LABOUR COUNCILLOR CAUGHT STEALING

Cllr Rachael Ellis

A doorbell camera in Nottinghamshire has caught a sitting Labour councillor stealing a Tory leaflet as she campaigned for the council elections in England.  Cllr Rachael Ellis represents the Bestwood St Albans ward of Gedling Borough Council and was delivering leaflets in nearby Arnold.  In the footage she is seen to remove a leaflet from the letterbox and replace it with her own.

Watch below.

The homeowner emailed the doorbell footage to his local Tory MP Tom Randall.  Randall shared the footage to his Facebook page and confirmed that the culprit was Cllr Ellis.

In addition to her council position, Ellis is also a justice of the peace - making her behaviour all the more mortifying.  She is not up for re-election this time as she has another two years left on her current term, but was campaigning on behalf of party colleagues.  Her Twitter page is currently locked down, although it's not clear if this is as a result of her misdemeanour.  A Labour spokesman told The Sun: "The Labour Party issues strict election campaigning guidelines to all of our members".  Does this not include "Thou shalt not pilfer rival's leaflets"?

LONDON TO KEEP ON FALLING

Aspiring politician Laurence Fox will get his first big test today when he stands in London's mayoral election.  A record 20 candidates are standing in the election, so Fox is among a very crowded field.  Each candidate needs at least five per cent of the vote in order to save their deposit, which is a whopping £10,000 in this election.  With the two leading candidates set to receive as much as 80 per cent between them, it doesn't take a genius to work out that most of those candidates will lose their deposits.

Fox will do well to keep his, but with a household name and big money backing his Reclaim Party, he could potentially do much better.  Some Tories are worried that his presence will 'split the vote' and hamper Shaun Bailey's chances.  Unfortunately, for everyone, Bailey has little chance of success anyway.

In the most recent opinion poll Bailey was 12 points behind Khan in the first ballot and 18 points behind in the final round.  The final round is required if no candidate achieves more than 50 per cent in the first ballot.  Khan had been polling more than 50 per cent earlier in the spring, peaking at 53 per cent in March.  Having fallen to 43 per cent on the eve of polling will dent his massive ego.

London Mayoral Poll (YouGov, 2-4 May)

Sadiq Khan (Lab) 43% (-4)

Shaun Bailey (Con) 31% (+5)

Siân Berry (Green) 10% (+1)

Luisa Porritt (LDem) 5% (-2)

Laurence Fox (Rec)  3% (-1)

Others 8% (+1)

Final Round

Khan 59% (-7)

Bailey 41% (+7)

The sample size was 1,147.  Changes are against YouGov's poll conducted 29 March-1 April.

Contrary to the warblings of some Tory backers, there is nothing wrong with Shaun Bailey's candidacy.  They will blame Bailey when he fails to defeat Khan, but the sad truth is that there was no-one else they could put forward who would have been a significant threat to the mayor of this painfully woke city.  A rapidly changing demographic killed off their chances, not their candidate.

Bailey is a great candidate who is more than a match for Khan and has the common touch that Khan lacks.  Khan is great when it comes to ego-massaging selfies with his adoring woke electorate, but he runs a mile when a disgruntled peasant approaches.  He is archetypal of the modern Labour politician - working class people are like vermin to him and the sooner they are run out of London completely the better.  The future is grim for our capital city and it seems that no matter how much crime spirals out of control, the middle classes can't get enough of Khan.

For now all we can hope is that Bailey does better than expected and Fox, too.  A saved deposit for the latter would spare his blushes and give him a base on which to build.  The continuing overlap between his party and Reform may lead to an official merger later on, but the British people are crying out for a third party to challenge the two-party protection racket that offers nothing but lockdown and misery.

London Mayoral Candidates

Shaun Bailey (Conservative)

Kam Balayev (Renew)

Siân Berry (Green)

Count Binface (Count Binface Party)

Valerie Brown (Burning Pink)

Piers Corbyn (Let London Live)

Max Fosh (Ind)

Laurence Fox (Reclaim)

Peter Gammons (UKIP)

Richard Hewison (Rejoin EU)

Vanessa Hudson (Animal Welfare)

Steve Kelleher (SDP)

Sadiq Khan (Labour)

David Kurten (Heritage)

Farah London (Ind)

Niko Omilana (Ind)

Nims Obunge (Ind)

Luisa Porritt (Lib Dem)

Mandu Reid (Women's Equality)

Brian Rose (London Real)

STINGS LIKE A BUTTERFLY

Last week Keir Starmer visited Kingston upon Hull for another dubious photo opportunity in which he sported Labour-embossed boxing gloves.  Joking that he would wear them 'at PMQs', he proceeded to tap away pathetically at a punch bag.  The guys at Spoofed have played with the footage and come up with a hilarious new version.

Click below for the video.

CRIMINAL PAST OF LABOUR CANDIDATE

Mohsin Hussain (circled) pictured last month with Tracy Brabin and Angela Rayner

The criminal past of a Labour council candidate in West Yorkshire has come to light after local Tories highlighted the issue.  Mohsin Hussain is standing for election in Keighley, but has a string of convictions behind him including actual bodily harm, resisting a police constable, dangerous driving and driving without insurance and a licence.

In 2014 Hussain was convicted of ABH alongside his twin brother, Hassan, and another man in relation to an attack on Ibrar Ahmed in Keighley.  During that attack Hussain and his brother used pickaxe handles while their accomplice used a baseball bat.  The motive for the attack was never divulged.  While on bail, Hussain committed a further offence of dangerous driving.  His earlier convictions were from 2013, when he was 18.

Mohsin Hussain (circled) pictured leaving Bradford Crown Court in 2014,
alongside his brother and co-defendant Aqeeb Khalifa

Mohsin and Hassan Hussain are sons of the late Abid Hussain, a Labour councillor and former lord mayor of Bradford who died last year after a battle with coronavirus.  Ironically, both men were studying for degrees in criminology at the time of their ABH conviction.  Now Mohsin is hoping to succeed his father by winning a seat in Keighley Central, a ward held by Abid for ten years up to his death.

Mohsin's convictions were brought to light by the Conservative MP for Keighley, Robbie Moore.  Moore posted the following video on his Facebook page last week, using Hussain's criminal past to tarnish Labour's bid to make Tracy Brabin the first ever elected mayor of West Yorkshire.

Mr Moore told Yorkshire Live: "If Keir Starmer wants to show he’s tough on crime, he would kick this Labour candidate out of the party for good".  However, Labour defended their candidate, saying:  "We are delighted that Mohsin Hussain is standing for Labour in Keighley Central.  Mohsin has been open and honest about his past.  He has sincere regrets but has since turned his life around and is now a pillar of the community".

It is true that Hussain made no secret of his past when he was put up for election.  In February he told the Keighley News: "I made a poor decision a long time ago – when I was still a teenager – and took full responsibility for my actions.  It was a moment in my youth when I made a big mistake, but it was a wake-up call and from there I made a clear decision to take a new path and I've worked hard to make something of my life".  Mohsin was 19 at the time of his ABH conviction.  In the interview he went on to discuss his legal qualifications, as a result of which he now runs his own immigration and asylum advisory firm in Keighley.

Hussain pictured alongside Rayner and Brabin during recent campaigning

In March Hussain appeared in a video for the Islam Keighley Centre, during which he praised the community centre's objective of 'preventing crime', this time without referring to his own past.  There is no reference to crime prevention on their website, judge for yourself.

Further reading

Brabin Slammed By Muslim Host

REFORM TARGET LOCKDOWN SCEPTICS

The politicians formerly known as the Brexit Party have been busy wooing anti-lockdown voters in a series of hard-hitting social media ads.  Vaccine passports have been the main focus of their campaign and they have even likened the Tories to the Chinese Communist Party.  That will sound absurd to lockdown enthusiasts who prefer to live in a constant state of fear and social control, but to critical thinkers who sense the direction of travel, it is prophecy.  

Vaccine passports are ID cards by the back door.  They will not be 'temporary' as has been suggested and are ripe for expansion into more sinister methods of social control later on.  A dystopian social credit system, as used in China, is among the most feared potential developments.

Thursday will be the first electoral test of Reform UK and we will see just how damaging or inspired that rebranding was.  Asides from the council elections, perhaps their best chance of maintaining elected office will be in the Senedd, but on current polling they look set to miss out.  UKIP polled slightly better in the most recent Senedd poll, but they are unlikely to win any seats either.

There is also an outside chance that Reform may sneak a seat on the London Assembly, but they will need to do better than the current two per cent they are on in the opinion polls.

Ex-Tory candidate and TV personality Dr David Bull is one of the Reform candidates in London.  He is one of the few Brexit Party MEPs that has remained active in the party and is currently Tice's right hand man following Farage's front line exit.  Below he discusses the intrusive, discriminatory and unnecessary imposition of vaccine passports.

STARMER ROCKED BY NEW POLL

Keir Starmer has been rocked by a double whammy ahead of the crucial by-election in Hartlepool.  A new poll by Survation has put the Tory candidate a whopping 17 points ahead of Labour, while canvassing returns from the party's own activists suggests only 40 per cent of existing Labour voters are prepared to back the party on Thursday.

The sample size for Survation's poll is pitifully small at 517, but the canvassing returns of Labour activists are not.  According to The Guardian, Labour teams have canvassed more than 10,000 voters in Hartlepool, representing around 14 per cent of the electorate.  Labour is defending a 3,595 majority going into the by-election and it's not looking good for Sir Squeaky.

Hartlepool Parliamentary By-Election Poll (Survation, 23-29 April)

Con 50% (+1)

Lab 33% (-9)

Ind (Walker) 6% (+4)

Ind (Lee) 6% (+2)

Green 3% (+2)

LDem  1% (-)

Reform  1% (-)

The sample size was 517 and changes are against Survation's poll conducted 29 March-3 April.

STURGEON ON COURSE

Undoubtedly the most important election taking place on Thursday will be north of the border.  The outcome of the Holyrood elections could potentially shape the future of the entire United Kingdom.  If Sturgeon and her separatist allies win a majority of seats they will push for another independence referendum, despite telling everybody in 2014 that such an event was 'once in a generation'.

According to most recent polling the SNP are projected to win an outright majority, but even if they fall short they can rely on the pro-indy Greens to back them up.  The highly respected pollster Professor John Curtice predicts that the SNP will win 68 seats, a majority of four.  The Greens would more than double their current tally of five and pick up 13 seats.  The other pro-indy party of Alex Salmond would enter Holyrood with one seat, but according to Professor Curtice it is unlikely to be Salmond who picks up that solitary seat (bit awkward).

Nicola Sturgeon has reason to be cheerful

Hapless Salmond, seen here trying to spell the name of his own party, may not be
victorious on Thursday.  The only Alba gain is likely to be Eva Comrie (far right)

Despite the mainstream media talking up Labour's new leader Anas Sarwar, his party looks set to finish third for the second consecutive election.  According to Professor Curtice, the Tories will pick up around 26 seats - down five - but will stay well clear of Labour who will lose seven seats and end up with as little as 17.

Curtice's predictions are based on the following YouGov polling.  Note that like Wales, Scottish voters get two votes - one constituency and one regional.

Holyrood Constituency Poll (YouGov, 2-4 May)

SNP 52% (+3)

Con 20% (-1)

Lab 19% (-2)

LDem 6% (-)

Green 2% (+1)

Other 1% (-1)

Holyrood Regional Poll (YouGov, 2-4 May)

SNP 38% (-1)

Con 22% (-)

Lab 16% (-1)

Green 13% (+3)

LDem 5% (-)

Alba 3% (+1)

Reform 1% (-)

Other 2% (-)

The sample size was 1,000 and changes are against YouGov's poll conducted 16-20 April.

While Sturgeon will be over the moon if these polls are reproduced on Thursday, there is less enthusiasm for her independence dream.  Polling on independence swung away from Yes last month, including a Savanta poll that gave No a seven point lead.  However, in two of the most recent polls the question has returned a dead heat.

Scottish Independence Polls

Yes 45% (-) No 45% (+2) Opinium, 28 April-3 May

Yes 48% (+1) No 45% (-3) Panelbase, 28-30 April

Yes 47% (-2) No 47% (-1) BMG, 27-30 April

Yes 42% (-2) No 49% (+1) Savanta, 23-27 April

Yes 42% (-2) No 47% (+2) Survation, 23-26 April

WHAT DOES LISA KNOW?

Lisa Nandy gave an intriguing reply when asked by Andrew Marr on Sunday whether she thought England was on course to 'end all restrictions on June 21st'.  Given the collapse in the virus since January, the correct answer should surely have been a resounding 'yes', but instead Marr got this: "I'm not sure to be honest, I think it depends how the next few months play out".  The next few months?  June 21 is next month.

Was this a Freudian slip or had she genuinely lost track of time?  Ten minutes after she was interviewed, her Tory counterpart was also interviewed and asked pretty much the same question.  Dominic Raab dodged the question and said that the restrictions would not end before June 21.  However, as he answered a separate question about the vaccination of children, he dropped the revelation that - surprise, surprise - some restrictions would remain after June 21.  There would be 'something around' distancing and/or masks he confirmed when prompted by Marr.

Upon these pages countless times in the last few months we said this would happen, but we are intrigued as to how much prior knowledge the Labour front bench has.  When Lisa Nandy was grilled by TalkRadio's Julia Hartley-Brewer last week she trotted out precisely the same scaremongering nonsense that SAGE have been pumping out for the last month.  Has she also been briefed about what won't happen on June 21?  She also repeated Boris Johnson's bizarre assertion that vaccines have not been responsible for the decline in the virus.  It's all because of the lockdown!

Click below for that clip and note Nandy's reaction when she is faced with real tricky questions about SAGE's prediction of a 'third wave'.  She laughs, as if she knows the whole idea is absurd, but she's going along with it anyway...

It's also worth noting that in the above interview Lisa Nandy's location is given as London, yet in her later appearance on Marr she claimed to be the 'first shadow foreign secretary never to leave Wigan'.  Funny that, seeing as she was also on the other side of the country in Hartlepool two weeks ago.  The lies come thick and fast.

THE THREE HARTLEPOOL STOOGES

The day after his lockdown-defying knees-up on Friday night, Keir Starmer was in Hartlepool yet again.  This was his third visit to the town since the by-election was called, but rather than 'inspire' his troops on the streets he opted to tour the Liberty Steel factory.  Alongside him were his deputy Angela Rayner and hapless by-election candidate Paul Williams.

Rayner, Williams and Starmer at Liberty Steel on Saturday

As to how this latest photo opportunity contributes to Labour's prospects in Thursday's crucial by-election is anyone's guess, but the above snap of the trio is far from inspiring.

ONE COVID DEATH

The day after the Foreign Secretary admitted that some restrictions may stay in place after June 21, there has been one coronavirus death reported across the UK.  One.

Oddly, at the time of writing the government's coronavirus dashboard has not been updated with today's statistics.  Usually the dashboard is updated around 16:00, but as of 19:00 it was still showing yesterday's figures.  Today's statistics were tweeted by Public Health England.

One Covid death is the lowest recorded since March 2020.

UPDATE

The government's coronavirus dashboard was updated at 19:32, around three and a half hours later than usual.  A somewhat baffling note was attached which read: "Latest deaths data not available below UK level.  Due to an issue with processing of deaths data today, the latest data other than the UK figure is not available.  This will be updated in the next release".

That garbled statement makes about as much sense as prolonging the lockdown and/or maintaining and introducing additional restrictions beyond June 21.  Enough is enough.

BLAIR & CO WANT LOCKDOWN EXTENDED

The Tony Blair Institute has called for the current lockdown to be extended into July.  In an article posted on its website last week entitled 'Ahead of the Curve', the co-authors recommend that the final stages of the government's road map should be delayed by four weeks.  They argue that such an extension is required in order to prevent the deadly 'third wave' that SAGE have predicted.  The delay in unlocking would allow the vaccination programme to 'catch up' and avert up to 40,000 deaths in a 'summer surge'.

The main problem here is that the authors are using a SAGE model in order to argue their case.  The dire predictions of Whitty, Vallance and co have always fallen well short during the course of the pandemic.  And what of the vaccines?  If they are as effective as we have been told then a 'third wave' is literally impossible.  All the at risk groups have been vaccinated and remember that these groups are called 'at risk' for a reason - they are the ones at risk from the virus.

The Blair authors say that the vaccination programme is lagging behind the unlocking, because all adults have yet to be offered a jab.  If anything, it is ahead of the unlocking for the precise reason that those at risk have been fully vaccinated.  A 'surge' in virus deaths post-lockdown makes no sense whatsoever, given that people under the age of 60 with no underlying health conditions represent barely 0.1 per cent of fatalities.  There was no such surge when the UK unlocked last summer and crucially there was no vaccine then, either.

What is really going on here?  Neither of the co-authors have any medical qualifications.  Ian Mulheirn and David Britto are economists - global economists to be precise.  That word 'global' comes up a lot if you dig just a little bit, but then the full title of Blair's organisation is the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.  Blair himself is a member of the World Economic Forum, the influential hosts of Davos and exponents of the Great Reset - an initiative that aims to exploit the pandemic in order to create a dystopian new world in which private ownership is restricted to decision makers and citizens become dependent on and ultimately controlled by those decision makers.  If that sounds like communism, that's because it is.  Pre-pandemic, the Great Reset was known as the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution'.

One of Blair's comrades at the World Economic Forum is Sir Jeremy Farrar.  He also chairs the Wellcome Trust, a global health research charity that has invested heavily in pharmaceutical companies that means it will profit directly from the pandemic.  Therefore, he could directly profit from expanding the vaccine roll-out to young adults and children - as proposed by Blair's co-authors, recommended by SAGE and now scheduled to begin in September.  Finally, Farrar just happens to be a member of SAGE.  Coincidence?

It's not difficult to join the dots.

THE WEEK IN CARTOONS 25 APRIL-1 MAY 2021

25.04.21 - Peter Schrank, Business Post

25.04.21 - Matt Pritchett, Sunday Telegraph

25.04.21 - Andy Davey, Sunday Telegraph

25.04.21 - Nick Newman, Sunday Times

25.04.21 - Morten Morland, Sunday Times

26.04.21 - Steve Bright, The Sun

26.04.21 - Morten Morland, The Times

26.04.21 - Andy Davey, Twitter

26.04.21 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph

27.04.21 - Guy Venables, Metro

27.04.21 - Morten Morland, The Times

27.04.21 - Paul Thomas, Daily Mail

27.04.21 - Patrick Blower, Daily Telegraph

28.04.21 - Graeme Keyes, Irish Daily Mail

28.04.21 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph

28.04.21 - Peter Brookes, The Times

29.04.21 - Dave Brown, Independent

29.04.21 - Paul Thomas, Daily Mail

29.04.21 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph

29.04.21 - Patrick Blower, Evening Standard

30.04.21 - Christian Adams, Evening Standard

30.04.21 - Ben Garrison, Grrr Graphics

30.04.21 - Andy Davey, Daily Telegraph

30.04.21 - Matt Pritchett, Daily Telegraph

30.04.21 - Tom Armstrong, Private Eye

30.04.21 - Peter Brookes, The Times

30.04.21 - Dave Brown, Independent

01.05.21 - Paul Thomas, Daily Mail

01.05.21 - Andy Davey, Daily Telegraph

01.05.21 - Peter Brookes, The Times

01.05.21 - Morten Morland, Spectator

KEIR'S FRIDAY NIGHT KNEES-UP

On Saturday morning a video tweeted by London mayoral candidate and Reclaim Party leader Laurence Fox shows Keir Starmer having some sort of knees-up indoors.  Fox tagged Starmer in the tweet and wrote: "It would seem that the mask has already slipped for ⁦Keir Starmer.  Don’t share widely.  No-one is perfect".

The video is filmed through the window of a building and shows a bespectacled Labour leader holding a bottle of beer and chatting to hard left Labour MP Mary Foy (Durham).  People can be seen milling around in the background, one of whom is standing and eating from a plate, suggesting that there is some kind of social event in progress.  This would be in contravention of the coronavirus rules that Starmer and his colleagues expect the rest of us plebs to adhere to.

Click below for the video.

As of Sunday morning the only media outlet to cover this story is The Sun.  One can imagine the wall-to-wall hourly coverage if it had been Boris and chums.

It turns out that the footage was filmed on Friday night prior to Starmer's latest visit to Hartlepool for the crucial forthcoming by-election.  The gathering reportedly took place in a constituency office in nearby Durham.  A Labour spokesman told The Sun: "Keir was in the workplace, meeting a local MP in her constituency office and participating in an online Labour Party event.  They paused for dinner as the meeting was during the evening".

Going by the video this was clearly not a dinner setting and appears to be more of a buffet and a knees-up - a clear case of rules for thee, but not for me.

THE MONTH IN CARTOONS - APRIL 2021

A busy April edition of the Month in Cartoons features Keir Starmer's first anniversary, the death of Prince Philip, Chauvin's trial, the failed super league, Cameron's dodgy dealings, Dom's revenge, Tony Blair's hair, SAGE scaremongering, vaccine passports, police raids on churches and the Second Coming (Covid-style).

Watch below or on YouTube.

FACT CHECKERS, CENSORSHIP & DOODLES

Like mainstream media, big tech has maintained a steady flow of pro-lockdown propaganda throughout the pandemic.  Tweets and Facebook posts carry persistent 'fact-check' warnings if people dare to post anything about the virus or the vaccines, while some have been censored or even banned from platforms.  Australian celebrity chef Pete Evans had his Facebook page deleted altogether in December for 'sharing misinformation about coronavirus'.  An Instagram ban followed two months later.  Evans, who had 1.7 million followers, had shared conspiracy theories related to the virus.  While they may be distasteful to many, suppression of speech is a dangerous trajectory.

In March Facebook removed a group entitled 'Covid 19 Vaccine Side Effects'.  The group had more than 70,000 members.  When people searched for the group on Facebook, the algorithm returned the official page for Bill Gates at the top of the list.  Top trolling by Facebook or something more sinister?  Things like that start conspiracy theories.

In addition to trampling over criticism of lockdowns or vaccines, big tech continues to promote the 'new normal'.  Saturday's Google 'doodle' features the Google letters masked up and receiving a vaccine.

Google has in the past celebrated the lives of dead communists via its doodle, so expressing tacit support for ongoing mask mandates at a time in which the virus is in retreat across the West will come as no surprise to many.  With at risk groups vaccinated and the virus at almost historic lows in spite of lockdown easing, it is time to end this pantomime.  The mask mandate must go and liberty must be restored or taken back.

Please join us on Gab and Parler, where freedom and liberty is respected, not trampled on.