News Round-Up
- “Coutts must be held to account over Nigel Farage” – The Nigel Farage bank row shows that political discrimination is alive and well, says the Spectator in a leading article.
- “Nigel Farage demands apology from the BBC over Coutts story” – Nigel Farage has demanded an apology from the BBC after it reported that his Coutts bank account was closed for financial, rather than political reasons, reports the Telegraph.
- “Coutts’ ‘inclusive’ attack on Nigel Farage is both sinister and absurd” – Whatever your view of Nigel Farage, Coutts’ actions should leave you with a feeling of profound discomfort, says Ross Clark in CapX.
- “Head of NatWest embroiled in Nigel Farage bank scandal” – Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman lead the criticism of Dame Alison Rose, who is under fire over a BBC briefing, reports the Telegraph.
- “Will the BBC now apologise to Nigel Farage?” – In the Spectator, Steerpike wonders whether BBC Verify will investigate the BBC for its misreporting of the Nigel Farage bank account scandal.
- “Revealed: The Coutts dossier on Nigel Farage in full” – The Mail reveals the 40-page file that shows Coutts cited Nigel Farage’s retweet of a Ricky Gervais joke and his friendship with Novak Djokovic to raise concerns about him being “xenophobic and racist”.
- “Sir Keir Starmer refuses support for Nigel Farage over Coutts row” – Sir Keir Starmer refused to come out in support of Nigel Farage over the apparent closure of his bank account for political reasons, says the Telegraph.
- “Woke capitalism and its useful idiots” – Yes, Coutts and other capitalist monoliths really are punishing people for being ‘unwoke’, says Brendan O’Neill in Spiked.
- “Nigel Farage is the latest victim of Britain’s chilling new state ideology” – If Coutts gets away with closing Nigel Farage’s bank account for political reasons, then nobody’s freedom is safe, warns Lord Frost in the Telegraph.
- “Coutts’ reputation committee has destroyed its own reputation ” – NatWest needs to find a new CEO, a new leadership team and fire its self-destructive reputational risk committee, says Justin Doherty in the Spectator.
- “How the ‘sinister’ rise of diversity and inclusion turned Coutts against Farage” – The Coutts bank row has raised concerns about diversity and inclusion strategies now driving decisions at financial institutions, says the Telegraph.
- “Closure of Nigel Farage’s accounts by Coutts branded sinister by senior MPs” – The closure of Nigel Farage’s bank account was yesterday branded sinister by Home Secretary Suella Braverman, says the Sun.
- “Coutts boss who handled Nigel Farage’s bank account is a staunch Remainer” – A top executive at Coutts who handled Nigel Farage’s bank account is an avowed Remainer who has judged a diversity essay prize, says the Telegraph.
- “Westpac customer reveals what happened after he made a ‘modest’ cash deposit” – A pro poker player has unleashed on Westpac and accused the bank of engaging in “despicable behaviour” after his account was blocked over a “very modest” cash deposit, reports news.com.au.
- “Jay Bhattacharya: ‘I was shocked by the attack on me’” – Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, in conversation with Alex Gutentag, exposes censorship, disinformation and power abuse by the public health establishment during Covid.
- “The junk science behind face masks” – There is still no evidence that mask mandates limit the spread of Covid, say Tom Jefferson and Carl Heneghan in Spiked.
- “Why the ‘smartest people’ in the world ‘failed so miserably’ during the pandemic” – Numerous independent authors and investigators have greatly contributed to a rational view of the pandemic – much more so than many of “the world’s smartest people”, says Swiss Policy Research.
- “BBC climate editor accused of hypocrisy as he travels to Spain to report on heatwave” – The BBC remains mum on reporter Justin Rowlatt’s fuel-guzzling flight to Alicante to cover the current heatwave and its links to the climate crisis, reports the Telegraph.
- “Keir Starmer told he must pay for damage caused by Just Stop Oil protest” – Grant Shapps has written to the Labour leader demanding he pay for the damages after eco-protesters sprayed the Department for Energy Security with orange paint, reports the Express.
- “Net Zero: U.K. is being left behind, big business warns Rishi Sunak” – 100 companies, including Tesco, BT, M&S and Amazon, have written to the Prime Minister, urging him to focus on delivering Britain’s Net Zero goal, reports the Times.
- “Moment Lord’s intruder removed by Jonny Bairstow is assaulted during Just Stop Oil slow march” – Daniel Knorr, a Just Stop Oil supporter, was attacked while filming activists blocking a road in South Kensington, reports the Telegraph.
- “ESG is a surprise boon for fossil fuel giants” – ESG funds funnel billions to oil giants while sidelining nuclear energy, one of the most powerful decarbonisation tools humanity has to offer, says the Spectator.
- “Parents’ fury as they claim children as young as seven are being told they can be ‘pangender’ by teachers” – Parents are outraged after finding out that children as young as seven are being told they can be ‘pangender’ by teachers at a CofE primary school in England, reports the Mail.
- “My family’s ordeal reveals the strange, dystopian world of school gender policies” – Reports that trans guidance for schools has been delayed again ought to worry anyone with an interest in how the education system treats our children, says Jane Smith in CapX.
- “Britain is the working from home capital of Europe, study reveals” – U.K. employees spend an average of 1.5 days a week logged in from home, compared to an international average of 0.9 days, according to the Mail.
- “Communist influence in the United Nations and the World Health Organisation” – From its origins to the present day, evidence mounts of Communist infiltration within the WHO and UN. It’s time to cut ties, says Stephen McMurray in the New Conservative.
- “People on the Left are completely unconcerned by this which I think is terribly short-sighted” – The Free Speech Union’s Ben Jones says Coutts bank has reached a level of “sanctimonious self-righteousness” for closing Nigel Farage’s bank account.
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I wonder what other fake news the BBC has been spreading..
Jon Sopel has apologised to Nigel Farage about something he tweeted. I thought you might like the dig he has at the BBC.
https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1681970843675443200
“nuclear energy, one of the most powerful decarbonisation tools…”.
A rare sighting of a pro- Grant Shapps/pro nuclear article here:
https://zionlights.substack.com/p/fact-check-clean-energy-politics-uk?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1146053&post_id=135272652&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email
No need to decarbonise, of course, but sceptics might think to de-demonise nuclear, too.
Atomkraft, ja bitte!
Anything pro- Schapps must be suspect. He just likes to be in the news.
pro- nukes however is needed urgently. Not sure why it is taking RR so long to produce a civilian version of their submarine power plants.
Oh, EP, that’s a long sad story. From memory, problems include: patent/IP is American – we use under licence/suffrance; Submarine reactors use highly enriched (weapons grade?) uranium which you wouldn’t want out in civilian use; and they are really inefficient but who cares for the military; RR is a subsidy junky which goes bust on a regular basis – my neighbour’s dad punted the stock for pennies in the late 1960s/ early 1970s- no change there.
But where there is a will…
Martin Lewis’s website offers helpful suggestions on wording car insurance applications to get better deals: will he now offer suggestions for how to apply bank accounts? eg:
-don’t tick ‘male/female’ but pick some other made up gender
-be careful with pronoun choice: jiggle the form until you hit the ‘right’ combo
-don’t put ‘White British’ for ethnicity
-massage job descriptions to match DEI aligned acceptability
-don’t admit to membership of any religious group other than Woke
-make sure your hair is dyed pink or blue for the ID pix
Any other suggestions?
Intelligent people spend more time inside their owns heads. They have a bigger tendency to make sense of things through rational thought and construct their understanding of the world through induction and deduction.
The problem a rational construction of the world is only as good as it’s starting axioms. And the problem is that these “intelligent” people don’t question their axioms enough.
Less intelligent people in contrast spend less time inside their own heads because it doesn’t really lead anywhere interesting and so are much more likely to base their understand of the world through what they see and observe.
That would explain why the highly educated (generally selected by intelligence) rushed to get a dodgy jab whilst the less educated remained highly suspicious.
That’s my theory, anyway, and I’m sticking with it.
A lot of truth in this I think. Also the “intelligent” are just as or more like to be in jobs or roles or social situations where compliance with norms is expected or essential and failure to do so leads to trouble or exclusion. What was required to resist covid folly and evil was not just a bit of common sense and looking around you but also character, backbone. There are weak and corrupt people in every walk of life and at every social level.
Also a big issue is how gullible and trusting people are and so called intelligent people are just as or more likely to be trusting especially of other people like them (educated and intelligent) who run the world.
Related to this – it’s “smart” people who think of themselves as well-informed, meaning they make sure to keep up with the news from “smart” sources like the BBC, the Guardian, NYT etc. As a result they believe their axioms to be based on facts that all the smart people know.
I think it may have been Meerloo who pointed out that it is educated people who are most susceptible to propaganda, simply because they like to be “informed.” And of course, propagandists know this, and capitalise on the fact that capturing one journalist or judge is worth a hundred captured proles.
”The problem a rational construction of the world is only as good as it’s starting axioms. And the problem is that these “intelligent” people don’t question their axioms enough.”
Very true, a good project manager will have plans to re-examine the fundamentals and objectives of a project at set points and be prepared to change course if deemed necessary. It sounds simple enough but human history tells us that people do not find it easy to do this and will instead build ever more complex constructions on dodgy foundations rather than ever check that the foundations are OK.
True that those who nurture their thinking through learning, reading, deducting, positing etc have enhanced ‘thinking’ capacity and are therefore deemed intelligent but to deny one’s own inherent intuition as surplus to requirements or an annoyance that interrupts the smooth flow of rational thought is, in my view, not really that intelligent! Too much emphasis is placed on ‘thinking’ and the promotion of thinking as the only means by which to solve problems. Ergo, I would say that those who don’t spend so much time in their heads are certainly not ‘less intelligent’ but, actually, more intelligent because they have learnt how to listen. I agree that it was the thinking people who rushed off to get jabbed but they were certainly not ‘more intelligent’!
I agree, in so far as intelligence is a fuzzy concept.
I like to distinguish between intelligence and wisdom, whereby intelligence is related to the ability to compute and rationalise and wisdom is related more to what one learns from observing the world.
The two aren’t strongly related, I don’t think.
That is how I explain to myself that people who are considered intelligent in the narrow sense I’ve described (and who are highly represented among the “educated”), sometimes do spectacularly dumb, very unwise things and those who aren’t intelligent in that way often act more wisely than the “intelligent”.
The intelligent are often so caught up in their rational thinking that they just don’t pay enough attention to what is in front of them in the real world and so end up doing really stupid things.
It comes down to the term ‘intelligence’ in the end, Stewart, and how we define it. Is it just the ability to ‘think’? Educated people – those with garlands of letters around their necks – are not necessarily intelligent, methinks!
I agree, intelligent people start inside the box and conclude inside the box! Critical thinkers, like most on here, question everything inside or out and inside out!
I have an issue with the word ‘intelligent’. Some of the thickest people I ever met were while at various universities, while some of the sharpest minds and wits were while working in factories and other low paid jobs – there’s a scattering of the whole spectrum of intellectual ability across all types of folk. Academic (and often professional) qualifications are no guide to intelligence whatsoever.
There is an oft repeated survey showing that the most jab compliant are amongst the Masters degree crowd, it is the plebs and the PhDs who are least compliant. As others have already touched on, critical thinking skills don’t come with a certificate, they come with a healthy dose of scepticism, a questioning distrust of The Authority™ , an ability to think quickly and broadly, less self-satisfied complacency than the own-labelled ‘Intelligencia’ and no small amount of humour. Not the woke kind though, obvs.
I think our education system does select pretty much for intelligence. Not perfectly by any means, but broadly it does.
However, intelligence is no guide to how wise someone is.
The thing is that I don’t see any issue with not being intelligent, in the narrowly and most commonly understood sense. Personally I value lots of other things. Kindness for one. Give ma a kind, not particularly intelligent person over an intelligent not particularly kind one, any day.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with not being particularly intelligent. In fact, half the population is below average…
The good thing is that wisdom is open to everyone. It requires a bit of humility and an openness to see the world as it is and accept what one is seeing. That’s why, in my view, it bears little relationship to intelligence. If anything intelligence may in fact get in the way.
Very good discussion – thank you, all.
Because intelligence and gumption are different things.
Well it is heartening to see people out protesting and some being very successful in stopping cruise ships docking in the UK that were destined to house migrants. They’re so far having success at blocking the road to a hotel in Wales that is meant for migrants. Unfortunately a huge barge has docked off Portland and that’s to accommodate 500 migrants. It remains to be seen what impact this will have on the community. There are some very naive people supportive and welcoming of the migrants though. ”Two cruise ships set to house 1,000 asylum seekers have been returned to their owners after they were unable to find a berth in Britain, it emerged today. The Home Office had plans to house Channel migrants on the vessels as Rishi Sunak looks to slash the £6million-a-day bill for housing asylum seekers in hotels. But, according to Sky News, the cruise ships have now been returned to their owners after failing to find anywhere to dock. It has previously been reported how plans to house 500 male asylum seekers in one of the cruise ships in Liverpool were scrapped following objections by the port operator, Peel Ports. Plans to berth another of the boats, the MS Victoria, in… Read more »
Unfortunately they’re moving in now to the RAF base in Weathersfield, Essex but there is still opposition to this on the ground and in court; ”The Home Office has moved asylum seekers into an Essex military base despite being embroiled in an ongoing legal challenge over using the site to house 1,700 people. The first 46 migrants arrived at RAF Wethersfield hours before a hearing began at the High Court on Wednesday morning, in spite of warnings from the local council that the site was not safe. Former home secretary Priti Patel is among those opposing the plans, writing on Twitter: “I and my constituents remain of the view that Wethersfield is an unsuitable site. Our local services are stretched and the scale of the development will have a significant impact upon the local community.” A barrister representing the resident told the High Court the government had acted unlawfully and did not have permission to house asylum seekers at Wethersfield. Mr Goodman said the planning bypass applied covered an “emergency” development for 12 months, but Home Office documents indicated that Wethersfield could be used for much longer. The barrister said the site could be occupied for up to five years or “as long as it remains… Read more »
It does look like an internal dispute in the Government at present. Remember that today is by-election day in 3 constituencies, so that will affect coverage in the usual media.
I wonder how much money we have now paid France to stop the boats? Tax payer money that is. And more tax payer money to house, clothe, feed and provide the asylum seekers with phones, benefits and doctor and dentist visits. An interesting comparison was how much money is being given to individual immigrants against money for a standard UK pension to someone who has worked and paid NI all their lives in the UK. Clearly, this is going to be the election issue (like it usually is). What can one do against this tide of humanity washing up on our shores? All these young men, many of them Albanians, looking for hand-outs? We know that mass immigration is a ploy by which to deluge populations with people who don’t fit in and thereby create tension and conflict. No one has a solution. One easy solution would be to round up all the Albanians and fly them back to Albania. Last time I looked there wasn’t a war going on there. In fact, it looked nice and sunny and peaceful – Alex Thompson of UK Column travelled through it a few weeks ago and posted photos and videos. This has… Read more »
They’re intended to form a paramilitary force to be used against us, I reckon.
That’s one of the ideas circulating I grant you. Reports do mention how they’re men of ‘fighting age’ and I used to think the same but now I’m not so sure. We’ll see. Better polish the old pitchfork just in case!
“paramilitary force”
I have been making this point repeatedly for about eighteen months.
But surely if they’d been shipped over for that purpose there’d be evidence of this by now but I’ve heard nothing more than hearsay. I’m guessing clandestine training up of troops of Muslims isn’t going to stay top secret for long because it’s relying on too many people keeping silent and too many Jo Publics not being observant about anything suspicious, and I find that hard to believe.
I’m not motivated enough to post the source ( DM ) of this story because this disgusts me so much. One thing is that at least her evil mug is plastered all over the internet now. And what a bloody joke of a prison sentence! Many people are pro-choice, inc myself, but I think the cut-off point should be lowered to, say, 12wks. Show me a female that doesn’t realise she’s pregnant before the 3 month mark and I’ll show you someone who is delusional, so out of touch with their body that they’re in denial or just mentally ill. 24wks is way too far along. But this woman killed her baby at 8 months FFS! As I say, I hope people recognise her in the street and Karma finds her. What an absolutely vile excuse for a human being. 🙁 ”Mother who killed her unborn 8 month old baby using illegally obtained abortion pills just weeks before she was due to give birth, has been photographed for the first time since been released from prison. Carla Foster served just 2 weeks of her 28 month prison sentence after a judge overruled her sentence claiming it was ‘manifestly excessive.’ Her… Read more »
I have no idea how this ‘thing’ is getting so much sympathy! 😮 I can see nothing, literally nothing which would justify her actions. That baby could have been born prematurely at that age and survived. F*cked up Clown World BS!!! You can read the deets here;
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-65581850
As you say, Mogs, a very emotive issue…..and we will all have an opinion. I tend to agree with you, probably because we seem to be the type of women who accept personal responsibility?
I was thinking about this when I saw this video yesterday…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfIOntP4Is8
Its ‘coordinator for strategic communications’ at the Whitehouse, John Kirby, talking about abortion law and how its ‘vital’ for the well being of the army…?
Have a listen, it’s pretty short..but at the end of it my thoughts were that women are mainly being used to claim political points….and it belittles and underestimates women, who, if they have any personal responsibility at all won’t find themselves in that position.
There’s the pill and the morning after pill..and if the ‘best and brightest’ can’t figure that out, I don’t want to be in a life and death situation with them!!?
I agree Gumbo. I’ll check out your link later cos I’m at the swimming baths just now…
“Net Zero: U.K. is being left behind, big business warns Rishi Sunak”
Being “left behind” might be a blessing in disguise! I never had the jab, very happy to be “left behind” and ,I bet , many others now wish they’d been “left behind”
‘Big business’ warns. You mean the corporate world that wants to enslave us. Big business can go for a long walk off a short pier.
Exactly! What not hang back a bit and let others walk over the edge first! Then, with their downfall, we have the luxury of choosing a different direction!
‘Fools rush in where angels fear to tread’
For some reason we don’t seem to have been left behind on energy prices.
“Britain is the working from home capital of Europe, study reveals”
Not everyone works in an f-ing office!
Try hodding bricks, sweeping streets, farming food “from home”
My answer would be “so what?” if more Brits work from home. What matters is productivity.
They can then use all that office space to house our homeless.
Something has to give. We’re not going back. Logically we would in the long term see a consolidation of used office space in the buildings and areas most suitable for offices, and other buildings converted to residential or hospitality or retail. But by the nature of the beast it will take decades.
Is any study attempting to test whether working from home benefits productivity or not? Sure, an ability to work anywhere and flexibility in working hours can be good things but I’ve known people who were working from home in clerking jobs (local government) set timers to remind themselves to swipe the touchpad on their laptop to make it seem like they’re actually doing something. One of these people got a (very unofficial) ‘word’ from their manager to complete less work as it made others look bad (pre-2020).
I take issue with the headline. Britain is not in any way a capital of Europe. I assume that the authors use the term ‘Britain’ as shorthand for ‘The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’. As such it is not a ‘Capital’; it is a Kingdom.
The most commonly referred to Capital of Europe is Brussels which is arguably the capital of the EU
Yes I have read of such studies. Every business will be different. Our firm has been more productive – not everyone, but on balance. If firms are managing people based on presence at a desk, they need to find better ways to measure how effective someone is.
Perhaps by measuring how much work they do? Rather than if their laptop goes into screensaver mode?
Indeed. That’s what I do. It’s far preferable as well as economically sound. I don’t want to nanny my team.
I noticed this story is doing the rounds..make of it what you will…I don’t think this fills me personally with anything but bemusement!?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-troops-electric-bikes-trials-b2377902.html
The British Army is trialling battery-powered bikes to gain a tactical advantage on the battlefield, following UKRAINE’s example in its war against Russia.
During the early days of the invasion, Ukrainian troops attacked Russian tanks using Delfast e-bikes that have a range of around 200 kilometres.
Now, British soldiers are experimenting with using Carl Gustaf shoulder-fired rifles from a £6,500 electric bike called the Stealth H-52, that would enable fighters to attack the enemy undetected.
The Stealth H-52 can reach a maximum speed of 80km/h or 50mph, has a range of 60 kilometres, and its handlebars are fitted with gun carriers. Most importantly, these off-road bikes can be recharged on the battlefield.
Firstly..I can’t find any proof these were ever used in Ukraine..never mind successfully…and 2..I don’t know any bikes that self-charge without problems at the moment?……
But no doubt if we are not 100% behind it we are pro-Putin!!? LOL!
…and they can lob the bikes at the enemy when the batteries blow up!
Polls? I know..but they exist….!
This is the latest (July 2023) straw poll from Trafalgar Group in the USA, who are a nationally recognised and well known polling group, (and who are often accused of ‘leaning to the right’…)
..the main point shows that Trump has a massive lead on the other Republican candidates….
…but also in there is the fact that the War in Ukraine is only seen as the ‘most important issues facing the USA’ by 6% of the responders
….and that overwhelmingly 95.8% do NOT support the US involvement in the war in Ukraine…..
https://www.thetrafalgargroup.org/news/tpa-straw-poll-0716/
..in fairness I should point out that this was a straw poll after a Republican Rally… but as Trump is leading Biden in the polls at the moment I thought it was still worthwhile showing what a massive number of people are feeling….
It’s impossible to read anything about the US elections without getting the feeling they will do, literally, anything to get rid of Trump..they really do fear him….and to also get rid of the kind of opinions expressed in this poll?!
Although I am not normally prone to meanness..no one died so……KARMA
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12317251/Pfizer-factory-quarter-countrys-injectable-meds-created-destroyed-tornado-135mph-winds-tears-North-Carolina-town-leaving-path-carnage-wake.html
A Pfizer factory in North Carolina was destroyed by a tornado on Wednesday, leaving 50,000 pallets of medicines strewn across the site in the rain and the roof crumpled and twisted by 150mph winds.
I wonder how close it was to the U North Carolina Chapel Hill, you know, the main locus of coronavirus bioweapon development in the US?…..
The Mail’s headline:
Carnage? I don’t think that word means what they think it means.
I suppose they mean the buildings were all decimated! 🙂
The recent ‘Europe is burning’ narrative appears to come from the (deliberate?) conflation of temperature readings from the European Space Agency (ESA):
Yesterday, the ESA issued a (vague) clarification explaining the difference between surface and air temperature at 2 meters above ground, yet continued to mislead:
The ESA did not bother to mention how the surface temperature is much hotter than the 2 meter air temperature.
Yet the MSM went to town on the misleading 48c claims nonetheless.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/bbc-lies-and-the-debanking-of-nigel-farage/
An interesting piece which sadly draws some very lame conclusions on the Farage de-banking.
The BBC have properly dug a hole for themselves and as they are making no attempts to fill in said hole only assists with our side.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/take-in-boat-people-no-send-em-packing/
This is more like it – round them up and send them back where they came from -France.
“If Dr Ershan and Brandon Lewis and government are wondering how to alleviate this gigantic drain on the public purse by criminals, let me make it plain to them. Turn them all away at the coast or border. Send all those currently residing in hotels to the airport and pack them off to the last country they came from. Since we don’t know where the majority originated, send them back to France and let them deal with it. After all, we’ve paid the French a small fortune to do something about this. Stop inward migration altogether until this debacle has been sorted out. It really isn’t that difficult.”
We are desperately short of cajones in this country.
https://www.wcnc.com/amp/article/weather/severe-weather/pfizer-rocky-mount-north-carolina-tornado-damage-severe-weather-outbreak-nash-county/275-eb35781b-ac79-4399-955a-dcecebb1bb31
This is a bit of a pfizzer for pfizer.
😀
From their climate doom to their woke lunacy, from their lies on the Ukraine to their evil machinations against Syria (courtesy of the Forein Office, Mr Cleverly), the BBC are utterly beyond saving.
They all need sacked and Broadcasting House sold off.