Forty two MPs, including a former leader of the Conservative Party, several ex-Cabinet ministers and the Chairman of the 1922 Committee, have written to Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Business Secretary, and Andrew Griffith, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, urging them to urgently investigate PayPal’s sudden closure of the accounts of the Daily Sceptic, the Free Speech Union and UsForThem, among others. The Telegraph has more.
Dozens of MPs – including Michael Gove and David Davis, both former ministers, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the ex-Conservative Party leader, and Sir Graham Brady, the 1922 committee chairman – are now calling on ministers to intervene.
In a letter to Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Business Secretary and Andrew Griffith, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, they noted that the “common theme” among organisations and individuals that have had their account closed is that they are all prominent “champions of free speech” who have expressed “critical, non-conforming views on lockdown policies”.
They go on to say: “It is therefore hard to avoid construing PayPal’s actions as an orchestrated, politically motivated move to silence critical or dissenting views on these topics within the U.K.”
The letter to ministers came amid a mounting backlash against the U.S. payments giant, which saw several celebrities announce they are deleting their accounts in protest. Sharron Davies, the former Olympic swimmer and BBC presenter, became the latest to exit the platform saying: “I don’t believe tech companies should decide who has a voice.”
She was joined by Matt le Tissier, football pundit and former England player, who said on Twitter: “Good riddance to tin-pot dictators.”
And Jack Dee, the comedian, said he was cancelling his account on the basis that “Big Tech companies that feel they can bully people for questioning mainstream groupthink don’t deserve anyone’s business”.
The letter to ministers, sent on Saturday night, had 42 signatories in total including 21 Tory MPs and 15 Tory peers. as well as four cross-bench peers, a Labour peer and a Labour MP.
They said the Government should demand an explanation from PayPal for its actions and release the donations from the organisations whose funds it has “confiscated unfairly and without justification”.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The Mail On Sunday also has the story.
Stop Press: The Sunday Express has a terrific story about PayPal’s out-of-control censorship by Social Affairs Editor Lucy Johnston. It quotes Lord Sumption on the row as follows:
“I do not know what Paypal’s complaint is, nor what their rights are under their contract. But on the face of it, this is a particularly sinister development.
“The Free Speech Union takes no line of its own on issues like gender critical theory or lockdowns. It simply defends the right of both sides to be heard within the limits permitted by law.
“So we have to assume that Paypal considers that on controversial issues like these only one side of the argument should be heard.
“Paypal is part of the infrastructure of the payments system in a world which is increasingly going cashless.
“This is therefore a serious and direct interference with the very idea that there should be freedom of speech. It is probably illegal under anti-discrimination provisions of the Equalities Act, which prohibits discrimination in the provision of services on the basis of belief.
“But if it is not, then consideration should be given to making it illegal.”
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Joel Smalley’s far superior, evidence-based version of the Covid enquiry;
”The official UK Covid-19 Inquiry has no deadline and will probably run to a cost of over £200 million
1. It will serve absolutely no useful purpose because it is asking the wrong questions to the wrong people. It will result in a load of ill-informed opinions (always worthless) and ignore the evidence. So, here is my unofficial inquiry. It asks no questions of anyone and is completely unopinionated, relying entirely on evidence derived from official UK public data.”
https://metatron.substack.com/p/the-unofficial-uk-covid-19-inquiry
Enquiries.. just like voting.. would be banned if they worked..
Yes, I seem to remember hearing Bliar advised Rebekah Brooks to embrace enquiries because you get to frame the debate, limit the negative exposure and release the report during high summer when everyone is on holiday.
I can write the official enquiry conclusion right now and save £200m:
Lives could have been saved by locking down earlier, harder, and longer. Sweden and Florida do not exist. Well meaning but flawed politicians like Hancock should not be in charge of future lockdown decisions which should instead be outsourced to the experts (i.e. unelected technocrats) at the WHO.
Fab stuff from Joel Smalley. When sense is absent, nonsense will prevail. Is there really no one with common sense left in a position of authority any longer? Are they really so dense, myopic, ignorant, corrupt, bought off, and unable to see beyond a limited scope and their own already conjured up opinions? It would seem so. Official inquiries, such as this, are so obviously not going to work. It’ll be a whitewash and we’ll be told that all is done and dusted (under the carpet).
Thanks for the link Mogs – erudite, succinct, faultless and saves a fortune.
Re:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/16/brexit-helped-uk-prepare-covid-pandemic-government-argue/
Paywall so unread and all the tips to breach paywalls never work for me.
As far as I am aware, the U.K. had a perfectly reasonable and long-standing pandemic preparedness plan / strategy that was cast aside when the scamdemic hit the U.K. shores in 2020.
Have you tried copying the web address (URL) for the article into the box on the home page of the site below?
https://archive.is
Thank you so much. It worked!
You are welcome…
Pressing ‘Esc’ button just as it begins to load also works.
I’ve tried this in the past but I think I’m just not quick enough to stop the page loading and the paywall appearing. After several failed attempts, I get annoyed with myself.
Are we not upset by the murderous events in Nottingham ??
Yes, there seems to be a dearth of information / reporting about that shocking event.
Is it due to contempt of court laws that heavily restrict what media can report before a trial?
“Is it due to contempt of court laws that heavily restrict what media can report before a trial?”
No. What is keeping MSM zippered is the fact that the perp was a black, Muslim, illegal immigrant with a history of violent offences who was known to the security services.
I suspect you are right.
I thought the msm hated muslims as they’re not lgbtqwerty compliant…
Thank you for drawing attention to the Spiked podcast. The only think that surprised me was Matthew Good man’s reference to institutions being captured and the focus that might be given to that after 2024 elections in the USA and UK.
I was surprised because I for one have been complaining of political capture for years. It was brought to my attention very powerfully when I attended secondary schools before 2016 to debate our EU membership. Most of them promoted EU membership and exuded a strong left wing bias which was not even concealed.
my children told me that at University they were not comfortable speaking about their father’s euro scepticism and activism. My wife kept her opinions very much to herself when working at the BBC.
Latest video from Tucker Carlson…I enjoyed this one….and I learned that the banner underneath a news story is called a Chyron! LOL!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDz-k1kHUQ8
Yes, my first freelance job in London was for an American series being produced in the UK, because of that era’s US writers’ strike. I had to learn loads of new terminology. It also took ages to get back to thinking about UK frame rates after spending half a year using NTSC!!
So is Pluto’s moon! sorry I digress
Close..but no cigar..dinger….the moon is called Charon…. the mythological ferryman who carried souls across the river Acheron, one of the five mythical rivers that surrounded Pluto’s underworld.
The banner is a Chyron pronounced (Ki Ron ) LOL!!
Oh well! I did noticed the spelling was difference but wasn’t reckoning that anyone would check up on it! Your too clever by half sir/madam/him/Her etc etc
Excellent interview from the very good Jermwarfare
https://jermwarfare.com/conversations/a-beginners-guide-to-vaccines-and-germ-theory
Roman Bystrianyk co-authored Dissolving Illusions with Suzanne Humphries.
It challenges the conventional narrative about the role of vaccines in public health, arguing that they have not been responsible for the decline in infectious diseases, and that they might actually have contributed to illness.
“Brexit helped U.K. prepare for the pandemic, Government will argue in COVID-19 Inquiry”
What the Hey as politics got to do with a microscopic organism! I’m sure that everyone who caught bubonic plague voted for someone or something, and it didn’t do them any good either!
“‘Case Zeroes’ in world did not come from WIV”
Of course not, it came from whang Po who unfortunately eat a nice piece of undercooked bat cutlet!
“The novelist, poet and vicar has been appointed to the senior position in a move described by LGBT+ campaigners as a ‘beacon of hope’ “
A beacon to drive more real chirstians away from the church more like, Box ticking tw@ts!
“Garth Brooks opens inclusive bar with promise to sell Bud Light and make everyone feel ‘safe’”
Ho just F off Garth!
https://www.technocracy.news/technocrat-vision-for-the-future-of-food/
Some info on what Farmer Bill is up to.
Shouldn’t that be Pharma/Farmer Bill?
Yes. Good point.