Soon Brits will need Starlink + VPN to read the news. Like Iran
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Samizdata quote of the day – Britain is not part of the ‘free world’Thomas Fairfax (Yorkshire) · Civil liberty, Law & Regulation · Internet · Media & Journalism · Privacy & Panopticon · Slogans & Quotations · UK affairs February 16th, 2026 |
 23 comments to Samizdata quote of the day – Britain is not part of the ‘free world’Leave a Reply |
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Very few nations have Freedom of Speech – normally constitutional pledges of Freedom of Speech have double-talk “take-back language” such as “subject to law” (with “law” being defined as the ravings of a Parliament or whatever) or “unless it harms society” – such deceit goes back to the hollow fraud that was the French Declaration of Man and the Citizen of 1789 – and all modern international human rights conventions and declarations use such deceit, as regards Freedom of Speech and every other basic Civil Liberty.
In short – there is, today, no “Free World” for Britain to be part, or not part, of.
There is the United States and a handful of other countries – and that is it.
For example, no nation is allowed to be part of the European Union if that nation has Freedom of Speech – as this violates the “Hate Speech” doctrine of the International Community (the “Rules Based International Order”) of which the European Union.
Whether it is Freedom of Speech or the other basic Civil Liberties – the “International Community”, the “Rules Based International Order” (i.e. the international Corporate State) is committed to destroying what is left of it.
All the above being said – is the British branch of the international establishment particularly servile in its efforts to exterminate what is left of Freedom of Speech, disarm the population (of course only honest people are to be disarmed – the state and criminals may continue to have firearms, knives, and so on), push society destroying “Net Zero”, and so on?
Yes it, the British branch of the international establishment, is particularly servile in serving the international agenda.
The irony – here in the US, X is down this morning and so I can’t see this OP tweet. And so half of the Instapundit posts are unlinkable. And many of my usual sites-to-visit are limited, as they all seem to pull off of X.
It’s a slender reed.
According to the dear old Grauniad, Labour are looking at action/restrictions to stop ‘doomscrolling’ by kids. Which makes me think they have no idea what the word means.
An example from everyday life.
In the little computer course I am on, there are such things as how to “cut and paste”, and there are also things such as how to report a “racist comment on social media” – in Britain informing on people and sending them to prison for expressing opinions the government does not like, is considered a basic thing – like learning how to “cut and paste” and using different fonts.
In the United Kingdom, every year, thousands of people are arrested for their opinions.
Whatever happened to, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it?”
Starmer wants to ban VPN usage by kids. I expect the government to accept the amendment the House of Lords made to a recent bill, requiring the government to bring forward regulations to prohibit the provision of VPN services to under 18s, or possibly accept it with 16 as the age limit, either that are put forward their own version to achieve the same thing. The amendment also included powers to compel providers of VPN services to use age verification. Of course VPN services located in e.g. the USA will be under no obligation to pay any attention to this, so the next step would be to start blocking foreign VPN services that fail to comply with the demand for age-gating.
We’re already seeing Ofcom trying to make 4chan pay fines for failing to comply with the duties the Online Safety Act imposes when 4chan has no servers, offices, staff, or assets of any kind in the UK. Short of persuading the US political establishment that US companies should abide by internet regulations enacted by UK gov, the only other recourse is to start blocking UK-based users from accessing the non compliant sites that sit outside the UK’s jurisdiction. Before long the Great British Internet Firewall will be set up with Online Safety Act compliance as the driver & excuse.
Stuart Noyes – that “I will defend, to the death, your right to say it” – might be taken as a “threat of violence” and even if it was not taken that way, it would be considered as “causing distress” to someone (for example the police – it would upsetting for them for someone to say that he was going to oppose them), either way Voltaire would be sent to prison in modern Britain.
James Hammerton – Sir Keir Starmer was a leading member of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers – to him everything that is not compulsory, is forbidden.
For American politicians to have anything to do with such regimes is troubling – as such governments are certainly not “allies” as they would like to send millions of Americans to prison.
However. the American left have their own understanding of the 1st Amendment.
According to the American left (the establishment – for the left is the establishment in America, which is why President Trump and his allies are really REBELS), the 1st Amendment means that “trained journalists”, trained in “Schools of Journalism” (which did not exist at the time the 1st Amendment was written – there were no “Schools of Journalism”), can come out with “Progressive” speech on behalf of the Corporate owned media – there was no Corporate media when the 1st Amendment was written, newspapers and so on were owned by INDIVIDUALS – but the left-establishment does not like individual ownership, any more than it likes “unqualified” people expressing political opinions.
All very Rousseau – the “General Will” is not the “Will of All” (not what ordinary people think they believe) – no the “General Will” must be decided by the “Law Giver” – who is like Plato’s “Guardians” – or the “Sovereign” (who can be a group – not just one person) of Thomas Hobbes.
“Reactionary” opinions have no rights – indeed it is “violence”, “repressive tolerance”, to allow “Reactionary” opinions to be expressed – Herbert Marcuse.
If you dissent, on anything, you are a racist-sexist-homophobe-transphobe-Islamophobe-climate-denier.
The American left are very much on the same page as the British government – and other governments such as that of France, Canada and Australia.
Their idea of “Freedom of Speech”, indeed of freedom generally, is to stamp down with their boot on your face – and then grind you into the dirt.
James,
De facto under a certain age you can’t buy internet services. You can’t go to an ISP with a piggy-bank full of change. You need a bank account. This is the most desperate, “Think of the Children!!!” crap I have ever heard. And coming from a government that is OK with castrating them…
Oh, and I’m going to have to be DBS checked because a 13 year old girl wants a beehive (not the hair style but a hive of bees) on the land I’m warden of. This is not because of the risk of swarming (she’s doing it with an uncle who is a skilled apiarist) but because I am assumed to be a sexual predator unless proven otherwise. I originally just said, “Cool!” (once I knew there would be a pukka bee-keeper in the mix) and added, “wouldn’t mind the odd pot of honey”. And, no, that was not a cack-handed ref to her “honey-pot” and the DBS thing was already in train by then – I had just assumed the “risk assessment” wouln’d be about me but about the stinging insects*. Mainly I was thinking of pollination in the garden. I am seriously not trying to use innuendo here.
Paul,
Ah, yes, CTRL+C, CTRL+V and all that… Look up other Windows shortcuts. CTRL+SHIFT+V is very handy and if you wanna get Kool with da Kidz Win + . gets you to the emojis 😊. I’m not so much interested in the “how” of informing of racism but “who to?”.
*I’ve known a couple of folks who carried epi-pens because they were so allergic to bee stings they’d die. That’s an issue. Me being interested in girls who like boybands has not been an issue for me since about 1988.
NickM – the the social media company, and to the government. One informs to both.
We must all be “kind, tolerant, people” which means sending other people to prison – for years. That is how we show how kind and tolerant we are.
By the way I used to know this computer stuff – I wrote a thesis. But I forget this sort of thing as soon as I am no longer using it – because it does not interest me.
I only retain knowledge that interests me (if it does not interest me – I forget it) – not a matter of senility (although I may be going senile), as I have always been like this – even as a child.
Paul Marks – a disposition which you share with the greatest of thinkers:
‘I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.’
llater,
llamas
When making this statement, we need to be clear, always.
“I will defend, to YOUR death, his right to say it.”
I’m not volunteering to die for principle. I’m informing the guy that is trying to shut us up that HE is.
FWIW, the British government is perfectly capable of banning both Starlink and VPNs. I think it is unlikely that if they did that Starlink would continue to provide service there, after all a nation does have sovereignty over its airwaves. And wasn’t there already talk of banning VPNs?
I think they could talk it up too because they can gin up hatred of Musk both via his associated with Trump and his “hate filled” speech platform X.
I am reminded of the name of this blog, celebrating the people in the old Soviet Union that spread news surreptitiously with hidden typewriters and carbon paper. Perhaps that is what Britain will have to revert too.
Britain really is in a very sorry state indeed. I sure hope Nigel will rescue you all soon.
Our media seriously censor our opinions and also colude with the state. Vested interests taking their toll.
llamas – how flattering, I had not thought of that.
bobby b – I hear the power of your words, but it be wise for you not to visit the United Kingdom, as British prisons (once decent places) have become very nasty in recent years.
Fraser Orr – you are correct about what the British government is capable of doing, just-about-anything – whilst at-the-same-time, talking about how we are a “free society” and we must defend our”freedom” including “Freedom of Speech” – the authorities, including the Prime Minister, say all this – with a straight face. They are much better at lying than Russians are – I can normally tell when a Russian is lying (there are little “tells”), but a British establishment type (say a BBC person or the Prime Minister – or whoever) manages to say things that are obviously untrue, with total conviction – as if they really believed 1+1=68 and so on.
It is even possible that they actually believe the (utterly false) things they say – in which case, technically, they are NOT lying – they actually believe that the Moon is made of cheese, that Britain has Freedom of Speech, and so on.
Stuart Noyes.
Yes – the 1st Amendment was about individuals expressing their opinions, not “trained journalists” (no “Schools of Journalism” existed back then – or for a century afterwards) spouting “Progressive” doctrine for a handful of Corporations.
I used to confuse Corporations with a free market – ignoring the fact that incorporation is a gift of the government, and also ignoring the fact that the vast Corporations get Credit Money (hello Cantillon Effect) at sweetheart rates of interest – my misunderstanding of the economy (I defended the vast Corporations for many years) was stupid of me – very stupid.
Vast numbers of Americans still get their news from these vast Corporations (and from secondary sources such as Apple News – which use only these Progressive Corporate Bureaucracies as their sources – but NOT from Corporate owned sources of news that dissent from the “Progressive” “educated” line – as, for example, the New York Post, the oldest American newspaper, sometimes does – there are rarely stories from a News International owned source – and if there are, it will be the Wall Street Journal – whose news pages are controlled by establishment types) – and thus are fed a diet of falsehoods, with the truth (about a wide variety of matters) hidden from them.
The Corporate Media (in most Western countries) has two functions – to push lies and, even more important, to cover up the truth.
Even the charitable bodies corporate often abuse their status – witness how most (most – NOT all) of the churches have become political bodies, constantly pushing (for example) for more government spending and taxes – taxes they do not pay, and showing contempt for Christian theology – ask their representatives theological, rather than political, questions – and they quickly change the subject, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that they do-not-believe.
The universities have become indoctrination factories – which crush dissent, it is hard to see why they deserve charitable status for taxation.
And even charities that, supposedly, are about helping the poor – seem to have a lot of paid staff, sometimes very highly paid (the word “scam” springs to mind).
As for the profit-making corporations…..
In the United States various forms of corporate taxation are older than individual Income Taxes – as it was felt, not unreasonably, that corporations should pay for the gift of limited liability – which is what incorporation is really about (running up debts and then being able to walk away with one’s private assets untouched).
But now taxes on corporations are lower than taxes on individuals – not just corporation tax being lower than the Federal income tax (at the top rates), but also the ability of corporations (in America and Britain) to deduct their property taxes from their taxable income before it is subject to corporation tax – individuals can not do such things.
As for the Milton Friedman view that corporations are just the servants of Aunt Agatha style shareholders – if that was ever true, it certainly NOT true now – most shares are controlled by institutions (bureaucracies) and the vast Corporations are themselves bureaucracies – as F.A. Hayek pointed out many years ago, the Corporate managers rarely come into contact with customers.
But there are still some odd things…..
For example, total State and local (city) tax on corporations in New York City is 17% – Federal tax comes on top, so why are Corporations (such as BlackRock and the Credit Bubble banks) still there?
The core of Starmer is authortarianism. It is the root of Fabian socialism to many respects. When Hayek wrote the Road to Serfdom in the 1940s he had a sniff of where such people are. The fact that Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has a portrait of a founder of the UK Communist Party in her 11 Downing St office tells a story as well.
Starmer liked the lockdowns – he constantly criticised suggestions that they should be lifted at a certain point. There is not a regulation he hasn’t liked; if he U-turns on some of them, it is not because of a philosophical issue, but one of low politics and maybe practicality.
There’s not a genuinely liberal bone in this rather odd duck of a politician. Aided to this is a slyness, a mendacity, that forms a poisonous mix with his sanctimony – a trait far too many on the Left have. He seems genuinely bewildered that people might not accept his philosophy and view of life. Look at his face: he looks like a man who has seen a ghost.
From the moment he arrived on the public scene in the Labour Party senior ranks, I took a dislike of him and regarded him as a wrong-‘un. Nothing has led me to change my mind.
JP,
“The fact that Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has a portrait of a founder of the UK Communist Party in her 11 Downing St office tells a story as well.”
Is that why she wants to wage war on the kulaks?
NickM, well, she probably thinks that family farmers have counter-revolutionary tendencies, and seeing how the likes of Jeremy Clarkson carries on, she probably wishes Labour could set up a sort of Gulag for them. Failing that, seize their land and plant the verdant land with solar farms or whatever other abominations enter Ed Milliband’s capacious cranium.
Meanwhile, given the authortarian tendencies of Sir Keir Starmer, what to make of this?
Bobby: well spoken indeed!
Even with my cynical view of corporations, I am still astonished by them remaining in New York City (continuing to have their HQs there) – subject to city and State taxes as well as Federal taxes.
The bosses of these vast corporations appear to have utter contempt for the interests of ordinary share holders, and utter contempt for the interests of pensioners and so on, who the pension fund institutional shareholders are supposed to represent.
JP,
I’ll see that and raise you this.
Llamas: am i mistaken in thinking that greatest of thinkers to be Sherlock Holmes?
I don’t have the canon at hand, but my guess is A Study in Scarlet.