- “Daily Covid cases and hospitalisations spike 26% in a week” – Another 89,717 infections were confirmed in the U.K. overnight, Government dashboard data show, up 26% on the previous week and nearly double the number a fortnight ago, reports the Mail.
- “Map reveals how Covid cases are rising in every borough of England” – Government figures showed all 149 local authorities recorded an uptick in infections in the week to March 13th compared to the previous seven-day spell, reports the Mail.
- “AstraZeneca set to abandon push for U.S. vaccine approval” – The company has been in talks with U.S. regulators for months, the Telegraph reports.
- “Sajid Javid hints millions will be eligible for fourth (or fifth) jabs” – Sajid Javid said last night over-75s could be offered another Covid jab in the autumn, and that younger age groups could be called forward for a fourth Covid shot at the same time, reports the Mail.
- “WHO warns increasing Covid cases are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’” – The WHO is warning that a recent increase in global Covid cases is just the start of what could be another virus surge, this time fuelled by the more infectious ‘stealth’ variant, reports the Mail.
- “China risks collapsing the world economy as its Zero Covid strategy falls apart” – Between war in Ukraine and Beijing’s shutdowns, investors don’t know what to worry about the most, writes Ben Wright in the Telegraph.
- “How Putin spread fake news about fracking and branded drillers ‘as bad as paedos’” – In just six months Russia Today ran scores of anti-shale stories, reports the Sun.
- “Why Boris can’t blame rising energy prices on Ukraine” – Britain’s energy prices were skyrocketing before any economic sanctions were issued, with the energy crunch, exacerbated by global economies coming back online after lockdowns, seeing Ofgem hike April’s energy price cap by 54%, writes Kate Andrews in the Spectator.
- “Blow for Boris Johnson as he walks away empty-handed from Middle East talks” – The Prime Minister had hoped to secure an oil export agreement with Saudi Arabia and UAE in a bid to reduce Britain’s reliance on Russia’s gas supply, reports the Telegraph.
- “Britain faces double-digit inflation for first time in 40 years” – The Bank of England raised interest rates again amid fears the rate of inflation will increase to around 8% in the coming months – or even hit double digits, reports the Mail.
- “Why York University de-platformed me” – “Supposedly, I am a safety threat,” says Julie Bindel in UnHerd.
- “Hospital told police patient was not raped because alleged attacker was transgender” – Assault was confirmed through CCTV and witnesses despite previous denials, Lords told, as debate on single-sex wards policy continues, the Telegraph reports.
- “The soft censorship of the Online Harms Bill” – Why hasn’t the Government realised that this bill will unshackle rather than restrain these companies? It needs to re-examine the proposed legislation and stop seeing online harm purely from the point of view of protecting children from damaging internet content, says the Spectator in a leading article.
- “Defending journalism” – The Mail welcomes Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries’ promise of changes to the Online Safety Bill: there will be notification before any material is taken down; there will be a right of appeal; and the material concerned will not be removed until the appeal is completed.
- “There’s nothing woke about online safety” – The Bill is about safeguarding children and the vulnerable, not protecting adults from being offended online, argues Nadine Dorries in the Telegraph.
- “‘Schools are transitioning pupils without parents’ knowledge’ MPs told” – Conservative MP Miriam Cates claims parents are worried their children are being “transitioned without their knowledge” as Minister Robin Walker said schools will continue to teach LGBT content, reports the Mail.
- “When woke becomes racist: publishing’s insidious pigeonholing of black writers” – Many publishers thoughtlessly trumpeting diversity are reducing their writers to racial stereotypes, writes Claire Allfree in the Telegraph.
- “Teaching of race ideology in schools is ‘absolutely terrifying’, warns minister” – Kemi Badenoch, the Equalities Minister, says Critical Race Theory should have no place in lessons as she unveils No.10’s race strategy, reports the Telegraph.
- “Jacinda accused of dividing NZ with ‘white guilt’ school lessons” – New Zealand will introduce a new history curriculum in schools encouraging teachers and students to think more critically about British colonialism and the ongoing impact on Māori communities, reports the Mail.
- “Putting history in the dock is not the answer” – It holds us back if we use racism to explain all ethnic minority disadvantage and lets those really responsible off the hook, writes Kemi Badenoch in the Mail.
- “Zelensky urges Germany to tear down the new ‘Wall’ in Europe that ‘is growing bigger with every Russian bomb’ and accuses Berlin of putting its economy first in emotional address to parliament” – Appearing on a screen in his trademark khaki t-shirt and dark rings under his eyes, Zelensky was welcomed by MPs in the Bundestag with a standing ovation, reports the Mail.
- “Germany and Italy among nations trying to block more Russian sanctions” – The EU is beginning to split into “three sides” as Germany is accused of “openly putting the brakes on sanctions” amid concern about the impact on its own economy, reports the Mail.
- “President Zelensky restates red lines and insists Ukraine keeps land” – The Kremlin had drafted a proposed agreement with a list of 15 demands which insisted that Ukraine recognise the annexation of Crimea and the independence of Donbass, but Zelensky is having none of it, reports the Mail.
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Zelensky does my head in with his juke box selection of famous historical speech approximations. What’s next? Martin Luther King?
STOP PRESS: Today’s UK Column News 13:00 broadcast with Mike Robinson and Patrick Henningsen is making the Online Safety Bill its main subject. Now going out live (13:10) via PUSH it will also be available in full after 16:00 today from the UK Column main website.
So far, this is proving to be a very thorough (and damning) critical analysis – and (among many other things) addresses the implications of Ofcom’s political decision to ban RT, user profiling, data seizure and new Twitter powers.
All sceptics need to watch this – and worry!!
While the western media accuse Putin of ranting like an insane motherf***er who wants to “purify” his country (for an English translation of the whole of what he actually said, click here), an outfit called “Politico”, closely “aligned” with US government “talking points” (and here I use their lingo), publishes this North-Korean style rant:
“Anti-vax conspiracy groups lean into pro-Kremlin propaganda in Ukraine“
“Fringe groups across the EU and US have used the ongoing war to push falsehoods and misinformation about the West. (…)”
“The rapper, whose real name is Élie Yaffa, is just a high-profile example of how Western anti-vaccine groups and conspiracy theorists have shifted quickly from parroting falsehoods about the global pandemic to peddling misinformation about the war, often from Moscow’s viewpoint.”
The article is bylined to Laura Kayali and Mark Scott, nominees for this year’s “CIA Brown Tongue” award.
You can almost see their clothes getting flecked with the spit of their insane hatred against “crimethinkers” as they typed those words – or, more likely, as they copied and pasted them.
Clearly
1) you can’t express an opinion about either the “pandemic” or the war that is different from the official state one – you can only “parrot”… Read more »
I followed your link and read Putin’s speech. He sounded quite lucid (though obviously not up to the standards of Biden), until he demonstrated that he really is bonkers:
The truth is that the problems faced by millions of people in the West are the result of many years of actions by the ruling elite of your respective countries, their mistakes, and short-sighted policies and ambitions. This elite is not thinking about how to improve the lives of their citizens in Western countries. They are obsessed with their own self-serving interests and super profits.
Clearly quite mad.
It seems fairly lucid, if longwinded, but is notable for the blatant lies. Many of them are a case of do you believe him or media from round the world? But this statement I think we can all judge for ourselves:
In many Western countries, people are subjected to persecution just because they are originally from Russia. They are being denied medical care, their children are expelled from schools, parents are losing their jobs, and Russian music, culture, and literature are being banned.
Does anyone know any Western county that persecuted people from Russia before the war started? (there may some persecution as a reaction to the war)
The use of the present tense indicates that he might well be referring to what is happening now.
Are you taking the piss?
I have been shopping in Tesco this morning. At last they have removed all signs about social distancing, mask wearing etc (not, sadly, the stupid cashier screens though). The oft repeated messages about masking/distancing/’being kind’ (vomit) have been silenced.
But, what is this inside the door? A big sign about the effing UKRAINE, collecting money for them and providing support, then, a tannoy announcement about Ukraine, telling us to give generously and how much they have raised.
Why has my grocery shopping become politicised?
Has somebody yet made a face mask in the Ukraine flag colours? I am sure they would be very popular with committed mask wearers who like posting their naive opinions about the war on Facebook (and who tell all their mumsnet friends they will definitely be taking in a refugee – as long as it’s one from Ukraine and not Syria.)
Interesting. We may be about to get a lot more of this in supermarkets. Many empty shelves at my local Tesco’s yesterday too.
The expression “asylum seeker” has now gone down the memory hole. It was never used! Only a crimethinker would say otherwise!
It has vanished as fast as the expression “Vietnam syndrome” disappeared on 11 September 2001.
Another favourite is “cold war”. Practically the entire media now says that the “cold war” between the US and USSR, or by extension between NATO and the Warsaw Treaty Organisation, continued until the end of the USSR at the end of 1991 or perhaps until shortly before, when the Berlin wall fell at the end of 1989. Thus for example the Fischer-Spassky chess match in 1972 can be described as taking place as “at the height of the cold war”.
My goodness, a person has to be ignorant to say something like that. It’s as if they know nothing about detente, nothing about the real ups and downs of US-Soviet relations since say 1945. If you told them about Apollo-Soyuz or SALT, they’d stick their fingers in their ears.
But in fact all the time until a few years ago, the… Read more »
Kennedy’s Commencement Address at American University (June 10, 1963) was powerful and possible then (as part of a general ending of the Cold War), but would be considered outrageous now.
He called on Americans to “hail the Russian people for their many achievements – in science and space, in economic and industrial growth, in culture and in acts of courage.”
He pointed out that “no nation in the history of battle ever suffered more than the Soviet Union suffered in the course of the Second World War.”
He also had the bizarre idea that Americans and Russians shared common interests: “We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s future.”
makes you wonder why he was killed doesn’t it?
And within six months?
“and who tell all their mumsnet friends they will definitely be taking in a refugee – as long as it’s one from Ukraine and not Syria.)”
Flee your home in a warzone and cross from Ukraine into Poland and you’re a darling.
Flee your home in a warzone and try to cross from Belarus into Poland and you’re scum.
Whatever the BBC says! (And hail Mumsnet 🙂 )
“A big sign about the effing UKRAINE, collecting money for them and providing support, then, a tannoy announcement about Ukraine, telling us to give generously and how much they have raised.
Why has my grocery shopping become politicised?”
I reported this same thing 2 weeks ago after a trip to my local M+S food hall where the checkout lady left me in no doubt about her disapproval because I was opting not to donate to Ukraine.
Tesco at self checkout also has a screen now asking you to donate to Ukraine.
Corporate virtue signalling. I wouldn’t even trust them to pass on the donations in full to Ukraine or to have any idea of the amount which will reach the refugees (as opposed to get swallowed up by “admin costs” AKA someone’s fat salary).
“Why has my grocery shopping become politicised?”
A lot of posters called for a boycott on Tesco not so long ago.
Saw an absolutely brilliant sticker on a lamppost in Stourbridge, West Midlands yesterday, it read:”Covid is just the flu with better PR”
Whoever thought that one up and managed to get the stickers made, take a bow!!
“A squirrel is a rat with good PR”.
Yes, a tree rat.
Germany puts on the brakes for more sanctions
Opening up your own economy and stopping mask wearing and testing would be one way you can encourage your own economy!
https://southfront.org/foreign-fighters-fleeing-from-ukraine-videos/
It’s all gone a bit Monty Python as the reality sinks in… “Run Away…Run Away”
I have zero sympathy for anyone going to Ukraine with warn-porn fantasies of mowing down Russian conscripts in the name of “freedom and democracy”, without doing any research on what it is that they’ll actually be defending, and why.
Good intentions do not matter to reality. This is Darwinism in action.
Same. Had a bit of sympathy for the two medics that went over on humanitarian mission, only to find they would be sent to the front to fight in Kyiv, but even that was dumb.
Russell ‘Texas’ Bentley is kinda inspiring, he went over in 2015 to help in the Donbass after seeing the lady sat next to her legs, blown up by clusterbomb Airstrike in Lugansk City in 2014, appealing to the cameraman to let her use his phone to call her children before she died, harrowing video (see Roses have Thorns series).
He’s had his youtube channel disapeared in the last few days but you can find interviews with him on other channels.
wonder would the same people see the need to mobilise to fight for freedom and democracy on their own shores and in their homeland where it is under just as much threat – only more subtly done and which they might not be able to perceive – yet.
Disappointed not to see “Daily Sceptic gives right of reply to NZ doctor following hit-piece” in the News Round Up. I expect it’ll appear tomorrow.
We have added a link to her reply at the bottom of Roger’s piece.
Can we look forward to articles by the DS’s cleaner and electrician today, who are very unhappy with ‘conspiracy theorists’ Noah and Will. ‘They are wrong on every level’ says Dave, who has just upgraded the DS premises to a RCD at long last.
The Fail cranking up the hysteria again? Quelle surprise.
…
Love it although I wish the clown was Joachim Phoenix version of the Joker.
Gives it that sinister nihilistic edge that Zelensky has.
I haven’t heard yet how his speech to the US was tailored to them. For GB he quoted Churchill, for Germany he used Mauer and Luftbruecke.
Pearl Harbour, 9/11 same ol sheite
The Swiss president, an MD, is totally relaxed about the rise in cases.
https://t.me/rosenbusch/8894
What a refreshing difference to Lauterbach and other panicmongerers.
Keith C*ntabout’s brilliant take on BoJo’s SA trip.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XoGMyj1AJmA
Blaming Russia for our halt of fracking is the perfect example of the real reason why the West and in particular the ‘wrong kind of leaves’ nation UK is in trouble:
A total inability to accept responsibility for ones decisions and mistakes.
Has anyone travelled to or tried to travel to France by ferry or tunnel in recent weeks, are they still refusing entry to unvaccinated?
Good luck trying to book a ferry or train space after yesterday! But still no luck for non-injected unless you have “urgent requirement”.
Been there and back last week of Feb. Ferry was far from full – so no problem booking. W were vaccinated so no problem getting in. If you are not vaccinated you have to satisfy a lot more conditions but it is possible.
Coronavirus and Eurostar services – last updated 18 March 2022
https://www.eurostar.com/us-en/service-information/coronavirus-and-eurostar-service/travel-requirements
Looks like ‘fully vaxxed’ or negative result from a test AND an essential reason if ‘unvaxxed’.
A reminder that Wales and Scotchland both still have muzzle mandates in place for retail, travel, and healthcare.
Wales is continuing because it’s working so well, and Scotchland is continuing because it’s working so poorly.
You can’t argue with that Science.
And Northern Ireland doesn’t have what would pass for a semblance of a functioning administration and the people there don’t really know what they are supposed to be doing, so wear them “just in case”
One can only assume that those living in Wales love Drakeford, and those living in Scotland worship Queen Nic – otherwise they’d have been got rid of long ago.
“Daily Covid cases and hospitalisations spike 26% in a week”
1) ‘Cases’ are not medically diagnosed ‘cases’ based on symptoms. They are positive test results, many or most of which will be false positives as in comment from ‘A Heretic’ today “5/8 of my fully-jabbed (other than me obviously) team have been or are off over the past 2 weeks. Admittedly only 2 of them are/were actually ill.”
2) A figure for hospitalisations is meaningless unless we know the reason for hospitalisation, which could have been any of the many untreated ailments in the backlog of the past 2 years, now including vaccine damage.
Note the typical obfuscation in the headline by conflating ‘Cases’ and ‘Hospitalisations’, which could be unconnected.
Come on Team Skeptic (Toby and commenters), we should all be onto this by now and reporting how our conversations went when we asked our friend/colleague/neighbour questions like “what symptoms did A N Other positive case have?” The answer I have almost always got is “None”.
########### THINK CLEARLY>>>ASK QUESTIONS>>>EXPOSE LIES ###########
“We should all be onto this by now and reporting how our conversations went when we asked our friend/colleague/neighbour questions like “what symptoms did A N Other positive case have?” The answer I have almost always got is “None”.
I agree. And I do this. When someone tells me that X “has got covid”, I always ask if X is actually ill. Mostly they look a bit puzzled, and say “no, but he’s tested positive”. When I point out that the tests are “a bit dodgy”, they either don’t reply, or say “oh I know that, but he’s still tested positive”!!
Occasionally, someone will reply that yes, X is indeed ill. So I then ask what are the symptoms. What is described to me always sounds like a normal cold, maybe what I call a “fluey cold”, but nothing out of the ordinary. Sometimes it’s just a headache and a blocked nose.
In every case of which I’m aware, the supposedly ill person is double or triple jabbed, giving me chance to say “vaccine working well then,” but all this brings in reply is silence and a bewildered look.
I regularly have to remind myself that I’m not mad,… Read more »
It’s a badge of honour for many to say they’ve ‘tested positive’. I may be old fashioned but if Covid was so deadly and unpleasant as we continually get told it is I’m sure folk wouldn’t be so bloody pleased to ‘get it.
It’s the sense of awe and wonder my MIL has, when she tells us in hushed tones that X in the family has tested positive AGAIN, and is “ill” (yet) again!🙄
I’m familiar with that from someone as work….”Ooh, everyone I know has (pause) got covid again!”
They’re almost a bit excited by it.
She was describing one of those DIY test things the other day, and when I said I had no idea what they looked like, she was shocked. I said that I’d never been tested, or tested myself, and she could hardly believe her ears.
“What, never?” she said
“No. I’ve not been ill, so why would I? And even if I was, why should I assume it’s covid and go for a test?”
Silence.
I know – I too have never tested and when I say that to people its a bit like the reaction I get when I say ‘I don’t have a mobile phone’ if they ask for my mobile tel no.
The follow up question is always “how on earth do you manage?”
My answer to both is “perfectly fine thanks”.
Doesn’t it feel strange being in the minority? Perhaps you should ask next time what they think the purpose of getting vaxxed in the first place was?
That’s a good idea. I may ask them.
Although when I did a while ago, the person I was speaking to agreed that the vax couldn’t stop you getting or passing on the coof, but in the next breath said “but it still gives you a bit of protection, so it’s worth it”
I’m not mad, I’m not mad, I’m not mad…..
Zoe shows new daily infections at their highest ever
R value says ‘hold my beer’
looks similar to first wave. we’ll wonder where its gone in mid-April
‘R’ value = Fiction.
It is what “they” say it is.
The ubiquitous ‘spike’ ‘surge’ and ‘uptick’ back in full use again by MSM.
26% increase
Renaming the common cold as covid gave the bed wetters something to get hysterical about
I know retired people who never go out but still test themselves every day
A. Putin is an old school merciless dictator.
B. Zelinsky is a self aggrandising corrupt attention seeking psychopath that doesn’t care about his country has supported neo Nazis and is happy to bring two super powers into nuclear conflict.
Why is it impossible to believe both statements at the same time?
You are too kind to Zelinsky – he’s an actor. He’s acting.
There’s something about him I don’t like. Don’t know what it is. He just doesn’t ring true.
I mean, first he is in a show about an actor / comedian who becomes president; then stone me! he actually DOES become president! Who’d have thunk it, eh? How on earth did that happen?
Some Odd Randomness Or Something
He is a cabal stooge. Look at Zelinskys ethnic backgound, then look at the ethnic backgound of his funder Kolomoisky and also the ethic background of Bernard Henri Levi who stoked the 2014 coup and is now in Ukraine working with Zelinsky trying to foment WWIII. Look at Sorus in Ukraine too. These people hate White Christian societies and take every opportunity to sow hate and division in our societies.
Still blaming the Jews? I bet Johnson, Biden and the rest, are relieved you’re not pining any blame on them.
You need to read Coleman, “The Jews” are a handy scapegoat, just because the real global powers appreciate financial acumen doesn’t make “The Jews” the men behind every curtain, that outlook is the thin end of a very slippery slope othering a whole lot of innocent people. Sure there are a few very powerful jewish people, just as there are from many roots, doesn;t help to scapegoat a particular group, since that would let the real powers off the hook.
Here’s your starter for 10
https://pdfcoffee.com/john-coleman-venetian-black-nobility-pdf-free.html
Shame the rest of the world cannot see that.
You’ll have to ask Toby’s ‘oikophobes’!
The local news programme last night (other half will watch it) was shrieking about rising covid cases, and quoting the numbers in hospitals with covid.
With, not from or because of covid and nothing else.
What it didn’t cover was how many people went in there for something else entirely, and either caught it while in there, or were relentlessly tested until a positive result was achieved.
My other half’s sister and her family, all triple jabbed, are going through yet another bout of cold/flu. Third lot since Christmas. It may indeed be cold/flu, but naturally, they have all tested themselves and the tests tell them they have covid. None of them are really ill this time, although they have been before. They still don’t get it though.
Daily Covid cases and hospitalisations spike 26% in a week” MSM is not to be trusted with figures now, who are all of these people getting tested, and is this the deliberate push for ‘boosters’. Or, is gain of function behaving how it was meant to.
I have the impression that some people self test the minute they get so much as a sniffle. Some even test regularly without a sniffle. You have to wonder at the mindset of someone who thinks “I wonder if I’m ill today – better have a test to make sure”.
True, a relative tested her 10 year old when he looked as if he had a cold, he tested positive, the next morning negative, its madness. I asked her why the test and she didn’t know.
The lateral flow antigen tests are supposedly quite particular about when you test – their sensitivity drops rapidly after day 1 of symptomatic illness.
My sister has to test everyday to visit her husband in a care home. Sometimes she tests twice in a day.
There’s also the curious phenomenon of headlines reporting big case numbers while also, much more quietly, reporting that there are thousands of unused vax shots getting close to their expiry date.
The type who left their common sense back in 2019. I’ve no idea how I managed to get through 30+ years of adult life without the ability to test if I was carrying a cold virus on any given day. How on earth did we get by having to rely solely on being in tune with our bodies for all those years? Beats me!
Me too. I mean, all those years where if you felt a bit off one evening – sore throat, shivery, sneezing, headache – you might have a lemsip and an early night, see how you felt in the morning; then if you were clearly unwell, you’d stay at home for a day or two and see how it went? Bit of rest, box of tissues, couple of paracetamol and sleep when you needed it?
My mother and grandmother had a rule; couple of days at home, then out in the fresh air as it “loosened” the cold and you could “blow it away”. Then back to school or work.
If only we’d had tests we could stick up our nose to find out whether we really were sick or not!
Haha that’s it! Such ancient wisdom of yesteryear, ( ahem..2.5yrs ago anyway ) will it be lost due to not being handed down for kids growing up now? I think next time I have a headache I’ll ask my GP to send me for an MRI to rule out brain tumours. Just in case, you understand…one can’t be too careful.
If at first you don’t succeed (+ve) try, try again!
A fully jabbed colleague just did this a few days ago, convinced his illness was covid, got the desired result on his second test.
A bunch of people have been off work sick in the last few weeks, some have claimed covid, others not, the amazing thing is that HR is actually telling people to work even with symptoms.
Last year’s plague carriers and granny killers are today’s slackers. Total joke.
I think you are spot on.
I have related before how a relative told me that they had a test that was a “little bit positive” so they did 3 more tests that same day until they got the desired negative result.
That same relative is now spending all their spare time coordinating humanitarian relief supplies for the Ukrainian refugees, which I applaud, but they have zero understanding of the geopolitics which have created that refugee crisis, and wouldn’t have a clue that the same bad actors who were pulling the levers over covid are the ones who have been involved in Ukraine.
it could be a bit of both.
Slightly off topic but I See the Telegraph has today published a Hatchet Job on Russell Brand
https://archive.is/JZCqY
🤦♂️
Accusing him of spreading disinfo in the standfirst but yet being unable to outline what that disinfo is.
scum media.
I’m sure he won’t be bothered – it’s only the Telegraph. Can’t imagine many of their tiny, elderly readership know who he is.
True. Reminds me of the joke from a couple of months ago during the Joe Rogan Spotify / Neil Young debacle.
Anyone over 60 “What’s Spotify?”
Anyone over 30 “Who’s Joe Rogan ? ”
Anyone under 30 “Who’s Neil Young ?”
Brand voted for Ed Miliband (2015)
Rogan supported Sanders (in 2020, I understand).
So much for sceptics being ‘right wing’.
Yes, that was published yesterday immediately followed by a barrage of scathing comments shaming the journo and the hatchet job from readership (over 800 when I last saw) which DT have now removed. Shameful they removed comments as they were spot on. Like many others as a result that was the last straw that cancelled my subscription.
With a federal election due to be announced within the next few weeks, one of the rightist groups has gone to Canberra to play You Can’t Handle The Truth!
This truck will probably off more of the capital’s old lefties than The Dreaded C.
Freedom of speech – this is well worth reading in full:
In-Protection-of-Freedom-of-Speech_1429_1607.pdf (conservativewoman.co.uk)
By Francis Hoar, the sceptic barrister
If you want to find the truth of shale seek out reputable geologists like Art Berman.
Shale is probably less reliable than wind turbines. Less energy rerun on investment (EROI), short well life <5 years on average) and massive amounts of groundwater pollution.
Why isn’t The (soaraway) Sun blaming Bashir al-Assad? It didn’t tell the truth about Covid sow hy should anyone believe it now? it didn’t tell the truth about Hillsborough either.
Average EROEI is down to 10-15 at most, from over 100 in the early 20thC.
We can’t get round it. (Surplus) energy is the lifeblood of industrial society. Tim Morgan, ex-Tullett Prebon, has blogged on it for over a decade. Not that he gets many thanks from officialdom for telling them the unpalatable truth … that we must learn to live on a very finite planet and, er, the top 1% may have to trim their sails if ‘ordinary people’ are to have an acceptable life.
Fracking is a last desperate fling to extend the fossil fuel era. The EROEI is likely to be lower than 10-15, i.e. dismal.
The UK had scope 40 years ago to extend its North Sea gas to last about twice as long as it actually did. But the government was told by accountants that it was more ‘profitable’ to piss it all away in a few decades and wait for something else to come along.
Denmark still has significant N. Sea gas left. Its resources were lower than ours.
It’s not as simple as that, Peak Oil is a manufactured crisis. Control the Energy flow, control the world. The effect is the same, a global die off.
BP started buying back it’s own shares in the 1980’s rather than spend on exploration.
Possibly they – and Shell – worked out that exploration wasn’t profitable any more. Most of the world has been explored pretty intensively since 1870 and the easiest resources were extracted first.
Read James Kunstler’s 2005 book ‘The Long Emergency’. Very interesting. I don’t think he’s fiddling the figures. As we know … well, we should do if we’ve worked a lifetime in this field … US (lower 48 states) oil output peaked 1970, natural gas 1973. Canada and Alaska extended this considerably longer, and then came fracking … but the world’s limited in the number of enormous, empty places (USA: five times the UK population in 50x the area. Canada: half the UK population, same area as USA).
Kunstler reports that China explored every square metre of the country for oil and natural gas and found very little even when cost of exploration was no object. Compared to the USA in say 1920, where cheap oil was gushing out of the ground, it’s up a creek without a paddle.
Well, it has coal, but who wants to burn a filthy, smoky fuel if they can get access to natural gas?
I followed Mike C Ruppert for years, but then started digging when he morphed into a climate doomser shill, as did the whole Peak Oil movement all at the same time. Jenna Orkin was his handler, her father was the producer for the fake Peter Sellers film they used on Cyprus as a cover for ‘Operation Attila’ to engineer the war in 73, they keep it in the family.
I’ve read Kunstler, Hubbert, Ehrlich etc. but the root of it all comes from the Club of Rome, all the figures come from places like IEA, it’s a bit like the WHO for energy.
People like MCR etc. were claiming we’d already peaked in 2002 “if Ghawar peaked the world peaked” iirc, you can see from the shale plays it’s hardly added much yet here we are 20yrs later with demand much higher and a manufactured supply crisis.
Peak may be inevitable, but the current crisis is not natural, it’s completely manufactured, you need to read some more sceptical stuff to get a better handle on it, my best links from the mid 00’s are all dead, try wuwt for starters, various posters swing both ways so it’s about as balanced… Read more »
This site: “To the question does viruses exist ?’ we can’t have that, thus the hit piece. But the world was ensconced in madness. BTW, cases and hospitalizations soaring. But we need to move on.”
I see dorris has been held to account regarding the awful harms bill in, err, telegraph, the same telegraph that will be exempt from such laws. couldn’t make it up. I also find the term legal but harmful in the harms bill a ridiculous term, the law cannot and should not work with such an elastic term, otherwise legal activities can at a whim become illegal even though they are not in law “illegal” The UK cannot grandstand over other countries repressions when they themselves have censored for example debate during 2 yrs of restrictions as well as keeping julian assange locked up and now the harms bill which will add another layer to the states armoury.
There are quite a few people who live by the smartphone who are locked into the states point of view without knowing it, going forward, these types of people will surrender more and more liberties on a whim as the only opinions being fed to them is state corporate algorithmic approved content. In The US the Biden admin are briefing “influencers” over economic policy etc, this is then fed to the audiences, orwell would be stunned if he could see today.
The initially titled Online Harms Bill , now the Online Safety Bill (OSB), is only part of a raft of draconian legislation being put through Parliament. Another equally terrifying bit of legal and political jiggery-pokery (striking deep into the protections afforded by the Common Law) is the ‘Human Rights Act Reform: A Modern Bill of Rights’.Back to the OSB, it seems few avowedly sceptical journalists and commenters have really grasped the implications of this proposed legislation – with the DS sticking to its ‘don’t annoy Boris’ editorial policy rather than confronting what it means. Nonetheless some integrity still exists out there, and UK Column to its credit has been trying to wake up viewers and readers for some time now.
It is worth putting aside a few minutes to digest this essay from December 2021:
The Online Safety Act – An Act of Betrayal. By Iain Davis Edited extract:
In order to understand where the legislation is heading, first we have to interpret it. Even seasoned legal experts have struggled to get to grips with it. For a reasonably voluminous piece of legislation it is almost completely devoid of any relevant definitions. A thorough breakdown of this mess has been… Read more »
A comment/article by Toby seems called for?
He’ll get around to it after he says something about that other publisher, Julian Assange.
Don’t hold my breath?
It’s not clear to me that the Online Safety Bill is even needed for its claimed purpose. If content is already illegal, then presumably existing laws can deal with it.
Absolutely, and that aspect is perhaps the most sinister; not only within the OSB but also the Human Rights Reform Bill and other legislation/reforms being pushed by the government. The unhappy precedent set by the mechanisms of the Coronavirus Act delivered undreamed of unaccountable special powers to ministers. Our new de-facto totalitarian state does not want to give this power up, so such legal mechanisms are now to be hard-wired into the DNA of all proposed future legislation.
Of course Secondary Legislation has long been a feature of most Acts of Parliament, without it a functioning modern state (with the sheer amount of underlying day to day decisions) risks seizing up. Nevertheless, such an extension of ministerial powers into deliberately unspecified areas (including online snooping into personal data without need of justification or warrant) is not something we expect to see in a supposedly free and liberal society. As you point out, particularly when there is already adequate existing legislation to deal with these false alarm issues on which the bills are predicated.
The accepting silence from most MPs on all both sides of the House should therefore be sounding some serious alarm bells, no-matter what one’s political persuasion is.… Read more »
STOP PRESS: Today’s UK Column News 13:00 broadcast with Mike Robinson and Patrick Henningsen is making the OSB its main subject. Now going out live (13:10) via PUSH it will also be available in full after 16:00 today from the UK Column main website.
So far, this is proving to be a very thorough (and damning) critical analysis – and (among many other things) addresses the implications of Ofcom’s political decision to ban RT, user profiling and new Twitter powers. All sceptics need to watch this – and worry!!
Excellent post BFF espec the Iain Davis extract. Formerly, when legislation was being drafted it wouldn’t even have been allowed to be presented to the Commons in draft form unless everything was tightly defined and drafted – down to things like “if you put that comma there how does it affect the interpretation of the Bill?” (I kid you not)
The fact that in this case, that has not been done, and that all is being left to amorphous and vague regs and “guidance” tells you everything about what is intended – it is for the government to say what is a harm on any given day.
Poorly drafted legislation leads directly to bad law, and bad law (once on the statute book) can be difficult if not impossible to effectively remove, repeal or otherwise mitigate. Bad law (once enacted) embeds itself in the statute books while spreading its tendrils through often unrelated legislation because of the necessary interaction of government acts. We saw this with the way the Coronavirus Act was able to tap into the draconian provisions contained in the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, to name but one. The provisions of the OSB deliberately exploit the corrosive impact of bad drafting.
Indeed – excellent observation and well said.
Yet another ‘prophecist’ who somehow knew what was coming.
Written 50 years ago, and Toby still believes it’s all coincidce LOL
Brilliant post. Nails it.
In perfect timing with Pfizer giving the instruction for the civilised world to be coerced into being jabbed for the 4th time.
And here is DS boosting the supportive government propaganda to their top slot in the round up…
There’s “information”, preferably from unbiased and no -hysterical sources, which can easily slip into “talking it up”. Now we seem to have too much of the latter, which is curious, considering the inadvisability of the continued “case” reporting and accompanying shroud waving.
Without a 4th jab, how are ‘citizens’ of the European Union going to be able to keep their EU Vaxx Passes valid? Valid only 270 days (9 months) after the last jab.
The Passes that have been extended to June 2023.
That’s another year and 3 months, folks!
Another year and 3 months… for now.
Can anyone tell me what has happened to the “general comments” section which used to appear at the bottom of the page?
Has it gone?
Nope, still there.