Sunday, November 15, 2026

WEEKENDER: Democracy? by Wiggia

 Democracy, does it really exist in the UK and Europe any more? What happened in Makerfield was technically democratic but in reality a planned coup, see Donald Tusk for a grander attempt lower down.

The state of ‘democracy’ in the EU today:

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“You can cancel an election and ban the winner from running (Romania), you can ban your opponents from ever running again (Hungary), you can threaten to ban the main opposition party and subject it to relentless investigations by the secret police (Germany), you can threaten a ban on the leading presidential candidate and make them wear an ankle monitor (France), every member of your circle can be investigated for corruption (Spain), you can try and cancel local elections because you will lose them (Britain), and you can storm the constitutional court with riot police because you want to control it (Poland). You can just do all these things. The secret is you just have to be on the right side of the European Commission.” (Writer: Jacob Reynolds)

Meanwhile the EU is threatening, again…

Strategické Myšlení

@StrategickeM

Translated from Czech

Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria firmly rejected the “blackmail” by German Chancellor Merz, who threatened to block the EU budget unless “all EU states” agreed to guarantee loans and commitments to Ukraine.

“No one will blackmail me with the war in Ukraine... So if the federal chancellor comes and says he will block the EU budget because he wants every country to approve a €70 billion loan agreement for Ukraine, I will tell him ‘no’. In that case, I will block it too,” Fico said, as quoted by the TASR news agency during a joint press conference between the Slovak and Czech prime ministers.

“We are a sovereign Czech Republic. And my vote in the European Council carries exactly the same weight as Chancellor Merz’s. That is why we must discuss the situation behind closed doors. I have already refused to provide a guarantee for a loan to Ukraine,” Babiš added. The Czech prime minister noted that since the start of the war, Ukraine had received €520 billion through direct and bilateral channels. The current EU budget proposal allocates €100 billion to Ukraine. “I don’t understand why anyone would want to block the budget when such an enormous sum has already been allocated to Ukraine in it. The question is whether this money should be part of the budget at all. In my view, it should not; it should be provided in another form. We will need these funds for a ‘Marshall Plan’—that is, for rebuilding Ukraine. So there is no conflict looming. I hope we will discuss this in Dublin (at the informal EU leaders’ summit),” Babiš added.

The prime ministers of Bulgaria and Hungary joined their side, also describing the German chancellor’s behavior as outright blackmail.

https://www.euronews.com/2026/11/10/eu-budget-battle-erupts-as-four-countries-defy-merz-over-ukraine-aid

With Von der Lying wanting to take everyone’s savings as it is ‘lazy money’ it is incredible that tiny Andy is currently trying to subvert the will of the people by sucking up to the EU.

He also seems oblivious to what is happening in Europe and within the EU itself in Brussels all is far from well. Many are now talking about the lack of democracy within the Commission and of course the Commission is far removed from what we understand as democracy as it is not elected. The fact that several failed politicians have been shoe horned into it over the years does little for its standing in the world.

Von der Leyen is a classic example: a minister in the German government who failed big time in her post only to be got rid of by promoting her upwards, something that seems to happen far too often in today’s world - see the Labour front bench for example, and they are not alone.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbirnbaum/2026/09/08/europe-wants-to-mobilize-10-trillion-of-savings-got-bitcoin/

Remember these words…

1. That the Remain side would respect the wishes of the British people to leave 2. That the Conservatives would implement the wishes of the British people to leave.

Words not deeds it was always thus or has been for some considerable time.

We could do with some of that here, but it would need a PM with the balls and a wish to serve those who elected him, we have neither.

How on earth was a foreign Liberian woman allowed to enter parliament? Nowhere is it recorded that her nationality is British, it is always Liberian-British, so one assumes she is a dual national!

Not very democratic in Wales, quite unbelievable that someone stating facts should be shut down, but then a devolved society does include layers of imbeciles of all colours, see local councils.

Amazingly Donald Tusk is still at large, having seemingly failed in his coup attempt he now wants to censor the internet. This is not democracy at work, it is the EU trying trying to bring a sovereign state to heel and be subservient to their wishes via the back door.

Translated from Polish

Prime Minister Tusk has officially announced the introduction of internet censorship in Poland !!!

Of course, like every Eurocrat, he says it’s not censorship, but just listen to what he says:

“What happens in the virtual world affects people’s minds and actions just as strongly as, and sometimes even more strongly than, what happens in the real world. What is forbidden and illegal in real life must also be forbidden and eliminated from the virtual world.”

Does anyone still have any doubts that we’re dealing with a dictator?

I’ve distrusted them for a long time and predicted what they’re doing, and I have Starlink and a VPN, so when they bring EU terror to Poland, I’ll keep you informed.

Despite huge public peaceful, protests Tusk is still attempting to push his coup through using any available methods, this is worrying for democracy and the Polish nation and something other than peaceful is in the offing now, worrying times and the rest of Europe sleeps.

Translated from German

THE COUP IS UNDERWAY

Today, the rightful president of the Constitutional Court, Bogdan Świeczkowski, stood before the locked gates—the final ruling of the Supreme Court in hand. The police refused him entry.

“I demand that the gate be opened and the lawful president be let in!” he shouted. No response.
Anyone who ignores the Supreme Court’s ruling and locks out the lawful president is committing an open attack on the constitution.

This is the coup under way.

And yet one would believe by the total lack of mainstream news on this that nothing has happened or about to happen, just sometimes one wonders what really is going on in the world !

Saturday, November 14, 2026

After Remembrance

 

image source

Remembrance, of the wrong kind and not enough. Wreaths, a short silence, sad music, a lonely trumpet, all to sublimate public rage into sorrow as though war was some unavoidable natural disaster.

The Cenotaph is inscribed “The glorious dead.” Keep your glory. Our ancestors would rather have had their sons, sweethearts and husbands back and alive. Keep your medals and ribbons, your “dead man’s pennies”, your cheery war songs and Owen’s immortal poetry. Give us work, family and humble daily love. Leave us alone, that’s how you will do it.

The lesson of the War to End All Wars was “don’t do it again” but you did, didn’t you? And you’re doing it again, even now in Eastern Europe.

In that lineup of soberly-clad Prime Ministers there are at least two who should answer in court for their war crimes. More if you count those who renew a pledge to assist neo-Nazis in their campaign to overthrow the Russian government and install another Yeltsin as we ransack their country for its mineral treasures.

Friday, November 13, 2026

FRIDAY MUSIC: The Coasters, by JD

 I’m still lost in nostalgia for the music of the Fifties. Looking at the archive of posts I can see we have more than a few collections of ‘golden oldies’ so it is time to feature individual artists and vocal groups. And one of the best, perhaps the best were The Coasters so here they are from long before anyone had heard of Motown or the early sixties ‘beat boom’ when British groups, to a large extent inspired by Fifties rock’n’roll, began to copy and adapt it and take it back to the USA.

The Coasters’ legacy includes witty storytelling, polished vocal arrangements, theatrical rhythm-and-blues classics, and an unmistakable stage personality that helped shape the sound and spirit of the rock and roll era.

The Coasters became the first vocal group inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. Their celebrated partnership with songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller produced a defining catalog of witty, theatrical rhythm-and-blues classics.

The current lineup includes Joe Williams, Primitive Candelaria, John Stone III, and Robert Fowler. Following founding member Carl Gardner’s death in 2011, Veta Gardner has continued to manage the group and safeguard the style, quality, and integrity of The Coasters’ legacy.
https://theoriginalcoasters.net/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Coasters

The Coasters - Poison Ivy (Original)

*The Coasters* - Charlie Brown

THE COASTERS - Love Potion Number Nine

Little Egypt

The Coasters - Three Cool Cats.

Along came Jones

Wonderful!

Friday, November 06, 2026

FRIDAY MUSIC: Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), by JD

Can’t believe I haven’t featured Jeff Lynne’s ELO before now but better late than never. I think you will agree it was worth the wait!

Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1970 by multi-instrumentalists Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood and drummer Bev Bevan. Their music is characterised by a fusion of pop and classical arrangements with futuristic iconography. After Wood’s departure in 1972, Lynne became the band’s sole leader, co-arranging and producing every album while writing nearly all of their original material. During their first run from 1970 to 1986, Lynne and Bevan were the group’s only consistent members.

The group’s name is a pun that references both electric light and “light orchestral music”, a popular style featured on the BBC Light Programme between the 1940s and 1960s. ELO was formed out of Lynne’s and Wood’s desire to create modern rock and pop songs with electric instruments and classical influences.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_Light_Orchestra
https://www.jefflynneselo.com/

Jeff Lynne’s ELO - Mr Blue Sky (Glastonbury 2016)

Electric Light Orchestra - Hold On Tight (Official Video)

ELO with Dhani Harrison - Handle With Care

E.L.O (Electric Light Orchestra) All Over The World

Jeff Lynne’s ELO - Telephone Line (Live at Wembley Stadium)

Roll Over Beethoven Jeff Lynne’s ELO Live with Rosie Langley and Amy Langley, Glastonbury 2016

So many songs to choose from. Perhaps I need to do a volume two!

Monday, November 02, 2026

Stretch Targets, by Wiggia

In the world of word salad they have to invent a new phrase every few months to remain (they hope) relevant in the public eye. It’s not easy: there must be a limit to the use of words that replace those currently in use that we all understand e.g. destination stores = shops.

Last year it was optics, this year it could be stretch targets if Angela Rayner is to be believed … though few believe anything she says.

In the case of the Ginger Growler it is a case of total makeover: voice training, the introduction of the term “stretch targets” to imply she knows what she is talking about and the hope that the voter will not remember her floating off Brighton beach showing her tattoos and vaping. It is all a bit obvious and fools nobody other than those who who want to believe in whatever tripe she she is spouting.

Meanwhile the ‘nudge unit’ is still busy. After scaring the pants off large parts of the nation during Covid the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) are still active. The latest almost certainly formulated by them is the announcement from the erstwhile useless Health Secretary who is now the Defence Minister, Wes Streeting, the man who would be King a short while ago until he found they didn’t want him.

He has announced we should all prepare for an emergency, that is likely to be within a thousand days ! We should do as in WW2 and prepare ourselves to be able to survive this unknown threat for three days with ample supplies of bottled water tinned food and candles.

The result was surprising or maybe not: on my shopping trip to the local Sainsbury’s the sight of families loading up with tinned goods and toilet rolls was everywhere. Obviously Covid and the nonsense suffered is not a deterrent for many people. Three days’ worth of tinned goods would not be sufficient in the case of a nuclear strike, though it would heat up the canned soup.

Another local NHS gem: two of the three hospitals in the local (Norfolk area) trust are to be rebuilt. In the case of the one in Kings Lynn it cannot come soon enough as previous articles have explained.

But, there is always a but with the NHS, it has obviously (even at this stage before a brick is laid) had restrictions on costs spelt out and the trust has hinted that certain services will be considered for the chop.

One of those cuts has been mooted as Accident and Emergency; if true, this is so ridiculous as to be the thinkings of lunatics. The result would be long trips to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital; that alone would result in deaths but the A&E at the N&N cannot even cope with its current patient requirements.

There is talk the N&N is going to rebuild the unit at that hospital. It would have to be at least six times bigger with staff to match to be of any use, and that is not going to happen. Despite the flawed assurances that things in the NHS are getting better we all know that is not true, this will be another nail in the coffin of the trust and the NHS in general. Who the hell are the people who come up with this nonsense?

This below is a comment from X on what happened in Poland on Saturday night. Have you heard anything? No. Is there a blackout on any news this serious? Once again it appears so.

Tusk when he returned from his tenure at the EU was a strange choice in Poland for a leader with his background. He is an open borders advocate, but up to now has lain doggo; he would not have attempted this takeover without the connivance of the EU .

The mainstream news media appear complicit or at least passive. Thus History Matters on X:

“Without X, no one in Europe would have found out about what happened in Poland tonight.

The head of government Donald Tusk carried out an attempted coup d’état, taking advantage of the state head Karol Nawrocky’s trip abroad. He stormed the Constitutional Tribunal with the police and tried to remove the president and vice president of the Constitutional with a loyal judge without competencies.

But he hadn’t counted on the President, who, upon learning of it, ordered the plane to turn around while it was flying over Spain. He returned to Warsaw, forced his way into the TC building ahead of his escorts despite Tusk’s police cordon, and summoned all the highest institutions of the Supreme and Constitutional to restore constitutional order.

Although the crisis continues, it seems clear that Tusk’s government, the puppet of Von der Leyen who would never have carried out this assault without Brussels’ permission, has its days numbered.

But remember, the public and private media across all of Europe have been complicit in the coup d’état by silencing the entire operation.

Only social networks have alerted Poles and Europeans.

That’s why they want to intervene in them.“

How this will end is anyone’s guess.

Sunday, November 01, 2026

Poland’s Hallowe’en Coup (and the Silence of the Hacks)

If there was any doubt about which evil expansionist empire we need to resist then yesterday’s events in Poland may help to dispel them.

Barrister and constitutional expert Steven Barrett explains in the video below. In the Maastricht Treaty of 1992-3 the European Union defined the selected areas in which its rule was supreme. Even in this limited form the late Tony Benn lamented it in what he said was “my last speech in a free Parliament.” But the Lisbon Treaty enacted in 2009 enabled the EU to claim power in whatever matter it chose. Barrett describes how Prime Minister Donald Tusk used this leeway and the temporary absence of the President to launch an assault on Poland’s Constitution. When the President, alerted (by the CIA it is alleged) to the coup attempt, turned his plane round to come back Tusk attempted to bar him first from Warsaw’s airport and then - physically, with armed police (*** GERMAN???) - from the Constitutional court building itself.

More details about the conspiracy can be found on Richard North’s site here.

One would have thought this would be MSM front page news, bearing in mind the implications for other EU member countries (as well as for our Europhile Government), but here is the Mail on Sunday:

Poland is missing from the insides, too. One also wonders how the Daily Telegraph will cover the issues, now that the German Axel Springer group has acquired it and is currently in the process of dismissing its Eurosceptic journalists.

The graphic above (source here) sees Tusk’s plan as involving forcing Poland to abandon its national currency in favour of the euro and yield its gold reserves to the ECB. That last would certainly help the Union’s finances as the ECB holds just over 500 tonnes of gold and Poland has another 632 tonnes (worth nearly UK£69 billion.)

That said, it’s more about the power than the money. Comedian and commentator Andrew Lawrence says that Poles who came to the UK to flee what had been a communist dictatorship are now returning for the same reason.

The next days may serve as an acid test of the independence of traditional British journalism. Melissa Kite who has thirty years’ experience in the field published a rocket of a post last Thursday castigating a profession that writes or suppresses what it is told - do read it, really. Unless things change then the “dead tree press” may as well be properly dead and buried.