- “Did Plan B work?” – On England’s last day under Plan B restrictions, Ross Clark in the Spectator finds no significant differences in outcomes with other parts of the U.K. under harsher measures.
- “Some supermarkets will still ask shoppers to wear masks, despite Plan B Covid measures being lifted” – Masks are now a ‘matter of personal judgment’ but Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Morrisons and John Lewis will still ask customers to wear them, the Telegraph reports.
- “Why we have been failed by Covid lockdown modellers” – The Mail publishes MP Bob Seely’s searing takedown of the Covid modelling in the Westminster Hall debate last week.
- “London has lowest Covid case rate in country, but Sadiq Khan insists face masks must remain” – Business owners say requirement to cover up once Plan B measures end will make people fearful and damage the hospitality sector further, reports the Telegraph.
- “Two-thirds with Omicron say they have had Covid before” – The latest findings hint at how common reinfections might be and who is more likely to catch Covid again, reports the Telegraph – though the detail of the study has not been released so how reliable the findings are is unclear.
- “Who cares about partygate?” – Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator suspects some ulterior motives might be afoot among some of Boris’s political opponents.
- “As Plan B Covid measures are finally lifted, don’t expect an end to Government doom-mongering” – Why do the richest, most sophisticated societies in history seem unable to form legitimate governments on the basis of normalcy, asks Philip Cunliffe in the Telegraph.
- “The strange and deplorable case of the Gesundheit-II machine” – Hector Drummond examines some of the dubious methodology behind studies which find benefits in face masks.
- “Father-of-two, 31, has been taken off the heart transplant list” – D.J. Ferguson, 31, has been denied a heart transplant until he gets vaccinated against COVID-19. His wife is now saying that they are in a “corner” and are “pressured” to get him vaccinated, the Mail reports.
- “German lawmakers debate making vaccines mandatory for ALL adults” – German politicians long insisted that there would be no vaccine mandate. But the tide turned last year amid frustration that a large number of holdouts was ‘hampering’ the fight against COVID-19, reports the Mail.
- “As the economy goes down the pan(demic), toilet paper is NZ’s big worry” – New Zealand has run out of money – the Government has spent $64 billion dollars on the pandemic so far – before it has even arrived – and there is nothing left, writes Guy Hatchard in TCW Defending Freedom.
- “The horror: BBC hounded for inviting unvaccinated onto Question Time” – Once again, it is those who are screaming ‘shhhhh’ that are the loudest, writes Luke Perry in Bournbrook.
- “Macron’s vaccine culture war” – The inexplicable has become the commonplace in France, and vaccine passports are now wholly political, writes Gavin Mortimer in the Spectator.
- “Daily U.S. death toll from Covid now matches Delta” – The average number of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. is roughly on par with that seen during the peak of the Delta variant, reports the BBC (and most of the deaths are in the most vaccinated states).
- “Ep 37. The rotting woodwork of the Covidian – The Real Normal Podcast” – Listen to the latest episode as the guys laugh at the media commentators suddenly U-turning against the Covid lockdowns after two years of cheering them on, plus a discussion of where you can go on holiday if you’re unvaccinated.
- “Will Australia survive Covid?” – Its pandemic incompetence was inevitable, argues Shahar Hameiri in UnHerd.
- “I’m pro-vaxx, but I’d happily be treated by an unjabbed nurse” – Michael Deacon in the Telegraph says a threat to punish NHS staff will end up punishing patients as well.
- “When Fauci Told the Truth about Masking” – Fauci knew masks didn’t work to prevent illnesses like Covid. He knew that the evidence on masks hadn’t changed because one of his top employees confirmed that there was no positive impact from masking based on the gold standard of scientific research, randomised controlled trials, writes Ian Miller at the Brownstone Institute.
- “Post-Covid truancy is everyone’s problem” – Skipping school is often the first step on a child’s trajectory to trouble, the outcome of which will affect the rest of society, writes Cristina Odone in the Telegraph.
- “Clapton speaks out: “I’m cut from the cloth where if you tell me I can’t do something, I really wanna know why I can’t do it”” – The guitarist offers his perspective in Music Radar on the recent controversies surrounding his stance on Covid measures – “What’s offending me now is I’m being insulted by the media”.
- “The SARS2 Pandemic: Will Truth Prevail?” – Watch Scott Atlas deliver a talk at the Academy for Science and Freedom.
- “The Covid Narrative Falls Apart in South Africa” – The sad, tragic fact is that their measures, from lockdowns to masks to even vaccine mandates, have done little to nothing to curb the spread of this highly contagious respiratory virus, and taken as a whole they’ve likely done more harm than good, writes Scott Morefield at the Brownstone Institute.
- “Good Housekeeping: Don’t Have Kids, Because Climate Change” – Gone are the days when Good Housekeeping just told readers how to make a baby bonnet or decorate a nursery, writes Eric Worrall in Watts Up With That?
- “Kate Clanchy: my life’s work has been taken away” – The writer is interviewed by UnHerd on her recent brutal cancellation after falling foul of modern woke sensibilities.
- “‘Woke capitalism’ could derail post-pandemic recovery, report warns ” – Companies should ditch ‘woke capitalism’ or risk derailing the UK’s post-pandemic recovery, a report by the Adam Smith Institute argues, reports the Mail.
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She’s not wrong, just being dishonest about her true motives. Do you think she would be making the same arguments if left-wing speech and speakers were being cancelled from academia?
Ts ts … how nasty of you to claim her opinions were political. They’re obviously not! It’s about protecting Jewish students from spiritual genocide so that some remain for friends of Hamas to slaughter. Just what the greater good of mankind objectively dictates.
I am apparently very nasty – just as well there are so many nice people to counterbalance my malign influence
One of the many things not in the King’s Speech. There is more to come. Fancy calling legislation defending free speech as ‘burdensome’!
In the end, then, all roads it seems will lead us, rather than to what was meant to be a newly beefed-up Office for Students, to court.
This obviously implies no redress for students which is presumably the main motivation of Phillipson. Forced political indoctrination would become really burdensome if it was ok to be ok with being white.
Special interests vs. Special interests.
Wouldn’t it be good if free speech protection was consistent for everyone or better still, we recognise we may hear things we don’t like and may disagree with the opinions of others. Are campuses a bastion of truth, reason and sensibility that should get special treatment?
I suspect a significant driver in this is the amount of income that comes from overseas students, especially China, which is not a beacon of freedom and tolerance to criticism.
Visiting academics or speakers who might be prone to talking about Uighur slaves and environmental destruction, both of which have been well documented, are problematic.