Boris Lays Waste to the North
As expected, Boris Johnson announced his “three tier” lockdown in the House of Commons this afternoon and then later at a Downing Street press briefing. It wasn’t a fully-fledged second lockdown throughout England – just a fully-fledged second lockdown in parts of Northern England, with Liverpool paying the heaviest price (so far). Ross Clark in the Telegraph sums it up.
Due to a printing error in last year’s Conservative manifesto a rogue word ‘up’ appeared. When Boris and his team wrote that they wanted to ‘level up’ the north’ they really meant that they simply wanted to ‘level’ the north – that is to reduce its economy to a smouldering ruin, in a way that not even the closures of mines and other heavy industry achieved in the 1980s.
It is the only way I can think to explain the bewildering gap between stated government ambition and the reality.
Clark goes on to point out that it’s the double-standards underlying the Northern lockdown that will really stick in voters’ craws.
It is true that infection rates in many northern districts are currently much higher than in London and the south east. But here’s the thing: back in the spring, when the reverse was true, the whole country was made to lock down together. Now, the north is being singled out for punishment.
The infection rates in several suburban London boroughs (Richmond upon Thames at 122 cases per 100,000, Elmbridge at 129 per 100,000) are approaching the level at which Leicester was locked down in early July and are far higher than the levels in Greater Manchester boroughs when localised restrictions were introduced there in late July. Yet there are no localised restrictions being threatened in leafy London and Surrey.
It is hard to escape the conclusion that, for all its blue wall seats, the Government finds it politically easier to lock down parts of the north than it does the south. For several weeks in August, the Prime Minister appeared to base his whole Covid policy on saving Central London’s sandwich bars, and yet now he seems to think nothing of consigning pubs in Newcastle to oblivion. And oblivion it really will be for many – no business can operate in the stop-start, fickle regulatory environment which is currently being imposed.
The Liverpool Echo doesn’t pull its punches either. The newspaper is not impressed by Boris’s decision to place the city on double secret probation. Here’s an extract from the editorial, headlined: “Sending Liverpool back to the 1980s is no way to manage this crisis“:
Our council leaders, from Mayor Anderson to Cllr David Baines in St Helens and Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, have described a frustrating process of communication – or lack of – with central Government.
It appears there has been consultation in name only, with frustratingly little clarity given even to those who must implement the rules – and who will be landed with the responsibility of picking up the pieces if they are ineffective.
Anonymous briefings to national newspapers have taken the place of proper communication with our elected officials – still less with the public.
Sweeping changes which could last months have seemingly been drawn up without meaningful input from those they will affect most – and with too little financial support in place to lessen their impact on jobs and prosperity.
Worst of all, there has been no clarity on what we should expect and no clear explanation as to what each measure is expected to achieve.
This is no way to manage a pandemic.
Worth reading in full, although the editorial concludes by accepting that local hospitals are in danger of being overwhelmed and says more money should have have been forked over to sugar the pill. Apparently, all the city got was £14 million, which won’t go very far given that bars, gyms and casinos have had to close for at least a month.
Incredibly, Laura Donnelly and Gordon Rayner in the Telegraph say that Boris “overruled” Witless and Unbalanced, who wanted the entire country placed under a second lockdown.
Boris Johnson overruled Government scientists who pressed for national lockdown measures such as stopping all household mixing and closing all pubs, it emerged on Monday night.
Papers from the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) show that the body called for an immediate introduction of national interventions, saying the failure to take such measures could result in “a very large epidemic with catastrophic consequences”.
Meanwhile, the number of new cases yesterday was 13,972 for the whole of the UK, up from 12,872 on Sunday. Still a long way short of the 50,000 new cases Witless and Unbalanced predicted would be announced today.
Given that the number of new cases is only about 25% of the level they predicted it would be, why are they pushing for a second national lockdown?
Isn’t it time these two chumps rolled up their Graph of Doom and retired from British public life?
Just How Simple Are These ‘Simplified’ Rules?
In the House of Commons yesterday Boris put forward what he considers to be one of the strongest arguments for the new “three tier” approach – the rules will be much simpler, and therefore easier to understand than the previous restrictions. But just how simple are the new rules? Amy Jones, the Telegraph‘s Political Correspondent, tries to get her head around them.
Medium Level/Tier One
The medium level covers most of the country and consists of the current national measures. This means those in a tier one area must abide by the “Rule of Six” and the closure of venues at 10pm.
* All businesses and venues can continue to operate, in a Covid-secure manner, other than those that remain closed in law, such as nightclubs and adult entertainment venues.
* Certain businesses selling food or drink on their premises are required to close between 10pm and 5am. Businesses and venues selling food for consumption off the premises can continue to do so after 10pm as long as this is through delivery service, click-and-collect or drive-thru.
* Schools, universities and places of worship remain open.
* Weddings and funerals can go ahead with restrictions on the number of attendees.
* Organised indoor sport and exercise classes can continue to take place, provided the Rule of Six is followed.
* People must not meet in groups larger than six, indoors or outdoors.
High Level/Tier Two
This is for areas with a higher level of infections. This means the following additional measures are in place:
* People must not meet with anybody outside their household or support bubble in any indoor setting, whether at home or in a public place.
* The “Rule of Six” will continue to apply outdoors and in private gardens.
* People should aim to reduce the number of journeys they make where possible. If they need to travel, they should walk or cycle where possible, or to plan ahead and avoid busy times and routes on public transport.
Very High Level/Tier Three
This is for areas with a very high level of infections. The Government will set a baseline of measures for any area in this local alert level. Consultation with local authorities will determine additional measures.
The baseline means the below additional measures are in place:
* Pubs and bars must close, and can only remain open where they operate as if they were a restaurant – which means serving substantial meals, like a main lunchtime or evening meal. They may only serve alcohol as part of such a meal.
* Wedding receptions are not allowed.
* People must not meet with anybody outside their household or support bubble in any indoor or outdoor setting, whether at home or in a public space.
* The Rule of Six applies in open public spaces like parks and beaches.
* People should try to avoid travelling outside the ‘Very High’ area they are in, or entering a ‘Very High’ area, other than for things like work, education, accessing youth services, to meet caring responsibilities or if they are in transit.
* People should avoid staying overnight in another part of the UK if they are resident in a ‘Very High’ area, or avoid staying overnight in a ‘Very High’ area if they are resident elsewhere.
Not exactly simple and even if people master these there’s the added complication of local authorities being able to impose additional measures.
Stop Press: Robert Peston doesn’t think the new rules are at all simple.
Charles Walker MP: Stone Cold Sceptic
Charles Walker MP, the Vice-Chair of the 1922 Committee, gave an excellent interview to Evan Davis on Radio 4’s PM yesterday in which he calmly and methodically set out the case against the measures the Government announced today. This quote was one of the highlights:
Evan Davis: Is your view that the first lockdown was a mistake?
Charles Walker: We should have learnt the lessons of the first lockdown and the lessons of the first lockdown are this… that this virus particularly targets people with underlying health conditions and the elderly. So what we should be doing is applying the lessons learnt by the first lockdown and it does seem that we’re not.
Evan Davis: So it’s basically the shelter-the-elderly policy and those with underlying conditions?
Charles Walker: If the elderly want to be sheltered. There are many people who are elderly who believe that existing isn’t living. That being told that you’ve got to spend the next six or 12 months without human contact, without seeing the people that you love, without embracing your grandchildren, is a price too high for them. It does seem that this Government for the best of reasons but mistakenly is trying to abolish death. You can’t abolish death. The fact of the matter is that people in their 80s and 90s die. If that comes as news to your listeners or they’re offended by that statement they haven’t been paying close attention. The only guarantee you have if you’re born is that when you get into your 80s and 90s the chances are at some stage in your 80s or 90s you are going to die. We can’t save every life, we just can’t save every life, because the cost to the living is too high. The cost to those people who are not being treated for heart disease or cancer in the 30s, 40s or 50s is too high.
You can listen to the whole thing on BBC Sounds. Interview starts at around the 12 minute mark.
Will There be a Tory Rebellion Today?
The House of Commons is due to vote on Boris’s “three tier” lockdown today, with the vote on whether to extend the 10pm curfew being folded into the votes about whether to embrace the three levels of restrictions. Will the Government lose any of these votes? Unlikely, according to Christopher Hope in the Telegraph.
Tory MPs concerned about the impact of lockdowns on the economy will meet at lunchtime on Tuesday to decide how to vote on the Government’s measures.
One Tory rebel said more than 40 Conservatives could vote against the “very high” tier, with as few as 20 MPs on the other measures, although the rebellion could grow throughout the day.
Last week, 14 Conservative MPs rebelled over the “rule of six”, which limits gatherings of people in England. One Tory said he expected “a significant number of votes against aspects of the measures”.
In theory, more than 43 Tory MPs are required to overturn the Government’s 85-seat working majority in the Commons. However, none of the rebellions on Tuesday is likely to lead to a defeat for the Government because Labour sources signalled that the party’s leader, Sir Keir Starmer, is likely to tell his MPs to abstain.
Senior Tories said they expected Conservatives representing communities in “high” risk areas of the three-tier system to vote against measures in the “very high” areas to lay down a marker in case their areas move into those restrictions.
A senior rebel MP said: “We won’t win the votes against any of this stuff because Labour is abstaining or supporting. But my sense is that it will build as people get more and more hacked off and the longer these restrictions are in place.”
Worth reading in full.
How Worried Should We Be About Rising Hospitalisations?
At the Downing Street press briefing yesterday, NHS National Medical Director Professor Stephen Powis said there are more coronavirus patients in hospitals now than when the UK went into lockdown in March.
“If infections continue to rise, in four more weeks they could be treating more patients than they were in the peak of the first wave,” he said.
But just how alarmed should we be by that factoid? After all, the NHS coped perfectly well during the first wave, with the Nightingales going largely unused. In addition, Covid patients are now more likely to survive, spend less time in ICU and are discharged sooner.
The top NHS doctor who’s made several contributions to Lockdown Sceptics over the last few days has analysed the latest report on COVID-19 patients in England and Wales from ICNARC – the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre – which compares the fate of those patients admitted on or before August 31st with those admitted between September 1st and October 8th. Turns out, the latter batch are much better off than the former batch. The senior medic has crunched the numbers and written a summary for this site. Here’s an extract:
So, what does all this mean?
On the face of it, patients admitted since September 1st seem to be less ill, require less medical support and have a much lower death rate than those admitted in the period up to 31st of August. This is perhaps not surprising, since we now know that early mechanical ventilation is probably not a good idea, and we also know that drug treatments such as dexamethasone and anti-coagulants are beneficial.
Patients not needing mechanical ventilation are a lot easier to manage than patients on ventilators. The nursing intensity is lower – this could have important implications if the trend continues, as a shortage of specialist nurses was a major problem in the London area in April and May. The large reduction in the need for renal support is also significant in reducing the requirement on nursing and medical resources.
But my doctor friend is only cautiously optimistic, for reasons he explains.
How sure can we be that the group analysed since September 1st will be reflective of the patients admitted for the remainder of the year?
Well, there are some confounding variables which may suggest that this subgroup analysis is a bit skewed to the optimistic side. Firstly, only 427 of the 856 patients in the Sept 1st group have had completed datasets – the remainder are still being treated. It is possible that the 427 contains a higher proportion of patients who recovered quickly, and thus skewed the results to the good side. But the 427 also includes 99 patients who died and this might be a higher proportion than in the still being treated group.
There was a slightly shorter length of stay in hospital before being admitted to ITU in the group after Sept 1st (two days) than in the group admitted up to August 31st (2.5 days). Faster ITU admission and earlier intensive care might be expected to result in better outcomes.
Further, it may also be the case that as the cohort admitted after September 1st were in hospital at a less stressful time, they may have received more medical and nursing attention than the group before August 31st when resources were more stretched.
On the other hand, recent reports broadcast today from North West England and from Italy and France all tend towards a 25% incidence of mechanical ventilation compared to a much higher rate earlier in the year. If this trend continues, it would have significant beneficial effects in reducing medical and nursing workforce demands and enhancing hospital resilience.
Should there be a major ‘second wave’, it’s possible that these better outcomes may not be sustained because medical and nursing staff will come under increased strain. Having said that, the recorded differences to date are so striking and the outcomes so different that it is unlikely to be a chance effect.
So, in summary – it’s too early to tell for sure, but the initial data shows a pleasing improvement in overall survival and a reduced need for intensive medical interventions in the sickest group of COVID-19 patients. Let’s hope this trend continues.
This is an excellent analysis – almost reaching the standard of Carl Heneghan and pals at the CEBM – and worth reading in full.
A Fresher Writes…
Charlotte Kirkham, an enterprising fresher at Keele University, has carried out a survey of her fellow freshers to see how they’re coping with life in a not-so-luxurious prison. She asked 38 first year students whether they’ve found it more difficult to make new friends at university whilst obeying current COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines? Eight-seven per cent said yes, with only 13 saying no. Charlotte then asked them to give reasons. The most common were:
- You can’t socialise in person outside your bubble unless it’s socially distanced with six people.
- Being a commuter student who can’t meet anyone in person.
- No freshers, cancelled social events and opportunities.
- No parties/clubs/nights out.
- Fear of repercussions.
- Online lectures stopping you meet people you sit next to, there’s no chatter or opportunity to stop for a quick chat afterwards.
- Scared of the virus.
- Everyone’s in their own rooms.
- Everything shuts at 10pm.
- The SU and other large social spaces are restricted and the one way system means you can’t walk up and talk to people.
We’ve published Charlotte’s survey on Lockdown Sceptics here.
Postcard from the Ionian
A reader has sent us a postcard from the Ionian Sea, where he’s just spent an enjoyable fortnight island hopping on his sailboat. Sounds absolutely heavenly.
Just back from a truly wonderful two weeks sailing around the Ionian Sea, Greece. Sailing is obviously a tonic in itself, but the escape from CDS – Covid Derangement Syndrome – that has overtaken half the world was almost as good.
The Ionian islands are sparsely populated, and the Greeks have done quite a good job of keeping Covid off them. There have apparently been just a handful of cases– all brought in by visitors. Those visitors have been isolated and treated where necessary and Covid seems to have never taken off. However, unlike New Zealand, the Greek authorities allow the free passage of visitors and locals in and out of the area – a sensible recognition to me that endless isolation would cause far more harm than good.
Two people off our flight from Gatwick were randomly tested at Preveza airport and we hear that for some flights everyone was tested. So the authorities aren’t quite in the ‘let it rip’ camp. As an avid sceptic and of the view that the virus is uncontrollable, I was a bit ambivalent about their scenario as they really do seem to have the virus under control. That left me thinking that it is the unnatural densities of populations in our huge cities which is part of the problem – ‘control’ can only happen with total incarceration – and even then is only temporary.
On the islands we visited, the only reminder that there is/was/might be a future pandemic was that some of the Taverna staff wore masks. There appears to be no equivalent of ‘social distancing’, no Perspex screens, no stickers on the floor, no authoritarian-sounding notices on the walls, no mask-wearing in the streets (masks are supposed to be worn in shops) and best of all – absolutely no busy-bodies trying to enforce anything. It seems even staff mask-wearing hasn’t reached the smallest islands, where a spirited evening of drinking and eating can be had with no evidence of the supposed viral threat.
There is no crime in the islands to speak of, and we have never seen a policeman, so don’t expect cops stopping people in the street and handing out fines or beatings (it’s definitely not Victoria state Australia).
The closest we got to a figure of authority is the marvellously theatrical self-appointed harbour master on Kalamos. He directs every boat where to anchor in the harbour – who are then bound to re-pay the favour by eating in his Taverna. He zooms out of the harbour to greet every approaching yacht in his super-smart RIB (with easily the biggest outboard on the island) dramatically circling your boat, bowing and circling his hand to emphasis a booming “Welcome to Kalamos”. It seemed to embody the spirit of the islands. Heartily recommended for a holiday – they certainly deserve it.
Alternatives to Bedwetters
Thanks to all those readers who’ve suggested alternatives to “bedwetters” as a term to describe people on the other side of this argument. The ones I particularly like so far are Covstapo, Sucklers, Poltroons, White Walkers, Shutters, Lemmings, Limboists, Lockdown Zombies, Covid Jelly Babies, Covid Disciples and Covid Neurotics. But Chin Wobblers is still at the top of the list. Although there is this…
This reminds me of the Falklands conflict when squaddies were forbidden to refer to the locals as Bennys after the stupid character from crossroads series played by Paul Henry.
Instead they called them Stills and when asked why, they would reply, because they’re still Bennys.
I think STILLS is also appropriate here.
Round-Up
- “You’ll Never Work Out Again: Liverpool’s local lockdown lunacy” – Good piece by Dr David Jeffrey in CapX on Liverpool’s lockdown lunacy
- “Brace yourselves for a double-dip Covid recession” – Ross Clark in the Spectator if feeling gloomy about the economy
- “A Covid financial crisis is surely only a matter of time” – Matthew Lynn in the Telegraph agrees
- “The PM committed to ‘levelling up’. Instead his government is targeting the North for oblivion” – Ross Clark again, this time in the Telegraph
- “Authoritarian Starmer Doubles Down Against Grimes” – Keir Starmer says there’s a line and when people go over that line it’s right that the police should investigate. He may turn out to be a great recruiting sergeant for the Free Speech Union
- “GCSEs and A-levels will be delayed by three weeks, Education Secretary confirms” – Gavin Williamson announced yesterday that the majority of exams will take place between June 7th and July 2nd, and results days will be pushed back to August 24th for A-levels and August 27th for GCSEs
- “COVID-19: Do many people have pre-existing immunity?” – Good summary of the herd immunity argument in the BMJ by Peter Doshi. Not unsympathetic
- “‘We have to challenge the groupthink of the woke elites’” – Brendan O’Neill joins joins Max Klinger on the E2 Review podcast to discuss Trumpism, anti-Trumpism, BLM and the dangers of groupthink
- “Why has Google censored the Great Barrington Declaration?” – Good piece by Fraser Myers in Spiked
- “Madrid’s roads are brought to a standstill by anti-lockdown protesters” – The Mail reports on a lively anti-lockdown protest in Spain
- “Driven by fear and dodgy science, this was bound to end in tiers” – Richard Littlejohn is unmoved by the Prime Minister’s crocodile tiers
- “How ironic if the very people who helped get Boris Johnson elected now turn against him” – Stephen Glover thinks support for the Conservatives is collapsing in Red Wall seats
- “London could be plunged into tier two lockdown THIS WEEK” – Unelected mayor Sadiq Khan threatens to move London into the “Tier Two” category
- “Blood, sweat and tiers: Boris Johnson’s message to Britain was utterly grim” – Michael Deacon, Parliamentary sketch writer for the Telegraph, says there was something unusual in Boris’s House of Commons speech yesterday – a complete absence of hope
- “Bizarre ‘Socially Distanced Prom’ Shows Teens Dancing Back to Back” – Truly remarkable footage of teens at a prom dancing back-to-back, arms interlocked
- “Red Wall Tories want a U‑turn from Johnson” – Unfortunately, it’s over a proposed cut in Universal Credit, not on his suppress-until-a-vaccine-turns-up strategy
- “Cambodian farmers deploy scarecrows to ward off virus” – Sounds silly, but no less effective than lockdowns
- “Do Not Pass Go” – In the latest episode of London Calling, James and I are even more ranty than usual
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Just one today: “In A Lonely Place” by New Order.
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.
Sharing stories: 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.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today we bring you a review in the New York Times by Haley Mlotek of a book that sounds like a sequel to the Society for Cutting Up Men – a kind of anti-straight manifesto.
The Tragedy of Heterosexuality wastes absolutely no time getting to the point, but while many of the sentences (including the title) made me laugh out loud, it is at heart a somber, urgent academic examination of the many ways in which opposite-sex coupling can hurt the very individuals who cling to it most.
Ward distinguishes straightness as a practice from straight culture, which is the very heart of society’s most disgraceful failures. It is not, as one popular joke goes, that straight people are “not OK.” It is that heteronormativity creates a powerful, privileged form of sexuality against which, historically and currently, all other forms are compared. In examining the pressure to partner with the opposite gender we find the extortions of capitalism, the misogyny of violence against women, the racist and xenophobic erasure of nonwhite families, and the homophobic hatreds that pervade so much of everyday life.
Even by the standards of incomprehensible woke nonsense, that takes some beating.
“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 £1.49 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 masks 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).
The Great Barrington Declaration
The Great Barrington Declaration, a petition started by Professor Martin Kulldorff, Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Jay Bhattacharya calling for a strategy of “Focused Protection” (protect the elderly and the vulnerable and let everyone else get on with life), was launched last week and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it. If you Google it, the top hit you get is a smear piece in the Guardian headlined: “Herd immunity letter signed by fake experts including ‘Dr Johnny Bananas’.” (Freddie Sayers at UnHerd warned us about this hit job the day before it appeared.) On the bright side, Google UK has stopped shadow banning it, so the actual Declaration now shows up in the search results – although discussion of it has been censored by Reddit. The reason the zealots hate it, of course, is that it gives the lie to their claim that “the science” only supports their strategy. These three scientists are every bit as eminent – more eminent, for the most part – than the pro-lockdown fanatics. So expect the attacks to continue.
You can find the petition here. Please sign it.
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…
The Government’s reskilling ads – suggesting new career paths for people who’ve lost their jobs as a result of the Government’s colossal mishandling of the coronavirus crisis – have launched a thousand memes.
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.
First!
Barrister Francis Hoar
– Judicial Review & The Legality of Lockdown & the Media – 12th Oct 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOfJv6tpiMA
Fantastic – Sense in bucketfuls – I hope for all our sakes that Simon Dolan and Francis Hoar win… All he says about the MSM and especially the BBC is true. Laura Kunnesburg and co have indeed shown a dereliction of duty. They should not even be classified as journalists so pathetic has their questioning been.. I can no longer watch the BBC news. Sky and itv no better but BBC is government funded and have been an utter disgrace.
Watching this right now.
POLICE STATE
Police attempt to serve papers on Piers Corbyn telling him not to go to Cardiff Rally 11/10/20
Police attempt to serve papers on Piers Corbyn and warn he MIGHT get arrested if he goes to Cardiff Rally 11/10/20 because it’s a Local Health Protection Area = Exclusion Zone. He’s still going and says people should go in huge numbers. Free Cardiff! #WeDoNotConsent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP2TKHHuW9c
Interesting. In China today its citizens have to get permission so I’m told to move around their own country – and it were so in the days of the Soviet Union. These are big countries mind.
Corona – figures and fakery – from Comment Central
OCTOBER 13, 2020 IN HEALTH BY SEAN WALSH
https://commentcentral.co.uk/corona-figures-and-fakery/
commentcentral corona-figures-and-fakery/
<i>This is the real form of dishonesty that this government needs to address. The fakery at the heart of it. The manipulations by Hancock and Johnson, the disgraceful violations against statistics and language, have been itemised by mathematicians such as Carl Heneghan; in epidemiology by Professor Sunetra Gupta and Dr John Lee; and “in the round” by the wonderful work done by Will Jones and Toby Young at ‘lockdown sceptics’. ……………………………..
The government’s Corona strategy was wrong at the outset, given that the “outset” was several months after C-19 was showing up in the European sewage systems. Viruses, when they are endemic (as this one has been since November) do not respect government graphs. I suspect that Mr Johnson knows this and would love to be helped out of his embarrassment.</i>
I have some rope spare …..
The action by Essex County Council is not going well with Essex residents. The overall “case” numbers are considerably less than those in London. If the government allow Essex’s request will they then move London on to the next tier as well?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MWZP4B86rY&feature=youtu.be
Berlin 10102020: Better Normal, not New Normal – http://www.ACU2020.org – World Doctors Alliance
He can make things better by following Sweden
The virus is not letting rip in Sweden because they followed the correct science and not Neil Ferguson and Piers Morgan
**************************
<i>Sweden – No Lockdowns, No Masks, No Insanity</i>
Tony Heller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnmTDPF8Tgk
Can someone explain to me how a country of over 10 million people has less than one death per day without the miraculous power of cloth masks?”
**************************
Alison Pearson – Daily Telegraph
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/yes-boris-tippingpoint-trust/
To be fair to Baroness Harding, the poor woman has only been given £12.6 billion to come up with a workable NHS tracking system. With that amount, you could have paid every single elderly and vulnerable person in the UK £60,000 to shield themselves in the Bahamas and used the change to recompense students for their non-existent university experience.
2nd! I really must go to sleep earlier!!!
The following was on Facebook, with an accompanying video – from a gym owner in Liverpool who says he will not obey. Last time I looked there were 744 comments and they all seemed to be in favour of his defiance. Note to mods – I apologise for the length of the post. Nick Capo Whitcombe tiSponfs6olrhed · WE ARE STAYING OPEN TO OUR MEMBERS Today the UK’s Government has took it upon themselves to close gyms in the North West, despite the overwhelming evidence that gyms are not a major spreaders of COVID. We respected the last lockdown although we financially suffered and only survived because of our amazing members. However they now want us to close, with minimum financial support for 6 months. We get no rent break, bills break both personally and as a business. We are not staying open for financial gain but more for our members mental and physical well-being. Gym’s should be supported in fighting against COVID, obesity, mental health and many other conditions and diseases. So let’s look at the facts and evidence that has lead us to this decision and what the Government should be looking at: UKActive published this study – https://www.ukactive.com/…/fitness-and-leisure-sector…/… Read more »
I salute a brave man.
I totally agree — Good luck to him.
Robust Civil Disobedience, bring it on.
I don’t suppose it’s easy to find out if this kind of brave action is taken by some people in Germany, or France, or Poland, or Spain where there is a huge amount of dissent and demonstrations. (Not reported by our MSM, of course, but can be seen on Youtube.)
Someone who has put an evidence base together to justify his actions, unlike the government who shut things down because of ” you know, the virus”.
Good on him. Does anyone know what action the authorities could take against him?
I suppose fines and court. As his evidence is better than the government’s it would be interesting.
So far as i can tell, there are two approaches – Fixed Penalty Notices (which everyone should challenge and block up the courts) and a Closure Notice. But if the Closure Notice were to be ignored the local authority would have to bring an action in a court. I don’t think that legally (a quaint notion) a local council can just turn up and physically remove people from premises.
Let’s hope it remains a ”quaint notion”!
It has taken our local authorities nearly three years to close down an illegal waste/grabhire company working without planning permission on a green belt site – and they still havent managed to get rid of them despite the company losing an appeal and the inspectorate ordering them to leave – I see their lorries working every day – The local authorities are either totally inept or lazy — I hope the gyms an other companies defy these absurd lockdown plans … Is the government deliberately trying to bankrupt its citizens??
Throughout the first lockdown a garden centre/nursery remained open against orders. The Council threatened to prosecute them and the Police threatened to prosecute customers. Neither happened
Cool. Whereabouts, please Charlie ?
Wrong to ask that question.
Not really. If people knew where, they might be able to give it even more support right now.
Really.
Why, as the council and police are already aware ?
They’ll do what the Democrats did in the U.S. and take away his license to operate, or fine him into bankruptcy.
Perhaps LockdownSceptics could advise him.
Lose his licence to operate?
Be hounded by the EHOs?
They’ll get him one way or the other. I hope he has lots of customer support.
Well done him. A calm and logical post, more power to his elbow.
Fantastic. Let’s have more.
I haven’t got any money but I would chip into a bust fund for any resistors to this evil lockdown insanity. I have more than £100 quid in my pension plan, a wooden box with £1 and £2 coins in it. Anybody facing a fine for staying open is welcome to it.
Have you looked at this, then?
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/lockdownlegalchallenge/
Knife crime in London is 179 per 100k people. You are more likely to get stabbed in London than even catch Kung flu and that includes the bs testing numbers of people with no symptoms
Heard of another gym owner who is refusing to close. If he does it will be for good and if he is fined and forced to close it will be for good too. He has nothing to lose.
im most concerned about the effect on young people. Unable to see their friends including boyfriend/girlfriends in each other’s houses. Take part in sports, go the gym, socialise indoors or even see their grand parents etc etc etc. It’s just a disgrace. Argue all you like about numbers but it plain morally wrong to impose this.
Have you written to your MP to tell him/her that he/she is a spineless worm if he/she has toed the party line in this?
I’m about to write to mine who is showing grovelling subservience and not even talking a good talk.
Yes, I wrote to my MP – I wrote twice for the first time I got back a letter that said absolutely nothing – just empty words and sentences. So I wrote again mentioning that she had not replied to any single question asked – Guess what? I got the exact same letter word for word saying exactly the same absolutely nothing – (mainly pretending she understood and was concerned about the loss of civil liberties blah blah blah- I have written a third time telling her she sent me the same pre written letter on the two other times I wrote to her. — I haven’t yet heard again. I can honestly say I am shattered at what is happening to our country as are millions of people are losing all they have ever worked for and the old folk are isolated, lonely and destroyed – and all I get back from the local conservative MP – It really does make me wonder what the MP actually cares about.
This is the point where the local councils are going to get badly bitten. “Nothing left to lose” is the point where the local council is going to start to finally understand that if they successfully shut everything down, their revenue will be gone; not temporarily, but for good. FOR EVER.
Additionally, if someone is going to go bankrupt due to a successful forced closure by the stinking Covid Nazi, then a gym owner (who is likely to have far more muscles than the Covid Nazi) may decide to take the cost of the fines out of the hide of the Covid Nazi, and they will thoroughly deserve it.
Some of us may be docile people scared of losing a clean record, but others, truly, will have NOTHING to lose.
Well done!
(And they’re not ”cases” anyway, low though they are. Just fit and healthy people visiting a gym to remain fit.)
One up vote for the gym owner and one for my all-time favourite sci-fi character!
The Shadows have taken control.
This is brilliant – so well thought out. I’m sharing it on Facebook (along with all the other anti-lockdown stuff I share. I’ve never shared much on Facebook but I do now…..) https://www.facebook.com/nick.whitcombe
maybe they shoudl take legal action. THe gErman doctors alliance have the evidence to give people for their cases. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MWZP4B86rY&feature=youtu.be
Berlin 10102020: Better Normal, not New Normal – http://www.ACU2020.org – World Doctors Alliance
From the round-up:
Michael Deacon, Parliamentary sketch writer for the Telegraph, says there was something unusual in Boris’s House of Commons speech yesterday – a complete absence of hope
It is this aspect that is the strangest thing. Most people seem prepared to go along with a strategy that offers no hope, and they angrily reject the optimistic strategy. We lockdown sceptics have been aware of this since March, of course, but we might have expected that everyone else would have twigged by now.
The quote from Charles Walker is excellent, but is, again, a ‘fringe’ viewpoint.
6 months ago
“I have in my hand a piece of paper signed by Mr Whitty and Mr Vallence that promises to bring Health in our time…”
Phoney War on Covid.
Yesterday “I have to tell you that no such Health has been achieved and that consequently this country is now in a state of war with its own people…”
Time for bozo to do a Neville Chamberlain and just go.
Unfortunately there is no Churchill waiting to step into his shoes.
There is, and his name is Nigel.
Or Desmond
Time for bozo and co to go to jail. Traitors the lot of them.
Brilliant! Thank you for a chuckle – which fast turned into sobs of frustration.
Just wondering – what is Kier Starmer for? Anybody?
Office and the perks that go with it.
Trilateral Commission (and himself!) MW
He is there to make sure the government’s insane policies get through Parliament without too much trouble. He’s doing this job magnificently and Boris is well pleased.
Mr Trilateral Commission! if anybody thinks voting him in will change anything they really have not been paying attention
Kneeling
Establishment knob is starmer don’t trust Labour either
As I said above, I’m about to write to MP (but for all the good it does…..) and I’m also about to write to BJ – which will be ignored no doubt. But it makes ME feel better and it might waste someone’s time reading it in case they miss something they might censure me for.
It’s important to keep writing to your MP. They claim that more mockdown is what their constituents ask for.
FFS!
Don’t moan or complain. Just ask awkward questions. Ask for evidence to backup government policy.
Provide your own evidence and try to elicit a considered response.
Don’t expect a sensible reply but I think it’s good to keep prodding them. Try to write at least once a week.
It’s a long time since dePIffle wrote his own speeches.
I think the three scale tier would be better described as “fucked”, “very fucked” , and “very, very fucked” – nothing to do with the virus, just the effect the government is having on the people…
Readers poll on Local Live (mirror group news)
1. Will the new Three Tier system be enough to (beat the rise in cases wotever)?
○ Yes
○ No
There is no option for
● It’s all bollocks, everyone back to normal tight away.
You’re absolutely right. All this is smoke and mirrors, and creating arguments among people as to degrees of lockdown, and whether rules are fair or unfair, etc.
This is all to distract us from the main point that it is, as you say, and I quote ”all bollocks”.
They’ve even had to add the flu figures to inflate the covid ones. So now, if people are admitted to hospital, no doubt they’re tested, and, if (false) positive for covid (OR flu) the increase in figures can be used to scare the gullible.
Are you serious about flu figures being added to Covid ones? If so – link?
I think they’re just doing a combined report but I doubt they’d be brazen enough to combine the figures inside it
Wow.
There are loaded questions and have you stopped beating your wife yes or no questions!
And we don’t ever get to “slightly fucked” or “not fucked”
Or a ” properly fucked but you get a kiss&cuddle at the end”
That’s actually much more accurate than the government’s shambolic one.
now Sage come out with their minutes suggesting the three tier strategy is useless
Coronapanickers, Coronanists… All might replace “bedwetter”. And for those who fully collaborate and batay their fellow citizens, refer to such individuals as “Vidkun Covid-ling” or “Judas Covidiot”.
Turncoats
Stasi informants, or Angela Merkel
Covidstasi?
“Coronanists”, yes, that is priceless, far better than bedwetters or stills!
Says it all to those that know 👌
Much easier to lock up some poor sobs at the other end of the country than the people in your backyard, especially when those latter people can simply walk to 10 Downing Street and give you a piece of their mind.
To Boris Oxford is the far north. Beyond that it’s Wildlings.
He once went to Carlisle and sat in a pub on, admittedly rather rough, Botchergate, whilst waiting for a train. He was terrified and wrote an article that clearly indicated that he believed that he had been among an alien species.
Botchergate was like Rio de Janeiro last weekend after all the pubs closed in Scotland. Will be mayhem this week too with the old firm game on.
Boris is right about Cumbrians, they are so retarded they vote Conservative over and over again. .
The creatures outside looked from Tory to Labour, and from Labour to Tory, and from Tory to Labour again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
He’s right. However, he’s the alien.
Normal, decent people just don’t behave the way he has throughout his entire life.
Back in the seventies I was waiting for a train in Carlisle and went into the pub near the station. The bar girl was bored and poking around. Then there was a loud bang, she went red and ran into the back room carrying the large revolver she’d found and accidentally discharged
Doesn’t surprise me. It’s a frontier town!!
Labour will abstain because they don’t want to share the guilt of further Harrying Of The North. They will not vote against because they want it to happen in the hope of rebuilding their red wall, probably correctly.
We’ve had lockins* round here for a while now and I expect they have up north too. What is now required is robust non-compliance from the good people of Liverpool.
* if you don’t know, ask your dad.
As well as “bedwetters” perhaps we should appropriate another term to describe the mask fanatics – “covidiots?”
Toby, are you really dispensing with the term “bedwetters” because it might alienate potential allies? If so, why are you proposing to replace it with something else that is also derogatory?
I don’t think the problem was that it is derogatory but that it refers to what could potentially be a real ailment. And “bedwetters, no offense to anyone with legitimate incontinence” seemed a bit cumbersome.
Toby very clearly explained on the London Calling podcast his concern that calling potential allies names was a turn-off. So substituting “Chin Wobblers” (wishy-washy as that is) or “Covid Neurotics” or another insult doesn’t make much sense.
Who’s it turning off? Is chin wobble a recognised medical condition?
Thank goodness ‘zombie’ isn’t.
I’m starting think that it is. . .
(maybe they should design a PCR test for zombie RNA, then we’d know for sure!)
It would be 80%positive.
There’s no doubt about it.
My insult of choice to which I’ve added your ‘Dandelion’. I occasionally use ‘Nellies’. MW
I just listened to it (after commenting). I am disappointed that he’s losing “face nappies,” though, since we don’t use that word, here, so it is even more amusing.
I like White Walkers or coronaphobics.
They’re experiencing covidiotism and are lockdun-philiacs
If people are put off so easily, they’ll never be useful allies.
Perhaps ‘bedshitters’ is a better term? 🙂
or just ‘Squitters’?
Incontinence is not the same as wetting yourself from fright, or very young children who haven’t yet controlled their bladders.
Bedwetters refer to the latter two.
Is selfish ignorant wankers too in your face?
We shouldn’t be slagging off potential allies who are new to the site. That’s a really stupid and immature thing to do.
Abuse doesn’t help anybody. It’s judgemental and aggressive. Ok it might make you feel better but maybe keep your negative labels to yourself in this context.
We urgently need converts and we need to keep them on side. We must have more sympathy with those who were taken in by the propaganda but have now seen the light.
They probably feel pretty stupid anyway by the time they arrive here. We don’t need to rub it in by being smug and abusive.
It is also unfair in the sense that there are people on the sceptical side of the argument who I would characterise as bedwetters; those that rail against the lockdowns and the wearing of masks, and then end their diatribe with “so I’m not going out anywhere and I have a weekly delivery from the supermarket”
What! You are not spiting the government by doing that! It is exactly what the government wants! You should be out shopping and non-mask wearing, not staying in and giving more money to big business.
I actually WAS a bedwetter when I was young. I was diagnosed with “anxiety and neurosis”. Actually it was DIABETES. That was the first time I was misdiagnosed by our wonderful NHS. It was not the last.
I’m sure Charlotte Kirkham is a lovely girl but the complaints outlined in her student survey are those of the true conformist.
Get out girl, live life, be a rebel. Students certainly are around here though, to their credit*, they seem to be avoiding interaction with the local population.
* from the point of view of a Second Wave fanatic.
She has no idea that Social Credit is coming her way, she just doesn’t know how to enjoy life in an unsanctioned way and so will embrace Social Credit if it means the SU bar can open.
Hear,hear, go for it, girl, and boys and BLOODY everybody
Look, I said this before. If this was happening during my days in Uni, the lockdown would last about 5 minutes before the doors would be broken down and about 6 min before the first security marshal would be knocked out flat on his ass..Young people today are a bunch of softies (including 2 of nieces who are both still in Uni..and their boyfriends)
not that easy, my daughter is also imprisoned on a university campus. the students ahve been threatened with hefty fines and expulsion if they disobay lockdown rules..
I wonder when the rioting will start.
Honestly, today’s update has some pretty encouraging stuff, after the awful header…
Coming soon.
We’re heading into the middle of October which means that furlough is ending in two weeks. Come November expect a raft of more unemployment and bankruptcies.
not when but where
It’s not far off Johnson is going to push people too far and he will end up on his fatass after a smack on his Chin or 3 of his chins
johnsons strategy is to impose unwelcome sanctions on people who don’t like him and have those sanctions implemented by by local politicians and public servants who oppose him and would love to see him fail.
Twat.
Din’t forget that the majority of those people are Dandelions who believe that Covid will Get Them if they put their noses outside the door, or put their brains in gear. And don’t forget that there us no anti-cretinist party at present. It’s about bloody time there was, north, south and centre.
No, Dandelions are tough little sods.
Pansies, perhaps?
The French word for dandelion literally means ‘piss in bed’.
‘Pissabed’ is also an English dialect word for a dandelion.
The term dandelion is an unwarranted insult on a plant that has numerous medicinal properties and provides essential nutrition to bees! Its cheerful yellow petals turning always to the sun, its strong determined root, are far more symbolic of lockdown refuseniks than Covid phobics! Fair play for dandelions!
In my area ( Worcestershire/Shropshire/Staffordshire borderlands), Poppies, not Dandelions were blamed for kids “wetting their beds”
Do you still give laudanum to children in your area? I thought everyone’s been using phenergan since the 80s.
Oh and cretins, thanks for reminding me and you are, of course, right. MW
Think it’s a bit much to describe it as a strategy…
Partly explains the smirking.
People who don’t like him: Right now, that’s the majority of people who voted for him. Bad mistake.
Tier Three ‘pubs can only open if they act as restaurants . . . serving a substantial meal’.
“6 pints please luv and a plate of cheesy chips ta”
Reminds me of Luncheon Vouchers. These were a throwback from WW2 in which workers could be partly remunerated with food vouchers (tax free?).
Establishments that accepted these had signs reading
“Luncheon Vouchers accepted for bona fide meals only”
They were still around until the 80s when they realised that nobody knew what ‘Luncheon’ meant anymore and thought that ‘bona fide’ meant giving the dog a bone.
.
Superb! Thanks for making me laugh out loud on a (not so packed) tube train with a bunch of compliant maskees, with just the odd nose-nudger offering any resistance.
So a substantial meal keeps you safe from Coviddesth?
Good news for those of us who like our food.
Perhaps that would weed out labeling sandwich, crisps and fruit as a substantial meal.
As someone of East Asian descent, that to me is an abomination and not a proper lunch.
That’s a death knell for school lunches then.
If I had a kid, I would never send them with merely a sandwich.
In Ireland you have to spend at least 9 euros on food in a pub or face certain death.
I got luncheon vouchers at my first proper job in Blythswood Square, Glasgow in 1980. Worth 15 pence a day. The sandwich bar at the corner of the square would take them against anything, newspaper, ciggies etc. Even in 1980 15 pence wouldn’t buy you a cheese roll. I used to collect them to use against a proper meal usually they went beyond their date before I had enough. Happy days,
Nectar and Tesco club nowadays.
” ‘bona fide’ meant giving the dog a bone”-lol
How very Tony Hancock!
About the same age too… 🙂
Some very good comments in the Mail every day now, overwhelmingly sceptic and well informed.
But why does the news section regurgitate the government’s propaganda in its main headlines? A great start would be: always put the word ‘cases’ in quotation marks.
I actually like that-the Mail always juxtapose the govt stuff with articles with easy to read diagrams. This presentation compares favourably with the rather wordy commentary in the Telegraph.
Yes, please, Toby Young, it’s ‘cases’ not cases. Otherwise it’s buying in. MW
I’d spotted that!
I get a bit irritated with it. MW
They don’t want to jeopardize future Covid advertising.
Charles Walker MP for Prime Minister and Chief Medical Officer, might as well give him the BBC as well.
I though it was quite telling his interview appeared at the 12 min-not shunted to the 40 min mark.
I have emailed him to say thank you.
Yay!
BBC Website 12th Oct.
‘Covid reinfection: Man catches Coronovirus twice and second hit more severe.’
Won’t bore you with the details but
1st infection March
2nd infection June.
Come on BBC you can do better than that at providing scary ‘news’.
Was on R2 7am news, no mention of it saying back to June.
Got it out of the file named ‘scary story for a quiet day’.
Doesn’t this say more about the mans immune system? Inability to develop antibodies???
More likely one or other test was a false positive if they were so close together. I haven’t looked at the actual story.
I don’t know. My point is why did they sit on it for four months before running with it today.
Was on the main R4 news as well.
Is this the same guy who tested positive at the airport?
Devi has been pushing at reinfection as it is clearly an attack on natural immunity – makes a vaccine the only saviour. Firt there was one case, the 4, then 11 and now this one. All seem very dubious. Scientists need to be carefully exposing this reinfection craze they are trying to muster.
Just woken up. Is the pig dictator still in charge?
Still pretending to be in charge Cecil.
Think pork scratchings, crackling, bacon sandwiches and pig’s trotters.
Any use for the squeak that’s left?
Can’t sell it to British Leyland any more
No. SAGE are. Led by unelected PM Whitty.
Regarding “Why has Google censored the Great Barrington Declaration?”, I don’t understand. The Spiked article is dated Oct 12 (today still in the USA). When I google great barrington declaration, the first hit is the website with the declaration and signing opportunity.
There’s plenty of censorship to complain about, but this doesn’t seem to be an example of it.
It was disappeared for a couple of days then miraculously found it’s way back.
Important people remember Google doesn’t show same results to everyone. If you’ve visited a site repeatedly it’ll show up in your results but not, maybe, for someone who hasn’t visited it. It’s made tracking search rankings for SEO an absolute nightmare over the years. For me, it still doesn’t show, the whole first page is just news items criticising it
Try incognito mode (or the equivalent). It is still censored, although top hits now seem to be articles about its censorship. There is a bullshit response from Google blabbering about search rankings needing to build up, but it is lies.
Try DuckDuckGo: they don’t steal your data.
ok … how about f**king bedwetters …
Our local police force has 3,000 officers
From day one in March they just carried on as normal
No social distancing, no hand sanitiser, no ppe, in fact non of the corona bollocks
Guess what? No illness and no deaths
Same with supermarkets. Where I work they sent all the vulnerable people home on extended holiday, whilst the rest of us (vast majority) got on with work as normal. What an interesting strategy huh!!!.
I agree that “bedwetters” is a bad name. For a start, you’ve got to be on top of the bed, not hiding underneath it.
It is important to follow the science when dealing with the rona
So what do we know so far
It knows the time of day
It knows where you are the country
It can speak many languages including Welsh
It can distinguish between a pub and a restaurant
It knows the exact location of the England/Scottish border
It knows what a substantial meal is
It has the plans of the house of commons showing where the bars are
It knows your age
It knows your ethnic origin
It knows the location of all the shops
It has your full service history and knows if you are mask exempt or not
It can distinguish between public transport and other forms of transport
It knows if you are really mask exempt or just being bloody difficult
It knows the names of all the students in the country
But most important of all it knows where YOU live
In that case it knows that a total sceptic lives in my house and doesn’t give a s..t for it.
And has a perfectly dry bed.
It also knows what, if any dental treatment you can receive and it probably knows your voting history and political affiliations.
It also knows your BMI and what library books you read and how many.
It also knows what programmes you watch, how you watch them and whether you have a telly licence.
I hear this a bunch, but I’m curious. What is a telly license?
It’s a licence you have to have in the UK in order to watch live TV. Pretty archaic. In reality a tax used to fund the BBC.
So not like cable, in that it’s broadcast? But it’s voluntary? Meaning that if you don’t pay you’re essentially agreeing to not watch the thing? Why on earth would anyone pay that? It seems about like putting taxes on the honor system…
You need to pay it on top of a cable or satellite subscription, even if you never watch the BBC, if you watch live TV at all. It’s currently a criminal offence not to pay it if you watch TV or use the BBC iPlayer (their streaming service). The government has been making noises about decriminalising it though. A bit like masks – many people pay it because they’re supposed to and they don’t want the hassle.
But an ever-increasing number is refusing to pay it this year. Heh heh!
Because until recently you could be jailed for not having one, usually the lady of the house if husband at work or single mom.
Yes, they really did go to jail.
That is nuts. How do they know you’re watching TV, though?
Seems that scheme couldn’t outlive the internet…
They don’t know. They assume. If you don’t pay, they bombard you with threatening letters until you do.
We’ve been getting them for years and we just ignore them. Nothing happens. MW
For fun search ‘bbc tv detector vans’. Mind control has long been apart of the broadcasting experience.
Hi Ryan, you are not obliged to buy a licence but if you don’t have one, you are not allowed to watch any live programmes on any channel, also any ‘catch up’ programmes on BBC. You can, if you wish, watch any other channel’s catch up progs. We decided to go licence-free in August as you could count the number of progs we watched on live tv. It just wasn’t worth it. To date, we’ve received three letters telling us we need a licence. I am waiting eagerly for some bozo to arrive on my doorstep and try to browbeat me into submission. We abide by the diktats outlined by the BBC so we most assuredly DON’T need a licence! Bring it on, I’m thinking. 🙂
I didn’t renew back in May. Not a squeak from them so far. Just a thank you for letting them know and if things change blah blah
Remember when we had to have a licence to listen to the radio ?
Transistor radios put paid to that because how can you be in a ‘household’ lf listening on a bus or at the beach
Yeah – I was just thinking about that and specifically how it was an extra level of stupid.
Good-ness. Doesn’t get much more stupid than those… Though I suppose we get taxed plenty.
Well, I used to say “that crap would never fly, here,” but now I see people wearing masks in the street. We aren’t quite like what Toqueville saw on his trip, anymore.
AH bless, it’s a liscence for your TV. We call a TV a telly here in the UK 😉
You missed one…..
It’s coming for you
It knows to leave you alone when you’re bagging a few grouse with your chums. As long as the beaters are masked, all ok.
Forgot: up here it knows whether you Listen to Nicola or whether you resort to using expletives in the privacy of your own home and refuse to obey.
It also knows how to inform the local cops of any infringements of the Rule of Six,as it can count and it can identify familial and non familial relationships.
It can judge distance (carries a tape measure)
It can judge people’s ages and medical vulnerabilities (so it knows if you are with someone who is in a ‘risk group’)
It also knows your occupation (BBC, politicians and celebs exempt from rules)
It can only move in one direction
It knows your shopping preferences
It knows your clothes size
It knows what books you read
It can count to six
It can tell time
However will it be able to tell the time once the clocks change? Will it tell the difference between GMT and UTC?
Covids operate on Eastern Standard Time, so 6 hours behind the UK, they don’t care about the clocks changing.
It knows you when you walk into restaurant.
It knows when you are sitting down.
It knows when you are going to the loo.
It knows who is a waiter and who is customer eating his meal at a table.
It knows when there is more than 6 in a queue.
https://laworfiction.com/2020/09/face-covering-some-pretend-law/
It knows your height and weight too
I must concede I have been under a misapprehension. I thought that, over the past few months, the debate among the health professionals was about how dangerous Covid really is (based on the actual data about it) and whether restrictions can be lifted.
I now realise this is not the case. They are working on the same fatality rate as in Ferguson’s original model. They are only trying to calibrate the degree of restriction needed to suppress the rate of infection. If you open a school, you must close the restaurants. That kind of calibration.
Under this scenario, we stay restricted until a vaccine arrives. But, if no vaccine arrives, we still stay restricted. My guess is that this would be about ten years. Ten years would allow a population of terminally ill people to develop who have already had Covid. This would mean they can comfortably die of a different infection, but not Covid. I’m sure that will be a big relief to them.
Using fergusons model it will never be safe for anyone to do anything anywhere. Feed it with hobnobs and the result would be the same despite it having no relationship with reality.
I’m not sure the public really knows this. I suspect that many people, like me, thought that we would ease restrictions as we learnt it was not as bad as feared. But now we know that’s not true. Restrictions are here to stay.
I kept telling people this, from the start, that there was no exit strategy. And I keep telling it to them now, when the case is even more obvious. People with university degrees in STEM subjects. They either shut down completely or mumble about a vaccine.
I think this is the key problem with the GBD – but I also don’t know how you’d get around it. The “fact” that the virus is far too dangerous to be left to do its thing is just taken as a complete given and nobody questions it. All of the few sceptical voices you do hear in the media have to get in a little sentence that acknowledges the unrelenting danger. So the GBD can’t go as far as to suggest that we just drop the nonsense and get on with our lives. On the other hand, if they did that, nobody would listen to them at all.
In reality, for absolutely everybody – including the very old and co-morbid – there are many things around us that we should be at least as concerned about and probably more so. But it’s ok, because you’re allowed to die of those things as long as you don’t die of this.
I thought the same when I read it. They are offering a sort of compromise, meaning they are actually hoping to be heard and have some impact.
Of course I signed. But I also think we could drop the nonsense (and we should).
The vaccine wont change anything – well other then that the state will now be trying to force that upon us along with everything else.
The vaccine paves the way for the real goal, the “health” passport.
There will be other options in addition to a vaccine – A certain well-known patient has had passive vaccination in antibodies and is “immune” (at least until they wear off in about 3 months). Better antibodies are coming for this protection and prophylaxis trials are underway.
Barrister Francis Hoar – Judicial Review & The Legality of Lockdown & the Media – 12th Oct 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOfJv6tpiMA
POLICE STATE
Police attempt to serve papers on Piers Corbyn telling him not to go to Cardiff Rally 11/10/20
Police attempt to serve papers on Piers Corbyn and warn he MIGHT get arrested if he goes to Cardiff Rally 11/10/20 because it’s a Local Health Protection Area = Exclusion Zone. He’s still going and says people should go in huge numbers. Free Cardiff! #WeDoNotConsent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP2TKHHuW9c
Political policing. They lose consent.
Defund the dictatorship
This is ‘off message’, but if any despondent and exasperated sceptics need a diversion, go out and look at the clear sky: Mars is at its brightest, gleaming in red in the west.
Sirius is twinkling below Orion and there are no clouds here to spoil the view.
This wonderful display has raised my flagging spirits.
Mars has indeed looked glorious over the past few nights.
Yes, the past few very early mornings, when it hasn’t rained , have been very special .It looks like a red lantern beckoning us all to sanity.
If only! Wishful thinking.
Mars is the planet of war. Take strength from it.
I don’t do astrology, but I find meaning in symbolism.
Good point Ann.
It’s also fire energy. It can give momentum. Let’s hope that goes to the right group and is channelled in a positive direction!
I wish the little green men would hurry up and take over they couldn’t possibly be any worse than the morons who control us at the moment
Thanks. It’s not off message at all. Taking a break from this and recharging is important. Even the simple things can be a much needed distraction.
We are all pretty much in agreement on this forum, albeit coming from wildly different political backgrounds. The response to the virus is entirely disproportionate to the danger. But for me, the most exasperating thing is not that we are a minority. It’s not even that we have to try to live rationally amidst a sea of masks. The worst part for me is that a majority of people I speak to don’t even seem to mind. The lockdown has not impacted upon their well intentioned middle class life. They already work from home. They are already content to see family just once a year and by zoom. They have Ocado deliveries rather than queue. The kids play in the back garden and live on their phones rather than real social interaction. So because none of this directly affects them, they see the lockdown as a valiant act of self abnegation and all part of a collective “we”re all in this together” movement, and feel all noble about it. Challenge this rhetoric and we are the ones called selfish.
What gets me even more, is that I know many people who HAVE been directly affected by all of this, and they still seem quite indifferent! I don’t understand, even redundancy doesn’t seem to do the trick.
A full year on the buroo will concentrate minds for sure.
I’m not even sure it will, they seem really convinced that it’s all the deadly pandemic’s fault. Admittedly, everyone I know who has faced redundancy or reduced income probably has reasonable savings, so won’t be immediately destitute, but surely the lightbulb in their heads will light up eventually…
They’ll find out soon enough. Might be tmoro, next month or 6 months or even a year hence.
But theyre going to understand and they’re going to understand good.
It’s true, they will. Sooner rather than later I hope as we need people to realise and get angry, it’s the only way out of this.
I was out leafleting and chatting to shoppers with my local Keep Britain Free group on Saturday. I spoke to about 14 people – even the masked ones were happy to discuss BUT the point is they just don’t read or hear anything other than MSM! They were so misinformed and ignorant of facts. This has to be the most depressing aspect of this whole farce! It’s MEDIA we must change – this will not end ever otherwise. Not even when they are destitute, this is how propaganda works
It’s crazy isn’t it. It’s so easy to find piles of data and a counter narrative on covid but just about everybody JUST WILL NOT LOOK OR LISTEN to anything that isn’t on MSM. Absolutely mental. My whole family are like that sadly.
Trouble is we’ll be paying for it as well.
I look forward to the “I told you so” moments, but will it be worth the financial and mental torture we will all have gone through?
Yeah I know, even if we reverse course right now it’s still inevitable. Fun.
Now buroo isn’t a word I’ve heard in a while.
They will change their tune once their savings and pensions are subjected to tax raids which Sunak has never ruled out.
And for those who crow that “working from home” is here to stay ad infinitum, they should be careful what they wish for. A lot of pensions and savings are invested in prime real estate and if the likes of the City of London go bust, the value of their pension & savings pot will be as worthless as the Deutsche Mark in Weimar Germany.
A bit of me wishes that the smug workers from home who say we can’t be too careful and should lock down just in case are made redundant and replaced by people working from home in Estonia.
I’m sorry to say – and I’m not crowing, because I don’t think it’s wholly a good thing – that working from home is going to be at least massively increased forever now.
There is a certain amount of stupidity in the idea that most people should have to travel up to an hour each way to sit and stare at a computer screen, when they have a perfectly good internet connection at home (my “pipe” at home is significantly better than anything I would get in the office). The last 7 months have been a massive, enforced experiment on whether it can work and I just can’t see many companies going back to even 50% office working. Sad (very sad) to say, central London is now permanently stuffed.
Whilst I agree with you to some extent, there are people who do better when they don’t work from home. I have a friend who would rather do her two hour commute rather than be stuck in her one bedroom flat.
Or what about me & Mr Bart who has had to put up with noisy neighbours and living in a not so good area?
Working from home is not for everyone, there should be a choice.
I’m one of the few who still work in heavy engineering. I think the neighbours will complain if I worked from home!!
You smoke a pipe?
If you can work from home in Maidstone, then that same work can be done from Manila or Mumbai
For some jobs maybe. I need people with connections across a multi-national organisation, who can communicate fluently, and have a deep understanding of our sector. This isn’t an easy skill set to acquire, and I am not sure anyone sitting at home all the time – whether in Maidstone or Manila – can do it.
I’ve been doing this a long time, and I don’t think I could sustain it – even with a good foundation to build on – for a sustained period of time. Certainly not indefinitely. No idea how anyone new could build up the knowledge base or relationships you need virtually.
I’d put myself somewhere in that ‘middle class life’ bracket, but can assure you I’m livid with the ridiculous restrictions. Which I generally tend to ignore.
That certainly describes the lifestyle of the politicians, public health ‘experts’ and statistical modellers spouting off about which towns and cities require ever more stringent lockdown.
But working class Scousers and Geordies don’t live like that. When they reopened the pubs last time, lads were jumping off bridges into the Tyne. They were stir crazy. And the Northern working class live in the same few streets as their families. They are each other’s support network.
This attack on the North will not end well!
The WHO are talking bollocks again
“THE HEAD OF the World Health Organisation has warned against allowing Covid-19 to spread in the hope of achieving so-called herd immunity, saying to do so is “unethical”
He is saying we can only only reach herd immunity with a vaccine. Completely ignoring what Sweden have achieved so far.
https://www.thejournal.ie/world-health-organisation-herd-immunity-covid-19-5231174-Oct2020/?utm_source=twitter_short
A vaccine is just inducing artificial herd immunity (if it occurs naturally first, so much the better), clearly they are idiots:
herd immunity
noun
Brilliant quote!
So they don’t want lockdowns and they don’t want vaccination… ?
Sridhar and others have explicitly written and said natural herd immunity is bad, vaccine herd immunity is what they hope to achieve. Apparently vaccine herd immunity is safe (how the hell will they know?) while natural herd immunity is thuggishly refered to as letting it rip. Crass purile words from immature pseudo scientists and politicians.
That can only possibly be the case if you have a 100% safe vaccine.
And if I think of my children, if I gave them a vaccine that caused them irreparable harm, I’d somehow feel a lot more unethical than if they caught a virus that caused them harm (which this one is unlikely to do anyway). Because, you know, viruses happen but vaccination is an active choice.
I’d be surprised if there aren’t others at the WHO, who disagree. Hoping he’s shot himself in the foot again on this one.
That guy should never be listened to. His handling of this has been shambolic and when this is all over, he should be hauled before the Hague for this.
That would be a start.
I think the best answer is this
“So, to be clear, WHO would say Sweden was unethical in maintaining access to healthcare, employment and education, at the expense of allowing herd immunity to limit mortality to the same level as countries who prevented such access?”
https://twitter.com/bell00david/status/1315763389713375234
Comes pretty directly from an interview with Bill Gates I saw back at the start of this where he said it was important that people did not develop immunity before the vaccine arrived to save us all
Have to say I agree with PM that the new rules are simpler
They’ve done away with the charades of level 1 and 2, of the earlier 5 level system, and now openly admit we have no prospect for, and that they have no intention of letting us, going back to normal.
Medium risk and extreme interventions such as the rule of 6, masks everywhere, social distancing and 10pm curfews is now the best we can have… They’re normalising this as if we should be grateful to find ourselves in a ‘tier 1’ zone, but make no mistake these are still very very extreme interventions and impositions on our lives.
I could not be angrier.
You’re right. The responses on my MPs fb page yesterday were mostly of the thank goodness we’re only in level two variety.