We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

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

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.

Samizdata quote of the day – They are late stage Romanov stupid

Establishment clearly running an operation to get Farage.

If they do force him out – clearly the game plan- over technicalities about what he did / didn’t declare, I think they’ll start a firestorm.

The public will see this as the attempted stitch up that it is. Clacton folk (I know them a little) will reelect him in any by election.

Demands to destroy the rotten political establishment will assume a revolutionary vibe.

I almost want the Times columnists types to be so stupid. They are late stage Romanov stupid.

Douglas Carswell

New media did not turn out the way we had hoped

Lauren Southern has an interesting perspective on why the ‘dissident’ social media did not go the way we expected.

Yet again, I am very happy I never made Samizdata anyone’s “day job”.

When fighting disinformation is itself disinformation

Claire Fox lays out the folly of trusting the state and state-adjacent institutions to decides what constitutes disinformation.

Samizdata quote of the day – We’re against easing the pain of paying tax

Yes, yes, we know, paying tax is the price of partaking in civilisation. But that’s still a price, a cost. We think that people should see, up close and personal, the cost of that civilisation being built on their money. We are therefore against this:

Income tax will be automatically deducted from state pensions for millions of retirees under plans being considered by Labour, The Telegraph understands.

Not because the state pension should, or should not, be taxed. But because this is easy taxation. Some to many will not really even note it. Tax should be painful so that proper consideration be given to how much is being demanded.

Tim Worstall

Samizdata quote of the day – shed no tears for Two-Tier Keir

Can a man whose legacy will be full-term abortion, censorship, digital surveillance, and the abolition of trial by jury really claim to have rescued Britain from the moral abyss? Can a man who gave us soaring youth unemployment, who shrugged at farm suicides, who thinks nothing of bankrupting schools for disabled children and religious minorities, really boast of returning to Britain a sense of pride?

Mary Harrington

Samizdata quote of the day – The EU produces rules, the US produces companies, China produces scale.

Europe has spent decades believing that you can regulate prosperity, tax innovation, and distrust entrepreneurship, while Silicon Valley and Shenzhen built the future.

Now, European Commissioner Virkkunen “Spuit11” warns that Europe is dependent on American and Chinese AI for digital security. As if that were a natural disaster. It’s not a natural disaster. It’s policy.

The EU produces rules. The US produces companies. China produces scale. Europe produces commissions that explain why we’re falling behind.

Roald Schoenmakers

So when you boil it down, the ‘memorandum’ secures Iran’s war aims?

No end to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s government, no end to Iran’s missile programme, no handover of enriched uranium, yes to ending US sanctions and thus forgoing any political leverage, yes to accepting Iranian (and Omani, for what it’s worth) control over Hormuz, no end to the IRGC proxy forces in Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon… and, er, an Iranian promise to be nice in the future and not make nukes?

This is not being well received by everyone.

Assorted wags have remarked:

Hegseth renamed the Department of Defense to the Department of War, whereupon he lost a war.

and…

Donald Trump promised the war would end with unconditional surrender, and boy did he deliver.

It would all be a lot funnier if it was not quite so tragic.

Samizdata quote of the day – Instruments of tyranny

No Government has the right, whether to flatter fanatics or in mere vagueness of mind, to forge an instrument of tyranny and say that it will never be used.

– William Butler Yeats, written in 1928 in opposition to censorship legislation in the Irish Free State

Samizdata second quote of the day – The Fixed Quantity of Biscuits fallacy

There is a never ending number of biscuits, not finite. Socialists think there is a biscuit tin under the bed, everyone has to share, 1 for you, 1 for me. They fail to learn how to make cookies with their granny who thought grandad was talking sh1t. Families 😂😂

Jean McMillan

A question about the war against the Islamic Republic of Iran…

So, has anyone determined what US war aims actually are? Damned if I can figure it out.

Samizdata quote of the day – Police State Britain is not even hiding the reality anymore

Sir Keir Starmer is set to announce sweeping reforms tomorrow banning under-16s from 10 major social media platforms, including X, but not the Left-wing platform Bluesky.

Toby Young