A competent Conservative Government would have rectified the anomaly of taxable income between £100,000 and £125,140 being subject to an effective tax rate of 60%. It is clearly anomalous for the effective tax rate to rise from 40% to 60% on income in this band and then fall to 40% on income between £125,141 and £150,000 before rising to 45% on inc...
The UK faces problems, problems that to a great degree are the fault of the political and financial establishment. There is no point in blaming every ill on Covid and Ukraine indeed it is only to the latter crisis that the establishment response has been sure footed. Otherwise, the failures are legion. Brexit has not been fully implemente...
I was raised to consider the police to be the friends of ordinary people, there to protect us from criminals and thugs. As a youngster I found this to be true and later, as an adult I met many policemen, when playing in teams against them, at various sports, such as golf, tennis, squash, football etc. Now retired I know a number of retired officers...
One of the less-endearing qualities of the Conservative and Unionist Party (and I speak as a life-long Conservative voter), is the lemming-like compulsion to immediate change leader if things appear not to be going their way. 'Throwing out the baby with the bathwater' appears to be the inevitable jerk reaction by some MPs, regardless of the value o...
The great war time leader, Winston Churchill, once said: "democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried". he was seldom wrong in his political thinking, a sound working democracy ensures tyrants and despots do not have the chance to come to power. Sadly, through history and events today, there have been ...
Democracy is in serious trouble. Before Trump was sworn in, many Democrats took to the streets to protest. 'He is not my president' was their battle cry. The American people were presented with a choice between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump. They had to elect one of them and the majority chose Trump. For democracy to function there must be loser ...
The final lines of G K Chesterton’s poem “The People of England” are “We are the people of England; and we have not spoken yet. Smile at us, pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.”. The period of mourning, and the magnificent funeral, of our beloved late Queen have shown that these words are not empty, but reveal the truth. Despite years of hectoring by the intellectual Left, whose domination of the media, particularly the BBC, has given the impression that their view of the world is the only acceptable one, and that to be what they describe as socially progressive represents the only virtue, the ordinary citizens of this country have shown that they have not changed, and that, when the chips are down, they are as patriotic as those who endured, and won, two World Wars in order that freedom and democracy might survive.
The true British spirit of those days, as portrayed in the great war films of the 1950s, such as “The Dambusters”, “Reach for the Sky”, and “The Cruel Sea” , shows a people with grit, and determination, using both the shield of freedom, and the sword of righteousness, to defeat evil regimes seeking to destroy democratic civilisation. They are far removed from the vociferous, carping, and ignorant, left wing activists, who claim to seek a socialist Utopia, but in fact would plunge this country in a dystopia as envisaged by Orwell in 1984, where humour and laughter do not exist, only a grim pursuit of power for themselves. What a contrast to the smiling face of Queen Elizabeth!
In the last words that Holmes ever addresses to Watson he says “Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing world”, and this is something that could also be said about our much mourned Queen Elizabeth II. She was never afraid of innovation, and was instrumental in transforming the monarchy to adjust to the modern world, yet in those matters which abide, and are truly important, she was steadfast. As the last significant link to the great Second World War generation she represented duty, courage, faithfulness, humour, and a stoic endurance of the worst, in order that the best should ultimately triumph. To use the words of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, in the eponymous play, she was “as constant as the Northern Star”, and contrary to the speech of Antony from the same source “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.”, the good that she did will survive, as her son takes on the mantle she has now laid aside.
Thanks to our careers in the administrative sector of the Church my wife and I had the honour of meeting Her Majesty at the time of the Silver Jubilee, and later attending a palace garden party, and we can attest to the fact that she was expert at putting people at their ease, and showing an interest in their lives. She was a truly great lady, a devout Christian, and an example to all in how to behave.
Although we shall never see her like again the new King is cut from the same cloth, and offers a certain hope that her legacy will continue. The monarch, by standing about the political fray, provides a calm centre to our national life, preventing by their very presence the possibility of any sort of demagogue becoming a dictator, or some democratic, but divisive figure, becoming President.
Constitutional monarchy has been shown to be the best system yet devised to protect the rights of all, providing a template for governance which billions around the word envy. Who could believe that a President Edward Heath, Tony Blair, or even Boris Johnson, could unite the nation, and command the love and respect that the monarch enjoys?
In the face of the blandishments of the vociferous republicans we should indeed be foolish to throw out an institution which has served us so well, although there is one danger which could yet destroy it. Should, God Forbid, through a terrorist attack, or a simple plane accident, anything happen to the Prince of Wales and his family, we should be faced with the prospect of the Duke of Woke becoming King. Harry has shown himself to be courageous, and supportive of injured soldiers, but he is unfortunately also, just like Edward VIII, not very intelligent. He has fallen under the influence of one who is herself the product of the shallow, celebrity culture of Hollywood, and who seems to be obsessed with the idea that she is somehow oppressed, even when living in a vast mansion. His accession would be unacceptable to vast numbers of people, who are sick of being lectured on their supposed shortcomings by the woke. In addition, although never convicted of anything, the Duke of York, next in line if the Sussexes were excluded, would also be rejected by too many for him to inherit the throne. If it were constitutionally possible these two parts of the royal family should be removed from the line of succession, in order to safeguard the future of the monarchy
Two more truths can be derived from the events of this month.
The first is that the Armed Forces, despite the efforts of too many administration to downgrade their importance, remain the same disciplined organisations they always were, responding triumphantly to the demands put upon them . The bearer party of Grenadier Guards were superb, and all deserve medals, while the faultless performance of the troops on the day was breathtaking to behold.
The second is that, in an age when useless managers infest so many of our public, and indeed, private bodies, the skills of the Duke of Norfolk, shown in his organisation of everything, put such parasites to shame.
The Queen has gone. God save the King.
An energy crisis hit world economies and after almost three years the pain exploded in most countries. The exception was the USA. Acting pro-actively President Reagan slashed regulation to free the economy. He fired over 11,000 striking air traffic controllers. Breaking the strike. An action Paul Volcker saw as a 'watershed' moment in the battle ag...
Jeremy Nieboer wrote the excellent 'Climate: all is well, all will be well', published by the Bruges Group in 2021. His new book is another thought-provoking contribution to the debate about climate change. The author, a retired lawyer, forensically examines the scientific evidence about CO2. He shows that CO2 is essential to all life on Earth. Car...
The appointment of Chris-Heaton Harris as the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland was greeted warmly by unionists, ever hopeful that at long last we would have a Secretary of State who cared as much about protecting the rights of unionists as those of nationalists. Moreover, there was a great hope that this UK Government would break with the sy...
The best way to honor the queen would be to take up her form of leadership—as service. She was vivacious and regal up until her final passing. But the queen exuded something even more profound—a surety in the way she led. The entire world watched (an estimated 4.4 billion, making it the most viewed event in history) and wept over the recent l...
The Acts of Union is the present constitutional foundation of the United Kingdom. As the late Lord Trimble, the unionist architecture of the Belfast Agreement, said: The Acts of Union is the Union. The Northern Ireland Protocol "subjugates" (in the words of the Court of Appeal) Article VI of the Acts of Union, and therefore it follows that it subju...
"…in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themse...
In this important book, the author Jeremy Nieboer sets out the case for CO2 as a vital element of mankind's survival. It is also a powerful indictment of the UN and Global elite who have so woefully failed to protect the earths population. Shockingly the author explains that this failure is brought down upon us solely by unquestioned submission to ...
There is a disconnect between the media, politicians and the people of the UK. We are fed a daily diet of gloom. Hysterical millionaire 'experts' rant with messianic fervour. A plethora of experts, who helped cause the problem, seek to out do each other in their apoplectic zeal to blame others. It is as if they seek to reprise the late Jack Hawkins...
It is time to reset our expectation of democracy. We have drifted into a situation where people vote for politicians who, mostly, ignore their duty. That duty is to protect the nation and its people. To create an environment where, in security, hard work is rewarded and people can flourish peacefully under the law. Perversely, politicians have adap...
In a very revealing article many years ago called "Why I am Not a Conservative," a very famous libertarian let the cat out of the bag. He loudly denounced the argument for tradition and custom by calling for a form of anything goes liberalism and atheism. Some go even further, coming close to anarchy with their complete opposition to the state and ...
Democracy, liberty and the continuation of western civilisation is under threat. It is threatened by those we have elected to protect and nurture our society. A small number of self entitled politicians and bureaucrats take decisions without reference to their electorate. Sunak's decision to raise Corporation tax to 25% next year has everything to ...
We hear about a crisis in mental health which requires urgent solutions, but it may be that, rather than any physical cause, this is the result of the way in which the realities of our modern world are affecting peoples’ perceptions.
Those living in these islands for the past two millennia have had much to cause them concern. The dictatorship of the Roman Empire, the wars between the original British and the Saxons, then those between the latter and the Danes, followed by the Norman Conquest, the many wars with Spain, France and others, culminating in the battles with Germany, and then the Cold War. In addition we have endured plagues, and famines, while much of the nation lived in what we would now describe as poverty.
Today we have been faced with the Covid pandemic, the renewal of war on the European continent in Ukraine, demands that we wear sackcloth and ashes for the past sins of our ancestors, accept blame for supposed climate change, and fret over matters of sexual identity. If there is any truth in American police dramas, as shown on TV, psychiatrists seem to be inventing countless new phobias, and other mental conditions, although it often seems that these are produced by defence lawyers trying to excuse the guilty.
There are however two major differences between our times, and the past. Firstly for many centuries, however bad things were, the vast majority had a religious faith, which offered a hope, and for most, a certainty, that there was an order to their lives. presided over by a beneficent deity, who would ensure that in the end justice would prevail, and they would enter a blissful new life. Now, with so many believing in no such thing, people face an existence in a vast, unending, perhaps eternal universe, with only personal oblivion to which to look forward at the end.
However, such thoughts may usually be far from most people’s thoughts, but what is not is the fact that the unprecedented expansion in communications brought about by the technological revolution is bringing concerns before us that would not have disturbed our ancestors. I can remember when the first live satellite signal to Britain from the United States was broadcast via satellite on July 23, 1962, but now we think nothing of speaking live to friends in Australia from our own studies at home. Where once, if one had an opinion on some issue which one wished to share publicly it was necessary to write a letter to a newspaper, or hold a meeting, now everyone with access to the Internet can broadcast their views to their heart’s content via social media. The inevitable result is that people are worried more and more by things of which they would not have been aware in the past, and expected to take positions on matters that do not impinge on their daily lives, and on which nothing they do or say would have any effect.
Boris Johnson's fall is due to a combination of factors. The man who was London's Mayor for eight years seems to have forgotten the reason for that success. He chose able lieutenants to implement his policy. As Prime Minister he desperately needed them. Without them, everything from BREXIT to Tax Cuts stalled and it seemed increasingly that the gov...
The following analysis by Ben Habib is reprinted from: https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/ben-habib-we-are-being-hoodwinked-again-by-the-northern-ireland-protocol-bill-3750685 Ben Habib is a Newspaper Columnist and former Brexit Party MEP I am having a profound sense of déjà vu. In 2019 I said the Prime Minister's oven ready deal was a...
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotlands first Minister, has been banging on, yet again, about holding another referendum on Scottish independence and is proposing to hold a plebiscite during October 2023. This is despite the fact she lost the so-called 'once in a lifetime' independence referendum in 2014. If the people of Scotland go mad and vote to break...
Sir William Cash MPRt Hon David Jones MPMartin Howe QCBarnabas Reynolds The constitutional and legal position of the United Kingdom in relation to the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland (the "Protocol") is founded on Section 38 of the EU (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 ("EUWAA 2020"). There are also pertinent issues relating to international ...
Thirty years ago, twenty-three Conservative Members of Parliament voted against the Maastricht Treaty. Our main concern was that it opened the door to the abolition of the Pound and its replacement with what became the euro. Some twenty-seven years later in two-thousand and nineteen, twenty-seven Conservative Members of Parliament voted against The...
Take back control, they said. The UK-Rwanda Migration and Economic Development Partnership was their means of doing so. In response to the 11th hour intervention from the European Court of Human Rights which led to the flight being cancelled, the Home Secretary Priti Patel said "We will not be deterred from doing the right thing and delivering...
Background Rather like its contents, the government's Energy Security Strategy has an overarching theme of "better late than never" and contains a number of positives around the development and implementation of measures to mitigate against reliance on imported energy, whilst maintaining the nirvana of Net Zero by 2050. There are some bold commitme...
British politicians and mainstream media have claimed that Russia is responsible for "turning off" our gas supplies, amid hysteria over Ukraine. That's not the case, the culprit is closer to home. In late 2021, the British government paused the development of the Jackdaw and Cambo oil and gas fields off Scotland as a result of its commitment to the...
Michael Neu is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, Politics and Ethics at the University of Brighton. He writes, "Defenders of just liberal violence … fail to see that any attempt analytically to separate their philosophical arguments from the politics of their time – the attempt, essentially, to engage in apolitical moral philosophy about matters of ...
Anthony Coughlan is known to most of us for his heroic work for the National Platform of Ireland, which campaigns for Ireland's independence from the EU. As Michael Quinn writes, "He has tirelessly campaigned against the centralising and unaccountable EU bureaucracy; articulating instead the alternative case for a Europe of independent and co-opera...
Claire Ainsley is Executive Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. In this useful book she shows that voters generally have very sensible views about what Britain needs to flourish. She points out that "by Labour's third successive victory in 2005, working-class support for Labour had waned, and non-voting rates of working-class voters i...
The day of writing this article is the 16th May, which was the birthday of Bertram Edward Bennett (Bertie Bennett to all who knew him), who was my father. He was Born in the slums of Birmingham in 1915. As a young man and being a devoted socialist, he joined the Communist Party who promptly told him he should also join and infiltrate the Labour Par...
By Barnabas Reynolds. The Brexit Freedoms Bill aims to end the special legal status of EU law. It will also simplify the removal of retained EU law. Here Barnabas Reynolds explains the advantages for the City – and the economy. The UK has recently been confronted with a series of adverse economic shocks – from Covid and the war in Ukraine, to the c...
Being ambushed on his birthday to listen to a small group singing 'Happy Birthday' and sip a glass of wine may have been foolish of the PM. It does not count as crime in rational people's book. 10 Downing Street is a huge office. The Police issued 126 fixed-penalty notices naming only three recipients. The other 123 were presumably issued to specia...
In 1973 the French author and explorer, Jean Raspail, published his dystopian novel “The Camp of the Saints”, which portrayed the destruction of Western civilisation by Third World mass immigration to France and the West, much of it by sea. Its name comes from the bible’s book of revelation, which depicts the apocalypse. Unsurprisingly it was decried by many as being racist, and indeed it has been popular with parties and groups who espouse far right policies. However, it returned to the best seller list in France in 2011
It undoubtedly contains underlying assumptions about the differences between racial groups, which run contrary to contemporary beliefs. Those of us who espouse Christian values know that the young child in a Third World slum is as important, and worthy, as any rich denizen of a rich country, while the accident of birth should be no guide as to the life to which one aspires.
However there can be no doubt as to its relevance to the question which is becoming more and more central to the modern world, that concerning the mass movement of peoples across the globe, and in particular for us in the UK, confronting the continued, and growing problem of illegal immigration across the Channel. On one end of the argument would be a halt to all immigration, on the other a free for all, with no limits imposed, and where the line is drawn is of increasing importance.
In the modern world a full stop would be impracticable, as well as immoral, as those fleeing in fear of their lives must be given hope of a refuge. To open the door entirely would, apart from provoking a massive adverse reaction among the indigenous population, very quickly reduce the host country to chaos, and economic destruction. We have tried to compromise with limits applied, yet valid refugees being welcomed, in particular those from areas, such as Ukraine, where conflict is taking place.
When looking at the specifics it is clear that the vast majority of those coming across on small boats are young men, albeit accompanied bya much smaller number of women and children. In addition, interviews with those arriving reveal that a majority are coming from countries which are not being subject to violent conflicts. These facts make clear that the bulk of these migrants are in fact motivated by economic factors, and should therefore be taking their place with those who are taking the legal route to claiming asylum, not being allowed to jump to the head of the queue. It should also be noted that they will have been paying considerable sums to criminals, indicating that they are not destitute, while they are coming directly from France, a country not considered dangerous, and where they should be claiming asylum.
It is quite understandable that very many people from the third world would wish to live in the West, but we must also consider the fact that we lack the infrastructure ranging from GPs, housing and employment to absorb unlimited numbers. Those who constantly seek to block anything the government tries to do to stop the flow of illegal immigration refuse to answer the direct question as to how many immigrants they would consider too many, and instead resort abusing those attempting to find a workable compromise as racists. It is doubtful that the lawyers, and metropolitan liberals supporting open door policies would themselves find their own jobs and way of life under threat, as the burden would fall upon the working class in already deprived areas.
Those left liberals, indulging in their usual virtue signalling at no immediate cost to themselves, should reflect that, if nothing is done, there will inevitably be a reaction which could affect far more than immigration policy.
nologThe COVID-19 pandemic had an unprecedented impact on companies across the world. In the two years since initial lockdown, far too many businesses continue to struggle to make a comeback. The Prime Minister of England has officially urged people to go back to their offices and normal work environments. His goal is to get everyone back to living...
Some people who start a business dream of it becoming an enterprise that is passed down through generations. While this is true for some companies and families, it can also be a fraught ambition. Families can be dysfunctional, and when that dysfunction is transferred to the workplace, it can be catastrophic for the business. Furthermore, there is n...
If Elon Musk succeeds in ending the left liberal bias on Twitter, which he will find hard, perhaps he might turn his attention to ‘NextDoor’, the local internet, where the same morons are allowed to run riot. Although I never touch social media, as so many of its users have obviously forgotten to take their tablets, I have used ‘NextDoor’, as one can advertise goods for sale, or seek information on local tradesmen etc. However it does also open the door to postings on any subject, so the woke, and other idiots, frequently add comments on a number of social issues, but always from the left liberal point of view. Any of us who respond are then subjected to abuse, with no effort being made to answer anything we say, the comments being full of claims, and no substance.
Remainers accuse Leavers of xenophobia, to doubt man made climate change causes the extreme environmentalists to call us scientific illiterates at best, although more usually morons, any statement pointing out that the British Empire was not all bad, and that one should leave the past to the past, is greeted with accusations of racism, as does any questioning of allowing thousands of illegal immigrants to land on our beaches, while if one dares to question the left consensus on sexual matters, particularly ‘trans’ issues this provokes completely over the top abuse.
I recently encountered this latter crowd when I dared to mention ‘so called’ trans men, pointing out that one female inmate of a prison had been raped by one such, as had a female occupant of a hospital ward. This generated hysteria, with me accused of being a rabid right wing transphobe, which some were unable to answer because they were so upset. Poor little snowflakes!
One particularly moronic woman posted the following “Your hate and fear is palpable. Your comments are abhorrent. You have absolutely no idea with regards to “ trans” personal issues and use media propaganda and stereotyping to spread hate, fear and paranoia. This is the same type demonising of the Jewish race and paranoia and hate that was spread in 1930’s Germany, U.K. and many other countries due to Fascism. So that illustrates exactly what you are. A Facist through and through filled with hate. Or in other words a sad little man”. This directed at someone who hates Nazis, and fascists, and who has always supported Israel!
This same lunatic followed up with “You have no hate yet you hate trans. You say you want to protect the rights of free speech but free speech begins with tolerance. Tolerance of everyone in our society not just the people we decide should have free speech. Women fought for rights and so do trans fight for rights. A trans person doesn’t choose who they are - they simply are the way they are. Those who aren’t trans are lucky enough to know who they are but I don’t expect you to understand that or to understand the mental anguish or persecution that many trans endure and yet you choose to judge and persecute trans people more by what incidents you read depicted propaganda in the media. Yes Goebbels and Mosley would have been extremely proud of you. Your hate is evidenced by your hate comments. You are the bigot. I believe In tolerance and equality. I think a trans person has just as many rights as the next person as a human being first and foremost and should be treated as such. The difference is I know trans people and value them. I also know women and value them. Just as much as I know men and value them. Each one is a person and as such are all entitled to rights. You don’t see any of them as people. You just divide them into labels that’s the difference and one label disgusts you. As for trying to protect women- don’t make me laugh. That’s your justification you tell yourself for your hatred. Keep lying to yourself because I can assure you no one else believes you”. This latter comment was because I dared to defend J K Rowling, and said that I supported the hard won rights of women.
After all this I replied in some anger, although without abuse, yet I then found that the ‘moderators’ had removed me from the forum for a week, because I had breached their laws on politeness. These latter must either be more snowflakes, who cry if they hear anyone arguing, or else just products of our modern education system, who believe all the rubbish the liberal left spouts. I suspect the latter.
What is clear is that most of these imbeciles are not themselves ‘trans’, but are merely virtue signalling to prove how wonderful they are (they think!). I expect that the few who do come under the ‘trans’ heading would rather be left alone to get on with their lives, but they are just cannon fodder for the mainly white, middle class, university (if you can call them that these days) educated idiots.
These people cannot be stopped from ranting, but it would be of great help if the silent majority, who rightly regard them with contempt, would join me in hitting back. If enough were then censored by the ‘moderators’ it would make a good case for closing the whole cesspit down.
This week has been another shocking reminder how far adrift today's Conservative Party are from the principles enunciated and implemented by its greatest peacetime leader Margaret Thatcher. To me personally, this has been dramatically emphasised by the loss of Westminster City Council to the Labour Party. Some thirty years ago as the Finance Chairm...
Is there a need for a rethink of the 21st century direction of travel of globalisation, the concept of a global village, 4IR, communitarianism and supranationalism, as conceived at the end of the previous century? Vulnerabilities of scale The devastating impact of the pandemic on economics, trade, logistics and the global supply chain, plus the imp...
It is past time to re-evaluate key U.S. assumptions about Europe and the European Union. For far too long, America and Europe have had a very one-sided relationship. It is like a codependent marriage, in which one partner sacrifices his or her own needs for those of the spouse. That person's actions will completely revolve around the other pe...
Margaret Thatcher broke the mould of British politics. A grocer's daughter raised above the family shop. She benefited from free state education including university. She believed in equal opportunity. She believed in wealth distribution through hard work and getting rid of as much state intervention as possible. As Prime Minister she encouraged pr...
As the dreaded 2030 deadline for the cessation of the manufacture and sale of all conventional petrol and diesel cars approaches, I have to wonder if our Prime Minister and other Government Ministers really have a clue as to what they are doing and if they realise the calamitous confusion they have set in place for the average British person. As a ...
Boris Johnson is often dismissed as a know-nothing on economics, and Rishi Sunak prides himself on being rather good at it. In his generally excellent recent Mais lecture, the Chancellor set out his vision for the UK economy. He aims for freeing up markets, improving regulation, and cutting taxes to incentivise investment, training and R...
Toothless EU 2014 embargo on export of weapons to Russia finally enforced on 8 April 2022 Removal of loophole covered up by EU – not mentioned in latest sanctions press release In our previous report of 25 March on EU arms sales to Russia between 2014-2020 we revealed how a clause allowed weapons contracts to continue to be fulfilled if they ...
Boris has offered his heart-felt apology to the nation for inadvertently breaking lockdown rules, for which he has been fined, but that is not enough for his political enemies unsurprisingly. Wednesday's PMQs were marked by a tiresome repetition by Opposition MPs demanding the resignation of the Prime Minister, using up precious parliamentary time ...
Outputs from Spring Statement In advance of the promised reveal of the government's energy plan this week, let's start with the positives from Rishi Sunak's Spring Statement. 5 whole years of VAT free purchases on solar panels, ground and air source heat pumps. Not in Northern Ireland of course but they seem to matter less than ever to the Conserva...
The European Union and Davos-style globalism is saturating the globe on all continents. It pretends to make the world a better place. It does no such thing. The Tower of Babel was real. The structure, reaching far into the skies, was built in the land of Shinar, in ancient Babylon. It was constructed some years after the Deluge, or what is co...
United Kingdom rates of personal taxation are at their highest in over 70 years. They are set to increase further. Whether or not governments spend the money they raise wisely? That's another piece for another day but my overarching view is that individuals make better spending choices than "the state". This article examines the ways in which the T...
US states courted for deals on financial services after US tariffs on steel and aluminium lifted. A look at the improving UK trade with US and Canada While all eyes have been on the possibility of a large bilateral deal with the US, the two governments have been reaching across the pond to strike small deals that amount to great improvements ...
By Andrew Rosindell In 2019, we went to the polls with a simple choice, Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn, a choice to either Get Brexit Done or a choice for more dither and delay, maybe even a second referendum. Thankfully, the people of the U.K. voted to Get Brexit Done and they did so with an overwhelming majority. Unfortunately, our fr...
RAF deploys fighter jets and Expeditionary Air Wing personnel to EU's Romania. Once again, Brexit Britain flies to the protection of the EU On Saturday the Ministry of Defence announced that British Typhoon jets and Royal Air Force personnel are deploying to Romania. They will operate as part of NATO's 'Air Policing mission' for the Black Sea...
Voters are looking at Rishi Sunak's chaotic mini-Budget and concluding: the party stands for nothing at all. Every so often, a member of the Question Time audience manages to capture the current mood. It happened when an elderly gentleman told a bickering Nigel Farage and Eddie Izzard to "shut up" during a programme filmed in the run up to th...
When Parliament fell to debating various versions of a Withdrawal Agreement between the UK and the EU some of us had no wish to enter binding arrangements with the EU that could continue to prevent us making sovereign decisions for ourselves through elections and Parliamentary votes. I along with 27 other Conservative MPs voted three times against ...
While others close their Russian doors, French tills in Russia keep ringing. French companies find reasons to do business in Russia while British companies pull out Economic sanctions from Western nations were meant to send a message to President Putin: Stop the war and withdraw from Ukraine. The French are ignoring world opinion. Many busine...
The last two words of David Lean’s magnificent film “The Bridge over the River Kwai” are spoken by the character Major Clipton, when he contemplates the chaos surrounding him, as he cries out “madness, madness”. I have the same reaction when I look at the insanity which is distorting our culture, as ‘woke’ imbeciles are allowed to run amok, forcing changes which no one but they, and their idiotic followers want.
We now see a man, Lia Thomas, who has ‘transited’ to a woman, becoming the first transgender woman to win an NCAA swimming title. Anyone whom dares to question whether such people should be allowed to compete in the women's division after transitioning, is subjected to abuse, and threats for doing so. One of our sporting heroines, Sharron Davies MBE, has revealed that she has been subjected to such threats over her views on transgender women competing in women's sport, when she stated that it was unfair for such women for to be competing against normal biological females. She wrote: "I’ve received several threats to myself and my work because I present evidence based facts on the unfairness of male inclusion in women’s sport. Which is biological sex based decriminalisation. I will not stop bringing these actual facts into the light or be bullied into silence. I’m used to it now. But I feel we are turning the corner and open debate to find science based solutions are not far away that will protect the integrity and rights of females in sport as well as offering up ways to be inclusive but not as the cost of another groups’ rights."
Thomas' victory came after a civil rights complaint was submitted against the University of Pennsylvania for permitting this person to compete on its swimming team, it being pointed out that Lia's ranking was 462nd when competing in the male ranks. One competitor, Reka Gyorgy, complained to the athletics association about its decision to let Lia race against "biological women". However Labour equalities minister MP Charlotte Nichols disgracefully congratulated Lia on the achievement, saying "As a former competitive swimmer myself, indeed, I know full well how much training is required for a title like this. Anyone trying to diminish Lia Thomas' achievement because of lazy transphobia should frankly pipe down. Huge congratulations to her." That this nonsense should emanate from someone tasked with achieving equality for women is unsurprising, as Labour spokesmen and women now seem unable to distinguish between the sexes, something most normal people have no problem doing. The giants of the Labour past must be spinning in their graves.
Another example of this lunacy is the situation which has arisen at the Putney Tennis Club where the membership form has classed the option for 'female' as 'no longer valid'. The club stated that this was glitch, but, as one of its members says, “someone had to type in “Female (no longer valid)” , while another said that they suspected that the club had been taken over by ‘woke’ loonies, and this confirmed it.
Nottingham university continues to prove that it no longer deserves the name “University”, as it cancelling the offer of an honorary degree to Dr Tony Sewell, because his report on race in the UK failed to reinforce the former’s prejudices against white people. A statement was issued saying that "The university has strict criteria governing the award of honorary degrees, because these are conferred at our public graduation ceremonies. The criteria were revised a number of years ago to preclude us from awarding them to figures who become the subject of political controversy, so that a day of celebration for our graduates does not attract such controversy.” This from an establishment that has no problem cosying up to the fascists of Communist China.
A similar example of our so called universities being in the hands of the woke is of course Jesus College, Cambridge, again an institution willing to make excuses for China, but determined to remove the plaque in their chapel dedicated to the philanthropist Tobias Rustat because of false claims about his connections to slavery. For once right prevailed, and the decision of he Consistory Court of the Diocese of Ely was that the plaque should remain, but of course the monomaniacs of woke are determined not to leave it at that, being prepared to spend even more on continuing to pursue this false claim. In a similar refusal to accept outcomes the idiots at Oriel College, Oxford, with their “Rhodes Must Fall” campaign, refuse to accept that they have lost.
On a different front the Mayor of Woke, Sadiq Khan, has warned commuters that “staring” can be a form of sexual harassment and has launched a series of Transport for London posters that feature the mayor and British Transport Police’s emblems. So now we have the situation where a chap might be sitting there, absentmindedly thinking about his dinner, and finding himself suddenly accused by some neurotic female opposite of staring. Of course this sort of vague offence relies on the usual woke principle of guilty unless proved innocent, and can only provoke conflict where there was absolutely no offence committed.
When attending a recent football match I looked around at the crowd, and it occurred to me that probably almost no one there cared one iota about woke, and most would not even know what it was. This whole social movement is the product of largely white, middle class, university educated, metropolitan liberals, and is in fact an attack on working class culture by a bunch of elitists, who, in the past, would have been dismissed with contempt as twerps. The true blame for its spread rests with the organisations, and businesses, who choose to take it seriously, and allow their HR departments to persecute decent people in its name. Ordinary, well meaning citizens should treat the whole thing as the madness it is, and, where possible, boycott any body which is revealed as having adopted it.
Download PDF File Here Mr Sunak's Spring Statement was far less impressive than his rhetoric has made it appear. Once again a senior member of this administration reaches a Gold Standard in rhetoric, but at best a Bronze one in achievement. The claim does not stand up to examination that these were the largest reductions in personal taxation for th...
The European Commission is the executive branch within the broader European Union or EU. It apparently intends to introduce the continent's own digital euro bill sometime during 2023. This would coincide with experimentation done by the European Central Bank with a retail version of central bank digital currency across the union. Movement Among Mix...
The current cost of living crisis and stagnating growth highlight the importance of a re-examination of our approach to tax, trade and business, writes John Longworth. During the pandemic, conspiracy theorists loved to talk about the "great reset" that would be orchestrated by the Davos-loving global elites. If the events of the past two weeks is a...
It is constantly claimed that the purpose of the Irish protocol is to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland, but that is a lie. The real purpose is to disrupt the existing economic integration between Northern Ireland and Great Britain and instead promote integration between the province and the Irish Republic, and the chosen mechanism for...
Facts4EU.Org presents their review of the major Global Soft Power rankings in the world. Their analysis of these rankings covers every year from the first in 2010 until the latest for 2022. We reviewed the three emerging ranking systems that have over time become more and more detailed and analytical. We started with the Institute of Governmen...
The maiden official alliances among European countries happened shortly after World War II with the formation of NATO in 1949. Eight years later we saw the foundation of the European Economic Community as the countries joined their strengths in sharing bountiful industries that went on to serve a much wider spectrum of people instead of a single na...
By Professor Patrick Minford, CBE Patrick is the Chairman, Economists for Free Trade. He is Professor of Economics at Cardiff Business School, part of the University of Wales. Patrick is the author of The Cost of Europe, and Should Britain Leave the EU?: An Economic Analysis of a Troubled Relationship. Professor Minford is also a member of the Brug...
BackgroundIn one of the most egregious examples of the nefarious practice of fire and rehire, P&O Ferries sacked 800 workers via Zoom this week, without notice, attempting to replace them with agency workers on much lower pay and worse terms and conditions. By using security guards to escort hardworking employees forcibly and inhumanely off the...
Backs down on NI Protocol, then withdraws proposed rule changes, but wins in Appeals Court. The Government is busy on Ukraine but what about the integrity of the UK? Despite past assurances of being willing to suspend the Northern Ireland Protocol it continues in place after the British Government revealed its true self yesterday. Firstly it ...
Amidst the economic, political and humanitarian carnage this week, International Women's Day came and went. It was pointed out to me by a digital sage that Margaret Thatcher (latterly Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven), the first woman ever to become Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is "never" (at least not to our mutual recollection), spoken of in...
The impact of loose monetary policy long after the financial crash reverberations had largely ended and repeated after the worst of the pandemic (creating the worst economic contraction for 300 years) had passed, is now taking its toll on inflation and interest rates. February saw a rash of economic metrics that when consolidated alongside other re...
Policy Paper Executive Summary Background The government claims to be pursuing a "Net Zero" CO2 policy; The UK produces just over half of its own energy, importing the reminder, which merely displaces where CO2 is produced and in fact increases it through importation. Current policy The UK government is facing a crisis of confidence in i...
There are still areas of our lives that have not benefited from the people's decision to choose independence from the EU. The unfinished business is harming our country and its future. One aspect of government policy that it shares with the EU, is the Green agenda drive to Net Zero. How a small island off the coast of Eurasia became a world superpo...
The USA is bust. Not officially of course and as Francis Underwood (I know, it was Urquhart first but humour me) would say, "You could say that; I couldn't possibly comment". With Federal Government debt in excess of $30Trillion and debt servicing alone of almost $600Bn per annum, the country is ill prepared in every conceivable way for a protracte...
Millions of column inches have been filled with Partygate. When government imposes draconian measures on your civil liberties through legislation and then ignores them themselves, this is understandable and in the public interest, so more than "fair game". I have noticed however that Labour sleaze gets rather less attention. With Rachel Reeves and ...
The first time I encountered Richard Shepherd was during the run up to the 1979 general election when he was standing as the candidate for the Aldridge Brownhills constituency, which was the neighbouring constituency to where I live. I had just come out of my local news agents and he was on his way in and saw me looking at him as I had recognised h...
Recently, I tweeted as below. It is not exhaustive, this is Twitter after all but it serves as a useful starting point for a piece I did not think needed to be written, such has been my own "compliance" in the con. Canada has full despotism. New Zealand is descending further into tyranny. Germany has been muzzled by Putin’s gas yet suppresses its o...
The campaign for a referendum on Net Zero appears to be gathering pace, with Nigel Farage openly discussing its evolution on his nightly GB News programme this week. Accepting the premise of global warming and the need to avoid the Earth's temperature overheating has become a settled issue for many but not all. Ground source heat pumps, electric ca...
I recently attended the funeral of one of my old office colleagues who, like me, worked for over forty years in the same organisation. At the wake I reminisced with other long term colleagues about our early days in the workplace, in the 1960s, and 1970s, comparing them with what we came to know towards the ends of our careers, and with what young friends now tell us about their experiences.
At one time health and safety rules and regulations, although obviously necessary in industrial environments, was confined in offices to exercising what was basically common-sense, while we had a personnel department, which dealt with matters of recruitment, and staff welfare. As in any social environment we naturally had our ups and downs with others, although, not being complete sissies, we could argue quite aggressively without it becoming anything requiring interference from anyone in authority, while many of us, myself included, met and married girls from within the office.
What a contrast we see today. Health and Safety has expanded to a ridiculous extent, far more than is justified by the reality, while that accursed non profession HR has spread like the plague throughout organisations, producing absurd policy documents, which only hamper effective working, and which most people ignore whenever they can. HR is responsible for making mountains out of mole hills when it comes to inter personnel relations, setting up inquiries to examine what we would once have regarded as trivial disputes. Far from being a department like Personnel, which tried to help staff, HR is an arm of management, allowing senior officers to keep their distance when implementing policies which treat staff unfairly. As far as romance in the office is concerned it would be a bold young man to make advances to a girl he found attractive, as the sexual Thought Police would be on him like a ton of bricks.
This increasing crushing of normal life is of course now everywhere, as the right of people to exercise free speech is more and more constrained by the metropolitan elite, aided and abetted by the morons of social media, with ‘twitter storms’, and cancel culture treated as valid by a weak, incompetent media, and enforced by politicians frightened to stand up for the values which this country has always represented. The Free Speech Union must now be at risk of overwhelmed by the number of people seeking help in opposing these fascists of the Left. We must not allow the latter to say “you can’t say that” without saying “Oh, yes I can”, and cease to listen to the whining from vanishingly small sexual minorities.
When we dare to oppose the rewriting of history by know nothing activists, or resent attacks on our heroes such as Winston Churchill and Douglas Bader, by those who would be living in a Nazi nightmare but for them, we are accused of being at best reactionary, or even of being Nazis. We now see what have been described as ‘blobs’ undermining our nation, via the education system, the health service and the civil service.
When I think of the brave men and women of previous generations who rallied to the colours, or stoically endured massive privations to save us from foreign tyrannies I have only absolute contempt for the pathetic wimps who now infest our universities, with their demands to ‘feel safe’, as they are too feeble to tolerate the idea that their opinions might not be shared by everyone. Clearly there are limitations on what the government can do to deal with these inadequates, particularly as they are often supported by the useless university authorities but, if I were PM, I would be seeking to cut off all funding to any educational establishment which yielded to their demands, while introducing policies aimed at ridding the country of the hundreds of Mickey Mouse degrees on offer, and forcing jumped up polytechnics to cease to be described as universities. Boris is not alone in the political class in avoiding this subject, but it is a matter which a truly determined Conservative politician should be addressing.
The bureaucrats in the NHS go their merry way, wasting vast sums on administration, while resisting any attempts to reform, while the upper echelons of the civil service continue their campaign to undermine Brexit.
The latest spat between a Left liberal Mayor of London and a ‘right on’ Metropolitan Police Commissioner would be funny, were things not so serious. Cressida Dick should never have been appointed head of the Metropolitan Police after the operation she directed as leader of Gold Command led to the death of the innocent Brazilian Jean Charles da Silva e de Menezes, an appointment condemned by his family. Nevertheless the desire of our political class to display their politically correct credentials ensured that they preferred to select the first female head, regardless of other issues.
Now that she is retiring there is an opportunity to make fundamental changes to the Met, returning it to its proper function of fighting genuine crime, but the continued dominance of the so called progressives makes such action unlikely. Unfortunately TV’s DCI Hunt is a fictional character, but it is his model of policing which would restore common-sense to the force, although whether any such as he could exist under the modern leadership is doubtful. An end should be put to the growing power of what is an embryonic Thought Police, spending time pursuing innocent citizens for using their right of free speech to oppose the nostrums of the politically correct, while the use of trained constables for monitoring computer crime should be stopped, a separate expert agency, on the lines of GCHQ, being created for such matters, who, once having established the details, could pass the evidence to the police for final action. The public wants the police to be visible on the streets, dealing with both petty and major crime, not sitting in offices looking at computers, or attempting to intimidate law abiding citizens by ‘checking their thinking’, as has happened on more than one occasion. However I do not think anything will change until we have a government that is not in thrall to the vociferous activists of the Left. Whether that will ever be the case is, at best, doubtful.
The government has signed up to the ludicrous Green agenda, which is set fair to totally undermine our economy, forcing people to abandon their cars, and to pay through the nose for energy, all to follow a theory based on the false premise that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere drives climate change, when an impartial examination of the scientific evidence, and the historical record, reveals that this is totally false.
When I was young we had serious politicians like Attlee and Churchill dealing with matters of true importance. Now we have a bunch of lightweights obsessing over rubbish such as ‘cakegate’. If this country is to survive in any recognisable form the ordinary, decent, normal people must fight back against those destroying it, whether they be the liberal left, or the lunatics who subscribe to the so called ‘woke’ agenda. I am sure that I am not alone in being sick of the nagging busybodies who seem to think that they have the right to order decent people about.
We will receive no help from the biased belly speakers of the BBC, or from politicians who know little, and care even less, of what the electorate really wants. We need leadership, not appeasement of the lowest common denominator with the biggest mouths!
With Westminster politics now on shutdown until 21st February, we can finally draw breath and reflect on the rise of Keir Starmer's standing as a future Prime Minister, not least in opinion polls when benchmarked against Boris Johnson. Starmer is enjoying a sustained period of Labour leading the Tories in the opinion polls, since their self inflict...
Cynical theories: how universities made everything about race, gender, and identity - and why this harms everybody, Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, hardback, 351 pages, ISBN 978-1-80-075004-3, Swift Press, 2020, £20. This is an excellent study of the postmodernism and its offshoots Critical Race Theory and Social Justice. The authors state that ...
Sajid Javid's decision to pull back from forcing frontline NHS staff to be vaccinated or leave their jobs is a victory for the Workers of England Union, NHS100 and belatedly common sense. It is mendacious to claim that the evidence before the Health Secretary on COVID-19 is materially different to what was known in December 2021. Angelique Coetzee,...
Since Heath bamboozled us into joining the Common Market successive governments of all parties have treated the electorate and democracy with contempt. John Locke, in his Second Treatise of Government, declared: "The Legislative cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands. For it being but a delegated power from the People, they who...
Break-up: how Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon went to war, by David Clegg and Kieran Andrews, hardback, 339 pages, ISBN 978-1-785-90706-7, Biteback, 2021, £20. This is an absolutely fascinating account of Alex Salmond's appalling behaviour towards many of his female colleagues, and of the SNP's failure to deal fairly with the women's complai...
"Never glad confident morning again" This was the phrase used by Nigel Birch in the Profumo debate of June 1963 to encapsulate the situation in which Prime Minister Harold Macmillan found himself. Four months later, Macmillan decided to resign. I have always been struck by the similarities between Macmillan and Johnson. They both went to Eton and B...
Instinctively, I am sceptical about public inquiries and the like. Having lived long enough to see successive governments use inquiries as a means to avoid difficult questions "in the moment" and then avoid the same difficult questions when the findings of the inquiry are reported as "it is all in the report and we will learn the lessons from it", ...
Whilst Plan B restrictions are now lifted in England, the Coronavirus Act, which grants the government sweeping draconian emergency powers, inter alia lockdowns, vaccine passports, work from home orders and mask mandates remains live legislation until 25th March 2022 when it is due to be renewed or it will expire. The government could termina...
Whether the PM had gatherings/meetings/parties at No 10 and/or Whitehall is merely 'froth' or 'fluff', compared with the events unfolding throughout the country and the world. It is this unbalanced focus on trivia that has increasingly annoyed me, to the extent that I have been motivated to put metaphorical pen to paper, in an attempt to highlight ...
At school, in a lesson in Geography, I learned about the creation of corries in Scotland. They were formed by the action of ice in grinding parts of the mountains there. The mountains lost their points and became rounded. That ice had been from one to three miles thick. It melted several thousand years ago, at the end of an ice-age. The former tops...
In defence of democracy, Roslyn Fuller, Polity, 2019 This is a great book. Roslyn Fuller, the Director of the Solonian Democracy Institute, punctures with evidence and wit the arrogance and pomposity of those politicians and academics who tell us what to think and do. After the two 2016 shocks, the majority vote to leave the EU and the election of ...
It has been a week of melodrama in the latest instalment of the soap opera that is the Conservative & Unionist Party. Talk of a "pork pie plot", so called as the Rutland & Melton MP, Alicia Kearns, one member of the 2019 new intake of Conservative MPs was allegedly pivotal in it, was seized on by the mainstream media whose appetite for the ...
Spartan victory: the inside story of the battle for Brexit, Mark Francois, paperback, 464 pages, ISBN 9798484798391, Kindle Direct Publishing, 2021. Mark Francois, the MP for Rayleigh and Wickford in Essex, and chairman of the European Research Group, has written a fascinating account of that part of the battle for Brexit that was waged in th...
The cult of Wokeism, like Japanese knotweed is growing relentlessly and without radical surgery will consume all before it. The Marxist, identitarian left, unable to win at the ballot box, has instead hijacked British institutions with devastating results. The culture wars are real but largely only one side is fighting. Social conservatives must fi...
Who could have predicted that of all the Downing Street scandals of the last two and a half years, the parliamentary Conservative party would finally divide...over an actual party? In the name of public health, Boris Johnson and his government punitively repealed and restored basic civic autonomies as they pleased. Now it transpires that at a time ...
The case for a new Bretton Woods, Kevin Gallagher and Richard Kozul-Wright, paperback, 163 pages, ISBN 978-1-5095-4654-1, Polity Press, 2022, £9.99. Kevin Gallagher is Professor of Global Developmental Policy and Director of the Global Developmental Policy Center at Boston University. Richard Kozul-Wright is Director of the Division on Global...
Over its long and varied history Britain has suffered, from time to time, some terrible leaders, both Kings and Prime Ministers. Some have been ruthless tyrants, some just plain useless and some underhanded and treacherous. Tony Blair who was the Prime minister of the UK from 1997 to 2007, can be described as cunning and sneaky, thanks to him being...
After over 28,500 migrants were officially processed after crossing the English Channel in 2021, evidencing the porous nature of our border protection against potential terrorists, it emerged in the run up to New Year that there is active consideration of parole for 92 actual terrorists. I have an alternative. How about letting them serve their ful...
DFor libertarians, it has been another alarming week as the political class continues to use emergency measures to control their populations and the COVID-19 narrative. In France, (absolutely not because there is a presidential race in April), Emmanuel Macron has admitted he wants to "piss off" his country's 5M unvaccinated, exacerbating the divide...
Most law abiding people are aware than the criminal justice system is failing to apply to the guilty the sort of sentences which are deserved, and which are a deterrent to others. Too many escape with suspended sentences, and even those who are incarcerated may expect the actual time served to be significantly less than that handed out in the first place, while the frequent redefinition of murder as manslaughter is clearly intended to keep the extent of the former hidden from the electorate, as the liberals who have dominated the system for decades do not want it to be clear just how damaging the abolition of capital punishment has been. The number of youngsters stabbed to death in London in recent years is proof of this.
However there is another side to the coin, which is equally reprehensible, and that is the manner in which people are being subjected to totally unjustified sanctions, as one of the most fundamental principles of British law is that one is innocent until proved guilty, something that is being weakened on several fronts.
The justice system is being subverted by changes, emanating largely from too much attention being paid to the uneducated emoters of social media, and their so called Twitter storms. It should be obvious that accusations are proof of nothing, unless backed by some sort of genuine evidence, but we now have those accused being treated as guilty, in particular in relation to sexual matters.
Of course rapists should be punished, but there have been many cases where the complainant is proved to have lied, or which rely on ‘He said, She said’, without any substantiating evidence. We have seen instances of men being sent to prison, only to be released later, when it becomes clear that the complainant had consented to sex, only to regret doing so in retrospect.
Even worse, how on earth is someone supposed to defend themselves against assertions that they did something decades ago, as seems to happen far too regularly. Most of us can’t remember what we did a week ago last Tuesday, let alone decades ago. That employers punish the accused without waiting for a conviction is a disgrace, and failure to reverse such actions when the person is shown to be innocent utterly deplorable.
(One ridiculous anomaly involving those actually being guilty is that, in the UK, if a lad of seventeen has consensual sex with his fifteen year old girlfriend then not only is he convicted of a crime, but must sign the sex offenders register, which will blight him for life. He is also frequently referred to as a pervert by the self appointed moralists of social media. However if the couple lived in Japan, where the age of consent is thirteen, no crime would have occurred, and clearly normal heterosexual acts between those just past the age of puberty, while inadvisable for other reasons, are not perverted. There are many of us who would not approve of his actions, but, although breaking the law should be sanctioned, the punishment meted out is excessive, and too long lasting).
Those who are actually guilty should be punished, but no accused person, who is not found to be so by a court, should be left in a worse position than that they were in before the accusation was made, in relation to employment, residence or indeed anything else. We have seen Hollywood film producers drop actors because of such unproven allegations, while recent cases have also involved loss of reputation and worse suffered by those who have done nothing wrong. The often heard claim that “there is no smoke without fire” is nonsense, as anyone, even anonymously, can accuse another of wrongdoing without it appears the need to justify such claims. It is reminiscent of the Great Terror which followed the 1789 French Revolution when anonymous accusations of being an enemy of the people resulted in many being guillotined when they were actually the objects of sexual or business jealousy, or even just of personal dislike.
This sort of trial by public opinion, not facts, is made worse by the attitude of the police, who now seem to consider themselves a Thought Police, permitted to pursue people for their opinions. That one member of a force told a member of the public that he was speaking to him “to check on his thinking” proves this, while the way the police went on a fishing expedition to find anyone willing to corroborate the loathsome pedophile, Carl Beech, who accused Sir Edward Heath and others of crimes they did not commit was despicable. One police spokesman stated that the there was substance to the charges, and actually invited anyone with any further claims to come forward. That other liars then did so merely proves that accusations without evidence should be treated with utter contempt. Incidentally the supposed need for policeman to have attended university is yet another nail in the coffin of common-sense policing, as experience is a better guide to human nature than book learning.
The only way to stop these offences to natural justice continuing to hold sway is to ensure that those who make false accusations are held accountable. In the end Beech did go to prison, but how many others have enjoyed their fifteen minutes of fame at the expense of the innocent, and never been punished for doing so?
On 7th January 2022, as the new law requiring NHS staff to be 'fully vaccinated' against covid-19 came into force, Health Secretary Sajid Javid was visiting King's College Hospital in London. Meeting some clinical staff, he was challenged by consultant Steve James, who calmly and rationally explained why the 'no jab no job' policy is nonsensical. D...
Trans: when ideology meets reality, by Helen Joyce, hardback, 311 pages, ISBN 978-0-86154-049-5, Oneworld, 2021, £16.99. This is a very fine book, which puts the case for an objective, scientific and humane approach to the vexed questions of gender, sex and identity. Helen Joyce is Britain editor at The Economist. She observes that science shows th...
Amid all the disruption caused by Covid a few truths have become obvious, that up to now have either been denied, or ignored.
The constant warnings issued by NHS trusts about the health service being overwhelmed by demand have finally made clear to many just how dysfunctional the organisation has become. Those of us who for years have pointed out that in fact this bureaucratic monster has an insatiable need for funds, due to the ridiculous numbers of box ticking bureaucrats involved, whose every response to a problem is to expand their administrative empire, while creating evermore absurd rules which must be followed by front line staff. Retired nurses and GPS, who have offered their aid in the campaign to vaccinate the population have reported that, thanks to bureaucratic intransigence, they have been rejected due to a supposed failure to meet the requirements of these pen pushers, even though the issues involved are irrelevant. No one doubts the commitment, and expertise of the doctors and nurses, but, thanks to the aforementioned facts, comments in the press, and by friends and acquaintances indicate that the myth that the NHS is above criticism has been debunked.
It has also begun to become clear to ordinary people that, at a time when many are losing loved ones, or suffering prolonged periods of serious illness, the constant harping on nonsense by the so called ‘woke’ is no longer a source of amusement, but is something which much be opposed, and indeed crushed. This rag tag alliance of sexual neurotics, supposed intelligent undergraduates, ignorant of history, and the plain deranged have had a good run of being taken seriously when they have rejected all sense, and denied historical reality in pursuit of their insane agendas, but more and more people are reacting with anger, not laughter. That they receive support from individuals in the entertainment profession, organisations such as the National Trust, and unfortunately even some errant members of the Royal family merely indicates that such irrationality can affect anyone, however eminent.
The bias of the broadcast media, in particular the BBC has also been exposed, as everything the government has tried to do in the face of an unprecedented crisis has been derided, criticised, and ridiculed. Whatever course is followed the BBC will oppose, making Boris damned if he does, and damned if he doesn’t. There is much that the Prime Minister may have done wrong, for instance in his embracing of the Green agenda, but there is no doubt that the left liberal agenda followed by these so called unbiased commentators ensures that he will receive no credit for those things which he has done right. These people, and I include those such as commentators on Sky News who choose to advise the Americans to transfer their support from the UK to the EU, think that they are there to make the news, not report it. The number of people who have stated that they will no longer watch the BBC makes clear that the latter has been rumbled.
However perhaps the most significant instance of realisation dawning is that, following the wide variety of predictions, modelling, and general advice, concerning the pandemic offered by experts, it is obvious that following the science is not as easy as first thought, and that scientists are not quite as infallible as their reputation suggests. Far from them being like Plato’s Philosopher Kings, dispensing absolute wisdom, they are more like the Gods of Olympus, squabbling among themselves, and pursuing their own agendas. While most are well intentioned some are also influenced by the desire for reputation, sometimes a liking for their fifteen minutes of fame, and occasionally by their connections with commercial organisations.
That the public have now become aware that their lives may be disrupted to no purpose should ensure that expert scientific pronouncements in general should be taken with a large pinch of salt, and actions taken only if the issues are examined dispassionately, and not subject to subjective factors arising from the fact that scientists are only human. It is to be hoped that the prospect of massive rises to domestic energy bills will awaken people to the fact that uncritical acceptance of the dubious theories of the vociferous Green lobby comes at a significant cost. While it may make some feel virtuous to airily talk of saving the planet the reality is that, unless the absurd demands of the climate extremists are rejected we shall all be very much poorer, with a standard of living permanently lower than that which we have known in the past.
Many scientists disagree with the claims that the theory of anthropological global warming is beyond dispute but, thanks to the craven action by politicians who have merely bowed before the environmentalists, we have closed coal mines, ignored the large reserves of energy available from fracking, and allowed substantial reserves of gas below the North Sea to remain unexploited. The fact that we are thereby reduced to buying gas from Russia, at a greatly increased cost, and forcing a greater dependence on those who wish us ill, does not seem to have occurred to the fanatics from dear Greta downwards.
If millions are not to be either reduced to poverty, or frozen in their own homes, the real cost of passively yielding to the clamour of an aggressive minority must be made clear, and a major change made to the direction of travel on energy policy, based on objective science, not on a supposed consensus that does not exist, except in the minds of those such as the BBC. As the public finds that the very real consequences of going Green involve losing their cars, and living in freezing homes, while paying through the nose for their energy, we may expect the uncritical approval of the environmentalists to disappear like the morning dew.
Fourth upon a time the Brexit elf went in search of the true Brexit. He had been over the moon all those years ago when the British people had voted to leave the EU. He looked forward to an early and complete departure. He expected the creation of a land of freedom. He looked forward to wise government from a newly independent and powerful Parliame...
The news on the18th December that Lord Frost was resigning his position as our EU negotiator due to his unhappiness with the decisions the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson was making, was one of the worst things to happen in these strange times. I personally was devastated. I have written to Lord Frost and reproduce my letter below. Dear Lord Fr...
Parliament is now in recess until the New Year. Unless of course the Prime Minister decides to impose further restrictions on the English population's civil liberties. Having already moved to (so called) Plan B COVID-19 restrictions, rumours abound at the time of writing that plans for a 2 week circuit breaker lockdown are well advanced. It has bee...
