Unrobing the Emperors and other matters of concern. An author's blog - begun in January 2016 - revealing political deception in the UK - paving The Road to Corbyn (2016, Matador), my updating of John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. Also updates on my work in progress: Dying To Know.
If you're reading this, you are likely to have also read some at least of my previous accounts of the UK's deadly mishandling of this war on the coronavirus. Press here for the first of such blogposts that referenced my role as a contemporary prophet, a Jeremiah Mark2.
A Hebrew prophet imagined - perhaps Jeremiah
Reading yesterday's 'i' newspaper prompted me to compose this blogpost. The 'i''s science correspondent, Tom Bawden, had three articles printed in the newspaper - and their content rings the alarm bells for me.
On p.10, Bawden's piece carries the headline: 'UK 'at increased risk' of vaccine-resistant variant developing' and it references the work of researchers at the Institute of Science in Austria who are claiming that the lifting of all lockdown restrictions, including the use of face masks and social distancing, on so-called 'Freedom Day' on 19 July has put the UK at an "elevated risk" of a new variant. The Austrian researchers further point out that other measures to help curb transmissions and jab-evading variants should include:
increased and widespread testing;
rigorous contact tracing;
high rates of medical sequencing to obtain genetic information;
and travel restrictions
Thanks to theguardian.com for this timely cartoon reminder that Freedom Day is increasingly looking like an only too predictable sick joke
Well, the performance of the UK misgovernment in testing and tracing, and travel restrictions has been lamentable and directly contributed to our death toll of 152,000 and more. The Austrian study found that
I have been a member of CND since at least 2013 when I found I could once again afford the membership dues. Before that, my membership had fluctuated with my fortunes ever since 1965 when I first became a unilateralist. Manufacturing nuclear weaponry may make a lot of money for a few and provide jobs for a few among the many - but it is an obscene business which becomes even more ghastly when you find yourself a citizen of a state that is committed to their use as a deterrent. The policy of deterrence has worked, they say - to which the answer is that we have got away by the skin of our teeth from an only too imaginable nuclear holocaust in the aftermath of the atomic bomb explosions at Hiroshima and Nagaski in 1945. No policy should ever be sustained on a wing and a prayer when the fate of humanity is at stake.
Nagasaki nuclear bomb explosion - 9 August 1945
Occasionally, a retired member of the top brass in the military surfaces to reveal his conversion to sanity. He - interesting that the top brass are male - announces that nuclear weaponry and its threatened use is immoral and stupid. But the world scarcely notices and our policies that have been developed around nuclear arms remain largely unchanged. There has been some reduction in the number of warheads but we still have enough to send humanity into oblivion.
Part of the devastation of Nagasaki after the bomb exploded
And of course we - the Brits - don't even control this weaponry. Do some research and you will discover that we are a puppet of the government in the United States in matters nuclear. That is the elephant in the room that our governments since 1945 have never wanted the people of this country to identify. This post, written by me in 2017 - press here - tells you more about this US control over the UK but google the subject for more evidence of our puppet-state status. Take care, though, to steer your way through the
Double Down News is creating the future of journalism. That is their own proud claim. It needs to be true because the future of our civilization and its liberal values - the way of life I and others treasure - depends on the kind of messages that Double Down News communicates reaching more and more people.
George Monbiot is a regular contributor to their news service and he is one of my 21st century prophets. The Israelites needed their prophets. Their words of warning and admonition filled their holy scriptures. They are still worth reading. We need our prophets. We need the likes of the Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg (2003- ) and the London born British political and environmental activist George Monbiot (1963- ). They are our messengers of doom, if we do not act together to thwart the powerful and wealthy few who will not mend their ways.
Greta Thunberg speaking at the World Economic Forum in 2021
George Monbiot - the way of the prophet has never been easy
Below are ten minutes of George Monbiot on Capitalism in Space.
They may help you get an even sharper focus on the meaning of life. That after all is the job of
This blogpost gives you two perspectives on the pandemic in the UK in 2020:
the view from the inside of No.10, courtesy of Dominic Cummings who was the PM's special advisor until November last year
the view from concerned journalists expressed in newspaper articles from June to September and collected by me at the time.
I reread these newspaper cuttings last Tuesday, 20 July 2021, the same day as Dominic Cummings' BBC interview with Laura Kuenssberg in which she seemed determined to undermine his credibility - and failed. The dirt he is dishing on Johnson is designed to take the focus away from Cummings' own culpability in the herd immunity project - but the words and actions he ascribes to Boris Johnson seem only too probable.
They were in it together - Cummings is in the know - the dirt he dishes is really true.
First, the dirt from Cummings on Johnson in that BBC interview (my thanks to Koser Saeed of Spotlight News for this summary):
Johnson was not taking the threat from the coronavirus seriously until late March when he ordered the first lockdown. He had expected business to continue as normal, cabinet ministers were still meeting face to face, and Johnson still expected to see the Queen in person each week.
Plan A for 'handling' the COVID outbreak was to pursue a herd immunity agenda. Johnson did not want the country to go into the first lockdown and he said so repeatedly at various meetings.
Then, after the first wave had passed and Johnson returned to work - having recovered from COVID himself - he seemed at first convinced that it had been a good idea to lockdown. But it did
I had no sooner published my blogpost this morning in praise of Dawn Butler, using Skwawkbox material, when another SKWAWKBOX post arrived. On reading it, I decided to share its rich but disturbing fruits. Here, for you to digest, is the historical trail of the Labour plot to usurp the socialist challenge of Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters:
Jeremy Corbyn in Cornwall at Heartlands on the campaign trail in 2017
Astonishing thread pulls together five years of Labour right sabotage and war to destroy Corbyn and the left
Superb summary thread by @iwaslabour distills betrayal by so-called ‘moderates’ on full display
An astonishing Twitter thread by a former Labour member has distilled five years of sabotage and betrayal by the laughably-termed ‘moderate’ wing of the party to ensure that a left-wing Corbyn government was prevented despite the widespread popularity of both the former Labour leader and his policies – and their war on the whole left since they succeeded.
The Labour right preferred to sentence the whole country to hard right government – with horrific consequences for the poor and vulnerable and their children along with those killed during the pandemic – than see a left leader succeed and confirm their political bankruptcy:
Explore my blogposts over nearly two years and you will see I have been consistently nailing this man who masquerades as prime minister for what he is - a liar and a rogue who is now responsible for the unnecessary deaths of around 150,000 British citizens. Engels called such behaviour 'social murder'.
Last year, the Leader of the Opposition, Keir Starmer, failed to rise to the occasion. He declined to call out the prime minister; he colluded in the policies that amounted to the pursuit of herd immunity without a vaccine. Eventually, Starmer's voice became critical but by then who was listening? And the critique was weak.
This week, a Labour MP, Dawn Butler, called out the prime minister for what he is - a liar - but this you are not allowed to do in the House of Commons. She had to withdraw from the chamber for the day. Not a peep of support followed from her leader, Keir Starmer.
Dawn Butler speaking truth to power in the House of Commons last Thursday
But today, SKWAWKBOX revealed that Labour party members will receive a begging email from HQ in which the praise for Dawn Butler and the condemnation of Boris Johnson flows in full fashion. SKWAWKBOX holds the Labour Party in contempt for such hypocrisy. So do I. As you know from my
It was Bastille Day - July 14 - last Wednesday when I cancelled my monthly direct debit to the Labour Party and filled in the online form that asked me why I was taking this action. I like the association with that revolutionary day in 1789 but I must admit it was accidental. My movement to the point of departure had been gathering pace for months as I realized there was there now little to no chance of a leadership challenge to the new leader, Keir Starmer, who has emerged as a New Labour man through and through. Louise had resigned from the Labour Party months ago. Here's a link to my website, if you are interested in the story of my last period as a Labour Party member - press here.
I had filled in the Labour Party online form with these words:
'I am a socialist - this is no longer my party.'
The automatic response read: 'Be in touch shortly'.
Yesterday, the next automatic response appeared: 'Did you make a mistake?', followed by lots of stuff about what the party stood for.
A clip from BBC News - what were you thinking, Sir Keir?
Over the last two days, I have been following the Daily Mirror story that I provide below. It confirms my sense that people such as me are toxic in this New Labour Party, determined to reshape itself after the shock of five socialist years with Jeremy Corbyn as the elected leader:
Keir Starmer set to expel 1,000 far left Labour members in four ‘poisonous’ groups
EXCLUSIVE Labour Against The Witchhunt and Socialist Appeal are among the groups to be proscribed by the party's ruling body as the leader bids to stamp out "toxic extremism"
"Keir Starmer is preparing to purge far left Labour members part of "poisonous" campaign groups in a bold confrontation with operators loyal to Jeremy Corbyn.
Labour 's ruling National Executive Committee will be asked to proscribe four "toxic" organisations which promote communism, claim anti-Semitism allegations are overblown and demand whips restore Mr Corbyn as a Labour MP.
Those to be banned include Resist and Labour Against the Witchhunt, which claim anti-Semitism allegations were politically motivated, and Labour In Exile, which expressly welcomes expelled or suspended members.
The openly communist Socialist Appeal will also become a forbidden group.
The Mirror understands anyone found to be a member of any group will be automatic expelled from the Labour Party.
The plans on the agenda at the NEC meeting on Tuesday are expected to pass and more than 1,000 members could be "auto-excluded" as a result.
One Labour source said: "Under Corbyn those from the far left fringes with poisonous beliefs and warped world-views were welcomed into the party. Keir is right to stamp out anti-Semitism and toxic extremism and get the party back into the decent mainstream of Labour values.
The move sets the stage for factional warfare at the Labour Party conference in Brighton as Mr Starmer (sic) attempts to stamp his authority on the party."
So much for the Daily Mirror story - what follows is a more local Cornish story set in the near-by constituency of Truro and Falmouth. SKWAWKBOX takes up the tale:
Labour’s all-out war on members’ democratic rights
Labour has launched yet another assault on local member democracy – and at a national scale – in its all-out war on its members.
This time, the tip of the iceberg has emerged in the Truro and Falmouth constituency, with
