Do they think we are stupid?

 Although Starmer describes himself as a socialist he clearly has liberal beliefs. He was incapable of defining what a woman is for fear of alienating the trans movement.  Clearly there are Starmer contradictions for example believing in fairness and rule of law but then going out of his way to deprive the Chagosians of fair hearing and  access to their own country..... Starmer believes is allowing liberalism - at least in terms of what he thinks is allowable but that liberal attitude also creates risks. In order to have a liberal attitude it makes the assumption that everyone will play by the same rules of fairness.  It is clear the world doesn't work that way and by allowing people to have views allows militant groups to have their says.  Ultimately that risk to fairness will allow some groups to gain power and undermine the very liberalism which allowed their views to exist. Once the illiberal minds gain how they will clamp down on liberalism. Liberalism is k...

 The plight of the UK pub is well known but this short blog post is actually based around my holiday to Malaysia. I was in the beautiful island of Langkawi in 2004 when the boxing day tsunami hit. Thankfully the island escaped the worst of the tsunami and things were quickly put straight and only 1 person died.  Back in 2004 it was pretty easy to get a beer in Langkawi. 21 years later I am back on Langkawi and it's not quite so easy to buy a beer. Thank heavens for Google maps - I can quickly search which restaurants, hotels and bars sell alcohol. The reason why it's harder to get alcohol is the percentage of Muslim population in Malaysia has changed significantly.  Back in 2004 it was 60% Muslim and has now increased to 65% in just  20 years. There are now dry hotels. We stayed in the beautiful Ombek Villa hotel which was fabulous but we wouldn't have booked it had we known it was dry. It just didn't feel the same without a beer or cocktail by the pool. However ther...

 Qweir Squirmer states he can't back out of the Chagos treaty as it's been signed. Surely Squirmer who allegedly has a law degree would remember first year law school where the process of law is explained and that ceding territory needs to be ratified by the king - in other words approved by parliament. Just because he signed a treaty does not give him absolute authority and the treaty is subject to parliamentary approval. Telling parliament that they must approve it because he signed it is arse about face. Any lawyer will tell you when writing a contract, and a treaty is just a contract, that you should cover all eventualities. The treaty should be wholly conditional on parliamentary approval.   Secondly I am hearing rumours that the treaty doesn't have other provisions or convenants for example preventing Mauritius from selling Chagos to China. Also I am hearing we still need to pay regardless  whether Diego Garcia is still there and payments are still due even if ...

 It is totally clear that Starmer doesnt seem to be following any logical rule book. I know humans can quite happily have conflicting beliefs but this seems more complex than that. I suspect Starmer is absolutely not an imperialist hankering for the good old days of the British empire. Quite the opposite - he seems to want to dismantle anything to do with Britain's hayday - except that is for soft diplomacy.  I'm inclinded to believe that Starmer has a self loathing for Great Britain and that penance is the only way forward. It's been an eventful start to 2026 and it has exposed some of the turmoil his poor little mind must be going through. On the one hand he says he respects International law (whilst just about every country that matters is busy ignoring it) yet ironically Starmer is busy ignoring domestic law for example by cancelling democratic elections, removing the rights to trial by jury etc. If we are entering a new era where Trump has given the green light to simp...

So to kick off 2026, Starmer is manifesting.  He is asking the universe to deliver his goals. In his Laura Kuenssberg interview he was chanting his affirmations that "I'll be sitting in this seat by 2027". I guess he wasnt very clear what seat he meant - was it a seat in No 10 or Laura's interview seat. My personal take is that this new age manifesting, affirming and asking the universe to deliver is little different to praying and asking your fairy godmother to do something.  It's not really a solid substitute for good old fashioned work and action. He keeps saying "Government must go further and faster to deliver change" but I'm still unsure what change Starmer wants to deliver.  The change Rachel has delivered (rather than 2TK has delivered) has caused inflation to double, unemployment to dramatically rise and the UK's standing as the fastest growing economy in the G7 to spiral downwards to the slowest growing economy in the G7.  Unfortuantely...

 "A city like Ankh-Morpork was only two meals away from chaos at the best of times".  Patrician Havelock Vetinari [Terry Prachett] You wouldn't normally expect a fictional book to be a source of wisdom but it's become clear to me that civilisation is an illusion - pretty much like money is an illusion.  I often ponder what great mind,  thousands of years ago, managed to convince barbarians to trust each other and stop killing each other and create civilisation.  Without farming, I'm pretty sure that would not have happened. But equally farming is based on land which generally stays in the same place - it's a pretty risky concept to stop being a nomad and invest effort cultivating a spot of land when marauding barbarians can come and steal your food or worse kill you. How civilisation "came to be" clearly was a delicate puzzle. Remove a reliable source of food from the equation and things break down pretty quickly.  The first sign that we are going to...