Boris Johnson's arrival in 10 Downing Street has resulted in the biggest poll bounce for a sitting Prime Minister for over two decades.


The new Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Support for the Tory party surged 5.5 per cent in the polls, according to an average across four opinion polls.

Mr Johnson's "bounce" in the polls outstrips Theresa May’s leap of 3.5 per cent when she took over from David Cameron according to an average across four opinion polls.

It also outstrips David Cameron, who saw a 2 per cent boost in the polls, and Gordon Brown's 2.8 per cent jump in the polls when he succeeded Mr Blair in 10 Downing Street in 2007.

Only Tony Blair has done better with a 11.8 points “bounce”

SOURCE 








Carl Beech victim Harvey Proctor calls for criminal investigation into the London Metropolitan Police

The cops were certainly amazingly credulous.  It looks like they just wanted to "get" some high flyers

A former MP who was investigated over fictitious allegations that he was part of a VIP paedophile ring has backed a judge who called for a criminal investigation into Scotland Yard’s conduct.

Harvey Proctor, whose home was raided after Carl Beech falsely claimed that he had raped and murdered young boys, said he was “pleased” with Sir Richard Henriques’s calls for a criminal investigation into the Met’s Operation Midland.

Sir Richard, a former High Court judge, ran a review of the investigation in 2016 and said that he believed warrants to search the properties of high-profile figures were “obtained unlawfully”.

His review found more than 40 areas of concern stemming from the actions of investigating officers involved in the £2 million Operation Midland

SOURCE 





Greece’s New Leader Promises Free-Market Reforms
    
Four years ago, Alexis Tsipras and his party, Syriza, a radical left-wing populist group, sent shock waves across Europe after winning the Greek elections. The start of that government was everything the international community feared it would be—demagogic, anti-European, bent on pervasive state intervention, and a tax and regulatory crusader against the rich. It threatened the “troika” (the group of European and International Monetary Fund executives charged with rescuing the country on stringent conditions) with kicking them out of the country and taking the revolutionary path.

Then, everything changed. Tsipras realized his plans were not viable and he became an orthodox ally of the “troika”, applying on his people a heavy dose of shock therapy in return for loans. The international supervisors finished their job last year and thanked Tsipras for his responsible behavior. Greece was growing again (at an annual rate of 2 percent) after having lost 25 percent of its GDP during the financial crisis.

And now the Greek voters have kicked Tsipras and Syriza out of power, handing a resounding victory to the center-right party, New Democracy, led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

What happened? Several things, including a nationalist reaction against Tsipras’ decision to allow one of the republics that emerged from the collapse of Yugoslavia many years ago to keep the word “Macedonia” in its name (it is now called North Macedonia). But the most important factor has been the fact that Tsipras’s volte-face was a lot more beneficial to other Europeans and the International Monetary Fund than to the Greek people, who are suffering an unemployment rate of 18 percent (24 percent among the younger population). Here’s why.

The “troika” was interested in avoiding Greece’s default and a contagion across Europe, so it pressured Tsipras into placing the brunt of the effort to balance the books on raising taxes and cutting pensions, which Tsipras had irresponsibly promised to raise. He accompanied this move with strong anti-business rhetoric and attacks on the media that kept investors at bay, and failed to engage in any reform that might let the creative energies of the people out of the cage. The result is that Mitsotakis, who promises free-market reforms and is challenging Europe and the IMF on the issue of taxes, is the new prime minister after winning a sweeping victory.

Mitsotakis wants to cut corporate taxes from 29 to 20 percent, drastically curtail property taxes and even individual taxes, while slashing the regulatory burden and reducing government spending. He argues, to the dismay of international bureaucrats, that while his tax plan will probably impact the fiscal purse in the short run, the panoply of reforms will spur economic activity and boost fiscal revenue.

It is uncertain whether Europe, whose taxpayers hold 75 percent of Greece’s debt, will accept Mitsotakis’ plan, but they would be making a grave mistake if they forced him into becoming a Tsipras II. That outcome would only create an anti-European backlash among millions of Greeks and trigger another populist reaction such as the one that emerged four years ago. Syriza still commands 30 percent of the vote, a left-wing spin-off of that organization has won some seats in parliament and one of the two far-right parties has won at least ten seats. It would be tragic if Mitsotakis, who will have to overcome vested interests in his own party and in the crony-capitalist community, were also to be sabotaged by the outside world.

SOURCE 






Judge Tosses Covington Catholic Teen's First Lawsuit

Libel case appears far from over, as Nicholas Sandmann is certain to appeal  

Federal Judge William Bertelsman on Friday dismissed the $250 million lawsuit Covington Catholic student Nicholas Sandmann had filed against The Washington Post over its libelous reporting of the infamous “Native American” confrontation on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial this past January. Recall that much of the mainstream media initially parroted erroneous social-media commentary on the confrontation, which labeled the MAGA-hat-wearing school boys as a bunch of Trump-loving racists. In reality, it was the teens who were subjected to racial slurs and verbal abuse from adults.

Bertelsman ruled that the Post was merely expressing an opinion when it covered the story and that Sandmann did not prove the Post published definitely false statements against him, acted negligently, or damaged him by exposing him to “public hatred, ridicule, contempt, aversion, or disgrace.” So, what exactly was this judge looking at?

The Federalist’s Margot Cleveland argues that Sandmann and his attorneys have a good case to appeal this ruling. “On appeal, Sandmann’s attorneys are likely to focus on three points — all of which justify reversal,” she writes. “First, at the motion to dismiss stage, the question is whether a reasonable jury could conclude the statements were of fact and not opinion. Second, and relatedly, the common understanding of these words are all a matter of fact, and the videos prove they are false facts. Third, the Post’s editorial correction confirms that the newspaper was reporting ‘facts’ and not opinions concerning the encounter.”

It does appear that this case is far from over, and that the Post is nowhere near out of the woods for its downright fraudulent reporting. And CNN is in even hotter water…

SOURCE 
  




Domestic violence in Australia: The feminists are on the move again and we need to stop them

Bettina Arndt

They are up in arms at the move by the Federal Government to provide some counselling for couples dealing with domestic violence. A tiny $10 million out of a budget of $328 mill, which is the latest raft of funding adding to the huge cash cow which supports the domestic violence industry. This includes ongoing funding for the male-bashing Stop It At The Start television campaign which has already cost $30 million.

See this Guardian article showing all the lobby groups lining up to try to put a stop to the couple counselling. You’ll see they all promote the usual feminist propaganda, claiming domestic violence invariably involves dangerous men controlling their partners and suggesting couples counselling puts women at risk.

I’ve long argued that we are enabling the feminist capture of government policy by failing to challenge the persistent lobbying of this tiny minority group. This is a classic example. The government is finally making the right move in giving some funding to start to properly address this issue – after having wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on domestic violence money spent mainly on advertising campaigns to demonise men and boys, blaming misogynist attitudes for the entire problem. But unless we get moving the wicked witches will win again. The Guardian article makes clear they intent a ferocious scare campaign to try to get the government to back down.

So come on, people. Get active and write to relevant Ministers, your MP and to the Prime Minister and support this move to properly address one of the real issues at the heart of this problem. If you all wrote one letter we could really support the government and persuade them to stick to their guns.  Here’s some of the basic information you will need to make the argument that this is a sensible move:

There is strong evidence that most violence begins early, with couples at the start of their relationships reacting to conflict with two-way violence. Years ago, Professor Kim Halford and colleagues from the University of Queensland conducted a series of studies which focussed on couples at the start of their relationships, newly-wed couples and couples expecting a child together. Even with these early relationships about a quarter of the women admit they have been violent towards their partners – just as many as the men.

Professor Halford, who is one of Australia’s leading family relationship experts, points out this evidence means it is really important to help couples learn to deal with conflict without resorting to violence. He makes the point that one of the strongest risk factors for a woman being hit by a male partner is her hitting that male partner. “It’s absolutely critical that we tackle couple violence if we really want to stop this escalation into levels of violence which cause women serious injury.”

It’s nonsense to suggest that couples counselling will put women at risk, as this article by Maccollum and Stith makes clear, provided there are exclusion policies making sure no member of the couple is coerced, that there’s not ongoing mental illness, nor history of severe violence or weapon use. Avoiding couple counselling mean we are not addressing the patterns that lead to violence, leaving men and women trapped in conflicted relationships without the tools to find other ways of dealing with marital stress, and putting women and children particularly at risk. Here’s another review and meta-analysis of this subject which suggests couple therapy can significantly reduce domestic violence.

In fact, there are some good relationship counsellors across the country already doing this work. You may remember Perth counsellor Rob Tiller who was forced out of his job with Relationships Australia last year, after he posted my article on domestic violence on his personal Facebook page. I made a video with Rob at the time when he talked about working successfully with violent couples helping them learn to deal with conflict. Unfortunately, Relationships Australia, one of our peak counselling bodies, proudly promotes feminist policies on domestic violence which means couples are often refused help in these circumstances.

This is only one aspect of a proper comprehensive approach to tackling family violence, which would include support services for male victims of violence and their children and targeting at risk groups like people with drug and alcohol problems and mental illness. Such targeted approaches are being trialled overseas, with significant success.

Let’s hope this small move by the government is a sign that they are willing to deal more effectively with this major social problem rather than simply supporting the male-bashing feminist domestic violence industry. But this won’t happen if we sit back and let the feminists bully the government into backing down.

Here’s some addresses you can use to lobby on this issue, as well as your local MP:

Minister for Families and Social Services, Hon Anne Ruston: senator.ruston@aph.gov.au

Minister for Women, Hon Marise Payne: Foreign.minister@dfat.gov.au

Prime Minister: https://www.pm.gov.au/contact-your-pm

Bettina@bettinaarndt.com.au

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.  Email me (John Ray) here. 

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