Must annoy those who contribute

BBC stars handed bumper pay rises for podcasts

Laura Kuenssberg and Nick Robinson pocketed some of the BBC’s biggest pay rises last year thanks to podcasting and other BBC sidelines.

Robinson’s annual salary was £410,000-£414,999, making him the corporation’s highest-paid journalist.

The rise from £345,000-£349,999 in the previous financial year was thanks to his weekly hosting of The Today Podcast, plus his interviews with party leaders during the general election. This comes on top of his main role hosting Radio 4’s Today programme.


It can be useful to describe BBC journalists as instructors rather than journalists. From this perspective they instruct viewers on what to notice and what to ignore, how to think about those things they notice and how to discuss them socially.

He allotted a salary from his own funds to the two instructors, a salary twice as large as their meagre official salary, and one day he said to some one who expressed surprise, "The two prime functionaries of the state are the nurse and the schoolmaster."

Victor Hugo - Les Misérables (1862)

The Howell Effect

Drought declared in the Midlands - as people are urged to 'use water wisely'

Drought has been declared in the West and East Midlands, with dry weather continuing to "impact water resources across England".

The Environment Agency said the National Drought Group (NDG) had stepped up its operational response and "asks people to play their part in managing the drought and use water wisely".


It's been raining for hours in our corner of Derbyshire. Not that one wet day will fill the reservoirs, but it's an entertaining reminder of Denis Howell's role as Minister for Drought in 1976 and the heavy rainfall which occurred a few days after his appointment.

A shriek in the supermarket

A shrieking child in the supermarket - familiar enough to all so there is no point paying much attention to it, but it does raise the issue of how long it can take to come down from an emotional outburst.

Worth pondering because there are adults who also take too long to come down from an emotional outburst even though they don’t fill a supermarket with unappeasable shrieks. At a quieter level though – that may be just what they do and it may go on for much longer than the shrieking child.

If we go off at a tangent to this problem of not letting go, then we come across another familiar type of behaviour. We come across people who can’t let go of a weak argument, dubious standpoint, misplaced loyalty or even a factual inaccuracy. It can be emotionally disturbing to let go in such cases. There are no shrieks in the supermarket, but it can seem undignified.

Yet if enough members of the same social class share the same dubious standpoint, the same loyalties and even the same factual inaccuracy, then no dignity is lost by holding onto it. Being wrong can be the dignified standpoint. Even a pompous idiot can be dignified in these circumstances. There is such a thing as dignified idiocy, as Dickens frequently highlighted.


Mr Podsnap, as a representative man, is not alone in caring very particularly for his own dignity, if not for that of his acquaintances, and therefore in angrily supporting the acquaintances who have taken out his Permit, lest, in their being lessened, he should be.

Charles Dickens - Our Mutual Friend (1864–1865)

Oh dear

OPEC bans media outlets accused of advocating transition to “a net-zero economy”

The Oil-price outlet is reporting that OPEC has refused accreditation for Reuters, Bloomberg, the New York Times, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal for its meeting in Vienna, which is taking place this week.

“We believe that transparency and a free press serve readers, markets, and the public interest, and we object to this restriction on coverage,” Bloomberg quoted a Reuters spokesman as saying, adding that it had been given no explanation by OPEC for the decision to refuse it accreditation.

"We believe that transparency and a free press..." 

As long as it allows the one-sided advocacy of expensively fashionable politics our social class supports.

Lord Ridley v the 'Experts'

 

Under threat

‘Extreme’ heat and rainfall is becoming the new normal in the UK, says Met Office

The Met Office has warned that extremes of heat and rainfall are becoming the normal as the climate continues to warm in the UK.

The latest state of the UK climate report, published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology, shows the impact of human-caused global warming on the UK’s weather, seas, people and wildlife...

The Energy Secretary called the findings “a stark warning” to take action on climate and nature.

“Our British way of life is under threat,” Mr Miliband told the PA news agency.


No it's not a stark warning, nobody thinks it is a stark warning, or even a warning. Only a few loons believe that. 

As for "the new normal", it seems to be a constant stream of low grade official propaganda, but this particular blob of drivel comes across to this observer as transparent distraction politics. 

“Our British way of life,” began fading away some time ago under the influence of a range of pressures, including persistent government incompetence, overspending, mendacity, fashionable ideology, ignorance and neglect. One of those pressures on “our British way of life” comes in the shape of Edward Samuel Miliband, but there are many others.

It's desperate stuff though, trying to distract voters from the unlovely mess by pointing a flaky finger at what on the whole is better weather plus a few extremes we've always had to deal with, even if dealing with them via arm-waving has become the new normal.

Two Tier Fairness

Tax 'fairness' comment is latest hint from government increases could be on way at next budget

Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was asked if Sir Keir Starmer and the rest of the cabinet had discussed hiking taxes in the wake of the government's failed welfare reforms, which were shot down by their own MPs...

Ms Alexander said she wouldn't comment directly on taxes and the budget at this point, adding: "So, the chancellor will set her budget. I'm not going to sit in a TV studio today and speculate on what the contents of that budget might be.

"When it comes to taxation, fairness is going to be our guiding principle."


Labour to spend millions on electric car handouts

Labour will unveil £700 million of taxpayer-funded subsidies to encourage the public to buy more electric vehicles (EVs).

Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, will this week announce grants for drivers to help cover the cost of a new EV, as well as more cash for charging points.


To be fair, it's worth adding that two tier fairness is a key point of socialism.

Unlocking

'New beginning' for Peak District landmark after major windfall

A popular Derbyshire landmark in the heart of the county is looking forward to a 'new beginning' after scoring a huge grant. Cromford Mill's Arkwright Society has announced that the site has secured £1.3 million in "vital" funding from the National Lottery's Heritage Fund that will allow a "once-in-a-generation" project to take place.

Éilis Scott, chief executive of the Arkwright Society -

"Restoring our vacant historic industrial buildings is about unlocking new opportunities, sparking innovation, and using the stories of creativity and enterprise to inspire. Cromford Mills is for everyone, whether you work here, volunteer or visit. But keeping the mill gates open isn’t easy. Continued support is vital to conserve these buildings and ensure they remain open, welcoming and full of life - relevant for today and for generations to come.”

Whenever anything is being promoted, it's remarkable how the same words tend to be used over and over again, like an outline script where the subject can be filled in later. For example, there is a lot of 'unlocking' going on at the moment and it's not necessarily a good thing. 

Unlocking billions in private capital to tackle climate change

The UK’s International Climate Finance (ICF) mobilises billions in public and private funding for clean energy projects in developing countries.

Reeves plots

Reeves plots £1.7bn tax on businesses

Rachel Reeves is plotting a £1.7 billion tax raid in the autumn which retailers have warned will accelerate the decline of high streets.


Is this Britain's most depressing ghost town?

Nowhere sums up the decline of the British high street quite as graphically as Burslem.

Once a thriving, mega-rich market town, it is now so dominated by boarded-up buildings that there seem to be more empty storefronts than occupied ones.

Breaking the away day curse

Starmer aims to break cabinet away day curse

Sir Keir Starmer was hoping to break the curse of the cabinet away day as he summoned his ministers to Chequers for the launch of a summer "refresh" of his troubled government.

The aim: to plot a course for a recovery during Labour's second year in power after a first 12 months blighted by economic woes, rows over freebies, humiliating U-turns and rebellions.

In the past, the away day rules from the No 10 high command have included no woolly jumpers and no sandwiches. This time, the rule to ministers was: "Don't call it a reset."


Lifting the curse is simple.

An away day is far too short.

An away year would lift the curse.

Privilege denied

Donald Trump may be denied privilege of addressing parliament on UK state visit

The fact that that parliament isn't sitting for much of September could help resolve a potentially awkward issue.

Donald Trump may be denied the honour of addressing parliament on his state visit to the UK later this year, with no formal request yet submitted for him to be given that privilege.


Strewth, the transparent language they use to spin their nonsense.

Whatever privilege there is will occur if one or two of the failures, grifters, loons, charlatans, dullards, professional whiners, creeps and deranged ideologues were to learn a lasting lesson about leadership and realpolitik.

Won't happen.

Net Zero Won't Fix This

Inside London’s school closures crisis as more than 30 primaries set to shut or merge within weeks

London is one of the busiest cities in the world. A major global metropolis home to nearly nine million people, with 22.7 per cent of those people under the age of 18, according to the most recent census data. And yet, many of the city’s primary school children have only a handful of classmates.

An investigation by the Standard has found that at least 30 primary schools could shut or merge across the capital by the end of the academic year, with politicians warning that the problem “is only going to get worse” as families continue to be driven out of the city...

Last September, the Education Policy Institute predicted that there would be another drop of around 52,000 primary school-aged children in London by 2028. In Lambeth alone, there are nearly 1,000 fewer children in local primary schools compared to 10 years ago, council figures show. Over in Wandsworth, as few as eight children have been turning up to start reception in some schools last year.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, the issue has become so bad that the maternity unit at one of the capital’s biggest hospitals, the Royal Free Hospital in north London, was forced to close due to falling birth rates.

You fellows are all doomed

Heat deaths in England and Wales could surge 50-fold, study warns

It comes as areas of the UK face another heatwave, with temperatures over the next few days forecast to be above average and exceed 30C (86F) for many.

Annual heat-related deaths might climb into the tens of thousands in the coming decades, according to research by University College London (UCL) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

They say today's baseline figure of 634 heat deaths a year could hit 10,317 in the 2050s and, in a worst-case scenario, 34,027 in the 2070s.


“Nothing can be more certain,” he continued, “if corn con­tinues to be imported from America, in a hundred years from now there won’t be a single peasant left in all France. Do you think that our land can contend with yonder one? Long before we have had time to put these new plans in practice, the foreigners will have inundated us with grain. I have read a book which tells all about it. You fellows are all doomed—”

Emile Zola - La Terre (1887)

England's worst motorway

England's worst motorway revealed as 193-miles road used by thousands every day tops the list

England's worst motorway has been revealed in a new survey which also finds that overall driver satisfaction has declined over the last year.

The M1 is officially the country's least-favourite motorway, with just 57 per cent of drivers satisfied with their journey on the road.

Perhaps the M1 was an early example of turbocharging.

Cheerleaders for the ECHR

Joseph Dinnage has a useful CAPX piece on the history of the EHCR and how it has been sold to us.


Churchill would be no cheerleader for the modern ECHR

• Our continued membership of the ECHR is based on historical lies
• The idea that Britain would slide into despotism if we left the ECHR is for the birds
• We have arrived at a constitutional crossroads – let's choose parliamentary sovereignty

We have much to thank Winston Churchill for. Not only did he save us from fascist tyranny, but evoking his memory now is always guaranteed to incense left-wingers. One thing you might never have thought of crediting Churchill for, however, is laying the foundations for the creation, and our membership of, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Yet according to a version of history told by those who view our membership of the ECHR positively – including Keir Starmer and his Attorney General Richard Hermer – Churchill was a huge fan, and that means we should be too. The story goes that Churchill, embodying the nation’s trauma following the Second World War, advocated for a supranational ‘Charter of Human Rights’, to be enforced by a European court, to ensure that future atrocities do not go unpunished. After the ECHR was formed in 1950, Clement Attlee ratified it into British law.

Yet as a Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) report authored by Peter Lilley points out, this amounts to a creation myth. In actuality, concerns about the body’s potential for judicial overreach were voiced from the start.

The whole piece is well worth reading as yet another example of institutional decline. 

As Dinnage says, there is no reason to think that we would slide into despotism if we left the ECHR. We might add to that and suggest that membership of the ECHR is one of the factors contributing to the slide.

Dull platitudes nobody takes seriously

Starmer pins hopes on summer ‘refresh’

Sir Keir Starmer is hoping to get his premiership back on track with a summer “refresh” after weeks of setbacks and controversies...

Labour sources said the conference would be a good moment to finish the “refresh” and that Sir Keir would give the party faithful new promises on the theme of “national renewal”.

The Prime Minister’s plan for office has been modelled on his approach to leading Labour in opposition, when he ran a three-stage process to “detoxify” the party, attack the Tories and set out an alternative plan.

Now, his process involves “rebuilding” after 14 years of the Conservatives in power, setting out a vision of “renewal” for the remainder of the Parliament, and offering voters something more in a second term.


By gum, Keir Starmer is a dreary, dreary Prime Minister. To describe him as a grey, unimaginative dullard would be far too lively and colourful. 

Sadly there seems to be no indication whatever that he will ever, under any circumstances, relinquish his iron grip on dull platitudes nobody takes seriously.

All scenarios

EU working closely to get trade deal with US, ready for all scenarios, von der Leyen says

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union is working closely with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to reach a trade deal, but Brussels is getting ready for all scenarios, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

"We stick to our principles, we defend our interests, we continue to work in good faith, and we get ready for all scenarios," von der Leyen told the European Parliament.

European Parliament official: ‘EU in the dark’ on US trade requirements

The European Union still did not understand what the US wants on trade, European Parliament trade committee chair Bernd Lange told journalists.

His comments came on July 9 – the day the three-month pause on 50 per cent “reciprocal” tariffs imposed by the US on April 2 was supposed to end – and a day after Washington’s last-minute extension.

The EU’s own retaliatory measures were scheduled to “automatically” take effect on July 14 if no agreement was reached.

Misplaced Respect

More than three out of five people think Starmer does not respect them – poll

While in opposition, Sir Keir sought to make the concept of “respect” central to his pitch to voters, and research from UCL suggested this played a key role in convincing the public to back him and the Labour Party.

But a survey from More In Common and the UCL Policy Lab, published on Tuesday, suggested 63% of the public now thought the Prime Minister did not respect people like them, almost twice the 32% that thought so before the 2024 election.

And while 41% of the public thought Sir Keir did respect them before the election, that figure has fallen to 24%.


24% think Starmer respects them? Good grief.

You find no difficulty in tolerating him then? - you have a respect for a political platitudinarian as insensible as an ox to everything he can't turn into political capital. You think his monumental obtuseness suited to the dignity of the English gentleman.

George Eliot - Daniel Deronda (1876)

Oikophobia

 

Households urged

Households urged to avoid drying clothes on washing lines from Tuesday

UK households are being warned against drying clothes on washing lines from Tuesday as another heatwave hits the nation.

While the balmy summer months may seem perfect for airing your laundry outdoors, it could actually cause more harm than good if you're unlucky enough to be a hay fever sufferer. Hay fever season begins in late March and lasts until September, with different types of pollen released throughout this period.


Blimey - households urged indeed. They make up some rubbish these legacy media outfits. This time it's the dear old Daily Mirror trying to spin a story from hay fever, fine weather and hanging out the washing.

What a job. What a daft old rag... 

I wonder how many Cabinet members read the Mirror these days? 

One for the diary

Every mobile phone to receive emergency alert: When it will happen - and what it will say

Mobile phones in the UK will be sent an emergency alert as the government tests the nationwide system for the second time. Here is what you need to know.

The test is due to happen at 3pm on Sunday 7 September.

Phones will vibrate and emit a loud siren sound for roughly 10 seconds, even if they are set to silent.

Not mine matey.

Mess

Obama warned Biden aides his presidential campaign was a ‘mess’

Barack Obama warned Joe Biden’s senior staff “your campaign is a mess” a year before the 2024 presidential election, according to a new book...

Mr Obama is said to have also raised concerns over his former vice-president’s strategy seven months before the Atlanta debate.


There's a reason for the mess, it wasn't the campaign and it wasn't strategy, it was the candidate and the whole world knows it. 

And yet... 

The mind still boggles at what Team Biden thought it was doing -

Mr Biden was also urged to take part in the disastrous early debate against Mr Trump by his aides, according to a memo obtained by the book’s authors.

“The earlier you are able to debate the better, so that the American people can see you standing next to Trump and showing the strength of your leadership, compared to Trump’s weakness and chaos,” the senior advisers wrote in an April 15 memo published by Politico.

The Ugly Truth About Greece

Eleni Papadimitriou has a powerful FSB piece on the unresolved debacle that is Greek membership of the EU and the eurozone.

 
The Ugly Truth About Greece — By A Greek

Betrayed by Europe: How the EU and Germany Reduced Greece to a Colony — and Left Us to Rot

Once, I believed in the European dream. I was proud when Greece joined the European Union. I believed the EU was about solidarity, shared prosperity, and mutual respect. I believed we were equals in a family of nations.

But after everything we've endured these past 17 years, the lies, the humiliation, the exploitation, I can no longer cling to those illusions. The European dream? For Greeks, it has become a living nightmare.


The whole piece is well worth reading as an example of EU failure to live up to its own inclusive rhetoric.


Last month, I listened carefully to an economic presentation by Dr. Kosmas Marinakis and Achilleas Mantes. I wasn't surprised by what they said. Every average Greek citizen already feels it in their bones, but hearing the hard, cold numbers only confirmed what we all know: Greece is a country in decline, gutted by so-called "European solidarity" and stripped bare by the ruthless economic machine led by Germany.

Marinakis and Mantes laid it out with brutal honesty: while even the poorest countries in Eastern Europe, Romania, Hungary, Estonia, are catching up to European standards, Greece is drifting further away. Our debt remains monstrous. Our so-called "economic growth" is nothing but inflated numbers, driven by rising prices, not real progress.

I don't need economists to tell me that. I see it every time I go to the supermarket. I feel it when I fill my car with fuel. My neighbours know it when they open their electricity bills or try to pay rent. Our wages are frozen in time, but the cost of living is exploding.

We were promised prosperity under the euro. Instead, we got poverty, unemployment, and hopelessness. And the young? They flee. There are no real jobs here. Engineers serve coffee. Architects drive taxis. Graduates emigrate. The "lost generation" isn't a phrase from a research paper, it's our reality.

Critical details

AI chatbots oversimplify scientific studies and gloss over critical details — the newest models are especially guilty

Large language models (LLMs) are becoming less "intelligent" in each new version as they oversimplify and, in some cases, misrepresent important scientific and medical findings, a new study has found.

Scientists discovered that versions of ChatGPT, Llama and DeepSeek were five times more likely to oversimplify scientific findings than human experts in an analysis of 4,900 summaries of research papers.


Hmm - there is another critical detail worth adding, a different kind of detail but still critical. Governments, politicians, major bureaucracies, major charities, pundits, assorted grifters and the mainstream media also oversimplify and, in some cases, misrepresent important scientific and medical findings.

It is not easy to imagine AI systems making the situation worse than it is already.

Of course, the critical question here is one of power - the question of who controls the oversimplification and misrepresentation. 

The Dastardly Duo

Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana so useless they've already made pig's ear of new venture

I see politics' two biggest nitwits, Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana, have decided to form their own party after alienating almost all of their former Labour colleagues. And how typical of this dastardly duo - they've already managed to make a pig's ear of it. Left-wing zealot Sultana, who was suspended by Labour last summer for voting against the Government in an opposition attempt to lift the two-child benefit cap, announced her intention to co-lead a new national party with Corbyn on Thursday.

But - and this is a biggie - she appears to have forgotten to tell the ex-Labour leader - leaving him utterly blindsided. No wonder he was said to be "furious and bewildered". When he finally took to X, formerly Twitter, 24 hours later to acknowledge Sultana's statement, he had little to say aside from noting her "principled decision" to leave Labour (utter tosh) and her ability to "help us build a real alternative" (what does this even mean?)

Anyone with a sense of fun must hope this is true and she really did forget to tell him. 

Maybe we'll soon discover the name of the new party, although presumably Zarah would have to tell Jeremy before she announces it.  

Starmer endorses

Starmer endorses UN’s high-tax manifesto

Labour has paved the way for higher taxes on the wealthy, alcohol and fossil fuels by signing Britain up to a new United Nations pact.

Ministers have endorsed the global agreement, which calls for greater environmental levies and “gender-responsive taxation”.

The UK’s participation represents another break with Donald Trump, who pulled the US out of the deal over concerns about its provisions on tax...

Gareth Davies, the shadow Treasury minister, accused Labour of “outsourcing tax policy to organisations that don’t reflect the priorities of the British people”.

“People want to see their taxes reduced and simplified, not increased and complicated to fund vacuous virtue signalling by global elites,” he said.


Er - yes Gareth - been going on for a long time - Tories, Labour, Lib Dem...

Starmer would endorse it, unlike Trump he's incapable of not endorsing it and no doubt Rishi Sunak would have endorsed it too. 

It's useful to look at it that way round, in terms of conditioning. From what we have available to us in the public domain, Starmer's adult life seems to have conditioned him to endorse this kind of legal and bureaucratic expansion by the UN. He won't have analysed it dispassionately because he can't.

Analysing it from the perspective of a UK Prime Minister and the interests of the people he supposedly represents is not something Starmer can do. From one perspective it's because he doesn't want to, from another perspective it's because he can't - but it's the same thing. 

Starmer is incapable of being the UK Prime Minister, he's a member of the global nomenklatura, joined the party years ago.

 

Astute

David Lammy deploys army of top diplomats to kickstart economic growth and combat impact of Trump tariffs

David Lammy has brought a team of Britain’s elite diplomats home in a bid to finally kickstart economic growth and combat the global impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Senior ambassadors and high commissioners have come back to the UK to take part in a roadshow around the country to encourage businesses to export more and link up with the countries they are posted in.

It comes as the E-Commerce Trade Commission recently reported that 70,000 businesses in Britain which are ready to export are still not exporting.

If 70,000 businesses in Britain which are ready to export are still not exporting, then sooner or later a radical MP may well suggest fining them. That's how astute they are. 

Fordow Assessment

 

Blairism with a smartphone

Kristian Niemietz has a very interesting CAPX piece on the close similarities between the Starmer government's 10-year plan for the NHS and a plan from the Blair years 25 years ago.


Labour’s NHS plan is just reheated Blairism

• The Government's 10-year plan for the NHS is almost identical to a document from 25 years ago
• Keeping up with developments in healthcare policy is like watching Groundhog Day
• Revitalising old agendas for reform will never sort out the issues facing the NHS

Yesterday, the Government published its policy paper ‘Fit For The Future: 10 Year Health Plan for England‘, which announced:

[I]nvestment has to be accompanied by reform. The NHS has to be redesigned around the needs of the patient. Local hospitals cannot be run from Whitehall. There will be a new relationship between the Department of Health and the NHS […]

The principles of subsidiarity will apply. A new system of earned autonomy will devolve power from the centre to the local health service as modernisation takes hold. […]

A Modernisation Agency will be set up to spread best practice. Local NHS organisations that perform well for patients will get more freedom to run their own affairs.

Or actually, it didn’t. That quote is from ‘The NHS Plan: A plan for investment. A plan for reform‘, published almost exactly 25 years ago today, during Tony Blair’s first term.


The whole piece is well worth reading as another indication that reforming the NHS has never been on any political agenda. Tinkering yes, reform no. Politicians still rely on technology and bombastic rhetoric to supply something they can sell as progress - smartphones in this case.


There are good things in the plan, even if they are not genuinely novel. The NHS App, which was useful enough during the pandemic, has largely been lying dormant since, because there was not much that one could do with it. The 10-year plan wants to add extra functions to the app, so that it becomes a tool for conveniently choosing healthcare providers, and a source of information about them. NHS Trusts will be given greater autonomy over their budgets, and payment formulas will be changed, to strengthen the principle that the money follows the patient. When patients are strongly dissatisfied with the care they receive, it will even be possible to withhold a part of the payment from the provider. These are all sensible extensions of Blair-era reforms.

And that is, perhaps, the most generous reading of ‘Fit For The Future’: it is a revitalisation of an earlier reform agenda, combined with some evergreen topics that, within the current system, never truly get sorted out.

In the current context, this is probably as good as it gets. But it comes nowhere near justifying the Government’s bombastic rhetoric of ‘transformational change’ or a ‘break with the past’. It is Blairism with a smartphone, nothing more, nothing less.

OCD Gardening

Ed Miliband now wants Brits to put wind turbines in their gardens

The Government has unveiled its plan to almost double onshore wind across England by 2030. Ministers want to expand the country's onshore wind capacity from 14.8GW to up to 29GW by the end of the decade.

It forms part of wider Government ambitions to transition towards a clean power system by 2030 in a bid to slash the UK's reliance on foreign gas and cut bills. But the Conservatives have slammed the strategy by accusing Energy Secretary Ed Miliband of making the country's energy "unreliable and expensive" through his "obsession with climate targets"

Mr Miliband's new plan will also make it simpler for Britons to install wind turbines in their back gardens, it has been reported. Planning rules on the building of wind turbines on residential land could be relaxed once a consultation has finished.


Eddy, Eddy, quite unsteady,
How does your garden grow?
With soaring bills and crooked shills
And nutty plans all in a row.
 

Source - but not quite

Managed decline and broken promises

Ex-Labour MP Sultana says she will set up new party with Jeremy Corbyn

A former Labour MP has said that she will set up a new party with Jeremy Corbyn.

Zarah Sultana – who had the Labour whip suspended last year – said she was resigning from Sir Keir Starmer’s party and would “co-lead the founding of a new party” with the ex-Labour leader.

In a statement posted on X, Ms Sultana, who represents Coventry South, said that the project would also involve “other independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country”.

She said that “Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper” and the “two-party system offers nothing but managed decline and broken promises”.


Forming political parties has become very popular, but presumably Corbyn and Sultana aim to offer something different to "managed decline and broken promises." Hmm...

It may be an unfortunately obvious comment, but the best those two could offer is mismanaged decline and broken promises. 

Or worse.

Yes, probably worse.

The reckoning has arrived

Damian Pudner has an interesting and topical CAPX piece on the continuing disaster that is the Starmer Reeves duo.


Rachel Reeves is finished, and Keir Starmer is exposed

• Labour’s economic strategy was a mirage – now it is unravelling in real time
• The idea that Reeves can now deliver a politically tolerable Autumn Budget is laughable
• The Chancellor is discovering that tone is not policy, and style is not substance

It’s not yet official, but the markets have already passed their verdict. Gilt yields surged again yesterday – with ten-year rates brushing 4.68% – as investors digested yet another fiscal U-turn and a visibly shaken Chancellor. The message could not be clearer: there is no plan, no discipline and no credibility left. The much vaunted £10 billion in fiscal ‘headroom’ has been squandered. Growth remains anaemic, and Britain’s mounting debt burden is once again in the crosshairs. Rachel Reeves may still occupy the Treasury – but politically, she is done.


The whole piece may be familiar ground but is well worth reading. In Starmer and Reeves, we see not only political failure, but also the failure of narrative politics.

A political narrative for voters to swallow isn't enough. Maybe it was in the past when the government machine was less inefficient, corrupt and self-serving, but it isn't enough now. As Pudner says, the age of cost-free politics is over, the reckoning has arrived. It has arrived for voters too. 
.

The problem is not that Reeves is uniquely incompetent. She isn’t. The problem is that Labour’s entire economic strategy was a mirage, a carefully choreographed illusion of stability that collapsed in contact with reality. Now it is unravelling in real time.

And Starmer? He cannot escape the fallout. Whether Reeves is sacked before or after the Budget, it will be under a Prime Minister who pledged not to raise taxes on ordinary people – and who now must oversee exactly that.

The age of cost-free politics is over. The reckoning has arrived. And despite all the promises, it will be Labour that delivers it.

Reeves is finished. Starmer is exposed. And both voters – and markets – are watching.

Leisurely Ousting

Sir Keir Starmer could be ousted as PM within months, two senior Labour MPs tell Sky News

Sky News' deputy political editor Sam Coates said his sources - a member of the government and a prominent politician - have "put Sir Keir Starmer on notice".

Both warned that, if Labour performs badly in next May's elections across Wales, Scotland and London, it could mark the end of his time in Downing Street.

It sounds as if they don't have anyone else and they know it. The Labour HoC majority is too large, it has too many destructive ideologues and net zero collective competence. 

Shoe Shop

I like nutty comedy and this is surely nutty comedy at its nuttiest.

Oh dear, it's "full backing" time

Rachel Reeves in tears at PMQs as Keir Starmer refuses to confirm she'll remain Chancellor after benefits cuts chaos

Rachel Reeves was seen with a tear rolling down her cheek in the Commons as the Prime Minister refused to guarantee she would remain in her job until the next election.

The Chancellor appeared visibly upset while sat next to Sir Keir Starmer as he faced a grilling over the chaos of Tuesday night’s benefits cuts vote.

Following Prime Minister’s Questions, Downing Street insisted that Ms Reeves “is going nowhere” and has Sir Keir’s "full backing".

Flagging

Controversial new council flag protocol approved across West Northamptonshire despite councillors labelling it ‘ridiculous’ and ‘divisive’

The protocol, which states only the Union, St George, St Crispin, the council’s own, armed forces and remembrance flags will be flown outside buildings, was approved at a full council meeting on June 26.

During the meeting at The Guildhall, there was heated discussion about the policy, with councillors raising concerns about not flying community flags such as the pride flag, the Windrush flag and others.

As well as those reported via the link, it's mildly entertaining to imagine the likely standard of other arguments used to promote that "heated discussion" by fans of "community flags." It sounds as if at least one Councillor found it all rather tedious -

Cllr Hastie said: “By adopting this policy we protect the integrity of our institutions and ensure that the council speaks for everyone, not just some.

“Lets be honest, if we tried to please everyone by flying every flag, eventually we are going to need a bigger roof.”

Behind the silk robes

Tom Armstrong has a fine, vituperative piece on Keir Starmer's globalist pal, Lord Hermer.

Lord Hermer: The Globalist Fanatic at the Heart of Britain’s Two-Tier Justice Scandal

I was thinking of writing a piece on how all the senior members of this grievous government are weirdos, cranks, fanatics, and halfwits who hate their own country and are doing their damnedest to destroy it. But to do each of them justice, this article would need to be five times longer than it is, so I thought I’d settle on one to use as an example. Obviously, my mind first settled on Mad Ed Miliband, but I decided that he’s too far-fetched and therefore too easy a target. And so I settled on one, just as damaging, but who until recently had kept below my radar. Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, I give you Richard Simon Hermer, the barmy baron battling to bash Britain back to the bone age.

There is, of course, a long tradition of arrogant government ministers exposing their ignorance and contempt for the people in spectacular fashion while thinking that they cannot possibly be wrong about anything. But fierce as the competition is, few come close to Lord Richard Hermer KC, the UK’s Attorney General, especially in terms of sheer, dangerous ideological zealotry.


The whole piece is well worth reading as an excellent example of how much well-deserved contempt Those Who Know Best have earned for themselves. 


Hermer isn't just another inexperienced technocrat parachuted into high office. He is a walking embodiment of the worst traits of Britain's legal-activist class: globalist in worldview, obsessed with supranational legal structures, hostile to British sovereignty, and utterly contemptuous of ordinary Britons who dare to challenge the system.

Behind his silk robes and courtroom credentials lies a far-left ideologue who treats his supposedly impartial office as a political pulpit to preach a doctrine of globalist subservience, anti-British hysteria, and a justice system weaponised for ideological ends.

Good Advice

 

Tiny Target

Starmer’s authority under fire as Labour MPs threaten biggest revolt yet in crunch vote on benefit reforms

Sir Keir Starmer was scrambling to limit the size of a Labour revolt over welfare reforms which was threatening to be the biggest yet of his year-long premiership.

Cabinet ministers were holding talks with potential rebels to try to persuade them to back the Government or at least abstain in a crunch Commons vote on Tuesday evening.

But dozens of Labour MPs were expected to still refuse to back the controversial shake-up of the benefits system, despite a series of concessions having already been made.


Starmer's authority under fire? Whatever his "authority" is supposed to be, it's surely a tiny target by now. Impossible to hit some might say, as it seems to have disappeared down the bureaucratic toilet some time ago.

Good grief, what a rabble they are.

Dazzling

Carl Deconinck has a Brussels Signal piece on the dazzling success of a solar panel park.

Dazzling solar panels blind pilots during approach to Schiphol airport

A solar panel park near Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport is posing a serious safety risk and disrupting air traffic, according to airport authorities.

The panels reflect sunlight so strongly that pilots are being blinded during critical flight phases. Schiphol has called the situation an “unacceptable risk to safety.”

The airport estimates potential damages could reach up to €300 million.

Swamp Soccer

 

Chants

Wes Streeting says chants of ‘death to the IDF’ at Glastonbury were ‘appalling’

Wes Streeting has said chants of “death” to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) at Glastonbury were “appalling” and that the BBC and festival have “questions to answer”.

Rapper Bobby Vylan, of rap punk duo Bob Vylan, on Saturday led crowds on the festival’s West Holts Stage in chants of “Free, free Palestine” and “Death, death to the IDF”, before a member of Irish rap trio Kneecap suggested fans “start a riot” at his bandmate’s forthcoming court appearance.

To this observer, the most striking aspects of the chants is that they are weak. Coming from the safety of a heavily guarded music concert they display weakness as few other antics could. The IDF is not weak, chanted opposition from over 2000 miles away is.

Perhaps we are moving into an era where it is no longer cool to be shrill, outraged and weak, especially at a secure distance from the strong. It displays too much.

Plan 10 from Outer Space

Supermarkets told to cut shoppers' calories in obesity crackdown

As part of a government initiative aimed at taking some pressure off the NHS, food retailers and manufacturers will "make the healthy choice the easy choice" for customers in a country with the third highest adult obesity levels in Europe.

Supermarkets will be required to report sales data and those that fail to hit targets could face financial penalties, Nesta, the innovation agency which initially developed the policy, suggested...

The new scheme, announced on Sunday by the Department for Health and Social Care, is part of the forthcoming 10 Year Health Plan, through which the government is seeking to shift from sickness to prevention to alleviate the burden on the NHS.

A chap is bound to wonder about the level of enthusiasm behind the 10 Year Health Plan. It's one of those notions where a fly on the wall could tell us a great deal about the attitudes of those who sat round a table and formulated it. Were they as keen as low-calorie mustard?

Were they enthused with their mission? Did they crack a few jokes at the first meeting to break the proverbial ice? Did they offer disparaging anecdotes about people they had seen in supermarkets and their awful diet as revealed by the contents of their shopping baskets? Concerned, caring anecdotes of course.

The electric toothbrush maze

Mrs H and I recently entered the electric toothbrush maze again after the toothbrush  Mrs H used lost its ability to charge and mine seemed to be vibrating enough to endanger those precious teeth I still have.

After an unwise pair of replacements with three speeds and a handle which became too slippery to hold if wet, we ended up with the simplest single speed electric toothbrushes we could find. They work well too.

One aspect of the electric toothbrush maze which surprised me was the availability of toothbrushes which  link to an app on your phone. I may be one of the few people in the UK who didn't know this, but a chap is bound to ask - what next? Electric toothbrushes with Artificial Intelligence? Probably available already. 

Oh well, Net Zero will probably take us back to the days of twigs and soot.

Carry On at Your Convenience

NHS sees patients as an inconvenience, says new boss

The NHS sees patients as an “inconvenience” and has “built mechanisms to keep them away”, its new boss has said.

Sir Jim Mackey said the health service was too often “deaf” to criticism, “wasted a lot of money” and deployed far too many “fossilised” ways of working that had not changed since its foundation in 1948.

In his first interview since becoming head of the NHS, Sir Jim told The Telegraph the health service had “made it really hard” for patients to get the care they needed.

Easy diagnosis, but let's see how treatment goes under a Labour government...

Take three Targets every day...

Forever

The Malaise Spreads

BRICS scientists want climate network created

A forum of Academies of Science of the BRICS bloc in Rio de Janeiro issued a declaration this week proposing the creation of a network of member countries to implement climate solutions, focusing on energy transition technologies and the development of joint artificial intelligence programs...

BRICS now includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—the original members that gave the bloc its name—as well as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Iran. Associate members participating in joint discussions include Belarus, Bolivia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Uganda, and Uzbekistan.

The malaise is of course bureaucracy. 

Bureaucrats do bureaucracy, and clearly BRICS bureaucrats do not intend to be left on the side-lines doing boring stuff such as education, road maintenance and the lowly tedium of value for money.   

Trust me

Bosses hit out at PM's 'nonsense' that Labour had 'stabilised the economy'

Business leaders last night rounded on the Prime Minister over his claim that he is backing them ‘to the hilt’ as grim figures laid bare the pressures firms face...

Starmer told the conference: ‘We’ve stabilised the economy, and now we can go on to the next phase of government, building on that foundation, building a future of renewal that you can feel.

'And that means, of course, that we have to back you to the hilt – trust me, I’m fighting for you.’

The problem we face is that the headline is right, Starmer does talk nonsense.

The other problem we face is that his eventual replacement will talk nonsense too.

New Statesman turns on Starmer

 

Words and Feelings

A few days ago I was chatting with our son about internal dialogues. We were discussing the differences between people who seem to debate within themselves when issues have to be resolved compared to people who apparently don’t do that. Our son found that ChatGPT gave him a good summary of the idea, so I asked Copilot AI this question –

"What are the differences between people with strong and weak internal dialogue?"

That’s a fascinating question—our inner voice (or lack thereof) can shape how we think, feel, and navigate the world in ways most of us don’t even notice.

People with strong internal dialogue often:

• Think in words: They narrate their thoughts, reflect deeply, and sometimes even “talk themselves through” decisions or emotions.
• Have rich self-awareness: They may be more introspective and analytical, able to reason through complex situations internally.
• Experience inner debates: Pros and cons play out like a conversation in their minds.
• Rely on verbal memory: They might recall things better through spoken or written words than images.

Meanwhile, people with weak or absent internal dialogue might:

• Think in images, sensations, or abstract impressions: Their thought process could be more visual or conceptual.
• Experience quieter minds: This doesn’t mean shallow thought—it could be more intuitive or emotionally guided rather than verbalized.
• Struggle to “talk through” problems internally: They might prefer journaling, discussing aloud, or physically acting something out.
• Excel in non-verbal problem solving: Spatial reasoning, creativity, or hands-on learning might come more naturally.

Neither style is better—just different cognitive tools for different people. Some people even shift styles depending on the situation.


It's an interesting aspect of psychology because some obvious questions arise such as –

Who should be making decisions about Net Zero? 

Which type of person do we vote for? 

Which type of person must major political parties cater for?

The AI system also added -

According to psychologist Russell Hurlburt, about 30–50% of people regularly experience internal monologues. These individuals often use their inner voice for planning, self-reflection, and emotional regulation.

In which case, about 50-70% of people don't do that.

Labour Party Is Revolting

Ministers in talks over welfare concessions as Labour rebellion grows

Ministers are discussing the prospect of further concessions to win over a growing list of Labour MPs poised to rebel against planned welfare reforms ahead of a crunch vote next week.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said talks between backbenchers and Government were “ongoing” on Wednesday night as Downing Street seeks to head off what would be Sir Keir Starmer’s first Commons defeat.

An extremely obvious post title I know, but every little helps. Unfortunately we can't even look forward to someone ousting Starmer because they are all less than underwhelming.

Oh well, it's a pleasant morning so we may as well nip off after breakfast and do something useful such as having the car serviced.

It isn't new

The emotional toll of climate change is broad-ranging, especially for young people

Many worry about what the future holds, and a daily grind of climate anxiety and distress can lead to sleeplessness, an inability to focus and worse. Some young people wonder whether it’s moral to bring children into the world. Many people grieve for the natural world.

Activists, climate psychologists and others in the fight against climate change have a range of ways to build resilience and help manage emotions.


Onlookers may give a weary shrug, but crude emotionalism is part of the narrative. Without this essential ingredient, even the easily persuaded may drift away towards other emotional outlets. 

Believers are supposed to feel or at least feign anxiety, grief, anger, fear and helplessness - the fascination lies in their own emotions, not the real world.

It isn't new.


And you know it all comes from that same half-bakedness, that sentimentality. They are fascinated, not by realism, but by the emotional ideal side of socialism, by the religious note in it, so to say, by the poetry of it… second-hand, of course.

Fyodor Dostoevsky - Demons (1871-72)

No progress

Electricity bill update as ministers slammed for making 'no progress'

Ministers need to do more to ensure people see the benefits of climate action in their bills, the Government's independent advisers on climate change have warned. The Climate Change Committee (CCC), which has released its first assessment of the new Government's progress on reducing emissions, said making electricity cheaper will help people feel the benefits of the green transition...

It added that its first recommended action last year to make electricity cheaper "has not yet seen any progress".

It isn't easy to comment on this kind of story. We have to begin with the problem that 'no progress' is a ludicrously optimistic assessment of several decades of lost opportunities, colossally wasteful spending and ridiculously naïve propaganda.

To our lasting shame, analysing this kind of garbage is not dissimilar to analysing a political speech by the leadership of any totalitarian country. 

It's a pity pigeons aren't included

More than 500 bird species face EXTINCTION in the next 100 years due to climate change, experts say

From the bare-necked umbrellabird to the helmeted hornbill, birds come in all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes and sizes.

But hundreds of species could go extinct in the next 100 years, researchers have found.

A new study predicts that climate change and habitat loss could cause more than 500 bird species to disappear in the next century.


Presumably at least one of the researchers aims to check this finding in the year 2125. Or maybe the responsibility is passed down the generations like an heirloom. Or heirloon perhaps. 

It's a pity pigeons aren't included though. I'm thinking of those which crap on our brand new garage roof while making a survey of the garden.

Huge investment in shopping

Amazon to invest £40bn in UK - with more warehouses and thousands of new jobs

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the investment into Amazon's third-biggest market after the US and Germany was a "massive vote of confidence in the UK as the best place to do business".

"It means thousands of new jobs - real opportunities for people in every corner of the country to build careers, learn new skills, and support their families," said Sir Keir.

The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said it was a "powerful endorsement of Britain's economic strengths".

We use Amazon regularly for all kinds of bits and pieces where we prefer to avoid trawling around shops. The shop window has been replaced by the laptop or phone screen we might say. 

Nearly 150 years ago, Emile Zola saw a shopping revolution caused by ticketed prices clearly visible through the shop window. He saw success depending solely on what he called the orderly working of a sale. 

He then went on to sing the praises of the plain figure system. The great revolution in the business sprung from this fortunate inspiration. If the old-fashioned small shops were dying out it was because they could not struggle against the low prices guaranteed by the tickets. The competition was now going on under the very eyes of the public; a look into the windows enabled them to contrast the prices; every shop was lowering its rates, contenting itself with the smallest possible profit; no cheating, no stroke of fortune prepared long beforehand on an article sold at double its value, but current operations, a regular percentage on all goods, success depending solely on the orderly working of a sale all the larger from the fact of its being carried on in broad daylight.

Emile Zola - Au Bonheur des Dames (1883)

What we see with Amazon is that orderly working of a sale taken to an extreme Zola could not have foreseen, although he clearly saw some strong hints of it. 


He had put his elbows on the table, and was staring at her so hard that she felt uneasy. “But look here,” resumed he; “you who know the business, do you think it right that a simple draper’s shop should sell everything? Formerly, when trade was trade, drapers sold nothing but drapery. Now they are doing their best to snap up every branch and ruin their neighbors. The whole neighborhood complains of it, for every small tradesman is beginning to suffer terribly. This Mouret is ruining them. Bédoré and his sister, who keep the hosiery shop in the Rue Gaillon, have already lost half their customers; Mademoiselle Tatin, at the under-linen warehouse in the Passage Choiseul, has been obliged to lower her prices, to be able to sell at all. And the effects of this scourge, this pest, are felt as far as the Rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs, where I hear that Vanpouille Brothers, the furriers, cannot hold out much longer. Drapers selling fur goods — what a farce! another of Mouret’s ideas!” “And gloves,” added Madame Baudu; “isn’t it monstrous? He has even dared to add a glove department! Yesterday, as I was going along the Rue Neuve-Saint-Augustin, I saw Quinette, the glover, at his door, looking so downcast that I hadn’t the heart to ask him how business was going.” “And umbrellas,” resumed Baudu; “that’s the climax! Bourras feels sure that Mouret simply wants to ruin him; for, in short, where’s the rhyme between umbrellas and drapery? But Bourras is firm on his legs, and won’t allow himself to be beggared. We shall see some fun one of these days.”

Emile Zola - Au Bonheur des Dames (1883)

The Vicky Whatsit Resignation

Alexander McKibbin has a delightful TCW piece on the resignation of Vicky Foxcroft as government whip. The whole piece is well worth reading for the way it skewers the notion of political principles.

Vicky Foxcroft, gone but not remembered

A political tsunami engulfed Westminster yesterday when high profile Labour MP for Lewisham North Vicky Foxcroft resigned her influential post as government whip. Politicians from all sides were unanimous in comparing this seismic act as being on a par with Eden’s resignation in 1957.

Media commentators were taken by surprise by the unexpected resignation and were quick to interpret what this devastating act meant for Sir Keir Starmer and his tottering administration. Many were predicting that this single act could spell the end of Labour and usher in a general election.

Quietly yet diligently going about her demanding job, she has attracted admirers from across the political spectrum.

Scams, Scams and Scams

One in seven people ‘have lost money to fraud in past year’

Some 14% of people surveyed in February said they had lost money to fraud in the past 12 months, financial insights company TransUnion found.

New £300 winter fuel payment triggers wave of scam texts - 'contact bank immediately'

Pensioners have been warned of a surge in scam texts targeting older people. Fraudsters are exploiting confusion around the newly expanded winter fuel payment scheme, which will see millions more pensioners across England and Wales receive up to £300 this year.

Avoiding scams has become a feature of life, so much so that that the second headline is a reminder that political claims have to be treated as an offshoot of the same sorry state of affairs. We don't trust political promises because past experience tells us we shouldn't, much like the dodgy phone calls, emails or text messages.

Government is so ludicrously expensive that we know a substantial part of tax revenue is wasted, and what is that waste if it isn't tax revenue ending up in pockets we would never approve of? Yet this loss isn't one where we can ignore the phone calls or delete the texts and emails. The wasters just take the money.

One of the first Tesla Robotaxis

Redneck's Dream Lawnmower

Impress the neighbours with a lawnmower just like Ginger Billy's

The malign reach of the EU

John Rosenthal has a very interesting free speech piece in the Claremont Review of Books.

Make Speech Free Again

How the U.S. can defeat E.U. censorship.

On January 20, 2025, the first day of his second presidential term, Donald Trump signed an executive order: “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” The bad old days of the “censorship-industrial complex,” allegedly responsible for suppressing online speech under President Joe Biden, were over.

Except they weren’t. The driving force behind online censorship had never been the U.S. government, which meant that freedom of speech could not be restored by the stroke of a president’s pen. Rather, the European Union has wielded its Digital Services Act (DSA) to restrict the speech not just of Europeans but especially of Americans and other English-speakers. The E.U. has not violated the free-speech rights of Americans, since it has no obligations under the U.S. Constitution. But it has vitiated those rights, essentially nullifying the First Amendment in cyberspace.

The whole piece is quite long but well worth reading for the detail it provides about the widespread effects of EU censorship. Here in the UK, we did not escape that via Brexit.

Some supporters of President Trump might find this hard to believe. After all, the president’s most prominent ally and advisor is Elon Musk, whose purchase of Twitter in 2022 was said to be motivated by a desire to restore free speech to the platform. But Musk has always insisted that “freedom of speech is not freedom of reach,” and there’s the rub. Using platform algorithms to restrict reach artificially is a form of censorship, one that is not only compatible with the DSA but even encouraged by the E.U.

Perplexing

BBC Hits AI Startup Perplexity With Legal Threat Over Content Scraping Concerns

The BBC has sent a legal threat to Perplexity, citing allegations that the AI startup is scraping the British national broadcaster’s content...

The BBC argued that elements of its content were being regurgitated verbatim by Perplexity and links to its website appeared in search results. It added that some information was reproduced with factual inaccuracies and missing context.

The BBC letter said: "It is therefore highly damaging to the BBC, injuring the BBC's reputation with audiences - including UK licence fee-payers who fund the BBC - and undermining their trust in the BBC."

Content regurgitated verbatim eh? That's not necessarily a good idea for any AI system wandering around the internet hoovering up mainstream content. 

On the other hand given the pace of technical development, perhaps AI systems will soon be able to correct some of the "factual inaccuracies and missing content" the Beeb seems to be uncharacteristically concerned about.

Mass Mapping

Every baby in UK to have DNA mapped under NHS ‘genomics revolution’

Every baby born in the UK will have their DNA mapped within a decade as part of a radical overhaul of the NHS designed to predict and prevent disease before it strikes.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said advances in genomics could allow people to “leapfrog” life-threatening illnesses and receive “personalised” care long before symptoms appear.

Under plans due to be unveiled in a major 10-year strategy next month, all newborns will undergo whole genome sequencing to assess their risk of developing hundreds of conditions.


One of the comments -

simon bagshaw
Huh. Remember when those crazy tin foil hat wearers were saying the government want to create a national DNA database of everyone. Huh. Silly sods

Starmer's focus

Interesting video from Charlie Boyle where he says Keir Starmer defends institutions at all costs. Starmer does defend even useless institutions, but it's a way to bring the man into a useful focus where he only sees institutions, not business, technology, arts, science or people.

Transformational investment

Major sporting events and grassroots sport to receive £900 million funding

More than £900 million will be committed to major sporting events and grassroots sport across the UK in a “transformational investment” over the coming years, the Government has announced.

Euro 2028, the European Athletics Championships next year and the men’s and women’s Tour de France Grand Departs in 2027 are among the key events set to be hosted in the country that will benefit from more than half a billion pounds in funding.


It almost seems churlish to raise the issue, but presumably HS2 was supposed to be a "transformational investment" too. And Net Zero. 


Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: “Sport tells our national story in a way few other things can, uniting communities, inspiring millions, and showcasing our nation on the global stage.

“This major backing for world-class events will drive economic growth across the country, delivering on our plan for change.

It's the way she tells 'em.

Tight Security

Pro-Palestinian activists break into RAF base and 'vandalise' aircraft

Sir Keir Starmer has condemned pro-Palestinian activists who broke into a RAF base in Oxfordshire as "disgraceful".

Palestine Action targeted RAF Brize Norton and damaged two military aircraft in what the Ministry of Defence (MoD) branded an act of "vandalism".

So then, spite of my care and foresight, I am caught, caught in my security. 

William Congreve - The Double Dealer (1694)

Adults make decisions

Ted Newson has a worthwhile CAPX piece on the damage being done to the UK by a bloated welfare state.


Community in Britain is dead, and the state has taken its place

• Adults make decisions, children ask for handouts: Britain needs to grow up
• There was a time when Britons actually took responsibility for themselves
• The state’s safety net has left people feeling more on their own than ever

Last weekend, I was back home in North Essex celebrating my Grandad’s 88th birthday. I reflected on what the Britain of his childhood looked like – a nation of grafters, shaped by hardship, who embodied the ‘Blitz spirit’. I am often reminded of a story told to me of him as a child extinguishing an incendiary bomb that had landed in our family-owned clothes shop, and I wonder how he now views the country he and so many others fought to defend.

The whole piece is well worth reading, even if only as a reminder that there is no indication of this trend being corrected. We are now stuck with a government which does not even see it as a significant issue. 

Yet maybe it can't be a politically significant issue because there is no political solution, the damage has much further to go before a deeply unpleasant solution arises out of its own necessity. A trend towards one deeply unpleasant solution is already with us of course, the trend towards totalitarian government.  


The fundamental question we need to ask ourselves is whether it should really be the state’s responsibility to rectify everyone’s life difficulties. As much as we all would like some benevolent force to come into our lives and solve all of our problems, thinking that this should be the state is a dangerous fantasy.

Adults make tough decisions, accept risk and take responsibility. Children cry for help.

It’s time Britain grew up.

The latest Honda

 

Unilateral coercive measures

General Assembly Proclaims 4 December International Day against Unilateral Coercive Measures, Elects Members to United Nations Commission on International Trade Law

Introducing that draft, Eritrea’s representative, speaking for the Group of Friends in Defense of the Charter of the United Nations, said that such measures — commonly cloaked in the misleading language of sanctions — are not instruments of justice, but “tools of political and economic compulsion”...

Expressing solidarity with Cuba and its people, Yván Gil Pinto, Minister of Popular Power for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, said that unilateral coercive measures infringe on the sovereign and inalienable rights of States to choose their economic system without coercion. The humanitarian exceptions to these measures are a “fantasy” he said, calling for the establishment of a “safe space” free of such measures.


Of course, Yván Gil Pinto, Minister of Popular Power for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, does not mean all unilateral coercive measures. In particular, he does not mean those internal measures used by his government. When applied internally to Venezuela, his concept of a “safe space” has a rather different meaning too. 

'From criminal hub to energy hub': Machado touts a post-dictatorship Venezuela

Venezuela is still firmly in the grip of a socialist dictatorship. But the country's popular opposition leader hopes to hasten the regime’s fall — in part by selling Venezuela’s big capitalist potential.

María Corina Machado is in hiding from the regime in Venezuela. But Thursday morning she appeared on a Zoom videoconference, hosted by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas, touting a major economic plan for post-dictatorship Venezuela.

It's crunch time again

World now in ‘crunch time’ to avoid higher levels of warming, UN scientists warn

Professor Joeri Rogelj, research director at the Grantham Institute, said: “Under any course of action, there is a very high chance that we will reach and even exceed 1.5C and even higher levels of warming.

“1.5C is an iconic level but we are currently already in crunch time… to avoid higher levels of warming with a decent likelihood or a prudent likelihood as well and that is true for 1.7C, but equally so for 1.8C if we want to have a high probability there.”


As we see from Google's Ngram Viewer, 'crunch time' occurrences rose rapidly from about 1980 to a peak in about 2011, since when there has been a slight decline. Almost as if the 'crunch time' rot set in round about 1980. Whatever the cause, we obviously need a more sustainable level of crunch times.

Reject

About 10 years ago I wrote the blog post below but didn't publish it, just held onto it as an idea I never used. Here it is –

The Acquisitive Society

I am not a socialist. I “did” socialism decades ago, but never subscribed to any political label. However, a few weeks ago I wandered into a charity shop and came out with a rather battered old copy of R H Tawney’s “The Acquisitive Society.” A quick browse showed it to be pleasantly fluent and it only cost me £1.50.

The book was published in 1920, shortly after the end of the First World War, amid a widespread feeling that there had to be a better future and that future had to be open to all, not just the elite and the middle classes. So I’ll read it and write a number of posts as I go.

The basic idea is to explore influences, how we reach conclusions and what it says about our preconceptions. How we might even change our minds if we risk delving into what has become mildly unfamiliar territory from an age where perhaps moral principles were less overtly political than they are today.

Most generations, it might be said, walk in a path which they neither make, nor discover, but accept; the main thing is that they should march.

R H Tawney – The Acquisitive Society (1920)

I don’t know how many posts this will amount to. If I sling the book in the charity bag, then not many, but at least I’ll explain why.

----------------------------------------------------

Ironically, ten years ago I did sling the book into the charity bag after a chapter or so. Not worth the effort I decided at the time. Why post now though? Because we move on and the lesson of Tawney’s book still stands - influential academic meddlers often do more harm than the social and economic world they disparage. It's yet another lesson about the corrupting nature of manipulative political idealism. 

To learn from the past there has to be something of lasting value, something which still applies today, at least as a contrast between then and now. From what little I read of it, R H Tawney’s book has that, but it isn’t the message he thought we should listen to.