We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day – Rycroft Review cannot ignore Russian influence over UK energy policy The Rycroft Review comes as the Head of MI6 has also warned about Russian propaganda and influence operations that “crack open and exploit fractures within societies.”
But if the review only confines itself to elections, party finance and overt corruption, it will miss one of the most consequential forms of foreign influence in recent decades: sustained Russian attempts to shape UK energy markets and energy policymaking.
It is now unarguable that decisions taken by ministers in the mid-2000s and 2010s left Britain dangerously exposed when gas prices surged in 2021–22. During this period, there were live debates on core questions of energy security: the future of strategic gas storage at Rough (closed down in 2017), nuclear policy, maximising recovery in the North Sea following the Wood Review (2013), the 2015 decision to end coal-fired generation, and the failure to develop UK shale gas. Through a combination of indecision and damaging policy choices, Britain’s exposure to international gas markets increased sharply.
– Maurice Cousins
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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If there was any meaningful Russian influence on these policy changes (which I seriously doubt), they are dwarfed by the doctrinaire push by both parties to appear Greener than anyone else, by the phantasm of Green jobs, by the overweening influence of the UN, COP, Al Gore, Old Uncle Tom Cobleigh and all.
If you want my 18 year old son to risk his life fighting against the apparently terrible threat that VV Putin is slavering to conquer the whole of Western Europe, you’ll have to do better than that.
In other words, pull the other one it’s got bells on.
If one listens to these people, or to the USA Democrats, Russia is already in charge of everything, everywhere. Its powers are awesome and globally ubiquitous. We may as well start learning the language.
Or . . . or . . . . Putin is certainly scum, and provides the boogieman that lying governments need.
TJ – Putin is an old KGB hand. He may be rusty on operational techniques by now, but he undoubtedly retains the mindset. It would be astonishing if he wasn’t using his agents of influence to the maximum extent he can. That said, he is as you point out pushing on an open door.