The downfall of Boeing

The downfall of Boeing

The closure of Port Talbot is due to brexit, not net zero

The closure of Port Talbot is due to brexit, not net zero

What the post office scandal says about Britain

So we have a situation where a scandal has been bubbling away at the UK’s post office for years, yet it was largely ignored. The Post office was aware of a glitch in their software (since at least 2009, as a computing magazine had run an article about the bug, although its likely the post office know about it a lot earlier than that) that meant the incorrect amounts of money were reported (explanation of the problem here).

Yet rather than investigate, the Post office chose to blamed staff and sub post masters, accusing hundreds of them of theft. And they kept doing this even after it became obvious that it had to be a software issue. And even despite this knowledge they continued to lie, ranked the accused staff using racist terms and intentionally dragged the process out in court, hoping everyone would just go away.

And this wasn’t some big secret. While the mainstream media hadn’t been making a big deal out of it (as they generally bury any story damaging to the Tories), they certainly did report it (they just didn’t giving it the attention it perhaps deserved). There’s been several panorama episodes about it. Private eye, the Guardian, Byline times and other outlets have been covering the story for some years now.

But then ITV turns it into a tear jerker docudrama and suddenly its top of the political agenda. Oh and its all Ed Davey’s fault. Because it can’t be the fault of the the Tories (as far as the Tory client media are concerned, the Tories have never made a single mistake in 13 years, why the country is in a mess is a complete mystery). Even though it was the Tories who oversaw the post office for a decade after this. And not only did the Tories do nothing, but gave the head of the post office a knighthood and Fujitsu (the IT firm responsible for this mess….and the NHS IT system!) another big IT contract.

This tells us a lot about the UK and how the elites view things. As far as they are concerned they rule Britain. Not the king and certainly not the plebs. Its there’s by right. When people talk of the dark enlightenment, we need to remember the UK has been operating its own version of this for sometime now. The media control the narrative and the flawed first past the post electoral system more or less guarantees one or other of the two main parties will always be in charge, preventing anyone from challenging the status quo (be they on the left, right or even the centre ground).

As far as the elites are concerned the public are just suckers, to be manipulated, exploited and gas lit. The elites have nothing but contempt for the public. After all, they are stupid enough to vote for these clowns! The fact that the authorities were willing to believe a piece of dodgy software over hundreds of post office workers should tell you all you need to know.

But sometimes the mask slips. Brexit for example, did suit the agenda of some members of the elite (as it eliminated a threat to the UK’s shadow banking and tax avoidance system). But on the whole it was an own goal, its cost the country hundreds of billions already, something that was known to the elites from the very beginning. However rather than looking at reversing it, or having an intelligent conversation with the public about what what they really wanted. Instead they resorted to gaslighting the public. And of course set up shell companies in the EU and gotten an EU passport. After all we can’t have the elites suffer the negative consequences. That’s for the little people, who wanted to restrict immigration (even thought net migration into the UK has actually gone up). In short the elites (and labour are complicit in this) would sooner make the country poorer, than expose the lie.

It was the same with party gate. Its not like the press didn’t know what was going on. The police were standing right outside, so they certainly knew (in fact they initially put forward the lame excuse that its not the job of the police to investigate crimes). Hell Fishy Richi even attended some of the parties. But once it was exposed that there was one rule for the elites and another for everyone else (including the queen!), they had to do something or risk the wrath of the mob.

Its also why the government is so quick to react to any tabloid scare stories (knife crime, yobs, dangerous dogs, asylum seekers). The politicians know that even if its all tosh, they have to be seen to be doing something (even when they know full well the measures they are taking won’t do anything), or risk public anger. The Rwanda plan is a good example of this. In fact one could compare the UK to many autocratic nations, such as the PRC, who are also very quick to react to any public outcry. The only difference being that the PRC don’t bother pretending they are a democracy. And they are more competent that the bunch of dolts we have in charge.

The trouble for the UK is that this isn’t a stable system long term. We will eventually get into a crisis the government can’t fix (or even pretend to fix) and can’t escape the blame for (the looming pension crisis being a good example). What happens then is hard to predict.

Post Christmas news

Pints of brexit copium

So the brexiters have found a brexit benefit….pints of wine. Thanks to brexit we can enjoy french champagne by the pint with our lunch, just like Churchill….assuming we can convince the French to sell champagne & wine in pint bottles. Then again, I’m sure there’s a purveyor of English wines, aka du vin roast boeuf, who’ll produce it, if only to overcharge some dumb brexiters. Although in reality this is more bait and switch, since 99% of the public rejected the idea of going back to imperial units. So they threw in the Churchill & pints of wine stuff to distract from the real story.

Actually I suspect Churchill would be slightly more worried about the butchering of the UK’s human rights records, with the Tories undermining refugee and human rights conventions. He was a strong supporter of such projects, as he saw it as essential to preventing another Hitler (or at the very least limiting the damage one could do). Yet the Tories are crapping all over his legacy, as well as the legacy of Thatcher (who was in favour of the EU and the single market). Not that the tabloids are going to point any of this out.

Labour painted into a corner on brexit

A recent poll suggests that only 1 in 10 people in the UK see brexit as having had any real benefits (which also tells us that 1 in 10 are stark raving bonkers, hooked up to an IV drip Daily Fail copium). Another survey at the end of November found that only 12% think that brexit has gone well.

This is not really news as such. Since at least 2017 polls have shown the majority of UK voters think brexit was a mistake. And since 2022 support for rejoining has been consistently positive. Its just the main stream media haven’t really been reporting this, but alternative and social media sources have. And its now reached a point where them ignoring such a story is starting to look suspicious, so they have to cover it.

Obviously, the Tory position is to deny reality and gaslight (hence why they are suddenly talking about pints of champagne). However it presents a bit of a problem for labour. Starmer’s position has been to basically ignore brexit, because he’s afraid of a small number of labour voters who voted leave, who are such little snowflakes that if he even hints a the fact that they might have put the X in the wrong box, they’ll vote Tory out of spite (plus if they were dumb enough to fall for the brexit lies, they’ll definitely fall for whatever howlers the Tories roll out next election).

However, since brexit was always an exercise in denying reality, it was always going to be the case that support for brexit would eventually collapse (reality has a strongly pro-remain bias). The problem for labour now is, they can’t really exploit this shift in public opinion. As the obvious question will be asked, if you think brexit is such a bad idea, why didn’t you voice some concerns about it before?

Recall that labour voted in favour of Johnson’s withdrawal agreement and have supported numerous other brexit related bills (or at the least not opposed them). By contrast, the lib dems, Greens and SNP have opposed brexit and rubbed it in the Tories face every week at PMQ’s. So any talk about brexit during the election would just mean votes going from labour to these parties, rather than from the Tories to labour.

So this probably won’t play a huge role in the upcoming election, as neither party has anything to gain by bringing it up (and the Tory client media sure aren’t going to do so!). But its going to be major issue for the future labour government. Starmer’s economic policy is basically the same as the Tories (just a little less bonkers and sadistic), meaning he’s going to have trouble balancing the books. Its not like the economy is going to magically improve, just because labour are in charge (in fact a lot of the negative consequences of the Tories reign of error will likely hit around about then, so they can blame it all on labour). Either he’s got to grow the economy, which means strengthening ties with the EU, or he’ll have to raise taxes (both of which he’s promised not to do).

Meanwhile the Tory client media will be going all out to blame labour for brexit and every Tory screw-up made over the last 13 years. Why brexit was going fine until Starmer came along! We even brought back pints of wine! Hell I won’t be surprised if they do an about face and start supporting a customs union (purely because they know that Starmer can’t do that).

And he’s going to face a lot of opposition from within his own party. Labour is overwhelmingly pro-EU, its just that many in the party are keeping that quiet, as they are prioritising getting rid of the Tories over everything else. But that neutrality policy ends as soon as they are in government. Expect a lot of red on red activity afterwards. Defections to the lib dems or even a party split can’t be ruled out.

And recall that the only reason why the Tories still have a shot at a come back, is the UK’s first past the post system. As such a split in the vote, would open the door to another Tory government. Replacing FPTP with proportional representation would eliminate this threat, but again Starmer has also ruled that out.

In short Starmer has painted himself into a corner, largely because he’s too spineless and beholden to the Murdoch media to do anything meaningful. Plus he has, like Boris, prioritised becoming PM over the best interests of the country. The honeymoon period for labour is likely to be very short.

Climate change and wine

Speaking of British wine, while it generally been the butt of European jokes, this might not always be the case. Climate change is gradually moving the wine producing regions further north. This could wipe out some wine producing areas. While in theory, it would present an opportunity for other countries to exploit, that might be dependant on other factors.

For example, one of the reasons why they produce so much wine in France, Italy and Spain is because of high local demand. You will get some odd looks if you sit down to a meal in these countries and don’t order a bottle or two of wine with it (an actual bottle, not some pansy pint bottle). Many vineyards are centuries old, they have a substantial investment in infrastructure and have several generations of experience in wine production. That’s not something you can easily move or replicate in another country.

So if you are looking for a reason to do something about climate change, imagine Bordeaux wines being replaced by Chateau Vajazzle from Essex.

Rotting from within

It is is often said that all empires decay from within in the first instance, before collapsing due to outside pressures. And this is true for the UK, where local council’s are increasingly struggling to make ends meet with local services collapsing and many councils on the verge of bankruptcy.

It is often forgotten by many in the UK that a lot of the services they depend on are administered by local authorities, not central government. This includes things like child care, road maintenance, libraries, public transport, social care & some NHS services. However, the taxes that pay for those services are dependant on central government, with a 40% cut in funding since the Tories took power. Councils can’t even put up council tax, as central government sets those rates. About the only way mechanism they have to raise funds is things like speeding and parking fines (with the result that they’ve gotten really mercenary with these in recent years).

And the Tories are on record as not only failing to properly fund council’s, but even boasting about diverting money away from poorer labour voting areas towards wealthy Tory voting areas. They’ve also been cracking down on local democracy, threatening to overrule local councils on planning issues for example. This is very much contrary to the “take back control” mantra of brexit. Keeping in mind, that across the EU power is often heavily decentralised down to local government as a matter of policy.

So it just goes to highlight the enormous mess that labour will be inheriting. Unless they want to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Blair administration (and thus taking the blame for a Tory mess), labour needs a comprehensive plan for how to tackle these many issues, else they’ll just be changing the sign on the door.

Lie detectors used by UK police

A rather worrying story reveals the UK police are starting to increasingly rely on lie detectors to help solve cases. There’s just one small problem. LIE DETECTORS DON’T WORK, THEY ARE PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC NONSENSE. And that’s not even just my opinion, numerous studies have called their reliability into question. Even the original inventor of the lie detector disputed their use in criminal cases.

Recall that juries are often ignorant of these facts and may believe the results of such tests. Or not understand that someone refusing a lie detector isn’t proof of anything (other proving that he/she isn’t a moron). And there is good evidence that police in the US are well aware of the unreliable nature of lie detectors, but still use them anyways. So much as this has led to numerous miscarriages of justice in the US, we are likely to see much of the same here in the UK.

Sinn fein plays the race card

The populist party Sinn Fein is one I’ve always been reluctant to support, despite their left wing leanings. In part this is due to their links to the IRA, organised crime and even Putin’s Russia. But its also because they are political opportunists who will say and do whatever it takes to get into power, regardless of the impact that has on society.

For example, the reaction to the recent Dublin riot from the rest of the political parties was to circle the wagons, condemn the rioters and promises to take such matters more seriously. Sinn Fein choice to waste everyone’s time by calling a vote of no confidence, which they knew they’d lose (which required minsters to return from the Dubai climate conference). They’ve also recently begun questioning Ireland’s long standing position on immigration. Basically they’ve played the race card (which may have something to do with being behind in the polls).

This is why I don’t vote for Sinn Fein. We have no idea what their actual policies will be once in power. They might go down the hard left route, the far right, turn the country into a kleptocracy, or a Russian outpost, or perhaps all of the above. In fact, I don’t think they even know. They’ve not thought that far ahead. They are like the dog who barks at the postman and has no idea what he’s to do if he actually catches the postman.

Only teachers

Across the pond in America, a number of teachers have recently been caught out for having only fans pages. Given how conservative US school boards can be, this has led to a number of them loosing their jobs. However, I think the point being missed here is, if your teachers are having to do strip tease online to make ends meet, maybe you aren’t paying them enough? Or maybe they are sick of some busy body bible thumpers telling them how to teach biology.

Crying over spilt milk

So Argentina has a new mad king president, whose promised to turn the place into a libertarian paradise. How is that going? Well he’s just passed a law allowing companies to pay employees in milk, meat or bitcoin rather than regular currency. Well that’s encouraging! I mean if you want to buy a Christmas turkey I suppose you’ve just got to find a turkey farmer who really likes milkshakes. Not sure how you are supposed to settle the gas bill mind. Like I’ve said before, there will be only one beneficiary of his term in office, the wealthy and the powerful who bankrolled his campaign. Its disaster capitalism at its worst.

Tipping point

As I mentioned in a previous post, tipping in the US is now completely out of control. You have to now tip everyone for everything, even for online services or deliveries. And you have to tip at least 20-30%. And this applies regardless of the service provided. They could spill your soup or stomp on your luggage and they will still expect a tip of some kind (unless you want them to spill the soup again…over your crotch!…or set fire to your luggage!).

This is largely because many companies over covid switched to a tipping based model, which means staff pay is a pittance (I mean literally not enough to pay for the bus fare and buy lunch, i.e. they’d financially better off staying at home). So when we say they are relying on the tips to pay the rent, this is literally true. But why don’t restaurants just pay their staff a decent salary?

Well as someone pointed out to me over Christmas, that this isn’t necessarily so. Some business have tried this and in some cases have gone back to a tipping based model. Think about it, if you have a restaurant and the place across the road works on a tip based model, they can charge a lot less for their food and get more customers. Granted they’ll have to do some maths and face social pressure, but people don’t tend to think that far in advance when picking a restaurant.

Also one of the issues with tipping is that there is very little correlation between the quality of service and the level of tipping. Its often more down to other factors, some random (e.g. whether or not the tipper is in a good mood or not) and some related to how good the staff are at pressuring or guilt tripping customers into giving a large tip. So it can result in some push back from the staff who reckon they can do better out of a tipping model than a living wage (not all, but some).

In short, this is why we have minimum wage laws. The reason why you don’t run the risk of being stabbed with a fork if you don’t tip in Europe, is because workers are generally paid a lot better. Of course you propose that for the US and immediately they’ll say how this would make it impossible for family owned businesses to stay open.

But of course this ignores how there are far more family owned businesses in Europe. I celebrated Christmas in a Spanish town and there is literally not a single chain restaurant in the entire town (no Starbucks, no Mac Donald’s, no borders books). There are however plenty of really nice family owned restaurants….who also do way better coffee. And no tips are expected (although around Christmas time, bills are often rounded up to the nearest whole euro and the balance given to charity).

In reality, its all about ideology and control. If we pay the plebs a decent wage, they won’t need to grovel anymore and put up with our BS. And if they aren’t run off their feet they might find the time to go out and vote. Hell they might even join a union and we can’t let that happen!