Latest News
Love in the Time of Covid
Well, that set the cat among the pigeons. Yesterday, I launched a dating section in the Forums called “Love in a Covid Climate” and within hours it had been invaded by trolls posting satirical comments. Some of them were quite funny, although they took it for granted that lockdown sceptics are all Brexit-backing Tories. (Evidently haven’t read “The Left-Wing Case Against Lockdown“.) The National – the SNP-supporting online newspaper that never misses a chance to have a pop at me – published a selection of them within hours of the forum going live. Here are a couple of my favourites.
After a demoralising divorce I was, like many, reinvigorated by the Brexit movement only to be let down by Boris in this mask debacle. Looking for Albion-loving lady 35-50 who would be open to dressing up as Winston Churchill and spanking me with a cricket bat while I sing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’. No snowflakes need apply.
Hi my name is Miles.
I live in North London and I’m looking for a patriotic lady for lasting friendship and to settle down with.
I am financially stable with my own house, car and am mortgage free.
I am 47 years old and my interests are politics, Brexit, cars, holidays in the English countryside. My musical and film tastes are very wide so there should be something we have in common.
I am totally against all the masks/muzzle nonsense and feel that it is unnecessary scaremongering.
I also like watching animals make love (mainly dogs, foxes and wolves) but other animals as well. If that is not a thing you can get into it is a deal breaker I’m afraid.
There were plenty more in that vein – and wags on Twitter came up with some amusing alternative names for the site, including “Two Meeters”, “Spreadr” and “Hydroxychloroquindr”.
After I was contacted by the Evening Standard asking me to comment on the “adverse reaction online”, I had a chat with the Forum moderators. Should we abandon the whole idea? Would it be too much work to constantly weed out the pranksters, particularly if “Love in a Covid Climate” attracts a bit of publicity? They heroically concluded it would not and set to work tidying it up. I can’t promise that no hoaxers will get through from now on, but we should be able to spot them fairly quickly.
Since we cleaned it up “Love in a Covid Climate” appears to have taken off, with plenty of legitimate users now posting messages. And I’m happy to weather the Twitter storm if readers think it’s a useful service. The most common barbs revolve around the fact that lockdown sceptics are more likely to have the virus than other people, making them extremely unappealing as potential romantic partners. I even got an email from a reporter at the Guardian asking me to respond to the charge that the forum could spread coronavirus and harm the individuals involved. In fact, almost no one has the virus any more, including those who refuse to wear face nappies. (0.05% of the population, according the latest ONS infection survey and many of them may be false positives.) If the idea of going out on a date with a sceptic scares the living daylights out of you because you’re incapable of assessing risk, fine, don’t use the service. Indeed, the rationale for setting it up is so sceptical singles can avoid inadvertently going out with a bedwetter. As I said in my reply to the Guardian reporter:
Most people wildly exaggerate the risk posed by the virus. For instance, a poll published a couple of weeks ago found that British women think that 10% of the UK population has already died of COVID-19. That’s about 6.7 million people. In fact, the real figure is less than 1% of that – about 45,000. According to John Ioannidis, the Stanford Professor of Medicine, you’re more likely to die in a road traffic accident if you’re under-65. I’ve created “Love in a Covid Climate” for people who are properly informed about the risk, realise how small it is and want to meet other scientifically literate people who haven’t succumbed to what Bernard Henri-Levy calls “psychotic delirium”.
No doubt the forum will evolve, as most things do on this site. For the time being, the experiment continues.
Cases Increasing, Hospitalisations Falling
Yesterday, 1,062 people tested positive for COVID-19, up from 758 cases in the previous 24 hours. Anything to worry about? No. According to yesterday’s Sunday Times, the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has fallen by 94% since the peak of the pandemic. Hospital staff are treating about 1,067 coronavirus patients a day in England, compared with about 17,000 a day in the middle of April, says NHS England. The Times has more.
Ron Daniels, an intensive care consultant in Birmingham, one of the worst-hit areas, told the Sunday Times there had been a big fall in admissions.
Last Thursday, across three hospitals that serve more than 50 per cent of Birmingham’s population, there were three critically ill COVID-19 patients.
“Compare that to where we were a couple of months ago, when we had almost 200 patients ventilated at any one given time, and this is a huge downturn,” Dr Daniels said.
He said the figures showed there was cause to be optimistic, even with the recent rise in cases in some areas such as Aberdeen and Preston.
He added that he didn’t expect an increase in hospital admissions. “I think that’s highly unlikely, because the pubs have been open for over a month [and] people have been socially interacting heavily during that time and the natural history of this disease is that if you contract the virus and you’re going to end up in hospital, you’re pretty much in hospital within 15 days,” he said.
Gobal Lockdowns Will Plunge 100 Million into Extreme Poverty
Today sees the publication of a disturbing report by the Associated Press’s Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. It purports to be an investigation into the devastating impact of “the virus” on the developing world, but, of course, what it’s really talking about is “the lockdowns”. Here’s an extract:
With the virus and its restrictions, up to 100 million more people globally could fall into the bitter existence of living on just $1.90 a day, according to the World Bank. That’s “well below any reasonable conception of a life with dignity,” the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty wrote this year. And it comes on top of the 736 million people already there, half of them in just five countries: Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Congo and Bangladesh.
India is struggling with one of the world’s largest virus caseloads and the effects of a lockdown so abrupt and punishing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the poor to forgive him. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has surpassed India with the most people in extreme poverty — roughly half its citizens. And Congo remains one of the world’s most crisis-ridden countries, with outbreaks of Ebola and measles smoldering.
Even China, Indonesia and South Africa are expected to have more than 1 million people each fall into extreme poverty, the World Bank says.
“It’s a huge, huge setback for the entire world,” Gayle Smith, president of the ONE Campaign to end extreme poverty, told The Associated Press. Smith, a former administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, called the global response to the crisis “stunningly meager.”
Most of the millions newly at risk are in sub-Saharan Africa, a region that against countless odds had some of the world’s fastest growing economies in recent years.
It’s a timely reminder that the the main cost of the lockdowns favoured by liberal policy-makers across the world will not be people in the West, but those hovering just above the poverty line in the developing world. Thanks to the misguided enthusiasm of Western governments for imprisoning entire populations in their homes, thereby triggering a global recession, tens of millions of people will die of starvation in low-income countries. Worth reading in full.
Postcard Request
Are there any readers in the West Yorkshire village of Menston Park? If so, could we have a “Postcard From Menston Park” please? According to the Telegraph, the village is split between the Bradford half, with villagers occupying an area governed by Bradford City Council, and the Leeds half, which falls within Leeds City Council. The Telegraph has more.
Historically, it is not a division that causes serious problems, but since the Government’s partial lockdown of the Bradford council area, however, Menston has effectively been cut in two.
The Leeds half has the same liberties most of the country enjoys, while the Bradford half is living under tight restrictions.
“It’s crazy, Menston’s been split down the middle,” villager Michael Rhodes, 66, told the Telegraph.
“My house is right on the border. I can literally walk out, go 20 metres across the road into the park, and that apparently gives me different freedoms. So which do we abide by?”
Philip Davies, the local MP, is not happy about this state of affairs.
Mr Davies has had a “very robust conversation” with both the Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, and the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, about the matter. The Prime Minister, he says, “listened, and said I made a very strong case”.
Matt Hancock told him the line had to be drawn somewhere.
If you’re a Menston Park resident and fancy writing something for Lockdown Sceptics, whether a full postcard or just a paragraph or two, please email me here.
Recommended Holiday Destination: Vallon Pont D’Arc, Southern France
A reader has been in touch to say he’s very happy with his choice of holiday destination: Vallon Pont D’Arc.
After ‘surviving’ the flight to Nice on a well known low-cost carrier, our first full day in the Ardeche has been wonderful. The French (please note we are the only Brits in the entire campsite or indeed possibly in the whole town) here on holiday are clearly up for a good time and whilst mask wearing was observed in the local supermarket it’s pretty much ignored or paid lip service to elsewhere. There’s zero social distancing in the streets, bars, restaurants, Ice-cream parlours – there’s even a funfair where the kids don’t have to wear masks on rides. It’s obvious to us that the French leave their snowflakes where they belong, on the ski slopes. Vive la France 🇫🇷 We’re super glad we made the effort and are happily keeping the French economy going.
Recommended Holiday Destination 2: The Brecon Beacons
I’m just back from a lovely three-day family holiday in the Brecon Beacons. We went hiking in the Black Mountains, did the four waterfalls walk and visited Carreg Cennen Castle. No one seemed bothered about social distancing, we didn’t encounter a single leaper and – best of all – the Welsh Government hasn’t made face nappies mandatory in shops. Almost normal, save for the fact that there were very few tourists around.
Best bit about it was the wonderful bed and breakfast we stayed in – Ty Newydd in Llangadog, Carmarthenshire. Run by a lovely couple called Lesley and Derick, it’s just one mile outside the Brecon Beacons National Park and about two miles off the A40. Dogs welcome. In addition to bed and breakfast, it also has a caravan site and ample parking space. Worked out at £36 per person per night, which included a full English every morning. For couples who’ve just met on “Love in a Covid Climate”, this is perfect for a weekend getaway. Booking website is here.
Postcard From Latvia
I’ve published a new Postcard today, this one from Latvia. Our correspondent’s trip did not start well.
My trip got off to an inauspicious start when the person next to me on the plane was a young female who sat down and immediately requested I made sure my mask was covering my nose. I readjusted it and uttered words along the lines of, “Of course. I’ll make myself feel unwell just to please you.” (I have lung scarring from an illness 19 years ago). Perhaps I should have been nicer. But she was a mask militant. After the flight I saw her in the airport’s outside car park, still fully masked up, getting picked up by her (what I presumed to be) dad, who was also fully masked up. Neuroticism must run in the family.
Happily, it got better after that. Worth reading in full.
Round-Up
- ‘Deathly Lockdowns Compound Australia’s Covid Fiasco‘ – Dr Guy Campbell argues the Australian lockdowns are causing more harm than good
- ‘Almost half of teachers say it’s still unsafe to reopen schools‘ – Scottish teachers are still skittish about re-opening schools
- ‘Lockdown supporters cannot bear the thought that Sweden has got it right‘ – Excellent piece by Ross Clark in the Telegraph
- ‘The Myth That Lockdowns Stop Pandemics‘ – Good article by Stacey Rudin in RealClear Politics
- ‘We need a principled anti-lockdown movement‘ – Jeffrey A. Tucker, Editorial Director of the American Institute for Economic Research, sets out what an effective anti-lockdown movement would look like
- ‘Quarter of a million over-50s “will never work again” after coronavirus‘ – According to the Telegraph, one in four workers aged 50 or over has been furloughed and 377,000 of them could lose their jobs
- ‘UK poised to suffer the biggest Covid blow of any major economy‘ – The Telegraph reports that the UK economy has shrunk by 23% over the first half of 2020 due to drop in consumer spending during lockdown
- ‘“Politicized” Hydroxychloroquine Being “Discarded Prematurely” Warns Oxford Professor‘ – Hydroxychloroquine is being “discarded prematurely” and could still be effective against COVID-19, according to researchers from University of Oxford. They’re about to undertake a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study of the antiviral medication
- ‘UK heading into full lockdown next month if Boris Johnson doesn’t fix “disastrous” test and trace, says ex-government scientist‘ – The ex-scientist in question is Sir David King, head of “shadow SAGE” and longtime Labour supporter
- ‘How to choose between the virus camps‘ – Nice piece for Conservative Woman by Rowina Seidler, a regular Lockdown Sceptics reader
- ‘What we can learn from the Swedish paradox‘ – UnHerd editor Freddie Sayers writes about the lessons we can learn from his home country
- ‘My fellow teachers need to get a grip‘ – Outstanding piece in the Spectator by a teacher arguing all schools need to re-open in full next month
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Just one today: “The Teachers Are Afraid of the Pupils” by Morrissey.
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 (and some of them are at risk of having to close again). 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 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. And we’ve added a new dating section – “Love in a Covid Climate” (see above). 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 (now showing it will arrive between Sept 24th to Oct 3rd). 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 “exempt” card that looks like as if it’s been issued by the NHS for just £2.79 from Etsy here.
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 (now over 27,500).
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
But what if you’re travelling on public transport without a lanyard and you’re stopped by the British Transport Police? According to today’s Times, 28,964 people without a face covering were questioned by the Transport Police between July 13th and 25th. However, just 1,605 were told to leave the network and only 33 penalty notices were issued.
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…
A Cambridge professor sent me this advertisement for a new book called Is Free Speech Racist? by Gavan Titley. We’ve been puzzling over it, but have decided it’s not a parody. We could be wrong, of course, but it’s on sale on Amazon here and Titley has written at least one other book – although, that, too, could be a parody. According to the Guardian, where Titley was a contributor until 2014, he is a lecturer in media studies at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth.
IS FREE SPEECH RACIST?
by Gavan TitleyFollowing the killing of George Floyd, thousands have taken to the streets across the world under the banner of a simple message: Black Lives Matter.
Almost instantaneously came calls to declare that ‘All Lives Matter’ – an undeniably important message, but not the one that needs airspace following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks, to name too few. When those who ‘cannot breathe’, literally or figuratively, finally raise their voices to be heard, they are immediately challenged, their speech closely regulated and their demands measured against the pre-existing values of the status quo. Witness Boris Johnson underlining law, order and democratic process as he condemned those who toppled Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol.
At the same time, out come the right-wing ‘counter-protestors’ touting either overt racism or else the sacred cow of ‘free speech’, increasingly used as a cover for the former. But we must not let the free speech defence immediately close down anti-racist activism. We must look more closely at the hypocritical use to which it is being put and ask: is free speech just another tool of racism today?
“This is an excellent and urgently needed book that offers a key contribution to both academic and public debate on free speech. In a clear, succinct style, Gavan Titley persuasively argues that free speech is often defended in a superficial way, which focuses on speech as a mere channel of ideas and neglects structural inequalities between different speakers.”
MATTEO BONOTTI, MONASH UNIVERSITY
Stop Press: There’s an amusing story in the Babylon Bee headlined “Riotous BLM Protesters Suddenly Realize They’re All White People”.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
I am number one!!!! 1️⃣🏆🥇
Yeah!!
“You are not a Number. You are a free man!”.
(Just joshing!)
you pipped OKOK to the first post!! 🙂
Who’s this OKUK impersonator OKOK?
Congratulations on your first place.
I feel very special.
https://twitter.com/Covid19Crusher/status/1292741729775431680 https://ticotimes.net/2020/06/08/costa-rica-to-resume-use-of-hydroxychloroquine-for-covid-19-treatment “Costa Rican health authorities said Monday(early JUNE) that the country plans to resume its use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients. The announcement came from Román Macaya, the executive president of the Costa Rican Social Security System (CCSS), even as he acknowledged the drug’s efficacy against COVID-19 has not yet been proven. “Efficacy is something we have to answer with a clinical study,” Macaya said. The CCSS had temporarily stopped using hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 late May after a study published in The Lancet prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to do the same. That study — which indicated that using the drug on hospitalized coronavirus patients could increase their chances of dying — has since come under independent criticism, and the WHO has resumed its own hydroxychloroquine study. In Costa Rica, all patients — including those with minor symptoms or who are asymptomatic — are offered the option to take hydroxychloroquine upon their diagnosis, as long as they don’t have contraindications to the drug, Macaya said. The country has provided the drugs to patients since conferencing with Chinese experts in April, according to Mario Ruíz, Medical Manager of the CCSS. Costa Rica has a low case fatality rate (.75%), and fewer than 5%… Read more »
Nit in 6 months’ time, perhaps, but when future historians get to work on the Great Insanity, the BBC will get what it deserves: total condemnation. Out-Goebbeling Goebbels.
I am all for the ‘scientifically literate’ label. Thanks Toby
General suggestion, especially for those without real world local support.
The private messaging system seems to be up and running on the forums, so use it to contact people here whose opinions lead you to think you might get on with them or if they are local to you. As far as I can see someone has to post in the forum before you can pm them though, unless there’s a member list somewhere. We should also use them to form networks to exchange info about coronapanic resistant businesses etc, to try to support them without drawing unwelcome bedwetter attention to them.
I think this can be a big step forward in building sustained and effective dissent here, though clearly it’s unlikely to be particularly secure. But good enough for now, I think.
A brazil nut a day keeps the corona away? (Beware known to be severe allergic, even deaths for some)
A Chinese study saying that low selenium is bad in Covid-19.No idea if true but just published not peer reviewed. Just for information.
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.31.230243v2
“A significant, positive association between selenium status and prognosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection has been identified among COVID-19 patients in China. “
Brazil nuts are also very high in zinc!
Both zinc and selenium are cheap to buy as supplements, no allergies necessary.
And also radioactive.
And so are you.
CDC chief admits hospitals have “perverse incentive” to inflate coronavirus deaths
“American hospitals are being perversely incentivized to count all deaths that come their way as Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) deaths in order to receive cash from the government. This was the shocking admission of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield, who admitted the truth during a recent House Oversight and Reform Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing.”
https://www.naturalnews.com/2020-08-09-cdc-chief-hospitals-perverse-incentive-inflate-coronavirus-deaths.html
Again, should be headline news. Isn’t.
Someon brought up this subject several months on one of the podcasts that I have been listening to for the past three months but I can’t remember who said it. The incentive was around $100,0000 dollars per patient. Sales people don’t get commissions like that. Thanks Obama!
There was a YouTube vid 3 months ago by a nurse at New York City Hospital showing how managers had deliberately placed non Covid patients alongside Covid sufferers, she described this as ‘murder’.
I think it was mentioned on Pandemic Warroom at https://pandemic.warroom.org.
That is the best source I have found for daily coverage, interviews with major scientists/doctors , others to get a clear picture of what is happening, unlike mainstream media
I’ve just mentioned this on the BBC website, under an education story (what the heck: have to comment where one can!), and included the A$25k figure that’s going round for each Australian C-19 death. Five downticks so far, lol.
I remember hearing about this months ago. It’s a shame that even a Breitbart article will be immediately discredited and ignored by most people. If the Grauniad covered this I might actually get some of my friends to read it…
You are still friends with people who read the Guardian? It’s very hard work, as I know from personal experience. Of course, these same people usually regard themselves as well informed, even though they only watch the BBC for their news.
I would like to propose that we start referring to pro-mask people as being anti-human.
They are against human contact, against socialising, they don’t believe in the value of the human immune system, they think we can only survive with artificial aids like masks and vaccines. They prefer human interaction that is supported by computers, such as zoom meetings, social media instead of natural face to face communication.
In short they have a view of humanity as being deficient and needing artificial support. They are anti-human.
They are also very selfish
They are better off staying at home in their masks and their gloves
Yes, by denying me my share of their enzymes (whatever) they are damaging my immune system. Selfish Bastards.
Just ‘non-human’ says it for me. But anti-human, certainly, when they get at a bare-facer.
No, they’re just mis-informed, trusting and conventional. These are not crimes. The onslaught of fear mongering has worked, that is not their fault. They are just afraid.
Brilliant. Very well put. Taking this new moniker on board as of now 🙂
They would like to become Cyborgs.
Or just the Borg
That’s what I meant. Sigh!
They are the 1st wave of the Transhuman movement, eschewing human traits; covering their faces so as to not betray their emotions, such as smiling, minimising all social touching, handshakes or hugs. Peak commication will be a thing of the past, emoji’s will be the only way of expressing feelings.
The nuance of human commication will be watered down to a functional level.
Anti-human is good, but I’m going to refer to them as Hobgoblins from now on, after coming across this quote from Henry Louis Mencken, writing in the early 20th century:
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed and hence, clamorous to be led to safety, by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins – all of them imaginary.”
Bugaboos is another name for them,
Hobgoblin nor foul fiend
can daunt his spirit,
He knows he at the end
shall life inherit.
Sounds reasoning. I like it!
I ask you to first extend a true humanity rather than judging a masked agenda that you can project into and believe what you put there.
Anna Brees has some human testimony videos on youtube. Look for the lawyer/Artist.
For another perspective than polarised identity reaction.
An anti human agenda is indeed active, but the symptoms are the signs of the disease and not the disease itself.
Ad hom attacks the person, watch out for that! Address the underlying issues, the fallacies and the contradictory beliefs – but so as to extend a communication that might serve a better choice and outcome (for all).
Five months of addressing the fallacies and contradictions hasn’t done much good, has it?
They seem to like stroking white cats though.
👏👏👏
Anybody remember the Star Trek (TV original) episode in which the Aliens attack the crew causing their mouths and noses to disappear under a swathe of skin ?
I remember those scenes because they were bloody scary as a 12(?) year old.
I understand where you’re coming from but I think that anything that divides us even more isn’t a good idea. Treating them with compassion and quietly persuading them with information is a better idea and will win more people over to common sense. I do agree that there’s nothing we can do about the real fanatics.
A rather complex study using available data comparing economic data and C-19 testing policy.Not easy to follow. Someone else entangle this?
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.31.20165811v1
“The statistically significant association between population size and COVID-19 CRF suggests the healthcare strain and lower treatment efficiency in countries with large populations. The observed association between smoking in females and COVID-19 CFR might be due to that the proportion of female smokers reflected broadly income level of a country. When testing is warranted and healthcare resources are sufficient, strict quarantine and/or lockdown measures might result in excess deaths in underprivileged populations.”
The observed association between smoking in females and COVID-19 CFR might be due to that the proportion of female smokers reflected broadly income level of a country.
So smoking doesn’t protect them from covid symptoms?
I think they mean high level of female smoking, higher income level and they are not going into discussion if smoking is protective for C-19
Project fear, Teachers Union scaring with Israel’s school opening ignoring >20 other countries school opening.
https://twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1292523108503519233
“Israel re-opened everything at once, not just schools. The other >20 countries that opened schools but kept other measures in place did not observe a resurgence in C-19 cases linked to schools. Children are not key drivers of transmission”
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.03.20121145v1.full.pdf
Cases among Israeli population as a whole: 82k/9M (1/109). Teachers: 691/170k (1/246). Students: 1335/1.7M (1/1273)
https://twitter.com/NahasNewman/status/1292525629305507840
Unfortunately, the vast majority of teachers don’t teach maths, and if maths teachers are standing with the union, they need to be struck off.
And the ones that do don’t do it very well, let’s be honest!
I posted about this on the last page. New link this time. Is it just me, or do others think it possible we have now reached peak cases world-wide?
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Add in the 7 day moving average on the daily cases to see what I mean.
This is probably due to populous India perhaps just at the peak and some Big Latin American countries like Brazil and Mexico perhaps just passed the peak. Africa seemed to have passed the peak like populous US and Russia. But we have populous Philippines, Indonesia and Japan to come.
Time will tell, I just looked at Indonesia which may be near peak, only a slow rise. Phillipines cases are definitely still rising. Japan is an oddity.
Could be their diet?
In fact, there has been speculation that fermented food in Japan, Korea (Kimchi) and Germany(sauerkraut)might be protective against C-19 explaining their lower figures
Are pickled onions in that class?
If so, by now I must be 1000% Covidproof, yeah!
So was the virus held up at the airport?
Is it reasonable to assume that Japan is ‘to come’? All I’ve heard from there indicates they have not gone mad and unduly suppressed spread, so their lack of such spread would seem more likely due to other factors: perhaps widespread immunity due to other related viruses?
I suspect that countries who managed to keep Covie out, such as Taiwan, Japan, New Zealand, Hawaii, Australia, et al, have all still got it “to come”.
That’s my point though, Japan didn’t keep it out, nor clearly (now) did Australia. Low deaths has nothing to do with lack of spread, or fudging the figures (as many claim for Germany for instance), there seems to be something in those populations.
My suspicion is that places that had recent severe flu (which includes Japan, Australia and Germany) seem to have relatively few deaths from this. I don’t see that cross immunity would be relevant, so maybe it’s just that the most vulnerable are at lower numbers in those populations. There may be greater cross immunity in some or all of those countries, but nothing to do with flu.
New Zealand, Taiwan and Hawaii would be different stories of course, at least according to what we know now.
If the recent severe “flu” was actually a coronavirus it would be very relevant as we know now that there is sterilising humoral cross-immunity from other coronaviruses.
This might explain why they’re getting it now– if the other coronavirus was a few months ago antibody levels from that will have gone down.
But it also possible they suppressed it through behaviour. Their first peak was a lower number of deaths per person than Australia’s.
That’s not how immunity works. Antibodies only hang around a few months but immunity does for much longer if not life (dependent on the illness obviously). Think of antibodies as the main part of the emergency services – you can’t have them at high alert for long, but afterwards they’ll have experience dealing with that type of emergency in the future and act much more efficiently when they are ‘notified’.
I read they had a flu run prior that gave them immunity.
Or that they had it before the over reactions made it into a fear monster.
whether the novel is the virus or the mutating script is up to you.
I don’t see anything reasonable in the covid narrative, but if you generate a structure through which funding and other incentives operate all kinds of lack-driven identity will be attracted and create ‘communities’ there albeit ‘keep apart in order to stay together’.
It looks to me like it’s kicking off in Japan for real. The deaths are starting to go up as well, it’s not just reported cases.
Quite similar to AU in that suppression lasted about a month. But it’s interesting how they achieved that. A cooperative public probably makes more difference than a legally enforced lockdown.
It certainly looks like it’s not far off. Obviously some countries are artificially delayed such as Australia.
The best graph I think is always the log graph of number dead. If it’s a straight line they’re growing exponentially. At some point (usually rather soon) it makes a right turn and flattens off. Not quite flat yet globally but getting there. Looks it might get a bit past 1m but not as far as 10m.
Not if you listen to the BBC whose scare stories are now almost all 3rd world.
“UK heading into full lockdown next month if Boris Johnson doesn’t fix “disastrous” test and trace, says ex-government scientist”
Err – no.
Try to impose another lockdown if you like but we won’t pay any attention to it.
Have these people lost their minds!
There’s still a little bit of the economy that they haven’t destroyed yet, they want to finish the job!
Mins? What ‘minds’?
That is the least scary alternative, if they have not then…
Lost it a long time ago. This comes from King, a former chief scientific adviser to the government between 2000 and 2007. The 2001 Foot And Mouth outbreak was “managed” under his watch. And he’s a anthropogenic climate change fanatic. He’s not a virologist, climatologist or immunologist, but yet another theoretical physicist, like Ferguson.
He’s not a member of SAGE, but the self-appointed “alternate” SAGE. Not that there’s much difference. “Real” SAGE recommends something, and “alternate” SAGE screams “Sooner! Harder!”
ITYM failed theoretical physicist.
Interesting… so destroying the economy, stopping travel and causing a lot of excess deaths from another lockdown would suit his climate zealotry as well. There are too many of us after all. I detest these people!
They have sold them by selling us out. They have to ‘front’ to the public some plausibly deniable excuse by which to string us along and keep the operation active.
Anyone thinking inside the box must be at their wits end in trying to make sense as if what is being effected makes any sense to the old boxed normal.
I’m happy to have another lockdown if they don’t pay public sector workers anything and just fund all small businesses two years of revenue. And we all get a tax break for two years.
I’ll happily stock up and sit in my own filth.
Right in. We’ve had some practice.
Toby linked the article did he not? It’s not an ‘ex-government scientist’ at all – unless you think of him being a scientist from the (long-time) ex-government: i.e. Labour. He’s a member of the anti-SAGE.
I’m not going back into lockdown. Lockup maybe, but not lockdown.
Well he’s right about one part: the test and trace is disastrous. I think much more disastrous than it’s often given credit for– it’s quite likely it’s only finding about 1% of actual infections.
But it seems to be “working” as hospitalisations keep going down. 🤔
Yeah not happening.
I didn’t pay any attention to the first one, out and about as a key worker. Scary at first, those press reports about Covid victims drowning with lungs full of putrid puss, skin covered in boils (from a bubonic plague handbook).
Soon figured out it was all bollocks. Only stayed in after work since there was nowhere to go.
The younglings have discovered that staying overnight with mates is more fun, safer and less expensive than going to the pub so in any future lockdown they will do just that.
Is it this bloke?
…David King, the UK government’s former chief scientific adviser on climate change, admitted ministers had made a huge mistake by promoting diesel. … “It turns out we were wrong,” he said.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/apr/13/death-of-diesel-wonder-fuel-new-asbestos
Just look at this shit, warnig it will give you brain cancer.
BBC “How to stay cool in a face mask”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53688259
Heh I don’t think I’ll click that bollocks
Oh do, it’s hilarious. Top medical expert advises using a mask made of bamboo. Pandas, loom out, they’re after your dinner.
And how about this?
“What about putting your mask in the freezer before you head out in the heat? Dr Sheraz is unconvinced. “It’s not a bad idea. The only thing I was thinking about is you don’t want people get cold burns on their faces. So I don’t think I’d advise that.”
Dr Anil Budh-Raja, a GP who also offers skin and cosmetic treatments at clinics in Birmingham and Chiswick, suggested a towel which has been put in the freezer could be used as a mask.
The government says a face covering can be anything which safely the covers the nose and mouth – but of course you must be able to tie it in place. Remember that public towel slips are always embarrassing in the summer heat.”
ROTFL! !
“It’s not a bad idea”.
It’s a terrible idea. This person doesn’t understand basic physics. The mask will probably be at body temperature before you’ve had time to walk from your kitchen to your own front door.
That’s the sort of epsilon-minus sub-monkey that lives in the BBC cage.
With apologies to real monkeys.
“…safely covers the nose and mouth” is a contradiction in itself.
I know where he got that from. Back in the 90’s crims who nicked your car radio would put it in their mums freezer overnight since that overode the computer lock.
Gov advice on making your own says it should be ‘comfortably breathable’. How big is a virus again, about the size of a hamster?
Only when it goes out mob-handed.
Perfect storm of an article from the BBC combining global warming with pro mask wearing propaganda, all topped off with medical advice from an NHS doctor from their favourite community. Must clock up 10,000 points on the Virtue-Signalometer!
How about a BBC video Arcade game?
Sunscreen, too!
Dear BBC, shut yer big fat gobs!
UK Column analysed this today and came to the conclusion that the advice is very dangerous. Egregiously, the “medical expert” is a dermatologist, nothing to do with pulmonary issues.
Brian has written an excellent letter about it to the Beeb asking some very searching questions. He suggests we do the same.
Watch here. Today’s bulletin was excellent: https://www.ukcolumn.org/ukcolumn-news/uk-column-news-10th-august-2020
Those of you who found the article amusing, might want to watch UKC and then re-view the article from a more critical perspective.
It’s a good example of how very subtle and insidious the propaganda psy-op is.
I watched it, that is where I saw the article.
We saw it too. What we liked is the BBC’s insidious assumption that people would be wearing their masks outside in summer. Round here, outside muzzle-wearing seems to have decreased since people are forced into them in shops.
Yes. Nudging us to accept wearing muzzles outside. Very sinister.
I love those guys on UK Column.
They do an awesome job!
Reposted from end of yesterday.
My mum worked as a nurse for a Consultant Dermatologist in the 60’s. He thought it was a nice idea to present his staff with copies of his published text books.
I spent happy childhood hours exploring my parents bookshelves, ever wary of coming across b/w photos of revolting and horrible skin conditions.
I’m boycottimg the BBC and, as they don’t rely on external income sources, you should be be able to replicate the article in full…saving me a click bait (I’m still paying for now….just not viewing! 5 Months BBC sober!)
OK – back from my first outing to the shops since this new mask rule in N.I. In the butchery, the butchers were just wearing visors. Didn’t say a word to me. Some fella came in after me fiddling with his mask.
Went to a local coffee shop for a takeaway – all staff in masks and some woman and her kids in them.
Got the odd look in there, but didn’t give a shit. It’s a weird feeling, being a bit anxious not wearing a mask in a shop.
On another note – here’s my riposte to the ‘granny killer’ accusation should it arise.
So at most about 1 in 2000 people have the virus, and probably a lot less in more rural areas. The virus spreads in close contact of at least a few mins from under a distance of 1 metre. So if I keep my distance from older folk (as I’ve been doing this whole time), the odds of me actually infecting and killing someone must be astronomical.
Something tells me I’ll need a million years or so to be troubling Harold Shipman for his crown..
Congrats. It is a slightly odd feeling, being the only one without a mask in a large shop full of masked conformists, but I will say it’s not entirely unpleasant.
Schools in N.I. go back in about 9 days – I think it’s teachers first. My brother is a teacher.
Should be immense fun.
I’m a bit disappointed that the famous Northern Irish backbone seems to have disappeared. But then 60% of more are public sector.
Yeah its pathetic. Take it you’re NI based?
Saw one other guy in a gift shop not wearing one, his mrs was though.
No. From there but live in Blighty
Too much bureacracy. The only jobs that will be left to fill pretty soon.
It is astonishing how overnight a government can get a whole population behaving differently. What they worried not one jot about yesterday becomes criminal today!
Were you saying, or was it someone else?, that mask wearing was only 10% in their part of the six counties?
What was the justification for the masking edict? A rise in cases? An increase in the people dying? An increase in hospital admissions? I’m going to attempt to check these figures right now.
Yeah the uptake was very low, so they didn’t like the public telling them to fuck off.
However now its mandatory, there were a lot more wearing them.
There hasn’t been a death here since 12 July. Not sure about cases though, but they’re meaningless really.
The official reason given was so that older people would feel more confident going to the shops.
I despair! It gives me no confidence seeing people masked – and I’m in my seventies.
Just so you know I didn’t go out today so probably saved your life, you can thank me later.
That’s really going to work, isn’t it?
Scares the s..t out of them.
Or makes them feel sick, just as we do.
When do we get some reliable retail figures pre and post mask dates to give us some comparisons?
I’ve checked using this site:-
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/cases?areaType=nation&areaName=Northern%20Ireland
Cases have been rising slightly since the end of June. It got to a low of 1.6 at the end of June and is now 10.9 per day on a seven day average. But like you I think cases are meaningless as they seem to be a product of testing rather than a measure of illness.
Since early July hospital admissions have varied twixt 0 and 2 a day – the averag, of course, being one.
And as you say – no deaths since mid-July.
These figures, in my view, justify relaxing measures – not making life tougher!
No deaths since mid July is plenty of justification for relaxing everything, basically, and simply having reminders for people to please practice good hygiene. It is beyond bonkers, completely and utterly incomprehensible, to be adding restrictions.
Read this: https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/MINDSPACE.pdf
If I ever get accused of being a granny killer I’ll ask what division, Harold Shipman League or the NHS premier league
Excellent response!
Great reply! I will nick it as part of my repetoire of responses!
I think my riposte to the ‘granny killer’ accusation, should it arise, will be “If you want to stop old people dying of natural causes, how and when do you think they should die?”
I’d tell them that I don’t kill grannies, only people who get in my face and try to run my life for me.
Exactly. As long as you don’t spend you spare roaming round old people’s homes and coughing on the resident, I think you’ll be ok.
Bet you a quid the butchers get back to normal pdq.
Walking face naked toward my usual convenience store, outside is a woman with a gaggle of kids, hers and her friends? As I open the door I just know they are staring at me and out comes the “! MuUM !?. . .”
I think I can guess the question.
The fact the Guardian and Evening Standard got in touch is hilarious. The Guardian asking you to respond to ‘the charge’ they almost certainly just made up themselves is even better – shows how pathetic their standard of journalism really is these days.
Personally I think the forum dating thing is likely to be a failure. Forums are not a good medium for dating. They are designed for public discussion, where people post comments for the benefit of the peanut gallery, which means they will attract trolls and troublemakers, or just well-intentioned but off-topic discussion.
Dating sites are built around a different model, where the profiles themselves may be publicly visible, but all subsequent interactions are private. Trolling and harassment still exists on dating sites, but with no public audience the motivation for it is reduced. Also dating sites have features to facilitate matchmaking, such as searching for people in a suitable age range or geographic area, which is somewhat difficult to implement on a forum.
Having had a quick look at this new forum section I agree. Totally unsuitable for a site like this.
In all honesty I agree. Having been a forum kiddie in the past, during which I was catfished (young and naive..), I can say with confidence that they are not for dating.
I mean the internet is not for dating either. Met everyone I’ve been with through friends or other social settings. The current state of affairs mean that these relaxed interactions have pretty much completely stopped for me.
We have bigger things to discuss!
Toby should let the trolls stay, funny as fxxk. Some might even be letting rip with what they actually believe.
It’s often hard changing someone’s mind who has been taken in by what is effectively brainwashing.
A useful question is to ask: “What have to happen for you to revert back to what you did before?” or “What would have to happen for you to stop doing x y z?”
It is less argumentative and confrontational.
For example, someone now supporting mask wearing and being righteous would do the same to themselves from one month ago. What would have to change for them to stop doing it?
I suspect many haven’t asked themselves this. When does it stop?
You can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into.
Still would be interesting to hear people’s responses though. I personally would like to survey people about why they’re wearing masks – and ‘the government says so’ or ‘it’s the law’ would not be permitted answers.
It was used for people with Trump Derangement Syndrome thinking he was going to imprison all gay people in camps. Once you realise one thing is absurd you are more open to others being exagerrated.
Which is more of my point. You don’t do the reasoning. They do.
But your point stands as it’s a classic.
A not overly educated woman started on me today about the Covid (outdoors so mask neutral).
I said ” do you know that 70% of people think that 10% of Brits had died from it ?”(see Toby’s post today).
I was guessing that she was of the 70%.
After a bit she responded ‘so how many people would that be ?’
“About 7 million, the population of London”.
‘so how many do you reckon have died ?’
“less than 50,000, same as normal flu”
She let that sink in a bit before asking
‘Do you know anyone who has actually had it ?’
“No and I don’t know anyone who knows anybody else who has had it”
‘no’ she said, ‘me neither’.
http://thinkscotland.org/thinkpolitics/articles.html?read_full=14234&article=www.thinkscotland.org
2040 – A Scottish dystopia
At lunchtime, you listen to Prime Minister Black’s thrice-weekly Press Conference. These originally started as an emergency measure by her predecessor, Nicola Sturgeon in 2020, during the great Covid-19 Pandemic, but twenty years later they are now an indelible part of Scottish life.”
All too likely, I fear.
Well all I can say is: enjoy yourselves.
Never! Nicola S. should be put in a straightjacket. She’s nuts! I try to imagine how she was brought up. Her parents must have been control freaks. I would sympathize with her but she is just too overbearing and beyond salvation.
Disgraceful BBC at it again. Last night’s 10 o’clock new was outrageous with some reporter using the most hysterical, bed-wetting language re: second wave BS. Then today BBC website talks of Australia’s ‘deadliest’ Covid day – 19 deaths…. yes 19 deaths ffs. As I pointed put (pissing in the wind I expect) on the BBC HYS site there were 1146 road fatalities in Australia in 2019, that dwarfs the Covid ‘killer virus’… It is just so bonkers now I think I am going to book a seat on Elon Musk’s Mars mission….
There were 3855 doctor certified deaths (i.e not the full total) from flu in Australia in 2019. But coronavirus is not ‘just’ a flu apparently – there is of course no ‘just’ about flu, while this IS just a nothing. If anyone can tell me a strain of flu where 80% have no symptoms I’d be most interested.
19 deaths out of a population of 25 million? The Sky is Falling, The Sky is Falling!
The BBC spent all day on bedwettery Max overload but at the same time
‘following the science the government is confident that it will be perfectly safe for the schools to reopen next month’.
Ha Ha Ha Aunties knickers in a right old twist.
It will take about a year to get there.
News from Ireland
Face coverings are now mandatory in “retail settings” in both NI and the republic – so a good example of north / south coordination there. A couple of notable differences though:
Plus also, Ireland has now “out performed” the UK in it’s 14 day average for number of cases per 100,00 population (according to the ECDC) after a few meat factory surges. It will presumably now need to revise it’s travel “Green List” to include the UK which is currently excluded – the green list includes only Estonia, Finland, Greece, Greenland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Slovak Republic (Slovakia).
All non essential travel is discouraged by the Government who prefer people to take a staycation – now excluding, of course, the three counties placed into local lockdown on Friday….
Stay tuned – it could be an exciting / depressing week.
Still see plenty of Irish registration plates here. Escapees?
Yes maybe – but they will have to quarantine for 14 days when they return!
I have now had a reply from my MP, much as I expected but at least he has passed my concerns on to Government. Dear Mr Martindale Thank you for your email to Geoffrey regarding the Government’s approach to tackling the coronavirus epidemic. Due to the volume of correspondence he is receiving, he has been unable to respond to individual cases as quickly as he would like. I am therefore replying for the sake of expediency – I hope this meets with your approval. I fully appreciate the points you make regarding this. You may be pleased to learn that Geoffrey is maintaining regular contact with his government colleagues, enabling him to bring matters to their attention that have been raised with him by his constituents. I will therefore be sure to show him your comments. Thank you for taking the time to write to Geoffrey. Best Ben Benjamin Fox | Senior Executive Officer Office of The Rt. Hon. Geoffrey Cox QC MP Further to my concerns about the lack of a Government plan for Covid I noticed this article in the Lancet, I am not sure if it has been noted here already? https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30633-2/fulltext I am not sure I agree with all… Read more »
Petition to prevent restrictions on people who refuse cov19 vaccination: up 62,000+, can we get it to 100K+ ? (please)
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323442
Gladly; done it. Resist the march of the ‘Medico-Fascist’ state
Done
Done
Done… and shared
Done. Mandatory masks could just be the opening salvo to soften us up for accepting mandatory vaccinations.
Excellent! Thanks to everyone. It seems to be growing faster than the ones calling to end lockdown/end masks, although I suspect these may be being suppressed by social media. Wonder why they haven’t spotted the vaccination one…
Ordered some walking boots online from Regatta but they didn’t fit so decided to take them back to the actual store today just to see what an intu shopping centre was currently like.
No mask obviously and completely ignored the one way bollocks too. Nobody tried to force hand sanitiser on me either.
Went in Regatta, Boots, Marks and Spencers, HMV and Sports Direct. Only got asked in one of them (Regatta) if I had a face mask. I said no, I’m exempt. He said fine, no problem. They let me try on clothes in there as normal.
Everybody else I saw (a good few hundred people) were muzzled up apart from a few young children, but nobody said anything to me and because their faces are covered you can’t even tell if they are giving you a dirty look. I wonder when the penny will drop that they don’t need to wear a mask.
For me the worst part of the trip was the music they had on in Sports Direct. Jesus Christ. What a load of shite. Apart from that the rest of the trip was fine.
Intu are in deep trouble and perhaps the negative reactions they’ve been getting have forced them to do a U turn.
The power is within us – we can vote with our feet and wallet to show our displeasure
Hand sanitizer seems to be going out of fashion all over the place.
Haha, just found this during a random search. It’s dated Oct 2019:
I AM LEGEND 2 [HD] Trailer -Will Smith Horror Movie [Fan Made]
“God didn’t do this. We did”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2tCX54cDx4
Breathtakingly awful reporting: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/10/plastic-use-has-risen-lockdown-survey-shows-online-ordering/ The use of plastic has risen during lockdown, with online ordering largely to blame, according to a survey. While households have tried to reduce their plastic waste output for several years, the coronavirus crisis seems to have reversed this progress. The waste which rose the most during lockdown included snack wrappers, delivery parcel bags, and PPE. What does PPE have to do with online ordering??? Last month, Carrie Symonds urged Amazon to tackle this issue by giving shoppers a plastic-free option at checkout. Pity she didn’t get onto de Piffle about the scandalous increase in single-use plastic caused by his insistence that pubs and restaurants did only takeaway for weeks on end. A new landmark law to outlaw the use of plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds was due to be voted on in April, but was halted by coronavirus. Now, ministers are racing against the clock to get the ban in place as soon as October. Wow, that’s really going to redress the balance of all the PPE that’s being discarded every day! It could take up to 500 years for face masks made of polypropylene to degrade One study by UCL estimates that in the UK… Read more »
How about styrofoam and throwaway plates, cups, saucers, knives, forks, spoons…?
No more need for washing up liquid.
By my calculations, if every person used a single-use face mask a day for a year it would cost around £10 billion. Not like we’ve got anything better to do with our cash.
Based on price of Boots multi-pack masks:
https://www.boots.com/boots-type-2-protective-face-masks-bundle1-10286448
‘protective’?!
“Each mask offers 98% bacterial filtration efficiency”
Err, but it’s a virus!
If anything the disposable muzzles and gloves are a bigger problem than single use plastic.
I’m just adding it to the mix. Stay home and order take out food.
Hubris.
?
Look it up in the dictionary. The UK government is guilty of hubris.
I read the Menston article this morning and was struck by this statment from a resident:
On the streets of Menston itself, locals aren’t so much angry as baffled. Mr Rhodes, …. works at a golf course near Leeds – firmly outside the lockdown area.
“I respect that they need to do sensible things and this is a semi-rural area, so the line has to be drawn, but am I supposed to go from here to work? I don’t actually know the answer. It’s just a bit confusing.”
The recent Yorkshire lockdowns simply (and bizarrely) prevent families from meeting in their homes and gardens and have some restrictions about meeting in pubs and restaurants!
How many people have locked themselved down fully and aren’t working because they can’t be arsed to find out exactly what the edict means for them?
How many people are ignoring the whole shambles for the same reason?
Two useful words :
‘Fuck’
and
‘Off’
.. and a phrase :
‘If you’re scared – go and lock yourself up. But don’t involve me.’
You would think anybody’s first thought when faced with this crap would be “Shit, how do I get out of this?”, but no, the sheep just lap it up. They cock half an ear to the ‘guidance’ then make the rest up and don’t even bother to look at the law. The ‘local’ stuff is 80% guidance, the law only relates to homes and gardens.
The book that was mentioned ‘is Free Speech Racist’ is published by Wiley so definitely not a parody!
Was about to send in as a theme tune Morrissey’s title song from his latest Album “I Am Not A Dog On A Chain” when I noted today’s theme tune. No doubt the track has already been submitted but noble sentiments in the lyrics (song and album) all the same. Plenty of contemporary references. I was inspired to listen by a kind article (refreshing after the press savagery he has faced) on the ‘charming man’ in the US edition of the Spectator:
https://spectator.us/human-after-all-morrissey-social-distancing/
A pop star for our times.
As the weird world of lockdown winds down, we might pause to consider what we’ve learned.
….. The COVID-19 crisis may make things better, if only because things could hardly be worse. Talk of an economic reset and new normality notwithstanding, I’ve started to feel we may be on the verge of a shift in consciousness sufficient to turn the train around again and allow us to resume our interrupted journey.
…..Truculence may be the Next Big Thing. In the post-lockdown world, we will become happier in our own company, less keen to cling to groups or gangs, more choosey about friendships, less inclined to be put upon by cultural psyops rooted in orthodoxy, and more willing to speak our minds and sing our hearts.
Where is John Waters looking, or are there no sheeple in his part of the world?
A robust swipe at the whole lockdown idea:
http://asenseofplacemagazine.com/world-experts-warn-stop-the-lockdowns/
And about time too!!
Tune for today: The Creeps, The Scaramanga Six
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah-3mHwkGU0
I love this band.
Yay – locals!
Just returned from 4 nights in Kingston Upon Thames with two grandchildren. Compared to Cirencester not the only person not wearing a mask in most shops – but some very aggressive looks and sarcasitc comments (‘Why don’t they enforce the law?’). Challenged went entering UNIGLO, Laura Ashley, getting on the K2 bus (very nastily by the driver) and, believe it or not, when entering the the Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew Gardens!
If you have young children would recommend a visit to the Magic Garden at Hampton Court – the most normal 90 minutes spent with other families since ‘Lockdown’.