CATCH UP

CATCH UP

Having just returned from a tour along the River Douro in Portugal I thought it might be interesting to have a look at what has been going on in my absence. The Labour Party conference was an opportunity for Starmer, our prime minister, To convince his party and the public that he can recover from the disasters of the last year. There was mention of his recognition of a Palestinian State. How can you recognise something that does not exist? A state has fixed and recognised borders, a functioning administration, armed forces and diplomatic representation. None of these exist, and a rabble of fuzzie wuzzies clutching Kalashnikovs are not armed forces. A big mistake that can only give heart to Hamas who will see it as a major prize and justification for terrorism and murder. There was also talk of removing the two child cap on child benefit payments. Currently parents get an allowance of £26.05 per week for the first or only child, and £17.25 for the second. There it stops. There is nothing for any subsequent children. There is much pressure from the left to remove the cap and pay the allowance for all children, not just the first two. This would be a very great mistake as well as being unsustainably expensive. The only gainers would be immigrants, particularly Muslims who tend to have large families (contraception being frowned upon) and slatterns of the lower orders who churn out swathes of illegitimate children, all by different men. It is claimed that this would help to eradicate child poverty. There is no child poverty in the UK. There are hordes of overweight feral brats, all of whom wear expensive trainers and have even more expensive mobile phones. There was some sympathy for the awful slut Angela Rayner, sacked after trying to fiddle the tax due on her purchase of a second home in Brighton (incidentally the queer capital of the UK). Mrs Rayner is not queer, having been impregnated (by, we assume, a male) at the age of 15. Peter Mandelson, on the other hand, is queer and bearing in mind the attitude of the MAGA lobby towards sexual perversion, was hardly a good choice for British ambassador to the USA. He is ‘married’ to a chap of foreign persuasion. Starmer’s judgement has been appalling. After all, if you appoint a Bangladeshi as minister for rooting out corruption (Tulip Siddiqi) and she then has to resign due to her own involvement in corruption, you cannot be overly surprised!

Not a word on defence , of course.

There was much harsh criticism of Reform UK and Nigel Farage, which can only increase the number of the latter’s supporters. As Reform is the only political party that has a sensible policy to deal with illegal immigrants it is unsurprising that they are well ahead of Labour in the polls. I have met Farage, was impressed by him and may yet join his party. His speeches in the European parliament, when he was a MEP, available on YouTube, are hilarious.

In other news we now have the first ever female archbishop of Canterbury, an ugly specimen who has up to now been the bishop of London. In her first interview she said that she was perfectly happy to bless the ‘marriage’ of uphill gardeners and female equivalents, which will go down well with the very large number of Anglicans in the global south, particularly Africa.

On Sunday the Conservative Party conference opens in Manchester and it will be fascinating to see whether Mrs Badenoch can restore her party to relevance.

In foreign news it seems that Trump has now reversed his pro-Russian anti-Zelensky views and is prepared to sell us long range missiles which we can then give to Ukraine.

On Thursday next I leave for Uzbekistan (4 hours to Istanbul then another 4 ½ to Tashkent), returning on 23 Oct and then off to India, so there will not be a newsletter until I get back to UK in early November.