Got a good piece for you today. It’s by a doctor who works for the hospital trust in Leicester. They’ve called themselves “Dr Q” because doctors are under strict instructions not to talk to the media, but Dr Q has provided me with proof that they are who they say they are. Here are the opening three paragraphs:
I’m a doctor at University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust. We have about 2000 inpatient beds across three main sites and serve roughly 1 million people in Leicester city, Leicestershire county and Rutland. Leicester is a multi-cultural city and 36% of our 16,000 health care workers are from BAME backgrounds.
Many of my colleagues are angry and confused about what is happening nationally and particularly in Leicester and Leicestershire. We are reminded daily that we are not allowed to speak to journalists or on social media, which is why I am stringently anonymous and more vague than I’d like to be here. I love being a doctor, and I risk suspension for speaking out.
I’m going to use Public Health England’s own numbers for this analysis (found here) and I’m going to explain why I think the conclusions they (and the politicians) have drawn are wrong.
Dr Q goes on to explain that there is no evidence of any increase in the rate of infection in Leicester based on Pillar 1 data – tests administered to inpatients by hospital staff.
By May, positive cases averaged around 10 a day and deaths were continuing to fall. In late May, we started swabbing every single admission to the hospitals, and this is where things get interesting. I work in a department that isn’t respiratory medicine. This means that the patients who are in our area are there for other health issues that are not caused by COVID-19 (think surgery or mental health). Of those we swabbed, just 1% tested positive and all of them were asymptomatic. That rate has been steady since May 23rd. I believe that our patients are representative of the rate in the UK population and, for what it’s worth, it’s the same story in Manchester, Leeds and Guildford, where I’ve been comparing notes with colleagues. Unpublished data shared on an open forum from Leeds, Manchester, Sussex also confirms this – 1%, all asymptomatic when testing positive. These patients have, almost without exception, not developed any symptoms, although some have had household members with a cough.
So why the panic? Pillar 2 data. But there’s a problem with Pillar 2 data.
The point of “Lockdown” has always been to ‘flatten the curve’ in order to ‘Protect the NHS’. Given we were coping on March 31st, when we had nearly ten times the number of positive cases in hospitals, with relatively little access to testing, we are certainly coping now. The issue and alleged cause of the “Local Lockdown” is our Pillar 2 numbers. These are the community tests outsourced to private companies. There is no guarantee that these tests are all taken from different people (unlike the Pillar 1 data, which is cross checked against a unique patient identifier). In fact, the Government accepts that the number of Pillar 2 cases is not the same as the number of people with COVID-19 because Pillar 2 data includes people who’ve been tested more than once – often because they have to re-test before they’re allowed back to work.
In other words, the “evidence” that cases are increasing at a dangerous rate in Leicester – or were, since even the Government acknowledges that even Pillar 2 data show the number of cases is falling now – is unreliable. And Dr Q doesn’t even get into the problem of false positives with PCR tests.
Dr Q points out that even if we decide to accept the Pillar 2 data at face value it shows the average age of all these newly infected people is 39, so there’s almost zero risk of them dying from COVID-19 anyway. And he/she highlights the sheer lunacy of closing schools, given that almost no children have died of COVID-19 across the United Kingdom.
But here’s the best part – or, rather, the worst part. Matt Hancock’s track-and-trace Johnnies have only managed to track 11 of the estimated 900 new cases in Leicester. Eleven! I’m fairly cynical when it comes to the DHSC’s track-and-trace capacity, but 11? That’s quite something.
Anyway, this is great whistleblowing piece which this courageous doctor has written at some personal risk. I’ve given it a slot on the right-hand side under “What Percentage of the Population Has Been Infected?”
Worth reading in full.
Postcard from Salzburg
A message from a reader who’s just returned from Austria:
I just read today’s letter and noted the letter from a reader who has gone to Switzerland to get away. We have just returned – accepting a totally unjustified 14 day self-quarantine on return in order to do so – from 10 days in Salzburg.
I cannot begin to describe what it felt like to be in a sane country. We met friends, we went to restaurants. we shopped (and nobody took away anything we touched for 72 hours sanitisation), we enjoyed room service (room service!) and we lived like normal people. I even had a dental appointment – something that has been impossible in the UK unless you want to practice 18th century dentistry. I can’t tell you how good for the soul it was to feel again among normal people – we humans are social animals and this abnormal social distancing has been one of the key dehumanising factors in the whole Covid lockdown debacle.
Returning to the UK, we find that little seems to have changed, despite the fact that July 4th is supposed to be the UK’s Independence Day.
Spot the Difference
A Scottish reader points out the uncanny similarity between Bane, the psychotic super-villain in Batman Rises, and Nicola Sturgeon.
The peg, of course, is that Scotland’s First Minister has just announced that face coverings will be mandatory in shops.
This is how my reader put it:
In Scotland, we’ve just had the bad news that Nicola Sturgeon, aka “The Mad Wee Krankie”, now wants to force us all, via legal threats, to wear face masks in shops. I spoke to the owner of the new Spar corner shop that’s just opened in our village and she was in tears, as she fears that’ll destroy her business just as it’s started — people will vote with their feet and just order online.
So to lighten the mood, I just noticed a strange likeness between our Farce Minister and, well, you’ll see …
Lockdown: Conspiracy or Cock-Up?
Got an email from a reader who was slightly taken aback to discover some of his friends – educated professionals, like him – are now entertaining conspiracy theories about the lockdown.
Lockdown: Conspiracy or Cock-Up?Just been away for a couple of days to stay with some of our oldest friends. They threw the lockdown out of the window weeks ago. It was interesting to hear them say how the lockdown has been such a fiasco, such a pointless farce, etc., etc., that therefore there must be a cynical government subtext going on such as a pretext to amass data about people, personal details, and so on as the only possible explanation for the greatest example of peacetime self-destruction in British history. Their adult sons share these views. They’re all educated professionals. I wonder how much this will evolve in people’s minds as the basis for resistance and subversion? Personally, I prefer the thesis that it’s entirely based on total incompetence, but the outcome may well be the same.
For what it’s worth, my 35-year career in journalism has left me a strong believer in the cock-up theory.
Sea Wolf
Email from a reader who’s found a nice way to get away from all the madness:
I have been feeling very angry and sad with the constant bedwetting decrees but more so by my parents’ curtain-twitching neighbours. This outbreak of authoritarianism and snitching is so dispiriting. So I’ve done what all good sailors do – sailed my boat (alone) from Scotland to the Scilly Isles. It has been wonderful to be out at sea and remembering what it’s like to be a free person who weighs risk and makes judgments all the time. I can’t imagine that loathsome creature Hancock has ever had to decide whether to take in an extra reef when the seas are getting up and the gunwales are dipping from the excess heel!
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:
- ‘Café Rouge and Bella Italia owner falls into administration‘ – Another two high street chains bite the dust
- ‘I love pubs, but I won’t be going anywhere near one on Super Saturday‘ – Disappointing piece in the Telegraph by a bedwetter who seems to have confused coronavirus with Ebola
- ‘Most people won’t be going back to the pub‘ – And here’s the Telegraph confirming that it’s not just him
- ‘It’s still a pub, but not as we know it‘ – And this piece in the Times explains why. When bar doors reopen tomorrow, drinkers will find less space, new rules — and nervous publicans
- ‘Sharp decrease in cancer patient referrals; doctors concerned‘ – This is a piece from a Dutch newspaper. Not just us, then
- ‘“No one has died from the coronavirus”’ – Jaw-dropping revelations by Dr Stoian Alexov, President of the Bulgarian Pathology Association in Off-Guardian
- ‘The weird war on whiteness‘ – The Spiked editorial team try to get to grips with the bizarre self-flagellatory aspects of the Woke-us Dei cult. Something sexual going on, surely?
- ‘Radio Host Suspended for Denying He Had “White Privilege” Reinstated‘ – Couldn’t resist including this Brietbart piece– a victory for the Free Speech Union
- ‘TomTom Traffic Index‘ – Gizmo you can play with. Enter your city and it tells you the traffic data, allowing you to compare pre-Covid traffic with the “new normal”. Bangkok, Berlin, Hamburg, Stockholm, Zurich and other cities are pretty much as they were. London, not so much
- ‘Boris Johnson would probably not have run a department in Thatcher government says Norman Tebbit‘ – On her bike, Boris, says the Chingford hard man
- ‘Britons would strongly back second lockdown if COVID-19 cases spike, poll reveals‘ – More than eight in 10 people said they would back another shutdown if there is a second spike. Saints preserve us
Theme Tune Suggestions From Readers
One suggestion today: “Paracetamoxyfrusebendroneomycin” by Amateur Transplants.
Small Businesses That Have Re-opened
A few weeks ago, Lockdown Sceptics launched a searchable directory of open businesses across the UK. The idea is to celebrate those retail and hospitality businesses that have re-opened, 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 opened near you. Now that non-essential shops have re-opened – or most of them, anyway – we’re now focusing on pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as other social venues. 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. Don’t worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
Note to the Good Folk Below the Line
I enjoy reading all your comments and I’m glad I’ve created a “safe space” for lockdown sceptics to share their frustrations and keep each other’s spirits up. But please don’t copy and paste whole articles from papers that are behind paywalls in the comments. I work for some of those papers and if they don’t charge for premium content they won’t survive.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the last 48 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. It usually takes me several hours to do these updates, along with everything else, which doesn’t leave much time for other work. If you feel like donating, however small the amount, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here. (Please don’t email me at any other address.) I’ll try and get another update done on Saturday.
And Finally…
In homage to Dr Q’s revelation that Matt Hancock’s track-and-trace team have so far managed to locate just 11 of the 900 new cases in Leicester, I am reproducing the cover of the latest Ladybird book. Slightly misleading though because a couple of tin cans and a piece of string would actually be much more effective than anything the NHSX has come up with so far.
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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cricket-is-not-getting-fair-treatment-from-prime-minister-boris-johnson-jqzr9cnf8
Cricket is not getting fair treatment from prime minister Boris Johnson | Sport | The Times
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/coronavirus-about-117-people-dying-each-day-as-deaths-remain-stable-0hz2pkgg6
Coronavirus: About 117 people dying each day as deaths remain stable
Everybody has to die someday!
as Terry Pratchett once wrote “Death is stable”
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/now-apocalyptic-movie-nerds-have-their-moment-hmr727nwn
Now apocalyptic movie nerds have their moment
Carl Vernon’s latest video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWilbL3hKxM
You couldn’t make it up!
Saw that and that’s why I bought a hair cutting kit for myself and Mr Bart – the boycott will save us a whole load of money.
The problem is that, while I’m willing to carry on looking like a wild woman, many people are desperate enough to put up with that nonsense so they can get tidied up.
The sad thing is that their haircut should improve their self-esteem but subjecting themselves to that nonsense just makes a mockery of them.
So… there’s a spike in number of cases cause people just want to get back to work? That’s just tragic.
Makes you want to cry.
Or hit someone …..
I have said it before: What’s going on has gone beyond incompetence. You cannot explain the state of things by saying that the people in charge ar bumbling idiots. That would mean that absolutely every single person that has a say or has the ear of someone that has a say is a bumbling idiot. That’s just not possible. This looks more and more like a deliberate act of sabotaging the West.
Absolutely. And while I, like most here, have benefited from Toby’s website, he does pull his punches where his chums in government are concerned.
Is it global incompetence?
100%. I am completely behind this is deliberate destabilising of the world.
It’s irrelevant whether they knew the virus was coming or not, another one could have been used to cause equal panic.
This response fits closely to sustainablity goals they have long worked for. The NHS Reset, The Great Reset, the cronona emergency legislation 250 pages in UK usually emergency bills are 1 page. In the USA the emergency bill is 1000 pages or more – it was ready before it was needed. We’ve seen that legal prep before in history.
To say nothing of the highly lacking scientific amd health service reactions.
The Problem for me is incompetence followed by their commitment to covering up their incompetence. The government has an addiction to being right and is prepared to put our life’s (All lives) on hold to cover their asses at any cost to protecting their precious reputations, but like all friends that know an addict we cant move on until they admit they have a problem.
I agree Criti.
There comes a point where you have to step back and look at the situation, seeing that people (especially journalists and medical experts) who are seriously challenging the official narrative with evidence being removed from social media and suspended by their medical board to see that the information is being deliberately censored.
Many people now agree that the WHO are as clean and trustworthy as FIFA or the IOC and the same people with financial interests are linked to the Government’s reactions/policies and stand to benefit greatly.
I see far more journalistic integrity form independent youtube commentators than I do from the mainstream media.
Is everyone involved in a conspiracy? No, but it is not all a cockup either! Some people involved know exactly what they are doing, while others genuinely are going along putting great faith in the ‘experts’
My view is still that that the whole wretched mess is an unholy combination of cock-up and “perfect storm” of political/media/social factors, combined with the Government and their “experts” trying to stay afloat and avoid blame for as long as they can. Any hint of a U-turn or admission that they made the wrong decisions, and the media and Opposition will start making things very nasty for them (currently their main angle of attack still seems to be “should have locked down earlier”), and the longer they keep it going the worse this will be. The Leicester farce seems to indicate that they’ve decided to stick with the “lockdown narrative” to the end. I really doubt it’s a conspiracy as all of the data and statistics are publicly available , here and in many other countries, often from official sources (as in Toby’s recent article on the facts behind the US “second spike”, and the PHE data in Dr.Q’s Leicester article). And the number of sceptical voices, often qualified ones, in the media seems to be steadily increasing, and not just on fringe/non MSM sources (see the multiple interviews on the BBC’s World at One on Thursday). Nonetheless the public… Read more »
Well said Cristi.
It definitely smacks of a pre-planned set of actions that has been set up and running suspiciously fast, although now they seem to be improvising to try and maufacture a 2nd wave/lockdown. Then will come ‘we have a vaccine’. (Start a Bill Gates thread anyone?)
I don’t understand how the government has the power to make such illegal legislation within one or two days yet the only recourse is a judicial review which may not be heard until after the damage is irreversible? Does no-one have the power or leverage to intervene?
It is incompetence, not some (secret) plan. How can I say this so sure? Well, if you have worked in government (like I did for years) and/or have been politically active (again, yes, when younger) you will have seen the utter and sheer incompetence which is so utterly common/normal among this civil servants and politicians. If you haven’t worked in government then whatever it is I will tell you I have seen, you will simply not believe it because you just can’t imagine people being that stupid in such positions of power. Not evil things, just unbelievably stupid things. I have seen dozens of things go wrong, again and again and again, often for the very same reason, created by the same type of people. These people don’t want to fuck up, they just do. I saw it happening on small and large scales. At one point “something” (won’t give details) went wrong for 150+ million EUR, although until this day this organization lies by saying it was “only” 80 million EUR. (The truth about that is already out here and there, but even as liars they are incompetent.) A few years later the same thing happened. Nothing learned at… Read more »
So the medical profession has been not just muzzled, but gagged?
Come the Coronaberg Trials, there’s going to be one hell of a cloud of witnesses.
Dr Q points out that EVERY DAY they are reminded not to talk to journalists or on social media. That’s blatant censorship and all those enforcing it must be aware of that.
Rough as it is Dr Q found a way.
Others should and must too. If they have a back bone. It’s about personal courage, to risk your families well-being against a harmful censor. UK 2020 people of the internet.
I dare to say Dr Q has got life long respect from those that matter.
There’s fibre in Dr Q, who else?
I thought the doctors were supposed to be the heroes.
Very fishy.
Strange. I thought there was a whistleblower’s charter. Only allowed if it is politically correct, it seems.
It’s both cock-up and conspiracy. Conspiracy in a pathetic and doomed attempt to cover up the cock-up. Even the bed-wetters must twig eventually.
Exactly it’s a cockup and then a coverup.
I have just read Dr Q’s report and I think that I have the solution in a new form of lockdown. Let’s lockdown every politician, member of PHE. NHS management, alleged scientist and any other individuals that endanger our society. We will enforce a severe lock down, no visitors, groceries only delivered if they can get a delivery slot, they have to wear masks 24/7. Lets have an initial lockdown for say 2 years. If we can do without these oxygen thieves for that long we can do without them forever.
Latest from Simon Dolan…
https://twitter.com/simondolan/status/1279109733694275586
Our legal team will be analysing the new Regs over the weekend. We will come back on Monday with full details as to what restrictions remain.
https://twitter.com/simondolan/status/1279109455326654465
BREAKING NEWS After our day in Court yesterday,the Govt have scrapped the existing Regs and tonight replaced them with much less restrictive ones. However, they are not fully scrapped and the threat of reimposition remains so we continue to fight for full Judicial Review
It will be interesting to discover what the new regs are. I wonder if the MSM will be informed about them.
Seems the conformity test is rolling out in the US and Scotland I believe… Found this interesting https://youtube.com/watch?v=jmEt0UjrnfQ&feature=emb_logo – low tech, effective and scary!
A giod kink. If your mainstream media cared about you they would do a similar 02 test. Why have’t msm people like dr hilary jones not done such a test – is he really as savage as he looks? Happy to go along with the fearing of viewers.
Quite clearly there is a public interest to show how safe masks and face coverings are. File under this is deliberate.
… good link.
I admit, I lower the tone, ok
That’s a great video. Shows the arguments very clearly.
Thanks for publishing the piece from a doctor in Leicester, Toby!
I have just had an e-mail from the mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby who I contacted earlier this week.
I have taken the opportunity to reply and send him a link to the full article.
Well done on that John. His hand was forced – was he shafted by his own side?
Was he shafted? I think he was, I’m fairly sure he’s a closet sceptic. He got into trouble for visiting his girlfrield’s house early on in the lockdown.
I just logged into my e-mail account to e-mail my mother and sisters with a link, and there was the mayor’s e-mail. Perfect timing!
Yes, that’s what I thought. I hope this madness stops now for the people of Leicester. I was very suspicious that the daily stats were so late on Thursday, and then when they were uploaded at around 11pm, bingo, 10% rebasing of the number of cumulative positive tests, and more than a third lower on the daily total, continuing lower today. These lot know what they are doing.
I’m sure the Leicester ‘spike’ and talk of lockdown was to try and enhance the government’s case at Simon Dolan’s hearing..
The people who should be backing him are shafting him bigtime.
Yes, by Claudia Webbe, the (rather dense) local MP.
Great. He seems like a good egg. Bullied into complying with a ludicrous edict.
If the good man resigned his mayorship in protest against this utter scandal, I wonder how quick the BBC would be to run with the story…
Reading that Simon Dolan states that the regulations have changed & the Leicester lockdown is not law but can’t find any details. Anyone help?
Simon has said he will send details about the relaxed rules later on.
Regarding Leicester, my understanding is that there have been no new laws passed and I note from the Oadby and Wigston Borough Council website that they are referring to the tightening of “guidelines”, – not laws!
“Oadby and Wigston” is outside the Leicester City boundary, but has been included in the local lockdown, as have a number of satellite towns.
There were rumours that laws were going to be passed for Leicester today, but they clearly have not done anything. Perhaps Simon’s legal challenge has put them off.
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/685/contents/made
Thank you, perhaps I stand corrected. Simon posted this morning regarding Leicester.
Applicable from 4th July.
Is legislation the same as regulations?
Semantics suggest not but I don’t do legalese, which is a different language.
Regulations (secondary legislation) lay down the law and are enforceable in the same way as other law in UK. ‘Guidance’ isn’t.
Anyone know why there are all the specific let outs for ‘elite sports persons'(!), their coaches, etc, or is this standard in similar Regs?
The exemptions for elite athletes have been there for a good while now – a month at least, maybe 6 weeks. Presume mainly to facilitate professional sports (football) starting again, for financial reasons and to provide opium for the masses.
But the MSM are putting out that new laws with regards to fining £3000+ & police powers.
Msm saying Liecester clothes factories have now been visited by police/natiinal crime agency officers.
That’s the Max for repeated offences. But as usual implies otherwise.. fear leads to control ☹️
just watching Celebrity Gogglebox on C4. At around 35 minutes they show the celebs the news footage of the Bournemouth beach (the one that looks overcrowded due to telephoto lens forshortening.
Anyway, the adverse hysterical reaction of all the woke celebs on seeing this is something to behold… and explains why there is such a long way to go
Mind you, given they are ‘Celebs’ they probably don’t have any or much grey matter!
DavidC
the idea that the Lockdown Skeptics haven’t taken into consideration the risks involved is patently nonsense. I’d bet that most here know far more about the risks, the science and the evidence than you do pal. You’re just a sad bed wetting lefty nonentity with nothing to say and prejudice and hatred for yourself buried deep in your weak black heart. It’s quite sad really, i feel for you. I mean i can’t imagine what it must be like to be so ignorant yet have such delusion in your intend reality. I’m sure there are pills for that. Oh and your little lefty troll act really is quite poor. Maybe it’s late and you’re tired but you’re gonna have to try harder than that, or alternatively you could just go back to twitter and suck some female penis, your mothers perhaps
Biker, is it fair to use so many good points and reference things like ‘consideration’. ‘evidence’ and ‘facts’ in this case? All GrantM understands is vague ideas, virtue signalling and the what seems to be the easiest route to salvation. You can’t surely expect critical thinking? If he wants to wear his face mask in the shower and spend his days clapping his hands red-raw whilst carpet burning his knees from all the kneeling, then we should let him. In his class everyone got the participation medal and so he subconsciously seeks little wins where he can find them.
I repeat: WHY. ARE. YOU. STILL. HERE?
You are that person who goes to the party in order to complain about the party.
Or who doesn’t go to the party in order to stay in and troll websites lol
I think our very own troll is one of the chaps at 77 Brigade pulling an all nighter , must be getting time and a half or double bubble for the overtime hours.
never heard of the 77 Brigade, sounds horrible, he’d be better off joining the Boys Brigade, maybe then he’d learn some self respect and discipline.
https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/british-military-information-war-waged-their-own-population
Hey Two-Six…That’s exactly where to point anyone who is looking for up to date AND truthful news broadcasts!
Basically it’s the British army waging an information war and psyops against the British people.
Wonderful isn’t it ?
most of the British army are fat useless tossers or some real dumb fucks who can’t get a job and need to enlist. We should get rid of the military in the most part. No need for them at the levels we have. Just another government job the tax payer is forced to pay for. It’s sickening how much the government jobs like the military you’re expected to thank these morons for their service after they’d forcibly removed my money to pay for it.
He’snot bright enough. He’s just a fictional character who used to be in East Enders.
Muzzle top o’ the mornin’ to all the Irish Jews.
You do have your Panties in a bunch don’t you 😆
Drunk again?
what risks? there are none.
Here is Coronavirus – the map movie, based on Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 data for England. Open in adjacent tabs of your browser, and flip between them to see how the epidemic progressed since the beginning of May. Charts are of weekly infection rates at week intervals: the date is the end date of the week. The list is in order to end June.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/gx1II/1/
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/jsIvq/2/
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/LCbA5/1/
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/iL0yx/1/
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/ztVPL/1/
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/2uelL/1/
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/K94t6/1/
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/buGhn/1/
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/S5Dmw/1/
Some other charts that may be useful:
Comparison of Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 overall data for England, showing the ramping up of Pillar 2 across April leading to many more infection reports.
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/d307t/2/
Cases by local authority over time (best viewed on a computer or large tablet in portrait orientation)
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/vFNru/1/
Map for Pillar 1 as at end June
https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/B7qlJ/1/
Leicester doesn’t exactly stand out there.
Excellent stuff and thank you for all the hard work, I’ve been following you on Hector Drummond’s blog.
In the MSM nothing has changed much, they still think you are going to die if you go outside without a muzzle, yet where are you going to catch it from?
My heart bleeds for the people of Leicester.
Put yourself into the shoes of the hairdresser, pub landlord or restauranteur, spending money that you probably haven’t got on ridiculous safety features such as screens and signage, not forgetting the gallons of sanitiser and necessary hordes of PPE in order to be able to operate in the New Abnormal.
All of that preparation and expense to have the rug pulled from beneath your feet by a government seemingly intent on pressing on with its relentless campaign of social and economic vandalism. A government clearly using the city of Leicester as a warning to us, the stupid, grubby bovine throng.
I can almost hear Hancock’s voice as I type this, “don’t think for a moment that you’re free. We can take it all away, and cram you back into your homes whenever we wish to.” Now enjoy that overpriced pint, and keep your f*****g distance. ”
I will never forgive them for this.
Never, ever. At the next election we must get rid of ALL these useless politicians, civil servants and quangos. They are damaging to our health.
Boris’s ‘enjoy the summer’ today, and his tone as per what you say for Hancock, very much on display at the press conference this evening, makes me think there is going to be a hell of a lot more anger before long. This lot seem to be relishing their moment of power a little too much now. They are clearly still following the Ferguson rolling lockdown strategy to kill a non-existent danger to the vast majority of the population.
Sheesh. Boris ‘I am Churchill’ Johnson.
DavidC
Their day of reckoning will come. I noticed that not one of them has addressed the mounting job losses over the last 2-3 days but come October the shit hits the fan so Johnson and Hancock should beware.
Sunak is engineering a fudge but it won’t be a solution to the mess they seem keen to exacerbate.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/03/furlough-flip-could-mean-government-gives-wage-support-people/
“Furlough flip” indeed – furlough fudge more like!
The fact that they intend to maintain the existing furlough scheme as far as October, proves this isn’t about a cockup but they’re in it for an intended longhaul.
I seriously doubt that will be the solution, more like a sticking plaster that would hopefully stave off job losses especially as part-timers will be the first on the firing line. If a company is already bankrupt no amount of fudging would save these jobs.
What worries me is all the self employed and small businesses, they won’t get in the headlines like the big firms
Agree. Those figures I posted yesterday are only the big companies and you can bet that the unemployment figures are bigger when SMEs are included.
It doesn’t. An October end to the furlough scheme means that redundancy consultations will need to begin mid-August. Given that things are only really “opening up” to any extent now, 6 weeks seems about right to assess what trading conditions are going to be like and make decisions on what the workforce is going to look like. If anything, the October timing makes me think that the July timetable must have been known at least as far back as when furlough was extended.
Which town or city will be next?
8 out of 10 would back a second lockdown? Don’t they get it yet, do they not get it? You’re more likely to get hit by a seagull in a bowler hat dropping a jam sandwich on your head
Damn! I’m going to have to keep looking up now….!
DavidC
Lol!
There’s no logic to any of this. I was watching one of those recovered Covid patients being clapped out of hospital by medical staff. None of them were social distancing. Many of them were patting him and giving him little hugs. It was almost as if they were determined to circulate the virus throughout the hospital.
I should think the average healthy 30 year old pub-goer has more chance of dying from tripping on some poorly adhered hazard tape on the floor than from getting the virus! We offer health advice on cigarette packets. We can do the same for pubs: “If you’re aged over 90, extremely fat or suffering from a serious health ailment, don’t go down the pub… or on your head be it.”
‘We’ do not ‘offer health advice’ on cigarettes. We plaster 95%+ of the packs with disgusting pictures and mindless slogans.
I realise you mean the government by ‘we’, OKUK, but they do not deserve to have their foul propaganda rationalised as ‘offering health advice’.
Much of what we are collectively enduring was trialled on UK smokers. With barely a whisper of protest or objection.
Knowing my luck it would be the wrong sort of jam.
Gawd. October can’t come soon enough or maybe their P45!
I believe the difference between pillar 1 and 2 tests in the Leicester are also true here in the US and explain the huge increase in positive tests in recent weeks. These are largely being done en masse by a gaggle of private businesses, with no regulatory oversight of quality control as near as I can see. The “positivity rates” are all over the place. We have entered the nutty phase where government mandates and profit seeking businesses combine to create a new panic and policy disaster. If they were looking for some way to utterly collapse two large economies (UK and US) this would be a great way to do it. What a mess!
Wow, professor Friston from UCL on snoozenight tonight has a radically different tune. He clearly sees it is all bullshit, he uses his words carefully but to me it seems crystal clear. I quote, “Fantastical estimates of death tolls and projections”. Really, you don’t fucking say.
I didn’t read it quite like that. Also he didn’t draw the obvious conclusion from his “second spike” prediction ie a death toll of under 7000 for a second spike in January would be chicken feed and so we shouldn’t worry about it at all.
He was pretty slippery but I don’t think he was “on message” at all. I expected someone from UCL to be briefed in advance and totally delivering the propaganda. And the second spike of 6,792 was a great surprise, when he came out with the figure I was stunned. Even the sheep might realise how low that number is, maybe 6,999 might have been more psychologically effective.
I agree he wasn’t giving it the Full Fergie but I think the average viewer would not have clocked he was going against the orthodoxy.
The whistleblowing Leicester Dr is a morale boost for sure. But there’s a But:
Best not to lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of the 1.5 million NHS employees are covid-compliant and very on-message.
For Doctors, it’s a function of a left-leaning political pursuasion which is both ‘University Student left-wing’ and medical UK ideologically pro-Centralized Healthcare, the effect of being detached from the economic realities experienced by most of your patients, and being academically intelligent in inverse proportion to common sense.
And let’s be frank, a £100000+ (often much more salary) plus a ~£50000+ bulletproof pension also empowers an ideological purity of viewpoint untainted by compromises of economic necessity.
Also remember that most medics couple up with medics. That’s an eye-wateringly-high combined household income (which probably skews the regional stats outside London IMO).
Almost all the Drs I know and work with are very lockdown +.
There’s a Groupthink effect, the weekly affirmation of being lauded as heroes, and an institutionally insulated detachment from the economic plague about to decend upon us.
What could possibly go wrong.
The ones who aren’t on-side are probably opining here, and I count ~7 at best.
Yes it’s a real problem – because doctor couples earn so much, female doctors (nearly always a woman) are quite happy to work part time which fits in well with family life. We spend £250,000 training doctors who then work maybe 2 days a week.
It’s amazing – isn’t it? – how doctors up to very recently were quite happy to greet patients without a mask and examine them close up, sharing their breath, while not having a clue what infectious diseases they might be carrying! lol Judged against their current mania for masks, maximised social distance and maintaining the lockdown, their previous modus operandi seems unbelievably reckless.
Or are they just politicised hypocrites?
Yer we re all politicised hypocrites .
And some gratuitous women doctor bashing, too! Many women who stay in education for 5 years or more, to become doctors, vets, accountants, barristers, solicitors etc.,etc., choose to work part time for a year or more after the birth of a child.Good for their child, good for them, good for society that they reproduce, actually. In the past men holding your views complained about women being allowed in to universities, being granted degrees, being allowed the freedom of choice to be a rounded human being. They are rightly regarded as dinosaurs today. .
It’s absurd to call that “gratuitous doctor bashing” unless:
I was simply responding to the point about the effects of high doctors’ salaries.
I am not saying they should necessarily be paid less. But I am saying the high salaries do create an issue in terms of reduced output, particularly by female doctors.
No you weren’t. You were getting in a purely gratuitous little dig at women taking time out of a lengthy professional career to have children.
You could hypothesise endlessly about reduced output from various causes, from periods of part time working, to periods off sick from drug addiction and misuse (mostly male doctors), periods in court or suspended from practising for sexual assault and inappropriate relationships with patients (mostly male doctors) & so on. Rather more of a waste of public money in my book.
All the things you reference are easily quantifiable and would turn out to have minute impact in comparison with the number of female doctors who don’t work full time. If you are saying people shouldn’t quote hurty facts, please just say so. Then we’ll know where we stand.
Go on then, quantify them, if it’s so easy.
I didn’t say I had the facts at my fingertips. But things like sick leave are easily quantifiable in principle. If you don’t think they are then say so.
My experience throughout my working life was that the number of days lost to the sorts of things you reference was pretty miniscule compared with things like cancer, colds, flu, accidents and so on. Most big organisations monitor these things, so I expect the NHS does as well.
While we are on the subject, more generally, women take 42% more sick leave days than men. So that is likely reflected in medical practice as well.
https://www.hrzone.com/lead/culture/why-do-women-take-more-sick-leave-than-men-and-what-can-we-do-about-it
So, while we’re completely off the lockdown subject,
‘Sickness presenteeism is defined as going to work while sick, and is common in the health sector and among physicians…This study aimed to examine how gender is related with sickness presenteeism and reasons behind it. In support of hypotheses, we found that women more often go to work when sick than men, and that women and men also differ in the reasons they give for this behavior…Our hypothesis about ‘female’ reasons for sickness presenteeism was partially supported. Women showed a greater concern for patients and colleagues than men. However, the difference in concern for colleagues was only marginally significant (p = .084). That “work piles up” was the most important reason given by both women and men, though to a higher degree among women. All these reasons might be associated with the female stereotype in which women learn to focus on others more than on them selves.’
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/81797127.pdf
I can confirm that all the female doctors I have encountered have either been part time or off sick or on maternity leave. Its a complete joke. If more and more women are trained as doctors we are just going to end up importing most doctors from other countries and thereby screwing up their country’s health system. I am not against female doctors but it does get tedious seeing yet another one going part time on what would count as a full time wage for most people.
Sylvie,
Just a tip, take it or leave it. When a person has explained what they meant by what they wrote it’s incumbent on you to accept their explanation. Fine if you don’t agree with their point of view. However, not fine that you project your feelings about said issue onto the other person so as to negate their opinion, and moreover, dictate the intent behind what they either said or wrote.
Accepting ‘explanations’ for assertions unsupported by any evidence, even when requested, is precisely what got us in this mess in the first place.
There does seem to be a lot of gratuitous medic bashing from some commentators and I do take exception to some of your assertions. As a medic I would say most of my bubble are medics of a certain vintage. and about 90 % share the same opinion as to the effectiveness of the lockdown ; this is after all a lockdown skeptic site rather than a bash the greedy doctors site isnt it ?
Just remember it is the epidemiologists , the media, the politicians and the public health crowd who have been pushing this . I meet many times more fellow skeptic medics than I find in other professions . My ultimate bedwetter is the practice accountant who fumigates all his post before opening a letter.
I am sure most of us have full respect for medical practitioners who do so much to relieve suffering. People are just frustrated by the relentless BS including sometimes, or rather often, from politicised medics e.g. the Doctors Association spokespeople.
In the most part I agree. But there is a silence coming from many health practicioners and actual harms being done by that silence. Some in the health service are complicit with plscing DNARs without full consent, others have not moved heaven and earth to protect elderly.
Many are wonderful as we know. The aim of my post here is to reflect on tbose who must be complicit for the events we see to be happening.
What percentage of medics do you think are ‘of a certain vintage’?
If 90% of medics publicly condemned lockdown its hard to see how they could all be sacked and it would surely sway public opinion – everything hangs in the balance here the liberty of ~60 million people, the livelihoods of millions and counting etc.
If that’s just 90% of say 10% that are ‘of a certain vintage’ then it is more easy to understand why this has not happened already.
Sadly lots of doctors retire early. And this is part of the problem.
Wisdom vortex.
I’m a relatively young doctor. I don’t think that’s fair.
I do. Older people – and older doctors – are more experienced and therefore more…. wise. I’m not just talking doctors here, I’m talking everyone. My boss is better at his job than me, because he’s been doing it for twenty years longer than I have.
Difference being my boss won’t retire…. well probably never because he’s insane. But he won’t retire until he’s at least 65, because money. I miss old GPs. I really miss them.
Clearly someone who’s being doing the job for longer will have better clinical acumen. That’s fine. But I don’t think you can equate that “wisdom” to being anti lockdown. From what I’ve seen there isn’t a generational divide in medics. Lockdown isn’t a wisdom issue, its a critical thinking issue.
Correct Cassandra. Although we trained in different eras I still have all my hair and teeth. I nearly resigned from the BMA over its nonsensical opposition to schools opening but in the end I see that large scale opposition form the paeditricians put a stop to that policy.
I’m just going on my experience as a patient. – I’ve received better – not necessarily in the professional or technical sense – medical care from older people. I just have. They were more…. personal. Better bedside manner. And I put that down to experience rather than skill.
You’re right in saying that this is basically nothing to do with lockdown though lol. As a patient though I would definitely feel more comfortable telling an older doctor that I won’t be wearing a mask, for example, than a younger one. I’d expect them to understand my feelings better, or, at least react more sympathetically towards them.
Maybe I just have Mummy & Daddy issues ;D
There’s no logic in that. The only issue is: are doctors beginning to retire early? Yes or no. Being young is not a refutation of the argument.
I’m also not dissing younger doctors.
Just saying I think the NHS may be lacking in older doctors 😉
To be fair I could be COMPLETELY wrong here though. I don’t spend much time in medical settings. I have noticed though a distinct youngening of my GPs/nurses, there seem to be more of them now than there were when I was a kid.
Maybe that’s just me getting old 🙁
Yes, I wasn’t implying you were. In my limited experience younger doctors are much better at communication and open to questions from the patient. Less of a God complex.
Lol it’s the exact opposite in my experience! I don’t think they have a God complex though, they’re just…. well young. Like all young people they haven’t honed their communication skills yet.
Perhaps the take home point is that sweeping generalisations may not be particularly valid either way
Sadly you have to make generalisations (based on personal experience) in order to have opinions.
Exactly. If you can’t generalise, you can’t speak.
“I don’t like fish” “What, all fish?” “Yep.” “Even scampi? I remember you once had scampi and chips and said you like it, back in 1985”. “Well, yeah scampi’s quite nice. I meant fish-fish” “Cor you are such a liar. …you don’t like fish you claim, but you do. You like scampi, so that makes you a liar.”
A free people are allowed to generalise.
Actually the journey from “young doctor ” to older doctor ” tends to creep up on you Cassandra . Often there are the little things that change . Receptionists call you by your title and surname for instance. instaed of your first name.
Ha! I’m just realising the ‘kindly old doctor’ I had as a kid could in fact have been a 50 year old 😉
Nah, he was 60 if a day. I loved him. Bless him. DR JONES.
You’re confusing the doc with the Aqua song.
We used to sing that at him! :o)
Such a good natured soul. Poor man. (This was the doc who came in to our school to do jabs and eye tests and stuff, who also happened to be my GP. Remember that? School doc visits? Wow. I feel 90)
Doctors are leaving the profession in droves. Not retiring, but not going into training, which is the path to consultancy/GP. I don’t think the general public realises how intrusive training is. You sign up, often for a decade, to a deanery, which has a huge geographical area- Scotland is one, Wales another. Then, for that decade, you get rotated around hospitals with minimal say. You can’t suspend training either, unless you get knocked up or sick. And if you voluntarily quit, you can’t return. Ever. So ten years of ping ponging your way about the country working a 60+ hour week… It makes it immensely difficult to have any sort of meaningful personal life, which is why many drs opt to be GPs, as at least the training is shorter. More still, opt for none of it, and I can’t blame them. If the NHS wasn’t a monopoly employer, it would not have any staff. Incidentally, can we stop calling it “part time” its less than full time. LTFT. Because often the hours worked, even at LTFT are the same as the hours in a “normal” job. I’m not asking for a medal here. Just some awareness that actually, this… Read more »
And again, this has nothing to do with lockdown.
I’m beginning to think everything has everything to do with Lockdown!
Yes I had some appreciation of the points you raise. It is a tough training regime. I would question whether it actually makes better doctors or not. But obviously not my area of expertise.
And I didn’t say doctors shouldn’t receive their current pay levels. But there certainly are problems associated with such high levels of pay.
What high levels of pay? FY1 doctors start on £27k. For that they do a lot. In my first week as an FY1, I had to deal with a man with ruptured oesophageal varices vomiting his entire bodies blood onto the floor at 4am. I was the only doctor free as the others were dealing with emergencies elsewhere. £27k.
And yes, pay increases with seniority. But not by that much. And how much would you need to be paid to be the most senior person on site in the hospital trying to deal with someone exanguinating in a hospital bed? After having worked for 50+ hours and with your bleep going off constantly with countless other sick patients. We’re good value. No one I know in training earns close to £100k.
“Key Facts. The average income before tax for combined GPs (contractor and salaried) in either a General Medical Services or a Primary Medical Services practice (GPMS) in the UK was £92,500. Contractor GPs working under a GPMS contract had an average income before tax of £105,500.”
Doctors of course can supplement their income in all sorts of ways. This is just the starting point.
£27k is also a bloody good STARTING salary!
Did you read any of the rest of my statement, or just the £27k?!
So how come you don’t know any “Contractor GPs working under a GPMS contract who have an average income before tax of £105,500.”
Because I’m a hospital doctor? We don’t all hang out you know? I’m sure Peter is lovely but I’d never normally see him other than as a patient myself.
GPs earn 100k!?!
WTF. OK hospital doctors really are being shat on.
Yes.
27k is still a good starting salary.
Is it? For the hours? When I was an F1 I worked out my hourly rate. Came to £11 an hour.
We not talking FAIR. We’re talking GOOD.
Because *nobody* earns a fair salary (except maybe like…… nope. Nobody. Unless we’re talking unfair in the ‘too much sense ;p).
I’d say, given the opportunity for progression, fairly quickly – it’s still pretty good. You’re unlikely to be stuck at that level in perpetuity like much of the rest of the population. You’ll prob be stuck at the same work hours though I imagine (or maybe less?) but your hourly rate will increase?
What IS bad is if your workload DECREASES dramatically as you go up the pay grades. Cause like…. that’s really not great and is prob the reason why all the junior docs drop out.
I don’t think the workload decreases as you go up the rungs. If anything it’s constant and probably worsening, the hours are consistent, but as you increase in seniority you’re expected to make more and more decisions with less and less back up. Anyway. Fun as all these conversations are, I a) don’t see what they have to do with lockdown and b) didn’t come on a lockdown skeptic site to be told me and my colleagues are basically rolling in it like Scrooge Mcduck!
I don’t think my job is great, I have friends in the private sector and while they don’t have the job security that I have, they’re horrified with the shape of training and how brutal an employer the NHS can be (and believe me it IS BRUTAL). I do what I do because I want to help people. I wouldn’t recommend my kids went into it, and if anyone asked me about being a doctor I’d tell them to steer well clear…
Nobody thinks their job is great (except the very lucky). Everybody gets criticised because they are a …… or a ….. Every citizen has legitimate (and delegitimate) beefs with every profession. Don’t take it personally. The fact that you’re here means you’re one of the good ones. (Believe me as a former journalist I really do get this!!)
But the fact that people are moaning about the medical profession IS related to lockdown. Medicine and medical professionals haven’t had a good war, quite frankly. Scientists haven’t had a good war. Teachers haven’t had a good war (you should have seen us rip into them the other week, wow). Journalists have had the WORST war. Again, don’t take it personally. People have beef with your profession atm – very few people though, honestly. Look at the hero worship you’ve all been getting over the past few months, for most people that’s a genuine thing. You really are appreciated.
I appreciate you. I just don’t appreciate the NHS in its current form – the lockdown has really shone a light on this for me as it has for most lockdown sceptics.
They aren’t in training. They’re GPs. I’m not a GP so can’t really speak to that, but I think you’ll find that partnered GPs have to pay for receptionists and ancillary staff out of that. It’s not take home, its a business.
And how would you suggest I supplement my income after having worked a 50 hour week? Pick up some locum shifts? Sleep is for the weak?
Nope. That’s absurd. The ratio of other staff is probably 5 to 1 so even if they are all on only £25k a year there’s no way GPs could pay that out of their income! Are you actually a doctor? Can’t see how you could possibly come out with that nonsense if you really were…
You’re assuming there’s only one GP partner in a practice. Like I said, its not my area. Though I do know that there are salaried GPs who earn a fixed amount from the NHS, and partnered GPs, who, on paper earn a lot, but in reality are essentially small business owners and therefore have to pay their staff out of their huge earnings.
I honestly don’t see what you’re hoping to achieve here. Are you just looking to win an argument?
Probably 😉
Interesting discussion tho
A scandal that a man in that condition should be left in the care of a FY1 doctor on her first day. I hope you advised the family and recommended that they complain. Did you take the issue higher? If not, why not? But then again, you doctors cover everything up. That’s how Dr Shipman became the biggest mass killer in British criminal history. It wasn’t another doctor who blew the whistle on him, it was the local taxi firm! Aren’t you ashamed to be a member of such a cowardly profession? The moral vacuum that is the medical profession is breath-taking.
I have to say you have my sympathy here. Particularly with what you have to deal with onsite. And also because that training schedule you mentioned above is insane. Which is, as I see it, the problem with the NHS, which I unconditionally applaud as a principle. The bureaucracy and the sheer incompetence of the managers that inhabit it. as in all public life (and I am a supporter of public services): if the admin is run by greedy nutters then everything else suffers. My expertise in these matters are universities which, in most cases, have no scholarship credentials at all and should be downgraded to technical colleges. The people who run these places do not want scholarship or academic merit: now apply the same (non) principle to medicine. Thatcher’s era was responsible for a lot of this when managers were dumped into professions they didn’t know anything about: accountants running the show in medicine, the police, tertiary education, transport, public broadcasting. There was, and still is, no expertise or experience of these professions within those boardrooms. You can’t run a country like you run a grocer’s shop. This has sweet FA to do with Lockdown but nor is this… Read more »
There’s a shortage of GPs because they (men and women) can earn a salary which pays for a good lifestyle on part-time hours. If you accept a UK university education to become a doctor, you have a moral duty to give back by working a full week (which for a GP is, after all, only 4.5 days!) in the UK public health system from completion of training until 65 years. Otherwise, pay back the full cost of your training. Simple.
If you have enough part timers you don’t have a shortage. Part time working has nothing to do with whether or not there are ‘enough’ GPs.
As for any ‘moral duty’, it’s not one recognised by those many British doctors who emigrate, for a start, nor those who choose to work in the UK private health sector. Or are you suggesting that they should not be free to do so, or should repay the cost of their training?
Yes it does. There is a finite training capacity. If you train enough GPs to meet requirements, and then half of these GPs (including half the MEN who might be expected to work full-time, that’s 4 and a half days a week, for a full career of 40 years) decide in their late 20’s or 30’s or later that they are quite comfortably off working only 3 days a week to allow time for art classes, “more time with the family”, house renovation and all the rest of the accoutrements of a smug, self-satisfied, middle-class life, then there won’t be enough GP cover. Manpower planning gone for a burton.
I’ve lost all respect for doctors, particularly female GP’s, a bunch of good-for-nothing lazy takers living off the past reputation of earlier generations of doctors who DID work hard for their patients and EARNED the community’s respect and goodwill.. As a child in the late 1950s, the GP would regularly visit at home. I remember having scarlet fever as a 4 year old in 1961 and mum being up to high doh, and Dr Stewart (old fashioned Scottish doctor) visited to reassure and dole out the penicillin. How did he have the time? He FOUND the time, that’s why, reassurance being a big part of the job. Nowadays I wouldn’t be able to get my 92 year old mum a home visit for love or money. Fuck sake, I can’t even get her into the surgery as the doors have been locked since March. Telephone only. What the fuck are all these wimmin GPs doing? Certainly not looking after the elderly in the community.
Sorry I think you need to find a Bash the Doctors website you seem to have strayed onto the Lockdown Skeptics Website. I have today worked with four female GPs who are without exception conscientous and kind . Today we have dealt with over 300 patient contacts . We all start before 8 and finish around 7 pm Long days and visits were done as well.
Ain’t you lucky, working with these wonderful, conscientious caring wimmin GPs. They must all be concentrated in your practice as there certainly aren’t any in this neck of the woods. All part time locums, don’t know the patients from Adam, rushing home at the end of their “session” to collect the kids from after school. 7pm? Don’t make me laugh. Our surgery is locked and bolted at 5.30pm. Even closes for lunch 12.30 to 1.30. Phone unanswered til 8.30 and then you can’t get a line in. Have sat trying from 8.30 to 9.30. Routine appointment? That’ll be 6 weeks away. Fucking disgraceful service. Get better response times from the local plumber.
Then I suggest you change your practice , you can also write to the practice manager. I m am not sure why you feel your contibution is helping gain support for lockdown sceptics ?
You doctors just do t like being taken to task by patients on a level playing field. You’re so used to sitting on your high horse talking down to your patients, many of whom will have been out clapping the “wonderful” NHS workers (my God!) the night before. Well, I’ve seen through your Emperor’s new clothes. GPs are well past their sell- by date in the UK. You no longer serve the public. We need a new and better system of primary care. Some hospital doctors (some) I have experienced I have the greatest of respect for. Male and female. But GPs have totally failed. You are not being honest with yourself if you don’t see it. You personally may be hard working and caring bit you simply cannot defend a failed system unless you are deluding yourself.
As I said earlier I think you need to find a ” Bash the doctors ” website and there are many around. You haven’t made any contribution to this site which is for lockdown sceptics.
Our GP surgery have been pathetic throughout this – communicating once to cause all registered with them more undeeded stress. The consultation room in the street with the health employee inside talking and gesticulating through the locked glass entrance doors. Cognitively incompetent by any measure but theirs is would seem.
I know nurses working in Hospitals else where have done extraordinary things in their personal lives to be there on shift despite public transport restrictions. No one will ever commend them for the effort they have made.
To be fair that’s how my local surgery is, down to a T. It’s not just the female GPs though – they don’t deserve to be singled out for special treatment. It’s all of them :/
TBH the doctors are all pussycats once you finally get to see them, it’s the receptionists I can’t stand. Bloody dragons the lot of them.
They are specially selected for the job….in former lives they worked for the Gestapo.
Yes! I’d say I’m probably a different vintage to Peter- maybe a merlot instead of a port, but I’d say the same! Some of my colleagues are brainwashed, yes, but a lot are not. I think that people fail to account by quite how much our hands are tied. Regulatory bodies are ever present. Many are far far more scared of that than of the virus. And with good reason. Careers can be ruined with little recompense. And I really don’t see what bringing in women doctors has to do with this. I’m *shock horror* a female doctor. I think I represent rather good value to the NHS for the work I do, the decisions I make, the hours I work- especially as I can confirm that I earn nowhere near £100k! Nowhere near. And as for the pension, I have no idea, but most of the doctors of my generation don’t imagine it will be up to much if we ever get to retire from this grind. What any of this has to do with lockdown is beyond me though… Believe me, I’m getting immensely irritated by the crap that some doctors are spouting off in the media. I… Read more »
Maybe if Toby wants to look at something with his free speech union, he should look at the impact of the GMC…. Speech isn’t free in all professions.
Well said.
Hopefully the Coronaberg Doctors’ Trial will reveal the full story of the shocking treatment of non-Covid patients, and heads will roll.
I’m glad, in a sad way, that I’ve been reading some of Ian Kershaw’s work on Nazi Germany. He brings out the infinite corruptibility of the legal and medical establishments.
In a totally rotten system, honest men and women are virtually powerless, except to do what good they can within their own ambit.
And now I’m re-living that experience. My God!
But after the Nazi feast, came the reckoning.
Well said Cassandra – just thought that contribution needed more than a thumbs up!
We’ll need to agree to differ.
Where I see and experience a lockdown-positive medical profession voicing little public dissent your experience seems different.
I do see dissenting opinion from American Physicians on sites such as Flatten the Fear but have detected no UK groundswell against the Party Line here, and I wonder – and question – why.
I should also confess to being particularly dismayed following a briefing in which our Medical Director and several others digressed into a mutual affirmation session regarding their wish to see the Police break up that lengthy Primark queue we saw on MSM (on the first shop opening day in England).
I need to jump bubbles.
That sounds positive. The next steep is somehow persuading those in strong positions, like medics, to create a change in the narrative. What we see is hundreds clapping themselves and only a few brave enough to challenge some of the nonsense. Medics will be supported and public opinion will turn if they hear Dr and nurses speaking out.
I’ve been hoping poor Toby hasn’t spent half the day ploughing through all that lockdown-irrelevant doctor-bashing.
Have some consideration. This isn’t twitter or facebook!
Peter, I seem to recall you’re a GP is that right? Forgive me if I am wrong, but I know you are attached to the medical profession. So can you give any (personal) anecdotal information as to where your colleagues stand on Lockdown? Also on face masks since my GPs surgery has now declared them mandatory as have many others. What is bizarre about this is that they are doctors: they must know they are not efficacious.
After reading the article I can appreciate how rough it is for doctors like you trapped in the “inner circle.”
Met a nurse in the store a month ago. She told me all the hospital beds had been empty during Zero Stage Lock down. Suddenly she got angry. “It’s all a trick. A political ploy!”
I live across the pond. Rural Indiana. Things are relatively loose now. They’re trying to scare us into another “2 week” lock down but the last 2 weeks lasted 13. States like mine are getting fed up with it. My town is having its annual Independence Day parade as it has for over 200 years.
Even if Covid-19 were the next Bubonic Plague everyone’s pretending it is, rural areas still should be less restricted. Even in the Dark Ages people knew infectious diseases were less dangerous outside out in the countryside.
But the Lock Down Zealot Bureaucrats want to hold farming communities to the same standards as Indianapolis. (Our state capital.) Good luck getting anyone to enforce it here.
Well I know many who are not on side, doctors, nurses and other nhs staff. They have seen wards cleared that remained empty, ambulance service under used, booked private services never needed, lots and lots of staff with nothing to do. They are frustrated at how nothing works now because of the Covid safety restrictions. But they are employees and are not allowed with the threat of dismissal to speak out. From others I know the fire service, prepared to carry the dead, were not needed. And from others how mental health services have suffered. These people are friends and family from my life time of working for the NHS and writing this I feel I must be careful to not identify people.
When is all this, some of it obvious and visible like the nightingales never used, going to be discussed by the Government?
Here’s my problem: from tomorrow, I won’t drink in any pub or eat in any restaurant that demands my contact details. I’m sure I’m not alone. How do we make it clear that this is not because we’re frightened of catching the virus, but we are frightened of being caught in a big ‘track and trace’ net and put under house arrest; and more importantly because we believe that such registers are a dangerous precedent (the same goes for places of worship and other venues)?
I’m aware that Wetherspoons and Marstons will not force customers to give this information. But there must surely be local, independent hostelries that will be the same. Might there be scope for indicating on your ‘Small businesses that have re-opened’ page those among them that don’t insist on registration?
I am phoning everywhere I go in advance and asking them about their policies re: muzzles and antisocial distancing. Their reply is what decides on whether I visit their establishment and I make it very clear that this is the case. If everyone did this not only would their phones be constantly clogged, but they would get the message very quickly that this silly shit is losing- not gaining- them customers.
I don’t think we can dodge the vaccine issue in relation to the Covid-19 controversies. It needs to be addressed.
This article raises a number of interesting and worrisome results in countries where flu vaccination is common:
“A randomized placebo-controlled trial in children showed that the influenza vaccine increased fivefold the risk of acute respiratory infections caused by a group of non-influenza viruses, including coronaviruses.
A study of US military personnel confirms that those who received an influenza vaccine had an increased susceptibility to coronavirus infection. The study concluded “Vaccine derived virus interference was significantly associated with coronavirus.”
European Union numbers show a correlation between influenza vaccine and coronavirus deaths. The countries with highest death rates (Belgium, Spain, Italy, UK, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland and USA) had all vaccinated at least half of their elderly population against influenza.”
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/is-there-a-relationship-between-influenza-vaccination-and-covid-19-mortality/
Will a Covid-19 vaccine really resolve the issue of novel pathogens arising and causing mayhem in our societies? I don’t think so.
No of course it won’t. Thanks to our many knowledgeable commentators here (thank you guy153, djaustin) I have learned that such novel pathogens are largely zoonotic in origin.
As to your link to the childrenshealthdefense.org website, quoted ad nauseam here already by the vax sceptics, the phenomenon of virus interference has been well known in virology for >60 years. The paper it rests its case on is here, so other may make up their own minds:
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/54/12/1778/455098
Nonspecific immunity against noninfluenza respiratory viruses was reported in children for 1–2 weeks after receipt of live attenuated influenza vaccine.Frankly, so what? Nothing to worry about!
It seems to me you’re importing prejudices here.
In relaxed fashion you tell us “virus interference” is a well known phenomenon. Maybe. I don’t think that’s what the article is referring to – I may be wrong, not being medically trained. But either way, how often are these issues discussed in the media? Close to zero. We are fed a pap diet of “vaccination good, non-vaccination bad”.
You say “Children’s Health Defense” is quoted here “ad nauseam”. That’s because it’s a repository of relevant scientific papers and news that are ignored or buried by the politico-Big Pharma-philanthropic-medical establishment that rules over children’s and general public health.
If hadn’t visited the site I wouldn’t have known that one in 16 Irish boys now has autism – a rise of 82% in five years. We are in the midst of an autism pandemic and no one cares.
Here is some real science:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyAeQKtVr6U
It’s not me telling you about about virus interference, it’s a direct quote from the paper itself. Which is precisely what the article is referring to. It’s about testing the hypothesis ‘that there is potential for temporary nonspecific immunity between respiratory viruses after an infection’.
Exley’s finding of aluminium in the brains of 5 people who died ‘with’ autism/Alzheimer’s (not necessarily ‘of’ it, as he himself has pointed out) is interesting, but does not demonstrate that it got there as a result of aluminium adjuvants in vaccines, again as he himself points out. And doesn’t answer the question of why most children nowadays have a load of vaccinations but don’t end up autistic.
None of which has anything to do with lockdown. I think it is you who are importing your prejudices here.
“And doesn’t answer the question of why most children nowadays have a load of vaccinations but don’t end up autistic.” Silly comment. As Exley points out the most likely reason is genetic susceptibility. If you have the sort of brain that sends “worker” cells from the brain to the massive intrusion site where the vaccine is delivered and those cells subsequently return to the brain, you are going to be much more at risk than someone who doesn’t have that genetic propensity.
‘most children have a load of vaccinations but don’t end up autistic’. Oh, well, that s alright then…And some of those ‘loads of vaccinations’ – are there any that might be a bit, you know…unnecessary? For example, the hepatitis vaccine, developed originally for gay men to prevent this sexually transmitted disease. And when the gay men said, no, we don’t want it, and it only gives a few months protection anyway, the manufacturers palmed it off to those who like to load babies with ‘a load of vaccinations’, because, hey, don’t want to waste all those research dollars, eh? So a vaccination, meant to prevent a sexually transmitted disease, which only protects against the sexually transmitted disease for a few months, is given to babies. I really believe that an honest debate should be had about all vaccinations. We have come a very long way since children died in numbers of measles – or any disease come to that. We have better housing and sanitation and on the whole children have a better diet, although diet could be immensely improved if the government dropped its ridiculous campaign against animal fat and lately even against meat. Perhaps levels of vitamin D3… Read more »
Certainly most of the highly profitable drugs are little more than antidotes to the crap diet they (try to) impose on us. I suspect vaccines too, some are useful but many are just substitutes for a broken immune system.
Agree Marion. We should be able to have an honest debate about vaccines, the pros and cons. Also to have trails that compare vaccinate against unvaccinated. All of this is part of freedom of speech!
It’s curious.
My great hero, Alfred Russel Wallace, the real Darwin, spent his later years campaigning against compulsory vaccination. I used to think he had gone just a little bit dotty.
Not any more.
That Bill Gates has not had his own children vaccinated says A LOT!
You cannot possibly know this. Assertion and repetition is not the same as fact.
Thanks for the link. I had seen this claim floating around that flu vaccines might make Covid worse but didn’t know what it was based on. If the reason is viral interference (which sounds like basically all they’ve got) then the argument to stop giving people flu shots so that the flu can protect them against Covid rests on the premise that Covid is 10x more deadly than flu. I think it’s probably around 1-2x as deadly. Which means if you don’t give them flu shots you won’t save any actual lives because more people will just die of flu instead. But it would mean you would have better “died with Covid” statistics and this may indeed explain some of the differences between countries. The effect of lockdowns on viral interference on the other hand might be significant. Suppose for the sake of argument that the “narrative” were true– that the Covid pandemic in the UK has only just started but has been deftly stopped in its tracks and almost eradicated by a decisive lockdown. The lockdown isn’t specific to Covid so it will have nearly eradicated every respiratory virus (and so the ONS must be lying when they report… Read more »
Sturgeon and her masks are pure evil. She is destroying Scotland faster than a fat fuck eating a McDonalds. I can’t bare it. I despise her and her supporters. I fear Scotland is finished and in the long term we will never recover. She is just doing what her “expert” tells and you’d have to be a conspiracy theorist to wonder if the Gates Foundation “scientist” she’s using is lying to us. I fear Scotland is gonna be a test country for their evil vaccine. We are in a fight for our lives. So far the battle has been almost too easy but with the masks she’s really asking for it. I will never wear the mask, i will never pay the fine, i will never go willingly to court and i’ll do time before i give these sick bastards a penny. The time has come for free men and woman to make a real stand, not like them weasel racists kneeing for whining blacks who still blame white people because they’re useless losers who can’t make it on their own. I feel embarrassed for your decent black person having these wankers speak for them They are out and out… Read more »
Oddly, paradoxically, the Scottish Nationalist Party seems to have destroyed the nationhood of Scotland. Scotland was once a nation to be feared. You wouldn’t bet on a 6 foot Englishman against a wiry 5 foot 4 Scotsman. Scotland was distinctive. Now it seems like some bland province ruled by Brussels. Scots were acute, logical, unsentimental. Now?
They seem like sheep to be herded down from the hills to the easygoing pastures.
they’ve just download the same bullshit most westerners have. look at the muppet GrantM for evidence of the kind of snake we’re dealing with. You should say the once proud nation of Britain, the country that invented the modern world, is now a desolate place where the likes of GrantM consider themselves intellectuals. We’e fucked because of folk like him.
Im a brainwashed muppet………get real. At least Scotland is doibg way better in controlling the virus than England is. Yeah the mask thing is dumb but i read a bit up on life during the Spanish Flu recently. Turns out San Francisco fined people for not wearing face masks too. So its not that different really
Scotland has the third worst death rate per capital in the world pal, you know nothing you slimy turd of a ladyboy
Oooh, how nice, our pet family moron is back!
White Lives Matter
so in your pathetic tiny mind i’ve to walk up willingly with my arm out ready for a dick like to stick a vaccine in it then i’ve to slavishly go along with blacks who hate white people and white people who hate blacks so much they pretend to support BLM. You are disgusting and an absolute wanker. Fuck off yourself you tedious prick.
77 Brigade detected .
Like….. honestly….. why? Why would anyone do this unless they were being paid??
I used to admire Scotland when I was younger and liked the Scottish people and their dry humour. What on earth has happened to that country. England is bad enough as it is!
It won’t be long before they’ll be putting up a statue to you, Biker, Resistance hero!
Remember to put an electric fence round it to keep off BLM.
I only wanted to ride my motorcycle in the dirt leaving no evidence of me having ever been here. I, perhaps foolishly, thought i’d drift along at the bottom of this gravity well at my own pace under my own steam asking only that others do the same. Was it to much to ask? I feel like a speck of dust With tyrants to the left of me, clowns to the right trying to suppress my loosely connected perception of reality i have to speak out. This takedown of humanity is a dirty dishcloth wiping away dust and cobwebs and the strange debris you find when you occasionally clean behind the cooker or couch or under the stairs and in that box in the garage where the sprocket set for a “72 Triumph scrambler sits. The scent of perfume from a long forgotten lover that seems, for a second, like you can smell again. The glimpse of a stranger when their eyes tell you in that moment we shared a connection to the oneness of everything . An odd glimpse into the past that bring feelings of what can never be felt, the blinding insight of what you need do… Read more »
I din’t want a statue of me. I want a country where there’s no need for a statue of me.
One of those Boudicca chariots with knives on the wheels might come in handy, though.
Original Biker Post.
Yes. They want us fucked. The first population to become a quivering blob of acquiesence. It is a war, sturgein realises her antics have tanked the country, the only option is for her and them to forcefully push on until submission. Too deep in now for them to relent. She pushed the reset button and has only her higher ups across the world to hang onto for support. Not a strong person or leader.
I’ve made a point of talking with strangers out and about. The madk thing is being rejected. People have articulated to me they see through this story masks are for health.
Said before but woryh repeating – did sturgeon deliberately act in a manner to cause the spread of the virus? Why now (a weeks time) have mandatory masks – the peak was around 20 March 2020. In sturgeons own understanding of Science I suggest that is neglect. Calderwood the Unready (to be CMO in a crisis) proved single handedly there is no black death out there.
“Quivering blob of acquiescence” should be the name of our next troll 😅
Not sure if posts that go to moderation simply stay there, but you may be interested in the one I made earlier (doing my best Val Singleton).
It seems the EU has been plannig vaccine passports for a while
https://ec.europa.eu/health/sites/health/files/vaccination/docs/2019-2022_roadmap_en.pdf
Interesting! EU do not allow GM foods but looks if they do this that they will allow genetically modified vaccines.
Genetically modified humans next!
Isn’t that the point of the new vaccines?
plans underway
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/uk-orders-65-mln-injection-devices-from-becton-dickinson-for-vaccine-program-2020-07-03
July 3 (Reuters) – Medical technology company Becton Dickinson and Co BDX.N said on Friday it received an order from the UK government for 65 million injection devices to support Britain’s COVID-19 vaccination program.
The order for 65 million needles and syringes is to be delivered by mid-September, the company said in a statement, adding that it was also working with Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) to expand access to diagnostic testing.
The company said in May it was preparing to ramp up manufacturing operations to handle demand for COVID-19 testing kits in the event of a second wave of infections in the fall.
Among the many tests that Becton Dickinson has recently launched is a kit that can give results in two to three hours, as well as an antibody test that can confirm current or past exposure to COVID-19 in as little as 15 minutes.
Bad news
Don’t they know the real population figure is 75 million not 65 million! lol
Hope = “in the event of”
Remember they spent millions on Tamiflu that they never used.
Because word got out that it was killing people?
Now that’s more like something to panic about!
Well I’m still here.
You are witnessing one of my personal symptoms of Covid-1984. Insomnia.
(I have a history with sleeplessness since childhood and it rears its head now during ‘times of trouble’, shall we say. Clearly this is a ‘time of trouble’ and clearly my body knows it).
Me too. Mind in overdrive.
And me. Hence the early rising!
I find that if I put on a familiar audiobook with a ‘sleep’ limit, it distracts my thoughts enough to enable me to drop off, at least for a while. Only possible if you sleep alone, obviously.
Or, I suppose, you could try counting sheeples…
ASMR. Works wonders.
This is what Scotland is aspiring to be like…
Jacinda Ardern outlines what will ‘change the future scenario of our borders’
https://bit.ly/38pcHNL
Ardern acknowledged that the “disadvantage” for New Zealanders is border controls.
“Will they be with us forever? Well, when we have development of vaccine, treatment, reliable quick turnaround testing – all of that will change the future scenario for our borders,” she said. “Those are technologies that would all make a difference to New Zealand’s borders.”
Meanwhile in the Times…
New Zealanders worry about cost of beating coronavirus
https://outline.com/sMt9kT
But questions are now being asked whether New Zealand’s triumph is a hollow victory: to stay coronavirus-free requires the island nation to maintain its almost complete state of isolation from the rest of the world at enormous economic and social cost
Greece are having the same issues. The problem is, they *have* to open up to international tourism otherwise the islanders will starve this winter, literally. Yet because they locked down so hard, barely anybody has any immunity. These are the scenarios that Professor Giesecke warned about, weeks ago. It’s easy to go into lockdown, but much harder to come out of it.
Could be they’ll be waiting a long time for a vaccine that actually does anything.
Professor Sarah Gilbert said a vaccine would only be likely to “take the edge off” symptoms, rather than giving complete protection.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12008187/coronavirus-vaccine-protection-for-years-may-be-ready-before-winter/
Alliance for natural health says goal is for vaccine in January. There are lots of vaccines in the making (of which Gates is financing 7…). Highly recommend ANH’s film about the unanswered questions regarding a vaccine. There is an A4 to print off and distribute; it is really good as it is not too ‘controversial’ in the way it is written..I think people would read it, as the questions it poses are entirely reasonable!
Video – https://www.anhinternational.org/news/the-uncertain-promise-of-a-covid-vaccine-the-video/
A4 print off: uk-vaccine-transparency-manifesto
And next door in Australia… ‘Victorians were suddenly pariahs’: how the state’s coronavirus outbreak divided Australia While most Australians are enjoying increased freedoms, 300,0000 Victorians in Covid-19 hotspots are back in lockdown https://bit.ly/31J9FlW Many in the affected suburbs expressed frustration, while those in surrounding suburbs urged their neighbours to stay away. Businesses asked customers in hotspots not to come. Those living in hotspots felt they had been adhering to social distancing measures, but were now being affected by a failure of infection control protocols by a security company, and by the careless actions of a few individuals who attended family gatherings despite being unwell and awaiting Covid-19 test results. — Former national mental health commissioner Professor Ian Hickie of the University of Sydney, criticised the government’s “top-down” approach to lockdowns, suggesting it eroded the sense of community among Australians. “If you are trying to treat this as a law and order issue, there becomes a conflict,” he said. “It’s us against them, ‘you are the problem’, ‘we have to lock you down’… that encourages a sense of civil disobedience and disorder. It really distracts from the sense of community, and if you destroy the community you destroy people’s mental health,… Read more »
From The Oxford English Dictionary:
Fiction: a belief or statement which is false, but often held to be true because it is expedient to do so.
The third definition of fiction as given by the OED
A sign of our times, methinks.
And, When She Who Must Be Obeyed gave her thoughts on the air bridges fiasco, she referred to allowing ‘our own citizens to travel’: we are citizens of the UK, despite what Wee Bernie might prefer.
Scottish business leaders – Scottish Chamber of Commerce and the owners of Glasgow and Aberdeen airports have urged the FM to commit to a united strategy which pertains to the UK as a whole.
How much more of this nit picking must we endure?
We read about our European neighbours like Switzerland and the Czech Republic resuming normal service, yet here we are, stuck between the devil and the deep blue SNP.
And as for wearing scarves, masks etc in our hard pressed shops, forget it, I’ve just done an online grocery order.
Local conversations show just how fed up folk are with all this constant politicking.
Remember the collapse of the Soviet bloc? Its peoples appeared cowed, quiescent, even (some of them, after decades of brainwashing) convinced of the virtues of the system, But once the rotten edifice showed the first cracks, the end was swift,
Maybe the enforced muzzles will create the first crack. If so – chop chop, one ex-Krankie.
Can’t happen too soon. Help it happen!
At a nano particle level I have seen the possibilty of the first fracturings. All it takes is one person to say to another this mask thing is ridiculous, then another and another.
Ironically there will be many willing to take silver to don a black mask and chop chop!
I’d been thinking along those lines – well about the cracks anyway. Good analogy with the Soviet bloc. You can pushpeople so far, then (hopefully!!) they’ll push back.
Couldn’t agree more wendyk. Have started to get my online orders in and shop this week while I can without the muzzle and I’m not going back until this nonsense is lifted. WTF is this doing to our economy? She is driving us off a cliff (although arguably she’s been doing that for years…maybe all she’s doing is pressing the accelerator peddle).
I’ve been struggling this week. A depressing conversation with my hairdresser who was offering me an appointment on the 15th but only if I wore a muzzle, didn’t chat and waited outside for 15 minutes while they decontaminated the seat from the previous occupant. Needless to say, I turned the ‘offer’ down. But the one that really upset me was the local garage who have a cafe attached had opened up a takeaway. At the side of their forecourt they had sectioned off a space with lovely picnic tables and fencing where customers could eat. Some numpty reported them to environmental health and they have had to put barriers across the section – outdoor gatherings not allowed.
I am absolutely sick of this.
What a dreary place Sturgeon land has become. I do my own hair now, having found that YNR cutting razors do the job perfectly well ; I don’t have to swathe myself in plastic or feel unclean!
Recently I’ve met 2 other women who have the same cropped style and we’re all content with our DIY styling: the short hair club.We smile and swap tips.
One old bloke ,complete with mask, looked alarmed and avoided me when I passed him this morning,my face bare.
One of my last visits to our local supermarket; I like the staff; it’s easy to walk to, but I won’t sign up to this piece of dictatorial nonsense!
Speak to the staff. Ask them what they think and what instructions they will be working under.
Only posted here for relevance I know you are a brighter spark than I Wendyk! Encouraging people to calmly vocalise questioning.
Will try it Basics and see what happens. As this is a small town, most of us are on good terms with the excellent team at the supermarket and often stop to exchange a few pleasantries-whether this will be added to the verboten list by the Holyrood Gauleiter remains to be seen.
Hope Biker will join us soon as he and his family work in a large supermarket and are all well and maskless. His Pictish defiance is an inspiration to us all.
Remember Kipling on the Picts?
‘leave us alone and you’ll see / how we can drag down the great”,
Not that Krankie is great, but dragging down is the thing.
Woad on, Biker!
Yes indeed:Biker to the rescue
See carl vernon youtube latest … part way through carl reads the law about hair dressing masks. They have a visor you don’t need a mask. The law goes on to state both wearing masks has no point.
I saw but in reality I have no idea if it is law, rule or what.
Thanks Basics – will do. Hairdresser was going for covering all bases – visor AND mask for her. Mask for me. Apparently she had heard two people in the village had got the virus (not died, just got) and that was ‘too close for comfort’. I’m trying to smile…..
Not got, just heard!!
Good luck with it.
It’s “guidelines”. Depends who’s enforcing them I guess.
I had my first haridressing appointment this morning. I was so looking forward to it and having a chat with my hairdresser. But I was dismayed almost at the start, when she asked me if I had a mask. When I said I didn’t, she was going to get one for me but I pointed out that it wasn’t the law (she had a visor on) and that I was exempt from wearing one anyway (just because I think I’d choke if I had to).
She then said that it was ‘for her’ that I needed one and that she would have to wear one. So she wore a visor and a mask the whole time. She’s a pretty fit 46year old so not at risk. We didn’t really speak during the session because I just couldn’t make out what she was saying. It was a very depressing experience.