News Round-Up
- “The Covid doomsters are coming out for Easter” – The NHS Confederation is calling for the return of compulsory mask-wearing and new restrictions on mixing indoors. “Roll up, roll up, my friends, for the pandemic that never ends,” writes Richard Littlejohn in the Mail.
- “Philadelphia moves towards a perma-Covid regime” – This week, Philadelphia announced it would be reinstating its indoor mask mandate amid a moderate rise in coronavirus cases, making it the first American city to do so in response to the spread of the Omicron subvariant BA.2. In making this decision, Philadelphia went beyond the recommendations of the CDC, writes Park MacDougald on UnHerd.
- “A Warning From Shanghai” – A new California bill threatens to strip doctors of their medical licences for saying things the state doesn’t like. We don’t have to imagine what that would look like, writes Professor Jay Bhattacharya on Common Sense.
- “U.K. watered down requirements for overseas nurses in ‘supercharged’ recruitment drive” – The pandemic exposed the gaps in the U.K.’s health workforce, leading the NHS to water down entry requirements for overseas nurses, lowering language and ‘critical thinking’ exams as well as the amount of experience needed to work in Britain’s health service, the Telegraph reports. What could go wrong?
- “China is cracking under the weight of Zero Covid ” – If Xi’s rivals sense they could use public dissent to undermine his grip on power, the ingredients for a crisis would fall into place, says Mark Almond in the Telegraph.
- “Yet Another Paper Fails to Find that Masks Do Anything” – A natural experiment in Catalonia is the latest piece of evidence that masking is a worthless intervention, says Eugyppius.
- “Study shows inhalation of microplastics found in masks getting into lung tissue for the first time” – The health implications of tiny plastic fragments invading lungs are unknown, but it’s a growing health concern, especially for children, reports LifeSite News.
- “Observations of the Most Recent ‘Defeat the Mandate’ Protest in Los Angeles” – Thousands of people showed up at an event dedicated to stopping vaccine mandates across the United States, reports TrialSite News.
- “Britain is now reaping the rewards of Freedom Day” – Economic data show we are learning to live successfully with the virus, says Julian Jessop in the Telegraph.
- “Scientists develop ‘decoy cells’ to trick COVID-19 away from healthy ones” – The idea was developed to tackle coronavirus but the treatment, which has shown promise in initial laboratory tests, could be repurposed for any cell-invading disease and rolled out during another pandemic, reports the Telegraph.
- “Urgent! Comment on the WHO treaty now” – Comments on the potentially calamitous proposal for a WHO pandemic treaty close later today. It will only take two minutes to do, says Steve Kirsch, as he provides tips on what to write.
- “Cock-up or Conspiracy? Understanding COVID-19 as a ‘Structural Deep Event’” – As debate over ‘The Science’ has increased, people are questioning whether there was more to COVID-19 in terms of underlying agendas. Was it incompetence or coordination, asks Dr. Piers Robinson for PANDA.
- “Third death considered linked to COVID-19 vaccine” – New Zealand Ministry of Health report that the COVID-19 Vaccine Independent Safety Monitoring Board has notified it of a third (child) death in New Zealand considered to be linked to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
- “Wind turbines ‘taking deadly toll on migrating birds’” – Researchers from the University of East Anglia looked at GPS data from 65 bird tracking studies to work out where they fly at “danger height”, said to be 15 to 135 metres above wind turbines, the Mail reports.
- “Ban export of UK’s rubbish overseas, says Environment Agency chief” – Around 60% of British waste is sent abroad, where much of it has been found illegally dumped or burned, reports the Telegraph.
- “Bristol uni students barricade door to ‘cancel’ speaker Yaron Brook” – The 60-year-old Ayn Rand Institute Chairman was invited to the university by the Liberty Society to talk about the causes of war in relation to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, reports the Mail.
- “NEU model barmy: the teaching union’s affiliation to Stop the War is a disgrace” – Every Easter thousands of sane, moderate teachers (who still make up the majority of the profession) metaphorically close their eyes and hope that the extremists who gather at the union conferences do not embarrass them any more than they have done in previous years, writes Dr. David James in CapX.
- “The BBC must end its addiction to divisive racial politics” – If the corporation wants to survive, it should at least try to understand the country it supposedly represents, writes Calvin Robinson in the Telegraph.
- “That’s a reason for keeping him in office… the drumbeat for another lockdown is becoming quite deafening” – Watch Toby discuss the future of Boris Johnson with Mark Steyn on GB News.
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Melenchon’s voting bloc has the ability to sway the 2nd round of the French election, but the man has thrown in his lot with Macron:
‘France Unbowed’ bows its head to the bankers
Still trying to figure out what’s behind this one, as the WHO couldn’t give a rat’s behind about “safety standards”:
The WHO suspends India’s Covaxin shot
Good comment on Shanghai from the Brownstone Institute:
Lockdown Ideology at Its Most Extreme
Apparently Melenchon is just trying to avoid the blame when half those who voted for him for Marine (of those who bother to vote at all that is), and has said “don’t vote Le Pen” rather than “vote Macron”, being unable to.
That’s a part of it, no doubt. But he really is close to Macron in key ways. He’s also a big supporter of beefing up the French military, and was a big supporter of the NATO attack on Libya in 2011 (which was essentially a French operation in its conception).
“We can count on the media to pull out of the hat reports on Marine Le Pen and her father, with documentaries on the Third Reich on display until April 24th and the CRIF (Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions) which will shout: “Never again!”… except for the Azov battalion of course!”
Yep.
I understand entirely the reasons for the reluctance to vote for Marine Le Pen. But to return Macron, after the outrageous inhumanity of his rule, is to accept that tyranny and acts of gross discrimination are okay.
Would Le Pen really be worse?
The fact that the media will pull out every stop to prevent her winning the presidency should be a warning sign. Do they really think these people are defenders of human rights?
Someone who wants to enforce masks or someone who wants to ban head scarfs. What a mess!
If someone had told me (you know how these sentences go) that I would ever be suggesting that Marine Le Pen might be the best practical choice for the French presidency …
But then think of the choices made by someone like Churchill, who detested Communism but found it in himself to say of his support for the Soviet Union after 22 June 1941 (for a few years only), that if Hitler had invaded Hell, he would find a good word to say for the Devil.
Not that I’m suggesting Marine is demonic, of course!
I seem to remember that an ulterior motive was suggested for his alliance with the USSR. Anyhow, Churchill was certainly masonic.
It was very probably his geopolitical awareness. If any sort of Germany had all the resources of the Soviet Union at its disposal, Britain’s influence and power was in desperate and immediate danger.
There’s a seventh cat she doesn’t tell people about.
Is “she” Martine?
Sorry Star, it’s late here – I meant Marine!
This was why I asked the other day whether anyone knew where Le Pen stood vis a vis Schwab and the WEF.
If she can operate as and kind of bulwark against it at all in Europe…
Macron is enforcing a lot more than just masks. His vaccine mandates will have killed untold numbers. This really can’t be compared with a headscarf ban. I’m not personally for mandating any dress codes, but the fact is that such codes (in varying form) are a reality wherever you go. If you visit Saudi Arabia, you don’t bother taking your shorts with you.
Oh he’s been one of the worst outside of Linz. This is more of a humorous aside about the absurdity of it (such as going from no burkinis for health reasons to compulsory masks, supposedly also for health reasons).
An English motorcyclist living in France apologised to his viewers on Youtube for his muffled voice but explained he was forced by Macron’s covid laws to wear a mask under his full face helmet while riding alone.
I’d go with banning scarfs over supporting and normalizing muzzles any day.
Banning head scarves is just messing around at the edges, they need to ban Islam, as do we.
No, just mock it … all other religions are fair game. Monty Python did a great job with ‘Life of Brian’ but never got onto lampooning other faiths because the time of ‘peak free speech’ had passed.
Maybe someone’ll get onto mocking the atheist religions one day too…
“Would Le Pen really be worse?”
Perhaps, in the short run, but necessary nonetheless.
“The fact that the media will pull out every stop to prevent her winning the presidency should be a warning sign. ”
Yes, that’s my guide atm.
I think she might be worse, too. A fair few voters are probably wondering about that.
Necessary? Yes – a signal has to be sent.
I suspect she might be a problem economically (apart from maintaining Russian oil and gas imports of course).
Her economic policies are very much from the Left (in large part thanks to Florian Philippot’s earlier influence) and that is one of the main reasons why the establishment hates her. There was a time when a Le Pen victory would have raised the serious spectre of a military coup, but that time has passed. She’s resigned herself to the fact that the French don’t want a Frexit, but still maintains her other radical positions, including oppostion to any conflict with Russia, and opposition to French and/or NATO aggression in the Middle East.
She’s an interesting mixture all right, and fairly unpredictable. She is not stupid and, however much she is softening her image at the moment, she is tough.
You summed it up. A survey a few years ago said the French perceived her as arrogant and authoritarian but also as dynamic and brave. Real people don’t fit so easily into our Manichean categories.
This is a recent – and very interesting – debate over her ‘no veil’ policy. I think it has CC subs if you don’t follow French:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtHZ2eJR09I
Hmm. She seems to think that certain sorts of arabs (or “Arabes!!! for some French according to a book I read) will refrain from subjugating their women folk if only they are banned from wearing veils in public. And I’m still not sure what these types mean to do about other uses of the veil, such as by nuns or brides – maybe they will ban religious orders or weddings? I see this as a function of the absurdly militant secularism of post revolutionary republicanism in France (I tend more towards “legitimisme” myself, the Jacobins can stuff their reign of terror French royalist anthem at DuckDuckGo.)..
Yeah, the ban is impractical, i think. And it also depicts things in black & white terms. I agree with the Maghrebi woman, and like her, i also have lots of friends who wear the veil & who are not even slightly islamist. On some level, it is the “uniform” of this movement and the first thing that they impose (see Iran 1979-80) but you can’t just legislate these things away once they’ve taken root in the society. Islamism has to be slowly suffocated to death through education and free and open debate.
Certainly I think it would be better to ask Arab women (the Burka is not universal in Islam, I understand) what they want rather than seeking to impose things on them. It has been suggested that trying to enforce things like that could simply result in some women not going out at all, making their situation worse rather than better.
Islamism has to be slowly suffocated to death through education and free and open debate.
Yes. Without education that is not self-righteous preaching and is set in an atmosphere of free and open debate, outright and enforced bans become a sign for some (perhaps many) that wearing the “uniform” is standing with the oppressed rather than being oppressed by them.
I agree with Hugh’s points. Enforcement can be counter-productive in more ways than one.
Le Pen’s distinction between Islam and Islamism is important; and she’s consistent about it. I know Muslims who agree with her.
I also suspect that she is genuine about her opposition to totalitarianism. I trust her more on this than I do Macron (not that that’s saying much).
The opening line was a quote from you, arany madar: sorry I didn’t indicate it!
Re: “not that that’s saying much“. LOL. Macron really is the dregs of the French political class and everyone knows it. There’s a huge rally organised for Paris this Saturday whose theme is “Anyone but Macron”. It was an election slogan before, but now it obviously translates into support for Marine. The hashtag is #MAM (manif anti-Macron).
Re: “education that is not self-righteous preaching”.
Agree with you 100%.
Reminds me of the person (Janet Daley?) who described the cast iron rule of politics as the law of unintended consequences (actually I think it was in relation to a pesticide ban – a worse pesticide was used). I think also of the person who said that the golden rule of medical treatment is to intervene as little as possible (or something along those lines) – so rather different from these big pharma driven last two years.
Like “First do no harm”?
Yes, I think they used to take some sort of oath in the medical profession…
“First, cover your a*se”. Aka “professionalism”.
And if you do that really well, nothing much after that matters (at least, not to your career prospects).
The Orléanists don’t want to make the mistake of “giving up the throne for a handkerchief” this time, then 🙂 I’d call that realpolitik.
The establishment dislike her because she’s not one of them.
Look at the history of the 5th republic. Every single president, and every single losing second-round candidate too, has always been an alumnus of Sciences Po, with the only exceptions being 1) Charles de Gaulle (who created the 5th republic in 1958 and who re-founded Sciences Po in 1945 and is an obvious special case) and 2) two losing candidates called “Le Pen”.
Another handle on this: every single president of the 5th republic who went to Sciences Po has ALWAYS been succeeded by a person who also went to Sciences Po. There have been no exceptions.
This is what idiotic British journalist commentators (some of whom think they’re so sophisticated for knowing about “énarques”) didn’t understand about Eric Zemmour, alumnus of Sciences Po. He is not an outsider. Le Pen is.
Her problem is that when it’s “France versus Paris”, the winner could in fact be Paris.
I’m with you.Surely anyone who isn’t Micron may be an improvement and is worth a punt? He’s been able to get away with abusing the French citizens for long enough and as a power-mad, arrogant, psychopathic egomaniac, he needs knocked of his perch. Preferably pulverized into an unrecognizable lump of mush by an angry mob, bent on retribution, but that’ll no doubt remain a fantasy of mine!
Whatever Le Pen’s negatives, I would be voting to return a president who had expressly stated his intention to ‘piss off’ a large segment of his citizens.
Anyone but Macron!
Did you forget to include “not”? 😉 But yes, absolutely. I think anyone has to be better, as you say.
Mogwai, damn you’re right. I meant to say NOT voting to return etc etc
I agree with every adjective you’ve used to describe him; and if he isn’t an egomaniac, he acts like one!
To be re-elected after what he has done, would send a terrible message to would-be tyrants everywhere.
Well if he get’s re-elected then 1) there is no justice because 2) the whole thing is rigged. Going by the amount of Frenchies who turned out consistently for the protests, something would definitely be amiss if he got the majority vote. And notice how he’s been trying to backtrack and say he didn’t mean he wants to piss off the unjabbed like how it obviously sounded. He really does think people are mere plebs who can be manipulated with his lies because they have sh!t for brains!
Let’s hope he’s been given enough rope by now that he’ll hang himself. You can polish a turd all you like but you’re still left with just a turd.
She will go all out to provoke the cr*p out of him in the TV debate next Wednesday.
One outburst from him about how he wants to “emmerder” this or that section of the population, or how if you think he’s got questions to answer about McKinseygate (which may well by then have snowballed) you can f*** off and do one, and…well some swing voters watching the debate may decide he’s a tad on the arrogant side for their liking.
Plenty of scope for the second round to be decided by matters arising from the Ukraine. Wars are like that – hugely politically powerful and unpredictable.
Lots of speculation about what might arise from the Russian/DPR mopping up of Azovstal, which might be nothing or might be decisive.
CRIF are urging the French to vote for Macron, it’s true. I am not convinced that the Zionist cyber army will pile in on Macron’s side, but we shall see. This is a remarkable election and it is very much “of our time”, given that each side is talking of saving France from the Apocalypse represented by the other side. From Le Pen’s point of view, a blank vote by a swing Mélenchon voter is not a vote for Macron – it’s half a vote for Macron. It’s possible that her campaign will aim a lot of its effort at Mélenchon voters who are “flakily” pro-Macron and open to persuasion not to vote for Le Pen but to abstain. Each one who is successfully so persuaded is worth half a vote to her. The same is true of those who can be persuaded to vote for her rather than abstaining. But they are two different parts of the electorate. It is far too risky for Macron to try a Ukrainian play now in the next week and a half. My feeling is there will be “events”. Macron has being doing badly on McKinseygate. The line “If you’ve got evidence, take… Read more »
That weird Melenchon thing had all the hall marks of a ‘faux nationalist’ option designed to split the genuine nationalist option.
Meanwhile Fabien Roussel prevented Mélenchon from getting to the second round…
If the French people ever rise from their slumber I would like macron to be around to suffer the force of their unrest
The video in the first link is brilliant, thanks for sharing it. LOVE The French when they’re like this.
Yes, they’re wonderful – magnificent people. For those who haven’t seen it, it’s right at the top of the Comments sections (France unbowed link).
Many thanks to arany madar.
About time someone begins to wake up and start the fight back – who ever thought it would be France?
If you had told me 2 years ago I would have been keeping everything crossed for the outcome of a French election I would never have believed you…
Awesome video of the French fuming! 🙂 Thank you! “Vous etes un perroquet, monsieur! ” rofl
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/anything-but-macron-say-desperate-french-voters/
She just has to state that she will not sign any new WHO pandemic treaty, for sovereignty reasons.
That’ll get her into the Élysée.
Brilliant analysis! Thanks for sharing!
Bring it on – do it Marine!
Might make others think twice about doing it.
Sometimes you do have to hold your nose when you vote.
Having gotten around to watching the discussion linked by Noah Carl in yesterday’s piece, it’s worth thinking about the very apt comment by Ambassador Jack Matlock: “The tragedy of Ukraine – one of them – has been that, as they were struggling, as all the other ex-Soviet states, to throw off the shackles of communism and all the irrationalities of that, they were confronted with a population that was deeply divided, and they were also subjected to a constitution which did not allow federalism, a federal system which would somehow give more local autonomy to different groups. So that you had a see-saw of elections where, by slightly more than 50%, the Presidency would be won by one side or the other, and then that president would name all the equivalent of the state governors, the provincial leaders. That was a recipe for disaster.” Ambassador Jack Matlock This is essentially the structural flaw in the state that the Ukraine was created as, when it emerged from the wreckage of the Soviet Union, which made it so disastrously vulnerable to the effects of the interference by the US and EU that helped it along the road to its end. With a… Read more »
Yes, I hope the “Irish free state” have thought about this if they ever get round to taking over Ulster.
Absolutely.
I think the Ukraine might have had a chance, had they been allowed to be genuinely independent. But of course the US was never going to let that happen; and the Russians were always going to have a sharp eye on developments there. They would have been crazy or stupid not to do so; and they are neither.
The deliberate fostering of unabashed Nazis by highly placed Americans led to this mess. The fact that they continued to foster them after the fall of the Soviet Union shows where their interests lie: in turning the vast Russian lands into a place Americans can exploit as they please.
Like the National Socialists before them.
I remember Obama going to Kenya and lecturing them on their “gross indecency” laws. Some American politicians seem to love lecturing other countries on how they should run their affairs, and with the absurd modern state of the woke mob, this is starting to be a problem (did the American army base in Afghanistan really fly a rainbow flag there?Talk about doing the Taleban’s team talk for them!)..
It’s not only that they like lecturing others, but that they seem to think we are all hankering for US advice on how to live our lives and govern our societies.
Seriously?
I think that there was a piece on this the other day, possibly on GB News, about how China is a mercantilist state (like Britain used to be), that whilst they have strong political ideas that they enforce domestically, they are not interested in trying to export them, so long as they can trade with a country to keep their own citizens in clover, thus forestalling the sort of rebellion that eventually ended the USSR. The piece concluded that USA (for one) urgently need to get back to this.
“whilst they have strong political ideas that they enforce domestically, they are not interested in trying to export them“
This is the key difference suggested by Prof Diesen, that I’ve referenced here before, between a “national–patriotic” regime and a cosmopolitan-globalist regime:
“After the Cold War, the capitalist-communist divide was recast as a liberal democracy–authoritarian divide, which is now undermined by populists’ view of the world split along a national-patriotism versus cosmopolitan-globalism divide where Russia transitions from being an adversary to an ally.“
I see it as being between a government that is fundamentally motivated by pragmatism, versus one in the grip of an aggressive universalist ideology such as Soviet communism or modern US woke leftism.
“‘That’s a reason for keeping him in office… the drumbeat for another lockdown is becoming quite deafening… someone like Jeremy Hunt or Michael Gove would have us all locked down again tomorrow’“
That’s all very well, but the fat “See You Next Tuesday” couldn’t even bring himself to rule out another lockdown.
Personally I think it’s true that Jonson is the least worst leader available to us at the moment. Getting rid of him will result in a worse, more dangerous leader. But that mrely reflects just how truly appalling all the alternatives are, both in the “Conservative” Party and in the other Parliamentary parties.
But unless he rules out lockdown, coerced mask–wearing and coerced distancing, he’s a waste of time and space. He can f off. If DeSantis can do it, so can Johnson.
Probably the only man who could give the Conservatives a chance of a decent majority too (even if they sort out the constituency boundaries farce). But I tend t agree, if he is going to threaten further wholesale human rights abuses, we would be better off looking for the 2020 option (unless our local candidate is a known lockdown sceptic of course). They need to learn that people will go somewhere else if pushed too far.
I take the view that we long ago reached the point where it’s necessary for the “Conservatives” to go down hard, in order to have some hope of getting a return of decency to British politics somehow.
Yes, the alternatives are far worse, but we’ll have to go through them to get to the other side. Decades of “Conservative” political “victories” without any conservative representation is the road to the pit of doom.
Not socially conservative, and not even fiscally conservative, it’s certainly tempting to say why bother, but with the availability of genuine alternatives currently patchy, it will be a case for many of the least bad option. The question is how best to get to a 2015 type situation (btw it should have read 2015 above, not 2020, with reference to four million plus UKIP votes).
Following this discussion with interest in Oz, about to have a federal election (May 21).
Social conservatism can be problematic (societies being what they are), but how I long for some fiscal conservatism. How can they not see where the fiscal adventurism of the last decades is leading us?
Likely enough they do see but fear the electoral consequences of making a stand. I tend to see a “Conservative” party that isn’t actually conservative as something of a problem (and the same applies for that matter, to an illiberal “Liberal” party for that matter, or a Labour type party that despises the working class). A scramble for an increasingly narrow centre ground, with vested interests calling the shots is perhaps a big part of what got us into this mess.
“Study shows inhalation of microplastics found in masks getting into lung tissue for the first time” –
I was warned years ago about drinking from plastic bottles, with nasty chemicals able to leak into the liquid (come to think of that, masking must be equivalent to drinking from plastic bottles over extensive periods). Like I say, masking is a filthy habit.
And speaking of rubbish, the late, great Christopher Booker was reporting on rubbish “for recycling” being burned abroad. If this is still going on, it is yet another indication of how useless our political class are.
Here is what we have to show for 7 years of “Conservative” rule (12 if you count the first Cameron regime):
NHS HIRING EVEN MORE £60,000 EQUALITY AND INCLUSION MANAGERS
“Every few months the NHS runs into a serious logistical problem. Not that there’s now an unprecedented waiting list. Not that its budget is the same size as the entire GDP of Greece. No, the problem is it doesn’t have enough ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ managers, collecting £60,000+ salaries at the taxpayer’s expense. Yes, they’re hiring… again.
…..
An extra £117,441 to the NHS’s annual budget well-spent. For some reason, these heroes didn’t get a mention in Saj’s ‘radical’ NHS reform speech earlier this week…”
Dr Nick Watts is the Chief Sustainability Officer of the NHS, responsible for its commitment to deliver a world-class net zero emission health service. Based in London, he leads the Greener NHS team across the country
Remember all these parasites next time someone tells you that the NHS is “underfunded”. These political sinecures are basically the equivalent of commisars in old-style communist regimes.
I have a copy of Private Eye from 4 May 1984 (unfortunately probably not available online) that describes how “Red Ken” subsidised “one of the capital’s richest young entrepreneurs… Richard Branson”, giving a “guarantee against loss” (£40,000) for his club’s “series of eight concerts of African music” (including Kando-Bongo Man. No, really!).under the guise of supporting the “GLC’s Anti-Racist Year programme”.
I suspect the fact that money is being spent in the way you describe says something about the direction the “Conservative” party has taken since that time.
(There’s also a rather delightful 2CV advert on page three…).
They don’t mean any of this “equality and inclusion” stuff; any more than Labour does.
All we have to do is look at what’s happening (under either Conservative, Liberal or Labour governments) to the distribution of wealth. This nonsense is a substitute and a distraction, with the practical results of encouraging divisiveness.
This is old leftist dogma, that the only thing that matters is the distribution of wealth.
In fact, these disputes that you dismiss as mere distractions from what you regard as the only important thing are genuinely vital for most people. The distribution of wealth is generally important, but never the only thing of importance.
I did not say that the only thing that matters is the distribution of wealth and that is not what I think, as my posts here clearly show.
I was responding to your post (it was a “Reply to Mark”), which spoke quite specifically of the hiring of equality and inclusion managers; and people you described as “these parasites” holding “political sinecures”.
When I spoke of “This nonsense” as a substitute and distraction, I was referring to your “parasites” and holders of “political sinecures”. It seemed to me that they were your principal topic, not “equality and inclusion” in general.
I see from the news that Johnson and Sunak are stonewalling. Have they no shame? /snigger
As for the WHO Treaty commentary, I note you have to input your address etc at WHO’s site. Since so far as I know treaties do not bind domestically except to the extent implemented in national law by Parliament (different in the USA?) I don’t see the point of the suggested remarks. Any pressure should be exerted on MPs instead….?
Of course as the comments-advocates point out, WHO has presented its proposal in [Delphi Technique (?)] terms of the assumed premise that there should even be such a treaty – same methodology as HMG in its purported consultations on all manner of things.
https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/urgent-comment-on-the-who-treaty?s=r
I’d like to see the authority for that statement.
https://worldcouncilforhealth.org/news/2022/04/stopthetreaty-comment-who-pandemic-treaty/66422/
https://inb.who.int/home/written-submissions
For the record:
Rowan
13 hours ago
Reply to Hugh
I accept that petitions are unlikely to change anything by themselves. But do tell us what are you doing that is more effective?
5
0
Reply
https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/b056281523c6ec4a745cbb045952db58?s=64&d=blank&r=g
Hugh
right now
Reply to Rowan
After two years and counting of this nonsense (and following on from a clear mandate not to be governed by shady international organizations in 2016), I begin to wonder if anything that I do will make a difference. For heavens sake, racial discrimination didn’t end in the USA with the end of slavery, we didn’t truly get one person one vote after women and working class men got the vote. I don’t think they are going to stop screwing us over any time soon. I suspect that the most effective thing we can do is to make sure that people in our work places, sports clubs, cultural organizations etc. jolly well know that there are some of us who dissent from this shambles and have good reasons for doing so. Changing the corrupt political system may or may not be possible, but we might at least be able to change our own communities.
People do what they can in the situations they find themselves in at particular times.
You’re posting here, quite apart from anything else. In unvaxxed segregation and semi-isolation in Australia (it’s meant to be unpleasant and it is), I find your posts enjoyable to read, sustaining and informative.
Thank you.
No problem. I seem to remember someone saying they found great consolation in a post about the Hillsborough tragedy (or some such) some months back. Who knows how many people have been kept sane by sites like this? Every little helps. I for my part have read with great interest and sadness about the horror that has been unfolding in some parts of Australia, and am so glad of the many posts we get from around the world so that we can feel we are not alone. There is going to be a very long list of collaborators in this shambles when all this is over, methinks. Of course, people will always wonder what more they could have done. There is apparently a scene in Schindler’s list where the hero regrets that he could have saved one more life if he’d sold his gold pin (or whatever it was). Still, I would rather be grateful for anything that people do do. And I will always be grateful to anyone who stood up to the abuses of the last two years (and counting) in any way. The highlight for me was the people who continued to protest against the human rights… Read more »
Schindler couldn’t save more than a small number of victims, but that didn’t deter him. He saved what he could.
As a certain emporium keeps reminding us, every little helps. The one thing that doesn’t is apathy.
So they’re admitting that the lousy “vaccines” don’t work. Or else that they want us to lock down forever. Either way, they can get stuffed.
They just want to ruin and thereby bring to an end yet another religious festival when it is customary for families and loved ones to gather together.
Everyone should resist. On point of principle if nothing else.
Never again does any government get to dictate who you can have in your own home and who you can meet with and what you can do.
BBC Guide Tells Parents to “Examine Their Biases” if Their Toddler Only Has White Friends
https://staging.dailysceptic.org/2022/04/12/bbc-guide-tells-parents-to-examine-their-biases-if-their-toddler-only-has-white-friends/
By Will Jones
Stand for freedom with our Yellow Boards By The Road next events
Thursday 14th April 3pm to 4pm
Yellow Boards By the Road
Junction A329 Reading Rd
& Station Approach
Wokingham RG41 1EH
Monday 18th April 2pm to 3pm
Yellow Boards By the Road
Junction A3095 Warfield Rd/
A329 Millennium Way
Bracknell RG12 2XT
Stand in the Park Sundays from 10am – make friends & keep sane
Wokingham Howard Palmer Gardens
(Cockpit Path car park free on Sunday)
Sturges Rd RG40 2HD
Bracknell
South Hill Park, Rear Lawn, RG12 7PA
Telegram http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
What I want to know is who are these people who still think the BBC aren’t biased?
Theoretically this should have got less bad with the move of part of it to Salford, but I wonder if they just created a new bubble of group think up in Lancashire. Better if they’d moved to Barnsley. Or possibly Workington. Or Bedlington if they were feeling really brave.
Nenthead would be good too, to learn about real hardship.
nentheadchurch2.jpg (720×471) (churches-uk-ireland.org)
Masks
“Not only are they laden with the mouth and excretory germs of the humans who discarded them, but it turns out that a key ingredient in the ubiquitous disposable hospital masks seen littering land and seascapes since 2020 — polypropylene — degrades into tiny, microscopic fibers of plastic that a growing body of research shows wreaks havoc on aquatic creatures and has the potential to cause disease, including cancer, in humans.”
To go with the excreted birth control chemicals that damage aquatic creatures. Some people really are disgusting.
The earlier NHS antigen test kits came with a swab for sticking up your nose that the plastic needle like bristles easy came off. Must be so many adults and youngsters with that debris stuck in their internal human tissue
Well, that’s put me right off my tucker!
Notes on Australia’s federal election.
1: Labor leader Anthony Albanese has been cocking up big time, demonstrating a spectacular lack of awareness over basic issues such as the unemployment rate.
This isn’t a Biden-like issue of cognitive deficiency; the bloke’s just ill-informed.
He’s getting slagged even by the usual pro-Labor suspects of the MSM.
Theory: Albanese doesn’t want to win. Partly because he wants to avoid cleaning up after the covid circus, partly because the Liberals are doing pretty much what Labor would do anyway.
2: One of our most ferocious defenders of citizen rights in Australia has made a move. George Christensen has parted from the Liberal National coalition and joined Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
Here’s to your continued presence in Canberra, George!
For those who aren’t familiar with George’s parliamentary speeches, here’s a sample.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XRNXstAKOo
I can’t bear to watch any of the election stuff. It’s bad enough emptying the mail each day.
Albo was a superb Leader of the House under both Rudd and Gillard. That was his ideal job. But he has no idea of how to be a Leader of the Opposition.
Any Labor PM would have to take orders from Andrews or McGowan, both flushed with huge eIectoral triumphs and the ego thrills of imposing dictatorships upon their own populations. Who in their right mind would want the job?
So three from one “vaccine”. How many child deaths would that equate to in the UK? Not that they’re dangerous or anything, Devi “100% safe and still bleating in the Guardian” Sridhar.
Yep: if one wants to know the truth, just read the GroanAid – and assume the reverse!
Unfortunately some people did that with Trump and ivermectin.
“If the corporation wants to survive, it should at least try to understand the country it supposedly represents” (Calvin Robinson on the BBC, in the Telegraph).
I guess he’s limited as to how far he can go, but I think the BBC is too far gone for ay kind of fiddling reform to save it as a neutral state broadcaster. I’d like to see it utterly destroyed as most other major news and entertainment firms are already on a similar side to theirs, but as a minimum it must be cut adrift from public funding and from association with the state.
I wonder if they’ve ever even been to Bedlington? They really should take Rod Liddle back for a start.
You’ve reminded me of when I did a YTS near Bedlington. Guidepost, Choppington to be exact. Decades ago that of course…
A suggestion was made about our ABC that would probably work for the Beeb as well.
Sell it off to the staff for a dollar. Everything.
The taxpayers would be better off by about $1billion a year and the staff, who have obviously been creatively stifled under government supervision, can get on and make the programs they really want to make. Funding via subscription service.
As you might expect, this suggestion didn’t come from anyone working for the ABC.
Good morning. Project Omega has started: there’s a hepatitis spike among children in Britain.
The warning signs were there:
?
Can you be more specific, @Amtrup? 🙂
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/12/uk-health-agency-investigating-surge-in-hepatitis-cases-in-children
‘The pandemic exposed the gaps in the U.K.’s health workforce, leading the NHS to water down entry requirements for overseas nurses, lowering language and ‘critical thinking’ exams as well as the amount of experience needed to work in Britain’s health service’
Patient -‘Nurse, why is the Doctor dancing around the end of my bed and chanting?’
Nurse -‘That is Doctor Numbingo fresh in off a dinghy, he specialises in voodoo, you are very lucky, there is a six year waiting list to see him’.
There was a perfect storm of the U.K. leaving the EU and the response to the pandemic. A few years ago the trust that I worked for at the time were unable to recruit nurses from the usual sources (Philippines and the subcontinent), so they recruited from EU countries, primarily Spain and Italy, if memory serves. This was a stop gap solution. Having left the EU that route was no longer available and so the net had to be cast wider. With the response to the pandemic having to fill the vacancies became paramount and the government responded by reducing the language and competency bars. If these nurses are still working in the U.K. and are registered then there will be an increase in the number of fitness to practice hearings by the NMC citing lack of knowledge of English, see https://www.nmc.org.uk/concerns-nurses-midwives/hearings/hearings-sanctions/hearings-april-2022/ currently there are one or two a month but I would anticipate that rising in the near future.
Because until our governments and businesses are barred from simply importing qualified mass labour and forced to set up and foster systems and attitudes that promote proper education and training here, they will always take the easy way out for them, that keeps the benefits for owners, managers and rulers and imposes the costs on the wider population – mass immigration.
The NMC/GMC/HCPC do have minimum standards. Filipino nurses have to work supervised for 6 months before they can register with the NMC. However, nurses registered in the EU did not as their home country registration was accepted by the NMC. There are English language competency requirements.
During the pandemic the NMC were encouraged to lower the bar and to let retired and unregistered nurses return to practice without the normal return to practice courses. I retired only 14 months ago and there’s no way would I re register without an RTP course as I am probably already out of date.
This was a stop gap solution. Having left the EU that route was no longer available and so the net had to be cast wider. My wife was head of Nurse training for a prominent university. Recruitment isn’t straightforward. Overseas nurses, depending on their qualifications, undergo a short transition training period of roughly, 6 months. Recruitment from the EU was never constrained by Brexit. Universities are entirely free to recruit from where they want. Recruitment and training is a competitive environment as trusts are constantly competing with other trusts to attract university placements. AS for reducing language and competency bars, it’s a complete red herring the MSM have latched onto as usual. No one can complete a three year degree course without being competent in numeracy and literacy. The most basic literacy and numeracy requirements were/are for basic entry, in other words, school leavers. The standard of foreign students was/is no worse than our own school leaving standards. In other words, foreign students can speak the lingo and do the sums as well as our home grown students. That says more about the UK education system than anything else. The reality is, student’s with English and Maths GSCE’s were required… Read more »
I am not disagreeing with what your wife is saying regarding pre registration, but I was talking about registered nurses, and I certainly wasn’t having a go at the universities having gone through that process as a mature student in 2003-2006 at de Montfort university.
The NMC has/had a reciprocal arrangement with the registration bodies in Europe and some other places that enabled U.K. RN to work immediately in the EU/EEA and vice versa. Australia, Canada and the USA have different arrangements. When I worked as an RN in our local A&E the trust decided they needed to employ staff from Portugal, Spain and Italy.
There have been few fitness to practice hearings by the NMC where lack of competency in English has been the subject of the complaint.
What I find alarming, and may be your wife will as well, is the number of competency hearings by the NMC of nurses who have registered in the last few years.
https://www.nmc.org.uk/concerns-nurses-midwives/hearings/hearings-sanctions/hearings-april-2022/
With regards to numeracy, in my trust we had to undergo a drugs calculation test, considering I had done maths at first year degree level and physics to degree level that definitely was a waste of time.
When the panicdemic first started the NMC opened a special part of the register to allow retired nurses to re register without RTP, not sure what the restrictions were.
Pathetic. Try and learn the difference between legal and illegal immigrants.
I am so sick of Young’s “Stick to nurse” stupidity. He has become such a shill for Bozo!
Some people insist on clinging to false assumptions or wrong conclusions.
In this case, Toby Young wrongly believes Kim Jong Johnson stood against lockdown in December when, in fact, it was his rebellious backbench MPs.
If WEF order their puppet premiers in member countries to lockdown like Shanghai their puppet premiers will do it. Current UK incumbent included.
You’d think TY would have realised by now.
“That’s a reason for keeping him in office… the drumbeat for another lockdown is becoming quite deafening” “
No, Toby, the reason Kim Jong Johnson didn’t lock down again in December was because his backbenchers threatened to oust him, he deserves no credit whatsoever.
The backbenchers and some in the cabinet was what I read. I suppose you could give Johnson “credit” for listening to the right people, for once. To be clear, he’s the worst PM since before Walpole and I despise him.
People who aspire to leadership must be able to rise to the occasion.
I was inclined to joke about Churchill, until I listened to his wartime speeches. When his country was in great danger, he found wonderful and inspiring words; and had the grace to say that it was the British people who had the lion’s heart – he had just given the lion’s roar.
How can Johnson know such things; declare himself an admirer; and so completely fail to understand? Churchill had failures before and failures after that period of national crisis, but he pulled the best out of himself when it mattered.
If you want to lead, you have to compare yourself with genuine leaders; rather than looking contemptuously below and deciding that you’re more important than the people you’re supposed to be leading.
There is a new clip out from such a leader, Ron DeSantis.
Asked about whether he will respond to a rise in cases etc. with new restrictions, he states:
“As long as I am sitting in this chair, no Floridian will be restricted, mandated or locked down in any way.”
Ron DeSantis 2024.
He’s not ready.
He’s readier than Captain Underpants is.
Either Ron DeSantis or Kristi Noem for 2024.
Lucky Florida!!!
Shame they cannot clone him and send him to other countries. The DNA of a proper leader.
He stands out, doesn’t he? This is not to say that he’s “perfect in every way” – he doesn’t need to be.
He has the vital characteristic: he’s prepared to make a decision which will not be liked by everybody, and articulate it clearly.
Yes, Kim Jong Johnson is a follower of public opinion.
He either does what he believes will be popular at any given millisecond or what he believes he’ll be unpopular for not doing.
He’s a second-hander, a parasite, entirely dependent on others.
To lead people one must inspire them to believe one has their best interests at heart. More importantly, one must have their best interests at heart.
Nothing Boris does or say’s inspires this belief amongst all but the party faithful.
Johnson has lost so much ground to the pathetic Starmer, it should be obvious by now an amoeba would make a better leader.
And I hope they continue to keep that kind of pressure on if he refuses to do decent thing and step down. He will likely cling on for as long as feasibly possible if MSM can drum up enough support for it.
The CapX article on the ‘disgrace of teachers wanting to affiliate with ‘Stop the War’ appears to be anti-Russia/Putin (I didn’t fully open it, but could skim read). How terrible that people want dialogue and peace. This article doesn’t really fit with the ‘Daily Sceptic’ rubric, maybe.
Stop the War is Marxist, Stop the War is entirely pro-war, just wars they approve of.
I read it, unfortunately. His beef is with both the NEU, the usual radical minority group purporting to represent a majority, and for the most part I agree with him. The second beef is with Putin, predictably, and his barbarism after 30 years of negotiation. He also condemns the Stop The War coalition for, shock horror, actually supporting the democratic decision of Crimean’s who had a referendum with an 80%+ turnout with a 90%+ decision to support Russian interest’s in the region. We have moved from Trump Derangement Syndrome to Putin Derangement Syndrome. The reality of war is horrendous and no one want’s it however, you can only provoke a bear for so long before it lashes out. Ukraine had a choice. Continue accepting NATO military training and equipment with the obvious end result being the organisations objective to use the country as a military base or, agree with Russia and NATO to maintain neutrality between the two. This fool accepts no alternative to his perception that Putin is a brutal animal and is determined to ram it down everyones throat. However, I can find no record of him ever calling out for cessation of the ethnic cleansing conducted by… Read more »
Yet another relatively young professional body builder has died of a suspected heart attack.
They’ll pin this on steroids like they have with all the other sudden deaths in this industry. And they’re probably half correct: steroids mixed with multiple doses of the fake vaccine must be a cocktail of certain death.
The NHS Confederation is a membership club for NHS administrators. Not a medical qualification in sight.
So nobody that is even in a patient-facing role then? In other words, if they’re that disproportionately shit-scared of a pissy cold virus they can quite easily hole up in their houses and work behind the comfort of their lap tops, never having to mingle with another human being ever! These are the over-paid bedwetting alarmists that probably attend Zoom meetings in a mask…and drive around in one too. And they REALLY resent anyone who isn’t as terrified of their own shadow and is not as risk averse as they are. Dickheads!