Encore en France - "Allahu akbar!"

Associated Press reports that the sleepy town of La Seyne-sur-Mer, in the rather lovely department of Var, in southeastern France, is the latest place to have its sleep disturbed by shouts of "Allahu akbar!".

A woman [not exactly as pictured. Ed.] shouted the slogan, in Arabic -- not in French or English, as reported by AP -- when she slashed at shoppers in a supermarket, wounding two of them with a box cutter.

The attacker has now been detained, AP sez, but the district prosecutor has been coy about the details of the "incident" and what charges, if any, the Muslim woman -- for such she was -- might face.

Lest you think that a boxcutter isn't much of a weapon, don't forget that the 9/11 terrorists -- every one a devout follower of the prophet -- were armed with boxcutters when they hijacked the airliners that they caused to crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

For reasons of political correctness -- and reluctance to admit that Islamic terrorists pose a threat to the people of France every day and everywhere -- the authorities are still reluctant to make the connection between such attacks and ISIS, but the similarity to previous Islamic terror attacks, in France and elsewhere, is painfully obvious.

Nigel Farage, former leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) criticized AP for erroneously reporting that the attacker shouted "God is great" (but in French, bien sûr), in quote marks no less, in a social media bulletin breaking the news, when in fact she shouted "Allahu Akbar". "This," he said "is why people don't trust mainstream media anymore."

Further reading: "83% of French back expulsion of 'most dangerous' foreigners", WWW 2/4/18.

British election too close to call?

I can work up but little interest -- and less excitement -- about the UK general election. Polling day is less than 24 hours off. I won't be voting, don't even know how to bet.

Theresa Maybe (as The Economist dubbed her) called the snap election after only two years in power, hoping to run a bare majority in the House of Commons up to awesome numbers. The thinking (?) behind doing so appears to have been that the UKIP had effectively disbanded itself after the Brexit referendum, and the Labour Party had all but committed suicide by choosing a leader -- Jeremy Corbyn -- from the loony left. [But he's on the right in the picture! LOL Ed.] The Liberal Democrats, the party of the mushy middle, look like being reduced to only a handful of seats, and the Green Party have yet to elect a member of parliament.

As recently as a couple of weeks ago, Mrs May looked to have the winning strategy. The polls had her Conservative Party well ahead, with most of the betting being on the spread. Then came the Manchester massacre. Then, just last weekend, the London Bridge terrorist attacks. As if those things weren't enough to shake one's faith in Mrs May's leadership, she flip-flopped on a pledge to end the cap on social care bills. The Reds [Labour, surely! Ed.] and even some of her own supporters said the financial impact on seniors -- very determined voters, that lot -- amounted to a "dementia tax". As for fighting back against Islamic terrorism, Mrs May is having trouble living down massive cuts to the police budget when she was Home Secretary, and her party's failure to cut immigration to under 100,000 per year, as they had promised.

So here we are, less than 24 hours out, and a projected Tory win by over 20% has dwindled to 6% or less, depending on which poll (if any) you believe. It's possible (but not probable) that Labour may win, making Mr Corbyn Prime Minister. That would really shake things up. Mr Corbyn appeals to the naïve young people who, in America, supported Bunny Sanders. But Mr Corby is way way to the left of Mr Sanders. He is an avowed Marxist, who, under previous leaders, defied the Labour whip 428 times. Among other things, he opposed anti-terrorist legislation (!) and the invasion of Iraq. His inner circle is even more hard-line. His shadow chancellor (= minister of finance) is an admirer not only of Marx but also of Lenin and Trotsky.

For many reasons, British politics has become almost as polarized (and polarizing) as that of the Excited States of America. Realistically, the choice for voters is between the right (Conservatives) and the hard left (Labour). There is no more "moderate centre". That means the real losers of tomorrow's election will be the "progressives" and liberals, and for that, much thanks.

Question from Ed.: Are you going to call this or not?
Answer from Walt: Not. Lifetime pct .988.

Brexit referendum: the British establishment vs the British people

Tomorrow the people of the Disunited Kingdom (or Formerly Great Britain) go to the polls to decide whether their country should remain in the European Union or leave it. For Walt's American readers, who (like Donald Trump) don't know what the fuss is all about, "Brexit" stands for "British exit". The referendum was promised -- rather foolishly, as it turns out -- by British Prime Minister Donald Cameron in the last general election campaign, to quell voter anger over ever-closer ties to Europe and, particularly, ever-increasing levels of immigration.

The Donald and Marine Le Pen are about the only non-British politicians to say that the Brits might just be better to get off the road to One World Government. All the other "world leaders", including the Prez and Hellery Clinton, say no, the Brits should stay in. A vote to leave, they say, would be a vote against liberalism and progress. And of course it would be a vote for racism, Islamophobia, and all the other things that the liberal elite think are politically incorrect.

Never mind the chattering classes. What do the real people think? In his final rallying call for voters to back Brexit, United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage branded the EU referendum a contest "between the people and the Establishment". He said Brexit voters would "crawl over broken glass to get down to that polling station tomorrow", and called on those who have never voted before to grasp the "opportunity to make a difference." Tomorrow's result "may be tight, may be narrow," he said, but "I genuinely believe we are going to win this."

Today's polls show a statistical dead heat, and I'm not going to hazard a guess, let alone a bet. In fact, although my heart tells me that any move away from One World Government -- the EU and the UN are great examples of how well that works -- my head for business tells me a Brexit will cause nothing but economic turmoil not just in Europe but throughout the world. I'm holding my breath.

Cabinet minister says mass immigration is damaging Britain

One might think that Theresa May, Minister of the Interior of Once-great Britain, would be due for a carpeting* from her boss, Prime Minister David Cameron, after telling the ruling Conservative Party's annual conference that mass immigration is damaging British society.

One would be wrong. Mr. Cameron says he agrees with Ms May's politically incorrect speech, clearly designed to ease British voters’ concerns that the government is failing to control the island nation’s borders.

Ms May called levels of immigration seen over the last ten years "not in the national interest.... When immigration is too high, when the pace of change is too fast, it’s impossible to build a cohesive society." She added that mass immigration strains public services like schools and hospitals, drives downs wages and pushes some people out of work.

Net migration into Britain reached a high of 330,000 people in the year to March, far above the level of 100,000 previously promised by Prime Minister Cameron. The high rate of immigration has fuelled support for rival parties, -- including the United Kingdom Independence Party feared by British liberals and the chattering classes -- and is seen as a factor that may persuade Britons to vote to leave the European Union in a referendum to be held by the end of 2017.

Walt wonders if any politicians in North America, other than Donald Trump, are paying attention. There may be some, like Canada's Stephen Harper, who agree in private but wouldn't dare say so publicly in an election year. In North America, political correctness trumps reality every time!

Further reading: "Theresa May: Cohesion 'impossible' with high migration", on the BBC News site.

* Note from Ed.: When Walt writes "carpeting", readers in Zimbabwe and other formerly British bits of the world may be left with the impression that Mr. Cameron and Ms May will be shagging in the shag. Not so. "Carpeting" means a verbal tongue-lashing, dressing-down, reprimand -- as in "being called on the carpet".

The next president of France? Could be!

Manuel Valls is the Socialist Prime Minister of France. He is lying awake nights, worrying about the increasingly certain prospect of this lady -- Marine Le Pen -- becoming France's next president. Recent opinion polls suggest that Mme Le Pen will easily make the run-off in the presidential elections scheduled for 2017. And, if she is opposed by the feckless and unpopular François Hollande, she'd be virtually guaranteed to win!

At the top of the list of issues which could well put Mme Le Pen's rightist Front National into power is immigration, of which the French have had entirely too much, if you ask Monsieur Untel. [That's French for "Mr. Someone" or "Mr. Anonymous". Ed.] Just last week, 1000s of disgruntled Frenchpersons rallied in Calais to demand that the port city be "saved" from the large numbers of migrants who have arrived there in recent months.

Why are all those Afghans, Pakistanis, North Africans and so on flocking to Calais? Easy. They're really trying to get to No-longer-great Britain -- just across the Channel -- where welfare and social benefits are perceived to be even more generous than those of France. If they can just get on the ferry to Dover, they reckon, no-one's going to stop them settling in Old Blighty... unless the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) gets into power, which is not bloody likely.

Getting back to M Valls... he warned a group of fellow left-wingers in Bologna, Italy [Bologna, indeed. Ed.] that "In France, the extreme right of Marine Le Pen is at the gates of power. We have to act differently. We have to speak differently. In order to be listened to and to be heard."

In other words, the lefties would have to abandon the experiments in wealth redistribution and social engineering that have made France and many other countries of Europe a haven and a heaven for those who think the world -- the rich, white world -- owes them a living. If Europe closes its doors to third world migrants, where will they go then? There'll be no place left except, errr, North America.

Right wing parties win big -- really big -- in European elections

Much soiling of silky shorts in European corridors of power today, as one-worlders, socialists and "progressive thinkers" recoil in horror at the sweeping gains made in European Parliament elections by Eurosceptic and right-wing parties. BBC News headlines the story "Eurosceptic 'earthquake' rocks EU elections".

The aim of parties like France's Front National and Britain's United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is to slash the powers of the European Union or, even better, abolish it altogether. Their countries, they say, have all but completely ceded national sovereignty to the huge and unwieldy EU, making it impossible to determine their own destinies or even control their own borders. (If you think that means "restrict immigration", you're probably right!)

Yesterday, 21 of the EU's 28 nations held elections to choose representatives to the European Parliament. The other seven countries, including Britain and the Netherlands, had voted earlier in the week. And the big winner? ... May I have the envelope, please? ... Step forward France, where Marine Le Pen's Front National topped the polls with 26% support -— 4.1 million votes.

In her victory speech, Mme Le Pen said, "The sovereign people have spoken...acclaiming they want to take back the reins of their destiny!" She called the results "the first step in a long march to liberty." See "Against Islamization, the French send in La Marine!"

Need I tell you that the French government took a rather different view. Prime Minister Manuel Valls called the National Front win "more than a news alert...it is a shock, an earthquake." And President François Hollande is supposed to be holding a crisis meeting -- his office called it "urgent talks" -- with his top ministers even as Walt writes.

But France is not the only country experiencing widespread disillusionment with the EU and the Islamization of Europe. (Don't kid yourself. That's what this is really all about!) In Not-so-great Britain, Nigel Farage, leader of the fiercely Eurosceptical United Kingdom Independence Party, said, "It does look to me [like] UKIP is going to win this election and yes, that will be an earthquake, because never before in the history of British politics has a party that is seen to be an insurgent party ever topped the polls in a national election."

The first official results announced late Sunday had UKIP at about 30% -- 12% better than their result in the last European elections in 2009.
In Denmark, although the governing Social Democrats hung onto their five seats to remain the biggest Danish party in the European Parliament, the big winner was the populist Danish People's Party, which gained three seats for a total of four.

In Germany, a year-old party that wants that country to stop using the euro single currency reportedly won 6.7% of the vote.
In Greece, the leftist Eurosceptic Syriza party led with 26.49%, but the far-right Golden Dawn party finished a respectable third, with 9.33%.

In the Netherlands, however, the right-wing Party for Freedom, led by Geert Wilders surprisingly dropped a seat from five to four. As the Dutch voted in one representative each from a radical feminist party and an animal rights group, it's just possible that they didn't take the exercise very seriously. However, Mr. Wilders, optimistic as ever, said his party looked forward to working with Mme Le Pen, calling her "the next French president."

Are there any lessons in this for American and Canadian political parties? Probably not. Lamestream pundits in the USA are pushing the line that this year's mid-terms will show the Tea Party on the wane, with moderate Republicans moving the GOP towards the centre. And, as Ron Paul and a long line of others have found out, it's all but impossible to get Americans to actually vote for any group which the media call "extreme"... even if the "extremism" is in defence of liberty and personal freedom.

Canada is even worse. The old-line Conservative and Liberal parties are not nearly as far to the right or left as their names would suggest. Rather, they are parties of the "radical centre". Even the New [sic] Democratic Party, nominally of the left, hews so close to the centre that its members have changed the party anthem to "The Very Pale Pink Flag". Don't look for any political earthquakes in North America any time soon.

Anti-immigrant sentiment on the rise in... SWITZERLAND?!

The Swiss are a famously tolerant people -- even more so than Canadians! They are known to be polite, orderly, peaceful and clean. So it stands to reason that they would be increasingly concerned about the large and rapid influx of people who are not... errr... you get the picture. If you don't get the picture, look at this!

This poster is the work of the Swiss People's Party -- a nationalist grouping which has come from nowhere to a position of considerable political clout, holding over a quarter of the seats in Switzerland's lower house. The party was born of the backlash against mass immigration, particularly of Muslim "refugees" from Africa and the Middle East.

Other posters show a huge tree crushing a map of Switzerland, and a heavily veiled woman beneath the headline "1 million Muslims soon?" The posters are meant to encourage voters to support a proposal to impose an absolute limit on the number of foreigners who can move to Switzerland each year.

Voting is in progress even as we write. Recent polls show growing support for the plan, with 43% of people surveyed on January 21st backing the proposal, against 50% opposed and 7% undecided. A month earlier only 37% were in favour, with 55% against and 8% undecided.

In the past, Swiss voters have approved a number of measures loosening immigration rules. But the tide turned in 2009 when voters approved a plan to ban the construction of new minarets. The message would seem to be clear. Half a million Muslims out of a population of just 8 million is enough!

If the tolerant Swiss vote to restrict immigration, will the people of other "white Christian" countries have the courage to follow their lead? The UK already has its British National Party and UK Independence Party. How about an American People's Party? [Or a Canadian People's Party?! Len.] Where do we sign up?!