I am reminded of Dickens’s “message of hope and redemption, and above all, to be kind.”
HAPPY CHRISTMAS! Miriam Margolyes is a lifelong Dickens fan. She is an absolute joy to watch when she’s reading from his work. She does not like Christmas. It’s the expense, the stress, the hypocrisy she says: “People buying presents for people they don’t like, with money they don’t have.” The excess is obscene, she says; these days it’s all about Christmas jumpers and John Lewis adverts, observing: “When it comes to Christmas, I wonder if I am a bit of a Scrooge.”
I guess we have all been there but can a ghost of ‘Christmas Past’ in her beloved Dicken’s ‘Christmas Carol’, as the template he set for the season of goodwill, get her feeling festive for a Christmas future, and find the joy in a Christmas present?
My family used to make most of our presents after WW2 because we had little; a banana in my stocking was a joy. Perhaps a visit to Pollock’s Toy Museum would help where they still make cardboard toy theatres of the type the Dickens children would love. And making “Dickensian” decorations out of a bit of paper and some ivy; decorating the tree with all our home-made stuff to be found in attic yet again.
We had some lovely family Christmases back in the day, with just the little available, and it always seemed to snow when we would make our toboggans for yet another year. I don’t think we need any of this ‘consumerism’ seasonal excess just to line the pockets of GloboCap. Let’s hope that future years find us coming down to earth and enjoying the real values in life.
THOUGHT FOR CHRISTMAS: Is courage ‘the ability to do your duty in spite of your fear’ like our military people are doing now? Well this guy, it turns out, has a great deal of courage when he says: “Sorry, this is bizarre,” billionaire Richard Branson says through tears at the start of his four-part documentary, filmed 16 days before he rocketed into space last year. He documented his 72-year legacy in case “something’s gone awry” – and, yes, “bizarre” is a good word to describe it. Part one rewinds to the 60s, when he left school to set up a magazine and Virgin Records.
I’m not surprised he was fearful – I would have been afraid (not trusting science anyway), and there is no way I would have voluntarily taken this unnecessary risk. Fortunately, in all of my long life, I have never had ‘my courage’ seriously tested so I can’t say how I would react. But I can say that Richard’s emotional reaction indicates a man of heart and feeling – and for a billionaire – that’s incredibly rare – but I won’t go into why.
HAPPY WORLD TRADE; How do your Christmas presents get to you? I am sorry to disappoint you but it’s not Santa on his sleigh! Actually 90% of global trade is transported by ocean shipping and shipping’s ability to offer economic and efficient long distance transport puts it at the heart of the world economy. It’s a magical system – akin to an ant colony.
Some 11bn tons of goods are transported by ship each year in 50,000+ ocean-going merchant ships of which 25% are bulk carriers. The balance is mainly container ships. This represents 1.5 tons per head based on the current global population. But that’s an average, so pretty meaningless.
However, Europe accounted for 3.5 billion tonnes of the total freight handled in EU ports in 2021 and almost all the shipping is handled by developed countries: https://www.ics-shipping.org/shipping-fact/shipping-and-world-trade-largest-beneficial-ownership-countries/
The 2022 shipping data is not available but here’s the expected outcome as at November 2021: https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/mi/research-analysis/shipping-market-outlook-2022-container-vs-dry-bulk-.html We should be grateful and happy to have this amazingly complex system working 24/7 to deliver our needs and wants, on time, error free. All hail the merchant sailors, rarely mentioned unless there is a tragedy.
BREAKING NEWS: This should make you laugh. Our Civil Service (part of ‘The British Establishment) have gone bonkers and it’s under fire for offering ‘secondary passes’ to gender-fluid colleagues whose identities might change daily, which critics say poses security risks. HMRC posted an announcement on its intranet last week telling colleagues about a policy from the ‘Trans+ Staff Diversity Network’.
It said that colleagues who are ‘gender fluid/non-binary/multigender and/or transgender’ may express their gender ‘differently at different times’. To assist them in ‘bringing their whole self to work’, they were told they could apply for a secondary pass or identity card.
Heather Binning, from the Women’s Rights Network, told the Mail on Sunday: “There are clear security implications and that should be very worrying. How is it acceptable for a person to change their appearance on some days and gain a second pass? It’s open to abuse. How would an employer monitor promotions, pay gaps or treatment of staff if they don’t record their demographics accurately, either?”
Last week the Cabinet Office scrapped a number of gender inclusion workshops after receiving complaints from civil servants that the sessions were “scientifically nonsensical”. They were scrapped over concerns about the content discussed in them and complaints from civil servants who claimed to leave them “shaking with distress” because it was “scientifically so nonsensical and bizarre”. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11550321/Critics-highlight-security-risk-Whitehall-offers-secondary-ID-passes-gender-fluid-staff.html Not only is our government MIA and totally dysfunctional, it appears that the embedded Establishment has also gone completely bonkers.
BUT WHERE have the workers gone? Are they happy this Christmas? I think WFH/WFA is delivering lots of happiness these days, even if GloboCap hates it. “More than 9 million people between the ages of 16 and 64 are outside of the labour market,” as the Guardian reported, but this doesn’t mean they are all economically inactive. This misinformed newspaper has entirely missed the point when it says:
“Something odd is going on in Britain’s jobs market. Even as unemployment hovers close to its lowest level since the mid-1970s and businesses across the country struggle to recruit enough staff to fill roles, growing numbers are quitting the workforce altogether.
The rise of economic inactivity – when working-age adults are neither in a job nor looking for one – is one of the biggest challenges facing the economy as the country grapples with the twin threats of rampant inflation and weaker economic growth.”
The Guardian journalist responsible for this crass assertion, Richard Partington, appears to be at best a member of Gen X and should know better, although his limited life experience blinds him to the obvious fact that most workers don’t what GloboCap’ s crappy jobs and are voting with their feet in massive numbers. No wonder the oligarch CEOs keep whining about the lack of workers. They should remember the line in the traditional British anthem: “Britons never, never will be slaves”
The reporter goes on to say: “More than twice as many people left work to economic inactivity, meaning they are not only, not working, they are not looking for a job either!” Yes Richard, they are doing their own thing, outside our toxic employment/gig economy hidden from the grasping authoritarian blood-suckers at HMG. The government are so concerned that they are setting up an ‘Inquiry’ – good luck with that!
HMG don’t need to look too far, the solo, self-employment sector has seen huge growth over the last 10 years with a 35% increase, driven largely by highly skilled freelancers, and WFH/WFA during the lockdowns. But this is only the honest registered ones. An estimated 2.6% of the British population was operating in the ‘Hidden Economy’ with a presumed taxable income, which suggests that at least part of the income from the ‘Hidden Economy’ activities is assumed to be taxable and should have been declared to HMRC.
That’s over 2 million being part of the missing workers without including the ‘off –shore’ parasites exemplified recently by Lady Mone and hundreds ‘hidden’ peers hiding in the House of Lords as well as the 800 odd other ‘Institutional’ NGOs and Quangos funded out of your taxes and all in the Big Club of which you are not a member! The British system is so sick it is likely to implode in the coming years when the Establishment elites are advised be looking over their shoulders.
Then of course there are many unknown ‘investors’, ‘scammers’ and potential criminals (police detection rates are fewer than 3%); these types are not accounted for anywhere. As the UK economy continues to deteriorate the trend is undeniable – Brits will NOT be slaves – ever. Check out all the ridiculous excuses that this naïve reporter logs: https://www.theguardian.why-are-so-many-people-leaving-the-workforce-amid-a-uk-cost-of-living-crisis
THIS TIME PPE IS NOT GOING AWAY: This is a précis of a revealing article by Prof. Linsey McGoey, Professor of Sociology at University of Essex. She says: “But who is to say for sure? Who holds the people “who count” accountable? Not Rishi Sunak or his government, if they can help it. To condemn Mone is to condemn their own cronyism, so they’d rather turn a blind eye. The revelations about procurement profiteering keep piling up and yet the government has weathered it, by studiously ignoring the problem. And so far, it has worked.
There are hierarchies of ignorance and in today’s world, the Tory government is at the top of the hierarchy. Its ignorance appears deliberate, and it has caused untold harm. Look at PPE procurement mismanagement during the Covid pandemic. We know gross mistakes were made.
Two years ago, the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy released a scathing report on government failures. Investigative efforts at the ‘Good Law Project’ suggested that a “VIP lane” for PPE procurement, created in March 2020, was more like a gravy-train for Tory pals. Companies without any prior experience in supplying necessary materials were showered with billions in contracts – a lot of it unusable or undelivered goods.
Two years on, a familiar pattern is clear. Although the Department of Health and Social Care acknowledged fraud might have figured in the wasted billions on undelivered, subpar products, there’s been little accountability. The government mantra seems to be: see no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil – and yes, the moniker is appropriate for the monkeys in the House of Commons.
The pretence of laissez-faire is the most durable ignorance alibi of the modern era. It enables corrupt governments to pretend it is an invisible hand that moves markets and not their own hands deep in the honey pot. Mone-PPE-procurement-scandal-ministers-feign-ignorance
INFLATION WATCH – It’s so yesterday – forget inflation for Christmas – eat, drink and be merry! Nothing will ever be as bad as we think. Let’s have a wealth of good news. Yes really, there is a website for good news: here is a compendium of the latest good deeds and inventions for anyone wanting to be grateful for what our Maker has delivered this Christmas, and for the magic of his wonderful creation of planet Earth: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/category/news/ SO – what went right in 2022? Here are 25 good news stories from this positive website: https://www.positive.news/
CHRISTMAS SURVIVAL MONITOR: In these dark winter days of shivering cold what do you know about SMART METERS and 5G? Do they cause us to use less electricity? All I know is that HMG & the power companies are pushing smart meters big-time. My own provider is interminable in pressuring me to take one of these dystopian accessories which I believe has a nefarious agenda. They send emails and texts all the time.
Why do I say this? Because if you accept a smart meter, you will simply lose autonomy over your electricity supply – you will now be in the hands of your supplier – who can control your consumption at will and even cut you off without notice!
Wake up – it’s all part of the WEF plan to control every aspect of your lives with CBDCs being the final nail in our coffin. This is happening in USA today and it’s a shocking revelation: https://www.theburningplatform.com/2022/12/06/utility-company-lays-it-on-the-line-for-customers-take-the-orwellian-smart-meter-or-freeze/
And what is it that makes all the ‘Tech’ work? Simple – 5G – they have to interconnect all of us into a ‘smart network’ which includes your ‘smart TV’, your iPhone, your programmable car – if it’s electric is totally under ‘their’ control. Make no mistake – they are coming for you and you likely don’t even know what’s happening until it’s too late. Check out this 5 min video and be shocked:
BUT – how do we get around this steamroller driving us into a technocratic prison where you will own nothing and be happy? You MUST get off grid – ensure your own localised energy supplies – plan and work towards an independent localised community: https://www.resilience.org/stories/2022-02-25/we-are-not-supposed-to-live-like-this/
THE NARRATIVE BATTLE: How is your memory working out? Indeed, it was amazing to me how the most egregious and global attacks on human liberty in the name of public health were very quickly memory-holed by the major media, which we now know was down to public health agencies themselves the entire time. We all stood by in shock and wondered if we were the crazy ones.
That, after all, is the whole point of Orwell’s Memory Hole, the invention of an alternative history of the recent past that contradicts our own memories and invites us to believe that we are crazy or obsessed or otherwise thinking about things that truly do not matter.
This is why the ‘Memory Hole’ was so important in Orwell’s book. It becomes a means by which the population is controlled in its thinking and therefore in its psychological capacity to resist the next round of impositions. This is why cultivating a solid memory is so crucial to the preservation of the good and civilized life. This is my ‘memory’ archive where you can go back to 2018: https://www.theburningplatform.com/author/austrian-peter/
The barbarians all around us are constantly inviting us to forget so that we do not learn lessons and do not apply the lessons we learn. Instead we become blank slates for the ruling class to write on daily and then we are more likely to believe them. Better to never learn lessons at all. If we must learn something, it should be along the lines that we need more control and more acquiescence in the future.
Movements that truly seek to prevent horrors of the past must also seek to preserve memory. This is why there are Holocaust Museums, for example, to help us understand experiences that were not ours but from which we can still learn. Indeed, this is the whole point of learning in general; to extract wisdom from people and events that has come before in order that we can be better prepared to build a future.
People who invite us to forget are more than likely up to no good. It’s not just that they want to replace a real narrative with a false one. They want history to start over at any given moment and be easier to manipulate in the future. https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-age-of-amnesia
LOOKING BACK: It was the ‘Year of the Gaslighter’ says CJ Hopkins and I have to agree. If you were GloboCap, and in the process of imposing your new official ideology on the entire planet in a kind of global Gleichschaltung , and otherwise establishing your “New Normal Reich,” and you needed the masses confused and compliant, you couldn’t ask for much more from your Gaslighting Division!
The gaslighting got underway in January, when the corporate media, health authorities, and other major organs of the New Normal Reich started suddenly “discovering” that the official Covid narrative was “inaccurate,” or, you know, a bunch of lies. A series of limited hangouts ensued:
BUT Good News: The Last Days of the ‘Covidian Cult’ are upon us! The Corporatocracy has overplayed their hand, underestimated their opposition, and are losing the plot. When will they move on to the next Scamdemic? Because they will, they never give up, having been at it for centuries.
UNTIL NEXT WEEK – Have a great holiday and forget all the crap for a while:
For more, read: “The Financial Jigsaw”: Scroll: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358117070_THE_FINANCIAL_JIGSAW_-_PART_1_-_4th_Edition_2020 including regular updates. For a free PDF copy e-Books, Parts 1 & 2, email; [email protected]
AUSTRIAN’S NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE: https://www.theburningplatform.com/author/austrian-peter/
COVID & FINANCE LINKS: [I will not be commenting specifically on Covid in future because my colleague covers daily updates at his websites]: SPREAD THE WORD: YOUR DAILY COVID NEWS (cmnnews.org)
BOOM Finance & Economics (boomfinanceandeconomics.com)
BOOM Finance and Economics | Designed for Critical Thinkers — UPDATED WEEKLY (wordpress.com)
MAKE A DONATION: Itwill spread knowledge and understanding far and wide and empower humanity to keep the peace: https://www.gofundme.com/f/fnahvp-free-book
Happy Christmas, Peter!
Thanks ‘B’ have a great time in spite of it all!
Light a single candle.
I have already 🙂 And sent prayers to Heaven this morning down by the river with peace and calm; birds and small animals all enjoying the balmy weather break and their breakfast spread amongst the trees. It’s really a magical world.
You can “thank” Malcolm McLean of Winston-Salem, NC for modernizing and streamlining global shipping.
He invented containerized freight for his trucking line.
I didn’t know that – it was certainly a brilliant innovation and sorry for not acknowledging him – I will look it up – thanks lamont
Translation for Merikans:
Christmas jumpers = Christmas sweaters
Merry Christmas Peter! Next month will bring folks back to reality.
PS- I was just explaining 5G being located on existing light poles and on residential streets a couple days ago. Hope TBPers watch the video and then scope out any 5G on poles near their homes.
LOL – I guess the ‘jumpers’ have another meaning in US – BL? 🙂
Agree that 5G needs to be called out but the Globalists have such a grip power – it just happens – without even a murmur. God help us – He’s the only and last resort.
Jumpers are dresses you put on little girls Peter. My girls wore jumpers that buttoned with one button on the shoulders.
Ha ha, thanks BL – I am learning all the time. For two countries with a common language I do make some faux pas now and then.
Like when I visit France and use my school-boy French (which is “ancienne” as the French tell me.). I asked for a writing pen once, and said: “voulez vous me donner une plume s’il vous plait”. They fell about laughing – I had asked for a feather!
The only reason I understand Brit English is because I watch A lot of British/Scot shows from the BBC.
Oh dear BL – you might find your brain melting. Try GB News – we have dumped the BBC – they are the HMG propaganda machine. Did you read my Letter about it a few months ago?
“THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: IS THE BBC BIASED? My friends and neighbours often ask me why the BBC is so biased and promotes government policy. The BBC is owned and paid for by the British government through the ‘licence tax’ at £159pa per household, (by historical accident), so it’s not surprising that this massive institution follows HMG directions – so easily visible during the last 2.5 years – especially now as the next round of ‘Vaxxes’ are promoted ad nauseam –they are not giving up – far from it – the bureaucratic machine grinds slowly and finely. It’s the Establishment you see, hidden behind the curtain.
My maxim is ‘always follow the money’ so let’s look at the BBC finances; when I did so I was shocked as it’s something I have never considered before. The BBC annual income is £5.33 billion of which the licence income is: £3.8 billion! Here are the current statistics which clearly answers this crucial question: https://www.statista.com/statistics/284709/bbc-s-annual-income-in-the-united-kingdom-uk-by-source/
https://austrianpeter.substack.com/p/hmg-budget-mtfp-bbc-bias-bankers?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Old stuff Peter like “Are You Being Served”, “Still Game”, “Keeping Up Appearances”, “Poirot”, not BBC news….. Oh Lord no. 🙂
Oh, glad to hear your soul has been saved BL! 🙂 BBC had a great reputation in the 60s/70s and in fact so influential on us thirtysomethings. This is a clip from ‘The Good Life’ and set me on the road to set up my small- holding in 1977. So I can be grateful to them for this. We were hooked on the series.
Merry Christmas and many blessings to you and your family Peter. Loved the 5G Video.
I have a friend who has big problems with Electromagnetic Radiation.. She can’t sleep, gets rashes and has burning, etc… I put the special curtain over her bed and windows that supposed to keep the EMR’s out. She also used the special black paint on the ceiling that has to be grounded to work. She spent big money and it still only helps slightly. She is now traveling carries a meter, and says only when she is traveling in rural areas between cities is she good. The trouble is the towers and poles are everywhere. We are in Anchorage. On my walks, I have discovered three 5G poles within 200 yards of my house, and one tower about a mile away. The things are everywhere and you can’t get away from them. It came to me after a bunch of reading. Why do some people have such bad effects from it. They are filled with toxins/metals. I told her she needs to detox. Starting at the cellular level. She agrees. Will she follow through is the question. How did she get so toxic is another question. She lived in Juneau over 30 years. I think it is from chemtrails and other environmental toxins. She is vaxxed of course, and I know that did not help as they are full of all kinds of toxins. It’s a real problem. Like the short video said. There is no research going on.
Many thanks AKJ – visceral and personal experiences are so valuable and your report is undeniable evidence. I have always advocated moving away from cities – global urban population is 68% now and projected to 72%+ by 2030. So are truly in the snow and ice – brrr – not for me – I need the sun!
I am sure this is what GloboCap is relying on when they force ‘smart cities’ – they might leave remote rural areas alone – some hopes – but I can dream. A boat at sea should be safe in the final analysis, and is my off-grid plan for my last days if I live to see it.
Here in Bruton, deep in SW England we are safe for now.
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/visit-trendiest-town-somerset-find-6353091
We are in the middle of the triangle, Frome/Warminster/Yeovil, 3 miles from Evercreech on this map. You can zoom out and see how for away 5G is in cities/London which are always first. I don’t think rural coverage will be cost-effective:
https://www.nperf.com/en/map/GB/-/2012852.O2-Mobile/signal/?ll=51.15824622188522&lg=-2.5852203369140625&zoom=11
This is the info site I use: https://dgtlinfra.com/cell-tower-locations-4g-lte-5g-towers/ but I am sure you all the info anyway. And have a wonderful day today – happy Christmas to you all and best wishes for the New Year. 🙂 May you live in interesting times!
Merry Christmas to you and yours, my friend.
Many thanks nkit – your music mafia is so great as always – I am enjoying today. Have a wonderful day today and thank you both so much for all you great work you do for us. 🙂
Would love to see the distribution on that 1.5t average.
Good question Mile4 – this might help:
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Household_consumption_by_purpose
AND more here:
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Comparative_price_levels_of_consumer_goods_and_services
Happy holiday reading! 🙂