This is Northumberland Calling 5.11.23

Remember, remember glue girl from Oxford, a paid activist plot? I know no reason why professional intersectionality should be forgot

Hello America (in particular Central Ohio) This is Northumberland calling.

Due to a stomach bug, my missive is late this week. However bed rest gave me a chance to read.

Today is Guy Fawkes day – gunpowder treason and plot. A day when for many years the English would burn effigies of Catholics. Now they burn effigies of Sadiq Khan and his deeply unpopular ULEZ scheme. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/01/effigy-sadiq-khan-burn-kent-bonfire-night/ or https://archive.ph/hcRRV

Yesterday saw the now weekly pro-Hamas march in London but in far smaller numbers than last week. On 28 October, the crowd was estimated to be 100k (not the largest despite MSM saying it was – Jake Wallis Simons mentions in Israelophobia that 180k march on Hyde Park in the summer of 2021). On 4 November, the crowd was estimated to be 30k. I would suggest many are of these were the rent-a-mob crowd such as the glue girl from Oxford who was a paid activist and had ’auditioned’ with an umbrella group which was partly fund by Georges Soros’s Open Society among other groups. It is quite possible that some of the funding came from Iran or pro-Hamas as well. I suspect a condition of employment is to show up to what cause the umbrella group happens to be supporting.

It given the nature of performative stunts, it is why I suspect coloured mice were deployed in McDonalds. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/31/mice-palestinian-activist-mcdonalds-star-city-birmingham/ or https://archive.ph/fE6rm

For a number of reasons, pro-Hamas is very intertwined with far Left academia and has been allowed to incubate for years. It amazes me that people who are very keen promote progressive Western causes such feminism or indeed gay rights have a huge blind spot where Hamas is concerned. Under Hamas, women and gays  face as strong as restriction as women do under the Taliban. The underlying philosophy is the same.  But that is the logic of professional intersectionality for you and the intertwining of various social justice groups.

For example Sisters Uncut and Queers for Palestine appear to be blissfully ignorant of life under Hamas. Sisters Uncut declared that white patriarchy was responsible and this was they supported Hamas. They are part of a joint struggle block with BLM and other organisations (which means they get some of their funding from similar sources and he who pays the piper calls the tune)  Note they were remarkably silent about the Iranian teenager who was murdered by the morality police for the crime of uncovered hair or indeed the Afghan women who chose death over being outside without a hajib or indeed taking the risk of meeting strange men, things radical feminists once upon a time were concerned about (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/30/women-died-earthquake-afghanistan-fear-taliban-hijab/  or https://archive.ph/4FOyy ) . IN other words, the radical groups have forgotten their core raison d’etre. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sisters-uncut-pro-palestine-protests-feminism-oppression-london-32qcf0s5g  or https://archive.ph/jYHaL

A Cambridge academic helped to write a pro-Hamas pamphlet. It is doubtful that she would be able to work under a Hamas regime. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/03/cambridge-academic-co-wrote-booklet-pro-hamas-article/  or https://archive.ph/KezP2

Not content with harbouring murderers, sex pests and other undesirables, the Sunday Telegraph broke the story that the Metropolitan Police have pro-Hamas supporters amongst their advisors who are ‘overseeing the protests. Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organization in the UK. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/11/04/attiq-malik-met-police-adviser-from-river-to-the-sea-chant/ or https://archive.ph/LjW3W

A BLM organizer was jailed for fraud —— using money raised to support poor black youths on herself. Her defence was that she didn’t know where the money went and she was very sorry.  The judge gave her 2 ½ years. Saleem was one of the people who organized the protest which toppled the Coulston statue Grifters are going to grifter, but there is something particularly low about stealing from the poor and dispossessed. . https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/31/blm-fundraiser-used-her-profile-to-raise-money-for-charity/ or  https://archive.ph/sPrwa

Nat West continues to go full JEDI and push its intersectionality  B-corp credentials with its new app which urges customers to eat more vegetables and drive electric cars. Corporate wokedom at its best. https://brusselssignal.eu/2023/11/uk-bank-natwest-urges-clients-to-become-vegetarian-and-drive-electric-cars/

The CPS (Crown Prosecution Service aka the main criminal prosecutor in the UK) has been heavily influenced by Stonewall and its trans lobby to the determent of women, judges warned in a new paper from the Policy Exchange. Legally inaccurate and ideologically captured. This has huge implications for the prosecution of domestic abuse cases. https://policyexchange.org.uk/publication/the-crown-prosecution-services-approach-to-transgenderism/

If you want to know what is happening in the Hamas- Israel war, I would suggest  reading the IDF’s Mission Brief substack. It gives the latest  media briefings plus behind the scenes looks at the operation. For example, how they use intelligence to accurately target  the bombs, and how they use real time intelligence if the target moves.  Fascinating stuff. Primary source info.

Other people’s letters Undiscovered letters from Tolkien give insight into his books  Orc comes Orcus meaning Hell. Warg is wolf or wolf head. To write about Vikings is encounter Tolkien by the way. Finally “The “hobbits” of course were meant by me to be just ordinary kindly human people, fond of food, and fun, small in size but strong and brave and very good at driving away all nasty creatures and at helping other people that were troubled by such things” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/jrr-tolkien-family-letters-lord-of-the-rings-hobbit-oxford/  or https://archive.ph/8Zea2

Having finished Jake Wallis Simons Israelophobia, I am currently read Yascha Mounk’s The Identity Trap.  Mounk’s conclusions thus far chime with the things I am seeing and he gives plausible explanations as to why it was a ‘short march through the institutions’ for this current very illiberal brand of Progressive Wokeness. Well worth a read. Consider ordering it from your local library. As the Free Speech Union pointed out in a report this week, libraries in the UK have been taking their purchasing orders etc from a small non profit Book 28 which seeks to promote intersectional inclusivity, particularly for trans issues rather than ordering a comprehensive list. If you request a book, libraries both in the UK and the US do have to try to find it for you. . https://freespeechunion.org/not-on-our-shelves-soft-censorship-in-local-authority-libraries/

The King and Queen went on their first overseas tour – Kenya where he expressed his deep regret at the Mau Mau rebellion. Not an apology but a sincere regret that it happened. By all accounts, it was a form of words which was well received. The Mau Mau rebellion is truly a horrific scandal but it did enable Kenya independence. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/weasel-words-cloaked-mau-mau-atrocities-989p0dwsk  or https://archive.ph/Fjfhz

Finally the loneliest sheep has been winched to safety, long fleece and all. Several farmers decided to matters into hand and just do it. They abseiled 250 feet down the cliff and winched her up. The sheep, now named Fiona, has been put in a secure location on a farm which is open to the public. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/britains-loneliest-sheep-rescued-scotland-highlands-bngwx8s6m or https://archive.ph/wZdKa

Hopefully this will be back on its regular date next Friday.