This is Northumberland Calling 11.4.25

The doing the Chicken Run edition

Hello America (particularly Central Ohio) this is Northumberland calling

The postal ballots have started to arrive, heralding the start of the local election season – 1 May for places holding them, including Northumberland. The first leaflet from the sitting councillor arrived yesterday.

The local elections where Reform are supposed to do quite well are part of the reason why I don’t think Labour are going to be able to sweep the ‘downgrading’ of the grooming gang scandal to five local inquiries (and maybe not even that as the money could be used to strength services, according to a haggard looking Jess Philips) under the proverbial carpet. Badenoch immediately said that the Conservatives were going to use the weapon of a statutory instrument to try to force again a national inquiry. Farage has indicated that Reform will now go down the judicial review route. And Blue Labour which is a growing force within Labour has rebelled. Starmer has been forced to say that nothing is being water down. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/04/10/starmer-faces-grassroots-rebellion-over-grooming-gangs/ or https://archive.ph/0ZiE8

The scandal of the anti-white male racism within various police forces is continuing to grow. The Telegraph reported West Yorkshire yesterday and how they were opening up posts to minority applicants prior to opening them to white applicants. Today, Thames Valley which has already had its hand slapped for employing US-style positive discrimination has been revealed to be using DEI training which promotes illegal discrimination and prioritises such things ‘learning about white privilege’ . Cooper refuses to intervene. I suspect a tribunal case which WYP loses is the likely outcome. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/04/10/cooper-urged-end-block-white-police/ or https://archive.ph/5Te2b Positive action is allowed under the Eq Act 2010 but not positive discrimination. Both forces deny that they are doing anything illegal. What was interesting is that instead of creating harmony and inclusion, the actions appear to be creating division and people thinking that minority officers have been promoted for tick box reasons rather than on merit. One of the big problems appears to be the quango – The NPCC guidance about the Eq Act 2010. This is not the first time the NPCC has had troubles with its guidance (see Harry Miller and his victories) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/10/police-officers-taught-they-have-white-privilege/ or https://archive.ph/vDf2f

The judgement in For Women Scotland v the Scottish government will happen on 16 June 9:45. The UK Supreme Court will decide how far a gender recognition certificate goes in providing the legal status of a woman. Either way, it decides, there are going to be fireworks. FWS is a grassroots organization without very little funding and it is fabulous that they have done this much. https://x.com/ForWomenScot/status/1910272949350695371

Kemi Badenoch skewered the BBC yesterday when they wanted to talk about Adolescence (a Netflix production to which they gave free advertising). Badenoch calmly pointed out that she is the Leader of the Opposition and does not need to watch tv to understand the problems of adolescent mobile phone use. She calmly explained that she thought the downgrading of the grooming gang inquiries spoke more towards misogyny than a television show. Starmer of course had been going on about the show, abasing himself. Thus Badenoch came across as by far the more serious politician. When are the Beeb going to learn that Badenoch excels at this sort of takedown? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/10/bbc-kemi-badenoch-adolescence-three-girls-grooming-gangs/ or https://archive.ph/UGcGh

Bowing to the inevitable, both Badenoch and Farage have conceded that at a local level Reform and the Conservatives will work on a ‘confidence and supply’ partnership on local councils. In other words where interests align, they will support each other, but there will be no formal coalition. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/kemi-badenoch-reform-local-election-councils-zr6gmb0dp or https://archive.ph/ExTfy

Speaking of serious politicians, in record time, Herr Merz has cobbled together his coalition and has declared that Germany is back and is ready for full independence from the US. The transformation of a hugely pro-Atlanticist prior to 7 Feb 2025 and Vance’s speech into a committed Gaullist has been astonishing. Germany will rearm. The debt brake has been lifted which means Germany can also start spending on infrastructure like fixing broken school toilets. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/04/10/friedrich-merz-man-europe-waiting-for-germany-right-cdu/ or https://archive.ph/J013f

Under Merz Germany is also going to begin repatriation flights of illegal migrants to Syria and Afghanistan. He will be cutting foreign aid if countries don’t accept their migrants back. After the US, Germany is the biggest donor of foreign aid… He intends to use the money saved for other commitments in the CDC manifesto. https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/friedrich-merz-foreign-aid-cuts-germany-fbxst5pdc or https://archive.ph/GkN0C

German intelligence has let it be known that they believe Russian intelligence was behind at least one (if not more) of the migrant attacks in the run up to the elections. Russia favours the AfD as they are very pro-Russia. In one case, they discovered, social media messages about the attack dating to two hours before the attack happened. The question though with the ‘breadcrumbs’ is were they left accidently or deliberately? In the UK, the trial about the Russians burning down the Ukrainian warehouse on the outskirts of London starts at the end of June. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/08/is-russia-recruiting-migrant-attackers/ or https://archive.ph/lhVWK

There have been several interesting articles on Ukraine. The Times has an exclusive about the British military and Intel involvement in 2023 which follows on from the NYT’s article about US intel at the start. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/defence/article/the-untold-story-of-british-military-chiefs-crucial-role-in-ukraine-3j2zpgrxg or https://archive.ph/hkumk

The Telegraph have done an op-ed on the fact that Britain is sending loads of gas masks. Apparently Russia has been using chemical weapons in Ukraine and this has contributed to most of their advances. Again it is intriguing that all this info is coming out now as it has obviously been known in certain circles for ages. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/04/10/putin-war-crimes-gas-chemical-warfare-ukraine-cwc/ or https://archive.ph/nqogG

I suspect we shall see British troops in Ukraine for ‘training purposes’ sooner rather than later. There was a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing’s defence secretaries yesterday. No Americans attended btw. There is a NATO meeting today but Hegseth is only going to dial in via zoom. Europe is very much moving towards the Gaullist model after 80 years of Atlanticism. It means America will have less leverage in Europe. I can understand why it is happening and that Atlanticism is basically dead now, but America and its interests around the the globe did benefit from the Atlanticism… https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/04/10/british-troops-could-be-deployed-in-ukraine-for-five-years/ or https://archive.ph/17sfS

I see Witkoff is back in Russia to deliver a message about sanctions if Russia doesn’t sign up to the US ceasefire proposals. I wonder how long Putin will keep him waiting this time. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/04/11/russia-ukraine-zelensky-putin-war-latest-news5292/

Prince Harry made a surprise visit to Ukraine to visit the wounded (why? Upstaging his father who is on a State Visit to Italy or is it because he wants state-funded security as he unexpectedly flew over for that court case?) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2025/04/10/prince-harry-ukraine-war-victims-surprise-visit/ or https://archive.ph/dxxZa

About the state visit: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2025/04/10/king-jokes-about-living-long-enough-to-see-sapling-grow/ or https://archive.ph/zGaQK

Here:

The fine weather continues and I shall do the first full inspection of the bees today.

The new hens conquer the ramp in the ‘hen wars’

One of my hens died earlier in the week (she was older and had stopped laying awhile ago). I have purchased four new hens from Durham Hens – 2 Gingernut Rangers, 1 White Leghorn (white eggs) and 1 Rhode Rock and did a chicken run to get them yesterday. The breeds are all good layers. The two remaining hens attempts as hen domination have hit a snag because they are older and no longer can jump while the new hens have worked out if they jump down and then back up on the ramp, they can eat before getting pecked. The hens are currently working out a pecking order. Because of an avian flu outbreak, Northumberland and Durham are now under really strict quarantine with poultry.

Paddy is bemused by the whole thing.

Given what is happening in the world, I have retreated in my writing to an unfinished Regency which I abandoned during COVID. I want to write something light and amusing. I had quite forgotten how much I enjoyed this premise.

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