The Lights of Democracy Are Going Out in Europe as Authoritarianism Takes Hold.
Who Was Behind the Romanian Coup?
According to Călin Georgescu, in an interview with Tucker Carlson, the person responsible for his disbarment from running in the Romanian presidential election was Tony Blinken.
Yet More Electoral Shenanigans in the EU
There is a presidential election coming up next month in Poland and the government (and the EU itself) are worried that the conservative will be re-elected, which means that he might put a crimp in the march to war. So, in order to curtail the reach of the conservatives a Polish court has ordered that the two most popular conservative TV channels (TV Republika and wPolsce24) have their broadcast licenses withdrawn. The verdict to revoke the licenses was issued by an activist Judge, Barbara Kołodziejczak-Osetek, who appears to be supportive of prime minister Donald Tusk’s suppression of the conservatives and has called for even more “radical measures” to be undertaken to “restore the rule of law.”
Since coming to power, the Tusk government has arrested opposition MPs and former ministers, withheld state funding to the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, carried out the forceful takeover of the public media and the prosecutor’s office, and has totally disregarded court rulings issued by judges it perceives as being pro-PiS.
Reacting to the verdict, conservative think tank Ordo Iuris said: “Denying the only two nationwide television stations critical of the current EU-backed Polish government access to viewers—especially on the eve of the presidential election, which is to be held in May—will constitute a serious blow to the freedom of public debate.”
Previous conservative prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said, “A government that fears free media turns to censorship.”
The reason for the judgement was that the licenses should not have been issued as no-one knew who the broadcasters were, according to the fiercest critic of the stations, Professor Tadeusz Kowalski, a member of the Broadcast Council, even though they’ve been broadcasting for years and have respectable viewing figures (almost 20% of all viewers).
Opposition leader Jarosław Kaczyński called the move “the dismantling of democracy in a blatant way, without even pretending.”
You can read more here.
Germany’s Freedom of Information Act Is Likely to be Abolished
In order to “strengthen representative democracy.”, the newly formed BlackRed (Schwarz Rot or as it is affectionally known – Black Rot) coalition of CDU and SPD parties, is bringing in a raft of new measures. One of the most egregious is to abolish the Freedom of Information Act.
The coalition wants to “abolish it in its current form.” The CDU claims this is part of modernizing Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, and making it better at overseeing the government. Critics aren’t buying it. News outlets like T-Online call it a “direct attack on citizens,” not a reform. The CDU’s Member of Parliament, Philipp Amthor, a politician once embarrassed by IFG disclosures, is spinning it as an update, and the SPD’s reaction has been lukewarm at best.
Germany’s journalists’ union and the opposition Free Democratic Party (FDP, a pro-business group) are slamming it, arguing it’s a power grab dressed up as “reducing bureaucracy.” The FDP quipped, “The motto seems to be: ‘The citizen doesn’t need to know everything!’” Over 100,000 requests have been filed under this law—scrapping it would blind the public to government actions.
You can read more here.
The coalition also wants to make spreading “false claims” a crime, separate from existing laws like slander.
German columnist Nikolaus Blome, writing in “Der Spiegel”, says this “well-meaning” idea terrifies him—it’s too vague.” Die Welt”, another major paper, agrees: lying is covered by free speech unless it crosses into clear legal violations, and fuzzy terms like “hate and incitement” aren’t legal definitions—they’re buzzwords for activist groups.
They also want to “strengthen democracy’s resilience” against terrorism, antisemitism, and hate, by banning AfD politicians for Volksverhetzung (incitement), an example of this was where an AfD politician was convicted of incitement for quoting the government’s own figures on migrant rapes.
The latest opinion polls are showing that the AfD has overtaken the CDU and is now the most popular party in Germany.
You can read more about the coalition’s plans here.
German Editor Sentenced for a Meme
A German court has sentenced David Bendels, the editor-in-chief of the conservative publication Deutschland-Kurier, to a suspended seven-month prison term for defaming Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser through a satirical meme. The controversial meme (below), posted on Deutschland-Kurier’s X account in February 2024, shows Faeser holding a sign altered to read: “I hate freedom of expression.” Note, the image below is not the original (which was in German) but is an English version released by the Deutschland-Kurier.
Bendels was prosecuted under Section 188 of the German Criminal Code, which forbids the defamation of public officials.
(1) If an offence of defamation (section 186) is committed publicly, in a meeting or through dissemination of written materials (section 11(3)) against a person involved in the popular political life based on the position of that person in public life, and if the offence may make his public activities substantially more difficult the penalty shall be imprisonment from three months to five years.
(2) An intentional defamation (section 187) under the same conditions shall entail imprisonment from six months to five years.
Apparently, this doesn’t apply to members of the AfD who are demeaned all the time.
Earlier this year, US Vice President JD Vance criticized what he called “Orwellian” German speech laws, referring to an interview with three German state prosecutors who gleefully explained that insulting someone in public or online is a punishable offense that will result in having all the person’s electronic devices confiscated, an idea that they thought was hilarious. The interview, aired by CBS, was recorded amid a wave of coordinated police raids across Germany targeting more than 50 individuals accused of spreading hate speech online after someone referred to a local politician as a pimmel – which is German slang for penis.
Merz Indicates Willingness to Supply Taurus Missiles To Kiev
These cruise missiles, which Chancellor Scholtz refused to supply, have a range of 500 kilometers and could be used to hit the Kerch bridge.
“We ourselves will not enter this war, but we will supply with Ukrainian army with these weapons,” Merz said in an interview with the public broadcaster ARD, when asked if he still believes that Ukraine should be supplied with Taurus missiles.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in late November that Moscow had repeatedly warned the any use of Western far-range missiles for strikes on Russian soil would mean NATO’s direct involvement in the Ukraine conflict.
One day he’ll lose his patience.
You can read more here.
Keir Starmer Has Given JD Vance the Finger
Vice President JD Vance criticized the UK government’s laws banning praying in public close to abortion clinics in response to this conviction. He also expressed an interest in the case of the retired scientist, Livia Tossici-Bolt [Across the Pond passim], who was being prosecuted for silently holding up a sign saying she was available to talk. The case was being closely followed by the US state department.
The US State Department revealed March 30 that it was “monitoring” the Tossici-Bolt’s case, saying on X that “U.S.-UK relations share a mutual respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms,” at the same time expressing concerns “about freedom of expression in the United Kingdom.”
Asked about the comment, a source familiar with trade negotiations between the U.S. and the U.K. told a reporter from the London-based Daily Telegraph newspaper there would be “no free trade without free speech.”
Keir Starmer, for whom every problem can only be solved by the hammer of the law, was made of sterner stuff and Tossici-Bolt was duly convicted and hit with massive prosecution costs by the same judge that convicted Adam Smith-Connor for silently praying.
The most senior member of the UK Parliament known as the Father of the House of Commons, Sir Edward Leigh (Conservative), observed: “It is disgraceful that in Britain in 2024 someone can be put on trial for praying silently in his head. To offer a prayer silently in the depths of your heart cannot be an offence.”
“The government must clarify urgently that freedom of thought is protected as a basic human right,” he continued.
As his government was the one that brought in the law, we can take what he says as mere politicking. The Guardian weighed in through the pen of Catherine Bennet, who is a member of good standing in the establishment after marrying (and subsequently divorcing) a member of the aristocracy. She called JD Vance’s concern about Tossisi-Bolt’s case, “sinister.” Bennet’s article, which you can read here, was full of things that Tossisi-Bolt’s ‘could have done’, saying:
Nor does anything prevent her from staging anti-abortion rallies, distributing literature, or expressing her views on abortion anywhere except right in abortion patients’ faces outside clinics.
You can read about the law banning anti-abortion rallies here.
The Guardian used to be a good newspaper until it was raided by members of the security services and the reporters were forced to smash up their own computers after they covered the Edward Snowden case. You can read the story of what happened here. It’s worth a read. Since then it’s been an establishment shill that mindlessly parrots government press releases. Currently, there are only two columnists there who are not afraid of speaking truth to power: John Harris and Owen Jones.
Of course, the person who was ultimately responsible for the raid on the Guardian was the Director of Public Prosecutions. If you are curious about who the Director of Public Prosecutions (equivalent to US Attorney general) was at that time, then wonder no more: it was non-other than Sir Keir Starmer.
You can view Starmer’s apparent plan for the UK here.
Military Veterans Are Elite for all the Wrong Reasons
The local council in the terminally dull town of Hemel Hempstead in the UK has decided that the annual veterans march to commemorate VE day has to be banned as it is “too elitist.” However, the council had no such qualms about organizing an event in the town center to commemorate its own 50th anniversary.
At the time of writing the council website that they run from their extraordinarily luxurious offices, paid for by ever rising taxes, is not working. However, you’ll be pleased to know they have become the first silver level carbon literate council.; although why they need to be involved in climate change (which is the central government’s job), instead of taking care of the services that the local people voted them in to do, is not explained. You can see more of their climate action hoopla here.
UK Police News
The Northumberland police want you to hand over your dashcam footage so they can scour it for signs of an offense; evidently, because the poor quality of their police drivers means they shouldn’t be out on the roads. It follows a serious accident where a number of police drivers, in 4 easily identifiable cars (the fourth is out of frame at the top, which had its roof and doors torn off) were involved, resulting in 5 policemen being injured, 3 seriously – see the photo below.
Meanwhile, just down the road in Yorkshire, the local police chief has decided that he no longer wants white people to join the force. Chief Constable John Robins of West Yorkshire Police, has decided that white applicants are to be barred from applying until after the Asian candidates have been selected and only then if there are any vacancies left. The person who is supposed to be in charge of policing there, Alison Lowe, hasn’t commented for some reason.
Chief Constable Robins leads a force that dragged an extremely distressed autistic teenage girl into custody after she innocently said that one of the policewomen looked like her “Lesbian Nana” (Nana is grandmother). You can see footage of the arrest, where a mob of what looks like 10 police officers, led by the extremely thin skinned police officer who the remark was aimed at, stormed her house here. The girl was accused of making a “homophobic remark” and was held in the cells for 20 hours before being released with no charges.
The police officer should be prosecuted under the equality act 2010 which: “…places a public sector equality duty on public authorities, requiring them to “have due regard” to equality considerations when exercising public functions.” In this instance it was obvious that the girl had a disability but they went ahead causing distress, anxiety and fear. Alison Lowe, the person in charge of the police, has not appeared to offer any support or even an apology to the girl, even though she is an expert on mental health as the former CEO of Touchstone, a mental health charity.
The crime rate in West Yorkshire Police’s force coverage area is 125 crimes per 1,000 people, for the 12-month period ending September 2024. The most commonly-reported crimes are violent and sexual offences, reported at a rate of roughly 55 reports per 1,000 daytime population (e.g. you have a 1 in 20 chance of being sexually or violently assaulted). It has the highest rate of violent crime in the UK (at 160% of other areas). The force even got a dishonorable mention in the Guardian for its extremely low conviction rate for sexual offences. The Chief Constable blames a lack of resources; although he can still afford to employ 19 diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) staff members and has spent £361,000 of public money training them, over and above their salaries, with a further £1.4 million used to ‘patronise the public’ with LGBT events and marches. Ex-prime minister Liz Truss weighed in:
“Britain has a serious problem with police leadership being ideologically captured and pursuing anti-white discrimination. Ministers should have to answer for this and take back the powers to do so.”
Birmingham Leads the World
New York was criticized a year or so ago for the size of its rats but now Birmingham, the second largest city in the UK, has created a race of super rats. At least according to the tabloid newspaper, the Daily Express. In a fit of extraordinary hyperbole, they said that the rats are so big they could attack your children.
The reason is that there is a refuse collectors strike going on for the last 8 weeks. The strike was a result of a pay decrease, of up to £8,000, because the council is bankrupt. The bankruptcy was caused by a £100 million cost over-run on an IT system and an equal pay award to its female workers estimated as costing £1.2 billion. The award was made because the council, which is Labour controlled and supposedly on the side of the workers, with-held bonuses for female workers while their equivalent male workers got the full amount. Instead of admitting their guilt and paying the £200 million that the ladies were owed, they decided to fight it through the courts, which caused the debt to increase by almost £1 billion.
As a result, garbage collection has been severely curtailed with some collections, like food waste, not being picked up at all. As a householder, you are obliged to store this food waste at home because to leave it outside would represent a health hazard, leading to a vermin explosion. Apparently, that order was not heeded.
You can read about the super rats here.
Britain’s Last Remaining Blast Furnaces Are Under Threat of Closure
The UK parliament had the first Saturday sitting since the Falklands crisis in 1982. The subject was the future of the Scunthorpe steelworks and in particular its blast furnaces. The legislation that was passed during this sitting, which got bipartisan support, allows the government to take over the plant in order to keep it going until either a new buyer can be found or the plant is taken over completely by the state.
The blast furnaces in Scunthorpe are the last remaining virgin iron producers in the UK, since the government greenlit the decision to allow Port Talbot steelworks, owned by Tata steel, to close down its blast furnaces in October 2024. They will be replaced by an electric arc furnace, which mainly uses scrap steel (like cars) and produces lower grade steel given that it contains impurities (aka siliceous gangue) inherited from the scrap, like previous additives used to produce certain types of steel. That means that the steel they produce is usually used for things like nails, screws, rebar etc. It cannot, without expensive additive reduction, be used to produce high quality steel needed for things like shipping or cars.
Much has been made of the transition to so called ‘green steel’, which does not require a blast furnace, instead it uses a gas (usually natural gas or hydrogen) to reduce the iron ore into briquets of pure(ish) iron called Direct Reduced Iron (DRI). This DRI can be fed directly into the electric arc furnace in order to produce steel. If hydrogen is used then no CO2 is produced. However, the process uses a huge amount of energy, both in the electric arc furnaces and in the BRI process itself. And it needs a substantial amount of gas, either natural gas or hydrogen, for the reduction process. And that is the problem, where would the UK get its gas from?
The government has talked about producing hydrogen from water through electrolysis, but that needs large amounts of electricity. Some countries, like Tunisia, which has huge areas of sunlit desert, can install vast solar panel farms to create energy for the electrolysis process and they then ship the resultant hydrogen. Both hydrogen and DRI are difficult to ship; hydrogen because it is such a small element it can easily find the tiniest hole to escape from and the DRI is pyrophoric, meaning it can get very hot if it comes in contact with water or even water vapor. Two ships were sunk as a consequence of water contamination of their DRI cargo. Given its difficulty in shipping, it tends to be used where it is created. India is the biggest DRI producing nation but most of their production is from coal.
The current owners of the Scunthorpe plant are the Chinese Jingye group, who bought the works from the official receiver in 2020 after its previous owners, Greybull Capital, who in turn acquired it from Tata steel (for £1), couldn’t make it turn a profit. Jingye had plans to make the plant competitive and invested around £1.5 billion in it, but a number of obstacles were thrown in their path by the government. The first was when the government sanctioned Russian gas, resulting in UK wholesale energy prices going from £40–50/MWh in 2020. to £80–100/MWh by 2023, which British Steel’s CEO has described as “uncompetitive globally,”
Then the UK’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), launched in 2021, added a further £50–70 million to the annual cost at the Scunthorpe site by 2025. Added to that, ‘Net Zero’ policies and eradication of UK coal mines drove Jingye to use expensive imported coke and ore. Consequently, the company is now losing over $900,000 a day on the plant and after Trump’s 25% tariffs were introduced, they decided to throw in the towel and close the site by letting the blast furnaces cool down. In order to try and save something from the wreckage, they sold their inbound shipments of iron ore and coke to other steel producers. Once a blast furnace stops working and cools down it effectively collapses in on itself and would cost many millions of pounds to restart (as it would require a complete rebuild).
Listening to the politicians, the fault lays completely with Jingye, who, according to some in the government, bought the plant purely to close it down, even though it was effectively defunct when Jingye acquired it and they invested a substantial amount in an attempt to make it profitable. There is even talk around Westminster of not allowing the Chinese to invest in British industries, despite the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, going on a charm offensive in China, trying to encourage more Chinese investment in the UK.
The business secretary, Johnathan Reynolds, said he wouldn’t have allowed the Chinese to invest in the “sensitive” steel sector, even though no-one else wanted it as it was losing around £233 million a year. He also said that he would reduce the losses, no doubt by drawing on his history and politics degree and his, unfinished, legal studies for inspiration. He has only ever worked in politics except for his time as a trainee solicitor.
Under the new law, Jingye has to keep the plant running and if they don’t then the directors could be sent to prison. Which is going to be difficult as they’ve been banned from going onsite. Eventually, the site will be nationalized and will become an ongoing money pit; in the meantime, under the terms of the new act, Jingye is responsible for all the ongoing costs until a new buyer can be found (which is unlikely) or it is nationalized. After this debacle, it is unlikely that the Chinese would want to invest in British industry, so the government has saved the country from their inward investment.
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Sorry, We Used Your Pension to buy a Missile and Russia Shot it Down
And it isn’t only EU countries that are salivating over the cash. The government in the UK has been eyeing private pension pots as a huge pot of ‘free’ money they can squander on pointless political stunts use to provide a “more secure future for millions of Britons.”
In what could prove to be a game-changer for both the economy and retirement savings, a leading financial services firm has outlined a revolutionary proposal that could unlock a staggering £100 billion a year from pensions in the UK.
The paper, titled The Untapped Potential of Pensions, reveals how the government, employers, and the economy at large could tap into this hidden treasure trove, paving the way for major financial reforms and a wealthier, more secure future for millions of Britons.
As the government prepares for the next stage of its Pensions Review, financial experts are urging decision-makers to take bold action. Hymans Robertson, the pensions advise firm behind the proposal, has set out a suite of measures that could not only fill the Treasury’s coffers but also provide a massive boost to the UK’s economic growth, green energy projects, and infrastructure development.
According to the firm’s analysis, unlocking just a portion of the capital currently tied up in pensions could help the government net up to £28.5 billion annually, while employers could see savings of up to £14.2 billion. Over the next decade, the UK could see £1 trillion poured into national wealth funds, driving economic growth and financing the transition to a net-zero economy.
You can read more here.
This is not the first time that pensions have been raided. Gordon Brown created the ‘Blair Boom’ by withdrawing tax relief for pensions thereby ‘unlocking’ (they love that word) the money for Blair to squander and the Sunak government demanded that UK pension funds spend at least 5% of their holdings on government bonds.
Regarding the savings for companies, they could take the form of ‘pension holidays’, like in the past, where companies decided that their staff pension funds (well worth a read) were capitalized enough and so they took the pension contributions from their staff and paid it out in share dividends or in propping the company up. The most famous case was the Allied Steel and Wire (part of GKN) pension fund which was completely drained by the management to pay its bills before the company went under. This was all nodded through by the government, who are now telling the ASW people who lost much of their pensions that the sums are too great so it won’t help them out.
Will it happen again?
FUD Watch
Wasn’t the raison d’etre of the European Union ‘peace and prosperity’?
You can read the article here.
This one is from the UK’s Daily Telegraph. It should be noted that this is the news outlet where MI5, MI6 and the Military issue their press releases as editorials or ‘news items.’ There is no link to the article because it is both behind a paywall and it is utter nonsense.
Stay Safe
If you want to know if your IP address is being leaked by your VPN and who to you can click here – if you want to know exactly who your computer is communicating with and sending data to click here. If you want to know if Pegasus spyware is installed on your phone (mainly iphones) you can download a tool created by Amnesty International here.
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This statement is black heresy to a lot of folks, but it looks like the mess that Europe is currently experiencing might well be worse than what the US is currently undergoing.
Who woulda think it?
Doesn’t mean that the US is in a position to brag, it just means that there is significant competition for the cellar.
UK police arrested an imprisoned and house raided women for saying “Lesbian Nana” (Nana is grandmother), because it’s homophonic. Well the police really dropped the ball now didn’t they? Because Nana is a gender term and thus a “micro aggression” against the 13 or more other sexes and transgenders. The police should arrest the offender and start everything all over again until Justice is served. They/them not he/she.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/04/ipleak.net is a bad link.
Just tap “ipleak.net” in the address bar and the site should come up. It did for me but I changed the country my VPN server was in.
“It cannot, without expensive additive reduction, be used to produce high quality steel needed for things like shipping or cars.”
Or tanks.
Or warships.
Thanks a lot for this rundown!
Frightening stuff.
One glimmer of hope reported by Gilbert Doctorow: Helsinki elects a mayor born in Helsinki to Russian parents. https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2025/04/14/why-did-russia-attack-sumy-and-with-what-results/
Perhaps Vance can have a Signal chat with Pam Bondi so they can get their story straight re censorship. The Brits probably looked at what Trump is doing to Columbia University and said “we like it!”
Or alternately Trump is aping all those Euro hate speech laws. It’s getting hard to follow which tail is wagging which dog. Could it be that all these politicians have secret mass meetings like a coven?
Just kidding as that could never happen unless Mr. Subliminal (ht Lambert) mentions Davos.
However should our future indeed follow Orwell sounds like Birmingham has some rats ready for a procedure described in the novel.
In case its significance escaped readers, Starmer has passed a very bold law in respect of British Steel. It’s so bold, I have pasted it in below so you can all see for yourselves….
Rather than nationalise the plant, he has taken the power to compel the owners and management to act at his direction to operate the plant. There is no OBLIGATION on HMG to provide assistance on costs, as far as I read it. There is a power to do so but nothing in the act stops HMG from ordering Jingye to run the plant at its cost….
It is breathtaking that it has been passed: it is literally profits for me and losses for you. But only a handful of opposition MP’s protested about and there has been ZERO discussion is MSM or alternative sources about what the act means.
It is Starmer’s TARP act but passed with less resistance and with a more worrying precedent. Rather than using the monopoly on fiat of the state to achieve economic ends within the public realm, he has chosen to use its monopoly on violence to achieve them within the private realm.
If that is not fascism, I don’t know what is.
Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025
2025 CHAPTER 13
An Act to make provision about powers to secure the continued and safe use of assets of a steel undertaking.
[12th April 2025]
Be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1Meaning of “steel undertaking”
In this Act, “steel undertaking” means an undertaking carrying on a business that consists of or includes the manufacture of steel.
2Directions about use of assets
(1)The Secretary of State may give a notice under this section to a steel undertaking if—
(a)it appears to the Secretary of State that specified assets used by the undertaking in England have ceased to be used, or are at risk of ceasing to be used, by the undertaking (whether on a permanent or temporary basis), and
(b)the Secretary of State considers that it is in the public interest that the use of the specified assets should resume or (as the case may be) continue.
(2)Where a notice is given to a steel undertaking under this section—
(a)the undertaking, and
(b)relevant persons in relation to the undertaking,
must comply with any directions given by the Secretary of State.
(3)Directions under this section may only be given for the purpose of securing the continued and safe use of the specified assets.
(4)The directions may (in particular) require—
(a)the specified assets to be used (or not to be used) in a specified way;
(b)the steel undertaking to take (or not to take) specified steps to secure the continued and safe use of the specified assets.
(5)The steps that may be required to be taken under subsection (4)(b) include (for example)—
(a)entering into agreements, including contracts of employment;
(b)appointing officers of the steel undertaking;
(c)exercising a function of management in a particular way;
(d)refraining from the taking of proceedings in relation to the steel undertaking under the Insolvency Act 1986 or otherwise;
(e)the making of payments to specified persons;
(f)the provision of information to the Secretary of State.
(6)A requirement to provide information as mentioned in subsection (5)(f) does not authorise or require a disclosure of information in contravention of the data protection legislation within the meaning of the Data Protection Act 2018 (but, in determining whether a disclosure would do so, the power to impose requirements by virtue of this section is to be taken into account).
(7)A notice or direction under this section—
(a)must be given in writing;
(b)may be varied or revoked by the giving of a further such notice or direction.
(8)In this Act, “relevant person”, in relation to an undertaking, means—
(a)where the undertaking is a body corporate other than one whose affairs are managed by its members, a director, shadow director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body;
(b)where the undertaking is a limited liability partnership or other body corporate whose affairs are managed by its members, a member who exercises functions of management with respect to it;
(c)where the undertaking is a limited partnership, a general partner (within the meaning given by section 3 of the Limited Partnerships Act 1907);
(d)where the undertaking is any other partnership, a partner;
(e)where the undertaking is any other kind of body, a person who exercises functions of management with respect to it.
3Breach of directions: power to take control of assets
(1)This section applies if the Secretary of State considers that—
(a)a steel undertaking, or a relevant person in relation to that undertaking, has failed or is failing to comply (wholly or in part) with a direction given under section 2, or
(b)there is a risk that—
(i)the undertaking or person might so fail, or
(ii)the purposes for which the direction under that section was given will be frustrated (to any extent by any person).
(2)The Secretary of State may do anything for the purpose of securing the continued and safe use of the specified assets that the steel undertaking, or any relevant person in relation to that undertaking, could do.
(3)Anything done by virtue of subsection (2) is to be treated for all purposes as done by the steel undertaking (unless otherwise specified in writing by the Secretary of State).
(4)The powers exercisable by the Secretary of State by virtue of subsection (2) include (for example)—
(a)entering, using force if necessary, the premises where the specified assets are situated (and the Secretary of State may for that purpose be accompanied by any person);
(b)preventing the disposal of, or other dealings in respect of, the specified assets;
(c)taking whatever steps the Secretary of State considers appropriate for the purposes of securing the continued and safe use of the specified assets;
(d)requiring any person on the premises, or any other person who has dealings with the specified assets or with the steel undertaking, to give whatever assistance the Secretary of State may reasonably require for the purposes of taking those steps.
(5)The steps that may be taken under subsection (4)(c) include (for example)—
(a)entering into agreements, including contracts of employment;
(b)appointing officers of the steel undertaking;
(c)exercising any function of management;
(d)the making of loans or the giving of other financial assistance;
(e)the payment of salaries and other benefits to persons working for the steel undertaking.
(6)Expenses incurred by the Secretary of State in, or in connection with, the exercise of powers under this section are recoverable as a debt due to the Crown from—
(a)the steel undertaking, or
(b)a group undertaking in relation to the steel undertaking.
4Offences
(1)A steel undertaking, or a relevant person in relation to such an undertaking, commits an offence if, without reasonable excuse, they fail to comply with a direction under section 2.
(2)A group undertaking in relation to the steel undertaking commits an offence if it does (or fails to do) anything with the intention of preventing or hindering the steel undertaking, or a relevant person in relation to that undertaking, from complying with a direction under section 2.
(3)A person commits an offence if, without reasonable excuse, they fail to comply with a requirement imposed on them under section 3(4)(d).
(4)Where an offence under this section is committed by an undertaking with the consent or connivance of a relevant person in relation to the undertaking, or a person purporting to act in the capacity of a relevant person in relation to the undertaking, the person (as well as the undertaking) commits the offence and is liable to be proceeded against and punished accordingly.
(5)A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—
(a)on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years or a fine (or both);
(b)on summary conviction, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding the general limit in a magistrates’ court or a fine (or both).
5Injunctions
(1)This section applies where the Secretary of State considers that—
(a)a steel undertaking, or a relevant person in relation to that undertaking, has committed, or might commit, an offence under section 4, or
(b)a group undertaking in relation to the steel undertaking has committed, or might commit, an offence under that section.
(2)The Secretary of State may apply to the High Court for an injunction (and in those proceedings may apply for an interim injunction) against—
(a)the undertaking concerned, or
(b)a relevant person in relation to that undertaking.
(3)On an application under this section the High Court may grant an injunction (or interim injunction) on such terms as it thinks fit to secure the continued and safe operation of the specified assets.
6Indemnities
(1)No relevant act by a person is to be regarded as giving rise to any cause of action, or is to be taken into account in respect of any cause of action, against the person.
(2)The Secretary of State may pay compensation to any person in respect of any loss incurred by them as a result of—
(a)a relevant act (whether by them or any other person), or
(b)a step taken by the Secretary of State under section 3(4)(c).
(3)In this section “relevant act” means anything done, or not done, in compliance with—
(a)a direction under section 2, or
(b)a requirement under section 3(4)(d).
7Compensation scheme
(1)The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for paying compensation to a steel undertaking to which a notice has been given under section 2 as a result of the exercise of the Secretary of State’s functions under this Act.
(2)Regulations under this section are to be made by statutory instrument.
(3)A statutory instrument containing regulations under this section is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.
8Financial provision
There is to be paid out of money provided by Parliament—
(a)any expenses incurred by the Secretary of State under or by virtue of this Act, and
(b)any increase attributable to this Act in the sums payable under any other Act out of money so provided.
9Interpretation
In this Act—
“group undertaking” has the meaning given by section 1161(5) of the Companies Act 2006;
“relevant person”, in relation to an undertaking, has the meaning given by section 2(8);
“shadow director” has the meaning given by section 251 of the Companies Act 2006;
“specified assets”, in relation to a notice given under section 2, means the assets specified in that notice;
“steel undertaking” has the meaning given by section 1;
“undertaking” has the meaning given by section 1161(1) of the Companies Act 2006.
10Extent, commencement and short title
(1)This Act extends to England and Wales only.
(2)This Act comes into force on the day on which it is passed.
(3)This Act may be cited as the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025.
Dang, I sure miss that Habeas Corpus thing…and the Bill of rights.
While extremely flawed I thought that Constitution we used to have was worth preserving.
We sorta kinda did that “Republic” and “Rule of Law” thing for a while and now we have what “Legalising” corruption by our Supreme Justices brings.
Destroying the Government in the middle of a Pandemic with the Climate becoming ever more volatile seems unwise.
Musk, Thiel and Andreesen seem to think that this will create an opportunity to build an ideal Society, a Technocracy..
Andreesen even wrote “The Techno Optimist’s Manifesto” to spell things out and Musk’s title at Tesla is “TechnoKing”
An Ideal Society created by the Man behind the Cybertruck.
A Truck that is brutally ugly, that spies on everyone in it and around it, one you can’t take off road , you can’t take it through most car washes because they sometimes catch fire in carwashes.
And pieces fall off when you drive down the road, big pieces.
No thanks.
To me is just looking like a carbon copy of the 19th century, when the boot of the government and the fisted hand ruled with impunity. So we’ve been there, we’ve done that.
Was it successful? Maybe, on the short run, but boy oh boy, when shit hits the fan, you get another 1848 (at which time there won’t be a conservative Xzarist empire coming to save Europe), or 1871, or 1918, or what not.
A house divided cannot stand…
“you get another 1848 (at which time there won’t be a conservative Xzarist empire coming to save Europe)”
Yes, I doubt we’ll repeat that mistake (Nicholas I later called himself the Stupidest King of Poland for a reason, and if even someone so stubborn and blinkered could see it…), but while we’re carbon copying: what are the United States for?
The Guardian, including Owen Jones, is a huge fan of the lie that men can become women merely by declaring it so, thus depriving women of single-sex spaces and sports. I gave a small monthly donation to the Guardian until I couldn’t stand this nonsense any more.
Of course anyone’s free to worship gender (sexist stereotypes), but no one should be forced to pretend to believe that humans can change sex; that men are women if they claim to be and that men can be lesbians; and that women aren’t entitled to recognize and speak of our own interests and to gather by ourselves.
It’s hard to believe that Jones speaks truth to power on any topic, given his embrace of gender ideology, but I’ll pay more attention. I have a hard time respecting anyone who tries to tell me to swallow that retrograde, sexist nonsense. The oceans are acidifying, the climate continues to heat up, the wealth gap continues to widen, and the “progressives” pick this cause??? I’m having a hard time taking seriously anything the so-called progressives say any more. I know this is one issue, but it affects 51% of the population, and it requires you to shut off your critical-thinking abilities. I can’t get past it.
>>>The oceans are acidifying, the climate continues to heat up, the wealth gap continues to widen, and the “progressives” pick this cause??? I’m having a hard time taking seriously anything the so-called progressives say any more.
Look over there, ducks!
Not to mention that it is completely reliant on technology. No hormones, no surgery… no transgender.
It’s offensive to underrepresented minorities that they have been back-shelved for a contingent with what used to be called body dysmorphic disorder.
What are the figures on people born with with some form of obvious and physical intersex characteristic, chromosomal or gonadal, 1 in 2000 in some studies ? Further it’s not exactly difficult to believe – considering the complexity of the human brain, and the sheer diversity and oddity of some of the mental abnormalities that we see in human beings – that the psychological equivalent is just as real and perhaps even more prevalent. So for me it’s those who insist that a man is a man, and a woman is a woman and there is absolutely no doubt about which is which who have embraced “gender ideology” rather than simply accept that the real biological world is messy. Despite being more on the “woke” side of the tribal divide, I’d have no problem with setting up some rules that, for example, prevented people with male biological advantages from competing in women’s sports. Affecting a tiny number of people and being pretty narrow in scope, issues like this would be relatively easy to resolve to most people’s satisfaction, if they weren’t being cynically promoted as a wedge to divide the working class.
Nah. Two men just competed against each other in the final match of the Ultimate Pool Women’s Pro Series Event 2 in England. Stephanie Turner, a young woman fencer, was recently disqualified from a Maryland women’s event when she refused to compete against a man who pretends to be a woman. Mozzy Clark is a woman inmate in a Washington state prison who has been forced to share a prison cell with a man who pretends to be a woman. That man has been convicted of a sex offense.
The head of the Davis, California, public library shut down a meeting that was being held in a library room when a woman accurately sexed a man. Marian Thompson, the 94-year-old cofounder of La Leche League, recently resigned from the board because that once stellar organization has strayed from its mission of supporting women in breastfeeding their babies to indulging the fantasies of men who want to breastfeed. And the Taliban have no trouble knowing whose voices must be silenced, who may not attend school, and who may not be seen from windows.
It ain’t complicated. Men are free to dress and express themselves as they please. And they need to stay out of women’s spaces and sports. The Democrats have been idiots to turn their back on women’s rights and embrace this nonsense.
Owen Jones did write one good book: Chavs. It explained in detail how this pejorative expressed as much class hatred as you could possibly handle. After the book he started with the neoliberal identity causes and stopped talking about class. I also stopped paying attention to him.
Could be at the same time as when Guardian turned on Assange. Then everything in the paper turned brown and smelly.
And the two journalists named, aka stenographers, were also part of the pack that neverendingly savaged Corbyn that helped destroy his electability.
One a physics note, energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can change from one form to another.
On a final pensions related note, with regard to snaffling pension pots for other purposes, the notorious conman Robert Maxwell springs to mind, who mysteriously fell/was pushed off his luxury yacht off the Canaries, and whose drowned body was then buried with full zionist honours in the holiest of holy Jewish burial sites in Jerusalem.
Using the most polite description I can find, Owen Jones writes utter twaddle.
Everything’s fine. The UK government just wants to do the best by its citizens’ pensions just the same as the Teamsters did with the Mob or Maxwell with the Daily Mirror. It’s all for the best in this best of all possible jurisdictions and it’s not like gambling or anything… Or fighting an unwinnable war, innit..?
The mobbed up Teamsters built Vegas and some other resort destinations with the pension funds. Money fed into the black hole will degrade into nothing but low value scrap UX headaches.
Thanks for this update.
I’m pleased to report that I’m still capable of being appalled. Will we eventually see these police antics — parodied or not — in a reworked version of the Yorkshire cop show “Happy Valley”?
Or Z cars.
That would be even better given the potential for old school TV Cops to trip over the new post modern required style of policing.
I’m picking up two main enablers here. The first is surveillance technology and you will note how many convictions in different countries involve posting a view or forwarding a view on the internet. The security services in every country are watching all their citizens and the introduction of AI will make this easier. All the pieces are in place. Perhaps not more accurate but more easy. The second is the big uptick in all these security crackdowns, candidates being deleted from elections, police heavy raids on ordinary people, the authoritarian turn of so many countries which Kevin has rightly given good coverage to. So why now? I would guess Project Ukraine. Or rather, the collapse of Project Ukraine. If all had gone well, all those countries in the EU and the UK would have been able to pillage Russia’s resources to their heart’s content. The money flowing to them would have solved so many problems and so many people would have made out like bandits with scores of new billionaires being minted. It would have brought about a golden era to them though Russia would have been put through hell. Well, Project Ukraine did not work out. It has been a catastrophic disaster for the EU/UK with finances collapsing and a major de-industrialization going on plus widespread popular discontent. There is the devil to pay and he is out to lunch. With no Left left as an opposition, the far right have filled their place and are making advances in different countries threatening the political establishment and what we see in places like Romania & France is a counterattack. So to stop them, there is now a full authoritarian takeover going on to keep power with the traditional holders, even if they are hopelessly incompetent. And that is what is behind it all. But to tell you the truth, there is an element of “1984” behind it all-
‘But the purpose of all of them was to arrest progress and freeze history at a chosen moment. The familiar pendulum swing was to happen once more, and then stop.’
A very good comment Rev.
I think you have noticed something. Funny how Ukraine is not on the front page anymore.
In fact Romania and France are the tip of the iceberg.
Somewhere here today I read about the shenanigans happening in Poland.
Bloody crikey! It is not at all disguised.
Are we saying that with all of its faults the only thing stopping Europe being a ‘nazi concentration camp’ is ( or maybe , was) the US?
Meanwhile in the Land of Truth, Justice, and the American Way, 60 Minutes has come out with pure pro-Zelensky and Co propaganda parading as “journalism”. Here’s a take down of the 60 minutes interview by colonel Daniel Davis. I realise people here on NC are fully aware of the narrative being pushed and the inconvenient contradictory facts but this is a useful intro to point to for those unaware of such details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juE2ZcKK9Pg
“ There is no link to the article because it is both behind a paywall and it is utter nonsense.”
Thank you Kevin. Saves a lot of trouble.
I am old enough to remember when the Times and the Telegraph were reliably right wing but also curmudgeonly enough to have hordes of independently minded journalists. It was hard to shut them up.
I think that The Grauniad is not the only MI6 infiltrated paper now though. Everything is blandly similar with minor titbits thrown to the target reader group.
Wapping killed it all. No more working class people involved in newspaper production anymore. The NUJ brought it on themselves.
Now they are only Government parrots. I sincerely hope that some of them feel desperately sad when they get home. Unlikely probably.
Thanks Kevin for your report!
Let me add to your description of the german assault on free speech by government, parliament and legal system some unpleasant historical background: The mentioned Section 188 of the German Criminal Code and the announced reform of 188 by the incoming Merz-government resembles the infamous “Treachery Act” of 1934 which was named “Law against Treacherous Attacks on the State and Party and for the Protection of Party Uniforms” by the Hitler regime. In particular § 2 (1) of the “Treachery act” may have inspired the government to reformulate the old version of Section 188: ” Anyone who publicly makes hateful, inflammatory or low-minded statements about leading figures of the state or the NSDAP, about their orders or the institutions they have created, which are likely to undermine the people’s trust in the political leadership, will be punished with imprisonment.”
I fear it is going to be a rough ride for political opposition and government critics in Germany in the near future.
I find the eugyppius substack is a very useful source of information on the latest of the ‘protection of democracy’ in Germany.
But keep in mind that law enforcement in 1934 was operating often with torture and murder.
On the other hand thanks for bringing up and quoting that nefarious §2.
p.s. I have to make this critical comment as last night while listening to Chris Hedges´s Q&A I was annoyed of him comparing the arrest/abduction of Ozturk by ICE officials with Chile under Pinochet. Illegal arrest and detention are not equivalent to illegal arrest, detention + torture and murder.
see the recommended Q&A
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/come-join-me-now-for-a-q-and-a
Of course I share your fears vis á vis Germany (and Europe).
Especially considering that youth appears to be found nowhere in terms of protest or resistance.
Or did I overlook something?
I submitted a short comment about Starmer’s “nationalisation” of British Steel but I pasted in the relevant legislation and as a result it doesn’t appear to have posted. Apologies if I transgressed a submission format rule, I will try again with a link.
Starmer has passed a very bold law that has received disturbingly little comment in the NSM and alternative media and minimal opposition in Parliament. The Act is at the link below – it is quite short, worth reading full – and my explanation follows.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/13/enacted#section-2
What the act does is to force the person owning a steel asset to operate it at HMG’s direction on pain of criminal penalties on owners and management (2 years imprisonment, fines). That’s it. There is a power but no obligation for HMG to pay compensation to any person so doing. Any compensation it does pay though is deemed to be authorised by Parliament without limit.
This is NOT nationalisation. It is not the use of the government monopoly on fiat money creation to procure economic objectives in the public realm. It is the government using its monopoly on violence to procure economic objectives in the private realm. In my view, it is consistent with fascist economics, both for the reality of coercion and the possibility of crony compensation.
So far, there is no detail in any news report of HMG providing any funding to Jingye to maintain the operations of British Steel. Either it is funding Jingye but is embarrassed to announce this or it is forcing them to absorb the losses. Neither is a defensible position for a government supposedly committed to the rule of law and to free market economics.
The Gov’t had to act decisively, whatever is perceived as the route to capture, and sustain, what is left of our steel industry, as the armed forces have a new series of nuclear submarines to build in Barrow, Dreadnought Class, and they would not willingly accept imported steel for their very particular structural specifications – I would speculate. It’s the Industrial Military Complex flexing its muscles.
Umm – they’re actually buying that submarine steel from France, Belgium and Italy!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/04/07/very-best-british-engineering-but-built-with-french-steel/
(I remember seeing countries other than France listed as sources but this article majors on France).
Don’t get me wrong, I support the UK (and all countries) retaining primary industries, especially those of strategic importance. But I don’t support a supine Parliament passing a “Star Chamber” type bill for uncontrolled, unspecified executive expenditure or, worse, confiscation in the steel industry in any event and I wouldn’t support a proper nationalisation or rebuilding programme without a clear strategic objective and, preferably, a manifesto commitment.
Starmer should have nationalised the asset and announced the public expenditure on its purchase and running, not taken these powers and hidden the bill (or forced parties to pick up HMG’s policy costs other than through taxation).
Thanks for the correction Reverent – I should speculate less freely. Yet here’s a genuine question for you, if I’m not being too impertinent, as you seem to have a ‘handle’ on this – why did the Gov’t not jump in on Tata Steel before they decomissioned their blast furnaces in Port Talbot? Is this, indeed, geo-politics? Thanks for your considered reply, if you are willing.
It’s a multiple choice test!
A) money politics. The Tatas are Commonwealth citizens and therefore gave the right to vote in UK parliamentary elections if resident (we only ever let EU citizens vote in local elections, LOL) and therefore acceptable billionaire donors to UK politicians.
B) geopolitics. India is an old colony / friend and the only conceivable counterweight to Chiba, Russia and Iran rolled into one….
C) ecopolitics. The Tatas are closing the blast furnaces to replace them with electric arc furnaces, which will help the net zero farce but requires a residual blast furnace capability for primary steel production to be retained, hence Scunthorpe. This explanation just makes Jingye victims of poor timing: if they had converted first, Tata would be in their position now….
D) party politics. The Tata deal was agreed before the election. Labour then discovered the strength of the Reform vote, from which it benefitted because the swing was enough to wipe out Tories and leave Labour placed 1st in Tory constituencies but now they see Starmer as popular as a dose of clap and the swing strengthening, which will put Reform ahead of Labour in Labour constituencies. The local elections are coming up in May (despite reorganisimg many councils to postpone them…) and the East Midlands, where Scunthorpe is, is a Brexit / Reform stronghold. So they are waving the flag and keeping the place open, two for the price of one, until the elections are past and then they will pay off Jingye and let it collapse.
Whichever option(s) you choose, I don’t believe for moment they are doing it in a repudiation of neoliberalism and a commitment to own the means of production!
‘Politics, politics and politics’ (to butcher The Bard’s Hamlet soliloquay)
Magnificent analysis Reverent, and thank you. I will now go back to trying something simpler, like learning how to tie my shoe laces.
Thanks for sharing the insight.
Indeed it is more than remearkable that British steel appeared to be of no importance until to the very last moment – of what exactly?
Building Dreadnoughts? To what purpose?
But, now, that´s a separate discussion.
Because ‘We Are The Champions’ – Queen ’77.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04854XqcfCY
It’s psychologically problematic to suffer the indignity of decrepitude and accept the inevitable fall from high status. “We’ll keep on fighting to the end…”, because that’s who we were, are, and forever ‘Will’ ourselves to be, whatever the cost. The USAians will learn this soon enough.
Or, because we have a invoilable commitment to a strategic nulear armed deterent that is under water, nearly permenantly if required, and is therefore largely obscure, and secure, from attack. That, and the fact that our existing subs are reaching the end of their servicable utility.
Or…it’s darned Politics!
Ahem, Scunthorpe is not in the East Midlands, according to official counting (top tier) administrative regions of UK. (We have enough problems). Its Local Authority of Lincolnshire is split in two and Scunthorpe is only part of the East Midlands for certain emergency services like the Ambulance service.
/pedantry and snark ;)
You are, however, correct that it looks like Reform are going to give Labour a huge kicking from South Wales, right through here and into the North.
As the post war liberal order implodes, Europe is reverting to type. There is a reason people emigrated in droves over past centuries.