Toby Young, who purports to be a champion of free speech and a staunch opponent of 'lockdown', is prepared to admit to surrendering his self-control to an app flogged by the NHS.

To watch such a character willingly and publicly plonk himself into his own social credit prison has provided more irony than I was expecting during the first week of the year.

And, if you were wondering; pun intended.

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https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/could-a-100-bottle-limit-help-me-cut-down-on-drinking/

Despite the best efforts of the No Health Sinkhole and the 'gender and genital' militia, I still marvel at the wonder of rainbows. After all, the original version was around for a few years before anyone tried meddling with it.

Based on the same principle, enjoying the music of The Waterboys still works, even if Mike Scott went off the rails with a case of the sniffles.

As 2024 stretches out ahead of us, the potency of the lyrics to Spirit remains. Even if you're not a fan of the music, the words are worth listening to.

Short version.

Full version.

And, for the indulgent, live from Glastonbury, 1986.

If you've been wondering where a good chunk of your pocket money is going this year, this Briefing Paper has some answers.

Of course, the delivery of military support is balanced by further support to the vast number of Ukrainian migrants accepted into the UK, who are fleeing the violence wrought by the supply of military support.

To June 2023, 179,000 Ukrainians were accepted into the UK as refugees, a figure equal to the total number of refugees accepted into the country between 2014 and 2021.

'Detailed timeline of UK military assistance to Ukraine (February 2022-present)

'The UK is one of the leading donors to Ukraine, alongside the US and Germany. To date, the UK has pledged over £9.3 billion in overall support to Ukraine (PDF), of which £4.6 billion is for military assistance in the financial years 2022/23 and 2023/24. The Government has not yet allocated funding for
2024/25. Funding is being met from the Treasury Reserve and will not come from the MOD’s main budget.'

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https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9914/CBP-9914.pdf

G D makes the following suggestion (underneath this post), with which it is hard to argue. Have you any experience of taking such measure?. This is precisely what Chris Coverdale deals with on the subject of Tax Rebellion.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuYiKb9CwQY

When filing your tax returns, all UK citizens should include a note to say that you are withholding the portion that is being wasted on a contrived conflict that has nothing to do with the UK anyway.... and of course withhold the funds too.

TASS reporting that the United States is prepared to jump into action, now that they have confirmed the death of Gonzalo Lira, in Ukrainian custody.

The State Department website makes no mention of this.

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https://tass.com/world/1731827

Good morning. A brief reminder that messages like this are most certainly not from me, and should be disregarded.

Similarly, if you receive a private message from this channel, it is spam, and not the edible kind (perhaps fortunately).

The tells are heart-shaped emojis, inane questions improbable websites.

Charles

We reap what we sow, it seems!

There remains a unique quality to the language used by the British Army. Some will remember with fondness the pages in pamphlets inscribed only with the ironic words ‘Page Intentionally Blank’.

77 Brigade decided to advertise a job with the following text:

‘77th Brigade seeks to deliver non-lethal effects to change audience behaviour through non-kinetic actions, to have a cognitive effect across the Integrated Operating Framework.’

A prize to anyone who guessed, correctly, that this is for a recruitment job. It is not clear whether the post is balanced by another delivering lethal effects.

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https://www.findforcesjobs.mod.gov.uk/vx/mobile-0/appcentre-ext/brand-5/candidate/so/pm/1/pl/3/opp/7486-SO3-Assessment/en-GB

For a detailed account of the suppression of critical thinking and freedom of expression in the education system in the UK, this interview is tremendous and outrageous at the same time. Three young men spoke with admirable maturity to Debi Evans about the efforts made to crush dissent in the young; mostly via the meddling of PREVENT.

I give this a very strong recommendation and if you are aware of any similar occurrences or experiences, please post in the comments. This situation must change. If you think this would strike a chord, please share it.

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https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/prevented-education-controlling-the-narrative-in-colleges-and-universities

For those watching UK Column News Extra this afternoon, the scene I referred to from In The Loop is below. There is something about the fictional Simon Foster which reminds me of Grant Shapps. If only everything Shapps did was so funny, and without the deadly consequences.

Brace yourself for a torrent of profanity.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJpQk6YAw1s

From the Church of England Stewardship Report 2022; 8 of 10 ‘highlights’ concern climate.

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https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2023-06/6252_Pensionsboard_Stewardship_vFINAL.pdf

Rob Roos MEP strikes the nail dead-centre in suggesting that the ‘urban, academic ruling class is tremendously disconnected from the vast majority of the people'. Whilst this could apply to any current issue, he is referring to the farmers’ protests in Europe.

There appears to be an unnerving silence from the agrarians on this side of the channel. Are you aware of any sense of fortcoming action from farmers en masse or, indeed, any small-scale protest in the UK?

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https://www.linkedin.com/posts/robroosnl_eu-farmers-activity-7153491463723491328-Rt9a?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

No more 'grim milestones'?

For the first time since March 2020, the ONS does not include the running tally of 'COVID Deaths'. They are getting pretty creative with the calculation of the five-year average, though.

One presumes an advantage of chopping the 'pandemic' ticker is that it will be easier to fend off calls for a rolling vaccine death-count.

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https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending5january

Though he didn't quite have room to remind his readers that not all slaves were, or are, dark-skinned, David Abulafia does pick out the right bits of nonsense where museums are concerned.

'It is not that I have no moral perspective on how the creators of empire across four millennia have acted towards their subjects. But the use of objects in museums to tell a distorted picture in the interests of supposed Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, infused with Critical Race Theory, is a betrayal of what museums are supposed to do.

Museums are not political tools, as the Museums Association, with its rants against racism and colonialism, seems to think. Racism is indeed a great evil.

But it is essential to look at the past through the eyes of those who lived then, realising that they operated according to different ideas about the world which, unsettling as that might be, legitimated behaviour we would deplore if it were exercised today.'

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https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-the-national-maritime-museum-is-trying-to-decolonise-lord-nelson/

A reminder of the wisdom of The Crayon (just seen on Gloucestershire Collective channel).

It is remarkable how perspectives can vary; 15 Dec 21 was the beginning of my departure from the police, precisely because of the very concerted efforts to do everything but preserve freedom.

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https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/regional-news/alex-chalk-boosters-best-way-6352678

Crikey, Grant Shapps wasn't joking.

Billions to Ukraine and the stout yeomen of Ambridge have finally been dragged into this dreadful conflict.

For overseas subscribers, this is a terrible joke about a very long running and now spectacularly dull and wokeish BBC radio drama.

For all subscribers, does anyone at all listen to The Archers any more?

Report Concludes: No Convincing Case For Why UK Needs A CBDC - UK Column News - 24th January 2024

- Bank of England: Statistical Reporting of Crypto Assets: Statistical Notice 2024/01
- Cato Institute: Global Policymakers Are Still Pushing CBDCs Despite Their Failures
- National Bank of Ukraine: E-Hryvnia
- Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Tracker: e-hryvnia (Ukraine) Digital Currency
- Bank Of Israel: Digital Shekel (CBDC)
- Bank of Jamaica: Jamaica's Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC)—JAM-DEX
- The Jamaica National Group: Data Security Incident Full Statement
- eNaira: Same Naira, More Possibilities
- CoinDesk: Why Nigerians Aren't Turning to the eNaira Despite Crippling Cash Shortages
- Government Accountability Office: The Effectiveness of Economic Sanctions At Risk from Digital Asset Growth
- UK Parliament: The digital pound: still a solution in search of a problem?
- Financial Conduct Authority: FCA sets out new rules to maintain access to cash in increasingly digital world

Sources: www.ukcolumn.org/video/uk-column-news-24th-january-2024

Had there been time, this would have been the clip to include in the CBDC segment on UK Column News yesterday.

These people should be considered a laughing stock and we should not be losing any sleep over pie in the sky projects. Such projects, though, must be stamped out swiftly and emphatically.