I would start a petition, but someone got there first. Direct debits and standing orders need to be outlawed because they allow the Government to empty our bank accounts. And then there are the televisions. I have heard that the BBC restricts their size because if they were a bit bigger the edges of the image would reveal the studio and camera crew.
These are ridiculous examples, of course. But in my view they are scarcely more ridiculous than the scare stories being put out about Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), which will supposedly allow the Government to control all our money and monitor what we spend it on. As Laura Dodsworth recently wrote in the Daily Sceptic:
Digital money and particularly Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) offer the potential for the Government, through the central bank, to see every purchase and transfer you make, in real time. And not just see, but control.
I understand Laura’s concern, and if she was right about this then I too would be warning of the dangers of CBDCs. But the truth is that CBDCs are not the threat to liberty that Laura and others think they are. In fact, CBDCs’ critics get things upside down: CBDCs will, I believe, protect us against the overreach of private companies like PayPal, not make things worse.
To see why this is the case, it helps to know that most of the money in circulation these days, 80% in fact, does not come from or ever go anywhere near the central bank. It is what economists call private money. Of the remaining 20%, 17% are reserves held by commercial banks, moving back and forth between them and the Bank of England, so not used by us, the public. That means that only 3% of the circulating money in daily use by you and me has anything to do with the central bank. Your mortgage, loans, direct debits and standing orders, deposits, credit card balances are all private money, none of it controllable by central banks. Not now and not in future, with or without CBDCs.
If we want to know what really happens when a CBDC is introduced, we don’t have to speculate because it has already happened in the Bahamas where the so-called Sand Dollar was introduced in 2019. It hasn’t been the roaring success its central banker John Rolle had hoped for. Last year he said it was “still in the very early stages” two years after launch. Take-up was “modest”, with Bahamians only using it infrequently and for low value transactions. Getting merchants to accept it as payment is one challenge, getting it to move around inside the traditional banking and payment systems is another. Only one of six retail banks and one of five credit unions is even in the pilot. As of May 2022, a mere £263,000 of Sand Dollar was in circulation. Even the Government has had to be cajoled into using it with acceptance of payments for public-facing services still in the future. John Rolle can hardly be accused of exercising enormous power over Bahamian’s money.
The difficulty of getting CBDCs into use is not all that central bankers have to worry about. The IMF no less is concerned that “the biggest and immediate risk that CBDCs pose to monetary policy is deposit disintermediation”, which is jargon for a run on the banks if they became too popular. CBDCs don’t require a bank account, you see. Not surprising then that there has not been a rush of countries following the Bahamas.
But what about Sweden’s Do Black credit card that Laura highlights, launched in 2019 by Doconomy and which limits spending based on CO2 emissions? Not a popular product with Daily Sceptic readers I dare say. I admit this caught my attention because in my previous article I had said this kind of thing would not be possible, yet here it was. When electronic payments are made the payment systems do not know what is being paid for. So how can they make a judgement based on CO2 emissions of what you have bought? What the payment system does know is the merchant and, if the payment is being handled by Mastercard or Visa, the category it assigns to the merchant. If some eco-zealots then went to the bother of assigning merchants some kind of eco-virtue score, or in the majority of cases where they hadn’t got around to scoring a merchant then scoring the general category of the merchant instead, then you could attempt to make some kind of eco-assessment based not on what you bought but where you shopped. The people who have gone to that bother are S&P Global with its Trucost system, partnering with Doconomy via its Aland Index. While all the talk from the card provider to its eco-warrior customers was about “CO2 emissions caused by their consumption”, the reality was a strange rate-my-shop system which may or may not correlate with what your actual consumption was. When it comes to virtue signalling, validity and accuracy are not important, who knew? Despite Doconomy’s claims to have saved the world, the Swedish public were less enthusiastic and the card was withdrawn in 2022.
The point is not that schemes like this are launched on a burst of virtue-signalling enthusiasm which then falls flat, but that they are more likely to happen at all in the realm of private money. Further evidence is provided by our very own Toby Young and the FSU being debanked by PayPal and the Nigel Farage NatWest/Coutts scandal. Yes, CBDCs are problematic, as the IMF notes, though not for the reasons Laura gives, and private money is arguably more so and only getting worse.
This has not escaped the central bankers, and it is why we all need public money, just not necessarily in the form of cash. If you are still not convinced, then consider the plight of more than one million people in the U.K. who are completely unbanked. That means they rely entirely on public money – cash – and desperately need for it to remain relevant. In short, they need merchants to accept it. If the only form of public money is anachronistic, expensive to handle and vastly less convenient than its private money alternatives, it is increasingly at risk of becoming irrelevant, shunned and ultimately declined. Think: paying with a cheque at the supermarket checkout. Keeping cash alive with legislation does not address the root problem. As private sector innovation streaks ahead, cash becomes more and more archaic. It will be seen as a kind of Government food stamp, only held by the poor and marginalised and only exchangeable for a miserable basket of essentials at Government approved centres. The threat of being debanked will become even scarier, handing yet more power to the PayPals, Coutts and NatWests. The option of not using a bank or having something useful to withdraw if your bank is about to fail, or simply not wanting an intermediary between you and your counterparty, is always going to be needed. Public money, in the form of well-designed CBDCs will be the answer in the future, just as cash was in the past. Public money must keep up, for all our sakes.
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“When poppy sellers cannot honour the dead, we must take a stand” – Allison Pearson announces in the Telegraph she’s heading to Parliament Square on Armistice Day to protect Winston Churchill’s statue.”
No link embedded.
Dear me.
Go to telegraph
Search Pearson
First article.
Thank you Jeremy, very kind but I believe I do plenty of research on behalf of DS. With links.
The News Roundup is far too parochial.
“No one should be forced to use preferred pronouns”. My preferred pronouns are whichever I think match the person I am referring to, which can include “I” and “Me”.
Mine are
Fuck
and
Off
King’s Sppeech
David Davis: Removing warrant requirement is ‘fundamental mistake’
David Davis has argued the Government will make a “fundamental mistake” if it goes ahead with plans to let the police search properties without a court warrant.
The former Brexit secretary, a long-standing campaigner for civil rights, said the move would take away a “fundamental foundation stone… of free British society”.
He continued: “It’s there with jury trials and it’s there with the presumption of innocence.
“The right not to have the state kick your door down and come search your house with judicial approval is a massively important British value. The judicial control of the police is vital and must be preserved.”
Sh.t, that’s the first I’ve heard of that. Really? That’s terrifying.
They can already. They can arrest you in the building, and then search. All legal. And they can then unarrest you. All legal.
Not they ever really needed one. In my post student days in Oxford early 70s, we twice had our door smashed down with no warning.
Obviously, even back then, you were indulging in thought crimes and the woodentops of the Thames Valley Constabulary had you banged to rights
Habeus corpus next?
World Health Organization Unhealthy Scam
latest leaflet to print at home and deliver to neighbours or forward to politicians, media, friends online
Wikepedia co-founder saying you can rely on Wikepdia to only give an establishment point-of-view:-
https://unherd.com/thepost/wikipedia-co-founder-i-no-longer-trust-the-website-i-created/
I like that little animation video above and I think this article speaks to the predicament Europe is in. And it’s surely no coincidence that virtually all of the videos I’ve seen of psychos tearing down posters of the hostages show young people are the culprits.
”What is this strange evil that afflicts the West and for which the war in Gaza is both a pretext and a revelation? Self-hatred? Fascination with collective suicide?
Hamas is an Islamo-Nazi sect that intended to destroy Israel and its people before attacking the West when the time comes. But it found million of helpers among Western people. Sorcerers’ apprentices, new converts and useful idiots…
Their brainwashing is effective. Newsweek polls say that among young Americans, 48 percent are with Hamas. More than half – 51 percent – believe that the October 7 pogrom in which 1,400 Israelis were massacred was somehow justified. If we did the same survey in Europe we would get the same results.
Of 67 million “Generation Z” Americans (those born after 1996), 52 percent want racial reparations for blacks, 60 percent believe systemic racism is “widespread” in society, 51 percent that the “gender binary” (male and female) is “obsolete”, 41 percent are in favor of censoring “hate speech” (unless it encourages destroying Israel), 66 percent are in favor of silencing speakers they consider “offensive” and 61 percent have positive views of socialism.
This is where support for Hamas originates: in the heart of darkness of Western consciousness in full decadence.
A demagogic left, pacifist squares, corrupt universities and degenerated media meanwhile are playing with matches. And for the electoral reasons that we know, now we have this great left that has in its eyes, instead of stars, only veils, crescents, minarets.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/379863
Newsweek polled 1,329 people on October 18-19th through an online platform to get the results you mention and then extrapolate to the entire population of the US and then casually add ‘Europe would be the same’.
Neil Ferguson would be proud!
More proof migrants have priority over native people, the Irish edition;
”A derelict hotel in Ireland that had been earmarked to be converted into a nursing home will now be used to accommodate an initial 170 adult male asylum seekers — and that figure could quickly rise to 400.
The Department of Integration confirmed on Monday that the former Great Southern Hotel site located in Rosslare Habour would be transformed to house migrants and the new arrivals will be in place in a matter of weeks.
“We anticipate that the building will be ready by the end of the month and that approximately 170 people will be in a position to move in as part of a phased move,” an email sent by the Green Party-led governmental department to local elected officials read.
“It is likely to be male adults in this first phase given the shortage of accommodation for this cohort,” the circular added.
The Irish integration department assured local officials that the accommodation would be “of a high standard” and “well-managed,” and vowed to disclose further details about the plans “as soon as possible.”
The site was initially to be converted into a 90-bed nursing home, providing a vital service and generating employment opportunities for the local community, but these plans have now been scrapped.
Local councilors expressed their anger at the government’s decision to bestow on the village of just 1,200 residents further asylum seekers, having already established one refugee center in the local area.”
https://rmx.news/migrant-crisis/residents-of-irish-village-rage-as-planned-nursing-home-is-scrapped-to-make-way-for-male-adult-migrants/
I notice the powers that be blob have already been gifted a blame scenario should any thing kick off on Armistice day!
Blame the far right for starting it, not the hamas terrorist supporters! Perfect, news headlines pre written for next week! Thanks Tommy
Morning Dinger. Yes it’s like this Belgian MP says here in this mini clip;
“If you have majorities of Islamic believers in a city, or in a country, it’s over and out for the democracy – because Islam is anti-democratic – Islam is a theocracy, committed to Allah, committed to their own religion, but not committed to democracy.
So the real danger of our democracy is Islam, not right-wing, conservative, patriotic parties.
We are defending democracy against the threat of Islam, not the other way around.”
There’s a progressive ladder of Islamification that a country goes through, which this post explains. They gain more and more power as their numbers gradually grow. When they reach a majority it’s ”bye bye democracy. Hello Sharia!” Only now they’ve got shed-loads of useful idiot woketards to enable the process;
”Islamization occurs when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their so-called “religious rights.”
When politically correct and culturally diverse societies agree to “the reasonable” Muslim demands for their “religious rights,” they also get the other components under the table. Here’s how it works…
As long as the Muslim population remains around 1% of any given country they will be regarded as a peace-loving minority and not as a threat to anyone. In fact, they may be featured in articles and films, stereotyped for their colorful uniqueness.
At 2% and 3% they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups with major recruiting from the jails and among street gangs.
From 5% on they exercise an inordinate influence in proportion to their percentage of the population.”
https://twitter.com/AmyMek/status/1717808377135612302
Morning,.. Wow, that’s scary!
The founder of Islam beheaded thousands of Jews, because they refused to convert but we’re not allowed to draw a sketch of him even though nobody knows what he looked like.
MPs and much of the media conveniently forgetting that David Amess was killed by an Islamist, daring to chide people who don’t say ‘alleged’ when talking about his killer who was literally caught red-handed.
Cowards. I’m disgusted.
I think the Dutch, Germans, Belgiums and French know and experience this already – Scandinavians not far behind?
“Don’t ban the armistice day demo”
Is it legal? That’s my only question, all protests must by allowed by lawful consent with the local authority.
Has this one been allowed legally?
The Armistice remembrance day Has!
Pretty sure Dicktator Khant would have ensured that it is.
Remember that this year, Armistice and Remembrance are split over two days. Remembrance is always a Sunday, but Armistice is always 11/11. I think the article is about an Armistice day demo.
Yes I know, I was just generalising about picking this particular weekend for this protest, why have the local authorities allowed this protest on this weekend fully knowing the possible repercussions?
What has been conveniently ignored by the MSM is that armistice means truce….
A march for a truce in a military conflict should not be made into a political football. But then, why waste an excellent propaganda opportunity to scare the masses, render them unable to think critically, tell them what to think so that they scream for intervention & then the tyrannical real agenda can be imposed…
On balance , and I acknowledge the scale and variety of risks attached , I think it/they should go ahead.
Always know what the opposition is doing….
I agree, don’t ban it. They need to be shown for what they are. A similar tactic as Kellie-Jay Keen, let them act up in public, they can’t hide behind the ‘be kind’ label while kicking off at old people who support those who fought for the very freedoms they’re now exploiting.
I’m right-of-centre not far right. It’s the left who’ve shifted waaaaayyy to the left and faaaarr doooowwn the rabbit hole.
“By their fruits shall you know them” a biblical quote I think. Whether or not I believe the contents of that book, I think the quote says it all.
“Fears that far-Right hooligans will clash with pro-Palestine march”
Should perhaps read.
“Fears that normal citizens are getting thoroughly fed up with those who celebrate massacres while simultaneously claiming virtue”
Why the “far-right” slur? We’re not a hotbed of nazism in this country, and the appalling behaviour of the hamassholes is papered over.
Douglas Murray made many damn good points on Triggernometry this week. I recommend listening, I can’t do it justice here, but he’s livid about these low-rent social-media activists and their bile.
Apparently we have a (ex?) leader of the Iranian secret police living in Harrow, helpfully granted citizenship by the Blair govt, which shocked me without surprising me.
They also showed a short on the street interview with two of the aforementioned hamassholes: white, cocky and so thick they couldn’t even name the river in the phrase ‘… to the sea’.
I would lay money that the venn diagram of lockdown zealots vs climate catastrophists vs woketards vs hamassholes shows a very large overlap.
But yeah, those who are fed up and won’t put up with it any longer are hooligans. It’s clear the police won’t act unless someone says a hurty word about the alphabetti-spaghetti-people or a young girl mentioning her lesbian nana.
I’ve never been so ashamed of my fellow citizens.
…oh, wait yes I have. 2020 seems so long ago now but it’s still vivid.
We need to take a leaf out of Spain’s book. Patriots need to unite and show up rather than act as apathetic doormats, bending over for Islam;
https://twitter.com/RadioGenoa/status/1722137853654663589
But look at the state of Glasgow
https://twitter.com/RadioGenoa/status/1721969550558679114
So very true. Can it be a Venn diagram when all the circles overlap perfectly?
Downtickers, perhaps get some minerals and speak up. Sniping from the shadows is for cowards.
correction: an ex deputy prime-minister of Iran is living in Harrow.
I’m afraid that animation is sickly on many levels.
Isreal is saving Europe from Islamic extremism? Really? Is it saving us from mass Islamic migration and undermining our native culture? Or is that set to get worse by their actions? Isreal is the mighty stone giant and Europe is a quaint castle with petty and impotent residents that don’t get it? Europe would be crushed by the Islamic world if it wasn’t for our Isreali protector? ..and unless we get behind them quickly, they’ll let the hammer drop?
Self glorifying, ‘enemy’ glorifying, Europe belittling and strangely threatening propaganda.
Isreal is not fighting MY war, I will not be drawn to take sides.
I think you have missed the essential allegory…..
Yes, I must have. I don’t see anything allegorical about the words;
’ISREAL is fighting YOUR war’
’SUPPORT ISREAL’
…pray tell; what’s the hidden meaning?
EVs all going to plan?
Given the extent that TPTB have scammed and gaslighted us all over the last few years; when I see EV articles here like;
“Will Rishi Sunak’s electric car targets backfire?”
“Study: EV’s are cars for people who don’t need to drive (as much)”
I do find myself wondering as to what is the real agenda here? I have looked at EVs and concluded that whilst I would be OK with having one as a company car or to borrow one from a community car club I would not want to own one. My conclusion is that they are more of a liability than an asset and that personal ownership of an EV would be a bad idea. It seems I am not alone in that thinking as these articles suggest that many EVs are run on a corporate/lease basis.
And so whilst we have article after article despairing that people are not buying EVs on a personal ownership basis, I cannot help but wonder if this was not the idea all along? The Covid lock-downs got the idea across that we can live without travelling and got us ready for the idea of the demise of the personal privately owned car and all the travel freedom such a car can provide.
The above articles hint that the current policies linked with the lack of personal purchases of EVs will see a major contraction in the motor industry, again, is this by accident or design? The motor industry has been a cornerstone of western economies, its demise will see a major change in the economy. Leisure, camping, caravanning and tourism will be greatly hit as many of us will be confined to our 15 minute cities.
For many of us the big question will be; will they let us continue to run our old ICE cars for as long as we can keep them running or will there be restrictions on fuel supplies and ever tighter MOT tests that will force our old ICE cars off the road?
One thing that is for sure is that this whole EV issue is yet another example of gaslighting, propaganda and manipulation that has become such a hall mark of our world in recent years.
“Fears that far-Right hooligans will clash with pro-Palestine march”. So anyone who disagrees with the anti Christian, anti British, anti Western Culture and Values, anti white views of the followers of the ideology of Islam and its invasion jihad is automatically a “far-Right hooligan”. Does that include the ex paratrooper veteran who was beaten up for having the temerity to sell poppies outside a railway station? Sounds about right.
The downvoter clearly believes that ex-servicemen selling poppies to raise money for injured and killed servicemen and their families should be beaten up. QED.
This is part of a trend which I see is far more visible this year; how many outlets which have sold Poppies no longer do so? My answer is far too many?
Why is The Royal British Legion showing “left wing tendencies” ……as mentioned by some Poppy sellers to me last week?
Very O/T
Notice how quiet the Labour Party, the left generally and Rejoiners have become over the UK plan to send asylum seekers (ie rent seekers) to Rwanda. The reason? Germany, Austria and Italy are planning to do the same sort of thing. Austria wants also to use Rwanda while Italy has signed a deal to send them to Albania. Maybe the assorted nationalities going to Albania can replace some of the tradesmen who have come to the UK?
Naturally, if three EU countries INCLUDING Germany want to do this the ECHR and the left everywhere will go quiet.
Um. That’s been happening for years, as any fule kno. Do keep up, Steven.
For me, the total downfall of the Met was signified when Dick, rather than being prosecuted for the unnecessary murder in public of an innocent Brazilian lad, shot on the floor of a tube carriage before the horrified witnesses, was made chief of the Met.
The Met is essentially taking the piss. Policing thought now their main role.
Did calling themselves a ‘Service’ rather than a ‘Force’ predate the murder you mentioned?
Well said Molesworth.
Here’s some REALLY good news
https://joannenova.com.au/2023/11/solar-stocks-crashed-in-the-last-quarter-too-down-40-around-the-world/
“Just as the quarterly reporting season revealed crippling losses for wind power and EV’s, so it is with Solar energy.
The general US S&P shares index gained 15% this year but The Invesco Solar ETF (Fund) which invests in solar energy stocks around the world — fell by a dire 40%. Even the US “Inflation Reduction Act” couldn’t save the solar sector. As finances tighten with rising interest rates, apparently solar panel orders are among the first to be cancelled.”
Email link to round-up not working.
Here´s a good one:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/california-spend-4-million-gender-affirming-enhancements-prisoners
Vaginoplasties and mastectomies for people on death-row!
All courtesy of Californian taxpayers – and yet they continue to vote for NewScum.
All the MSM is calling for is a ready made solution to a manufactured problem regarding protests.
The parasite class want to quash any opposition to their plans. We, the people, exercising our constitutional rights under Magna Carta are feared.
Why no mention of Suella Braverman being called to outlaw protest?
PSYOP COMING TO THE FORE:
Suella Braverman urged to trigger ‘state of emergency’ powers to scupper ‘hate marches’
EXCLUSIVE: Suella Braverman is being urged to bring in state of emergency powers to stop anti-Israel protesters disrupting Remembrance weekend commemorations.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1832455/suella-braverman-israel-hate-marches-emergency-powers
This is how the psych ops are implemented
1. Claim protests are hate marches
2. Make false allegations about the protestors intentions
3. Set loose some useful “clash of civilisation” idiots
4. Scare little England witless
5. Bring in emergency powers to maintain order despite no emergency
6. Voila! Tyranny! Easy peasy.
That’s about it BB.
The US, UK and EU are acting directly opposite to their obligation in international law under the ICJ ruling.
The BDS movement is acting precisely in line with the obligations set out by ICJ, while the states attempting to ban it are acting against them:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2023/11/the-right-of-self-defence/