Deep State moves towards conflict

Few would ever have imagined that the deep State - that unlawful cabal of senior establishment, civil service, intelligence, legal, business and political actors - would ever break cover to the extent that they have in the past weeks in a final Ardennes offensive to try to sabotage Britain's exit from the EU.

Like the Ardennes offensive, they are throwing everything into a final gamble, risking all, including the peace of the country, to maintain their grip on power. We must wait until next week to see what happens to yesterday's display of nationalistic Scottish petulance masquerading as jurisprudence. Oh yes - that's exactly what it was. They have no evidence for the defamatory slur they made against the government - a defamatory slur that would be legally actionable had it been made outside the Safe Space of their McLordships' court - and like mini-me Sturgeons they relied, as the Telegraph tells us, "on an arcane 17th century law originally designed to protect Scotland’s right to self-determination before the Act of Union". This was nothing more than Scots establishment foot-stomping.

More sinister are the actors uniting the Parliamentary opposition in an alliance against the government; parties normally so disunited that they cannot even agree within their separate selves what to have for lunch are now phone-conferencing and mounting a co-ordinated response. Even the police are joining in with advice being solemnly given to the public across Scotland to assemble 'grab bags' of the kind we keep on board our vessels in the event of having to abandon ship. Documents, medicines. Thankfully, this Caledonian panic-mongering been met so far wih public ridicule.

We must deal with this deep State offensive in precisely the way Montgomery did with von Rundstedt's offensive; let them expose themselves in a deep salient that strains their lines of supply until their intentions are unmistakable, then chop them off at the knee. This is an existential battle for a free and independent British nation - and in preparing for conflict, the deep State, the enemy within, normally as invisible as a submarine, is showing itself. They're actually making themselves a target.

The Scottish establishment's national police force invites ridicule

The Brexit economy

Whilst Boris has a breather to consider how best to tackle the Gordian Knot of Brexit (a mess, it is being reported, exacerbated by Bloody Blair's machinations on behalf of  our European friends across the negotiating table - does anyone else think it's about time he lost the by now purely decorative 'right honourable' and 'PC' post-nominal?) let's take a quick look at Eurozone matters. 

The pound remains depressed but at €1.12 or thereabouts is where its been all year. Gold on the other hand is through the roof; oscillating at around £950/oz since the referendum three years ago, this Summer it soared to around £1,250 and is still today at around £1,200. The UK economy is still in robust shape, if not thriving, but clearly this cannot go on - the global slow-down and more importantly, investment and other key decisions by business that have been postponed time after time as Brexit drags on are taking their toll. Business and the economy need certainty more than anything; even the CBI, whose Remain stance on behalf of about 3% of UK businesses has been aggressive against Brexit, must admit that we need, as the Septics say, closure.

The Eurozone is in the doldrums and about to get worse. As the Telegraph reports, Cristine Lagarde, who narrowly escaped jail with her conviction for complicity in a fraud, takes up the Presidency of the ECB. She brings a unique brand of incompetence and poor judgement to the role. There may be some consolation for the feminists in that the grave errors she is about to make are about to be made by a woman, but few consolations for the rest of us. She's not an economist she's a schmoozer and cannot bring to the role the genius required to get the Eurozone out of intensive care -

They can do nothing about Brexit, they can do nothing about trade tensions, they cannot force Germany to loosen the fiscal purse strings, they have no answers to growing political instability, and they cannot force the pace of innovation and structural reform as Europe requires. Central banks have been reasonably effective in keeping the patient alive during the political paralysis of the last ten years, but they can provide no long term cure for the chronic nature of today’s economic ills.

Poor Sajid Javid's spending review was lost in the Parliamentary noise, but I think he is making the right moves. Plenty to include in the Conservative election leaflets, anyway - but it was a budget for more than that. Unlike the dreadful turncoat Hammond, he's actual budgeting for Brexit - and that's a first.

Good riddance to a meretricious arsewipe

For anyone landing on this post from the post title, I bet you knew the subject straight away. At least UK readers would. Yes, this is the excellent news that the meretricious little arsewipe who has disgraced the office of Speaker for the past nine years (I think - I really can't be bothered to check the creature's Bio) is to vacate the chair.

Parliament was first broadcast on radio at the same time as I acquired my very first 'music centre' as they were called in those days. A chipboard-plated slab with a plastic cover, a record deck and cassette player on the top and controls and radio tuning window on the front, with a pair of little chipboard cased speakers. It may have been low tech but by God it put me straight at the centre of our national politics in full stereo FM. George Thomas was in the chair, and as the historic Callaghan VoC debate went out live, the debate in which Callaghan half-sang a Marie Lloyd ditty and Mrs T called him 'Frit'. Callaghan lost by 311 to 310 and the rest is history. George Thomas was magnificent. I was transfixed, and in thrall thereafter to the wonder of our Parliament. There was one factor of which I think I and all others were unaware at the time - as Wiki tells it

In the BBC documentary "A Parliamentary Coup" it was revealed that Bernard Weatherill played a critical role in the defeat of the government in the vote of confidence. As the vote loomed, Labour's deputy Chief Whip, Walter Harrison approached Weatherill to enforce the pairing convention that if a sick MP from the Government could not vote, an MP from the Opposition would abstain to compensate. Weatherill said that pairing had never been intended for votes on Matters of Confidence that meant the life or death of the Government and it would be impossible to find a Conservative MP who would agree to abstain. However, after a moment's reflection, he offered that he himself would abstain, because he felt it would be dishonourable to break his word with Harrison. Harrison was so impressed by Weatherill's offer – which would have effectively ended his political career – that he released Weatherill from his obligation and so the Government fell by one vote on the agreement of gentlemen.

Of course that same gentleman, Bernard Weatherill, took the seat as the next Speaker, and set standards of equity and probity in the chair that remain unsurpassed.

After Weatherill came Betty Boothroyd - ex Tiller Girl, and to date our only female Speaker. She brought a twinkle and a touch of humour to the chair in a way that in no wise diminished either her dignity, the authority of the Speaker or her command of the chamber. For the matters of her term, 1992 - 2000, she was perfect.

Then came Gorbals Mick, an inadequate and corrupt machine politician with little merit who sought to suppress, by power and bullying, the expenses scandal from reaching the press. And after Gorbals Mick the arsewipe, that sanctimonious dwarf Bercow. Two lousy Speakers, Bercow the very worst in my long memory and possibly in the life of our Parliament.

I could not help catch some of those oleaginous encomiums bleated from the benches yesterday at the diminutive cretin, who has devalued the office, shat on the accomplishments of former Speakers and corrupted the business of the house. How low have we sunk to tolerate such worthless trash at the heart of our democracy.   

Another momentous week ahead

We are living through times that will feature large in the history texts of the future. These are times as portentous as those of 1688 or 1848. This time we are not fighting a Catholic monarch or a wealthy land-owning oligarchy for control of our lives and futures, but an elite of globalist supranationalists who would trade away nation and people for petty self-advantage.

Readers and contributors here previously drew our attention to the error of appointing Amber Rudd to government. I was ready to give Boris the benefit of the doubt - but it seems she gulled and fooled me as much as she did the Prime Minister. With a week ahead of events as momentous as any I have known in my life, I'm giving the rest of this morning's post over to a comment made by Sobers to the post below, which deserves a more prominent airing; 

"So why don't they just accept the democratic vote of 17.4 million people and give up then? Why can't they accept losing?"

Because they don't understand what losing is. What one needs to understand is the the Remain element of the HoC, and their supporters outside it (which are not all Remainers by far, just the vocal ones) are all members of the same class - the one who for 30 years, ever since Thatcher basically, have been the winners of the political game. They are the sort of people who swan from politics to heading large charities, from heading quangos to think tanks, to well paid media jobs, to running NHS trusts, or whatever. They all swim in the same sea, move in the same circles. They are the movers and shakers in State funded circles. They consider they run the country, and for 30 years its always moved in the direction they agree with. Yes there might be a nominal Conservative government every now and again, but none of them ever do anything to reverse the flow of more regulation, more State control of everything, more immigration, more taxes, more public spending, more European integration. A Tory government might slow the advance a bit, but the direction of travel always remains the same.

So in their heads they have decided that what they want is the only way the country can move in. Its just the natural state of affairs to them. Anything else is immoral as far as they are concerned. Just suggesting slowing down the speed of travel generates plenty of vitriol at those who dare to question them, the very idea that someone might throw the supertanker into reverse doesn't even fit in their comprehension.

So all of this isn't really about the pros and cons of being in a supra-national body such as the EU any more. Its about a political class being faced for the first time ever with the word 'No'. Its so discombobulated them, the mask has slipped. No longer are the usual platitudes about 'working families' and 'democratic choice' even paid lip service. They have been thrown out as their naked desire for power is exposed. Its become a nothing less than a power struggle - who is to govern, the People, or the Political Class? That's why they can't let Brexit happen, not because of any specific arguments about it, but because its become an existential fight - if they lose it they lose everything. If the voters can force the political class to leave the EU against their will, what other ideas might the people get?

All Out! Boris to go on strike

As the early Autumn chill bites, an environmentally-friendly coke brazier at the entrance to Downing Street warms both the government pickets and the policemen on duty. Michael Gove leans his strike placard against the railings and warms his hands at the glowing coals. He is talking football with one of the policemen.

" ..... and on the pitch, he moves like Nijinsky"

"Like a horse? Not sure I see that, Mr Gove"

"No no not the racehorse, the dan ....." they are assailed by a fug of heady gin vapours

"I demand to see the Prime Minister!" screeches Mother Soubry, for it is she

"Scab! Scab! Blackleg! Blackleg!" chants JRM languorously. He is wearing his lounge-lizard double-breasted boilersuit. Chalk striped. A police officer raises an eyebrow in warning.

"You can't" snaps Gove at Mother Soubry "he's on strike."

"But I've been deputed by the Commons to demand that he he obeys them! Either he gets on with it or we'll .... we will ....."

"You will what?" snarls Gove "trigger a general election? Yes please! Why do you think he's on strike? All you have to do is vote him out and we go to the country!"

"But we can't do that! Most of us would, er, um.. a lot of us would ..."

"Lose your seats? Be kicked out by voters? Be thrown on the scrapheap?"

Outside on Whitehall a furious squawking and a flurry of feathers indicated that the Leader of the Opposition was on his way to the House.

Mother Soubry sidles up to one of the policemen "Got any gin, love?" she asks plaintively

The British Road to Dirty War - a cogent warning

I am struck by the prescience of a considered piece by two British academics for the Bruges Group, which we featured when it first appeared back in mid-January, over eight months ago. 'The British Road to Dirty War' by Betz and Smith has been right on every count so far in detailing the process and the consequences of the establishment Remainers blocking the people's democratic choice to Brexit. I urge you to read it again in full. They say

The system works because everyone behaves by the rules. On either side of the bargain—the governed and the government—mutual obligations are observed in service of the common interest, which is the stable continuance of a non-tyrannical political order. Here we come to the disquieting part of the continuing Remain campaign, a campaign that seemingly supersedes party loyalty, not to mention national loyalty, which is its willingness to throw away the rulebook. Only a brazenly confidant, or foolishly out-of-touch, political class would chance this. The bet on the future is doubled.

The object of all these machinations has been to corral the British population into a Hobson's choice between Brexit-In-Name-Only and no-Brexit. It is no secret now. The plotters, finally, so close to the bell calling time on Britain's membership of the EU with a deal or without one, have declared it openly that they will not permit to occur what is the current legally mandated outcome of events. They will instead tie the government in knots, prevent its preparations for No Deal Brexit, and if necessary, crash it.

They think they can get away with it, the authors write, because they think we will lump it; that they can cancel the biggest democratic mandate in British history and we will all just shrug and get on with letting the corrupt and anti-democratic establishment continue to rule.

Those behind the plan to thwart Brexit by altering the standing orders of the House of Commons on the fly imagine this as a temporary alteration to the established mechanisms of power, which will return to normal after Brexit. That is to say, when the rules serve their ends, they are inviolably sacrosanct; but when they do not, they are perfectly mutable administrative procedures. 'This is not a wholesale reordering of the British constitution', averred one of the plan's prime movers. 'It would be a one-off surgical strike and afterwards things would go back to normal'. Such thinking reflects an astonishing degree of mental closure, an astonishing degree of hubristic contempt, or an astonishingly dangerous wager—anyway it is simply astonishing.

The two academics are amongst the nation's foremost experts in War Studies. They know of that whereof they write. Their final warning is chilling (my emphasis)

But we are expert on these matters. We have for decades studied why things fall apart, how a stable, essentially self-policing, productive society can turn into an ungovernable tumult roiling with rage. We know that this happens at first very slowly, a creep-creep-creeping to the limit; and then very fast indeed after the limit has been passed. We also know that no amount of free beer and pizza parties will swiftly return a society deranged by the shattering of the social contract by its own elite back to normality.

The Hattersleys of this world are deeply complacent. They are the new Bourbons who have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. The threat of violence is not absent in the British polity. It is there, lying dormant. From time to time, it even makes an occasional appearance. A hollowed out and increasingly discredited set of political institutions is all it can take to set the flames alight. This is the British road to dirty war. The political classes are sowing the wind. They shall reap the whirlwind.

We must hope and pray that Speaker Bercow, the deep State actors behind the plot to thwart democracy, the credulous and gullible dags and fools of politicians and broadcasters who support them and the simple idiots who think it will work will all pull back from the brink.

If democracy is denied, and if Betz and Smith are right in their predictions, I weep for my nation.

Anti-democrats fighting like rats to retain power

The anti-democrats in parliament determined to block Brexit are fighting like trapped rats to try to cling onto power. It will do them no good. There is a hurricane coming - a storm of popular anger that will sweep them from their corrupt sinecures, flush them like recalcitrant turds, smash the barriers they have built against the peoples' will.

There is a Twitter meme doing the rounds; a capcha grid of the sort you must complete here to post a comment. The squares are filled with a view of the Commons chamber and the caption "Select all squares with a c**t". It pretty much sums up the mood of the nation.

Not only Corbyn's Labour are scared of the electorate. Up to a third or more of sitting MPs face being wiped out, swept away in the democratic storm at the hands of the Conservatives, Brexit or LibDems, and along with them any other MPs in Leave-voting constituencies that have betrayed their voters. This is the last we'll see of Yvette Cooper.

An election is inevitable and this time it will be People vs. Parliament. 

For the first time since 1945, the people of Britain are remembering the power of universal suffrage and the secret ballot, and the anti-democratic rats are cowed in fear of their only nemesis - Democracy.

A tsunami of popular anger will sweep away the anti-democrats in parliament

And they're OUT! The party b'long us!

It's now People vs. Parliament

Here is the full list of the EU's collaborators and Quislings who will now have the whip withdrawn and who will not stand as Conservative MPs at the forthcoming election; they've been purged from our Party -

As I've written many times before, this crisis is about very much more than Brexit. Brexit is the proxy through which all those who oppose the patrician class, the political elites, the privileged metropolitan globalist winners and their corporatist backers are united. Yesterday the EU's most vocal Quislings were identified beyond doubt and expunged from the Conservative Party, which now heads the spearhead against the supranationalists. The Conservatives are now truly the parliamentary party of the people - and I am proud to be a member.

It really doesn't matter what Bill the Remoaner parliament passes today. It's an irrelevance. It can be revoked. Two things are certain - the United Kingdom WILL leave the EU, and there WILL be a general election.

If the Quisling parliament refuses the 2/3rd majority needed on a no-confidence motion by the FTPA, Boris can introduce a simple Bill to over-ride the FTPA provisions on this occasion; it will need just a simple majority. Loyal Tories may even be supported by Labour rebels and the SNP, who are predicted to increase their seats (below) from 35 to 50 if an election is held now.

All in all, excellent stuff! We're finally moving. 

The Elephant in the room

OK let's talk about the Brexit Party. This is Electoral Calculus' latest data run, from 31st August. It gives Boris a majority of 62.

Things change fast. Just three weeks earlier, the plot was showing no overall majority for the Conservatives - and it goes without saying that in three weeks' time it could be different again. So my guess is that Boris will keep watching the polling and particularly Dominic Cummings' private research before making any final decision, ruling nothing in or anything out.

Post-May, Tory donors have been coming back. The Midlands Industrial Council, the most engaged and effective of the funder groups, already have a target list of marginal seats. You can be sure that unlike the incompetent May and her ex-Home Office mates, this election will be fought very slickly.

Boris will do what's necessary to gain a working power base. That includes clearing out the Tory rebels who will oppose him today. The one crystal clear, unequivocal, overwhelming desire of the country is NOT to extend the Brexit process any longer. If the Commons remoaners win their vote today, they will cement this as a People vs Parliament election - and the people, of course, will win. 

It's time we lanced this boil. The country needs to - if not get back to normal - start getting back to work.

Is Theresa May facing deselection?

Tomorrow will be  a crunch day for Theresa May, as for a score of other Remainer Tory MPs.

It is expected that Conservative MPs will be subject to a three line whip to defend the government against Remainer attempts to sabotage Brexit. Mrs May has chosen to remain on the back benches in the Commons - and is now no different from any other Tory MP in having to comply with the whip. Boris has made it clear that voting against the government, or abstaining, means automatic deselection. Only death or serious injury is an excuse.

So it seems Mrs May has three choices tomorrow; obey the whip, literally throw herself in front of a (slow moving) bus or defy the whip and be turfed out of her Maidenhead seat in advance of the inevitable general election in a few weeks.

My bet is that she will vote for the government, that Rory Stewart won't, and will be booted out of Penrith, and of the others, some will and some won't. And I don't think there's a newspaper or columnist in the country who can call it better than that. 

English teachers have a day out in Ipswich

Ipswich town centre saw its largest ever gathering of English and geography teachers on Saturday, as a score or more of pro-EU protesters descended on Cornhill to recite something together quietly and in perfect cadence. Though inaudible to those at the back, it is believed they were objecting to the actions of the government. They dispersed at 3.45 pm, and it is believed many headed for the nearby Bring-and-Buy sale in St Matthews.

English and geography teachers gather in Ipswich

It is also believed that similar gatherings of teachers were held elsewhere in the UK, but these have gone largely unreported by the national media.

Like all bullies, the EU backs down in the face of courage

Little Macron, we are told, his delicate heels perched on his shoe-lifts, will now permit the United Kingdom to remain in the EU for a little bit longer than 31st October. Yes, he did stomp those same diminutive feet not so long ago and proclaim "Non! Non! Non!" to suggestions that Mrs May might be given a year or more to change Britain's mind about leaving. But that, his supporters say, was just for the benefit of the Euro elections. In other words, Le Petit was happy to trade the future welfare of all the nations in Europe for his personal political advantage. It's not a good look. Not that we want, or can be forced to take, an extension; we will leave when we said we would.

Anti-democrats determined to stop Brexit are now all out in the open, and have even stopped pretending in most cases that they are just concerned about 'no deal'. Our exit is looming, and it is their last chance to sabotage our leaving. So ex-PMs Blair and Brown work openly with the Brussels bullies to help them defeat the UK, and Major, the hypocritical architect of the entire mess, does so less openly but to the same effect. Why he and Heseltine are still permitted to remain members of our party defeats me.

Everyone knows the thing about bullies. They respect only courage, and a refusal to cow before their threats.

For the first time in nine long years of Conservative government, we have an executive imbued with the courage to lead the people of Britain in mounting a gallant challenge against the bullies. Boris has barely been in office for a month, but it feels as though he has done more in that time than the all the long years of Cameron and May together. It is truly refreshing and morale boosting.

And the bullies are, as bullies do, backing down. Little Macron may have to stand on his tippy-toes to try to match the stature of our PM; let him stand on a shoe-box if he must, or a tea-chest. We no more want France to look up to us than we want to look down on France - we want just what we've always wanted, a political relationship of respect between equals. The jejune bullying and intimidation of the Berlaymont has no place in international politics. 

When shoe-lifts are not enough - Macron stands on tippy-toes to look Boris in the eye

Peak Petulance next week

Hard lefties are in ecstasy right now that this might be THE MOMENT when the people rise up against capitalism, permitting the Glorious Revolution to take control; McDonnell is in tears, never imagining he would see it in his lifetime, and Magic Grandpa has mobilised his Momentum troops to occupy roads and bridges.

We can expect these warriors, overwhelmingly white, middle class and with beautifully spelt and punctuated placards in a variety of Farrow & Ball shades, to stock up on Waitrose quiche and Langoustine and Quinoa nibbles and head off to battle. Awkward and effete young men with pink hair will attempt to Twerk for the news cameras, young women still in their Zara summer frocks will take a break from Instagramming their legs and take their M&S Prosecco onto the streets.

There will, no doubt, be several thousands of them. Blocking roads, trains and stations, causing great inconvenience. They will cause the greatest annoyance to ordinary folk trying to get to work, do their jobs or on their way to collect their kids, ordinary folk who will not be exclusively white and middle class or with time on their hands. That Corbyn is firmly behind actions that will block emergency ambulances, lock minimum wage workers into packed buses crawling through traffic, keep surgeons from their lists and leave restaurant waste piled on the footways could not have been better; public anger will swiftly turn against the delusional street warriors, just as it did against the climate fanatics. Now that Corbyn has firmly identified Labour with the mass disruption, it will cost him a couple of million votes in the coming election and will split his party even further - you really can't see Emily Thornberry, Lady Nugee, planting her noble rump on Tottenham Court Road, can you?

And of course it will make absolutely no difference to anything at all.

No, no, .... it couldn't be ..... it almost seems designed by Dominic Cummings to play out this way

Tarquin and Justin will create another exquisitely kerned placard next week

The meltdown continues

I don't normally 'do' Twitter these days (though I keep it ticking over ready for the election campaign) but yesterday produced a couple of corkers. Dear Piers Morgan wrote "What this Brexit situation definitely needs though is more woefully ill-informed Remain-voting celebrities screaming ever more hysterically about stuff they don’t understand because they didn’t get what they wanted in the Referendum.". I don't think I can improve on that. 

Oh, and the anti-democrats are back to their dirty tricks again -

Yep, keep up the fake signings, Lads - it won't make a scrap of difference, and will keep your hands busy for the day.

Incidentally, I suspect all those whining now about the current session being ended after more than two years are the same voices who whined back in 2012 about the length of Cameron's first session. Yes, dears, Parliament is generally suspended every year.

... And We're Off!

Parliament is due to be prorogued in about two weeks - to sit again on 14th October.

This is quite a normal process, and usually happens every year. Nonetheless, some folk seem upset for some reason ...

(I've nicked this from Guido's comments ...)

Labour furious as Conservatives improve education

Not only is Michael Gove's time at the Education department beginning to pay off, but the improvements are set to continue with even more investment in the nation's intellectual capital stock and measures to force drippy 'all shall have prizes' educationalists to reintroduce discipline to unruly children.

Labour of course are furious. Under Labour, the People's schools were designed to keep the working class, particularly the northern working class, of whom Labour is terrified, in their place - with little ability for a financial independence from the Socialist slave-state. Dear God, start educating the working classes, Labour capos believe, and they might even start voting the wrong way ...

Unfortunately, the British people are seeing clearly the contempt in which they are held by Labour. They may not like Boris much, but they loath Corbyn as much as Lord Starmer and Lady Nugee. Farage and TBP still have a vital role to play in keeping Boris on course. A much-needed election will not only clear all the shite from the Commons - including the collaborators, turncoats and Quislings from the Tory Party - but restore in some measure democracy to voters from whom it has been tricked and subverted by an anti-democratic political class.

My voting finger is itching. 

People's Peers to re-capture the House of Lords

The House of Lords is the prime example of what Betz and Smith termed 'State Capture'. For decades now, the old land-owning peers whose names resonate down British history have themselves been made relics by a new vulgar breed of the undeserving political class -

With the rise of the new political classes, a different political dynamic is emerging. Drawn from similar backgrounds (often middle-class, university educated, with little prior career experience outside politics itself), members of parliament increasingly sound alike, think alike and act alike. The evolution of a monochrome political establishment is producing a radical disconnect, which the Brexit denouement is throwing into stark relief. What we appear to be witnessing is the corrupt mutation of the notion of the representation of the people in parliament, into the substitution of the will of the people by the interests of the political class. We are entering the realms, no less, of state capture.

Lords reform has become even more necessary since the popular Brexit vote, a vote that that the political class anti-democrats in the upper chamber are determined to overturn. Well, there's not time in the next few months to reform the chamber, so Boris must fall back to Plan B, oft recommended here, to flood the chamber with People's Peers.

The Express reports (the old Crusader seems to get many more juicy stories these days than the Daily Remain. I wonder why..) that Boris is considering Tim Martin amongst others. The 'spoons boss is surely more deserving than anyone of a red dressing-gown - he went out on a limb for Brexit.

But most delicious of all will be the combination of Boris' People's Peers with Failure May's resignation list. She is reported to have left Hammond off the list in revenge for the Treasury refusing to bung her £25bn of tax money to create a 'legacy' in her final weeks. Watching Hammond being frozen out whilst Brexit heroes such as Tim Martin are ennobled will raise a smile on millions of faces.

Lords remainiac Rennard has been dogged with allegations of groping his young staffers - is it time-up for his kind?

BBC Charter renewal 2027

The BBC's charter - the agreement that allows the organisation to collect income from a TV Tax - is due for renewal from 2027. Since the millennium, the world has moved on rapidly. The way in which people obtain and use broadcast output has shifted radically. Technology has enabled low cost, high quality commercial streaming; device quality and capability has made quantum leaps. We started the millennium watching Blair and the BBC bring in the new year on a TV set in the corner of the room; today, the flat screen mounted on the chimney-breast shows only Netflix.

Many are now questioning whether it's not now time to end the BBC charter. It's time to start the national debate. So let's kick off with the Five 'Public Purposes' which have been at the heart of the BBC's unique and privileged position and see how they've been doing. Here are the objectives, and here are my rankings. What are yours?

The Public Purposes of the BBC are as follows. 

(1) To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them: the BBC should provide duly accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming to build people’s understanding of all parts of the United Kingdom and of the wider world. Its content should be provided to the highest editorial standards. It should offer a range and depth of analysis and content not widely available from other United Kingdom news providers, using the highest calibre presenters and journalists, and championing freedom of expression, so that all audiences can engage fully with major local, regional, national, United Kingdom and global issues and participate in the democratic process, at all levels, as active and informed citizens.

(2) To support learning for people of all ages: the BBC should help everyone learn about different subjects in ways they will find accessible, engaging, inspiring and challenging. The BBC should provide specialist educational content to help support learning f or children and teenagers across the United Kingdom. It should encourage people to explore new subjects and participate in new activities through partnerships with educational, sporting and cultural institutions.

(3) To show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services: the BBC should provide high-quality output in many different genres and across a range of services and platforms which sets the standard in the United Kingdom and internationally. Its services should be distinctive from those provided elsewhere and should take creative risks, even if not all succeed, in order to develop fresh approaches and innovative content.

(4) To reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions and, in doing so, support the creative economy across the United Kingdom: the BBC should reflect the diversity of the United Kingdom both in its output and services. In doing so, the BBC should accurately and authentically represent and portray the lives of the people of the United Kingdom today, and raise awareness of the different cultures and alternative viewpoints that make up its society. It should ensure that it provides output and services that meet the needs of the United Kingdom’s nations, regions and communities. The BBC should bring people together for shared experiences and help contribute to the social cohesion and wellbeing of the United Kingdom. In commissioning and delivering output the BBC should invest in the creative economies of each of the nations and contribute to their development.

(5) To reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world: the BBC should provide high-quality news coverage to international audiences, firmly based on British values of accuracy, impartiality, and fairness. Its international services should put the United Kingdom in a world context, aiding understanding of the United Kingdom as a whole, including its nations and regions where appropriate. It should ensure that it produces output and services which will be enjoyed by people in the United Kingdom and globally.

Globalism is still destroying America

No apologies today for letting another voice do the speaking - in this case the distinguished American economist Paul Craig Roberts, writing for Zero Hedge:-

I have reported for years that US jobs are no longer middle class jobs. The jobs have been declining for years in terms of value-added and pay. With this decline, aggregate demand declines. We have proof of this in the fact that for years US corporations have been using their profits not for investment in new plant and equipment, but to buy back their own shares. Any economist worthy of the name should instantly recognize that when corporations repurchase their shares rather than invest, they see no demand for increased output. Therefore, they loot their corporations for bonuses, decapitalizing the companies in the process. There is perfect knowledge that this is what is going on, and it is totally inconsistent with a growing economy.

As is the labor force participation rate. Normally, economic growth results in a rising labor force participation rate as people enter the work force to take advantage of the jobs. But throughout the alleged economic boom, the participation rate has been falling, because there are no jobs to be had.

In the 21st century the US has been decapitalized and living standards have declined. For a while the process was kept going by the expansion of debt, but consumer income has not kept pace and consumer debt expansion has reached its limits.

The Fed/Treasury “plunge protection team” can keep the stock market up by purchasing S&P futures. The Fed can pump out more money to drive up financial asset prices. But the money doesn’t drive up production, because the jobs and the economic activity that jobs represent have been sent abroad. What globalism did was to transfer the US economy to China.

Roberts' conclusion is not positive. "The conclusion is that the United States is locked on a path that leads directly to the Third World of 60 years ago. President Trump is helpless to do anything about it."

EU illegal fishing in UK waters Buggered

It's the Express this morning that carries the best story. You'll remember how we're always being told that the EU is a 'rules based organisation'? Indeed the EU has been as tedious as a pub bore on the subject, whilst privately breaking all its own rules when the interests of the, erm, EU are at stake. This is going to work against the EU's fishing nations in a big way, as Bertie Armstrong, Scottish Fishing Federation boss, told the paper.

As HuffPost reported, French agriculture minister Didier Guillaume said earlier this month that "There is no scenario in which French fishermen should be prevented, could be prevented, would be prevented by Boris Johnson, from fishing in British waters. There is no reason for it. So I will keep telling Britain that our fishermen must be allowed to keep fishing in its waters". Brave words, young Kermit - but just bluster.

As the Express reports -

Bertie Armstrong, the CEO of the Scottish Fisherman’s Federation, claimed the European Union would become the "laughing stock of the world" if they did not respect British waters in the event of a no deal Brexit. "The European Union has led the world in the fight against what is referred to as IUU - illegal, unregulated, unreported fishing, off the coast of Africa and elsewhere in the world. If fishing nations in northern Europe were suddenly to engage in fishing which is not approved by the new owners of the waters, then the European Union would be the laughing stock of the world. It would be unacceptable."

This doesn't mean of course that individual French vessels will not seek to break the law - either straying a mile or so inside the marine boundary in acts of calculated defiance, or more seriously by turning off their AIS transmitters. All vessels over a certain size must continuously transmit vessel information under international law - this is the AIS plot of Peterhead harbour this morning, crammed with trawlers. Individual ship details can be brought up to give detailed vessel, course, speed and track information.

So how can we track them if they switch their AIS off? Well, we've just bought 26 new Protector drones, licenced to fly in European airspace and piloted from RAF Waddington. These powerful albatrosses can glide over our fishing grounds, fitted with radar and sensors that can detect and match physical signatures with AIS transmissions, and any vessels with AIS turned off can be closely filmed and photographed and their position legally recorded. As the Express points out, this is exactly the sort of technology that the EU has been championing for African fishing grounds.

One of the RAF's 26 new Protectors

Even if EU27 nations make difficulties after illegal fishing has been established in handing over skippers for trial or vessels for seizure, the trawlers will remain liable for immediate seizure by the Navy if ever they enter British waters again - meaning illegal fishing will be for many a one-time risk.

All in all, the message is Don't Panic - They're Buggered.