Simon Dolan To Challenge “Rule of Six” in the Court of Appeal
Simon Dolan’s legal team is intending to bring up the “Rule of Six” in the Court of Appeal when it appeals the High Court’s rejection of its legal challenge against the coronavirus regulations. The Telegraph has more.
The new ‘rule of six’ Covid-19 restrictions face a legal challenge as the Government is taken to court over its “irrational” and “disproportionate” measures to combat coronavirus.
Amid complaints that the new regulations barring meetings of more than six people will deny grandparents access to their grandchildren, lawyers plan to use them in support of a Court of Appeal claim that the lockdown measures were unlawful.
The judicial review is being brought by multi-millionaire businessman Simon Dolan, backed by a £250,000 crowdfunding campaign
The action was initially rejected by the high court but is now subject of an appeal to be heard on September 28 and 29.
“The appeal relates to legislation that was introduced before the latest [rule of six] measures. One of the reasons the judge tried to kybosh us was on the grounds that it was academic as the lockdown had been eased,” said Michael Gardner, one of the lawyers masterminding the action.
“This shows that it is not academic, with the reintroduction of restrictions. It puts wind in the sails of the action. We will be looking at whether this is further grounds for what would probably have to be a fresh petition that could be bolted onto the existing one.
“I am sure we will not be the only people looking at this and assessing the rationality of what is being proposed.”
Worth reading in full. And if you want to donate to Simon’s CrowdJustice fundraiser, it’s here. Thanks in part to donations from Lockdown Sceptics readers, Simon has raised over £260,000.
New Restrictions Are The “New Normal”
James Black in Bournbrook Magazine puts his finger on what is so disturbing about Boris’s new “Rule of Six”.
The Prime Minister insists this is not a new lockdown. In truth, it is worse than a second lockdown. It is the shape of the New Normal. This new move could amount to the most severe impingement on individual freedom we have had so far, given that the fines of £100 we each face for violating the restrictions are more likely to be handed out than similar fines have been in previous months.
Recent curbs on the right to protest and the £10,000 fines given to anti-lockdown campaigner Piers Corbyn should demonstrate beyond doubt that the government and establishment as a whole is intent on doubling-down on its assault on Britain’s constitution, rather than easing off.
Covid Marshalls, spot fines, enforced tracing amounting to invasive surveillance and the complete annihilation of the organic centres of citizen power are going to be part of the atmosphere of the new hellish reality of modern Britain. We may even be subject to a soul-crushing, economy-destroying curfew. At least during lockdown we were free within our own private castles, now we are going to be forced back out into the world, but with none of the incentives that make public life worthwhile, and completely on the terms of our predatory and sinister health minister Matt Hancock.
With restrictions on assembly, prohibitive rules on going to pubs, cinemas and public buildings, the government is slowly taking over our personal lives, effectively killing Britain’s centuries old implicitly accepted commitment to individual liberty.
Worth reading in full.
The Final Straw
We got a lot of emails like this after Boris’s “Rule of Six” announcement.
As I have watched successive poor decisions, flip-flopping, over-reliance on polling and public opinion and restriction of our civil liberties I have become increasingly incensed. The decision to reduce gatherings to no more than six people was the final straw: As a family of five (myself, my husband and three children under 12) we are now unable to see my parents. My parents are relatively young – mid-60s and in very good physical health. I am incredibly close to them (my brother is abroad and rarely visits) and we see them weekly, often spending holidays together. Suddenly, because of my decision to have a third child, we are no longer able to meet in any circumstances. However, had I stopped at two, we would be able to continue weekly meetings, holidays, the whole shebang. This is just the latest in a long line of restrictions that I (and I believe an increasing proportion of the country) am no longer willing to tolerate. My next door neighbour (a good friend) is a senior ICU doctor at a large London hospital and she agrees: in her large ICU the vast majority of patients came from inside the hospital (as you rightly pointed out at the time) and were morbidly obese, very old or both. Since late April they have been emptying out and she has been “bored” ever since. I could go on with examples of why these measures are ludicrous and, in many cases, dangerous to mental and physical health, social mobility and the economy in general but I know you are more familiar with these than me!
We know exactly how she feels.
The Oracle Speaks
A reader has kindly transcribed some of Lord Sumption’s remarks in yesterday’s Planet Normal podcast with Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan. His ability to speak in fully-formed, grammatically correct sentences is something else.
“I think Boris Johnson is a Johnsonite and that will lead him in different directions depending on the circumstances. Boris Johnson’s main problem is that he is obsessed with PR and he is not intelligent enough to study a problem carefully and in depth. Those are his two main problems. I think the problem is aggravated by the fact that decisions are being made within government by a very very small number of people and that the principle qualification for admission to his cabinet is loyalty as a result of which he is not getting the kind of internal discussion and criticism which makes for better decision making.”
“Well, the most important thing about the Coronavirus Act is that it is not the act which has been used to justify the lockdown or other measures affecting citizens. There are no powers in the Coronavirus Bill to control the movements of healthy people. The government has in fact used the Coronavirus Act only to justify the financial implications of the lock down. Most of the Act is in fact concerned with authorising, with the minimum of parliamentary scrutiny, additional public expenditure”.
“The lockdown and the quarantine rules and most of the other regulations have been made under the Public Health Control of Disease Act of 1984 which was extensively amended in 2008. Now, there is no agreement among lawyers about which I’m about to say but I do not myself believe that that act confers on the government the powers which it has purported to exercise. Because it is a basic principle of British constitutional law that you cannot invade fundamental rights and there are few more fundamental rights than liberty, by using general terms. You’ve got to be specific about it. And the reason for that is that if you use general words to justify draconian invasions of fundamental rights, there’s too big a risk that it will pass unnoticed in the course of the parliamentary process. To invade fundamental rights you have to have absolutely specific language. The only specific language in the Public Health Act which justifies invasions of liberty relates to people who are believed, on reasonable grounds, to be infectious. Ministers can only do things that magistrates could do and magistrates only have power to control the movements of infected people or to control the opening of infected premises. They don’t have power to control uncontaminated premises or healthy people”.
“The government has deliberately – I must assume deliberately because they have plenty of legal advice – they have used an act which to put it at its lowest, its application is profoundly controversial. In my view, an act which doesn’t confer powers. Now, the oddity is, the government does have power to do what it has done under another act which it has declined to use – The Civil Contingencies Act, 2004. The CCA is concerned with emergencies including health related emergencies and it empowers ministers to do anything that can be done by an act of parliament. Now you can’t get wider words than that. Why haven’t they used it? Now the only reason that I can think of for not using it is that the CCA has very stringent provisions for parliamentary scrutiny. A regulation under the act is only provisionally valid for 7 days unless it is approved by Parliament. Thereafter, it only has validity for 30 days; it has to be renewed every 30 days. Moreover, exceptionally there are provisions entitling Parliament to amend a regulation which is laid before it or to revoke it at any time. Now, the only reason that I can think of why the government did not use the one piece of legislation that’s plainly applicable is that it wished to avoid parliamentary scrutiny.”
Dr Mike Yeadon Challenges Government to Produce Evidence of Second Wave
Dr Mike Yeadon, co-author of the paper on the unlikelihood of a second wave that we published on Lockdown Sceptics Tuesday, appeared on Julia Hartley-Brewer’s show on TalkRADIO yesterday and challenged the Government and its scientific advisors to point to a single piece of research evidence that there’s likely to be a second wave of SARS-CoV-2. As he points out, we’ve already seen two pandemics caused by novel coronavirus since 2003 and neither has produced a second wave.
Mike is the former Head of Allergy and Respiratory Research at Pfizer and a successful biotech entrepreneur. He really knows his viruses.
Worth listening to in full.
The New Normal
Have we had a glimpse of the new normal at a pilot scheme at the St Leger Festival at Doncaster Racecourse, where the limited number of socially distanced spectators were not allowed to shout or cheer?
Covid Death Rate Higher in Countries With Mild Recent Flu Seasons
It’s been known for some time that the mortality profile of COVID-19 matches that of natural mortality, meaning people are considerably more likely to die with it the older they get. Your likelihood of dying with COVID-19 is about the same as your likelihood of dying full stop. This has led to the obvious question: how many who die with COVID-19 were likely to die soon anyway? And a related question: has the COVID-19 pandemic been particularly bad because the mild recent flu seasons have left alive many who would ordinarily have succumbed sooner?
Dr Chris Hope at the Cambridge Judge Business School decided to test this hypothesis and the result can be seen above (the paper is here). He found there was indeed a statistically significant correlation between the mildness of recent flu seasons and Covid death toll.
Does this mean that the whole coronavirus debacle only happened because the old had been spared a couple of winters? Scary thought.
Postcard From College
A 19 year-old college student started a childcare course in Wales this week and wrote to tell us about the joys of Covid college.
On Monday September 7th I started a Childcare course, and was greeted at the front desk by the harsh call of: “Masks in the hallways!”
I didn’t have a mask so they supplied one and I went on my way to class where I was informed we don’t have to wear them in the classroom… Apparently Covid waits patiently by the door before it attacks. Once in, we were welcomed by a talk from the Principal, a very nice chap with a lot of good to say but also a lot of bull. By the end if I had to hear the word “safe”, “safety” or “safeguarding” one more time I would throw up. Life will never be completely safe but can we at least do our best to minimise the irritation one must encounter on a day to day basis?
Then our teacher, again a lovely woman, read out the Covid symptoms – which as I understand it is about anything – and informed us that if we developed any then we were to go home immediately. One of these was a runny nose, fair enough. But the thing is they kept the windows open all day and weren’t allowed to close them! By the end of the day we were all sniffling because the room was freezing – what could you expect for Wales in September? Apparently, Covid is terribly frightened of air currents.
It’s as hard on our teachers as it is the students because they aren’t allowed to walk around the classroom to help us with our work, they have to yell from the desk. And anything we borrow – laptops, phones, pens, pencils – have to be wiped down before and after. It’s a huge hassle.
For my particular course, it’s quite frustrating. A a student of Childcare, I have to complete a certain number of placements in order to get the qualification. But they’re not letting any of us out into the schools. They say it might be possible in January, but the way the Government’s U-turns are going that could change any day. I don’t hold it against the school. Most of the teachers and students don’t care about Covid and are just trying to get on with it (there are a few authoritarian types enjoying themselves) and with the rules as confusing as ever that’s all anyone can do.
Empty Cycle Lanes
The Mailonline has flagged that many of the cycle lines that have popped up since the lockdown was imposed on March 23rd are empty. Meanwhile, motorists are being squeezed into ever smaller roads, causing endless traffic jams.
Pop-up cycle lanes set up as part a £225 million plan to get Britain moving again are lying empty while traffic is squeezing onto narrowed streets, bringing the capital to a halt, it can be revealed.
MailOnline visited some of the key cycle lanes across the country at the height of the rush hour to gauge how busy they are, only to find them chronically under-used with cyclists criticising them as well as motorists.
Our research in London, where Transport for London is leading its own £33 million scheme, shows that on the Euston Road, just seven cyclists used the designated lane over a 15-minute period.
Meanwhile 420 cars fought their way through traffic while in Park Lane, Mayfair, just 21 cyclists used the lane as 400 cars battled past.
The Government unveiled a £250 million plan to disfigure our cities with cycle lanes back in May. The subhead on the Guardian story about it was: “Campaigners call for redesign of transport system to help prevent bounce-back in air pollution.” Bounce-back in air pollution? Not even Independent Sage would come up with such unscientific guff.
One reader is understandably incandescent about this colossal waste of taxpayers’ money.
Almost all of this was done to get people cycling rather than taking public transportation. It was rammed through without consultation. It is a spectacular disaster like everything the Government touches.
The incompetence in planning and implementation of cycle lanes in the UK is breathtaking.
This Is Why Brits Aren’t Back in the Office
An office worker has written to tell us about the insanity that has taken over his London workplace.
I just wanted to share my situation with regards to going back to the office (been working from home since early March!).
I really want to go back to work, and with the virus gone, no one dying, no one in the hospital you would think that companies would reopen their offices. Well not mine. Our London office is still shut, with no timeline as to when we would go back.
But today, they held a virtual meeting to explain what to expect when we return. And it’s absolutely bonkers!
Masks will be everywhere in the office. They have to be worn all the time. They are also asking us to wear the mask from the moment we leave our home (they admit they can’t police that but they say it’s the rule).
Arrival times at the office will need to be staggered. Only four people per lift, each facing towards one corner of the lift. We share our building with another company and have been warned that they are not mandating masks so we should wait for the next lift to not be in proximity with such irresponsible individuals.
We will have to check in at reception, where they will conduct temperature checks. We will have to answer questions related to having symptoms, being in close contact with someone who has etc. If we pass the test, we would be given a bracelet, that allows us to be in the office. So anyone without a bracelet needs to be reported as they’ve not been screened.
We might be allocated a desk that’s not our usual desks, as everyone will need to be at least two meters apart, not facing each other. Meeting rooms will have their capacity cut, and will be stuffed with sanitising products that will need to be used on the equipment in the room before use. We’re asked to not use meeting rooms if possible, so if everyone is in the office for a meeting, the meeting will still have to take place over video conference with everyone at their desk.
Food and beverages can only be consumed at your desk. Tables in communal areas (around coffee machines) have been removed.
They’re starting a voluntary weekly testing programme, and we are “encouraged” to sign up (“we’re encouraging weekly testing because people can have the virus without showing symptoms” so a good way to get some false positives, or non-contagious people to become “cases” and scare everyone else).
I want to go back to the office, but not to that! This is just pure insanity.
Meanwhile my friends in France have all been back to their offices since June, all going back to the way it was before…
LinkedOut
Free speech has been one of the most serious casualties of this pandemic as internet platforms have taken it upon themselves to censor anything that doesn’t agree with the WHO’s latest change in policy. LinkedIn appears to be no exception, and a reader has been in touch to say the site has been particularly ruthless with him for his lockdown scepticism.
I was kicked off LinkedIn, no option to even retrieve my 15 years of data, big problem as I work business-to-business only and the 18,000 connections I think was the very best network anybody has in my niche field. No prior warnings or issues with LinkedIn, straight to removal of my profile and 15 years of posts. I didn’t think to ever back up my data/connections as I thought if I ever need it I’ll login and download it, but the download option is not possible as I can’t even login.
He has contacted LinkedIn, but they have not responded. If you are on Twitter and want to show your support please click here and retweet.
Grumpy Brother
Got a disheartening email from a man who had a bad experience trying to buy a bottle of bubbly to celebrate his son’s first communion. Some people do seem absolutely determined to see their shops go out of business.
Having collected the kids from school, I popped into a local off licence this afternoon – Laithwaite’s Wine – with the boys in tow. I needed to buy a couple of bottles of nice wine ahead of my son’s First Holy Communion tomorrow.
The ceremony itself – one of the biggest moments in a young Catholic’s life – has already been rendered close to useless given the absurd hoops we will have to jump through but at least popping a couple of corks would mark the occasion with some of the party spirit it is supposed to bring.
Mask on and having read the list of regulations by which I must comply to buy wine we had barely set foot into the door when we were gruffly told that we would have to wait outside they already had the requisite three customers inside the (massive) shop.
Given I was about to spend money with them I would have thought that the message might have been delivered slightly more pleasantly, but it was clear that we were dealing with people who were enjoying their moment in the sun.
And I needed wine!
When we eventually entered the shop, we were once again told that we would have to wait outside as being three, we exceeded the maximum number of “customers”. I’m not sure how much wine they expected the children to buy (both of them being under 10) but I politely explained that i doubted that rule applied to them. Bacchus’s grumpy brother reluctantly agreed but instructed us form behind his Perspex screen that we would all have to sanitise our hands and “stick together because the children will touch things”.
I should have just walked out at this point but I persisted as i was tight for time.
Mistake.
Whilst I had a quick awkward conversation with one of the two shop assistants and was in the process of paying for the wine, he took it upon himself to shout at my children and castigate them as loudly as he could for “not staying close to me”.
Personally I don’t care. I meet idiots everyday and will delight in not taking them any more custom in the future, that’s easy. But I felt terribly for the kids who were visibly embarrassed and uncomfortable. What sort of message does this give our little people when gleeful, bullying shop assistants feel they can behave this way?
I will drink their wine tomorrow and toast my little boy’s future but I plan to see if they operate a bottle return programme.
If they do, I know exactly where to stick the empties.
Are there no limits to the Government’s authoritarian overreach?
New Party Names
Some good name suggestions from readers: Freedom Party, Liberty Party, Enlightenment Party, Democratic Freedom Party, Libertas, Liberal Party.
Keep ’em coming.
Round-Up
- “Edinburgh police arrest and charge councillor after ‘unlawful’ anti-lockdown protests” – Dissent will not be tolerated
- “Anders Tegnell and the Swedish Covid experiment” – Even the Financial Times seems to be softening towards the Swedish approach in this in depth interview with Sweden’s heroic chief epidemiologist
- “Africa’s catastrophic Covid response” – Ian Birrell in UnHerd lays out the brutal truth about Africa, lockdowns and Covid
- “Counting the dead” – Excellent article in The Critic by Laura Dodsworth on the multitude of failings in our attempts to keep track of the dead this year
- “In defence of Boris’s ‘Rule of Six’” – The normally dependable Patrick O’Flynn has a brain fart in the Spectator
- “A handy guide to staying safe” – The always dependable Andy Shaw in Spectator Life
- “Flu and pneumonia killed TEN TIMES as many Brits as Covid last week, stats reveal” – The Sun brings some more facts to bear on the hysteria
- “Birmingham lockdown restrictions increased” – No mixing in homes at all for Brummies
- “Rising coronavirus infections show it’s time to overreact” – Bed-wetting piece of the day from Tom Whipple in the Times
- “Michael Gove persuaded Boris Johnson to bring in ‘rule of six’” – And they both claim to be a liberals
- “Sweden: People who wear masks get stared at, not the other way around” – Also known as normal
- “It’s time to move to a voluntary system… and for us to actually start living like a free people” – Great quote from Steve Baker MP. More power to his elbow
- “Professors’ message for Daniel Andrews: redo the coronavirus modelling” – The Australian lays out the scientific challenge to Kim Jong Dan. But is he interested in facts?
- “We should maintain the easing of lockdown” – Channel 4 interviews Oxford’s great anti-lockdown epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Seven today: “Everybody Be Yo’Self” by Chic Street Man, Le Voyage Dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) by Georges Méliès, “Governed By Contradiction” by Damon Smith Trio, “Hysterical Blindness” by Misery Stairs, “Resisting Tyrannical Government” by Propagandhi, “The Government Totally Sucks” by Tenacious D and “Clueless” by The Marias.
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 14th to Oct 23rd). 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 approaching 32,000).
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).
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. Doing these daily updates is a lot of work (although we have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending us stories and links). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links we should include in future updates, email us here. (If you want us to link to something, don’t forget to include a link).
And Finally…
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Quick thought – I’m hating all of this!
Me too….total refusenik…hate everything about where we are as a society: ruled by sentiment not science, fear favoured over fortitude and seeing our whole way of life slowly destroyed. .. awful!
I not only have issues with what they are doing, but also the way they are doing it. It’s not very British, but it also seems the British would not accept it. Yet both things are happening
Yeah, I never really bought into that idea of Brits as great defenders of liberty.
We are a very docile and law abiding people generally. We identify the idea of freedom with a settled constitution and the rule of law.
That makes us easy pickings for the Covid bullshit.
That said, is there a single nation that has stood up to and revolted against these horrible infringements of our natural liberty? I don’t think so.
It’s not just a British disease.
Wouldnt it be nice to be first!
We’ve got the songs for it, sing a long if you know the words – There’ll Always be an England…
Come on Nicola – sing along…why so glum?
Scotland The Brave??
Oh no no no
It’s been changed to “Scotland the Craven”.
The Shetland Isles are discussing independence from Scotland. (Seriously.) Karma…..
It’s been discussed for a while, rejoining the Danish/Norwegian motherland.
Eh no, what was discussed was becoming a crown dependency same as Channel Islands or Mann.
Negotiations would take place as to whether it is Norwegian or Scottish crown.
Shetland was a wedding gift from King of Norway.
They did before…they would be as fabulously wealthy as a Little oil state in the Gulf.
They should go for it. If there’s one thing worse than Johnson, it’s Johnson. Forgot to mention the evil Hancock, the bastard.
There’ll always be an an England, but they don’t want us in it.
Wouldn’t it be nicer to get back to normal?
I guess we Canadians come by our docility honestly, being part of the Commonwealth and all. I think we’re worse than you — the sheeple are virtually 100% compliant with masks. I despair because every time your government comes up with some new humiliation, I know we’re not far behind.
You make a good point about the “Commonwealth and all”. History is powerful and many of the British Commonwealth countries and even their ex colonies still regard England as ‘the mother country’ and have respect for their political system and sensible decision making processes so they sill take the UK lead.
Right now the UK leadership has not just failed its own citizens but the rest of the Commonwealth and their ex Colonies also.
Yet another fuck up.
I’ve been really surprised by Australia, at least Victoria, taking the lead in the march toward dictatorship within the Anglosphere.
I’m surprised the Australians are putting up with their pigmy dictatorship.
You mean just like the Brits are?
Think you will find it’s way worse in Victoria.
But it’s just heating in the U.K.
Brits are a bunch of servile masochists.
Nothing pygmy about it, throughout history the majorityof cassical full blown dictatorships have been a lot less totalitarian than Kim Jong Dan is being. Hitler, Stalin, red China and the North Korean dynasties might be exceptions, but most of the “tin pot” dictatorships, and a lot of the richer “client state” ones have typically given their people enough freedoms to keep the fundamental processes of society ticking over.
Which dictatorship is that? Where I live the roads are full of cars, we don’t wear masks when shopping, unless you’re an old fart scared by the marxist media or a Karen or a Chinese, and life pretty goes much goes on as normal, eg schools have been operating since the winter holidays in June. Oh, that’s right, we don’t have a Labor state government. As for Victoria, I think the Premier is a Chinese tool and fool, but they voted for the morons (Labor, Victoria being a bastion of academics and unions) and everything is done in accordance with the State’s Constitution and laws. Just like Boris and the US states where madness reigns I suppose.
I find those who complain about the death of democracy can never give me an real example or have read the laws/constitutions. And don’t say “suspending parliament” as none of them have been prorogued and any change of sitting dates is completely up to the government. On the other hand Trudeau prorogued the Canadian federal parliament; but that was to escape financial ethics scrutiny, not the Wuhan Virus Cold.
I suppose you aware that elections have been suspended, parliament is barely functioning and that we are ruled by decree via Twitter?
That’s what democracy is all about, according to nfw.
Where do you live in Australia? If you can’t tell us that’s fine.
Looks like nfw is in Ealing.
How many examples do you want?
Victoria today, Scotland soon after.
The government hasn’t failed everyone, Bill Gates is quite happy with how things are going.
Oddly enough, to the more conspiracy minded, Gates and his foundation have now been making noises about how lockdowns in africa have been much worse than covid could have ever been. Angry, no doubt, that such brutal repression in the name of stopping a mild virus has stopppd Gates’s lot from distributing vacciens for much worse viruses. They’ve started admitting that lockdowns don’t work “for low income countries”, maybe they’ll have the sense to see the same applies to ALL countries. If there’s a conspiracy behind this look to the control freaks in governments and secutiy industries who lust after ways to surveil people. Vaccine manufacturers and distributors undoubtedly want to make money, and will willingly do whatever they can to make their vaccine seem more useful that it might actually be, but they have staretd to see that paralysing societies so they are too poor to pay for the vaccine, or too disrupted to make use of it, isn’t matched to their for-profit agendas.
‘Humiliation’ is. a very good word. Human dignity is being trampled underfoot – by the legions of zombified ex-humans.
Friends all, every time you go out maskless, stand tall, smile, and show you are human and truly alive, you are resisting this humiliation.
Never despair, never give up, never give in. The. human race is us.
How true!
Borrowing from George Orwell – Masks are a boot stamped on your face – forever.
Show your face.
Rejoin the human race.
Annie, you’re a poet and you know it.
Now if you could set your lines to music and have the jingle recorded by a teenage band, then played consistently on Radio 1 and other stations, we could get the pubic to sing along, and influence government policy.
Anti-repressive songs needed now. If anyone knows bands or singers, get them to work.
Love to. But for us traditional types music is a live experience. No longer it seems. Thanks mad Boris and SShambledick, the axe is waiting for you. . .
Needs a few more syllables in the first line really
That’s because they are all linked together. Or, perhaps, they don’t want to be outdone. It’s a competition to see who can be the most Orwellian. There’s a First for ya!
It’s a lethal virus that has infected most of the world. If sane and healthy indigenous people in different parts of the world knew about this charade they would probably laugh their heads off. This situation is beyond ludicrous and risible, it’s inhuman, evil and must be stopped.
As well as indigensous peoples, all the peoples of history would be laughing at us too. All the people who lived lives where much worse diseases than covid lurked after every meal, every scratch, every visit to the “toilet”… The people of the 20th century who lived through the “Spanish” flu, with near normality, or the “Asian” or “Hongkong” flus of the late 50s and 60swith total normality. And Donald A Henderson, the man who masterminded the eradication of smallpox, will be spinning in his grave in fury, he concluded from all the available evidence that throughout history the communities that have best coped with pandemics have eben those that kept as clsoe to normal as possible.
http://www.upmc-biosecurity.org/website/resources/publications/2006/2006-09-15-diseasemitigationcontrolpandemicflu.html
The peoples’ compliance is mainly based on ignorance with a large dollop of trust. They trust the government has their interests at heart, when in fact it’s their own interests that are foremost. When you learn that Whitty, Ferguson and Vallance are all linked to the Gates Foundation, as is the W. H. O. it puts everything into perspective.
The British bain’t what they use to be. In truth I think they’ve all but become extinct.
Duke Ellington Things ain’t what they used to be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOePGV9Utrk
Boris is part Turkish. So there you go.
And not the good Turkish. He’s Erdogan Turkish.
And it’s not Turkish Delight either.
= Lukumi
sugar, water, and starch.
Yum . . .(not)
Agreed but it’s not that slow!
Thus far I have pretended to go along with Track’n’Trace by giving them a real but redundant email.
I’m not willing to be party to unlawfull coercion (see Toby’s text re Control of Disease Act 1984😅 ).
I enjoy eating in cafes, pubs and restaurants and have done so more than usual recently in order to support them but I can live without it.
Since stealing my identity is to become Statute Law I shall desist from doing so until that situation is reversed.
Hear, hear. Bye, bye dine in; hello takeaway and delivery.
Will be boycotting eating out until this insanity is gone.
Thanks for the 50% boris, much good it did in the long run.
Exactly. And if restaurants, cafes and pubs go bust they should blame the government and themselves for being cowards.
I don’t blame the restaurants.The local councils will be all over them.I use a kebab house.He told me last night he is closing the seating area because the council have told him he needs Perspex screens and he must enforce track and trace.He can’t afford to do this so is going take away only
Yes, you are right. I’ll make an exception for the transport cafe that I’ve been using that has been fine after being a bit uptight for the first week after reopening (cash).
Cash only.
i would rather eat my shoe than a kebab
Hello,
I woke up after a dream this morning where Boris announced to the British public that he and his government were deeply sorry for the mistake of lockdown. That he would suspend All lockdown laws and fire his entire team of experts and replace them with experts who would lead the country out of the nightmare. This is what I hope should happen but politicians don’t seem to have the courage to do the right thing. Instead politicians will lie and mislead us and don’t have the honesty to say they were wrong. As for Boris he portrays himself as Churchills prodgey but he’s completely failed when faced with a crisis. In 1940 the British government was faced with a crisis negotiate peace with Nazis Germany the easy option. This is what everyone expected or call for Winston. As we all know we ended up on the right side of history. But we came so close to being on the wrong side of history it’s why Churchill is seen as the greatest Briton.
It wasn’t just Churchill, it was millions of other people that went along for the ride.
I agree, but it was Churchill who rallied the nation to fight on. The previous government and the establishment were quite willing to negotiate with Nazis Germany. The point I am making is Boris failed completely with his first crisis unlike his hero.
Exactly why would we have lost the war without Churchill? It’s never been that clear to me.
I didn’t say that. Churchill’s speeches and manner inspired millions of people to follow his lead.
By the time he became PM Churchill had held numerous positions of responsibility (Admiralty, for one), had had the opportunity to screw up badly (Gallipoli) and had been politically ostracized for some of his views, which did not result in his capitulation in order to make himself more acceptable. Johnson has simply never had these experiences and could not psychologically handle them if he had. He is a weak man who goes with the path of least resistance. I should have known this from his inability to keep his trousers zipped, because I thought it wasn’t relevant. I made a mistake, which is more than bojo would ever admit.
Churchill did not screw up at Gallipoli, he planned a Naval engagement only, the War Office turned it into an amphibious one and then supplied second rate ships and an Admiral who was a nervous wreck.
Johnson could’nt lace Churchills shoes
If Boris thought he would win as a remainer, then he would have been a remainer. Now that’s how democracy works for Boris.
Pay cash only.
Find a place that takes cash.
Lie.
Lying in that context is a moral duty.
Aol@aol.com is the email that I’ve used for years if I don’t want to give my personal email address. 0800 800 800 is the telephone number too!
Does Whitehall 1212 still work?
(London)9441212
If needed,I sign in as: R U Barking
Illegal Statute Law. If the United Nations does nothing about all this then they should be defunded as well.
The UN is a globalist invention. Bill Gates is a globalist and a eugenicist. Boris Johnson is softer than putty in Bill’s hands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVfzf2Lej5c
From Boris J to Bill G:
Putty in your hands
They should be refunded in any event.
Yesterday I endured a 90 minute wait outside hospital in the fresh air and traffic noise admiring facemasks in a queue for a blood test after having been mortified to have missed an appointment for one at my local GP. Inside it was my first true encounter with the devastating impact of the C-19 rules on what used to be a slick, efficient operation. Back home, I check online and read that ‘government’ is going to spend £100,000,000,000 to test the whole population once a week. (I’m sure there is a mistake somewhere, but by now mistakes are everywhere.) Late yesterday I posted a comment to reassure anyone wavering from the ‘government’ line, not to do so because they are fanatical about your well being. In case you missed it, here it is again. Keep the faith. Some people think the government lockdowns are part of a conspiracy, so the question that arises is: “Why should this be so?” Is there any reason? There might be some things happening that just appear to benefit from there being a lockdown with a Behavioral Insights Team helping the BBC to scare the people shwitless. The danger of the disease is over-hyped and… Read more »
If this isn’t state corporatism I don’t know what it is. And the socialist parties are are all into it as far as I can see.
Couple of letters to write this week. One to my local socialist Councillor whose party was built on the back of fighting back against the housing mad banking scams here in Ireland, will need told in no uncertain terms, they are being hoodwinked by a corporate takeover and their attempt to use masks and calls for school closures as some warped signal of ‘solidarity’ is completely delusional.
Depends what you mean by state corporatism: ‘corporatism’ usually means state and big business operating in tandem, what some refer to as “crony capitalism”. There’s an interview on Bloomberg with Larry Fink CEO of BlackRock Inc where he talks of the “intersect between Covid, Climate and racial justice” you could as well be listening to Jeremy Corbyn or Sinn Fein..
The mighty GK Chesterton was on the money writing a century ago:
“Bolshev1sm and Big Business are very much alike; they are both built on the truth that everything is easy and simple if once you eliminate liberty. And the real irreconcilable enemy of both is what may be called Small Business.”
Otherwise this is an excellent talk on the bigger picture which we’re not seeing on Lockdown Sceptics which I can only interpret, like the media generally, as controlled opposition, i.e. we’re supposed to believe CV-19 is some kind of error rather than deliberately engineered, i.e. no different politically to Climate or ‘racial justice’ different means to same ‘One World’ end, that’s to say. in what Larry Fink’s “intersect” consists:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PrY7nFbwAY&feature=emb_title
Crony Capitalism to me is standard rent seeking behaviour that has become endemic within the socio-political system. Corporatism is a much more explicit relationship between big business and the state. The fascist state enforces the will of select business interests. To me its moved from the first system to verging on the latter as we see the same private institutions funding key scientific research centres who in turn are the infallible advisors to government.
The government is last in that chain as the enforcer of the policies put forward by the unelected chain of groups that precede it. Nowhere is the man I the street part of this. Yes they have a vote every 4 years but without freedoms such a right I assembly and protest, free speech, free press, democracy is but a facade.
State Corporatism is Fascism.
That’s why I called it so. Mussolini and all that.
It’s more than state corporatism, it’s state aided genocide. Bill Gates is a lifelong eugenicist and a longtime advocate for drastic reduction of the global population. Why would anyone accept a fast tracked hardly tested and free of all liability vaccine for a disease that isn’t a problem unless you are already dying of something which is way more serious.
Excellent summary.
The point of this post will become evident.
15 years ago my local council proposed to implement resident parking bays in 10 areas of the city.
Following howls of protest they promised local mini referenda.
This they did and all 10 areas voted resoundingly No, on a turnout higher than local elections.
The city hailed their exercise in local democracy but noted a “few hotspots of local demand”.
Over the next ten years they implemented resident parking along a few short stretches of road, here and there, a bit over there and somewhere else.
In the end the whole initial ten schemes were implemented in full but nobody noticed.
This is where we are headed, a little local lockdown here for Leicester, another over there, the unlovely parts of Manchester, West coast of Scotland and yet another bit.
Followed by the biggest provincial city as Birmingham faces new restrictions until finally The Biggie, The Great Wen. And how can London complain, it’s only coming in line with the rest of the country?
Caerphilly for now but the rest of Wales can wait till they’ve got used to the masks.
Étapiste: step by step.
I think Gilead is the name of the company in question.
Gilead makes the costly patented drug remdesvir, that might just work a bit. Hydroxychloroquine apparently works well, but being out of patent won’t make real money.
And that philanthropist was Bill Gates. He even giggle with glee after he said it. Worse than Scrooge McDuck.
I’m sickened to be second…
“Implicitly accepted”. There’s your problem. You may make fun of Americans for being… special, but at least they have their freedom and liberty written in their constitution. In the UK, liberty is only accorded if it pleases the ruling class, and it can be taken away on a whim.
Stop letting your freedom be an implicit right. Make it explicit.
The commitment to individual liberty went a long time ago! Nothing to do with Covid.
Bill of Rights 1689, from which the US Constitution derives, that and Magna Carta (did she die in vain?) 1215.
Thanks for the Hancock (not the current one) reference
Not quite right Cristi.. The word ‘implicit’ does not indicate casual, easy to remove freedoms.
It reflects that under Common Law (on which yours are based) Subjects of the Queen may do anything that is not expressly forbidden.
Citizens under Napoleonic Law
(most of continental Europe) are allowed to do those things that their governments permit them to do.
johnson and his creepy cabal have proposed laws that severely curtail those freedoms but we will get them back when his illegal Coronovirus legislation is cast aside by the Courts.
Well and bravely spoken.
How often in our history have a brave few carried the cause of liberty while the sheeple multitude stand and bleat?
We think the love of liberty is intrinsic to Brits because our history has always been written to focus upon the few who did things, rather than the many who stood and bleated. What proportion of the population, for example, did the Pilgrim Fathers represent?
Thank you Annie.
The charge at the moment appears to being led by Toby and Simon Dolan, let’s hope the latter has the support of Dyson, Branson and Martin whose early careers would have been stymied under the regime boris the bastard is aiming for.
Next thing we’ll be told is that we can get the Covid “off of the internet…”
Who ‘owns’ the courts?
I should have added a pointer to the travesty that is the treatment of Assange.
Craig Murray’s reports testify to the blatant bias of the court.
The Queen but they are run by The Lord Chancellor (if and when they get back to work).
The people.
Britain massively needs a written constitution
Surely they are taking the p*** now?
I feel sorry for this person, it’s insanity. They need a new job… vote with the feet.
Deals with the farting issue perhaps, so a silver lining of sorts.
Offices are hotbeds of insanity now. My friend’s office also has a series of insane rules but she’s fighting back with the mask diktat with her exemption.
Exactly which is why the whole back to work thing is going to fall over – one day of that and no one will go back for a second day – the idea that there will be meetings over computers wearing masks is just bonkers – but have heard it before. Was with someone yesterday and one his other clients had a daughter who had queued for an hour for lift to get into the office ! That isn’t going to be an unusual issue – my old job in one of the City biggest buildings we had 20 crammed in to very life and there were still often waits ! It’s the rules / guidance that’s e issue
Agree. At some point this will just fall apart as office workers either revolt or boycott or engage in simple disobedience. Many companies are on their knees now and are spending money they don’t have on pointless “Covid safety” measures, any “strike” by their workers will finish them off.
The winter will be a big problem as a lot of businesses will not turn on their heating/ac systems because of the fear of spreading Covid.
The irony with that is that more people will get sick due to the draughts and chill.
Either way businesses are fecked because people will simply just stay at home and do their Christmas shopping online or simply go for Deliveroo or Just Eat for a date night in.
It happening already, as the offices are that cold, one of the businesses I deal with regularly sent a member of staff home as his nose was running. He’s not ill, but they can’t take any risk, so he has now had to have a C-19 test, and they are awaiting the outcome which of positive means they will have to shut the office and all self isolate!
Sorry but you so not get sick due to draughts and chill. Put on another jumper.
I don’t like the tone of your comment. A few years ago, I did catch a cold which I couldn’t shift for six months due to a work colleague opening the windows at all times even when it was so cold. She didn’t even once bothered to ask me if I was OK with it. And I had to sit at my desk wearing my layers and coat for the whole day.
Your comment is unhelpful and condescending.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/well/can-being-cold-make-you-sick.html
Boycott Christmas at the high end/online outlets. Buy everything at the COOps and boot sales.
I thought the Covid liked cold, hence the rash of outbreaks in food processing plants over the summer throughout Europe.
The Winter of our Discontent or The Lion in Winter?.
“whole back to work thing is going to fall over”
Just what they need to destroy small business and make everyone dependent on the state.
Whilst there are going to be issues in some built up areas – am (was before the latest madness (hopeful that the local suburbs and market towns could benefit from the salaries being spent in the places where people live rather than the centre. Whilst places like the city have small business owners a lot of them got forced out by rents and aggressive expansion by the big chains – there were literally Prets every 200 meters in some parts so they are clearly and very public ally in trouble.
Agreed I imagine that a lot of home workers would take a break outside the house, pub lunch perhaps.
C 1980 working in Long Acre before the days of Pret, just a nice family run sandwich shop with excellent Gala Pie.
at that point i realised he was making the whole story up.
Hi Biker, sadly I don’t think he is – have got first hand knowledge of several “re-entry” plans for City businesses and this kind of lift restriction is common – usually enhanced by the fact the four people have to stand in each corner facing outwards. There is nothing in Sally’s post that haven’t seen before in multiple sources
Shades of Peter Pisspot?
Our office rules include the same masks in lifts nonsense including having to wear one even if you are the only one in it. Presumably someone is monitoring cctv. I use the stairs – 4 floors.
This will be the death of multi storey, open plan city office blocks. Lots of offshore property magnates lose a lot of money (as, temporarily, do a lot of pension funds. They can reassign their capital however). Suburbia, small businesses and traditional human scale buildings win. Good show.
Take the p*** out of them.
Ha! Our regulations are worse. Only 2 people allowed in the lift. The company I work for advises us to not use the lift at all and, if we must, to not touch the lift buttons with “bare skin”.
Speculating on how, worldwide, it has been so easy to take away people’s freedoms using the Covid excuse, I recalled Thomas Sasz…look him up on Wikipedia via Google.
His ideas seemed somewhat outlandish, maybe perverse, 50 years ago but now, in the context of the Covid crisis, I feel they have stood the test of time.
Szasz’s ideas were at no time outlandish or perverse!
Another thinker relevant to these times is Ivan Illich (particularly Medical Nemesis).
Thanks for the name check…Yes I think I was partly recalling Ivan whilst referencing TS.
These thinkers from several decades ago are now highly relevant to the times we live in.
Just looked him up on Amazon, he looks really interesting – which of his books would you particularly recommend?
I second the notion and further suggest…. go a step further and read some Thomas Sasz! If only more people did.
“When a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.” Nelson Mandela
Government is sure making a lot of outlaws these days.
Outlaws United. A new Premier League team.
I know the parallel has been drawn before but as I listen to the BBCs version of the news I’m more and more reminded of 1984, not just the Police state into which we are descending.
Oceania is in a constant state of war with the other two remaining superpowers. Every day for years the Citizens are told by loudspeakers of ever greater victorious battles against the nearly defeated enemy. . .
But final victory never comes, is Oceania actually winning battles ?
Is there really a war ?
Julia thought there was no war, and that the constant rain if bombs was being delivered by the government ‘to keep people frightened’. It’s not clear in the book whether that technique was being used, but it’s most certainly being used now.
Discussing the Rule of 6 with a dental care worker yesterday she said, without prompting, “it’s all just to keep us in line”.
More lies have been dropped on the country than in the whole of WW2.
Yes – so many victories…
The Great Lockdown victory (two super lockdown countries head the death table – Peru and Belgium but who cares? – we did the right thing).
The 500,000 Lives Saved victory. Thank you Generalissimo Ferguson for leading us to such stunning success.
The Glorious App victory. So successful, a second front has now been opened up.
The NHS Saved victory (sadly huge casualties in this battle but never mind).
The Magnificent Mask victory – millions heroically wearing masks every day despite the clear health dangers to themselves from doing so.
In terms of phantom victories North Korea has nothing on us.
Not to mention how successful they have been at keeping the dread Second Wave at bay.
Of course, this one’s just the successor to the war on terrorism, the war on drugs, the war on satanic rituals, the war on witches – you get the picture
You forgot smokers.
Perpetual wars keep the people on their toes. Hourly. Daily.
This might be a better link to ‘Everybody Be Yo’Self’ than the rewritten Muppet version (appropriate though it is for this post).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K34zlD7BEHk
‘Everybody’s got to live, everybody’s got to die
Everybody’s got a right to feel good inside
Everybody’s got a high, everybody’s got a low
Everybody got to be yoself no matter where you go
You go downtown to show your face around
You got nothin’ that you want to hide …’
Happy Families, Mum Dad and 3 kids.
Mum, can Gary come over this evening ?
“No Peter, you had a friend here on Wednesday, I think it’s Frans’ turn to have a friend tonight.”
No it ain’t she had that Wendy here on Thursday I told Andy he could come round.
No I never that was Monday!
“Well I’m sorry Gary, Andy will just have to come another time”
It ain’t fair and I hate you both!
“George, darling, do you fancy going to the pub for a couple of hours so the kids can have more than one friend to visit ?”
‘Oh all right if I really have to’.
It’s such bollocks. I have 3 kids. Twice this week we have walked home in a group of 8. Is that verboten? Shall I ignore my friends and neighbours en route for fear of breaching 6 next week??!!
Farm out a couple of the kids if a friend calls, or the man to read the meter ?
The Real Conservative Party
The Normal Party
The Sane Party
The Raving Normal Party?
An improvement on the actual Monster Raving Tory Party, certainly.
What happened to the Raging Grannies?
The Fed up Party.
Take Action Party
Personal Freedom Party
The Post Politics Party
Courage
The Future Party
The Common Law Party
The Face Freedom Party
A lot more Left-wingers here than you imagine actually, but funny – even as a left wing person – I am lamenting the lack of a true Conservative Party.
Pulling up outside my house yesterday and finishing a bit of paperwork I became aware of a small cluster of people on the corner behind me.
I can hear a man talking about the great flood here in the 1960s. I carry on listening with interest as he described at length what happened in the surrounding streets and to local families.
About 10 minutes later the group walked toward the park, the last of them in a hi viz bib.
Walking back from the shops half an hour later the group the group are back and the man, who is filming himself Go-Pro, is telling them about the effects of WW2 on the area.
Hopefully this is a sign of greenshoots of a return to Civic Society that johnson and his gang have tried to stamp out.
I’m surprised the chap in Toby’s text trying
to buy wine was allowed in the front door at all since alcohol retailers have the right, indeed duty, to refuse service if he believes that alcohol might be passed to minors.
Not saying this is as it should be but it is.
Hello
Exclusive Michael Gove persuaded Boris Johnson to bring in ‘rule of six’Mr Gove was one of only two Cabinet ministers to call for new curb on social gatherings earlier this week
Telegraph
Rum cove that Gove.
That is very worrying. It seems that when Bozo ‘retires’ for health reasons we still may not see an end to this madness.
Could be spin by Gove’s opponents.
My thoughts exactly. I reckon there is a nasty power struggle kicking off in the Conservative Party.
Yesterday I allowed myself to get my hopes up a bit, when I heard that *finally* a few politicians are saying that enough is enough.
Well, that was a mistake. As if on cue, the chicken entrail-studiers who pass for public health experts have announced that the mystical R number has gone above 1, and the MSM are pushing the “we’re all in danger” line.
This really looks deliberate. Like Toby, I used to be sure that the covid hyperreaction was down to ignorant, careerist groupthink rather than some plot. Now, I’m not so sure.
The way the R number is used, the mystery over how it is calculated (clairvoyant at a fairground?) and the way we are never told what has made it go up or down is one of the aspects that suggests to me that this whole Covid hoo-haa has moved from the rational and the logical and assumed the character of a cult religion.
We must all tremble before the great spirit Covid, wear our facemasks in obedience and rush to the temple test centre if we have a slight cough. Except as I see it ‘the Emperor has got no clothes on!. We are warned that hospital cases and deaths will go up in a few weeks, there will be doom tomorrow but as far as i can see it is not happening? Covid 19 hospital cases and deaths are at a low level.
Am I correct in saying that, unless it is a condition of your employment (e.g. care worker) getting tested is voluntary? And that if everyone refused to get tested this whole pantomime would collapse? If so then we must do all we can to spread the word ‘DON’T GET TESTED’.
We figured out months ago that R was make it up as you go along claptrap, perhaps in their focus group bubble they think we have forgotten.
Same goes for “there will be more hospital cases tomorrow, next week, next month” and that the Second Tsunami is crashing over walls tomorrow.
Give it a rest boris, tosser.
They’d need to write it into your contract. Also, even wearing a mask or stupid bracelet can be considered uniform. So check your contract as to what is said about what is expected to be worn.
There is no upside to an individual getting tested. If you test positive you have to isolate for 14 days. The government now also want to use testing to build a nationwide DNA and fingerprint database.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/391/contents/made
The only good coming from testing is that as numbers of cases increase without a similar increase in deaths, the CFR continues to fall.
I am sure they have not the slightest idea what the R number is, whether it is relevant today with such small numbers presenting at hospital, but it has been set up to scare people so they’ll use it.
It’s deliberate, every step of this scamdemic has been planned! I feel the reason Bonzo hasn’t been removed yet is because of Brexit, now only 3 months off.
I posted this a couple of days ago. I just can’t get it out of my head. Please tell me I’m wrong.
I see the discussions questioning the competence of Hancock or Boris. No. They are entirely competent. Just not the competence that we are thinking or expecting.
I read somewhere that this is ‘The Great Reset’. What a cosy phrase that is. Between 1 billion and 6 billion people need to die for it to be effective.
This is a hugely efficient machine of death that we are now staring in the face. This isn’t about the economy, or Brexit, or even about politics. It’s above all that. It’s even for our own good. Which is a bit of an oxymoron to say the least.
This is the SECOND HOLOCAUST. It is gathering momentum in its multiple ways, I predict hundreds of millions of deaths. Let the murders begin, oh they already have! Time for a cuppa…
Georgia Guide Stones spring to mind.
For months now I have been trying to get my acquaintances to wake up, but so far have begun to turn just one person; another asked to be taken off my email list. It seems we are in this battle all alone. Do we have a Horatio to help defend all we love and cherish?
https://www.bartleby.com/360/7/158.html
Mixing things up, let’s stop playing the fiddle while Rome burns.
I agree completely with all but the Holocaust. Not the second Holocaust, the second Holodomor! Which makes the Holocaust sound like a trip to Disneyland by comparison, but that’s largely forgotten in history, which is incredible to me.
Not forgotten by everyone TyLean, if anything it gets more attention now than the little ot recieved when I was st school.
and the MSM are pushing the “we’re all in danger” line.
Did they just receive more money from The Gates Foundation?
“Some good name suggestions from readers: Freedom Party, Liberty Party, Enlightenment Party, Democratic Freedom Party, Libertas, Liberal Party. Keep ’em coming.”
The RIGHT TO Party!
The right to anything would be good.
Rights are handed down by government and can be taken away. Liberties are innate and can only be suppressed by tyranny, viz johnsons current racket.
OK, ring the Liberty Bell!
According to the United States of America’s Constitution we have inalienable rights. Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness.Top that.
Or just “Enlightenment”, rather than “Enlightenment Party”?
The Sceptical Party.
The Sea Wall Party (SWAP) to defend us against second waves and illegal economic migrants and infiltrators.
Forming a political party is a complicated and expensive endeavour. The Brexit Party is the only recent successful example, and even that only worked as a pressure point on the Conservatives, never got seats except in EU Parliament. Better, I would hazard a guess, to support a campaign group which already has some organisation, infrastructure and funding. Liberty, the former NCCL, disgracefully late on the scene, might be worth supporting. Like all such, it has had its fails in the past, notably PIE in the 70s. Nobody’s perfect, but it knows a thing or 2 about campaigning.
Liberty is controlled opposition.
It’s always really interesting to hear Lord Sumption speak on these issues and the legal aspects.The only problem is that the “Law” doesn’t seem to be all that we’ve been led to believe over the years if no one is interested in applying it and the government can freely operate outside of it on a whim. Why does it also take so long to get a hearing regarding these major issues when the issues involving Brexit were heard within a very short period. In both cases without having any knowledge of the law I could predict the outcome….
Of course you could predict the outcome. It was patently obviously wrong to deny Parliament the opportunity to debate and vote on the issues, just like now.
Ring a ring of morons,
Don’t think just put the mask on
Atishoo!Atishoo!
We all lock down
Very very fed up now: Sturgeon land is now a masked compliant collective.
Baa baa johnson
have you any bull
Yes pleb, yes plep
Three masks full…
Over to you.
Eeny meeny miny moe,
Wear your mask and don’t say ‘no’
Eeny meeny miny moe
Hancock knows, he told you so.
To the ‘wheels on the bus’ song. But must point your finger in rhythm as sung.
Hancock on his lectern says, ‘don’t do that, don’t do that, don’t do that!’
Hancock on his lectern says, ‘don’t do that!’
All day long.
Rishi on his lectern says,’ spend, spend, spend!’
Boris on his lectern …. any ideas.
The covid tests go up and down,
Up and down
Up and down
The covid tests go up and down
One more lockdown
The rule of six is tosh,tosh,tosh
Tosh,tosh,tosh,
Tosh,tosh,tosh
The rule of six is tosh,tosh,tosh
One more lockdown
The covid marshalls what a joke,
What a joke,
What a joke
The covid marshalls what a joke
One more lockdown.
Very good. Shared with guess that tune!
Political party suggestion: The free and the brave.
The Living Party or just Living
Nice as opposed to the zombie nation.
Similar theme could be ‘Pioneers’.
How about the Conversative Party? That should lose the Tories some crosses on the ballot paper.
We stand for the ‘converse’ of the current situation, right?
Broadcast media dominated by Brexit yesterday, UK government breaking international law etc…..then, by the evening, the lead story: ‘R rate shoots up….etc’
Hmmm………
Sometime on Radio 2 a listener was quoted
“People who break the law should go to
prison. Boris Johnson has broken EU law so he needs to be in prison”.🤔
Indeed he does but not for that reason.😡
Double standards as they were happy for Gina Miller to use the same “Parliament is Sovereign” to try to stop Brexit!
Gina Miller was right, of course, as was the quoted R2 listener. No double standards there. Try the consistency of the rule of law for all, maybe?
Sovereign & Free Party
I’m not actually bothered by the rule of 6 thing at all, because I plan to completely ignore it. But like you, think hopefully it will be the last straw.
The masks are my biggest horror. I don’t understand why people have been so accepting of them. There is no scientific rationale for them. They cost money. They are polluting. They are uncomfortable. And most importantly, they may actually be harmful to health.
They are also symbolic of obedience and conformity, like the costumes in a handmaid’s tale.
Yes, and that means that down here in the South of Cox’s constituency the people are just about 100% obedient and conformist. Very, very sad.
Society is sick all right, and it isn’t with covid.
And yet if I go in my local pub, Royal Oak Dolton, it sometimes feels like I am back in pre-Covid days. Mind you probably should not have said that, the Covid Marshalls will be calling in to check!
I do feel I tread of a bit of tightrope, the Covid atmosphere in the village is quite febrile and I am a Parish Councillor.
Well I’m not a pillar of the community, so I don’t have to bother!
And the thing is, when I go into the local shops I’ve no idea if anyone I know sees me unmuzzled, because I don’t recognise anyone behind the face nappies, or even look at them.
I don’t know if you are down Tavi way very often as we could say hello, and on the occasion I head towards Torrington or Bideford.
Quite agree! I loathe them ,all they stand for, the dire consequences for normal behaviour and the mass acceptance.
I generally ignore maskoids, pretend they are not there. If one insists on engaging with me I may tell them the Covid can get in through their eyes so they need to wear a blindfold to be on the safe side.
In our situation we cannot ignore the rule of six, which means our children can’t see their cousins.
Set up your home as a youth group with the only members being your kids and their cousins. Look at the govt site – there’s quite a few exemptions.
If I possibly could bend the rules I would completely ignore them but we simply can’t as we live and work on the campus of a boarding school. Interestingly everyone thinks the whole thing is a complete and utter load of bollocks but we simply cannot break any guidelines because we won’t be insured. I wonder how many others are in the same boat?
Or just designate your home as a local chapter of BLM or XR
I live in Cornwall and apart from in shops very few are wearing them in the street. However currently in Hertfordshire visiting family and I’m horrified by how many are muzzled in the open air, over 50% I’d say.
I wore my lanyard this week for the first time. I was nervous, and felt uncomfortable being different to the masked shoppers in the small Tesco, but made myself go in. I wore my sunglasses to block out any death-stares. As I queued to pay, a chap walked in wearing the same lanyard. We smiled, and he said “snap” as he walked past. This site gives me hope. I would not have had the confidence to decide to be ‘exempt’ it it was not for the facts I’ve read here. Thankyou.
I gave mine away to an elderly neighbour who had been bullied at his (mine also) GP practice who insisted that he would need a mask to get his flu jab at the cattle market later this month.
That prompts an idea. I live in Maidstone and if anyone here wants to shop maskless but is worried about confrontation etc contact me at charlesf1@live.co.uk and I will happily do my shop with you. I’ve been going maskless from the start and don’t even take my exemption card.
Glad to hear you’ve made the leap! I don’t go in shops since the masked trigger me, but I ride the bus every day to go to my allotment. I wear a lanyard and sit at the very back so that I don’t have to look at the masks. The drivers rarely wear them. I am usually the only other unmasked person. It’s hard to do, but really we must do it just to remind them of what normal looks like.
I do the same. If I’m travelling by underground, I try to sit at the very far end and always have something to read with me.
I saw a young guy bicycling, wearing a mask.
The Government seem to be really pushing this Covid phone app,
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/businesses-urged-to-prepare-for-nhs-covid-19-app
They seem to imply that entry to many things will become dependent on having this app on your phone and having it checked.
More cult religious overtones, 666 the mark of the beast?
There seems no mention of the 21% of the population (including me) who do not have a smartphone.
Also no consideration for the people who cannot afford a phone each and share one phone for the whole family.
All of this seems like making things mandatory by the back door i.e. you can only have things or do things if you have the app.
I think track and trace is a complete violation which needs to be abolished entirely, but it does say, ‘An alternative check-in method must be maintained to collect the contact details of those who don’t have the app, for example a handwritten register.’
I won’t be taking my phone to the pub until this lunacy is over.
What happened to our data protection legislation
And Gid, the trouble we had trying to comply with that bugger…
Probably died with the Covid.
It’s gutting as in February I spent a good couple of hours I’ll never get back doing online training in data protection for my place of work!
We have the QRG’s here in our restaurants, pubs etc. My phones a dinosaur, so I ask for a pen! The tracking app the Federal gov encouraged everyone to download at the beginning of all this has not been successful in identifying one transmission, BUT what other data has it been successful in gleaning.
Not had any problems eating out etc without the app Steve.
A month ago one pub refused me entry because I didn’t have a smartphone to scan their QR code. But in general no problem, though it may change next week when it becomes mandatory.
That’s appalling. I’d be telling them in no uncertain terms not to expect your custom when this is all over.
Well, just got rid of our smart phones. Bought 2 burner Nokias from a friend who dabbles in them. £10 sim card every few months, different number each time. Sorted!
That’s a great idea. My mobile spends most of its life turned off. My friends moan but my landline with answerphone works perfectly well.
I tell my daughters (both in their twenties) to retrain their friends to expect slower replies from them – don’t be a slave to your own phone is my motto.
Me too, Bella. Landline and answerphone. Have never had a mobile phone.
I still use my old Nokia for calls and text, just, easier to use imho.
I’m very attached to my 2nd hand Blackberry, which doesn’t do modern apps.
Same trick they pulled to get us to stop flying without having to make it illegal, tax it or impose air mile rationing.
Portugal’s turn on the naughty step today
It’s also working with the trains. I’ve considered and decided against taking a holiday within the UK this year. Looked at the rail websites and decided it sounded too dystopian for a nice week away.
Also no mention of those of us who’ll destroy our phones before allowing them to be used in this way.
I bought a smart phone to use on planes. Never again. A paper boarding card is much easier to use. Never use the smart phone now.
So no ID cards, but instead Health Passports.
What has become of Britain…
Many Christian commentators have been arguing for some time that smartphones, or some feature associated with them, are The Mark of the Beast, rather than RFID implants, which was a popular idea for a long time. I think they are right. I need to get rid.
Why are you insulting Christians?
Christians are a lot more sane and rational than that.
Sunetra Gupta nails it. We had a chance to get to the very low herd immunity threshold over the summer and we wet the bed. What a pathetic, spineless country we have become.
THEY. Not WE.
I am not part of their bollox.
Nor me!
The bollox didn’t just spring from the Earth like a Geyser, they’ve been building up for years… step by step.
The Sex Pistols recorded a song about it over 40 years ago.
The number of deaths attributed to Covid-19 started dropping rapidly in England in early July. That is because we reached HIT (Herd Immunity Threshold) at that time.
To reach HIT for a virus doesn’t mean that there will be zero deaths or infections – there will always be vulnerable people with compromised immune systems, who will fall to any passing virus – but that the great majority of the people have antibody or more likely T-cell protection and are perfectly safe to go about their daily business.
The Government ministers know that we have reached HIT but they have another agenda, so they will not admit that the viral danger is over.
Is it time for a military coup to restore normality and order while a new general election is organised?
One poster here’s husband is in the military, she asked him the same question. He said you need a small group committed to the same aims, and the ability to bribe people. He thought she was joking.
The other keys to a coup include – (i) having a replacement either in charge or immediately put in, who is totally on side; and who (ii) will assist in ensuring that nobody is ever subject to too much scrutiny or real threat of prosecution. Not sure any of the current bunch fit the criteria….
I’ve been thinking a brief intervention by the military is the best solution. Clear out Parliament, scrap covid laws, Public Enquiry and when that’s done start again with fresh elections, but I just don’t think our military are up to it. I’m also disappointed in Her Majesty. OK – she stays out of politics because otherwise there may be a constitutional crisis. But what we are living through now is worse than a mere constitutional crises. It’s the total obliteration of our country, freedoms and way of life. We are at war, and we are losing! Is there a way constitutionally of approaching the Queen to request some sort of intervention?
Small point on the transcription of Lord Sumption’s interview – I think he described Johnson as not ‘diligent’ enough, rather than not ‘intelligent’ enough.
Worse still he’s intransigent.
in•trans•i•gent ĭn-trăn′sə-jənt, -zə-►
Another cracker from CEBM and Carl Heneghan.
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/when-is-covid-covid/
It’s funny. I’ve been saying this on the site for the last few months i.e. you need a specific set of symptoms and at least one unique combination to recognise a disease.
Not because I’m wise. It’s the definition from the Scientific Method. Plus add in Karl Popper’s ideas about falsifiability in that a hypothesis needs a negative condition to be a hypothesis. There must be a condition or conditions where failure disproves the hypothesis. If not it’s not a hypothesis.
This is what we’re taught in physics from day one.
Boris didn’t study Physics.
Such an important point, as how you define the disease and therefore case, you’d think would receive more airtime, but it doesn’t. Great work again by these guys.
This was concern when the first list of symptoms were published as an OR list rather than an AND list.
Each by itself proves nothing.
At the end of February I had a temperature of 38.4, a paramedic colleague looked at my throat- tonsillitis.
A child presents with a temperature- ear infection.
An adult presents with a temperature- take your pick.
Temperature has a low specificity.
Likewise, persistent cough- upper respiratory tract infection with post nasal drip, low specificity.
Change in sense of taste or smell could be tonsillitis again low specificity.
Of particular concern is the loss of sense of smell could indicate a problem with a cranial nerve, not to be dismissed lightly, and is potentially worse than CoViD19.
Local comprehensive school has sent all of year 12 home to self isolate for 14 days because someone – unclear whether staff or students – tested positive for Covid. So, I can imagine when they return, somebody else testing positive will end with the year being sent home, and by spring, the students will have had maybe three days of school. How is this lunacy going to work itself out in power stations (for example)?
I suspect this rule will be changed this week. Else as you say it’s not going to work.
In France it’s already been dropped from 14 to 7 days.
That is is still hugely impactful but at least 50% better.
“Not going to work”. None of this nonsense is “working”, but the government persist.
But the end result won’ be a “gee whizz” moment, as with – for example – the Dangerous Dogs Act. This won’t work thing entails the collapse of society.
I agree, even lockdown zealots cannot ignore how illogical it is to allow 30 people at a wedding but only 6 at a birthday party.
My boycott list is getting longer and longer and longer….. I think its sickening what the government is doing. In their stubbornness and refusal to admit that they’ve got this all wrong, they’re continuing to dig deeper and taking us down with them. As the day grow shorter and eating al fresco is becoming an impossibility, what do they do? Force the hospitality sector to do their bidding to harvest data by coercion and by a single stroke nobble people’s rights and freedom to privacy and free assembly. I can predict that with this diktat any gains made by pubs, restaurants and cafes from the Eat Out to Help Out scheme will be wiped out as people will simply stay away and resort to takeaways and deliveries. Or even M&S’s Dine in for Two offers. And same goes with museums, heritage sites, cultural venues and family attractions. This is no longer about a virus but about destroying the economy on a Carthaginian scale. If people really care about their jobs and lives full stop they should be standing up and saying no to this continued nightmare. The government and the rest of the Establishment have a lot to answer for.… Read more »
It was never about the virus, it was and is politically motivated . We have some autocratic lunatics making the decisions as to how we live, our new normal which isn’t normal at all.
Exactly. They don’t like the fact that the Ordinary Joe has thwarted their will again and again and again through the ballot box. This is autocracy via the back door very much like the Metternich/Congress system.
I think Brexit is a part of this madness too, the elite loathe the fact we voted to Leave the EU which was against their wishes and despite all their lies and propaganda we ignored them. Add into the mix the green lobby zealots and you can see what they are up to. Absolute Control over every aspect of our lives.
Agree with you on that. The upper middle class have always loathed the plebs so what better way to exert control? Use this crisis to be able to do what they want with us.
I do not think the Cameron government even considered that the vote would go against staying in Europe. They had no idea what happens outside their circles.
They’d won the referendum regarding PR, so thought they’d win the European one. As you (almost) said no idea what can happen in the real world.
We didn’t have a referendum on proportional representation. It was on some weird alternative vote system, which made little sense to me at the time and seemed to be rigged to prevent the conservatives ever gaining enough seats to form a government.
They just needed something to start the snowball effect and a deadly virus is perfect. MSM have been on message, combined with control of what goes out on social media the snowball is now rolling and we need to stop it.
Get off your knees (how very fitting during current times) and say NO before it is too late.
We need more of the likes of Henneghan and Sikora in the media, but I agree, the only way this will end is mass nation/worldwide protest on a huge scale.
True and more people need to speak out. Its great that the likes of Denise Welch, Will Carling and Jim Corr are also lending their voices to the sceptic cause but we need more.
I suspect the worm will turn when mass unemployment and bankruptcy hits. I’ve long thought that the only way now this will end is by violence.
By then it could be too late.
Bart, I couldn’t agree more. I think we have reached the stage at which the only response is total civil disobedience. No masks, no to track and trace, ignoring the one way systems in streets and shops and the sanitiser every five minutes and all the other nonsense – and loud objections in public when asked to comply. We are the defenders of liberty and we have got to stand up.
We’ve got vast great banners across the main streets advising Pedestrian one way systems, even maskoids ignore them.
I’m still waiting to see people stop wearing masks on buses. I am usually the only maskfree person, besides the driver. Where are all these people who are complaining about masks? Or do they just moan and then put the stupid thing on and get on the bus. It really is hard being the only maskfree person I see.
I visited Boots for the first time in 6 months and yeah, I was maskless, ignored the sanitisers and the social distancing stickers and whilst I was the only one unmasked I noticed that the others were not really sanitising or social distancing.
I agree with what you said and apart from civil disobedience we should continue to boycott shopping, eating out, going to the cinema, visiting museums, going on trips, etc – the more we hit these businesses in the pocket, hopefully they will develop the cojones to implore the government to end this insanity once and for all.
A Covid-19 on all their houses!
Enforcement by Covid Martials* is a none starter, they will need to carry a baton or taser, leaving them just 5 digits with which to count.
*Martials, as suggested @LS, to indicate their military intent.
One, two, three … a lot.
Like counting ‘cases’.
Well yes, and also, where did this ‘marshalls’ spelling come from? It’s marshals. Norman French. The other, for some reason, always brings to mind marshmallows.
Well that was a depressing read to start the weekend. I think I’ll have some time off from reading about it, as constant negativity isn’t good for anybody.
Enjoy your weekend folks.
Quite right.
Let’s sound iff by all means, but ket’s not make ourselves miserable.
I’m off for a bike ride, during which I shall be sticking subversive stickers wherever I can.
And smiling. And waving. And, wherever possible, chatting.
I make a point of singing on my cycle commute along a canal towpath, smiling like a loony and saying hello to random people.
I’ve noticed that strangers are generally surprised when you say hello to them. It’s like they forgot that there are other human beings around.