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Some people had fun in Soho last night. But crowded streets inevitably led to a lot of alarmist nonesense. The story in the Mail about last night’s revels is headlined: “‘A second wave won’t be long in the making!’ Exhausted police officer predicts fresh Covid spike after ‘long late shift peppered with pub fights, drunken violence and drunken, drugged-up fools’.“
A senior police officer has predicted a fresh coronavirus onslaught after confronted with “pub fights, drunken violence and drunken, drugged-up fools” last night.
Social distancing was declared to be in tatters today after jubilant drinkers called time on lockdown and descended on the nation’s pubs.
Cities across Britain were heaving last night on a scale not seen since Boris Johnson ordered bars to shutter over a hundred days ago.
Yeah, that won’t happen. Everything will be completely fine.
They Seek It Here, They Seek It There
Good piece by Professor David Spiegelhalter in the Observer about how misleading some of the headline figures are. This bit in particular Jumped out:
The Office for National Statistics has just reported that the number of people in England testing positive was previously decreasing but has now levelled off. There was some additional modelling, but the raw data comprised “swab tests collected from 23,203 participants, of which 12 individuals tested positive for COVID-19”. This small number of positive tests means there is great uncertainty as to current infection levels.
In other words, the virus has nigh on disappeared – that’s what “levelled off” means – particularly when you factor in the high number of false positives.
Is Merthyr Tydfil the Next Leicester?
My heart goes out to the residents of Merthyr Tydfil. According to the Telegraph, Covid cases have increased from 10 to 179 per 100,000, overtaking Leicester. Does this mean a local lockdown is imminent?
Probably not.
Health chiefs in Wales have said there is no evidence that the infections – linked to an outbreak at a meat plant – have spread to the community.
As a result, there are currently no plans to extend lockdown measures in the Merthyr Tydfil.
Public Health Wales has said the surge in cases stems from increased testing, after a cluster of 130 cases at the Kepak meat plant. Most of the positive cases were uncovered on the same day, leaving health chiefs hopeful that the outbreak can be stamped out.
Pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants are due to re-open in Wales on July 13th. Let’s hope this doesn’t cause any delays.
Up the Junction
A reader tells me about the miserable experience of using Clapham Junction mainline station:
I just wanted to drop you a line to ask if you were aware of the passenger “new normal” experience that is now Clapham Junction railway station? Notwithstanding the face masks mandatory rule, which makes no scientific sense especially as the general masks act as an aerosol, when we alighted at Clapham Junction yesterday afternoon the scene was Dystopian with circa one hundred members of staff, all wearing masks and looking agitated herding passengers through the station. My partner and I are in our 40s and felt stressed and alarmed. For a child, the experience would have been frightening. I feel it’s got nothing to do with safety but Orwellian control – there’s an illogical one way system which means there’s only one exit which is the Grant Road end (if you know the area) which in the winter months is not well lit and funnels people under bridges to get round to St John’s Road.
The inconvenience of a detour I can live with but it was the experience of so many “officials” wearing masks and herding passengers through narrow underground walkways that was disturbing. And for who’s benefit? I wonder how the decision to enforce wearing of facemasks came about. If it was to encourage the use of public transport it will do the opposite. As with much of the last four months debacle the decisions are laced with political games, as we’ve seen with Sturgeon ordering masks to be worn in shops. The rate she’s going Scotland will be a third world country when this is over if making transport and the retail sector so unpleasant people keep their wallets firmly shut.
Once we finally got round to the station exit (as it was in saner times) we were faced with the view in the attached photo. Although Debs were in trouble Before Coronavirus, it just about summed up the calamity of this Government’s creation.
Double-Counting
A reader in Toronto has been in touch to flag up a possible explanation for the rising case numbers in southern and southwestern US states.
Your recent post about double counting of Pillar 2 tests in Leicestershire got me thinking whether that could be a factor in the recent spike in cases in the U.S.
So here’s a link to, for example, Johns Hopkins data for Arizona.
Among other things, the percentage of positive tests has been growing steadily and now stands at 25%. On the face of it, this is very alarming. It also doesn’t seem to pass the sniff test, as hospitals should theoretically be overwhelmed.
So here’s an interesting disclaimer on the same page: “When states report the number of COVID-19 tests performed, this should include the number of viral tests performed and the number of patients for which these tests were performed. Currently, states may not be distinguishing overall tests administered from the number of individuals who have been tested. This is an important limitation to the data that is available to track testing in the U.S., and states should work to address it.”
So they’re as much as saying there’s double counting going on. And if people who test positive get retested until they’re negative, that would have the effect of artificially increasing both the number of “cases” and the “percent positive”.
The same page also has an admonition for states not to include antibody tests in their reporting. So if some states are doing that, that could also help to explain the rise in “cases” and “positive tests”.
Arizona is a more extreme example, but Texas and Florida are also showing strong increases in “percent positive” to 14% and 18% respectively.
Another problem with the data, in addition to double counting, is that not all of it is up-to-date. This story in azcentral has a rather bed-wetting headline, but contains this gem towards the end:
Arizonans have reported delays in getting tested and waits of as long as three weeks to get results. The daily cases reported are not all from the previous day’s results — they could have been tests conducted weeks ago
A Publican Speaks
There was a great interview with Hugh Osmond, founder of Punch Taverns, one of the UK’s largest pub chains, on Radio 4’s Broadcasting House this morning. Hugh is an arch-sceptic who regularly passes on his latest findings to me and which I reproduce in the daily updates.
I was alerted to this by a reader:
It was a breath of fresh air to hear the views of an intelligent Lockdown Sceptic being broadcast on the BBC – he says some pretty powerful stuff and is direct, well-informed and authoritative.
Somewhat amusingly, the host Paddy O’Connell starts to sound rather concerned, maybe even mildly flustered, that the clear and direct messages being transmitted by Osmond are flying in the face of the Received Wisdom of the bed-wetters at the BBC and so he tries to interrupt Osmond on a number of occasions to stop the flow of pointed remarks! But Osmond definitely succeeds in getting his message across.
If you haven’t heard it, then I am sure you will enjoy it and I am also sure your Lock-Down Sceptics audience will love listening to it.
You can listen to Hugh on Broadcasting House by clicking here and going to the 17 minute 54 second mark. The interview lasts about nine minutes.
Venetian Advice
After my request for travel advice yesterday – the Young family is heading to Venice in a couple of weeks – I’ve had a lot of emails like this one:
The thought of going on a flight dressed for a Russian chemical attack fills me with horror, I’m due to go to Venice in September and am thinking of driving, it’s a couple of days, but that can be part of the holiday, You can park in/near Venice, carry all the junk you want. And no masks! And all those French and Italian wine regions to stop in.
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:
- ‘New Paper Demonstrates Strong Efficacy of Hydroxychloroquine. Mortality rate cut in half!‘ – A new study in the Journal of Infectious Diseases appears to show that Hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment
- ‘Elderly man faces arrest after a shove in an elevator‘ – Some poor oldster in Florida is facing charges for being a bit jumpy
- ‘A Virus Walks Into a Bar…‘ – Alarmist piece in the New York Times about how bars are infection hot spots
- ‘Tribute to driving instructor Adrian Care‘ – Sad story about a driving instructor in Worcester who’s committed suicide. Another collateral death
- ‘Distorting science in the Covid pandemic‘ – Latest blog post from arch-sceptic Dr Malcolm Kendrick
- ‘WHO Quietly Admits Chinese Communist Party Never Reported Coronavirus Outbreak‘ – Shocking report in Brietbart. Turns out, China never told the WHO about the Covid outbreak. The WHO found out from other sources
- ‘We’ve all turned from normal humans into muzzled masochists!‘ – Peter Hitchens’s column in today’s Mail on Sunday is, as always, worth a read. He points out that Leicester’s rise in cases coincided with a rise in testing in the city
- ‘Haggard, hunched and morbidly obese: Horrifying model reveals what you could look like if you worked from home for the next 25 years‘ – Amusing story in the Mail. The “model” is indeed horrifying and looks unannily like me after 100 days of Lockdown Sceptics
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. As of July 4th, many of them have re-opened too, but not all. 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 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. It usually takes me several hours to do these updates, 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 Tuesday.
And Finally…
Good satirical piece in the always amusing Babylon Bee. The headline reads: “State Governor Mandates Everyone Wear Snorkels In Case They Fall In A Pool.”
U.S.—As governors clamor to follow the ways of SCIENCE and save lives in their state, one state Governor has read some very scary statistics from SCIENCE and decided to go the extra mile to protect the safety of his citizens. “Starting today,” he said, “All citizens of my state will be required to wear a snorkel at all times, both indoors and out. This will prevent thousands of tragic deaths resulting from people falling in their backyard pools. SCIENCE says we must do this.”
Every person in the state will be required to wear a snorkel, preferably paired with goggles, 24 hours a day. When pressed as to why they were necessary indoors, the Governor replied, “Hello! Sinks? Bathtubs? Showers? There are water hazards everywhere inside the house! We can’t be too careful! SCIENCE!”
According to the order, anyone caught without a snorkel will be required to pay a $15,000 fine or face eight years of jail time. Second offenders will be shot on sight. “We must do this to save lives and obey SCIENCE!! We are in this together,” the state Governor exclaimed before tripping on a microphone chord and falling headfirst into the press pool.
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This is what you call sceptiscm……………..
https://off-guardian.org/2020/07/02/no-one-has-died-from-the-coronavirus-president-of-the-bulgarian-pathology-association/
HCQ in the headlines again. Positive news. Could this be a back door way of heralding a suitable treatment in lieu of a vaccine?
Do you have a link?
Will they be able to make gobs of money from it?
That’s a no then.
As already mentioned, Big Pharma can’t make any money from HCQ. Hence, the dodgy “trials” to attempt to discredit it. In fact, the original study that the WHO relied on when they originally recommended not to use it was based on completely fraudulent data. You would think that the fact that a potentially life-saving treatment was discredited due to fake data would be a huge scandal but it seems it barely merits a mention in the msm. Who is investigating this? Is anyone? I think we know the answer. I’ve believed for a while that HCQ, used correctly, is effective. Otherwise, why all the dishonest attempts to stop it’s use? I think HCQ tablets cost about 10c each. By contrast, a 5-day treatment with Remdesivir costs $2300. Remdesivir offers the miraculous ability to reduce recovery time by 4 days. It’s not even known whether it actually makes people recover who wouldn’t have otherwise. WTF?
No prizes for guessing which drug the American insurers want doctors to prescribe…..
Trump Derangement Syndrome is similar to rabies in the passage of the disease. It affects the operation of the normal rational faculties so that the patient believes anything Trump says or does is by definition wrong, dangerous and might start a third world war. In its tertiary stage sufferers exhibit frothing at the mouth and an inability to control their urinary function. We can see these effects in reporters like Robert More, Jon Sopel, Katty Kay, Anthony Kurcher and – well – just about everyone at the BBC, Sky and ITV.
Check out Dr Zalenko on HCQ – he was on the HIGHWIRE with Del Bigtree.
The usual must watch from Ivor….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSKjcltDkng
What is it with all the talk radio presenters who question (well… accuse their guest of something) and then end with an insulting, inciting ‘is it?’ at the end of every soapbox statement they make. So snarky and argumentative. Paddy and Mike and the rest of them, hard to listen to.
In fairness to Hugh he gave better than he got, hence the sudden rude cut off of the interview.
The presenter was no match for Osmond, like the one who interviewed Sumption. Put them up against someone intelligent, with balls, who is not intimidated, and they fall apart. I doubt they are used to being questioned or confronted with people who don’t agree with them and are not afraid to say it. Most mainstream politicians in the UK are too simpering to cause interviewers a problem.
The mainstream politicians don’t actually answer the questions and nowadays, the presenters let them get away with it.
Osmond certainly did answer the questions and it must have thrown the presenter for 6, especially after Prof Susan Takingthemickey had been churning out the usual propaganda seconds earlier.
Couldn’t agree more. You could feel the worry fizzling through Paddy and the use of the words ‘explosive criticism’ on several occasions in an attempt to paint Hugh as some kind of outlier to the norm
Thanks for the update on testing. I too have noticed the mess in terms of public health data the states are releasing in the US. Texas for example, seems to lump antibody and pcr testing together and makes no attempt to show positive tests by date sample was taken, as opposed to when it was reported to the state. So, the “wave” in Texas reflects the increase in reports of testing to the state, not incidence of people presenting with illness. The number of deaths reported remain low, and again, these are deaths that may have occurred at any time in the past. Another interesting empirical trend can be observed at the national level. While “cases” leaped up in mid-June, covid associated deaths reported continues to slowly decline, now three weeks later. Deaths should be increasing rapidly by now, but they are not.
Take a look at this analysis, Ivor talks about US States from about 16 minutes in..see what happens when he alters the red graph in line with population size! Then watch the ‘evidence for’ and ‘evidence against’ lockdowns
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSKjcltDkng
I mentioned this in a reply to a reply to a reply a few hours ago on yesterday’s page. Suspect it got lost in the noise, and I hadn’t yet found the link anyway, but either way I’m surprised not to have seen it more heavily posted before here, or indeed by Toby
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/02/specialists-warn-huge-rise-child-abuse-coronavirus-lockdown/
Key quote:
“ In just one month, the number of new cases at the head trauma unit of Great Ormond Street Hospital rose by 1,493 per cent compared with the same period in the previous three years, which consultants said pointed to a “silent pandemic”
This is the largest children’s hospital in the country, but it is only one children’s hospital.
If you can seriously look me in the eye and tell me that lockdown was worthwhile, when the casualties of the disease have a median age of over 80 and the victims of the the policy include a nearly 15 fold increase in serious physical child abuse, you are despicable.
Wow Matt. The media certainly didn’t make much of that story. Shame on them!
That is truly shocking. Add to that partners, the majority of whom are women, and the suicides that are directly attributable to the lockdown. As I said yesterday, Boris, Hancock et al must know this, but seemingly don’t care. It is beyond shameful.
It was widely predicted as soon as the prison doors were slammed.
Pity old Pantsdown wasn’t asked to model it. A prediction that every child in Britain would be abused might have attracted just a little attention.
Not that every child in Britain isn’t being abused, in another way, of course. Robbed of every childhood joy by Covid-hysterical muggers.
Agree Annie, all of this was easy enough to predict, without recourse to complicated modelling. Shame on the whole lot of them for their arrogance, ignorance and down-right criminality.
Horrifying. And they still think we should stay at home to protect the NHS?
Slightly related, I saw a poster on a bus stop during my walk which had the shocking statistic that domestic violence has gone up to nearly 50% which is truly shocking.
The costs of lockdown and antisocial distancing is getting bigger and bigger and yet many are still in denial.
I think ‘lockdown damage denier’ would be a useful meme for us to begin using.
I think that’s a good way to describe those who still support lockdown and antisocial dsitancing.
In the meantime I’ll just use ‘stupid idiots’ or ‘masked morons’
Yeah, yeah, I use those too sometimes. And worse. 🙂
Context, audience, etc. etc. 🙂
Ordinarily, the media would be falling over themselves to cover a rise in child abuse (unless of course it involves one of their own ;p). They bloody love child abuse, it sells so many papers.
But when it doesn’t fit their wider agenda? -Nope.
Does anybody have a twitter account and Naga bloody Munchetty’s twitter address? Send her this article and a summary and dare her – dare her – to respond by saying lockdown was important because it saved lives.
This has made me so angry I can barely think straight. And this is only the ones we know about – god knows what more has been hidden because the poor little mites aren’t having social worker visits “because of Covid” and aren’t going to school because they’re closed.
It’s true some people, like social workers, GPs, charity workers, police and teachers, have not been caring for these families during the lockdown – but there is one band of dedicated workers who have been there every day of the crisis ensuring these families’ needs are met. I speak of course of the doughty drug dealers up and down the land who have made sure the parents of these poor children get their passports to oblivion, come what may. They need their own clap.
Feeling for you matt, understanding your anger. I have acted an written to like papers asking for coverage. Will update. I wouldn’t usually have written now -just give news of any real development- but at least there’s a tiny bit of something. I don’t/won’t twitter.
If they mention it may take attention away from BLM, and they wouldn’t want that after investing so much in it.
Er yes…we’ve seen that pattern somewhere else before haven’t we? Hear no evil,see no Savile, speak no Sharia.
Ah yes, the Beebs resident pervert
I liked someone’s description that he was hiding in plain sight as a pedophille.
This is horrifyimg, especially the media blackout.
Where are the charities who tell us they look out for children?
Staying safe…in the leafy suburbs.
Thanks for the link. This is truly shocking and shameful.
Head trauma will include long terms effects including behavioural ones that will lead to loss of inhibition and so involvement in dangerous activities including criminal ones. We shouldn’t be in any doubt that the lockdown will have inflicted on some children a life sentence of misery.
Children of all ages have born the brunt of this – and they now get to live in a country forever scared by what has happened. I was fortunate enough to get to live half my life in what appeared to be a free and therefore prosperous country – it seems they will not get that either.
The majority of the people in this country could not care less though and just don’t want to know they have no problem with turning a blind eye. I am sure once they realise they are screwed too they will start to blame everyone but themselves but they will never care about the harm they helped to actualise for others with their willfull ignorance and blind conformity.
I’m getting increasingly worried about my older boy. He’s 8 and he’s always been a little over sensitive, but he seems to have completely lost the ability to regulate his emotions in the last few weeks. The slightest thing is a drama that provokes absolute hysterics – several times a day. Today he spent half the day shut in his room with the blind drawn and the light off, reading. I’m all in favour of alone time (and would chew my own arm off to get some for myself) but he’s never done that before.
Maybe it’s just a developmental phase. My wife is convinced he’s depressed and I can’t find much of a reason to disagree with her. But if you’re depressed at 8, that’s a long old slog of difficult life you have ahead of you.
That’s very sad. Two weeks’ ago I was in a queue to get into the butcher’s and I got chatting with this lady behind me. She’s not happy that she’s lost her job (she was supposed to be in a play but that got cancelled/postponed). Plus she’s very worried about her son, he’s roughly the age as your boy and according to her he’s been sad – missing school, his friends, activities, etc. We agreed that this lockdown has been insane and cruel. Children will be scarred by this and they will carry all of this madness until the end of their lives.
Insane and cruel is pretty good. But you won’t see that mentioned in the mainstream anywhere.
Matt. Make sure he’s not on his own too much. He may be terrified he’s going to lose you. Keep him close if you can.
For my 13 year old it has completely changed his life and he has been shut off. Even now none of his friends wish to meet up in the park where they used to meet up and play almost daily after school, none of his friends wish to visit to play games which they used to do frequently. He used to enjoy the after school activities such as horse riding and they have stopped. His days out that he was looking forward too have all been cancelled. He asks ‘When is lockdown going to end?’ and I don’t know the answer. I try to present a positive outlook despite the fact that I am not positive about this situation at all. I try to explain to him that what has been done is not something we should consider acceptable. His school seems intent on ensuring that when they do get to attend again that they do not interact with each other at all even on the way to and from school, but despite almost permitting him back for a couple of days a week that has not yet happened. His entire previously active and care free life has been terminated… Read more »
Maybe just take him there and see how he reacts ?
Even at 3 I try to always be honest and allow him choice wherever possible so if we are going out somewhere I feel I have to tell him where we are going and would not want to trick him.
I can understand the sentiment, STD. Always tried to be honest with our kids too. At the age of 3 though, abstract thinking is only just kicking in. Even the pressure of deciding himself may be a factor.
Why not tell him you’re going there in order to talk to the Nursery Teacher ? (Would be true). If he makes the choice to stay once you are there, all good. If he really is distressed, bring him home, obviously. All the best anyhow.
I went to look at the Mail article. Having decided to turn off as many cookies as possible, I clicked the manage button, rather than the accept one. I kid you not, there are literally hundreds of them. No wonder it takes so long for the page to load!
If you’re running IE11, go to the Restricted Sites option then add these sites:
https://addclick.g.doubleclick.net
https://googleadds.g.doubleclick.net
Voila! No adverts or popups on The Daily Mail, and it loads straight away.
If anyone knows how to do this on Edge, please let me know!
Thanks. I use Firefox but will certainly look into it.
If you’re using Google Chrome, add the DuckDuckGo browser extension. Stops all ads. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/duckduckgo-privacy-essent/bkdgflcldnnnapblkhphbgpggdiikppg
Alex Crawford!
https://news.sky.com/story/masks-push-the-fake-news-agenda-this-is-why-us-covid-predictions-are-so-dire-12021635
But despite still recording daily highs in infections, some Texans refused to be cowed by the deadliest virus sweeping the planet today.
Cue roling-eyes emoji!
She is going anywhere for a story
waste of space she is
I see her as a safe pair of hands to get the report they need not the story there is.
Predictions are so direly inaccurate?
Just read that the rate of false positives for pillar 2 testing is about 2.3% (Carl Henegan) This means most tests are utterly invalid and policy based on this data is simply criminal nonsense.
I also read SAGE has no idea of the false positive rate (and generally no idea about anything). Its so bad its untrue
Yes, the pubs opened, and in some ways it was closer to ‘normal’ than I expected. But where we are now is that it doesn’t feel like a one-way progression. The government engineered the Leicester re-lockdown just before ‘Super Saturday’ in order to emphasise that we are merely being lent some freedom, and it can be taken away again at any time. They really are prepared to do anything to cover their arses on the lockdown disaster they have created.
When people say that the pubs re-opening won’t generate a new ‘spike’, I agree that is the case, obviously. But that won’t stop the government from creating one.
Went to pub this pm, scowled at as didn’t have a booking but table found for the two of us. Table had a plastic card which explained the rules but I’d forgotten glasses and anyway you needed a phone with a QR reader or something . Order taken manually. Loo had instructions that you had to lock it as soon as you entered despite there being a one and a half wall of urinal trough -didn’t bother with that and nor had the fella who emerged from a cubicle. 1m signs all over the place. Draught beer remarkably good but not a great experience .
“Why are so many healthcare workers so rotund and slovenly? Back in my day, we were trim and healthy working 50 hour weeks and doing all the cleaning. Us nurses wore smart dresses with belts and caps. On a recent stay in a half empty ward, the nursing staff ordered pizza and other takeaway foods and sat at the nurses station all night. Lazy, fat nurses with time to make dancing videos.” Above copied and pasted from comments section of Daily Mail article about today’s NHS non-clap. Exactly my experience. In 2013, my father, aged 87 years, lay dying from final-stage Parkinson’s Disease for 9 weeks in an NHS Scotland geriatric ward. I visited twice a day for approx 63 days. This was exactly my experience of the nurses on the ward, with one or 2 exceptions who worked hard, professionally and with compassion. The others, total waste of space. I observed my father’s, and other immobile patients’, bed calling bells going unanswered while nurses chatted at the nurses’ station only metres away. several times I had to go and plead for nursing help as my father, or one of the 3 other elderly gentlemen in his side alcove, were… Read more »
My Mum too. She had broken her hip and the night nurses left her half hanging out of the bed, her throat lodged over the bed rail. She couldn’t move and was struggling to breathe. The other patients in the side ward tried to call for help and just got told crossly “we are on our tea break! We’ll come when we’ve finished.” I removed my Mum from the hospital the next day, broken hip and all. Clap for the NHS? Never.
That is so sad and utterly appalling. Stressful too. We shouldn’t be having to fight the NHS staff as well at a time when we are stressed enough about our loved ones. I knew I was taking my Mum home to die, because she was so very sick with many other medical problems. But I couldn’t let her die in that awful place, I wanted her in her own bed surrounded by people she knew and trusted. As it was, that’s exactly what happened. I sat with her as she left her body in her own bed, admittedly with a lot of morphine for pain, but at least with familiar and loving people around her. What you say about the water happened on her ward too. Her water was always out of reach and nobody had bothered to try to feed her anything. Appalling nursing.
Especially when you hear of a wife of fifty years being refused permission to sit beside her dying husband because of Covid hysteria, although neither he nor she was infected.
They were members of our church. Did the rector make any representations to the hospital? What do you think?
Let me guess, the rector was never around.
On the child abuse increase too.
Where is the church or any religious leader actually.
When needed most they were walking by on the other side of the road.
Gillian, that must have been awful for both you and your father.
My father had Parkinson’s. He was in a care home and the staff were lovely. He succumbed to a urine infection and I was always glad for him that he never had to endure the end stage of the disease.
Parkison’s is a very cruel affliction. What your father suffered, and what you had to witness must have been a terrible experience for you both.
One of the despicable things about NHS protocols and Parkinsons is that if a patient is admitted, the hospital withdraws all medication then restarts according to what its own doctors decide.
Parkinsons can be likened to a series of decreasing plateaus, withdrawing treatment causes a drop to the next one down.
So the NHS protocol causes the damage when a patient is stable on medication.
The other appalling thing is that UK parkinsons drugs are in the form of large tablets.
One of the symptoms of Parkinsons is difficulty in swallowing.
FFS – patient focused my arse.
I know this from close personal acquaintance with someone now deceased years early due to inept & casually cruel treatment by OUR SODDING NHS
My mother is in early stages of Parkinson’s. Had to intervene to get her the medication – the Parkinson’s team had been trying to fob her off with physiotherapy! Had various heated discussions with the head of the team over the efficacy of drug treatments. She got the necessary prescription. I had already been into battle with the same health trust the previous year when she fell twice and ended up in hospital, then intermediate care. They know who I am (a scientist), and they know I do not back down. It shouldn’t be this way.
Good on you.
You’ll have to continually push.
Swallowing difficulty is one I noted and some of the medication should be available in liquid form.
Just watch if she is admitted to hospital for any reason, they can withdraw all medication, then prescribe according to their own lights, with the deleterious effects on the patient not even considered.
It’s 10 years in the past for me, but I do remember that Parkinsons therapy was considerably more advanced abroad than in the comfort zone NHS.
Thanks for this. I will certainly remember. I live more than 200 miles away, as does my brother. We work together to make sure she gets what she needs. He is more easy going, but equally firm. Again, it shouldn’t be this way, but as I am actually Dr TT, the receiver of a telephone message or email tends to tread carefully. I have also found that asking the senior nurse ‘can I see my mother’s care plan’, or the doctor ‘as you have signed the discharge letter, does that mean you are the person liable if she falls again because her living circumstances have not been assessed’ seems to garner a rather rapid response!
I knew a lady who had advanced Parkinson’s. Hospital meals were dumped on her bedside table, where she couldn’t reach them, and removed, untouched, an hour or so later, without comment or investigation. When her husband found out, he started going in every meal time, a twenty-mile round trip, to help her eat.
I know this happens, and it seems to be related to the emergence of ‘degree-trained’ nurses and/or the increasing propensity to contract out many hospital services from the early 2000s. I remember a conversation several years ago with an ‘old school’ nurse who said part of her training had been a demonstration where one trainee nurse was strapped to a hospital bed, totally incapacitated, and had to reach food and water placed on the bedside table. They either don’t realise or they don’t care – I favour the latter!
I think the training is bad.
For example, have you had your BP taken in hospital recently? They break every rule in the BP-taking book!
And have you seen how they do blood glucose? Straight in the middle of the finger pad. All diabetics know to use the sides of the fingers, but that’s just anecdotal.
A “diabetes nurse” told her patient
“If yiou test your blood you will damage your fingers and then you woin’t be able to read braille when you go blind”
words fail;
Thinking about it I don’t know anyone who had a good death on the NHS. First ambulance for ages down the street, I’m tempted to hope she dies quickly.
Unfortunately, that’s common.
Think we’ve all had similar experiences with elderly relatives’ needs being ignored by NHS staff. Sometimes one can see it is because they are overworked and busy but many times it is sheer disinterest,selfishness or ignorance that leads them to ignore elderly people. I found a huge contrast with care home staff who in my experience appeared much better attuned to the needs of the elderly. One of the most absurd things is the way food (often looking like a pile of doo doo) is just dumped on elderly and confused patients who are unable to reach it, or to to feed themselves (especially while left half supine on the bed).
I had an op last year. Pre-surgery, the staff were fantastic. I was asked to wait on a different ward because there wasn’t a bed for me where I was supposed to end up.
There was a huge backlog of surgery patients due to the bed-shortage – I was asked to present at 7.30am but they couldn’t take me to theatre till 3.30pm.
The computers were playing up, the cleaners and porters were on strike and the nurses were having to do their jobs too. Yet the care was excellent and done with remarkably good spirits.
The aftercare, on my official ward, was a totally different ballgame. I won’t give you the gory details but be assured it was completely uncaring, absolutely abysmal and I was lucky just to have an overnight stay there.
kh, just checking you have seen that your establishment may well be mentioned on Talk Radio today, when Peter Hitchens talks with Mike Graham. It is on a tweet by Mike, retweeted by Peter this morning..
Yep, welcome to the NHS of today.
When my wife contacted pneumonia in the swine flu epidemic and was ventilated for 3 weeks, multi-organ failure etc the staff in the ITU were great, professional, compassionate and kind. Once she was transferred to the ward (no step-down) I went in every day to perform her care as the staff were unable to care for her properly.
Her first night on the ward, when she asked for her call-bell to be placed near her hand ((having post-critical care paralysis), the nurses response was, “You’re not on Intensive Care now you know!”.
Many years ago, wrote a dissertation on how clinical reflective practice may increase quality of patient care that accompanied a project that a gained funding for. I could talk/write for hours on this subject and I would not tolerate any form of neglect or abuse.
Sadly, the closer I got the DoH, and their toxic culture, I decided to leave heathcare altogether.
Moving nurse education into the Universities was the first nail in the coffin…….
I think this experience is common – it’s like a layer of icing on a decayed cake – one small incision and the stench of corruption sweeps past the sugar. There are two wards in a particularly grim hospital I know which are like ante-chambers to a morgue.
Same sort of experience with my poor mother, a few years ago now, dumped in a virtually abandoned hospital between Christmas and New Year. Without a flicker of irony, the staff said they operated a “skeleton” service. They had X-rayed mum but failed to note the quite obvious water on the lung and treated her all night for angina. Is negligence of this order seriously being ascribed to lack of funds? Were they so exhausted they couldn’t even read an X-ray properly? I saw the image myself, once we had complained. The consultant, whom we consulted privately the following January, flashed it up on his screen. The great blobs and swellings of liquid in the thorax were such a text book case, he was ashamed. I’m convinced that Mum’s sufferings that night contributed to her premature decease a few months later. The NHS is despicable – slothful, inefficient, careless, fly-blown, filthy, entitled, arrogant and murderous. It is to the body what Leyland was to internal combustion and it should be pulverised – replaced by responsive, effective private care.
I disagree, put the NHS back in the hands of the compassionate clinicians, not the career-climbing bureaucrats that have deconstructed and politicilised it over the years.
Free heathcare for all at the point of delivery.
Agree with that. Perfect time to start delayering, starting at the top!
Fine – but supplied by the market, not the state. What’s wrong with paying the equivalent of national insurance to a private insurance company? At least it won’t be filched by other departments to disguise the need for tax; and it will mean competition between hospitals (and insurance companies) for the best care at the best prices, driving standards up. The lowest standards in a competitive situation are better than the usually fictional ideals set by a government. And those who can’t pay their premiums for one reason or another could be granted state assistance. It works for food, for cars, for clothing, for all the necessities of life so why not for medical attention?
This is almost exactly the German system. Healthcare providers are independent, paid for by insurance. It does have the benefit that you end up with well-funded, well-functioning health facilities and an efficient system that does a good job of looking after patients. By default, you are insured by the state, through what is effectively a tax payment, or you can choose to opt out of that and opt into private insurance, in which case you don’t pay that tax.
Great system, makes much more sense, all insured and will definitely work better.
What about people without income, or very little income?
They would receive the state support which I mentioned in the outline policy. Their premiums would be largely or wholly paid.
Fair enough, I missed that.
My wife works for a private organisation (charity) fulfilling NHS provision under contract, she gets so frustrated because she can’t give the best quality care due to time=money.
Strip the NHS back to it roots and prune the pointless jobs off.
Getting rid off the NHS, careful what you wish for……
could i say fuck ’em and still have you like me Winston?
🤣 yes Biker, we’re still friends 🤗
With you winston. The NHS is (was) a massive human achievement.
Others will know more than me but hollowed out for that past 20?30? years. Imagine the thing without the managment trying to rip it apart for their political masters. See common purpose NHS towards a million change agents. UK column.
Compassionate clinicians yes.
I started my nursing career in ’86, in my local general hospital’s School of Nursing. I bore witness to many things, positive and negative, over 20 years. Nothing positive from any government intervention, from either colour.
I’ve been proud to work with most skilled, professional, caring, compassionate and dedicated front line staff you would ever meet. But also, some of the worst. Tolerance isn’t always a virtue.
How’s it free when the armed wing of the government force me to pay for it?
Free at the point of delivery for anyone Biker.
They almost killed my DH because they overmedicated him and caused him hyponatremia.
Worse, we’d seen four different nurses and doctors over the previous couple of weeks who, even though they had a list of his drugs in front of them, didn’t spot what was wrong with him.
Fortunately, when we finally called out the emergency GP to our home, he sussed it straight away and bounced DH off to hospital, where he recovered after a night on a drip.
A few weeks later, I bumped into a friend who’s a pharmacist and started describing DH’s symptoms to her. She interrupted, saying “Those are classic symptoms of sodium deficiency!”
No drug list, didn’t even have the patient in front of her. Just knew her stuff!
I don’t blame you. I found my father struggling for breath and wishing to die when he was in an NHS dump this January. I insisted they examine him which they were very reluctant to do. His blood pressure was 62 over 29. They sped up then, I can tell you and we launched a complaint – now delayed, of course, thanks to “Covid”. The health service is a typical socialist failure and should be abolished in favour of a regulated insurance market funding regulated but independent sources of medical care. It is now an urgent, humanitarian necessity.
Time to keep mentioning it, then. The screaming mob has to be defeated. Their recourse to screams masks emptiness and victory belongs to those willing to fight. It is my aim to set up a Campaign for the Privatisation of Health – the CPH. From small beginnings…
The sooner the better.
Are epidemiologists and ‘public health’ experts a serious danger to public health?
Ours seem to be. Sweden got lucky.
Public Health England certainly are. Swedish epidemiologists not so much.
I think the major problem is our science response is very led by mathematical modellers with a poor track record…!
The problem with our scientists is that they know a lot about viruses but not much about anything else like wellbeing
It seems police chiefs are epidemiologists now also.
I believe Public Health is going to become a much busier profession from now on. Indications are Public Health and the policing of it will now be the main route to control populations. Public Health appears to be a profession of souless humans who have been common purposed and otherwise compromised. As a profession they have lost compassion, that most critical element of healthcare. Compassion isn’t a trite, cowing to sooth a brow – it is an active principle which keeps humanity in the centre of everything. The Public Health ego cleverly flattered and positioned as leaders in response/population control. Just my thoughts.
It might be good to contribute to this site https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/face-masks/
to help stop this mask nonsense!
And another one bites the dust over money worries.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/05/self-employed-psychotherapist-killed-worrying-finances-lockdown/
Poor man. Sadly he isn’t going to be the last suicide I suspect.
Yes, especially after furlough ends and reality hits!
Nor the first.
Very sad. We’ll be hearing more of this.
Somehow, it always comes back to handwashing. Simple!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/05/covid-19-may-not-have-originated-china-elsewhere-emerged-asia/
Dr Jefferson believes that many viruses lie dormant throughout the globe and emerge when conditions are favourable. It also means they can vanish as quickly as they arrive. …
“I think the virus was already here, here meaning everywhere. We may be seeing a dormant virus that has been activated by environmental conditions.
Dr Jefferson believes that the virus may be transmitted through the sewage system or shared toilet facilities, not just through droplets expelled by talking, coughing and sneezing. ….
“There is quite a lot of evidence that huge amounts of the virus in sewage all over the place, and an increasing amount of evidence there is faecal transmission. There is a high concentration where sewage is four degrees, which is the ideal temperature for it to be stabled and presumably activated. And meatpacking plants are often at four degrees.
“These meat packing clusters and isolated outbreaks don’t fit with respiratory theory, they fit with people who haven’t washed their hands properly.
FFS don’t tell Imperial College or we’ll be expecting a terd wave
Irishman?
Maybe he meant Turd wave from Imperial College.
Faecal transmission. So they close the public toilets.
Noooooooooooooooooooo!
But supplying them with soap would be a really good start!
Somehow singing Happy Birthday twice while washing my bottom doesn’t seem right.
Not sure how they would stay dormant as they are quite fragile when out on their own but I did hear someone say in an interview that these coronavirus frequently jump between species. So when they have had enough of humans then they will disappear and jump to another animal.
This just posted from Carl Heneghan along similar lines:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2020/07/05/need-cholera-style-investigation-fully-understand-spread-covid/
If only he and Gupta had been influential voices on SAGE!
I read that Telegraph article and found it very interesting . My experience of covid19 in the community has only been in dementia care homes or those at home who have caught it in the hospital. I would make the observation that most laymen from watching sky/BBC 24/7 would assume that these patients died with lungs full of water as per the horror coronaporn. All in fact died very peacefully with no respiratotry distress after developing a temperature and just going ” off “.
Actually sounds not a bad way to go. Once upon a time we had good old pneumonia, the “old people’s friend” which took those who were frail and and ill. Then somehow it wasn’t allowed to die from that any more, the elderly had to be poked and prodded back into an existence whereby they sat around and did very little and waited for something else to take them. Along came Covid. I thought it sounded a horrid death but your description sounds a fairly good one, as methods of dying go. We all have to die of something, sometime. It’s a part of life and it seems we’ve forgotten that.
Which is why the fuss about DNR concocted by the MSM is so foolish.
Aggressive resus efforts are singularly inappropriate for old frail folk, especially those with dementia.
Many years ago, when doing a temp job as a nursing auxiliary, I recall the wise words of a ward sister: she would know from experience which patients were nearing the end, and tell us to sit with them to try and ensure a peaceful death.
I’ve got a living will and a DNR card and so have several others.
That’s a crumb of comfort anyway.
‘Died peacefully of establishment manslaughter.’
What a pity the MSM didn’t let the relatives know that. It would have been some comfort when they weren’t allowed to be with their elderly loved ones.
The fearmongering has certainly caused a great deal of unnecessary suffering.
Karl Denniger at the Market Ticker has been banging the drum about this for a month+ now.
https://market-ticker.org/
The virulence of all aerosol transmission of respiratory viruses, without exception, follow very closely the absolute humidity in the region in question.
Covid is still being transmitted in humid US states, indicating the primary vector is not aerosol, it is contact transfer.
That’s a brilliant article. Thanks.
The PPE shortage was caused because suddenly everyone was required to wear it, so supplies that would normally have sufficed were rapidly depleted. Apparently that was mostly a waste of time compared to strict handwashing!
Just proves that all that screaming about PPE created a massive red herring and prevented questions being asked about more important things like obtaining true covid stats and how much lockdown was costing the economy.
No shit.
Next they’ll make us wear butt masks
They’re called underpants – unless you wear your kilt traditional-style?
I just remembered a line from Woody Allen’s Bananas. The New Revolutionary Leader first came up with a couple of good ideas, then
“You will change your underpants three times a day. You will wear them on the outside so we can check!”
Perhap I shouldn’t have written that in case the Poison Dwarf sees it and thinks it’s a good idea
The second wave is nailed on -exclusive polling proves it beyond doubt -time to hide behind your sofas https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1305362/Coronavirus-news-latest-second-wave-outbreak-poll
The sofa does not provide enough protection and the dogs are allowed on it, surely I can catch it from them? Nope, only under the bed or the airing cupboard will suffice for me.
Aha, the Daily Express, well known for encouraging its readers to face life with calm, rational optimism.
I would have liked to listen to Hugh Osmond,on your BBC link, however when I click the link I get presented with a picture of some creature (possibly a woman, maybe a ‘sleb, definitely well ugly) and told I need to “sign up” to the BBC. Which ai’nt going to happen.
A link to something that isn’t the Beeb, maybe an mp3, would be good…
I had the same thing happen but I then found out that Hugh Osmond had put it on Dropbox and no signing-up is needed there! Here’s the link:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ufe2kxrze1wkjs/Radio%204%20-%20Paddy%20O%27Connell%20with%20Hugh%20Osmond%20-%2005.07.2020.m4a?dl=0
Argentines maintains social distancing with ‘human foosball’
The game, known locally as “metegol humano” divides the pitch into rectangular zones with while lines limiting where a player can move – helping to enforce social distancing, though limiting slide tackles or pitch-length dribbles with the ball.
Reminds me of that Babyfoot table game you used to get in funfairs. Remember the Morecombe and Wise skit on it?
Let’s hope this game DOES NOT catch on!
My thoughts exactly!
Be interesting to know if they have a group hug when someone scores.
Excellent analysis of the perils of groupthink:
https://off-guardian.org/2020/07/05/the-groupthink-pandemic/
The quote from Dr Kendrick is superb:
“We locked down the population that had virtually zero risk of getting any serious problems from the disease, and then spread it wildly among the highly vulnerable age group. If you had written a plan for making a complete bollocks of things you would have come up with this one”.
Kenrick’s an absolute superstar!
It has to be said that Dr Kendrick has given a very fair summary of what actually happened there.
The plan also had the added advantage of lopping more than 10% off GDP in one fell stroke, and, further, denying millions of people proper medical care for conditions other than Covid-19.
In the UK it also unleashed an atypical spirit of enforced communal harmony, (through social pressure to partake of regular clapathons) of the sort we normally associate with Pyongnang, which then made us highly vulnerable to the sub-Marxist agitprop BLM street theatre.
So an all round big win for the PC Globalist alliance.
I was thinking the other day that if there was an organisation called “Conspiracies R Us” and a client bearing some random name like Owen Soros Sarkar-Blair commissioned them to design a conspiracy to advance PC globalist, left-liberalism in alliance with Islam and the Chinese Communist Party, across the globe, I can’t think the said organisation could come up with anything better than what we have been through these last few months and are still living through!
The Florida oldster was in his 70s; the guy he assaulted was 86 …
Some bleak reading.
“Concertgoers in Scotland could be asked to undergo coronavirus tests as part of a drive to bring live events back without social distancing.”
That is not the worst of it…
“However the Scottish Government has been warned that it will not be financially viable for music and theatre venues to operate with social distancing in place and urged to help develop an alternative way of reopening before a coronavirus vaccine is found and rolled out around the world.”
https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/whats-on/arts-and-entertainment/scottish-concertgoers-could-be-asked-take-coronavirus-tests-under-plan-help-bring-back-live-shows-2901733
I didn’t realise that Holyrood was a lunatic asylum.
How’s that push for “indy” going north of the border?
Banana republic SNP style : the usual grievances, inanities, cock ups and thuggish morons demanding quarantine at the border, while no quarantine measures in place at airports.
Shops closing, fly tipping, and mandatory retail masking now ordered by the Holyrood Gauleiter.
One glimmer of light in this gloomy place: no clapping yesterday.
https://youtu.be/Wz_DNrKVrQ8
Another One Bites The Dust
We can but hope…
Multitudes flying over the cuckoo’s nest, while Nurse Ratched issues orders from Holyrood.
Didn’t realise until now? You took your time, Mr Pretty!
Didn’t he just Annie!
The Spiteful Nannying Party game plan is completely screw the economy and then blame the eeeeevil tories for not giving them all the money they want.
It’s why they’ve brought in muzzles for shops, they were worried some of that sector might recover so they want to stymie any chance of a recovery there.
With the Natzis always assume some proportion of malicious intent as they don’t care about collateral damage.
How’s the Great Face-Nappy Crusade getting on?
We’re buying online.
But we have until July 10th to continue doing the bare faced protest in the local shops.
Earth to Holyrood: unobstructed breathing is an absolute necessity for normal functioning : we are not anaerobic life forms.
However, hypoxia could render us so befuddled that we would no longer be able to challenge the group think.
People ought to search images Sturgeon Haircut. The pictures are the holyrood response to cries from other parties her hair wasn’t growing – the tiresome you are having your hair cut number. The answer from SNP top brass was to release photos.
An absolute joke to think these people could run an independent country competently and for the good of the people.
This site has an amusing picture of Sturgeon as a teenager – scroll down a bit and check out the hair! https://fabrickated.com/2014/09/23/scottish-politics-what-do-the-clothes-tell-us/
Early career as muse for Beano characters…
You beat me to it!
Did she start lockdown with a buzzcut?!
Or “accidentally” join another one that’s off-message.
Its going to the same as buses now Wendyk a damp suib with some feeling it their duty while others realising its nothing to do with their duty and so remaining free.
Let’s hope the realisation spreads
Sounds like the work of Devi Sridhar!
Good article here:
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/07/05/enjoy-your-pint-before-the-nanny-states-next-inevitable-lockdown/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/05/lockdown-really-worth-telegraph-writers-experts-give-verdict/
Was lockdown really worth it? Telegraph writers and experts give their verdict
Health warning: most of this article will make you puke. Like, really spew. The best emetic since dilute mustard.
But the “below the line” comments are heartening.
Yes, sickening. But as BTLnewbie points out, the comments tell a different story.
I am left wondering what the motivation is for these people to write this garbage. Are they seeking to gain favour with the ‘establishment’ in order to get or maintain grants, or for some financial incentive?
A remarkable number of doctors and academics to have spoken out against lockdown policies appear to be retired.
Note the standard practice of having the information/message you want shown first as most people probably don’t bother to read to the end.
Good point.
Most people would be too busy upchucking to get near the end.
Message sent to government HQ:
Dear Sir/Madam,
Please could we have an end to the lock-down, in full, now.
Concert venues and theatres are going to the wall because of this lock-down. We are also being denied our religious freedoms due to the absurd antisocial distancing and the rule against singing in church.
Refusing to end antisocial distancing until a vaccine is found would be utter madness.
There is no need for any of this. May I remind the Prime Minister of his conversation here:
https://twitter.com/1BJDJ/status/1279360417903542273
I don’t expect your party to be in office after the next election. Many people will not forgive this government for the draconian measures it has dished out over the past few months.
Yours Faithfully,
Jonathan Castro
conservativefreedomparty.com
Great letter! However, a pleasing response from the recipients seems unfortunately unlikely..
Just checked out conservativefreedomparty.com
Brilliant stuff. Are you considering an RSS feed for updates and also a subscribe feature?
I might consider it, although I don’t update it very often!
Well, there’s the Sage Committee (think Dr Strangelove War Room), then there’s the ‘Independent Sage Committee’ formed of Brexit Remoaner doomsayers repackaged as Covid ‘experts’ and much in favour at the BBC & other MSM outlets – so much so that the word ‘Independent’ is whispered in introductions. So why not constitute a ‘Real Sage Committee’ composed of sane and able scientists that know what they are talking about and appear in this hallowed place frequently. We could all name half a dozen. Let them be launched on the airwaves as a group representing sanity and us. Don’t let the left have all the best songs, nor sages.
The ” independent ” SAGE committee is a bunch of emeritus who rather like to hear their own voices with a strong left/ remainer bias. They are also known as the ” dress up box ” SAGE group.
Quite a few are what I would call the ‘also rans’ – not sufficiently worthy or accomplished to have made it to real SAGE – and that says something!
What is really sad about the Miami old chap being so scared that he would assault another is that he could have done the right thing (as we’re all in this together aren’t we) and left the lift himself. The Australian Government introduced a numbers in lift suggestion (can’t legislate for that) back in April and it was quietly dropped on 21st May as being both stupid and unworkable. I wonder what we don’t do it for TB mitigation?
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/07/05/enjoy-your-pint-before-the-nanny-states-next-inevitable-lockdown/
Delingpole at his acerbic best
Brilliant! This bit resonated particularly strongly: ‘The political and administrative Establishment, in other words, has taken advantage of the lockdown to turn Britain into the equivalent of a gigantic prep school where the entire population are treated like recalcitrant children.
Instead of being the God-given right of every freeborn Englishman — as it has been since forever — suddenly a simple act like going to the pub for a pint is something you can only do with the government’s permission; and is, furthermore, a privilege that can be taken away at a moment’s notice.’
I think it will be interesting to watch the removing of pub rights when they do it, and they will. It may cause a further solidifiying on either side of the fractures. It is what we are about here isn’t? The destabilising and fracturing of us. To divide and rule.
And that is the way it will remain until we rise up.
Hello Darling G, I’ve been missing you…
Have a great and well deserved holiday in Venice, Toby. Just in case you don’t know it, here is my other favourite website – tip top train info: https://www.seat61.com
Nothing wrong with easyjet and Ryanair, excellent airlines, I’ve always found them very reliable.
No brainer – fly
https://youtu.be/p0PjECSyJ7w
A good oldie from Canned Heat
As a citizen of the Socialist republic of Scotland i eagerly await not wearing a mask on Friday. I think they are gonna be in for a shock because hardly anyone is wearing a mask at the moment and i’m pretty sure that come Friday nothing will change.
I’m thinking of making a movie featuring a pissed off Biker and his mates who operate on the margins of a society that’s locked down and forced to wear masks. We steal cars and rob the rich and give the money to the ginger people living in tenements so they can buy Irn Bru, Buckfast, white bread, eggs and margarine. We race around antagonising the Fuzz and getting into epic car chases and at the end we steal tanks and crush the Scottish Parliament back to dust.. I’m thinking of calling this movie “Masked and Furious”.
I’ve just done a bare faced visit to Morrison’s Biker.
On the way, I noticed 2 more empty premises.
In the shop, smiling friendly staff, as always, but overheard an ominous July 10th at one of the tills.
Only one mask-middle aged woman wearing the black style- everyone else behaving as normally as one can at present.
I think you should lead a Pictish rebellion Biker; you’d have plenty of followers.
The Dear Leader has well and truly lost the plot; time for a common sense conversion- as if!!
Fife should be independent from the piss poor Sturgeon and her mongoloid followers. I despise Scotland and the Scottish people. They are embarrassing and i cringe hard whenever the Scottish accent is heard. Unfortunately a lot of my fellow Picts suffer the twin disease of religion and state education and i’m afraid in Fife these days you’re considered a genius if you can work out the change from two quid when you buy a pie and small Irn Bru from Stephens. I’m not sure i’m the man to lead them out of the wilderness and back to the promised land. I am willing to fight to the death though so there is that.
Bright side of things .. behind the mask of paint strugeon is looking knackered. Haunted. Broken.
it’s hard work covering up being a Lesbian like she does.
Must be something in the Scottish character that many just love being ordered about by screechy, bossy wimmin. They’re to be found everywhere nowadays; they used to find their niche as infant school mistresses. Personally, I can’t stand the creatures. Equally detest “little boy lost” males (Boris).
The Scottish character seems to me to be sadly lacking on all fronts. From tracksuit wearing adults, people in shorts, coffee drinking lefty do-gooders to the people who play golf, i can’t bare it. Even the bums have no class anymore. None of them wear a suit or ask your for some spare change to get a cup of tea. You know you’re fucked when even the bums have stopped making an effort.
They build golf courses all over Fife destroying countless Pictish Standing Stones, ancient roads and all manor of other things you know. I’d rebuild the standing stones right in the middle of their course’s.
Shorts are cool – additional vitamin D.
Joan Grenfell lite
Perhaps she’ll finally come to acknowledge what an unnecessary piece of nonsense all this is.
Recent conversations reveal the depth of the anger and frustration she is causing.
If you need a damsel to rescue biker I’m avaiable.
In my own conversations with strangers I’ve noticed a pattern worth mentioning All anecdotal but Muslim people, guarded at first, seem to be ahead on the this mask friday is a lot of rubbish tbinking. Not universally, one couple are frightened and reacted accordingly, their family see through it all. And elsewhere, critcal thinking alive and well among muslims. Great!
Let down your long hair and i’ll climb up and rescue you
You don’t need to make a movie when it’s there in real life. But I do see the cinematic irony of the rebels being unmasked and the ‘citizens’ being masked. I’m in England and I’m not betting against masks being mandatory by Christmas. Grass roots ‘rooting’ (sic) for it now. I can feel the momentum. In my manor on the south coast three weeks ago: virtually no masks (this is outdoors by the way). Yesterday: masses of them.
Still not many here in Suffolk but like you I fear it’s coming.
There was one today in the Co-Op, standing right in the middle of the aisle looking at things. When I came up behind him he said “Mmphr mmmps”. When I followed him round the corner he almost climbed onto the shelves to let me by. I think I later sawe him getting into an Audi in the car park, so that explains that then.
Just up the road a masked idiot in a Range Rover waited until the last minute before pulling out across my nose. Forunately I am good at emergency braking but he probably thinks it was the mask that saved him.
The children’s playground appears to have been officially opened, no masks there either – yet.
Saw family all muzzled drag a very small child (3-4) also muzzled, through an empty services on M4 to use the loo. Mother (?) holding onto the little girl was giving a running commentary about how the place was literally full of germs and THE VIRUS, constantly reminding the child why they could’t use the shop or get a drink, don’t touch anything. The poor little sod was scared to death wide eyed! Child abuse plain and simple.
I feel sorry seeing children all muzzled up – not only is it child abuse but what sort of example are the adults setting for them? To become risk adverse and cowardly? To distrust everyone around them as not only potential criminals but also germ carriers?
We ain’t seen nothing yet in terms of psychological damage that this lockdown and antisocial distancing will do to today’s children as they grow older.
They’re also stupid adults, because they haven’t taken the trouble to investigate the efficacy of masks. Hint: no efficacy whatsoever.
Unfortunately two of those stupid adults are close to home in my case.