They’re not even trying to hide it anymore. IMF researchers Arnoud Boot, Peter Hoffmann, Luc Laeven, and Lev Ratnovski have informed the globe that we are shortly to be warmly embraced by social credit scoring, as already enjoyed by the Chinese. Specifically, in a blog published on on the IMF’sRead More

Request for expedited federal investigation into scientific fraud in COVID‑19 public health policies To: Federal Bureau of Investigation935 Pennsylvania Avenue NWWashington, D.C. 20535 CC: U.K. Security Service (MI5);Australian Security Intelligence Organisation;Canadian Security Intelligence Service;Bundesnachrichtendienst;U.S. Department of Justice From: Michael P. Senger, AttorneyStacey A. Rudin, AttorneyDr. Clare Craig, FRCPathRetired Brig. Gen.Read More

You know how it is. All sorts of petty concerns get in one’s way, and somebody’s birthday slips one’s mind. So here’s a belated happy birthday to Russia’s beloved statesman. Vlad Lenin, the founder of the very same Soviet Union Vlad Putin wants to recreate, thereby reversing “the greatest geopoliticalRead More

It’s St George’s Day today, and we must all hope that the saint hasn’t yet withdrawn his patronage from England. This is sorely needed, for the country is under attack from all sorts of dragons. This format doesn’t allow compiling a complete taxonomy, so I’ll just focus on the politicalRead More

Every country honours its iconic personages, those seen to have served the nation particularly well. And the choice of icons is telling. The English erect statues to Nelson. The French, to Louis XIV. The Italians, to Garibaldi. Acting in the same spirit, Putin’s government has just unveiled a statue toRead More

When democracies fail to deliver, all bets are off. We stand on a threshold.  We are teetering on a brink. Something momentous is upon us.  Think December 26, 1991: the collapse of the Soviet Union. Think something on that scale. Think, furthermore, not of being onlookers at the fall of someone else’s world. Imagine,Read More

Unlike today’s spivs who stack parliamentary votes by knavish trickery, Colonel Thomas Pride was a straightforward man of action. When in 1648 it looked likely that the Long Parliament would vote the wrong way, the good colonel moved in with his troops and removed those MPs who hadn’t seen theRead More

Our papers’ unquenchable thirst for regurgitating yesterday’s news is nothing short of amazing. That Lech Walesa was in cahoots with Służba Bezpieczeństwa, the Polish secret police, has been mooted since 1989, when he was universally hailed as the heroic liberator of Poland. His codename in the Służba, Bolek, was alsoRead More

The other day I suggested that trying to support a wrong proposition can make even intelligent people sound silly. Any defence of Russia’s aggression against the Ukraine does just that. Witness Peter Hitchens, who generally makes sense when arguing in favour of supportable propositions, such as leaving the EU orRead More

The less I say about the sick, pathetic joke that goes by the name of Dave’s deal with the EU, the better. Our papers are bulging with the details of this travesty, and there’s little one can add. Regular readers of this space know that I predicted something along theseRead More