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Greetings From Venice
I’m in Venice where today is supposed to be the climax of Il Redentore, an annual festival held on the third weekend in July celebrating the end of the plague in 1576 that killed 50,000 people. In 1576, the Senat decided to build a small wooden church on Giudecca Island, now known as the Redentore Church (Church of the Redeemer). It’s actually opposite the hotel I’m staying in on the main island and I can see it out of my window as I write. If things were unfolding as planned, a temporary bridge would be built out of barges across the Grand Canal and thousands of people would cross to the Church and give thanks to God for ending the plague.
But of course it’s been cancelled. The local authorities took that decision on July 10th, just one week before the festival was due to begin, delivering yet another blow to the local businesses that depend on tourism, which is the vast majority. Tourism is the city’s main source of income, with 23 million people visiting in a normal year, but that’s dwindled to almost nothing during the pandemic. The cancellation of the Festival of the Redeemer follows the cancellation of the last two days of the Venice Festival in March, as well as the postponement of the next Venice Biennale from 2021 to 2022. The hotels, museums, restaurants, bars, cafes, water taxis and gondoliers are all struggling to stay in business.
The irony is that the absence of tourists makes this the perfect time to visit. Normally in July, the old city is like Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon, with the main thoroughfares becoming virtually impassable, let alone the narrow streets. But now, almost the only people here are Italians, either the local residents, or visitors for the day from nearby areas. I’m having a lovely time wandering around museums and churches with my family, and eating at the city’s finest restaurants. You have to wear face coverings in shops and all the visitor attractions, as well as the communal areas of the hotels, but apart from that it’s heavenly. Or it would be if I wasn’t constantly being reminded that without a massive bailout a lot of these businesses will go bust. Not only will that mean tens of thousands of people losing their livelihoods, but also less tax revenue to spend on the city’s crumbling buildings and infrastructure. Not that the Italian Government will be in a position to plug that hole. The entire Italian economy has been propped up by tourism for years and the ongoing travel restrictions around the world, as well as the public’s irrational fear of the virus, will mean a huge black hole in the country’s finances this year. I fear for the future of this beautiful city.
Must-See Interview With Professor Carl Heneghan
Freddie Sayers, the Editor of UnHerd, has done another of his interviews with high-level lockdown sceptics, this time Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson from Oxford’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine. And it’s a blockbuster. Both pour scorn on the conventional wisdom about the virus. Here are some of the highlights of Professor Heneghan’s contributions:
- On the effectiveness of masks: “By all means people can wear masks but they can’t say it’s an evidence-based decision… there is a real separation between an evidence-based decision and the opaque term that ‘we are being led by the science’, which isn’t the evidence.”
- On whether this a proper pandemic or just a bad bout of seasonal infection: “One of the keys of the infection is to look at who’s been infected, which shows a crucial difference when comparing the pandemic theory to seasonal theory. In a pandemic you’d expect to see young people disproportionately affected, but in the UK we’ve only had six child deaths, which is far less than we’d normally see in a pandemic. The high number of deaths with over-75s fits with the seasonal theory.”
- On the lockdown strategy: “Many people said that we should have locked down earlier, but 50% of care homes developed outbreaks during the lockdown period so there are issues within the transmission of this virus that are not clear… Lockdown is a blunt tool and there needs to be intelligent conversations about what mitigation strategies can keep society functioning while we keep the most vulnerable shielded.”
- On whether trying to suppress the spread of the virus is a good idea: “The benefits of the current strategy are outweighed by the harms…When it comes to suppression, only the virus will have a determination in that. If you follow the New Zealand policy of suppressing it to zero and locking down the country forever, then you’re going to have a problem… This virus is so out there now, I cannot see a strategy that makes suppression the viable option. The strategy right now should be how we learn to live with this virus.”
- On the infection fatality rate: “We will be down about where we were with the swine flu: around 0.1-0.3% which is much lower than what we think because at the moment we are seeing the case fatality.”
Worth watching in full.
DHSC Has No Fear of Winter Surge
A reader with a relative who’s quite high up in the Department of Health and Social Care has some inside dope about the “second wave”:
A very close family relative who works in the DHSC turned up today with some interesting information. Apparently, there is in reality within the Department’s walls no current expectation whatsoever of any big health crisis in the winter to come, regardless of the current propaganda campaign telling us we face catastrophe. “How so?” I hear you cry. The reason is simple. They’ve twigged, as has anyone else with half a brain, that a large number of the people who might be susceptible to to the so-called second COVID-19 wave or an outbreak of influenza have – wait for it – already died.
Round-Up
No time for a proper update today, but here’s a round-up of all the stories I’ve noticed, or which have been been brought to my attention, in the last 24 hours (and a special thanks to Mitesh Kariah who has been tirelessly flagging stories up for me for months):
- ‘Stop pretending the BLM protests were peaceful‘ – Micheal Tracy points out in UnHerd that the BLM protests were far from peaceful
- ‘The COVID Coup‘ – Good essay by Angelo Codevilla in the American Mind. He’s one of us
- ‘“Take it or leave it” deals put rail on track for nationalisation‘ – Looks like re-nationalisation of the railways is looming in spite of the fact that Labour lost the last election
- ‘Scientists criticise modelling that predicted 120,000 winter deaths‘ – Professor Robert Dingwall, who sits on NERVTAG, says the projections are based on “flawed” mathematical modelling
- ‘Extra cancer victims may reach 35,000 after screening and treatment missed‘ – That’s 35,000 in the next 12 months, as estimated by Cancer Research UK. The charity warns that deaths caused by delays in care will exceed coronavirus casualties
- ‘Government suspends publication of daily UK-wide death toll over accuracy concerns‘ – About bloody time
- ‘Here’s why BLM protests, crowded beaches and eased lockdown have not caused a second wave‘ – The Telegraph‘s Paul Nuki, usually a lockdown defender, puzzles over why mass events don’t seem to have resulted in an uptick in infections
- ‘Rouhani says 25 million Iranians may have been infected with coronavirus‘ – Given that only ~14,000 Iranians have died of COVID-19, that’s a very low IFR (if true)
- ‘Impose sanctions on China over its treatment of Uyghur Muslims‘ – UK Government petition objecting to China’s appalling treatment of Uyghur Muslims. Sign it to show solidarity with Maajid Nawaz who has gone on hunger strike to draw attention to this abuse of human rights
- ‘Face Masks Mandated by UK Government Specifically Say They Don’t Protect Against COVID-19‘ – Anything other than tight-fitting, surgical-grade masks are utterly pointless, and the evidence that even they are effective outside healthcare settings is threadbare
- ‘The mask slips‘ – Listen to Brendan O’Neill, Tom Slater, Fraser Myers, and special guest Lee Jones pour scorn on mandatory face coverings in the Spiked podcast
- ‘London ponders its future as pandemic turns capital into a ghost town‘ – Depressing article in the Telegraph‘s business section
- ‘The most logical explanation is that it comes from a laboratory‘ – Well-known Norwegian virologist Birger Sørensen and his colleagues have examined the virus and concluded it cannot have evolved naturally
Theme Tune Suggestions by Readers
Only one today: “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang” by Heaven 17.
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 – particularly if they’re not insisting on face masks! 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 Folks 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.
I know it becomes difficult to navigate the comment threads after 24 hours. One alternative to continuing to post below my updates is to move to our new Lockdown Sceptics Forums, which webmaster Ian Rons has just created. (You’ll need to verify your email address before you can start posting.) Apologies for not creating them sooner. Any problems, email Ian here. Or just email him to thank him for creating such a great website. (For some reason, the Forums have become a spam magnet so we’ve closed them temporarily while Ian writes some code to stop that happening.)
Gone Fishin‘
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation recently to pay for the upkeep of this site. If you feel like donating, however small the sum, please click here. But I’m on holiday until Saturday, July 25th and won’t be doing much work on this site for a week. If you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here.
Salem 2.0
I thought I’d give my readers something to chew on while I’m on holiday: Salem 2.0: The Return of the Religious Police to the Public Square. This is a book about cancel culture that I’ve been working on for a while now, but which took a back seat during the coronavirus crisis. Hoping to get back to it as the crisis recedes – although that’s happening more slowly than any of us hoped. It’s a work in progress, so don’t expect too much.
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Last week should have been Graduation during which hotels, restaurants, gastropubs and taxis are usually fully booked all week long. A few families used the bookings made months ago by way of a short break but there was little evidence of them around the City (you can tell Graduand parents from the townies).
The riverside leisure and tourism hub was packed with locals on sunny Saturday, some of the bars and restaurants had so much additional seating on Council owned pedestrian areas they probably had more capacity than before.
Nobody wore masks except the waiting staff who all did.
Peter Hitchens raises a powerful voice against face-nappy hell.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8537489/PETER-HITCHENS-Face-masks-turn-voiceless-submissives.html
Wait for the howls from the deluded gagged. But he will have supporters too. Be one of them, leave a comment!
Reads as a call for rebellion – for widespread civil disobedience.
Good on him.
Yes, he has changed his tune a bit. He previously said he complies (this was when it was mandatory just on public transport) as he believes in the rule of law.
That’s how I read it anyway – a call to arms. I guess they put it past the lawyers to check that fell an atom short of actually calling for all-out lawbreaking.
I don’t like the idea of law breaking. But public muzzle-wearing has never been debated in Parliament, let alone passed by Parliament. It’s a ministerial decree, by two prats (Johnson and Hancock), based on abject lies and misinformation. I don’t feel in anyway bound by that.
Indeed, there is a quite compelling argument that it is a civic duty to rebel against tyranny!
Yes, I read it as a call to arms.
Interesting point about the lawyers. Hitchens is very controlled in his statements, always, wherever he makes them. That may be partly down to his desire to keep his platform with the MoS, but I put it more down to his natural style and his Christian beliefs. But I guess the MoS have editors who might check these things first.
I think there was a debate in Parliament on face coverings: https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2020/july/coronavirus-statement-14-july/
I don’t think there was a vote. Everything has been done using the 1984 Public Health Act and the Coronavirus Act 2020. I’m unclear as to the exact connection between the two. Anyway, the Coronavirus Act was debated, but passed unopposed.
Unjust laws should be resisted.
Oh thanks – I’ll look at that statement (debate?) later. Off out now, so apologies for not being on this thread for a bit.
As reported, it hardly constitutes a debate, though I do think Ashworth should be muzzled asap.
However, I did notice this:
Mr Hancock told MPs that the Government’s strategy is to protect the NHS, get the virus down and keep the virus down while restoring as much of normal life as possible.”
Notice his first priority? Talk about broken records!
Yes the MP’s have totally colluded in this criminal attack on the UK population.
Remember the virus was downgraded on the 19th March as non consequential.
Why did no one asks any questions?
It is not law breaking if the law is designed to do you harm.
Don’t know if this has been posted yet.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-potentially-infectious-people
I’ve just read it. Some of the comments are amusing One complaining the article was dangerous and moaned about the standard of education. LOL. Peter Hitchens may be many things but uneducated!! The photograph showing passengers in a tube train was amusing but if they are going to wear masks they should cover their noses unless it was a form of Rebellion. 🎭🎭
Yep, I saw that too.
Another link, to Hitchens personal blog version, which avoids all the irritating Daily Mail videos etc is :-
https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/
I read the article and this bit is spot on:
This also reminded me of those asinine articles that appeared in the Daily Telegraph and Teen Vogue that was pretty much a licence to denounce those who can’t wear a muzzle for various reasons. That was very low even by the abysmal standards that pass as “journalism” these days. Anyone who still thinks “we’re all in this together” either are lying or would be one of those denouncers or both.
their wide eyes peering out anxiously from above the hideous gag How true!
Another thing that I’ve noticed is that when I try to explain to people my scepticism by using erm, facts, often the only response I’ll get is they just stand there with a weird, blank look on their faces. All seems a bit ‘Stepford’ to me!
Agree. When I speak to people wearing muzzles, I always wonder if they’re getting what I’m saying because for the life of me, I can’t see their expressions.
If I’m having that problem, it must be hell for both disabled people especially those who are blind, visually and hearing impaired and those with learning disabilities.
i refuse to have a conversations with anyone with a mask on. I’ve noticed that wearing these has reduced human conversation or interaction, even eye contact. Everyone just avoids behind the mask of fear – utterly ridiculous.
i just went to tescos which was very quiet for sunday. There was a young bloke wearing a neckerchief thing like a highwayman … thing is he didn’t have it over his nose and kept fiddling. Since he doesn’t have to wear as covering yet, and assuming he’s doing it out of some civic duty or scared why doesn’t he wear a proper mask. Absolutely crazy and I laughed at him and told him he looked f**king ridiculous (note to self… keep your gob shut in public places! Think i’ve got tourettes and sometimes can’t keep a lid on it – maybe next friday being muzzled will help 🙂
and spoke to store staff who said they would not be enforcing the masks, but weren’t sure if they had to wear them – we shall see…..
Tourette’s, no just frustration, lack of patience and not being able to suffer fools much anymore!
My last visit to Tesco didn’t start very well. I parked in the only general (?) space next to a long line of ‘parent and child’ spaces. I got the bags out of the boot and as I was walking off, a bloke getting into his car near me said, quite aggressively, ‘see you haven’t got any kids in your car pal’. I explained that it wasn’t a P&C space and he got in his car and drove off.So next week… no kid, no mask….I’d better wear a stab vest!
To be fair, Hitchens has pretty well cribbed this off Biker, on here a couple of days ago:
‘Here’s the kicker, no one with a mask will say a word to you because they are defeated. Their eyes have become void, they are less than human and the sight of you without your mask will only reinforce what they’ve become.’
And the Government website implicitly warns against muzzle-wearers against confronting the sane:
‘Please be mindful and respectful of such circumstances [i.e. exempt conditions] noting that some people are less able to wear face coverings’
It also says that the muzzle-wearers should wash their hands, either 20 secs with soap and water or with hand sanitiser, every time they take the thing on and off. Hopefully those that don’t – every one of them I’ve seen – will be liable for a fine.
Does anyone know how to contact Hitchens, rather than just posting in the comments?
He says there’s never been an RCT on muzzle wearing but there’s this:
From an RCT reported in the BMJ:
Conclusions This study is the first RCT of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks. This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection. Further research is needed to inform the widespread use of cloth masks globally.(https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/4/e006577.long)
I seem to remember seeing an email address for him on the Mail articles once upon a time, but not sure..
I would try his twitter maybe? He seems to be particularly prolific on that platform. Not fully up to speed how it all works but something like tag him in a tweet that has the report.
Peter.Hitchens@mailonsunday.co.uk
Thanks!!
I’ve emailed him.
Sorted!
(edit: turns out the study I linked to was the same as the one Cheezilla posted, just a different URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/ )
Interesting that at the time I read it, the little blue flag at the top (facebook I think) shows 16.6 million ‘likes’. So maybe we are not as alone as we think.
I clicked the flag to check it out but it looked to be for the general Mail fb page. 🙁
Oh dear, so we are as alone as we think. Thanks for checking, I don’t ‘do’ facebook (or any other social media unless you count this forum).
Pasted it onto my facebook page. Was met with howls of derisive laughter, well argued statements such as ‘utter boll*x’ and the usual hysterical ‘friend of a friend of an acquaintance watched someone die in the ICU’ nonsense.
Toby isn’t wrong! The interview with Professor Carl Heneghan is quite extrordinary. Here’s the description for the interview:
“Professor Carl Heneghan is Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University … yesterday evening he revealed an extraordinary detail: the Public Health England daily death totals announced to the media include anyone who has ever tested positive for Covid-19 — even if they recovered completely.”
This should be the main news story everywhere.
So if you get the miraculous bug, you can be simultaneously alive and dead?
I presume, then, that Boris has been counted as dead?
It would explain his zombie-ism.
It’s Schrodinger’s Virus
Beware cats in boxes!
Beware of cats lurking in hallways!
I stepped out of my apartment last night to deposit some garbage down the chute near the elevator. In doing so, I left my door open. When I turned the corner a white cat ran past me and entered my apartment. It proceeded to rub against various pieces of furniture, like The Cat in Red Dwarf. I tried to tempt it with a can of cat food but it refused to follow me out the door and into the hallway. Finally I picked it up, slightly scared that it might resist. It didn’t, so I put it out into the hallway so it could return to its owner down the hall.
A pigeon as intruder is far worse than a cat! lol
We are not allowed to feed the pigeons where I live so they never established themselves as regular visitors or potential intruders.
Not yet, I believe, but if he were run over by a bus and killed he would be listed as a covid-related death.
If coronavirus is so deadly why is necessary to fiddle the statistics by including people who have recovered from the virus and died of something else.
Think you’ve answered your own question
Once again, the question is giant cock-up or giant conspiracy!
Watch this 40 second video. There’s the answer:
https://olivefarmercrete.blogspot.com/2020/07/bill-melinda-gates-giggle-smirk-over.html
Both.
Two white male scientists taking an understated, rational, evidence-based approach to the Covid situation isn’t the kind of news the BBC tends to pick up on these days unfortunately
Perhaps the president of Tanzania could make an appearance. He seems to have the right idea.
Great news for Catholics in our town: church services have resumed. Sadly truncated, but God has been allowed to return and meet His children in His house.
Meanwhile, our Anglican church has graciously been permitted to open for private prayer, one day a week, bristling with precautions, from some date in August.
I’m beginning to wonder if God has favourites. Or is it just that Church in Wales bishops are the lousiest cowards and quitters in the created universe?
They have these special Bibles where the counterpart to ‘render unto Caesar’ is missing.
Or maybe they don’t like work!
God is obviously punishing the ABC for his idiocy!
My Mum is very active in the Methodist Church. Her church is one of the busier ones in the area. They have decided not to re-open yet due to the extreme number of rules they would need to follow. For example, they are required to remove any tapestries and alike from the walls!!! She told me yesterday that her church estimate that they’ve lost £25k since March. As far as she is aware, there are no government handouts on offer. They have some reserves to draw on so should be ok. A number of other churches in the area don’t have reserves so she expects them to go under. When you compare this to (secular) village halls who are getting grants of up to £25k with no strings attached, you really start to wonder if there’s a plan to further erode the foundations of our judaeo christian society.
Our Methodist church is similar. Having read the requirements, including no singing allowed, many of us feel it is pointless to even try and open until they change the rules. A Methodist church without singing is unthinkable. Talk about possibly reopen in September. We are solvent at the moment (mainly because those paying offerings by standing order are continuing to do) but it can’t go on for ever. Zoom services are OK but not a long term option and some of our members cannot join anyway.
I would also say that we have a whole lot of community groups who use our premises but cannot for the foreseeable future. The night shelter we run every year from December to March is already cancelled this year – although that puts the responsibility for helping the homeless directly back to the council. By ‘tapestries’ we have various banners which are hung on the walls and obviously cause no problems for anyone.
What happens if you hold services in the open air?
I’ve been asking that, but the rest of my choir are cowards.
Wouldn’t just have to be the choir. Groups singing carols don’t have to be tuneful! Just has to be organised. Wouldn’t have to be a priest organising it either.
Is licking tapestries a Methodist thing then?
I wonder if many are feeling spiritually bereft. I certainly do.
Sunday for me is different to other days. Meeting others and celebrating music, communion etc.. is obviously an in person thing. We can pretend church hasn’t stopped with YouTube and zoom etc… but church has stopped, for the first time in centuries.
This has to do with something about the architects of the lockdown being SATANISTS
A family member is being denied proper follow up cancer consultation and treatment. When I say denied, it’s more like delayed, not followed up such as offering only a telephone consultation, not being booked in for CT scans and so on. Yet I know the hospital stands practically empty. It’s absolutely disgusting.
Other than complaining to the GP and hospital I suggested writing to the local MP as well. Is there anything else we could do?
Go on hunger strike at the hospital gates
Stand in the market place and shout it out. Denounce evil. Utter evil is what it is.
This has something to do with the architects of the lockdown WANTING TO KILL AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE
Wear a sandwich board and protest in front of the hospital.
I’d been thinking we could see a return of the sandwich board – more room for our message than a muzzle.
I’m thinking of wearing one at work while on break to wake up my colleagues who are still acting like Rip van Winkle over this.
Go on MSM comments sections and every time some smug b*stard insists that lockdown saves lives, tell your story – because it’s one of thousands.
Ideas you probably have already thought of. You have to keep knocking on doors until one opens.
Write to other MPs with health responsibilities.
Questioning publicly via twitter puts more pressure on these mp functionaries. Yes, twitter more effective than a letter sometimes.
Local press may be interested – not in the empty hospital but in the lack of treatment, carefully speak to them.
Trying to contact a simple cancer nurse (any NHS friends) with a moment to spare might be very helpful in understand what you can do. A 10 minute chat with a friend of a friend coukd help you see the direction to work in.
Macmillan are supposed to help, ditto cancer research.
Hospitals have patient councils, it may be worth contacting.
I would not be afraid at all to seek out any specialist cancer trials outside your area and phone them. I don’t mean with the intention of volunteering for a trial. Discussing with professionals can sometimes lead to an opportunity being discovered.
Just ideas. Good luck.
One dead Corona person is worth 10 dead cancer persons.
One prevented Corona death is worth 100 prevented cancer deaths.
The perverse new normal since March.
Write to the PM, your MP, the chief exec of your local hospital, whichever one provides your care. I would also suggest you contact the local media, people need to make this stuff public knowledge. Make it known that you don’t think the delay to your treatment is an unavoidable consequence of a terrible pandemic but the consequence of politics and unforgivable mis management by PHE. Never forget, you pay these people to be there for you when you need them and they are failing in their duty.
Defund Public Health England!
Write to the head of you local hospital, your health authority and each time copy in your local MP and your local newspaper(s), local radio, regional TV etc. Doesn’t take much time if done on e mail.
In March parliament voted in a Dictatorship.
Our MP’s then took their bungs and retired to their country estates
If today the Dictator decides that on each third Monday in the month the customers in Tesco are required to hop on their left leg, then that is the law.
Of course most people will willingly comply, only the grannie killers will dissent
The Gauleiters in Scotland and Wales (in the best traditions of anyone worthy of the title) implement the will of the Dictators as they see fit
Has there ever been an example in history where a Dictator gave up their power without a fight?
Some coups are bloodless …..
I think we should put Wankock in the stocks and pelt him with used face napies.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x64m0ss
Monty Python’s Hospital Sketch. Check the audio mute button, it’s off.
Hi gang Been off the grid for a while, simply because I couldn’t hack it any longer, I am so angry. In fact, it’s not so much anger as contempt. I feel like I’m being gaslighted on a mass scale. What’s even more infuriating, nobody cares, I simply cannot get anyone to listen. We’ve now had two family members die during the lockdown, one (my cousin’s father in law) died of stage four prostate cancer, no family member clapped eyes on him for five weeks, he was moved so many times, we didn’t even know where he was. We had to rely on him being coherent enough (lots of morphine) to call and tell my cousin. He was very scared. He was finally moved to a local carehome, where they promised they would call when the end was nigh so one family member could be with him for an hour. They forgot. He died alone and scared. Secondly my other cousin’s mother in law (cousin one and cousin two are sisters). She had very advanced dementia. Had a fall, got pneumonia, was taken to hospital. Her husband who had nursed her for two years was not allowed to see her.… Read more »
Bec, I am so, so sorry for everything. I shall pray for you and all your family and the dear dogs.
Everything you say is evidence to damn – and I mean damn – our Fascist oppressors. The evidence is accumulating on this site and elsewhere.
The reckoning will come. Have courage. You will stand as witness when they are in the dock.
PS. Send a copy of your message to Peter Hitchens and to Simon Dolan.
That’s a good idea, I’ll do that.
Thanks Annie. It’s where this is all going that scares me the most, people are so gullible. I work in charities, for my work I’ve been doing a lot of research about children and mental health. It’s absolute armageddon for kids, the evidence is just mounting up. Safeguarding, food poverty, even a doubling of malnutrition. Never mind a more than doubling of domestic violence murders (90% of which are either overheard, or witnessed by children), and on and on and on. Dogs are like children, they are innocent, and without guile, our dog had never not trusted us, putting her through that felt like a betrayal, she was confused, it was awful. I think that’s why my heart kinda burst, and I collapsed in a puddle of tears. It was kind of the flash point for all the sadness, not just for me and my family, but for everyone. All those idiots waffling on about sit on the sofa and watch netflix you selfish murderers, cover your face (I mean have we gone MAD? Cover our faces???), where is the empathy, or even the imagination for how other people live? That’s what I find so disgusting, this inability to put… Read more »
Bec, your story has moved me to post a comment for the first time in this forum (in fact for the first time, ever, on any social media platform!). It just encapsulates so many of the feelings of disbelief, anger, frustration, sadness and loss, that we all seem to be experiencing as this goes on, not to mention the absolute sense of powerlessness we can feel as individuals to do anything about it. I would love to join some sort of ‘visible’ protest against this tyranny, but it is so difficult when you live in a rural area to rally enough people to go to it, particularly if the people who are dissenting are mainly in the minority, and usually law abiding citizens!. Personally I am getting to the point where I would be happy to be arrested at for not ‘obeying’ these pointless rules, as I feel so strongly about it all, but then who would notice or comment on it enough to effect any real change???!! I have tried lobbying local MPs in the past about matters of concern, but there really isn’t much point as they either don’t respond, or respond with some fatuous comment about ‘… Read more »
“What’s even more infuriating, nobody cares, I simply cannot get anyone to listen.” I know what you mean. We care and we’re listening! I guess the sceptics are still in a minority, but I like to think that over time more people will come to think that we should move on. I think they already have. I’m less confident that we’ll persuade everyone this was a huge mistake to start with, because there seems to be a blockage for a lot of otherwise intelligent people that such a huge mistake could have been made by so many. Our best hope is that the human social instinct will gradually reassert itself. It already is – people are out and about, more relaxed. The shame is that there will be places where things like distancing and masks persist forever, because the people that run those places have dictatorial and virtue signalling tendencies, with the excuse that they are making the fearful feel comfortable. For example, I have a friend at University and they have decided to insist on masks on campus – they didn’t need to do this, but they did, and I can’t see that changing. We can all vote with… Read more »
Thanks, on my better days I know you are right but the zealots scare me, social pressure was a big part of Sage’s behaviour plan, I think we have to try and turn it back the other way, it’s got to become socially unacceptable to poke your nose into other people’s business. I feel really sorry for kids going to uni, it should be a right of passage, not health panto as a pawn in adult’s political games.
Adult’s political games, and personal madness/laziness.
Fundamentally we’re seeing a battle between those who want to get on with their lives and by and large are happy to leave others alone to get on with theirs, as long as they don’t threaten your person or your property, and those who think their views on how to live life should be imposed on everyone else.
To that extent, this current situation is the culmination of tendencies that have been growing for a long time, and it has been an almost perfect vehicle for people to use – except that it just hasn’t caused enough deaths so they are now having to resort to even more perfidy to keep it going.
The people to persuade are those who are lazy. The mad ones there’s no hope for. The lazy may, over time, realise they’ve been had and get fed up with being bossed around for no obvious good reason.
We just need there to be a focal point that has sufficient public profile around which opposition can coalesce.
I agree, it’s identity politics, I am watching people who cannot bear to give this government an inch no matter the price, and it’s those people I won’t forgive. If this truly was a national emergency then the greater good would come first, and yet every activist with an agenda has seen it as an opportunity, whether remainers getting their own back (I say that as a remainer, although a reluctant one now), BLM, socialists (what better way to smash capitalism?), environmental fundamentalist (ground the airlines, yay!), and on and on and on. As I’ve said here before, it seems quite class based too, the middle class contempt for ordinary people, and what they are suffering (heck, who even just wanted to take their kids to the beach) has really turned my stomach. And now a 25% contraction in the economy (I looked it up, under Thatcher it was 2%, 2008 was 6%), and yet they still mock people like us, when what is coming will devastate the poor and already hard done by. Animal cruelty and the neglect of the elderly – that’s me done! I agree, there needs to be more high profile dissent, I was wondering if… Read more »
I agree, we need to get organised. I just don’t know how to go about it when we are in a significant minority. That is why I feel so bloody impotent. I am staying in at home, alone, with my work and books around me. I will not associate with anyone wearing a mask and will not wear one. If I go hungry, I go hungry. Fortunately I have a small garden where I can commune with nature and/or God. My second home was always a bar or pub somewhere near. Bye bye second home, I will not compromise, and boy I like to socialise and drink
I emailed the mask sceptic MPs and encouraged them to start a movement, in a roundabout way.
Toby Young has more of a platform, and contacts, along with Simon Dolan. Maybe they are moving in that direction.
I think there may be a class element to all of it. Last weekend we stayed at a caravan Park in Lincolnshire for cheap accommodation while house hunting. Most tourists in that town were somewhat rough and ready,but they didn’t seem worried about walking near to others on the pavement, and frankly it was refreshing. In the middle class area where we live people are still walking into the road to avoid you.
That’s my observation also. I mean, if you’ve been working in Lidl or driving a van or whatever, what’s different? Nothing.
Hopefully there will be some decent reporting of today’s protest which will get people thinking.
I hate to say this but, wishful thinking. Couple of years back 25,000 marched in London against austerity. MSM didn’t touch it.
They are not adults, they are overgrown adolescents suffering from arrested development.
That is all so terrible, I’m not surprised you are angry and depressed (we all are, of course, in varying degrees). Take strength from all us sceptics. I haven’t lost any human family members but did have a precious pet put to sleep last month. I could not be with her; it really hurt, but thankfully I know the vet was kind and caring and it would have been done properly and gently. This government should be strung up for all the pain they’ve caused.
Really sorry to hear that about your beloved dog. It’s crap isn’t it? The other thing people aren’t thinking about is lots of dog’s homes and shelters have gone bust. Lots have been putting to sleep because they couldn’t rehome. That’s before the animal welfare crisis hits because people lose their jobs. I’ve got horses (both rescues), there’s a big horse welfare crisis brewing as it’s an expensive hobby, horses being dumped etc. Most of those horses end up on a meat lorry to France.
I’m just sick of the sanctimony about it all, what we have done is not kind. When it all comes out about what we’ve done to our old, our sick, our kids, our pets, at least I’ll know my conscience is clear.
Thanks again xx
Thanks, what’s even sadder, this is happening to families everywhere, I think that’s what made me so upset, my dog had a better death than some people’s elderly mum or dad!
Twas ever thus Bec, such is the glory of our wonderful NHS.
But my sincere regrets and anger for the government imposed violence you have been forced to endure.
Thanks, how we treat our elderly is a disgrace at the best of times.
Bec, really sorry, man. This horror story is the true cost of what they are doing. There’s a special place in hell…
I know, the absolute bastards. I think it’ll be like Germany after the war, no one will want to admit they were a signed up member, but we’ll be here to remind them.
Sorry to hear about your family and animal issues, that have made this generally disastrous situation so especially bad for you, Bec. I’m as pissed off as you are about the overall situation, so can only offer the usual optimistic platitudes in response, so little
useful for me to contribute here..
Thanks, the family members was one step removed for me, obviously my cousin’s distress was awful but it didn’t happen to me, but the dog was very very personal, as I say down thread, dogs are innocent like children, they have no guile, and what we are doing to children is even worse!
Now they’ve admitted the data is a farce I hope people will start to doubt, but some people seem so wedded to it all, so certain, I think it’ll be a long time before we as a country can look at it dispassionately, if we ever do.
Very sorry to hear what has happened. Its distressing to hear about people dying without their loved ones with them. The bit about the dog was distressing as well especially that she was unhappy at seeing the vet all muzzled up and wearing PPE.
The only thing I can say further is condolences to you an your family on your loss.
Thank you x
I wonder if more publicity for the human costs of the lockdown disaster will help change public opinion.
One can only hope so…but the hard core fanatics will never change their minds.
Very moved by your post. Completely understand about needing a break from things. We all have to look after our mental health.
Also emphasise with your anger. Those in power cannot fix the mess they have created with bailouts we cant afford. I hope that there will be a reckoning.
Me too! I think we are entering politically very choppy waters, I think those playing fast and loose with this situation for political reasons really need a very long think about they are messing with!
The list of grievances is growing apace. They should all be written down on parchment paper, sealed with wax and sent to the PM’s office.
WOW, poor you, how totally horrible. Yes, stay strong, you are not alone, there are THOUSANDS of stories like yours.
This lockdown has been just the most EVIL thing I have ever experienced. Literally like an evil spell has been cast over the world.
The truth will come out. Try to bear in mind that the last 4 months have been just a short blip in time.
These evil bastards who did this to us will have their day in the sunlight when we will ALL see clearly what they have done and the damage they have caused. There will be a reckoning.
Try to remember how in normal life 4 months can pass with out you even noticing. Yes it’s been HELL and the last four months feels like a living unending nightmare. But it’s just been four months. These bastards can’t stop the time.
Thanks, and you’re right, I hang onto that, one day this will be in our rear view mirror. I do worry about the long term damage we’ve done, particularly to the young and the very old, but I think overall British people are sensible, I do think good will win out in the end, although I think possibly it’ll get worse before it gets better. At least, like all of us here, my conscience is clear.
Yes, evil, evil evil. We are living in a regime of diabolical evil.
But there is goodness around. Believe in it, nourish it, stay with us, never give in.
We had our 16-year-old cat put to sleep in the dark days of full lockdown too, and like you, we had it done at home. It took many phone calls to find a vet willing to take the risk, rather than to take our cat into the surgery alive (whilst we waited in the car park) and bring her back out to us dead. One receptionist even shouted at my OH that it was “far too dangerous” to expect a vet to come out – to be that rude to someone who is calling to ask a vet to come and euthanase a much-loved pet is incomprehensible to me. Fortunately our cat didn’t care about the frankly terrifying big black mask the vet was wearing, but I did. It made the process feel ten times worse. But at least I was there with her, and to think that humans aren’t even being given that opportunity is horrific.
Really sorry to hear that, but well done for insisting on a dignified end. I know, people are brutal aren’t they, they just don’t think. I have two cats, they make me smile daily, ‘lockdown? What lockdown?’ they just suit themselves, does my heart good! I hated the PPE of the vet as well, she was kind, but clearly flustered because the dog was scared of her. I mean how the F do you explain to a scared, dying dog, ‘don’t worry it’s just a mask?’ it’s so stupid.
The inhumanity is breathtaking and the vet had more chance of dying in a RTA on the way to your house.
Bec, words fail me but the tears didn’t.
All this inhumane treatment! No wonder you’re angry.
Do post your horror stories at every available outlet. People need to wake up and realise what’s been going on!
Thanks, I know, and we had the money to pay for an expensive home service, others don’t. Elderly relatives, it’s rage inducing. It’s so unjust, and it’s going on everywhere, they reckon most of the excess non covid deaths are elderly dementia patients, before they die what we are doing to them is pretty much torture, and people stood and clapped!
I never clapped once…but thats because I have seen many previous times the inhumanity of the NHS. I was just as likely to have clapped for the BBC!
Well I, like many others, have noticed your absence and missed you and your intelligent comments and observations. I am so sorry to hear about all this. You have my profoundest compassion. Gaslighting is right. My mother (late eighties) is now in hospital, for no other reason I can ascertain than they need something to do. She is scared and in tears, no-one can visit her and she has no outward signs of illness. All the tests they did on her proved negative, including mandatory Covid. Can I get to speak to anyone about her? No I can’t.. She might as well be in Colditz. I have such contempt for the NHS and their arrogance. That’s noweher near your level of grief but I can’t get anyone to listen either BecT, it’s like they have all been brainwashed. Suddenly all the evidence for masks being useless has been overturned and everybody is in favour of 99.95% of us having to wear the damn obscenities to protect us from the 0.05% who might be carrying the thing. Look at those figures! That is absurd and I am sorry to have to say it again, but this is a coup. People dying… Read more »
I am so sorry to hear that! In your shoes I’d contact PALS immediately and complain. If that doesn’t work, ask a solicitor. Another friend of the family had a massive tumour removed, his wife spotted it and the GP got them admitted, saved their life. But they didn’t hear anything for days and days. In the end they got the registrar and said we are coming now and we are not leaving until someone comes to talk to us. If I was you I’d just go down there and get her discharged. That’s utterly appalling. I’m so very sorry you are dealing with that.
Yes no real evidence that lockdown has saved any lives at all but vast amounts of incontrovertible evidence that lockdown has led to large numbers of deaths ,vast mental suffering and economic genocide. I have lost all faith in humanity….though its been dwindling for a long time anyway.
Hello Bec, I am so very sorry to hear about your family members but distressed to the point of crying to hear about your dog. I know, humans should count for more, but dogs have a special place in my heart and I can’t bear to hear of their suffering. The very worst aspect of all this is that we are, at the moment, powerless to do anything about the situation. I can only hope and pray that that changes in the very near future. I share your rage and despair.
Thanks, I’m close to my cousins, but I wasn’t close to their relatives, but the inhumanity and lack of dignity really upset me, but the dog did send me over the edge, she was so scared! It should have been peaceful. At least with a human you can explain what’s happening and why, but how do you tell a dog?
I am so sorry to hear all you have gone through Bec,it is heartbreaking and I am in tears reading your post.
The removal of nearly all human decency and compassion during the past few months has been abhorrent,most people don’t seem to care for anyone except themselves.
Reading about the loss of your precious canine family member brings me painful memories from earlier this year when we had to say goodbye to our precious boy,his back legs became paralysed and he could not be treated,apart from that he was in good health for his age and his heart was very strong,I will never forget hugging him tightly in floods of tears whilst the vet needed to give him four injections to take him away from us.I will never,ever forget that day.
I now cling to a very small hope that more people will realise what is happening to us all and start making a stand.
Ah so sorry Paul, dogs are family, that must have been heartbreaking! And I agree, what we are doing to people and to animals is just disgusting. I never once clapped, and I have no time for the NHS. I’ve been reading about nurses playing cards for weeks, or getting hairdressers in to get all their hair done. OK so they were told they couldn’t talk about work, but a decent whistleblower would have done it anyway. I’d rather have an insurance system like the French or the Dutch, and do away with the whole creaking pile of crap.
Most definitely the NHS needs ditching but its now a state religion. Everywhere I go I see posters saying thank you to it…for what exactly? Almost all services have been withdrawn whilst the staff get priority shopping and ten per cent off the bill at my Morrisons. Wrights bakeries give all NHS staff free food at lunchtime. How about free food for those whose businesses have been decimated for no fault of their own. I was asked to sign a petition in town asking for free haircuts for NHS staff…I did not sign but wrote instead that NHS staff are on full pay and can afford to pay for their own haircuts. The woman was incensed but I wrote it in pen….maybe she got the tippex out later! I know NHS fanatics and they they get very angry if I dare to criticise it….they all either compare it to the USA or health care in Britain before 1948. Talk about setting the bar low. What you will never hear them do is compare the NHS with health care in Germany or Switzerland or Holland etc. Now I wonder why that is. For them the British NHS is the envy of… Read more »
So very sad to hear about your relatives and your dog Bec. Anyone who has ever lost a pet will understand how devastating that must have been.
Glad to have you back
Welcome back. I have missed you.
Bec, do not wear an exemption card / badge – it’s the 21st century equivalent of a yellow Star Of David. In law (for now anyway) no one has any right to know why you’re not wearing the muzzle. And you’re under no obligation to provide that information. The account you provided above was utterly heartbreaking to read, and I’ve no doubt there are thousands more such accounts waiting to be told. But, perhaps, a little rebellion against the oppressive diktat of our tyrants will be a salve on your hurt. I shop every day in a local supermarket (company policy is not to enforce the muzzle) and I’ve begun a little game: I count the number of homo sapiens I observe during my visit (muzzle wearers are clearly not sapient, and, therefore, are not the same species as me). The number varies: between 3 and 20+ so far, but the general trend is upward. So, while I still feel like I’m in a remake of ‘Invasion of the Bodysnatchers’ I’m starting to take heart. In fact, perhaps if more sceptics adopt this little game we could have a leader board on this site. Could be a useful proxy to… Read more »
‘Government suspends publication of daily UK-wide death toll over accuracy concerns‘ – About bloody time
As someone pointed out yesterday, they may be all too happy to have an excuse to suppress the figures now they have fallen to zero.
The figures are still published daily at https://twitter.com/UKCovid19Stats
8 deaths reported for England yesterday, but 4 of of those actually occurred over the previous week. So we’re in low single figures now, surely not long till there’s a day with no deaths at all?
Yes even the BBC will report that…as bringing the dreaded second spike even closer!
Love the Plague mask! Have a great holiday. Venice is a place we’ve always wanted to go to. Perhaps now might be the best time to go afterall!
Just a quick comment in the round up bit with articles today note the one regarding Iran. Rouhani says 25 million have been infected. Now considering in Iran the covering of the face for women is mandatory does this not demonstrate the ineffectiveness of a mask. I would have thought the strict Islam coutries would have seen little rates of infection and death as a result of the covering of faces
No my husband is iranian..covering the face is definately not mandatory. Wearing a hijap to cover your hair and clothing to cover your arms and legs are but the girls in tehran wear hijap on only half of their heads, almost all their hair out, wearimg tight jeans but coverimg their backs with long vests etc.. all of my many times in iran i have seen many women in different cities wearing those black deesses called chodar but never seen a covered face like saudi or afganistan ever..
I visited like minded sceptical friends yesterday and must admit to laughing a great deal as you have to laugh to keep sane at the present moment.
But one thing they showed me on my iPhone was that there is already an App or similar software that has been downloaded on to all our phones by the Government via Apple to track our movements when it is ever turned on by them, I had no idea!
Looked in Settings, Privacy, Health then you will see “Covid 19 Exposure Logging” and an on/off switch. It was there in all our iPhones, I guess on Android platforms tooand you cannot remove it as much as we tried, I guess I would have to disable Bluetooth to nobble it working
What is happening to this country, with 70% of the public supposedly thinking that wearing masks in shops is sensible, utter madness.
You’re only about 4 weeks late on this, this was posted on here on the 20th June.
Even if you do disable Bluetooth, you do not actually know if it is off or not for the app unless you have a device to constantly detect bluetooth acticity. It is possible that the code for the Covid 19 Exposure Logging allows it to be enabled ever so often. If you look at what Edward Snowden disclosed about how we were being spied on, the backdoors and zero day vulnerabilities allowed them to activate cameras, microphones, etc whenever they wanted.
Yer, just because you switch a little picture of a slidey switch doesn’t mean stuff IS turned off.
Faraday cages are our friends.
Ghislaine Maxwell was carrying her phone around in tin foil to try and create a poor man’s Faraday Cage, even though she’s got £20mn in the bank and could easily have just brought a Faraday Pouch.
As I understand it, deleting the Health app will solve this?
There is no App, the code has been put into both the Apple iOS and Android operating systems in recent updates. You have no option to remove it.
Ditching the smart phone will solve it!
Toby,
You’re meant to be on holiday!
Please don’t feel obligated to post a long daily column (much as we love it) – a blank “Gone Fishing” page is all we need, for the community to hang thoughts and chat below.
Family first!
Hear, hear, have a holiday, the flag will still be flying when you get back
i’m glad he’s replaced that picture of that vile sturgeon woman with her mask on though! 🙂
Don’t you mean “Stile vurgeon”
The UK government has halted the publication of the daily number of coronavirus deaths over concerns that “statistical flaws” might be rendering the data inaccurate.
On the government death statistics website for England, the issue is acknowledged, saying: “Deaths are counted where a lab-confirmed positive coronavirus test result is reported in any setting.
“This means that not all deaths reported here are caused by coronavirus.”
What the review will not pick up
Corona only made Notifiable disease on insistence of business worried about insurance claims.
But the Elephant in the room
The test for presence of infection sars2 covid (that do not establish the viral load) if positive are enough to add to death certificate. But this does not prove the infection has developed into the disease covid-19. This slight of hand helps inflate the numbers reported 24/7 on the news
We receive a newsletter every month from our local Tory MP telling us what he has been doing. We’ve just asked to be removed from the mailing list (not sure how we got on the mailing list in the first place-could be that we’ve been writing to him on a regular basis). We filled in the reasons why we no longer want his newsletter and gave it to him with both barrels!
Well done. I emailed my MP and told her the government could go hang,
I’ve done the same but it won’t worry as dictatorships don’t need to hold elections.
Ask him what he has been doing with his £10,000.
I’ve been reading this page since it started, and am among the most sceptical of sceptics.
I work for a large pharmaceutical company, that is required by regulators to have evidence based proof for all of its drugs. And rightly so. Before approval is granted the evidence is thoroughly scrutinised.
So you’d think my colleagues would be very evidence and data minded? And not susceptible to groupthink? Not a bit of it. Looks like masks are going to be mandatory in the office, which I was looking forward to, but now am trying to avoid.
On the occasions when I do go in, I am thinking I either construct myself the most flimsy mask of chiffon possible, and when challenged on its efficacy ask sternly “And where, might I ask, is any evidence that yours isn’t powered by magical thinking?” …or get one made with “WARNING: this mask is for appearances only and there is no evidence it stops the spread of disease”
Any other ideas?
If you’re up for possibly some stressful encounters, just don’t wear one.
Don’t wear one. You cannot be forced to wear one. There are clear exemptions. It’s all bolox.
If they sack you its against the law and the law will be on your side.
How about you just leave your job, big pharma is EVIL anyway.
I don’t subscribe to that idea. Who else would develop medicines? It’s very expensive & highly risky. You need private capital, not tax payer funding.
Speak to HR they will have to weigh up this diktat against possible claims of long term mental health issues.
The last thing you ever want to do is speak to HR.
Agree! Unless you’re trying to fire someone. Then they are v useful
HR are there to support and enforce the company policies – they are not there to support the employees. Bit like MPs who you’d think are there to support their constituents who voted them in, but no they enforce the government policies.
Probably waste of time speaking to them and in my experience quite useless.
Agreed and the unions would be even worse.
I’m a bit late in on this Sophie123 but be brave and don’t wear a mask.
When challenged / derided / accused / wheedled at, just say,
“Wearing a mask such as yours is not an evidence-based choice – it is an emotional choice. I don’t share your emotions on the issue.”
When then accused of being selfish and a ‘granny killer’, just smile politely and say, “There you go. That’s the emotion I was talking about,”
and carry on with your work.
You will be fine!
No doubt cited many times previously on this forum…apologies….. ‘Sweeping mask recommendations—as many have proposed—will not reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission, as evidenced by the widespread practice of wearing such masks in Hubei province, China, before and during its mass COVID-19 transmission experience earlier this year. Our review of relevant studies indicates that cloth masks will be ineffective at preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission, whether worn as source control or as PPE.’ https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data If anyone watches the Formula One race in Hungary today, observe how often the wearers touch their masks when talking. Given what we have known since 06 Feb, covid 19 transmits mainly through personal contact, masks are part of the problem, not the solution: ‘The second factor is that of personal contact. With Sars once it was discovered that the virus was spread through the fecal oral route there was much less emphasis on the masks and far more emphasis on disinfection and washing hands. HK has far more cleanliness (than China) and they are very aware of social hygiene. And other countries will be more aware of the social hygiene (than China). So in those countries you should see less outbreaks and spreading. A couple days ago the fecal-oral route… Read more »
Given the number of people who don’t even wash their hands after going to the toilet, it may be difficult to get many people to take up even normal hygiene practices.
I was reading the new “framework” for local authorities to use to close down businesses last night. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/containing-and-managing-local-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreaks/covid-19-contain-framework-a-guide-for-local-decision-makers Couple of very very interesting paragraphs, to me perhaps the absolutely most important ones in the whole document are: o address more serious and wider-spread cases, ministers will be able to use their existing powers (under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984) to implement more substantial restrictions (regulations would be produced – and approved by Parliament – on a case-by-case basis) which could include: closing businesses and venues in whole sectors (such as food production or non-essential retail), or within a defined geographical areas (such as towns or counties) imposing general restrictions on movement of people (including requirements to ‘stay at home’, or to prevent people staying away from home overnight stays, or restrictions on entering or leaving a defined area) imposing restrictions on gatherings – limiting how many people can meet and whether they can travel in and out of an area to do so restricting local or national transport systems – closing them entirely, or introducing capacity limits or geographical restrictions mandating use of face coverings in a wider range of public places and Public Health (Control of… Read more »
Good work AG
Sadly, AG, no. I like what you are saying and wish it were true. Well, it is true, but you are talking about local tinpot dictators here. They’ve got a sniff of power and they will use it.
Even if they are eventually tripped up by your reasoning, it will be too late; that pub/shop/park will already be closed.
Our lot are already pushing it: “wear masks now, don’t wait til July 24”, “limit home visits to 2 people” etc.
Unfortunately, as through all of this, “they” will do what they bloody want to.
Of course they will do whatever they want to, especially at council level but at least doing things under the 1984 public health legislation it is a lot harder to arbitrarily impose restrictions and you can fight back – as long as you know the law which is the problem, most business owners don’t which is why they are asked all over.
walked all over, not asked – bloody predictive text autocorrect.
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”
― Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds 1840
Boris should resign and take the ghastly Matt Hancock with him. If he won’t resign, the 1922 Committee should compel him to go. They should pick an experienced senior leader and make a new start. Does anyone think Boris is the man to lead us out of this? Or perhaps the backbenchers are looking forward to twenty years in the wilderness.
I doubt anyone here thinks the PM is fit to lead anything. I expect most of us think he may be liable for criminal charges. Certainly should never be allowed anywhere near power ever again. Ditto, in my view, the rest of the Cabinet.
As for the 1922 Committee, why would they compel him to go? Aside from the 3/4 mask sceptics, MPs have been utterly complicit in this.
It will be interesting to find out who ordered the discharge of patients from hospitals into care homes.
If they were advised not to do it because of the potential risks; but then did it anyway, yes, it’s prima facie evidence of manslaughter
I’m not a betting man but I’ll have a couple of quid on that’s what happened
Possibly. Aside from care homes, ordering a lockdown without doing a cost benefit analysis has got to be negligent, though I don’t know enough about the law as it relates to government to say whether that was criminal. And pursuing a deliberate policy of exaggerating the threat, and manufacturing it (see Leicester) has also got to be questionable, though again maybe not under any criminal statute.
It was official policy by PHE, was posted on their website and keeps getting updated:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-stepdown-of-infection-control-precautions-within-hospitals-and-discharging-covid-19-patients-from-hospital-to-home-settings/guidance-for-stepdown-of-infection-control-precautions-and-discharging-covid-19-patients
but still says that even if you are exhibiting symptoms you can be released from hospital.
So it was instigated by whoever is ultimately in charge of PHE which is under the DHSC which is Matt Hancock and Whitty.
Duncan Selbie is PHE’s chief exec.
Here’s his Friday Message:
https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2020/07/17/duncan-selbies-friday-message-17-july-2020/
And here are the registered interests of PHE’s advisory board:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phe-advisory-board-register-of-interests/declared-interests-of-phe-advisory-board-members-september-2019
And yet earlier this month Boris made a statement basically blaming the care homes themselves for all the deaths. I was totally gobsmacked when I first read that. There doesn’t seem to have been that much media or political reaction to his attempt at shifting blame, though (or if there was, I missed it)
Here is an interesting thing. The backbenchers have put up a determined fight against Huawei. I think they may more restive than appears, possibly because have swallowed the Covid narrative and because no one wants to pick up the responsibility for recovery. And true, who would want the job? I was trying to keep my post short, but I wanted to say that I believe there are Conservative MPs whose love of country and lack of personal ambition (due to age), along with expertise would enable them to bring much needed stability before the economy goes over the edge. Of course, fear of future electoral disaster will help to focus the minds of the others.
How quickly things change. Whenever I browse articles related to Covid these days or even glance at a newspaper, I am bombarded with adverts for muzzles. Designer muzzles, fashion muzzles, muzzles of every colour and style.
Add to that the increasingly horrific normalisation of muzzle wearing on TV adverts, this ceaseless propaganda campaign and opportunism is thoroughly gross. In fact, it’s more than that – it’s downright wrong.
This should NOT feel normal. This should NOT be just meekly accepted by what I have now learned is a largely docile, compliant British public. We should be rejecting this absolute horse shit wherever we encounter it!
It made me depressed this morning seeing the increased number of masks worn by local shoppers, knowing that by the end of the week they’ll (maybe) all be wearing them, just because they were told to do – now, when daily deaths in England are in single figures (going down in a steady curve unaffected by the relaxing of lockdown over the last couple of months) and the chance of even meeting someone infectious, let alone catching the virus, is negligible.
I will be very interested to see how things turn out from the 24th onwards. I am kind of hoping people won’t be as universally compliant as the media seem to be hoping/assuming. But I suspect I’m being too optimistic there!
Drawde927, I don’t know where you live but around here the number of mask wearers is tiny, usually just those at bus stops who, once boarded, lower them beneath their chin.
My local (independent) supermarket/general store are obviously keen on masks as they had the official “wear a face covering in shops” poster in their windows and on a sign board outside their door for the last couple of weeks, starting well before the official announcement.
I haven’t made a conscious decision to boycott them but I have to say I haven’t been in there since, and I used to get about half of my everyday groceries there.
They deserve boycotting.
Sky News Raab interview. Watching his eyes flick about looking behind his camera it’s clear he is getting info from either notes or people out of shot. To his right our left. This is significant in the web camera way interviews aee conducted. All others will be doing similar.
I thought all government opinion now was to look to the left!
A smile thanks!
The mask is the perfect motif for the Nanny State that’s female in nature and sentiment and naturally prone to mass hysteria ; the hard truth is that ,generally speaking, women are hopeless at risk assessment and taking calculated risks ; they become paralysed by indecision like hand wringing Hamlets and will always err on the side of caution and the result is an obsession with SAFETY-ISM like we’re all a bunch of schoolkids .. the fact is that these Nanny State-ers will make a mountain out of every single mole hill and then smugly congratulate themselves for ”keeping us safe” while destroying the economy in a fit of hysteria !
Question. If IFR for Covid turns out to be similar to a bad Flu season (as seems to be the case) AND is affecting healthy under 75’s less severely than Flu (as seems to be the case), why are drastic actions necessary even if the number of infections rise steeply?
Drastic actions are necessary to cover up the huge overreaction to the virus on the part of the UK and other governments, and on the part of the media and parts of the scientific community and bodies like SAGE and the WHO.
If we were now told to carry on as normal, people would be asking what it was all for, which would be disastrous for the careers of those who made the decisions.
There are also many organisations, governments, movements and strands of thinking for whom an endless climate of fear is beneficial in furthering their goals, because frightened people will go along with things that the unfrightened will not put up with.
I would recommend anyone who can to move to countries where freedom seems to have been preserved during this global madness, if you can find any.
France is not one of them, sadly.
Much harder to obtain exemption from muzzle-wearing here as well. Doctor’s certificate required – and to get that you have to visit the surgery…
Drastic actions are being taken because this is a coup. I was quite happy initially to accept people who thought I was being a bit conspiracy-theorist, but no more. Mandatory facemasks, which is a volte face without any evidence, is there simply to demand your obedience. No other reason.This is a coup, nothing less.
What is happening in Melbourne is horrendous and Australians who tend to be wary of authoritarianism have no voice .Masks must be worn in public places and are mandated for a very long time according to the Labor party premier Dan Andrews
” We are going to be wearing masks in Victoria, and potentially in other parts of the country, for a very long time. There’s no vaccine to this wildly infectious virus, and it’s a simple thing but it’s about changing habits,” he said.
The comment section is 100 % in support of this insanity.
Australians what has happened to you ??
https://www.theage.com.au/national/coronavirus-australia-update-live-victoria-sees-covid-19-spike-continue-and-three-more-deaths-nsw-upgrades-restrictions-australia-death-toll-at-119-20200719-p55dca.html
The comments like on social media are posted by political bots, the purpose being to make it look like people who object to these new laws and guidance seem to be abnormal and in the minority.
There is a whole industry based on this now which has been utilised mainly by the left which is so powerful that is shapes modern day policy.
I was gonna say something like that, there are thousands of fake social media accounts being managed by a number of groups to push the narrative. Their fake voices over-amplified to a stunning level.
Indeed. Sadly the government here seem to be more worried about nutters on social media than by genuine public opinion.
So the opposite should be pushed in exactly the same manner. Very low percentage of people wearing masks in Melbourne.
Maybe more of us should get onto social media. Trouble is, I can’t stand it. Probably people with normalish, moderate views have better things to do with their lives. Though I’m sitting here typing…
I don’t want to get into another left vs right argument here, but the “left” tend to be better at organising themselves and protesting. The “right” seem to feel less strongly, probably because we wrongly assume we’re still running things…
The left always seem to have an agenda or cause. Many on the right simply want to be left alone to have a nice cup of tea and some cake.
The Right have been routed in the Culture War…have a read of the new book ‘The Long March’. It shows how all key institutions have been captured by a mixture of liberals and communists.
It’s why the majority of the time to these comments you do not get a reply, they just voice that one opinion to set it in peoples minds, they the rabid pack that fall for their opinions set on people.
Here’s some fake accounts the NGHS was doing in April
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2020/04/20/more-coronavirus-propaganda-hundreds-of-fake-nhs-social-media-accounts-set-up-by-health-dept/
Neighbours and Home and Away has melted their minds into psy-op jelly mate.
I was called a racist on twitter a few weeks back for opposing the the BLM Anti-Semitic tweets. When I looked into the person who called me this I believe it was only someone aged 12-15, which doesn’t bode well for the future and explains why all these youngsters think Corbyn is god, and that everything they hear about COVID-19 is the truth. The moulding of young minds.
rack off bouncer!
I spent a few months in Oz many years ago. The people were great. No nonsense, down to earth, honest muckers. Not anymore it would seem. My recently returned friend says that there is a pronounced urban/rural divide though….
I cant say I am surprised at this. I watched a QE programme on you tube with Germaine Greer and Peter Hitchens. The mindless conformism of the audience was even worse than our own Question Time. To call them sheep would be to insult these lovely animals. The myth of the independent free thinking non PC aussie is just that….pure mythology but no doubt useful propaganda for some.
Everyone, please read BecJT’s post below.
Look at what they have done, just look.
Then look at their fake death figures, double counting, fear mongering and mask grandstanding.
These bastards should burn in hell, I’m reminded of lyrics from The Gates of Delirium, by Yes:
Listen should we fight forever
Knowing as we do know
Fear destroys?
Listen should we leave our children?
Listen our lives stare in silence
Help us now
Listen your friends have been broken
They tell us of your poison
Now we know
Kill them give them as they give us
Slay them burn their children’s laughter
On to Hell
Strong stuff, but appropriate.
Yes, yes, yes: I want to see them burn (almost literally!).
Almost?
And it ends with the lovely song ‘soon’.
Insanity piles on insanity and, yet, there is so little we can do about it. Again I feel compelled to write to my MP, albeit with little hope of any action – but perhaps, at least, he may start to realise the level of disgust in which many MPs are held. My email, if anyone is interested:- “I am one of your constituents (Name, address and post-code) and would like to urge you to read Peter Hitchens’ latest blog post ( https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2020/07/peter-hitchens-face-masks-turn-us-into-voiceless-submissives-and-its-not-science-forcing-us-to-wear-.html#comments ), entitled “Face masks turn us into voiceless submissives – and it’s not science forcing us to wear them, it’s politics”. I am sure you must be aware of the scandalous over-counting of covid-related deaths due to PHE’s total incompetence and must also be aware that the WHO changed its advice on facemask-wearing due to political lobbying and NOT due to any science. This MUST NOT be allowed to stand – it is time for our MPs to stand up for what is right and compel Johnson and the serially-incompetent Hancock to withdraw the insane new ruling about masks after July 24th. This government’s suicidal over-reaction to a flu-level pandemic will live in the history books as the… Read more »
Stirring stuff, IanE, but unfortunately, your MP will hit the Delete key at the word ‘Peter’.
Probably!
Unfortunately ‘insanity’ and ‘over reaction’ seem less and less credible explanations of the government’s actions as time goes by.
You can understand if a single ‘crazed’ dictator of a third world country was implementing these steps and label him insane and paranoid, but we see the same policies (with minor variations) being rolled out by governments across the world, and with the same deadly results for the sick and elderly and for the most vulnerable economically.
Saw this article yesterday and though it was worth sharing:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/stockman-clown-cars-are-fully-loaded-and-dr-faucis-leading-parade
Will the ‘vaccine’ be the only way to get exemption from mask-wearing?
Zombies don’t need muzzles…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ltZ3bYMQeqs
Mark Dice: “Masks!!”
Mark Dice showing the hypocrisy of some of those promoting the wearing of masks for the public.
“Are the people there not worried for their own personal safety?!”
So they’re not wearing masks to protect the grannies!
A bit frustrated with the Unherd interview. Yes, it’s good to see uncertainty recognised and the kind of caution displayed that is noticeably absent from most of the media interviews of panic advocates, but I feel there are points they could have made more clearly and some rather unnecessary equivocation.
There was some equivocation yes but if you want 5 star clarity this article from Peter Hitchens is the one. He nails it.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8537489/PETER-HITCHENS-Face-masks-turn-voiceless-submissives.html
Medical professionals will only go so far in their comments. At all times, their allegiances are wholly to their professional class, not to the common person.
I think they are just very careful not to speak in absolutes.
Very much agree they are guarded but its fairly obvious what they think.
Yes agreed…. If you haven’t seen it here is Prof. Levitt demolishing the Ipms (Imp. College Modellers). Start from 2 hrs to hear his attack on them. Levitt’s clear description of his analysis of the data with simple conclusions begins at 28 mins and the Imps incoherent description of their model to support lockdown at 48 mins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1u_yworTco&feature=youtu.be
They are a bit cagey, but if you listen closely what they say is pretty damning with regards to the way governments and some of their colleagues have reacted.
I think the interviewer should have tried to pin them down a bit more – he let them ramble a bit. They have the tendency that I suppose many nerds do (I’m a nerd and I don’t mean to insult or demean nerds) of liking to give comprehensive answers.
I think if they had been asked to distil their thoughts into a few minutes each, the result would have been much harder hitting.
If they had been in charge of SAGE, I don’t think we’d be in the mess we’re in now.
Peter Hitchens is a political commentator so inevitably will make more political points.
The public health legislation that enables the government to lock us up is dated 1984
Spot the irony
Yes – and introduced by the last (perhaps, indeed, the last ever) Conservative Prime Minister, Maggie, who must be turning in her grave!
I am not uncritical of Mrs Thatcher but the like of her in terms of leadership qualities and an actual belief in clear political principles will not be seen again. The current Tory prime minister and whole cabinet are not fit to lick her boots.
Refreshingly old normal evening meal out in Newcastle yesterday. A warm evening, people out enjoying themselves, hardly a mask to be seen, and the city more alive than I’ve seen for a long time. The restaurant was welcoming, and apart from the hand gloop by the entrance there were no in-your-face covid hysteria measures to intrude on the experience. One person came in wearing a mask and stood at the bar area, looked uncomfortable and out of place, constantly adjusting the thing. Felt important to give some positive reinforcement when we paid the bill – I congratulated waiting staff and management for the low-key enforcement of the “guidelines”. Found myself getting pretty furious as I listed all the inhuman and detestable “safety” measures we were heartily glad were NOT there in our dining experience! We were glad to be treated as human beings again, and it felt good.