News Round-Up
- “Israel defending itself is not ‘escalation’” – The Israelophobes are desperately upset by the assassination of a Hamas chief in Beirut, remarks Daniel Ben-Ami in Spiked.
- “BBC description of Anthony Hopkins film failed to describe kindertransport children as Jewish” – BBC promotional material for a film about the kindertransport omitted the term “Jewish”, leading to furious claims that Jews were being “written out of history”, reports the Telegraph.
- “Substack faces user revolt over anti-censorship stance on neo-Nazis” – Substack is facing a user revolt after its Chief Executive defended hosting and handling payments for “Nazis” on its platform, citing anti-censorship reasons, according to the Guardian.
- “On academic standards, fair play and Claudine Gay” – On Substack, Eugyppius gives his latest take on the Claudine Gay saga.
- “Why did Claudine Gay get a free pass?” – American academia has tolerated a double standard for too long, says John Masko in UnHerd.
- “The conservative mastermind behind Claudine Gay’s ouster” – On Substack, Christopher Rufo recounts to Politico how he helped to run the campaign to unseat Harvard’s President.
- “The real Harvard scandal” – Academics debase their profession when they redefine plagiarism to suit their politics, writes Tyler Austin Harper in a piece for the Atlantic about Claudine Gay.
- “People who received older Pfizer Covid vaccines had similar outcomes as unvaccinated” – According to a new paper, people who received any version of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, except for the newest one, were no better off than the unvaccinated, reports the Epoch Times.
- “Fact checker response” – On Substack, Anandamide takes issue with journalist Ana Benacic over the evidence for DNA contamination in Covid vaccines.
- “Smokescreens – Part Three” – Dr. Tom Jefferson and Prof. Carl Heneghan explore the classification of influenza deaths, revealing discrepancies in reported figures due to different modelling approaches.
- “Sorry BMA, but doctors are not underpaid” – Despite the constraint of the NHS model, junior doctors in Britain still earn a considerable wage, says Ross Clark in the Telegraph.
- “Jeffrey Epstein ran sex blackmail operation for intelligence agencies, new evidence suggests” – Unsealed documents offer new evidence that Jeffrey Epstein was working with the U.S. intelligence services to blackmail powerful individuals, albeit to mysterious ends, write Alex Gutentag and Michael Shellenberger on the Public Substack.
- “Jeffrey Epstein and the neverending quest for evil” – For how much longer are people going to believe that paedo cults are the secret puppet masters of our lives, asks Brendan O’Neill in Spiked.
- “Navy has so few sailors it has to decommission ships” – The Royal Navy has so few sailors – recruitment fell by 22.1% in the 12 months to March 2023 – it has had to decommission two warships to staff its new class of frigates, reveals the Telegraph.
- “Putin’s ‘peace’ is a partitioned Ukraine” – The problem facing western policymakers is that, however damaged Russia may be, Putin still wins by not losing, writes Owen Matthews in the Spectator.
- “Britain must commit to Ukraine – or admit we don’t care enough” – There is still time to commit ourselves to Ukraine; otherwise, we should be honest and tell Ukraine we just don’t care enough, says Rod Liddle in the Spectator.
- “The meaning of the battle for Polish television” – The ‘liberal’ suspension of the rule of law in Poland should concern us all, writes Pawel Sokala in the Critic.
- “Immigration could cost the Netherlands Є600 billion over next 20 years academics say” – According to the University of Amsterdam, immigration could cost the Dutch Є600 billion over the next two decades if current trends continue, reports Gript.
- “Another massacre in Nigeria and the ‘slow genocide’ of Christians” – The world is turning a blind eye to the genocide of Christians in Nigeria, writes Niamh Uí Bhriain in Gript.
- “‘Lack of commitment’ threatens Europe’s Net Zero progress” – European climate zealot politicians are not practicing what they’re preaching, says Eric Worrall in WUWT.
- “Is the ‘manmade’ climate crisis a scam?” – On Substack, Tom Ed explains how a Facebook spat has exposed the weakness of the Net Zero cult.
- “Stop the student visa racket” – Visas issued to the dependents of foreign students have risen 750% since 2019, remarks Tom Jones in CapX.
- “Why the Right is eating the Left’s lunch” – Progressives have abandoned the working class and embraced the oligarchs, says Joel Kotkin in Spiked.
- “The box-tickers shall inherit the Earth” – In organisations, a sorry inversion has occurred where those performing essential tasks now adhere to the directives of bureaucrats, says Rory Sutherland in the Spectator.
- “Why our cities should be sacred” – Utilitarian city-making is failing us, argues Nicholas Boys Smith in UnHerd.
- “The return of ‘Slag Lane’ is a victory for Britain’s unwittingly rude road signs” – Our maps are positively bursting with eyebrow-raising street names – and we should be proud of them, says Michael Deacon in the Telegraph.
- “Fat positivity is a fantasy” – You can’t argue your way to beauty, writes Kat Rosenfield in UnHerd.
- “What progressives get wrong about Winston Churchill” – It is folly to stick current ideological labels on Winston Churchill: in years to come, they will all peel off, says Sinclair McKay in the Spectator.
- “John Pilger was a charlatan and a fraudster” – Throughout his life, the left-wing journalist John Pilger concealed facts and said things he knew to be untrue, writes Oliver Kamm in CapX.
- “Free Speech Union cautions against U.K. financial regulator’s ‘diversity’ policy, citing free speech concerns” – The Free Speech Union warns that the Financial Conduct Authority’s proposal to label lack of diversity as a ‘non-financial risk’ for large companies could stifle free speech, according to Reclaim The Net.
- “Unrepentant DEI at MIT” – The diversity ideology marches on at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says Heather Mac Donald in City Journal.
- “‘I’m not sure any woman should want to belong to a group that would have Munroe Bergdorf as their champion’” – On TalkTV, Douglas Murray blasts UN Women U.K.’s decision to appoint a biological male as its U.K. champion.
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Wind Blows Blades Off Wind Turbine
latest leaflet to print at home and deliver to neighbours or forward to politicians, media, friends online.
“Slut’s Hole”, a tiny hamlet near Faversham in Kent my favourite place name
Michael Deacon has it right, I believe; these names offering the same innocent enjoyment to our visitors as we get from visiting their countries.
Friends were kind enough to send me photographs of the station signs in Middelfart, Denmark a while ago, and, apparently, there is a Wankhaus at the top of Wank Mountain, that can be reached by the Wankbahn, for which you can buy an annual Wankpass, somewhere near Partenkirchen.
A sort of Rake’s Progress as one travels East out of London.
There’s Rough Common near Canterbury too and Thong near Gravesend.
It reminds me of the story of Manchester City wanting to call one end of their stadium after Colin Bell …
Purvs Corner Howarth must be up there
What’s really going on? Putin has declared war on the West. ‘Putin responded to a Russian serviceman’s question about Western aid to Ukraine during a meeting at a military hospital in Moscow Oblast on January 1, stating that Russia’s issue is not necessarily that the West is aiding Ukraine, but rather that the West is Russia’s “enemy.” Putin added that “Ukraine by itself is not an enemy for [Russia]…….Putin claimed………. that Russia will “deal with the [West] faster” than the West can deal with Russia. Putin sees a conflict and potential negotiations between Russia and the West – not a conflict and potential negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Putin previously adopted a similar line when issuing two ultimatums to the United States and NATO in December 2021, which were intended to force the West to recognize Russia’s sphere of influence in Eastern Europe by surrendering essential elements of Ukraine’s sovereignty in the name of de-escalating the conflict between the West and Russia.’ ISW So, we are at war and we had better get serious about that. That there is no sign of anyone in Europe, and few within the U.S., getting serious about that makes it all too clear the peril that British… Read more »
“Navy has so few sailors it has to decommission ships”
Errrr……maybe they should pay them a bit more?
The Royal Navy now deploys offshore patrol vessels, no helicopter hangar, main armament: 1x30mm cannon, in the Pacific.
These are fishery protection vessels designed for use within the waters of the United Kingdom’s Exclusive Economic Zone.
The equipments of Britain’s defence forces are a national disgrace.
So you’ve moved to Ukraine with your family to fight Putin who’s threatening you? Or you just simply want more Ukrainians to die?
The Russian threat to this country is, ultimately, a nuclear one, as much due to geography as anything else….and Britain is about to be run by a man content to work for the vice president of the campaign for nuclear disarmament.
https://www.bunkershield.co.uk/
As for any conventional threat, the U.S. strategy of weakening Russia so that it can no longer invade its neighbours appears to be going quite well.
I would very much prefer Putin not to have invaded Crimea in 2014 so that no-one need have died at all on either side.
Ukrainians have been dying in defence of their country for centuries, just as British servicemen have been dying for centuries in defence of this country.
When was the last time you put yourself at such a risk in such a cause?
Are you going to answer the question or will continue to ramble?
Go on, ramble, but it’s clear that you’re a warmonger wanting to send more Ukrainians to death. And there simply is not enough of them already (they conscript women, mind you) so if you put your money where you mouth is and sign up with Ukrainian army, you’ll help the country. so will your family if they move with you to contribute to the victory.
“Ukrainians have been dying in defence of their country for centuries” yeah, right, hundreds of thousands of fighting age men are fighting in front of their computer screens in Europe, like you are. Ukrainians in Crimea or the ones who moved to Russia (millions, in total) also fighting?
and you’re not even a good warmonger as it was published by the MSM that Putin said he’s fighting western elites, not westerners. So, you’re all in for the war to protect Joe Biden and his son, Schwab, Scholz, Burla, Gates, Trudo, MIC, Wall Street and the rest of them clowns.
When are you going to answer the question? No need. You will never answer it because you have never served your country in any capacity whatsoever.
No sure what exactly you’re asking me. My country is not under attack and I pay taxes for the professional army to defend myself if there is one. Any sane person would want for any violence in a 3rd party conflict to stop and some kind of a diplomatic solution reached. It’s warmongers doing what warmongers do best – warmonger for the war they’re never going to take part in personally.
Thank you.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
Putin previously adopted a similar line when issuing two ultimatums to the United States and NATO in December 2021, which were intended to force the West to recognize Russia’s sphere of influence in Eastern Europe by surrendering essential elements of Ukraine’s sovereignty.
‘And also because not just the Bandera version of Nazi Ukraine will be eradicated, but including, and above all, Western totalitarianism, the imposed programs of civilizational degradation and disintegration………’
Imagine if there was a dialogue with the russians from the start? maybe russians were asking too much when they asked to remove NATO from the baltic states, but this is how negotiations work – you ask for more to meet in the middle.
Or when there was a dialogue later when Ukraine itself agreed to not at all outrageous terms in march 22, US/UK/Europe actually allowing the country to be sovereign and decide for themselves? all these people would be alive today and Ukraine would still be the same country it had been prior to feb 22?
Ukraine has not been even remotely sovereign for years prior to the war and now any mention of sovereignty is ridiculous. The country is on life support staying alive only for the purpose of weakening russia. if you don’t find this sickening, you’re a psychopath.
You have no idea what you are talking about.
Dialogue with Russia resulted in the Budapest Memorandum of 1994.
‘The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the CSCE [Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe] Final Act, to respect the Independence and Sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.’
Dialogue with Russia continued after their previous invasion of Ukraine in 2014. They had territorial concessions and peace. They chose war. And, if permitted the land corridor to Moldova that they seek, they will choose war again, in due course, because of these successive concessions.
Ukraine is fighting for survival, not to weaken Russia.
By stating what the U.S. strategy happens to be, I take no position on it. I am not a U.S. citizen.
I understand why Europe and Britain do not provide more support to Ukraine. Quite simply, we cannot. We are too weak, militarily and our domestic defence industries, run down for years, are now too emaciated to provide any substantial military capability.
And, predictably, the last card to play by any warmonger worth his salt – Budapest memorandum.
Side note: thanks God neo-nazi infested military (no, not the whole country is neo-nazi, but a minority with access to arms, enough to make a difference and stir the country into abyss) don’t have access to nukes as we’d all be dead by now.
How many former soviet republics have nukes? Most of them do not have. And guess what? They’ve not been incorporated into soviet union 2.0. Including huge, resource rich, scarcely populated ones, like Kazakhstan (and all other ‘-stans’). Kazakhstan (which also gave up nuclear arms around the same time as Ukes) is doing just fine, getting money from both sides and that’s what Ukraine should have done being in the middle of nuclear superpowers and being historically and culturally connected to both Russia and Europe, becoming Switzerland of the 21st century if they were truly sovereign. Instead, their deranged leaders decided to sacrifice their citizens and the country so that Biden’s son can have a better life… what a tragedy.
You are badly confused. Kazakhstan is a petrodollar economy. Ukraine gave up its nuclear warheads in return for the Budapest memorandum. Ukraine only ever had nuclear warheads, not ‘nuclear arms’. Putin has already ‘incorporated’ Belarus, Crimea, large parts of Eastern Ukraine and plans to ‘incorporate’ Moldova, via a land corridor established through Ukraine and the Baltic States. We know this because he has told us. ‘….the document, issued in fall 2021, the end goal is the formation of a so-called Union State of Russia and Belarus by no later than 2030. Everything involved in the merger of the two countries has been considered, including the “harmonization” of Belarusian laws with those of the Russian Federation; a “coordinated foreign and defense policy” and “trade and economic cooperation … on the basis of the priority” of Russian interests; and “ensuring the predominant influence of the Russian Federation in the socio-political, trade-economic, scientific-educational and cultural-information spheres.” ‘(The document) belongs to the Presidential Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation……of Putin’s Presidential Administration, which was established five years ago. The rather innocuously named directorate’s actual task is to exert control over neighboring countries that Russia sees as in its sphere of influence: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine… Read more »
‘Kazakhstan is a petrodollar economy’ And?? What is that you’re trying to say? They had soviet nukes and transferred them back to Russia around the same time as Ukraine. And currently living a relatively prosperous life for the region, doing business with both US and Russia and the rest of the world.
Your random quotes, copied God knows from where do not prove or disprove anything. They have the same value as ‘russia’s already lost’, ‘ghost of kiev’, ‘russia is about to run out of rockets, men, etc’, ‘safe and effective ‘, ‘we’re all going to die in a giant fireball because of the climate thingy’.
Kazakhstan is ‘doing just fine’ because it has oil in large quantities and so appeases Putin, for the time being.
Ukraine was not ‘doing just fine’. That is why the population, 92% of whom voted for independence in 1991, look westwards.
You don’t have any quotes, any information whatsoever.
You resemble Brian the prophet, making it up as you go along……
So you’ve borrowed Fergusons famous crystal ball which tells you that putin is going to invade Kazakhstan in the future? That famous crystal ball which ordered to close schools and shoe shops, but not tescos, as otherwise gazillions or brits would have died. ..
Ukraine was probably the most prosperous and developed soviet republic which after becoming friends with the US lost it all.
My dear Brian, Putin is not invading Kazakhstan because he is, personally, via his stooges, paid a great deal of money by that country.
Ukraine’s economy was in a bad way in 2014. Unsurprisingly it has tanked from then onwards.
Maybe prophecy is not for you?
Another secret shared with us uninitiated about the world and Kazakhstan and why it is not being invaded by putin for now and during all the years after their independence…
OK, Ukraines economy in 2014 is in a bad way, and that’s after 22 years of independence and being friends with the US. Why is that? What does crystal ball say?
My dear Brian,
Oops, English is clearly not your first language, is it?
What salary does Putin receive?
What is Putin’s net worth?
Once you have the answers to those two questions, Brian, you will no longer need the gift of prophecy which so tragically passed you by.
and why exactly should it concern me here in the UK? Or an average person in US or anywhere else? or having run out of any useful things to say you’re alluding to corruption in Russia? Maybe it will be a surprise to you, but I’m going to tell it straight anyway- corruption is everywhere and the only difference is scale. Prior to covid, i’d say the west was definitely better than russia and all the rest of the world. but have you freaking seen pfizer getting 100bn in a single year for the vaccine which is as useless as it’s dangerous w/o any repercussions? That’s corruption of a highest grade possible. Have you seen Biden junior peddling influence? just some examples
And? what would narrow warmonger’s brain make of it? tell us
Brian, I think your brain is hurting.
Lose the loony soup and you’ll feel much better.
run out of things to say? that’s how normally any serious discussion ends with a brainwashed individual. be it about vaccines, ukraine or nut zero…
Spend some time on planet you. You know you want to. Make yourself a nice cup of tea. Give yourself a big pat on the back, all the while looking at yourself in the mirror?
Okay. Not only is English not your first language but you live in a different time zone. Enough said.
смотреть в зеркало
can you offer anything of a substance as otherwise it’s a waste of time having a dialogue with you.
My dear Brian, when you grow up to be able to set out an intellectually coherent argument in readily comprehensible English using at least utilitarian vocabulary, grammar, spelling and punctuation, backed by credible evidence, there may be a few credulous enough here who might wish to engage in some minor dialogue with you. Otherwise Hitchen’s razor refers.
‘иди и прыгни в озеро!’
“The meaning of the battle for Polish television”
‘Over its eight-year rule, the previous PiS government changed the legislation under the media “repolonisation” label to dramatically enhance the ruling majority’s control over the public media.
As a result, TVP became what was widely believed to be a propaganda machine for the PiS government, regularly mocking the opposition and accusing it of acting against Polish interests and supporting the government’s policies.’
We have so much to look forward to…..not…
‘The sudden actions were criticised by the president, who called the changes absolutely illegal. “This is anarchy,” he told Polsat News broadcaster, referring to “omitting existing laws in a situation, when […] the ruling majority could change the laws normally.”
Duda insisted he does not prohibit Tusk from introducing changes in the public media, but this must be done by changing the public media law and not just replacing the managing boards.’
Euractiv 22 Dec 2023
Could that be the same Tusk that used to run the undemocratically elected ‘European Council’ and appeared, simperingly, on our televisions to say mawkish nonsense like ‘Missing you already’ like a ‘c’ list soap opera ham?
Once a fraud, always a fraud………
“Substack faces user revolt over anti-censorship stance on neo-Nazis” – Substack is facing a user revolt after its Chief Executive defended hosting and handling payments for “Nazis” on its platform, citing anti-censorship reasons, according to the Guardian.On Tuesday Casey Newton, who writes Platformer – a popular tech newsletter on the platform with thousands of subscribers paying at least $10 a month – became the most prominent yet.“It is our hope that Substack will reverse course and remove all pro-Nazi material under its existing anti-hate policies. If it chooses not to, we will plan to leave the platform.” Casey Newton seems to think that his Platformer newsletter is contaminated in some way by being on the same technical infrastructure as what he describes as pro-Nazi material? I wonder how great a separation he will require? A separate Internet perhaps? The Guardian article highlights his threat to Substack: ‘Do what I want or you lose my business’. This is the typical dilemma of a rapidly grown business where influential customers dictate the direction of your business to suit themselves. Leaving aside the question about who runs Substack, Newton’s demand for identifying and removing pro-Nazi material will result in greater costs in terms of… Read more »
What is wrong with these people that they feel so threatened that anyone who disagrees with them can’t be seen in the same place (even though being on the same platform is hardly the same as being in the same physical space). Honestly, I think we’ve become a society of narcissists who only want to see and hear our own reflection. I agree with your last para btw!
More on the hypocrisy of the pro-terrorist/antisemitism yobs. But more importantly, what exactly is it these useful idiots with their relentless marches are hoping to achieve? Because it’s certainly nothing meaningful for the people of Gaza. ”Those who claim to support the Palestinian Arabs in fact do precious little to help them. The plight of the Palestinians globally—such as the denial of civil rights by their own dictators, withholding of citizenship rights by other Arab nations and the murder of thousands of Palestinians by their Arab brethren—is largely ignored by Western leftists. Do any “progressives” protest the treatment of Palestinians by Arab states, where they are denied citizenship, restricted from many professions and have repeatedly been massacred and deported? Do feminists or gay activists on college campuses rail against the mistreatment of women or the LGBTQ+ community by Palestinian rulers or Arab society generally? Why not? The reality is, those who call themselves pro-Palestinian exclusively attack Israel—leveling false accusations against the world’s only Jewish state and the Middle East’s only democracy. Indeed, Israel is the region’s only nation where Arabs are granted not only citizenship and full equality under law, but also enjoy greater economic opportunity than most all other Arabs. … Read more »
This may be true but it is easy to find genuine accounts of Israel governmenti atrocities against the native Palestinians. Was this Hamas atrocity allowed to happen in order to justify the ensuing ‘war’? I find it hard to believe the most sophisticated of surveillance and intelligence systems failoed to spot and prevent this, the President of Egypt had a couple of weeks earlier provided a forewarning. I am worried by the binary opinions on the DS, with seeming disregard for the seizing and stealing of land, violent abuse of Paklestinians over decades, the Zionist agenda, notwithstanding the dreadful treatment of Jews across the world prior to this.
Douglas Murray is spot on. You really can’t make this sh*t up, but it is the UN, so anything morally bankrupt is considered the norm as far as that corrupt and warped organization goes. So how fitting that they’ve chosen this mentally ill, vile specimen as a so-called ”champion”;
”Women are not faring well in the leftist pecking order. When they aren’t getting raped and murdered by Hamas with feminist approval, they are getting displaced by cross-dressing men — even in women’s organizations:
Nice to see some women’s rights groups still support women. Other ostensibly feminist groups have been subordinated to the greater liberal agenda, which calls for the sacrifice of women to terrorist savages and male perverts.
Bergdorf temporarily got the boot by shouting that “ALL white people” are guilty of racial violence. He proclaimed that whites’ “entire existence is drenched in racism.” Among the politically orthodox, to accuse someone of racism is the worst possible insult.”
https://moonbattery.com/face-of-un-women-uk-is-white-hating-black-man/
More ‘save the world’ crap at our expense!
https://re-turn.ie/retailer/
I forecast its success will be on a par with the Scottish version ie it will achieve F A but cost Irish taxpayers millions.
Virtue signalling crap.
“In organisations, a sorry inversion has occurred where those performing essential tasks now adhere to the directives of bureaucrats, says Rory Sutherland in the Spectator.”
Wow – only 20 years after this became a serious problem, in the City at least.
A little story that came to light today: “Last month, it was reported that the state-owned China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGN) had stopped making payments to fund Hinkley Point C amid political tensions between the UK and China.” It’s in this item of what the Hinkley Point C project is doing about fish protection etc: https://eandt.theiet.org/2024/01/04/hinkley-point-c-scraps-acoustic-fish-deterrent-system-favour-saltmarsh Incidentally, saltmarsh can be good agriculturally, like that in Brittany, or the Gower peninsular.
https://tomed.substack.com/p/is-the-manmade-climate-crisis-a-scam
At the end of the article he plugs a book on writing which is rather surprising given his lack of talent in this field.
https://reclaimthenet.org/free-speech-union-cautions-against-uk-financial-regulators-diversity-policy
If there is one thing I definitely DO NOT WANT in a financial management company it is bloody diversity.
Drax ~ The Eco Friendly Power Station That’s the Opposite https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiShQdLILZo&list=WL&index=7 Hilarious, if you like dark humour.