Today let’s talk about the strange coincidence of this Russell Brand sex scandal swamping our Westminster MSM while another scandal isn’t even mentioned in passing. For the record, see the compilation of this morning’s printed MSM editions’ front pages, headlined “Newspaper headlines: Fifth Brand allegation and Starmer’s Brexit pledge” (link). Forget about that Starmer ‘pledge’: this refers to one article only, in the DM and it’s about Tories being upset (link).
Interestingly, there’s a report in The Times about this ‘pledge’. One of their former Brussels correspondents has apparently been happy to get back into that swamp, reviving all his former ‘sources’. Under the headline “EU bridles at Keir Starmer’s plan to seek ‘much better’ Brexit deal” we read that:
“[…] senior figures in London and Brussels have offered little hope of a “quick win” for Starmer, saying that the EU was wary of re-opening the Brexit debate, even with a new government in Westminster. They also warned that the review of the Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) was more about “housekeeping” than reimagining the UK and EU’s relationship, and that any move to negotiate the deal would need the backing of both the European Commission and the 27 member states. “Unless Starmer is prepared to take a quantum leap and change Labour’s position on membership of the customs union then any renegotiation will really be not much more than a rebranding exercise,” one EU source said.” (link, paywalled)
This ‘quantum leap’ of which Brussels speaks looks to me like a veiled demand to Rejoin. I’m not sure yet if this is Brussels playing hard to get, if it’s Brussels telling Starmer they have other things to do right now, like dealing with ‘poor refugees’. Perhaps Brussels will tell Starmer to show ‘good will’ and promise to take in yon ‘poor refugees.
This brings me to the scandal not mentioned in polite circles in Westminster or the MSM: the invasion of Europe, via Italy, by using the stepping stone of the small island Lampedusa. The German paper “Die Welt” reports (my emphasis):
“The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen looked very harmonious on Sunday – despite a completely chaotic environment. Together they visited the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa to get an idea of the exceptional situation that prevailed there after more than 9000 migrants arrived last week. Side by side, they finally held a press conference at which von der Leyen announced a ten-point plan to get the situation under control. In 2023, migration across the Mediterranean doubled compared to the previous year: Since the beginning of the year, around 127,000 people have already arrived in Italy by sea.” (paywalled link, machine translated)
Do watch Paul Joseph Watson’s video to get a taste of what this invasion looks like ‘on the ground’, and then read what dear Ursula had to say:
“At the conference, von der Leyen not only said that irregular immigration is a challenge that needs “a European answer.” She also called on the other EU countries to accept some of the migrants arriving in Italy. Italian newspapers described the words of von der Leyens and her visit as a “gift to Meloni”, as they are clear signs of assistance that are particularly important for the head of government in domestic policy.” (paywalled link, machine translated)
Allegedly some of those ‘poor refugees’, when interviewed, said they’d plan to go to the UK. So if they don’t come via dinghies but via a ‘planned distribution’ by the EU, will Starmer take them in and beat his chest about having ‘crushed’ people trafficking? You bet he will! There also this:
“The right-wing nationalist Meloni was also elected last year thanks to her promise to “fight” illegal migration. But then the exact opposite happened: Since Meloni ruled, the number of people who came to Italy doubled and the Prime Minister ran the risk of losing the approval of her voters. Von der Leyen could now save her from this if she clearly names migration as a pan-European problem with which Italy should not be left alone.” (paywalled link, machine translated)
Odd, isn’t it, how Italian politicians like Ms Meloni and Mr Salvini before her, always labelled ‘extreme ultra hard far right’, practically fascists and definitely anti-EU, are suddenly being overwhelmed by floods of ‘poor refugees’ – as if the EU is calling them to heel, as if they’ve been allowed to play a bit before the Brussels boots come down. Similar ‘warnings’ happened for Spain or Greece. Funnily enough they never seem to manage to land on French Mediterranean beaches,.
That’s all I have for today. I predict that at some stage in a Starmer government we’ll be told that homeowners who have spare bedrooms will have to take in ‘poor refugees’, making it mandatory. Have a good day.
Yet another report on the plans of the evil globalists:
https://www.freecitizen.uk/index.php/list/categories/free-citizen/2619-worldwide-digital-ids-and-currencies-are-go
And what an opportunity such meetings offer for those with the necessary means, but where are they?
Just read a couple of chapters of the book by Peter Foster – Brexit. What went wrong?
I did not realise this was a fairy tale saying we should have remained. . . despite (not yet implemented) Brexit.
I was looking at a very revealing video of the migrant crisis in New York City earlier, it is a fallen city. The thousands of military aged men sleeping in the streets, the squalor and piles of human feces everywhere. It isn’t just New York, it’s cities all over the US, Europe and Britain.
Immigration is being used as a weapon against us, the globalists will not stop until the West is no more and white people are just about extinct. It doesn’t matter which politicians we think that we’ve elected, they’re all on the same globalist bandwagon.
We only have two choices now: one is to pass quietly into the night, two is to get organised to fight back. We don’t have a second amendment like they do in the US but we can’t afford to let that stop us.
The thing is, for years I’ve listened to you all discuss various political parties and all the while things have gotten worse, much worse. There are no political solutions, politicians sold us out a long time ago, they keep fobbing us off with promises but the invasion continues unabated.
flyer- A couple of days ago I chanced upon an interesting piece of kit for the fightback.
ebay uk – ”Any Bow Rapid Fire Magazine 6 Arrows continuous fire Fits Any Traditional Bow”
The small video (left hand side of small pictures) shows it in operation.
Flyer: To change anything, first concentrate on the basics.
1 Microscopically we may claim (UK) Democracy, but we’re nowhere near. If UKIP had a real claim to democracy. They’d be the only Brit org that could. That could put them on the top of the heap morally immediately
2. If UKIP had a focussed organisation, they could efficiently, advance. .Until then, stagger about hopelessly , The useless can hope.
3. The same is true of most the right wing hopefuls. and their sad little parties.
4. I wait to see how the localisation of Reform goes. eg Reform Derby ( and presumably Ltd. )
etc.
Why I bother I don’t know. But solutions exist.
I’ll bet my bottom dollar that whilst Labour is openly talking to the EU of renegotiation of this and that the Tories will be doing so in private.
Not a fag paper to put between them in the treachery stakes.
I don’t think it is a foregone conclusion that Starmer will win the next general election. Ok, his party is ahead in the opinion polls now by quite a margin, but with all this drip fed release of their potential policies like coming to some sort of agreement with the European Union to solve the English Channel migrant crisis, whereby we would have to take 120,000 migrants every year via legal means, and his government perhaps re-negotiating with the European Union over our relationship where would we would forge closer trading relations with them with perhaps free movement of people and single market rules being re-introduced, faster targets towards Net Zero with all the restrictions that that would entail, there is a good chance that his current opinion poll lead will be whittled away to the point whereby some other party will be in the lead. Hopefully, that will not be the current Conservative Party who are unconservative as they come and are electorally finished. We can’t rely on Reform UK as nobody knows what they really stand for and furthermore are currently stuck on between five to seven percent in the opinion polls, besides which Tice is a completely ineffective leader and Farage still appears content to shout from the sidelines from the safety and warmth of a tv/radio studio to a fairly limited audience. The other centre right parties are so far off the political scale that they will make no impact at all. So, all we are left with is the possibility of a new political party in the mind of Dominic Cummings which so far has got no further than his Substack which I am signed up to. However, I still say Farage is a dark horse and is coming under increasing pressure from many quarters to start a new party or lead an existing one. On the other hand perhaps too he could be involved in what Cummings has in mind………
I agree Starmer is not a done deal. Polls can shift once an election is real. At present the Tories are doing a lamentable job attacking and exposing Labour. Perhaps they are keeping their powder dry.
Regrettably, UKIP, Heritage, English Democrats etc will not be players. Reform UK hope the electorate will vote for the charisma free CEO of a limited company. As 2015 showed, 12.5% is the limit to the risk the electorate will take with an insurgent party.
A return by Farage could affect the electoral calculus but only to make the election less predicable. He is tied by his 50% of shares in Reform UK, and a formal position as honorary president, so I don’t see him coming back. He will be too busy in the US supporting Trump.
An entirely new Cummings party will go the way of other new parties just before an election. How Labour do in Scotland will matter as will the Daily Mail’s views at the time.
A hung parliament might be good result for the Tories. A majority of one or two might be possible if they get their act together and Starmer continues to show how out of touch he is.
Next May will be an advanced test as we try to get rid of Khan.
Do you have a UKIP candidate standing in 2024 in your constituency Colin?
Jake……….I returned to the UK Independence Party in March this year having resigned from the party in 2019, and have become involved at regional level. However the party is shot to pieces in terms of membership and will take quite a lot of hard work to get it back to any semblance of how it used to be, and it is uncertain what the financial situation presently is but this might become clearer at the national conference later in the Autumn. In my particular constituency there are only six members including me, whereas in 2019 the constituency membership stood at 130, down from near 160 members in its heyday. There isn’t a GE candidate as of yet, and probably the only person who want to do it is myself, but because the branch was dissolved there is no longer any money to pay the required £650 deposit apart from my own pocket, and to be honest I don’t have £650 to chuck away. It would make more sense for the party to put up a limited number of candidates nationwide at the next general election rather than trying to put up an indeterminate number so that what limited activists there presently are can concentrate on those seats which are deemed to be priority seats. For instance, I would prefer to help out someone like Anne Marie Waters the UK Independence Party candidate in Hartlepool where the party has got a higher profile and more likely to do well, than say a seat in South East England. There is no point to putting up paper candidates at a general election and doing no work on the ground. And you can’t fight a general election campaign without activists, simple as…
The collapse of the branch network/membership is a huge handicap. It would indeed make sense for UKIP to just fight a few of the more promising seats. The party’s parlous finances allow it to tick over (for now) but not really do anything.
Membership continues to decline: £129,430 (2020), £86,614 (2021), and £70,193 as at Dec 2022. Cash in the bank was £26,152 in 2020, but is now £4,491. If membership continues to decline then insolvency is a real prospect.
I meet quite a few ex-kippers on the political trail around London. None are coming back. I shall hang on until the party’s probable death as there is no other proper party (Reform UK is a limited company under a CEO and Reclaim is a vanity project etc etc). UKIP is the only right of centre party actually deserving to be called a party.
Helena Windsor, of this parish, alleged that UKIP is a corrupt cabal (or something to that effect) but was unable to substantiate her claim on challenge. It was something she “just knew”. (Divine revelation?). It is an attitude I encounter in many ex-kippers, and a legacy of the Batten/Braine era in particular though Bolton’s attempt to re-write the constitution was a source of fracture as was Anne-Marie flouncing out. Whether her return will help turn things round has yet to be seen.
The reality is that parties depend on donors. The Tories and Labour have big donors. UKIP used to but doesn’t anymore.
SY Maybe H Windsor and others know something but don’t dare say it for fear of being sued. Katie Hopkins was going to join but backed out pretty quick: why?
Thanks for that Colin. I am still a member of course and like Stout I shall see it prosper again or quietly pass away. Maybe there are about 3 or at the maximum 4 UKIP members in our constituency which is not enough to form a group. There are though stirrings of a UKIP revival in some urban areas which is encouraging. Any branches formed would be a city branch for example which would cover maybe 4 constituencies. I shall be donating monies to Anne Marie Waters campaign up in Hartlepool.
Some time ago, I informed that there was about a group of about 20 Reform members around here who have got themselves organised and have now got candidates nominated for 2024 in adjacent constituencies. The encouraging thing is that they seek to emulate Reform Derby. I have heard that there are quite a few groupings of Reform UK that are seeking to emulate Reform Derby. So, for example a Reform group based in Staffordshire towns could get together and call themselves Reform Staffs or if there is a grouping in a smaller population county they could call themselves Reform Durham.By having a loose affiliation with the party, which I can only guess is because like me, they simply don’t trust Farage and Tice, they can ride the brand name as long as they can and because of its loose association UKIP, SDP, Reclaim and Heritage members are more likely to engage as activists with an independent Reform grouping if they don’t have enough of their own challenger party candidates to form a branch or put up a candidate.
I would add that maybe this development can do no harm to our dream ticket of bringing together all centre Right challenger parties for the 2024 GE by demonstrating to the current leaders we the activists are prepared to help each other in the what could turn out to be the last civilised attempt at halting the fast growing bureaucratic tyranny in our midst.
Betting
Next UK General Election Most Seats
– Labour 1/6; Conservative 5/1
– Reclaim Party 100/1; Liberal Democrat 250/1
Government after the Next General Election
– Labour Majority 1/2; Labour Minority 7/2
– Labour – Lib Dem Coalition 7/1; Conservative Minority 8/1
Solving the migrant crisis in Europe requires solving corruption in numerous African countries that has prevented economic development, undoing the creation of Libya as a failed state, and removing the pull factors of European social security benefits and any right to remain in Europe. Von der Leyen’s “European answer” is no answer at all. Her dispersal policy merely delays the crisis until each EU country accumulates Lampedusa levels of migrants. Current levels of migration are already fuelling right of centre parties. Schengen will eventually break down, the composition of he European Parliament will change – slightly next year but significantly by 2029 – and it will too late. Starmer cosying up to the EU and participating in EU quotas is just madness. The UK needs to consider ending the common travel area with Ireland not joining a Schengen for migrants. Here and in the EU responses are and will be too little, too late. Malmo, Cologne 2015 anyone? It’s now 2023.
I see Brand is losing his considerable YouTube income. I’ve never paid attention to him ever since 2008 (or before) when he and Jonathan Ross played their ‘prank’ on Andrew Sachs in a pre-recorded show that the BBC allowed to go out, the editor at the time finding it ‘funny’. There is starting to be some examination of how the media enabled Brand. I would add, somewhat controversially, that girls/women are implicated themselves. Mores change. It is now considered that being drunk precludes being able to consent. In the sixties and seventies this was not the case. The groupie phenomenon was a feature of rock ‘stars’ and boundaries were different. One can imagine that by today’s standards there will have been incidents that would merit rock stars being cancelled. But even just a few years ago there were women calling the BBC to complain that Brand had not called them back after they had slept with him. Once can see the behaviour of women toward Brand, a continuation of the groupie phenomenon applied now to media celebrities, as contributing to his lack of boundaries. None of this excuses him. He merely failed to recognise and keep up with changing mores. At one time the press had him as “shagger of the year”. Today, you can lose your job for a 3 second kiss (Luis Rubiales). Women who sought out shagger of the year were surprised by his entitlement and lack of boundaries?
The Met are investigating (but not the LA police). If Brand ends up in court then the evidence is likely to be probative. But remember Kevin Spacey. Historic ‘he said, she said’ is harder to prosecute here than in the US. Brand is probably going to be the media and middle class blood letting to deflect facing their own enabling. They created a culture in which women genuinely abused felt unable to come forward. The BBC, C4, The Sun et al are also in the dock.
Last para: I hope our local Dim Dum County Councillor is the first to have to take refugees in his spare bedrooms: he and his wife (who never I believe, ever had kids) occupy a great big house that looks as if it has about 4 bedrooms. The pair of them were outside the council offices with placards I was told, campaigning for more refugees in the borough. Time now to put their money where their mouth is.
More likely though, they’ll doubtless downsize first.
Seems that politics is broken beyond repair everywhere; here’s a couple more UK contributions:
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/09/18/gb-news-show-broke-impartiality-rules-for-not-including-left-wing-views-ofcom-rules-thats-rich/
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/09/18/nhs-to-spend-millions-creating-woke-diversity-and-inclusion-jobs/
Of course there is much more, all too often financed by our taxes.