Perigo's Perspective: On The Visit Of Lord Sumption
Quoting Wikipedia:
Jonathan Philip Chadwick Sumption, Lord Sumption, OBE, PC, FSA, FRHistS (born 9 December 1948), is a British author, medieval historian and former senior judge who sat on the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom between 2012 and 2018.
Sumption has been highly critical of the British government's lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic on civil libertarian grounds, seeing them as a slippery slope, while also criticising the legal basis for their enactment and the enforceability of COVID-19 control measures. He has also questioned whether the virus is serious enough to justify restrictive measures, while also arguing that the effects of lockdowns may be worse than the effects of the actual virus, attracting controversy and debate in British media outlets.
Not quoting Wikipedia now: His Lordship is in New Zealand at the moment on a speaking tour organised by the Free Speech Union.
The Union sent out a link the other day to an interview with him on Q&A on Sunday morning. I hesitated to click on it in light of IAAM Syndrome which, if the election were anything to go by, afflicts mainstream interviewers.
IAAM. It's All About Me. Whereby the purported interviewers make it all about themselves, constantly interrupting, talking over, strutting and preening and playing gotcha … especially if the interviewee is non-or anti-Woke.
That's not interviewing, it's not legitimate devil's advocacy; it's gratuitous, narcissistic badgering. I feared that the Lord Sumption interview would be like that, and that I should have to repair to extra blood pressure medication. I clicked on the link anyway.
To my astonishment the Jack the Jerk of the Winston Peters interview had given way to a … tamer, much more professional Jack. He asked questions; he didn't make Woke speeches. He not only allowed answers, he listened to them, and followed through.
Chomping at the bit as he must have been to parrot the government Wuhan propaganda that mainstream media churned out throughout the pandemic like Pravda on steroids, he restrained himself. He probed, firmly … but politely.
They discussed lockdowns; mandates didn't come up. They discussed the status of free speech in the era of social media lynchings.
I put the extra pills back in their bottle … and applauded. I hope Jack doesn't get cancelled for wishing Lord Sumption a pleasant stay … cancelled by Woke Fascists who believe His Lordship shouldn't have been allowed in to begin with!
The Free Speech Union had also sent out some good news to its members. Quoting now:
Several weeks ago, Stephen Franks contacted you about the ‘Momo St John' case- a medical practitioner who was being threatened by a Stuff journalist over tweets on their anonymous Twitter account.
Thousands of Kiwis joined us in calling out this witchhunt, and Stuff backed off. And then, we turned our sights on Te Whatu Ora (the Ministry of Health) for the abysmal treatment of their employee. They initiated an employment inquiry over the fact that this medical practitioner had an anonymous account and dared express opinions they found distasteful (shocking stuff, like men playing women's sports might be unfair).
I'm pleased to announce that, after taking this to the Chief People Officer, Andrew Slater, and calling out the nonsense claim that a medical health practitioner can't perform their role professionally because of their tweets, we got this response:
“In terms of your specific question in respect of what employment actions have been taken in respect of your members, we can confirm that no action was taken … with this in mind, we regard the matter closed.”
Chalk up a second win for the good guys. Doctors shouldn't have to self-censor in order to keep their employment. With your help, we stared down those who were calling out Momo for ‘wrongthink'; and we stared down Te Whatu Ora for good measure, too.
More applause! Well done, Free Speech Union.
Tomorrow, we get to hear the final count in the election, and should soon find out what inroads, if any, Winston can make into the Uniparty and its totalitarian inclinations.
Regardless, I fear Lord Sumption's misgivings will prove correct globally. When the streets of London reverberate to Allahu Akbar in support of Hamas savages, and other savages outside the the Sydney Opera House call for the gassing of Jews, we're probably past the point of no return.
Most politicians don't give a damn. They are unprincipled power-lusters, indifferent or actively hostile to free speech. We should probably enjoy this politician joke from Ronald Reagan, one of the exceptions, while we still can.
And for our musical closing, the Israeli National Anthem performed by members of the Israeli Defence Force … fighting for their lives, and for Western Civilisation while Western politicians betray it.
Our Contributor
