fahrenheit451:232

A year ago Guido Fawkes  published a map of the constituencies with the most signatories for a petition opposing Trump's visit to Britain.
The map from Press Association shows that 15 of the top 20 constituencies with the most signatories in favour of cancelling Trump’s state visit are in London. The rest of the country doesn’t seem bothered, other than the student towns of Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Brighton and Edinburgh.
One year on from the visit that never eventuated,and it's all back on again.Apparently; albeit with no firm date as yet.
This means that the uni student common room slackers aka  SWP /Momentum /Green heroic vanguard of proletarian consciousness will be repainting their placards and practising their litanies of otiose cant and vacuous platitudes which they'll seek to deploy on the day itself.
Pseudo-moralistic posturing ( aka virtue-signalling ) ,will once again be to the fore in the ever shrinking realm of MSM  public discourse.All the visceral worthwhile polemic will be on social media as usual and which MSM still doesn't quite get yet.
Metropolitan undergrad,middle class, hipsters purposefully dressed down to be conspicuously inconspicuous believing themselves to be camouflaged as ordinary folk will assemble in their termite swarms in all the usual places.
Quite why " they " even bother to manifest such faux-outrage remains a mystery to any rational person,especially those who have a grasp of  Realpolitik .
Welcome Mr.President! Hope you have a nice visit.

fahrenheit451:231

By 1945 ,even the most ardent Nazi fanatic  realised that the game was up.
Shortly after the War ,those leading figures who had escaped the Noose ,such as Speer claimed to have opposed Hitler's policy against the Jews and had in fact begun plotting to overthrow Hitler himself ! Yeah ,right ,whatever.
The original Nazi inspired  " dream " of a European Union , ( yes it really was theirs first ) is even now going the way of the Third Reich.
And what is clearly hastening its cataclysmic demise is the shibboleth " freedom of movement of labour. " A horrendously stupid and worthless idea let alone sentiment,but there they go getting all multiculti as if it was somehow intrinsically  " better " or more " worthy " or expressed some innate,deep positive human condition. It never did.
The make-belief " left " as much as the make-belief " right " have jointly wasted the past 70 years arguing the wrong question. And the smug ,kleptocratic Ruling Elites have profited from exploiting this divisive non-sequitur to the max. writing in the Daily Torynoncegraph  on January 24,2016  Executive Chairman of Capital Economics ,Roger Bootle sums it up thus :- ( pay attention ,this is a capitalist telling you how the real version of The Big Con functions )
But the world has changed. The manufacture and trading of goods has become a smaller part of our GDP, while tariff barriers have come down dramatically around the world. The free movement of labour is now the most important of the three freedoms – and it poses serious issues for the EU.
It has become so important because of two major factors: first, the huge expansion of the EU to the east, including countries with much lower standards of living, whose people, therefore, have a strong economic incentive to move; second, the mass of people outside the union who want to get in.
The onrush of people from outside is due to the breaking down of states in the Middle East and Africa, the increased allure of the life apparently on offer in the EU, and the inexorable rise in the populations of these regions.
Over the next few decades, the population of Africa and the Middle East is set to soar.
As a result, today’s migration issue isn’t about the allocation of resources; it isn’t even primarily about economics at all. It is about the ability and willingness of people, cultures and institutions to absorb large numbers of people from the outside, often with very different values, beliefs and traditions.
What is the answer?
Clearly although the Ruling Elites could all comfortably relocate en masse to the Cayman Islands and no-one would notice ,they aren't searching for an answer right now or ever. To all those who have never experienced it and wondered what Schadenfreude is ,well this is getting to be as good as it ever gets. I'm loving it already.

fahrenheit451:230

A couple of days ago at RUSI aka the Royal United Services Institute, in a much trailed speech approved by Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson , Chief of the General Staff,General Sir Nick Carter stirred the proverbial international diplomatic merde.

General Sir Nick Carter controversially claimed that Russian hostility could come sooner than expected and the UK must prepare to "fight the war we might have to fight".

The bemedalled Carter further alleged that Russia was building an increasingly aggressive expeditionary force and the potential military threats to the UK "are now on Europe's doorstep".

Carter claimed that the Kremlin already boasted an "eye-watering quantity of capability" - a level the UK would struggle to match with regard to  what he said was Russia's new cyber warfare capabilities as well as Russian long-range missile strike capability, which he said was demonstrated in Syria when 26 missiles were deployed from a 1,500km (930 mile) range.

Carter stressed that Britain "must take notice of what is going on around us" or that the ability by the UK to take action will be "massively constrained".

According to the UK's senior military figure these alleged threats " will creep up on us, and our ability to act will be markedly constrained - and we'll be the losers of this competition," he surmised on the basis of no verifiable,tangible,empirical evidence whatsoever.

And as a complete non -sequitur the beribboned buffoon added that he did "not in any way" want to suggest that Russia would go to war in the traditional sense, but that Moscow "could initiate hostilities sooner than we expect".

"I don't think it will start with little green men, it will start with something we don't expect." he concluded. Leaving his audience none the wiser.

Except for the leading harridan of the metropolitan Labour led antidemocratic ,anti-brexit  Remoaner conspiracy. Mary Creagh MP for Wakefield who in the immediate aftermath of General Blatherchops' rhetorical discharge,posted a characteristically assertive piece prefaced with the following utterly fatuous,otiose cant ( with a link to The Times article on the speech itself ) on social media:- (Gleaned from MC's facebook page )

22 January at 14:35 ·

It only took the Russians 15 minutes to wipe out two Ukrainian battalions. Today the head of the army warned the Conservatives to reverse cuts and boost spending or British troops would suffer the same fate.

Call for the Nurse:she's forgotten to take her meds again!

fahrenheit451:229

The following was gleaned from @TheRegionOrg , an open letter from a retinue of leading academics headed by the venerable Noam Chomsky  wrote -

" We, the undersigned academics and human rights activists, insist that the leaders of Russia, Iran, and the U.S. ensure that the sovereignty of Syrian borders is not breached by Turkey and that the people of Afrin in Syria, be allowed to live in peace.

Afrin, whose population is predominantly Kurdish, is one of the most stable and secure regions in Syria. With very little international aid, Afrin has taken in so many Syrian refugees in the last five years that its population has doubled to 400,000. Afrin is now surrounded by enemies: Turkish-supported jihadi groups, al Qaeda, and Turkey.

Turkish president Erdogan has threatened to attack the U.S. military’s Kurdish partners – the Kurdish YPG or People’s Protection Units – with which the US has been allied against ISIS. Turkey accuses the YPG of being “terrorists”..."

And there you have it;the cri-de-coeur of petty bourgeois,metropolitan elitist intellectuals down the ages whenever some serious shit starts hitting the fan. Their response is a predetermined litany of otiose cant and impotent,vacuous platitudes.

Thousands  upon thousands of " innocent " civilians as well as culpable combatants will die,mostly needlessly, in so far as their deaths will not significantly impact the tides of war,nor any future,putative resolution of the present Syrian imbroglio.

Having opened the proverbial Pandora's Box ,the US neocon foreign policy /military hawks and their european NATO lickspittle,toadying satrapies are now making a show of wringing their hands,gnashing their teeth and rending their garments at the unfolding of  the entirely forseeable,predictable consequences of their own actions.

Who is bombing who in Syria /Iraq and more importantly, to what purpose? Answers on a postcard please to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue ,closing date for entries is anytime this century,if we're lucky.

Having brutally raped Syria's sovereign territorial integrity, the US together with its troupe of loathsome,sloping-forehead enforcers, established military bases,funded,armed,trained,directed and assisted ISIS,Al Qaeda,Uncle Tom Cobbley and all, in their various and contradictory terrorist insurgenices to overthrow the constitutional government of Syria.

However Erdogan's maverick populist Turkey,has gone one better and has provided an unexpected twist in the Pentagon/State Department plot scenario which brings us to the edge of the current and immediate precipice.

The oft-garlanded,heroic/noble/virtuous Kurds whom the US cozened into carrying out the Neocons' strategic foreign policy objectives ,find themselves facing the pent up ire of the Turkish state on their own.

And this has provided the pseudo-moral motivation of the Liberal ( foreign interventionist but only in a good way and for humanitarian ends) outrage.

Will all this end badly for all concerned?

It already has.

fahrenheit451:228

As the EU Withdrawal Bill grinds ineluctably on through the parliamentary process,and the actual,irrevocable date of the UK's departure from the thrall of the european union - March 29,2019 draws ever nearer, it's worth recounting some of the more egregious depredations of the aforementioned Teutonic Empire and its satrapies.

Cognoscenti of this blog will recognise the following lifted in its entirety from fahrenheit451:147 of May 4 2017.

It ought act as an antidote to the Remoaner / reluctant Leave poison being imbibed by all and sundry during this period preceding full and final exit from the clutches of the e.u.
"

The historically moribund European Union  can be viewed as a sleazy,corrupt,kleptocratic hellhole of outright fraud and embezzlement.
Amid all the venal hubristic posturing surrounding #Brexit ,once all the vacuous platitudes have been aired and philosophical points have been examined it all comes back down to money.Who pays what to whom and for what and how long for.
The current article from the euro observer is particularly instructive on this matter :-

Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, in exchange for their access to the EU single market, fund initiatives aimed at reducing social and economic disparities in poorer EU member states.

FOCUS

Hungary and Poland risk losing €1bn in Norway aid row

• 

  Girl visiting the Museum on Wheels, a mobile educational exhibition presenting the history and culture of Polish Jews. The exhibition travelled around Poland as part of an EEA grants funded project. (Photo: EEA and Norway grants)

By ALEKSANDRA ERIKSSON

OSLO, 3. MAY, 09:20

Efforts by Hungary and Poland to control funds directed to NGOs are blocking negotiations over the renewal of a €1 billion Norwegian scheme to support civil society.

The Central European governments want to take funds from organisations supporting women, gay people and the homeless, among others.

Norway has refused to give in to such demands, meaning that negotiations are stuck.

"The situation is very unclear. In the worst case, the whole support scheme could be blocked," said Vera Mora from the NGO Okotars, which administered the last Norway grant scheme in Hungary.

Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, in exchange for their access to the EU single market, fund initiatives aimed at reducing social and economic disparities in poorer EU member states.
Norway is by far the biggest donor of the so-called EEA funds, doling out some 96 percent of the money.
Poland is the largest beneficiary, followed by Romania and Hungary.
Under the next scheme, which runs until 2021, Poland stands to receive €809 million, Hungary €215 million.

 

The funds cover some shortfalls in healthcare budgets and help companies to adopt green technologies. They pay for the upkeep of cultural heritage sites and fund research projects.
Roughly 10 percent of the cash is dedicated to independent support of civic society, a mandatory part of programme.
In Poland, the Law and Justice (PiS) government has formally announced that it would like the money to be channelled through a government body - although they have yet to establish the body.

And that is outrageous! especially given that a strand of contentious opinion on #Brexit recommends that the UK go the EEA route to maintaining Single market access once we have actually exited the EU !!
As a rule of thumb, the further east and south you go across the continent of europe the greater the incidence of systemic corruption within EU member states.

The scale of it beggars rational belief.It makes the Danegeld tribute paid by 10th.Century  English Kings to keep the foreign invaders quiet seem like spare pocket change.

Brexit needs to be done asap, no further negotiations whatsoever, no compromise transitional EEA membership.

fahrenheit451:227

You know that feeling of dread you get at the onset of what you know will be a migraine headache?

The same sickening sense of foreboding is achieved by listening to what that vapid and lacklustre straw man masquerading as the current leader of the British Labour Party has to say on the EU’s ” Freedom of Movement “.
The impending sense of nausea he induces when evading the issue is all too palpable.

It is also all too indicative of the 200 #LabourIn MPs’ tawdry metropolitan PC ideology.

For some reason, this antidemocratic, seditionist, parliamentary rabble and quite a large swathe of otherwise serious and rational people on the British ” Left ” think and behave and speak as if the ineluctable Laws of the Capitalist means of production,distribution and exchange , i.e. the totality of the Capitalist economic system has ceased to operate.

Despite their voluble and disingenuous abusive harangues to the contrary, they e.g  most of Labour most of the time and most of the other ” left ” most of the time categorically deny the following.:-

The basis of the laws of supply and demand are – that the less you have of something,the higher the price of it inexorably is.The more you have of something the lower the price of that becomes.

Seriously,the operation of the capitalist system is really simple, that’s why it works.

An increase in the availability of labour in what is ” a labour market ” will overall lower the price of labour.A shortage of labour would increase the price thereof.

Adam Smith expounded on this, Marx certainly knew that this is how our world operates.

But not according to Corbyn or Slogans With Placards or any other amongst the dreck of failed PC multiculturalist neophytes who show off their faux-revolutionary,anti-capitalist politics at Uni.

Sad.

Unrestricted labour market competition is called freedom of movement.

Utterly ghastly.

Time for sovereign borders and tariff barriers and each nation State to its own.

Time for autarky and higher wages.

Time to smash the #EU to smithereens.

And that Comrades, is Revolutionary!

( The observant reader might be aware that but with a few minor edits,this blog post originally appeared on January 10,2017 under fahrenheit451:117 )

fahrenheit451:226

Winter is here.

And so the annual plethora of otiose ideological partisan cant and vacuous platitudes aka  the " NHS is in Crisis " discourse is once again under way.

The answer to " will the NHS ever be out of a state of crisis?" appears after many decades to be; no.

The only differences to be discerned amongst all the world's national health systems is the degree to which they are all in one way or another perceived to be " performing " or  functioning at a noticeably lower standard than any other arbitrarily chosen health system or systems to which they are compared at any point in time.

For example ,the reputable body on such matters , The King's Fund posted online on June 8 2017,  ( herewith an extract gleaned )  from " How Does the NHS Compare Internationally ".

" Although the UK has been at the forefront of the development of measures of health care quality (like the national patient survey programme) and the use of quality improvement techniques (like evidence-based clinical guidelines), performance on some indicators of health care quality remains ‘average or disappointing’ compared to international benchmarks according to the OECD. For example, although there is a comprehensive screening programme for breast and cervical cancer, survival rates are below the EU average (despite improvements in recent years). Rates of hospital admissions for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (combined) have improved at a faster rate than many other countries in recent years, but also remain well above the EU average. The UK has also slipped down international league tables for infant mortality and is now 15th out of 19 comparable countries. In a recent study that compared access to and quality of health care in 195 countries by analysing ‘health care-amenable mortality’ – ie, mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal if effective health care is in place – the UK is ranked 30th out of 195 countries – its overall score was similar to Portugal and Malta but lower than comparable countries like Germany, The Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. "

It is invariably the ready ammunition of  facts 'n' figures that the contending ideological parties in the annual grand remonstrance on the NHS resort to in order to bolster their respective cases.

The Winter 2017 / 18 clash of opinionated otiose cant differs somewhat markedly from previous annual tourneys in so far as the Spend -a -heck -load -More faction is noticeably a virtual appendage of the Remoaner anti - brexit lobby.

They have unashamedly incorporated their metropolitan elitist  anti- brexit prejudices,stuff and nonsense about EU citizens,unrestricted EU labour market competition,etc. into their narrative of a NHS about to collapse because of a shortage of staff.

Which of course can be empirically refuted.An objective process that Remoaners find to be anathema.

fahrenheit451:225

2017 ended with metropolitan elitist nonpareil Lord Adonis flouncing out of his part-time day job in government as the head of the National Infrastructure Commission, in protest apparently at the aforementioned pantomime show's handling of Brexit.

By doing so Adonis, the putative war-criminal and former UK premier Blair's crony, left the equivalent of dog turd on mischief night on No.10's doorstep.
According to the immature miscreant himself it wasn't so much as a pile of unwelcome canine excreta as a protest born out of a personal,divinely inspired epiphany experienced whilst attending a church service at an Austrian ski resort.

Adonis expressed the conviction that he is on a mystically inspired mission to delay and derail the EU Withdrawal Bill and with it Brexit in its entirety.He happens to be entirely mistaken on the matter as on March 29 2019,the UK shall legally cease to be a member state of the EU.

But empirical data,facts,reason,logic,the Law,Realpolitik and such like have little or indeed no bearing whatsoever on the demented outpourings of otiose cant and vacuous platitudes that gush out of the facial orifices of Remoaners like so much effluent from a sewage pipe outlet.

The Remain campaign, in particular over 200 MPs of the Labour Party, have spent every waking moment since the early hours of June 24 2016 denying the constitutional and legal validity of the referendum result and concomitantly slandering,defaming and denouncing all the 17.4 million British citizens, many of them their own constituents, that voted for Leave.

The Remoaners will not desist from this egregious and unwholesome Goebbels-esque propaganda blitz on democracy in 2018.They have given every indication that they will in fact intensify their insidious seditionist warfare on the character,standing and integrity of the 17.4 million and however many amongst Remain voters actually value  patriotic democracy above reckless partisanship.

It is therefore incumbent upon all patriotic,democratic civic minded people to counter this clear and present danger that threatens to snatch defeat from the jaws of Victory.

Then again, would the Remoaners really want to try and  live in a world where the consequences of their antidemocratic sedition are all too real?