New New Labour - No Scooby, No Future

Endless calls for activists to turn out, endless calls for members to donate, endless calls to give support one more time to a party that had already alienated so much of its core constituency. The result was as predictable as it was inevitable: New New Labour took, as the Norwegian commentator put it, one hell of a beating in the latest round of local elections.

And so continued an inevitable decline, the next peeling back of the rotten onion. First had come the gloating revelation that, while activists were getting serious amounts of abuse on the doorstep in the 2019 General Election campaign, those who subsequently took charge of Labour were working behind the scenes to throw the contest. And then there was Keir Starmer.

The new party leader sold himself to the membership with a manifesto on which he then reneged. He lied his way to the Top Job. Then came changes designed to keep the left from taking power ever again. Starmer told party members that if they didn’t like that, the door was open and they could leave. Left-leaning departures were compared to fleas being “shaken off”.

Could it get worse? Sure thing: revelations about the behind the scenes presence of one Peter Mandelson chased away more members, persuaded yet more to stay at home or be absent elsewhere when the call for canvassers, leafletters and phone bankers came. Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the USA opened yet another can of worms.

But, came the Mandelson faction’s response, the left had nowhere else to go, no other place on the ballot paper to mark their cross. This was their clincher, the cornerstone that allowed them to kick out the left, tack to the right and capture all those social conservatives. But, as Captain Blackadder might have observed, there was only one thing wrong with that: it was bollocks.

Worse, Starmer had scored a monumental own goal when a report he commissioned - from Martin Forde KC - was effectively shelved and dismissed. Bad mistake: the report described a “hierarchy of racism” within the party. So no-one should have been surprised when Nels Abbey noted that “Black and Brown Britons appear to be done with Labour”.

Tacking right, being tough on alleged anti-Semitism while appearing to take all other racism and bigotry less than seriously, all came back to bite New New Labour last week. Social conservatives voted for Reform UK, latest vehicle for Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. Many diverse communities, especially in London, voted en masse for the Greens.

Our free and fearless press’ demonising of Green Party leader Zack Polanski had little effect. Their lack of Reform UK scrutiny was so, so telling: Farage and his pals are an Establishment party. The rest of the Establishment gives the game away by giving Reform UK a free pass, right down to the party fielding, and getting elected, an actual Holocaust denier.

The attacks on Polanski and the Greens - trying the anti-Semitism smear while publishing anti-Semitic caricatures of Zack - have convinced no-one. Labour using Steve Reed - who had to apologise for calling a Jewish businessman a “puppet master” - to deploy smears against the Greens would be comical, were it not so jaw-droppingly stupid, so utterly tragic.

And contributing in no small measure to Labour losing more than half the seats it was defending is the uncritical support of the Israelis bombing, shelling, sniping, rocketing and otherwise burning alive tens of thousands of people, and not only in Gaza and the West Bank. The attempts to smear any criticism of Israel as “anti-Semitism” aren’t working. Because it isn’t.

The conclusion is as before: the Labour Together cancer must be cut out before it kills a once great party stone dead. The Greens need to push back - as aggressively as it takes - against the anti-Semitism smears, because New New Labour is good at one thing, and one thing alone - dirty tricks.

Keir Starmer and his cabal have taken a huge Parliamentary majority and wasted the freedom it gave them to be a genuinely progressive force, a force for good. Now they are falling apart. No-one should be in the least surprised.

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Labour’s Gorton And Denton Shame

And so it came to pass that one of those inconvenient Parliamentary by-elections came along, but this should not have proved an insurmountable task for Labour: the constituency, Gorton and Denton, had been held back in 2024 with a vote share of over 50%. Moreover, Labour had the services of Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham on offer as a candidate.

When incumbent Andrew Gwynne stepped down on health grounds, there was little thought that Labour would not only lose the seat, but lose half of that vote share. But that would have been to underestimate the Labour Together cabal now in charge of the party: there is no task that this bunch of clowns cannot royally foul up, and foul it up they did. Royally.

The die was cast early on: Burnham’s offer to run as the Labour candidate was vetoed by a paranoid leadership: if someone genuinely popular were to become leader, what might follow? Being of independent thought, listening to the voters, making a centre-left party a genuinely centre-left party, doing away with the authoritarian control freakery. This could not be tolerated.

So it was that an ideologically acceptable candidate, Angeliki Stogia, was selected. The public were told that only Labour could beat the Reform UK hopeful, professional bigot Matthew Goodwin, representing the limited company of self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. And it was with representing those opinion polls that Labour began to unravel.

At that point, it was a three-way fight, the third party involved being the Greens, whose candidate, Hannah Spencer, was a plasterer and plumber. In other words, she was a working class woman who worked among the working class. Once upon a time, Labour would have been happy to have folks like her representing them. Not any more. Her presence was ignored.

This, though, was only the start of what developed as a series of smears and other dirty tricks, most of which were eagerly lapped up by the larger part of our free and fearless press, who in turn showed their appetite for low-grade client journalism and guaranteed that the wider electorate will trust them even less, if such a thing were possible, when future contests come around.

It got worse: Labour then leafletted the constituency with a bogus tactical voting claim, going against the genuine tactical voting analysis that indicated voting Green was the best choice. And on election day, a van toured the constituency, and was allegedly parked rather adjacent to at least one polling station, with a smear so blatant as to smack of desperation.

“To all voters … do not listen to these people. Do not vote for the Greens. They want to legalise all drugs and teach our children to use drugs including crack and heroin and let our daughters be used for legal prostitution … No Green madness in our community” it told. Bridget Phillipson later claimed that Labour had fought a “positive campaign”. I’d hate to see a negative one.

So Labour lost. Worse, they came third behind Reform. In turn, there were claims of “sectarianism”, which is code for Scary Muslims. Yes, those followers of The Prophet were so sectarian that they supported a white woman whose party leader is a gay Jewish man. The press was its usual disgusting self, seeing the establishment rejected and whining accordingly.

Keir Starmer was as bad, if not worse. Labour claimed George Galloway was somehow responsible for the Greens’ success. This was tosh. Starmer called Ms Spencer, more or less, a divisive extremist. He claimed - leading a party whose membership is in significant decline - that the Greens could not replicate their success country-wide. Be careful what you wish for, eh?

So much whinging, so many hostages to fortune, and even from the Labour leadership, so much racist dog whistling. They lost, and lost badly. Voters now have “somewhere to go”, to borrow Peter Mandelson’s happy phrase. And all that leadership can do is to claim they’re listening. When they’re not.

Once again: the Labour Together cancer has to be cut out, before it kills a once great party stone dead. Otherwise they will keep losing. That is all.

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Zack Polanski And Anti-Semitism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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And So This Is Christmas

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

Christmas tree in Lisbon's Praça do Comércio

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

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

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

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

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

Santa driving his tram. Ho ho ho

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Labour’s Loves Long Lost

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

Shabana Mahmood ...

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

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

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

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

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

... and her real boss

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Oh Tommy - Now Threatening MPs

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

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

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

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

Daisy Cooper MP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Nigel Farage - Lying Beyond Barking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Oh Tommy Tommy - Racist Liar

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Oh Tommy - Bravely Ran Away

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Tommy Robinson’s Loadsamoney Lunch

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Reform UK - Beginning Of The End

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Oh Tommy Tommy - Back In Court

And so it came to pass that Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson, was released from jail early, not because he had scored some kind of victory over the hated MSM and the alleged Deep State, but because he had agreed to withdraw a variety of untrue and defamatory claims against a Syrian refugee - and not to repeat them.

To show how badly he had not been treated during his period of incarceration, Lennon appeared unshaven, as if shaving was banned for those doing a stretch in the old chokey. But he had not forgotten his faithful followers, for whom he teased the prospect of another of those FREEZE PEACH rallies, as in freedom of speech for him, but not for anyone of differing view.

What, then, would attendees as the latest Lennon rally have served up to them? Grok, from the world of far-right hero Elon Musk, has helpfully summarised the narrative. “Tommy Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was released early from prison on May 27, 2025, after his sentence for contempt of court was reduced”. There was, sadly, more.

“Upon his release, he immediately resumed his public activities, criticising what he referred to as ‘Islamic rape gangs’ and announcing plans for a large ‘Free Speech Festival’ in London. His release has sparked reactions from both his supporters (only two of them, eh?), who view him as a champion of free speech, and his critics, who accuse him of promoting Islamophobia”.

And, as Jon Stewart might have put it, two things here. One, if he really wants to tackle child sexual exploitation, and indeed, grooming of young people as a whole, he could start in his own back yard. Louise Raw, who you can tell as she’s a doctor, informed The Great Man “While you were away watching movies and going [to the] gym at our expense, even MORE far right men have been exposed as paedophiles”. Rather a lot of them, in fact.

Do go on. “You REFUSE to speak on this. Why are the far right covering up this scandal?” She concluded “you’ll see your one time close friend RICHARD PRICE here. You founded the EDL with him. AFTER he was on the sex offenders’ register, the EDL called him a ‘hero’. WHY WON’T YOU ADDRESS THIS? WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?” Questions Lennon’s rally won’t address.

Moreover, Two, this is just another playing of the “Look Over There” card. As the Guardian pointed out, “Tommy Robinson, the jailed far-right activist, has been charged with harassment of two journalists … is accused of two counts of harassment causing fear of violence between 5 and 7 August last year”.

Oh? Do tell. “He will appear at Westminster magistrates court on 5 June 2025, according to a statement issued on Wednesday by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). ‘We have authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, 42, with harassment causing fear of violence against two men,’ a CPS spokesperson said”. And there was a coda.

“The far-right figure is facing a separate trial in October next year over an accusation that he failed to provide the Pin for his mobile phone when stopped by Kent police in Folkestone in July 2024”. Out of clinky just in time to appear in court, with the distinct possibility that he gets, er, sent back to said clinky. And I have more bad news for The Great Man.

Having had Lennon rock up on my doorstep in the dead of night - twice - in an act of harassment, I have to tell him that, should the prosecution require more evidence of his modus operandi, I will be more than willing to provide it. There is also the case of his turning up at Lizzie Dearden’s place and harassing her and her partner, for nothing more than reporting what happened in court.

Come to think of it, I can recall another three acts of harassment perpetrated by Lennon in the recent past, all justified by peddling a pack of lies about those he harassed. He lied about Ms Dearden’s reporting. He lied about me. Now, Lennon’s pals claim he is “fighting the [Daily] Mail”. It’s a criminal charge he’s facing. So he isn’t fighting the Mail. It’s just another pack of lies.

But the plea for donations is as predictable, and real, as ever. Except that, this time, Lennon really does face being banged up for a handful. Sad, really.

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Reform UK And The Rise Of Ignorance

Opinion polls continue to show a rise in support for Reform UK, headed by its self-appointed Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage, with the result that the clueless coterie which is claimed to be running the Labour Party has become concerned enough to take action. Their problem is that the ship has already sailed, and no matter what they do, they can’t out-Farage Farage.

Ignorance is strength!

Reform UK may be a shambolic affair, with no shortage of revelations concerning the views of its newly-elected representatives, usually revealing sneering and vicious racism, coupled with staggering ignorance and an inability to understand that Great Britain and England are not interchangeable terms. This last was exemplified by new Lincolnshire Mayor Andrea Jenkyns.

There had, she argued, to be a way to stop the “Pull to England” which brought so many refugees. Perhaps if they arrived in Scotland or Wales, all would be well. No matter though, her pals at Reform UK have diverted the attention of voters with claims that the councils they now control will ban all that Woke Nonsense, although they probably couldn’t define “Woke”.

Richard Tice (he’s not very nice) has gone as far as to assert that Reform UK councils will crack down on planning applications for new wind farms. His problem is that pre-judging such applications is highly likely to lead to those councils being sued and costing a significant amount of public money in the process. He is also dishonestly blaming Net Zero for, well, anything.

None of this deters the voters, though. Nor does the further ignorance displayed by Tice’s unappealing partner Isabel Oakeshott, who recently trilled “[Reform UK] will go to court to close asylum seeker hotels in [Reform UK] council areas. When it comes to ending this scandal, the party means business”. That would be outside a council’s remit. Still, details, eh?

One might have expected an alleged investigative journalist to have thought that through before shooting off their online mouth, but there’s prejudice to spread and ignorance to feed, so off she goes. One incoming Reform UK councillor didn’t seem to know that you can’t obtain British citizenship without being able to speak English. Others will defend anything Farage supports.

The 3D chess ain't making it

So when the Economist looked at Reform UK’s spending plans and concluded that they would result in a worse fiscal shock than Liz Truss’ infamous intervention, there was the Reform UK brains trust claiming that this was only “The MSM” and they always lied about their hero. Farage is a congenital liar, but there are none so blind as will not see.

So what has Labour’s ruling clique done in response? Tried to out-Reform Reform. This is a colossal act of stupidity: Reform UK is a safe haven for racists, and they are not going to jump ship for Labour merely because they are pretending to be tough on all those migrants, which in practical terms means Scary Muslims™. Still, off they went, to no effect whatsoever.

Bringing the unedifying spectacle observed by Adam Bienkov of Byline Times: “Yvette Cooper gives an exclusive interview to GB News about her immigration plans, during which the interviewer tells her that some of their viewers live near asylum seekers and their ‘children can't leave home’ … No push back from the Home Secretary”. That was bad; Kier Starmer was worse.

One hates to go all Neil Kinnock on the PM, but here we had A Labour Prime Minister - A Labour Prime Minister - scuttling round media outlets saying “We risk becoming an island of strangers”. So close to Enoch Powell’s “They found themselves made strangers in their own country” from his infamous 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech as to make no difference.

Who is driving the Labour bus? If, as has been claimed by those close to The Great Man, it is the cabal headed by Morgan McSweeney, maybe he should be the one defending this disgraceful descent into scapegoating and bigotry. And, as a side order, explaining why Labour can’t leave Mr Thirsty to his racism and just improve voters’ lives. Because that’s what they’re there for.

They thought they were so clever in throwing the 2019 election. But the dirty tricks won’t win voters back. Now they are lost. And ignorance is king.

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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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Party Like It’s 1929

They thought he really knew what he was doing, that he was not out of his depth. They thought he would back off at the last minute, that he didn’t really mean it. They thought that wise counsel would prevail, talk him out of it. They thought that Donald Trump was intelligent enough not to proceed with his tariff plan. They were wrong: another 1929 moment now stalks the markets.

It's the economy, Mr Stupid President

The key difference between The Great Crash of October 1929 and today is that the latter is a direct consequence of deliberate acts by the US President. Trump is indeed out of his depth. He is a monumentally stupid individual embarked on a personal mission of vindictive retribution against the foreigners who he believes have ripped off the USA over many years.

By imposing sufficient tariffs on the rest of the world, he believes goods will be manufactured in the USA, rather than elsewhere. Like the iPhone, perhaps? Except to manufacture that device Stateside would, by one estimate, raise its cost price to at least $10,000. Yet his supporters talk of American workers screwing screws into iPhones. What screws?

You use an iPhone? Check the casing. Maybe look at a rather larger example: where does US plane maker Boeing source all those parts that get assembled into best selling aircraft like the 737? They don’t all come from the States. Tariffs will mean vastly more expensive planes. Or a change in the supply network taking years and costing more. Or a bit of both.

Yet away he went with his tariff plan, which, whisper it quietly, is still with us. The market reaction was as predictable as it was sudden: massive falls in stock prices, beginning on a Thursday, an ominous day to start, given the 1929 precedent. There would, claimed The Donald, be no turning back; moreover, he told anyone who would listen how well it was going.

Markets continued their fall. Even after the weekend, the falls went on, until the 1929 parallel came again. Then, the bankers had sent Richard Whitney to ostentatiously buy up blocks of shares; the market turned around. Now, a fake social media account claimed the tariffs were to be paused, and sparked a rally before being rumbled. Then came the flagrant and open corruption.

The Whitney comparison is instructive: as Galbraith noted, he was “a hero, his achievement was widely celebrated, and he was made President of the Exchange. Not long thereafter, he was off to Sing Sing for embezzlement”. This time, no-one will be off to jail, despite the corruption. Despite Trump telling his followers to buy stocks, four hours before finally pausing tariffs.

Those buying included, according to reports, rabbit hole occupant Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. From the Democrats’ side of the House, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mused “Any member of Congress who purchased stocks in the last 48 hours should probably disclose that now … It’s time to ban insider trading in Congress”. Trump was, meanwhile, celebrating.

There he was in the Oval Office, pointing to two of his guests and telling “He made $2.5 billion today and he made $900 million. That’s not bad”. One observer noted “Speaker Mike Johnson was ALSO caught on camera saying it was a good day to buy stocks. This is text book market manipulation”. There should be an investigation. Will there be one? Don’t bet on it.

And then came the dénouement: as ITV political editor Robert Peston put it, “We just learned that the world’s most powerful person, Donald Trump, has a boss: the bond market”. Not only were tariffs paused, he had to row back on them for smartphones and other electronic devices coming from China. But the Chinese Government is not making any tariff exemptions for the USA.

If anyone had been in any doubt as to Donald Trump’s fitness for public office, the tariff fiasco has exposed his shortcomings. The USA is having its economy trashed by a shambling old fool, an inept and failed businessman, an amateur human being. He took on the real world, and the real world won. The MAGA cult might not believe it, but they are now just an irrelevance.

The EU and China have begun talks to reduce electronic vehicle tariffs. Tesla EU sales were down 45% year on year to January. Art of the deal my arse.

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