Tommy Robinson Appeals - IN HIS DREAMS

He may have gone to jail for less than three months, but even that modest stretch is too much for Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who styles himself Tommy Robinson. So he is planning to appeal. This is despite, as James Doleman told at Lennon’s trial, “Breaching reporting restrictions is a ‘strict liability’ offence, like driving while holding a mobile phone, it doesn't matter what your intent was, or if you knew it was a crime, if you do it you're guilty”.

Yet Lennon’s delusional nature means he believes he is in the right, and one of the country’s most senior judges is wrong. His thoughts have been relayed by amateur comedy kidnapper Daniel Thomas, as part of yet another campaign to have Lennon’s supporters pony up more money for their hero’s legal bills.

How serious is Lennon’s delusion? Have a look. “The judges who sentenced me went against the law, they judged AGAINST what the law says on their own website! [No they didn’t - see above] I’ve been having an inner struggle with the appeal … It’s because my appeal costs are £84,000!, Plus I’ve just paid £20,000 legal fees for the upcoming court proceedings against the Muslim lawyer who sent that red haired crackhead to livestream my wife and children, putting their lives in danger [this is not true]”.

Do go on. “I don’t know if you’ve heard but I also have to pay their costs from the Old Bailey at £31,000! So not only do they make me go to prison for something I haven’t done but they then make me pay for it”. But he had done it. There was more. “I had my legal meeting last week and instructed them to go full steam ahead on an appeal against the conviction and also a bail application”. And how much will that cost?

“I had to pay them £42,000, they required 50% upfront to start with and the rest when we get the appeal/bail application launched … I felt that by not appealing I was giving into something that is quite clearly a stitch up. The lead judge on the Queen’s bench has dirty hands on this case, she lied about me encouraging vigilante attacks and it’s simply not in the video”. We’ll see about that later. Then comes the Ron Hopeful part.

“Once the appeal papers are in, I’ll have an immediate bail application. Usually takes about seven days so I could or SHOULD be home earlier than we expected meaning I might get a few weeks with the kids in their summer holidays”. Ri-i-i-ight.

The BBC’s Dom Casciani is not convinced. “Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who goes by the stage name Tommy Robinson and is currently in HM Prison Belmarsh, is on the beg for £84k to fund his appeal against his jailing for Contempt of Court … He's after cash because he claims he's been stitched up like a kipper by one of the most senior judges in the land”. But one piece of evidence showed Lennon’s problem.

“And here is what the judges actually said with a link to the full 31-page judgement which explains the entire context (for the umpteenth time) of what Yaxley-Lennon did”. As to the denial of vigilante action, “One of his supporters recently shared the home address of the senior judge in the case on a pro-Tommy Robinson chat platform. Another has been seeking to drum up interest to confront the Attorney General at a publicised local event later this summer”. That sounds very much like vigilante action.

Stephen Lennon can appeal all he likes. But he was bang to rights. He’ll get nowhere.

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Tory WTO Stupidity LAID BARE

Meet Theodora Dickinson. Since her last appearance on Zelo Street, she has, it seems, undergone some kind of makeover, but sadly, this has not extended to her ability to engage brain before ideology. Fortunately, she has - for the moment at least - ceased her previous demonisation of Muslims, and is now majoring in the economic detail of a No Deal Brexit. She is a political consultant. But she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.

That ignorance includes, in Ms Dickinson’s case, the blind acceptance of whatever comes out of CCHQ without stopping and thinking first. Hence her Retweeting a whopper from the Tories about Freeports, which are now being touted as a great economic saviour.

Theodora Dickinson. Political consultant. Yes, really

“10 new Free Ports across Britain … Int’l Trade Secretary [Liz Truss] ‘They will onshore enterprise and manufacturing as the gateway to our future prosperity, creating thousands of jobs.’ We will have a truly independent trade policy after we leave the EU on October 31”. This is total bullshit. For starters, the EU allows Freeports. We had Freeports when an EU member. It was the UK’s own decision not to continue having Freeports.

As to “They will onshore enterprise and manufacturing”, this is a meaningless soundbite. But it sets out the terminally clueless Ms Dickinson’s approach excellently, such as her telling “There is an opportunity now - as we come out of the Common Agricultural Policy - to organise our support for agriculture in a way that suits the interests of UK farming”.

Yes, we know - it means bunging farmers lots of money for their produce as the UK exits from the EU and tariff barriers price that produce out of its present markets. It may also mean bunging sugar beet producers lots of money to stop them going out of business as tariffs come down on cane sugar and they are undercut.

This lack of understanding comes to a head as Ms Dickinson tells her followers “In the event of no deal we shouldn't impose tariffs on food imports. Alongside that, we should impose full tariffs on EU industrial goods (raising £10bn). This would place political pressure on the EU to strike a free trade deal as soon as possible”. Ho yus.

No tariff on food imports? Farmers go out of business, overwhelmed by cheap cane sugar, grain, beef and lots more. EU tariffs, meanwhile, cut off their export markets. Full tariffs on EU industrial goods? Fine. But the problem with that is, under WTO rules - which it seems Ms Dickinson has not understood - means we have to do the same to everyone else.

We could reduce those tariffs, but then, we’d have less leverage for that trade deal. Which brings Ms Dickinson to her peroration. “Many deals are in place already to ensure that planes continue to fly, hauliers have the requisite licences etc. Under WTO rules we will be free to set our own tariffs and make our own trade deals. We will have full control of our laws and our borders”. We have control of our borders and around 90% of our laws now.

Under WTO rules we will not be able to pick and choose on tariffs. And we will have next to zero leverage when it comes to trade deals. That this has not got though to Tory-supporting pundits is not unusual. Ignorance of reality comes as standard.

“Political communications and social media consultant”? I wouldn’t pay her in washers.

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IPSO Busts Its Own Rules

Sham press regulator IPSO may be worse than useless when it comes to dealing with the less than totally principled behaviour of our free and fearless press, but at least it has adhered to its own rules. While representatives of that press manage to get themselves on to its board - Murdoch retainer Trevor Kavanagh being the low point - it has at least been independent of obvious political interference. Until now.

IPSO chairman Alan Moses was appointed in 2014. He is stepping down at the end of this year. His replacement will be Lord Faulks. Who he? Well, as Press Gazette has told, “He served as justice minister for three years from 2013 and as a barrister specialises in human rights claims, personal injury, police claims and public law. He took silk in 1996”.

What has also been admitted is “He was appointed to the House of Lords in 2010, but no longer takes the Conservative whip”. He served as a minister in both the Coalition and Tory Governments between 2014 and 2016. His Wikipedia entry still lists his party as the Conservatives. His wife is a Tory councillor. His voting record indicates that, whatever claims he may make of independence, he goes through the same lobby as the Tories.

To no surprise at all, Professor Brian Cathcart of Kingston University has roundly condemned the appointment: “Could not make it up. IPSO’s new chair is a former Conservative government minister who, while he may not formally take the Tory whip in the Lords, still routinely troops through the lobbies for them. Independent? IPSO doesn’t know the meaning of the word”. And it gets worse.

Press Gazette once more: “Faulks’ appointment has been made by the IPSO Appointments Panel, which is independent of IPSO’s board and is chaired by Sir Hayden Phillips … The other panel members are Wendy Harris, Jeremy Horner, Adrian Jeakings and Reach group editor-in-chief Lloyd Embley. Times editor John Witherow and ex-High Court judge Dame Laura Cox also advised on Faulks’ appointment”.

Two editors helped him get the nod. Worse still, one of those was John Witherow of the Murdoch Times, whose track record includes being editor of the Sunday Times when it ran the infamous “Agent Boot” story about the late Michael Foot, claiming the former Labour leader was a Soviet agent. It fell apart on the morning of publication. Foot later sued the ST and won significant damages which he turned into a new kitchen.

More recently, Witherow presided over a culture of news gathering by using blagging, as revealed by former blagger John Ford, who did rather a lot of the blagging. Most recently, Witherow has been in the editor’s chair during the “Muslim Fostering” row, where the reputation of chief reporter Andrew Norfolk was used to validate a story which soon, you guessed it, fell apart. The Times has been impervious to criticism there - and reality.

So not only is the new chairman of IPSO not really independent of party politics, he has been appointed by a group which includes a Murdoch editor forever tainted by claims of malpractice - claims backed up by rather more evidence than the Sunday Times managed when it ran the Muslim bashing stories in the first place.

Power corrupts. For our free and fearless press, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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Voters Reject Economic Death Cult

And so it came to pass that the electoral bounce attributed to Bozo The Clown was put to its first test, with the voters in Brecon and Radnorshire going to the polls yesterday in a by-election caused by the recall petition against sitting Tory Chris Davies. He had been convicted of submitting a bogus expense claim, seemingly a routine matter for The Blue Team. The voters were unimpressed. The Tories lost. Hurrah for Bozo!

A complete Muppet. And Elmo from Sesame Street

Any electoral bounce for alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was counterbalanced by Plaid Cymru and the Green Party deciding not to stand candidates - as well as the ominous sign of the Brexit Party securing 10% of the vote, which Nigel “Thirsty” Farage and his pals will do in countless seats across the UK, should Johnson try and break the Parliamentary deadlock by calling a General Election.

So the “Boris Bounce” meant a Tory majority of over 8,000 votes was wiped out and turned into a Lib Dem one of over 1,400. The worry for the Tories is this: in 2015, the Tory vote and the UKIP vote was 50% of the total. Yesterday, the Tory vote, the UKIP vote (such is it was), and the Brexit Party vote was 50.3% of the total. The centre-right and right-wing vote help up. It just got split. And First Past The Post does not love splits.

Worse, voters clearly put aside party differences to get the obvious front-running opponent to the Tories over the line. Why they might have so done should be obvious from the behaviour of the Government as exit from the EU looms, along with what is now looking like very bad news for the economy - right across the UK.

After Daily Mirror political editor Pippa Crerar told “No 10 insider tells me they’re relaxed about pound falling because it shows that business is ‘finally taking it seriously’ that UK is leaving EU on Oct 31”, Ian Dunt of Politics Co UK concluded “They’re actually insane”. The house was on fire, and the occupants reported that they were relaxed about it.

Worse, they were clearly relaxed about other, potentially worse, news: Sam Coates of Sky News reported that his team had got their hands on “sensitive” information about how the first month after a No Deal Brexit might pan out. Under the heading “What this could look like on the ground”, some truly grim scenarios were outlined.

“Trade & passenger flow from UK to EU slows … UK nationals in EU may lose access to services and residence rights … [Northern Ireland] cross-border agricultural trade virtually stops … potential consumer panic and food shortages … possible increased risk of serious organised crime … continued volatility of currency and financial markets with potential for disruption of debt markets”. And there was more.

“[Northern Ireland] small businesses face distress and potential law and order challenges … UK nationals unable to meet new EU MS residency requirements may start returning … heightened policing resource unsustainable, operational gaps continue to emerge … Sterling settled at lower level (BoE analysis suggests 25% in worst case scenario)”.

Live from inside the Tory bunker

And we have a Government that is “relaxed” about it all. But then, we no longer have a functioning Government. It’s been replaced by an economic death cult.

Sadly, we have an establishment class willing to go along with it. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

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Boris Bounce - Or Maybe Not

The perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog were in an advanced state of ecstasy today, and not the kind for which Staines became so infamous in his rave-organising days. The Tory Party’s poll ratings had not merely recovered, they had surged: with alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson in charge, The Blue Team had taken a ten point lead over the competition.

A complete Muppet. And Elmo from Sesame Street

Under the routinely pretentious heading of “Guido Data”, the Fawkes massive told readers earlier today “Tories Take 10 Point Lead … Ipsos Mori July 26-30 … Boris bounces 10 points ahead with Ipsos Mori. Reinforcing yesterday’s 10 point lead with YouGov”.Hurrah for Bozo The Clown! It was almost as if someone had decided to consider holding a General Election. After all, Johnson, an inveterate liar, had ruled it out.

So was this the magic bullet the Tories had been craving, their saviour in seeing off both Labour and the Brexit Party? Well, maybe not: Pollster Keiran Pedley, who works for Ipsos Mori, and produces the Polling Matters podcast, had both good and bad news for them.

Here was the less good news. “Bad news for Johnson: Con lead of 10 falls to just 3 when you factor in 'all voters' rather than 'likely voters’. What does this mean? For example, 82% of Con voters say they are 'certain to vote' vs 70% of Labour voters.If Labour narrows that gap in a GE the Con lead shrinks”. So if more Labour voters became likely to vote - as they did two years ago - the gap would narrow. This was a soft bounce.

Pedley had more - for instance, on what voters already thought of Johnson, and how they thought the Government was performing. “Bad news for Johnson: When compared to past PMs that assumed office during a parliament, Johnson's personal satisfaction ratings are worse than Brown's, Major's and May’s. His govt also has the worst satisfaction ratings of any government assuming office in our series too”. No voter honeymoon, then.

Also, Pedley warned that a large majority of voters expected the economic situation to worsen in the near future, which would not be good for an incumbent Government’s poll ratings. “Finally - bad news for Johnson. Despite promising sunshine, there is not a lot of economic optimism about … 58% expect the general economic condition of the country to worsen in the next 12 months. Only 18% expect it to improve”.

Now, Johnson right now has  big lead over Corbyn on leader ratings, but Pedley’s conclusion is not optimistic. “So what have we learned? 1) The 'Boris bounce' is real and the new PM significantly leads Corbyn on leader ratings … 2) But there are some signs that this poll bounce is soft and Johnson's ratings are not good for an incoming administration facing such challenges”. The window of opportunity is very small.

Johnson’s problem is, though, that the Parliamentary arithmetic is against him - especially as the Tories may lose today’s by-election in Brecon and Radnorshire, and one of their MPs is seriously considering jumping ship to the Lib Dems. If both of those happen, their Parliamentary majority, even with the DUP on board, will evaporate.

So with that temporary poll bounce and little else in his favour, Bozo The Clown, as Harry Callahan might have observed, has to ask himself one question. Does he feel lucky?

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Priti Patel’s Snoopers Charter

While most of our free and fearless press is looking at the rolling car crash that is Brexit, the Tories are showing that their claims of increased freedom - one of the reasons, supposedly, for leaving the EU - are so much bunk. We know this as deeply unpleasant Home Secretary Priti Patel has signalled that she wants more snooping, more surveillance, and by doing so more opportunities for cyber criminals.

As the Independent has reported, “Tory home secretary says government should be allowed to read people’s WhatsApp messages”. She does? “The home secretary has claimed end-to-end encryption of Facebook’s messaging platforms would hinder police investigations into child abuse and terror plots … After the Five Eyes security summit, which took place on Monday and Tuesday, Priti Patel said tech firms should not ‘empower criminals’ with their products”. So what does she propose?

For WhatsApp and Telegram, “only the message sender and the receiver can see its content. The platform itself cannot read the messages, meaning there is no way for investigators to obtain information on criminal activity directly from the firms. Facebook is considering using end-to-end encryption on Facebook Messenger and Instagram Direct”.

Is she proposing what I think she’s proposing? “Ms Patel called for tech companies to provide a ‘back door’ into such messaging apps, which could be used by law enforcement organisations to tackle crime”. She is indeed proposing that. And that’s out of order.

The Indy notes that after Amber Rudd made a similar proposal in 2017, “calling for laws to build back doors into end-to-end encrypted messaging services as a crime-fighting tool … The plans were met with criticism at the time from Robert Hannigan, a former head of GCHQ, who claimed they would amount to ‘weakening security for everybody to tackle a minority’”. A back door is a back door to anyone. Including criminals.

And Ms Patel faces opposition from her own side on this: Big Brother Watch, a campaign that came out of the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance, has told “There is no such thing as an encryption backdoor just for Government. A backdoor for the UK Government would be a backdoor for anyone. This policy is built on [misinformation] & is a power grab for unprecedented surveillance of public comms”. There was more.

“It's a bit like authorities saying they no longer want to force entry to suspects' properties - they want a secret key to every house … Today's announcement is evidence if needed that spooks write the rules here + there is a democratic vacuum on state surveillance issues. The encryption backdoor agenda predates Patel. Does she understand the issue..? Did she actually write the Telegraph op ed..?” QTWTAIN.

Priti Patel was clueless on crime and punishment, memorably being taken apart during a BBC Question Time exchange with Private Eye editor Ian Hislop. She’s most likely equally clueless on the issue of encryption and security. If she doesn’t understand the issue, she shouldn’t be sounding off on it - unless and until she gets knowledgeable about it.

We don’t need a Home Secretary who hasn’t mastered the brief. End of story.

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The Brexit Revolution Is Eating Itself

While our alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson continues his mission to tour the United Kingdom and get booed everywhere he goes, his team begins its work to implement his foolish notion of bending the EU to our will, with the implicit threat of walking away with No Deal come October 31. Perhaps.

Squeaky impending irrelevance finger up the bum time

So Bozo The Clown and his entourage are in no need of heckling from their own side. But that is what they are now getting, as Brexiteers have begun to turn on one another. The opening salvo in this already enjoyable internecine war has been fired by Brexit Party Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage. That Nige was about to blow his top was signalled earlier by Simon “Enoch was right” Heffer, in a piece for the Staggers.

“The appointment of the combative Dominic Cummings as a senior No 10 adviser has alienated the Brexit Party, writes Simon Heffer” he warned. He was right: as Matt Chorley at the Murdoch Times told, “As so often in politics, this is not about the cause but the personalities. Farage’s priority is not Brexit but Nigel Farage”. Hence the outburst.

The increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph also had the story: “Nigel Farage has made clear his distrust of Dominic Cummings, the mastermind of the Vote Leave campaign. Some may be surprised, but there's a history of bad blood”. Mike Galsworthy added “There may be quite a bit of truth in this. Dom Cummings strongly dislikes the ERG, Farage and Banks. While he’s in No10, Farage & ERG have very little ability to influence Johnson - and will feel a lot of paranoia. Expect fireworks”.

Sure enough, Brexiteers were soon openly falling out. Iain Martin asserted “Farage, Banks and Wigmore hate Cummings, because he outwitted them and won the designation to be the official leave campaign and then won the referendum”. That did not find favour with Arron Banks’ oily sidekick Andy Wigmore, who was most indignant.

“What is it with all you hacks brown nosing Cummings to try and get a job in No 10 - it’s pathetic [Iain Martin] - and as you well know the - VL Tories hated [Nigel Farage] but without him Brexit would not have happened - both campaigns needed each other”. This was rather restrained for Wiggy. But former Kipper Suzanne Evans didn’t agree.

“What a load of tosh. If Farage isn’t careful, he and the Brexit party could be the ones that end up keeping us in the EU in the event of a General Election before we’ve left. Cummings is only not a ‘true believer’ in the sense he won’t worship the cult of Nigel”. Also, Cummings is looking for a solution to the Brexit issue - Farage doesn’t want a solution. He wants to keep on heckling from the sidelines.

And there isn’t going to be a rapprochement any time soon with Mr Thirsty ranting “He [Cummings] thinks we're all cretins and members of the lower order. He has never liked me. He can't stand the ERG. I can't see him coming to any accommodation with anyone. He has huge personal enmity with the true believers in Brexit”.

Someone sore at being left out? It’s Farage’s own fault, though - he and his Leave EU pals taunted and insulted Cummings in turn. And Dom clearly hasn’t forgotten.

So now the Brexiteer revolution is eating itself. Just rejoice at that news.

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