This is Northumberland Calling 29.11.24

The first resignation from this Government’s cabinet, and Labour plans to station police officers in Iraq to smash people-smugglers edition

Hello America (Particularly Central Ohio) this is Northumberland Calling

The Transport Secretary Louise Haigh became the first casualty for Starmer’s government. She has resigned after the Times revealed that she was convicted of misleading the police over mobile phone which she had claimed had been stolen when she was mugged. The phone was later found not to have been stolen at all. She claimed it was a one-off but further investigations with her employer brought to light three other incidents where Haigh claimed her phone had been lost or stolen. Haigh was known for running her mouth off and nearly managed to scupper a deal over the future P&O ferries over her unwise remarks. Apparently the Labour Leadership was aware of the conviction for dishonesty when Starmer appointed her to the position. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/louise-haigh-has-fraud-conviction-over-stolen-mobile-phone-wk8frh7z7 or https://archive.ph/n1Ye3

Haigh at one point was very vocal about other people’s rule-breaking, despite having broken the rules herself. There may be a word for this sort of behaviour which Labour currently seem to excel at – hypocrisy. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/louise-haigh-terrier-like-minister-who-hounded-ex-pms-rule-breaking-bbjjvwxjz or https://archive.ph/DE66h

It is the Assisted Dying Bill debate today. My MP has decided to support this bill. Who knows if it will pass. I do think the safeguards are just not there and it will be a disaster of dystopian proportions. In short I disagree with his reasoning, but he is the MP who was voted in in this constituency and entitled to vote his conscience. https://x.com/JoeMorrisMP/status/1862259725884133853

Migration in the UK came under the spotlight this week. First Kemi Badenoch gave a speech in which she apologised for the Tories getting it badly wrong. Too large of immigration waves and national identity is overwhelmed, particularly if there is no robust mechanism to ensure assimilation for new arrivals. It is a grotesque failure of the Conservatives not to ensure orderly immigration. In other words, the infrastructure is not there because they failed to ensure it was built or properly maintained. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/11/27/kemi-badenoch-admits-tories-failed-on-migration/ or https://archive.ph/H8a5m

If you look at the US in the late 19^th and early 20^th or indeed Britain in the same period, there was high immigration but national identities were not overwhelmed because of the pressures to conform to certain national customs were greater. It is easy to overlook the UK’s 19^th century experience as there was so much emigration to the new world, particularly from rural areas. However, there was just as much if not more immigration from Eastern Europe because of religious tensions such as pogroms who were more likely to work in factories. When I was studying for my Life in the UK test, the fact struck me as I’d always considered that the UK population must have severely decreased in the period. It in fact increases considerably. No one would claim late Victorian Britain is anything but British or indeed Britain just after WWI when the immigration wave had subsided…Thus there are multiple failures within the system which have not been properly addressed imho.

Some of the problems of mass migration are being laid bare in the Irish General election, happening today. As this article points out 1 in 100 people in County Donegal is now a recent migrant. Many have been put in holiday homes and hotels because they were empty but it means the tourism industry has suffered as there is nowhere for the tourists to go. Thus, all the business which have sprung up to provide for said tourists are suffering. The Irish General election happens today. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/11/27/ireland-election-asylum-seekers-tensions/ or https://archive.ph/3HwiP

Second the Office of National Statistics admitted that net migration was closer to a million in the year to June 23, not 600k as previously reported. In doing the revision, they claimed that the figure of 720k to June 24 was a decrease. Cameron came into office in 2010 pledging to get net immigration down to under 100k. The time the UK managed this was in 2019 during lockdown. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/net-migration-figures-statistics-fall-c38hzmzc5 or https://archive.ph/0GCcY

One of Labour’s solutions appears to be send illegal migrants back to Iraq and to try to smash the people-smuggling gangs based there by station police officers in Iraq . In opposition, Labour objected to Rwanda on human rights grounds. It is amazing that in Government that they feel Iraq is a viable alternative. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/28/uk-crime-fighters-iraq-channel-people-smuggling-gangs/ or https://archive.ph/fCYMn

Syrian rebels have taken advantage of Isreal’s near-destruction of Hezbollah and launched a new offensive against the Assad regime. The Assad regime relied on Hezbollah to do some of the heavy lifting. It remains to be seen what will happen with this. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/11/28/syrian-rebels-launch-surprise-attack-against-assad-regime/ or https://archive.ph/92Xdd

If you have read David McCloskey’s spy-tainment novel Damascus Station which does bring the complexity of Syria to life, you may be interested to know he is now fronting the latest offering from Goalhanger (Gary Lineker’s podcasting juggernaut) The Rest is Classified which looks at clandestine history. It started on 27 Nov and the first offering which looks at the 1951 Iranian Oil Coup and the role of the CIA and MI6 might be of interest to some. The first two parts are out as on podcasts now. https://advanced-television.com/2024/11/19/goalhanger-announces-the-rest-is-classified-podcast/

The Christmas schedules 2024 have been released. There is the new Wallace and Gromit feature length film debuting on Christmas Day on the BBC (on Netflix on 3 Jan) . There are Christmas specials for Call the Midwife and All Creatures Great and Small. There will be a second series of SAS Heroes shown. Etc etc. Something for everyone during that week between Christmas and New Year when Britain is basically on holiday. It is also what will be shown on PBS later in the year… https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/uk-christmas-2024-tv-guide-specials-new-drama-comedy-original-films-kids/

Today marks 28 years since the day my family and I moved to our current house. I did do Thanksgiving the day before. The move with three young children was fraught, but this house has truly become a home.

The snow on Saturday morning caused an accident outside our house. Luckily the bollards which we forced the council to put in 2 decades ago prevented the driver from crashing through the wall and landing in the oil tank. The car suffered some damage but not the driver. The council have now fixed the bollard. I can only hope that they will actually grit the road when such weather is forecasted. Apparently a recent decision was to only grit when the high school was in session. I have written my councillor about the situation, praising the foresight of the Highways department with regards to the bollards. It used to be an accident blackspot before they were put in.

My writing hit a snag yesterday when I spotted a huge plot hole. I have been busy cutting and reworking.

Paddy was vocally insistent on having a walk this morning and has now decided to be very cute. He had an Yakker stick (a type of hard cheese chew) for his Thanksgiving. They are supposed to last a long time but he managed to chew it up in a few hours, but he loved it.

Finally Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all who celebrate. I am truly thankful for all those read my thoughts and indeed my books. I appreciate each and everyone of you.

If you want to find me during the week, I have started putting things on Celia M’s Jottings in Purple

which is where a number of refuge FP commentators are hanging out as they dislike the current FP policy on comments. The discussion is usually lively as you might expect from former FP commentators. Depending on how firmly my Procrastination Princess tiara is attached (aka how well my actual writing is going), I may end up getting distracted.

Hopefully everyone else’s week was a good one. I look forward to seeing you in the comments.

If you like what you read on here, why not subscribe? It’s free and I don’t have any plans to put in a paywall. If you want to ‘reward me’, why not buy one of my books? Currently a number of them are on special at $1.99. https://www.amazon.com/stores/Michelle-Styles/author/B00288QUJM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1729240286&sr=8-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true