Tanks a lot! Driver dodges ULEZ charge by driving armoured vehicle through heart of London’s West End

Thrill-seekers dodged Sadiq Khan‘s ULEZ charge by driving a tank through the heart of London‘s West End.

The green army tank was filmed roaring through the streets of the capital yesterday – to the astonishment of pedestrians who stopped to snap photos.

Others appeared less impressed, with one woman waving her hands under her nose in an apparent reaction to the fumes.

Regardless, the tank does not have to pay the daily £12.50 ULEZ charge because it was built in 1965 and thus considered a ‘classic car’. Commercial vehicles over the age of 40 are able to take advantage of the loophole.

The Abbot Self-Propelled Gun was crewed by two men at the front, while two women sat above the turret wearing sunglasses and casual tops.

ortunately, the vehicle was more respectful of the laws of the road than most invading armies – stopping at traffic lights and indicating before taking a turn.

The tank belongs to a specialist tank experience company called Tanks-A-Lot.

While London has been hit by multiple anti-ULEZ protests since the zone’s expansion in August, but yesterday’s joyride is more likely to have been a jaunt by one of the firm’s customers.

MailOnline has contacted Tanks-A-Lot for comment.

The same tank drove through the West End on August 18 and was spotted on Dean Street, Oxford Street, St James and several other tourist hot spots.

Read More: Tanks a lot! Driver dodges ULEZ charge by driving armoured vehicle through heart of London’s West End


Germany Fires Up Coal Power Plants for Winter to “Save Gas”

The German Government on Wednesday approved putting coal power plants back online from October until the end of March 2024 to address scarce natural gas this winter and avoid shortages, Reuters reports.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a drop in Russian gas imports to Germany, Berlin reactivated coal-fired power plants and extended their lifespans, with a total output of 1.9 gigawatt hours generated last winter.

The Government said it will make proposals by next summer on how to ‘offset’ the increased carbon dioxide emissions the plants will generate this winter.

I wonder when they’ll twig they still need fossil fuels every winter, not just this year.

Read More: Germany Fires Up Coal Power Plants for Winter to “Save Gas”


The disgraceful debanking cover-up (Of course it’s covered up when it’s Cult policy)

Following the ‘debanking’ scandal earlier this summer – when Nigel Farage was dumped by Coutts bank due to his political views – the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority launched an urgent inquiry. It promised to investigate the extent to which banks were denying services to other people on similar grounds.

There was certainly plenty of evidence for the FCA to look at. Metro Bank, PayPal, First Direct, Monzo and fintech company Tide have all been caught debanking political figures from across the political spectrum, including the presenters of the Triggernometry podcast, Scottish-independence campaigner Stuart Campbell and anti-Brexit activist Gina Miller.

And then there are those who have suffered under the ludicrously strict rules applied to politically exposed persons (PEPs) – that is, someone, or the relative of someone, who holds a prominent public position. These rules are meant to prevent corruption and criminal activity, but they often end up punishing innocent citizens. This includes, for example, the disabled granddaughter of the late chancellor, Nigel Lawson.

Debanking certainly appears to be a significant problem. Quite apart from the question of ‘politically exposed persons’, there is clear evidence that banks have been deliberately denying services to people on account of their political beliefs. But if you were expecting the FCA’s investigation to shed a further forensic light on the issue, you will be sorely disappointed. Last month, the FCA concluded its investigation and announced it had found absolutely no evidence of wrongdoing. Move along, nothing to see here.

To have arrived at this conclusion takes some doing. Firstly, the FCA consciously ignored the most damning evidence of debanking – namely, the Farage-Coutts scandal – on the grounds that the data it analysed simply didn’t include it. Given the FCA only launched the investigation because of the Farage-Coutts scandal, this omission is doubly absurd.

But it wasn’t just the Farage case that the FCA ignored. It also disregarded other well-publicised instances of debanking. Instead, the FCA decided that it would be better (and no doubt easier) to simply ask the big banks themselves whether they have consciously debanked a politically divisive customer. Unsurprisingly, the banks claimed that this is not something they do. Satisfied, the FCA concluded that the banks aren’t debanking anyone.

These conclusions are as absurd as the manner in which they were reached. The fact that the UK’s banking regulator has refused to even acknowledge that banks might be overstepping the limits of their authority is deeply troubling.

Read More: The disgraceful debanking cover-up


Clear Expands Reusable Digital Identity to Financial Services with One-click KYC Launch

Activist Post Editor’s Note: YOU are the password in the new world of digital ID backed by biometrics. The promise is for safer, faster and “frictionless” service, but we’ve heard this before. More hacking by cybercriminals, more identity theft and more control by the banking-government system is a far liklier outcome. Also note at the end that this is intended to spread well beyond banking and into online verification, travel and more…

Clear is bringing its reusable digital identity service to the financial services market with the new one-click know your customer (KYC) application.

The expansion of the Clear identity platform includes ID document and selfie biometrics and liveness checks to meet KYC requirements, and is intended to help consumers complete processes without adding friction that leads to drop-offs from the sign-up process.

There are already 17 million Clear users, and the software includes a custom workflow builder for KYC onboarding orchestration.

The application can be integrated into onboarding software through an API, SDKs, and no-code identity verification links.

“Identity verification and secure authentication is fundamental to modern financial services, and Clear’s reusable KYC solution delivers something new: a frictionless consumer-focused signup that will help partners successfully enroll customers,” says Clear CEO Caryn Seidman Becker. “While this is new to financial services, it will feel familiar to our 17 million members who have benefitted from how we have leveraged technology to save them time.”

Clear has acquired New York City-based startup Sora ID, and says the new application is a product of integrating its KYC capabilities. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Liminal has forecast reusable digital identity to be a $266 billion market by 2027, and market entries are flooding in from biometrics providers.

The company’s expansion beyond the travel industry includes identity verification for social media platform LinkedIn and healthcare, retail age verification and hotel check-ins. A service closer to its traditional airport market is also used by around a dozen professional sports teams.

Read More: Clear Expands Reusable Digital Identity to Financial Services with One-click KYC Launch


Fascist Netherlands land grab in the land where judges have their backbone deleted as a criteria for office: MP is being prosecuted for two counts of sedition for encouraging civil disobedience over farmer destruction by Schwab-owned, royal family-owned Rutte

Dutch Member of Parliament Gideon van Meijeren is being prosecuted for encouraging farmers to rebel against a tyrannical government that is attempting to steal their land.

It is almost universally agreed that democracy must allow for civil disobedience.  Citizens also have the right to use violence to defend themselves against a tyrannical government that is using unlawful force against the citizens it is supposed to serve.  Professor Mattias Desmet explains this in more detail. 

In July 2021, Mr. van Meijeren made his first speech in the Dutch Parliament during which he confronted Prime Minister Mark Rutte about his connections with the World Economic Forum’s Klaus Schwab.

A year later, on 2 July 2022, Mr. van Meijeren spoke at a farmers’ protest in Tuil when farmers were demonstrating en masse against government plans to cut nitrogen emissions. According to NL Times, in his speech, Mr. van Meijeren “pointed out that it is permissible to violently resist the government if it were to expropriate farmers.” Van Meijeren told the gathered farmers that they’d never move the government to action with peaceful protests and by waving flags in the meadows, among other things.

NL Times goes on to say that on 13 November 2022 Mr. van Meijeren “speculated about overthrowing the government during an online interview.”  The MP said he hoped for a revolutionary movement that would occupy parliament. Van Meijeren said he hoped this “velvet revolution” would be peaceful, although, according to him, past examples show that there are often casualties. “That is terrible, and let’s hope that we can prevent that and that everything remains peaceful. That is what I hope for in the end,” he said.

Last month, the Public Prosecution Service confirmed it would prosecute Mr. van Meijeren for two counts of sedition. “The suspect suggested that violence against the government was permitted and perhaps even necessary,” the Public Prosecution Service said about the two incidents last year.

De staat gedraagt zich als een tiran die zich tegen de eigen bevolking heeft gekeerd.

We worden onrechtmatig van onze meest fundamentele vrijheden en grondrechten beroofd.

Het Nederlandse volk heeft niet alleen het recht, maar zelfs de morele plicht zich daartegen te verzetten. pic.twitter.com/GPycYp7qof

— Gideon van Meijeren (@GideonvMeijeren) July 12, 2022

Read More: Netherlands Land Grab: MP is being prosecuted for two counts of sedition for encouraging civil disobedience


The Utter Stupidity of Building High Speed Rail in a Small Country Like England

There has been an awful lot of heat and noise, but very little light, as various politicians and pundits and other gravy-train riders reacted with predictable confected fury to the Government’s decision to scrap the northern leg of the HS2 train. One of the many complaints is that, if Britain is to be a modern economy, then we should have loads of high-speed trains just like France and Germany. Unfortunately, those making this argument seem to have forgotten what little they may have learnt in their O Level geography.

Now let me explain why it is totally ludicrous to have high-speed trains in a tiny country like England.

France is a big country – about 640,000 km². Germany is quite a big country too – 357,592 km². The U.K. is a small country – about 242,000 km². England is an even smaller country – 130,000 km². So, France is five times the size of England and Germany is almost three times as large as England. Both France and Germany have extensive high-speed rail networks. It makes sense to have high-speed trains in a large country. It doesn’t make sense to have high-speed trains in a small country.

Now let’s go a bit deeper. The French train route from Paris to Lyon to Marseilles can probably be seen as comparable to the U.K. train route from London to Birmingham to Manchester in terms of how it connects major cities. But the differences in distances are huge. Paris to Lyon is 292 miles, whereas London to Birmingham is only 128 miles. And Lyon to Marseilles is 195 miles, whereas Birmingham to Manchester is a mere 86 miles.

Or if we take Germany, the route from Berlin to Frankfurt to Munich could also be compared to HS2’s London to Birmingham to Manchester. The distance from Berlin to Frankfurt is 341 miles – much more than London to Birmingham’s 128 miles. And the distance from Frankfurt to Munich is 244 miles – considerably more than Birmingham to Manchester’s measly 86 miles.

The much greater distances in France and Germany justify high-speed rail networks. But squandering over £100bn on cutting just a few minutes off the train time from London to Birmingham and then even fewer minutes off the train journey from Birmingham to Manchester is utterly ludicrous. And I won’t even mention the fact that HS2 might not even ever get to Euston station.

There never was and never will be any need for a high-speed train network in England. The distances are simply too short. On the now-cancelled Birmingham to Manchester leg, the train would hardly have enough time to get up to speed before it had to slow down. Why the political, bureaucratic and engineering geniuses who planned the whole thing couldn’t see this more-than-minor geographical problem defeats me.

Read More: The Utter Stupidity of Building High Speed Rail in a Small Country Like England


‘Irony is Dead’: Time Puts Moron Yousaf on Cover as ‘Next Generation Leader’ Despite Him Leading Party Towards Disaster

SNP leader Humza Yousaf may be leading his party towards electoral disaster, but Time magazine sees that as no reason not to put him on the cover and laud him as a “next generation leader”. The Telegraph has more.

Humza Yousaf may have endured a nightmare start to his tenure as First Minister thanks to the arrest of Nicola Sturgeon and support for the SNP ebbing away in the polls.

But Time magazine has featured Mr. Yousaf on its front cover, lauding him as one of a new generation of “trailblazers shaping the future”.

The American magazine’s new edition calls him “the new face of Scotland” and lists the 38-year-old among its “rising stars”, noting he is the first First Minister from an ethnic minority background.

Among the other “next generation leaders” featured in the magazine were actress Florence Pugh, racing driver Jamie Chadwick, drag queen Pattie Gonia and Ghanaian visual artist Prince Gyasi.

Mr. Yousaf getting his picture on the front of Time is a major publicity coup for the First Minister as he has a much lower profile outside Scotland than Ms. Sturgeon.

However, the magazine’s choice of cover raised eyebrows at the Scottish Parliament, especially as it appeared only hours before an expected Labour victory in his first electoral test as SNP leader.

Irony is dead, says the Spectator, noting that Time praises Yousaf “for his age and ethnicity rather than, er, any substantive achievements from 11 years in public office”.

The choice is all the more remarkable, “given that the magazine acknowledges his disastrous record”. Time notes how under Yousaf “the SNP has been plagued by an ongoing police investigation into its finances; internal divisions; and uncertainty over how to achieve its overriding objective: for Scotland to end its centuries-old union.” It adds that:

On the economy, health care, education and more, Scotland is faring poorly. Tens of thousands of Scots are languishing on waiting lists to receive treatment from the National Health Service. Scotland’s drug-related deaths, while on the decline, remain the worst in the U.K. and Europe. Its schools are lagging behind the rest of Britain, too. Other issues, such as disruptions to ferry services affecting Scottish island communities, continue to fester.

So he’s a disaster, but at least he’s young(ish) and not white. I guess that’s what the Left calls progress.

Read More: “Irony is Dead”: Time Puts Humza Yousaf on Cover as “Next Generation Leader” Despite Him Leading Party Towards Disaster


Rogue banks are not waiting for the UK Energy Bill to be enacted to use it to deny us being able to buy or sell property

The Telegraph published an article yesterday which described how banks will not be allowing mortgages on “energy inefficient” homes.

The Telegraph also notes how this policy is despite Installed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak saying the public should  not be burdened with the cost of “net zero.”  The implication is that it is only the commercial lenders who are attempting to impose draconian “net zero” policies.

However, as we noted in a previous article, The UK Energy Bill, which is in its final stages before receiving Royal Assent, will be used by the Government of the day to take our homes away from us.

Do not be fooled by Sunak’s smooth talking or by any other Member of Parliament, regardless of party affiliation, who voted in favour of the UK Energy Bill and is now claiming that they do not agree with the rollout of financial institutions’ “net zero” policies.

They may disagree with the power and control being in the hands of the large multi-national lenders rather than the Government, but they do not disagree with the principles of “net zero.”  As has become glaringly obvious, “net zero” policies, regardless of who is attempting to implement them, do not recognise and, in fact, are a blatant attempt to strip us of our human rights while ignoring our inalienable rights.

For the sake of public interest, we have reproduced The Telegraph’s article below.  The two rogue financial institutions named in the article are Natwest, the largest business and commercial bank in the UK, and Nationwide Building Society, the UK’s second-largest mortgage provider and the largest building society in the world with over 16 million members.

The UK government owns approximately 39% of the shares in Natwest.

The following is the article titled ‘Banks commit to onerous ‘green’ plans despite Sunak net zero rollback’ published by The Telegraph on 5 October 2023.

Banks are sticking to green pledges that require borrowers to spend thousands making their homes more energy efficient, despite Rishi Sunak saying the public should not be burdened with the cost of net zero.

Last month Mr. Sunak removed targets for mortgage lenders that would have forced them to ensure the properties on their loan books have Energy Performance Certificate (“EPC”) ratings of C or better by 2030. He said he wanted to “ease the burden” of net zero on families and working people.

EPC rating rules were brought into law in 2018 and required all privately rented properties in England to be above a certain standard of energy efficiency.

On top of this, the Government proposed introducing voluntary targets for mortgage lenders to ensure properties on their loan books have ratings of C or better by the end of the decade.

But, despite Mr. Sunak scrapping or pushing back a string of net zero requirements, including the looming rules for landlords, large lenders including Nationwide Building Society and NatWest are still sticking to pledges to make 50pc of their mortgage customers’ homes EPC rating C or more by 2030.

It means mortgage customers whose homes do not meet the standard face spending thousands on upgrades such as insulation, double glazing and heat pumps.

According to the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities English Housing Survey, published last year, 18pc of private rental properties would require more than £10,000 to bring up their homes to an EPC rating of C. Those who do not meet these standards, face being turned down for loans.

Read More: Rogue banks are not waiting for the UK Energy Bill to be enacted to use it to deny us being able to buy or sell property


Earth is hit by blast of energy from a dead star so powerful that scientists can’t explain it

Earth has been hit by blast of energy from a dead star so powerful that scientists can’t fully explain it.

The intense gamma rays – detected using a vast system of telescopes in Namibia – would sizzle humans to a crisp if we were exposed to them.

They originate from the Vela Pulsar around 1,000 light years from Earth, which has already been compared in appearance to the mask from the Phantom of the Opera.

Pulsars are the remains of a massive star that blew up an estimated 10,000 years ago as a supernova, then collapsed in on itself.

British astronomer Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell was the first person to discover a pulsar in 1967, but this study marks the highest energy rays from a pulsar yet seen.

Sadly, it doesn’t mean that aliens are trying to contact us, according to study author Arache Djannati-Atai from the Astroparticle & Cosmology (APC) laboratory in France.

‘It is true that when they were first discovered back in 1967, the sources were named LGM1 and LGM2 for little green men, but that was almost a joke,’ he told MailOnline.

Read More: Earth is hit by blast of energy from a dead star so powerful that scientists can’t explain it