The Helen Keller story doesn't add up

Below is an interesting video on why the Helen Keller story could reasonably be classed as dubious. It doesn't add up as the video title says.

Also interesting is that Wikipedia gives no real hint that there are good reasons to doubt the validity of the Helen Keller story while Grokipedia gives those doubts reasonable coverage. 

 

Something none of us believe

M&S boss issues stark warning over worsening crime

Retail director Thinus Keeve has demanded action after groups of young people wreaked havoc in south London over the past week...

He also questioned claims that crime rates are falling in the capital.

He said: "I keep hearing crime is falling, especially in London - something none of us believe, and very few people working in retail would see."

It's the problem with politically important statistics, to believe them is to invite deception. 

Sadiq Khan warns Londoners

Vote Labour or risk Farage, warns Sadiq Khan as party launches London elections campaign amid dire approval ratings

The Mayor launched Labour’s London local elections campaign in Peckham after poll showing party could lose all but two of its councils

Sadiq Khan has warned Londoners that backing smaller parties at the local elections could pave the way for Nigel Farage to become prime minister, as Labour faces a difficult set of polls.

The Mayor of London launched Labour’s local election campaign in Peckham on Thursday.

Calm down Sadiq, these are council elections, not the general election. 

He knows this of course, but once Labour strategic "thinkers" have decided to demonise someone for political advantage then that's it - they demonise away like crazy.

Fortunately Labour spin doctors stopped short of claiming a Labour vote would help keep Donald Trump out of No.10 but I bet it was a closely fought argument.

     

The fashionably feckless vote

An interesting video, Charlotte Gill on the Green Party way to hoover up fashionably feckless voters.

 

Handing over the managed decline of the UK

Starmer signals need for closer ties with EU in light of Iran oil crisis 'storm'

Sir Keir Starmer has insisted Labour’s manifesto red lines on closer relations with Europe remain, as he signalled the Government will seek stronger ties with the EU in light of the Iran war’s global impact.

The Prime Minister said the “volatile” international situation caused by the US-Israeli conflict with Tehran meant Britain’s “long-term national interest requires closer partnership with our allies in Europe and with the European Union”.


Keir Starmer hardly needs to spell it out. He would deny it of course, but all we can read is his behaviour and that is clear enough - the managed decline of the UK is something he is prepared to hand over to the EU.

UK ruling elites have experience of managed decline but the EU has more. The Iran conflict is merely an opportunity to hand over the incompetence too. Another area where the EU has bags of experience.

Drowning in communities

Henry Clifford has a very useful Centre Write piece on the common but misleading political use of the word 'community.' Not an unfamiliar source of mendacity, but the whole piece is well worth reading as a reminder that it is a very common one.

Most “communities” are empty categories

We are drowning in communities. Gay community, Muslim community, international community, business community.

Yet, we feel increasingly isolated. Forty-four percent of Britons say they sometimes feel like “strangers in their own country,” and 50% feel “disconnected from society around them.” Indeed, these “communities” seem to be sources of opposition and division rather than connection. After losing the Gorton and Denton by-election, Matt Goodwin took to X to proclaim, “We are losing our country” to a “dangerous Muslim sectarianism.” Battles over the place of the “trans community” within society have likewise become incredibly divisive. While public figures like JK Rowling have faced death threats and boycotts over their views on the topic, trans people themselves have been increasingly suffering too — according to the Home Office, in 2014/15, 607 recorded hate crimes were motivated by trans identity. By 2024/25, that figure had risen to 4,120.

Community ought to be the bedrock of our society, the things which bind us to one another. Why then are individuals isolated and “communities” in conflict?

A large part of the trouble stems from a wrong, and statist, view of what ‘community’ means.

Community, properly conceived, is formed from the concrete connections between individuals — not from shared characteristics. Communities are existing networks, not downstream from categories, but groups of real connections.

I've Got Two Legs