Gus Carter

Dr. Fauci won’t see you now. The man who served as America’s top medical adviser during Covid had to be subpoenaed to appear before the Senate this week. Wanted to hear his expert opinion? Too bad. Almost every question received the same response. "On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution." Anthony Fauci’s silence is the perfect coda to the madness of the Covid era. We were told, again and again, to "trust the science." But the science establishment didn’t trust us. Information was withheld, facts were twisted and opinions suppressed. Fauci was given a sweeping presidential pardon by Joe Biden. Yet even now, years later and immune from consequences, Dr. Fauci doesn’t want to talk.

Israel armed Argentina during the Falklands. That is a fact. Between the 2 April and 14 June 1982, Israel sold Argentina air-to-air missiles, anti-personnel mines, anti-tank weapons, replacement parts for jets, radar and communications equipment and fuel. Nesher fighter jets, supplied by Israel, were part of the air attack that destroyed the RFA Sir Galahad in Bluff Cove. Fifty-six British sailors and soldiers died in that raid. So when Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar taunted England for our 2-1 World Cup defeat, that was a continuation of traditional Israeli foreign policy. ‘How does the song go?’ Sa’ar posted. ‘It’s coming home. Yes it is. It’s coming home to Argentina. Vamos Argentina!

‘How can you say they’re not racist?’ a young Asian woman shouted from the public gallery. Vickrum Digwa had just been led down to the cells to serve a life sentence and an elderly man in a turban was calling his lawyer ‘a fucking bean head’. The tatty pinewood interior of Southampton Crown Court was descending, once again, into allegations of racism.  Vickrum Digwa will serve at least 21 years in prison for the murder of Henry Nowak. Last December, Digwa repeatedly stabbed the 18-year-old student with a ceremonial Sikh dagger. He then filmed Henry as he bled out, goading him.  When police arrived, Digwa claimed that Henry had been racially abusive and had knocked his turban off.

Nigel Farage keeps eclectic company. Reform is not a party of slick spin doctors or career politicians. Instead, it is staffed by people like George Cottrell, the minor aristocrat and former convict, who acts as Farage’s fixer. He is, according to Farage, ‘like a son to me’. I’m told that Cottrell is often seen in the Reform offices in Millbank helping the party, although he is still described by party staff as a simple ‘unpaid volunteer’.  Cottrell, 32, has always had an air of dodginess about him. In 2016 he spent eight months in an American maximum security prison for wire fraud relating to an international money laundering conspiracy. He plans to publish a book called How to Launder Money early next year (the man has a sense of humour).

‘Small but mighty,’ is how Baroness Casey described Bedfordshire Police when she released her report on grooming gangs over the summer. She told MPs that most forces had failed to properly record child abuse. ‘A bloody disaster, frankly’. But Bedfordshire is different. They’re using artificial intelligence so police can spend more time hunting criminals.  ‘I didn’t know about Louise Casey’s comments until you contacted us,’ says Trevor Rodenhurst, the chief constable of the county. That’s unsurprising. Rodenhurst is a busy man. We meet in his office on the outskirts of Bedford, under an official portrait of the King; behind his computer is his ceremonial tipstaff and photographs of his children.