Regaining Trust

What does the Tory Party need to do to regain the trust of the electorate?

A leader has to emerge who isn't afraid of the ERG and is willing to speak the truth - that truth being that they were sold the Brexit pup by a serially lying charlatan who didn't even believe in it himself, but used it as a means to achieve power - power he was ultimately too flawed to wield properly. The fact Johnson is a liar is not a matter of opinion, it's a proven fact and the very reason the Parliamentary Tory Party wants shot of him.

Yes, there was the slenderest majority for Brexit, but the form that Brexit should take was never debated, nor the consequences, which were spun as Project Fear, which is now undeniably Project Reality. More now have come to the conclusion since 2016.

Of course, the emergence of a leader with the balls to do what's politically and economically necessary isn't going to happen at the present time - fanatics from the ERG are still spreading misinformation that the deluded soak up - and the deluded are predominantly Tories. Any new leader is constrained by circumstances and will have to go with the flow. Any MPs showing real leadership potential were thrown out of the party by Johnson.

Every member of the Cabinet is tainted by support for both Brexit and Johnson. Not one of them has the guts to spill the beans about there not being a single benefit to Brexit'; the Tory support based isn't yet ready for truth and still cries out for more lies to balance the truth. Additionally, Cabinet members were not selected for their expertise or probity, but because they were sycophantically loyal. What will happen is that we'll limp along for another 2 or 3 years with the dead weight of Brexit dragging the country down further into the gutter under the leadership of someone who knows Brexit is shit, but can't say so for fear of losing support. That support, however, will gradually wane as we approach a General Election. It's a one way path.

Any real leader would need to bide their time and accept that the Tory Party is inexorably destined to lose the next election as the situation deteriorates, possibly to the stage of civil unrest, like the Poll Tax Riots. That will be the time to step forward and inject some realism into the party. It would appear Ben Wallace has realised this and has withdrawn from the race for the poisoned chalice.

Then there's the matter of the Tory Party - the party that's done its best to marginalise and disenfranchise non-whites and has a longstanding problem with Islamophobia - having the choice of 4 (possibly more) non-white candidates. While the Parliamentary Party may whittle it down to 2 candidates, they may both be non-white, which may be a bridge too far for the wider party membership - and certainly for the wider, Tory-supporting electorate. That said, Tories have shown that they're fully willing to trash the pillars of Conservatism, and indeed the country, to achieve the destructive Brexit they want, so they may even bury their Islamophobia and vote for a Muslim leader, providing he or she is seen as a rabid Brexiteer that's happy to keep pressing the self-destruct button.

As for Suella Braverman - that's just a joke too far. She's despised in legal circles for her partisan advice as Attorney General. She has QC after her name, but that's an honorific given to all Attorney Generals, whether they took silk or not, which she hasn't. 

She's not incompetent on a Nadine Dorries scale of incompetence, but she gave legal advice that was designed purely as cover for Johnson's worst excesses - advice she knew to be false; Machiavellian advice. She's dangerous and she's ostensibly a fanatical Brexiteer. I say ostensibly, as no sensible person is a Brexiteer - politicians are fake Brexiteers and they use Brexit as a vote catcher, as Johnson did, but the vote catcher is based on lies.

Grant Shapps has launched his leadership campaign by saying; “I have not spent the last few turbulent years plotting or briefing against the prime minister. I have not been mobilising a leadership campaign behind his back.” Why ever not? Johnson was an absolute disaster, totally corrupt, a moral and ethical vacuum, simply the worst PM ever to hold the office and a national security risk, yet Shapps was content to let the guy continue in office against what's plainly the wishes of the majority of the Parliamentary Party. He's shot himself in the foot with stupidity if he thinks that's going to win any favours from backbenchers in the first round with that statement.

Yes - it seems the contenders are vying with each other to see which can appear to be the biggest bell end. The problem they all face is that the Parliamentary Party and the winder party have opposing agendas - the MPs don't want a Johnson facsimile, whereas the wider party does. Contenders have to show two faces simultaneously.

Whatever happens, we're in for a chaotic period till the next General Election as none of the candidates can display any leadership, even if they have it - for now they are forced to appear as facsimiles of Boris Johnson, and we know what that means. The failure of Brexit to deliver any benefits is being blamed on everyone, except Brexit itself - civil servants, lefty lawyers, the BBC, Remoaner Tories, Durham Constabulary, Meghan Markle, gravity or even the Pope - the usual suspects that the likes of the Tory propaganda machine  (Daily Mail, Sun, Express) deems to be traitors. It's like 1950s McCathyite USA.

Labour too is scared to mention that the Emperor has no clothes, but mainly because it understandably doesn't want to be dragged into a Brexit row until the runes are self-evident to even the most fanatical that Brexit is to blame, rather than Covid, Ukraine, traitors, baying mobs or the EU itself. It's a long-term strategy, but it annoys the hell out of those who have seen the light since the ridiculous notion of Brexit was first mooted.

Someone noted that Boris Johnson is the 3rd PM brought down by...... Boris Johnson....

Incubation

My mate left me in the lurch. He wanted some fertilised chicken eggs and incubate them so his kids could see the process of chicks being hatched. 

As he didn't have an eBay account, I ordered them for him, but they arrived the day he was going on holiday - so I'm left with them.

I ordered half a dozen of them and they have to be turned three times a day while being kept at 37.5 degrees C. Luckily he had sourced an incubator I could use.

Had they been peacocks I'd have kept one or two - they could handle the cats quite easily. Not so sure whether they could handle the foxes though. I quite fancy a peacock or two about the estate.

Thank God he's coming back tomorrow.

Early Crocosmia

We have masses of crocosmia planted in the gravel between the house and the limestone paths and patios around the house. They usually start blooming in late July or early August, but this year they're starting to bloom 3 weeks early.

They're not that long-lived, but give us a magnificent display for 3 or 4 weeks of the summer.

Key Points

 Key points from overnight reporting:

• PM denies ever having met with Truth.
• PM denies mass resignations from his government.
• 1922 Committee looking into having Boris Johnson sectioned as a narcissistic sociopath or, failing that, bringing in an exorcist.
• Being convinced he can beat Suella Braverman, Larry the No.10 Cat announces his entry into leadership contest.
• Fearing Suella Braverman could win the leadership contest, the 1922 Committee has asked Boris to stay on.
• Sacking of Gove results in Johnson appointing Bob the Builder as Levelling Up Secretary.
• Danny Boyle announces plot development for a new film - Carry On PM.
• Her Majesty was caught smirking.
• Theresa May hospitalised with severe case of the giggles.
• Many Tory MPs on record claiming Johnson has a 'mandate from the people', thus demonstrating that candidates need a basic GCSE in how Parliament works before standing as an MP.
• Nadine Dorries now has 20 government portfolios and has submitted a letter of no intelligence.
• Johnson considering appealing to the ECHR and American Supreme Court.
• Carrie Johnson seen buying wallpaper steamer from B&Q.
• Argentina has taken advantage of the confusion and annexed the Scillies. The Irish say the Scillies belong to them.
• Johnson to bring in agency Ministers.

Brexit Strategy

Starmer is coming under fire from some quarters about his Brexit stance. However, these critics are simply too impatient and lacking in understanding of  the necessary steps - we can't just cancel Leave and expect to be where we were pre 2016.

Yes, Brexit has been a disaster for the UK, and continues to be so, but a vast swathe of the electorate is still firmly wedded to it, regardless of the pain it inflicts on the country. When you think about it, for the average person, Brexit has made little difference to their daily lives, except if they've had cause to travel outside of the UK. The full effects will take a long time to be felt, and there has to be no doubt in minds that Brexit is the cause, rather than the myriad other possible causes that Brexiteers desperately hang on to, such as Covid or Russia's incursions into Ukraine.

The road to re-joining the EU is long and tortuous and I can't see it happening until after the Conservatives are out of office and not even in the Parliament after that - it will be some time in the 2030s. There are sequential steps to be followed and they can't be circumvented. There are also numerous obstacles.

The UK has to focus on fixing its current problems first, which are more pressing - we cannot join the EU while flat on our backs and supplicants. We must bring something positive to the table to help persuade the member countries that we are worth the effort, the most important of which is international standing and reputation for sticking to agreements. The NI Protocol, for example, is actually benefiting NI, so best left alone.

Even then, the EU is highly unlikely to want to admit a country that remains destabilised and divided on the issue of the EU. They would want to see a referendum demonstrating at least a 60% support for re-joining and the likes of Farage relegated to permanent obscurity. They will not want a repeat of 2016 every decade or so. A supermajority may even be a requirement.

Then there's the small matter of joining the EU necessitating adoption of the Euro, which could be a huge stumbling block, as well as possibly having to join the Schengen area, losing all opt-outs and the rebate. These are issues which could further destabilise the Re-join vote.

Lastly, Boris (if he survives) still has enough support to galvanise the waverers in any General Election, so Starmer cannot afford to hand him a victory on a plate while the causes of the UK's woes are still up for debate and he insists on twisting the facts.

Starmer is playing the long game, and correctly so, no matter how much it frustrates the hard-line Remainers. It's called strategy - softly, softly catchee monkey. Do not doubt Starmer's conviction, nor his strategy.

Fuel Prices

I've done a small calculation based on when petrol was £1 per gallon, which was 1979, and the prices both last year and currently. The increase in prices were then compared with the increase in average wage then and now.

As you can see from the chart above, fuel followed roughly the same multiplier as the average wage between 1979 and 2021, but has recently jumped from a multiplier of 5.41 from the 1979 price to a phenomenal 9.0.

SkyNet

I sometimes wonder when the internet will become sentient.

Fanciful? When you think that any AI that does become sentient will in all likelihood be connected to the internet and therefore have access to the sum knowledge of humanity, it doesn't become that fanciful.

One can just hope that this AI would have the intelligence be able to sort the good stuff from the crap, like the digital versions of the Daily Mail, Express, Sun, GB News and YouTube conspiracy theory sites. Any AI coming across that pile of poo might think humanity ain't worth saving - or worse still, believe it. 

Enemies of the People

I was thinking about what the Tories and their right wing client journalists have considered to be enemies of the people, and the list is growing by the day:

• Lawyers,
• Judges, especially those on the ECHR,
• The law itself,
• The Church of England,
• The Royal Family,
• Select Committees with a majority of Conservatives on them,
• Universities and academic in general,
• Teachers,
• Doctors,
• Nurses,
• The Bank of England,
• The BBC,
• Channel 4,
• Naturally, the entire EU and all Remainers who point out the logical inconsistencies within Brexit and the pure vapourware it is.

Can you think of anyone else who is the enemy du jour? At this rate it's going to be the Tories on one side and every single institution in the UK and internationally on the other. It's getting desperate for them as they're running out of enemies to create.

However, a group of incompetent Cabinet Ministers, who are entirely dependent on a corrupt, amoral and incompetent PM for a good proportion of their salary and their job, as no-one else will employ them, express 100% confidence in him.

I'm At My Tailor's

Continuing the theme of the Chairman's tips for saving money.

Most of you who know me realise I hardly, if ever, buy new clothes, preferring to purchase everything at charity shops, which have seriously improved their lines in the last decade. It's not unusual to find brand new M&S or Next clothes that are either end-of-line or slight seconds for a fraction of the normal retail price.

My mate phoned me the other day while I was purchasing a selection of shirts at my local St Peter's Hospice charity shop, which does an excellent range of clothing - I told him to call me later, as I was at my tailor's.

Three Course Meal

Here's the Chairman's tip in these cash-strapped times for still enjoying a meal out.

So who among you ever has a three course meal at home? I think we in the Chairman's household have a dessert about twice a year - and one of those occasions is Christmas, when it's obligatory to carve off more Christmas pudding than you can actually eat.

It's the same with starters - I can't remember ever having a starter, unless we're treating friends to a meal at home, but why we do it is a mystery - it's just something that's expected when having friends round. 

So, there's your saving - eat a restaurant meal as if you were at home and simply have the main course. You'll save yourself at least a third of the cost, if not more.

For an additional saving, if you don't regularly have wine with dinner at home, don't have any wine with your restaurant meal. That could be another 25 % saving on the full cost of a three course meal.