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News and Comment August 2024

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3 August - The shortest honeymoon in history

I first referred to the Labour Government being in trouble within 18 months in February and again more recently. Predictions are always risky and I was hopelessly wrong again.

Most of yesterday morning was taken up showing video to an old friend, the things referred to here two days ago. For context she is a little older than I am and a lifetime Daily Telegraph reader until it became too expensive a year ago. She now has the Daily Mail delivered. Her TV viewing is limited to the main channels but far from being a TV addict. (Constantly borrowing my DVDs.)

Politically - quoting from yesterday - never much enthusiasm for the Conservatives but never really liked Labour either, despite being a Union official in her younger days. I am pretty sure she didn’t vote a month ago and may overall be more typical of the electorate in general than I am.

We watched four different videos of Wednesday’s anti-knife crime protest in Westminster including the organizer calling for calm and good behaviour and by and large it was peaceful. There will always be idiot exceptions and I saw two plus a third that I heard about. My friend heard the riot police say that they would just go in and snatch people at random from the footpath and some were punched to the ground for no reason whatsoever. Just standing there and wallop! Her verdict was that “the police are animals” which may be a bit hard on your pet Rotweiller.

If you only watch regular TV you will probably not know that.

We then watched the Muslim march held the following day. Oxford Street and Regent Street brought to a total standstill. Nearby roads were coned off so completely that no one could get in or out of the Mayfair area. A motorcyclist took a video tour around the area twice showing that he was kettled in. With one exception the police were rude and unhelpful. The exception was a young woman who phoned through to her bosses and obtained permission to open one road and release the taxis and buses.

Back in Regent Street the Muslim marchers were dancing on top of bus shelters while the police looked on admiring their antics. The police with no batons, shields or helmets admitted to having no prior notice of the disruption and according to the YouTube commentary the TfL website carried no warning of planned road closures.

How much is Sadiq Khan costing London’s economy? The white British, and some people of foreign appearance, at a protest authorised by the police, were kettled and brutally attacked by thugs in uniform on Wednesday evening and the Muslims who may be encouraged by the fact that they are protected by two-tiered policing were allowed to bring the West End to a halt on Thursday afternoon. Criminal behaviour ignored.

And then I showed my lady friend Kier Starmer’s speech which she knew nothing about. Instead of announcing a plan to counter knife crime he announced a plan to attack the knife protesters and hamper Social Media.

Since then I cannot find any support for him.

YouTube is not yet Main Stream Media and channels generally boast a few tens of thousands of subscribers though Mahyar Tousi has 600,000. When universally negative YouTube comments went further and referred to Starmer as evil, or a Nazi and mentioned the Gestapo they were attracting huge numbers of Likes within an hour or so or publication, 2,000, 3,000 or even 4,000 in one case I saw. All from a relatively small number of viewers.

Starmer has won no friends at all.

Similar videos have been produced in Ireland, Australia, the USA and Sweden which has a similar problem. All decrying the former Trotskyite who has quickly reverted to type and already wrecked the UK’s reputation for fair dealing internationally.

I was at the Oval last night so not able to watch Sunderland live but it is obvious that the hooligan element was out in force and playing into Starmer’s hands. He must be brought down by peaceful means and the police exposed for the thugs they have become. In London anyway. Rioting in the true sense of the word is not acceptable and must stop and arson is a good number of steps too far.

Potter's International HotelIf I may digress for a minute there have been several references to disturbances in Aldershot which long time readers will know was ‘home’ for 35 years. Six addresses all within five miles.

The centre of the protests there has been the Potter’s International Hotel which I had never heard of. Its address and Google maps led me to its location. When I was there, when Britain had an Army and Aldershot was its main base, the hotel was the Officers’ Clubhouse. It was quite a way outside of town and I used to pass it daily on my way to school. Not on the way back as in the afternoon there was a more direct bus route.

The issue in Aldershot is not knife crime related it is simply that the hotel has been taken over by immigrants. My remaining few friends in Aldershot say the whole town has been taken over by immigrants but fortunately they live about as far away from the Hotel as it is possible to get without losing their Aldershot address.

Why Potter’s Hotel? The name was very well known when I was growing up there. The family grew rich from making and selling musical instruments from about 1800 onwards and in my time had a shop in the town centre. I vaguely remember the names Samuel, Henry, Robert and George, there were loads of Potters in Aldershot and one at least went to the same school as me.

Bob Potter was a bit older than I am and created the Lakeside Country Club in nearby Frimley. It is famed for hosting the Darts Championships and a few pop concerts when they were smaller affairs than they are now. I saw Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames perform there in the middle or late seventies.

I’m not sure if Lakeside Country Club still operates (Ah! Google say it does) but it looks like the Potters have moved on to housing immigrants and no longer the local heroes that they used to be.

And all from making a bugle and drum kit back in 1803.

The Officers’ Mess was bombed by the IRA while I lived nearby.

 

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