News Round-Up
26 July 2024
Government Has Just Declared War on Free Speech
26 July 2024
by Toby Young
Vindication on lockdowns, but new threats to free speech on the second anniversary of the Free Speech Union – watch the interview on "So What You're Saying Is" from the New Culture Forum.
Now that Covid restrictions are being rolled back, some are declaring victory over the miserable virus. Lockdowns, we are told, worked. Only a fool could argue otherwise. But this misses vital evidence.
Allison Pearson lists the most lunatic lockdown measures as she recalls being pilloried for being a lockdown sceptic, but increasingly her opponents are admitting she was right.
We're publishing a guest post on the Daily Sceptic by Law Professor David McGrogan about why the critics of Covid restrictions are suddenly winning the argument.
Why have the lockdown sceptics' failed to win the argument? Partly because we made the mistake of trying to appeal to reason, but partly because we got some things wrong at the beginning.
Christopher Snowdon misfires repeatedly as he unloads another volley against lockdown sceptics. But does he have more in common with the sceptics he lampoons than he'd like to admit?
I've written a piece for the Mail asking whether the rapid decline in daily case numbers since 'Freedom Day' suggests that lockdowns aren't necessary to bring case numbers down. It's certainly beginning to look that way.
We're publishing a guest post today about an unexpected benefit of the pandemic: the emergence of scientifically- and data-literate groups of amateurs who scrutinise and challenge the official scientific narrative.
MIT researchers analysed a large sample of pandemic-related tweets, and used ethnographic methods to study "anti-mask" Facebook groups. They found that sceptics place a premium on data literacy and scientific rigour.
A number of famous musicians have nailed their colours to the good ship lockdown sceptics in the past 12 months, but none quite as illustrious as the latest addition to our ranks: Sir Mick Jagger.
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