Tuesday 28 April 2020

BUNGLING BURGON LOSES IT

During the coronacrisis Richard Burgon has been relentlessly attacking the government via his Twitter account and yesterday got the chance to do it via the virtual Parliament.  Unfortunately he suffered a horrendous malfunction that left him inaudible.  The clown prince of the loony left sounded like a broken Dalek and the deputy speaker had to step in.  She gave his internet connection a second chance and it briefly recovered before faltering again, just as he was getting into full flow of his verbal attack.  He was in the midst of blaming austerity and capitalism dating back forty years for NHS shortages, even though the NHS has so far coped admirably.  Like most Corbynistas he regards 13 years of Labour government equivalent to Tory rule.  Watch below for his luckless humiliation.


As one Twitter user sarcastically put it, daft Dickie's loss of connection was a 'classic neo-liberal conspiracy' to silence him - 5G to blame no doubt!

Monday 27 April 2020

MOST SHARED: WEEK 262

Boris Johnson is back in the office and can expect nothing less than a vicious response from the British media.  Their attacks on him while he was recuperating have not gone down well with the British public and perhaps it was no surprise that the following meme was our most shared last week.


A BTLP original, this was shared 2,737 times via the Facebook page.

Sunday 26 April 2020

REAL REASON LABOUR HATE CUMMINGS

Dominic Cummings (right) pictured with Boris Johnson and Michael Gove
during the referendum campaign

Labour are spitting feathers over news that the PM's chief advisor had attended meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).  The group advises the government on its coronavirus strategy, but Labour are angry over the presence of Dominic Cummings.  The Shadow Health Secretary has gone as far as to demand that the government bar him from future meetings.  Jon Ashworth said: "He [Cummings] is a political adviser, not a medical or scientific expert. If the public are to have confidence in SAGE, the government must make clear Dominic Cummings can no longer participate or attend".

What is the problem here, exactly?  Cummings is the Prime Minister's most trusted advisor and Boris Johnson has been incapacitated for weeks.  What is so odd about the PM continuing to have an ear to the ground?  Cummings is not chairing these meetings, he's observing and asking questions.  The meetings are chaired by Sir Patrick Vallance, the government's chief scientific advisor and a man now familiar to millions from the government's daily briefings.

The SAGE meeting that sparked this latest media storm had 23 people in attendance - 21 of which were scientists and/or medical experts.  The way in which The Guardian reported the story exposes the real reason Labour (and their media allies) are riled by Dominic Cummings.  It is nothing to do with 'confidence in SAGE', but has everything to do with Brexit.  The other non-scientist present at the SAGE meeting was Ben Warner, who The Guardian reports is "said to have worked on the Vote Leave campaign".  The 'Vote Leave' connection was then repeated by other media outlets, including the BBC.  Cummings was also a key figure in Vote Leave, but how is this relevant to the fight against coronavirus?

It isn't, but Remainers simply cannot let go.  Their defeat in 2016 and subsequent three and a half year failed campaign to overturn the Leave mandate has left them feeling exceptionally bitter.  It's no coincidence that aside from Cummings and the PM himself, the Remain media and Labour politicians are extremely hostile to Priti Patel - another prominent Vote Leave backer.  How often have we heard calls for her to be sacked or resign?  Jacob Rees-Mogg also faced sustained pressure to resign last year.

Remainers lost in 2016 and were humiliated in 2019.  Now they want vengeance for those defeats and they won't be happy until they have cleansed government of all Brexiteers.

ON THIS DAY IN 1988, CORBYN'S MATES...

The Provisional IRA murdered an off duty British soldier in County Tyrone.  Private Edward 'Ned' Gibson was a part-time member of the Ulster Defence Regiment, but was performing his other job as a binman when the terrorists struck.

On the mid-morning of that fateful day, Ned's bin lorry had arrived in the village of Moortown.  He was on the street collecting bins when two gunmen appeared and called his name before opening fire.  After being hit Pte Gibson ducked behind a small wall, but the terrorists shot him again several times as he lay on the ground, both in the head and torso.  He was already dead when the ambulance arrived.

Pte Gibson and his daughter Marlene

The 22-year-old lived in the village of Coagh with his wife and three-year-old daughter.  As a binman he was employed by Cookstown Borough Council, but being the sole breadwinner had recently signed up with the UDR to make some extra money.  He had passed out basic training just two weeks prior to his death and had not received a personal protection weapon.  

No-one was ever arrested for his murder, although Pte Gibson's widow believes that the men responsible were later shot dead by the SAS.  The terrorists were ambushed in June 1991 as they lay in wait to murder another part-time UDR soldier, just around the corner from the Gibson family home in Coagh.  One of the three terrorists shot dead that day was a cousin of the current deputy first minister of Northern Ireland - Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill.

'NO PANDEMIC' CLAIMS PIERS CORBYN

We've all seen over the last couple of months that Jeremy Corbyn has no respect for the same rules that apply to the rest of us.  He continues to arrogantly swan around like they don't apply to him, exemplified by his appearance in the Commons earlier this week.  Still, he has some way to go to beat his brother's defiance.

Piers Corbyn is even older than Jezza, but he has even less respect for NHS guidelines.  On Saturday afternoon the 73-year-old conspiracy theorist led a protest in Somerset against the lockdown and bizarrely claimed that the pandemic wasn't real.  In the clip below he can be heard saying twice that there is "no pandemic".


Piers has repeatedly claimed in recent months that coronavirus is a plot by globalist billionaires to enslave the world in a surveillance state.  He also claims that a coronavirus vaccine will poison recipients and 'de-populate' the earth.  According to Piers, the leading figure behind this grandiose plot is Bill Gates.  His Twitter account is full of references to Gates and his 'vaccine/ID scheme'.

It sounds batshit crazy, but these daft notions are being lapped up by some.  Piers's fellow conspiracy theorist David Icke has led his own charge, alleging that 5G is behind coronavirus deaths.  This led to phone masts being attacked earlier this month.

Corbyn's protest on Saturday was said to have attracted up to fifty people, although he claims that the numbers were more like a hundred.  Social distancing was ignored during the protest, but Avon and Somerset Police initially stood off and took no action.  A spokesperson later said: "We attended a small protest in the centre of Glastonbury this afternoon.  Approximately 30-40 people turned up and the event was peaceful in nature.  Officers attended Market Place and engaged with the individuals concerned and explained the need to adhere to the current guidelines and the group subsequently dispersed".

Corbyn's claim that less people are dying now than at any time in the last five years doesn't bear any resemblance to the facts.  The following graphs are based on data from the Office for National Statistics and show that deaths in England and Wales began to climb unexpectedly at the end of March and continue to rise well above the average in April.



Of course Corbyn and his supporters would never let facts get in the way of their irresponsible ramblings.  A longer version of the protest video can be found here.  In it Corbyn's supporters make claims about 5G towers 'amplifying' coronavirus in the interest of depopulation and a 'new world order'.

These unsubstantiated claims and encouragement of mass civil disobedience are a massive insult both to the NHS and the families of the thousands of British citizens who are dying alone in hospitals across this country.  Shameful.

Saturday 25 April 2020

THE WEEK IN CARTOONS 19-25 APRIL 2020

19.04.20 - Scott Clissold, Sunday Express
19.04.20 - Nick Newman, Sunday Times
19.04.20 - Matt Pritchett, Sunday Telegraph
19.04.20 - Bob Moran, Sunday Telegraph
19.04.20 - Kevin Kallaugher, Baltimore Sun
20.04.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph
20.04.20 - Graeme Bandeira, Yorkshire Post 
20.04.20 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph
21.04.20 - Christian Adams, Evening Standard
22.04.20 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph
22.04.20 - Royston Robertson, Private Eye
22.04.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph
23.04.20 - Peter Brookes, The Times
23.04.20 - Christian Adams, Evening Standard
23.04.20 - Andy Davey, Daily Telegraph
23.04.20 - Graeme Bandeira, Yorkshire Post
24.04.20 - Peter Brookes, The Times
25.04.20 - Nick Newman, The Spectator
25.04.20 - Peter Brookes, The Times

Friday 24 April 2020

SKY POLL BACKFIRES

A YouGov poll commissioned by Sky News has backfired spectacularly.  The broadcaster wanted to explore various public attitudes to the pandemic, including trust.  Unfortunately for Sky and their media colleagues the poll revealed that the mass media was least trusted by far.  The NHS, Professor Chris Whitty, Boris Johnson, Sir Patrick Vallance and the Civil Service all registered positive net figures on trust, while Dominic Raab, Matt Hancock and Keir Starmer were in negative figures.  TV journalists and newspapers were far and away the most distrusted among the options provided with TV journalists registering negative figures of -40 and newspapers -55.


This is a damning indictment of the media's behaviour at this time of national crisis.  Their narrative has become increasingly negative over the past few weeks, despite the NHS holding up under the strain and despite the flattening of the curve.  Their desperation to make PPE shortages a huge story can be seen on the faces of the news presenters when they are faced with a medical guest who doesn't accept it is quite the disaster they are making it out to be.  The barrage of negative questions at the daily government briefings hasn't gone down too well either.  Why is it that these reporters persistently criticise the government for not signing up to the EU PPE procurement scheme when that same scheme has so far failed to produce a single piece of kit?

When this virus has finally been defeated, the media will not be among those to have come out of this crisis in a positive light.

The full results of the poll can be found here.

MOMENTUM SHOUT FALLS ON DEAF EARS

Ahead of last night's clap for carers the left were desperately trying to get #GiveThemPPE trending, attempting to capitalise on the current media narrative that the NHS is on the brink of disaster.  Momentum were among those encouraging their supporters to get a chant going in addition to applause.  Embarrassingly, despite having 157,000 followers on Twitter, the group's tweet was shared just 60 times.

The gesture did find one notable supporter.  Stepping outside his home in the north-east of England (a home paid for by the National Union of Mineworkers) was former Labour chairman Ian Lavery.  In a cringeworthy display, the Wansbeck MP banged a pot and halfheartedly chanted "pay them properly, give them PPE" while struggling to keep a straight face.  He also appears to have run out of razors during the lockdown.


That was perhaps an even less convincing effort than the Shadow Home Secretary's a week ago.

Thursday 23 April 2020

CORBYN BLANKS ST GEORGE

Back in 2018 when the England football team was enjoying a good run in the World Cup, the then Labour leader was fully on board the sporting bandwagon.  Sensing political gain in patriotism he called on the government to make St George's Day a bank holiday if England won the tournament.  He also said a Labour government would make all the national saints' days bank holidays.  Alas, the England team ran aground in the semi-finals and Corbyn dropped his pretence.


Two years on and Corbyn is no longer chasing English votes.  On St George's Day 2020 the patron saint of England didn't get a mention.  He tweeted for Thursday's clap for carers, he tweeted for International Workers' Memorial Day (happening next week) and he tweeted the following...


Corbyn's disdain for the English didn't go unnoticed.  Ex-Labour MP Kate Hoey was one of those to point out his glaring omission...


To cap off Corbyn's shame, the noble Kate is not even English.

QUARTERMASTER HITS BLOCK

On a routine scan of senior leftists this afternoon it came to our attention that the former shadow chancellor's Twitter account could not be found.  Naturally our first instinct was concern for his well-being.  Having recently departed the front bench with a record of abject failure behind him, one could understand our worry.

Fear not comrades, for John McDonnell's newfound insecurity has manifested itself in him hitting Twitter's block button.  We are now muted.


McDonnell joins the likes of Diane Abbott, Lord Adonis, Dawn Butler, Owen Jones and Angela Rayner in blocking our Twitter account.  It's a mystery as to the timing, as we have neither tweeted him or mentioned him on Twitter this week.  Obviously he has more time on his hands now he is surplus to requirements and we are honoured to have been singled out from such a huge following.  Thankfully we can still keep tabs on his exploits via the magic of opening up a different web browser.

Ta-dah!

LABOUR MPs FAWN OVER STARMER

Labour MPs paid glowing tributes to Keir Starmer following his first PMQs yesterday, but they all included a very specific word to describe his performance.  See if you can guess what it is...


Sir Squeaky will need to be a lot more than 'forensic' if he is to make inroads into the Tory lead.  Let's not forget that he was up against the PM's deputy rather than the man himself.  As for Starmer's own deputy, she doesn't instill much confidence.  Two weeks ago it was announced that Angela Rayner would be taking on Dominic Raab, but there was a sudden change of plan earlier this week and Starmer took over.  No explanation was forthcoming.  Perhaps it dawned on him that the first PMQs of his leadership was far too important to risk putting the hapless Rayner in charge.

Needless to say, not all Labour MPs were in love with Starmer after PMQs.  There were no words of support from the likes of Corbyn, Abbott, Lavery and co.  They are naturally more concerned with plotting to undermine his leadership and scapegoat their own failures.


Note that once again the name of Jeremy Corbyn is strangely absent from the list of signatories, leaving little doubt that he is the hard left puppet master...

ST GEORGE'S DAY DISCOUNTS

It's St George's Day and to celebrate the patron saint of England there's ten per cent off on these Cross of St George items in the Facebook shop.

  

Wednesday 22 April 2020

JULIE'S BROADBAND IRONY

While the virtual Parliament ran fairly smoothly today, a virtual select committee meeting was subject to a very apt technological fail.  Labour's Julie Elliott (Sunderland Central) was taking part in a meeting of the committee for digital, culture, media and sport.  She was attempting to raise the issue of poor broadband in some parts of the country when her own internet failed on her!  Watch below for the hilarious twist of irony...


Obviously this would never have happened if the Great Leader had won on December 12th and granted all citizens their free communist broadband!

WELSH MINISTER DROPS F-BOMB

Wales health minister Vaughan Gething

While today's main event at Westminster went relatively smoothly, less can be said about events over at the virtual Senedd.  Health minister Vaughan Gething had been addressing assembly members, but forgot to mute his microphone after he'd finished and was caught swearing in reference to one of his own Labour colleagues.  "What the f*** is wrong with her" he is heard to exclaim in reference to AM Jenny Rathbone (a 70-year-old woman).  Watch below for the full clip and look at the shocked reactions, including a clearly gobsmacked Leanne Wood, former leader of Plaid Cymru...


The leaders of both the Welsh Tories and Plaid Cymru have called on First Minister Mark Drakeford to dismiss Gething, but at the time of writing an apology is all that's been forthcoming...

KI££OCK'S BIZARRE PMQ STUNT

While everyone else taking part in today's virtual PMQs was sat at home quite possibly naked from the waist down, the member for Aberavon was fully suited, fully erect and he wanted the world to know it...



Where to begin with this?  Firstly, why the full kit including shoes - indoors?  Secondly, he's twenty minutes early for PMQs and is staring at an empty chamber.  Finally, why on earth pose for this bizarre photoshoot in the first place?

Still, it couldn't have gone any worse than his last photoshoot.

ON THIS DAY IN 2001, CORBYN'S MATES...

A Palestinian suicide bomber struck at a bus stop in the Israeli town of Kfar Sava, near the West Bank border.  The attacker targeted morning rush hour as commuters were queuing for the bus.  He exploded his device just before 9am, as the bus pulled in.  Eyewitness Sarit Yagan described what happened: "The driver had just opened the bus when there was an explosion from the side.  There was fire and dust, there were screams and shouts".

41 people were injured and a 53-year-old doctor was killed.  A 14-year-old boy was left in a critical condition.  Nails and screws had been packed into the device to maximise casualties.

Hamas described the attack as an act of 'self-defence', although the attack itself was claimed by a group calling itself the Popular Army Front.  The Israeli PM directly blamed the Palestinian Authority, saying it had failed to control such groups.  The Palestinian Authority rebutted the accusation, saying it condemned 'any attack on civilians'.

Dr Mario Goldin was killed

Dr Mario Goldin was killed instantly in the explosion.  He had been on his way to work at the Meir Hospital where he worked in the orthopedic ward.  In the 1980s he had founded a pain clinic at the Beit Levistein rehabilitation centre and had treated the victims of many previous terror attacks.  Originally from Argentina, he was survived by his wife and three children.

A similar attack had been carried out in the same town eight days earlier.  A Hamas suicide bomber killed two teenagers and wounded a number of schoolchildren at a bus stop.  Two years later the town's commuters were targeted again when another Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up at the train station, killing a security guard and wounding ten civilians.

Tuesday 21 April 2020

STARMER'S STUTTERING START

The latest YouGov findings show that neither coronavirus or new opposition leadership has dramatically impacted on public opinion where Westminster is concerned.  The poll was carried out at the end of last week and although Labour have cut the Tory lead by three points, Keir Starmer is clearly not inspiring the public as a leader.  He is currently trailing in third behind the 'don't knows' when it comes to who would make the best PM.


This is a poll that dogged Jeremy Corbyn throughout his leadership as he never did overtake the 'don't knows', even when he was up against Theresa May at her lowest ebb.  There is some solace here for Sir Keir as he has improved on Corbyn's figures by four points.  However, this still leaves him 24 points behind Boris Johnson.

One obstacle for Starmer appears to be a lack of recognition with the general public.  His painfully dull persona was always going to hold him back, but just compare his YouGov ratings with that of Boris Johnson.  Boris is the most popular and most famous Tory politician, whereas Starmer is the 27th most popular and 30th most famous Labour politician.


In terms of popularity Starmer trails behind dozens of Labour backbenchers, former party leaders and former MPs including Corbyn, McDonnell, Brown, Blair, both Milibands, Neil Kinnock, Dennis Skinner, Kate Hoey and Dave Lammy!  The fact that Ed Balls tops this list suggests that reality television is a powerful influence on public opinion.  It's highly doubtful that wooden Starmer would ever be that desperate, but could anyone have ever predicted that one day Labour's shadow chancellor would one day be seen prancing around in green face paint on prime-time Saturday night telly?

In terms of fame Starmer is even further down the list and is leapfrogged by the likes of Diane Abbott, Peter Mandelson and Keith Vaz.  If Starmer wasn't such a heartless monotone-voiced robot this may be disheartening to him, but then he would quite rightly say that Westminster is not a popularity contest.  It does help though, especially if you want people to vote for you.

Back to the nitty-gritty and the latest Westminster voting intention figures.  According to YouGov's latest findings the Labour Party have advanced on the Tories by a net three points, due in most part to a decline for the Lib Dems/Greens.  Remain voters switching to Labour?  This would come as no surprise seeing as Starmer was the chief architect of Labour's second referendum con.

Con: 53% (+1)
Lab: 32% (+4)
LDem: 5% (-3)
SNP: 4% (-1)
Green: 3% (-2)
Brexit: 1% (-)
Plaid: 1% (-)
Others: 1% (-)

Another interesting finding from YouGov is the government's overall approval rating.  Despite desperate attempts by both Labour and the mass media to trash the government's handling of coronavirus, the poll shows public approval of the government has increased during the pandemic.  The following poll tracker shows that public approval rose steeply last month while disapproval fell.


Not an easy task ahead of you Sir Keir!

SULTANA'S VIDEO NASTY


Zarah Sultana has a history when it comes to social media posts about Israel (and Jews), so much so that she was forced to apologise during last year's general election campaign.  Last Friday the hard left Labour MP shared a video on her Twitter account along with the message pictured above.

Following an investigation by Joseph Cohen of the Israel Advocacy Movement it can be revealed that some of the people featured in the video were not so much 'political prisoners', but murderers and terrorists.  Watch below.


Once again her constituents in Coventry South must be wondering how exactly the cause of Palestine benefits them.  Going into the next election their MP will be defending the narrowest ever Labour majority in this seat - just 401 votes.  In four years time Sultana could be following in the footsteps of Laura Pidcock and leaving Parliament after a single term.

Further reading

Monday 20 April 2020

BURGON MOCKED OVER COVID TWEET

The Beeb's Andrew Neil was among those mocking Labour's Richard Burgon over a coronavirus tweet this morning.  Bungling Burgon has dedicated a lot of time to attacking the government throughout the lockdown, but he opened himself up to ridicule by quoting some highly selective figures on the worldwide death toll...


It wasn't just Spain, Italy and France that Burgon deliberately omitted from his anti-UK list.  The source he quoted in his Twitter thread shows that Belgium has also suffered a higher death toll per population density.  Also curiously lacking from his list is the United States.  Although the US has suffered the most number of deaths by far, it is still behind the UK in terms of deaths per population density.  Of course Burgon wouldn't want to give President Trump any credit, someone he despises even more than Boris Johnson.

This is the full top ten that Dickie didn't want to broadcast...

Belgium - 471 deaths per million people
Italy - 384
Spain - 429
France - 296
UK - 228
Netherlands - 210
Sweden - 150
Switzerland - 128
US - 118
Ireland - 116

BLAIR'S DEMON FACE REVISITED

It's that time again when Tony Blair emerges from his coven and does his rounds of all the news channels.  Why his opinion is so acutely relevant that we have to see his grinning face on every single media outlet over a 24 hour period every couple of months is anyone's guess.  Other former PMs are not afforded such a regular barrage of coverage, although arguably they are not so desperate to have their egos massaged.  David Cameron largely disappeared off the face of the earth for three years, but then no-one missed him.  If only Blair would do the same.

A video clip has appeared online of Blair's appearance on BBC News this morning, during which there appears to be a brief moment of satellite interference that distorts his face.  Watch below.


David Icke will be all over this as proof that Tony is one of the reptilian overlords of the New World Order, or whatever crazy shit he is spouting these days - in addition to his 5G nonsense.

Older readers may recall this Tory poster from the 1990s...

MOST SHARED: WEEK 261


He's not everyone's cup of tea, but Gervais was spot on with this observation.  One of the consequences of the pandemic has been to expose just how self-obsessed celebrities truly are, spinning hard luck stories from multi-million pound mansions while many of those watching are cooped up in flats and bedsits with no access to a back yard.

The meme was shared 747 times via the Facebook page.

Sunday 19 April 2020

THE 'SOCIAL WORK PARTY'

Back in February the Brexit Party's Claire Fox took part in a debate that included Labour's Faiza Shaheen.  The full debate can be found here, but of particular interest is Fox's assessment of how the modern Labour Party treats the working classes it was designed to represent.  She ties in Brexit as a prime example of how Labour lost the workers and lost the general election.

Watch below for her superb analysis.

KATE CONDEMNS BBC BIAS


Former Labour MP Kate Hoey has joined in condemnation of the BBC over a series of anti-government stories that included a phoney story about PPE (see above).  The BBC retracted its story on Friday in a small correction on its website.  Kate demanded a full on-air apology...


Kate also lashed out over a broadcast in which a GP was introduced as a guest, but the presenter failed to inform viewers that he was until very recently a Labour MP.  Dr Paul Williams lost his Stockton South seat to the Tories in December, but he is also the Labour candidate for Cleveland Police Commissioner in next year's elections.


In yet another incident last week BBC News introduced a nurse to discuss concerns over PPE.  Again the Beeb failed to mention that he was a member of the Labour Party.

Saturday 18 April 2020

THE WEEK IN CARTOONS 12-18 APRIL 2020

12.04.20 - Morten Morland, Sunday Times
12.04.20 - Bob Moran, Sunday Telegraph 
12.04.20 - Matt Pritchett, Sunday Telegraph
13.04.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph
15.04.20 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph
15.04.20 - Christian Adams, Evening Standard 
16.04.20 - Peter Brookes, The Times
17.04.20 - Steve Bright, The Sun
17.04.20 - Peter Brookes, The Times
17.04.20 - Graeme Bandeira, Yorkshire Times
17.04.20 - Bob Moran, Daily Telegraph
18.004.20 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph
18.04.20 - Graeme Bandeira, Yorkshire Post
18.04.20 - Paul Thomas, Daily Mail