John Campbell on new ONS excess deaths statistics, apparently developed by their new memory-hole unit.

As for how the people of the UK will take the news:

It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be REDUCED to twenty grammes a week. Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it.

tomo,
I'm sure there are people behaving very badly; it's the global coordination that I'm unable to accept. Mostly we have a large number of people with a common interest in guarding their position at the trough. And they rationalise it too; e.g. I don't think Hillary's deplorables was code.

Today Jo Nova has my favourite argument to convince believers that our aiming for Net Zero is utter folly. Doesn't require denial or anything. We needn't preen about pulling 4 GW of coal power off our grid in the last two years
when China has added 47 GW of coal power in the last year alone (near enough double the entire coal fleet of Australia).

Not saying I've managed to turn anyone, but it has certainly brought a couple of them up short.

tomo,
Yeah, pretty humiliating for the family. In less well-informed circles I suppose you could try: My dad's a decorated officer...

On the organised evil, I sincerely doubt the evil puppet master (underlit). I'm sure there are people pulling away at strings, and no doubt some of them work, but some are tangled up with strings other people are tugging at. The result is emergent and fits with *nobody's* grand scheme. From time to time it accords with quite a few of the evil ones' wishes, hence the reference to Les Patterson's convergence of interests.

The Post Office scandal is no doubt something many wish could be blue-pilled away. Looks like they're trying pretty hard to make that happen. The media, the civil service, the Post Office itself, and the politicians share a convergent wish for a poorly informed public, but all for different reasons.

It doesn't add up...,
I'm afraid It Ain't Half Hot Mum (along with Only Fools and Horses) is from a time I was busy with other things and missed out on BritComs. That gap probably explains some of my character flaws.

The latest EconTalk, discussing the Gaza war with Robert Wright was an interesting attempt to "engage with the enemy" (Wright leans pretty firmly towards Hamas in the conflict, where Russ Roberts naturally favours Israel). I think most listeners will have come away with their prior views intact.

Gloria in It Ain't Half Hot Mum was a figure of comedy. Today he would be a reality star.

A middle-aged white bloke dresses as a woman and tells us that bad weather is worse for black people than for whites. Makes me wonder: when they show repeats of Monty Python's Flying Circus these days, is it rated as comedy, or reality tv?

Brendan O'Neill interview with Katharine Birbalsingh was good; she gave a clear (and loud) exposition for various practices (including banning prayers) at the Michaela school.

All made sense, and it seems the place to send your children if you want them well educated. The thought occurs: ok, that's secondary school sorted. Now what? There's not much room for clear and logical thinkers in university anymore.