“I will be voting to curtail the Government’s powers in this area” – MP backlash begins
Sir Charles Walker, the Vice Chairman of the influential Conservative 1922 committee of MPs, slammed the new restrictions on social gatherings saying he would vote to “curtail” the Government’s powers. The Telegraph has the story.
The changes will impose a legal limit on gatherings in private homes, parks, pubs and restaurants and will come into force in England on Monday.
Sir Charles argued that ministers needed to come to the Commons and “win the argument” on policies, admitting he was “increasingly uncomfortable” about the way the Government was running.
He said: “I am incredibly exercised about the continued use by the Government of powers that we granted it six months ago admittedly, to basically restrict people’s civil liberties without any recourse back to Parliament.
“Now these powers are due to be reviewed at the end of September, or the beginning of October, and hopefully there will be another vote on them.
“And I will be voting – if given the chance to vote in this rather strange Parliament – to curtail the Government’s powers in his area.”
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle was visibly livid that Matt Hancock had failed to make the announcement in the chamber first:
It is really not good enough for the Government to make decisions of this kind in the way which show insufficient regard to the importance of major policy announcements being made first in this House. I’ve already sent a letter to the Secretary of State. I think the total disregard for this Chamber is not acceptable. I know the Prime Minister is a Member of Parliament as well and he will ensure that statements should be made here first.
The Government has clarified that – for now – the restrictions apply specifically to private gatherings in homes, restaurants, parks and so on (see here and here). They do not affect workplaces, schools, churches, etc. But for how long? The Prime Minister seems to be abandoning his earlier hope of getting back to normal by Christmas, with chief medical officer Chris Whitty warning that “people shouldn’t see this as a very short term thing” and it is “very unlikely to be just over in two or three weeks”.
The reason? Because “cases” (actually positive PCR tests – almost none of these people are unwell) have been approaching 3,000 in recent days. But even the BBC has pointed out that this spike is a result of the massive increase in testing (Toby wrote about this in the Telegraph here). There is no corresponding rise in hospital admissions and deaths. Here’s today’s graph:
As the three eminent scientists, Paul Kirkham, Mike Yeadon and Barry Thomas wrote on Lockdown Sceptics yesterday: “Daily deaths from and with COVID-19 have almost ceased, having fallen over 99% from peak. All the numbers monitored carefully fall like this, too: the numbers being hospitalised, numbers in hospital, number in intensive care – all are falling in synchrony from the April peak… The evidence we’ve presented leads us to believe there is unlikely to be a second wave.”
The COVID-19 epidemic is over in the UK. Any further local outbreaks are very likely to be well within health service capacity. COVID-19 was never a peculiarly deadly disease and we have anyway become much better at treating its more serious forms. Now is not the time to increase restrictions. It is time to declare the epidemic at an end and return to normality. Happily, more and more MPs appear to agree.
That Damned Elusive RNA
We’ve published an original piece today by Dr Clare Craig about the guidance issued by the Government on September 7th that introduced a new PCR testing paradigm designed to reduce the number of false positives. Understanding the change requires some mastery of cutting edge molecular genetics, but the short version is that the more amplification cycles a lab runs when searching for Covid RNA in a swab sample, the more likely the virus is to be detected, regardless of whether it’s present in a sufficiently concentrated form to indicate the person is infectious or even, in some cases, if they’ve had the disease at all. So the more cycles a lab runs, the greater the risk of false positives – and if the number climbs as high as 34 cycles, the result will always be positive, irrespective of whether the sample contains microscopic fragments of Covid RNA or none at all. The Government hasn’t ordered its testing labs to keep the cycles below a certain number, but it has said that if the virus is only detected after 30 amplification cycles the lab has to retest to confirm that the subject in question is actually positive.
This guidance was almost certainly issued in response to this paper by Carl Heneghan and his colleagues at Oxford’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine that was published on Friday drawing attention to the over-sensitivity of the test, whereby someone who’s had COVID-19 and recovered could still have fragments of the virus in their system, causing them to test positive. Heneghan et al also point to the wide variation in the number of cycles the labs typically run, meaning the same subject could test positive in one location but negative in another. (It’s also possible the change was partly prompted by the paper that Lockdown Sceptics published on September 7th by three eminent scientists, highlighting the same problem).
Clare is a Consultant Pathologist who’s been writing about the pandemic on her blog called “Logic in the Time of Covid“. She’s written some excellent pieces, including this one in which she makes the point that a ‘zero-Covid’ strategy is fatally flawed because the PCR test will always throw up some false positives. Carl Heneghan linked to that post on Twitter on Monday, saying it was “worth a read”.
Clare thinks the new guidance is a step in the right direction, but doesn’t completely solve the problem.
The causes of false positives are myriad. From other viruses, to contaminant human DNA as well as cross contamination between cases and residual RNA fragments in patients who have cleared the virus. The risk of these can never be completely mitigated. Changing the cycle threshold does not fully address the potential for contamination or sub-optimal test performance in general. So more work needs to be done than just setting an albeit sensible number of amplification cycles.
By addressing the cycle threshold, PHE will eliminate some false positives. The cases that needed more than 30 cycles will be examined further to decide which are real. This ought to include input from the doctors caring for those patients and a repeat PCR test is likely to be carried out too. The numbers will rise again once this additional data is available. We will have to wait and see how low the new baseline is.
That is not the end of the problem with false positives. Other false positive test results look like true positive test results. If this were not the case we would not mistake them for true positive results. And for some false positives the cause will still be there when a second confirmatory PCR is attempted. We desperately need a robust definition of a ‘COVID-19 case’ with criteria beyond a single positive PCR result.
This is an excellent post by a top scientist. Clare worked for Imperial College Healthcare Trust as a cytopathologist and then became the day-to-day pathology lead for the cancer arm of the 100,000 Genomes Project.
Worth reading in full.
Neil Ferguson Defends his Model, Sue Denim Responds
A couple of days ago, Neil Ferguson posted a comment on the GitHub thread that started when someone asked Imperial College to publish the original source code used to power the epidemiological model in Report 9. (Ooh, the cheek!) As readers will recall, this was Imperial’s March 16th paper warning the Government that if it didn’t replace its mitigation strategy with a suppression strategy, 250,000 people would die. Many people have raised doubts about that code, including the ex-Google software engineer known as “Sue Denim” who has posted several critiques on Lockdown Sceptics. (See the first six posts under “How Reliable is Imperial College’s Modelling?” on the right-hand menu). Rather unexpectedly, Ferguson jumped into the thread on Tuesday to defend his work.
Another academic group has independently exactly replicated the Report 9 results using the original code and input files as part of the Royal Society RAMP initiative. They are preparing a paper on their analysis which should be out in the next month or two.
For those who believe that discovering a fatal flaw in this code might bring the the scientific support for lockdown tumbling down, I’m sorry break it to you to that other (notably LSHTM) academic groups informing SAGE in March used completely different models to reach nearly identical conclusions to our Report 9 in March. The relevant documents are online in the SAGE archive. The key conclusion that severe social distancing measures were required to prevent health systems being overwhelmed hinged only on estimates of R0/doubling time, hospitalisation rates and IFR (mortality risk). Given those estimates, any epidemic model would give basically the same conclusions we reached.
We asked Sue Denim to respond.
Well. This comment by Ferguson demonstrates how epidemiology has become so corrupted.
As we’ve seen before in this paper, at some point epidemiologists started to define success for their predictions as “matches what other epidemiologists predict” instead of “matches reality”. This probably occurred because their theories are incomplete and produce predictions that deviate significantly from what really happens (see: BSE, Foot and Mouth Disease, Zika and COVID). But it seems nobody knows how to improve them. Dangerous virus outbreaks are rare and experiments can’t be conducted, so there are few opportunities to refine the theories. Rather than admit defeat and switch to doing something else until new ideas emerge, epidemiologists have developed a series of highly evolved (but wrong) arguments as to why they are doing useful work.
Ferguson states: “For those who believe that discovering a fatal flaw in this code might bring the the scientific support for lockdown tumbling down, I’m sorry break it to you to that other (notably LSHTM) academic groups informing SAGE in March used completely different models to reach nearly identical conclusions to our Report 9 in March.”
He’s probably referring to this paper. It says: “Interpretation: The characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 mean that extreme measures are likely required to bring the epidemic under control and to prevent very large numbers of deaths and an excess of demand on hospital beds, especially those in ICUs.”
That is indeed a nearly identical conclusion. Yet we know from counter-examples where “extreme measures” weren’t used that ICU capacity was never exceeded at all, and there was no “very large number of deaths”. So this paper is just as scientifically invalid as Ferguson’s was. It actually reinforces the point that there is no scientific support for lockdown, only pseudo-scientific support using non-validated models and theories – theories that were disproven over the summer. Actual scientists compare their predictions against the real world, and if the predictions are wrong they refine their theories. (As Richard Feynman said: “If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science.”) This last step is missing in epidemiology, where for decades academics have been declaring success regardless of observed outcomes, even though their theories/models are general and hardly altered for new viruses.
What of his claim that the LSHTM model is “completely different”? The code is different, and of somewhat higher quality. The assumptions it makes are not really different. It’s another minor elaboration of an age-stratified SEIR model. For example, it assumes a totally susceptible population, which appears not to be true. Indeed the idea that SARS-CoV-2 is “novel” seems to be at the root of many of the incorrect decisions to lockdown.
He finishes by saying, “The key conclusion… hinged only on estimates of R0/doubling time, hospitalisation rates and IFR (mortality risk). Given those estimates, any epidemic model would give basically the same conclusions we reached.”
This is a surprising assertion. Rephrased, his conclusions could have been worked out on the back of a napkin, as “any” model would give the same conclusions given just three variables. Therefore it didn’t require 15,000 lines of code or any particular expertise to do his job. Literally “any” model would agree. He also seems to be disclaiming responsibility for the correctness of the data he uses.
Still, the core point he’s trying to make is correct – replicability bugs in his code don’t change the overall conclusion he reached. But who claimed they did? Certainly not the analyses I’ve written for this site. The point here is a different one: computational epidemiologists pose as scientists. That means they are meant to follow the scientific method, which means making testable predictions that follow from their theories. If predictions don’t reliably follow from theories in a reproducible way, or if they never update theories in response to failed predictions, the work they are doing is not scientific and should not be treated by governments as such.
While it seems unlikely that governments will hold academics to account this year, by blowing off basic methodological failures in such a visible way the scientific community are setting themselves up for a major reckoning in future. Trust in scientists has fallen significantly over the summer. Future generations of politicians will start to ignore the claims of academics across an ever-wider set of fields, as has already occurred for economics and – in the USA – climatology (another field that relies heavily on modelling).
“I’ve Seen Enough Failure in Corporate Life Through Groupthink to Understand What’s Happened to Our Politicos.”
We got a message yesterday (and a donation) from an exasperated consultant. Many people will feel the same way.
Since the start of this, the interpretation of the data has been clear to me. It’s the job I’ve done for 30 years, albeit in consumer behavioural insight not virology. And I’ve seen enough massive failure in corporate life through groupthink to understand what’s happened to our politicos. I’ve spent most of my career trying to get well educated corporate executives to practice fact-based decision making, rather than the other way around. We’ve had months of evidence now (not bloody models) about the asymmetrical nature of the pathogen’s effects, veracity of data, metadata & testing regimes, scientists and medical experts brave enough to speak out. Like many others, I thought that the propaganda wouldn’t survive contact with the bright daylight of facts (and the v obvious shifting of Govt ‘strategy’). But here we still are, in Sept, threats of lockdowns, maskism, MSM still pumping out fear, claiming asymptomatic (poss. false) positive tests ‘cases’, no context etc etc. With the democratic process shut down (and/or locked in orthodoxy) and Govt ruling by capricious diktat, backed by the Police and prosecutors, our judiciary silent and anyone who asks reasonable questions about the proportionality of NPIs (let alone wants to protest) closed down, the big question I’d like answered (or at least discussed) by the assembled brains of the Sceptics is: “What can we actually do to stop/change the narrative and pressure the Handy Cocks of this world to switch their critical reasoning back on?” Despite all the evidence and growing numbers, ‘we’ Sceptics seem to just to be a flea bite on the elephant. I’m tired of feeling angry, frustrated and impotent. I’d love to hear some creative options for those without power or voice! (sorry; tried to avoid the rant but failed).
We’re All Corbynistas Now
No, not an email from a supporter of Piers Corbyn – I think we’re all Corbynistas in that respect at least as far as lockdown is concerned – but from a supporter of his brother, Jeremy. Heartening as always to know that there are some on the Left who share our concerns about the collateral damage being done by the lockdowns.
My background is a postdoctoral molecular neuroscientist with 15 years experience looking and recording trends in scientific data. I have experience working with bacteria and viruses in the lab environment (I’d be more than happy for you to review my latest publications). I am a staunch socialist and fervent supporter of Jeremy Corbyn so would normally not share your ideas and values. Many of my colleagues in academia sit on the left and almost all have fallen for this utter nonsense and most all support condemning the Government for not locking down earlier. The very idea we had protocols for dealing with epidemic/pandemics is lost on them. I believe Bari Weiss and Melanie Phillips to be the worst of the worst, both in the cancel culture of anyone outspoken on Israeli apartheid and the continuation of the neoliberal agenda. I’m adamant that global society collapse is inevitable in the next few years (regardless of Covid) due to the Energy Cost of Energy conundrum, and there is no way GDP figures are anything more than a continual debt accumulation (essentially it’s impossible to have continued growth in a planet with finite resources, no amount of renewables is able to counter this). All this is aside from SARS-CoV-2.
I started reading your posts in late April, and, like you, I thought this over-reaction would soon self-correct. By summer this will die down as mother nature will have flattened the curve. I agreed lockdown would be catastrophic, but accepted that the Government wanted to be seen to be doing something and would go on to explain that the virus wasn’t as dangerous as first feared. Sanity would soon return, maybe with increased alertness about things like personal hygiene and a commitment to look after the vulnerable population, etc. How wrong I was. I too was expecting the Left to have a voice, a message challenging every step the Government had taken. Even my political hero Corbyn has been flagrantly useless. And yet here we are, months later, about to witness the collapse of many Western economies and plunge millions in this country alone into relative poverty and allow hundreds of millions to succumb to starvation and medical abandonment in the developing world. I do wonder why the Left has just allowed this nonsense to grip when this was known to be the inevitable outcome back in April. One didn’t have to be a socialist soothsayer to see that. Of course, I had a strong feeling collapse was inevitable very soon, but under the guise of this virus? Never in a million years.
My fear now is the impending authoritarian future and biosecurity state – to ‘stay safe’ – and I might just take up base jumping. However this plays out, I don’t see any answer but a closely monitored population. I’m not sure if my values are outdated and I’m not seeing something obvious? I do hope I’m wrong.
Stop Press: Left-wing advocacy group Liberty are also opposing the lockdown as a violation of human rights and unwarranted stripping away of civil liberties. About bloody time!
Protect the NHS, Go Private?
A reader writes to say that his annual private health premium is up “by an eye-watering 53% this year”. Why? Because, he is informed by his insurance provider, “so many people are using private services due to the inaccessibility of the amazing NHS”. (Er, why’s it so “amazing” then?) Maybe this could inspire a new Government slogan: Protect the NHS, go private.
Did a South Dakota Bike Rally Really Cause 260,000 Cases?
Toby asked yesterday for a riposte to the story going round that a motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota was responsible for 260,000 cases of COVID-19. A reader in America has looked into it and explains why it’s fake news. In short: dodgy modelling again.
A new study estimates that the bike rally increased the case rate in South Dakota by between 3.6 and 3.9 per 1,000 people – or a total of more than 3,000 cases across the state as a whole.
In a press briefing, the South Dakota Department of Health cast doubt on these numbers, noting that just 124 state residents who tested positive for COVID-19 had reported attending the rally. “The results do not align with what we know of the impacts of the rally among attendees in the state of South Dakota,” state epidemiologist Joshua Clayton said when asked about the new study.
Friedson said that self-reports like those used by the state’s Health Department are unreliable because people may not report accurately. Such reports also don’t account for other people attendees may have infected. “You cannot rely on these types of reports to tell you the number of cases,” he told BuzzFeed News…
Instead of looking at contact tracing and trying to identify specific people who had the disease and passed it on to others, the San Diego researchers behind the 260,000 figure looked at the areas that sent the most people to the rally and how case trends changed after the event. In other words, one big guesstimate.
The researchers looked at county-level data on new confirmed COVID-19 cases, as well as anonymised cellphone tracking data released by the company SafeGraph. This included the recorded home location for each phone, allowing the researchers to determine how many attendees came from each county across the nation. They then compared the trajectory of cases in counties with many Sturgis attendees, such as Clark County, Nevada, and Maricopa County, Arizona, to those with previously similar case trajectories that had few residents who travelled to Sturgis. This allowed the researchers to estimate the number of new cases resulting from exposure to the coronavirus during the rally – including cases caused by secondary transmission after attendees returned home. Extrapolating to rallygoers nationwide gives the figure of more than 260,000 new coronavirus cases caused by the Sturgis gathering.
460,000 people gathered without masks and without social distancing and they linked it to one death from Covid. Meanwhile, the Trump rally is also being painted as a virus-spreading event in the entire US media, yet all the rioting has yet to produce a single case of infection.
Stop Press: A solid rebuttal has also appeared in Reason. Well worth a read.
What Sort of Person Will Become a Covid Marshal?
The Government has announced that it will recruit an army of snoopers Covid Secure Marshals to enforce the draconian new lockdown rules. The Mail has collected some of the best memes mocking the ludicrous idea that are well worth a perusal.
Postcard From LA
A reader in Los Angeles has written to tell us about the unexpected success he had in introducing friends to lockdown scepticism. Might embolden some of us in bringing the subject up with our own brainwashed pals.
I am a conservative in what is, of course, a liberal city in a very liberal state. Even more of an anomaly for being a gay conservative. Needless to say, I generally keep my opinions to myself when politics come up, even among close friends (90% of whom are liberal and think President Trump is akin to Hitler).
Monday we had friends over for a Labour Day lunch. Three families with whom we have grown close through our son’s school. When they arrived, all of them were sporting masks. I wear a mask under mostly-quiet protest, and only when absolutely necessary to go shopping or get on a plane. I immediately told them that they only needed to wear a mask if they felt it necessary for their own safety, and that I would not be wearing one. In an instant masks were off, with a visible sigh of relief from all. We had a lovely lunch, crammed elbow to elbow around the table. For nearly all of them it was their first real social event since the madness began in March.
The subject of the virus reared its head throughout the afternoon and evening, as it will. At a point in the conversation I saw my opening and, perhaps emboldened by a couple glasses of wine, decided to stay silent no more and politely challenge their views of the virus, the use of masks, and the lockdowns. Given the authority of what I do for a living (I’m an attorney at a large healthcare organisation), they began to listen. I walked them through everything – the ineffectiveness of masks, the lack of science behind social distancing, the survival statistics even among the elderly, the falling CFR, etc. At first I got a lot of “yeah, but what about,” but I kept going. And to a one, it was the first time any of them had heard anything other than the left-party line (it’s sad that it seems mostly a left-right debate, but it is). By the time I was finished there were jaws on the floor and they were asking me to email links so they could read for themselves. As one of them said, “It’s hard to change your own mind.” But I think I may have begun to change a few. When they arrived, my friends who normally greet each other with hugs stood at arms-length. When they left there were hugs all around. I went to bed happy that night. I feel that if I can help my friends out of Plato’s cave – and it appears possible – perhaps there is hope for the madness to end.
Round-Up
- ‘Viral Issue Crucial Update Sept 8th: the Science, Logic and Data Explained!‘ – Ivor Cummings with a lucid, data-driven explanation of why the pandemic is essentially over
- “AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine study put on hold due to suspected adverse reaction in participant in the UK” – The female participant began to suffer with a rare and serious spinal inflammatory disorder. Pausing was a “routine action” apparently, but who knows – this is the second time the trial has been paused due to a participant suffering with neurological symptoms
- “If Covid doesn’t kill granny, loneliness will” – In a heart-wrenching column Alice Thompson in the Times writes that only 15,415 of the 99,560 care home residents who have died this year have died with COVID-19, yet so many care home residents are being treated like prisoners and dying of loneliness
- “The Oscars’ woke McCarthyism is a step too far” – Brendan O’Neill in the Spectator takes the Oscars to task for letting identity politics interfere with art and entertainment
- “Police in northern Spain arrest surfer who refused to quarantine after positive test” – Have the Spanish been getting tips from Kim-Jong Dan?
- “Should countries aim for elimination in the COVID-19 pandemic?” – Head-to-head piece in the BMJ with the UK’s Independent SAGE lockdown fanatics arguing for zero Covid against the New Zealand Covid Plan B group who provide the sanity
- “Has the world gone mad? More bizarre Covid rules (all in the name of science)” – Oliver Smith’s latest in the Telegraph with a rundown of Covid craziness around the world. Costa Rican drivers are banned on different days of the weeks depending on their number plate. Seriously
- “COVID-19 could reverse decades of progress toward eliminating preventable child deaths, agencies warn” – As lockdowns and economic collapse severely curtail children’s health services around the world, the WHO issues a grim warning
- “The UK can’t stave off the second wave without a zero-covid strategy” – Diane Abbott comes out for the zero Covid team. A brilliant plan, if only a vaccine wasn’t months away if it ever arrives, it had a realistic chance of giving full immunity, we weren’t imposing ruinous lockdowns every time we find a bunch of false positives…
- “Enough! The Government has gone too far – people want to make their own decisions” – Michael Deacon calls time on lockdown lunacy in the Telegraph and thinks people have reached the limits of their willing compliance. I hope so – but according to YouGov 62% of Brits would support a new curfew. Project Fear on steroids has worked
- “Britain’s second lockdown will be even more terrible than the first” – With the Government today only warning of worse to come over the winter, Allister Heath sees troubled days ahead
- “Government’s ‘Moonshot’ programme aims to increase coronavirus testing to 10 million a day” – Everyone tested every day, with the 0.5% or more who get false positives each day being required to quarantine for weeks – welcome to Boris’s idea of new normal
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Today, themes for the successive phases of the Government’s Covid strategy: “Panic” by The Smiths, “Panic In The Streets” by Praying Mantis, “Panic In Detroit” by David Bowie, “Panic In The World” by Be Bop Deluxe and “Panic, Sheer Bloody Panic” by Hans Zimmer.
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums that are now open, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention. We’ve also just introduced a section where people can arrange to meet up for non-romantic purposes. We have a team of moderators in place to remove spam and deal with the trolls, but sometimes it takes a little while so please bear with us. You have to register to use the Forums, but that should just be a one-time thing. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A few months 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 focusing on pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as other social venues. As of July 4th, many of them have re-opened too, but not all, and some will have to close again on September 14th. 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 – particularly if they’re not insisting on face masks! If they’ve made that clear to customers with a sign in the window or similar, so much the better. Don’t worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
We’ve created a permanent slot down here for people who want to buy (or make) a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here and it has the advantage of not explicitly claiming you have a disability. But if you have no qualms about that (or you are disabled), you can buy a lanyard from Amazon saying you do have a disability/medical exemption here (now showing it will arrive between Oct 12th to Oct 22nd). The Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. You can get a “Hidden Disability” tag from ebay here and an “exempt” card with lanyard for just £1.99 from Etsy here.
Don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face nappies in shops here (now over 31,500).
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
And here’s a round-up of the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of mask (threadbare at best).
Stop Press: A video from Spain shows citizens preventing police arresting a woman for not wearing a face mask. The clip shows officers attempting to pull the older woman away from the crowd, but they manage to wrestle her away from the cops, while also removing their own masks in solidarity.
Shameless Begging Bit
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And Finally…
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I feel mildly cheered by this news. I’m sure I will end up being disappointed. However, optimists – like Toby – are the ones who keep good causes going, so thanks.
What’s the point of having members of Parliament if they don’t protect their constituents form an overbearing Government.
By now the Government must know that lockdowns don’t work.
Peru went into lockdown 16th March – 911 deaths per million (the highest death rate in the world after San Marino)
Brazil – no lockdown – 602 deaths per million
Only 8 reported Covid death in the UK the day Boris Johnson decides to become Oliver Cromwell and threatens to ban Christmas.
No doubt we should call his Covid Marshal social distancing clowns Oliver’s Army
Oliver’s Army, I like that, comes complete with it’s own tune but I doubt if our ill-educated population would get the point.
I know. It sounds to friendly.
Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Johnson?
I suggest Blockwarts
“Blockleiter from 1933 was the title of a lower Nazi Party political rank responsible for the political supervision of a neighborhood. Referred to in common parlance as Blockwart, the officials were in charge to form the link between the Nazi authorities and the general population.”
The Soviets had the same similarly translating as Block Warden.
I prefer Blockleiter.
Blockwarts reminds me of Harry Potter.
Or Boris Brownshirts
His very own Sturmabteilung.
Brown shirts, yes. Polished leather belt and boots, yes. The Luger pistol may be unwise, however.
A cattle prod will suffice.
Or a mutton muzzle.
Droogs.
How about Tools
Plain old wankers works for me.
My first and only piece of political agitation was tracing in the snow with my welly boot
‘parkie is a wanker’
(That’s Park Keeper to our younger readers, generally retired N.C.O.s who could be very fierce. I’ve long thought that the country started going downhill when they got cancelled in the 1980s).
Nah. Call them what they are: The Stasi
treat them as the Stasi, make them Pariahs, spurn them and shame them, these people will be on a pittance but will behave like they run the place, if they were to be given cattle prods they would no doubt use them on some old lady.These people will undoubtedly be local so as a community blank them, they are there to monitor your behaviour on behalf of this Government and to correct errant behaviour for that they must accept that they cannot be seen as part of the community and must expect to be reviled by the community.
Retired EHOs. Says it all. Maybe paid a pittance but wil be drawing a nice pension too.
They are practicing independence of thought training en masse
Kapos who were the jews used by gestapo to do the dirty work in the camps.
Along with Ferguson’s New Model Army?
Hello,
I believe the reason why everyone is abiding by the lockdown rules. Is common sense, but as Einstein said “common sense is the accumulation of prejudices by the age of 18. What he meant was that common sense will get you so far but science will get you further. As you point out lockdown Peru as a much higher death rate than non lockdown Brazil.This can be reflected every where from lockdown Scotland to non lockdown Sweden lockdown as failed to save lives. Like everyone else I’ve had no colds sore throat,flu even headaches which I suffered at least once a week of all gone away. As lockdown suppressed my immunity due to less bugs being around?
I don’t know, all I do know is that using common sense it’s been easier for governments to lockdown than take the brave decision to not lockdown.
Viral Issue Crucial Update Sept 8th: the Science, Logic and Data Explained!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UvFhIFzaac
Ivor Cummins
97.7K subscribers
All the facts you need to know on why the Covid has performed the same as flu regarding the rise and fall in infections.
This is brilliant. Watch. His lovely Irish accent makes him all the more plausible
The fact that he’s a good solid scientist makes him plausible!
Everything Ivor produces is worth looking at. Strongly recommended.
So, in other words, the initial assumptions were knowingly chosen to produce the desired result. Confirmation bias at its finest.
Not much, i don’t think. The public has been trained for decades to forget all about disobedience towards the government. Seems to me that people these days will still obey authorities even if they know it’s wrong to do so. That is, those that bother thinking about it. A lot of people simply don’t care. “This is what the BBC says, that must be the truth. Because, after all, the BBC is a truly unbiased news source. Why would the government do me harm?”
Loads of people tell me they have stopped watching the news and stress the BBC in particular. Reasons vary from it’s boring, it’s depressing but some do say it’s full of lies and propaganda.
I stopped watching years ago and now have completely stopped looking at the MSM – it was clear that they weren’t reporting facts but rather what they wanted you to see and think.
I stopped watching TV in general for good about 15 years ago, just watching a bit here and there, CH4 news at 7:00pm most days. I stopped with MSM totally in April. I will NEVER go back to any of it. It’s total poison.
CH4 news at 7 is worse than BBC – and that is saying something!! You cannot say you have stopped with MSM if you watch this.
CH4 news was getting to be more and more intolerable for a long time. It was my only concession to MSM. However I found it slightly less egregious than the BBC. I used to listen to radio 4 quite a bit too just to see what the state’s talking point was for the day.
The only subscription I’ve kept is the Spectator. I’m glad to be rid of the Times, have not read the Guardian for years now and ditto the BBC websites.
I’ve retreated to YouTube and podcasts such as Triggernometry and New Culture Forum as well as reading.
CH4 is a public-owned – i.e. government – broadcaster.
basically BBC without the licence feea s it must be self-financing:
https://www.channel4.com/corporate/about-4/who-we-are/what-is-channel-4
I stopped watching/listening to the BBC and Channel 4 News in April as I could no longer stomach the over-hyped message they were pushing.
I did the same, no regrets.
I am hearing from LOADS of “normies” that they have stopped watching particularly the BBC but also stopped listening to the radio, all the channels really, since about April. It’s very noticeable.
I would do the same, but what keeps me sane (I hope!) is the old films on Talking Pictures TV and a few other channels. Basically, the TV licence helps me to live in the non-PC past for part of the time.
And I do watch University Challenge (now with wok-i-fied questions – which are the only ones the teams generally pass on!) and the old TOTP re-runs.
Me too. I ditched my TV licence and feel so much better for it. I only really watch YouTube and other streaming platforms. I don’t subscribe to anything because I’m really not that interested but it is amazing how many good films and programmes, as well as excellent individual content is available free on sites such as YouTube, compared to most of the dross on mainstream tv. And I’ve discovered talkRADIO too, this year.
I would love to ditch my TV licence but I do like to watch county cricket – which I do via live streams direct from the grounds, not via Sky. And any live stream I believe needs a TV licence, even though it’s coming over the internet. Ridiculous.
The Yesterday channel and Talking Pictures are my main ones now. I think they both have links with the hated BBC but I’ll live with that compromise. As for radio, I listen to some BBC music programmes but dive for the off button when a news bulletin is approaching.
Insufferable ‘Today’ in particular. Michal Hussein, Nick Robinson etc all with their questions loaded with piousness about the right way to behave : face nappies, social distancing and all that shit….
Let’s commission an independent poll that shows that a majority of the population are against more measures and want to return to normal life.
I don’t trust the poll showing 62% of Brits in favour of curfew. I don’t believe it for a minute.
I’ll happily contribute to an independent survey that asks the questions in the right way.
e.g. are you tired of lockdown measures, do you enjoy wearing a masks, would you like to see an immediate return to normality, should the government have the power to ruin one life to try (and possibly fail) to save another.
Proper questions.
Someone referred to the yougov polling site here yesterday, so I went to have a look and vote in some polls. The questions were in fact pretty neutral (although there were a couple of instances where there wasn’t an option that reflected exactly what I think). After you vote, you get to see the current results. They were depressing, to say the least. In every case, the current balance was _overwhelmingly_ the opposite of my answer.
Do you have a link?
https://yougov.co.uk/
If you can just pop up to their site and vote then that rather invalidates the result. Experts like ukpollingreport has always been scathing of polls based on self-selecting respondents. Proper polls work by inviting specific respondents and weighting according to socio-economic groupings, although even that can be suspect in instances where the groupings don’t really make sense to the question (why would, say, your political leanings shape your views on asparagus?). But I imagine what’s happening here is that knowledge of the poll is being spread through particular channels (say, through Twitter) and that is massively biasing the sample.
i completed it .. no log ins or anything. simple for the authorities 77th brigade or whatever they are called to complete manually or use a bot to make positive votes.
I always refer to the 77th as the SS and I presume the initial letters are the reason the moniker was chosen.
I was send a survey by YouGov asking questions like did I approve of the new measures, curfews and so on and my view of the Government.I answered no and that the Government was doing a very bad job to each question.
I answered similar questions yesterday. As I say, depressingly the results I was then shown were along the lines of 72% strongly in favour and similar proportions who wanted more and stricter regulations.
If the government really pays attention to these things, we’re doomed, forever.
https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.bbc.co.uk
7000+ reviews, 93% negative. Pile on, folks!
Thanks for link, just left a one star review
Over 8,500 people are with us and oppose the Government’s measures enough to support this Judicial Review of the lockdown and related regulations:
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/lockdownlegalchallenge/
The Appeal hearing is due in less than 2 weeks. At the very least, the Government will have to start answering some difficult questions. So – to answer the question – this is something we can do.
I donated the 41 quid needed to get them to 300k yesterday.
Dinner was very awkward last night as for some reason my family had the Ministry of Truth on over dinner! Thankfully they switched off after 10 mins but even that left me queasy for a few hours. Disgusting promotion of the Clown Show sermon in that uniquely condescending “do not question this plebs” BBC tone I’d forgotten about.
There needs to be a website to “fact-check” the BBC but you’d never be able keep up with it.
This used to do exactly that, but as you say, there was almost too much to keep up with.
https://biasedbbc.org/
https://brandnewtube.com/watch/dr-vernon-coleman-latest-september-9th-2020-this-fraud-is-now-blindingly-obvious_R7CB3DDGxFK4eHC.html
Good stuff from the Old Man In A Chair but he won’t get much reach from that site, sadly.
More so than YouTube who banned his videos though.
He’s probably done enough to have a good base of followers who can grow from any platform.
https://brandnewtube.com/watch/this-fraud-is-now-blindingly-obvious_17uG1jJdsRcitiZ.html . Link to video published by Dr Coleman. Link posted above is a copy of video.
We can only go back to normal when we have Zero Government.
we could achieve zero government if we changed the law to say if a party can’t get more than 50% of the people to vote for them they can’t govern. If no party achieves this then we have no government for five years until the next vote and so on.
Belgium had no government for years, a coalition was formed in March and things have not worked out at all well for the citizens since.
We’ve had a few Tory/Lib coalitions and they’ve not worked out well either!
Wot Strange Days said
I’ve been saying the same for a long time. Our system hasn’t been fit for purpose for nearly 30 years now.
We in Northern Ireland had no government for 2 years until recently. All because civil servants and their friends filled their boots on an open ended energy scheme which cost taxpayers tens of millions more than it should have. Oh, and the enquiry, which absolved everyone of nay wrong doing or responsibility, cost £13m too. Now we have the same clowns threatening further lockdowns today. So keep an eye on the announcement here at around 2pm. They are talking tough again. We’ve a worse case per 100,000 rate than the UK as a whole. My NHS ward here (servicing some 250,000) or there abouts, has had zero deaths since end of May if I remember correctly. Maybe less than 5 hospital admissions over that time also. 20 people approx have died in total. Speaking to my friend last night brought it all home to me. He has a sister with a rare physiological condition, another diabetic, a brother diabetic and epileptic, a father with bowel cancer in remission. They’ve all been scared to death by this and he hasn’t seen them, except at a distance from the garden, in 6 months. His siblings barely leave the house, his sister hardly… Read more »
Love it!
From ONS: In Week 35, the number of deaths registered was 9.6% above the five-year average (791 deaths higher); this is the third consecutive week that weekly deaths have been above the five-year average, however, the rise was not driven by the coronavirus (COVID-19). The number of deaths in hospitals was below the five-year average in Week 35, while the number of deaths in private homes, care homes and other locations was above the five-year average. Hey maybe ask those next logical follow-up questions intrepid reporters. The entirety of the fiction is unraveling in the eyes of the public hence the even more stringent measures. Right now there is a low simmer. No such “novel virus” exists. There were novel policies put into place that killed tens of thousands of people, and are killing tens of thousands more. We need calls for investigations into what actually happened in March-April as well as arrests and trials for subsequent policies enacted by government officials. All of the academics and scientists who perpetuated this pandemonium to the benefit of their professional lives need to be on the stand testifying. These careerist cowards will turn on one another in a heartbeat and through this process more… Read more »
Ferguson first in the dock, obviously.
Pretty hard for deaths in hospitals to be higher than the 5 year average if the NHS is partially shut down.
They’ve removed care pathways to such an extent they simply die in their care homes. Rather than an attempt being made to offer treatment at hospital.
A Nuremberg Trial for the early 21st Century.
Talking to a Middle England neighbour yesterday as she waited to go for a family get together at a nearby gastropub. We sniggered about it already being against current advice but that next week 10 people out together would be Illegal and cost them £1,000 rising to £32,000 if they challenged the fine.
She told me of a similar event oop north some weeks ago. All of the party had signed into Track’n’Trace, later her host told her that the restaurant had been shut down because some staff had the Covid at the time.
She is still awaiting contact from Track’n’Trace three weeks later.
The definition of theatre
I am always looking for numbers based facts to try and de-program the Converted. One of my favourites; ME: How many people do you think died in UK yesterday? Erm..dunno. ME: It was about 1600 That sounds about right. ME: Yes, that was the total amount of deaths from all causes. How many people do you think died from Covid in UK yesterday? Erm….dunno, about athousand? ME: 5 Oh….but…but, what about Granny. I can talk to them about annual deaths being similar to previous years but that does not sink in. Talking about the likely large number of false positive (infectious) people along with defining what a Case is raises no eyebrows either. Therefore I have been trying to find evidence based simple statistics which I can quote which members of the Cult may understand. King Carl has suggested that the most reliable statistic amongst the whole gamut of, died with or of, unknown actual number of real cases, IFR, CFR, modelling results etcetera is the NHS admissions data. So today, because my business is destroyed and I have nothing else to do, I took a look at the NHS data. (Spreadsheets are my go to cure for boredom so… Read more »
I just keep it to your second question when they start off a chat with >
“Isn’t the Covid terrible…?”
‘How man people do you think died of the Covid yesterday?’
“Dunno 20 ? 50 maybe ?”
‘5’
(Pregnant pause while this sinks in).
“Where d’you get that from ?”
‘The governments own figures, how many people do you think got run over by a truck yesterday ?’.
And away you go in whatever direction they want to take the conversation.
Hopefully it will get as far as ‘apart from wrecking the economy and millions of lives do you think lockdown is is worth having Democracy suspended and your ancient freedom of Free Assembly made illegal ?’
Great Work – I will print that off!
Look forward to the funky charts – Keep going!
The trouble is Covid belief has become the new world religion, you must fear the Covid devil and obey the big Government that is our only hope. Then just like boys being whipped having been caught paying football on a Sunday in Oliver Cromwell’s time, any Covid doubters must be whipped into line.
Statistics, logic and rational thought are all just tricks of the Covid devil and must be shunned, just bow down and accept Covid belief. I am afraid it looks more and more to me like Covid belief has become a cult religion like the Branch Davidian sect.
One day it will be seen as a shiboleth.
And where is that sect now?
There was some newspaper article where the underline thread suggests this is almost becoming a belief system. The idea was sceptics were stepping out of a shared reality, and it was better for society not to seek the truth but to participate in a shared truth even if it is wrong.
Obviously, not aware of the meaning of truth.
That phrase “shared reality” is graunspeak I think.
A group of people who all take LSD can have a shared reality that is different from everybody else’s shared reality. MSM propaganda is LSD for everybody, bending their old reality into a mind-bending new one.
We can share a sunset, or a piece of music – but what constitutes ‘sharing’. For me it is relational and has an intimacy that targets, checkboxes and correctness cane NEVER equate to or represent. Reality as experience is unique to each – and yet we are communicating now – and largely share agreements on the core nature of our model of reality – else we could not communicate – or hardly. Most of us live in a model of reality that is a mental realm with emotional reactive reinforcement. Therefore not surprising that some of us think they can control reality by narrative control, or are transhumanly seeking to replace the living context of our experience with systemic controls. LSD strips away much of the filtering of the mind so as in effect to regress consciousness – which is at the same time the popping of the bubble of what had seemed solid, normal and adapted to. However, when the effects wear off, the filtering of the mind restores the habits of perception-response. Group bubbles can be positive, but the nature real relationships is bringing our presence to them, not sacrificing who we are so as to fit what… Read more »
Well If it cant be shared its a private reality. Lockstepping can reinforce private agenda as a groupthink bubble but no matter how many invest in it, it only has the reality given it.
Not a few of our problems are the result of weaponising and marketing insights such that what could have served a human benefit are MASKED in as new forms of virtue that become corporate bollockspeak because there is no relational honesty – and so something that belongs to us – such as shared human values – are ‘cancelled’ by presuming to speak for and from ‘shared reality’ – when groupthink is NOTHING of the sort – but is centrally controlled joining in fear, seeking false unity in identifying against the feared.
The use of words can be extremely clever in weaving and framing truth into lies and lies into truths.
I posted this link once but I’ll do so again as it begins to address the ‘framing’ of emotional reaction that is underneath the manipulations that are operating.
https://off-guardian.org/2020/09/08/covid-19-scamdemic-part-2/
Jonestown-Johnsontown.
Thank you. I will keep those stats for my next letter to my sluggish MP.
Thanks BobT, and sorry to hear about your business
It amazes me that they still make this data publicly available.
It amazes me even more that there is not one MSM journalist using it.
…… what’s more, of the 60 people admitted to hospital 75% of them were already in hospital when they tested positive! These hospital admissions are not people walking down the street who caught the thing, they’re mainly hospital inpatients or people transferred from care homes.
Why are they still using ventilators?
They aren’t very much. Don’t forget most of these people who are very ill are not often very ill with Covid, it’s a complicating factor to their primary illness, heart disease, kidney/liver failure, run down by a bus failure, so they may be on a ventilator for reasons completely divorced from their coronavirus positive test.
What can we do? Something has to happen that can change the minds of more people. I would suspect public opinion in the UK is the same as it is in all of the Anglophone world. There is overall among the English language world very widespread support for more and stricter lockdowns. As an example, here is the loony land of California where every fortnight the governor scraps one reopening plan only to issue and even more inane plan than before, nearly 70% of the public supports the imposition of stricter shelter in place rules. And this as the epidemic has been coming down since the end of July. That is an incredibly high number. Politicians read this polling and it absolutely gives them cover to enact every brain fart that comes into their heads over the weekend. Unfortunately, critical thinking is not a capability of the huge percentages of the masses, as we now know. They will only change their views when celebrities of various kinds tell them it is ok to do so. So, I suggest figuring out a way to pressure Tom Hanks or Beyonce into adopting the skeptical position. One idea is to start a go… Read more »
Perhaps a few episodes of Eastenders in the Time of Covid might put a few people off the whole idea.
There will be no covid in East Enders, they need to keep their flagship televised SOMA nice and comforting for the sheeple. Casualty on the other hand will be their vehicle for more COVID fear porn on steroids and they will use it to re-enforce their insane evil narrative.
So what to do about it ? As a young man in London I had numerous and varied social circles some of which overlapped. While not particularly bolshie, I and many of my friends would routinely ignore rules, regulations or even laws that we considered inconvenient. Nothing serious, bunking into the open air lido for a bit of skinny dipping after the pub on a summer evening, taking part in pub lockins (oh the irony), attending “Gentlemens Evenings” which were sometimes busted by the fuzz, that sort of thing. We would all have taken a very dim view of the governments actions over the past six months and would certainly have circumvented their rules whenever necessary. This ‘Rule of 6’ would have been the last straw that might very well have turned us into outright rebels. Those among us who were good at that sort of thing could very easily arrange for five groups of six each to enter the local park by different entrances before coalescing (sp?) at the Bandstand to challenge The Covid Marshall “What you going to do about it ?” Outside Woolworths at a busy road interchange would have been more visible to the public as… Read more »
Boris’s mass COVID testing moonshot ‘to cost £100BILLION’: PM’s plan to get life back to normal is forecast to cost almost as much as entire NHS budget, and experts warn it may not even be possible
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8715817/PM-plans-spend-entire-NHS-budget-bid-test-Briton-week.html
I always divide these big numbers by the population and 100Billion is about GBP1,500 per man woman and child. Or, about 6,000 per average family. These people really are in cloud cukoo land.
Getting a good kicking from the commenters. I like spotting the fakes in the worst voted comments ever since I met a perfectly sound chap who told me he liked to put lefty comments just to see how many red ticks he could get.
Favourite today from Dr Poopenscheister
“All non Covid NHS services should be shut down, we live in extraordinary times, Covid should have priority”.
Shyster. Great word.
Not my word, his !
See comments below it
Who would want to be a Covid Safety Enforcement Marshall ?
I nominate disgruntled Traffic Wardens
I nominate Dawn Butler.
I am afraid our country is full of ‘little hitlers’ who will be queuing up to take on this role, there are some who will be keen to go back to a puritan, Calvinistic, Oliver Cromwell world of austerity misery, no pleasure and witch hunts.
No one likes a dobber.
I suggest we all apply and then go round in covid marshal uniforms informing people of the actual truth 😁
Brilliant idea! Trouble is we wouldn’t pass the qualifying psychopath test.
I can see now how this will play out in the MSM in order to achieve compliance. A Marshall will be physically assaulted somewhere, sympathetic articles ensue from all quarters, the angle taken is that a nasty selfish denier is the perpetrator. The BBC have probably written a template article already.
maybe they’ll slip up again and broadcast it before it happens
nice
Very good.
The traffic wardens will be out of work, once all the cars are banned. So makes sense to give them a useless job, where we can all mock them.
Herr Hancock inspecting the latest batch Covid Safety Enforcement Marshalls
Obviously I disagree with the marshalls. But there are huge numbers of unemployed people, many of them blue collar workers for whom Universal Credit means a life of poverty for them and their families.
I’m not even going to engage with them but I do not criticise their choice on this basis.
Horrific, family thrown off a plane in Canada over their toddlers not wearing masks. Surely it is child abuse to put a mask on a little child?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-54096061
It’s just madness. What has happened to common sense? How is it worldwide people like us can see the blatant stupidity of these measures and yet parliamentarians and law makers have got their fingers in their ears not listening but conjuring up their next bloody stunt to make people’s lives even more miserable. And how can businesses not question these stupid, stupid rules and use their own judgement in matters such as in this story.
So these fiends require masks on three-year-olds. And on screaming babies.
And the other passengers supported this.
How many other little tots were being choked and terrorised on this devils’ flight from hell to hell?
No Annie, not the screaming baby, just the three year old.
Quote:
He [the passenger] says the three-year-old did put on a mask, after some fussing.
“But my younger one had a very difficult time, she was basically hysterical.”
Mr Choudhry says she was so upset she vomited.
He says WestJet was aggressive, and told them that because his youngest daughter was not wearing a mask, and was too upset to wear a mask, the whole family would have to leave.
He says they told them that if they did not leave, they could be arrested, charged and receive prison time.
Counter quote “the airline said the issue was not with the infant who is below the age required to wear a mask”
This is going to get messy !♤
Screeming Babies and collaborators and shaved women. I know a song about that, I know you won’t like it. It’s a horrible tune.
And Then airline industry is worried about falling passenger numbers, surely by now the airline industry as a whole should have come up with a policy so the position is clear to all. It is as though facemasks have become a symbol that you conform, like the costumes in A Handmaids Tale.
That’s exactly what they are, except for the voodoo fanatics who believe that they confer personal immunity on the wearer.
I don’t know why they don’t let passengers use the emergency masks if they want to be muzzled to feel ‘safe’ and let every body else who doesn’t give a crap fly face naked. Surely it couldn’t be that difficult to modify a plane.
Sadly I think you are right Steve. And if they were told to wear undies on their head I fear they would do it. And tell me why your Hancock and our Dan Andrews are the most gormless looking pair of blokes I have seen.
Because they probably both got bullied at school for being knobs/saps/dorks.
And then decided to punish THE WORLD. Will I ever see beautiful England again. Can’t even fly to another state at the moment.
Sorry to break it too you but in the last thirty years, since the last true PM of this country Mrs Thatcher they’ve done everything to destroy England and Britain. We’re at the point now where to even say you’re English or British is deemed racist. In every town across this once green and pleasant land they’ve they’ve destroyed everything they can and this Virus bullshit is the Last Night of the Proms as far as Britain and England go. Hey ho Rule Britannia.
Such a shame, Biker. My parents were £10 poms and went through WW2. They only managed to go back once in 2010. I think it was a very strange experience for them. I am so proud of them and my English heritage. What they went through in the war, half starved as kids, but it made them resilient and tough, and we were brought up with a great work ethic and honest values. They don’t understand any of what is going on at the moment, addicted to the crap that masquerades as news and terrified out of their wits. All our lovely old darlings who suffered so much even after the war with rationing continuing etc and they are left bewildered and many alone to die. It’s a damn disgrace.
My Aus relatives also started as £10 Poms, they never did make it back but their eldest daughter stayed with us in London for 6 months 1970, followed one by one by 4 younger siblings.
One of their offspring caught up with me a few years ago. That young man made the mistake of asking me “do all whiskies taste the same, like Bourbon ?”
Don’t suppose any of us will be visiting for a while to come yet, but at least they are in NSW and not Victoria that heart of lockdown darkness.
Yes, kareno lots of young Aussies like their bourbon😆 (was) so much easier and cheaper to travel in the 2000’s as well. Don’t think it will be once this is over somehow. The media seem to be getting a lot more critical of the lockdowns even in the last 24 hours. The PM rang the Qld premier to request compassion for some poor lass who was too late to see her dying dad (because of all the red tape). Not allowed to go to funeral only to see his body on her own all rugged up in PPE. The premier accused the PM of bullying her.
Attila the Hen.
I posted last week that WestJet were mandating masks for children over 2 – it is nothing short of child abuse.
It really is child abuse. I cannot imagine strapping a mask on a 3 year old who is screaming and trying to tear it off. Just thinking about doing that makes me feel sick.
Boycott them. Put them out of business. I hope their employees sue them.
This is actually a good news story.
Reading the piece to the end, the flight was abandoned because the attitude of the passengers, supportive of the family and hostile to the crew and police, made the crew feel that it was unsafe to continue.
Phew. at least the sheeple didn’t clap and cheers like they did on the easy jet flight full of Brainwashed psychotic Britts.
This isn’t the first of these. There was another similar incident in the US a month or so ago. Can’t find the link, but it may have the same airline.
so what happens when everyone on the plane is wearing a mask and then there is an emergency and the oxygen masks are deployed. Are you allowed to remove your useless covid mask.? is that an offence? do you have to wear both masks? or will they not deploy the oxygen masks on the basis that the covid masks are obviously so brilliant they will save you from everything
It’s getting driven and pushed through by this bunch:
https://wttc.org/COVID-19/Safe-Travels-Global-Protocols-Stamp
They are WEF and UN compromised when your dad the bios of their CEO, and ambassadors.
On their letter to Governments they list some companies who supposedly signed it.
I’m currently writing to some of the signatories asking them if they are willing participants in this suicide note of the travel and tourism industry or ignorant dupes.
https://wttc.org/COVID-19/Government-Hub/Global-coordination-to-save-the-sector
Look at the list.
Yikes! All those “New Normals” .
Oh Canada!
Government Policy remains completely wrong, the bold thing to do would be take every measure to increase Herd Immunity among fit and healthy young people by encouraging them to mix and mingle as much possible, bring back live music, raves, mosh pits.
Promote promiscuous hedonistic lifestyle choices. Open all sporting activity asap especially those with close body contact.
Not much chance of the vulnerable getting involved in any of the above but that behaviour will bring them (me) protection in the future.
Instead the Boris’n’Dom show persist in what can only be called Appeasement in the face of this rapidly declining threat.
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/500295-covid-rules-new-uk-six-people/
RT-shock,horror,reds-under-the-beds -provides some welcome sanity.
And , despite not being a religious person, I suspect that St John The Divine nailed it:
“This calls for wisdom: Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, because it is the number of a person. Its number is 666.”
He had a terrifying vision and saw Hancock.
Out of interest anyone aware of what’s going on in Russia re:Corona now?? We obviously got a rush of patronising news when they announced their (probably placebo) vaccine but nothing since as far as I have seen… Are they, as a nation presumably more used to restrictions and surveillance (tho fuck knows what to believe anymore) bothering with restrictions on life still or has their vaccine freed them as we’re all promised one will?
From the little I’ve read, they seem to be more relaxed about the terror, being ,as you rightly say, accustomed to purges, surveillance ,propaganda and gulags etc. (The latter might be on Hancock’s To-Do list)
https://www.rt.com/russia/500285-covid19-vaccine-third-phase-trial/
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/09/08/leading-scientists-question-highly-improbable-russian-vaccine-results-published-in-lancet-a71384
Links from either side of the ideological divide about Russia’s vaccine trials; all I could find.
I don’t know about Russia but cases where people are hospitalised are rising in Hungary. I believe they’ve had a pretty strict lockdown and masks.
A young Saudi woman (no mask, no veil) was telling me that most of her family at home had caught the Covid (harsh lockdown, intergenerational family in an apartment) but were all fully recovered.
I described the mistreatment of Piers Corbyn by the stasi.
‘But that is the way of the police…’
“It might be in your country not it’s not what we’re used to”.
‘Yes it is a shame for you’.
Great article Wendyk. I feel the need to bombard all the news services with these stories. I bet they would never make it through the censorship boffins.
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
” As I looked, there was a pale horse, and its rider’s name was Death. Hades followed along behind him. They were given authority over a quarter of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with famine, and with death”
The Hancock /Ferguson handbook in biblical writ.
The people quarantined on the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan were picked up from an airport by coaches from a company called “Horseman” coaches. I think they were having little in joke back then with us…There were four coaches.
Regarding this link: https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/09-09-2020-covid-19-could-reverse-decades-of-progress-toward-eliminating-preventable-child-deaths-agencies-warn
Let’s just make absolutely clear for the cheap seats at the back: THIS IS DUE TO LOCKDOWNS NOT COVID-19
Jesus wept.
Indeed, it is the policies that have caused the problems worldwide, not a virus. And yet mainstream media constantly refer to ‘covid’s caused this, or covid’s done that’ etc. Drives me insane. As silly as saying a car caused a speeding accident. So why then isn’t the car sent to gaol for killing people. I do jest, sorry. I do feel so much better when I have had my daily news from LS and reading all your comments.
I have been trying to find the graph Whitty used which apparently showed the percentage of age groups testing positive had increased. No luck so far, any help would be appreciated.
Try the weekly report from the PHE, always on a thursday evening. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/weekly-covid-19-surveillance-report-published
Posted this yesterday, but the guy they had on LBC around teatime yesterday said that the PCR testing was targeted towards known contacts of the already infected. That means that to add to the fallibility of the tests themselves we are seeing the results of a highly biased sample each day.
Does anyone else have anything on this?
The ONS statistics tomorrow will be interesting.
Creates a self perpetuating cycle of cases.
It’s a key point to make. Because the overall blanket policy approach is based on cases per 100,000. Which includes you.
So because a small related group have infected each other, they then use this to justify locking the full local population down.
It’s like a bar not observing opening hours leading to all bars in the city being closed to prevent it happening again.
Never mind these people are being screened using unfit PCR tests anyway, and that they are almost exclusively not going to be ill enough for hospital
Gosh, it must be a blue moon tonight, GMB (without Piers Morgan today) saying that the rules are so complicated people “will” (not going as far as “should”) just do what they think is right to protect themselves and others. Yes, GMB, it’s called exercising individual discretion, what we adults should be doing all the time.
By the way, UK Column news has been saying for a while, repeated yesterday, that the rules are deliberately complicated to confuse people. Mass confusion increases mass fear. It’s part of the psych-op. If true, surely such deliberate action is the crime of treason.
Solzhenitsyn described the technique, gulag prisoners forced to move piles of rocks with their bare hands across the parade ground for no apparent reason.
Then made to carry them back again.
Morgan was predictably cheering the latest draconian news in a tweet last night but surprisingly his followers were in disagreement with him. I’d say 9 in 10 of the 100 or so replies I read gave him a kicking.
Morgan has backed the wrong horse in all this. He’s an idiot.
I really hoping that others at ITV have smelt blood in the water!
I am imagining a high viz vest with ‘I AM A DICKHEAD’ written in bold letters on the back.
Handcuffs, muzzle, prison.
The only way out of this is for mass civil disobedience to make it impossible to police.
Liberty has a petition against the Coronavirus Act
https://liberty.e-activist.com/page/63681/petition/1?ea.tracking.id=Website
This is the number of positive tests as a percentage of overall test. Flat line….
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&year=latest&time=2020-04-08..2020-09-03&country=~GBR®ion=World&positiveTestRate=true&interval=smoothed&hideControls=true&smoothing=7&pickerMetric=location&pickerSort=asc
I’ve finally written my letter to my MP, inspired by the first part of today’s summary – thanks Toby! Here it is, in case anyone wants to cut, paste and adapt: Dear Mrs Atherton MP, Sir Charles Walker, the Vice Chairman of the influential Conservative 1922 committee of MPs, has recently slammed the new restrictions on social gatherings saying he would vote to “curtail” the Government’s powers. I quote from the Telegraph: The changes will impose a legal limit on gatherings in private homes, parks, pubs and restaurants and will come into force in England on Monday. Sir Charles argued that ministers needed to come to the Commons and “win the argument” on policies, admitting he was “increasingly uncomfortable” about the way the Government was running. He said: “I am incredibly exercised about the continued use by the Government of powers that we granted it six months ago admittedly, to basically restrict people’s civil liberties without any recourse back to Parliament. “Now these powers are due to be reviewed at the end of September, or the beginning of October, and hopefully there will be another vote on them. “And I will be voting – if given the chance to vote in… Read more »
So it is confirmed now that we will be using “Digital Immunity Passports.”
“People will be given digital immunity passports that would allow those who test negative to take part in more normal activities.”
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-scientists-doubtful-as-leaked-government-document-reveals-plans-for-10-million-tests-by-next-year-12067722
Another ‘conspiracy theory’ proved correct. The information is all out there .The ultimate aim is you have a tattoo embedded in your skin with all your vaccine history and it can be scanned so you can partake of ‘normal life’.This has to be the aim because testing of itself doesn’t prove anything.I could be infected after I took my test so unless you are continually tested throughout the day it wouldn’t even work on its own terms.
they want a micro chip in you
Well said, KH and can you clone one for us down here at the same time. Someone who actually has the courage of their convictions. Sadly, Tony Abbott was the only good one after John Howard, and he is pilloried by the media as a misogynist, and a homophobe. 3 daughters, adores his gay sister and his chief of staff was Peta Credlin who anchors a Sky current affairs program. The most tolerant and upstanding member of my community.
And he is doing it at no cost to the taxpayer from either UK or Australia. Handles himself very well in bushfire and surf lifesaving scenarios also.
Absolutely.
Seems to me they have reached the breaking point – Telegraph and Mail seem to have gone largely sceptical and comments are mostly absolutely fuming.
Think penny is now dropping that unless the fight back starts we are into the world of health passports and mandatory vaccination
Walked bare faced into Petrol station yesterday – guy politely said this is retail setting so please can you wear mask – said o am exempt and he was fine. Then said we have more and more people who just can’t be bothered – I hope this is spreading !
Sadly I think he is a believer – was masked up and when I said I was sympathetic to the non maskers and that that masks did more harm than good you could sense the fury !
Agreed kh; no opposition worth its salt up here, although there are a few-very few-hopeful signs.
Nigel Farage, though bloody useless on Covid so far, yesterday seemed to be turning against the government (perhaps testing the water)? – see first 5 mins, particularly from 4 mins in. ‘We cannot close the whole country down…’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u2Ci9pOpcs
This could really help. The Tories fear Farage more than anyone. If he becomes a full lockdown sceptic, then the currently AWOL invisible Tory MPs will have to move to his position if they don’t want their party to dramatically shed support.
Perhaps worth emailing Farage and the Brexit Party (and probably more responsive than most MPs) with your scepticism and facts. Let’s reel him in.
anyone got his contact details???
Finally, a political party is prepared to speak out.
https://sdp.org.uk/sdptalk/coronapolitics-defending-the-unmeasurable/
Was hoping they would finally come out as sceptics
Given that Labour is even more strongly lockdown than the Tories, it would give the SDP an clear identity.