The reason the Conservative Party is dying, is that they have come to believe that their task is to run the Socialist State more efficiently than Labour. – Steven Barrett | Continue reading
Yes, but what do you do about it? Here are some possibilities: 1. Tell them not to. But how are you going to know if they are complying? A Reform government is not going to have the personnel it can trust to do this. 2. Make them fully independent. End grants, abolish student loa … | Continue reading
The instructions? “Focus on ideas, not grammar.” Reward “the use of culture, language and identity.” Embrace “linguistic diversity.” Decolonise the curriculum. “Validate diverse knowledge systems and lived experiences.” Reduce essay word counts to ease “stress.” Ditch proper exam … | Continue reading
Today please remember the victims of the Katyn Massacre. In 1940, thousands of Polish officers and intellectuals were executed by the Soviet paramilitaries. We will never let this be forgotten. | Continue reading
“Why taxes are to blame for Britain’s fly-tipping problem” is the title of an article in today’s Telegraph by Patrick Galbraith, Environment Correspondent, and Emma Taggart, Economics Reporter, both of whom have earned their job titles. The standfirst is the title of this post. “ … | Continue reading
“Comedians tell ministers lack of funding is no laughing matter”, says the BBC headline writer. Do not judge him too harshly; hanging would suffice. The article continues, Comedian Tom Walker, who portrays the fictional journalist Jonathan Pie, said the government needs to recogn … | Continue reading
J.D. Vance, who is the Vice President of the USA, goes to Hungary, an EU member state, and delivers a campaign speech for Victor Orban, the president of Hungary, in which Vance accuses the EU of… interference in Hungary’s elections. Am I the only one who finds that absolutely hil … | Continue reading
via. I,Hypocrite… suitable commentary from Café Viennois | Continue reading
It seems to me that for Iran to use the Straits to squeeze the rest of the world into acquiescing into its brutality is a ploy that brings diminishing returns. Given that oil can be piped as well as shipped via a tanker, construction of more pipelines to take the stuff – and gas … | Continue reading
[AIUI etc, etc.] In the beginning there were wireless sets. But the government worried that these could be used by spies for a foreign power. So it demanded that wireless owners took out licences. The licences were free the government just wanted to know who had a wireless. Just … | Continue reading
I know I keep droning on about drones, but this really is a paradigm shift happening in real-time. TL’DR… 100km from the FEBA is now a persistent danger zone due to the omnipresent threat of drones. Some were sceptical in an earlier post earlier when drones were credited with 7 … | Continue reading
Interesting video about evolving battlefield doctrine | Continue reading
You don’t love because: you love despite; not for the virtues, but despite the faults. – William Faulkner. It is breathtaking how much phenomenal music Jimi Hendrix squeezed into a recording career of not even four years. In addition to four authorized original albums released du … | Continue reading
The Wikipedia entry for apophasis says, As a rhetorical device, apophasis can serve several purposes. For example, It can be employed to raise an ad hominem or otherwise controversial attack while disclaiming responsibility for it, as in, “I refuse to discuss the rumor that my op … | Continue reading
Hundreds of British girls were raped by grooming gangs while Mr Blair was the prime minister. Of course, this was a more diffuse, less murderous phenomenon than October 7. But it is hard to stomach lectures about what must be done in the face of evil from someone whose government … | Continue reading
“The toughest job facing the new head of Ofcom: tackling the blatantly partisan GB News”, writes Polly Toynbee in the Guardian. She writes, Labour feels more sure-footed. A stronger sense of its own identity flows from standing up to Donald Trump, his war and his insults. MPs are … | Continue reading
The other day the Triggernometry boys sat down with a Professor Robert Pape to discuss the Iran War. Here are his main points along with my commentary: Airstrikes do not change regimes. Spot on. They don’t change their aims either. Although they may change their capabilities. The … | Continue reading
Preston Byrne (of defending Americans against Ofcom fame) has been working on a free speech bill for the UK. See also the thread on X. | Continue reading
Chris Bayliss weighs up UK energy minister Ed Milliband and this politician’s determination to press on with his decarbonisation, Net Zero agenda, facts of reality be damned: Others may argue that making reasonable concessions to public opinion at critical moments might benefit t … | Continue reading
“Never mind leading the free world, if Donald Trump were your ageing father, when would you take away his car keys?”, asks Gaby Hinsliff in the Guardian. She writes, Imagine, purely for the sake of argument, that the 61% of Americans (according to Reuters-Ipsos) who think their p … | Continue reading
Left window doesn’t know what right window is doing. | Continue reading
“Sovereignty is not merely the technical possibility of making a one‑off decision. It is the continuing ability to govern yourself: to set and revise your own rules in the light of your own needs. When you adopt the regulatory framework of a foreign power, when commercial realiti … | Continue reading
The other day I found this Swedish video giving a perspective (from around 2018) on radical feminism. Tip is to set the video to give you English subtitles if you aren’t fluent in Swedish. Assuming that it is satire, let it be put in the balance when one assesses the contribution … | Continue reading
The suffering of Gaza, the death and destruction, is undeniable. You can make a legitimate criticism of Israel’s tactics in the conduct of the war. Many Jews around the world make exactly those critiques. But you cannot engage in such criticism legitimately if you do not also con … | Continue reading
“Governments controlling prices? It has long been unthinkable – but may now be inevitable” is the headline of an article by Andy Beckett in the Guardian. He writes, Politicians are not supposed to meddle with prices. Even though much of politics is about whether voters can affor … | Continue reading
The BBC reports, UN votes to recognise enslavement of Africans as ‘gravest crime against humanity’ The United Nations General Assembly has voted to recognise the enslavement of Africans during the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity”, a move advocate … | Continue reading
“‘They singled out non-white, foreign-born workers’: the restaurants raided by Britain’s version of ICE” As you probably guessed, it’s a Guardian article. I must admit that I am not that shocked that immigration enforcement officers singled out non-white foreign-born workers. But … | Continue reading
A BBC story with that title warmed my heart. A group of villagers who fought to overturn a council’s crackdown on second home-ownership say they are “proud” of their “David and Goliath moment”. About 18 months ago, the council of Gwynedd, in north-west Wales, made what it called … | Continue reading
I missed this story when it came out a few days ago. It is still relevant. It will be relevant so long as the patterns of human behaviour observed in the Salem Witch Trials last, which is likely to be a long time. “The Met was duped by fantasist Carl Beech. A decade later, the re … | Continue reading
The Telegraph reports, Donald Trump has postponed strikes on power plants in Iran for at least five days. The US president said the two countries had entered talks on a “complete and total resolution” of hostilities. On Saturday night, Mr Trump set a deadline of 48 hours for Iran … | Continue reading
For a record number of Americans in this ever more secular era, their real religion is politics, their faith is their political ideology, and their church is their political party. This seems especially so in the most secular professions like entertainment where an unprecedented … | Continue reading
It is easy to underestimate how radical a change in strategy this is. It simply would not have been possible in previous wars. Airpower capable of striking significantly behind the front lines did not exist until World War 2. Since then, command and control structures have been t … | Continue reading
“If money is infinite, why is there poverty?” Because money isn’t wealth. It’s a claim on wealth. You can print claims. You can’t print the goods and services those claims are supposed to buy. Give everyone $10 billion and nothing gets richer. Prices just explode until that “weal … | Continue reading
I was going to say that Guido’s headline cannot be improved upon, but, on second thoughts, the headline-writer really should have mentioned that the hamster was dressed as Godzilla. Details matter. | Continue reading
Zack Polanski may be terrible at economics, but he is a great entrepreneur — a political entrepreneur, that is. The lesson from Corbynmania, the Greta Thunberg movement, BLM, Extinction Rebellion, Just Stop Oil, the gender movement and the Palestine movement is that there is a lo … | Continue reading
The Daily Sceptic features this article by Daniel Lü: “Why Using Parliament to Police MPs’ Opinions is More Dangerous Than the Opinions Themselves”. It starts, Let us be clear at the outset about what this article is not. It is not a defence of Zarah Sultana’s views. Her statemen … | Continue reading
Fewer Britons giving to charity, study says, with donations down by £1.4bn, reports the Guardian. The article gives cost of living pressure as the main reason for the decline in giving. Commenters in this thread on the UKPolitics subreddit also mention invasive chuggers and the f … | Continue reading
I have hesitated to post much about Ukraine lately as reliable information is hard to come by. However, the Telegram channels I have long watched on both sides, and and personal contacts I have, are awash with similar reports from their own sources. Make of this what you will. | Continue reading
This letter appeared in today’s Guardian: What needs to be spelled out to the politicians looking to consult people about digital ID is that you cannot have a universal digital anything until you have universal phone coverage (UK digital ID scheme to have limited use before next … | Continue reading
The Daily Mail features this story about a pro-Palestinian activist: Thomas Bourne, 39, an Islamic convert who uses the social media handle ‘White British Muslim’, approached the Jewish comedian, 51, last month after spotting him on an escalator. He said: ‘I was going up the esc … | Continue reading
Due to waves of (mostly) Russian spam hitting our server, the Samizdata SmiteBot is has been grumpy for several days now beyond my ability to manually intervene every time. This means it has been shooting on sight (or maybe on site) & asking questions later. If your comment vanis … | Continue reading
Ill fares the land. Ominous tidings abound, such as MPs giving ministers powers to restrict the entire internet, World War III breaking out, and Winston Churchill being replaced by a badger. But who could fail to feel hope stir in their bosom when the headline “Zack Polanski repe … | Continue reading
Brian Micklethwait’s blogs fell off the internet a while back for reasons not entirely clear. Some of them I had scraped, and have now republished on the Brian Micklethwait Archive site. For now we have: Culture Blog – January 2003 to October 2005 Old Education blog – July 2002 t … | Continue reading
A blog for people with a critically rational individualist perspective | Continue reading
The response to the Iran-Hezbollah drone attack on Britain’s Royal Air Force Base in Cyprus earlier this month has been revealing. For the first time since 1980, Britain had no warships in the eastern Mediterranean or the Gulf. Air defences were effectively absent. The UK’s main … | Continue reading
Analysis by Perun is always interesting… | Continue reading
The truth of course is that ‘Net Zero’ is an article of faith. A state religion masquerading as a moral crusade despite the evidence it is expensive, ineffective, and generally regressive. Low carbon subsidies transfer wealth from the general population to landowners and corpora … | Continue reading
Maybe I imagined it. I thought I saw the first few seconds of a scary video, either put out by the Home Office “Prevent” scheme or by some NGO with a similar remit. The video featured a teenage actor – white and male, obviously – portraying a boy lamenting that he had got a crim … | Continue reading