188 Responses to Midweek 10th June 2026

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  1. Althepalerp says:
    June 11, 2026 at 8:50 am

    So the State will be targeting “misinformation” on line, and will seek to punish those spreading it.

    Back in my day, we would use the word “Lie”

    So we will be soon locking up liars. But who gets to choose what are lies

    A ministry of truth would sort that out!

       6 likes

    • Scroblene says:
      June 11, 2026 at 9:37 am

      “A ministry of truth would sort that out!”

      We’ve already got one…

      Oh wait, I meant Verify and Ofcom – how silly of me!

         2 likes

  2. MarkyMark says:
    June 11, 2026 at 8:52 am

    Dark times ….. need strong leaders …. like Keir and Labour

    2026 “Hilary Benn: New Powers Will Target ‘False Information’ Online During ‘Crisis’ Events Like Belfast”
    https://order-order.com/2026/06/11/hilary-benn-new-powers-will-target-false-information-during-crisis-event/

    ………….

    1765 …. **In a republic worthy of name, freedom to publish one ’s thoughts is a citizen’s natural right.** They may use a pen or their voice, and should not be prevented from writing any more than speaking …That is the law in England, a monarchical country, where people are freer than elsewhere because they are more enlightened. – Voltaire, Republican Ideas, 1765

    2019 …Australia’s highest court has made a landmark ruling that a public servant was lawfully sacked for writing tweets which criticised government policies. The court rejected her claim that she had been denied a right to free speech. – Australia, 2019

    1765 … **In a republic worthy of name, freedom to publish one’s thoughts is a citizen’s natural right.**

    2019 … ** a public servant was lawfully sacked for writing tweets which criticised government policies.**

    ………………..

    Nick Lowles, the Chief Executive of the anti-racism group HOPE not hate, issued a public apology for spreading false information on X (formerly Twitter) when he mistakenly claimed a Muslim woman had been attacked with acid

    “Nick Lowles Hope Not Hate: “Yes, the list was a hoax, but just look at the front pages of today’s papers. An anti-racist message is being transmitted to millions of homes this morning””

    Nick Lowles Hope Not Hate: “Yes, the list was a hoax, but just look at the front pages of today’s papers. An anti-racist message is being transmitted to millions of homes this morning”
    by inukpolitics

       1 likes

  3. MarkyMark says:
    June 11, 2026 at 9:05 am

    Long Read sorry….

    “Douglas Murray in the Speccie:

    “I get the sense that the political and media class badly miss Katie Hopkins. Back when the reality TV star was still a regular on our screens and in our newspapers, she could be relied upon to be the focus of attention whenever the people in charge didn’t want the public’s attention to be focused where it ought to be.

    So when a British soldier was decapitated on the streets of London, or a suicide bomber went off at a pop concert packed with teenage girls, Ms Hopkins could be found saying something that a lot of people were thinking – only in a more colourful or unwise way. A pattern emerged whereby, within 24 hours of any atrocity on the streets of Britain, the political and media class would be talking about how inappropriate Hopkins’s comments were and how forcefully we must all condemn them. Her comments were generally said to be ‘divisive’, ‘hateful’ and ‘have no place in public life’. It was a comfortable place to be, because everyone could then avoid talking about the atrocity itself.

    To some extent, Nigel Farage appears to have filled the deep need for such a figure. After Vickrum Digwa’s conviction for the murder of Henry Nowak – and the release of police bodycam footage showing officers handcuffing the victim as he lay dying – the leader of Reform said we should feel ‘pure, cold rage’. Keir Starmer described Farage’s words as ‘unforgivable’ and declared that this is ‘a time for serious work, not rage’, while the BBC and other media focused their discussion on the question of whether Farage should have spoken at all – and promptly also misrepresented his words.

    Perhaps the Prime Minister and others might at some point produce a chart – or Power-Point presentation – explaining the feelings that the public are allowed to hold in response to various atrocities? For instance, under what situation are we allowed to feel ‘mildly irked’? What sort of attack might we be allowed to actually be ‘angry’ about? Is the ‘serious work’ Starmer now calls for something we are allowed to participate in? Or can this Defcon 1 response only be engaged in by the professionals?

    Unfortunately the past week has provided another round of such questions. On Monday a Sudanese migrant living in Belfast was caught on camera trying to behead a local man on the city’s streets. It turned out that the perpetrator had crossed into Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland and been given refugee status.

    Starmer described the attempted beheading as ‘sickening’, while the Chief Constable of the PSNI warned about the challenge of toxic online commentary. ‘All of our communities in Northern Ireland contribute positively to this place,’ Jon Boutcher said, warning people not to be ‘fooled or duped into a trap by people online’.

    In the Commons the government had a swift response to a question from the Northern Ireland Unionist MP Jim Allister, who asked what might be done ‘to stop the importation of an alien culture that thinks it’s appropriate to try and behead someone’. The responding minister – Hilary Benn – spied his opening. ‘I’m sorry the honourable gentleman used the term “alien culture”,’ he said. ‘What exactly is he referring to?’ It shouldn’t be that hard to understand.

    Historically speaking, Northern Ireland is not a place filled with pacifists. Indeed, it was almost touching that the First Minister Michelle O’Neill responded to the attack by saying that its citizens should not let ‘other people, who don’t care about here, incite hatred or fear’. She went on to say the public should not allow ‘people who are faceless to orchestrate campaigns on the street’. Because in the normal order of things it has been the job of Sinn Fein/the IRA to do just those things.

    Still, the appallingness of the crime should not baffle the political class. Why not – finally – use it as a learning moment?

    For years there has been a stock response whenever anybody raised the issue of the mainly Pakistani rape gangs. ‘So you’re saying that everybody from that background is a rapist?’ was deflection question no. 1. To which the answer was: ‘Obviously no.’ But then there was a clever little question no. 2: ‘So you think white British men don’t abuse children?’ To which the answer was obviously once again ‘no’. The questions were insincere because the real answer – as with the Belfast attack – is so obvious. We have our own rapists, but why exactly do we need to import more? It is a version of the question Germany might have done well to address in the past couple of decades: ‘Given our historical problem with anti-Semitism, ought we to import a large and fresh batch of anti-Semites?’

    The term ‘alien cultures’ is a completely appropriate one. It would include the sort of cultures in which it is not uncommon for people to go around trying to behead others. This certainly doesn’t mean that everybody from any particular community should be accused of crimes they have not committed. But it also doesn’t mean we should all have to pretend to be completely ignorant of what an MP like Jim Allister is referring to.

    Different cultures have different traditions, customs, habits and proclivities. They include different attitudes towards women, violence, gaming the system (including the asylum and welfare systems) and much else. The problem with this pretend ignorance is precisely that: it is a pretence. Everybody knows what people are getting at when they worry about the negative sides of their own culture, so why do we have to pretend to be completely befuddled when someone raises the negative sides of other cultures?

    We all know the answer. Which is that generations of politicians and pundits have given us a problem that they do not know how to solve. But people have noticed the problem. And no amount of pretended bewilderment or deflection will cover that fact over for ever.””

    ………..

    2017 …. As Home Secretary in 2017, Amber Rudd led a campaign to force technology companies to grant security and intelligence agencies backdoor access to end-to-end encrypted messaging platforms like WhatsApp

    2026 Hilary Benn: New Powers Will Target ‘False Information’ Online During ‘Crisis’ Events Like Belfast

       5 likes

  4. MarkyMark says:
    June 11, 2026 at 9:41 am

    “Met Police calls on tech firms to make stolen phones unusable”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg4dey905yo

    “Met Police calls on tech firms to make stolen money unusable”
    “Met Police calls on tech firms to make kids unrapable”
    “Met Police calls on tech firms to make others to patrol the streets”

    “The Metropolitan Police and policing officials argue that retailers and the public failing to stop, challenge, or report shoplifters exacerbates the ongoing retail theft crisis. “

       1 likes

  5. MarkyMark says:
    June 11, 2026 at 9:57 am

    “Keir Starmer
    @Keir_Starmer

    This government will not stand by while children are put at risk online.

    Today I am calling on the tech companies to introduce device-level controls to prevent children from taking, sharing or viewing nude images.

    And if they don’t act, we will.”

    Community Notes
    ”

    https://x.com/Keir_Starmer/status/2063900280299675847

    Readers added context they thought people might want to knowReaders added context
    Jess Phillips resigned from gvnt May 12 citing Starmer’s failure to act on this specific measure.
    lbc.co.uk/article/keir-s…
    Technology like this requires blanket ID vertification to take vetted photos. Kids easily verify as adults rendering measures useless while curbing liberty for everyone else.
    eff.org/pages/uk-onlin…”

       1 likes

    • Fedup2 says:
      June 11, 2026 at 10:07 am

      The Irish citizen army – composed of Protestant and catholics trying to hold on to their country – must be making the British state dust off the ladybird book of ‘troubles ‘ – meanwhile soldiers who fought Irish terrorist face TTK courts – with judges on video screens …

         4 likes

  6. MarkyMark says:
    June 11, 2026 at 10:15 am

    “Ed Miliband is at war with Number 10 over its attempts to slash DESNZ’s budget by at least 1% to help fund the elusive Defence Investment Plan (DIP). According to the Telegraph, Miliband has gone studs up over demands to squeeze around £600m from the department. Will someone think of the heat pumps…

    Currently, around £9 billion is set to be spent on carbon capture and storage alone. Miliband thinks this is a worthy investment, even as the DIP is around £4.5 billion short of the funding requested by the MoD. Is Ed aware that Britain’s Navy more or less doesn’t exist?

    The ongoing cabinet wrangling over the DIP is increasingly regarded as an academic exercise within Labour circles anyway, given Starmer’s tenure in Number 10 is coming to an end. Although under the new regime, Miliband will still sit at the top table…”

    https://order-order.com/2026/06/11/miliband-digs-in-over-net-zero-in-funding-clash-with-starmer/

    ………
    Small boats data ZERO DUE TO WEATHER?
    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats-last-7-days
    …..
    HMS Prince of Wales expected to be on the move again soon following “technical issue”
    By Kelly Brown
    Editor
    Published 6th Jun 2026, 09:23 BST
    …….
    HMS Dragon docks after ‘minor technical issue’
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gxw7px8glo
    …….
    The UK government’s total welfare bill, which includes the State Pension, has frequently exceeded income tax receipts, but this is not a new phenomenon. In fact, welfare spending has been higher than income tax revenue for the past 13 consecutive years, with both the Full Fact and Institute for Fiscal Studies confirming this dynamic predates the current parliament.

       1 likes

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