So Farewell Then Elon Musk

The BBC has quoted George Ell, “who knew Musk and was director for Western Europe at Tesla” in its article on The Great Man “scaling back” his time spent at the misnamed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE): “I think Elon is not someone who surrounds himself with a great diversity of opinion to challenge his thinking”. No-one stands up to him.

No-one tells him that he maybe shouldn’t do this or that. No-one tells him that he got something wrong, should not intervene so much in his companies, or that his political stance might just not be as neutral as he thinks. There was no-one to tell him not to perform a Nazi salute - and yes, ADL people, it was a Nazi salute - an act which poisoned his brands, maybe beyond redemption.

In Musk’s mind, his failures are someone else’s fault. Like Combover Crybaby Donald Trump, someone else did it. With Trump it is usually Joe Biden getting the blame, despite him having been out of power for some months. With Musk it is The Left. As if The Left could have caused the more than 30% decline in Tesla’s share price this year. Musk is deluded.

Nonetheless, we heard earlier this week that “Musk wants to leave politics because he’s tired of ‘attacks’ from the left”. He’ll still be blaming The Left if the Tesla share price falls so far that he gets margin calls and has to either stump up some collateral sharpish, or liquidate part of his holding. He’s either deluded or paranoid. Or, most likely, a combination of the two.

But, some out there on the right might argue, Musk’s contribution must be worth seeking out because he’s been so successful. To which I say, as Brigadier General Anthony McAuliffe said in response to demands by the Wehrmacht that he surrender the city of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge, Nuts. Musk was ridiculously wealthy, even as a child.

Moreover, he did not stump up the full cost of his best-known investments, those in Tesla and Twitter, X, or whatever he’s calling it this week, and hence his vulnerability to a precipitous fall in share value, which would spark margin calls, a prospect with which those who have studied The Great Crash of 1929 will be familiar. Add to that his inability to listen to dissenting views.

So it should be no surprise to read Seth Abramson’s commentary on Musk’s stewardship of DOGE: “Elon Musk has cut somewhere between 0% and 3% of what he promised - and most of what was cut was not waste or fraud or abuse, but simply expenditures Mr. Musk did not personally favour for partisan reasons”. Remember that the next time Tufton Street speaks.

So his conclusion is equally unsurprising: “DOGE is the biggest program failure in the history of American government”. And what of Tesla? Back to the BBC report: “On Tuesday, Tesla reported a 20% drop in car sales for the first three months of the year, compared with the same period last year, while profits fell more than 70%”. Oh dear! And there is more. Much more.

“The company warned investors that the pain could continue, declining to offer a growth forecast while saying ‘changing political sentiment’ could meaningfully hurt demand … Musk blamed the boycott of Tesla cars on people who would ‘try to attack me and the Doge team’”. Someone else did it. Nothing to do with him giving a Nazi salute. But do go on.

“Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, called expectations ‘rock-bottom’ after the company said earlier this month that the number of cars sold in the quarter had fallen 13% to the lowest level in three years … The firm faces fierce competition, Mr Coatsworth said”. He also drew this ominous conclusion: “Tesla's problems are mounting”. Not a good look.

Elon Musk’s empire is heavily dependent on US Government funding - for ventures such as SpaceX - with Tesla mired in a customer backlash to his infamous Nazi salute and tendency to smear genuine American heroes. Many have departed Twitter after he turned it into a sewer of right-wing abuse and a venue for promoting conspiracy theories. He is not a genius.

Remember Denis Thatcher: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt”. All Musk’s own fault.

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Khan K Exposes Press Racism

Whenever there is an accusation of racism levelled at our free and fearless press, they close ranks, issue forthright denials, and of course restate the claim that they wouldn’t dream of such things, they have all cleaned up their acts since Leveson, and generally attempt to get everyone to Look Over There at whatever dead cat they can, in the meantime, dream up.

It was the same when the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph was called out for anti-Semitism in the wake of its attack on George Soros. It was the same when the Mail, under the less than benevolent control of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, launched a viciously anti-Semitic attack on the memory of the late Ralph Miliband. Now it has come round again.

And again, it is the Telegraph and Mail being exposed as racist newspapers, after both of them launched a spiteful and petty assault on London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has been knighted in the New Year’s Honours. Khan has won three terms as elected Mayor. He has helped to reduce the capital’s chronic pollution. His free school meals initiative helps the least well off.

He has also tried his best to keep a lid on public transport costs. His prospectus has won through against a variety of Tory opponents, two of whom, Zac Goldsmith and Shaun Bailey, have since been ennobled. By complete coincidence, you understand, there was no press outcry about rewarding failure by sending Tories who failed to the Lords.

But enough of that: let’s see what the Mail and Tel have ponied up for the delectation of their unfortunate readers. The inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker have howled “PM’S ‘REWARD FOR FAILURE’ AS SADIQ KHAN IS KNIGHTED … London Mayor row risks overshadowing New Year Honours”. A row which the Mail and Telegraph have concocted. So it’s their fault.

Not that they will admit that. But do go on. “SADIQ Khan has been handed a knighthood in the New Year Honours - prompting furious claims of a ‘reward for failure’ [you said that already] … Leading Tories pointed to his ‘track record of failure’ in the capital, including over tackling knife crime and dramatic hikes in council tax, congestion charges and emissions levels”.

Emissions have not seen a dramatic hike, but hey ho. They probably mean the ULEZ, which failed to get Khan defeated last time round, much to the annoyance of the same right-wing papers that are now pouring out spite. The Telegraph offers “PM knights Khan in ‘reward for failure’ … Starmer accused of putting party before country as he hands honours to ‘cronies’”.

Those quote marks are doing seriously heavy lifting. So what else is testing the Tel? He allegedly “waged war on London’s drivers with the Ultra-Low Emission Zone and capitulated to unions over Tube strikes”. He did? “He … handed Tube drivers a 5 per cent pay increase”. And ended a disruptive series of strikes, which don’t affect the Tel’s rich bosses, so they don’t care.

There is more of this tedious drivel. But one person escapes any criticism, and to no surprise, that person is the disgraced former Prime Minister and occasional former Mayor of London Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, who bequeathed a mess to Sadiq Khan which he has had to sort out. And it was Bozo, let us not forget, who brought the ULEZ to London in the first place.

It was Bozo who foisted a thousand vanity buses onto TfL, for which a premium over conventional buses had to be paid. It was Bozo who shelled out tens of millions on the Garden Bridge fiasco. It was Bozo who spaffed millions up the wall (his own happy phrase) on the impractical Thames Estuary Airport study. It was Bozo who caved in to George Osborne and relinquished TfL’s subsidy from central Government. And so on.

But Bozo escapes the ritual and spiteful slagging off because he’s a Tory, he’s one of their own, and he’s white. Sadiq Khan, for all his efforts to make life better for all Londoners, will get no more than abuse, because he’s a Rotten Lefty™, he’s brown, and he’s a Muslim. The attacks are straight-up racism.

The racist and hopelessly out of touch right-wing press don’t care about ordinary Londoners. Sadiq Khan does. But you knew that already.

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So Farewell Then Paul Staines

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

The Great Guido as thirsty as ever

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

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

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

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

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

Ross Kempsell, sorry, "Lord" Ross Kempsell

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Oh Tommy Tommy - Bravely Ran Away

The question has now been answered: yes, Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, did indeed get himself arrested yesterday, and yes, he was detained under the Terrorism Act 2000. But then came the reasoning behind the detention, and the further news that Lennon has once again taken all those faithful followers of his for so many mugs.

What Lennon did not tell when he made yesterday’s pitch for supporters to hand over more of their hard earned money was which Police force had arrested him. We only knew that it was not the Met. Moreover, the assumption that he had been nicked because of something that happened during his rally on Saturday proved to be wide of the mark.

The Great Man had been stopped while attempting to board a EuroTunnel shuttle service. In other words, he’d been nicked while attempting to flee the country in advance of a court hearing today - concerning his alleged contempt of court over showing his film SILENCED, where he tells a whole stack of flat-out and indeed defamatory lies. And where does the Terrorism Act come in?

Simples. He was asked to unlock his phone. He refused. That is an offence under the Terrorism Act 2000, and one where he would not be within his rights to not say anything, not that Lennon needs much prompting to open his North and South. So his phone was confiscated. By the time he was bailed, thousands would have been stumped up from those supporters.

So what did he do after being bailed? With his presence required at court today, and the certainty of an arrest warrant being issued should he decline to appear, he showed all those supporters just what mugs they were. Brave Tommy ran away: he just got his motor onto the next EuroTunnel shuttle and away he went to France, out of the jurisdiction of the courts.

As the BBC has reported, "A senior judge has issued an arrest warrant for far-right campaigner Stephen Yaxley-Lennon - better known by his alias Tommy Robinson - after learning he has left the country on the eve of a major legal case against him … Yaxley-Lennon left the UK by a Eurotunnel train on Sunday night”. The barrister representing the Attorney General had more.

“We understand he failed to cooperate with a port stop and search … The implication is he was attempting to leave the country and therefore was not intending to attend this hearing this morning … The information that we have is that he is not within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom”. The Judge decided that the contempt of court application should proceed anyway.

So where will The Great Man fetch up? Who knows, and, indeed, who cares? If he’s driving, it’ll probably be the Spanish mainland. Like the place on the Costa Blanca he was occupying not long ago. When he tried for the umpteenth time to smear anyone mentioning he was living in that approximate area as giving away his address and endangering his family.

Already the more gullible part of his fan base is claiming Lennon is on a “long arranged holiday”. Like heck he is. Were that true, it would merely confirm that he had no intention of facing justice today. He claimed he would be prepared to go to jail. But when push came to shove, he just pocketed all those donations and ran away. So what will happen to supporters’ money?

A significant part of it will be snorted away. More will go on rental and upkeep costs for whatever upmarket and exclusive property The Great Man chooses to occupy for the next few months, while hoping to stay out of trouble and therefore not give the authorities in Spain (or wherever) an excuse to send him back to a jurisdiction where that arrest warrant can be used on him.

More will be expended on food and drink, which someone else will procure and prepare - Lennon won’t be seen slumming it down the local Consum or Mercadona. And don’t forget the cost of that private pool. Stephen Lennon’s fans can pretend all they like - the reality is that their donations are just being used to fuel The Great Man’s upmarket lifestyle. They’ve been had for mugs.

He’s run away with your money, mugs. Don’t say you weren’t warned.

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Guido Fawked - Investigation Hypocrisy

Nothing has put the rank hypocrisy of the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog in sharper focus than their sick and obsessive pursuit of Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner. Today has brought an excellent example of this, as one of their favourites has been caught peddling misinformation bordering on malicious dishonesty.

Behold the judge of standards in public life

Susan Hall, the increasingly desperate Tory candidate for the London Mayoral election next month, has been gratuitously slagging off her Labour opponent, incumbent Sadiq Khan, claiming that Khan is about to implement policies that he is not. The pièce de résistance in Ms Hall’s pantheon of misinformation is the totally false claim that Khan will hit motorists with a pay per mile scheme.

This from the Standard: “In recent days Ms Hall has repeatedly attacked Labour’s Mr Khan for ‘planning a new pay-per-mile tax’, which she calls ‘his Ulez 2.0’ … The mayor has admitted asking TfL to explore the concept, but has promised it will not be pursued, saying: ‘As long as I am mayor, we’re not going to have pay-per-mile’”. Then it got worse.

“Fact-checking campaigners have criticised Conservative mayoral candidate Susan Hall’s campaign as ‘deceptive' for a leaflet saying Sadiq Khan will bring in a pay-per-mile system for drivers … Images of the leaflet, which claims the mayor wants to bring in ‘another tax on drivers’, were published online by Full Fact”. Then it got worse still.

As Adam Bienkov at Byline Times has told, “The Conservative Party has been accused of running a campaign against Sadiq Khan which is based on a ‘barefaced lie’ which will ‘panic’ Londoners into handing over their personal data … Hall’s campaign have sent out leaflets to Londoners which are designed to look exactly like driving penalty notices”. There was more.

Susan Hall - may be celebrating prematurely

The leaflets have a QR code. “Anyone scanning the code will be taken to a website requesting they fill out a ‘petition’ against the new ‘tax’, which then collects their data”. Also, “The Conservative Party is not mentioned at all aside from a small print reference to ‘CCHQ’”. It’s Zac Goldsmith 2.0.

And has sparked an investigation by the ICO: “The Information Commissioner's Office say they are now considering complaints about the Conservative party's Sadiq Khan leaflets”. So, O Great Guido, given the headline “Police Reconsidering Rayner Case After Criticism”, and knowing the legendary Fawkes appetite for consistency and even-handedness, where is the equivalent headline for Ms Hall, following her misleading leaflets?

But you know the answer: of Ms Hall’s deliberate attempt to smear her way to the Mayoralty, there is nothing. Nil. Nix. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Not a sausage. Bugger all. But there is a crude attempt to smear SNP leader Humza Yousuf using the old Guilt By Association ploy, or to be more specific, the old Guilt By Claiming He Is His Brother In Law’s Keeper ploy.

And there are two more instalments this morning of Staines’ continuing sad obsession with Ms Rayner, bringing back memories of the right-wing media pile-on against Keir Starmer over what was called Beer And Currygate in a failed attempt to make it sound like a story. And when Starmer was cleared of any wrongdoing, The Usual Suspects inferred He Done It Anyway.

So it will be the same for Ms Rayner. So will the Fawkes hypocrisy.

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Rishi Sunak Slags Off Himself

With the Tories still well north of 20 points behind Labour in the polls, amateur Prime Minister Rishi Sunak needed something to take to Conference season, something his loyal followers could sell on the doorstep. So-called Inaction Man had to become active. So what would a sensible PM have done? What would an honest PM have done? What would Nietzsche have done?

"Honest" Sunak - not waving but drowning

Such is the desperation of not only the Tories, but their cheerleaders in and around our free and fearless press, that the answer consisted not merely of talking well, but lying badly, but a retrospective redefinition of reality, so that Sunak could claim he was ditching a host of policy commitments that had not existed in the first place. And the press followed him down his rabbit hole.

Here’s the claims put out on Sunak’s behalf. “We’re stopping heavy-handed measures … Taxes on eating meat … New taxes to discourage flying … Sorting your rubbish into seven different bins … Compulsory car sharing … Expensive insulation upgrades”. The first four of those five points do not exist, so to claim they are being stopped is a flat-out lie.

And the fifth, on insulation upgrades, is firstly a “no citation” claim (how is it ‘expensive’?), and secondly, the beneficiaries are in most part going to be the landlord class - the already well off. So the only real change proposed will not benefit working people. “There is nothing to be scrapped.. You're making a series of claims that aren't true” he was told on the Today programme.

His response? “I don't think its right to chase the short term headlines, just assert some goal for the future without a clear plan to deliver it and without being honest”. But that is exactly what he is doing. And the short-term headlines are just as he would have wanted, with the Daily Brexit, still called the Express, leading the way with the fantasy and propaganda.

“‘HONEST’ RISHI: NATION WON’T AND CAN’T PAY NET ZERO BILL”. Putting “HONEST” in quote marks? OH WHAT A GIVEAWAY! The Mail was also bending reality to suit itself, with “I’LL SPARE FAMILIES RUINOUS COST OF NET ZERO, VOWS RISHI … PM takes on eco-zealots in bold move that could transform Tory fortunes”. But the Sun went one worse.

“Sun Campaign Victory … Rishi delays bans on new cars & boilers … Scraps meat & flight tax in eco pushback … Given us a brake!” As Harold Macmillan almost said many years ago, could we have an English translation of that? The supporting article, under the by-line of the odious flannelled fool Master Harry Cole, still pretending to be a journalist, maintains the dishonesty.

“THE PM hailed The Sun tonight as he delayed crippling net zero targets”. What makes them “crippling”, Master Cole? You wouldn’t be just recycling a Downing Street press release, would you? He also claims “he bins petrol car ban” when no ban on petrol cars is proposed. He should have said NEW petrol cars. So “Drivers have a five-year reprieve from going electric” is crap.

Then we get “A ban on gas boilers was binned, along with taxes on meat and flying”. Would that be NEW gas boilers? So misleading again. And those taxes on meat and flying don’t exist. So that’s lying to boot. And it got worse. “Mr Sunak … announced ‘BONKERS proposals for seven household bins, forced car pooling and taxes on meat and flying would never return’”.

There is no proposal for seven household bins, or forced car pooling. But the non-existent taxes on meat and flying get another mention. So why is the Sun going all-in with the whoppers? “Writing in The Sun today, the PM added: ‘Hard-pressed families shouldn’t have to pay an unaffordable price to reach net zero’”. Ah, the Murdoch mafiosi get a press release, sorry article, out of it.

And what makes current Net Zero proposals “unaffordable”? It’s just another example of what Peter Oborne called “shovelling it on” - don’t bother with doing any analysis, don’t interrogate your source, just recycle what they feed you. Master Cole gets called a “Political Editor”, yet all he and his contemporaries are doing is recycling press releases for the Tories.

It’s the only recycling scheme the press can agree on. So it will continue.

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So Farewell Then Mohamed Fayed

“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend”. That quote, originally from the John Ford film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, could so often be wheeled out when analysing the machinations of our free and fearless press, with today’s prime example being the passing of Mohamed Fayed, not a multi-billionaire, not called Al, and not a confidant to anyone Royal.

Today, the legend ...

Fayed became, as the late Russell Harty might have put it, famous, nay, notorious, initially because of his business dealings and involvement in the issuing of cash in brown envelopes to buy the services of MPs like the singularly unpleasant Mostyn Neil Hamilton. His further notoriety came when his son Dodi had a brief friendship with Diana, Princess of Wales.

He owned the Ritz Hotel in Paris, and House of Fraser in the UK, including flagship department store Harrods. Which all looks very grand, but it did not take much perusal of Private Eye magazine at the time of the Fayed ownership to see the money-go-round of loans that kept the whole thing afloat - along with his brief tenure as owner of Fulham FC.

His Wikipedia entry gives a flavour of how trustworthy Fayed’s word really was. “After denials that Harrods was for sale, it was sold to Qatar Holdings, the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, on 10 May 2010. A fortnight previously, Fayed had stated that ‘People approach us from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar. Fair enough. But I put two fingers up to them. It is not for sale. This is not Marks and Spencer or Sainsbury's. It is a special place that gives people pleasure. There is only one Mecca’”. He told them to Fug Off. Then he sold.

Fayed was also the subject of a whole host of sexual harassment accusations, with one of the more eye-catching ones claiming “A dozen ex-employees I spoke with said that Fayed would chase secretaries around the office and sometimes try to stuff money down women's blouses”.

That isn’t making any front page appearances today. Nor is the Vanity Fair article claiming “Fayed regularly walked the store on the lookout for young, attractive women to work in his office. Those who rebuffed him would often be subjected to crude, humiliating comments about their appearance or dress”.

... back then, the fact

But we are told of “Diana’s Loyal Friend” by the Daily Star. The Mirror prints the same juxtaposition of Fayed next to a portrait of the late Princess. And the Murdoch Sun takes the biscuit in no style at all with “On Di Crash Anniversary … Al-Fayed dies 26yrs after Dodi … Buried Next To His Tragic Son”. What readers are not told is Fayed’s role in that fatal car crash in Paris.

Diana no longer enjoyed the same level of security as the Royals by the time she dined with Dodi Fayed at the Paris Ritz late in August 1997. Had that been the case, she would not have been ushered into a car driven by someone who was intoxicated and driven at high speed across the city.

That driver, Henri Paul, drove the car because he was ordered to do so. By Fayed. And staff at the Paris Ritz knew not to decline an order from the boss. Paul lost control of the car on the approach to the tunnel adjacent to the Pont d’Alma: the subsequent crash killed him and Dodi Fayed, and fatally injured Diana. Mohamed Fayed pretended Someone Else Done It.

He did so to the extent of accusing anyone and everyone he could think of - including the Duke of Edinburgh - of being in on the alleged conspiracy. He also claimed erroneously that Diana was pregnant at the time. She was, whisper it quietly, wanting to end what relationship there had been between her and Dodi Fayed. But now the legend has become fact.

So we aren’t seeing any of that on today’s front pages. Nor is the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph - which has a large photo of Fayed on its front page - making any link between the way the Fayed empire was kept afloat, and the way the Barclay empire is allegedly kept afloat. That’s the same Barclay empire that could lose control of the Tel. And Spectator.

No, today is a day for printing the legend. Even if it is a bit of a crap legend.

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Tory Press Goes Full ULEZ Racist

When the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph ran its front page attack on George Soros, the paper’s management held an all hands meeting to tell the workforce that this slice of nailed-on anti-Semitism wasn’t. The Mail unleashed an equally blatant anti-Semitic attack on the memory of the late Ralph Miliband, which also got excused in the retelling.

Mail promotes mighty white campaign ...

The right-leaning part of our free and fearless press is, whisper it quietly, well-versed in doing racism and getting away with it. So papers like the Mail, and especially the Tel, have not hesitated when it comes to engaging in yet more blatant bigotry as they attempt to bend London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan to their will and stop the expansion of the capital’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ).

Both titles have no problem with the mildly inconvenient fact that ULEZ expansion has already begun, and nor do they have a problem with acts of criminal damage being undertaken as ULEZ cameras and signs are routinely vandalised. The Mail even has a former Tory leader to back this criminality.

“Sir Iain Duncan Smith backs 'blade runner' ULEZ vandals: Tory MP says he is 'happy' for residents of his east London constituency to destroy cameras because they have been 'lied to’”. Yes, one of the Tories’ most shameless and habitual liars says someone else lied. The article also helpfully tells readers what the ULEZ cameras look like, not that it’s encouraging vandalism, oh no.

And the Mail gives front page prominence to a protest seemingly attracting fewer than 100 mainly white people (note narrow angle shot) brandishing placards telling “BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS KHAN” (less pollution means blood? Who knew?) with the caption “Time to get Khan out, say the ULEZ rebels”. The PM is “Rishi”. Former ones were “Liz” and “Boris”, who was also “Boris” when Mayor of London. But the current Mayor is just KHAN.

... as does the Telegraph

This is also how the Tel plays it, with another narrow angle shot of a mighty white protest, and the caption “Khan faces revolt over Ulez”. One wonders if either paper will be there at court supporting, or even just sympathising with, those engaging in acts of criminal damage against ULEZ infrastructure. Or rather, one doesn’t: the press whips up the hatred, but it’s not their fault.

And than a thought enters: where is the publicity FOR the measure? Moreover, where is the testimony from Rosamund Addo-Kissi-Debrah, whose daughter Ella, “lived near the South Circular Road in Lewisham, south-east London [and] died in 2013 following an acute asthma attack”. But then, mother and daughter were black. So they don’t count for the Tel and Mail.

This is despite her being “the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed as a cause of death on her death certificate, as coroner Philip Barlow found she had been exposed to ‘excessive’ levels of air pollution”. Her Mum told “We just hope that the Government helps people to get out of their polluting cars. I think generally people want to change. Some can afford it, but not everyone can, and the Government needs to help them”.

But the Government, led by a PM who cares not a jot about pollution levels, with its press cheerleaders in the vanguard, is engaging in a full-on assault on the London Mayoralty instead, which will most likely end up costing far more than giving some additional help to those with older cars.

Only brown people have blood on their hands

Jumping on the anti-ULEZ bandwagon, though, did not stop Rishi Sunak being targeted by the mighty white brigade, who were backed, to no surprise, by former Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, who, like the papers running their highly personal attacks on Sadiq Khan, is not at all racist, honestly. Like he wasn’t over his infamous “Breaking Point” poster.

It’s only “Sadiq Khan's hated £12.50 daily levy” because the right-wing press whipped up hatred against it - and the Mayor. No mention that it was a Tory policy, introduced by former occasional Mayor Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, and that the current Mayor needs to expand the zone to meet conditions imposed by the Government. Which is attacking him for it.

Instead, readers get racism and hatred. No change there, then.

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ULEZ - Toff Caught Trying It On

Some people are well-known merely because they are, well, well-known. It’s the same idea as former Screws and Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan being famous because he not only knows famous people, but also has become very well-known. So he too becomes famous, or at least infamous. And following him along the path of shameless self-promotion has come Georgia Toffolo.

Georgia Toffolo

Who she? Well, Ms Toffolo came to the attention of some TV watchers via her appearances on a programme called Made in Chelsea (Yah AK? AK Yah!). She then progressed to I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, which she won. Now, she promotes Herself Personally Now via a variety of social media and mainstream media channels, plugging clothes, exercise and so on.

One of these strands is titled Trying It On With Toff. Which she has done with her political affiliation (her Wikipedia entry tells us “Toffolo has been a member of the Conservative Party since she was in secondary school. Toffolo has stated with regard to her political views, ‘I believe that the traditions of our country should be upheld and I'm a real advocate of business. I can't comprehend why someone my age would support the Labour Party’”).

Being a Tory, she seems unable to pass up any opportunity to dump on London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan, because he, as any fule kno, is one of those Rotten Lefties™. And her party has not managed to find a credible candidate to challenge him in the next Mayoral election, which happens next year.

So it was that she approvingly promoted a Mail Online hit piece without doing such troublesome things as thinking it through first. “Sadiq Khan won't have to pay the ULEZ charge: London mayor's taxpayer-funded luxury 2020 Range Rover is exempt from the £12.50-a-day fee!” What she did not think through was why that vehicle might be exempt from the ULEZ charge.

Why? Because it is ULEZ compliant. As are more than 90% of cars across the soon to be expanded ULEZ area. While the Tory high command flails around desperately, suggesting that everybody in ULEZ land will have to pay the change, aided and abetted by their cheerleaders in our free and fearless press, few of their supporters seem to realise that they are being lied to.

Georgia who?

And so it came to pass that, after the first few replies to Ms Toffolo’s advert for the Dacre Doggies, most of those replying passed severely adverse comment on her inability to separate political tribalism and press propaganda from reality. “What's surprising about this? Anyone's 2020 car is exempt” was one response. And that was, more or less, where the subtle stuff ended.

“Yes, because it’s ULEZ compliant like 9 out of 10 cars in London. It’s not difficult to grasp with a basic level of comprehension of the English language” was the less subtle version. “That’s rather the point. For modern cars, you don’t pay. You are a thinker, I see” was another. It got worse.

Like “As is pretty much every petrol vehicle made since about 2005. Unless we've suddenly forced the mayor of a global city to chug about in his mum's old MG Maestro, he should be alright. You're absolutely hopeless at this!” And what about Herself? “Why are you surprised that the Mayor of London uses a ULEZ compliant car? He’d be pretty silly to use something that isn’t wouldn’t he? What do you drive Toff?” I mean, she’s a Tory. She must drive something.

Another highly relevant angle was mentioned by Zoe Kennedy: “Sadiq Khan is in this vehicle because he needs the same level of security as the King, because of articles like this whipping up hate against him”. Khan used to bat around South London in a very ordinary VW Golf. No longer possible. Not that the inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker care about that.

Nor does the pro-Tory propaganda mention this point: “The ULEZ was BROUGHT in by [Tory] Boris Johnson & its expansion was REQUIRED by the Tory Govt as a condition of receiving funds to offset loss of income on London Transport because of covid”. Not for nothing did an exasperated Natalie Rowe tell “You are really beyond thick”. Ms Toffolo is missing something.

Like getting clued up on the press. And its on-off relationship with reality.

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Electric Cars, Bungs, And Reality

Over-hyped, over-subsidised and perhaps over here, much has been made of the decision by Tata Group to build a new electric vehicle battery plant on the Gravity Business Park near Bridgwater in Somerset, a site close to the M5. Our brave, adventurous and not desperate at all, honestly, Government has secured the investment. But this has come at a considerable price.

Sites for battery plants - Gravity business park near Bridgwater ...

As the BBC reported at the time, “In the case of Tata's new plant, the UK's expected success has not been easily or cheaply won … The government has said that while it does not recognise a figure of £500m in reported subsidies, they concede that it is in the hundreds of millions of pounds”.

Do go on. “This would take the form of cash grants, energy subsidies and other training and research funding … India’s Tata has extensive steel interests in the UK including the Port Talbot plant in South Wales and the government will also offer around £300m to subsidise, upgrade, and decarbonise those operations … Along with additional energy discounts, it will bring the total incentive package to Tata close to £800m”. Ker-Ching!

There was more. “Government sources conceded that while the two investments will not be announced at the same time, the two projects are linked … Although the price tag will be seen as high, the UK is reluctantly involved in an international subsidy war which has been dramatically escalated by the US Inflation Reduction Act”. And what of the EU?

“The EU is preparing its own package in response … the UK … currently only has one [battery] plant in operation next to Nissan's Sunderland factory, and one barely on the drawing board in Northumberland … By contrast the EU has 35 plants open, under construction or planned”. Like where, perchance?

Like Sines (pronounced “Sin-esh”), which is situated on Portugal’s Alentejo coast. Apart from being the town where Vasco da Gama was christened, Sines hosts sandy beaches, a fishing harbour, and is an important port town, so important that the new Évora to Elvas rail line has been built partly to enable better transport access between Sines and Spain.

... versus the Port of Sines

It is also the site chosen by China Aviation Lithium Battery Technology, or CALB, for its new electric vehicle battery plant, which is scheduled to be in production by 2025 … “with the objective of answering the company’s current order backlog on the European continent. It should be the biggest CALB factory in Europe … The manufacturer estimates that the Sines factory has the potential to ‘represent circa 4% of the Portuguese GDP’”.

More importantly, and just to put the Tata Group bung in perspective, “China Aviation Lithium Battery Technology (CALB), which will be producing lithium batteries in Sines, hailed the deal signed between the automotive manufacturers Xpeng and Volkswagen, considering it ‘an opportunity’ for the battery maker”. And why should this be significant?

Here’s why. “CALB, which is part of the top 5 largest constructors in the world for electric vehicle batteries, is the main supplier of Xpeng … On July 27th, Volkswagen announced the acquisition of a 4.99% share in the Chinese Xpeng brand for 630 million euros for the joint development of electric vehicles”. What will the joint development involve, exactly?

“The document indicated that the brands will be developing two electric models together for the Chinese market, which should begin production in 2026”. Volkswagen Group already has a manufacturing site not far from Sines - VW Autoeuropa, which currently produces the T-Roc, is located at Penalva, in the Palmela district. It is, like the port of Sines, rail connected.

Is the Tata Group plant going to gain this distinction, or will the Tories extend their growing reputation as rail-haters which already has the apparently timeless strike actions to its credit (debit?), actions that could have been settled at rather lower cost than “toughing it out” will involve?

The Tories are handing out bungs. The rest of Europe gets on with business.

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Portugal And Wildfires

Even the BBC has reported on the latest wave of wildfires to strike this corner of the Iberian peninsula, telling “Portugal battles wildfires amid third heatwave of the year”. Am I anywhere near to feeling the heat here? Has the risk to my apartment block increased significantly as a result of these events? No and no are the prosaic answers. We have neither forests nor heatwaves.

Eucalyptus somewhere in Portugal. Packed in too tight (again)

Pinhal Novo may literally mean New Pine Forest, but the area probably has more area down to wine production than woodland. In the middle of the Setúbal peninsula, it’s far enough from river and estuary to avoid mosquitos, and close enough to the coast to avoid the real hot weather.

Let’s give an idea of the differences. Not far to the east, the city of Évora is forecast to register Thursday to Sunday temperatures of 35, 39 and 36 degrees. Pinhal Novo, if it mirrors nearby Setúbal, will record 31, 33 and 32. Around the Spanish border it also gets hot. Hence the Beeb reporting “Firefighters in Portugal are battling to contain wildfires engulfing thousands of hectares amid soaring temperatures”. So where are the wildfires?

“Around 800 personnel attended a fire near the southern town of Odemira overnight on Monday, with more than 1,400 people having to evacuate”. Not far from there, the A2 motorway, which links the Lisbon area and the Algarve, was closed recently between the turns for Almodóvar and Messines. Areas further north, but also in the interior, are also increasingly prone to wildfires.

So no surprise to see the BBC continuing “In the centre of the country, other major fires prompted the closure of several stretches of motorway, including parts of the A1 between Lisbon and Porto”. And tacking these blazes includes what kind of equipment, exactly? “Sixteen waterbombing aircraft have been deployed to support firefighting efforts across the two areas”. That kind.

Back in 2017, it was Pedrógão Grande, a small town in the Leiria District, that bore the brunt of disastrous wildfires; 64 lost their lives. Encroachment of forests is a problem: from the train, they are usually out there in the distance, but on occasion come up close to motorways. Land management is another, as some small packages of land are held privately, while others are not.

So compulsorily purchasing wooded area can be difficult. Hence firefighters try to get firebreaks formed, but often can not. During summer, the cooling and usually north-westerly wind can spread fires at catastrophic speed. But the very worst offender in the wildfire pack is the Eucalyptus, which now constitutes the largest part of the forested area of the country.

Eucalyptus on fire. Which happens too often 

After the bad fires of 2017, Esquerda online told that “With 800 thousand acres, Portugal has the largest eucalyptus plantation in Europe, a species that was a deciding factor in the tragic fires of Pedrógão Grande”. The species, which originates from Australia, is a favourite of the paper and pulp industries. They make more money; everyone else lives in fear.

The Eucalyptus sucks up groundwater at a prodigious rate. It crowds out other tree species and its aggressive nature means it will kill other less well established trees. Then, when it burns, well, it burns. It is less difficult to get ignition, and the intensity of any resultant fire makes a eucalyptus blaze very hazardous to firefighters, especially with a little wind thrown in .

As Politico has told, “the eucalyptus was first introduced in Europe as an ornamental plant in the 18th century. It thrived in Portugal, where the fast-growing species was later used in reforestation and to prevent erosion. It really took off from the mid-20th century to provide raw material for the paper and paper pulp industry”. So now it has its own business lobby.

“For decades, efforts to contain its growth ran into opposition from Portugal’s powerful paper industry lobby. The industry’s concerns carry weight. From high-quality printing sheets to trendy black toilet rolls, paper exports are big for Portugal. [in 2016] pulp and paper accounted for 4.9 percent of all exports, worth around €3 billion. The industry employs around 3,000 people, often in rural areas”. I’ll pass on the black toilet roll, though, thanks.

So no, where I live there are no significant forests, nor wildfires. But there are elsewhere in Portugal, and like similar incidents elsewhere in the world, their frequency increases as the frequency of extreme weather events does likewise. This is the real world version, whatever the deniers claim.

Once again it is down to business. Short term profits cause blindness.

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Visit Lisbon - But Maybe Not Next Week

While the UK’s press continues to sink deeper into its self-imposed trough of self-pity, serving up a diet of stale culture wars, hatred of those who have incurred its displeasure, and denial of reality, especially including climate change, the rest of Europe moves on. Which at this time of the year means getting in the visitors to spend money. Portugal is rather good at that.

So much so that one recent estimate showed that tourism will account for just over 21% of the country’s GDP this year, something which the country’s rail operators, and those in Spain, France and elsewhere, might usefully consider the next time they trot out the lame excuses for not offering any direct trains between Portugal and the rest of Europe (more or less, folks).

But, as the late Clive James might have said, I digress. You should still visit the country, and especially Lisbon, just not next week, because the visitor event to end all visitor events is upon us. Hotels, Air B+Bs, campsites, forget it. There will be Very Little Accommodation anywhere in the Greater Lisbon Metropolitan Area until after next weekend. Because of JMJ. Or WYD.

What that? Jornada Mundial da Juventude, or in English, World Youth Day, is a Catholic festival which will attract pilgrims in their hundreds of thousands. Estimates put the total attending the final event, hosted by Pope Francis, at as many as one million. Yes, as Chief Inspector Clouseau of the Sureté might have observed, even the Purp will be there. He flies in next Wednesday.

Some of the numbers are mind-boggling: events begin on August 1st and end on the 6th. On Thursday 2nd, “The afternoon will see the ‘major meeting’ - at 5.45pm in Parque Eduardo VII, baptised the Colina do Encontro (Hill of Encounter) for the event, to which at least 400,000 if not more pilgrims are expected”. Four hundred thousand. And the next day will bring more.

“750,000 pilgrims are expected to arrive, throughout the day, to Parque Eduardo VII for what is called the Via Sacra. This is a moment where pilgrims will be received by the Pope from 6pm … from the arrival of the Pope, this holy communion will begin, with processions arriving and many Catholics lining up for the reported million communion wafers made for the event”.

Small wonder that so many residents have decided to decamp to the Algarve, the Alentejo, the Silver Coast, the Douro Valley, anywhere that gets them away from what is going to be one heck of a crush in central Lisbon (the Parque Eduardo VII, named for the British Edward VII, overlooks the Avenida de Liberdade, and from there the old downtown).

So to the weekend. “Saturday is billed as being ‘the longest day, with most journeys for the Pope’ He is due to give two speeches, one in the morning in Fátima - to which he will travel in a military helicopter, and where he is due to pray with young people who are ill and some who are prisoners. It is here too that His Holiness is expected to say a prayer for peace in Ukraine”.

After that? “Then it will be back to Lisbon, first for a private meeting with members of the Companhia de Jesus, and finally to the Parque Tejo-Trancão - the slice of riverside shared by Lisbon and Loures municipalities where as many as one million pilgrims could be waiting for him”. Do go on.

“This is where the ‘inscribed pilgrims’ will benefit over those that simply decided to turn up without informing organisers: inscribed pilgrims will have a place in the park (dubbed Field of Grace, for World Youth Day) closer to the spectacular altar-stage than the non-inscribed. There will be gigantic screens erected over the 100 hectares, for everyone to at least get a view of what is happening, even if they are a long way away from where it is going on”.

Any more? Sure is. “Finally, on the Sunday (August 6), the Pope’s final public appearance will come at 4.30pm, after the official closure of World Youth Day, where he is expected to give a speech of thanks in Algés, Oeiras, to the 30,000 volunteers who contributed to the event (even paying for the privilege)”. The volunteers, in their yellow T-Shirts, have been a presence for some days now around the city. Now will come all those pilgrims.

For those saying “Yeah, but what about what went on in Portugal’s Catholic church for so many years?” there is this coda: “there will be a lot of ‘spare time’ in the pontiff’s schedule, but that it is almost certain that some of this will be spent in meetings with victims of sexual abuse within the Catholic Church”.

There is also this upmarket thought: “If all goes according to plan, this will be an exceptional PR event for Lisbon, which is already one of the most popular European destinations on many scores. Mayor Carlos Moedas has stressed the return for the capital in terms of revenue from visitors will be worth every cêntimo spent on the planning and infrastructures, most of which will remain in place for use by local people”. It’ll just be heaving busy, that’s all.

Visit Lisbon - but wait until after the big event has run its course.

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Sadiq Bashing Not Racist, Honestly

The competition, such as it is, for the Tory nomination to challenge Labour incumbent Sadiq Khan for the London Mayoralty has produced a shortlist so underwhelming that even the Evening Standard - formerly unswerving supporters of Tory hopefuls - has run a front page today asking the all-too-obvious question “HAVE THE TORIES GIVEN UP ON LONDON”?

An editorial makes the further claim that Sadiq Khan is “beatable”, on the basis of a single YouGov poll from April, where 50% of those responding said the Mayor was doing “badly”. As a similar percentage said the same thing about Rishi Sunak, the argument goes that, with the right candidate, The Blue Team could win the capital. That’s a serious voting day extrapolation.

There is an awful lot of straw-clutching and false optimism going on here. The Standard does at least give a brutally honest assessment of the three Tory hopefuls, not least Daniel Korski, now standing accused of groping a woman at a Downing Street meeting some years back. The party isn’t going to bar him from the shortlist. So now his accuser has made her complaint formal.

Another of the three, Moz Hussein, was “most famous for employing in his campaign members of staff who appeared in the lockdown-busting ‘jingle and mingle’ party”. And the third hopeful? Susan Hall, of whom the Standard notes “her values will not necessarily chime with a majority of Londoners, given her support for Donald Trump and her comparison of anti-Brexit protests with those who stormed the US Capitol.”

Could it get worse? Don’t ask: “She has also suggested the black community has ‘problems with crime’ and found time to call reality TV star Gemma Collins a ‘stupid fat blonde woman’”.There was also her slavish devotion to disgraced former alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.

“Brilliant speech as is so often the case from [Boris Johnson] - we must never forget, he gave us Brexit - the incredible vaccine roll out and absolute support to Ukraine. Thank you Boris … Boris has my full support, he got Brexit done, secured us life changing vaccines and is a hero in the Ukraine for his help. Now is certainly not time to change”. And she watches GB News.

That much the Standard has spot-on. One tainted by sex pest allegations, another by closeness to lockdown busting, and a third who gives the impression of being away with the fairies. Where the paper goes wrong is the idea that just putting up a half decent candidate - Justine Greening gets a mention here - will see off Sadiq Khan. They are plan flat wrong.

Because, whatever hope one YouGov poll may have brought the Tories, the reality is that much of the opposition to Sadiq Khan does not emanate from the capital’s electorate. Like all the abuse that followed his decision to expand London’s Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). And the latest example of this phenomenon came yesterday following his Refugee Week speech.

The Mayor posted a Tweet telling “This city was built by migrants. By refugees … In the face of hostile, draconian and immoral immigration policies across Europe, we must all show more compassion towards those fleeing their country for a safer life” and almost immediately was shouted down as a “liar” by lots of blue tick accounts with Very Few Actual Followers.

Or blue tick accounts that give every appearance of being based outside the UK. Or blue tick accounts out there on the extreme right. Or a combination of these attributes. So much dissent, much of it abusive but not at all racist, honestly, was generated that at some point yesterday evening a Community Note, also not racist, honestly, was appended to the original Tweet.

It read “The city of London was founded around the year 50 AD. It was built up over nearly two thousand years by people we today call the English. It was not built by migrants/refugees, but by those native to the British Isles”. Bigotry, much? The Community Note has now, thankfully, been removed, but the point has been made. The anti-Sadiq hatred isn’t coming from London.

And let’s not kid ourselves: 99% of the pile-on would not have happened, had the Mayor not been one of those Scary Muslims™. Sadiq Khan is trying to make a positive change for Londoners, and when they get to the ballot box, they will remember that. They won’t care about the racist social media pile-ons, or, indeed, the hyper-partisan whining of the Tories.

If he wants a third term, it’s his for the taking. Just rejoice at that news.

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Braverman Defenders' Own Goal

As Rishi Sunak continues to prevaricate over Home Secretary Suella Braverman and whether she broke the ministerial code by tasking her Civil Servants with attempts to arrange a one-on-one speed awareness course, with his latest delaying tactic being to ask his ethics advisor to rule on the matter, it is clear Ms Braverman herself is rattled, and badly.

Sadly for her, the tactic that would be deployed in order to dissuade further enquiries from our free and fearless press was let slip by those still prepared to put up with the work environment at the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph: “Braverman ‘smear’ fears over curbs on migrants … Speeding fine row is concerted effort to discredit her” tells the headline.

Says who? Don’t laugh too loudly: “say Home Secretary’s allies”. Which almost certainly means Herself Personally Now. Those who remember her appearing on BBC Question Time and claiming that any criticism of her party being funded by Russian money was racist will recognise her fingerprints on that one. Pity about the own goal later in the article (read to the end).

As John Stevens at the Mirror has told readers of “The FOUR TIMES Suella Braverman's aide denied she'd been done for speeding - transcript … A transcript shows that the Home Secretary's special adviser insisted it was ‘nonsense’ that she'd been done for speeding when contacted by the Mirror six weeks ago”, Ms Braverman was making less and less sense.

She arrived at 10 Downing Street and was quizzed on that speed awareness course, responding that she was there to “stop the boats”. Then, as Pippa Crerar of the Guardian observed, “Suella Braverman tells MPs: ‘Last summer I was speeding, I regret that. I paid the fine and took the penalty. At no point did I attempt to evade sanction’. (That's not the allegation, it's that she asked officials to arrange a private driving awareness course)”. Indeed.

But it was Paul Waugh of the i Paper who had the most comprehensive and indeed most damning news. “Some MP[s] think [Rishi Sunak is] micromanaging her [department because] he doesn't trust her to do her job properly … One former minister who worked with Braverman tells me: ‘I don’t often say people are completely useless, but if her desk had not been occupied I wouldn’t have noticed’”.That won’t be stopping many boats, then.

There was more. “Suella Braverman says ‘at no point did I seek to evade the sanction’ of speeding penalty points. She says Labour only asking the Q to distract from its failure to back Govt re paedophiles/migration”.

See last paragraph of headline article for howler

And more. “Pressed by [Yvette Cooper] whether she authorised her special adviser to deny she had a committed a speeding offence, [Suella Braverman] signally refuses to answer the question … Asked at least 4 times now if she asked civil servants to find her a private speed awareness course, [she] again refuses to answer. Replies with almost exactly the same formula”.

So how does the Tel spin this? “Miriam Cates, a Tory MP and ally of Mrs Braverman, said it was ‘extremely worrying’ that the Home Secretary was being subjected to personal attacks and ‘a concerted effort to discredit her’ in a similar way to last October. 'It is no coincidence that it’s in the same week that she had been very vocal about the need to put proper limits on legal migration which is clearly a contentious issue in Government’”. Do go on.

“She has had a lot of profile and prominence. There are many people who don’t agree with her view that we should limit legal immigration. If you put two and two together, it is perfectly possible it’s politically motivated. It is shocking anyone would leak this private information”. Paranoid, much?

And Ms Cates wasn’t the only one seeing Dark Forces at work. “Craig Mackinlay, another Tory MP, said: ‘It wasn’t at all unreasonable for a Home Secretary to do what she has asked. I see nothing wrong with that. I would call that fairly good common sense and then decide to take the points.’" But he made no sense at all. Except to be sure she’d done nothing wrong.

Then the Tel sold the pass. “Mrs Braverman was issued with a speeding notice by police last year after being caught outside London when she was attorney general … She was offered the choice of paying the fine and receiving three points, attending a speed awareness course in lieu of points and the fine or challenging the speeding notice. It was at this point that she asked civil servants if a private course could be arranged” [My emphasis].

Her defenders have answered the question put several times this afternoon in the Commons. The Telegraph has asserted that she asked civil servants if a private speed awareness course could be arranged. So either she’s going to demand the paper pull that comment, or she’s bang to rights.

Oh what a giveaway! Maybe the Tel sacked too many staff. Just a thought.

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Suella Braverman - Time To Go

Time was when Tory MPs like Daniel Kawczynski were reprimanded for attending the National Conservatism conference, given the nationalist and indeed racist aspects of such gatherings. But despite this year’s event featuring appalling bigots like Doug Murray The K, there was no rap on the knuckles for Home Secretary Suella Braverman when she rocked up there.

Another day, another mishap

No doubt the Tory leadership would like this to be seen as their being tolerant and broad-minded, rather than Rishi Sunak being weak, and his party ranks devoid of credible replacements. Sadly for him, hardly had that little local difficulty passed from view than Ms Braverman was splashed across the front page of the Murdoch Sunday Times, and for all the wrong reasons.

“Braverman asked Civil Servants to help her avoid speeding fine” was the wording that caused Sunak another heap of trouble that he could do without, as well as confirming that the Murdoch mafiosi show every sign of not only concluding that the Tories will lose the next General Election, but also that they may be done with giving The Blue Team their unequivocal backing.

As the story was out there well before first editions had to be “put to bed”, the magpies at the Mail on Sunday decided they would run with the story, rather than join the herd crowing at the departure of Phillip Schofield from ITV weekday offering This Morning. But it wouldn’t be the MoS without demoting the news to mere “row” status, as well as keeping up the personality cult.

Hence “Row as Home Secretary is accused of asking officials to set up private driving awareness course after breaking limit … SUELLA ‘TRIED TO COVER UP’ SPEEDING OFFENCE”. There is no “row”. Ms Braverman (as opposed to the gushing “Suella”) was caught speeding. She was given the option of taking the fine and three penalty points, or doing a course.

However, and this is a significantly sized however, the course, on speed awareness, would have been as part of a group. As the BBC has reported, “She tried to arrange a one-on-one course through civil servants and her adviser, the BBC has been told … A government source told the BBC the senior minister had been ‘concerned’ about her insurance premiums, and favoured doing a course”. But here a problem entered.

“She asked civil servants about arranging a course for just her, citing security concerns about doing one as part of a group, but was told it was not a matter for the civil service … Mrs Braverman then asked a special adviser to try to arrange a one-on-one course”. Security? We already knew she got caught.

But do go on. “When the course provider told her there was no option to do a private course - and after she was reappointed home secretary in Mr Sunak's government - she opted to pay the fine and accept the points because she was ‘very busy’ and did not have the time to do a course, the BBC has been told”. Doesn’t make sense. She wasn’t too busy for a one-on-on course.

Moreover, the impression is given that the ministerial code has been broken once again. LBC host James O’Brien was unimpressed: “Braverman’s speeding fine is literally nothing to do with the civil service. Even her highly dubious defence - that she was enquiring about the general availability of one-on-one awareness courses - involves her asking public servants on taxpayer’s time about her personal issues”. And then it got worse.

As Adam Bienkov of Byline Times observed, “Both Rishi Sunak and Therese Coffey stonewalling questions about Suella Braverman breaking the ministerial code by asking officials to help her avoid a speeding fine, by saying they ‘don't have the details’ … The story broke yesterday afternoon. Of course they have the details”. A given before the Sunday morning TV round.

Would Sir care to show some leadership, perchance?

Then it got worse still as it was revealed that someone had been lying. “Suella Braverman's team originally denied she'd got [a] speeding ticket … Raises troubling questions about the government's dealings with journalists” noted Daily Mirror political editor John Stevens. Would he care to expand?

He certainly would. “The Mirror contacted the Home Secretary about the driving offence six weeks ago … Her Tory special adviser insisted she had not been done for speeding and accused her political enemies of spreading misinformation … We now know that was false”. By this time, Mrs T would have sacked Ms Braverman. And the SpAd. So why is she still in post?

Sunak has to sack her, or he isn’t in control. And that’s not good enough.

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