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Bonkers Advisor to Scottish Government Warns of “Stream of Incoming Infections From England and Wales”
Apologies for being late on this one. Devi Sridhar, Professor of Global Public Health at Edinburgh University, had a piece in the New York Times on Saturday in which she warned of “a stream of incoming infections from England and Wales” and urged Nicola Sturgeon and other European leaders to impose a new quarantine policy whereby all visitors should be tested on arrival, quarantined for five days, and then tested again before being allowed out. “There has to be enforced isolation until two negative tests at least five days apart,” she wrote.
Yes, this will probably interfere with plans to enjoy the beaches of Marbella. But the summer, while infection rates still remain relatively low, is the only time to make this work.
Going into winter with hundreds of cases per day means risking a steep rise once temperatures cool, schools reopen and people head back indoors. It means risking a second round of national lockdowns, which would be catastrophic for mental health and for economies. (And let’s leave aside the question of whether or not it will actually be possible to get people to comply the second time around.)
This is un-evidenced nonsense, even by Prof Sridhar’s standards. She cites rising infections in Spain as a reason English visitors to Scotland could pose a threat, which is odd because any English holidaymakers returning from Spain have to quarantine for 14 days. And how many English people are planning to travel to Scotland for a second summer break, having just returned from a European holiday? She also takes it for granted that if the people of the United Kingdom don’t eliminate the virus in the remaining weeks of summer we face a catastrophic second wave this winter, ignoring the evidence that the virus has largely burnt itself out (and no thanks to the lockdown).
Prof Sridhar’s comments have been condemned by Willie Rennie, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, for “feeding a divisive nationalist narrative without scientific evidence to back it up”.
“It’s news to me that people from England and Wales were responsible for the outbreaks we’ve seen in Aberdeen, Orkney, Lanarkshire and Glasgow,” he said.
Alan Cochrane in today’s Telegraph also has a pop.
Now as an epidemiologist we must take her view seriously but we are entitled to ask (a) is she right in her assessment if the risk and (b) is she wise in her use of language?
These are fractious times politically and the professor’s last suggestion that English visitors might be quarantined in Scotland led to several SNP demonstrators staging a stupid anti-English stunt at the border after it was backed by Nicola Sturgeon.
The professor has ‘form’ for inflaming feelings and landed in trouble when she said that Unionists were anti-Scottish. She later withdrew that assertion, saying that she had “misspoke” – whatever that means.
Then there was the occasion the professor appeared to be opposing the SNP government over the timing of schools reopening only to fall into line within 24 hours.
Perhaps it’s time to dial in that ego and retreat from the public stage, Prof Sridhar?
What Does the Hydroxychloroquine Controversy Tell Us About Medical Science?
There’s an excellent essay in the Tablet about the politics of hydroxychloroquine by Norman Doidge, a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and published author. It doesn’t take sides on the issue of whether HCQ is an effective prophylactic or treatment for COVID-19, but explores the question of why the issue has been so controversial and what that tells us about the state of medical science.
Early in the coronavirus pandemic, a survey of the world’s frontline physicians showed hydroxychloroquine to be the drug they considered the most effective at treating COVID-19 patients. That was in early April, shortly after a French study showed it was safe and effective in lowering the virus count, at times in combination with azithromycin. Next we were told hydroxychloroquine was likely ineffective, and also dangerous, and that that French study was flawed and the scientist behind it worthy of mockery. More studies followed, with contradictory results, and then out came what was hailed by some as a definitive study of 96,000 patients showing the drug was most certainly dangerous and ineffective, and indeed that it killed 30% more people than those who didn’t take it. Within days, that study was retracted, with the editor of one of the two most respected medical journals in the Western world conceding it was “a monumental fraud.” And on it went.
Not only are lay people confused; professionals are. All that seems certain is that there is something disturbing going on in our science, and that if and when the “perfect study” were to ever come along, many won’t know what to believe.
We live in a culture that has uncritically accepted that every domain of life is political, and that even things we think are not political are so, that all human enterprises are merely power struggles, that even the idea of “truth” is a fantasy, and really a matter of imposing one’s view on others. For a while, some held out hope that science remained an exception to this. That scientists would not bring their personal political biases into their science, and they would not be mobbed if what they said was unwelcome to one faction or another. But the sordid 2020 drama of hydroxychloroquine—which saw scientists routinely attacked for critically evaluating evidence and coming to politically inconvenient conclusions—has, for many, killed those hopes.
Phase 1 of the pandemic saw the near collapse of the credible authority of much of our public health officialdom at the highest levels, led by the exposure of the corruption of the World Health Organization. The crisis was deepened by the numerous reversals on recommendations, which led to the growing belief that too many officials were interpreting, bending, or speaking about the science relevant to the pandemic in a politicized way. Phase 2 is equally dangerous, for it shows that politicization has started to penetrate the peer review process, and how studies are reported in scientific journals, and of course in the press.
Worth reading in full.
Postcard From St Tropez
The reader who reported on life at a campsite in France, has a follow-up about staying at another campsite in St Tropez. Doesn’t sound too bad.
Moving on from rural France where life seemed more relaxed and the mood just so, we’ve moved onto a campsite near St Tropez.
We spent the morning at the beach – no masks. The afternoon in the pool – mask free. We popped to a supermarket – masks obligatory. We were refused entry to a small shop because our small child wasn’t wearing a mask (not against the law in France), we walked out in disgust.
We went to see the evening entertainment in the campsite, laughably bad – a Johnny Hallyday impersonator, but that wasn’t the funniest part (although awful, irony lost on the French), the audience in the open air amphitheater were forced to wear masks, yet sitting metres apart. The bar and restaurant area although 20 metres away, no masks required.
The ultra obedient French Poodles had obeyed the rules and we had been sent to Coventry.
To summarise the day:
Beach – no masks
Pool – no masks (yet in close proximity)
Bar and restaurant – no masks
Open air amphitheater – mask up everyone, inc Poodles.My understanding of the French understanding of the virus seems to be that it avoids beaches, swimming pools and bars but not open air theatres.
It’s one hell of a clever virus.
Melbourne’s Descent into Hellish Dystopia
There’s a good piece in Spiked by James Bolt, a resident of Melbourne about the city’s slide into totalitarianism.
A couple are watching their child play in a playground. They are fined by the police. They are further than five kilometres from their home.
A man leaves his home at 9.30pm to buy some cigarettes. He too is fined: $1,652. He has left his house during the city-wide curfew, which comes in at 8pm.
On Facebook, two men plan a protest against Victoria’s restrictions. Police execute a search warrant and seize their mobile phones and a computer. One is charged with incitement because he wanted to organise a protest – public gatherings are limited to two people and only for exercise (physical, not of our basic rights).
This is the situation in Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city, right now. In a supposedly liberal democracy.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Jeffrey Tucker, Editorial Director of the American Institute for Economic Research, has written a good article on the “tyranny without limit” in Melbourne.
Is This the World’s Best Broadcaster?
Why don’t we have a British version of Alan Jones on Sky News? The Sky News Australia commentator has been speaking truth to power throughout the pandemic. Here’s his latest jeremiad. Gold, as usual.
Meanwhile, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has suggested face masks should be mandatory every year to prevent people catching seasonal flu. The Mail has the story.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton indicated on Tuesday elements of the restrictive lockdown protocols could be here to stay well after the state defeats COVID-19.
“The flu isn’t as severe as COVID-19, but it is still deadly because millions and millions of people get infected,” he explained.
About 3,000 Australians usually die every year from the seasonal flu, but infection rates have been trending down since April.
“With all the restrictions put in place because of COVID, it has absolutely brought the flu in check,” Sutton said.
This is what happens if you don’t stand up to the tyrants, folks.
Seafood Restaurant in Whitstable Bans 12-Year-Olds Due to Covid Risk
A reader has written in to tell me about a nasty experience in Whitstable. Sounds completely insane.
Sad scenes in Whitstable, Kent today after my two small kids were turned away from a popular local restaurant.
I don’t usually go in for public shamings, but I was so staggered by this abject idiocy that I felt compelled to write in. I’d booked a table for my father and two children (aged six and four) at Crab & Winkle, a popular seafood restaurant overlooking Whitstable harbour. On arrival, I discovered the previously normal entrance had been converted into the kind of arrangement you might expect to find in a nuclear power station, complete with reinforced door, tiny window and alert buzzer.
After pressing said buzzer, a lady in a face visor swiftly appeared and proceeded to talk to me through the two defensive shields that now separated us. Unfortunately, rather than extending us a warm welcome, she was only able to inform me that children under 12 were not allowed in the restaurant due to the risk of them spreading the virus.
Somewhat taken aback, I asked a) why this rule wasn’t mentioned to me when I’d made my booking on the phone, and b) why it only applies to under 12s, given all the evidence pointing to younger kids being the least likely transmitters.
Her explanation was that children under 12 are often unable to remain seated during a meal, and that they can’t risk having kids running amok, passing on their deadly germs to other diners.
There was little point in me highlighting the absurdity of this policy, so we turned on our heels and took a gamble on another distinguished Whitstable eatery, The Lobster Shack, which I’m pleased to report had a far more relaxed (i.e. not utterly insane) approach to hospitality.
Postcard From Carcassonne
A reader tells me he had a good experience in the medieval town of Carcassonne in France.
We arrived back from Carcassonne yesterday, after an excellent few days pottering around the medieval city, as well as shopping and dining out in the (often overlooked) attractive city of Carcassonne itself. We stayed at the Ibis Styles hotel, which was great. There were masks everywhere – even when getting up from the table to get a fresh croissant – but that was the only irritation. The French public seem to have a much more sane attitude than we do. Yes, they wear masks, but social distancing is completely ignored: the restaurants and streets are rammed; the swimming pool at our hotel was open as normal; nobody veers out of the way to avoid you; there are no ludicrous perspex screens between tables, nor enforced hand-sanitisations. After our visit, we spent a lovely few days at a friend’s house a few hours away, with 20 or so others, at an anniversary celebration. The quarantine announcement came and nobody fled to the border. We simply opened another beer.
I am now deeply irritated to be under house arrest due to an arbitrary diktat of a government that is clearly out of control. I will obviously use my common sense in that regard – but it is worrying that the great British people are still not up in arms.
News From Tanzania
Interesting tidbit from Tanzania from a regular reader.
My wife and I have friends in Tanzania, one of whom is a headteacher at a large city school and who sent the message below, which might interest you. Bear in mind that the classes there are very large, with over 70 children per class, sometimes more than 100, sitting shoulder to shoulder. Facilities at the schools are very basic. Much of the local housing is even more basic and crowded. And Tanzania is one of the few African countries to shun lockdowns. Yet our friend reports not a single Covid case in his school…
Sceptical Covid Painting
This painting, ‘Sanity, Her Son and the Credulous’, was done by Jordan Henderson (not the Liverpool midfielder). Jordan is an artist from Washington State in the United States. He works in oil on canvas and charcoal on paper. A portfolio of his works can be viewed at jordanhendersonfineart.com.
Round-Up
- ‘Return under house arrest? Non! We’re staying in France‘ – Richard Madeley says he and wife Judy Finegan are “tired of being herded around like sheep by a bunch of useless shepherds who haven’t got a clue what they’re doing”
- ‘Covid Rebellion‘ – According to sceptical blogger Omar Khan, opposition to lockdown policies is beginning to build
- ‘China partygoers cram into Wuhan water park‘ – Looks like the Chinese authorities have concluded the epidemic is over in Wuhan
- ‘Art Museum Curator Resigns After Petition Accuses Him of Racism for Not Excluding White Artists‘ – Gary Garrels, a curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern ARt, is the latest victim of cancel culture
- ‘New York Governor Cuomo calls coronavirus the “European virus”‘ – Andrew Cuomo proves he’s a useful idiot of the Chinese Communist Party
- ‘MN Governor Quietly Reverses Course on Hydroxychloroquine‘ – The Governor of Minnesota has changed his mind about HCQ and reversed the ban
- ‘Never mind scrapping PHE, shouldn’t Hancock scrap himself?‘ – Will Jones poses a good question in the Conservative Woman
- ‘Has the world gone mad? 10 bizarre Covid rules (all in the name of science)‘ – The Telegraph‘s Digital Travel Editor Oliver Smith on some of the more bizarre Covid rules around the world, such as the ban on flip flops in South African shops
- ‘Kenya dismisses exposé on looting of Covid funds‘ – Coronavirus aid is been looted in Kenya
- ‘The scientists and the government relationship: it’s not you, it’s me‘ – Hard hitting piece by Sean Walsh in the Article
- ‘North Korea bans owning pet dogs with pooches sent to restaurants to be eaten‘ – Communism in action, folks
- ‘Marks & Spencer to cut 7,000 jobs after “material shift” in trading‘ – The economic devastation caused by the lockdown continues to wreak havoc
- ‘Holiday at home? Irish tourism boss resigns after getting caught on vacation in Italy‘ – Head of Ireland’s tourism development authority (Fáilte), Michael Cawley, has resigned after ignoring his own agency’s advice to opt for domestic “staycations” and heading off on holiday to Italy instead
- ‘Government confusion aggravates Covid despair‘ – Good column in the Times by Libby Purves
- ‘Tony Blair warns another national lockdown is “impossible” and blasts 14 day quarantine rules as too long – as he claims ministers have been over relying on experts during coronavirus crisis‘ – Crikey Moses! Has Blair become a lockdown sceptic? Fortune makes for strange bedfellows
- ‘Good News: Fauci’s Out and Common Sense Might Be Returning‘ – Ron Paul welcomes Trump’s sidelining of Anthony Fauci
- ‘Professor Sunetra Gupta at the Plan B Conference‘ – Watch Sunetra Gupta’s contribution to the Plan B policy symposium in New Zealand
- ‘Italy’s PM is now officially under investigation for enforcing a nationwide lockdown in Italy against the advice of Italy’s scientific committee‘ – Interesting development in Italy
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “Blind Leading the Blind” by Mumford and Sons and “Sleepwalking Past Hope” by HIM
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.
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A few 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.
A reader has put forward a good suggestion.
I was wondering if your map of businesses who have opened could be expanded to businesses who display “No mask? We won’t ask” sign? That would allow us mask-refusers to know where we are safe to visit without risking a drama with a Covid loon, and also reward those plucky businesses with our custom. It’s been interesting to see how the Covid terror only seems to last as long as financial necessity allows (note previously hysterical pub landlords get much less worried when they are allowed to re-open) so I’d be interested to see if a line of mask free customers outside one shop tempted its neighbours to risk the plague.
“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 Oct 2nd to Oct 12th). The Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. You can get a “Hidden Disability” tag from ebay here and an “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).
A reader reports that mask-wearing fever in Malvern hasn’t yet reached epidemic proportions.
My wife and I had our first experience of a hotel since lockdown when we visited Malvern and failed to realise that muzzles are compulsory in the communal areas of the hotel. We were told by reception on entering that masks were compulsory and were handed a Ziploc bag with two disposable baby blue face nappies (which remained undisturbed in the Ziploc throughout our stay). The General Manager was a lovely chap and when my wife apologised for forgetting her face mask responded that the whole thing was utterly preposterous.
In the hotel lobby there was a couple having a drink (un-muzzled) and nearby a couple standing up who weren’t having a drink (muzzled). The virus is very clever and only punishes unmuzzled drinkers. We went for a drink at Wetherspoon’s where lip service was being paid to the rules and only one of the serving staff was muzzled (presumably by choice).
Generally, in the street the usual leapers were wearing face coverings but the majority of people were not although there seem to be general obeisance in the shops.
Bedwetters of the week had to be an Anglo-French couple in their early 30s who arrived both with face coverings in the dining room and asked the Romanian waiter (whose muzzle had slipped below his nose) for two kettles of boiling water so that they could sterilise the cutlery…
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…
In our latest London Calling podcast, James Delingpole and I have our usual moan about the Government’s mishandling of the crisis, focusing on the French quarantine rules this week. Also, we discuss our summer reading and what we’ve been watching recently. Scintillating stuff! You can listen here and subscribe on iTunes here.
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.
https://www.lockdowntruth.org/post/world-economic-forum
Hail the Great Reset!
Yep, been on their website for quite a while but becoming more and more in the open and in your face now.
Read some of the speeches from the central banker’s meeting in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in June 2019 – Carney’s speech in particular – great reset a common theme.
They’re doing two things:
Divide and conquer. People need to come together against this fascism.
And she’s bankrolled by? You guessed it! Bill Gates.
Really? Where’d you find that out?
Gates also pumps money into Ferguson’s Imperial College, the BBC, the Guardian and provides big spends for a whole host of other bedwetting outfits.
She’s also good friends with Chelsea Clinton.
On the bright side, the country can’t afford another lockdown. That was a one-shot and they’ve fired it.
The people of Manchester and Leicester might beg to differ.
The idea seems to be to bankrupt the country and most of its people. This will further the progress of Agenda 21, with its highly questionable aims of “sustainable development” through strict controls and of course very substantial depopulation.
Very true , the tide is turning covid is on it’s way out but the government dare not admit it!
Covid-19, whatever it was or wasn’t, has clearly packed up and gone, to much dismay in Whitehall. The government must have promised Bill, that they would be able to keep the fear going so as to increase the uptake of his hardly tested guaranteed genocidal brew of a vaccine. The current dearth of Covid deaths will be a real bummer for Johnson and Hancock, so it’s look like time for another wheeze and a lot more creative accounting, at the ONS.
I wish I was as optimistic. With a captive media, they’ve been very successful at manufacturing fictional narratives. Do you think the odd fact will change that?
The country can afford anything available in Sterling for as long as we like. We can keep going as long as the “key workers” are prepared to keep working full weeks while the rest of us idle.
Lockdown cannot be defeated with the “afford” argument or trying to suggest “bankruptcy”. That clearly has no traction any more on the other side, because they have read “The Deficit Myth”, watched Japan for 30 years and know that the notion of bankruptcy for a sovereign nation is preposterous. We would just be laughed at as nutters.
Lockdown has to be defeated by appealing to freedom of choice. Economic arguments just sound like we value money more than people.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DSvhPnUgyz8
Meet Bill Gates
http://www.physiciansforlife.org/bill-gates-father-head-of-planned-parenthood-inspired-his-abortion-population-control-views/
Population Control
Bill Gates’ Father, ‘Head’ of Planned Parenthood, Inspired His Abortion, Population Control
by APFLI | May 9, 2003
Can you imagine Sly News UK allowing an Alan Jones outpouring of common sense? No, nor can Ethelred
Sky UK not owned by Rupert Murdoch, Sky Australia is.
Sky in the UK is owned by Comcast. That’s the mob which also owns and broadcasts MSNBC, CNBC and the like. See the problem? So you won’t see any of the Sky Australia faces on that lot. If you want news, then stream Sky Australia or at least pick-up its online segments.
This advert was on my Facebook homepage. The nerve!
It probably popped up from one of my new friends. I decided to allow anyone who posted on my page requesting to become a friend to do so and now I have hundreds of people that I don’t know and will probably never meet using me as a conduit for their own purposes. Here’s one:
https://www.gatesnotes.com/Climate-and-energy?preview&Climate-SU=1&&WT.mc_id=20200801000000_TGNICA_BG-PDM-PF-ClInl3pcT1-Clim2_pl-Facebook_Right_Column_ag_id6200592599959_ad_id6200594300359&WT.tsrc=BGPDM-PF&fbclid=IwAR2UT23LhCaYhHFLcB2xINC008SQcQiCi3YtGBMKTlidpn-mCE8IPO1p6vY
Bill’s at it again. Ooh ooh ooh, what a little money can do ooh ooh.
He’s a vile psychopath.
Good to see you’ve got your own professorial nut jobs in the UK. In Australia we have a wide variety of professors, assistant professors and associate professors doing the same thing.
Who knew we needed all these people giving us unsubstantiated incorrect information masquerading as medical science
If they’re anything like the crowd we’ve got here, they’ve not been outside an educational building since they were five years old. They can give you the thrust vector to get a rocket into space, but no clue where the “launch rocket” button might be found.
Indeed
Never again believe anything any scientist say
All those professors sounds terribly north American. I thought they were Senior Lecturers, lecturers and tutors. Professors hold chairs.
Government: People are dying. Everyone must wear masks.
Skeptics: People have been dying during the flu season too and there was no need for masks.
Government: Ok. Everyone now wears masks during the flu season too. Checkmate.
People have been dying since the human race began. Net Zero Obsessive.
I don’t believe there is a single verified case of immortality yet.
Jesus?
Zarathustra.
https://authenticgathazoroastrianism.org/2016/04/04/zarathustra-and-the-promise-of-an-eternal-spring-of-the-immortals/
No, he died and rose again.
Died. Resurrected.
aka ‘walking dead’?
Another myth
Highlander isn’t a true story?
Course not! A scotch James Bond pretending to be ‘Spaniard’…
Schpanyard…
Now you tell me!
We’re all immortal till we die.
Only because not everyone has been wearing masks.
Matt Le Tissier😇
Right, must be because we haven’t been wearing masks till now, they are a sign of moral probity and they’re the solution to Covid, flu, slow high street recovery, and death.
Bill will be working on it.
People have been warning about this from the beginning. It was entirely predictable and obvious.
Covid, like Flu, kills thousands of old people, we “need” these restrictions to protect old people from Covid, therefore we “need” these restrictions permanently to protect old people from Flu.
The gates to hell have been opened and we will never get to close them again. Lockdown is now the official strategy for dealing with infectious diseases, and we are going to see it again, and again, and again.
I doubt it. We cannot afford another lockdown.
We couldn’t afford the first one. Anyway, we’re still in lockdown. It has morphed slightly, will morph again, but lockdown as in the continued imposition of public health emergency measures to micromanage private and business life, free of opposition and free of evidence for their effectiveness, will continue forever. I suppose what we have today is in some ways better than March 23rd, but not much. Still in lockdown as far as I am concerned, until all the SIs and guidance are gone. So that’ll be forever.
Couldn’t agree with you more. I consider myself still in lockdown when I must wear a mask to come in and out of my condo building and to buy basic necessities. I’m sure I’d feel like I was still in lockdown if I owned a business that had to follow the inane rules and I was losing money every day. For all the maskholes who claim that if we just do what “the science” tells us we can get back to normal, I say, THIS IS NOT NORMAL!
How can we have a second lockdown? With the antisocial-distancing measures largely still in place, it can hardly be claimed we’re out of the first one.
I guess by lockdown one could mean the kind of far-reaching restrictions on movement we had from 23rd March for a few weeks. But agree, the lockdown never finished.
The local mockdowns in the N.West only said you couldn’t visit your friends or family at their homes. Still referred to as lockdown. Psy-op!
Of course we can. Universal basic income replaces furlough.
We can’t afford this lockdown!
I really hope so.
“We cannot afford another lockdown.”
The question is ‘Who’s “We”.”
The economy rapists probably can.
Not just infectious diseases. Climate change lockdowns will be a thing in no time.
A couple of months ago, on Good Morning Britain, Dr Hillary asserted that “We are all going to have to behave like we have OCD.” I expected this to elicit howls of protest. If it did, the media were completely quiet about it. However, it seems Dr Hillary was prophetic. Now, everyone is expected to behave as though they have obsessive compulsive disorder and this is apparently intended to last for as long as infectious diseases exist.
The government is suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
The government is committing the crime of coercive control, according its own definition.
Obsessive compulsive orderingusabout!
I was in the U.S. Army. Obsessive compulsive meatheads were orderingusabout 24 hours a day. Feels like déja vu all over again!
And the tragedy is that we will raise a new generation of children to literally *have* OCD because of all the fear that they are being spoon-fed by the government and media.
According to the judgement of the Nuremberg Tribunal, pushing fear-mongering propaganda constitutes crimes against humanity.
I think people with OCD usually know they are behaving irrationally so behaving like this and believing that it is normal behaviour is probably more like a personality disorder than a phobia.
What’s this slime ball up to?
“Tony Blair warns another national lockdown is ‘impossible’ and blasts 14 day quarantine rules as too long – as he claims ministers have been over relying on experts during coronavirus crisis”
So that people go for his test passport scheme instead. A forerunner to the vaccination passport scheme. No vaccine = you can’t participate in normal life.
I said this to my wife a few months ago. She said I sounded like a ‘Sun reader’. Think she believes me now….!
Get her to watch Dave Cullen’s (Computing Forever) videos : Joining the Dots.
There are three of those videos, among several others, that predicted all of this, not because he’s a clairvoyant, but because he reads what the elite have been saying and planning.
Dave Cullen has done some very good videos, quite a few which have been censored by YouTube.
Sadly, many of us could see what was being rolled out for us back in March, it was never hidden we were even told back them it was a ‘new normal’ (permanent). Surprised people still can’t see that the establishment have clearly decided ‘not to let a good crisis go to waste’ and will introduce lots of controls and restrictions over the population they wouldn’t have stood a chance of implementing in normal times. I guess the public now love an overbearing nanny state to keep them ‘safe’.
Dave Cullen’s Bitchute channel:
https://www.bitchute.com/channel/hybM74uIHJKf/
Making a vaccine mandatory instead? Digital passports to allow people to rejoin the New Normal life, i.e. work, travel, join crowds, etc…..
When international law changes to allow this, I might have more sympathy for the view.
Laws have been changing very quickly recently, in unexpected ways. Who would have thought we would be restricted as to who could visit us in our homes? I’m taking nothing for granted. Nothing.
Besides, international law is largely unenforceable and useless. There are international laws forbidding slavery but that is still practiced in many parts of the world.
Breaking international law isn’t likely to get you much more than a ticking off by the UN and maybe some economic sanctions, if anyone else cares enough. And with the UN solidly behind the lockdown agenda, you can be sure that even these mild consequences aren’t going to happen.
There was no international law that sanctioned the lockdown of billions of people, but it happened anyway. In Canada, our Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees freedom of movement between provinces and yet my daughter is going back to her university town on Friday and will be under house arrest for two weeks. I have to pay local people to bring her groceries so she doesn’t starve. So if our brilliant politicians decide among themselves that countries will only allow free movement of people who take the vaccine and have digital passports, I’m not sure how we stop it.
It will be too late when that happens!
He’s right on the first point, whatever his endgame might be.
We are not following a Social Contract, we are following a Social Construct.
Western Liberal democracies? Where? They appear to have vanished from the face of the Earth.
Matt HanCockUp.
He has the look of a man who enjoys putting Christmas decorations up himself…
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/08/18/face-masks-deter-supermarket-shoppers-says-kantar/ (paywall) -comments backing that up. One comment “Quelle suprise eh…Another of Hancocks blinders..They all thought muzzles on, massive fines to back it up, would get the bed wetters back in the shops and spending. Truth is they havent and a lot of the spenders are aggravated by the muzzles and they won
t come now. This should have been very obvious to anyone who understands people and isnt blinded byscience…Hancock doesnt and is!!I’m no big spender but I know more abput the habits of big spenders than hancock. He really is the useful idiot pushed out be the back stage mob.
I am happy to boycott all but very essential shopping until this farce collapses entirely. Nothing I can do to stop the actions of the thoughtless, the damage is done by policy. But I can do what I can. Myself and the big spenders, how very singular!
Same here. Have done so since the 15th of June and will carry on boycotting so long as this insanity is with us.
Very sorry about the shops that are going under but they should direct their ire at the government plus they should have fought hard to stop the introduction of anti-social distancing and mandatory muzzle wearing if they wanted to save their business.
We were big spenders but I am also buying nothing that isn’t absolutely necessary. I’ve been donating money to those fighting this nonsense instead (Del Bigtree, James Corbett, etc.). Money much better spent.
I suspect the death of the highstreet is the agenda. They were already talking about demolition.
Shopping online can’t be done with cash, I suspect that’s the endgame.
Refusing to use shops actually plays right into their hands.
Loads of shops won;t take cash though
They could have added that because of masks people won’t use public transport. Who wants to sit on a bus or in a train carriage with people wearing masks, that are little more than snotty handkerchiefs?
I saw 3 buses go past me tonight as I ate some fish n chips, every one of them bar one was EMPTY
The poll “Since face coverings became mandatory are you shopping less or more” has 80% of votes for “less”, and most of the comments are scathingly critical of the policy.
On the other hand, the comment from Kantar “That suggests the public may need time to adjust to the new regulations, and they now have to plan ahead for every shopping trip.” – it’s hard to work out what they’re actually saying there, or how it in any way relates to the requirement to wear a mask! – it sounds like they’re trying desperately to avoid actually saying, or even implying, that the mask policy is deterring rather than encouraging shoppers.
The latest poll results in that article are encouraging, as are the comments, which are almost universally along the lines of ‘masks are dystopian and make me feel angrier, not safer’.
[Poll attached]
We now shop online even for groceries. We refuse to be masked for what is a scamdemic against humanity.
It’s as if they knew that masks would deter shoppers, isn’t it? MW :-/
Although their argument at the time was that the mask-erade would put a spring in the step of the economy, as we’d all feel safe to go and spend like drunken sailors, gawd-elp-us!
Quite so, BTL-N! At least we LSs had a suspicion that this argument just might have been the utter bollox it has proved to be. Shopping is now a horrible experience – how can anyone enjoy it? MW
Yer just why would ANYBODY go shopping for FUN now???
There is no fun anymore these political morons have destroyed it.
Is this just at my end, or have comments completely disappeared from Spiked articles? I would have put this down to straightforward technical trouble but Brendan O’Neill seems to have made his Instagram private at around the same time. It all seems a bit odd.
I noticed that this morning.
I had the same problem when I went to Spiked yesterday.
There seems to have been a noticeable increase in troll activity in the comments section of Spiked. I guess they have probably closed the comments due to the hassle of policing the comments section. I think as they and OffGuardian are pretty much the only sceptical media organisations and don’t follow the consensus on many topics (and don’t have government advertising) they are actively being targeted – the authorities aren’t so keen on free speech in their own country only abroad.
77th brigade…
Can confirm. I actually block the Spiked comments section with UBlock because it seems to contain nothing but brigading by anti-Spiked trolls.
Even his Facebook page has disappeared and he used to have good posts there. I suspect its because he’s increasingly being trolled.
it’s because he keeps getting it wrong and doesn’t like the comments
I e-mailed the managing editor Viv Regan and I’m sure he won’t mind me quoting his reply:
“Unfortunately, we’ve stopped the comments section. We’ve tried but we’re a small team and it’s just me trying to get rid of the thousands of spams and trolls. It is now taking up hours of my time a day and I just cannot justify it.
We tried Disqus before but you have to sign up to their ads – so even more ads – and it is expensive so that’s no good to us.
I know it is going to disappoint some people but I had to prioritise.”
Good investigative work, Graham, thanks for getting to the bottom of that.
Tony Blair is pushing hard for every UK citizen to be tested every 2 weeks with their results tracked in a Health Passport App. A clear test would be required for travel and entering public buildings such as shops and cinemas. Having lost the debate on National ID cards, this is his way to get them through the back door.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/16/report-calls-digital-coronavirus-passports-help-open-economy/
how much do these tests cost each? wouldn’t it be cheaper to just ask if someone has any symptoms? If they do then they might have covid. If they don’t then they might have covid.
I read (I think in private eye) it’s around £120 per test. Nice earner for companies involved
So if £120 per test and each person needs testing every 2 weeks (26x a year) = £3,120 pp per year.
Say 60 million people need testing = £187,200,000,000 per year ….a big number but around £187 Billion.
Ain’t gonna happen!!
My thoughts exactly. Where is all the money for all these unnecessary and useless tests coming from. Why aren’t people up in arms about it? about any of it?
The majority are asleep to what is happening. They trust the government! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
His article in the Mail doesn’t make him a sceptic, it’s actually pushing the above agenda.
Stop this man (Tony Blair) he is pushing the Bill Gates agenda
Send him recordings of canned laughter. He’s just another clown.
Let him. Quickest way of killing it. The man is pure poison and people don’t believe a word he says.
That might just be a good idea. I can’t imagine Tony Blair’s endorsement (of anything) would encourage many people in the UK nowadays!
We need a reliable, credible and trusted spokesman to push forward what will be an upopular narrative…I know Tony Blair supported by Alastair Campbell.
First WMD … now VMD.
That promises well, doesn’t it? 🙂
I suggest this push is more about the adoption of tracking than the testing policy.
Don’t forget the massive amount of dosh to be creamed off through testing, however.
Yes. Secondary. Blair wouldn’t be on tv etc. whispering answers to his self posed questions for an extra million or 100. His pleasure comes from his globalist maneuvering.
From a practical viewpoint testing every person in the UK every two weeks is simply impossible.
No one is testing me ever! 😠
Let him stand and shout for it. The man is so poisonous now, that anything he stands up and says we should do, most people instinctively veer away and do the opposite.
I don’t think corinavirus wants to even know Tony BlAir
A question: does the coronavirus act already allow them to impose this, or would it need another SI?
Further questions: Are the region lockdowns a way of gradually introducing this via the back door? Because a lot of door-knocking and encouragement to get tested is happening..
Is the plan to gradually impose compulsory two-weekly testing of the population area by area, with it being sold as ‘the only way’ for the lockdown to be lifted?
“Health Passports Will Set You Free”
Arbeit macht frei.
God how I loathe that piece of excrement! If there was any justice in the world he’d be dead.
March on Holyrood
September 5th.
THE tweet says-
“We are marching in Scotland & will have many playing bagpipes amoungst us.Nicola Sturgeon tried to ban them. We also have carers, nurses & lawyers willing to speak outside Holyrood.”
There is a leaflet visual on the link too.
https://mobile.twitter.com/DonnacKbf/status/1295311236318605312
Holyrood already has extra fences around the Main Entrance side! Spotted today.
BS? Probably? But truth is sometimes strange.
https://beforeitsnews.com/blogging-citizen-journalism/2020/08/trump-issues-sealed-indictment-on-dr-anthony-fauci-breaking-2649063.html
Interesting. It may sound a bit OTT but it is something I had been considering within the last week. Certainly what is happening on the edge of treason. Whether he could be prosecuted as an actual traitor is another matter but there is certainly some legal basis to the charge.
I would love this to be true, though this article is 2 days ago and surely something like this would be more widely reported by now. It does seem like he’s been “sidelined” at least though.
“Is This the World’s Best Broadcaster?”
Given that the other decent broadcaster of note has been Fox News I think we have to ask the question: where do Murdoch and his clan actually stand on the coronapanic?
Seems clear they are at least willing to use scepticism as a political tool, and it’s legitimate to speculate that they might themselves tend to the sceptical.
I thought Fox News had been reasonably good (but the competition have been outright crazy) then they had a doctor on saying that unvaccinated children should wear a yellow star, why would you even air such a suggestion?
What happened to gold and silver stars?
That is so repulsive I find it incredible he wasn’t thrown off the set!
So, just run through that again:
I can see why you’re scared of this deadly virus.
Well put, Nick.
The “at home” deaths are sky high though, these are the deaths being caused by the lockdown. Without these deaths you would be looking at around 800-1000 below the 5 years average per week.
I just checked the data;
Since March deaths at home are 42% up on 5 year average. 71,000 rather than 48,000!
During the 1st week of August only 0.5% of home deaths were covid related.
Since March only 2% of home deaths were covid related.
How many of these people might have lived on if they didn’t think they were saving the NHS by staying at home.
You can guarantee that a lot of these people are like the two people who died that I wrote about a few days back whose cancer monitoring and treatment had been stopped. Then you have all these people too scared to go hospital with heart attacks and strokes, which is still happening.
I found out this afternoon that the guy I know whose ex-wife died because of not receiving cancer treatment, that his current wife is now in hospital. It was thought that she had had a stroke, but this proved negative, and it now looks like the bowel cancer she had years ago has returned, and once again this is because she has not been having regular testing during lockdown.
I don’t know how this murdering government can get away with this. They are deliberately withholding lifesaving treatment from patients. When people talked about population replacement I thought them crazy but I’m no longer convinced they are now. The boats keep arriving no one is ever removed and our own people are deprived of medical assistance.
the NHS must be colluding with the government in this scam! People are dying from all sorts of illnesses because the NHS isn’t functioning as it should be.
Devi Sridah – a little back ground to put to those warm, no, those cold eyes. Taken from wikipedia, she deserves nothing better. Rhodes Scholar. Selected person. She turned her PHD studies into malnutirition in India into her first book, The Battle Against Hunger, was selected by Foreign Affairs as a must read book in aid policy. The book investigated the World Bank funded nutrition programme based in India, which became a blueprint for aid programmes despite lack of evidence for its effectiveness.Sridhar was concerned that the programme did not address the social conditions that cause undernutrition in India. In 2011 (age 27) Sridhar was appointed to Wolfson College, Oxford, as an Associate Professor in global health politics. She serves on the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on the Health Industry. She started to research the rise of public–private partnerships in global health governance, and how, whilst they are crucial to combat infectious disease, their non-transparent accountability and effectiveness should be investigated. She established ten essential reforms to prevent and respond to the next pandemic. In 2014, at the age of thirty, Sridhar was promoted to full Professor and Chair at the University of Edinburgh and became the founding… Read more »
Devi Sridah
‘. . . as winter comes temperatures fall and people head back indoors . . .’
She presumably was not one of those Experts who in Spring denied that sunshine, vitamin D, warm temperatures and outdoor ventilation would cause Covid to decline of its own volition ?
My mum was a proper nurse, trained at the Brompton during the war, anytime I came home with a sniff and snuffel she chucked me in the garden “Get out in the sun and fresh air”.
She comes from Miami. I like to think the Scottish weather irritates her.
There’s a lot to be said for the simple ways – if a limb hurts when you move it, move it more! This is effective.
Unless it’s broken.
Great! Direct link to Clinton and all his buddies including Gates, WHO etc
As mentioned in earlier episodes of groundhog day B Blinton was to be speaking at Efinburgh University this Autumn. No idea if cancelled. I believe the connection may have been part of the arrangement.
Something dreadful about these nonscience qualifications.
Looks like Dan Andrews in Australia is aiming to call for a permanent state of emergency.
(via Bill Muehlenberg’s blog);
also
http://www.news.com.au/national/vic-premier-moves-to-extend-state-of-emergency-capabilities-indefinitely/video/33c6bc50e2176e504d3e738c9309b696
They are in real trouble down there….as we all are, of course.
Chilling!
Indefinitely? WTF! Time to remove this maniac from his cushy leather chair.
I don’t know why people are unable to spot a psychopath they don’t all walk around waving dangerous weapons and a crazed look in the eye, many wear a suit and are in politics!
Re. Sridhar : “Now as an epidemiologist we must take her view seriously”
Quite the opposite. I hate to traduce the really good specialists in Public Health and Epidemiology (e.g. Carl Heneghan, Kurt Wittowski) – but the record of these specialisms has been abysmal as a totality (ably assisted by out-of-depth virologists). Many like Srihar have postured about in the limelight whilst displaying a profound lack of ability in basic scientific method. Obviously the opportunity to pose has been the driver, not ‘The Science’.
Sridhar is not an epidemiologist, doctor, or scientist. She has an undergraduate degree in Biology from a low-profile US university, and an MPhil and DPhil from University of Oxford in social policy. She is aligned to some well-known globalists at Oxford, such as Ngaire Woods, and is best mates with Chelsea Clinton. It is obvious when she is interviewed that she presents a series of ‘alternative facts’, to quote Kellyanne Conway, and is rarely, if ever, challenged.
social policy
That’s the key word. Social Engineering degree.
Went to a Joseph Holt pub last night. Saw eldest son’s teacher which could turn out to be noteworthy come September. Anyway, they put your food on a nearby table – shared by other nearby tables who also have their food plonked down. The result; lots of people up and down every two minutes. Bizarre and irrational ‘safety’ measure, even by today’s standards. No face nappies however. Overall, would go again – it was very close to normal minus the strange service technique.
Actually, is it worth it to start snapping teachers in the pub?
It would be a gross invasion of privacy but on the flip side, isn’t child abuse.
It’s a public place, why not. Aim for an elbow to elbow shot ( no social distancing).
If you substitute the words “English’ and ‘Welsh’ in her article with ‘Jew’ and ‘Zionist’ you get a flavour of what this hate filled woman is about.
Same poison just different victims
Zionist isn’t a race or religion – it’s a nationalist ideological movement – but I get your point.
And reading what she has to say makes me more determined to continue my boycott of Scotland and everything Scottish while the hate filled Sturgeon is in charge. I don’t care if Scotland votes for independence, btw.
Wife just been to the hairdressers. Not too pleasant from what I understand but a few things have really set her anger off this afternoon: prices up £15 just for a cut, more for everything else, to “cover our losses during the shut down and because we can only get 3 customers in at once”. She basically told them to wise up or go bust as she’s not falling for that crap. she refused to wear a mask, didn’t claim an exemption just flatly refused so they segregated her in the corner like a school kid on the naughty step. She told them to check the law and legal standing of guidance before they get into real trouble if she had claimed her legitimate exemption. the stylists (is that what they’re called?) fiddled with their masks and visors so much she had trouble concentrating on actually cutting hair no gossip. no atmosphere, very pressings he says, not pampering girlie feel good experience like it used to be. young stylist was pregnant. Wife could hear her rasping and gasping for breath through the mask so told her she was allowed to take it off but got told “boss says we must… Read more »
I had a similar experience at my first hairdresser visit and I will not go back. Toying with the idea of buying barbers clippers and going for the East German Lesbian look. I’m neither East German nor lesbian but desperate times call for desperate measures.
If you are, as my wife delicately puts it, “a woman of a certain age”, (your nom de plume doesn’t give much info on being male/female but saying lesbian I’d guess female – a man would probably say skinhead look) you could always claim you are going retro as the Sinead O’Connor look is back in fashion.
If the wife sticks to her guns and gives me a go at her hair there may be 2 of you with the skinhead look (suits me, had one for years to hide the grey and bald spots, low maintenance and cheap on shampoo once you get used to looking like a ruffian) as I’ve a set of clippers for when she does mine ready for her to give me the go ahead.
Easy.
Just had a visit from a mobile hairdresser. No mask, thinks it’s all bonkers and is worried for her son, and fortunately had left a salon just in time to escape the nonsense salons have been subjected to.
And she cuts really well.
So folks ask around in your community for a mobile hairdresser.
One hears there are many of them around.
And there’ll be more in the future when all the salons go bust. Haircut in your own home, able to have a coffee with the stylist, sitting in comfort and for the stylist; much less overheads, looser tax regime as self-employed, more flexible working hours, etc, etc.
Yes, our hairdresser is doing a job on both of us at once at home. I think mobile hairdressing may well be the future. MW
Less overhead.
For many it will be the way to go. Yet more business premises up for rent.
I’ve been using a mobile hairdresser fir a while. It’s so much more convenient and cheaper too. However the lockdown changed all that. She now works from her garage you have to arrive with washed hair which she dampens prior to cutting. She wore a visor which she found uncomfortable but I wasnt masked. I explained what a scam it all was but she feared she’d be reported if she didn’t abide by the new rules. It’s not something I would want to continue with but I’m hoping once her child is back at school she’ll be working mobile once again.
I now do my own zero cut.
Rechargeable clipper and a paddle mirror.
Success.
Me and my wife had a weekend in Whitby and Robin Hoods Bay. Unmasked as always in shops. We have exemption cards but never produced them, and with one exception (below), were never asked about being unmasked. In the hotel it was mentioned but we informed the hotel manager we were exempt – after that no problem at all.
Only real upset was one shop – Berties, in Robin Hoods Bay. Shop staff told wife to leave the shop as they have a policy of ‘no exemption to mask wearing’ and exemption cards are not accepted. So I went in told him he was breaking the law (Cornavirus Act and Equality Act). He refused to accept he was breaking any law as it was his stores policy. I made it crystal clear he was and left the store.
Obviously an ignoramous who doesn’t need the sales.
Another one to add to the list. I’m not that far from Robin Hoods Bay so it’s good to know.
> He refused to accept he was breaking any law as it was his stores policy.
You should have asked him if he thought it would be legal to have a “No blacks or Jews” sign as part of his “store policy”. Because it’s exactly the same if you refuse to allow people with genuine disabilities into your shop.
Do Berties have a Twitter, FB account or website? Maytime time for some negative feedback..
He will change his tune when the bills come in and there’s no money to pay for them. I find this to be the quickest way around this farce; go to the owner (not a member of staff) and tell them why you won’t be back. I have just done this with the local cinema. It concentrates their minds wonderfully.
A person quoted me £4000 to do some digging on my smallholding before the lockdown. I said I’ll think about it. During lockdown, a small business owner had a digger/dozer in his yard, so I asked him if he wanted a bit of business. Three days later, he was a happy bunny, and so was I; the final bill was £850.
He is legally entitled to refuse you entry.
Clearly an idiot though! Doesn’t deserve your custom. I hope you found somewhere more worthy.
He’s legally entitled to refuse anyone entry. And he’s also entitled to be sued under the 2010 Equality Act for discrimination.
That’s a big problem people believe they must all be masked.
My first visit (after lockdown) to my hairdresser was depressingly similar. Because I wouldn’t wear a mask, my hairdresser did, “to protect herself”…
I then saw on their website that they will now not allow anyone in their salon unless they are wearing a mask, so I cancelled my next appointment (which was for to-day). Quite sad, as she’s been my hairdresser for over 25 years.
Luckily I found a salon where customers are not required to wear masks so I’m going there on Thursday. I dearly hope it’s a better experience!
But did you explain to the previous salon owner why you were cancelling your appointment? It is essential to both cancel and to tell the owner why. One action must be accompanied by the other, or the point won’t go home.
I used to spend $200+ for a cut and colour but I won’t do so under these conditions. Went to a lady in a small town near our country place, she used a spray bottle to wet my hair, cut done in 10 or so minutes, no mask (though there’s a mask edict there now) and all for $35. Box dye for $15 and a bit of help from my daughter, and my hair looks exactly the same. Mobile hair stylists are a thing here as well, so it’s definitely something to look into. I feel badly for these small businesses, but I won’t pay a higher price for a miserable experience.
It’s never too late for an old git to learn a new trade… argos sell starter kits … you are welcome!
Getting bored now so going back on the wagons part-time to keep myself out of trouble.
Probably safer than shaving all the wife’s hair off I think – discretion is the better part of valour in this instance.
Mr Bart and I bought a hair cutting kit after cutting our own hair using bog standard scissors back in May. We’ve decided just to go DIY from now on, if it means avoiding this insanity and saving money. If my hair is a bit wonky so what?
I’m sporting an impressively scary mane of grey medusa locks at the moment.
I’m hoping my recent order of some bendy rollers will help me stay away from the hairdresser for a bit longer.
You might be in for a pleasant surprise.
Mr Bart tried using the hair cutting kit that we bought and he’s very happy with the result. Have to say that he did it better than the hairdresser.
My haircut used to be a biannual treat (I have long undyed hair so I can get away with it) at a top salon in our local city on a Saturday morning, husband taking care of kids. We’d reunite for a fabulous family lunch at a very good restaurant. Restaurant has since gone bust & with salon restrictions I now go to the mother-in-law’s to use her mobile hairdresser. Father-in-law cooks.
Sad that your treat is no more but looks like you got the next best thing 🙂
Oh happy days! Like going to the dentist.
“Why don’t we have a British version of Alan Jones on Sky News? The Sky News Australia commentator has been speaking truth to power throughout the pandemic. Here’s his latest jeremiad. Gold, as usual.” Very true, except that since Toby wrote that, he has posted another one today. Here it is reposted from where it was just posted on yesterday’s LS: More sterling stuff from Sky News Australia today: ‘Arbitrary’ nature of COVID-19 response will be revealed: Creighton “Sky News host Alan Jones says it is clear now Sweden and Taiwan got it right in their coronavirus response, by looking after the vulnerable and elderly, practicing good hygiene but at the same time “letting the rest get on with their lives”. Mr Jones said prestigious academics have suggested COVID-19 would have made little difference in the world had it not been noticed in the first place according to Sky News host Alan Jones. Mr Jones noted the words of Stanford Professor John Ioannidis who wrote, “If we had not known about a new virus out there, and had not checked individuals with PCR tests, the number of total deaths due to “influenza like illness” would not seem unusual this year.” Mr… Read more »
Had absolutely NO response from anyone (politicians, civil servants, blogs, TV shows, newspapers or TV news) in the UK about the open letter except for e-mail auto-replies so I’ve sent ti to Fox News, Sky news Australia and thenewsaccess.com just for the hell of it.
Excellent idea
The story might be in the failure to respond. Though I do suspect Fox and SNA’s response will be governed by the direct politics, rather than any institutional or Murdoch family personal scepticism or otherwise.
A cursory search doesn’t bring up any gossip about what the Murdoch clan’s personal views might be, other than stuff by their ideological enemies criticising their association with Trump, mostly, such as:
Why the Murdochs backed Donald Trump’s COVID-19 denialism
and
Whether a ratings chase or ideological war, News Corp’s coronavirus coverage is dangerous
Massively wealthy, powerful people who don’t care who they upset may save the world yet, aided of course by those of the masses who have remained sane
In the case of the Murdochs I think it depends on whether things turn enough that hounding the (mostly leftist, in the US) political coronapanickers seems likely to further their political objectives (reelecting a Republican president, atm).
If the Murdoch clan are sceptical, I doubt it’s an overriding motivation for them.
I don’t know much about them. I always assumed Murdoch didn’t have any particular ideology other than what was good for him. The Federal Government in Australia is the Right rather than the Left wing party isn’t it? At least in name. So not sure why criticism of the panic in Australia would help them much.
He’s pretty conservative I think, but clearly pretty pragmatic. The Federal government in Australia is probably about as conservative as ours is (ie not at all, but nominally to the right of the opposition) but the Victoria regime is on the left and I imagine pretty disliked in the Murdoch household.
But I think US politics is what they are most concerned about..
“… mostly leftist…”
I’m afraid this simplistic resort to political sectariansm as a means of comfort over the Panicdemic doesn’t work. It’s a comfort blanket. This scam cuts right across the political board, with opportunists all making up self-serving narratives.
In the UK, it’s clearly a monster born of the right (to suggest anything else is patent counter-factual denial), but utilised by some of the left where the opportunity occurs to score points about rectitude, efficacy etc. etc. The reverse can be the case in some situations.
The worst aspect is the lack of any notable coherent opposition to the scam.
“In the UK, it’s clearly a monster born of the right (to suggest anything else is patent counter-factual denial)”
Explain please? For preference, please take into account the fact that the current government is not by any measure especially right wing and the fact that the great majority of governments reacting most severely are at leas nominally left wing.
In summary, other than the fact that our current government wears blue rosettes, what evidence is there for describing the current situation as “of the right”?
I could dig out my extended version of the same question, posted for you a couple of days ago shortly before page-change, but it may take a while.
Is the trademark pink tie a subtle hint?
you’re idiotic left wing assessment is always good for a laugh. I bet you even believe the shite you post
You should have left this at “This scam cuts right across the political board ..”. Personally, I think this is way beyond left and right. This is about the 0.001 percent v the rest of us.
Yes, he should. But he couldn’t, apparently.
We’ve been back and forth on this one repeatedly and I’ve pointed out at length how objectively left wing this government is, taking the proper perspective of a full lifetime (a century or so). The reality is that, as many point out, this panic does cut across political party lines in this country. It’s almost willfully blind to try to portray it as either “far right” or as emerging from within the “Conservative” Party in this country. I would argue that the panic is inherently leftist because the panic and lockdown response is collectivist and it is radical, and it was justified and rationalised as “protecting the NHS” and as “putting lives ahead of money”. No doubt you could point to aspects of it that are inherently rightist (presumably the corporate and billionaire involvements, though I’d say that many billionaires and corporate bosses and cultures are objectively left wing these days as well, though admittedly many are not). But my point above was in relation specifically to the political position in the US, where it absolutely is (broadly, albeit not absolutely) a Democrat coronapanicker versus Trump/Republican sceptic issue. “The worst aspect is the lack of any notable coherent opposition to… Read more »
Alan Jones is a legend, one of Australias top radio/tv presenters and an amazing man, if only Sky in the UK had someone like him, he speaks common sense and a he is a man of great integrity. I miss listening to him on the radio, as he retired from his long running show recently. More from him here https://www.facebook.com/alanjonesaustralia/
Would have been interesting had Murdoch still owned Sky News UK. Would we have even had the footage from the Bergamo hospitals??
But aren’t people still dying of the summer flu? The Spectator ran an article the other day claiming that 5 times as many people have died of summer flu in the UK than Covid since June.
And if they are still dying of the flu (in fact the numbers are similar to the yearly average), then doesn’t it make a mockery of the mask mandates? Doesn’t it clearly show that the decrease in Covid deaths has nothing to do with social distancing and the wearing of face nappies? The virus has subsided on its own.
Masks are not made mandatory for health reasons. It’s 100% political.
HCQ is a fire in the arsenal for the Democratic Party. If Trump is vindicated on that, as he was on the ‘inevitable’ recession of 2017, and as he was on North Korea, the Dems are finished and the Never Trumpers with them.
The Dems’ covid strategy is to sanitise by burning down their cities.
What happened to Mr. Clean?
I think what should be ringing more alarm bells is that many, if not all, of our tormentors are unelected “advisors”. And as such, can’t be got rid of by democratic means.
True, though the people we elected choose to listen to them
Undemocratic means then, if needs must.
From Australia, standing up to the thought police:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=26&v=vwj3w_0j9H0&feature=emb_logo
That was posted the other day. It’s NZ rather than Aus, I think.
At least it’s somewhere in the Antipodes.
My friend who lives outside Melbourne is getting very downhearted and despondent so thought it might cheer him up that someone down thats ay is fighting back even on a small scale.
Unfortunately, Australians are almost the only, people who can reliably tell the difference between an Aussie and a Kiwi accent!