Slanging off overseas politicians is a bad idea

Why do the left always want to personalise disagreements about what government should do? Why do they think they have a right to abuse anyone who disagrees with them? Why do they wish to be rude to powerful foreigners who may be popular in their own country? Why do they think they should involve themselves in foreign elections to save overseas voters from themselves?

In my years as an MP many leaders were elected to European countries that I thought were doing grave damage, including ones who were harming the U.K. I never said bad things about them as individuals and I never went to interfere in their elections. When President Biden was elected I was criticised on this site for congratulating him and stressing the need for the U.K. to find ways of working with him.

President Biden followed some very damaging policies. He pulled out of Afghanistan without consulting and supporting our troops left there. His unilateral action gave Afghanistan needlessly to the Taliban. He undermined all the work to keep them out, writing off the blood and treasure shed. He tried to cosy up to a dangerous Iran, letting them make more money from oil to build its big arsenal of fast missiles to target on Israel. He contributed to Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine and then led a western response which prolonged the war, giving Ukraine enough to extend hostilities but not enough to win. He sided with the EU and Ireland against us over the NI Protocol.

All these reasons persuaded me he was a poor President.It still didn’t make me put out nasty things about him, or believe that slanging him off would get him to improve.

165 Comments

  1. Mike Wilson
    November 9, 2024

    Slagging off?

    Reply
    1. Lifelogic
      November 9, 2024

      Scatological abuse as Kemi put it in PM questions.

      I even had to remind myself of its meaning – being a simple maths, physics & engineering chap. I wonder what % of the population knows what scatological means perhaps 2% or so? Then again most MPs, journalists & people involved with Committee for Climate Change when talking about green energy, EV cars etc. do not even understand the difference between or units for Power and Energy.

      Reply
      1. Lifelogic
        November 9, 2024

        Miliband’s agenda is insane.

        The grid currently.
        Solar and Wind 4.5%
        Gas 51%
        Imported electricity 15.4%
        Bio – young coal burnt mainly at Drax. 9.4%
        Nuclear 18.4%
        and misc. 1.3%

        Then the deluded Miliband wants us all to shift renewables, EV vehicles and heat pumps and it is not even a cold day today. The agenda is bonkers, these deluded PPE graduates!

        Reply
        1. Ian wragg
          November 9, 2024

          When you say wind is producing 4.5% that can be misleading
          35gw installed capacity is producing 1.2gw which is only 3.5% load factor. When Milibrain has doubled our wind capacity they will only be producing 9%of demand but that may be less if there is mass movement to EVs and useless heat pumps
          Power cuts are the order of the day

          Reply
          1. Mickey Taking
            November 9, 2024

            Power cuts – – In wintry weather especially the period pre-dawn and post dusk as demand increases with no sun to shine. If calm, little wind, then what is left to make up the required demand?

          2. Lifelogic
            November 9, 2024

            Indeed plus a vast and hugely expensive grid capacity increase would be needed. If we all switched to heat pumps it would be heavily winter demand (so solar useless) the grid would need 10 times capacity on icy days. Wind would need to be at least 10 times more capacity but would still need backup. But Miliband has a solution we wash out clothes at 3AM and the smart meters cut people off whenever they feel like it. Tough if you are in intensive care or need electricity for medical reasons I suppose.

        2. Ian B
          November 9, 2024

          @Lifelogic – he has the Power Government has forced ‘smart meters’ on householders now Red Ed gets to turn their access to power on and off at will. In no way did those meters as the advertising stated save power other than being able to switch them off centrally

          Reply
          1. Lifelogic
            November 9, 2024

            Indeed they use more power some to power the meter.

          2. Mike Wilson
            November 9, 2024

            When the bloke installed my smart meter I talked into adding an isolation switch. This allowed me to safely wire my changeover switch – so I can now switch to battery or generator backup at the flick of a switch. Bring on the power cuts followed, eventually, by a sane government.

        3. glen cullen
          November 9, 2024

          Miliband is planning to up the Imported electricity to 50% by 2030 …and control home usage by smart-meters (with the support of the tories)

          Reply Couthino does not support a high import policy.

          Reply
          1. Lifelogic
            November 9, 2024

            To reply:- so does Claire support the Net Zero lunacy at all. If so is she daft and actually believes in this lunacy – or is she just doing it knowing it is insane but thinks it is politically expedient to lie? Perhaps she could make this clear.

      2. Mark B
        November 9, 2024

        LL

        I remember back in the day, General Norman Schwarzkoff (SP) saying something like, “Bovine Scatology” when answering questions from the press.

        Reply
        1. Lifelogic
          November 9, 2024

          Emily Maitlis seems to prefer Bat Scatology for Trump. In her BBC think approach.

          Reply
      3. Jazz
        November 9, 2024

        The study of excrement abuse
        obscenity or preoccupation with obscenity abuse

        Well there you go scatological, word of the day

        Reply
      4. jerry
        November 9, 2024

        @LL; “I wonder what % of the population knows what scatological means perhaps 2% or so?”

        Oh stop deluging yourself, just 2% of those who attended university perhaps, on the other hand I bet a majority of the manual working (class), and the landed country folk, population understand the gist of the expression even if their definition might never appear printed in the OED! 😯

        Reply
        1. Lifelogic
          November 9, 2024

          Perhaps the ones who studied Greek at posh schools. The ones who also perhaps also know the derivation of Arctic & Antarctic. Not that my state Grammar offered Greek – just Latin and rather few did that.

          Reply
          1. Peter
            November 9, 2024

            LL,

            My Catholic grammar offered Greek. It was boring. Iphgenia in Tauris etc. Mostly brighter pupils took the exam so good pass rates. Latin was also on the syllabus.

      5. MFD
        November 9, 2024

        That turns off so the achieve nothing , most are totally ignorant!

        I also get turned of when they talk about “carbon”

        Reply
        1. Lifelogic
          November 9, 2024

          They say “Carbon” because it is black and dirty. CO2 is clean, odourless and a net good. The gas of life vital for virtually all life oncearth.

          Reply
      6. MBJ
        November 11, 2024

        Remove that chip.Similies , hyperbole,streams of worthless words do not make any one any more important than the other.
        The blog site would be much improved with concise factual comments, however I am here for JR’s daily blog.

        Reply
    2. Margaret
      November 9, 2024

      I had to think any that.It originally comes from the word slang and for us gas changed to slag

      Reply
  2. Ian Wraggg
    November 9, 2024

    The reason is simple
    They are so full of their own righteousness they can’t possibly be wrong. You see this with all the twitterati like the Irish non singer and the crisp man.
    Various ex BBC employees openly having fits of the vapours because Donald has been elected and their inflated opinion is worthless.
    I was so happy watching the lovies concert for Kamala when it all went wrong for them
    The therapists must be working overtime.
    It just goes to prove there is a God

    Reply
    1. Lifelogic
      November 9, 2024

      It certainly annoyed all the right people. The daft lefties in the Tory Party too. William Hague, Rory Stewart, Cameron. Perhaps the best thing to come from Trump is his climate realism. The UK needs cheap reliable energy gas and electricity available on demand and costing about 1/3 as in the US.

      Reply
      1. Ian B
        November 9, 2024

        @Lifelogic +1
        Does the Tory Party, or even its new board of controllers have any Conservatives? They were all forced out to be replaced by at best Ed Davey’s crew at worst Starmer worshippers

        Reply
        1. Lifelogic
          November 9, 2024

          Not many. Do any of the new batch of Tory MPs even admit the Net Zero and Climate Alarmism is a con trick for rip off energy.

          Just listening to Any Questions (nothing wrong with a degree in pop music Ann Widecombe quite vocational). Most of the panel foolishly (a very basic error) confuse cause an effect. People rarely earn more “because” they of their degree. They were usually brighter to start with and would have on average earned more anyway.

          You have to earn quite a lot more (after taxes) to justify three years loss of earning and ÂŁ80k of student debt, plus 7% interest PA on it.

          Reply
          1. Lifelogic
            November 9, 2024

            Better value for girls/women though, as due to career breaks, more part time work and lower earnings due to the jobs they choose they are less likely to ever repay.

          2. Lifelogic
            November 9, 2024

            UK universities undergraduates are 60% female. Also females ane far less likely to repay the student debt. So something like 75% of the subsidy costs of these soft loans goes to women. Student loans thus discriminate very heavily indeed against men.

            Perhaps they should even it up with more loans to encourage more builders, roofers, electricians, engineering,,, apprenticeships. But then discrimination against men is often the government’s agenda.

      2. Ed M
        November 9, 2024

        Trump loves to throw punches metaphorically-speaking. That’s fine (I think we should re-introduce boxing into schools here in the UK and competitive spirit can be good – to a degree). But he has to be able to take a punch too!
        To a real man / real Republican / real Tory, Lammy is just a little, annoying gnat. Nothing more. Don’t make big deal of ..

        Reply
        1. Ed M
          November 9, 2024

          ‘gnat’ – as a politician I meant – not a human being.

          Reply
        2. Lifelogic
          November 9, 2024

          Lammy, Cooper, Kahn, and Miliband should be fired, mainly for being so dim and deluded – as well as for being so abusive to Trump.

          Reply
          1. Ed M
            November 9, 2024

            Labour have been largely useless except under Clement Attlee.

      3. MFD
        November 9, 2024

        +1 well said LL

        Reply
    2. Mickey Taking
      November 9, 2024

      Depends which God you want to win?

      Reply
      1. Lynn Atkinson
        November 9, 2024

        You think there is more than one God?

        Reply
        1. glen cullen
          November 9, 2024

          wikipedia religions of the world – there are roughly 4,200 religions ….so plenty of gods

          Reply
        2. Mickey Taking
          November 9, 2024

          I don’t have to declare my opinion, but have you not noticed there are millions out there who insist THEIR God is the only one? And some think material ones can be worshipped same as the religious ones.

          Reply
    3. jerry
      November 9, 2024

      @Ian Wragg; “They are so full of their own righteousness”

      Cough, as if there are never any self righteousness from those on the right, in fact your own comment displays it by the buck-full. Whose “God” were you referring to by the way, certainly not my God…

      Reply
  3. Mark B
    November 9, 2024

    Good morning.

    Agreed. When either in office or out of office as in the case of the Opposition here in the UK, one has to remember that you are in a ‘Public Office’ and cannot or should not express your personal whilst in said office. You are representing your party, constituants and possibly you nation. You do not have the luxury of using your Public position to express your personal views.

    All politicians can express views in a Public manner representing their office. But this is done using diplomatic language designed to convey a messsage without insulting the recipient, as any insult is likely to cause problems further down the line.

    Labour politicians have said some bad things thinking that it will not come back to haunt them. That is understandable but no less forgivable when David (now Lord) Cameron said some pretty rum things about President Trump before 2016 whilst he was still PM.

    What I am seeing in British politics is a real lack of maturity and experience. We are seeing schoolchildren / playground politics. Name calling and silly behaviour. Because those who represent us do not act seriously, how we the people are expected to take them seriously. I for one cannot. They are all an embaressment.

    Reply
    1. Martyn G
      November 9, 2024

      ……We are seeing schoolchildren / playground politics… Interesting that you should say that. A couple of weeks after Labour came into power, my diary records ‘they seem to me to be like a bunch of excited primary school children suddenly given the key to the nation’s toy box’. I have yet to see or hear anything to change my mind on that.

      Reply
    2. Lifelogic
      November 9, 2024

      Indeed. We are seeing schoolchildren/playground politics. And indeed playground journalism with the BBC, Channel 4, Sky
 all stuffed with lefty language and art graduates who cannot even hide their Bat sh** crazy views while on air. Obvious from almost every question they ask.

      Reply
      1. Berkshire Alan
        November 9, 2024

        Lifelogic
        That is why it was so good to view such programmes for a couple of days, just to see the look of disbelief on their faces, and the complete lack of knowledge in not knowing why Trump won. When the simple reason was he had the right policies, because he recognised the problem !

        Reply
        1. Lifelogic
          November 9, 2024

          Indeed.

          Reply
        2. rose
          November 9, 2024

          He also won this time because the DC predators let the votes be counted in the normal way and announced the preliminary result in the morning – he has dropped a million votes since 2020 which neither side is labouring. There was no suspension of the counting across the swing states once Trump had apparently won; no antifa march with Alex Crawford embedded; no intimidated observers being sent home; no vans and motor bikes turning up all night with piles of extra votes; no weeks of late mail-in ballots flowing in with no creases and just one name on. The hilarious left are now asking: why did she get 12 million fewer votes than Biden?

          I suspect the volte face is because they have lost the Russian war and don’t want to admit it. This is huge. So they have let him in to take responsibility for their failure. They are already briefing out that he will cave in to Putin and are even using the notorious Christopher Steele of the Russia Hoax as their mouthpiece.

          Reply The republicans did not prove widescale electoral abuse in 2020 though there are clear legal and investigative channels to query ballots.

          Reply
          1. Lynn Atkinson
            November 9, 2024

            JR they won a load of cases in specific counties. The use of lawfare in Democrat states is obvious if you look at the Rudy Giuliani case. He has to pay two women $150 million or so!
            We in the UK are also losing confidence in our police and legal system. This is serious. Justice is not an optional extra.

          2. rose
            November 10, 2024

            The Heritage Foundation has a web site devoted to electoral fraud. It documents copious numbers of cases all over the country which have been won.

    3. Mickey Taking
      November 9, 2024

      Well the H of C has gradually degenerated to that shouty, abusive, theatre of the local derby football match.
      Note the guilty if you can bear to waste your precious time on the vicious roaring.

      Reply
  4. Lifelogic
    November 9, 2024

    Exactly criticise the mad policies themselves not the man. After all people cannot help being stupid and misguided.

    An excellent interview with Jon Moynihan, Conservative peer, venture capitalist and author of Return to Growth, on Rachel Reeves’s tax-bonanza budget and why it’s taking us in the wrong direction.

    Her Growth let’s kill it dead budget. Combined with the insanity of Net Zero it surely will not even raise much tax for Labour to waste just further strangle the tax base. On the excellent The Sceptic podcast.

    So what have the Police, Starmer, Kahn. Lammy and Cooper Balls got to say on the appalling, violent, antisemitic attacks in the Netherlands. Why are they doing so much to encourage them or fail at least to deter them here? To Tier Justice continues. What tpp about the appalling BBC reporting of this?

    Reply
    1. Ian B
      November 9, 2024

      @Lifelogic – criticising the policies for the rabble, the minions and the electorate is now a criminal offence and could mean seeing the inside of jail. The phraseology of displeasure has been widened, loosened and reinterpretation by the legal profession to mean anything political that questions Government. Lord help the person that says out loud they could, as an illustration, ‘murder a cup of tea’ it now doesn’t mean you are thirsty, it means hate and political opposition

      Reply
  5. Lifelogic
    November 9, 2024

    Two Tier rather.

    Isabel Oakeshott in the Telegraph today.

    Trump’s return is a disaster for Ed Miliband – his Net Zero dreams may soon lie in tatters
    The President-Elect has made no secret of his disdain for this “radical Left” agenda.

    Let us hope so, but it will take rather more than this for the deluded net zero zealot PPE graduate Ed Miliband to go. After all nearly all MPs, circa 90% +, in nearly all parties have fallen for this deluded religion. Even Thatcher fell for it at one point. As did Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, Clegg, May, Sunak, Starmer
 mass delusion.

    Reply
    1. Peter Wood
      November 9, 2024

      Net Zero doesn’t make sense unless you ask what it’s really for. Given all our political leaders have or are supporting it, then it must have political weight. It has successfully given our leaders the power and reason to raise taxes and control society. Wealth creation for the few, penury for the many.

      Reply
      1. Donna
        November 9, 2024

        We know what it’s about: UN Agenda 2030 and the WEF’s Great Reset … reducing living standards and levelling down the industrialised western nations to 2nd world status together with the transfer of wealth from “the peasants” to globalist organisations/individuals.

        It still doesn’t make sense though because the wheels are going to come off their wagon far sooner than they anticipated and, with the rise of Podcasts and alternative media, they can no longer keep “the peasants” ignorant via MSM propaganda.

        Reply
        1. Original Richard
          November 9, 2024

          I agree with PW and Donna above.

          CAGW/Net Zero is not mass delusion but the following of a Communist controlled UN/WEF agenda to destroy the West’s democracies by making energy expensive and unreliable and thus sabotaging our industries and wealth.

          Communism itself is a religious cult, not unlike a medieval religion in its wish to destroy the West’s culture and democracies, that always leads to the deaths of millions of people as evidenced by the history of the last century.

          Reply
        2. Peter Wood
          November 9, 2024

          I think the ‘wheels are going to come off’ for more simple reasons. The number of hours the family unit, lets say a man and a woman, works has never been higher, BUT these folk together are not getting better off. 40 odd years ago it only took 1 family wage earner to support the family unit, now it takes 2, and more are struggling. This is why birth-rates are falling and family units are splitting. We will see societal breakdown if this continues, wealth being taken away by taxation and bad policy.

          And on Remembrance weekend I pose this question: How much did we spend on housing illegal immigrants last year, and how much did we spend on housing homeless former military personnel?
          Who is more deserving of our generosity?

          Reply
          1. Mickey Taking
            November 9, 2024

            One put self at risk for defence of family and country, possibly world. The other put self and sometimes family at risk for material gain when it had been available in may other places.

      2. Lifelogic
        November 9, 2024

        +1

        Reply
    2. Peter
      November 9, 2024

      LL,

      Five out of sixteen posts today. Not quite a third, but over thirty percent. I have not measured the proportions in column inches.

      Is this a scientist/mathematician’s solution to yesterday’s’contribution guidelines’?

      Reply
      1. Lifelogic
        November 9, 2024

        You do not have to read them!

        Reply
        1. Mickey Taking
          November 9, 2024

          Correct!

          Reply
    3. Lynn Atkinson
      November 9, 2024

      Trump is also a disaster for the King.
      Politicians should consider that Trump would command a bigger majority in the UK than in the USA. The whole of the conservative vote (including reform) and the whole red wall.

      Reply
    4. Wanderer
      November 9, 2024

      +1 LL. There’s a link to Trump’s speech about climate change in todays Daily Sceptic news roundup. I think you would appreciate his speech. I certainly do, he doesn’t mince his words. Such things are not heard at Westminster, more”s the pity.

      Reply
      1. Lifelogic
        November 9, 2024

        Thanks will take a look.

        Reply
  6. Cliff.. Wokingham
    November 9, 2024

    Sir John,
    Too many of our politicians have had no experience of living in the real world.. Too many have gone through our so called educational system, and straight into university and then to Westminster as political researchers. They think the sixth form way of thinking and acting is the norm. They then get to stand for a constituency having never had experience of life outside of Westminster.
    Children who have never been told no can not handle being told no and the same is true of some politicians and activists who have never had their tribal views challenged as we have seen with the election of President Elect Trump.
    A real lack of maturity is present in our society generally.

    Reply
    1. Berkshire Alan
      November 9, 2024

      Cliff
      Indeed, and I see that it is reported our Chancellors Husband holds a senior position within the Civil Service, so no balance in that household either for working or wealth creation ideas/problems.

      Reply
      1. Berkshire Alan
        November 9, 2024

        Both people’s income completely funded by taxpayers, other than the reported ÂŁ74,000 income from the two rented out properties, now they can both live in Downing Street which I assume is free of charge.
        Just out of interest John, does rent free accommodation qualify as a benefit in kind for HMRC purposes ?

        Reply most people pay tax on the provision of rent free accommodation. Some people are exempted if they have to live in tied accommodation to be on duty and or for their security e,g. Some care home managers, lock staff, lighthouse personnel, some security and concierge staff, and Prime Ministers at No 10

        Reply
        1. Mickey Taking
          November 9, 2024

          No 11?

          Reply
        2. IanT
          November 10, 2024

          I have wondered what the tax on Dorneywood was? Seemed like a pretty good ‘benefit in kind’ to me but apparently Chancellors are classed the same as Lighthouse Keepers. I was trying to think what the two jobs might have in common but the only word that came to mind was ‘Lonely’.

          Which reminds me, I hear that Peter Mandleson is being considered as our new US Ambassador. Didn’t we used to have a Diplomatic Corp for that kind of thing? Maybe we should find a (lonely?) Lighthouse Keeper and send him instead. I’m sure Mr Madelson wouldn’t mind being drafted to Muckle Flugga, where he could talk to the Puffins all day long and do no harm…

          Reply
    2. Ed M
      November 9, 2024

      Elon Musk says that MBAs are a complete waste of time.
      Makes sense to me now when a very successful businessman said to me, ‘why are you wasting your time going to university (unless becoming a doctor, engineer or doing at a top level university)?’ Instead go and sell printers and work your way up to making millions from that.
      So many people are brainwashed into thinking you need excellent education. A few do need an excellent education. The rest just need to be able to read and write well (Maths and English) That’s it.

      Reply
      1. Mickey Taking
        November 9, 2024

        I await LL response!

        Reply
        1. Ed M
          November 9, 2024

          Vast majority of my whole (private) schooling was a waste of time except English A Level and Maths GCSE. And an hour of how to think logically which my brilliant A Level English teacher taught us as an extra outside class.
          To think parents struggle to pay ÂŁ50K a year for one child on public school education. Joke. And then lots of useless university degrees ..
          All that money could be spent instead on helping their kids to buy a house ..

          Reply
          1. Lynn Atkinson
            November 10, 2024

            Ah, you have not had a close look at the alternative. Always useful to do so, it will help. You understand why parents prioritise public school education (which is not what it was).

  7. formula57
    November 9, 2024

    For the Left personalities are a huge problem shown by Napoleon’s subversion of the French revolution then likewise Stalin’s with the Russian. Beyond that they are in thrall to Hitler, whose ability to seize a modern state amazes them and they cannot understand how they came to let it happen.

    At present numerous Lefties label fairly ordinary political activity as fascism, failing to understand that fascism comes out of the barrel of a gun.

    Reply
    1. Dave Andrews
      November 9, 2024

      With their policy of pushing up taxes and enlarging the state, the Lefties might be accused of being fascists themselves. To them, it’s more important your wealth is taken away from you for the benefit of the state than for you to enjoy it yourself.

      Reply
      1. Lifelogic
        November 9, 2024

        So no point in producing the wealth, working hard or investing in the UK and we going further into the economic doom loop.

        Reply
    2. Mitchel
      November 9, 2024

      ‘Bonapartism’-dictionary definition:”refers to a situation in which counter-revolutionary military officers seize power from revolutionaries and use selective reformism to co-opt the radicalism of the masses.In the process,Marx argued,Bonapartism preserves and masks the power of a narrower ruling class.”

      Whilst Stalin led a ‘revolution from above’ against the ‘Old Bolsheviks’,it doesn’t quite fit in the case of the USSR as the military was kept quite separate from (and under the strict control of)the political apparatus.Moreover,Bonapartism is considered a cardinal sin in Marxism-Leninism-one which Stalin and Trotsky accused each other of during the power struggles after Lenin’s death.

      Stalin considered Social Democracy to be fascism in disguise.He had a point!From Stephen Kotkin’s acclaimed biography of Stalin,vol II,Waiting for Hitler:

      “Bolshevism like Italian fascism was an insurrection against both a liberal constitutional order and European Social Democracy.In Stalin’s formulation,codified at the 6th Comintern Congress(1928),a bourgeoisie desperate to retain its hold on power sought to establish extreme fascist regimes by co-opting the Social Democrats.Therefore,social democracy-which reconciled workers to capitalism and thus lured them away from their supposed true home in the communist party-constituted a handmaiden of fascism(“social fascism”).Social Democracy returned and often instigated the enmity,expelling communists from trade unions and agitating against the Soviet regime….Following fatal street clashes in Berlin in 1929,the Comintern and the German Communist party declared “Social Democracy is preparing the establishment of the fascist dictatorship”.

      It was this conflict between the Communists and Social Democrats in Germany during the early 1930s that allowed the Nazis to come to power via parliamentary means.

      Reply
    3. Lynn Atkinson
      November 9, 2024

      Hitler was a socialist, is that not the left?

      Reply
      1. hefner
        November 9, 2024

        Socially conservative 
 plus a number of less attractive features.

        Reply
        1. Lynn Atkinson
          November 9, 2024

          A number of ‘less attractive features’ are only displayed when the socialists have to fight to get their own way. Starmer has displayed a few.
          Nevertheless, a Socialist which is undeniably the left.

          Reply
      2. Mickey Taking
        November 9, 2024

        Perhaps towards certain Germans, but alarmingly not to others.

        Reply
        1. Lynn Atkinson
          November 10, 2024

          Hitler and Stalin could not find a political difference between them. All the confusions occurs when the left assert that they are not shoulder to shoulder with Hitler (because we, their opposition, are).

          Reply
          1. hefner
            November 10, 2024

            If ‘H and S could not find a political difference between them’ one can wonder why after 21/06/1941 the USSR army went over the next three years west up to Berlin.
            Well the optics might have been different seen from South Africa.

  8. agricola
    November 9, 2024

    Woke late this morning after the weirdest dream. Now in answer to your first paragraph. The slaggers off are still in the playground and like most bullies of inferior intellect need people to be unpleasant about to enhance their sense of self worth. In reality it only emphasises their inferiority. Why the 20% of all those who voted could not recognise the weakness of electing such people is anyones guess. Whatever, we are in the first stage of a tsunami when the sea ebbs to disappearance. Take to the metaphoric high ground.

    Politicians of other countries should be condemned for what they do, and in recent times there have been extensive lists from around the World. Donald Trump was on balance good for the USA in his first term and by losing afterwards gave americans the experience of enjoying the opposite. This election has been an extensive and absolute welcome back. In many ways the loss of a consecutive term more clearly defined the problems the USA faces. So I for one welcome his return and wish him well. The problems for the USA that he perceives mirror the problems we have in the UK. We only have the IMFs return to lessen the four year wait.
    .

    Reply
  9. Wil
    November 9, 2024

    Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people.
    Socrates

    Reply
    1. Mickey Taking
      November 9, 2024

      If I may add? impressionable fools discuss social media?

      Reply
  10. Rod Evans
    November 9, 2024

    Sir John,
    The art of diplomacy which we used to be a world leader in, is sadly a distant part of our past.
    The divisive nature of modern politics, with total intolerance of the oppositions views, is simply anti democratic.
    Sadly, the left wing have made a rule never to concede to any view that does not endorse their own agenda.
    The Long March Through the Institutions, has happened by the continuous refusal to tolerate the opinion of others. Thus, we now have wall to wall Marxism here in the UK because that is the only position the institutions will accept. To be right of centre let alone right wing is now anathema in our higher education institutions.
    The denigration of capitalism is constant, particularly in the education community. It translates into destruction of wealth of course, but that is not considered an issue by those who have never tried or needed, to create any.
    The left right divide is becoming extreme. It now shapes the mindset of the Public Sector who see the Private Sector (right supportive) as minions simply there to be exploited to fund their own needs.
    This Labour administration has even vocalised that divide. They have shown their contempt for the Private Sector, by gifting pay increases and privileges specifically and only to the Public Sector employees.
    We now have Labour actively promoting and referring to ‘our’ Public Sector, that is how partisan in has become.
    The denigration of others not in the left wing camp of politics, does not stop at our border. It is no surprise to see Labour offering on the ground support to their left wing fellows in the USA. They view Trump as totally unacceptable because he is not one of them and clearly does not promote anti capital policies.
    The Labour front bench have all bad mouthed the incumbent President Trump viciously and now try to imagine their visceral hatred and remarks will be forgotten.
    I hope they are right for the sake of our country’s wider interests but somehow it is difficult to imagine it will not sour relationships that need to be warm and cooperative. Thanks Lammy, Rayner, Khan, Starmer et al.
    Hey ho, that is left wing politics. It produced the USSR so nothing should surprise us.

    Reply
    1. Mark B
      November 9, 2024

      +1

      Reply
    2. Lifelogic
      November 9, 2024

      Perhaps Lammy should write a book on the Art of Diplomacy and Trump one on Self Effecting Modesty.

      So does Trump go along with Lammy’s Chagos Archipelago gift to China?

      Reply
    3. Original Richard
      November 9, 2024

      RE :

      Agreed except that I think that our Marxist sympathising government will welcome a “sour relationship” with the USA.

      Reply
  11. Paul W
    November 9, 2024

    Criticism and bias towards foreign politicians and political parties is wrong and is done so that the person is seen to be going with the popular opinion at that time, for that individuals personal political gain;
    To criticize Trump was a stupid thing to do and will now backfire on certain UK politicians;Trump also is more than capable of personalising politics whereas I didn’t here that from Kamala Harris.
    To allow 100 delegates to travel to the USA to show support for the Democrats and meddle in USA politics was obviously wrong and now looks rather silly and short sighted and could now affect trade relations, and relations in general with the USA.
    David Lammy should know better in his position as Foreign Secretary not to insult foreign ministers and presidents elect as at some time during his term in office he will have to meet those who he has made personal comments about.

    Reply
    1. Rod Evans
      November 9, 2024

      Paul, when you ay you didn’t hear Kamala Harris personalising the politics, I can only think you didn’t catch any of her rallies or interviews then. Her whole campaign was a personal attack on Trump no positives, no policies nothing, just endless statements attacking Trump?
      As for sending 100 agents to interfere in the Presidential election process well calling it ‘silly’ does not begin to cover the scale of the folly.
      Labour are in real political trouble.

      Reply
      1. Lifelogic
        November 9, 2024

        +1 and Chagos and Net Zero and the Anti-Growth Budget and the Two Tier Justice system


        Reply
      2. Jim+Whitehead
        November 9, 2024

        R.E., ++++ you saw and heard what I heard, vacuousness and personal obloquy to the exclusion of analyses and policy

        Reply
        1. Lynn Atkinson
          November 9, 2024

          +1 because they believed that their lawfare had made Trump (the convicted felon) unelectable. They never considered that policies had anything to do with elections.

          Reply
      3. Mark
        November 9, 2024

        I note that Mr McFadden has been quick to praise Dame Karen Pierce, our Ambassador to Washington. You may recall she was appointed to re-establish good relations with the Trump administration after they were seriously damaged by Kim Darroch, the Europhile who upset Trump so much that he made him persona non grata.

        None of the potential candidates Labour had in mind to replace her for a Harris presidency are suitable.

        Reply
        1. hefner
          November 9, 2024

          A bit short on the Darroch saga, don’t you think?
          BTW have you read his book ‘Collateral Damage’? It might be worth reading it at the start of Trump 2.0.

          Reply
      4. Donna
        November 9, 2024

        +1

        Reply
  12. Wanderer
    November 9, 2024

    I suppose conseratives are inward-looking. They wish to conserve aspects of their culture; foreigners only enter into their thinking insofar as they affect the national interest. Fundamentally we don’t want to change the wider world, but merely recover our part of it to a former ideal. Our thoughts concern our nation and our vision can’t be transposed onto other societies who have quite different cultures and history to our own. We love our country and can understand why foreigners might love theirs, and wish to conserve aspects of their culture and traditions.

    Socialists, progressives and the like have a vision that is not based on their country; it is of a system that is perfect and righteous, that lifts mankind from his current base state and that should be applied universally. They loathe their own, imperfect, countries and want to destroy them in order to build this new system. They think the same process should happen everywhere. Hence they think it quite right to criticise foreigners who don’t follow their path. It offends them that others should reject their ideology.

    It is of course, a deeply flawed ideology, so you end up with its adherents resorting to ad hominem attacks.

    Reply
    1. Lynn Atkinson
      November 9, 2024

      Nobody changed the wider world more than the Victorian English – who were the antithesis of Socialists. Hardly inward thinking. It is only the weak who refuse to promote the able to secure their own place from challenge- ergo Obama chose Biden, Biden chose Harris, Harris chose Walz
I will not mention those talents Farage has disposed of the latest being Habib.

      Reply
  13. L Ainsworth
    November 9, 2024

    Thank you Sir John for putting the case with dignity and intellectual rigour
    I am no Trump supporter but I have always been concerned about Biden’s actions and those of his much lauded Secretary of State Blinken
    It was Blinken who immediately sought to pacify Iran after Trump rightly called them out
    The result we now see with Iran’s advanced weaponry
    I cannot see how our current Foreign Secretary can row back from his extreme comments which were personal and vicious
    Possibly immature ?

    Reply
    1. Lynn Atkinson
      November 9, 2024

      Immature at 52? When does immature become irresponsible and even stupid. Stupid people now speak for Britain.
      I wonder if Lammy knows that Kamala Harris’ forebears were slave owners? Trumps were not.

      Reply
  14. Bryan Harris
    November 9, 2024

    There is a difference in highlighting bad actions by another compared to outright lies and innuendo.

    Trump has suffered a very bad press simply because he was not a socialist. Much of this ill will was innuendo. There was no evidence against Trump.
    Look at the damage Biden has done to America and the world generally and how he is rarely attacked by MSM.

    The fact that Gove and other Tories, like our new government supported the democrat presidential candidate beyond what was decent and reasonable should demonstrate just how strongly socialist our country’s leaders have become, and how wrong they were/are.
    Certainly it is a socialist trait to utterly condemn an opponent with no limit on deceit and false accusations. The American deep state thought they could break Trump but he sailed through all the wild accusation and charges. That should tell you all you ned to know about those opposing him.

    Honesty and morals should drive how we treat our leaders, and where bad leaders, international or national do harm then they should be criticised for that, specifically and without insinuations.

    Reply
    1. Jim+Whitehead
      November 9, 2024

      B. H., +++ good comment, thank you.

      Reply
      1. Lynn Atkinson
        November 9, 2024

        +1

        Reply
  15. James4
    November 9, 2024

    President Biden has been a big disappointment as was Obama before him – Guantanamo prison is still open despite the promises made with hundreds detained over the years from more than 40 countries and only twelve detainees ever brought before the courts – and then this US presidential circus rolls around every four years – it’s like non-stop – in another two years like clockwork it will start all over again which is the reason we should consider our ties with that mad place and look somewhere else for our partners in life, indeed it could be that the US may now leave NATO when this incoming president makes up his mind of more like his ‘whim’- the whole thing is not good enough

    Reply
    1. Mickey Taking
      November 9, 2024

      Care to suggest any we might partner with?

      Reply
      1. Lynn Atkinson
        November 9, 2024

        No one will have us.

        Reply
        1. Mickey Taking
          November 9, 2024

          I’d rather that were true of that collective bunch across the Channel, but then could we honestly say it was a partnership? Leach and victim springs to mind.

          Reply
      2. James4
        November 9, 2024

        BRICS

        Reply
  16. Donna
    November 9, 2024

    Oh come on Sir John, it isn’t restricted to lefties. Cameron/Osborne/Heseltine etc have all made some pretty insulting and personal comments about Nigel Farage (and his supporters) over the years.

    Why does it happen?

    Because they can’t win a sensible argument based on facts. They are emotion-driven and they seek to manipulate the “audience” with the tactics of the playground bully: insults, shouting-down and cancellation (what as children we called “sending to Coventry”).

    The pathetic excuse for a Conservative Leader, Theresa May – in probably the only insightful thing she ever did – recognised what they were doing but instead of repudiating it (as Mrs Thatcher would) she then dug a hole for her own Party by calling it The Nasty Party. It’s been desperately playing Labour’s game ever since, trying to demonstrate, on their terms, that it isn’t “nasty” and in so doing has hollowed itself out.

    We are now stuck with the worst bunch of extremely left-wing, emotion-driven/manipulating, idiots in Government who couldn’t win an argument against a well-briefed conservatively-minded 16 yr old. And we have a PM who demonstrated within a few days of taking Office that he’s just a playground bully.

    And that’s entirely the fault of the Not-a-Conservative-Party, not the exasperated, sensible conservatives who have defected to Reform.

    Reply
    1. Lifelogic
      November 9, 2024

      @ Donna

      “Oh come on Sir John, it isn’t restricted to lefties. Cameron/Osborne/Heseltine etc have all made some pretty insulting and personal comments about Nigel Farage (and his supporters) over the years.”

      These three are all dire lefties and pro EU climate alarmists too and anti-Trump.

      Reply
  17. Dave Andrews
    November 9, 2024

    In the news, Keir Starmer has pledged ÂŁ3.5m to support veterans facing homelessness.
    Meanwhile, the government spends ÂŁ8m every day supporting illegal migrants in hotels.
    Priorities.

    Reply
    1. Mickey Taking
      November 9, 2024

      ah but the veterans’ votes will not be around for as long as the new illegals (once legalised) will!

      Reply
      1. glen cullen
        November 9, 2024

        Thats the answer, legalise them all, problem solved and they can move out of hotels and become the problem for local councils

        Reply
        1. Mickey Taking
          November 9, 2024

          I think they are already that problem.

          Reply
  18. Ian B
    November 9, 2024

    In today’s Media “Lammy warns Trump against ‘hurting’ allies with tariffs plan”

    Last time around all Trumps tariffs were positioned to be equal. He upped the tariffs on imported EU vehicles to 10%, the reasoning, the EU already imposed 10% on US cars while the US only imposed 2.5% on EU cars. It was equalization. The EU and the UK subsidies steel, that hurts world competition when they export. Create a war and not expect a push back – that is a Putin trait.

    The EU, therefore the UK as it is under EU Laws, are protectionist entities that weaponize trade with all outsiders. While some tariffs are said to be illegal, so so-called micky mouse standards and subsidies are applied as they are not – think CAP the biggest scam going. To a degree it is acceptable to protect home markets, but when those protected markets start exporting they undermine World markets.

    We do not have a Government that is working for and with the People, we have a Government fighting the People and the Country. Slagging off to them is their power

    Reply
    1. Ian B
      November 9, 2024

      MsM(Telegraph) update – “Sir Keir Starmer has ordered officials to research the potential impact on the UK economy of Donald Trump’s trade war amid fears it could be “as big as Brexit”.

      The consequence of parliament forcing the UK to remain a EU Colony under EU Governance – in ability to become its own legislator.

      Reply
      1. Lynn Atkinson
        November 9, 2024

        Trump will exempt Britain for that very purpose – to make it unaffordable for us to join the EU.

        Reply
        1. Donna
          November 10, 2024

          He will have been well-briefed by Mr Brexit. I expect Trump will offer Keir-Ching! a trade deal which will be too good to reject and which will make his plan to drag us ever further back into the EU’s orbit an impossibility.

          Reply
      2. Mickey Taking
        November 9, 2024

        If it reawakes our ability to produce instead of import, it won’t be all bad.

        Reply
    2. Lynn Atkinson
      November 9, 2024

      Have you noticed who exactly is being pushed towards the Dnieper? Those who started the war against civilians – and Ukraine’s cabal has today announced that no destroyed housing will be replaced.
      Fortunately Russia is building millions of new homes.
      Did you see Putins 4 + hours off the cuff interview with the world’s press this week? You should watch it, you would learn much.

      Reply
      1. Mickey Taking
        November 9, 2024

        I struggle to imagine how else to clearly waste 4 hours, without extreme frustration and almost anger.
        However, recently watching the last 2 of my football team’s performances has got close.

        Reply
        1. Lynn Atkinson
          November 10, 2024

          Always best not to investigate the arguments if you wN5 to hang onto you bigoted beliefs.

          Reply
    3. R.Grange
      November 10, 2024

      Regime-change the elected government, create a war on a large linguistic minority, and then not expect pushback, that might be a NATO neo-con trait, Ian. Except that the pushback was probably what was wanted, so that Russia could be weakened by sanctions and military losses. Well, it hasn’t worked. Time to bring down the curtain on a failed project. Let’s see if Donald Trump will do that.

      Reply
      1. Mitchel
        November 11, 2024

        Plus Russia had been preparing for the ‘pushback’ for the preceding decade and was ready for it.

        Reply
  19. DOM
    November 9, 2024

    Politics is personal, obviously. Those who argue otherwise are delusional and detached from reality.

    The west is now in an existential struggle between the forces of freedom and liberty and the forces of Marxist woke evil. That makes it all very personal indeed. If the left prevail this nation and the USA is finished and we all lose.

    Reply
  20. David Cooper
    November 9, 2024

    Margaret Thatcher: “I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”
    Here’s hoping for President Trump to comment “In the words of Margaret Thatcher…” when next insulted by a British socialist in a position of power.

    Reply
  21. Ian B
    November 9, 2024

    “Slanging off overseas politicians is a bad idea” to our immature naive Parliament this is par for the course. You have to call them all out as a collective as they are all feeding off one and other. They are all empowered and paid to be there to keep one and other in check, to challenge the executive, to defend our democracy and the people they serve. If one of them lets loose with their mouth and the rest say nothing, they are all culpable.

    To much power is with the Gang Leaders in Parliament and as they say nothing it should mean they are in agreement and condone what their agents and disciples say. Therefore no one in Parliament serves their electorate or the Country they are just self-serving marauding gangs, full of self importance. In the same league as those that terrorize our streets.

    Reply
    1. Ian B
      November 9, 2024

      ‘Remembrance Sunday’ the time to reflect and remember the fallen. Then we have those empowered by Parliament and the Government, we get to see these marauding gangs terrorising the streets to disrespect those that fraught for their rights to do just that. That is the Government showing support for the very worst in society.

      By the same token try to make a similar noise with regard Government Policy and you will be seen as fascist a political terrorist be banned and locked up. The New World order according to the Dictator Two Tier Kier.

      Reply
      1. Donna
        November 10, 2024

        I no longer watch The Cenotaph commemoration: I can’t bear to watch Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May and Johnson, Sunak or Keir-Ching! They have all betrayed the British people and have actively worked to destroy this nation’s security and social cohesion.

        Reply
  22. G
    November 9, 2024

    Yes, imagine a meeting of Lammy and Trump – awkward?…đŸ€ŁđŸ€Ł

    Reply
    1. glen cullen
      November 9, 2024

      If MPs have to be polite and courteous to fellow MPs in the chamber of the HoCs, why oh why can’t they behave the same outside in the world

      Reply
    2. formula57
      November 9, 2024

      @ G – not awkward apparently, at least according to a very recent radio interview by Lammy, recorded on the Guido Fawkes site.

      Apparently Trump met Starmer and Lammy a few weeks ago, was (per Lammy on the radio) a host very attentive towards his guest and was very gracious.

      Should we be shocked and dismayed that Lammy can, appaerently, be bought off so easily by one he labelled a Nazi etc.?

      Reply
    3. gregory martin
      November 9, 2024

      One hopes and expects that it will be preceded by a three day wait in an ante-room of the Oval Office.

      Reply
  23. Margaret
    November 9, 2024

    I think some are actually getting it. Trashing individuals can only snowball as the less intelligent jump on the wheel
    This grows and can become dangerous and serious cross country anger..hence many wars.

    Reply
    1. Lynn Atkinson
      November 9, 2024

      Wars are for wealth.

      Reply
      1. Margaret
        November 9, 2024

        Wealth in the form of land and natural resource,but to start a war there needs to be a spark of hate or excuse unless they are blatant land grabbers.There again in these circumstances personal attack will surface .

        Reply
      2. Mickey Taking
        November 9, 2024

        and ego and dominance?

        Reply
  24. jerry
    November 9, 2024

    “Why do the left always want to personalise disagreements about what government should do? [..//..] Why do they wish to be rude to powerful foreigners”

    Unfortunately such behavior, brash language, is not confined to the left, there has been more than a few right-wing politicos who have made rude comments (and still do), often for nothing more than a 15 second TV news-clip of their outbursts, such as we all witnessed from certain Brexiteers speaking in the EP, and the same people had the gall to question why the EU was being so ‘difficult’ when it came to post Brexit agreements.

    Reply
    1. forthurst
      November 9, 2024

      The EU has been difficult pour encourager les autres. They also see Brexit as a desire to cherry-pick.

      Reply
    2. Martin in Bristol
      November 9, 2024

      Give us some examples Jerry.
      When have the politicians you refer to said things similar to the ones Labour politicians have when attacking President Trump.

      Reply
    3. Donna
      November 10, 2024

      Remind me which of the EU “Presidents” was democratically elected? Oh, that’s right …. none of them. They were appointed, following a stitched-up bargaining process, to head a Mega-Bureaucracy which then dictates to member nations. The EU Parliament has no real power; it’s a Potemkin Parliament.

      Reply
      1. jerry
        November 10, 2024

        @Donna; “Remind me which of the EU “Presidents” was democratically elected?”

        After you remind me which UK Prime Minister was democratically elected to the position, via the popular ballot box, not just the party membership or, worse, by the Party’s MPs, or simply co-opted. Duh!

        “a Mega-Bureaucracy which then dictates to member nations.”

        A bit like the US Capitol Hill and the White House then, imposing Federal Law on the 50 individual States.

        “The EU Parliament has no real power; it’s a Potemkin Parliament.”

        Nor does the UK parliament, given it is the Govt (elected on less than 50.1% of the popular vote) who controls parliamentary business. The real power resides in Whitehall, not Westminster, only a lucky few MPs on the back-benches see their Bills progress, even the official opposition has difficulties when it comes to parliamentary time. Heck the PM can even Prorogue the parliament, thus stymieing unwelcome outcomes, should the party whipping system fails, start a new session, or even call early elections. Non so blind as those who choose not to see.

        If Eurosceptic’s thought the EP, never mind the EC, illegitimate why did they stand for elected office to the said parliament, other than to gain parliamentary privileges, the media spotlight, and salary, and why then be so rude (to “low grade bank clerks”, never mind anyone else)?

        Reply
  25. Ian B
    November 9, 2024

    A British manufacturing company has said it will close down its four factories because of Rachel Reeves’s Budget.
    The company has now decided to outsource production to India or China following the new Labour Government’s first Budget.
    “Manufacturing in Britain will die. It has already died, in my view.”
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/09/chancellor-ni-raid-claims-first-victim-labour-government/

    The Conservative NetZero aims to export jobs continues.

    The missed opportunity was to ‘ban’ things before a real viable alternative was found. Also forgetting ‘its the economy stupid’ If you export wealth and don’t create it you have no means to respond to real events, you have effectively ‘cancelled’ the Country and its People.

    So those in Parliament to cover their mistakes take to ‘Slanging off’ to keep their personal view of their own personal esteem looking good- how vain do these people get?

    Reply
  26. Geoffrey Berg
    November 9, 2024

    ‘I am a citizen of the world’. So proclaimed centuries ago a man born in Norfolk (whose statue stands in Thetford) though he is probably better known in some other countries than in Britain.
    In principle Thomas Paine was right to state this even if I disagree with much else he said. Though of course we can only vote in our own country and though we should be more careful through relative shortage of knowledge in speaking about foreign politicians and foreign politics, there is nothing wrong with applying our principles to foreign countries.
    Years back Sir John Redwood used to include on his website details of foreign places where people were reading his blogs. I have signed protests both in Britain and in Taiwan against the Chinese government’s monstrous treatment of Falun Gong adherents. I myself am in Sri Lanka at the moment and in 2012 I helped Republicans for a few days in their Presidential campaign in Las Vegas. What I saw there was quite instructive.
    Above all ideas can and should travel. I was enormously delighted when earlier this year my book, ‘The Six Ways Of Atheism’ was translated into Spanish by a Professor in Peru and published there!
    Like it or not – and I rather like it – we are now indeed citizens of the world beyond what even Thomas Paine could have contemplated.

    Reply
    1. Lynn Atkinson
      November 9, 2024

      A ‘citizen of the world’ who fought for independence for the USA.
      I prefer Washington, another gift from the North East of England to the world.

      Reply
  27. Mark
    November 9, 2024

    Perhaps the most highly regarded Foreign Secretary we have had since the War was Sir Alec Douglas Home. He was always unfailingly polite with those he dealt with, whilst having a fierce intellect and strong moral principles that allowed him to express disagreements cogently and with an eye to a way forwards. Peter Carrington was in the same mould. He was honourable enough to resign over the Falklands, though it is interesting to think what might have happened had that been caught earlier and defused without a war: perhaps Thatcher would not have been reelected in 1983. I met both of them, so my judgement is personal.

    Compare and contrast with the current incumbent.

    Reply
    1. Lynn Atkinson
      November 9, 2024

      Carrington betrayed Rhodesia double dealing politely is still double dealing. Mrs T was shocked when told by Smith of the negotiations. It’s all in his book ‘Betrayed’. A good read and a wonderful English Man. A war hero and the builder of the breadbasket of Africa.

      Reply
      1. jerry
        November 9, 2024

        @Lynn Atkinson; Whilst I agree the UK Govt sold Rhodesia down the Zambezi I’m not sure I lay the blame at the feet of Lord Carrington, rewriting the party’s manifesto policy [1], post election, was surely above even his pay-grade!

        The deal was brokered, as an Anglo-American plan, by the Callaghan and Carter administrations. I doubt the incoming Thatcher govt could have convened such meetings and reached agreement, as happened, between May and December 1979 if starting with a blank sheet of paper – whatever Ian Smith might have suggested in his own book.

        [1] citation from the 1979 Conservative manifesto;
        RHODESIA
        The Conservative Party will aim to achieve a lasting settlement to the Rhodesia problem based on the democratic wishes of the people of that country. If the Six Principles, which all British governments have supported for the last fifteen years, are fully satisfied following the present Rhodesian Election, the next government will have the duty to return Rhodesia to a state of legality, move to lift sanctions, and do its utmost to ensure that the new independent state gains international recognition.

        Reply
        1. Lynn Atkinson
          November 9, 2024

          Carrington negotiated with each party and came to agreement with both, but different agreements. He then succeeded in bouncing Smith using threats and worse.
          Following the election by all the Rhodesian people of Bishop Muzarewa, he was deposed and USSR trained Mugabe parachuted in as the west’s chosen candidate. A ‘colour’ revolution because apparently the black Rhodesians got the answer wrong.
          And the rest is all starvation, emigration and grinding poverty.
          So Carrington scrapped the aspirations in the 1979 Manifesto. The Carrington have always been trouble. Traitors even.

          Reply
          1. jerry
            November 9, 2024

            Lynn, the ‘deal’ that was to become the Lancaster House Agreement was done in all but the final arm-twisting detail a year or so before Thatcher became PM, and it was that fact which forced Ian Smith to agree to the (internal) Salisbury Agreement with the likes of the UANC etc. Smith even offered the agreement to ZANU and ZAPU, both of who declined to be involved.

            It was for Mrs Thatcher, as PM, to pull any plugs, not Lord Carrington, as it would have been Mrs T who had to face the USA, South Africa, and the Commonwealth heads of State etc, had plugs been pulled – and I’m not disputing that plugs should perhaps have been pulled, even UK sanctions lifted, given that by June ’79 there was a (transitional) Black majority elected govt, headed by Bishop Abel Muzorewa, the Salisbury Agreement was never given a change to succeed or fail. I’m merely disputing the blame being placed upon Carrington.

            As for “traitors”, the only traitor was a constitutionally elected politico who then declared UDI, thus breaking the countries Constitution! Had UDI not been declared back in the 1960s there would have been a much earlier, peaceful, and no doubt successful transfer to majority rule, and the likes of Mugabe and his USSR trained rabble would never have existed…

    2. jerry
      November 9, 2024

      @Mark; “Compare and contrast [any past SOS at the FCO] with the current incumbent.”

      Indeed.
      Isn’t the UK’s SoS at the FCO meant to bat for the UK, not our adversaries, and perhaps not even our ‘friends’ either, however special the relationship?…

      Reply
  28. Roy Grainger
    November 9, 2024

    I would like one prominent left-wing politician or commentator to tell us one thing that Trump actually DID during his first term that they objected to on policy grounds. Their scaremongering about him now is feeble – for example Putin invaded Crimea under Obama and Eastern Ukraine under Biden, under Trump … nothing. If May hadn’t turned down the FTA which he offered at the start of his first term then we’d be in a better position with him now.

    Reply
  29. J+M
    November 9, 2024

    The answer to your question is that socialism is a creed. You have to believe because it does not work. Socialists think that because they believe in something it makes them good and those who do not believe bad. This entitles them to say bad things about the heretics.

    Reply
    1. Ian B
      November 9, 2024

      @J+M +1
      Its for those that don’t believe in themselves

      Reply
  30. Sharon
    November 9, 2024

    The people you refer to SJR, are narrow minded; they are often ill informed; arrogant in believing anyone who disagrees with their views are bad /hateful people; they only see life in black and white, there’s no grey, if you dislike x you must surely love y; and they seem to believe any propaganda that’s in vogue!

    Any dissenting views to their own seems to terrify them into an hysterical response.

    They’re not thinking clearly!

    Reply
  31. Original Richard
    November 9, 2024

    Why?

    Because the Far Left are not part of a national party but belong to International Marxism, led by the UN/WEF, a religious ideology or cult determined to obtain global power by ending the wealth of the democratic West. The m.o. was originally to cause revolution through class/wealth differences in individual countries but now this has changed to fostering identity differences, mass immigration, and destroying the West’s wealth through the totally false CAGW/Net Zero. CAGW/Net Zero is clearly a hoax designed only for the West as climate action is only #13 on the UN’s list of sustainable goals which doesn’t give the impression that the UN itself believes that global warming is an existential threat


    Reply
  32. Iago
    November 9, 2024

    As regards congratulations I imagine, JR, that you never noticed the 2020 election was fixed!

    Reply
  33. Ian B
    November 9, 2024

    What was the reason for the BoE rate cut? The UK didn’t change, still the same old BoE with the same management and insight – or was it that it was just follow my leader when the FED dropped theirs?

    Reply
  34. Michael Saxton
    November 9, 2024

    Frankly Sir John, Biden’s presidency has been a calamity for America, Europe and the World. Effectively he provoked Russia into invading Ukraine, indeed in 2014 as Obama’s point man, he and his State Department officials helped engineer a coup, destabilising the country and resulting in fighting in the Russian speaking eastern Donbas. Russia was further deceived over Minsk2 as it was used to train and arm Ukraine in preparation for conflict. Then in April 2022 Biden scuppered negotiations in Turkey for a ceasefire on the basis of Ukraine remaining neutral. Zelensky supported this position but was persuaded to pull out by former PM Johnson. The result has been disastrous for Ukraine. From Afghanistan to Ukraine and then Gaza the world has been destabilised by an absence of leadership and an obsession with a flawed ideology. Then there’s the open border crisis! One failed policy after another. This will be President Biden’s legacy

    Reply
    1. Lynn Atkinson
      November 9, 2024

      +1 the 2020 US election is also a massive outlier when it comes to votes cast. Nobody can explain the discrepancy.

      Reply
  35. glen cullen
    November 9, 2024

    144 criminals arrived in the UK yesterday from the safe country of France 
everyday enough to fill another large hotel
    I’m also looking forward to attending the remembrance parade tomorrow 
thats if I can get through the palestine protesters

    Reply
    1. Original Richard
      November 9, 2024

      gc :

      I don’t understand how any female can vote for a party who’ve never had a female leader, whose leader cannot define a woman, who sympathises with Trans activism, who have no issues with mass household or streethold postal voting, who allow gender segregated political meetings and then in addition invite undocumented young men of fighting age and with deeply misogynistic cultures into the country with the offer of free accommodation, free health and social care, £40/week pocket money and the complete freedom to roam our streets, including around girls’ schools.

      Reply
      1. Mickey Taking
        November 9, 2024

        I would suggest that the great majority of the electorate feel the same way, but under our political system you’ll have to learn to live with it.

        Reply
  36. outsider
    November 9, 2024

    Dear Sir John,
    Many of the social ills of 21st century stem from a catastrophic loss of mutual respect. There was never enough of it but it has more or less died out on social media – a big retreat of civilization.
    In political discourse, the best and toughest advice, supplied by Jesus of Nazareth almost exactly two thousand years ago, is to love your enemy, bless those that curse you and do good to those who hate you. Even Tolstoy, who generally took an extreme literal view of Jesus’ teaching, could not get his head round that. It requires one to try to look at things from one’s opponents’ point of view. (No religion required).

    Reply
  37. wannabet
    November 9, 2024

    Very soon the US is going to open hostilities with Iran on behalf of Netanyahu and in this case and as usual they will be looking for support from UK just so it won’t look like
    It’s going it alone – think ‘coalition of the willing’ – and that will be the very time the UK should be ready to strike that very special trading deal that it needs –

    Reply
  38. K
    November 9, 2024

    The Left always think they are right.

    A right winger hates it when someone tells lies.

    A left winger hates it when someone tells the truth.

    Reply

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