Free Speech in retreat

Ofcom’s Iron Grip shows the UK turn its back on British values In February 2025, a tense exchange unfolded in the Oval Office between UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US Vice President JD Vance. Vance challenged Starmer face-to-face, asserting that UK policies, like the Online Safety Act, infringe on free expression. Starmer swiftly countered, […]

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Journal Gatekeeping:

Are medical journals increasingly acting as ‘gatekeepers’ to promote ‘established narratives’ but sideline research that challenges the status quo? Many articles containing  ‘controversial’ views that initially achieved publication have been promptly retracted. In the past 5 years, the retraction of papers criticizing the covid vaccines or lockdown policies, for example, has gone stratospheric….

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Peer Review:

Peer review is a system used by scientists and clinicians to decide which primary research or secondary (review/commentary) content is worthy of being published. In theory it is a process of cumulative, collective knowledge that through publications is cascaded from experts to readers. But in practice things are not always what they seem!

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Referral to the Counter Disinformation Unit – by whom?

The Telegraph has suddenly reported on the existence of the Counter Disinformation Unit (CDU), the dubious activities of which were first highlighted several months ago by Big Brother Watch in a report aptly titled ‘The Ministry of Truth’ (do re-read George Orwell’s 1984 if you don’t recognise this title). A launch meeting was held in January at Westminster, hosted by David Davis MP, who had himself been reported to the CDU for unspecified crimes. Where were the press reports of that meeting? 

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