- “Fury as former education secretary Gavin Williamson is handed a knighthood after overseeing catastrophic Covid exams bungle and twice being sacked from the Government” – Downing Street said on Thursday afternoon that the Queen has conferred the honour on the Tory MP, who has twice been sacked from the Government, according to the Mail.
- “U.K.’s daily Covid cases rise again: Infections jump 17% in a week” – It is another sign the country’s outbreak may now be growing, after a month of falling infections was brought to an end yesterday when cases rose 11% compared to last week, the Mail reports.
- “Novak Djokovic WILL be able to play at the French Open in May” – The Mail reports the tennis player will be able to play at the French Open in May and at the Monte-Carlo Masters in April with France set to suspend vaccination passes after a fall in Covid cases.
- “Confidential Pfizer Covid Vaccine Documents Obtained by TrialSite Raise Safety Concerns” – TrialSite News has obtained confidential Pfizer documents that raise questions about the safety of its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine.
- “The case for the lab-leak theory” – Matt Ridley talks to Brendan O’Neill on the Spiked podcast about the search for the origins of COVID-19.
- “Johnson’s idea of Covid freedom? Keep the diktats of the health police in place” – Unfortunately, the language adopted in most recent Whitehall publications on the pandemic reads less as if we are emerging from an outbreak and more as if one had only just begun, writes Tom Penn in TCW Defending Freedom.
- “World faces ‘energy starvation’ as oil and gas prices soar even higher” – Efforts to offset disruption to energy markets will not provide sufficient relief, analysts warn, the Telegraph reports.
- “The Strategic Threat from Net-Zero Emissions” – Lord Monckton on Watts Up With That? on why the world is so messed up and fixated on ruinous Net Zero fantasies.
- “The truth about electric cars” – They are far more environmentally damaging than normal cars, and far more likely spontaneously to ignite, says Andrew Orlowski in Spiked.
- “What the right gets wrong about Putin” – While the West has deranged itself with assaults on its own history, on biology and much more, an assortment of conservatives have come to see Putin as some kind of counterweight – but they’re wrong, writes Douglas Murray in the Spectator.
- “The return of Actual Badness” – The high-stakes headlines of the past week involve authentic morality, thereby exposing what’s been passing for the ethics of our day as indulgent entertainment, writes Lionel Shriver in the Spectator.
- “Scotland’s Gender Recognition Act won’t help trans people” – If the Scottish Government thinks that its proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act will improve the lives of trans people, then it is utterly deluded, says Debbie Hayton in UnHerd.
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I disagree with Douglas Murray on Putin and Russia. Maybe he should declare an interest in matters.
I agree with your disagreement. It’s amazing how many commercial conservatives run a mile then faint in horror when presented with actual conservative, my-electorate-first policies.
It seems that Mr Murray would be happier not knowing which bathroom to use.
It seems nothing of the kind, in fact, Murray is seeing the absurdity of Putin fangirling for what it is, the attribution of imaginary virtues to a socialist.
The problem with Murray’s piece is it contains sloppy thinking of its own. There’s no need for two million illegal immigrants to bother with tanks if they can walk in, and Vance doesn’t say (or apparently think) it is an ‘either/or’.
A very rich socialist, thuogh, if rumours be true.
Is keeping male penises out of intimate female spaces not a virtue?
I don’t think you understand the meaning of socialism, otherwise you wouldn’t attribute it to Putin. One thing I would say about socialism of the pre-postmodern variety is that it emphasised the material basis of things. It is not a position I hold but I think Marx would have been more than able to apprehend the fact that Russia, with its mineral and energy wealth, and its actual manufacturing capabilities, is far more able to sustain itself in a conflict than in a crumbling civilisation focused on wind turbines and trans-recognition.
Fixed that for you. The transvestite stuff is “epiphenomenal” (although highly significant because of how crazy it is), and the wind turbines are a corrupt scam (although, again, also significant because they indicate the recognition in the social subconscious that a massive breakdown is coming, as well as being a figleaf for the near-absence of a real economy).
And then there’s Britain in particular, which one can compare with other countries in its own region, militarily allied to it, and with similar GNPs per head – France, Germany, Italy – and remark on how
The longer that cr*p lasts, the bigger the smash will be.
Pundits are predicting 10% inflation. LMFAO!! Per month or per week maybe. Per year? Gotta be kidding.
Marx did indeed put great store by manufacturing capabilities, and did not look favourably upon hankering after an idealised image of a rural past.
Whereas revolutionaries in England in the 17th century made a lot of references to the bible, and revolutionaries in France in the 18th century drew inspiration from classical times (see the red cap worn by freed slaves, and for example Babeuf calling himself “Gracchus”), Marx was into the idea that socialists would draw their poetry not from the past but from the future.
Personally I’m not into an idealised image of a rural past (I like women!), but the Luddites were great!
Ah yes – “Down with all kings but King Ludd” (feeling Byronic) …
Indeed, the only “workers” that he professed to care about were the factory drones. His contempt for the grubby rural peasantry was palpable, and about what you’d expect given that his family’s riches were dependent on exploiting them in their vineyards.
Yes: Murray has been getting wetter and wetter (not to mention bedwetter) over the last few years.
You should give evidence for your claim.
Many on the political right are Putin fanboys and they’re scum, just as Putin is scum. Perhaps the current Ukrainian leadership are also scum but Putin is scum and they attribute imaginary virtues to him anyway.
and perhaps one shouldn’t throw stones in glass houses Herr LipWig
Speaking of which, are the lefty cancel culture vultures going to be coming for this one, do we think?
“She was our foreign affairs minister”
@SheilaGunnReid and @TheMenzoid‘s reaction to Chrystia Freeland’s now-deleted post featuring a picture of herself at a recent protest holding a neo-Nazi banner while supporting Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/RebelNewsOnline/status/1499448765043941377
“The scarf is promoting a far right Ukrainian nationalist movement, that is linked to neo-Nazis. Like actual neo-Nazis, not like CBC’s neo-Nazis where everybody who doesn’t agree with Justin Trudeau is a neo-Nazi. These guys are like “this is the land of the white people”, kind of thing.”
Misunderstanding will suffice – see Trudeau on blackface
“No man is scum for whom Christ died” (St Francis of Assisi).
However, if you insist on venting your spleen, may I ask how you feel towards those western leaders who destroyed numerous middle eastern countries like Iraq and Libya, and have helped the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its 7 year quest to subdue the Houthis, resulting in the death s of 300,000 Yemenis.
Moist feels how he is told to feel, clearly.
Putin personally is not actually that significant in all this – the idea of Ukraine becoming a formal ally of the US would be unacceptble to Russia whoever happened to be the Russian leader at the time.
Here here, I quite like his book, Madness of Crowds but he appears to be waffling in this article – lack of reasoning and perspective. Again myopic focus on the fringe not what the critical mass wants. The normal folk in any country wants a good solid job, a normal family, stable elected officials, decent infrastructure and maybe a jolly once a year.
This is ignored in favour of howling about Nazi’s and Trans people. Who make up such a tiny proportion of the population. (Whilst conveniently ignoring the Nazi’s fighting to Ukraine)
The Tom Penn piece at TCW is depressing in its picture of the behind-the-scenes silent perpetuation of the previous publicly mandated covid regulations.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/johnsons-idea-of-covid-freedom-keeping-the-diktats-of-the-health-police-in-place/
The fundamental problem is the size of the state. We mistakenly think we are governed by our elected representatives. But we are not. We are mostly governed by an enormous unelected, self serving, self perpetuating bureaucracy.
That is why Brexit seemed completely pointless to me from the outset. All that was going to happen was that a bit of power was going to shift from one group of bureaucrat-technocrats, EU civil servants, to a different group of bureaucrat-technocrats, UK civil servants.
If we want freedom, real freedom the only route is the shrinking of the state bureaucracy to get it out of our lives.
A friend yesterday mentioned the absurdity of our city council spending money that should be used for mending the streets and such mundane but vital matters, on commenting on foreign policy, with a big electronic sign exhorting us to “support the Ukraine”.
When voters in local council elections return to insisting their representatives devote themselves exclusively to practical local matters and are obsessively frugal about that, that will improve things a little.
This is in the end a cultural issue as much as political.
Yes I have been trying to contract with a national (international) tech company who provide me with dev ops guys – and the LAYERS on LAYERS of completely fabricated and pointless governance I have to jump through with public sector workers who’s job is to slow things down it seems – drives me mad. Its my only grain of hope against the bio-security-IDs-for-all state
Yes, similar mini version of that is my recent experience of being asked to complete a full dbs check online to do voluntary work in a charity shop …. nothing to do with children or vulnerable adults.
I’ve dug my heels in, so far not done it. I already have another voluntary job. ….. I did suggest to the shop manager that she take me on on a “voluntary basis”, you know, as someone who is offering to help for free … no papers … like last century, but no go/not allowed.
Invasive paper-pushing bureaucratic over-reach/interference has become normal, and I find it stifling, like the plumber played by Robert de Niro does in the film Brazil, swamped and consumed by paper. Ugh.
Cameron promised us some of that, only to increase their numbers. Perhaps he was just rubbish at Arithmetic?
The rulers are neither elected representatives nor bureaucrats.
Worth reading in full.
We are currently transitioning from statutory despotism to contractual conditions.
No fault or failure has been admitted. Muzzles and home internment are still viewed as successful, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Vaccines are still the great hope, and negative efficacy is apparently one of those inconvenient conspiracy theories that merely happens to be true, but must still be rejected.
Jenny Harries on masks – it’s insanity.
‘Airborne transmission of respiratory viruses’, Wang et al, Science, 27 Aug 2021, finds that a large fraction of exhaled aerosols are <1 μm for ‘most respiratory activities, including those produced during breathing, talking, and coughing’.
In other words, if you can smell fried bacon or cigarette smoke (the scent particles of which are both of the order of 1 μm in size) through your mask your mask isn’t stopping any Coronavirus.
The highly sensible observation in your last sentence will strike brainwashed zombies as way above their logic grade. If they were to start thinking in such terms, what else might they wish to understand better? These morons feel protected by the system and by the idiocy the system encourages in them. It is so sad.
Depressing yes, but an excellent piece none the less by Tom Penn, to remind us that this isn’t over by a long shot! The behavioural science behind this has been the main driver, to manipulate people like Pavlov’s dogs, to instantly react to any threat, as perceived by the government, at whim, to obediently go into full alarmist mode…and people don’t even realise this is being done to them! Listen to this charmer, Prof. David Halpern from the BIT, on how the public should be trained to obey: https://www.channel4.com/news/how-to-convince-the-unvaccinated
Unfortunately that would have required me to download something – in order to listen to someone who really needs to be told “It is all over” indeed he should be directed to the section of the government’s own website where they downgraded the virus, so it could be considered never to even have started.
In view of the fact that earlier on today I couldn’t, for some reason, access the DS page, and felt like my right arm had been cut off in the process, I decided not to take the risk.
Very good Amtrup – now I see why the VERY irritating adverts are still on TV lecturing people on how to “live safely” because “covid hasn’t gone away (you know)” (a bit of paraphrasing from a very famous quote made by Gerry Adams after the peace process was underway).
As far as I am concerned UKHSA can issue as much guidance as it wants to (but I’d far prefer that they didn’t). It is only guidance, It isn’t a mandate, or a regulation, and I am more than capable of making my own decisions and judgements about how to live my life. Live being the operative word in that sentence.
Otherwise, we have not “beaten” covid, nor are we ‘learning to live with it’ , we would still be cowering in out own homes, except by choice as opposed to by state edict.
Really hope GB NEWS can find some time in their schedule to cover this issue as it is worth drawing a bit of attention to it.
This is why this man is probably going to be the next president of the United States.
Gov. DeSantis tells college students to take off their masks, they are “ridiculous” and we have to stop with this Covid “theater” …
You can tell he is genuinely irritated.
https://www.facebook.com/kevin.ingalls/posts/5485565984804723?notif_id=1646332977280262¬if_t=close_friend_activity&ref=notif
It’s refreshing to see genuine anything coming from a politician.
When it’s genuine common sense, it’s extraordinary.
I learned to appreciate Trump a bit and recognise the value he brought despite his many annoying traits.
However, I wish he’d make way for DeSantis who looks far more capable of pushing an agenda of individual freedom, if for no other reason, because he’s more likely to bring people together. He’s just not as divisive as Trump.
Yes, DeSantis beats Trump hands down, Trump is Captain Underpants and people who should know better about attribute imaginary virtues to him.
And yet, in four years, he provided less of a shitshow than Biden’s managed already. Trump has few virtues, but some of what he did worked, which made a pleasant change.
ssshhh Mr D, pointing out things like that to dolts tends to unbalance them (even more)
what, like having more money than you?
I’m sure you’re a WonderWoman foil to Trump’s Captain Underpants
“I learned to appreciate Trump a bit and recognise the value he brought despite his many annoying traits.
However, I wish he’d make way for DeSantis who looks far more capable of pushing an agenda of individual freedom,”
I understand and to an extent share your ambivalent view of Trump, and also your respect for DeSantis. Though I came to view Trump in office (without by any means agreeing with everything he did) as the most American President since Reagan, and an excellent POTUS for that reason.
On the other hand, there is a vital need to overturn the injustice that was the manipulated 2020 election, and to rub the noses of those who manipulated and lied without end to make it happen, in failure.
“Divisive”? Yes, but in the way that standing up against fanatics and fanaticism (which is what the woke left anti-Trumpers represent) is “divisive”.
“ if for no other reason, because he’s more likely to bring people together. He’s just not as divisive as Trump.”
The divisiveness is the whole point, because those who have manipulated our society for a generation thought they could never be confronted. They hated Trump primarily for his refusal to kowtow to some aspects of their victory. “Divisiveness” in this case means precisely that refusal to kowtow, and evading it is surrender to what they have done to our societies.
The risk of turning to someone more “moderate” like DeSantis is that he will, much like our own “Conservative” Party albeit with less genuine Quisling enthusiasm for the globalist left, hold power for a while without achieving much, and then hand that power back to the globalist left with their triumphs still in place, ready for the ratchet to move further in the direction of global government and cultural revolution.
But I wouldn’t cry over a DeSantis Presidency, unless he achieves it by kowtowing to the neocons and the anti-Trump zealots to defeat Trump. That seems unlikely in the current political situation, but such things can change rapidly.
I suppose it boils down to whether you believe reform is more effective than revolution or vice versa.
Revolution feels more satisfying, especially if you’ve reached a point of anger. But I think reform is more effective. So I think DeSantis would in the end accomplish more.
But who knows. So many factors, it’s impossible to say.
In general, I agree.
But when you live in a society that has been “cultural revolutioned” as ours has, it sits ill to just let them get away with it, and accept the ongoing harms because it’s too costly to roll it back.
Murray just reinforcing the point he claims to be refuting.
It’s very noticeable that both Murray and Starkey are suffused with personal hatred for Putin, and it’s not hard to recognise that this is most likely due to the culture war issue closest to their own hearts.
Such pc/woke issues have clearly played quite a significant part in pushing the interventionist aggression of the US sphere over the past few decades. I recall when opposing the illegal NATO attack on Yugoslavia a quarter century ago being repeatedly told how homophobic and racist Milosevic was, and more recently we were told we had to spend blood and treasure in Afghanistan and elsewhere in order to try to make those places safe for homosexuality and feminism.
Prof Mearsheimer recently speculated that this issue was one of those pushing the open hatred of Russia and Putin in US sphere societies.
For myself, Russian cultural resistance to these decadences of the modern US sphere is merely another aspect of the reason why it’s important that Russia survives as an independent voice in the world, outside the US sphere woke borg.
“On one side are the Cold War warriors and their successors who have continued to view Vladimir Putin’s Russia as a strategic threat”
People who claim to “view Russia as a strategic threat” implicitly admit that they have some ulterior motive for pretending that to be the case, unless they are just profoundly stupid or ignorant. Neither of the latter applies to Murray.
Russia is so far behind the US that it’s literally stupid to indulge such fantasies. It has a competent and significant military and a very significant nuclear force, but the latter is of little benefit in practical power projection. There is only one peer, or near peer competitor for the US, and that’s China. The only way Russia can possibly be any genuine threat to the US or its protectorates is either if it is pushed into a corner and forced to bite, or if it is pushed into an alliance with China, which frankly it has never been keen on but is being forced into.
Once again, here are the global military spending totals, using ppp (to address one of the quibbles raised by Starkey recently):
United States $750b
China $464b
India $234b
Saudi Arabia $174b
Russia $170b
Iran $82b
United Kingdom $64b
Korea, South $54b
Germany $52b
France $51b
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/spending.htm
Note that not only does the US outspend Russia and China combined, but out of the top 10 military spenders, 4 are NATO members, 2 are close US allies, and 1 is non-aligned.
In order to achieve that position, Russia spends a higher proportion of its gdp on its military than the US or any of its NATO satellite states. Economically Russia has a gdp between those of Germany and Indonesia, and a declining population, and strategically it has an extremely difficult position, rather than the US’s cosy position of continental security.
That’s the reality, not the kind of Soviet Union fantasies put about by the confrontationist liars who predominate especially in US and UK politics and media.
Thank you for starting by telling us which Roundup item you are addressing.
Putin is the world’s foremost exponent of cancel culture.
If we ignore Xi Jinping and Kim Jong-un, which I understand is very popular right now because pretty White girls are crying.
muchlike Trudeau is of democracy…..
or the EU is of Brexit
or the SNP is of free speech
We get where you’re coming from. Now trot on back there and don’t come back
and yet this is what Russian forces face……
Surely this is a still from some satirical TV show?
You can still find some interesting things on Facebook.
Note this message at a Virginia doctor’s office regarding student athletes getting physicals before playing sports.
The notice acknowledges the heart risks to vaccinated teenagers.
https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10225168308262286&set=gm.362293985750423
In case the link no longer works …
The notice (taped to the office window reads):
STUDENT ATHLETES:
Sports physicals are done primarily to make sure you are not at high risk for sudden cardiac death on the playing field.
(Highlighted in yellow) COVID vaccination affects your risk.
In response to worldwide experience and vaccine adverse-event monitoring, we are adopting a more precautionary sport physical sign-off policy.
(Also highlighted in yellow) If you have received doses of any COVID shot, we will not be able to clear you to compete in sports without performing lab work and possibly an echocardiogram to rule out potential heart damage.
Wow. Thx for this. And yet the msm still refuses to talk about it, and govts/health orgs continue to push young people and children vaxxes.
More common sense! From a brave and honourable doctor, this time.
The common sense aspect of this is, perhaps, that as a GP in America, you are likely to be sued if you get your advice wrong… that concentrates one’s mind.
Financial Times
@FinancialTimes
Opinion: Ukraine marks an end to Brexit illusions
ft.com
Ukraine marks an end to Brexit illusions
Lofty dreams of a tilt to the Indo-Pacific must give way to the real threat of war in Europe
2:15 PM · Mar 3, 2022
https://www.ft.com/content/76614c19-65a3-4fb5-8f40-c7951ba2ef68
Globalist elite seeks to use this provoked war between foreigners to reinforce the UK’s integration into the US sphere woke borg.
They can ferck right orf.
I find your anti-borg bigotry… disturbing.
I have just been bored stupid by the electric cars article in spiked.
It ain’t gonna work. Bleeding numpties.
Why were you bored by the article out of interest?
For me personally I found it tedious as it didn’t tell me anything I didn’t know.
Even the volvo report findings are not a surprise to anyone reasonably well versed in the subject.
By and large, it was preaching to the converted, I think. But, as with many of these things there’s a chance that, as a result of reading it, someone may be inclined to think a little harder about our direction of travel. Sadly, it’s unlikely to be anyone in government…
Gavin Williamson???
So far this week I’ve had, from various students, “I don’t want world war 3 miss”. “What will happen to my gerbil if they drop a nuclear bomb miss?” “Will they conscript me?” And my personal horror, “What’s the point of going on if they’re going to nuke the world miss”.
Also two 12 year olds newly jabbed who spent a day in bed but feel ok now miss.
I don’t think a knighthood is quite the honour I’d have given him….
I’d give him a “Must try harder” on his report.
Its unbelievable, plus Blair and the ‘scientists’, beyond a joke now
How truly awful. These evil b*****ds are not only content to actually get Ukrainian children killed, but damage “their own” children too. But we know this from covid.
My own 9 year old who has ASD (kind, sensitive and just doesn’t “get” humans) woke up from a nightmare crying and distraught. He dreamt everyone he knew were all dead following a nuclear attack and he was totally alone trying to find help. This is a direct result of the MSM narrative. No more LBC on the drive to school.
It’s all white pawn takes black pawn to these humanity hating “elites”.
Sickening.
I’m so sorry for your poor baby, I totally get that, my own 13 year old can barely bring herself to leave the house, but she’s trying so hard.
I want to know exactly what dirt he has, and on whom. He’s alluded to it before. He’s clearly got something big, as there is no way he would have received a knighthood otherwise (and it says a lot about him that he thinks a knighthood is worthwhile keeping his gob shut…what a tool….I’d have held out for a tropical island of my own, complete with volcano lair).
Can we move in with you? Your dream house sounds wonderful.
There could easily be conscription in Britain in the near future.[*]
They’d call up the reservists first, though.
Note
*) Anyone who thinks this assertion is nutty should ask themselves what they would have thought in February 2020 if someone opined that “There could easily be a virus-themed general lockdown order in Britain in the near future.”
So, about those rising “cases”.
Astonished credit to the Mail for talking about PCR tests falling.
But what they don’t mention is all tests. Bearing in mind that lateral flows are now sufficient for bagging yourself yet another 7 days of paid holiday in the public and salaried sectors.
How are total test numbers looking over the past few days?
Aaaand… yes. Yes, it’s a testdemic. Again.
Maybe. Or maybe another bout of the flu or cold is getting around.
We really need to get back to not caring one way or the other.
Tests are increasing because people are going on holliday again. Are they still testing in schools? I can’t keep up with the covidians rules.
I have no idea what they are, but then neither did the despots issuing the diktats.
What I do know is that “cases” almost always scale with testing, not infections.
Sadly, that catches us out too here. See the wailing about rising “cases” in Israel at the start of the year, blithely ignoring an equally sharp peak in testing.
All we’re doing at this point is finding (claimed) instances of (largely) asymptomatic infections, or previous infections, or no infections at all.
When lateral flow stops being “free”, even the testdemic will finally be over.
Covid “cases” jump after the kids go back to school after half term. Colour me surprised.
Does he really think he’s helping the situation with an almost completely fact free diatribe?
Researching realpolitik and judging on the facts is “edgelording” now? Yet Murrays thinks:
~80% of the 400 odd comments in the last Uklraine thread laid out the obvious provocation, yet Murray asserts, without any facts, it was unprovoked!
What is becomming clear is that there is a distinct drive to ignore history, in order to denigrate and dehumanise the enemy dejour, a prerequisite for taking us to war. At this rate we will be pushed into WWIII within a year, lines are being drawn, China will will go for Taiwan, and every hotspot around the world will kick off simultaniously.
The sceptical and ethical arguments surrounding lockdown will seem paltry when we’re more concerned about National Service, and sending our children to fight yet another bankers war. Having pushed Russia into the arms of China, it will be a war we cannot win, a war nobody, except the bankers will win.
I will object – I am not fighting for the blob.
It will be difficult to be a conscientious objector when our shores are threatened, will will be in the same position as regular Ukranians now, but with nowhere to run to.
I’m too old, and broken from my 8yrs service >30yrs ago, I’d probably be shuffled into a position somewhere between Dads Army & Danger UXB.
There’s enough social justice warriors to take my place – I honestly (as a proud Englishman) could not lay down my life for the current sorry lot.
Yes there’s a sense that adults are not in the western room. What we call ‘the West’ is really just a disparate mix of corporate and social engineering agendas; and the leadership hates us even more than the enemy, who they haven’t even got the grace or wisdom to consider the existence of. For this reason the war you describe, should it eventually happen, has already been lost. The only question really is how messy it all becomes.
They seem to be accelerating the process whereby the Honours System becomes the Dishonourables System.
Lionel Shriver: ‘Many of us, myself included, may have a hard time quite getting our heads round Vladimir Putin’s full-tilt military invasion of a vast democratic country with a population two-thirds the size of the UK’s because it’s an event on a scale we’d forgotten was possible. The incursion is killing innocents, destroying critical infrastructure and in due course driving perhaps millions to flee their homes, while profoundly destabilising the post-Cold War order. This gratuitous assault is, I submit, Actual Badness.’
Yet another commentator whose one-dimensional analysis of the situation pretends that history began one week ago. Childish, reductive and embarrassing. If anyone wants to condemn the Russian incursion, that’s fine – war is appalling, but failing to contextualise or explain why Russia (not Putin – stop pretending this is one man acting unilaterally) felt the need to take this action is either ignorance, intellectual dishonesty, or the very hysterical nonsense she spends the rest of the article criticising. Pathetic.
Putin Derangement Syndrome seems to be catching, doesn’t it?
Yes, he’s evil and ruthless. But he’s not deranged, and he didn’t seek this conflict.
Exactly.
As is the refusal to confront the fact that such Actual Badness (and far more mass murderous) has been repeatedly engaged in by the leaders of Shriver’s own country, but with rationalisations that enabled her not to condemn the use of war as a tool of policy in those cases as she does in this case. (I don’t recall her stances on all the US sphere’s illegal wars, but rest my case here on her words above about this one being so exceptionally Actually Bad).
But if there are no binding laws and the use of war as a tool of state policy is acceptable provided the cause is seen as just by the rulers exercising it, then Shriver should not be surprised when other countries who see a situation differently from her use that tool in ways she doesn’t like.
I would quite like to live in a world in which the use of war as a tool of national policy is forbidden. It was a worthy, if (evidently) rather unrealistic goal. I argued for such a world against my own country’s leaders and elites, in 1998 over Yugoslavia, in 2003 over Iraq, in 2011 over Libya, to name but three. But my side was comprehensively defeated. The electorate in my country and in the US made it clear that they on balance had no strong enough feelings about the people who led them into such wars to overthrow them, and the political class responded to that affirmation.
So now we live in a world in which that supposed “rules based order” was revealed as a manipulative lie, designed to impose restrictive controls on the weak while the powerful did what they liked. Shriver seems quite happy with that, overall.
The Iraq War protests were huge but Tony just shut the blinds and turned up the music. Why should Putin now listen to @BeckyfromBrighton because she once bought a bangle from a Ukrainian on Etsy. The doublespeak and thought is so strong at the moment it’s giving me a headache.
The expression “Actual Badness” struck me, too.
Are we to understand that the devastation of Iraq (to name but one) was mere naughtiness?
In fairness to Shriver, those people had it coming (relative to the Actual Badness of killing far, far fewer Ukrainians) because they had a government she didn’t like.
It’s all they can do to get published. They’re falling over themselves to condemn it – as soon as I see it I switch off – if they presented a case which laid bare the facts and their interpretation was at odds with mine then I could deal with that. But this shrill hyperbole that RUSSIA IS BAD AND EVIL AND UNPROVOKED is ridiculous. A drunk outside a pub might act in an unprovoked act of aggression, but people largely don’t. Social media credibility is all these people care about now – notoriety will get you shut down and the care more about their platform than anything.
Firstly, Ukraine is NOT a democratic country. Secondly, Russia’s strategic interests are being placed under increasing acts of aggression, or implied aggression. We’ve seen now that Russia is capable of striking first.
The gaps in what is not being said, speak volumes to me.
Anyone who can HONESTLY sit at their keyboard and think a country in this day and age of MAD would act in such a manner for a laugh is stupid and a danger to society.
Lionel Shriver: ‘Many of us, myself included, may have a hard time quite getting our heads round Vladimir Putin’s full-tilt military invasion of a vast democratic country with a population two-thirds the size of the UK’s because it’s an event on a scale we’d forgotten was possible. The incursion is killing innocents, destroying critical infrastructure and in due course driving perhaps millions to flee their homes, while profoundly destabilising the post-Cold War order.
Yes – you’ve forgotten – and the Russians have not.
You’ve forgotten Operation Barbarossa of June 1941. For a sense of scale, almost four million invaded from the West. For a slaughter of the innocents, consider the thousands of Russian villages wiped from the face of the earth – every inhabitant slaughtered – by invaders from the West. Critical infrastructure devastated; millions of lives lost.
For those who believe that history began a week ago, all this (not to mention the Siege of Leningrad and the Battles of Moscow and Stalingrad) has no bearing on our understanding of the situation. They really do have no idea.
Yes, and for her part she seems to have ‘forgotten’ about Libya and Syria – all of 10 years ago! Unforgivable.
In our culture, the more ignorant you are the more virtuous you appear. A society like that is fucked.
As Hitchens has pointed out on this topic repeatedly, on these kinds of issue, actual knowledge and expertise is a profound disadvantage in the US sphere discourse.
“U.K.’s daily Covid cases rise
A sign it’s bumping along the bottom if it’s randomly up and down.
On-topic (current news): the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in Ukraine.
Who does the security at it? Not an Israeli company, is it, the same as it is at nuclear installations in the US (both nuclear power stations and nuclear weapons silos) and Japan?
In other news, a long-time “British Tory” contributor on another site, whom I worked out a while ago (from what he wrote about Palestine) was a Zionist operative, is ever-so-freedom-lovily calling for the obliteration of Russia, the destruction of the entire “infrastructure” there, the breakup of everything within its borders; its removal, rather as if it were Palestine in 1948.
Be under no illusions – that would mean nuclear war. And not just battlefield tactical nukes (which could be used any moment now), but strategic warheads with yields measured in megatonnes.
Guess where much of the material wealth of Russia lies. Clue – it’s not in the European part of the country.
Reminder to journalists:
1) PRAISE the British government’s efforts to clamp Russian money; don’t criticise the pace or extent; don’t mock; don’t mention the Chancery Division on the same page; usual rules regarding the City of London and the Channel Islands apply;
2) don’t mention any “Russian” “oligarchs” on the same page as any members of the British royal family;
3) don’t mention “Prince Michael of Kent” at all.
more importantly don’t mention no court has convicted those with property seized of a crime in this country!
“Since the practical value of an EV today in reducing CO2 emissions is zero, its value is merely to signal moral superiority, showing others that you care and they don’t. It is a status good. It makes the owner feel better.”
Same physics, philosophy and target group as the masks then.
No wonder there’s almost 100% overlap between the two.
Katie Hopkins: Don’t be distracted. They same b*stards who locked us down, now cry FREEDOM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtWB7pvTkNU
Katie Hopkins OFFICIAL
Saturday 5th March 2pm
Yellow Boards LONDON
near 215 Vauxhall Bridge Rd (junction Francis St)
Pimlico,
London SW1V 1EJ
Stand in the Park Sundays from 10am – make friends & keep sane
Wokingham Howard Palmer Gardens Cockpit Path car park Sturges Rd RG40 2HD
Telegram http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Jabbed account for 90% of ‘with covid’ deaths in the UK now, but fake war more important.
I don’t agree with Putin But-
NATO: 30 countries with the approximate number of armed forces personnel @ 3.5 Million.
Russian armed forces personnel @ 1.5 million.
Why would the Russians agree to US/NATO missiles on their Ukranian doorstep…Maybe Putin has a point.
The incorporation of the Ukraine pushes the NATO border 1000 km into the very heart of southern Russia. Its not just hypothetical missile deployments.
Imagine the Warsaw Pact incorporating Texas.
Here’s what Putin said:
““I would like to add that the Maritime Operations Center in Ochakov [Ochakiv], built by the Americans, makes it possible to ensure the actions of NATO ships, including their use of high-precision weapons against the Russian Black Sea Fleet and our infrastructure on the entire Black Sea coast. At one time, the United States intended to create similar facilities in the Crimea, but the Crimeans and Sevastopolians thwarted these plans. We will always remember that.”
“Many Ukrainian airfields are located near our borders. NATO tactical aviation stationed here, including carriers of high-precision weapons, will be able to hit our territory to a depth of up to the Volgograd-Kazan-Samara-Astrakhan line. The deployment of radar reconnaissance equipment on the territory of Ukraine will allow NATO to tightly control the airspace of Russia up to the Urals.””
French speaking Ukrainian gives the side of Ukrainian opinion rarely if ever aired in our media now, because it counters the mass hysteria line:
https://twitter.com/futurebrain1/status/1498738347518353410
God the disrespect they have for her and her argument is contemptible!
A lot is happening in many people’s dreams at the moment.
This is significant.
Regardless of what anybody may believe on this subject, almost everyone dreams, almost every night.
Can you explain further, please?
FTSE100 is down 2.9% today (11.31am).
Down 3.2% now. Any guesses for what might happen when Wall Street opens?
Monckton’s piece in WUWT. I have read many of his contributions to WUWT, I think the ‘Lord’ moniker gives him certain kudos in the States.
I only know personally about one of the items, that of dinorwig pump storage. His tale is fun but I doubt its credibility. There were 3 pump storage power ps in Uk prior to dinorwig; all in Scotland, two owned by the then NSHEB and one by SSEB. The CEGB wanted one of its own much nearer the demand centres in England. Its true that there were several small knackered urban coal-fired stations ready for retirement ( ie Lots Rd) but they used a fraction of the CEGB coal stocks compared to the big stations in the Midlands. Anyway there were only two possible general sites, the Pennines and Snowdonia. Purely down to topography Snowdonia won hands down. So dinorwig was designed and built. Nice story about SAS etc but Brecon Beacons are not exactly next door to dinorwig although to our American friends it probably looks that way on a map.
Like most of Monckton’s stuff, knowledge about one bit of his story leads you to question/doubt others.
Lots Road was originally built for large parts of the London Underground railway, before the national grid was established. Geographically, Dinorwig is not far from the old Trawsfynedd nuclear station, which is derelict, although there is probably a Trawsfynedd B plan on the back burner.
On looking at the article and the figures, this is based on a comparison of Thursday 3 March (45,656 infections) against Thursday 24 February (38,933 infections).
These are figures for the whole of the UK.
Interestingly, when you look at the Scottish figures, those figures are, respectively, 9,491 and 6,756. That means that 2,735 of the 6,723 increase (40%) can be attributed to Scotland. The Mail article mentions this when it says:
Tying the 17% figure to England’s ‘freedom day’ is dishonest if a significant proportion of it comes from Scottish figures (and also when the impact, if there were one, wouldn’t be seen so soon after the changes to the rules).
But it gets worse.
When we look at the Scottish Government daily data, we see this disclaimer:
On looking at the figures for 3 March:
It means that not only were Scottish figures included, but those figures included a third that were simply due to a change in the way the figures are recorded.
Does anyone know if there’s been a similar change in the other UK nations?
Respectfully, talking about “cases” without test numbers is a squirrel. Given that we’re chasing an increasingly asymptomatic hobgoblin, “cases” scale with testing, not significant infection.
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/testing?areaType=overview&areaName=United%20Kingdom
26th February 2022: 495,022 virus tests reported.
2nd March 2022: 702,451 virus tests reported.
I make that a 41.9% rise in tests over that period. If that only revealed 17% (or 20% or even 30%) more “cases”, then I’m glad to hear that the infection rate in the community has fallen sharply.
Indeed, but even if you include test numbers, the reality is that the numbers refer to a generally low-consequence illness in a similar area to colds and flu, about which not much can be done.
You’re right, and even an increased rate of positive tests (the recent data are marked as incomplete, and there’s no figure for 3 March, so we can’t really compare accurately yet) wouldn’t mean much. Now that free tests are being stopped in England, people there are more likely to test sparingly – i.e. only if they’re symptomatic or otherwise likely to have it.
It would only be if there was an increase in rate combined with an increase in numbers that we could say there was an increase in the spread, and then only if it was (i) present once we have complete data, and (ii) sustained. Even if that could be established, the alarmists couldn’t demonstrate that ending the restrictions did more harm than good. But it hasn’t been established, and the Mail is having to resort to distortion of the data to keep the fear over numbers up.
That’s a big rise in the daily test figures.
Is it genuine? Does it tally with people’s observations of sheeple’s behaviour recently?
If it’s genuine, what explains it? Perhaps sheeple have been rushing to test themselves before the day arrives when they have to buy the tests out of their pockets rather than letting the government buy them with other people’s money?
And to think…many sheeple believe it’s “unvaccinated” people like me who are “antisocial”… Something’s seriously wrong with their understanding…
And to think…with the money spent on needless SARSCoV2-testing, the government could easily have provided every household in the country with an oximeter (probably 100 times over). This could save many lives, e.g. if someone has collapsed you could measure their blood oxygen saturation and pulse and give the info over the phone when you call 999. But oh no, that would be treating the population with too much respect…
I’ve found the relevant information, and it appears that the inclusion of reinfections happened earlier in the other UK nations, so it wouldn’t affect the difference between 24 February and 3 March in the way that it does for the Scottish figures.
Regarding trans people, a designation that can cover a range of feelings and behaviours from men who know they’re men but who like wearing knickers and a bra (possibly because it reminds them of their mother or sister) to people who have the delusion that they were “born in the wrong body”, socially we should probably concentrate on the latter more than the former and try to help them get undeluded, but of course government policy in several western countries has for about 20 years been very far from this. It’s kinda difficult to help people recover from illness if you’re too scared of being called nasty names to admit that you realise they are ill in the first place, or for nutcase reasons you insist that they’re not ill because every statement is as true as every other statement or because everyone must accept everyone else’s description of themselves even if it’s patently obviously insane.
Signed,
Napoleon
I feel that on this issue we need to be clear on definitions;
Sex;
Male; a human who was born potentially capable of producing sperm and being a father.
Female; a human who was born potentially capable of producing eggs, giving birth and suckling young.
If we accept this definition of sex? then you can never change your sex, it is fixed from the moment you were conceived.
Gender;
This is a much more tricky concept, the WHO definition is;
”Gender is used to describe the characteristics of women and men that are socially constructed, while sex refers to those that are biologically determined. People are born female or male, but learn to be girls and boys who grow into women and men. ”
As a social construct gender is a fluid concept even though at any one moment in time societies view of male and female stereotypes tends to be rigid and fixed. Societies definition of gender can and does change over time and is different in different societies. Consequently it is not unreasonable for a person to be able to challenge where they are as regards gender and to position themselves somewhere on the gender spectrum. A lady called Samantha can call herself Sam, have short hair and wear trousers and Doc Martens and a man can wear a skirt, paint his fingernails and like flowery scarves. But the lady is still female and the man is still male.
In my view your sex is a fixed, unchangeable biological fact but gender should not be viewed as black and white but as a scale and society should be big enough to recognise that people will feel comfortable sitting at different points on the gender spectrum. However, the considerable biological differences between human males and females means that when it comes to toilets, prisons, sport etc. these should be operated on the criteria of biological sex not on where you feel you sit on the gender spectrum.
How quickly food will become unaffordable.
Look where a quarter of global grain trade comes from:
Some might be content with rising prices for wheat, maybe, although their fuel costs will be up a lot as well.
Unnatural weather cycles are destroying global yields, and China is hoarding most of what’s left. I don’t think we understand how much trouble we’re in.