The DT reports as breaking news:

Elon Musk has made a $43bn takeover offer for Twitter at $54.30 a share in cash.

The offer is a 54pc premium to its closing price on January 28 before he started buying shares.

The move comes after the Telsa founder was revealed to be Twitter’s biggest shareholder with a 9.2pc holding earlier this month.

Shares in Twitter rose 12pc in pre-market trading to $51.30.

Musk is widely understood to be a free speech advocate.  It seems that we are going to find out how free.

It is headlined What Ukrainians think about the war, Putin, Russia, NATO, Europe – and Britain. A remarkable poll from Kyiv., and it is revealing.  In the middle of all the pain and chaos of war, the pollster Lord Ashcroft has succeeded in sounding out the thoughts of Kievans.  The results challenge those in the West who don’t much concern themselves with the rights and interests of the folk who actually live under the missiles, shells and bombs, never mind their views.  It is, you seem, just too tempting to attack the neocons and usual suspects in “the West” who, it is said, left Putin no alternative but to launch a full scale war against a peaceful people.

From ConHome’s article:

Ukrainians want to stay and fight

Only 11 per cent of Ukrainians agreed “if I could leave Ukraine safely tomorrow for another country I would.” Nearly seven in 10 (69 per cent) strongly disagreed. Only one in 20 (five per cent) of those aged 65 or over said they would leave if they could.

Indeed, 67 per cent said they would be willing to take up arms to defend the country against Russian troops, with a further seven per cent saying they were already doing so. 85 per cent of men and 63 per cent of women said they had already taken up arms or were willing to do so.

Ninety-three per cent said they were willing to help Ukrainian troops in other ways, such as providing shelter, food or clothing, or were already doing so.

Ninety-two per cent said they had a favourable view of President Zelensky, including 66 per cent whose view was very favourable.

Ukrainians do not expect a long war

More than half (56 per cent) of Ukrainians said they expected the conflict to be over by the end of March, with a further 14 per cent expecting it to last up to three months. Fewer than one in ten (nine per cent) said they thought it would last longer than six months. Women and younger people were more optimistic about an early end to military action.

No part of Ukraine is part of Russia – but Ukrainians don’t see Russians as the enemy.

98 per cent of Ukrainians – including 82 per cent of those of Russian ethnicity – said they did not believe that any part of Ukraine was rightfully part of Russia.

While 97 per cent had an unfavourable view of Vladimir Putin and 94 per cent had an unfavourable view of the Russian military (including only 82 per cent saying “very unfavourable”; 12 per cent generously said their view of Russian forces was only “somewhat unfavourable”), Ukrainians see Russians themselves in a slightly different light.

Only 62 per cent said they had a very unfavourable view of the Russian people, with a further 19 per cent saying it was somewhat unfavourable. Fourteen per cent had a somewhat or very favourable view of the Russian people.

Ukrainians consider their future to be closer to Europe

Nearly 19 in 20 Ukrainians (93 per cent) said they considered their country’s future to be closer to Europe than to Russia. This included 78 per cent of respondents of Russian ethnicity, and 84 per cent of those in the east of the country closest to the Russian border.

Nationalists like to talk about honour.  This is honour.

The centralised and totalistic nature of the British National Health Service make it uniquely suitable for large-scale top-down driven experiments and pilot tests.  This video by former investigative journalist zedphoenix:

... argues that documentary evidence in his possession and publicly available resources on-line reveal the intention to revolutionise health delivery across the country, based on the digitalisation groundworks laid by NHS England, NHSX and NHS Digital (the latter of two of which will merge into a single Transformation Directorate from May of this year).  Manifestly, the Covid crisis and its associated vaxxing had been key to launching a digital passporting system.  But NHSX went live three years ago, and the programme is rolling forward regardless of the failure with the virus to go the whole way.  The intent is unchanged. 

Much of the digitalisation/data issue has been discussed by Brian Gerrish and Co at UK Column since 2019 at least. But Zed’s additional documentation has enabled him to arrive at a much more complete picture of what seems all too likely to lie ahead.  That picture includes:

1. The shift from hospital treatment to home treatment.
2. Diagnosis and prescription only by AI, eventually without medical professional oversight.
3. The closure of local doctor’s surgeries and of the great majority of hospitals, and the redundancy of up to 75% of NHS staff.
4. Constant monitoring of all of us by means of “wearables” on our person (and, presumably, by implant at some point).
5. Food-intake and life-style dictate (which one would imagine would be linked to a programmable digital currency so alternative foods cannot be purchased by you and me.  It’s bugs or nothing.

... and so on, along the merry way to “Sustainable Development”.

None of this is subject to parliamentary debate.  No new laws need to be made, though one would hope that aspects of it should come before the Health and Social Care Parliamentary Committee.  Having said that, the committee has just taken evidence on the future of general practice, with an depressingly “look the other way” agenda of exploring “regional variation in general practice, the general practice workload, and the partnership model of general practice”.

If Zed’s right it’s going to take every lorry on the road and then some to get this stopped!

It seems to me that a Great Charter of Our Freedom, somewhat akin in form if not, of course, content to the Leveller’s Manifesto, is required to take out to all the people for agreement and signature, and that the above five government crimes in commission now constitute a fair basis for its Health section.  I might have a think about that.  One to put in the hands of Laurence Fox’s party, and let them go at it.

UPDATE

I’ve just been taking a look at the WEF health “platform” page, and here is the lead copy:

Transforming systems to keep more people healthy.

The World Economic Forum is committed to using new models of public-private collaboration to develop more resilient, efficient, and equitable healthcare systems.

We aim to move past our capital-intensive, hospital-centric healthcare delivery model, which is unsustainable and ineffective – and to create new opportunities to advance the use of data-enabled systems and virtual care.

So “the virus” which caused the Westminster government to lie to the people for two years, Big Pharma to grow terra-rich and the rest of us dirt poor, and about 17,000 deaths in reality, is all over bar the last few painless, entirely safe and obviously really, really necessary jabs.  They say.  But, then, they would because Boris Johnson’s political career is in desperate trouble.

He’s ordering the Royal Navy to seal off the Channel and stop the migrant invasion, too.  It’s amazing what a principle-free hypocrite ... sorry, a national leader can get done when he really wants to.  We all know that the Channel won’t be sealed for a moment, of course.  Still, those bites sound good, and that’s the main consideration.  Likewise, Boris has ordered Dorries to make a few right-wing harrumphing sounds about the biased BBC and its licence tax.  Probably nothing will ever be done.  But, y’know, it’s the perception that’s the thing.

Well, while pondering what to make of all this red meat, I have to take my hat off to the writer of the pithy top comment on the relevant ZH thread, one IAMEVERYONE, who simply asked us to:

Imagine a virus so deadly and contagious that it disappears when a politician is at risk of losing public office.

For that small mercy let us be grateful.  Others may be less so.  If the great lockdown wind-down winds its merry way to endemicity, and anything like normality circa March 2020 comes to pass, that will leave several other Western governments ... the ones who are currently bent on a mad war against the unvaxxed ... looking decidedly yesterday.  Klaus Blofeld, in his lair deep within the Schiahorn above Davos, must be absolutely livid.

We have arrived at that strange moment, as we do every decade, when the Office of National Statistics begins to behave like a coquettish but no longer young and nubile dame sashaying across the stage of some ferociously vulgar 18th century farce.  First we are treated to the revealing of a stockinged ankle and, then, a flash of petty-coat hem.  By the beginning of March we should have the full, ghastly reveal with the final figures from the 2021 Census, collected this time last year.  Today, though, we just had a little, Replacement-confirming appetiser:

Migrants will stop Britain’s population from falling during next decade
ONS predicts 59,000 more deaths than births over the next 10 years, but increase in net migration will prevent population from declining

The UK population would fall in the next decade if it were not for migration, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has forecast for the first time.

In a report published on Wednesday, the ONS predicted 59,000 more deaths than births over the next 10 years because of a declining fertility rate, as women have fewer children and the number of elderly people increases sharply.

This would have meant the population declined for the first time since records began to 67 million, but for a 2.2 million increase in net migration taking the projected total for the UK to 69.2 million in mid-2030.

It represents a net 200,000 extra migrants settling in the UK each year for the next decade, according to the ONS estimates, despite Brexit ending free movement from Europe.

... However, ONS figures showed that the total fertility rate for England and Wales fell to 1.58 children per woman in 2020, the lowest since records began in 1938. One reason is the increasing numbers of women, now better educated than men, who are delaying children until their 30s as they pursue careers ...

At 9.35pm this evening the Telegraph posted the following news report, which echoes the position of the Great Barrington Declaration.  Remember that?

Fourth Covid jab: We can’t vaccinate the planet every six months, says JCVI chief
Further inoculations should not be offered until there is more evidence, says Sir Andrew Pollard, with priority given to the most vulnerable

Fourth Covid jabs should not be offered until there is more evidence, the head of Britain’s vaccine body has said - as he warned that giving boosters to people every six months was “not sustainable”.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Professor Sir Andrew Pollard, chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said “we need to target the vulnerable” in future, rather than giving boosters to all over-12s.

Sir Andrew said there was no point in trying to stop all infections, and that “at some point, society has to open up” ...

Wiki states that the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation  (JCVI) is:

an independent expert advisory committee that advises United Kingdom health departments on immunisation, making recommendations concerning vaccination schedules and vaccine safety. It has a statutory role in England and Wales, and health departments in Scotland and Northern Ireland may choose to accept its advice.

So its voice is important in government, and right now its recommendations seem to be contrary to current government policy, the opinion of SAGE and NHS practitioners.  The edifice is cracking.

A Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter?  The highest recognition in the honours system?  Well, you can protest the knighthood Boris Johnson is granting the Blair creature with one “signature” here at Change.org.