TV presenter from humble background takes on Labour party aristocrat
What the Labour Grandee said in defence of antisemitic leader Corbyn:
"Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi. This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her. Ever.”
She was ordered to pay Riley £10,000 damages for defamation.
Congratulations and thanks are due to Ms Riley and her lawyer Mark Lewis. The TV presenter and Strictly celebrity could have had a much easier life if she had concentrated on her show business career instead of standing up for herself and the Jewish community so strongly over the last few years.
She bravely took on the anti-Jewish racists and refused to back down despite the abuse and threats she faced. She demonstrated much more bravery and principle in tackling racism in the Labour Party than many of the party’s most senior members, many of whom now in positions of leadership. Perhaps if they had fought more strongly, she and others would not have needed to. Frankly, they should be ashamed that a TV celebrity showed more political courage in tackling a problem in their party than they did.
It is extraordinary how Jewish women like Ms Riley, the actress Tracey-Ann Oberman or Members of Parliament like Luciana Berger, Margaret Hodge, Ruth Smeeth or Louise Ellman bore the brunt of the harassment and abuse meted out by the hard left during this terrible period. And let’s not forget how the BBC’s Political Editor Laura Kuenssberg needed a bodyguard just for doing her job at the Labour conference, protection not required by any of her male colleagues.
Second, Ms Murray was not some insignificant Labour member with an over-active Twitter habit, but part of the hard left leadership, working in Corbyn’s office and as a senior official at the party’s head office.
Her family connections can’t have harmed her meteoric rise to these positions. Her father Andrew Murray is one of the most senior figures on the far left of British politics, chairing the so-called Stop the War Campaign which argues against Western governments, acting as Chief of Staff to Len McCluskey at Unite which bankrolled the party under Corbyn and even working as one of his closest aides as well. Her mother, Professor Susan Michie, famously sold a Picasso worth £50 million she and her siblings had inherited.
Ms Murray and her family are not just Labour aristocracy but come from the actual aristocracy too. Despite being a lifelong communist, her father is the son of stockbroker Peter Drummond-Murray, a descendant of the Earl of Perth who held the title Slains Pursuivant of Arms. His grandfather on his mother's side was Baron Rankeillour, the Governor of Madras and a Tory MP. Professor Michie’s family are just as grand. Her grandfather was the Eton-educated Baron Aberconway.
None of that prevented the hard-left Corbyn-supporting campaign Momentum from greeting the court’s verdict with the words: “The establishment always closes ranks. Solidarity with Laura Murray, a kind & principled socialist.” According to Momentum’s class-warriors, the establishment figure is not Ms Murray but the self-made Ms Riley whose talents and hard work have taken her from an ordinary background in Southend.
And isn’t it ironic that left-wing activists called on Ms Riley to donate her damages to a soup kitchen but don’t demand their comrades to donate the proceeds from the sale of the Picasso as well? The whole sorry story shows us so much of what happened to the Labour Party under the hard left: nepotism, entitlement, anti-Jewish racism and hypocrisy.
Well done to Ms Riley for having the courage to shine a spotlight on it all and exposing the toxic, morally vacuous far-left for exactly what they are.
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Jacob Rees-Mogg cleared by parliamentary watchdog over £6 million loans
Kathryn Stone, who investigates MPs on behalf of Parliament, ruled that no regulations had been broken because Mr Rees-Mogg wholly owns the company that lent him the money, so was not at risk of being influenced in his political work.
Mr Rees-Mogg said he used the money for “temporary cash flow measures” to fund property purchases and renovations.
Although he did not declare the loans, he argued that since the money was for personal use, it fell out of the scope of the commissioner's regulation.
MPs are required to declare any “relevant” business interests, although the exact nature of a relevant interest is not clearly defined.
Mr Rees-Mogg’s letter to the commissioner said the company, Saliston, “cannot influence me by any payments because no action of mine could persuade the company to give me a higher or lower reward than that of full ownership, which is fully declared”.
On Wednesday, Mr Rees-Mogg celebrated the ruling in his favour.
Quoting Othello, he tweeted: “Who steals my purse steals trash … But he that filches from me my good name robs me of that which not enriches him, and makes me poor indeed.”
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Vaccination and God
Most of the time, people criticise the Church of England generally and the Archbishop of Canterbury in particular for not talking enough about Jesus. “Too much politics,” his critics say. “Not enough religion”. Well, they should be happy now because the Archbishop has brought Jesus right into the middle of the hottest political subject of the day by intimating that Jesus would have got vaccinated.
So, as well as offering our hearts to the infant Christ as the Christmas carol says, we should, it seems, be offering our upper arms at the nearest vaccination centre. The Archbishop, asked in the interview whether vaccination was a moral issue, agreed. “It’s not about me and my rights to choose. It’s about how I love my neighbour.”
He’s not the only church leader to have sounded off on this subject. Pope Francis got there first. In a video message in October he declared that getting a Covid jab that is “authorised by the respective authorities” is an “act of love”. Helping others do so is also an act of love: “love for oneself, love for our families and friends and love for all peoples. Love is also social and political. Getting vaccinated is a simple yet profound way to care for one another, especially the most vulnerable.” And just to drive the point home, he and pope emeritus Benedict had the cameras into the Vatican to record themselves getting vaccinated.
Naturally, some critics will see this as churchmen going beyond their brief. But this is, I think, unfair. It’s precisely the job of the Archbishop to bring God into these issues, rather than keeping him for those rarified occasions when people go to Church. It seems fair enough to take Christ’s command to love one’s neighbour as oneself and apply it to specifics. Putting the matter as a moral issue may cause some people to think again and have the jab – though their altruism won’t preserve them from its occasional side effects.
Of course the Archbishop is doing his job in saying all this. I just wish he would be a little more nuanced, a little more forbearing in suggesting that the unvaccinated (except for medical reasons), whom he says he “can’t understand”, are un-Christian nutters. Certainly many anti-vaxxers are unhinged, but others have sincere, grown up doubts. When I wrote in The Telegraph that I was intending to have my teenage daughter vaccinated, a friend who is a distinguished Oxford professor wrote to me to ask me to think again because “really nothing is known about the long term effects of these absolutely new and experimental preparations”. A couple of weeks ago, I found that a doctor friend was unvaccinated on the same grounds; what’s more, she knew hospital professors who weren’t vaccinated either, but had found nifty ways of securing documentation to suggest they were.
Now, none of this is to gainsay the advice of Sage that getting vaccinated means you are less likely to become ill from Covid. Neither does it address the miserable reality that a disproportionate number of the people taking up beds in acute wards are unvaccinated or under-vaccinated – thereby proving the Archbishop’s point exactly. I myself am triple-jabbed, and when the fourth vaccine comes along, I shall be first in the queue. But I do think we should be wary of demonising the unvaccinated, however much Sage thinks they’re doing the devil’s work.
For there is a Them and Us divide between the vaxxed and the unvaxxed, aggravated by the fact that a disproportionate number of the unvaxxed are from ethnic minorities, one reason why the Covid rate in London is so high. At the Notting Hill Farmers’ Market the other day, I came across a couple explaining to their neighbour that they had had their booster shots. “It’s because we’re white and upper class,” boomed the man. His wife winced. “Can’t you say it a bit louder,” she said. “They might not have heard you at the other side of the market.” Louder: “I’ve been vaxxed because I’m white and…”. “Shut up, Harry,” his wife said. In that particular exchange, I have a feeling that Jesus would not necessarily have been on the side of jabbed, sanctimonious Harry.
I’d be interested to know whether the Archbishop’s remarks will cut much ice with either the sophisticated vaccine sceptics or internet-credulous individuals who are just suspicious of the Government and Big Pharma. Let’s see. But while the Archbishop of Canterbury is right to say that our focus should be not just on what’s good for us, but for our neighbour, we should be charitable in how we make our arguments. When the angels proclaimed the birth of Jesus to the shepherds, they announced “peace on earth to men of goodwill”. And goodwill is in short supply on the vexed vaccine issue.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/22/dont-play-god-card-anti-vaxxers-justin-welby/
**********************************************Christmas Should Be Canceled, According to WHO
With confusion about the omicron variant continuing to dominate the headlines this week, there are plenty of varying opinions as to what should be done about Christmas.
For some, the mounting evidence for the omicron variant being “mild” is enough to see them continue on with their Christmas traditions, unburdened by concern. Others, however, are beginning to sound the alarm over its swift spread, and have now issued wildly dramatic instructions as to how to proceed with the holidays.
W.H.O. director-general and Ethiopian biologist Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva the “fastest way” to “get back to normal” is for people to cancel or delay Christmas events, the Daily Mail reports.
Dr Ghebreyesu continued to say, “an event cancelled is better than a life cancelled. It’s better to cancel now and celebrate later than to celebrate now and grieve later.”
The W.H.O. has not previously issued a global decree to cancel any other religious holidays such as the Muslim’s Eid or the Hindu’s Diwali as a result of coronavirus.
The news comes on the heels of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s suggestion to turn away any friends or family who have not been vaccinated against the virus.
The W.H.O.’s warning appeared to be largely based on the swift spread of omicron, as opposed to the previous delta variant, which was far more deadly but less contagious.
https://flagandcross.com/christmas-should-be-canceled-according-to/
*************************************************Former Australian PM issues a chilling warning about the rise of big government
Former prime minister Tony Abbott is worried Australians may never be able to enjoy life again as the pandemic makes bureaucrats addicted to power.
He made his call just hours before both NSW and Victoria introduced a series of new Covid restrictions as Omicron case numbers soar - with one state bureaucrat even warning residents to avoid 'fun' activities.
Speaking generally, Mr Abbott said governments could get so addicted to power that life Australia would no longer be as worthwhile.
'Any government that tries to protect everyone in all circumstance is a government which will end up wrapping people up in such cotton wool that none of us will have a real life,' he told Alan Jones: Direct To The People show on Facebook.
'We've always got to be careful about becoming addicted to a crisis.'
From Christmas Eve, New South Wales is reintroducing compulsory indoor mask rules for offices and public indoor settings, after new cases of the Omicron variant on Thursday surged by a new daily pandemic record of 5,715.
Both reintroduced rules, scrapped on December 15, will be scheduled to continue until January 27 next year, the day after Australia Day.
Dr Kerry Chant, the state's Chief Health Officer, is also discouraging people from having fun this summer.
'We are discouraging activities we know are associated with increased transmission... singing, dancing,' she said, before adding a light-hearted aside, 'things often associated with fun.'
'At this time of year we have to tell it as it is in terms of what carries risk, especially indoors.'
Mr Abbott, a former federal health minister, said too many commentators believed it was the role of government to abolish risk. 'We cannot live our live in constant fear of death,' he said. 'At some point, we have to say, "Look, this crisis is now as well managed as it is ever going to be".
'We have to put it behind us and get on with life rather than at the official level, at the governmental level, remaining in that sense of the continuous crisis because let's face it, all of us are prone to the temptations of power and as long as the crisis lasts, officialdom is exulted.'
In Victoria, face masks will from Thursday be compulsory in all public indoor spaces, including cafes, restaurants and pubs.
Holidaymakers wanting to travel to Queensland this Christmas are required to line up for hours at a Covid clinic to get a PCR test.
Across Australia, 90.9 per cent of the population aged 16 and over is fully vaccinated with the Department of Health data also showing 93.5 per cent at least double dosed in NSW.
The Omicron strain, while more infectious, isn't putting more people into hospital or causing a surge in the death rate, prompting former deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth to slam the hysteria about surging case numbers.
Mr Abbott is also concerned about Covid paranoid stopping Australians getting tested for cancer or getting check-ups for heart disease.
'It's pretty clear that a lot of treatments that should have been available to people have been delayed because of the focus on this particular virus as a result of the pandemic,' he said.
Between January and October this year, 11,636 people died from ischaemic heart disease, Australian Bureau of Statistics data released this week showed. By comparison, 1,744 deaths were linked to Covid.
Of those who died from Covid, 71.2 per cent of them had pre-existing chronic conditions certified on the death certificate.
The cost of lockdowns is set to be paid by future generations with Treasury's Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook showing gross government debt hitting $1.189trillion by 2024-25, making up 48.6 per cent of Australia's gross domestic product.
Mr Abbott, whose government didn't deliver a budget surplus, said the economic cost would linger. 'We will be living with the economic consequences of Covid for a very long time,' he said.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See 
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