Keir Starmer’s attempts to strike a free trade deal with the US are at risk over a free speech row after the US State Department warned there would be “no free trade without free speech” – but Whitehall officials have dismissed it as a bluff. The Telegraph has more.
In a highly unusual step on Sunday night, the US State Department issued a statement saying it was “concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom” in relation to the case of an anti-abortion campaigner.
It said it was “monitoring” the case of Livia Tossici-Bolt, who was prosecuted for holding a sign near a Bournemouth abortion clinic reading: “Here to talk if you want.”
A verdict in the case is due on Friday.
The State Department, responsible for US foreign policy, would not usually comment on the domestic policies of another country.
Asked about the comments, a source familiar with trade negotiations told the Telegraph there should be “no free trade without free speech”, a stance thought to have become a point of contention between the two nations.
Sir Keir has been trying to strike a trade deal with the US since coming to power.
However, the Government is braced for Donald Trump’s long-promised global tariffs, expected to come into force on Wednesday, as hopes fade for a deal before the US president’s ‘Liberation Day’.
Mr Trump confirmed on Sunday that the tariffs would hit “all countries”, prompting markets to tumble.
After a phone call between Mr Trump and Sir Keir at the weekend, No 10 conceded on Monday that tariffs would be likely to hit Britain.
An official from the US bureau of democracy, human rights and labour met Ms Tossici-Bolt during a recent visit to the UK.
In a statement, the branch of the State Department said: “US-UK relations share a mutual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
“However, as Vice-President Vance has said, we are concerned about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom. It is important that the UK respect and protect freedom of expression.”
Last month, Mr Vance told the Munich Security Conference that he feared “free speech in Britain and across Europe was in retreat”.
No 10 said it continued to have “constructive discussions” with the Trump administration over trade.
A Whitehall source sought to downplay the significance of free speech to trade talks, telling the Telegraph: “We know it is something they have a bugbear about. We are happy to have discussions on our broader, wide-ranging relationship.
“I don’t think enhancing our economic engagement that is beneficial for both countries is contingent on this particular issue.”
Worth reading in full.
Once again it appears officials are assuming Trump is not serious even when he repeatedly says something. It’s exactly the mistake they made with NATO and defence spending, assuming he wasn’t absolutely sincere when he said Europe needed to up its game or risk the alliance. It would seem reckless to assume he’s bluffing this time.
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What does the British Psychological Society have to say about this unethical behaviour?
ISTR that they said it was ethical. I suppose it is they who decide what is ethical or not ethical. If not, who?
Nothing probably; they’re psychologists after all. Note the quote in the article: “psychologists tend to be more on the neurotic end of the spectrum”
Reminds me of the old joke that Psychiatrists tend to be nuttier than their patients.
“psychologists tend to be more on the neurotic end of the spectrum”
Well, who would have thought that?
Psychology…about as much of a science as virology or climate changeology.
Well, the acts played out over the Covid era and since show psychology to be an exact science when applied under certain conditions to the masses. It can’t guarantee a 100% uptake, but it can guarantee a large majority can have their behaviour controlled via a coordinated psychological attack. I’d argue that the very pinnacle of scientific achievement is to control human behaviour through psychological manipulation that hides the mechanisms being employed. Once that is achieved, which it largely is already, all future ‘science’ is a product of that science.
Good point and will be interesting to see how strong the nut zero propaganda will be when the electricity fails and petrol and diesel is no longer available to buy.
A scientific achievement?
It would be an achievement, of sorts, and Scientific knowledge might have been employed, but it isn’t a scientific achievement: Science is a mode of enquiry. What you do with the knowledge gained is up to the individual.
I’ve known many doctors socially. They tend to be the most anxious of parents. I’ve always put this down to them seeing sick kids all days. No surprise that they see the exception as the rule.
Selective memory syndrome just means many in the media and politicians are now lying. However the evidence is on our screens and they should be exposed. Keir Starmer said it would be a catastrophe to open up in July 2021. Nothing of the sort happened. The economy and our children would have suffered even more if he had been PM.
Not only do we have a shockingly poor government, we have a non-existent opposition.
They prefer to bicker and score silly points off one another. Lockdown parties? Second homes? How about Lockdown was one of the greatest evils ever visited on the world? Nope, not a whimper.
Labour had an open goal during lockdown: they could have bemoaned school closures, the killing of small businesses everywhere, the destruction of workers’ rights and much more.
Instead they were not only complicit, but actively egging the government on.
I always knew we were ‘led’ by donkeys, but it took 2020 for me to realise quite how bad our ‘leaders’ have become. I mean it’s clearly been bad for a while but it was fairly low-key before and it took the so-called ’emergency’ to bring the extent of the rot fully into focus for me.
I felt, and still feel, so much anger that the basic mechanisms of government let us down but, although a painful realisation and a rude awakening, I’m pleased to have woken up to the scam.
There’s a monoculture within the political bubble: mostly graduates from the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, with very few with Business experience. History and PPE appear to a favorite within the Dept. of Energy And ‘Business Experience’ doesn’t mean being a consultant, with magical powers from having the backing of a big firm.
This medical agenda has been supported by an organisation, created in the image of a socialist state, (in 1948), turns to victimhood when it suits them, and protects the pharmaceutical industry from criticism.
I think we sshould consider prosecuting them or at the very least lose their lucrative jobs. They are all cupable and should be shown up for the charlatans that they are, irrespective of who they are.
Great image in the article. The Rona Fascism was fuelled by fake tests, fake dead counts and endless fear porn. Governments paid the Fake News to scream of imminent doom and killing granny if you weren’t diapered, locked down and stabbinated. Zero science. 100% Fascism.
Seconded. That shows exactly 180 propaganda posters churned out by the Third Reich of the pandemic years. It is little wonder that the UK government – specifically what is now the UK Health Security Agency – during those years became by far Britain’s largest advertiser! This was in effect most people’s experience of the pandemic – that of fearmongering, news, propaganda, being personally restricted, i.e. most of it happened on the other side of a TV screen. Most of what we experienced was the response to the pandemic, not the pandemic itself. Me personally? The business I work for closed for two years before finally being sold to new owners, lots of crap in the media, talk amongst friends and family about the pandemic (always external to any of our experiences), followed by a jab in the arm that did nothing useful.
Games within games within games. I’m not playing. All a distraction to keep the masses subdued and confused. Keeping the masses quiet long enough to stealthily enact global change is key. And providing sites where people who know can vent their anger by changing pixels on a screen rather than overthrowing their government is absolutely crucial…. I suppose I am unwittingly playing after all.
“We experts all knew the government was ignoring our advice and promoting fear, but we didn’t like to say anything in public because we were scared it would affect mask-wearing, lockdown behaviour and vaccine compliance.”
Toadies.
Yes they should. They should be figuratively pilloried in mainstream and social media. These so called experts failed in their duty of care.
They should not be exonerated just because a bunch of other people are similarly blameworthy. Expose them all.
Never forget.
Updated to add: Nobody should defend these people by suggesting they were no more or less bad than many others. That’s not what we should expect of experts.
It’s exactly what we should expect of experts.
Experts, as my dad says, are people who know everything about nothing.
‘Ex’ something that has been,
‘spert’ a drip under pressure
It’s the TV experts that need to be singled out, and their supporters. There were plenty of knowledgeable people that ‘got it right’, but they weren’t allowed on the airwaves.
The BBC have played an active part in the Climate Farce, the NET Zero Scam and the Global Medical Intervention Disaster.
I haven’t gotten round to watching this documentary yet, but Jacqui Deevoy did a great job with her last film on the outright murder of vulnerable members of the public by the medical system/government. If anyone wishes to give a quick review after they’ve watched it that’d be much appreciated;
”Playing God is a profoundly moving documentary that dives into the heart-wrenching journeys of families who have lost their loved ones to end-of-life drugs.
Jacqui Deevoy, co-producer and presenter of the Iconic film A Good Death?, has teamed up with award-winning directors Naeem and Ash Mahmood and co-producer Phil Graham to create this jaw-dropping exposé on medical democide in the UK over the last 50 years.”
https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/playing-god
‘Those involved in advising Government should consider their ethics, biases and cognitive dissonance.’
And
Those advising the Government should add up all their qualifications and then ask themselves how such a bunch of over-qualified pompous stuffed shirts could be so unbelievably dim and incompetent…..
Let us never forget that we were all told by one of the world’s foremost coronavirus experts, actually in China, on 06 February 2020
‘People are saying a 2.2 to 2.4% fatality rate total. However recent information is very worthy – if you look at the cases outside of China the mortality rate is <1%. [Only 2 fatalities outside of mainland China]. 2 potential reasons 1) either china’s healthcare isn’t as good – that’s probably not the case 2) What is probably right is that just as with SARS there’s probably much stricter guidelines in mainland China for a case to be considered positive. So the 20,000 cases in China is probably only the severe cases; the folks that actually went to the hospital and got tested. The Chinese healthcare system is very overwhelmed with all the tests going through. So my thinking is this is actually not as severe a disease as is being suggested. The fatality rate is probably only 0.8%-1%. There’s a vast underreporting of cases in China. Compared to Sars and Mers we are talking about a coronavirus that has a mortality rate of 8 to 10 times less deadly to Sars to Mers. So a correct comparison is not Sars or Mers but a severe cold. Basically this is a severe form of the cold.’ Prof John Nicholls, Univ. of Hong Kong
If we could spot that and publish it on here in Lockdown Sceptics not long after that, why couldn’t they get the hang of it?
They should have resigned, to a man/woman/whathaveyou….oh for heavens sake!
They were following an agenda.
This is disgusting. Their tactics and manipulation plain for all to see.
”‘The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” A. Einstein.
”This is some next level programming.
How many of you had even heard of the medical term Myocarditis prior to the experimental mRNA Injections?
Answer – not many – now commercials warning about kids contracting this heart scarring affliction are being aired on TV.
Insane.”
https://twitter.com/BGatesIsaPyscho/status/1783824715288572314
Re: “Professor Ellen Townsend and I decided to write a response to challenge these claims. We could not write a rapid response in the BMJ since we would have been limited to 600 words.”
Why couldn’t you write a succinct BMJ rapid response at the time?
A pithy response at the time would have been useful.
I had a BMJ rapid response published in March 2020, and reckon it holds up pretty well. If only medical and scientific establishment insiders had piped up with something similar at the time… But of course very few were equipped to challenge the blessed ‘Church of Vaccination’.
BMJ Rapid Response, 25 March 2020: https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m1089/rr-6
The same tactics are used around the ‘climate change emergency’ and people have continued to believe that twaddle for decades.
Yes and what’s more 80% of people would still lockdown wear masks and do all the other nonsense once again if /when the government dictates. I say this as talking to friends and family they still haven’t really “got it”. Sad and dangerous but true.
Covid psychological manipulation unpacked here too: https://youtu.be/4Iqa4CoMciU?si=L2Od-gJRaImpqvyj