Brum Tik-toking down to the election

When it comes to squandering taxpayers’ money, there’s still no place like Brum. Last month the city council’s single biggest credit card payment was for £14,520 – to promote itself on TikTok.

It seems the Nonsensical Agency is ‘raising awareness’ of the city’s ‘Be Bold Be Birmingham’ campaign having set up the account in 2021, which now claims 42,000 followers and 5.5 million video viewers.

You will be proud to know this is now ‘the biggest council TikTok in the UK’.

Mind you, the city spent £17,400 on gift-cards last month in two transactions. No doubt the recipients were very grateful.

While a huge proportion of the March credit card spend of £344,000 went on petrol and charging electric cars as usual, the council also forked out £60 a time for at least eight, and probably, 16 parking fines.

Still, our well-travelled credit cards did pay £15,695 at least for stays in a variety of hotels. The most popular were the Future Inn, Bristol, and the Hilton Hotel at Wembley stadium. No doubt there was a very important goal in mind when they booked that one.

https://youtu.be/w-8VM_p3r94?si=NKj3LJBbkJPRWjHs

Secrets, lies and the civil service

If Keir Starmer is telling the truth – and we must assume he is, because nobody could get away with blatantly lying to the House of Commons and the country if he has been lying – then what does it tell us about the Government vetting process?

If Peter Mandelson failed the vetting and was therefore considered a security liability, why was the Prime Minister not told? Chums of the sacked civil servant Sir Olly Robbins claim he was not merely under no obligation to inform the Prime Minister but that he was not allowed to do so by their code of conduct.

If that is true – and it does stretch credulity to think it is – then what about any other official or politician who is granted access to Britain’s most top secret information (always assuming there is any such stuff anymore given our country’s abject decline)?

Officially, we don’t vet our senior politicians. But do our security services really not check out those at the top, like Home Secretary, Defence Secretary or the Foreign Secretary? They get access to the secret stuff and they get appointed before any checking for security clearance can take place because many of them are given their jobs as soon as a new Government is formed.

What happens if one of these top politicians has skeletons in the closet? Do the civil servants really keep that information to themselves? If so, how do they behave when the office holder starts passing top secrets to the Russians, the Chinese or – God forbid – the French? Do they really keep schtum?

Actually, the answer may be yes, they do. Anyone remember Sir Anthony Blunt? MI5 knew in 1963 that he was a Russian spy but the Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures was allowed to carry on as usual until Margaret Thatcher finally exposed him in 1979.

Anthony Blunt (1907−1983), aka "Tony," "Johnson," "Ian"

Who is the rocket man now?

Does anyone really care the USA has sent another rocket into space? How much does it matter when the same country is creating a new, more deadly, world order here on earth?

Is this space nonsense some sort of distraction technique to persuade us that the United States not only rules this world but other worlds as well?

What is the point of swinging by the moon when the Middle East is in meltdown, the war has given a boost to Mad Vlad Putin’s Russia and even Rachel Reeves has another excuse for Britain’s looming rejection?

Is there any real benefit from this new space shot because, for all the alleged excitement and nerd overload, it is not apparent?

Isn’t there something obscene about all this? As far as peace on earth is concerned, I think it’s going to be a long, long time.