Boris Announces Second National Lockdown
Talk about a cock-up! Downing Street originally briefed that the Prime Minister would be holding a press conference on Monday to set out plans for a second national lockdown. Then someone leaked the details to the press, meaning Conservative MPs had to read about the plans in yesterday’s papers rather than being told about them by Boris. In an effort to minimise the damage, Downing Street brought forward the announcement to 4.30pm yesterday. Then moved that to 6.30pm. And in the event, the Wizard of Oz didn’t appear from behind his curtain until about 6.45pm, even though Downing Street had been warned by the BBC that it had to start at 6.30pm because they weren’t going to move Strictly.
As one Conservative minister told the Times‘s Matt Chorley: “The incompetence is another level. Is this a deliberate destruction of the Tory Party? People only vote for us because they think we don’t care, but are competent. Lose the competence and we’re f***ed. We’ve lost the competence. And we are f***ed.”
And let’s not forget the PM scoffed at Keir Starmer’s call for a two-week ‘circuit breaker’ three weeks ago and described a second national lockdown as the “nuclear option”. Pitch rolling, Boris-style.
The key points of yesterday’s announcement were as follows (courtesy of the Mail):
- Restrictions will start at midnight on Thursday morning and last until December 2nd.
- People can only leave their homes for specific reasons, such as to do essential shopping, for outdoor exercise, and for work if they are unable to work from home. International travel will only be allowed for business purposes and returning travellers will have to quarantine. (This is a devastating blow to the already beleaguered aviation industry.)
- Non-essential shops will be told to shut, although supermarkets do not need to stop selling non-essential goods, as happened in Wales.
- Restaurants and pubs will have to close to the public, though they can still operate a takeaway service.
- Leisure centres, gyms, sporting venues, hairdressers and beauty parlours will have to close, although professional sport, including the Premier League, will continue.
- Key businesses that cannot operate remotely – such as construction – will carry on as before with safety precautions.
- Schools, colleges and universities will remain open.
- Places of worship can stay open for private prayer.
- Funerals are limited to close family only.
- The furlough scheme will be extended during the period of the lockdown, rather than ending tomorrow as originally planned.
- Exercise is permitted with no limits on frequency, but organised sports – including outdoor activities such as golf – will not be permitted.
- When the lockdown lapses the Tiers system will be reinstated, although Boris didn’t say what metric will be used to decide whether areas can have restrictions eased.
Rather implausibly, after Witless and Unbalanced had unveiled graph after graph of doom, Boris claimed to be optimistic about the medium- and long-term and tried to get the dour-faced Patrick Vallance to second that, which he reluctantly did. The reason for this optimism? Vaccines, obviously, but also a rapid testing programme that’s due to be rolled out in the next few days. Boris promised whole towns – nay, whole cities – could be tested at a stroke, with the help of the British Army. The Times has more on this plan, which is stage one of the Prime Ministered fabled “Moonshot”.
Not sure many people will be convinced that upscaling the NHS Test and Trace programme, which has proved completely ineffective to date, is a silver bullet.
He also said, rather ominously, that the Army would “help” people to self-isolate. Does that mean purpose-built quarantine facilities, like the kind they have in New Zealand? Let’s hope the buffoon just misspoke.
Towards the end of this rambling stream-of-consciousness, Boris said we’d need to observe the old mantra that was rolled out in March: “Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives.” Bit of a shock, that, given how many people who needed urgent care avoided hospitals last time round, seemingly in a misguided attempt to “protect the NHS”, with catastrophic consequences. Did Boris just pull that out of his hat at the last minute?
According to a Twitter thread by Matt Chorley, the fact that the “stay home” mantra was being revived came as news to the Cabinet, as did the extension of the furlough scheme. Is that why the press conference was delayed for more than two hours? Was Boris negotiating that with Rishi? The furlough news went down like a cup of cold sick with Northern leaders, who’d been told less than two weeks ago it would not be possible to cover workers’ pay above two thirds as part of the Tier 3 support scheme. Why all the brinkmanship if the Treasury was going to fork out four fifths two weeks later? Feels to Andy Burnham and others as if the PM thought he could get away with short-changing Northerners, but now Southerners are going to be locked down as well he’s decided to be more generous.
There is also a lot of suspicion among Tory MPs that the new restrictions aren’t being imposed because of the gloomy data; rather, the gloomy data is being conjured up to justify the new restrictions. Many grumbled to Chorley that case numbers were falling in their constituencies. For instance, cases are falling in all of Liverpool’s local authorities.
One Conservative MP told the Sunday Times: “The sentiment some of us are trying to convey to the Prime Minister is that goodwill is at an all-time low and his long-term future in Downing Street could be at risk. It just looks like a shit-show.”
How much comfort should we take from Boris’s assurance that the second lockdown will only remain in place until December 2nd, at which point the country will return to the three-Tier system? Absolutely none, obviously. Chorley put together the following timeline of other assurances made by the Prime Minister:
Mar 19th: Turn tide in 12 weeks
May 17th: “Near normality” by end of July
July 17th : “Significant normality” by Christmas
Sep 9th: “back to normal by Christmas”
Oct 23rd: “some aspects of our lives… back to normal” by Christmas
Oct 31st: very different and better by spring
The word “omnishambles” doesn’t quite fit the bill here. Nor does “shit-show” or “cluster-f***”.
The word to describe this level of incompetence has yet to be coined.
Stop Press: Ross Clark in the Spectator assesses the claim that new daily cases are escalating so rapidly it won’t be long before the NHS is overwhelmed. He says the Government’s blind panic is largely based on last week’s REACT survey, which showed cases doubling every nine days. However, the most recent King’s College London survey has cases doubling every 28 days, while the latest ONS infection survey has cases doubling every two-and-a-half weeks. If you take the seven-day average of confirmed test results, as reported on the Government’s coronavirus dashboard, it shows daily new cases have risen from 20,249 to 22,678 over the past week, which yields a doubling time of about six weeks. Clark’s conclusion: “Last week’s REACT survey does look something of an outlier.” Shame the Government decided to base a second lockdown on it.
10 Reasons A Second Lockdown is a Terrible Idea
I thought I’d put this list together, just in case anyone needs reminding.
- Our rights belong to us by dint of our status as freeborn Englishman. Therefore, if the Government is going to suspend them, it needs a really good reason for doing so. It did not have a good reason when the first lockdown was imposed in March and it doesn’t have a good reason today. (I made this argument in discussion with Prof Michael Levitt.)
- Quarantining the healthy as well as the sick to stop a virus spreading has been proved not to work historically and, for that reason, was advised against in the UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy 2011. More recently, Dr David Nabarro of the WHO cautioned governments to treat lockdowns as a “last resort“.
- There’s little evidence that lockdowns reduce Covid mortality. The evidence on this is plentiful, but to give just one example the per capita Covid fatalities in the eight US states that didn’t shut down (North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Utah) was lower than in the 42 states that did. (See this piece in the WSJ.) The main argument for locking down – and the one we heard yesterday – is that it prevents healthcare systems becoming overwhelmed, something which means more people dying from COVID-19, as well as other diseases. But in those US states that didn’t shut down, the healthcare systems weren’t overwhelmed – and nor was Sweden’s. A group of researchers at Uppsala University plugged Sweden’s numbers into Neil Ferguson’s Imperial College model in early April, hoping to persuade the authorities to abandon its mitigation strategy and impose a lockdown. According to the model, if the Swedish Government continued to pursue its “reckless” policy the capacity of the healthcare system would be overwhelmed 40-fold. Needless to say, it wasn’t even overwhelmed one-fold. In any event, we’ve already built additional critical care capacity into the English healthcare system to mitigate this risk – the seven Nightingale Hospitals, for instance, as well as all those ventilators the Government procured in March and April. Oddly, they weren’t mentioned in yesterday’s Downing Street briefing. As for overwhelmed healthcare systems being unable to treat other diseases, isn’t that already happening in our underwhelmed, Covid-ready NHS? One argument Patrick Vallance made yesterday was that if Covid admissions continue to rise at their present rate, the NHS would have to start turning away other patients in need of critical care. But that’s a sliding scale not a binary choice and the NHS has been turning patients away since March.
- Interrupting transmission among those who aren’t vulnerable to the disease, i.e. everyone under 75 and in good health, delays the time it takes for the population to reach herd immunity and that, in turn, prolongs the period in which the vulnerable have to be shielded and causes needless collateral damage to those who aren’t at risk. (See the Great Barrington Declaration.) Given that we’re going to have to learn to live with this virus, and that the “vaccines” are only likely to reduce the severity of the symptoms, what’s the point of continually kicking the can down the road?
- Lockdowns cause more loss of life than they prevent. This is contested, obviously, because the number of lives they’ve saved depends on a counter-factual generated by shonky computer models, and, on the other side of the equation, we don’t yet now how much loss of life has been caused by the lockdowns. (For instance, unnecessary cancer deaths will occur over the next five years.) But given that the average age of the people whose lives are supposedly being saved is 80+ and given the tens of thousands of people who will die unnecessarily as a result of cancer screening programmes being postponed, cancer care being delayed, strokes and cardiovascular disease being untreated, elective surgeries being postponed, out-patient care being cancelled and the long-term impact of job losses on mortality, it seems overwhelmingly likely that lockdowns cause a net loss of life. (The Department of Health and Social Care, Office for National Statistics, Government Actuary’s Department and Home Office have tried to calculate the collateral damage caused by the first lockdown and estimated it could be as high as 200,000 deaths. But they claim the lockdown was still worth it by contrasting the Government’s suppression strategy with an “unmitigated” scenario in which they claim that ~1.5 million lives would have been lost. That’s about 420,000 to COVID-19 and a further 1.1 million non-Covid patients dying who wouldn’t have been able to access health care in our overwhelmed NHS. You can check their sums here.) I’m just talking about the domestic impact of the lockdown here. Sceptics can easily show that the loss of life caused by all the lockdowns, collectively, is greater than the lives supposedly saved by pointing to the catastrophic impact of the lockdowns on the developing world. (See point 8 below.) Prof Sunetra Gupta estimates that 130 million people will starve to death as a result of the global economic recession triggered by the lockdowns. Zealots – even neutrals – argue that the pandemic would have caused the same economic damage in the absence of the lockdowns because people would have naturally adjusted their behaviour. But that’s implausible. The UK economy contracted by 20.4% in Q2, while Sweden’s only contracted by 8.6%.
- Lockdowns wreak havoc with people’s mental health and cause a rise in suicides. The Centre for Mental Health estimates that up to 10 million people in England (almost 20% of the population) will need either new or additional mental health support as a direct consequence of the crisis. 1.5 million of those will be children and young people under 18. The UK Government hasn’t released any data about the number of suicides in 2020 yet, but anecdotal evidence from GPs suggests it’s increased significantly, particularly among children.
- Lockdowns cause catastrophic economic damage, destroying businesses and throwing millions out of work. Boris announced yesterday that the furlough programme would be extended for another month. But how do you compensate those people who won’t have a job to go back to? 750,000 people lost their jobs as a result of the first lockdown. How many more will lose their jobs as a result of the second? According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, which keeps tabs on public spending, the Government will have to borrow £372 billion for the current financial year (April 2020 to April 2021), compared to £55 billion in a normal year. And that’s before the cost of new lockdowns and support measures announced yesterday are factored in.
- The global economic recession caused by the lockdowns will likely reverse the progress that’s been made in the past 25 years in lifting billions of people out of poverty in the developing world and will cause huge loss of life. From “The Coming Post-Covid Global Order“ by Joel Kotkin and Hügo Krüger: “In its most recent analysis, the World Bank predicted that the global economy will shrink by 5.2% in 2020, with developing countries overall seeing their incomes fall for the first time in 60 years. The United Nations predicts that the pandemic recession could plunge as many as 420 million people into extreme poverty, defined as earning less than $2 a day. The disruption will be particularly notable in the poorest countries. The UN has forecast that Africa could have 30 million more people in poverty. A study by the International Growth Centre spoke of “staggering” implications with 9.1% of the population descending into extreme poverty as savings are drained, with two-thirds of this due to lockdown. The loss of remittances has cost developing economies billions more income.”
- Lockdowns are fundamentally undemocratic in that they involve the arrogation of power by the executive branch of government at the expense of the legislative branch, rule by decree, postponing elections so politicians remain in power after their term of office has expired, suspending the right to protest, censoring the fourth estate (see Ofcom’s ‘coronavirus guidance’) and restricting travel. What guarantee do we have that things will return to normal when the pandemic is over? Will the powers-that-be ever declare victory in this war, given that it will mean a diminution of their power? As Milton Friedman said, nothing is as permanent as a temporary government programme.
- Lockdowns require police forces to enforce arbitrary, illogical rules in a draconian, heavy-handed way (e.g. fining students £10,000 for hosting parties). That undermines the rule of law and destroys policing by consent.
Stop Press: Matt Ridley in the Telegraph has come up with six reasons why a second lockdown is a mistake.
Carl Heneghan’s Plan B
Prof Carl Heneghan and his colleague Dr Tom Jefferson have written a comment piece for today’s Mail on Sunday arguing for an alternative to a second national lockdown.
You could be forgiven for thinking that the situation we now face is as clear as it possibly could be – and that it is becoming more dangerous by the day. The virus, we are told, is out of control, that Britain is heading for 3,000 to 4,000 deaths a day by Christmas, and that our hospitals are on the edge of catastrophe.
Yet we believe the situation is not at all clear. There are only two things about which we can be certain: first, that lockdowns do not work in the long term. They kick the can down the road. The idea that a month of economic hardship will permit some sort of ‘reset’, allowing us a brighter future, is a myth. What, when it ends, do we think will happen? Meanwhile, ever-increasing restrictions will destroy lives and livelihoods.
The second certainty is this: that we need to find a way out of the mess that does no more damage than the virus itself. We presented just such a plan to the Prime Minister himself more than a month ago. It will be put before him once again this weekend. We urge him to pay attention and embrace it.
Our strategy would be to tackle the four key failings. We must address the problems in the Government’s mass testing programme; we must tackle the blight of confused and contradictory statistics; we must make real efforts to protect and isolate those who are vulnerable; and we must inform the public about the true and quantifiable costs of lockdown (as if they needed telling).
If we do these things, there is real hope that we can learn to live with the virus. That, after all, was supposed to be the plan.
Worth reading in full.
Teaching Unions Call For School Closures
The largest of the teaching unions, the National Education Union, has demanded that schools close during the second national lockdown, as has the UCU, the largest of the academic trade unions. The Mail has more.
Teaching unions are already calling for schools to shut in defiance of Boris Johnson’s insistence on Saturday that they will remain open during a new national lockdown.
The National Education Union’s joint general secretary Kevin Courtney called for schools to be included in new lockdown restrictions and said it would be a ‘mistake’ to allow them to remain open.
As for higher education, Jo Grady, the general secretary of the Universities and College Union (UCU) said it would be ‘incomprehensible’ to allow in-person teaching to continue.
The teaching unions really are a disgrace. If these ‘teachers’ care so little for children’s education, shouldn’t they consider another profession?
The worrying thing is that Boris is so weak – so prone to U-turns – that he may well give in to these demands within days.
Covid and the Religious Impulse
A postgraduate researcher in political philosophy and the sociology of religion has got in touch, having written a fascinating essay on the religious aspects of this mad historical moment. We’re publishing it today. It’s in seven parts (although each part is quite short, so don’t let that put you off) and here is the part labelled “Heretics”. Should strike a chord with many readers of Lockdown Sceptics. It certainly struck a chord with me.
Honest open debate, indeed the fierce collision of differing opinions, is a wonderful thing. If the lockdown lobby were interested in developing the greatest possible sophisticated understanding, they would cherish the contribution of the sceptics. They would glory in the contradictions of their own arguments being pointed out to them. Following Hegelian dialectics, thesis would create antithesis would create synthesis. But, sadly, sophistication is not high on their agenda. A crushing uniformity of message seems to be more up their street. So to hell with Hegel (and Plato too); the arguments must be structured, not as an eternally progressing dialectic of knowledge, but rather as a flat, stale, unprofitable split between orthodoxy and heterodoxy. Rather than being painstakingly ground out in a crucible of trial and error, a corpus of infallible knowledge that we have come to know as “The Science” has simply been revealed. As many sceptics have noticed, the sole custodians of this knowledge, the keepers of the arcana, are the members of the scientific priesthood. They zealously claim all rights of interpretation, mediation and exegesis. Wielding their esoteric degrees as armour no factual nuance can penetrate, they have no trouble shouting down the citizen-scientists. Ah but those fellow priests, sometime quite high priests, who spout heterodox opinion are a thornier proposition. But the sacerdotal rite of peer review comes to their rescue, so that even the most bumptious of novices can denounce the most learned and venerable. With the help of giant online corporations richer and more influential than the Knights Templar, any inconvenient book, article, blog and petition is placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Contrarians are no-platformed, but not before that platform (or scaffold) has witnessed the last of the heretics’ ashes blown away on the wind. Before long these orthodox priest-scientists will have changed, through their dogmatism and intolerance, the very nature of medical science. In the rise of the public health professor, at the expense of the traditional clinician, we are seeing the emerging dominance of a new Augustinianism. For just as Augustine of Hippo hardwired the concept of original sin into the burgeoning cult of Christianity, so the goons of public health have got everyone thinking in terms of mass infection rates, reproduction numbers, and cases. Those who resist, those who retain an attachment to individualised clinical need, are attacked and dismissed as adherents of a twenty-first century Pelagian heresy. As Christopher Hitchens was fond of saying, quoting Fulke Greville, we are all of us now “objects in a cruel experiment, whereby we are created sick and commanded to be well”.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: On the subject of censorship, a reader reports that Anna Brees’s interview on Facebook with Dr. Mike Yeadon has been greyed-out, with users notified that it has been removed because the content is inaccurate.
A Post-Script From Rhodes
Following his “Postcard From Rhodes“, Guy de la Bédoyère has written about his flight home, which sounds like an episode of Little Britain directed by Mike Leigh.
As we headed back to the airport our phones started screeching alarms about the earthquake in the Aegean. We felt and heard nothing but it was a reminder there are more risks in life than just COVID-19.
On the Jet2 flight home I was fascinated by a family or families that involved at least three adult women and several children all seated together two rows in front of us. Their masks were fashion accessories. Not one of them seemed to be able to sit still for a minute. Up and down like yo-yos with at least two vast and obese prepubescent youngsters obsessed with wandering up and down the aisle while the rest of them, children and adults alike, climbed over each other and the seats ceaselessly, with the adults blatantly consuming large bottles of alcohol they had brought on board. By the time we reached London after four hours of this a couple of them were distinctly ‘tired and emotional’.
The hapless Jet2 staff, all aged about 21, were quite unable to bring themselves to do anything about these renegades, despite complaints from other passengers. One of the airline rules is that anyone aged over six is supposed to wear a mask, but that cut no ice.
Fuelled by booze, the women were becoming aggressive. Eventually a dark warning was given that the miscreants would be apprehended by the ‘authorities’ at Stansted. Needless to say this had all the impact of being threatened with the comfy cushion and a cup of tea. They took not the slightest notice. The masks remained only decorative embellishments to any part of their bodies apart from the relevant orifices. The cabin crew continued to do nothing and needless to say there wasn’t the slightest sign of the Covidstasi at Stansted either. Nothing could have exemplified better the futile impact of rules and regulations on people who won’t play ball and the utter meaninglessness of this Government’s authority when challenged.
This was my second arrival at Ghost Airport Stansted in just over a month. And like the last occasion (in September) I had my Government Passenger Locator Form and QR code at the ready. This time I didn’t even notice any signs about showing the form. In any case the form will be useless now. Jet2 had moved our seats in Rhodes meaning that as far as the world-beating UK Government team of PLR QR scrutinizers will be concerned we were sitting somewhere that in fact we weren’t (you have to give your seat number). I look forward to trying to convince them that the Biro alteration to our boarding passes made at Rhodes will prove we were in a different row and not next to the Covid storm in row 21 where we had been originally positioned. Or you know what? Maybe we won’t hear anything at all.
As for the Stansted passport staff, the two 12 year-olds on duty woke up momentarily to wave us casually towards the automatic booths before drifting back into catatonic states. And that was that. We picked up our bags from the laughably non-socially distanced carousel zone and headed out into the night, collected the car, and drove home to face the prospect of another futile lockdown as the lights go out all over Europe. Shall we see them once again in our lifetimes?
Round-Up
- “The Government is wrong to put England into lockdown” – The Telegraph calls the second lockdown depressing and debilitating
- “The anti-lockdown arguments have failed. Where next for its opponents?” – Pessimistic column by Dan Hannan in the Telegraph
- “The Ongoing Problem of UK Hospital Acquired Infections” – Carl Heneghan and co from the CEBM crunch the numbers and discover that 17.6% of Covid infections are hospital acquired infections. It’s not the NHS that needs protecting from us; it’s us that needs protecting from the NHS
- “Lockdowns Recreated a Pre-Modern Caste System” – Jeffrey A. Tucker on the American Institute for Economic Research blog on the brutal social hierarchies lockdowns create
- “Stem the tide. Protect the economy. Save jobs” – Good column in the Sunday Times by Oliver Shah, who points out that non-essential shops will have to close on Black Friday, their biggest sales day of the year
- “We lack Macron’s courage to call this savagery what it is: Islamist terrorism” – Rod Liddle is unimpressed by the lack of support for Macron by other Western leaders
- “Councils sue for Caffè Nero rent” – Ominous story in the Sunday Times that suggests Caffè Nero may not be much longer for this world
- “Vaccine taskforce head Kate Bingham shared UK plans with private firms” – Embarrassment for Kate Bingham as it’s revealed she disclosed sensitive information about which vaccines the UK Government was likely to purchase at a $200-a-head financial conference in the US last week
- “World Economic Forum managing director addresses Great Reset conspiracy theories” – Adrian Monck, Managing Director of the WEF, debunks the conspiracy theories which position him at the web of the Great Reset. And for a good exposition of that particularly conspiracy theory, see this piece by Archbishop Vigano
- “Forget WWII, the unwinnable war on Covid is more like Vietnam” – Madeline Grant in the Telegraph anticipates that the “war” on Covid will go on for yonks and won’t ever be won
- “The Week in 60 Minutes – with Andrew Neil, Jay Bhattacharya and Rod Liddle” – The latest episode of Spectator TV features Prof Jay Bhattacharya, one of the author of the GDB
- “‘The media are addicted to fear’” – Ivor Cummins is interviewed in Spiked
- “The dictators have taken over – and we didn’t even notice” – Peter Hitchens on fine form in the Mail on Sunday. Except some of us did notice, including Peter
- “The British Public Is Oblivious To The Political Disaster That Is Happening To Our Country” – And here’s someone else who’s noticed – Anna Burlaka
- “Anti-lockdown protesters hold demos in Birmingham and Bournemouth” – The Mail reports on yesterday’s anti-lockdown protests
- “For the health of the nation, shouldn’t Johnson’s medical fitness for office be scrutinised?” – Catherine Bennett in the Guardian suggests the PM should undergo some health tests to make sure his brain really hasn’t been damaged by Covid
- “‘A new lockdown will be far worse for businesses’” – Luke Johnson and others warn of just how economically disastrous a second lockdown will be
- “Premier League WILL continue despite second lockdown – but fans now unlikely to set foot in grounds until 2021” – Yes, fine, got it. But what about the Championship? I’m a QPR fan
- “Write to your MP in opposition to the new lockdown” – Michael Curzon in Bournbrook magazine urges lockdown opponents to write to their MPs
- “My sanity break from the family: a cheeky Premier Inn mini‑break for one” – Jessie Hewitson in the Times recommends a mini-break for one. Unfortunately, these won’t be allowed from Thursday
- “How modern democracy has given rise to lockdown totalitarianism” – Janet Daley in the Telegraph says the expectation that Governments can prevent death has led us down a dark path
- “Criticism of PCR test sees Costa Rica scrap requirement for visitors to prove they’re Covid-free” – Costa Rica has decided the PCR test is so unreliable it’s scrapped it
- “Oregon’s Health Official Announces Covid Deaths in a Clown Make-up Stirring Controversy” – A public health official in Oregon delivered the daily Covid data wearing clown make up. See it here on Twitter
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Just one today: “Crazy Train” by Ozzy Osborne.
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.
“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 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 an excellent piece about the ineffectiveness of masks by a Roger W. Koops, who has a doctorate in organic chemistry.
Mask Censorship: The Guardian has reprinted a mask survey in Which? magazine that ranked different masks according to how comfortable they are, how much crap they filter out, and so on. Worth reading for a laugh.
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 Googled it last week, the top hits were three smear pieces from the Guardian, including: “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 tops the search results – and this Spectator piece about the attempt to suppress it is among the top hits – 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 – than the pro-lockdown fanatics so expect no let up in the attacks. (Wikipedia has also done a smear job.)
You can find it here. Please sign it. Now well over 600,000 signatures.
Stop Press: Prof Sunetra Gupta tells the Daily Mail about how she’s been intimidated and shamed for backing focused protection over lockdowns.
Judicial Reviews Against the Government
There are now so many JRs being brought against the Government and its ministers, we thought we’d include them all in one place down here.
First, there’s the Simon Dolan case. You can see all the latest updates and contribute to that cause here.
Then there’s the Robin Tilbrook case. You can read about that and contribute here.
Then there’s John’s Campaign which is focused specifically on care homes. Find out more about that here.
There’s the GoodLawProject’s Judicial Review of the Government’s award of lucrative PPE contracts to various private companies. You can find out more about that here and contribute to the crowdfunder here.
The Night Time Industries Association has instructed lawyers to JR any further restrictions on restaurants, pubs and bars.
Christian Concern is JR-ing the Welsh Government over its insistence on closing churches during the “circuit breaker”. See its letter-before-action here and an article about it here.
And last but not least there’s the Free Speech Union‘s challenge to Ofcom over its ‘coronavirus guidance’. You can read about that and make a donation here.
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
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And Finally…
The time has come, I think, to play this clip from Network, the 1976 satirical film about a TV network starring Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway. This is the famous scene in which Finch, a newsreader, encourages everyone in the television audience to throw open their windows and shout, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.”
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Idiot wind, blowing through the buttons of our coats
Blowing through the letters that we wrote
Idiot wind, blowing through the dust upon our shelves
We’re idiots, babe
It’s a wonder we can even feed ourselves
Rarely for me I can’t sleep. Not depressed; just fucking annoyed.
Another poem, and then to turn in:
Riches I hold in light esteem
And Love I laugh to scorn
And lust of Fame was but a dream
That vanished with the morn–
And if I pray, the only prayer
That moves my lips for me
Is–’Leave the heart that now I bear
And give me liberty.’
Yes, as my swift days near their goal
‘Tis all that I implore
Through life and death, a chainless soul
With courage to endure!
Emily Brontë, 1841
Good choice of poem.
We have chainless souls with courage to endure. That’s why we are here.
So DON’T START SQUAWKING ‘I DESPAIR’, because despair is a chain you put on your own soul.
Emily Brontë’s poetry breathes liberty. Tellingly, as one of her biographers (can’t recall who right now) remarked, she doesn’t espouse liberty, or praise the concept of liberty – the easy recourse of lazy thinkers all around us – she wants liberty for herself. As with all free-thinkers, the loss of liberty was to her the stuff of nightmares.
But it’s important to remember that most people don’t want actual liberty, are scared of it. They want to be told what to think and what to do, so they can be comfortable in their cocoons.
That is what we are up against in the covid battle – which is actually only a battle in what is a much wider war (although it is turning into a pivotal battle, the outcome of which will define our future direction as a society).
most people don’t want liberty: that is why so many people are happy to go along with this, and even want further restrictions. That explains the bizarre nappy compliance; it explains the intellectually lazy outlook of much of the mainstream media. There is something rotten in the heart of Western society.
Me, I’m with Emily Brontë every time.
I think it’s often the case that people do value liberty, but only when it’s taken away do they realise it was taken for granted.
I’m sorry, but the future of our society was decided a long time ago. This current situation has just held up a mirror to it.
I have never doubted – and don’t doubt – that we are going to see this through and come out on top, however long it may take, and whatever hits we may take along the way.
Sadly, there are many who won’t be able to ”see this through”. The ones who haven’t much of their life left anyway, who are captives in care homes with no chance of being held by their loved ones at the end.
They’re the ones I feel desperately angry for – not the young, who no doubt WILL come out on top after this madness is done with. However they will perceive being ”on top”.
That’s a very fair point, which I should have kept in mind when writing my post. I do feel very, very angry for those people. This isn’t over when lockdown ends; it’s not over until he perpetrators get their day in court.
It’s vital this government doesn’t get away with all this and The ghastly Johnson and Hancock are held criminally culpable Boris must be shown the door
The door to the Tower!
I have a disabled 8 year old who has been set back in his progress from this nonsense. I’d love for someone to explain to me how he is going to “come out on top.” I don’t agree with what is being done to the elderly. It’s horrible. But if you side with those at the end of their life over those at the start of their life, you are an evolutionary genetic mutant. They are the future – they SHOULD come out on top. We sacrifice to the young. That’s how it works. Anything less is not fitness for evolution.
In saying that we would come out on top, I meant the cause would prevail, not that anyone wins as such.
I am painfully aware of the damage caused to both the young (I have a 4- and 2-year old) and the old during this tragedy, and have often alluded to it on this forum. And it is vulnerable people of all types who are suffering most during this. It was good today to see Toby mentioning the effects on developing countries, something I think even we sceptics haven’t discussed sufficiently.
I certainly didn’t mean any offence, and neither I am sure did Banjones, and wish you and your 8-year-old (and a younger child I recall?) all the best.
I don’t know if you heard Ivor Cummins’ conclusion to his video of 30October, 28min 50sec on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRbtGd70-Ow&feature=youtu.be
Thank you, TJN.
I most certainly agree that we must not prioritise the elderly when it comes to ”safety”- people must be allowed to protect themselves if they wish AND to make their own choices regarding ”risks”.
That is why I believe we should protect those who CANNOT protect themselves (ie in care homes) but that everyone else should be allowed to live AS THEY WISH. Thus people would make choices that would indeed advantage the young, as it should be, because the young are precious and most of us older ones would put them first.
Your child is precious too, and deserves a free life, as do you, as you make choices for him till he can make his own. At the moment, no choices are allowed, so it looks as though the elderly at the end of their lives are being prioritised through no fault of their own. They’d rather be left to live what’s left to them in the arms of their family – not forcibly incarcerated and lonely. A huge disservice is being done to the young AND the very old.
and protection in care homes shouldn’t mean isolation from family, friends and caring nursing staff without this their lives are simply not worth living what’s being done is totally dehumanising.
But I do just need to add – there are people at the end of their lives who are being denied the comfort of their nearest and dearest. And they should be considered. Your son is precious – and we all agree that. But we don’t want this to continue, otherwise your son may be one who is denied comfort. Keeping people away from their loved ones in extremis, or even in difficulty, doesn’t actually mean only the elderly.
Honestly, you have twisted what the other poster said, too much of that happens.
Well said, TJN.
George Orwell concurs with this in his excellent essay, ‘Inside the Whale’. He writes that most people want to lose themselves in comforting ideology rather than think for themselves.
from this i can only surmise here speaks someone who’s never lost anything worth having.
I’m not sure what you mean Biker, and can think only of things you’ve posted before on these pages. Not many people pass through decades of adult life without losing things that are worth having. Whatever your loss is I am sorry for it.
Biker: I recall what you wrote on here a few weeks ago, which maybe I wouldn’t unless I related to it. I also thought again about you when you hadn’t posted much recently. I hope you get my drift. Best wishes, TJN.
I was sent an Arthur Clough poem yesterday and spooky it had me reaching for exactly that Brontë verse.
‘Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth’? One of my favourites, and very apposite here too.
That’s it!
I actually posted it on here a few weeks ago, in reply I think to one of Poppy’s posts when she was feeling a bit gloomy. But I quickly had second thoughts and took it down. The real special stuff I don’t like to let go too easily, and anyway to get the most from it you need to get to it yourself. Anyone on here can find and read it – it’s short and easy – and hold the last two stanzas in particular close.
I’ll second that. Wonderful poem when you’re beset. It helped me through many a dark day.
Another poem where Johnson is concerned comes to mind: The Lost Leader by Browning.
Poetry can be a balm to the troubled spirit. It doesn’t change anything, but it helps to change the way you see it – reading the wise words of others is definitely a good way of passing dark hours.
No luck, no joy, no sense, no growth
No help from Parliamentary member,
No brain, no heart, no spine, no guts,
No hope, no use… November!
Here is a good poem for our times. if a little dated in parts. It is called ‘A Psalm for Life’ Tell me not in mourning numbers Life is but an empty dream For the soul is dead that slumbers And things are not what they seem Life is real, life is earnest And the grave is not it’s goal Dust thou art to dust returneth Was not spoken of the soul Not enjoyment and not sorrow Is our destined end or way But to act that each tomorrow Find us further than today Art is long and time is fleeting And though our hearts are stout and brave Still like muffled drums are beating Funeral marches to the grave In the worlds broad field of battle In the bivouac of life Be not like dumb, driven cattle Be a hero in the strife Trust no future, however pleasant Let the dead past bury it’s dead Act, act in the present Heart within and God o’erhead Lives of great men all remind us That our lives can be sublime And departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time Footprints that perhaps another Sailing o’er life’s sombre main A… Read more »
Echoes of Emily B., and of Peter Hitchens: ‘stay angry; stay patient’.
blue moon last night – appropriate….
Emily’s I’m Happiest When Most Away. Another great poem for free-thinkers.
Emily B was one of our great poets – but she doesn’t generally seem to get much recognition.
(It is a pleasure to speak to another who admires her! Thank you – you’ve brightened up my morning.)
I’ve never been properly taught literature or poetry – I did engineering-science at university. But one day, by accident, I stumbled across Emily’s ‘High waving heather …’ – and Wow! That I could relate to. Even Charlotte was in awe of Emily.
We live in a time when science has been usurped by ideology, and at such dark times it helps to call on the fundamental truths that perhaps only poetry, songs, and aphorisms – peculiar to us all – can offer, and alongside which we can all stand firm against the mob and self-serving ideology.
Emily would have been a Sceptic! Of that I am sure.
I say again – thank you, TJN, for brightening up a dark morning. I’m about to go and find my Emily book, to search for a bit of peace. And I shall copy your reply above (if you don’t mind) to my NZ friend who also reveres her.
I used to know loads of them by heart, bit rusty now though.
Best wishes to your friend in NZ.
He can’t ‘cancel Christmas’. It’s a celebration of the birth of Jesus. It can’t be cancelled. We have to cling on to that one immutable fact.
Hadn’t heard he was trying to prevent Brexit?
Prince Charles being in favour of the great reset is the death knell for the monarchy though, I would suspect..
The 19 year old son of a friend killed himself last week, he was in his 1st year at university. I don’t know that his despair was entirely driven by the reaction to the coronavirus but I suspect it was at least as material to his death as the virus is to a dementia suffering 85 year old.
But on the scales of fairness, how many aged, ill people’s lives would we need to extend for a a month or so to balance out the loss if this talented young man?
An awful story, the likes of which we are hearing far too often, but which were and are so predictable. As a society we should have done far better.
As regards your question, I’m not sure it’s a necessary trade-off. A decent society protects all vulnerable people. There’s no reason I can see why looking after the mental well-being of young people should be contradictory to looking after the physical and mental well-being of old people.
Why can’t we do both? The suggestion that we can’t do both comes I think from people with alternative agendas.
Never heard of this band before, but it came up in a random comment on one of my fav YT channels. All Heads Down by Hot Water Music Where did it begin? The skip in time, or the spark of sin. Where corrupted minds were let to stand with A head and tongue intact. All I ask is how we carry on. Tricked and blind, raped and robbed. Shutting our mouths so not to speak, And falling down to our knees. All heads down to bow. All heads down to bow to nothing Because nothing will save you. It’s you and yourself alone Because in the end, you’re own your own. So don’t crawl into the pitiful Burrow of followers. Where time erodes the strength and will, We’ve got to hold to withstand the disarray That brings us down to our knees. All heads down to bow. All heads down to bow to nothing Because nothing will save you. It’s you and yourself alone Because in the end, you’re on your own. So don’t crawl into the pitiful Burrow of followers. Stay upright and strong, Before the choice is gone, And freedom fades like promises Made for the trade Of… Read more »
Dylan when you least expect it.
Always expect Dylan.
Right now I can’t read too good
Don’t send me no more letters no
Not unless you mail them
From Desolation Row
Desolation Row makes sense to me not as a place – as many people have supposed – but as a state of mind – a state of mind which comes from independence of thought and all the social difficulties that can entail. Desolation Row is a form of mental trial and loneliness, or even depression, but one which the bearer must go through to be true to themselves.
The parallels with lockdown scepticism, especially in the early days, are clear.
I’m replying to you just to get maximum attention! Please, all here, if you can afford it, consider making a donation to Toby through the “Shameless begging bit”. I forwarded him something yesterday and he replied at 3am this morning.
Seconded.
Have done. And will do so again. Thanks.
Yes, you are quite right – We should all be donating if we can as this site has been often the only thing keeping us sane. Toby has put so many hours into he must be exhausted.. This site has made such a difference to us all. I have made donations in the past a will do so again right now. Thank you for reminding me for reminding us all…
Glad to donate if Toby can provide a link of some kind for dollar donations.
The quality of comments on this site is second to none. Thanks to everyone for such thoughtful and insightful contributions. We should hold a symposium when this is over.
It’s the quality of comments that make me return to this website, having been thoroughly convinced that Toby is dutifully playing the role of “controlled opposition”.
A notion reaffirmed today with his perpetuating the incompetence theory, be it omnishambles, cluster-**** or any of the other unmentionables all providing the political cover Boris has sought.
Unlike James Delingpole, who nails it in his latest piece (link below) and has been the only journalist worth of note daring to put his head above the parapet...
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/10/30/delingpole-only-donald-trump-can-save-us-from-the-great-reset/
Scary to see it all in a nutshell.
Anna Brees on YouTube is also doing a very good job.
Yes a gem from Dylan. The Idiot Wind is out of control and become a hurricane.
Good one. I was looking through Dylans lyrics last week to see what struck true (found plenty!) There’s also King Crimsons – The fate of all mankind I fear is in the hands of fools.
‘Let me die in my footsteps’ is very close to the bone. Also ‘It’s all right Ma’.
‘Idiot Wind’, as an allusion to human frailty. ‘Desolation Row’ – it being a state of mind (rather than a place).
But perhaps most directly: ‘I don’t believe you. You’re a liar. … Play it fucking loud.’ As an inspiration to stand against the mob.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znrlLDG0ynU
Confusion . . .will be my epitaph
The only thing I knew how to do
Was to keep on keepin’ on like a bird that flew
The close of the best verse in the song I think.
The best of the best (apart from Desolation Row of course).
I recently acquired a book of First World War poetry, which I haven’t looked at yet. However I’m continuing to read North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell and almost every chapter has something relevant to the present situation. Here’s something from chapter 31, referring to Frederick Hale who was involved in a mutiny against a harsh captain.
“You disobeyed authority – that was bad; but to have stood by, without word or act, while the authority was brutally used, would have been infinitely worse.”
Obeying authority, or obeying your duties as a human being? Only one winner, although the choice will usually be subjective and difficult – certainly at the time, if not so much in retrospect.
How many of us will have the courage? Unless it’s something spontaneous, I daresay that many of us will quail if we’re allowed the time to think about it. Especially if we have people depending upon us – the ‘hostages to destiny’ that make cowards of us all, rather than simple conscience!
Without the pale cast of thought we would never have seen through this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amDv2gk8aa0&feature=youtu.be
Cambridge Law Faculty
23.2K subscribers
On 27 October 2020 Lord Sumption delivered the 2020 Cambridge Freshfields Lecture entitled “Government by decree – Covid-19 and the Constitution”.
A full moon means I’m third!
A full moon means the werewolves are out. They were even on telly yesterday evening, I’m told.
Don’t dignify the regime as werewolves, or anything supernatural. They are just shit, mundane and boring.
I however am wondering whether that beserker spirit of which werewolf stories are an echo might have some relevance for our time. Visions of a naked unarmed warrior impervious to weapons, holding Johnson and gang ‘to account’ at their next presser.
I hope the churches will push back this time and carry on – Boris has no right to tell them to stay open only for private prayer.This is Communism.
Ours in Wales aren’t even open for private prayer,
Neither is our village church, though it said on the notice board it would be. I had to TEXT the vicar to get an answer. I had a terse reply telling me he’d ”allow”me access if I asked. So I suppose I’d have to crawl in (peasant like) under his watchful eye.
And the services that were held (till recently anyway) could be attended by booking only, two days in advance. Imagine! I’m not a regular churchgoer, but I do like to think I, and others perhaps with difficult lives, can go spontaneously.
The Church of England hierarchy has a lot to answer for.
The Catholic church is at least protesting closures this time. But I expect the C of E, led by that pathetic coward Justin Welby will just roll over as usual
Same with my parish church. I can’t help wondering whether the new set up appeals to some clergy and laity who would rather the CofE was a small group of the ‘elect’ with similar views, and not something for less enthusiastic people who only turn up at Christmas, Easter or Remembrance Day.
Reply from my Bishop as posted last week, but thought you’d like to read the full thing. Dear xxxxx Thank you for writing. In fact, many of our churches did re-open in the period from September when that was permitted, and I know that St xxxx was offering worship. Nor has the witness and worship of the Church ceased: there is online worship, and the pastoral support given to many of the needy in the community has been greater than ever before. We still have the right to practise our faith, and to worship, but not, perhaps, in the familiar or usual way – for the comparatively brief period of time that we put our neighbour’s health first. In fact, the number of people accessing our online worship opportunities have actually outnumbered our usual attendance figures. I think it does not help the witness of the Church to God’s love if we are constantly seen to be asking to be treated as an exception to the rules by which everyone else has to abide. We are therefore co-operating with the Welsh Government – and at the same time consistently representing the needs of our congregations so that as soon as… Read more »
In a word, no. Churches closing hits precisely the faithful few who do turn up on a regular basis.
The faithful few whom the coward clergy have abandoned and betrayed.
No they won’t.They are complicit in this shitshow. All of them should burn in hell!
Don’t worry: they will!
Jesus Christ , crown of thorns,crucified for these wimps the mind boggles!
Calvinists believe that Christ died only for the Elect.
I’m beginning to wonder if they’re right.
I hope Satan stick’s a pitchfork up their asses
Somehow I doubt it. The majority of their congregations are older people i.e ‘vulnerable’ so those in charge won’t want to be labelled granny killers. For the ones that do want to attend services etc. the restrictions themselves are incredibly off putting. My friend’s church insists on no singing, strict social distancing, places booked in advance, no tea and a chat after the service and God forbid if you sit anywhere else other than your reserved seat. Funnily enough she told them to shove it, not a decision she took lightly as someone who has been heavily involved with the church all her life and is a church elder.
I think the churches will be open for private prayer. I might go in there and sing my heart out.
Ours isn’t. Otherwise, I’d be in there singing too. It breaks my heart – a little village church that’s been standing there for a thousand years is now closed against the people.
Just read yours after posting mine above, about this ridiculous and divisive state of affairs. I blame the local clergy too – there are other ways they could reach out to their congregations. We’ve got a preaching cross in our churchyard. If the vicar were there now and then, speaking to passers by (and there are many as it’s a thoroughfare) and spreading some hope and love, then he might be worthy of our admiration. Cringing at home isn’t going to bring people to the church, even if there’s one left to bring them to. These clergy are complicit in this scandal. They can’t be burned at the stake for bending the rules – yet.
My other half and I are going to the little cenotaph in our village churchyard on Remembrance Day and we’re going to lay poppies and SING ”O Valiant Hearts” (one that’s banned now in case it offends some snowflake).
Is it? Why? I love that hymn. I usually go to the service at my old College, across the river from Durham Cathedral. Listening to the hundreds of names of the Bede Battalion of the DLI; North East men on the whole, who would have become vicars and schoolmasters in North East towns and villages is heartbreaking.
The University was planning to raze my old college to the ground and replace it with hideous student flats but possibly the only benefit of this whole shitshow is that ‘the Leazes Road Project’ has been put on hold.
Well – I believe it’s one of those that is said to ”glorify war”, ridiculously enough. The narrow-minded ones who say that really do NOT understand.
Bede here too, Caroline. 1975-78. Had a wonderful time.
Good for you!
I agree with you Banjones. We plan to do the same next Sunday at our village war memorial. Husband led the Act of Remembrance last year and we will do it again this year- with singing “Oh valiant hearts” too. Our rector has said outdoor meetings are “allowed”, we are in Wales, so we may have others there too. We also managed a Harvest Evening Prayer with hymns in the church garden in September and 10 others joined us.
I used to be a fairly regular churchgoer, attending usually twice a month and singing as a chorister. All stopped now, I refuse to attend under the current restrictions. It would be like attending a Quaker meeting in an operating theatre.
It was reported in BMJ a week ago that Moonshot had been abandoned
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4112
but of course the whole purpose of the exercise is to siphon off as much wealth as possible.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/vaccine-taskforce-head-kate-bingham-shared-uk-plans-with-private-firms-rtlzrz8v5
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n21/peter-geoghegan/cronyism-and-clientelism
In plain sight.
Many thanks,especially for the last link.An absolute read.It shows the corruption in the response to C-19.It must be shared and read extensively.The response to this pandemic is not normal. Too much money involved for the Big pharma and the supertechnology approach with meaningless masstesting is just lining the pockets of the already wealthy.This is really an eye opener.
We need a campaign to defund the Tory Party (and any other MP who votes to Lockdown). To starve them of both funds, and all publicity/promotion. We need to target MPs and their business interests; their funders, any business or person who attends a Tory fundraising event, or provides a platform for Tory promotion (eg Johnson’s televised factory visits); and all of their supporting media outlets (those, both national and local, that do not provide balanced coverage of the coronavirus debate). This is done by disinvesting in, or boycotting the products of, the MP’s personal business interests; likewise of these supporting businesses and funders of the MP and Party; of those businesses/people that attend or provide space for Party fundraising events; and likewise by disinvesting in, and boycotting the products of, those who advertise in these supporting media outlets of the Government Corona policy. This is how to make our politicians more accountable. We should write to our MPs (and the local Party Chairman) to warn them that this is what we will do if they vote for Lockdown on Wednesday. We should organise, both nationally and locally, and spread the ‘Defunding’ message widely on social media. Hit them in… Read more »
Pressure the conservative MP’s to remove Johnson reminding them if they fail their party deservedly needs to be permanently in opposition Labour getting in would be dire for the UK thank God I joined the SDP back in April
It is a very insightful article, and of course track & trace is a nightmare which will prevent us ever re-opening society. It is supposed to facilitate it but can only ever do the opposite. However, what LRB will never do is focus on vaccine racketeering and it wouldn’t surprise me if they were quite sympathetic to The Great Reset. Sunday Times is a small start.
The info in that last link, all in one place, is shocking!
“The head of Britain’s vaccine taskforce is facing calls to resign after disclosing “official sensitive” government documents to a $200-a-head conference in America last week.
Kate Bingham, a venture capitalist who is married to a Conservative minister, was appointed to the role by Boris Johnson in May despite having no vaccines expertise. She reports directly to him.”
Blatant corruption.
She’s apparently the daughter of a judge, too..
It would be very interesting to find out who was at that conference in the USA that she gave the information to…
Do we know anyone high profile, who’s got lots of shares in one of these big pharma companies?
I am sure there are but of course our politicians are just the client class for the global oligarchs. In a disintegrating political situation they are just grabbing what they can for themselves: they are simply high rollers and it doesn’t matter what happens to us. I am not sure it is true of the entire cabinet but I believe it is true of Johnson and Hancock. I don’t quite believe in Johnson as a maladroit victim although he certainly isn’t in control https://www.ageofautism.com/2020/06/british-prime-minister-channels-churchill-as-he-surrenders-to-gates-and-the-vaccine-cartel.html
Back in November 2017 there was a very blatant installation of pharma persons, including Vallance in government positions (anything about “standards in public life” completely thrown to the wind). Not much however has been heard recently of Sir Andrew Witty who was said to have gone off to assist the WHO at the beginning of the Covid episode, but of course the fact that one hears nothing is not necessarily reassuring. At the time not much was reported and our bone-headed media took the appointments of Vallance and A Witty as magnificently far-sighted buccaneering stuff. The ghastly VanTam wasn’t even noticed. Only I and Tom Jefferson seemed to be remotely bothered.
https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2017/12/06/tom-jefferson-the-uk-turns-to-witty-vallance-and-van-tam-for-leadership-revolving-doors/
‘…Last week Bingham, 55, spent an hour explaining the government’s strategy to a “premier webinar and networking event” for women in private equity hosted by a Massachusetts company.
According to a video of the event, she showed financiers a detailed list of vaccines which the UK government is closely monitoring and could later invest in. Bingham said: “We haven’t necessarily signed contracts with all of them so far.’
(Note: I have not read further)
If this is true then this is not a resignation matter, it is a criminal matter of deliberately aiding and abetting insider dealing.
Call in the Serious Fraud Office.
As an independent journalist I am very grateful to LockdownSceptics for everything they cover but I suspect that what we all have to do now is to view the entire saga as primarily a matter of grand larceny. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/martenson-we-are-pawns-bigger-game-we-realize
“But a letter from government lawyers dated 6 October, issued in response to a threat of legal action against the proposals from the not-for-profit Good Law Project, shows that the government has modified its plans.
The Good Law Project claimed that the Moonshot project was unlawful because it ignored scientific evidence and committed a vast sum of public money with no transparency as to how the decisions were made.
In their response the government’s lawyers wrote, “The Project Moonshot Briefing Pack [which was among the documents leaked to The BMJ] was a document designed to provoke discussion: it did not and does not reflect an adopted policy.”
Yah! Kleptocracy rules.
Yet the testing mentioned yesterday is the same as Moonshot, isn’t it?
Yes, they like to keep you guessing.
I posted this in a reply to BobT on the last page. Given the shit we got fed by the Gruesome Twosome last night, I thought today’s audience might find it interesting.
Giving evidence to the Science and Technology Select Committee on 10th June 2020 Neil Ferguson told MP Graham Stringer.
And yet Whitty and Valance presented a load of shite scenarios all based on models that sure had ridiculous data fed into them.
No travel abroad for private reasons?
So how will they know what my purpose of travel is? Do I need a written invitation by a company of a foreign country? This used to be the practise if you wanted to travel to or from the eastern block. Is that even legal?
Perhaps one could could argue a breach of Articles 9 and 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/
Article 13.
Article 9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
A lawyer could maybe argue that, by refusing to let you leave the country, you are being held in detention against your will.
True; I was just thinking out loud, as you do. 😉
Lockdowns breach a slew of human rights, including free movement, feee association and the right to religious worship. Nobody cares, except us sceptics. Human rights lawyers don’t give a f..k.
..and that I just don’t get.
Article 8 – right to family life.
That’s because we ain’t the right shade and don’t live in a third world hellhole.
We will be a third world hell hole the longer this continues.
But it’s not helping people in third world hellholes either. They’re being treated like shit, like the rest of us.
Good point. Methinks that human rights lawyers don’t really given a damn about human rights.
They care about human rights if and when it advances their career; if not, not so much…
Am wondering that too. How will they enforce this international travel ban?
The Right To Life supersedes all the others, even if it is a life that is effectively over. That’s where they are coming from.
This is the key point and i find its where all conversations with the zealots end. The deaths of older people (which is a perfectly normal part of life) is now being emotionally weaponised in support of policies which are incredibly destructive. I dont think these attitudes were present the same in 1957 and 1968. If we cannot shift these bizarre attitudes we are facing very dark times indeed with masks and lockdowns for ever.
Hello,
I believe we have a real battle on our hands because propaganda as been used in such a way to terrify everyone. SAGE is now using pseudo science to inflict lockdown on us. The problem is there’s a lag between data and what’s really happening.So when Boris put us in lockdown in spring if he’d waited a week or two the data would have shown infections declining. I believe again if Boris had again waited a week or two the data would show infections declining. The covid symptom tracker shows infections are half what SAGE claims and doubling every 28 day’s not 9 day’s.
In other words infections aren’t out of control
and actually are beginning to decline.Here in York infections have declined from 30 per 10,000 to 22 per 10,000 in the last week. So just when everyone was beginning to look forward to Christmas the government again frightens us into submission. Pseudo science is what’s driving the government which will inevitably lead to a dictator and a new dark age. And the reason people follow these rules is because it’s common sense. But common sense is not science and will fail just like the last lockdown.
It’s the rat we can smell. The Race Against Time. If he’d waited longer, the figures would show death rates declining, so he had to act now to make it look as if his lockdown was the reason for the decline.
Also, they’ve got to keep us controlled till they produce their ineffective vaccine. If they let us out before it’s ready, we might get over-confident and realise we don’t need it. If they keep us down till it’s ready to be rolled out – bingo! People (many, perhaps enough) will be desperate to have it, without coercion or mandate. The rest of us can be blackmailed with their ”health passport” requirement.
Hello and yes I agree we have an enormous battle on our hands. I am really struggling to make any headway with friends or family and finding many become emotional and angry. I think its fear of the virus and also maybe fear of being proved wrong and that they have been had. I am accused of being obsessed about facts…..so much less compelling than emotion!
We seem to be in what management theorists call a ‘closed system’ with reinforcing feedback. The government and the media churned out the death hysteria on a daily basis and then the public’s acceptance of that is reflected back through the opinion polls. That drives the government to ever more draconian initiatives which racks up the fear even more.
The huge question is how do we break out of this kamikaze loop?
Hello again, your right about people but they’ve been brainwashed so well that they don’t know what to think. So they resort to common sense e.g. face masks reduce transmission of germs! But 40 years of research studies outside hospitals shows no effect at reducing transmission. A friend at work recently lost his brother simply because his doctor told him to get a covid test. He died on his way from a heart attack, in normal times he’d gone to hospital recovered and lived. So when I hear people say we must lockdown to save granny I say what about dad mum and the kid’s. Lockdown kills. People think government can stop infections they can’t all they can do is guide like they did in Sweden. The opening and closing of society will suppress a virus for it to return as soon as you open up again. If you let a virus do it’s worse, while protecting the most vulnerable they’ll come a point when it peaks. Respiratory infections do this and covid would do this if you allow it. This is what the science says and Sweden is the experiment that proves this. I am afraid until Boris gets… Read more »
Even the Sunday Telegraph in an otherwise good editorial says “Every death is tragic”. No it is not, when my elderly relatives have died it has been sad but also a relief that they have not suffered any longer.
I very much agree. My father died very suddenly at 77 back in 1994 when I was a young man. At the time I was devastated but with the wisdom of hindsight I am able to see it was really a blessing. He had achieved full life expectancy for 1994 despite serving years in Italy during the second world war. He had enjoyed full life doing what he wanted to do until the day he went and never had to endure being locked in a care home which I know he would have hated. That simply cannot compare with some 20 year old student hanging himself in his room as he would have had decades of quality life in front of him. In being obsessed about stopping deaths we are effectively destroying the meaning of life.
Your last sentence sums up the entire problem.
There is a difference between living and merely not being dead. At least, there is to us, but apparently not to the zombie sheeples.
Someone email that to simon Dolan as He is taking Bozo Johnson through the courts presently
There are other ways to travel. Many poor souls do.
I have wondered if my American passport is my get-out-of-gaol-free-card.
I want to get political asylum in South Dakota.
Lovely governor too.
Or any of the other seven(?) states that didn’t have lockdown! (But their governors aren’t as good-looking, of course!)
Lucky you – move to one of the 8 non-lockdown states!
I lived there for 5 years of my childhood, but we never applied for citizenship – I think my father was worried about my brother being forced to do military service if we got citizenship. My sister was born there though, and does have a passport, so she could leave the UK – presuming Brits are not permanently locked down..
Damn
Surely it’s a lot quicker to say, “Hey, Boris; you’re a tosser!”
That’s an insult to tossers.
Dear Toby Young,
I really enjoy the interesting and lighthearted articles on your Lockdown Sceptics web thingie; I particularly enjoy the recipe and knitting section.
I do have one little request, which I believe will improve the articles immensely:
Stop calling ‘positive PCR tests’ fucking cases!
Yours,
Ceriain (aged 59)
Totally fucking agree, Cerian. How disappointing that the moment a new total lock-up is announcement, Toby Young has apostasised and is now taking the liars at their word and calling positive PCR tests cases again. No irony, no quote marks. Also he reverts to accusing what is clearly not the UK Government any more of cock-up, even calling Johnson a ‘buffoon’. (Oh aren’t they silly!)
Toby, you have put forward some good arguments against this developent which nobody but an idiot could not have foreseen – France, Italy, Spain have all done it. But, for God’s sake, 1000s of people have been murdered already by this vicious policy and many more now are going to lose their lives and livelihoods. Johnson and his ghastly crew know this full well!! If ever there was a time to tell it like it is, it’s now!
Suggestion: If you don’t want to take liars at their word, why not call ‘cases’ PTRs?
Miriam (aged 67) and Alan (aged 71)
Agreed but inconsistent and contradictory messages are a hallmark of the current psyop. In the case of the Government, these are designed to leave people feeling powerless, confused and debilitated. Toby Young’s vacillating is almost certainly not calculated but it is not helping either. Either he accepts that the UK and most of the world’s governments have been captured by the globalists’ agenda or he doesn’t. What is exasperating is his announcing one day that he accepts that there is an agenda behind the government’s actions and almost the next, writing as if he’s scuttled back to the safe haven of calling it a cock-up, just like all the other allegedly sceptical MSM journalists do because they know which side their bread is buttered. Like many people, I have found this site to be a much-needed haven of sanity and comradeship in times which I never thought I’d live to see. I have been entertained, infuriated, informed and educated and I would not want to see it go. But I rather fancy Mounsey and other commentators have the right of it. Unless we can call out what’s going on and stop making excuses for the Government, it really is just… Read more »
Yes, Toby knows what’s going on and he should take heed of what is being said. I don’t yet think that he is controlled opposition, even though what little “benefit of doubt” there was in respect of government Covid policy was totally erased by mid April. Those that are still clinging to the “incompetence” line really do risk losing their credibilty.
I read Hannan’s piece; it’s dreadful. 🙁
does anyone believe this lockdown will really be lifted in a month?
Nah. They lied to us before, why should that change now?
I’m pretty sure that we should expect to return to Tier 3 (in West Yorkshire) in December , so not much to look forward to. My 90 year old mother, who lives in the North East and is in generally good health, is at her wit’s end.
Then we Will need to put our foot down this time this government won’t survive much longer
And do what? You have no power. We have no power.
They can do what they want, with complete impunity and the sooner we all accept that and work out how to subvert their will so as to get on with our lives as well as we can the better.
To pretend otherwise is tantamount to a futile teenage tantrum.
Hell, we’ve all done it at various points during this saga, but if you’re still refusing – after 9 feckin months – to accept what is now the observable reality, I don’t know what to tell you.
Maybe tier 3+ will replace. However even such de facto lockdown “measures” will only lift once Covid-pass and liability-waived mass vaccination is ready. Then testing parameters will change to show an “all clear”. Then we can “build back better”, with none of us owning anything anymore (after house repossessions, 401k/pension pot raids, savings depletion). A great/sarc life where we rent want we need. Work to afford to rent. Shuffle off when you can’t work any longer.
Also, we should all continue for ever to wear
armbandsmasks, to stay safe and protect against the “next pandemic “.I’m really getting onto the page that these “convergent opportunists” with their “concatenated interests” are driving this with all their might. It may not be a bunker conspiracy Blofeld thing….but to us, who can tell the difference?
Highly unlikely, maybe mid December for 14 days then they’ll bang us all up again.
Yes, it could be lifted in the month of January or February! 😀
January or February 2030?
October 31. The lockdown is justified on the basis of hospital admissions and respiratory deaths (now just COVID deaths, of course).
November: As usual, respiratory admissions and deaths increase in November.
December 2: We are told that COVID DEATHS ARE SPIRALLING OUT OF CONTROL. Another month of lockdown.
December: As usual, respiratory admissions and deaths increase in December.
January 4: We are told that THE SITUATION IS PERILOUS. Another month of lockdown.
February 1: We are told that the economy is now so damaged “by the pandemic” that all civil liberties will be suspended “to protect the vulnerable”. Army deployed. Council workers deputised as police officers. Martial law.
“There’s nothing so bad that it can’t get worse.”
I wish I could say that sounds alarmist but sadly I cant. It looks like Melbourne here we come.
Followed by another financial crisis and metldown of the banking sector, with all EU member states declaring insolvency (because of the pandemicita, and how the governments had to ‘protect the public’ of course) and being placed under curatorship of the IMF, World Bank or the EU. And after that, there’s undoubtedly worse still.
No. The PTB have taken powers they will never return. The relationship between state and citizen has been fundamentally changed and freedom as we have known it will not be restored without either mass civil disobedience and an uprising, or some new potent political force of which is presently no sign.
Sorry if this sounds defeatist but I cannot see a way out of this dystopia.
Well it was the Full Moon last night and that is surely the face of a lunatic!
No, it looks more like he needs to take a dump…
Almost £500 per week furlough for some stuck at home.. £100 per week for others… none for many more. Universal inequality. The government will put its fat arms around you. Some of you will get a reacharound. Others will get a push.
And those of us with v small businesses, already running down life savings, no eligibility for support, except for loans with unacceptable consequences, are getting close to Niagara Falls.
“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.” From Catch 22 Joesph Heller I’m now losing all hope; I’m surrounded by masked, compliant zombies with blank faces-( what can be seen of them); the local junkies and drug dealers are all thriving, so Calamitous Covid obviously spares the permanently pickled in whichever Controlled Substances are the choice of the day. No travel, no visits to friends, no hairdressing, no prospects. I’m retired, I’m not in the least vulnerable- how I loathe this word- I would like what remains to me to be lived in freedom, with a modicum of contentment and a commitment to rationality and personal responsibility. The final straw for me was on Friday, when I attempted to engage new neighbours in cooperating to identify the source of a water seepage affecting my property. My appearance and plea were met with open rudeness, blank expressions and an irritated… Read more »
The last two lines do not apply to us.
“[They] agreed that it was neither possible nor necessary to educate people who never questioned anything.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22
One of my favourite books
I tried reading 1984 a couple of days ago.Used to be one of my top 3 book of all time.Now, I had to put it down about 1/3 in..I started shaking and crying..Its a fucking documentary now!
Years and years ago, as a kid I read “This Perfect Day” by Ira Levin and keep thinking of it now. Everyone vaguely coffee coloured, daily medical “treatments” to keep you well, but that ensured you were mildly sedated and died at 62, everyone has a personal counsellor to report fears and suspicions to… I must find it again!
Exactly my experience. 100% identical.
Exactly my feeling. 1984 was meant as a warning not as an instruction manual.
“magick” this gives you away as a cowley fan boy. Oh dear.
It’s Crowley actually. Cowley was played by Gordon Jackson in The Professionals.
Thanks WendyK! Catch 22 has seemed more and more apposite.
I’m going to read it again!
Sunak got there first:
…. went on to work at investment bank Goldman Sachs before setting up hedge fund Theleme Partners 11 years ago.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10960504/rishi-sunak-bright-man-for-the-job/
On the subject of in-hospital outbreaks; Toby’s CEBM story above.
I’ve been wondering about Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (2 hospitals in the trust).
70 of London’s 217 deaths* in October have come from that one trust. That’s 32% of the whole of the London region’s deaths.
Are we looking at another ‘in hospital’ outbreak that’s managed to keep itself off the radar?
*Deaths within 28 days of positive test by date of death, of course; so not necessarily of Covid.
Yep! Yet the NHS keep denying it.
It’s one of the reasons so many people wouldn’t go near a hospital during the ‘first wave’.
I’m not denying what you are saying at all – I’m sure there are plenty of hospitals where that is very true – but in the last week, I have heard of 3 people who went to hospital for some other reason, and were tested positive on arrival.
It would be really helpful to see if the hospitals with the worst deaths with/from covid stats (such as Barking etc above) also happened to have bad records when it comes to infections such as the MRSA superbug. I’m sure some hospitals have far better cleanliness standards than others.
Karl Denniger at.the market ticker has been banging on about this for months:
https://market-ticker.org
Oh msn, you must read the Grauniad article about face nappies.It is truly hilarious.,
This is how the nappies were tested:
Bacterial particles were shot out of an aerosol generator and the proportion that made it through the mask fabric were measured. Measuring three micrometers in diameter the bacteria used were about 30 times larger than coronavirus particles, but the results were likely to be relevant to Covid-19 nevertheless, independent researchers said.
Transsexual Grauniad beauty queen Fatima Illegal-Immigrant said today that she was going to share her spiffing new outfit with her mum.
‘I’m size 8 and she’s size 24,’ said Fatima, ‘but independent experts have assured me that it will fit us both beautifully.’
In woke-maths 8=24
Just seen a masked zombie, with blue condoms on his hands, riding his bike through Hexham – on the pavement! ‘I wear my mask to protect you but, if I run you down, it’s your own fault’. A dear friend of mine, who is virtually blind, has been run down by cyclists on pavements on numerous occasions. Wankers!!
They are my pet hate: masked,safety helmets in place and speeding towards pedestrians on the pavement.
I have to dodge them all the time here.
Carry a walking stick or, better still, a big umbrella. You could joust them!
Best employed through their spokes …
🙂
These guys should be part of Sage. They are perfectly qualified.
A sentence that struck me from the Grauniad’s paean of self-praise:
“We can give a voice to the oppressed and neglected, and help bring about a brighter, fairer future.”
Maybe they can, but they bloody don’t, because if they did, the rag would be full of Covviesceptical articles and we, or rather the rag ( which is begging for pennies as usual) just might be heading for a brighter future.
David Nabarro – lockdowns make poor people poorer. But then there aren’t so many poor people in Hampstead.
There are very few in Hexham, but the few there are deserve everything they get because they didn’t vote for a Momentum candidate with a PhD, who looks as if she hasn’t brushed her hair since 1984, and makes ‘art installations’ about poverty in the windows of closed down shops.
Mind, the Tory that they did vote for isn’t much better!
Mr O. As useful as a chocolate kettle.
More lies from the Graun.
They never did care for the oppressed and neglected – they’re simply there for them as pets to be trotted out to show how wonderful and caring they are.
Then they retreat to the safety of their lovely homes in Islington and Hampstead.
Quite right Bart ; I call it socially distanced compassion : talk the talk but don’t walk the walk, lest one get too close to the plebs.
Yep. I despises the middle class more than the toffs precisely for their hypocrisy and rudeness.
Yep. As a middle-aged bloke, I realise that my past 4 decades were a golden age. I now need to adjust to finding gold in the crap. And work out how to become happier as I resist the evil!
Resisting evil doesn’t necessarily make you happier, but it does make you stronger.
Having said that, ripping down or defacing Covvie notices definitely makes me happier, and also stronger. I can overcome really, really strong glue now. It’s only the thick plastic tied I can’t rip, but they aren’t proof against secateurs.
Great work, Annie. I’m still at the marker pen stage, writing No More Lockdown on to convenient spaces on the notices.
Thanks Annie. Good point.
Congratulations on learning to defeat the strong glue. You’ll have to write us a dissidents’ covid notice removal manual.
In a word, rip.
NB: Some notices are easily peeled away from their backing, on which you can then stick or write your own notice.
The fine print: the brighter, fairer future is the one they prescribe you, not the one you choose.
Let’s be clear, this lockdown is entirely Boris decision. He announced it quickly before enough Tory MPs could stop him. He was presented by an alternative strategy by Prof Carl Finnegan (see Daily Mail) this week and rejected it. Boris had other options to try, such as tier 4, to appease the lockdown fanatics. But he didn’t take that middle course.
The madness will only stop when Tory MPs replace Boris. I suspect they are only keeping him to get over the January Brexit, and to the carry the can for his disasterous government. Please don’t wait much longer!
The flaw in that argument is Glove and Squishi and Queen Starmer are also 6th form supporters of The Davos Great Reset.. as is Flaccid Javelin and likely
CHunt. We are in trouble with the skirt chasing buffoon or without him… all goes to show how easy a coup can be orchestrated. Most of Davos’ pieces are in position, here and abroad.Yes, I’ve never really understood why it is felt only Pfeffel can deliver Brexit.
I don’t care either way (voted remain) but he has shown – demonstrably – that he can’t even be trusted with the simplest of tasks.
Quite. I wouldn’t trust him to make a daisy chain of paper clips.
He’d get distracted after the first four or so.
Agreed. They’re all appalling. DePiffle is, however, the worst at the moment…because he’s the boss. Bucks stopping etc. He should resign, of course. So should every MP, if they don’t believe in their party’s lines (all of which are pro lockdown). I have no respect for any of them. They remind me of the mildly irritable sea bass Austin Powers; a bit of weak flapping about, but in the end, no bite.
I don’t agree. He’s merely a fly within a spider ‘s web. He kept referring to Europe in his speech. We’re all Europeans in this together (despite Brexit) fighting the virus.
We have really got to look at our lockdown within a global context.
Tory MPs could not ‘stop him’. Indirect social control of populations through medical surveillance and masking is a global cultural phenomenon now.
The mp’s need to act now if possible get shot of Hancock Patel, jenrick Gove Raab at the same time even better
I wonder what spare capacity the IMF has to visit almost all western countries for bail outs from suicide-by-COVID? Or are these countries all p[lanting Magic More Trees in their backyards? Oh, and who’ll clap for the the principled financial casualties so far, the savers, whose interest income has been obliterated to fertilise the MMT?
“Learn to live with the virus”
Since when do we need to learn to live with viruses? Haven’t we always managed quite well up until 2020?
1.We must address the problems in the Government’s mass testing programme;
All testing should be ENDED RIGHT NOW
2.We must tackle the blight of confused and contradictory statistics
Stop testing = stops statistics full stop
3.We must make real efforts to protect and isolate those who are vulnerable
The isolation of old people is destroying what little is left of their lives!
4.We must inform the public about the true and quantifiable costs of lockdown (as if they needed telling).
They need telling
3.that they are sleepwalking towards a totalitarian nightmare
unless they resist
From Carl Hennigan’s Plan BI’ll give him his right name when he starts to follow the evidence
Bravo. Well put. No one should have put up with the first lockdown.
When multiple govts around the world all do something at the same time there is an agenda that’s not so clear to us mere plebs.
I fear though, people will accept it all willingly, like a nice hot cup of Soma. As long as they can transfer what little wealth they have to Amazon (they can sell “non-essential items” but shops that sell them cannot) then they’ll all be happy.
Marxist group think infests our society.
1.We must address the problems in the Government’s mass testing programme;
All testing should be ENDED RIGHT NOW
Totally agree! My heart sank when I saw he was endorsing T&T.
Well done Boris. The lockdown was clearly such a success that let’s all have fun and do it again. The path of the virus in Sweden was indistinguishable from that in France, UK, Spain, Italy but why let a fact get in the way of a program of destroying lives and livelihoods
We’ve found a virus that not only disobeys the rules of biology but even the laws of mathematics.
4,000 deaths a day, that’s 56,000 in 2 weeks, at an IFR of .2% (per WHO), 28million infected. In two months allowing for rising and falling that’s around 150% of the population. We better bring in some more people.
If you have multiple personality disorder you can swell the numbers a lot. What fun when one of you tests positive snd the next doesn’t, especially if the third of you then tests positive, but turns out to be a pawpaw.
The great thing is you have around a 6-10% chance of an (admittedly false or so weak it may as well be false) positive – better than the lottery !
At that rate some people will almost certainly die twice.
A fitting tribute to Sean Connery !
We had martinis last night…shaken not stirred!
Quite. I’m no mathematician but two things stood out from the press conference: Modelling presupposes that everyone in each age category behaves in exactly the same way and has the same number of contacts. Whilst that may be broadly true of teenagers, for example, because of the way schools work, it is hugely different for older people. As a semi retired public sector worker, working from home alone in my own house, going anywhere I need to go in my own car on my own, living in a small rural town, my life is totally different from that of a 60 year old woman living in a family home in a city, working in a hospital or a supermarket, travelling on public transport, and living with other adults who do the same. Most people who are ‘vulnerable’ are retired or on disability benefits. They don’t have the contacts that working people have and can choose to reduce them. The available capacity of hospitals was compared with the first peak. Because the first peak was mainly in London and the second in the North, there is no comparison. The first ‘wave’ in some parts of the North was practically non existent.… Read more »
Rishi’s wife’s luxury clothing shop (official outfitter to Eton) furloughed its staff… gotta laugh.
This american article about recording corona deaths follows the mainstream narrative, but just look at the comments, all from medical people.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/939833
Thanks for this link – extremely good to see how the comments flatly dispute the writer’s argument. (You have to register to read it which is easy)
Where can we read the latest about the similar issue in UK ?
Some good medical points about why rushed vacines are a bad idea.
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/938790
So. To all the people that were called conspiracy theorists when at the start they were saying that mass vaccination was always the agenda (to what end I’ll let you all decide your self) you all deserve an apology.
It appears that vaccines will be used as a scapegoat for this mess. However, a vaccine that is rushed, with the makers free from reprisal from the inevitable bad consequences of them and will no doubt be enforced one way or another. Cannot conceivably work. We still have common colds, Where’s the cure?
Wasn’t there early reports that those who had the flue vaccines were more likely to suffer from covid?
When will the average person realise what’s happening to them; Political opportunism by ALL parties is rampant, countries are barricading people in their homes, requiring ‘your papers’ to leave your home, NZ legalising euthanasia! When will people see all the pieces that have been put together under different guises are there to harm us not help. Orwell was bragging what was going to happen.
FIGHT FOR FREEDOM BEFORE IT’S GONE!
Agreed Bigman
For those out there who make the conspiracy theorist accusation in comments. This accusation assumes that the truth lies with the individual or group.. ‘Its true to you mr/s conspiracy theorist not to me’ This absolves the accuser from exploring the theory. Its a relativist fallacy.
I keep saying, I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I’m a conspiracy spotter.
I’ve been watching”Boris Godunov” tonight from the Met. I heartily recommend their free nightly operas as a respite from all this madness.
https://www.metopera.org/user-information/nightly-met-opera-streams/
I have to say I’d rather have Tsar Boris than our Boris as at least he feels remorse for his crimes. There’s a scene in the opera where police with whips are telling the crowd of destitute people what to say and do or be beaten up. It all felt too topical!
Yes, better Boris Godunov than Borisbadenuv-to-deserve-skinning-alive.
It’s a terrific opera.
The lament at the end fits our current state exactly.
It’s one of my favourites. I agree about the lament. “Poor British folk” to paraphrase.
Thanks for this. Its one of my favourites and finally got to watch the ROH production live last year.
We are headed towards a Time of Troubles and our Tsar Boris ain’t the man to deliver us out of it, in fact he and his boyars are part of the problem.
Or Vernichtung Durch Lockdown
Quicker and more effective than gas chambers, but similar technique: tell ’em it’s just a shower bath and they’ll go in willingly.
Brilliant comment. Chilling. True.
Has anyone ever done a national map of testing capacity?
Because I use a VPN google maps thinks I am in London. I put test centres in the search field, there are loads of them in London. Must be an unhygienic lot there to need so much testing.
A tests per capita map. Just wanted to err test the theory that increased ‘cases’ are a remnant of increased testing. Has something like this been done? Visually, in a graph, I mean.
ALF: Anti lockdown front ?
No, I am Alf ?
I’m with Alf ?
Well, it is 7 am on a Sunday morning, not that dates or times seem to matter anymore.
YES, IT BLOODY WELL DOES!!!
WE SHALL PREVAIL!
Politically this government is stupid.
The people they are upsetting are their natural supporters. I am a lifelong Tory but will never vote for them again. Not after this.
The people who comprise SAGE are typically not lifelong Tories: they are people who will never Conservative.
Why Johnson is listening so much to his political enemies is beyond me.
This is quite apart from the more pertinent point that all of this is wrong and counter productive anyway, of course. But in the long run it is a massive political miscalculation too.
Raab is my local MP. I will enjoy voting against him at the next election.
Unless your MP is Desmond Swayne then I’d be hard pushed to find a single person worth voting for.
Unlikely there will be a “next election”. We are being turned into a lave state, as are most other countries.
Lots of lifelong Tories are pro lockdown I suspect.
It’s the Tory vote that is being split; at least, that must be Starmer’s assumption.
There are going to be more elections? Oh, I thought…
I wrote to mine telling him he has lost my vote.
There will just be more and more of these ‘waves’ until the people submit. Which they will.
There may be no electoral road out of this, prepare accordingly people.