Mick Hartley

Author: Mick Hartley

  • Wetlands

    Walthamstow:

    IMG_3260

    IMG_3261s

    IMG_3263s

  • Defeating gender-identity ideology

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  • Accepting the past

    >

    Any protester chanting this slogan is encouraging others to go to their death, and to go and kill innocent people, while themselves promising only to write a cross message on a piece of cardboard and wave it outside the Garfunkel’s restaurant near Trafalgar Square.

    Unfortunately at the moment it's doubtful that "those people in Palestine itself who might be willing to come to terms with both reality and Israel" number more than a handful. For that we must thank not only radical Islam and Hamas and Iran, but also UNRWA, and the tens of thousnds of Free Palestine marchers and students across the West.

    Also, of course, it's not just the Palestinians displaced in the course of Israel's founding. That was just one factor in the general "ethnic cleansings" of the last century. There's also the equivalent number – possibly more – of Jews displaced from the Middle East and North Africa, where they'd lived for thousands of years before their expulsion. Not to mention Greeks/Turks, Indians/Pakistanis, Germans expelled from Poland, etc. etc.. All forgotten and resolved – apart from this one exception…

  • The knife distraction

    Headlines everywhere about the danger of buying knives:

    People trying to buy knives online will face tougher measures to prove their age under new restrictions being brought forward in the wake of the Southport knife attack.

    Axel Rudakubana, who has admitted murdering three young girls last July, bought a knife from Amazon when he was just 17, despite existing laws which prohibit the sale of most knives to under-18s.

    Online retailers will be forced to ask anyone buying a knife for two types of identification under government plans, with buyers asked to submit an identity document, such as a passport, and record a live video to prove their age.

    Amazon has said it takes its "responsibility around the sale of all age-restricted items – including bladed products – extremely seriously" and has launched an investigation.

    In an opinion piece for The Sun newspaper, external, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wrote that it "remains shockingly easy for our children to get their hands on deadly knives".

    "The lessons of this case could not be clearer," he said.

    "Time and again, as a child, the Southport murderer carried knives. Time and again, he showed clear intent to use them.

    "And yet tragically, he was still able to order the murder weapon off the internet without any checks or barriers. A two-click killer. This cannot continue."

    The lessons of this case could indeed not be clearer. It's about people getting radicalised by Islamist ideology, and the failure of the government agencies such as Prevent to do their jobs. It's also about the determination of the government not to confront the problem but to do everything in its power to throw up distractions like this. Yes, fine, make it harder for kids to get knives – but every kitchen has big sharp knives.

    They're not the hardest objects to get hold of. They're not guns.

  • Pennsylvania Railroad 1935

    John S. Powell, "Philadelphia area circa 1935. Pennsylvania Railroad Locomotive PRR 6757."

    image from www.shorpy.com
    [Photo: Shorpy/John S. Powell, Louis A. Marre Rail Transportation Photograph Collection]

  • BBC News

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    "…Not one word about the most popular Executive Order: the acknowledgment of binary sex and the dismantlement of the entire apparatus of gender identity doctrine that has trashed women’s rights, negated LGB rights, and undermined child safeguarding.

    "It was this issue, more than any other, that swayed swing voters to switch from Democrat to Republican, and it led millions of lifelong Democrats to stay home in November. But the @BBC – once again – doesn’t think it worth mentioning.

    "Shame on you, @BBC !"

  • The moral & moronic downfall of Save the Children

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    From the JC:

    Save the Children has apologised after a member of staff posted a video saying she didn’t want to buy bagels from “genocidal maniacs” or people that support “Zionism”.

    Yasmin Ghaffar, who the JC understands is a member of Save the Children’s public affairs team – frequently in Westminster speaking to MPs and other parliamentarians on behalf of the charity – posted a video to TikTok where she asked followers for recommendations for bagels in New York.

    She specified: “I don’t want to be giving any of my money to genocidal maniacs” and added that she is looking for bagel shops that are either “actively pro-Palestinian” or “known to not be in support of that hell-hole place and Zionism”.

  • “Yeah, but…”

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

  • A campaign of terror

    A Daily NK report on life near the Chinese border.

    In North Korea’s North Hamgyong province, a wave of arrests by state security agents has residents living in constant fear, with many wondering not if, but when they’ll be targeted in what locals describe as a campaign of terror.

    According to a source who spoke with Daily NK on Jan. 17, residents in the Chinese border areas of Hoeryong, Musan county, and Onsong county learned in early December that 30 Ministry of State Security inspectors had been deployed to their region. The news came through workplace announcements and neighborhood watch units.

    The campaign’s intensity became clear on Jan. 4, when six ministry inspectors stormed the home of a woman in her twenties around 11 p.m. After searching her residence, they handcuffed her and dragged her out by her hair. Her screams echoed through the apartment building, drawing neighbors who witnessed the disturbing scene.

    “She was just an ordinary woman who made a living selling clothes with her grandmother,” the source explained. “But she’d caught attention recently because her standard of living had noticeably improved. She started dressing better and bought new furniture and appliances, including a TV.”

    In North Korea, sudden financial improvements often trigger suspicion, especially in border regions where many rely on forbidden activities like smuggling and processing remittances. Such lifestyle changes are typically viewed as evidence of illegal earnings.

    While North Koreans know that state security agents and their informants closely monitor such changes, many feel compelled to take risks to survive. “The only way to make money here is to do things the government bans,” the source noted. “There’s even a saying that ‘money is found before the barrel of a gun.’ Still, everyone knows to keep a low profile even if they have money.”

    Despite advance warning of the inspectors’ arrival, residents couldn’t simply abandon their means of survival. Many took precautions, such as lying low and destroying smuggled goods, but arrests continue. “The woman they took had just improved her lifestyle after one successful venture, yet they still targeted her. There’s fear because it seems no one is safe,” the source said.

    Though these inspections aim to maintain regime stability, some argue they achieve the opposite effect. “Yes, they’re trying to protect the country,” the source reflected, “but arbitrarily arresting people only breeds distrust. A fearful population doesn’t strengthen the regime – it gradually weakens it.”

    The population has neen fearful for decades, and still the regime survives. But yes, clearly, the more that people feel they can express their fear, the better. 

  • Two sexes

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Powered by