This is Northumberland Calling 3.3.23
The Search for the Smoking Gun edition
This is Northumberland Calling 3.3
The Search for the Smoking Gun edition
The Lockdown Files – The Telegraph obtained the full transcript of former health minister Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages from journalist Isabel Oakeshott over 2.5 million messages. Oakeshott felt the leak was in the public interest. Hancock messaged her with the words – Big Mistake. Perhaps his mistake was trusting her to begin with. https://archive.is/dcoqJ
The leaked messages reveal a government driven by fear and political expediency, rather than one ‘following the science.’ For example masks on schoolchildren were imposed because ministers did not fancy a row with Nicola Sturgeon who had imposed them in Scotland and in any case, nervous parents would start screaming. The closing of schools and masking of children and including them in the Rule of Six were also done despite knowing they had very little chance of becoming seriously ill. There are now 100,000 missing children (dubbed ghost children) who were on the schools’ rolls before the pandemic who have simply disappeared. Despite being operationally independent from politicians, the police were heavily leaned on to go beyond the letter of the law. They went so far beyond that all the fixed penalty notices issued had to be overturned. And of course, they used dubious means to show that public opinion back the measures in order to keep those politicians who were sceptical about the draconian measures on side. It basically shows a government in full panic mode, making up dictates on the hoof. This is a developing story and the number of articles detailing what happened keeps growing. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/lockdown-files/
Sue Gray who led the enquiry into Partygate which caused Johnson’s resignation last summer has joined Sir Kier Starmer, the leader of the Labour Party’s team as chief of staff. Certain politicians are not happy about this as civil servants are supposed to be politically neutral. https://archive.is/b6EYZ
MI5 missed significant chances to stop the Manchester Arena bomber. They made several reckless decisions, including deciding to focus solely on the threat from ISIS and to ignore threats from elsewhere. One officer who did have intelligence neglected to write it up the same day and border control neglected to stop him with the switch for the detonator. It is the old adage – the terrorists only have to get lucky once. https://archive.is/bxDFg
The judge in the case of the violent Scottish rapist who self-ided as trans after being arrested said that the man in question was not the victim in the case. The two women he’d raped were. https://archive.is/kRu2R
Isle of Man suspends sex education classes after a drag queen tells a class that there are 73 genders and ordered a student out of the room who objected, saying the student had upset the drag queen. Some 11 year olds were taught graphic details about oral and anal sex. They were left traumatized and unable to speak about it to their parents. Apparently the Isle of Man education dept is now going to investigate why they are suddenly teaching age inappropriate material after parents complained. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/27/drag-queen-teaches-11-year-olds-anal-sex-tells-73-genders/ https://archive.ph/XxbEl
Ian Fleming’s James Bond is cold blooded killer with sociopath tendencies and distinctly odd views on life (written in the 1950s and 1960s). The people who now own copyright decided to update the books. They could have gone for contextualization but instead opted for Presentism – altering words and passages to disguise what Fleming actually wrote. They have kept the misogyny and slurs against Asians but have removed the offensive references to black people. They have also erased the interesting fact that many drivers in the British Army during WW2 were black, something Fleming alluded to in one of his books. The update flatters to deceive and makes it easier in ways to think nothing has altered. It would have been much better if they put in an introduction and glossary. https://archive.is/lcVgA
An agent for sensitivity readers claimed they were not rewriting history, just making it more paltable to the modern reader. No prizes for guessing the skin tone of the woman who runs Write Up, a sensitivity reader agency which claims to decolonized and smash the patriarchy as well as being dedicated to ensuring greater representation in publishing. https://thegec.org/the-collective-bios/holly-edgar https://archive.is/4emAu
Lord Jonathan Sumption, a former Law Lord and truly one of the great thinkers of our time (he also wrote the definitive history of the 100 years war in his spare) did a great lecture on the death of historical truth and why we should all be concerned about it. https://unherd.com/2023/03/the-death-of-historical-truth/
The blurb for my latest: (NB I did not write the blurb. My editor did that. Part of their training is in how to write these things. They are also responsible for the title and briefing the art dept)
This Viking is about to uncover an explosive secret!
An unexpected family
For the lone-wolf warrior Nothing daunts Viking Tylir, until unassuming Melkorka Helmsdottar upends his life by revealing he has a secret heir! Mel has looked after little Katla since the girl’s mother died, but now Tylir intends to claim his child. Yet this battle-hardened jarl has no idea how to be a father. Mel is the perfect person to help him. Only, spending time with the captivating Mel binds him closer to her than he ever thought possible…
Congratulations on your novel!!!!! 😀
TYTY! I'm moving a little slow today, but am real glad I stopped by Your place, Ma'am. Very interesting, if somewhat discouraging, collection this week. Just a few thoughts, worth about $.02, I guess.
I thouight the judges wording on the trans-rapist Bryson was sort-a funny. The perp tried to invent “an alternative account of events”. AKA lied through his teeth.
From the article on drag queen giving sex-ed in Scotland: (Article quotes preceded by ">>>", just to confuse You. ;-)
>>> “How, who and why was this guest speaker permitted to discuss gender issues to an inappropriate child audience by an inexperienced and untrained adult?”
Sorry to see England in same boat about parents "being kept in the dark about age-inappropriate content being taught to children in sex education."
Worse materials than Scotland? Phew, can't imagine worse.
Wish we had Department for Education like You "guys" have.
Your spokeperson said: "Schools must make sure all content they use is factual and age-appropriate, and engage with parents so they are aware of what their children are being taught.
“We will write to all schools this term to emphasise the rights of parents to see teaching materials being taught to their children in schools.”
That *would* be nice.
Finally, Jonathan Simpson's essay in UnHerd was a great catch, Michelle!
I just got the barest start on it, so copied it to Word. (On the, maybe lame, assumption that will prompt me to study it in detail later.)
>>> "It is possible to create an entirely false narrative without actually lying, by exaggeration and tendentious selection."
Reminds me of the 1619 Project, here in the States.
>>> "Objectivity and truth have been the main casualties."
Yeah. And I saw that about the Wellcome Museum referred to in following.
>>> "It is palpably untrue that medical history, as presented in Medicine Man, was based on racist, sexist and ableist theories."
But just using words "racist," "sexist," and "ableist" means that, *by definition,* whatever is said is TRUTH!! <puke>
And the scandal of our Age:
>> "The first is that they are proposing a political program for the modern day, supported by a highly selective approach to the past which sees everything through the prism of race."
Yup. They see everything through a prism of race, and sex, and gender identity, and (dis)ability. Not to mention "decolonization" which is a general catch-all prism that can include a whole host-a things.
What could go wrong?
There's a special place in the underworld for Foucault. But I can't say I'd heard-a Said and his book "Orientalism." And
>>> So the call for atonement for heritable guilt is directed against some specific sector of humanity, say, white people, the British or Oxford University. This is not only irrational. It is also morally repellent. Historically, the idea that particular groups bear an inherited responsibility for some past iniquity has been the basis of ugly prejudices and vicious persecutions."
I'm glad somebody spoke these words out-loud. And I dunno about over there, but the following is one-a *the* biggest problems we face here in the U.S.:
>>> "National identity, Renan declared, did not depend on ethnic or linguistic solidarities, but on a history of collective effort, collective sacrifice and collective devotion. It depended on a consciousness of having done great things together in the past, and wanting to do more of them in future."
Future?
Well I, personally, thought the future publishing of Your latest book sounded real interesting.
TY, as always, for taking the time, Michelle!