Pending new developments, I’ve said all I want to say on the fallout of the Southport murders over on X. A thread by Sam Bidwell, however, provides some important context.
T E Utley (in 1974) said one of the duties of government was the promotion of "cultural and moral unity" without which the only way to govern was by tyranny. Immigration and multiculturalism (signalling that assimilation is not required) have brought us to increasingly tyrannical government as laws about hate speech, offensive communications and online "harms", surveillance powers and technology proliferate. Sir Kneeler's speech yesterday announced how much further this will intensify under Labour.
Just how much our country has been changed by succesive goverments' failure to promote cultural and moral unity is illustrated by two coronations fifty years apart: Queen Elizabeth in 1953 and King Charles in 2023. Search for pictures of both to see a difference. In 1953 police lined the procession route just as they did in 2023 but there is one highly significant change. In 1953 they had their back to the crowd able to enjoy the spectacle. In 2023 they had to face the crowd, their backs to the precession which they could not enjoy with the spectators, such was the need for 'security', a new normal and a massive contrast that received no comment from media or politicians. When terrorism is simply "part and parcel" of living in a large city, according to the London Mayor Sadiq Khan, when knife crime is a 'new normal', goverment merely plays whackamole with each manifestation of the breakdown of trust and social cohesion that successive governments have presided over from a policeman hacked to death on Broadwater Farm in 1985 to the Rushie riots in 1989 to Lee Rigby to... the list is too long to record here. Our armed forces can no longer wear their uniforms on the way home, the risk of attack being high, theft has become a decriminalised new normal, and our young are taught to be ashamed of our history. In the Olympics a man can enjoy punching a women in the face and Lisa Nandy thinks this is OK. Of course, Labour are planning to repeal the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act and are reviewing the education sysllabus (to extend to Academy schools hitherto able to educate rather than indoctrinate). Labour's first act is to grab control of the next generation.
The Manchester Airport incident shows the danger of partial, edited videos posted on social media, but it was the establishment, the merged blob of Westminster, civil service and media, that reacted uncritically without waiting for all the facts. The narrative was of brutality by institutionally racist police, but it was no such thing of course.
Control of dissent is to be by "intelligence", "data" and "mobile face recognition" and ramped up cooperation between police forces, a unified national force in all but name. We are destined to live under a Labout jack boot.
Against this context I do not condemn rioters throwing bricks at the police. It is foolhardy in that if you are white working class you risk punitive sentencing by the courts (in contrast to Black Lives Matter or Roma etc). Put up stickers saying White Lives Matter and get a two year prison sentence, as some poor char did in Nottingham, but get a slap on the wrist as the immigrant criminals in Mr Bidwell's list did.
I disagree that the Downing Street protest was a riot. There are enough videos on X to show that the police were agents provocateur brutally taking down people, seemingly at random and employing take downs on women in exactly the same way as on men, who were merely present at a peaceful demonstration. Even Martin Daubney in a suit was arrested (until recognised and a senior office thought better of arresting someone with a TV platform) who was clearly not rioting. The police played a part in contructing a narrative that is going unchallenged in the media.
With the governments plan for single sign on to goverment services, with digital currency on its way, with the plan to link various database to facial recognition, we are heading, no matter how politicians bleat to the countrary, toward a Chinese style social credit (and control) system.
In truth the goverment can do nothing else so balkanised has society become, at least that is all it can do if the secondary pheneomena are the sole focus as they will be. No-one has a solution to the primary problem of an aggressive, political religion out breeding everyone else and the ponzi scheme of ever more immigration (often of cultures hostile to our own). Whatever resistance we manage mnay be too little too late.
The reaction to all these events since Labour took office are hardly surprising and the overwhelming police reaction to the Southport and Downing Street riots when compared to Harehills, Whitechapel and Rochdale will inflame the injustice even more.
I’ve felt for a number of years that Britain has become ungovernable as a cohesive society but we have deteriorated fast in the few weeks of Labour. I wonder how far are we from anarchy and will the Generals stand by and watch this escalate?
Thank you for this. I virtually always agree with everything you say but was left a bit surprised (classic British understatement) by your initial response. I completely agree with you about the unnecessary violence in Southport. We really have to stop that as it gives the police, govt et al all the excuse to shout about far right and clamp down to shut it out. But we need to find a way to be heard. I don’t know what it is. I like you spend time on X flicking past images of violence on our streets and don’t even bother to acknowledge it anymore. But the amount of violence highlighted above just shows how bad it is. It’s utterly shocking. I’m old enough to remember the James Bulger case and it was so unbelievable and shocking at the time that it still resonates today. Whereas now these shocking cases barely get a mention. We have to do something to reset and get back to ‘British values’. As I said I don’t know what to do. I’ve been to the last two demos organised by Tommy Robinson. I’m 68 and never been to a demonstration before in my life but I feel I have to do something. They were completely peaceful which was encouraging and with a large turnout. There is another in September but I wonder if that will be so peaceful? I hope so but we’ll see. Anyway thank you for your work. It’s nice to know there are people out there still who think like me. Keep on keeping on.
'Thuggery' is desired by the ruling class so they can impose draconian laws. The terror attacks of the noughties just gave us more restrictions on our liberties. Terrorism was far more of an issue in the 80s. The state is the real problem, if that's solved then we can sort the rest.
The purpose of multiculturalism and specifically importing thousands of fighting age savages is to create a social cataclysm. The people are rendered helpless, unable to arm themselves. The gravity of our situation is compounded by a politicised police force that has no interest whatsoever in protecting the indigenous population. The dark forces that run our political system are anti-God, anti-human and Satanic. They WANT to kill us all. They want chaos, death and disorder.
I need to edit my comment below to improve its understanding.
"I believe most politicians and journalists are blind to the developing crisis, from mass immigration both legal and illegal, in our cities, or if they are aware they are too intimidated to speak out for the fear from the backlash and rebuke they will face for being racists.
Until politicians, journalists and of course the police call a spade a spade, by covering up the bleeding obvious, we cannot even start to address and remedy the growing sectarian violence we face."
Many politicians live in a groupthink bubble, feeding off each other. The few trustworthy ones are outnumbered and not listened to, especially by the press.
Journalists feed off each other, and newspapers from the free copy generated by the above groupthink bubble.
The police have become politicised and thus seem to have joined the bubble.
It's all one big circus and we are outside the tent, at least most of us are outside, at present, keeping our heads down.
We will need to be allowed to arm ourselves at some point. An unarmed population is OK when the Police are efficient and have a monopoly of violence, but if they won't turn up and when they do they just stand their watching (or run away) - then people must be allowed to defend themselves properly.
The whole idea of disarming the citizenry is to make it impossible for the people to defend themselves and their families. You have Tony Blair to thank for that but any subsequent political party would have used any pretext possible to disarm us. Gun ownership is gone forever. I wouldn't be surprised if shotgun ownership is also banned by this government. They just need a Manchurian candidate to go Tonto with one. Crossbows are also likely to be banned after the recent murders of the Hunt family.
I was. The 1903 Pistols Act made it illegal to sell a pistol to a lunatic.
Firearms legislation didn't really get going until the end of WW1 when the government were worried about communism in the UK. Every piece of firearms legislation in C20 was presented as a public safety measure. None of them were.
1) Statistically I have no idea how the appalling incidents you list actually sit within their true context. there have always been horrors stalking the street from Michael Ryan to the IRA
2) The 'right' with their self-proclaimed forces of law and order agenda has systematically defunded the social system over the last 14 years when they have been in charge yet somehow it is all the leftists fault ? How what excuse me !?!? Police, social workers, courts prisons, mental health, NHS are all worse off today than before cheered on by the right-wing press. That same right-wing press is then simultaneously shocked and appalled when there is an inevitable escalation in outrages. You can't have it both ways
3) Our rights as citizens to protest and collectively bargain have been steadily chiselled away and cheered on by the political voices of the right. The consequence is fear as people worry about losing their jobs and health. Again this chiselling has been cheered on by right-wing voices who then get outraged when desperate people kick off in Hartlepool
4) As part of the migrant surge from the early 2000s the channel tunnel and ports were turned into a fortress and remain that way. The consequential response is that those illegals adopted the Mediterranean tactics and floated across on boats. With BREXIT the means of returning those persons was significantly diminished if not extinguished and inflamed by lazy insults from our PM and assorted ministers. Amazingly the Eurocrats can read English, who would've thought eh! The issue was politicised by the wilfully poor management by all of the current crop of Tory party hopefuls who then conflate the brown boys in boats with the 600,000 legal migrants which is a whole different malignant story. So the likes of Uncle Nige, Tommy & friends continue to conflate the two by omission, encourage the EDL etc to kick off in Southport Hartlepool and at the Cenotaph and scare the good decent people half to death. My aged mother in her later years was convinced swarthy heathen hordes were about to run amuck in her leafy Hertfordshire village., but her nurse her doctor her accountant and taxi man were all 'lovely' This portrayal is simply untrue, It is both lazy and cynical journalism and politics with an agenda.
5) The latest faddish solution to decent investment into social infrastructure and proper managerialism is to remove the UK from the ECHR. Why? What will that actually do ? It won't make returning illegals any easier, see above, and being the UK it will be used against us. A replacement bill of rights is never offered because it would be too inflammatory as the nation will demand better rights and services along a socialist agenda. So why should my rights as a citizen be further compromised by the failure of investment in the social infrastructure and diabolical management covered up by the very people responsible for it and trying to hide their incompetence as they head to the House of Lords beneath a giant heap of racist word salad.
Long and complex comments, but interesting perspective. You need to bear in mind that the law is not designed to protect you or I. It is designed to protect those in power (irrespective of politics or political party). That's why in the US, as one example, politicians absolutely detest the Supreme Court (SCOTUS). It would be interesting to read your thoughts on a solution, rather than your comments on the problems - we all know what the problems are; but, how do you solve them? Call me curious!
Johnson crystalised the phrase 'levelling up' and this is what is needed across the UK. He offered it to get votes, it worked perfectly, and captured the imagination of huge swathes of the county #Me too, even if I didn't vote for him. As we now know it was a PR puff without substance, but it can and must be done. Our great cities did very well until the economic centralisation brought on by WW2 emptied them of their spirit and power, that evisceration continues with the recent smash-and-grab on housing targets. The cities & regions know what needs doing and can lead. The balance of power must be inverted with Whitehall being told what to do for the cities and regions rather than the other way round. Giving people ownership, opportunity and the means will be transformative and possibly a little bit corrupt in places but that is no reason hold back.
The law is not designed to protect anyone, it is / they are the rules we have democratically decided to live by and the courts must impose them without fear or favour. I know zip about the US Constitution other than I believe the Supreme Court judges are appointed for life by the POTUS presumably from some sort of pool of peer group-approved persons reflecting the people. If this process is blatantly overridden by POTUS to appoint persons of proven bias then alarms should ring and POTUS brought to account
Finally in the UK to use the law to effectively fight your corner for whatever reason you need a lot of money particularly if you are at risk of paying the other parties' costs. Unfortunately might is currently right, particularly if you have limitless funds such as the govt to protect Ministers. It is interesting to contrast how France pursues their former Presidents and assorted Ministers and Mayors relentlessly until proven innocent or otherwise. As Anglo-Saxons, we see this as clear proof France is corrupt, whereas the French see it as a regular cleansing of their system. We all wash out our sinks or dishwashers, don't we? Its just the same. Our UK ministers and senior leaders are just as corrupt but seem free to walk away with little or no effort to hold them accountable after some massive farrago and this proves we aren't corrupt. No prosecutions for corruption = we are free of corruption. Just honest chaps doing the best they can under difficult circumstances having been dealt a tricky hand.
Incredible that you didn’t even bother mention the mosque that got vandalised. You’re not a serious thinker if you ignore a place of worship getting attacked.
I believe most politicians and journalists are blind to the developing crisis, from mass immigration both legal and illegal, in our cities or if they are aware they too intimidated to speak out for the fear of the backlash and rebuke they will face for being racists.
Until politicians, journalists and of course the police call a spade a spade thus ignoring the bleeding obvious we can not even start to address and remedy the growing sectarian violence we face.
T E Utley (in 1974) said one of the duties of government was the promotion of "cultural and moral unity" without which the only way to govern was by tyranny. Immigration and multiculturalism (signalling that assimilation is not required) have brought us to increasingly tyrannical government as laws about hate speech, offensive communications and online "harms", surveillance powers and technology proliferate. Sir Kneeler's speech yesterday announced how much further this will intensify under Labour.
Just how much our country has been changed by succesive goverments' failure to promote cultural and moral unity is illustrated by two coronations fifty years apart: Queen Elizabeth in 1953 and King Charles in 2023. Search for pictures of both to see a difference. In 1953 police lined the procession route just as they did in 2023 but there is one highly significant change. In 1953 they had their back to the crowd able to enjoy the spectacle. In 2023 they had to face the crowd, their backs to the precession which they could not enjoy with the spectators, such was the need for 'security', a new normal and a massive contrast that received no comment from media or politicians. When terrorism is simply "part and parcel" of living in a large city, according to the London Mayor Sadiq Khan, when knife crime is a 'new normal', goverment merely plays whackamole with each manifestation of the breakdown of trust and social cohesion that successive governments have presided over from a policeman hacked to death on Broadwater Farm in 1985 to the Rushie riots in 1989 to Lee Rigby to... the list is too long to record here. Our armed forces can no longer wear their uniforms on the way home, the risk of attack being high, theft has become a decriminalised new normal, and our young are taught to be ashamed of our history. In the Olympics a man can enjoy punching a women in the face and Lisa Nandy thinks this is OK. Of course, Labour are planning to repeal the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act and are reviewing the education sysllabus (to extend to Academy schools hitherto able to educate rather than indoctrinate). Labour's first act is to grab control of the next generation.
The Manchester Airport incident shows the danger of partial, edited videos posted on social media, but it was the establishment, the merged blob of Westminster, civil service and media, that reacted uncritically without waiting for all the facts. The narrative was of brutality by institutionally racist police, but it was no such thing of course.
Control of dissent is to be by "intelligence", "data" and "mobile face recognition" and ramped up cooperation between police forces, a unified national force in all but name. We are destined to live under a Labout jack boot.
Against this context I do not condemn rioters throwing bricks at the police. It is foolhardy in that if you are white working class you risk punitive sentencing by the courts (in contrast to Black Lives Matter or Roma etc). Put up stickers saying White Lives Matter and get a two year prison sentence, as some poor char did in Nottingham, but get a slap on the wrist as the immigrant criminals in Mr Bidwell's list did.
I disagree that the Downing Street protest was a riot. There are enough videos on X to show that the police were agents provocateur brutally taking down people, seemingly at random and employing take downs on women in exactly the same way as on men, who were merely present at a peaceful demonstration. Even Martin Daubney in a suit was arrested (until recognised and a senior office thought better of arresting someone with a TV platform) who was clearly not rioting. The police played a part in contructing a narrative that is going unchallenged in the media.
With the governments plan for single sign on to goverment services, with digital currency on its way, with the plan to link various database to facial recognition, we are heading, no matter how politicians bleat to the countrary, toward a Chinese style social credit (and control) system.
In truth the goverment can do nothing else so balkanised has society become, at least that is all it can do if the secondary pheneomena are the sole focus as they will be. No-one has a solution to the primary problem of an aggressive, political religion out breeding everyone else and the ponzi scheme of ever more immigration (often of cultures hostile to our own). Whatever resistance we manage mnay be too little too late.
The reaction to all these events since Labour took office are hardly surprising and the overwhelming police reaction to the Southport and Downing Street riots when compared to Harehills, Whitechapel and Rochdale will inflame the injustice even more.
I’ve felt for a number of years that Britain has become ungovernable as a cohesive society but we have deteriorated fast in the few weeks of Labour. I wonder how far are we from anarchy and will the Generals stand by and watch this escalate?
Thank you for this. I virtually always agree with everything you say but was left a bit surprised (classic British understatement) by your initial response. I completely agree with you about the unnecessary violence in Southport. We really have to stop that as it gives the police, govt et al all the excuse to shout about far right and clamp down to shut it out. But we need to find a way to be heard. I don’t know what it is. I like you spend time on X flicking past images of violence on our streets and don’t even bother to acknowledge it anymore. But the amount of violence highlighted above just shows how bad it is. It’s utterly shocking. I’m old enough to remember the James Bulger case and it was so unbelievable and shocking at the time that it still resonates today. Whereas now these shocking cases barely get a mention. We have to do something to reset and get back to ‘British values’. As I said I don’t know what to do. I’ve been to the last two demos organised by Tommy Robinson. I’m 68 and never been to a demonstration before in my life but I feel I have to do something. They were completely peaceful which was encouraging and with a large turnout. There is another in September but I wonder if that will be so peaceful? I hope so but we’ll see. Anyway thank you for your work. It’s nice to know there are people out there still who think like me. Keep on keeping on.
'Thuggery' is desired by the ruling class so they can impose draconian laws. The terror attacks of the noughties just gave us more restrictions on our liberties. Terrorism was far more of an issue in the 80s. The state is the real problem, if that's solved then we can sort the rest.
The purpose of multiculturalism and specifically importing thousands of fighting age savages is to create a social cataclysm. The people are rendered helpless, unable to arm themselves. The gravity of our situation is compounded by a politicised police force that has no interest whatsoever in protecting the indigenous population. The dark forces that run our political system are anti-God, anti-human and Satanic. They WANT to kill us all. They want chaos, death and disorder.
I need to edit my comment below to improve its understanding.
"I believe most politicians and journalists are blind to the developing crisis, from mass immigration both legal and illegal, in our cities, or if they are aware they are too intimidated to speak out for the fear from the backlash and rebuke they will face for being racists.
Until politicians, journalists and of course the police call a spade a spade, by covering up the bleeding obvious, we cannot even start to address and remedy the growing sectarian violence we face."
Many politicians live in a groupthink bubble, feeding off each other. The few trustworthy ones are outnumbered and not listened to, especially by the press.
Journalists feed off each other, and newspapers from the free copy generated by the above groupthink bubble.
The police have become politicised and thus seem to have joined the bubble.
It's all one big circus and we are outside the tent, at least most of us are outside, at present, keeping our heads down.
Tents, however big, are quite fragile.
We will need to be allowed to arm ourselves at some point. An unarmed population is OK when the Police are efficient and have a monopoly of violence, but if they won't turn up and when they do they just stand their watching (or run away) - then people must be allowed to defend themselves properly.
The whole idea of disarming the citizenry is to make it impossible for the people to defend themselves and their families. You have Tony Blair to thank for that but any subsequent political party would have used any pretext possible to disarm us. Gun ownership is gone forever. I wouldn't be surprised if shotgun ownership is also banned by this government. They just need a Manchurian candidate to go Tonto with one. Crossbows are also likely to be banned after the recent murders of the Hunt family.
This goes back much further than Tony Blair. Wikipedia says that the first restrictions on firearms was in 1903.
I was. The 1903 Pistols Act made it illegal to sell a pistol to a lunatic.
Firearms legislation didn't really get going until the end of WW1 when the government were worried about communism in the UK. Every piece of firearms legislation in C20 was presented as a public safety measure. None of them were.
Will Sir Kier's new police force be known as Starmtroopers?
With Starmer's response to the unrest, Reform must be rubbing their hands in the 100 constituencies where they came second to Labour.
Talk about an inability to read the room. His reaction to this is a major misstep by Starmer.
The Southport riot started after another Jihadist tried to attack the vigil.
He ran into the Southport mosque when police and a crowd ran after him.
Ed Hussain’s book Among the Mosques stated half of them were promoting war against the west and Parliament did nothing.
What % of mosques are now jihadist?
Why no explanation of all the facts?
To bring in Orwellian controls.
1) Statistically I have no idea how the appalling incidents you list actually sit within their true context. there have always been horrors stalking the street from Michael Ryan to the IRA
2) The 'right' with their self-proclaimed forces of law and order agenda has systematically defunded the social system over the last 14 years when they have been in charge yet somehow it is all the leftists fault ? How what excuse me !?!? Police, social workers, courts prisons, mental health, NHS are all worse off today than before cheered on by the right-wing press. That same right-wing press is then simultaneously shocked and appalled when there is an inevitable escalation in outrages. You can't have it both ways
3) Our rights as citizens to protest and collectively bargain have been steadily chiselled away and cheered on by the political voices of the right. The consequence is fear as people worry about losing their jobs and health. Again this chiselling has been cheered on by right-wing voices who then get outraged when desperate people kick off in Hartlepool
4) As part of the migrant surge from the early 2000s the channel tunnel and ports were turned into a fortress and remain that way. The consequential response is that those illegals adopted the Mediterranean tactics and floated across on boats. With BREXIT the means of returning those persons was significantly diminished if not extinguished and inflamed by lazy insults from our PM and assorted ministers. Amazingly the Eurocrats can read English, who would've thought eh! The issue was politicised by the wilfully poor management by all of the current crop of Tory party hopefuls who then conflate the brown boys in boats with the 600,000 legal migrants which is a whole different malignant story. So the likes of Uncle Nige, Tommy & friends continue to conflate the two by omission, encourage the EDL etc to kick off in Southport Hartlepool and at the Cenotaph and scare the good decent people half to death. My aged mother in her later years was convinced swarthy heathen hordes were about to run amuck in her leafy Hertfordshire village., but her nurse her doctor her accountant and taxi man were all 'lovely' This portrayal is simply untrue, It is both lazy and cynical journalism and politics with an agenda.
5) The latest faddish solution to decent investment into social infrastructure and proper managerialism is to remove the UK from the ECHR. Why? What will that actually do ? It won't make returning illegals any easier, see above, and being the UK it will be used against us. A replacement bill of rights is never offered because it would be too inflammatory as the nation will demand better rights and services along a socialist agenda. So why should my rights as a citizen be further compromised by the failure of investment in the social infrastructure and diabolical management covered up by the very people responsible for it and trying to hide their incompetence as they head to the House of Lords beneath a giant heap of racist word salad.
Will someone please tell me ?
I've up-ticked you because your comments are valid - not because I agree with all of them. Just so you are clear!
Long and complex comments, but interesting perspective. You need to bear in mind that the law is not designed to protect you or I. It is designed to protect those in power (irrespective of politics or political party). That's why in the US, as one example, politicians absolutely detest the Supreme Court (SCOTUS). It would be interesting to read your thoughts on a solution, rather than your comments on the problems - we all know what the problems are; but, how do you solve them? Call me curious!
Johnson crystalised the phrase 'levelling up' and this is what is needed across the UK. He offered it to get votes, it worked perfectly, and captured the imagination of huge swathes of the county #Me too, even if I didn't vote for him. As we now know it was a PR puff without substance, but it can and must be done. Our great cities did very well until the economic centralisation brought on by WW2 emptied them of their spirit and power, that evisceration continues with the recent smash-and-grab on housing targets. The cities & regions know what needs doing and can lead. The balance of power must be inverted with Whitehall being told what to do for the cities and regions rather than the other way round. Giving people ownership, opportunity and the means will be transformative and possibly a little bit corrupt in places but that is no reason hold back.
The law is not designed to protect anyone, it is / they are the rules we have democratically decided to live by and the courts must impose them without fear or favour. I know zip about the US Constitution other than I believe the Supreme Court judges are appointed for life by the POTUS presumably from some sort of pool of peer group-approved persons reflecting the people. If this process is blatantly overridden by POTUS to appoint persons of proven bias then alarms should ring and POTUS brought to account
Finally in the UK to use the law to effectively fight your corner for whatever reason you need a lot of money particularly if you are at risk of paying the other parties' costs. Unfortunately might is currently right, particularly if you have limitless funds such as the govt to protect Ministers. It is interesting to contrast how France pursues their former Presidents and assorted Ministers and Mayors relentlessly until proven innocent or otherwise. As Anglo-Saxons, we see this as clear proof France is corrupt, whereas the French see it as a regular cleansing of their system. We all wash out our sinks or dishwashers, don't we? Its just the same. Our UK ministers and senior leaders are just as corrupt but seem free to walk away with little or no effort to hold them accountable after some massive farrago and this proves we aren't corrupt. No prosecutions for corruption = we are free of corruption. Just honest chaps doing the best they can under difficult circumstances having been dealt a tricky hand.
Incredible that you didn’t even bother mention the mosque that got vandalised. You’re not a serious thinker if you ignore a place of worship getting attacked.
It is summer.
MiriAF believes that all,this is intended to divide us.
This is her take, bleak but incisive as usual.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-147244745?r=ouq7s&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
I believe most politicians and journalists are blind to the developing crisis, from mass immigration both legal and illegal, in our cities or if they are aware they too intimidated to speak out for the fear of the backlash and rebuke they will face for being racists.
Until politicians, journalists and of course the police call a spade a spade thus ignoring the bleeding obvious we can not even start to address and remedy the growing sectarian violence we face.
I have edited this comment above to improve its understanding.