Bumbling Boris denied access to Parliament.

 

Boris Johnson

Bumbling Boris Johnson has been denied access to Parliament. Yet, Jacob Reese-Mogg, says that it's absolutely ridiculous to deny the serial liar access to Parliament and calls the Privileges Committee report into Boris Johnson, 'vindictive'.

The committee was set up by Parliament to investigate whether Boris Johnson had intentionally or recklessly misled Parliament over 'Partygate'. A staunch Roman Catholic, Reese-Mogg, says it was perfectly right to criticise the committee's findings because that's politics. Although Boris Johnson was fined by the police for breaking lockdown rules that he introduced, Reese-Mogg, claimed that Johnson had stuck to the rules during lockdown and that the allegations against him, were "nuttier than a fruitcake", the work of 'remainiacs'.

An official told the Privileges Committee that 10 Downing Street had been an "oasis of normality" during the pandemic, with birthday parties, leaving drinks, and 'Wine Time Fridays' all continuing. Boris Johnson told Parliament that he'd been repeatedly assured that lockdown rules and regulations had been adhered to at all times.

Although politicians have a reputation for being professional liars, there are still some, who believe that the truth matters. Boris Johnson turned mendacity into an art form, believing that we live in an age of alternative facts and realities.

Although a majority of the committee members were Conservative MPs, Reese-Mogg, is one of a number of MPs who are now under investigation by the committee, for having impugned the committee by accusing it of "egregious bias", likening it to a "kangaroo court."

A recent YouGov survey of more than 3,000 adults, found that nearly 70% believed that Johnson had knowingly misled Parliament. As Jonathan Swift famously said, where "falsehood flies, truth comes limping after it..."

Titanic survivor - Frank Prentice.

 

Titanic survivor - Frank Prentice

Major Frank Prentice survived the sinking of the Titanic on the night of 15 April 1912. Age just 18 years old, he was employed on the ship as an assistant purser. He helped many women and children into the lifeboats and was one of the last people off the ship.

In an interview which he gave before his death, he said that he was clinging on to the stern of the ship, as it was about to go down. He fell over 100 feet into the water, missed the propeller’s, and survived the fall. He then spent another four hours swimming in the freezing North Atlantic Ocean, before he was helped into a lifeboat. He was among 706 Titanic survivors who were rescued by the RMS Carpathia, two hours after the Titanic had sunk.

He returned to England and by July 10, he had signed on to the Oceanic, which was also owned by the White Star Line. He was on board when the ship found one of the Titanic's lifeboats drifting in the mid-Atlantic, with four dead.

In later life, Frank Prentice, recalled: "I've had a lot of experiences during my life. Two world wars. Badly shattered right arm. Another wound in the leg. And all anyone wants to know about is the Titanic."

He was commissioned temporary Second Lieutenant in the Tank Corps on 28 August 1917, and was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry during the attack on Hamel and Vaire Wood on 4 July 1918. He was later promoted to Major. Frank Prentice died in Bournemouth on May 19, 1982, aged 93. He was the second to the last surviving Titanic crew member.

Russia coup called off. Wagner boss goes to Belarus.

 

Wagner mercenary boss - Yevgeny Prigozhin

The Russian leader of a mercenary group called 'Wagner', Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former criminal and hotdog seller, who was also known as Putin's chef, has now fled to Belarus after staging an abortive coup. He claimed that the Russian army had shelled and killed his soldiers.

Although Russian citizens face up to 15-years imprisonment for criticising the Russian army and Putin's invasion of the Ukraine, Prigozhin, has never been prosecuted for his criticism, and Putin has now granted his soldiers and Prigozhin, an amnesty after accusing them of treason.

Although the coup failed, Prigozhin has humiliated Putin, exposed the weakness of his government, and made the Russian government look like a Potemkin state. Is Putin now coming to the end of his rule in Russia?

The Diversity Illusion.

 

Britain seems to have an obsession with what it calls 'diversity' and identity politics. It also seems to have obsession with categories, targets, and measuring things. If you fill a form in today, there's always some standard question about private and confidential matters such as your sexuality, racial origins, or religion.

We're frequently told that this information is necessary for the purpose of monitoring equality, diversity, and social inclusion. Although Britain is a highly stratified, class ridden society, where social class, caste, and estate, will limit access to resources and prestige to some people, the question of social class is curiously always omitted in questionnaires.

In the Equality Act 2010, 'social class' - defined sometimes by a person's occupation -  isn't even a 'protected characteristic', yet we know that social class, is often used as a basis of discrimination in Britain. Identity politics, takes issues like social class, equality, and redistribution, out of the equation.

According to the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), just 7% of all Britain's MP's, can be considered working-class compared with 34% of all UK working-age adults. Only about 1% of the current crop of Tory MPs, entered Parliament from a working class job. In 1987, some 28% of Labour MPs came from working-class jobs and that proportion has since halved. You might say that British Parliamentary politics is a racket for the middle-classes.

In France, it's illegal to ask people questions about their sexuality, religion, and racial origins, and to do so, can lead to imprisonment and fines. Given the history of France this seems to be perfectly reasonable and understandable. In WWII, the country was occupied by Nazi Germany and some French citizens were Nazi collaborators. The Nazi persecuted people because of their sexuality, religion, and racial origins, and many millions of people were murdered because of it. To have had information about a person's sexuality, race, and religion, would have been very useful to the Nazi regime, but very detrimental for some people.

The British don't seem to fear that personal information can be used by governments for nefarious purposes, because they view the State as largely benign, utilitarian, and harmless, a kind of fairy godmother that dishes out free bus passes and social security benefits. Yet all states and governments, are capable of degenerating into repressive dystopias, and we also know that the people are quite capable of putting dictators into power and turning democracies into dictatorships, as was the case in Nazi Germany.