Sitting here feeling a tad morose due to a solid dose of man-flu (the Memsahib is her usual pitiless self, "should have had the jabs like the rest of us") so when your latest came winging through I was cheered up no end.
Watching those goons masquerading as financial and economic whizzes is rather like watching a room full of children being given a handful of crayons and told to copy the Mona Lisa. Oh look - little Rachel has just eaten all hers and then peed all over Jeremy's effort. And young master Miliband has just inserted his fingers into the mains socket ...
And may I offer my heartfelt thanks for referring us to the Guardian. On the rare occasion I venture into its pages I come away a chastened and sadder man after reading the leftist bollocks that springs from every page. It takes someone with an iron stomach and steel balls to do that and we are grateful that you do it on behalf of us and spare us the torment.
Thanks so much no-one. I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling under the weather. Have you tried walking the wrong way round the supermarket, or not sitting on a park bench? Both well established treatments for a virus.
Your Mona Lisa image also got a proper laugh from me. So thanks for that too.
Thank you LSO. Train drivers are now paid double the amount train drivers anywhere else in Europe are paid.
What most characterises this budget and its Chancellor is sophistry.
First we were told that pensioners would have to lose their winter fuel allowance. Not to worry, apparently most pensioners are millionaires, and the poorest would still receive it. It was the right thing to do. But it wasn't. Labour's own figures show this could kill 4,000 pensioners a year.
Now we are told that farmers will have to pay inheritance tax on their farms. Once again we are told only the wealthiest few will pay the tax. This is not true. Lots of "farms" will escape tax, yes, but only those with a handful of acres who are hobby farmers or just do it part time. Meanwhile the rich tax avoiders will buy up the farms that have to be sold to pay the tax, because for them 20% is still better than 40%. Buy shares in Dignitas if you can, as they are going to be busy over the next few months.
Then there's the Chancellor, who as you say was in a very junior position at the Bank of England (described by one ex-colleague as f-----g useless), and was in the complaints department at HBOS. A Chancellor who can't fill in a simple tax return and gets the taxpayer to pay for an accountant. A Chancellor who said that her £86,000 salary "left her short," despite being married to a civil servant earning £180,000 a year and who received rent of £30,000 a year, and being clothed by Lord Alli. That's about £300,000 a year with expenses, and she can't even balance her own books. Presumably being "left short" meant that she could only afford non vintage champagne every day. Now their household income is over £400,000 a year, over £70,000 of that is rent, and she has grace and favour houses and of course loads of expense claims. How she will manage without her free clothes is a mystery.
Hi Jeremy. A great comment. I think the farm thing is like the landlord stuff. We’re all saying ‘This will drive the little guys out of the market, only for the big corporations to move in.’ And they are like, ‘Yes you fools, that’s the idea. It’s much easier, and cheaper to make ten massive corporations comply with our agenda, than thousands of small farms and landlords’.
As for Reeves. She is the epitome of ‘one rule for us, one rule for you’. I hated the Tories, but these actual people, with their hypocrisy, sanctimony and never ending race baiting just make my skin crawl. Good to hear from you.
It’s grim, LSO. But it’s ‘our’ fault (I exclude you and me 🙂). We vote for, and allow ourselves to be governed by, some of our least talented and noble people. They extort money from taxpayers - the minority - as if it were proceeds of crime, not endeavour; they ask no permission for their expenditure and give no account of the (in)efficiency with which it is spent; they mismanage a huge monopoly even while enforcing strict laws against commercial monopolies. And they get away with it because there are so many millions of recipients of this State largesse who have no interest in changing things.
Only a revolt by over-burdened taxpayers would force a hard reappraisal of the State’s role, force reversion of its expenditure back to normal levels and catalyse productivity. I wrote to the Reform party and suggested they might punch above their miniscule Parliamentary weight and lead the charge, but received no response.
Great comment Richard. I’m not sure how such a revolt would work. But perhaps as a start there could be a sort of ‘constitutional’ limit on the % of gdp which a government could take in tax. Obviously there would need to be a ‘except in extreme crisis’ clause. To account for wars or disasters, crashes etc. But that would just mean they would manufacture (even more of) them.
Thanks, LSO. Yes, such a proposal in Parliament would go down like a turd in a swimming pool, for sure. But even a failed proposal would force a public admission that the State is parasitic, which would be huge political capital for the proposers.
Yes. We also need to play a longer game. It took the left twenty five odd years to get here Richard. So if anybody is looking for a quick fix to undo their work then I think they are a little deluded.
That was going to be part of my PhD thesis, LSO. Trouble is universities are so woke that the parameters hemming in what one can and cannot discuss made it unviable (at least if one wanted to hang onto some shreds of sanity).
I'm saying exactly the same to my three. I have my own plans to escape and create a bridgehead (or two - depending on the result of a certain election today) and one of my daughters is actively planning too. Ever since the World at War TV series in the 1970's, I have always been haunted by the plight of European Jews in the 1930's - why didn't they see it coming? Why didn't they get out whilst they still could? If you see the wind blowing in a certain direction, take heed! Of course, the wind might change, but I prefer to not rely on the people of this country coming to their senses any time soon - globalist tyranny and communism incoming.
But where to? All the Anglophone countries are as woke as ... us and France is crumpling under crime and violence (yes, immigration again). I have lived in five different countries and worked in many more and I would not want to retire to any of them, despite having enjoyed my times there in younger days.
I have come to the conclusion that the only defence against the madness of the world is money - so one can live with a great barrier of land around one, and one can afford to buy everything that one needs. That is the lesson for the young ones. They need to start building up a survival fund now and not think the State will always be there as the provider of last resort.
Tony Blair is the ultimate strategist. Love him or loathe him, (more the latter for me) I believe he is the director of this show. Starmer is not his own man.
Decisions he made 20yrs ago were long term strategic decisions. They changed the course of the UK and cleverly sleptwalked us into this socialist state.
When Kinnock lost again, Blair knew things had to change. (Yes, he is that clever). He gained power and set about putting all those think tank years lessons into place.
He changed the judiciary, financial institutions, the schools and universities. They are all socialist now.
He politicised everything by stealth, like the wooden horse of Troy. Successfully.
Where am I going with this?... Here...
Blair was mortified at the Brexit result. He and his Davos mates set up a new strategy. A long term 20-30 year generational strategy.
After all.. they have done it before and it worked.
They will overload the British infrastructure and Services using migration and debt.
They will inflate the financial bubble until the country collapses....
They will borrow on an Olympic scale... its already happening and theres ways more borrowing to come.
No UK politician has the slightest interest in the 8 billion and more Every Single Month! that the UK pays in interest alone!
Nobody talks about it, nobody mentions it. Its a Taboo subject, just like all the other so called right wing concerns have become.
Then, just like they did with Greece and others... maybe 20 or 30yrs up the road, (maybe less).. the EU will offer a bailout... a bailout with strings attached of course.
The UK will be on its knees and be forced to accept.
The strings will include rejoining the EU and accepting the Euro in place of the pound.
Blair and co will happily bring Britain to its knees to get his United States of Europe.
He will ruin actual lives, businesses and families for this cause. He has done it before in the Middle East.
The Labour party and Conservative party are merely pawns in the Davos game.
UK budgets are ignored, they are a farce. The globalists laugh at them.
I think they get an almost sexual kick out of watching local UK politicians and media getting themselves into a tiz over trivial silly UK tax and spend issues.
A brilliant and measured analysis Ludloff. Have you ever read Jean Baudrillard. ‘The Gulf War Did Not Take Place’. ? Heavy going. But similar themes from a post modern or anti post modern perspective as I remember. The Peace Envoy thing is a pull back the curtain moment. Love Columbo.
Yeh I will bear that in mind. I dont want to get in too deep. I have no faith in the system as it is😅
I used to have faith in the democratic system , but I must admit like all good systems people come along ruin it.
These days, if a politician told me that day would follow night I would have to go and check for myself.
And with the advent of social media words can be manipulated even more. Social media is designed to be tribal.
I dont think it was planned like that but that is how it has turned out. They have wormholes designed into the software to take you down a certain path.
It goes something like this. The provider says... You like this content?... then maybe you might like this?... etc
Reinforcing your tribal beliefs one way or the other.
I was listening to someone talking about the upcoming American election. Apparently, some states will allow to register to vote with no ID? And a certain party actively encourages postal voting?
You need ID to have a drink at a bar but not vote for your government?
What could possibly go wrong? Who does this benefit?
Nope. It is not as innocent as we all used to think it was.
Some serious chess moves being played here methinks
A terrifying but plausible scenario Ludloff. Do you really think it is that strategic? I’m not sure these people are that clever, though I agree with the overall thrust of your comment. I just think that maybe the end point you describe is simply an inevitable/probable by product of these policies, rather than an actual strategy. It’s more like a machine that Blair, and others have created, rather than a long term strategy he is pursuing.
Maybe I’m splitting hairs. I just doubt that anyone can actually be clever enough to strategise at that level in a world as chaotic as ours. And yet, your end point does seem inevitable. So much to think about. Thanks!
Maybe I spent too much time as a kid watching Columbo😅.
The clues are there. If you are looking for them.
Luckily for us, Blair in particular has got lots of form. His past actions are there for all to see.
I spotted his potential for bad when he stepped up after John Smith passed. I knew he was going to be a significant figure back then. I had no idea he would go so far though.
The best example of Blairs brilliance was his stealth like ninja style Machiavellian manipulation of the Iraq affair.
It was pure brilliance.
Its also his biggest show of his hand if anyone wants to see it.
If you want proof of his capabilities then look no further than Iraq.
He managed to convince on mass both UK wide and then globally to almost brainwashed level that we in the UK were engaged in a war in Iraq.
Every media outlet that ever covered this referred to the 'War' in Iraq.
Every UK politician including all Opposition MP's eventually came around to reffering to it as 'The War in Iraq'. Or the 'Iraq War'
But it wasnt a war was it?... It was an Invasion... an Attack!
He attacked another country to secure future oil reserves. No other reason. The West wanted the control so a plan was set up to de-stabalise. And thats exactly what they did. In thier eyes Saddam was causing trouble so he had to go.
But how to sell it to the Country?.. mmm... Ive got it! How about we use a weapons of mass destruction argument?
If people feel threatened they will go along with it right?
Look at the way people go along with things they disagree with right now?
They might fundamentally disagree but they dare not say anything?
Sounds familar now doesnt it? I think its called mass manipulation.
Its happened for years, people are coerced on mass to think and act in a certain way. Its not always a bad thing.
For example, in the seventies a man would think nothing of downing 10 pints and then jumping in his car to drive home. He would laugh with friends about how steaming he was trying to get the car home. Thoughts on this behaviour has since been changed on mass... and rightly so.
At first opposers of the Iraq invasion were mortified. They called it an Invasion plain and simple.
Then Blair was under pressure, bodies of dead young soldiers were going through Wootton Bassett daily. This was not good.
The narrative had to change. Blair and Campbell set about changing the perception of this unnecessary carnage.
Neither of them ever referred to it as an Invasion of course. Instead they played our armed forces card, starting talking about heroes, and help for heroes was formed. They also had meetings with the Royals and the powerful to change this perception.
Over time everyone and his brother starting referring to it as a war. Wootton Bassett became Royal Wootton Bassett. Now we are all on board. Opposers faded away bar a few..
Even the most fierce opposers would only talk about in terms of war, because they sold you the idea that we were heroes not aggressors.
Just like the Christians did when they decided to take over other parts of the world to introduce Christianity. Those invasions were called 'The Crusades'... sounds nicer doesnt it?
Over time the whole world got onboard with the War in Iraq narrative.... The whole world!!
Brilliant salesmanship, the man is a genius.
And he wasnt finished. After all that was over. And probably to avoid ever going Prison...
The man sets up his own think tanks and foundations. Makes himself and his immediate family close to a billionaire. (how very socialist of him. Sharing his wealth amongst the people like any true socialist... ahemm.... dont hold your breath. That money is his. And you aint getting any of it)
And if all this doesnt show Strategic long term brilliance.
The man that wreaked havoc on the middle east sets himself up as.....
And I am not making this up....
The Middle East PEACE ENVOY!
And everyone bought into it. He should be in jail, instead he is a peace envoy! He sold himself successfully to the whole world as a Peace Envoy!
I dont like him, but I have to admit he is brilliant.
People like that come along in history from time to time, and the change the course of the world. Sometimes for good and sometimes for bad.
There are lots of examples of significant figures, individuals that change the world.
They come along now and again in politics, in business, in technology etc.. They are few and far between, they arrive on the scene and change everything.
They are long term strategic thinkers. Big picture types.
And the scary thing about Blair is... he is not finished,
He still talks about mandatory jabs, ID cards, digital money, social credits and punishments, and road pricing per mile... its all out there to see if your looking.
His University fees is a pyramid scheme, money rises from the masses to the top. A pyramid structure. He knows debt is slavery. Thats why he doesnt have any.
His new sales pitch can be broken down like this....
Heres an education, its similar to the one you can get for free by reading books or for very little money.
But we would like you to adopt ours instead. Our scheme allows you the impressionable teenager to be indoctrinated into our ways.
We think its very good, and all you have to do in return...
Thank God, on the basis of your argument, that Tony Blair isn't immortal. And I'm hoping something significant is going to prevent him from appearing on the public stage for much longer. In the last poll I saw, 87% of the population never wanted to hear anything from him again, and the other 13% were plotting in order to make sure they didn't.
The fax machine story was news to me and provided a great deal of amusement. How on earth can we ever progress when something like this is an issue which has to be debated and negotiated with trade unions?
Yes it was astonishing ZuZu. Of course the biggest user of fax machines and pagers is still, I believe The NHS. I think Hezbollah used to also rely on pagers, but not so much these days for some reason…..
Yes Rivah. I think I read that too. They’re terrified of computerisation/modernity at any level it seems. Maybe unsurprising. After the last, wholly predictable, IT disaster.
Mostly in agreement but the Office of Value for Money isn’t really a government department, it’s no more than 20 redeployed existing civil servants (plus the new chair) and will, like a lot of Labour policy, make virtually no difference to anything while being trumpeted as a virtuous and public-spirited initiative.
It’s window-dressing. If, like most voters, you pay five seconds’ attention at best, you’ll think “Well that sounds sensible and pragmatic and rigorous”. But it will do next to nothing, I suspect.
Nailed the topic as usual, LSO. I often follow the links in your articles, and wanted to get the low-down on Rachel Thieves' plagiarism gaff, which hadn't previously crossed my radar. Imagine my surprise when I read down the page you linked to on the BBC's website, and found this paragraph: -
"Another paragraph [in Reeves's book] about international aid under New Labour is very similar to a foreword written by Hilary Benn, who is now the shadow Northern Ireland secretary".
So he's still the SHADOW Northern Ireland secretary, is he, Despite Labour being in government since 5th July?! Perhaps we could get Marianna Spring to do her pointless, overpaid "job" and fact-check her own employer? I won't hold my breath...
'But how can you put your party on such a moral high horse, and claim that it is a mouldbreaking trailblazer for women’s rights, when a line up of your past leaders looks less diverse than a march for Tommy Robinson?'
His demos are actually diverse. Apart from opposition to Islamisation, he has a very liberal stance. That is one criticism I have of him.
Thanks for cheering us up, as ever. I don’t suppose anyone has worked out that the more the state does, the less efficient it becomes. One other overlooked statistic is that the rather paltry growth projections are for national GDP. If we grow the population by 1% each year, then growth per capita is more or less nil. If the demands of the state to tax and spend go up by more than nil, we are getting poorer. We may not notice immediately but bit by bit it becomes more noticeable. Also like most averages, they are never evenly spread. Some people are doing quite nicely, eg senior civil servants and green energy consultants, which means some people are doing rather badly.
Hi Martin. It’s a drip drip effect I think. I’m certainly worse off than I was ten years ago. And the relentless cash grab, with no apparent benefit, from the government is make us all poorer, while also making it harder to climb out of the pit. But as you say. Work for the state, climb the greasy pile, and you are doing very well thank you very much.
Oh sorry Francis. Just still on my first coffee after a late night! Please help yourself. And thanks to Matt Ridley. I heard him on a podcast recently expanding on the ideas in that Tweet. (I obviously can’t find it now.) But he’s always spot on. ATB
There does seem to be the glimmer of unqualified government [not] in control of everything - but by mistake. The reasons include: astounding difficulty of unpicking monopolies and easy capitulation towards calls to re-nationalise things that are still Kremlinised; compulsory reaction to persistent complaints from people who wish that they were richer; and a natural desire to centralise. When something is in public control, it is difficult to imagine a different world, but we must, for obvious reasons. Let government set regulation and then step smartly back. With a clean slate (as promised by our chancellor) let’s imagine, for example, government out of education, health, transport, HS2, … … … the Channel Tunnel* … … … and the distribution of food*.
Meddlers gotta meddle Ross. The central problem might simply be hubris. They genuinely think they are best at everything, and the rest of us are dummies. And I guess we are. For letting the state get this powerful!
A bloated, voracious bureaucracy filled to the brim with petty, merciless, and incompetent bureaucrats sounds sadly familiar. I am praying for some sense to miraculously appear there and here. I was happy to see Kemi get the Tory leadership. Hopefully her straight talk will cut through some of the nonsense.
I worked in the NHS for around 10 years. All day, every day, few breaks, rarely sick. I worked 6-8 hours of overtime (without pay) most weeks, and, because I was at top of my grade, I didn't have a pay rise in 5 years due to the wage 'freeze' at the time. Throughout this period, I saw more waste, greed, laziness, bad management and sheer naked corruption than I EVER saw in private health! (Yes, I got an NHS Pension, but only opted in to five years' worth, silly me).
Yes Julia. I assume there are still many dedicated people like you working there. In fact I know a couple. But the institution simply cannot function efficiently. There is no mechanism to allocate resources except rationing. And rationing is incredibly wasteful and guarantees misallocation.
But as the Americans say ‘Thank you for your (NH) service.’
Excellent stuff as always LSO.
Sitting here feeling a tad morose due to a solid dose of man-flu (the Memsahib is her usual pitiless self, "should have had the jabs like the rest of us") so when your latest came winging through I was cheered up no end.
Watching those goons masquerading as financial and economic whizzes is rather like watching a room full of children being given a handful of crayons and told to copy the Mona Lisa. Oh look - little Rachel has just eaten all hers and then peed all over Jeremy's effort. And young master Miliband has just inserted his fingers into the mains socket ...
And may I offer my heartfelt thanks for referring us to the Guardian. On the rare occasion I venture into its pages I come away a chastened and sadder man after reading the leftist bollocks that springs from every page. It takes someone with an iron stomach and steel balls to do that and we are grateful that you do it on behalf of us and spare us the torment.
Thanks so much no-one. I’m sorry to hear you’re feeling under the weather. Have you tried walking the wrong way round the supermarket, or not sitting on a park bench? Both well established treatments for a virus.
Your Mona Lisa image also got a proper laugh from me. So thanks for that too.
Thank you LSO. Train drivers are now paid double the amount train drivers anywhere else in Europe are paid.
What most characterises this budget and its Chancellor is sophistry.
First we were told that pensioners would have to lose their winter fuel allowance. Not to worry, apparently most pensioners are millionaires, and the poorest would still receive it. It was the right thing to do. But it wasn't. Labour's own figures show this could kill 4,000 pensioners a year.
Now we are told that farmers will have to pay inheritance tax on their farms. Once again we are told only the wealthiest few will pay the tax. This is not true. Lots of "farms" will escape tax, yes, but only those with a handful of acres who are hobby farmers or just do it part time. Meanwhile the rich tax avoiders will buy up the farms that have to be sold to pay the tax, because for them 20% is still better than 40%. Buy shares in Dignitas if you can, as they are going to be busy over the next few months.
Then there's the Chancellor, who as you say was in a very junior position at the Bank of England (described by one ex-colleague as f-----g useless), and was in the complaints department at HBOS. A Chancellor who can't fill in a simple tax return and gets the taxpayer to pay for an accountant. A Chancellor who said that her £86,000 salary "left her short," despite being married to a civil servant earning £180,000 a year and who received rent of £30,000 a year, and being clothed by Lord Alli. That's about £300,000 a year with expenses, and she can't even balance her own books. Presumably being "left short" meant that she could only afford non vintage champagne every day. Now their household income is over £400,000 a year, over £70,000 of that is rent, and she has grace and favour houses and of course loads of expense claims. How she will manage without her free clothes is a mystery.
Hi Jeremy. A great comment. I think the farm thing is like the landlord stuff. We’re all saying ‘This will drive the little guys out of the market, only for the big corporations to move in.’ And they are like, ‘Yes you fools, that’s the idea. It’s much easier, and cheaper to make ten massive corporations comply with our agenda, than thousands of small farms and landlords’.
As for Reeves. She is the epitome of ‘one rule for us, one rule for you’. I hated the Tories, but these actual people, with their hypocrisy, sanctimony and never ending race baiting just make my skin crawl. Good to hear from you.
Watch Clarkson’s Farm, look at the demographics of the farmers and tell me there was no vindictive DIE aspect to this change to Inheritance Tax.
It’s grim, LSO. But it’s ‘our’ fault (I exclude you and me 🙂). We vote for, and allow ourselves to be governed by, some of our least talented and noble people. They extort money from taxpayers - the minority - as if it were proceeds of crime, not endeavour; they ask no permission for their expenditure and give no account of the (in)efficiency with which it is spent; they mismanage a huge monopoly even while enforcing strict laws against commercial monopolies. And they get away with it because there are so many millions of recipients of this State largesse who have no interest in changing things.
Only a revolt by over-burdened taxpayers would force a hard reappraisal of the State’s role, force reversion of its expenditure back to normal levels and catalyse productivity. I wrote to the Reform party and suggested they might punch above their miniscule Parliamentary weight and lead the charge, but received no response.
Great comment Richard. I’m not sure how such a revolt would work. But perhaps as a start there could be a sort of ‘constitutional’ limit on the % of gdp which a government could take in tax. Obviously there would need to be a ‘except in extreme crisis’ clause. To account for wars or disasters, crashes etc. But that would just mean they would manufacture (even more of) them.
Thanks, LSO. Yes, such a proposal in Parliament would go down like a turd in a swimming pool, for sure. But even a failed proposal would force a public admission that the State is parasitic, which would be huge political capital for the proposers.
Yes. We also need to play a longer game. It took the left twenty five odd years to get here Richard. So if anybody is looking for a quick fix to undo their work then I think they are a little deluded.
That was going to be part of my PhD thesis, LSO. Trouble is universities are so woke that the parameters hemming in what one can and cannot discuss made it unviable (at least if one wanted to hang onto some shreds of sanity).
The door it is....
I keep telling my girls they should go. People genuinely can’t believe how poor our ‘rich country’ is when you set out the figures for them!
I'm saying exactly the same to my three. I have my own plans to escape and create a bridgehead (or two - depending on the result of a certain election today) and one of my daughters is actively planning too. Ever since the World at War TV series in the 1970's, I have always been haunted by the plight of European Jews in the 1930's - why didn't they see it coming? Why didn't they get out whilst they still could? If you see the wind blowing in a certain direction, take heed! Of course, the wind might change, but I prefer to not rely on the people of this country coming to their senses any time soon - globalist tyranny and communism incoming.
Very sensible Bettina. I might well skip off myself in a couple of years.
But where to? All the Anglophone countries are as woke as ... us and France is crumpling under crime and violence (yes, immigration again). I have lived in five different countries and worked in many more and I would not want to retire to any of them, despite having enjoyed my times there in younger days.
I have come to the conclusion that the only defence against the madness of the world is money - so one can live with a great barrier of land around one, and one can afford to buy everything that one needs. That is the lesson for the young ones. They need to start building up a survival fund now and not think the State will always be there as the provider of last resort.
Maybe the USA is becoming an option Jos.
Tony Blair is the ultimate strategist. Love him or loathe him, (more the latter for me) I believe he is the director of this show. Starmer is not his own man.
Decisions he made 20yrs ago were long term strategic decisions. They changed the course of the UK and cleverly sleptwalked us into this socialist state.
When Kinnock lost again, Blair knew things had to change. (Yes, he is that clever). He gained power and set about putting all those think tank years lessons into place.
He changed the judiciary, financial institutions, the schools and universities. They are all socialist now.
He politicised everything by stealth, like the wooden horse of Troy. Successfully.
Where am I going with this?... Here...
Blair was mortified at the Brexit result. He and his Davos mates set up a new strategy. A long term 20-30 year generational strategy.
After all.. they have done it before and it worked.
They will overload the British infrastructure and Services using migration and debt.
They will inflate the financial bubble until the country collapses....
They will borrow on an Olympic scale... its already happening and theres ways more borrowing to come.
No UK politician has the slightest interest in the 8 billion and more Every Single Month! that the UK pays in interest alone!
Nobody talks about it, nobody mentions it. Its a Taboo subject, just like all the other so called right wing concerns have become.
Then, just like they did with Greece and others... maybe 20 or 30yrs up the road, (maybe less).. the EU will offer a bailout... a bailout with strings attached of course.
The UK will be on its knees and be forced to accept.
The strings will include rejoining the EU and accepting the Euro in place of the pound.
Blair and co will happily bring Britain to its knees to get his United States of Europe.
He will ruin actual lives, businesses and families for this cause. He has done it before in the Middle East.
The Labour party and Conservative party are merely pawns in the Davos game.
UK budgets are ignored, they are a farce. The globalists laugh at them.
I think they get an almost sexual kick out of watching local UK politicians and media getting themselves into a tiz over trivial silly UK tax and spend issues.
Your being played by a much bigger game.
A brilliant and measured analysis Ludloff. Have you ever read Jean Baudrillard. ‘The Gulf War Did Not Take Place’. ? Heavy going. But similar themes from a post modern or anti post modern perspective as I remember. The Peace Envoy thing is a pull back the curtain moment. Love Columbo.
No I have not read that. I shall look it up right now. Thank you👍
It might be more fun to read ‘about’ it than the book itself Ludloff. But enjoy…
Yeh I will bear that in mind. I dont want to get in too deep. I have no faith in the system as it is😅
I used to have faith in the democratic system , but I must admit like all good systems people come along ruin it.
These days, if a politician told me that day would follow night I would have to go and check for myself.
And with the advent of social media words can be manipulated even more. Social media is designed to be tribal.
I dont think it was planned like that but that is how it has turned out. They have wormholes designed into the software to take you down a certain path.
It goes something like this. The provider says... You like this content?... then maybe you might like this?... etc
Reinforcing your tribal beliefs one way or the other.
I was listening to someone talking about the upcoming American election. Apparently, some states will allow to register to vote with no ID? And a certain party actively encourages postal voting?
You need ID to have a drink at a bar but not vote for your government?
What could possibly go wrong? Who does this benefit?
Nope. It is not as innocent as we all used to think it was.
Some serious chess moves being played here methinks
A terrifying but plausible scenario Ludloff. Do you really think it is that strategic? I’m not sure these people are that clever, though I agree with the overall thrust of your comment. I just think that maybe the end point you describe is simply an inevitable/probable by product of these policies, rather than an actual strategy. It’s more like a machine that Blair, and others have created, rather than a long term strategy he is pursuing.
Maybe I’m splitting hairs. I just doubt that anyone can actually be clever enough to strategise at that level in a world as chaotic as ours. And yet, your end point does seem inevitable. So much to think about. Thanks!
Maybe I spent too much time as a kid watching Columbo😅.
The clues are there. If you are looking for them.
Luckily for us, Blair in particular has got lots of form. His past actions are there for all to see.
I spotted his potential for bad when he stepped up after John Smith passed. I knew he was going to be a significant figure back then. I had no idea he would go so far though.
The best example of Blairs brilliance was his stealth like ninja style Machiavellian manipulation of the Iraq affair.
It was pure brilliance.
Its also his biggest show of his hand if anyone wants to see it.
If you want proof of his capabilities then look no further than Iraq.
He managed to convince on mass both UK wide and then globally to almost brainwashed level that we in the UK were engaged in a war in Iraq.
Every media outlet that ever covered this referred to the 'War' in Iraq.
Every UK politician including all Opposition MP's eventually came around to reffering to it as 'The War in Iraq'. Or the 'Iraq War'
But it wasnt a war was it?... It was an Invasion... an Attack!
He attacked another country to secure future oil reserves. No other reason. The West wanted the control so a plan was set up to de-stabalise. And thats exactly what they did. In thier eyes Saddam was causing trouble so he had to go.
But how to sell it to the Country?.. mmm... Ive got it! How about we use a weapons of mass destruction argument?
If people feel threatened they will go along with it right?
Look at the way people go along with things they disagree with right now?
They might fundamentally disagree but they dare not say anything?
Sounds familar now doesnt it? I think its called mass manipulation.
Its happened for years, people are coerced on mass to think and act in a certain way. Its not always a bad thing.
For example, in the seventies a man would think nothing of downing 10 pints and then jumping in his car to drive home. He would laugh with friends about how steaming he was trying to get the car home. Thoughts on this behaviour has since been changed on mass... and rightly so.
At first opposers of the Iraq invasion were mortified. They called it an Invasion plain and simple.
Then Blair was under pressure, bodies of dead young soldiers were going through Wootton Bassett daily. This was not good.
The narrative had to change. Blair and Campbell set about changing the perception of this unnecessary carnage.
Neither of them ever referred to it as an Invasion of course. Instead they played our armed forces card, starting talking about heroes, and help for heroes was formed. They also had meetings with the Royals and the powerful to change this perception.
Over time everyone and his brother starting referring to it as a war. Wootton Bassett became Royal Wootton Bassett. Now we are all on board. Opposers faded away bar a few..
Even the most fierce opposers would only talk about in terms of war, because they sold you the idea that we were heroes not aggressors.
Just like the Christians did when they decided to take over other parts of the world to introduce Christianity. Those invasions were called 'The Crusades'... sounds nicer doesnt it?
Over time the whole world got onboard with the War in Iraq narrative.... The whole world!!
Brilliant salesmanship, the man is a genius.
And he wasnt finished. After all that was over. And probably to avoid ever going Prison...
The man sets up his own think tanks and foundations. Makes himself and his immediate family close to a billionaire. (how very socialist of him. Sharing his wealth amongst the people like any true socialist... ahemm.... dont hold your breath. That money is his. And you aint getting any of it)
And if all this doesnt show Strategic long term brilliance.
The man that wreaked havoc on the middle east sets himself up as.....
And I am not making this up....
The Middle East PEACE ENVOY!
And everyone bought into it. He should be in jail, instead he is a peace envoy! He sold himself successfully to the whole world as a Peace Envoy!
I dont like him, but I have to admit he is brilliant.
People like that come along in history from time to time, and the change the course of the world. Sometimes for good and sometimes for bad.
There are lots of examples of significant figures, individuals that change the world.
They come along now and again in politics, in business, in technology etc.. They are few and far between, they arrive on the scene and change everything.
They are long term strategic thinkers. Big picture types.
And the scary thing about Blair is... he is not finished,
He still talks about mandatory jabs, ID cards, digital money, social credits and punishments, and road pricing per mile... its all out there to see if your looking.
His University fees is a pyramid scheme, money rises from the masses to the top. A pyramid structure. He knows debt is slavery. Thats why he doesnt have any.
His new sales pitch can be broken down like this....
Heres an education, its similar to the one you can get for free by reading books or for very little money.
But we would like you to adopt ours instead. Our scheme allows you the impressionable teenager to be indoctrinated into our ways.
We think its very good, and all you have to do in return...
Is just pay us back for the rest of your life.
You will own nothing and be happy!
I wonder what his son is doing now?...
Thank God, on the basis of your argument, that Tony Blair isn't immortal. And I'm hoping something significant is going to prevent him from appearing on the public stage for much longer. In the last poll I saw, 87% of the population never wanted to hear anything from him again, and the other 13% were plotting in order to make sure they didn't.
The fax machine story was news to me and provided a great deal of amusement. How on earth can we ever progress when something like this is an issue which has to be debated and negotiated with trade unions?
Yes it was astonishing ZuZu. Of course the biggest user of fax machines and pagers is still, I believe The NHS. I think Hezbollah used to also rely on pagers, but not so much these days for some reason…..
Pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that the NHS is rhe biggest purchaser of fax machines, like now... not in 1992
Yes Rivah. I think I read that too. They’re terrified of computerisation/modernity at any level it seems. Maybe unsurprising. After the last, wholly predictable, IT disaster.
Mostly in agreement but the Office of Value for Money isn’t really a government department, it’s no more than 20 redeployed existing civil servants (plus the new chair) and will, like a lot of Labour policy, make virtually no difference to anything while being trumpeted as a virtuous and public-spirited initiative.
Thanks for the clarification Eliot. So they might actually waste a bit less money than I assumed, pretending to save money. Sounds good. 🤣
It’s window-dressing. If, like most voters, you pay five seconds’ attention at best, you’ll think “Well that sounds sensible and pragmatic and rigorous”. But it will do next to nothing, I suspect.
I agree. Everything is just a surface level sound bite.
Nailed the topic as usual, LSO. I often follow the links in your articles, and wanted to get the low-down on Rachel Thieves' plagiarism gaff, which hadn't previously crossed my radar. Imagine my surprise when I read down the page you linked to on the BBC's website, and found this paragraph: -
"Another paragraph [in Reeves's book] about international aid under New Labour is very similar to a foreword written by Hilary Benn, who is now the shadow Northern Ireland secretary".
So he's still the SHADOW Northern Ireland secretary, is he, Despite Labour being in government since 5th July?! Perhaps we could get Marianna Spring to do her pointless, overpaid "job" and fact-check her own employer? I won't hold my breath...
Ha ha. Thanks patrocles. If that was the most egregious bit of ‘misinformation’ the BBC was pumping out we’d be in pretty good shape. 😂
'But how can you put your party on such a moral high horse, and claim that it is a mouldbreaking trailblazer for women’s rights, when a line up of your past leaders looks less diverse than a march for Tommy Robinson?'
His demos are actually diverse. Apart from opposition to Islamisation, he has a very liberal stance. That is one criticism I have of him.
Thanks for cheering us up, as ever. I don’t suppose anyone has worked out that the more the state does, the less efficient it becomes. One other overlooked statistic is that the rather paltry growth projections are for national GDP. If we grow the population by 1% each year, then growth per capita is more or less nil. If the demands of the state to tax and spend go up by more than nil, we are getting poorer. We may not notice immediately but bit by bit it becomes more noticeable. Also like most averages, they are never evenly spread. Some people are doing quite nicely, eg senior civil servants and green energy consultants, which means some people are doing rather badly.
Hi Martin. It’s a drip drip effect I think. I’m certainly worse off than I was ten years ago. And the relentless cash grab, with no apparent benefit, from the government is make us all poorer, while also making it harder to climb out of the pit. But as you say. Work for the state, climb the greasy pile, and you are doing very well thank you very much.
Stole the Matt Ridley productivity bit for my post - https://ombreolivier.substack.com/p/remember-remember-the-fifth-of-november
Hi Francis. I saw Matt Ridley’s post on Twitter, not your substack. He makes such a great point. Just read your linked post tho. Great stuff.
I meant I stole it from you….
Oh sorry Francis. Just still on my first coffee after a late night! Please help yourself. And thanks to Matt Ridley. I heard him on a podcast recently expanding on the ideas in that Tweet. (I obviously can’t find it now.) But he’s always spot on. ATB
There does seem to be the glimmer of unqualified government [not] in control of everything - but by mistake. The reasons include: astounding difficulty of unpicking monopolies and easy capitulation towards calls to re-nationalise things that are still Kremlinised; compulsory reaction to persistent complaints from people who wish that they were richer; and a natural desire to centralise. When something is in public control, it is difficult to imagine a different world, but we must, for obvious reasons. Let government set regulation and then step smartly back. With a clean slate (as promised by our chancellor) let’s imagine, for example, government out of education, health, transport, HS2, … … … the Channel Tunnel* … … … and the distribution of food*.
*See what I mean?
Meddlers gotta meddle Ross. The central problem might simply be hubris. They genuinely think they are best at everything, and the rest of us are dummies. And I guess we are. For letting the state get this powerful!
I don’t know why your posts always make me so cheerful 😀
Ha ha. Happy to help David!
Called you Andrew when I bought a coffee, LSO, sorry. Love your writing!
Ha ha absolutely no worries Giulia. Thanks for the coffee!
A bloated, voracious bureaucracy filled to the brim with petty, merciless, and incompetent bureaucrats sounds sadly familiar. I am praying for some sense to miraculously appear there and here. I was happy to see Kemi get the Tory leadership. Hopefully her straight talk will cut through some of the nonsense.
Hey AMP. Good luck today!
I worked in the NHS for around 10 years. All day, every day, few breaks, rarely sick. I worked 6-8 hours of overtime (without pay) most weeks, and, because I was at top of my grade, I didn't have a pay rise in 5 years due to the wage 'freeze' at the time. Throughout this period, I saw more waste, greed, laziness, bad management and sheer naked corruption than I EVER saw in private health! (Yes, I got an NHS Pension, but only opted in to five years' worth, silly me).
Yes Julia. I assume there are still many dedicated people like you working there. In fact I know a couple. But the institution simply cannot function efficiently. There is no mechanism to allocate resources except rationing. And rationing is incredibly wasteful and guarantees misallocation.
But as the Americans say ‘Thank you for your (NH) service.’