Labour, Caps, And Cruelty

Tuesday evening’s vote came and went, and despite the threats, seven Labour MPs voted for the SNP amendment urging abolition of the two child cap. As a result, all seven had the party whip removed for a period of six months, but what is most disturbing is not the keeping of 300,000 in poverty, but the uncaring and even triumphant attitude of many in the Party.

All that this blog had pointed up in the run-in to the election was on display; the attitude, the entitlement, the inability to see those 300,000 as individuals, and once more the tendency to frame the event as the “grownups in the room” putting one over on the Rotten Lefties™, or even the additional framing of anyone capable of showing a shred of empathy as mere “Trots”.

Anyone not yet taking that on board need look no further than Duncan Robinson’s article for The Economist, “Why Britain’s Labour Government Enjoys Hippy Punching”, and yes, the “grownups in the room”, having declared that anyone able to show empathy is a “Trot”, have also decreed that those individuals are also “hippies”, a word they couldn’t define.

Other than to point at said lefties, that is. Here’s a flavour of the article: “Hippy-punching is in vogue for two reasons. Partly, Labour’s leadership think it is good politics. More voters lurk to Labour’s right than to its left. It can afford to lose ‘vegan’ constituencies such as Bristol Central to the Green Party. A single voter in marginal Leigh [yes, Leigh is now ‘marginal’] is worth more than a pile of them in the Labour heartland of Liverpool”. Do go on.

“A positive piece in the Sun, a reactionary tabloid, is worth 99 simpering editorials in the Guardian, the hippy bugle … Partly, Labour’s leaders simply enjoy it. The party has a near-psychotic approach to its internal politics, and people now at the top have long dreamed of kicking lefties out of the party”.

There was more. “‘Country first, party second’ is a well-worn slogan of Sir Keir’s Labour. Factionalism still comes before both. Work combines with pleasure”. But not all remaining Labour MPs are enamoured of the puerile game playing, as Adam Bienkov of Byline Times noted.

“Keir Starmer's allies saw last night's vote as a ‘virility test’ but suspending MPs for voting to lift children out of poverty is the politics of Johnson and Cummings … Why some Labour MPs are furious about the ‘draconian’ treatment of the rebels”. Richard Murphy saw the very public fallout from the vote and added “That’s good news. Bullies who pick on those supporting the vulnerable really should be called out in public”. And it got worse.

Pro-nationalist Scots outlet The National splashed a photo of Labour apparatchiks celebrating, telling “LABOUR’S MESSAGE AFTER VOTING FOR TWO-CHILD CAP … ‘Celebration’ picture posted in aftermath of vote sparks condemnation”, to which Dan Hancox added “Good to see this made a front page. If you're going to spend 4 years lecturing the left that they don't know how to work with the media, are too unserious to effectively 'play the game' etc - then you deserve this”. It also revealed another NEC player.

Right in the middle of that group, rictus grin on display (as so often), the bloke holding a plastic glass half full of (apparently) beer, is one Abdi Duale. Who he? One of those on the NEC who has worked behind the scenes against the left, pal of Luke Akehurst, now celebrating the maintenance of poverty.

I have a question for Duale, Akehurst and indeed Morgan McSweeney: after all the self-congratulation, answer me this. How many members and supporters has this less than “grown up” behaviour alienated? How many people will be there to turn out and canvass for Labour next time round?

The Lib Dems held by-election trophy South Shropshire, and both constituencies that came out of the Tiverton and Honiton split. Labour failed to hold on to Mid Bedfordshire, in addition to all the independents taking seats from them, or running them close. What advantage will accrue from having your pure strain of authoritarianism lording it over everyone else?

It’s almost as if no-one in the Labour machine thought of that. Sad, really.

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Rachel Reeves And Bad Economics

The incoming Labour Government, we are told, is looking to economic growth to drive us forward towards the Brave New World of not being a member state of the European Union, but performing considerably better than under the last days of the Tories. But new Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves doesn’t seem to have figured her economic basics.

While some in the media class tell anyone listening that Ms Reeves at 11 Downing Street means that the grownups are back in charge, she steadfastly refuses to move the one lever of the economy which would almost immediately generate more economic activity, get the economy growing, and would be hugely popular with many of Labour’s voters.

So we arrive at the Two Child Cap. This relic of Tory austerity was imposed to limit the payment of child benefit to a family’s first two children only. Its imposition means that, from the third child onward, no child benefit will be paid. This has left many families struggling, and has made them the target of bad faith actors in the right leaning part of our free and fearless press.

SHOULDN’T HAVE THEM IF THEY CAN’T AFFORD THEM comes the plaintive refrain from obscenely overpaid hacks and pundits, few if any of whom have recently, if ever, been in the situation faced by many of the families affected, many of which are both “in work” and still having to rely on the generosity of food banks. The solution is glaringly straightforward.

And that solution is to remove the Two Child Cap, paying for the extra expenditure by taxing the very well off. It is, whisper it quietly, a no brainer. Moreover, it is plainly redistributive: it takes a relatively modest amount from those with a strong Propensity to Save, and gives to those with a rather stronger Propensity to Spend. An explainer on this is required.

Rich people get a tax break? They already have more money than they need, so are most likely to save the additional funds. Hence Propensity to Save. The less well off, on the other hand, almost always have less money than what they need to support a half decent lifestyle, so any extra is going to be spent, and in short order too. Hence their Propensity to Spend.

Additionally, the well off will notice a small reduction in their overall wealth less than those less well off. From there it can be seen that the imposition of the Two Child Cap effectively removed purchasing power from the less well off - thus reducing economic activity. Removing the Cap will immediately restore spending power to the less well off. More economic activity follows.

After all, the effect of removing the Two Child Cap is not dissimilar to that of giving less well paid workers a pay rise - the propensity to spend is strong, and yes, economic activity will be heightened as a result. That pay rise has been “hinted” at by Ms Reeves. But still the Two Child Cap is clung onto, as if an act of economic redistribution would cause the sky to fall in.

This matters: how the Chancellor acts will tell us whether this Government really wants to improve the lot of those at the bottom of the pile, or whether it’s merely a case of the new authoritarianism behind the Labour leadership telling the world “nah, not doing that, cos that’s what Trots do”.

Removing the Two Child Cap is an economic no-brainer. If Rachel Reeves wants to be both competent and consistent, she must act. That is all.

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Leeds Riot - Farage Lies Again

Although he has (temporarily, you understand) abandoned the voters of Clacton in favour of a pre-arranged jaunt to Milwaukee to show his support for Combover Crybaby Donald Trump (who didn’t have time for him), Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage has made time to sound off on events in the UK, where, as so often, he has talked well, but lied badly.

What provoked Mr Thirsty into his latest display of lying was a disturbance in the Harehills area of north-east Leeds. Social services had, earlier on Thursday, removed five children from a Roma family, as in people of eastern European and Christian origin. There had been disturbances in the wake of the removals. A Police car was flipped over. A bus was burned.

And so it came to pass that Farage reverted to type, and went full dishonest racist bigot, declaring “The politics of the subcontinent are currently playing out on the streets of Leeds. Don’t say I didn’t warn you”. An eastern European and Christian family has, in the retelling, become Scary Muslims™! Because the “subcontinent” reference is where Farage is leading his followers.

He was, more disturbingly, on the same page as Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, who had claimed “the newly elected councillor for the area rioting tonight in Leeds. Multiple reports he’s even on the streets with them”. Mothin Ali, in fact, “was seen by dozens of people earlier in the evening intervening, in an attempt to calm the disorder and stop the attacks on police”, as the Guardian later told. Lennon lied too.

Worse, Farage was not the only one of the Reform UK brains trust sounding off about the disturbance. Lee Anderson ranted “Disgraceful Scenes. Import a third world culture then you get third world behaviour. These animals need locking up for good. They are a product of our spineless namby pamby establishment who have betrayed our great country”. He lied too.

And he got an A for hypocrisy, having previously claimed those who trashed a Police van “were not far right extremists, they are just normal family people” when there were disturbances outside the Suites Hotel in Knowsley, after a number of asylum seekers were temporarily housed there.

The result of whipping up the mob can be seen in the responses to Farage and Anderson: there is the occasional voice trying to deal in fact and reason, but most are demanding deportations, claiming Roma do not hail from eastern Europe and/or that eastern Europe really is a third world place, and, tellingly, asserting that Reform UK is the only party listening to them.

As if Farage ever listened to anyone else. Former prosecutor Nazir Afzal summed it up: “Last time I checked members of the Romanian community protesting (violently & unlawfully) about some children being taken into care in Leeds has nothing to do with the politics of the subcontinent. Not Muslims Nigel. But a lie is a lie”. Nick Lowles of Hope not Hate had more.

“On Sunday night there were outbreaks of disorder all over the country, following England’s Euro24 defeat. Funny how [Nigel Farage], [Paul Golding] and [Tommy Robinson] remained silent. I wonder why that might be”. We know why: that disorder featured white people. While what happened in Leeds may not have. Farage has once again lied, and gone full racist.

He showed you who he was. You should have believed him the first time.

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Labour And Racist Cry-Bullying

After securing a landslide election victory on a mere 34% of the popular vote, new Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his team are devoting rather less than their undivided attention to those constituencies they lost, or came close to losing. He would, he said after being gently prompted, address the loss of voter support in areas with a significant Muslim population.

The first signs of how that would happen are not good. Adil Ray was not impressed: “This is hugely damaging if he thinks he can carry on by simply ignoring the concerns of many British Muslims”. And then came Jonathan Ashworth. Ashworth had lost his seat to independent candidate Shockat Adam. Had he reflected on why this happened? Seemingly not.

He had been subjected to robust questioning by his constituents on why he had not called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. And, as Saul Staniforth observed, “Ashworth says his opponent won on the basis of a foul lie, that he has the blood of Gazan children on his hands … When 4,600 Palestinian children had been killed, Ashworth refused to vote for a ceasefire. When over 12,000 children had been killed he voted for a ceasefire”.

Also, he was waved through into the studios of national broadcasters. Shockat Adam was not, although he was given a platform by Owen Jones. His observations were to the point. Voters wanted their MPs to voice their concerns, but instead were met not with engagement, but silence.

Gaza was the lightening rod for many in those constituencies where Labour lost to independents, but yes, there were other concerns. As Taj Ali pointed out, “Labour's vote share decreased by 6.9% in the most deprived parts of Britain … When people see their communities fall into decline and they feel worse off, they will look for answers elsewhere”. There were other factors.

Where was the action on racism? The double standards which resulted in what Martin Forde called a “hierarchy of racism” in Labour? Defending Muslim communities from postal voting smears? Standing behind those communities over the phoney “Trojan Horse” letter? Denouncing the far right and its attempts to smear Muslim communities over “grooming gang” claims?

But all we get is talk of “faith-based politics”, and even “sectarian voting”. And an intervention by John Woodcock, former Labour MP and more recently ennobled by disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. Woodcock is trying to draw a parallel between the Trump shooting and claims of intimidation of election candidates in the UK.

As the Guardian has told, “John Woodcock wrote to Yvette Cooper on Friday expressing his concern that a series of incidents in the election campaign could have been a ‘concerted campaign by extremists’ that ‘underlined the gravity of the threat to our democracy”. COULD have been.

There was more. “We have seen the growth in the UK of US-style politics of aggressive confrontation and intimidation which is unfortunately, exactly the toxic environment that could lead to another assassination attempt on a UK politician, of which we have already tragically seen a number in recent years”. COULD lead to. And more. Including suggestions of conspiracy.

“Woodcock said he believed intimidation was increasingly being used as ‘a core electoral strategy to try to either get candidates defeated or bully candidates into submission’. He added that there was a particular pattern of abuse ‘created by aggressive pro-Palestine activists’”. He BELIEVED.

Do go on. “The peer called on [Ms] Cooper and the security minister, Dan Jarvis, to commission a short inquiry to establish whether groups in different constituencies were working together before the 4 July general election”. CONSPIRACY! But this is so much evidence-free horseshit. The brutal and seemingly random mass killing, the blowing to pieces of little children (or their summary incineration), along with all the racism and taking for granted.

Some communities have had enough. Stop gaslighting them. Stop smearing them. And start engaging with them. That, Labour politicians, is your job.

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Trump Shooting - Enter The Wackos

As he rambled ad infinitum, and indeed ad nauseam, in the general direction of the not really very large crowd during a rally stop somewhere in the state of Pennsylvania, someone aimed a rifle at Combover Crybaby Donald Trump, apparently winging him and drawing some blood. His detail of security staff swarmed Trump and whisked him away. The shooter was shot dead.

So far, so procedural, but in the world of the far right, the wacko, the meatheads, the conspiracy mongers, and indeed the irretrievably batshit are never far away, and so it came to pass that someone had to be to blame. To no surprise at all, the people to blame were those opposed to Trump.

None of the brains trust spewing incoherent bile managed to notice that The Donald had just secured the endorsement of the NRA, thanks to his “gun friendly” stance. He urged gun owners to turn out to vote. Yeah, make guns easier to obtain, that’ll make America safe, won’t it? OK, scrub that one for a moment, move on to the tried and tested claim that the shooter was a Democrat. Take that, Dems! Except it soon emerged that he wasn’t.

Despite more of those wackos reinventing the “Shooter is a Dem” claim, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks was, at least in 2022, a registered Republican. Also registered as a Republican, Mike Collins represents Georgia’s tenth district in the House. As a holder of elective office, one might think he would try and calm the situation. And one might think wrong.

After someone took a pre-debate comment from Joe Biden - “We’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye” - off he went. “Joe Biden sent the orders”. Could he get more apeshit? Er, “The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, PA, should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination”. Absolute head case.

How about some closer-to-home idiocy? Well, over at the increasingly alt-right Spectator magazine, Kate Andrews has a hot take on the shooting. Except, er, let’s just look at the headline. “Today, we’re all MAGA”. And there’s a straight-A fuck right off. We can be concerned without backing the GOP.

Closer still to home? How about Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage? Adam Bienkov of Byline Times noted "Nigel Farage says violent language by BBC comedians and Radio 4 commentators have ‘encouraged’ what happened to Trump and ‘have a lot to do with this’”. Mr Thirsty says The Beeb Done It. The person who said he would “pick up a rifle” if Brexit was not delivered to the satisfaction of Himself Personally Now.

The same Nigel Farage who claimed the EU referendum had been won “without a shot being fired”, managing to miss that serving Labour MP Jo Cox had been murdered during the campaign, causing it to be paused. Ms Cox’s sister Kim Leadbeater simply said “Shocking scenes from America this morning. There is no place for political violence in our societies. My thoughts are with President Trump and his family and all the victims of this attack”.

Farage, meanwhile, has been given a platform by the BBC. Despite the claims he made about them. And despite his own claim that he was going to boycott the broadcaster because a Question Time audience gave him some stick. Nige, remember, got attacked too. By two dastardly milkshakes.

Meanwhile, Shayan Sardarizadeh of BBC Verify has noted “OSINTdefender, Laura Loomer and some other major accounts are falsely claiming this is a photo of the shooter at Trump's Pennsylvania rally. This is the picture of an X user, who posted it himself as a trolling attempt a couple of hours ago and is very much alive”. Ms Loomer was banned by both Uber and Lyft after complaining she could not get an ethnically pure hire car driver. Wibble.

For the real howling-at-the-moon right, Marjorie Taylor Greene (imagine her as Trump’s VP pick) brought us “Pray for America. The left wants a civil war. They have been trying to start one for years. These people are sick and evil. All of us on the right want peace, security, equal justice, freedom, and prosperity for ALL Americans”. Like they did on January 6th, 2021, eh?

Maybe we don’t have the detail yet, eh? Tom Nichols of The Atlantic put it this way: “Anyone in your timeline saying this is staged, the fault of one side or the other, whatabouting, or really, anything other than sitting tight and waiting for more information, is likely someone you'll never have a productive conversation with and might as well block”. Amen to that.

And Dan Kaszeta (ex US Army and USSS) concluded “A lot of the commentary right now ranges from unhelpful to actively harmful”. Too many out there are using this incident to promote their own warped view of the world, while the rest of us actually want to know what happened.

And remember, you don’t back the NRA and then condemn gun violence.

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Reform And The Phantom Menace

Hardly has the General Election result been reported and picked over, than suspicion has been aroused as regards some of the candidates who stood for Reform UK, the domain of self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage and his pals. It was put to his side-kick Richard Tice (he’s not very nice) that some Reform candidates may not even have existed.

This was put to Tice by Robert Peston on the latter’s ITV show, causing the Reform man to lose it in no style at all. “It is a total fabricated lie that is nothing short of defamatory, libellous and totally outrageous. We’ve proved it to people like [the Lib Dems] and the Guardian and still they print this utter trash and garbage. I’m steaming mad about it”. Steaming, Goon Show fans!

There was more. “To suggest that we put forward false names and candidates - one of whom was in hospital at the count with pneumonia, nearly died for heaven’s sake. People need to get a grip”. Tice’s problem was that people were indeed getting a grip - like those asking questions getting a very firm grip of the narrative. Peter Walker of the Guardian had a correction.

“Reform have *not* as yet provided details to prove the identities of some candidates. We emailed them yesterday at 11am with three names (not mentioned in the story) asking for evidence. We are yet to get a reply”. Meanwhile, the candidate who had “almost died” took just 96 hours from that moment to be videoed dancing around his kitchen.

Mark Matlock had used a clearly doctored photo, for which he made a variety of excuses - it had to be edited so his tie could appear to be in the Reform UK colours, or that the photographers had all been booked up. He then appeared with apprentice gobshite Patrick Christys on Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”) to show he was a real person. However.

He looked nothing like the photo, and also appeared to have problems with his use of English. “Unfortunately I will not be attending the count tonight as I have pneumonia. The hospital I visited was closed before it’s [sic] closing time. I said to the nurse on a buzzer I am struggling to breath [sic] and she said call a number”. 96 hours later and he’s bopping around his house.

They seek them here, they seek them there, they seek Reform UK candidates everywhere

And on the subject of defamation, Peter Jukes of Byline Times noted "While Tice rages about ‘defamation’ he should remember Farage admitted there was no proper vetting of the candidates, and this is a matter of high public interest (and therefore has a public interest defence) given Reform are seeking public ‘short money’ dependent on votes cast”. Quite.

Furthermore, Byline Times had discovered more Reform UK candidates who were absent elsewhere when their counts happened. “Now Mark Matlock has been verified (with quite an amazing recovery from the pneumonia that kept him away from the count) we have at least 30 other Reform candidates who have not been identified or have other potential issues with their declaration”.

There was more. “Overnight the number of unverified candidates with no official photo or presence at the count has risen to 50. At best, these may be ‘paper candidates’ - but it is still bizarre that they require no photo ID or verification, unlike voters”. We have also seen one reliable right-wing shill site trying to put journalists off asking all those inconvenient questions.

The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog told anyone not yet asleep “Some dark corners of the sanctimonious left’s presence on Twitter have been frantically trying to come to terms with the fact that Reform did so well at the election. Their chosen conspiracy? That Reform’s ‘paper candidates’ in unwinnable seats aren’t real people at all”.

So that’s an admission that Reform UK fielded “paper candidates”. Spend a few thousand notes on online ads, and add the rest of the £55,000 per candidate spending allowance to the pot for pushes in winnable seats. Not illegal. But if any of those candidates aren’t even “paper candidates”, that’s different. And the Fawkes folks don’t want anyone going there.

All of which means investigations will continue. Questions, questions, eh?

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Hello BBC - Your Team Lost

Winston Churchill once said that he knew very little about economics, but he did know that shooting Montagu Norman would have been a good thing. Churchill had relied heavily on the advice of the then Governor of the Bank of England when he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer by Stanley Baldwin in the latter’s 1924 to 1929 Government. The sentiment concerned one issue.

A most unfortunate juxtaposition

Norman had been highly supportive of returning Sterling to the Gold Standard, and at the pre-World War 1 rate of one pound to 4.86 US Dollars. The obvious problem was that Sterling was by this time worth no more than around $4.40. The initially lauded return to Gold had the effect of increasing the cost of UK exports by around 10%. So those abroad went elsewhere.

Norman and his counterparts from France and Germany then went to the USA to ask if the folks Stateside could perhaps alleviate the situation by a little loosening of monetary policy, which they duly did. From that point, rather a lot of the easier money went on purchasing common stocks, with the result that an overheated stock market crashed in late 1929.

Now, I know very little about the internal machinations of the BBC, but I do know that removing Robbie Gibb - permanently - from the Corporation would be a good thing. Anyone who is comfortable sharing a platform with the luminaries of the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance, and the rest of the Tufton Street alphabet soup brigade, has no place at our national broadcaster.

Looking at the Beeb’s website this morning, one could be forgiven for concluding that it was the Tories who won last week’s General Election, such is the glaring bias in coverage. The faux “equivalence” is there in the first UK News headline: “Starmer heading to Scotland as Jenrick says Tories failed to deliver”. Who gives a flying foxtrot what Robert bloody Jenrick thinks?

Scroll down a little and it gets worse: “Who could replace Rishi Sunak as party leader?” Only in the sub-heading does the word CONSERVATIVES appear. Default party = Tory party. Scroll down a bit more, to Latest Updates. “A quick guide to the PM who only lasted 45 days” is followed by “A very quick guide to Penny Mordaunt” and “A quick guide to Rishi Sunak”.

Not only are those features about Tories, but the first two lost their seats. And what’s this? “Gloomy in Looe as fishermen reflect on Labour coup”. Tanks on the streets, was it? It didn’t get any better when the Laura Kuenssberg show had its first post-election airing. Jenrick was one of two Tories given a platform. That’s the party with just 121 MPs. As opposed to Labour with 411.

Ed Davey, whose party put on another 61 MPs to reach a record high for them of 72, was greeted by the grudging “Congratulations, I suppose”. Former Chief Prosecutor Nazir Afzal summed it up: “Laura Kuenssberg seems to be finding it hard to be in opposition”. So Jenrick is kicking off the Tory leadership race? Who cares? They’re out of it. Stop promoting them.

Likewise, the effective awarding of a season ticket for Question Time and other shows to Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage has to stop: his is a fringe party with just five seats. If he and his pals get access, so should the Greens. So they got a lot of votes. So did the Liberals in 1974, and the Liberal-SDP Alliance in 1983. Did the Beeb give them season tickets, too?

Giving the Tories such prominence despite their drubbing last week, and worse, giving a platform to the kinds of Tories who belong firmly in the wacko fringe, is out of order. Questionable displays of “impartiality” - pitting those with comprehensive knowledge of a subject against lobby group activists with bad faith talking points - should also be brought to an end.

That means serving up news and current affairs in a genuinely even-handed manner. No Astroturf lobby groups, especially those who decline to say who funds them. Fact check those known to peddle assertions of dubious veracity. No more Question Time audience plants. And let the Tories run their own leadership contest. They’ve got enough pals in the press as it is.

Robbie Gibb at the BBC was for a time, but not for all time. Order the taxi.

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Labour Landslide - Slow Handclap

And so ends the 2024 General Election campaign, the triumphant end point of the mission, so the media narrative goes, to make the Labour Party electable once more, with voters now able to make the positive choice to vote for The Red Team. After all, Labour now had a 170 seat majority, and had won in a landslide. But that electable positive choice was absent elsewhere.

New and electable leader secures for Labour ...

It was left to master pollster John Curtice to bring Labour cheerleaders the bad news: “Actually, but for the rise of the Labour Party in Scotland... we would be reporting that basically Labour’s vote has not changed from what it was in 2019”. In fact, the party garnered fewer votes than in 2019.

You remember 2019? Labour allegedly in the grip of “trots”, beset by claims of institutional anti-Semitism, when rather a lot of people within the party, it has since been alleged, either didn’t bother to campaign for its then leader, or tried their damnedest to throw the contest. Yes, totally unelectable Labour scored more votes than new and totally different Labour.

How such a thing could happen, and with such a different result, is down to the Tory vote collapsing - and the First Past The Post voting system. Labour’s vote share was up on 2019, but turnout was, shamefully, lower at something like 60%. The “Landslide on 34%” has now incurred the displeasure of the Daily Mail, calling it a “Loveless landslide”. There will be more of that.

And while the Tories were duly turfed out, Labour’s stance on the Gaza conflict, Starmer’s clumsy mention of “returning people to Bangladesh”, its below shitty treatment of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, and equally shitty treatment of some of its candidates deserve analysis, as does the patently ridiculous behaviour of some of those client journalists out there.

Corbyn stood as an independent. Labour’s choice of Praful Nargund was staggeringly arrogant: here was someone who had made a lot of money in the healthcare business. A series of party luminaries let it be known that they were campaigning against Jezza. And then came the superior insights of the New Statesman magazine, starting with pundit Rachel Cunliffe.

Here was her schtick, delivered on live TV: “I have always found the argument that Jeremy Corbyn is such a prominent local figure, that he would be able to mount a strong, independent campaign. That has never really chimed with my experience living in the constituency. He certainly wasn’t particularly active in the time that I was there”. Would a Tweet/X/Whatever extolling the analysis of Ben Walker and Finn McRedmond add more?

... fewer votes than his predecessor. Who won his seat, thanks

It certainly would. “A few weeks ago Novara Media tried to claim that Labour's 14-point lead over Jeremy Corbyn in this seat was a narrow gap. It really isn't. But it has narrowed slightly”. Get sneering! Nose a little higher in the air, eh? Corbyn won, with a majority of more than 7,000. The Staggers? Meet the new client journalists, not so different from the old client journalists.

The new authoritarian Labour Party had other problems, too. In Chingford and Woodford Green, the cynical last-minute sidelining of Faiza Shaheen, on whom Keir Starmer had showered so much praise, resulted in her running as an independent, the anti-Tory vote splitting, and Iain Duncan Cough living to fight another day. And no, it was not Ms Shaheen’s fault. It was Labour’s.

Had the ousting not taken place, she would have won. Who did the ousting? The newly authoritarian Labour Party. For party loyalist Jonathan Ashworth, it got much worse: he lost his seat to a pro-Palestinian independent. Wes Streeting came close as Leanne Mohamad got within 530 votes of dispatching him. He described the campaign as “ugly”.

Which is an interesting way of saying “I nearly got humiliated by one of those Scary Muslims™”. How “ugly” is it for tens of thousands of Gazans to be randomly blown to pieces, Wes? Streeting, whose reputation at this blog was shredded when he failed to call out Tom Harwood’s lying on Question Time, needs to ask himself why he nearly lost, which he may not.

Starmer himself experienced a fall in vote share and number of votes cast for him. He also had to contend with a significant independent campaign from Andrew Feinstein. Labour lost Dewsbury and Batley to an independent by almost 7,000 votes. They lost Blackburn. They kicked out and then patronised Jo Bird, who has came second in Birkenhead for the Greens.

Calling for a ceasefire in Gaza is not anti-Semitic, or indeed anti-Israel. Labour could have done that and headed off all the grief. Instead, a large part of their core vote has been alienated. On the other side of politics, the far right now has a presence in Parliament, given yet more airtime yesterday evening by the BBC, which really has had a dreadful election.

Relying on Tory collapse in order to win cannot be repeated. Realisation has dawned that Labour is beatable. Slow handclap, authoritarians.

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Election Day Press Shame

The day has finally dawned, when, if the latest poll is to be believed, Labour will sweep to a tally of well over 400 MPs, with the Tories facing something between annihilation and wipeout. The conclusion to the election campaign is as obvious now as it has been since Rishi Sunak went to see Brian in late May, his pals bet on the election date, and Labour were thereby alerted.

Turnout looks as if it may be on the high side: good. Sunak might, just might, provide the ultimate Portillo moment of the night as it looks possible that he could lose his seat. Five-figure Tory majorities are set to fall across the country, with at least one poll suggesting that Esther McVey in true blue Tatton could be a casualty. The Tories may end up with fewer than 100 seats.

If The Blue Team does worse even than that low bar, we could be looking at their being replaced as the official opposition by the Lib Dems. All of the foregoing is shaping up to provide excellent spectator sport after polls close at 2200 hours. But for one group of observers, there is a fear and foreboding in the air. They are the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press.

While the Murdoch Sun has done a screeching U-Turn during the week, going from attacking Labour to telling their remaining readers that Keir Starmer and his pals are actually the winning team, and the Sunday Times has also backed The Red Team, the daily title under the editorship of the deeply unpleasant Tony Gallagher has gone into fence-sitting mode.

Not so the Daily Brexit, still called the Express, which is pleading with any readers not yet asleep to back the Tories. The increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph has invented a Labour council tax raid. The Mail is trying to get readers not to back Reform UK. It is in a blind panic.

“Soaring taxes [no citation], uncontrolled immigration [no citation] … rampant wokery [meaningless drivel], betrayal of women’s rights [should be right up the Mail’s street, then], Net Zero mania [there is no mania], weaker defence [no citation], surrender of our Brexit freedoms [what ‘Brexit freedoms’ would those be, then?] - and votes at 16 to ‘rig’ future elections [is that in the Labour manifesto? I blinked and missed it]” And the “Supermajority” crap, too.

As well as the blatantly dishonest “You can stop it”. Right now, those Daily Mail readers with whom the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre had his imaginary “conversations” are queuing up at polling stations to vote out his preferred party of Government. After 14 years of ineptitude, corruption, waste, cronyism, cruelty, gaslighting, dishonesty, and rampant self-interest.

But what frightens the press more is that they have thus far failed to coax any assurance out of the Starmer team that there will be no return to Part 2 of the Leveson Inquiry, and the associated prospect of properly independent press regulation. No assurance that the press will be able to carry on behaving as badly as they see fit. Hence the panic, more lying, and scare stories.

Because a Government with a three-figure majority need not fear what all those obscenely overmonied hacks and pundits do in their efforts to derail whatever agenda is put before Parliament. If Labour triggers Leveson 2, not all the press lobbying in the Western world will stop it. Seeing what the press got up to for all those years will begin to turn the public’s heads. Good.

Worse for the press, the proliferation of poverty, those thousands of food banks, many working full time and still unable to make ends meet, will count against them. Why buy a paper when those who contribute to its production have so little understanding of how difficult life is for those hardworking people whom they claim to champion? They don’t care. Like the Tories.

The voters listened to the press, and their pals in all those Astroturf lobby groups. It got them a country that is in serious decline, a health service that is on its knees, roads that are literally falling apart, public transport that is either absent or expensive, a Police service that is mostly ineffective, and all they see is rich people filling their pockets. Then they see the press.

A press supporting more cruelty and more poverty. Don’t forget to vote.

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Behold The New Entitled Elite

One word that endures, whoever is in power, is Entitlement. It was on display throughout the tenure of disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson; this, sadly, continued through the blessedly brief interregnum of batshit and utterly inept Liz Truss, and has been maintained by the self-promoting failure that is Rishi Sunak.

The New Elite 1 - Luke Akehurst ...

What has become clear, furthermore, is that, in its own way, entitlement will be the name of the game for Labour when, as now seems inevitable, the Party clears out the Tories tomorrow and takes power for the first time since 2010. The new entitled elite will not be Something In The City, and nor will they have a berth in or near 55 Tufton Street. But they will still be entitled.

And they will still be elite, although in a different way. Not for the up-and-coming Labour entitled elite the moonlighting on Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”). Not for them the column in the Mail, Telegraph, Express, or indeed the Spectator, the latter’s summer parties about to become a sad irrelevance, and deservedly so.

No, the new Entitled Elite of Labour will show their entitlement through their hold on power, on the party, controlling who is in, who is out, who is to be praised, and who has incurred their displeasure. Availability of directorships is out. Ennoblement may only be temporary, unlike the Tories. Seats in the Commons, SpAd appointments, vacancies for backroom plotters, are in.

They will be featured in the Guardian (BTDTGTTS), or in some cases, they already have been, such is the swaggering confidence bordering on downright arrogance. We’ve seen Spreadsheet Shitlord Extraordinaire Luke “Arthur Putey” Akehurst described in almost fawning terms - “Really Nice Guy” - before he was imposed on the constituency of North Durham.

Also given a fawning write-up in the same paper has been Morgan McSweeney, readers told how he is supposedly considering only allowing sitting MPs to vote on a new Labour leader, should the need arise between General Elections. Which sounds like a reduction in democracy. So does the implication that General Election manifestos be effectively imposed.

... The New Elite 2 - Morgan McSweeney

He, the Guardian feature suggests, will be entitled to A Big Job, come the expected victory. After all, he and Uncool Hand Luke stayed and fought the dastardly Rotten Lefties™. One sincerely hopes that staying and fighting also included backing the party in the 2017 and 2019 General Elections. Because it is all too clear that some others did not. And that is beyond unforgivable.

This may induce in some readers a sense of Déjà Vu, that we have been here before. So we have. It was a baffling attribute of the New Labour project that the control freakery extended to imposing Their Selected People on electorates such as those in Wales, and Greater London.

Hence the digging in of heels to stop Rhodri Morgan becoming First Minister of Wales. This did not go well, Ron Davies embroiled in a scandal, and Alun Michael departing before a no confidence vote. Also not going well was Frank Dobson’s candidacy for Mayor of London. After Ken Livingstone left Labour and stood as an independent, he won. Dobson came third, behind Tory hopeful “Shagger” Norris. Control freakery has a record of not working.

What is also clear is that the new Entitled Elite has no problem with the bouts of flat-out lying that have come with Starmer’s leadership. The current leader made all manner of promises to get the job, and has since reneged on every one of them. But this does not concern the new Entitled Elite, for the same reason that right-wing lobbyists don’t care that they lied too.

That reason is that, as with Vote Leave and subsequent Brexit negotiations, too many people in that party bubble see it all as a game. Lying to secure the EU referendum vote? It’s only a game, we won, you lost, tee hee hee. So it is with the new Entitled Elite. Candidates kicked out in favour of loyal bag carriers? We won, you lost, tee hee hee. But here a problem enters.

It’s not a game for tens of millions of screwed over voters. Just a thought.

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Farage Paranoia Boils Over

As the going gets progressively more difficult for Reform UK, the limited company pretending to be a political party, so its self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage and his pals sink deeper into a world of paranoia, conspiracy theories, and pathetic self-pity.

Mr Thirsty has already instructed Carter, Ruck (that means it will be expensive, whoever ends up paying) over a story emanating from the Northcliffe House bunker. Then came revelations by Channel 4 News that some of Reform UK’s supporters, and even candidates, had been engaging in blatant racism. Well, colour me surprised. But Nige had a get-out clause.

One of those supporters, a man called Andrew Parker, is by profession an actor. Cue Farage paranoia: “Andrew Parker was the man that made the astonishing racist comments that have given us so much negative coverage. We now learn that he is an actor by profession. His own website says he is ‘well spoken’ but from the moment he arrived in Clacton he was doing what he calls ‘rough speaking’. This whole episode does not add up”. Yeah, right.

Farage’s sidekick Richard Tice (he’s not very nice) declared “Ch4 caught fibbing again … They said they did not know Parker … he works for them”, but Richard Bartholomew corrected him: “Andrew Parker is ‘known for Channel 4 News’ because IMDb has logged his appearance as ‘Self’ on 27 June”. Also, he might just be a Reform UK supporter.

The paranoia had already been stoked up when Mr Thirsty decided that Ofcom were agin him. “Ofcom are engaging in election interference. Their new rules will only give Reform UK 8% of the coverage. They are trying to protect the cozy club and stop new challengers like us”. He’s never been an MP, but demands more coverage because he’s going to win this time. Or he will do if he has the coverage. Perhaps. Circular argument time again.

And then came BBC Question Time, where Farage has, over the years, enjoyed the equivalent of a season ticket. The audience had to represent a range of views - it was, after all, broadcast in the immediate pre-election period - and he was roundly ridiculed by many of them. So guess what?

It was a fix! It was part of the conspiracy against Reform! He would write to the Times about it! “I have just been invited to appear on Laura Kuenssberg. I’m refusing until the BBC apologises for their dishonest QT audience. Our state broadcaster has behaved like a political actor throughout this election. Reform will be campaigning vigorously to abolish the license fee”.

He would abolish the dastardly BBC for the heinous crime of giving him a platform to spout his drivel for decades. But there was something he was not being totally honest about (again). He could not have appeared on the Laura Kuenssberg show because he was already down to attend his party’s victory rally in Birmingham. Adam Bienkov of Byline Times was tiring of the circus.

“Vetting websites, audience members, TV producers and even his own activists are now conspiring against him. This is rapidly turning into one of the biggest extended sulks in political history”. LBC host James O’Brien added “The speed with which he resorts to pathetic whining & bogus victimhood whenever he’s exposed to the mildest scrutiny is extraordinary. Whenever the bullshit & bluster fail, the bleating begins”. And then another thought enters.

What happens when Reform UK wins fewer seats than The Great Man has decided they merit? One poll claimed as many as 73 seats: if the actual number turns out to be in single figures, or they win no seats at all, expect Trump-style claims of a stolen election, and refusal to accept the result.

There was derisive laughter when Farage claimed the EU had interfered in a member state’s internal elections. There won’t be any of that if he kicks off next Friday; it will be deadly serious. The Tories believed they were entitled to power, some in Labour believe they are entitled to become MPs after purging the Rotten Lefties™. But Farage entitlement is the really dangerous kind.

Reality is, for Reform UK’s leaders, a state of mind. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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Tory Press In Blind Panic

The realisation that, no matter how apocalyptic the Labour-bashing headlines, none of the press attacks are cutting through, and that as a result The Red Team is set to win a crushing victory in next week’s General Election, is now hitting home among the right-leaning part of our free and fearless press.

Spectator editor Fraser Nelson ...

As a result, the scare stories are being ramped up: Net Zero, Small Boats, Tax Hikes, and every last lame culture war issue, all are being thrown at a readership that long ago ceased to be interested. Other scary terms being bandied about include the alleged Supermajority about to be conferred on Labour, despite the term having no significance in the UK. At all.

But some voters may recognise it from the USA: the Supermajority has to do with the Senate, and describes a scenario where one party holds 60 or more of the 100 seats. This allows the majority party to legislate without any filibustering by the minority party. But legislation in the UK does not involve an elected Senate, and it matters not whether the party in power secured a majority of 80 or 180. If they can get a majority, their view will prevail.

All of which brings us to the increasingly alt-right Spectator magazine, and its editor Fraser Nelson, who has, over the years, used his faux-posh Scots accent to talk well, but lie badly. Nelson has seen the Labour future, and he is sore afraid. In an article for the magazine titled “How Nigel Farage became the left’s greatest weapon”, Nelson reveals his detachment from reality.

“Some opinion polls say the Conservatives could be looking at as few as 50 seats, perhaps fewer than the Liberal Democrats. Starmer is believed to be on course for about 450 seats … Labour is looking at ten years of power” he splutters, forgetting that the Tories just had 14 years and screwed over the country and its economy so badly that 10 years is the least Labour needs.

But do go on. “It’s not hard to see what happens next. If the polls are right and Starmer ends up with a majority out of all proportion to his support, he will be urged to use this freak moment of power to make the political landscape more favourable to the left, just as the Thatcher revolution promoted home ownership, share ownership and other causes more favourable to the right”. Ah, the boot so firmly on the other foot.

... and his idea of press freedom

Then he loses it completely. “State regulation of the press could be forced through, stifling commentary that challenges the government”. Ah, the old “Leveson equals state regulation of the press” ploy. This is total crap. What it’s about is totally independent press regulation. Which we don’t have.

The press marks its own homework. It pleases itself. It absolves itself of racism and other hate speech, illegal information gathering, illegal surveillance, bullying, blackmail, doxxing, harassment, and other elements of its penchant for creative behaviour in order to gaslight the public, bend Governments to its will, and do all this with no-one to tell it to desist.

Have another go. “GB News, the television channel where Farage and Rees-Mogg are both presenters, may end up being taken off air”. One, GB News is not a news channel, but what Jon Stewart called Opinutainment. And Two, the only thing that will be needed for GB News to be taken off air is the plug finally being pulled on its obscene levels of loss-making. There is more.

“A crushing majority will make it easier for Starmer to water down Brexit. He can sign Britain up to various regulatory schemes, taking it back into the EU’s orbit while stopping short of rejoining. Not a single member of Starmer’s front bench backed Brexit, so his team is unlikely to seek new trade deals to make Brexit work”. There is no trade deal on offer anywhere to make Brexit work.

What Fraser Nelson, and all the other right-leaning hangers-on, really fear is this: the voters, having shunned the Tories and consigned the party to the electoral oblivion it so richly deserves, may follow that with shunning the right-wing press, without whose superior insights the country would not have been reduced to an international joke. First the Tories, then their backers.

The likes of Fraser Nelson were for a time, but not for all time. Rejoice!

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Oh Tommy Tommy - You’re An Illegal

One thing Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, dislikes is when he believes people are not being totally honest. “You’ve been telling lies about me” was his opening gambit when he rocked up on my doorstep in the dead of night. It is so very different when the boot is firmly on the other foot, as it was yesterday evening in Canada.

The Mail, friend of right but not far right, told that “Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, appears to have been detained by officers outside the Carriage House Hotel and Conference Centre in Calgary. Video footage showed the far-Right activist being taken away in handcuffs by a team of police as he laughed and protested that the arrest was 'absolutely insane’”.

Do go on. “He could be heard asking an officer: 'What have I got a warrant out for?' They replied: 'You've got an outstanding immigration warrant, we'll talk about it in the vehicle.' Robinson was then put in a car and driven away. It appears the 41-year-old was later released, but he claims to have now been prevented from leaving Calgary”. Are they keeping the SOB? Good!

There was more. “The English Defence League founder later tweeted: 'OK I'm free, well sort of. None of this makes sense, I'm now detained in Calgary, prevented from leaving the city … These conditions stop me from continuing my tour of Canada and meeting with guests for podcasts. I'm not even allowed to leave to travel home’”. Cos they took his passport. Carry on.

“Robinson had been speaking at an event called 'An Evening with Tommy Robinson', organised by far-Right media website Rebel News and its founder Ezra Levant … He also had a speaking event booked in Edmonton tonight, with the exact location not revealed to ticket holders until this morning - but this is now in doubt. Then this Sunday, Robinson also had a similar engagement in Toronto”. A bad case of Griftus Interruptus, it seems.

Levant could be seen in the video of Lennon’s arrest pleading with Police officers to let him know where his pal was being taken, so bail could perhaps be arranged. The Great Man confirmed later to Levant that his passport had been taken and he could therefore not leave the country.

Why he got nicked was spelled out by Nick Lowles of Hope Not Hate. “Stephen Lennon (AKA Tommy Robinson) has been arrested in Canada on immigration violations. It appears that he entered the country claiming he had no convictions .....whereas of course he has loads. He will claim to be the victim, but the truth is he lied. Simple as that”. Telling lies, is he?

He won’t like that a bit. He might even have to drive 150 miles or so and doorstep himself loudly in the dead of night, doxxing the address as he goes. Then he can loudly blame someone else and doorstep them loudly in the dead of night, doxxing their address too. Then he can loudly start another grift from his adoring fans. By that time he will of course be telling THE TROOF.

After being released by Calgary’s finest later last night, Lennon took on an air of mild panic as he realised that being told that when he goes home is not down to him might mean he gets held in Canada for long enough to stop him attending his own celebratory event in late July. This, too, will be someone else’s fault, rather than his own doing for lying to get into Canada.

Which means that, yes, he is now an illegal immigrant. One observer of this situation mused “Tommy Robinson must be delighted to see how effectively Canadians deal with illegal immigrants”, and Louise Raw, who you can tell as she’s a doctor, reminded us that Lennon “has previously been caught travelling under TWO DIFFERENT FALSE PASSPORTS”. So he has.

So Lennon might miss his July event? Tough. He should have thought about that before lying to the Canadian authorities. If he doesn’t appear before the courts on the 29th, he’ll be in even deeper shit. And that appearance - linked to his facing a contempt of court charge and yet another stretch - really would put the lid on his freedom. Which would, once again, be all his own fault.

Stephen Lennon’s comeback tour got cancelled. Just rejoice at that news.

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Tories - Bent Beyond Redemption

With its polling numbers now widely below 20% and entering wipeout territory, it might have been thought that the Tories’ situation could not get any worse - except that it has got worse, and is about to get worse still. What hundreds in and around the party are being investigated for - making a fast buck rather than governing the country - will not go down at all well with the electorate.

Or rather, that part of the electorate still prepared to vote for them before the latest scandal unfolded. That latest scandal is now being referred to as Gamblegate, Fluttergate, Betgate or Bettinggate, and allegedly involved using knowledge that the General Election was to be called for early July to nip down to the nearest bookies’ shop to get a few Bags of Sand on it.

Although some of those involved are thought to have only pitched a Monkey-sized stake, the impression of impropriety is now inescapable. Advisors, hangers-on, prospective candidates, retiring and now former MPs, and yes, even one or more Government ministers are, it seems, under investigation.

Even the Murdoch Times was reporting it, with George Grylls telling “a dossier containing a list of all bets that stood to win more than £199 has been compiled by the Gambling Commission. An industry figure said this list contained ‘hundreds’ of names. Among those known to be under investigation are Sunak’s aide Craig Williams, the Tories’ chief data officer Nick Mason and party candidate Laura Saunders - all of whom insist they did nothing wrong”.

HOWEVER. “Though Williams has admitted to a ‘huge error of judgment’, which is certainly one phrase for it”. Jo Maugham mused “When you have learned that the rules are for the little people” and also asked “If you watched other Tory VIPs make PPE gazillions from who they knew, you might well think, 'why not grab a little for myself?’” Why not indeed.

Edwin Hayward added “Seems the Tories have learned absolutely nothing from Partygate … Back then, they hid behind ‘the police are investigating’ to avoid commenting or taking action … Now it's ‘the Gambling Commission are investigating’, but in all other aspects it's the same mistake all over again”.

By yesterday, Sky News had more, with Beth Rigby declaring “Betting scandal crisis deepens: Many more people than Tories already identified being investigated by gambling regulator re bets on election date. Watchdog widened inquiries to investigate whether people with inside knowledge may have asked third party to place bet, via [Jon Craig]”. Soon after came news that bookies’ odds were on Sunak to lose his seat come polling day.

Strangely, one thing that could help the embattled Tory leader - taking action against those betting - is not happening. But the kinds of papers that might be seen as sympathetic to the Tories, like the Times and indeed the Telegraph, are reporting the news alongside their latest lame efforts to blunt Labour progress by dredging up culture war stories that few care about.

We’re back to the Italian Job derivative, where Mr Bridger tells Camp Freddie “we need that senior Tory MP - get on to it, Freddie”, Camp Freddie asks “but Mr Bridger, what if the senior Tory MP isn’t bent?” and Mr Bridger responds firmly “Camp Freddie, everybody in the Conservative Party is bent”.

When the choice came between serving the people and making a fast buck, the modern Tory did not hesitate. Nor should the voters. Out they go, then.

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Don’t Mention The War, Sorry, Brexit

Perhaps the most surreal aspect of the General Election campaign is that the party most likely to form the next Government - Labour - is steadfastly refusing to recognise the elephant in the Economy room. The Elephant which has resulted in higher taxes, a decline in the UK’s ability to trade freely with its nearest neighbour, and therefore its attractiveness and competitiveness.

The name of the Elephant is Brexit. And Labour would rather not mention it, so frit are they of the fury that would rain down upon them from the general direction of our free and fearless press should they dare to Go There. This level of cowardice before gaining power gives every impression of enduring after Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves take up residence in Downing Street.

But at some time, Labour will have to talk about the Elephant. Meanwhile, the Lib Dems are unencumbered by Labour’s cowardice, and John Sweeney, who is now fighting Sutton Coldfield for them, has put it directly: “I remember listening to the Brexit result in my little backyard and then it started to drizzle. Our wonderful country was conned something rotten: we have ended up with a broken economy, a blighted future and our national security endangered”.

And his solution? “The sooner we are back in the European Union the better and, if elected, I shall campaign for that … Vote for me and I shall fight for you”. Fight is the right word. Because the overmonied and intolerant part of the media class, less affected by Brexit, will fight to keep it.

They will always be able to summon a member of the punditerati to tell whoever reads the final article that the UK imposing economic sanctions upon itself is a small price to pay for the benefit of keeping all those FORRINS from making decisions that affect Brits. Screwing over farmers? Throwing the fishing industry under the nearest bus? Not their problem.

While the comfortable part of the media class can still dine at their reassuringly upmarket restaurants, can still summon tradespeople to patch up their over-valued properties, can still get domestic help without breaking the upmarket bank, and can still use the app to hail a private hire vehicle and therefore keep the hoi polloi away from them, Brexit will be excellent.

Typical of that media class is one Iain Martin, who claimed “‘The Office for Budget Responsibility says UK GDP will be around 4% lower every year than it would have been had we remained inside the EU,’ reports the [Observer]. This is not what the OBR says”, only to be Community Noted and for Jonathan Portes to tell him “This is *precisely* what the OBR says”.

In the meantime, Edwin Hayward, who has written a little on the subject, has put together a thread (HERE) where he groups the benefits of EU membership under the headings of Economic Benefits, Freedom of Movement, Education and Research, Consumer Rights and Protections, Health and Safety, Workers’ Rights, Environmental Protection, Citizenship and Legal Rights, Data and Digital Rights, Cultural and Creative Industries, Trade and Business, Security, Political Influence, and Future Potential.

Put yet more directly, improving the lot of all those Ordinary and Hard Working People without sinking yet deeper into decline and a vicious cycle of higher taxation, and without Sterling losing all remaining credibility, is going to be, er, challenging without returning to the EU. With or without another poll.

It will also involve not giving con men like Nigel “Thirsty” Farage and his ability to talk well, but lie badly, equal status with leaders of democratically constituted political parties (which Reform UK, being a limited company with no internal democracy, cannot claim to be). Treat him on merit. Or lack of it.

But above all, Labour has to have the courage to talk about the EU. To be straight with the voters. This may well risk the bad faith lobbyists who lied and conned their way to success last time to crawl out of the Tufton Street woodwork. So what? They will have to be faced down whatever happens.

The average Polish citizen will soon be better off than their British counterpart. John Sweeney is right. The UK has to rejoin. That is all.

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Nigel Farage - You’re A Fraud

The potential collapse of Tory support, to the point where consideration is being given to the idea of the Lib Dems becoming the opposition after next month’s General Election, has also seen an increase in poll ratings for Reform UK and its self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. But with the poll ratings has come - at last - serious scrutiny.

Our free and fearless press, and those in the broadcast media, have woken up to this potential threat to the UK: Farage urged what became Brexit for so many years, and the result has been to hobble the country’s economy, to precipitate a state of national decline of the likes not seen before. Now he wants more. That this may mean more decline has not passed unnoticed.

So what never got done in the past - genuine scrutiny of Farage, his team, and his backers - is now happening. After all, that same media gave a free pass to disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson too, and look where that got us. Now Farage is under pressure, and the edifice of bonhomie is cracking. He is being exposed as a fraud.

Worse, his sometimes wacko ideas on how the world is ordered have provoked ridicule, and from the right-wing press, disgust. Today’s Mail goes for Mr Thirsty, howling “FARAGE: THE WEST ‘PROVOKED’ PUTIN … Fury as Reform leader suggests Nato was to blame for invasion”.

There is a problem with Reform UK and its supporters claiming that Ukraine looking to join Nato, and indeed the EU, was what triggered the invasion by those in the service of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and his gangsterist régime in Moscow, one of timing: Ukraine’s move to join Nato and the EU came AFTER the invasion. So it could not have been some kind of provocation.

On the domestic front, Reform UK’s Contract With Britain (or perhaps that should be Contract ON Britain) has seen the BBC’s Nick Robinson tell Farage “In your manifesto there are promises to spend more on health, more police, more soldiers, tax cuts for this group, tax cuts for that group, tax cuts for the rich, tax cuts for the poor, everybody gets everything they want. It's like Christmas”, telling him he’s offering 50% more than Labour in 2019.

Exit ... stage right

Worse still, the promise to leave the World Economic Forum is unachievable - mainly because Britain is not a member of the WEF. And the long-standing commitment to leave the ECHR is worrying, given that this membership guarantees the right to a fair trial, the right to due process - when Farage spends so much time talking up deportations. And it gets worse still.

As David Clark has pointed out, apropos the Farage flagship feature, “This is why Reform UK deserves the designation far right. By talking about ‘invasion’ and framing immigration as an issue of national security, Farage is endorsing the conspiracy theory that it is being driven by a hostile foreign interest. It’s a fascist dog whistle”. Couple that with leaving the ECHR.

He blames Net Zero for “de-industrialising Britain”. Because it can’t be Brexit that done it. He claims exports are up, Britain going from 7th to 4th in the export league. Except this is only in services, not goods. Robinson pulled him up again on the infamous and swiftly-reversed Liz Truss “mini-budget”.

“You're laughing but you said on the day of the mini budget: Today is the best Conservative budget since the 1980s.. Is that the judgment of someone who deserves to be Prime Minister?” Ah well, responded Mr Thirsty, “Some of the thinking was right, the delivery was wrong, the timing was appalling”. No, the thinking was wrong too: handing rich people a tax handout is not the way to go for growth. Propensity to save v propensity to spend, and all that.

Also, Reform UK’s stance on climate change is in the wacko category. But, although the increased level of scrutiny is welcome, the thought enters that this may have been too late. Maybe Farage will win in Clacton. Which would, perversely as it may seem, be a good thing. Because then he would have to turn up to the Commons. Where he would get ridiculed more often.

And would finally be exposed as a fraud. Pity the country is screwed, mind.

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