Samizdata quote of the day
“Delivering the vaccine to the highest risk groups will dramatically reduce the impact on our health. We have already seen in Israel the number of infections falling, especially among the vaccinated,...
View ArticleThe Pontins blacklist
“Secret Pontins blacklist prevented people with Irish surnames from booking”, reports the Guardian. For the benefit of readers not from either the UK or Ireland, Pontins is a company that runs holiday...
View ArticleDiscussion point
In your experience, dear readers, has any comment you have seen in media, whether mainstream or alternative, that refers to “neo-liberal”, “the one per cent” or “globalisation” accurately described...
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Chris Tame (1949-2006): A personal memoir
In an earlier posting here just after Christmas, I solicited compliments, to cheer me up after I’d been diagnosed with lung cancer. Commenters on that posting said nice things about my blogging here...
View Article“Adam Smith was on the side of the angels …”
The following is the text of an email that I and all the many others on the Adam Smith Institute email list received today, from the ASI’s Eamonn Butler: Today marks 245 years since the publication of...
View ArticleThe Hate Crime (Scotland) Bill is due to pass tonight
In the (Glasgow) Herald, Scottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf writes, New Hate Crime Bill extends protection of people Odd headline. Make that some people. This week Parliament will consider further...
View ArticleLast year’s official guidance is this year’s misinformation
“Coronavirus: Face masks could increase risk of infection, medical chief warns” reported the Independent on March 12 2020: Members of the public could be putting themselves more at risk from...
View ArticleHow to win the libertarian argument
The converting-Libertarian-Alliance-pamphlets-to-HTML phase of the Brian Micklethwait Archive project continues. When I add something new, I also add a news update post about it. These usually briefly...
View ArticleThe Streisand-Challenor effect
On the evening of the 22nd March, visitors to the main UK politics subreddit, /r/ukpolitics found a mysterious message saying that the subreddit, which has nearly 400,000 members, had been set to...
View ArticleCourage in Comedy
Courage is not just a virtue; it is the form of every virtue under test. For a kindness or honesty which is only kind or honest while it is safe is not very virtuous. Pontius Pilate was merciful – till...
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
In Britain there is overwhelming popular support for the legalisation of cannabis, yet because recreational drugs are illegal, our cities are being ravaged by criminal turf wars over drug distribution....
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More photos of the London Covid demo last Saturday
Last Saturday a mate of mine dropped by to see me, having just been at the Covid demo mentioned here earlier. My mate brought photos with him. You can see most of those he gave me here and here. But...
View ArticleThe future works, just as it is being stolen from us, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang...
The future of the flying car is finally arriving, a flying car, the AirCar, has completed a test flight between two airports in Slovakia, reports the BBC. This wonderful development brought to us by...
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
“The cliche goes that the UK is a former empire in search of a role. That is not strictly true. The NHS has become Britain’s all-consuming project, the millstone around its neck and the cloying source...
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
I didn’t look too closely when in 2015 a Conservative administration proposed changing the law on gender recognition. A few trans people want more easily to get official confirmation for the new gender...
View ArticleThe era of Covid-totalitarianism
Michael Rectenwald has written a very interesting essay Living in the Age of Covid: “The Power of the Powerless” that raises many very alarming parallels, musing on the original essay by Václav Havel...
View ArticleSamizdata unintended ironic quote of the day
“China is serious about building a cleaner, fairer, and sustainable society.” As you know, I get press releases, and this one, from the Swiss private bank and investment manager, Vontobel, was too good...
View ArticleThere was a time when Scottish universities were havens of free thought
Then: After the Uniformity Act 1662, for about two centuries, it was difficult for any but practising members of the Church of England to gain degrees from the old English universities, at Cambridge...
View ArticleFinal farewell
Brian Micklethwait departed this world earlier today, leaving the samizdatistas poorer for his absence but richer for his lifetime dedication to the cause of liberty.
View ArticleSamizdata quote of the day
“No one has fought themselves free of the intellectual stranglehold which anti-classical liberal political sentiment currently enjoys among intellectuals and opinion-formers can have any illusions...
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