- “Barclays to hunt down the £1bn Covid crooks: Bank to send in a crack team of fraudbusters to claw back loans – as taxpayers face huge losses” – It is estimated that bogus borrowers may have got their hands on up to about £5 billion of the total of £47 billion issued by all of the banks, according to a report in This is Money.
- “Nearly 1M patients speak to pharmacists as surgery wait lists hit 4.3M” – The Mail reports that pharmacists saw a rise of 44% more patients turning to them for advice after failing to get a GP appointment, as another study reveals 4.3 million people are currently awaiting invasive surgery.
- “Covid and Neurodegenerative Disorders – A Non-story” – Thorsteinn Siglaugsson on a misleading tweet about a misleading story in Medical Xpress that gives the false impression that a study showed Covid was worse than similar viruses for triggering neurodegenerative disorders.
- “Covid Update – Myocarditis, Birth Rates, Fertility, BA.5 and more” – An informative vaccine-related update from the Naked Emperor.
- “Thanks Pfizer!” – Alex Berenson tells the story of his mum, who suffered atrial fibrillation following each of her Covid boosters.
- “Towards a General Theory of Corona and Why No Interventions Ever Seem to Work As Intended” – Eugyppius suggests that Robert Edgar Hope-Simpson’s theories of influenza may offer insight into COVID-19. Worth keeping in mind that Hope-Simpson’s ideas of latency of the influenza virus and waves of asymptomatic transmission have not so far been backed up by direct empirical evidence.
- “The socialist case against the strikes” – The unions themselves must bear some responsibility for the situation we are in, given that some of their members were among those clamouring for coronavirus restrictions, even months after the advent of the vaccines, writes Sarah Linney in the Spectator.
- “Dutch join Germany, Austria, in reverting to coal” – The Dutch joined Germany and Austria in reverting to coal power on Monday following an energy crisis provoked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a report from France24.
- “Coal Burning Germany: Pay Poor Countries to Switch to Renewables” – Eric Worrall in Watts Up With That? says it’s difficult to cajole developing countries to abandon coal while reopening your own coal-fired power plants.
- “Germany Green Energy Crisis: Warning of “Lehman Like” Contagion” – Eric Worrall also reports in Watts Up With That? that Germany’s renewable policy-inspired energy insecurity has reached crisis levels, with the country’s Vice Chancellor warning of “Lehman like” economic contagion if energy prices rise any further.
- “Joe Biden to block Boris Johnson’s answer to global food crisis” – The U.S. President opposes the Prime Minister’s plan to ease the cost of living by curbing green fuels, the Telegraph reports.
- “Shame on publishers for snubbing J.K. Rowling” – Harry Potter saved their industry – 25 years later, they’re pretending she doesn’t exist; it’s pure hypocrisy, says Jake Kerridge in the Telegraph.
- “‘Shambolic’ slavery report sparks fury from Cambridge dons” – A Cambridge University college hires a researcher to investigate legacies of slavery, prompting a backlash from senior historians, reports the Telegraph.
- “Prince Charles wants ‘slave trade to be taught alongside Holocaust’” – Prince Charles wants Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade to be taught to the nation in the same way that schoolchildren learn about the Holocaust, reports the Express.
- “Parents’ battle to see ‘secret’ lessons on white privilege” – The parents of a teenager who is quitting a school that teaches topics such as white privilege and being gender queer are seeking the right to see “secret” lessons, the Times reports. The story is also in the Mail.
- “Council axes talk by feminist writer because of her views on trans rights” – Nottingham City Council says allowing Julie Bindel to speak at a library would violate its commitment to being an “inclusive city”, reports the Telegraph. Ah yes, that kind of inclusive.
- “Nottingham City Council listens to activists, not women” – Julie Bindel writes in UnHerd that they banned her from speaking at a public venue over her gender critical views.
- “Clarence Thomas and the racism of the woke elites” – Brendan O’Neill in Spiked says the U.S. Supreme Court’s only black justice has been subjected to so much hatred because to woke ‘liberals’ he is the wrong kind of black.
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So far I like the cut of Milei’s jib. A breath of fresh air and common sense.
Billing the head of JSO would certainly be appreciated. A pay up or porridge deal should do the trick.
I strongly disagree.
“Security” is an imposition by the state. Its the state that wants to deploy police officers to provide “security” so it should foot the bill itself.
Although, of course, the state has no income. It’s income cones from shaking down the public.
It didn’t take Milei long to act like a hypocrite.
You are total granite Stewart always totally consistent.
JSO can protest and I would not charge them for security, but I would certainly charge them or jail them for damaging art works, buildings etc.—- Damaging things is not legitimate protest. ———I would expect no leniency if I had a JUST START OIL T short on and threw paint at my bank window, and I don’t think I would get any.
Its that thing that the left don’t do terribly well. Consequences for their actions…
I strongly disagree.
“Security” is an imposition by the state. Its the state that wants to deploy police officers to provide “security” so it should foot the bill itself.
That’s not really true. In 2017, there was a G20 meeting in Hamburg. These are traditionally also gathering points of the (so-called) anticapitalist/ anarchist hard left who’ll stage ‘protests’ against them. The city was essentially stripped of police in order to ensure the safety of all the meeting politicians. Because of this, the protestors went rioting in several city districts, smashing up and looting shops, torching cars etc.
Milei’s argument still doesn’t hold water, though: The largest parts of these costs will have been paying all the security-related government employees who would have needed to be paid come rain or shine, ie, regardless of the demonstration. And the actual numbers deployed were chosen by the government for some reason only known to it. People have freedom of assembly, however, should they actually assemble, fines in the order of thenthousands of dollars will be issued to people not guilty of any criminal conduct effectively means There’s no freedom of assembly.
I tend to agree
My starting point would be that the right to peaceful public mass protest is sacrosanct and charging people for it isn’t appropriate. If people are engaging in deliberate obstruction then they should be moved on or arrested. The greyer area is when the obstruction is a natural result of a lot of people being in the same place at the same time. I think it’s reasonable to encourage protestors to choose where they go in order to minimise inconvenience to others without losing the impact of the protest but I don’t feel that coercion is warranted
I like the idea of charging JSO for any damage done, then passing that on to donors. Never happen though
What a Christmas gift, that headline really did make me laugh out loud
Good for Milei, if I’m not mistaken a similar principle applies to football matches and pop concerts, so why not.
If you truly believe in what you’re protesting, you’ll be happy to foot the bill, in the knowledge that you will be safe while protesting and as a taxpayer you will not get further burdened.
Merry Christmas everyone, have a good one.
Yep, we are on the same page Jane.
Have a lovely Christmas
There’s a very real danger that this could end up being the thin end of the wedge. Once a government charges protesters blocking roads during a protest it’s a very small step to charging other protests for the policing costs involved and before we know it protest is the preserve of the well off.
The best solution would be to massively increase the fines given to people who have been found guilty of breaking the law during a protest to help cover the cost of dealing with their law breaking rather than simply charging groups who organise a protest.
“massively increase the fines given to people who have been found guilty of breaking the law”
I largely agree with your comments but the problem is that the legal system is now largely corrupted. JSO routinely break the law with their pathetic vandalism and deliberate road closures. Bill the tw#t funding this crap and things might change. If he doesn’t pay send him down.
Looking forward to the day when Extinction Rebellion are charged for the disruptions they cause. 10,000 motorists on the M25 x £10.42 an hour…. A few days of that will soon drain ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ the George Soros funded twats of funds.
Damn right.
“a heavy deployment of police, paramilitary officers and anti-riot forces, cost 60 million pesos, or about £57,500, at the official exchange rate.”
We should employ Argentinian police. At those prices we could fly them over here to deal with protests and riots and fly them back and it’d still cost less than using ours.
Yes that’s 1,043 pesos to the pound if my calculator is correct.
They will also strip protestors of Welfare. That’s going to hurt.
No. Just those protesters who block streets – if I understood that correctly.
Mind you that also means they expect to be able to identify these people.
—
Have a peaceful Christmas everyone.
In order to do this they must be closely surveilling the event and have the technology to trace the protesters they have identified. Its easy to applaud the concept of charging the protesters but the mechanics involved in that process are part of the apparatus of the surveillance state which, I think, most here would be against.
Correct. Trudeau tried it against the Canadian trucker protest during Covid. Not just cutting off welfare payments but freezing their bank accounts. I don’t think many on here would have supported that action.