RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://spectator.us/boris-difficult-decision-lockdown-lifted/

When Chequers was donated to the nation, the accompanying Act of Parliament was explicit about the intended effect. ‘The better the health of our rulers, the more sanely will they rule,’ it said. Prime ministers need time to think, as well as recuperate, and as Boris Johnson continues his convalescence there, he will be in need of that help. Not only is he still recovering from several days in intensive care, he is also facing a policy problem without precedent — and without good answers. Whatever solution he opts for will determine his premiership, the public’s faith in the British state and this country’s future standing in the world.

In the absence of the optimist-in-chief, an air of depression has settled on the government. ‘We are living in a world of bad options,’ says one of those at the heart of the policy-making process. This is exacerbating tensions between departments. Every-one is better at pointing out the flaws in others’ ideas than proposing ideas of their own.

The prime minister might not be back in Downing Street but he is engaging in more and more issues from Chequers. When the British government makes the big decisions on coronavirus, they will be his. Those in cabinet who want an easing of restrictions like to believe the return of their Tiggerish leader will speed a return to normality. But those who know Boris Johnson will think that his brush with death means that he is now much more cautious about when and how the lockdown should be lifted.

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2020/04/not-merely-wrong-but-265-times-wrong/

Years ago, Paul Kelly noted the striking irrelevance of academic economists to Australia’s 1980s and ’90s reform era. Contributions like Monday’s “Open letter from 265 Australian economists: don’t sacrifice health for ‘the economy‘” show that nothing has changed. What insights do the authors believe are so important they must be urgently put to leaders dealing with multiple critical decisions every day? With its straw-man arguments and vagueness, the letter offers none.

The authors reject as “a false distinction” that there is “a trade‑off between the public health and economic aspects of the crisis”. This is so absurd that it is astonishing any serious economist (let alone 265 of them) could suggest it. If an extra $1 billion – let alone hundreds of billions – were spent on, say, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, some lives would undoubtedly be prolonged. Likewise for spending on highway “black spots”, homelessness, and hundreds of other programs. Trade‑offs between fiscal, economic and health effects (current and future) are properly endemic to all public policy issues.

Moreover, the authors do not even mention that an ongoing lockdown inducing deep recession will itself have large negative health effects – damage that will be definite, not merely possible, in the event of a so-far unseen second-wave outbreak. These impacts will be felt by hundreds of thousands of additional long‑term unemployed, by thousands of small business owners whose firms are destroyed, and through lower future health spending as we repay massive additional public debt.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/no-break-islamist-hate-raymond-ibrahim/

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow.  This article originally appeared on Coptic Solidarity

At a time when the lives of the people of Egypt have been, like the lives of most people around the world, disrupted by coronavirus; at a time when Egyptians, like others, are wearing masks, staying indoors and social distancing—a group of undeterred Islamic terrorists were preparing to launch a major terror strike on Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox churches during their holiest day of worship, this past Sunday, April 19, 2020.

On Tuesday, April 14, Egyptian security forces were involved in an hours-long gunfight with an Islamic terror cell ensconced in an apartment building in Cairo’s Amiriyah district, which is known for holding a large Christian population and several churches.  Some television stations aired footage of the firefight; many gunshots could be heard in the background.  In the end, seven would-be terrorists and one police officer were killed in the shootout.  Several ammunitions and automatic weapons were found and seized from their apartment.

Initial news reports presented the cell as takfiri—a reference to Muslim extremists who accuse, attack, and sometimes kill other Muslims for not being Islamic enough.  Others protested that the cell’s primary if not exclusive purpose was to murder Christians in their churches.

The Egyptian ministry has now confirmed that “the suspects were planning attacks on the country’s Coptic Christians during the Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Egypt’s Coptic Orthodox Christians, one the world’s oldest Christian communities, would celebrate Easter on April 19.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/un-secretary-generals-mother-earth-day-message-joseph-klein/

“On this International Mother Earth Day,” United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres proclaimed, “all eyes are on the COVID-19 pandemic – the biggest test the world has faced since the Second World War.” He issued this proclamation under the banner “Climate Action” in an attempt to link the devastating health and economic crisis wrought by the coronavirus pandemic to the UN’s radical climate change agenda. “We must act decisively to protect our planet from both the coronavirus and the existential threat of climate disruption. The current crisis is an unprecedented wake-up call.”

The UN Secretary General is following Rahm Emanuel’s advice to “never allow a crisis go to waste.” He is in sync with Democratic Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), a leading champion of the Green New Deal. She tweeted recently that “it’s the right time for a worker-led, mass investment in green infrastructure to save our planet.”

The International Monetary Fund has predicted that the global lockdown will create an economic crisis not seen since the Great Depression. Job losses are already catastrophic, with far more job losses to come. With a combination of fiscal and monetary policies, governments are trying to rescue businesses that are willing to save the jobs of their workers. But as far as Secretary General Guterres is concerned, only “green jobs” are worth the expenditure of taxpayers’ money to support. He said that “as we spend huge amounts of money to recover from the coronavirus, we must deliver new jobs and businesses through a clean, green transition.”  He is pressing for an end to fossil fuel subsidies.