It’s not just the United Kingdom, but as we await the latest figures from monthly U.S. data, the statistics from the U.K. are hitting the newswires.  According to Reuters, food inflation in the U.K. is currently 17.1%  The primary driver of the skyrocketing food costs is the energy cost associated with the fast turnover categories.

With prices increasing 17.1% yet net sales only increasing 8.1%, there is a substantial impact in unit food sales.  British customers are buying much less to offset the fact they are paying much more.   This trend is not just in the U.K. we have seen the same trend in U.S. data as families are being squeezed at the grocery store.

The prices on name branded products like Kraft and Heinz are leading the escalating food prices. Just last week I noticed 6oz Kraft Philadelphia cream cheese was $6.99, and a 24 oz. bottle of Heinz ketchup at over $8.  Dairy products are leading the way with the most rapid increases in price.  It appears that we are entering the fourth wave of food inflation currently.

LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) – British grocery inflation hit 17.1% in the four weeks to Feb. 19, another record high, dealing the latest blow to consumers struggling with a cost-of-living crisis, industry data showed on Tuesday.

Market researcher Kantar said prices are rising fastest in markets such as milk, eggs and margarine. It said UK households now face an additional 811 pounds ($978) on their annual shopping bills if they don’t change their behaviour to cut costs.

(more…)

With around 4,000 miles separation, two friends of the Treehouse, Neil Oliver and Lee Smith, essentially asked me the same question this week, “how do we stop this madness?”

It should not be an option hearing this talk about the need to secede, fracture, isolate or form smaller defensive boundaries.  WE ARE IN THE MAJORITY, they just control the power structures and systems of communication. That’s why they spend so much time, effort and attention manipulating social media. My proposed solution is to draw from history, specifically from the Polish solidarity movement.  What we need is a general two-day workers strike, highlighting to the few that the many have had enough.

In his weekly monologue Neil Oliver takes the new issue of rationing vegetables in the U.K and overlays the surplus of lies that creates it.  Neil Oliver generally has exceptional insight and strong grasps on the obvious; however, this one is epic and one of his best. WATCH:

[Transcript] – They’re rationing tomatoes in the supermarkets. We’re told it’s about supply chains, bad weather and the price of heating, but right now, in terms of the messaging, I suspect it’s more about pushing the word – rationing. Less about any believable shortage of food and more about getting us used to hearing the word.

No doubt, if experience is anything to go by, the rest will come later. My money says the rationing app for our smartphones is already sitting on a hard drive somewhere, ready when we are.

For now, it’s more of a familiar process of psychological manipulation. Get us acquainted with the general idea of food scarcity so that we’re well-primed when the planned reality is unrolled.

We were given the same treatment with words like “lockdown” and “pandemic”, “mandate” and “denier”. Nudge, nudge. Rationing is a word from our parents’ and grandparents’ generation, a bit like “War in Europe” and “Fascist” and now they’re back in fashion once more. Rationing, I ask you, while the landfills swell with fresh food dumped every day.

(more…)

Follow the bouncing ball of consequence….

(Via Daily Mail) Vegetable rationing could last for ‘weeks’, it was warned today, after Morrisons joined Asda to became the second major supermarket to limit sales of certain items. 

Perishables like tomatoes, potatoes, cucumber and broccoli have been restricted to just two or three per customer in a host of stores up and down the country.

The crisis has developed in recent weeks due to soaring energy costs which have forced British farmers to switch off greenhouses as they desperately try to make ends meet – leaving a dearth of home-grown produce. (read more)

While it is prudent to remind everyone how fortunate we are to have Florida, California and Mexico for North American vegetable supplies, ie. no dramatic supply shortages, the energy price pressure being applied by Biden policy will lead to even higher consumer prices for all row crops.

18 months ago (Oct 2021), CTH first strongly recommended restarting victory gardens at home. The same recommendation only strengthens.

(more…)

Given the recent events at GBNews, I was very interested to see and hear the Neil Oliver monologue this week, to see if the issues of censorship, control and weaponized cultural Marxism would be part of his focus.

In his unique way, Oliver does approach the subject, by targeting the larger social Marxist effort to control speech and language.  Oliver talks about how accurate words are diminished by those who overplay them in order to achieve political gains.  Additionally, how the politically correct (culturally Marxist) intents of the progressive movement, intentionally downplay very real and dangerous outcomes by ignoring events that should be described by the words they overuse.

Oliver also applies the process to the attacks against his own speech.  As Oliver notes, he is now labeled as a “far right-wing racist and antisemite”.  Stay with this and you can see how the overarching dynamic of the past several weeks in U.K. politics is being deconstructed by Oliver’s application of common sense. WATCH:

[Transcript] – The slow creep of ugliness into the language of public debate is impossible to ignore. It is a truly sad state of affairs, a degradation of the quality of discourse, that should finally give us pause, make us stop and take a long hard look at the reality presently being forced upon us.

But the fact is we have grown accustomed to the knee-jerk application of lazy slurs and the smearing of reputations, to the casual abuse of those around us with some of the vilest accusations imaginable.

Racist, sexist, misogynist, transphobe, anti-Semite – the list of tags is long. But just as the ceaseless printing of money has utterly devalued our currencies, so the machine-gun spraying of labels, powerful labels once reserved for specific behaviours, deliberate crimes with malice aforethought, has rendered once lethally effective words all but meaningless.

(more…)

“Controlled opposition” is a term that is thrown around quite loosely by anyone who ends up disagreeing with an outlook of conservative punditry.  However, as it has become increasingly obvious, the GBNews organization is the very definition of ‘controlled opposition.’

GBNews pundit Mark Steyn refused to adhere to the new compliance rules of the organization, and also refused to indemnify the outlet against any lawsuits filed as a result of Mark Steyn’s commentary [Background Here].  Against the backdrop of Steyn’s public explanation for his departure, conservative pundit Katie Hopkins decides it is time for the truth about the GBNews outlet to be openly discussed.  WATCH:

Within Britain, all media speech is monitored by the Office of Communications (OfComm), where official government censors track commentary according to regulatory and compliance rules established by the government.

As noted by Steyn in the contract he rejected: “To the extent that the presenter and/or the US producers do not incorporate Ofcom regulatory input into an edition of the program, this shall be considered a material breach of this agreement, and the Mark Steyn Company shall indemnify GB News for any and all direct loss, liability, costs, including reasonable legal costs, damages, or expenses that it suffers as a result of any regulatory breach.”

GBNews acquiesced to the thought police, and Mark Steyn is rightly leaving. Good for him.

(more…)

Mark Steyn, the only man qualified to replace Rush Limbaugh, has announced his departure from GBNews after the British media company requested a contract making Steyn legally accountable for any speech or wrong-think as identified by British regulators within the Office of Communication (OfComm). {Direct Rumble Link}

Within Britain, all media speech is monitored by the Office of Communications (OfComm), where official government censors track commentary according to regulatory and compliance rules established by the government.  Previously, Mark Steyn ran afoul of the OfComm investigators when he began questioning the efficacy and safety of the COVID-19 vaccinations.  There are two investigations ongoing with possible fines pending for violating rules on government approved speech.

Into this mix comes the now capitulating GBNews organization, where Mark Steyn and Neil Oliver have both pushed the boundaries of acceptable thought.  While Mark Steyn was offline, recovering from two heart attacks, I noticed something was shifting in the past several weeks at GBNews; from the presentation of Oliver to the way the content was being shared (no uploads and missing transcripts).  It seemed like something tenuous and opaque was happening in the background.  Steyn confirms. WATCH:

As noted by Steyn in the contract he rejected: “To the extent that the presenter and/or the US producers do not incorporate Ofcom regulatory input into an edition of the program, this shall be considered a material breach of this agreement, and the Mark Steyn Company shall indemnify GB News for any and all direct loss, liability, costs, including reasonable legal costs, damages, or expenses that it suffers as a result of any regulatory breach.”

GBNews is acquiescing to the thought police, and Mark Steyn is rightly leaving. Good for him.  Enough with this controlled corporate speech nonsense.  The voices of the resistance should not cower to the regime.  CTH stands with Steyn, AGAIN!

(more…)

Perhaps I am wrong, but the tone, disposition and presentation of this monologue by U.K. News pundit Neil Oliver, suggests to me that he is under pressure or threat due to his open commentary supporting a resistance uprising against the ruling class.

Within his weekly outline, there is a notable change in tone from Mr. Oliver as he outlines those voices that have been targeted by censorship, deplatforming and ongoing threats by western aligned media doing the bidding of their government overlords.  Perhaps Mr. Oliver has finally found himself in the crosshairs of the system which will not permit public dissent. WATCH:

.

It was not part of their blood,
It came to them very late,
With long arrears to make good,
When the Saxon began to hate.

(more…)

You know things are squirrely when you find yourself listening to a rather unorthodox presentation of political events and agreeing with Russell Brand.

Someone shared this with me asking for my opinion.  The presentation is a little over-the-top, but the message conveyed is ultimately accurate; remarkably so.  WATCH:

.

(more…)

Mrs Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, aged 45, was not doing anything except standing inside an area under what local officials call a “Public Spaces Protection Order.” [Birmingham, UK, News Link] Within these designated areas protest is not permitted. Prayer is considered an act of protesting.

Mrs. Vaughan-Spruce was standing alone, in silence.  However, she was thinking prayerful thoughts without speaking. As a consequence, her cognitive state -thinking about prayer- was in violation of the protection order.

A police officer arrived and questioned Mrs. Vaughan-Spruce about her thoughts. Mrs. Vaughan-Spruce told the police officer the truth, she was thinking about prayers. The police officer arrested Mrs. Vaughan-Spruce for violating the Public Spaces Protection Order with her thoughts.

Mrs. Vaughan-Spruce appeared on the Tucker Carlson show to explain what happened. {Direct Rumble link} – WATCH:

A longer video of the entire event is also below.

(more…)

For his weekly monologue today, U.K pundit Neil Oliver looks at the climate change agenda, energy policy, and the constructs of how the new green agenda manifest to create new ways for people to die.

We aren’t allowed the energy available from a century of gas beneath our feet here in Britain – because it’s not Green. But we’re paying top dollar for nine billion cubic litres – twice as much as last year’s order – of gas fracked out of the ground in the US. WATCH:

[Transcript] -Winter arrived last week – and with it a dose of reality. All that talk about wrapping up warm in the house, putting on an extra jumper, hot water bottles, full-size onesies – it’s dangerous nonsense. It might be fine for a while if you’re a healthy adult – but it’s a tragedy in slow motion for babies, young children, the elderly, the sick.

And it’s only the second week in December. It’s a long time until Spring.

Even if layering up and donning a hat were enough to keep a body going, once cold properly gets a grip of a house, it too starts to die in its own way.

The creep of dampness that takes its own toll on house and health alike. Frozen pipes – followed by burst pipes – and not enough plumbers to go round. People who can’t afford to heat their homes are likely struggling with spiking food bills as well.

(more…)