Latest News
Government Proposes to Liberate Local Areas in Bid to Placate Rebellion
The Government has said that towns and villages will be able to go into lower tiers than neighbouring virus “hotspots” in an effort to see off a growing Commons rebellion against their new lockdown plans. The Telegraph has the exclusive.
MPs have been told that rural areas with low infection rates could be “decoupled” from cities that have “unfairly” dragged them into Tiers 2 and 3 under the Government’s regional approach.
It comes amid a major rift between ministers and scientific advisers, who say areas of England are more likely to go up a tier than down one.
Government scientists have said they expect few changes within the system in coming months, with Tier 2 areas far more likely to go up than down and almost nowhere likely to get to Tier 1 until March. Scientists are understood to have told Boris Johnson that he should consider moving Tier 2 areas to Tier 3.
The draconian advice comes despite new figures showing the reproduction or ‘R’ rate of the virus to have come down to between 0.9 and 1.0 – its lowest level since August – meaning Covid could already be in retreat.
Up to 100 Tory MPs are threatening the biggest rebellion of Mr Johnson’s premiership when the new tier system is put to a vote next week amid anger over a broad brush approach that has put low incidence areas into higher tiers because they are in the same county as a city with a high infection rate.
Government ministers Nadhim Zahawi and Jesse Norman are among those who have publicly criticised the new tiers.
Labour has yet to decide whether it will vote for the tier system, meaning Mr Johnson could face defeat unless he can persuade enough of his own MPs to back down. The Prime Minister said on Friday that he understood the “frustration” of people who have ended up in Tier 2 or 3 despite low infection rates in their own town or village.
According to reports, Mr Johnson has pencilled in Easter Monday as the day when the strict Covid tiers will be lifted.
Ministers and officials are trying to win round Tory MPs by offering them hope that their constituencies will be “decoupled” from hotspots when a review of the Tiers is carried out in mid-December.
It’s a start, but a very small one given the absurdity and destructiveness of the Government’s intention to keep the tier system in place until at least Easter.
The main reason being given for the extreme ongoing restrictions is the supposed need to “protect the NHS” from being overwhelmed. The Sun reports.
The PM is determined to put the NHS first – and believes he will have to wait until after Covid’s winter peak in February and March to ease his grip.
A senior government source told the Sun: “Boris will not countenance hospitals overflowing like they did in Italy. Nor can we get to the stage where we have to cancel operations and treatments. In all likelihood, the tiers have to stay.”
This must be the most expensive and repressive way to manage demand in a health service ever devised – and it’s dishonest to pretend elective surgeries aren’t being cancelled as it is. Why not simply increase surge capacity? It’s not as though hospitals have been overwhelmed so far, even in the spring. In fact, they’re currently running at below average occupancy rates across the country, while the surge capacity that has been created is not being used. As one reader writes to tells us:
Hot off the press from a friend who has spent the last six weeks getting the Nightingale Hospital in Harrogate up to speed at huge expense – they had a sign-off on Tuesday and yesterday were stood down – they may use it at some point for vaccinations. This is the emergency overspill for the Humber (Tier 3), Leeds (Tier 3) and Bradford (Tier 3).
There is nothing out of the ordinary about the mortality rate this autumn, as this explainer by Joel Smalley makes clear, and neither is there evidence that lockdowns are responsible for preventing a runaway epidemic. The R rate, after all, was below 1 before the current lockdown began, with daily deaths peaking on or around November 13th and infections three weeks or so before that. Oddly, the Government has only just announced that the R has fallen below 1, weeks after the surveys it relies on for this calculation – from Imperial College, King’s College and the ONS – announced it occurred. Could this have anything to do with the fact that, at three weeks into the lockdown, they are now in a position to credit it? Not that we can check their working, which remains as obscure and concealed as ever.
Lockdown 3.0 is SAGE’s “Pound of Flesh” For Christmas Freedom
Iain Duncan Smith writing in the Telegraph sums up perfectly the mood of MPs in the Covid Recovery Group ahead of the crucial vote next week.
The Chancellor laid bare the stark and painful economic reality for all to see this week. The economy has shrunk by 11.3%, the worst collapse in output in 300 years. Unemployment will reach 2.6 million and borrowing will reach an eye watering £394 billion.
The mood of sombre reflection and deep concern among MPs brought on by the Chancellor’s statement rapidly gave way to disbelief and anger as the full implications of the Government’s new tier system became apparent. In particular, many recalled the past use that has been made of dodgy figures to bounce us into lockdown.
The critical balance in decision making required to ensure that our response to the virus does not end up doing more damage than the disease still seems to elude the Government with the figures on coronavirus simply not justifying their ongoing desperate pessimism, particularly when set against the desperate damage to business, livelihoods and lives, beyond Covid.
SAGE predicted 4,000 daily deaths early next month. This rapidly turned out to be absurd. Four thousand deaths a day would be three times higher than the peak death rate in Brazil, which has a population three times greater than the UK.
Then, with a 16-day time lag, a mass of data showed that infection rates had flattened and were falling before the effect of the lockdown could be felt. That, however, hasn’t stopped Patrick Vallance and ministers rather brazenly claiming that the reductions were down to the lockdown. Liverpool is a good example. The fall there seemed to happen long before the nation-wide lockdown even started. Even the mass testing programme rolled out there, despite what the Government claims, didn’t change the rate of decline. Given that, perhaps the most trusted document produced by the Government was the one covered in scribbled and panicky question marks.
Yet despite the facts, instead of returning to the original tiers from before lockdown, we are effectively about to consign half of England to further lockdown after December 2nd. To put this in context, when the new rules come in the number of people in Tier 1, the lightest level of restrictions, will have fallen from 24.5 million pre-lockdown to just 700,000. Previously, nine million people were in Tier 3, post-lockdown that number will have risen to 23 million. Worse, the new set of tiers are far tougher than they were – even those whose tier hasn’t gone up will still find themselves subject to far tougher restrictions.
The announcement brought an outcry from MPs because so many of their areas have been shunted into Tier 3 on what appears to be contradictory and shallow evidence. Take, for example, the city of Bristol. Before lockdown, they had 292 infections per hundred thousand people and were in Tier 1. Now, after a minor increase in the rate to 309, they have been moved to Tier 3. Or Tunbridge Wells, in Tier 1 with a rate of 48.9 before lockdown and now in Tier 3 with a rate of 103, a figure much lower than other areas in Tier 2.
What was the point of the lockdown if, as we come out, we end up with tighter restrictions than before lockdown? We aren’t even waiting to learn what the effect of the lockdown has been before rushing into these changes.
IDS says there is growing concern among MPs that the draconian new tier system is the “pound of flesh SAGE demanded in return for the decision to have five days off over Christmas and that unless the Government stayed in a de facto lockdown for most of the country now then they would be demanding another lockdown in January”.
He repeats the call for proper cost-benefit analyses to be published to enable MPs to make informed decisions.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: IDS talks to JHB here, telling her the Government must stop listening to the advice of SAGE.
Metropolitan Police Issues Warning About Today’s Protest
For those going along to the protest today, be prepared for an unaccommodating police force. The Territorial Support Group is likely to be out in force. The following is from a statement issued by the Metropolitan Police:
Ahead of a planned protest on Saturday, November 28th, the Met is urgently reminding those looking to attend that protest is not currently a permitted exemption to the prohibition on gatherings under the current Coronavirus regulations.
Strict regulations have been introduced by the Government nationally to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus. This means that anyone gathering for protest risks enforcement action by officers.
A robust policing plan is in place throughout the weekend and officers will take action if they witness breaches of the regulations.
Chief Superintendent Stuart Bell, policing commander for this weekend, said: “The Met has a proud history of facilitating protest. However, our city is in a critical fight against COVID-19 and we cannot allow gatherings to jeopardise the progress and sacrifices our communities have made in fighting this virus.
“That is why we will be taking action in relation to prohibited gatherings on the streets of London, including those related to protest across the capital this weekend. Our top priority is public safety and that is why we cannot allow individuals to break the law and put their health and the health of their friends, family and the wider community at risk. If you are planning on attending a gathering, I would urge you to reconsider and stay at home.”
They’re obviously expecting something big.
“If You Vote to Destroy the Jobs of Others, Don’t Expect to Keep Your Seat”
Peter Hitchens has asked if Lockdown Sceptics readers would care to join him in a campaign for a “mass write-in to MPs this weekend on the lines of ‘If you vote to destroy the jobs of others, don’t expect to keep your seat’”. Websites like Write To Them make it easy, as he points out.
Sounds like a great idea. Good readers, over to you.
Government Threat to Business Puts More Firms at Risk
Is the Government about to use its powers to pull the rug from under firms struggling under the Government’s lockdown measures? One reader is concerned.
On December 1st the Government is proposing to reinstate Crown Preference, a legal concept whereby HMRC gets priority over other creditors to recover unpaid taxes in the event of a company’s insolvency. In normal times this would not have been an especially significant change. However, right now many companies have racked up significant tax liabilities because the Government has been using this as a way of supporting businesses in difficulty. We are not talking about small amounts of money – if you think of VAT (20% of turnover) and PAYE bills since March, these have really added up.
When Crown Preference is reinstated on Tuesday, a company’s lenders, suppliers and credit insurers will need to reduce their exposure by the amount of taxes which are owed (as HMRC will now have priority over these debts). For struggling businesses this will probably mean their credit lines will be pulled from under them, and they will go out of business.
In the current circumstances it is difficult to see this move bringing in much revenue for the Exchequer – at the cost of pushing many businesses over the edge at the worst possible time. Why did we support these businesses in the first place, only now to throw them under a bus? It should be a no-brainer to defer this move, but the Chancellor didn’t announce such a deferral on Tuesday and it feels like the issue has been buried under the weight of other news. It shouldn’t be – it really matters.
Further reading on this is available from the law firm Addleshaws.
Care Homes Ban Christmas Decorations
Care homes are being banned from putting up Christmas trees and decorations by local authorities due to “infection control issues”. CareHome has the story.
Care Campaign for the Vulnerable (CCTV) has revealed it has received “distraught messages from care home managers” due to the ban.
One manager told CCTV: “I’m a manager of a residential nursing home. We are being told the local authority are trying to put a stop to homes decorating for Christmas!
“After everything that has been taken away from our residents this year, we’re now expected to take Christmas away from them too!! ‘Infection control’ issues. I had a visit from Infection Control and we’d started to decorate our reception area and she told us ‘I wouldn’t bother going any further, because you’ll be told to rip them all down’.
“I asked the direct question to the local authority bosses and they’ve told me there’s no published guidance as of yet but they won’t allow Christmas decorations.
“Our hearts are breaking for our beautiful residents. We’ve taken them down. It seems they’re intent on taking away any little thing that brings them joy. That in itself is more dangerous to their well-being than Covid would ever be! And we’ve been through an outbreak and I stand by that statement.”
The care home manager said she has heard similar stories from other care homes.
A spokeswoman for Care Campaign for the Vulnerable said: “’I find this downright appalling. As if residents haven’t lost enough this year already. Why deprive them of the joy of Christmas?”
Pitkerro Care Centre in Dundee is one of those making changes to the way it decorates its home due to the pandemic and is asking people to donate outdoor Christmas decorations and lights to put in the back garden.
Normally during the festive period the care home is covered in Christmas decorations and trees, but this year anything that cannot be wiped down daily is banned.
What this over-zealous, killjoy guidance forgets is that even if surfaces spread the disease they can only do so when they are touched. But no one touches Christmas decorations except to put them up or take them down. More to the point, no one has yet succeeded in culturing the virus from surface samples, suggesting surfaces are not a major route of transmission. As the Lancet reported in October: “During the initial stages of the pandemic there was concern about surface transmission. However, latest research suggests that this is unlikely to be a major route of transmission as although SARS-CoV-2 can persist for days on inanimate surfaces, attempts to culture the virus from these surfaces were unsuccessful.”
Woman Goes Blind After Lockdown Cancels Treatment
A woman has lost her sight after she was left without her regular treatment for months during the lockdown. The BBC has the details.
A woman has become blind after her monthly eye injections were delayed for four months during lockdown. Helen Jeremy, 73, said everything she enjoyed doing has “gone out of the window” after losing her eyesight.
Thousands more people in Wales are at risk of “irreversible sight loss” because of treatment delays, RNIB Cymru warns. The Welsh Government said health boards are working to increase services.
Mrs Jeremy, from Bridgend, has glaucoma and was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration four years ago. Monthly injections controlled the condition and meant she could still drive and play the piano. However, her appointments were cancelled when the pandemic struck and her eyesight deteriorated.
“I was panicking. It was terrifying. Because I’m a widow I’m on my own and it was awful,” she said. “Suddenly my eyesight was basically gone. By the time of my next appointment I was told there was no point in going on with these injections because the damage had been done to the back of my eye. Everything I loved doing has gone out of the window and my life’s changed totally.”
The NHS said it was just one of those things, nothing to do with them.
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said priority at the time was based on patient risk. “We are sorry that Mrs Jeremy sadly experienced deterioration in her eyesight a few weeks following her last treatment in July,” a spokesperson said. “Sadly, some eye conditions can become worse over time despite ongoing treatment.”
The reference to “treatment in July” is clearly misleading as it is the lack of treatment since March that is the problem, which they do not acknowledge. Mrs Jeremy was just not a “priority”. And now she is blind and can no longer do almost any of the things she loves.
Round-Up
- “We must see the bigger picture and not rely solely on one body’s advice” – CRG MP Esther McVey makes the case against lockdowns in the Telegraph
- “If you supported the lockdowns, shut the hell up about the reckoning” – Laura Perrins in the Conservative Woman has had enough of lockdown zealots belatedly showing concern about the economy when the devastation was entirely predictable, and in fact predicted (not least by Toby back in March)
- “Sir Philip Green’s TopShop empire Arcadia Group faces collapse within days” – More well-known high street names teeter on the brink, from Sky News
- “Fever, aches from Pfizer, Moderna jabs aren’t dangerous but may be intense for some” – Good guide to the side-effects of the Pfizer and Moderna RNA vaccines: “Higher than is ordinarily seen with most flu vaccines, even the high-dose ones”
- “Jordan Peterson v the crybullies” – Douglas Murray in UnHerd on the censorious woke staff at the publisher for the psychologist’s new book who are trying to get him cancelled
- “I am utterly confused about the Oxford vaccine” – Tom Chivers in UnHerd is having some doubts, in spite of having breathlessly welcomed the same vaccine on Tuesday. Lockdown Sceptics never fell for the hype
- “Corona and the tragedy of the rough sleeping pandemic” – Sean Walsh writes in CapX that lockdown is only making it harder to help people get off the streets
- “UK Government running ‘Orwellian’ unit to block release of ‘sensitive’ information” – Open Democracy release a new report detailing the disturbing, and likely illegal, Government concealment and obfuscation operation running out of Michael Gove’s office
- “Court decides that quarantine in state of alert is illegal” – Further coverage from Portugal News of the Court of Appeal decision that the PCR test “is unable to determine, beyond reasonable doubt, that such positivity result corresponds, in fact, to the infection of a person by the SARS-CoV-2 virus”, first reported in Lockdown Sceptics almost two weeks ago
- “Cornwall offers compelling evidence that staycations don’t spread Covid” – Simon Parker in the Telegraph draws attention to more of the kind of evidence that is so glaringly obvious there’s no chance at all that SAGE will see it
- “£6m borrowed for every Covid death: Economist calculates terrifying price UK’s paying for pandemic” – Christopher Snowden in the Mail reports on the eye-watering lack of proportion in the Government’s spendthrift response to the virus
- “The Government’s tin-eared, patronising Covid lecturing is growing more irritating by the day” – Another solid piece from Ross Clark in the Telegraph
- “Warning! Britons’ freedoms being taken from us by No 10’s Covid power grab” – Good sceptical comment from Clare Fox in the usually pro-lockdown Express
- “The new Swedens? European countries shunning winter restrictions” – Annabel Fenwick Elliot in the Telegraph has a look at the few European countries refusing to follow the herd. Who would have thought that in 2020 Belarus would be the freest country in Europe?
- “Tier 2 rules means diners and drinkers must leave pubs and restaurants once food is finished” – More tidings of comfort and joy
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Three today: “Tears of Rage” by The Band, “Ain’t Nobody’s Business if I do” by Billie Holiday and “Mad World” by Tears for Fears.
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.
Sharing Stories
Some of you have asked how to link to particular stories on Lockdown Sceptics so you can share it. To do that, click on the headline of a particular story and a link symbol will appear on the right-hand side of the headline. Click on the link and the URL of your page will switch to the URL of that particular story. You can then copy that URL and either email it to your friends or post it on social media. Please do share the stories.
Social Media Accounts
You can follow Lockdown Sceptics on our social media accounts which are updated throughout the day. To follow us on Facebook, click here; to follow us on Twitter, click here; to follow us on Instagram, click here; to follow us on Parler, click here; and to follow us on MeWe, click here.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, it’s the news that Eric Clapton has joined Van Morrison in his anti-lockdown “Save Live Music” campaign with a new collaborative song “Stand and Deliver” – and been called a “white supremacist” for his trouble. National File has the story.
Legendary rock-and-roll guitarist and vocalist Eric Clapton is collaborating with Van Morrison on a song called “Stand and Deliver” that is critical of United Kingdom’s laughably stringent Covid lockdowns and their effects on live music. Predictably, liberals on Twitter are seething uncontrollably over the news.
Clapton, the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, told Variety magazine that he chose to collaborate with Morrison on the song after finding the effect of lockdowns on musicians “deeply upsetting”.
“We must stand up and be counted because we need to find a way out of this mess. The alternative is not worth thinking about. Live music might never recover,” Clapton stated.
Morrison, who founded the Save Live Music campaign, said “Eric’s recording is fantastic and will clearly resonate with the many who share our frustrations,” adding, “It is heart-breaking to see so many talented musicians lack any meaningful support from the Government, but we want to reassure them that we are working hard every day to lobby for the return of live music, and to save our industry.”
The attacks on Clapton from unknown verified profiles on Twitter began almost immediately. Buzzwords such as “white supremacist,” stemming from Clapton’s collaboration with Morrison and off-the-cuff remarks he made onstage in support of British nationalism in 1976, appeared at the vanguard of the outrage machine.
“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 £1.99 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 masks in shops here.
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
If you’re a shop owner and you want to let your customers know you want be insisting on face masks or asking them what their reasons for exemption are, you can download a friendly sign to stick in your window here.
And here’s an excellent piece about the ineffectiveness of masks by a Roger W. Koops, who has a doctorate in organic chemistry.
Stop Press: A maskless woman in a supermarket was issued by police with a fixed penalty notice even though she explained to them to them that she was exempt on health grounds. The Mail has the story.
Footage shows two officers from West Midlands Police handing the female customer a fixed penalty notice, saying that she has “broken a guideline”.
A policewoman explains that she can take the fine to court and show her “burden of proof” while the shopper claims that she is exempt from wearing a face covering.
Towards the start of the clip, the male police officer says: “What we’re going to do, we’re going to take this lady’s details.” The man filming asks “what for?” before the policeman urges him to listen to the other officer, who says: “If we give you a fixed penalty notice, what it then does, you take it to court and you show your burden of proof then to the court.”
The female customer says “I don’t need to”, before the policeman responds: “Yes you do.” The policewoman says that, as officers, they “do not have to ask for proof of her exemption” but that they can ask what it is “in a conversation”.
The customer then interjects: “Hold on, hold on. I’ve just shown you my card, I’ve explained my situation.” The policeman replies: “You showed me a card that you printed on the internet. That’s not valid”, to which the customer responds: “So?” He responds: “Because you haven’t got a certificate or a doctor’s note, the onus is on yourself.”
The shopper says: “I can prove to you here that my son’s girlfriend has ordered me a card, which I just said to you, I only texted the other day saying ‘has my card come yet?’ I can prove to you here that she’s put ‘yes, it does take a few weeks, I think my mum’s took a few weeks as well’.”
The camera operator questions whether she has broken the law, to which the policeman says she has “broken a guideline”.
It’s a funny kind of “guideline” that can land you a fine and in court.
The police officers are wrong of course. There is no requirement to produce a certificate or doctor’s note and there is nothing “invalid” about an exemption card. Government guidance explains: “If you have an age, health or disability reason for not wearing a face covering: you do not routinely need to show any written evidence of this; you do not need to show an exemption card. This means that you do not need to seek advice or request a letter from a medical professional about your reason for not wearing a face covering.” Furthermore, people are told to be “mindful and respectful” of the circumstances of people unable to wear a mask: “Some people are less able to wear face coverings, and the reasons for this may not be visible to others.”
Someone needs to tell the police officers. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that West Midlands Police has any intention of doing so.
The Great Barrington Declaration
The Great Barrington Declaration, a petition started by Professor Martin Kulldorff, Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Jay Bhattacharya calling for a strategy of “Focused Protection” (protect the elderly and the vulnerable and let everyone else get on with life), was launched last month and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it ever since. If you Googled it a week after launch, the top hits were three smear pieces from the Guardian, including: “Herd immunity letter signed by fake experts including ‘Dr Johnny Bananas’.” (Freddie Sayers at UnHerd warned us about this the day before it appeared.) On the bright side, Google UK has stopped shadow banning it, so the actual Declaration now tops the search results – and Toby’s Spectator piece about the attempt to suppress it is among the top hits – although discussion of it has been censored by Reddit. The reason the zealots hate it, of course, is that it gives the lie to their claim that “the science” only supports their strategy. These three scientists are every bit as eminent – more eminent – than the pro-lockdown fanatics so expect no let up in the attacks. (Wikipedia has also done a smear job.)
You can find it here. Please sign it. Now over 700,000 signatures.
Update: The authors of the GDB have expanded the FAQs to deal with some of the arguments and smears that have been made against their proposal. Worth reading in full.
Update 2: Many of the signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration are involved with new UK anti-lockdown campaign Recovery. Find out more and join here.
Update 3: You can watch Sunetra Gupta set out the case for “Focused Protection” here and Jay Bhattacharya make it here.
Update 4: The three GBD authors plus Prof Carl Heneghan of CEBM have launched a new website collateralglobal.org, “a global repository for research into the collateral effects of the COVID-19 lockdown measures”. Follow Collateral Global on Twitter here.
Judicial Reviews Against the Government
There are now so many JRs being brought against the Government and its ministers, we thought we’d include them all in one place down here.
First, there’s the Simon Dolan case. You can see all the latest updates and contribute to that cause here.
Then there’s the Robin Tilbrook case. You can read about that and contribute here.
Then there’s John’s Campaign which is focused specifically on care homes. Find out more about that here.
There’s the GoodLawProject’s Judicial Review of the Government’s award of lucrative PPE contracts to various private companies. You can find out more about that here and contribute to the crowdfunder here.
The Night Time Industries Association has instructed lawyers to JR any further restrictions on restaurants, pubs and bars.
And last but not least there’s the Free Speech Union‘s challenge to Ofcom over its ‘coronavirus guidance’. You can read about that and make a donation here.
Stop Press: Simon Dolan has a piece in Conservative Woman on “Boris’s cruel Christmas joke” that is worth a read.
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.
Quotation Corner
It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.
Mark Twain
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.
Charles Mackay
They who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good, or else that it’s a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions…
Ideology – that is what gives the evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
No lesson seems to be so deeply inculcated by the experience of life as that you never should trust experts. If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome: if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent: if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe. They all require to have their strong wine diluted by a very large admixture of insipid common sense.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
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.
Sir Winston Churchill
If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science.
Richard Feynman
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
C.S. Lewis
The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.
Albert Camus
We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.
Carl Sagan
Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
George Orwell
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Marcus Aurelius
Necessity is the plea for every restriction of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
William Pitt the Younger
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 hard work (although we have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending us stories and links). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links we should include in future updates, email us here. (Don’t assume we’ll pick them up in the comments.)
And Finally…
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Eeh by gum.
WRITE TO EVERY MP TO VOTE AGAINST THESE COViD MEASUREs
tell them it is ruining your lives – businesses – jobs
Dear Second
We must write to EVERY MP and tell them you damaging these lockdowns are to your life – you jobs – you businesses and health.
Ask them why is is good for Amazon to thrive while local shops go bust.
Ask them why is it good for Starbuck to thrive with takeaway while local pubs go bust.
EMAIL ADDRESS HERE
https://www.ceoemail.com/uk…
Here is a link to a .csv file with the addresses of all MPs. Opens with spreadsheet.
https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/foi/foi-and-eir/commons-foi-disclosures/members-of-the-house-of-commons-and-members-staff/members-contact-list-2019/
Here is a link to a .csv file with the addresses of all MPs. Opens with spreadsheet.
https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/foi/foi-and-eir/commons-foi-disclosures/members-of-the-house-of-commons-and-members-staff/members-contact-list-2019/
Done!
In addition some of us we need to stand in the elections against these people.
Local Elections are in May 2021. This will provide a stronger response for national elections in 4 years time.
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/candidate-or-agent/local-elections-england
A boycott of the LibLabConSNP misfits as a protest I am a member of the SDP so I won’t support the LibLabConSNP as they are rotten and corrupt
Wrote my first ever letter to my MP yesterday!
Tell them that Covid19 is not a pathogenic virus. It can’t be purified and it cannot be isolated. Tell him/her that they are being duped. Refer them to many studies that support this reality.
“EEE by gum” = A craze in the late 90’s in northern nightclubs
An oldie, but a goodie.
I’d still like to propose “Iron Hand” by Dire Straits as a theme song, on account of it being about police abuse of power.
Ever since reading Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ (see his reference to dogs being used to police the other animals) I’ve been concerned by the way in which Police (and the power of arrest) are utilised by Authoritarians to suppress dissent and to cower the population into compliance. It really does seem to be high time that the Police were de-fanged of their power to abuse us.
Some of the comments I read on the Daily Mail today were saying that perhaps the BLM protestors were right and it’s time to defund the police. Interesting turn of events.
Animal Farm describes our current state with deadly precision.
Orwell makes it utterly clear that the sole reason why the Pigs succeed is that the other animals are too stupid to stop them.In particular, the animals can’t remember a time when life was any better, and they can’t detect a lie, however blatant.
Only Benjamin realised what was happening. But he did nothing to stop it. He just wanted to survive.
Bare survival isn’t enough.
Benjamin didn’t have the backing of LS!
We are in big trouble. May 26 Windows on the World RBN May 26, 2020.
When Cmmings went to Barnard Castle last May he popped in to talk with people at GlaxoSmithKline.
I guessed as much. What is your evidence?
Ask Mark Windows. He has more information on it than I do.
And the cheap bastards couldn’t be bothered to chopper him there.
https://secureservercdn.net/198.71.233.107/7mw.a02.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Stay-Pfizer-vaccine-phase-3-trial.pdf
A notice to the FDA to halt Vaccine Pfizer phase III trials was put in yesterday, all data based on faulty PCR test. Interesting move
And how does that work in a randomised placebo controlled trial? Does the pcr test, whether faulty or not, differentially decide outcome for active vaccine vs. Placebo.
Using a blatantly unfit for purpose test to justify an unneeded, hardly tested and liability free vaccine. That sounds about right.
A senior government source told the Sun: “Boris will not countenance hospitals overflowing like they did in Italy. Nor can we get to the stage where we have to cancel operations and treatments. In all likelihood, the tiers have to stay.”
A fancy way of saying: “I’m a liar, and the PM is a liar”.
In March hospital staff spent a week on overloaded switchboards phoning patients to cancel almost all operations, investigations and consultations to ‘clear for covid’.
For three months they did almost nothing except deal with covid including taking over two specialist departments and closing others, but not at a level to overwhelm them.
In the following three months of ‘relaxed lockdown’ non-covid activity picked up a little though mostly day patients only.
Just as we were being told that the NHS were preparing to avoid being overwhelmed again . . .
Activity is rapidly returning to normal across all departments with only ITU being used for Covid.
I find that rather odd.
Is that the case at a hospital near you?
Yes, a large regional hospital to which all Covid patients are sent except for the asymptomatic.
I was pre-oped on a mid-March morning and my “urgent” surgery was cancelled that very same afternoon. Out of the blue in July I got a call telling me surgery was scheduled for the following week and “Do you understand that you must quarantine for 14 days before coming into hospital?” It wasn’t a request to do it since the surgery was six days away, it was an invitation to lie. So I lied. Additionally, I was asked to go to hospital for PCR swabbing & another pre-op (the last one expired) a couple of days before surgery. That didn’t fit with the quarantine criteria either. I concluded that the staff knew the guidelines were a load of woo, and were doing their utmost to get waiting lists moving again.
Yes, I think that’s exactly what is being done to you.
Hey, I read Simon Stevens’ piece in The Spectator yesterday, he said you were all doing brilliantly, pulling together & treatment levels were back to normal.
Stop moaning, he said it’s all fine if you can just keep the patients away…… he linked to some of his better TikTok videos too, to show what a busy boy he’s been.
Simon the liar.
What a cunt
They allowed me not to wear a mask on the ward (I was the only patient in a six bed bay anyway!). If I went walkabout they asked me to wear a mask off the ward to keep up appearances and not bring down wrath upon them!
In other words, they know the vile things are useless, but dare not say so.
If I wear my face mask below my nose I will be subject to formal disciplinary. The virus is no longer the problem in the NHS it is the management of it that is collapsing the system. Like the risk assessments that have taken out a significant proportion of staff from undertaking direct patient care.
I reckon that’s a good appreciation of the situation.
It’s always dangerous to use one’s own perceptions as indicating the general situation, but my experience is of some really good staff making the best of a bad job.
There is certainly more activity than there was in the panic shut-down in April – although hospitals seem less busy because of the block on visitors. There are obviously also problems from (a) staff being quarantined for a sniffle and (b) pressure on beds from anstisocial distancing measures which reduce capacity.
But despite all the measures, real Covid spread seems to be largely a nosocomial phenomenon
The problem is clearly at the politicized administrative level, who are responsible for the ‘rules’ and who perpetuate the key myths, such as PCR testing representing real ‘cases and the efficacy of wearing cloth masks.
What really concerns me is that highly experienced medical staff are subscribing to the official narrative without much questioning – despite some who are sceptical (and, remember, they’ve also been threatened).
Yep. Spot on.
It’s almost as if the NHS is being deliberately and systematically destroyed, under the slogan of ‘Save our NHS.’ Surely the regime would not be so cynical?
Perhaps front line managers are trying to save themselves in the eyes of the public despite mandates from Whitehall.
Well those managers need to do a much better job.
No it is exactly this and the mind recoils from the fact.
Nor does this reversal apply only to the destruction of what is left of the health service under the PPP of what is now the CHS.
Deliberate and systematic destruction.
An act of revolutionary war working through through our own minds.
The virus actually being eradicated is not the novel ‘plague’.
Howbeit we are deceived.
Whether Sars-cov-2 coronavirus exists or not, Covid-19 is a mega scam and the reaction to it by government is fraud on an apocalyptic scale. All of this is being done simply, to get one of Bill Gate’s several depopulating vaccines coursing through your veins.
Who is going to pay for all these vaccines?
Shame on you for doubting Boris.
It’s exactly the playbook. Whatever they call it, it’s the opposite. Whatever they say it’s for, it’s for the opposite. standard psyop.
Johnson should have never been allowed anywhere near public office
The only public office fit for Johnson is a jail, waiting trial for mass murder.
This ****show ends only one of two ways. This is a global coup against humanity, and if we don’t win, we really are finished. Take it very, very seriously, please. And for any doubters – if this doesn’t look like a conspiracy and enemy action to you, what on earth would?
Don’t worry, I know exactly how deep the shit is and yes, as you say, we are in the process of a global coup, nothing less.
Bill Gates has spent the best part of two decades in the third world, perfecting his genocidal vaccines, while leaving a trail of death and suffering in his wake. And now with the determined help of our deeply corrupt government, Gates is coming for the rest of us. Those of us who refuse the vaccines will first be marginalised, but only briefly, before being rounded up and sent on to the death camps.
Our main chance of defeating Gates and our corrupt government is for a huge mass refusal to accept the toxic vaccines. Resistance needs to start now by refusal to wear masks, social distance, or abide by any other of the “scamdemic” restrictions.
And then be executed along with his nut nuts
Yes, death will be everywhere.
What mass murder, the UK death rate is a smidge above 5 year average, its an incredibly boring year for excess death.
.
Mask Murder.
There was no reason at the time to think he’ll create this mess. Unlike Nigel, he stuck with Brexit. He pushed for it, then continued pushing for it when Theresa May was PM. After he took office, he still pushed for it. He was on good terms with Trump and it looked like he would be a bit closer to what a Tory PM should be. And then he went completely off the rails. The Boris running the country now seems like a different person to the Boris that took office. Of course, he’s probably just showing his true colours, but there was no reason back then to not vote for him.
Perhaps someone reminded Boris, about those very indelicate photos, that had somehow found their way into the wrong hands. And of course, people wouldn’t be over sympathetic if they found out about that breathtakingly large nest egg, that was deposited into one of those discreet off shore accounts, that some politicians will always need.
Show no mercy.
Anybody care to calculate the deaths, serious injury and economic damage caused by the past 20 years of terrorism and compare that wrought by the claque of 4 over the past 8 months ?
Terrorism?Ten thousand Carloses couldn’t spread as much terror, misery and death as half a Wancock.
Carlos was also rather more selective in his targeting. Wancock targets everyone.
Wancock wants you to be injected with one of Bill Gate’s hardly tested and liability free vaccines and that’s when the real mass murder will begin.
A year ago I’d have laughed at this. I’m not laughing now!
Wancock is an equal opportunity sadist.
two words Domestic Terrorism
Absolutely I’ve said this since April when I first saw posters saying “Anyone can spread it. If you go out you can spread it. People will die.” Psychological abuse. Terrorism.
Anyone can shine joy or extend love. A mind of malice fears, hates and destroys, as if to ‘build back better’ as an aggressively defended ‘masking ‘virtue’ under which hate devours from within. Spiritual destruction works the undermining of the capacity to recognise and share love, as the raising of conflict against the potential for a true communication or witness. The subordination of heart and mind to fear and lack – which engender conflicted purpose, must mask over as a mind ‘control’. “And WHO told you you were naked?” The term immunity is not IN the body but as the resonant integrity of aligned and unified purpose. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men can never build back Humpty again. Wholeness is innate to awareness of being – or Given in our Creation – as the unselfconscious joy of a life that gives and receives as one. The Script playing out as a world, is reiterating its hidden foundation: What the world is to you, is determined by what you give it. This truth is hidden by the wish to hide our fear – and its cause OUT and away from a masked over sense of control that… Read more »
what an absolute cunt you are
Sounds like a load of pseudo-religious bollocks to me.
English please
There is a transnational agenda that operates the Trojan ploy.
So your two words will be invoked as the justification to persecute and deny those who do not yield to the knee by compliance to its dictate.
And children will be turned against their parents.
Deceits go forth to multiply and return with interest.
Garbage in; garbage out.
Ooh, are you American? “Garbage in, garbage out” is American English. If you are, it explains a lot. I’m American (/British) by the way.
Troll.
Hmm, the last sentence is apt
Hard to say exactly, but Johnson and his band of loonies must be streets ahead.
All false flag shite probably the last real one was Brighton because it was killing them, amazing how the wrag heads have self isolated this year.
I just read – unverified, as it was published in Metro – that, under the reintroduced Tier System, the UK will be out an eye-watering £900,000, 000 a DAY If true, not only will the Johnson Junta be committing regular, everyday acts of terrorism, but the grandest of Grand Larceny, as well.
Oh no, it will be covered. I can already see the title: “Far right conspiracy theorists put public safety at risk, protesting against 5G”. Or “Covidiots assemble against regulations, risking increased strain on the NHS”. The BBC won’t miss such an opportunity to kiss some government behind.
Influenza is a complex of viruses that usually will have at least one coronavirus present. So it is very likely that if you test for covid you will get false positives from influenza. Not to mention that the symptoms for covid are identical, so if they don’t do the test and they have a patient with fever and coughing, what do you think the diagnostic is going to be?
Important we get this right. Influenza is a specific virus type not a collection of various types. Influenza like illness (ILI) is a term used to describe illness presenting with similar symptoms. ILI can and often does include multiple infection pathogens when the patient or deceased is tested. We do not routinely test for ILI but do make assumptions from reports and analysis to calculate likely vaccine success rates and overall mortality etc. We now have a situation where C19 is being increasingly used to cover all bases and suggesting that other respiratory pathogens are not present or not relevant.The data has been mis managed and abused for political means since March.
Fair enough. Thanks.
Covid-19 appears to be little more than very expensively repackaged influenza. Very strange indeed, that influenza has suddenly felt the sudden urge to take a sabbatical.
SARS-cov2 is about twice as transmissible as influenza. It should not be surprising that restrictions to control the spread of one virus are more effective on a less transmissible one. That’s been noted first in the Southern Hemisphere and then the north. There will likely be a small surge in flu after Christmas (peak is normally second week) due to the holiday season.
No you won’t. There are FDA and EMA approved tests that will give you a read for influenza or Covid. Symptoms may present similar, but testing will not. PCR testing was not invented in 2020.
I’ve had flu twice and the symptoms are very different to the mild symptoms most people get from Covid.
dear all WRITE TO EVERY MP TO VOTE AGAINST THESE COViD MEASUREs
tell them it is ruining your lives – businesses – jobs
My MP doesn’t care, as long as she is getting paid for doing F. A. and her pension is guaranteed she will not be rocking any boat.
I don’t know how many but there have been reports of people dying of ‘flu’ before Covid was supposed to have arrived in Europe being found to have Covid when later autopsied.
The purpose was to explore the timeline rather than the extent of early contagion.
A link to the attached was posted here 2 days ago.
It is hosted on the World Economic Forum YouTube channel which claims 547,000 subscribers (up 1k in two days) yet it has had only a minuscule 1.7k views which is pathetic.
10% of those viewers downvote the video.
If things are quiet do take a look at the comments, the WEF Media Team will not be happy 😛.
Normalising China’s Health Credit has begun.
Yesterday Jeremy Vine was exploring why China, with a claimed only 5,000 covid deaths, was ’20 times more successful at dealing with Covid’ than the UK.
The BBC China correspondent Christopher ? explained how things rapidly went back to near normal in China generally and Wuhan in particular with glowing descriptions of bustling streets and mass pool parties.
He largely put this down to China’s Health App which can narrow down Covid hot spots to very precise locations and be used to implement highly localised lockdown measures* although he did concede these local lockdowns could be draconian he was all in favour.
A young man who was clearly familiar with the negative aspects of the Credit Health App was allowed to put over a few points but was somewhat inarticulate.
*How very topical to the very day, see todays first item by Will Jones.
The UK Gov’t wants this inhumane Orwellian dystopia too. No autonomy. No privacy. Just constant state surveillance. China is pushing this technology on the rest of the world
It’s worse than any virus and has nothing to do with health and everything to do with control
The China correspondent covered this by saying it doesn’t matter if the figures were out by a factor if 100, what mattered was the shape of the curve which appears to show that they got on top of the problem very quickly.
That would be the same shaped curve as we had, then…..
Dunno, it was on the Radio.
Apparently the magic jab produces ‘intense’ side effects.
That’s on healthy volunteers.
What are those ”intense’ effects going to do to frail over-eighties?
Well, we’ll soon find out, because the victims won’t be given any choices.
The grim inevitable conclusion to all of these mad experiments.
This Government did promise it would have a final solution to the problem of elderly adult social care it is just that nobody thought it would be this sort of ‘final solution’!
Final Solution? That rings a bell.
They are going to start vaccinations in december in bristol where army are setting up a mega-vaxx centre at football club. Aim to vaxx 100k victims a week!
This is now starting to get real and the propoganda to get vaxx is going to be off the scale.
I shall decline but i can see a point where to travel or such like this will be required and will be forced to have it.
Worrying times my friends, as we proceed into a jab, tag and gag society!
Note from the 77th Brigade. This “Sue” person (clearly a pseudonym for a person threatening the NWO by trying to take action through the courts) said “…victims a week“. Find her and punish her for telling the truth!
P.S. Only joking, love you really.
Sue, it’s called unity.
Tptb will pretend we are the minority so more folk will allow themselves to be jagged.
If everyone who was against such measures united then it would show anyone who was unsure that there are other schools of thought.
Civil war in the west is coming unfortunately. Gotta see there is another side. Get on board and start preparing.
I doubt whether Army personnel are legally qualified to perform such actions. Someone look into it. Maybe Dr. Vernon Coleman could tell us.
I accept that there is something very dangerous spreading through the land.
The rate of spread is increasing
However, over 99% of people survive it
So dangerous the full security apparatus of the state, including the BBC, the police, the security services, and GCHQ must be deployed against it
So dangerous that it’s an immediate £10,000 fine for anyone who organises an event where it could be spread
Oh sorry!!! I’m talking about the truth, what are you talking about?
Unfortunately it is making slow progress, as the quote in this newsletter says, people go mad in herds, they recover their senses slowly one by one.
I was browsing pandemics on the web;
Black Death/Great Plague; various comments indicating it caused upto 50% population reduction
Spanish flu, again various reports of it causing between 1-5% fall in population
Coronavirus 2020 England/Wales the registration of births was suspended for part of 2020 so we do not have complete figures but based on historic birth figures we look on target for a population increase of 20,000 – 30,000 that gives an increase of around 0.05%.
And so all this hoo-haa over a virus that despite all it could throw at us has seen an increase in the total population, unprecedented virus Mr Hancock? more like unprecedented nonsense.
Appears the lockdown is successful in slowing the spread of the truth, no wonder they are so keen on it
I had to read the Cecil B comment twice before I realised that he was referring ironically to the truth, not the scam.
I must wash my brain a bit more, I was clearing close to believing the crap that the government puts out. It must have been an infection from listening to the BBC news this morning.
That article about madness (where that quote is from) was fantastic. I loved it at the time, but truly didn’t comprehend just how slowly that “waking up” actually happens.
I was horrified to hear someone claim (possibly with as much veracity as other “climate-change” bollocks) that Genghis Khan killed so many people that the temperature of the planet was altered.
Somehow, I don’t think there’s much chance of the coronavirus disease coming close to causing this sort of mayhem, but on the other hand, the coronabollocks response to the problem almost certainly will!
“someone claim (possibly with as much veracity as other “climate-change” bollocks) that Genghis Khan killed so many people that the temperature of the planet was altered“
Remarkable just how fantastically distorted some people’s basic sense of proportion is, on certain issues. Only ideology and indoctrination can achieve that kind of warping of perception of reality on a wide scale.
Genghis Khan fathered so many children (mostly through rapes) that he is the direct ancestor of 10% or so Asians today.
So one in ten of the curries I have eaten was prepared and served by a relative of late great Genghis?
Covid – So dangerous that we have to be tested to see if we have it or not. So deadly that if we test positive for it and we’re asymptomatic we need to stay home for two weeks
It is the truth that the Government’s afraid of
Which is no doubt why Simon Dolan’s appeal hasn’t been resolved yet. I suspect that one judge may be showing a faint gleam of integrity and the Fascist Junta is busy bullying it out of him.
Well yes, Boris is likely offering the judges a very small share of the conscience money, he got from Bill Gates.
Nice. Your name vill join “Sue” on ze list! Vot is it?
Don’t tell him your name Pike!!
The response from the NHS concerning that poor lady who lost her sight is a neat summation of how unbelievably callous and cruel the post-Covid healthcare establishment has now become, under the direction of a government so blind to the mountains of human suffering it continues to cause that the word “genocidal” wouldn’t look out of place when applied to them.
This is a lady who will never be able to see the faces of her friends or grandchildren ever again, never be able to watch the sun rise or set. The fact that the “apology” she received was tantamount to a half-hearted flash of contrition accompanied with an “oh well, that’s life” is truly, truly disgusting.
I wonder if this would have happened to the mother of an MP or an NHS executive?
The mothers of MPs and NHS executives would go private.
If my mum were still alive her annual eye checkup would now be 6 or 7 months overdue leading not only to possible eyesight deterioration but worry and anxiety as well.
My mother died peacefully in her sleep in March this year. I never thought I would say this, Karenovirus, but I now feel that she really dodged a bullet of utter misery.
Proof, if any were needed that the Rapists Dad is a heartless spiteful twat
A sordid little wrinkle-necked tortoise aspiring to be Stalin, and not far from succeeding.
This is the story that has caused me the most sadness this morning. Back in April people were warning that their regular appointments for macular degeneration treatments were being cancelled and they were frightened for the consequences. Now we are seeing those consequences.
It was all so obviously going to happen.
Go blind or risk having / spreading a disease that 99.7% of people recover from. We wouldn’t even be talking about this in a bad flu year with a higher IFR. The government has lost its marbles and it’s terrifying.
Yes me too, but the, it’s sad but we must all make sacrifices type bs is what gets me. Excuse me person on full pay, a guaranteed pension, a pay rise this year, can you tell me exactly the sacrifices you have made? How about we stop your pay till you start providing the service you are paid for. You know protecting us!!
Anyone who thinks they can depend on the NHS to get healthcare is living in dreamland
Having worked in the NHS I can confirm that any apologies about mistakes or shortcomings are nearly always shallow and dismissive.
I expect similar comments will be made to people who experience debilitating side effects from the inadequately tested and rushed through Covid vaccine.
They’ve probably already got them written out.
“For struggling businesses this will probably mean their credit lines will be pulled from under them, and they will go out of business.”
Don’t understand this argument. Deferred tax liabilities *are* a credit line. If you have no more credit left then you *are* bust and should fold – releasing your resources for superior operations to use.
The narrative is completely confused. On one hand there are complaints about zombie businesses being propped up by low interest rates, and then on the other hand they want to give banks preference over assets.
Businesses come and go. They should always be treated like cattle, not pets.
It’s really not that simple. The credit lines are a life support right now for what were previously successful businesses. The past 8 months have not been a free market. Therefore, I don’t think the same free market principles apply.
Exactly.
The Government cancelled the free market and should pick up the bill, yes I know that means sharing it out among us through taxes.
Put all the government members on welfare.
There’s a difference between a business which stays alive owing to extraordinarily low interest rates, and one which is struggling to stay alive because it is not allowed to trade.
I read that article as saying that because HMRC were about to exert a primary claim on a business’s debts, then other creditors, in order to avoid increasing their risk level, will be obliged to wind down their exposure to that business accordingly, thus in many cases tipping the business over the edge. Thus many businesses, which, in usual times would be entirely viable, risk being forced to close – with all the misery and economic damage that entails.
This seems to me to be a very important matter.
But if I haven’t understood it correctly I’m quite happy for someone to explain it to me. (I don’t run a business btw.)
True- but if a business goes because it is not permitted to conduct business (while others are exempt), that is not the market picking winners and losers, it is the government, and that is a big problem.
The government is intentionally not allowing a Force Majeure clause that would appear in any standard contract. In this case taxes would be waived as it was the government’s actions that caused the harm. If people had stopped using the business naturally as a reaction to the alleged pandemic and the government had not intervened then there’s no case.
What’s happened here is the governmenr is saying well we gave you aid so pay up. Problem is the aid was pennies and they are asking for pounds.
There’s another word for that: extortion.
Government, make that Global, extortion racket.
Everything you say would be fair enough for normal times. However. many previously viable businesses have just been told to shut their doors for months on end. It really isn’t t a level playing field if a local one man gift shop has many of the ongoing costs of running a business such as rent but is, by law, prevented from earning any income, whereas massive online retailers continue to be allowed to thrive.
BTW I do not run a shop.
That’s exactly the point. The government should be, and remain, last in the queue. They produce nothing, leech off everyone, and give nothing back that could not be bought better and more cheaply from private suppliers.
Contrast the state police and private security in South Africa. When the private security turn up to an alarm call, householders are relieved. When the SA state police turn up, people feel the same as when the British police turn up at a peaceful protest march…
You also believe in the Magic Money Tree so no surprise there.
Let me explain in simple terms. Company has assets of 300k and debts of 400k, of which, 250k is to HMRC, 30k to suppliers and 120k to bank. Under old rules, if company goes bust, everyone, including HMRC takes a haircut. Bank still gets 90k back.
Under new rules, HMRC gets 250k, leaving 50k to the bank (2nd level security) and nothing to suppliers.
Yes, HMRC have been reluctant to make companies insolvent and would always try to negotoate a time to pay arrangement as the tax debt would be last in the queue for any payments from the insolvency. Now HMRC will get the tax debt repaid (assuming there are assets) and the supply chain will get nothing putting more pressure on the suppliers. If this filters down to bankruptcy there will be many self employed on very shaky ground. Destroying small and medium businesses as well as the self employed.
Businesses are not normally deliberately and systematically destroyed on a global scale under the guise of public health as we’re seeing now – to facilitate a Great Reset. This is a plunder and the billionaire vultures are having a feeding frenzy
Since you have argued here for the free use of the magic money forest, shouldn’t the government just declare a national “tax holiday” for the duration of the “emergency”?
Would have no cost, according to your theory, and most of the losses are being caused by government action.
Or by ITV,Channel 4,5 or Sky.
I believe past protests were steamed on RT website – how ironic! Not sure if today’s march for freedom will be.
I wish all those going today a peaceful and safe march. Unfortunately i think the police will be there in significant numbers and make arrests to make a point.
It is truly disgusting that the supposedly Russian-backed RT is more honest and reliable than the BBC.
No kidding. I’ve been quite surprised to see some good balanced debates on RT about all kinds of things. Something you rarely get any more in the western media. Bizarre times we live in!
RT is actually very good the BBC is British state run
Nothing disgusting about that, it’s simply fact.
Definitely a fact, and has been for some time. Al Jazeera, RT, Ruptly, and a number of others; all better by a long way than the MSM of any flavour and the BBC in particular.
Now is the winter,spring,summer and autumn (repeat) of our discontent.
With apologies to William Shakespeare.
The “substantial meal” thing reminds me of a practice in Elizabethan brothels – they got around some civil or church law or regulation designed to outlaw bawdy houses by putting out some kind of snack, which made them into a sort of inn. I believe the practice is alluded to in Measure For Measure.
Just as the turdgeon discovered that some people had bought tickets to fly from Glasgow to London at knockdown prices and then got pissed up in the airport bar without flying anywhere so it should be possible to order a ‘substantial’ meal, drink as much as you want without getting around to actually eating it.
I saw one pub advertsising such a move but inspector Knacker doesn’t like to have his brief authority undermined so I suspect most pubs will avoid risking their license. It seems most tier two pubs are staying shut because it just isn’t worth it. I hate what this country has become.
I believe that’s now called the Irish Holiday
Thank you, mhcp. I have stolen that for use later.
I quite liked this.
Doesn’t work though. A cafe bar near us tried a substantial meal deal when we were pushed into previous tier 3. One menu item and 6 drinks for £35. They got a visit from the covid wombles and were ordered to desist.
Fuck these covid wombles right off…what utter scum they are.
Is there any loophole involving BYOB?
I’ve had a quick look at my Complete Works of Shakespeare. Maybe it’s this bit in Act III Scene 2: “Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred; it is well allied; but it is impossible to extirp it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put down”.
Ain’t it ironic everyone in Tier 3 areas are livid. Here on LS we were livid back in April that we were in lockdown at all. Yet we were in a small minority as the polls supported lockdown by around 85% or higher. Sceptics were “selfish” or “granny killers” and subject to abuse. What a shame they all weren’t fuming 8 months ago because we may not now be in this mess.
If just, say, 20% of zombies had refused to wear muzzles then we wouldn’t be in this mess now.
Exactly! And if 20% refused now, this would be over very fast.
“Everyone was in the French Resistance”
Whereas in truth much of what considers itself the ‘responsible’ element of society, from the BBC down, was in the current equivalent of the milice. At least in France a few of the minor collaborators got payback. And Pierre Laval even got the chop. For these people, unfortunately, collaboration seems to have been a one way bet. Even the police who commit domestic terrorism today need not fear a moment for their pensions.
Most French police implemented the German occupation – the round-up of Jews for example was mostly a French police affair in France. After D-Day French police offices mostly turned documents detailing their cooperation with the Germans into bonfires, while German troops were leaving. Since De Gaulle needed the police he did not investigate them. For the most part targets of vengeance were “safe” targets – women who had slept with German soldiers etc.
Except the collaborators.
Isn’t it ironic that this is Lockdown 3? By the cock’s crow you will have betrayed me three times.
Much like those people in France and Holland after WW2 who claimed to be in the Resistance when it was nothing of the sort.
Dear First
We must write to EVERY MP and tell them you damaging these lockdowns are to your life – you jobs – you businesses and health.
Ask them why is is good for Amazon to thrive while local shops go bust.
Ask them why is it good for Starbuck to thrive with takeaway while local pubs go bust.
EMAIL ADDRESS HERE
https://www.ceoemail.com/uk…
This is better, I think.
Here is a link to a .csv file with the addresses of all MPs. Opens with spreadsheet.
https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/foi/foi-and-eir/commons-foi-disclosures/members-of-the-house-of-commons-and-members-staff/members-contact-list-2019/
We can’t let the NHS get overwhelmed. It’s the favourite argument of those who want more restrictions and more lockdown. It’s currently top story on the BBC News website: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55112078
But they never seem to think through the logic of this flimsy argument. If the NHS was to get overwhelmed, what would happen? Well I guess treatments would get cancelled and healthcare restricted for non covid patients. But this is EXACTLY what has happened for 9 months. The very thing these lockdown zealots want to avoid is actually happening for much, much longer than if we had no interventions at all.
Morons.
Good morning all!
My local Nightingale is reported to be taking in its first Covid patients, just in time to cross infect the cancer patients who have been sent there to try and reduce the backlog in Oncology
It is legally questionable whether they should be using the Public Health Act to address managerial failures with the NHS. We have had bad flu years before but we never invoked the Public Health act to restrict the Public and protect the NHS. The Public Health act is there to protect the health of the public not to bail out failed politicians and NHS managers.
I don’t have the legal knowledge but does the Public Health Act actually permit the locking down of a whole Society in this way? I cannot see that any risk to health right now is so great to allow this (the evidence is now very clear from all the stats). Similarly what about the Human Rights Act 1998, where is the proportionate risk now to override this?
I think that is part of the argument in the Simon Dolan legal challenge and is is also a point made by Lord Sumption. If Simon Dolan with all his money and Lord Sumption with all his legal knowledge are struggling to challenge all this there is little hope for the rest of us. I have spoken to Toby & Will who run this site about the legal side of all this and they have spoken to a lawyer but the conclusion is that the Simon Dolan case has put forward sound legal arguments and challenges and that really all we can do is to wait for a judgement, it is taking a long time. I think we all need to point our MPs to the fact that all the lockdown SIs written under the Public Health act have an opening justification; These Regulations are made in response to the serious and imminent threat to public health which is posed by the incidence and spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in England. The Secretary of State considers that the requirements imposed by these Regulations are proportionate to what they seek to achieve, which is a public health… Read more »
It’s simple, the Secretary of State was lying then and he’s never stopped lying since. That description fits with many more members of this deeply corrupt government.
If it’s such a threat then the govt need to explain why it was taken off the HCID list before the first lockdown.
Protect the NHS = Protect the NHS from patients
We should die at home and do the NHS a favour.
They’ve ignored the sick since March. Only Covid patients are being treated except for elderly Covid patients who are put on the DNR list. There are tens of thousands of people awaiting treatment so at some point the NHS will become increasingly busier, it’s not rocket science. This government should meet a firing squad.
Impeccable logic or, as the BBC would put it, detestable logic.
Dear Dr Whitford, I implore you to read, and consider carefully, the conclusions and recommendations to be found in the attached briefing document, written by a team of respected experts. The sheer damage now being inflicted on our economic, social and personal lives continues unabated, as the obsession with stopping the spread continues . Here in South Ayrshire, many of our small businesses have been obliged to close, yet again, while the rules imposed become ever more restrictive and invasive ,seemingly without any coherent foundation. No society can hope to maintain essential civic norms and social ,economic and personal well being when so many hitherto valued civil liberties are so drastically constrained, apparently with no end in sight. Plastic waste which cannot be recycled is steadily increasing, so how will this fit with Zero Waste Scotland’s objectives? Dental practices are still under severe pressure, as they cope with increased costs, reduced treatment sessions and rising waiting lists. Unemployment continues to take its toll: I know of one couple, both self employed and ,until March, successful and secure, now obliged to claim Universal Credit. Masks now inhibit normal human social discourse, with expressions impossible to read and speech frequently muffled, this… Read more »
Imagine if the UK Government had done a Belarus
If it had defied the orders of the organised entity that’s demanding every country locks down and said ‘NO’ to lockdowns, face masks, restrictions, vaccines
Life would be carrying on as normal. The economy would be healthy
No cancelled medical treatments. No lockdown suicides. Instead people looking forward to Christmas. Busy pubs and bustling town centres. It could have been so different
There would be hope for the future
The Path Not Taken.
If only we’d had the kind of “Churchillian” leader able and willing to defy the doomsters and panic-mongers.
I bet Thatcher would’ve done this.
Not clear if you mean she would have “done this” in the sense of the coronapanic or”done this” in the sense of what I said a Churchillian leader would have done.
We’ll never know, but as someone who supported her government at the time because of the disastrous stupidity of the 1970s, but who is nevertheless no uncritical Thatcher-worshipper, I think she’d have told the advisers telling her to panic not to talk such nonsense, and replaced them forthwith. And she wouldn’t have caved to the lefty panickers squealing about “putting money ahead of lives” and “herd immunity is eugenics”, as Corbyn and the Labour Party were doing in March.
I am also not uncritical about Mrs Thatcher but I think Mark is on the money here. She had a background in Chemistry and would not have been so in awe of ‘the science’ as the stupid oaf Johnson and the other morons in the Cabinet are.
It is a law that will never stand up in Court as Substantial is entirely subjective.
And the rationale behind it is predicated on the PCR test which is not fit for purpose. Could Tim Martin take the government to court I wonder?
I expect he would prefer that we all bought substantial meals from his pubs though, to be fair, he has come out full on sceptic in this months Weatherspoons News.
Yes NN. They often assume (quite fairly), particularly in the elderly.
Some one I now has died due to withdrawal of normal health care. His wife is Philippine like my wife . I new his children as they grew up often buying them xmas presents . If you ring your GP you will get an answer message. It says if you have any of the symptoms of Covid do not go to your GP do not go to Hospital stay at home and self isolate. That you can go to a website to check your symptoms you can ring 101 for advice. Do not go to your GP do not go to Hospital stay at home and self isolate. This is like saying stay at home and die. He followed the advice when he got flu like symptoms. Normally he would have seen his GP. But you can not get GP appointments I have tried for my wife. If you are lucky you will get a phone appointment but they no longer seem available. Instead you can go online and fill a questionnaire. You will get a email reply with a prescription to pick up from the chemist. Instead of going to his GP he stayed at home and got sicker… Read more »
Another NHS murder.
The NHS needs protecting all right. From criminal proceedings.
There will be a reckoning and they will not escape.
Maybe it could mean the end of public health care… Maybe a silver lining?
What I’m more worried about is that it could mean the start of public health care here in the US. That’s about how well we learn our lessons, it seems. Just double down on all of history’s biggest failures!
I’m inclined to agree. As a middle aged woman concerned about weight gain, 400 calories is a substantial meal. A glass of wine could be 200 and the other 200 a bag of pork scratchings.
If you drink your bread isn’t that substantial? Sure feels that way after I’ve had one too many.
You could always say you are doing slim fast and the bottle of pink stuff on your table is your dinner!
The item yesterday about West Midlands police and facemasks has set me checking up. The headline was that West Midlands police issue a fine re lack of a facemask, when in fact they have simply issued a fixed penalty notice. This gives you the option of accepting and paying the penalty stated or opting to put your alleged offence forward for consideration of being summonsed. If you take the latter option the CPS than have to consider taking court proceedings. I suspect most people feel sufficiently intimidated by such a confrontation that they just pay up to get it over and done. Or they ignore it and do not pay the fine, which is probably the worst thing you can do as the costs can rack up. Or they can, within 21 days, notify the authorities that they are not taking the option of the penalty and wish to be considered for a court summons. Do we know if anyone has had a facemask or lockdown Fixed Penalty Notice issued and then taken the option of opting for a court summons? If so did anything happen? A lot of the legal stuff around lockdowns and facemasks is dubious and needs… Read more »
‘Law Or Fiction’ on Twitter aim to make things clearer. Some people have health problems (despite face masks being dangerous anyway) that exempt them. I wonder if the police broke the law or if they are receiving orders from above to intimidate those who have exemptions
I’m sure there are criminals out there who need catching
Over 1500 comments on wmp Twitter, 99% of them against what happened and can see the truth.
and notice that the first dozen or so were all supportive of the police . and then they were all critical. it is as if they ran out of shill accounts providing support. Friday evening – maybe 77th had gone home
In that situation do you have to give them your name?
No you don’t, unless the filth arrest you. Fixed penalties have no such backing, and YOU MUST NEVER, EVER SIGN A FIXED PENALTY OR SPEEDING TICKET.
Because if you sign it, you’re agreeing that it is valid? Is that it?
And if they arrest you, do you get taken to the police station? Either way, can you then make a complaint and/or sue for wrongful arrest?
If you look at a speeding “ticket”, you will see that it is entitled the same as a confession:- “Statement of Witness”. If you sign it, you are agreeing that it is an accurate statement of the events. NEVER SIGN A TICKET. They even have a note by the signature line saying “Request” They even acknowledge it on the form. The bastards. You can’t get out of being prosecuted if you actually were speeding, it doesn’t work like that; but if there is an error in the speeding ticket or the offence, it helps your case if you don’t acknowledge the ticket. You can’t “refuse to consent to the law”, you are refusing to acknowledge the accuracy of the allegation. They can only arrest you for an arrestable offence, and that would only be likely to apply if you refused to give your details. You are only obliged to give your details if you are actually being reported for an offence or are the driver (not passenger) in a vehicle. The second that they arrest you, that’s it. If the arrest was unlawful, they have committed an unlawful arrest and can be sued for it. They cannot get out of… Read more »
Finally, NEVER SHOW ANY ID. The filth are entitled to your details under certain circumstances, but they are not entitled to proof of those details, unless you are the driver of a vehicle that an officer (IN UNIFORM) has actually stopped.
The favourite lie/trick/con is to search you unlawfully and try to get your ID from a debit card, but if they do that, then you can add “unlawful search” to your list of complaints. Should be good for bumping up the compo.
So leave your wallet/purse/cards at home if you are attending a demo. Only have cash on you.
Excellent . All copied and pasted for future reference.
Many thanks.
Excellent . All copied and pasted for future reference.
Many thanks.
My limited understanding of the law is that for civil law matters like the Public Health Act you are legally obliged to provide the details needed for them to be able to issue a summons. If you refuse to give the legally required details you can be arrested but I am not sure of the legal basis for that. I think it is the same details for a summons as for a Fixed Penalty Notice.
I think if I was given a Fixed Penalty Notice for a facemask issue I would send it back and request a Court Case, the law on this issue is so poor and the court system so busy I think there is a good chance it would get dropped.
Thanks for this information.
Hopefully they will contest and opt for a court summons – guidelines are clear, they claimed to be exempt ito the guidelines, video they were calm and acted within their rights.
WM response https://twitter.com/WMPolice/status/1332398456577650703
I don’t get it. Are they twisting words to say that she didn’t say “I’m exempt” but instead said “Look at what I’ve printed off the internet?”
Is it any wonder that respectable people have started referring to the police as the “filth”?
I must admit I have now…rather sad really but they have driven me to it with their masks and thuggery.
I thought that this incident was some kind of set-up and posted accordingly. I’m still not convinced by it. However, judging by these links to the ‘WM’s finest’ Twatter feed, it appears that these police really may have tried to or actually did issue a FPN to a woman with an exemption card. Nothing rings true about it, including the woman not actually knowing the ‘rules’ and trying to maintain she was waiting for an ‘official’ certificate, which we know is nonsense. Neither does the woman PC banging on about ‘burden of proof’ make sense but she may have been bull-shitting. What it suggests is that WM Police may be following orders from higher up the cops’ food chain i.e. harassing/shaming members of the public for not wearing masks as per Dame Dick’s pronouncement in July. They seem to be making the same kind of fools of themselves as did the Derbyshire force back in March when they drone-videoed people walking on Stanage Edge and posted it on social media. The Twatter comments are generally good but I notice there’s a smattering of people claiming they wear masks to avoid hassle or that they are frightened to go shopping because… Read more »
It is still puzzling to people that exemptions exist , the whole thing could, in theory cancel itself out, that is, if common sense prevailed, sadly lacking nowadays..
It will be of little consolation to those on this site and across the country whose lives and livelihoods have been damaged or destroyed by this government; but governments never survive these debacles.
Attlee’s bungling of Marshall plan aid, rationing still in place in 1951, did for his government. Eden did not survive the Suez crisis. Heath’s incompetence regarding the energy crisis ensured his demise. The 1976 IMF crisis finished the careers of both Wilson and Callaghan. In 1992, the ERM ‘Black Wednesday’ ensured that the Major government ushered the Conservative party into a long electoral winter. Iraq finished Blair and the 2008 financial crisis finished Brown. Cameron did not survive his mishandling of the eu referendum. Anyone spot the theme? Clue: they just haven’t really been much good, have they?
As night follows day, Johnson and so many of his MPs are now royally stuffed…..
They could do something about it……..but, with the complete lack of brio of all the democratic socialist governments since the Second World War (bar one), they will not…….
Now which ‘one’ are you thinking about?
but, with the complete lack of brio of all the democratic socialist governments since the Second World War (bar one),
surely not the WMD dodgy dossier BLIAR one?
The theme for me is that governments don’t answer to the people and the parties are two cheeks of the same arse.
We were always going to Iraq, we were always bailing the banks out, Brexit was a complete surprise and they have done everything to subvert it since, we were always going into lockdown.
But this situation is global
This is not fake data but from US and CDC. All cause mortality 2014-2020.Look at the picture. This year only 11000,more excess deaths this pandemic year 2020 than the seasonal flu epidemic year 2018. But we still have 260 000 deaths of C-19 2020. The only explanation is reduction of all other causes of death.
Pandemic should have excess deaths substantially according to the previous definition of pandemic. The statistics is in line with a bad flu season. How anyone can compare this with Spanish flu is outrageous. This must be overdiagnosis of C-19 in death certificates.
Presumably the next step is to to calculate the degree of covid over-diagnosis on death certificates, and thus estimate a correct covid death rate, and thus a more realistic IFR.
I guess someone must already be doing this.
IIRC Malcolm Kendrick estimated an IFR of 0.1%, there’s a blog entry on drmalcolmkendrick.org but I can’t remember the exact date.
My guess is that’s where it’s heading.
Kendrick discusses the figures in his blog post of 2020-10-26, but it seems as though he might have first raised it in an earlier post.
If you look at the article by Genevieve Briand mentioned in the roundup on yesterday’s LS, that is exactly what is happening. In particular heart disease numbers are dramatically down.
… and the retraction is utterly disgraceful. Good write-up on AIER.
https://www.aier.org/article/new-study-highlights-serious-accounting-error-regarding-covid-deaths/
Excellent; I’ve just read it. Ethan Yang is to be congratulated,although I do take issue with this statement :
“She further stresses that although this data challenges the idea that Covid is an unprecedented and lethal disease, we should still be concerned with mitigating death in general.”
Death in general cannot be mitigated; it can be eased and life saving measures can and should,be offered where possible and appropriate, but death cannot be banished; it’s part of being human
Masks? Lifesavers.
Sorry but where do you get 11,000 from?
All cause mortality in the US is up by 280,000 from average according to official CDC figures
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm
Yes, this was what I couldn’t understand with this study yesterday.
The 11,000 number is the difference in weekly deaths between one peak and the other. Obviously, the increased death rate went n for some time and the totalled difference was greater. The number you quote is one I’ve seen around.
This analysis seems badly worded to me, as discussed yesterday, though it still has important information to convey.
Just refer to the graph CDC has presented with 11000 higher than the previous maximum excess deaths seasonal flu 2018.
Sorry if I am being thing but that’s just for one week – doesn’t seem like a very useful figure to to
In the old definition of pandemic was apart from excess deaths also important the age of the deaths. The flu pandemics earlier ie Spanish flu and Asiatic flu had both. Anybody looking at this graph would agree with you comparing one week is not the whole picture and one can see that C-19 is more severe than the latest seasonal flu. But compare this modest increase in C-19 with Spanish flu which had an enormous excess death and younger persons dying is incomprehensible. C-19 is a geriatric pandemic with median age of death higher than normal lifespan in many countries. The enormous drop in other deaths is just a result of over diagnosing C-19 as cause of death in elderly. The Spanish and Asiatic flu excess death was real and not inflated like in C-19. Many and most deaths of elderly are with C-19 and not of C-19.SK and I think Japan only accept C-19 death as recorded as pneumonia/respiratory deaths. Just applying this would half the deaths of C-19 in the US.