I return from a trip last week to find two obviously connected headlines that don't seem to have been juxtaposed in the MSM.
UK's Starmer Confronts Xi on Human Rights at G-20 (here)
Hong Kong jails 45 pro-democracy activists 'for trying to overthrow city's government' in latest China-imposed crackdown (here)
China is obsessed by symbolism in such matters, and the timing won't be remotely coincidental. Has anyone dared to tell Starmer that this can only be a calculated, deliberately humiliating slap in the face?
And why has this obvious aspect not - so far as I can find - been reported on here? Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about that, but as I say, I haven't found it.
ND
15 comments:
Hah!
What is clear is that Starmer is incapable of reading the likely consequences of his actions. Which does not bode well for the rest of us.
Starmer is paid to mouth platitudes and Mr Xi pays people to rough up protesters. In the grand scheme no one cares about either and both 'incidents' are instantly forgotten and the world moves on.
Starmer is not particularly degraded by this, he did what he is paid to do, no one took any notice as is expected. Had Starmer not made his comments then professional whiners would have whined. This is the diplomatic game - an infinite capacity for humiliation. Like water off a duck's back.
I did like the Mail's 'HK, former British colony' a bit like 'London, former Viking colony'. Then dear old Dearlove telling us that Labour will ruin the military (and everything else). As if Johnson et al had not already done so.
Meanwhile, back to that 'plan for growth', now where did I put that?
China are past masters of this sort of stuff. ND, have you read "In The Jaws Of The Dragon" yet?
Something else that's receiving zero coverage is the exact damage cost of the Barrow fire - I assume there was a sub in there, that it was being worked on, and that a lot of stealth rubber tiles went up. If that is so, it won't have done the sub much good at all. Nor any word on damage to the "shed" - apparently the second largest building in Europe.
Well, it got a fair amount of press coverage from what I saw. Most after-the-fact reports say it had limited effects e.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3rx8xnw0edo.amp
So it could have been a nothing burger. Or it could all be a pack of lies. Sometimes you do need your tin foil hat because “they” really are trying to beam brainwaves directly into your head. But of course sometimes, that’s what the asylum inmates say, too.
Is it a humiliation if nobody notices?
"Most after-the-fact reports say it had limited effects"
It would be pretty unpatriotic to say anything else. OTOH, they might mean "limited to the submarine and the building it was in" !
The only way to settle the matter would be to take a look. Since the site is probably one of the most secure in the country, I doubt they'd let us in for a sneaky peek. And even if we were allowed inside, we're not really qualified to make an accurate assessment.
So this, like so much else in the infowars online cannot be substantiated one way or the other. We resort, then, to either Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt -- or Copium -- as is our preference, if we deign to opine on the story.
S, 2TK Keir expresses his concern to Chinese President Xi Jinping about human rights abuses of jailed Hong Kong democracy activist Jimmy Lai. Meanwhile languishing in high security prison in Belmarsh S.E. London, one Tommy Robinson (NHRN), political prisoner sentenced under “terrorism” charges. While another individual, Peter Lynch, jailed for demonstrating against his governments imposed system of enforced mass migration commits suicide while serving his (some would say completely unjust) sentence, and others too numerous to mention of previous unimpeachable behavior, also jailed for “tweeting” counter to the government narrative.
The bare-faced hypocrisy of this Prime Minister and his fake government of no mandate is truly something to behold. Britain has surrendered any moral high ground it might once have had on the international stage for the upholding of human rights with its suppression of free speech and imprisoning and/or persecuting those who are prepared to risk their freedom to use it.
What's sad is that Starmer is acting as if the deindustrialised UK is still a major power. And what's even sadder is that even if a British Lee Kuan Yew clone were to take power tomorrow, so much damage has been done it would be a monumental job to rebuild - almost impossible IMHO. Be interesting to see if Trump can do more than he did last time out, but they are starting from a higher base.
There's a youtube video of the 1953 Coronation Review at Spithead. From that to asylum hotels in two or three generations. Sad!
Vauxhall Luton to close van plant, move work to Merseyside.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/nov/26/vauxhall-owner-plans-to-shut-luton-van-factory-putting-1100-jobs-at-risk
"blaming economic conditions and the government's zero-emission vehicle mandate" - interesting use of the word mandate.
Also related, Thyssen-Krupp steel in Germany to lose 11,000 jobs due to "overcapacity and rising imports from Asia". Presumably the imports are cheaper, hence the overcapacity, and they're cheaper because ?
"Thyssen Krupp Steel is committed to the green transformation".
Quite impressive to see a whole continent committing suicide. Around the last millennium they had the Flagellants, beating themselves and each other because of their sins. Odd how history repeats.
Deindustrialisation is a natural result of education (other peoples) and a failure to think clearly (ours).
Amusing to see HMG shifting its ground over EV targets. Nothing like some placard waving and job losses to instill a little reality into ministerial minds.
The snag is our local crop of humans, many are not worth much on the world market. Starmer may ginger up the job centres but taking a look at my local high street I doubt any sane employer would want many of them. Too much cost and aggravation. Add in the high cost of housing and food and power and the long lasting reductions in education budgets and it is not surprising the economic landscape has tilted eastwards. But plenty of lawyers and accountants, so no worries.
The fun starts in January with Mr T. He has much the same problem as us but the US has grabbed most of the useful things in the world and looks like pulling up the economic drawbridges. That might work for a decade or two. We won't like it and all those Chinese cars will have to go somewhere, bonza.
Eventually those drawbridges and Donald will rot away, that is a problem for another day.
"a failure to think clearly"
I think it's more post-68 quasi-religion - we've gone from "those damn foreigners" to "those delightful foreigners", and "straight white males" are now deprecated.
The economic systems of Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan are similar to each other but very different to ours, and go against many of our cherished free market beliefs. They're also more successful.
Rather either confronting them and forcing them to change, which would have been a lot easier 40 years ago, we tell ourselves comforting stories about lost decades and ghost cities.
Or, we can copy them, which over here would probably be called fascism. But their system is a lot easier to manage in countries with only one dominant culture and where government officials are, in Eamonn Fingleton's words, "passionately patriotic". Oh dear.
Very soon 2025 will be upon us, and my understanding is that all new build housing, by law, will have to be heated by electric heat pumps. I don't know if developers are frantically breaking ground in villages and towns with gas mains, to get started before then.
Watching 2TK explain why the housing target is disappearing in the mist will I guess provide some sour amusement.
OT, but anyone read this?
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10014.html
April 2019 - "Overextending and Unbalancing Russia"
#1 option, drill drill drill to keep oil prices down
Now Ford:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98dzyy850jo
Lisa Brankin, Ford UK's chair and managing director, told the BBC that without demand, a government mandate to produce and sell more EVs "just doesn't work". The comments add to a growing row between the government and the industry over the sale of new petrol and diesel cars being phased out over the next few years.
You have to admire the genius of our officials and advisers:
There are flexibilities in the current system, allowing manufacturers that can’t meet the targets to buy "credits" from those that can. In practice, this means firms could buy credits from companies such as Tesla or Chinese firm BYD, which build electric models exclusively.
Brilliant, just brilliant.
"Around the last millennium they had the Flagellants, beating themselves and each other because of their sins. Odd how history repeats."
The Xhosa cattle slaughtering cults of the Victorian era also spring to mind.
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