‘Tis ‘only’ money …

 

Bank Holidays – the Local elections on Thursday – the weather – only one ‘covid death’: there’s not much going on in our country if you happen to scan the headlines this morning. Oh yes: Bill and Melinda Gates are divorcing: huge news, this!

I can’t help but think that the various ‘sources’, always keen to spin, to drip gossip into the eagerly waiting ears of the Westminster MSM, have taken a rest over the Bank Holidays. Tomorrow, the last day before that “Election Super Thursday” – ‘super’ because last year no local elections took place because: lockdown! – is officially a day of purdah when no ‘political’ news are supposed to be published. That’s because we stupid people mustn’t be influenced by such last-minute ‘political’ news.

However, there were some staggering news which, as usual, have again sunk without a trace. I don’t mean the ‘news’ that the Pfizer jab has now been approved in the USA to be given to ‘persons’ – yes, really! – ‘of between 12 and 5 years of age‘ (link). I wonder if the vaccine-fans will be ok with having their kids ‘immunised’ against an illness which hardly affects them. I wonder if they are ok with giving their children a vaccine with unknown long-term effects, unknown because they’ve only been introduced less than a year ago, under emergency rules. I wonder if our own covid government will find a way of making this jab mandatory for children of school age. Debates in Germany are already raging on this proposal. 

There’s another piece of covid ‘news’. Finally, after such a long time when the worlds MSM were fixated on covid jabs, when we were told it’s either jabs, perhaps in perpetuity, or clogging up ‘Our NHS’, a peer-reviewed paper on Ivermectin has been published. LockdownSceptics has a report on this paper (link). This observation by Will Jones, who wrote the LockdownSceptics report, hits hard, hits home, and our covid emperors ought to be confronted with this quote wherever they appear:

“Considering how quickly vaccines using novel technology with unproven long-term safety records have been authorised for use, the failure to approve a known safe drug with considerable evidence to suggest clinical benefit is almost inexplicable. Some have suggested the resistance has been motivated by a wish among pharmaceutical companies to prioritise more profitable medicines like the vaccines. If so, this is a criminal example of putting profits before people.” (link)

Indeed so – and this makes the approval of that Pfizer jab for kids from age 5 to 12 even more questionable. I bet the politicians swarming around our communities to get our votes on Thursday won’t know either of those covid ‘news’.

And so to the sell-out of our country’s assets. Remember the wails of dismay when the Foreign Secretary Mr Raab announced that foreign aid to China would be slashed from £71m to £900,000? The funny thing is that all the opposition parties were suddenly dripping with outrage, that “we” were still paying money to China (link) when formerly any questions about reducing foreign aid were met with similar outrage. This issue has been simmering for a year when MPs demanded answers and a review in July last year (link). Well, “we” had to worry about summer holidays under covid conditions at that time so this wasn’t precisely news-worthy.

However, now that the foreign aid budget has been slashed, aid charities warn that China will be happy to step up their aid efforts (link), especially in Africa. I apologise for my customary cynicism when I think that these charities are only worrying about their dwindling nice income out of our pockets. Why else would they moan when China has invested massively for years – not just in Africa but across the globe – and certainly not for charity’s sake.

There were two articles in the Sunday Times on Chinese investment here in the UK. Here is one quote which ought to scare us more than covid. Remember the row about Huawei and G5, for which the then defence minister, a certain Mr Williamson, had to resign? Well, ‘tip of an iceberg’ came to mind when I read:

“Chinese investors have amassed a portfolio of UK businesses, infrastructure, property and other assets worth nearly £135 billion, almost twice as much as was previously suspected, an investigation reveals today. The swift and largely unnoticed buying spree includes at least £44 billion of purchases by Chinese state-owned entities. More than 80 of the 200 investments uncovered by The Sunday Times have taken place since 2019 as relations between Britain and China have grown increasingly tense.” (link, paywalled)

The Times published their analysis in an accompanying article on that same day and it makes grim reading:

“An investigation by The Sunday Times for the first time reveals the true scale of China’s hold on key British industries, including energy, defence, infrastructure and transport — and its growing interest in healthcare, schools and technology. Our research reveals that almost 200 British companies are either controlled by Chinese investors or count them as minority shareholders. The value of Chinese investments totals £134 billion. (link, paywalled)

From nuclear power to gas and the gas distribution network, from transport (e.g. Heathrow) to London properties and public schools to Footsie industries, Chinese investors have a foothold at the very least nearly everywhere. There’s also Tech and Science, for example:

“Chinese venture capital firms have been quietly building a portfolio of key British companies tipped for success, including Oxford Nanopore, the gene-sequencing company preparing for a £2 billion float, backed by Chinese tech giant Tencent, and Immunocore, a cancer specialist whose investors include CCB International, an arm of the state-owned China Construction Bank.” (link, paywalled)

Here’s another worrying quote, on the sell-out of data technology. Note that this sell-out has been going on for some time, with nary any eyebrows raised:

“China’s increasing influence in Britain’s tech sector came into focus last year in the tussle over Imagination Technologies. The British chip designer was bought in 2017 for £550 million by Canyon Bridge, a private equity firm backed by Chinese state-owned China Reform. London-based data centre giant Global Switch has been slowly sold by the billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben and is now controlled by Shagang Group, a Chinese steel giant chaired by tycoon Shen Wenrong. Global Switch claims it is a property company and denies its owners can access the sensitive government data stored in its systems.” (link, paywalled)

Of course ‘Global Switch’ would deny this! While there are no reciprocal opportunities for UK firms to invest in China, the ‘excuse’ by this investment firm, for being party to this sell-out, is jaw-dropping:

“Investment is necessary, especially after Brexit, according to Hermann Hauser of venture capital firm Amadeus, who frequently co-invests with Chinese funds. “We need their money,” he said simply.” (link, paywalled)

Ah! Funny how ‘Brexit’ is the go-to excuse for anything to do with the economy. Mind you, the finger of blame is firmly pointed at Cameron and Osborne who were instrumental in forging closer ties’ with China (link, paywalled).

We’ve been clobbered for some time with criticism of our dreadful history: colonialism, imperialism, slavery. ‘Tis strange then that this woke generation apparently doesn’t see that the colonialism methods which they blame us for is being sued successfully by China: seeking us cheap tat and grabbing our valuable assets at the same time. If it was bad when we did it – why is it acceptable now?

I leave you with a puzzling question: when even the comparatively tiny Cardiff Local Council has now ‘invested’ in electric buses from China (video link) – why is it that there’s one item that has not been ‘sold out’? That there’s one item which apparently China hasn’t touched with a barge pole? ‘Tis “Our NHS” and their various entities buying and selling stuff like masks and PPE.

I wonder why that could be … 

 

KBO!

 

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