- “The awful truth: Hamas’s hostage-taking works” – One does not have to be a fan of Mr. Netanyahu to see how unfair it is to stigmatise him as the obstacle to peace in Gaza, says Charles Moore in the Telegraph.
- “Lammy’s lamentable libels” – There’s a symbiotic relationship between Muslims against Israel and Labour supporters against Israel, notes Melanie Phillips on her Substack.
- “Labour’s Israel arms ban is a shameful betrayal of a heroic ally” – Israel is an oasis of democracy in a desert of tyranny – and our Foreign Secretary’s grandstanding appeases terrorists, writes Allison Pearson in the Telegraph.
- “David Lammy’s shameful appeasement of Hamas” – Punishing Israel with a partial arms embargo will embolden Islamofascists everywhere, warns Brendan O’Neill in Spiked.
- “Labour’s free speech betrayal” – If the leftists at the LSE can take a stand for freedom of speech, including that of a representative of Israel, why can’t Starmer and co. do the same? asks Peter Harris in the New Conservative.
- “Government ban on Islamophobia would prevent gospel proclamation” – With the strong likelihood that the Labour Government will outlaw Islamophobia, could Christians who deny that Islam is a saving faith fall foul of the law? wonders Julian Mann in Christian Today.
- “Twelve migrants die after dinghy sinks in Channel” – At least 12 people have died – including 10 women and girls – after a boat with dozens of migrants sunk in the English Channel, reports Sky News.
- “Lucy Letby told to write letter admitting ‘I am evil’ by counsellors” – A note scribbled by Lucy Letby saying “I am evil” could have been written on the advice of a counsellor, says the Mail.
- “Police record more non-criminal hate incidents despite crackdown“ – According to data gathered by the Free Speech Union, the police are actually recording more ‘non-crime hate incidents’ since Suela Braverman introduced a new Code of Practice designed to rein the police in, not fewer, reports the Times.
- “Train guards set to be offered 15% pay rise” – The Government is set to offer train guards a 15% pay rise, with the agreement confirmed in principle by the unions and the Department for Transport, reveals the Telegraph.
- “Angela Rayner prepares to rip up Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy scheme” – Angela Rayner could ditch Margaret Thatcher’s right to buy policy despite benefitting from the scheme herself, reports the Express.
- “Labour is already surrendering to China” – Keir Starmer promised to challenge China where necessary. He is failing in the first duty of any government, says Suella Braverman in the Telegraph.
- “Labour is lying through its teeth about the winter fuel raid” – Our leaders’ idiotic justification of a “run on the pound” for removing the winter fuel allowance from 10 million pensioners is yet another attempt to deceive us, writes Brian Monteith in the Telegraph.
- “Private school closes – and blames Labour for pricing out working class families” – A private school in one of the most deprived areas of the country has blamed Labour for its closure, saying that its parents could not afford the Government’s VAT raid, according to Stoke-on-Trent Live.
- “‘It’s hard to leave the Civil Service – your skills are useless in the private sector’” – In the Telegraph, a civil servant opens up about making a big difference as a small cog in the machine.
- “Britain’s long and proud history has been trashed by the self-hating Left” – This year’s Social Attitudes Survey indicates that pride in Britain’s history has fallen sharply over the past decade, writes Philip Johnston in the Telegraph.
- “Ed Miliband adds £150 to household bills with wind turbine building spree” – The public is being charged as much as £150 per household on their energy bills to pay for new wind turbines as Ed Miliband oversees a record-breaking expansion of green energy, reports the Telegraph.
- “Why slowing demand for electric cars is forcing manufacturers to ration petrol models” – Net Zero rules and a lack of consumer incentives to buy EVs risk pushing the market to failure, warns Matt Oliver in the Telegraph.
- “Why is it so hard to buy a petrol car?” – In the Spectator, Ross Clark explains the fallout from the absurd Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate.
- “The electric car fiasco is proof that we’re not a free country” – Politicians are intent on virtue-signalling about saving the planet, even if the actual policy makes little difference, writes James Bartholomew in the Telegraph.
- “Let’s be honest: shale fracking has saved the West” – Without America’s wildcat drillers, Europe would be facing an industrial death spiral, says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Telegraph.
- “Shaun Bailey’s case” – On CrowdJustice, Shaun Bailey appeals for your help in raising £150,000 to fight a defamation lawsuit from eco-tycoon Dale Vince, which he argues is a SLAPP intended to stifle his freedom of speech.
- “The rise of ‘Left-conservatism’” – The Sahra Wagenknecht phenomenon should terrify the German elites, says Fraser Myers in Spiked.
- “Paris and New York far ahead of London in race back to the office” – London workers are returning to the office far more slowly than rivals in Paris and New York amid fears that U.K. productivity will suffer without rapid action, reports the Telegraph.
- “Vaccination fails to reduce Long Covid” – On the Courageous Discourse Substack, Dr. Peter A. McCullough argues that COVID-19 vaccines don’t reduce Long Covid and may worsen it by increasing Spike protein exposure.
- “Oh no, here comes another not-very-scary virus” – The search for what is going to kill us all next continues apace, says Dr. Roger Watson in TCW.
- “Mobile phones do not give you brain cancer, major study concludes” – A five-year study commissioned by the WHO has concluded that mobile phones do not cause brain cancer, according to Euronews.
- “Editor resigns as publisher blocks criticism of decision to retract paper on gender dysphoria” – Springer Nature has spiked a critical commentary on its controversial retraction of a paper on Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, leading to the resignation of an editor, says Retraction Watch.
- “Father tears into gardai arresting teacher son over trans pupil row” – Footage has emerged of the moment Irish teacher Enoch Burke was arrested again outside the school that sacked him for refusing to “call a boy a girl” – days after his father was seen lambasting gardai who were for him, reports the Mail.
- “Tearful transgender athlete Valentina Petrillo unrepentant amid Paralympics scandal” – J.K. Rowling has branded transgender Paralympic sprinter Valentina Petrillo a “proud cheat” with “no shame”, according to the Mail.
- “Female darts players threatened with disciplinary action if they refuse to play transgender rivals” – The World Darts Federation has warned players they could be disciplined for refusing to face transgender opponents, citing a need to protect the “integrity of the game”, says the Mail.
- “We need to kick men out of women’s football” – It’s a shame that whenever women’s sport makes the headlines these days, it’s often because a man has ruined it, laments Lauren Smith in Spiked.
- “A revolution begins in Austin, Texas” – The Free Press has published the convocation address delivered to the founding class of the University of Austin by its President, Pano Kanelos.
- “Donald Trump calls Keir Starmer” – An amusing fake video on X in which Trump chastises Starmer for locking people up for posting memes and tells him that when he’s re-elected he’s going to invade Britain and make it great again.
— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) September 1, 2024
Donald Trump calls Keir Starmer
“I’m hearing rumours you’re locking people up for posting memes – wtf you playing at you dirty Commie C**Sucker?”
Bravo to whoever did thispic.twitter.com/lB9d2FLG0w
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Donald Trump calls Keir Starmer
MMEGA! (Make My Ear Great Again!)
Of course Trump’s (and any other potential invaders) task has been made a great deal easier by the incompetent, spineless, visionless and short sighted socialist fascists who have been running this country since 1990.
Britain’s Army is now smaller than those of Romania and Bangladesh, and just slightly larger than those of Canada and Armenia. Until now, its lowest manpower level over the last two centuries came in 1823, when it had just 72,000 soldiers. But that understates the current problem. Britain’s population in 1823 was just over 20 million, versus around 67 million today.
The U.S. Marine Corps, on its own, is has as many personnel as Britain’s entire armed forces and, tellingly, twice as many aircraft.
Together with the unilateral disarmament of the rest of Europe, not one country in Western Europe able to put even one armoured division in the field, this weakness has encouraged fascist dictators across the world.
‘Erosion of the effectiveness of the Atlantic army will inevitably result in an erosion of political will, strategic flexibility, and freedom of action.
As a bare minimum, it is the role of the Atlantic army to replace the strategic nuclear deterrent as the instrument with which the attack option is foreclosed to (Russia).
But that is a bare minimum.
In a modern strategy the Atlantic army must provide for the West a sense of security to a degree that will encourage it to act and react in respect to global events with confidence.
That forecloses to (Russia) the options of intimidation, blackmail, and political leverage. The political requirement is that the military situation in Central Europe be in balance-that it be stabilized so that global freedom of action is not impaired.’
‘An Atlantic community paralyzed by its military inferiority in Europe could only wring its hands as (Russian) power and influence moved unimpeded into the so-called Third World, portions of which provide the materials upon which the industrial, economic, and social health of the industrial West depend.’
‘While agitation for the reduction of US forces in Europe has subsided for the moment, it could rise again if within the US it is thought or perceived, however fairly or unfairly, that Atlantic partners are not bearing an equitable burden.’
LAND FORCES IN MODERN STRATEGY by LIEUTENANT GENERAL DE WITT C. SMITH, JR. US ARMY 1977
That is going to cost this country a great deal more, in the long run, than it ever would have, had our leaders had the backbone to maintain a credible conventional deterrent over the last few decades.
“LAND FORCES IN MODERN STRATEGY” from 1977? How relevant is this in the light of the last 50 years’ development of weapons?
The fighting in Ukraine has totally changed the modern battlefield in ways that would have been unimaginable fifty years ago. From their public pronouncement it would seem that Western strategists have still not grasped the impact of the changes.
Wasting money on “conventional deterrents” would not have changed the course of the conflict, but would only have further enriched the armaments manufacturers.
Innovation is the decisive factor together with realistic, timely appraisal of intelligence.
Post WW2 strategic thinking resulted in the long peace in Western Europe 1945-2022
‘Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are condemned to repeat them’
Santayana
‘We have lost the art of strategic thinking: the forms and ways of analysis, the need to first understand the problem – something that Carl von Clausewitz described as the supreme, most important challenge – to first understand the nature of the conflict you are in, and to assess the grammar of war.
The patterns of major war are familiar to us: initial optimism that war can be limited; setbacks and escalation; total war measures; devastation, and finally, a significant re-ordering of the globe.
The way to avert such a catastrophe lies in studying again the Cold War, examining what made our strategy successful, and understanding the past, in order to apply strategic thinking to the problems of the future. That is why strategic studies is so vitally important today. And that is the challenge………’
‘If you can look into the Seeds of Time, and say which Grain will Grow and which will Not, speak then unto me’.
Robert Johnson
We know what to do. We’ve done it before. It worked.
Post WW2 strategic thinking resulted in the long peace in Western Europe 1945-2022.
Well, excepting Yugoslavia … and better not mention NATO’s forays in northern Africa and the Middle East. Just off the cuff …
Somehow cultivating peace is not something humans are good at.
Unfortunately it is not just humans but also primates:
‘……scenes of violence among chimpanzees in Kibale National Park in Uganda. These primates’ fierce battles were instigated by coalitions of adult males, with the sole aim of extending their territory. The areas where the fighting took place corresponded to the land conquered by force.’
https://www.livescience.com/animals/land-mammals/hostilities-began-in-an-extremely-violent-way-how-chimp-wars-taught-us-murder-and-cruelty-arent-just-human-traits
Your cuff is far too long. Yugoslavia, Northern Africa and the Middle East are not within Western Europe where the long peace was maintained 1945-2022 by both nuclear and conventional deterrents.
‘…war may come from outside as a rationally calculated act of aggression. When the Manchus swept away the Ming dynasty, some 25m Chinese died, one sixth of the population. If it is war from outside which ends the long European peace, the results may be similar. We or our children, grown soft in peace, grown complacent in enlightenment, will have forgotten how or why to defend ourselves.’
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/essays/55890/the-long-peace
If you wish for peace etc etc
Um, yes, we all know that Britain’s Armed Forces have been deliberately decimated.
Thanks for stating the Blinking Obvious, robot.
‘When military people first began to analyze and study their profession, the word was used in a rather straightforward way. Clausewitz considered strategy “the use of the engagement for the purposes of the war.”!
But after the word began to be used by the military, the realization came about that military force was only one means by which a nation could exercise influence on another.
A distinction had to be made:
Was the author to speak only of the employment of military force or of the employment of the full range of national power?
A distinction had to be made, in other words, between national or grand strategy and military strategy.
“strategy covers what we should do, how we should do it, and what we should do it with. Military strategy encompasses the tasks for the military, the operational doctrine we should pursue and the force posture we should develop and maintain.”
The point is that, in view of the clear failure of conventional deterrence: what force posture should we now develop and maintain……and why?
General DeWitt Smith provides a clear answer:
‘….military forces, including land forces, have two important effects on an adversary. One is the physical, the other is psychological. In actual conflict, both are operative. But if the “what” of modem strategy includes preventing the outbreak of conflict, the psychological effect of military force during periods of nonactive conflict becomes all-important. It influences to a large degree (indeed, it may determine) the “how” and “with what” of modern strategy.’
‘The political requirement is that the military situation in Central Europe be in balance-that it be stabilized so that global freedom of action is not impaired.’
The bare minimum requirement to face down an experienced Russian Army in the West of at least 500,000 men is a formed Land Army of 200,000, comprising three army corps, each of three divisions, with at least another Army Corps in depth, backed by Air Forces able to achieve air superiority.
Britain must provide, as hitherto, one Army Corps in depth, roughly 60,000 soldiers.
Poland will shortly be able to put a formed (armoured) Army Corps, at least, in the field and is spending circa 3.1% of GDP on defence.
That is the target that the next U.S. President will set for NATO members.
‘While agitation for the reduction of US forces in Europe has subsided for the moment, it could rise again if within the US it is thought or perceived, however fairly or unfairly, that Atlantic partners are not bearing an equitable burden.’
Reference above
Seriously, WTF is this??
”A pregnant woman suffered a miscarriage and lost her unborn child after being attacked by two schoolboys while waiting for a bus.
The woman is said to have gotten into an altercation with two teenagers in the High Street in Tranent, East Lothian at around 6.20pm last Friday.
The teenage thugs are said to have pushed the pregnant woman off a bench and knocked her to the ground before running off.
According to the social media appeal, the boys were high school students and were wearing black uniforms, with one in shorts while the other wore trousers.
The pregnant woman even offered them a seat and tried to be nice but the teenagers were ‘rude’.
After she was hurt, she got angry and told them she was pregnant.
They ‘said sorry and ran away’, the social media post added.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13809359/pregnant-women-miscarriage-loses-baby-attacked-teenagers.html
I have a question.
Yesterday I was at a sports gathering and when having a drink, there was a discussion on politics and the state of finance in the U.K.
Someone made the remark that Covid and the Ukraine were costing us a lot of money and two people said that the previous government had handled Covid very well…
So my question is how people in polite society handle this?
I get triggered and find it difficult to stay silent. So I give them my point of view in a succinct (which is difficult as there are so many angles to this) and polite way.
But I end up not feeling great about it. Should I just let it slide? Will my remarks at least set them thinking?
Bearing in mind I did not start this conversation…
My view if somebody with whom I am in company with starts to tell me that ‘government handled covid well’ is to either call it out as BS or challenge them to advise on what ways it was handled well. It all depends on how belligerent I am feeling. If I haven’t started the conversation I feel no need to bite my tongue and I am certainly NOT having propoganda inflicted on me by half-wits who think that by regurgitating something heard on el-Beeb they are “informed.”
F. ’em, they get both barrels. I am long past caring what people think of me and my views. If they don’t want my opinion don’t raise the subject.
It is a dilemma and normally one does just let it slide but I try to practice saying “you are half right” and then go on to make a point that they have not considered. Easier said than done of course but they tend to like the acknowledgement that you half agree with them and then they should at least half agree with you or think it through further. Manners and all that.
The reality for women and girls living just in this one part of Germany. You go down as ”German” once you have your citizenship;
”Last year, police in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia arrested 155 suspects in connection with 209 cases of gang r*pe.
A total of 84 suspects were foreign nationals and 71 were German citizens.
At the request of the AfD state parliamentary party, the state government has published the first names of the “German” suspects.
Ahmet
Bayar
Bilal
Burak
Burak
Furkan
Gamil
Hanif
Hasip
Ibrahim
Ismail
Kaan
Melik
Mihraç
Mirhan
Mohamed
Muhammed
Nicolas
Norbert
Nurkan
Seçkin
Seda
Süleyman
Thierno
Wahell
Yasar-Engin
Yasin
Yasmine
Yazan
Yigit
Zakaria
Zayd
The names above are a non-exhaustive list of the “German” suspects but are an indication of how crime statistics can be skewed by left-leaning administrations to hide the effect that mass immigration is having on public safety.”
https://x.com/RMXnews/status/1830926105517208041
“The rise of ‘Left-conservatism’” – “The Sahra Wagenknecht phenomenon”
Oh please! Don’t fall for yet another TROJAN HORSE candidate!
This half-Iranian Muslim woman, who joined the “PDS’s Communist Platform, a Marxist-Leninist faction”, is part of The Unholy Muslim-Marxist Alliance.
Her job is to weaken the German “Far Right” by mimicking their popular anti-immigration policies, to draw voters away from the True Conservatives called the AfD.
Just as Nigel Farage once boasted that he had single-handedly destroyed Nick Griffin and the British National Party.
She’s like that Muslim Turk in Stilettos who was handed the leadership of a Dutch fake “centrist” party that helped stop Geert Wilders from taking his rightful place as Prime Minister of the Netherlands.
“Angela Rayner prepares to rip up Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy scheme”
Dare I say I actually agree with the Dreaded Rayner on this one?
As many others have lamented, the “Right to Buy” scheme was a total disaster for affordable housing, because so many council tenants were handed mortgages for which they could not keep up the payments, and went into foreclosure.
All those former council homes were gobbled up by wealthy private landlords and companies, who then rented them out at exorbitant rates, sometimes to the same council tenants who had tried to buy them.
The councils were left with a gaping hole in their available, affordable properties, while the private landlords were laughing all the way to the bank.
“We need to kick men out of women’s football”
Yes, and we also need to kick women out of men’s football, with no more female trans-players, coaches, managers, bosses or referees of male teams.
And we also need to declare that only Indigenous Englishmen can play on English teams in any sporting competition, Welsh on Welsh teams, Africans on African teams, Swedes on Swedish teams, Orientals on Oriental teams, Indian Subcontinentals on Indian Subcontinental teams, South Americans on South American teams, Aussies on Australian teams, etc.
Fair is fair.