Latest News
Handy Cock Sacrifices Scapegoat in Bid to Save Political Career
Matt Hancock has axed Public Health England! The Telegraph has the story.
Public Health England (PHE) is to be scrapped and replaced by a new body specifically designed to protect the country against a pandemic by early next month, the Telegraph can disclose.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock will this week announce a merger of the pandemic response work of PHE with NHS Test and Trace into a new body, called the National Institute for Health Protection, modelled on Germany’s Robert Koch Institute.
The Health Secretary, who returns to work after a UK holiday this week, wants to give PHE’s replacement time to be set up before a feared surge in coronavirus cases this autumn.
That last sentence is ominous. Does the Government really believe there’s a second wave heading our way from across the English Channel? Apparently so.
A senior minister told the Telegraph: “We want to bring together the science and the scale in one new body so we can do all we can to stop a second coronavirus spike this autumn.
“The National Institute for Health Protection’s goal will be simple: to ensure that Britain is one of the best equipped countries in the world to fight the pandemic.”
What is this “senior minister” talking about? The pandemic is as good as over. (See below for a debunking of the ‘second wave’ hypothesis by a Professor of Genetics).
So who will run Britain’s version of the Robert Koch Institute? Carl Heneghan? Karol Sikora? David Spiegelhalter? Don’t be silly. No, the name in the frame is Dido Harding, Conservative life peer and head of England’s disastrous test-and-trace programme.
Mr Hancock is seeking someone with experience of both health policy and the private sector to run it. Baroness Harding, the former chief executive of TalkTalk who heads up NHS Test and Trace, is tipped for the role.
Talk about failing upwards! To date, Harding’s main claims to fame are presiding over a cyber-attack affecting tens of thousands of customers while Chief Executive of TalkTalk and overseeing NHSX’s test-and-trace app which has now been abandoned, costing the taxpayer £10 billion. Her appointment would be controversial since she’s married to Conservative MP John Penrose who sits on the advisory board of the think tank “1828” which has called for PHE to be scrapped.
I published a piece by Rob Lyons calling for PHE to be scrapped on May 10th so I suppose I should be happy. And there’s little doubt it’s done a terrible job of coordinating England’s response to the crisis. But shouldn’t Matt Hancock take responsibility for those failures? According to Nick Davies, programme director at the Institute of Government, PHE has “direct accountability to Matt Hancock”. And how will the new National Institute for Health Protection differ from the National Institute for Health Research, headed by Chris Whitty? Or is that being scrapped as well? Incidentally, PHE replaced an organisation called the Health Protection Agency. Does this mean that when the National Institute for Health Protection is blamed for some other failure in 10 years time it will be replaced with a revamped version of PHE?
Incidentally, if this move does prove to be politically effective, which quango will be next? The Government is spoilt for choice, obviously, but my money’s on Ofqual, the English exams regulator. It isn’t exactly covering itself in glory when it comes to this year’s A-level results and the crisis will only deepen next week with GCSE results due to come out.
According to the Sunday Times:
In an about-turn, Ofqual issued new guidance yesterday allowing schools to use the grades predicted by teachers to appeal against pupils’ results.
However, late Saturday night, Ofqual said the policy was “being reviewed” by its board and that further information would be released “in due course”.
This left Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, exposed because it broke the “triple lock” he had promised A-level and GCSE pupils only 72 hours earlier.
On Wednesday, Williamson said appeals could be made on the basis of mock exams. But under the new rules, mock results cannot trump teachers’ predictions.
Neil Ferguson Based IFR Estimate on Tiny Sample
There’s a fascinating Twitter thread by Graham Neary in which he drills down into how Neil Ferguson and his team came up with an estimated Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) of 0.9%. (The real figure is closer to 0.1%). Apparently, it was based on an analysis of the passengers on six flights that departed from Wuhan between January 30th and February 1st. Out of the 689 passengers, only six tested positive for Covid. That – and that alone – was the basis for the initial IFR estimate.
Congratulations to Neary for a sterling bit of detective work. For those who aren’t on Twitter, I’ve unrolled the thread here. Neary concludes: “As we live through the consequences of economic depression and the (hopefully temporary) destruction of our way of life, remember that it all comes back to the belief that finding six people with Covid on six flights was a good way to estimate how many people had the disease.”
Who’s Managing the Covid Crisis?
A reader has posed an interesting question.
As a retired manager, one aspect of our current ludicrous actions on Covid that annoys me is that there seems to be no attempt to operate even the most basic principles of project-management. There seems to be no analysis, no plan, no objectives, no identification of options, no targets, no idea of what success looks like, no statement of the ‘endgame’ and no cost benefit analysis.
The original objective of “flatten the curve, protect the NHS and save lives” has clearly now been achieved but we have carried on with a kind of bizarre game of covid ‘ring-a-roses’ as we all panic about test results with no idea what we are trying to achieve?
I just wondered if there might be a Carl Heneghan of the management world who could usefully comment on the Covid hoo-ha from a management perspective?
If a Carl Heneghan of the management world is reading this and would like to write something about the Government’s colossal mismanagement of this crisis, please get in touch. Although the Telegraph’s Jeremy Warner is doing a pretty good job.
Global Law Firms Prepare to Sue UK
According to the Guardian, international law firms are lining up to sue the British Government on behalf of clients who’ve lost money as a result of the lockdown.
Governments around the world – including the UK – face a wave of lawsuits from foreign companies who complain that their profits have been hit by the pandemic.
Webinars and presentations shared with clients reveal that leading global law firms anticipate governments around the world will soon face claims over their response to the COVID-19 crisis. The actions are being brought under investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) clauses which are embedded in trade and investment agreements and allow foreign investors and firms to sue other countries’ governments.
The claims are heard in highly secretive ad hoc tribunals before a panel of three judges. Often it is not apparent that a case is being brought until the panel sits.
The law firm Alston & Bird used a recent webinar to predict that the UK will be sued over Sadiq Khan’s decision to close Crossrail construction sites during the pandemic. The decision was at odds with the government’s policy of allowing sites to operate throughout lockdown, an inconsistency that they say opens up the way for a legal challenge.
Law firm Reed Smith has predicted that measures taken by governments to deal with the crisis are affecting investments “directly and significantly and could give rise to substantial claims”.
And Ropes & Gray has issued an alert advising clients to consider actions brought under investment treaties as “a powerful tool to recover or prevent loss resulting from COVID-19-related government actions”.
More power to their elbows.
Three Months to Global Herd Immunity
A Professor of Genetics who’s a regular reader of Lockdown Sceptics has sent me a quick and dirty analysis of when the world is likely to achieve herd immunity.
I’ve looked at how the global prevalence has been changing over the last many months, if one eliminates the influence of massively increased levels of testing. Bottom line – it has been creeping up, but really not changed that much overall (median has risen from just over 2-3% to 3-4%). Declines in some places are matched by increases elsewhere. I suspect we’ve reached the peak though, and the next few weeks and months will see the global curve start to roll over and decline.
Now, given that in the UK the prevalence is falling by ~5% per day, if we assume NO new infections then this means the virus is detectable in a person on average for about 20 days. However, we know some new infections are occurring, and so the virus detection window is probably something more like 10 days (or even less!). Using this 10 day guesstimate, and a steady prevalence of 3-4%, then this means that every 10 days another 3-4% of people are getting infected globally. There are many caveats to this – but these numbers would mean that to get to 30% infected (Carl H’s estimate of what is needed for herd immunity) will take only three months. Or if you want to go with the insanely high pantsdown requirement of 80%, then this will take one year globally. In the UK’s case, we were one of the first countries to see the virus spread widely – and it actually rose to >40% prevalence in both Pillar 1 and 2 datasets late March. So we definitely reach the CH level for herd immunity some time ago, and also the NF required level more recently or soon. This has to be why the virus has been fading away naturally.
And one final line of argumentation for that… assuming a 0.26% IFR, and 41k deaths in the UK, indicates ~16M (41k/0.0026) have been infected, which is 24% of the UK population. Assume a 0.1% IFR and this goes to 61%. And these numbers are absolute minimum values, as the PCR assay has quite a high false negative rate!
Government and the people need to know this, as they are all currently “scared to lose their fear”! Mass hysteria exists in extremis, and will not end until our ‘leaders’ and the people understand reality. That said, most people I talk to think its all a nonsense and a scam of some sort – so there is hope!
Fishy Data
A reader has spotted a curious cause of death.
Having just read in today’s Sunday Telegraph that a man was killed in a boat off Darwin, Australia when a mackerel flew out of the water hitting him in the chest I am left wondering if the fish came in on the second wave will it be reported as a Covid death?
Round-Up
- ‘BBC Drops Kipling Poem for VJ Day Commemorations as Singer Complains of “Cultural Superiority”‘ – BBC ditches Kipling after complaint from Jamaican opera singer
- ‘How did facemasks become part of the culture war?‘ – Reluctantly pro-mask piece by Rod Liddle. He’ll come around
- ‘Cancer patients to pay heavy price for checks lost to coronavirus lockdown‘ – Five-year survival rates expected to fall due to delays
- ‘British universities have become indoctrination camps. A reckoning is long overdue‘ – Douglas Murray argues that the Covid-induced demise of third-rate universities is no loss to higher education
- ‘Asda explains face mask rules after customer complains not enough shoppers wear them in store‘ – According to the Sun, Asda isn’t enforcing the mask rules
- ‘Whitehall’s systemic failure exposed: why this was a disaster ten years in the making‘ – Telegraph piece with some background on the scrapping of PHE
- ‘No cruise is good news for tourists in empty Venice‘ – Yup, it’s a great time to visit the almost empty city
- ‘Gyms and Fitness Studios: Confounding COVID-19‘ – Good piece by Sarah Ingham for Hector Drummond Magazine on the mystery of why so few people appear to have caught Covid in gyms and fitness studios in February and March
- ‘”On par with North Korea”: Three out of four requests to leave Australia refused‘ – Incredibly, 75% of people asking to leave Australia are being told they can’t
- ‘Is Sweden’s coronavirus strategy a cautionary tale or a success story?‘ – Barrel-scraping attempt by the New Scientist to portray Sweden’s Covid strategy as a failure
- ‘Tourism chief on holidays in Italy amid massive campaign to promote staycations‘ – Michael Cawley, head of Ireland’s tourism promotion agency which has been urging Irish nationals not to go abroad, is on holiday in Italy
- ‘Crucial Viewing – to truly understand our current Viral Issue‘ – Good explainer from Ivor Cummins
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Three today: “Stitched Up” by John Mayer and Herbie Hancock, “Dead Souls” by Joy Division and “Don’t Fall” by the Chameleons.
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.
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums that are now open, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention (including this piece on Fox News). We have a team of moderators in place to remove spam and deal with the trolls, but sometimes it takes a little while so please bear with us. You have to register to use the Forums, but that should just be a one-time thing. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
I’ve created a 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 30th to Oct 9th). 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 or 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 29,000). The Government responded to this petition today. Usual balls. You can read the response here.
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
And here’s a round-up of the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of mask (threadbare at best).
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. Doing these daily updates is a lot of work (although I have help from several people, including one indefatigable techie who doesn’t want to be named). If you feel like donating, 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 reader has produced this sticker, printed a ton of them and is handing them out to local shops. A surprising number are displaying them in their windows. Congratulations, Sir. You are my Sceptic of the Week.
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’m first then
My church is starting back next Sunday and was supposed to have a dress rehearsal today. I would normally be helping on Sound desk but after reading the ridiculous list of rules we have to go by (including mandatory mask wearing anywhere in building) I have said I will not be back for the forseeable future.
Like in Communist countries if we want to have a proper service with music etc I guess we have to meet in secret now.
Direct the cowardly church officials to this:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8624875/California-megachurch-holds-massive-services-7-000-people-defiance-social-distancing-orders.html
Instead of acquiescing to all that superstition involving masks and other Satanic mumbo jumbo, why don’t you ask your priest simply to invoke the aid of St Roch – it’ll have more effect:
As a Christian pilgrim, Roch traveled to Rome and throughout Italy healing those suffering from an outbreak of the plague. At Piacenza he contracted the disease and withdraw to the countryside, where he drank water from a spring that miraculously arose from the ground; he was healed by a dog who licked his bulbous sores and brought him bread to sustain him. Living proof that one could survive the plague, St. Roch was often called upon by sufferers to relieve them of bubonic plague and other diseases.
Good idea. I tell those who enquire about my lack of mask that I carry a rabbits foot instead. I tell them it’s essentially the same thing.
How about garlic and a crucifix?
https://www.civicmc.nhs.uk/noval-coronavirus/facial-coverings-and-exemption-cards/
Verily and indeed, house groups under cover of darkness. Trye Christians keeping the faith.
Not for the first time.
Indeed we could go back to having Priest Holes and hiding the clergy from the bedwetting mask wearers ! 😁 Who would have thought a conservative government (small c) would destroy everything we have ever known?
Trouble is, it seems the congregations need to hide from the priests!
Indeed you are right. It seems that clergymen have bent over backwards to go along with the “official” Covid nonsense. Darker days are coming.
TPTB probably have dirt on some church higher-ups.
Me.:-)
It isn’t a conservative government, it’s a “Conservative” government. The difference has been clear for a long time, in fact Peter Hitchens has written books about it, but there should be no room for any doubt in any honest person’s mind after the events of this year.
I’d leave the bedwetting clergy thoroughly exposed!
I preached in our church today, but because the preacher was required to wear a mask, I recorded my sermon to be played to the congregation. No, I won’t go to a service while it continues to be a ‘state church’. This is not China.
Preachers aren’t required to wear masks according to the guidelines.
I agree, but ours seems to have adopted that practice.
The clergy apparently have plenty to hide.
It’s not the first time that people in the UK have been in the habit of “gold-plating” the rules. Been happening for years with EU rules.
Further to this some may be interested in this discussion of the issues of Church and State as conducted by me and Steve Layfield. We wonder how many realise that the freedoms we enjoy in this country as essentially due to Christians throughout the last few hundred years insisting that the authority of the state is not absolute, but is subject to the Sovereignty of God? In my view the Christian Church owes our society an apology for not keeping these truths sufficiently to the fore.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/FN2Tv6RsC64x/
Just back from church. Went for the first time since the lockdown begun. Had to give my name and phone number at the door and was asked if I ‘had a mask’ by the data collector. When I said I was exempt he said “Oh, great! I’ve never met someone who’s exempt! Good for you!’. Inside, the congregation were socially distanced, i.e. every other pew empty and a maximum of 3 people per occupied pew. No handshake of peace. No singing. But other than that, normal. The order of service was jigged around and communion – the host only – was given at the end as we filed out through the side door. Was it a great experience? Not entirely, because the congregation was small and, except for me, masked. But it wasn’t bad. I give it 7/10, in the circumstances.
I don’t understand how Christians do not see the EVIL that is being perpetrated on us. I am not a religious person at all but I got a very strong sense of an evil spell being cast over the world. Almost tangible. Palpable EVIL.
I just don’t get it, why can’t Christians see this? Isn’t this what they are all supposed to be looking for and fighting against?
Moreover, there is a strong evidence to point to the idea that the Corona Virus Project is actually a venture driven literally by Satanism and the cult worship of BAAL. DOn’t forget the gateway of BALL’s temple being toured around the world just before the Corona Project was launched.
The masks are apparently a very strong occultic ritual particularly associated with this cult. I don’t know too much about this masking/BAAL link but I am hearing about it. I am not sure if want to know more.
Call me crazy if you like.
Christians think that Government is ordained by God. But Christianity does not reflect the son of man principles of Yeshua.
https://staging.dailysceptic.org/2020/08/16/latest-news-105/#comment-91172
Yeshua said you don’t need priests.
Go and worship from your local park bandstand. I bet people would come and join in the hymns!
I certainly won’t call you crazy, Two-Six … There’s so much happening, and so many possible interconnections and links you can draw, that it feels to me as if anything is possible.
Re your comment about Christians not seeing evil being perpetrated, I have to say that I don’t think that any belief system can insulate – or inoculate – someone from being swept along by the never-ending and relentless waves of propaganda emanating from government(s) and media (of all kinds). Christians or secularists, whatever you are, this is a tough time to make sense of.
The masking is definitely an occultic symbol of “silencing” us.
Let’s ‘sacrifice’ some politicians to ward off the evil spirits.
I certainly see this as a war on two fronts – in the material world, of politics and economy, and in the spiritual world.
For me, the most important thing in all this is how we, as human beings, react and behave to this strange situation we find ourselves in, and how we treat our fellow humans – whether be-masked or not, whether Fear-ridden or Free.
By the simple act of resistance, and by being courageous enough to be free-thinking, and by following where the often unwelcome path of truth leads us, we are being true to ourselves and true to humanity.
We might never see the outcome of our actions, but the important thing is to pass our ideals to those who go after us. That is our victory.
You are not remotely crazy and you very right to trust your instincts. Nothing that comes from “officialdom”, in regard to Covid-19 stands up to even the slightest bit of real scrutiny and the whole business literally stinks of an epic scam.
Obviously what is going on, is of a huge scale, though seems to be just part of a much bigger technocratic agenda. The central aim of this almighty scam seems to be centred around an enormous reduction of the global population.
Covid-19 vaccines will likely be the means of carrying out this massive cull and as such are to be avoided at all costs. Once vaccinated, it will of course be too late.
It is difficult to see a way out of this incredibly dark situation, with the dumbed down masses seemingly being incapable of waking up.
You are right. The majority of Christians have lost the plot and many churches have become temples of mystery religion. We have let down our society and the consequences are all around us now. Christians need to recall that Jesus’ plan is to build a kingdom which is not like the kingdoms of the world. But it is in the world, so we pray, ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.”
We can. Almost all the priests and faithful I know recognise the evil and the danger. But I’m a “Traditional Catholic” and we’re a very small minority within the Church so I can’t speak for the majority. unfortunately our bishops have lost their faith and there are plenty of snitches in congregations who will turn us in to the authorities (and have done in some places).
I would have to give it a miss.
I had thought that might be how I felt, MiriamW. I went expecting to be disappointed (I also went because virtual services really didn’t do it for me; plus, honestly, I was curious as to what I would see). But I found it felt good to be able to think about things other than the virus for a short while.
You call that normal?
No, I don’t. Which is why I wrote ‘other than that, normal’. And was I happy? No. But I was able to attend a service and it was, other than the restrictions and limitations I listed, ‘normal’. I was able to go to church, celebrate the Feast of the Assumption and take communion in the company of others. And I was accepted without a mask.
Well let’s hope others follow your lead!
Good for you, not wearing a mask. However, judging from your excellent description, you do seem to have been very generous in your appraisal. Accordingly, I’ve felt obliged to reduce your score to 3/10.
Me, too. I’ll not be back until we are muzzle-free.
As a Catholic I would attend Mass with a mask only if the Sunday Obligation is restored. Until then, I will “attend” live-streamed Masses.
My older son was supposed to be having his first communion this Corpus Christi. Clearly that didn’t happen. I’m now being asked whether I want him to do it in October under the bizarre set of new arrangements, or wait till next year. Since the Church has sold its soul for safety, I wonder if you can guess what my answer is?
At the same time, my aunt is a nun, whose convent is attached to a care home. The nuns (and the residents) can’t receive communion because nobody is allowed in or out and the usual chaplain lives off site. She’s very stoical about it, but you can imagine the distress caused to a woman in her 60s who became a nun in her early 50s.
I was semi-lapsed in any case, but I’m furious with the hierarchy for capitulating.
Yeah, I agree that this is the way things are going to have to go for the church. I’m quite involved in our local church, not meeting yet, but I would have done exactly the same as you. You’re not alone.
Absolutely agree. I’m the organist, so redundant. I could go and sit in the congregation but I cannot bear to sit with the muzzled fearful. Whatever happened to ‘fear not’?
Youd think Christians, of all people, would be sanguine about the risk of reaching eternal life.
Precisely. I caused chaos when I said “I am relying on the protection of God, and I need none other”.
The others looked at me with utter astonishment, like they had never seen anyone actually be willing to bet their life on what they purport to believe in the Bible.
I also take Vitamin D3 and C, but that not the point.
Brilliant. Well said.
I’m shocked at their response. I mean … what do they actually believe in? They cannot all just be hollow clanging bells.
My grandad always said : “There’s a difference between Christianity and Churchianity.”
Don’t forget 10 to 12 mg of Zinc.
I just bought a new supply of D3 and C today.
Up in your loft? Where’s the danger? Ridiculous.
Ha-ha! 🙂 As it happens, there’s plenty of danger up in my loft. It’s so rickety, steep and old, I practically have to rope up to get up and down! I used to joke that they’d need to save up for a Stannah stair-lift if they want me to keep on playing into (really) old age. As it is, I suppose I could play some tunes before and after the service but, as I said, I just can’t face the zombie assembly. I miss playing though; 🙁
When I first made my comment I wasn’t sure if you were playing in a loft or down below in front of the congregation. Now it appears that you are up among the rafters. Your church should bring in someone to check the floorboards and the solidity of the area where you play.
‘and Death shall have no dominion,’!
“All the presidents of the kingdom, the governors, and the princes, the counsellors, and the captains, have consulted together to establish a royal statute, and to make a firm decree, that whosoever shall ask a petition of any God or man for thirty days, save of thee, O king, he shall be cast into the den of lions.”
http://www.frombehindenemylines.co.uk/the-greatest-lie-ever-told-mystery-school-christianity/
Hummm interesting
‘Dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone’.
All hail to Toby’s band!
Our church is also starting back next Sunday, maybe a one off at the moment. I have already said I disagree with most of the rigmarole and will be using my mask exemption. Must have worked as I have been asked to do the bible reading. I note that the Methodist Church, already including the full mask exemption rules in its guidance, has now updated it to say worship leaders also don’t need to wear them. Mixed views but will see how it goes, I can always refuse the next time.
That’s how the Church began. Sounds like time to go back to its roots!
Same here. I told the others in the church that I wouldn’t be returning unless face nappies weren’t enforced, and that any silencing of singing was purely satanic.
There comes a time when you have got to oppose the obvious agenda. The problem is that far too many of our acquaintances would not only line up on the platform in front of the cattle trucks, but would bolt the door behind themselves.
Luke 22:36: He said to them, “But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.”
Mmm – agree about the face nappies, but I’m not sure that “silencing of singing” was purely satanic! In my time I’ve been subjected to church “singing” which has been devilishly awful….
If you join in wholeheartedly you can’t hear the others!
Yes, ridiculous rules, not as if churches are packed like sardines every Sunday.
I am a bellringer, would normally be ringing for evensong now; I don’t like letting down the band, nor the village and its church, but I am not playing the Government’s game, nor that of church leaders who have gone out of their way to acquiesce with every ‘guideline’.
Best time to resurrect the DIY house churches that the early Christians had. You can do the whole shebang – music, singing, prayer and proper bread and wine plus a meal afterwards.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/01/mask-face-coverings-i-cant-wear-one-health-reasons
This article has made me so mad, angry and pissed off. What the hell did the commissioner of the metropolitan police think was going to happen she she told people to shame and challenge people who don’t wear masks on radio!!!
“One man said to me, ‘If you can’t wear a mask, you shouldn’t be allowed out.’”
Disgusting.
Maybe, if you are too frightened to go out without a mask, you should stay in. Do they really think a virus that escaped from a grade 4 containment lab is going to be stopped by a disposable mask?
That’s what my wife said. And she also said if anyone spoke to her like that she’d punch them.
Me too.
The best comment to date. Every newspaper, tv news, minister, police commissioner, ad infinitum, should be asked this question:
Why do/did you think a virus that escaped from a grade 4 containment lab is/was going to be stopped by a disposable mask?
A very astute, basic journalistic question. Succinct and to the point. It is time for them to be shamed, not us. And shame them we must.
Thats spot on.
I hope you told him to Foxtrot Oscar!
Foxtrot Romeo Oscar, preferably!
That seems almost to be a mask-Nazi meme these days. Ignore the bastards.
“You wear the mask to protect others” – official advice. So, if you really want to wear a mask, you must think you have the virus? If so, YOU should be the one to stay home.
Oh and you are a fuckwit.
The “you must wear a mask to protect others” message is meant to turn people against eachother. If wearing a mask was for your own protection, no one would care if you wore one or not. It’s your risk. But if it’s about the protection of others, well… now others think you want to kill them if you don’t wear a mask. They turned it into a direct threat to other people’s lives, and so the people police themselves. Keeps them from uniting against the government.
All basic stuff. Divide and conquer.
If the masks only work one way, and don’t protect you from other people, then the simple answer surely is for the worried people just to wear theirs the other way round!
Brilliant!
Actually some people (including Rishi Sunak) have been wearing dust masks with a valve to make it easier to breathe out.
There was some amusing scaremongering in the Guardian or somewhere about how the valve created a concentrated jet of virus that could zap anyone at a distance of several metres.
After a depressing day in my shop having to deal with faceless people and with my takings down by 50% because of the lack of tourists, this made me laugh out loud for some time. Thank you! So simple and so obvious!!
Brilliant.
Or better yet wear two masks – one in the front another at the back.
I like that – perfect logic, Sam.
So if you have tested negative no need to wear the mask The best argument yet for getting tested.
The rationale for mask wearing is the dreaded presymptomatic / asymptomatic infectiousness—which I believe no one has been able to demonstrate. That is, whether there is such a thing. So the default position is that everyone carries the virus even if they test negative or have already had it an hence have immunity.
Now they are trying to downgrade the quality of the immunity you would have from actually being ill with covid-19 or from having unknowingly fended it off via T-cells.
It’s all heads I win, tails you lose. That is the logical paradigm in operation.
Oh, and don’t forget Trump!! The always available go-to argument, or argument ender. It’s all about Trump and if you question anything you are a Trump supporter!!
Trump is the best excuse that has come along yet to justify abandoning any pretense at debate and doing so with a self-righteous tone.
Aren’t we all missing the point that the logic of wearing a mask is not consistent? I.e when you enter a restaurant masked you’re protected; sit down at a table without the mask and *bingo* you’re equally protected….! WTF. Can anyone follow that?
Did you punch him ?
At least the bastard Guardian is writing about this finally. About time. Didn’t the Asthma Association say something really dodgey about face masks as they are all paid up by big pharma?
This story has been doing the rounds for a while (it is dated 1 August) and in my opinion it’s fear porn by the Graun, actually designed to encourage mask compliance. Asthma Co UK is a private company and several of us have pointed out in previous posts its big pharma partners. Their stance on masks does not support asthma sufferers.
thats what I was thinking about.
Actually I read that article in the Guardian when it was first published. I was using a snood on the bus for minimal compliance, even though I have asthma (very well-controlled until I started wearing a face covering).
Anyway, the way that people were being treated made me so angry that I got an exemption card and stopped wearing the snood. I’m big enough (well, 5 foot 7) and mean enough (when provoked) that anyone who harasses me will live to regret it. So the article was of some use to someone.
Fair enough – it worked well for you and I’m really glad that you are now able to go bare-faced. 🙂 Sadly,though, I’m sure it will have frightened some people into compliance and, given the Graun’s track-record, it is likely to have been the intention.
Also from the Guardian/Observer:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/aug/16/end-of-uk-furlough-scheme-means-needless-loss-of-2-million-jobs
For some reason we can’t comment on this article about the looming end of the furlough scheme. But it really needs to be pointed out to the Guardian that the jobs will be “needlessly lost” thanks to the lockdown, called for and endorsed by the Guardian (not alone in that of course), not by the end of the furlough scheme.
How long do they think the support scheme should last? Forever I suppose. In which case one could ask why anyone works at all really.
I used to refer to them as the “Free Shit Army”
The Guardian has slowly cut the number of articles the can be commented on. Now it’s rare to find a coronavirus-related one that actually allows comments. Too many people like me pointing out reality.
I’d be inclined to just comment wherever you can, referring to articles that have the comments switched off.
National Institue for Health Protection instead of Public Health England. Yep, that’ll fix it. I can now relax knowing the government have figured out what went wrong and are finally on the right track.
I’ve heard, on good authority, that the person heading up the new institute will be the Witchsmeller Pursuivant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYJZqJezjz4
And the above video is an example of how NIHP is going to implement the track and trace system.
Hs.
Ha.
Ha.
Apparently the new sect of voodoo priests will deal with no health issues apart from scamdemics?
Unfortunately, although the “pandemic” will undoubtedly be over within a few months in any reasonable person’s understanding of the word, the government and WHO won’t let it be. All the pharma companies they’ve co-opted into spending vast sums on vaccine development have all said they won’t make a profile “in the pandemic period”. So don’t expect the “pandemic” to be over until there are at least a couple of vaccines available. And the there will be a short period for appearances sake and the the lucky vaccine winners will be free to cash in.
Though given that a phase 3 study is going to struggle to complete given the diminishing presence of circulating virus hopefully everyone will have to give up and go home, and focus on fixing the economic shitshow they’ve engineered.
What a sorry mess of ignorance, greed, fear (not of the virus, but of losing power and face), virtue signalling and utter cowardice we have seen from our governments, (some) business leaders and public health bodies. And a complete absence of true leadership. It makes me feel sick.
This pandemic is not designed to be over. Entire cities and even countries closed because of a few extra positive tests, with no one in hospitals. Tests that seem designed to have a very high false positive rate. They won’t let this go. I have been saying for a few good months now that there will be another lockdown in september-november. They’ll probably ramp up tests to justify it.
An uptick.
A BOOST?
The WHO has changed the definition of the word pandemic before to suit themselves, of course they will do it again.
Exactly. How naive I was! Two months ago I was expecting that by this time daily UK deaths from (or with) coronavirus would be down to single figures – which they are – and therefore things would be getting back to normal – which they are not.
Naive is not a big deal Edward. Indeed, it is good to trust, to a certain extent.
You have used your brain, come to a more accurate conclusion, and are involved in the struggle. Unlike the majority of our brothers & sisters, it would seem.
There have been more deaths from ‘flu and pneumonia in the last 7 weeks than from C19.
A free trip to Sweden, perhaps?
I love charts, and I like going to look at Worldometer. It seems to me that the daily cases have just done a double top (a sell signal if you follow stock market charts, ie a decline is expected) and the deaths, although rising, are only rising relatively slowly.
I maintain that, to me, it looks as though the world is at or very near peak virus.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Last time I looked into my mother’s computer to help her out technically, I found an open Worldometers page for France – I am in France on holiday now. She had skipped the top metric, which shows that a whopping 100% (rounded to zero decimal places) of infections are classed as mild, because she didn’t understand it. She had also not scrolled down to the bottom chart showing practically zero deaths for weeks and weeks. Obviously I explained it all and it actually looked like something sank in. It was a great relief that somehow in her head, finally 2+2=4.
Then a couple of days later I got a phonecall – “you will be careful in France won’t you, there is a lot of covid there”. Felt like smashing my head into a brick wall repeatedly. These people, including my mother, seem to have their memory erased as soon as they turn on the 6 o’clock news.
My mother might be the same! Hope you are having a great holiday and staying away from all the infections, LOL.
Yes, we are up against ongoing indoctrination reinforcement that is especially strong for anyone who watches mainstream tv.
World figures aren’t really so relevant, while in the early stages it was “virus vs world”, since all the panic, reduction in travel and idiotic closure of borders it has become multiple contests of “virus vs nation”. Much of the world looks like it may have reached herd immunity, that happens at more like 20% than 60% according to a study ( https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.23.20160762v1 )which found that when immunity spreads following the virus rather than being randomly distributed ahead of the virus by vaccination, you get a threshold of 1-(1/R_0)^(1/(1+cv^2)) or 1-(1/R_0)^(1/(1+2cv^2)), not the usual 1-(1/R_0). Places like the americas are a bit further behind but should manage herd immunity soon. I pity for those trapepd in Kim Jong Dan’s Australian dictatorship, or “Saint” Jacinda’s Nazi-fied New Zealand, who will be in and out of lockdowns forever because their leaders were too foolish to embrace the effective natural solution to pandemics. Except for countries which locked down brutally hard and early, all of the nations will inevitably win these contests against the virus. Until sanity is retored to borders and interntional travel global figures for the virus won’t really mean much, the globe has been separated into portions, but peak virus… Read more »
And in a subscript to my other post here, that other virus, authoritarianism, also won’t win, but this prevention of an “evil force’s” victory requires not only for countries to refuse to lock down, but for the people of any countries which do try it to immediately cease complying with their governments’ diktats.
They have been spending a lot of OUR money. Then we’ll have to pay for the stuff and if it disables people, we’ll have to pay again, as they will not be liable for any problems that the vaccines might cause. Pharma has no incentive to ensure that the stuff is safe.
Not our money yet. Unless through CEPI or BARDA. But yes, you’re right – ultimately the tax payer will pay. AGAIN.
Pharma has no incentive to ensure that the stuff is safe.
Possibly, but we do.
I raise a SPIKE to you! 🙂
I can’t of any reason why the people pulling the levers will ever allow it to be over, if they can help it.
If we think it’s about selling a vaccine and you’re done I think we are being optimistic.
An indefinite global health state of emergency is the ideal mechanism to use to hang on to power – much more power than you have in normal times – and avoid scrutiny.
I don’t know if all the players in this have thought it through in quite this way, but I expect they know it instinctively.
The pharma companies and WHO had a go at this 10 years ago. They obviously tweaked a few things and nailed it this time around.
https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/reconstruction-of-a-mass-hysteria-the-swine-flu-panic-of-2009-a-682613.html
He is certainly a complete cock, but not especially handy…😁
Re the “No Mask? We Won’t Ask” signs in today’s update (“A reader has produced this sticker, printed a ton of them and is handing them out to local shops. A surprising number are displaying them in their windows. Congratulations, Sir. You are my Sceptic of the Week.”). Toby, please can you add a new section, listing the shops which are displaying this sign, along with their rough location? It seems that giving our custom to these shops might be a trojan horse for getting some of our wider messages across.
Nice, although no shop has any business asking anyone about masks regardless. Exempt is exempt.
French to muzzle inside offices https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-53797129 11.21 item.
“A theme that appears in all scientific opinions is the value of wearing [masks] when there are several people in a confined space,” Borne said in an interview with French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.” All scientific opinions -not one agin?
A nice bit of French scepticism.
Not.
If Flaubert were alive today, he’d have to re-write his dictionary of stupidity all over again from the beginning.
Read Flaubert’s Bouvard & Pécuchet. Funny.
The company I used to work for (American owned, operating in Canada) has now instituted a mask policy. My poor buddy who’s still there is a skeptic and he told me the news on Friday. He says anywhere away from his desk he now has to mask up. OMG am I happy to be gone from there! This would have sent me packing anyway.
Went into a bank last week to open an account. The usual posters hanging at the frontdoor that facemasks were mandatory and only one person at a time could get access to the bank. My wife and I entered without any comment and better yet, once inside the office, the bankmanager told us we could all get rid of the facemasks and behave normally 🙂 …this is France
Is there some kind of moderator here? I’ve been posting for weeks without trouble. Two or three days ago (the days blurr, as you all know, amidst this shit) I tried to add a graphic to my post. I had read that to do that you need to be logged in. I tried that. I assumed I would need to subscribe or have an account. When I tried that I was told I need a paasword. I set that up, but then was told that my username was already in use (yes, by me!). Failed to set up an account. Now my every post is “Awaiting for approval” for a good while. Any advice?
Try mailing Toby direct or Ian Rons (site webmaster): lockdownsceptics@castironsolutions.co.uk
I was just about to ask the same question!! I’ve already had stickers and badges printed ‘Awake’ on them and have been distributing to everyone i chat to who knows what’s going on. I’d very happily print these out and take them to our local shops!
Where is a good place to get stickers printed?
Vistaprint?
I use this website – https://www.discountstickerprinting.co.uk/
cool thanks, looks perfect
Just right click, copy and paste into a word document. It works (just done it).
Or Paint, or whatever.
I want to get some stickers done to stick on all the mental covid safe notices everywhere. One that has a face mask imogee with mental eyes with “INSANE” or MENTAL on it.
I’ll certainly try that, thanks, but the resolution may not be high enough for a print job.
Well done!
Are you sure this is true? Can’t find any corroborating sources. If true, my condolences go out to him.
Appalling ill-informed article on Sir John Redwood’s Diary today – he doesn’t seem to have a clue. If anyone here wants to put him right on the facts, please do so.
I’ve added two comments to his site; one highlighting the Professor of Genetics article on Lockdown Sceptics today.
Link:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/
I chucked in this comment:
What a shame you are unaware of the evidence based science that suggests the UK is close to herd immunity, before you made misleading comments.
The clue is in the tiny number of people needing ICU treatment for CV19 and the daily death curve (very similar in countries that both did and did not lockdown) being down near zero – its called herd immunity. Like King Canute could not hold back the tide our hapless government could not have stopped the spread of the virus. But they have been very successful at causing massive harm to our economy and killing many people the last few months (and many more into the future) by removing their hospital and health care.
Some suggested catch up reading – written by a competent scientist :-
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-real-covid-19-threat
Excellent, Major P.
(but Note: he is the moderator, and tends to delay or not print comments with links; so on his site generally best to refer to articles by describing them such as ‘Carl Heneghans’ article in the Spectator’ rather than giving the link.
But some links do get printed – so good luck)
Good one, be interesting if you get a response
I made a couple of comments there earlier, it seems there is a lot of opposition to masks, PCR results and viruses.
Looks like Mr Redwood has let all our comments through…
I recognise the names of some of the other contributors
Yes, thank you. Some good comments today. I hope this is one more MP, sand quite an influential one at that, who we have got to reconsider government policy, and the scientific evidence and arguments that circulate amongst the Westminster bubble.
Well done everyone.
I bet a lot of people in England genuinely believe that if they go into a shop without a mask this will result in an immediate fine and some probably think it’s now for £3,200. This just sums up the laziness of most people. If they bothered to check the actual law, they realise everybody is exempt if they wanna be.
A person could say they nearly drowned when they were younger and now anything covering their nose and mouth causes them severe distress. You could make up any reason you wanted. I honestly don’t see how anybody who’s looked at the legislation and didn’t wanna wear a mask could ever get a fine.
I’m getting increasingly annoyed by anybody who wears a mask in a shop and when asked why says “because I have to”
I mentioned this earlier, on yesterday’s page. You are absolutely right, the plebs half-hear something in the news, then make the rest up themselves. Of course, the ‘idea’ or ‘guidance’ always comes out a few days before the actual law, in order to let this happen.
Anybody else notice the ‘guidance’ web pages never have a link to the actual legislation?
Plebs is the perfect word to describe them.
Yeah I’ve noticed that. I was gonna say it’s difficult to find the actual legislation for some things, but that’s not true. It’s takes a few minutes, 5 max, but most people can’t even be bothered with spending that much time finding out any information.
Yes, I think you’re right about people believing that £3200 is now the penalty for not wearing a mask. We met someone yesterday who’s been taken in. I think it’s classic ‘dog-whistling’ by the Government – feed it to the MSM and they’ll do the rest with shouty headlines. Arsebook & co will help. They know most people won’t bother to look behind the headlines and compliance and fear will increase. New Mills, Derbyshire, yesterday was grim. Quite a few people on the main street, many muzzled including a couple of very young children. A man put his muzzle on just to walk past a few of us sitting outside a cafe, then took it off again once he was clear of us. Mentally ill. However, at first the Coop seemed dire. We were the only unmuzzled but, as we loaded our bikes up outside, a young man walked in bare-faced and I noticed he was still the same at the till. A young woman was also at the till without one. Also, one man in a neckerchief and one with his t-shirt pulled up. The exemption announcement on the Tannoy is now loud and clear. Hooray! We gave another… Read more »
Yep. Sadly most people get their news from arsebook, by reading a headline or 2nd hand from friends or family. I’ve never understood why most people will just believe whatever they are told.
Dim, unevolved, lazy, brainwashed, poorly educated, over-compliant, frightened, …
Take your pick. (I find it difficult to comprehend too.).
They’re that stupid, you wonder how on earth they survived in the normal world.
you have to remember that most people’s intellect doesn’t stretch beyond ‘love island’ or eastenders!
Told my GP masks made me panicky and anxious. Like claustrophobia. Said I’d last experienced the feeling when I had to enter deep caves as part of being a Geology student (true). He wrote me an exemption letter.
That’s good they have done that, but I also can’t believe we are living in a country where you may need to show a note from your doctor to a policeman when you go out for some milk.
You don’t and it isn’t good. See Lucky’s post, above (and mine).
Yeah maybe good was the wrong word. You’re right a doctors note would lead to even more confusion.
Basically don’t wear a mask, if you’re asked say you’re exempt, if they then ask why tell them they are breaking the law and that they’ll be hearing from your lawyer on a discrimination and harassment charge.
From the gov.uk website updated 14th August: (I put the relevant piece in bold). Most people would be unable to see their doctor in person anyway at the moment.
Exemption cards
Those who have an age, health or disability reason for not wearing a face covering should not be routinely asked to give any written evidence of this, this includes exemption cards. No person needs to seek advice or request a letter from a medical professional about their reason for not wearing a face covering.
Some people may feel more comfortable showing something that says they do not have to wear a face covering. This could be in the form of an exemption card, badge or even a home-made sign.
This is a personal choice and is not necessary in law.
Doctors were specifically told by the Government not to write mask exemption notes so your doctor was out of order doing that. Lucky’s post, below, spells out all that is necessary if you don’t wear a mask. If people start wrongly believing that you need a doctor’s note, this will just stoke up more fear and confusion.
I inquired about private physio as the NHS have abandoned me and asked up front what their mask policy was and if they recognize exceptions – I offered to wait outside rather than sit in the waiting room, they said ‘we look forward to seeing you once you have an exemption certificate’.
Tell them there is currently no law that requires a mask to be worn at a physios and also that by refusing to see you they are breaking the law and could be prosecuted under the equality act.
They sound like complete arseholes.
There is no such thing. I would find another physio.
And STILL so many folk have no idea there are exemptions! Nor what the government website says about exemptions – including if masks would cause you harm – which covers all of us if we wore one for more than 6 minutes and didn’t follow strict hygiene and care instructions (which the vast majority of wearers don’t because they are ignorant of them or can’t be bothered). Plus folk confuse guidance with legislation – big difference!
One acquaintance of mine thought you needed a doctor’s note to get an exemption.
Unfortunately a great many people are still afraid. My workplace is a classic example – trying to debate and engage with them is like trying to get blood out of a stone.
https://tv.ua/news/933169-doch-putina-pogibla-v-dtp-smi
According to this Ukrania TV station I think they say she died in a car accident but better someone with knowledge reads it.Can be fake news from Canada
I am wrong Ukranian TV old date.But we should be very suspicous as this could be fake news.Surely this would leak quickly in Russia if this was true.
Also a different daughter. Maria Putin is still alive so it wasn’t her in the car crash anyway.
Disband PHE, great, but all employees will just TUPE over to the new organisation, same people, same tasks, same result.
The problem really lies with PHE’s management. Who are probably all Common Purpose, the Secret Society of choice for the public sector.
UK Column has been good on Coronovirus – but they get a bit obsessive about Common Purpose – which is a self-righteous/self-satisfied pain in the arse, like other competing establishment networks. But it is but one, like the Freemasons.
TUPE – that’s a can of worms but can be gotten around (I was looking at starting a “new business” out the ashes of an old one I would have bought out so had to research it and got advice from a specialist lawyer at the time.
If the other company or entity is shut down, finished, disbanded etc and a completely new entity start up then TUPE does not apply as it is not transfer of an existing business.
This goes for taking over pub tenancies as an example and has been agreed at tribunal – the old tenancy ends with the day the tenant leaves the premises. It is done, finished, kaput.
The new tenant is starting a complete new tenancy with the brewery/pub company/freehold owner and this is a completely new business with no connections to the old one so TUPE does not apply.
I’m sure Handjobs could screw it up though.
Change the name but not the game.
Or one of the many Quangos.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1386653211004732?via%3Dihub
In this old article from 20122 about our comon coronaviruses.
“HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-NL63 may elicit immunity that protects from subsequent HCoV-HKU1 and HCoV-229E infection, respectively, which would explain why HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-NL63 are the most frequently infecting HCoVs.”
So there is evidence in earlier coronaviruses about cross protection.
Why not in SARS-Cov2?
Manchester protest 22 Aug
https://www.standupx.info/
How about this?
BOURNEMOUTH
Every Saturday, 2-5pm
We have full support from Police
Bournemouth Town Hall
Official protest!
That “No mask? We won’t ask” sticker is tactically brilliant.
I reflexively recoil from the wokeist slogans and from the very idea that we should need a reason not to wear a mask beyond that we choose not to, but it uses woke “inclusive” and “safe space” nonsense brilliantly against the virtue signallers.
I’ve said it a million times before but we missed a trick not pragmatically co-opting BLM for our own ends.
BLM are beyond the Pale as far as I’m concerned. Promoting hatred and resentment against the indigenous race and nation, based on outright lies, is just too evil and too dangerous.
From my perspective, both BLM and coronapanickers are the Enemy. The latter more immediate, but the former are more dangerous long term. They are the road to cultural revolution and race wars.
Was that opening sentence a pun or play on words?
I was aware of it, but it wasn’t designed as such.
‘coronanists’ works I find
Horses for courses….
Maskurbation.
Or, maskturbation.
maskpeturbation
Good one, for when “coronaphobes” doesn’t quite cover how much they are giving themselevs pleasure by pandering to the panicdemic.
You need to defeat opponents in the order they present themselves to you imo. Or else you end up in knots trying to play mystic meg like Boris, Fergie et al
Yes, but you also need to be selective in which devils you choose to ally with tactically, It’s not as though some kind of decisive alliance with the BLM scum was either on offer or would have been somehow decisive in overturning the coronapanic anyway.
To the extent they were ever likely to damage the coronapanic, they did it anyway for their own reasons by holding mass demonstrations at just the right time to discredit lockdown.
Fair enough. Disagree about being able to achieve a decisive alliance however. At ANY point in time, this charade ends when enough people take to the streets. The Po Po – as we’ve seen – are less than useless (which is good)
Disagreement on tactics is fine, obviously.
But what did we have to offer to them anyway, that would make them take our side, if they weren’t already sceptical? If it’s just a matter of educating them, I feel that would come much better from leftist-based sceptic groups (there must be some out there) that are more enthusiastic generally about taking the knee to manipulative minority lobby group scumbags.
BLM are a form of sanctioned protest.The last time they were active was 2016 an USA election year.2020 is an USA election year.
The only reason they crossed the Atlantic this time was due to lockdown and the curious atmosphere at the time.They served a useful diversion at the time.If MR Trump loses the election you will find their corporate and NGO backers will quietly withdraw their funding.
The protests mystically stopped when BLM started tweeting support for Palestine.
Coronaphobes.
They would not have played ball. Mr Soros would not have permitted it.
The saying “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” only goes so far before you get screwed.
To your own self be true.
I agree. I’d hate to get tarred with that brush!
We need to get sed to the idea of phrasing our anti-lockdown arguments to match listener’s views: I tell communists I know that “lockdown is a conspiracy by big business to make more inflated profits and aid tax evasion”, I tell capitalists I know that “lockdown is orchestrated by communists bent on driving every business out of existance so the state can take control”. I have arguments lined up for people of every persuasion to get them round to agreeing that lockdown was a crime against humanity (note, for right wing traditionalists you expand “crime against humanity” with “violations of ancient magna carta rights”, for left-wing emotives you discuss “discriminatory assaults on the human rights of minorities”). Co-opting BLM at its height would have been good, “black jobs matter, black businesses matter, now end this barbaric lockdown and let blacks and whites get back to living”. We could perhaps do a good job co-opting some of the NHS protesta for pay rises, maybe turn up with a banner saying “you shoudln’t have locked the country down, you bastards, now put our pay up”. The media might find it pretty hard to contest against what looks to be NHS workers opposed… Read more »
Yes we need to co-opt the right-speak.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/72hi9jfcqfct1n9/Haaretz-20Jul20_ENGLISH%2012082020%20v3.pdf?dl=0 https://www.covibes.org/public/Israel Posted Levitt’s important, easy to read article again about the current situation in Israel and what they are trying to achieve. Below the link to the epidemic curve for Israel. I think they are trying to achieve, as safely as possible, reaching quickly herd immunity and that they are on their way. The CFR is dropping and approaching IFR. This is not a second wave but a repressed first wave and then a deliberate attempt to reach herd immunity therefore the two headed curve. Try to summarize crudely what they did. Nethanyanou is a paranoid lockdown fanatic using secret service as tracers. A very strong, even brutal, lockdown from the beginning. Look at the first curve. Excellent result (In fact compare to NZ same time low number cases low number of deaths) but Israel is not an isolated island and had later rampaging C-19 outbreaks in their neighbours i.e. Egypt which just let it rip through. But all these neighbouring pandemics came after April as the Israel outbreak was of Europe US origin in March. The lockdown fanatic ruined the economy and in May he opened up including all the schools, Universities etc. There are rumours that he… Read more »
Netan Yahoo.
Thing is, Israel is more or less an isolated island. There isn’t a lot of movement of people between it and the two neighbours it has “open” borders with. Israelis will drive to Taba or visit Petra, but not much traffic in the other direction.
Landborders are still very difficult to seal off.Palestine territory has C-19 epidemic and impossible to seal off Israel as an island nation.You can never seal off a virus in the end but it has been massive outbreaks in the Middle east.Problem was that the Israel outbreak in March connected with New York.When the first wave was over the lockdown fanatic thought he had won only to recognize that virus never respect borders and will alays sneek in as it did early June.
Seriously, Israel has one of the tightest and most effective border security regimes in the world. How often have you been there?
The West Bank Palestinian territories are for practical purposes integral to Israel, in that it doesn’t have a “Palestinian” airport or any way in or out that isn’t under Israeli control. As for Gaza, it is such a truly horrendous, monstrous PIA to travel between Israel and Gaza these days that almost no one does. It’s negligible as a source of infection in Israel.
I have never been there and will never go there.Land borders can never be sealed off for a virus.Diplomatical persons,UN diplomats and certain specific essential staff will slip through.Impossible to stop a respiratory virus.Never happened before in world history.Delusion to think we can stop it.
I smell a rat with the Asda facemask article Toby linked to. There was a very similar story shortly after the mask rule came in regarding that Huyton branch, only it was an old man moaning that time, rather than the young woman here (who curiously cannot be found on social media) The original source of both stories is the Liverpool Echo. My guess is a bedwetting manager at that Asda has a mate at the Echo, and neither the old man or young woman exist.
Thanks for this. I was also suspicious of this story and I’m sure you’re right about it being at least exaggerated or, more likely, made-up. Classic MSM fear-porn, pro-mask cheerleading like the Grauniad article about the disabled man being bullied. Asda is following the law or whatever the mask mandate is and that’s that.
I also don’t quite see why Toby linked the Rob Liddle article. Not only is it possible to read it if you’re not prepared to give money to Murdoch, but do we really need the knowledge that a MSM ;journalist; is continuing to pump out his masters’ voice? Frankly I don’t give a shit whether or not Rob Liddle ‘comes round’, even if that were likely.
Rod Liddle is a masker -https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-I-will-wear-a-face-mask if you have a subscription
He’s also a twat. Thanks but no I don’t subscribe to the Spectator. People have been complaining on here about Liddle’s pro-lockdown stance for weeks so it’s hardly surprising that he continues to churn out propaganda.
Something else to ignore hence my comment.
There’s nothing reluctant in Liddle’s piece, its just ill-informed pro-mask pro-lockdown nonsense: “For every study that shows masks are useless, I can show you one that says they work wonders.” Mind you, its not nearly as bad as the truly unpleasant comment article by Deborah Ross in yesterday’s Times: “This is just a bit of cloth on your face….I see you don’t understand when a minor inconvenience is no more than that. I also see you don’t come from a family of Holocaust survivors, as I do.”
Oh great – how dirty does this get? Liddle is an arsehole and what a nasty piece of work Ross is. She’s clearly a stranger to irony since it sounds as if she’s cheering on the sort of fascism that gained hold in the 1930s. A yellow star was ‘just a bit of cloth’, after all.
Watch out for this stuff, it’s gaining hold. More pro-scamdemic journalists are smearing us with the word ‘denier’ – equating lockdown scepticism with Holocaust denial. Resist!
Well said.
Deborah Ross isn’t the only person who comes from a family of Holocaust survivors. One day, I might even tell her the story of two Polish brothers. But even without that, she really ought to recognise the signs.
It gets worse, earlier in the article Ross complains how the sight of bare faces on a train made her angry, although “…some will have had a good reason and we need to be able to identify these people somehow. But the others?” That’s right – the disabled should be publicly badged for her peace of mind.
Yellow stars it is then.
I have wondered if I should find or make a yellow star to go with my exemption card.
That’s superb. An insight into the ‘liberal’, ‘progressive’ mind.
It’s been obvious to me for a couple of months that this was a possible next step for our psychopath government. We sceptics may be the first easy targets. Indefinite imprisonment or disappearing for any covid-deniers. I still hope this is only a worst-case scenario, but I am preparing myself to have to make a rapid change in behaviour should this go full fascist. I hope Toby has a nuclear option to shut down this site and shred the data if needed. I have started to think seriously about techniques to evade government surveillance, it should probably be something that we all consider.
What I have just written would have seemed like an absolute lunatic thing to say only six months ago, but we have seen that the government’s of the world are willing to take this to the extreme. And those of us that remember history lessons know how rapidly these horrors can develop.
It’s precisely because I am Jewish that I recognize creeping fascism when I see it! And for anyone who thinks I’m a conspiracy theorist (I use the term conspiracy realist now), I have them imagine me telling them in the early 1930s that in the near future all Jews would have to wear yellow stars for identification, be subject to harassment, have their business taken from them, and eventually slaughtered in camps by the millions, they would have called me a conspiracy theorist. But on a funny note…I’d tell you all a coronavirus joke but 99% of you wouldn’t get it!
That is my reason for not wearing a mask, though I am not jewish.. The medical reasons do not justify such an alteration in our behaviour, and I will not let my behaviour be dictated to me by anyone else. Those who comply – even though they do not understand why – are complicit in authoritarian dictates Have we learnt nothing from history?
The surname being Whitty as mentioned in the Mirror article makes me suspicious.
I have checked the birth records between 1984-2005 and there is no record for anyone called Eve/Evelyn/Evelin Whitty recorded during this period.
It definitely looks to be a fake name, I checked also birth records for Whitty with the middle name Eve/Evelyn/Evelin too.
There is only three other people called Eve Whitty on the electoral roll over the last 20 years, which are from 2001-2003, which can’t be her as she’s only 31 as the article says.
Just a shout to endorse the excellent Ivor Cummins video listed above. It doesn’t go into the technical issues about PCR testing – which is another relevant subject – but concisely puts to bed the idea that the current focus on ‘cases’ is anything but another Scary Fairy event. See :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU3OibcindQ&feature=youtu.be
Yes, I’ve been passing that link out quite widely over the past few days. It helps that it’s short (less than 10 mins) and pretty concise. And pretty devastating!
Casedemic!
Yes, it’s a brilliant and very clear, succinct video.
Wait. You actually think he’ll scrap PHE? I don’t think he will. You know how when a restaurant gets absolutely abysmal reviews and hygiene scores they change their name and go on as they did before? That’s probably what they’re doing with PHE.
Governments are always repackaging shit and selling it as sugar. PHE will be no different.
Exactly, they will pension off a few senior people / get a few new senior bureaucrats / spend a few million on a rebranding etc. 99% of the organisation will be exactly the same – staff, offices etc.
No Mask poster https://we.tl/t-6x4mpxM4EO
Letter https://we.tl/t-gx00QDKIvp
Enjoy 😉
Well done all !
My current thinking is sticky labels along the lines of
Masks on kids
=
child abuse
Thoughts ?
Ta CM. Exactly why I asked for thoughts, a further division of society is not exactly what we need right now.
However, I might still go ahead. It’s a clear, easily argued point, and might make a few more parents question what they are up to.
PLUS IT’S TRUE ! 🙂
I also joined this group, probably at your suggestion, and its heartening to read they hate boris and his merry gang just as much as yer average sceptic, but for precisely the opposite reasons…..5,000 taken off the death figures is an attempt to massage figures down, the cut off of 28 days to count as a covid death will miss all those who die of it after 28 days and so on. Some of the sentiments, honestly held I’m sure, are mind blowing, the number of children who will die, “lambs to the slaughter ” etc.
The Twitter thread Toby mentions in his round up about the 6 passengers is unbelievable…..it needs to be firmed up and presented like a report by someone with credibility
However much they ‘hate Boris’, it doesn’t sound heartening if they want more and harder lock-downs which will further damage their children.
It might be worth reading that Twitter thread carefully as Toby seems to have got the wrong end of the stick about it.
Not everyone thinks about children. Children don’t exist in their lives.
It’s important to remember that Facebook groups and other social media are patrolled by the 77th Brigade and other spooks. While I’m sure that there will be ‘real’ people on such groups winding each other up with ill-informed fear-mongering these people are by any definition mentally ill (brainwashed). If you think it does any good to be part of such groups (personally I think it’s a waste of effort) all you can do is point them real facts about the risks to/from children – they won’t want to hear it – and get on with your life.
I don’t have children at school but I fear very much for what’s in store for my 2 grandchildren aged 9 and 11. If I had a child I would be moving heaven and earth to keep them out of any school which makes them wear masks and to educate them at home. Not an easy option, I appreciate that but it’s easy to think that the Govt does not actually care about public education any more because there will be no jobs.
The effect of putting masks on children for entire school days is unknown. On that we can all agree. However, it is quite conceivable that it is harmful. The way we could find out is by conducting research on the matter.
Here is what the NSCCP has to say about conducting research that involves children:
https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/research-resources/briefings/research-with-children-ethics-safety-avoiding-harm
Forcing all children in England to wear masks without knowing whether it might be harmful would be equivalent to conducting a massive research experiment. This would violate several of the guidelines set out by the NSPCC.
That’s a line of argument that could be used.
Or we could just demand that we all apply some f*cking common sense and stop pandering to the hysterics.
In the same way we can conceive that being whacked round the head with a 10lb salmon painted in purple and yellow stripes might be harmful. Would you also say that effect is unknown ?!
Not quite sure why you state it is conceivably harmful, stewart ?
Every inch that you give them they will take a yard. Every time that you assent to another affront to your personal freedom you are giving them license to continue towards more extreme, further restrictions. Some of these people will never be satisfied, they will always strive to attain more power. Get in touch with Simon Dolan’s group, they might be able to help you take a stand that means something.
The solution is to say to those parents they don’t have to send their kids to school. But school will be available as normal.
That way jobs and futures will be available for the offspring of the non-hysterical.
Similarly if they can’t get to their jobs because of their school choices, then we put them on a default job at a bare living wage and free up their current job for somebody else.
Until the hysterical start paying a cost for their hysterics there is no incentive for them to get their beliefs under control.
It’s time to stop the appeasement of overly emotional reactions.
Prior to the COVID debacle what was most evident about PHE was its lack of accountability to the public or parliament – it was shield for a lot of quasi autonomous bodies within the NHS to make hay without public scrutiny. But in my memory it was set up by an act of parliament, so can Hancock disband and replace it without another one? But obviously it was the body which failed, not Hancock – oh no, no!
I spent a lot of time trying to draw attention to the fact that Andrew Pollard – presently head of the Oxford Covid vaccine project – was head of two PHE agencies, the Oxford Vaccine Group and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation where he could favour his own products, notably the Bexsero Men B Vaccine. PHE were indifferent to the problem and the DH (as it was at the time) said it was nothing to do with them.
http://www.parliament.scot/S4_PublicPetitionsCommittee/General%20Documents/20160129_PE1584_D_JStone.pdf
Pollard finally recused himself from the JCVI in May after years of complaints.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30180-8/fulltext
Here’s a piece from the Lancet reporting on autopsies at the JR Hospital, Oxford, during the first 2 months of lockdown. When I posted it late yesterday, Cheezilla correctly observed that about 25% of the autopsied deaths seemed to be indirect results of the lockdown, e.g. 3/10 suicides had cited financial pressures relating to it. On the other hand, the accompanying graphic shows that ‘unexplained natural causes’ autopsies went down from 65 in the same months of 2018 to 20 in 2020. (Sorry, no 33. or 42. or even 666, thank goodness). Others may like to speculate on what that means, or come up with other autopsy numbers. These are so small I wouldn’t like to.
But interesting, for when we start to count the cost in human life from this.
Very difficult to unpick, given the lack of random sampling and the nature of the classifications.
What does seem clear is that, in these post-mortems, Covid itself played a minor role in deaths.
Basically – we’ll never know.
Sardonic laugh at the ‘celebration’ of VJ day yesterday.
The sight of a nation cowering in hysterical fear whilst a government destroys the fabric of what was fought for (and which gave my generation so much in contrast) for would have filled the two preceding generations of my family with disgust and scorn.
Loathing is too mild a word.
Yes, they even made Gurkhas wear masks. This tells you why that probably wasn’t necessary, that and their unique lungs adapted to hard work at altitude. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/gurkha-obituaries/1580614/Bhanubhakta-Gurung-VC.html
the gurkhas are amazing – i was in nepal in december and in Pokhara there is a Gurkha museum which is well worth visiting if you’re there. I don’t usually go to museums but this was really informative and interesting with lots of photos and exhibits. Many of the gurkhas are recruited from the local mountainous region which is extremely poor. But what brave soldiers they are and very proud to serve in our army.
Hope you bought a souvenir kukhri, for their funds! The Ghurka soldiers’ houses always stand out as the best in the town. I wouldn’t want to stay in England if I were a retired Ghurka but some do, shamefully we wouldn’t let them till 2009.
I’m a big fan of the Gurkhas, but I’d query “shamefully”. They’re mercenaries and always have been. The great advantage to the individual Gurkha and to Nepal was that they would serve in the British army and would go back as a comparatively wealthy man and would then support their community. These are not men who have served queen and country, these are men who have served someone else’s queen and someone else’s country in exchange for a cushy retirement.
Wonderful soldiers though they are, why the obligation to accept them reneging on the deal?
Quite.
His company commander described him as “a smiling, hard-swearing and indomitable soldier who in a battalion of brave men was one of the bravest”.
I felt much the same on VE day, though it was a lot worse then as we still had the “stay at home” restrictions. Not so much “Blitz spirit” as “deep shelter mentality” (google it)
Fear and Loathing in the U.K.
Apologies if this has been posted already. I have been a bit tied up in A Level matters, and possible appeals for my son (another government self-inflected shambles).
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/doctors-pen-open-letter-fauci-regarding-use-hydroxychloroquine-treating-covid-19
So, if the ‘HCQ cocktail’ is effective at days 5-7 in home/outpatient setting, with the second line of ‘Oxygen plus Dexamethasone’ if that fails at days 7-10, does this also mean there is no need for a vaccine? Oops, not what Mr Gates and Big Pharma wants to hear!
I’m so sorry TT. It’s a stressful time in any event without all this going on. Do hope that you succeed in your efforts.
Thanks Margaret. Our dispute is with the school and how it got to his rank order in one of the subjects. We are not making much progress by being ‘nice’, so looks like it will require formal letter to exam board. TT junior is his mother’s son, and takes no prisoners!
Leaders have to constantly make decisions.
People who never make mistakes, never make decisions.
Mistakes are both inevitable and acceptable.
But – its how the mistakes are acknowledged and put right that makes the leader.
Boris is no leader and is the mistake…
MP, I agree that Johnson (I can’t call him by his first name because I despise him so much) is no leader and isn’t competent to run this country, but this lunacy is worldwide.Look what’s happening in Australia, NZ (!),some US (Democratic) states.This charade is being kept spinning for some reason. It may be compulsory vaccines, I just don’t know what to believe anymore because it’s all so bizarre
Electing him was a mistake.
Anyone who speaks Geman, watch the interview with Sucharit Bhakdi and Bodo Schiffmann on Bittel TV on Youtube or Telegram which was conducted yesterday, Saturday, 15th August.
Mr Bhakdi explains everything in such simple terms it is brilliant! He has written a book, which will be available beginning of September in english, which has been on the German Bestseller list at no 1 for 7 weeks.
Also here in Germany there is an independent inquiry underway, mostly in German but evidence from Italy, Netherlands and Belgium in English. Its called ” Stiftung Corona Ausschuss“. It can be viewed on YouTube Sitzung 1-10 with about 3 more to go. Its an initiative by a group of German lawyers and immunologist Prof Wolfgang Wodarg.
They are gathering evidence from experts in all fields, eg. PCR test, mask efficacy, effects upon children of measures, etc etc. The aim to bring the facts to public attention and to initiate legal action against responsible parties.
Good!
Thanks for the prompt – superb.
Interesting study here comparing effectiveness of various different BCG strain (anti Tuberculosis) vaccines against covid 19 to explain differentials in infection and mortality rates between countries still using mandated BCG vaccination for children.
The BCG Japan based vaccine comes out top
‘The consistently reduced disease incidence across all age groups for countries with a universal BCG policy is in line with the suggestion of an inverse correlation between the BCG vaccine and COVID-19. In comparison, a rise in disease incidence across all age groups for countries without a universal BCG policy substantiates the hypothesis that BCG immunization could be repurposed to provide a weapon to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.’
‘We found that countries adopting a mixture of different strains of the BCG vaccine such as South Korea and the Philippines reported a lower number of confirmed and fatal cases.’
The study also makes another suggestion regarding Hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic against the coronavirus
‘In this contribution, we have instead emphasized the possible chemoprophylactic role of CQ and HCQ: even if the evidence for it is admittedly only circumstantial, such a role should be tested in appropriately designed trials.’
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41419-020-2720-9
Listening to Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds.
Re-imagining the Red Weed for Face Muzzles creeping their way across the land. “But oh, the sweetness of the air!”
One of my favorites!!!
Take a look around you at the world we’ve come to know
Does it seem to be much more than a crazy circus show
And what saved humanity in the end? Natural resistance to germs acquired through the process of life and death. Just sayin’.
Indeed. A tale for our time.