A week where the news has really niggled me

Or is he pointing to Monaco and Lewis Hamilton's first win for ages!

News all week, either from or regarding The Northernman. His dissembling and disingenuity are beyond measure, and his arrogant self-belief is deeply concerning. And further news does not improve the mood when I hear that Conservative Central Office has issued an edict to go soft on the Northernman in order to defeat Reform via Restore!

You mark my words, Andrew Burnham Esq’s principal intention is to destroy the middle classes, the Tories, private wealth creation (as opposed to government-controlled), and Reform in that order.

Kemi - you think your enemy’s enemy is your friend - which is only true if you’ve got the capability of beating either of them, and you don’t.

Both the Socialists and the hard Right are living in a dangerous and dystopian fantasy world where everyone is right, and everyone is wrong. The USA doesn’t help matters, and the UK Government’s various time-servers eke out their remaining days, striking poses like Isadora Duncan before a shutterbox camera, issuing soundbites on the geopolitical biosphere as if anyone abroad actually thinks we’re important enough to be listened to, or capable of doing what we declare we’re going to do. Look, says Sir Keir… here’s me being a global leader. And here’s another one I call Statesman.

Starmer hasn’t made any statement in the last six months that has contained a deliverable fact for which either the resources or the budget have been allocated and for which he has any real intent of following through. Defence Budget? Grooming Gangs (actually workable) Inquiry? Royal Navy to Assist? Cutting illegal immigration? Improving Education? Supporting NATO? Improving Crime, Providing more workers in Education, Policing, Nursing, and Medical services? Lowering unemployment? Lowering benefits? Stamping out corruption? Creating equality?

He and his cohorts of the pandered, entitled, and illiterate have simply delivered more Wokery, all in the name of creating some Utopia where everyone is miraculously equal. I don’t want to be bleak, my dears… but we aren’t.

Some of us can string a sentence together, but we’re skint (ish) and certainly don't have spare houses to have a tax problem with; others can create huge chemical companies and start a battle with Ben Ainslie. Some have lost a child in horrible circumstances, or a husband suddenly, or a mate pointlessly, and some have enjoyed rude health, a round of golf every day and flown upside down in a Spitfire at the age of 90. Some have brains the size of planets, and some the fingers of Stephane Grappelli or Django Reinhardt. Some can work out 17½% VAT in their head, and some couldn’t tell you if they’re in Wembley or Wednesday.

WE’RE NEVER GOING TO BE EQUAL, WE CAN’T BE - AND NOR SHOULD WE BE.

Stop believing that your endless accusations will make the world a better place. It won’t. It will just make it an angrier, increasingly pointless place that once had potential and the willpower to succeed, improve, develop, create, advance, move, and improve.

Under the UK Equality Act 2010, it is illegal to hire someone only because of their race, gender, or sexual orientation. This is known as positive discrimination. However, the law allows for Positive Action. This means an organisation can run targeted advertising campaigns to encourage underrepresented groups to apply, or, for example, create targeted training schemes or internships, as MI6 did for their programme.

Perhaps this is what gives rise to the idea of a two-tier system.

There are plenty of examples in which positive action was either misunderstood by the organisation itself (leading to illegal discrimination) or by the public due to poor communication. The Cheshire Police and the Furlong case that cost millions; the RAF Recruitment Scandal, which led to the whistleblower’s resignation, compensation for 100 white men, and a loss of recruitment capacity; endless BBC Diversity schemes that constantly tread a thin line between aggressive positive action and possible positive discrimination. And then sadly, we come to the tragic murder of 18-year-old student Henry Nowak in Southampton. The National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) has a Race Action Plan that includes SPECIFIC guidance in its internal “Anti-Racism Commitment,” which explicitly states that policing should not mean treating everyone “the same” or being “colour blind.”

The original intent of this language was to ensure that officers understand the historical distrust of law enforcement among minority communities and adjust their communication or reassurance methods accordingly. Then, couple this with the national College of Policing guidelines (derived from the 1999 Macpherson Report), which state officers are strictly instructed that if any party or witness perceives an incident to be racially motivated, it must be logged and handled with a high degree of seriousness as a hate incident.

So young copper recruits are - even today perhaps - being trained in the above codes. It almost says: Do not use your discretion; do not use your common sense, but treat it as a hate crime until proved otherwise. They are then also being sent on diversion training to have it drummed into them that White is bad, or at the very least deeply suspicious.

Look at all the tiers there. Perfectly good people INTENDING to try to change the system for the better, because of say a Stephen Lawrence or a Keith Blakelock or any of a hundred other community losses. Then over-egging the changes made, making it worse, and then fiddling again, every time making it less fit for purpose than it had already become. This is Positive Discrimination running amok.

This is the reality. We’re all equal in the eyes of the Law. If you’re a rude, lippy, drunk arse, who thinks they’re tough because they carry a chiv or a bayonet or a machete, I hope someone shoots you with a taser or bigger. You’re a bloody menace at a time when we need fewer bloody menaces and more bloody kindness.

And you, Constable Dixon, read the poem IF, (perhaps for the first time, because it was written during colonial times, but that doesn’t make all poetry bad, and you were told you couldn’t read it), and consider perhaps that maybe in it’s advice it is a better instruction manual for a British copper than the wretched little guidance that some Chief Constables’ wonk drew up for him to sign on his way to the Golf Club dinner and an MBE.

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

Moving on from the horrors in Southampton to the heat of Monte Carlo, I have to tell you that moving the race into June has done nothing to cool down the drama, and between radical technical loopholes and some serious driver friction, the “silly season” is already completely out of control.

Valtteri Bottas did not hold back when addressing rumours that the new-for-2026 Cadillac team is already looking to drop him. His teammate, Sergio Perez, has been pacing significantly faster than him, sparking serious chatter that American F2 driver Colton Herta was being lined up for the seat. Bottas publicly slammed the rumours as “complete b******t” manufactured just for clicks. However, his rough Friday practice times (he was over a second off Perez in FP1) have paddock insiders whispering that the pressure from Cadillac is very real, even if an immediate axe isn’t.

In the Aston Martin garage, Aston Martin-Honda is having a miserable start to 2026, and Monaco threatens to make it much worse. Fernando Alonso gave a brutally blunt warning that the team’s new in-house gearbox has a “random downshift” glitch that essentially applies full throttle at braking points. Alonso warned that if it happens here, they “will crash into the wall and the driver will look stupid.” To add to the mess, Lance Stroll let slip that the car completely loses gear synchronisation every single time it drops below 40 km/h. Given that Monte Carlo features the Loews Hairpin—the slowest corner in F1—they are bleeding lap time just trying to get around the bend.

After a long absence following a fiery season opener where he openly blamed Honda for their pre-season performance woes, Adrian Newey is finally back in the Aston Martin garage this weekend. Rumours had been swirling that he was hospitalised with pneumonia, so all eyes are on how he interacts with Lawrence Stroll and the struggling garage.

Because Monaco rules have temporarily deleted “Straight Mode” (Active Aero) for this weekend, top teams have spotted a massive loophole. Mercedes, Red Bull, and McLaren have all shown up with highly unusual, prominent mini-winglets mounted right where the Straight Mode actuators usually sit. Because the FIA regulations left a tiny allowance for the turning mechanisms in that specific centre section, the teams are exploiting it to claw back extra downforce. The Mercedes design is reportedly the most aggressive and complex of the bunch - who would have guessed that might be the case?

Charles Leclerc just locked down a massive contract extension with Ferrari to stay well into the 2030s. He admitted he turned down other serious offers, largely due to his absolute faith in team boss Fred Vasseur. But the local goss is always the same: nobody is quite sure whether Charles Leclerc loves Monaco or suffers it. The local boy has finally won his home race, has signed a long-term Ferrari deal, and remains the undisputed prince of the Principality, yet there is still a sense that Monaco week ages him visibly. Every balcony contains relatives, former school friends, ex-girlfriends, journalists, sponsors and people claiming to be all four. Nowhere in Formula One does a driver carry a heavier emotional burden for a single weekend. Ferrari looked competitive in practice, which only fueled further speculation about who truly has the upper hand in the garage. That said, the F1 hackerati can turn a raised eyebrow into a constitutional crisis.

Meanwhile, 19-year-old Kimi Antonelli remains The One. Having taken over Lewis Hamilton’s vacant Mercedes seat, the teenager has already won three races this year and leads the championship heading into the weekend, putting immense pressure on veteran teammate George Russell.

In summary, I dined with a motorsport hack not so long ago who told me that the mistake is believing the Grand Prix is the event. It isn’t. The Grand Prix is merely the excuse. The real event is thousands of wealthy, ambitious and vain people gathering in a place too small to contain them all. Deals are done. Marriages begin. Marriages end. Drivers are hired. Drivers are fired. Fortunes are made. Fortunes are lost. Occasionally, a motor race breaks out.

Here’s a crazy bet: Lewis Hamilton has finished ahead of Leclerc in three of the five races this season; there are only three points between them, and he’s twice the odds on the strength of “home advantage” for Charles Le Roi.

LEWIS HAMILTON 4 Pts Win