cup of cold sick, one of which was ID cards. That’s the same ID cards that became so unpopular by the early 1950s that they were binned. Blair’s attempt, in 2006, to exhume them failed. But that has not dissuaded the McSweeney cabal.

Because now, it’s going to be DIGITAL. As the BBC report tells, “It is a way of proving your identity, and your right to work in the UK, using modern smartphone technology”. It is also, whisper it quietly, a way of getting every opposition party, from the Tories to Lib Dems, Greens, Independents and even Reform UK, lined up in forthright opposition. It’s another fail.

What it will not do is to “stop the boats”, the slogan by which Farage and his pals live their political lives. Far more useful, and better for everyone concerned, would have been to establish safe routes for refugees, and giving them the ability to claim asylum either in their own countries, or elsewhere outside the UK. Boats stopped, Farage deflated. So why not?

Because, sad to say, there seems to be a desire to fight Mr Thirsty on the latter’s chosen patch. WRONG. And when it comes to the kind of dissent that could derail the Starmer and McSweeney project, it gets worse. This has been superbly illustrated by their response to concerns that Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham may challenge for the Labour leadership.

So how has Labour’s ruling cabal addressed the potential challenge? What would a sensible, confident and collegiate leadership have done? What would Nietzsche have done? Sadly, this cabal does not operate on that intellectual plane, and the leadership has sunk to sending photoshopped images of Burnham as Liz Truss into the Internet. That’s a seriously bad fail.

Burnham has significant ministerial experience. His tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester has included ending bus deregulation across the county, together with price capping to make travel more affordable. Adding local rail services to the “Bee Network” is the next step. Positive change. What has the McSweeney cabal done? Slagged off and undermined its opponents.

And coming over the horizon is Paul Holden’s book “The Fraud: Keir Starmer, Morgan McSweeney and the Crisis of British Democracy”. Which McSweeney and his pals will doubtless slag off and brief against. Because it seems hot to them, whatever those in the world outside New New Labour might think.

Worse still, Labour membership is in serious decline. Many may never return. Not while those who worked to throw the 2019 election are in power. Hint.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Nigel Farage - Lying Beyond Barking

Our free and fearless press, and to their continuing shame our broadcast media, cannot get enough of Reform UK and its self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, failing to do the kind of job one might have thought journalists should be doing: holding this serially dishonest, bigoted and revoltingly slimy individual to account.

The failure to call out Farage and his increasingly thuggish coterie of aspiring insurgents is exacerbated by the utter failure of Keir Starmer’s team to provide any kind of narrative around which a coalition of voters can coalesce, in turn exacerbated by the shortage of Labour members willing to go in to bat for those who, by their own admission, worked to throw the 2019 election.

Into this vacuum has come Mr Thirsty. So has he shown leadership, any kind of responsibility? You jest: responsibility is far, far away as Farage declines to distance himself from Combover Crybaby Donald Trump’s flagrantly wrong claim that women taking Tylenol (Paracetamol in the UK) during pregnancy could cause autism. This is total and unadulterated crap.

Instead, we get the customary Farage fudge, saying he doesn’t know if the claim is true, meaning that his all too easily persuaded followers will start to believe that there really is something in Trump’s baseless ranting. Stoking the paranoia among the Reform UK faithful is Farage’s own flat-out whopper, claiming that Mayor of London Sadiq Khan wants to introduce Sharia Law.

Khan’s number one priority today is a rather more humble one: to oversee the introduction of the Bakerloop express bus service, the first stage of persuading central Government, along with business leaders, to back extension of the Bakerloo Line from Elephant and Castle to Lewisham. He has no intention of introducing Sharia Law. And Farage knows it.

But there he is, allowed to pitch this ridiculous suggestion live on LBC, courtesy of Nick Ferrari, and back it up by asserting that he knows Sharia Law is coming because a taxi driver told him. It sounds plausible enough for his followers - already on a hair trigger on the subject of Scary Muslims™ after years of variously peddled bigotry - to believe.

It gets worse: taking his cue from another deranged Trump whopper, that Haitian migrants to the USA were eating cats and dogs (they weren’t), once again, away goes Farage. Those scary brown people coming to the UK were eating carp and even swans! Ever tried to catch a swan? Clue: swans are more than capable to seeing off anyone so minded.

Worse still, anyone thinking that Mr Thirsty’s latest claims are so ridiculous that they might even drive away some of his supporters have been disabused of that notion by polling showing the distinct possibility that, were an election to be held in the immediate future, Reform UK might even be able to garner sufficient support to score enough MPs to govern on their own.

That should frighten the somnambulant media establishment into waking up and starting to put Farage on the spot, as they do for any other politician. The signs are not good, however: long-term Farage ally Nathan Gill has just pleaded guilty to eight counts of bribery by a foreign state (Russia). He is expected to be jailed. Wall to wall media coverage? Nah. Crickets.

Gill is not just any old Farage hanger-on: it was he who introduced the 2019 intake of (then) Brexit Party MEPs to the European Parliament, prominent among them one Claire Fox, unrepentant terrorist sympathiser who, let us not forget, was not held to account for her support for the “armed struggle”. Instead, there were softball media appearances. There, there, eh?

In any case, Farage can bat away criticism by telling his followers that the MSM lies. Look over there at the real liars! And the MSM has a proud history of lying in pursuit of its smear campaigns, and elsewhere. He can also bat off Labour criticism by telling his followers that Starmer and his acolytes lie. And he is, once again, right. Because they do. But that is no excuse for inaction.

One small bright spot: the SDP-Liberal Alliance hit 50% in the polls in early 1982. The following year, they scored just 23 MPs. All is not yet lost.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Oh Tommy Tommy - Racist Liar

Quite apart from the campaigns of harassment, the gratuitous violence meted out seemingly on a whim, and the baseless claim that he gives a flying foxtrot about his adoring followers, there are two things about which Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, is especially sensitive. One, he hates being labelled racist, and two, everyone else tells lies bar him.

I have to tell The Great Man that he’ll have to hate being called racist for some time to come, because he is a racist, and that when it comes to telling lies, he is standing in a terribly draughty glasshouse. Both these traits have come to the fore in the past week, after he was condemned for inferring that a grandparent taking his grandchildren to play at a local park wasn’t.

Moreover, the grandchildren were white, and the grandparent was black, which should be no big deal, but in the warped and paranoid, yet righteous, world of Stephen Lennon, such a combination was, for reasons he somehow managed not to disclose, Streng Verboten. So it was that he took to Twitter, X, or whatever Muskrat’s calling it this week, and smeared the grandparent.

As the Guardian has reported, “Family in fear after Tommy Robinson shares video of black man with white granddaughters”. Do go on. “Olajuwon Ayeni racially abused and falsely labelled a paedophile as far right weaponises clip of family in park”. And how did Lennon manage to accomplish this task?

“A family say their lives have been ruined after a video of a black man and his brother playing in the park with his white granddaughters was shared by Tommy Robinson and weaponised by the far right … Olajuwon Ayeni, a musician from Redcar, North Yorkshire, has been racially abused and falsely labelled a paedophile in the week since the family video was stolen from the TikTok account of his wife, Natalie, whom he married five years ago, and shared by extremists online”. There is more. Rather a lot more.

“On Tuesday, the couple’s local MP, Anna Turley, was forced to write a letter providing a reference of good character for Ayeni when he was suspended by his management after the online disinformation … ‘I’m devastated to receive the email from my management’ Ayeni said”. So what did Lennon do?

“The far-right activist wrote on his X account: ‘Wtf is even going on here? Where are the parents?!’ Lennon … has not removed the video despite numerous replies debunking it and calling for him to delete it”. He has, it seems, now removed the video. After the damage had been done. After he’d played the race card and lied about the subject of the video.

Worse, this is not the first time Lennon has Done A Racism. After Wing Kingz in Milton Keynes declined to serve him, we got “I’ve gone to Milton Keynes, with my children, to have dinner at a new restaurant. I’ve gone in, I’ve sat down, and then I’ve been told I need to leave. They can’t give me an answer, just who I am … d’you know what I found, it’s a black-owned business”.

It’s DA BLACKS! That’s after he used the P-word. After lying several times to justify his harassment of journalist Lizzie Dearden. And he’s still at it, telling his followers “Tower Hamlets send the whole squad out to remove the St George's Cross put up by patriots. Every one of them an import”. Imports.

Whoops, another racism! And there’s another on the way. “Pakistanis blocking the roads of Manchester to celebrate independence day for Pakistan. Ask yourself, 'if a war broke out between Pakistan and the UK, which side would these rats be on’? The enemy within.” Rats. Enemies.

What about that right to protest? “Typical Liberal wet wipes want a 'review' of a violent, pro Hamas, pro terrorist, far left revolutionary group that literally carries out sabotage attacks on British Military bases?” Four lies? Five? Whatever. Have another go. “Behold the pro Palestine, pro illegal migrant, stand up to racism, socialist worker far left, professionally organised demonstrators.” Keep making it up. Keep blaming others. Keep being racist.

Stephen Lennon gets branded racist. Because he is racist. Likewise, he gets called a liar. This time he targeted an innocent man. And didn’t say sorry. Because saying sorry is for the little people. What a total creep.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Oh Tommy - Bravely Ran Away

Not much time passes before Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, appears in the news, and usually for all the wrong reasons. His latest appearance is no exception: yesterday evening, emergency services attended a man who had been rendered unconscious, in the vicinity of London’s St Pancras station. We know Lennon was involved. He said so.

Paramedics worked behind a makeshift curtain to return the man to consciousness, while treating his injuries, which had left a large pool of blood on the floor. The victim has been transferred to hospital, where his situation has been described as “serious but not life-threatening”. As the news spread, so did the spin from Lennon’s pals, which did not help his cause one bit.

First out of the traps was Avi Yemeni, a deeply unpleasant individual who “reports” from Australia for Ezra Levant’s far-right propaganda outlet Rebel News. He was quite sure what had happened: “Tommy Robinson was ATTACKED at St Pancras Station … Tommy is okay … The attacker not so much”. But he was lying, as Lennon and his pals later admitted.

That, though, was not the point: what Yemeni did was to get the excuses in as early as possible. That Lennon had laid out the unfortunate individual now - hopefully - recovering in hospital was confirmed on video by The Great Man himself, telling anyone who would listen “he’s come at me, bruv”. In other words, he decked the other bloke. As the BBC account makes clear.

“The British Transport Police (BTP) is investigating an alleged assault at St Pancras station in London … It comes after footage emerged on social media appearing to show far-right activist Tommy Robinson walking back and forth near a motionless man lying on the floor at the station … The clip does not show how the man ended up on the floor”. And the BTP want a word.

“The BTP said its suspect was from Bedfordshire. It added that detectives were continuing to investigate the incident and bring the suspect into custody for questioning … In the footage, a man who appears to be Robinson walks next to the person lying face-down on the floor, near some stairs. A commuter looks to be trying to stop the man thought to be Robinson from moving around and calls for help”. And then came another admission.

This time it was a Twitter/X user who calls himself Mike Hacks, who was trying to defend Lennon, but just happened to drop the ball as he stated unequivocally “A pre-emptive strike is totally legal”. In other words, The Great Tommy decked the other bloke, and he also struck the first blow.

And so it came to pass that Lennon let the world know just how innocent he thinks he is: what that BBC report also tells is that “a 42-year-old male suspect had boarded a flight out of the country in the early hours of Tuesday morning”. Running away before the cops interview him, and well before they have the chance to potentially charge him, and remand him in custody.

Worse for The Great Man, he is supposed to be hosting one of his “free speech” - as in freedom for Himself Personally Now to shoot his mouth off, while no such freedom is given to his critics, who can expect him to rock up on their doorsteps and have their addresses doxxed - next month. If he turns up, he gets nicked, and if he appears via video link, admits he’s a coward.

Worse still, given Lennon’s history of violently assaulting others, the cops might just oppose his being given bail, thus ensuring he doesn’t get to headline his own gig. All the BTP needs to do is to cite the flight risk, because flight is exactly what Lennon just did. May have been to mainland Spain, may have been Tenerife, may have been the Algarve. He’s not beyond the law.

And he’ll soon find that if the Guardia Civil come looking for him, or indeed the GNR if he chose the Algarve, there is only so much aggressive gobshitery they will tolerate before moving directly to having the cuffs applied. This time he’s in real trouble, made worse by him and his pals either lying about it, or owning up that he not only did it, but also threw the first punch.

Stephen Lennon could be back in the UK rather sooner than he would like, and in less than luxurious surroundings. Just rejoice at that news.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Israel Criticism - Labour Beyond Too Late

Having resisted any change of approach to the continued Israeli assaults on Gaza, the bombing, shelling, rocketing, the gratuitous slaughter of those desperately queuing for aid, the deliberate prevention of aid agencies from getting into the occupied territory, Keir Starmer’s Government has now decided to tell the world that it sort of disapproves of what is going on.

That’s after proscribing Palestine Action, a group practising non-violent direct action, with the all-too-predictable result that scores of peaceful protesters have been arrested, sometimes violently, by Police forces around the country. It comes after the Government continued weapons sales to Israel, and indeed provided aerial intelligence too. So how strong is the disapproval?

Here’s the BBC report: “The UK and 27 other countries have called for an immediate end to the war in Gaza, where they say the suffering of civilians has ‘reached new depths’ … A joint statement says Israel's aid delivery model is dangerous and condemns what it calls the ‘drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians’ seeking food and water”. There is more.

“Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said more than 100 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire while waiting for food over the weekend and that 19 others died as a result of malnutrition … There have been many international statements condemning Israel's tactics in Gaza during the past 21 months of its war with Hamas. But this declaration is notable for its candour”. Do go on.

The statement tells “The suffering of civilians in Gaza has reached new depths. The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity … We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food. It is horrifying that over 800 Palestinians have been killed while seeking aid”. How so?

Ah well. Here we encounter the Israelis’ preferred aid distribution solution, the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The Beeb report notes “Last Tuesday, the UN human rights office said it had recorded 674 killings in the vicinity of the GHF's aid sites since they began operating eight weeks ago”.

This from al-Jazeera: “Israeli soldiers have deliberately shot at unarmed Palestinians seeking aid in Gaza after being ‘ordered’ to do so by their commanders, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports … At least 549 Palestinians have been killed and 4,066 injured while waiting for food aid distributed at sites run by the [GHF]”. Target practice. Bit of fun, eh?

One soldier told Haaretz “It’s a killing field”. The BBC reports the Gaza health ministry as warning “33 people, including 12 children, have died in the past 48 hours” from malnutrition. Also, “The journalists' association of Agence France Presse … says the last reporters in Gaza will die without immediate intervention, warning its colleagues are at risk of starvation”.

On top of that, “The World Health Organization (WHO) says Israel's ground offensive in central Gaza has compromised its efforts to continue working, after its facilities came under attack. The UN agency accused Israeli forces of attacking a building housing its staff and their families in the city of Deir al-Balah on Monday and mistreating those sheltering there. Its main warehouse was also attacked and destroyed”. So what of the UK arms sales?

They appear to be continuing, as does the aerial reconnaissance out of Cyprus. So the condemnation of Israel is not much of a condemnation - more a recognition that Labour long ago lost the room on this one, and is now, some might say cynically, trying to appear concerned. When they aren’t.

As Owen Jones, who has been right from the start, has put it this morning, “A tipping point has been reached … Gaza is now starving to death in front of the whole world … Those who facilitated and justified this abomination were given ample warning for 21 months … You have no excuses, and nowhere to hide: you will be held to account for what you've done”.

No-one can claim they didn’t know. No-one will be swayed by shouts of “waah anti-Semitism”. Because they did. And it isn’t. We see you, Keir Starmer.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Labour Chaos - Don’t Be Distracted

A Government that had, no more than a year ago, been returned to power with 411 MPs, has this week been exposed as a clueless shambles, with its leader clearly not in control of his Parliamentary troops, and despite its main opposition, the Tories, showing that they are, in every political department, yet worse. But our free and fearless press has failed to identify the cause.

Morgan McSweeney - out of excuses

Their attention was seized by Rachel Reeves, the under-fire Chancellor of the Exchequer, appearing tearful and upset in the Commons yesterday. All the otherwise unemployable talking heads instantly knew more about this than anyone else, including Ms Reeves. But they still failed to nail the culprit.

It wasn’t about Ms Reeves, although she has been made the scapegoat for so long that it has clearly had a deleterious effect on her. The leader of this particular incarnation of Team Shambles is Keir Starmer, for whom former BBC man Jon Sopel had especially harsh words: “The political ineptitude and mismanagement of this is epic. The whips office, the Downing St operation, and DWP should be hanging heads in shame. And truly disastrous for Keir Starmer and what’s left of his authority”. Or was it really Keir Starmer?

The question has to be put, as Patrick Maguire of the Murdoch Times was a little nearer the target. “Keir Starmer told cabinet this morning that briefings against Morgan McSweeney must stop … PM said McSweeney had his full support and he ‘will not countenance’ criticism of him … Warned ministers: ‘We will not turn on our staff’ … Said Labour wouldn’t have won without McSweeney”. And a last sentence that identifies who really wrote that.

Labour “wouldn’t have won without McSweeney”? Without the heroic presence of the rank coward who won’t come forward and front up for his failings? The Big Man (ho ho ho) who, by the admission of his “friends”, worked to throw the 2019 General Election? Yeah, right.

The alleged political titan who made Labour so electable that 560,000 fewer voters put their cross next to the candidate representing The Red Team? And now the presence behind Starmer’s warning not to go after him. The problem for McSweeney and his cabal of nonentities is that they have been rumbled.

Abdi Duale - maybe change the background colour next time

Labour won as the Tory vote imploded, Reform UK split what was left, and turnout dropped to an abysmal 59.7%. There was no four dimensional chess on offer, just plain and shameless opportunism. Also, Labour’s poll numbers showed a worrying downturn in the last days of the campaign. What support remains is now being sprayed up the wall on a series of unpopular measures.

Whoever is in 11 Downing Street appears to be forbidden to ask the well off to pay a little more in tax. Is that Ms Reeves’ own choice, or is the McSweeney cabal behind that, too? Is that cabal behind all the threats of deselection made towards MPs who express a little more empathy towards the poor and vulnerable? We had a mere hint on that score yesterday.

McSweeney’s pal Abdi Duale, one of the “we won and the lefties lost tee hee hee” brigade, declared apropos something said in the Commons “This should be a cause for expulsion, no excuses”. Since when did he make the rules? Doesn’t New New Labour bother with due process any more?

This is, let us not forget, the crowd who loved to taunt Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership team with the claim that any other leader would be 20 points ahead in the polls. Even being one point ahead of Reform UK and its self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage is, right now, something Starmer and his team can only dream of. And that, despite the stream of excuses from The Great Man, is directly down to McSweeney.

Writer and campaigner Francesca Martinez put it directly: “It's laughable how hard Labour are trying to avoid taxing the super rich … During Covid, it's estimated that the UK's richest increased their wealth by £890 billion … A tax of 0.6% would raise billions – and not push anyone into poverty … So does Labour now represent the super rich?”. Maybe that should be “Blue Labour”.

Whether “Blue” or “New New”, this incarnation of the cabal behind Labour has come to the end of its road. But won’t admit it. Or go with good grace.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Tommy Robinson’s Loadsamoney Lunch

Once again, Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, has been in the news, and for reasons which may cause his latest campaign to develop not necessarily to his advantage. The Great Man, and four of his pals, were asked to leave the Hawksmoor restaurant near Piccadilly Circus in central London, staff and other diners being uneasy at their presence.

Lennon and his associates complied with the request, but later, he kicked off in no style at all on Twitter, X, or whatever Muskrat’s calling it this week, passing severely adverse comment on Hawksmoor, its management, and generally claiming the eatery was being dishonest about why he was chucked out. TripAdvisor had to temporarily disable reviews about the site.

This was most likely due to Lennon’s faithful followers using whatever means they could employ to dump on somewhere they had not visited, probably would never visit, but ejecting their hero just had to be A Very Bad Thing. The sequence of events was all too predictable. “Just been kicked out of Hawksmoor steak house for no reason. Literally juts [sic] had our starters”.

So said Lennon’s pal, former EDL Guramit Singh. Followed by The Great Man himself in full Headmaster mode. “Full campaign coming soon [Hawksmoor] your discriminatory behaviour will not be tolerated, please tell your CEO will beckett to contact me” he thundered. And there was more.

“These are the other companies that are part of the Hawksmoor group , I will be contacting each of them to understand whether they support discrimination against patriots”. But they aren’t part of the Hawksmoor group. On he whined: “How can you say it’s not political when your staff or guests issue could only have been with my political views?” But the real question went unanswered.

And that, for all those who have donated, and continue to donate, to Lennon’s endless appeals for funds, is the question of how much that lunch at Hawksmoor might have cost. Who was paying? Yes, the restaurant waived all charges when they asked the party to leave, but what might have been the final tally had they stayed? Fortunately, Hawksmoor’s website provides us with a sight of the menu, and the cost of all that upmarket dining.

Guramit Singh’s post showed oysters, so, just for illustrative purposes you understand, let’s say each person had three of those. That’s £12.

He also mentions starters. What d’you reckon? Hawksmoor smoked salmon and Guinness Bread, perhaps. Which adds £16 to the bill.

On to steaks: one of Lennon’s posts shows lots of steaks. How about a nice 350 gramme fillet steak? Lovely. And that adds another £57 to the total. Plus an additional £4 for one of those rather upmarket sauces.

Not forgetting sides: we saw chips, too. Beef dripping chips. And maybe some buttered English greens. Each costs £7, so that’s another £14.

What to wash it down with? How about a couple of Hawksmoor Lagers? The least expensive item on the beer menu. Two at £6.75 makes £13.50.

And there’s just got to be pudding. A Chocolate anglaise, perhaps. A snip at just £10. All of which adds up to a total of £126.50. Put the service charge and a tip on top of that, and you won’t have much change from £150.

Anyone out there still thinking that bankrolling Lennon is anything more than spraying your assets up the nearest wall might care to read The Great Man’s superior insights into what is happening on the US West Coast right now, where initially peaceful protests have become rather less than peaceful, after Combover Crybaby Donald Trump sent in the National Guard uninvited.

Cue Lennon pearls of wisdom: “America is being destroyed from within yet again … Soros paid agitators mobilizing the invaders to attack … Round them all up and deport them together, along with the Soros family and associates”. Wibble. Hatstand. Yet he effortlessly takes his followers for marks while being prepared to blow rather a lot of money on Loadsamoney Lunches.

Right now, he’s in the Bahamas. While appealing for money. Er, hello mugs.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton

Reform UK - Beginning Of The End

A week, as Harold Wilson memorably observed, is a long time in politics, and that this still holds true has been demonstrated by Reform UK and its self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, riding high in the polls and with rather too many of the media class unable, or unwilling, to point out that Farage is a congenital liar, a racist bigot, and a shameless con man.

It was a trip north of the border that proved that Bridge Too Far for Mr Thirsty, as he rocked up to support Ross Alexander Lambie, the Reform UK hopeful for Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse. A Scottish Parliament by-election had been triggered by the death of SNP incumbent MSP Christina McKelvie. Our free and fearless press declared the fight to be between SNP and Reform.

Sadly, as Rochdale MP Paul Waugh pointed out, “My former trade got their Hamilton predictions badly wrong. If journalists had actually spoken to voters … they would have known this was a close fight, not an SNP walkover or a Reform revolution … The lazy English media reporting was bad enough but what really shocked me was the poor quality of the Scottish media”.

Do go on. “Putting SNP quotes in headlines as if they were neutral, the class prejudice against a working class guy like Davy [Russell], the confected row over interviews”. As to the BBC also falling short in its reportage, “‘Surprise’ victory … ‘Confounds expectations’ … Confirmation from the BBC that it too went with the herd instead of looking deeper at what people were saying on the ground”. Labour won. Reform came not second, but third.

Worse, Farage was accused of blatantly racist campaigning after Reform put out an advert claiming that Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar “will prioritise the Pakistani community”. Farage was challenged over yet another flat-out lie, and insisted that Sarwar was engaging in sectarianism (no citation).

All of which would have been a mere blip in an otherwise inexorable rise to the top for the Farage fringe. However, and here we encounter a significantly sized however, the bad news kept on coming, as Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf threw in the towel, stating “working to get the party elected was no longer ‘a good use of my time’”. And it got yet worse for Mr Thirsty.

Despite his claim that Yusuf “was ‘a huge factor’ in the party's success in last month's elections, when Reform won a by-election, two mayoral races and gained 677 new councillors”, Farage seems not to have tried too hard to stop him going. Many Reform UK supporters may have thought the departure a good thing, as Yusuf was one of those Scary Muslims™ they all hate.

What not too many were pointing out was that Yusuf had donated a cool £200,000 to Reform UK, and had tried to make the party a more professional outfit. And what many others were pointing out was that, having expelled Rupert Lowe from Reform UK before Yusuf resigned, Farage was not exactly excelling in keeping his team together. It was a total shambles.

But not to worry, Yusuf’s role as head of “DOGE UK” would now be undertaken by Farage’s old pal Arron Banks. Except that, two days after Yusuf walked out, no it wouldn’t. Because Yusuf was now back, as the BBC reported. “Zia Yusuf, who resigned as Reform UK chairman on Thursday, is to return to work for the party in a new role”. Yes? Yes yes? Yes yes yes?

“Yusuf will lead what the party calls its ‘Doge team’ which is modelled on the Department of Government Efficiency set up by US President Donald Trump”. And which has also been a spectacular waste of time and money. So what say Nige? “Reform leader Nigel Farage told the BBC he was ‘delighted’ Yusuf had returned to the party and that he will now take on a more public role for the party in a new role, appearing more frequently in the media”.

Reform UK, aka the Farage Fan Club and very little else, is still ahead in the polls. But with the party’s economic policies being derided as “Truss Plus”, and the media beginning to wake up to its shortcomings, don’t bank on that continuing. This is a clown car with its tyres slowly deflating.

Reform UK was for a time, but not for all time. Just rejoice at that news.

Enjoy your visit to Zelo Street? You can help this truly independent blog carry on talking truth to power, while retaining its sense of humour, by becoming a Patron on Patreon at

https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton