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Category: UK
October 4, 2024
NatSec
UK

BoJo: Bibi Bugged My Bog.

Former British Prime Minister and Ukraine war enthusiast Boris Johnson is insinuating that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have planted listening devices in his personal restroom in 2017 when Johnson served as Foreign Secretary. Johnson alleges that his security team uncovered bugging devices in the restroom after the Israeli leader made use of the facilities.

Johnson details this episode in his book Unleashed, where he refers to Netanyahu as “Bibi.” He recounts a meeting in his former office where Netanyahu excused himself to use the restroom, which Johnson described as akin to “the gents in a posh London club” and located within a “secret annex.”

Johnson has been asked for more information about the incident but declined to provide further details, saying everything pertinent to the episode could be found in his book. Official sources have not expanded upon Johnson’s discovery of the device and subsequent claims, and no further investigations have been reported.

The Foreign Office has not issued any statements regarding the alleged bugging incident. Israeli officials and other involved parties are also yet to respond to the allegations made in Johnson’s book.

Since leaving electoral politics, Johnson has focused on drumming up support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. Earlier this year, he spoke on the war during a small breakout session at the Republic National Convention to a mostly empty crowd.

Johnson, who scuppered peace talks in 2022, later met with President Donald J. Trump to lobby for Ukraine.

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Former British Prime Minister and Ukraine war enthusiast Boris Johnson is insinuating that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have planted listening devices in his personal restroom in 2017 when Johnson served as Foreign Secretary. Johnson alleges that his security team uncovered bugging devices in the restroom after the Israeli leader made use of the facilities. show more
October 2, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Religion
UK

Christian School Assistant Fired For Critiquing LGBT Curriculum.

Kristie Higgs, a former pastoral assistant at a nominally Christian school in Fairford, England, has initiated a Court of Appeal challenge in London against her dismissal. In 2019, the Farmor’s School, run by the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, terminated Higgs for gross misconduct after she shared Facebook posts criticizing the introduction of LGBTQ relationship education at her son’s school.

In a 2018 post decrying “brainwashing” in schools, Higgs criticized government moves to make “Relationships and Sex Education mandatory,” warning that “children will be taught that all relationships are equally valid and ‘normal,’ so that same-sex marriage is exactly the same as traditional marriage and that gender is a matter of choice, not biology so that it’s up to them what sex they are.”

Higgs said this would mean that “expressing and teaching fundamental Christian beliefs, relating to the creation of men and women and marriage will in practice become forbidden—because they conflict with the new morality and are seen as indoctrination into unacceptable religious bigotry.”

She further said this would mean that “freedom of belief will be destroyed, with freedom of speech permitted only for those who toe the party line!” The school responded by firing her.

CHRISTIANS SILENCED.

In 2020, an Employment Tribunal upheld the dismissal, which she challenged as infringing on freedom of religion and expression. In 2023, an Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled her case had not been appropriately handled. Still, it referred it back to the lower tribunal for a fresh determination instead of ruling definitively in her favor, prompting her to take the matter to the Court of Appeal.

“This is not just about me. It cannot be right that so many Christians are losing their jobs or facing discipline for sharing biblical truth, our Christian beliefs,” she said outside the Royal Courts of Justice on Wednesday. “I am not alone to be treated this way. Many of the others… have faced similar consequences,” she added.

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Kristie Higgs, a former pastoral assistant at a nominally Christian school in Fairford, England, has initiated a Court of Appeal challenge in London against her dismissal. In 2019, the Farmor's School, run by the Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, terminated Higgs for gross misconduct after she shared Facebook posts criticizing the introduction of LGBTQ relationship education at her son's school. show more
October 2, 2024
Politics
UK

Over 50% of UK Tories Support Merger with Farage’s Populist ‘Reform’ Party.

A new poll shows that over half (53 percent) of the British Conservative (Tory) Party’s members favor joining forces with Brexit leader Nigel Farage and his populist Reform Party. Compiled by the Popular Conservatism (PopCon) organization, the poll indicates that 70 percent of respondents favor a closer relationship with Nigel Farage’s party if not an outright merger.

Annunziata Rees-Mogg, head of communications at PopCon and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Reform’s predecessor, the Brexit Party, said of the results: “Every Conservative activist and canvasser knows people who had been Tories but voted Reform UK in July.”

Rees-Mogg’s brother, Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former Cabinet minister for the Conservatives, previously urged the party to consider an electoral pact with Reform.

Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, he suggested the Conservatives should step aside in nearly 100 constituencies where Reform had finished second to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in the last election. Rees-Mogg argued that a strategic alliance with Reform would benefit both parties.

The Conservatives, currently amidst a leadership contest, experienced a massive loss in parliamentary seats after Britain’s July 4 snap election. Reform garnered millions of votes, many of which were from young voters. The party even outperformed the Tories with voters under 30.

Last month at the Reform Party conference, Farage did not mention a possible alliance with the Tories but said he wanted to professionalize the party.

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A new poll shows that over half (53 percent) of the British Conservative (Tory) Party's members favor joining forces with Brexit leader Nigel Farage and his populist Reform Party. Compiled by the Popular Conservatism (PopCon) organization, the poll indicates that 70 percent of respondents favor a closer relationship with Nigel Farage's party if not an outright merger. show more
September 30, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Health
UK

‘We Overdid It’ — Chief Medical Officer Admits Covid Risks Were Overstated.

Sir Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England and Wales and Government Chief Medical Adviser, has admitted that officials “overdid it” in terms of the way COVID-19 risks were presented during the pandemic. He also admits it is likely that many people delayed seeking treatment for serious medical conditions.

“I worried at the beginning—I still worry, actually, in retrospect—about did we get the level of concern right? Were we either over-pitching it so that people were incredibly afraid of something where, in fact, their actuarial risk [of dying] was low, or were we not pitching it enough, and therefore people didn’t realize the risk they were walking into?” the technocrat said while giving evidence to the official public inquiry into the pandemic and the government’s response to it.

“I think that balance is really hard. And arguably some people would say we, if anything, overdid it, rather than under at the beginning,” he conceded.

TREATMENT DELAYS.

Whitty confessed he was “confident” officials failed to sufficiently communicate that “the [National Health Service] is open, in particular, if it’s an urgent and emergency life-threatening situation, [and] you must go to the hospital, as you usually would” during the pandemic.

“[T]here is reasonable evidence, in my view, for example, that the number of people who came into hospital with heart attacks was lower than you’d predict. So some of those people were staying at home, who otherwise would not have done, and they would have had remediable conditions,” he said.

“So the bit of it, which is, did we get it across that people should still go to hospital? I think we didn’t get it across well enough.”

Delays in treatment and diagnoses during the pandemic, along with a related backlog, have been linked to many preventable deaths. However, politicians and public health bureaucrats’ claims that the National Health Service (NHS) was working as normal but that the public failed to come forward are not supported by the evidence.

Many people did put off seeking treatment, but others, including cancer patients, made determined efforts to secure treatment, only for the NHS to cancel and repeatedly delay appointments, causing conditions to worsen beyond the point of survivability.

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Sir Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England and Wales and Government Chief Medical Adviser, has admitted that officials "overdid it" in terms of the way COVID-19 risks were presented during the pandemic. He also admits it is likely that many people delayed seeking treatment for serious medical conditions. show more
September 28, 2024
Jack Montgomery
UK

Boris Johnson Admits He Considered Invading an EU Nation For This Wacky COVID Reason.

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims he considered ordering an “aquatic raid” against the European Union (EU) to seize coronavirus vaccines impounded in the Netherlands. Five million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were held up by the EU and Britain’s NATO allies in 2020. EU officials claimed that the pharmaceutical corporation had to meet its obligations to the bloc before exporting vaccines to Britain.

“I was angry enough to ­contemplate this clandestine operation because after two months of futile negotiation, I had come to the conclusion that the EU was treating us with malice and with spite… we were vaccinating our population much faster than they were, and the European electorate had long since noticed,” Johnson argues in his latest memoir, Unleashed.

Johnson claims he asked the Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Douglas Chalmers, “whether it might be technically feasible to launch an aquatic raid on a warehouse in Leiden, in the Netherlands, and to take that which was legally ours and which the UK desperately needed,” and that he was told it “certainly feasible.”

THE PLAN.

“We would send one team on a commercial flight to Amsterdam, while another team would use the cover of darkness to cross the Channel in ribs [rigid inflatable boats] and navigate up the canals,” Johnson said of Chalmers’s plan—although the officer added that the raid would certainly be detected, and the British government would have to explain “why we are effectively invading a long-standing NATO ally.” In the end, Johnson dropped the idea.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, also known as Covishield, was developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford. It was not approved for use in the United States due to issues with blood clots that British regulators were slow to recognize.

Johnson, elected as a pro-Brexit libertarian, had much of his policy agenda driven by his liberal wife, Carrie Symonds. He considers mass vaccinations, costly net zero policies, and agitating for more war in Ukraine his legacy.

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Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims he considered ordering an "aquatic raid" against the European Union (EU) to seize coronavirus vaccines impounded in the Netherlands. Five million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were held up by the EU and Britain's NATO allies in 2020. EU officials claimed that the pharmaceutical corporation had to meet its obligations to the bloc before exporting vaccines to Britain. show more
September 26, 2024
Media
UK

Liberal Neocon Ex-Govt Minister To Head UK’s Oldest ‘Conservative’ Magazine.

A former UK Conservative minister who backed the Brexit referendum but has traditionally held socially liberal views and supported neoconservative foreign policy will be taking the helm of Britain’s oldest magazine, The Spectator. Michael Gove has been named the magazine’s new editor following its recent acquisition by Sir Paul Marshall, co-owner of broadcaster GB News.

Gove, while always a member of the Conservative Party, has expressed many liberal opinions on social issues, including gay marriage, saying religious bodies should be able to conduct same-sex weddings in 2012. The former minister is also a staunch neoconservative on foreign policy, loudly supporting the Iraq war as late as 2008 and also backing air strikes against Syria in 2013.

Before transitioning to a political career, Gove worked as a journalist for 17 years in print and broadcast media. Throughout his political tenure, he has frequently contributed to The Spectator, writing extensively on politics and current affairs.

The acquisition follows the government’s previous decision to block an Abu Dhabi-backed fund’s proposed takeover of the magazine. Alongside The Spectator, Telegraph Media Group is also on the market, with Marshall reportedly interested in bidding.

Former editor Fraser Nelson will transition to the role of Associate Editor while continuing to contribute to the magazine. Nelson has noted his approval of Gove’s hiring to helm the publication.

Meanwhile, former Spectator Chairman Andrew Neil admitted the magazine was pro-immigration and “pro-amnesty” for illegals in 2020. He left the magazine earlier this month following the magazine’s acquisition by Sir Paul Marshall.

Image by Richard Townshend.

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A former UK Conservative minister who backed the Brexit referendum but has traditionally held socially liberal views and supported neoconservative foreign policy will be taking the helm of Britain's oldest magazine, The Spectator. Michael Gove has been named the magazine's new editor following its recent acquisition by Sir Paul Marshall, co-owner of broadcaster GB News. show more
September 25, 2024
Jack Montgomery
UK

Britain’s Prime Minister Calls for Release of Israeli ‘Sausages’ in Hilarious Speech Gaffe.

During his inaugural address to the Labour Party conference as the Prime Minister on Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer for the “return of the sausages” being held in Gaza before hastily correcting himself to “hostages.” The gaffe is dominating coverage of the speech, which lasted over an hour and was supposed to set the agenda for his government, elected with a large legislative majority but a small share of the popular vote on July 4.

“I call again for restraint and de-escalation at the border between Lebanon and Israel. I call again for all parties to pull back from the brink. I call again or an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the return of the sausages,” he said.

The blunder is receiving mockery from the formerly governing Conservatives, members of Nigel Farage‘s Reform Party, and social media users, who are branding the speech a “complete and utter disaster.”

IMMIGRATION.

Elsewhere in the speech, Starmer attacked anti-mass migration protestors and rioters angered by the deadly mass stabbing of several young girls in Southport, England, allegedly by a migration background teenager. However, while condemning those who allegedly “told people with different colored skin… that they should ‘go home,’” he made no mention of Muslim and far-left counter-demonstrators who beat white people at random and issued death threats.

Starmer claimed his party would reduce net immigration “and [Britain’s] economic dependency upon it” but insisted “the debate is not about the worth of migrants.”

“That is toxic, and we must move beyond it,” he argued. The Labour leader was likely referring to an official government report recently confirming that low-paid migrants are a net drain on society throughout their lives.

Image by Simon Dawson.

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During his inaugural address to the Labour Party conference as the Prime Minister on Tuesday, Sir Keir Starmer for the "return of the sausages" being held in Gaza before hastily correcting himself to "hostages." The gaffe is dominating coverage of the speech, which lasted over an hour and was supposed to set the agenda for his government, elected with a large legislative majority but a small share of the popular vote on July 4. show more
September 25, 2024
Christopher Tomlinson
Immigration
UK

Britain’s New ‘Asylum’ Minister Just Attacked Donald Trump… It Didn’t End Well for Her.

The United Kingdom’s new asylum minister attacked President Donald J. Trump this week at her governing Labour Party’s annual conference. Angela Eagle, 63, appeared to take particular umbrage with Trump’s “memes,” blaming him for “overt racism” and a “constant drumbeat of toxic anti-immigration, anti-immigrant rhetoric.”

“If you look at some of the memes he’s using with the wall stuff at the moment, it’s astonishing, quite the level of vitriol it has created,” she blurted during a session away from the main stage. The matter has gone down poorly with a Trump team the Labour Party is desperate to foster ties with.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung responded, “Nobody knows who this random person is or cares what comes out of her mouth,” adding, “Who is she and what does she do?”

Brexit leader Nigel Farage MP, head of the Reform UK party and a close ally of Trump, also commented on Eagle’s statements, saying, “Angela Eagle and the Labour Party are so scared of this subject that all they can do is throw abuse at anyone concerned about the unwanted changes to our country.”

While Labour has promised to tackle people smuggling and reduce illegal arrivals, the party canceled the former Conservative government’s deportation plan. The Labour government has since announced measures to spread migrants across the country.

Many deportations are halted by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which the UK is still a member of despite leaving the European Union. Farage has called for a national referendum on ECHR membership, arguing that the UK should abandon the European court and be able to enact deportations of illegals.

Image by the UK Home Office.

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The United Kingdom's new asylum minister attacked President Donald J. Trump this week at her governing Labour Party's annual conference. Angela Eagle, 63, appeared to take particular umbrage with Trump's "memes," blaming him for "overt racism" and a "constant drumbeat of toxic anti-immigration, anti-immigrant rhetoric." show more
September 21, 2024
Christopher Tomlinson
Politics
UK

‘The Sky is the Limit!’ – Farage Rallies Thousands at ‘Reform UK’ Conference.

Brexit leader Nigel Farage MP has forecast that his Reform UK party can win the next British general election. He told supporters in Birmingham, England, that the party was now consistently gaining new voters, supporters, and activists, will of whom are fed up with the establishment parties.

Farage, who was elected into the British parliament earlier this year, addressed thousands of delegates at his party’s annual conference on Friday and Saturday, saying, “The energy, the optimism, the enthusiasm that we’ve got in this room is not something that can be replicated by any other political party in this country.”

“The sky is the limit,” he remarked, laying the groundwork for the next five years of campaigning that will hopefully see him returned as Prime Minister to 10 Downing Street by 2029.

Farage took shots at recently elected, far-left Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who has been revealed to have taken expensive clothing donations from wealthy donors.

Speaking of why he decided to quit his job as a broadcaster at GB News, among other ventures, to run for office, Farage noted the failure of the past Conservative government, which has seen a surge of violent crime and mass migration on a scale not seen in the UK in generations.

PROFESSIONALIZING REFORM.

Farage explained that the party would vet candidates at all levels of the party in the future as part of his bid to professionalize the party.

“We haven’t got time, we haven’t got room, for a few extremists to wreck the work of a party that now has 80,000 members and rising by hundreds every single day,” he said.

According to Farage, Reform UK needs to look to the example of the Liberal Democrats, who, despite winning far fewer votes nationally, were able to win 72 seats in parliament due to the first-past-the-post system.

Calling for the party to be credible on the ground everywhere, he stated that Reform UK can bring “success after success.”

“If we do those things – I never thought I’d say this – but I genuinely believe we can change the future of politics, the future of our country, perhaps get back a bit of pride of what it is to be British, respect our history, stand up for our values,” he said.

The first speech, from Friday, begins at two hours and six minutes, here:

The second speech begins around one hour, 18 minutes in, here:

Picture by Stuart Mitchell/IncMonocle and used with permission.

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Brexit leader Nigel Farage MP has forecast that his Reform UK party can win the next British general election. He told supporters in Birmingham, England, that the party was now consistently gaining new voters, supporters, and activists, will of whom are fed up with the establishment parties. show more

Editor’s Notes

Behind-the-scenes political intrigue exclusively for Pulse+ subscribers.

RAHEEM J. KASSAM Editor-in-Chief
It’s a weird thing to think about sometimes, but just two days before Nigel’s speech to thousands of Reform UK members, we sat on the Morton’s terrace for a few drinks, then hit up one of our favorite Italian spots in Washington, D
for exclusive members-only insights
It’s a weird thing to think about sometimes, but just two days before Nigel’s speech to thousands of Reform UK members, we sat on the Morton’s terrace for a few drinks, then hit up one of our favorite Italian spots in Washington, D show more
for exclusive members-only insights
September 20, 2024
Immigration
UK

GLOBALIST OPEN BORDERS: How Delaware Cops Helped a Stranded Albanian Migrant Reach the UK.

An Albanian crossing by boat illegally from France to the United Kingdom attempted a distress call to the port of Dover but reached and was helped by police in Dover, Delaware, 3,500 miles away instead. On August 27, the Dover Police Department in Delaware received a distress call that led to an unexpected international rescue operation.

The caller reported that his ship was sinking. However, the emergency was happening in the English Channel, more than 3,500 miles away from Delaware’s capital. The Albanian illegal, seeking urgent help for his brother’s sinking vessel, mistakenly contacted the wrong Dover. Despite the significant geographic error, Communications Operator MacKenzie Atkinson noted the vessel’s coordinates and the nature of the emergency.

Within four minutes, her colleague Connor Logan established contact with the French Coast Guard, His Majesty’s Coastguards, and the United Kingdom’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency’s Coordination Center. Eventually, the call successfully reached the appropriate emergency services in Dover, England.

On September 5, the UK’s Coordination Center confirmed that the vessel was located, and all aboard were picked up.

“The caller had conducted an internet search for the ‘Dover Police Department,’ and the first result was the Dover, Delaware Police Department. The family member believed they were contacting Dover, England, but reached our agency in the United States,” Delaware police said.

While it is unknown if the caller is involved in human trafficking, many Albanian nationals have been linked to the criminal activity in the English Channel as recently as July, when a smuggler was sentenced to nine years in prison for helping hundreds of migrants reach the UK illegally. Albanian drug gangs have also been found paying for the passage of illegals to recruit them as drug dealers once they reach Britain.

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An Albanian crossing by boat illegally from France to the United Kingdom attempted a distress call to the port of Dover but reached and was helped by police in Dover, Delaware, 3,500 miles away instead. On August 27, the Dover Police Department in Delaware received a distress call that led to an unexpected international rescue operation. show more