- “Rotherham grooming gang jailed for total of 106 years” – Seven members of a Rotherham grooming gang have been convicted at Sheffield Crown Court, reports the Mail.
- “Low-skilled migrants cost taxpayers £150,000 each” – The Office of Budget Responsibility says low-skilled migrants are a drain on the public finances, according to the Telegraph.
- “The Left can no longer hide from the terrible costs of mass migration” – Far from benefiting the country, too many unskilled migrants are a net cost to other taxpayers says Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
- “Keir Starmer ‘seeks to emulate’ Italy’s crackdown on illegal migration” – The number of migrants arriving in Italy across the Mediterranean has fallen by 62% under Giorgia Meloni’s government. The PM will meet her for talks on Monday, hoping to repeat her success, says the Times.
- “Prisoners released early are already back in jail” – Some of the prisoners released this week are already back behind bars, according to the Telegraph. They were released on license and some have already breached those conditions.
- “Prisoners should jump housing queue to cut crime, says Sadiq Khan” – The London Mayor says the recently released prisoners should be given council houses to reduce the likelihood of re-offending, says the Telegraph. Is he for real?
- “Labour MPs’ Hypocrisy Over Winter Fuel Allowance” – Guido Fawkes trawls through the social media accounts of Labour MPs and finds numerous instances of them condemning the hated Tories for supposedly planning to cut the pensioners’ winter fuel subsidy.
- “The first rule of Labour: if it’s terrible, they’ll do it” – The Labour Party seems to have adopted a grimly predictable modus operandi: “If it’s terrible, they’ll do it”, says Laura Dodsworth on her Free Mind Substack.
- “Police minister’s purse stolen at police conference” – The minister in charge of policing had her purse stolen at a conference about… policing, reports the BBC.
- “Starmer set to leave US without approval for Storm Shadow strikes by Ukraine” – Sir Keir Starmer was set to leave Washington last night without any announcement on allowing Ukraine to fire long-range missiles into Russia, says the Telegraph.
- “The asteroid may finally be approaching the EU” – The Brussels elites have run out of road, writes David Frost in the Telegraph, as it will soon have to dawn even on Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
- “Graham Brady reveals secrets of how five Tory PMs were ousted” – The new tell-all memoir from the former 1922 Committee chief – Kingmaker – lifts the lid on backstabbing at the heart of Westminster, according to the Telegraph.
- “Controversial census claim of 262,000 trans people downgraded” – The number of trans people in the U.K., as assessed by the Office for National Statistics, has been reduced after Oxford sociologist Michael Biggs persuaded the ONS that some of the respondents misunderstood the question, says the Times.
- “National Trust under fire over artwork that looks like ‘pile of poo’” – The National Trust has come under fire for hosting an art installation that has been compared to a “big pile of poo”, according to the Telegraph.
- “Households face £630 million bill as Miliband takes control of Britain’s electricity network” – Ed Miliband has announced a £630 million deal that will see the Government take control of the national electricity grid, with the cost being borne by households via increased energy bills, reports the Telegraph.
- “The climate scaremongers: Another £12 billion down the Net Zero drain” – Paul Homewood in the Conservative Woman documents another instance of our climate change-obsessed ruling class spunking taxpayers’ money up the wall.
- “Plans for Britain’s first coal mine in 30 years scrapped after landmark legal defeat” – Approval for Britain’s first coal mine in 30 years was “legally flawed”, says a High Court Judge in victory for climate activists, according to the Telegraph.
- “Fiat pauses production of electric 500 city car due to slump in demand” – Fiat has suspended the production of its electric 500 model for four weeks due to a slump in demand, says the Mail.
- “Britain needs energy abundance – that means going nuclear” – James O’Malley in CapX says the Labour Government needs to start turbo-charging nuclear energy.
- “Swiss Parliament adopts motion to “immediately suspend” support for UNRWA” – The Swiss Parliament’s lower house, the National Council, adopted a motion earlier in the week to “immediately suspend” support for UNRWA, reports UN Watch.
- Suddenly we’re in the grip of a 1970s-style brain drain” – Like a great murmuration of migratory birds, the millionaires of Britain are massing in the departure lounges, writes Boris Johnson in the Mail. They are revving their private jets and stubbing out their Cohibas in the bars of Mayfair.
- ”Doctor who helped convict Letby previously said there was ‘no objective evidence’ against her” – A doctor whose testimony helped convict Lucy Letby had previously said that there was “no objective evidence” against the nurse, says Sarah Knapton in the Telegraph.
- “Carol Vorderman’s manifesto is lazy, narcissistic and deeply depressing” – Savage, one-star review of Carole Vorderman’s new memoir by Kara Kennedy in the Telegraph.
- “Answers to 12 Bad Anti-Free Speech Arguments” – In Quillette, Greg Lukianoff sets out how to effectively counter some perennial arguments against free speech.
- “German Foreign Office try to dunk on Trump’s debate performance but get their numbers wrong and provoke the ire of a close adviser to the man who may well be the next president of the United States” – On Substack, Egyppius criticises the German Foreign Office for siding with the ABC ‘moderators’ in the US Presidential debate.
- “Resistance is Futile!” – Douglas Adams would have noted the link between the Labour Party and 1978, says Mr Chips on his eponymous Substack. And it’s not what you think.
- “U.K. could follow Australia in banning social media for young teenagers” – U.K. Ministers are considering ways to prevent children under the age of 16 from accessing harmful content online, citing its impact on mental health, reports the Times.
- “Scenes from the literary blacklist” – Widespread censorship is killing America’s literary community, say Elizabeth Kaye Cook and Melanie Jennings in Persuasion.
- “Nigel Farage lashes out over fears he could lose GB News job” – Politicians’ media appearances are under scrutiny as part of efforts to improve standards, reports the Telegraph.
- “Oxbridge told to cap private school intake at 10% of admissions” – A new book about the British class system suggests using a lottery of the best performing 5% of pupils to select future students at Oxford, Cambridge and the Russell Group universities and capping the total number so it’s no more than 10% of the total, according to the Times.
- “Commonwealth chief candidates all back slavery reparations” – All three contenders to replace Baroness Scotland as Secretary-General of the Commonwealth want Britain to make amends for colonialism, says the Times.
- “Protester who joked she’d be deported is given community service” – Shenissa Govanni wore a black and white T-shirt displaying an image of one of Hamas’ spokespeople, Abu Obaida, at the London march on February 17th, reports the Mail. But she was not sent to prison. Two-tier criminal justice system?
- “Pope says Kamala Harris supports ‘killing babies’” – The 87-year-old has said the election is a choice between two evils for the American people, with Kamala being the more evil of the two, reports the Telegraph.
- “The Grand Tour was the last gasp of un-woke TV for dads” – After 22 years, Clarkson and co have split up for good, reports Michael Deacon in his Telegraph column. Is this the last we’ll ever see of them?
- “Australia threatens fines for social media giants enabling misinformation” – The Australian PM, Anthony Albernese, says the Government will fine social media companies for allowing ‘misinfrormation’ to appear; according to Reuters.
- “’This for me is a spectacular blunder’” – Rakib Ehsan rails against the ONS for over-estimating the number of trans people living in the UK.
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Morning my fellow posters. I see the decline to mass poverty and totalitarianism continues unabated. I have a feeling we will look back on now as some kind of golden time, before things got really bad. Oh well, there’s always Argentina. Get your visa applications in early.!
Friday Morning Nine Mile Ride & New Wokingham Road,
Wokingham
Yesterday the Dutch government revealed their plans.
A few interesting snippets.
They plan to call an immigration emergency, and thereby circumventing EU rules to deal with the massive influx of migrants.
Plans for 2 additional nuclear power stations and a reduction in green subsidies.
They continue to want to cut livestock numbers because of Nitrogen, which will not go down that well with the supporters of the farmers party.
Let’s see if they deliver….
Yes I read that too. Also, I’m glad I work over the border in Belgium because the border controls for Germany come in on Monday so what sort of time that’s going to add to one’s commute due to tailbacks is anyone’s guess. It’s crazy isn’t it? How many people had to be sacrificed to ‘the regime’ and get murdered by West-hating hostiles before Germany *finally* thinks this uncontrolled immigration lark might not be all it’s cracked up to be? The all-round negatives irrefutably outweighing the benefits. I guess the Solingen slaughter was the final straw.
C S Lewis once wrote an essay in which he asked, what if this were the world’s last night?
Did the Labour manifesto in the General Election contain a policy of firing British missiles into Russia? Or did that, like so much else, come under the general heading of ‘change’?
Of course, I will have my last night. You will have yours. Everyone will have their last night. When we brush our teeth before laying our head on the pillow we won’t know that it will be so. Is your soul prepared?
In their election campaign, the Labour Party committed to ramping up support for Ukraine during 2024
Iran has just supplied Russia with ballistic missiles.
‘According to the report, the Fath-360 missile “can deliver a 150kg warhead to a range of 120 km with a claimed accuracy of fewer than 30 meters.” The system is highly mobile and can be “deployed on a variety of road-mobile launchers, including one capable of launching up to six missiles.”
British intelligence assesses that “the supply of Iranian ballistic missiles will supplement and enhance Russia’s ability to conduct precision strikes against Ukrainian military or civilian infrastructure targets close to front lines.”
Those ballistic missiles will be fired from Russia into Ukraine.
So why should Ukraine not return fire in self defence to try and destroy those missiles before they are used, just as it has done with stockpiles of North Korean missiles stored in Russia?
In the election Labour pledged many things that many people thought wpuld be a waste of money.
Small boys learn at school that it is not wise to fight big boys. It was always idiotic of Ukraine (small) to challenge Russia (big) to a fight, and for what reason – for the pleasure of joining NATO that never wanted it in the first place?
We all know that bully USA was always pushing small boy Ukraine to fight against Russia because USA is too cowardly, or perhaps too sensible, to challenge Russia directly to a fight. Now bully USA has gathered a small crowd of similar cowardly (or perhaps sensible) boys behind it to supposedly help Ukraine in its fight, the outcome of which is simply to keep bully USA unchallenged in the school playing fields.
How else can one describe such a truly idiotic, senseless and hopeless war?
The problem is that Russia is not fighting for playground superiority because it has no need of such false titles, but it is now forced to fight for survival.
And long-range missiles cannot be operated by Ukraine on its own, quite the reverse: ATACMS require US programming, Storm Shadows require British programming, both require US and British intelligence inputs. All a Ukrainian can do is perhaps push the ‘fire’ button but even that is not likely to happen. So now the cowardly boys can no longer hide behind the Ukrainian boy, they have to fight themselves – quite a different set up.
Quoting Simplicius (https://simplicius76.substack.com/):
Thus, Putin is saying that for these systems to strike deep into Russia would necessarily mean NATO would be directly involved as a combatant in striking Russian territory in a more express way than ever before. The most obvious immediate Russian response would likely be to arm the Houthis with advanced anti-ship missiles which would straightaway endanger the entire US fleet.
The ramifications of this are far greater than most can imagine, given the cascading effect it would have. The US fleet is there to deter Iran and Hezbollah in protecting Israel. Should the Houthis possess an ability to completely cripple the US fleet, the falling chips would be: Israel’s defeat, which would mean the entire Empire’s defeat in the Middle East as Iran would reign supreme. This catastrophic sequence of events would result in the entire eventual collapse of the Western order. As such, the US obviously would not like to risk this scenario.
And if this all results in a nuclear war then I wish everyone well, except for the bullies, of course.
Small boys at decent schools learn to stand up to bullies.
You know nothing about Storm Shadow.
Very much like Ukrainian indigenously developed missiles, it is pre-programmable and has a terminal inertial navigation guidance system.
Target coordinates are readily available from local intelligence sources inside Russia.
‘Battles are underway in Vesyoloye, the enemy is consolidating its positions. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are dragging their equipment to the settlement of Novy Put, dismounting troops and retreating back. Information is being clarified. Our contacts assess the situation as serious.”
Even Sasha Kots is putting out revelations about the constant sending of Russian specialist UAV operators as riflemen, despite their specialisation, to assault squads. Things must be desperate.
Oops!
The military experts appearing on https://www.youtube.com/@judgingfreedom have frequently stated that operation of ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles requires processes and data that are only available to the armed forces of USA and UK, respectively.
Quoting Wikipedia, for what it is worth, on the Storm Shadow:
The missile is fire and forget, programmed before launch. Once launched, it cannot be controlled or commanded to self-destroy and its target information cannot be changed. Mission planners program the weapon with details of the target and its air defences. The missile follows a path semi-autonomously, on a low flight path guided by GPS and terrain mapping to the target area. Close to the target, the missile climbs to increase its field of view and improve penetration, matches the target stored image with its IR camera and then dives into the target.
Climbing to altitude is intended to achieve the best probability of target identification and penetration. During the final maneuver, the nose cone is jettisoned to allow a high resolution thermographic camera (infrared homing) to observe the target area. The missile then tries to locate its target based upon its targeting information [DSMAC – comparing camera inputs during flight to maps computed from spy satellite images]. If it cannot, and there is a high risk of collateral damage, the missile is capable of flying to a crash point instead of risking inaccuracy.
Quoting, for example, Col. Douglas Macgregor, it is an ‘open secret’ that these sophisticated weapon systems are actually operated by either contractors or soldiers and officers from NATO states.
If you know better, maybe you should phone President Putin because he is threatening retaliation against UK if one of these missiles hits Russian territory.
‘Bakhshaish Ardestani, a member of the Parliament’s National Security Commission, responded to the question that “the news of sending ballistic missiles from Iran to Russia could bring more sanctions and the possibility of the trigger mechanism being activated,” he told Iran Watch: “We give rockets to Hezbollah, Hamas, Hashd al-Shaabi, why not give them to Russia.’
He stated that the country is “forced” to barter with the Russian Federation: Moscow gives Iran soybeans and wheat, and Iran gives it missiles and drones.
According to Ardestani, Europe knows the strategic position of Tehran. The official was also asked if the transfer of these missiles could lead to increased sanctions against Iran, to which the official replied: “It can’t get worse than now.
https://www.didbaniran.ir
Iran has form on this. At first, Iran officially denied accusations of supplying weapons to Russian forces, but in November 2022, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian admitted that his country supplied Russia with its drones.
Ukraine receives weapons (free of charge) from about 30 NATO countries. Russia receives weapons from Iran, perhaps, from North Korea, perhaps, and even from China, perhaps: it is outrageous!
Typical western hypocrisy …
Iran is reported to have supplied missiles by West intelligence services and the MSM. There is no independent confirmation and Iran flat-out denies it.
Today, the United States is designating three entities and two individuals for their connection to Russia’s destabilizing actions abroad.
According to new information, much of which originates from employees of Russian state-funded RT (formerly “Russia Today”), we now know that RT moved beyond being simply a media outlet and has been an entity with cyber capabilities.
It is also engaged in information operations, covert influence, and military procurement.
These operations are targeting countries around the world, including in Europe, Africa, and North and South America.
Antony Blinken personally announced sanctions against RT for the reasons you specified: being an entity with cyber capabilities (i.e. internet access), engaging in information operations (unusual for a media company), covert influence (maybe RT attended the presentation given by UK’s Counter Disinformation Unit, as reported in today’s Daily Sceptic?) and military procurement (wow, has RT been buying tanks?).
Unfortunately, Blinken’s announcement comes at a time when he is being suspected by the House of Representative’s Judiciary Committee’s chairman, Jim Jordan, of being behind the “Hunter Biden Laptop is Russian Disinformation” campaign!
So much hypocrisy …
No mention of the Rotherham rapes in the Times today.
A conspiracy of silence is what causes riots.
The former Thunderer was so proud of its reporting the earlier cases after ignoring reports for years because they came from people it didn’t like.
Only one (independent) journalist in the press gallery, apparently.
https://www.gbnews.com/money/winter-fuel-payment-disabled-pensioners-energy-bills
A typical late Friday announcement. At the end of the day, for those who are no longer eligible for the ‘bonus’, it will roughly cross balance the “triple lock” basic state pension increase (460 – 300), so it all depends on their real inflation on their balance sheet.
So where do pensioners look to for keeping up with inflation if the triple lock increase is to cover the costs of keeping warm this winter? There is no way of spinning this to make the government look fair, especially as the have already conceded the argument for public servants to eventually make up for the decrease in their income for losses over the “14 years of Tory misgovernment”.
They might say that this time they are linked to wages, not inflation. This is another view of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YLsi1Ng8gk&list=WL&index=1 . Probably not popular, though.
John Campbell’s latest update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFWWuB7qi74&list=WL&index=3 Based on up to date output from Florida.
”Doctor who helped convict Letby previously said there was ‘no objective evidence’ against her”
This is a huge development in the case.
“At Letby’s trial, Dr Ravi Jayaram was said to have caught the nurse “virtually red handed” dislodging a breathing tube from a baby at the Countess of Chester Hospital in February 2016.”
“At the original trial, Dr Jayaram told the court that what happened was “emblazoned” in his mind.”
“However, documents leaked to The Telegraph show that the consultant paediatrician did not mention the incident when interviewed by Dr Christopher Green, the hospital’s director of pharmacy, during a grievance procedure brought by Letby in the autumn of 2016 after she had been removed from the ward.”
“When asked if he heard any suggestion that Lucy had been deliberately harming babies, Dr Jayaram said there was “no objective evidence to suggest that at all”.”
“Kate Blackwell KC, representing the management at the Countess of Chester, said that despite a number of reviews and investigations, he did not bring the matter to the executive team.
“There was never any suggestion by Dr Jayaram that he had witnessed an event in February 2016 involving Letby that raised suspicion about her behaviour to Child K,” she said.
Peter Skelton KC, representing the parents of children, also questioned why Dr Jayaram had not raised his suspicions of Letby at an inquest into Baby A in October 2016.”
Well done to those King’s Counsels !!!
Here’s the article on MSN, for those of us without access to the Telegraph paywall.
Doctor who helped convict Letby previously said there was ‘no objective evidence’ against her (msn.com)