Author Archives: James Higham

Wednesday [1]

(0532)(0615)

 

My morning so far, at 0532

Blogger Tom Paine, of my blog vintage the class of 2006, had The Last Ditch and I had N.O., as long time readers know. He and most of my friends and colleagues of the day were Libertarian, whereas I had a foot in that camp … Rousseau for example … but also in historical Christianity rather than just tub thumping bible bashing of fave verses to shore up positions.

One of the main feeder streams has come from the U.S. deep south and it’s rare to find a similar mind which wishes to explore what is, rather than be harangued by some theologian … you get the idea.

All right, I awoke around 0430 this Wednesday morning with zero idea what was coming, went to the mailbox and cleared that (post box, mail box, whatever), went to you tube front page (mine, not theirs, with all the recommendeds) and they had redone it (they periodically do) and the first words which came to mind were “utter schlock” … I was after shorts for the next few days but almost all were trashy Millennial, dire culture pap.

All right, back to Tom. He and I had lunch once in Chester and he observed … I’m not sure if critically, think it was … that I’m a social conservative, am I not? Plus I blog from a personal perspective? As if that means it’s not “just the facts, ma’am”.

My response is yes, why not, why not give context, the antecedents of an issue? And so our blogging continued, both, until for me, the analogy of the tavern at the point of the promontory, with the lighthouse and grounds, not just tavern but chapel too … it underpins Unherdables HQ, it’s a nice model to explain how I try to be at a crossroad of ideas … yet at the same time, reject recognisable evil, e.g. Wokery, bad symbolism (IYE and I are both on that), plus all the rest of it.

Trouble with that approach is it stands at a slight distance from all the devoted, specialised cultism, which is human reaction to various truths … the historian in me wants to know about how it all happened, why. Yes, I am Christian, western, British cultural pool, as many here are but I’ve also many friends outside of that and I come back to being (almost) a tavernmaster or chapelmeister at this crossroads. I did study the ancient Greek philosophers decades ago, the middling ones like Kant and Hegel … and so on.

One rich experience was getting the eastern Orthodox view of how it all happened, along with the Roman Catholic, as well as southern bible belt US and then, around 0528 my time, I saw Toodles’s email, which had one of her longs, a tour de force, to which I replied:

“You have hit on an important aspect and I’d love to take the text and make it a third part of a three part piece starting with this I just found:

He was pretty impressive, think he’s from either north or south Carolina but nevertheless “bible belt” and he brings together two worlds … the western and eastern, at Constantinople.

You know another I like is “the young Scot” but he’s more simplistic, being young.

Obviously dear old Arnold.

This Ryan I like as a part-historian as he cuts to facts and figures.  I myself can supply details from the dark side, e.g. the Merovingian Franks and how the dark side finally split the church from both west and east.  Similar to how Isr. was rejected from Above.”

All right. How on earth to approach all this with the blog readership we have here? Phew. There might be four or five who won’t guffaw and click away but that’s about it. Again, this is the “tavern model” again. I can imagine me being in the tavern, pulling pints, I go over to the chapel as I see a light over there … and suddenly, the two youtubes appear.

So I skim through, then think … er, have to get back to the tavern and here I am, chaps and chapesses, and DAD arrived at 0552 my time. I must get going. How to handle that mass of history in one hit? Especially as he gets straight down to to dates and events in a visual way … I need to give m’sel’ time today (and Toodles has just replied at 06:13).

I was once asked do I get bored? Chance would be a fine thing. Ok, Wednesday has started, folks, it’s fine out there, temperature moderate. Have a good one.

Tuesday [11 till close of play]

(1648) Evening, chaps and chapesses, was too hot to blog earlier.

 

16. On a hot day

15. Military veterans policies


14. IYE

First this for context (linked at 1393), then this (also linked there). Interesting names of diabolo’s little helpers. Interesting guests in the Day of Atonement dinner. (Island man had been convicted before this event so it is reasonable to assume they were okay with supping with a convicted offender.)

13. DAD at 1393

Salt. Good or bad for you? If bad, why do hospitals inject it into you?

12. Steve at 1393

a. Hearts of Oak: Rep. Keith Self – Launching the Sharia Free America Caucus in the House

b. British Lad Chases & Exposes Migrant Handovers in the English Channel

11. All right, this I promised Lord T

Tuesday [6 to 10]

(1020) Morning all. (1041)

 

10. Moo corner


9. ASDA’s latest trick on customers


8. The Congo, Ebola and routes into Britain

… there used to be a thing called quarantine … was very popular at one time.


7. Lord T


6. The threat to our food

Tuesday [1 to 5]

(0649) Morning all … sun, fetid air, light 8/8 cloud cover. (0830)

 

5. Canada


4. Germany


3. Steve corner

Given the overheated mood of our people right now – produces a slew of posts on X, including Elon..

|https://x.com/real_shirelass/status/2058272671645786396

|https://x.com/ABridgen/status/2058539807349838294

|https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2058563554161172843

|https://x.com/blaiklockBP/status/2058629980297232576

At 1392

  • President Trump Issues Savage Memorial Day Greeting and Nickname for His Democrat Enemies
  • Nobody Knows Where Iran’s Disfigured Supreme Leader Khamenei Is Hiding
  • Germany in Rapid Decline: Foreign Investment Plunges to 17-Year Low as Economic Model Falters
  • Russia Raises The Tempo: Gains In Dobropillia, Sumy And Kharkiv Sectors
  • Vaccine shedding is real: Hormones’ role in vaccinated people causing symptoms in the unvaccinated
  • Cyprus election sees parliament fragment as anti-establishment parties gain ground
  • German taxpayers bled dry: Mass migration cost €40 billion in 2025
  • Morocco launches mass deportations to block Europe migration route
  • Much more.

JH: There were two in particular I did not signpost and won’t. One was the GWP and clickbait … I refuse to run some site’s clickbait here … it mentioned four names being announced, but does not give them. Clickbait. I’ll wait till some tweet announces them. The second was about a drone Iran shot down … headline mentioned “changes everything”, giving no idea how. Clickbait again.

The model Unherdables follows is to give all relevant points in the same two lines, openly … if readers wish to read on, the url is across the way. We can’t always do that but that’s our aim. Readers come here to see summaries from us (plural) and a link to the relevant url.

One big issue is masses of X account links all at once. Four expanding links in a row are fine within the comments thread … just click on them in turn and go to your X account. The problem comes if I post them without the bar | … they expand and involve long scrolling to get past the guff part, the embellishments by the Xer, to the vital part … which is NOT how HQ works … the whole point of HQ is to cut out the guff for readers so they don’t need to … not to give them even more guff to wade through..

How to resolve this redacting issue? Well, for readers without X accounts … obviously for me to go through those articles, choosing the key points … but that must be after all the other reading and redacting in the early morn. Better would be for readers to have an X account themselves and the reason is that usually, comments under the Xer’s article are more revealing.

The fallback position is that the urls stay hyper in our comments thread and it’s up to readers after that. It’s one I’m going to have to think through.

2. Over at OoL

https://orphansofliberty.blogspot.com/2026/05/all-hell-breaks-loose-this-morning-on-x.html

H/T DAD

1. DAD at 1392

aa) In the sordid tale of the Murrells there are an awful lot of villains and only a few heroes worth mentioning. This affair is a failure of the SNP, of government, of the prosecution system and of the media and it should be a turning point in Scottish political culture.

a) Pope Leo XIV has called for the “disarming” of artificial intelligence (AI) and urged the faithful to “fast” from the technology in his long-awaited first encyclical, warning of “new forms of slavery” tied to its rise. (JH: Interesting one, requiring a response post)

b) Tram hits self-driving bus on first day of passenger service in Gothenburg….

c) There will be two Pride marches in Lyon in 2026: the local LGBT movement is fracturing… after the marches banned to white people, the front of the Pride reserved for racialized trans people, as well as the pro-Palestinian and pro-prostitution slogans.

d) Four score years, roughly four generations: Is that the natural life span of any democratic welfare state?

Monday [23 till close of play]

(1713) Evening all. (1911) Resuming tomorrow morning, folks.

 

25. Report on The Ukraine

Over at UHC-WP.

24. Steve’s report this evening

One more rubber dinghy and we’re over the 1000 mark, counting from sunrise Friday last, when it started – fear not there’s several waiting to be picked up by our brave Border Force crews. Hot work in this weather. From the other side of the Channel some unexpected news.

Adding to what DAD reported this morning:

23. Given the overheated mood of our people right now

… the replacement, the way we’re ignored, the running down of infrastructure, the rapes and stabbings … here’s Reform joining LibLabConGreen, Fabians all, planning the same old, same old, with zero moral compass:

Monday [21]

(1219)(1334)

 

Just dropped an X over there:

“I’m writing a post on Restore, Reform and the English class system. It will be at blog HQ, not here, I’ll link … just don’t think it will be productive here. No shift in position, just observation. So that’s me out for an hour. Enjoy the last half Memorial and Bank Holiday.”

Antecedents

I was state primary/elementary educated, LEA, not grammar, father a builder/painter/electrician, mother a maternity nurse. My level of education is partly down to excellent teachers of the old type in primary, then started my public school education which is why I write and spell the way I do.

Thinking of analogies, Casino Royale’s James Bond, being mocked on the train by Vesper, is not far away. Some other people who might have a few things to say on’t might include DH Lawrence and Hemmingway. My education did open doors but the real recruiters passed … I met them, socially, but there was something a bit insubordinate, wild, liable to take unexpected courses … not even I knew what I was going to do beyond a medium term plan.

In some ways natural conservative party, I’m also natural old labour, hence my circle being upper middle, with a labour sticker on the window. Way back when. But also trade … mate got me into a screenprinting apprenticeship, also liked woodturning, built fences, sheds, boats (long before 2013) … about the only field I was never interested in was electrician. Military took three years of my life, went from sergeant to officer school as one pip lieutenant, didn’t think I was good enough, left and went into the civil service, finally back to teaching, headmaster etc. was a DJ on alternative radio for a while … not Radio Caroline but could have done.

So I’m a weird demographic with a Yorkshire da and Irish mum … largely regarded as “not one of us” by any group, bricklayers to professors to ministers of state … no demographic calls me one of them. Interesting eh? Women have never been quite able to pin down what I am. A person could turn to drink, become a psycho or just be amused by it all. Better the latter.

Which is not to say I’m Jimmy No Friends … there are a few networks, with the Unherdables close to the top in my estimation. And I like people, it’s even my mission to work for our people … which makes me a natural Restorer.

Were I try to sum up my natural cohort, I’d say an orphan of liberty or an unherdable.

Natural Reformers, natural Restorers

Problem on X I find is that there are ladies who like my education, are appalled by my Restore pushing … they’re respectable middle-middle, even upper middle, love everyone but too sane to hug trees, too capitalist, too NIMBY, my old young conservative set … but dissident, so they would vote that way in a stable society but are appalled by the Tories, so opt for Reform. I’m afraid my embracing of the ordinary people does not appeal to them. And these have always been my people … both lots.

Interesting that Rupert heads a working and middle-middle party, yet he is landed gentry to a point, with many Tory connections. Farage is just a chancer I’m afraid, non U to his aspirational M25 bubble, Sloan Rangers etc.

Then we come to language and accents. Restorers are quite direct, not RP (that’s Reform), plus the females swear like navvies. Henry Bolton called them out on it, forgetting we have Americans and Canadians involved too, Antipodaeans, Euro nations. Restorers tend to have local accents, Reformers are more “aspirational”, let’s say. I find Restorers far more to the point, I feel comfortable among them … and yet, those Reform ladies and I still talk to each other on a friendly basis.

We haven’s even got to the Israel or Mosley/Enoch factor yet.