Heroes: ‘Tis the Season of Goodwill to All, provided they are white and straight!

 

“Saint Nick came down the chimney

About half past three

Left all these pretty presents

That you see before me”

 

It was so reassuring the see Rishi sunning himself in Italy this weekday at the Fascist’s awayday, the Atreju festival which began as a platform for debate among the youth wing of National Alliance, a neo-fascist party formed by the lingering supporters of Benito Mussolini after WW2.

 
Rishi was warmly greeted by his opposite Ms Meloni. Apparently, the greeting went like this:

Rishi; “Ciao caro”

Giorgi: “Ciao cara”, aside to aide, “È scuro, come è entrato?”

Rishi: “Non vedo l’ora di discutere su come rimandare tutti indietro”

Giorgia: “sì, sì, ce n’è già uno di troppo qui adesso”

Rishi, clearly trying to enter into the spirit of the event, warned that migration would “overwhelm” European countries without firm action. For good measure, he added; “enemies” were “deliberately driving people to our shores to try to destabilise our society”.

“Criminal gangs find the ugliest ways to exploit our humanity and don’t have a problem with putting people’s lives at risk by putting them on boats. If we do not tackle this problem, the numbers will only grow. It will overwhelm our countries and our capacity to help those who actually need our help the most.”
 

‘shared hardline approach towards immigration through policies that have pushed the limits of legality’

 
Sunak’s relationship with Meloni, has blossomed over their shared hardline approach towards immigration through policies that have pushed the limits of legality. They have also bonded over their admiration of Thatcher. Sunak revealed that during a meeting in Downing Street in April, the pair “looked through Margaret Thatcher’s papers”. Rishi sure knows how to treat a girl, “Voglio vedere l’ultimo discorso di Maggie, tesoro.”

Jokes aside, I thought we would start by considering comments from William Hague when Rishi became PM, the former Tory leader said: “After being an object of global pity in recent months, Britain will again be an example of government being conducted with professionalism, honesty and reliability.”

Hardly!

The latest incompatible shit-show is migration, every Tories favourite. Immigration, is the latest in a long line of events to split the party, but this time divorce could beckon.

On one-side we have centrist Tories who want to water down the immigration bill, to protect the controversial legislation against breaches of international law. Meanwhile, right-wing Conservatives have threatened to vote it down unless more draconian measures, such as denying asylum seekers individual appeals, are added.

In seeming realisation that yet another internal war is electorally damaging, Rishi told us; “What the country wants is a practical government that is making a difference to their lives and changing things for the better, not a debating society.”
 

‘I think there is more chance of Russia and Ukraine being reconciled than the Tory factions’

 
Personally, I think there is more chance of Russia and Ukraine being reconciled than the Tory factions.

Hovering in the wings is the predatory Nigel Farage, whose allies are reported to believe, will be unable to resist taking a prominent role for Reform UK’s imminent attempts to make the next election a referendum on “mass migration”.

Whilst Farage has already dismissed the idea of rejoining the Conservatives under Rishi, figures close to him are increasingly confident that he will want to seize the opportunity to shape the next election with Reform UK. It is understood that the party is planning a press conference at the start of January to kick off its campaign to create an “immigration election” when voters go to the polls next year.

The latest Opinium poll for the Observer shows Reform UK on 9%. However, it also reveals that 37% of current Conservative voters would be more favourable towards Reform with Farage as leader.

The poll also shows 20% of Reform voters would vote Conservative if their party was not on the ballot paper.

It seems unlikely that Farage will stand as a prospective MP (his record to date is played 7 lost 7), instead he will roam the country, attracting the cameras, and spreading his venomous messages it would appear that Sunak’s decision to put his Rwanda plan at the heart of his programme for government has given Farage the chance to “shape politics” once again with a prominent campaign role.

A Farage ally was quoted as saying: “He’s going to work out how and in what shape and style he puts his shoulder behind the wheel. The idea that he would sit back and watch an election on his home turf – an immigration election – come and go is for the birds. He has talked about immigration for 15 to 20 years. Many of his predictions have now come true. He can have another significant influence in the debate and potentially demolish the Tories.
 

‘He can have another significant influence in the debate and potentially demolish the Tories’

 
“Whether the mainstream parties like it or not, we will turn this into an immigration election. The last one was a Brexit election. This will be an immigration election – both legal and illegal. Reform will pose a very simple question: who voted for mass immigration?”

Reform are to broaden the narrative from “small boats” crossing the Channel, to a wider criticism on the overall numbers coming to the UK. Net migration to the UK hit a record 745,000 in 2022.

Reform’s leader Richard Tice has already made clear there will be no deals with the Tories before the next election as there was in 2019, as a result, many Tories are concerned about its possible impact on their party’s performance. Meanwhile, the Tory in-fighting over the Rwanda bill provides Farage with an opportunity to appeal to voters from the right.

As mentioned earlier, the Tory right wants to strengthen the proposed legislation which plays into Farage’s hands, as the left of party pressure the PM to water the bill down

According to Opinium, reducing illegal immigration to the UK is the fourth highest priority for the public:
 

• 36% selected it as a priority before the next general election, up from 33% in mid-November.
• 49% of voters think the Conservatives under Sunak generally prefer lower immigration, only 16% think they have a plan to achieve it.
• 26% think Labour under Keir Starmer generally prefers higher levels of immigration, with 34% believing he prefers lower levels.

 
Not to be left out of the party, former US president and would-be Republican candidate in 2024, Donald Trump, has added his thoughts.

After recently using the fascist terminology “vermin” to describe sections of American society he dislikes, he addressed a rally in New Hampshire, where he said that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country”.

In a previous rally in New Hampshire, he had threatened to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections”.

Doubling down, he told the crowd; “They’re poisoning the blood of our country. That’s what they’ve done. They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America … but all over the world. They’re coming into our country, from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.”
 

‘Joe Biden said the former president, who faces 91 criminal charges, was starting to use language heard in Nazi Germany’

 
This is the second time Trump has used the poisoned blood phrase, in October, Joe Biden said the former president, who faces 91 criminal charges, was starting to use language heard in Nazi Germany.

CNN has reported that if the former president wins in 2024, he plans to expand the hardline immigration policies of his first term, during which children were separated from their families at the border and caged. His new plans reportedly include placing undocumented immigrants who already live in the US into detention camps, purportedly to await deportation.

What readers must understand is that this is classic radical politics. Saying outrageous, neo-Nazi-like statements gets headlines and creates outrage. Then say it over and over, people become used to hearing it, begin to accept it, and it becomes normal and mainstream.

This is exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany. In 1933 60-millions Germans weren’t racists, but his continuing attacks on the Jews made it mainstream and it became accepted.

Interestingly, whilst the US has turned the corner economically, it isn’t being recognised by the electorate, at least, not yet. President Biden has a low approval ratings which isn’t budging. He is so disliked he is advised never to use the word “Bidenomics” to describe the policies responsible for this economic success. Donald Trump has close to an unassailable lead in the Republican primaries, and is ahead of Biden in the opinion polls for the presidency.
 

‘Donald Trump has close to an unassailable lead in the Republican primaries, and is ahead of Biden in the opinion polls for the presidency’

 
All of which seems remarkably churlish when you consider that American unemployment is at a 50-year low. Confidence is growing that the US may have dodged a recession next year. The American stock market is breaking all-time highs after seven weeks of near continuous gains. It is an economy in rude health.

To an extent the robustness of the economy is an unexpected surprise, given that interest rates had never been raised so much and so fast without recessions following. Americans had accumulated an extra $2tn of savings over the pandemic, which sparked off an increase in demand for everything post the pandemic whilst, at the same time Russia invaded Ukraine causing inflation to reach close to 10%. The interest rate increases were need to tame this inflation, but at what cost?

Typically, every 1% rise in interest rates causes US GDP growth to fall by 1% in the following 18 months. As such, an increase in rates from almost 0% to over 5% had to mean recession.

There were two offsets; the stimulus of massive public investment spending heralded by the Inflation Reduction Act, gave consumers the unexpected confidence to spend just when it was needed despite their gloom. The second was the way the Federal Reserve reinforced that impetus by releasing banks from obligations to carry capital and big reserves of liquidity. Yes, money was more expensive but there was more of it, which helped the financial system support the economy.

Inflation has begun to tumble in response to the rate hikes while the economy has picked up speed. Last week Fed chair Jerome Powell confirmed interest rate rises were over and predicted at least three cuts would take place in 2024.
 

‘There is a general sense of bafflement at the indifference being shown by Main St’

 
There is a general sense of bafflement at the indifference being shown by Main St. Perhaps, it is because whilst there may be more work, too much of it is insecure. Food and petrol prices may have stopped rising so fast, and are even falling, but they are still much higher than two years ago. It is only now that wages are rising faster than prices.

It is expected that Main St moves more slowly than Wall Street, therefore as interest rate cuts feed through in 2024 and the buoyant share prices show up in more valuable pension savings accounts, Americans will start to be more generous to their president.

Despite this there are still storm clouds; expensive, unwon foreign wars, in Ukraine and Gaza, millions of unwanted, illicit immigrants crossing its southern border need to be better managed, and a broken immigration system fixed.

As a result Trump, for all his narcissism, lies, sexism and criminality, talks about mass deportation and halting all support for foreign wars, he gets a hearing, however polarising.

In summary, the hard-right continues to march, making progress in continental Europe, and, with election coming-up in the UK and US everything feels up for grabs.
 
We have come to the end of this year’s articles, but the column will return reinvigorated after too much Barolo, to carry the mantle for democratic politics.

I wish each of you and your families a wonderful Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2024.
 

“My name’s D.M.C. with the mic in my hand

And I’m chilling and coolin’ just like a snowman

So open your eyes, lend us an ear

We wanna say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”

 
The march of the far right has been a staple of Philip’s column for a number of years now, and it is impossible not no acknowledge the accuracy of his predictions over time.

His preamble includes his thoughts about the deep divisions in the Tory party as it continues to be rocked by sleaze and greed:

Seemingly the entire narrative is currently taken up by immigration and hard-right racist politicians.

2024 sees elections in the UK and US and the return of Trump and Farage, although it feels more like the return of Hitler and Mussolini.

Sunak, when he isn’t being butch and posturing, or loved-up with Georgia is subsumed by sleaze.

His love of flying will be the end of him.

Apparently, Frank Hester, a Tory mega donor facilitates all his helicopter travel, and the PMs donor-funded air travel is > £100,000 this year. His business, The Phoenix Partnership (TPP), which as a group has won more than £135m of NHS and government contracts to supply IT since April 2020. Quelle surprise.

Of course, no mention of sleaze is complete with the Covid VIP lane.

Sunday’s breakfast was made more enjoyable as Baroness Mone displayed acute insensitivity and lack of self-awareness, saying that she is entitled to lie to the press (and thus everyone else.) The couple stressed that they had done nothing wrong. Personally, in principle I have no issue with them making £61m profit on a £204 m contract for PPE. What is wrong is that £122m of PPE was rejected and no refund forthcoming. Presumably the government didn’t keep the bag and receipt? Should have gone to M&S!

For the last 2-years the couple have been threatening journalists with court cases on any allegation of unsavoury business practices.

This is the tip of the iceberg, there is a rotten core to our state. Mone justifies her actions multiple times saying the Government wanted her help. Barrowman then drops a bombshell; someone offered to have the current National Crime Agency case against them go away, if he’d pay up.

Labour wants a Covid Corruption Kommissar to investigate contracts granted through the VIP lane for chums of Government to win PPE contracts. Some £2.6 ln of “lost” funds are already under investigation. The House of Common library says £7.2 bn of Covid support schemes, including loans, grants, furlough and Rishi Sunaks’s “eat out to help out” scheme have been lost to fraud! The final total may exceed £10.8 bn.

Asked during a trip to Scotland about Mone’s admission, Sunak said: “The government takes these things incredibly seriously, which is why we’re pursuing legal action against the company concerned in these matters. That’s how seriously I take it and the government takes it.

In a furious response to the prime minister’s comments, Mone tweeted: “What is Rishi Sunak talking about? I was honest with the Cabinet Office, the government and the NHS in my dealings with them. They all knew about my involvement from the very beginning.”

I suspect this is a story that will run for a while longer. Will we ever find the truth? Highly unlikely, too many people involved have too much to lose, and, if I am charitable, bad memories.

Either way, what with this and immigration, I can’t see many Tories enjoying 2024.

And so this years’ columns come to an end. As ever “big-up’s” to my editor.

Lyrically we end 2023 in festive spirit; opening with “Merry Christmas Baby” by Otis Redding, which I will dedicate to Rishi an Georgia…such a sweet couple. We end with “Christmas in Hollis’” by Run-DMC, dedicated to racists everywhere. Enjoy!

 
@coldwarsteve
 

 

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

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