News Round-Up
14 May 2025
Another Flaw in Ed Miliband’s Clean Power Agenda
14 May 2025
by Ben Pile
The Hidden Mechanisms of Unfreedom
14 May 2025
by James Moreton Wakeley One of the most sublime hymns to England is to be found at the end of George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia. Returning from the bitter battles of the Spanish Civil War, wounded in the neck, and having narrowly avoided further bodily harm in the bloodily fratricidal politics of the doomed Spanish Republic, Orwell looks forward to returning to a land at peace. To an idyll of "railway-cuttings smothered in wild flowers" and "slow-moving streams bordered by willows", inhabited by a gentle folk wearing bowler hats whose streets are adorned with "posters telling of cricket matches and Royal weddings". Fighting in the ranks of an international socialist movement though Orwell was, Homage to Catalonia is replete with such heartfelt musings on England. First among such sentiments is the notion that the police are nothing to be feared. Unlike the highly-politicised and faction-riven police forces of Republican Spain, or other such continental gendarmeries, Orwell saw the British bobby as a cheery friend of the honest citizen, who polices with consent rather than through force, and who would only go so far to arrest someone if they had, or were strongly suspected to have, broken the law. Saturday night’s footage from the vigil held in honour of Sarah Everard makes this image as remote from our age as the rest of Orwell’s ...
Ireland and the Netherlands have joined the list of countries that have suspended the use of AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine because of fears over blood clotting.
At the beginning of the first lockdown, some commentators welcomed the opportunity to spend more "quality time" with their families. But as Dr Sinéad Murphy points out, many families couldn't cope with the extra burden.
The Government is facing legal action over its plan to keep hospitality venues closed for weeks longer than "non-essential" shops. Challengers say there is “no evidence or justification" for this decision.
New analysis from the CEBM finds Sweden's age-adjusted excess mortality for 2020 was only 1.5%. Meanwhile, no-lockdown US states have lower Covid mortality than lockdown states. When will Government learn the lessons?
The Government supposedly faces a major rebellion from Tory MPs over the extension of lockdown laws in England. "Dozens" of Tories are expected to vote against the extensions or abstain if the infection rate continues to fall.
Half of bosses won't let their staff return to offices if they refuse to take the Covid vaccine, according to a new survey of 300 business owners.
A summary of all the most interesting stories that have appeared about the virus in the past 24 hours – not just in Britain, but around the world.
Twitter was aflame last night with politicians and journalists condemning the police's brutal treatment of women gathering on Clapham Common. Yet these are the same people who've enthusiastically supported the lockdowns.
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