START THE WEEK: More Pointless and Unaccountable Local and not so Local Authorities, by Wiggia

As with all other bad news these days, there is a daily drip feed of governmental nonsense fed to the masses. Birmingham council, now bankrupt through their own mishandling and inadequacy have issued a statement on how they intend to go forward; naturally there is no mention of anyone or group being held responsible for the financial disaster that has befallen on Birmingham, as is the pattern in all government layers no one is ever responsible for anything.

Commissioners, intervention and improvement

In September 2023 the council issued 2 Section 114 notices as part of the plans to meet the council’s financial liabilities relating to equal pay claims and an in-year financial gap within its budget.

Michael Gove, Secretary of State for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities appointed commissioners to exercise certain functions of the council as required and begin the improvement journey for Birmingham City Council.

We need to find over £250 million worth of savings over the next 12 months and there will be considerable changes as a result for residents.

Challenging decisions lie ahead, we need to get our finances back on track to a healthy position and implement a programme of improvement – a reset must start now, beginning with the 2024/25 budget.

An improvement journey has begun on the path to become a financially sustainable and well-run council.

Ah, an ‘improvement journey’ a new phrase from the inadequates who cannot run a bath never-mind a local authority; still, a change from ‘lessons will be learned.’

Meanwhile a new twist to our local (Norwich, UK) Northern Distributor Road saga. It has taken ten years to get this far; in China the whole road would have been completed in a month, yet still the bats seem to be winning over people, the new estates north of the road are getting outline planning and thousands of people will event.ually if this road is not completed. be using two small village routes to connect to the A47 It is madness and as usual the costs have skyrocketed. Also it gives time for the Greens and the eco zealots to find other ways of delaying the project and ruining inhabitants' lives while favouring a few bats that will move as they did when we lived in Suffolk under another scheme that they tried to stop using the bat plan. It is already a watered down project but will still give respite to the rat runs of which there are only three.

Planners and highways need to co operate on these projects rather than pretend they do. The time lag before any action is taken is measured in decades in this country and all parties blame each other. It was always thus.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/24292060.norwich-western-link-report-critical-council-bat-surveys/

We have a new Police & Crime Commissioner - you know. the position that pays a £100k + a year for someone who we don’t want, don’t need. don’t know but is foisted on us. This time along with national politics the vote swung to Labour and a woman named Susan Taylor won. Her CV was so short it needed a magnifying glass to find. Evidently she was a local councillor, not in the area which allows her to stand.

‘Anyone who is a member of staff of a local council that falls wholly or partly within the police area in which the election is to be held - including anyone employed in an organisation that is under the control of a local council in the police area for which the election is to be held. ‘

So not local then, and apart from being a member of a road safety group, no real job and nothing that could be vaguely aligned with police or crime.With an office costing £1 million a year it will be yet another burden for the tax payer with no justification for its existence.

The turnout was 21% and she got under half of that, so less than 10% of the electorate voted for this pointless position.It is the same nationwide; why do they persist in keeping it going, why?

Up north something that many said would happen, not politicians of course, has happened: a Trojan horse Islamist disguised, badly, as a Green candidate won a council seat.If this had been a product presented as a Green candidate they would be charged with misrepresentation; and are the Greens that desperate to get onto councils.Maybe they are as this shows……..

 https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-3182303/Video-Green-Party-councillor-shouts-Allahu-Akbar-elected.html

Still they have plenty of backup: the fragrant Melissa Poulton, described by a Conservative MP as a bloke in a wig, I couldn’t possibly comment, but the Greens do seem to attract a larger share of the ‘unusual’ than the other parties… the leader of the Greens Caroline ‘several homes’Lucas is the MP for Brighton, yet the bins are not emptied and travellers set up camp on seafront green spaces with full permission.

Our local Green candidate reminds me of a certain Alfred E Neumann of MAD magazine fame…

Perhaps it is all getting too much for me and I read t0o much into it all, if not we are all doomed, doomed I tell ya!

I often along with many others wonder why we put up with the pathetic overpaid and under qualified public servants - in France for instance a liberal spraying of public offices with merde does not go amiss. This story of jobsworths from Cambridge County Council is self explanatory: an annual flower display giving a lot of pleasure to the inhabitants of Chatteris, not the most glamorous towns, has had this year's flower display reduced by the council on health and safety grounds. The last paragraph from the council spokesman is one of the most condescending utterances put out in the public sphere. The spokesman should instead of the now defunct award winning hanging baskets be replaced by the same spokesperson hung by his own proverbials.

A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesperson said: "It's great seeing the creative ways that communities across the county make use of streetlights with festive displays.

"As streetlights are directly connected to the local power grid, to ensure everyone's safety any group wishing to display items from a streetlight needs to get in touch with the council so we can make sure essential independent safety training is completed for everyone's wellbeing.

"We look forward to hearing from Chatteris in Bloom."

 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ck5k38lje2yo

Another local council affair has been branded as ‘vexatious’ by the council involved. I have no knowledge of the niceties but much is self evident and an auditor upheld 27 0f the complainant's 32 complaints. As so often with local councillors, not unlike more senior politicians, when the going gets tough they look for reasons to silence or ignore the complainant. This you can read here…

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/weasenham-whinger-david-fairchild-says-he-won-t-be-silenced-by-parish-council-s-new-vexatious-complaints-policy/ar-BB1lYCqY

and make your own mind up if he has a point or is just a meddler with time on his hands.

Having crossed swords with a local councillor a few years ago over a speed camera issue on our then rat run village street, I can appreciate the frustration when one sees nothing being done, in my/our case after the money had been provided and the action approved, and ridiculous replies follow unanswered questions.

I was accused of pestering the said councillor over the matter despite only sending two. yes two emails over an eighteen month period. When I suggested that if he considered being pestered at that level as being too much for him he might be better employed elsewhere an answer was not forthcoming.

After I moved, the speed cameras were installed ten years later , but on a long village street they installed them over a short stretch each side of a pinch point, and they have no legal right to even fine anyone however fast they are driving, so the whole episode was a total waste of £60k that could have been used more productively elsewhere.

When it was pointed out the error of the placement they replied (not to me) that the village had after a long period of demanding something was done ’got what they wanted’ and the matter was closed.

You really couldn’t make it up, why do we have these incompetents in any form allowed to make decisions on anything?

George Carlin was right when he said they can’t blame me for voting for a wrong un, as I don’t vote. I have joined that ever growing club.

PS the councillor I had a spat with has retired and his place has been taken by a woman who has never had a proper job and now her husband is now a councillor despite the fact he has never worked and has ‘health problems.’ What could possibly go wrong!

It is good to know that at the top things are different, our elected members are on top of issues that affect us all and can be relied on to put in their views on these matters on our behalf, or not as the case might be…

From X: 

  - Just about sums up our political class.

WEEKENDER: WHO Climbdown, by Wiggia

Via Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/UsforThemUK/status/1782352331863941537

UsForThemUK 🌟

@UsforThemUK

‼️Updated IHR Amendments Just Published‼️

A HUGE VICTORY FOR NATIONAL DEMOCRACY, FREE SPEECH AND HUMAN RIGHTS

A briefing to follow, and link to the text below. Headlines here:

Massive climb down from the WHO Working Group on almost ALL substantive concerns that we and others have raised over the past 18 months.

🎯 The WHO’s recommendations remain non-binding. Article 13A.1 which would have required Member States to follow directives of the WHO as the guiding and coordinating authority for international public health has been dropped entirely.

🎯An egregious proposal which would have erased reference to the primacy of “dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms” has been dropped. This proposal marked a particularly low water-mark, and should never have been suggested.

🎯Provisions that would have allowed the WHO to intervene on the basis of a mere ‘potential’ health emergency have been dropped: a pandemic must now either be happening or likely to happen, but with the safeguard that to activate its IHR powers the WHO must demonstrate that coordinated international action is necessary.

🎯Proposals to construct a global censorship and ‘information control’ operation led by the WHO have been dropped.

🎯A material dampening of the expansionist ambitions of the WHO: provisions which had proposed to expand the scope of the IHRs to include “all risks with a potential to impact public health” (e.g. climate change, food supply) have been deleted. The scope now remains essentially unchanged, focussed on the spread of disease.

🎯Explicit recognition that Member States not the WHO are responsible for implementing these regulations, and bold plans for the WHO to police compliance with all aspects of the IHRs have been materially watered down.

🎯Many other provisions have been diluted, including: surveillance mechanisms that would have given the WHO a mandate to find thousands of potential new pandemic signals; provisions which would have encouraged and favoured digital health passports; provisions requiring forced technology transfers and diversion of national resources.

The published document is only an interim draft, to be put before the IHR Working Group during this week’s final negotiations, so it could yet change.

That said, on the basis of this draft this is a profound victory for people power over unaccountable technocracy.

https://apps.who.int/gb/wgihr/pdf_files/wgihr8/WGIHR8_Proposed_Bureau_text-en.pdf

Never forget the Covid inquiry is due to finish in 2026. It is just not a long time away but a deliberate ploy to avoid awkward and legitimate questions actually making the headlines, or hoping that by then anyone who was accountable will be long gone or forgotten; no one will be held to account for the mandatory nonsense that caused and is causing deaths for years.

Sweden for instance has had an inquiry and the result last year. Why do we believe that it needs so much time here? Only the lawyers gain financially, everyone else pays for a pointless exercise in legalise.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1786284247029797274

I have said it before, if inquiries were to become an Olympic event we would be top of the medals table.

What is equally worrying is the lack of response to the WHO statement from a government that judging by the silence is not concerned about a decision on something that was deemed so important they put the petition against it out to grass. One can only take it that they have become so inured during our membership of the EU to having laws and rulings made for them.

Perhaps we can now focus on getting our politicians weaned off becoming ‘global young leaders’ under the direction of the benign uncle Klaus, who makes the whole thing sound like cub scout badge attainment.

The trouble is I do not trust either of these organisations to stop in their progressive ideals, any more than I trust Lord Cameron to stop travelling around the world making statements about ‘we must’ and ‘we will’ at every opportunity on behalf of, well himself.

His renegotiation skills are as we know legendary……….

We are going through difficult times, but I am pretty sure with safe hands like those below at the wheel, things can only improve….. 

‘Meet Jared Bernstein, Biden’s chief economic advisor:’

https://twitter.com/i/status/1786388681764250053

WEEKENDER: Getting Old? by Wiggia

1997: a job well done, never forget.

There is undoubtedly a growing tendency to dismiss older people as an expensive nuisance. This shows in all manner of ways, from the legalised killing during the Covid pandemic and the still current issuing of unnecessary DNR orders as I have explained in detail in another piece.

There is no doubt that old people do make demands on the health service as age starts to eat into their bodies and minds. It was always thus. The same can be said at the other end of the life span as mothers and babies make up a constant stream at any doctor’s surgery; their needs are no less important than the elderly some would say as they are the future so they get preference. In a world of finite resources this may be a choice we have to make, but killing people is not a choice that should be included, yet it certainly is.

It is not just in healthcare where older people are beginning to realise they have been ‘selected’ for special treatment. Consider the ongoing row over state pensions where when questioned a minister recently stated that with the ‘triple lock’ our pensions are now a median in Europe: he lied, they are still low compared with almost all equivalent western societies, and the triple lock is not the golden bullet they make it out to be more as more pensioners are having to pay tax on their pensions as they, through fiscal drag come into higher income brackets and pay tax again on money they have already paid tax on through their lives. There is also the fact that millions do not get the full pension rise, but politicians don’t like to hear facts when they are telling their audience how wonderful things are now for older people.

Can we afford it? Amazing how we can afford anything that will put any government in a good light, or grease the palms of all those underlings that serve them; that is usually only so they spend/waste more money on something that does nothing for the nation as a whole and sod all for the elderly or anyone else.

I am not going to expatiate here about the appalling quality in so many areas and layers of government that we currently have in abundance. I have done that to death.

In other spheres the elderly are also coming under attack. The recent rise in car insurance has hit the elderly very hard, yet this sector is the safest bet for insurance on the road, so why charge them around 40% plus more in one year? You don’t get an answer to that question just a statement as to increasing costs of car repairs and non insured drivers (a million according to police estimates at the last count.) All this has pushed up the costs and premiums, but that does not answer the question as to why the safest and the group with the least claims should pay this huge rise, other of course than the fact that as with all insurance or utilities the elderly are the least likely to switch, not that it would make any difference in this case that as the insurers have all jacked up their premiums in line with one another… cartel, anyone?

Have you noticed that advertising directed towards the elderly has all the hallmarks of a scam? Pages in the Daily Mail for instance have adverts that show goods and services for the elderly and infirm that never have a price attached!

Page after page has items such as adjustable chairs, sofas and bathroom aids, never mind the stairlift ads and the mobility aids that never have a retail price for comparison purposes. A column I came across by chance a few months ago on the MSE money saving expert site, had a thread of dozens of disgruntled potential customers who had complained about the same non pricing problem; the stock answer from several of these firms was their product was bespoke and therefore being tailored to each customer individually meant the pricing was fluid.

Not really good enough, as any car purchased has a catalogue of extras all priced and the standard model the same. It really is to suck in the unsuspecting into the world of silly discounts should you have the temerity to question the price. One comment said he had phoned on behalf of his father for one of these adjustable chairs and been quoted £4k; when he spluttered that was exorbitant they halved the price on the phone without a quibble; even at half it is a rip-off.

That is just one of hundreds saying similar things about these goods aimed at the elderly, rather like insurance where the elderly are the least likely to query their large annual increase. They are seen as a group to be taken advantage of.

We come to the biggest plunderers who believe that all older people have untapped wealth: the government. Who can forget Gordon Brown and his raid on pension funds that brought in billions, the biggest betrayal of a group in this country by any chancellor, and despite shouting the odds on this despicable act did the Tories reverse it? Oh no, they quietly shunted into the siding of things to tackle later, much later.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082511/Browns-17-000-tax-raid-EVERY-private-pension--value-cushy-public-sector-schemes-soars-1trillion.html

Now we hear an incoming Labour government, promising to right the ills of the incumbent party should they win the coming election (such a choice we have!) will have no money to carry out their ‘promises’ as the country is bankrupt in all but name, and have hinted at a repeat of this infamous raid on funds. Bereft of ideas and with huge public debts and clueless leadership, they are coming again for the one group who will not be outside Parliament with thousands threatening outside. No, they are coming for the elderly. They will start by withdrawing winter fuel allowances and build from there, mark my words, and you can guarantee the one group who will not have to give up anything will be the gold-plated ring-fenced pension recipients in the political and public sector classes.

Never forget, we the private sector who pay taxes pay for the public sector wages pensions and all. Those who claim they pay into their pensions from their salaries are correct but we pay or have paid those salaries and therefore those pensions, but only the private sector gets raided.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/labour-is-going-to-war-on-pensioner-wealth/ar-AA1nfB0s

WEEKENDER: From The Bottom Up, by Wiggia

The local press gives a fair indication as to what the movers and shakers are doing or not in your own area.

As an example of what we can do without there are three articles in the Eastern Daily Press that are classics in that what is portrayed is several groups of ersatz political wannabees that have not a clue about what they are doing or are supposed to be doing.

I have moved more times than I care to mention in the region, starting in Essex and ending now in Norfolk and in all these areas and sub divisions have seen the local councils, town and upwards in action or as in most cases inaction. In most cases the ill-informed, the naive, the pompous, the ladder climbers and the corrupt form a toxic mix of inactivity that can only be replicated in the House of Commons where it is the same but magnified. Never has there been so many layers of wasters, and I do mean wasters, who have a say in our everyday lives or wish to impose their often ridiculous rulings on the general population.

I have mentioned before the saga of the link road for the so called northern relief road round the top of Norwich, an area bereft of decent road communications. This project would if planned properly have brought relief to not only motorists but to the edge villages that suffer as rat runs.

Just a brief re run: firstly, the road should never have been built without the final connection to the A47 in the west. Secondly by not completing the road then the costs for the three mile link have soared beyond belief, and thirdly the Norfolk Council questionnaire asking for opinions on three route proposals ignored the result! And chose a further out link that will inevitably be ignored by many and the rat runs will remain.

Because of the delay all and sundry who have no interest in the road other than stopping the link-up on eco grounds have found a colony of bats that they hope will stop any further progress, and now Natural England, a government sponsored quango has put its oar in on the subject: an unelected official has used the bat card as an attempt to stop the road being built; bats before people, tee shirts available here!

All of the region’s Conservative MPs have backed the road link and named an official who is unelected for the problem, as the majority of the MPs are standing down, including ‘seven jobs’ Brandon Lewis

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/23937202.mp-brandon-lewis-grabbing-cash-now-ahead-election-loss/

Typical of the type of person in the political classes, he was joined in the announcement on the road link by Richard Bacon also standing down as my MP after being totally invisible for what seems like years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-60205714

Meanwhile in Wymondham the town council have had a mental health moment after one councillor had a turn after another made a 45 second resignation speech - yes really, suggestions for this man? And the useless councillors as described by the resignation speech on a postcard please.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/24228691.wymondham-council-introduces-red-cards-meetings/

And at Breckland Council the troughing continues………

Magically this council has funds to pay nonentities double that others do; still, the rise in council tax will solve any monetary problems for them.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/24226348.breckland-councillors-receive-allowance-increase/

Today I saw an election card come through the door for the post of Crime Commissioner. I have no clue (nor does anyone else) who is standing for the lucrative post; probably another double-barrell-named individual as were the last two who made a bigger dent in local finances than any equivalent dent in crime figures or management of them.

The general election will of course be different. The two uniparties are busy slagging each other off while telling the electorate that voting for Reform or anyone else is detrimental to the country. If it wasn’t so serious I would laugh.

WEEKENDER: Word Salad, by Wiggia

      

One of the more noticeable and annoying traits of modern life is the mangling of words to suit the current theme/trend.

This started some time ago but has accelerated over the last couple of years. The most obvious in the last year has been the use of ‘optics’ rather than 'seen', it is almost as though 'seen' is old hat and no longer describes what is portrayed before one. It is used by all who wish to to appear relevant (?) in the woke world we live in; in fact optics is word from the scientific world meaning the study of light in various forms and has nothing to do with how badly Boris Johnson dresses!

The acceleration of verbiage has largely come about through the use of modern communications. A whole new language has developed as the use of abbreviations has usurped correct language, u instead of you as an example. It is a lazy short cut but is used by virtually all younger users of mobile phones, the hows and whys though obvious has a purpose, but that is not what I am illustrating here.

Two areas are the prime examples. One is thrown into relief by the madness to accommodate the trans lobby and advocates: an endless stream of meaningless phrases and invented words are bandied about as if anyone cares, pronouns are a prefix to be used when addressing people who are not sure who or what they are. Why this should be a concern for everyone else is a mystery but on and on they hammer away with their faux offence and slight expressions and replies when not addressed with the 'correct' prefix.

How many of the general public know what all these tags mean or are moved enough to actually use them, or care? I certainly don’t. Those who are showing signs of offence, though there is doubt as to how genuine it all is, inhabit the strange world of Tik Tok. All have virtually identical mannerisms, the same robotic voices and appearances that suggest they should get out more though I doubt few would ever appear in areas outside their own small world dressed and adorned as they are.

In many ways I doubt if their appearance and use of language has anything much to do with their actual perceived state, it is just another manifestation of the ‘look at me’ society that grows by the day.

The other group is the commentators, the interviewers and the interviewees. Here using a word such as 'optics' is not optional but a necessity to remain on cue. Luckily it is last year's word and dying a death, but other examples are the use of age definition phrases starting with Boomers, Generation X, Millenials, Generation Z, and Gen Alpha to come; not only do I never use the phrases but I have never heard in private conversation anyone using them either. It could of course be an age thing but more likely who can be bothered to remember different terms for words or phrases that are easy to define and still in use as well as being self explanatory.

An example of an older version of this word salad is cockney rhyming slang, if you believe the middle educated! Classes who seem to revert to forms of this slang every few years to show how conversant with the peasants they are but nothing could be further from the truth.

I was raised and lived in the east end of London until I married and moved away. Whilst not exactly within the sound of Bow Bells I did spend a lot of time in my ill begotten youth in the area. During all those years I only met two people who would occasionally resort to using the rhyming slang, despite those who believe that all cockneys went round saying ‘where’s the struggle and strife’ (though I do admit to using the phrase ‘I am going for a tonsorial’ on occasions) but much that is written today is just made up slang to give the impression it is still in use; it isn’t, and like so much of today's word salad it will be confined to that historic lexicon in the sky.

It would be disingenuous of me to suggest all new words should be confined to the dustbin of history, some will survive and will be added to the English language as they always have been; but how many in reality other than these few will still be in use in future times. Others stem from abbreviations; one in particular is used almost exclusively in a sporting context: 'GOAT' (greatest of all time.) I believe it first came to prominence when used to describe Valentino Rossi the nine times world champion grand prix motorcyclist; I could be wrong but it has since been overused as all these phrases are.

Anyway must go my neighbour has just come round with his ‘dustbin lids’.

------------------------

Also published on Substack: https://rolfnorfolk.substack.com/p/weekender-word-salad

WEEKENDER: A Statutory Obligation, by Wiggia

Words in a government document sent to the people of Millom in Cumbria after they decided not go ahead with the dumping of illegal migrants there:

'The Home Office has a statutory obligation to house people seeking asylum, as well as having a commitment to ensuring people are housed across the entire UK, in line with our Full Dispersal plans and we are still keen that Cumberland meets its regional allocation.'

In the real world one would assume that there is a statutory obligation to house the indigenous first, but as recent events have shown obviously not.

The sheer amount of money going into accommodating the asylum seekers or economic migrants and then providing them with all their needs far outstrips any benefit they bring to the nation now or in the future, despite agencies saying the opposite; the Dutch report on the same problem showed the true extent of that lie.

https://gript.ie/the-cost-of-immigration-a-new-study-provides-useful-facts/

This is an update to the original paper published in 2021 and quashed by the authorities at the time. I have used this before simply because no other outlet in this country is prepared to tell the truth on the matter.

The home office revealed that by 2026 we will be paying £11 billion a year to accommodate illegal migrants at the current rate. That is not only unsustainable but a slap in the face for the general public who pay for it all . It is no more than confirmation as to what most people with an interest in such matters knew beforehand. No longer do governments talk of spending millions badly, it is now billions - the Covid fiasco trained us all to think in billions and now that is what we get or not as the case may be.

It used to be a statutory obligation to reveal plans that affect the whole population to the public through Parliament. As I said a couple of weeks ago the petition to renounce the signing of the WHO treaty came up with a government message saying our sovereignty would not be overridden; this shows just how much notice we should take of government assurances.

https://www.thenewera.uk/p/sunak-mitchell-and-cameron-and-the 

And the presence of Bill Gates quite openly being involved in decisions that affect European and the UK is an affront to democracy, the same democracy that our PM spoke about outside Number Ten the other night; and they wonder why the public have deserted their belief in the democratic system.

Meanwhile the WEF continues down its path to restrict all planet dwellers to a form of penury siding with the eco zealots in banning meat and now even growing your food.

https://slaynews.com/news/wef-pushes-ban-home-grown-food-fight-climate-change/

If you read the whole paper it is your gardens they will be coming for next. The madness continues and still they flock to Davos to pay homage to this lunatic:

Remember this: Charles didn’t take long to rebuff convention to stay out of politics did he? What a wonderful example he is to all of us, pottering about in his methane powered Aston Martin fuel gathered from his own farms and then using a personal helicopter for all other trips; Clown World.

So statuary obligations are like London buses, none at all or ten arriving together half empty.

Very little of this gets into the MSM so few are even aware of what the WEF is or the influence it has. Governments should have a statutory obligation to ignore these organisations as they are unelected and have no mandate from anyone. I doubt that the manifestos printed for the upcoming GE will have any mention of them - why not?

Everyone with a brain knows the country is skint, not that that fact stops those in power from squandering billions on failed projects such as HS2 and the £5.5 billion on the Ajax armoured vehicle that is still flawed despite claims to the contrary (and oh, it is eight years late, probably out of date by now anyway.) How about another IT project? - they always end up so well; or a couple of extra aircraft carriers that have difficulty finding any planes to use them or actually leave port.

Perhaps we should have another inquiry into these failures so the legal profession can take even more money from the taxpayer and then claim ‘that lessons have been learned’ passim.

The future is here…

We are also obliged to fund endless foreign countries, in fact most of the world it appears. This (below) is the aid given since 2011; despite occasional necessity can anyone really say what we have gained from this largesse, yet our betters (?) claim it is an obligation. Most when studying the facts below would doubt it and almost certainly suggest better use of those funds on UK projects - it is not as if we don’t need them.

It is a statutory obligation to put into practice the will of the people following a referendum, not that the HoC tried very hard as 80% ‘knew better’ and we now have Theresa May standing down from politics - she of course in another life would have been spending time in the Tower. Theresa May 's response to the democratic will of the people was to try and sign a deal that would have left the UK trapped in the EU forever. People have been hanged for far lesser acts of treason, and within living memory; but today it is all eulogies to a person that along with so many others should never have had the keys to Number Ten.

‘We have not been well served’ is a phrase that is now too often appropriate such is the current malaise of the ruling classes.

WEEKENDER: Parliament, a Suitable Case for Treatment, by Wiggia

Lindsay Hoyle has with his change of rules stepped over the line, yet this is not the most pressing part of the shambles in parliament; “the worst scenes I have seen in parliament in the last fifty years” said one journalist.

Like most things exaggeration comes easily to British journalists, this was hardly a kin to the all out fighting seen in some countries when things go wrong:



Cries of ‘order order’ would have proved less than useless in those situations. The speaker was heckled, rightly, and a few people walked out in an orderly fashion, it was all very British.

What was wrong was the proposed debate in the first place, the assumption that if our MPs got together and said 'stop that Israel' would take any notice of a washed-up world power is laughable. I have even heard the word ‘insist’ used in the same context!

Meanwhile……..

The Jerusalem Post

Israel's Knesset votes against recognition of Palestinian state

Story by BY JERUSALEM POST STAFF  • 1d

https://www.msn.com/en-ae/news/other/israels-knesset-votes-against-recognition-of-palestinian-state/ar-BB1iE6Cp


One has to ask why is this fervour directed at Israel and Gaza when thousands are dying in Ukraine and after two years of fighting and billions shovelled Zelensky’s way, demands for a ceasefire are not forthcoming in that region?

I would suggest it is partly because this is election year and the muslim vote, ever more important in certain areas, is uppermost in many MPs' minds. Long-term this is a lost cause as the demographics will determine that Islam-based parties will emerge; they already have with Aspire in Tower Hamlets showing the way.

The electoral commission has not allowed the first of the Islam-based parties to be established……

New ‘Party of Islam’ rejected by Electoral Commission over compliance with election law

The Express first reported on the party's attempted registration this weekend.

By CHRISTIAN CALGIE, Senior Political Correspondent

21:48, Tue, Oct 31, 2023 | UPDATED: 21:54, Tue, Oct 31, 2023

https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1830131/Party-of-Islam-Rejected-Electoral-commission

Anyone believing that is the end of it is living in a bubble. There will be a more normal approach that disguises the belief system that underpins these type of parties and once they have momentum the Islam factor will emerge.

So what did the shenanigans in Parliament achieve, apart from the remote chance the Speaker will join Bercow in hall of shame? Nothing at all: it will fill headlines for a couple of days, Cameron will resume his world tour and make more unaccountable statements to an empty room and all will carry on the same.

Still it’s good to know the new intake of MPs has such a caring and thoughtful and intelligent addition to its ranks…..

Bandwagon beckons….



Just one thing to add, there was no vote, good start though.