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Boris Fiddles (With His Mask) While Britain Burns
Boris gave a speech to the Conservative Party Conference yesterday in which he addressed people’s concerns that our national debt now exceeds 100% of GDP, that pubs, restaurants and cinemas are vanishing from our high streets and that four million people will soon be unemployed by… talking about wind farms. He claimed that offshore wind will produce enough electricity to power every home in a decade, with Britain becoming “the Saudi Arabia of wind”. Bizarre tangent to go off on and complete balls, obviously. In 2007, the Labour Government said wind energy would power every home in Britain by 2020. In reality, it’s less than 20%. Boris himself said in 2013 that wind farms “couldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding”.
There was also a lot of boilerplate about the brilliance of the private sector and small businesses, but as Dan Hodges said on Twitter: “Has there ever been a PM’s speech where the rhetoric – small state, libertarian, entrepreneurial – has been so divorced from the reality of the policies he’s actually implementing?”
Allison Pearson’s verdict in the Telegraph is withering.
To be brutally honest, it was probably just as well that the PM couldn’t give his speech live to the conference in Birmingham as planned. Chilly silence would have been a more likely reception than rapturous applause. The Tory faithful are not just furious with their leader, they are positively adulterous – ready to run off with any Tom, Lawrence or Nigel in protest at farcical restrictions which even ministers fail to justify. In the latest Conservative Home poll of party members, Boris Johnson got a net satisfaction rating of -10.3. The PM came 24th out of 25 Cabinet members. Only Private Pike, our dunce of an Education Secretary, scored worse.
From hero to less than zero in ten months. It’s the stuff of classical tragedy. Those unimaginably dire figures for one of our best-loved communicators give some sense of the anger caused by the fact that the Conservatives, traditionally the party of the family and business, are causing immense harm to both in pursuit of an ultimately futile zero-Covid strategy. For all his fluorescent follies, at least President Trump is bold enough to level with the American people, explaining that they need to keep Covid-19 in proportion. We must, as Trump says, learn to live with it.
Far from echoing Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s recent injunction to “live without fear”, the PM used his keynote speech to tell the British people that their kettle will soon by powered by great gusts of offshore wind. Hardly our main concern as the tsunami of four million unemployed thunders towards us. How can Boris talk of “not contenting ourselves with a repair job” when the worst is yet to come? At such a time, we need our Prime Minister to be Alexander the Great, not Windy Miller.
A personal hero of Boris’s once wrote: “Nothing would be more fatal than for the Government of States to get into the hands of experts. Expert knowledge is limited knowledge and the unlimited ignorance of the plain man, who knows where it hurts, is a safer guide than any rigorous direction of a specialist.”
How right Churchill was. And how we wish the grand old man were still with us to stick Professor Neil Ferguson’s little model in his cigar cutter.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: For a more measured take, listen to the Spectator‘s Katy Balls, James Forsyth and John Connolly discussing the speech for Coffee House Shots.
Governments Using Pandemic to Suppress Dissent Across the World – New Report
Many governments are using the pandemic as cover to silence dissent, stifle the free press and disrupt elections, according to a new report by Freedom House, a US-based think tank. Bloomberg has more.
At least 91 of the 192 nations cited in the report, or 47%, have “experienced restrictions on the news media as part of the response to the coronavirus outbreak,” it said.
“What began as a worldwide health crisis has become part of the global crisis for democracy,” said Michael Abramowitz, president of the non-profit organization. “Governments in every part of the world have abused their powers in the name of public health, seizing the opportunity to undermine democracy and human rights.”
The Democracy under Lockdown report said that despite 158 countries putting new restrictions on protests, a significant demonstration had taken place in at least 90 countries since the outbreak began.
In a survey of experts, 62% of respondents said they distrust what they are hearing about the pandemic from their national government, Freedom House said.
“Democratically elected leaders alike have failed to be candid about the impact of the coronavirus,” according to the organization.
The report notes that government restrictions have been imposed on free speech in 72 countries, including 25 liberal democracies. Needless to say, one of those is the United Kingdom.
Journalists covering the crisis have been arrested and targeted with violence, harassment, and intimidation. Governments have exerted control over content, revoked outlets’ registrations, suspended printing of newspapers, denied press credentials, and limited independent questioning at press conferences. New legislation against spreading “fake news” about the virus has been passed, while websites have been blocked and online articles or social media posts removed. The increased public need for impartial information during a pandemic makes such varied methods of suppression particularly egregious.
The report is worth reading in full.
Scotland’s “Zero-Covid” Strategy Isn’t Working
From the beginning of the pandemic, Scotland has pursued a “Zero-Covid” strategy thanks to Nicola Sturgeon’s determination to have a lower Covid mortality rate than the rest of the UK. Why, given that any life years saved by Scotland’s draconian suppression measures will be dwarfed by the life years lost?
Because if Scotland has fewer Covid deaths per million than the rUK, Sturgeon thinks she can use that as a killer argument for independence in the next referendum. It has been because of Sturgeon’s relentless focus on winning that future battle that the Scots have had to endure a more severe lockdown that the rUK over the summer and, even now, won’t allow people from two separate households to meet in private homes.
Needless to say, it hasn’t worked. Scotland did manage to reduce daily new cases to single digits during the lockdown, but after restrictions began to be eased, the numbers began to tick up again, exacerbated by the return of students last month. Today, the infection rate in Glasgow is 191 per 100,000, in Edinburgh it’s 119 and in Dundee it’s around 101.
The sensible response to these numbers would be to switch to what Professor Sunetra Gupta (Oxford), Professor Martin Kulldorff (Harvard) and Professor Jay Bhattacharya (Stanford) call a strategy of “Focused Protection”, whereby we allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally, building up herd immunity, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. At the time of going to press, almost 5,000 doctors, scientists and public health experts and signed the Great Barrington Declaration endorsing this strategy, as well as more than 40,000 members of the public.
But, of course, when the facts change politicians don’t change their minds. So instead, Sturgeon is doubling down on her “Zero-Covid” approach and is going to announce a new set of restrictions today. She’s calling it a “circuit breaker”, but in reality it will be a second lockdown. Cafes, bars and restaurants are all expected to be closed.
I was in Scotland last week and the personality cult around Nic Sturge-un was still strong, but there is surely only so much of this nonsense that the Scottish people can take. When it is established beyond any reasonable doubt that COVID-19 is scarcely any more deadly than seasonal flu, and the Scots survey the smouldering ruins of their economy, I suspect they may start to change their minds about Wee Krankie.
Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin Tells Scientific Advisors to Take a Hike
Here’s a turn up for the books. The Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin and his Government have ignored the advice of Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan and the National Public Health Emergency Team to impose a Level 5 lockdown on the entire country. The Irish Independent has more.
Trust between the Government and the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) hit an all-time low as the Taoiseach faced down a shock demand to push the country into the highest level of lockdown.
During a tense meeting in Government Buildings, returning chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan faced a barrage of criticism from senior ministers.
One well-placed source told the Irish Independent that the relationship between the Government and Nphet had “changed forever”.
Dr Holohan had stunned the Cabinet late on Sunday with a recommendation to impose Level 5 restrictions on the entire country.
He was backed by medical experts who said the trajectory of the virus in Ireland could pose a threat to hospital ICU capacity within weeks.
But the bid to impose Level 5 across the nation was shot down by senior Government ministers who argued that the economy and jobs must also be a factor in the battle against COVID-19.
One minister said Dr Holohan made the Level 5 recommendation without any “prior consultation” or “thinking it through”.
“It was all about protecting normal hospital activity and maybe schools and childcare, while the private sector was to be sacrificed,” the minister said.
“It is easy for 40 public servants to put 400,000 people out of their jobs while they don’t lose a penny,” the source added.
They said the relationship between the Government and Nphet had “changed forever”.
It’s not all good news, however. The Taoiseach announced on Monday night that the entire country would join Dublin and Donegal at Level 3, which means face masks in shops, no indoor dining and the closure of cinemas, museums and galleries.
Not a Computer Glitch
A reader with some experience of creating large databases has been in touch with his 10 cents worth on the loss of 16,000 “cases” down the back of the DHSC sofa. He’s unimpressed.
This was not a computer glitch but gross, amateurish incompetence.
20 to 30 years ago I was programming Point Of Sale programs and systems. In the early days we had to write our routines for everything; dates, rubbish in filtering and crude databases. I have to say that my programming seems to have been very much better than Neil Ferguson (unfortunately, it pains me to say, from my home town)!
My programs stood the test of time; one business used a multi terminal office system of mine for 15 years without intervention or updates from me. My programs all sailed through the YK2 fiasco – I knew they would.
Then along came the likes of Visual Basic with its modular basis and easier graphics implementation at the same time, easy to use database systems. Microsoft Access was one of the best and I made a lot of use of it via the Jet Database Engine. Easy to programme and easy to interrogate using SQL, virtually unlimited number of records allowed.
I produced a number of complex Point Of Sale systems, early use of barcodes, storage of names, addresses, stocks and invoices, etc. NO WAY would anyone but an amateur use MS Excel as a serious database. This is for the office worker who doesn’t know better.
I have seen a mess made in a government office where Fred was thought to be the office computer whizz and was entrusted with a simple but important database. Unfortunately, Fred used Excel so records would disappear and could not be interrogated. My advise was to train him up in Access which he rightly fell in love with!
So, to use Excel for such a use as the Track n Trace is ridiculous. 16,000 records is beyond an Excel sheet while for Access database it’s peanuts. You also get solid multi-user access.
I gather that they are STILL using Excel but making smaller sheets! Amateurs!
Government Pulls Vote on 10pm Curfew, Frightened of Being Defeated
The Government were planning to have a yes/no vote in the House of Commons later today about whether to renew the 10pm curfew, but have pulled it after it became clear there was a risk of defeat. The Telegraph has more.
Dozens of Tory rebels had been threatening to vote against the order that all pubs, bars and restaurants in England must close amid claims that it is not grounded in scientific evidence.
But the 10pm curfew vote, which MPs on all sides of the House had expected on Wednesday evening, will now held early next week. Instead MPs will vote on whether to approve lockdown restrictions in the north of England.
A vote on the rule of six – which a handful of Tory MPs are expected to rebel against – went ahead as planned on Tuesday. Fourteen Conservative MPs voted against the Government.
Ministers have to ask MPs to approve coronavirus lockdown measures in simple unamendable ‘yes/no’ votes in the House of Commons within 28 sitting days of them coming into force.
Labour, who were also expecting the curfew vote tomorrow evening, had not said if it would vote for the measure, instead calling for ministers to publish the scientific evidence underlying it.
Sir Christopher Chope, one of the rebels, told the Telegraph that the Government was running scared.
He said: “Although they talk the talk because they want to have Parliament deciding these issues, if it looks as though Parliament is going to decide them in a way they don’t like they deny Parliament the chance.”
Tory MP Steve Baker, the unofficial rebels’ whip, added: “It is not clear what the evidence is to support the 10pm curfew or that it is effective.
“With Hospitality UK describing the combined impact of the measures as ‘devastating’, the Government should think again.”
If the Government’s plan is to publish the “scientific evidence” underlying the curfew and then hold a vote, I’m not sure that will work. Because there isn’t any.
Worth reading in full.
How Good is the PCR Test at Detecting the Virus?
A reader has got in touch to share an interesting discovery he made while noodling around on Amazon.
I thought you might find this of interest. I was on Amazon earlier this evening looking at Viroligy textbooks. As I was leafing through this book – Principles of Virology, Volume 1: Molecular Biology – something caught my eye.
It was our old friend the PCR test. It has been experimentally demonstrated that the PCR test does not detect live virus, only viral fragments.
The first line reads: “A study of sexual transmission of Zika virus among mice demonstrates beautifully that viral nucleic acid detected by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is not the same as infectious virus particles.”
Later it states: “Many laboratories choose to assay the presence of viral genomes by PCR. This is an acceptable technique as long as the limitations are understood – it detects nucleic acids, not infectious virus.”
Someone should tell the Government!
Poetry Corner
A reader has sent me a squib about our Churchillian Prime Minister.
Please find the product of me finally losing it, with sincere apologies to Kipling. How sad he would have been to see a British Prime Minister laid so low.
IF you can keep your job when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when many doubt you,
And despise their doubting too;
If you can’t think – and hold in sway to experts;
Or being briefed accepting every lie,
With sixty seconds’ worth of sound bites run,
To blunder on and on and on and on.If you can deal in lies and spin deceiving
And treat those two impostors with no shame;
If you can’t bear to hear a truthful token
And heed the knaves who’ve made a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And held ensnared by sycophants and fools:
If men don’t count, and bridal dreams lie broken,
Yours is the Earth and one day you’ll be in it,
And – which is more – you are no man my son!
The Big Fat ‘social distanced’ Drive-In Indian Wedding
Devising ways to get around the lockdown, while remaining within the letter of the law, has brought out the genius in some Britons. A case in point is a wedding in Lancashire in which the happy couple invited their family and friends to a drive-in and then transmitted footage of their socially-distanced wedding onto the big screen. This is Lancashire has more.
More than two hundred guests attended the drive-in wedding of Roma Popat and her husband Vinal Patel.
No more than 15 people are permitted to attend a wedding celebration according to official guidelines. Guests were told to stay in their cars at Braxted Park, South of Colchester, and watch the ceremony on the big screen. Hampers containing snacks, anti-bacterial hand gel and bin liners for rubbish were then handed out to guests, with food served by waiters.
I-Imaani Photography posted, “What an epic event! Even during the pandemic, Roma and Vinal were able to pull off a ‘drive in’ cinema style wedding with all of their close family and friends, whilst maintaining all of the social distancing rules.
“It was lovely for us to be a part of the small intimate wedding that took place inside the Orangery at Braxted Park, while everyone else enjoyed the ceremony on the big screen in the open air whilst ordering hot pizzas and chips via Segways :).”
Worth reading in full.
Postcard From Lanzagrotty
A reader has sent us a postcard from Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands. Doesn’t sound much fun.
My wife and I are currently on holiday in Playa Blanca in Lanzarote. Three days after we booked it Spain was put back on the quarantine list but, having already had two holidays cancelled this year, we decided to come anyway, not least because it gives us a couple of weeks away from Mad Boris and the rest of the muppets running (or rather ruining) the country.
We have been here several times before but, sad to say, this year it is rather a miserable experience. Many of the shops, hotels and restaurants are closed, some permanently, meaning that options for eating out are limited and Playa Blanca itself, which is normally a bustling town, was virtually deserted yesterday morning when we went to do some food shopping.
Face masks are compulsory in shops, in taxis and on public transport, but officially are only required elsewhere if it is not possible to maintain a distance of at least 1.5 metres from other people. However, the Police, who are normally conspicuous by their absence, have interpreted this as meaning that you must wear a face mask if there is the slightest possibility that you might, at some point whilst you are out and about, pass within 1.5 metres of someone else and are patrolling the town, seafront and marina in large numbers in their cars and leaping out to impose on the spot fines of 150 Euros on anyone not wearing a mask, even if there is no one within hundreds of metres of them. We even saw them fining someone yesterday evening because his mask was not covering his nose and mouth, so the result is that everyone wears a mask everywhere all the time, even whilst cycling.
Masks are not required in restaurants and bars, so you have the bizarre sight of large groups of Spaniards dutifully wearing their masks until they are seated and then removing the masks and talking and laughing loudly (in that lovely way that Spaniards do) whilst seated very close together. This really is such a clever virus – it can attack you while you are walking down the street with no one else around, but then ignores you when you are seated with friends!
If any of your readers are considering a holiday in Lanzarote, I’m afraid my advice would be not to bother at the moment. The only upside is that the weather is fabulous and the BA flight was delightful, being only about a quarter full.
Round-Up
- “The truth about England’s second wave of COVID-19: Hospitalisations are 6% of peak levels in the South but 30% in the North and deaths have flattened in all but the North West, North East and the Midlands” – The Daily Mail says the South of England faces panic and possible new lockdown rules based on situation hundreds of miles away
- “Trump Plays Down Coronavirus, Plans to Debate Joe Biden Next Week” – He’s fighting fit and raring to go, according to the Wall St Journal
- “The ethical case against Covid lockdowns” – Legal compliance expert Chris Kirk-Blythe makes the ethical case against lockdown in a YouTube video
- “Trump health official meets with doctors pushing herd immunity” – Gupta, Kulldorff and Bhattacharya met with Scott Atlas yesterday
- “Big Tech vs free speech” – Jeffrey Rosen, president of the National Constitution Center, joins Spiked editor Brendan O’Neill on his podcast to discuss the rise of hate-speech codes and the decline of liberty
- “Aussies defy COVID limits and crowd Victoria’s beaches, parks” – Good to see a bit of the old spirit returning
- “Fifth of people experiencing mental health issues due to coronavirus, major new survey shows” – A fifth of people have reported experiencing mental health issues and a third of people are feeling isolated because of the coronavirus pandemic, a major new survey shows
- “Swedish economy dodges Covid bullet, says Danske Bank” – New forecast says GDP in Sweden will fall by just 3.3% this year
- “As a nation we thought we were good at stuff. It turns out we aren’t” – Jeremy Warner responds to Boris’s speech
- “Boris needs to rediscover the courage to lead his nation away from Covid fear” – Philip Johnston thinks Boris needs to take a leaf out of Trump’s book
- “Cabinet split over tougher Covid lockdown measures” – Rishi is leading the rebels
- “Abandoned and isolated: the lonely students at Covid University” – Heartbreaking piece by Sabrina Miller for the Telegraph
- “Son ‘angry’ at being moved away from mum at dad’s funeral” – Story about a funeral in which a son trying to comfort his grieving mother was told to keep two metres away by a jobsworth official
- “Channel 4 could be scrapped or sold off as advertising revenues plummet, minister suggests” – That’s what you get for uncritically promoting the lockdown
- “Matt Hancock warns cancer patients will only be guaranteed treatment if COVID-19 stays ‘under control’” – The Health Secretary is a dead man walking, surely?
- “‘The culture war affects everybody’” – Laurence Fox gives an interview to Spiked about his new party
- “Football without fans is fake football – we need to stop pretending otherwise” – Couldn’t agree more with the Telegraph‘s Luke Edwards who says games with no crowds are more like training games
- “Facebook removes Donald Trump post for spreading coronavirus myths” – And the myth is… that it’s “far less lethal than flu”. But the most recent data in the UK suggests that intensive care patients with flu-related complications are less likely to survive than Covid patients
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Just one today: “Check the Spreadsheet” by Klack
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention. 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.
Update: Some of you have asked how to link to particular stories on Lockdown Sceptics. The answer used to be to first click on “Latest News”, then click on the links that came up beside the headline of each story. But we’ve changed that so the link now comes up beside the headline whether you’ve clicked on “Latest News” or you’re just on the Lockdown Sceptics home page. Please do share the stories with your friends and on social media.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, we’re indebted to Lockdown Sceptics reader James Allan, a Law Professor at the University of Queensland, who’s drawn our attention to the BLM solidarity statement by the Principal of his alma mater, Queen’s University in Ontario. It’s a classic of the genre.
It begins with a bit of genuflecting to Karl Marx, whom the Principal praises for his penetrating political insight, able to see into the corrupt heart of capitalism. He then goes on to hurl himself at the feet of left-wing student activists, pleading for their forgiveness.
When students are strengthened by the Black Lives Matter movement and emboldened to speak out about their experience of racism at Queen’s, they are reminding us that we construct the university through the choices we make and therefore have the potential to remake it according to the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion, and Indigeneity. When Indigenous and LGBTQ+ students tell us they do not feel safe on campus, they are demanding that we think beyond CCTV cameras and heightened security – important though those things may be – and question some of the founding assumptions of our institutional being, interrogate what most of the time we accept as natural and universal.
It’s a doozy and it’s prompted James Allan to write an entertaining hatchet job in the National Post. Here’s one of the highlights:
No one could read his remarkable mea culpa (or rather, “the university I lead’s fault”) and be in any doubt whatsoever about the outcome of the process he has set in motion as to whether Sir John A. Macdonald’s name will be removed from the Queen’s Law School that graduated me some 35 years ago. (Last month, in a non-binding but telling ballot, the school’s Faculty Board voted 29 to three, with five abstentions, in favour of expunging the name of our first prime minister and the pre-eminent father of Confederation.) The principal’s editorial was chock full of the language of “dominant culture”, “equity”, “diversity”, “inclusion”, “reconciliation”, “economic privilege”, “unconstructedness” (your guess is as good as mine on that one) and so on.
Even worse, and certainly more remarkably, it began with a sort of tribute to Karl Marx and some of “Marx’s most distinctive insights”. Marxist rhetoric can hardly be made of sterner stuff. I say this as a law professor who has worked around the globe, including in Hong Kong for four wonderful years before the handover, where I had to teach a small segment on Marxist legal theory. What the principal nowhere mentions are Marx’s own racial views. They were orders of magnitude worse than anything Sir John A. Macdonald ever expressed. To take but one example, go and read some of Marx’s letters to Engels from, say, 1862 to get a feel for his “distinctive insights” as regards Blacks and Jews. But it seems cancel culture does not extend to heroes (sorry, providers of distinctive insights) of the political Left.
Worth reading in full.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
We’ve created a one-stop shop 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 (takes a while to arrive). 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 with lanyard for just £1.49 from Etsy here. And, finally, if you feel obliged to wear a mask but want to signal your disapproval of having to do so, you can get a “sexy world” mask with the Swedish flag on it 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.
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).
Samaritans
If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year, providing a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them.
Shameless Begging Bit
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And Finally…
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Huzzah!
When killing people is Government policy – Email this to you MP – it might seem poinless but it’s better than nothing. By Peter Lloyd Conservative Woman – https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/when-killing-people-is-government-policy/ October 6, 2020 NO Conservative Prime Minister can survive if he or she is taking decisions that are contrary to the interests of most people in the country. The Covid-19 measures which Boris Johnson is forcing on the public are clearly against those interests, and worse is being planned. The health, education, employment, finances and social and mental wellbeing of the population is being destroyed for the illusory goal of stopping the spread of a coronavirus that is essentially harmless to 99 per cent of the population, and lethal almost exclusively to the elderly with serious underlying medical conditions, as are many strains of seasonal flu. Much of the damage being wreaked is disguised by the Chancellor’s furlough scheme and other taxpayer-funded handouts, but revealed through an explosion of government debt which will have severe negative consequences for all of us, particularly future generations. The ramping-up of virus tests with the dubious PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) methodology is inevitably showing more ‘cases’ which in reality may be just harmless fragments of the… Read more »
Thanks, Patrick. Sent this to my useless Guildford MP under the heading ‘You are not doing your job’. Dear Angela Richardson, The Conservative Woman has it about right: Quietly accepting the emergence of a blinkered, autocratic and all-invasive state is not what my parents’ generation fought the Second World War for. Nor did they make their sacrifices for the set of immature, narcissistic politicians in charge of our national life today. Most are at best timid, at worst hubristic – incapable of taking responsibility for their own affairs, let alone those of others. https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/we-fight-on-thanks-to-your-generosity/ There is so little pressure from the Conservative Party, MPs and the media for the government to act rationally and in the interest of the country as a whole that the government doesn’t feel it has to explain why non-Covid-19 deaths and serious untreated illnesses don’t matter. It has a monomaniacal obsession with Covid-19 which demonstrates how unaccountable the government is to the overall public interest. There is no rigour left in our system of parliamentary and public accountability, which needs a major overhaul. Far more people are dying because of the government’s measures than are being saved by them. The wholesale destruction of society is taking place… Read more »
Borrowed some of this to write to my MP, hope you don’t mind: Dear……, Thank you for your reply to my last email though I have to say it has just enhanced my bitter disappointment at MPs not doing their job and holding this government to account. I am particularly incensed by the line ‘in order to save lives we need to take action’ when it is commonly accepted now that far more people are being killed by the government’s measures than are being saved by them. The wholesale destruction of society is taking place for no significant gain in health or mortality and it is government policy. The Conservative Woman has it about right: https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/when-killing-people-is-government-policy/ Note that this is a CONSERVATIVE publication. I am also somewhat irked that you didn’t answer any particular points that I made so that your reply came across as a stock letter to all those irritants who have the temerity to question our representatives. In particular you skated over my reference to quarantining people like by 96 year old mother in solitary confinement being akin to torture as defined by a UN Special Rapporteur in 2011. My mother lived through The Blitz in London… Read more »
I copied this to my MP (Simon Fell). It’s the fourth time I’ve written to him and I haven’t yet had even an acknowledgement. He’s a new boy though, so he’s possibly more concerned about his career than he is about the opinions of his constituents.
Just to put the record straight: Simon Fell has now replied to me and assures
me that he is a libertarian and is disturbed by the continued erosion of our liberties. He promises to keep up the pressure on our dear Secretary of State for Health. This is good. I thought that if I got an answer at all it would be party line stuff but this is reassuring. He seems to be on our side.
They came for the birds and no one spoke up
They came for the swine and no one spoke up
They came for the cattle and no one spoke up
They came for the sheep and no one spoke up
They came for the bats and no one spoke up
They came for the pangolins and no one spoke up
Then they came for me and no one spoke up
(Mainly because every living thing had been slaughtered at the behest of Ferguson by this time)
Brilliant
Love it Thanks!
Hilarious Thanks
They’re coming for the sharks.
250,000 sharks for a worldwide single round of vaccine, for the squalene used as an adjuvant. But you CAN speak up:
https://www.change.org/p/us-fda-food-and-drug-administration-of-the-united-states-of-america-stop-using-sharks-in-covid-19-vaccine-use-existing-sustainable-options?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=923ecf50-6a7c-0130-
I could name you a few people I’d like to feed to the sharks.
I have a very long list!
Shark lives matter
Signed. Thanks for the link. I’ve passed it on to others.
Signed and donated
Well done you
The dictator has promised us wind farms
At least Marie had the good grace to offer a slice of Victoria Sponge
It’s probably the first idea that would come to the tiny mind of a blustering windbag.
Boris understands he doesn’t need a mask, right?
Not often do you see the words ‘understands ‘ and ‘Boris ‘ in the same sentence
Perhaps he’s still infectious.
Or he likes the theatre.
Which would then beg the question, what’s the point of the vaccine if it doesn’t confer immunity?
To force the world into a carbon free utopia in 20 years time. Obviously.
CONTROL.
It’s getting us used to being jabbed with whatever concoction they come up with.
He likes theatre is right!
He would probably still test positive with a PCR.
For ever!
https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/10/07/the-cruelty-of-the-covid-secure-classroom/
The new normal in classrooms.
What long term consequences await ?
The point here not being made that in some schools things are pretty much normal – it’s the interpretation of guidelines by over zealous head teachers and unionised teachers that is causing the problem. But the core of the message get into the school and actually see what’s happening is absolutely correct. Far too many sheeple parents just accepting whatever they are being told.
Don’t they listen to what their own little lamples are telling them?
Children tend not to talk much about school all you get is “fine “
I’ve been told by one parent, one teacher and one pupil that things are quite relaxed locally
Still furious at my daughters primary schools “request” that face coverings be worn on site – out doors – I & my wife seem to be the only ones who refuse. It’s pathetic beyond belief. And came about because other parents – via bastard face book – demand it.
I know…same at my daughters school. I’m normally the only one not wearing a mask and I get a lot of angry looks. People are sheep and will obey and that is pretty much how it is everywhere. Stay strong and show your daughter that following the crowd is not what makes you a good human being.
‘Which are your mummy and daddy, then?’
‘The two human beings over there, the only ones, easy to recognise.’
Add to that the culture ‘gold plating’ we have when it comes to regulations and you have a lethal cocktail.
I can confirm that in many schools you would have no idea all this hysteria is going on. The children are exorted to use hand gel but that’s been a ‘thing’ for years. No masks for staff or kids, desks are still in rows (they wouldn’t fit everyone in), school dinners provided. Some schools don’t allow visitors or ‘recommend’ masks in corridors, but it’s laxly enforced.
Also used my regular garage today and nobody had a nappy nor did they make any objection when I’d forgotten mine. I’d love to recommend them but for obvious reasons won’t give the name.
That’s a breath of good news!!
Excel-ation: a novel way to breathe in the New Normal; track and trace resistant.
,
Anyone wanna play “spot the fallacies?” Nevermind, it’s no fun.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/us/politics/coronavirus-dc-white-house-congress.html
Is no one else seeing incredible significance in Boris’s speech today? He is using a well-known globalist slogan “Build Back Better”. To me, it seems perfectly obvious, now, that he’s been got at and is just following some script.
No. It’s just bumbling incompetence.
Incompetence, like the way HCQ was withdrawn worldwide in the west after the Chinese mentioned that chloroquine was giving positive results in the treatmemt of C-19?
It’s not incompetence.
Mistakes were made. Lessons have been learnt. Those responsible have been pensioned off. Yada, yada, yada.
Meanwhile the world we know is ruined.
Build Back would seem to acknowledge something has broken or been seriously damaged, surely not the official position ?
The corona did it is the official position.
He might not be your cup of tea but James Corbetts latest video “I am a conspiracy theorist”, shows the many recent uses, by globalists, of the phrase “Build Back Better”.
I always get suspicious when phrases like “New Normal” and “Social Distancing” are being used in lockstep around the world.
Worth a watch, even if you have to hold your nose :).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-p5mQmmf9M
James Delingpole picked up on this in May:
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/05/31/delingpole-build-back-better-the-latest-code-phrase-for-green-global-tyranny/
“Build back better” is actually a United Nations invented phrase and what it actually means is more world government, more green taxes and regulation, more expensive energy, more identity politics, more corporatism — and, of course, less freedom and entrepreneurialism….
Dennis Ambler has been keeping tabs on how often this mantra is being used. It’s everywhere and it’s frightening…..
If you thought the nightmare was going to end once the coronavirus scare passed, think again: it’s only just beginning.
The greens and the globalists aren’t about to let a crisis going to waste. This is the moment they have been waiting for. And don’t expect much resistance from politicians – even ones wearing the ‘Conservative’ label, like Boris Johnson.
They’re part of the problem.
He might not be your cup of tea but James Corbetts latest video “I am a conspiracy theorist”, shows the many recent uses, by globalists, of the phrase “Build Back Better”.
I always get suspicious when phrases like “New Normal” and “Social Distancing” are being used in lockstep around the world.
Worth a watch, even if you have to hold your nose :).
Had to remove link and post again as my original comment has been awaiting approval for ages if you want to watch this just search corbett report on youtube.
Some details here. Rather worrying!
https://thenewamerican.com/build-back-better-biden-rips-off-orwellian-un-slogan/
It’s Joe Biden’s slogan.
However, there was no mention of the UN’s own “Build Back Better” scheme upon which it seems to be based — and that is not surprising, since American voters would likely be horrified. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is using the same phrase, too, as are authorities in Canada and multiple other nations. The World Economic Forum, which is pushing the “Great Reset” alongside the UN and the IMF, is also peddling “Build Back Better” as a slogan to “reinvent capitalism.”
He’s not been got at, he agrees with all this green shite.
It’s usually a pretty daft idea to put those that were responsible or in favour of the destruction in charge of the rebuild.
https://thecritic.co.uk/i-come-not-to-bury-boris/
Worth reading . Rishi does his best by video link, but, the link has an Excel moment.
Huh… This popped up on YouTube while I was looking for something else. I have always hated Brand, so I didn’t watch the whole thing… But I saw Toby’s face, and looking at the comments, it appears even Brand isn’t impressed with masks.
https://youtu.be/6R3e2BMcKnk
Not wishing to look at Brand I scrolled a long way down the comments.
100% Sceptics, most presumably coming from his subscribers.
He is much better as a guru than he was as a comedian. The gibberish he talks as a guru is much more endearing than the obnoxious crap he tried to pass off as funny…
When killing people is Government policy – Email this to you MP – it might seem poinless but it’s better than nothing. By Peter Lloyd Conservative Woman – https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/when-killing-people-is-government-policy/ October 6, 2020 NO Conservative Prime Minister can survive if he or she is taking decisions that are contrary to the interests of most people in the country. The Covid-19 measures which Boris Johnson is forcing on the public are clearly against those interests, and worse is being planned. The health, education, employment, finances and social and mental wellbeing of the population is being destroyed for the illusory goal of stopping the spread of a coronavirus that is essentially harmless to 99 per cent of the population, and lethal almost exclusively to the elderly with serious underlying medical conditions, as are many strains of seasonal flu. Much of the damage being wreaked is disguised by the Chancellor’s furlough scheme and other taxpayer-funded handouts, but revealed through an explosion of government debt which will have severe negative consequences for all of us, particularly future generations. The ramping-up of virus tests with the dubious PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) methodology is inevitably showing more ‘cases’ which in reality may be just harmless fragments of the… Read more »
Well said! Succinct and no wriggle room.
https://www.ft.com/content/3f205365-f41f-482d-94d8-05518bd25d03
Another black hole in the nation’s finances. Fraudulent bounce back loan claims. Debt recovery unlikely.
I was told by people in the motor trade that a lot of very nice cars were being bought off the proceeds of that scheme. Usually by chancers with fingers in several business pies.
Chickens coming home to roost: villains outwitting HMG as per usual.
But it’s us honest guys at the bottom of the pile that pay for it all.
I was told about someone who did just that – bought a new car
I just read that article from “the hill” about Trump’s meeting with the three doctors… Of course the writing is almost comically biased, but that is to be expected. Something else comes to mind as being an important consideration with respect to the discussion about herd immunity. All of those in disagreement talk about “letting the virus spread like wild,” or “unchecked,” or some other version of that… But this assumes much, and raises an important question. Namely: “how much is what we are doing actually suppressing the virus?”
Common sense tells us that it must have some effect. How could it not? But there are a lot of numbers and comparisons that suggest otherwise.
From the DM article kisted by Toby a ove:
“Statistics have shown that coronavirus cases appear to rise in most areas that get put under local lockdown measures, raising questions about how well they work at containing smaller outbreaks.”
Raising questions? Providing answers, more like.
Spain was under strict lockdown for months but desths continued to rise long after th virus incubation period
Peru
Peru’s an interesting case because they were stricter earlier. Whilst Spain and Italy locked down hard, Peru actually mandated masks from March and used military enforcement of their lockdown. Since we know masks can increase viral load in the infected and the evidence suggests they do very little to stop the spread (and can, in real world usage, actually increase it) this would account for the higher death rate.
I have family who live there. I don’t claim to know what actually went wrong but my mother’s relatives blame it on a lack of healthcare (despite Peru’s mineral wealth), poor hygiene and most people living on top of each other. The lockdown also meant you could only go out to market once a day for an hour or so. This meant people clustered rather than dispersed. Also obesity among the poor.
But I agree that restrictions generally don’t work and kill the economy.
Deaths in general or deaths FROM covid?
Annd their mask enforcement is very strict yet the ‘cases’ continue to rise.
It would be interesting to know how the numbers stack up when you scale the “cases” according to the number of tests. Presumably testing is increased in local lockdown areas, so it could be an artefact of PCR false positives rather than actual cause and effect. Not saying local lockdowns work, of course, but my reading of the evidence is that they achieve nothing, rather than actually accelerate the spread.
They accelerate the use of testing and the spread of false positives!
Even a muppet can tell that hand washing and avoiding close contact with somebody sick, is going to give you some chance of not getting sick. The idea that hundreds of thousands would die if we did nothing was complete fiction, as most people will take these simple measures.
The idea that hundreds of thousands would die must have assumed we’d all stagger into work on crowded trains sneezing all the way, then go home and cough all over granny.
It also assumed no pre-existing immunity and a higher fatality rate.
Unfortunately the vast majority of people swallowed the asymptomatic line and genuinely believed and still do that healthy people walking amongst them will kill them ,I doubt they will ever rid themselves of that notion
Yes, that is a huge problem.
YES!!
When I explain my position to coronaphobes I make clear that I acknowledge the virus as a ‘thing’. But then, common decency (wash hands, keep surfaces clean, if you are sick stay away, keep the place aired) plus recognition that anything more doesn’t work and kills the economy, is the kindest and most civilised way to go about this.
I don’t wash my hands any more frequently than prior to the Damn Panic.
Pointless, imo.
I don’t, because I was already washing them enough!
Interesting point above re. being forced into work. Maybe that contributed to the mess in March.
I only stay at home if I am too sick to leave. Yes I admit I’ve been to work when I am probably infectious with other viruses – because that’s exactly what my (public sector) employer demand of us and they dish out disciplinary warnings if you don’t.
When many years ago I worked as cabin crew for BA it was even worse – getting your pay docked and no bonus if you were sick meant I always went in unless my ears were blocked and I feared the pressure might damage them.
I have worked for two employees (one private one public) who decided who they’d make redundant during the last recession/austerity by how sick employees had been.
If we want to encourage sick people to stay home we need to rethink how we compensate them, and not just for one particular coronavirus!
If masks and the PCR test wasn’t being used to bash us over the head people would employ common sense, wash hands stay at home if sick. Oh and the relentless barrage of media brainwashing doesn’t help.
Why would the measures suppress the virus?
It’s highly transmissible and the majority were exposed months ago.
The ‘measures’ are simply to maintain the illusion of a dangerous virus out there, that will kill droves of us if we relax.
There is nothing much to suppress anyway.
And why would you want to suppress the virus?
Then you end up with Victoria.
The UK is attempting to shut the stable door after the horse bolted about five months ago.
Same as contact tracing. That makes zero sense when 80% have been previously exposed.
Actually none of the measures are really about virus suppression. They’re all about something else.
What do we know about exposure levels in different parts of Britain? Do we think it tore through London and its commuter belt, i e most of southern England, by the end of March; there was some finding of at least 1300 seed events in that period, largely from Spain and Italy, through the rest of England too. But does SW England, and the North, still have lots of susceptible people? Are there serological studies complete yet, to tell us? And can they tell us that, anyway?
Well they haven’t been dropping like flies in Bournemouth and people have flocked there every sunny weekend for months.
I think it’s pretty evenly soaked through everywhere. The last time I looked at death rates per local authority, which was several months ago, it was very even. Some places have higher equilibrium levels than others and you reach equilibrium in the space of about a month. It would be impossible to have kept areas outside London below equilibrium for this long without very severe quarantining etc, which we never did.
Thanks, will look at LA death rates.
Let us know what you find! It was way back in April that I did that, would be interesting to compare again now.
How to share things with friends and family without exasperating them and has been something I’ve struggled with over these last few months. So far I’ve been sharing some links on fb, brought together in a kind of theme for each post. However, from a discussion I had with Mrs D recently I was somewhat knocked back when she said that some of the articles are a bit too long a read (or words of that sort). At first I find this shocking but then realise it’s really quite unsurprising that if someone doesn’t see that their rightful freedoms and choices are being taken away then they will have no appetite for long reads. So I shared with them a pick of 4 good twitter feeds as the nature of Twitter is its necessity to be short and succinct. I’m hoping this will encourage those who are willing to take a look at the counter argument to read what they’ve posted without feeling like they’re wading into long reads. The four I’ve chosen offer a fairly all rounded counter argument but without much emotion so feel like a stronger starting base – Carl Heneghan, Mike Yeadon, Law or Fiction and… Read more »
So Wancock thinks that the best way to help csncer patients is not to treat them.
Help, I need some new, stronger words to express the extremes of evil and stupidity.I’ve run out.
I wouldn’t wish cancer on anybody, but if Wancock got it, it would be the best example of poetic justice in world history.
Or just give him a scare. A lump that turned out benign, or similar. A shot across the bows warning him not to weaponise the health service if we don’t behave. Because we will ALL need it one day.
Or better still just a lump that he has to worry about every day because he can’t get the screening/testing to find out that’s it’s benign.
Eventually he’ll find a way to skip the queue, Dr will blow the whistle and hopefully he’ll be gone.
Oh I would wish it on him
Why not just wipe out the whole human race? No more covid, no more cancer, and most importantly of all……. No more stats
Please kick the bastard out asp he must go
Matthew Wanksock
I would like the International Criminal Court to have something to say too.
This one will surely backfire on him..
Pretty much everybody has a close relative or friend, who has died or is currently ill from cancer. And the notion that cancer sufferers are somehow expendable is surely anathema even to diehard sheep.
I also thought about Sikora and wondered about whether he would be able to sustain his studiously moderate voice in the light of this verbal threat from Halfcock.
A Covid dead is worth 200x as much politically as a cancer dead these days.
The equivalent of their costs to the economy as well.
From exchanges on here, it will have become clear that those interested in numbers are having a lot of fun.
It may also have become clear that a lot of the covid 19 statistical fun is just that, not to be taken seriously.
There is no international standard definition of a covid 19 death
There is no international standard definition of a covid 19 ‘case’
There is no international standard definition of a covid 19 ‘infection’
There is no international standard definition of covid 19 PCR test cycle thresholds
As a consequence, confirmation bias is present in every strand of opinion derived from international evidence
Since the quantity of international evidence is huge, most strands of opinion will be evidenced.
So………the data is junk……except for overall all cause mortality, and that is plumb normal for the time of year everywhere.
That is all the evidence any government needs.
And the longer they refuse to see it, the higher the price they will pay in due course……..
We’ve been here before…..anyone remember that ‘nice Mr Major’…….
So true
This article from June seems to sum up how ill defined the definition for Covid 19 death is..
https://www.biomerieuxconnection.com/2020/06/25/the-relationship-between-sepsis-and-covid-19-what-we-know/
I don’t disagree with is the notion of cause of All-Cause death being the gold standard. Week 39 England and Wales All-Cause mortality was almost equal to the maximum for the past 10 years (9639 vs. 9689). The median for 2010-19 is 9099 and the mean 9152. So about 500 deaths above a “typical” year. We are 68785 above for cumulative deaths.
Intrigued by the mention of Marx’s racism above, I found this gem of claptrap prefacing an edition of his letters to Engels: “A Note from History Is A Weapon: It has come to our attention that this page is very popular with right-wingers who delight in Marx and Engel’s use of racial slurs to discredit Marxist thought. Unfortunately, Marx and Engels were Europeans of the nineteenth century and in that period of time, racism was commonplace and permeated the political, scientific, religious, literary, and social spheres. Marx contained multitudes: there are other letters from Marx that, for example, congratulate Abraham Lincoln on his re-election as “the triumphant war cry of your re-election is Death to Slavery.” This isn’t an excuse for Marx or Engels’ racism, but a challenge to all of us: for the left, we must create a revolutionary marxism that demands a totalizing liberation of all from any and all oppressors in the same way that capitalism steels itself in racism, heterosexism, colonialism, and patriarchy; for the right, maybe don’t limit yourself to a cynical ctrl-F for the N word and dismiss all marxist thought as racist because Marx and Engels had flaws.” http://hiaw.org/defcon6/works/1862/letters/62_07_30a.html My emboldening. So it’s sufficient excuse… Read more »
‘Totalizing liberation’ means it’s only how old ?
Of course. The accusation of “racism” is almost invariably a political smear tool.
From Toby’s piece about the threat to journalism.
Todays Local Live has 7 Covid stories, the last one being buried beneath the sports reports “ONS Figures show no Covid deaths for (yet another) week”.
Two articles side by side
“How Local Democracy Reporting Service ensures factual reporting of the biggest issues”
“Reporting the facts on Coronovirus – how our trusted journalism matters more than ever”
The lady doth protest too much.
Why are people, including Toby, surprised that Boris is so completely incompetent? Pre his asecendance to the throne he’d shown zero evidence, in whatever role he’d taken up – journalism, mayor, foreign secretary – of anything other than bluff and bravado. Ex colleagues only ever talked about his incompetence and shaky relationship with the truth.
I’m stumped by why people thought he’d suddenly shine when becoming PM. Of course the alternative was Corbyn who would have been a far more calamitous PM but to be surprised and disappointed by Boris’s performance now is baffling.
I don’t know about Corbyn. I had the suspicion that if he had won a large part of the media would be on Communist Watch. He’d have to tiptoe around. The trouble was his milquetoast direction on Brexit which did him no favours.
And the infighting in the Labour party.
Boris was also the foil to May who squandered any good will she had.
What I saw last autumn was a man of courage taking on the establishment. One of those Brexit debates on a Wednesday night when he took down Swinson, Corbyn and the Scots he was brilliant. He showed no fear leadership then. I didn’t expect the weak coward version we have now.
I think the ‘competence’ thing is a bit if a straw man. A leader could still be great, yet incompetent at tying their own shoelaces. I think most supporters of Boris were happy that he couldn’t use a spreadsheet and probably couldn’t remember how many kids he’d got. But ‘incompetence’ is used against him by people like Toby because no one now knows what he stands for. It’s hard to argue with someone’s motivation if you don’t know what it is. In frustration, their competence is the thing you can actually point to.
Judge a man by his actions not his words.In little over 7 months he has established a police state.Forced the population to wear masks.Forbid sex between consenting adults.Made it illegal to sing or dance in a bar or pub.Made it almost impossible to go on holiday abroad on pain of incarceration when you return.Banned live concerts,sports events.He is also planning a second lockdown where restrictions on commerce will be instituted again,
But he’s just a libertarian kind of guy
I agree. A leader requires a level of basic common sense, and moral fibre, not the kind of detail competence we seem to expect of them nowadays. It’s easy to laugh at the idea of Johnson displaying moral fibre now, and point to his dishonesty and womanising, but plenty of leaders have had such flaws in spades in the past (Churchill, for one), but still managed to listen to the right people and make the right decisions at key moments. There is no apology needed for voting “Conservative” in the last election (though I didn’t), since there can be no credible claim that a Corbyn government (or a Starmer one, for that matter) would have been a jot less disastrous than this one in the coronapanic. It’s also easy to imagine a world in which, with different advice, Johnson went the other way and became a Churchillian anti-lockdown hero, still without the kind of “competence” he is now criticised for lacking. He made the wrong choice at the crucial moment and must bear full responsibility for that. No forgetting and no forgiving, for him. But those who voted for his party should not accept any responsibility for the events of… Read more »
I agree Spingler and I’m guilty. But in defense, I ignored the PMs many unexplained behaviour traits and obvious crassness and blustering and spouting Greek when he actually can’t string a sentence together that shows an ability to think seriously. I was so desperate last year with the disastrous May government that I was delighted we had Boris to sort ‘it’ out – or at least just as was said ‘get Brexit done’. I have bitterly regretted how we came to get to that decision and what that has now become. But how did it happen that we are all now part of a national hysteria AND a global hysteria? I just can’t get my head around it. It really does feel like the end of an era with no obvious path out. Did anyone remember the first book in C.S.Lewis Narnian series, set in a world coming to the end? Was it the Magician’s Nephew?
Yes. Brilliant book.
No excess mortality from Covid-19: Head of the Health Department Frankfurt Germany compares Corona with flu and heat waves – October 1, 2020
Are German officials beginning to waking up and speak out?
Article published Berliner Zeitung reports that Professor Dr. med. René Gottschalk, Leader des Gesundheitsamtes in Frankfurt, now urgently calls for a broad public discussion on the goals and means of fighting pandemic.
Google translation
This discussion must go beyond purely virological questions and include ethical aspects as well as legal questions for the legitimate purpose of the suitability, necessity and appropriateness of the measures.
In addition, Gottschalk criticizes the discussion about the risk of virus infection through aerosols, a discussion that has moved far from reality.
Regarding Nucleic acids mentioned above, one of their key features….?
They hang around for a long time……so might, for example, be detected by increased testing many months after a minor common cold coronavirus infection was fought off by a youngster’s immune system, without that person ever having noticed…..
The data is junk…..
Somebody round here was suggesting that we don’t know that there isn’t a general build-up of these fragments in the environment as time goes on. I naively thought at one time that an uninfected person would have zero of these fragments in their nose, but do we know this is true? Is the test becoming more and more ambiguous as time goes on?
Great, my 4yo daughters school bubble has closed due to 1 positive infection. 135 kids in 3 years now have to stay at home and wait for this ‘person’ to have 2 more tests.
Ludicrous. I’m so angry as she was enjoying the structure and learning greatly, she was very disappointed when I told her this morning.
My wife and I can ‘work’ at home whenever, but it must be so difficult in these circumstances having a minimum wage job to put food on the table where you have to turn up to get paid.
Well according to Rishi, these parents can just re train and get a new job.
Starting next April
PP – That particular faux pas appears to have woken up a whole host of musicians.
It’s another signal, if we needed it, that nobody in this government has a clue about the arts and creative industries.
Your last six words are entirely unnecessary 😉
Haha, yes, amazing that you can just retrain and emerge at the same level of seniority in a new industry, all whilst keeping the mortgage paid. Rishi is truly a magician!
It’s not just those on minimum wage or the low paid who can’t work from home either, my fairly decent career which by its very nature could not involve remote working is teetering on the edge!
Yeah and here it is straight from the horses mouth, even though he says he didn’t..er.. say that..or I think mean that, or something?
https://twitter.com/emma_sallows/status/1313449012381523969
The ignorance of these politicians is staggering.
I mean, what he says might have some merit in a normal recession. Industries grow and shrink all the time, and yeah, we do have to adapt to that throughout life. But he doesn’t seem to acknowledge that this is a situation that the government has forced onto previously fine industries with perfectly viable business models in the “normal” world. They basically did it overnight too. He may live to regret those comments.
Just like the miners did in the 1980s, right…
And the 60s & 70s, when most of them were closed… 😉
Very true. I’ve seen a chart of employment in British coal mining, and there was a big drop in the 1960s and 70s including the period when Labour were in power from 1964-70. I think the smaller less efficient pits were closing and employment was consequently falling though output was maintained. But the largely unquestioned myth is that “the Tories” were entirely responsible for the demise of the coal industry with closures in the 1980s and 90s. Incidentally, since nowadays the widespread view is “coal bad, wind good”, I wonder what the left would be saying if there still was a significant coal industry in Britain?
Thatcher is villified for closing coal mines which is something Thatcher’s opponents love to use against her but it is often forgotten pit closures were occurring long before Thatcher under both Tory and Labour governments without these governments being villified for it.
Still be bags of wind.
Who has a 4 year-old tested for covid???
The same brute as tests a two-year-old, see comment below.
Seeing the rewording of Kiplings If reminds that it was read out in full on BBC R2 one morning last week, with mo snarky comments about him being a racist or colonialist.
Likewise J.K.Rowling was on the Ken Bruce show 5 days in a row delighting us with her favourite tunes. Germaine Greer was invited to air her opinion on matters feminine.
That these three have been let off the naughty step might indicate a slow retreat by the beeb from ultra-wokeness.
As far as Kipling is concerned i dont think even the BBC could overlook the hypocrisy and outrage that would come from them being critical of a poem which was voted Britain’s favourite poem in a poll that BBC ran themselves!! Admittedly that was 1995 which is a lifetime away!
I think Ken Bruce has been a bit of sanity in all this. He is careful to give no political views at all (rightly), but there’s a gentle chuckling at the absurdity of it all.
I agree. I very clearly remember him saying when the “rule of six” garbage was brought in, something to the effect of “More restrictions are being imposed but are we letting it get us down? Well, yes we are, actually.”
Direct to the point. Hope she takes the hint.
Do you think she will?
Until September 2020, Anne-Marie was Secretary of State for International Development, tasked with overseeing the UK’s contribution to international aid and development delivers the best results, transforming the lives of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people, while promoting Britain’s economic and security interests.
Her wider interests involve spending time with her family, making the most of the incredible landscape her vast and varied constituency affords and putting her passion for singing to good use by taking part in Singing for Syrians concerts in Westminster.
That would be singing for The White Helmets and the CIA
terrorists“rebels” that burned Syria to the ground then.No she won’t have any trouble trashing the UK either for the greater good.
If that’s the case then she won’t sadly.
Sings, does she?
Not now. Fuck the Syrians, eh?
Labour activists finally waking up?
Express: Labour activists demand Keir Starmer RESIGN after Corbyn leads rebellion.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1344664/Keir-Starmer-news-Labour-leader-rebellion-Jeremy-Corbyn-overseas-security-bill-Spycops
No, they do this virtually every day on Twitter. It’s just the Momentum propaganda machine so I wouldn’t get my hope up as most of those accounts aren’t even real.
Here’s one for Free Speech Union, cancel culture in all its glory…
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/18775579.councillor-bill-pipe-removed-stop-search-comments/?action=success#comments-feedback-anchor
(Apologies, not really about lockdown, but Ethelred angered)
In the same paper, Magellan Aerospace is closing because of the “downturn” in the industry. The last major downturn in the industry was after 9/11. I remember that well.
This is a completely self-inflicted one and ironically the upcoming leader in aerospace is quickly becoming COMAC – i.e. the Chinese
Was invited to a day trip yesterday to St Albans and it was my first time to venture outside London since this madness. We were a group of six and I was the only one who wasn’t muzzled. Had no problems at all in the train and the places we went. What was interesting during this trip was observing how people kept putting on and taking off their muzzles as well as crucially constantly touching their faces. it makes me wonder if they’re really aware of the lack of logic with muzzling but I suspect that people are wearing it simply for an easy life and not to stand out. Certainly I did stood out being unmuzzled and all that. I was speaking to one of the guides at the cathedral, a nice old lady and I struggled to understand what she was saying and she must have fiddled with her face around 20 times during our 10 minute conversation. St Albans is a lovely place to visit but just like London it was depressing to see it devoid of life and many of the locals scurrying about like zombies as they tried to numb the horrors of life right… Read more »
Get rid of the masks and it’s over!!!
Exactly. However I’m noticing that some people seem to be clinging on to them as some sort of security blanket.
Yes a lifebuoy that ironically is stopping them living their life
The sad thing is they don’t see it that way.
Yes. I’m sick to death of seeing people fiddle with their masks. Either wear it properly or take the fucking thing off and be done with it. It’s what you get when you let untrained people loose with PPE.
It’s interesting but my wife, an avid mask wearer when she is in the supermarket and other shops, now has a nasty cough and chest infection. She is not normally prone to chest infections and while discussing it with her her conclusion was that she could only have picked it up in the supermarket because at no other time does she come into direct contact with other people.
I noted somewhat sarcastically, “So the mask is working then”… and I just let that thought hang because despite my non-mask wearing advocacy she still continues to wear one.
And these cloth masks aren’t PPE anyway – more like a useless fashion accessory masquerading as protection.
Some colleagues are starting to complain about skin rashes due to mandatory muzzling at work. I simply mouth off platitudes given they have blanked me every time I tried to raise the futility of mask wearing. Give it more time and I’ll be seeing others developing nasty coughs, chest infections, impetigo and dermatitis.
My company, which I’ve not actually worked for for a while due to furlough, have mandated masks in pretty much all situations unless you’re sat at a desk or working alone. They’re not a British company so “thankfully” the usual exemptions and rules apply on UK premises.
Anyway, the other day I received an email from them advising of the risk of rashes from masks and how to combat them. So they openly acknowledge that these things cause harm and are not able to provide any substantiated evidence that they are beneficial! I see lawsuits coming in the future.
That’s ironic that they’re informing you of the risk of rashes and yet are mandating them. Indeed I see lawsuits coming in the future especially if the rashes transmogrify into something bad even worse or the poor person will have to spend a fortune treating them.
So I’m guessing you’ll be doing the supermarket run now.
Not really no. To avoid disrupting the weekends my wife will normally go to the supermarket during the week after the school run while I am at work and the supermarkets are generally quieter whether there was covid or not.
I will just let that thought hang in the air, ‘somewhat sarcastically’,
Yesterday I spotted one of our local odd bods sitting in his usual place outside a grocery chain: mask under chin, cup in hand,chewing on something.
I see this everywhere now, along with the masked drivers, who worry me, as a loss of concentration behind the wheel could pose a real threat to us pedestrians.
Seeing masked drivers both in the car and the underground trains do worry me. If I see the tub driver masked I would not get into the train and will wait for the next one.
Another appalling sight are driving students and their instructors both masked. However I’ve been seeing less and less of that over the last month or so.
In the game of “Mask Top Trumps” I think I can go one better than that: I was at a local air field recently that hosts a couple of flying schools and I kid you not, as I watched one of the aircraft taxy out both the student and the instructor had face masks on.
I’m minded now to go and have a look at the CAA guidance on masks while flying.
I take it that would be the same as driving – unconsciousness as a result of oxygen deprivation would lead to a plane crash?
I didn’t find anything on the CAA website that made a lot of sense but I did find guidance to General Aviation on a gov.uk website: It was suitably vague and non-committal in that it said no more than –
“Where social distancing guidelines cannot be followed in full, training schools and instructors should take the most appropriate actions to reduce the risk of transmission.”
“wearing a face covering, where it is safe to do so”
Unfortunately I saw that very thing (driving instructor and learner) this morning. But an interesting thing in the pedestrianised shopping street: three 20-something ladies, one properly masked, one with it below the chin, and the other free-faced, obviously pals, chatting away happily as they walked along. The false dogma is “wear a mask to protect others”, but from their behaviour none of them were worried about catching “it” from the others.
Presumably people who go on guided tours of Cathedrals know there is more to life than a Kardashians rear end which makes the conformity more disappointing.
I didn’t see any guided tours but the volunteer guides were hanging around to welcome visitors, answer questions and be available to anyone who wants to chat.
The two guides I spoke to were very helpful and knowledgeable however the woman particularly was difficult to understand given her muzzle. The bloke was better as he was wearing a visor.
My home town! Glad you enjoyed it. But unfortunately it is very woke, zombified and pro-lockdown.
I did yes and well said about the wokeness – the window in the museum was filled with BLM, XR and slavery displays; all of them ahistorical and an affront to real history.
St Albans is very much London commuter territory so no doubt enjoying working from home.
I visited St Albans mainly for the cathedral back in those distant days of sanity in January.
Happy to say I was told last night at work ‘I think you shouldn’t wear a mask. We need to hear what you’re saying’
By that argument, Bojo and Wancock ought to wear masks 24/7/365.
Yay!!! Should have said that to the lady in the cathedral.
The omnipotence of the international hard left is daily more apparent. Marx is now openly referenced and praised – the one nineteenth century figure not deemed “problematic”, apparently. On a BBC programme about writing, the presenter blandly discussed Mao as if he were any other modernising leader – Mao, butcher of sixty million! – and viewed a propaganda cartoon, of Gorky about to stab a “capitalist” to death with giant pen, as telling us that the pen is mightier than the sword – when of course the image perverts the pen into a sword, which is about to be used to murder someone. Is this conspiracy? Or is it simply the effect of a lot of left wing idiots, casually excluding conservatives from important institutions over a number of years and suddenly realising the consequent power to revert to shameless bigotry? Either way it is shocking and vile. And the Tory party under that cowardly idiot Johnson is in no fit state to oppose it.
We don’t have a conservative party in this country anymore, just a fearful shambolic cabinet of lightweights.
But I don’t think this tawdry episode of history is all about Left v Right, it is also about ignorance v. enlightenment and authoritarianism v. personal freedom. Moderates on both side should be in agreement and unite over this issue.
That said, Lockdown Sceptics is somewhat on the Right and I haven’t seen (correct me here please) an equivalent Left site lobbying for the end of lockdown. I suspect the engorgement of the state is just too enticing for many to lobby against even at the terrible cost it comes with.
The prevailing thought is that it is the result of the take over by left-thinking people of key areas of our society most notably universities and the media. And that after years of being exposed relentlessly to left-wing ideas large parts of the population have been indoctrinated.
i have just watched this programme. Did you?
It is all about the development of writing and a large part of this episode was about the imposition of different writing systems for political or cultural reasons. So it featured Ataturk replacing Arabic script with Latin script in Turkey for cultural reasons. It featured Lenin replacing arabic with Latin script in Uzbekistan and then Stalin replacing with cyrillic and then Uzbekis replacing that with Latin again.. All for political reasons .
The piece on Mao was no different. It did not glorify Mao, It made the point that Mao tried to introduce Latin script to China mainly through political texts (hence the Gorky image) which failed.
Everything was relevant and in context and needed to show the politics. A surprisingly good series from the BBC (which i hate)
But i think you just saw what you wanted to see
And the benign interpretation of the vicious propaganda cartoon? And if someone made the point, in a programme about transport, that Hitler invented the autobahn, with no reference at all to his broader policies – this would be acceptable, would it? And dealing, without wider comment, with a small aspect of cultural policy which in all the countries mentioned bar Turkey was murderous and destructive in the extreme? This is acceptable? The communist assault on script was part of a wider assault on traditional society which resulted in democide in each case. Simply sliding round this fact is despicable. Did you watch the programme? And are these blinkers made of strategic silence to your taste? It strikes me you are either naive or disingenuous. This is part of the continual normalisation of communism being pursued by the left and only a fool or a sub-rosa leftist would deny it.
That’s what is really damaging. You could go ether way and be consistent and honest. I would go with hardheaded reality and not worry about emotive associations, so I don’t mind if people discuss the good or effective things done by people such as Hitler, Stalin and Mao. Or you could go the restrictive, intolerant and anti-free speech approach of saying anybody who did anything really bad must be pretended to have been utterly without redeeming features, for the greater good (that way of course lies an honest version of cancel culture and historical suppression).
But what we have are a bunch of dishonest hypocrites demonising those they regard as on the other side politically while giving a pass to those they see as ideologically sound.
Thank you for skewering Percy so comprehensively in your last para!
I would laugh so hard if Marx had some links to the slave trade.
Thet will have already been dealt with in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth.