Today’s Telgraph says a majority of the Cabinet want Boris to accelerate the timetable for ending the lockdown.
Boris Johnson is under pressure to ease the lockdown restrictions causing “massive damage” to the economy, with the majority of the Cabinet understood to support a major “back to work” drive next month.
Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, is among ministers who have expressed concerns about the long-term “scarring” to the economy being caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Provided there is no unexpected increase in the rate of virus infections over the next 10 days, they want the Prime Minister to allow as many businesses as possible to reopen in order to get the country moving again.
According to Gordon Raynor, the Telegraph‘s political editor, the three most hawkish members of the Cabinet – remember, in the current vernacular hawkish means cautious, not bold – are Matt Hancock, Michael Gove and the Prime Minister. But the doves seem to be gaining ground. Conservative peers Baroness Noakes and Lord Dobbs have both chastised the Government for being over cautious, with Dobbs saying “lockdown means poverty”.
The former Tory work and pensions minister Baroness Buscombe urged the Government to be “proportionate” in a House of Lords debate yesterday and reduce the social distancing rule to one metre, calling for schools to reopen “to free up the workforce and to stem the tide of this, frankly, with respect, cultural and economic suicide”.
Meanwhile, the Times reports that the Treasury borrowed more last month than in the whole of last year (£62.1 billion). According to the Office for National Statistics, the Government hasn’t borrowed that much in a single month since records began.
Public Inquiry-Induced Paralysis
According to Fraser Nelson’s column in today’s Telegraph, a new joke is going round Whitehall:
When an awkward question about Covid comes up, someone will say: “Well, tell that to the inquiry.”
But as Fraser points out, this isn’t funny. On the contrary, the paranoia gripping members of the Government and the Civil Service about how they’re likely to judged in the forthcoming inquiry is preventing them from taking decisive action in case it has adverse consequences and they end carrying the can. “I know one Cabinet member who is keeping meticulous, exculpatory notes of his actions with a dateline starting in January,” writes Fraser.
Normally, we’d expect the Prime Minister to be the one mobilising the English language to stirring national effect but instead he’s starting to look like the most cautious leader in Europe. Perhaps he is stung by the failure of the lockdown to limit deaths and thinks he cannot afford another political risk, especially if he plans a high-stakes Brexit gambit. Perhaps he worries an early move to reopen the economy would be too divisive – contravening his pledge to reconcile a country torn by the referendum.
The Prime Minister tells colleagues that they’ll be forgiven for mistakes going into this crisis, but not for mistakes coming out. He’s right. But if he’s late out of lockdown, he will be walking straight into that second mistake.
YouTube’s Red Pen
Yesterday, when linking to Freddie Sayers’s interview with Sunetra Gupta on UnHerd, I said, “Watch it before YouTube takes it down.” That was intended as a joke – surely, YouTube wouldn’t take down an interview with the Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at Oxford, however much she dissented from Covid orthodoxy?
But then I discovered that YouTube had removed Freddie’s interview with Professor Karol Sikora, Dean of Buckingham University Medical School. According to Freddie, the video “violated” YouTube’s “guidelines” and his appeal for it to be reinstated was rejected. Freddie tweeted about this last night, several people weighed in to criticise YouTube’s decision (including me), and the video has now been reinstated.
Will the interview with Professor Gupta be removed? You’ll recall that she made news back in March when her team at Oxford – long-standing rivals to Neil Ferguson’s team at Imperial College – published a preprint arguing that many more people could have been infected than we previously thought and herd immunity might be achievable without paying the price that Ferguson’s team claimed, i.e. 250,000+ Covid fatalities. At the time, this was summarised as “coronavirus may have infected half of UK population” – and widely scoffed at – but that isn’t what the paper said. Rather, it hypothesised a range of estimates, of which that was one.
In the interview, Gupta doesn’t defend the 50% figure, but stands by the idea that herd immunity can be achieved without hundreds of thousands of deaths:
In almost every context we’ve seen the epidemic grow, turn around and die away — almost like clockwork. Different countries have had different lockdown policies, and yet what we’ve observed is almost a uniform pattern of behaviour which is highly consistent with [our] model. To me that suggests that much of the driving force here was due to the build-up of immunity. I think that’s a more parsimonious explanation than one which requires in every country for lockdown (or various degrees of lockdown, including no lockdown) to have had the same effect.
She is careful not to directly criticise Ferguson and his team. Rather, the Government was at fault for acting as it did based on the team’s prediction:
The Government’s defence is that this [the Imperial College model] was a plausible worst case scenario. I agree it was a plausible — or at least a possible — worst case scenario. The question is, should we act on a possible worst case scenario, given the costs of lockdown? It seems to me that given that the costs of lockdown are mounting, that case is becoming more and more fragile.
In the most controversial section of the interview, Professor Gupta says she thinks the long-term harm caused by social distancing will outweigh the benefits. Why? Because protecting ourselves from exposure to pathogens in our day-to-day life makes us more vulnerable to killer viruses, not less.
Remaining in a state of lockdown is extremely dangerous from the point of view of the vulnerability of the entire population to new pathogens. Effectively we used to live in a state approximating lockdown 100 years ago, and that was what created the conditions for the Spanish Flu to come in and kill 50 million people.
Does that mean she’s in favour of dispensing with social distancing altogether and just returning to normal? She doesn’t quite say so, but that appears to be what she thinks.
I think it is very dangerous to talk about lockdown without recognising the enormous costs that it has on other vulnerable sectors in the population.
Great stuff, obviously, and history will almost certainly look more kindly on Professor Gupta than Professor Ferguson. But I’m not going to make her ‘Sceptic of the Week’ because, it turns out, she’s wary of being lumped in with libertarian types like me.
So I know there is a sort of libertarian argument for the release of lockdown, and I think it is unfortunate that those of us who feel we should think differently about lockdown have had our voices added to that libertarian harangue. But the truth is that lockdown is a luxury, and it’s a luxury that the middle classes are enjoying and higher income countries are enjoying at the expense of the poor, the vulnerable and less developed countries. It’s a very serious crisis.
Infection Fatality Rate is 0.26% – CDC
Regular readers will know that I’ve been tracking the infection fatality rate (IFR) throughout the crisis, convinced that it’s far lower than the 0.9% estimated by Neil Ferguson and way, way lower than the 3.4% estimated by the WHO. My prediction has long been that it will turn out to be slightly higher than the IFR of seasonal flu, which is 0.1% in an average year and 0.2% in a bad year. Although I’ve never been quite as bullish as Sunetra Gupta, who told Freddie she thinks it is somewhere between 0.1% and 0.01%.
On May 15th, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the US published its official estimate – 0.26%, although it doesn’t come right out and say it. Rather, it estimates the case fatality rate (CFR) for different age groups:
- 0-49 year-olds: 0.05%
- 50-64 year-olds: 0.2%
- 65+ years-old: 1.3%
- Mean CFR: 0.4%
The CDC estimates that 35% of people who’ve been infected are asymptomatic, so to get the IFR from the CFR you have to multiply it by 0.65 – 0.4 x 0.65 = 0.26%.
Hats off to the Ethical Skeptic, the anonymous Twitter account which estimated the IFR at 0.26% more than two weeks ago. Using data from seroprevalence studies, he calculated that 32,768,000 Americans had been infected up to May 8th and divided that by the number of US fatalities, which was 86,469 at that point. That gave an IFR of 0.26%.
On May 15th, I discussed a New York Times article that criticised lockdown sceptics for circulating the Santa Clara serological study and highlighting its IFR estimate of 0.17%. According to the Times, the signal boost the study received from anti-lockdown wing-nuts on Twitter led to “a surge of misinformation”. Trouble is, that “misinformation” has turned out to be more accurate than the IFR estimates of the WHO and Professor Ferguson.
Incidentally, John Ioannidis, Professor of Medicine at Harvard and the lead author of the Santa Clara study, has a new preprint out in which he estimates the IFR by looking at 12 seroprevalence studies in which the population sample size >500. His conclusion is that it’s “in the same ballpark as seasonal flu”, i.e. between 0.1% and 0.2%. Daniel Horowitz, a senior editor at the Conservative Review, says the mean IFR estimate based on these seroprevalence studies is 0.2%. “That is 17 times less deadly than what the WHO originally predicted and 4.5 times less deadly than the Imperial College study,” he writes.
So it’s official, folks: We’ve imprisoned over a billion people in their homes, laying waste to the global economy and causing untold misery and death in the process, to mitigate the impact of a virus that’s no deadlier than a bad bout of seasonal flu.
Did the New York Times Smear the German Anti-Lockdown Movement?
While we’re on the subject of “misinformation” pumped out by the New York Times, I asked my German-speaking correspondent to look into the Times‘s front-page story claiming the anti-lockdown movement in Germany is being manipulated by the AfD. This was his verdict:
The German media also treats the protest movement against lockdown restrictions in Germany as being driven by various fringe groups that are increasingly influenced by “the right” and AfD usually gets a mention. In a commentary on May 19th, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung describes the protests against lockdown restrictions literally as a “festival of delusional slogans”. The demos are described as colourful gatherings that attract all sorts of esoteric types, anti-vaxxers, left-wing extremists and anti-capitalists – and “increasing numbers of right-wingers”. The reporter Thomas Holl is bemused by the seeming contradictions at play – while international virologists and epidemiologists praise Merkel’s successful handling of the crisis and Germany’s relatively low death toll, there seems to be a stronger anti-lockdown protest movement in the country than elsewhere. Like the New York Times, Holl points the finger at AfD – the right-wing party’s showing in the polls dipped in April and the assertion is that they are looking to exploit the protests to recover lost ground.
I couldn’t see anything about AfD’s influence in Bild, but it carries an emotional story together with a video from the German network TV station ARD that pits a younger protestor against an older gentleman, Alfons Blum, who attended a protest in Gera. The pensioner is there because of how he has been personally affected – he has been unable to visit his wife who lives in a home for the past eight weeks and he breaks down in tears in the interview. A younger participant gets mixed up in how his emotional story is being exploited to distract from the bigger picture and starts shouting at Blum, citing earlier flu epidemics that claimed far more lives and that he should not allow the mainstream media to “make fun” of him on television. “If you listen to the network channels you will have practically lost control over your life!” he tells Blum. The commentary concludes by contrasting the two: “[C]itizens like pensioner Alfons Blum are suffering because of the measures – others believe that the media and the Government are being oppressive.”
Incidentally, there’s now a 7,000-word English summary of the leaked document written by the senior civil servant in the Ministry of the Interior. The translation is by Paul Gregory, a German-to-English translator.
More Praise for Governor DeSantis
USA Today ran a piece yesterday by opinion columnist Glenn Harlan Reynolds criticising New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and praising Florida Governor Ron DeSantis:
It’s interesting to compare Cuomo’s approach, in which infected (and infectious) patients were deliberately sent to nursing homes, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s policy of protecting nursing homes first.
As the Palm Beach Post notes, DeSantis forbade the discharge of infected patients to nursing homes and long-term care facilities. As a result, only 3.5 per 100,000 nursing home residents in Florida contracted the disease, compared to 27 out of 100,000 in New York.
Thanks to Cuomo’s mishandling of the crisis “more than 5,300 nursing home patients in New York have died from COVID-19, and as an Albany Times Union account notes, critics blame this policy,” says Reynolds.
These mistakes led to a giant “Cuomo Killed My Mom” sign being erected off an overpass in upstate New York. Possibly unfair but certainly indicative of how some New Yorkers feel.
Round-Up
And on to the round-up of all the stories I’ve noticed, or which have been been brought to my attention, in the last 24 hours:
- ‘Do Lockdowns Work? Mounting Evidence Says No‘ – Good summary of the case by Ryan McMaken on the Mises Institute blog
- ‘Suicides on the rise amid stay-at-home order, Bay Area medical professionals say‘ – Report by Amy Hollyfield of ABC7 News. Includes this quote from Dr. Mike deBoisblanc, head of trauma at the John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek: “We’ve never seen numbers like this, in such a short period of time. I mean we’ve seen a year’s worth of suicide attempts in the last four weeks.”
- ‘Theatre stands on the brink of ruin‘ – West End producer Sonia Friedman says 70% of performing arts companies will close by Christmas if there is no government rescue package
- ‘Liberate London from lockdown now‘ – Brendan O’Neill with a good suggestion in the Spectator
- ‘Lockdowns are as contagious as Covid‘ – Paul Dolan, Professor of Behaviour Science at the LSE, tries to understand the mass hysteria that gripped governments around the world in March
- ‘How coronavirus and lockdown could make OCD more common in children‘ – A few days ago I published a comment by a psychiatric nurse pointing out the similarities between coronaphobia and OCD. This is now confirmed by Dr Bernadka Dubicka, Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, who says there has been a surge in children and adolescents presenting with OCD
- ‘Universities battle to balance the books‘ – Article in the Times by Rosemary Bennett about the financial crisis facing Britain’s universities. The sector has asked the Treasury for a bailout of £2.2 billion, but to no avail
- ‘Lockdowns and Human Rights: A British Perspective‘ – The Australian blogger Richard Smith draws attention to how historically unprecedented the wholesale suspension of our liberties is
- ‘Britain is sliding into a deflationary death spiral‘ – The Telegraph‘s Jeremy Warner being his usual cheery self
Theme Tune Suggestions
Some more suggestions for theme songs from readers: “Trying to Survive” by Harvey Scales and the Seven Sounds, “The Whole Damn World is Going Crazy” by John Gary Williams and “Madness They Call It Madness” by Madness.
Small Businesses That Have Reopened
Last week, Lockdown Sceptics launched a searchable directory of open businesses across the UK. The idea is to celebrate those retail and hospitality businesses that have reopened, as well as help people find out what has opened in their area. But we need your help to build it, so we’ve created a form you can fill out to tell us about those businesses that have reopened near you. Please visit the page and let us know about those brave folk who are doing their bit to get our country back on its feet.
The list of shops and services that can reopen may be longer than people imagine. On May 13th, the Government issued revised guidance and it’s now permissible for the following retail businesses to reopen (this is in addition to those we already know about, such as garden centres and rubbish dumps):
- Dental services, opticians, audiology services, chiropody, chiropractors, osteopaths and other medical or health services (including physiotherapy and podiatry services), and services relating to mental health
- Bicycle shops
- Homeware, building supplies and hardware stores
- Veterinary surgeries and pet shops
- Agricultural supplies shops
- Off-licences and licensed shops selling alcohol, including those within breweries. Come on, Majestic. What are you waiting for?
- Laundrettes and dry cleaners
- Car repair and MOT services
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the last 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. If you feel like donating please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in tomorrow’s update, email me here. The site’s total page views have now passed one million and it’s averaging 54,000 visitors a day. We’re making an impact!
And Finally…
It’s another shameless plug I’m afraid, this time for my latest column in Spectator USA. In this one, I blame China for unleashing this pandemic/panic on the world, although WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is a close second. My argument is that if the Chinese Communist authorities hadn’t silenced the Wuhan doctors who raised the alarm at the end of December, the virus might never have made it out of Wuhan:
Would the emergence of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan at the end of December have led to a global pandemic if the Chinese authorities had acted more quickly? Almost certainly not. A group of researchers at the University of Southampton looked at what difference it would have made if the travel ban and other non-pharmaceutical interventions had been put in place three weeks earlier, as soon as the doctors raised the alarm. They concluded that cases would have been reduced by 95 percent. In all likelihood, the virus would never have made it out of Hubei.
No doubt China will be judged to have mismanaged this crisis in a number of ways when the official inquiries get under way. There are already a flurry of lawsuits seeking compensation from the Chinese government, including one launched by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who claims the state has suffered tens of billions of dollars in economic losses as a result of China’s negligence.
But perhaps China’s biggest sin was to stop those Wuhan doctors exercising their right to free speech. Had they been allowed to raise their concerns in the public arena, instead of being silenced and publicly shamed, it’s likely that hundreds of thousands of people across the world would now still be alive. At the time of writing, there have been 4.1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 283,000 deaths from the disease.
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Boris, Hancock and Gove need to swing for this.
Boris is now pretty much certain to take Eden’s title as worst ever UK Prime Minster isn’t he?
That will be his legacy.
And I’d have to add Sunak as the worst chancellor. He’s been even more profligate than Brown, and that’s saying something.
It’s true isn’t it… in one fell swoop he’s dwarfed Brown’s entire 13 years of grotesque largesse.
Sunak is another Goldman place man. He will break ranks more obviously soon – Lloyd Blankfein broke ranks in calling for an ending of lockdown in US a month ago. Just waiting for the ‘signal’ from Jim O’Neill at this end!
I can’t believe some of the LinkedIn posts I’m seeing on my feed. Sunak is getting so much praise there. People say shit like “Amazing job Rishi Sunak, the future prime minister”
The bookies have him as next PM, by a huge margin.
Sunak PM? Hope not. I’d rather die of C19.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there is an army of internet government trolls who spend all day praising the actions of government.
Apparently they are military and they call them 77th brigade. Have no idea how true this is – isn’t that what MI5/6 are supposed to be for? (or are the spies all on furlough 😂)
Take a look at ukcolumn news for information on 77brigade, their place within the Cabinet Office, and the names of those involved in possibly really being the ones running this country.
Yes there is such an army. It is called 77 brigade. It’s leaders pride themselves on tackling disinformation and misinformation particularly about covid19. They are actively spying on the domestic population. Allegedly some within it find this ‘fun’.
God, I even miss Theresa May.
Yep, even that crossed my mind also!
Imagine if Johnson had just beefed up “flatten the curve”. Free hand sanitizer, new cleaning and hygiene rules etc..
He could have done a great “Fight them on the beaches speech” about how we are British and nothing will take away our freedom…
Sadly he did not go that route and we are going to pay the price for his actions. My wife signed on the dole today, she lost her job a month ago and has been searching every day for that last month. She is 55 and whilst she has had periods between jobs, we knew we get through a period with her out of work. This time it looks very different.
Sorry about your wife, that’s tough.
Thanks BecJT, we are lucky, I am still working, and our outgoing are fairly low. We are just annoyed that we find The UK in this mess.
Sorry to hear that. I wish you/her every success in finding new employment. This really isn’t fair.
Very sorry to hear about your wife. Hope that things will improve.
There’s just a wider agenda at play here. Keep on saying it, keep your eye on what’s happening in other countries. It’s like a worldwide chess game. I know some folk in the phillipines, and there’s was a serious military lockdown with no dissent tolerated… And a laughably small number of deaths. Things are apparently reaching biking point though
She’s got a massive hard on for total surveillance state monitoring. God knows what she would have pushed through.
I read somewhere that Johnson would have been good at sorting the Brexit deal and May would have been good at dealing with the coronavirus crisis and in a cruel twist of fate, their missions were swapped and both went tits up.
I just can’t imagine her doing daily briefing…You might be right though, it’s hard to do a worse job than Bojo
Nah, I’m not having that… Everything Theresa May ever touched turned to shit.
You gotta be kidding me. Not her.
One of the early politicians to come out to criticise the lockdown have to say. But again, don’t trust her, she had her time in power and is on the way down, so what did she have to lose? They’re all ambitious scrotes, after all
Sorry can’t agree to that. That woman makes me shudder
Boris and May are not that dissimilar both excruciatingly useless at the job, both make the wrong decisions both are embarrassing and both hide away whenever possible. Only their genders differ.
I bloody voted for this man! (I had hoped he would “get Brexit done”) But where is he in our hour if need? Where’s the leadership? I could do a better job than him!
We all could do better!
Oh I don’t know. I chuckled when I heard Boris leadership bid HQ was located in Lord North Street. Of Lord North someone once said “his indolence was a barrier to efficient crisis management”. How true,once again
May will still take some beating
Fat chance the councils have closed all the play parks
A thorough investigation would surely add many names to this list.
Oh they’d love that… dilute the blame, muddy the water… fire a few civil servants (while promising them seats in the Lords so they’ll go quietly)… saunter away from the whole mess, whistling nonchalently.
I can see it happening just like that.
I am not suggesting it should dilute the blame but I think there are many many people that need to be held to account, their motivations forensically analysed, their conflicts of interest followed. Normally I am against capital punishment but I think the crime here is of such a size that it should temporarily be reintroduced for the purpose of prosecuting the crimes that are currently being perpetrated against the British people.
The actions of our government and its advisers have destroyed so many lives, led to so many deaths and with so many to come that they must all be held to account. If you are giving advice to the government which is leading to death and you have a serious conflict of interest while doing so how can we overlook this.
I think Chris Whitty has subtly made it clear that he’s sick of trotting out the party line because he disagrees with it but Vallance seems more snakelike every time we see him.
Some of the people involved maybe acting under duress and maybe even genuinely in fear for their lives. This should be uncovered given a sufficiently thorough investigation. I think their trials should certainly be held to a much higher standard then our collective trial has been.
I am tweeting Chris Whitty every day. I know he knows this is all rubbish but he has a duty to stand up and say so just like the rest of them.
Boris has to come out and own this bastard baby of his.
Death is too good for the likes of Ferguson, et al.
What I would propose is in lieu of capital punishment, those found guilty should be made to reenact Sisyphus for the rest of their lives with us the public allowed to pelt them with stones, rubbish, rotten food and milkshakes.
Ok, devils advocate here, am a regular poster so you know how much I hate this whole situation. Alright, I have been saying Boris has been on our side but I am seriously wavering now. My thinking was always about looking at what the rest of the world was doing, you got to do that to be fair. When has this ever just been UK only decision?. How much pressure there was from Msm to lockdown when the rest of EU had done so?. Why are we absolving the disgusting MSM support of fear fear fear just because a few of them are coming out of their shells with a few critical articles now, the snakes. They knew lockdown was bollocks all along and said nothing. And… The fact that there is NO compulsory mask wearing and the weirdest loosest lockdown imaginable compared to rest of Europe isn’t it? Nobody had to produce ‘papers’ to be out did they? Ok you have Sweden of course, those cool calm swedes – but note the masks there – my ultimate hatred symbol. Finally, the easing of lockdown a couple of weeks ago, basically meant 90% of it was unenforceable right? Which other… Read more »
If my child hurt another and told me the reason he did it was because he saw others doing the same thing I would explain to him that this is not acceptable and only he is responsible for his actions. Just because other people are doing something it does not make it OK.
The fact that other countries were taking extreme measures does not absolve our government and its advisers of responsibility for its actions in any way. When we went into lockdown the credible science being published was already telling us that this virus was about as dangerous as the flu. There was no evidence to support this action at all. Prof Furgesons models were not credible science. Hysterics in the MSN is not credible science.
Sure, I know that. But something like this on a worldwide scale smells like an agenda here. 2/3 possible paths. Everyone has signed up to something.
It was all inevitable.
And be very aware of being manipulated by MSM into focusing only on UK events, they were the ones pushing the fear for months on end yes?. Be very suspicious of motives now.
Yes, because it hurts us a lot more as it’s personal, we live here but the way this goes will be influenced as much by the rest of the world as anything undertaken here.
Keep eyes open on worldwide, from there we’ll find the endgame that all the power brokers have in store.
I understand what you are saying but what really can we do about that. We as UK citizens must hold our government to account that is our duty we can only hope the citizens of other countries will do the same.
Perhaps if we did that successfully and other countries did not the power brokers would arrange for the formal invasion or even nuclear attack of our country – its a possibility but what else do we do, not hold our government to account for its crimes? Wait to be liberated?
Got an email from my union today, here is a quote from it:
“Today top scientists from the respected Independent SAGE group have released a report saying it is not safe for schools to open more widely on June 1.
The report concludes that delaying by two weeks – to June 15 – would halve the risks to children, while waiting until September would be even less risky. The scientists are clear that June 1 is not safe.
Can you share our messages to make sure everyone knows?”
Wait until schools are told the DfE is pulling funding as they don’t need as many staff to provide education going forward. I can see staff reductions in school from September, budgets have been tight in recent times, what better way of saving money, cut the staffing costs.
Does SAGE not point out that if schools are ever reopen there’s a risk from flu each year, and that can be more lethal to children than Covid-19?
Independent Sage group is hardly independent
Among its membership are actual communists, Labour Party donors, activists, Corbynistas, “anti-Zionists”, Brexit conspiracy theorists and even a former Greek MP. Guido brings you an extraordinary rundown of eight members of the twelve strong committee here…
https://order-order.com/2020/05/04/not-independent-activist-stuffed-shadow-sage/
I agree with you. I keep hoping that there is a plan- maybe it’s to create such hatred of the Unions who are scuppering everything that we’ll all cheer when Boris does a Maggie? Or am being too hopeful? Was also thinking that Cummings trip was a signal- was it a cowardly way of getting people to say” right, sod it! If he’s going out, I’m going out” and so avoid having to officially end the lockdown and let it happen naturally – as I think it probably is. Masks also my pet hate- it makes me feel physically sick to think that we may be required to wear one or that someone would chose to wear one. And please can we just be done with bloody social distancing! I wish I had used a ‘sue denim’ as I could post all the things I have done in lockdown that I ‘shouldn’t’ have. Disagree with posters above on Rishi- I actually think he was against this from the start and would make an excellent PM. As for quarantining on return from abroad- what pillock thought that was even do-able? All that will happen is that private sector will ignore it… Read more »
Red hot poker
I’d watch that on Pay-per-view
The court case next week could be a get out of jail free card for Boris
If I was a betting man I’d put money on them taking a dive in the first
It’s open to them to make a half hearted defence of the science and lose the case. This could be a win/win. The ‘scientists’ will not be there to defend themselves. The blame will be heaped on the ‘scientists’
Boris will have had the decision made for him and be immune (sorry) from any post lockdown blame game
Then we will have a year of we can’t have a public enquiry until the crises is over. This will followed by five years of ‘ I can’t answer that it’s a matter for the public enquiry’.
That should see him through to after the next general election
650 MPs need to hang
You were discussing a few days ago whether it might be a good idea to set up a sceptic alternative to the government daily briefing. I wonder whether you might have considered teaming up with UKColumn? They have the facilities to do all the required technology and are producing three programmes a week already. It would not be much work for them as you would be providing most of the content. Any thoughts?
In my opinion, UK column is a step too far into conspiracy theory land. I might be wrong, but that’s the vibe they give.
Haven’t you noticed? We’re living through a giant conspiracy theory right now.
But are they wrong?
So far, the “conspiracy theorists” and those peddling “misinformation” seem to be more accurate in their predictions and information than the official sources.
To me the people supporting this lockdown are the conspiracy theorists, such are the giant leaps in faith and logic you have to make to justify it any way at all.
It’s not the case of if they are right or wrong.
It’s a polarizing topic and if you want to reach a broader audience you need to try to deliver it through a more balanced platform.
Otherwise, we’re just amplifying the noise in our echo chamber.
All that needs to be done is to present the numbers in context and in proportion. Don’t add any editorial and let people evaluate the risk for themselves. It would require the public to engage their analytical brain of which the MSM has robbed them over the last two decades; it probably wouldn’t work.
I don’t think it’s as easy as presenting the numbers in context and proportion. If that was the case, you would have more lockdown sceptics.
All I’m saying is that it’s better to be not associated with conspiracy theorists if you want to reach a broader audience.
I appreciate your point of view, A13.
However the numbers, in context and proportion, have never been presented to the vast majority of the population.
The decision is between associating with the tinfoils (I’m a longtime member) or not getting the facts out to people.
The media haven’t robbed people’s ability to think analytically. Most people aren’t good at it, and we get the type of media people prefer to consume.
Most people are actually very good at COMMON SENSE (you don’t have be analytically minded to have this). Trouble is they haven’t been given all the facts with which to exercise some. They’ve been treated like fools and children- lo and behold, they’ve turned into them. If you start from the point of “people are thick, the media are only responding to how thick they are”, thickness is inevitable. People will get MORE thick. If you start from the point that everyone has basic common sense, and treat people accordingly, their analytical capabilites will only improve over time.
Actually you can apply this to everything. We are now teaching our kids to the lowest common denominator (I personally think phonics and all this performative ‘learn through play’ crap is *complete* bollocks)- and look what happened. Nobody can read any more.
I don’t disagree with you, but the message could be more effective if it comes from a source that is not associated with conspiracy theories.
as someone mentioned elsewhere we appear to have moved from conspiracy theory to conspiracy practice
YES!
I think Unherd and Delingpole would be better options
londonreal.tv ?
I think LondonReal.TV have got their own issues, the digital freedom platform has raised a few questions about where the money donated to get this going actually is being spent.
I’d like to point at that whilst the services you mention can technically re-open, in practice this is proving extremely difficult because of the ludicrous social distancing guidelines. As an example, I’m a therapist. Both of my professional bodies, as well as my insurance company have categorically stated that I cannot resume face to face work because of social distancing, as well as the guideline that face to face interaction can be for no more than 15 minutes. At a time when my human connection, mental health therapy could be really helping people, I’m stuck with Zoom or Skype as my only options – poor substitutes in my opinion. Try talking someone down from a panic attack with a flaky Skype connection, it’s crap to be honest. I’ve spoken with other ‘hands on’ ‘face to face’ therapists – osteopaths, chiropracters etc and we are all stuck with the same ludicrous ‘go to work, don’t go to work’ scenario. It’s crippling what we do, and inevitably will have long term consequences for our clients/patients. I’m so frustrated, I could scream.
It’s nice to see the guidance has been updated but it has been perfectly legal for virtually all the businesses on the list to open (in England) since the beginning of lockdown – they were in the list of permitted retail enterprises in the original Coronavirus regulations. Those that have closed has presumably not been because they have been banned, but because they have had difficulty with engineering social distancing and/or have decided it has not been economic to open due to lack of supplies and/or customers. These latter problems will not have gone away so unfortunately I wouldn’t expect a huge rush to reopen.
Are you sure about that? All the therapists I know, which includes osteopaths. physios, chiropodists and dentists, stated they were forced to close. And even this most stupid of governments must know that you can’t perform those therapies observing unsocial distancing.
Yes, absolutely sure. Check The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020. On the list of businesses exempt from lockdown:
37. Dental services, opticians, audiology services, chiropody, chiropractors, osteopaths and other medical or health services, including services relating to mental health.
38. Veterinary surgeons and pet shops.
And yes, technically they have been able to be open all along, as have I. However, many of us therapists, osteos, physios etc work from home, running micro businesses. My physio for example, runs her business from her house. In order to reopen she has to comply with the following – wipe clean floors, wash hand basin in the room, separate entrance for clients to arrive, with a reception area with social distancing measures in place, separate toilet facilities for clients, PPE, on and on. Now she’s a one woman band, working from her home. None of these things are possible for her, except maybe PPE. We will almost certainly lose her skills and her business will close because of this as she cannot possibly afford to comply, or make such alterations to her rental property! I could maintain the 2 metre distancing from my face to face clients, but guidelines state I can only see them for 15 minutes and as it could be classed as a clinic, I would have to wear a mask (not happening!) My therapy sessions are 90 minutes at least, so my only option is to work online. I’m in a better position than… Read more »
Actually, that’s sort of the point I was making. The government can manipulate the headlines by saying “look, x is now allowed” but if x is still subject to “social distancing guidelines” then it may be practically impossible. The problem is, it is difficult to plot an easy route back to normality from where we have got to now (because even if you lifted all guidance and told people it was safe, a large number wouldn’t believe you).
Absolutely. It’s a way of ducking responsibility and the more cynical amongst us might infer that it’s backside covering for the future – ‘well we said you could open, not our fault if you can’t comply with the guidelines.’ Shifting this cult like response and getting people back to anything resembling normal is going to be one heck of a job. Project ‘Terrify the Public’ has worked too well.
Yes they want the best of both worlds.
Open up the economy with stupid rules – if things ‘go wrong’ and the mythical R number goes up, they can blame the public for not following said rules well enough and lock down again!
Altho tbh, I think they know it’s not gonna ‘go wrong’ already. Because it’s not going wrong anywhere else.
But that would then be the scaredy-cats’ choice and the rest of us could get on with life.
Dentists aren’t allowed to do anything that generates an aerosol – ie most dental procedures.
Your services are needed more than ever, and your patients are part of the huge number of forgotten casualties. A podcast today mentioned all the AA meetings that haven’t happened for months. Things like that hadn’t occurred to me and must have dire consequences.
There are online zoom meetings that are pretty widely available. It’s not the same and it being the internet idiots decide to crash the rooms every so often. The problem is probably also escalating and making it harder for people to get help, though. Really not ideal.
Whilst AA meetings may not be happening, I notice that takeaway alcohol sales are still taking place. We are really trying to mess up society.
Yes good point. I heard that in California suicide attempts have risen by a factor of 12.
You do not have to blindly follow any guidelines from Government or trade bodies. You are responsible for these are policies and procedures of your company/operations not them. You should as an arse covering exercise perform your own risk assessment and use the findings from that as a basis for safe operating policies and procedures as long as it is all documented and the reasoning. It could be based on the guidelines, it could ignore them, who knows until you have your risk assessment done and finalised. Remember the phrase – As Low As Reasonably Practicable – ALARP. This does not mean totally cripple and bankrupt your company trying to comply 100%, it means exactly what it says – get the risks to a level where they are as low as is reasonable. Guidelines are not law nor enforceable, they are just a matter of opinion until a judge rules on them in court and makes his judgement on whether your risk assessment was sufficient and based on sound facts and science. “I was just following guidelines” when in court for whatever reason is not an acceptable defence as you are responsible for safe operations and should have seen that… Read more »
Thank you, great advice.
The business insurance company would probably then state they are not following guideline and hence the business Liability insurance is not valid. Essentially putting them out of business.
Common sense plays no part in this insanity.
I’m sure lots of people would be happy to come and scream with you – without social distancing of course. Maybe we should all start screaming on Thursdays at 8pm? Children love screaming. There’s not been much happy screaming round here recently. They’d be very enthusiastic participants.
I’d love that – a good screaming session. Never clapped, never will but a good scream would do us all the world of good I reckon.
Sturgeon and Swinney seem determined to ensure Boris is beaten in the race to win the “country with the longest, most harmful lockdown” medal.
They seem to be blithely unaware of the backlash that is going to come down the tracks as the consequences of what they have done become apparent. Amazing idiocy.
In the U.S., one theory is that the Democrats are going full-authoritarian lockdown mode to trash the U.S. economy and blame Trump nearer the election.
What is our government’s excuse??
Incompetence!
Posted something along these lines the other day. Democrats screamed for Trump to close everything down and then blamed him for unemployment.
Oh, I don’t know. Gavin Newsome in California is giving them a good run for their money. And Cuomo, who, I believe, has been saying New York will not reopen until there a cure.
The Florida governor is cool.
All those old people and he still managed a better death rate without lockdown.
Georgia has re-opened without an uptick in infections.
Do you have the numbers for Georgia? I have a friend in the States who is adamant that numbers of infections are soaring in Georgia but that the governor is lying about them.
Seems to me that there is a fundamental misunderstanding regarding infections. The more people get infected, the better. A few will get sick, so provide treatment for them. Otherwise, widespread infection with mild to no symptoms, aka herd immunity, is the goal.
Not to mention Drakeford. I knew there must be something good about devolution…
Drakeford is Stalin’s son in the spirit. A petty, mewling, shrivelled little runt, but doing his level best to emulate Papa..
So this just confirms what we suspected all along – that ministers have no balls to take any decisive action because they’re so terrified of getting ‘exposed’ at the enquiry. It’s pure face-saving politics and utterly revolting. Surely being incredibly slow to lift the lockdown and taking no action will be worse in the long run due to the mounting economic and social consequences of the lockdown, so the ministers will end up getting hammered at the enquiry anyway…?
The enquiry is one of the only things keeping me going through this insanity. These cretins have unleashed untold suffering upon the country they serve, and I will experience the sweetest schadenfreude when they finally get their almighty reckoning. I sincerely hope that actual punishment is meted out and it’s not just hand-wringing and lip service.
Anger is definitely the emotion I feel most strongly in amongst all of this but every day we keep fighting, and every day that chink of light at the end of the tunnel gets just a bit brighter. One day we will not be in the midst of this, but looking back at it. It will end.
Does anyone believe that a a Government with an 80 seat majority will ‘allow’ any kind of meaningful and independent enquiry, or that the findings will be delivered quickly, or indeed at all?
Simon Dolan’s judicial review may very well do the job, and no wriggling out of it.
Still time to chip in, folks.
I don’t believe for a minute that he’ll have any meaningful success, but I did think it worth contributing £20 to the cause of gumming up the machinery of government for a little while. Even if putting money in a lawyer’s pocket is a distasteful side-effect.
He did the crowdjustice for the ‘numbers’ of people, it’s used quite heavily in their statement, it’s a peculiarity of JRs to bolster the claimant’s case. The more buy in from other people you have, the stronger your argument (I only know this, as I’m involved in other thing that’s debating a JR).
More jobs for the boys
I guess you’re quite young Poppy, because a lot of us slightly older people can see the economic fallout from this impacting on the entire rest of our lives.
Sadly Aiden, this is going to have deep-seated ramifications that will be multigenerational.
I’m in my early twenties and I’m all too aware of the massive fallout this will have on the rest of my working life and my employment prospects.
Hi Poppy I think your (our) personal freedoms may be a bigger problem from this.
If they don’t lift this soon there will be civil unrest – young men with nothing to do, no money, and hot weather is not a good combination at the best of times. They just haven’t put the action plan, aka ‘the cover-up of all cover-ups’ fully in place yet. Downing Street has just appointed former adviser to both May and Cameron to Cabinet Office – on secondment from Prince William’s office – not sure what that means, if anything.
“In these hot days is the mad blood stirring…..”
It can’t come soon enough… horny handed sons of toil marching up Whitehall with ministers heads on pikes. I’d honour every last one of them,
Not to mention the recent high-testosterone imports with little to no loyalty to this country or people.
Why would they riot? Free money, free houses, immunity from the law…
and free access to pornhub
I am starting to hear of younger men, in lower paid jobs, who are currently furloughed are starting to get a bit restless. Hardley surprising when you are on a low wage, maybe with a child to support and you struggle when you are earning 100% of your normal wage.
Think Ray Donovan
But why would they be doubling down on universally unpopular nonsense like the 2 week quarantine for arrivals? They are just going to keep pushing to see what they can get away with .
If the need to quarantine for 14 days is so strong, why not implement this immediately rather than in 2 weeks time? Ireland is adopting a voluntary isolation approach for arrivals into the country, backed up by having to give the address at which you will be staying for 14 days. These come into effect on 28 May (the same question arises – if it is that significant, why not implement immediately?)
The rules don’t apply to anyone transiting to another country so it would be possible for a UK bound person to travel from elsewhere in the world to the UK via Ireland and avoid the UK’s quarantine.
Utter insanity to even contemplate this now. Months ago possibly. Doing this now is the sign of this idea was though up in a Thick if Of It style circle jerk
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O4CTLW-Ddu0
As a life long con voter I’ve reached the end of my line with politicians
Have they not noticed that when you get off a plane you don’t immediately set foot in the place you are staying? So you have trains, buses, coaches, cabs to catch to before you get to your house arrest, mingling with a lot of other people. Rather defeats the object.
It makes no sense. We should have had testing and quarantine of ill passengers at airports back in January. There was no need for a lock-down.
“ministers have no balls to take any decisive action because they’re so terrified of getting ‘exposed’ at the enquiry. ”
Except they’re already well and truly exposed. There are too many other countries and regions who haven’t gone with such a severe lockdown, if at all, with little difference in the infection rates.
There might have been a reasonable excuse for a couple of weeks, to get the Nightingale hospitals ready, and source enough PPE, what with there being a worldwide shortage. There were manufacturers willing and able to help with the latter, but that seemed to have been ignored.
The negligent and potentially deliberate transfer of infection from hospitals to care homes is the one terrible policy that shouldn’t be forgotten or forgiven.
More job enquiries sent off to the US today 🙂
Does anyone else feel like things are slowly changing in our communities? People are daring to ask questions and talk about this? Something I have found very refreshing is how people are willing to listen to reason on a one to one basis. Little encounters make me think that people are listening, at least when they aren’t in sharing a social media space with a screaming virtue signaller, drowning out their rational thought process. I was waiting at the Post Office today, I waited my turn to enter and as I did the woman behind me said in an extremely apologetic way “Do you mind if I enter the shop behind you to look at the cards?” At the counter, I was about 10 metres away from her. I just smiled and said ‘of course I don’t mind. I’m not remotely bothered about the 2 metres”… honestly, she beamed at me. She wasn’t disgusted or annoyed. Other very small things like that are happening. A friend I spoke to said she hadn’t even thought about the opposing argument to lockdown, it wasn’t even on her radar. I can’t say she’s completely comfortable with those ideas yet but she was open… Read more »
I was feeling hopeful earlier – and then I listened to the stuck record that is Sir Patrick Vallance and the droning of Priti Patel! Problem is it is Friday, and I normally have that as an alcohol-free day so I can look forward to Saturday and Sunday back on the Sauvignon Blanc!!
Don’t do it to yourself!
The pressure on them is increasing dramatically each day.
I would create a graph to demonstrate what I mean but they have lost all meaning.
I know what you mean…. I’m reaching the point of graph-psychosis…
Don’t rule that out at all. I am finding that too when you meet a ‘normal’
It’s one fucking giant world lab rat experiment.
The only thing is that the utter contempt that I feel for the lockdownistas is beyond any sort of hatred I have ever felt for any group of people ever in my entire life. Not sure how I can get past that and I have always been such a logical person – maybe that’s what it is, a bizarre mindset I find hard to grasp. There will be previous friends that I will have no problem not speaking to ever again after all of this
Yep, I can relate. It’s as if they are intentionally obfuscating the truth, rather than just being ignorant of it. I will go one of two ways for those people… they will either just slowly go silent on lockdown and focus instead on lynching politicians over some other point distantly related to it, or they will double down. As more jobs go and more people become homeless and a multitude of other horrendous injustices unfold, they will in all probability not be able to equate that to the faults of their own views but I think this will be a far smaller group than we think and most normal(ish) people will have to have a sudden opinion shift at some point. I want someone to ask the government where the tipping point is? Is it always going to be covid protection at all costs? When, in their opinion do the scales tip and cancer deaths, heart attacks, suicide, alcoholism etc come first? For us is has already happened but seriously, any human being no matter how extreme their views must have a tipping point on this… where does their lie?
Yes-I’ve got one who would lockdown forever and at infinite cost if it saved one life and another who thinks that the virus is so deadly that any lockdown breach is selfish . If I never speak to or see them again it will be too soon.
Save one cv19 life at any cost, blow the cost of other lives. I am making sure I speak to colleagues to get a feel for how they see lockdown & this entire cv19 situation. Some are getting better, others are in a hole and will need medical help to get out.
I completely agree. I will find it very hard to be in the same room as some friends and colleagues when all this is over. Anyone who actively approved of the lockdown has at least in a small way contributed to the buggering up of everything.
It’s strange. I am asking myself why I feel like this, you got to self analyse because even we are part of this huge psychological shit fest.
I mean : IRA, Al Qaeda, ISIS… To some small extent I could see their motive and their beliefs, but not agree with it or obviously their methods. All these lot have got nothing on the lockdowners.
I can only think of the Nazis as a comparison, extreme as that is
North Korea. Except KJU is a giant floating blue NHS sign.
Personally I tend to cut most lockdowners some slack. Sure there are a few little Hitler’s out there, but most are just scared. Why? Because a huge proportion are mathematically illiterate. Why do I say this? Well, most people who read this page will be paying attention to data like the IFR, which according to the consensus is (at worst) around 0.3% – in other words, even if you catch the virus you have around 99.7% chance of survival. Which makes banging everyone up in solitary and crashing the economy just a very little bit over the top. But suppose the IFR was 30%, in other words if left unchecked, one third of the population would die from the virus. Would the same lockdown measures be justified then? I think most of us sceptics (certainly me) would say yes because the consequences of 1/3 of the population dying would be catastrophic anyway. The point is, to the average person, there is no difference between 0.3% and 30%, they are both meaningless numbers. They just hear “doctors say a lot of people are dying” from the BBC and conclude something very dangerous is out there (as we would faced with the… Read more »
Sadly I think you are probably right. When you explain IFR to most people they look confused for a second and then immediately relieved. I think the papers/TV were bandying CFR around too much especially in the early days, which put the extreme shits up people.
Probably right, and maybe I am being harsh. But having spoken to a few people at the end of February on weekend away, everyone said the same thing as I was saying : bound to have been spreading for months – yup, bit like the flu but not the flu, yeah you might get extremely unlucky, again just like the flu, oh and yeah, look at what looks like the majority of people being assymptomatic. We probably all already had it – yup. What’s changed since then in terms of what the virus is ? Nothing. Not a thing. Except probably it being shown to be even less lethal than originally thought, oh the irony. Nobody treated these numbers as absolutes, there was already a load of evidence out there to suggest this was just another thing we would have to live within. No real maths geniuses amongst them And then what? Complete and utter loss of all reason and sense through the pathetic MSM, who again were even saying what percentage were assymptomatic as a tiniest of reminder on every gleeful death update. Instead of almost throwing half their furniture at the TV like me, they’ve let themselves be… Read more »
Yep, the apparently clear canals of Venice balance out the total destruction of life as we know it.
I think a lot of people ARE dying from the BBC. It has a lot to answer for.
Same here Ian. I have (actually, had) a couple of friends who are now so “woke”, I feel that all they do is judge me. I won’t miss them.
In my haste to vent, my typos are dreadful. Clearly I meant emerge not merge although I am sure there will be plenty of merging in the wider community soon too 🙂
Yes and no.
I walked along the (narrow) path by the river and stopped to chat with someone who was temporarily blocked by a fallen branch,
Further along I spotted someone coming the other way and stopped in a relatively wide bit. He became completely paranoid, especially as there was someone walking behind me, turned tail and fled. He was walking his dog and his wife, wearing a scary navy mask and carrying a bottle of hand sanitiser.
Sanity returned later as I sat on a seat and had a long conversation with a couple of people as cynical as me. Strangely there are a lot of them around these parts, I recommended this site, Hector Drummond and the estimable Malcolm Kendrick among others.
Little hitler in the food store near me – a woman who told me to wait outside (even though a guy had just left), and waving at me to get away from the entrance once I had complied with her request.
Utterly pathetic.
The most power she ever had in her life.
Just walk away, surely? I’ve refused to queue to get into a shop throughout this nonsense. They need to lose business over it.
I did. I gave up and went to another shop where there was no queue.
That’s the way to do it! Vote with your wallet, er card.
Forced to wear a mask to go in? Cya! Will take my business elsewhere. Simple
I will not ever be forced to wear a mask. The thought that we will be forced to causes a physical reaction in me. It may as well be a large badge saying ‘I’m a member of the covid cult’
This is not complicated.
Modelling, international comparisons, complicated mortality rate analysis; all pointless because there is no consistency in the recording of data either in Britain or across international borders.
So, just as the best weather forecast is to stick your head outside, the best way to decide the lockdown argument is to see whether Sweden has moved towards its neighbours policies or vice versa.
‘When deciding to reopen schools, Norway’s Public Health Institute used the experience of Sweden, along with Iceland, Taiwan and Singapore – where no clusters of the virus were linked to schools – as an example when it explained its own reasoning.’
https://www.thelocal.se/20200520/as-europe-comes-out-of-lockdown-what-lessons-can-be-learned-from-sweden
Except that it’s Norway that’s only got a few deaths, while Sweden’s are climbing by the day.
Oh Jesus, another absolute numbers ifonlysavesonelifer. Think much bigger wider longer term picture and you will crawl out of the hole your mind is in
Sweden’s economy is not fucked. Which is the key point in all this I think.
@grammarschoolman
So, Norway has solved death almost completely yet Sweden hasn’t quite solved the question of mortality?
Are you that…… (I can’t actually find the right word) *something* that you can’t cope with concept of death. People die everyday, thousands of them, get used to it. People died before The Chinese Killer Virus and they are dying now, after it.
I’m guessing you’ve never worked at the coal face of heathcare as you would be completely useless, people die, get used to it.
And yet Norway is following Sweden’s policies, not vice versa. Why do you think that might be?
Do you think all countries are using the same death registration rules (clue: they are not)?
Are you aware that the rules for death registration in this country have been recently altered?
‘In an emergency period of the COVID-19 pandemic there is a relaxation of previous
legislation concerning completion of the medical certificate cause of death (MCCD) by
medical practitioners….’
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/877302/guidance-for-doctors-completing-medical-certificates-of-cause-of-death-covid-19.pdf
Are you aware that is also the case elsewhere, for example: Germany, New York……..
Changes to completion of US Department of Health and Human Services Blue Form (so-called because standard death cert is blue) in the USA, too. Most people do not understand the relevance of the change. Because a doctor who explained it was on Fox News, I was ad-hommed for sending the info to my (small) list. “You are getting your info from Fox News!!!!” I don’t even own a TV and so never watch Fox News, or any news, unless something is linked by something else that I am reading, such as a comment. But this ad-homming is going on all the time. I watched a fantastic interview with Dr. Dolores Cahill of University College, Dublin (saw the link somewhere), and I thought everyone should view it. She has credentials, BTW, up the wazoo! But I got three ad-homming emails because of the Youtube channel where the interview appeared, which was someone called Del Bigtree. I had never prev. heard of him but I could see that he was non-U from the style of his opener. Nevertheless I wanted to hear the interview, and Bigtree did a pretty good job. Mainly, Cahill just took the ball and ran with it and… Read more »
Liberal Elite: BREXIT will be the biggest act of national self-harm in history.
Boris: Hold my beer, Gove.
Heeheheh.
Needs a line adding.
Liberal Elite: OH THAT’S GREAT BEER
Thanks. That made me chuckle, and I needed to a lot!
As one of the “liberal elite” I agree with this comment, AidanR. Always dreaded what brexit could be, never imagined a UK government would commit even greater self-harm without even having had a referendum to encourage them.
Hmmm, funny enough looking at some of the bailouts being proposed for the southern European economies, and reconstitution of trade links being discussed I might suggest that Brexit could not have come at a better time….
And I voted to remain.
#TeamWTO
I actually say this with a heavy heart because I did want a nice trade deal, but I think at this juncture we are better off completely out of that flaming territory as soon as humanly possible. We can do a deal with the individual nations once the Euro and therefore probably the EU ceases to exist. (I gave them 20 years. Corona: Hold my beer).
The proximate danger is that Trump will take the USA out of the WTO as part of his ongoing (and soon to escalate) war with China and all things UN.
Judging from the steadily increasing number of comments and visitors to this site I think it might be in danger of crashing soon… Keep up the good work Toby.
We’re all doing our bit too, am working on a friend I messaged yesterday, first time in a bloody long time, who sent back her usual list of woes and whatnots and signed off with ‘Keep safe’…. Grrr…
Deep Breath…. And now I go to work.
They already replatformed it once…. I think the guys who host the site now have pretty scalable infrastructure and seem to know their onions.
Talking to people, strangers, neibours, work colluges anybody, is the way forward, don’t argue, give them facts, help them question what is being done to them and perhaps more importantly, their children, and grand children. Some reject everything, let them stew, but the ones where you can get a conversation going, spend the time to push on.
I thought people here might be interested in the governor of Tokyo’s comments yesterday about the ending of the state of emergency in the Japanese capital. For those who haven’t been keeping up with events in Japan, there has been no overall lockdown there – just some fairly mild restrictions on travel and various enjoinders from the government for people to be careful. They’ve had very few deaths. Most of the country is now back to normal – the OLD normal – and Tokyo is the last place to still be under emergency measures, for obvious reasons. Here’s the quote, translated to English (from The Japan Times, here: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/05/22/national/yuriko-koike-state-of-emergency-end-plan/#.XsgB7C_MzBI): “This is the final stretch…We need to proceed cautiously, but each day the city meets these criteria is another step toward reclaiming the lives we had before.” Note the language used here. Reclaiming the lives we had before. Not the new normal. Not indefinite social distancing. The lives we had before. Where is this kind of language in our leadership when the country is clearly crying out for it? I lived in Japan for the best part of a decade, and still have friends and family there as it is where… Read more »
The Japanese are delightfully mad when it doesn’t matter, and wonderfully sane when it does.
Here, here. Not been since late 1990s, but desperately keen to go back. My friend in Tokyo suggested we all visited for the Olympics, but that, sadly not on the cards.
I’m also in Tyneside. Nice to know there is more than one lockdown sceptic in the region!
I saw a video from South Shields a couple of days ago, looked like many sensible people in your part of the world.
The North East is a world of its own, mate. Actually I think we have it relatively sane in comparison from what I hear about from the rest of the country. There is all the social distancing nonsense but people are quite prepared to break the guidelines, and even if they’re not they’re always willing to stop for a chat and get a bit of normality that way.
Same in Yorkshire it seems like. Not many people seem that bothered, and definitely not aggresssively so. They do the polite “I’ll wait for you to walk past me” thing.
Everyone is a committed cultist however (rainbows in windows, clapping like seals)
I don’t live there now but my Mam does. Fortunately managed to visit her a couple of weeks before lockdown. I know there will be plenty of sceptics there though – outside the posh bits!
The Japanese also value the health of their citizens, because unlike the rest of the world they stopped using the MMR vaccine in 1993, after many children developed non-viral meningitis, 3 deaths, 8 with permanent handicaps ranging from damaged hearing and blindness to loss of control of limbs. They now use individual vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella. Other countries feel that it’s OK to sacrifice those children for the ease of administration and cost effectiveness of doing ‘three in one’.
I havent read every day, so forgive me if this has already been suggested as a Theme Tune.
Joe Jackson’s “Cancer”
Don’t touch that dial
Don’t try to smile
Just take this pill
It’s in your file
Don’t work hard
Don’t play hard
Don’t plan for the graveyard
Remember –
Everything
Everything gives you cancer
Everything
Everything gives you cancer
There’s no cure, there’s no answer
Everything gives you cancer
Somehow the ideas of control and inevitableness, that you have to give up everything to avoid WuFlu but you’ll still get it, have had me thinking of this song even before I found your site.
Joe Jackson is God
I say, Toby…. you know Boris and Gove, don’t you? You could get to them.
Can you send me your measurements for this vest I’m running up?
I’ll chip in for your statue in Trafalgar Square.
Please can someone post the correct link to the revised CDC CFR numbers so I can share it on. The current link doesn’t seem to be the right page. And their site is a mess to navigate
Hi,
Can anyone give a succinct explanation of what constitutes a pandemic? Seeing as I don’t really think we’re in one I need to know how to properly verbalise why that is.
Thanks.
https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/200/7/1018/903237
Not succinct, but informative.
Thanks.
It’s a panic of the demos, obviously.
Pandemonium
It is a (new) disease which has spread worldwide, (cf epidemic – spread over a large area, more specifically a country), and results in a positively unhinged Public Health over-reaction by a British Government – OK made that last bit up, but maybe not really.
A relatively weak transmitable virus that appears and spreads geographically across multiple regions of the world. As piddly as that.
If the ‘common cold’ just appeared in the past few months, it would also be, by definition, a ‘pandemic’
The word itself has become weaponised by the lockdownistas. ‘oh you don’t understand it’s a P A N D E M I C!!!’….
So what.
Now being called a Plandemic by quite a few anti-cultists.
Went for a walk this evening and fewer people were leaping out of the way. Most seemed relaxed. So while I am despairing at our politicians I think a glimmer of hope can be found in the changing attitude of the public.
Still a fair amount of terrified zombies as well unfortunately;on an earlier walk back from the shop I watched the woman in front literally zig zag from one side of the road to the other every time someone approached on her side of the pavement. She did it 3 times in about 50m.Was actually funny to watch in my present unsympathetic mood and i cruelly sped up at one point to block her route back.
Does anyone know of any dentist anywhere who is open ? The whole of British dentistry seems to be cowed in fear of this nasty virus with a similar fatality rate to flu. German dentists have remained open throughout and don’t seem to be wetpantyhose wearers . I would drive there taking the ferry if I could but Pretty Useless Patel seems to be closing the border to the UK just as everyone else is opening theirs.
I don’t think the dentists are the problem -it is the Government -see https://bda.org/advice/Coronavirus/Pages/faqs.aspx
I have a small abscess and was booked for root canal treatment then a crown. A course of antibiotics cleared it temporarily but it is back now, a constant low level ache. Is it true the only dental option is some sort of dental ‘hub’ where the only treatment available is extraction?
Only treatment options at the dental hubs are more antibiotics or extract the tooth unless you re a lorry driver and can get to Germany where all the dentists are open.
Dentists were ordered to close, and when they open, they might possibly restrict their services to extractions, and checkups only. This is a guess, and I sincerely hope not.
Dentists were not ordered to close, all medical and vetinary practices were exempted from the lockdown restrictions. However what did happen was they received guidance that no practice should be performed which could result in an “aerosol” of potential virus laden air being created. This means no polishing, drilling, filing or similar, so effectively bans 90% of possible treatments. Simple extractions however do not involve this and so are permitted, and many dentists have remained open for this service (equally many private practices have closed because they do not wish to stay open solely to perform such extractions when other treatments would be more appropriate and/or lucrative).
As another poster said a while back, this has pushed dentistry back to pre-Victorian times, but the situation described by Lms2 is what applies now, not at some future date.
A few days ago I recalls someone saying there are only 10 dental practices open in the whole of Greater London, someone else commented that dentists are only giving out antibiotics and doing emergency extractions. I don’t hold out much hope for you getting to see an actual dentist, sadly.
Airports open. Just fly to Germany. I’m sure they will be happy to take your money.
Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock, Michael Gove and Priti Patel – can we put them all into indefinite lockdown please? I would support that 100%.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=NWoyRlPOb3Q
In the general population of a high security prison.
https://m.youtube.com/watchv=5oaweiqijyk
The Moving Goalposts from Free State to Police State – Viva Frei Vlawg
This isn’t the only country where people feel trapped by the ever-moving lockdown goalposts. This blogger is in Canada, and a (an ex-?) lawyer, so he looks at the lockdown from the perspective of entering a contract, i.e. to slow down the spread of the virus and not overwhelm the healthcare system, the population have to stay in their homes. But both of those aims have been achieved but lockdown has not been lifted. Now governments are saying that we have to “stop the virus” or “wait for a vaccine” or “prevent a second wave,” choose your pick.
They’ve moved the goalposts. In some countries it’s worse than others, but despite the mounting evidence that the virus goes away on its own, and has a much lower mortality rate than first thought, we’re still going with the Chinese Communist Party model. Maybe we should just be grateful that we’re not being forcibly barricaded in our houses and left to die of starvation. People are dying of untreated cancer, heart attacks, strokes, suicide, alcoholism, etc, etc, instead…
YouTube link, no longer available? Another one bites the dust??
For some reason the copied video link doesn’t work. The searching for “Viva Frei Vlawg” and it will be in his list of videos. It’s a bit of a pain, but at least it’s still up…for now.
https://twitter.com/ElonBachman/status/1263846547986530310
“In a few short weeks we went from “We may have to lock down for 18 months to await a vaccine” To: “We may not be able to find enough virus to run vaccine trials” Incredible.”
OMG. What a laugh.
Mind you, it’s a great excuse if you know your potential vaccine is a dud!
Last I heard they still haven’t isolated this virus. They’re just guessing there is a virus as a genetic commonality between victims.
Just read in a Spanish paper that China has a vaccine that “generates antibodies and gives immunity”. Doesn’t the human immune system do this. Wo’nt be queuing up for a vaccine cooked up in a matter of months. They can stick their vaccine up their holes.
I wouldn’t believe this from any gvt. at so early a stage.
ESPECIALLY not China.
NEVER TRUST THE CCP.
Nobody is going to want to be injected with that chinese shit
I’m 50 in June and i’m sick of it. Times running out for me and i’m damned if i’m gonna sit back and go gently into the night. For my 50th i was going to the British GP F1 ( i go every year but hey) so i doubt that will happen and i’m supposed to be going to Monza for the Italian F1 in September but who knows? Not to mention i go out riding my motorcycle every chance i get. This bollocks is doing my nut in. Mix that in with me not being off my work during the lockdown i think i deserve a f*cking award. I’m paying tax so others can sit on their arse and not only demand i serve them but social distance and all the rest of it.
Don’t tell the Scottish Nazi Party but i went further than the 5 miles Fraulein Sturgeon says i’m allowed on my motorcycle. If she sends the Gestapo i’ll deny it and say it wasn’t me it was a big boy what done it.
Keep your pecker up, brother. All of us here feel like screaming at times, but there will be an end. And there will be a reckoning. And Sturgeon will be caviar, or rather, cheap lumpfish roe. And Comrade Drakeford will be ducked in the village pond, hopefully terminally.
You will ride your bike and I will ride my horse and the world will be ours. (Please slow down when we meet, as the horse is a bit nervous. Most bikers are very considerate about that.)
I’d got tickets for Michael Bublé at Warwick Castle… 😔
I see your Michael Bublé and I raise you Glyndebourne.
Hmmm. They have ‘furloughed’ some staff, but not others.
Well done you!!!!
Discussed the 5 mile thing with some mates today who want to go do a hill then get pissed.
Even using a Country or Nautical Mile we can’t get within range of a suitable hill.
It was suggested that we pool our 5 mile allowance, which gives us 25 miles, but I don’t think that’ll wash with ScotPlod or a vigilant SNP Gauleiter.
Anyway, we settled on the quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson (which probably just paraphrases what he actually said, but that’s just detail): “If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so”.
OK, he was American, and banging on about taxes due to Us for funding their defense, and he didn’t say ‘but it’ll cost you £30 in accordance with Coronavirus Regulations if you’re nicked”, but that’s just more detail.
So we’re off up a hill, then a barby with tins and 2 fingers up to Nikki-no-mates.
I hope you have a wonderful hassle-free trip!
Well done. But take care you don’t get your car vandalised by the local Covid vigilantes- there still a few of these imbeciles around.
When they let us out in Spain for a one hour walk we had to stay within 1 km of our homes. Effectively a walk round the prison courtyard.
The Spanish authorities went full-on totalitarian, didn’t they.
Spirit of Franco abroad, no doubt.
I know how you feel! I follow a channel on YouTube called ‘Itchy Boots’, a very relaxing and well put together vlog by a Dutch woman who is (or was) biking around the world on Royal Enfield Himalayan. She got as far as Peru, then had to abandon her bike there and get back home to the Netherlands when the lockdown happened.
Anyway, I just watched an episode she put up a week ago, in which she shows us a bit of the Netherlands and talked about how normal life is returning – she said they had an ‘intelligent lockdown’, and as of the 15th schools were open again, hairdressers open, nail bars, massage salons(!), everything apart from bars and restaurants. I wish we’d had an intelligent lockdown.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ish-fpaj81Y
Or an intelligent unlock would do!
Just watched her latest video posted today. Some busy scenes in a town, it all looked so normal and relaxed, barely any social distancing, most shops open, people using cash, lot of people milling around, not one face mask, NOT A SINGLE ONE did I spot.
As for an intelligent unlock – I will not be holding my breath!
Been way further that 5 miles many times! Seen some police out and about in cars, but only come close to getting in bother when I crested a hill to spot them out with a speed camera, at least they were doing their job.. Drive into the capital nearly every day, no issue leaving, and my exercise is only possible (fun) in certain places, just gotta be crafty with the parking.
On the note of working, interestingly enough I have been customer facing for almost the entire lockdown period (shop closed over the first weekend, had police round checking), must be seeing up to a hundred people a day, and no one at work has been off with a respiratory tract infection. Few instances of food poisoning (skiving?) though.. Seems that I should be more distrustful of my colleagues’ coffee making than anyone’s general health!
Get a map and draw a circle on it with a 5 mile radius from your house/start point. Ride as much a you like but stay within the circle. If stopped and asked who far you have come just point to the map and show the shortest route between your start point and where you are stopped.
Think laterally and sneakily as there is always a get out in legislation.
Ffs, Biker, at 50 you’re still a youngster. In your prime and all that.
I’m nearly twenty years older than you, and have also been working full-time (at home, admittedly). Remember, if they get you feeling low, the bad guys have achieved their objective !
Make sure you go for a 50 mile burn on your 50th !
(I strongly doubt you’d ever ‘go quietly’ on your motorbike. Am I right ?).
The ridiculous timing of this quarantine BS is the last straw for me. I’ll be too late to save the country, but I’ll be voting anyone but Tory next time round.
*It’ll*
I shall probably vote for Farage next time. Certainly not this lot, or Starmer’s gang.
Or . . . there’s always the good old Monster Raving Loony Party, because that’s what I’m turning into – a raving loony right now. Angry, fed up, depressed, and throwing things.
The Monster Raving Looney party is already looking like the sanest and most cautious choice.
Reckon Howling Laud Hope could well be PM in 2024. If not sooner
The Monsters will have to change their name.
I shall spoil my vote with a particularly angry flourish.
I’ll use it to wipe
Chris c. Ha, ha beat me to it.
That’s exactly what I did last December. Spoilt my ballot paper. The first time that I’d ever done so. None of them deserved my vote. I feel vindicated but in a rather sad way.
We had a fantastic Labour MP (even though I hadn’t voted her in). She’d only done one stint but had worked really hard for her constituents and I was very happy to vote for her in December. Unfortunately she’s been replaced by a smug, idle Tory git who has been described as “only doing anything if there’s a photo opportunity”.
I feel I should be writing to my MP but know deep down it will be a complete waste of time and effort – unless it’s to interrupt his overpaid holiday for a second or two.
You don’t live in the High Peak by any chance, do you? It sounds uncannily like it! We wrote to our S.T.G. 2 weeks ago about the lockdown and got . . . . .zilch in reply. If your former Labour MP is the same as ours, she is now a county councillor and we agree with your description of her. We wrote to her about the public toilets (still closed despite Government guidance) a week ago. This issue is causing problems for many, not least key workers like bus drivers and old gimmers like us. Sadly, we haven’t heard back from her yet either. We urge you to write anyway (see lots of other posts about how letters can really count, even if you don’t get a reply or receive a meaningless cut-and-paste job). Somebody has to read it so it won’t go unheard.
Thanks Miriam. I’m in Colne Valley
Thinking about it, there must have been similar results in many constituencies in the last GE. BWs, Miriam
I was meant to be going away in July. Now they’ve done this getting the money back will be near impossible as I will have to cancel myself rather than the airline. If I did go when I come back I’d have to go through the airport, get a coach, get a taxi and go out and buy food anyway, and coming back from a country with basically zero covid issues. So what’s the point other than making the public more miserable?
Don’t cancel -just wait until it doesn’t happen .
Plus they are doing this in the final summer before the Brexit transition period ends. Idiots. Some of us have to get abroad to sort out our residency papers before that happens. Because I’m sure as hell not sticking around in the U.K. now that this fiasco has happened. Britain is dead in the water now. Deliberate? I’m beginning to wonder.
I’ll write “NONE OF THE ABOVE” in my ballot paper.
The new Conservative Freedom Party? I’ve got the domains, but nothing up and running yet.
Please do that. That’s exactly what this country needs. The Tories are a joke and have been for a long long time.
They’re not at all funny though.
Take the “conservatism” bit out and you’ll get even more support. Not saying there is anything wrong with conservatism, just that a party which stands solely for freedom and doesn’t sully itself in left-right arguments, or taking up any controversial causes beyond everyone’s right to live as they please in privacy without state intrusion into private matters, is going to get support from more people than one which only appeals to the people in the intersection of freedom-loving, economically-right-of-centre, and culturally-traditionalist. If you appeal to all of the freedom lovers you might get more chance of making some changes, and the chanegs we really need at that.
Hopefully I’ll be somewhere far far away, not voting here!
Us too, currently looking at buying a business in Costa Rica and moving out there with the family.
https://twitter.com/JamesTodaroMD/status/1263859710459031552
2/ Mean COVID infection course: Exposure to symptom onset: 6 days Symptom onset to hospitalization: 6-7 days Symptom onset to death: 14 days First exposure to death: 20 days
This is from CDC report just out. Important as lots of discussion on this blog about time of exposure to death only Italian or Hubei data given. This now CDC US estimation.
Remember.UK. Peak of death 8th April .Lockdown UK 23rd March. Peak of infection four days before that. Effect of deaths of lockdown?
Thank you for link – this is indeed key bit of info. As is the variation between when different countries lockdown was instituted and when peak deaths were seen.
K so…. I’m freaked out. Did anyone just watch the news?
A) There was OTHER news except corona fearp00rn (plane crash)
B) There was actual majority time devoted to lockdown death p00rn AKA economic armaggeddon
But most importantly
C) There were smiles. There was a puff piece about some dude who lost a competition when he pronounced Tony Hadley wrong and Tony Hadley swooped in to rescue his poor ass. There was a LIGHT mood. There were jokes.
It was bloody weird.
Ladies and gents, the media have flipped.
But I’m not sure I like the direction they’re going in. Focusing away from the lurgy – good – but downplaying the terrible mess we’re in generally? – not good.
Jury’s out I suppose. But man that was a strange experience.
I haven’t watched the ‘news’ in years.
Sometimes I catch the end before making me tea. Today I watched the whole thing in weird car crash mode. It was very very strange. Just yesterday they were still claiming all the babies were gonna die.
The one that bugged me was when they blamed the virus for the crashing economy
IT’S NOT THE VIRUS IT’S THE LOCKDOWN, STUPID
Precisely. Validating the disastrous position due to a grand lie. Never forgive them, never forget
I caught five mins of Question Time last night, and Fiona was talking about theatres with some from the arts sector, she said, all intellectual face, ‘can we afford theatres?’ – I nearly put my boot through the telly!! Who do these people think they are???? This is our life, our communities, our culture, jobs, our freedom to buy a bloody ticket and go where ever we want. If people want football, and art, and galleries and dogs homes, and the effin’ safari park, what’s it to her? They have truly jumped the shark.
There was a dreadful bit on Channel 4 news earlier that evening, John Snow all regretful as London Zoo is running out of money. It’s like it’s just occurred to them, ‘oh yeah, to feed the penguins you need money to buy fish, who knew?’.
I’m finding it all a bit sinister.
I will be happy if bbc licence sales plummet over the next few months, as less and less people will be able to afford to pay it (not that I pay it myself anyway).
Well mine expires at the end of the month but the fear-mongering and sickening covid propaganda has made me decide not to renew. Wouldn’t it be good if they bothered to ask me why!
They won’t. Well, they didn’t ask me.
You will get one or two letters a month from Crapita. I must have had hundreds by now. Was planning to sell my collection of nasty letters on eBay, but my wife’s patience expired and she recycled them. 🙁
Thanks for the warning. Can I return them with RTS unsolicited junk mail written on them?
Not tried that. Might give it a whirl with the next one. 🙂
PS There is one particularly nasty one. designed to look for all the world like an ‘Unable to deliver your parcel’ card. “Please ring this number.” it said.
Winston Churchill in 1938: ‘The arts are essential to any complete national life. The State owes it to itself to sustain and encourage them.’
You are being manipulated into accepting the ‘new normal’ by the scum in MSM.
Never accept that
Great news. The rounds of applause for the health service have been replaced by “caceroladas”, basically making a racket by banging pots and pans , against the government. Every evening at 9 o’clock my wife and I will be enthusiasticaaally joining in. Protests all over Spain tomorrow at 12 o’clock. Organised by Vox. admirers of Franco’s dictatorship, which may put people off but they could well be sizeable.,
Great progress!!!!
I so wish we had one of those here: it would give me a chance to get my own back on one of our thursday night noisy zealots!
Can we replace clapping for NHS with booing at our government or shouting ‘End Lockdown’? Different night of course to avoid confusion.
I like it! No-one on my road has bothered with the clapping fiasco though, so I might have to shout very loud.
Damn, they’re still clapping up a storm here on a Thursday night.. I’ve taken to playing the Russian national anthem out the window when they start.
The woman who started it (in this country) has asked for it now to stop after next week. ‘In case it gets politicised’.
Apart from the Russian national anthem, why not also play the anthems of the countries that didn’t lockdown and have emerged from it – Sweden, Taiwan, South Korea, Denmark, Japan?
Awesome!
I just want to say thank you to Toby for setting is up, makes me feel better to know that sane people still exist in the sea of seal zombies.
Last night I dreamed a dream. The Queen was scheduled to make a live broadcast to the nation. She appeared as usual, poised and serene. But suddenly she sat bolt upright, hurled a brick through the autocue, fixed the cameras with a steely glare, and began: People of Britain, I know you are watching me without respect or full attention, sloppily dressed and probably eating junk food. I will give you just five minutes to take off your nappies, assume decent clothes, smarten yourselves up and return to hear my announcement. [Five minutes later.] In view of the lamentable condition of this country, I have decided to resume my proper place as an active head of state. I have dismissed the present cabinet and am in process of selecting a new set of ministers equipped with brains and backbones. Dr David Starkey is to be the new Prime Minister, and Lord Jonathan Sumption will be Lord Chancellor. We are currently looking for a Chancellor who can add up and knows that there is no such thing as a magic money tree. We will let you know when and if we find one. Leading my new team, I shall restore this… Read more »
Someone with better acting chops than me, please perform this and put it on youtube.
It would be even better if the address to the nation was given by Prince Philip. I suspect he would take an even stronger line!
It would go smething like this:
“Get off your arses, you pussies!!”
Or to get native
Απλός το κάνεις, δειλοί!
I’d pay to see that….
Sadly, whilst queenie may be poised and serene, I have yet to see her stand up for the people of the United Kingdom.
This would certainly be a good time to start!
Gawd….I wish she would say this!!!
Brilliant!
Very good!
Wonderful!
Oh thank you, thank you ,thank you, for a lovely piece of sanity!
If only….
Can you send this to me as an email so
I can distribute it. Regardless of the sentiment, which I wholly agree with, it is a wonderful piece of writing .
jclfind@mac.com
Will do, James!
See you at the palace …
Do those expensive mac computers not do cut-n-paste, James ? 🙂
Thank you for taking the time to write and post this. Hats off to you on your writing skill – and your humour. All we’ve managed here so far is to vandalise a couple of NFU notices on a pathway through the woods…but we are trying and will do better. You have inspired us.
Royals have been very quiet during this national emergency.
To be fair they have been doing their bit by supporting their charities. However they are barred from making political statements and unfortunately policies surrounding the lockdown and social distancing are political and the royal family have to be politically neutral at all times.
I experienced something similar the other week. Woke to a bright sunny morning, thinking that I really must tell/bore someone with my dream so I rehearsed it in my head a moment before the idea evaporated:
We all had to stay in our houses all the time, and
Oh, no. Wait….
Brilliant! Exactly my thinking but I couldn’t have put it into words like this!
Finally had a reply from my MP, which is funny as I was only just moaning on here yesterday about no getting a reply (are we being watched?) Anyway it was just the usual response those who have had a reply will know “I support the government blah blah blah” .
Do they know something we don’t, is this going to mutate into the black death and kill millions ?
Have we had any MP attack the Gov’t at all over this, surely there must be at least one that is seeing what we all are ?
A friend of mine reckons the UK already has the vaccine and that’s why Johnson and co are throwing the money around and pushing vaccine vaccine all the time, this is them selling it like snake oil salesman.
I feel like I’m living in some weird t.v. program and this is all some sort of wacky experiment.
My only rational explanation for what has happened is that aliens are now in charge – and this is one of their ‘wacky experiments’ to try to understand how it is that humanity has so far failed to self-destruct.
There was a character in John Brunner’s Stand On Zanzibar who spent his time stoned out of his mind on whatever he could get, watching TV and thinking
“Christ! What an imagination I’ve got!”
Nowadays you don’t even need the drugs
ps I think Stanley Milgram is in charge
Have you seen “Brain Dead” on Amazon?
There is the odd one, Steven Baker seems normal from his Twitter feed.
Yes the is definitely a vested interest in the vaccine, follow the money, the most sinister aspect of all of this in my opinion.
Well, new vaccine tsar appointed last week from investment fund – Kate Bingham. Married to Jesse Norman MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury:
https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/18457643.wife-herefordshire-mp-chair-uks-coronavirus-vaccine-taskforce/
A vaccine (and to make it compulsory) has always been one of the major drivers of the so-called pandemic worldwide. As always, follow the money.
Always ensure that you familiarise yourself with all the ingredients and side effects (short, medium and long term) of any vaccine/drug before making an informed decision to take it or not. Just because your doctor/NHS website tell you that it is perfectly safe, is not always true.
Why are the public not informed that optimised Vitamin D levels and a healthy wholefood diet and lifestyle in addition to regular hand washing will give them better protection from this and other viruses?
Don’t need to familiarise myself with anything. It’s not going anywhere near my bloodstream because I don’t need it to survive this virus.
And even if it might help- it’s not going near my bloodstream until it’s undergone several years worth of testing on human subjects.
You may not be given the choice, unless you want to move to the woods and live off the land.
Or capture the head of anyone coming near you with a syringe.
(How exactly does one shrink a head, anyone know ?)
Create a problem, provide the solution. We are sleepwalking into Orwellian control under the guise of health management. Gates Foundation in partnership with Google and Utube owner Larry Page who also owns Galvani Bioelectronics, which uses miniaturised, implantable devices that will go into the mandatory vaccines required to provide ‘immunity passports’. A ‘conspiracy theory’? Drill down to the facts before you make a decision. https://www.gsk.com/en-gb/media/press-releases/gsk-and-verily-to-establish-galvani-bioelectronics-a-new-company-dedicated-to-the-development-of-bioelectronic-medicines/
Come on Angela, no need to spread their poison for them.
“… miniaturised, implantable devices that MIGHT go into the POSSIBLY mandatory vaccines required to provide THE PROPOSED ‘immunity passports’.”.
“(are we being watched?)”
With over 99% of the media, the telly, and the internet all falling into lockstep (admittedly easing off over the last week or two), what do you reckon ? 🙂
So (ye gods), Prof Gupta thinks that “the truth is that lockdown is a luxury, and it’s a luxury that the middle classes are enjoying and higher income countries are enjoying at the expense of the poor, the vulnerable and less developed countries”. A luxury??? I dare say most teachers are enjoying it, but it is hardly a luxury!
I was getting to like her, but now it seems that she is just another Leftie using covid as a political football
Sadly these people’s expertise is always tinged with their politics. Even when they’re discussing facts you sense an ‘undertone’.
I think she meant luxury in the sense that richer countries can afford to lockdown because economically they are in much better shape. For poorer countries, it is not an option because of people don’t work, they starve.
The positives you can take from her interview is that she believes we are coming to the end of this pandemic, at least in the U.K. They all follow the same pattern, and this will be over by the end of June, perhaps into early July. This means life will start returning to normal, and certainly within six months everything should be open again.
I keep saying time and time again, focus on that NYE party. We will all be celebrating at the end of 2020, saying, “Phew! Thank God that’s all behind us.”
Maybe – but she did go on about ‘enjoying’.
But I know people who have actually said they are enjoying the lockdown. They are very happy in their I’m alright jack bubble. They’re in for a nasty shock but it is a luxury for some.
And how about Lord Fox?! https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/21/lib-dem-peer-lord-fox-says-sorry-for-claiming-furlough-and-lords-allowance
Good point. The 10 million furloughed employees are having one big summer holiday.
I have a friend who is furloughed and she’s not happy with the situation – she’s been telling me that she really wants to go back to work.
Most of the “I’m alright Jack” brigade are those who hate their jobs and welcome the opportunity not to work and still get paid while others are relatively affluent and live in nice areas where this crisis has not made not a lot of dent to their lifestyles.
Agree they will be in for a nasty shock – in the form of redundancy and tax rises.
Redundancy is the light at the end of my tunnel.
There’s a big difference between enjoying something and believing in it. For example, for me personally lockdown has been frankly lovely. I’ve been paid my full salary to stay at home for two months and have made the most of it! But that does not mean that for one second I have approved of it or have done it by choice. I thought that the 12 week shielding that the Gov initially brought in mid-March was plenty sufficient and have always opposed any enforced restrictions on young healthy people.
With a massively reduced salary (unless I find another job), it won’t be cause to celebrate here!
Your schedule sounds about right.
But thinking further along the same lines, there will be flare-ups later, as with flu every year, and the zombies will scream for more lockdown. And we all go to hell in a handcart.
Only to be back again when flu season starts…. The stage has been set
Yes, that grated for me, as well. But then again nobody’s proposing her for PM. All we need from her is her expertise and scientific credibility on the particular issue, and that just for a short time while the grip of Untruth is broken.
And at least she can’t be accused of being a horrible rightwing misinformation troller.
Although. …. find me a rightwing science professor! – who’s willing to be so *in*public* 😉
Being associated with the far right (especially anything that can be portrayed as “racist”) is career suicide in academia. You need to be pretty robust and self-confident even to come out as conservative. The ones remaining are not so stupid as to openly admit their views.
You are so right. Study done a few years ago put the number at around 80% vote Labour or LibDem. Of course, they are terribly shy about sending their children to the very best private schools, of which Oxford has a few!
It’s so bizarre, when I was young Conservative meant The Establishment and Alec Douglas Hume.
Then there was The Alternative Society, all supposedly far left stuff like women’s liberation, gay liberation, antiracism, environmentalism, ecology, alternative energy and so on. Now it seems to be all virtue signalling and bullshit like “low emission” engines that use far more fuel than their predecessors and the health and safety culture.
“” … the grip of Untruth …”
Excellent. Will be using this, Mark, quite shamelessly. 🙂
“In the grip of Untruth” would be a brillaint slogan to put on a facemask if we were compelled to wear one.
It is political but she is right. I live in a suburban area, semi detached houses, greenery , fields nearby. Typical ‘lawnmower Sunday’ type area. I see far too many people appearing to ‘enjoy’ this lockdown because of their good fortune. I spot them easily as the ones placing garden accessories in public area ffs.
I just know how lucky I am to be able to take a walk or bike ride out in amongst all of this nonsense.
I mean totally, she’s right. But how is that anything to do with ‘libertarianism’? It’s the libertarians, of whatever class, who are fighting to get people back to work! It’s the (largely ‘left wing ‘ – sorry prof gupta) state employees/professional class who are willing to sit on their arses taking ‘free money’.
Do why is she dissing ‘libertarian politics’?
Wilful ignorance because her ‘leftwing’ sensibilities have to be stressed in a public interview. Virtue signalling, basically.
I certainly think they need to “man up” BUT I think they are in an impossible situation and I honestly believe that our national media has a LOT to answer for. Think back to pre-lockdown when we still had schools open. All you heard on the BBC was “Why is our science different to the science in Europe and elsewhere?”. “Why aren’t we locking down, why are our schools not shutting”. Impossible
Agree. This lockdown would never have happened, anywhere except perhaps China, if there was no 24 hour news coverage and no social media. It would just have been another bad ‘flu’ year that barely registers for most people.
My plan is to sue anyone who watches the news or uses social media. Without patrons, they’d both dissolve into the mist.
Anyone wishing to be omitted from my lawsuit can send £20 to the following address …
That’s the point. This is _all_ down to the media – but a genuinely Churchillian prime minister would have told them where to go.
It’s true that the media has a lot to answer for, but the government and Johnson weren’t helpless victims in all that. They could have changed the narrative. Worse than not resisting it, they positively reinforced it at times, because they thought it would make people obey their literally stupid restrictions.
Agree. They have the best spin doctors and PR companies.
It appears they conveniently omitted Taiwan, which had no lock-down, and about 7 deaths so far from Covid-19.
https://twitter.com/plaforscience/status/1263833756747644928/photo/1
https://twitter.com/plaforscience/status/1263863860571901953/photo/1
The last curve is interesting. Here is his comment
“Just for laughs at the mistake. Our red line is related directly to our Rt value. Here’s OFFICIAL interpretation of Rt evolution according to the wrong estimate from PCR model. What in nature follows this pattern!!! Not related AT ALL neither with restrictions.”
The meaning is that the pandemic is following the Gompertz curve based on deaths of Covid-19.
The sudden increase of Rt is the artificial increase of the PCR testing detecting cases exponentially when in fact it was already declining (I think is the best interpretation). Nothing in nature can behave like that.
Greetings from the Caribbean Yesterday was quite a good day. Our Government announced that we have no cases of Covid-19 here. I could do a graph of this but it would be a bit boring because none = 0. They also announced a reasonably pragmatic way of us getting some tourists back along with many of our citizens who have been trapped abroad for many weeks. Reasonable or pragmatic are not terms usually attributable to our politicians here but they do seem to have had a day off. The plan is to open the Airport June 1. They have changed the customs and immigration rules so that it is all done electronically therefore avoiding crowding people together in the terminal building while at the same time avoiding direct contact with the officers. They have installed thermal cameras to monitor incoming passengers and they have purchased a supply of rapid teting kits so that anyone with a high temperature can be tested on the spot. Anyone testing positive will be asked to self isolate at home or in their hotel. Taxi drivers are being asked to clean their taxis (which is nonsense because they are always immaculate anyway) and wear masks.… Read more »
They really screwed you, and anyone anywhere who depends on international tourism, with that.
And all for a stupid bit of virtue signalling designed to distract people from the fact that if there ever was a time for tightening the borders re covid it was four months ago. And they blew it.
Matt Hancock, Michael Gove, Boris Johnson
Never forget, never forgive.
5 months ago 🙂 And quarantining of those tested as being ill (e.g. high temperature).
Your government and all others have screwed you over. It’s heartbreaking
Petition your Government to force our’s to put them on a no quarantine list. Holiday as normal No masks etc on planes, no curfews and so on a being bandied about by other countries.
Part of your reasoning can be my argument – if I am just swapping one prison for another even if the weather is better and paying a high price for the privilege then I won’t bother going.
I will make a deliberate and determined effort to go to countries that act the “old normal”, fly airlines that are sensible and informed, frequent businesses that are fighting back against the restrictions as they are the ones that deserve my little stash of money not those working hand-in-glove to promote tyranny and destroy freedoms.
Feel free to quote me to your Government BobT.
Good stuff AG. Will also be following your plan re airlines/countries/businesses with some common sense.
One good thing, as much as the wife is missing the regular jaunts to the heat, sunshine and beach even she agrees she is not going anywhere where there are curfews, quarantines etc so at least that is one lot of earache I don’t have to worry about.
Taxi drivers wearing masks worries me as masks reduce the oxygen getting to the brain, which impairs physical and mental functioning. They also cause a harmful build up of carbon monoxide if worn for long periods.