[awakened53]

Drivers could be hit with new ‘tyre tax’ in new crackdown on emissions


Drivers risk being forced to pay a “tyre tax” as Britain explores a crackdown on brake and tyre wear emissions.

Ministers have hired advisers to explore how to address harmful emissions that experts say are more harmful than diesel fumes.

The Department for Transport has asked consultancy Arup to “develop recommendations on how to better assess and control these emissions which will persist after a transition to zero tailpipe emission vehicles”, according to a Government filing.

Although the Whitehall officials this weekend insisted that Arup’s work was not designed to inform tax policy, it is being seen as one of the strongest signals yet that a tyre tax is coming down the road.

Andy Turbefield, head of quality at Halfords, said: “Putting a tax on road safety is not the right way to plug the fuel duty gap. Worn tyres and faulty brakes are two of the biggest causes of accidents.

“As it is, many motorists are delaying tyre replacement and basic maintenance because of the cost-of-living crisis. Using the tax system to penalise people for keeping their vehicles in a roadworthy condition is not a good policy.”

Tyre and brake wear pollution is expected to be the next battleground for clean air campaigners after drivers switch to electric vehicles.

Particles sent into the air – known as “particulate matter (PM) 2.5” – are more harmful than nox emissions that have been the target of low-emissions zones such as Sadiq Khan’s Ulez in London.

Although tyre technology has developed to reduce dangerous emissions, the Environment Department said last week that non-exhaust road emissions have “remained largely unchanged between 1996 and 2021”

Mr Turbefield added: “If taxing non-exhaust emission is to be considered, then there needs to be more research into emissions from road surface wear. It’s plausible that electric vehicles, which are much heavier than petrol vehicles, cause more damage to road surfaces and are therefore a bigger source of road surface emissions. Any review needs to take account of the big picture.”

Read More: Drivers could be hit with new ‘tyre tax’ in new crackdown on emissions

[Steve]

Ex-minister wanted to ‘frighten’ Brits into Covid compliance – leaked messages

 Texts reveal that Matt Hancock wanted his announcement of a new Covid variant to have 'maximum impact'

Former UK health secretary Matt Hancock wanted to “frighten the pants off everyone” to ensure compliance with the government’s Covid-19 restrictions, a trove of leaked text messages has revealed…

https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/geopol...-messages/

https://www.rt.com/news/572494-uk-hancoc...ges-covid/





“When do we deploy the new variant? We frighten the pants of everyone.” – British Government

https://stopworldcontrol.com/variant/?in...9540b69330

“When do we deploy the next variant? We frighten the pants of everyone.” These are the exact words of former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom, Matt Hancock. He was communicating with Damon Poole, Department of Health Media Special Adviser. See screenshots of WhatsApp messages below:

Hancock texted Poole how they would “frighten the pants off of everyone with the new strain”, to which Poole replied: “Yep that’s what will get proper behavior change”. “When do we deploy the new variant” asked Hancock, but Poole was careful: “Been thinking more about this and think we need to be more cautious”. “Worth doing a bit about no leaking at the top I think”. 
One week after this communication within the UK government the new variant was indeed deployed, to “frighten the pants off of everyone” and “get proper behavior change.”

The Lockdown Files

---

British newspaper The Telegraph obtained more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages sent between ministers, officials and others. They are released to the public as The Lockdown Files.  
These messages show how governments use scare tactics to force compliance and push through lockdowns. 
That was previously revealed by Brian Gerrish, an investigative journalist and senior editor of the UK Column. On February 5, 2022 he testified before a Grand Jury, along with one of his expert researchers, Debbie Evans, who was a government advisor at the Department of Health in the UK. They revealed documents that show how governments are using applied psychology and hypnosis to create fear and anxiety in the population, with the goal of changing their behavior.
In a government document called "SAGE / SPI_B Covid Team Minutes" we read the following paragraph:

2. Perceived threat: A substantial number of people still do not feel personally threatened; (...) The perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging. 

In other words, the fear mongering needs to be ramped up, in order to convince the population to comply with all the government tyranny.  This was confirmed by a leaked video recording of the Zoom meeting of an African government official, who told his staff:

"We must ramp up the covid deaths in order to prolong the lockdowns."

This leaked footage can be seen in the documentary "BUSTED - Media Crimes Exposed". In that video you can also see a technical director of CNN admit to an undercover journalist from Project Veritas, that they deliberately display covid deaths to create fear in the population. 

Fear is vital to scare people into compliance

---

Simon Case, the UK Cabinet Secretary, wrote to Matt Hancock that “the fear/ guilt factor” was “vital” in “ramping up the messaging” during the third national lockdown in Jan 2021.
During the pandemic, the British Government was accused of scaremongering but it was denied, with Mr Hancock’s department saying such accusations were “misleading”.
Psychologists have already warned that Government messaging during Covid, including using alleged “fear tactics” in poster and health campaigns, were “grossly unethical” and that inflated fear levels contributed to excess non-Covid deaths and increased anxiety disorders.
The exchange was not the only time the former health secretary and other senior officials discussed tactics to frighten the public into compliance.

In response to a text message from Hancock, UK Cabinet Secretary Simon Case wrote:

“I agree - I think that is exactly right. Small stuff looks ridiculous.  Ramping up messaging - the fear/guilt factor vital.”

The Cabinet Secretary then suggested the reopening of a Nightingale hospital in London – used as an overflow facility for non-Covid patients – would be a “big public moment”. In reality, only a handful of patients were ever admitted. Case also suggested imposing more mask to further increase fear among the public. 

"More mask-wearing might be the only thing to consider. Effectively free and has a very visible impact? Wear masks in all settings outside home and in more workplaces?"

[Steve]

Who are they really?

https://youtu.be/F_puwJrW--0

[Steve]

ARTICLE 61 OF MAGNA CARTA WAS INVOKED IN 2001- UNLAWFUL UK GOVERNMENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=deskto...w9KAraqasA

[awakened53]

Super-rich moron Sunak flies to Southampton and back on taxpayer-funded helicopter with contempt for the struggling public and the ‘climate change’ that he must know is bollocks


Downing Street today defended Rishi Sunak‘s use of a taxpayer-funded helicopter to fly to Southampton and back – rather than use the train or a car.

The Prime Minister, who has previously raised eyebrows with his use of aircraft for short journeys, made the trip from London to the South Coast to visit a pharmacy.

It is around 70 miles as the crow flies from the capital to Southampton.

No10 stressed Mr Sunak’s choice of transport was the ‘best use’ of his time due to the ‘pressure’ of his schedule.

But critics accused the wealthy PM of being ‘wildly out of touch’ with the British public and ‘throwing taxpayer money away so he can travel in luxury’.

The train from Waterloo to Southampton Central takes a little over an hour and a quarter, with an off-peak return ticket costing around £53.

Mr Sunak made the visit to coincide with his announcement of plans to expand the role of pharmacies to allow them to issue prescriptions for a number of common conditions.

Read More: Rishi Sunak flies to Southampton and back on taxpayer-funded helicopter

[awakened53]

Beyond Integrity Initiative: The Scale of UK Government Counter-Disinformation

By Mike Robinson...UK Column

The recent hack of the Institute for Statecraft’s Integrity Initiative programme offered a rare glimpse into a part of the government’s propaganda machine which it really doesn’t want anyone to see. Which raises the question, what else is there?

The Integrity Initiative was created to do the work of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Counter-Disinformation and Media Development Programme, led by Andy Pryce. To pursue that agenda, the Institute for Statecraft, the ‘charitable’ think thank behind Integrity Initiative received £1,233,711 from the FCO over the course of 2018.
Other FCO-funded organisations include BBC Media Action (£6,165,469 in 2018), the Thomson Reuters Foundation and the British Council (£189,568,186 in 2018 — total budget; no way of knowing how much goes towards media development), all of whom are involved in so-called media development work overseas, including in the Baltic states and Ukraine, so that “Russian speakers, wherever they are, have a choice in the media they consume and are able to access reliable and objective information.”
So much for efforts abroad. What about tackling the rampant ’disinformation’ that we're told exists here at home?
To deal with that problem, in April last year, Theresa May set up a ‘Rapid Response Unit’ inside the Cabinet Office as a sub-unit of the Government Communication Service. Given an initial six months funding, the Rapid Response Unit brought together a “team of analysts, data scientists and media and digital experts,” armed with cutting edge software to “work round the clock to monitor online breaking news stories and social media discussion.”
According to the Rapid Response Unit’s head, Fiona Bartosch, the team can react rapidly and intelligently to misinformation and disinformation and help government assess the effectiveness of their narrative. This includes working with the National Security Communications Team during “times of crisis.”
“For example,” Bartosch reports, “during the military action in Syria, the team worked continuously to identify misinformation, implementing targeted digital communication activity to key audiences where appropriate.
“RRU analysts were the first to flag instances of misinformation (such as Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov’s claim about the origin of the nerve agent used in the Salisbury poisoning) and highlighted the lack of prominence of HMG information when people searched for Syria news.”
According to Alex Aiken, Executive Director for Government Communications, “Due to the way that search engine algorithms work, when people searched for information on the [air strikes on Syria] … unreliable sources were appearing above official UK government information. In fact, no government information was appearing on the first 15 pages of Google results. We know that search is an excellent indicator of intention. It can reflect bias in information received from elsewhere.
“The unit therefore ensured those using search terms that indicated bias – such as ‘false flag’ – were presented with factual information on the UK’s response. The RRU improved the ranking from below 200 to number 1 within a matter of hours.”
How did they do that? Any expert in search engine optimisation will tell you that getting Google rankings improved significantly is a long and arduous task — certainly not something which can be achieved in “a matter of hours”. Does the Cabinet Office have a hotline to Google? I can’t think of any other explanation.
Two months following the establishment of the Rapid Response Unit, Theresa May attended the G7 Charlevoix Summit in Canada. There she secured agreement with the other G7 nations to establish a ‘Rapid Response Mechanism’, to rapidly deal with ‘hostile state activity’ through “coordinated attribution of hostile activity” and “joint work to assert a common narrative and response”.
At the time of writing, we do not know whether the work done by the Cabinet Office Rapid Response Unit feeds into the G7 Rapid Response Mechanism; the similarity of their names may be coincidental. We have asked the Cabinet Office to clarify the situation. What is clear, though, is the importance the May regime places on controlling the narrative.
Fiona Bartosch, head of the Rapid Response Unit, who we met a few paragraphs ago, has another job. She is also responsible for managing the Cabinet Office’s Media & Marketing Data Unit, another sub-unit of the Government Communication Service, which looks after the government’s “most transparent outcomes-based … media buying contract”. Media buying equals advertising.
According to Bartosch, civil servants should avoid “directly engaging with creators of false content”. This, I presume, includes funding creators of “false content”, because in late 2017, the Media and Marketing Unit pulled all advertising from YouTube because government advertisements were appearing “in proximity to extremist material” hosted on the platform.
Soon after, the government announced that it would review its media buying contract. That review resulted in Dentsu Aegis being replaced by Omnicom as the preferred supplier for managing the £140 million, or is that £600 million, or possibly £800 million, contract. The tender documents clearly show that the value of the contract is around £800 million to cover 2018-2020. That is a staggering budget for domestic propaganda.
Last week Alex Aiken announced that the Rapid Response Unit has now received permanent funding. Its startup phase is over. He told PRWeek that he has “set out three government communication priorities for the year ahead – raising standards, strengthening our democracy and reassuring communities. The work of the Rapid Response Unit directly supports these priorities and highlights the need to continue our efforts in tackling disinformation.”
That effort to tackle domestic “disinformation”, along with control of the government’s advertising budget is in the hands of a single civil servant: Fiona Bartosch.
Ironically enough, in a written parliamentary question published last June, Cabinet Office minister Chloe Smith said that the role of the Rapid Response Unit was to monitor “news and information being shared and engaged with online, including misinformation and disinformation,” finding ways to collaborate across Whitehall to “respond quickly, accurately and with integrity.”
Should that have been a capital ‘i’?

[awakened53]

Record numbers not working due to ill health


The number of people not working in the UK due to long-term sickness has risen to a new record, official figures show.

The Office for National Statistics said more than two and a half million were not working because of health problems.

There had been a rise in mental health issues in younger people, the ONS said, as well as in back and neck pain, possibly due to home working.

The ONS figures also showed the squeeze on pay remains, with wage increases failing to keep up with rising prices.

However, public sector pay is now growing at the fastest pace for about 20 years.

A rise in part-time and self-employed workers helped to push up the employment rate in the first three months of the year, the ONS said, and the number of job vacancies fell again.

Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at the ONS, said that since the Covid pandemic started there are “well over 400,000 more people outside of the labour market due to ill health and that means we are now at a new record level of comfortably over two and a half million”.

He added that an increase had been seen in “conditions related to mental health, particularly in the young”. There was also a rising number of people “having musculoskeletal issues, so problems connected to the back and neck, with some theories of the increase in home working contributing to that”.

“We’ve also seen an increase in the category that includes post-viral fatigue so perhaps long Covid having an impact.”

There are 2.55 million people classed as long-term sick, compared to 33 million people who are currently in work. That implies that for every 13 people currently working, one person is long-term sick.

Read more: Record numbers not working due to ill health

[awakened53]

UK government failed in paying off debt, taxes are increasingly NOT spent on any public services, with interest payments of UK debt now at £115,700,000,000 per year.


https://davidicke.com/2023/05/31/uk-gove...-per-year/

[awakened53]

Government Nudge Units Find the “Best” Ways to Manipulate the Public


Freedom of speech means a lot to us at the OP. However, that’s been fading fast, as Daisy has documented, and as though speech restrictions aren’t bad enough, most of us have been lab rats for central planners’ behavioral experiments longer than we probably care to realize. And now there are Nudge Units.

Huge amounts of money have been poured into “nudge research,” determining the best ways to get populations to change their behaviors without passing laws or using force.

What are Nudge Units?

Let’s look at how these “Nudge Units” got started, what they’ve been used for most recently, and what they’re likely to focus on next.

The concept of “nudging” people into making better choices became popular with the book Nudge—Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, authored by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, and published in 2008. Their book defines a nudge as:

. . .any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.  To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid.  Nudges are not mandates.  Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge.  Banning junk food does not.  (p.6)

(You may be interested to note that author Sunstein is married to Samantha Power, the administrator of Biden’s US Agency for International Development and previously Obama’s ambassador to the UN. Forbes listed Ms. Power as the 63rd most powerful woman in the world in 2014. Do you think she’s Nudging? ~ Daisy )

Individuals in government and industry quickly realized that the authors’ insights into the decision-making process could be used to manipulate that process in the minds of the general public, many of whom don’t have the time or mental energy for NYT bestsellers.

The British government established its first Behavioural Insights Team in 2010. It began as a seven-person team within a Cabinet Office nicknamed the “Nudge Unit” then became an independent social purpose company in 2014 before being purchased by Nesta, a larger social purpose company, in 2021.

These social purpose companies employ experts in promoting desirable behaviors. So in Britain, for example, they want to cut obesity rates in half and reduce household carbon emissions by 28% by 2030.

I don’t know how successful they’ve been in cutting obesity rates, but the Nudge Unit did prove its effectiveness early on by helping the British government collect an extra £200 million (about $248 million) in taxes in 2017. Not surprisingly, the Nudge Unit has become so popular that they have worked with governments in over 50 countries and have opened subsidiary offices in the U.S., Singapore, Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Mexico, and France.

What does a Nudge look like in the States?

Within the U.S., Nudge Units have been employed by health care systems such as UPenn, and Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts. In a way, this isn’t surprising; American and British citizens alike are known for high obesity rates and poor overall health.

Promoting good health within the general population seems like a good government goal, and I think most of us would have found this largely uncontroversial before 2020.  We may not always have agreed with the FDA’s exact dietary advice, but most of us would have probably agreed that we, as a nation, don’t need quite so many candy bars.

However, during 2020, this changed.  Public messaging around health care became far more intense, and some of the advice didn’t make sense.  At the very simplest level, what makes people healthy?  Exercise and proper diet.  Humans have known intuitively for a long time that sunshine is good for us. More recent research has shown that it kills viruses and bacteria. So why were people being forbidden to exercise and even, in some cases, to go outside?

Read More – Government Nudge Units Find the “Best” Ways to Manipulate the Public

[awakened53]

Starmer’s man reveals Starmer’s policy: Labour candidate in Johnson’s seat Danny Beales backs Sadiq Khan’s Ulez car tax saying ‘we all want cleaner air’ and suggests struggling families should blame the government if they can’t afford the extra £12.50 daily bill to drive in London


Labour’s candidate to replace Boris Johnson in Parliament sparked fury today by backing Sadiq Khan’s ULEZ tax and suggesting struggling families hit by the £250-a-month green levy should blame the Government.

Danny Beales said ‘we all need cleaner air’ as he was challenged over the £12.50 daily emissions toll, which will be expanded to outer London areas like Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

And while he admitted that some will find payments ‘tough’ he blamed the way ‘this government has mismanaged the economy’ and eaten into their spare cash.

Mr Beales will contest the constituency in the west London borough of Hillingdon after the shock decision by Mr Johnson to quit his seat to avoid censure over Partygate lawbreaking.

Labour is hoping to overturn Mr Johnson’s 7,210 majority, but the plan to expand the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in August could still cause the party problems.

Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands said: ‘I’ve been in Uxbridge today to kick off our by-election campaign, where residents have been telling me how furious they are with Sadiq Khan’s cynical ULEZ cash grab.

‘But it’s clear that Labour would rather back Mayor Khan than stick up for Uxbridge residents – selecting to be their candidate a Camden councillor who wanted ULEZ expanded years ago.

‘Only the Conservatives can be trusted to stand up for Uxbridge’s motorists.’

Asked by ITV if he supported ULEZ Mr Beales, 34, a charity worker, said: ‘We all want cleaner air, we all need to take polluting cars off the roads, to get more electric vehicles and we need to do that in the right way.

‘I think it is tough at the moment for families facing the potential of an extra bill when this government has mismanaged the economy – mortgage rates are up, fuel bills are up, food bills are up, so it is difficult – but I think what we need is a strategy from the government to transition our vehicles.

‘We all want electric vehicles and this government is doing nothing to make it happen.’

But Howard Cox, the founder of FairFuelUK and the Reform UK candidate for London mayor, said the main parties ‘are under the delusion that we all want to own expensive and impractical electric vehicles’.

‘This could not be further from the truth and shows how our politicos are completely out of touch with public opinion,’ he said.

‘The detested Ulez expansion will not make any demonstrable difference to the quality of the air we breathe, as clearly proven by Khan’s very own Transport for London.’

Mr Cox, who is running on a platform of scrapping ULEZ across all fo London, added: They are simply following the scent of an easy cash grab under the trendy naïve journey to the ruling elite’s unattainable net zero pipedream.’

Constituency level polling by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft earlier this month found voters were quite evenly divided as to whether they would prefer a Conservative government with Rishi Sunak as prime minister (29 per cent) or a Labour government led by Sir Keir (27 per cent) – while 30 per cent wanted neither.

However, there is the additional complicating factor of an insurgent campaign of rightwing Reclaim party leader Laurence Fox, which could claim some Tory votes.

The Tory civil war that has helped the party plummet in the polls is unlikely to die down any time soon.

Boris Johnson will reportedly be found tomorrow to have deliberately misled MPs over parties in Downing Street during the pandemic.

The Privileges Committee has rejected the former prime minister’s defence that senior officials advised him Covid rules and guidance had been followed in No 10, according to the Times.

But Mr Johnson – who resigned on Friday after receiving the group’s report – struck a defiant tone, quoting Arnold Schwarzenegger as he told the Daily Express: ‘I’ll be back.’

Read More: Labour candidate in Boris’s seat Danny Beales backs Sadiq Khan’s Ulez car tax