- “The return of Covid is nothing to fear” – The worst thing we could do right now is impose new restrictions, writes Professor David Livermore in Spiked.
- “China’s Draconian Lockdown Policies: Major Consequences to Follow” – Mihai Macovei writes for the Mises Institute that China’s callous and inefficient Zero-Covid strategy is just the latest example of how policies that prioritise top-down political interventions over market solutions that respect individual freedom fail.
- “Children Are Being Bred into Obedient Drones” – Karen Harradine and Niall McCrae write for Country Squire that Covid cultism and its ugly twin sister, climate change extremism, have led humanity into unthinking regression and medievalist dogma.
- “We must throw off the shackles of fear for the sake of our children” – UsForThem’s Molly Kingsley and Liz Cole write that this week a parent has contacted them telling them about a school reintroducing restrictions – masks, bubbles, maybe even remote learning.
- “I know what you did last summer (and fall)” – Alex Berenson is in no mood to forgive and forget, reminding lawmakers and campaigners that last year they tried to take away his rights and segregate him, and “no, you don’t get to pretend you didn’t”.
- “Covid Vaccines Increase Menstrual Irregularities Thousandfold, Fetal Abnormalities Hundredfold: Doctors’ VAERS Analysis” – The Epoch Times reports on analysis of U.S. Covid vaccine adverse events reports by maternal-foetal medicine expert Dr. James Thorp indicating alarmingly high rates of harm.
- “After month-long Covid bout, Fauci claims quad vaxxed status prevented ‘severe’ disease” – Jordan Schachtel writes that Anthony Fauci credited being quadruple-vaccinated with keeping him from having a “much more serious” bout of COVID-19 and made no mention of his double course of Paxlovid.
- “Study: Boosted People Slowest to Clear COVID-19” – Igor Chudov suggests that this is why Pfizer’s Covid treatment Paxlovid does not work for them.
- “New York Times: ‘The U.S. May Be Losing the Fight Against Monkeypox’” – Eugyppius wonders why no ‘lockdowns’ on gay sex have been proposed to crush the curve given 99% of confirmed cases are in gay men.
- “Health chiefs damned by their own fiddled figures” – Guy Hatchard writes in TCW Defending Freedom that the New Zealand Government has suddenly decided to radically alter its Covid figures, making them more flattering to the vaccines, and is not being transparent about how it is doing that.
- “N’Golo Kante and Ruben Loftus-Cheek will miss Chelsea’s pre-season tour of the United States because of their Covid vaccination status in blow to Thomas Tuchel’s preparations for the new campaign” – A Mail report which reminds us of the continued presence of the U.S.’s pointless, costly and discriminatory vaccine passport entry policy.
- “Charities ‘using Covid as excuse to bombard people with emails’” – The Telegraph reports that the regulator has accused charities of contacting people even after they have been asked to stop, using Covid as an excuse for doing so.
- “Qatar Reintroduces Mask Mandate Indoors” – TrialSite News reports that Qatar has reissued its mask mandate for all persons indoors in public places.
- “As Putin shuts off the gas taps for repairs, Europe fears he may not turn them on again” – When Russia shuts down a vital pipeline carrying gas to the Continent today for 10 days of routine maintenance, Peter Conradi in the Times wonders if Putin will turn the taps back on again.
- “Kemi Badenoch: ‘Arbitrary’ Net Zero target was a mistake” – The anti-woke Tory leadership candidate comes out against Net Zero as well as slamming the Online Safety Bill as legislating for “hurt feelings” in an interview with the Telegraph.
- “Since 2000 The Arctic’s Hudson Bay Has Cooled -0.35°C With 10 Of 15 Sites Gaining Sea Ice” – Kenneth Richard on Watts Up With That? writes that a new study indicates that from 2000 to 2019, 73% of the 15 sites considered have been cooling and 67% have experienced a lengthening of sea ice duration.
- “LinkedIn Bans Scientist for Presenting Inconvenient Truths About CO2” – WUWT reports that the CO2 Coalition’s Executive Director Gregory Wrightstone was banned for posting charts from peer-reviewed research.
- “The 11 things the new Tory leader must do to win the next election” – Daniel Hannan in the Telegraph says the next Prime Minister must be “sensible about Net Zero” and stop vainly chasing the votes of the woke.
- “The Blue Peterisation of Politics” – Snazzy videos lacking substance are endemic in modern politics, writes Laura Dodsworth on her Substack page.
- “Sex work is rewarding, pupils told by education providers” – The Times reports that providers of sex education in schools are teaching that prostitution is a “rewarding job”, promoting “kinks” such as being locked in a cage, flogged, caned, beaten and slapped in the face, and encouraging pupils to demonstrate in class where they like to touch themselves sexually.
- “Have We Reached Peak Woke?” – The ultra-progressive mindset maintains its grip on institutional power, but in terms of what people actually believe, it’s on the downswing, argues Oliver Traldi in City Journal.
- “Ex-Stonewall chief aims to rewrite Oxford University free speech rules” – The Telegraph reports that the “Oxford Free Speech Forum”, led by ex-Stonewall chief David Isaac who claimed not to “recognise” the description of “Left-leaning” universities as places where people are no-platformed and difficult discussions avoided, convenes just as the Government prepares to pass legislation to stamp out censorship on campuses.
- “UCL accused of ‘witch-hunt’ after staff censured over ‘bullying’ report” – The Telegraph reports on a strongly-worded open letter from 24 academics saying that UCL has launched a “Kafkaesque” investigation in which “those accused don’t know what they are accused of or who has made the accusations”. Read analysis from the Daily Sceptic here.
- “Musk Declines to Save Twitter from Itself” – Jeffrey Tucker on Brownstone says Elon Musk looked closely at Twitter and found vast puffery, low profitability and wildly inflated numbers.
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“Protesters chanting ‘Jihad’ may not be arrested, say Met ahead of pro-Palestine march”
VAR for political protests.? What will they think of next.
“What do we want?”
“An intellectual jihad making an irrefutable case for a separate Palestinian state that will persuade Israel to be reasonable.”
“When do we want it?”
“As soon as negotiations can be organised”
Nothing to see here, Lads.
Interestingly, Sir Desmond Swayne is something of a free speech absolutist on this issue, despite him being pretty pro-Israel. ‘Jihad’ (desmondswaynemp.com)
I agree with him and don’t think it’s an odd position to take…
There is no free speech, if you ban anything you don’t like…
..and as long as it’s just part of a protest, and no one is targeted or threatened I don’t think it’s a big problem..if it gets out of hand we have plenty of laws that cover it….….
I agree with you and with him – his view is not odd but refreshing.
I am fairly pro-Israel too, but think free speech has to be given the broadest possible space.
“Diners hit with ‘carbon footprint charge’ on restaurant bills” – Scheme aims to tackle global warming by charging £1.23 per cover
I’m surprised the charge isn’t £6.66
Oh look, another tax to provide arms for Ukraine…
We need to rework that ULEZ comment by Lee Hurst earlier in the year:
‘According to the govt, you eating food is causing such bad climate change in the world that each year you are literally destroying the environment.
You absolute b*astards.
However….
If you give them £1.23 per cover each time you eat out, the environment can go f*ck itself.’
That is one charge I will never pay.
In fact if I go in to a restaurant that is pushing this crap I will walk out and give them a flea in their ear.
Sleepwalking towards digital dystopia
– latest leaflet to print at home or forward to politicians, media, friends online.
“Protesters chanting ‘Jihad’ may not be arrested, say Met ahead of pro-Palestine march”
….but anyone in the vicinity silently praying for peace in their heads might be….
Is Europe destined for civil war? I’d have thought that sounded far-fetched not so long ago but looking at the state countries are in now, the crime levels thanks to a certain demographic and the rights they are afforded, the lack of power the police now seem to have, who are reduced to just enablers, alongside the politicians who are making it all possible and are doing nothing to stop it, I can see how this is a distinct possibility.
”No sane person, according to Thucydides, wants the worst form of war, which is civil war. It is for this reason that Europe needs to better understand what it has done to itself. Europe doubtless intended to “do good” but has demographically overwhelmed itself with people who Europeans may have imagined were fleeing tyranny, but who in fact were bringing tyranny with them. Three measures seem worth considering.
The first is a moratorium on immigration. Europeans will have the greatest difficulty integrating the populations already present in their countries. They may not even be able to. Many do not seem to want to integrate into European culture; they appear to want Europeans to integrate into theirs. It should by now be obvious that adding millions of newcomers every year will not solve the problem.
When the Italian Navy intercepted illegal migrants in the Mediterranean Sea and sent them back to their point of origin in Libya, not only did the ECHR condemn Italy for this “obvious” breach of human rights; the Italians had to pay 15,000 euros ($17,000 at the time) to each of these illegal migrants in the name of “moral damage”. This kind of money is equivalent to more than 10 years of income in the countries of origin of Mr. Hirsi Jamaa and his companions: Somalia and Eritrea.
In 2016, Somalia’s GDP per capita was an estimated $400 ; Eritrea’s $1,300. Everyone, of course, heard about the Hirsi ruling. In Africa, especially, many understood that if they could reach the Mediterranean, European navies would now be obliged to ferry them directly to Europe.”
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20103/europe-civil-war
I don’t understand all the hand wringing over the lack of integration. Does no one remember that since tge Blair government went searching the world for immigrants the political class has called for multiculturalism and acclaimed it’s supposed benefits to us all.
Well, we’ve got it but few can see the advantages except those who came here to live safer than in their own countries at our expense and those who hated us all along.
I would rate that as among the most successful of all the policies promoted by the political class in recent decades. They have got what they wanted and all at no cost to them.
I don’t think, or I hope we aren’t, near a civil war yet!!…..but certainly I think mass unregulated immigration is going to be THE big question to decide in relation to who you vote for…throughout Europe…We have seen it already…
In Britain of course I won’t be voting as we have no choice, as they are all ‘for’..until someone new appear I’m knackered….
Sweden’s right-wing government said on Friday it would make it harder for non-European immigrants to receive social benefits, saying it wanted to dissuade migrants from arriving, and better integrate those who do.
In your protest coverage, you seem to have missed the one yesterday about Jewish protestors shutting down Grand Central Station.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2023/10/28/protest-new-york-grand-central-israel-gaza-palestine/
Back to your substack piece again, modularist. It’s been disappointing just how little coverage there has been of both UN activities and the various mediation negotiations that are taking place to defuse this horrific situation, let alone demonstrations by non-allied groups of all denominations urging peace.
The United Nations General Assembly on Friday adopted a major resolution on the Gaza crisis, calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities.”
https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142932
I was just about to post the same link with a comment from Mike Yeadon, Robin Monotti & Cory Morningstar’s Telegram.
I’ll post the comment anyway.
“UN General Assembly adopts Gaza resolution calling for immediate and sustained ‘humanitarian truce’ | UN News
120 votes in favour, 14 against and 45 abstentions.”
https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142847
This part is noteworthy. See how many countries voted against condemning the atrocities committed by Hamas on Oct 7th;
”BREAKING: The United Nations General Assembly just voted on an amendment to condemn the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas.
It failed to get a 2/3 majority to pass with 55 countries voting against and 23 abstentions.
Ambassadors even applauded after it failed.”
https://twitter.com/greg_price11/status/1718003966787694852
What does that tell you?
It tells me that large parts of the world either don’t read this conflict the way our media does or that they don’t share our values. Probably some of both.
In polling, 3/4 of the UK public wants an immediate ceasefire; this is not reflected by our media either.
Many of those people marching today will be people who are concerned about the civilians of Gaza and who want a ceasefire and peace. That will not be reflected by the media, which will smear them as jihadists and Hamas supporters/apologists.
Yes…the split is pretty much ‘the west’ and the rest….I suspect some voted, not from conscience but from ‘allegiances …’ either way…
I think though that this should make the Western countries as a whole just stop and have a re-think…this is the moment when they go all out against the ‘rest of the world’ or not….!!
Indeed!
Now here’s an example of ‘free speech’, and how it’s evidently a one-way street. Riddle me this; if shouting for a jihad and gassing the Jews is tolerated ( because free speech ), why is this guy not allowed to state actual fact? See the reaction of the Muslims and how triggered they are, but he’s done nothing wrong ( <2min );
https://twitter.com/ApostateProphet/status/1718091017302274334
He’s referring to what is written in their Koran yet he deserves to get lynched? Double standards, much?
”According to ahadith reported by Bukhari, the Prophet of Islam “married Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consumed [i.e., consummated] that marriage when she was nine years old.”[2] He was at this time in his early fifties. Many Islamic apologists claim – in the teeth of this evidence – that Aisha was actually older. Karen Armstrong asserts that “Tabari says that she was so young that she stayed in her parents’ home and the marriage was consummated there later when she had reached puberty.”[3] Unfortunately, her readers are unlikely to have volumes of Tabari on hand to check her assertion; contrary to Armstrong’s account, the Muslim historian quotes Aisha thusly: “The Messenger of God married me when I was seven; my marriage was consummated when I was nine.”[4]
https://www.jihadwatch.org/the_truth_about_muhammad
Norman Finkelstein’s ‘teach-in’ on Israel, Hamas and Gaza.
https://normanfinkelstein.substack.com/p/rehosted-umass-amherst-teach-in
Captain Obvious needs to ask; Does anyone know why these people can’t be taken to a closer and more suitable Muslim country? Has peak Jihad not been reached yet in the UK?
”The UK has started the evacuation of AFGHAN REFUGEES, eligible for asylum, from PAKISTAN
The first flight carrying 132 refugees landed at London STANSTED AIRPORT at 3.15pm yesterday
Around 3000 AFGHAN REFUGEES will be flown to England and put in HOTELS over the next 6 weeks
They have been in Pakistan since last year when the UK authorities made accommodation arrangements a prerequisite for repatriation
Their repatriation became a contentious issue for the UK government after two refugees, eligible for the relocation, filed a case in a London court, forcing London to expedite the repatriation
On Thursday, a chartered flight with 132 Afghan refugees onboard departed the Islamabad International Airport for London’s Stansted Airport at 3:15pm.”
https://twitter.com/ActivePatriotUK/status/1717799787502699006
FFS.
“The challenges ahead for GB News as Ofcom gears up for battle”
That horse was broken when they turfed out Mark Steyn.
Plus:
“Boris Johnson joins GB News as presenter and commentator”
Any bets being taken for how soon an anonymous Ofcom complaint is made? First show, perhaps?
Bozo the traitor on GB News. I won’t be watching. In fact the only GB News I watch now is Neil Oliver.
I literally would rather make myself blind than watch Boris…the evil turd…!
UN vote. 140:14, 45 abstentions (including UK), for an immediate ceasefire.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-resolution-urging-immediate-gaza-ceasefire-passes-with-overwhelming-majority/
Correction, 120 for.
Israel and the USA voted against the ceasefire…along with twelve other countries..there were 45 abstentions including the UK (fecking evil cowards)
All communications have now been cut off with both the WHO, the UN and other humanitarian groups having lost all communication with their colleagues in Gaza…
Make no mistake, I believe a truly evil act is being carried out that will stain the people committing it forever….
“Carpet-bombing two million Palestinians in the dark.
This is “counterterrorism”. This is “self-defence”. This is “democracy”. This is “civilisation”.
This is what Western powers have shown unconditional support for……”
“Please can we stop equating Hamas and Israel” – Boris..
Exactly who is equating them?
I haven’t seen one word in any Western MSM to that end.. Not one….and I don’t think the general public think it for a moment either….
So who exactly is the comment aimed at?
Maybe there’s another question, which you don’t want to answer, which is can we stop equating the innocent civilians in Gaza with Hammas? That, I think, is the question you don’t like people asking…
As far as I can see it’s only people like Boris and the rest of the ‘London luvvies’,
(all of who seem to appear in this round-up) putting up a mostly imaginary straw man, just so they can tear it down…..which is much easier than tackling the real problems…
People see right through you..and as I’ve said a million times..this doesn’t help the people you seem to think you are helping….
Quite. The main equation I see is between Hamas and the Palestinians.
..It gives me no joy actually to point out these realities..I think that’s why a lot of people want to leave DS, or are very fed-up….
Daily we are bombarded with ‘everybody is anti semitic stories…’ from the London echo-chamber…..
..but never the ‘are Israel’s current actions right or wrong’ stories …
We all see the dissonance behind the fact that anyone talking about, or to Israel, has to mention October 7th…or else they are somehow anti-Semitic….but no one is allowed to follow that with any talk of Gaza or Israel’s actions…
I suppose it’s up to us to try to claim some balance by posting the ‘other’ stories….like the one you posted about Grand Central Station?
As I have no allegiance to Israel, I don’t feel that pointing out anything to do with the conflict is off the table..as it has never been with anything else..
UN…Palestine…
”It’s been confirmed that 53 of our colleagues in Gaza have been killed since October 7
These people dedicated their lives to their communities. One colleague died collecting bread. He leaves behind 6 children.
We are beyond devastated, as this unspeakable suffering continues.”
The DS can be as closed-minded as it wants in ploughing one furrow..but the rest of the world aren’t following..and I wish they would wake up at least enough to accept there isn’t just one story out there….
I’m not leaving because it is one of the few places that does not censor BTL.
Spiked does not censor BTL either, but I did leave after Fraser and Tom attacked Andrew Bridgen on spurious grounds, which pales in comparison in contrast to their articles over the last three weeks. They still defend free speech, but they just made me too angry over Bridgen when only he, with some support from Chope & McVey, is the only person in Parliament standing up for the truth and against the WHO.
I am disappointed with TY’s editorial line here, but I’ll stay.
I see the Daily Sceptic’s tiresome campaign against electric vehicles continues. Toby, sort Will out, please.
What makes you think it’s just “Will” or that “Toby” is an EV enthusiast?
Where is this “tiresome campaign”? I mean, I’ve seen plenty of sceptical reporting regarding the supposed benefits of EVs, their apparent downsides, and quite correctly IMO plenty of opposition to attempts to impose EVs on a market that clearly doesn’t want them.
If some firm wants to make EVs and sell them, and people want to buy them, and someone wants to install charging stations, let them do so – just not with my tax money thanks, and as long as manufacturers are free to make ICE cars and I am free to buy them, forever.
My brother (a Tesla owner) received a message from Tesla offering benefits for making new contacts for them. Another from Octopus for green energy contacts. His thought was that the only other person he knows who would want a Tesla already has two. Why might that be, and why would green suppliers need to hold recruiting drives at all, the technology being so superior?
I suppose that all the rest of the country are bucking market forces by reading disinformation from the Daily Mail or DS instead of the enthusiastic reports of their betters. That’s what comes of not centralising the economy enough so that the plebs have to see reason.
The only EV owners I know are rich people or people who have them via the firms they work for, with huge subsidies from the taxpayer.
EV’s are a political solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Even if the problem did exist, and reducing CO2 was a benefit, EV’s are a lousy way of achieving that. The only reason that EV’s have got any traction at all is that big companies and public bodies buy them for their ESG value, and then there’s the obscene amount of tax payer money being throw at private individuals to buy them. Take that away, and they will die faster than the market for a Betamax video recorder.
I think EVs could well be a key issue in the looming net-zero challenge. The net-zero politicians have demanded that this technology just steps in and replaces ICE vehicles, but they do not do this. Yes they are a mode of transport but you cannot run them the same way you run ICE vehicles, in my view individual ownership of an EV is not a viable option, if you are going to use one it needs to be on a lease option or via a car club. They are too much of a liability to justify individual personal ownership.
The motor industry is an important part of the UK economy, are the politicians OK to see the motor industry decline along with the UK economy? Will they petulantly restrict petrol and diesel supplies and push ICE vehicles off the road? In my view given current technology, resources and finance; we can only hope to have 3 – 5 million EVs on the UK’s roads. If they push all the ICE vehicles off the road that is a lot of current motorists who will no longer have a car. This would have huge and dramatic social and economic impacts, Are we ready for all this, do the politicians really know where all this is heading?
To my mind that is why all the articles about EVs are important.
perhaps if you wrote a considered article countering the tireless campaign and supporting the case for evs DS would include it.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/27/british-lawyers-call-on-government-to-press-for-ceasefire-in-gaza
More than 250 British lawyers, including eminent KCs and professors of law, have called on the UK government to press for a ceasefire in Gaza, saying serious breaches of international law are being committed.
The lawyers have written to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak; James Cleverly, the foreign secretary; and Grant Schapps, the defence secretary, setting out what is in effect legal advice regarding the Israel-Hammas war.