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Second Wave? Virus Has All But Disappeared
Your daily reminder that the virus has dwindled away to almost nothing. This graph shows daily triage calls for 19-69 year-olds. Note no uptick during the Hyde Park BLM protests or during the “major incident” on Bournemouth Beach. (Hat tip Alistair Haimes.)
Unfortunately, nobody’s told the National Trust. Had an amusing email from a reader just back from the Lake District.
My girlfriend and I took a trip up to Ambleside last week, arriving the day before Maskgeddon. We were denied an early check-in as the room-cleaning regime at our B&B involved multiple rounds of antibacterial fumigation!
The National Trust seems to have completely lost the plot! The day of our first outing, we visited the Aira Force waterfall and parked in one of their car parks near the top of the trail down to the waterfall. As we walked towards the trail, a bedwetter loudly informed me that there was a one-way system on the trails, before we’d even reached the sign. When we got back to the car, I noticed that the Trust has helpfully supplied a hand-sanitiser dispenser embedded in a tree stump near the pay & display machine! Goodness knows how many thousands of lives they’ve already saved with such thoughtful measures!
For the rest of the trip I refused to muzzle up, and I wasn’t challenged at all – in fact most shop staff seemed pleased to be seeing a human face rather than a soggy rag. When we were up on to the fells, it was (mercifully) easy to forget all the absurdity going on down in the valleys…
Not surprising that the National Trust is anticipating having to make 1,200 members of staff redundant, according to the BBC.
Tall Lives Matter
I’ve written a squib for today’s Telegraph about the research purporting to show that people over 6ft are twice as vulnerable to catching Covid. No, it’s not the usual demolition job. As a short(ish) man, I actually welcome the news and hope it’s true.
This comes as something of a relief because I’ve always been a bit chippy about my height. For years, whenever anyone asked me how tall I was, I would say, “Five foot eight and a half,” and then stare at them defensively, daring them to contradict me. But I realised eventually that adding “and a half” wasn’t doing me any favours. It was just advertising the fact that I had an inferiority complex. So now I say, “Five foot nine” and try not to look away too quickly.
Believe it or not, five foot nine is average height for a fully-grown British male and being below that, even if it’s only half an inch, is still a source of resentment. Without quite being aware of it, most people treat height as a proxy for social status, a form of “unconscious bias” that’s unlikely to be addressed by any diversity training programme.
People don’t exactly stop me as I’m on my way back from the lavatory in restaurants and ask me to bring them the bill, but I can still detect a hint of patrician disdain whenever I’m introduced to a tall, upper class man. If I stand next to Jacob Rees-Mogg at a party, for example, I feel like one of the grinning street urchin in that famous photograph of the two Etonian schoolboys towering over the local working class lads.
Worth reading in full, obviously.
My Mask Hell
I’m publishing a new essay today by regular Lockdown Sceptics contributor Guy de la Bédoyère. It’s about his first trip to the shops since the mandatory face coverings policy was introduced.
Walking round a supermarket is actually quite tiring. It’s not like wandering into a newsagent. You have to carry a heavy basket or push a laden trolley. This means that breathing is quite important. As my expedition progressed, I began to feel light-headed. This perplexed me until I realized I was experiencing the first signs of hypoxia. Not only was I not breathing enough, I was also breathing back in my carbon-dioxide laden exhalations. It was like being in Apollo 13 before they managed to knock up some emergency DIY carbon-dioxide filters.
No wonder I was overcome with a constant desire to tear the mask off and gulp air in. With a mild sense of panic beginning to take me over I hurried to the self-service till where I wouldn’t have to use up any additional air trying to speak, constantly having to resist the reflex to remove the mask, hurried through and exited the shop. What a total relief it was to get outside.
Worth reading in full.
Lockdown Killing 2,700 People A week – New Study
According to a study by economists and academics from Sheffield and Loughborough universities, the lockdown has already killed 21,000 people. The Telegraph has the story.
The analysis examines Office for National Statistics (ONS) data in the eight weeks that followed the national lockdown.
Researchers said the findings show that “lockdown has killed 21,000 people” because the policy has had “significant unintended consequences” such as lack of access to critical healthcare and a collapse in A&E attendances.
The study examines deaths data in recent months, and tracks it against long-term trends, taking account of other variables such as demographic and economic factors.
It suggests that the lockdown – and the subsequent reduction in access to healthcare – increased total mortality by roughly 2,700 deaths a week.
It follows warnings that the number of people attending Accident and Emergency departments fell by 50% at some points during the pandemic, while urgent referrals for suspected cancer dropped by 70%.
21,000 people seems like an underestimate to me. This new study complements Carl Heneghan and Daniel Howden’s article yesterday for the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine blog flagging up the high number of excess deaths in homes, which they speculated could be caused by “individuals deterred from visiting hospitals”.
Bakery Refuses to Sell Bread to Pensioner, 94, Because She Only Has Cash
The woman behind the counter at Bird’s Bakery in Arnold refused to serve a pensioner because she only had cash. Nottinghamshire Live has the story.
A 94-year-old woman who lived through the Second World War was was told she couldn’t buy bread from Birds bakery because she didn’t have a bank card.
Former hosiery worker Edna Dalchin, of Basford, has never owned a bank card and prefers to pay “the old fashioned way” with cash.
She was left shocked and embarrassed when staff at Birds Bakery in Bulwell told her to put essential items back because they could not take her money.
What utter madness. I’m tempted to send the owner of Bird’s Bakery this recent comment in the Lancet in which the Professor of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics at the New Jersey Medical School review the evidence about whether the virus can live on fomites and concludes “the chance of transmission through inanimate surfaces is very small”.
Postcard From Derry
A reader in Northern Ireland has been in touch with some cheery news: the people of Northern Ireland haven’t succumbed to Coronaphobia. Face masks still aren’t mandatory over there. And you don’t even need a passport, just some ID.
The atmosphere in Derry is very close to normal now. People are chatting and friendly, and even though cafes, etc. have fewer seats, the ones that are open are quite busy.
Last week there was a brief flurry of mask wearing, but it seems to have died down. About a third of people wear them in Marks and Spencer Food (that middle class virtue signalling is everywhere!) and a much lower percentage elsewhere. Staff in (NI) aren’t wearing masks, but south of the Border (e.g. in a really good cafe called Tank and Skinny’s), they do have to. The South seems to be going backwards very badly, having initially been getting better.
Talking to people here, there is a great deal of scepticism about the disease and the response. I get the impression from Lockdown Sceptics and my friends in England that the atmosphere is a lot more Stasi-like over there, so we are all very glad to be here!
There are a few other local peculiarities which help.
The history of the Troubles mean that the police are very wary of giving any excuse for a riot, so they were pretty light touch even during the worst of the lockdown. The Troubles also mean people are much less trusting of the media and the Government anyway, especially on the Nationalist side of the fence.
There is also a sense in Ireland, North and South, that people are entitled to their view (apart from that obnoxious and tiny minority which has caused most of the trouble over the years), which doesn’t come over in the media at all, and does make daily life a lot less Orwellian than, say, undergraduate studies at Oxford…
On the downside, the public sector is basically completely inert here just like everywhere else.
As well as that, the economic impact of the lockdown is increasingly visible. It is clear many of the shops, cafes and restaurants won’t be re-opening, possibly ever, and from my own perspective trying to get a new tax consultancy business off the ground, not being able to meet people face to face has not been good news.
It’s hardly the biggest problem caused by the lockdown, but I suspect in aggregate it will hit new businesses disproportionately and so hamper the recovery. Certainly, from my own experience things were going very well up to lockdown, and then went into the deep freeze and have been slow to come back out again. Many people thought in June we would be back to normal by September, but we all now think it’s going to be the New Year before the nonsense stops.
Anyway, overall things are about as good as they can be here, and if people wanted to visit somewhere in the UK with nice scenery, nice people and the same very little to do as everywhere else, they could do a lot worse!
Round-Up
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:
- ‘The lockdown has been cruel and negligent’ – Arch-sceptic Dr John Lee is Brendan O’Neill’s guest on his podcast
- ‘Western liberals’ Covid myopia is condemning the world’s poorest‘ – Strong column from Madeline Grant in the Telegraph
- ‘Red faces as Guardian mixes up rapper Kano for Wiley‘ – The wrong rapper appeared above Owen Jones’s Guardian column about the Wiley brouhaha. Red faces all round
- ‘Will the speculative vaccine shopping spree ever end?‘ – Ross Clark laments the Government’s financially incontinent approach to vaccines as it concludes its fourth deal, this one for 60 million doses of an experimental treatment being developed by GSK and Sanofi
- ‘Cambridge scientists fear coronavirus second wave as “R” rate rises across UK‘ – More scaremongering nonsense. Give me strength
- ‘UK facing “K-shaped” economic recovery as the gulf between the “haves” and “have nots” widens‘ – Another reason lefties shouldn’t be supporting the lockdown
- ‘Lockdown-free Sweden is seeing a “very positive” downward trend‘ – Good news piece in the Daily Mail
- ‘Meghan Markle agrees to pay more than £67,000 in legal costs after losing the first round of her legal battle against the Mail‘ – Embarrassing
- ‘The latest BBC Leftie hatchet job is proof it’s incapable of balance‘ – The Mail‘s Stephen Glover takes aim at the BBC’s three-part documentary on Rupert Murdoch
- ‘School closures do not slow the spread of Covid-19, according to Finnish-Swedish official study‘ – More on the Finish-Swedish study showing school closures had zero impact on the spread of the virus. Finland closed schools, Sweden didn’t, but Covid infection levels for children were similar in both countries
- ‘JK Rowling: Edinburgh rail station advert in support of author removed‘ – An advertising poster reading “I love JK Rowling” at Edinburgh’s main railway station has been removed for being too “political” and potentially offensive.
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A couple of months 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.
Forums Back Up and Running
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.
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums that are now open. Initially, they became a spam magnet so we temporarily closed them. However, we’ve found a team of people wiling to serve as moderators so the Forums are back up and running. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
I thought I’d create a new permanent slot down here for people who want to buy (or make) a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here and it has the advantage of not explicitly claiming you have a disability. But if you have no qualms about that (or you are disabled), you can buy a lanyard from Amazon saying you do have a disability/medical exemption here (although it’s showing a delivery date of Sept 2nd to 12th). The Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. You can get a “Hidden Disability” tag from eBay here and an NHS exemption notice for just £2.99 from Etsy here (see above).
And don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face nappies in shops here.
A couple of readers have emailed to say just how effective these devices are.
I am currently in Corfu after flying this morning from Birmingham International Airport. I drove down from Hull in the early hours, 50 / 50 as to what my strategy was going to be. Shops are one thing, airports and aeroplanes another. I had my lanyard on me from Amazon, which you had kindly sent a link to previously on Sceptics.
I thought, what the hell, parked my car at the meet and greet, should have been wearing a muzzle, but Unchallenged as I handed my keys over. Walked into the airport, guy at the entrance motioned to me about a mask, showed him the lanyard, waved me through. Checked my case in after having to get the required Greek travel number to the staff member, no problem. Shopped in the airport, asked in Smiths but again showed the lanyard, fine. Coffee in Starbucks then through to the boarding gate. Asked again, showed the Lanyard, onto the plane.
I was literally the only person on the plane without one. Strangely, I felt proud, rather than guilty, but naughty nevertheless. End of flight, into Corfu, and the long queue to go through customs. Kept reaching for the muzzle in my back pocket as it was feeling a little uncomfortable, I was the only one! I got a couple of comments in the queue but only to ask where I got the lanyard from, half jokingly. Got through, no problem, onto the transfer bus to the Hotel, never needing to put a muzzle on. I may act slightly differently on the way back but I’ll make that call at home time.
Anyway, thought you might to hear that the Lanyards do work. To my defence I do genuinely have mild asthma at times so I feel justified, although I was probably fitter than 50% of people on the flight.
And here’s the other one.
My Amazon mask exemption card/lanyard arrived conveniently on July 24th – £4.95 plus postage – and has proved 100% effective.
Nobody has questioned it nor have I had any ‘dirty’ looks in fact the reverse with some retailers actually thanking me for wearing it !
I have now refined it further by buying an NHS lanyard from etsy.com – £2.95 – and wearing this as well.
This has the added benefit of making the exemption card look totally official and quite a few members of the public giving me big smiles presumably because they think I work for the ‘wonderful’ NHS – which I don’t. Like most of us, I just pay for it.
Absolutely brilliant. All sceptics should get one!!!
And just in case you think we’ve got it bad, a reader has emailed from the People’s Republic of Victoria in Australian where things are much, much worse.
Premier Daniel Andrews has recently imposed a draconian face masks (or face coverings) requirement on us that makes England’s requirement of masks in shops and on public transport sound positively utopian. Melbournians must now wear face coverings at all times whenever they are outside their homes. This includes all workplaces, all day. There are a few anomalous exceptions. Although masks must be worn when walking for exercise, they can be taken off while jogging, cycling, drinking a takeaway coffee, smoking or vaping, or in a car with only other members of your household. Thus, a person walking outside by themselves with no-one else around must wear a face covering. Fines of $200 apply for non-compliance and social pressure from the “true believers” and media is also strongly apparent.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. If you feel like donating, however small the sum, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here.
And Finally…
Picture from the Spectator USA to illustrate an article on how law and order has broken down in San Francisco. Perfect illustration of how we’ve got our priorities upside down during the Covid crisis. And in case you believed any of that guff about housing the homeless in the UK, a reader reports on his conversation with a homeless person in Lincoln yesterday:
Spoke to a homeless woman who said:
* That policy they had to house the homeless through this period (talk of hotels being repurposed) never happened.
* Council/social services/benefits were almost entirely unavailable during this period.
* Police were nowhere to be seen and it became very dangerous.
* No people in streets meant no money and no city centre shops to buy food, but some people drove down specifically to bring food parcels. Very kind.
* She knows nobody that has had the virus or anyone that they know.
* She was shocked that my ways of thinking about this episode were similar to hers – this was the first time she had met anyone that wasn’t sold on the lunacy of this irrational wave of thinking.
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Am I first?
Yes I am…
Then I’ll begin…by saying : don’t be downhearted. Think we’ve passed the darkest hour. I think the tide is turning and there is a trickle of sentiment in favour of scepticism that might yet turn into a flood.
The death figures are flatlining everywhere and that reality will have to be accepted by everyone eventually.
“Everyone” includes politicians, health advisors and nutjob epidemiologists from Imperial College. Question for the Woke: why hasn’t Imperial College been closed down because of its fascist war-crime name?
They’ll probably rename it ‘Thank You NHS College’
“Ferguson College”
In tribute to the Young Ones, and as a reflection of their standing. Scumbag College seems appropriate
We’ve got someone from Imperial College doing an online Cafe Scientific event (an evening where someone sciencey gives a talk) in September. He’s Dr Mike Skinner, a virologist, and a “Corona virus expert”.
Will he be predicting the Second Wave ?
Tar and feathers? Is there a way to do this virtually? I don’t think it would have the same effect.
That’s a very good beginning.
I’m beginning to find the waah waah second wave waah waah R number quite funny. Doubleplusgood duckspeak. A noise uttered in unconsciousness. Goldstein is out there, waah waah.
I wish I had your optimism OKUK!
I agree. There is a lot more disagreement to the propoganda coming through. FB advert for (think it was UNICEF) to ‘help generation covid’ was full of comments worthy of this site. The tide is definitely turning 🙂
Back in March, on another site (Guido Fawkes) I posted why we didn’t need a lockdown, and the downvotes piled in (a couple of other sceptics upvoted). The comments were… interesting.
Within weeks that particular tide was turning and the lockdown zealots, while not gone, tend to ignore rather than engage. That alone is its own victory.
I may well have been one of those upvotes. I would agree with your assessment, though Guido (Paul & co.) seems to be disturbingly pro-mask (probably because they are diehard Tories first and foremost, and so support the government no matter what farce it is in charge of).
You probably saw my denunciation. I know you did, you upvoted that one, lol. I’ve been going back to tweak noses though. I love swearing at them: Sweden, Sverige, Belarus…
Am happy to wear a mask on planes and public transport, hardly a great loss of liberty.
Does this mean anything to you Guido?
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
It doesn’t take much imagination to apply it to a potential future (in more than just the UK) if people don’t start refusing to comply with these repugnant measures. Masks take people’s identity from them and make social interactions awkward and unpleasant, in both cases dehumanising and demeaning them. Not to mention that masks don’t even work to protect the wearers or others, though that point is a mere distraction from what really matters…
But what is it achieving? The science is totally contradictory on masks. Where do you think the virus goes when it hits the mask? It becomes a dust particle. That travels too.
Better not to travel at all and just stay at home. Given your logic. I used to be a fan of your blog but have now stopped bothering with it. You and your colleagues seem to struggle with basic logic.
You don’t seem to understand the meaning of the word. It’s not about wearing anything, you muppet, it’s about being told to do pointless things.
It isn’t Paul.
Until it is.
Heard Nick Robinson talking to Hancock this morning on R4 and he did ask some intelligent questions for once re 2nd wave. Hancock just came out with meaningless drivel
But, on Jeremy Vine there was a piece attempting to demonizing those that had the selfish audacity to go on their holidays…..
Vine Radio prog is a constant stream of bed wetting crap.
Sadly, it will be the flurry of P45’s landing on doormats that will be the wake up call :o((
I may be far too optimistic here but I think Boris Johnson’s “the second wave has started in Europe” at the same day as the WHO announced there isn’t going to be a second wave, followed by the “no second wave” reply from France, was a turning point… either way there definitely seems to be a rising tide of scepticism, and the panic-mongering official narrative has now diverged so far from the actual reality of flatlining deaths and hospital cases, that more and more people are starting to see through it.
At every point in this process the people have been ahead of the government.
Social distancing started in early March when the government were all still meeting face to face in close proximity.
At that point, such measures were smart. I remember making a trip to London circa 10 March and I avoided the tube but walked everywhere. Many others were doing similar things already.
Then the government woke up and started taking “decisive” measures after the curve was already turning. Zero surprise that they are doubling down on such measures when true cases (people being ill as opposed to healthy people recording a positive test result that may even be a false positive) have evaporated to almost zero.
They have been behind the curve at every point. They will continue to be.
I noticed they’ve resumed putting the death numbers up on Wikipedia. They paused them on July 15th when Hancock said there would be an investigation into how they were measured, but they’re now up again and there’s been no adjustment. Does that mean the investigation has been quietly shut down (I find it hard to believe that none of the deaths were miscounted) or is Wikipedia reporting numbers from somewhere else now?
Just means that lying is habitual with them. As if we didn’t know.
I agree. I sense a strengthening of scepticism, both in terms of numbers and willingness to speak out.
Primus inter pares!
I wonder how many of those 21,000 people killed by the lockdown were written down as covid victims…?
A pertinent point…anyone who tested positive or whose symptoms were described as C19-related by a doc I guess,
Surely the doctors also guessing – as good as some of the tests so I understand
How many of the excess non-covid deaths at home were suicides?
An easier question would be: how many were not!
All of them. It keeps it simple.
I bought the Amazon lanyard early (which arrived in a couple of days) I have never worn it around my neck, produced it twice on Maskup Friday but since then it has remained in my pocket except to show it when having The Converstion with individuals who seem to be not very convinced Covid Compliant.
On Sunday, as I could take my time, I visited 6 non regular shops with no problems at all, no challenges from staff and no hostile looks from fellow shoppers. For the rest of this week I have barely thought about it but it is good to know I have the lanyard just in case.
Might be different if, for some reason, I need to interact with the authorities.
Went Gregg’s today (not much choice on the industrial estate) no one wearing masks everyone but me wearing police uniforms.
Seems the entire West mercia police had stopped by for elevenses
Police are exempted in the regs, might be difficult when under cover.
Photo caption
Scruff #1 “thet toff ain’t usin’ ‘and sanitiza”
Posh #1 “how dare you criticize me you scruffy little oik”
Scruff #2 “leave it aart Toby, he ain’t worf it”
Posh #2 “give the scoundrel a thrashing Jacob, teach him some manners”.
Skeptics shouldn’t wear a lanyard and should proudly state they don’t wear mask.
That bakers in Nottingham should be paid a visit by he kind of person who feels like confronting the person who refused to sell bread to a 94 year old lady. This despicable person make me puke fucking blood. What an absolute wanker. What has happened to our country?
What, indeed.
You’re right about the lanyards, of course, but we aren’t all as tough as you, Biker. Every bare face is a defeat for THEM, no matter how it is achieved.
As for the old lady – good God in heaven. But wasn’t there a single person in that infernal shop who would volunteer to pay for her bread?
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our cardlessness.
But don’t forgive the baker.
Respectfully Annie i disagree, wearing a lanyard is a cop out. Everyone needs to stay up and be counted. It’s not a case of being tough it’s a case of defending our way of life. Sure if the police chin you about it lie to them, i’m not about to pay the buggers 100 quid but everyone else needs to hear you. That bakers will suffer on the karma wheel, no doubt about it. I can’t imagine letting an old lady of 94 walk out the door of your shop without a loaf of bread. I really hope the owners of this shop are exposed and made to suffer a loss of business from the local community whom should be disgusted by the way they’ve treated such an old lady. The owners should be apologising to her and offering to deliver her free bread for the rest of her days, then maybe i’d consider their debt paid but unless they do that i wish them nothing but hard times.
What if those nice blue badges Toby illustrates had the ‘Thank you for understanding’ with ‘Now fuck off’? I could possibly go for one of those, on days when I’m in a compliant mood. But I think you are right about the lanyards – it’s giving too much ground, when unnecessary. Having said that, a maskless shopper with a lanyard is better than a muzzled one. The lanyards do have the effect of subverting this nonsense, to the point where muzzles will eventually be optional. I find that bakery story hard to believe. Is it actually true? Astonishing if it is. The shop assistant should crawl on their hands and knees to that lady and apologise. It’s depressing down here in Deepest Devon. Almost exactly 100% muzzle compliance, and I’ve been on retail premises every day since last Friday. Me aside, on Friday there were two BAMEs (hate that word, but there we are) in Tesco, and on Sunday one girl. And that’s it, from hundreds of people in Tesco, Morrisons, M&S, Lloyds Bank, Coop … And to think, the ships and mariners who sailed out and discovered the world were disproportionally from here, and my parents and grandparents took… Read more »
I should think that the government will already be working on a more stringent exemptions system in order to (a) prevent ‘abuse’ (b) respond to public pressure to enforce compliance by dissidents (c) to neutralise criticism that their current “shaming” policy catches people with genuine ‘excuses’.
I should think they will produce an exemption card that can only be obtained after a trip to the doctor. It won’t say what your ‘excuse’ is (that would be insensitive), but it will be verifiable by a policeman with a QR scanner on his phone. Cressida’s army of civilian warriors can then “shame” maskless people with confidence, and the government will know there will be no more unfortunate stories in the tabloids. If a maskless person is killed, no problem – it will ‘encourage les autres’.
Well that’s the nightmare. I may be being complacent, but I can’t think it will come to pass.
Thing is, there is no way doctors have the time to sort all this. You can’t get a doctor’s appointment now, so the backlog caused by something like this would be monstrous.
By the time this was sorted the whole thing will have collapsed, if only because of the economic consequences.
I’ve always thought the government were on very weak ground with the muzzles thing and had overplayed their hand.
I should add that this government are absolutely unbelievably incompetent. Sooner or later they are going to make some absolutely monumental FU, which can’t be ignored.
Erm, the lockdown..?
Yes, true. I suppose that’s sooo gigantic it’s almost incomprehendible yet. Still, in time it won’t be.
Maybe it’s my wishful thinking, but with their making mistake and after mistake, how long can it be before everyone notices?
I’m not sure it’s going to work like that. I think that what we have is a press and woke establishment that despises the government but loves the lockdown; half the electorate hates the government but likes the lockdown, and half the electorate likes the government and likes the lockdown.
Every government action is in the context of the biggest FU of all time – the lockdown, but nobody except a very small bunch of ‘conspiracy theorists’ and ‘armchair epidemiologists’ (us) knows it’s a FU. The woke establishment embraces the lockdown – it’s all their wet dreams come true.
So the only way the opposition can/will get at the government is to criticise it on small operational matters – lockdown was imposed 6.8 days too late, not enough PPE in April and crap like that. Larger, more monumental FUs will be ignored because to criticise them for those would be to jeopardise the public/establishment unity on the lockdown, and they can’t risk that.
Or something like that, anyway!
For example, PHE fiddling the deaths figures in plain sight and being caught out for it was a MAJOR FU. But the government will not suffer for it, because going on about it would break the spell of the lockdown and ongoing communist-style measures and that can’t be allowed to happen. It will already have disappeared into the Guardian and BBC’s memory holes.
Yes, you are correct – a major scandal which in any other times would have led to Hancock’s head on a plate.
Still, we do have the coming economic crash to rescue us.
I think that that will be reliant on the media telling the effing truth for once
But, but Fauci in the US is now saying masks aren’t enough….goggles AND those visor things!!!!!!!
I don’t think the government will bother with that. Not a single ‘no mask’ fine has been issued to date, which I suspect is deliberate because:
a) the government doesn’t want to risk someone mounting a legal challenge to being prosecuted (e.g. show the “science” that justifies a curtailment on human rights). (Someone really determined could refuse to pay the fine and take it to court).
b) they figured out from earlier social experiments in the lockdown that they can rely on useful idiots to generally enforce policy, without having to get their hands dirty themselves (via the police)
They issue the edicts and demand that the lower orders enforce them. Pontius Pilates, the whole lot of them.
Not working, from experience and that of other posters the masked are not shaming the unmasked as was expected.
Trip to the doctor? ??
That’s the way it is everywhere else already.
But Brits are too afraid of acting conspicuously, and so, the compliance nears 99% already.
Therefore, I have hope that they will refrain from doing so.
Because they have nothing to gain from it, and they keep a door open (electorally/blame wise) in case the wind starts to blow from the other direction.
As it eventually will.
Maybe it’s a Southwest thing, down here in Cornwall I have been the only muzzle-free person in all of the shops I have been in (with the exception of a couple of shop assistants). The most depressing thing is seeing nearly all of the staff wearing them as well, it’s encouraging this lunacy.
If I was in range, I would have been straight round to have a word, and try to deliver the lady’s bread. But the best bit is, they couldn’t take her money – because obviously you will instantly die if you touch it – so she “had to put her items back”. Presumably they shut the shop to fumigate it.
Fuckweasels.
Just by way of public information:
29 Front Street
Arnold
NG5 7EA
Tel: 0115 926 8203
Also 01332 361 316 and getintouch@birdsofderby.co.uk
HI, yes I would like to make a BIG order please, payment on delivery OK?
Yes drop it at the bus stop just outside my house, I am self isolating….
Hang on (brain begins to turn slowly); they can’t touch her filthy, infected money, so how do they hand over any goods?
I’d go in, pick lots and lots of items, let them tot up, offer cash… If they want me to put them all back, I think we all know what the answer would be.
You would just put them down, wouldn’t you, Nick? After you’d licked them of course 🙂
Had to check I’d spelt “picked” correctly just then 😉🤣🤣
I thought cash was legal tender and shops HAD to accept it?
That’s a misconception. Legal tender only applies in the situation where there is an existing debt (e.g. you’ve eaten in a restaurant and you now need to pay the bill).
In a shop there is no pre-existing debt, so the legal tender rules don’t apply. The shop can just decline the transaction altogether.
I don’t think encouraging a form of vigilanteeism is helpful. We don’t know all the details or even if it’s true at all. If we encourage people to abuse individual people or businesses based on random news articles it’s no different than the cancelling leftist hate mobs or the shaming culture people on this site generally abhor. Let’s be above that.
Read front page of their website NO CASH, my Grandad would spin in his grave he used to supply them with Pork as they were the big Pork Butchers in MANSFIELD and Sutton in Ashfield.
There is a facebook site for Birds Bakery in Derby and lots of comments against the bakery. I’d post a link but can’t see obvious way to do this. Think they may regret this unfortunate incident.
Agreed about the baker but how about Subway who would not give her a cup of coffee as they are also card only ?
People in Nottingham should be boycotting that bakery. It’s absolutely despicable behaviour and discriminatory as well.
It isn’t about the virus, although I absolutely agree with you. It’s about the agenda to remove cash and enforce card payment, so that all currency transactions can be tracked.
That’s a conspiracy theory.
‘Doesn’t mean that there isn’t a conspiracy!
You can drop head office an email if you feel like it:
getintouch@birdsofderby.co.uk
or give the Arnold branch a call:
0115 926 8203
Nottinghamshire born and bred I will never darken their doors again.
A friend managed after 4 months to get a hospital check up about a wound on his face. Turns out it’s cancerous. Told the waiting list is 40 months. Yes that’s months.
Fckin NHs and fck parliament. Not just the government. They are useless fckers but also the opposition party who have sat their and said nothing to question or hold the Gov to account.
The last man to enter parliament with honest intentions was Guy Fawkes
Yes, anyone who lives in Nottingham of LS persuasion should be picketing the place
Toby, In your ‘Round-up’ section, why do you include items about some rapper, Megan Wossname, Rupert Murdoch and JK Rowling? Is there a link with Covidiocy that I’m not seeing?
Looking forward to the link to Guy’s piece being fixed….
Had another thought about hand poison.
Of course it won,t stop Covid. But it is meant to kill bacteria, and surely sloshing it about will greatly encourage bacterial resistance?
There could be some real nasties out there very soon.
That was actually ‘a thing’ before Covid, so it must be much worse now.
Anit-bacterial resistant bacteria, what could possible go wrong?
I always argue that nothing beats soap and water. Tried ‘n’ tested for centuries.
I did here last week that the latest ‘symptom’ of covid is skin rash. Te most sensible said this is probably due to overuse of gels!!
The hand wash for Covid should contain 60%. Antibacterial wash DOES NOT work. Unfortunately some uninformed well-meaning individuals provides antibacterials. Yes antibacterials could lead to bacterial resistance, stay away from it. Always read the labels and do not use if you do not agree with the ingredients. Reminder that skin absorbs chemicals eg hormone, nicotine patches
https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/45d7e185530eab2041877346c671bc89?s=64&d=blank&r=g wendyk 1 hour ago 2 anecdotes from Sturgeon land: think Kafka/Catch 22/ Great Leap Forward: met an acquaintance recently who works at our much loved, but no longer accessible, local library. Although the council website still claims that library services are closed until further notice, Sturgeon sanctioned reopening on July 15th. Our conversation revealed the mad guidelines now operating: readers must now ring a general number-the library’s own number is out of action- to request a book. However, reservations for titles from other libraries cannot be accepted and appointments must be made to appear at an agreed time to collect a book. General access is still forbidden. The staff now fear that these arcane nonsensical restrictions will be used as cover for cuts to services and even closures. The library here runs training classes for adults, free computer access,story sessions for very young children, exhibitions and various community groups. It is widely used and has a marvellous DVD collection and the normal service is excellent. The average reader is unlikely to be a plague ridden, vandal intent on a bit of antisocial behaviour in the crime section, so why are we not allowed entry? Secondly, finally received an appointment… Read more »
The Scottish Nazi Party, hate them. It’s cool though because most scots are illiterate drunks who all sound like a gas has been dropped and left them semi-conscious won’t notice their draconian laws, it’s those of us who can think that suffer.
Trouble is Biker, there is no serious opposition. George Galloway is apparently leading the charge of the unionist brigade, but can he be trusted?
Until now, I’ve regarded his past activities with suspicion and dislike, but if he’s the only act in town, what should we do?
The Sturgeonauts are awful: my library acquaintance loathes them as much as I do, but most people here are compliant and taken in by the weekly spin sessions form Holyrood.
I read effie to try to keep my spirits up. On fire today https://www.effiedeans.com/2020/07/the-last-cult-of-personality-in-europe.html
So do I!
Replied to your post on yesterdays thread just before the grest move. Here’s my reply – they want to change young minds.
Might I make a suggestion re Libraries. Your new abnormal has seized libraries for the front line in the woking of our childrens minds.
Perhaps it is well lifraries remain closed if the below manner of physop is unleasted from them: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/books/lets-get-fabulous-edinburgh-libraries-welcomes-drag-queen-story-hour-2885341%3famp
The Edinburgh Libraries have booked the act again for next year. Yes Aida H Dee is as unfunny as it is unbelievable.
One Drag act has said openly that this is as sick as it seems since the scene of drag is ‘on the seedier side of ‘adult’.
But good news from Leeds – https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-leeds-53164255
Sickening! How low can they go? Of course Mhairi Black tried this with one Flow Job reading explicit stories to very young children in primary schools in her constituency :
https://reaction.life/mhairi-black-flowjob-the-drag-queen-and-an-unfortunate-incident-at-a-paisley-primary-school/
The pattern reveals the attack. It’s not by chance. Try to break the family unit as a means to destabilise society – it comes from communist methodology.
More education from SNP
https://youtu.be/ujePAmm5uK4
Instinctively parents know this is wrong. It cannot be argued it is diversity since it is only drag acts that are used. Notice bbc billboards have been up around Britain during lickdown advertising drag tv programme. Inflating idols by the bbc.
Realised i’m off topic. Sorry!
What is so worrying is that ultimately, this could lead to a resurgence of sick outfits like the infamous Paedophile Information Exchange.
And not really off topic if all this is done under Covid Cover as the New Normal.
Since this bunch apparently celebrate diversity-as long as it’s the correct kind on the intersectional list of in or out-what’s to stop the diversity agenda embracing those with decidedly suspect sexual preferences?
All OK as long as they wear masks🤢
Who better to wear a mask that this https://youtu.be/P_GOr71quwU
Yes not off topic. This library based story time for children was intended to be in a Library. Covid lockup stopped that. Instead it was broad cast via Facebook. Primary children on Facebook? Really. I mean how evil is Edinburgh Council.
Their correct kind of diversity includes undermining estsblished roles parents. In my opinion the ideals of PIE is alive and well closer to the Scottish Government than people think.
the BLM manifesto also has objective to break up the traditional family unit. Same agenda!
Yes, the SNP hate crime bill is very real and has caused tremendous stir. It’s only in committee and has had a great deal of backlash, so hopefully it will be chucked in the bin where it belongs.
As for your beautician…. well then they should stop doing all that nonsense really, shouldn’t they? They really can’t bitch and moan about going out of business for willfully complying with asinine government GUIDELINE. No sympathy for the stupid. They deserve to fail for embracing victimhood.
This is unfair Tylean: the beauticians were neither bitching nor moaning, rather , the one whom I saw merely confided that they were finding the list of requirements intrusive and costly.
Small business owners are in a cleft stick, especially beauticians who have very close contact with their customers.
If they were to take the route of open refusal to adopt all these silly measures they could be reported to environmental health bods, sanctioned or shut down.
So they are not embracing victimhood but doing their best to make the most of a bad lot and to introduce some common sense with the more sceptical customers like me.
They’re hoping, like many other small enterprises here, that eventually rationality will win the day.
I’ve been going to them for many years and will continue to support them.
Wendy, re the questionnaire you were asked to complete, and any other such future nonsense. Before providing a single bit of personal information ask, nay demand, to see their data protection impact assessment. Under GDPR an organisation is required to carry out a DPIA before collecting any personal data. If the organisation is unable to produce its DPIA tell them you’ll be reporting them to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) as they’re collecting data illegally, and do report them. I believe the fines for being non-compliant with GDPR can be quite steep.
I hate to see small businesses suffer, but their supine compliance with the insanity is prolonging the suffering for those of us who can see this venomous pantomime for what it is.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-53589817 cannot be correct because “the science” shows that lockdowns and masks work. Is that pesky virus somehow getting cleverer and getting throughletterboxes ? Maybe all windows need to closed at all times.
Stupid Australians (I am one) thought that the first lockdown worked even though the cases peaked a couple of days before it was announced. Now they’re puzzled because nothing seems to be working so, yes, closing all windows could be next on the agenda.
It could be a post hoc fallacy. Because B followed A, it doesn’t mean that A caused B. Lockdowns don’t work.
Britain shows a nice case of this, unless lockdowns can propagate BACKWRDS IN TIME they haven’t worked. Counting back from the death peak by three weeks shows infection rates were falling several days before lockdown got illegally declared, Simon Wood has an excellent paper on doing this and accounting for error bars and variability in how long the infection-death time can be to show that the simple “counting back” still holds when you factor in the full shapes of the curves and the uncertainties.
Can somebody produce the % tests positive graph, rather than the ridiculous “cases” graph? i.e. the same data divided by the number of tests carried out? It isn’t perfect (we don’t know exactly how the testing criteria have changed over time) but it would be a lot more useful than that garbage graph.
It’s this sort of thing that really, really annoys me. The journalist creating the piece has no idea of the significance of the graph, and nor do the readers. But they do this dance of whipping each other up into a frenzy over data they don’t understand. The politicians and their corrupt ‘experts’ are only too happy to omit the details and let that happen.
Anyone like me, who might query this when talking to friends, family and colleagues, is regarded with pity: an ‘armchair epidemiologist’, a ‘conspiracy theorist’. They would rather credit an anonymous junior BBC ‘journalist’ with more insight than an actual person they know.
You can see a % positive graph for NSW and Victoria on this page (about half-way down):
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-interactive/2020/jul/28/coronavirus-australia-map-cases-covid-19-tracking-stats-live-data-update-by-state-how-many-new-active-case-numbers-today-statistics-hotspots-corona-deaths-death-toll
Victoria currently has nearly 100% of the cases in Australia, as you probably know.
Thanks for the link. But can somebody help me here? It says next to the graph
A lower % is indicative of wider, less-targeted testing.Generally the % positive rate in Australia is lower than many other countries, well below the threshold that the WHO has reccomended for adequate testing.
And the WHO link says:
…one important way to understand if countries are testing sufficiently is to look at the share of tests returning a positive result – known as the positive rate….Countries with a very high positive rate are unlikely to be testing widely enough to find all cases. The WHO has suggested a positive rate of around 3–12% as a general benchmark of adequate testing.
Does this not seem perverse? What we seem to be seeing here, is a system that targets a fixed percentage of positive tests, rather than simply testing to find out what the percentage of positives is!
Yes. By this measure, the UK testing programme – at ~250k per day – is inadequate, because it’s returning only ~0.5% positives a day
It might be the other way round, actually. The WHO is saying that it if it’s too high, it’s inadequate testing – too targeted. But I think this is meaningless. If the population is 100% infected then you can only get 100% no matter how many you test. If the population is only 0.5% infected then the answer you get should be 0.5%. If you are tempted to change your testing regime to get it to the WHO’s ‘recommended’ level – and make your spike look worse in the process – then this is perverse.
I guess it depends why you are doing the testing. I am most interested in randomised testing that tells us the proportion of infectious people in the population. The WHO is maybe aiming for something else. They actually say “…unlikely to be testing widely enough to find all cases”.
I thought that this was debunked ages ago: you can’t find all “cases” unless you test the entire population every couple of days. Randomised sample testing will let you infer how many “cases” there are, but it won’t identify them individually.
This is the best place to go for updates regarding the situation in Australia: https://www.health.gov.au/resources/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-at-a-glance-infographic-collection
Alternatively, you could try the Victorian Health Department specifically for Victoria:
https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus
The infographic shows Victoria’s % positive is 0.6, which is extremely low from a global perspective, despite almost a quarter of the population having been tested, but the highest in Australia. It has not yet been updated for the 30th though (or at least not when I looked just now).
Given that such a high proportion of Victoria’s population has been tested, the WHO clearly has no clue as usual. If the rate of infection is that low, then it is that low – I guess their idea is that most of the rest of Victoria’s population of 6.3 million or so must have it, and haven’t been tested yet 🙄
Brainwashed fools.
Can I recommend a book? Darrell Huff: “How To Lie With Statistics”. Very, VERY illuminating!
https://amzn.to/3fcL7Fd
Percentage positive cases graphs are about as useless as total cases, very few places have enough testing resources to test a large random sample of people, so because in most places most of the people being tested are suspected of having covid their are enough other factors in play (scale of testing, targetedness of testing, how less likely cases become viable to test when testing infrastructure gets bigegr over time…) to mask any useful information both on graphs of cases found and on graphs of percentages of positive cases. The best way to work is look at deaths, multiply by 400 or so and count back three weks.
Need to look at excess deaths only – the criteria for ‘Covid-19’ deaths differ from place to place after all. Australia needs many many times more deaths for there to even be a blip in the graph. Last year, South Australia alone had 120,000 laboratory-confirmed cases of flu, and there were thousands of deaths around Australia. They don’t tell you that though, as it would show just how minor this coronavirus really is.
Contrary to the beeb’s nonsense it’s not a second wave of course – what they’re calling the first wave in Australia (April/May) had very little community transmission and so wasn’t really a ‘wave’ at all. What’s been going on in Melbourne, that is Australia’s first wave, and the number of hospitalisations and deaths is frankly amusingly low for all the fuss being made about it.
While that’s true, I’m scratching my head a little as to why it’s _only_ Victoria. In terms of seasonality and lack of herd immunity, the rest of Australia should be in exactly the same position.
Gross incompetence and corruption in the Victorian state ‘government’, that’s why. Each state is a law unto itself at the moment, and there is no coordinated national policy. The Australian government seems quite happy to let it be that way too.
I’ve no doubt you’re right, but it doesn’t explain why infections aren’t increasing outside Victoria – unless the other states’ governments are so competent that they’re not even testing anyone.
They are increasing in Sydney, so it is said, but it’s hard to know for sure. New South Wales has a Liberal (i.e. more competent or less incompetent if you prefer) government and has been relatively measured in its approach (though still implementing lockdown originally, it was rather less draconian than Victoria’s).
The other states have closed their borders to Victorians (South Australia even to South Australians who were interstate!), which is illegal/unconstitutional, but as I said the Australian government seems content to just let it go. It is pretty strictly enforced, so that likely has something to do with it.
The Victorian government have blamed the outbreak on “leakage” from quarantine of incoming travellers. Most or all of the other States and Territories used the defence and police forces for overseeing the security of the quarantine but Victoria engaged a private security firm. There was some misbehaviour like one of the guards having sex with a quarantined person. That is on the face of it why Victoria is having an outbreak and not the rest of Australia. I don’t really know what to believe. There is a lot of politicking going on – preening and blame-shifting – and I’m not 100% convinced that there wasn’t some ongoing low level of infection in the community all the time that spiked up. As to testing, there is a lot of it, all over Australia. The country has, in my opinion, wasted vast sums of money on it. Also we have spent a fortune on contact tracing, and it was recently revealed that there are up to 9 unidentified cases for every 1 confirmed case. This was determined from serology testing and testing of blood donations; the details are yet to be finalised but one of the public health officials revealed the broad… Read more »
Well it was always a rather loose Commonwealth. An Aussie friend from Western Australia once pointed out that the only things that unite all Aussies are cricket and rugby.
I’m betting that there was community transmission early in the year but we never noticed. We would have barely noticed had we done nothing.
Cancel your licence fee. Boycott this disgraceful Orwellian propaganda.
Or we can point out that Melbourne’s lockdown isn’t working because locking down the healthy doesn’t work. If it did, we would have been doing it for centuries.
It’s not Orwellian propaganda, it’s precisely what the Woke Victorian government is saying, still too incompetent to realise that lockdown, if anything, will spread the virus, not suppress it.
It’s not working so they want to extend it?
Well naturally, more lockdown has got to work since it’s only selfish Victorians disobeying that have caused it, not government corruption and incompetence at all 🙄🙄🙄
If you haven’t already I can recommend Guy de la Bédoyère’s piece here where he talks about Victoria and Melbourne – he doesn’t mince words either!
Lockdowns are like alternative medicine. If they don’t work, you just need to do more of them.
‘Close the windows’, nope, govment bloke on R4 Today finally saying that good ventilation was key to fighting off the Covid.
Perhaps we need to ask our less sceptical friends: In what ways is our country not a dystopian police state?
People told where they are allowed to go? Check.
People told who they can meet? Check.
Gatherings banned? Check.
State tracks people’s whereabouts? Check.
Censorship of opinions, political views? Check.
Police enforce government ‘instructions’? Check.
Population forced to wear badges of support for government? Check.
Media acts as mouthpiece for government propaganda? Check.
Government lies with statistics? Check.
Population encouraged to inform on friends and neighbours? Check.
Anonymous monetary transactions banned? Check.
State-sanctioned “shaming” of dissidents? Check.
Mandatory medical procedures? Inevitable.
State-controlled economy? Inevitable.
This is great Barney. Do you mind if I still this and include part of it in a blog that I’m about to write to share with my friends? I’m worried that some of them are going along with the mask thing as they think it’s only short term, which I think is really naive.
Thanks Kevin. Fine by me.
Thank you. I was just thinking of something along the same lines when I was out walking the dog just now, they’ve told us who we can meet, when, how, how to work, how to travel, how to pay, how to think, how to behave and, the last straw for me, what to wear! Insanity! Those flouting the rules were called covidiots at the outset, yet the truth is that the covidiots are making the policies.
Kevin, not to belittle your efforts, but make sure you look up the actual legislation and the government ‘guidance’. The latter is chock full of contradictions.
OK, thanks. Yeah, the contradictions are insane!
The UK has been a dystopian fascist police state for a long time. It’s just that its been low level and targeted so nobody really noticed. It was all happing to somebody else “who deserved it”. Now it’s so obviously a totalitarian police state that nobody WANTS to notice.
Happy to have all their rights removed, but narked cos they can’t have apple pie or whatever? Do you know what, I can’t even finish this…
Neil Oliver hit this nail on the head. The lockdown is making people angry (hence statue pulling etc) and now masking makes human interaction even more like anonymous social media. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NaqaTEhDQc
And they are channelling that anger the wrong way, because their fear doesn’t let them point it in the obvious direction. Boy, Boris and pals are getting bang for their buck.
I think, KH, it’s as simple as most people are stupid. Sad but true.
If one includes “intelligent but too lazy to find out the truth for yourself” in the definition of stupid, then I agree. I was talking to a young man yesterday who believes all the lies, hopes for a vaccine or whatever, otherwise happy to carry on with this shit (helps that his job is not affected), IQ must be 120+. I find those people more annoying than the fearful or the genuinely thick.
Surely, that intelligence is what makes you seek out that truth? Apparently not. Or maybe it’s that “intelligent, but no life sense” kind of thing. You would think, that when confronted with a never-before assault on our lives and livelihoods, the immediate thought would be “How do I avoid this?” Seems not.
“intelligent but too lazy to find out the truth for yourself”
Functionally stupid.
Different types of stupid:
Naturally stupid, which can of course coincide with a functional intelligence (common sense or street smarts or whatever) ameliorating the effects
Wilfully stupid, like Julian’s definition and the worst kind, usually beyond redemption
Ignorantly stupid, which relates to those who do not realise they do not know very much – this can of course be rectified.
There may be others I haven’t thought of.
‘I’m angry because other people aren’t angry’,that’s a great way of putting it Kh,it’s exactly the way I feel,some people even seem happy about everything,they are enjoying it !.I want to grab hold of them and shake some sense into them but my wife says it probably best if I don’t !.
I genuinely feel despair about the population of this country.
It’s almost like something has been put in the water or sprayed in the air and people are now in a strange detached trance-like state where they notice the most trivial things and make a big fuss but are utterly oblivious to the unfolding disaster around them.Luckily some of us are immune to this surreal intoxication,but everyday things seem a bit worse.
Read Ionesco’s play ‘Rhinoceros’.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffhp&q=ionesco+plays&ia=web
How about Jamie Oliver?
What’s wrong with salt beef? Why can’t you sell what you want to sell? What are the rules?
Don’t poke the bear!!!
Yes,I can believe it,after thirty years of dealing with the public nothing surprises me anymore
I thought it had disappeared but they have started to talk about the ‘R’ rate again and here in the south west it could be above 1, shock horror, the apocalypse is upon us! It surprises me that everybody seems to accept these announcements without question, as if the powers that be sit round like Macbeth’s witches, eye of newt and toe of frog and out pops the R number never to be questioned.
It seems very hard to find out how they calculate this number and what has changed when it goes up or down? I get the feeling it is a more subjective process than they would like to admit. As it is, it seems just another factor that was supposed to be helpful but is actually being used to beat us. Why is nobody questioning the R rate business?
P.S. any idea why I keep getting awaiting approval tag when I post?
My neighbour writing from Derry aka Londonderry is right about our more relaxed attitude here in Northern Ireland. Why have thought it? My theory is that having lived through 30 years of a violent terrorist campaign we understand genuine risk.
Morning, I need to go to the opticians and they’re saying I will be required to wear a mask, obviously I won’t be doing that but do the guidelines state that I should or is it like hairdressers where the client doesn’t have to?
I think it’s at their discretion Kevin, judging from notices seen in local opticians: mine declares that masks must be worn, while a nearby practice is more welcoming,in that advice to follow the guidelines is displayed.
Thanks.
I’m getting concerned about glaucoma tests. I’m overdue an eye test, which is fine in that my prescription is still perfectly OK, but concerning because that means I’m also overdue a glaucoma test (my dad had it) and they’re not doing them at the moment and I have no idea when or if they’re going to start again. I’m not hugely worried, but there are no symptoms before you get bad symptoms.
It’s disgraceful that they are not doing glaucoma checks. If not now, then when?
Do you mean the pressure test where they puff air into your eye? They still did that at my last test about 3 weeks ago now.
Oh, did they? Very good news. I’d been looking for the guidance to change and hadn’t seen it. Great – thanks for the update. I’ll check the position of the various opticians round here and make an appointment.
Where did you go, and what was the coronabollox like?
Sorry, noticed this very late, guess you might not see my reply now. I went to a small independent optician, not a big chain. They recommended that I wear a mask (and in fact were giving out free goodie bags containing mask and gloves…) but I refused on the basis of lack of efficacy and feeling panicky if I wear one for more than a couple of minutes. There was a reasonable amount of bollox. Locked door policy like GPs and dentists, all staff dressed for an Ebola ward, hand sanitiser at every turn, etc etc. But they acted relatively normally apart from that. In fact the optician doing the test confided that it was much easier when people didn’t wear masks, because guess what, it’s quite hard to test people’s eyes when their glasses are all steamed up…
Hi Matt I try to avoid commenting on this site because it raises my stress, but your difficulty is specific and I may be able to help. I was in exactly the same situation: an overdue glaucoma test at my local NHS hospital, due in June. I have only recently started drops for glaucoma so it is vital to stop any further deterioration in my sight (I already have some loss in my field of vision, not serious) and to see if the drops are working. My optician was able to do most of the checks the NHS would have done: they did the blast-of-air pressure test, and followed it up with what I think is called a Goldman test which is more accurate but many opticians don’t do. It requires local anaesthetic drops in your eyes and they put the sensor directly on your eye. And they took computerised scans of my retinas. The only thing they couldn’t do was the head-in-the-box visual field test. Interestingly, my optician said he prefers his patients not to wear masks because it affects the examination of the eyes. Here’s the bad news: the above tests had to be paid for privately. I… Read more »
This is unbelievable, I’ve just found this when doing my research about wearing a mask at the opticians:
https://www.aop.org.uk/ot/professional-support/aop/2020/07/24/face-masks-not-mandatory-for-patients-in-optical-practices-according-to-new-government-regulations
They’re basically going against the draconian government guidance and making it even more strict. What is wrong with these people?
You don’t have to wear one in the opticians:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/face-coverings-mandatory-in-shops-supermarkets-shopping-centres-and-enclosed-transport-hubs-from-friday
Thanks Kevin
Kevin: see my comment above: my optician told me he prefers patients not to wear masks. By the way, I sensed from his facial expressions and what he didn’t quite say that he thinks this “crisis” is a load of nonsense.
optician must wear one under their “riles”, you don’t have to.
“Leftie” bashing? What’s all this about in Toby’s round up?
Our government is a Conservative one and are responsible for this fiasco.
Likewise I believe Australia has a right wing government.
So where does the “leftie” aspect come from?
Agreed, there is no need for it. We’re all in this together.
Seconded. It isn’t left and right now, it’s right and wrong.
BJ, like Cameron (heir to Blair) is a Blairite.
Wow! Really. So this is what this has come to? The forum will lose a lot of contributions if you really think this is the case!
I’m not a leftie, and I think the PM is not too different to Blair, and the government is not small-c conservative in any meaningful way. But I don’t agree with everything Toby Young posts or says, ditto for those who contribute here. I think it’s interesting to have different points of view. I hope that all sceptics, and non-sceptics, who have something interesting or constructive to say, continue to come here and argue their case, or ignore the stuff they don’t like. It would be a shame if people drifted away because of left-right arguments. I think there is a political aspect to this, but the priority is to restore respect for the truth and for true science.
I agree but I think it would be sad if Toby were to moderate his well known and long standing political positions in order to placate and pander to lefties who are unable to tolerate them
That way lies short term success in terms of numbers, perhaps, but in the long run it results in standing for nothing. It’s basically why over the past century we in this country had numerous “Conservative” victories at elections, but almost never a genuinely conservative government.
Imo it’s up to the lefties to tolerate Toby’s views if they want to continue using his blog. He of course doesn’t have to agree with me on that, he’s free to choose to pander to them in pursuit of increased numbers if he wishes, but that’s my own hope.
I’m a (moderate) lefty, or at least used to consider myself so, and I tolerate his views fairly well. In fact I welcome a different viewpoint, and would respect him a lot less if he changed his position to appeal to lefties, much as Boris currently appears to be doing. I don’t understand why people can’t listen to and debate alternative opinions any more without having to stamp off and slam the door. It’s part of what has got us into this covid/lockdown mess. I always like to hear and consider other points of view, then make my own mind up. And in my experience, people on the right tend to be better at tolerating different views than people on the left!
I can absolutely respect your position, just not that of those who want to silence and exclude people who disagree.
That’s the difference between open debate and cancel culture.
I don’t think Toby should moderate any of his views, ever – just feels slightly irrelevant to be banging the left-right drum at the moment and not particularly helpful to the LS cause. But then again TY did write (and I wholeheartedly recommend it btw, a great, funny read) “How to lose friends and alienate people”.
But clearly he doesn’t feel it is irrelevant (and nor do I). I’ve given my reasons in detail in comments here. Imo part of the solution is setting up some genuinely conservative opposition to the political consensus in this country. It wouldn’t do any harm to have some genuinely liberal (in the old fashioned sense) opposition to the Labour/left collectivist position, as well.
We (you and I) disagree on this, and that’s fine.
You’ve made me think Mark.
I take that as a compliment of the best kind, Catherine123 🙂
Blair was no leftie
So let’s see, Blair (an utter scumbag and lying war criminal who will rot in hell if here is any higher justice of any kind) believed in and actively promoted when he was in government):
Collective state healthcare
Collective state education
Collective state welfare
Anti-patriotic internationalism
Mass immigration to “rub the right’s noses in diversity” (and also to benefit his corporate backers and cronies by undercutting indigenous wages and bargaining power)
Viciously hostile pc policies directed against traditional families, sexual morality, and religion
But he’s not a “lefty” of course because lefties are embarrassed by his warmongering lies. Of course, there were always areas where he was not lefty enough for his more lefty supporters. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t literally stupid to claim he was not a lefty, backed and mostly voted for by the lefties in the main lefty political party and in all the lefty media and trade union bodies.
You’ve listed a bunch of things of which there is nothing wrong if done correctly – state healthcare, education, welfare, internationalism, equality (what you call hostile ‘pc policies’) are all worthwhile causes that should be part of any good governments manifesto, whether left or right. As with anything there is a balance to going too far in one direction or the other. That anyone could be anti healthcare, anti education, anti welfare is quite frankly bizarre.
“You’ve listed a bunch of things of which there is nothing wrong if done correctly – state healthcare, education, welfare, internationalism, equality (what you call hostile ‘pc policies’) are all worthwhile causes that should be part of any good governments manifesto, whether left or right.”
Are you not aware that the question of whether these things should be provided or enforced by the state was precisely a key point of debate between radical left and the centre and right a century and more ago and through most of the C20th, and that the reason you regard them as self evidently good is precisely and only because the left won those arguments politically (not necessarily in any other sense) over the course of the C20th?
“That anyone could be anti healthcare, anti education, anti welfare is quite frankly bizarre.”
Did you even notice that you left out the “state” in all those clauses, thereby rendering your assertion a blatant piece of straw man nonsense?
I honestly couldn’t care less that they were discussed in some ancient political debate in a bygone time that means nothing in the current world.
As for ‘did I notice that I left out’, actually I included it on the first item in my list, I mistakenly thought you’d be intelligent enough to infer I was referring to state provision of all those things thereafter, my bad – I’ll be sure to list things out as if talking to a toddler in future.
“I honestly couldn’t care less that they were discussed in some ancient political debate in a bygone time that means nothing in the current world.“ OK I think we are getting to the heart of the problem here – you evidently lack any real sense of political perspective and think the issues of the moment are all that matter. Your “ancient political debate in a bygone time” is actually (for much of its more recent manifestation) lived memory for some of us, who actually experienced how the current consensus, that you are unable to imagine not being all there is, came to be. “As for ‘did I notice that I left out’, actually I included it on the first item in my list, I mistakenly thought you’d be intelligent enough to infer I was referring to state provision of all those things thereafter, my bad – I’ll be sure to list things out as if talking to a toddler in future.” You seem to be failing to resist your inclination to descend to personal abuse again. In fact, you did not “include it on the first item in your list” at all. You made no mention of it at all… Read more »
But his biggest success was (and continues to be) enriching Anthony Charles Lynton Blair.
Not going to argue with that. Personal corruption is a feature of politicians of both left and right, and of the centre, whatever that might mean.
Aaah, but he was the one who started privatising all these ‘collective’ institutions in earnest- or at least involving the private sector heavily in them. PFI system brought in under Major was considerably expanded under him (1997 I think). So basically he took what had been created by previous Tory gvts. before him and ran with it.
He was actually Thatcher’s bastard son. People laugh when I say this, but honestly. Think about his policies. Bar immigration, it’s pretty spot on. This is why the genuine left despise him. Same with Obama in America – he was kinda their BLiar. Talked pretty- fucked a lot of people over.
I recognise that Blair basically accepted the tactical defeat of the left over the 1970s/1980s issue of open state control of the “commanding heights of the economy”, and changed the language used somewhat. I also recognise that he introduced some crony capitalism in place of formal state control, though frankly I can’t say I’ve noticed much real difference between bureaucracy run by stupid state dictats and targets, and bureaucracy run by self-interested business dictats and targets. But considering we had Blair and a subsequent ten years (including three supposedly “Conservative” Prime Ministers) of rule by people supposedly to his right, it’s notable that the state still administers the NHS and directly employs over 5 million people representing 16.5% of all employed people in the UK. And the UK state still spends nearly 40% of gdp. And we still have the mass immigration that Blair initiated. And we have even more political correctness bullshit than he brought in. So we can agree that Blair was and is an utter scumbag, and yes he changed the tone of some aspects of the left, but that was as much to do with the general shift of leftist politics from real backing of actual… Read more »
People too far to one side or the other will never see it like this. You’ve got idiots on here spitefully referring to ‘lefties’ and ‘leftist policies’ whilst burying their heads in the sand at the fact we’ve had more Conservative governments than Labour by a long long way over the last 50 years. They can’t accept that what they think of as Conservatives is not really what a majority of conservative voters expect or what convervative governments will deliver, they just don’t want to accept they are more right-wing that your average conservative. You similarly have the Corbyn mob trying to disown anything the left-of-centre Blair government did as ‘right wing’ when it was clearly not right wing.
“idiots”….”spitefully” I think you need to address your own issues here, based on that piece of passive aggressive, petty abuse. “They can’t accept that what they think of as Conservatives is not really what a majority of conservative voters expect or what convervative governments will deliver, they just don’t want to accept they are more right-wing that your average conservative. ” On the contrary, it’s completely obvious that we (clearly I’m among your targets here) are in the minority – that’s the whole problem. The problem is that you can’t see how far the nation has moved to the left over the past century, or the problems that has created. You just accept the move and regard the left as the new centre – a recipe for endless left-wing drift, until there is a disaster (like the current one) and a hard correction. It’s facile to claim some sort of mystical parity as you do here, as though magically the nation always stays in one place (the “centre”) and then there are far left and far right who are (of course) equally wrong. That’s only true in the inherent, relative sense. Objectively the nation clearly shifts to one side or the… Read more »
OR you can’t see how far to the ‘right’ your view of the ideal world is?
My views were broadly moderate conservative/liberal when I was young. They have not changed dramatically, in philosophical terms (obviously the context is different, so details change), but society has shifted dramatically to the left, so that I am absolutely out on a limb on the conservative side now, relative to the new orthodoxy. That is the whole problem, for me and imo for the society that has become in large part dysfunctional, as illustrated by the coronapanic.
say’s the lefty
Er, what makes you say that?
Australia’s Liberals are a touch right of centre at federal level (and are typically viewed as a right wing party), though in some states (Victoria for instance), the same party is a touch left of centre. Victoria in any case is governed (if such gross incompetence and corruption can indeed be called such) by the Labour lot. Literally the only decisions the Australian government have made were to ban travel in or out, and to not interfere with whatever ridiculous measures the state governments want to implement, so each state is a law unto itself at present.
Both sides are rubbish. I loathe all of the Aus pollies now.
We do have a “Conservative” government, but it’s not remotely conservative. In almost every objective sense it’s a lefty government, that has fully bought into all the lefty transformations of our elite’s dogmas over the past few decades, and supports collective healthcare (to the ridiculous extent of trashing the entire nation out of fear for the sainted NHS), spends fortunes implementing political correctness in all its noxious forms, clearly believes in all that pc nonsense from “antiracism” to promoting homosexual behaviour, hasn’t meaningfully addressed mass immigration, hasn’t even questioned state welfarism, and has demonstrated an extreme collectivism in the response to the coronapanic, to an extent not witnessed before in this country outside of wartime. And the coronapanic is very much a lefty-driven agenda, pushed by aggressively fear-mongering propaganda from the notoriously lefty dominated BBC and all the broadcast media organisations, and most of the newspapers, where even when the ownership and nominal editorial line is supposedly not lefty, the journalistic and editorial staff mostly are (with a few notable exceptions). So both are true – that this coronapanic nonsense was implemented by a “Conservative” government, and that it is pushed and implemented by a lefty government aligned (for this… Read more »
LEFT and RIGHT in politics are synthetic constructs. The left is state sponsored and FAKE, so is the RIGHT. The same tiny group of people manage both sides. It’s doesn’t matter WHO you vote for, government always wins.
Two cheeks of the same backside.
Left and right in politics dates back to the French Revolution (18th century one) and was based on which side of the assembly people sat.
Politics is too complicated to be divided into two halves and the only real benefit of that is for those wishing to polarise society.
I’d argue that the governments of the past 25 years have roughly followed the Clinton/Blair third way model: neoliberal globalists on economics with a fat welfare system to plug the gap left by corporate offshoring and deindustrialisation. This is a married to a left (conservatives) or very left wing (labour/lib dems) social policy.
Just as an addendum. Up until considering that the left/right dichotomoy was stupid, I thought of myself as a lefty. However, left wing politics has completely abondoned particular principles I hold very high, such as free speech, free assembly and the principles (if not always their implementation) of a judicial system based upon innocent until proved guilty and the right to confront one’s accuser.
These are things that both the left and right, excluding perhaps only the extremes of each, generally agreed upon.
On economics, I’d probably be a social democrat, agreeing that markets are good but not good everywhere and not without limitations (e.g. the neoliberal view) but labour now has two wings, the Blairite faction who are neoliberals (or trending that way) and the Corbyn types who are socialists.
I did a quiz on one of the seat calculator sites last year, and not particularly to my surprise I’m completely centrist both socially and economically speaking, but tend noticeably to nationalist (i.e. ‘right’) on the spectrum generally used to determine left or right. By the same token I have definite anarchist sympathies – which is a centrist left philosophy favouring small (or even better no) government.
A lot of ‘righties’ (if you like) have a bizarre idea that big government is left and small government is right, but in fact it’s the part of the spectrum either side of centrism that favours small government, and the further you go from there either right or left gets progressively in favour of bigger government until you hit either right or left wing totalitarianism.
I agree, I think big/bigger government is a function of extremism and authoritarianism more than a function of being left or right. I think that’s why the extremist centrist accusation is gaining traction.
Nationalism and patriotism is another one of those issues that the vocal left/progressives have alienated me on. I’m not particularly patriotic or nationalist, but I’ve never once considered those views to be verbotim (not unless you become an actual fascist, and I mean really a fascist in the 1930s sense and not Rick Mayall in The Young Ones sense).
And what we NEED is something somewhere in between Neo-Liberal (which to me is basically Bush-Thatcher hangover) and socialist. I. E. PROPER MODERATE *GENUINE* LEFT-WING
Yep. Some choice that actually represents people on both the left and right. I’m not holding my breath (although current policies will gag me instead).
We need a ‘Social Democrat’ party or something (all the terminology is confusing these days because none of it means anything any more) that is socially conservative/traditional and economically mildly left-wing (i.e. regulated capitalism rather than the rampant corporatism we have now- corporatism brought on by Neo-Liberal NOT ‘right-wing’ politicians).
All these terms are simplifications, and necessarily broad generalisations, but that doesn’t mean they don’t reflect important underlying truths.
These days it’s fashionable to insist that (true) generalisations by definition are not always correct about individual cases. People tend to forget the flipside, which is that by definition, (true) generalisations are correct about most cases.
This is the only post I agree with in this thread lol
Indeed. If I am honest, though I do read what Mr Young writes most of the time, and find it interesting, I really come here for the comments. Sorry Toby….
After all the nonsense and ridiculous measures implemented over the past few months, all future April Fools are redundant. If Saturday was August Fools Day and there was a story about Pringles being individually wrapped to prevent germs spreading by people putting their hands into this much shared product then I’d believe it. That would be mild compared to much of the safety measures now in place.
The deaths caused by lockdown in this article almost certainly won’t include those deaths caused by moving elderly people out of hospitals into nursing homes – surely a major cause of deaths caused directly by lockdown.
I think it would be next to impossible to put a number on that with any confidence. Necessarily, the policy will have contributed to a large number of deaths, but it would be very hard to conclusively demonstrate that x person being discharged into a care home led to y infection and death, as opposed to them having caught it elsewhere.
A large proportion of the deaths in care homes, or deaths in hospital of care home residents will have been caused by this policy, but I doubt you could go further than that statement.
Agreed Matt.
I am in the early stages of writing/production of a new film Set many years in the future, the title will be “Covidburg: The War Crimes Tribunal” Negotiations are still at an early stage, so I can only use the first names of some of the stars I hope to sign up (contracts have not been signed yet) The plot revolves around a group of former leaders charged with waging an unjust war against their citizens; and with responsibility for tens of thousands of deaths in the Care Camps A slimmed down Hermann G will play the Dictator (no the irony is not lost on me). He spends his time during the trial laughing and joking as he rambles on about his great achievements Spoiler Alert. In the end a sympathetic guard slips him a mickey to put him out of his misery Head of the Health Ministry will be played by Rudoph H. At the trial he plays the mad card. In an attempt to to convince the judges his defence team play endless tapes of his press conferences. This tactic wins the judges over, and he is sentenced to wear spandex for the rest of his days Head… Read more »
So, I went into my local (Keighley) Sainsbury’s again last night. I walked in with another non-mask wearer and there were a few others in there too but most (95%) were wearing masks and all the staff were too. Does anyone know if they’ve got a policy for all staff to wear masks?
I work for Sainsbury’s. Yes, Head Office wants us all to wear masks. However, I have never worn one and I haven’t been given any trouble for it. I’ve also been telling many of my colleagues, who had expressed displeasure at wearing masks, to just take theirs off, and I would credit myself with having some moderate success.
Hi Ben, thanks for replying. In Keighley, they have a barrier up to get in and out, like you’d get at the side of the road for a bike race or the like. There are also big screens that you’re funnelled through for the self-checkout. Anyway, I didn’t hear it correctly, but a young lad who worked there must have seen me maskless and said something to a colleague about having to wear a mask and the colleague said something like you don’t have to wear one if you have a doctor’s note. It was something like that but I couldn’t really challenge it as I don’t think I heard correctly. Having said that, I got the distinct impression that this young lad wasn’t happy. I might go back in and have a word with the manager or write a letter. And good for you for standing on your principles.
Your firm is your firm, but worth a reminder that the law does not require shop workers to be muzzled.
Don’t forget: https://www.standupx.info/
Saturday 1st August, 1:00pm, Speakers’ Corner
Saw that Prof Susan Michie on GMB. What a silly cow. Spouting all the usual garbage about second wave, we’re all doomed, much more needs to be done by government etc etc (we can all write the script). BUT INTERESTINGLY, she poo-pooed the idea of another national lockdown EVEN IN THE FACE OF A SECOND WAVE. Is this the new orthodoxy among the experts on the other side? It’s all going to be about “local restrictions” (note, the word “lockdown” is now verboten among these idiots).They know that the politicians won’t countenance another national lockdown on economic grounds but they can just as easily keep the populace under fear and control with the threat of local “restrictions”,
A relatively small scattering of local ‘restrictions’ will do it. Either it’s where you’re starting from, or where you are heading to, but you can’t travel. Lockdown without ‘Lockdown’. And, Borisy Bonus – central Gov can’t be blamed.
I think they’ll just rotate around the country, so we’ll probably all get locally locked down again at some point over the autumn and winter.
As far as I am concerned the lockdown never stopped, and cannot be considered over until the Coronavirus Act and all the Statutory Instruments are repealed and rescinded, and all businesses and premises and schools are open as they were before this shit started, and it has been recognised that it was a mistake. Until that time, we are locked down, by evil lies.
Yes, we are still in lockdown. Its worse than peak lockdown with the bastard masks and the idiotic covid safe measures.
Completely right, they’ve done a lot of psychological gamesmanship over the last few months, including that they’ve tricked a lot of people into thinking we’re out of lockdown. If they stop to think that we still can’t have crowds bigger than 30, they’re realise we’re in fact having severe restrictions imposed on us stil..
I think if you look at that Lockdown stringency chart, we’re still under very strict controls vs most of Europe (it was vs _all_ of Europe when I last looked a week or so ago)
She’s almost as loathsome as Hancock. I know several countries have said that they won’t lockdown again (e.g. France, Norway, possibly Netherlands) and Boris has mumbled something about not needing a second lockdown, but of course you can’t trust a word he says. But we’re stil essentially in a semi-lockdown state anyway, and I think they will keep us like this all winter. Not sure how the local lockdowns will necessarily work though, if they’ve committed to locking an area down when cases are rising, what will they do if they’re rising everywhere? They’ll have to lock everywhere down again anyway or it will seem “unfair”.
We may not be locked down (or as I prefer ‘banged up’) again here but we’re stuck with the [multiple expletives deleted] muzzles, apparently forever.
38° here today – soggy, malodorous face-nappies will really be a joy.
She’s also part of alternative SAGE as well as SAGE and a fully paid up member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
Why bother with parliamentary inquiry into Russian meddling in elections when Communists are already in the upper echelons of power?
Have a listen to the two news ‘anchors’ after the American woman’s live feed is (deliberately?) broken. They should have been marched out of the studio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnTA4t5eRqs
That’s extraordinary
Only extraordinary I think because it’s openly broadcast.
Yes folks this is the general calibre of the Today show, a programme I refuse to watch. Not exactly inspiring journalism is it. Ratings are down the gurgler apparently, no surprise there then! Thank goodness for Sky.
Sky News Australia has been quite notably out of step with the general global media and big tech consensus lately, it seems to me (though there might be a selection bias for me because I only see the clips that go online).
And unfortunately Sky News Australia is out of step with Sky News UK which is following the general UK MSM narrative. But then Sky sports is also still promoting the BLM issue as well so it is well embedded in the woke culture
The stupidity of the National Trust as demonstrated above does not surprise me. The museums and heritage sector has demonstrated a collective lack of courage in the slavish way they implement the government guidelines as well as some going one step further and “recommending” muzzling which I suspect is their way of cashing in on this crisis such as this:
https://www.nationalgallery.co.uk/products/sunflowers-face-mask/p_1050631
https://www.nationalgallery.co.uk/products/a-still-life-of-flowers-in-a-wan-li-vase-face-mask/p_1050632
There is also their lack of long term thinking that such measures and the mandatory muzzling in their gift shops would drive people away. Once the initial novelty of visiting wears off, people start to think that they can’t be bothered going through that purgatory again.
I work in the museums and heritage sector and even I’m boycotting the likes of the National Gallery and V&A over their cowardice and disregard for the long term future of our sectors. Others might accuse me of cutting my own nose to spite my own face but like with the shops, we have got to vote with our feet and wallets to make the likes of Tristam Hunt and Gabriele Firnaldi sit up and take notice.
The National Trust has been at it for some time. It wasn’t that long ago it was trying to get all its volunteers to promote some gay pride nonsense. Then there was its abysmal scheme to ‘reimagine’ Clandon Park following the fire there. It’s less about preservation and conservation now and more about being just another establishment mouthpiece.
Hence why Mr Bart and I will never consider becoming National Trust members, it’s not only for financial reasons but we don’t like the direction they’re heading. As a historian myself I am appalled at the ahistorical way their properties and collections have been presented to the public.
Look at the Historic Houses Association as an alternative – an organisation of owners of (mostly) ancient properties that have not been sanitised and tweaked and promoted at the educational level of an 8 year old.
Will check it out. Thanks.
Quite a few years ago our family took out life memberships of NT, which was great (at the time) because we did visit a lot of sites. However if I could get my money back now, I would…they’ve been infiltrated by utter morons. The lgbt stuff, the women’s rights stuff, etc etc…I have sent several letters of fury on these issues and never once received a reply. Their mission is supposed to be the safeguarding and upkeep of our heritage buildings and landscape…and we do have many wonderful places. I recently learned that in order to get into a car-park at a NT site, I now have to book, ffs….not much point being a life member.
I used to volunteer in the museums sector, I’m glad I don’t now. It’s all so painfully sad.
The pre-booking is one thing that turns me off as well. I had a fairly long running battle with the National Gallery over membership when I asked if I could be refunded for the unused part of the membership during the closure. They refused and while I have written off this year as a lost cause, I have cancelled my membership from 2021 onwards. I will return once this insanity is over but I will spend as little money as possible – no cafe and shop for me.
I honestly think the National Trust, Heritage England and even Girlguiding actually intend to destroy the institutions they work for. It is too much of a coincidence that they all push the same woke ist agenda. Not sure what they think they will do for a job when they’ve destroyed said organisations – they won’t all be able to work for the BBC surely?
I don’t think they care. Once they have destroyed the institutions they work for, there’s always somewhere that would take them in – its a very incestious world this lot go around. Never mind that the people that need them the most will suffer because they will carry on destroying whatever they touch regardless.
We stopped being members decades ago – they were almost always toffee-nosed back then. Similar attitude to the NHS – without all the hoi-polloi visitors (read patients) this would be a great place to work…
Now they’re ‘woke’ as well, the mind boggles!
I see membership of the NT not so much about what it entitles me to but more in terms of supporting their work, which whatever you think of their interpretation of the history of the properties, is still worthwhile.Maybe letters of constructive criticism rather than letters of fury would elicit a response?
Poor old National Trust. I work in the heritage sector too, but self-employed. I’ve had a lot of work from the NT over the years and have many friends and colleagues who still work there (for now). They were stuck between a rock and a hard place. They rely on (mostly) elderly volunteers to be able to open the properties, and if this is the demographic that you scare shitless, they’re not going to come and you can’t open the house. You cannot overnight introduce a new system of opening. Interestingly, I learn from an insider that the announcement yesterday about redundancies is part of a huge restructuring they are calling ‘the Reset’.
That sounds rather ominous.
God it does doesn’t it..
I hate the national trust. Closing down all the footpaths in Wales and locking down remote beauty spots and huge chunks of wild open spaces.
Before the Corona Project they also banned all “drone” flying on all of their land in the UK.
That’s another thing, DRONE laws. A raft of totally insane rules brought in via “Europe” that has totally destroyed the hobby of Model aircraft flying with some really crazy rules.
You need a licence fly anything over 250 grams in weight now. So that’s almost my entire fleet of model aircraft that I can’t fly any more. Again, I had hoped for resistance and solidarity amongst the model flying community but everybody just went along with the new rules.
Now EASA are going to put out a raft of even more insane rules. Which will really finish off the sport.
I said at the time it was tyranny but I was labelled as a conspiracy theorist.
Absolute F*(&^rs.
Not aware of anything regarding the model planes regulations. Can’t something be ammended about verticle take off/firward motiin take off? Has there been any enforcement of the 250g ruling against a model plane – are gliders included.
Yes —–ers.
Yes, its a blanket rule, anything heavier than 250grams and up apart from control line aircraft require the owner registers with the CAA, gets a number, displays it on the aircraft and takes a really stupid test, soon all kinds of flight limiting “controllers” must be fitted along with some sever power to weight restrictions. There are also height restrictions, not about 400 feet, and restrictions on where you can fly, specially designated areas only and yes gliders are banned too.
To be fair it is easy to get the test and licence but this is just the thin end of the wedge.
All the rules are about MONETISING the lower air space below 400 feet for commercial drone operators. They want an app to control it all. You need to submit your plight plan before take off and wait for it to be authorised.
Dumbfounding.
I believe the airport drone carry on was a crude mi5 carry on. No pap got the shot despite tge country being grounded. Reason – I believe drones worry them since we can surveil them. The airport nonsense was the catalyst for these regulations.
Plight plan – a real Freudian thingy. 🙂
(Allow me to help you two with your spelling – Fuckers !).
The UK shooting community behaved in exactly the same way as EASA, 2-6.
This just in. As all indicators continue to fall, the self-isolation period for those with symptoms will be increased from7 to 10 days. this is because [insert fear monster of choice].
Not to mention increase in fainting and people experiencing hypoxic or hypercapnia attacks.
I did not witness it myself but I am told an elderly lady fell and badly injured herself near here yesterday while returning from Tesco. I rather suspect mask wearing and fainting was involved. We will be seeing more such cases before people realise why.
Unfortunately when I went for the Tesco shop this morning the lady at the checkout who was interested in where I had got my exempt lanyard from started asking questions about why I was exempt. Refused to tell her of course but pointed out that everybody under 11 is exempt and the store should be enforcing that. 100% customers masked, most staff also, so no trend to ignoring the rule here I am afraid.
Tomorrow will be especially hot so we’ll probably hear of more incidents. Not to mention people avoiding going out.
WHO official warns that COVID-19 is ‘one big wave’
Dr Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the World Health Organization, said there is no evidence that COVID-19 will follow seasonal variations like other coronaviruses. This comes after countries around the world say they are experiencing second waves.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-who/who-says-covid-19-pandemic-is-one-big-wave-not-seasonal-idUKKCN24T176
Is there evidence that it won’t be seasonal? The WHO don’t seem to know much more than when this started, at least nothing useful that could inform sensible policy decisions.
Let’s wait and see what happens in the Southern Hemisphere over the next two or three months. August there is the equivalent of our February.
Gov and medical experts are all saying it’s seasonal aren’t they? Which is why infection doesn’t equal immunity.
‘Normal’ coronaviruses seem to be later than other colds or flu typically (i.e. spring, not winter), but when humans are not behaving naturally, I can imagine that the seasonal nature would be affected somewhat. Also worth noting is tropical (i.e. not seasonal) climates don’t have seasons for such diseases either – they occur year-round.
The WHO are like the amateur day traders I described a while back. They have one objective and react to random fluctuations to “correct” their previous actions and end up with random results.
Insufficient evidence for the moment, because we have less than a full year’s experience of it.
That said, Ivor Cummings and the immunologist whose interview was linked here yesterday (Ep91 Emeritus Professor of Immunology…Reveals Crucial Viral Immunity Reality) suggest that the numbers so far are consistent with it settling into a pretty standard seasonal pattern, and since it’s another coronavirus cold much like the ones we’ve seen previously, it seems reasonable to assume that it will also be seasonal now that it has settled in as endemic in most places.
If that’s correct, though, its impact will become progressively less as the most most vulnerable have already been hit and there will be widespread cross-immunities, and in the long run it will just be another one of all the viruses and bugs that give us the usual winter death peaks.
Your correspondent from Derry is incorrect – masks in the Republic of Ireland are guidance masquerading as law. The government have threatened to make them law if people don’t follow the guidance but have not done so.
I have been in and out of retail outlets in Dublin maskless and have not been challenged by anyone (staff or other customer).
Sad story of how all this had taken over our lives: Was supposed to meet up with a work colleague over coffee a few days’ ago but she cancelled the night before citing that we were in different “bubbles” and would I mind if we rescheduled 3 months’ later? I did mind but understand her fear so replied and said no problem, it would be best to reschedule in October if only to put her mind at ease. She phoned me that evening to apologise and we got talking. She has brought into the whole thing lock, stock and barrel and when she got into the whole antisocial distancing malarkey, I asked her if she was willing to forego hugging her family especially her grandchildren (who she’s very close to) for all eternity. That shocked her and I added if she knew that the 2 metre rule had no basis in science and that antisocial distancing is a device used by prisons, concentration camps and gulags to break the spirit of their prisoners. Hope I have given her some food for thought. When I finished chatting with her, another thing dawned on me, the idea of “bubbles” is one that… Read more »
Similar here, a tentatively planned bike trip to the alps has fallen through as one of the group was concerned we couldn’t be distanced properly in the car and that his family would give him stick for breaking the guidelines. They’ve had a ‘covid related death’ so I didn’t push or pressure as I realise once emotions involved it’s difficult to be rational. I pointed out it’s not law, said he still wants to play it safe due to family pressure (says he wasnt worried about catching it or getting in trouble which at least was re-assuring). My visiting mum and wife opted for masks on supermarket trip yesterday (I normally do the shopping, but am now refusing to go til masks nonsense over) because they dont want to risk a fine, neither of them believe they’re effective or necessary, but the threat of punishment, especially financial punishment, is all thats needed. It shows the state of their diktat tho, you only get compliance through fear of punishment, not through agreement or consent – hence the tiny uptake of masks when optional, but now sudden widespread compliance. It is a tiny minority who _really want_ masks, and those people are… Read more »
I thought bubbles were out of the window. I’ve been ignoring them, anyway, and so have most other people I know. I am pretty sure the only major restriction now is gatherings must not be more than 30 people (plus the masks and quarantine and all the health and safety nonsense)
Yeah I pointed out none of it is law, but obviously the bubbles thing is still ‘guidance’ (at least I think it is – it’s been a long time since I bothered looking at what their guidance is and instead go straight for the actual SI to prove points) and as no one in the mainstream media is regularly publicising the fact that you can have people over (up to 30 people) and mingle with friends and family as you wish, people still largely think you’re expected to restrict gatherings to 2 households still.
I think deliberately (CF my comment on mask exemptions), the whole thing is so messy and has been changed so many times that it’s virtually impossible to remember what the guidelines are _now_ versus what they have been in the past. Firstly – all this is guidelines not rules (how much of it was ever rules and how much of it was always guidelines is another question). “Support bubbles” are still a thing. This basically means that a single adult household can behave as if they were part of another household. The guidance says nothing about restricting the number of households you can interact with, indoors or out, but you are only supposed to interact with one other household at a time indoors. Gatherings of up to 6 (though the law specifically allows up to 30). However, you can have people from one household round to your house today, meet up with another in the pub tomorrow, go to a restaurant with a third on Friday and so on. That nice Mr Sunak would very much like you to do this. You should maintain social distance throughout. No limit to the number of households you can interact with outdoors, but… Read more »
I am pretty sure all the bubble stuff, which was law, has gone. There is just this now: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/684/regulation/5 which is gatherings of > 30. Distancing was never law.
Oh, it’s gone in law, but very much still there in guidelines, which are still on the gov.uk website and haven’t been changed since the end of June. Everything I’ve said above is guidelines, except that I thought the ban on gatherings over 30 was law. If as you say, it is not, then it goes to prove the point – I’ve been paying attention and I’m still getting it wrong. It’s a complete mess (on purpose)
I don’t know anyone who really cares about this nonsense anymore.In their private lives I think most people are ignoring government guidelines.
The problem is the control in the public realm and Corporate sectors.
I think ambiguity is deliberate in order to make people think they’d better err on the safe side. Certainly the certificate you needed to go out of your house for an hour a day during the confinement in France was ambiguously worded. There was a programme on the radio about this aspect – not criticising it, but discussing how well confusion works to get across the message to stay at home.
No doubt that’s true. Keep people off balance and you keep them on edge.
That is still the law in Wales though, 2 households!
If you hadn’t just mentioned it, I would not have noticed – in my area of Wales at least. I think everyone round here (including my formerly-masked-up-&-be-gloved-‘got-to-stay-2m-apart’ mother-in-law) have forgotten about it.
Trouble is my workplace is implementing it and has split us into two “bubbles” (now I hate that word and would happily shoot anyone who uses it). There’s nothing about not being allowed to socialise outside work but many of my colleagues have been scared into thinking that socialising outside the “bubbles” is forbidden. One even told me that she would be happy to meet up only when there’s a vaccine.
To which I replied “you will be waiting for 10 million years to the point that we will all be dead anyway.”
Exactly. I know many of my colleagues have fallen for this malarkey but yeah they’re also scared as well. It just makes me sad to think that these people don’t bother doing their research and reading.
If they’re like my sister it’s probably they don’t have the time or inclination to sift through all the crap to find the facts. In fairness to my sister, she works a compressed full week for Nationwide, does (currently online) yoga teaching, and has my nephews (primarily the younger one now, but nonetheless) to look after, never mind a share of all the usual daily tasks required to live properly. It’s also not an unreasonable assumption that the media has morals and only reports facts (despite the clear evidence that neither is true).
That’s a good point. Especially with regards to the mentality of if it’s from the MSM, it must be true.
I’ve given no thought to bubbles for WEEKS. Don’t know anyone who has!
I don’t want to be in anybody’s social bubble. They are obviously muppets if they have a social bubble.
Have I got a bubble? Do I need one? Where do I get one?
I don’t really care about it and like you haven’t thought about it but this colleague of mine got cold feet and would rather wait until October for us to socialise.
It does give one an insight of how many people have really brought into this fear wholesale.
Hi All,
So Hancock and Whitty have increased the self-isolation period from 7 to 10 days.
bbc.com/news/uk-53588709
Hancock said on BBC this morning (I know … stop!) that this move was following scientific advice and literature. In fact, I did see the CDC advising 10 days of isolation after testing positive in a recent report (July 26th):
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/isolation.html
This seems very fortuitous for the govt., as I can’t help but think that “they” are simply building up a checklist of steps taken to halt the second wave (when it doesn’t come in the fall) which they can tout:
“Well everyone, we avoided a deadly second wave because we made face masks mandatory in shops, and we added quarantine periods for EU arrivals, and we increased the self-isolation period to 10 days.”
I can only dread what is coming in the next few weeks.
Twats!
Your reading of it sounds pretty plausible to me. I hate supporting lies, but part of me wishes they’d invent some shit like “if you throw salt in the air once you have stepped outside your front door, you are immune, and this is a legal requirement” I’d do it and move on, if it meant all the other cobblers could be forgotten.
Doesn’t throwing salt work then ?! Bugger …
Just been on to that World Travel and tour Comapnies/Carnival website to watch the videos.
Well, well, well, the video about living with Covid-19 where the doctor says masks are only 50% effective has been taken down from public viewing.
Wonder what else is in it that should not have been said that I have not had chance to watch?