Brit here living in NY. Take YouGov polls with a pinch of salt. YouGov is owned by Nadhim Zahawi - prominent conservative MP who has been Chancellor of Exchquer and other high profile ministries. Their polls are designed to give the answer that those in power want and to gaslight Brits that ‘everyone wants this’. For about a week in March 2020 it looked like BOJO was on the right track then he caved to lockdowns and authoritarianism like the rest. He’s out because he’s ceased to be useful to globalist masters. Next puppet incoming. You nailed it with the Cuomo/Hochul point. I am living that nightmare and fearful of November.
Yes, exactly. YouGov is connected to government, that should have been disclosed when they were referring to polls to justify policy. Nadhim was actually the [lying toad of a] Vaccines Minister during a period where the government was referencing YouGov polls for all kind of authoritarian stuff his department were doing.
It wasn't so much evidence-based-policy-making as policy-based-evidence-making.
And Nadhim is a weasel who lied repeatedly on TV about the introduction of vax passports. Total chancer.
As Peter Hitchens pointed out, if you do a poll on lockdowns even in the best of times, 25% of people will say they are a good idea "to curb the roudy youth, nighclub go-ers, etc"
Yes, a total chancer and fixer by trade, with obvious skills and overweening ambition. His father was Governor of the Iraqi Central Bank (until the early Saddam days). He is a keen and I think talented equestrian, which to be fair may be out of love, but I suggest would also have been very handy as a means of rapid social climbing in Tory circles.
I'm glad you mentioned the founding/ownership of YouGov. This would be similar to Janet Yellen picking the next President, which may be how we ended up with Biden, who knows.
The trouble is not the particular person at the top, it's the structure of governance and the willingness of the people to continue playing the game, it's that way in the US as well - and the "dignified" government - the elected one - does not truly rule, in both US and UK it's the "efficient" government - the Administrative State and those who own and direct it - which exercises actual power, Constitution and people be damned. For insight and explanation, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKsItbj49K0
The remedy is simple, yet arduous: "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable, that all men are created equal and independent; that from that equal creation they derive in rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes: and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. but when a long train of abuses and usurpations, begun at a distinguished period, and pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to subject them to arbitrary power, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security." - Jefferson, Declaration of Independence
That's right. That's not a poll, it's a piece of PR.
Ben Wallace is the candidate of the Remainer faction in the Tory Party. Ordinary Conservative members, who ultimately vote, are overwhelmingly anti any step back towards getting closer to the EU again, are unlikely to be keen on the guy.
i feel for you. i left NYC a few years ago and am so grateful to be out of there. a friend texted me the other day to report that he saw a homeless guy in the garment district injecting something (heroin?) into his penis!!!!! went to see a broadway show and the experience was ruined by the mask nazis fussing with audience members!
I took part in this poll (as a Conservative Party member). The fieldwork was conducted 30 June onwards, so represents a situation before Boris Johnson had resigned.
Wallace wouldn't be the worst candidate out of the current runners. My sense is that the Conservative Party as a whole has zero appetite to go back to lockdown and business closures, and views the whole episode as a mistake. However, most MPs still brag about having delivered the vaccines "first" and faster than Europe, so the ineffectiveness of the vaccinations hasn't sunk in with them yet.
If they bring back anything it's likely to be masking, to be honest.
He was made Chancellor two days before advising the PM to resign. One wonders what induced him to accept the job offer (other than being able to tack it onto his CV).
A country is only as good as the agreements under which its people agree to be governed, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a marxist abomination.
I see your point but Brian Peckford, who was part of the writing of the Charter, says it's not meant to be used the way it is. Mind you, not sure if Peckford realizes its fatal flaws like the 'notwithstanding clause'. It also simply doesn't go far enough in cementing the rights of man. in Canada, the government and judiciary have final say and we're seeing it play out this way.
So either this country accepts the weakness of its Charter to secure their rights (we do not have private property protection) or we go to (intellectual or worse) war and fix this.
Canadians are too comfortable and oblivious to undertake the latter. Plus we'd have to fight Quebec on top of it because that province's default position is anti-liberty socialism. So it's probably better to cut Quebec loose (where I live and want to leave) before undertaking that task and journey. They're not worth the trouble and won't sign on to an American-style document rooted in freedom.
I plan and hope to move from Canada but the USA doesn't make it easy on us. Even with people with some coin in their pockets. I'm definitely trying to arrange things so my daughter ends up there. I see no future in Canada.
I question this choice of market sometimes too, but I try and find comfort in knowing that I’m here to re-inoculate the overtly compliant sheeple, that are now native to this beautifully clean and relatively safe land, with the principles of “Get the fuck off my porch!” from the hills of Virginia, where I was raised. The problem here is that the crown really does own them all and most cityzens are perfected happy with that
I think we're on our way to a China- or Cuba-style dictatorship with him installed for life. I'd love to be wrong but I'm afraid that's the direction of travel.
The UK has gone to the devil. Their 'intel' agencies are pushing for full-on war with Russia, they played a not insignificant role in the Russiagate insurrection against Trump, and the UK leadership in general has gone even more autocratic than our own--probably because the UK population is even farther gone in wokeness than the US. Face it, when the UK and Oz gave up their guns the whole society began trending downwards into meek supplication. The last five years have been a time of one black eye after another for the Five Eyes. We would be better off not sharing intelligence with them. They are more corrupt than even our CIA, FBI, DoJ--and that's saying something.
Agree overall, but I would qualify your point about woke. The UK population has less mainstream opposition to woke than the U.S. (where most Republicans are very actively opposed to it). However, most people who support wokeness here are not militant about it. They just "go aloong to get along". Many are starting to realise it's an ideology built on a house of cards.
The half of the U.S. that supports wokeness, meanwhile, is super militant about it and very convinced of their moral superiority. And the Biden Administration has been captured to an extent that the UK Govt never was.
The Cult decides who new fake pope will be... until God intervenes and gives us a true Pope. Which cult will be mortal enemies with
I imagine, he will emphasize teaching of subsidiarity.... most things should be done at local level... for everyone to have local leaders. For the time, not thru official elections.
Just a guess.
Globalists are satanists.
God bless Canadians. I hope, I know! They will rise up against tyrants.... same with many in Europe, India, Australia
Macron lost his majority. But, the party that holds the balance of power is far left so that could work in his favour. Justin is propped up by the NDP that's led by another WEF stooge. But is massively unpopular. Very tenuous alliance. Those two dudes are not respected or liked. Arden seems the strongest.
If the Liberal-NDP, quasi-coalition crumbles and Poilievre or Baber win the Conservative leadership race, a non-confidence may happen. Let's just hope that Poilievre and/or Baber follow through on what they are saying during this leadership race. As we know politicians will politician (AKA lie to gain power), but for now the 2 of them seem to be the most "libertarian" of the mainstream Canadian politicians that have a chance for Primeministership in the future.
Poilievre or Baber will also have to make some bold promises like UNDOING various legislations this madman rammed through. I'm glad Patrick Brown is gone. Pure fake conservative. He and his pals played hockey through the heart of the lockdowns while kids couldn't. Good riddance. Take that corrupted, has-been, fool CINO Jean Charest with you.
But back to the gist of this substack, what is our most likely alternative and would it be any better? At least he has become a cowardly laughing stock, while his girl Friday will always be the devil in heels.
The twin spirals of incompetence and corruption are tightening like a noose around the collective necks of the managerial class. They can only replace bad leaders with worse leaders, and every replacement results in worse government and accentuated public discontent.
It seems to me that the powers behind the powers always want someone more manipulatable than the person they have in place. Thus exeunt stage left to BOJO, Cuomo, etc., ultimately Fauci and other prominent patsies.
Unfortunately for those holding the strings, manipulatable people by nature lack the talent to pull off the heist. The newer iterations make their bosses look so bad that it wakes up a lot of sheep. I am hoping that the ratio of sheep to shepherds is low enough to keep the true predators at bay. Time will tell.
Ben Wallace MP is getting tory party members hot and sweaty because he's the defence minister, and in the UK, the Ukraine war in still seen as a good thing.
Most likely he won't make the final cut, which will be of two potential PM's.
One will not have voted for Brexit and one will have.
Of the MP's who voted for Brexit, the truly scary proposition is Michael Gove MP, a twisted sociopath with deep seated control issues.
Most worryingly, tory party members, most of whom are painfully slow witted, still do not a) think lockdown was bad, and b) do not blame Gove for lockdown - even though he was its principal political architect.
Other brexit-voting MP's e.g. Dominic Raab, while being shamefully silent about lockdowns, would likely not impose any more.
Of the remain-voting MP's, the worrying prospects are ex health secretary Sajid Javid (imposed vaccine mandates on nurses) and psycho nut job Jeremy Hunt. Both are unlikely to get party member votes as the NHS is currently seen as a big stinking turd of incompetence, and they both led it.
Rishi Sunak (ex chancellor) was against lockdown (but not in public), he printed £450bn from thin air but he's skirting blame as Johnson is currently (and had been kept in position to be) the lightening rod for anger against how screwed the country now is. So Sunak is a reasonable bet.
Long shots include Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt who party members love and who would be OK on the lockdown front.
The best potential PM would be someone like David Davis, a past leadership contender who was hobbled in the leadership race previously by Remainers. If he makes it into the final two, then happy days
Just a note about Mordaunt: she made a speech a few years back in which she insisted 'Trans women are women' and went on and on about it. Ridiculous, and the party members remember. If the parliamentary party chooses her as one of the final two to put forward to the party membership, it is because they want the other candidate to win.
Boris famously refused to answer the question: ‘Do only women have a cervix?’ None of them seem to have the balls to stand up to woke fundamentalists. Appeasement never works. You end up with men swimming against women and people calling you bigot for saying ‘wait this is wrong and unfair’. I didn’t know that about Morduant. The UK is doomed if she gets it. Will she mandate pronouns to promote inclusion?!
Ah. Thanks for that. I'd forgotten. Nevertheless, my money's on her. Note she did a brief stint as Sec of State for Defence, a desirable history at the moment and she wouldn't have got that job unless considered a safe pair of hands by the people that matter.
It will be incredibly difficult all over the world to find leaders worthy of the term. In the United States we are perhaps blessed to have states rights to help us tell the men from the boys and the women from the girls bu it will not be easy. Running our governments into the ground appears to have become child’s play.
I would like to see the new Prime Minister authorize an analysis of Green Energy Performance. I believe that Wind Power and Solar Power do not reduce the Carbon Footprint in any meaningful way. Power Generation capacity must have redundant Generators on standby for periods when the Wind doesn't blow. The redundant Generators must be of the inefficient single-cycle gas turbine type because only they can ramp up quickly enough. The cost of Green Energy should be an indicator of how much it actually produces. (Here in Ontario the price is 3X normal wholesale price for Wind Power.)
Then there is the issue of Global Warming being a CANARD. One thousand years ago, the Northern Hemisphere was warmer than it is now. The Vikings farmed in Greenland for 392 years- Continuously- before it got too cold and they left. And the Vikings did not drive SUV's.
Indeed. We’ve become denizens of a sprawling complex World civilization dependent on the ultimate power of the sun. Solar and wind technology is insufficient to meet these needs. So are our so called leaders who if a transition was possible wouldn’t be capable of managing one. We need brain power and the ability to manage communication/diplomacy.
The Vikings didn’t drive SUV’s or Jet planes, farmed Greenland and had some pretty hostile diplomacy skills.
From the beginning of the pandemic I’ve thought there was a great deal in common between Boris and the other leaders around the planet who have followed the dictates of the BBB, WEF, BILDERBERG contingent. Middle manager types willing to go along with the popular, rich kids to get along. Their maturity level got stalled at middle school level.
Despite being Defence Secretary, I bet most people don’t know very much about him. I’m one of them. That probably makes him ideal as a placeholder for the New World Order, WEF types who will actually be running things. As useless and weak as Boris has been, I suspect he hasn’t quite gone along with their plans. Certainly, if you compare the U.K. response to the not-particularly-deadly virus with the approach taken by most of the rest of the Western world, it comes out pretty well - relatively speaking - compared with Australia, NZ, Canada & most of Europe. There is also the question of Brexit; Boris is hated by a large section of the media and parliamentary party for ‘getting it done’ and he was never their choice as PM. That is an error they have now corrected by a sustained and unrelenting campaign against him, consisting of largely minor ‘scandals’ like Partygate etc. I fear we may rue the day we got rid of Boris.
Wayback has over 21,000 saves since 1998 so site scrubbing is worse than worthless it becomes an admission of something to hide & verifiable if it's worth the effort.
He has kept his head down and his nose clean. He appears to have integrity and is experienced in several roles. His strong military background secures him my support.
It really matters not who succeeds Boris in terms of future UK government policy. The whole rotten, craven Westminster bunch will continue to take a wrecking ball to the economy and every aspect of our lives in order to soften us up for future state-subsidised serfdom via the World Economic Forum's proposed Great Reset.
Who else do you imagine coined the "Build back better" slogan mouthed by globalist political puppets on both sides of the Pond?
Boris was a product of the WEF young global leader's brainwashing academy. Opposition (sic) leader Sir Keith Starmer, is coy about admitting it, but he is a member of the all-powerful globalist think tank, The Trilateral Commission. In other words, they are two cheeks of the same smelly backside we can do without.
Yes sure but these epic failures will continue to quit as they attempt to protect themselves from the large and inevitable backlash. Including those who believe they run the whole damn planet at the WEF, BILDERBERG, GOVERNMENTS, CORPORATE, INSTITUTIONS Levels. London bridge is indeed tumbling down and no amount of shoring it up will suffice. It’s really a matter of how many of us go down with the bridge failure and if we can figure out how to go on once we do.
What have you heard about Steve Baker? I saw a video of him being interviewed a few months back and he seemed legitimately good. His positions are decidedly at odds with WEF agenda - anti lockdowns and anti Covid restrictions. Also a climate sceptic so not going to steal farmland to prevent cow farts destroying the planet and starve us all to death. I’ve lost so much trust now I fear the WEF may have ‘sleeper’ Trojan horses and maybe this guy is one?! I’ve thought similar about DeSantis. I know I sound paranoid but this is what refusing to give in to vax mandates in NY has done to me.
Baker is pretty solid, except for a weird blip in 2021 when he seemed to be genuflecting re BLM. It drew attention because it's so out of character, but he's not said/done anything so foolish since.
I wrote to him regarding the WHO pandemic treaty (as my own useless MP was fobbing me off) and to his credit he did raise the issue with the Health Sec.
Baker is certainly not my pick for PM, but I'd like him in cabinet.
With views like his, Baker is unlikely to even feature in the line-up for the Tory leadership. The "race" will of, course, be rigged to ensure the winner is someone happy to reconstruct the "mother of democracies" in line with the enslaving Great Reset agenda.
Always be suspicious when someone is got rid of for spurious reasons. The person who he was supposed to be protecting was only subject to unproven allegations (from other adult men) at the time, the entire government are responsible for the current mess plus being some kind of sexual deviant is almost expected in politics…
I live in the UK and follow politics reasonably. Ben Wallace is not that well know here, he appears (according to the Spectator and centrist websites) to be sane, and balanced. Has a military background (hence his current popularity). Uncontroversial. Probably Establishment.
The issue with Wallis is that he's popular because he's a blank slate. Almost nothing is known of his views outside of his defense brief. It's easy to like someone when you can't think of any reason to dislike them, but it means that if he were to step forward he'd have to actually get off the fence and take positions on a whole range of issues. There's no telling what that would do to his popularity.
I'd much rather Redwood, Davis, Frost or similar. Someone who's been around for decades and we know exactly what they think on a range of topics, as well as how they'd behave with a portfolio.
No, I don't think so. Not in the way the geriatric of the US political establishment are.
These are the experienced backbenchers who've been around since Thatcher's days, but none of them are 85 year old corrupt cronies. Being an MP in the UK is absolutely nothing like being a US senator. It's quite unglamorous in most respects, doesn't pay all that well, and requires a lot of constituency work.
To be around that long you really have to be an excellent constituency MP, which correlates with at least being a decent person, someone of substance who actually cares about the constituents. The Labour party had such people too - Frank Field (now no longer with us), Kate Hoey, etc. Not party-line robots, and certainly not there to graft the system. Actual decent human beings.
He's a bit rough 'round the edges to be called establishment, but he's performed well recently and he is able to bridge that gap between the snooty London metro types and the rest of the broad membership. He and Penny Mordaunt have a good shot.
His biggest achilles heal is that he was a Remainer. The parliamentary party will be fine with that, but the membership less so.
I’m British and never heard of Ben Wallace before reading this article. The poll was among Conservative Party Members so not representative of the Country as a whole. The political Parties do not have big memberships. The Conservative Party 180 000, for example. It’s not like the US with registered Republicans or Democrats, so most people - millions - who vote Conservative aren’t members of the Party. Wallace is Defence Minister, military background, tipped to be next head of NATO, so if he is elected Party leader and becomes PM, to be sure UK involvement in the futile proxy war with Russia will continue.
Chesterton’s Fence. A feature of UK, indeed European, politics is Government is like chewing gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe… impossible to get rid of. By Government I mean policies, behaviour, values, competence, direction.
European Politics is truly environmentally friendly - we recycle everything constantly - nothing gets thrown away no matter how worn or threadbare.
Elections just change the seating arrangements and the same faces keep coming round in a game of Buggin’s turn. But as far any actual change - nah! Opposition Parties are just waiting rooms for those waiting their turn.
The French figured this out the other week when only 46% bothered to turn out. They know that Left, Right, Macron in the Middle - it’s same old, same old.
And so it has been since 1945 - with a brief Thatcher interlude - in the UK.
So Chesterton may sleep sound, nothing will change.
I will confess here to still retaining a small bit of liking for Boris Johnson, despite all that has happened since 2020, mostly because of my gratitude to him for getting Brexit over the line against globalist opposition (even though I knew he didn't really believe in it), and for being a reasonably good non-far left mayor of London.
I, like Gato, recall a few weeks early on in the 'crisis' - though perhaps it was just one week? Or a weekend? - when it seemed the Johnson government was planning to allow Covid to sail through the UK population so we could quickly achieve herd immunity and be done with it. Ah, what might have been.
I do accept that I may be exhibiting symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome. Of the captors that have been torturing my fellow citizens and me for the past 2 1/2 years, Johnson occasionally seemed to be reluctant. Perhaps that was his role.
But when the British Conservative party decides to be rid of you, it gets rid of you. It gets done over a few days. That's how a parliamentary system is meant to work. (Canadian Liberals, please take note.)
I’m kind of with you. I despise the tories and aren’t that much of a fan of labour either , disenchanted voter I think is the term. But certainly before Christmas he resisted a lot of pressure to lock down, and he did end restrictions earlier than a lot of places, again in the face of hysterical criticism which he just completely ignored, in the same was as he ignored all the other (valid) criticism over partygate and everything else. He’s still an absolute cock though, if you’ll excuse my language. And he was actually right, after “freedom day” most people forgot about it and got got on with our lives
We've been living reasonably freely here in England for quite a long time, while the Europeans, Australians, Canadians, and blue state Americans have continued to be locked down and vaxx mandated. I fear what comes next after Johnson. We have had it easy for too long. Something is being planned for us, something not good.
Brexit has done nothing but impoverish the country and reduce food supply. Crispin Odey, one of the major financiers of vote Leave is Murdoch's son-in-law. It's very difficult to believe that Brexit was standing up to the globalist agenda. And, if the European Parliament had not been full of UKIP clowns on a jolly, the UK had a place to critique what was going on. Fortunately a few independent Irish MPs are standing in...
Oh please. We are not impoverished (at least not yet). If Brexit was not standing up to the globalist agenda, why did the globalists fight so hard against it, both before and after the vote? Only a sovereign nation state can stand up against globalism. We put anti-Europeans in the European parliament because we viewed that body with contempt.
UKIP was put into the EU Parliament by the UK press. After all it was Murdoch that won the elections for the last thirty years. Proper gander is when a cockney assiduously studies the reality.
You do realise Corbyn is a lifelong Eurosceptic, don't you? One of his few good points. The old Labour left knew what the real purpose of the EU was - to crush the possibility of resistance.
as a brit that doesnt follow the bullshit media i can tell you nothing of wallace or any of the others but it really doesnt matter. they are in lockstep with bringing about the total destruction of the country, following 1984 like a manual
Brit here living in NY. Take YouGov polls with a pinch of salt. YouGov is owned by Nadhim Zahawi - prominent conservative MP who has been Chancellor of Exchquer and other high profile ministries. Their polls are designed to give the answer that those in power want and to gaslight Brits that ‘everyone wants this’. For about a week in March 2020 it looked like BOJO was on the right track then he caved to lockdowns and authoritarianism like the rest. He’s out because he’s ceased to be useful to globalist masters. Next puppet incoming. You nailed it with the Cuomo/Hochul point. I am living that nightmare and fearful of November.
Yes, exactly. YouGov is connected to government, that should have been disclosed when they were referring to polls to justify policy. Nadhim was actually the [lying toad of a] Vaccines Minister during a period where the government was referencing YouGov polls for all kind of authoritarian stuff his department were doing.
It wasn't so much evidence-based-policy-making as policy-based-evidence-making.
And Nadhim is a weasel who lied repeatedly on TV about the introduction of vax passports. Total chancer.
Policy-based evidence-making. Perfect, thanks.
As Peter Hitchens pointed out, if you do a poll on lockdowns even in the best of times, 25% of people will say they are a good idea "to curb the roudy youth, nighclub go-ers, etc"
Wow! Policy based evidence making. You win the internet for life. Brilliant!
Yes, a total chancer and fixer by trade, with obvious skills and overweening ambition. His father was Governor of the Iraqi Central Bank (until the early Saddam days). He is a keen and I think talented equestrian, which to be fair may be out of love, but I suggest would also have been very handy as a means of rapid social climbing in Tory circles.
I'm glad you mentioned the founding/ownership of YouGov. This would be similar to Janet Yellen picking the next President, which may be how we ended up with Biden, who knows.
Good luck in NY, California is screwed, too.
Observation re polls and polling in general: Tell me who is paying for the poll, and I'll tell you the result!
The trouble is not the particular person at the top, it's the structure of governance and the willingness of the people to continue playing the game, it's that way in the US as well - and the "dignified" government - the elected one - does not truly rule, in both US and UK it's the "efficient" government - the Administrative State and those who own and direct it - which exercises actual power, Constitution and people be damned. For insight and explanation, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKsItbj49K0
and The Rise and Rise of the Administrative State, by Gary Lawson, at https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1941&context=faculty_scholarship
The remedy is simple, yet arduous: "We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable, that all men are created equal and independent; that from that equal creation they derive in rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these ends, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government shall become destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes: and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. but when a long train of abuses and usurpations, begun at a distinguished period, and pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to subject them to arbitrary power, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security." - Jefferson, Declaration of Independence
All great ideas “if we can keep them.”
That's right. That's not a poll, it's a piece of PR.
Ben Wallace is the candidate of the Remainer faction in the Tory Party. Ordinary Conservative members, who ultimately vote, are overwhelmingly anti any step back towards getting closer to the EU again, are unlikely to be keen on the guy.
He's supported by Ken Clarke. Just sayin'. So I expect May will support him.
He voted against ID cards, but in favour of mass surveillance of the people's communications.
https://www.oddschecker.com/politics/british-politics/next-prime-minister
Bookmakers generally know more. Ben Wallace favourite
He's the dude that choked up over Afghanistan, ten times more legit than Matt Hancock's totally fake tear wipe over Lockdowns:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uQ2ULNXm5A
Sadly I'm pretty certain he voted for Lockdown 1,2 & 3 including mandatory nurse vaccinations
*edit* he abstained!
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2021/dec/14/how-did-your-mp-vote-on-the-new-covid-restrictions
So slight tick in the box there then too.
Polls are to form opinion, not reflect it . . .
Yes, and YouGov did that throughout the pandemic narrative. If YouGov backs Ben, Ben bad.
Good summary of alternatives in second half of this Paul Joseph Watson video :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejf5xM6wjsA
i feel for you. i left NYC a few years ago and am so grateful to be out of there. a friend texted me the other day to report that he saw a homeless guy in the garment district injecting something (heroin?) into his penis!!!!! went to see a broadway show and the experience was ruined by the mask nazis fussing with audience members!
I took part in this poll (as a Conservative Party member). The fieldwork was conducted 30 June onwards, so represents a situation before Boris Johnson had resigned.
Wallace wouldn't be the worst candidate out of the current runners. My sense is that the Conservative Party as a whole has zero appetite to go back to lockdown and business closures, and views the whole episode as a mistake. However, most MPs still brag about having delivered the vaccines "first" and faster than Europe, so the ineffectiveness of the vaccinations hasn't sunk in with them yet.
If they bring back anything it's likely to be masking, to be honest.
I see from Oddschecker it's down to Rishi, Penny, and Liz.
Oh well.
Yeah. And many miles from accepting the harms the jabs have caused and may cause in future. That's a time bomb.
Untrue. Zahawi sold Yougov in 2010 when he became an MP. and he's no friend of the current owners.
Considering the family is still employed there, he should get friendlier...
He was made Chancellor two days before advising the PM to resign. One wonders what induced him to accept the job offer (other than being able to tack it onto his CV).
Exactly this!
Used to push all of the lockdown crap over the last two years because "the public wanted it".
Nadhim Zahawi. At what point do these idiots have to report conflict of interests?
Turdeau is next…
Would be great but not holding my breath.
Please be right. please be right. please be right.
signed,
Naturalized Canuck.
You picked the wrong country. I keep telling people to avoid Canada to settle in. ESPECIALLY Quebec.
Was better when I came.
So much potential. But Covid showed it's a fraud.
Hey! Be fair.
Where did the Freedom Convoy begin?
Don't write us off until we finish fighting our tyrants.
Agreed.
A country is only as good as the agreements under which its people agree to be governed, and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a marxist abomination.
I see your point but Brian Peckford, who was part of the writing of the Charter, says it's not meant to be used the way it is. Mind you, not sure if Peckford realizes its fatal flaws like the 'notwithstanding clause'. It also simply doesn't go far enough in cementing the rights of man. in Canada, the government and judiciary have final say and we're seeing it play out this way.
So either this country accepts the weakness of its Charter to secure their rights (we do not have private property protection) or we go to (intellectual or worse) war and fix this.
Canadians are too comfortable and oblivious to undertake the latter. Plus we'd have to fight Quebec on top of it because that province's default position is anti-liberty socialism. So it's probably better to cut Quebec loose (where I live and want to leave) before undertaking that task and journey. They're not worth the trouble and won't sign on to an American-style document rooted in freedom.
I plan and hope to move from Canada but the USA doesn't make it easy on us. Even with people with some coin in their pockets. I'm definitely trying to arrange things so my daughter ends up there. I see no future in Canada.
Was better just a few years back... bewildering how fast he moved us towards China. He provided a bit of pot and distraction, and boom - Chinada!
I question this choice of market sometimes too, but I try and find comfort in knowing that I’m here to re-inoculate the overtly compliant sheeple, that are now native to this beautifully clean and relatively safe land, with the principles of “Get the fuck off my porch!” from the hills of Virginia, where I was raised. The problem here is that the crown really does own them all and most cityzens are perfected happy with that
😂🤣😂🤣 "Get the fuck off my porch!" --- Thanks for the laugh!
Love it - welcome! We need a bit of that for sure - I get tired being the only one 😆
I think we're on our way to a China- or Cuba-style dictatorship with him installed for life. I'd love to be wrong but I'm afraid that's the direction of travel.
We have Cuba fun in the US now. We're all scrounging for car parts to fix our pre-2019 cars. It'll only get worse.
But then they can’t even get it out of the driveway because of you know —gas.
Like father like son
Precisely.
The UK has gone to the devil. Their 'intel' agencies are pushing for full-on war with Russia, they played a not insignificant role in the Russiagate insurrection against Trump, and the UK leadership in general has gone even more autocratic than our own--probably because the UK population is even farther gone in wokeness than the US. Face it, when the UK and Oz gave up their guns the whole society began trending downwards into meek supplication. The last five years have been a time of one black eye after another for the Five Eyes. We would be better off not sharing intelligence with them. They are more corrupt than even our CIA, FBI, DoJ--and that's saying something.
That really is saying something... I'm always glad when someone is has a clue as to what Five Eyes is.
Agree overall, but I would qualify your point about woke. The UK population has less mainstream opposition to woke than the U.S. (where most Republicans are very actively opposed to it). However, most people who support wokeness here are not militant about it. They just "go aloong to get along". Many are starting to realise it's an ideology built on a house of cards.
The half of the U.S. that supports wokeness, meanwhile, is super militant about it and very convinced of their moral superiority. And the Biden Administration has been captured to an extent that the UK Govt never was.
That was my first, delusionarily hopeful, thought at the news.
No. Correction. My first thought was "Down like the Georgia Guidestones"
Depends on what the Cult decides
This is sort of like waiting for the smoke to come out of that chimney in Rome when "they" announce the new pope....
The Cult decides who new fake pope will be... until God intervenes and gives us a true Pope. Which cult will be mortal enemies with
I imagine, he will emphasize teaching of subsidiarity.... most things should be done at local level... for everyone to have local leaders. For the time, not thru official elections.
Just a guess.
Globalists are satanists.
God bless Canadians. I hope, I know! They will rise up against tyrants.... same with many in Europe, India, Australia
Trudeau, Macron in France and Ardern in NZ seem like the "anointed ones" chosen by the WEF so I don't think any of them are going anywhere.
Macron lost his majority. But, the party that holds the balance of power is far left so that could work in his favour. Justin is propped up by the NDP that's led by another WEF stooge. But is massively unpopular. Very tenuous alliance. Those two dudes are not respected or liked. Arden seems the strongest.
For now!
Excellent post
But we can always hope - can't we?
Please God hear our prayer
nehh, that guy will never leave .... too much of an insider ...
Too much of a cheater.
it goes with the territory ...
I wish
This fun children's book predicts a non-confidence vote against Trudeau with Poilievre kicking him out.
https://www.amazon.ca/How-Prime-Minister-stole-Freedom/dp/B0B2F7Z4CH
If the Liberal-NDP, quasi-coalition crumbles and Poilievre or Baber win the Conservative leadership race, a non-confidence may happen. Let's just hope that Poilievre and/or Baber follow through on what they are saying during this leadership race. As we know politicians will politician (AKA lie to gain power), but for now the 2 of them seem to be the most "libertarian" of the mainstream Canadian politicians that have a chance for Primeministership in the future.
Career politicians, like Poilievre, are the problem, not the solution. Problem, reaction, solution….
Poilievre or Baber will also have to make some bold promises like UNDOING various legislations this madman rammed through. I'm glad Patrick Brown is gone. Pure fake conservative. He and his pals played hockey through the heart of the lockdowns while kids couldn't. Good riddance. Take that corrupted, has-been, fool CINO Jean Charest with you.
Would this be before the next election on 2025? None of us are going to make it to 2025.
I hope so! Conservative leadership vote is later this year.
Still too far out. Justin is going to make life hell starting in September. HELL.
Trudeau needs to be hung for treason.
AFTER a fair trial. Otherwise, we're no better than...
Nah, Castreau isn't going anywhere. And even if he did we'd end up with Freeland as PM, she's even worse.
No way she'd be put in charge. She's certifiable. Insiders were saying she won't ever lead the party.
All replacements are even worse, that's the point.
"Turdeau"
- I just read someone calling him "Truedope". I think we should use that going forward.
But back to the gist of this substack, what is our most likely alternative and would it be any better? At least he has become a cowardly laughing stock, while his girl Friday will always be the devil in heels.
I hope and wish.
The twin spirals of incompetence and corruption are tightening like a noose around the collective necks of the managerial class. They can only replace bad leaders with worse leaders, and every replacement results in worse government and accentuated public discontent.
It seems to me that the powers behind the powers always want someone more manipulatable than the person they have in place. Thus exeunt stage left to BOJO, Cuomo, etc., ultimately Fauci and other prominent patsies.
Unfortunately for those holding the strings, manipulatable people by nature lack the talent to pull off the heist. The newer iterations make their bosses look so bad that it wakes up a lot of sheep. I am hoping that the ratio of sheep to shepherds is low enough to keep the true predators at bay. Time will tell.
Agree! Government everywhere is evolving into a long running episode of "Marx Brothers Meet the Keystone Cops". At our expense.
A++++
Same circus, different clowns.
The memes will continue until morale improves. :D
Priceless. A truly classic observation and quote.
I would argue that the same is true in business, science, medicine, education etc. and even in plumbing.
Just consider I added several likes to this.
Perfect!
Ben Wallace MP is getting tory party members hot and sweaty because he's the defence minister, and in the UK, the Ukraine war in still seen as a good thing.
Most likely he won't make the final cut, which will be of two potential PM's.
One will not have voted for Brexit and one will have.
Of the MP's who voted for Brexit, the truly scary proposition is Michael Gove MP, a twisted sociopath with deep seated control issues.
Most worryingly, tory party members, most of whom are painfully slow witted, still do not a) think lockdown was bad, and b) do not blame Gove for lockdown - even though he was its principal political architect.
Other brexit-voting MP's e.g. Dominic Raab, while being shamefully silent about lockdowns, would likely not impose any more.
Of the remain-voting MP's, the worrying prospects are ex health secretary Sajid Javid (imposed vaccine mandates on nurses) and psycho nut job Jeremy Hunt. Both are unlikely to get party member votes as the NHS is currently seen as a big stinking turd of incompetence, and they both led it.
Rishi Sunak (ex chancellor) was against lockdown (but not in public), he printed £450bn from thin air but he's skirting blame as Johnson is currently (and had been kept in position to be) the lightening rod for anger against how screwed the country now is. So Sunak is a reasonable bet.
Long shots include Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt who party members love and who would be OK on the lockdown front.
The best potential PM would be someone like David Davis, a past leadership contender who was hobbled in the leadership race previously by Remainers. If he makes it into the final two, then happy days
Just a note about Mordaunt: she made a speech a few years back in which she insisted 'Trans women are women' and went on and on about it. Ridiculous, and the party members remember. If the parliamentary party chooses her as one of the final two to put forward to the party membership, it is because they want the other candidate to win.
Boris famously refused to answer the question: ‘Do only women have a cervix?’ None of them seem to have the balls to stand up to woke fundamentalists. Appeasement never works. You end up with men swimming against women and people calling you bigot for saying ‘wait this is wrong and unfair’. I didn’t know that about Morduant. The UK is doomed if she gets it. Will she mandate pronouns to promote inclusion?!
Ah. Thanks for that. I'd forgotten. Nevertheless, my money's on her. Note she did a brief stint as Sec of State for Defence, a desirable history at the moment and she wouldn't have got that job unless considered a safe pair of hands by the people that matter.
It will be incredibly difficult all over the world to find leaders worthy of the term. In the United States we are perhaps blessed to have states rights to help us tell the men from the boys and the women from the girls bu it will not be easy. Running our governments into the ground appears to have become child’s play.
I would like to see the new Prime Minister authorize an analysis of Green Energy Performance. I believe that Wind Power and Solar Power do not reduce the Carbon Footprint in any meaningful way. Power Generation capacity must have redundant Generators on standby for periods when the Wind doesn't blow. The redundant Generators must be of the inefficient single-cycle gas turbine type because only they can ramp up quickly enough. The cost of Green Energy should be an indicator of how much it actually produces. (Here in Ontario the price is 3X normal wholesale price for Wind Power.)
Then there is the issue of Global Warming being a CANARD. One thousand years ago, the Northern Hemisphere was warmer than it is now. The Vikings farmed in Greenland for 392 years- Continuously- before it got too cold and they left. And the Vikings did not drive SUV's.
Indeed. We’ve become denizens of a sprawling complex World civilization dependent on the ultimate power of the sun. Solar and wind technology is insufficient to meet these needs. So are our so called leaders who if a transition was possible wouldn’t be capable of managing one. We need brain power and the ability to manage communication/diplomacy.
The Vikings didn’t drive SUV’s or Jet planes, farmed Greenland and had some pretty hostile diplomacy skills.
Watch The Northmen on this subject, lol.
Surely Steve Baker would be a shoe in ? Apparently he also knows some maths. That’s where my money is playing.
🙌
From the beginning of the pandemic I’ve thought there was a great deal in common between Boris and the other leaders around the planet who have followed the dictates of the BBB, WEF, BILDERBERG contingent. Middle manager types willing to go along with the popular, rich kids to get along. Their maturity level got stalled at middle school level.
Along with their integrity. (if they had any to begin with)
Doubtful they ever possessed any.
Not sure that "integrity" is a term that can, (or should), be used in regard to this topic.
I can tell you that I find it objectionable.. but hey...I'm a nobody
We are all “nobodies”. But then we nobodies are in the billions - the true source of wealth and power for these kleptocrats.
They draw our energy, economic, physical , and spiritual, like a siphon.
Despite being Defence Secretary, I bet most people don’t know very much about him. I’m one of them. That probably makes him ideal as a placeholder for the New World Order, WEF types who will actually be running things. As useless and weak as Boris has been, I suspect he hasn’t quite gone along with their plans. Certainly, if you compare the U.K. response to the not-particularly-deadly virus with the approach taken by most of the rest of the Western world, it comes out pretty well - relatively speaking - compared with Australia, NZ, Canada & most of Europe. There is also the question of Brexit; Boris is hated by a large section of the media and parliamentary party for ‘getting it done’ and he was never their choice as PM. That is an error they have now corrected by a sustained and unrelenting campaign against him, consisting of largely minor ‘scandals’ like Partygate etc. I fear we may rue the day we got rid of Boris.
Better the devil you know.......
I know nothing about him, but a null result for "ben wallace" here is a good sign (quotes necessary):
https://www.weforum.org/search?query=ben+wallace
Good call, someone check if Ben is one of Klaus "young leaders"
Yes, he could have been scrubbed from their site as other notorious YGLs have been.
Wayback has over 21,000 saves since 1998 so site scrubbing is worse than worthless it becomes an admission of something to hide & verifiable if it's worth the effort.
https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www3.weforum.org/
Or "Global Shapers"
Wallace is not WEF of any kind
He has kept his head down and his nose clean. He appears to have integrity and is experienced in several roles. His strong military background secures him my support.
https://www.gov.uk/government/people/ben-wallace
I hope that you are correct, but I am skeptical that any politician who has integrity can go far in a Western democracy.
And this just in:
https://2ndsmartestguyintheworld.substack.com/p/why-is-bill-gates-in-london-at-the
From FAST EDDY of SubStack earlier today:
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://ftalphaville-cdn.ft.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Perfect-Storm-LR.pdf
Skepticism is perhaps the strongest necessary characteristic among we the people desiring to maintain freedom from tyranny.
It's sad: the person hasn't been involved with depopulation and slave camp advocates who want to change what a human is.
But, that's shape we are in
Here is another listing of who is Ben Wallace: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ben+wallace+uk&t=newext&atb=v256-1&ia=web
It really matters not who succeeds Boris in terms of future UK government policy. The whole rotten, craven Westminster bunch will continue to take a wrecking ball to the economy and every aspect of our lives in order to soften us up for future state-subsidised serfdom via the World Economic Forum's proposed Great Reset.
Who else do you imagine coined the "Build back better" slogan mouthed by globalist political puppets on both sides of the Pond?
Boris was a product of the WEF young global leader's brainwashing academy. Opposition (sic) leader Sir Keith Starmer, is coy about admitting it, but he is a member of the all-powerful globalist think tank, The Trilateral Commission. In other words, they are two cheeks of the same smelly backside we can do without.
Yes sure but these epic failures will continue to quit as they attempt to protect themselves from the large and inevitable backlash. Including those who believe they run the whole damn planet at the WEF, BILDERBERG, GOVERNMENTS, CORPORATE, INSTITUTIONS Levels. London bridge is indeed tumbling down and no amount of shoring it up will suffice. It’s really a matter of how many of us go down with the bridge failure and if we can figure out how to go on once we do.
What have you heard about Steve Baker? I saw a video of him being interviewed a few months back and he seemed legitimately good. His positions are decidedly at odds with WEF agenda - anti lockdowns and anti Covid restrictions. Also a climate sceptic so not going to steal farmland to prevent cow farts destroying the planet and starve us all to death. I’ve lost so much trust now I fear the WEF may have ‘sleeper’ Trojan horses and maybe this guy is one?! I’ve thought similar about DeSantis. I know I sound paranoid but this is what refusing to give in to vax mandates in NY has done to me.
Baker is pretty solid, except for a weird blip in 2021 when he seemed to be genuflecting re BLM. It drew attention because it's so out of character, but he's not said/done anything so foolish since.
I wrote to him regarding the WHO pandemic treaty (as my own useless MP was fobbing me off) and to his credit he did raise the issue with the Health Sec.
Baker is certainly not my pick for PM, but I'd like him in cabinet.
With views like his, Baker is unlikely to even feature in the line-up for the Tory leadership. The "race" will of, course, be rigged to ensure the winner is someone happy to reconstruct the "mother of democracies" in line with the enslaving Great Reset agenda.
I'm sorry for not contributing anything on the actual politics, but had to point out that *no one* outlasts the cat. https://i.imgur.com/DEFOIBQ.jpg
https://twitter.com/Number10cat/status/1544370237432381441?s=20&t=mpIweQCem5fa2aAkXhDTbg
So has Larry the Cat used up 3 of his 9 lives since he outlasted 3 PMs or is he still on life #1 out of 9 ?
Always be suspicious when someone is got rid of for spurious reasons. The person who he was supposed to be protecting was only subject to unproven allegations (from other adult men) at the time, the entire government are responsible for the current mess plus being some kind of sexual deviant is almost expected in politics…
cf our own Bill Clinton
I live in the UK and follow politics reasonably. Ben Wallace is not that well know here, he appears (according to the Spectator and centrist websites) to be sane, and balanced. Has a military background (hence his current popularity). Uncontroversial. Probably Establishment.
The issue with Wallis is that he's popular because he's a blank slate. Almost nothing is known of his views outside of his defense brief. It's easy to like someone when you can't think of any reason to dislike them, but it means that if he were to step forward he'd have to actually get off the fence and take positions on a whole range of issues. There's no telling what that would do to his popularity.
I agree with you.
I'd much rather Redwood, Davis, Frost or similar. Someone who's been around for decades and we know exactly what they think on a range of topics, as well as how they'd behave with a portfolio.
Around for decades is part of the problem, though. Isn’t it?
No, I don't think so. Not in the way the geriatric of the US political establishment are.
These are the experienced backbenchers who've been around since Thatcher's days, but none of them are 85 year old corrupt cronies. Being an MP in the UK is absolutely nothing like being a US senator. It's quite unglamorous in most respects, doesn't pay all that well, and requires a lot of constituency work.
To be around that long you really have to be an excellent constituency MP, which correlates with at least being a decent person, someone of substance who actually cares about the constituents. The Labour party had such people too - Frank Field (now no longer with us), Kate Hoey, etc. Not party-line robots, and certainly not there to graft the system. Actual decent human beings.
Thanks, didn’t make the distinction.
He's a bit rough 'round the edges to be called establishment, but he's performed well recently and he is able to bridge that gap between the snooty London metro types and the rest of the broad membership. He and Penny Mordaunt have a good shot.
His biggest achilles heal is that he was a Remainer. The parliamentary party will be fine with that, but the membership less so.
I suspect that being perceived as "sane, and balanced" disqualifies Mr. Wallace.
I’m British and never heard of Ben Wallace before reading this article. The poll was among Conservative Party Members so not representative of the Country as a whole. The political Parties do not have big memberships. The Conservative Party 180 000, for example. It’s not like the US with registered Republicans or Democrats, so most people - millions - who vote Conservative aren’t members of the Party. Wallace is Defence Minister, military background, tipped to be next head of NATO, so if he is elected Party leader and becomes PM, to be sure UK involvement in the futile proxy war with Russia will continue.
Chesterton’s Fence. A feature of UK, indeed European, politics is Government is like chewing gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe… impossible to get rid of. By Government I mean policies, behaviour, values, competence, direction.
European Politics is truly environmentally friendly - we recycle everything constantly - nothing gets thrown away no matter how worn or threadbare.
Elections just change the seating arrangements and the same faces keep coming round in a game of Buggin’s turn. But as far any actual change - nah! Opposition Parties are just waiting rooms for those waiting their turn.
The French figured this out the other week when only 46% bothered to turn out. They know that Left, Right, Macron in the Middle - it’s same old, same old.
And so it has been since 1945 - with a brief Thatcher interlude - in the UK.
So Chesterton may sleep sound, nothing will change.
I will confess here to still retaining a small bit of liking for Boris Johnson, despite all that has happened since 2020, mostly because of my gratitude to him for getting Brexit over the line against globalist opposition (even though I knew he didn't really believe in it), and for being a reasonably good non-far left mayor of London.
I, like Gato, recall a few weeks early on in the 'crisis' - though perhaps it was just one week? Or a weekend? - when it seemed the Johnson government was planning to allow Covid to sail through the UK population so we could quickly achieve herd immunity and be done with it. Ah, what might have been.
I do accept that I may be exhibiting symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome. Of the captors that have been torturing my fellow citizens and me for the past 2 1/2 years, Johnson occasionally seemed to be reluctant. Perhaps that was his role.
But when the British Conservative party decides to be rid of you, it gets rid of you. It gets done over a few days. That's how a parliamentary system is meant to work. (Canadian Liberals, please take note.)
I’m kind of with you. I despise the tories and aren’t that much of a fan of labour either , disenchanted voter I think is the term. But certainly before Christmas he resisted a lot of pressure to lock down, and he did end restrictions earlier than a lot of places, again in the face of hysterical criticism which he just completely ignored, in the same was as he ignored all the other (valid) criticism over partygate and everything else. He’s still an absolute cock though, if you’ll excuse my language. And he was actually right, after “freedom day” most people forgot about it and got got on with our lives
We've been living reasonably freely here in England for quite a long time, while the Europeans, Australians, Canadians, and blue state Americans have continued to be locked down and vaxx mandated. I fear what comes next after Johnson. We have had it easy for too long. Something is being planned for us, something not good.
Brexit has done nothing but impoverish the country and reduce food supply. Crispin Odey, one of the major financiers of vote Leave is Murdoch's son-in-law. It's very difficult to believe that Brexit was standing up to the globalist agenda. And, if the European Parliament had not been full of UKIP clowns on a jolly, the UK had a place to critique what was going on. Fortunately a few independent Irish MPs are standing in...
Oh please. We are not impoverished (at least not yet). If Brexit was not standing up to the globalist agenda, why did the globalists fight so hard against it, both before and after the vote? Only a sovereign nation state can stand up against globalism. We put anti-Europeans in the European parliament because we viewed that body with contempt.
UKIP was put into the EU Parliament by the UK press. After all it was Murdoch that won the elections for the last thirty years. Proper gander is when a cockney assiduously studies the reality.
Been watching Westminster the last twelve years?
I've been watching it for much longer than that.
Looks like we've got the last remaining Blairite here! Cherie, is that you?
Nope. Corbyn for me. Blair is a war criminal and belongs in the Hague... Aping as he does the US eugenicist foundation money.
You do realise Corbyn is a lifelong Eurosceptic, don't you? One of his few good points. The old Labour left knew what the real purpose of the EU was - to crush the possibility of resistance.
Can the first criterion, going forward, for choosing any political leader be "not fucked up by his father?" I mean, just as a minimum qualification?
If Schwabie doesn't want him there he won't be there..donchathink?
You give Schwab too much credit.
We shall see little kitten!
as a brit that doesnt follow the bullshit media i can tell you nothing of wallace or any of the others but it really doesnt matter. they are in lockstep with bringing about the total destruction of the country, following 1984 like a manual