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Showing posts from June, 2021

Flashers’ rights

Trans activists are now defending the right of men to show their genitals to young girls. Source - Spiked - 30/06/21 Link So it’s come to this, has it? Trans activists are now defending the right of men to show their penises to seven-year-old girls? That is the properly mental take-home message of the Wi Spa scandal, in which a heroic woman marched to the front desk of an LA spa and demanded to know why there was a person with a penis – what we used to call ‘a man’ – parading around the women’s changing rooms. She’s been branded transphobic and a bigot. And there you have it. It’s bigotry to defend the right of women and girls not to have to look at someone’s dick and balls, and it’s progressive to defend the right of the owner of said dick and balls to show them to whomever he damn well pleases. This is a flashers’ rights movement. There’s no other way of putting it. The viral video of the Los Angelean spa-using lady complaining about the presence of a biological male in the female ch

Labour’s shameful sectarianism has no place in British politics

 Playing divide-and-rule between South Asian communities is a betrayal of Labour's traditions   Not content with alienating Britain's Jews, Labour is now stirring up hostility with Anglo-Indians   There is so much that unites our different communities, which makes this kind of crude politics all the more Source - CAPX -  Link The build-up to this Thursday’s Batley and Spen by-election has descended into grubby communalism and ugly sectarianism, with an unfortunate dose of political harassment and intimidation.  In truth, it is exactly what I feared – considering the Labour Party’s general direction of travel and more so after left-wing perennial provocateur George Galloway threw his hat in the ring. The moment he did, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and India-Pakistan tensions over Kashmir were going to be elevated as ‘key issues’ in a leftist tussle between Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain (WPB) and the aggressively identitarian elements of the Labour Party, in their compe

Electoral Commission issues grovelling apology to Brexiteers

 Source - Foxhole - 28/06/21 Link The Electoral Commission’s new boss has apologised to Brexiteers for the institution’s treatment of Leave activists in the wake of the Brexit referendum and has promised to “treat people like people” in future. In an interview with The Telegraph, its new head John Pullinger admitted that there had been a perception of anti-Brexit bias within the Commission’s former administration and that Brexit activists had been subjected to “horrible” experiences in the numerous witch-hunts that followed the historic 2016 vote. “There are a number of lessons from the past that we really need to get our heads around,” Mr Pullinger told the newspaper. “The first is to act quickly. Some of the investigations that I’ve heard the stories of have taken a very long time and that has a toll on people. “It’s very worrying for them individually, it can be damaging for their reputations, and you need to take that into account,” the new Commission boss added. “Another [lesson]

A united Ireland would ruin the Republic's economy

The costs of unification would make the damage by the banking and eurozone debt crises of 2008-12 look tame by comparison. Source - Daily Telegraph - 26/07/21 Link Ah the dream of a united Ireland; we must never let it die. So, in essence, said Leo Varadkar, the Fine Gael leader and Irish deputy prime minister, in a blatantly cynical piece of electioneering ahead of a crucial upcoming Dublin by-election. The timing of his remarks, on the eve of the Northern Ireland marching season and in the midst of delicate talks on how to make the Northern Ireland Protocol work, could scarcely have been more unfortunate. While everyone else is talking about sausages, there he was stoking ancient sensitivities and resentments. Anything Sinn Fein can do, I can do better, Varadkar seemed to be saying in committing to set up a branch office in Northern Ireland so as to reach out across the divide. A united Ireland was not just an aspiration, he insisted, but a real possibility that would likely happen w

EU citizens make up a third of the population of some British towns

In the second part of our series on the EU Settlement Scheme, The Telegraph looks at the impact of migration on communities in the UK. Source - Daily Telegraph - 25/06/21 Link The analysis also reveals the startling extent to which official statistics have underestimated EU migration to the UK in the last decade. So far, a combined total of 1,116,000 Bulgarians and Romanians have had their applications approved, more than double the latest ONS figure for the entire population of Bulgarians and Romanians in the country, which was thought to stand at 523,000. Ignorance about the true numbers over the last decade made planning public services near impossible, according to Professor Alan Manning, chief of the government's Migration Advisory Committee until 2020.  "This laissez-faire attitude to migration was one of the problems that the UK got into ... this thing about not knowing how many people are in a particular town. "If you need to know how much money to give them for t

What the Red Wall really is. But why it’s also a mindset – not just geography

Source - Conservative home - 24/03/21 Link  Since the Conservative Party won its huge majority in 2019, newspapers have devoted a huge amount of coverage to “Red Wall” voters, who were widely credited for delivering the decisive election result. The phrase has become synonymous with traditional/working-class Labour heartlands, particularly in the North, where people somehow decided Etonian Boris Johnson was the man for them two years ago. How could this be? It seemed remarkable that voters that had historically rejected, even despised, the Conservatives had such a change of heart. Many Tories have spoken about the need to repay these voters; that they lent them their vote and so forth, hence the endless promises of “levelling up” in the North and other parts of the country. Labour, too, has been trying to win back “foundation seats”, a new term for the Red Wall, through a strategy that recommends “use of the [union] flag, veterans [and] dressing smartly”. At the same time, increasing n

Batley and Spen: A morale boost for Starmer, or a tonic for the Tories?

 Lose this seat, and the Corbynites will surely be calling for Starmer to go  Batley and Spen isn't the Red Wall, and it certainly isn't Hartlepool  George Galloway won't win, but his presence has two important impacts on the race Source - CAPX - 24/06/21 Link Another week, another by-election. After getting hammered in Chesham and Amersham, the Tories are probably relishing a vote in a Labour-held Brexit-voting constituency. We should, however, caution against simplistic comparisons between this race and the historic Conservative victory in Hartlepool in early May. While both are Leave-voting northern English constituencies, there are some big differences between the two seats. One is a coastal town in County Durham, the other a collection of small towns and villages in the heart of West Yorkshire.  Their electoral histories are quite distinct too. Since its creation ahead of the February 1974 general election, Hartlepool had elected a Labour MP every single time, until th

Five years from the Brexit vote, ‘Global Britain’ is now much more than a slogan

From trade deals to boosting investment, Global Britain is really starting to take shape Remainers' glib attacks on 'Global Britain' relied on distorting its aims, but the truth is now emerging The UK is now number 1 in Europe and number 2 in the world for foreign direct investment Source - CAPX - 23/06/21 Link Today marks five years since the Brexit vote and how things have changed. There is consensus, even amongst the Brexiteers who had fought so hard for it. “80% achieved” was how one leading light in the campaign described things – praise indeed from one of the ‘Spartans’ who had helped bring down the May government. Now, the missing 20% is a reminder that there is still an awful lot to be done, but there is one area that is exceeding all expectations. Do you remember the snorts of derision at the phrase ‘Global Britain’? It was either “how can our small island dare to be so presumptuous?” or “the unicorn fantasy of Little Englanders heading for an inward-looking bunker

White working-class kids are casualties of the culture war

Our woke elites feel an overriding contempt for white working-class communities. Source  - Spiked - 22/06/21 Link Have you noticed that anyone who talks about the problems facing white working-class kids is instantly accused of starting a culture war? Talk about trans kids and the media will be knocking on your door to commission a documentary. Talk about the specific problems facing children of West Indian or Bangladeshi heritage and the chattering classes will be all ears. But so much as mutter the phrase ‘white working-class’ and you’ll be viewed as iffy. Here comes another culture warrior stirring up racial tensions, the right-on will cry. They might even call you racist. The Lost boys The Guardian is at it again today with a front-page splash saying: ‘Tory MPs accused of adding fuel to “culture war” in education report.’ What is this fuel that the dastardly Tories are recklessly pouring on to the cultural clashes of the 21st century? It’s a new report that says ‘white working-clas

Five years on, Brexit has already transformed the economy

With wages rising rapidly and non-EU trade accelerating, the predictions of Project Fear have proven to be wildly over-blown. Source - Daily telegraph - 21/06/21 Link People’s Vote marches. All-night sittings over obscure amendments in the House of Commons. The Supreme Court over-turning government decisions, snap elections, warnings of the closure of the car factories, long lectures on cherry-picking from Michel Barnier, and scare stories about shortages of lettuce.  It is amazing how time flies when you are having fun. It may seem like only yesterday that the UK voted by a narrow margin to leave the European Union. In fact, it was five years ago on Wednesday.  We only finally left, in the sense of severing control from Brussels, at the start of this year. And yet, in truth, Brexit has already transformed the British economy. Like how?  We are witnessing a shift back to our historic trading patterns; wages are starting to accelerate upwards; our industrial base is changing; and we are

Why getting vaccinated for Covid-19 is more popular in the UK than in the US

 The UK has world-leading vaccine enthusiasm. What can the rest of the world learn? Source - Vox - 05/05/21 Link Vaccines are gradually becoming more widely available across the United States. But as the fight to ensure everyone can access them continues, the US is also entering the second phase of its vaccination campaign against Covid-19: the fight against vaccine hesitancy. About 26 percent of Americans say they won’t take a vaccine, according to an April 21-26 CNN poll. Getting the pandemic under control in the US could be challenging without their buy-in. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom vaccine hesitancy sits much lower; government polling shows it’s around 6 percent. This is not necessarily because the British are inherently more enthusiastic about vaccination. Last summer, a poll found that 75 percent of Americans and 71 percent of British people were open to taking a vaccine if one existed and was recommended by their government. But in the year since then, vaccine hesitancy i

Let inflation rip or raise rates – the brutal choice facing central banks

Central banks are trapped between the twin pressures of financing growing deficits and controlling inflation. Source - Daily Telegraph 19/06/21 Link One of the most surprising aspects of the pandemic is quite how resilient and adaptive major economies have proved in the face of apparent calamity. Fast back to the dawning realisation in March last year that we had a public health emergency on our hands, and it wasn’t just fear of the disease that we had to contend with; Covid also threatened to be an off the scale economic and fiscal disaster. Stock markets crashed, and as fears grew over how on earth governments were going to finance their lockdown strategies, bond markets nosedived. Yet in the event, all these fears proved overblown. Beyond the most directly affected sectors – hospitality, leisure, events, non-food physical retail and international travel – the economy rapidly adjusted. New ways of operating were found that in many cases were actually better than the old ones. Almost

Vaccine boost means economy will grow twice as fast as eurozone, says CBI

Britain's GDP set to grow by 8.2pc this year, beating the eurozone’s 4.2pc and even the 7.5pc forecast for the US Source - Daily Telegraph - 18/06/21 Link The UK’s economy will race ahead of its European rivals this year and in 2022 thanks to the success of the vaccination programme, according to the Confederation of British Industry. GDP will grow by 8.2pc this year, the CBI predicts, beating the eurozone’s 4.2pc, which ranges from Spain’s 5.6pc to Germany's 3.4pc. It also puts the UK ahead of the US, which is set to expand by 7.5pc in 2021. Such a strong year means Britain's economy will recover to its pre-Covid size this year, according to economist Alpesh Paleja - a year ahead of the CBI’s previous forecasts. “We have substantially upgraded our forecasts for UK growth - it is a testament to the success of the vaccine rollout,” he said. “We see much stronger growth in the UK than in the major eurozone economies. They also do recover over the course of this year and next,