“We Will Fight It In The Pubs, We Will Never Surrender”
The Prime Minister tried to put on his best Churchill impression yesterday and ended up sounding preposterous as he dug in to “fight and defeat” the virus.
“I know some people think we should give up and let the virus take its course despite the huge loss of life that may entail,” he said in the televised briefing.
“I profoundly disagree. I don’t think the British people want to throw in the sponge, they want to fight and defeat this virus.”
He said that “we will not hesitate” to introduce further measures, but stressed the Government is hopeful that these will not be needed.
Huge loss of life? Right, like in Sweden, where fewer people died per million than in the UK, and Belarus, where fewer people died, and South Dakota, where fewer people died, and Tanzania, where – you get the idea. Since none of these countries or states, however lax their response, lost more than 0.06% of their population to the virus, and the second ripple in Spain was on the wane prior to any new restrictions being brought in (hospital occupancy in Madrid fell yesterday for a third day in a row), on what basis are we supposed to believe that loosening restrictions will lead to a “huge loss of life”? Where did the ludicrous idea come from that we can “control” or “defeat” this virus, which is akin to the common cold?
Meanwhile, Sir Patrick Vallance claimed the virus is not “under control” and defended his graph of doom.
“The illustration was to point out that epidemics either double or halve, they’re either growing or shrinking,” he says. “And doubling means things go very big very quickly. And when things double you see that exponential growth and there’s clearly fast growth in some areas.
“And unfortunately as we’ve seen not only cases going up, but we’re already seeing an increase in deaths. So things are heading in the wrong direction.
“The number of cases that we’re seeing now are picked up because there’s much more testing. The number of cases reported in March were almost an underestimate of the total. So it’s much more likely in March and April we were seeing 100,000 cases a day at certain times.”
But it simply isn’t the case that the COVID-19 epidemic has been either doubling or halving over the past nine months – that is a misrepresentation of the data that feeds into the Government narrative that it is either growing “exponentially” and out of control or it is in decline, supposedly because of timely Government interventions. In fact, the case and death curves in different countries show only very brief periods where the figures could be said to be “doubling”, as Professor Michael Levitt has shown. Thus while UK “cases” are currently rising, the rate of that rise has already slowed down from a couple of weeks ago, and the Telegraph has calculated there will be only 11,000 daily cases by mid October, assuming the current rate continues, rather than Vallance and Whitty’s 50,000. Since the rate has already been slowing there is no reason to think it won’t slow further.
The rate of growth does vary considerably around the country – Ross Clark looks at the possible reasons for this in the Spectator, highlighting especially population density and household size. But seeing as the epidemic in March went into decline in many parts of the UK prior to lockdown coming in, as Prof Carl Heneghan observed in June, the current ripple, insofar as it involves real spread and not just false positives from increased testing, is likely to consist mainly of cities and regions developing the herd immunity delayed by the lockdown.
Note also the slippery definition of “cases”. Vallance suddenly used “case” to mean infection when he says there were 100,000 a day in March. In fact, one of the central problems in this whole farrago has been a loose, non-medical definition of “case”. A case properly understood must be diagnosed by a suitably qualified clinician recognising characteristic symptoms. A mere positive test, which may well be a false positive and in any case may be asymptomatic, is not properly speaking a case of COVID-19. Neither is the mere fact of “infection” or exposure if no symptoms are present.
To make matters worse, Dr Chris Whitty then started speaking in contradictions.
Hospitalisations follow very much the pattern you would expect from the rates of infection. The NHS data show that the rates of hospitalisation are now climbing steadily.
“They’re at a much lower level than at the beginning of April – I want to stress that quickly – but they are heading upward at a steady and rapid pace.”
So are they steady or are they rapid? You can’t have both. They are steady, of course, which is why he said it first, before realising he was supposed to be justifying extreme interventions so quickly added “rapid”.
The positive rate in the UK went up from 1.5% on September 19th to 2.5% on September 29th, a two thirds rise (67%) in 10 days (though on the most recent day it actually declined slightly). This is steady but not rapid growth, and if it is anything like Spain it will top out before long.
Could it be that the “second wave” is just the usual round of “freshers’ flu”, watched unusually closely, now with added Covid? Perhaps “Churchill” has picked the wrong enemy this time.
More From Trafalgar Square
A Lockdown Sceptics reader writes to tell us of his experience at the protest in Trafalgar Square last weekend.
I was at the top near the stage, thankfully just to the side of the police’s path.
We had been briefed not to antagonise the police under any circumstances and the organisers had stressed the lengths they had gone to complete the necessary paperwork and liaise with police. They made announcements every 20 minutes to social distance (which were obviously met with derision). We held a perfectly observed minutes silence for the recently fallen officer and the sergeant in charge was praised for his constructive approach to the event.
The police have claimed that we were instructed to disperse but I received no such communication. The last speaker had just started when my wife suddenly commented “where have all the police gone”. It was like the tide had gone out. Minutes later there were screams and shouts as a phalanx of police emerged from a concealed position and marched at pace through the crowd shoving and throwing anyone in their path out the way. We had been instructed to sit down as a sign of passive resistance. Some did so but it led to them being trampled or struck in the head. Secondary lines of police blocked the stairs at either side.
After the police had surrounded the tent, a small minority of understandably angry people jeered and taunted them. These are the pictures you see in the papers. I saw a couple of water bottles being thrown. We made ourselves scarce at this point.
The experience has destroyed any trust I have in the police. They would have known that the speeches were almost finished. It appeared to me to be a deliberate attempt to intimidate and antagonise a peaceful crowd. The reason they attacked was supposedly because we weren’t social distancing, but a number of protests including our own had been allowed to proceed in the month prior. We were causing no damage and no obstruction. Asking us to obey the rules that we are protesting against as we protest is surely absurd and how would such a protest work anyway? We would have to spread ourselves out half way down Whitehall. I cannot see the Westminster authorities permitting a PA system suitable. No doubt they would recommend we just do it over Zoom.
In effect, then, mass protests are de facto illegal in this country in 2020.
I am 36 and this is the second protest I have ever been to. The first protest being the one on August 29th. There is certainly a preponderance of “conspiracy theorists” at these events but my sense is that a larger proportion are ordinary people like myself, angry at the political system and deeply concerned by our loss of liberty and damage to the economy. Regardless, believing something that others do not is not a crime.
Letter to Jacob Rees-Mogg
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A reader has sent us the cracking letter he sent to his MP – Leader of the Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg.
I had hoped that by now the Government would be rapidly dismantling the unnecessary controls, but unfortunately their recent actions have only served to increase my concerns.
Does Boris really think that he is King Canute and can “fight” a virus? The evidence is increasingly clear that lockdowns are ineffective (e.g. here). Despite their massive social and economic costs, they simply do not work (quite apart from the disease being of low risk to healthy people).
I had hoped that the Government would at least begin to realise the massive cost of its misguided actions and reconsider the way it has trampled on traditional democratic freedoms and rights. Sadly, this is not the case – and I am heartened to see many Tories finally voicing similar concerns.
I had the highest hopes for Boris and this Government, but unfortunately I now view their Covid response as the worst mistake of any British Government in my lifetime and of utmost significance to both my personal freedom and our future welfare. I am therefore unlikely to be able to support any party or MP backing this dystopian approach to running our country – despite my great admiration for you personally.
I have reiterated some of my key concerns below, so that you can understand why I take this so seriously.
– The arbitrary and tyrannical rule of six prevents me from meeting my family, celebrating Christmas or enjoying any other activities together. Given that we are responsible adults (and the children are zero risk) this is totally unscientific and very cruel. It strikes at the core of social relationships in a way which is unprecedented in our country and totally abhorrent to me. This is a clear power grab by the state, overturning individual family and social relationships in a manner which even communist dictators hesitate to impose.
– The draconian, inconsistent, arbitrary, ineffective and bureaucratic regulations are making daily life increasingly difficult. There have already been over 200 changes (which even the Prime Minister can’t understand) and it now appears that this will continue with no end in sight. (A far cry from the three weeks Boris initially promised to “save the NHS”!) These edicts make no allowance for individual common sense or discretion and infantilise the entire population.
– The regulations have also, in effect, instituted a police state. For the first time ever, police are now mandated to interfere with ordinary family and social life and informers are encouraged and praised, just like a Stasi state. And if that were not enough, Boris has been publicising increasingly draconian fines and the involvement of the military, criminalising family life with a nasty similarity to dictatorships.
– Why does the Government permit such misleading efforts to terrorise the public as seen in the Whitty and Vallance presentation of September 21st? Their projections (presented without any allowance for any questioning or challenge) were dangerously misleading and can already be seen to be completely adrift from reality. Why is the Government still in fealty to advisors generating such dangerously misleading projections?
– The Government appears to be intentionally manipulating the population through fear – for example, still publicising misleading “case’” figures, while failing to provide context and ignoring the reassuringly low death rates (which are now far lower now than flu or pneumonia).
– This so called Conservative Government is presiding over unprecedented increases to state controls and regulation of social and economic affairs.
– There appears to be blind faith in the public health services and the NHS, despite increasingly clear shortfalls in patient care – in sad contrast to the high-quality, patient-focused services enjoyed in so many other countries.
– The Cabinet appears to be suffering from groupthink and blatantly ignoring eminent and sensible scientific voices (for example, at the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine) providing views based on evidence and reason and instead is promoting the worst case models and discredited projections.
– The Government restrictions (not Covid) are wrecking the economy, with scant regard for the misery of ruined businesses and the millions of jobs lost and impaired prospects.
– The Government is undertaking unprecedented and unproductive borrowing, which will prove a dead weight to the already damaged economy.
– Travel has been severely restricted by a range of clumsy measures, hampering personal freedom and enjoyment and demolishing even more of Britain’s business and industry.
All of life involves risk and no-one can live for ever. Why can’t this Government trust its citizens to get on with their lives and make informed decisions on what they do, what they wear, where they go and who they meet?
On The Brink of Oblivion
Steve Rucastle is a Late Night Business Operator who says the debilitating restrictions that are ruining his business make him feel like he is on the brink of oblivion. He speaks for many, I’m sure.
As the hospitality sector is brought to its knees, the night time economy is thrown on the rocks and the events business is cast into oblivion, tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people, prepare to face an unknown future. For many it will bring poverty, destitution, ill-health, and hopelessness. For some it will be too much. It is no exaggeration to say that lives will be lost in the economic tsunami that is about to engulf us.
How exactly has it come to this?
When the Government closed us down and told us to flatten the curve, we obeyed.
When the Government put onerous restrictions on us reopening, we obeyed.
It supported us, the evidence warranted the action, the NHS had to be protected, we did not know enough about this wretched virus.
But now something else has happened. No endgame is communicated, what is the aim of the restrictions now thrust upon us? Support is being withdrawn. Restrictions continue to be put on our industry without any clear evidence to support why. The NHS has the extra capacity and the extra PPE that it did not have at the start of this crisis. We know lots more about the virus now. Every question that’s asked of our premier, when it comes to supporting those industries worst hit by his decisions to restrict or prohibit our businesses from operating, results in the same answer: “We’ll put our arms around these people.”
I do not want your arms around me. I want bloody answers. I want to operate my business without restriction, I want people to decide for themselves whether or not to visit my business or not, I want people to decide who they want to see and where they want to see them. I want people to sing, to dance, to hug loved ones, to get high, to be intimate with a stranger, to take risks, to enjoy life. No one can do any of this. By decree we have had our liberty and freedoms stripped away one nonsensical decision at a time. Life censored, risk forbidden, fun prohibited. Mere existence is all that remains. And all the while, it seems the vast majority of the public support the Government restrictions. No doubt fearful for their lives after being bludgeoned over the head for the past six months with daily death graphs, end of the world public health announcements and a poster, radio and TV campaign that would be more akin to a zombie apocalypse rather than a mild upper respiratory illness that barely affects most people who catch it.
If the masks work, lockdowns work, and curfews work, why the hell are we here? We are now undoubtedly trapped in this never-ending cycle of go out, stay in, eat out, go home, get back to normal, do not see your family, go back to work, work from home. What on earth are our leaders doing? What are they thinking? What is their strategy?
A vaccine may come, it may not. Either way though, this will not pan out like a Hollywood movie where a miracle vaccine fixes all our problems in a couple of weeks. This virus is with us for the long term and we need to learn to live with it. Not by adopting “the new normal”, which is a horrible expression. Nothing about what we are being expected to do is normal and it should never be sold as such.
People need to be aware of the risk that this virus poses to them personally, businesses need to be honest and factor in the level of risk they pose to people, in terms of possible infection (Outdoor Construction: Low/Nightclubs: High) and then everyone needs to get on with their lives. If I want to go to a nightclub with 1,000 people on a Saturday night, I would know the risk to myself and I also know that I probably shouldn’t visit my 75 year-old parents for a couple of weeks after. Although to be honest, they would probably care less about their risk than I do.
But we are not able to do any of this because the Government has decided it will tell us what level of risk we are all allowed to take. This leads me to the crux of the issue. How have we got here? The answer is simple. Boris Johnson.
Not only did I vote for Boris in the General Election. But as a former Conservative Party member, I elected him to the leadership of my former party. I would apologise, but at the time it felt the right thing to do. He was the right man for the job. Sadly, the man I elected is no longer present. He is gone. He has left the building. Replaced by an imposter.
But of course, that is not true. He is the same man. Boris Johnson, who is fast making Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars seem like a beacon of freedom and liberty, is no longer fit to run this country under the current circumstances. He is a man who had a close brush with death, thanks to this virus. Some would say that makes him the ideal man to lead us through it, but I must disagree. I believe that he has been so frightened, so utterly mortified that his own mortality was threatened by this virus, that he now feels a civic duty to stop anyone else experiencing that. A noble cause, but a misguided one. It is because of his very experience that he should not be leading the fight against COVID-19. His judgement is off, and every decision is taken on the basis that he worries everyone or indeed just anyone will have to endure what he did. He means well, I am sure he does, but he is just not the leader we need right now.
No, Dr Whitty. The NHS Is Not “Open For Business”
Dr Chris Whitty yesterday stated that hospitals are “open for business” and are ready to help people with all conditions, not just Covid. A reader begs to differ.
Last week I had a telephone consultation in a Hertfordshire surgery re the possible onset of Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The doctor said yes that sounds like COPD, book an appointment for a spirometry test. This is an essential element in diagnosing COPD. As this incurable condition progressively worsens, more spirometry tests are conducted and changes in treatment are made.
I booked the test and was called back 15 minutes later to be told that my appointment could not be kept because it was “not allowed”.
“Not allowed?” I asked. “What do you mean?”
“It’s not allowed.”
“I understand that,” I said. “Why not?”
Again the reply, “It’s not allowed”, and so it went on. Eventually in a temper I requested he ring back shortly when he had found out exactly why this essential test for COPD was “not allowed”. 15 minutes later he rang back. It’s not allowed, he told me, because the test involves exhaling with as much force as one can muster and therefore there is a Covid risk to the nurse.
If there is that much risk have the test outside! This test, I repeat, is essential for COPD diagnosis and treatment.
Absurd as this is, the doctor herself, by proposing that I have a spirometry test, is clearly unaware that currently in that practice at least they are not allowed.
New Poll Proves Polls Don’t Work
A new Ipsos MORI poll for the BBC appears to catch the Great British Public telling pollsters what they want to hear.
Overall, a large majority of Britons say they are very likely or certain that they will follow government guidelines and self-isolate should they test positive, come in close contact with someone who is positive, or arrive in Britain from a non-exempt country. 84% will do so if they themselves test positive for coronavirus while 77% will do the same should they come into close contact with someone who tests positive. A further 71% say they would quarantine if they returned from a country without a ‘travel corridor’.
Oh yes, 84%? So why did King’s College London find only 18% of those who developed symptoms followed the self-isolation rules, and that just 11% of contacts of those who tested positive did the same?
It makes you wonder whether all these polls that appear to show just how much public support there is for lockdown measures are really just measuring virtue-signalling.
Stop Press: A reader sheds some light on how the polls might turn out to be wrong.
I used to be a member of the YouGov Panel (the rather self-aggrandising name which YouGov awarded to questionnaire respondents at the time).
When YouGov used to ask me to participate in an online questionnaire, the content was never a simple “do you agree with ‘n’ Government policy?”, but instead it was a lengthy affair (often dozens of questions) which used to take up to 30 minutes to complete. This is why I stopped participating.
It occurred to me that such polling arrangements would only attract politically dedicated people (prepared to regularly fill out long questionnaires) and only people with sufficient spare time to do so.
What kind of person is this likely to be? I think we can all guess.
I would also suggest that this is why opinion polls got things so wrong about Brexit and Trump and why they are clearly making the same mistake regarding the upcoming presidential election.
Public Health Medics Prefer Risk “At a Distance”
An illuminating letter from a surgeon appeared in the Telegraph yesterday.
SIR – The vast majority of students who graduate from medical school pursue careers that use the tenets of clinical medicine. A correct diagnosis is typically dependent on a clinical examination using all of the doctor’s senses. In other words, clinical doctors are wholly immersed in a life of risk.
A tiny minority of medical graduates pursue a career in public-health medicine. That these scientists are intelligent is without doubt, but they inhabit a world of epidemiology and theoretical modelling, which keeps risk at a distance. No wonder, then, that when the Cabinet seeks their advice about minimising death, the message is to lock down and shield until the problem goes away.
As a general surgeon, I have not encountered a single Covid-positive patient for more than four months. In this same time, my clinical activity is running at 20% of what it normally would be and the expected numbers of referrals for patients with cancer has fallen dramatically. Yet I am now working in a region that has gone back into lockdown.
The Government is following the advice of a population of doctors who are risk-averse. It is possible to protect both the economy and the vulnerable, and to resume treating more lethal diseases. However, this requires the Government to seek and follow advice beyond the world of public-health medicine. It should listen to the Royal College of Surgeons and to oncologists.
David Scott-Coombes FRCS
Llysworney, Glamorgan
Round-Up
- “Boris Johnson backs down as tigerish Tory rebels bare their teeth” – Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph on the success of the rebels in forcing some Government accountability over lockdown despite the failure of the Brady amendment on procedural grounds
- “Until recently, Boris Johnson had a reputation as a libertarian. So whatever happened to the man who loathed the Nanny State?” – Ross Clark asks an excellent question in the Mail
- “Boris must call time on his farcical 10pm pub curfew” – Michael Deacon in the Telegraph on the arbitrariness of the Government’s latest industry-destroying restrictions
- “The Dandemic that’s killing off democracy” – Kevin Donnelly in Conservative Woman on the poor state of democracy in Kim-Jong Dan’s Victoria
- “Blaming, petrifying, and punishing the population are not viable, long term public health strategies” – Veteran sceptic Prof Raj Bhopal takes a stand for good sense in the BMJ
- “The Scandinavian coronavirus story really does suggest it is time to ease restrictions” – Bizarre article by Mark Brolin in the Telegraph arguing that Sweden was wrong but Denmark, Norway and Finland were right
- “Universities should be seeking to help, not punish, students stuck in lockdown” – Sir Michael Barber, the Chairman of the universities watchdog the Office for Students, makes a belated effort to suggest universities be nice to their paying customers
- “From Dad’s Army to Blackadder Goes Forth” – Amusing piece on the Market Thinking blog
- “Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Friday 18th September that hospital admissions for COVID-19 were doubling every 7-8 days. So how is that going?” – Peter Hitchens in the Mail points out that in the eight days since Hancock made his rash prediction admissions have risen from 205 to 245, not exactly double. Also watch his latest talkRADIO appearance here
- “BP Vice President killed himself after being made redundant because of COVID-19 crisis, inquest hears” – Tragic story in the Telegraph of one of the many victims of lockdown
- “UK spent £569m on 20,900 ventilators but most remain unused” – The Guardian on one example of the horrendous waste of public funds during the pandemic. Unused you say? Perhaps just as well, seeing as they kill people
- “The great student lockdown” – Tom Slater’s latest in spiked, always worth a read
- “Tennessee Governor ending all statewide restrictions on businesses, gatherings” – The Volunteer State joins Florida in winding down the crisis, reports The Hill
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “It Started With A Kiss” by Hot Chocolate and “Hospital Blues” by Leo Henderson.
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention. 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.
Update: Some of you have asked how to link to particular stories on Lockdown Sceptics. The answer used to be to first click on “Latest News”, then click on the links that came up beside the headline of each story. But we’ve changed that so the link now comes up beside the headline whether you’ve clicked on “Latest News” or you’re just on the Lockdown Sceptics home page. Please do share the stories with your friends and on social media.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
We’ve created a one-stop shop 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 (takes a while to arrive). 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. And, finally, if you feel obliged to wear a mask but want to signal your disapproval of having to do so, you can get a “sexy world” mask with the Swedish flag on it 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.
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: Lockdown Sceptics reader Russell Lewin (who blogs here) has come up with a way to stay sceptical for times when he might not feel brave enough to wear his exemption lanyard.
Samaritans
If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year, providing a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them.
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 hard 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.
And Finally…
Artist and Lockdown Sceptics reader Miriam Elia has a new satirical, Ladybird-style book coming out this month and has kindly allowed us to publish this preview, which shows just how brilliant her work is. Check out her website here, where you can also pre-order We Do Lockdown.
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.
I am extremely bored with the media questions at press conferences! Whatever happened to investigative journalism? Dear reporters and journalists, may I suggest the following please for the next press conference: Please can you provide evidence that the lockdown worked, and explain why you feel future ones will work, in spite of the fact Whitty stated we peaked before the first one? Where is the proof even that social distancing works? We are expected to accept this as a given, but why? Please explain the false positive rate in laymen terms to the general public? What would stop you from introducing another lockdown, and then during lockdown, reducing the cycle threshold of the PCR test, then claiming victory? Will you report on the exact date these changes are made to reporting standards? Why do you choose the wrong statistics about Sweden? Rather than comparing to neighbouring countries, and bleating on about deaths per capita, how do you explain their excess deaths being similar to that of their last 20 years? Please explain in laymen terms why masks work, when hundreds of years of research say the opposite? And as a secondary question on this point, please explain why social distancing… Read more »
Someone pointed out yesterday that lockdowns in Switzerland were devolved to the Cantons, some hard, some soft, same outcomes.
It’s the same across the US. A lot of variables however. Population density appears a certain factor.
In Florida the governor just dropped all restrictions on businesses. He said “Businesses have a right to carry on” or similar. Much more enlightened than in Trotskyite Britain where business appears to be subservient to bedwetting.
The main factor is Democrat or Republican.
excellent!
True investigative journalism is now on youtube and bitchute etc. Though youtube is gradually ridding itself of those.. some light in the tunnel on spiked, spectator, and telegraph.. and here of course.. though Toby still refuses to believe that the WEF, Gates et al have hijacked this cabinet. They have.
How does he explain Boris quoting Bill G in a number of speeches, replying to Bill’s tweets and committing large sums of UK money to the WHO?
He doesn’t explain those things. Possibly Toby’s reluctance in these delicate matters might possibly be tactical.
The hijacking is abundantly clear to all who look for it. Is Toby is applying the Nelson touch, which calms the waters somewhat? The great thing about this site though, is that censorship is only noticeable by it’s apparent absence.
The questions would be all pre approved.BBC,ITV,SKY are all fully on board with the Government agenda.They are allowed to criticise the handling of the crisis,not the reasoning being the lockdown policy
That was the way in the later decades of the Soviet Union, Citizens were permitted to criticize failed individuals or policies but not the system itself or the party big knobs.
Yep. Piss poor.
I’d like a questioning reporter to do a slow hand clap or wiggle their finger between their lips like a child. It’s all Pfeffel deserves.
I’d like someone to ask how many people per week are currently dying from “ordinary” seasonal flu and non-COVID related pneumonia. Last time I looked (ONS) it was nine times the death toll from coronavirus.
Asking awkward questions is not going to enhance your career prospects, here at the BBC.
Agreed, but I don’t think that any journalist prepared to answer these questions would be allowed near any of these propaganda affairs. Which raises the question: how is a challenge organised? Surely Toby must have some sort of approach available given his strong connections to many Government figures?
Fantastic — You are absolutely right – I cannot watch the news anymore because no one asks any of these questions……. What on earth has happened to investigative journalism — especially anyone connected with the BBC —
Yay, just got turned away by Toby Carvery for only having an old fashioned phone.😱
Land of the free!!!!
But all is well in the Posh Cafe where they have been happy to accept my stupid phone number.
No fear of getting infected. With thirty or so tables I am their only customer.
My friend praised the staff in Toast how they searched through the store room for an item she wanted.
I pointed out they need the sale to keep their jobs/the physical shop open.
(My friend went into the shop as the item was sold out online)
People trying to keep their business open and save some jobs will be more lax about the “rules”.
Chits at ‘spoons, quite full.
My large Spoons got stroppy about QR code two weeks ago after expecting me to queue in sheep pens. Left unfed of course.
I tried out the new pub procedures last Thursday evening. Arrived at the pub at 8.30 pm and was loudly admonished for baring my face. I replied that I was exempt and took a seat with the people I normally sit with.
The barmaid was clearly unhappy, but brought my drink, while muttering sulkily behind her mask. The landlady came down the stairs at 8.55 and she brazenly and very stupidly called last orders at exactly nine o’clock. I resolved, there and then, to stay out of pubs, as long as this madness goes on. I realise that, thanks to the very corrupt UK government, this may well be forever.
go back next week and the next. After a while the penny will drop when their custom does. I had a similar thing before the rule of six I found pubs that serve food were more interested in a party of ten rather than a single drinker like myself.
I do think economic leverage is our primary (possibly our only weapon). If we refuse to play their games and businesses suffer then the businesses and their representative groups will also turn on the Government. Perhaps it’s not fair on some businesses, but what else can we do?
As I keep saying, the power is in our wallet and feet, if enough people refuse to go along with this nonsense they will either cave in or go bust.
The problem with that is the government seem prepared to let a lot of businesses go to the wall. In fact, entertainment doesn’t seem to be a feature of the new normal.
When I have a spare afternoon I’ll visit the 6 local Weatherspoons just to get turned away (thick skinned me).
Dunno if Tim Martin keeps tabs on these things.
Local ‘spoons has chits and pencils and a box to post the chits into, or just a list of names and numbers when the chits run out.
The list is illegal because it’s on public view so breaks data protection laws.
The chits are best – for loads of good reasons.
First time I went to a Spoons post lockdown they just had chits so I put it in the ‘ballot box’ blank.
I have no idea if this is genuine but someone has apparently developed an app that mimics the NHS one but does not send any data anywhere. (Still won’t work on your old phone though!)
https://covid1984.life/
that’s cheating!
Well, they started it.
looks like it .. All it does is mimic the the screen that a phone will show when you correctly scan in. So you load the app.. to your phone. When you go out, you open the app, type in the name of the restaurant etc, and wave your phone at the QR to give the impression you are scanning. Then you can show the phone to staff and it looks like you have correctly scanned
Apparently app for older Androids and for iphones is coming
Sorry, bit of a thick question but doesn’t the pub’s qr reader thing bleep to say successful scan ? I haven’t been anywhere yet that needs a code so genuine question.
It’s just a bit of paper. Open question for me is getting the right name
yes – i went to my barbers and he has a QR code printed on a piece of paper on the wall.. Although he is sceptic and isnt bothered about people scanning.
And that might be the attitude of a lot of places. If you pretend to scan then thats fine by me. and they wont check details. Like most of this farce people will just go through the motions
Returned from holiday to Manchester Airport on Monday. Had to download the Governments form with QR code. Huge queues in passport control, (no scanners!) as people had to show the form to a Border Control Officer!
I do it all the time, same as I pretend to use hand sanitizer and wash my hands unless my hands are dirty of course: see: COMMON SENSE.
Just been to the garden centre so have seen the bit of paper. I understand now ! You don’t need to type a name in the fake app. You just press start and it comes up with the ‘signed in’ page with correct time. I love it.
That won’t work if they ask to see the check in screen because the genuine check in screen displays the venue name.
Oops, just seen the bit on the fake app where you type the venue name. Please excuse me. I’m not a technophobe, just don’t like my phone to play too active a role in my life !
I’ve been checking the code of the official app and the QR code does contain the venue name so it should be quite possible to create an app that still scans the QR code and shows the correct venue code name.
They will make using them illegal like those gizmos that warn of live speed traps ahead, sorry Road Safety Partnerships.
But it’s not a law that you have have the app, simply businesses being overzealous by insisting on it. Since the spoof app is therefore not allowing to you subvert a law, there are no grounds to ban it.
Those aren’t illegal in this country. They have always been in France though.
It’s genuine, I’ve checked the code 🙂
Thanks Tee, the more people that do, the better 👍
Yep, that’s my baby 😊
I don’t think Toby is keen to have it on here though so by all means join the Telegram group to chat about it.
https://t.me/joinchat/MyCWKhzLK5GdK50PubfwLw
Massive respect for creating this, great idea. Oh, just to mention (sorry for pedantry but it will increase trust I reckon) there’s a typo on the site appearence/appearance. Thanks again!
Thanks Tee, I’ll fix it
I think this is the way to go: from passive resistance to active sabotage
They can’t do that.
nope just posted that above
After a few post on here this morning about being refused entry i checked the gov website:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/maintaining-records-of-staff-customers-and-visitors-to-support-nhs-test-and-trace
and it states “In England, you do not have to request details from people who check in with the official NHS QR poster, and venues should not ask them to do both. Venues must not make the specific use of the NHS QR code a precondition of entry (as the individual has the right to choose to provide their contact details if they prefer). Should someone choose to check in with the official NHS QR poster, a venue should check their phone screen to ensure they have successfully checked in.”
A large firm like Toby Carvery will be aware of that, probably the staff being lazy. Well it’s their jobs still on the line.
I would complain to head office .You will probably get a free roast .
And if you’re really lucky… indigestion!
You don’t need to be that lucky.
Note, it also says that if someone refuses to provide their contact details, the venue should refuse entry.
(I’m pretty sure it’s should nowadays, not just can.)
Perhaps we should make a list of worst offending businesses so we all know who to boycott when this crap is over
Indeed and it should be spread far and wide.
They should also be reminded that the following excuses will not wash:
1) I didn’t know
2) I was only following orders (or variations thereof)
NB I didn’t know also applies to us.
Ignorance is no legal excuse for breaking the law.
Yesterday the announcement was “already 14 Mill downloaded the APP”.
Only 14 mill. Out of 67Mill? Consider how many are children, live in some kind of care, , that leaves 40mill possible adults? That means uptake is very low.
I heard on some podcast (Spiked?) that there are 72 million smart phones in UK
Some people will own more than one, if they have a work phone..
In Germany, 14 million obedient bedwetters downloaded the app on day 1.
Three months later we’re at 16 million, and it has officially been branded completely useless.
Legally they have to provide more primitive means of T&T.
In the same way that they usually have to accept cash as legal tender.
Did they even give you the option of providing (false) details with good old fashioned pen and paper? I seriously think that some of these companies actually want to go out of business.
No absolutely not, it was QR code or no brekky, I didn’t argue just said ‘fine’ and left.
20 % of people don’t have a smart phone so by law they should offer alternatives .
The correct alternative is to not bother with them.
I don’t disagree as i’m personally boycotting all pubs and restaurants but i’m just stating a fact.
Their main lunchtime trade is the genteel elderly, exactly the demographic least likely to have a smartphone.
Would be interesting to find out if they are so negative to a very elderly person, or someone disabled..
Sod ’em. They don’t deserve your business. Did you tell them that they could possibly be discriminating against you, for which they could be fined? I’ve only got a dumb phone as have many, many others, and even if you do have a smart phone it has to be a later one to download the crap app. So many businesses will soon be out of business if they don’t grasp what is happening.
If I’d known what Wayno posted above about the government saying they should accept ordinary self ID I might have done.
He was a junior manager which is fine but his lilac mask matched his lilac waistcoat 🤮, perhaps needing taken down a peg but I don’t want to eat anywhere that does not welcome me with open arms.
They did you a favour.
Out of interest, what did they actually say? Tell you to upgrade your phone? Were they polite or aggressive?
Officious Carrie.
I had the breakfast tickbox menu in my hand and as he came out from ‘staff only’ door I asked if I was supposed to fill it in.
No hello or good morning, “Have you scanned th QR code ?”
‘No, I only have an old phone, (I lied), you can have the number.’
“No code no service”.
I don’t even think he said sorry but it was his matching lilac mask and waistcoat that really put me off.
Why won’t the government just let our immune systems deal with this? Our immune system is the best, in fact only, weapon for “defeating” this virus. So why doesn’t the government just let our bodies get on with it and stop destroying society? IFR Valance and Whitty think that for every 50,000 who get infected 200 will die. That means that for every 1 million people infected, 4,000 would die. i.e. they think the infection fatality rate (IFR) is 0.4%. Herd Immunity If you believe that IFR, then if everyone in the UK (66m people) caught the virus, around 260,000 would die. But that wouldn’t happen because the virus would burn out before that. But how much before? That is the big unknown: when would we get to herd immunity? Some people believe it’s 20% because they think we have a lot of pre-existing immunity. Some people like Ferguson think we don’t have any natural immunity and believe 80% of the population need to get ill before the virus burns out. If you believe it’s 20% then that means the virus burns out after 52,000 people die (260,000 x 20%) – i.e. about 10,000 to go. If you believe Ferguson,… Read more »
Good summary. Though I would say they are a little more informed on the the herd immunity debate than we pretend. Yes there are those who’ve analysed places such as New York, Japan, Sweden and other places to suggest herd immunity has been reached, and it seems promising. They are bound to be looking at that. But ultimately this all now about politics.
To give them some degree of sympathy, they make policy that impacts millions and so they can’t just go all in on a particular position I would say because they would be out on their ear well before they got to the point where proof was on the table.
If they go for herd immunity right now, they’d probably not sustain it against the ill informed public opinion. Its still a toxic word for the idiotic press.
While Vallance had his scientist hat on in March, its clear the public just can’t understand or are scared by that perspective. So CMOs options are reduced by the political atmosphere.
Because it is not about health, but about the economy.
I now wish they would just admit that, get on with it.
Ultimately it’s all about the vaccines and Bill Gates, who is about using vaccines as a means of massively reducing the global population. The utterly corrupt government is doing all it can to keep the potential demand for the unlicensed and liability free vaccines as high as possible.
Only if the vulnerable want to be shielded, they still have capacity to make their own decisions under the 2005 act, which hasn’t been overturned by the current legislation as far as I’m aware.
Immune System
Has No
Side Effects
Don’t Let
Bill Gates
Kill you
Bill Gates, together with Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock, Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance are all out to kill us. We are in very deep trouble and resistance is vital.
Can we not lobby MPs about Bill G being so involved and also UK money being given to the WHO with no mandate from the UK population?
They may be thinking they will get away with it, because no one has noticed, or is bothered…
They probably think they have a pass to the Brave New Normal.
Thanks, very clear. What is their 0.4% IFR figure based on, I though it was reckoned to be more like 0.2%?
Good post!
I’m sure Tweedledum and Tweedledee know perfectly well how immune systems function, which is why they advised going for herd immunity in the first place.
Seems a lot of money and personal threats have been involved since.
And let’s not forget Macron’s blackmailing de Piffle into locking down.
Radio 4 Today show are schizophrenic this morning. One report that the rate of virus spread is slowing. Another report on Witless and Unbalanced and BobaJob’s press con yesterday claiming the apocalypse is here. Heads will start exploding all over Broadcasting House in the confusion. Happy days.
Same yesterday, More Or Less explained why ‘record cases’might not mean more deaths followed by Womans Hour describing it as ‘a new Peak for the virus’.
Nono, they need both to be true simultaneously. It’s out of control, so we need more measures. But the measures are working, so that’s why it will be good to have more of them.
Fuckers.
BBC, offering a balance of opinion for once?
Trying to cover their arses more like.
Thankyou for giving me a huge laugh x
Daughters school has turned off the water for the pupils because of risk of cross contamination. The only water available has to be paid for. I was under the impression that access to water was a human right. Pubs have to provide drinking water for free if asked dont they? Does anyone know if I have anything legal to hold against them?
Yeah I thought that was illegal.
I would be fuming, and I’d be letting the staff know how angry I am and how scientifically inept they are.
Done that – I told the head he was despicable and forwarded a post that said what they are doing is child abuse. No comment was the firm reply. Arseholes.
Am sure that is illegal. Restaurants are not allowed to charge for tap water and must provide it if asked for.
Ask Francis Hoar and contact Us For Them…
Illegal under health & safety for staff, almost certainly under Disability Legislation.
If the water goes off in a school you need to be sent home. It’s basic hygiene standards
Sorry it’s the taps where they would normally fill up their water bottles
I think that’s illegal at the bare minimum under Disability Discrimination and H&S legislation. Not to mention blatant profiteering.
Perhaps ask for their risk assessment and also the contact details of someone in the school who should be addressed should your daughter or anyone in school suffer due to water deprivation.
Probably best the kids ain’t drinking the school tap water, it’s just pish recycled a trillion times.
Do they still have the drinking fountains I remember from the 60s?
I’m not sure tbh – i dont think so. Am going to get all my ducks in a row before contacting them.
Haven’t drinking fountains been banned since the mockdown started?
So how are they washing their hands the required 1000000 times per day?
There you go again with reason and logic.
Sorry – wasnt clear – it’s the drinking water taps they normally fill bottles from. The loos flush etc.
Very excellent point.
I won’t trouble you with what we small lads used the drinking fountains for but it wasn’t for washing hands 🙄
Same at my stepdaughters secondary school. My son’s primary school allow them to bring in water from home. Her’s insist pupils buy water from the canteen – and wear a mask to stand in line to buy it.
The use of masks was not mandatory in the first week back, but was made mandatory afterwards because….the staff requested it. Ill informed twats.
My son’s school sent home a letter yesterday asking what was successful and unsuccessful about home schooling, in case it needs to resume again because of “the escalating pandemic”. What you can do, Headteacher, to protect childrens’ education at this time, is lobby our local MP and ask her to stop supporting this ridiculous regime that puts a theoretic extension to the life of an 80+ year old ahead of educating the young.
I have 2 friends who’s 3 year olds have been sent home from nursery to self isolate for 2 weeks because of “a positive test”. Them and all of their class mates (they are from 2 different nurseries).
It’s disgusting, you couldn’t make it up!
3 year-olds FFS!
And the parents who now have to stay home and look after them will no doubt have to get tested, and their contacts – and so the farce goes on!
The parents have been advised they dont have to isolate unless they get symptoms, and then they should isolate. But the kids must isolate, because they’ve been EXPOSED to a (false?) positive test. Old people are vulnerable to this, we must do something. What can we do? I know, lets lock up the kids!
Its bullshit of the highest order. With no right of appeal. Our local MP so far declines to respond to anything I’ve sent her. It seems teachers are being disproportionately tested – which probably accounts for the alleged spread in educational settings.
They shouldn’t have to buy water. Contact your local water company. What an absolute disgrace this is.
How many young children will have to fall ill before this criminal nonsense is stopped?
That letter re home schooling is interesting in the light of other posts today saying doctors have had a head-up that schools will be closed in November and December – have schools been told the same?
What about the risks of dehydration? A potential threat to health and general well being?
Ask the local water company in your area .
Children should never be denied access to clean drinking water, which should be free of charge.
This is child abuse; it’s disgraceful.
And, to Mel and CGL; I’m still fuming about this ,despite not having children: contact the NSPCC and Citizens’ Advice as well as your local water companies.
https://www.rcpch.ac.uk/
See also the link for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health; may the force be with you both.
Pets and farm animals are legally entitled to clean, fresh drinking water at all times.
Disgusting.
Write in to Talkradio? Julia Hartley Brewers has been brilliant in questioning ministers.
AFAIK it’s not true for pubs & restaurants, but it is true for schools.
In our local rag (Kidderminster shuttle) serving Wyre Forrest,Worcestershire.
“PUBLIC BLAMED FOR VIRUS SPIKE”.
The free press?,?,?,?
Kidderminster Shuttle owned by Newsquest Media Group and an offshoot of the Worcester News which contains 2 embedded BBC reporters (paid by BBC). So local press is just following BBC instructions
So it is not free press.
All local press is not independent. It is BBC in disguise
Just as bad as regional Local Live, all part of mirror group news, full of rubbish about everything, not just covid/lockdown.
May be ave a quick serach for BBC local democracy reporters. Local rags up and down the land have bbc paid staff working in them. I don’t proposed they wrote the individual headline, though they may have. The local press has been exceptionally poor throughout. Possibly the government buying of advertising to prop up the newspaper business has an effect but it seems a much more structured deceit than that, something D notice-like that blanket commands the press to publish such junk.
Much of the local junk comes from the same source, with a sprinkling of locally relevant stories.
A virus spread by humans…. wow
CANCER PATIENT BLAMED FOR DYING AFTER NHS REFUSES TREATMENT.
Have any of the so called “rebels”, who were prepared to vote for the Brady amendment, made any comments about the renewal of the Coronavirus Act which was passed yesterday? I would be interested to hear why they didn’t vote against it.
I don’t think they will go public with what is undoubtedly a multifaceted ‘deal’. Boris used up a lot of political capital yesterday to save face in public, but there were conditions attached. Interesting interlude in HoC yesterday when Graham Brady gave way for Chris Bryant, who wanted to know exactly what had been agreed. No direct answer from Brady, but it seemed clear there was something.
Boris should invite some of the sceptics closer to the fire now. He needs to start hedging his bets
This is an interesting political intervention – from someone close to Cummings and Gove:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8791661/JAMES-FRAYNE-Seven-ways-Prime-Minister-win-country.html
The photo is perfect.
Hands: De Piffle waving his hands about
Face: grimacing
Space: the gaping gap between his words and the Truth.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54366478
right on cue, the wind changes. The Coronavirus act is passed and a sliver of good news. Expect more this week.
Love the way they say the rule of six “May be having an impact”. So it may, or it may not? We don’t know. Just like face coverings, but they then say that’s one of the things we have to keep doing.
Doesn’t feel like a very “scientific” approach.
Remember, this is from the makers of “In certain circumstances, masks might have a small benefit…” They’ve since taken out ‘small’ by the way.
It’s not, because they introduced various other restrictions in some cities/regions after a week or so, so impossible to conclude anything about any single measure.
less people in pubs/restaurants overall means less risk. There again it also means less profit.
Risk of what and to whom?
The Imperial survey, no doubt predicated on Ferguson’s model, is for the first week in September before the rule of six kicked in. Do they think we won’t notice these things?
Their fingers are crossed – probably permanently considering their perpetual mendacity.
It’s a logical fallacy. And so many of these measures fall into that category.
The letter to J. Rees-Mogg could’ve been infinitely more succinct- “In view of the breathtaking amount of unwarranted illiberal legislation.Stupefying incompetence, complete loss of reason & untold economic damage. Care to impart what the real,hidden agenda of H.M. Government really is?
Quick update from the doctors lunch room.
” So are you all downloading the track and trace app?”
The unaminous reply was NO WAY … even from the lockdown luvvies.!
There is hope …
I do not believe for one minute that 10 million people have downloaded the app
It means they effectively won’t be able to go out to eat.
I have resigned myself to this. Two pals said let’s go for a curry and I said it’s too awful out there with masks, apps, temp checks, servers dressed like surgeons and general fear. I just don’t any of it. Wife said I’m not being pragmatic enough…
perhaps we should actively visit establishments armed with an old phone. If enough of us do it and enough get turned away maybe these places will realise the NHS is mandatory for entry
Or bring your new phone but don’t get it out, and say you’re happy to put a (fake) name in the book. It’s not like they pat you down upon entry.
my experience on Sunday was every place used the NHS QR reader rather than their own QR reader and with that no option for hand written details. I guess it’s a case of pushback
Try ‘spoons, paper chits here still.
I wander past the QR reader. I won’t use it. If I am challenged, then they get a real name (thanks, compliant wife) and a fake phone number which is so close to the real one that the wife doesn’t notice the difference.
Anyone who challenges that (I have seen some shops with “No Mask, No Service”) I explain that they will have to live without my custom and bid them adieu. They’ll learn.
The option to give handwritten details is a legal requirement.
Before all this kicked off, we ate out at least once a week. Since the latest muzzle edict came in, we’ve decided to restrict ourselves to a couple of restaurants where we have a longstanding relationship with the owners and don’t have to justify our exemption every time we go in, having takeaways delivered the rest of the time. I certainly won’t be downloading the app and anywhere that expects it as a requirement for entry is welcome to go bust as far as I’m concerned.
The farce of wearing a mask on entry and then to go to the loo. The problem with exemptions is the looks and the explaining. It’s bad enough when I do my mission-based shop at Tesco at 6am on a Monday morning without one, but to repeat that experience for my fish and chips and pint of bitter at the pub destroys the experience. It’s less the owners than the other patrons. Invariably compliant and ignorant.
The mask is like the Hitler gruss. Not giving the Johnson salute can be uncomfortable. But vital to maintaining self-respect.
The mask is a boot on the human face, forever (copyright George Orwell).
If it is possible to book tables, maybe a few groups of people should book out a whole restaurant, and then turn up, refuse to scan or give details and then just leave. See how a restaurant copes when an entire sitting (and income from it) suddenly evaporates and they are left with only ‘drop-ins’… Could be particularly effective if done in the evening, when fewer people are likely to just pop in without a booking…
I like your thinking
Or book then don’t turn up. Many people have been doing that since this farce started.
See post from Wayno above. Government advice is that venues should accept usual types of ID if customers cannot or do not use QR code. Means the cancellation is the venues fault not ours so demand refund of any deposit.
As someone working the hospitality industry this is NOT the thing to do!!!
These people are just trying to keep a business going, remember , it is not just the people in the restaurant, there is a whole supply chain.
With xmas parties cancelled this year, there are no crackers to be made (often in home work), 1000s turkeys going to waste, DJs (who maybe do it as a 2nd income) haven’t worked all year, party decoration suppliers either, a lot of casual staff gaining important income by waiting, washing dishes etc,, taxi drivers, cleaners, It is a long list of people who rely on hospitality to succeed.
There’s an easy answer; if your job relies on hospitality income, don’t make things unpleasant for your customers. EASY! If you want to keep your business going, don’t be a bedwetter to the sceptics.
If your job relies on hospitality income…
…don’t be inhospitable.
Then the frontline establishments should make sure what the law does and doesn’t require, instead of using their own (often ridiculous) interpretation of the rules.
No one is suggesting it’s used wholesale against the hospitality industry but just on those restaurants treating people appallingly .
Hi Carrie i’m boycotting all unnecessary going out myself but that is a great idea and it’s direct action like that which is a great tactic for any restaurant treating people badly .
Fancy dress might work – Doctors and nurses!
I’m going for the highwayman look
I am now picturing you as a cross between Jack Sparrow and Adam Ant…
I just need the tricorn hat
Stand and deliver, your money or your life!
Just stay away from the chains.Small businesses will go through the motions because it is law but they will be desperate for your custom.
Ok good tip
I believe we should all just boycott everything pubs .restaurants and any unnecessary shopping while all these weird rules and masks are in place.It’s the only way to get the message across hit them in their pockets and then they will put pressure on the government for change .
Completely agree. It’s the only real power we have. Don’t even bother to tell them why – they aren’t listening to anyone but sooner or later, their accountants will speak.
Peter, what is your view as to why that is the case, and will this extend to attitudes among your colleagues to being in line for the unlicensed vaccine?
5 million downloads for android devices.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.nhs.covid19.production&hl=en
No data for IPHONE
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/nhs-app/id1388411277
is that 5 million globally?
Yes it is, but outside of UK is useless.
AFAIK it’s automatically downloaded on the latest iPhones as part of OS patching, so doesn’t even need to be actively downloaded from the app store.
If they haven’t thought that might happen when they designed this app, then it’s dead on arrival.
It wouldn’t be the first!
Phew!
A large number may have downloaded it but it doesn’t mean that they know how to use it or will actually use it. I remember a couple of Christmases ago, an older family member declaring with pride that he had ‘over 80 apps’ on his phone, as if it was a badge of honour. I doubt for one second that he uses any of them. He’s a scaredy cat and complete hypochondriac who barely leaves the house. Why he bothers to have a state of the art ‘mobile’ phone I have no idea. Scrub that, I do know why, he thinks he’s cool and down with the kids. Sad.
Same in my hospital! We’ve also had ongoing arguments with the various restaurants within the actual campus demanding we track and trace-they don’t seem to understand that we can’t be included and logically must be exempt inside the hospital. If someone has a positive PCR do we all have to go home for 10 days? Duh!
12 million download it = 55 million didn’t?
Well, kids don’t have to, do they?
That’ll be the 10 million I left out 😉
I’m suspicious that the figure might be similar to when Facebook first launched video. They celebrated these fantastic viewing stats, until somebody pointed out that most were autoplaying and only partial views.
Funny thing is my wife and colleagues in healthcare aren’t downloading the app because it is sure to ping since they work with “Covid patients” now and then.
Plus on a related fact a lot of them are worried that the flu vaccine this year will include some experimental stuff for a Covid vaccine. A lot are not going to take even the flu shot because they don’t want to be guineapigs.
I’m not having the flu shot this year. Firstly, I’m hardly going anywhere because everything you do is such a miserable experience, secondly, everyone is wearing a mask so I can’t catch anything can I?!.
Same here; similar circumstances
My thoughts exactly and I’m not remotely medical.
I think that your lasts para is a lot of nonsense. To get the flu vaccine delivered in quantity the decision on it contents will have been made many months ago and production started before the covid thing properly kicked off and any vaccine research on it commenced.
The NHS app is UKgov’s direction of travel for all, I believe. Compliance by the public will be achieved not through laws (e.g. “you must download the app”) but instead implicitly, like we are beginning to see now where some of us are being refused access to pubs/restaurants. This will inevitably broaden to other venues – shops and public transport – before the next stage, which will be a requirement (or rather, we will be ‘encouraged’) to show a ‘certificate of vaccination’ on our phones before being able to access venues or use transport. Tobias Elwood MP alluded to this in the House of Commons on Monday.
Tobias Elwood is a snake on the grass. When johnson is ousted we should be very worried if he gets close to power.
Yes, very much STILL a military man. Knows where his allegiances lie.
That’s why he should be charged with treason when this is all over. His attempts in sowing division between the armed forces and the people is despicable and must be resisted at all costs.
But they’re no longer people, they’re terrified sheep.
I believe 10 m might have d/l it out of curiosity…..
Had a bit of a play, realised how shit and battery drainy it is….
Then deleted it.
(Seriously I bet 5m have already deleted it)
Yes, running bluetooth constantly is a real no-no unless you keep your phone on the charger all the time. And then the app’s no use anyway. Not that it’s any use to begin with.
I’ll take that bet… when I look at compliance re masks etc, I have no doubt that the vast majority of those 10M downloads are being actively used.
As far as I know, the app doesn’t unscan you till you scan at the next venue.
You could be at home for hours while still officially in the cafe from lunch.
Ridiculous!
And subject to quarantine because you were exposed to someone testing positive who called in three hours after you left. Really just a bad idea to download it. The thing to get out there is the risk to your job, etc., if you are subjected to an unwarranted quarantine.
Discussion of alternative option here
https://t.me/joinchat/MyCWKhzLK5GdK50PubfwLw
Do tell them about the alternative 😉
https://t.me/joinchat/MyCWKhzLK5GdK50PubfwLw
Crisis averted in the stock market – at least in the short term (anyone who can remember the Financial Crisis will remember the rescue rights issue of Royal Bank of Scotland failed). Rolls Royce attempt to stave off collapse:
‘Rolls-Royce Holdings plc (“Rolls-Royce” or the “Group” or the “Company”) today announces its intention to raise gross proceeds of approximately £2bn by way of a fully underwritten 10 for 3 Rights Issue. In conjunction with the Rights Issue, the Company intends to commence, in the near future, a Bond Offering to raise gross proceeds of at least £1bn. The Company has also agreed commitments for a new two year term loan facility of £1bn and received an indication of support in principle from UK Export Finance for an extension of its 80% guarantee to support a potential increase of the Company’s existing £2bn five year term loan of up to £1bn’
Will it work?
RR was also rescued in the 1970s I recall, right when they were developing the engines for the new Lockheed Tristar. Today they face a profound demand issue, there is not much flying going on. I am sure plenty of investors (sorry lenders) will buy up the bonds given the implicit government guarantee. The difference between RR and the banks is that RR is not systemically important, thought the jobs in Derby will be politically so…
RR is a one of the UK’s few manufacturing remaining successes. The gov would be crazy to let it fail, but I wouldn’t bet my life that they won’t. Which is why I wouldn’t buy their bonds…
Early 70s original RR going bust. Government took it over because it was so important.
RR aircraft engines were floated in 1987 and continue to today. .
Rolls Royce motors (i.e. cars) already sold off as a separate company which was then acquired by Vickers (who made tanks etc). They then sold the company to VW (but not the name) hence VW make Bentleys at Crewe and Mercedes who bought the name make RRs.
Meanwhile
The usual farce of british industry
BMW make RRs but yes good history
whoops basic mistake.. Dont know where mercedes came from
Yes, VW Phaeton the sensible man’s Bentley.
LOL seriously? More like the fat man’s Passat.
RR switched to a “pay for power by the hour” business model for their Trent engines.
That’s not looking like a smart move now.
According to BBC R4 news RR gets paid for their engines not as outright sale but for the time they are actually in use which, at the moment, is not a lot.
Partrick Heningsen has written a short series of helpful tweets, a kind of crib sheet for challenging the pandemic narrative in conversation.
It is really worthwhile having a quick read. The points could easily be converted into a leaflet by adding the sources to the four killer points.
https://mobile.twitter.com/21WIRE/status/1311451908146593796
Others are adding helpful info to the thread.
Reading through that list I am shocked that anyone wouldn’t be aware of these issues. Not the man in the street per say, but those opinionated individuals and especially MPs.
For those screaming it’s the plague, do they actually want to live in fear? I for one do not function well under fear or stress. I seek ways to get past that through information, educating myself about that thing I am fearful of. It’s the only thing that has got me from the China ‘bodies in the street’ fear in March to now, where its very much a case of shrugging the shoulders. The positive story is out there if they want it.
As for MPs, its criminal and they should never be allowed to forget how utterly useless they’ve been.
The list forms a fundamental basis against all in favour of the criminal fraud and associated measures, as you say. To keep in mind as we address these public officials who have chosen group think and/or chosen to damage our lives deliberately.
It’s useful but it could have been written months ago. People are intent on living in fear.
Grenn recovery. Today they/them are launching yet another psy-op to label all on an individual level. Littering is now being alliterated to Personal Pollution.
You won’t find a strong opponent of littering, it is and always has been personal responsibility – that is not my point. The introduction of a new specific term that demonises each person, putting out yet another sense of individual shame.
Personal pollution, just like the kind of personal pollution we are now guilty off by exuding our covids out of our disease-ridden bodies.
A very apt term from an anti-human agenda.
2 6 you put is exactly as I was trying to. Grubby little good for nothing beings we are.
next they will make farting a crime
strictly speaking only if you’re not wearing shorts!
what ? on the basis that shorts are as effective as masks. ???
new slogan -if you can smell it-you can catch it
Obviously. The Science has evidence.
Isn’t it?
I know some people whose farts should be!
Ah but that would penalise the majority because of the minority and we don’t do that in this country.
Do we?
Punishing the whole group for the ‘transgressions’ of the few is the standard M.O. of our society.
Its always baffling that those who say they’re pro-environment are always silent about littering. Even during the height of the hysteria over single use plastics and coffee cups, everytime I mention littering, I’m always greeted with silence.
Now with the proliferation of muzzles everywhere, still nowt a peep. Even if they’re more hazardous to the environment than single use plastics.
But we’re banning plastic straws and cotton buds while nonchalantly flinging face nappies everywhere.
Yeah odd innit?? The inconsistency is laughable.
Sorry for wasting all the oxygen Bill.
I searched for that term and all I found was “Good news! Plastic straws, stirrers and cotton buds to be banned in the UK from today”
I’ve sited a source, how about you give us a hint about where you got this littering meme from?
Frankly sounds like a distraction from the topic of discussion on this site. Unless masks have been banned as part of this.
Many masks dropped….
Not first – but perhaps first with a question.
Do we know how many people Whitty, et al, fear may die in a second wave if nothing was done?
Johnson talks of “a huge loss of life” – could he be more precise?
It’s somewhere between 10,000 (20% to herd immunity) and 160,000 (80% to herd immunity), assuming the IFR is 0.4%.
I explain a bit more in an earlier post.
Much thanks for that. It is very helpful.
So well within the government’s own estimation of the cost in lives of lockdown: 75,000 recently, but (a more realistic?) 200,000 estimated in April.
Covid is much less deadly than Johnson, using the government’s own figures.
The cure is worse than the disease. I was saying this back in March.
I read with horror the article in Spiked about what students are having to put up with. Just one question : are they allowed out at all? I don’t mean to go to the pub or a party, but for a solitary walk in the hills for example?
As far as I understand it no.
They get things delivered. Some have been complaining not enough booze is being included. Totally fair point in my opinion
I just don’t understand why there aren’t any jailbreaks. If my kids were imprisoned i’d have sprung them by now and by force if necessary. What is wrong with people?
I agree – if this my daughter she would have been out immediately – even if it did mean turning up with solicitor ! I know there is a fee issue but frankly that must be contestable and the class actions type suits against universities must be starting
This is the silver lining on the big grey cloud. These conformist numpties are getting a good hard lesson in what happens when you rely on the government for everything.
Can someone please repost the link from late yesterday with hancick saying for the first time (?)he has no other strategy except lockdown until vaccine arrives. I’m out & about lacking skills and time.
https://mobile.twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1311563037279686656
Thank you Bumble
Power to isolate someone they believe may be infectious. That is the killer for me. Chilling stuff delivered with not a hint of remorse. Absolute madman.
In NZ they have the power not only to drag you out of your home and put you in an isolation prison, they also make you pay for the privilege.
Listening to a retired submarine officer on R4 advising people how to deal with extended periods of lockdown.
ARE THESE PEOPLE FOR REAL?
Extended penis-wound dressing drills.
That what they do in submarines when under the Arctic circle for protracted periods. It boosts moral, so does having purple jelly on Monday nights for desert.
So I heard anyway, I used to know a submariner.
“Extended” Quite how arousal would be maintained amid having such a wound I have no idea!!
Ah but the wound was asymptomatic.
Normalising the Madness by telling people how to cope with it. Resist! Don’t adapt, you morons!
The son of my dad’s best mate (both former RN) was Royal Navy surgeon. He says he was only allowed to serve 6 months in submarines “because then you start going loopy”.
We’ve done our time. Let us out!!!
Well, we are well and truly loopy, so obviously correct.
I’m posting something positive today, a small ray of hope for the performing arts sector. Last night I went to my first Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra concert for 6 months. This shutdown is the longest in the orchestra’s 127 year history which spans 2 world wars and plenty of flu pandemics as well. It was quite emotional as the CEO made a speech at the start of the concert. I was cheered that he refused to accept the ‘new normal’ of spaced orchestra and 40% capacity. ‘I will not stop fighting until we have full stages and full houses again”, acknowledging the suffering of freelancers who have no work at the moment. The concert was shorter than normal, no interval and it was strange that we were all sitting in our own islands. However it was interesting to see the audience age. The BSO audience is normally much older than you see in London and it was great that lots of over 75s had decided that their weekly fix of music was important to them and worth the ‘risk’ (which has always been miniscule in Dorset even back in March). It’s going to be a slow grind against the morons running… Read more »
Anyone who is in the performing arts should maybe look for gigs in Sweden, where you will soon be able to hold them!
Could a cruise ship be chartered and sail out to international waters, and then hold whatever concerts it likes?
Ooh we could all go and have a sort of sceptic convention! When this is all over I’d love to meet up with at least 5 of you.
There will be annual reunions of Old Sceptics.
Given the zombie attitude towards us, perhaps we should call ourselves The New Contemptibles.
Better to charter a ship, install the Cabinet, Sage, the advisors and … (insert your own suggestions, it’s a big ship), then pull the plug somewhere in international waters.
It’s what they are apparently planning to do with the illegal immigrants so they can hardly complain about it being inhuman.
Well done him!!! He’s done more than the supine characters we have here in London.
That’s fantastic to hear, musicians in all genres have suffered greatly under this regime for obvious reasons. Pleased to report that amateur orchestras are starting to get together again, using a technicality in the law which allows exemption from the rule of sicks.
I almost feel sorry for those that put their faith in Boris and Rees Mogg. Boris is fat and as such greedy, conniving and a liar, like all fat people. Rees Mogg is catholic and anyone who can believe that shit is a fucking lunatic. What kind of puny mind looks at these fellows and thinks “they’re the ones for me”. I’ll tell you, a victim of state education. They prove why we can’t have a system, why the only way is no government whatsoever. I, as a highly functioning adult on the artistic spectrum have to suffer rules laid down by people like fat Boris, a man who can’t even look after his own body, and Rees-Mogg a man who believes in the supernatural, and voted in by the kind of barely educated arsehole who believe in democracy and thinks just because they vote once every five years it gives the tyranny legitimacy.
Had to visit dentist yesterday for toothache. Surreal experience. Have to turn up 5 minutes before appointment, knock on door to enter, you are not allowed to touch any other part of door. Have your temperature taken, use hand sanitiser, sit on allocated social distancing seat. Not allowed to take your handbag into surgery, but leave by box at door. Return to reception to pay. Have to sign paper with their pen which is then sanitised. Offered sanitiser for hands when leaving which I refused and don’t approve of for regular use. 4 dentists in practice only one of whom working, one on maternity leave, one hygienist and two receptionists. Talk about risk averse. Cannot see that NHS dentistry will continue if this the attitude. Off to register with a private practice.
Don’t bother. I have a private dentist and she is doing absolute fuck all. Emergencies only. No routine check-up appointments. I haven’t had my teeth checked for almost a year now. On t’other hand, you might be lucky and find someone who will see you.
Indeed. Still waiting for six monthly checkup at private dentist postponed from March then June. Was told then that it might be December before they could see me and of course the lockdowns continue. Nothing at all heard from them.
Just been onto my dentist to ask when the next routine checkup is to happen. I said, “Why am I paying you £16 per month on Denplan?” Receptionist says “There is a pandemic on, you know!” “In that case, if you aren’t doing the work, I’ll cancel my Direct Debit, because you aren’t doing the work”. Instant panic, had an appointment with two weeks.
Funny how once you threaten to withdraw your custom, service is resumed.
My dentist has a ‘fallow period’ of 60 minutes between appointments. Nuts. I have a routine appointment for December so I suppose I am lucky…
Their ‘guidelines’ state 60 minutes between appointments to allow time for aerosols (created during procedures) to disperse and to sanitise the surgery.
A fallow period on a library book is 72 hours is it not? I just wonder if denists aren’t overly brain celled. Thhe CMO of Scotland is a denist so I believe the may be a string case for low brain cell count amoung dentists.
That’s to allow them to do the mandatory deep clean between visits as per their trade association/insurers worried about getting sued because Covid Contagion.
Bingo. It’s ALL about the lawyers and the insurers.
Mine supposedly does too. But unless they’re using two rooms, there was no real time at all between me and the next person. Despite my dentist raving about how all this nonsense was “to keep us all safe”. I think he was just telling himself that to justify the money he’s losing because of the extra cost involved in running the practice inefficiently.
They throw you out. If you want medical care you have to play the game. Or remain in pain. Or die.
Please phone your denist immediately. That handbag box will be a veritable hive of covids. It is widely accepted by epidemeologists that boxed covids become very angry when contained. Better epidemeologists don’t accept this theory.
My dentist is a private one, they are mental too. I haven’t seen them December. I won’t go either until they stop being insane. Luckily my teeth are OK.
What is this bag thing about?, they treat them like they are bombs waiting to go off!. I now can’t stop myself shaking my head and laughing slightly hysterically. Anyone who still believes in all this crap really has helped create the dystopia we are living in. I have said before that if everyone refused to wear masks for instance, what could they do?, arrest millions of people?.
Dentistry is a racket. I haven’t visited one for 20 years. No toothache here.
Have you got a sweet tooth?
Our dentist is a shower of shite. Absolutely no contact since March and we were due checkups in May. Mum had an email to assure her “emergency treatment is still available”
My only consolation is he’s private, so will be losing a fortune in routine apt fees from his generally good-toothed middle class clientele
I went privately. Cost me over £300 for a filling. My appointment for 2.30pm was ‘brought forward’ due to a cancellation but when I arrived I had to sit muzzled in the waiting room for 30 minutes while they ‘sanitised the room’ so I suppose I was charged for the cleaning! I didn’t need to sit muzzled for half an hour so they could prove to me that they were cleaning the room! The whole procedure was horrible and like something from a sci fi film with the dentist in frightening protective gear. I also had my hip replacement cancelled indefinitely so I went to see a private specialist. He told me that the NHS has commandeered their surgical facilities even though they aren’t being used. I had to pay over £600 for a private steroid injection just to be able to walk, The specialist was livid over what is happening to the old and sick. His own opinion is that this is all a plan. All my cancer checks that were so very ‘vital’ last year have been cancelled. Imagine a disease so very deadly that the ‘cure’ is going to kill far more than the disease itself. I… Read more »
I’ve had 6 appointments since May after having not much more than check ups for the first 50 years of my life. It is the most dystopian experience.
My private practice issued rules that were extremely silly.
My dentist is a very bright, sensible chap. The regulations have come from his parent company, possibly to satisfy insurance demands.
Clearly designed from a worst case doomsday scenario, conjured up by a medically ignorant H&S group and a desire to avoid being sued.
That’s an improvement, when they first reopened you had to sit in your car and phone to let them know you had arrived and then wait for permission to enter.
I’m with a private practice and your experience mirrors mine with only minor differences. I think the restrictions are on dentists in general, not whether they are NHS or private.
Keep the fight the guys.
Don’t give up and spread the message.
Our views are important and making a big difference. When I speak with people they tell me they were fooled in March/April and see what has happened in since especially
Apart from Sky News. Sky is begging for hospital admissions (they have to use May footage!). They have been going all over the world for the next horror story, Mexico, Brazil.
Boris thinks 6 months – it won’t last 6 weeks.
People are already going others houses. My next door has people coming and going, will I ring the police? NO
Hang in there.
Well said. I actually got some hope from the propaganda broadcast last night. If seemed to me that they were on the backfoot and felt they had to repeatedly defend their position. E.g. NHS open for business, we can’t let it rip, numbers are going up steadily/rapidly, yeah , but, no, but etc
It’s going to get like the Standford Prison experiment from here on in. The Jailers are just going to double down for every infraction or glimpse of rebellion from the inmates and no one will be willing or able to stop it. I’ve been in the fight for 4 months and all I still see around me are masked morons.
Yeah totally agree. I felt that while yesterday was a battle lost, it really showed how weak they’ve become. Keep going, Stay Positive, Support good science.
I hope you’re right. This doesn’t reflect what I see where I live.
I think the best bit of news yesterday was the fact that lib dems and a few labour members voted against the bill ,also Caroline Lucas .What that means is the sceptic message is starting to get through to all parties and they are voting because they see the tide turning our way and don’t want to miss the boat .I would bet in most cases it’s not out of conviction but letters they have received from constituents ,which buts to death the idea everyone in a labour seat wan’t further lockdowns .I have no time for any of these polls of late and believe the majority of people in the country would dread another lockdown ,The BBC ,Youguv and most mainstream media are just peddling government lies .
Hey, if people want stuff, sell it to them! What about personalised “Pubs killed my granny” body bags?
As a frequenter of pubs I’m worried about the latest wheeze thought up to control the virus. The idea of pubs only serving drinks with food.
I can’t see how that would work or make sense. Ireland reopened the pubs months ago on this basis and infections have gradually risen. It’s only now that “wet” pubs are now open except Dublin
I remember saying back in March ” They’ll never close the pubs here, or in Ireland, there’ll be riots “. Oh well
A restaurant in Germany did that, when they were only allowed to stay open when serving “food”. Oh, actually, the food had to be the more expensive item. So they sold “packages”: a bag of peanuts for £8.50 with a cocktail for £0.80.
A bag of crisps for £4.50 with a pint for £0.30.
Get your restaurant-killing stickers here folks
A pedantic point:-
Quoted above – Sir Patrick’s words:-
“doubling means things go very big very quickly. And when things double you see that exponential growth”
That’s not my understanding of “exponential growth”. It is growth to the power of 2 – which is exponential mathmatically – but I always thought the phrase implied an increasing rate of growth. (e.g. doubling and then more than doubling etc.)
Yea thus sayeth my computer’s dictionary:-
1 (of an increase) becoming more and more rapid:
I think he meant the Government Covid spend!
That’s the same thing? If cases keep doubling, the delta between two sampling points is larger than the preceding two.
I think I must own my understanding of “exponential growth” has been in error once I consider them there ‘deltas’ – much thanks.
correct .. exponential growth does mean an increase by a certain power or growth rate. This can be doubling, or a tripling etc . The other variable is the length of time it takes to increase. So something that doubles every day or something that triples every week are both exponential growths.
https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/0e7014c7fdfd5ffb6d953ca87a50efc5c2649b0a
So the example of exponential growth they have quoted has the variables of a growth rate r of x2 and a time period t of 7 days
and it is all bullsh*t
An exponent is the number of times a value it is multiplied by itself. 100 is 10*10 so the exponent for 10 is 2. To demonstrate this place a single rice grain on the first square of a chess board, 2 on the second, 4 on the third. Once the first row is completed the eighth square will have 128 grains on it. Once the second row is completed the 16 th square will have 32768 grains on it. By the time the 64th square is filled it will contain 2 multiplied by itself 63 times.
If the exponent is 0 then the result is 1, so 10 to the power 0 is 1.
This is also called logarithmic growth, exponential growth was IIRC originally associated with the mathematical constant e, 2.7182…
They are both logarithms. “e” is simply known as the natural logarithm. Logarithms are actually the inverse of the exponent.
I need a badge which states-“If I fart you will smell it-trousers are no protection”
T-shirt slogan: “Trousers don’t work against farts. Masks don’t work against viruses.”
given the authorities are checking the sewage for traces of corona maybe we will soon see No Farting signs
A lot of fart talk today. Has everyone had beans for lunch?
Or is it a sign that, because the government treats us like infants, we are regressing and have already reached adolescence?
Anyone else in a self enforced sceptical lockdown?
Apart from going to work and walking the dogs, I’m choosing to stay at home. I’d rather opt out of other stuff that I did befor than go along with masking, tracking, irrational zombie world.
Yes, I am. I haven’t posted in here for quite a while as I’ve literally been trying to ignore it all. I have a smallholding where I spend all my days with my animals and land, and just go home to sleep. I don’t go anywhere else as it’s all too depressing. Everything is ordered online as the last time I went into a shop maskless I got shouted out by a nasty customer. But I simply won’t go along with any of this utter nonsense, so I’m making my own stand by refusing.
I have however decided that I must start speaking out again, even if I am not going anywhere, so here I am – back in the fold of lockdownsceptics! 😊
Welcome back, fellow Carrie 🙂
Thank you – we Carries have to stick together! 😘
You should Carrie on. <gets coat>
Try being a sceptical Karen. It has been decided (largely by older blokes) that we are haram! Lol
Yes, Carrie on Carrying!
that sounds so nice… a smallholding with animals . . You make me jealous!!
It is indeed lovely in good weather. Though think of me in winter up to my welly tops in clay mud, and covered in animal poo! 😂 Still, better than meandering round a shop acting like a sheep, muzzled and QR-coded!
Sound s like paradise compared to a trip to M&S!
Welcome back, CarrieAH!!!
Nice post – and a boost to the morale!
Yay! Welcome back.
welcome back!
I was an enthusiastic non-participant in what many people would call “life” now I am a super-opter-outer. Totally disengaged from EVERYTHING. Thankfully. I just hope I can stay disengaged until the mass-psychosis wears off.
What about food shopping?
Yeah, pretty much taking myself out of circulation now too. I only ventured into town for the pub or a meal on the weekends but I’m no longer going to bother. If I can’t get in the nearest local for a pint without using this stupid app it’ll be tins in the garden by firelight for my nights out.
Yes, I even hated working from home so much I decided to retire, I try and avoid anywhere now where the masked multitudes gather.
I’m a few years off “retirement” myself but resignation has crossed my mind more than once in the last six months.
Yes, generally. Went out walking in the Cotswolds day before yesterday. Avoided all the shops. It was a bit painful because Wotton under edge has some pretty craft shops that I would normally have gone into….but I resisted (easily). Mask wearers even out in the high street and not all of them elderly either. Apart from that, it’s local walks, a weekly trip to the farmshop (car-park collection) and the local “outdoor” shop up the road.
Shopping done online. Lots of hobbies; developing in-depth skills with one or two of them; no meals out, no pub visits (didnt do them very often anyway).
I do miss the fish and chip shop, though. The local demands masks, even just to step inside and pick up a pre-order.
Get them to throw the fish and chips at you. Nice and safe. My local chippy were OK, not sure how they will be now. Scared of a £10000 fine now probably.
After a few post on here this morning about being refused entry i checked the gov website:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/maintaining-records-of-staff-customers-and-visitors-to-support-nhs-test-and-trace
and it states “In England, you do not have to request details from people who check in with the official NHS QR poster, and venues should not ask them to do both. Venues must not make the specific use of the NHS QR code a precondition of entry (as the individual has the right to choose to provide their contact details if they prefer). Should someone choose to check in with the official NHS QR poster, a venue should check their phone screen to ensure they have successfully checked in.”
Trouble is, venues just make up their own rules; they haven’t even seen the actual guidance, c.f. “You have to have a doctor’s note” etc.
Then it is important to know the rules. But why should we have to prove it?
My local sandwich shop asks for “Proof of exemption”.
What does that actually mean? Anyone can print themselves an exemption badge or wear a sunflower lanyard.
It means they’re lazy and idiots.
And don’t deserve your money.
As well if you are in a group of up to 6, only 1 person needs to check in, assuming if that person gets an alert, they will let the rest of the group know.
No surprise they have such a low uptake on isolation.
Besides, if people are privately informing friends and family they’ve tested positive, there can be no official record of the true self-isolation figures.
It’s nonsense!
Actually I thought de Piffle said last week that everyone in a party had to check in now. Interesting if that hasn’t been mandated after all.
Me, just walking, even my cafe on the beach has gone mad, little shed thing and they want to show you to the table and take my name!, refused and although its been a place of sanctuary for many years, now gone, just the walk left now. Online shopping, that’s it. Who would have thought, a year ago….
6 months ago!
Generally yes. Going out to work, meet a few people not 100% afraid of the virus, go for a walk, engage in a bit of hit and run visits to shops but apart from that my boycott of a lot of things still stand.
Yup, I go to the shops unmasked, my wife hasn’t been to a shop since 24.7 and now that you have to wear a mask in a cafe and do T&T she doesn’t want to do that and neither do I.
Well I go to the office every day (London Bridge area) so at least I can go on the walk by the Thames at lunchtime, my favorite sandwich shop does not care a jolt about masks, neither do any of the big high street cafes. I see a lot of people masked on the street, commuting in I’m normally the only one without a mask, I get a lot of angry looks. Other than that they have pretty much taken everything that kept me sane . Can’t play basketball, can’t go and see a football, rugby game live (something I loved!!),can’t go to a use my before I download an app ( I refuse too).The only time I eat out is when I go with my family as my wife does all the talking, downloads the app etc. Most days I wake up and think what is the point, when will this end if ever, how did we get here and I’m scared of the future for my daughter. It’s going to be grim , long winter and we have nothing to look forward too in the Spring either as the government will never let us out of this lockdown-not… Read more »
Angry looks by masked people. I concluded they are angry as they themselves are not brave enough to go unmasked. They are angry at themselves.
I counter by giving angry looks to the people wearing masks on the street. Morons.
I just look them in the eye and demonstrate old normalcy.
I’ve pretty much withdrawn from society now,we still go for a weekly meal with our friends at a restaurant but the covid madness is rapidly closing in around that,I no longer go in shops,I can ignore the dirty looks and comments for being maskless but being surrounded by zombies at all times has become too much to bear.I said to my wife last night that from now on I can only bear to be around our family and friends,all of whom are sceptical,I just do not want to be with anyone else
Same here; I’m a virtual drop out. Solitary walks, early in the mornings when friendly dog walkers abound, few obligatory shopping trips and a lot of reading and watching whatever Amazon Prime offers which isn’t American pc junk.
Yep. More locked down now than I was in June/July before maskage came in.
I am singing in two church choirs. One musical director is interpreting the RSCM guidance the right way – ‘face coverings’ only while walking in and out of the church and not in the choir area because there are eight of us, two metres apart, and a covered face interferes with breath control – whilst the other, much younger one, is insisting on ‘masks’ at all times whilst not actually singing and wearing one as well as a visor himself. One silly woman actually ‘sang’ in a mask on Sunday, making a ridiculous muffled noise.
I will not compromise my integrity as a singer in that way and I think the second choir may have to go. It is interesting that it is the older people who are the most sceptical!
Keep singing.
School run, butcher and petrol station
Not so much locked down, rather I’m just being choosy about where I go. I go to my local supermarket everyday and I’m sad to report that the number of humans (i.e. the maskless) is diminishing. (I’ve been keeping a daily count of humans since the mask nonsense began and, for a while, the trend was upward. But now it’s flatlined, and I fear will start heading down). I go out walking, cycling, biking, driving etc wherever and whenever I please. I’m only going into non-food shops when strictly necessary, and I’m avoiding the hospitality sector completely. Those enforcing the T&T need to understand that the wages of complicity in this venomous pantomime is bankruptcy. And well-earned at that. I go everywhere maskless and I’ve not been challenged once, though my wife has. Maybe folk are wary about fronting up a grizzled old biker sporting a Gadsden flag T-shirt, and projecting a thousand yard stare like he might go postal at any minute. And who knows, I just might if I see too many more masked zombies. Such creatures are no longer human to me. After all, how can they be considered members of the species homo sapiens when they’re… Read more »
Hi there ,I go out everyday working or when off out walking and meeting friends but have decided to not spend any money apart from food and basic other things i need.So no pubs,restaurants ,takeaways or unnecessary shopping .I feel the only way to make them drop all the nonsense is an economic boycott and i hope others will follow suit .I don’t think one has to lock ones self away to do this ,you can still go to friends or bring them to yours and eat and drink together or if you have kids theres many things you can do with them that don’t cost money and still have a great time like a pack of sandwiches and a walk .It’s a great time to remind ourselves that nature and freedom are more important than shopping .
I figured out quite quickly where I wanted to go and where to avoid. There is a bit of loony stuff in varying degrees when arriving at work but I’m ‘unsupervised’ for the vast majority of the time I’m actually doing my job. With SE stuff generally I work to the principle of enquiring what my customers would feel comfortable with, and they generally request very nonintrusive measures I have no issues with. With a very few exceptions I started shopping in smaller independant places when the queues and the grunts appeared in March and will keep this going. Apart from face nappies they have as normal an experience as possible, the price is not really more than the sterile and hostile supermarkets and the staff actually treat you like they want you to come back. Picked up a bit of Polish vocab as a bonus. My main group of friends are all quite outdoorsy types and we’ve done walks and cycle rides all summer – or else played music and art sessions together outside and a bit inside. Most of us don’t mind a bit of rain either. So social life not really suffered luckily, especially as have also… Read more »
Yes, absolutely. I’m going nowhere and spending nothing. My liberties have been removed and my government can’t be half truthful or balance covid risk vs all the knock-on neglect be misery in so many sectors.
My child is miserable at her half-an-education school, my job is likely to go, I’ll probably lose my home. Even if I keep my job, it involves international travel, so I’ll almost certainly have vaccination forced upon me if I wish to remain employed.
The sheer selfishness that seems inherent to so many British citizens is the nail in the coffin that has seen me remove myself from active participation in this excuse for a ‘society’.
One million women missed mammograms! Likely 18k-19k now with undiagnosed cancer. But all that criminal Boris wants to do is to ‘defeat the virus’. Looking after his own arse at the expense of those less privileged. It disgusts me to my core.
Don’t be like that… I’d be excited for my friend’s opportunity to free himself from an oppressive marriage to an insufferable woman.
I’ve just seen the front of a local bus with a mask painted across it! I simply can’t believe how low this country has sunk.
We are now the world leaders in psychological warfare.
Apparently Cummings has been interested and reading about it for years. Obviously started with Johnson and Hancock and progressed to the rest of us.
We are now the world leaders in paranoia, hysteria, brainwashing and bedwetting
Mavis, get me the bazooka…
Complete insanity, they don’t even know they’ve been/are being brainwashed.
It’s the job of those who recognise brainwashing to step in. The brainwashees are not able to recognise they have been worked on. Luckily the brain washing is flimsy in some, they are the people who dither between something is up vs I must just do my bit.
Isn’t that the point?
There are quite a few trains with masks painted on the front aswell,it makes me almost vomit.
There’s PsyOp and taking the p*ss!
Me neither but I must admit that I feel sick to the pit of my stomach today.
Me too. Our church is starting back this Sunday and my wife and I, and some others won’t go, for various reasons. One of the main ones is that the thought of seeing my friends wearing masks just makes me feel sick in the stomach.
You’re wise to stay away. Masked ghouls one and all, they don’t worship God, they worship Covid. Propitiate the Civid devil and he might, if he feels like it, save you from bodily death at his hands. All he wants in return us the death of your mind, spirit and soul.
This business of “exponential growth” and Patrick Ballache’s defence of it (or was it the other one I get them confused) is pure schientific shtick.
If you’ve been obsessively estimating R for six months and have found the value hovering stubbornly around 1 the whole time the conclusion should be obvious: that you’re in an endemic equilibrium.
Dozens of things in nature work like this. They are inherently exponential but limited by something.
Reminds me of the Ultraviolet Catastrophe
Yes although the reasons why there is no ultraviolet catastrophe are considerably more subtle.
Well, that’s a quantum of solace.
A bit like how bacteria doesn’t end covering the entire planet?
Not to mention rabbits.
But think how long my hair would be, if there were no limits! (though I think its growth is linear rather than exponential)
Yes hair is linear, probably because it’s only growing at the head end. To have a chance of being exponential it would need to grow all along its length at once. The effect of exponential functions in nature is that you reach the equilibrium defined by the limits very quickly and efficiently. We see this with epidemics. It makes little difference how big the population is, once it gets going it’s all over in about three weeks. And nothing can stop it once it has got going. If you change the limits you find the new equilibrium also in the space of a few weeks. This is the graph of other viruses in the US (I think people who saw doctors because of them): https://syndromictrends.com/metric/panel/rp/percent_positivity/organism/main If you look at December 2018 for example you can see a peak in all the viruses for the three weeks or so around Christmas. There’s another one almost exactly the same around December 2019. In both cases infections rapidly rise to a sharp peak (they overshoot a bit) and then drop back down again to a higher equilibrium. These are the system responding to altered limits (behaviour changes around Thanksgiving and Christmas most likely).… Read more »
Plenty of singing and dancing..on tiktok
Because hair knows when its time is up.
The R rate is a huge stinky red herring when used in the context of covid propaganda.
Yes although by staying so close to 1.0 all this time it is actually trying to tell us something. It’s just not what they want.
If we were really suppressing things according to the Fergie fantasy R would not be about 1.0 every time you tried to measure it. It would keep oscillating between about 0 and about 3. That’s what it’s doing in Australia.