Half In, Half Out?

How will Prince William and his wife Catherine deal with this?

Harry and Meghan Moving Back to England?

Newspapers are reporting that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are moving back to England with their kids. The framing is that this is official. 

Hang on, where is the official announcement from the pair, and from Royal sources, not indirectly from the media? Err...there are no such direct announcements.

There has been a concerted campaign all year to rehabilitate the wayward son, no doubt about that. I find it more likely that this is more spin, that Harry will turn up in the UK, permanently this time, with the wife and children to follow soon. But the wife will never show up with the children, she'll be blamed.

Update: Blog Trends

I haven't blogged recently because my last post on Nigel Farage winning the Clacton by-election was being viewed so many times. Funnily enough, not that many people reading in the UK itself. Here's the list of countries reading me over the last seven days. They are in order, most viewed to least viewed, top 10:

United States

Brazil

Seychelles

France

India

Germany

Argentina

Vietnam

Mexico

Philippines

Clearly, people could be using VPNs much more than they used to, hence Seychelles popping up. Don't read too much into it, but I think one conclusion is that people are interested in the emergence of centre-right politics.

I think a shift is occurring worldwide, call it a revolution if you like. The move is away from what is described as the Uni-party or the blob. Professional middle manager politicians are being rejected and incoming are common-sense populists.

Nigel Farage Wins Clacton By-Election

A day before the Clacton by-election in the United Kingdom, Reform UK made it to the top of public opinion polls. Then, Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage followed that with a staggering win, placing him ahead of 628 MPs in terms of majority. He now has a majority larger than any other leader in the House of Commons.

The Conservatives made a huge strategic blunder by not putting up a candidate. Clacton has been a safe Tory seat in the past, but now Farage has turned it into a safe Reform seat, the very first safe Reform seat. Constituents have been reported as saying they'd vote for Farage even if he had three legs. 

Labour, Conservatives and LibDems are often called the Uniparty and there now appears to be evidence of them acting as such. They will be scared, that's for sure. Farage has turned the summer into talk about him. The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham is on his build a mandate find some legitimacy tour of the UK and yet few would know about it. Farage has upstaged the whole circus.

I have a question; in the last 250 years, what individual person has had such impact on the United Kingdom? Nigel Farage has re-shaped the foreign affairs and trade relations of a Great Power, a country with a Security Council veto and nuclear weapons. If you can think of someone who has had greater impact, let me know. However, caution is required when considering this question, as most names that crop up merely gained high status, they entrenched existing power structures, they did not effect any real change. 

What will the Uniparty do about Nigel Farage? 

Shrinkflation

Yes, we know it's very real.

Luxon Holds On

New Zealand's Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, has survived his second caucus vote of no confidence in his leadership, both occurring within four months. He lacks the full support of his team leading up to a General Election in November and he must now be considering his future.

Many are pointing to his many gaffes, the worst being his comments to a small business conference that they needed to grow up. That went down like a lead balloon.

Luxon has never owned a business, like so many politicians these days. He is out of touch with the kinds of sacrifices business owners make each day. Prior to politics, Luxon swanned around in the private corporate space, the last spell being as CEO of Air New Zealand. That's not a real job as NZ's national airline is not allowed to fail. The taxpayer always bails it out. 

But, I know why Luxon is disliked by Kiwis everywhere. He's weak, a fence sitter, and he doesn't like his job. I wouldn't be surprised to find he's intentionally trying to lose the election. That way, if he does lose at the polls he can easily re-enter the cloistered environment of big business. 

Also, it doesn't help that he looks like a dodgy timeshare salesman from the nineties. He wears tightly fitting shiny suits and shaves his head chrome dome. He looks dodgy and when he speaks he sounds like a prick. 

The question therefore is how did this person get the top job in the land. Has NZ sunk that low?

For the National Party, the news is not all bad as polling shows Luxon has little bearing on party support. Farmers will vote National, they'll just hold their nose while doing so.

Clacton By-election

Tomorrow, the people of Clacton will vote in a by-election to decide whether they support Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK. This is an important election as it could determine how the political landscape is shaped following the result.

Labour, Conservatives, LibDems and the Greens have declined to offer candidates. Kemi Badenoch is leader of the Conservatives and she has called the election fake. No, it isn't fake Ms Badenoch, your comment shows disdain for the democratic process. Or, does her party lack ideas altogether?

I'll make further comment on the result after the votes are counted. It does appear the United Kingdom is reaching a crisis point, but I'm sure a lot of water is yet to flow under the bridge.

Content Creation Online

Twenty-five years ago, it was predicted the internet would replace the established old-school media landscape with its traditional advertising model. For specialist niches, a lot of this was print based. I've done a lot of advertising in trade publications, with mixed success. Generally speaking, advertising could get very expensive, very quickly.

Now we have the rise of online content creators, proving those early predictions. I was a little surprised to find that personal finance is the most profitable for content creators with a solid following. The following article outlines things rather well. Note the reference to CPM and RPM. CPM is cost per mille, or cents per 1,000, that is, how much you spend for 1,000 views. In my day, this could be very expensive if you were targeting capital intensive industries with very defined targets in mind. RPM is revenue per mille, or earnings in cents or dollars per 1,000 views. CPM is how much you spend, RPM how much you're getting back. Clearly, you want to maximise revenue and not spend too much to get it. 

These days, individuals equipped with just a few essential pieces of equipment can deliver as much reach as large corporates. It does look as if some large traditional media companies are about to become dinosaurs.

https://outlierkit.com/blog/most-profitable-youtube-niches

The highest CPM YouTube niches in 2026 are Personal Finance ($15-22 CPM), Make Money Online ($15-20 CPM), Legal/Court Drama ($12-18 CPM), Digital Marketing ($12-18 CPM), and Real Estate ($10-16 CPM).

Quality Rant from English Lady

June Slater tells it like it is, she's voting Reform UK. Nigel Farage has his by-election date on the 13th of this month, and the media are promoting Count Binface. Binface is not some radical, he's a BBC type who wants the UK to re-join the EU, which makes him a reactionary.

The establishment are doing all they can to destroy Reform. They'll stop at nothing.

Climate Change Fad Over

Well, that was that, the climate change alarmists have gone quiet. Turns out war, deindustrialisation and low birth rates are far more immediate crises.

RFK Jr Calls Out the Media

Remember when trust the science became code words for do as you're told? I certainly do, and the Trump administration appears well aware of it. I liked RFK Jr, and his running mate Nicole Shanahan, and it's good at least one of the pair found their way into some level of authority.

More Calls for Infantino to Go

Gianni Infantino must be sacked.

Infantino Must Go!

After North and Central America then Asia also objected to the idea of the World Cup allowing private investment, FIFA has dropped the idea.

Now, sack Infantino. Weird to think people are now starting to miss the days of Sepp Blatter and his brown paper bag era.