Is Starmer Nuts?

In a word and my opinion, no.

Undoubtedly he is ‘different.’ Many people including myself have commented on his atypical gaze, one of the features on a checklist for autism (see #14 here); the tunelessness in his voice; the apparent lack of empathy; the rigidity of thinking and so on.

But if the PM was crazy he wouldn’t be the first.

Take his PR adviser Tony Blair, for instance. Look at this photo from 1972 and spot the warnings signs 25 years before Hurricane New Labour struck. It didn’t stop him winning three General Elections and inspiring a zoo of subsequent Conservative leaders. He and his chums spotted the vulnerabilities in our Constitution and the mass media and hacked them ruthlessly, externalising the chaos in their own minds. Nothing has felt quite real since 1997; we tried to wake up in 2016 but the Matrix resedated us.

And now we are inside Starmer’s dream; or the one he subcontracted to ‘Golden’ Brown, the great micromanager.

Sir Keir’s dad was an engineer, one of the trades that attract ‘autism spectrum’ neurotypes who are more task-oriented than people-focused; and it’s a heritable trait. Could it be something like that? And if the task is a political ideal…

Do not get in the way of a man with a vision; if he has enough power he will roll right over you, and with 400+ MPs Starmer is a juggernaut; he does not need social skills. Rosie Duffield? A crunching of bones.

Sir Keir is a lawyer, but one who works with the letter of the law rather than serves its spirit. So when the SNP’s Brendan O’Hara claimed Israel’s bombing of civilian areas was against international law, Starmer said it wasn’t; there we are, technically correct. Did only 20.2% of the electorate vote Labour in July? So what, we won by the rules of the game; suck it up.

Is he too Alli-pally, taking the loan of the millionaire’s penthouse? Why, that was to let Starmer Junior revise for GCSEs in quiet. But they only went into the flat ten days after the examinations had started! So what, you should have made that point earlier, the case is over now. Remember, lawyers’ moots are about winning judgments; leave Truth to the philosophers.

Is he greedy and corrupt? Probably he doesn’t think about it - he told a Guardian journalist that he isn’t self-reflective. That’s why he needs the chronically image-conscious Blair (‘eyecatching initiatives… I should be personally associated with as much of this as possible.’) Besides, Starmer doesn’t come across as someone who is in it for the money; we’ll find out after he leaves office.

Perhaps the mindset is akin to that of the ‘good Communist’: the holiday dacha by the Black Sea was a perk but it still belonged to The People. Moral inconsistencies are inevitable in a paradoxical world, but we are working towards the Millenium when all shall be equal. Until then, stop whingeing about irrelevancies.

In any case, it is a mistake to personalise these issues. Modern politics, like commerce, has become corporate. Since 2020 the US has been ostensibly led by Biden-Harris - what I call Sh*ts and Giggles - but it hardly matters what they are like as long as they say the lines. If Starmer resigned tomorrow the show would go on.

We are in the time Peter Hitchens longed to see, the end of the two rotten parties that leaned on each other. The treacherous globalist Tories have died, though they are still twitching; now, unpatriotic and compassionless Labour are fast wearing out their grudging welcome.

We must endure, watch and wait.

Reposted from Bruges Group Blog

Emigrate! Flee death by doctor!

It’s getting to the point where some might contemplate emigration so as not to be murdered by a doctor.

If it can happen to the Monarch it can happen to anyone. In January 1936 the dying King George V was given a hurry-up kill shot of morphine and cocaine; allegedly the moment was chosen to let The Times break the news, instead of the evening papers. The King’s last words to his physician were ‘God damn you.’

Now The Prime Minister is reportedly planning to rush an ‘assisted dying’ Bill through Parliament by Christmas. According to Quentin Letts there was even a ‘euthanasia trade-stand’ at this month’s Labour Party Conference.

Today grave issues are emotified by celebs; in this case a prominent activist is Esther Rantzen, now terminally ill. She has joined Dignitas, a euthanasia outfit based in Switzerland, where she plans to go if the law is not liberalised in time here. She says she wants to ‘look forward in confidence to a death which is pain-free.’

There’s the rub: medically induced death is not necessarily swift or pain-free, as a doctor writing under the name Jack King explains. There are instances of people waking up hours after the supposedly lethal injection and having to be finished off, in one case with a pillow. Some post-mortems revealed lungs full of fluid, so that the victim effectively drowned.

Only the subjects can know whether they are in pain. When they are immobilised by midazolam, a powerful sedative, we cannot be sure the morphine in the ‘m+m’ cocktail - a favourite combination to destroy the elderly - blots out their consciousness of dying of thirst (‘withdrawal of fluids’) and collapsing organs.

Nor is the procedure always voluntary. ‘King’ cites a case where the patient changed her mind and had to be held down by medics and relatives as the needle went in.

There is also the ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ (DNR) system for determining who may be rescued from death to have a second chance at life. An anonymous hospital cardiologist noted the great increase in DNRs during the Covid pandemic, in many cases put in place without the subject’s consent or even knowledge. The 2020 Coronavirus Bill abolished bodily autonomy, putting the doctors in charge so that ‘I’ve seen notes stating that the patient and family do not want a DNR and the notes are scored out with the words ‘overridden by consultant’ across them.’ I still think of a friend of mine, subjected to ‘end of life’ (EOL) ‘care’ without, I think, his or his family’s permission; the white-coated staff seemed quite matter-of-fact and contented in the silent, orderly EOL ward they ran.

The ‘right to die’ segues easily into a duty to die, to save others money and fuss; or a temptation to die. In Canada ‘Medical Assistance In Dying’ (MAID) is seen as having the potential to save millions of dollars - and not just in medical interventions: one disabled Army veteran was offered euthanasia as an alternative to having a wheelchair ramp installed. According to ‘King’ in the Netherlands it is an option for autistic adults; in Australia they are contemplating assisted suicide as an option for children as young as fourteen.

Underlying all this is a profound disrespect for life and it is not difficult to see how the death cult may spread. We can get some idea from the way abortion has been liberalised: since the 1967 Abortion Act there have been over ten million ‘terminations’ in the UK. Surely the majority were merely because the child was inconvenient to the parent/s - yet what would Britain’s demographics and economy be like if they had been born and were contributing to society, all of them well under State Retirement Age? We have come so far from the time when a pregnant woman could delay or escape judicial execution by ‘pleading her belly,’ since the State could not allow an innocent to be slaughtered.

At the other end of life it is well known that poor people are more likely to have poor health, and possibly they may know less about, or have less access to, options such as palliative care, hospices and so on. The ‘working people’ that Sir Keir Starmer claims to champion, if he is thinking of working class people, are the ones who are most dependent on the State’s resources when they cease to work. It must be a great temptation to view them as ‘useless eaters’ and, as Canada is doing already, to figure out ruthless ways to save on the Government budget.

This is where philosophy and religion have definitely practical implications. Dame Elizabeth Rantzen may be agnostic but the belief system of her Jewish roots is firmly against deliberately ending a human life; so is that of Muslims - no ‘kill shots’ for them.

As for Christianity, it is not always clear what the Church of England stands for, but where the Roman Catholic Church is strong it is a bulwark against what, we fear, will soon become a cold and lethal contempt for humanity, valuing its members in terms of money or public utility.

Those who wish to continue being a nuisance and escape being culled by the white-coated might look for example at Poland or Malta.

So as well as the rich and those in private schools, there are other classes of people who may want to flee Starmer’s Britain: the old, the poor, the sick, the disabled.

Reposted from Bruges Group Blog

FRIDAY MUSIC: Doris Akers (Gospel music), by JD

Doris Mae Akers (May 21, 1923 – July 26, 1995) was an American gospel music composer, arranger and singer who is considered to be "one of the most underrated gospel composers of the 20th century [who] wrote more than 500 songs". Known for her work with the Sky Pilot Choir, she was inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2001.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doris_Akers

Doris Akers Everytime I Feel the Spirit and , I Believe

Doris Akers and The Akers Family Cedar Rapids, IA

Doris Akers - Sweet Jesus [Live]

Doris Akers & The Sky Pilot Choir - My Soul Is A Witness For The Lord

Lead Me, Guide Me, ELVIS Gospel, Doris Mae Akers, Sky Pilot Choir, Bill Gaither

Sweet, Sweet Spirit [Live]

FRIDAY MUSIC: The Transatlantic Sessions, by JD

At long last some TV repeats worth watching! This evening (Fri 27/9/24) on BBC4 from 9pm the evening will be devoted to repeats of The Transatlantic Sessions and I believe the Beeb are currently recording a new series of programmes for broadcast in 2025 so in anticipation of an evening beside the telly with a wee dram a small sample from the archives is this week's musical offering.

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"Celebrating the rich traditions connecting Scotland, Ireland and the US, and a regular Celtic Connections highlight, our Transatlantic Sessions feature an outstanding line-up of artists, as great guest musicians and a celebrated house band explore shared roots through original material and age-old songs.

“Captivating duo Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves return on banjo and fiddle, after winning Instrumental Group of the Year and Traditional Album of the Year at the 2023 Canadian Folk Music Awards.

“The house band, led by Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas, features renowned Celtic and roots musicians Phil Cunningham, John Doyle, Michael McGoldrick, John McCusker, Donald Shaw, James Mackintosh and Daniel Kimbro. “A phenomenal group of musicians. . . The synchronicity and tightness of the band was incredible. . . an evening of spectacular traditional music-making from both sides of the great ocean.” (The Arts Desk)…
https://www.transatlanticsessions.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Sessions

Aragon Mill

"Waterbound" - Dirk Powell and The Transatlantic Musicians

Julie Fowlis, Kim Carnie & Karen Matheson - An Ubhal As Àirde | Hoolie 2023 | BBC ALBA

Capercaillie - Ailein Duinn (Official Music Video - 1080p50 remaster)

Skipinnish at the BBC ALBA launch

Scrap National Insurance!

The typical employee’s wage slip is something of a con.

Here’s how it works. For earnings between £12,570 and £50,270 p.a. there are deductions of income tax at 20%, employee NIC at 12% but an additional 13.8% NIC is paid by the employer.

If someone on the average salary of c. £33,000 a year gets a raise of £1,000 the worker pays £320 in tax/NIC and the employer another £138. Thus in total it costs the salary department £1,138 to give the worker £680 net.

You would have the same result if you simply paid the worker £1,138 and charged income tax at 40.25%. From this point of view basic rate taxpayers are effectively Higher Rate taxpayers!

Back in 1910 a working class man might earn £50 - £100 per year depending on his level of skill. There was as yet no National Insurance Fund and the threshold for paying income tax was £160. So no tax and no NIC for the ordinary working person!

Once you were on a lot more - £700 a year - marginal income tax was a shilling in the pound i.e. 5%. In 1909 Lloyd George introduced a super-tax for the very wealthy on £5,000+ per annum: this was an extra 2.5%, bringing the total to 7.5% on margin.

It was a different world.

And in many ways a much worse world. Lives were shorter and illness more common - hundreds of thousands suffered from TB, for example. Certain industries were more likely to be hit by cyclical unemployment which would destroy the security of working class families, so that people who had joined friendly societies or taken out life insurance might have to default on their membership and policies. The edge of destitution was always close, with its threat of the workhouse or infirmary.

So let’s bless the memory of the ‘Welsh Wizard’ who in 1911 presented Parliament with a plan for a National Insurance Fund to tackle these miseries. His introductory speech is on Hansard here. The scheme is complex and brilliantly worked-out. We must admire the intellectual quality of a Debating Chamber that could take in the details and ask penetrating questions; do we have such a one now?

The initial actuarial calculations had called for some fifteen years of extra Government funding to cover the cost of admitting older lives to the new plan, after which the State could step back and the scheme would be wholly reliant on the contributions from workers and employers.

The plan was doomed. The Bill became law in 1912 and benefits began to be paid the next year; but in 1914 a Privy Council meeting declared war on Germany.

The surplus funds designed to take care of future obligations were raided by Lloyd George to help pay the enormous costs of the conflict. Inflation doubled by 1918; then there was a slump and a few years later the Great Depression, bringing a level of unemployment for which the Fund had not been designed. Generally the nation’s finances went haywire, so that in 1934 Britain defaulted on her huge wartime loans from the United States.

Then came World War Two, with more borrowings and the forfeiture of much of our gold and overseas business holdings. Yet the postwar Welfare State was established, broke though we were; how infinitely better would our position have been had we stayed out of both global conflicts?

These are the fruits of war.

Nevertheless, for a couple of decades the post-1945 National Insurance Fund rebuilt its surplus and the system moved to pay-as-you-go, funding benefits from current contributions, while maintaining significant reserves. However, expanding welfare programs and an ageing population saw the reserves dwindle to the status of a contingency fund; we are now on ‘money in, money out.’ Pensioners who say ‘we paid in and now we are being short-changed’ have to realise it is not like a Christmas club; they must accept what the State gives them and be thankful.

So let’s dispense with the National Insurance taradiddle and charge a uniform tax of around 40%.

One advantage is that ordinary people would enjoy a much bigger tax break on voluntary pension contributions.

As for State pensioners, let all of them have the full basic State pension, and the Winter Fuel Allowance, and the bus pass and 25% ‘widow’s discount’ on Council Tax and so on. Below a certain level of income they need all of it and let’s not squabble about marginal benefits and who gets what docked and isn’t it unfair. Let them pay the same tax rate as the working people sweating for a living, but adjust the income tax threshold so that they get all the State will give them plus some extra that they have saved for themselves; then, 40% or so above that limit.

It would work out so that for example someone on a total income that is £28,756 into the 40% tax bracket would be repaying the full cost of a basic State Pension which is currently £11,02.40. Someone less wealthy would be paying a proportion, naturally.

It’s the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Dressing Sir Keir

Lord Mandelson is said to be behind the gifted-clothes hoo-ha about Lord Alli, the PM and his wife. Nonsense: this is Hamlet without the Prince.

Casey Michael in the Mail on Sunday says that Tony Blair ‘is offering extensive advice to Sir Keir Starmer behind the scenes.’ Alastair Campbell, too - maybe Ali was behind Starmer’s headline-catching visit to Italy’s Giorgia Meloni ostensibly to learn from the right-winger how to deal with immigration. Mandelson - wasn’t it Blair who mused that maybe Mandy wasn’t as good as his sofa cabinet had thought?

Blair fancies himself as an expert on presentation, though his facial expressions and gestures belong in the am-dram classic ‘The Art Of Coarse Acting.’ When George W Bush was buttering him up to obtain Britain’s support for the illegal invasion of Iraq ‘Yo Blair’ presumed to tell the President of the United States how to comport himself, for example to ‘walk wide’ so as to seem more impressive. Bush played along pro tem; he is more psychologically astute and knows how to stroke a man’s vanity; yet what was on his mind was not Richard Burton but Halliburton.

The right-wing media are playing the clothes thing all wrong. Starmer is not materialistic or sensual. What normal youth would go to a Czech Communist work camp instead of lining up half a dozen quickies in one day on an 18-30 beach holiday as a friend of mine once did?

No, I stick to my armchair analysis: Starmer is high-functioning autistic. Mothers who have sons like this despair of getting their boys to change their clothes because of the associated sensory issues that make the lads want to stick with the familiar. Melinda Gates had to force her nerd husband to abandon dressing like a scruff, otherwise Bill would have carried on with the T-shirts.

These guys live in their heads. This is why they are addicted to making models, if not computer programs then human society. If Starmer were older he’d have watched the revolutionary-leftie 1976 TV series ‘Bill Brand’ (screened in the afternoons because it was too radical for prime time) thinking ‘If not now, when?’

Enter Blair the thespian ‘national treasure’, no longer castable as the juvenile lead but taking on the role of Starmer’s director, managing him as Barrage O’Bomber and co. have managed Biden and will (if Trump can be eliminated) manage the giggly airhead ‘joyous’ Kamala.

Starmer will take stage tips; he doesn’t care, so long as he gets us to curtain down. As to costume, the common people do like a show with high production values, don’t they?

Next to leave UK? Schoolchildren!

The average fees of a British boarding school are £37,000 a year. Adding twenty per cent VAT brings that up to £44,400.

In Portugal the cost would be about 30,000 euro = under £26,000. Children can attend established ‘international schools’ to learn in their own language.

But with the prospect of the Starmer regime lasting for a decade or more, enterprising private schools might consider setting up their own establishments in or near Lisbon, Porto or the Algarve, and transfer their teaching staff there. The expense of moving and rebuilding might be more than covered by the sale of school lands and buildings in the crazily overpriced UK property market.

Nice weather, good food and the opportunity to rub shoulders with the citizenry and become fluent in a foreign language.

And the chance to escape the G*d-awful British National Curriculum.

Regular, cheap short-haul direct flights each way. Assuming there’s any reason to return.