- “Moscow warns it would be ‘forced to use nuclear weapon’ if counter-offensive successful” – Russia’s former President Dmitry Medvedev has said that Moscow “would be forced” to use a nuclear weapon if Ukraine’s counter-offensive was a success, reports the Telegraph.
- “FCA must be investigated over failure to tackle de-banking, Chancellor told” – Jeremy Hunt has been urged to investigate the Financial Conduct Authority as part of the drive to “restore integrity” after the Coutts de-banking scandal, says the Telegraph.
- “Grant Shapps says he and family were de-banked because of political role” – Grant Shapps has revealed that he and his entire family were de-banked because of his role in frontline politics, according to the Telegraph.
- “Farage wants ‘build a powerful lobby group’ to tackle ‘de-banking’” – Nigel Farage has said he wants to build a “powerful lobby group” to tackle the “major national scandal” of de-banking, reports the Mail.
- “Banks are trying to drive cash out of society, warns Nigel Farage” – The former UKIP leader says he would welcome a Royal Commission into the banking sector as more than 1,000 bank accounts a day are being shut, says the Telegraph.
- “More than 1,400 U.K. firms part of diversity scheme that played part in Farage account closure” – Over 1,400 British firms belong to a corporate diversity scheme, including Coutts, according to the Telegraph.
- “Woke bankers are the 21st century Pharisees” – The de-banking scandal is of particular interest to Christians as they seek to shed Biblical light on a society dominated by the anti-Christian cultural Marxist establishment, writes Peter Simpson in TCW.
- “Britain’s security at risk from virtue-signalling banks, ministers warn” – Ministers caution that Britain’s long-term security has been put at risk by the City shunning defence companies over misplaced ethical concerns, reports the Telegraph.
- “In defence of Coutts” – Dame Alison Rose should not have resigned as head of NatWest over the Nigel Farage affair and ministers who forced this by flinching in the face of a silly media storm should be ashamed of themselves. Matthew Parris takes the minority view in the Spectator.
- “Risk of stroke skyrockets with COVID-19 infection after vaccination” – Those who take a COVID-19 vaccine are vulnerable to strokes if they get infected with SARS-CoV-2 after having recently taken one of the shots, warns Dr. Peter A. McCullough in the Epoch Times.
- “The practice of deliberate miscategorisation of vaccine status exposed” – How widespread is the (mal)practice of miscategorising vaccination status? Professors Martin Neil and Norman Fenton look into it.
- “Priti Patel: We must pause all Net Zero targets” – Former Home Secretary Priti Patel has criticised the “corrosive culture” of pursuing time-limited goals and says voters are being “left behind”, reports the Telegraph.
- “Rishi Sunak announces review of ‘low-traffic neighbourhoods’ rollout” – The Prime Minister has ordered the Department for Transport to review LTN policies, calling them “anti-motorist”, reports the Mail.
- “Rishi Sunak’s trade-off ideology” – The Prime Minister’s driving principle is tradeoff-ism: a belief in the need to be frank about the choices facing a country and its government. And those values may rub up against the Net Zero agenda, writes Fraser Nelson in the Spectator.
- “Bristol’s low-traffic scheme stalls as row over Ulez spreads from London” – Bristol’s ‘livable neighbourhood’ initiative is now in jeopardy following the shock Uxbridge by-election, says the Guardian.
- “‘Ulez court ruling is a travesty of justice but voters can still stop Khan’” – Writing in the Express, Reform’s candidate for London Mayor, Howard Cox, promises to dump all Ulez and pay-per-mile plans if he’s elected.
- “Climate adviser says 2030 could be too soon for petrol vehicle ban” – Chris Stark, the Chief Executive of the Climate Change Committee, tells MPs that “we have not seen yet the move to a cheap electric car”, says the Telegraph.
- “Low uptake of heat pumps in the U.K. raises concerns about affordability and viability” – The CEO of National Gas has warned that the rush to phase out gas risks penalising working families, according to Energy Portal.
- “Major heat pump supplier attacks plans to replace gas boilers” – A major heat pump supplier has attacked SNP-Green plans to use them to replace gas boilers in Scotland, warning parts of the country are too cold for them to work, reports the Telegraph.
- “Labour ban on new North Sea oil and gas will drive up energy bills, Sunak to warn” – The Prime Minister is expected to say that cutting back domestic energy supply will leave the U.K. more reliant on costly imports, according to the Telegraph.
- “Britain is a world leader in Net Zero fantasies and delusions” – While we obsess over heat pumps and old cars, other countries are polluting like there’s no tomorrow, writes Tim Stanley in the Telegraph.
- “The triumph of oil” – Britain stands as something of an outlier in its frantic determination to drive fossil fuels out of its economy, says Ross Clark in the Spectator.
- “Renewable energy isn’t as cheap as advertised – so far” – The cost of hitting Net Zero by 2050 will be vast for households and businesses, writes Liam Halligan in the Telegraph.
- “Energy industry fears White House will declare Covid-like ‘climate emergency’” – Some energy industry groups have expressed concerns that the White House will declare a COVID-19-like emergency, but for the climate, according to the Epoch Times.
- “Diversity obsession has led to Kafkaesque madness” – It is critical that Government appointees are protected and not punished for speaking their minds, writes Kemi Badenoch in the Sunday Times.
- “Isolated from the American College of Surgeons” – “The American College of Surgeons banned me for questioning its rush to embrace critical race theory,” says Dr. Richard T. Bosshardt in City Journal.
- “The woke war on the Enlightenment” – Too many who lean Left today claim that the Enlightenment was the ideology of colonialism, writes Susan Neiman in Spiked.
- “The Mail On Sunday’s Woke List 2023 reveals all” – The Mail on Sunday has produced a list of the wokest people in Britain, including the male police chief who wore a menopause vest and the BBC presenter who said the Lionesses were too white.
- “How Kevin Spacey beat the #MeToo witch hunt” – Kevin Spacey was found not guilty of nine offences against four men. The evidence in his favour was overwhelming, say Phelim McAllen and Ann McElhinney in Spiked.
- “The Right should grasp the nettle of equality” – Rather than measuring British success by the number of lesbians in Parliament, we should be focusing on the pursuit of excellence, writes Mario Laghos in the Critic.
- “Let children’s stories be children’s stories” – Too often, an urge to modernise texts can blind filmmakers to the very reason those books endure, says Myke Bartlett in the Critic.
- “Food service giant sued over ‘white-men-need-not-apply’ programme” – An ex-employee of a major food service corporation is suing in U.S. federal court after being fired for refusing to join a discriminatory program against white male employees, reports the Epoch Times.
- “Background actors share concerns about AI after being ‘scanned’ on set” – Background actors have revealed how they were ‘scanned’ on sets and forced to sign over their likenesses “in perpetuity” without the offer of any extra pay, says the Mail.
- “The most depressing thing about it was the people on the Left championing big banks” – Francis Foster on GB News reflects on the Farage de-banking scandal.
If you have any tips for inclusion in the round-up, email us here.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Thursday Morning Norreys Drive
& Shoppenhangers Rd Maidenhead
Ministers should have known ‘within hours’ about ricin found in Southport suspect’s home
Errr……Ministers would have been told within hours about ricin in Southport…….
‘There are three widely-documented malicious uses of Ricin: in the assassination of Georgi Markov in London in 1978, and in two other cases (one in Paris and one in the US)’
‘Ricin is indeed ‘Macavity The Mystery Cat’: it virtually disappears in the body. This ‘vanishing’ characteristic is its unique quality’
‘Arrests in London – January 2003 In this case, we have is persons with suspected Al Qa’ida links carrying a material that is useful for covert assassination. We do know that Ricin was found in caves in Afghanistan formerly occupied by Al Qa’ida……one of those arrested was a chemist and would probably have understood Ricin and its benefits and limitations…….Using Ricin would give them a better chance of getting away than if they used more open methods such as guns……would-be assassins wanted to disguise the killing of someone as a natural death. If no one had talked about Ricin for over a decade, and if the assassins had managed to get the Ricin into the victim undetected (as in the Paris attack), it may well have worked. But who and why? Perhaps extremists wanted to kill moderate Muslim clerics and avoid the blame?’
Markov: ‘Mr Markov told him that a well-built man with a foreign accent had pushed him in the leg with the point of his umbrella and said “I am sorry” and disappeared into a taxi…..Markov….was murdered, Scotland Yard said yesterday. Evidence to back this comes from the discovery of a tiny metal pellet in Mr Markov’s leg which is identical to a pellet removed from the back of another Bulgarian exile earlier this week. The second pellet, which is now being examined at the Metropolitan Police laboratory, was taken from Mr Vladimir Kostov, former head of the Paris Bureau of the Bulgarian State Radio and TV network…….Mr Kostov said that as he was leaving the Arc de Triomphe Metro station on August 27 he heard a crack which sounded like an airgun report and felt a sting on the right side of his back. Although the wound became inflamed he quickly recovered. The existence of a pellet, found by doctors on Tuesday and in the presence of two Scotland Yard detectives, strengthens suspicions that the umbrella with which Mr Markov was injured was a sophisticated gun……brought in experts in bacterial warfare agents from the Ministry of Defence establishment at Porton Down, Wiltshire, was told to a coroner in London. After two hours of pathological evidence, Mr Gavin Thurston, the Inner West London coroner, said that under new investigation he was prevented from returning a verdict of murder or manslaughter.
“Mr Markov has died of toxaemia caused by the implantation of a metal pellet containing ricin, and that it is quite impossible that this was done by Mr Markov himself.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/from-the-archive-blog/2020/sep/09/georgi-markov-killed-poisoned-umbrella-london-1978
‘A tiny pellet that had two small holes drilled in at 90 degrees to create an X-shaped cavity. This cavity would have been able to hold a very small amount of poison, which led people to believe Markov did not die of natural causes and that this pellet may have been plugged up with a coating that was designed to melt at body temperature. The pellet was likely shot into Markov’s thigh, the coating melted and allowed the toxin to be absorbed into his body.
‘Ricin: …..as little as 0.5 milligrams can kill an adult. The symptoms of ricin poisoning often occur within eight hours of the initial exposure and they include vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, and high temperature – all of which Markov suffered with.
Years after the assassination on Waterloo Bridge, a Dane of Italian origin called Francesco Gullino was identified by a Bulgarian journalist as a renowned Soviet-era assassin. It is believed that Gullino came to London to neutralize Markov.
‘The murder weapon is now believed to have been a smaller hand-held weapon.’
Why would Government Ministers have been informed immediately?
‘….the probability that Markov was shot not by a lone individual wielding an umbrella, but that his death was the result of the concerted action of a larger team.’
But that is, of course, also the reason why that information would not have been made public.
They knew & still they doubled down on the indigenous who also knew !!!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/articles/clyr4kz18dyo
This bloke should be in the Cabinet:
‘In New Zealand when we perform the haka to someone it’s a sign of respect. It’s performed at 21sts, and at weddings. Yes, it’s about laying down a challenge, and it’s up to the opposition how they would like to perceive that challenge, but to us it’s a sign of respect.’
NZ head coach, Scott Robertson
‘Its meaning has changed since tribes used to fight each other 200 years ago, but it’s the older interpretation that was adopted by our All Black rugby team who perform a haka just before the start of a game as a kind of challenge to fight.
According to the New Zealand government’s own promotional website, the Haka traditionally “served to invigorate warriors as they headed into battle”.
So should this bloke:
’Sorry to any New Zealand fans I upset with my poorly articulated tweet earlier in the week,” Marler posted on X. “I meant no malice in asking for it to be binned, just want to see the restrictions lifted to allow for a response without sanction.
‘I’m grateful for the education received on how important the haka is to the New Zealand culture and hope others have a better understanding too.’
Hopefully someone here can explain about the pensions inheritance. I thought a pension was for the use of a worker in retirement, with a side obligation for the pension provider to continue to pay a deceased worker’s widow. Why should non dependent children and beneficiaries get it? Isn’t the point of pensions a “some you win, some you lose” thing, because pensions cannot be funded if they all pay out to the max in every single case?
Can you only pass on annuity based pensions or does it apply to final salary pensions as well?
I get the ‘government shouldn’t grab your money’ argument but people have had tax relief on those pension contributions. You’re in a good place if you are wealthy enough to not need to touch your pension pot.
Search for “pension inheritance rules” if it is not clear what can be done. It is possible in many schemes to nominate a potential beneficiary if, or when you die.
“You’re in a good place if you are wealthy enough to not need to touch your pension pot.”
Not necessarily, some people have less extravagant lifestyles and if you have invested your earnings in your home and savings then you will not have rent to pay from your pension, which makes a significant difference.
Sadly this government seems to think spending every penny you earn is a virtue and punishes prudence.
This government is wholly committed to stripping wealth and savings from normal working people, the type I suspect who post on DS. The wealthy will be ring-fenced.
Everything this government does has at heart the aim of depopulation and control and once that view is understood all government actions make sense.
Agenda 2030.
‘This government is wholly committed to stripping wealth and savings from normal working people’.
I too, have reached this conclusion. This government cannot stomach the idea of a mostly independent citizen.
The situation is different with a personal contributions based pension (SIPP). There is no guaranteed payout level and employer contribution levels are usually pretty low. It is also often managed by the pensioner themselves.
Not really.
SIPP’s are Self Invested Personal Pensions and were introduced to benefit the self employed and small businesses. There are not two sources of contributions – Self Invested.
The PM, government, CPS, judicial system and the police are a fu#@ing nest of snakes over this Axel Rudakubana debacle!
Heads should roll, all the way to the top
I hope the whole lot of them rot from the inside with infighting and finger pointing
And all those falsely imprisoned should be immediately released!
Something stinks with this story even with the recent “news.”
How did a 17 year old lad get hold of Ricin? Assuming he did then others are involved and this issue is way bigger than we are being told.
I believe the whole story is gaslighting. All fiction but why?
Apparently it’s made from castor beans (as in the oil) but I suspect you’d have to know how to refine it
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/10/30/ten-fundamental-climate-questions-the-media-and-climate-alarmists-cant-or-wont-answer/
The Observers Book of Climate Change: a handy guide
Today’s quiz for those expert ‘climate scientists’:
What is the correct global mean surface temperature (GMST) for life on Earth and why? Numerical answer required, with workings.
What is the correct atmospheric CO₂ level for life on Earth (in volume percentage)?
What exactly makes CO₂ “pollution”?
How was the climate less dangerous in the 17-19th centuries, the end of the Little Ice Age?
What have been the observed benefits of The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that President Biden signed into law in 2022 so far?
By how much will decarbonization of the economy by 2050 reduce the Global Mean Surface Temperature?
Who are you expecting to pay for the $275 trillion cost of global net zero by the year 2050?
Are China and India combating climate change (submit numerical costed evidence)?
Given that currently, 200 ships are nuclear powered, what is wrong with nuclear power?
If humans are the problem, why don’t you personally embrace change and “nut zero” yourself?
Superb
Driving you off the road
As some of the links above note, many of the budget announcements will have their effect over future years. This seems to include the effect on motoring, they avoided making any headling grabbing changes on fuel duty but if you unravel the budget announcements it seems to me to be quite an insidious attack on motoring for the hoi-polloi.
This link explains what is happening to the car tax on new cars;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FfAHUegoIw
Of course many of us would not think of buying a new car, many of us look to pick up an 3/4 year old bargain ex-lease car. But of course for there to be any secondhand cars someone has to buy the new ones in the first place. These budget changes look to be pushing to limit the number of new petrol/diesel (ICE)l cars that are sold. If that is the case then there will be very few ex-lease ICE cars coming up for sale in 3 years time. Other commentators have said they were surprised there were no big subsidies announced for people to buy EVs. This could lead one to think that there is an underlying message here of the end of private motoring.
At the same time the car insurance industry is changing they way they calculate insurance premiums with risk being a key factor. The insurance industry is increasingly giving EVs a high risk rating. The effect of this is that increasingly EVs are being ‘written-off’ for what in an ICE car would be minor damage. The insurance industry increasingly rates the slightest damage to an EV battery as high risk, even if repaired the risk of a subsequent fire is too high and so the car is written off.
And so we have a clear attempt to limit the number of secondhand ICE cars coming to the market in a few years time. Whilst EVs are increasingly being seen as one user disposable commodity items. Even if there was a secondhand EV available would you risk buying it? These policies are being ‘driven’ through by urban elitist politicians who seem to see no need for the hoi-polloi to have cars. It will have a major impact on rural areas. Is this the thin end of the wedge leading to the end of private motoring?
Thanks for saying it for me. I had worked out that the tax on new cars would impact on second hand stocks but you have summarised this very succinctly. 👍
There is no question that private motoring is to be eliminated. I expect further tightening within six months.
“Rioter who died in prison hanged himself, inquest hears”
Any more news about the TEN MUSLIM RIOTERS GIVEN SUSPENDED SENTENCES after pleading guilty to the exact same “violent disorder” charge that Peter Lynch was thrown into prison for, and died there?
David Atherton on X: “🚨Outrageous two-tier Justice🚨 Lawyer Akhmed Yakoob is at Birmingham Crown Court defending 10 of his clients. They were charged with conspiracy to commit wounding & violent disorder. The conspiracy charges were dropped, but they pleaded guilty of violent disorder. Suspended https://t.co/BnvteMmWgI” / X