- “Events promoters ‘ready to go elsewhere’ over jab passports” – Concert promoters are considering cancelling live events in Scotland or moving them to other parts of the U.K. amid concerns over the impact of vaccine passports, reports the Times.
- “NHS staffing crisis fears as Sajid Javid pushes ahead with compulsory Covid vaccines” – All NHS staff could be required to have a jab, despite a major staff shortage prompted by a similar requirement for care workers, according to the Telegraph.
- “Care workers in England leaving for Amazon and other better-paid jobs” – The retailer is luring staff with 30% higher wages, while some workers object to the sector’s ‘No Jab, No Job’ policy, says the Guardian.
- “Don’t jab children just to keep schools open, Tory MPs urge Whitty” – Children aged 12 to 15 should only be vaccinated if it is in the interests of their health, rather than a tactical move to keep schools open, according to a letter signed by MPs Sir Graham Brady, Sir Desmond Swayne and Esther McVey and organised by UsforThem, the Times reports.
- “Professor slams U.K. for spending more on test and trace than primary care” – Oxford’s Professor Carl Heneghan has hit out at the amount being spent on mass testing, which he believes should be invested into primary care instead, reports the Express.
- “We’re all likely to catch Covid – and that makes continuing restrictions obsolete” – Why, when the worst of the pandemic is over, is the Government seeking to renew its emergency powers for a further six months, asks Dan Hannan in the Telegraph.
- “Bangladesh mask study: do not believe the hype” – “This is one of the worst studies I’ve ever seen in any field,” says El Gato Malo on Substack. “It proves nothing apart from the credulity of many mask advocates.”
- “Denmark overtakes Sweden as the restriction-free Nordic nation” – Denmark, a country whose approach earlier in the Covid pandemic was thought of as the opposite of Sweden, with early border restrictions and school closures, has now overtaken its neighbour as the most restriction-free country in Scandinavia, writes Freddie Sayers in UnHerd
- “Who we are, and where we’re going: Some observations and suggestions to those opposed to lockdown ideology.” – A sceptical position statement from Resist New Normal.
- “Governments Must Pay $800,000 in Legal Fees to Church for COVID-19 Overreach” – California officials have agreed to pay $800,000 in prevailing-party attorneys’ fees to a popular Christian megachurch in Los Angeles after state and federal courts in California issued permanent injunctions barring government officials there from ever again imposing discriminatory restrictions on houses of worship, the Epoch Times reports.
- “Florida to Start Fining Businesses $5,000 for Violations of Vaccine Passport Ban” – The Florida Department of Health has issued a notice indicating it will start issuing $5,000 fines to businesses, schools, and Government agencies that require Floridians to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, according to the Epoch Times.
- “Biden voter-rejecting Florida diner forced to close due to popularity” – A diner in Florida which said it would no longer serve anyone who supported Biden has had to close temporarily after it ran out of food, reports the New York Post.
- “U.S. ‘funded Wuhan virus lab’s research to make diseases more deadly’” – The Wuhan Institute of Virology was creating a database of potentially lethal viruses with the help of Shi Zhengli – aka ‘batwoman’, who collected thousands of coronavirus samples, a new book claims, according to the Mail.
- “The Masked Ball of Cowardice” – How fear of admitting error in trusting China’s coronavirus propaganda is driving Western societies into a doom spiral, writes Michael P. Senger in the Tablet.
- “WATCH: Thousands flood Paris streets protesting against COVID-19 health passes across France” – In Paris alone thousands of people joined protests against vaccine passports, RT reports.
- “The Covidian Cult (Part III)” – C.J. Hopkins in OffGuardian continues his series on the ‘New Normal’ as a global totalitarian ideological movement.
- “Covid antibodies ‘tumbling’ among elderly, experts warn” – Antibodies are declining in those aged 70 and over, says new ONS data, the Independent reports.
- “A COVID-19 Vaccination Quandary: Israel’s Infection Rates Continue to Shoot Up Despite Mass Inoculation” – COVID-19 data in Israel continues to confound the logic of one of the most heavily vaccinated countries, as it has one of the world’s highest infection, reports TrialSite News.
- “India’s DNA COVID vaccine is a world first – more are coming” – The ZyCoV-D vaccine heralds a wave of DNA vaccines for various diseases that are undergoing clinical trials around the world, reports Nature.
- “Doctors advise against intensive sport after Covid vaccination” – Doctors advise against intensive sport soon after receiving a coronavirus vaccination after three young cyclists suffered cardiac complications, reports the Brussels Times.
- “Boris has totally lost touch with conservatism” – The plan to increase taxes is the latest Labour-lite lunacy of a Government that only cares about polls, writes Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
- “The threat from the illiberal left” – Don’t underestimate the danger of left-leaning identity politics, says the Economist.
- “Watch out for the Gimp!” – Let’s have a look at cancel culture, the bastard offspring of our rather older friend, political correctness, writes Tom Forrester-Paton.
- “The transgender delusion” – Shon Faye’s book confirms that transgenderism is about control, not autonomy, writes Brendan O’Neill in spiked.
- “We must stop pandering to the workshy woke generation” – Between the siestas and wellness weeks, it is hard to figure out how anything will ever get done, says Matthew Lynn in the Telegraph.
- “Let Roy Chubby Brown perform” – Simon Evans comes to the defence of the overweight stand-up in Spiked.
- “Wokeness is bad for your health” – Katie Herzog is the guest on the Brendan O’Neill Show.
- “JCVI member says there’s little benefit to be had from immunising children” – Professor Adam Finn, a member of the JCVI, tells Sky News 12-15 year-olds aren’t at serious risk from Covid so there’s little benefit in vaccinating them.
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.
Wow. 90% + links to Telegraph and Daily Mail.
Not sure how skeptical this is.
Plenty of meat for the neocon rightists to bite, not much on the power centres war against us.
You are free to send in your ideas if you see anything interesting
yep, and I often do.
Increasingly the Overton window of what skepticism is adhered to has been kept pretty tight. Off Guardian seems to be offering good thoughtful original material lately.
Like this:https://off-guardian.org/2024/01/18/understanding-power-dynamics-moving-beyond-divisions-covid19-ukraine-israel-palestine/
Understanding Power Dynamics & Moving Beyond Divisions: Covid19, Ukraine & Israel/PalestineDr Piers Robinson & Vanessa Beeley
Yes, I am a keen supporter of Off-G. There is always something interesting and with a different perspective.
For some contrast here is a link with regard to the effect of off-shore wind turbines on the marine ecology and commercial fishing;
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/01/28/offshore-wind-and-the-stress-on-commercial-fishermen/
I assume it’s part of the funding model.
There is so much Telegraph material every day, I’ll be really shocked if the DS doesn’t have some funding agreement with them.
I’m not sure the Telegraph would want to risk funding the DS.
I think it’s kept going by people working for nothing/not very much and the largesse of some wealthy backers.
A nice little informative 5min video, explaining how UNRWA are ensuring that Palestinians remain refugees ( and consequently become jihadis, in many cases ) forever;
”Instead of resettling its refugees, UNRWA forces them and all their descendants to be refugees forever. It indoctrinates kids to believe they must destroy Israel to ever have a home. This perpetual refugee status is unprecedented and different than how all other refugees are treated – including the 100 million aided by UNHCR, the UN’s main refugee agency.
In the past century, there were 1,000,000+ Jewish refugees from Arab countries. None are now seen as “refugees” or to have a “right to return”. They’ve all resettled in Israel or other countries. Israel grants all Jews a “Law of Return” to their indigenous homeland.
Most Arabs in Israeli territories came from Egypt or Jordan, which should offer them similar rights. Funding UNRWA destroys the lives of Arab children who become indoctrinated with hate and violence for life. It destroys the societies where it operates, and brings forever conflicts to the region.”
https://twitter.com/QuantumFlux36/status/1751797921035719129
Interesting to see the contrast between what constituted a ”refugee camp” in Gaza compared to refugee camps in Syria and Jordan;
”According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), as of 2023, the Gaza Strip includes eight refugee camps, the largest of which is Jabalia in the northern part of the Strip, where 116,000 Palestinians are registered as refugees.
Palestinian statistics show that prior to the current war, virtually nobody in any mukhayam – “refugee camp,” from kheyma, “tent” – in the Gaza Strip was actually living in a tent. Prior to October 7, the average housing density in Gaza was 1.7 persons per room; 21.2% of the population lived in a house or a villa while the rest (77.8%) lived in apartments. Most residents (78%) owned their homes or apartments.
In 2021, 100% of Gaza’s residents had access to electricity. Daily per capita consumption of water in Gaza was 86.6 liters per day – four liters more than average daily consumption in the West Bank, and in Jordan the average person has access to only 61 liters of water daily.”
https://www.memri.org/reports/palestinian-refugee-camps-gaza-strip-prior-october-7-%E2%80%93-part-i
“It destroys the societies where it operates, and brings forever conflicts to the region”
That explains why the US and Europe fund the UNRWA.
A bit misleading. She regrets using the word “elimination” but still thinks “maximum suppression” until the jab was available was the right approach. According to the article, anyway.
These people, btw, aren’t advisers. The idea that this sociology graduate was somehow shaping policy in Scotland is beyond comical.
Sturgeon like every national leader is a policy salesperson. She sells pre-determined policies to the public. And these little minions like Devi Sridhar who go out to the media as “advisers” are just part of the sales team.
The extent to which restrictions in Scotland were tighter than in England is simply that Sturgeon fancied she could flog the same policy being sold everywhere else that much harder to the obedient Scottish plebs. Double rations for the Scots because it seems they’ll take it. She used their national self identity against them. As did Drakeford in Wales.
Sturgeon must have screwed up on something else though because it doesn’t look like she’s getting her payoff, her nice position in the bureaucracy. At least not for now.
“Sturgeon must have screwed up on something else though because it doesn’t look like she’s getting her payoff”
She faltered on the question of whether a convicted rapist was a man or woman. Not able to follow-through on that agenda might not have helped.
So-called hate crime law ‘could be used to stop the display of the Union flag’ in Northern Ireland–
Northern Ireland must sometimes feel abandoned by the rest of the UK, so
“Well done” to founder Toby Young and his team for organising the meeting there, where they are threatened with the same outrageous “hate speech” laws as Scotland was under Justice Minister Humza.
“Hate speech” does not exist in the West. It is an entirely alien concept called “Lashon Hara”, being forced upon the West by a certain desert tribe, who originally used it to silence the parents of children abused by their “clergy”. It is similar to the codes of silence imposed by foreign criminal gangs upon their members, as well as within certain itinerant communities traditionally hostile to the sedentary inhabitants. We must reject the entire idea of “hate speech” and “hate crime” as an alien concept, and remove all references to it from our laws. We do not consent to it being forced upon our democratic societies.
Seconded
Substack by Prof Jo Phoenix on her court case with the OU
https://jophoenix.substack.com/p/what-a-week