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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
 
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Samizdata quote of the day – the Nudge Unit is at it yet again

· Civil liberty, Law & Regulation · Slogans & Quotations · Totalitarianism · UK affairs

I’m sure it’s a complete coincidence that the families of the victims of horrific crime always express the same concern, word for word, every time. I’m sure it’s got nothing to do with the “specially-trained” officers who support them.

– Konstantin Kisin

July 13th, 2026 | 3 comments

Samizdata quote of the day – remembering Ann Widdecombe

· Personal views · Slogans & Quotations · UK affairs

She was funny in a register entirely her own. On day one in the Strasbourg parliament I stepped out of an office into one of those interminable corridors to see her at a distance, walking in lockstep with Claire Fox, the two of them deep in conversation. Two women of ferocious conviction from utterly different traditions, the convent Tory and the old revolutionary, neither of them over five foot four, moving down the corridor like a single determined engine. She looked up at my somewhat awed face as they passed and twinkled. ‘Two galleons passing through’, she said, and sailed on.

– Gawain Towler writing of Anne Widdecombe

July 12th, 2026 | 5 comments

The Guardian discovers overregulation

· Civil liberty, Law & Regulation · North American affairs

This is a fine article by Nina Roberts, but it might have been nice if Guardian readers and their US equivalents had thought about the disproportionate burden of “equality” laws on small businesses (as opposed to large businesses who have whole floors full of hotshot lawyers) forty years ago.

Slew of lawsuits over disability access frustrates US cafe and shop owners

Rodrigo Nogueira was met with a surprise in April 2025 when lawyers contacted him out of the blue. They asked whether he needed legal assistance over a summons his restaurant received for violating Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

It was the first he had ever heard of it. The lawsuit listed 35 violations against No More Cafe, his restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village.

One violation alleged a table outside the restaurant was not ADA compliant, an accusation that puzzled Nogueira: the cafe had no outdoor tables. Other alleged violations were about infractions inside the restaurant, yet the plaintiff said he was unable to enter the restaurant.

When Nogueira researched the lawsuit, he discovered that the plaintiff who sued him and the plaintiff’s lawyer had filed complaints against dozens of small businesses. The attorney who filed the lawsuit against him alone had filed more than 100 ADA lawsuits over the past nine years against storefront businesses.

Nogueira, sitting at a table in his café, said: “The [plaintiff] that’s suing me – he’s got 67 cases.”

Before possibly hiring a lawyer, Nogueira filed a motion to dismiss the case himself. But the judge said a company cannot represent itself in court. For small businesses, thousands of dollars in lawyers fees to just file a motion, can be prohibitively costly.

Frustrated with the process, Nogueira sought to speak with other small business owners. He went through public court records and found nearby businesses that were also being sued for ADA noncompliance.

“Every business owner I spoke to had opened within the last year or two. Every one of them was an immigrant,” Nogueira, who is from Brazil, wrote in a post on his website about the lawsuit. “None of us had any idea how to navigate the federal court system. Most were already several thousand dollars into legal fees by the time we talked. Several of them did not realize they had been sued until the deadline to respond had already passed.”

July 11th, 2026 | 21 comments

“There’s no evidence you’ve ever thought about it!”

· Deleted by the Woke Media · Media & Journalism · Mindless "Inequality" Blather · Political Economy · UK affairs

When you’ve lost the Guardian…

How to Get Filthy Rich With Gary Stevenson review – how did this end up such an embarrassment?

This evangelising of a wealth tax should have made for a truly amazing documentary. But it allows its host to be totally out-argued by all his interviewees. Why?

[…]

The first is that Stevenson is not an appealing presenter. He has an adolescent bullishness about him that comes across badly on screen, raising a sort of fight-or-flight response in the viewer instead of encouraging engagement. The strident idealism that infuses his speech and style is hard enough to take from the young, where it at least belongs, but it sits less well on a 39-year-old – adults should have the confidence, the experience and the wisdom that offers more.

The second is that he is outdone and undone by almost all of his interviewees. Telecoms mogul Bassim Haidar, who was in the headlines last year for switching allegiance and donations from the Conservative party to Reform, does it through politeness. He invites Stevenson to address what he would do when his proposed tax caused investors like him to pull all their money out of the UK and find somewhere friendlier instead. Twenty-eighth generation landowner Francis Fulford (yes, of The F**king Fulfords and Life is Toff fame, but here in less eccentric mode) does it with robust jocularity (“The values you are basing your figures on will collapse! It’s Noddyland – it won’t work”) and inquiries as to how asset-rich but income-poor rich people like him will pay. Andrew Henderson of Nomad Capitalist, which advises clients on how to minimise their tax liabilities by moving countries, does it through sheer belligerence (“I don’t think life is fair and I think that fundamentally upsets people who talk about inequality because you feel entitled to rich people’s money”). Tax lawyer and adviser Dan Neidle deals the final blow towards the end of the programme by summing up the underlying problem of everything that has gone before. “You are unable,” he tells Stevenson coolly but firmly, “to separate your emotional reaction to inequality from a rational assessment of the best tools for it.”

This, really, is where a truly amazing documentary could have begun. Instead of Stevenson being left floundering, without convincing comebacks to any of them (was he not briefed? Was he paralysed in front of the camera? Has he simply spent too much time preaching to the choir and forgotten what it’s like to be challenged? Or is Neidle right in his frustrated pronouncement that “There’s no evidence you’ve ever thought about it!”), we could have had an hour of him being led through wider issues by a genuine expert and letting us all learn something along the way. This way was just a faintly embarrassing waste of time.

This is an honest and perceptive review from the Guardian’s Lucy Mangan – the “Mindless ‘Inequality’ Blather” tag is meant to apply to Gary Stevenson’s TV show, not to her review of it – but I cannot help wondering whether her question about Stevenson (“Has he simply spent too much time preaching to the choir and forgotten what it’s like to be challenged?”) is a coded message to her fellow Guardian journalists, and to the left as a whole.

July 10th, 2026 | 35 comments

Ann Widdecombe’s death is being treated as murder

· Self defence & Security · UK affairs

I was saddened but not particularly surprised to hear that Ann Widdecombe, the former Conservative MP who later became first a Brexit Party MEP and then the Immigration and Justice spokesperson for the Reform Party (and an unexpectedly popular star of reality TV) had died yesterday at the age of 78. There seemed to be somewhat less than the usual amount of vile gloating on social media*, and many comments like this one from Colin Freeman:

I did not expect this:

Police Launch Murder Investigation Into Ann Widdecombe’s Death – Guido Fawkes.

*I spoke too soon. This is a screenshot of her Wikipedia article as it currently stands:

Update: A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Second update, 7am 11/07/2026: that person has now been released and “is no longer part of the investigation”.

July 10th, 2026 | 20 comments

Samizdata quote of the day – Markets are discovery mechanisms even during wartime

· Economics, Business & Globalization · Military affairs · Slogans & Quotations · Ukraine

Markets are discovery mechanisms. In war adaptation and discovery are a matter of survival.

Ukraine began the war with a traditional military procurement system. Large, standardised orders from suppliers chosen by the defence ministry with no room for adjustment to individual circumstances. Ukraine’s key innovation was to decentralise military acquisition, placing the funding and decision-making power in the hands of military commanders on the front lines.

Enabled by their earlier implementation of a public electronic procurement system Prozorro, groundbreaking in its own right by allowing greater price competition and transparency, Ukraine launched DOT-Chain Defence in July 2025. Perhaps best described as an ‘Amazon’ for weapons systems, Military units independently select, order, and reserve the necessary equipment, see delivery timelines, leave feedback, and receive quick responses. The system is designed to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy and allow frontline brigades to order in exactly the resources they need at any given time with minimal delay. If a product is low-quality individual units will cease to order it as soon as battlefield conditions expose its flaws, providing rapid feedback to manufacturers to improve their products.

The e-points system is another recent deployment. A unit carries out a combat mission and uploads video proof of its achievements, targets destroyed etc., to the DELTA combat and control system. The unit is then awarded e-points at the end of the month, a virtual currency which it can use to purchase the weapons systems of its choice.

By introducing clear incentives at every step of the process, combat units are motivated to provide results, manufacturers to improve quality and the Ukrainian military machine becomes ever more effective.

– Samuel Williamson

July 9th, 2026 | 9 comments

“Invest in Britain or I’ll force you to, minister tells pension funds”

· Economics, Business & Globalization · Environment · Political Economy · Self ownership · Totalitarianism · UK affairs

“Invest in Britain or I’ll force you to, minister tells pension funds”, the Guardian reports:

The business secretary, Peter Kyle, has told UK pension funds to “get off their high horses” and invest in Britain or be forced to do so by law.

Expressing frustration at the level of investment in British companies after years of government initiatives, Kyle said the UK’s biggest asset managers “should feel a patriotic duty in making Britain a success”.

“I don’t think mandation is ideal in any circumstances. But I’ll use it if I have to, because I’m in a rush,” he said.

Speaking to the Guardian on the sidelines of an event at Lloyds Banking Group’s headquarters in London, he said he was “fed up” with being asked by the City to tweak regulations to boost investment in the UK economy, only to see a lack of investment follow government reforms.

“Don’t make us come back, because we’ve got lots of other things we want to do … It feels like they are still sitting on the fence, so will more powers be needed? I hope not,” he said.

“They are representing British savers. And so they should feel a patriotic duty in making Britain a success. And not just sitting aside from the economy, in a walled-off garden. They are out there with the rest of us. They need to get off their high horses.”

Yes, the pension funds are representing British savers. Which means the only duty those pension fund managers should “feel” is the duty they have by law; their fiduciary duty to those savers to invest those savers’ money in the way that is best for those savers. Not best for Britain-as-a-whole, and certainly not some politician’s pet project that nobody in their right minds would risk tuppence on if they were not forced to do it. Best for those savers. Because it is their money. Sorry to labour that point, but it is a point Labour seem to have difficulty absorbing.

And you won’t make Britain a success by forcing people to “invest” (what a lie that word is) in the way the Government tells them to. Britain’s historical success was built on being one of the few countries where people could invest their money as seemed best to them.

Did you notice the mafia-like threat in Peter Kyle’s words “Don’t make us come back, because we’ve got lots of other things we want to do … It feels like they are still sitting on the fence, so will more powers be needed? I hope not”?

Kyle has form on that. This time last year, when he was Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, he said that to question the Online Safety Act is to side with child abusers. His specific target was Nigel Farage, but he applied the same sentiment to everyone. In his own words,

“I cannot understand how anyone can be against these measures. How could anyone question our duty to keep children safe online – particularly when it comes to child sexual abuse content and from online grooming?”

July 9th, 2026 | 19 comments

Where to start climbing the mountain

· Internet · Privacy & Panopticon · Self defence & Security · UK affairs

The mountain…

According to the polling company Ipsos,

2 in 3 British adults (69%) would support a law that requires social media companies to use age-verification tools to ban children under the age of 16 from accessing their platforms in the UK, and 3 in 5 (61%) support social media curfews / hour restrictions for 16- and 17-year-olds

The route up the mountain…

Support for a law requiring social media companies to use age-verification tools to ban under-16s from platforms drops of 50% if it means everyone in the UK would be required to upload an ID or credit card to verify their age. This holds if ID verification is held by individual social media platforms (50%) or by the device owners, such as Apple or Android / Google (51%).

and

Support dips to just under half (48%) if the law necessitates a total ban on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) within the UK to prevent circumvention.

People sometimes think that all the mockery of the cry of “Won’t somebody please think of the children?” means that it has ceased to be a persuasive argument. This assumption is not true. “We must do this to protect children” is an eternally powerful appeal to humanity’s deepest instincts. Our task is to demonstrate that requiring age verification before any British person can use the internet will not protect children. On the contrary, given the ease with which hostile or criminal forces can steal government data, it will endanger them and endanger adults too. There is also the threat from the government itself to consider – not just this government, but all future ones. Throughout history, authoritarian states have sought to “get them while they’re young and bend their minds”.

July 9th, 2026 | 11 comments

Samizdata quote of the day – Don’t let the Tories pretend they were not responsible for where we are

· Slogans & Quotations · UK affairs

Every party in trouble prays for the same miracle, which is amnesia. The Conservative Party’s entire strategy for the next four years rests on the hope that the British people will misremember the last fourteen. Kemi Badenoch has said as much, remarking that it is unhelpful to churn over every incident of those years. Unhelpful to whom, one might ask. Yesterday Reform UK answered her with a website, and I want to spend a few paragraphs telling you why donotforget.co.uk matters rather more than a campaign microsite usually does.

– Gawain Towler

July 8th, 2026 | 17 comments

In the rush of breaking news today, do not forget 7/7/2005.

· Historical views · Middle East & Islamic · Religion · Self defence & Security · UK affairs

Lots of news today. Nigel Farage has stood down as MP for Clacton, stating he will seek to be re-elected in the resulting by-election. The Daily Mail has defeated Prince Harry and several other high-profile claimants in a phone hacking case brought against it in the High Court, a result that Lord Dacre, the Mail’s publisher, has hailed as a victory for press freedom.

The papers were no doubt equally full on this day twenty-one years ago, before the 7 July 2005 London bombings wiped everything else off the front page.

July 7th, 2026 | 20 comments

If you want to understand what’s happening regarding Farage right now… READ THIS

· UK affairs

Gawain Towler explains the ongoing campaign by the British establishment to destroy the existential threat The Reform Party poses to them.

The first aim, the one they would toast if they achieved it, is to take Farage down altogether, to force a resignation. They will not be so lucky. The second aim is subtler and in its way just as dangerous. It is aimed at the rear echelon. At the Reform leaning voter, the not sure but interested, the undecided man or woman who is being told, day after day, that these people are chaotic, tainted, not quite safe. Frighten the reserves and the front line starves.

If Farage were to resign, which he will not, Burnham would call a general election the next morning, before the smoke cleared. Since he will not, there will be a delay, and the pounding will continue. That is the nature of the thing. Preparatory bombardments do not stop because the defenders are steady. They stop when the attacker runs out of shells or out of time.

So what is required of us is not cleverness. It is resilience. We have been shelled before, in 2016, in 2019, in 2024, and we have remained undimmed. Morale is the true objective of every barrage, and morale is the one thing entirely within our own keeping. Courage under fire is not a slogan, it is a discipline, and it consists mostly of not doing things. Not wavering. Not sniping at our own. Not mistaking noise for damage.

If you are even vaguely considering supporting Reform, then you are the target of this carefully orchestrated campaign to convince you to do otherwise. I urge you to read the entire linked article: The Guns Before the Whistle.

Thucydides famously observed that “the secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage.”

Take courage.

July 6th, 2026 | 29 comments

Samizdata quote of the day – what we have lost edition

· Slogans & Quotations · UK affairs

“Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state, beyond the post office and the policeman. He could live where he liked and as he liked. He had no official number or identity card. He could travel abroad or leave his country for ever without a passport or any sort of official permission. He could exchange his money for any other currency without restriction or limit. He could buy goods from any country in the world on the same terms as he bought goods at home. For that matter, a foreigner could spend his life in this country without permit and without informing the police.”

– A  J  P  Taylor’s English History, 1914-1945. From the first page.

(Hat-tip: Institute of Economic Affairs at its new site. It manages to tie its insights about licensing laws and trade to the glorious English football victory over Mexico last night in the latter country.)

July 6th, 2026 | 10 comments
 
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