Beneath the façade

David Shipley has a useful Critic piece on organised crime operating from dodgy small businesses on the high street. Useful because it is yet another of those familiar issues the Establishment has chosen to ignore for years. Apparently even the BBC has condescended to notice now though. 

 

The underworld on the high street

Beneath the façade of everyday commerce, organised crime has quietly captured British high streets

Something may be stirring in Britain. After decades in which our institutions turned a blind eye to the reality of mass migration and multiculturalism, it seems reality is dawning on them.

Earlier this month the BBC ran a series of exposes titled “The Immigration Fraudsters”, reporting on what they called a “shadow industry of law firms and advisers” helping people to cheat the asylum system (although Suella Braveman raised the issue three years ago). Now the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) has published a detailed report which reveals the extent to which whole sectors of the economy have become dominated by organised crime. This has also been an open secret for many years — as far back as 2001, the UK’s “Drugs Czar” described how money laundering was taking place in London, often via “legitimate businesses” operated by Turks and Eastern Europeans. Indeed only last May Robert Jenrick made a video in which he spoke about “weird Turkish barber shops”.

Familiar but the whole piece is worth reading if even politicians are required to notice. This is the hot-spot map produced in the Chartered Trading Standards Institute report. No surprises there either.

 

Crucial day

Polling stations open at start of crucial day for Keir Starmer’s premiership

Polling stations across Wales, Scotland and parts of England have opened for millions to cast their vote in crucial elections for Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership.

They are expected to be the toughest test for the Prime Minister since the general election in 2024, with devastating results predicted for the Labour Party.

Some 1,850 Labour seats are expected to be lost in councils across England, according to polling guru Lord Robert Hayward.


A crucial day for voters? A loss of 1850 council seats may sound like a resounding vote of no confidence for Keir Starmer, but further down we have this picture of possible replacements. It's a reminder of how crucial voting is - or isn't.

 

Vote Green, end history

'Vote Green, make history,' says Zack Polanski as he seeks major gains in London local elections

The Green Party leader said he was aiming to break Labour’s ‘stronghold’ grip on the capital

Zack Polanski urged Londoners to “vote Green, make history” as he sought to radically redraw London’s political map...

“People in London are really struggling and they need to know that they have councillors who are out there batting for them every single day, protecting local services, making sure we're investing in the community, that we have council homes, homes that people can actually afford to live in in London.”


Sounds like another terminological inexactitude from Zack. By "batting for them every single day" he probably means every day apart from Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays. In cases where the "batting" requires an innings from specific council staff members, we have to add annual leave, maternity leave, paternity leave, compassionate leave, lunch breaks, coffee breaks and sickies.

Then we have training courses, established procedures, processes, legal issues, risk assessments, budgetary constraints, consultations, duty of care, social issues, environmental issues, and the cycle of reorganisations.

Plus the debilitating effect of tedium.

EU throws itself under a bus

From Blackout News, AI translation from the original German.

EU pays Senegal 320 million euros for buses – China collects the order from Dakar

In Senegal, an EU-funded transport project is facing a delicate decision. For Dakar, 380 natural gas-powered buses, 14 lines, two depots, around 700 stops, 13 terminals, a ticketing system and road works are to be built. The financing is around 320 million euros. But the Chinese state-owned company CRRC is reportedly considered the favorite. The EU Commission cannot prevent an award to China as long as the tender is formally correct. This would allow European funds to pay Chinese fines. European manufacturers are affected, while China could further expand its influence in Africa.

The project is part of the EU's Global Gateway Strategy. Brussels wants to use it to promote infrastructure in Africa. At the same time, Dakar is to receive cleaner and more reliable local transport.

The financing is provided by several European institutions. These include the EU Commission, the European Investment Bank, KfW and the French AFD. That is why loans and grants are flowing into a project that reaches far beyond Dakar politically.

How not to survive the information crisis

From the Guardian - a journalist's cry for help in a world of easily accessed information, but also an article which inadvertently supports those who say feelings have replaced thinking in the modern world. 

Ideas are in there like currants in a bun, but feelings hold it together, not analysis. Presumably that's not the intention behind the article, but the interest lies in what it doesn't say, not the feelings it attempts to convey.   

How to survive the information crisis: ‘We once talked about fake news – now reality itself feels fake’

In this age of crisis, technology is pulling us apart. At its best, journalism can bring us together again, writes Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner

I have a confession to make. It has taken me years to write this article.

For a long time, I have felt that something was missing in the public conversation about human connection and community and how they are being eroded. And yet I haven’t been able to articulate it. Thinking and writing have become harder. It’s as if the neurons in my brain don’t connect with each other in quite the same way. I go to check a fact and get instantly diverted by a hundred other distractions on my phone. I find myself unable to devote time to thinking and writing like I used to.

It could be the relentless news agenda, but the news has been relentless throughout my 11 years as editor-in-chief of the Guardian. It could be age, but I’m not that old. It could be menopause, but I’m on all the drugs.

No, I think it’s because of something that many of us feel in this moment. That our attention spans have been degraded, our thinking skills blunted. That we somehow can’t concentrate or lose ourselves in a project. Finding myself stuck, as an experiment, I asked an AI tool to write this article for me, just to see what it came up with. The result was insufferably pompous and joyless. A reminder of the limits of this technology, for now at least.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

Tony Blair warns Europe risks falling behind without major overhaul - 5 reforms needed

Sir Tony Blair has warned that Europe risks "falling behind" on energy because the continent has treated it as a "climate issue".

His think tank told how power prices are up to three times higher than other nations, with 60% of its energy being dependent on imports...

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) described how Europe must shift from a "climate-first, climate only" approach to energy if it wants to stay on par with the United States and China.

The paper argues that India, China and the US, which together make up more than half of global emissions, have prioritised supply.

It said clean power in those nations is being deployed in systems "designed first and foremost to deliver reliable and low cost power."

Nothing we wouldn't expect from Tony Blair, but it takes a gargantuan level of self-regarding chutzpah to pretend that this problem has recently been uncovered by the Right People.

It shows what voters are up again when charlatans like Blair strut their stuff on the international stage, especially voters who pay attention to the real world. They are not the majority and Blair knows it.

Yet if he thinks the time is finally right for this ridiculously late political 'discovery', then it perhaps it is. We've seen a few clues already.

Starmer's Reputation Spreads

TASS won't be averse to negative Starmer stories, but who is? 

UK prime minister sidelined from election campaign due to 'toxic image' — newspaper

LONDON, May 5. /TASS/. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been forced to step back from the ruling Labor [sic] Party’s election campaign due to his extremely low personal popularity, The Daily Telegraph reported...

According to The Daily Telegraph, due to Starmer’s "toxic image," Labor members have chosen to distance themselves from the prime minister. "He really is toxic. There’s a visceral loathing of him and it’s spread through all the vectors; it’s not just one group. He’s just seen as a completely insincere, two-faced person. Starmer has no followers, he only has enemies - it’s incredible," a high-ranking Labor Party source told the newspaper.