NOTE – If anyone would like an electronic copy of the complete book, I should be pleased to email a free PDF on request to: [email protected]. Also a hardcopy of the book, “The Financial Jigsaw” is available priced at £25 GBP plus P&P in A4, workbook format, bound with clear plastic covers, printed locally on demand.
Today I am thinking about America, the great nation that leads the world. For all its critics, the truth is that America is leading the world in so many arenas. I found this article that gladdened my heart to know that my friends across the pond are not lost after all:
“America cannot be the literal Top Nation forever, nor should it be, nor does it matter. Being smart and hardworking and fulfilled are what matter, not tiny percentage differences of income between rich countries, 10 percent plus or minus. America is not declining. In the modern world, no income per head actually declines in absolute terms, unless through war or socialism.
The world is converging. No one is going to be Top Nation in that happy era when the whole world has an American suburban standard of living and more. America will go on growing, as it has slowly for two centuries, and the latecomers will join the parade. That’s good news, enriching us all. Give thanks: The sky is not falling.”
https://www.aier.org/article/is-america-in-decline/ It’s worth a read if only for your self confidence amongst the many critics who are really just envious.
Now, turning to Britain once again, I mentioned in an earlier Letter that the old East German Secret Police (‘Stasi’) had come to the UK. Well, here is the proof, straight from the BBC website in the form of a 3min video from an obliging ‘Hugo’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BinWPwLpuEY&feature=youtu.be
But all is not lost in Britain as yet – parliament will be held to account for the chaos the government has created. “Channel 4 anchor Jon Snow tore into Matt Hancock [on Tuesday] in a rare outburst on live TV. Ministers have been forced into crisis talks with the ringleader of a Tory revolt as Boris Johnson seeks to head off a damaging row over the scrutiny of coronavirus regulations.
The Prime Minister is under mounting pressure to give Parliament greater power to debate and vote on coronavirus restrictions, with more than 50 Tory MPs signalling they could rebel on the matter.” Read more:
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/jon-snow-tells-matt-hancock-you-know-nothing/29/09/ The British constitution is alive and well – up to a point – I will stay on watch.
I have noticed a distinct rise in house prices and rents in Bruton which reflects the South West generally. I am 100 miles from London, but still they come; but we do have a mainline railway station (unusually for a small town pop 3,000). People are moving out of cities and into the green, rural areas with more space and gardens at a fraction of London prices. And this is happening all over the developed world, America included (and they have lots of space, unlike UK).
“After years of inflows into city centres, homes in commuter towns and the countryside are now attracting high interest from tenants and buyers alike. The agents’ data shows that residents of Wandsworth, a family area of south-west London full of redbrick terraces – and one of the capital’s wealthiest boroughs – seem the keenest to leave.
Estate agent Carter Jonas looked at data from its network showing where London residents are now trying to rent, and found a sharp rise in the numbers searching for homes around an hour from the city. Those looking to quit the capital come from all parts of London, but 37% of them are currently living in the wealthy south-west of the city.” Read more:
I guess everyone is getting tired of the continual flow of articles about the dreaded virus. But I can’t deny that we are in an urgent spiritual battle with the ruling elite for the hearts and minds of everyone on the planet. This article describes the battlefield, the contestants and the weapons. Our only chance to regain our freedom and liberty is to resist:
“The lockdowners have had surprising success in convincing people of their wild views. You only need to believe that virus avoidance is the only goal for everyone in society, and then spin out the implications from there. Before you know it, you have joined a new totalitarian cult.
The lockdowns are looking less like a gigantic error and more like the unfolding of a fanatical political ideology and policy experiment that attacks core postulates of civilization at their very root. It’s time we take it seriously and combat it with the same fervour with which a free people resisted all the other evil ideologies that sought to strip humanity of dignity and replace freedom with the terrifying dreams of intellectuals and their government sock puppets.”
https://www.aier.org/article/lockdown-the-new-totalitarianism/
The lengths to which the UK is prepared to go to punish Julian Assange in every way possible, indicates the corruption endemic in our nation today. Britain has always been considered a fount of good law, justice for the common man, and an enthusiastic promoter of human rights. It is thus contradictory when I find the nation plumbing the depths of moral and legal degradation instigated by America’s vicious requirement to extradite him for extreme punishment in USA. John Pilger, the famous journalist, is attending the London court and reports progress each day:
“We were here for the ultimate of what the philosopher Guy Debord called The Society of the Spectacle: a man fighting for his life. Yet his crime is to have performed an epic public service: revealing that which we have a right to know: the lies of our governments and the crimes they commit in our name. His creation of WikiLeaks and its failsafe protection of sources revolutionised journalism, restoring it to the vision of its idealists. Edmund Burke’s notion of free journalism as a fourth estate is now a fifth estate that shines a light on those who diminish the very meaning of democracy with their criminal secrecy. That’s why his punishment is so extreme.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/eyewitness-agony-assange (NOTE – use an Adblocker – https://adblockplus.org/ )
It is essential that this information is distributed as widely as possible. The freedom to talk truth to power is in the cross wires this very day. We are all charged to defend our freedom of speech and all our rights under the constitutions of both America and Britain. We are experiencing the over-reaching of power from our very own government – it must always be challenged.
We are now seven months into the plandemic crisis and businesses are still struggling to recover their turnover. Demand continues to surge for the UK’s Bounce Back Loan (BBL) program, which provides cheap emergency lending to small and medium-sized businesses. Wolf Richter is on the case. “The BBL program was first launched in May. Since then, £38 billion has been lent to 1.26 million businesses — in a country of roughly 5 million businesses. SMEs are able to borrow up to 25% of their revenues to a maximum of £50,000 under the program. The loans, interest-free for 12 months, are administrated by private-sector banks, but are 100% backed by the government.
Fake businesses have been set up to access the cash, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said [last] Friday. Here’s how it works: Gangs get hold of a victim’s personal details using phishing emails or by purchasing them online. They then set up a fake company in his or her name. After opening a business bank account, they apply for a Bounce Back Loan through the same bank. Although the rules state that firms set up after March 1, 2020 are ineligible for the program, applications have been successful for companies created as late as June, reports the BBC.
In the UK, forbearance is scheduled to end at the end of this month, as, too, is the government’s job retention program. The ending of these two programs at exactly the same time is likely to heap a whole lot of extra pressure on struggling businesses and their owners. Old debts, including mortgages, will once again come due, at the same time that companies will have to start paying their staff’s full wages, for the first time in seven months. More than a third say they plan to lay off staff over the next three months, according to a YouGov survey.” Read more:
Here’s an example of the devastation being caused by these ridiculous lockdowns. Unlike America, Britain’s unemployment levels have been postponed by the furlough scheme which is to end this month. Already businesses are planning many redundancies and I hold to my forecast of 20% unemployed by the time this is all over – if ever.
“Greene King, one of Britain’s biggest pub operators, with more than 1,700 pubs and 38,000 staff, said about a third of the outlets will close permanently, with the rest “mothballed” until they can reopen. “The continued tightening of the trading restrictions for pubs, which may last another six months, along with the changes to government support was always going to make it a challenge to reopen some of our pubs,” a spokesman said.
By the end of the first week in which the 10pm curfew was introduced, sales at pubs, bars and restaurants plunged by 37% year on year. In London and Scotland, where many small city centre pubs have remained closed throughout the pandemic, sales fell 47% and 44% year on year respectively.”
Now that UK has left EUROPE I will comment on relevant EU – UK events as they arise:
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has claimed the UK can “more than live with” a no-deal Brexit, which would see the UK trading with the EU on World Trade Organization (WTO) terms. Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr, Johnson said he didn’t “want the Australian, WTO-type outcome particularly, but we can more than live with it”. Trading on WTO terms with its biggest trading partner could mean for the UK cross-border disruption, higher prices and a shortage of essential goods.
It looks like Boris’s government is on the road to tyranny and this report confirms the worst. There is already legislation in process to exonerate Big Pharma from litigation concerning the adverse effects of any drug or vaccine they produce in future. Now we have a retired Supreme Court judge voicing his deep concerns about the way Brexit is being handled.
“Addressing an online meeting of lawyers, Lord Neuberger on Wednesday evening condemned the internal market bill, which enables the government to breach international law and exempts some of its powers from legal challenge.
“Once you deprive people of the right to go to court to challenge the government, you are in a dictatorship, you are in a tyranny,” Neuberger told the webinar. “The right of litigants to go to court to protect their rights and ensure that the government complies with its legal obligation is fundamental to any system … You could be going down a very slippery slope.”
Grieve said not only did the bill breach international law, it contained an “ouster clause which goes to the heart of parliamentary democracy”, preventing the government being challenged over its actions. Rather than Brexit being “an assertion of sovereignty,” Grieve added, “it constitutes its undermining”.
To be continued next week.
Auntie can’t help but have the following thematic soundtrack playing in the background when reading Austrian Peter’s despatches regarding Perfidious Albion:
Thanks Auntie and I too have some soothing music sometimes as I compose choices for Steve C on Sundays. They are a rather more comforting to the soul but nevertheless inspiring! 🙂
Like Auntie, reading your much appreciated article made this very song stick in my head, so I had to go have a listen:
Oh great music CO and so stirring – I would love for Steve C to have it on his list but I think he might freak! Good to have you appreciate my scribbling. Cheers, AP
Peter – I look forward to your weekly updates and enjoy reading about what our cousins across the pond are facing.
What are the people fleeing London going to do for employment. You mentioned you were 100 mi from the city and that would make for a very long commute.
Many thanks TNP – your attention is much appreciated. By road yes, but although we are 100m, we do have a high speed train (Intercity 125), so it’s only one hour to the centre of the city. So the big bonus in Bruton is to have our main line station – a very rare occurrence for such a small township.
Many people here are working from home these days, especially the City boys (bankers, stock brokers and the like), and they only go to the office once or twice a week.
AP- It looks like you Brexited out of the frying pan and into the fire. There is always the controlled op guy like Lord Snot who condemns your enslavement legislation. When about 100k Brits stand around outside the House of Lawds with a generous supply of rope, you may see that idea reversed.
Thanks BL, what a wonderful image – You reminded me of ‘Tyburn Hill’ and all that.
“Known as the River Tyburn, it is the next tributary of the River Thames to the east of the Westbourne. For many centuries, the name Tyburn was synonymous with capital punishment, it having been the principal place for execution of London criminals and convicted traitors, including many religious martyrs. It was also known as ‘God’s Tribunal’, in the 18th century.”
It is not readily known that we, in this little Isle, have a tendency to tolerate despotism up to a point. When the dam bursts all hell breaks loose and we are not far from this point now. Brexit it just another expression of the people’s will, which TPTB attempted with all their might to subvert, to no effect.
TPTB will always fall back on their crazy laws and they have captured the judges among most other institutions which I have illustrated with the Julian Assange trial – a complete failure of justice. History shows that the people will have their way in the end and then, as you say, lampposts and Tyburn Hill will come in handy.
This coming week will see some moves afoot indicating the peoples’ wrath.
Most interesting history lesson AP! I would not put a thimble full of faith in Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury ( Lord Snot, remember “The Young Ones”?) he is jooish and started his career as a Rothschild bankster. That is the kiss of death in the “trustworthy” department…..just sayin’. They always put the controlled-op guy out there to be the voice of the people.
You got in one BL – on the nail without a doubt. We must wait and see what the people have in store for his ilk! 🙂
Closing pubs or limiting their open times makes absolutely no sense. Why can Aldis, Poundland and other stores be open but pubs can’t? There’s absolutely no difference. And opening and closing times are arbitrary. The Kung Flu doesn’t differentiate based on the clock.
So true VV – I am afraid that ‘common sense’, which most people possess in spades, has missed our political class entirely. Then of course there are the ‘scientists’, who have their own agenda, being funded by Bill and Big Pharma et al. So there is little hope that all this will go away any time soon.
TPTB have taken away the circuses (and all the fun things) and left us the bread. They must allow us access to the food otherwise there will be pitchforks in short order (viz French Revolution).