Online Safety Act: UK government’s global censorship has turned up a notch

 This week, the UK government has openly moved from using the Online Safety Act for age verification to using it for censorship.

On Monday, the Government announced urgent action to strengthen the Online Safety Act by amending it to classify content encouraging or assisting serious self-harm as a “priority offence” for all users, not just children.

This change will legally require tech companies to proactively use cutting-edge technology to hunt down and remove such material before it can reach users, rather than simply reacting after it has been published.

As with all these nefarious schemes, who decides what content causes “self-harm”? It is open-ended and can be applied to just about any content – which is the intention.

The following are extracts from the article ‘UK OSA moves past age assurance into censorship with self-harm content designation’ published by Biometric Update on 9 September 2025.

The UK government continues to build out the Online Safety Act (“OSA”), this week announcing tighter legal requirements for platforms to locate and remove material that encourages or assists serious self-harm.

The change means that platforms will have the responsibility to ensure content previously subject to age assurance regulations, which is also being made illegal, is intercepted and removed before reaching children or adult users.

The move is just the first in what is expected to be a series of amendments toughening the OSA by new Technology Secretary Liz Kendall. Ofcom is expected to publish a register of regulated services soon, MLex reports, after the government’s approach to categorisation was upheld in court.

A release from the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (“DSIT”) says the OSA will be amended to classify self-harm content as a “priority offence.” It specifies that, while the measure is partly to protect children from content that promotes suicide, eating disorders and “online challenges or hoaxes that may encourage someone to take part in an activity that could cause them harm,” it also aims to help adults with mental health challenges avoid bogus medical advice and potential triggers....<<<Read More>>>...

New legislation allows electric companies to CONTROL your smart THERMOSTAT

 It’s the hottest day of the year, the kind where the air feels thick enough to chew, and your home is your last refuge from the scorching sun. You reach for the thermostat, desperate for relief — only to find it locked. A cold, digital message glares back at you: "Energy Emergency. Adjustments Not Allowed." This is happening right now in Colorado, Texas, and — if Ohio’s latest bill passes — soon in your state too. The question isn’t if utility companies will seize control of your home’s climate, but when. And once they do, what’s next? Your fridge? Your lights? Your ability to cook dinner? Welcome to the brave new world of energy rationing, where corporate and government collusion doesn’t just spy on you — it dictates how you live, all under the guise of "saving the grid."

The practicality of this boils down to governments needing to prioritize AI energy consumption needs for "national security" reasons. Future governments could force you to ration electricity because of "climate change." In the end, this isn’t about reliability or affordability. It’s about control. The same elites pushing the Great Reset, digital IDs, and central bank currencies are now testing how far they can stretch their fingers into your home. And if history is any indicator, what starts as "voluntary" today becomes mandatory tomorrow — with penalties for those who resist. The energy crisis is a manufactured one, a trojan horse for a future where your comfort, your choices, and even your survival are held hostage by unelected bureaucrats and their corporate overlords....<<<Read More>>>....

UK government’s digital wallet plus digital ID is the digital prison

The UK is planning to launch a digital ID app called ‘GOV.UK Wallet’ by the end of 2025.

At the same time, the Labour government is currently considering a proposed mandatory, universal digital identity system, called the BritCard, advocated by the think tank Labour Together.

The Britcard will be a free digital credential stored on a smartphone via the GOV.UK Wallet app, designed to verify an individual’s right to live, work and rent in the UK.

This is a digital prison. Those who comply risk not only their own autonomy but also the future freedom of their children and grandchildren. Future generations may never know what it means to live outside constant surveillance.

Currently in the UK, a Wallet and Digital ID App – a mobile app called “GOV.UK Wallet” – is set to launch at the end of 2025 (for both Android and iOS). It allows users to store government-issued documents, like veteran cards and digital driver’s licences. By 2027, all UK government services issuing physical credentials must offer a digital alternative. This Labour government is considering a mandatory or widely used digital ID card (“BritCard”), but there is no official rollout timeline yet.

The GOV.UK Wallet has already begun phased deployment with public sector bodies, which started in May 2024 and a broader rollout is expected through 2025.

Some of you may have experienced situations when they have collected your data digitally – if you bought a new car on finance or applied for a new job in the last year or two. It’s time-consuming and often tricky but once they’ve got your data, that’s it. The card would be linked to government records and could be checked by employers or landlords...<<<Read More>>>...

ID cards are a state power grab that won’t do anything to stop illegal immigration. Starmer is arming himself with bullying weapons Stalin and Hitler wished they had… we can’t let this happen

 This period of British specialness may be ending, as the sea ceases to guard us as well as it once did. But we should not help it to end, by foolishly surrendering the freedoms we have.

Even in the most welcoming of continental countries, the state is above the people’s heads and the individual is beneath the feet of then power elite. Almost all these countries have some form of identity card or identity register, and it is up to you to show that you are going about your lawful business.

 My Swiss-German mother-in-law, brought up in one of the Continent’s most liberal and democratic nations, was amazed all her life by the casual attitude British people had to their passports. 

Like any European, she knew that the loss of such documents, or the inability to produce them, could plunge any individual into a nightmare of powerlessness, lawlessness, detention, interrogation and perhaps quite a bit worse. I have come to adopt her rather more severe view of the subject. And with that comes a strong desire never to see such a regime installed in Britain.

 It would turn upside down the proper relationship between the state and the individual. Except during the 1939-45 war, when identity cards proved entirely useless and deeply unpopular, the British state has had to justify itself to us.

 But if we are forced to carry slave badges ‘identifying’ ourselves, we would be required to justify ourselves to the government. It would give every jumped-up official behind a desk a new way of harassing and belittling us, as happened during World War II. 

And heaven help you if you lost yours, even though the place would soon be awash with very convincing forgeries. Indeed, you’d probably find your card had been cloned by criminals, condemning you to weeks of explaining that you hadn’t been where you weren’t.

 Oh, and it won’t solve the migrant crisis, France has identity cards, and also has an estimated 900,000 undocumented migrants living in its cities. So much for the wonders of digital ID....<<<Read More>>>...

Britain is Descending into Anarcho-Tyranny – We Need a First Amendment

 Britain is descending into an anarcho-tyrannical state and needs the equivalent of the US First Amendment to protect freedom of speech from our censorious overlords, says Allister Heath in his latest blistering Telegraph column. Here’s an excerpt.

The Left-wing juristocracy doesn’t believe in true freedom: it believes in weaponising the law for social engineering. The ECHR is a useful tool to promote open borders, but it won’t stop Linehan from being arrested.

Starmer felt obliged to defend Linehan, and Wes Streeting went as far as calling for a change in the law, but nothing meaningful will happen. Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, would never allow it. The best we can hope for are tweaks and slightly more liberal guidance for the police.

Yet if the mainstream Left is bad, the far-Left which may soon replace it is worse. Zack Polanski, the Green Party’s new Corbynite leader, said on the BBC of Linehan that “these are totally unacceptable tweets… I think it was proportionate to arrest him”. This is a new development: the rise of a class of politicians who don’t seek to hide their authoritarianism. Many are influenced by woke ideology, which claims that speech is violence, a tool of oppression when in the hands of the ‘privileged’ class of white overlords, and that only the ‘oppressed’ have the right to speak out.

We need a radical break with the past 28 years. The Blairite project must be undone. We need fresh protections for free speech. The police must be retaught liberal values. Its operational autonomy must be curtailed. We must firmly resist digital ID cards as these would further shift power from citizen to state. The Online Safety Act has gone too far, and needs radical reform, as do many other laws. Non-crime hate incidents must be abolished. We need to quit the ECHR, scrap the HRA and return to Law Lords in Parliament....<<<Read More>>>...

The left’s covert “dirty war” in Britain could lead to civil war – it’s not by accident, it’s their strategy

 Britain’s descent into civil war is not accidental, but rather a result of the country’s embrace of liberal dogma and the actions of its self-anointed managerial and political elite, Professor Michael Rainsborough writes.

The elite’s actions, which began as the Labour government’s policy of demographic transformation under Tony Blair, demonstrate a deliberate strategy to fracture society and rule by division.

The aim of imperial governance, Prof. Rainsborough says, “is to rule by division: to fracture society into communities, reward loyal in-groups and discriminate against the majority through a two-tier system of justice, policing and social policy. The new imperialists are ‘diversity coordinators’, anti-racism activists, curriculum de-colonisers, climate campaigners and their mission is unchanged: to manage society by division.”....<<<Read More>>>...

Starmer Pushes Digital ID Cards for All After Macron Demands Action to Tackle Scourge of Illegal Working in Britain

 Tony Blair's puppet demands ... really? Classic problem, reaction, solution ... one reason they have been pushing the illegal migrant invasion of the UK. 

When Starmer speaks, its Blair who is pulling the strings. Blair has dreamed of us all controlled by the evils of technology.

No way ....

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Keir Starmer is pushing for everyone in Britain to be forced to sign up for a digital ID card after Emmanuel Macron demanded action to tackle the scourge of illegal working in Britain. The Mail has more.

Sir Keir Starmer told the Cabinet he would be “exploring options around digital ID” as part of a wider package of reforms designed to make it harder for illegal migrants to live and work in this country.

Downing Street confirmed Ministers are examining proposals for a digital ID scheme 15 years after the idea was abandoned following an outcry about the impact on civil liberties.

Under one option, anyone applying for a new job would be required to produce their digital ID to demonstrate that they have the right to live and work in this country. Similar provisions could also be introduced for those moving to new accommodation, making a benefit claim or seeking to access public services.

Labour ruled out ID cards as recently as July this year, with Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds saying the idea was “not our approach”.

Sir Keir has been told by President Macron to address the “pull factors” attracting migrants to Britain in return for French help in stopping the boats.

Whitehall sources said Tony Blair has also continued to push the idea behind the scenes.

And, with Sir Keir coming under intense pressure to be seen to be acting on illegal migration, he has now changed tack.

The PM’s official spokesman told reporters that the Government would “always look at what works”.

Asked if the idea could eventually mean compulsory ID cards for all, he said: “We are willing to look at what works when it comes to tackling illegal migration.”

Questioned about the civil liberties row that ended the last bid to introduce compulsory ID cards, the spokesman said Ministers believed “the debate has changed since the last time we had this discussion”, with people more relaxed about the idea of having to prove their identity online.

The idea is set to be discussed at an emergency meeting chaired by Sir Keir aimed at accelerating work to shut down the UK’s 200 migrant hotels....<<<Read More>>>...

Do We Really Want a Digital Bill of Rights?

 Digital ID, don’t you just hate it? I do, probably not for the same reasons as you, but it should be a point of agreement from where we can start. Can we also agree that digital ID is important, immensely wide ranging and that it means so much more than the abominations that are digital ID cards – ‘BritCard’ and their ilk; let’s get that out of the way from the start.

Being able to prove your identity securely and privately share things about yourself online with the consent of both parties, when you want to, not when others demand – the crucial factor – occurs many times a day for vast numbers of us. Get it right and we preserve online privacy and free speech, enable e-commerce and the wider economy, support the rule of law and much, much more. Get it wrong and we open the door to crime against individuals and organisations, hamper the economy and provide a tantalising tool for tyrannical government. So, not too different from where we are today then, I think we can agree....<<<Read More>>>...

Protester arrested for wearing ‘Plasticine Action’ shirt to Westminster rally

 Miles Pickering wore a shirt designed to mimic logo of banned Palestine Action, but officers said garment fell short of illegal support for group

A protester was arrested for wearing a T-shirt with the words “Plasticine Action” on it – on the day of a mass gathering in Parliament Square in London.

Miles Pickering, from Brighton, admitted the T-shirt was designed to look like the logo of Palestine Action, the protest group banned last monthafter activists broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and sprayed two military planes with red paint.

The Terrorism Act 2000 makes it illegal to wear anything supporting a banned organisation.

But on Mr Pickering’s T-shirt, inside the letter “o” was an image of the plasticine character Morph, and the text underneath the logo read: “We oppose AI-generated animation”.

Some 532 other demonstrators were arrested at the pro-Palestinian rally in Westminster on 9 August.

Mr Pickering, an engineer, told The Guardian that an officer had glanced at his top and told him: “Right, you’re nicked,” before taking him to Scotland Yard.

He said supporters were taking photographs of him and “everyone was laughing at how silly it was that I was getting arrested for being a plasticine terrorist”.

He claimed a senior officer asked the arresting officer whether he could arrest Mr Pickering under section 12, which could have brought a more serious charge of supporting a proscribed group.

“[The arresting officer] said: ‘No, I can’t.’ And they said: ‘Why not?’ He said: ‘Because he hasn’t got Palestine Action written on him. He’s got Plasticine Action written on him.’”

He said that five minutes later, the arresting officer told him: “I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.” The “good news” was that he was de-arresting Mr Pickering.

“And I said: ‘What’s the bad news?’ He said: ‘It’s going to be really embarrassing for me.’ And then I walked free, while all the real heroes are the people that are actually getting arrested,” the demonstrator said....<<<Read More>>>...

How Judges Took Control of Britain

Trust in Britain’s legal system is at a low ebb. Two thirds of the public believe that the criminal justice system has become politicised, and that judges make some decisions in line with their personal views rather than the law, according to a survey by pollsters Merlin Strategy. The constant flow of boats across the Channel, meanwhile, appears increasingly to be fuelled by a judicial system which actively works to undermine attempts to remove those arriving from Britain.

It is perhaps a measure of the heat of public feeling that Sir Keir Starmer – former Director of Public Prosecutions, Left-wing human rights lawyer – became, briefly, the public face of revolt against the courts. When Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch raised the case of the Palestinian family granted the right to live in the UK even after applying for a scheme designed for Ukrainians, Sir Keir Starmer agreed that the decision was “wrong”, adding that “it should be Parliament that makes the rules on immigration; it should be the Government who make the policy”.

This is an uncontroversial statement of the United Kingdom’s constitutional settlement, or at least it should be. To Lady Chief Justice Sue Carr, however, it looked like a challenge. She said that “both the question and the answer were unacceptable”, and that it was “for the Government visibly to respect and protect the independence of the judiciary”.

Had Sir Keir been in the mood for a real row, he might have answered in turn that it was for the judiciary to visibly respect and protect the sovereignty of Parliament, and the executive authority of the Government. And if he had really wanted to set the cat among the pigeons, he could have answered with a question: who, actually, is running the country?...<<<Read More>>>...

The Folly of Climate Leadership: Britain’s Net Zero Masochism and the China Mirage

 It is one of the enduring marvels of political hubris that a small, deindustrialising island nation contributing less than 0.8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions believes it can “lead the world” into abandoning fossil fuels. 

This belief – sincerely held by Westminster’s political elites on both the Conservative and Labour benches – has birthed an energy policy that combines moral grandstanding with economic self-harm. 

The outcome is a textbook case study in how virtue-signalling masquerading as “climate leadership” can hobble an economy while empowering the very geopolitical rivals it purports to outpace....<<<Read More>>>>..

Tommy Robinson and the Free Speech Festival: The establishment wants it stopped or disrupted

 Tommy Robinson is planning a large-scale demonstration in London on 13 September 2025, which he has dubbed a “free speech festival” and “Unite the Kingdom” event.

The event is being organised in the wake of his recent release from prison, and the establishment is still doing whatever it can to stop him.

As is becoming the norm in the UK, instead of pursuing the perpetrators, the establishment is pursuing those who speak about the perpetrators and their crimes.

In response to Robinson’s plans, multiple “anti-racist” groups, including Stand Up To Racism (“SUTR”), are organising a national mobilisation against the “far-right” and are hiring a coach to bus “protestors” to London for its “protest against Tommy Robinson.”

As we have previously noted, SUTR is a fringe communist organisation which stokes racism and xenophobia in the UK to overthrow parliamentary democracy. In a 2018 article, Politicalite exposed that local councils were funding this nefarious organisation.

But SUTR are not the only government-affiliated organisation that is organising counter-protests, and no doubt itching to cause trouble on the day. In an almost comical way, if it wasn’t so pathetically childish, the Public and Commercial Services Union (“PCS”) is calling its counter-demonstration a “march against Tommy Robinson.” ....<<<Read More>>>...

The Cult loves to give power to incompetents to hide its systematic demolition of human society.

 Labour is laying the ground for tax reforms this autumn that could spell misery for millions.

From September the Chancellor will be attempting to prepare the country for a difficult Budget that could be held in November, according to reports.

Rachel Reeves must find £50 billion in tax rises or spending cuts to balance the books, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said this week.

However, she has vowed to stick to her pledge to not raise income tax, national insurance or VAT – and will also keep her fiscal rules preventing more borrowing.

The NIESR said higher-than-expected public sector borrowing and weaker economic growth had left the Chancellor with an ‘impossible’ choice.

The Bank of England also warned that it is likely to slow the pace of interest cuts as soaring food prices caused by Labour’s tax increases threaten to drive inflation to 4 per cent this year.

Ms Reeves has already begun meetings with Sir Keir Starmer to draw up a plan for the Budget, according to The Guardian.

One tax that is almost certain to feature is a rise in gambling levies. The Chancellor said on Thursday: ‘We’ve launched a review into gambling taxes. We’ll set out our policies in our budget later this year.’

Another option that could be under consideration is to target a subsidy paid to High Street banks that costs taxpayers £20billion....<<<Read More>>>....

It’s Here. AI Has Already Put 300 Million Jobs At Risk: What Next?

 Once upon a time, talk of AI stealing jobs from people was science fiction. Today, it’s real life. From graphic design and translation to copywriting and customer service, we have already seen how quickly automation can eat into work once done exclusively by humans. This trend is no longer a problem for the future – it’s already happening. What’s currently unfolding is not just a shift in productivity tools, but a total structural transformation in how the world economy functions. By 2030, the global workforce may look completely unrecognisable, with over 300 million jobs projected to be severely impacted or totally replaced in just the next few years. 

Current data reveals the scale at which this is already in motion: 

• A 2025 poll in the UK found that 26% of workers fear AI will make their roles completely obsolete within their lifetime 
• Goldman Sachs estimates that AI could severely impact, or totally replace, 300 million jobs globally by 2030 
• 10% of UK university graduates in 2025 have already had to change career path due to AI threats in their original fields of choice 

According to McKinsey’s 2025 analysis, 8 million workers in the UK will be affected by artificial intelligence by 2030, amounting more than a quarter of the current national workforce. Of those, 3.5 million could experience complete job displacement, with the rest seeing “significant task disruption”. 

Notably, McKinsey’s report projects that the most affected groups will be women, young people, and lower-income workers, due to their saturation in fields such as retail, clerical support, and hospitality. However, health care jobs and roles in education and STEM-related fields are actually expected to grow as a result, meaning the UK’s already polarised labour market could widen further. 

Once a theoretical risk, we’re now seeing real-time restructuring. Writers, junior developers, support agents, and administrative assistants are already being replaced partially or completely by automation. And this is just the beginning. ...<<<Read More>>>...

UK’s Online Safety Act is restricting speech globally; the UK government is censoring the world

 There was once a time (Late 1990's and earlier) when there was no internet. Life was so much better then. Now after years of being given the internet and free access to everywhere, they are now slowly taking it away from us. I say bring it on .... we don't need the control that the internet represents.

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The UK’s Online Safety Act became fully operational in July 2025. It is being used to restrict content globally.

It has caused global and significant concerns about censorship of information that is of public interest. Technology companies are implementing broad age verification and content filtering measures to comply with the law, leading to the restriction of posts on topics like the Ukraine and Gaza conflicts, parliamentary debates on serious crimes and even historical art.

In the following, Public and Politico raise the alarm as to what this means for Americans. However, as well as from the USA, the impact of the UK’s new law is also being keenly watched in Australia, but for different reasons, because Australia is preparing to ban under-16s from social media...<<<Read More>>>...

EU’s technocratic border control will be launched in October; it applies to all non-EU visitors

From 12 October, all visitors to all European Union countries will have their biometric data collected and stored by a centralised agency. This agency will not only collect data on our movements but will also collect data from the criminal and justice systems. In the future, it will also be collecting data from air carriers in advance on passengers.

On 30 July, the EU Commission published a press release about “the progressive start of operations of the EU’s Entry/Exit System (EES)” which will be launched on 12 October. This new EES will affect all non-EU nationals who travel to 29 European countries that make up the Schengen area.

“The EES is an advanced technological system that will digitally record the entries and exits of non-EU nationals … It will capture biometric data, such as fingerprints, facial image, and other travel information, gradually replacing the current system of passport stamping,” the press release states....<<<Read More>>>...

EU Revives Plan to Ban Private Messaging

 The EU is reviving plans for mass surveillance by pushing to scan every private message before it’s sent – potentially ending encrypted messaging as we know it. Reclaim The Net has the story.

For over three years, talks have stalled over whether providers should be forced to scan every user’s messages for possible illegal material and forward anything suspicious to law enforcement.

The European Commission is still pushing for a universal scanning requirement.

In contrast, the European Parliament insists any checks should apply only to unencrypted messages from people already under suspicion. Attempts to strike a deal have repeatedly fallen apart, with Poland the latest presidency to walk away without an agreement.

July brought a change in leadership of the Council of the EU, with Denmark stepping in and putting chat scanning back at the top of the legislative pile. Copenhagen wants this handled as a priority and wasted no time tabling a new draft on its very first day in charge.

Leaked records from a closed door July meeting show the Danish text closely tracks earlier proposals from Belgium and Hungary, with no concessions for encrypted conversations. A softer version from Poland, which would have made scanning voluntary and left encrypted chats alone, has been dropped entirely. …

Italy, Spain and Hungary have been in favour of mandatory chat scanning from the start. France could tip the balance since blocking the plan requires four countries representing at least 35% of the EU’s population. Paris has moved from tentative support to saying it could “basically support the proposal.” …

Denmark has already circulated a lightly revised second draft. The next round of Council negotiations is set for September 12th, with advocates hoping for final adoption by October 14th.....<<<Read More>>>...

UK researcher teams up with Australian tour operator to spread a rumour that “the UK” is considering Carbon Passports

 Over the last week, it has been reported in several outlets that “the UK” is considering implementing “Carbon Passports” to restrict Brits from travelling by aeroplane.

After digging a little deeper, “the UK” turns out to be a lecturer at a UK university, Ross Bennett-Cook, citing a report commissioned by an Australian tour operator, Intrepid Travel.

We have to wonder how Bennett-Cook and Intrepid Travel hope to benefit from spreading this dystopian message because, as Australian Senator Malcom Roberts said last year, the climate fraud “is driven by globalist politicians and directed by parasitic billionaires.” And it is the parasitic billionaires who will profit from this criminal activity....<<<Read More>>>...

U.K.’s Online Safety Act sparks outcry after X restricts access to protest footage

 The United Kingdom's controversial Online Safety Act (OSA) officially came into full effect on Friday, July 25, and its first day has ignited a storm of backlash, with critics accusing the government of enabling sweeping online censorship.

British users of X, formerly known as Twitter, were among the first to feel the impact. Numerous posts containing videos from recent anti-migration protests were suddenly blocked behind new age-verification walls. The restricted footage includes scenes from demonstrations in Epping, Essex, following reports that a 14-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by a migrant housed in government-funded accommodation.

"Our fears appear to have been vindicated on the very first day of the Online Safety Act's enactment. Some footage of protests taking place this evening against illegal immigration is unavailable on X for at least some U.K. users, with a warning about a restriction due to 'local laws' appearing as the Online Safety Act comes into force. If you have a standard X account in the U.K., presumably the majority of British users, it appears that you may not be able to see any protest footage that contains violence. We're aware of one censored post that shows an arrest being made. We warned repeatedly about how censorious this piece of legislation would be," The Free Speech Union posted on X.

Users trying to view these clips encountered warnings such as: "Due to local laws, we are temporarily restricting access to this content until X estimates your age." To proceed, they were prompted to verify their identity using more invasive age estimation tools. (Related: U.K. Reddit users now required to verify their age under new Online Safety Act.)

In line with this, a petition to repeal the OSA has already gathered over 160,000 signatures, triggering a mandatory Parliamentary debate. Meanwhile, VPN usage surged by more than 700 percent in the U.K. that same day, as users scrambled for ways to access restricted content....<<<Read More>>>....

World Economic Forum’s Klaus Schwab “Rigged Data” to Make Brexit Look Like Failure

 Klaus Schwab, the face of the Davos conference in Switzerland for years, allegedly intervened in the WEF’s annual Global Competitiveness Report, which ranks countries on productivity and long-term prosperity.

In the 2017/2018 report, the UK’s ranking improved from seventh to fourth after a change in methodology.

But Mr Schwab, 87, wrote to staff that the UK “must not see any improvement”, as otherwise it would be “exploited by the Brexit camp”.

The final report published in 2017 showed the UK had dropped one place to eighth.

The WEF said at the time the Brexit vote had not fed into the rankings but warned it was likely to undermine UK competitiveness in the future.

“Brexit… will by definition weaken the UK’s markets component as integration with the EU is rolled back,” the report said.

At the time of the report, the UK had voted to leave the European Union but had not yet done so, and the difficult Brexit negotiations were at their beginning.

There was still discussion of the possibility of holding a second referendum in order to reverse the result of the 2016 vote.

Baroness Theresa May, the then-Prime Minister, spoke at the Davos summit in January 2017 and 2018. She said that Britain was looking to its post-Brexit future “with confidence” and planned to “build a truly Global Britain” based around free trade. 

Allegations that Mr Schwab ordered the figures to be changed were made in an internal WEF investigation, launched after a whistleblower accused him of misusing funds, making suggestive remarks to younger staff and manipulating research....<<<Read More>>>...