News Round-Up
- “Fourth Covid jabs could be rolled out from next week in England” – The U.K.’s vaccine advisory panel said last month that over-75s and vulnerable people should get the jabs six months after their original booster – and now a source has said the programme should begin next week, the Mail reports.
- “Novak Djokovic will get the chance to defend his French Open title” – Organisers of the Roland Garros Slam, set to begin on May 22nd, said the reigning champion will, as it stands, have the opportunity to defend his title, reports the Mail.
- “Divergent CEO View on Need for Vaccination: Moderna and Pfizer Differ on Fourth Shot” – Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla has spoken about the need for a fourth vaccine dose, whereas Moderna’s President Stephen Hoge has said he believes a fourth shot is warranted in only certain instances, reports TrialSite News.
- “‘Fortress New Zealand’ is no more, as country set to reopen borders after two years” – Thwarted by the arrival of Omicron, Jacinda Ardern’s Zero Covid ambitions will effectively come to an end, reports the Telegraph.
- “CDC Warns Agency Would Lose Access to Key Data If Emergency Declaration Ends” – The U.S. CDC makes a bid to avert the end of the public health emergency, according to the Epoch Times.
- “Ep 42. Trust in Justin (and other rambles) – The Real Normal” – Back to normal this week on the podcast. Don and Lord Rickmansworth chat everything from the Ukraine crisis (including U.K. and EU support) to Justin Trudeau’s laughable trip to the U.K., plus their thoughts on sanctions and the U.K.’s energy contingency cock ups.
- “A fine mess: nearly half of Covid penalty notices remain unpaid” – Calls for amnesty grow louder as more than 40% of penalty notices handed during the pandemic are still outstanding, the Telegraph reports.
- “The Wind Trap: Why Wind Power Has Already Peaked” – Wind energy has already passed its optimal share of power generation in the U.K. and there is simply no benefit to the grid to continue to add more variable renewable energy, resulting in abundant power only when the weather is favourable, but which makes zero contribution to the grid when cheap power is scarce, writes Barry Norris on Argonautica.
- “How the American Left empowers Putin” – Biden’s ‘Net zero’ policies are a gift to Moscow, says Joel Kotkin in UnHerd.
- “Johnson could ditch Net Zero now. Instead, he’s doubling down on it” – If ever there was a chance for Boris Johnson to abandon the hideous eco-insanity of Net Zero, this is it – but instead he recommits wholly to the folly of ‘green’ energy, writes Frederick Edward in TCW Defending Freedom.
- “Ban on petrol and diesel cars by 2030 ‘unrealistic’ as electric charger network won’t be ready” – Drivers will not make the switch to eco-friendly vehicles if they are not confident of being able to charge them, writes Olivia Rudgard in the Telegraph.
- “The runaway cost of virtue-signalling” – Working-class Americans are paying a heavy price for their elites’ moral posturing, writes Batya Ungar-Sargon in Spiked.
- “Tony Sewell is dead right about race” – The life chances of ethnic-minority Britons are not determined by racism. Why is it verboten to say this, asks Rakib Ehsan in Spiked.
- “We’re in the midst of a global food crisis – so how bad will it get for Britain?” – The war in Ukraine has sparked a food security emergency – those who’ll suffer most are those least able to absorb shortages and high prices, writes Mick Brown in the Telegraph.
- “The U.S. labs in Ukraine that sparked a propaganda war” – The Pentagon says it has invested $200 million in Ukraine to reduce biological threats, according to the Mail.
- “A ‘trans advocate’ is carrying out an NHS review into mixed wards” – Dr. Michael Brady has allegedly written to campaign groups and told them he has “no plans to reduce the existing rights of transgender people” during the process, which began in December, reports the Mail.
- “Threat to a free Press” – We simply can’t allow algorithms dreamed up in Silicon Valley to dictate what the British public should, and should not, be allowed to know, says the Mail in a leading article.
- “New Online Safety Bill ‘doesn’t do enough to guard Press freedom’” – Fears have been raised that the new Online Safety Bill will not do enough to stop legitimate news being removed by tech giants under pressure to police harmful content or face penalties, writes Jim Norton in the Mail.
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Roundup 1 Mail.
Vaccines don’t work so more vaccines.
WT twiddleyF ?
4th jab entirely superfluous and possibly counter-productive but will keep the Covid hypochondriacs happy.
I don’t care so long as it doesn’t become part of a resurrected mandatory “fully vaccinated” condition of entry.
I tried downtcking myself once, it doesn’t work.
You sure hit the downtick jackpot this morning, KV – pretty much all your posts! Were you trying to downtick yourself on all of them? 😀
Good morning scaredmama!
No, just the once a while ago but I can’t remember what for.
wow, even I got a downtick for my silly post. Do you think someone objects to comments that are merely friendly interactions?
The down-ticks are a knee jerk reaction from someone who doesn’t even bother to read them. Who better for a knee jerk reaction than a jerk?
leek is too lazy to post some mornings, but he still needs his narcissistic supply.
‘Entirely superfluous’ and possibly offering further cumulative damage to the recipient’s natural immune system.
” . . . and possibly counter-productive”.
Not my downtick btw, some loon on the lose this morning.
Roundup 2. Mail.Novan Djokovic might be ‘allowed to defend his title.
Who makes that decision, medical people, tennis admins or press office ?
Tennis champions are going to be decided between whether they support the jab or Ukraine.
In the blue corner is ‘Anti-jab Djok’ – in the red corner is Medvedev – automatically guilty by being Russian.
Same applies, while clearly good at tennis WTF do they know about disease control or the need for it ?
In Australia, it’s a politician.
Roundup 3. Trialsite.
Maybe 4th jab maybe not. Even the profiteers can’t decide but surprising they make indecision public.
Perhaps marketing people think a faux argument good publicity
Roundup 4. UK Telegraph.
“Fortress New Zealand thwarted by arrival if Omnicon”
Which, as we told them repeatedly was always going to happen despite Ahern f*ck*ng up the lives of NZ
CitizensSubjects of Her Majesty and screwing their auto-immune systems for two years.Roundup 5. Epoch Times.
“CDC could lose access to data.”
Good, less bollocks to regurgitate in the press every day.
Roundup 7. Half lockdown fines remain unpaid. UK Telegraph.
Why did any of them get paid ? They have no legal basis which is why the CPS didn’t prosecute anybody.
The ‘offences’ were presented as Civil so why were the Police involved (Telegraph pic) and there would be no obligation for the ‘offender’ to give proof of identity.
Those who paid up were probably threatened with action relating to licensing of their trade rather than Covid phoney regulations.
2nd thoughts.
Telegraph photo could be of Royal Park Police (same as City of London ?) enforcing the No Picnics, ever, rules.
Stock photo, nothing todo with Covid or lockdown.
Roundup 8. Wind Trade. Argonautica (reach?).
We should all in favour of harnessing wind power since it is abundant, everlasting and free.
It’s up to the technology guys (gender neutral) to figure out how to store and transport it.
Batteries as we know them seem unlikely but there is a fortune to be made for those who find the way
I’m perfectly happy to accept genuine downticks but an explanation might be helpful. I don’t see anything controversial in my post unless there are objections to harnessing wind power of which I am unaware.
The point being made was a good one. When the wind blows all turbines are producing power, and some of the time more than is needed is produced. Since there is no way to use (productively) the excess power the turbines have to be switched off but the turbine owners are paid to do that. The more turbines we have the more that have to be switched off in times of glut and the more the money paid for turning it off. I think you can see that the only people who benefit are the (highly subsidised already) turbine owners, and we pay more for no extra energy. Conversely when there is no wind, we still have to have back-up systems to supply the power. This is a fixed overhead on wind-power that is not costed in to many of the “wind benefit” calculations. Even worse some of these need to be turning over all the time because they can’t produce power quickly from a cold start-up. The only possible way for wind power to be improved is to have wind turbines all over the country because usually (but not always) the wind is blowing somewhere in UK. However all… Read more »
Reassure like a misguided contract problem rather than production over supply
I believe it’s a saying that goes back to the Middle Ages: Only a fool builds a windmill when he could build a watermill.
Wind power certainly isn’t free – and it is intermittent, which is no use for an advanced, technological society. If an honest energy-invested-for-energy-return assessment were carried out and publicised, people would be astounded at just how un-green this ‘renewable’ sector is!
Roundup 9. American Left empowers Putin. OnHerd.
Still presenting ‘Russia invades Ukraine’ as a Left V. Right issue when it’s a simple question of geopolitical power plays tinged with Nationalism which was initially a Liberal concept opposed to European multinational family autocracies (Russia, Austria-Hungary) or the division of clear ethnic entities by historic accident (Italy, Germany).
American politics has not produced representative government for decades. Power in America just depends on how much influence individuals have; be they nominally Democrat or Republican is if no consequence.
OnHerd still can’t decide whether ‘Right’ equates to punishing authoritarianism or freedom loving hatred of restrictions.
The political terms “Left” and “Right” are more than two centuries old now. They no longer serve any purpose apart from starting a semantic argument that nobody can win.
Those for whom they still have emotional resonance will keep using them. They’ll make some of them feel better for having identified and labelled their friend or foe; they’ll make a good many of the labelled pissed off.
To state the bleeding obvious, it all depends on your perspective.
From memory ‘left or ‘right’ depended on to what degree you were Jacobite which you indicated how far to the left or right you sat on a particular bench in a particular French debating chamber.
WTF remembers WTF a Jacobite is, or was?
Jacobins – but I take your point. Not many remember Jacobites either; or debating chambers.
The left supports restricting energy production, not the right
Not necessarily …….
Roundup 10. Johnson could ditch Net Zero. TCW.
Why would he ? His entire
careerlife to date has been in the direction if Net Zero. Call it Greenery, Eco Aware or what you will. His hidden masters will have no qualms about using post Covid/lockdown/failed vaccines circumstance to impose their will via, possibly unwitting, Bozo although how he benefits is not clear.Perhaps they have evidence that he’s done more than a bit of pig shafting.
Roundup 11. Ban on petrol and deisel cars. UK Telegraph.
Within 8 years, year right.
When my crowd started venturing away from London, mid 1970s, owning a deisel car was frowned upon not because of todays concerns but because of the lack of deisel retail outlets for west of Shrewsbury.
Present day advertisements for electric or hyprbrid cars emphase “up to 292 miles per charge”.
That will have been achieved using a small empty car in perfect laboratory conditions, once.
The reality will be 200- 250mpch which ain’t much, depending on conditions and circumstances but the gaps between will be no worse than our current use of Petrol Stations.
Things will greatly improve when the technology guys (gender neutral) figure out how to charge from domestic power outputs ,”the mains”.
I took a Tesla model 3 from Kings Cross to Cornwall once 65 grand car I think? It needed to be charged 3 times. On delivery I collected the guys BMW i5 to take it back to London. Charged it 5 times in the end. Got to M25 area and 2 charging stations were out of order. By the time I found a working station it was 4:30, it took 90 minutes to charge. I realised my night was over at about 3am. By the time I got back home I wanted to cry.
Thank you for for that heartfelt dose of reality.
The ban on diesel/petrol cars will be socially divisive, at present, people on low and modest incomes can buy a perfectly serviceable secondhand Fiesta (or similar) and travel throughout the UK at the same speeds and just as freely as any toff in an expensive Bentley. For a whole host of financial, technical, resource and practical reasons this level of egalitarian travel freedom does not look possible with electric cars. There are 32 million petrol/diesel cars registered in the UK, on any assessment, the country cannot have anything like that number of electric cars in operation.
We are being conned and shown pictures of gleaming Teslas when for most the reality will be borrowing an electric car from the local car share club or going on the bus. The massive investment in electric car charging points will only ever benefit the higher earners who can afford to buy into the electric car system but we will all pay for this infrastructure whether we can afford to use it or not,
you have just identified the real reason for the ban on petrol and diesel cars. The government hate cars and the personal freedom they offer people.
1980s-90s University types during which time cars were identified as ‘American’ so using them somehow made you a supporter of Ameican actions in Vietnam.
Typical liberal shallow thinking of the time.
These people now run both local and central government administrations, proof is in the cack handed ways they destroy local road infrastructures which do not require democratic oversite.
In the words of the Loyalist Reverend Jonathan Boucher in 1775: the duty of the people with respect to government is “to be quiet, and to sit still.”
Agreed on every point in that well thought post Steve-Devon.
One addition. On the ‘outskirts’ of some large new housing developments will be two or three charging ports.
Bright green for maximum visibility for traffic whizzing by on the adjacent Dual Carriageway but nowhere near enough just for new residents charging needs let alone passing trade.
Lets just tell all those people who think they can control the minutiae of our livea to f… off once and for all.
I had a glance at the new Fiat e500 when I had my car serviced recently. If I remember correctly it was about £24,000 and claimed a 90 miles range. So, nearly three times the price of my Fiat Panda and a sixth of the range.
I regularly visit my disabled sister in London to help with her shopping, diy and clothes washing: 120 miles each way – somehow an e-car won’t fit the bill!
I’m sure some jabbed people’s mindsets are now “if one two and three don’t last then keep jabbing until one does” with the current news for the last two yrs you do tend to look around and think to yourself “wtf are you’ll doing now?”
I tend to look upon shots of alcohol in the same way as your quoted mindset.
well despite it being well-known that they don’t work, the chief bed-wetter at work proudly announced he was taking his 12 year old to get jabbed yesterday. Poor kid.
Roundup 12 Runaway costs of virtue-signaling. Spiked.
Inventing or exaggerating foreign enemies to disguise domestic failures has been commonplace since before before the writen recorded them.
I I suppose Putin started it this time but Biden is merely copying him.
Since when did
“×% of preferred minority report feeling the pinch” become news? Piss poor journalism from Spiked.
Roundup 13 Tony Sewell Race in UK. Spiked.
Two years ago early on a Sunday morning in The Park a middle aged man approached who I took to be South Asian but was in fact dark skinned Iranian.
He’d just finished his overnight shift in a fast food joint and was waiting for his usual lift home in a large village a few miles away inside the moorland National Park.
That location had been described as Hideously White not so long ago so I asked him if being one of the few none-Anglos caused any difficulties.
“On the contrary” he replied.
“If anything people are pleasantly curious, always asking if I am comfortable and offering to walk my dog when I’m at work”
On further enquiry he had previously been in (European Country) where such an encounter as ours this morning would have resulted in hostile looks at the very least.
“They look at me as though I am dirt on their shoe, here is very different”.
Roundup 13. Global food crisis” UK Telegraph.
Can someone please explain how an 8%-18% (different sources) cut in output for a single food recourse from the 5th largest supplier can result in worldwide shortages of goods across the economic board, not least fuel?
This whole thing is being manipulated and quite obviously so.
Personally I’m not bothered since I haven’t driven in over a year (though do get a few to and fro the hospital) and am currently living “for free” in a magnificent Care Home, courtesy of the NHS.
I missed it the time but a brilliant coup by Ukrain inviting Russian mothers to repatriate their captured soldier sons.
As far as I am aware Russia and Ukraine contribute 30% of the wheat in the International wheat export trade. If all that wheat is taken out of the export trade it will have a huge impact on prices and distribution. I think a significant amount of Ukrainian wheat goes to African countries who will be hard pressed to cope with increased prices. At the same time Ukraine has been able to produce consistently high yields whereas other World grain produces are more susceptible to climate fluctuations, this lack of future stability will create an unstable market. Also along with this the war and the energy crisis has had a huge impact on fertiliser prices and supply. Like it or not, World wheat production is dependent on fertiliser and so the fertiliser situation will have a big impact on likely harvests. In the UK red (tractor) diesel has had a huge price rise and is proving hard to obtain and so some farmers are having to reduce their tractor operations. As well as an overall reduction in grain supplies, the current level of uncertainty will mean that countries that can afford to will hang on to large stocks of grain… Read more »
Thank you for that explansive and detailed explanation S-D, not least that I had forgotten to include the loss of Russian wheat to the market meaning total reduction of 30% ( perhaps 40%).
Roundup 16. US biolabs in Ukraine. Mail.
If we accept that such places exist the US will nor be wasting huge sums closing them down when all they need do us pull the switch, and salaries.
They will be being used for novel unethical experimentation rightly outlawed in the USA itself and the people who decided that was ok need to be exposed* and mercilessly punished.
*Perhaps exposed to the consequences of the experimentation they so enthusiastically endorsed.
Roundup 18. Threat to free press. Mail.
Daily Mail coming in for a lot of stick in it’s own comments section but people can always chose not to buy read that paper or view its online content thus damaging its advertising revenue.
What we cannot avoid are the “decisions” made by algorithms for the benefit of their multinational tech instigators.
These companies need to be reined in and broken up into smaller units that are more vulnerable to ethical regulation by individual governments (the UN proving not to be up to this of course).
I’m not usually in favour of regulation by government or anything else but the tech giants have waived that consideration by their actions.
ps. I’m perfectly capable of identifying misinformation by Russia or anywhere else myseld because they all use the same turged slightly dated terminology.
OK, K, you’re officially hired to write the Daily News Post from now on. Gawd knows we need a better reflection of “our” tastes …..
“The U.K.’s vaccine advisory panel said last month that over-75s and vulnerable people should get the jabs six months after their original booster”
“Original booster” is an interesting phrase. The “original booster” is Dose 3. This new thing is Dose 4. Think how different many peoples view would have been if they’d been told “this is dose 1 of 4, this is dose 2 of 4” instead of “now you’re “fully vaccinated””. You don’t hear the phrase “fully vaccinated” much any more. I wonder if the govt at least will quietly walk away from the mass vaxxing in the next year or two, once their stocks are used up and nobody is paying much attention.
Some splendid observations Julian. One wonders whether original booster is carefull terminolog or simply sloppy journalism ?
Thanks. All your observations were good this morning.
There has been calculated, cynical and successful manipulation of language by the experts and a lot of laziness, groupthink and cowardice from “journalists” who adopted it without question.
Surely, the ‘original booster’ (in the context of Pfizer’s share price) was the unwarranted authorisation of an improperly-tested novel set of gene jabs?
Last night on GB News (Dan Wooton’s show) in a discussion about 4th jab Daisy McAndrew, who normally irritatingly comes across all ‘HM Government’s Head Girl’-ish actually said about the jabs that people now feel they have been “duped by big Pharma”.
I almost fell off my sofa with the shock of it
“Fears have been raised that the new Online Safety Bill will not do enough to stop legitimate news being removed by tech giants”
Here’s the problem in a nutshell. Who decides what is “legitimate news”? If even those expressing concern about the the Bill think in these terms, we’re lost. There’s no such thing as “legitimate news”, just my version of it, and yours, and someone else’s. When will these dummies cotton on that free speech needs to be absolute (subject to long standing limitations in the areas of libel, slander and direct incitement of serious crimes).
Same problem as Fact Checking, who checks what is a proper Fact and what is not ?
Summed up in the Biblical phrase “my brothers keeper”
Yep, quis custodiet ipsos custodes.
I bet the Romans had a phrase for that!
I suppose we could all stop using the ‘Tech Giants’ until they learn the error of their ways?
Nah… thought not.
It’s not easy, I’ve hardly spoke to anyone since I binned social media, you certainly find out who your real friends are!
Trying to advertise reopening our business without FB advetising is a headache, even with a website I can’t really cut off Google SEO or it’d never be found.
Technocracy seem inevitable when everyone participates willingly.
I don’t think there’s an easy solution. Ideally govts would pass laws indemnifying platforms from prosecution in return for guarantees they would not censor any content, so that they become mere carriers rather than publishers. But we are going in completely the opposite direction. It’s a huge threat to our civilisation – arguably the biggest because other threats cannot then be recognised, debated and defeated.
Labour party say that the Online Harms bill cannot come soon enough as its delay means there is too much disinformation out there – which tells you everything you need to know, it is a censorship agenda.
Labour – the party of harder, faster, longer continuing that policy.
The crushing of a small business, aided and abetted by Johnson
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-crushing-of-a-small-business-aided-and-abetted-by-johnson/
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Nice try, Daily Mail, but you need to look a lot closer than Silicon Valley for cynical and deliberate manipulation of what the public are allowed to know.
Try Downing Street and your own complicity.
Toby lad, your team took one hell of a beating last night.
Well, if you will call your opponents oikophobes, you get what you deserve! TY reveals his inner Iain Dale.
I just knew there’d be an entirely innocent (not to mention convincing) reason for those labs. It’s not like they’ve ever lied to us before (if you discount WMD and who was responsible for the Twin Tower attacks).
It’s OK, those pathogens can’t possible harm us if they leak, because they promised to only be used for defensive purposes.
clever buggers those pathogens aren’t they?
They wanted us for cannon fodder, say British medical volunteers ‘tricked’ into fighting for Ukraine
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/03/17/wanted-us-cannon-fodder-say-british-medical-volunteers-tricked/
Entirely predictable outcome. Liz Truss should be sacked for encouraging it.
Well, be fair: Liz Truss should be sacked, full stop!
How stupid for any one to think that they can make a difference fighting in another country. When killed, their life insurance won’t pay out and their families will suffer the consequences
They said the animals all died after eight jabs … we’re getting ever closer to that.
My elderly parent has only had 3 – 3 too many in my opinion – and she is already a lot closer to that than she was before she had any of them.
Even Dr John Campbell, (YouTuber) who I think has been unreasonably pro-vaccine until recently, is now saying there is no reason for further vaccination, and he quotes a European agency which is saying further boosters may be harmful.
Separate topic: Is anyone else alarmed at the number of recent deaths from heart attacks amongst friends and friends of friends?
Until mid-2021 this was a rare topic to come up in my experience and all these deaths I know of were among the double-jabbed or boostered.
4 Dutch airlines now saying they will no longer enforce the mask mandate as of March 23rd. Great news and progress indeed. The list is growing! 🙂 https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/nederland/artikel/5295060/mondkapjes-vliegtuig-klm-tui-transavia-corendon-corona-regels
”Pfizer’s CEO Albert Bourla has spoken about the need for a fourth vaccine dose…”
They’re having to get it out before too many people become aware of the release of their ”studies”.
Ironic that it took a war in Europe to stop the MSM from trying to terrorise the public with “official” figures of “Covid deaths, hospital admissions, cases, etc”
In the South Shropshire/North Worcestershire and the Black country area of the West Midlands, mask wearing and hand gunking seems to me to be at an all time low.
What do fellow sceptics in the rest of the country think?