This is Northumberland Calling 20.10.23

Amber storm warnings all around

Hello America! This is Northumberland calling.

Paddy in his drying coat, with his recently acquired boot toy after a blustery wet walk

As I write this Storm Babet rages outside. Here in Northumberland, it is an Amber weather warning (aka don’t travel). Paddy the English Springer spaniel decided only mad dogs and humans go out in the midst of a morning storm. It is a red alert up Aberdeenshire way with loss of life, landslips and flooding. Whipped up by the wind sea foam clings to building in Scotland  Yousaf who has been acting at the Scottish MP for Gaza may actually have to do his day job as First Minister for Scotland and sort out the flooding and infrastructure problems. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/woman-swept-death-storm-babet-brings-flooding-chaos-2s3g3x0jp or https://archive.is/HsS2R

The Conservative lose two more supposedly safe seats. By-elections are often time for the electorate to signal their dissatisfaction with the current government and this is no exception. Add two flawed MPs Nadine Dorries, acolyte of Boris Johnson who flounced because she wasn’t elevated to the House of Lords in John’s leaving honours list and Chris Pincher who was removed because he behave inappropriately (pinching male bottoms) and one can see why the Conservatives have struggled. Is it  a political earthquake or something less momentous? I figure the Tories (given their sizeable majority) will cling for dear life until the last possible moment which means December of next year. A general election must happen within five years of the last general election. It is up to the ruling party to choose the time unless they face a vote of no confidence. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/10/20/political-earthquake-tories-lose-two-seats-by-election/ or https://archive.is/bqnWb

Labour has its own problems and getting split re its stance on Israel. The usual rent-a-gobs have been displaying their bias. However Starmer is standing firm and some councillors etc have been kicked out of the party. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/19/israel-gaza-hamas-palestine-labour-corbyn/  or https://archive.is/IkHAz

Various artists and writers and others have been similar rush to judgements. Why? One answer is the anti-Semitism baked into the Progressive movement. This has led to a huge anti-Israeli bias as the author of Isrealophobia explains in this article. Some of the strands I knew about (such as the Nation of Islam. Angela Davis famously obtained training at a PLO camp, the differences between Malcom X who supported the PLO and MLK jr who was pro Israel etc) and others I didn’t (the influence of Cobbett who wrote Rural Rides,  the Cold  War Kremlin zionologists etc) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/10/15/liberal-left-cheerleading-jihadism-hamas-israel-conflict/ or https://archive.is/tjBiB

In all the noise about the Israel-Hamas war, the Australian electorate struck a blow for common sense and defeated the ill-conceived Voice referendum which if it had been passed would have been Woke on steroids from everything I could tell. This is a very good op-ed from the editor of the Spectator about why it was good that it failed and how it should serve as a masterclass in defeating wokeism https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/19/australian-masterclass-in-how-to-defeat-identity-politics/ or https://archive.is/a9DbF

A labour of love has resulted in a 94 year old restoring his father’s old car to its bright and shiny yellow state. After a twist where the pensioner discovered the ruin of a car listed on a auctioneer’s website and several years of pain-staking restoration work, the car  now works. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/that-s-dad-s-old-car-son-94-restores-wreck-to-its-former-glory-p728x8qct or https://archive.is/0BBEu

And finally, I struck a blow for common sense last week. I participate in the Flu Survey for the UK Health Security Agency.  They moved to a new platform and wanted people to fill out a new profile. I started and then stopped – instead of what sex are you, the question was what gender are you. Gender is a social construct and does not materially affect medical outcomes. Sex is a biological variable and does. I complained, pointing to the most recent directive from the Secretary of State for Health. I received an apology and an assurance that if I wanted to go back, the question had now been change to one which reflected the guidance. I filled out my profile yesterday and the question indeed was What is your sex – male, female, other. I am taking it as a win.