Politics – Page 3 – More Zonkyness

Right-Wing Terrorism In The UK

Mar 102024

The frothing-at-the-mouth loons on the far right are all over themselves whining about Islamic terrorism including counting the weekly marches against what is happening in Palestine as Islamic terrorism. Islamic terrorism in the UK is a legitimate problem, but the elephant in the room is far-right terrorism. There’s a fair amount of it going on :- (sourced from the Wikipedia article listing terrorist attacks in the UK)

2022-10-30: The Dover firebomb attack.
2019-03-16: Vincent Fuller “used a baseball bat to attack the home of a neighbour of Indian descent and several cars driven by non-white drivers, shouting “Kill Muslims” and “white supremacy” according to witnesses, before stabbing a 19-year-old Bulgarian man”
2017-06-19: The Finsbury Park van attack.
2016-06-16: The murder of Jo Cox.
2013-04-29: : Pavlo Lapshyn, a Ukrainian student and right-wing extremist, fatally stabbed Birmingham resident Mohammed Saleem.
2013-06-21: He detonated a home-made bomb outside a mosque in Walsall.
2013-06-28: He detonated a second home-made bomb near a mosque in Wolverhampton.
2013-07-12: He attacked a mosque in Tipton with an improvised explosive device containing nails.
1999-04-17: The London nail bombings.
1999-04-24: The London nail bombings.
1999-04-29: The London nail bombings.

Excluding a 2007 attack that was anti-authoritarian in nature (so could be said to be either right-wing or left-wing), and a joint IRA and Red Faction attack in 1993, the last genuine far left terrorist attack was in the early 1970s from the Angry Brigade.

Now that list of 11 attacks isn’t huge and hardly compares with the number of Islamic extremist attacks, but it’s there. And more than justifies keeping a close eye on right-whingers.

Diesel Generating Electricity for Electric Cars

General, Politics No Responses »

Mar 042024

I recently came across a post talking about how insane it was for a diesel generator to be generating electricity for an electric car charging station. Well, yes but it might not be quite as bad as it seems.

The first thing to bear in mind is that very few cars will charge here unless they really need to – most car users will charge at home and will only use public chargers when they have no other choice. And this one is undoubtedly in a remote location where a suitable electrical feed is not available. As a remote location, it’ll get even fewer users than most public chargers.

Probably only those who haven’t properly charged their car overnight and are ‘caught short’.

The second thing to bear in mind is that although it’s a more polluting solution, it is still almost certainly far less polluting than using a petrol car. For a start, most of the electricity used in an electric car is off the grid which whilst not completely clean is at least getting cleaner (the UK is currently generating 36% with renewables and is in late winter when demand is quite high).

Next, a diesel generator is a very efficient device – far more so than a diesel vehicle because it can always run at its most efficient (assuming a sensible load and it’ll have been picked to supply the load for an electric car).

But hopefully it is just a temporary solution until someone has enough nous to set up a solar farm and a battery backup.

Why Tories Should Vote Against Tories

Politics No Responses »

Jan 142024

This is going to be a bit of a departure from the normal far-left propaganda and I dare say almost every Tory voter will be ignoring it. But maybe a few will at least listen – at least to me it makes sense. And not because I’ll not be voting Tory myself either.

Today’s Tory party is broken – to at least the extent that the Labour party was broken during the era of the Militant tendency; they have been infiltrated by two (at least) factions of the far right.

The first are your classic proto-fascists – nationalistic to the extreme, anti-immigration, and worried by “woke-ism” to the extent they’ll by really nasty to those the wokeists will say you should be nice to. And I don’t just mean with words – they’re basic thugs.

The second are disaster capitalists who don’t care about the country. They’re after enriching themselves and their rich mates. They’re after tax cuts – not because they believe in small government but because they want to cut taxes for the rich.

The fix for this is to smash the party at the next election; anything less won’t work. The party needs to be reduced to the point that the extremists will give up on the party and leave for greener pastures. Hopefully they won’t find a new home.

It is quite possible that a loss at the next election won’t be quite enough – real Tories need to get out and shout down the extremists at every opportunity. The party needs to look closely at what the public as a whole wants – for example, sabotaging the NHS over the last decade has made much of the public very, very angry.

And the party needs to look very closely at why the young steer clear – the way things are going at the moment, the Tory party will be having an annual conference in a back street pub in a couple of decades. The old adage about young people becoming more right-wing as they age is almost certainly wrong, but even if it’s right, they’ll be looking to the right-wing of the Labour party or the Liberals as their home.

Why am I trying to help the Tories? Because I’ll enjoy seeing the Tories have an election result that’ll make the 1906 disaster look like a tea party of course. But a relatively small loss won’t cause the party to do a proper reflection to the extent they need.

It’s Official; Tories Are Lying Scum

Politics No Responses »

Jan 072024

The 𝕏-verse has been splattered with Tory messages about this month’s cut in National Insurance; many of which have been amusing tagged with context pointing out that this isn’t a tax cut. Oh and if you see a Tory tax calculator, don’t try it – it’ll dishonestly add you to a Tory mailing list.

National Insurance isn’t quite a tax; it looks like one, smells like one, but isn’t quite. The NI contributions are added to a fund out of which certain benefits are paid – chiefly state pensions. See: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/657ae7f1254aaa000d050d2e/Great_Britain_National_Insurance_Fund_Account_-_2022_to_2023.pdf
There is already a stealth tax rise due in April; a ‘tax cut’ that’ll be obliterated in three months is nothing more than a token gesture. Quite possibly a political stunt aimed at encouraging voters to vote Tory in a May election (if it occurs).

We can expect many, many more Tory lies on social media as the next election approaches; always pay attention to the “added context”.

Is Starmer a Red Tory?

Politics No Responses »

Jan 062024

There’s quite a bit of noise online about how Keir Starmer is really a “red tory” because he isn’t socialist enough (or at all). Now don’t get me wrong – he’s nowhere near left-wing enough for my taste, although neither was Jeremy Corbyn.

But a red Tory? Well perhaps, but at least he’s red rather than blue. But whilst he’s dropped socialist policies, he doesn’t seem to have dropped all socialist policies – he’s still in favour of nationalising the rail industry.

That doesn’t sound very Tory.

He’s in favour of extending free breakfasts to every primary school in the UK if he’s dropped the plan for free lunches in every school.

That doesn’t sound very Tory.

Does It Matter?

Well of course it matters!

But if the choice is effectively between a hopefully competent red Tory leading the Labour party in government, or a pathetic waste of space leading a dysfunctional blue Tory party in government, the choice is easy. The kind of government I want just isn’t a choice at this point.

Unfortunately we have to compromise and settle for the least damaging government we can feasibly get.

The Conspiracy Theory

Now most “he’s a red tory” commentators out there are probably perfectly innocent, but the Tories have started pushing their message as if a current unscheduled election in May is on the cards. And they aren’t above pushing black propaganda – after all their 2% National Insurance cut is very conveniently timed for a May election when the stealth tax rises are about to kick in.

Are some of those “red Tory” allegations, propaganda by the Tories to discourage left-wing Labour supporters from voting? Or for voting for no-hopers?

If we want to be sure that the current bunch of corrupt clowns is removed from government, we have to vote tactically (and avoid potential “fake” tactical voting sites).

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