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by Jonathan Barr
24 November 2020 4:26 AM

Lockdown 3.0

Bob’s cartoon in the Telegraph on November 1st

Yesterday evening Boris rang in from self-isolation to give his much-awaited briefing on the winter Covid plan. The MailOnline has the details:

Boris Johnson tonight warned against “over-optimism” as he said many areas face going into tougher Tiers after December 2nd than they were in before the blanket lockdown… He braced the public in England for difficult months before the ‘cavalry’ of science comes to the rescue and finally ends the crisis. And he said that although the national lockdown will finish next Wednesday, large sections of the country will still be under harsher measures than before it began on November 5th. Mr Johnson said “things will look and feel very different after Easter, with a vaccine and mass testing”. But he cautioned that the months ahead “will be hard, they will be cold, they include January and February when the NHS is under its greatest pressure”. He added: “Tis the season to be jolly, but it is also the season to be jolly careful, especially with elderly relatives.”

The new tier system is jolly careful indeed. The Telegraph as more on its implications for pubs, shops and services.

For church services

The Prime Minister confirmed on Monday that church services including Christingles and midnight mass will be able to take place in all three tiers. The number of people permitted to attend church together is also set to be determined by the level of restrictions on household mixing.

For hospitality

Pubs and restaurants in tier three areas will be limited to takeaway and delivery services only from next month as part of a tightening of regional restrictions… Diners and pub-goers will be given more time to finish their meals and drinks under the new system. Venues in tiers one and two will have to abide by a new closing time of 11pm, with last orders called at 10pm.

For sport  

Outdoor sports such as golf and tennis will restart in all tiers, as will amateur team sports such as Sunday-league football…  

For non-essential retail

Christmas shopping will be given the greenlight this year as the Government attempts to give hard-up highstreets across the country a major boost. Non-essential retail, including fashion, toys and gadget stores will reopen their doors when the second lockdown ends on December 2nd. 

For socialising

Restrictions on household mixing will stay largely the same. Under the original tiered system, people living in tier one areas were required to comply with the rule of six both indoors and outdoors. However, Government sources suggested last week that tier one could be brought closer in line with tiers two and three due to concerns among scientists that measures in the lowest level are proving ineffective.

Worth reading in full.

The Telegraph has also helpfully whittled it all down to a handy graphic.

It is hard not to refer back Ross Clark’s piece which we flagged in yesteday’s round-up. This is…

a rebadged lockdown. While it will be described as a return to tiers, those tiers will be made tougher and more of us will find ourselves shunted into the top tiers. The result is that most people will be forbidden from mixing with family and friends until Easter – save for a brief truce over Christmas.

It is exactly, in other words, as I predicted. A semi-free Christmas is being used as the thin, dangling carrot which is supposedly going to help us resign ourselves to many months of isolation. 

As always, Ross Clark is worth reading in full, if you haven’t already.

Stop Press: The Government is still working with devolved administrations on the plans for a “semi-free Christmas”, but we learnt from Nicola Sturgeon’s daily press conference yesterday that they will not in Scotland include Hogmany. Who would have thought we’d see an SNP First Minister axing a Scottish tradition? Best pass over to Alan Cochrane on this in the Telegraph.

Stop Press 2: MailOnline reports that fans may soon be able to return to stadiums, albeit in limited numbers. Manchester United v PSG will likely be the first match to welcome them back but there could still be rules to be followed on singing, shouting and drinking

Stop Press 3: Worth taking a look at how total deaths in England and Wales in 2020 compare with previous years. Second wave struggling to gather any momentum.

Florence Nightingale Diagram of UK Deaths, from the
Centre of Evidence-Based Medicine

Lockdowns and Government Restrictions Make no Difference to Mortality Outcomes.

Geographic distribution of 14-day cumulative number of reported COVID-19 cases per 100 000 population, worldwide. Source: ecdc

It is timely that in the run-up to the next gear change in the Government’s endless drive to “defeat the virus”, Frontiers in Public Health has published a peer-reviewed study of Covid mortality outcomes.  

First the Context

We aimed at characterizing the non-viral parameters that were most associated with death rate.

The Methods

We tested major indices from five domains (demography, public health, economy, politics, environment) and their potential associations with COVID-19 mortality during the first eight months of 2020, through a Principal Component Analysis and a correlation matrix with a Pearson correlation test. Data of all countries, or states in federal countries, showing at least 10 fatality cases, were retrieved from official public sites. For countries that have not yet finished the first epidemic phase, a prospective model has been computed to provide options of death rates evolution.

The Studied Countries

From the 188 countries that have declared at least one case, only those counting a minimum of 10 deaths due to COVID-19 up to the study end point (August 31st 2020) were included. China and the United States were also analysed by states or regions, when each of them reached the 10 deaths threshold.

And the Conclusion (our emphasis)

Countries that already experienced a stagnation or regression of life expectancy, with high income and NCD rates, had the highest price to pay. This burden was not alleviated by more stringent public decisions. Inherent factors have predetermined the COVID-19 mortality: understanding them may improve prevention strategies by increasing population resilience through better physical fitness and immunity.

Worth reading in full.

This study focused on the first eight months of 2020. We doubt that anything from the later months of the year, which saw the rule of six, lockdown 2.0, the first and now the second tier system in the UK alone, will substantially challenge the analysis.  

Barry Norris Unimpressed by AstraZeneca Announcement

“I don’t care if everyone else has Adidas… these are just as good.”

The fund manager Barry Norris, who’s been tracking the vaccine trials very closely, wasn’t impressed by yesterday’s announcement by AstraZeneca. This is the note he sent to his clients.

We are amazed at the spin on the Astra vaccine. This was always designed as a two equal dose trial – 0.5 followed by 0.5 – and this population group has only achieved 62% efficacy (compared to a claim of 95% for the mRNA vaccines).

Now in breach of trial protocol they tell us there’s an improved “90% efficacy” in a small initial 0.25 dose followed by a bigger 0.5 dose, in an unofficial population sub-set which is probably so small as to be statistically insignificant. Moreover, they claim to have stumbled across this better recipe purely by accident, and somewhat embarrassingly claim this sub-set consisted of the volunteers who were systematically but “accidentally” given a smaller than intended dose, as reported here. (The Guardian has more details on this “accident” here.)

So riddle me this: the main dose trial shows only 62% efficacy in healthy adults (almost certainly less in the old and already sick) but a smaller sub-set shows efficacy with a lower dose? Lower doses usually lower side effects but they don’t usually result in higher efficacy. So there’s something bogus going on.

Moreover, if the vaccine really does work better with a smaller first dose then what does that say about the antibody response? Is the immune system producing antibodies to the second dose after a similarly-sized first dose? Is this why counterintuitively it works better on a small first dose? Does the volunteer develop immunity to the second vaccine after a bigger first dose?

If so, at best this is a one shot and one season vaccine.

At worst, if the first full dose does raise antibodies to the second full dose then you have the potential for auto-immune side effects, meaning that the vaccine ultimately inhibits the natural antibody response to the virus which would be disastrous in otherwise healthy adults.

Based on this data, the FDA is unlikely to approve the Astra vaccine (though undoubtedly the UK Government will) as:

* The trial protocol has been violated to data mine a more positive outcome.

* The duration of the efficacy is questionable.

* The overall efficacy is much lower than peers and it likely won’t work at all in the vulnerable (82 year-olds with comorbidities.) The US has mRNA.

* There’s no claim that it prevents virus transmission.

* They will want to monitor possible auto-immune side effects.

Could it be that UK Government has backed the wrong horse? To date, it has ordered 100 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine at a cost of £3 to £4 per dose.

Stop Press: AstraZeneca’s share price has fallen in the US following doubts about the likelihood of it receiving FDA approval.

Stop Press 2: Ross Clark in the Telegraph notes that “A vaccine exit strategy is curiously absent from the PM’s baffling Covid Winter Plan“

Dr Roger Hodkinson Was a Lockdown Sceptic Back in April

Readers will recall the marvellous speech delivered by Dr Roger Hodkinson, ex-Chairman of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Examination Committee in General Pathology in Ottawa and a former Assistant Professor, to some health officials working for the Government of Alberta last week, telling them their strategy was all wrong. It’s now gone from YouTube, of course, but you can still catch it at Bitchute. Worth listening to again (it’s short and punchy).

Some speculated about whether the speech was real or a hoax, but we can confirm it was 100% genuine. Indeed, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons has seen fit to issue a statement disassociating itself from Dr Hodkinson in light of his remarks and, for the record, has slavishly regurgitated Covid orthodoxy.

Lockdown Sceptics has made contact with Dr Hodkinson and we are publishing a four-part series by him on the pandemic, with the first part published today. The first three were originally written for the University of Regina School of Public Policy in April and May, but he was told they couldn’t be published unless he toned them down which, naturally, he wasn’t prepared to do. Consequently, they are being published on Lockdown Sceptics for the first time. We will publish parts two and three on Wednesday and Thursday and part four when he’s completed it, which should be in a couple of weeks.

Part one is a scene-setter called “Who Failed and Why?” in which Dr Hodkinson discusses the origins of the virus in China and the disastrous initial reaction by public health authorities. Here is an extract in which he homes in on the WHO:

Statistically speaking, given the probable origin of SARS and COVID-19 in China, the next pandemic is likely to originate there also. That’s a problem. China was secretive about the start of its local COVID-19 epidemic (and still is), wasting valuable weeks before alerting the WHO of its existence which then downplayed its significance for the rest of the world. An early warning system is a vital starting point for effective international response to future pandemics. Clearly, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the WHO cannot be trusted to act any differently in the future.

Furthermore, the (current) head of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom, is not a physician as have been all his predecessors, and has questionable credentials to effectively lead such a vital international resource at a critical moment in world history. He has, at times, acted as China’s apologist in this whole fiasco, compounding the problem by disseminating China’s misinformation under the imprimatur of the WHO early in the pandemic.

A senior WHO official responsible for the global response to this pandemic, Dr. Michael Ryan, has actually stated that “we may have to enter homes and remove family members” if they are COVID-19 positive – but in a “dignified manner”. It would seem he thinks COVID-19 is as lethal as ebola or smallpox, which it most emphatically is not. Do we want ‘officials’ knocking at our doors in the middle of the night taking away our kids to control future pandemics? I think not, and to attempt such an assault on personal liberty would cause civil revolt. But that was exactly what the WHO recommended!

I believe a personal anecdote is also relevant here. Right in the middle of the SARS epidemic in 2003, I met with the team of WHO officials ‘managing’ the outbreak right in their war room at WHO headquarters in Geneva. There wasn’t a virologist in the room, and of the eight or so people present about half were nurses from obscure African countries doing an obligatory WHO secondment. To say it was a gong show is an understatement. The world was left to its own devices, and so it was initially with COVID-19.

The most rational explanation for the origin of the epidemic in China is not the Wuhan wet food market as the WHO immediately and confidently stated, but rather one of the virology labs in Wuhan doing environmental surveillance of bat corona viruses. There was almost certainly an accidental escape due to poor compliance with laboratory bio-safety procedures for which there have been many examples in China in recent years. COVID-19 was not a genetically engineered virus for use in biological warfare – the corona virus isn’t anywhere near lethal enough for that nefarious use, judging from the number who’ve died in China, unless the entire Chinese population had already been vaccinated against it!

I believe I have made my case that the WHO cannot be trusted, is politically compromised, and is actually incompetent in the discharge of its expected leadership role. But more importantly, the WHO is advocating extreme containment policies that cut to the very heart of personal freedom.

The article continues in the same trenchant, take-no-prisoners tone and is very much worth reading in full.

Vaccination Before Travel

It is happening! Qantas, Australia’s largest airline, is planning to make proof of having had vaccination a condition of travel. From ABC:

Speaking on Channel Nine’s A Current Affair on Monday night, Qantas boss Alan Joyce said he believed it would be a necessity for passengers to be vaccinated once a vaccine is available. And he said the company was looking into the possibility of requiring passengers to have a vaccination passport which would allow them to travel.

“We are looking at changing our terms and conditions, to say for international, that we will ask people to have a vaccination before getting on the aircraft,” Mr Joyce confirmed.

“We think for international visitors coming out, and people leaving the country, we think that’s a necessity.” The Qantas CEO said the company would consider the same requirements for domestic flights.

He said he had talked to the chief executives of other international carriers who were also considering making vaccination mandatory for travel.

A vaccination passport is being touted as a method of proving passengers have been vaccinated.

“What we’re looking at is how you can have a vaccination passport, an electronic version of it that certifies what the vaccine is,” Mr Joyce said.

“There’s a lot of logistics, a lot of technology to make this happen, but the airlines and the government are working on this as we speak.”

Worth reading in full.

#BREAKING: QANTAS CEO confirms that proof that you've been vaccinated for COVID-19 will be compulsory for international air travel onboard his aircraft. #9ACA pic.twitter.com/dhk3Hsnxn9

— A Current Affair (@ACurrentAffair9) November 23, 2020

Isn’t this is a little rash of Qantas? The big pharmaceutical companies are exempt from liability if a vaccine turns out to have harmful side effects, but not airlines. What if someone only gets vaccinated in order to fly on Qantas and then suffers serious harm? Won’t they be able to sue Qantas? Perhaps the Australian Government, which had to bail out the airline back in April and has probably ordered the CEO to make this announcement, has indemnified it.

They’ve Deprived Us of Our Freedom

A rave on Primrose Hill two weeks ago

A letter printed in the Camden New Journal on the real reason young people go to illegal raves is worth reproducing here in full. Hard to argue with.

Further to your report in March this year various governments decided to close the world down!

Nothing like this had ever happened before, although there had been lots of different viruses over the years. Anyone would think there was a deadly plague.

According to the BBC website, recently there had been 51,766 deaths from COVID-19 in the United Kingdom. But people die all the time.

An alternative heading for your story could have been: “Police drive clubbers to desperation.”

What has actually happened is that in March all venues were closed down and haven’t been allowed to reopen except under lots of restrictions, including social distancing.

Now they’re all closed again. This means there have been no clubs or gigs that people could go to. This is the real reason for the raves in Primrose Hill and on Hampstead Heath.

The police have been rigorously enforcing these regulations by telling venues that they must stay closed and that they will be fined if they open and run proper nights out, but the police ignore any laws they don’t like.

I’m very pleased to hear that there aren’t enough police to do much about these raves. I now plan to go there as soon as possible and join in.

It’s a pity that residents in Primrose Hill claim that they can’t get to sleep. But there are some simple things they can do about this. The obvious solution is just to wear earplugs or earmuffs.

If that doesn’t work then they could just sleep at a different time of the day because it probably doesn’t matter what time of day they sleep, due to the lockdown.

Another solution would be for the police to claim that it’s not their responsibility to stop venues from opening; it’s “a civil matter”, or to use their famous “discretionary powers” to get out of doing it.

As for people like Councillor Pat Callaghan, Holborn and St Pancras MP Sir Keir Starmer, and the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, I think they should all be locked up and deprived of their freedom, because that’s what they’ve been doing to the rest of us.

The first lockdown didn’t achieve anything except depriving people of their normal way of life and this one won’t either.

It’s sad when people die, but the rest of us must get on with our lives. I’m violently opposed to the COVID-19 propaganda and lockdown. I plan to help smash the lockdown by breaking all the restrictions.

I demand my life back. I want it back now!

Paul Brown

The CNJ‘s reports on the rave is available here. (Includes footage.)

More on Protest Pots and Pans

Facts about the pots and pans protest in Denmark and the change in the proposed epidemic law remain hard to verify, as one reader notes:

It is so strange that there is hardly any coverage on main stream news regarding the protests in Denmark. In the Twitter stream there are a few people saying it is not true. Hardly anyone backs up their story with a link to anything official, it all comes back to Twitter and The Local

He has found a story on a local news site, Jyllands-Posten, which does suggest that the story might be true and that the law may be redrafted: (Extracts courtesy of Google Translate)

There has been widespread criticism of the Government’s draft of a new and very far-reaching epidemic law that gives the incumbent Health Minister extensive powers… Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen promised that the Government will look at the bill together with the parliamentary parties. “We will look at the epidemic law again, we take the criticism seriously and a better balance must be found,” she said to the North Jutland radio channel ANR and thus warns of changes in the bill.

Since November 4th, a group of protesters has filled the square in front of Christiansborg with the noise of pots in an attempt to get the politicians’ attention. They want to stop the passage of the epidemic law because they fear that far-reaching powers will be implemented.

The article is available here.

Meanwhile, the idea of a pots-and-pans protest continues to capture our readers’ imagination. We had this in from one yesterday:

Why not go for this on Thursday at 7pm. Get people to flood social media with this protest. Maybe they might sit up and listen like in Denmark

And from another, suggesting an alternative target:

Maybe the pots and pans protest would work better staged outside local and national media stations and offices. Parked vehicles which then sound their horns for two minutes at a designated time would highlight to the purveyors of the scare stories that they cannot have everything their own way. Six o’clock every weekday evening say?

Lockdown: The Right Side of History

YouTuber Kate Wand’s latest video is on the morality of lockdowns, the suffering they cause and the price paid by those who oppose them. It is a reading/visualisation of Stacy Rudin’s article on the American Institute of Economic Research blog.

In the Covid debate, there is a mainstream, “popular” narrative, and a competing, “unpopular” narrative – a “fringe”. The former exploits the common, mediocre desire to be “popular”. Joining the movement is easy. It results in back-pats, validation, and requires no uncomfortable confrontations. This narrative states that it is impossible for humanity to survive the COVID-19 pandemic without a vaccine, lockdowns, and masks, some combination of which will be required into the indefinite future. The narrative supports blaming others for “infecting you” with diseases, rather than encouraging personal responsibility for immune and general health.

Proponents of the competing narrative, on the other hand, must stand up to massive social forces simply to make their arguments, which are not radical: they support a return to classic pandemic management tools, the same ones used by Sweden and other states and countries which did not lock down for COVID-19, which resulted in average mortality for 2020. They do not believe this pandemic warrants a complete overhaul of the economic, social, and educational systems. They believe that every human being should be empowered with truthful information about risk and how to best care for personal health, and to make his or her own choices.

Faced with these competing narratives, we must consider motives and costs. The force of social pressure to conform with the mainstream narrative is large, so we know from the outset that the people willing to argue against it are either insane, or extremely driven, courageous, and strong. It is easy to eliminate the possibility that they are crazy many of them, – such as Elon Musk and the scientists who drafted the Great Barrington Declaration – are giants in their fields. They risk everything, weathering exhausting personal attacks from all sides, in order to battle the crowd.

Both the article and the video are great and very much worth reading in full or watching in full.

Round-Up

  • “COVID-19: Merthyr sees 977 mass-tested for coronavirus” – A dramatic headline on BBC Wales leading into a less dramatic story: Only nine were found to be positive
  • “Lockdown is part of the grand, green, global design” – says John Mortimer in the Conservative Woman
  • “The gloom is lifting, now let’s get going!” – Professor Karol Sikora celebrates the good news about vaccines in the Daily Mail
  • “The Left’s obsession with subjectivity” – David Goodhart in UnHerd on the Left’s habit of prioritising lived experience over data and logic
  • “We cannot continue to live in this childlike cycle of repeated, damaging lockdowns” – Conservative MP Nus Ghani in the Telegraph, signalling her opposition to further restrictions and demanding a fresh strategy from the Government
  • “The greatest scandal of our lifetime” – “Instead of following the science, governments are doing the opposite,” says R. J. Quinn in the American Conservative
  • “Conservatism or pragmatism: that is the question” – Watch the inaugural edition of a new podcast Nurtural Disaster with Professors Bo and Ben Winegard discussing the merits of conservatism
  • “We’re on the fast track to fascism” – Kathy Gyngell rails against ‘freedom passes’ in the Conservative Woman
  • “Buffalo, New York business owners stand up to Cuomo” – Watch as a group of business owners in Buffalo chase out the Sheriff and Health Department officials who tried to shut down a meeting
  • “Pay £120 to reduce quarantine to FIVE days” – Another scheme to make travel freedom contingent on a medical test. From MailOnline
  • “No more quarantine for travellers returning to North Rhine-Westphalia” – Court in Münster overturns the German state’s quarantine regulation (in German)
  • “Doctors ask people vulnerable to Covid to sign ‘do not resuscitate’ orders in bid to ease pressure on Swiss intensive care units” – Grim move that includes people over 60 and those with heart disease or diabetes. From the MailOnline
  • “Stanford Condemns Atlas” – Article from John H. Cochrane on the Stanford Faculty Senate’s decision to condemn Scott Atlas, advisor to President Trump. From his blog the Grumpy Economist
  • “Shop owner refuses to close over ‘complete injustice’ of Covid rules” – Mike Graham on talkRADIO speaks to Lydia Walker-Cox, a business owner who refuses to shut her shop
  • “Laure Perrins returns to the Delingpod” – The co-founder of the Conservative Woman gives it both barrels on the subject of the lockdown
  • “Will there be enough Christmas trees this year?” – Possible shortage of Nordmann Fir Christmas trees this year, as imports from Denmark are restricted
  • “Was Covid beginning to peak before the second lockdown?” – Matt Ridley examines the data for the Spectator
  • “FALSE ALARM: the corona-critic raid was staged” – The video in yesterday’s round-up, showing German sceptic Dr Andreas Noack was in fact an elaborate piece of creativity – fake news – and not helpful. Thanks to a reader for pointing this out
  • Twitter thread by Telegraph cartoonist Bob Moran, setting out his opposition to masks using his own cartoons as illustrations

An illustrated thread on masks:

Many people are still totally devoted to the idea that 'the science' proves that masks are effective. They relentlessly share reports, research, data & pictures of people urinating on one another to prove their point. Let's pretend they're right. pic.twitter.com/rbHgU6kQAH

— Bob Moran (@bobscartoons) November 22, 2020

Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers

Two today: “No More Tears (Enough is Enough)” by Donna Summer and Barbra Streisand and “The Great Escape – Main Title Music” by Elmer Bernstein.

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 so you can share it. To do that, click on the headline of a particular story and a link symbol will appear on the right-hand side of the headline. Click on the link and the URL of your page will switch to the URL of that particular story. You can then copy that URL and either email it to your friends or post it on social media. Please do share the stories.

Social Media Accounts

You can follow Lockdown Sceptics on our social media accounts which are updated throughout the day. To follow us on Facebook, click here; to follow us on Twitter, click here; to follow us on Instagram, click here; to follow us on Parler, click here; and to follow us on MeWe, click here.

Woke Gobbledegook

We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today we bring you an angsty piece from Teen Vogue, written in the aftermath of the elections across the pond: “Biden’s Call for ‘Unity’ doesn’t square with United States History“.

While it might seem that the country is uniquely divided right now, the United Sates is rooted in contradiction and divisiveness. It was founded through the genocide of Indigenous peoples and flourished through the enslavement of Africans. At its core, America’s values are white supremacy and capitalism. That is true no matter who has been in office.

Biden’s call for a “united America” boils down to nationalist propaganda. Americans have never been united and have been kept apart and pitted against one another by the state. From geographic segregation to immigration bans and racist policing, the United States has privileged the lives and security of some residents at the expense of others. Why should people who have been systematically oppressed, and who have struggled against the government for true freedom, be asked to hold hands with their oppressors?

When it looked for a moment on election night that Trump might take crucial swing states, I sunk into despair and fell asleep. When I woke up and it had become clearer that Biden was going to pull through, I didn’t feel excitement or even safety. I felt exhausted. The next four years will be very different from the Trump era, but they will still be a battle.

Read in full here, or if woke gobbledegook leaves you too exhausted to carry on, read this summary in Breitbart.

Stop Press: It is also worth reading about Senator Tom Cotton’s comments on the erasing of the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s arrival at Cape Cod. From MEAWW.

“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.

If you’re a shop owner and you want to let your customers know that you will not be insisting on face masks or asking them what their reasons for exemption are, you can download a friendly sign to stick in your window here.

And here’s an excellent piece about the ineffectiveness of masks by a Roger W. Koops, who has a doctorate in organic chemistry.

Stop Press: Telegraph cartoonist Bob Moran has produced an illustrated thread on masks. It’s a must-read

Stop Press: Shakespeare was an anti-masker! A literary reader has sent us this verse from Venus and Adonis:

Long may they kiss each other, for this cure!
O, never let their crimson liveries wear!
And as they last, their verdure still endure,
To drive infection from the dangerous year!
That the star-gazers, having writ on death,
May say, the plague is banish’d by thy breath.

Venus and Adonis, 526 – 31

The Great Barrington Declaration

Professor Martin Kulldorff, Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Jay Bhattacharya

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 month and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it ever since. If you Googled it a week after launch, 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 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 Toby’s 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 approaching 700,000 signatures.

Update: The authors of the GDB have expanded the FAQs to deal with some of the arguments and smears that have been made against their proposal. Worth reading in full.

Update 2: Many of the signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration are involved with new UK anti-lockdown campaign Recovery. Find out more and join here.

Update 3: You can watch Sunetra Gupta set out the case for “Focused Protection” here and Jay Bhattacharya make it here.

Update 4: The three GBD authors plus Prof Carl Heneghan of CEBM have launched a new website collateralglobal.org, “a global repository for research into the collateral effects of the COVID-19 lockdown measures”.

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.

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.

Stop Press: The GoodLawProject has announced that it is filing for Judicial Review over the Government’s recruitment of friends and acquaintances to lead key public health bodies. Read more 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.

Quotation Corner

It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.

Mark Twain

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.

Charles Mackay

They who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin

To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good, or else that it’s a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions…

Ideology – that is what gives the evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

No lesson seems to be so deeply inculcated by the experience of life as that you never should trust experts. If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome: if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent: if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe. They all require to have their strong wine diluted by a very large admixture of insipid common sense.

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury

Nothing would be more fatal than for the Government of States to get into the hands of experts. Expert knowledge is limited knowledge and the unlimited ignorance of the plain man, who knows where it hurts, is a safer guide than any rigorous direction of a specialist.

Sir Winston Churchill

If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science.

Richard Feynman

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C.S. Lewis

The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.

Albert Camus

We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.

Carl Sagan

Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

George Orwell

The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.

Marcus Aurelius

Necessity is the plea for every restriction of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

William Pitt the Younger

Shameless Begging Bit

Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. Doing these daily updates is hard work (although we have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending us stories and links). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links we should include in future updates, email us here. (Don’t assume we’ll pick them up in the comments.)

And Finally…

In the latest episode of London Calling, Toby’s weekly podcast with James Delingpole, the two old friends get into quite a heated discussion about the recent US Presidential election result. James still insists that Trump won, while Toby is a little more sceptical. It’s one thing to take the views of CNN and MSNBC with a pinch of salt, but Trump’s legal team haven’t made any headway in the courts either. James gets so cross he calls Toby a “cuck” and says he wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with him. The podcast was recorded before Trump effectively conceded yesterday, but Toby promises not to gloat next week.

You can listen to the podcast here and subscribe to it on iTunes here. Please recommend it to your friends – last week’s podcast was downloaded 13,052 times, the highest seven-day download the podcast has ever had.

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karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago

Chistingles seems to have been popular in late 19thC Germany, a childs tapered candle.
Resurging around the turn of this century I think as a way of expressing chrissmassy feelings but without the Mass which might sound a bit religious as though people know what Christ Mass means any more than Holy Day.

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karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

My local council tried Winterval on us a few years ago but have since returned to Happy Christmas with their holiday street lights.

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annie
annie
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

I seem to remember that it was the Effnick Minorities, supposedly offended by Christmas, who called for its reinstatement?

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karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

It was white liberal guilt trippers presuming to speak on behalf of minorities many of whom love Christmas.
See pictures of Dubai airport during the festive season (but perhaps not this year).

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Cranmer
Cranmer
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

I wonder if those white liberal guilt trippers ever get surprised by finding out there are rather a lot of black and brown Christians in the world, including 22 million in India alone, the third largest religion in the country. Probably not.

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Colin
Colin
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

Yes it seems to have become a cult in its own right. One of the weirdest things about the church is that it will do anything to distract people from worshipping Jesus, its supposed reason for existing – e.g., Mary, saints, Easter bunnies, communion wafers etc. Christingle is just another method for a minister to get out of having to do the really embarrassing stuff like praying.

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Caroline Watson
Caroline Watson
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

Because it’s an infantilised version.

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Gerry Mandarin
Gerry Mandarin
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

It is a lovely service, the only one I used to attend every year. Vicar/Rev. used to sit all the children around him and make it an intimate service.

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D.S.
D.S.
5 years ago

Here’s how anti-lockdowners are described in the latest Economist, so that you know what the ‘Managerial Class’ is being told. They describe the crowds at the protests in Stroud as an example. This of course also describes Gupta, Battacharya, Kulldorf and all the other GBD people: ‘Cranks and Conservatives’, ‘Big government opposers’, ‘Covid19 deniers’, ‘raging conspiracy theorists’, ‘far right activists’, ‘science deniers’, ‘Piers Corbyn climate change denier’ and ‘adherents to QANON’. Equates the protests with XR and BLM – people who simply need protests to feel important. I guess all the signatories to the GBD are science denying scientists too.

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Tom Blackburn
Tom Blackburn
5 years ago
Reply to  D.S.

Complete horseshit. Obviously.

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Cristi.Neagu
Cristi.Neagu
5 years ago
Reply to  D.S.

They say “big government opposers” like that’s a bad thing…

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richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  Cristi.Neagu

It will be a bad thing when we succeed in overturning all their power.

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richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  richard riewer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lncr2g9XJHU
Led Zeppelin

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richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  richard riewer

The days when Rock & Roll ruled your soul.

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0
richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  richard riewer

PCR=PHONY CORONA RESULTS.

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Carlo
Carlo
5 years ago
Reply to  Cristi.Neagu

Don’t get that.

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karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  D.S.

Correction to your last suggested sentence

‘I guess all the signatories to the GBD are science denying ‘scientists’ too.

Last edited 5 years ago by karenovirus
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Steve-Devon
Steve-Devon
5 years ago
Reply to  D.S.

No suggestion as to where rational, logical analysers of the facts and data fits in to their list.

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karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  D.S.

I found this in the Guardian, 11th Nov.
While purporting to be antisceptic it nevertheless outlines many of our arguments quite clearly.
I have seen several such articles and they remind me of concentration camp slave workers sabotaging the weapons they were forced to assemble.

20201123_220022.jpg
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Caroline Watson
Caroline Watson
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

That struck a massive chord with me at the time. Lots of hysterical ranting about conspiracy theories and then a calm deconstruction of the argument for muzzles, just tucked away inside!

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Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago
Reply to  D.S.

Having one’s life destroyed by lockdown rules imposed by politicians (who have shares in Pharma and tech companies) is fine apparently. No human rights. Destruction of the economy, civil liberties, life as we knew it

I don’t see why it’s OK for innocent people to kept under house arrest for months and months for asymptomatic ‘cases’

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Aslangeo
Aslangeo
5 years ago
Reply to  D.S.

Quote from thought to be from Gandhi

First they Ignore you
Then they Ridicule you
Then they Fight you
Then You Win

Currently we are in the late ridicule – early fight stage (depends on the local situation) – but we will win

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annie
annie
5 years ago
Reply to  Aslangeo

Too right we will!

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karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  Aslangeo

The Roman version with early Christianity
First they outlaw you.
Then they tolerate you.
Then they Celebrate you.
Then you are made compulsory.

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annie
annie
5 years ago
Reply to  D.S.

We’re used to it. Muck from morons, who cares?

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Spikedee1
Spikedee1
5 years ago
Reply to  D.S.

The problem is we have forgotten how to protest. We have all thrown away our torches and pitchforks as we mistakenly believed we lived in a democracy. BLM can get 30,000 to a march and chase the rozzers up the Mall. We end up jumping into bed with Piers gang because we cannot organise anything and end up getting beat up by the TSG. So many people I speak to want to protest but they have no way of knowing when a march or bout of saucepans banging will be going on as the MSM won’t play with us.

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HelenaHancart
HelenaHancart
5 years ago
Reply to  D.S.

They forgot to mention the ‘flat earthers!” And ‘those that believe Elvis lives on the dark side of the moon!’ I borrowed that from the brilliant Mark Windows, whose excellent Windows on the World website and radio shows are full of information, and well worth your time.

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RyanM
RyanM
5 years ago

In your links, you refer to “Stanford” as “Stamford”. Probably should fix that.

Last edited 5 years ago by RyanM
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annie
annie
5 years ago
Reply to  RyanM

I hope Stamford, too, is against Covviebollox, but I doubt it. It’s a beautiful, prosperous town, but for that very reason likely to be full of bedwetters the horizontally inadvertently incontinent.

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karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago

I for one will be ignoring our unsavoury governments childlike yet facist restrictions up to, during and after Christmas.

As an only child Xmas day meant me with mum and dad so no change there.
Aged 14 or 15 I met up with a local mate after The Queens Speech to wander the deserted North London streets until we found an open Turkish cafe which sold us a bottle of red wine to be drunk in the locked shut park.

Late teens and early twenties Xmas late afternoon evening meant twenty or so closest friends only congregating at whoever had the biggest flat at the time, mixture of singletons and couples. Alcohol only, we didn’t do drugs.
I have no doubt that we would do exactly the same this year so a pox on your 3 household Christmas johnson.

Actually we would probably do similar every night if the pub was closed or made miserable by anti-social distancing.

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Caroline Watson
Caroline Watson
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

Christmas has always been bloody miserable in my family. Singing in carol services and concerts has always been the only part of it that I enjoyed. I’m quite looking forward to not spending three hours on the A1 to be harangued by my mother while she throws various food items out of the window.

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OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Caroline Watson

Lol!

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annie
annie
5 years ago

You are impressively eloquent for this time in the morning, NN! (stifles yawn and blinks with admiration ).

Last edited 5 years ago by Annie
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annie
annie
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

I can see why you stayed, but Northumbria is the poorer without you.

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annie
annie
5 years ago

It’s for mummies and kiddiewinkies, not grown-ups. Probably appeals to Welbybaby as it’s about on his intellectual level.
BTW, did you know that Welbybaby is planning to take a four-month sabbatical? Evidently the strain of being the worst archbishop in the history of the Anglican, and probably the entire Christian, church is getting to him.

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Steve-Devon
Steve-Devon
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

It is probably the most challenging spiritual concept that Oberfuhrer Johnson can get his befuddled head around. Did you see him on TV? he looked like the living dead, on his zooom call to Parliament he managed to press the mute button, it was like a zoom call to a demented grandad in a care home. Good to know the Country is in such safe hands!

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richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  Steve-Devon

Uber. Like ubermensch. Overman, not Superman. Which Boring Boris certainly is not.

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karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

Tim Stanleý gave Welby a good kicking in the Telegraph yesterday for skiving off in a time of lockdown induced crisis and the CofE for about everything.

Ends with a great piece on travelling through London with a mask. Not scared of the Covid but of the State.

Screenshot_20201124-060050_Chrome.jpg
Last edited 5 years ago by karenovirus
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Bella Donna
Bella Donna
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

I really don’t know how Welby can call himself a man of God.

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JohnB
JohnB
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

He’s just trying to avoid jail – like the previous pope chap.

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annie
annie
5 years ago

So the Astra-Zeneca jab works better the lower the dose?
That’s how homeopathy works. Hence the joke about the man who forgot to take his homeopathic remedy and died of an overdose.
So anybody who refuses the A-Z vaccine will presumably get the maximum dose and an instant freedom pass. Whoopee.

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Steve-Devon
Steve-Devon
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

We need a good Snake Oil salesman to peddle distilled water as the new wonder vaccine everyone could have a shot be happy and carry on. Maybe a new career opening for Trump?

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Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

If life carries on on the trajectory it’s going, I’d rather take the type of dose offered at Dignitas, Switzerland – thank you very much

A future dystopian police state defined by fear, control and poverty. The unvaccinated demonised like Jews in Nazi Germany by a fascistic mainstream media – no thanks

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OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

They keep the fact hidden now but both the Queen and her mother (lived to be over 100) always did/do use homeopathic remedies. I consulted a homeopathic practitioner once and found it very helpful – and it had a very definite physical effect. But it was bloody expensive!

Last edited 5 years ago by OKUK
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Cecil B
Cecil B
5 years ago

The pig dictator is holed up in The Ministry of Truth despite having had the flu and testing negative for the flu

Greater love hath no man

Rutherford and Aaronson were most probably vaporised shortly after Cummings and Cain left

I wanted to hear from the PD yesterday ( no not really I just made that bit up), however it would appear The Princess Nut Nuts is hogging the remote control

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The Bigman
The Bigman
5 years ago

Quantas are scum!

This is hardly surprising though. Once a government owns you you are at their mercy. Like the mob.

But this is all a conspiracy though right?

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Cecil B
Cecil B
5 years ago
Reply to  The Bigman

Trips to Australia were once free ( well in one sense anyway)

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annie
annie
5 years ago
Reply to  Cecil B

One-way trips.

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Cecil B
Cecil B
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

No your confusing it with LSD

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Caroline Watson
Caroline Watson
5 years ago
Reply to  Cecil B

Except that you were sprayed with DDT on arrival!

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microdave
microdave
5 years ago
Reply to  Caroline Watson

Except that you were sprayed with DDT on arrival!

I well remember – back in 1984 – the Quaint Arse (Qantas, geddit!) stewards walking up and down the aisles of the 747, which had just transported me round the world, spraying the cabin with ginormous cans of some sort of insecticide. What a nice way to “greet” people who were intending to spend money in their country. And that was before I got to immigration control…

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davews
davews
5 years ago
Reply to  The Bigman

Most vaccine requirements are set by governments to allow access to their countries, it is not the job of airlines to dictate they are required for travel on their planes (only to check that the passenger has the correct vaccines for entry to their destination country).

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Locked down and out
Locked down and out
5 years ago
Reply to  The Bigman

Qantas!

0
0
richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  Locked down and out

Storm the BBC!

0
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Laurence
Laurence
5 years ago

There was an orthodox Jewish wedding in Brooklyn on 8 November referred to on this page yesterday. This was not just any wedding but the daughter of the Rebbe (the head of the whole congregation). A fairly unbelievable 7,500 are said to have attended, and even if it wasn’t this many there were a huge number of people. Indoors, no masks, singing. Now this is not the only one. A typically ridiculous response to a typically stupid article in the NYT yesterday referred to a cousin’s chasidic wedding 6 weeks ago. So presumably the death rate from COVID in the areas where these weddings are must be huge ? Although it’s a bit soon for the big one, others go on all the time. Well, in Kensington (NY) and Williamsburg, the centre of Satmar life in NY, the death rate for the last 7 days was 0.1 and 0.2 per 100,000, that’s the equivalent of 9.5 and 19 per day adjusted to the UK population. Can somebody please explain why there are people out there who can’t see community immunity when it’s so blindingly obvious. Boris and his merry bunch of clowns can’t see the evidence even when it hits… Read more »

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The Bigman
The Bigman
5 years ago
Reply to  Laurence

They can it that doesn’t help The Agenda, does it.

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Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago
Reply to  Laurence

Gov’t diktats are the opposite of what they should be. People with healthy immune systems mixing, getting infected, developing immunity is what used to happen

Freshers Week was a rights of passage for students getting colds and flu. There is a cultural history of sharing infections in communities to develop natural immunity

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mikewaite
mikewaite
5 years ago
Reply to  Jamie

It used to be meningitis that was the main fear from the sudden mixing at Freshers Week. Now that can be seriously dangerous – but noone got hysterical about it.

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djaustin
djaustin
5 years ago
Reply to  mikewaite

Freshers are vaccinated now before heading to uni. One or two died every year at the beginning of term.

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Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago
Reply to  mikewaite

Yes. You’re right. Meningitis is deadly. It should be taken seriously

My comment was framed in the context of cold and flu

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Spikedee1
Spikedee1
5 years ago
Reply to  Laurence

Do you remember in summer when thousands flocked to the beach and all the muggles were screaming how they should be denied hospital care and how granny will be killed. OMG the horror, the body bags when… oh, two people died. The evidence is overwhelming but totally ignored by handjob and the chuckle brothers. But that’s the problem with a lie to keep it going the lies get bigger and bigger and more stupid.

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Bella Donna
Bella Donna
5 years ago
Reply to  Laurence

Bojo is going to sell us down the river on Brexit so he’s hiding in his bunker like the coward he really is. Someone should give him a loaded pistol and tell him to do the right thing!

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Nessimmersion
Nessimmersion
5 years ago
Reply to  Laurence

AFAIK, the New York orthodox community is the core customer base for Dr Zelensky of Zelensky protocol fame that the medical establishment have memory holed, since he proved a successful treatment back in March.

Last edited 5 years ago by Nessimmersion
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richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  Laurence

Strength in number.

1
0
Will
Will
5 years ago

I am pleased to see half a dozen letters in the Telegraph hostile towards the pub plans. I can only hope, for the sake of the English pub, that MPs manage to get Princess Nut Nut to change her mind on this issue as, by the end of March, there won’t be any pubs left.

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annie
annie
5 years ago
Reply to  Will

I wonder if any Grauniad readers ever crawl out of bed, get out of their wet pyjamas and go to a pub?

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Will
Will
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

I doubt it and the way Guardian readers exist, if they don’t do something, they think it is “wrong” and should, therefore, be banned.

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karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  Will

A Macdonalds manager tells me that Deliveroo riders are queuing up at 07.00 to whisk skinny lattes to opulent addresses where they help those comfortably WFH to start their day.

Last edited 5 years ago by karenovirus
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Londo Mollari
Londo Mollari
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

Is there such a thing as a Guardian reader anymore? The publication has betrayed everyone of its principles and I can’t think of anyone who might read it anymore other than lefty members of staff at GCHQ.

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The Bigman
The Bigman
5 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

Hasn’t the company got a huge trust fund keeping it going as the numbers of readers can’t support the cost of it?

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karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  The Bigman

I believe it is subsidised by the profits of Autotrader plus multiple subscriptions from the BBC and academia plus recruitment advertising from the woke ruled* public sector.

*not having a go at Public Sector workers.

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PastImperfect
PastImperfect
5 years ago
Reply to  The Bigman

Supplemented by Gates.

5
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JohnB
JohnB
5 years ago
Reply to  PastImperfect

Thanks PI. Surely everyone should know this by now !

1
0
original poster
original poster
5 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

Not here there isn’t. Used to be a supporter, but their coverage of The Virus has been a joke, so no longer. Don’t think they’ll miss me though…as mentioned, they’re sitting pretty in funds.

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bucky99
bucky99
5 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

CCHQ, more like

1
0
Simon Cook
Simon Cook
5 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

Very very true Londo. I was a regular reader until the angle grinder episode after the Snowdon reveal.

Monbiot once again revealing his true colours yesterday in shilling for the pharmaceuticals.

Cheers

Simon

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0
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

I used to read them but stopped because of their obsession with victimhood status and their pathological obsession and dislike of America. At some point I thought they had relocated to the USA.

There still are – tend to live in areas such as Islington, Hampstead, Highgate where they are insulated from the consequences of what they advocate.

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0
Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Bart Simpson

At the start of the scamdemic I switched to watching RT. I have suddenly learnt that places exist in the World, that are not the UK, US or France.

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0
Caroline Watson
Caroline Watson
5 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

I stopped reading it because of its support for ‘gender’ ideology and victimisation of Suzanne Moore, who has now resigned. Then there was Owen Jones and his crawling to the appalling, anti semitic ‘Corbyn project’, and the obsession with BLM, as well as the sanctimonious pontificating of the ghastly Monbiot man.

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Caroline Watson
Caroline Watson
5 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

And don’t forget that the founder of the Manchester Guardian made his money from a cotton plantation run on slave labour!

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0
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago
Reply to  Caroline Watson

Something they like to ignore. Oh and they avoid paying their fair share of tax too. As much as I loathe Jeff Bezos, the Graun aren’t exactly clean when it comes to tax as well.

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0
OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Caroline Watson

That surely is reason enough for it to change its name – perhaps to The Collaborator – and then defund itself, giving all its money to BLM.

3
0
Lyra Silvertongue
Lyra Silvertongue
5 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

I reckon it’s actually written by Armando Ianucci or someone of similar wit as a very clever parody.

3
0
richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

Guardian takeover.

1
0
The Bigman
The Bigman
5 years ago
Reply to  Will

That’s the plan; no pubs. Places where people can meet and discuss things are always forbidden in dictatorships…which is where we are headed.

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Colin
Colin
5 years ago

Er…about air travel and vaccines- let’s not get swept away by the anti-vaxx brigade, please. When I was a lad we lived in Indonesia and Oman and every time we traveled by air back to and from London we had our passports and our yellow vaccination card showing dates of last smallpox, polio and TB vaccinations. This was – and is – completely normal so I don’t see why people are getting in a flap about countries and/or airlines requiring passengers to be vaccinated against Covid19. It’s not the plague but it’s nasty nevertheless. Let’s focus on ending these ludicrous lockdowns and mask wearing. I have been speaking to a lot of people recently about this and sadly most are still completely sunk in the covidthink mindset.

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Londo Mollari
Londo Mollari
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

I agree with you about focusing on the lockdowns and mask wearing. However, it’s not “anti-vaxx” to be wary of a rushed vaccine, let alone one (or rather two) that make use of a completely untried technology.

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original poster
original poster
5 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

100% agreed. The term “anti-vaxxer” is equivalent to “conpiracy theorist” – it’s aim is to shut down discussion.

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The Bigman
The Bigman
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

What a ludicrous statement. First off, the diseases you named are far more serious that c19. Also, none of them are required for a UK person to fly anywhere.
Quantas were also looking to apply it to internal flights as well as international.
No one is required to show they haven’t got a common cold/flu and those can be deadly, especially in tepid climates.

You wish to focus on lockdowns and masks solely? The vaccinations are an extension of this draconian agenda. So it is all needing fought and conquered. One beats the other.

49
0
Mark H
Mark H
5 years ago
Reply to  The Bigman

The vaccine isn’t an extension of the lockdown, it’s the end goal of the lockdown. Crush society sufficiently, it’ll willingly roll up its sleeve and beg to be jabbed.

“…until a vaccine is found…” – the coda since day 1.

27
-1
PastImperfect
PastImperfect
5 years ago
Reply to  Mark H

“…until a vaccine is found…” – the coda since day 1.

Needs to be rammed home.

7
0
Sara
Sara
5 years ago
Reply to  Mark H

Not just one vaccine. Once we have a digital health passport, they can come up with a never-ending series of vaccinations that we “need”.

11
0
Andrew Fish
Andrew Fish
5 years ago
Reply to  The Bigman

There were (are?) some countries required a yellow fever vaccination as a precondition to entry, but obviously that’s not most countries. It’s also worth pointing out that the vaccines you get for travel to exotic climes last at least a decade (twenty years for a hep jap if you have a booster) – from what we know of the Covid jab you’d be expected to have it at least annually, which obviously means that any risk is increased.

I assume that Qantas can get away with this policy because they have a strangehold on the Australian market. Without a government mandate, I expect the more competitive markets of Europe and the USA to be warier about following suit.

9
0
Dan72
Dan72
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrew Fish

At least one company is pushing back – https://twitter.com/uktwinds

9
0
Andrew Fish
Andrew Fish
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan72

That’s what we want to see – the free market in action.

9
0
Lyra Silvertongue
Lyra Silvertongue
5 years ago
Reply to  Dan72

Looks like there’s pushback from a number of sources now.

3
0
Colin
Colin
5 years ago
Reply to  The Bigman

No they are not required any more, and the diseases were more serious, but my point is that it’s not some new conspiracy plot for an airline to require vaccination certificates, it used to be standard procedure – unlike lockdown and mask wearing, which were copied lock stock and barrel from China, a viciously totalitarian communist country beneath its sparkly capitalist sheen.

5
-1
claire
claire
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Was it the airlines or was it the destination countries?

2
0
Carlo
Carlo
5 years ago
Reply to  claire

Destination countries I believe.

0
0
JohnB
JohnB
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

New for an airline, as opposed to a country, to require them. Unless I’ve missed something.

3
0
Mark H
Mark H
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Smallpox, polio and TB vaccinations: tried, tested and proven to be effective without long term side effects.

COVID-19 vaccination: untried, barely tested and no proof of being effective without long term side effects.

35
0
MK1953
MK1953
5 years ago
Reply to  Mark H

I’m on a very expensive drug that took around 10 years to be brought to market because of the stringent safety protocols on a novel drug. Think of the c19 vaccine as a completely novel drug brought to market in a matter of months! The problem with the ‘vaccine’ definition is that it raises the ‘straw man’ anti vax (conspiracy) label. If the government is, as we know, expecting a ‘high volume’ of adverse drug reactions (ADR’s) from the c19 vaccine (a novel drug), who would take the risk of what might be a serious irreversible drug reaction when you’re over 99% likely to survive an Infection from c19?

10
-1
Colin
Colin
5 years ago
Reply to  MK1953

Good question. But I think if I was a nurse or a care worker exposed to large numbers of genuinely sick people every day I wouldn’t hesitate to be vaccinated if it offers 90-95% protection. As for the rest of us, as you say, I’d rather take my chances until more is known.

3
-1
Nsklent
Nsklent
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

However, we are now 9 months down the line, so if a health worker has been exposed for thisclength of time, I would guess they have pretty much robust immunity to the virus.

11
0
JohnB
JohnB
5 years ago
Reply to  MK1953

 … it raises the ‘straw man’ anti vax (conspiracy) label.

Would you mind translating into English ? Not trying to be silly, it is capable of several different interpretations.

1
0
MK1953
MK1953
5 years ago
Reply to  JohnB

Hi John – I was meaning that the ’anti vax’ label is the the ‘straw man’ often used to attack those who have legitimate concerns around a completely novel vaccine which has unusually short testing protocols and is being fast tracked.
This linguistic device which mis-characterises an opponent’s argument and then attacks the mis-characterisation is used all the by politicians and is easy to spot!

0
0
Jonathan Palmer
Jonathan Palmer
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

A vaccine rushed through in record time tied to a digital/health passport without which you are a second class citizen.I think it’s right to be angry and masks/ lockdowns are measures to push you towards a vaccine.

33
0
Steve-Devon
Steve-Devon
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Not all vaccines are the same and some of the new ones are a very different and new technology compared to any vaccines we have had before. I knew people at school who had had polio and still know adults who had Polio as a child it is a horrible disease and I am glad i was protected by a vaccine but be in no doubt the introduction of the Polio vaccine was not trouble free, there were problems and contaminated batches. Consequently it is entirely reasonable to have a least some caution regarding these new style vaccines that have been rushed through at such a lightning speed.
In the end I may well need a vaccination for international travel but I have no intention of being first in the queue!

14
0
Marialta
Marialta
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Track and trace, lockdowns, masks, quarantines and vaccines all go together. It is unprecedented to need to prove your health status to attend public places, large social events – even work, school possibly. This is different from the old vaccination cards you mention. Technology is now at the forefront of medical surveillance and brings with it valid concerns about privacy and control that were just not possible when you were young.

18
0
Colin
Colin
5 years ago
Reply to  Marialta

Oh I totally agree Marialta, demanding vaccination for work, school, or anything within the UK is totally unacceptable.

6
0
Colin
Colin
5 years ago
Reply to  Marialta

The South Korean system is based on analysing peoples’ mobile phone records and bank statements to determine who they have been in contact with. Horrific.

2
0
Two-Six
Two-Six
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

I am firmly in the anti vaxx brigade. Taking a totally new technology vaccine, never been tried before and has had no time to be trialled in the population, just a few months..For a disease that everybody has a 98.7% chance of NOT dying from. The need to prove you are not “ill” with a common cold before you can do anything at all.
A vaccine that will not confer immunity or indeed stop interpersonal transmission just reduce the symptoms, probably less well than a paracetamol or some lem-sip.

Fuck off with that.

Last edited 5 years ago by Two-Six
18
0
Colin
Colin
5 years ago
Reply to  Two-Six

“A vaccine that will not confer immunity or indeed stop interpersonal transmission just reduce the symptoms” – do you have a source for that information? SIncere question, I am interested to know why you say that.

0
-1
Felice
Felice
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

IIRC, every time vaccine results are published, they never say anything about transmission or immunity. The goal of the vaccine is however, stated – to reduce the severity of symptoms.

2
0
Pablo
Pablo
5 years ago
Reply to  Two-Six

I agree with you 100% – I will not take this vaccine – they would have to forcibly hold me down first. The fundamental reason for this is that it is absolutely NOT NEEDED. This so-called ‘dangerous’ virus is nothing of the kind and 99+% have nothing to fear from it, with the vast majority experiencing mild or zero ill effects because they have immune systems capable of efficiently fighting infections. We simply do not need a vaccine, just as we do not need masks, social distancing, repeated hand wiping with alcohol, and all the rest of this horseshit. Enough already!

8
0
peter
peter
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

why the fuck would any sane person want to inject dead babies into themselves?

i’m not a cannibal

8
0
RyanM
RyanM
5 years ago

That BoB thread is so fantastic, I sent it to a dozen or so friends/family.

18
0
Kf99
Kf99
5 years ago
Reply to  RyanM

It’s one of the best things I’ve seen this year. Superb.

3
0
Basileus
Basileus
5 years ago
Reply to  RyanM

I have put Bob’s cartoons and text into a draft leaflet. You can download the .docx and .pages files here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fp5kii5vaa1jw7v/AACGXIRD2mwoarDXLvi4utsca?dl=0

5
0
original poster
original poster
5 years ago

I just watch this video published by Ivor Cummins. It’s inspirational…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyDsjHZHsGc

I’m wondering if there are people here who would like to get together for an online chat to discuss ways in which we could begin to sow seeds of doubt in the general public to turn this mess around. Come up with some guerilla tactics that each of us could carry out wherever we happen to live.

First thing is to obviously talk to those around us, but how do we broach the subject without getting their defenses up. I know I’ve annoyed some of my co-workers with my approach :-).

I’m also thinking things like putting signs up (which will undoubtedly be taken down quickly, but still, we could just as easily replace them) with the real stats, visual images showing lockdown are bollocks etc.

Let’s shift this thing!

23
0
Basileus
Basileus
5 years ago
Reply to  original poster

Yes please: count me in OP.

2
0
annie
annie
5 years ago
Reply to  Basileus

And me.

1
0
Basileus
Basileus
5 years ago
Reply to  Basileus

Can you set up a contact email address? A temporary one might be a good idea.

1
0
Colin
Colin
5 years ago
Reply to  original poster

I’m in. Live in south west France. Several French friends are enlightened but most still believe in this lockdown crap. One musician I know is happy to not work for a year because he thinks it means his mother will live to see her grandchildren. He seems to have missed a minor detail of lockdowns there.

15
0
CivilianNotCovidian
CivilianNotCovidian
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Can someone set up a LS zoom call? I’d dial in! Let’s make it regular. Let’s invite people to join and bring their brainwashed friends and family! Maybe hearing articulate, rational people talk about this could help.

8
0
Marialta
Marialta
5 years ago
Reply to  CivilianNotCovidian

I’m in too. BJ has mentioned the spring (6 months) for getting back to normal but to me that means at least a year.

So we do need a long term plan. We surely can’t go on like this for another year. There’s a risk that regulars get stuck on reading 1000+ comments daily and not move on into some other strategy. Many of us are distributing leaflets, stickers, converting as many as we can, but the sum total knowledge of everyone on here is so impressive I think we could develop something online. I like the idea of using Zoom to invite our family and friends, but it would need to be organised carefully.

9
0
annie
annie
5 years ago
Reply to  CivilianNotCovidian

It’s easy to set up LS, but you need people’s emails in order to invite them.

3
0
CivilianNotCovidian
CivilianNotCovidian
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

I’ve joined some open zoom calls. You publish the link then people sign up using an email

4
0
Spikedee1
Spikedee1
5 years ago
Reply to  CivilianNotCovidian

I wonder whether you could gather all the online sceptics together to try and expand the pool. Gamers and film reviewers on youtube like the critical drinker have a streamed gathering for about five or six popular guys where they discuss a film or game. This get thousands of hits and shares as each youtuber brings their own audience. Then normally they would sub the youtuber they might not have heard of. Probably cant be held on youtube but bitchute maybe.

4
0
Basileus
Basileus
5 years ago
Reply to  CivilianNotCovidian

Yes please.

2
0
Sue
Sue
5 years ago
Reply to  CivilianNotCovidian

sounds good! i’d be interested.

2
0
karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  original poster

I generally wait for a stranger to start The Conversation, drop a couple of sceptic hints and by and large they already agree.
I believe people think it is socially unacceptable to be a covid or lockdown denier and don’t want to start a conversation with wrongtalk.

“Isn’t the Covid terrible !?”
‘Well there are one or two people dying at the hospital every day. . . which is the same as most years for respiratory conditions’.

“Where did you hear that?”
‘From the governments own website, the ONS’
and away you go. My favourite screenshot at the moment is a graphic showing hospital bed occupancy lower than usual.

14
0
CivilianNotCovidian
CivilianNotCovidian
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

I know people making badges/stickers that will identify you as normal (unbrainwashed). Can you imagine the joy of finding and hugging a fellow human being!

13
0
Thomas_E
Thomas_E
5 years ago
Reply to  CivilianNotCovidian

Can I get one of these badges? I’m of course prepared to pay!

4
0
Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

Half the human population is infected with H-Pylori which causes stomach cancer. Why the Covid Cabal didn’t use that to enslave the world instead, I don’t know

10
0
CivilianNotCovidian
CivilianNotCovidian
5 years ago
Reply to  Jamie

Two thirds have one or other herpes virus in their body… under stress this can lead to shingles, which can be deadly. No herpes vaccine yet. Hmm…

8
0
richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  CivilianNotCovidian

I took Valtrex tablets for about 3 weeks. Powerful stuff. Long, sustained withdrawal symptoms.

1
0
Saved To Death
Saved To Death
5 years ago
Reply to  Jamie

I guess because there would be the risk that a vaccine that might actually help reduce death and suffering in the world might be found and that just would not do.

4
0
richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  Jamie

It’s more difficult to pronounce. Doesn’t roll off the tongue.

3
0
CivilianNotCovidian
CivilianNotCovidian
5 years ago
Reply to  original poster

We need to separate ourselves from the people being labelled conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers. If we say:
1. Conspiracy Theories are Harmful
2. Some vaccines are life saving so anti-vaxxers are harmful.
3. Safe vaccines takes years to be proved safe.
4. But we don’t need a vaccine for a virus with a 99.96% survival rate.
5. “Long covid” is exact same symptoms as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (different name)
6. Look at your face after long term mask wearing and imagine that on your lungs.
7. Suppression of information is dangerous
Etc.

8
-3
Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago
Reply to  CivilianNotCovidian

And most crucially, nudging people to start asking what a ‘case’ is. Our lives are being destroyed not for hospitalisations or deaths but for cases, and most asymptomatic

9
0
Caroline Watson
Caroline Watson
5 years ago
Reply to  CivilianNotCovidian

Exactly. Conspiracy theories are not helpful to the cause of those who are sceptical of government policy and believe that the ‘cure’ is more damaging than the disease. The question I ask is whether they know of anyone who has died ‘of’ Covid who didn’t catch it in a hospital or care home or from someone who worked in one. They never do.

4
-1
PastImperfect
PastImperfect
5 years ago
Reply to  Caroline Watson

“Conspiracy theorist “…is a term coined by Allen Dulles CIA the director in the 1960’s to describe people trying to expose the truth.

9
0
JohnB
JohnB
5 years ago
Reply to  Caroline Watson

Conspiracy theories are not helpful to the cause of those who are sceptical of government policy and believe that the ‘cure’ is more damaging than the disease.

That’s a matter of opinion. One begs to differ.

Any evidence that David Icke is an anti-semite yet ?

5
0
richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  CivilianNotCovidian

Go to a lab with a well used mask, analyze it and take a photo of all the germs crawling about. Then send it to all and sundry.

4
0
JohnB
JohnB
5 years ago
Reply to  CivilianNotCovidian

We need to separate ourselves from the people being labelled conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers.

Given that CTs and AVs are virtually 100% aware of and opposed to the current tyranny, and therefore allies, this appears to be doing the bad guys’ job for them.

6
0
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago
Reply to  original poster

That Daily Mail article had a good visual which can be used. And that thread from Bob Moran using his cartoons could be good starting points as well.

4
0
Basileus
Basileus
5 years ago
Reply to  Bart Simpson

I have put Bob’s cartoons and text into a draft leaflet. You can download the .docx and .pages files here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fp5kii5vaa1jw7v/AACGXIRD2mwoarDXLvi4utsca?dl=0

4
0
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago
Reply to  Basileus

That’s fantastic. Thanks a lot!!

2
0
Caroline Watson
Caroline Watson
5 years ago
Reply to  original poster

And me!

1
0
PastImperfect
PastImperfect
5 years ago
Reply to  original poster

Yes, yes, yes indeed. We need several thousand people involved to make a difference, although it could well snowball.

I mentioned yesterday that, since Sunday, the sticker on my car:

STOP
COVID
TYRANNY
NOW

had drawn some interest of passers by and I had been able to school one of them.

Below the slogan I have the UKColumn link.

8
0
richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  PastImperfect

Perhaps we should not expose our links? Keep everything anonymous.

1
0
Thomas_E
Thomas_E
5 years ago
Reply to  original poster

Yeah..I’m in!

2
0
original poster
original poster
5 years ago
Reply to  original poster

To all who are interested, I’ve set up a google spreadsheet for you to enter your email addres so we can set up an online meeting…

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FTKBIIxSA3gr92shjqnGQQKtaGv2JbsEfPQQZR7H2Xk/edit?usp=sharing

This is an open shared link for the moment, so hopefully it doesn’t get spammed. If anyone can think of a better way to do this, please let me know.

Once there’s a decent list of people, we can figure out a good time to chat that works for most people.

1
0
Lyra Silvertongue
Lyra Silvertongue
5 years ago
Reply to  original poster

I’m interested. For some reason, people seem to generally believe everything I say, and I’m not even working in a soul destroying sales job. I have some art skills, so inclined to go round putting up my ‘improved’ versions of the nag posters on the streets.

Last edited 5 years ago by Lyra Silvertongue
1
0
Monro
Monro
5 years ago

Here’s another one for the ‘lessons learned’ section of the independent public inquiry: ‘One of the lasting images of the first wave of Covid is of the weekly “clap for carers” – that moment of national unity that took place on doorsteps at 20:00 every Thursday night. Health care workers have been very appreciative of public support, but many say they would prefer a proper pay settlement to another round of applause. And Jo Billings, a psychologist from the Covid trauma response working group at University College London, says “the narrative of health care workers being heroes or angels has largely been really unhelpful.” It painted a picture that people do this because they’re special, not because they’re simply doing their job, for which they should be adequately paid and protected. “It’s also been a real barrier to people seeking help with their own problems,” Dr Billings says, “because they feel heroes don’t struggle. An angel doesn’t get PTSD.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/explainers-54623919 This country is currently being governed by the NHS, something that has been a long time in the making. The result? An entirely predictable monumental disaster, just like every other massive NHS project. If one thing comes out of this total… Read more »

Last edited 5 years ago by Monro
21
0
Tom Blackburn
Tom Blackburn
5 years ago
Reply to  Monro

“by attributing overimportance to praiseworthy actions one may, by implication, be paying indirect but potent homage to the worse side of human nature. For this attitude implies that such actions shine out as rare exceptions, while callousness and apathy are the general rule”

5
0
annie
annie
5 years ago
Reply to  Tom Blackburn

Well…?

1
0
Tom Blackburn
Tom Blackburn
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

– quote from Albert Camus

4
0
Monro
Monro
5 years ago
Reply to  Tom Blackburn

‘And shall I name one who hath been in our age, and wish him now to live to cure so great a canker? Would God England had a Cromwell: I will say no more.’

Thomas Wilson, Discourse on Usury (1571), p. 182.

2
0
richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  Monro

Global Public Health, not the NHS.

1
0
Colin
Colin
5 years ago

Quick survey: Do you actually know someone (directly, not a friend of a friend or colleague) who has either been hospitalized with and/or died of Covid-19?
I don’t. And I can only think of one person, who knows someone in Peru whose mother died of it.

22
-1
l835
l835
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

No

4
0
Fingerache Philip.
Fingerache Philip.
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Brother in law and family caught it, OK now.
Wife’s friend’s son hospitalised: OK now.

5
-1
karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

No, I only know of a few cases via health and care workers. The only deaths reported by them were falsely attributed to Covid.

3
0
Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

I don’t know anyone who’s had it

4
0
Aslangeo
Aslangeo
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

3 people in hospital (all survived, including one with late stage cancer) and my friend Rob’s 92 year Auntie did die with Covid. Rob was upset at not being able to go to the funeral as he was close to her but philosophical

A few others were moderately ill but not needing hospitalisation

While it is a bad disease, it is in no way worth wrecking society for. We had coped a lot better in the past

12
0
Aslangeo
Aslangeo
5 years ago
Reply to  Aslangeo

Just for context – two friends , a work colleague of over 20 years and a fellow volunteer at a charity , both in their late 50’s / early 60’s died of cancer over the lockdown period (the cancers were not survivable so I am not blaming lockdown in this case) – watching funerals over zoom was pretty shitty

I also know of several folk with postponed operations and other treatments and the teenage son of a mate who has had a mental health crisis (but is pulling through)

5
0
Gill
Gill
5 years ago
Reply to  Aslangeo

Also for context, I don’t know anyone who has had Covid-19 but I have 3 friends, all in their 50s, who are currently being treated for cancer. My husband was also in his 50s when he died from cancer. For someone my age, cancer is a far bigger risk!

5
0
PastImperfect
PastImperfect
5 years ago
Reply to  Aslangeo

Covid-19 is an event that is being ruthlessly exploited.

PFIZER/MODERNA MRNA VACCINE: “YOUR OWN CELLS BECOME THE VIRUS” IMMUNOLOGIST; SIEGE OF HEAVEN READER on Vimeo

This David Halpin pulling no punches 20:30 minutes in, but have not found his web site. I think this may well be his web site. David Halpin (infoaction.org.uk).

1
0
Steph
Steph
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

No. I now know 2 health workers who have had it. It sounded very unpleasant and quite long lasting but no hospitalisation.
I don’t even know friends of friends who have died but I do know of 3 suicides in that sphere not counting the dreadful stories we read on here.

12
0
Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago
Reply to  Steph

I had flu in 2018, and felt terrible, but the freedom that came with that time seems like paradise compared to what’s happening now. I wish I could turn the clock back

4
0
Fingerache Philip.
Fingerache Philip.
5 years ago
Reply to  Jamie

Jamie, what time of the year did you have the flu?
I ask because my wife and I went down with flu on the 2nd of December that year and we were really Ill, we both lost half a stone and I remember on the 9th of December (my 70th birthday) I struggled to get out of bed and stand up.
Luckily by around the 22nd of that month, we both began to feel a lot better and by Christmas we were OK.
Not at any time did either of us think that it was anything other than the “Flu”.
If ordinary people like us and yourself along with our fellow sceptics know this, why has our government, etc panicked?

6
0
PastImperfect
PastImperfect
5 years ago
Reply to  Fingerache Philip.

My son lives with us. He went to Birmingham motor show last November. Thousands of people from all over the world were there. A couple of weeks later he felt unwell enough to visit the GP. Subsequently, I was under par with headaches (never normally get them) and cough that lasted a month or so. Staying clear of tests.

3
0
Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago
Reply to  Fingerache Philip.

It was about the same time

1
0
Suze Burtenshaw
Suze Burtenshaw
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Our next door neighbour thinks he had it in April – cough/loss of taste and smell etc.. He is in the vulnerable category so was isolating anyway. Well, sort of. Anyway, on day 8 he was off out shopping, so terrible was his brush with death. So to answer your question – no.

8
0
djaustin
djaustin
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Yes my friend is now a widow. He was 59. I had it in April, just stayed out of hospital thanks to a Covid task force emergency visit, and am not yet recovered. I have no underlying conditions and was a national level racing cyclist.

Last edited 5 years ago by djaustin
2
-1
Now More Than Ever
Now More Than Ever
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

No.

0
0
Cbird
Cbird
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

No

0
0
JustMe
JustMe
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

No. And I’ve been going round swabbing people since mid-May.

2
0
G.Fawkes
G.Fawkes
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

I heard of someone through a surgeon friend who died of heart complications related cancer but got Covid on the death certificate. Does that count?

2
0
Colin
Colin
5 years ago
Reply to  G.Fawkes

Yeah but no but yeah but no as Boris Jo..sorry, Matt Lucas used to say. I would say no.

0
0
CivilianNotCovidian
CivilianNotCovidian
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

No. But know of two suicides and one attempted suicide of a 15-year-old. And perfectly healthy people with suicidal thoughts. The point is… covid is nasty, can cause long-term health problems and can be fatal to those with serious underlying health issues. Lockdowns kill randomly… completely healthy people, some at the start of their adult lives. And covid threat will lessen dramatically in severity as time goes on, as every coronavirus and rhinovirus does. Our children and children’s children will be paying for this bullshit (tests, masks, vaccines, plexiglass, mental health issues, etc.) for hundreds of years. You don’t kill a poisonous spider with a nuclear bomb.

8
0
mattghg
mattghg
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

A friend’s father died of it. He was 59 with no known underlying conditions, apparently. Although he caught it during lockdown, so that obviously didn’t save him.

3
0
Caroline Watson
Caroline Watson
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

My nephew currently has it, caught from his nurse wife who is now better. An asthmatic, although a fit 30 year old, he has an oxygen monitor which has recorded dangerously low levels on a few occasions but he is determined to stay out of hospital.

I am still convinced that I had it myself very early on. A week long fever, preceded by sickness and followed by fatigue and high breathing (I’m a singer so normally breathe very low) No ‘cold’ symptoms at all. As a slightly overweight 60 year old woman, I’m absolutely fine now, though I’d be fitter if the gym was open!

5
0
Ovis
Ovis
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Yes. Father in law and his partner, latter in hospital on oxygen. Both still feeling effects, though on balance getting better over time. They became ill three weeks into LD1, for context.

Covid can be unpleasant. But the government response is in my view both ineffective and disproportionate. It is huge pain for no gain. The rona is a cold virus. It will get through, unless you actually wrap yourself in clingfilm – and even that will save you from the rona only by killing you. The huge pain and destruction caused by lockdown does not help those who have suffered from Covid, which is not to deny that their suffering from Covid is real and significant.

7
0
PastImperfect
PastImperfect
5 years ago
Reply to  Ovis

“Government” response was to deny people safe, effective, cheap Hydroxychloroquine treatments.

4
0
Basileus
Basileus
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

I had an old friend who was in his 80’s. He died in a nursing home ‘of Covid’ in the spring. So presumably he was part of the first wave.

1
0
PastImperfect
PastImperfect
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Even IF 50,000 people died of C-19 in the UK, then that is just one in a thousand. How many people are in regular touch with 1000 others?

Over ten times as many die of something else.

Last edited 5 years ago by PastImperfect
1
0
Thomas_E
Thomas_E
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

No…but my 93 year old, holocausts survival gran had it..She was tested and everything. She was back on her feet 48 h later and in the shops 72 hours later. So deadly a diseases that an person who survived a concentration camp and is in the last years in her life is back to normal in 72h. She now says to me that this is all bullshit and the government are a bunch of liers

6
0
richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  Thomas_E

If your grandmother’s story is 100% fact and can be proven, it needs to be heard.

1
0
Spikedee1
Spikedee1
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

My daughter was not well in Feb, we were away on holiday. She felt hot and had some respiratory problems. Two days off work then back in. Of course that was before we knew about batflu. Other than that know of nobody who has had it.

2
0
VickyA
VickyA
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Think I did in Feb. Persistent cough (rare for me to get a cough), flu like for 3 weeks. Like a nasty flu virus. I am in the vulnerable category, but with much rest and care I got over it.

1
0
Two-Six
Two-Six
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

I think I had it in April, Persistent dry hot cough in the upper chest, a slight temperature, things tasting crap, a bit achy, feeling a tiny bit peaky. It lasted for a few days and the cough stayed for about two weeks. The symptoms were very mild indeed. Almost not noticeable.That’s it.

Last edited 5 years ago by Two-Six
4
0
xplod
xplod
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Ok, late to this party….but, from a good authority at our local health centre, which covers a large part of South Leicestershire, as of a couple of weeks ago, there were no covid 19 patients on the books, and as of this week, the community nursing for the area had no more than 3 active covid19 patients. Can’t speak for the hospitals locally, though!

2
0
Cheshirecatslave
Cheshirecatslave
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

My cleaning lady’s Uncle died of it.A friend’s sister in law(whom I’ve met twice) was ill with it, but don’t know if she was in hospital.A blog buddy had a mild infection.

1
0
Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

No. I don’t know anyone who’s had it

0
0
TT
TT
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

My father died of complications related to cancer treatment during the 1st lockdown, and was diagnosed as Covid positive after over a month in the hospital (ie he caught it there, despite all the insane measures in place including masks, gloves, disinfectant etc.). He spent 2 weeks isolated in the Covid ward but never showed any symptoms, despite being in a very weakened state from his illness. Given that he died shortly afterwards from kidney failure, I can’t imagine he really had Covid as he never experienced any respiratory troubles. So obviously an early ‘false positive’ from the fishy testing scheme.
I know a couple who really had Covid back in March and said it was like a bad flu, but they came out alright without needing to be hospitalized.
All other instances I’ve known of since are dubious ‘positive cases’ with zero symptoms, or at worst those of a classic cold.

2
0
BTLnewbie
BTLnewbie
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

No

0
0
gina
gina
5 years ago
Reply to  Colin

I do. One of the early cases.
My then friend spent a week in a ski resort on the Italian/Austrian border in March.She was evacuated in the middle of the night along with the other guests when the authorities decided to close the resort.
She,and the rest of her family got sick. Two of them travelled on from Norwich back to Australia while sick. My friend ended up in the Norfolk and Norwich hospital very ill. Released having spent 7 days in hospital.
She is 69 and has no underlying health conditions.
Big article and photo of her looking glam appeared in the EDP shortly after.
She is one of a number of people attempting to bring a class action against the Austrian authorities. She was interviewed for the Times story on this.
As far as I know she is completely recovered.
Though sad to say our friendship has not survived our different stances – my concern for civil liberties offended her.

3
0
Fingerache Philip.
Fingerache Philip.
5 years ago

FACT: Covid will burn itself out sooner or later (government hope that it will be around Easter time).
FACT: Government will claim credit for beating virus by the measures taken, etc.
FACT: The sheep, collaborators and maskateers will believe and accept this.
FACT: WE KNOW THE TRUTH.

27
0
Will
Will
5 years ago
Reply to  Fingerache Philip.

If they weren’t using PCR tests the virus would have burnt itself already.

13
0
Spikedee1
Spikedee1
5 years ago
Reply to  Will

So true, I love Ivor who calls it a casedemic

1
0
ConstantBees
ConstantBees
5 years ago

I know some will be angry enough they will not want to even consider looking at the “COVID-19 Winter Plan” but it has been published. All information, good, bad and indifferent needs to be available for examination by the public. I just skimmed it myself and it seems quite sketchy in details, per usual. As many have said, tier is just another word for lockdown.

6
0
Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago
Reply to  ConstantBees

Lockdown of millions of innocent, healthy people

8
0
Marialta
Marialta
5 years ago
Reply to  ConstantBees

Re: the Plan Did you notice that Sweden is omitted from the graph showing European death rates? Fishy?

5
0
Marialta
Marialta
5 years ago
Reply to  Marialta

Page 9

0
0
karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  ConstantBees

ConstantBees I would like to thank you again for your marvellous phrase

” I am in an abusive relationship with the government.

I have used it twice IRL to great effect.

2
0
Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago

Double standards. One rule for us, and one rule for politicians and people in powerful positions

Freedom Passes for us – Emma Kenny: ‘You just walked into a dictatorship’

https://twitter.com/emmakennytv/status/1330950106292613120?s=20

Head of WHO decides against having a test post quarantine because he felt fine and didn’t see the need for testing

https://youtu.be/ExXsQA5JpWw

12
0
richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  Jamie

Don’t believe him. Who were the witnesses?

1
0
richmond
richmond
5 years ago

Have we had this already? Apologies if so. There are so many graphs etc and I lose track.

Covid - 170 years mortality UK.png
8
0
Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago
Reply to  richmond

No apology necessary, R. 🙂

Yes, we have had this one, but it’s one of those graphs that can’t be posted enough.

0
0
Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago

We’re not allowed to get herd immunity the natural way anymore. As we’ve done for hundreds of thousands of years

Instead we have to get it from a vial

50
-1
Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago
Reply to  Jamie

Or they’re following orders, the same as every other country

20
-1
annie
annie
5 years ago
Reply to  Jamie

A vile vial.

14
-1
Span Ows
Span Ows
5 years ago
Reply to  annie

an evil, live vile vial.

13
-1
Ovis
Ovis
5 years ago
Reply to  Jamie

Though it is clear, and has been for months, that getting immunity the natural way is safe (possibly safer) for most of us, while a vaccine is unlikely to work for many in ‘vulnerable’ groups. Hence the logic of the GBD.

It’s almost as if public health isn’t really the agenda.

31
0
Rowan
Rowan
5 years ago
Reply to  Ovis

It should be clear by now, to anyone with a still functioning brain, that the coming Covid-19 vaccines are an essential component of the depopulation agenda, that Bill Gates has been talking about for over ten years. You get vaccinated only at great peril.

16
0
Cristi.Neagu
Cristi.Neagu
5 years ago
Reply to  Ovis

To quote Diana West: “The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the Revolution.”

6
0
Sir Patrick Vaccine
Sir Patrick Vaccine
5 years ago
Reply to  Jamie

Dear Jamie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyDsjHZHsGc

From Ivor Cummins : “A must watch. I can say no more. You can support the corporate takeover of our society. Or you can support truth in science, and protect our future. The latter protect our society, over the actions of vandals. It is your choice. Make it wisely.”

12
-1
David Grimbleby
David Grimbleby
5 years ago
Reply to  Sir Patrick Vaccine

This is surely one, if not the best video to share widely.

3
0
Rowan
Rowan
5 years ago
Reply to  Jamie

What’s coming in the vial is immunity from life.

6
0
Sarah
Sarah
5 years ago

The format of the typical service comes from The Children’s Society. Collections taken during Christingle services are normally sent to The Children’s Society. Perhaps there was pressure from the charity?

3
0
karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  Sarah

Which used to be called The Church Of England Children’s Society until they got ashamed of their own name.

2
0
rodmclaughlin
rodmclaughlin
5 years ago

A raver speaks:

“It’s a pity that residents in Primrose Hill claim that they can’t get to sleep. But there are some simple things they can do about this. The obvious solution is just to wear earplugs or earmuffs. If that doesn’t work then they could just sleep at a different time of the day because it probably doesn’t matter what time of day they sleep, due to the lockdown.”

That’s really funny. I thought for a moment I was looking at Viz Top Tips.

15
0
l835
l835
5 years ago
Reply to  rodmclaughlin

Indeed. Objects to having his lifestyle restricted, but doesn’t care about others.

4
-1
alw
alw
5 years ago
Reply to  rodmclaughlin

I live in Primrose Hill and haven’t been kept awake by raves. However some days ago I was woken up by fireworks at 6.05am! You have always been able to buy your recreational drugs round here and it would seem that this trade has not been affected by the lockdowns. Otherwise life reasonably normal here, plenty of people around, people meeting. Shops that are open busy and very few masks in evidence now. The only other annoyance round here was the Police helicopter flying over Primrose Hill and Regents Park on Sunday morning for nearly an hour checking on crowds. What a spectacular waste of public money when the Police should be catching real criminals.

12
0
Simon
Simon
5 years ago
Reply to  rodmclaughlin

They could tell them; it’s only earplugs….
or it’s only a pair of earmuffs…

3
0
p02099003
p02099003
5 years ago

Hypothesis for the apparent contradiction for the AstraZeneca results.
A full dose is given to person A followed by a second full dose, person A develops nasty side effects. Trial halted.
Trial protocol changed to a single dose of vaccine followed by placebo. Minimal side effects reported. 60-70% effective
Person B is given 1/2 dose followed by second full dose. Minimal side effects reported. 90% effective.

5
0
John
John
5 years ago
Reply to  p02099003

They say that this was a serendipitous drug error. If I made a drug error of 50% under dose I don’t think that it would be long before the NMC had a fitness to practice hearing.

3
0
Nsklent
Nsklent
5 years ago

Please watch and share.

https://thewhiterose.uk/2020/11/09/the-vaccine-a-great-danger-and-this-is-why/

2
0
richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  Nsklent

It doesn’t even matter if it is, or is not, a great danger. It is part of the PLAN and must be rejected.

1
0
Julian
Julian
5 years ago

“Universities remain open”. Lest we forget, this is a BIG FAT LIE. As I am sure most of us know, and some here are sadly enduring directly, universities are not open in any meaningful sense of the word. Teaching is mainly online, access to campuses is severely restricted as it university sports and social life. People in university accommodation are often subject to various forms of harrassment of doubtful legality. Shout it from the rooftops. The government has been given a free pass on this by the media.

30
0
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Exactly and universities have been complicit in all this. I won’t be surprised if they will be inundated with law suits and court cases after this that will cause them to go bust from the multiple pay outs that they will have to make.

8
0
Julian
Julian
5 years ago
Reply to  Bart Simpson

They deserve to go bust and yes from what I have heard they have made little or no effort to offer students a decent experience.

Absent commercial pressure such as some unis breaking ranks, or competition from much cheaper online-only providers, they will continue to treat students on campus as an inconvenience they can do without

13
0
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago
Reply to  Julian

They never did. I was an international student at Manchester University and always felt that I was there as a cash cow. Sure they made an effort to show us around and offer us experiences that I would have otherwise overlooked (such as visiting the Manchester United Museum for free) but otherwise they ignored issues such as homesickness and culture shock. The latter especially.

Well said. Apart from what you’ve said, students should also vote with their feet and wallets – boycott and allow the universities to go bust. They deserve everything they will get not only for treating students as an inconvience but also for their attempts to subvert the democratic process, their contempt for ordinary people and for prostituting themselves to unsavoury regimes and big business.

Last edited 5 years ago by Bart Simpson
5
0
JohnB
JohnB
5 years ago
Reply to  Bart Simpson

(such as visiting the Manchester United Museum for free)

Of all the atrocities, dirty tactics, and nasty things done to people over the past 9 months, this is truly disgusting.

2
0
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago
Reply to  JohnB

It was a good museum to be fair and I’m someone who’s not into football. I would never have visited it on my own especially being a poor student.

3
0
DRW
DRW
5 years ago
Reply to  Bart Simpson

Indeed. I really despise what my university has done, especially the collaboration at every turn, very glad I’m in my last year.

5
0
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago
Reply to  DRW

Agree. I’m glad I’m no longer at university.

0
0
Cranmer
Cranmer
5 years ago
Reply to  Bart Simpson

Same here. I made one mildly anti-lockdown comment on my university alumni facebook page, and got pounced on by some Coronanists (one of whom was a former NUS president, no surprise there, then).

1
0
annie
annie
5 years ago
Reply to  Bart Simpson

They will be no loss.

2
0
Jo Dominich -
Jo Dominich -
5 years ago
Reply to  Bart Simpson

The Student’s Union has a role here. They can coordinate mass legal action about reimbursement of fees.

0
0
Jamie
Jamie
5 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Universities remain disingenuous, thieving, dystopian, tech controlled, inhumane prisons

7
0
mikewaite
mikewaite
5 years ago
Reply to  Julian

When I was a chemistry student (long ago, Imperial) mornings were lectures or tutorials , most afternons practical work in the labs.
How do you practice a gravimetric analysis of a nickel iron alloy or a Claisen condensation over Zoom?

13
0
Steph
Steph
5 years ago
Reply to  mikewaite

Me too! Well Biochemistry. Every afternoon in the lab apart from Wednesdays which was free for sport. How on earth you prepare samples, handle reagents,, study cultures, dissect etc online is beyond me.
Also, how on earth do medical students learn anatomy these days? Some of the older unis still do real dissection which I think is very important. How are this year’s cohort going to learn that?

3
0
Cranmer
Cranmer
5 years ago
Reply to  Steph

Not just the sciences. Lots of things you can’t do in the arts and humanities on Zoom – group dancing, choral singing, playing in an orchestra, acting, researching primary historical sources, portrait painting, life drawing…

0
0
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago

How people can think that we’re out of lockdown after 2 December baffles me. The government can dress it up how much it likes but its still a lockdown. After all, if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, etc….

The pubs being singled out shouldn’t surprise me. I lived in Scotland for 10 years and saw the various Wile E Coyote type attempts that Holyrood has done to restrict alcohol sales and they’re doing the same here. This is an attempt to destroy whatever social cohesion that pubs offer under the guise of a virus.

As for Qantas demanding their passengers have a vaccine, they must have a death wish surely. First, people will simply vote with their wallet and feets and simply choose an airline that doesn’t have this asinine requirement. Second, what about the possibility of being sued by a passenger who ends up with adverse side effects from the vaccine?

24
0
Julian
Julian
5 years ago
Reply to  Bart Simpson

I fully expect most/all airlines and countries to insist on a vaccine. Why wouldn’t they?

3
0
OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Yep. They will be encouraged to do so by government and the courts who will suddenly develop an interest in people falling ill on planes.

6
0
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

The lawyers will have a field day. Imagine the adverts:

“Have you experienced adverse side effects after a vaccine?”

5
0
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago
Reply to  Julian

If that’s the case then the entire aviation industry has a death wish and will be complicit in their own demise.

2
0
Jonathan Palmer
Jonathan Palmer
5 years ago
Reply to  Bart Simpson

Mass Aviation is finished anyway.It doesn’t fit in with the zero carbon agenda.Quaratines were instituted to bring this about.

8
0
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago
Reply to  Jonathan Palmer

That’s what certain vested interests want – air travel only for the privileged while the rest of us make do with Bognor Regis.

2
0
2 pence
2 pence
5 years ago

Barry Sheerman MP
Labour and Co-operative MP for Huddersfield

@BarrySheerman

All common sense dictates that we maintain tough lockdown measures until these amazing vaccines are available @BBCNews
https://twitter.com/BarrySheerman/status/1330996698064314369

WilMTay #KBF

“We really do need some form of minimum IQ test before you can become an MP”

22
0
Now More Than Ever
Now More Than Ever
5 years ago
Reply to  2 pence

Neighbouring MP to my own. He is a figure of ridicule saved each election only by the votes of “I’ve always voted Labour because my father did and his father before him” types.

7
0
Basileus
Basileus
5 years ago
Reply to  2 pence

Having a low IQ may be the only qualification for being an MP. There aren’t any others.

7
0
Spikedee1
Spikedee1
5 years ago
Reply to  2 pence

Aaah to become an MP the only apparent qualification is that you want to be in politics. Can you imagine the carnage if you applied the same qualifications to becoming a pilot or brain surgeon? Handjob is giving advice to medical experts and berating Barrington declaration experts with absolutely zero qualifications.

6
0
Two-Six
Two-Six
5 years ago
Reply to  Spikedee1

I could probably fly a plane in a fairly convincing manner, probably even in the dark, brain surgery doesn’t look THAT hard either. With a few hours on youtube and a bit of googling I am sure I could pick it up the basics.

4
0
Jo Dominich -
Jo Dominich -
5 years ago
Reply to  Spikedee1

I wonder what the Sun and other MSM would be saying if Jeremy Corbyn was presiding over this absolute fuck up?

2
0
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago
Reply to  2 pence

I don’t think IQ tests help I suspect Keir Starmer has a high IQ but I suspect he won’t be able to run a lemonade stand even if his life depended on it.

4
0
Jo Dominich -
Jo Dominich -
5 years ago
Reply to  Bart Simpson

He can barely get a sentence out.

1
0
richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago
Reply to  2 pence

Send that quote to Mr. Sheerman and every other MP.

1
0
davews
davews
5 years ago

Christingle services are becoming ever more popular in churches these days. It uses the visualisation of orange, ribbon, sweets and candles to depict the religious story and Christmas. We have had one for many years at our church, but won’t this year as it is a little hard on Zoom.

1
0
Barney McGrew
Barney McGrew
5 years ago

It’s funny how The Science could have found that vaccination was required once a week, or it could have found that it just needed to be once every 20 years. But instead, it has found it to be exactly the time period that any totalitarian regime would choose: once or twice a year. Long enough to be practical, but short enough to allow its use ‘tactically’ by the government. Handy, that.

14
0

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