- “The lazy, bloated civil service is dragging Britain down – and we are all paying for it” – Covid is still being used as an excuse by a zombie bureaucracy despite terrible service and an ever increasing cost to the public, writes Daniel Hannan in the Telegraph.
- “Britain is being overwhelmed by a rising tide of statism, entitlement and dependency” – On the surface, society seems almost back to what it was, but we should be worried by what Covid has done to us nevertheless, says David Frost in the Telegraph.
- “I’ve got Covid, and my wife seems set on ruining the experience” – “I catch the virus so late in the game that there are no restrictions left – not even against mowing the lawn,” writes Tim Dowling in the Guardian, in a sign that even the bastions of Zero Covid hysteria are starting to get some perspective.
- “Is this the last gasp of the Covid state?” – Those still calling for restrictions need to let it go, writes Christopher Snowdon in the Spectator.
- “Strike off the truth tellers? No, strike out Whitty & Co!” – The recent announcement from the GMC that doctors face being struck off for spreading fake news on vaccines and lockdowns is somewhat frightening, seemingly implying that fake news is anything not approved by the Government, writes Professor Angus Dalgleish in TCW Defending Freedom.
- “Michael Fabricant apologises for suggesting teachers and nurses enjoyed ‘quiet drinks’ during lockdown” – The Tory MP for Lichfield says it was not his intention to “cause offence” or to “demoralise”, reports the Telegraph – though he nonetheless repeats that he received numerous reports of it occurring.
- “Ukraine has path to victory, but prospect of defeat risks dangerous escalation from Russia” – Roland Oliphant writes for the Telegraph that as Russia raises the spectre of nuclear war, Kyiv faces the difficult challenge of how to reclaim territory Moscow considers its own; meanwhile, Liz Truss raises the stakes by stating that the Ukraine war is “our war”.
- “Vladimir Putin ‘poised to declare all-out war on Ukraine’” – The Telegraph reports that army chiefs want the President to drop the term ‘special operation’ and declare war which would enable mass mobilisation of Russians, in a further indication that Putin may be one of the more moderate figures in his administration.
- “I was an outcast just for wanting to keep my Girl Guides safe” – The reaction to speaking out about the new transgender rules was so cruelly disproportionate and unjust that Dr. Katie Alcock felt like a criminal, writes Frances Hardy in the Mail. She was interrogated as if by the “secret police” then expelled from Girlguiding.
- “The great American free-speech panic” – Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter has revealed how terrified the elites are of freedom of speech, writes Tom Slater in Spiked.
- “Ending WFH is ‘racist’! Apple staff tell CEO Tim Cook that forcing them back to the office will make tech firm ‘younger, whiter and more male-dominated’” – The employees petitioned the company on Friday in an open letter after CEO Tim Cook told staffers they would need to work from the office, according to the Mail.
- “Why is Canada euthanising the poor?” – Healthcare, particular for those suffering from chronic conditions, is expensive; but assisted suicide only costs the taxpayer $2,327 per ‘case’ – and, of course, those who have to rely wholly on Government-provided Medicare pose a far greater burden on the exchequer than those who have savings or private insurance, writes Yuan Yi Zhu in the Spectator.
- “Head of Tavistock clinic cuts ties with parents of trans children over their ‘transphobic’ views” – The Chief Executive and Chairman of the NHS Trust told parents they were “disappointed” by their gender-critical views, reports the Telegraph.
- “Nearly one in every 15 pupils at a leading secondary school identify as trans or non-binary – with majority declaring their gender change after lockdown last summer” – More than 60 youngsters at a school which has about 1,000 students on its roll have declared their gender to be different from their birth sex or do not identify as either male or female, most of them since the lockdown, reports the Mail.
- “Why are midwives being told that biological men can give birth?” – It is surely beyond parody that a school of nursing and midwifery is teaching students that biological males can get pregnant and give birth, writes Debbie Hayton in the Spectator.
- “The truth about Biden’s new disinformation tsar” – The President’s new misinformation board is disturbingly Orwellian, writes Stephen L. Miller in the Spectator.
- “Tucker blasts creation of disinformation board as ‘dystopian future’” – Fox News‘s Tucker Carlson says the Biden administration’s newly minted “Disinformation Governance Board” is completely misguided, reports the Post Millennial.
- “Fractured: can the West fix itself?” – There are many ways to fracture a people, but one of the best is to destroy all the remaining ties that bind them – to persuade them that to the extent they have anything of their own, it is not very special, and in the final analysis, hardly worth preserving, writes Douglas Murray in the Spectator.
- “Half our MPs will be women, pledge Tories after Neil Parish porn scandal” – The Telegraph reports a bizarre intervention from Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden, who seems to think woke quotas are what Conservative voters are hankering after, and appears to endorse the lamentable notion that men are the problem.
Stop hitting on me, I’m really shy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2022
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That’s socialism!
The rich have never paid taxes that’s the whole point of getting rich, Once they have about five million they hire a retired tax inspector, of which there are many to deal with those pesky affairs. They don’t even see it as a bad thing merely the next appropriate step. Rupert Murdoch boasts that he has paid minimal tax throughout his life and he is lauded as a folk hero for his bucanerieng spirit.If democracy was all it is cracked up to be then submitting your tax returns would be a joyous occasion because you would feel the deilight of pooling your money with others for the betterment of the common weal but it doesn’t really have that kind of vibe about it.
They don’t mean really rich people, just everyone richer than they are. Paying more tax doesn’t really truly rich people’s lifestyles anyway. What they mean is tax the middle class especially those working in the private sector, and the self employed.
That’s true. In economics they call it the hourglass effect. The top and the bottom swell up and the middle is squeezed out entirely.
People getting paid for doing nothing, parasites on wealth producers. There is a transfer from private sector, wealth creating workers to non-producers.
As for the public sector workers – even the ones like the holy NHS lot – since their output is not sold in a free competitive market, there is no price system by which the value of output v value of input can be assessed.
I would wager the cost of providing that output far exceeds its value, particularly since they get paid more and more without any link to revenue absent a price system, or any means to ensure more out for more payment.
It is the politics of envy.
You confuse tax amount with marginal tax rate.
10% tax on £1 million is more than 20% of £30 000, for example.
The problem is we have a large trough called tax revenue, and a population of pigs desperate to get their snouts into it to snuffle up as much plunder as possible.
A population that thinks others should provide for them what they don’t provide for themselves, greedy voters who believe they have a right to other people’s money (particularly if wealthier) to be used to serve their interests.
The obsession about taxation is because everyone thinks they have a right to live of each other.
Time people learned to expect to support themselves.
Jeremy Kyle talking sense here. Prioritizing migrants for housing over natives…could this be the solution for social cohesion we’ve all been waiting for? <max sarc>
”Jeremy Kyle slams Angela Raynor’s housing policies that will allow terrorists to have council houses. British taxpayers will no longer be given priority for social housing over migrants.”
https://x.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1826913762466476050
It’s just a post on Twitter, so no source, but if this is really the case across England then is it any wonder they’re getting to jump the queue?
”One of my followers connected with social housing brings us the sheer entitlement of Muslims in the South-East.
“Hi David, I saw your post regarding social housing & would like to share with you. I can’t publicly post due to my job so this is completely anonymous.
“Ninety-five percent of people presenting as homeless to our local council are Muslim, they refuse to be put into temporary accommodation due to religious reasons. I assume its due to male & female family members having to share a room.
“They therefore are given keys immediately to long term council housing & completely bypass the waiting list, approximately 3- 5 years in hostels for British applicants.”
Absolutely outrageous.”
https://x.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1827048865511391590
Just happened tonight in Germany. It never stops. Attacker still at large;
”Several people were killed and more injured in a knife attack in the western German city of Solingen on Friday, German media reported.
According to reports, a man stabbed passers-by at random with a knife at a festival celebrating the city’s 650th anniversary.
The local newspaper Solinger Tageblatt reported that three people had been killed and others were in a life-threatening situation.
Philipp Müller, one of the co-organizers, said paramedics are fighting to save the lives of nine people.”
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-several-reported-killed-at-street-party-in-solingen/a-70037172
”Police have deployed helicopters to search for an “Arab-looking perpetrator” responsible for a mass stabbing spree in Solingen this evening.
At least 3 people are dead and several others seriously injured after the attack during a street festival celebrating diversity.”
https://x.com/RMXnews/status/1827097475485688005
A German Twitter post suggests he shouted the magic ‘Allah’s Snackbar’ before the murders and was a regular visitor to the local terrorist centre – oops mosque.
Yep, that source is here;
”A report from the Solingen police, which WELT AM SONNTAG has access to, states verbatim: “A witness who was injured in the attack stated that the unknown suspect was ‘known from Solingen’ and that he was also a visitor to a local mosque. A witness reported that the suspect shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ during his actions.”
https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article253170104/Solingen-Polizeibericht-Zeuge-hoerte-Allahu-Akbar-Ruf.html
No riots in Germany then?
They don’t have a Far Right any more do they – except for Far Right anti-free speech laws against anyone who criticises government or office holders apparently.
If you are in Germany and do that on X etc you go to chokey.
National socialism is not dead it just exists under a different identity. Apparently there are loads to choose from including 108 different gender identities thanks to our Far Left national socialist friends around the world.
“Destabilise, destabilise, destabilise.” screeched the Daleks in the BBC’s new woke version of Dr What.
No longer Dr Who because apparently the good Doctor will regenerate in a new gender identity every episode – with all the fabulous clothes the costume department can run riot with.
Are there so many Pride marches, Pride months, Pride flags, Pride articles etc because they need to convince themselves there is something about all of this to be proud of?
Maybe there will one day be heterosexual pride months and marches and flags and articles.
Nah. ‘Born heterosexual and proud of it’ seems unnecessary.
“It can’t be right that we have no limits on one part of our economy and yet we force real-terms pay cuts [on others].”–YES IT IS. ——Government employees make NOTHING. They sell NOTHING. They create no wealth. If I manufacture a product and everyone wants to buy it, then why should I not benefit from that? But it is not only me who benefits. All the people I employ benefit through good employment. There is a supply chain that benefits providing all the stuff I need to make my product. ——This Tax the rich idea is the politics of envy. I believe we tax oil and gas companies at a rate about 70%. This is absurd.
It’s why the oil/gas companies are leaving the North Sea: there are more profitable opportunities elsewhere. And then the UK will need to import even more!
The main beneficiary is the consumer who has something they want and value.
Sound money – value backed – is created when a good/service consumers want and value is produced.
Where nothing is produce valueless money is created out of thin air by Government to supplement money taken from producers to pay non-producers. This debauches the currency, causes inflation which further transfers wealth from producers to non-producers. Producers have to produce more, but get less in exchange making them poorer. Non-producers don’t have to work harder to increase their income, it’s guaranteed by Government printing money.
This post should make it absolutely clear. Dale Vince is a snake oil salesman. His business is “Renewable Energy”, or to be more accurate, harvesting enormous subsidies for wind turbines and solar panels,
“Solutions” that absolutely don’t work for “Problems” that don’t really exist.
No wonder he can give a £5 Million public bung ( and doubtless many nice private tokens of his affection) to corrupt and totally incompetent politicians who want to impoverish and replace YOU.
Yep——Infact no one would ever build a wind turbine without the massive subsidy because they are totally uneconomical. For every watt of electricity they produce you need the same amount ticking over in the background from a full time source like gas as backup for when the wind stops (which is often) This is like having to buy two televisions or two cars or two houses when one should be all that is required.
Spot on.
They’ll all want what the Doctors get, and still won’t be content!
Bonfire of the public sector and QUANGO’s is needed, and why should taxpayer funded public sector employee’s be allowed to unionise? It’s not the government that pays their income, pensions and pay rises, its the long suffering taxpayer, who they have no qualms inconveniencing and abusing!
They need reminding they are public SERVANTS.
Mr Vince is not short of a bob or two. let him start, he should send a cheque for 95% of his wealth to HMRC
Back to the future. Voting for the Dark Lord Starmer’s Socialist Party was a vote for the 1970s.
Reminder: 22% inflation, 16% mortgage rates, powerful unions, 14% union wage claims, 35% to 83% Income Tax rates, 46% corporation tax, strikes, strikes, strikes in the public sector and strategic industry, power cuts, increasing unemployment, flight of wealthy abroad, Brain Drain as professionals also fled abroad, general air of gloom and misery.
The good old days. Makes me almost nostalgic.
In the good old days, workers in the public sector accepted a lower pay rate during their working lives for an index linked pension at the end of it.
So the unions must surely now be quite happy for the government to reverse that position and not have anymore index linked ‘inflation proof’ pension funds and make all the public sector employees have the same state pension arrangements as the private sector.
If only the private sector workers could go on strike to get their pay raised to the 2011 equivalent level. Or perhaps private companies should charge public sector workers more for their services?