Best Of

OT. It so happens that my sister and her vast family are members of the Heaton Park synagogue in Prestwich where the killing took place. They were there yesterday but thankfully undamaged. Indeed the last time I visited that synagogue was for the wedding of one of her children about five years ago.

I'm really not interested in getting into this anti semitism discussion particularly when it is as full of ignorance as it so often is on here when the leading racists take the stage.

But how is it after the wanton killings of newsmen babies small children photo journalists doctors nurses and at least 60,000 non combatents we know no details whatsoever about the life stories of any of them yet we are told out of respect for the synagogue attack all demonstations against the Gazan genocide should stop. Just don't offend Jews?

Does Netanyahu answer for anything? He is a proven liar and a butcher yet not a word from the Board of Deputies against him except that trying to charge him with genocide is an outrage.

He has collected letters from every MP who likes him.

Next week he hopes to make it to double figures.

From the header-linked story:-

Sources said up to 12 letters of no confidence had already been written, but are yet to be submitted to Bob Blackman. He is chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee and would normally file letters until the threshold for challenge had been reached. By holding on to the letters, the allies of Jenrick remain in greater control of any potential challenge.

Recent rule changes now require a move by 30 per cent of the Parliamentary party or 36 letters of no-confidence. They would then hold a ballot.
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/tories-plotting-replace-badenoch-jenrick-3955742

30% is quite a high bar, requiring almost everyone who is sceptical of a leader to act. It's a very non trivial barrier to surmount, compared with the travails of getting only 15% of letters in.

I wonder if the additional hurdle makes Badenoch a lot safer than we might suppose and brings the Conservatives quite a lot closer to Labour in terms of leader safety.

Clear betting implications here.

OT. It so happens that my sister and her vast family are members of the Heaton Park synagogue in Prestwich where the killing took place. They were there yesterday but thankfully undamaged. Indeed the last time I visited that synagogue was for the wedding of one of her children about five years ago.

I'm really not interested in getting into this anti semitism discussion particularly when it is as full of ignorance as it so often is on here when the leading racists take the stage.

But how is it after the wanton killings of newsmen babies small children photo journalists doctors nurses and at least 60,000 non combatents we know no details whatsoever about the life stories of any of them yet we are told out of respect for the synagogue attack all demonstations against the Gazan genocide should stop. Just don't offend Jews?

Does Netanyahu answer for anything? He is a proven liar and a butcher yet not a word from the Board of Deputies against him except that trying to charge him with genocide is an outrage.

British Jews opinion of Netanyahu is strongly negative*:

"95% of adult British Jews have an opinion on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the most widely known leader among those examined. Four in five Jews hold an unfavourable opinion of him, with 65% saying they “strongly disapprove” and 15% saying they “somewhat” disapprove of him."

https://www.jpr.org.uk/reports/what-do-jews-uk-think-about-israel-and-its-leaders-and-how-has-changed-october-7

You wouldn't know that if you just read the output of the Board of Deputies, or for that matter PB, or indeed British Jihadists.

* the poll is from 2024, but things have only got worse since.

I’m not sure I see the connection. The British Jews I know have a deeply unfavourite opinion of Bibi. Yet still consider Israel has the right to defend herself against external attack.

The lengths to which some on here seek to deny the anti-Semitic nature of some of the pro-Palestinian demonstrators and their actions over the last two years is really very depressing and very discouraging for the future of this country and the Jewish community living here. If we refuse to name clearly what is going on, we will not be able to deal with it properly.

It saddens and angers me too much. So I will take a break. Bad enough that these things happen but then to see apparently intelligent people try to pretend that it isn't happening or to diminish it is too much for me.

Guardian has some background on yesterday's killer, terrorist.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/oct/03/manchester-synagogue-terrorist-was-on-bail-for-alleged

"The Syrian-born attacker is also believed to have other criminal convictions, although he was not on the radar of counter-terrorism officers."

This follows quite a similar pattern of a lot of these people. They have a criminal background for low level stuff.

One of the tactics ISIS recruiters used was to lean on such people that their unIslamic behaviour could never be undone without making the ultimate sacrifice.

Joan Smith has written extensively about how often terrorists have a record of domestic violence or violence against women.

As indeed we saw with those arrested in last summers race riots, where 40% had prior convictions for domestic violence.

I think you also have to take into account that a third of British men have a criminal record by the age of 50.

There's a lot of it about. We even used to have a poster here who was remanded in custody for rape.

Just had fantastic service at A&E, seen, analysed, x-rayed and assessed in an hour.

Wanted to post about a very interesting seminar I went to yesterday as some very interesting approaches coming in relation to property and stable coin. An incredibly interesting day for even a Luddite like me.

Also v interesting about the regulation issues globally - never thought I would find regulation talks so interesting.

Will post what I can later when I stop vomming from pain and although limited what I can say about yesterday it was perfect timing with the BOE volte face on digital currencies.

Hope you feel better soon.

My recent NHS experience was also good - in part. It took me a few weeks to get a referral to the hospital (I think due to my GP not actually requesting one at first...(*)), but when it finally came the referral was for a week's time. I was seen yesterday with only a ten-minute wait past the scheduled time, they took five x-rays, and I got basic results from my GP this morning.

(*) Though I think the GP might have been dissuaded by the following conversation:
"So you've dislocated your shoulder, and your elbow is hurting."
"Yes."
"And you're in pain."
"Yes."
"But you've done two triathlons since."
"Yes."
"Despite being in pain?"
My wife: "Yes, but that's the sort of stupid thing he does..."

(GP shrugs and sends the request to /dev/null)