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]

Samizdata quote of the day

If Jan 1st 2021 comes along & UK has No Deal (or a Canada Deal) with EU, I will be very happy with Boris.

But on Jan 2nd 2021, I will be calling for Boris to be driven from power before he destroys the nation with his eco-fascist Net Zero lunacy & insane lockdowns.

– Perry de Havilland

Samizdata quote of the day

Roger Waters, a co-founder of the rock band Pink Floyd, is protesting Twitter for censoring the youth and student movement of the Socialist Equality Party.

It’s funny to see the Left suddenly upset about censorship. I applaud Waters’ stance about the importance of free speech, but where was his activism when social media was (and is) censoring the other side?

– Zilvinas Silenas pointing people at an article by Jon Miltimore

Samizdata quote of the day

It appears that our existing monetary systems have run their course. Central bankers may or may not be deliberately engineering or amplifying crises in order to usher in new systems.

The World Economic Forum seems to be on board.

So shutting down the world economy in a calculated but unnecessary response to COVID has caused a monetary system crisis so profound that some kind of dramatic monetary system reset is required, and the global economy is going to go down as a COVID death.

Luckily, they had a Great Reset on the shelf. Ready for your ID card?

Alex Noble

Samizdata quote of the day

Of course, we may say that it’s ok because the Green Party hasn’t a hope in hell of being elected anywhere – but that’s where you’d be wrong. As Peter Lloyd pointed out recently on TCW, it’s the minorities who rule the roost. Their green agenda is firmly in the hands of a government who are lapping it all up, and who hold power for the foreseeable future. If not them, then Labour, and they feel exactly the same way as the Tories on this issue. Never mind that renewable energy will impoverish us all and be affordable only to the wealthy.

Make no mistake, people. This will be a system of change but not for the better. Everything about the future looks uniform, including our income. No individual thought, no freedom of expression. No enterprise – not for the masses, anyway. A global structure where we all speak the same, think the same and align behind the same goals. Where we have been freed from ourselves.

Michael Fahey

Pallets full of ballots

Must say this is a catchy tune by Austin Forman.

Samizdata quote of the day

They’re like the Tsarist government, happy that they’ve seen off the 1905 Revolution

Tim Newman

Samizdata quote of the day

In response to the lockdown Sir Desmond Swayne said his initial reaction was “despair”, adding: “These are difficult decisions but that doesn’t alter the fact that it’s the wrong decision. More people will die in the long run.”

An MP since 1997, and former PPS to David Cameron, Swayne says he’s definitely voting against the lockdown and points to the fact that when he asked Matt Hancock two weeks ago what evidence he had of excess deaths above the long term average in recent weeks, the Health Secretary said there wasn’t any. Swayne says: “Every year thousands of people are carried off as a result of the flu but we don’t run around like headless chickens.”

Another MP who says he’s voting against the new lockdown is the MP for Bolton West Chris Green. Green resigned as a Ministerial Aide in early October over the Coronavirus restrictions, saying at the time that the “attempted cure is worse than the disease”. Since then he hasn’t changed his mind and says a lockdown now “only pushes the problem into the New Year when another similar lockdown will be imposed.”

David Scullion

Once again…

Because why not…

Samizdata quote of the day

When Samuel Paty was decapitated in the street in broad daylight for trying to teach his students a civics lesson, the New York Times ran with the woefully misleading headline “French Police Shoot and Kill Man After a Fatal Knife Attack on the Street”. The attack — in which the assassin who had just cut someone’s head off was shot by gendarmes — was awkwardly framed through the lens of liberal America’s anxieties over police violence, and it didn’t get much better from there.

Liam Duffy

Samizdata quote of the day

The idea that someone’s skin colour should determine their politics stems from a reactionary, patronising attitude towards non-white people. It ends up producing the grim spectacle of white people telling black people what they are allowed to think. Indentitarian activists are all for empowering black people – right up until they disagree with them.

Spiked

Samidata quote of the day

People react to discrediting evidence not by acknowledging reality but by entrenching their beliefs even further. This counter-productive thinking is further exacerbated by ‘cognitive dissonance’, another Festinger theory. When confronted with evidence disproving their beliefs, people will opt for the least painful choice, holding on to their beliefs, no matter how catastrophic these are, rather than admitting they have been wrong. Our political class – the Government – is currently providing a textbook example of this behaviour.

Karen Harradine