MPs Launch Investigation into Government Covid Propaganda After Psychologists Criticise Nudge Unit For “Grossly Unethical Tactics” of Fear

The Government’s “grossly unethical” use of its “nudge unit” stoked fear among the public during the pandemic, psychologists have said – prompting MPs to launch an investigation into the Government’s Covid propaganda. The Telegraph has the story.

A group of psychologists have written to Parliament’s Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, warning that a team of civil servants dedicated to “nudging” public behaviour during the pandemic were unaccountable and unethical.

The letter’s 40 professional signatories – led by Dr. Gary Sidley, a retired clinical psychologist – said they opposed the use of dramatic adverts, which included slogans such as: “If you go out you can spread it, people will die.”

They also condemned the use of “images of the acutely unwell in intensive care units” on billboard and television adverts, as well as the “macabre mono focus on showing the number of COVID-19 deaths without mention of mortality from other causes or the fact that, under normal circumstances, around 1,600 people die each day in the U.K.”.

The signatories said it was “highly questionable whether a civilised society should knowingly increase the emotional discomfort of its citizens as a means of gaining their compliance”.

The letter added: “Government scientists deploying fear, shame and scapegoating to change minds is an ethically dubious practice that in some respects resembles the tactics used by totalitarian regimes such as China, where the state inflicts pain on a subset of its population in an attempt to eliminate beliefs and behaviour they perceive to be deviant.” …

The letter drew attention to a government memo from March 2020, which suggested that “the perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent” and called for more frightening messaging.

The Telegraph understands that Parliament’s Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee will investigate the use of the Behavioural Insights Team as part of its investigation into the Government’s activities during the pandemic. It will coincide with the second anniversary of the first lockdown.

Worth reading in full.

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No-one important
4 years ago

Gauleiter Joseph Goebbels’ little chest would have swelled with pride had he been able to see these people in action. “They learnt from the best”, he would have murmured to himself.

J4mes
4 years ago

They learned it from the Chinese, by their own admission.

bOrgkilLaH1of7
4 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

History chimes…

https://twitter.com/consent_factory/status/1487365832896352256?s=20&t=x0mit81v-1lEy1isnMp8-w

Our Pharma, who art in heaven
Hallowed Covid be thy name
Thy Pfizer come, 
Thy jab will be done, 
In arms and its off to heaven. 

Give us this day our daily LFT
And forgive us our false negatives, 
As we forgive those
Who PCR against us. 

And lead us not into non-masking temptation, 
But deliver us from lockdown evil. 

For Gates word is the kingdom, 
and the power, and the glory, 
Boosters for ever and ever.

Amen.

Untitled-1.jpg
huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  bOrgkilLaH1of7

My God.

J4mes
4 years ago
Reply to  bOrgkilLaH1of7

‘Galene’, you’re never short of propaganda, even if it looks like it supports a pro-freedom stance with the expose of Gates corruption, I don’t believe you’re really on our side.

You as well as many on the fake right wing and the legion of suseptible followers will have the world believe the nazis are rising from the grave to take over the world.

You want us shadow boxing in an empty room while the real enemy bulldozers the world around us.

I don’t believe in the covid fraud for the very same reason I don’t follow your line of argument. Both are lined with truth, but ultimately designed to defeat us.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

Copies of the Art of War by Sun Tzu should be widely distributed. The Chinese work to a 500 year time scale, where the long term ends always justify the short term means..

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Only another 498 years of ‘Covid’ to go, then.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago

Not a ‘Gauleiter’ ( District top Party Administrative Official ). He was ‘Reichsminister for Propaganda’ with his own Ministry ( our BBC) – well worth the distinction.

No-one important
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

“Goebbels was first offered the position of party Gauleiter for the Berlin section in August 1926. He travelled to Berlin in mid-September and by the middle of October accepted the position”. (WP)

Deborah T
Deborah T
4 years ago

Thank GOODNESS!! Better late than never. And if only the findings can be reported by mainstream media, my best friend, an asthmatic, triple-jabbed, might agree to meet her adult children indoors (yes, really!) and our tentative date to meet in a park next summer might become a reality.

olaffreya
olaffreya
4 years ago
Reply to  Deborah T

An ex-colleague of mine has hardly left her house in two years. That’s comment enough.

Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
4 years ago
Reply to  olaffreya

Mrs FP knows someone exactly the same.

WilliamC
WilliamC
4 years ago
Reply to  olaffreya

I work with people in their twenties and thirties who have stayed indoors at home for most of the past two years. It’s possible that they will never come into work again. It’s not just because they find home-working more congenial. They are still terrified of ‘catching it’. Most of them will have been triple-stabbed, they test relentlessly, wear masks when they have to go outside, fret over the R numbers and ‘cases’ and so on. I think the propaganda was pushing at an open door with some people. They actually prefer this mode of life. It’s pitiful really. They have outsourced responsibility for their own adult social existence to the media/medical/state trinity and instead of living like free human beings they have chosen to merely subsist like frightened cattle waiting for the pharma to administer the next injection. 

BJs Brain is Missing
4 years ago
Reply to  WilliamC

Plato’s Cave springs to mind.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago

Meanwhile, the still beautiful ( in spite of us) big wide world is still out there!

Zuckerberg would have them living inside his perverted fake reality permanently and paying him for doing so.

How come this generation of nerds is so sick in the head and removed from all vital real life experience and basic common morality ?

Perhaps because they spent their sad adolescence sitting in their bedrooms on their computers.and Game Consoles watching porn or zapping thousands of imaginary enemies and aliens – the sure road to alienation and mental illness?

rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  WilliamC

I doubt it. The main explanation for not leaving the house is that all reasons for leaving the house have been eliminated by the government. At least that is how it worked out in my case (except during good weather, of course).

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  rayc

Can you elaborate? What have the government eliminated for you?

rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

All indoor sports, dining out, and travel, since I don’t own a car. I categorically refuse to test or show proof of vaccination, mind you. So for me, it’s been essentially game over for 2 years – and will remain so until the laws are undone. “To the end”, as they put it – I bet I’m quite a bit more determined than Mr. Macaron.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  rayc

Can you wait another 498 years?

Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
4 years ago
Reply to  WilliamC

As Joanna Lumley says:”GET A GRIP!!”

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago

Sadly, Lumley has emerged as a privileged Luvvie on-side with the ‘ bread and butter’ narrative.

Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Fair comment.

imp66
imp66
4 years ago

Please ignore anything Lumley says on any serious subject!

Annie
4 years ago
Reply to  WilliamC

Presumably they don’t know how frightened cattle end up.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  WilliamC

“Most of them will have been triple-stabbed, they test relentlessly, wear masks when they have to go outside, fret over the R numbers and ‘cases’ and so on. ”

Describes several of my relatives to a T. Formerly these were quite cool laissez faire people. I am firmly convinced they now regard me as a total loon because I won’t do any of it.

Recent experience in a coffee shop, where I was buying coffees for us and I paid by card and entered my pin no, pressing the keys on the key pad. The relative said “would you not use contactless?” and when I asked her why she said “because it would save you having to tap in the pin and risk getting covid”. Much grinding of teeth followed.

Liberty4UK
Liberty4UK
4 years ago
Reply to  WilliamC

Hypochondriacs have never had it so good. People used to look down on them, but now they have gained a free pass!

Javy
Javy
4 years ago
Reply to  olaffreya

A formerly outgoing, sociable friend of mine has become frightened of her own shadow since she was told to shield at the very beginning. I doubt she will ever find her old self again.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  olaffreya

Indeed – meanwhile Johnson parties with his chums and chooses new wallpaper – how disgraceful our Johnson Cabal Government is!

CovidiotAntiMasker
CovidiotAntiMasker
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Trouble is if someone like Liz Truss replaces him, it could be triple vaccines all round .

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  Deborah T

Where does the air come from that’s inside her home?

John Dee
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

As long as it’s not flown in by Chinese bats, she should be okay.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Deborah T

Shame she wasn’t watching GB News last night. Mark Dolan’s show had a lengthy debate about the harms of mask wearing, and featured HART’s Gary Sidley, of whom I simply could not speak highly enough of the informed, intelligent, and extremely eloquent take down of ALL the arguments surrounding mask wearing and the fear they were designed to engender. He was absolutely brilliant. I can only hope that a lot of people saw the show.

He highlighted something interesting – the ONLY reason masks were adopted worldwide was because someone politically lobbied the WHO to persuade them to back them. It was a political decision, nothing to do with health, and all about using fear to perpetuate the ‘pandemic’.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  Milo

Dolan is now one thankfully quite a few “New Heroes” of the Covid Fightback!

Neil Oliver is magnificent!

huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Hear, hear.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Credit also due to Dan Wooton and Nigel Farage

They are all doing all they can to make the case for freedom and bodily autonomy which is probably as far as the OFCOM regs will allow them to go.

Paula
Paula
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Agreed, it has been so refreshing to watch GB news presenters actually challenging their guests and activitely encouraging debate. Not sure if you were implying Dolan is a recent convert, so I just wanted to share with people the moment, back in September 2020 when he cut up a mask during his show on Talk Radio and declared mask-wearing ‘the new woke’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vurv270Uv0I – he and Neil Oliver were speaking out on this at a time when it required real courage and have shown rare integrity

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Paula

Yes – agree with you – his opening monologues are always powerful – him and Neil Oliver both – plus he is engaging, self deprecating and funny too – such a breath of fresh air in a news context.

Hugh
Hugh
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

That reminds me, he was making a point today that in the past, a Plymouth Pilgrim could flee to a New World, but today, with all the world the samme, there is nowhere to go. Seriously, if I wanted to be completely free from “vaccine” mandates and coercion, masks and the various restrictions, where could I go? What hoops would I have to jump through to get there even if there is such a place?

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Hugh

Not a day goes by now Hugh that I don’t think the same thing. If you come up with the answer get in touch with me!

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  Deborah T

It isn’t “better late than never” because the massive damage has now been done – it was a despicable campaign and MPs ought to have spoken out at the time it started.

It makes me ask what are MPs actually for? ( Answer for many: ‘themselves”)

olaffreya
olaffreya
4 years ago

Not to mention paid by the tax payer – unethical? Gross understatement.

TSull
TSull
4 years ago
Reply to  olaffreya

It is an understatement. Their activities are criminal.

TheGreenAcres
4 years ago
Reply to  TSull

If they also knew that it was unnecessary for healthy adults, as we said at the time, then it’s even worse than that, it is a crime against humanity

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  TheGreenAcres

Well, it’s still going on! You can’t leave or re-enter your own country without ‘Covid papers / Vaxx passes’ of some kind. You have been imprisoned.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

They are still after the children!

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  TheGreenAcres

They all knew… so there you have it.

X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago
Reply to  TSull

The most nonsensical and trivial things can be interpreted as ‘hate-speech’. But this stuff – which does inflict actual torment and damage, is fine.

It is, without question, malicious.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  TSull

An outright Criminal Government – one for the history books ( non- Wokist version obviously).

rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  olaffreya

Utilizing your money to support causes you would never support is the core idea of government.

Julian
4 years ago

Better late than never and it really needs to lead to a complete ban on governments using any kind of nudge unit for any purpose ever again as it has enabled this nonsense.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Exactly. The elites view this kind of thing as normal. The end justifies the means.

The mistake is to condemn the elites for their goals. Real change happens when the psychology professionals face real consequences to their involvement. That’s key. Make it painful for them to manipulate people using their skills. Ideally jail sentences.

TSull
TSull
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

We can also stop calling the bloated parasites who think they are kings of the world “the elites”. As for the psychology professionals who participated in this, not only should they face long jail sentences, they should forfeit anything they “earned” while they were committing their crimes.

derek_a
derek_a
4 years ago
Reply to  TSull

Yes, I really hope so. I recognised the tactics they used and felt really sad. I am a therapist and spent my carreer supported others with self-esteem, and watched as all my work was being wiped out in a a week or so. Unethical for using these tactics is far to kind a description. Yes, I would imagine they have earned fortunes, which should now be forfeited to re-build what they destroyed in our economy and well-being as a nation.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  derek_a

Great sympathy for your comment – many of us have tried to build the self-confidence, self- esteem and self- reliance of others during our professional lives and this disgraceful period has caused massive damage in a deliberate attempt to fraudulently use ‘Emergency Powers’ to deceive, humiliate, diminish and enslave our people and indeed all humanity – hard to accept what we are seeing as we have not see such manifest Evil at work in our lifetime.

rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  TSull

But.. they were just selflessly fighting for a Good Cause… to protect their home country and save lives… as did Hitler’s and Stalin’s grunts during WW2. And Biden’s and Putin’s paid armed thugs nowadays, of course.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  TSull

Good point about the use of the word “elite”. Perhaps an example of the effectiveness of propaganda even among those who try to pay attention. Upvoted.

X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

Vipers are dangerous.

I blame those who found their venom acceptable/useful. They are the guilty ones.

The Michies are nasty. They are what they are. BUT, they are not the ones who are ultimately responsible – and the ones who MUST be held accountable for this

X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago

I didn’t express that very well. Here is another attempt:

I blame those who actually milked the venom, deciding that using it against us was acceptable/useful to them.

rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  Julian

I think it would be better to educate (young) people about these tactics, so that they can become entirely ineffective and ridiculed. It is not evil nudging, but lack of critical thinking in the recipients which allowed the whole disaster to unfold as planned.

JaneDoeNL
JaneDoeNL
4 years ago
Reply to  rayc

Now this deserves a thousand upticks!

Absolutely, people will do what we let them get away with.

Critical thinking – does that constitute profanity these days?

John Dee
4 years ago
Reply to  JaneDoeNL

More ‘rarity’ than profanity, judging by what I see going on around me.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  JaneDoeNL

Yes – the most salient points made over the last 2 nights on Dan Wooton and Mark Dolan’s shows related to “push back”, making the point that we have got to stop just acquiescing and accepting and complying with these measures and “push back” as hard and as often as we can. We need to take our lives back as opposed to wait for them to be granted back to us.

A lot of the people who attempt to enforce them do so without even thinking of their purpose or rationale. If enough people say that “enough is enough” and refuse to comply it might make people think.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  JaneDoeNL

“Resistance is Useless” : Schwab-Borg motto

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  rayc

Modern teachers are not getting anywhere near this – so many of them are victims of the Kool Aid themselves and their own lack of a broadly based education is pitiful – look at the broken Universities! Look at the ridiculous Uni Grade inflation of ‘Firsts’ !

X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Maybe, just maybe, the realisation (if it comes) of the awfulness of this whole episode will be enough to act as a wake-up call to society going down the plug-hole generally.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Who can ban them? Who can bell the cat?

SilentP
SilentP
4 years ago

Another example of the right thing being said far too late in the day.

One of my (adult) children, previously stable and carefree, suffered crippling anxiety for the first time in their life as a result of the fear propaganda. They have been on medication for this for over a year. Thankfully they are getting a lot better now.

When the ‘Look Them in the Eyes’ campaign was initiated I complained to the ASA, quoting the government memo referred to above.

The complaint was rejected.

The appeal to this decision was rejected.

The final option was to take it up with the regulator. He rejected it too, but did write a balanced, albeit misguided, justification for his decision.

How many people have been permanently damaged by the deliberate callous campaign of fear?

Aleajactaest
4 years ago
Reply to  SilentP

And just what exactly does the lone downticker prevalent on most of these posts, have against what is written?

Or are you just a snivelling intercoursing ladypart?

huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  Aleajactaest

Oh, sheer poetry.😀

SilentP
SilentP
4 years ago
Reply to  Aleajactaest

Brilliant – more impressive than the actual profanities!

DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
4 years ago
Reply to  SilentP

Agreed! Beautifully demonstrating the power of the English language

X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago
Reply to  Aleajactaest

Better register that as Intellectual Property – I can see that being widely borrowed.

John Dee
4 years ago

A widely-borrowed ladypart?

Aleajactaest
4 years ago
Reply to  Aleajactaest

I see you have a friend.

Do you pay them to be your friend? Must be a lonely existence.

rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  SilentP

Don’t worry, it will all be blamed on the “terrible pandemic” (in words of our German Health Professor).

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  SilentP

At least you tried – you made every effort but of course were let down by those with any kind of “authority”, presumably all of them bought off.

In my region there are regular adverts on TV telling people that they must wear masks and describing the settings in which they must be worn because, and I quote verbatim “masks reduce the spread of covid19”. Absolute lies, but all of the people watching it will believe it.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  Milo

How about having a ‘stiff word’ with the people who make these adverts? Who are they? Names please.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

I’d love to report them to OFCOM or IPSO – whichever is appropriate.

DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
4 years ago
Reply to  SilentP

Your complaint will not have been helped by the official body for British psychologists saying the approach was perfectly OK many months ago

Vaxtastic
4 years ago

This is a key area where I believe we could make lasting changes. We know the political class are well protected, particularly by the media. But the Behavioural Insights Team are less so. More specifically, the key is pursuing named individuals. The people who pursued this malevolent propaganda are normal flesh and blood human beings. We need to see names, and associated behavioural manipulation techniques, some of which have already been leaked. My fear is the entire nudge unit will be lightly implicated, with an official enquiry acknowledging things occasionally went a bit far, lessons have been learned etc. And that will be it. Brushed under the carpet until next time. We need to send a clear message to the entire profession of psychology we will not accept mental abuse from those skilled in behavioural manipulation. That there are consequences to both active manipulation and passive acquiescence. Where were the British Psychological Society? The psychiatrists? We need named individuals, ideally struck off, and a firm effort for the mental health professions publishing a charter of what is acceptable practice. As a society we need to shine a light on what these people are up to and their role in undermining… Read more »

sophie123
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

I think Laura Dodsworth names some names in her book

Catee
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

Here is a reply I received last year from the BPS in response to my complaint regarding the unethical manipulation of people by the behavioural unit. Sent on Behalf of Roger Paxton, BPS Chair of the Ethics Committee: The ethics of behavioural messaging during the covid-19 pandemic  Dear xxxxxx The Ethics Committee of the BPS has reviewed and considered the above issue raised with the society.  On 5 February we issued a statement in response to emails detailing similar concerns. This response continues to be the BPS position.   Covid-19 is an extremely serious public health issue. The response to the pandemic is clearly a matter of social as well as individual concern. Indirect behavioural interventions are commonly employed in public health campaigns in order to safeguard the population. Given the scale of the mortality and morbidity caused by the pandemic the behavioural interventions employed by the UK Government have been proportionate and necessary.  The Ethics Committee believed that the contributions of psychologists in responding to the pandemic was entirely consistent with the BPS Code of Ethics and Conduct, demonstrating social responsibility and the competent and responsible employment of psychological expertise. The Committee also emphasised how psychologists’ shared values of respect, competence, responsibility and integrity will be vital in supporting the long-term recovery from the pandemic at both the individual and societal levels.… Read more »

Amtrup
4 years ago
Reply to  Catee

That’s the trouble. They seem, like many mid-level professionals, to have believed a) that covid was a real and terrible danger and b) that this justified their deliberate fearmongering … because “other people”/”the masses” would not be able to recognise or correctly evaluate the dangers. It’s a huge blindspot in their thinking; the assumption that *they* would always “know” what people should be nudged into thinking/doing.

Annie
4 years ago
Reply to  Amtrup

They always know what they want people to be thinking/doing.

rayc
rayc
4 years ago
Reply to  Amtrup

To a scientific mind (of a psychopath), people are just “subjects” to be observed and influenced. This is incidentally the same mindset also shared by a professional conman.

JaneDoeNL
JaneDoeNL
4 years ago
Reply to  Amtrup

It obviously never occurred to them that if people were tripping over bodies, if people they knew were falling down around them left right and centre, no nudging whatsoever would have been needed, no requests to stay away from others, etc.

The fact that nudging was deemed necessary should have been enough for the nudgers themselves to realise the situation clearly wasn’t that serious.

CovidiotAntiMasker
CovidiotAntiMasker
4 years ago
Reply to  Amtrup

Yes, maybe the nudge unit are just gullible fools themselves.

TheTartanEagle
TheTartanEagle
4 years ago
Reply to  Catee

If you strip apart the BPS response sentence by sentence, they are parroting the same falsehoods used in the propaganda. As demonstrated daily by sceptical commentators, a moments critical thought and analysis early in the manufactured crisis showed that there was no crisis. A group of scientists, on an ethics committee, would surely have done some background investigation and debated these fundamental points. Where are the minutes of the discussion, they have to have them.

I would also like to see the briefing pack provided to the behavioural sciences team.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  TheTartanEagle

An ethics committee has no business deciding whether the message is a reasonable response to some real or imagined crisis. Ethics are meant to transcend the particular and focus on the limits of what is acceptable, regardless of the needs of the moment.

It is precisely this lack of universality that damns their comments. Some things are unnacceptable. That is what ethics defines.

Manipulation is wrong. It doesn’t take a genius to work out why. Today it may be for a good cause, but tomorrow it might be to convince you Jews, homosexuals and communists have to be eradicated.

JaneDoeNL
JaneDoeNL
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

They’ve already crossed that line, still pushing the message that the unvaxxed must be eradicated. At this point by vaxxing them, and when that doesn’t happen by excluding them from society, by denying them the opportunity to earn a living – a little step further each time.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  JaneDoeNL

They don’t seem to be there yet, Jane. If that was the goal in the UK it has failed. Witness the pushback against the NHS staff mandate. It is not going well and I suspect will be dropped.

JaneDoeNL
JaneDoeNL
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

Not in the UK fortunately, but Germany, Austria and France are still going full steam ahead, as are Canada and Australia.

Although the German vote on mandating the vaxx for the whole country has been fixed for the end of March – presumably after the Omick wave is over, giving them the option of saying it is no longer needed.

Here in NL they are still pushing for people to get boosted and the government is still trying to push the expansion of the use of the apartheid app. And for all its moralising on human rights to the world at large, has said nothing about Macron’s shameful vilification of the unvaxxed.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  JaneDoeNL

In other words…Nazi Tactics!

Who did Schwab’s father vote for I wonder?

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  TheTartanEagle

excellent post!

huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  Catee

That letter from the BPS actually condemns the BPS. It refers to ‘scale of mortality and morbidity’ yet it would have known of the crude abuse of these statistics – deaths within 28 days, ‘with’ and ‘of.’

“Behavioural interventions” were necessary. No they damn well weren’t, the whole “pandemic” (tongue in cheek) was over by May 2020.

The last para of the above missive from the BPS is downright flatulent, fatuous nonsense.

The response from the BPS places it firmly in the dock as a co-conspiritator alongside the actual Nudge Unit perpetrators.

The BPS sits with equal shame and guilt along with that other treacherous outfit the BHF – British Heart Foundation.

Criminality in institutions once worthy of respect is clearly rife and these outfits have contributed greatly to the undermining of society.

JeremyP99
4 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

The full extent of what has been done to us lies in this table

Table 1: Number of deaths where COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned on the death certificate, 1 February 2020 to 31 December 2021, by sex and age group, England and Wales

https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/covid19deathsandautopsiesfeb2020todec2021

Which works out at <7000 in 21 months, an average TEN deaths a day FROM Covid, for all of that period.

Don’t forget to let your MP see these figures

ONS_Actual_Covid_Deaths.PNG
David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

MPs are ‘far too busy” to wade through figures and videos as I was told by a well known Tory Rebel ( now controlled opposition) last year, when I sent him Catherine Austin Fitts’ predictions of where we are heading and got that rude reply.

huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

Thanks.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  Catee

That is quite an incriminating document. It betrays their underlying mentality, the end justifies the means. We feel comfortable engaging in manipulation because our profession accepts it.

Amazing.

John Dee
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

It betrays their underlying mentality…

One can only assume they share the surname Mengele.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

Nothing is “incriminating’ when you know the right people …’Common Purpose’ anyone?

I see Johnson is off the hook again – courtesy of the Met Police Chief .

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Oh you can bet that one of the chaps had a word with Cressida – to buy him time. What a cock up, but the rebels are now gunning for him over the inc in National Insurance.

John001
John001
4 years ago
Reply to  Catee

Funnily, I received an identical reply.

John Dee
4 years ago
Reply to  Catee

It could only have been ‘proportionate and necessary’ if the BPS could predict and factor in all the psychological harm that might ensue and still think that the ‘greater good’ was served. They only look at one side of an equation (as in the case of jabbing kids).

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Catee

Somebody should now reply and point out to them that it was all based on Fergusons modelling, now shown to be totally flawed, plus the true ONS death stats, and the manipulation of the death data so that died with covid became died from covid, so there never was a ‘dreadful pandemic’ and they should have been more vigilant to make sure that their profession was not similarly being used to manipulate the British public.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  Catee

Same BBC – same BS.

Forget the BBC – it is currently a battle lost.

Zero viewers for the BBC = a battle won. ( Check out collapse of CNN audiences in the US – there is hope!)

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Spread the news of GB News widely – it take a while to grow on you, but once you get used to it you wouldn’t want to watch anything else (altho some of the panellists do tend to grate, Gaunt being one).

Stephanos
Stephanos
4 years ago
Reply to  Catee

This is not very different from replies that we have received from Welby.
One his courtiers’ replies could be summed up as ‘Neither I nor the Archbishop are interested in what you say. Go and bother somebody else’.
It is not only Government departments that need a clear out; the Church in terms of almost the entire senior clergy are guilty.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

“we will not accept mental abuse from those skilled in behavioural manipulation.”

Apart from the past 23 months when we have accepted it.

Vaxtastic
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

Speak for yourself.

sophie123
4 years ago

Hahah I’d forgotten the “Act like you’ve got it” edict.

I had a lovely week with the ‘rona. I used it as an excuse to do very little work, took long constitutional walks, decided to trial lots of red wine for its antiviral properties and had a nap every afternoon. I might act like I’ve got it some more….although I think I will probably get fired, so maybe not.

Deborah T
Deborah T
4 years ago
Reply to  sophie123

And it’s STILL so crazy…I’m a tutor and every week at least one of my students has ‘tested positive for Covid’. I ask them a week later whether they were very ill and they say they weren’t ill at all.

So, they miss their session with me, they miss a week of school maths, and, at secondary level, this will certainly cause problems later on. Can I get them to catch up? Well, I’m already trying to get them to catch up after almost two terms of missed school in the last two years. Online school didn’t work for all but the very brightest self-starters, and it’s become a standing joke ‘You can’t remember how to do that? It must have been in lockdown!’

Apologies a bit off-topic. I would be tutoring right now but another child off.

crisisgarden
4 years ago
Reply to  Deborah T

I’ve also made a point of asking every kid who’s been off if they’ve been, you know, poorly . Yet to hear one reply that they have.

Hopeless - "TN,BN"
4 years ago
Reply to  crisisgarden

I have two grandsons, one fortunately just under 12 and the other a few years younger. The younger “tested positive” but was perfectly OK, and the elder, who’s just got it, felt a bit worse; such that his father allowed him to lay on the settee, much to the annoyance of the other, denied this privilege.

Quite apart from the “revolving-door” education, my wife (retired after 35 years in teaching) pointed out that the younger has missed out on two years of birthday parties, with his friends as guests, and the elder has likewise missed any number of the social things which children can, and should expect.

The way that the young, of all ages, have been treated is beyond despicable. Fortunately, I have not been confronted by my young family wearing rags over their faces, as my anger management ability wouldn’t be up to it.

Bolloxed Britannia
Bolloxed Britannia
4 years ago

No need for an enquiry you complicit arseholes! Just read Laura Dodsworth’s book A State of Fear….

Milo
Milo
4 years ago

indeed – copy should be given to every MP – would be cheap at twice the price

Sinor
Sinor
4 years ago

The damage done by this”nudge” unit is all around us everyday as the masked up ,both indoors now and outdoors still “zombie” around.
The unit should be disbanded or its function and programmes become totally transparent and agreed upon by Parliament.
The Pig Dictator ultimately supported/approved this so he must go too..

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  Sinor

They have co-opted the sheep to do their work for them – just like the Gestapo and the Stasi did!

Bloodyhell
Bloodyhell
4 years ago

Those ads just made me want to cough on a granny. I find that a bit worrying.

Drew63
Drew63
4 years ago
Reply to  Bloodyhell

Thanks for giving me a bit of a guilty laugh this morning.

Prior to covid-10, and the ensuing global panic, I had never experienced the desire to spit in another person’s food. But the government propaganda, and the vast numbers of virtue-signalling, mask-wearing nitwits, pushed me into that sort of uncomfortable territory.

Rest assured, I never did such a dreadful thing.

Having bad thoughts doesn’t make one a bad person. The ability to recognise those impulses as unhelpful, and to control one’s actual behaviour, is a sign of mental health and resilience.

The old bat
4 years ago
Reply to  Drew63

Ha, funny you should say that. I had an almost irresistible urge to swerve towards masked people scuttling up and down the supermarket aisles and cough theatrically in their faces. Like you, of course I didn’t, but they nearly all looked like they needed waking up. It’s still like a lot of them are drugged…but then, in a way, I suppose they are.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  The old bat

OK – confession time.

Where I live people tend to walk on the pavement 4 abreast, and don’t seem to see the need for sufficient courtesy to switch to single file when they encounter someone coming the other way – just for the maybe 5 seconds tops that it would take when they pass.

The pavements aren’t very wide, and I have got sooooo incredibly fed up of being forced into the road and oncoming traffic that I have to admit I have developed the trick of continuously coughing very loudly when it is clear they intend to continue to spread themselves across the whole of the pavement and force me into the road.

I have never yet encountered a large party that hasn’t scurried into single file in order to “social distance” from what they perceive to be the ‘typhoid mary’. Serves them right for being so incredibly rude in the first place.

Spritof_GFawkes
4 years ago
Reply to  Drew63

Still, thoughtcrime isn’t it? May result in a permanent ban…

Milo
Milo
4 years ago

You won’t know until the DS equivalent of Sue Gray has reported whether it was a thought crime or not….

John Dee
4 years ago
Reply to  Drew63

I never did such a dreadful thing.

Many who work in the food industry don’t share your scruples.

Drew63
Drew63
4 years ago

Let’s also point out that there have been many, many conspirators, collaborators, stooges, lickspittles, curtain-twitchers and jobsworths who have enabled the Government to put this fraud over on the British people.

Gregoryno6
4 years ago

Aha… so the rising water has reached the headshrinkers’ deck.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  Gregoryno6

They will just push the crew overboard and cling on!

Any guesses on who will be the next ‘Patsy’ for Johnson’s outrageous behaviour?

Hopeless - "TN,BN"
4 years ago

As a child, teenager and adult, I have lived through terrorist times in Africa, Malaya, Aden Colony and then the IRA from the 1970’s on, in both London and having business in Northern Ireland. There were some very grisly sights, for a youngster, but even with IRA bombs in London, none of the incipient dread and terror of the last two years.

Until 2020, it had not occurred to me that my own country would fall under the sway of a bunch of terrorists, paid for out of my taxes, and whose activities were far worse than anything in my previous experience.

Annie
4 years ago

That really puts things in perspective. Thank you.

Castorp
Castorp
4 years ago

Very articulately put. Welcome to the real world. The final realisation is internalising to what extent we already live in totalitarian dictatorships.

Boomer Bloke
4 years ago

I’m a child of the late 50s, born and bred in Belfast, and therefore I spent my teenage years there, wondering where if I was going to get beaten up on the way home from school by the other side if things kicked off and the buses were stopped because vehicles were being burned, or listening to the sound of bombs going off from the deserted city centre at night in and the gunfire blowing across on the wind from the Ardoyne. A good friend of mine, a Yorkshireman that I’ve known for almost a lifetime asked me what I thought about the covid crisis in early 2020. I said I thought the troubles were worse. He probably wanted to disagree, but he didn’t, that’s not his way, I was wrong, at least partly. Covid has been worse, not the initial crisis, but in the way that the government, and the entire establishment machinery have mismanage it and conspired to cover up their mismanagement, which is ongoing, and who knows what the ‘vaccines’ endgame will be, domestically and internationally. The NHS hospitals in Belfast became a world recognised centre of excellence for trauma management. A grisly distinction, but they earned… Read more »

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Boomer Bloke

Yes Boomer Bloke – NHS in NI is an absolute disgrace and would agree that the anxiety needlessly provoked by our own government is as bad as if not worse than that provoked by living through the troubles. Particularly the anxiety caused by the jab passports – how far would they extend it and tighten the screw and will they ever bring it back (I wouldn’t be surprised).

Banjones
Banjones
4 years ago
Reply to  Boomer Bloke

I think ”mismanagement” is being a bit too kind to them.
Neither ”incompetence” nor ”mismanagement” have played any part in all this manipulation and deliberate cruelty.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago

Know the feeling. As someone who as a child used to worry whether bullets could penetrate the walls while I was sleeping I share your sentiments exactly.

The idea that my own government who I pay for – ad nauseam, so that the likes of Truss can charter a private jet – would go to wat on its own citizens.

Annie
4 years ago

State terrorism is unethical.
Funny none of these muppets said so at the time.

Annie
4 years ago

Remember when they brought out ads saying that dog walkers and joggers were more likely to have the lurgie? Even the servile ASA couldn’t uphold tbat one.

Deborah T
Deborah T
4 years ago
Reply to  Annie

I’m a runner, and well remember an elderly man jumping back in fear as I passed.

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago
Reply to  Annie

My neighbour told me not to stroke their cat

Beowulf
Beowulf
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

I was going to make a rather obvious, lude comment, but I had to self-censor, what with the new rules/guidance in force.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  Beowulf

Yes, it’s a bit like us getting used to the Chinese-style social credit scheme – best be careful what you say, unless you want to be ‘deleted’.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Is that a euphemism?

Mike Oxlong
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Oooh, matron…

Boomer Bloke
4 years ago
Reply to  Annie

Well, PM Justin Trudeau says that anti vaxxers are misogynists and racists, and Napoleon Macron says that the unvaccinated are not citizens, so no surprises anymore.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Annie

Jeremy Vine opined on his TV show that cyclists and joggers should be forced to wear masks to cycle and job.

Banjones
Banjones
4 years ago
Reply to  Milo

Then again, he’s not exactly the brightest button in the box, is he? And he hasn’t got a lot of competition.

RTSC
RTSC
4 years ago

The Government made Coercive Control illegal in 2O15. Many of the techniques used by the Psy Ops Unit are the same as those used by a controlling partner; others, particularly the visual images, are even worse.

With Government approval, the psy ops unit launched the most evil propaganda campaign against the British people in our history. They should be prosecuted and this must NEVER be allowed ever again.

Children who are subjected to this kind of sustained psychological attack and develop anxiety disorder will never be entirely free of it for their entire lives.

tom171uk
4 years ago
Reply to  RTSC

The level of doublethink in government is dangerous. What they lock up other people for doing, they cannot recognise in their own behaviour. What the propaganda unit did was quite evil yet the hubristic governing class have told themselves it is acceptable because it was in what they deemed to be a good cause.

They simply gave themselves moral permission to do something they recognised as wicked in other people. That’s a far worse double standard than that shown by “partygate” and should attract at least as much opprobrium. Let’s see if the BBC pays it as much attention.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  tom171uk

“because it was in what they deemed to be a good cause.”

I’d change your wording slightly. While I agree entirely with the bulk of your post, I think that this sentiment should be replaced with something along the lines of

“because it enabled the government to achieve their ends”. There was no ‘good cause’ about a manufactured pandemic achieved principally by fraud.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  RTSC

“Children who are subjected to this kind of sustained psychological attack and develop anxiety disorder will never be entirely free of it for their entire lives.”

And the damage is not limited to their mental and psychological well being. This kind of trauma over time manifests itself in the development of all kinds of physical ailments which of course the medical profession does not recognise or understand. This is a cutting edge area of medical research.

The harms done to children are almost unquantifiable.

Banjones
Banjones
4 years ago
Reply to  Milo

And add to those the harms that may well be done by quacksines – or have already been done in those whose parents didn’t protect them.

crisisgarden
4 years ago

Mrs CG is a private therapist, so we’re an indirect beneficiary of the nudge unit. She’s had some utterly traumatised clients, some of which still won’t leave the house. The damage is incalculable 🙁

maverick999
maverick999
4 years ago

Their propaganda made me terrified of the government not the virus!

Sinor
Sinor
4 years ago
Reply to  maverick999

Well said .I thought Blair and Brown were Fascist enough but the Pig Dictator has gone above and beyond.I still think though that Gove is behind much of this ..

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Sinor

Cummings?? did things get better [ie less fascist after he was forced out???]

BJs Brain is Missing
4 years ago

Let’s not beat about the bush. The people and organisations behind all the fear-mongering and psychological warfare are evil and guilty of terrorism. They should be treated and tried as such in a court of law.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago

But that’s not going to happen. We still have people bleating on about Tony Blair being a ‘war criminal’. Guess what – he’s not in prison, and is very rich. And he has Police protection.
The members of the SAGE psychological abuse unit will live happily ever after on very handsome pensions… and that’s about it, really. In fact, there’s still plenty of work for them, for goodness knows how many more years.

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago

Nudging the people while they held parties and gatherings

J4mes
4 years ago

Well let’s hope the committee is chaired by people who are not paid in the back pocket by Gates. Chances of this being upheld is minimal at best.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago

“The Telegraph understands that Parliament’s Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee will investigate the use of the Behavioural Insights Team as part of its investigation into the Government’s activities during the pandemic.”

There will be no such investigation. And even if there was to be a bit of ‘poking around’ (whilst being handsomely paid), I think we all know the results already. 

tom171uk
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

Sadly, i am sure that’s right.

X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago

“If you go out you can spread it, people will die.”

Yet another example of pseudo-speak.

If you go out you can spread it.
and
People will die.

Two essentially separate statements which allow them a safety-net. But, the formulation is such that they can bank on the message being understood as:

If you go out you can (will) spread the virus, and as a result of you spreading the virus, people will die.

Of course, they don’t wan’t to actually say that, but they are very devious, and know how to say it … without actually … saying it.

It infuriates me. If they would just come out with the lie, the bullshit, that’s one thing, but this is far more contemptible.

Anyway, pronouncements like

If you go out you can spread it, people will die

and

Act like you’ve got it

are just so awful, that there simply are no words to describe them. This is why I sometimes have nothing left other than profanity.

Javy
Javy
4 years ago

On 26 March 2021, Dr Sarah Jarvis said “Breathing is an offensive weapon if you are infected with Covid”. (Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine programme).

X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago
Reply to  Javy

Wot?!?! Crazy stuff.

Mike Oxlong
4 years ago

I acted like I had it and spent 10 days on holiday

8bit
8bit
4 years ago

CORONAVIRUS: ACT LIKE YOU’VE HAD A LOBOTOMY.

iane
iane
4 years ago
Reply to  8bit

Try to give me a lobotomy and I’m going to give them a piece of my mind!

X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago
Reply to  iane

🙂

Annie
4 years ago
Reply to  8bit

The Welsheeples did just that. Most of them are still doing it.
Lobotomising them would have been a very minor operation.

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago
Reply to  Annie

Do you think it could be the influence of actual sheep, as NZ is the same?

Marcus Aurelius knew
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Bah!

Mike Oxlong
4 years ago
Reply to  8bit

I’d sooner have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  8bit

I’m fairly convinced that there is something in the jabs which seems to lobotomise their recipients

Free Lemming
4 years ago

This should be treated for what it is – abuse. The government deliberately psychologically abused, tormented and bullied their own people. The same people that they are supposed to protect. If this was a domestic incident then a crime would have been committed. These people must be held accountable and punished with the full weight of the law (not that that carries much weight these days). The long term consequences are significant, the majority of people are still walking around muzzled to the hilt – the damage has been done and may take decades to undo.

tom171uk
4 years ago
Reply to  Free Lemming

Indeed. Once you have instilled fear in people it is difficult to unfrighten them.

X - In Search of Space
X - In Search of Space
4 years ago
Reply to  Free Lemming

I just hope people don’t see the nudgers as being the ones responsible. Yes, they are despicable gits – but the ones who actually used the nudge nasties and their shit against us are ultimately responsible.

I would hope that the nudgers do face consequences, but I wouldn’t like to see any heat whatsoever deflected away from those who actually used this shit against us.

Chris_uk
4 years ago

All we will get out of this is a report that will be dumbed down or buried by the main stream media. Will it bring broken families back together? Will it undo the hurt of Christmases spent alone? Will it undo the psychological damage caused by all the ridiculous mask wearing and “social distancing”? Will it bring back the people who died as a direct result of their criminal behaviour? No.

Annie
4 years ago
Reply to  Chris_uk

There is still such a thing as justice.

Spritof_GFawkes
4 years ago

What the activities of this unit have done to me is to increase my scepticism. Anything I read our hear that emanates from officials or is reported as fact in the media I just assume to be a falsehood or an attempt to make me believe a particular thing. It may be that there are news items which are factually correct, now, which I automatically assume to be falsehoods.
Whilst a healthy degree of scepticism is probably a good thing I think that entire disbelief in anything reported is probably not.

huxleypiggles
4 years ago

I am of the same opinion. Anything official I first ignore, if ignoring is no longer an option I treat it as lies and in a word du jour – misinformation.

Stephanos
Stephanos
4 years ago

Not only did I reject and despise all these pestilential adverts I tore them down where possible.
I can clearly remember seeing a notice posted by some local authority jobsworth closing a children’s playground.
I tore it down, threw it in the bin and the next day I saw children playing there.

Annie
4 years ago
Reply to  Stephanos

Our local playgrounds were chained and padlocked.
I did succeed in freeing a car park, however, by taking the vile fascist notice down. Quarter of an hour later there were three cars in it. It was never re-closed.
.

The old bat
4 years ago
Reply to  Annie

My (private) dentist put their loo out of bounds, and the market town where they are based had also closed the public loos. I take diuretics! I asked the receptionist if she expected me to pee on the floor. Fortunately a small hotel across the road took pity on me and let me use theirs – I was almost in tears by this time. It was such a degrading and humiliating way to be treated.
My dentists loo is still closed. I am changing dentists.

Javy
Javy
4 years ago
Reply to  The old bat

At the Community Centre where I go for choir rehearsals two of the three toilet cubicles are taped off. We’ve not met since before Christmas but are due to restart in a couple of weeks – if the tape is still there I fully intend to remove it.

Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  Javy

“if the tape is still there I fully intend to remove it.”

You rebel, you!

Mike Oxlong
4 years ago
Reply to  Javy

Our toilet is taped off the morning after I’ve had 8 pints of Guinness and a vindaloo.

Marcus Aurelius knew
4 years ago
Reply to  Stephanos

We did the same, routinely, and with the same effects, from the first day of “lockdown”. After not too many days, our two kids were ripping everything down, too. In a local park (a very big one, north Leeds) there are some play/exercise machines (from in the before covid era when exercise outdoors was seen as a good thing, how stupid we were back then :/). The council had fenced it all off, with what must have been about fifty metres of that thick, bright orange plastic net, ziptied to steel rebar stakes driven loosely into the ground. We arrived mid afternoon to notice about ten families standing around it, looking dazed and lost and a bit disappointed. Within about five minutes, our two little ones had rearranged the entire monstrosity into an enormous pile off to one side, with the stakes pinning it all to the ground (so it didn’t blow away, we don’t like litter). It looked like an enormous, orange porcupine. After a further five minutes, all the machines were full with families and kids, laughing in the sunshine as if nothing had happened. My kids couldn’t use any of them, it was so busy. They watched… Read more »

Aleajactaest
4 years ago

Golden Acre Park by any chance?

Marcus Aurelius knew
4 years ago
Reply to  Aleajactaest

No, Roundhay.

Banjones
Banjones
4 years ago

That’s excellent! My little act of rebellion pales into insignificance – tearing the tapes off benches in an English Heritage site. Every little helps, I suppose!

rayc
rayc
4 years ago

Obviously the signatories are unaware of what kinds of actions were and are routinely tolerated by “civilized societies”.

Castorp
Castorp
4 years ago

The apex of psychological nudging is false flag operations.
See how the police, antifa and mainstream media journalists staged out false flag violence in the recent Brussels demonstrations.
My favourite moment is when the antifa demonstrator moves toward the police, is sprayed, and complains – ‘It’s us!’
https://www.bitchute.com/video/rjL5HWS0JIsP/