Nigel Farage’s Reform party took over Worcestershire County Council promising to ‘reduce waste and cut taxes’.
Now they are increasing council tax by nine per cent, Mr Farage wishes they hadn’t won control of the county because it was already bankrupt and the massive increase isn’t his party’s fault.
Today Worcestershire… tomorrow the whole country? In a few years’ time Prime Minister Farage may be revealing record tax rises for the whole of Britain and accusing other people for his failure:
‘Don’t blame me for the financial crisis. We just inherited it from those terrible Tories and that awful Labour lot.’
This week, he said: ‘Worcestershire, I have to say, we took minority control of a virtually bankrupt council, I wish we hadn't bothered.’
I do hope we don’t hear him saying much the same thing on the steps of 10 Downing Street in due course.
Saturday, March 14, 2026
Thursday, March 05, 2026
Regime change - does it actually work?
It’s all very well swooping in and arresting Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela or bombing the life out of Persia’s Ayatollah Khamenei but what next?
We might all want to see Vlad Putin dead and buried but someone worse could quite easily succeed him.
While no-one would wish to see Sir Keir Starmer extinguished completely, the growing likelihood that he will be replaced is not something to imagine with equanimity.
Without a General Election – and why should we have one given the Tories’ unattractive record of regicide? – if Starmer goes, we’re bound to get someone even worse.
The only solution his party can come up with to restore its popularity is a new leader and a wealth tax which would merely hasten the flight of Britain’s wealth-creators for foreign shores.
My own nightmare scenario is Angela Rayner as PM and Ed Miliband as Chancellor but others can doubtless envisage something equally catastrophic.
Sir Keir’s days are numbered. Soon enough they will get rid of him. But taking out the leader is not the answer unless there’s a clear plan for a better the future. In Britain, as in Venezuela and Persia, there isn’t.
We might all want to see Vlad Putin dead and buried but someone worse could quite easily succeed him.
While no-one would wish to see Sir Keir Starmer extinguished completely, the growing likelihood that he will be replaced is not something to imagine with equanimity.
Without a General Election – and why should we have one given the Tories’ unattractive record of regicide? – if Starmer goes, we’re bound to get someone even worse.
The only solution his party can come up with to restore its popularity is a new leader and a wealth tax which would merely hasten the flight of Britain’s wealth-creators for foreign shores.
My own nightmare scenario is Angela Rayner as PM and Ed Miliband as Chancellor but others can doubtless envisage something equally catastrophic.
Sir Keir’s days are numbered. Soon enough they will get rid of him. But taking out the leader is not the answer unless there’s a clear plan for a better the future. In Britain, as in Venezuela and Persia, there isn’t.
Friday, February 20, 2026
Why we need the Monarchy
The BBC and Channel 4, among others, are enthusiastically exploiting the plight of the Windsor formerly known as Prince to whip up anti-Royal sentiment in a bid to rid us of the Monarchy.
They must be careful what they wish for. Get rid of the Monarchy and hark what discord follows. An elected President? Then where does that leave Parliament and the Prime Minister?
We would require the complete re-writing of our unwritten constitution if that was a serious option. But who could we possibly trust to come up with a viable solution? We could end up like America or France – or even Russia or China.
We could supposedly elect someone without much power but even in Ireland the President has real power. What if she exercised it against the wishes of the incumbent Government? An elected President would certainly have more justification for political interference than an hereditary Monarch and you could easily imagine circumstances where she set herself up in opposition to her Government.
Instead, we could have an appointed President, chosen from among the ‘great and good’. They would almost certainly be the favoured nominee of the ruling party. Peter Mandelson might have been candidate for such an office not so long ago. And how could a political appointee possibly be a unifying force?
Our history and national identity rely on having a Monarchy. We did get rid of it once and it was followed by chaos and dictatorship which ended in everyone agreeing the only thing to do was restore Charles II.
Every country needs a Head of State, someone to represent the nation at home and abroad, and someone above the machinations of politicians. No matter how bad things seem for the Royal Family today, surely we have to agree the Monarchy is the least worst option.
The choice is simple: God Save the King or God Help Britain.
The Man Who Invented The News
We would require the complete re-writing of our unwritten constitution if that was a serious option. But who could we possibly trust to come up with a viable solution? We could end up like America or France – or even Russia or China.
We could supposedly elect someone without much power but even in Ireland the President has real power. What if she exercised it against the wishes of the incumbent Government? An elected President would certainly have more justification for political interference than an hereditary Monarch and you could easily imagine circumstances where she set herself up in opposition to her Government.
Instead, we could have an appointed President, chosen from among the ‘great and good’. They would almost certainly be the favoured nominee of the ruling party. Peter Mandelson might have been candidate for such an office not so long ago. And how could a political appointee possibly be a unifying force?
Our history and national identity rely on having a Monarchy. We did get rid of it once and it was followed by chaos and dictatorship which ended in everyone agreeing the only thing to do was restore Charles II.
Every country needs a Head of State, someone to represent the nation at home and abroad, and someone above the machinations of politicians. No matter how bad things seem for the Royal Family today, surely we have to agree the Monarchy is the least worst option.
The choice is simple: God Save the King or God Help Britain.
The Man Who Invented The News
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Not much Reform going on here
While I think we can all agree democracy is a good idea, the restoration of the franchise in Keir Starmer’s latest U-turn has led to lots of excited talk of a Reform landslide.
As someone who has flirted with the idea of backing Nigel Farage’s party, I thought it would be worth checking out how it’s been doing in the 14 areas where Reform has control of local authority finances.
The results are massively disappointing, suggesting all the talk about Reform cutting out waste, supporting hard-pressed local taxpayers etc is just so much political guff.
As the cliché goes: politicians are all the same. Bearing in mind that a rise of five per cent or more requires special Government permission, these are the rises proposed by Reform-led councils:
Derbyshire County Council: 4.9 per cent
Doncaster Council: 4.99 per cent
Durham County Council: 1.99 per cent
Kent County Council: 3.99 per cent
Lancashire County Council: 4.99 per cent
Lincolnshire County Council: 2.99 per cent
North Northamptonshire Council: 4.99 per cent
Nottinghamshire County Council: 3.99 per cent
Staffordshire County Council 3.99 per cent
West Northamptonshire Council: 4.99 per cent
Leicestershire County Council (Minority administration): 2.99 per cent
Warwickshire County Council (Minority administration): 4.89 per cent
Worcestershire County Council (Minority administration): 9 per cent
Cornwall Council: 4.99 per cent (Largest party)
At the last local elections Reform pledged to ‘Reduce waste and cut your tax’ (Worcestershire increased councillors' allowances by 17 per cent).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEMOxwFAu7o&t=252s
As someone who has flirted with the idea of backing Nigel Farage’s party, I thought it would be worth checking out how it’s been doing in the 14 areas where Reform has control of local authority finances.
The results are massively disappointing, suggesting all the talk about Reform cutting out waste, supporting hard-pressed local taxpayers etc is just so much political guff.
As the cliché goes: politicians are all the same. Bearing in mind that a rise of five per cent or more requires special Government permission, these are the rises proposed by Reform-led councils:
Derbyshire County Council: 4.9 per cent
Doncaster Council: 4.99 per cent
Durham County Council: 1.99 per cent
Kent County Council: 3.99 per cent
Lancashire County Council: 4.99 per cent
Lincolnshire County Council: 2.99 per cent
North Northamptonshire Council: 4.99 per cent
Nottinghamshire County Council: 3.99 per cent
Staffordshire County Council 3.99 per cent
West Northamptonshire Council: 4.99 per cent
Leicestershire County Council (Minority administration): 2.99 per cent
Warwickshire County Council (Minority administration): 4.89 per cent
Worcestershire County Council (Minority administration): 9 per cent
Cornwall Council: 4.99 per cent (Largest party)
At the last local elections Reform pledged to ‘Reduce waste and cut your tax’ (Worcestershire increased councillors' allowances by 17 per cent).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEMOxwFAu7o&t=252s
Tuesday, February 03, 2026
The Russian honey trap
We should shed no tears over the oleaginous Peter Mandelson’s downfall, after so many previous disgraces this slippery, slithy tove has slithered his way out of.
What’s striking, though, is Jeffrey Epstein’s travelling harem seems to have included a large number of young Russian women.
It’s almost as if Vladimir Putin and his chums plotted to implicate as many influential people as possible in one vast honey trap with, or without, the connivance of the spider at the centre of the web.
Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, the Windsor formerly known as Prince, the current President of the United States, various bankers… the list of luminaries involved with the great financier and paedophile goes on and on (though only one relatively minor offender is actually in jail).
So is this all a Russian plot to destabilise the West? If so, you can only say it’s been a great success.
What’s striking, though, is Jeffrey Epstein’s travelling harem seems to have included a large number of young Russian women.
It’s almost as if Vladimir Putin and his chums plotted to implicate as many influential people as possible in one vast honey trap with, or without, the connivance of the spider at the centre of the web.
Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, the Windsor formerly known as Prince, the current President of the United States, various bankers… the list of luminaries involved with the great financier and paedophile goes on and on (though only one relatively minor offender is actually in jail).
So is this all a Russian plot to destabilise the West? If so, you can only say it’s been a great success.
Wednesday, January 07, 2026
Police 'dodgy dossier' scraping the barrel
Crime commissioner Simon Foster has been pleading poverty again in a bid to put up local taxes to cover an alleged £41 million ‘black hole’ which would certainly be filled if only he stopped wasting public money.
What may or may not be a waste of money (see Birmingham Council’s Oracle debacle) is the West Midlands Police ‘Synergy’ IT programme on which it spent a little over £1.8 million in November and £3.4 million in October.
You’d at least think it was enough to ensure that, when they Googled for evidence to justifying a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters attending a match at Villa Park, the results would be trustworthy.
On his humiliating recall to Parliament, Chief Constable Craig Guildford told MPs he stood by his force’s ‘dodgy dossier’ exaggerating the cost of policing a Maccabi Tel Aviv game in Holland, completely inventing one against West Ham and falsely claiming it had consulted local Jewish groups.
So what about WMP’s IT policies? It’s hard to tell, after wading through a 2024 report by Marc Williams, its ‘Head of Architecture’.
It uses the word ‘leverage’ 38 times in 35 pages and you can be certain any official report relying on a word that has to be pronounced in the accent of a Wall Street trader means you’re in for a cold shower of meaningless drivel.
For instance, ‘policing Data has become the apex of focus for untapped potential’ while ‘desktops are being leveraged to provide the niche use-case where the fixed technology makes sense’ and so on.
Even so, maybe Mr Guildford should have waded his way through this gibberish (why are IT people incapable of using plain English?) because it does warn: ‘Trust and Confidence in policing's use of public data is critical.’
Mr Guildford told MPs his force ‘do not use artificial intelligence’ which is interesting because his IT report says: ‘A logical step in the enhancement of Data within policing is the potential to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies.’
Mind you, the report does add: ‘Policing needs to proceed with caution here.’
https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/aston-villa/2026/01/06/west-midlands-police-chief-denies-scraping-for-reasons-to-ban-maccabi-tel-aviv-fans-from-aston-villa-match/
What may or may not be a waste of money (see Birmingham Council’s Oracle debacle) is the West Midlands Police ‘Synergy’ IT programme on which it spent a little over £1.8 million in November and £3.4 million in October.
You’d at least think it was enough to ensure that, when they Googled for evidence to justifying a ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters attending a match at Villa Park, the results would be trustworthy.
On his humiliating recall to Parliament, Chief Constable Craig Guildford told MPs he stood by his force’s ‘dodgy dossier’ exaggerating the cost of policing a Maccabi Tel Aviv game in Holland, completely inventing one against West Ham and falsely claiming it had consulted local Jewish groups.
So what about WMP’s IT policies? It’s hard to tell, after wading through a 2024 report by Marc Williams, its ‘Head of Architecture’.
It uses the word ‘leverage’ 38 times in 35 pages and you can be certain any official report relying on a word that has to be pronounced in the accent of a Wall Street trader means you’re in for a cold shower of meaningless drivel.
For instance, ‘policing Data has become the apex of focus for untapped potential’ while ‘desktops are being leveraged to provide the niche use-case where the fixed technology makes sense’ and so on.
Even so, maybe Mr Guildford should have waded his way through this gibberish (why are IT people incapable of using plain English?) because it does warn: ‘Trust and Confidence in policing's use of public data is critical.’
Mr Guildford told MPs his force ‘do not use artificial intelligence’ which is interesting because his IT report says: ‘A logical step in the enhancement of Data within policing is the potential to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies.’
Mind you, the report does add: ‘Policing needs to proceed with caution here.’
https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/aston-villa/2026/01/06/west-midlands-police-chief-denies-scraping-for-reasons-to-ban-maccabi-tel-aviv-fans-from-aston-villa-match/
Saturday, December 27, 2025
Oh no it’s no-go Lenovo
Tried buying a new PC from Lenovo but they refused to deliver it at a convenient time. Cancelled the order. They then asked for a review so I submitted the following:
Still waiting for a refund
Never delivered because of Lenovo’s ridiculously inflexible delivery policies which forced me to cancel the order after several conversations with employees who said changing the delivery date was ‘against the rules’. Eventually forced to cancel the order and ask for a refund. Three weeks later I am still asking for a refund and still haven’t had one. The computer may or may not be good but the service is absolutely lousy
Surprise, surprise I got the following from Lenovo:
“Computer says no,
“Our staff has read your review and values your contribution even though it did not meet all our website guidelines. Thanks for sharing, and we hope to publish next time!”
Still waiting for a refund…. have called their helpless line three times. They just laugh at me and say I'll get my money back within six working days of the PC arriving back in Amsterdam (if it ever does).
LATER: Lenovo blame a system update and claim they will have it sorted in within five working days and may then considfer a refund. However it's noe been more than a month and if this is any guide to the value of their computers then they are in real trouble.
Still waiting for a refund
Never delivered because of Lenovo’s ridiculously inflexible delivery policies which forced me to cancel the order after several conversations with employees who said changing the delivery date was ‘against the rules’. Eventually forced to cancel the order and ask for a refund. Three weeks later I am still asking for a refund and still haven’t had one. The computer may or may not be good but the service is absolutely lousy
Surprise, surprise I got the following from Lenovo:
“Computer says no,
“Our staff has read your review and values your contribution even though it did not meet all our website guidelines. Thanks for sharing, and we hope to publish next time!”
Still waiting for a refund…. have called their helpless line three times. They just laugh at me and say I'll get my money back within six working days of the PC arriving back in Amsterdam (if it ever does).
LATER: Lenovo blame a system update and claim they will have it sorted in within five working days and may then considfer a refund. However it's noe been more than a month and if this is any guide to the value of their computers then they are in real trouble.
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