They’ve lost control of the narrative and they hate it.

The regulator knows best. Your Sunday thought piece

Good Sunday to you from very sunny, almost too sunny Palm Springs, California, and an America that has been surprisingly captured by the World Cup.

The insanity of the UK seems a long way away, but it is so concerning.

Now, it seems, the regulators are telling you how you may or may not cool your home. Sigh. At what point will bureaucrats in the UK trust people to make decisions by themselves?

Of far greater concern is that they are pushing through legislation that requires social media platforms to give greater prominence to content from “trusted” (their word) national broadcasters.

The UK’s national broadcasters have repeatedly shown they cannot be trusted. BBC news doctored Donald Trump speeches, it ignored rape gang and migrant crime stories for decades because the truth was too inconvenient, broadcasters all spread misinformation about Covid and vaccines, and their “invisible casting” bears little resemblance to the world around us.

Even if you disagree with my examples, that's beside the point. Why should the State decide which news organisations are "trusted" and then compel private platforms to promote them ahead of everybody else?

When a body, such as Channel 4 or the BBC, is funded by the State, it is inherently Statist. Bias is inevitable. I’m not saying everything they produces is biased, although much of it is. I am saying they should not given privileged status by government decree.

National broadcasters already have enormous budgets, audiences and their own platforms, which people are perfectly free to visit if they choose. Why should they be artificially promoted on other platforms at the expense of smaller independent broadcasters, who often build their own platforms from nothing? Indeed many of them only start because they couldn’t get a gig with the state broadcaster).

This is censorship and socialism of the worst kind.

It’s also kind of fascist too: state run corporations trampling over small businesses.

They’ve lost control of the narrative and they hate it.

Elsewhere, PM-in-waiting, Andy Burnham, is planning to bring in a Land Value Tax. Good luck with that. The British will hate it. I’m a champion of LVT - provided it replaces other taxes, and is not in addition to them - as this will inevitably be. Bastardised LVT, as this will be, will be worse than Stamp Duty (which takes some doing), and will accelerate a collapse in the property market from the rush to the exit. Be careful what you wish for. I’ll put an article together shortly on how to protect yourself from Andy Burnham.

If you live in a third world country such as the UK, I urge you to own gold or silver. The pound will be further devalued, as will the euro and dollar. The bullion dealer I use and recommend is The Pure Gold Company. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe. More here.

America, meanwhile, has its own problems not least the cost of everything. Yes, Americans earn considerably more money than Europeans, but the cost of living here is high. Petrol is cheaper, yes, but food is at least twice the price. Houses too (at least where I have been - Menlo Park, Palo Alto and Palm Springs - not exactly cheap areas I’ll admit).

I do not understand why it is that a pineapple from Costa Rica costs £1.25 in my local Coop, and yet here in California - just up the coast from Costa Rica - it is five bucks. I’m sure there’s a reason. But darned if I know what it is.

In the Bay Area, my mum and I had out first experience in a driverless Waymo. The robot was much more law abiding than any driver I have ever driven with, sticking precisely to speed limits, perfectly navigating the road and dealing perfectly with every hazard thrown its way. It’s so obviously the future of transportation.

After the initial excitement at being in a car with no driver had passed - I’d say that took maybe five minutes - we quickly stopped noticing there was no driver. These things are going to become so normal so quickly.

The main barrier to the rapid adoption is the same people telling you how to you may cool your home and what stories should be prioritised on social media, so it will be some time before ordinary folk get to benefit, even if the tech is already good enough.

For your Sunday thought piece this week I’d like to share this interview I recorded for Professor James Orr’s First Light. I’m delighted to report that James, like you, is a subscriber to this publication.

I was pleased with the interview. Enjoy!

Here it is on Spotify, if you prefer your podcasts as radio.

Here is this week’s piece, a new company recommendation no less.

From Palm Springs I head to Las Vegas for Freedom Fest, where I am speaking and pushing the book:

It’s getting such a good response. I’m delighted.

Then it’s up to Canada where I’m looking at a couple of mines.

Busy bee.

Until next time,

Dominic

PS The latest edition of Charlie Morris’s Atlas Pulse is out now. It’s free. You can get your copy here.