News Round-Up
- “Civil servants set their own rules as Downing Street refuses to order them back to office” – ‘Specific targets’ for staff to return will not be imposed, with departments to decide on any quotas for ‘in-person’ working, reports the Telegraph.
- “Demand for travel to Mexico and Thailand soars amid ‘Red List’ changes” – After the update last Thursday, flight booking website Skyscanner said its traffic that evening was up 60% in the following three hours, compared to the same time the previous week.
- “WHO backs third dose for people who had Chinese-made coronavirus jabs” – The organisation still does not support broader ‘booster’ campaigns for the other coronavirus vaccines, reports the Telegraph.
- “How Ivermectin became a Target for the ‘Fraud Detectives’” – “Ivermectin rapidly became public enemy #1 for the fact-checkers when the drug was repurposed as an early treatment and prophylaxis (preventative) for Covid,” writes Sonia Elijah in TrialSite.
- “Security Theatre and Covering One’s Buttocks” – “People still believe the erroneous and absurdly exaggerated fears that our political and journalistic merchants of fear released a year-and-a-half ago. How long we’ll carry the mistakes of Covid is anybody’s guess, but we’ll play a lot of security theatre until then,” writes Joakim Book in AIER.
- “SouthWest Airlines cancels over 1,800 flights in two days amid rumors of employee ‘sickout’ due to Covid vaccine mandate” – Thousands of passengers who booked Southwest Airlines flights for weekend travel have been left stranded in U.S. airports after the airline canceled flights amid reports of a protest against the vaccine mandate.
- “Inside Melbourne’s eternal lockdown” – Will the city ever recover from its pursuit of ‘Zero Covid’, asks Tom Chodor in UnHerd.
- “Despite Heavy Vaccination Delta Variant Covid Infections and Deaths Surges in Singapore” – Mass Covid vaccination has essentially failed in Singapore, writes TrialSite.
- “The divided, distracted and deluded West is allowing China to take over” – Europe and the U.S. prefer to luxuriate in self-inflicted chaos than come up with a strategy to beat Beijing, writes Sherelle Jacobs in the Telegraph.
- “We must stop being slaves to the algorithm” – “Social media has damaged democracy, exacerbated division and harmed children – it’s time for much tougher regulation,” writes William Hague in the Times.
- “Dial 888 for the surveillance state – The Conservative Woman” – “The recent reaction to the potentially preventable murder of Sarah Everard has opened yet more doors to state surveillance,” writes Alexander Adams in TCW Defending Freedom.
- “Our energy policy is a lose-lose, exporting carbon emissions to China at the expense of British industry” – In a rush to prove itself greener than thou, the Government has shot itself in the foot, writes Ross Clark in the Telegraph.
- “Road to hell is paved with good intentions” – As the years have passed, Prince Charles has become increasingly alarmed by climate change, sometimes to the point of being apocalyptic, writes Stephen Glover in the Mail.
- “Why liberals must stand with Kathleen Stock” – “Now is the time to stand up and be counted, or else be remembered as cowardly capitulators,” writes Julie Bindel in the Spectator.
- “David Haig: ‘If you want to express a view these days, you have to be with a safe group of friends’” – The Four Weddings and a Funeral actor talks to the Telegraph about Kipling, cancel culture and getting expelled from Rugby.
- “The Singular God of The Woke” – “If there are historical parallels that can accurately be drawn, I think The Woke are in a development stage close to the early Christians, just around the time of the Arian heresy,” writes Rhyd Wildermuth in his latest Substack update.
- “Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s a bisexual superhero in new Superman series” – As Superboy assumes his father’s powers, DC comics gives the man of steel a makeover with a romantic male love interest, reports the Telegraph.
- “Ditch ‘ladies and gentlemen’ and you lose values” – B.A.’s change of policy in on-board announcements sacrifices dignity for the sake of woke lip service, writes Tim Stanley in the Telegraph.
- “Disaster Down Under” – In the latest Downfall spoof, ‘Hitler’ rages about ludicrous ‘anti-Covid’ measures employed by Australia being “the laughing stock of the free world”.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
“Exporting carbon emissions to China at the expense of British industry”.. (The Telegraph).
I unnderstand the party line of the carbon restrictions lobby is that jobs go to China and India largely because of lower wages. This must be only partly true at best though. On GB News “yesterday”, there was a quote that gas is six times more expensive in the UK than the so-called United States. I say again we should not be blocking shale gas with unnecessary restrictions. Yes, take account of safety, the water table etc. but don’t go beyond safety measures of other industries or of our strategic rivals. At the end of the day, we have to decide whether or not we want to have a viable country with sufficient energy to meet our needs in the long term. Very high stakes we are playing for. China’s just grabbed access to valuable minerals in Afghanistan. What are we doing meantime? We need to get real, and especially in light of the lunatic government spending of the past 18 months during this shambles, which must go far beyond anything that Jeremy Corbyn had been planning!
https://www.rt.com/news/537113-teen-impersonates-macron-health-pass/
French teenager arrested for trying to enter hospital with President Emmanuel Macron’s vaccine passport
Upcoming events – don’t expect someone to do this on your behalf
Saturday 16th October
MEGA Hold the Line Stand by the Road Yellow Board event
– followed by walk to the Town Centre
Combined Berks/Bucks/Oxon/Surrey/Hants
Bring your Yellow Boards and other banners –
Stafferton Way Maidenhead SL6 1AY
Stand in the Park Make friends – keep sane – talk freedom and have a laugh
Wokingham Stand in the Park Howard Palmer Gardens RG40 2HD Sundays 10am
behind the Cockpit Path car park in the centre of the town
Telegram http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Bracknell Stand in the Park South Hill Park Sundays 10am & Wednesdays 2pm
Telegram http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Reading Stand in the Park River Promenade Sundays 10am
Telegram https://t.me/standindparkreading
“a viable country” – nah, that boat sailed decades ago.
“The divided, distracted and deluded West is allowing China to take over” – Europe and the U.S. prefer to luxuriate in self-inflicted chaos than come up with a strategy to beat Beijing, writes Sherelle Jacobs in the Telegraph. I grew up in the Cold War and make no apologies for having been a supporter of what was still then “the west” against a reasonably plausible Evil Empire. But there is little left that could convincingly be treasured about “the west”. We are nowadays little more than a satellite of a woke, post-western, medico-fascist US, off the shores of a budding, even less palatable, Euro superstate, and we are ourselves no less woke, post-western or medico-fascist than our US patrons. A confrontation between the US and China is basically Oceania versus Eastasia – and there seems barely a difference worth fighting over between a world dominated by the US or by China. Just a choice between unappealing technocrats. Our priority, it seems to me, should be fighting to try to recover some semblance of liberty and national pride here, not to help one superpower retain dominance over another on the other side of the world. Getting involved in a World War, hot… Read more »
Great Post!
Frankly I expected more pushback. Not even a single downvote more than a day later! Neocons and militarists must all be on holiday,,,
ITEM: Fuehrer Dan’s last Stand. In the latest Downfall spoof, ‘Hitler’ rages about ludicrous ‘anti-Covid’ measures employed by Australia being “the laughing stock of the free world”.
A marvellous bit of satire, well-earnt by the farcical little Hitler Downunder, Dan Andrews, the RoboCop dictator of Victoria, whose capital has now overtaken Buenos Aires for the world record time spent in lockdown (coming up to day 267, or 45% of the total time since the ‘pandemic’ officially began).
But there are other challengers who deserve to medal. Today is officially ‘Freedom Day!’ for New South Wales, as it emerges from 100 days of lockdown – but only for the double-stabbed, for those who comply with government orders. The unstabbed will remain in their own personal lockdown, forbidden access to anything not deemed ‘critical retail’. Compliance Day, or Segregation Day, would be more apt. Perhaps a ‘Jim Crow’ special mention award would be in order for the NSW state premier.
Daniel Andrews should face trial for crimes against humanity.
“The divided, distracted and deluded West is allowing China to take over.” In all seriousness, there is little difference now. Western governments have forced a totally unnecessary and untested gene therapy on hundreds of millions of people, including children, against their will via coercion, and bullying and threats of unemployment and being banned from school. They have responded to protests with truncheons, tear gas and rubber bullets. They have set up internal checkpoints and banned people from travelling freely without health papers. They are months away from forcing digital identity papers on everyone. They have pretty much suspended free speech and the right to protest. They treat the previously free Western citizens with total contempt. The West is 80% to China. All of this is because of one single thing: The West no longer has a free press, but a state-controlled press. No nation with a proper free press, print and TV, could get away with any of this. That is the tragedy of it all. No more free press. No more investigative journalists. Just a propaganda sewage outlet and repeater goons. Millions marching – their voices silenced by the state-controlled BBC. Without a free press, there is no hope… Read more »
“The West no longer has a free press, but a state-controlled press. No nation with a proper free press, print and TV, could get away with any of this. That is the tragedy of it all. No more free press. No more investigative journalists. Just a propaganda sewage outlet and repeater goons. Millions marching – their voices silenced by the state-controlled BBC. Without a free press, there is no hope for any other freedoms.” The BBC is assuredly a big part of the problem, because it lies systematically and suppresses dissent from elite dogmas and yet has unwarranted credibility as a supposed “national broadcaster”. It should be sold off. But the problem is much bigger than that. The non-state controlled media have been as bad, both here and around the world. They go much further than can be explained by state coercion. Only zealotry can really explain their sheer enthusiasm for lying to push the covid cause, and in most cases the politically correct causes generally. The problem is a corrupt, over powerful global and globalist, technocratic elite, and you could probably usefully incorporate the analogy deployed in the piece linked above the line of a new global religion of… Read more »
This is an interesting examination of the New Fascism ideology emanating from the WEF nexus :
https://off-guardian.org/2020/10/12/klaus-schwab-his-great-fascist-reset/
No doubt there will be an article on here about the highly critical report by MPs of the government’s handling of the early stages of the plandemic.
It is heavily featured on most of today’s front pages. I am not averse to the government being hauled over the coals but the conclusions the committee have come to are quite extraordinary – in that they are almost entirely the opposite of what they ought to be.
They suggest that the government should have paid more heed to the wonderful scientists and that we should have locked down sooner.
They do however seem to think that partial redemption was earned by the rollout of the highly successful killer vaccine programme.
Please give me some cornflakes so that I can spit them out.
We can only expect a doubling-down on their decisions. An honest report would simply use Sweden as the control and conclude that the Boris Johnson government is guilty of a gross violation of human rights and the manslaughter of thousands of people. Were this to happen, and these people were to face trial and get 25 years each, I feel the country could perhaps heal, but without it, this is a permanently scarring experience.
Belarus.
I watched Toby’s debate right through and not one single mention of it.
Sweden – zero cases, zero deaths yesterday.
There was never going to be any other conclusion. We knew that from the start. You can’t expect a moron to think intelligently, or an evil, twisted bastard to recognise the Good.
No doubt Hunt was the major architect of this report, with a vested interest in steering future enquiries away from his time as health minister.
No doubt independent analysis of this review will appear later but since it was written by a group of MPs it was bound to be like it was, usual hogwash. The BBC were convinced by it, maybe there is something in the small print we have not seen yet. But if this report really does say what we are told there is little hope for an ‘independent’ enquiry next year.
It was lead news item on Radio 3 this morning. There was also an item about an interview with Vallence due to be aired this evening (also mentioned here: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/government-prime-minister-downing-street-cabinet-sage-b959963.html) – which sounds like more of the same. The only viewpoint which is accepted is clearly the one which says ‘more restrictions, imposed earlier’.
FFS.
Have just looked at BBC News and see it is, not surprisingly, their lead item.
There is no mention of any detailed analysis being carried out. The conclusions appear to be based on subjective views of the top level figures that we have been fed.
There is mention of the Bereaved Families for Justice group not being consulted. I do not know much about this group. Would it be correct to assume that they would have wanted the report to say more of the same with knobs on or are they aware of and actually seeking the truth to be revealed?
Indeed SilentP
Failure to challenge poor scientific advice during pandemic cost thousands of lives?
The only MSMpropaganda overreach conclusion being of course that Britain did not lock down sooner. Yes really…
How do you destroy immune systems quickly? Isolate people, force them to wear masks… get them sanitizing with chemicals constantly…and critically cut them off from loved ones, families and friends. Then dial in atop a method that destroys the 99% livelihoods.
And what else did these novel lockdowns deliver? A further collapse of functioning civil service and increasingly degraded welfare systems. All neatly exacerbated by the pings of NHS track-n-trace injecting mandatory stay at homes.
If you want to destroy a nation, say bring it to its knees… so it can be obedience trained into a new way of thinking I’d say it was a marvelous success.
Then again isn’t that the plan of the WEF and UK monarchy endorsed Great Reset?
Time is quickly running out folks, Dec 2021 is the date the UK door for democracy finally closes.
What are you going to do about it?
Blimey – could this really be happening?
I’ve come across some shocking items in the last few weeks, but this takes the biscuit
https://rumble.com/vnm1cn-receipts-patent-proves-vaxx-is-obedience-training-platform.html
Zombies don’t need obedience training. You just push the rotting corpse into position, and it stays there till you want it to move.
Obedience Training, indeed. Australian cartoonist, Michael Leunig nails it (see below).
Looking at the Worldometer comparisons of countries and Sweden stands out yesterday as the only Western country to have zero new cases and zero deaths.
And yet I hear no-one in power talking about adopting a similar strategy – in fact there are many still talking about new lockdowns. It is frankly imbecilic.
“the true scale of the crisis in care homes has probably been masked by a lack of routine testing, meaning thousands of elderly residents may have died without ever being diagnosed”. What would have been done if they were diagnosed? Bumped the covid figures up?
And likewise no doubt loads of have had ‘Covid’ on the death certificate when that wasn’t the cause (or wasn’t the main cause).
https://twitter.com/LozzaFox/status/1447592706360889346
More on the potential for the white knights of BLM (oops, is that a microaggression? Oh dear how sad never mind) to ride to the antivax rescue.
If the figure given is correct (“28% of NYC blacks aged 18-44 are “vaccinated””) then good luck to the Democrats in trying to exclude the remaining 72% from events, nightclubs, jobs, whatever evil manipulative bullshit they are trying to pull.
Popcorn time.
“The Singular God of The Woke” – “If there are historical parallels that can accurately be drawn, I think The Woke are in a development stage close to the early Christians, just around the time of the Arian heresy,” writes Rhyd Wildermuth in his latest Substack update. Interesting piece. Often the most interesting insights come from those who have been inside the belly of the beast, though unlike Peter Hitchens this individual has probably not yet fully recovered. But he certainly seems to have made some progress. “Trump—and the apparent rise of the alt-right—provided a ready excuse for most of us to avoid any deep consideration of how unhinged we’d become. There was a “war” to fight, and that “war” easily justified any excesses that we might engage in. I mean, as long as there was a rising “fascist” menace, self-reflection was really just “inaction.”1 … 1 Later I’ll write about how completely wrong we were about that menace and how we the we conjured that threat from our revolutionary fantasies, but for now it’s enough to say that we were mostly just warring against our own shadows. What’s relevant for now is how this imagined enemy became our sustaining… Read more »
As a post script, this helps understand why much of the corporate world, including crucially the murky big finance corps, has gone over to the woke left, and in particular why the big money and tech businesses have so enthusiastically tried to crush conservative dissent (see the refusal of basic services to dissenting conservative platforms like Gab and Parler). Note that mere PR pressure cannot explain this willingness to take real action. In my youth,such forces were perfectly happy to pay lip-service to lefty nonsense while actually making sure nothing happened.
But now these corporations are actually run by woke leftists, whether real or functional. Many of the owners and senior managers are either true believers themselves, or perhaps more likely, have seen the advantages for themselves of aligning with the new religion (to use Wildermuth’s analogy).
Given decades of prolonged (though not unbroken) affluence I’m sure a lot of these corporate bubbleheads think that capitalism’s true role is to support woke. And that it can go on supporting woke despite woke’s determination to see capitalism ground into the dirt.
No doubt Dan would say ‘I don’t even know what they’re making Downfall memes for!’
Taiwan death from COVID-19 vaccination exceeds death from COVID-19
Not sure how reliable this is, but it’s interesting. Another source (https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus/country/taiwan) puts Taiwan’s percentage fully vaxed at 18%!
Sceptic about vaccines, sceptic about climate change.
Well that is you fucked over by Google big tech.
https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/climate/google-youtube-ad-money-climate-change-vc58f2221
I have written here before that after social media companies shut down voices against sheep think they will come after the hosting for websites that speak out. This is a development I never foresaw. It is them coming after the money of those who choose to question. I expect It will not stop Google placing adverts on the videos of those who question.