Thursday, 31 December 2020

BITTER MAY LASHES OUT


Theresa May used her contribution to the Brexit debate on Wednesday to eviscerate Keir Starmer, while taking a subtle swipe at her successor's agreement with the EU.  Wearing a face mask, she had glared at Starmer while he delivered his self-serving u-turn on Brexit, cynically aimed at those red wall seats he desperately needs to win back in 2024.  In stark contrast Boris was clearly having a whale of a time at Sir Squeaky's expense.

But then he achieved what she couldn't - or wouldn't - either by design or catastrophic miscalculation.  After all, if it weren't for her disastrous decision to go to the polls in 2017 things could have worked out very differently.  She had a small majority going into that election, but squandering it gave rise to the deadlock of 2019 and the failure to leave the EU as scheduled.  She may well blame Starmer for that now, but she is as much to blame as anyone.

Click below for her full speech at Wednesday's debate, and look out for Starmer's pathetic gesticulating as she quite rightly points out that he voted against her own agreement with the EU.

Wednesday, 30 December 2020

TRADE DEAL CLEARS COMMONS

The UK-EU trade agreement has cleared the House of Commons by a huge margin as MPs backed it 521-73.  It will now go to the House of Lords for a mammoth debate that could run late into the night.  127 peers are lined up to speak.

Despite speculation that a number of Labour MPs would vote against the bill, including Diane Abbott, only one did so - Abbott's hard left colleague Bell Ribeiro-Addy.  Abbott and twelve of her Socialist Campaign Group comrades abstained, along with a number of centrist Remainers, making 37 Labour rebels in total.  Three fairly minor resignations have been tendered from Starmer's front bench as a result of the abstentions.

Helen Hayes (Dulwich & West Norwood) was the most senior resignation.  The Shadow Cabinet Office Minister released a lengthy statement on her website, saying she couldn't vote for such a 'damaging deal' and called the rushed nature of proceedings a 'national disgrace'.

Florence Eshalomi (Vauxhall) resigned as an opposition whip and Tonia Antoniazzi (Gower) resigned as a Parliamentary Private Secretary, sharing her resignation letter on Twitter.  


The 521 ayes in favour were as follows:

Conservative - 359
Labour - 162

The 73 noes against were as follows:

Labour - 1 (Bell Ribeiro-Addy)
SNP - 44
Lib Dems - 11
DUP - 8
Plaid - 3
SDLP - 2
Alliance - 1
Green - 1
Independents - 2

There were two Conservative abstentions - Owen Paterson and John Redwood.

The full list of 36 Labour abstentions is as follows (SCG denotes member of the Socialist Campaign Group).

Diane Abbott (SCG)
Tonia Antoniazzi
Apsana Begum (SCG)
Olivia Blake (SCG)
Ben Bradshaw
Kevin Brennan
Richard Burgon (SCG)
Dawn Butler
Neil Coyle
Stella Creasy
Janet Daby
Geraint Davies
Peter Dowd
Rosie Duffield
Clive Efford
Florence Eshalomi
Mary Foy (SCG)
Helen Hayes
Meg Hillier
Rupa Huq
Barry Gardiner
Diana Johnson
Darren Jones
Clive Lewis (SCG)
Rebecca Long Bailey (SCG)
Siobhain McDonagh
John McDonnell (SCG)
Catherine McKinnell
Ian Mearns (SCG)
Kate Osamor
Andy Slaughter
Lloyd Russell-Moyle (SCG)
Zarah Sultana (SCG)
Nadia Whittome (SCG)
Beth Winter (SCG)
Mohammad Yasin

Jeremy Corbyn and Claudia Webbe - both currently suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party, but members of the SCG - also abstained.

Tuesday, 29 December 2020

SOUR-FACED SOUBRY


While most Labour MPs remain tight-lipped about the Brexit deal, there are countless more Remainers who are less reticent about sharing their bitter feelings.  Lord AdonisAlastair Campbell and Anna Soubry were among the disgruntled mob on Twitter, having secretly hoped for the no deal scenario they said would be the most disastrous outcome.  Now they and their ilk are scratching around for every possible negative aspect of the Brexit deal that is, whether any of us like it or not, the reality of things to come.

Soubry's colleagues in the short-lived disaster that was Change UK are mostly quiet, having moved on to pastures new or retired.  Unlike Chuka, Heidi Allen and co, Soubry is clearly incapable of letting go and continues to lash out at her old party and the process of delivering the Leave mandate.




Like the daft situation in which the SNP will vote against the deal on Wednesday, Soubry simultaneously derides no deal while supporting anyone who opposes the actual deal.  So while they all insist that no deal is the worst of all scenarios, they want to block the deal on the table and therefore leave without a deal.  The mind boggles.  Still, on the bright side, at least sour-faced Anna is one of those people who is happily promoting the wearing of a face muzzle.

PS. Anna's constituency voted Leave in 2016 and three years later voted to get rid of her too.  Her bitterness is not difficult to understand.

Sunday, 27 December 2020

THE WEEK IN CARTOONS 20-26 DEC 2020

20.12.20 - Andy Davey - Sunday Telegraph
20.12.20 - Kathryn Lamb, Sunday Times
20.12.20 - Kathryn Lamb, Sunday Times
20.12.20 - Morten Morland, Sunday Times
21.12.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph
21.12.20 - Peter Shrank, The Times
21.12.20 - Guy Venables, Metro
22.12.20 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph
22.12.20 - Charlie Mackesy via Twitter
22.12.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph
22.12.20 - Morten Morland, The Times
22.12.20 - Brian Adcock, Independent
23.12.20 - Morten Morland, The Times
23.12.20 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph
23.12.20 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph
24.12.20 - Kelvin Kallaugher, Baltimore Sun
24.12.20 - Andy Davey, Daily Telegraph
25.12.20 - Bob Moran, Lockdown Sceptics
26.12.20 - Andy Davey, Daily Telegraph
26.12.20 - Ben Jennings, i
26.12.20 - Bob Moran, Lockdown Sceptics
26.12.20 - Kipper Williams, Spectator
26.12.20 - Robert Thompson, Spectator

Thursday, 24 December 2020

VINE TROLLED BY TALKRADIO HOST

TalkRadio's Mike Graham served up one of his most damning tweets for the Beeb's Jeremy Vine earlier this week.  Vine tweeted asking if anyone could provide him with 'good news' to share and Graham cheekily replied that TalkRadio had been named 'station of the year'.


"Epic trolling" commented one Twitter user.  Indeed, and no riposte from Vine.

Unlike Radio 2 and the rest of the BBC propaganda machine, TalkRadio and its array of excellent hosts provides an open debate and plethora of views.  Lockdown criticism is not banned on TalkRadio and the likes of Mike Graham and Julia Hartley-Brewer regularly give airtime to sceptics - unlike the heavily censored broadcasters of the mainstream media.

Long live the Independent Republic of Mike Graham.

LARRY HORRIFIES JOURNALISTS

As hordes of press gathered outside Downing Street ahead of the PM's Brexit announcement there were shrieks of horror as Larry the cat pounced on an unsuspecting pigeon.  Click below for the footage.


Seeing as the pigeon escaped there must be some analogy with what we are about to witness.  The Brexit that got away?

THE FLU-COVID PARADOX

As we predicted last month, the miraculous disappearance of flu appears to be in full swing.  Various media outlets across the West are reporting that flu is in free fall, while at the same time reporting that Covid-19 is surging.  Some even have the audacity to suggest that mask wearing and social distancing are responsible for the dramatic decline in flu cases, while apparently failing to give people enough credit that they may well ask why then are masks and social distancing not stopping Covid.  After-all, isn't that why we are being told to do those things in the first place?

Another explanation for the vanishing of the flu is that there is a big uptake in people taking the flu vaccine.  Nonsense.  Most people, especially older people who have been scared out of their wits by broadcast media, are not venturing anywhere near medical facilities.  That's where the virus and certain death awaits, apparently.

Of course the real reason for the disappearance of the flu is so that its thousands of annual deaths can instead be attributed to coronavirus.  In boosting Covid deaths governments can, for whatever reason, ramp up the fear and justify ever more draconian measures to clamp down on civil liberties - beginning with the utter humiliation of cancelling Christmas.

While many Western countries took a harder line than the UK, what was done here was in many ways far more cruel.  Our governments announced a 'dispensation' from lockdown measures that would enable families to gather over the festive period, then took it away with just a few days notice.  While many families will undoubtedly ignore that vile diktat, countless others will obey the new order and in doing so extend the misery for desperate loved ones who were craving the social contact that Christmas would have offered.

Meanwhile, yesterday's government update on coronavirus revealed a huge upward curve on testing (see below).  A record 453,903 tests were carried out, apparently.  It's not clear why the dramatic daily increase, but it is probably in part to compensate for a lack of testing over Christmas.  Testing will undoubtedly be ramped up over the next few months in order to find more cases and to justify the continued lockdown of our society.  Rishi Sunak has just extended the furlough scheme (again) until the end of April, that should tell you everything you need to know about your chances of freedom in spring 2021.

Wednesday, 23 December 2020

HITCHENS SCHOOLS LITTLE OWEN

The Guardian's Owen Jones rocked up to his Zoom call with the Mail on Sunday's Peter Hitchens arrogantly expecting a scalp and ended up on the receiving end of a lockdown lesson.  Central to their debate was the question of whether lockdowns were effective and, in particular, whether or not the initial spring lockdown was primarily responsible for bringing down infections.  Lockdown enthusiast Little Owen refused to concede the argument and the pair went round in circles until a final monologue from Hitchens laid bare the dire consequences that will weigh heavily on this country for years to come.

Watch the best bits below.


Hitchens is spot on, of course.  It may not have dawned on everyone to begin with - BTLP included - but sooner or later the grievance and anger will engulf millions, including some of the most ardent lockdown enthusiasts of today.

Tuesday, 22 December 2020

LABOUR 'WRESTLER' TO STAND DOWN


Hard left Labour councillor Tosh McDonald (pictured, above) says he will not stand for re-election next year, assuming elections proceed that is.  McDonald holds a seat on Doncaster Council, but says he is standing down following a purge of Corbyn loyalists.  Constituency Labour Party groups have been banned from discussing Corbyn's suspension, leading to a series of additional suspensions of activists who dared to speak up in Jezza's defence.  McDonald says 'good friends and comrades' have been among those suspended.

If he looks familiar, that's because he featured in an epic and very popular meme from 2015 (see below, not one of ours).


McDonald was the president of the ASLEF trade union back then and remains a staunch Corbyn supporter.  The biker once claimed that he set his alarm clock an hour early so he 'could hate Thatcher some more' and also compared moderate Labour MP Hilary Benn to Adolf Hitler.  More recently he appeared on video in front of a Soviet flag no less.

With people like Tosh around it's no wonder comrade Corbyn got thumped in 2019.

FREEDOM PASSES BACK ON AGENDA


Dystopian 'freedom passes' are back on the agenda according to a report in the Daily Mail.  Of course we knew they were never off the table, despite claims to the contrary by Boris and some of his ministers.  The cat was let out of the bag by the newly appointed vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi who said last month that the government was 'looking at the technology'.  He was referring to the creation of an apartheid system in which people who have not received the vaccine will not be able to work and move freely in society.

"We are looking at the technology.  And, of course, a way of people being able to inform their GP that they have been vaccinated.  But, also, I think you'll probably find that restaurants and bars and cinemas and other venues, sports venues, will probably also use that system - as they have done with the app.  I think that in many ways the pressure will come from both ways, from service providers who'll say 'look, demonstrate to us that you have been vaccinated'".  
Nadhim Zahawi, Vaccine Minister

This disturbing notion has no place in a democratic society and the fact that it is being proposed by a supposedly 'conservative' government begs belief.  Zahawi's colleague James Cleverly later refused to deny that the vaccine card would be used in such a way during an interview with Kay Burley earlier this month.  This was after Boris and Michael Gove had confirmed that there was no such plan.

Clearly, as if we didn't know already, the UK government cannot be trusted on this.

The contradictory messages boosted a petition on the government website, resulting in a parliamentary debate on December 14.  The response from government was thus: "There are currently no plans to place restrictions on those who refuse to have any potential Covid-19 vaccine".  The key word there is 'currently'.


Now it seems that the freedom pass will not necessarily be related to the vaccine itself.  The Mail has discovered that two contracts were awarded last month - one for a 'Covid-19 Certification/Passport MVP' and another for a 'Personal QR Code'.  According to a Department of Health source the plan is to introduce a freedom pass that will allow people who have tested negative for the virus to move and work freely.  This would take the form of a QR code on the individual's smartphone.

Asides from the disturbing libertarian issues with this, what about people who don't have a smartphone?  Many older people do not possess a smartphone or the means to book a test online.  Is this fake conservative government going to discriminate against and bar OAPs from the pub because they are not part of the globalist tech community?

Sunday, 20 December 2020

THE WEEK IN CARTOONS 13-19 DEC 2020

13.12.20 - Matt Pritchett, Sunday Telegraph
14.12.20 - Graeme Keyes, Irish Daily Mail
13.12.20 - Nick Newman, Sunday Times
14.12.20 - Morten Morland, The Times
14.12.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph
15.12.20 - Morten Morland, The Times
15.12.20 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph
15.12.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph
15.12.20 - Richard Jolley, Private Eye
15.12.20 - Pete Dredge, Private Eye
16.12.20 - Graeme Keyes, Irish Daily Mail
16.12.20 - Paul Thomas, Daily Mail
16.12.20 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph
16.12.20 - Christian Adams, Evening Standard
16.12.20 - Peter Brookes, The Times
16.12.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph
17.12.20 - Bob Moran, Daily Telegraph
18.12.20 - Guy Venables, Metro
18.12.20 - Christian Adams, Evening Standard
18.12.20 - Bob Moran, Daily Telegraph
19.12.20 - Bob Moran, Daily Telegraph
19.12.20 - Nick Newman, Spectator
19.12.20 - Stephen Hutchinson, Spectator
19.12.20 - Paul Thomas, Daily Mail
19.12.20 - Ben Jennings, i
19.12.20 - Bob Moran via Twitter