Welcome to this special episode of the Sceptic with Professor Eric Kaufmann, on his new book, Taboo: How Making Race Sacred Produced a Cultural Revolution. Eric is Head of the Institute of Heterodox Social Science at the University of Buckingham, a member of the advisory board of the Free Speech Union and a senior fellow at Policy Exchange.
Host Laurie Wastell speaks to Eric about the thesis of this book – that what we know today as wokeism stems from the emergence of the race taboo in the 60s; what people get wrong about woke; its origins in the West’s Christian heritage; its impact on the immigration debate; why Conservative politicians won’t talk about demographics; why younger generations are more woke, why that’s a problem, and the ‘Zoomer Right’ phenomenon; the culture war under a Labour Government and how to fight back; and the need for a counter-narrative to woke.
Get your copy of Taboo.
Sign up for Eric’s 15-week open online course on woke at the University of Buckingham.
Visit Eric’s research centre at Buckingham.
Visit Eric’s website.
Follow Eric on X.
And find him on Substack.
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Produced by Richard Eldred.
Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.
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Good to be back.
Morning all.
Good morning, hp.
Good to see you (so to speak).
Thanks very much AE. How we manage to raise so many downticks on what is a very friendly site is amazing.
Perhaps some of the miserable sods could explain.
It may be “ON TOPIC” Utilitarians – the sort of people who can’t abide chatting in the workplace?
Excuse my bad manners; I posted before paying homage to the King of First Posters.
Good morning, hp.
Good morning, Ceriain!
Let us not be discouraged by the downtickers who disapprove of the exchange of greetings (perhaps it’s not allowed in the New Normal).
I remember when one used to get a load of upticks just for posting “first”. So easy back then…
It seems our pet downticker has adopted multiple accounts.
Oh there’s more than one. But still with multiple accounts. Miserable gits who have zero of worth to add, just their petty behaviour. ( I don’t think they get out much….
)
They’re fleeing Twitter in droves now that Elon is torturing them.
Good evening Ceriain.
Good to be back? You could have fooled me. Meat pie. sausage roll…
Come on Oldham – give us a goal
Dr. Bryan Ardis releases huge allegations: The covid-19 virus, vaccines and some treatments are all derived from snake venom
https://www.newstarget.com/2022-04-12-dr-bryan-ardis-releases-huge-allegations-the-covid-19-virus-vaccines-derived-snake-venom.html
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I would treat this idea with extreme caution. Plenty in the movement, such as Amanda Vollmer (below) see this as plain nonsense. I’m inclined to agree:
https://odysee.com/@DeepIncite:e/Watch-the-Snakes-Discernment-Time-Again-Truthers._-720p:c
Given the hammering he got for this yesterday on Twatter, I’m surprised Toby is continuing to bang on about this.
Or maybe Toby realises that keeping his old mate Bojo in No. 10 is the only chance of getting that knighthood.
Seriously, though, I do agree with one point Toby made; that there are people who want the top job that would try and lock us down again the minute they got in; Hunt and Gove for starters.
As for giving the fat liar our support: No chance! He wanted to shut us down again at Christmas (and TY knows it); it was the backbenchers (and some of the Cabinet) who stopped him from doing so.
The man is a disgrace!
I wonder. There must have been plenty in his party pushing the other way. Maybe Toby is just being practical? Anyhow, I suspect that there are not many others who could give the Tories a majority, and we know what Keir Starmer would do. Of course if the right Corbyn had a chance, it would be different…
I despise Johnson and think he’s the worst PM ever, probably has committed treason. But which REALISTIC candidate to replace would be better from a sceptical point of view, and how?
The media and the most of the populace don’t really care what comes next. The name of the game these days is to continually bay for resignations, sackings, apologies etc and then it’s onto the next one. I agree that Johnson is worse than useless but there are no credible alternatives which in itself is a shocking state of affairs.
I’m sure this tedious better the devil argument was made by some for Shipman or Savile. Unless Johnson is booted out, and placed in the dock for crimes against the UK people, this country will no longer deserve to use its already tarnished democratic tag line. Anyone would make a better PM, not least because the removal of Johnson would send a much needed message to all No10 wannabes. And even if the pretender ended up being worse, it still wouldn’t justify retaining the imbecile Bozo.
Largely agree with you. A great leader would be one who defied the prevailing consensus i.e. lockdowns, face masks and everything else which went with covid and trusted the British people to do what they thought was right.
The end result may not have been much different really. We would mostly have been cautious but it would have been our decision, not that of tyrants.
Agreed – “send a much needed message” is one way of putting it.
So, are you saying TY’s brand of blinkered sceptism means its loyal BTL adherents also become too frit to call for the removal of an incompetent bumbling criminal who declared war on the UK public? Indeed should all commenters now dutifully row behind TY’s ongoing defence of a corrupt libertine who approved killer jabs for kids, trashed the economy, kept his Tory ‘friends’ loyal with taxpayers’ money spaffed on dodgy contracts, casually broke his own rules (while these same rules were being followed at great personal cost by millions), and is even now propping up an oppressive undemocratic genocidal Ukrainian leader and his fascist hit squads with UK ambulances and weaponry?
From a real sceptical point of view ANYONE would be better than the murderous imbecile Johnson, unless one cynically confuses principled scepticism with opportunistic public school style cronyism, as TY does every time he puts his apologist-in-chief hat on when being interviewed (this is not the first time) or refuses to make crucial sceptical editorial calls on this website for fear of annoying his chum in No10, in doing so blighting his own prospects, and damn the consequences!
I don’t see any “loyal BTL adherents” here – just people with varying viewpoints, not afraid to express them and not stopped from doing so.
I think TY is guilty of wishful thinking/denial over the PM, rather than “cronyism”, but equally I think it’s true to say that of the candidates with a realistic chance of becoming PM, I can’t see anyone we’d be better off with and some we’d be worse off with. In the long run I don’t think it matters much whether the PM stays or goes – I think we will see further decline of our civilisation over the next few decades/centuries. Certainly don’t hold out much hope in my lifetime.
I was hopefully speaking hypothetically, but unfortunately…
I think we will see further decline of our civilisation over the next few decades/centuries. Certainly don’t hold out much hope in my lifetime.
You’re obviously clear-sighted and intelligent (which is more than can be said for the majority of politicians), so of course you see the appalling developments around us.
But don’t you think we have to create hope? Look for hopeful signs? What will we tell children?
I’m not suggesting inspiring myths. They serve a purpose that’s exploded the moment people realise they’re myths. But human creativity is a remarkable thing; and the future is not written. It’s being created now.
We’re not powerless.
Julian, you are an optimist. The destruction of this country is scheduled to occur by 2030 at the latest.
The point is that, if Bozo is allowed to get away with his appalling leadership, there will never be any way to control any other politicians. Bozo fully deserves to be destroyed, but the sauce to be added is the need to encourager les autres!
But he has got away with his appalling leadership, and resigning over partygate won’t change that.
The leaders we get are all hand picked pre-vetted traitors and all reps of our political class have proven themselves to be good for nothing in the last two years. None of them have a real backbone. If we get Jeremy Hunt we get Henry Kissingers biggest fan. That is frightening. It is now OUR DUTY to create OUR OWN POLITICAL MOVEMENT AND VOTE FOR OURSELVES. We the people hold the power. They serve us. They need to learn what that means. All of the mainstream parties are contaminated and full of lowlife corporatebraindrained no soul scum. Once we hold power, by voting for ourselves instead of the treasonous homegrown enemies of the UK currently occupying our Parliament and violating our rights and freedom, we can get on with the busines of prosecuting the politicians, the judges, the heads of the NHS and medical boards, The regulators, the four horsemen of the convid apolcalypse, the new head of the Met who has dissolved the crime nuimber which was issued who has already commited a huge crime and already deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison, the scum in the media like Richard Sharp BBC Chairman – 23 years at Goldman Sachs – who is a 100percent traitor guilty of defrauding the British public out of the truth. These peope need to be sent down, plus many more. We must bring justice to the doors of these criminal treasonous pieces of dirt who think its ok to blatantly lie to the public and to conduct terror campaigns and vile unnecessary illegitimate medical experiments on pregnant women, school children as young as five and everyone else, who they have subjected to fake news and terrorism nonstop for two years to make them submit. All this on the back of an illness which to this day has not been proven to exist. They just released another paper claiming they have proved transmission etc, from a UK institution, but quelle surprise, its another load of horse manure. Their own documents confirm they have been scamming us for two years, so its by the by, there never was a threat, there never was any justification for any interventions, so why have we been forced to do all this. Because our goverment is signed up to internationalist Bankster policy, and the conman Johnson is guilty of treason in this respect. He is a traitor, he must be charged and sentenced otherwise we can all just commit any crime we want in the ful l knowledge that no matter how serious our crimes are, the Freemasons in the police dont care and nor do our judges and we just get away with it every time.
They are guilty, their cirmes are too serious to pardon, and justice, one way or another, must be brought to these deceivers and liars. These people are traitors, they are scum, they have a hand in literally murdering and maiming men women and children all over the UK while destroying our lives and wellbeing and culture and freedom and country under the flase pretence of being concerned about people, in favour of a criminal despicable unaccountable bunch of players and bankers who have no respect for the rule of law or any citizen of the UK. Now Bojo The Clown has signed over the policy of our government to a criminal organisation which is up to its neck in all this deceit and terrorism – the WHO. Then they laugh in your face and use phrases like “Taking Back Control” while signing over executive powers to terrorists.
We get the military and police on board, we prosecute the senior traitors within the ranks – such as those who authorised the injection of our entire military with the genetic bioweapons which if virology is correct – is part one of a two part bioweapion which can be “released” byh CHina at any time and which has the potential to wipe out a massive proportion of our armed forces and all other services and population. These people must be served justice, otherwise we are nothing but slaves to a bunch of treasous scumbags. Or are we so spineless and do we have such low self esteem that we are going to sit back and tolerate this. We start bringing these criminals to book and we do everything in our power to inform and educate our fellow man about the truth of what these liars have done and continue to do, even thought they have been caught red handed.
DO NOT TALK TO PEOPLE ABOUT THE VIRUS – ITS IRRELEVANT. We speak ONLY of the crimes of the governement. That is what we talk to people about. Getting into arguments about covid is a dead end blind alley. The most serious crimes have been committed. The criminals have been caught red handed. Criminals in the system are preventing justice from being done. Someone decided to inject our entire military with part one of a two part bioweapon, if we buy into their fairytales about viruses which THEY swear by. Many are visible and we all focus our attention on these criminals and spreadingthe truth to the public.
Top class.
So just let him bumble on with his ‘appalling leadership‘ until a more fitting opportunity presents itself to oust him, eh? Is Stockholm Syndrome contagious BTL, or is it you can’t see how ludicrous your comment is?
He’s not an immortal God-King and he will be replaced sooner or later.
And I agree that he’s likely to be replaced by a worse creature.
So what message are we sending to that future WEF stooge about the consequences for despotism if Johnson is allowed to simply shrug his hypocrisy, lies and self-created criminality off?
You can keep a spider in your boot to try and keep the scorpions out, but ultimately all you’re signalling is that you’ll tolerate toxic scuttling invertebrates.
I think David Frost has his eye on the job
I think a lot of people see Frost as a steady hand. He certainly seems level headed.
At almost any other time in history I think Boris would have been welcomed as a swashbuckling, eccentric British rogue and most would have quite liked it.
Sadly though, our government hasn’t had to govern for the last 40 years of the EU, just follow instructions so many skills have been lost. Now, they are just compliant muppets, personified by the featureless Starmer.
The disaster of the past few years might just tease out a decent candidate from left field and perhaps it might be Frost. Remainers hate him, but then who don’t remainers hate?
Our next General Election is scheduled for May 24th 2024. Will the year be as momentous a coincidence as Brexit followed by Trump in the November?
If he falls in some kind of perceived relationship to having cr*pped on the population regarding SARSCoV2, that’s good because it means his successor – and the corporate government as a whole – may possibly be at least a little bit weaker in that department.
An inanimate object would do better.
‘The man is a disgrace’: yes, and Bozo is equally bad.
The partygate story was beginning to break before Christmas, that and the Owen Paterson corruption scandal made it impossible for chunky Johnson to slap us with another lockdown.
There might be more to come. Then the Sue Gray report which is likely to be the killer. An insiders perspective of what’s been going on.
I wouldn’t bother about any of his shenanigans other than for NetZero. It’s the single issue I can never forgive him for and the the hill he needs to die on, by whatever means.
The only support Johnson needs is the lamppost holding the piano wire.
Yes, only the backbench rebels stopped it.
Judge needs a kick up the arse!
re. Greece story:
Nice one, Will.
re. Doctor appointments:
Not round my way they ain’t; 3 weeks wait just to talk to them on the phone.
Lord David Frost: top man!
According to the doc on GB News, doctors are in fact working 36 hour weeks, and administering the dangerous experimental gene therapy drugs on top of that. So that’s alright then.
Really, the whole system needs reforming.
The headlines about doctors working part-time need to be understood not in terms of men on golf courses, but in the light of well over 50% of GPs being women committed to work-life balance.
Small aside:
It’s 1:44 in the morning and I just popped out front to have a ciggie (Yes, I know!).
Neighbour across the street just popped out to put something in her blue bin (15 feet from her front door). She was wearing a mask! Seriously, she was!
It’s 1:44 in the morning!
For many people masks are now their new normal.
What was that film about doing certain acts in a car with a bit of a history? I suspect there will be a similar fetish with masks for some.
Send them this link.
https://youtu.be/OBsCHDdi_O4
That was superb – entertaining and thought-provoking!
Brilliant – covers ALL the agendas – BLM, Ukraine, virtue signalling, mask wearing – share widely!
Yes, its incredible isn’t it? I’m seeing things that would make you scream with total frustration at the sheer idiocy of some people and their mask-wearing rituals – I mean, where are their brains for crying out loud, why is it that people can’t seem to perform some very basic logic anymore?
You can’t be too careful…
Because she knows that just like nicotine addiction, COVID-19 never sleeps!
“A certain poetic justice to BJ’s Partygate fine,” writes Lord Sumption. But no real justice for the numerous, dead serious crimes committed against his country and its citizens.
Indeed not.
A mere apology, however grovelling is not enough. Zacchaeus promised to repay FOUR times over if he had cheated anyone. Then Jesus said, ‘Today salvation has come to this house’.
So:
IF MR. Johnson wishes to remain Prime Minister and IF all of his cabinet wish to remain in office this is what all those party goers MUST do:
Reimburse ALL the fines or penalties to everyone who has been caught in this sorry saga FOUR TIMES over out of their own pockets. There must be no question about this. There MUST be HEAVY financial penalties for this crime. £50 (or whatever it is) will not do.
If any fine has been threatened but has been subsequently rescinded the victim must be reimbursed for the threatened fine out the pockets of ALL MPs and cabinet ministers.
There must also be substantial compensation for ALL businesses that have been ruined by this criminal government and the proceeds for this compensation must come from the following OUT OF THEIR OWN POCKETS:
1. The Prime Minister and all Cabinet Ministers
2. The Shadow Cabinet
3. ALL MPs with the possible exception of Sir Desmond Swaine
4. ALL members of SAGE, Nervtag, Public Health England bureaucrats
5. ALL NHS bureaucrats
6. ALL senior civil servants including those who have retired
7. ALL Archbishops and Bishops in the Church of England.
It is high time that the people who have imposed these criminal actions made some recompense.
Then and only then can this sorry saga be brought to a close.
A better reaction would be for the country to realise that the Government needs to butt out of our lives. What do they do that we can’t do better for ourselves?
A very good point and I agree. The ONLY thing that the government does better than we could do is defence of the realm.
My video call with the WHO this morning” – Dr. Tess Lawrie reports on the sham of a “public participation process” organised by the WHO this week and expresses concern that “the WHO now intends to take full control over every member nation via this pandemic treaty”.
If the WHO does indeed move to take full control over every member nation via the pandemic treaty, people across the world will be massively alerted to the aims and ideas of the kind of globalists often discussed here.
The discussion will become mainstream. The WHO, like the UN, is not an organisation which enjoys widespread popular respect.
There are people who put up with all sorts of edicts, because they come from elected governments (whatever they think of those governments or the elections which put them into office).
If those governments tell us that we have to be locked down or that we all have to be “vaccinated” because the WHO decrees it, they will face a different kind of opposition: Brexit on steroids.
We hope.
Indeed. I decided to use a definite tone!
I forget if the UN (like the WHO) is in the pocket of China.
Anyhow, there was something on GB News yesterday about how Shanghai was the place in China that lived the good life off the hard work of other areas of China, and now that Shanghai has been shafted, there could be trouble for the regime. I suspect the CCP might struggle to fulfil their plans for 2049.
The thing about Brexit is that it was the result of a vote… you may or may not like the result, but it was democratic. The WHO takeover suggested here is the very antithesis of democracy. If it were to be attempted, it would require a much more robust, physical response which would set one half of the population against the other… on steroids, as you say,
Perhaps that’s the plan?
Brexit was a reaction to outside control that shocked many of the elite. The whole point is that it was indeed “democratic”, in the sense of the people speaking to and about power.
From what I gather (as someone not living in the UK), there was an assumption by the Cameron government that people accepted and would continue to accept a degree of control or influence over their lives by external organisations. The vote showed that most did not.
I imagine that if the WHO were to decree health policies people could not vote against, a lot more than half would be seriously annoyed.
We are to be locked down because the WHO says we should be? And the government we elected says we must meekly obey?
Who will enforce such a lockdown? Local police? If so, whose police are they?
How can ANY democratic country of the world even have chosen to participate in this discussion, let alone sign this ‘treaty’?!
Regardless where you stand on the political spectrum or on public health measures, this is totally insane and ceratainly beyond me.
Imagine the EU asking for such powers, or the UN security council- and that leaves the WHO’s dodgy private financing aside.
Ridiculous.
In the UK in particular, where are those ‘It’s all about sovereignty!’ Brexiters now and on this, far more serious and the GBPeople enslaving issue?!
Have they been bought too?!
It would be appalling even if the WHO’s financing wasn’t dodgy. Public health issues are highly specific not only to particular nations, but to regions within those nations.
The WHO’s performance over the last two years has been disgraceful: contradictory and dishonest. At best, it’s become a standing joke; at worst, it’s now a serious threat to the health of people all over the world; despite the excellent work done by outstanding individuals and their programs.
I think democracy – true democracy – is dead. Its death was helped along by the events of the last 2 years, rapidly speeded up if you will. But democracy has been ailing for a much longer time than that.
The events of the last 2 years have done much to quell in the average person any thought of rebellion, and it is very very hard for me personally to avoid the conclusion that there is something in the jabs which is designed to impact people’s brains and their ability to think and reason for themselves.
People were dumbed down before the lockdowns by the reliance on their smart phones, but there must have been something in the jabs which has added a whole new layer to that dumbing down, to the point, I see in the people around me, where they just comply, they don’t care where the order comes from, their own government? WHO? what’s that? doesn’t matter, they just do whatever they are told. It wouldn’t occur to them that they cannot vote for the body telling them to do X or Y – they would just do it. If everyone else is doing it they will jump on that bandwagon. That is the way that people seem to be programmed now. I, on the other hand am worn out with the effort of constantly having to monitor the growing list of things I am at the very least questioning, if not downright opposed to. The WHO treaty falls into that second camp – downright opposition. I could guarantee I could walk down my high street and there might not be a single other person aware that it is happening.
People like us here BTL, are awake and aware and thinking for ourselves and researching. The vast majority are just bumbling through and doing everything they are told. They aren’t bothered by something like sovereignty, or democracy, that won’t pay their bills at the end of the day.
Well Milo – I’ve just upticked what you’ve written; but God that was depressing!
I can’t deny that you make excellent points, and I wish I didn’t agree with so many of them.
BUT – we’ve been through dark times before. Perhaps a not very large minority is all that’s needed.
Yes, I suspected the consultation would be pointless. I agree that apathy is the enemy (though widespread, with mer survival and the mental health crisis paralysing mny) – you don’t get to Heaven on a feather bed – but we need to know what will genuinely make a difference. I still say that telling people in your community (work, cultiral etc.) why you object, and supporting communities trying to continue the old normal (even if it means doing things you wouldn’t normally do) is of paramount importance.
Fantastic! Now for the zero carbon nonsense. I bet they’ve already started in the Ukraine…
The Greek relaxation only lasts until the end of August.
No – all the weapons donated from from the West are guaranteed to produce no CO2, and contain no single-use plastics.
And you thought that HS2 was bad! Back in 2019, I would never have thought that HS2, and the Climate Change Act could be made to look cheap…
Yes. I wonder if any judge said that they were inspired by the many hundreds of people who continued to protest the genocidal human rights abuses in London (and Australia) through the lockdowns in the face of police brutality? (They should, heroes every one).
I’ve been on Lindon demos and never seen the slightest trace of any police brutality.
You were in the wrong place Annie, Lindon only has a population of 11,000 and its 14 police officers are not known for their brutality… ;o)
Judiciary totally captured – made that point yesterday.
“raising questions of impartiality.”
Impartiality? Raising questions about this toe rag’s intelligence and common sense more like.
The late great Christopher Booker was warning about this years ago. And what has the “Conservative” government been doing about this since 2010? Useless toerags.
They have been trying to enforce the installation of “smart” meters so they can ration electricity.
The gullible are ready for rationing.
Whatever happened to chivalry?
Another place I won’t be shopping in then.
I was watching a progrsmme about the Manchester arena bombing tonight. Apparently just before the attack, someone spoke to Salman Abedi minutes before his attack, but persuaded himself that he wasn’t a threat because of fears of the consequences if he turned out to have falsely accused him. Now I remember when I was working nights and used to be regularly stopped by police on my way home from work, simply because they didn’t like the look of me (the number of producers I got…). I know it’s been said before, but the police need to go after the real criminals.
Ransack shopping trolleys for non-essential products? Send drones to spy on country walkers? Arrest two friends for meeting for an outdoor coffee? Set up special websites for the convenience of snitches?
The police are the criminals.
VenomTech company announces massive library of snake venom peptides for Big Pharma
https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-04-13-venomtech-company-announces-massive-library-of-snake-venom-peptides-for-pharmaceutical-deployment.html
VenomTech company announces massive library of SNAKE VENOM peptides for pharmaceutical development; “nanocarriers” stabilize snake venom in WATER
by Mike Adams
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Anything to do with snake oil?
Anyhow, the WHO should be in prison with Fauci and the rest.
To think that last week we were expressing concern about fluoride.
David Martin has obvs been barking up the totally wrong tree. Some should tell him.
No more Mr Nice Guy! Doc Martin’s vow to expose the Covid conspirators – The Conservative Woman
“Partygate has united two groups previously at loggerheads in a common chorus of disgust, says Lord Sumption in the Telegraph.”
I can’t read this (paywall) but the headline seems like nonsense to me. Which is a surprise from Sumption. Maybe he just doesn’t like how divided we have become. But if he means that as a sceptic I now feel “united” with the covidians in disliking the PM, he’s lost his marbles. The covidians mainly hated Johnson anyway, thought he was too lax on covid or they were lefties anyway and hated him because he’s not leftie enough.
Good to see Ross Clark drawing the CORRECT conclusion – that the crime was not the party but the rules. Shame he writes for a relative fringe publication, albeit one that has helped our cause more than most.
But Clark thinks Bozo ought to have closed pubs and banned this, that and the other. Nothing about trusting in the public’s common sense, or respecting human rights.
I don’t read The Spectator, just noted more sceptical pieces in there that in most other places, admittedly the bar is low. They published that interview with the SAGE bloke who said they didn’t model realistic scenarios, only worst case, around Christmas time, think that helped solidify political support for ditching the nonsense.
That is worrying that he thought that.
Ross Clark has generally been good on that subject but not on that one.
Re paywall, try searching for 12 foot ladder….
Thanks
That is Sumption’s point too. We should be sceptical of headlines.
If you’re reading on a computer, just repeatedly F5 the page and hit escape quickly enough and you’ll interrupt the script that hides the content pretty quickly.
“It is entirely understandable that Boris Johnson should want to take a drink with friends and workmates at the end of the day. It is what we all like to do. It is entirely understandable that he should want to make his own judgment about the risk of spreading Covid-19 among the population of Number 10. Probably there was no risk at all. What Johnson did was only human. The problem is that it was a humanity that he denied to everyone else.
The lockdown was a sustained assault on our humanity. First, it was an attack on our instincts as social animals. Interaction with other human beings is not just an agreeable leisure activity. It is fundamental to our culture, our social organisation and our economy. It is essential to our mental health and general wellbeing. It is the source of our creativity. It is the basis almost everything that we do.
Secondly, the lockdown was a denial of our autonomy. We make our own judgments about our lives, our health and all the risks which are inseparable from existence. Of course, we make them within a framework of laws designed to enable us to live in society, at peace with our neighbours. But there are some basic freedoms which the law can only take away by transforming us into robotic tools of the state. We are made for better things than that.
Some of the worst features of the lockdown regulations were due to the very fact that they were so offensive to human nature and therefore so hard to enforce. They had to be indiscriminate, because discriminating between high risk and low-risk activities would have been impractical at street level. They had to impose exorbitant and disproportionate fines because the difficulty of catching lawbreakers meant that horrible examples had to be made of the few who were found out. They had to be accompanied by unbalanced and hysterical government messaging so as to frighten people into voluntary compliance.
Partygate has united two groups, previously at loggerheads, in a common chorus of disgust. There are those who believe that coercion was absolutely necessary in the face of the pandemic, and are outraged by the Prime Minister’s failure to comply. And there are those who believe that the Downing Street parties have exposed what was offensive about the attempt to control the spread of an endemic disease by micromanaging an entire population with menaces and threats.
The second group, who are becoming more numerous by the day, will find a certain satisfaction in the spectacle of the Prime Minister caught up in the legal tangle that he devised for the rest of us. He has told us in his half-hearted apology that it never occurred to him that what he did was illegal. That says it all. In a humane world, it would not have been illegal. In an honourable world, there would have been no need for apology because compliance would have been a matter of course.”
It’s not well-worded. The disgust felt by the two groups is for different reasons and they’re not united in being disgusted.
“It is entirely understandable that he should want to make his own judgment about the risk of spreading Covid-19 among the population of Number 10.”
This for me is the nub of it.
Why should he have that right when he denied it to every other single member of the UK population trashing both the economy and the mental and other healths of the vast majority of the population?
The rules were wrong – they should never have been put in place in the first place, but once made, then we all had to stick to them or no one had to stick to them, it wasn’t rules for thee but not for me, and the fact he thought it was shows there was nothing to be afraid of in the first place, ergo the rules should never have been made.
Nutshell.
Correct. The sooner he is sentenced to permanent exile in Michael Moore’s underpants, the better.
My 18 year old daughter was at the University of Edinburgh where students were effectively locked up for 6 weeks with very little (and some days no) food, no exercise and no common room. They were treated like pariahs. Then they allowed the police to patrol inside the halls of residence where they would barge into rooms to look for infringements and sometimes cuffed terrified students whilst issuing fines of up to £150. They then handed details to the university who added their own fine.
And now the people responsible for drafting the legislation that allowed such egregious (and previously unthinkable) assaults on civil liberties have been given just a £50 fine, I …..
well, I am truly lost for words and I am very, very angry
That is disgraceful. It’s easy to say, and I understand everyone’s personal circumstances are different, and hindsight is great, but I would have attempted to spring my kid from internment by fair means or foul. And raised a stink with the highdehighyins in the uni. This sort of thing gives me the rage, due to family experiences in previous generations. If everyone withdrew for a year it would mess with the uni finances and the admin section would have a ‘mare. But they hide behind “the law” to create inhumane regimes.
I had a lesser unpleasant experience two weeks ago. A young eagle participated in a “national” level activity (type of sporting or skills event, won’t say any more at this time). On arrival, we were quizzed as to whether a lateral flow had been taken. Having swerved these totally at school, I just answered no. Nothing had been mentioned in previous correspondence, until a few days before, but I figured it would be much like the school, they have to cover themselves. Well, there followed over an hour of interviews with the directors etc of this organisation. Coercion tactics (separation from the crowd, private interview, emotional appeal to their needs to protect their organisation). Clearly they wanted to follow the rules, with knobs on, as the reference to government support indicated all morals and principles of bodily autonomy are less important than their funding. Other parents had caved previously and made their kid take the test. I didn’t. Had to wait half an hour as they referred to even higher authorities. Kid was distraught, but also wasn’t giving in. The result ….. kid was admitted to the course.
The lesson I took from this experience into human nature, is that the more dependent you are on government largesse, and the closer you are to directly having to plead for it, the easier it is to abandon principles and lean on kids. In the heat of the moment, I forgot to point out to the chief in charge that governments have no money, the funds he was trying to protect come from taxpayers like me.
You are right, Eagle and I assure you that I did my best. But the problem was exacerbated by the complete absence if staff who were all ‘working’ from home which meant nobody answered phones or emails.
And that pretty much sums up the last 2 years at that institution where my daughter has not had a single lecture in person.
I wish the students would revolt but they’re all brainwashed to accept this state of affairs.
My daughter’s experience at Lincoln University was that she had a couple of in person lectures, albeit everyone spaced out and muzzled up. The rest of the time was spent isolated in a small room. The student were not supposed to travel but she did the long journey every weekend, and tearfully returned to Lincoln the following week. Her already fragile state of mind was further damaged and so she left. Has now transferred to a university closer to home and which enables her to live at home.
Likewise, I wish the students would revolt. My daughter has been too accepting of all this covid related bollocks. She has not inherited my fire and fury.
The working from home further diffuses “authority”, so it is impossible to determine the individual responsible. Or doorstep them. I too wish the students would revolt, they seem so disengaged from actually living except through a computerised device. The whole point of university was the managing by yourself, learning to interact with others, gaining soft skills as well as academic.
The whole point of university was the managing by yourself, learning to interact with others, gaining soft skills as well as academic.
All clearly lost on my two as the current state of their bedrooms, and their generally unwillingness to help around the house/general apathy, bear testament to.
Modern halls of residence have ensuites and decent facilities. We shared rooms, and bathrooms were used by dozens, used to have prowl around looking for one that hadn’t been disgustingly fouled, was truly ghastly.
Had some young adult relatives to stay recently, I understand your pain. The extra workload was horrendous, and it was stressful. Lack of social skills, no offers to help washup, stack dishwasher, do a bit of weeding, etc etc. My generation, and my parents and grandparents, would all muck in and it would actually be easier having loads of people staying as all those little jobs you never get round to got done!! And it was a laugh!
They are totally oblivious to the things which need doing. Their lives revolve around social media, mobile phones, and the occasional real life socialising. Meanwhile, Mommy Dearest will take care of everything which needs doing. I had an almighty screaming match with them the other night, to no avail. Anyway, there’s a pile of their dirty washing to be done and it’s staying that way. Am buggering off for the weekend to hopefully have a rest
Well done you for standing your ground in the face of what must have been horrendous pressure. Plenty more would have caved and taken the easy option. After all, it’s only a test [etc etc]
If the Bozzer, Dishi and the rest are fined £10,000, what difference would it make?
Their rob dogs and cash fiddlers (accountants) will get the fines classed as expenses and tax deductible.
Well well well, the New Scientist mentions the jabbs effect on the heart. Rare of course, so rare.
I had my biggest ‘heated discussion’ with an old friend in the summer, in which i was told that she didn’t need to read the articles i sent because she read this rag, the New Scientist. Do we think that if I point her to this article and say, well, now its in the New Scientist, it must be true, I will a) receive an apology or b) vomit uncontrollably all over said rag?
Do let us know!
Apart from the outbreak of hepatitis in children noted by the UK 3 have been found with it in Spain.
The link is in Spanish.
The European Centre for Disease Control has now issued an alert.
The article does say research indicates that this disease is not linked to Covid-19 vaccination or to cases of infection.
Then why is this occurring?
If the hepatitis was discovered in the 14 days immediately after jabbing then it occurred in the ‘unvaccinated’ and therefore there is absolutely NO CONNECTION to the vaccines
Keep up folks
This has been since January, the children are under 10, therefore they cannot have been vaccinated. It could be CoViD19, it could be adenovirus or it could be any number of other viruses including the different herpes viruses.
see: https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=90&ContentID=P02517
Yesterday is ‘since January’
The article you attached to your comment gives a description of what hepatitis is but makes no mention of these current cases and makes no reference to January.
I was simply pointing out the possible aetiology of hepatitis in Paeds. This is where I got January from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-61085870
Apologies if this comes across as being pedantic but in my opinion anything from the BBC and UKHSA needs to be treated with extreme caution
The BBC article refers says ‘since the start of the year’
The article says this was ‘spotted’ last week
The BBC article also makes no mention of the age of the children so could mean any child up to the age of 18
The article does not give any detail of when these events to place. It could be that one case took place in January and 70+last week
Not scientific I know but can smell rat
The MHRA say they are all under 10 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/increase-in-hepatitis-liver-inflammation-cases-in-children-under-investigation
I’ve been tracking this since it broke over a week ago about cases in Scotland.
If you read the details from the U.K. it is from January. As salmonella can cause hepatitis type symptoms and the Kinder factory in Belgium had an outbreak last Friday I emailed the lead at public health Scotland to ask if there was a possible connection, This was his response
“Thank you for your e-mail.
We are aware of the current salmonella issue and this was considered as part of our initial investigations but has subsequently been discounted.
Best wishes,
Nicholas Phin
Director of Public Health Science and Medical Director
Clinical and Protecting Health Directorate
Public Health Scotland”
Any info about where in Scotland, as in random locations or a cluster?
IIRC 6 cases across 4 health authorities, no obvious common link. Which is what made me query a link with the Kinder factory outbreak of salmonella. What I cannot find is the “normal” rate of this type of hepatitis in children.
How does Salmonella get into a chocolate egg, it must be molten hot to go in the mould and also full of sugar. Mind you, those are the things with the cheap tat plastic toy in the middle, could introduce anything that way.
Global warming? Referees blowing their whistles too loudly?
It could also be the start of a new marketing campaign for another vaccination drive.
Is it time to elect a leader rather than follower?
It is. But such a person is rather hard to find just now.
Ron DeSantis
Toby, you’re a great bloke but I absolutely disagree.
Johnson, a card-carrying member of the WEF, has damaged our country severely.
Wokism, covidism, greenism, Brexit in name only – the list is endless and his actions are deliberate.
He, and this whole woke cabinet, must go.
Its time for a government that backs Britain.
Yes I think almost all of us agree on that but it’s just fantasy, sadly. It’ll be an uphill struggle to restore sanity, and may not happen.
It began with Blair (in the shadows now) and continues with the blairites. Since then the destruction of our country in every way possible has been uninterrupted.
Toby Young: you are as wrong as it is possible to be on this subject, Kim Jong Johnson should have been ousted long ago.
If not for a backbench revolt, he’d have imposed a fourth lockdown in December.
“MPs, tasked with responding to this outrage, decided it was time to regulate the “corrosive space” of social media to make sure people in public life “can no longer be vilified”. What exactly does that have to do with this MP’s brutal murder at the hands of an Islamist, asks Sam Ashworth-Hayes in the Spectator.”
They were looking for an excuse to censor, as if the government isn’t big and intrusive enough already.
What if they’re vile already? Are we allowed to communicate that?
This is simple: obey without question.
Enough with Covid deaths! 28 days post + test makes you a Covid death. But loons still flapping their hands around. But hey, Scotland and Greece ending their mask rules. Rest of EU to follow? And when do GPS get back to work.
As for Boris, I have a compromise. Boris can stay but Carrie leaves. Along with all her daft ideals. Maybe she can serve the sentence for next Extinction Rebellion lunacy.
In my region the GPs never do – BBC announced yesterday that RCGP has said that the current way of working is the new normal and will not be changing. Why would a turkey vote for christmas?
As for the PM/wife compromise. I don’t think so. Both need to go.
Smiling US health chief shrugs off her Covid blunders – The Conservative Woman As clear as we’re going to get that we’ve all be led down the garden path “science is grey”
The critical thing in all of this is that no new virus was ever isolated and identified by the Chinese.
The Chinese used standard virology techniques whereby a computer generated thousands of theoretically possible sequences of genetic material that could theoretically be a virus, these sequences being taken from a patient sample that had been grown in a monkey kidney cell tissue culture.
The computer spat out thousands of possible gentic sequences and then the virologists decided to claim that one of those sequences was a new virus.
No actual sars-cov-2 virus was ever found to actually exist in nature, it was never isolated from a patient as in actually taken from a paitient that was ill.
It sounds ridiculous, it sounds insane, and it is, this is how virology operates.
No more Mr Nice Guy! Doc Martin’s vow to expose the Covid conspirators – The Conservative Woman
Indeed. See the above. Quite chilling.
Who says it was a “Ukrainian missile strike” that caused serious damage to the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet?
The British state broadcaster claims “Russian warship seriously damaged as Ukraine claims strike”.
The Daily Telegraph claims “Russia-Ukraine latest news: Russian flagship that attacked Snake Island crippled by ‘Ukrainian missile strike'”.
The latter contains these words:
So it’s sourced to the governor of Odessa?
At the time of writing, the Ukrainian state-owned news agency doesn’t even mention the Moskva.
Nor does the Ukrainian defence ministry’s official news site.
Why not? You would have thought a successful attack on the flagship of the enemy’s entire Black Sea fleet would be something the Ukrainian side would want to publicise. It would obviously be highly positive for morale.
I don’t believe Ukrainian forces did it.
There have been “unexplained attacks” on ships in the Gulf too.
And do we all remember the ship that blocked the Suez canal last year? Whoever took control of it drew a p*nis in the sea with it before they used it to block the canal. The canal is one of the world’s most important shipping lanes – a true physical “bottleneck” in world trade if ever there was one.. Think I’m joking about the p*nis? Here’s the write-up in the Jerusalem Post.
The world and their granny have been providing Ukrainian forces with hand held anti tank missiles.
Polish jets, to date as far as I understand, are still on the ground probably because every Ukrainian airfields were one of the first things to be attacked.
I’d be interested in what kind of missiles struck the Russian flagship and how they were delivered.
One claim seems as bizarre as the other.
It seems that there was no or very little loss of life on the Moskva – which would indicate that the Russian version of events (that a fire threatened the explosion of ammunition) is probably correct.
The crew was apparently safely removed and the ship, which was scheduled for decommission, towed away.
What caused the fire is probably the most interesting question.
No more Mr Nice Guy! Doc Martin’s vow to expose the Covid conspirators
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/no-more-mr-nice-guy-doc-martins-vow-to-expose-the-covid-conspirators/
Tom Penn
Stand for freedom with our Yellow Boards By The Road next events
Thursday 14th April 3pm to 4pm
Yellow Boards
Junction A329 Reading Rd
& Station Approach
Wokingham RG41 1EH
Monday 18th April 2pm to 3pm
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Junction A3095 Warfield Rd/
A329 Millennium Way
Bracknell RG12 2XT
Wednesday 20th April 5.30 to 6.30pm
Yellow Boards
Junction A321 Lower Wokingham Rd &
B3348 Dukes Ride
Crowthorne RG45 6NZ
Stand in the Park Sundays from 10am – make friends & keep sane
Wokingham Howard Palmer Gardens
(Cockpit Path car park free on Sunday)
Sturges Rd RG40 2HD
Bracknell
South Hill Park, Rear Lawn, RG12 7PA
Telegram http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
What Johnson did was only human. The problem is that it was a humanity that he denied to everyone else.” Lord Sumption
It is like a list of trivial headlines given the gravity of the situation we face. It is a darkening of the western perspective. A world view that sees the west as becoming more and more depraved. Sometimes you have to look in the bathroom mirror and slap yourself in the face.
Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney, who is also, like his father before him, the Irish defence minister, today went to Kiev and made a bid for the “2022 Brain of Europe” prize.
“Even though Ireland is militarily neutral,” declared Mr Coveney, “Let me be clear we are not neutral on this war.”
I reckon probably even now he doesn’t realise what a cretinous statement that is, and probably wouldn’t understand if someone told him.
I doubt that many give a toss whether the Republic of Ireland joins NATO or doesn’t join NATO. But if the governments of Finland and Sweden say they wish to join, that is an entirely different matter and would very much seem to be preparation for a major war between nuclear powers.
I doubt that many give a toss whether the Republic of Ireland joins NATO or doesn’t join NATO. But if the governments of Finland and Sweden say they wish to join, that is an entirely different matter and would very much seem to be preparation for a major war between nuclear powers.
We may already be there. I’m sure you’ve seen this:
French journalist claims Americans are in charge in Ukraine: ‘I found myself facing the Pentagon’ – Rebel News
Malbrunot is the senior international correspondent for Le Figaro. Nobody can dismiss him as a maverick.
EF needs to get round to the house of Finland’s PM and give it a good talking to. That should sort this mess out.
And by what thread does this tenuous statement hang?
Thankfully one of the things I learned from covid was not to get swept up by fear campaigns. Nuclear annihilation is merely a more bloody manifestation of covid armageddon.
Britain-Russia
1) POW news
It looks as though difficulties may be brewing regarding the capture of British mercenaries or seconded service personnel in the Ukraine.
Has the number of British service personnel who have been court-martialed for going AWOL to fight the Russians risen above zero yet?
If the answer is “No”, then essentially Britain is already at war with Russia.
Going abroad to fight in foreign countries’ armed forces is not against the law in Britain (for example, some British Israelis go and fight in the Israeli Defence Forces), but going AWOL if you’re in the armed forces obviously is – whether you go to the Ukraine to fight Russians, or to Brighton for a week on the lager.
2) The former justice minister
Regarding the resignation of David Wolfson as British justice minister, if someone reading this has got the time they might like to try to find out whether his chambers, One Essex Court, have taken any work for Russian oligarchs. Since they sponsored “English Law Week” in Moscow and St Petersburg in 2019, the answer is surely “Yes”.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the majority of the money made by top barristers’ chambers in London in the past few decades has come from clients from the former USSR. This in itself is nothing special where top London silks are concerned. The reason I’m asking in the particular case of Wolfson is that it occurred to me that he might belong to a “Russian” oligarch – such as Roman Abramovich for instance. It’s not as if in the “Westminster bubble” the FSB and SVR operate only on the parliamentary side of Westminster Square.
Has the number of British service personnel who have been court-martialed for going AWOL to fight the Russians risen above zero yet?
If the answer is “No”, then essentially Britain is already at war with Russia.
From the link above:
Following the interview, Malbrunot tweeted that British SAS units “have been present in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, as have the American Deltas.”
The journalist cited a French intelligence source for his claim.
“The Russians don’t ignore it, they know what the secret war is,” his source purportedly told him.
Is there any evidence serving personnel have gone to fight in Ukraine?