News Round-Up
- “NHS to call on volunteers to drive emergency patients to hospital” – London Ambulance Service is to pilot a scheme aimed at those with mobility problems in “category 3” as senior doctors warn of “staggeringly bad” delays to emergency care, the Telegraph reports.
- “Whatever happened to the Novavax Covid vaccine?” – The jab, seen as an alternative for people who are hesitant about gene-based vaccines, is widely available in the EU but still not cleared for use in the U.K., reports BBC News.
- “Britain is far from the laughing stock of the world” – Ignore the self-loathers, says Zoe Strimpel in the Telegraph. In most other countries, Partygate wouldn’t even bubble to the surface, and the bigger truth is this: Britain is not rubbish, not even close – a truth that is self-evident in comparison with the rest of the world.
- “Justin Welby can’t see that modern societies need borders to survive” – Whatever the Archbishop believes, offshoring asylum seekers who come to Britain illegally, while establishing dedicated resettlement programmes for those most in need of support, is sensible policy and a real achievement for Priti Patel, says Nick Timothy in the Telegraph.
- “Unelected virtue-signallers like Justin Welby are out of step with the public on asylum policy” – Latest polling shows that the plan to relocate to Rwanda many of those arriving undocumented on cross-Channel dinghies is hugely popular, writes Patrick O’Flynn in the Telegraph.
- “J.K. Rowling snubbed by Platinum Jubilee reading list” – J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, almost certainly the U.K.’s largest literary export over the period, has been left out alongside J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings – beloved since its publication in 1954, reports the Mail.
- “University to Pay $400,000 to Professor Punished for Refusing to Use Student’s Preferred Pronouns” – The professor argued that obliging the student’s requests would violate his own convictions as a Christian, reports the National Review.
- “No, maths is not racist” – Durham University’s plans to ‘decolonise’ maths are absurd, writes Gareth Sturdy in Spiked.
- “Casualties of War” – “A Russophile for as long as I can remember,” writes the pseudonymous Robert Ginzburg in Quillette, “in my Southern Russian city I felt, to a great extent, that I was among my own. I continued to feel that way until the early morning of February 24th, 2022, when a chasm suddenly opened up, perhaps permanently.”
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Top tip: Ignore the DS ‘News Round Up”; just read the Telegraph! Most days it’s the same thing!
I skim read the headlines because there’s now ay I’m going to pay for the Telegraph.
Just use the ‘bypass paywalls’ addin with the firefox browser – works great!
Yes it’s one big Telegraph ad with a smidge of the Mail usually thrown in. At least that isn’t behind a paywall. If I’m interested enough I’ll try the ‘Esc’ trick, but you have to hit it on the nano-second for it to work. I’m usually not that interested to make the effort though. Same regurgitated opinion pieces dressed up as ‘news’ usually. How many more times do we need an article that talks about how lockdowns don’t work or how damaging masks are for kids? It’s all been done to death by now.
‘Esc’ works very well. As article is about to load, press it. Might take a few tries to work out the best timing. Works for Spec too.
NHS calls for volunteer drivers. More ‘no jab, no job’ fallout?
When I was young I used to look at so called third world countries and think to myself how lucky I was not to live there.
And you still do it, except now you’re looking at Australia.
Just between us Australians, Gregoryno6 (all others, please avert your eyes), would you ever have believed that such a disaster could be made out of our big, wild, beautiful country?
Will people ever believe us when we tell them how great it used to be to live here?
Yes went there for a months holiday.
Bloody fantastic place and people
Thanks, Judy. You obviously managed to avoid our politicians.
Let’s see what May 21 brings. Hopefully, a nationwide outbreak of FU to the major parties.
That will be the start of our climb out of this mess.
We need the most “difficult” Senate we have ever had.
I intend to go to a polling place early to ask each of the reps present what their position is on lockdowns, masks and mandates – before doing the deed BTL.
Then and only then can I enjoy my democracy sausage (for the Brits – this is not a rude expression; it’s a vital part of Australian Election Day culture).
With Alblabbasneezy making such a bollocks of the first week campaigning, I foresee a shift towards Scotty. Then again, when your health minister exits politics in the midst of a poorly managed health ‘crisis’, you can’t easily wave off the stench of rats deserting the sinking ship.
FFMPs will take a few seats in the Reps, but the real objective must be a dominating presence in the Senate.
PS: Alt – and everyone else: save yourself some keystrokes. G6 is fine.
Right you are, G6.
Agree – it’s the Senate that matters: the stroppier the better.
UK one of the ‘least bad’ countries ? Moving on from Covid better than most. Too much Ukraine virtue-signaling though.
Good morning, everybody.
UK is indeed moving on better than most – credit to all those involved in making it happen.
I agree with you, Dale, re the virtue-signalling. There’s plenty of good sceptical writing about events in the Ukraine.
Perhaps an article about why so many Russians support their government might be in order. Could it have anything to do with the obscene Russia-bashing that appears to have convinced many that the world is at war with them as a people and a culture?
Maybe this story from the pro-war Washington Post (owned by the Oligarch Bezos) sheds light on why there’s so much support for Putin. That support is not unqualified however. A lot of Russians want a harder stance on the Ukraine.
https://archive.ph/Kt7VL
Yes. The absurd writing about Putin, extravagantly hostile propaganda rather than reasoned analysis in the main, overlooks one of the obvious facts about him: he is deliberate, but essentially cautious – proceeding step by step.
Anyone seeing the horrifying footage of some of the shootings of Russian POWs would entirely understand the hardening of mood.
Railway stations in much of London have screen ads saying “Be brave like Ukraine.” Calls growing in the uS for things like boots on the ground.
Does anyone think this si going to end well?
A mendacious PR culture has overwhelmed and engulfed so much of the Western world.
The Covid crisis was/is a severe and dramatic form of the unabashed distortion and lying that has become routine.
The belief that image is all has led to a failure to understand that you cannot simply shape reality as you choose, suppressing and dismissing anything that doesn’t suit your narrative.
Reflecting upon and analysing reality (as people overwhelmingly do on this site) has become a minority pastime. Perhaps it was always so, but the rampant fabrications surrounding us (lockdowns and masks save lives; the “vaccines” are safe and effective and you should ensure that your children receive them) are life-threateningly dangerous.
Unfortunately, there will be many dead Ukrainians and impoverished Europeans and Americans who will pay the price for this conflict and the messaging for which some will be paid very well indeed.
Any rash young people who head to Ukraine in the false belief that they are defending freedom, rather than lending themselves to an anti-Russian project riddled with Nazis and Nazi sympathisers, are in for a terrible shock – as some have already discovered.
Chris Thrall on YouTube gives some good commentary and analysis.
Thanks, MAk – I’ve watched the “Elephant in the Room”, which included footage I hadn’t previously seen.
You may have already seen this. If not, it’s further evidence of the insights of those who have been enlightened, rather than destroyed, by their experience as soldiers. Marcus Aurelius did indeed know.
SCOTT RITTER on Ukraine War – interview by Gerald Celente April 1st, 2022 – YouTube
I quite agree – but remember that the earliest mass-victims of both the lockdown recession and the sanctions slump are the poorest countries where food, fuel and fertilizer riots have already begun.
You’re quite right.
Late in 2020, I spoke with an acquaintance generally regarded as a good, kind person. I mentioned the estimates of up to 100 million additional child deaths from hunger, brought about by the disruptions caused by lockdowns.
To my amazement, she replied, “But not here!” (That is, not in Australia – population about 25 million).
I would like to be able to say that I made a perfect and apt reply. Instead, I was too stunned to say anything at all. It was my first direct encounter with what seems to be a genuine epidemic of blind, utterly uncaring selfishness. Or is that endemic now?
Standard fall-out from the increasingly prevalent social media behaviour.
‘Who cares what happens to people who don’t share your beliefs and enthusiasms?’
It’s endemic. If it’s not happening to you and yours, for the most part people just don’t care and aren’t interested enough to find out.
I watched some residents of Mariupol interviewed by an american journalist on YT yesterday, it was in a comment on the reddit Lockdown sceptics, a man said: The Europeans would not have lasted a week living in the circumstances we do.
I totally agree.
NHS to call on volunteers to drive emergency patients to hospital – London Ambulance Service is to pilot a scheme aimed at those with mobility problems in “category 3” as senior doctors warn of “staggeringly bad” delays to emergency care, the Telegraph reports.
How the NHS works and how we ended up here …
Workforce in that pic not very diverse, obviously they need a Diversity Manager
Then Dave announces he is trans and the whole system falls apart.
vote Conservative get Communism
The horror of the new Chinese lockdown
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-horror-of-the-new-chinese-lockdown/
Karen Harradine
Let’s not forget BJ has yet to condemn Communist China for what is happening in Shanghai and has not ruled out further lockdowns here.
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I see the pseudonymous Robert Ginzburg is also the mendacious Robert Ginzburg. In the article, he criticised a Russian colleague for trying to ignore the situation “when outrages like the shelling of Kramatorsk railway station are happening in her name”.
Who fired the rocket at the Kramatorsk station “Robert”? We know who it was, and I’m pretty sure we knew who it was on the 16th April when you published the article. It was the Ukrainian army. Specifically the Ukrainian 19th Rocket Brigade in Dobropolye. The same people who fired a rocket of the same batch at civilians in Donetsk a few days previously.
The outrage in Kramatorsk happened in your name, Robert, you liar.
Of course we need more repetition of already debunked stories of Russian atrocities, in case someone missed them. There just isn’t enough anti-Russian feeling about.
In war, atrocities are committed (by design and determined practice, and by individuals acting as rogue elements), and propaganda is a weapon. All evidence needs to be carefully assessed and conscientiously reported.
Just don’t look to the BBC (or Toby Young) for that!
Opinion or fact I wonder?
Who to believe? ‘…initial reports on Russia state media said the missile fired at Kramatorsk hit a military transport target. Subsequently Moscow denied responsibility for the strike. It then blamed Ukrainian forces.’ ‘Experts refuted Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov’s assertion that Russian forces “do not use” that type of missile, saying Russia has used it during the war. One analyst added that only Russia would have reason to target railway infrastructure in the Donbas. “The Ukrainian military is desperately trying to reinforce units in the area … and the railway stations in that area in Ukrainian-held territory are critical for movement of equipment and people,” said Justin Bronk, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London. Bronk pointed to other occasions when Russian authorities have tried to deflect blame by claiming their forces no longer use an older weapon “to kind of muddy the waters and try and create doubt.” He also suggested that Russia specifically chose the missile type because Ukraine also has it. A Western official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence, also said Russia’s forces have used the missile — and that given the strike’s location and impact, it was “likely” Russia’s.’ Dmitry… Read more »
The Tochka-U missiles have a solid fuel rocket that comes off before the warhead hits the target. In the Kramatorsk railway strike, the rocket had fallen to the ground, and had been photographed and reported in place by the western press. It had fallen to the ground to the south west of the place where the warhead landed. So, it follows that the rocket had been fired from the south west, which is exactly where the 19th Rocket Brigade of the Ukrainian Army was.
There were no Russian army units in that direction from Kramatorsk within the range of a Tochka-U missiles (115 miles) that could have fired it.
While it is pretty obvious why the Ukrainians might want to blame the Russians for either a seriously off-target strike, or possibly a deliberate false flag, it’s a bit disappointing to see the RUSI joining in. Disappointing, but not surprising. After all, this is the Empire of Lies.
If part of the rocket separates, it will tumble unpredictably. Which way was the wind blowing, for example? Was it part of an intercepted missile?
Too many unknowables to state with any degree of certainty from where it was launched.
This much we do know:
‘…initial reports on Russia state media said the missile fired at Kramatorsk hit a military transport target. Subsequently Moscow denied responsibility for the strike. It then blamed Ukrainian forces.’
So, I say again, who to believe: Dmitry Peskov or RUSI…hmmm..tricky…or not really.
Interesting to read about the non appearance of the Novavax vaccine in the UK, despite approval and its being available in Europe.
Does anyone know if it is possible to travel to France/Germany to get a novavax jab as a UK citizen? Plenty of people here wanting alternatives to MRNA vax.
Why on earth would anyone want one of these injections?
I think the bold text within the square brackets makes it more accurate.
It’s not that I’m hesitant about taking an mRNA vaccine, its that I’ve taken time to learn about vaccines in general and I know that they do far more harm than good, the good being non existent.
http://www.news.cn/local/2022-04/17/c_1128568624.htm
https://english.news.cn/20220418/1ac0806953564cf1ae9c11ecf3caf68b/c.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinhua_News_Agency
The above are two links to the official Chinese news agency.
They appear to be right behind the WHO coronavirus fake pandemic. I can see the opportunity it gives to lockdown and control the domestic population.
Is the “pandemic” just a way of exerting greater totalitarian control? Why should China, which sides with Russia in Ukraine, adhere to the fake pandemic story?
This site takes a fair bit of stick but, in my view, provides an interesting and varied take on a number of different matters for which I am extremely grateful. The Quillette article by Robert Ginzburg regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a case in point: ‘…a military aim, “denazification” is unquantifiable and therefore meaningless as a measure of success or failure. And when considering Putin’s self-serving accusations of fascism, it’s worth looking at the numbers. In Ukraine’s 2019 elections, the far-Right—a coalition of parties—mustered barely two percent of the vote. Hungary’s far-Right party, Jobbik, received 20 percent of the vote the year before, in a country with which Vladimir Putin is happy to do business. The Azov regiment still uses a Wolfsangel emblem, and although commentators question how fascist the regiment is now, it has undeniably extremist roots. Yet it has at most 2,500 members (a more realistic estimate is 900) and remains a fringe. Ukraine certainly has its share of extremists within its borders—which country does not?—but there is a lot more evidence against mainstream Nazism in Ukraine than there is for it. Though hardly a trailblazer for LGBT rights, press freedom, or democracy, Ukraine scores significantly—and consistently—higher on all these global indexes than Russia.’… Read more »
https://citizenjournos.com/2022/04/14/bbc-ni-found-in-breach-of-bbc-editorial-standards/
The BBC in Northern Ireland have long acted as a PR machine for the Department of Health in their COVID-19 messaging. That messaging has mostly been little more than scaremongering and coercive in nature. In this report we look at how the BBC-NI helped propagate lies from a Doctor without verifying the doctor’s claims or attaching a disclaimer to their broadcasts. After abandoning our complaints we were forced to circumvent them and go directly to the ECU who ruled in our favour.
The “casualties of war” article is undermined by the author downplaying the role of the US-orchestrated coup of 2014 to argue that the dissident Russians in the Donbass fired the first shot.
Back in the days before the dumbing down of history in schools, an argument like that given to decide who was responsible for the English civil war, would get an F (maybe an E if the student was lucky).
‘Ginzburg’ gives supporting references. You do not. ‘“I still pulled the trigger of the war. If our detachment had not crossed the border, in the end everything would have ended, as in Kharkov, as in Odessa. There would have been several dozen killed, burned, arrested. And that would be the end of it. And practically the flywheel of the war, which is still going on, launched our detachment. ”, Strelkov said in an interview with the editor-in-chief of the publication Alexander Prokhanov. Igor Strelkov also stated that Russian military personnel, who allegedly arrived in Donbass while “on vacation”, played an important role in the hostilities. “Separate units of the militia were subordinate to them. But mostly “vacationers” attacked Mariupol. When they left, both the front line and the opportunities remained unsteady, ”said Strelkov. ‘NEW’ Nov 20, 2014 ‘BILD refers to official documents of the two “People’s Republics” and individual statements about salaries in various areas. For the pensions of 653,000 people in the occupied region of Donetsk and 425,791 pensioners in the region of Luhansk alone, Russia pays 2,418,378,168 roubles per month – that corresponds to just over 30 million euros.’ ‘First, they are proof of a continuous and obvious… Read more »
Snowdonia National Park Authority says please do a poo before you climb a mountain. If they continue like this they’ll be offered jobs in the NHS, schools, or media!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-61138653
I reckon this “news” had similar origins to the “wear a mask in Cornwall” story. The sequence probably went like this: