Coming Soon
No update today, but am planning one for tomorrow looking at the rise in infections in those US states that were among the first to ease shutdown restrictions. In light of this rise, should we be worried about a “second wave” in the UK? You can probably guess the answer…
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Thanks again Toby, a true hero for providing this level of effort and community!
Yes, it’s reassuring to hear from Toby each day, even with only a very short post such as this. At least we know that they – whoever ‘they’ are -haven’t got to him yet.
I’m guessing hat his garden shed from where he writes these posts has long since been bugged though …
Looking forward to it
From the BBC Website
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-52943524/coronavirus-and-psychiatric-hospitals-staff-are-scared-patients-are-scared
As someone on the front line I can say the damage to the mental health of the people of this country caused by the policy of terror introduced by the government and propagated by the BBC and other MSM channels is the most striking health problem I deal with everyday.
A member of our extend family got sectioned under the mental health act almost 3 weeks ago, they had a good well paid job and it was the only thing keeping them on the level. They went totally psychotic.
It was solely down to the lockdown that this happened, they had been doing well up until the lockdown.
That’s tragic. Sorry to hear it.
Thanks, yes it has been extremely traumatic for everybody involved. Absolutely horrible. The idea that our government is doing anything to “safeguard our welfare” is just laughable right now.
There was absolutely no help available for them what so ever. Nothing. We had to wait untill they went so crazy the police had to arrest them despite previous involvement with the police, nothing was “set in motion” to help them.
I can’t help but think how horrible it must be being held against your will in a mental mental institution staffed by crazy fools who think the virus is a scary thing. That would make me even more crazy for sure.
I understand what happens; I’ve seen it first-hand. You have my sympathy, which doesnt do much I know, but be assured many of us do feel for what you’re going through. They should have had help from a doctor; there are early intervention teams for people with psychosis, who help them through and may provide the medication. I hope your relative will get this help.
It’s heartrending. And wicked.
PS. I think we need to build an archive of this sort of wickedness, with full and detailed evidence, for the Coronaberg Trials. Perhaps Toby could set it up – in complete confidence of course? Or is such an archive already in existence somewhere? I know it seems impossible to ask more of Toby just now, but such evil CANNOT be allowed to go unpunished.
I don’t think you can ask Toby to do more, but I’m willing to volunteer if someone wants to kick off what is is they want to happen.
It’s really up to the people who have suffered directly. I haven’t. But if the victims want a record to be kept, so that the perpetrators are brought to justice or at least exposed, perhaps they could take up your most generous offer?
Yes it is wicked, in fact it’s absolutely evil what is happening. A deliberate attack on the citizens of this country under the banner of ‘keeping us safe’? You couldn’t make it up! I must admit there have been times when I have felt such despair for the future and intense hatred for the powers that be I can well understand why people go insane or want to kill themselves. Sociopaths like politicians dont do empathy which is why they go about their jobs seemingly oblivious to the sufferings of others.
Very sad to hear this 🙁
What a sad story. But I hope all may yet work out all right, or at least not so bad, in time. I hope that he or she may yet make a good recovery.
It will, I suppose, be no consolation to know that your family member will be among tens of thousands of people in this country to be seriously harmed by lockdown, including being killed by it.
This may not be the thread in which to say it, but it is clear to me that those responsible must be held to account.
Hello
so sorry to hear about your loved one. My Brother has also been sectioned and has been incarcerated for 12 days. I am absolutely convinced that this “pandemic” is the cause of his breakdown. Very upsetting as we can only get limited info from the clinic. Best wishes x
Sorry to hear that, Two-Six. I hope that they recover.
i echo others, that such events need recording as a perfectly foreseeable cost – of lockdown, not of Covid.
Sorry to hear this and I hope your relative gets the care they need. Mental health has always been a cinderella service and things are much more stretched now.
They have a lot to answer for.
Someone I know had a benign brain tumour removed just before the lockdown. She has been exhibiting irrational and sometimes aggressive behaviour, but has had no help, either from her GP, or the hospital. The family has been literally torn apart by this. Clap for our carers? You must be joking.
The sooner the NHS is reformed the better. Its dysfunctional and too bloody expensive.
The BBC, channel 4, Sky News all need sanctioning.
They’ve sacrificed their integrity (not so much in the case of Sky) for viewing figures.
I know that OfCom won’t do a thing but I’m hopeful that as viewers realised they’ve been tricked they will desert these sources of news in droves.
I am NEVER going to watch telly or listen to the radio or buy a newspaper EVER AGAIN.
Welcome to the club. Our household is BBC and MSM free, also FB and Twitter free. I wish it was Google free but I’ve not taken that step yet.
Hi, we have no TV, steer clear of MSM (‘read the occasional posted link which usually confirms our prejudices) and we use an allegedly private search engine called MetaGer. We rarely resort to Google. YouTube is useful until it gets censored. We avoid all anti-social media like the Black Death. My smartphone contract is up for renewal next month and will be terminated. It has been useful but we are not happy about the increasing surveillance.
We also stopped listening to BBC Radio News about 10 years ago for the sake of our blood-pressure.
p.s. we’d be a bit stuck without the internet though. . .
Well done! Switch search engines from Google to https://www.startpage.com.
“Why StartPage? Because it doesn’t track you, and because it gives you full access to Google’s amazing index. In other words, it gives you great search results while also preserving your privacy. StartPage also gives you the option of turning off search suggestions, which Google uses systematically to manipulate your searches as they please.”
https://medium.com/@re_53711/seven-simple-steps-toward-online-privacy-20dcbb9fa82
PC Plod in a new guise – VIEW quick before the BLM thought police take it down:
https://youtu.be/91VaSkV87Ls
It’s good comedy because it’s so observationally accurate – every one of us must have seen exactly these kinds of people saying these kinds of things, just less honestly and openly.
Johnny Smugface: “Not me, obviously! Don’t come for me guys I’m an ally. I’ll say anything you want me to, it doesn’t even have to be true. Just please, please don’t come for me. I can’t afford to be cancelled, I’ve just had a new kitchen fitted.”
The toadies to the new(-ish) power in the land.
I read somewhere that Rishi Sunak wants us to spend our way out of the financial crisis caused by the government’s lockdown. If any of the shops I used recently are anything to go by, he won’t have much luck removing my money. I went to an optician to collect a pair of glasses I had ordered pre lockdown. I was greeted by a masked up, gloved up, security screened employee that told me I didn’t have an appointment – I did. When we overcame that problem I was told that I couldn’t enter the shop unless I was wearing a mask. I pointed out that this was wrong and that masks were not compulsory and this led to a blazing row with the shop manager who told me to leave. At least I got my money back, but somewhat of a pyrrhic victory since I now have to manage with my 5 year old glasses with an incorrect prescription. I also haven’t been to a barber or a clothes shop since the lockdown commenced. So if you happen to be wandering in a town near you and you see an old man with dishevelled hair and tatty clothes leering… Read more »
If you’ve had a test, they have to give you your prescription by law
Yep, which you can then take to any optician you like. Or fulfill it via the web, people have told me it is much cheaper.
I would write a letter of complaint if I were you.
If Sunak wants us to spend our way out of this self-inflicted crisis (Armageddon coming soon) then he would call for the end of antisocial distancing and all the assorted paraphernalia that goes with it. Until then I will be staying away from the high street and if I need anything I will buy it online.
My boycott will also include pubs, restaurants, museums, heritage sites and cultural venues.
Retail shopping is about experience as well as getting the products. Trying on clothes, talking to sales assistants, browsing and chatting etc.. When experience is removed, and the shame of being a potential plague carrier is added, shopping is to be avoided. (Some business have even told customers to stay away for their own safety, or said only 1 adult is allowed in per family).
I expect antisocial distancing will go by the autumn (perhaps just in time for COVID-19 to return for the winter season). By then I fear the damage will be done, and for many stores it will be too late. After several experiences of the misery of current retailing, similar to those already discussed, I may be well out of the habit of going to the shops.
That’s precisely what I said in my email to Waterstones – browsing, the joy of finding something you end up liking and buying, the social interaction but I just got fobbed off with blathering about safety and that the Chancellor had visited. Yeah sure, he’s not going to be inconvenienced and treated like a plague victim is he?
I agree with you and yes it will be too late by then – people will have the attitude of can’t be bothered and/or have never forgiven the shops for treating them like dirt and many shops will have gone bust by then.
You should ask why they’ve never cared about safety every winter flu season. Over the last decade flu has killed far more than Covid.
The response I get when I ask this is “Flu has a vaccine”. To which I simply reply, “That’s ok then death with a vaccine is acceptable so it’s not really every death is one too many is it?”. I rarely get a response after that.
You should say you have an immune system which works very well.
We’ve been brainwashed to believe that vaccines are the panacea. While they can protect they also weaken our own immune system, so now many are reliant on vaccines and suffering many of the side effects stated on the packaging – nut allergies, asthma, neurological disorders, etc etc
That’s a good idea. Will keep that in mind when I write another boycott letter or complaint.
All too true but for some peculiar reason their powers of reasoning have blown a fuse!
I think individual shops can have a policy of muzzles just as some shops have “No shirt? No service” . My local Samsung shop has a muzzle policy as does a very small jewellers shop.I usually get a prescription given to me immediately after a test . Did you not get one?
I have got a prescription and I have got my money back, so I can easily go somewhere else, but where? I can probably manage with these glasses until the world regains its senses – if ever.
Any good? https://www.glassesdirect.co.uk/
Good idea although you usually have to have the frames adjusted but if you can live with that all very good. Besides which it’s probably a lot cheaper buying online.
Specsavers website says “you are invited to wear a muzzle” but implies you can say no and they will still serve you.
I went to the vet to collect a flea/tick treatment. They wanted me to wear a mask, but I refused, so they sold it to me anyway!
could be worse . they could have wanted you to wear a muzzle
Muzzles aren’t required for animals at the vet’s, only for humans.
I can’t believe I just said that.
But it’s true.
I’d say lose the mask or lose my custom.
That’s called business acumen! Seems to be in short supply nowadays.
I thought we were supposed to self-isolate if we have symptoms, so what’s the point of the mask if we’re not ill with Covid and therefore infectious?
Pity our friends in the MSM aren’t asking that question on a daily basis!
If Tom Blackburn’s correct and there’s a legal requirement on them to provide your prescription glasses, then it must be worth writing a letter of complaint.
If nothing else, the owner (if it’s not the manager who was so hostile who is actually the owner) needs to know that he is losing business and future custom by his stance. They mostly think that they can only lose business by not being seen as “safe enough”, I think.
Of course, writing a letter of complaint might be tricky with out of date glasses…..
Why all these businesses seem determined to hasten their own demise is beyond rational explanation,Turkeys voting for Christmas !.
Take the prescription elsewhere to a friendly optician.
I’m in the same boat. Half blind with an old prescription, refusing to go anywhere near any establishment that ‘asks’ me to behave like a biohazard.
Same here, my prescription is two years old now I could do with new ones but there is no way I am going into specsavers until the mass psychosis wears off.
I’m in the same boat but I need an eye operation first before I can have new prescription gasses. Welcome to the new world of the stupid!
Is it a chain? Are we allowed to know who it is?
Their initials are VE
Try somewhere else. My optician agreed to see me without a mask, even though it’s a recommendation. They were all dressed for the Ebola ward, but I can put up with that to be able to see properly again…
I also made an appointment with Specsavers – actually had the eye test last year but never went back for the updated prescription – 3 year old glasses were too misty now to see laptop screen for work so had to go – there must have been 10-12 staff all in masks and plastic aprons – told the guy at the door I didn’t have a mask – he looked puzzled – so I mentioned ‘panic attacks’ and he went away into the store – was very polite, I have to say. They let me in, after lifting the rope,(like you might have in a nightclub!) and put me in a corner to look at frames, left me with a box to put in any I touched (a contaminated tray?) – eventually a guy (who seemed to be in charge) told me someone would come and help me – the assistant had a mask and plastic apron but then donned a plastic visor as I ‘wasn’t wearing a mask’. It was all a bit surreal – looking around at all these staff with only 3-4 customers in the shop at any one time – 3 assistants were stood at a… Read more »
Insane.
That’s interesting I might give them a look then, although it probably depends on individual shops and managers rather than a blanket policy from above.
It would drive me loopy. Its just as well we don’t have the Second Amendment here, MSM would be having a field day with sensationalist headlines. A couple of illegals stabbi g people in Glasgow would seem like a picnic in the park!
They are going through very similar situations in the US of A, and there has been no mass wave of people going on shooting sprees. Hoplophobia is one of the bad guys’ memes, Bella.
An idea for Toby: with the brilliant idea of listing shops that have opened up now rendered obsolete, a list of shops treating customers in this manner should instead be compiled.so we can all vote with our feet.
Good idea however with supermarkets it seems to be down to individual branches. Maybe we should have a list of high street stores that treat customers like dirt and Typhoid Marys.
I agree that a list of shops that treat people like dirt is the better option. We don’t want to provide councils etc with a list available to view here of the good ones that they can terrorise into conforming!
Agree. Best to protect those who use their common sense and treat people well and shame those who treat us like dirt and are staffed with CPSU commissars or Nazi gauleiters
If the optician is wearing a mask what’s their problem? You’ve had new glasses prescribed they should have given them to you! Complain and Loudly too!
Been doing some rooting around and seems that opticians in England are being guided by The College of Optometrists. This is the link to the guidance for optometrists under amber phase of current situation. https://www.college-optometrists.org/the-college/media-hub/news-listing/primary-eyecare-covid-19-guidance-amber-phase.html These seem to be the relevant sections: 2.19 All practice staff should wear appropriate PPE if they need to see patients at a distance of less than 2 metres, unless this is behind a screen. National guidance is that, even if the patient is not currently a possible or confirmed case of COVID-19, clinicians should wear single-use disposable aprons and gloves (changed for each patient). 2.20 In addition to gloves and aprons, national guidance advises optometrists to risk assess whether they need to wear a fluid-resistant surgical face mask (type IIR) (a ‘surgical mask’) and/or eye/face protection if there is an anticipated or likely risk of contamination with splashes, droplets of blood or body fluids. If masks and/or eye/face protection are worn they can be worn for the whole session (‘sessional use’) rather than changed for each patient, unless they become soiled, damaged or uncomfortable. 2.21 We recommend that all optometrists working within two metres of a patient should wear a fluid-resistant surgical mask (‘surgical mask’). The same… Read more »
People you might want to email this pub company, they run a lot of pubs including my favourite local. https://www.craftunionpubs.com/ and they can be contacted here: enquiries@craftunionpubs.com
These people: http://www.longlivethelocal.pub seem to be some sort of trade lobbying group and seem to have drawn up these new normal plans https://www.longlivethelocal.pub/visit which obviously look terrible.
They can be contacted here: hello@longlivethelocal.pub
Write to them and let them know what you think about their new normal. Obviously I have written to them and said I won’t be registering on the Twatt Handcock’s idiotic and evil track’n’track register and I won’t ever go to their pubs unless they drop all “COVID SAFETY” measures.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/is-leicester-going-to-see-england-s-first-local-lockdown-
Is Leicester going to see England’s first local lockdown?
For the love of God, can we PLEASE move away from using any kind of lockdown of an entire city/region as a method of dealing with this virus?! Surely there is enough evidence out there to show how harmful any kind of indiscriminate lockdown is (and Leicester is a reasonably-sized city so I regard the locking down of the entire area as indiscriminate)? Also what would a ‘local lockdown’ look like? Would it be like the idiocy that the entire country has just had to endure for 3 months, where literally everything bar supermarkets closed and people were only advised to leave the house for ‘essential’ reasons? Would the localised area see restrictions which are that strict again? How on earth would it work?
Why are we even having this debate when the evidence suggests that lockdowns do not work and do more harm than good?!
Its all part of the psy-op to maintain the fear, they can’t say the virus is now prevalent across the whole country so they are focussing on localised “flareups” or more positive test results due to increased testing. Again no distinction between “cases” and deaths….Robert Peston is such a freekin d-bagger.
So another 658 asymtomatic cases then? 658 people feeling slightly peeky?
Woo, scary.
There seems to be a vocal minority in each town vying to be placed in a local lockdown. Some just love being under the thumb. Think their local rave / protest / beach gathering is unique them and their town.
Is HMG gunning for Labour councils and this number one on the list?
They are determined to see us starving next year. If this is true, my advice to the people of Leicester is to unite and rise. Stop at nothing to remove those doing this to you. And I mean nothing.
It’s Peston who wrote the article. I tend to believe very little he has to say.
Local BBC zealots now taking the mantle from national. Tonight our local ‘news’ reported 3,000 deaths in the region from covid. Beyond taking issue with the little ‘from’ they slipped in there, absolutely no context provided for that figure, as ever.
My region is inhabited by more people than the whole of Scotland. 3,000 deaths from 5.3 million people. Boo, I’m shitting my pants.
Willing to bet these are NOT cases but positive tests!!!! A case requires medical intervention. How many hospital admissions have there been? This is so obviously now a massive scam. Got to keep it going somehow. These people need to be arrested, tried and if found guilty get a capital sentence. Murder by any other name (and fraud as well.)
Of course there not “cases” but positive PCR tests, which are notoriously inaccurate. Also, 2, 3 or more tests from the same the same person are included in the data.
PCR tests, which are completely inaccurate.
Fixed it for you!
https://off-guardian.org/2020/06/27/covid19-pcr-tests-are-scientifically-meaningless/
The whole narrative is based on a lie. The “virus” does not even meet Koch’s postulates (i.e. it has not been shown to exist).
Yes this is bad news. Particularly as my mother in law hasnot seen her family since February. She’s in a private care home in Leicestershire and was looking forward to seeing her eldest son on Wednesday. Fingers crossed!
I am a hospital consultant In Leicester. We have 75 inpatients with covid-19 (includes asymptomatic patients who are in with other diseases) out of roughly 2000 beds (that’s from Friday’s daily figures). This is pretty much the lowest it’s been since March and has been steadily decreasing. Our hospital rates of positive tests have been at the same lowish level since the start of May. I cannot understand how on earth a lockdown is needed. To protect who or what?! The community tests appear to be showing large numbers of mostly well people of working age. Why do we even care about a numbers of a disease that isn’t making those people ill?!
I cannot be locked down again (which is a ridiculous statement given I worked 60+ hours a week from March to the start of June and therefore never technically locked down in the true sense of the word!)
So apparently there’s a lot of cases imported from Pakistan, and they might need to lock down Leicester. I don’t think I need to say much more, I’ll go with good luck locking Leicester down.
In the USA, it’s clear – even more than here (though Khan is doing his best) – that mask-wearing has become a defining political statement of attachment to Lefty-Absurdopolitics.
Is Biden going to go the whole campaign in a mask, claiming that as an excuse for not speaking and thus avoiding any possibility of him uttering one of his dementia gaffes?
Sorry – meant to link to this:
https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1276930290858905605
A mask might stop him sniffing people’s hair
Now it makes sense!
They can replace him with a mask wearing stunt double, that might be able to form a coherent sentence.
Biden rambling about a vaccine. Just embarrassing.
ITM!
This article was flagged in the previous day’s comments.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1301736/coronavirus-latest-news-second-wave-lockdown-uk-deaths-update
The UK has recorded a further 100 deaths from COVID-19 which makes it the highest Saturday increase in weeks according to the latest figures.
Am I missing something? As far as I can see, the last two Saturdays have both had a higher death count. In fact, today’s looks like the lowest Saturday count since March. What are they going on about?!
Saturday raw numbers of deaths (UK all settings) as follows:
6 June – 204
13 June – 181
20 June – 128
27 June – 100
Looks like they are coming down to me!
I know – so how on earth have they managed to imply that it’s a spike?
Journo who can’t count back in weeks – suspect they have compared vs last Sunday’s 43 reported deaths?
I give up!
I suspect it’s suspect
It is The Express. Every year in winter there is a panic (according to them) because we’re all going to freeze to death.
The average IQ and educational standard of Express journalists is even lower than those of their readers, which is saying quite a bit. (I base this observation on what appears BTL.)
Probably getting close to a natural floor – as in we are going to have infected people coming into the country all the time from all around the world including returning holiday makers on air bridges. We’re not going to get to 0 any time soon as a nation of 70 million that has millions of ties with every country on the planet.
You have to remember the deaths posted each day do not all come from that day, sometimes they are weeks or even months old. It just means that’s when the paperwork arrived at wherever they do the counting. Which makes virtually every comment and article in the MSM regarding numbers of deaths meaningless For example on Friday there were 67 deaths reported by the NHS, The oldest was from May 21st. Of the 67 only 9 had occurred on Friday 26th June.
Maths isn’t the Express’ strong point.
Maybe they think this Saturdays increase was from 43,414 to 43,514 is much higher than 6th of June’s increase from 40,347 to 40,554?
Or, because it’s now summertime, they’ve randomly converted the figure to Fahrenheit.
What pisses me off is why despite all the data clearly showing who this mainly impacts (very ill, very elderly people), why everybody still gets treated as though they have exactly the same chance of catching, spreading, being ill and dying from the virus. It’s completely nonsensical. You wouldn’t give everybody in the country an inhaler just in case they develop asthma at some point or start treating people for cancer who haven’t got it.
I don’t get why they can’t just come up with a strategy to protect, as best they can, the people most at risk, instead of fucking around coming up with one ridiculous rule or piece of pointless guidance after another. So frustrating.
That strategy was in place until Bojo wet his pants on 23 March.
They could, and should, have done this from early April when it was clear that the NHS wouldn’t be overwhelmed by deaths in the corridors (the ONLY reason for lockdown – hard to recall now!)
But, it was evident that we had no functioning government in early April; everything since has been a backside-covering fudge.
Because people’s welfare is the last thing on their agenda.
“My sense is that democracy really remains viable only if we are willing to extend to one another a presumption of individual competence” An important observation, very relevant to the whole coronapanic issue, with its underlying basis in government and elite propagandisation and infantilisation of the people. It’s by Matthew Crawford, from this excellent short interview (a credit to both interviewee and interviewer), posted on the previous LS by CarrieAH. Matthew Crawford: the dangers of Safetyism The discussion to my mind covers a lot of issues that are really quite fundamental to the dysfunctionality of modern western culture and societies, and in particular in relation to our disastrous failure over covid19, which is basically a challenge created almost entirely by our panic response to what otherwise would not have been a significant issue on a societal level. I believe a lot of what Crawford has to say here is especially relevant to those who find themselves politically homeless at the moment, both conservatives like myself who have found that the nominally conservative party has become no longer conservative in any meaningful sense, and those on the political left who have found that their own parties no longer represent their concerns.… Read more »
The interview is most interesting – highly recommended. I don’t know if there was ever a general consensus regarding what being alive was all about, but if there was it’s gone now.
Maybe we need to divide the planet up between people whose priority is safety and others whose priority is to live life to the full. I’d be willing to settle for less than half the planet, if only the safetyists would leave us alone.
Sadly I think the lesson of modern western culture is that the safetyists and woke in general just are utterly incapable of leaving anyone else alone. The urge to try to boss is just too strong in them.
There’s been a lot of debate on this page about whether discussions about BLM are relevant to the site. Not an issue I intend to get into here, except that… Quite apart from the free speech angle, it seems clear that what we have been forced to endure is very tied in with the “woke” mindset. “Nobody must be offended, even if that means that nobody is allowed to say what they think” is philosophically very close to “nobody must be allowed to die, even if that means nobody is allowed to live”. You can see on the streets that the most enthusiastic zombies are from the same demographic (in so far as you can tell someone’s age from the way they dress and their eyes). It’s hard not to see the tipping point as the moment when politicians who were hostage to opinion polls started to see twitter as a useful platform for broadcasting thoughts and receiving feedback. It is – perhaps unintentionally- the perfect tool for the bored and the fanatical to focus their disingenuous shouting and it must be so easy to mistake “what twitter thinks” for “ what people think”. I could also talk about how… Read more »
I should add – the reason I put that there was because I think it doesn’t matter a damn what the party is called or whether it’s old or new. What matters is that it needs to find a new way (or better, an old way) of understanding and reacting to the will of the people and of speaking to them to shape their opinions.
It’s worth noting that both Greta Thunberg and Amol Rajan (with the BBC’s institutional blessing) have linked the pandemic-lockdown to climate change, BLM and equality-justice issues. So, it’s not as though we are the only people doing so.
There are common threads linking them. One clear issue is indeed free speech. Those who like to think of themselves as “progressives” advance their causes by denying free speech to others – which breaks a fundamental principle of democracy.
Another link I feel is the difference between reality and imagining. The PC Globalist alliance are big on “imagining” – imagining some bright future that is easily within our grasp as long as we come down hard on anyone who opposes the imagining. Nothing wrong in principle with imagining. It clearly has its place in the arts. But whenever imagining invades politics it never ends well. Mao was a poor poet. AHwas a poor painter.
“Another link I feel is the difference between reality and imagining. The PC Globalist alliance are big on “imagining” – imagining some bright future that is easily within our grasp as long as we come down hard on anyone who opposes the imagining. “
This is surely the old division between the progressive and the conservative, the whig and the tory.
I think you are correct here.
“Nobody must be offended, even if that means that nobody is allowed to say what they think” is philosophically very close to “nobody must be allowed to die, even if that means nobody is allowed to live”.
Indeed, and imo one underlying common thread is precisely what Crawford expresses in the quote I extracted from the interview, namely the issue of willingness to extend to one another a presumption of individual competence, where competence means the ability (and the duty) to take decisions and take responsibility for oneself, including for one’s own responses to speech by others.
Yes, it will good to cogitate over this tomorrow. In the Telegraph today, Juliet Samuel (who believes lockdowns do work, although sees the negatives), waxed lyrical about the US situation ‘second wave’. She quoted raw numbers unqualified by any context. I have a subscription to the paper but, with a few exceptions (Jacobs, Hannah, Halligan) the reporting, IMO, has been much the same as the rest of MSM overall. Charles Moore in particular has been quite the disappointing bedwetter. Subscription will be terminated at it’s endpoint. I’ll use the dosh to support the likes of London Calling, Delingpod, Escape from Lockdown, who have been consistently sound throughout. Finally, today, a reason to be cheerful – particularly after reading more dispiriting Sturgeon control-freak bollocks about timescales for easing restrictions here in Scotland. Which is both slower than England and, incredibly, even slower than her bloody ‘roadmap’ suggested several weeks ago. I went hill-walking with a mate who, a few weeks back, was lauding Piers Morgan for his pro-lockdown stance. Today he asked me about Ferguson’s history of costly epidemiological catastrophising. I obliged with the detail, and summed up with why lockdown is a very very bad idea. Pause… followed by ‘I… Read more »
Pennies are dropping, pennies are dropping. 😊
A little history of the lockdown concept. It has been researched back to a 14 year old school pupil.
“Laura, with some guidance from her dad, devised a computer simulation that showed how people – family members, co-workers, students in schools, people in social situations – interact. What she discovered was that school kids come in contact with about 140 people a day, more than any other group. Based on that finding, her program showed that in a hypothetical town of 10,000 people, 5,000 would be infected during a pandemic if no measures were taken, but only 500 would be infected if the schools were closed.
Laura’s name appears on the foundational paper arguing for lockdowns and forced human separation. ”
https://www.aier.org/article/the-2006-origins-of-the-lockdown-idea/
I find a lot of people quite receptive to the comment “we’d have been better off following the Swedish model”, most sort-of-accept this, none I’ve met have outright disagreed with it.
Local Subway is now open…not that I use it much, but have had the occasional veggie-burger. Staff are all wearing masks, God knows how they cope with that all day. Another local hardware store was open…went in, tried to get to the kitchenware section for a new extra-large loaf tin. “Sorry you can’t go there, you have to ask at the counter”.
“But I need to see what you’ve got!”
“Can’t do it, the staff will go and look for you”.
How the hell do you describe an item that you want when you can’t see whether they’ve got any?
The boy came out with something that looked like a dog’s dinner tray.
You can fill in your own idea of my response.
Aaaand….hubby has been refused a scan via the NHS for a suspect hernia. I just hope it doesnt get any worse (the hernia, that is….the NHS can only get worse anyway).
Jesus wept. Your experience in the hardware stores reminds me of that Two Ronnies sketch – the Four Candles.
They really shouldn’t be surprised if they go out of business.
Oh LOL, the four candles, I remember that one! Well, I hope they don’t go out of biz, they’re normally a ruddy good shop, but it was an absolute joke. I’ll be online looking for a loaf tin, and buggar the postage costs, it’ll be worth it.
Whilst I think of it…I had to take a dearly loved pet to the vet this week…couldnt go in with her….but the vets came out, all masked….and they couldnt have been more kind. They were truly wonderful and supportive. We’d be better off being a dog or lizard, fish or hamster/
That was the first thing that came to my mind after reading your comment, you couldn’t make it up!
Well said, I sometimes think pets have better protection than human beings under the law.
We’ve had many different pets, and many vet trips over the years. I’ve always said that veterinary care far, far surpasses the medical care given to humans. You can always get through on the phone, and usually get an appointment either that day or the following day. They are actually interested in the pet’s ailments, and willing to attempt to treat them. They’re polite, engaged and caring. Very different to the average visit to the GP!
but then you pay directly for a vet and you can take your business elsewhere… whereas the NHS you just have to accept what they give you, whether it is good bad or indifferent
Yes. 15 minute consultation, antibiotic jab. £80 please.
You get what you pay for, which is ok for one-offs but a different ballgame for ongoing stuff.
No good saying we’d pay less tax and have the choice. My state pension doesn’t even cover my modest lifestyle and the roof over my head.
“Don’t know what the problem is. I’ll give him an injection of antibiotic, steroid and food coloring. £50 please.”
I’m fairly sure that the increase in antibiotic resistance in bacteria is at least partly thanks to oversubscription by vets. Quacks and charlatans.
Vets are better qualified than GPs too. I used to tease my doctor when he couldn’t diagnose something after I explained the symptoms. I told him I should just go to a vet and let him work out what was wrong. I stopped teasing after my GP offered to clear out my anal glands…
Counterpoint: my mum (a GP) identified in minutes exactly where my springer’s grass seed-caused abscess was, though his vet had been baffled for 6 months and 5 courses of antibiotics.
Hmmm, getting what you pay for a la US system?
Really can’t make this stuff up can you? Thirteen weeks ago, when we weren’t certain how it would go, fair enough. But not now. It’s over now.
My neighbour was told she had to wear a mask when she returned to work. She works in a kitchen. Can you imagine how hot that will be? Positively dangerous!
https://twitter.com/TheTollington/status/1276471912684756992?s=20 this tweet has provoked quite a response. On one thread people are queuing up to say they are doing the right thing staying closed on the 4th July. On another thread there’s quite a few folk taking them to task about their claim that 1 in 20 have covid
1 in 20, ha ha. One of the few occasions I wish I had a Twitter account. According to this https://covid19.joinzoe.com/data#interactive-map it’s 123,000, so roughly 1 in 540. So they have only got it wrong by factor 270. Close enough, and worth keeping your business closed for.
They were going to be interviewed by 5 live but received this early this morning https://twitter.com/TheTollington/status/1276757354348978182?s=20 .As someone warned them you will look silly if you mention 1 in 20. But fair play to these guys they are getting so many tweets from people saying they are doing the right thing and will visit when it does finally open
Let’s see how their virtue signalling holds up when neighbouring pubs’ tills are RINGING
Exactly! One landlord I know is going to have table service only and a minimum spend of £50 per table. This being London and plenty of close by pubs you will quickly see the “guidelines” quickly abandoned
if they are still in business….and how many of those that say they will go will actually go..
However this may be a sensible business move in that the pub will not be getting the football related visits and so remaining closed and taking the furlough payments may be better for them
Last ONS estimate was 1 in 1700 I think!
“It’s been a long struggle, but my only fear is a big spike.”
(Insert your own jokes)
Not Janet Daly’s best effort but she makes some good points: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/27/can-ministers-not-see-inhuman-lockdown-rules-driving-terrible/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr
Unfortunately most of the comments are what I think of as typical Torygraph readers, frothing at the mouth and screaming about discipline, closing the beaches and immigrants.
Gave up before I got to any bring back hanging, flog them all stuff but these smug bigots are the main reason why things aren’t improving.
Yes, I’m a law & order fan, rule-breakers annoy me, but I long for the return of bad behaviour currently. There have been a number of groups – the lazy, the obsessively virtuous, the fearful, that the government has relied on during this for support, but the law & order brigade have also played their part.
Merseyside Police anticipated people coming together to mark Liverpool becoming champions of England for the first time since 1990 again on Friday night, but had warned fans to wait for official celebrations.
Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson said on Twitter …: “I appreciate LFC fans want to celebrate but please, for your own safety, and that of others, go home and celebrate at home.
It just doesn’t work that way, does it?!
Talking about closed beaches…the little seafront at Clevedon has had all its car-parking bays blocked off by the council, using hefty barriers. Now, in case you don’t know it that well, or at all, it is hardly a seafront likely to attract thousands of cars because there are only, what, forty or so parking bays? It’s forcing visitors to park in the side residential streets, where there are already enough yellow lines to throttle a cat with.
There are a few small cafes etc on the front, they’re already suffering, without having visitors blocked for parking. It’s depressing, it really is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Bn0DuDoFo
Simpsons Virus Forecast From Ten Years Ago
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/27/lockdown-social-distancing-could-make-immune-system-weaker-says/
Lockdown and social distancing could make our immune system weaker, says scientist
This is another aspect of lockdown mania that hasn’t been fully explored yet. There may be an excess deaths effect once people do start interacting again (unrelated to Covid-19).
Yes but they will just claim it is the Second Wave.
IMO there will be an initial fall in deaths followed by an increase from all the things the NHS haven’t been treating. Probably just in time for the promised October lockdown. What a coincidence
Yep, combined with the fact that we are all getting minimal excercise, and drinking more and getting fat. And for the unfortunate without gardens – getting no vitamin D even during the sunniest month ever recorded (May). Vitamin D , the thing that we all seem to need to fight the virus without symptoms. Strange coincidence that isn’t it?
Yep, Vit D v. good for general health…difficult to obtain other than from old fashioned sunshine…which our misguided media have also managed to make out to be a killer – unable to differentiate between healthy exposure and roasting yourself like a chicken for 3 hours at the height of summer.
Beware the bad news evangelists who see a Covid second wave behind every statistic
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/27/beware-bad-news-evangelists-see-covid-second-wave-behind-every/
It’s still bloody depressing isn’t it? The States, Spain, our ‘second spike‘. Unrelentingly depressing. And to cap it all I’ve just checked on the status of my favourite pub, in a beautiful little Cornish village we have been going to for 13 years, where I sit with a pint watching the sun go down over a beautiful estuary, and it has decided not to open until July 23, by which time I will have gone. I know it’s not much compared to what a lot of us have had to put up with, but it’s just another sign of just how much our life has changed, without any scrutiny and with absolutely no chance to influence it.
Why isn’t this breaking through to more people?. We on ‘sceptics’ are still in the minority. I just don’t get it.
Yes, sure that’s how we all feel: our lives haven’t been furloughed…they’re carrying on but at a much lower level of existence. Not quite amoeba-like but hardly the rich experience that addresses all of our human wants and needs…
Just for the records, here are a couple more terrible things I have seen in the last few months. I was cycling about and stopped to have a rest and a drink, I wheeled up next to a lady in her late 50’s and her old Dad. The old guy clearly had bad dimentia as he couldn’t recall the word for bird, never mind what kind of bird his daughter pointed out to him. I said hi to the lady and as the old chap became aware of me he went into a total panic toddeling about and going oh! oh! oh! or some such thing trying to social distance away from me. His daughter had to grab him and calm him down. I couldn’t help thinking about how he has probably been told 100 times a day to “keep two meters away!” and then promptly forgot but something about keeping away from people stuck. His daughter hadn’t been allowed to see him for three months. Tragic. Here is another one. I was cycling down the canal tow path and I cycled past two people who clearly had Downs Syndrome, as I approached, they held their hands up to their… Read more »
Great article in the Speccie today about the police
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/The-police-have-become-too-politicised-to-function
“ In response to the appalling stats, the Metropolitan Police commented that burglary presented ‘particular challenges’ in finding culprits. Does it? Well blow me down. Once again, don’t put yourselves out on our account, lads. Robbed of your wallet and mobile at knifepoint? No point ringing the police — again. Only 4 per cent of robberies in England and Wales in 2017 were solved. Had your car nicked? There is just a 2 per cent chance that the police will bring a prosecution.”
I’m pretty sure that during Operation Yewtree there was a roomful of policemen somewhere in Scotland Yard who spent all day sitting there saying “you know who else I always thought looked a bit dodgy?”
Makes for a much nicer day than getting out on the streets tracking down and arresting highly violent criminals.
The Met Police are pathetic, particularly under the worst ever lead, Dick.
Why don’t they put in some monitoring equipment in high burglary areas.? We see plenty of animal cams on Spring Watch that react to the movements of creatures passing through woods!
It’s a defeatist attitude. They consider burglary and street crime as minor. Whereas social media hurt feelings “crimes” get treated like homicide in the fourth degree.
Their refusal to deal with gatherings flouting the legislation on social distancing was itself criminal. The Police have discretion but they don’t have the right to completely ignore mass flouting of laws on the basis of political or racial considerations.
OKUK – the Rod Liddle article Steve is quoting, together with the one immediately after it (in the print version) are worth reading. Particularly the second, actually – written by a former Met Police borough commander who was instructed to chance his (successful) techniques because the visuals were wrong.
I’ve got the print version so will take a look. 🙂
‘Chance’ = change
Yes the second article is also great…. in a depressing way
The police are there solely to keep a foot on the law abiding middle class.
People with a job and a few assets they can take when they fine you.
Everyone else is immune.
If you are “rich” And can afford to pay a proper lawyer you can get away with murder.
If you are poor then police have no leverage. You have almost zero chance of being caught let alone prosecuted
A friend was burgled – Bristol, not the Met – but the response was
“Oh we know who did it but we can’t prove it, here’s your crime number for the insurance”
Could some savvy person help Toby set up a section, comparable to the ‘Small businesses’ section, for giving details of (1) shops that treat customers like human beings and(2) shops that treat customers like toxic waste? It would help a lot of us to avoid the first and find the second. At the moment, much relevant information is getting buried in the ever-lengthening comments sections.
(Yes, I know, Annie is always so good at suggesting work for other people to do… sorry!)
You mean find the first and avoid the second surely Annie?
Eek, yes, sorry, getting late!
My hairdresser phoned today. She’s back at work next week and did I want an appointment? I said I’m not going anywhere that requires masks. She said it was salon’s policy so I politely declined, despite the fact that she’s good and I like her. There was hardly a heartbeat when she said ‘how are you with rules?’ I said I don’t abide by rules unless there’s a sound reason for them. So she invited me to her house for a cut – sans masks. Yippee. Got an appointment next Wednesday. (Sod’s law, I’d just bought some clippers off ebay.)
I’m glad people are willing to ‘get around’ the rules 😉
At this rate we’ll have black market hairdressers, pubs, restaurants, etc. Maybe even a resurgence of sales people similar to Avon ladies and gentlemen.
Brilliant! We saw the Dr Scott Atlas video in which both he and the interviewer mention that the US is seeing a growth in ‘speakeasy’ hairdressers. Like Bart, below, I can see this catching on in other sectors. We already have a ‘pop-up’ BYO pub which will probably persist if/when the miserable local re-opens and offers its unique brand of unfriendly dystopia – and I’m talking about what it was like before 🙂
I haven’t heard from my hairdresser yet but I hope she offers a similar alternative as I expect the salon will be like an operating theatre and it will not be getting my custom.
My husband hopes his hairdresser opens soon and if said hairdresser offers the same black market service, I’d tell my husband to go for it.
Following on from my comment about the resurgence of the Avon woman or man, maybe several well known high street retailers could branch out similar to that – that’s probably where they can deploy their retail assistants rather than to make them redundant.
Avon is pre-internet. Plenty of one-man businesses now thrive via ebay and Amazon.
Mask Count: I’d say only 5% of people in my local shopping centre were wearing masks today. Probably most of those have underlying health conditions, so I’m not judging them…you can understand how the pro-mask propaganda would get to you if you think you are vulnerable.
What’s it like in your area?
Yesterday and the day before in a fairly quiet area in central-ish London, with 30+ degree heat… very few masks. How strange. You’d think they were stuffy and uncomfortable or something.
Today, back up I’d say. 20% maybe?
On the plus side, managed to have a normal-but-abnormal experience today. A microbrewery on the Blackheath is doing takeaway pints and you can sit outside across the road. Walked up to the bar, ordered as you normally would. Had a conversation with the barman (Spanish originally, judging by the accent) about reopening ‘properly’ next weekend. He’s not looking forward to it, mostly because he doesn’t think it should be his job to “police all this nonsense”. It’s not a place I’ve been to in years, but even at 1m, their capacity is going from about 260 to 100.
Good observation about the relationship between temperature and mask-wearing!
If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitsch-gear!!.
I should have given my general location as there may be regional variations – more SW-ish London for me. I think there may be a class basis for mask wearing. There seem to be a surprising number of very prosperous women driving expensive 4x4s wearing masks.
SE here. I’m seeing three distinct groups: fairly well to do mostly women in their 60s (usually also wearing gloves. What the point is of wearing the same pair of gloves from the moment you leave the house to the moment you get home I cannot even imagine); teens and 20s; and people on/waiting for buses. I spent a very amusing 5 minutes the other day watching a chap in his early 20s trying to put on a visor that looked like it was made out of the kind of flimsy transparent plastic you get in packaging while he was waiting for a bus.
Especially if you use your gloved hands to adjust your face mask…so potentially passing infection from your gloves to your facial area including the mouth part of the mask that you will be breathing in (remembering masks do not stop viruses passing through).
Yes, I think some young people enjoy “wearing” them more as a fashion accessory dangling around their neck most of the time rather than actually as a mask (although looking like a bandit is also appealing).
Maybe we should start handing out flyers to such mask wearers telling them to stop adjusting their masks and the risks of doing that.
Maybe they find it exciting, it’s a bit like dressing up.
Virtue signallers!
I was in town today, it was pretty busy, the car parks were pretty empty still. However it didn’t feel too bad. There were one or two groups of people talking to each other with arm folder, leaning back in that “look at me with me and my supreme social distancing skills ” kind of a way. There were lots of people normal distance apart, not swerving or looking worried. I saw a few mask wearers but most of them looked old, ill and worried. There were a well to do looking family group all with designer masks on in Wilco, a “yummy mummy” and two blonde kids. I am sure I saw another “normal” family laughing at them. I saw another trendy young woman wearing one. I went into Waterstones, a young lady shop assistant was wearing one of those mental face shields and the cashier was behind a screen that made it hard for her to hear people, she said. No mask and fairly normal, I gratuitously handled a few maps and put them back on the shelves and nothing bad happened. I got told off in WH Smiths for not noticing the one way system and walked… Read more »
Not sure “act stupid” is the right phrase. I’m pretty sure that’s what everyone else is doing.
Well yer but they think they are clever and obviously I must be the silly old man who doesn’t understand how to do it properly.
I act like nobody should mess with me. I’m a five foot three plump somewhat cherubic (sadly I was born ‘youthful’ looking rather than hot 😣) woman, so it must be the attitude. Even security guards don’t fuck with me.
My mortal enemy however is the middle-aged Karen. They know no fear, and they seem to hate dissident fellow women more than dissident blokes.
I’m a man in my forties, with no excuses, but lots of experience of facing people down. I’m _itching_ to be told that I’m doing something wrong, so I can pick up the fight, but so far it hasn’t mattered how many signs and arrows I’ve ignored, nobody has said anything.
I’ve noticed that too. I had this masked woman staring at me the whole time a few weeks’ ago so I stared back and gave her a manic grin. She looked shocked then turned away quickly.
Just say you have a “protected characteristic” (there’s a phrase that ought to better known) and watch them change their tune. In fact if you really want to make things difficult for them, ask them to guess what the protected characteristic is.
Protected characteristics and the Equality Act only apply when dealing with functions of the state. Always best to be properly informed if planning on rocking the boat, saves ending up with egg on your face
I doubt the average Karen knows much about functions of the state.
I’ve learned that confident body language does make a difference. Plus as my dad has said, I have a perpetually scowling face which does help as these mini Hitlers and Stalins will come to the conclusion that I’m a miserable git and they back off.
Pretty good. You see the odd person, looking like a complete numpty. I feel sorry for them now. They are mentally challenged and don’t know it.
It’s gonna be very interesting venturing into town and stuff and seeing how people react to being forced to wear the things.
I live in a less than affluent part of NW London and most of the people wearing masks are from BAME (how I hate using that term) and migrant population. There are also a few old people using them and some yummy mummies from the more affluent suburbs who drive into the big supermarkets in their Cath Kidston-esque masks.
I’ve also come across people wearing gloves which is rather ironic given that they’re worse than useless as the germs just get stuck in them which makes constantly touching the mask to adjust them or to try to breathe properly all the more counterproductive.
I see very few mask wearers out and about in SE Wales. 5% would probably be about right and those who do wear them look old and frail. The staff in Macca D’s are forced to wear them, we ask each one we encounter how they find wearing the masks and all of them complain about them but they are forced to do it – despite the fact that the average age of a Macca D worker must be well under 25. Weird how the staff in all the supermarkets have survived all these weeks not wearing masks… The balance is very different with ‘friends’ on facebook – lots of sharing of pro-mask posts and horror scorn directed at people who don’t wear them, like me. In the USA, Oz and NZ it seems to have become a completely politicized issue. If you don’t wear a mask you must be right wing/Trump supporter. It throws people off when you tell them that your national government hasn’t made masks mandatory anywhere – they assume that’s because Boris is a righty but when you point out that you are in Wales and Wales has a Labour government their brains cannot process it.… Read more »
I’m not aware of anywhere in Australia where mask wearing is compulsory either, even in the Wales of Australia (Victoria).
There’s certainly a lot of virtue signalling going on with modelling their muzzles especially the cloth ones especially when they come in fetching fabrics.
A friend has found a phrase for those types – vanity hammocks.
Occurs to me that John Farnham’s _You’re the Voice_ is a good theme tune – though maybe only the chorus
You’re the voice, try and understand it
Make a noise and make it clear
Oh, whoa
We’re not gonna sit in silence
We’re not gonna live with fear
Oh, whoa
You’re the voice, try and understand it We do but the voice will be censored, demonetised, and shadow-banned by Facebook, Google, You Tube, Twitter and all the other platforms owned by PV Globalists. If you comment against PC values on Mail Online, your comment won’t appear for hours. The BBC won’t feature your voice. Neither will Sky or ITV. So forget it. Make a noise and make it clear We’ve made clear our views on the Brexit vote, mass immigration, allowing China, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Russia to infiltrate our media, academia and energy sector, nutjob profs in our unis, bogus asylum seekers (no one now allowed to use the word bogus), our weak response to terrorism and violent crime. People’s views couldn’t be made clearer I feel. Oh, whoa More like “O woe!” We’re not gonna sit in silence The PC ideologues have made clear that there will be severe consequences for anyone who breaks silence. Anyone with a job and family to support will be very circumspect about being vocal about almost anything political. As in Communist societies people only speak openly with friends and family they feel they can trust. We’re not gonna live with fear Fear… Read more »
Well, you just spoil all the fun, don’t you?
Lol! Let’s get real. We are living in something getting very close to a dictatorship. If you are frightened about expressing your views, frightened of losing your job because of your political opinions, frightened of what would happen if you told people how you voted, it doesn’t sound like a free society to me.
Getting?
The main difference is that a dictatorship has a dictator. Even if Hancock and Raab have handed him the title, as far as I can see, Johnson is mostly looking at it going “ummmm…”.
Police state is more apt, I think, but the police aren’t really taking their lead either from HMG, or from HRH, or from the citizenry.
Well I said we were close, not there yet…but that’s a pretty good definition: “We are living in a dictatorship without a dictator.”
The dictating is being done by the media, academia and globalist corporations and by this “shame culture” ensuring nonconformist views are punished, not just silenced.
A kind of intolerant, corporatist ochlocracy, updated for the modern technological situation.
Great point! It’s Thomas Sowell’s “The Annointed”
entertaining talk by Tom Naughton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=GDlF-z_x7vc
Many of those deported to Australia were Irish dissidents.
Where I live the Federal Gummint has said wearing masks is pointless unless you’re the disease vector and you shouldn’t be out and about anyway. About the only people you see wearing facemasks are Chinese, especially those who can’t speak English. Yesterday I had to laugh out loud as a family group of two adults and two children got out of their car all wearing face masks then walked into the front yard of their property to be met by welfare sucking grandma coming out of the house also wearing a face mask. My reading is the cowards are all frightened of being infected by each other in their own house and car.
Is it a state by state thing or a business by business thing? I know that there are places (malls etc) where masks are mandatory – curious as to whether this is state government imposed or just virtue signalling by the businesses.
Which state are you in, by the way?
Looking forward to tomorrow’s post, my guess is that….
The reported cases are increasing across Europe as those who have symptoms are now able to access tests more readily.
However deaths have not been increasing significantly as the most vulnerable are now better protected or have unfortunately perished. This therefore means those who have tested positive are sufficiently robust to get on with life as they would with a cold or flu.
More tests = more positive results.
Who’d have thunk it?
Interesting article in The Telegraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/formula-1/2020/06/27/lewis-hamilton-brands-bernie-ecclestones-racism-remarks-ignorant/
The interesting thing is that when you read the comments earlier today nearly all of them suppported Ecclestone. Now, all comments have been deleted and commenting is no longer allowed.
Why does The Telegraph do this?
The Telegraph knows this is a minefield. The gatekeepers of news – BBC, Sky, ITV, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS – refuse to even approach this issue. But all sensible people know racism is found all around the world. Han Chinese are incredibly racist to just about every other “racial” group. India’s caste system tracks skin colour very closely. The nutty Oxford prof of Indian origin who said “white lives don’t matter” at least had the decency to admit that as a Brahmin she is essentially “white” in India. Most Japanese people share the Chinese assumption that they are superior to all other races. Russians and East Europeans are, mostly, incredibly racist towards anyone with a dark skin colour. Caribbean people are extremely conscious about shades of skin tone and often judge people on that basis. Throughout Africa people are very conscious about physiological differences that mark people out as one tribe or another and people are judged as good or bad on the basis of those markers. Arab people are incredibly prejudiced against people with dark skin or sub-Sarahan physical features. The quite light skinned San people of South Africa are not accepted as equals by their darker skinned neighbours.
Cambridge prof this time I’m sorry to say but Oxbridge would cover it much of the time. Douglas Murray has pointed out the lies and sheer hypocrisy of the official response after their treatment of Carl and Peterson where they immediately folded to the mob on spurious grounds (unlike the current drama). More money for Gurkhas and RNLI is the ultimate result in my case.
Hahaha, you will get burned at the stake for that comment. You forgot to add half of the Scottish hate the English….just the throw a bit more fuel on the pyre 😂
only half???
I was trying to be diplomatic! My wife is scottish, Xmas can be interesting. Half the in-laws were campaigning for the snp.
I remember a business trip to Poland in 2015 with a colleague with Asian heritage. We were followed down a high street by a rapidly growing bunch of people making really scary threatening approaches to both of us. I’m a retired police officer, so no shrinking violet, but I dragged my colleague into the first taxi I could stop. He said he’d never experienced anything like it before despite travelling extensively. Clearly there are racist idiots in every country, labelling everybody as racist though is counterproductive to any cause and that’s why the BLM/tear down statues mob will fail.
A West African friend pointed out that there has always been AND STILL IS slavery between African countries, and the Middle East. All the white man did was to provide a bigger market. Yes there are huge tribal differences within Africa, and here between Africans and Carribean peoples. Also just because many British people are white doesn’t mean there are no huge distinctions between English, Scots, Welsh etc. and espeically the Norman French of southern England, who curiously I believe are Frenchified Vikings yet very different from the Anglicised Vikings. It’s all divide and conquer, except of course for us Saxons who can’t be bothered
The same reason people on LS regularly try to suppress discussion of these issues here, sometimes because they are politically active in the opposite direction, but more often simply because they just find it uncomfortable to be around dissident views on this topic, because such views have been intentionally demonised and rendered politically taboo, over the course of a half century and more of manipulation.
This is why our society is so dysfunctional in this area that only a retired policeman can afford to speak honestly about racial minority issues in public, and even then the broadcaster carrying his views quickly gets cold feet and cuts him off.
Most people under the age of about 40 or so have never known a society in which any genuine discussion of race from any viewpoint other than “woke” was not taboo, or close enough to be painted and treated as such.
Of course, having rational debate closed off by taboo-isation of a topic results in irrational beliefs and policies becoming prevalent, as night follows day.
Going to the gym does not increase risk of catching coronavirus, Norwegian study says
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/27/going-gym-does-not-increase-risk-catching-coronavirus-norwegian/
A study from the University of Oslo, believed to be the first of its kind worldwide, has tentatively shown that going to the gym does not increase one’s risk of contracting coronavirus.
Having dipped into so many Covid related studies, all I can say is that for every paper saying x you can find another paper saying not x. I’ve certainly seen research suggesting that gyms, along with other places where people are exhaling energetically (eg Church services involving exuberant singing) do increase the risk…Sounds like common sense to me but who knows?
The first thing you have to ask about such research is “Who actually paid for it?” (you can’t always rely on the name up front, funders have ways of disguising their funding). I would like to be reassured Norskgym wasn’t behind it.
Of course any healthy person aged under 60 is at virtually no risk from the virus whether in a gym or outside, so as far as I am concerned the only issue is whether you advise under 60s not to attend gyms.
The article itself does try to put a counter argument in saying the study only addresses a situation where the prevalance is already low. We know that many people don’t read much past the headline anyway.
I think articles like this will become more frequent in an attempt to reassure people that it’s safe to try and get back to some sort of normality.
Yes, I’ve got paper fatigue and didn’t read it! lol
I am sure if you factor in the positive health benefits of exercising down the gym, it outweighs any potential health risk to an under 60.
It doesn’t much matter what these studies say from what I’ve seen. Most governments seem to be acting like the last three to four months of research hasn’t happened and like they still know nothing. At least, that’s the impression I get as nowhere appears to have just completely removed all measures, despite that being the only reasonable evidence-based action to take.
Great post
If they are given honest facts, the over 60s should be perfectly capable of deciding for themselves. No advice necessary.
For most of us getting Covid is like getting the flu (yes some people will die but the same happens with flu). No virus can be eradicated and we will have to live with it.
Well, actually most people with it are asymptomatic, so it is, for them, much less bad even than a mild cold!