Latest News
First the good news. All schools will re-open in full in September, the Government has declared. No, really. They will.
Now the bad news. They won’t. At least, not if all schools are expected to comply with the voluminous and entirely pointless guidance the Government has issued today. The BBC has a summary and we’re talking about a veritable forest of red tape. All entirely pointless, of course.
- Grouping children together in groups or “bubbles”, one per class in primaries and one per year group in secondaries
- Avoiding contact in school between these groups, with separate starting, finishing, lunch and break times
- Attendance compulsory with the threat of penalty fines
- Test and trace in place for schools
- Regular cleaning of hands, but masks not expected for pupils or staff
- Those with symptoms told to stay out of school
- No big group events like school assemblies and arranging classrooms with forward facing desks
- Separate groups on school buses and discouraging the use of public transport
- Pupils will be expected to continue with all their GCSEs and A-levels
- Emphasis on Maths and English in primaries and in Year 7 of secondaries
Readers of lockdown sceptics may not know this, but I co-founded four schools and have been a Chair of Governors, a Chair of a multi-academy trust and CEO of a multi-academy trust. So I know a thing or two about running schools. And believe me when I tell you that complying with some of these “safety measures” will be flat out impossible.
Take the guideline about lunch and break times. Staggered break times are notoriously difficult to manage, but staggered lunch times? Forget it. Suppose the school in question is a two-form entry primary. That means 14 different classes or “bubbles”. How on earth can you have 14 different lunch sittings over the course of an hour? Just managing it with two separate sittings is a logistical nightmare and often means lunch over-runs, thereby eating into the first period of the afternoon. But 14? Cloud cuckoo land. Even doing that over the entire school day would be a logistical nightmare. These guidelines, like so much that comes out of the Department for Education, have been written by a group of bureaucrats who have never set foot in a school and haven’t a clue about how to run one.
The teaching unions have already said the guidelines are going to be “enormously challenging” to implement, i.e. impossible. So “Down tools, comrades” as per usual. Or rather, “Don’t bother picking up your tools until you’re satisfied that your school is going to comply with every jot and tittle of this guidance, comrades.” Not much hope of headteachers getting behind them either – they’ve described them as “mind-boggling“.
Back to watching The Last Dance on Netflix for teachers, in other words.
And even if a school somehow manages to hack its way through this red tape, there’s the ridiculous rule that if two or more children test positive for the virus, the entire school will probably have to close! What a complete nonsense.
In the Telegraph, Angela Epstein asks, what is the point of Gavin Williamson? Incredibly, she manages to spend 1,000 words answering this question.
If I was the Education Secretary I’d scrap all the guidance and replace it with four words: Use your common sense.
Prague Throws End-of-Lockdown Party
Inspiring story in today’s Independent about Prague.
Prague has celebrated a self-proclaimed end to its coronavirus epidemic – by throwing a massive party attended by thousands of people all sharing food and without any social distancing.
The Czech capital held the unorthodox gathering to say a “symbolic farewell” to the infection and to show residents should no longer be scared to meet with friends or visit local businesses.
A 500 metre table was set up on the famous Charles Bridge with people packed along it swapping snacks and drinks brought from home.
Dancing and singing were enjoyed as local musicians played in the open streets.
The event was held despite some 260 new COVID-19 cases being found in the country last week. Fears that such an event could become a super-spreader if just a few undiagnosed sufferers turned up were apparently dismissed.
I like that note of alarmism at the end. Two hundred and sixty news cases in a week out of a population of 10.7 million. Ooh, mother!
People of Leicester, I look forward to you following suit.
World At One – and Matthew Parris – Embraces Scepticism!
It seems as if the sleeping broadcasters are finally waking up to the fact that the lockdown may – just may – have been a mistake.
Matthew Parris was interviewed on the World at One today and said he’s changed his mind and now thinks we should have stuck with herd immunity.
Matthew Parris: I think the herd immunity idea was right, right from the start and I think in the end the whole world is going to develop some kind of immunity from this and it won’t mean some people won’t still get it but its not going to rage through the population as it has been doing.
Sarah Montague: So ultimately do you think we’ll look at Sweden with envy?
MP: I think it’s going to be a very long time before anybody admits that they were wrong and I suppose I should include people like me in that analysis. But I think the Swedes who stuck to the course on which we started out and then lost our nerve will turn out to have done at least no more harm to their population than the Norwegians or the Danes have.
That was refreshing enough, but the Parris interview was immediately followed by one with Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford and longstanding lockdown sceptic. He was even better!
Carl Heneghan: The death rates as they currently stand have diminished. This is a radically different disease than what it was a few months ago. About six per cent of all people in hospital were dying then. Now it’s down to about one per cent. So the key about lockdown is that it’s a very blunt tool and it should be used for one reason and one reason only because the health system is becoming overwhelmed. What we see in Leicester is an increase in the number of people coming forward for testing and a small increase of the number of people with Covid. I would say right now it’s a very blunt tool and a mistake for us to be locking down in Leicester. It’s a perfect opportunity to let the test-and-trace system start working and in fact we’ve seen a 30% reduction in cases in the last week already so it is having an effect.
The next interviewee was with Allyson Pollock, former Director of the Institute of Health and Society at the University of Newcastle. She too was a sceptic!
Last up was Professor Julien Legrande – also sceptical.
Julian Le Grand: You have to be careful about applying the precautionary principle. Epidemiologists tend to operate very much on the precautionary principle, which basically says, “Look if you’ve got no data, no information, if you’ve got a dreadful risk of some calamity, better to be safe than sorry.” Which makes a great deal of sense at the first stages, but of course what it doesn’t take account of are the costs involved and what you do when you’ve got a little more data. We’re now in a situation where actually we do have a little more data. Your previous speakers have been talking about the Leicester situation. Well, we do now know that infection rate in Leicester is incredibly low it has to be said. It’s something like 140 out of 100,000 which is 0.14%. I mean this is a tiny risk and I, in agreement with your previous speakers, think it’s certainly not worth the costs involved in locking down the entire city.
Le Grand went on to say the fatality risk for under-45s was “virtually zero”.
You can listen to the entire parade of sceptics from the 20 minute mark here.
What a pleasant change.
The Ethics of Lockdown
Good post in Hector Drummond Magazine on the ethics of lockdown by Tim James. Here’s a taster:
Deaths from COVID-19 are deaths from natural causes, wherever you believe the virus originated. The Government does not have a responsibility to prevent these at any cost, despite their repeated pledges to do “whatever it takes” to beat the virus.
Conversely, deaths resulting from the lockdown will be deaths resulting from reckless human intervention. Those deaths are their moral responsibility. The Government has no moral authority to sacrifice the lives of those at little or no risk in the uncertain hope of saving the lives of those who are.
Worth reading in full.
Covid Comedy
What’s the difference between COVID-19 and Romeo and Juliet? One’s a coronavirus and the other is a Verona crisis.
Getting Away From It All
I got an email from a reader who has escaped Britain for Switzerland and is relieved to somewhere comparatively sane.
Having got thoroughly fed up with the ongoing government insanity, my wife and I decided last week to escape Stalagluft UK and booked up flights to Switzerland. We managed to get some travel insurance despite the blanket FCO “advice” and are spending a couple of days in Geneva. Then we are moving on to the German speaking area in the Bernese Oberland and then Berne itself. While Terminal 5 and the BA flight this morning gave us our first experience of having to wear masks for hours, Geneva is a revelation. The hotel has taken away the mini bar, but otherwise it all feels blissfully normal. The streets are full of shoppers, the bars and restaurants are full and relaxed. Friends greet each other in the streets with hugs and kisses. Hard to imagine anything similar at home. It feels surreally different from the UK – the thought of 10 days away from Matt Hancock and the rest of the gang is more relaxing than an all-inclusive spa break.
Sounds quite tempting. However, I think Mrs Young has settled on the Dolemites. Just a bit nervy about the EasyJet flights being cancelled 24 hours beforehand…
Great Quote
A reader has pointed out that I included a great quote from Richard Klein in How to Lose Friends & Alienate People. That book, about my misadventures in New York, was published in 2001 (and made into a film in 2008). But this quote could not be more relevant.
We are in the midst of one of those periodic moments of repression, when the culture, descended from Puritans, imposes its hysterical visions and enforces its guilty constraints on society, legislating moral judgements under the guise of public health, all the while enlarging the power of surveillance and the reach of censorship to achieve a general restriction of freedom.
Richard Klein
Round-Up
And on to the round-up of all the stories I’ve noticed, or which have been been brought to my attention, in the last 24 hours:
- ‘What’s to stop the people of Leicester “doing a Cummings”?‘ – Allison Pearson poses a good question in the Telegraph
- ‘How King’s College London has become Cancel College‘ – Two pseudonymous academics at King’s College London describe how the once top Russell Group university became Woke Central
- ‘Two in three victims of COVID-19 had a disability‘ – Interesting article in the Times
- ‘Look closely at the motives of the Facebook boycotters‘ – Good piece by Izabella Kaminska in the FT
- ‘Why Covid herd immunity could be “twice as high as first thought”‘ – Not “as first thought” by me. Glad to see the MSM finally coming round though. This piece is by Holden Firth in the Week
- ‘DEFUND THE BBC: Campaign To Defund “Biased” BBC Gathers Pace‘ – Exciting development
- ‘We risk going over a cliff chasing second wave red herrings‘ – Good column in the Telegraph from the always dependable Sherelle Jacobs
- ‘If you really love Cornwall you’ll stay away this summer‘ – Bedwetting piece about how “dangerous” it would be for the locals if tourists from London descend on Cornwall this summer. Yeah, right. Better to stay away, even though tourism is the single biggest industry in the county
- ‘No more air bridges? What a colossal waste of time and money this has been‘ – Nick Trend with an understandably angry piece in the Telegraph about the fiasco that is the Government’s “air bridge” policy, now more or less abandoned
- ‘If Only Governments Were REALLY “Guided By The Science”‘ – Good summary of John Ioannidis’s trenchant views in Principia Scientific International
- ‘Even the royal family has jumped on the BLM bandwagon‘ – Hard-hitting piece in Spiked about Prince Eunuch’s pathetic attempt to appear woke. Not sure I want to listen to a Royal Prince lecturing me about “privilege”
Theme Tune Suggestions From Readers
Two suggestions today: “Stay Free” by The Clash and “Mad World” by Tears for Fears.
Small Businesses That Have Re-opened
A few weeks ago, Lockdown Sceptics launched a searchable directory of open businesses across the UK. The idea is to celebrate those retail and hospitality businesses that have re-opened, as well as help people find out what has opened in their area. But we need your help to build it, so we’ve created a form you can fill out to tell us about those businesses that have opened near you. Now that non-essential shops have re-opened – or most of them, anyway – we’re now focusing on pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as other social venues. Please visit the page and let us know about those brave folk who are doing their bit to get our country back on its feet. Don’t worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
Note to the Good Folk Below the Line
I enjoy reading all your comments and I’m glad I’ve created a “safe space” for lockdown sceptics to share their frustrations and keep each other’s spirits up. But please don’t copy and paste whole articles from papers that are behind paywalls in the comments. I work for some of those papers and if they don’t charge for premium content they won’t survive.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the last 48 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. It usually takes me several hours to do these updates, along with everything else, which doesn’t leave much time for other work. If you feel like donating, however small the amount, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here. (Please don’t email me at any other address.) I’ll try and get another update done on Saturday.
And if you’d like to join the Free Speech Union, please click here. I’ve talked about the tsunami of censorship we’re facing in my Spectator column today.
And Finally…
In my monthly column for Spectator USA, I’ve documented some of the people who’ve been cancelled in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.
Never in the field of human conflict has so much misery been caused to so many by so few.
I’m thinking of the hard-left rage mobs that have been policing the public square since the beginning of June — quite literally in the case of the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle. I’ve been keeping a list of all the people who have suffered catastrophic career damage because they’ve fallen foul of the Red Guards — and it’s growing ‘exponentially’, as a virologist might say. Like the COVID illness at its peak, it has been doubling every two to three days.
Some of the victims have been people you’d expect to lose their heads in this cultural revolution. Nigel Farage, for instance, the former leader of the Brexit party, who lost his job as a radio presenter in London within 48 hours of comparing statue-destroying protesters to the Taliban.
Others have been canceled, not for anything they’ve said, but because those close to them have breached a taboo — like the LA Galaxy midfielder Aleksandar Katai, who was ‘released’ by the club after his wife captioned a photo on Instagram of a looter carrying boxes out of a shoe store with the words ‘Black Nikes Matter’.
But by far the largest group of victims have been white liberals in their forties or fifties who have made the mistake of genuflecting to the BLM protesters. They’ve issued pro forma statements of solidarity that have been judged insufficiently pious by their more enlightened peers. They took a knee, as it were, when what they should have done was throw themselves to the ground and beg for forgiveness.
And if you want a longer list, there’s always the one I’ve been compiling for the Free Speech Union’s Twitter feed. Now up to 50…
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
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How can we stop Sturgeon doing this to us? it’s absolutely sickening the thought of a face mask. Can Boris not step in and stop her? She’s mad.
It’s quite the correct thing to do at the end of an outbreak! Makes perfect sense!
I want a Hannibal Lecter (Silence Of The Lambs) mask
I looked on Amazon a couple of weeks ago for one but comically, they were sold out
i am thinking of getting a Lone Ranger mask
Will it fit over your nose and mouth?
no – i can still breath and no one will be able to identify me
Is this finally the point of the sporran?
Which is not to say that the good people of Prague don’t have a historical solution to Sturgeon, namely defenestration.
😂😂😂
Edinburgh Castle would be fitting for that.
Around the time of the one o’clock gun so everyone can watch.
Special edition one o’clock gun
Bring out Mons Meg for one final send off.
😂😂😂
Make the window seriously high, with no cushioning manure heap. (Keep the manure heap for disposing of the remains.)
Dunk her in the manure heap first (give her the option of wearing that ridiculous tartan mask) then take her aloft.
Good idea.
I fully agree she is mad, seems a fair few folk in Scotland are the same.
Work in a bicycle shop and have been trying my best to make it as normal as I can, shame I ain’t in charge though, ‘just a mechanic’ as one manager put it.. Two out of three branch managers are not up for the masks nonsense, but to be seen what the big boss says, the person who ain’t stepped on a shop floor in 3 months!
Anyway, I can fully assure you that this Scottish shop staff member will not be wearing a mask, and will not be using the exemptions list as justification. I will not be wearing it because it is ridiculous.
Go it! You are right! God bless!
Sort of successful, there is unfortunately a limit on what I can do, those damn bills. That being said, not been fired in the last 3 months and I do not tone it down, my volume control is broken and I love to cuss.
Did get them to stop spraying bikes down with bleach, disinfectant, brake cleaner, etc. when handing them out pretty quick. One thing that has stuck is only having limited folk in the shop, with no browsing, not having much go halting that.
Go for it and all the best!
Contemplating various arguments but thinking I’m just going to go with ‘cold, hard science’. There is a slew of papers on the subject of mask wearing, and as an (ex)welding engineer who specialised in CRA (nickel and chromium based metal) cladding of steel I know all about arguing a health and safety case.
‘It is demeaning’ might be all that is needed though, totally up for a trip to the pastel painted local cells.
Yep. That’s the best line of defence, I’ve been using that to educate people on the dangers of mask wearing.
On the ‘demeaning’ angle – which it surely is – this article is very good: ‘The face is a primary engine of social interaction, and to compel us to cover it up is an act of spiritual vandalism’: https://conservatives.global/the-lockdown-cannot-mask-this-assault-on-human-nature/.
However on Twitter I find what grabs people is the fact the UK’s own deputy Chief Medical Officer Jenny Harries actually said this: ‘Face masks could actually INCREASE risk of Covid 19 infection’: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-news-face-masks-increase-risk-infection-doctor-jenny-harries-a9396811.html
Genuinely thinking along the lines of torture as a means to attack this. Posted this previously Amnesty International definition of torture fits precisely what we are being put through.
https://youtu.be/3yk3xezML8Q
I actually contacted Amnesty about N.Ireland executive decision to make masks compulsory on public transport on the grounds it breaches article 3 of the Human Rights Act in that it is degrading treatment – this was their reply-
“Unfortunately, we are unable to comment as this does not fall within our remit and we have not done any research in this area. This does not mean that we have reached any conclusion as to whether or not the issue you refer to is a human rights issue. Rather, it means that we must, to be as effective as possible, channel our limited resources towards those areas of work which we have identified as priorities.”
In other words the entire subjugation and degradation of the population of the UK is of no interest to them.
Thank you for posting this. Really appreciate it.
I read that Amnesty International require communications written in terms they can identify immediately with. I shall do some homework. Write a letter, and be sent the same reply.
Amnesty and others ought to be all over this now making a good reputation for themselves. Issues being solved now would be worth years of bland advertising campaigns.
So what have they identified as priorities?
It’s the same with the armies of human rights lawyers. Illegal immigrant stubs toe: howls of rage. Entire population deprived of all human rights: silence.
Right at the start of lockdown I checked what AI had to say about stripping humans of their rights. And do y’know what? They had nothing to say.
They will probably regard what we’re going through as not ‘political’ 😉
Another useless charity. What’s interesting about this current crisis is to show how spineless and useless a lot of our institutions are – nothing from them about how this lockdown and antisocial distancing is destroying the very fabric of our society and ironically their own existence.
If our human rights are not their priority then what is their point?
I would not shed any tears for them when they go bust.
Biker. I exactly know that same sickening you have about this. I see mandatory covers on buses are not working. Without being activists the general population knows when bullshit is bullshit and this is bullshit.
Have faith people will not abide. How can the police patrol 8-9 incidents a day, and crack on with doing nothing on buses. To say nothing of catching drug dealers, fighting, er, crime and also they have the excees and catehome deaths to be looking into.
18,000 police in Police Scotland.
The police will be busy looking for online hate crimes…isn’t that their main focus these days?
You are right. I’ll shut up shop immediately.
Yup, if everyone had decided at the start of lockdown to stay outside the police could have done nothing. The administration time for each arrest if people made it difficult, they couldn’t have gotten through it all!
See how it goes at work tomorrow, will report back. There didn’t seem to be an increase today after the masks in shops announcement, but I have noticed an increase in the last wee while. The increase isn’t just from more footfall, we have been RAMMED from the start. Want a bike? Want parts? Want a repair? That’ll be a month wait..
I travelled to Bath by GWR on Sunday. At Slough station nobody asked me to wear a mask and several other passangers were without masks. Changed at Reading. The only other passenger in the carriage, saw us get on and moved away as if we were going to kill him. Later a train steward walked through and said, “do you have a mask and you need to sit 2 seats apart”. We just ignored him. He then made an announcement about wearing masks.
Did you ignore that too? Hope so.
I’m genuinely disturbed by what’s happening in Scotland and how it’s being cheered on social media with cries of “about time too”. Well, if we’re talking about time, or indeed timing, then why now when there’s a 1 in 6000 chance of being in the presence of someone who has tested positive. And if the silent asymptomatic people are in the area, how, exactly, are they shedding the deadly virus if they aren’t coughing or sneezing? Does it leak like a poisonous oil from their pores?
And how, exactly, is it “mandatory”? Is the Scottish coronavirus act going to be updated with a new law to make face coverings legally enforceable? Are the police going to be strolling the aisles of Sainsburys, ready to “advise” or fine the mask-less?
So, at the time it starts, that wouldn’t be legally enforceable?
I doubt if the police will feel happy about policing what is essentially a political decision which is completely disproportionate to the level of risk; hopefully we will get a statement from them in the next few days.
Shops that have just been allowed to open this week must be in despair as this will clearly have a negative impact on their trade. As for Scotland’s once flourishing tourist trade Sturgeon is surely driving the final nails into its coffin.
I hope a policing body soon clarifies the intended policing of the measure. Calulations of harms against resource will be being made.
It appears to me there is a politically sympathetic element within the upper tiers of Police Scotland.
Equally, the rank and file still appear to generally hold the view of politically neutral policing by consent. To do otherwise is a slippery slope.
I fear the social media lockdown zealots will probably pressurise all the main shops and they will comply by not letting anyone in without one.
A definable legal reason I was told by another sceptic for not wearing a mask is the need to eat and drink. So all you need to do is walk around all scottish shops with a cup and drinking straw (containing iron bru) and a container of cheesy chips!
Come to think it, isn’t this what most snp supporting individuals do anyway? Hence most are short and fat with “cheesy chips” on their shoulders! Walk around places like wishaw and you will see what I mean. Boom boom…Remember scotland, in particular glasgow, is a world leader in public health! If your over 6 feet tall and slim your an outcast in many areas!
Can you eat a deep-fried Mars bar through a mask?
Once again, I am so glad I keep away from social media but I am only too aware of its effectiveness in keeping eveyone policing each other. In fact, who actually needs the police, really? The New Abnormal, which seems here to stay, has been so easy to impose – ‘they’ just press the button and we do it to ourselves!
Step on, please.
you can vote her out. or you can ask Westminster to scrap the devolution nightmare. We have worse people in Wales, e.g. Mr Drakeford.
Hardly any deaths in Scotland now, and some days none. Now she’s moved from preventing deaths to eliminating the virus. Well good luck with that.
I didn’t think you could get a bigger fuckwit than Boris but there she is.
Sturgeon knows its rubbish but is cannily exploiting any opportunity to posture differences with Westminster and is quite happy to harm the Scots in the process.
Scots need to say it. Many just ignore her silly rules like the 5 mile limit, which betrays her ignorance for rural Scotland and the people who live there and their needs.
She wants to play politics so ignore her. The Scots economy will suffer for it and that, Alex Slamonds revenge and the dire failure of SNP education policy could be enough to tear down the SNP administration at the next Holyrood election.
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-safety-of-outdoor-air-for.html
Cliff Mass Weather Blog: The Safety of Outdoor Air for Coronavirus Is Now Obvious
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/nationwide-protests-havent-caused-a-covid-19-spike-so-far-heres-what-we-can-learn-from-that/ar-BB16a3Vt
Nationwide Protests Haven’t Caused a COVID-19 Spike
This story never once mentions “deaths”. It just mentions “cases”. That’s the new normal for Covid propaganda reporting.
I am glad you spotted that .. ..
Today they changed cases to infections!
why don’t they include all flu cases as well?
Why stop at COVID?
Maybe recorded flu are cases are genuine infections.
The covid “cases” are merely positive test results and people were starting to point that out. Describing them as “infections” makes them sound serious and worthy of draconian counter-measures.
Nobody tests for ‘flu, because it would be an expensive overreaction
On top of all the covid-related expensive overreactions?
That was my snide little point.
Surprisingly, once you are admitted to hospital, you will be. but out in the community, not a chance. Flu deaths are recorded as such in official statistics in addtion to respiratory and now COVID deaths.
Interesting. I assumed they would rely on diagnosis before tests.
MD in Private Eye is a lockerdowner but does say “Surprisingly the mass UK gatherings outside -from VE day onwards-have yet to be followed by significant spikes in hospital admissions and deaths from Coivd. They could happen , but so far so lucky” Why “surprisingly”. I think we have all had enough of experts. Has anyone ever said that before?
“so far so lucky”
What has luck got to do with it? Seems like an utterly nonsensical remark.
posted that below but linked to this as
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-safety-of-outdoor-air-for.html
Cliff Mass Weather Blog: The Safety of Outdoor Air for Coronavirus Is Now Obvious
Is he stupid? How many demos with no subsequent outbreaks do there have to be before he gets it?
All the real world evidence is clear. From the Diamond Princess to Cheltenham to Anfield, BLM, VE Day, Bournemouth, Southend, illegal raves in Leeds and Manchester. Not a pip. Chuck a load of frail old people out of hospitals and into care homes and it runs riot. They are finding more ‘infections’ because they are looking for them. Thankfully even our deranged Governments won’t start deliberately killing people to cover up their lies further. Will they?
Wouldn’t be too sure. All zombie fanatics have spent weeks hoping for lots and lots of deaths in Sweden.
The new Swedish stats will be out tomorrow – we will see. It is a positive sign that we only get proper updates twice a week now! Interestingly the recent student graduations have produced a spike in cases but I suspect that is due to increased testing – certainly hospital admissions have not increased, so at worst these are mild cases..
I’ve been hugely disappointed in Private Eye’s lockdown reporting. It just toes the standard media line. For a publication devoted to investigative journalism, it’s acted pretty disgracefully.
May I be the 94th poster to point out that MD’s line has been thoroughly depressing throughout. The front page still continues to lift my spirits though.
Our view is that PE, for all its excellent investigative journalism in some areas (legacy of Paul Foot), is establishment through and through. This especially applies to foreign policy – we think they may have spook mates. After some years, we found reading it a bit like Groundhog Day so we took a break from it last Christmas.
MD (Phil Hammond) is in interesting one; he has been known to stick his neck out for whistleblowers and did well on the Bristol Heart scandal. His column can be brilliant and it was a must-read for us. But he is an ardent vaxxer and it’s a disappointment but no surprise that he (and PE) are ‘on message’ with CV19.
It seems our decision to stop taking it has been vindicated!
I find that in general, Private Eye is a mixed bag. Their longstanding work in trying to get justice for the subpostmasters (culminating in a special report a few months ago) has been superb – especially as this was a monstrous crime that the mainstream media pretty much ignored. (Shame that those who were responsible haven’t been clapped in jail, however.)
However, there is quite a bit of Phil Space barrel-scraping as well. For example, is it so scandalous if a newspaper promotes material produced by its parent publisher? The presence of trivialities and snide digs means that where there genuinely are robust reports of wrongdoing, these often get buried among the noise.
Yes, spot on but thanks for the reminder about PE’s championing of the subpostmasters over the Horizon scandal. Far from doing time, Paula Vennells even got a gong!
If she ever comes to Stoke, we’ll . . . . . . . 🙂
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/07/02/premier-leagues-naivety-black-lives-matter-has-left-good-intentions/
Premier League’s naivety about Black Lives Matter has left good intentions mired in politics
BBC and World at One must be absolutely apoplectic at this heresy!
I smell a producer gone rogue
But long may it last!
I smell a producer on the dole.
Heeh
If he ends up on the dole he could always switch to being a journalist and report the truth! Or start an online channel of sceptic videos..
Does anyone know who the producer is?
If someone can access it on ‘iplayer’ online they can scroll to the end credits..
It *might* be Julia Ross…a name I found via google..
Thanks, Carrie, I tried to find the info on the BBC but didn’t get anywhere.
From the Grad live news at 15.42. Here is a question from a reader in the comments. Andrew (or anyone else), when the Leicester local lockdown was announced on Monday govt said the legislation needed to enforce it would be enacted in “the next day or two”. It’s now Thursday and I haven’t seen anything, did I miss it? Or is the current local lockdown merely govt advice (and legally unenforceable)? Grad report: This came up at the No 10 lobby briefing. The prime minister’s spokesman said that, although the Leicester lockdown was announced on Monday night, effectively it was only advisory for the first day or so because the legislation did not get signed until Wednesday. He said: “Shops were closed initially on the very firm advice of the health secretary who obviously set out the health reasons for why we were asking non-essential retail to close. And then as soon as the regulations come into place they are prevented by law from opening. But I think businesses did the right thing and they followed the guidance and request of the health secretary to close straight away. Am I being pedantic, reading something into this? Did not get signed… Read more »
but what will it achieve?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/02/hard-see-benefit-local-lockdown-like-leicesters-will-actually/
It’s hard to see what benefit a local lockdown like Leicester’s will actually have
Are you asking me? It’s not my job to justify it!
The further curtailment of our liberty and destruction of our livelihoods and once prosperous country – exactly what is intended.
I’m not liking the way of doing things – announce a change, THEN make legislation to enforce it.. Hardly likely the legislation will not pass, once the plan has been announced…
But who passes the logislation, given our absentee Parliament?
The absentee Parliament, by remote vote..
When I have watched Parliament live recently, the chamber has been practically empty. Legislation is not getting any proper debate or scrutiny..
COVID Deaths in Canada: A Questionable Statistic – OffGuardian
https://off-guardian.org/2020/07/01/covid-deaths-in-canada-a-questionable-statistic/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/super-saturday-rules-explained-everything-can-cant-probably/
Super Saturday rules explained: what you can, can’t, and shouldn’t do from July 4
I’m going the pub on Sunday and if they start playing silly beggars, they are getting told to fucking ram it.
Hoorah!!
This Saturday is Independence day (in England at least), described by the Prime Minister as the end of our “long national hibernation”.
Are they being satirical?
Rules for dinner parties in your own home?
That’s truly taking the p*ss!
Remember the rules for barbecues? You couldn’t even take the piss!
That’s what flower beds are for.
I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this website over the weeks – sanity among madness. However, Sturgeon announcing mandatory face coverings in Scotland has filled me with utter despair.
Judging by the lack of people wearing face coverings in Inverness yesterday, I wonder how many more people feel like I do & will not wear one? I will either shop on-line, so depriving the ‘high street’ of much needed business through no fault of their own or I will practise civil disobedience.
It will be interesting to see what happens & I really hope that Scotland cocks a snook at face coverings.
In case you missed it at the end of yesterday’s comments, you might find this interesting.
From a “scary” article in the Grad:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/02/suspected-covid-19-outbreaks-in-english-workplaces-double-in-a-week
Those graphs are such a con trick!
An outbreak is determined by PHE when two or more lab-confirmed cases of Covid-19 have been linked to a particular setting.
Well that makes it conveniently easy to hyperbolise!
More outbreaks of the virus have been detected since pillar 2 testing became open to everyone during week 21 of the pandemic. This has lead to greater detection of the virus in “settings with healthy younger populations”, according to PHE.
What a surprise!
I’m never quite sure if the Guardian journalists are thick, manipulative, or aiming for satire.
I lean to the first generally.
They certainly lack discernment!
Are people seriously taking Hancock’s stupid “pillars” stuff like it means anything?
The people who can mandate lockdowns clearly do.
I understand that the Govt won’t release Pillar 2 figures because of ‘data protection’ so, just for a change, they can say what they like.
Toby
I listened to Manx Radio at 10PM on 1st July to hear Stu Peters return to air, well done to all at The Free Speech Union for getting the situation put right.
I dare say without The FSU Stu Peters would’ve been off air for good, his name dragged through the mud and no platform to put his side of the story.
Well done to all.
Just thought I would leave this here as I’m not sure it is anywhere else, apologies for it not being the hot topic of the day! Here is a link to a new site (with several articles very much worth the read, I might add) which has collated and indexed all SAGE meeting released so far into one small file, for you to browse and search for phrases or attendance of ministers/scientists. Especially enlightening the abrupt shift before and after Ferguson’s bogus calculations, and discussions on adherence to rules and how best to persuade the public…
http://www.laworfiction.com/2020/06/sage-minutes-all-in-one-document-searchable-and-indexed/
Thanks!
That us awesome thanks
My first search terms shall be ‘Hancock’ and ‘mark of the beast’
Or perhaps ‘Cummings’ for all those fantasising about him over a month on!
Cheers! That’s a great document!
I initially downloaded all the SAGE docs, turned them into text and tried to search for Lockdown but failed to find anything, turns out my rudimentary conversion wasn’t good enough as Lockdown is mentioned after all, but by SAGE meeting 27, 21st of April, after Lockdown had already began…
Really helpful, thanks, and a good site too.
Clearly, hair clippings are a serious biohazard!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/02/watch-will-hairdressers-look-like-july-4/
Cotton towels can be hot washed, no problem. I notice they’re washing the gowns!
Using disposable towels is ridiculous. The amount of waste these crazy “guidelines” will create is nothing short of criminal!
The concern for the enviroment has gone out of the window sadly.
Yes so true. It looks as if no one cares about the environment anymore. In fact, they seem to mess up the environment more than ever before. Go Boris and team!
Our council has been utterly useless at emptying the public litter bins, all of them overflowing with stinking festering rubbish for weeks on end.
Same for the dog plop bins.
One of our local green areas (it’s not strictly a park) is a large area with some open grassy bits and some woodland that’s been woodland since the ice age. Right at the beginning, the council put signs on all the bins that they couldn’t empty them “because of coronavirus” and everyone should take their rubbish (and dog poo bags) home with them.
Result – piles of rubbish abandoned everywhere and anything that was put in the bin and then left for weeks was pulled out and distributed by foxes. Genuine health hazard.
When I went litter picking its been appalling. Granted my local council has been quite good but I think even they struggle to keep up.
When people trumpet that nature is healing itself, I point out the amount of litter in our surroundings not to mention the resurgence of illegal poaching, malaria and locust problems among others in Africa.
Until recently, my son was an IT consultant, specialising in waste management. I’d been saying some very unflattering things about Michael Gove and he pointed out that actually, Gove had done some really good stuff about plastics.
Unfortunately, the Slimy Gove is currently too busy working out how to become the next PM to give a toss about important stuff like unecessary plastic waste.
I’ve heard that all the carefully separated “recycling” is now going straight to landfill. It’s been done before, don’t know how regional this is.
As always thank you Toby for your endless efforts to oppose lockdown lunacy, but a special thank you today for your piece on the price of BLM racism. I read a couple of pieces of news today, all of which goaded me, a lifelong libertarian, to become a racist for the first time in my life (surely this must be what they are aiming to do, if it is, it is working). First, I read that Microsoft, who have already banned the use of the words whitelist and blacklist when dealing with sites that you do or don’t want to read, have now outlawed the terms master and slave as related to computer hard drives, no, you couldn’t make it up and unless my calendar has stopped, it isn’t April 1st either. Then later I read that in the forthcoming Cricket Test series between West Indies and England, not one, but both sides will wear the offensive BLM logo on their match kit. And that over the weekend the England team will decide whether or not to ‘take the knee’ before the start of the match. This makes me sick to my stomach. How much further can these puerile, childish,… Read more »
i saw this on the BBC sports site
“CEO Tom Harrison said the England and Wales Cricket Board “fully support the message that Black Lives Matter” and “there can be no place for racism in society or our sport”.
He added: “Our support of that message is not an endorsement, tacit or otherwise, of any political organisation, nor the backing of any group that calls for violence or condones illegal activity.”
weasel words. how can anyone now disassociate Black lives matter as a concept from the organisation behind it.
Note also BBC finished this article with
“But while ‘Black Lives Matter’ has become the slogan behind the protests, Black Lives Matter also exists as a global organisation, founded in 2013, with several goals including to advocate against white supremacy and police violence towards black people.
A series of tweets from the Black Lives Matter UK account about
Palestine at the weekend prompted criticism”
BBC are being extremely selective with the “goals” that they highlighted and imply that all that is wrong is a dodgy tweet!! you cannot make it up…….. well actually you can if you are the BBC
I saw that, they left out the bit about destroying capitalism, strangely.
The Gov.uk Coronavirus stats are very late today. Nearly half past seven… usually out by 4 or 5. Are they having trouble cooking the books?
Haha, probably! Or they are recovering from watching Simon Dolan’s court case..
Someone let the registrar factory have one too many tea breaks yesterday.
Don’t worry tomorrow there’ll be whippings between signatures.
Encouragingly scathing article from the Torygraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/beauty/news/boris-made-mockery-entire-industry-one-minute-exchange-pmqs/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr
… at PMQs. What is really infuriating, and what has angered so many, is that the whole one minute exchange is uttered in that bloke-y, can’t-wipe-the-smirk-off-your-face way that comes with the territory of men who know absolutely nothing about the industry.
Do you think they know that the beauty sector is worth more than the car manufacturing industry? Or that 1 in 60 jobs in the UK are in beauty?
“I certainly share his sense of urgency,” jokes Boris sarcastically, and in a brilliant bit of editing by the BBC, the camera cuts straight to Wragg’s face, trying to suppress a burst of laughter. It tells us all we need to know about how dismissive they are of the once-booming industry, and the heartbeat of British high streets….
“Would you be mocking and smirking if the motor vehicle manufacturers were being forced to stay closed? Our industry contributes considerably more to Britain’s GDP than they do. Know your facts.”
But that’s just it, isn’t it – they don’t know their facts. …
Cheezy, they don’t give a shit about anyone.
What’s the problem when you can sponge £85 grand off the state?
£85000, I could literally live on that for 21 years and if I didn’t pay council tax 28 years.
That’s 10 times what I’m expected to live on for a year!
Sexist shite from The Telegraph again. Typical guff puked up by most of the women reporters on that rag. It’s getting almost as bad as The Guardian.
It was rightly criticising a disgraceful public exchange between Boris Johnson and another nasty little bescroted MP. You often come across as a bit of a scrote yourself.
Woukd you expect people who look like Boris and Hang-cock to take an interest in the beauty industry?
I think what we can see is: a) the utter ineffectiveness, risk averseness and financial incontinence of public administration b) broadcast media with an agenda to overthrow the government and c) as a result, a timid government that follows the advice of the administrators. Nowhere in that mix is the actual health or well-being of the population a priority.
While I don’t think the school guidelines are needed I don’t believe they will prove too difficult to implement. If school start times run from 8am to 11am and end times run from 2pm until 5pm lunchtimes can be staggered. All lunches should be pre-made packed lunches delivered to and eaten in the classroom. The government will need to hire busses to ferry kids back and forth virtually all day but, as virtually no one is using public transport these days, there should be plenty of excess busses. No way should the unions be allowed to get away with saying the rules are impossible to implement.
But will the police enforce it? We have always had the right to wear a mask in shops if we wished to; few people in Scotland have chosen to do so. Has she perhaps gone too far this time – apparently reaction on social media is not supportive of her?
Just to be clear, I am commenting on Sturgeon’s mask policy – I omitted to hit the reply button to an earliet post on this subject.
Probably not, but to be seen. Ready and willing to stand up to them while I work away in a bicycle shop though!
Does she think this is the way forward and will secure her position, the masks, or is she getting given bad advice so she will be removed? Had the thought while walking back from lunch..
I came home today to a furious wife. Fortunately, not me guv – she’d tuned into the Sturgeon Briefing Bollocks to see how much worse it could get – so there was the Mandatory Mask moment. Unfortunately Mrs Furious of Forres and I are in the minority A lot of people I speak to support Sturg-un’s ‘highly cautious’ approach, and this is all part of the separatist narrative and point-scoring against Westminster – see also the English visitor quarantine nonsense – and as far as corona-hysteria goes it remains broadly popular with Scots, as far as I can see. 7 recent cases in a local town have been ‘blamed’ on ‘English contractors’. It’s probably also relevant that Scotland is Public Sector dominated economy compared to England – there is a different perspective out there between the economically protected and the economically vulnerable. There will be no need to enforce masks by ScotPlod because most shops will just refuse to serve the non-masked when it is mandated, so we can refuse to conform but then there’s no point going in the shop in the first place… All that said, we should not really be surprised by any of this. Scotland has… Read more »
I’ve said this before, but it’s worth pointing out that Edinburgh isn’t responsible for the economy – Westminster is. A failed Scottish state actively benefits Sturgeon, because she can blame bad policy from Westminster and it strengthens the case for independence. I’m absolutely certain that this is at least a big part of the reason that she’s decided to go for an ‘eradicate the virus’ policy. Maximum exposure for the maximum length of time, maximum damage to the economy and maximum opportunity to point fingers at London, who didn’t save them from the virus _or_ save the Scottish economy.
7 recent cases in a local town have been ‘blamed’ on ‘English contractors’.
Racism thrives in Scotland!
Well, like, it kinda makes sense … contracting a virus from a contractor….
Contractee?
Whatever it is, it actually does!
I’m seeing signs of a gentle implosion within the National Socialists. The broader Yes movement has a vacuum at its head, and a blockage called boris at the other end. The volume of ‘incident’ surpression after 12 years is fairly weighty for such a small country. Education through to political inquiries. It’s only the huge and well placed disgust at Westminster that keeps them bouyed up at this point. Imo.
Progressive in the worst possible way. The Scottish Family Party do some good explanatory work of SNP progressive values.
Great quote from Richard Klein. This by ‘I’ works too. If only there were a bottle of ’53 Margaux handy to take the edge off.
‘We are indeed, drifting into the arena of the unwell, making an enemy of our future.
What we need is harmony, fresh air, stuff like that.’
‘If I was the Education Secretary I’d scrap all the guidance and replace it with four words: Use your common sense’.
The teaching unions might like to take a leaf out of the local authorities’ book. Dismayed at the ‘bonkers’ guidance on the gov.uk website for re-opening playgrounds and outdoor gyms, their National Association of Local Councils has recommended instead a document from The Association of Play Industries, which starts quite baldly by saying ‘We believe certain aspects of the guidance, specifically the potential to implement booking systems and the possibility of moving items of equipment, is largely unfeasible.’
It goes on to ‘identify practical solutions’ which starts by saying that ‘placing the entire burden of responsibility on the owner/ operators is unworkable and that in our opinion this should largely be a matter for personal/parental responsibility’.
https://www.api-play.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2020/07/APIStatementFinal.pdf
(However, there remains the stumbling block of each Council’s insurance company agreeing to this approach!).
Common sense in this cabinet? Mares’ nests and blue moons are more common.
Insurance against getting covid claims???? Really????? How on earth would ANYBODY be able to proove they got covids off a swing or in a specific pub, from a book in a shop, or a pair of trowsers in H&M or whatever? How could anybody even THINK this is a thing to even consider as a possibility. Totally mental.
Indeed.
No one in my area has taken heed of the playground rules or outdoor gyms. Council tapes them off and the kids rip it down. The parks were full of kids over bank Holidays. And guess what, no one caught covid.
The kiddies playground here is still taped off but the skate park and basketball courts are routinely untaped and used.
There have been a couple of sweet old ladies well over eighty who have been defiantly walking their dogs througout the lockdown. They’re still alive, but one of the dogs died. I think it was 16,so not covid.
Baroness something or other of Old Scone 2 July house of lords: There’s a more deadly killer on the block than covid19…ultra processed foods.
In a lords session ‘Government Questions’.
You’re sure she said foods, not fools?
Sharp as!
The stables where I keep my horse are about to re-start lessons. And I’m the first one, whoopee!
Official guidance, i.e. bullshit from the British Horse Society, says that ‘all equipment’ will be sanitised before and after each lesson. This means all the tack and the horse. (Needless to say, there’s a slew of other cretinous rules.)
Let me tell you. If anybody tries to sanitise my horse, I will sanitise them with a bloody howitzer.
Actually, the proprietor knows perfectly well that it’s all hogwash, not horse-wash.
Do you get horse sanitizer?
Some berk is doubtless producing it. My horse just gets down and has a good roll, preferably in the muddiest part of the field.
personally i dont use the alcohol based sanitizer.. i prefer to rub my hands on a horse… far less irritation.
anyway – isn’t being a little horse one of the many symptoms of Coronavirus (boom boom!!)
are you here next week?
all this week, next week, the week after etc etc etc 🙁
hummm yer….
How in blazes do you sanitise a horse?! I wouldn’t dream of pouring sanitizer all over my horses – horrid stuff. My horses live out as a herd and are always dirty, which is probably why I have the immune system of an elephant 😂
Actually I have tended to a fair few horses in my time, given em a good old wipe down and a brush, done their little horsey feet. I really do like horses. I obviously wouldn’t want to sanction like actually sanitizing them, well perhaps their butts now and again but that’s about all. I might advocate a clearly visible notice that says “DO NOT LICK THE HORSES BUTT” instead.
Actually I am just waiting to see signs being put up by our BID that say:
*********************************
COVID19 WARNING!
——
DO NOT LICK THE WINDOWS!
*********************************
“How in blazes do you sanitise a horse?!” – This comment literally just made me laugh out loud. It’s beyond bonkers. 😂😂
Clearly the people making these rules have no clue about horses!
Clearly the people making these rules have no clue ….. Full stop!
Horses?! They have no clue about humans!
Maybe you could put the horse in an autoclave for 20 minutes or so, just to be sure?
What the hell are these people even thinking?
not sure if if it would be done after 20 minutes .. might still be a little undercooked on the inside
You’re not paying attention, mjr – people only die from coronavirus nowadays. Undercooked horse meat isn’t a problem anymore.
Perhaps an automated car wash at the local petrol station may do the trick?
Ah ‘thinking’, now there’s an idea. Doesn’t seem popular at the present though.
was going to suggest that the the horse wears a nosebag in lieu of a mask.. but then sturgeon might adopt that as policy for people.
God almighty !,the lunacy never ends does it !.If these morons think horses should be sanitised they would probably pass out if they saw what ours has rolled in today !.
How long before we have crop-dusting aircraft crisscrossing the nation spraying everything with sanitiser ? !.
Probably next week, a new job for Richard Brandson
Where do they say that, Annie? site: http://www.bhs.org.uk sanitise in google doesn’t find it
It’s the printed instructions sent from our stables, addressed to those re-starting lessons. Along with gems like ‘wash all your clothes when you get home’ and ‘avoid the temptation to socialise while you are here’.
Oh dear god another bit of guidance written by some blithering idiot in Whitehall who has probably never been near a horse.
They haven’t a clue. The original guidelines at first lockdown said that horse owners should look after their horse as part of their daily one hour walk or exercise before returning home. It was still winter in the horse-caring world. Which means horses needed feeding and looking after at least twice a day, morning and evening. I gave up on the whole “advice”, stuck a notice in my car window saying that I was on an essential journey to care for my horses, and went to spend the day with them, look after their land on which they live, take care of it all. Hay deliveries, food deliveries, harrowing, rolling, fencing, mucking out. I am their sole carer, and they are far more important to me than any stupid rules issued by an idiot in Whitehall who has no idea how the countryside operates. Honestly, guidelines like that just need to be ripped up.
Totally agree. But our stables are a BHS approved centre, which is the gold standard for riding schools, so they have to at least pretend to go along with the bull – or rather horse – shit.
Luckily, my horse belongs to me, and I can take her elsewhere if they try to BS me or her, Actually I don’t think they will. Nor will the general bullshit go on for long. You don’t survive (this may mean literally) round horses unless you use common sense first, last and all the time.
“When the nations lose their war-sense, and the world gets back its horse-sense, what a day of celebration it will be.”
from the very appropriate
“I’m going to get Lit Up when the Lights go on in London.”
Isn’t that likely to cause dermatitis for the poor horse?!
Yes, They have sensitive skins.
Cannot imagine why the much-lauded British Horse Siciety should want to torture horses.
But then, organisations concerned with old people, children etc. are all queueing up to torture them, as well.
This Stateside Doc. is equally as sceptic as us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0iGbD23sZo
I have started to think that perhaps lock-down has yet another potentially negative impact.
I follow social distancing and work from home, resulting in none of the normal interactions with people. Does this process risk undermining the body’s immune system so that it it will be less able to combat attacks from other virus, either known or unknown, in the future?
Yes.
Toby: If I was the Education Secretary I’d scrap all the guidance and replace it with four words: Use your common sense.
If these are guidelines, is there any reason they can’t just use their common sense?
Insurance may well mean that they can’t. I keep meaning to ask my manager at work (I work in further education) if they’re following the guidance due to insurance reasons.
What’s to stop the people of Leicester doing a Cummings? Well, in the case of my family a border between the Solway Firth and Berwick upon Tweed. My (Scottish) mother – previously a Tory voter – has been practicing her language skills. Well, she kept saying “f*, excuse my French!”, when I visited her and my father this afternoon. She’s none too pleased with the regime, despite being a Tory voter for some time now. Her skepticism is growing and I sense a shift in attitudes – some parts of the city are boiling and that’s nothing to do with the weather. She says she’s quite keen to leave the East Midlands leper colony and head for home, but nasty Nicky won’t let her in. Not that you’d much want to get in these days … My cousin has recently been reunited with his Romanian wife. He lives in Romania, but went back to Scotland earlier this year for a knee operation. He was recuperating at his father’s house when the deadly divoc struck. He was separated from his wife for several weeks due to the lockdowns, but she eventually managed to break into fortress Scotland a few days ago.… Read more »
And yet at Simon Dolan’s case today, the government argued that their action was proportional and that the right to a family life had been maintained because of Skype, zoom etc – crazy!
crazy and evil
I suppose they could also argue that it was never denied as there were exemptions to the rules, the last one being the arguably the most important, yet least well known: “to avoid injury or illness or to escape a risk of harm”. However this would also expose the fact that they imposed mental harm on people which was wholly avoidable within the law. It is preposterous for the government to suggest that it was simply a change of circumstances and we should all get on with it happy as Larry for the supposed greater good.
http://www.laworfiction.com/2020/06/anxiety-is-a-reasonable-excuse-to-ignore-covid-restrictions-and-guidance-2/
That’s quite a devious get-out clause in the hands of an astute lawyer.
You say devious, many on the opposite side may see it as such and it could certainly be abused. That is only if we didn’t have the courts there to scrutinise medical evidence of cases and decide what level of proof they need to be fully exempt ie not just because you felt compelled to do something (although this is seemingly a valid reason to go and protest for BLM), but it was written in all the same, so was obviously deemed essential to have in writing.
Good old Guardian – not!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/02/the-guardian-view-on-protecting-the-public-cover-your-face
They seem to be suggesting that not only should muzzles be compulsory everywhere, but that they should become “normal” even when Wuhan flu has gone.
utter bastards
Ummm no thank you, if people choose to wear them that’s fine and their decision. Personally the mere thought of wearing one makes me feel anxious.
I suspect that, if forced to were one, I will suffer a lifetime of anxiety attacks, for which my no win no fee lawyer will get me shit loads of compo…
Ah yes, I will probably suffer from hypoxia too
Don’t forget Hypercapnia as well!
DavidC
Ooow yes, don’t know what it is but sounds like it’s worth mega bucks
Also don’t forget skin conditions like eczema too.
Me too. Pictures of noseless, mouthless maskwearers fill me with choking horror.
Am I not a member of the public? Do I not have the right to protect MYSELF from hypoxia?
Fortunately no one of any consequence takes notice of the Guardian.
Hardly is wearing them where I live already.
Just the odd old lady or daft young lad.
It was an editorial – does anyone actually read them?
Nein, nein and thrice nein!!!
Comparing them to seatbelts is a bit dramatically disengenuous!
people did come round to wearing seat belts after a well publicised campaign “clunk click every trip”-where’s Jimmy Savile when we need him?
That Clunk Click poster campaign really scared me, as an impressionable 8 year old – huge pictures of people with stitched and scarred faces from not wearing a seatbelt. Of course now, as an adult, I realise they were most likely faked photos, but as a child I believed they were real. The campaign had the desired effect though – I’ve made sure to wear a seatbelt ever since!
it was the same thing with most public information films of the time-especially the ones about staying away from railways
Tell you the one that really got me – remember the one with the kid who shoots forward and goes into the back of his mum’s seat, she shoots forward and smacks her nut out on the windscreen in front. Wear your seatbelt in the back seat or KILL YOUR MUM!!
Total traumatisation of the child audience. Intentionally. They wouldn’t get away with it nowadays.
Apart from with covid of course. “Sally put your mask on or you’ll KILL GRANDMA!!” At least the seatbeat thing was grounded in reality.
They need a snappy slogan: “Don’t ask – wear your mask!” or “Cover your face, to help us cover the truth.”
KNOW YOUR PLACE-COVER YOUR FACE
Like it!
“To reduce Covid losses, hide your proboscis.”
“Your smile will widen, when you’re masked like Biden.”
“Dress like a surgeon, to please Ma Sturgeon.”
“No more need to frown ‘cos your teeth are brown.”
Ah yes, that virtuous pillar of the BBC establishment…
They’ve become a political statement in the US. Wearing a mask identifies you as Democrat, one of the good guys, not one of these crazy hillbilly racists who support trump.
I was a bit surprised to see that Trump now seems to be pro-mask, but since I only saw that story on the BBC, I’ll disregard.
The troubling thing is that what’s true for US liberal identity politics today is true for the UK woke regressive left tomorrow. Expect a proliferation of masks among the under 30s and active shaming of non-mask wearers in the near future. In fact, if Naga bloody Munchetty is not wearing a mask while broadcasting on BBC breakfast within the next 6 weeks, I’ll be surprised.
Trump maybe wants mask wearers not just to be id’d as democrats
Apparently he thinks his makes him look like the Lone Ranger. We’ll ignore the fact that it must actually make him look more like he’s about to rob a bank and that the Lone Ranger war a mask over his eyes.
He’s priceless 😂😂😂
I saw Hannity come out for masks. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I genuinely believe they make people unwell and spread disease – and plenty of experts thought so as well a matter of weeks ago.
It’s not a health thing, it’s politics
And that’s why Jon Sopel changed his twitter profile to show himself in a mask, in solidarity with all the other Democrat “journatwists”.
Unlike a few on here, I imagine, I actually think the Guardian is one of the few newspapers who have done well over the last few years, doing real investigative journalism and giving time and space for people fromleft, right and centre on the political spectrum, even though their stance as a paper is very much centre (which does appeal to me)
This editorial though, and their coverage of covid throughout, has been absolutely disgraceful, and consequently I’ve cancelled my subscription to them. I’m beyond shocked that a supposedly Liberal paper would be advocating for the compulsory muzzling of an entire population based on no convincing evidence whatsoever, and to compare masks to seat belts and motorbike helmets is beyond disingenuous.
They still do *some decent investigative stuff but the golden years of Greenwald are long gone. In fact ALL of the mainstream newspapers except the tabloids do decent investigative stuff and all employ good journalists it’s just, as you say, the editorial has become more important than the actual stories nobody reads the stories! They just buy whichever paper will let them virtue signal hardest in the shop queue/on their sm feed. Consequently the investigative focus and budgets gets smaller and smaller and every paper gets filled with opinion rather than journalism.
The Guardian is the worst of them simply because it had further to fall and the transition has been the most blatant, and seems to have happened in the shortest time in the most extreme way.
One thing I’ve noticed, the replies in the Guardian are as clueless as the journalists. Vegan vitue signalling.
There is some equally cluesless journalism in the Mail but strangely more clue among the responses. But why do I want to know anything about those people on the right of the page?
Just listening to the World at One recording, quoted by Toby. The educationalists interviewed would have me seriously worried if I had a child of school age: The headmaster who says the guidelines are what they were expecting and they can deal with it no problem?! The idiot from the NEU who wants SAGE to do a model before they’ll accept it’s safe!!! We have no chance while these idiots are holding us back.
It would be hilarious if it wasn’t all creating a lot of potential hardship and misery.
The second half of the programme is more encouraging. Heneghan talks a lot of sense but Alison Pollock contradicts him by informing us that a third of people tested don’t give contact details and there’s no way to check if people go into isolation. She makes it quite clear that the government didn’t get the necessary info to Leicester.
Julian Le Grand makes some brilliant points too and the MSM needs to give people like him a platform now.
I have a question, during the podcast that Toby linked, yesterday or the day before on youtube, primarily FSU business but featured and “epic lockdown rant” (it did indeed!), Toby mentioned – that we get a lot of Gates’ vaccine conspiracy types here on lockdown sceptics and he tries to bat them away. Or words to that effect.
I’ve seen quite a number of scary postings around their foundation and them being kicked out of a country they went into to ‘help’, trialed drugs and caused untold harm, the big donations etc. Have I simply only been exposing myself to one side of the story?
Up until last year I was (and I guess am currently, pending trials and mandate) fully vaxed up and thought nothing of it, and I would likely do the usual round for a child, but I’m of a mind currently to run as far away from a rushed possibly nefarious, likely at least profit driven, Gates vaccine as fast as I possibly could.
Thoughts?
You only have to see an interview with BG to know he is not right in the head and is clearly enjoying this pandemic.. And he has insisted on indemnity from prosecution from any damage caused by a vaccine for cv19, whilst at the same time admitting that 700,000 people could die from the vaccine (!)
This video about the Gates agenda in Africa is good, as it is only 12 minutes long and is well-researched: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wQx-BjmfJk
Thanks everyone some interesting links there for sure! I do hope (I haven’t been back to watch the video) that I haven’t done Toby a disservice with a miss-quote here, I don’t believe so. The interview itself is good for rallying the sceptics and for that I thank him! Value the input everyone! I agree with the main points, no real danger to me from Covid, rushing it seems dangerous, mandating it would be horrendous (I’m sure it would only be a “guideline” weaselly Boris) and the money could and probably should be better spent on research for the family of infections and/or promoting and subsidizing better public health and diet. One of the reason I was freaking out with Covid at the very start was dealing with a breathing issue for the last year, apparently I now have asthma at 40 (if that’s true I’ve had the same chest pain for 10 years so good work there GPs). What I find staggering is that they immediately pushed drugs on me, told me how serious it is untreated (10 years!!) and wouldn’t entertain much else (all this was done over the phone in 5 mins obviously because they cannot see… Read more »
Food problem. Very common. Maybe start with oxalates. See Sally Norton and check out Georgia Ede.
Cut out grains asap.
Espedially wheat, and seed ois aren’t much help either.
It seems a lot of the alleged covid symptoms are similar to silent reflux which can be brought on by stress…self fulfilling prophecy”
We need reasoned debate on vaccines. Many scientists entertain the hypothesis that flu vaccines for elderly people facilitate the appearance of novel pathogens that target the lungs of those weakened by age and disease. It makes perfect sense if you think about it for a moment. Vaccines for children are quite different from vaccines for old people. However, in the USA there has been a recent reduction in infant mortality during the Covid crisis at the same time there has been a reduction in vaccine administration to children. Go figure as they say in the USA. The reduction is more or less confined to infants and doesn’t relate on the same scale to older children, so seems unlikely to be the result of isolation pure and simple.
Flu vaccines are useless for the over 60s and why would anyone younger need one anyway?
Well. If we listen to Mr Starmer of widely known public health renown the reason we all need to take a flu vaccine is to simply make it through the winter with an unclogged NHS.
SNH is becoming the new abnormal. What have you done in Service of National Health?
It’s a bit disingenuous for Toby to “bat away Conspiracy theorists” when he’s the Free Speech Union guy. I hope you’ve taken a lot of liberty with the suggestion. Anyway, stating what is publicly available knowledge for anyone who can be arsed to look and questioning the motives of DEEPLY illogical actions isn’t conspiracy.
I was a HUGE fan of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I thought it was possibly the best foundation that has ever been formed, and I admired them deeply for their turnaround from the days of being monopolistic assholes. I am also a total vaccine-lover…. I have been in arguments with doctors trying to get MORE vaccines than they said I needed. I think vaccines are amazing and the global effort to eradicate small pox in particular was awesome in the true sense of the word… but some rushed through vaccine that happens to be delivered on a pre-determined deadline of 18 months for a disease that isn’t especially deadly….. fuck right off with that shit.
Watch this:
https://off-guardian.org/2020/05/27/watch-meet-bill-gates/
One thing I do have in common with the tin foilers is I think Bill Gates is very bad news for global health. I don’t think he’s evil but I do think he could be a malignant narcissist with a god complex. Many a road to hell etc.
As I have posted before, it is the way he comes across in interviews recently that is disturbing, he is clearly enjoying the pandemic, and that is not normal behaviour.
In his 1998 interviews for the microsoft lawsuit they lost his behaviour is abnormal. 12 or so hours of the same behaviours as recently displayed.
My biggest worry is that they will make any CV19 vaccine mandatory, or only ‘voluntary’ if you are not expecting to be able to work or travel..
My biggest worry would be the vaccine is hugely successful. It wipes out Covid-19 (now according to some mutated to a milder form) and the field is left wide open to another novel pathogen to get a hold in the lungs of the aged (we know nature has these pathogens lined up and ready to jump the species barrier). In two years we could find ourselves facing a nightmare repeat of Covid 19. These novel pathogen pandemics are becoming increasingly common events.
We need to start a new mantra:
Very old people will die very soon. Don’t stand in nature’s way. Or nature will stand in your way.
Ah, nuts. We talk about the fact that Covid is only a little more deadly than ‘flu if you look at the IFR, but one of the reasons we’re comfortable to let seasonal ‘flu go through the population every year is that the elderly have a degree of protection through vaccination. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
Aged and diseased lungs are a tempting and – most importantly – easily accessible environmental niche for a whole range of pathogens. Are you seriously contending that administering a vaccine that eliminates one pathogen will not create opportunites for other pathogens?
I’m not. But I’m contending that limiting one particularly common pathogen is nonetheless a good idea.
Even if it creates an opportunity for other pathogens that our bodies are not well adapted to dealing with to get a hold and infect people in younger age groups as well. Sounds reckless to me.
I think that, when you’re talking about the elderly and vulnerable: assuming we believe that it is worth preserving their lives for as long as possible (and I do), then yes, it makes sense to vaccinate that limited proportion of the population against a virus that may kill them, balanced against the possibility it may leave them more open to other infections.
I do not believe this limited programme can reasonably have any effect on the vulnerability of the rest of the population.
You do know they are trying get all young children to have the flu vaccine as well? So it’s not a limited programme.
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/clinical/clinical-specialties/respiratory-/flu-vaccination-extended-to-all-primary-school-children-in-england/20039499.article
25 million people in the UK are eligible for the (free) vaccine.
Eligible for, yes.
Hope they don’t make it mandatory for children to have it in order to be allowed to attend school..
If you think it’s a good idea to preserve the life of someone with dementia or altzheimers for as long as possible then I’m extremely glad you won’t be making decisions for me.
Well, it’s a difficult call. I don’t see the value in prolonging a life of suffering, but nor would I want to be the person making the decision that this person’s life is too miserable for them to deserve medical treatment. Look at the outcry over DNR forms. DNR is actually perfectly valid, because the process of resuscitating someone is itself quite damaging and can leave the individual much less well than they used to be. But people don’t like the idea that we shouldn’t do everything we can to preserve every life.
But like I say, I don’t have to make those decisions and I’m glad I don’t.
The vaccine doesn’t work for the over 60s.
Rubbish.
It doesn’t work for a lot of people. Depending how good they are at predicting the strains to include it may be up to 60% effective but one year it was down to 17%.
Then there’s how it is imposed. Where we used to live they would call in all the old folks at once. If you survived all the reversing Nissan Micras in the car park you got to sit for an hour or more with a lot of other old folks exchanging diseases, so even if the vaccine worked you could catch something else
WTF??
Er, no.
I can foresee a time when work place insurance require employees to be vaccinated. The stopping of production in a factory because of public health instruction.
The policing of public health is being increased massively at the moment. Where does that development end?
You wonder if rebellious doctors will pretend to vaccinate people and issue certificates…for a hefty fee..
We wish!
Just to the original point about “batting it away” or not. You can dismiss a point of view while still defending someone’s right to express it. There’s no conflict there. Protecting free speech is not the same as being credulous.
True, and it seems dumb to be arguing on something I didn’t hear first hand and know nothing of the context. To read it as written above, it translates to me as, “we shut that down.” Obviously, that isn’t true. I see evidence of that. But one’s intention seems to matter significantly less than how the listener perceives…. especially these days. In my opinion… this is the whole problem with the internet/social media thing. Words striped of their intonation, body language, context…. it never goes well.
I’m with you. I’m a fully paid up member of the vaccine club myself – and have extra ‘cred’ because at various points in my life I have voluntarily requested unobligatory vaccines that I thought would benefit me (the HPV was the last one I had). So anyone who calls me an anti-vaxxer is met with short shrift. However, I am increasingly leary of annual ‘routine’ strain-based vaccinations. I’ve had three flu shots in my life – two of which were followed by severe bouts of…. flu. I question the efficacy (and usefulness even if effective – especially in young people) of such vaccines and have no shame in doing so. Any vaccine for a coronavirus – aside from being a unicorn – which goes from conception to manufacture in as short a span of time as this one would have to to be ready before the virus in its current form completely disappears, would be, to put it bluntly, extremely dangerous. If a normal vaccine takes 8-10 years to fully develop, test and licence, there is NO WAY any rush-job (Handjob) vaccine is going anywhere near my bloodstream. Aside from the dangers, it’s a pretty pointless exercise anyway given… Read more »
That’s exactly the the vaccine that I had, and my GP argued with me that it’s for teenage girls. I said, “I don’t give a shit, I want it.” That’s great I wasn’t the only one who did that…. reading that made my day!
Totally. It was a bit scandalous really – that vaccine potentially benefits everyone who takes it. I think they have since widened its uptake to boys as well as girls, when it was only initially girls — ridiculous, do boys not have sex with girls??
But anyway, yeah. I read somewhere (in the small print naturally) that anyone under 40 or something could request it for free at their GP. So I did.
This fact was of course not promoted to the general population. So lots of eligible people who were not kids missed out. Apparently sexually active adults aren’t worth saving lol.
Yup. My GP insisted, “if you have had sex, you already have it.” She was downright rude to me that I wanted it at 25 or whatever.
Do these people not think anyone follows the ‘protection, protection, protection!!’ mantra we get drilled into us at school??
The HPV vaccine which so far has been given to teenage girls, it to be given to teenage boys.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hpv-vaccine-to-be-given-to-boys-in-england
As regards the flu vaccine, there was a study done on US military who had had it, which found that the flu vaccine made them *more* susceptible to coronaviruses..and the military would be fit people and unlikely to have co-morbidities.
I agree with you about vaccines. Both my kids had them all, but none of us will have this one. However, what about the possibility (likelihood?) that those refusing the vaccine no longer get to participate in normal life? Education? Travel? I can see that happening, and I don’t think that’s tin foil hat stuff.
Yes, I just don’t believe it. In fact, that’s the point at which I will know the tanks are parked on my lawn. If (if) there’s a vaccine soon, I’m certain it will be voluntary and I’m also certain it will be targeted at the vulnerable
I hope you’re right. I believe it will be mandatory in some parts of the US.
Again, don’t believe it. _Nothing’s_ compulsory in the US, much less anything to do with healthcare that can’t be funded.
Colorado are certainly pushing for it as are other states I believe:
https://www.denverpost.com/2020/06/09/colorado-vaccine-bill-repeal-amendment/
Won’t happen. Unconstitutional. Even if an activist state legislature passes that kind of bill, the first person to challenge it will get it struck out at Supreme Court level. There is no way that it could stand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobson_v._Massachusetts
I’d recommend you look at Dr David Martin Butterfly of the Week videos. They are very informative, particularly if you are American as he advises about constitutional rights and shows you what you can do if they have been breached. He disputes that Jacobsen lost the case for mandatory vaccine (although not sure he says that in video link below). He said the case was actually about Jacobsen being taken to court because he refused to pay the fine for not having the vaccine. He went apparently went back to source documentation. Here are some of the comments from the video and a link to this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0JOniVToQo “At the turn of the last century during outbreaks of smallpox and other diseases, public health law allowed the police authority of a state or a region within a state to mandate therapeutic interventions back then in the form of vaccines. Now, I want to be so clear on this, I am NOT stating in anything that I’m recording right now that vaccines do or do not have a role to play in certain situations. I’m not even weighing in on that. But I’m going to say something really clear the Supreme… Read more »
Also…. the small pox vaccine. There is actually an excellent TED Talk of this I highly recommend you can find if you google TED Small Pox Vaccine.
https://www.npr.org/2011/04/05/135121451/how-the-pox-epidemic-changed-vaccination-rules?t=1593731506424
They won’t have to make it mandatory.if you refuse the vaccine then you will find your freedom to fly,work etc severely curtailed.Im sure locking down states are unconstitutional but they seem to have got away with that.
I had to repeat all of my childhood vaccines in order to study at a state university in Pennsylvania, because no one had records of my childhood vaccines. (And knowing my mother, who knows if I ever had them?) I was never under any impression that this was optional, but as I’m pro-vaccine, I was more appalled at my lack of vaccine record than questioning if I really needed them to attend.
I hope you’re right. I wouldn’t have believed such a possibility (emphasis on possibility as opposed to probability) either….. the same as I never would have believed that earth would be closed for a statistically irrelevant cough by the same people who brought you “austerity kills” type ideology. But here we are. The best I can say at this juncture…. I don’t know.
We’re in the middle of a completely unjustified but temporary panic. The TB vaccine was never compulsory, for crying out loud and nor was polio.
This will pass. The degree of recriminations once it has is up for debate, but nobody is going to force you to have a vaccine for a virus that most of the population is probably immune to anyway.
It is interesting that Bill Gates has not had his own children vaccinated, but is firmly pro-vaccine for everyone else!
Quite! Just like these guys don’t let their kids have iPads and send them to Steiner schools 🙂
Yep, and they have the central heating full on throughout winter, are frequent flyers on jets and have their kitchens lit up like an airport – all the while bemoaning carbon emissions.
Is that verified? I would like to understand.
Me too.
I have zero evidence for this… but I hear the same was true of Tony Blair’s kids from a source that *seemed* reputable. I have no memory where it came from, but the factoid stuck.
Tony Blair would never confirm whether his children had the Mmr vaccine.
I didn’t know that but I’d certainly suspected it!
https://youtu.be/eLou2BS7gyY
A brief discussion about the ideas surrounding non vaccine choice limiting life options.
It is a discussion that is happening, it is a real possibility.
Yes. When I listen to James Corbett I feel profoundly depressed, but it’s always well argued.
I react differently. I don’t find depression. His voice and his guests add colour and light to a world that would otherwise be monotone and monoculture. There’s something rich about Corbetts diversity. Plus he’s bloody good.
That’s the sort of stuff that breaks my heart if I think about it too much – not what it means for me personally but what it means for the world we’re leaving to the children. Handing their freedoms away. But ultimately, I am 1 person on a planet of 7.8 billion. I have very little influence on anything except my own life and the futures I’m trying to secure for my children.
My husband and I have been building a completely isolated, self-sufficient, off-grid life for the last two years. We didn’t start this journey (which is a hard graft… we lived without running water or electricity or heat in north Scotland for months) because of any doomsday scenario. We’re just misanthropes and – quite frankly – had enough of humans long before this shit kicked off. People said we were batshit, but we now have an enviable existence that – if the switch was flipped tomorrow and we were completely cut off from the world – we would carry on pretty much as usual with the annoyance (relief?) of not having internet. We have a sense of freedom few will ever experience.
I don’t think it’s batshit crazy to consider the possibility of an *attempt* at this sort of scheme – however, I do think TPTB want to retain their power…. and their heads. So, it would be way easier for them to just buy up huge quantities of the vaccine and offer it to anyone who requested for free, whilst rolling out a vaccination programme for the vulnerable demographics. They would still get quite a large proportion of the population this way – probably trillions of dollars in the pockets of big pharma. Everyone is by and large happy (apart from future generations who have to pay for this garbage). The reality being, of course, most people who aren’t total bedwetters (which is honestly, I think, still most people) will after a few of months of living relatively normally, slide off the side of the giant nothingburger, and forget all about the vaccine. They won’t go out of their way to get it, even if it’s free. This means governments would have to literally enforce uptake, either by bringing the vaccine to you (workplaces, town halls etc.) and mandating that everyone attends to get it, or by introducing some of the… Read more »
Yes. Once the covid vaccine is made mandatory the camel has his nose in the tent. Expect further compulsory vaccines, then compulsory statins, compulsory veganism . . .
I was about to write something, and then realised I meant “what she said”.
I’d have a ‘flu vaccine if I was in a vulnerable group and I’d have a Covid vaccine under the same circumstances. My kids are vaccinated against the childhood stuff.
If I do t need to worry about catching something, why would I be vaccinated against it?
By and large, yes. Although for me I’m now edging towards, “it would depend what that vulnerable group was”. I suppose I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it, hopefully in many years.
Interestingly, my parents, being old bastards, dutifully have their flu vaccines every year and are never ill. So maybe it does work – for them. Maybe my bad reactions have come about because I actually have an immune system that over-reacts to the vaccines, or because of the coronovirus cross-reactivitiy thing, or something. But for two years I definitely felt like I was always ill (and I am never ill) and they were perfectly healthy heh
Warp speed RNA vaccine mark you.
There are basically four hardened facts that the conspiracy theory rests on:
These things are absolutely, 100%, verifiable and true. Quite frankly…. whether they are connected or not is a moot point. Whether it’s ole fashioned greed combined with ineptitude or something more nefarious, the end result (with regard to a Covid vaccine) is the same…. it’s an unnecessary, rushed thing being pushed on us for all the wrong reasons.
And Bill Gates’ father was on the board of Planned Parenthood..
A number of people have drawn spider-web-like diagrams showing just how many organisations the Bill and Melinda Gates foundations have ‘bought’, and we know Bill has met Boris at least once recently. He has also been photographed with Matt Hancock and the foundation has paid into places where Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance have worked.
and Sainsburys
Sainsbury controls the much loved (by the BBC) “Institute for Government” which poses as an independent think tank while being a full on anti-Brexit pro-Globalist outfit totally funded by one of Sainsbury’s “charities”.
CF Bill Gates’ retirement hobbies, more or less listed by TyLean above. I query eugenics, but fine.
As I’ve said before, bill Gates is richer than God. He has all the money he could ever want to spend on his hobbies. If you _could_ find me a relevant institution outside China that was doing any kind of quality work in the field of vaccines and infectious diseases that Gates wasn’t funding in some way, I would first be concerned that said institution was hopelessly bad at its work.
He also has access – of course he does – to virtually anybody in the western world he wants to access. Because, again, he’s richer than God and he has a name that opens doors.
None of this means anything beyond what I’ve just stated.
Just to clarify, I didn’t say that eugenics was something attributable to Gates. But people are genuinely ignorant to the fact that eugenics was a thing… we have some delusion that WWII was fought to save Jews from Germans, but no one knew what was going on then with concentration camps until their liberation, and – in truth – many would not have cared. America was locking up Japanese people, most people were anti-Semitic… It was a different time, and I think for some now grappling with the conspiracy theory that is an aspect that is blowing them away. (Admittedly, it is mind-blowing from the current, modern perspective). And on the other side of that coin, it is easy for people to dismiss the history of eugenic influence on our culture AS conspiracy theory. That part is not conspiracy theory, its attribution to Gates is.
I’m not trying to convince you – or anyone – of anything btw. I’m jut defending my own position, thought process and reasoning for why I – personally – am dubious, cautious and extremely skeptical of the vaccine that is supposed to save everyone from lockdowns.
Well, more to the point, the nazis went for the gay, the disabled and the Gypsies first, before they put the Jews into the concentration camps. Yes, eugenics was a thing – a very popular thing. I’m just not sure how it bears on this situation.
I think I might re-read Foucault’s pendulum for the first time in about 10 years.
I think I’ve already answered why it bears on the situation – because it is an integral part of the “conspiracy theory.” To expand, the idea is that the Eugenics movement never died out. It morphed and re-branded into population control through contraceptives and organisations like Planned Parenthood.
(This is evidenced within the conspiracy, but I have yet to investigate the evidence, because I have my own opinions about contraception and birth control from my own experiences, which – quite frankly – involves way too much gore for most men to handle, so I won’t recount it here. Suffice to say, the browbeating going on in the NHS defies belief until you experience it first hand).
Marie Stopes being a dodgy eugenicist hack was definitely a thing.
Again there’s truth in all this stuff – the conspiracy theories just seek to wrap all these different elements into one, very neat and convenient, overarching ‘master plan’. It’s all just…. *too*neat.
They would say, ‘if it looks like a fish and smells like a fish’ etc. or ‘it’s neat because it’s the truth’ or ‘there are no coincidences’ but…. nah. The truth is usually a lot messier than these grand theories would have it.
The amount of planning and coordination required is the main ‘neatness’ I have issue with. Sure Matt has said that before.
Actually no my main issue is the coordination of aims and objectives. Even a cabal of thoroughly despotic, evil psychopaths would be way too self-interested as individuals to act in consort for this long, this closely, without turning on another. Psychos don’t generally like competition especially when the reward is world domination.
For anyone interested, this is what Toby Young actually said on the Steven Knght show last Monday, in illustration of a valid (to me) point of view that if conspiracy theories are suppressed, it makes people start to think they may be true [my emphasis]: ‘As soon as you start burying stuff, silencing people who try and articulate these theories, that persuades the people that tend to believe them that they must be true and that there is this kind-of, you know, this sinister network who have a vested interest….it’s, it’s all the crap about, you know, Bill Gates having a sort-of vested interest of some kind in vaccinating everybody. You know, I mean, lots of conspiracy theorists have kind-of gravitated towards Lockdown Sceptics and you have to sort-of bat them away. [both laugh]’ How Toby ‘bats away’ the many comments on here about Bill Gates’ vested interests is an interesting question. Maybe it was just an off-the-cuff comment to distance himself from what he himself regards as conspiracy theories. What I find more worrying is that Toby seems to be happy to state on a public platform that it is ‘crap’ that Bill Gates has a vested interest in a world-wide vaccination… Read more »