Parliament to Debate Petition Calling For “No Penalties For Declining Vaccine”
The petition on the Parliament website, “Prevent any restrictions on those who refuse a COVID-19 vaccination“, has reached over 278,000 signatures and Parliament has announced MPs will debate it on December 14th. You can watch it live on the UK Parliament YouTube channel.
The Government response given on September 11th was hardly reassuring, coming with an ominous “however”.
There are currently no plans to introduce a Covid-19 vaccine in a way that penalises those who do not take up the vaccine. However, the Government will carefully consider all options to improve vaccination rates, should that be necessary.
A Lockdown Sceptics reader suggests: “It’s really important ahead of the debate on December 14th that as many people as possible write to their MPs to oppose any coercive measures when it comes to the vaccine, and to ensure the vaccine doesn’t become a requirement for business, travel, employment etc.”
We quite agree. Time to hit that compose button. Here’s the Write To Them link again.
A Postcard from Switzerland
A Lockdown Sceptics reader has gone to work in Switzerland for the winter, a country which has faced its autumn surge without a new national lockdown.
I’m working in the Swiss canton of Valais for the winter season. I was initially going to be working in France but Macron decided on another full lockdown so that was off, especially as it seems the ski season opening has been pushed back until late January now. The Swiss have been very reluctant to have a lockdown again and at the national (federal) level restrictions are light: masks, limits on numbers gathering and so on. Individual cantons can set their own rules within reason, much like individual states in Germany or the USA. My canton (Valais) has decided to shut restaurants and bars but all shops etc. are open and the lifts are working on weekends. Some of the rules are just stupid, such as wearing a mask on an open ski lift, but as across most of Europe many of the decisions are political and not medical, to play the game whilst ignoring it in private.
The Swiss in the mountains are keen to push ahead again and in about a week the restaurants and bars should be open for business and they are keen to hoover up tourists from Germany, Italy and especially France who are now threatening to stop travellers at the border. The government here knows that the ski season is worth billions and without foreigners from outside Europe and likely no Brits either they need to make all their money from what they can. Pootling around the resort is a little dull but a lot of places aren’t too bothered about masks either so it feels much more normal. There has been a half-hearted effort at putting up ‘two metres’ signs and similar but they are cheerfully ignored. After months of bullying and shouting from the UK authorities it feels great to be left alone.
The big moment will be this weekend when all the lifts really start moving as the snow has arrived, all the way down to the valley with more to come. There have been murmurings at federal level about limiting lift capacity and so on but this seems more to settle nerves. If we can get through December then I see no reason why the Swiss won’t just plough on and be done with it. The trees are coated in snow, the mountains look more chocolate-boxy than ever and hopefully by the time I go home some semblance of sanity will have returned.
Switzerland’s “cases” have been on the decline for weeks, since November 9th, despite no lockdown.
Switzerland is one of the places we’ve highlighted before which proves that lockdowns are not necessary to avert catastrophe and that SAGE’s doom modelling is wrong. Another is Sweden, where the latest EuroMOMO figures show the “second wave” has not yet produced any excess deaths and appears to be on the decline (though these figures could be revised in future weeks).
Can someone please tell Boris, Gove and Hancock?
Save Our Rights UK Censored By Facebook
Facebook has taken down the private group page of Save Our Rights UK, reported to have been 42,000 members strong. Is this part of the social media site’s vaccine crackdown? The lockdown-sceptic group has organised and participated in numerous protests, most recently in London last weekend where protestors faced brutal treatment from the police. The group’s public Facebook page is still up, for now.
More Big Tech censorship of the little guys fighting for freedom.
Take a Bow, David Warburton MP
What follows is a letter sent by David Warburton, Conservative MP for Somerton and Frome, to a Lockdown Sceptics reader explaining why he voted against the new tier system on Tuesday. It’s a corker.
Many thanks for taking the time and trouble to get in touch on such an important question. I’m conscious that last night’s vote was one of the most consequential in recent decades: for public health, the resilience of our economy and for the preservation of notions of individual responsibility and liberty. I did vote against the proposed tier system last night and thought it may be helpful to share my reasoning as to why I could not offer my support for this system in its current form.
I very much welcome the constructive approach the Prime Minister has taken in consulting widely within the parliamentary party. We’ve seen additional support offered to those hospitality businesses – such as pubs – which stand to be most severely affected by the continuation of the restrictions we’ve seen. We’ve seen further ground given in other areas, but I remain unconvinced that this tier system struck the right balance between the competing imperatives we’ve faced since March. The need to balance protecting our loved ones from harm and keeping the virus contained and the equally vital need to preserve individual liberty and the means by which people can provide for themselves and pursue their own ambitions.
I have seven key reservations which I outline below – and led me to vote against the tier system. For the sake of clarity I’ve outlined them below in bullet-point form:
1, First, the regulations fail in their essentials. For government regulations to work (which can only be achieved through public consent), they must be clear, and underpinned by cohesive internal logic. But the rules that have been proposed are contradictory and, in many cases, seem almost arbitrary. From last orders at 10pm but 11pm closing (do we all order four rounds at 10pm, or do venues have to pay staff for an hour with no takings?), to the vaguely defined ‘substantial meal’. From allowing soft drinks all day but alcohol only with food, to an astonishingly labyrinthine and impossibly convoluted ‘bubble’ system, with no obvious sense of cause and effect.
From work meetings being allowed in public or private places (only for self-employed), to no one allowed to meet from separate households either outdoors or indoors, unless they’re on a train or travelling.
2, I have been asking (both publicly on social media and in private conversations with Ministers) for the data – a cost benefit analysis – which informed the decisions around the Tier system. Apparently the Cabinet Office had been putting this together all weekend for us, which sadly suggests that the data was not the basis for the proposed rules. The crucial question we have to ask ourselves is what is the cost to lives, to livelihoods, to businesses, to mental health, suicides, to all non-Covid related heath and – of course – the future of the economy of the restrictions, against the likely lives saved from those same restrictions.
The ONS have calculated that there will be/will have been 200,000 excess non-Covid deaths caused by the restrictions. This is nearly four times the number of presumed Covid deaths. Bristol University put the figure at 560,000. While I don’t suggest these figures are anything other than an estimate (given the circumstances and fast-moving picture), they should nonetheless give us pause to question the wisdom of continuing a course of action that has produced them.
3, The regional basis for the tiering is problematic. The apparent incidence of Covid-19 is inflated in areas (like our own) that are affected by nearby towns or cities. And many, having had lockdown for a month, find themselves moving into stricter restrictions than were imposed before lockdown. This would seem to imply that lockdown was ineffective. Which itself would imply that the stricter Tier system will also be ineffective. Figures show that the previous Tiered system was having an effect on infections, whereas lockdown did not have a proportionately greater effect. So why will 99% of country continue under effective lockdown?
There is also a clear implication that the Tiers will continue until Easter. This will be devastating to lives and businesses in our area – while costing all of us, and future generations, almost £1 billion a day. It’s imperative that businesses are allowed to open – including those in the hospitality and tourism sector which contribute so much to the economy of the West Country. The restrictions have gone a long way towards the destruction of hospitality and tourism (and much else) in the West Country.
4, The NHS pressure argument is dubious. We have seven unused Nightingale hospitals in England (more in the other countries of the union). The excess deaths are barely above the annual average, and there is capacity even in regular hospitals. But even if the NHS does suffer pressure ,this is not unprecedented – and has been the case every winter for year upon year under successive governments of both main parties. But this has never before been regarded as a reason to make it illegal for people to be allowed to take risks with their health.
5, The data showing massive increases in infections/deaths has been shown to be dubious at almost every turn. For the under 60s, there is a 1 in 300,000 chance of death. For the over 60s, there is a 99% survival rate. For the over 80s, it’s still 90%.
6, There is an alternative to hand – based on individual responsibility that we exercise in our own lives anyway. We should allow the vulnerable to isolate and protect themselves, as with any other virus – no-one suffering from ‘flu goes to visit and then embrace elderly relatives.
7, I have very real anxieties about the precedent that’s being set here: of the state arrogating itself the power to impose such stringent measures on its population when the data upon which this is based is chancy and uncertain. Liberty is like innocence, easy to remove and extremely difficult to regain. And a future government with less benign intentions could easily use this precedent to interfere further – and for malign motives.
So, given the economic, social, health, livelihood, business, mental health costs, the unemployment, insolvencies – each of which is a personal tragedy – I could not, in good conscience, vote to compromise lives and destroy livelihoods. I recognise the pressures under which the Government is operating, and applaud many of the mitigation measures that have been implemented thus far. But I felt impelled to vote against a system which poses such an economic and social threat to our part of Somerset.
I do hope this explains my reasoning for my vote last night and my sincere thanks again for getting in touch.
Vaccination Certificates By The Back Door?
GP and Lockdown Sceptics reader Dr Helen Westwood has written to alert us to some serious concerns she has about the Government planned vaccine rollout.
I am a GP and am utterly dismayed by the handling of the Covid response by the Government and the sacred cow we call the NHS.
Currently CCGs up and down the country are scrambling to get the vaccination program rolled out. NHSE have published the service specification for Primary Care Networks (groups of GP practices) to deliver the vaccines. As this “Enhanced Service” arrangement is voluntary, and it is fraught with difficulty, our PCN has decided not to sign up.
Trafford CCG is putting significant pressure on the individual practices within the network to sign up to deliver the service. If the Practices do not sign up then the responsibility for commissioning a service goes back to the CCG. They have no contingency plan in place (in no small part because of a lack of guidance from NHSE to the CCG’s). This is unsurprising and entirely predictable. Despite all the boasting about being the first country to grant temporary authorisation for the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine they have no idea how they are going to deliver it.
Is it also worth noting that it is only temporary authorisation that has been granted – the vaccine does not yet have marketing authorisation in the UK. This effectively means it is “unlicensed” and as such the prescriber has a duty to explain this to the patient. In usual practice this means that the liability in case of adverse effects lies with the prescriber, not with the pharmaceutical company.
An additional concern I have is that the service specification states that GPs are not to record the vaccination on the patient’s GP electronic clinical record system. Instead it is to be recorded on “Pinnacle”, a system used by pharmacists. As reported in Pulse:
“Vaccination data ‘will flow from Pinnacle and Sonar to the GP patient record in a similar way it currently flows from community pharmacies for flu vaccinations’, it said.
“NHS England aims to ‘implement as soon as possible a fully automated process’ via GP practices’ own IT systems, but ‘this is unlikely to be in place from Day 1’.
“PCN groupings will get access to Pinnacle and Sonar as well as training on how to use the systems ‘free of charge and prior to vaccinations commencing’, NHS England added.
“Recording vaccinations in Pinnacle/Sonar ‘will generate payment’, NHS England said.
“However it added: ‘GP practices must make arrangements within their PCN grouping for the nomination of a host practice which will receive payments due under the ES for and on behalf of the GP practice.’
“It said this was ‘necessary to take account of the varying number of practices, PCNs and designated sites within PCN groupings as well as the fact that data recorded on Pinnacle and Sonar will be used for a variety of different purposes’.”
I am concerned that the data are to be used “for a variety of different purposes”. Does this mean vaccination certificates? I suspect many patients would not be happy about this and would be under the impression if their GP was administering the vaccines the information would be recorded in their confidential medical record.
WHO’s Revised Vaccine Criteria “Wouldn’t Have Picked Up Narcolepsy”
A Lockdown Sceptics reader has flagged to us a letter to the BMJ in June 2019 from Dr Jacob Puliyel, a paediatrician in Delhi, who warns that the WHO’s new vaccine assessment system, adopted in 2013, would no longer pick up rare side-effects such as the narcolepsy that occurred with the swine flu vaccine.
In the old system, reactions that were temporally associated with immunization, for which there was no alternate explanation, were classified as ‘probably’ related to immunization. It facilitated signal detection. This cannot be said for the currently used WHO causality assessment.
In the new causality assessment, only reactions that have previously been acknowledged in epidemiological studies to be caused by the vaccine are classified as a vaccine-product-related reactions. Reactions observed for the first time during post-marketing surveillance (Phase 4 clinical trial) are not considered as “consistent with causal association with vaccine”. All new serious adverse reactions are labelled as coincidental events “inconsistent with causal association”, or “unclassifiable” and the association with vaccine is not acknowledged. It has, in effect, made phase 4 trials redundant.
He concludes:
Given these apparent anomalies, the new WHO’s algorithm for causality assessment of an adverse event following immunization (AEFI) is not fit for purpose and it fails to inspire confidence that it can identify new, uncommon AEFI. It will erode faith not only in the immunisation programme but also the public’s trust in their physicians.
Worth reading in full.
Watch Dr Puliyel explain the problem in more detail here.
Stop Press: The CEO of Pfizer has admitted that he is “not certain” their vaccine stops transmission of COVID-19. To be fair, this would largely be due to “asymptomatic transmission”, which appears to be a myth put about by China.
Stop Press 2: The Telegraph reports that the Government has said it will be months before having the vaccine will exempt a person from having to self-isolate if contacted by NHS Test and Trace because it’s not been confirmed it prevents transmission.
Stop Press 3: The Mail reports that the Government is planning to compensate people who suffer extreme Covid vaccine side effects with payments of up to £120,000 under an existing compensation scheme. Instils confidence.
Sceptic of the Week
This week’s winner is TV dancer Brendan Cole, who has been branded “totally irresponsible” for claiming face masks do not protect against Covid.
He dared to quote on Twitter the Danmask-19 study that found even surgical masks correctly worn offer no significant protection. Seems zealots don’t like to hear actual science. The Mail has the details.
Brendan’s fans, including medical professionals, were left fuming by his “c**p” post and were quick to tell him they had unfollowed him.
Others urged the New Zealand-born ballroom dancer to delete his controversial message, claiming it was full of “misinformation” and would “put others at risk”.
Dr Joshua Wolrich claimed that Brendan had his facts mixed up and there was proof of the contrary, adding: “Think before you share c**p that fits what you want to believe otherwise you become directly responsible for people coming to harm.
“Do the right thing and delete this information.”
While one Scottish nurse echoed the doctor’s sentiments, angrily penning: “That is not what we need at the moment. Follow the bl***y guidance and wear to protect others.”
Another fan branded Brendan as “totally irresponsible”, writing: “I work in healthcare and have had patients refuse to wear masks because of this type of misinformation putting others at risk.”
More of his 88,000 followers told the TV star that they were “disappointed” in his “selfish” actions spreading “fake news” and even told him to just “stick to dancing”.
It is not the first time Brendan has voiced his controversial views on social media, as he previously took to Facebook to slam COVID-19 safety measures as “outrageous”.
He penned: “For the first time in recent history we are being controlled in so many ways. Why can we not protest?
“Why can we not have an opinion and discuss these differences of opinion openly without being silenced or called names.
“Why is there so much fear and hysteria being pumped down our airways when the numbers (often put in a certain way to look worse than they are) don’t reflect the outrageous measures being put in place.
“I’m not saying it’s not dangerous and if you have been affected by it then I am truly sorry for you.
“However, other lives are important too and millions of lives and businesses are being ruined.”
In terms of preventing transmission to others – the usual retort from mask zealots – worth remembering that countries like Italy and France hardly seem to have benefited this autumn from their mask mandates, while in America a study claiming to show masks lower transmission had to be withdrawn when “cases” resurged.
Well done, Brendan. Stand your ground.
Round-up
- “Will Britain lose its vaccine advantage?” – Ross Clark in the Spectator on the global supply problems that are holding up the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine
- “Laura Perrins tells it to the Moral Maze” – The Conservative Woman reports on when Laura took on Melanie Phillips
- “First Minister barred from 100 Welsh pubs as fury over alcohol ban grows” – The Mirror reports on the blanket pub ban for the Welsh First Minister
- “What’s the real story of COVID-19 in Scotland?” – Thorough sceptical article in Think Scotland from Christine Padgham, a health physicist now running Recovery Scotland, with input from Dr Clare Craig
- “Mapping The Global Lockdown: Where Air Travel Is Partially Open And Where It’s Fully Closed” – Handy map from Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge
- “The Church flees in the face of the virus” – Sean Walsh in Conservatives Global wonders what has happened to faith
- “Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson arrested in fraud investigation” – Guardian report on the disturbing developing story in Liverpool
- “Devi Sridhar tells Stormont committee anti-lockdown lobby are responsible for stricter lockdowns” – Latest from the upside down world of
scientistProf Devi Sridhar in the Derry Journal - “Belgium’s shops were shut ‘as a coronavirus shock tactic’” – Times report on the Belgian health minister’s recent admission that “shopping does not really involve any risk” and the closures were purely for psychological impact. Well, that was worth killing the high street and destroying thousands of jobs for
- “Viral cultures for COVID-19 infectious potential assessment – a systematic review” – New peer-reviewed article in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases from Prof Carl Heneghan et al, concluding: “Complete live viruses are necessary for transmission, not the fragments identified by PCR… Those with high cycle threshold are unlikely to have infectious potential.”
- “Vaccine or no vaccine, Britain must relearn how to live with risk” – Rachel Cunliffe in City AM on the post-Covid challenges of returning to rationality
- “Revealed: Matt Hancock’s ‘step-grandfather’ whose Covid death brought Health Secretary close to tears in Parliament” – Turns out it was his mother’s second husband’s ex-wife’s second husband (got it?). So not his step-grandfather at all. And he was in a care home and suffering from Alzheimer’s. Accuracy has never been Hancock’s strong suit
- “First interim results from Austria mass tests” – Initial results from lateral flow tests (which Mike Yeadon et al explain here are more accurate than PCR tests) have come in very low again, according to Der Standard. In Vorarlberg the positive rate was just under 0.4%, in Vienna around 0.5%, in Innsbruck 0.3%
- “Alt-Right Pseudoscience: Lockdown Sceptics” – Smear specialists Byline Times turn the guns on us with a laughable effort heavy on rhetoric and light on facts. Like being tickled with a feather duster
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Just one today: “Injected with a poison” by Praga Khan.
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, it’s Nike Japan’s effort to bring Western woke moralising to an Eastern audience in the form of a new anti-racist advert, which backfires horribly. Philip Patrick explains in the Spectator.
The ad snappily titled ‘The Future isn’t Waiting’ features scenes of bullying and discrimination directed at mixed-raced athletes in Japanese schools. They then fight back and triumph through the power of sport – and the power of Nike sportswear. Boycotters have claimed that the ad massively overstates a real, but far from endemic or Japan-specific problem, and is stirring up division under the fig leaf of Nike’s progressive ‘corporate values’ while really just cynically exploiting currently fashionable ideology for profit.
One reason the Nike ad may have been so badly received here is that the Japanese are simply not used to this kind of advertising. Japanese commercials, often far more entertaining than the programmes which interrupt them, are blissfully free of this sort of sermonising. In fact, they are one of the things I feel nostalgic about when I return to the UK, knowing that as soon as I deplane at Heathrow I will be relentlessly battered around the head with messages of diversity from every billboard, poster, and TV commercial I encounter. And it won’t stop until I get back to Japan.
The most egregious faux pas was the US-based company presuming to lecture the Japanese for its own blatant self-serving ends.
But perhaps the more substantial factor that led to the backlash here, and which from my experience is not just limited to older Japanese citizens, is the country’s distinct aversion to being lectured to from outside. Gaiatsu, or outside power, is a word likely to raise the hackles of even the mildest Japanese person, and for a US-based sportswear manufacturer to wag its corporate finger at Japanese society and offer its own self-serving solutions was never going to go down well.
Worth reading in full.
“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 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: A reader wonders whether some lockdown sceptics are missing out on the liberation that is arming oneself with a reasonable excuse and going out with a naked face.
It seems to me that most sceptical commentators are prepared to complain about face masks but are not prepared to take any action, claim exemption and go public about the fact that it’s not against the law to be without a mask if you have a reasonable excuse.
Why is this? If you read the Government guidance it’s quite clear that you don’t have to have a specific disability to claim exemption and the scope for “reasonable excuse” is broad. Irrespective of the fact that there’s no scientific basis to suggest wearing masks works in the community, most sceptics are anxious about the downsides and hence have a perfectly reasonable excuse not to wear them.
Subject to being considerate of those who are terrified of Covid, I find not wearing a mask liberating, especially when I meet other unmasked people, be they disabled or not. I’m sure many more sceptics would feel better if they did the same but why do so many sceptical commentators go on about mask-wearing being the law, reinforcing the idea that we can do nothing about it when clearly we can?
The Great Barrington Declaration
The Great Barrington Declaration, a petition started by Professor Martin Kulldorff, Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Jay Bhattacharya calling for a strategy of “Focused Protection” (protect the elderly and the vulnerable and let everyone else get on with life), was launched last 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 over 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”. Follow Collateral Global on Twitter here.
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.
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
We know they are lying. They know they are lying, They know that we know they are lying. We know that they know that we know they are lying. And still they continue to lie.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
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.
Alexander 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
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.
Joseph Goebbels (attributed)
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 his Speccie column this week, Toby highlights the plight of Will Knowland, the teacher who has been dismissed from his position at Eton College for posting a lecture questioning radical feminism on his own YouTube channel.
The conflict being played out at Eton is quite serious, not least because similar battles are being fought across the educational landscape. It began in September with an English teacher, Will Knowland, composing a video lecture in which he encouraged his students to question the idea that there’s something fundamentally toxic about masculinity. According to a letter addressed to the ‘Eton community’ last week, he felt it was important to acquaint the boys with a more positive view of their sex to counter the radical feminist ideology that’s promoted by the school’s leadership team, which portrays traditional male characteristics as inextricably bound up with a system of patriarchal oppression.
After Knowland posted this video on the school intranet, a member of staff complained to the head. The gist of it was that the content of the lecture was degrading and humiliating and, because of this, the headmaster had a legal duty to prevent it being given. Allowing it to go ahead would have constituted a form of discrimination against women — a ‘protected’ characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.
To no one’s surprise, trendy Hendy sided with the complainant. He told Knowland to ditch the lecture and remove it from the school’s internal website. Knowland complied, but when the head also instructed him to take it down from his personal YouTube channel he said he would only do so if he was given a good reason. The head’s claim that the content of the lecture breached the Equality Act is debatable. The Act is ambiguously worded and is often invoked by the promoters of equality, diversity and inclusion to silence dissenters from woke orthodoxy in educational settings. So Knowland was prepared to accept the first of the head’s demands. But even on the most cautious reading of the Equality Act, it doesn’t circumscribe what teachers are allowed to post on their social media accounts. When Knowland stood his ground and said he wouldn’t remove the video unless he was given a good reason, the head suspended him and set a process in motion which ended with his dismissal. Not great, given that the 34-year-old teacher is married with five children, one of them disabled, and they live in a grace and favour house belonging to the school. An appeal is scheduled for December 8th.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Read this tribute to Will Knowland by his former student Cameron Hilditch in the National Review.
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Stay strong! Keep fighting!
I will!
https://healthandmoneynews.wordpress.com/2020/12/02/head-of-pfizer-research-covid-vaccine-is-female-sterilization/
Dr. Wodarg and Dr. Yeadon request a stop of all corona vaccination studies and call for co-signing the petitionThe vaccine contains a spike protein (see image) called syncytin-1, vital for the formation of human placenta in women. If the vaccine works so that we form an immune response AGAINST the spike protein, we are also training the female body to attack syncytin-1, which could lead to infertility in women of an unspecified duration.
It’s easy to stay strong and fight when the alternative is the certainty of humiliating subjugation.
https://healthandmoneynews.wordpress.com/2020/12/03/oxford-designer-of-covid-vaccine-admits-vaccine-will-only-sterilize-70-per-cent-of-the-population/
Professor Sir John Bell, professor of medicine at Oxford University, and a part of the GAVI team – Sir John is a member of SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) and sits on the government’s vaccine task force that has negotiated the purchase of a handful of proposed vaccines to combat coronavirus – developing AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, said in an interview with Jon Snow that “These vaccines are unlikely to completely sterilize a population. They are very likely to have an effect which works in a %, say 60 or 70%.” Believe him, someone who has these levels of credentials doesn’t misspeak without correcting himself. Sterilization:
And what was Bill Gates pushing again? I don’t think too many of our lot will be taking the AstraZeneca vaccine, somehow.
Beat you to it!
Top 10 for first time!
ps is that – stay strong against the combined might of big pharma, the global political class, most of the msm, the majority who’ve been convinced by project fear…?
It’s gonna be a long fight! Short circuit the usual channels – we’ll find a way, keep plugging away and don’t despair – you know you are on the right side of history!
A much longer fight than I’d anticipated, but we’re in it to win it. There’s no alternative and we are, indeed, on the right side of history.
We are indeed. And the only person who can beat a Lockdown Sceptic is him or herself.
Forward, the Invincibles!
We North Americans have no excuse! We should always be Top 10 by virtue of time zone.
Surely there’s more than ten North American reading this? (And a wonderful contribution they make!)
I feel greedy now taking up three of the first ten comments 🙂
There are 2000+ most days, so take as many as you like, the Hugh Rate is actually very low!
But still high enough?
Shameful performance, Judy. 😉
That’s the school report card of someone who isn’t listening to the propaganda the useless teachers spew at you. Off course i’m assuming you went to a state school and as such you have my deepest sympathies.
State schools were very different 50 -100 years ago. Properly motivated teachers, focus on education, valued by parents and the community. Best in the world.
Very sadly, no longer. Guess you’re a youngster, or at least middle-aged, biker ?
Dead right there John. To be honest private schools today share much of the same problems now…look at ‘Trendy Hendy’ at Eton!
A (mRNA) vaccine against a cold/flu virus that is not tested properly for years is a bit dangerous wouldn’t you say?
All (pseudo)-vaccines made for the computer modelled Covid are in fact forms of gene-therapy. CanSino, Johnson, Oxford and Zeneca uses a living GMO virus bearing the Covid-spike gene.
Pfizer and others uses messenger RNA. ALL are forms of gene-therapy.
Sorry folks but this is “live-trialed” human experimentation done by some of the most devious profiteers to ever walk the earth.
The social engineering and mental/emotional manipulation that has been applied to humanity over the last 9 months is as diabolical as anything I have seen.
The physical damage that is going to be done to people over the next 6 months is going to be significant.
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
-William Shakespeare
And please everyone, sign that petition, this really matters.
I wonder why NHS workers are no longer first on the list for that vaccine?
Because the sheeple would realise what was up when half of them refused it.
Because their early demise would be far too obvious. Best at first, to stick with culling the old in the “care” homes, which worked so well in the Spring.
I would have thought it more likely that they will give it to the old first to prove it’s “safe”. Far more effective to introduce something which reduces fertility, rather than actually kills people.
These petitions:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323442
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323442
And two others growing suspiciously slowly:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/550598
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/331430
NHS staff are being “offered” the vaccine. So it is not compulsory or coerced it seem (at least not yet)
We are told that it’s “expected” that we’ll have it….whether there are any sanctions remains to be seen but very many are against it.
Virtue-signallers and pharma/tech shareholders have become the new ‘willing executioners’
Good post Allen.
Sadly, ‘social engineering and mental/emotional manipulation’ are what one gets if one watches tv, reads the msm, and believes the government is our friend.
Bit of a severe wake-up call coming for many, but better late than never ! 🙂
Great post. Thank you!
Not just diabolical, highly successful.
I would love to know why (according to Dr. Mike Yeadon on Monday) “almost all the papers claiming [asymptomatic] transmission originated in China”.
What is their interest in pushing this line? Are they right?
Well it certainly helps the western governments keep project terrify going if they make people believe literally any member of the public could be spreading it around regardless of how they’re feeling. And the continued destruction of western economies is pretty good news for China.
China sells to the western economies. No advantage in seeing them go broke.
Western economies will never be so broke that they will be unable to afford cheap Chinese tat. Arguably impoverished economies will be more likely to go down the bargain basement route..i.e. Chinese imports
People starting to spot that China’s population is close to its peak (400,000,000 births ‘prevented’ by one child policy by CCP estimate). As Mark Steyn pointed out China is going to get old before it gets rich. CCP nervous with good cause.
Don’t forget that Chinese companies are competing with the West for third-party business. It’s massively advantageous for them to find that Western companies are too busy self-isolating to quote for business or to send service engineers to resolve problems etc.
The west plays chess. The Chinese play Go. And they’ve played us very well.
Most western governments now seem to think that going broke is a great idea.
If China was spreading the asymptomatic spreader crap as a way of getting back at the west, then who could blame it.
All part of China’s Hundred Year Marathon.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hundred-Year-Marathon-Michael-Pillsbury/dp/1627790101
There is none Chinese research too. https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003346
My mum works for the NHS as a HCA, they have sent them all 12 weeks worth of twice weekly Lateral Flow Tests to do so they can work and live, guess where they’re made… China. She’s a massive sceptic and struggling to deal with the madness she’s working with on a daily basis but loves her patients too much to resign.
Almost all face nappies are made in China. Billions upon billions upon billions.
The real fault lies with those in positions of power who chose to go along with the asymptomatic nonsense and apparently they still do.
I’m suspicious of Mike Yeadon. He was vice president of Pfizer for a reason
Maybe because he’s an expert in the field? Doesn’t make him a paid crook. Means he knows what he’s talking about.
The West is self destructing whilst China has moved on. There is also the prospect of the lateral flow test kits and the PCR reference chemicals that come from China to be spiked to give more false positives, keeping us chasing our tails forever..
Philadelphia Priest Dies After Participating In Moderna COVID Vaccine Trial
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/philadelphia-priest-dies-after-participating-moderna-covid-vaccine-trial
Let me guess, he’ll be found to be in the control group?
Interesting how the article says “Before jumping to conclusions, it’s worth noting that another priest suggested that Father Fields might have had a heart attack“
So, if he’d had a heart attack and previously tested positive for COVID, it would be a tragic COVID death, but with him having had the vaccine it will be “this is purely down to a heart attack” the vaccine played no part, nothing to see here!
Father Ted had a heart attack as well maybe he was a covid death too
As I tweeted to Matt Hancock, if a death occurs with 28 days of getting the vaccine, it is a vaccine death.
Excellent!
Including deaths by any cause ie. bitten in half by a great white shark within 28 days of receipt of the Covid vaccine = death caused by Covid vaccine
However, it seems that other priests are allowed to jump to conclusions. In general, those, that are “altruistic” enough to participate in these dodgy vaccine trials, shouldn’t be at all surprised if a load of shit comes their way. Some might even say they deserve it.
God works in murderous ways
So does Matt Hancock.
So, in other words, they want to blame GPs for any issues. Pfizer have completely washed their hands of it, and the government is doing what the government does best: throwing people under busses.
I hope that GPs are aware of this.
They will be aware of one word used twice in that report
‘Payment’🤑
That’s all the research most busy GPs can ever get round to.
If they don’t, they have only themselves to blame.
Or blame the unqualified army of barely trained volunteers they’re recruiting to give the jabs. The volunteers can’t get struck off whereas the medics…
Bingo. Saving the NHS.
hope the GPs are adequately insured for the claims coming in.
God the more i read of this vaxx the more determined i will not have it for at least 2 years or more. I am hoping that since the government can’t seem to boil and egg properly that they will fail spectacularly in this vaxx program. And i hope the side effects are so hideous that the take up rates will be low.
Why have it at all. Vaccine induced autoimmune conditions can take many years to develop. The vaccine isn’t required by 95% of the population and simply presents them with an unknown risk and no possible benefit.
^^ This! ^^
That’s right.
Translation: The system will most likely not work at the start, so all the people that get serious side effects from the vaccine will not be able to sue anyone because “i’m sorry, but we cannot verify that you actually had the vaccine…”
They have spent 3 decades trying to set up the frequently rebranded NHS Digital which should be ideal to record this project on a central database.
It makes absolutely no sense to record this vaccination on a separate system unless of course something more sinister is afoot i.e. vaccination passports or such like.
Yeah, right. Doctors properly using IT systems. Half of them barely know how to switch it on.
I have
doneworked with a few GP’s pratices computer systems. Nightmare, talk about things being cobbled together with string and sellotape. I steer well clear of them. Their systems are usually terrible, cobbled together by somebody called Dave years ago and nobody knows what Dave did to set them up.Old technology, steam driven computers, complicated stuff going on that hardly works, poor backup systems. Dentists and vets are very similar.
Oh yer and there is THE RECEPTIONISTS to deal with….arrrrrghhhhh!
I agree with you, but it’s even stranger than you suggest. My local practice uses SystemOne, which is the same system used in the hospitals and should be fully proven. However, the NHS seems to have given individual GP practices the ability to customise it by adding their own gibberish and to disable many of its useful functions. I can’t imagine Dave would have made a bigger screw up, and he’d definitely have been a lot cheaper!
Yesterday morning towards 9am on the BBC R4 Today Programme a woman was being interviewed about bozos’ green initiatives.
Reducing UK carbon output (to 68% of 1990 levels by the end of the decade or something like that) was clearly going to be a challenge but was taken as obviously the right thing to do.
”So what might be done to achieve this world leading reduction?”
Answer in gushing tones “well one way to reduce energy use is to have an economic recession and because of the Pandemic that is exactly what we are getting !”
She was positively revelling at the prospect.
I was busy at the time and didn’t catch all of it if others care to expand.
From what i heard, despite the massive cuts to travel and transportation, there is no noticeable decrease in atmospheric CO2 levels. Again, from what i heard. I admit i didn’t bother checking.
Dr. Roy Spencer (who with Dr.John Christy), maintains the University of Alabama Huntsville satellite atmospheric temperature record did a rough calculation on this subject a few months ago.
He calculated that the Energy Information Administrations estimate of an 11% reduction in anthropogenic atmospheric CO2 as a result of lock downs throughout the industrialised world would have to be 4 times greater to show any difference!
https://www.drroyspencer.com/2020/06/covid-19-global-economic-downturn-not-affecting-co2-rise-may-2020-update/
This would be especially true if the recent rise in CO2 had little to do with human activity.
In china domestic air travel has already recovered and is already greater than it was one year ago.
Offset by the forest fires in Australia and America.
Prediction: People will try to report on the inevitable side-effects of the vaccine, citing high incidence rates and incontrovertible proof, and they will be banned from social media and ridiculed in corporate news because “WHO does not recognise them as side effects” because they did not occur during previous trials and studies.
So… You won’t be able to tell anyone if you have any issues due to the vaccine. You won’t be able to sue anyone as a result. You won’t even be able to prove you’ve been vaccinated. And if you somehow manage to put everything together somehow, the only people you’ll be able to sue is your local GP. Does this sound legit to anyone?
Madness. And criminal. I knew big pharma were influential, but this is ridiculous.I only hope that people start to wake up to all this even if they take nothing else from this whole omnishambles.
Heads they win, tails you lose. The trials are rigged and the only side effects they will acknowledge are the “minor” ones like soreness at the injection site, slight fever, and the like. Short of dropping dead before you get to your car post-injection, any other side effect will be labelled a coincidence. And the WHO causality assessment is a joke — a brand new type of vaccine (mRNA) and yet any new side effects will not even be considered as they don’t jive with the side effects and complications from existing vaccines that are fundamentally different.
It’s strange that new “symptoms” of this cv lark kept emerging week after week until – i think if your little toe is sore it is a symptoms now 🙂 .
Yet for the vaxx no new symptoms/reactions not be recorded is appalling.
That letter from Dr Puliyel was very disturbing, as you say they will only recognize those side effects that were revealed in their own trials when obviously no long term side effects or those associated with pregnancy will yet have come to light.
I think we can trust the Panic Media to get in on this one, once sick sheeples start bleating – or croaking.
I wouldn’t they will just send it down the memory hole
That memory hole is going to get very full…it’s going to burn a lot of fossil fuel to incinerate everything that’s going to be shoved down it.
Potential effects on fertility or associated with pregnancy are of necessity an unknown. I cannot understand how it can be recommended to women of child bearing age without long enough trials to rule out adverse impact on fertility, which has been an issue with previous vaccines. I have no understanding of the likelihood of this vaccine having such effects, but I notice it’s one of the issues Mike Yeadon has flagged which is enough together with lack of testing for me to conclude that it’s a reason amongst others why I will not be going near it with a barge pole.
It seems particularly irresponsible when the vast majority of women who might suffer from any such effects are at vanishingly little risk from Covid.
The same as Gulf War syndrome. All those soldiers given shots whose contents are still unknown to this day. Then made to seem like crazy people and it’s all in their heads.
The World Health Organisation reversed its long standing opposition to mask wearing by the general population, not on the basis of evidence, but due to political lobbying, as even the BBC reported. The World Health Organisation is a vehicle for the promotion of vested interests.
And look at their major contributors. And the pandemic insurances. And the background of Tedros.
Do not pass GO. Do not collect £120k for being cabbaged.
Interesting bit I just heard on yesterday’s The Highwire with Del Bigtree. Of course this pertains to the US, but it might apply equally to those of us in other countries. He said that while the vaccine manufacturers will not be liable for any adverse side effects from their vaccine, if an employer forces employees to be vaccinated in order to keep their jobs and an employee is injured from the vaccine, the employer can be held liable.
In UK I believe any employer demanding employees be vaccinated could be obliged to provide their own risk assessment which might be very costly.
I was wondering about this Karen and Lisa. A lot of employers offer medical insurance as a benefit to their employees, it would be interesting to know if the insurers are prepared to pay up for vaccine induced health problems. But if they work on the WHO assessment, they might have a way out anyway. It all stinks.
There is a stock letter on the Global Health Alliance website which can be given to any employer psychotic enough to demand an employee take any medication for privelage of working with them
If one’s life is ruined by vaccine injury, a pay out from an employer will not suffice
So, here’s an interesting twist for me: my husband and I both have it now. It’s a cold for me and more of a flu for him. Finally, people I know are also getting it. I am thinking that the latest round of lockdowns is a desperate attempt to keep too many from getting it and subsequently refusing the vaccine. Pretty soon, it will not seem like a big deal around here.
Coloradoboy has got mancovid.
How do you know you’ve got ‘it’? (And not some other cold/flu?)
Or a hangover (as TY has pointed out fits most ‘symptoms’)
If you feel fine and healthy and you look healthy – then you’ve got it. If you laugh, dance or feel happy then you’re the antichrist and you’ve just killed a million grannies somewhere
No way to know for sure, of course. My husband tested positive. I refused to get the test. The doctor will do absolutely nothing until you are on death’s door, so what is the point? I did lose my sense of smell. I have been taking vitamin D and zinc since April. I think it makes a difference.
My wife and I contracted it in mid November. For the first 4-5 days, the symptoms were relatively mild and so we didn’t seriously consider that it was likely to be “the killer virus”. The we both lost our sense of taste and went for a PCR test. (My wife works in a local hospital so, despite our doubts over accuracy of the tests, it was obviously necessary to have it checked out.) Most people that I know who’ve had a confirmed diagnosis have said that it was the loss of taste and smell that was the clincher.
My Mum lost her senses of taste & smell after a nasty virus/infection. . . over a year ago !
How do you know you have it? Have you tested positive?
The descriptions of Covid symptoms often seem to resemble a bad cold or flu, and that might facilitate passing off flu as Covid.
I recently (half-jokingly) told a Greek friend that instead of locking down, we should be celebrating in the streets the fact that influenza seems almost to have disappeared off the face of the planet.
plenty of fluids, stay warm, get well soon!
Get well soon, Colorado Girl.
Pretty sure I had it in April. It was a manflu.
Have you both been tested?
liar
Troll!
Welcome to normal life. I had flu in 2018. Felt terrible for a few months but my civil liberties weren’t destroyed. I was free to breathe fresh air in public places. I was not psychologically terrorised by government.
Governments (or should I say Bill Gates, pharma and tech shareholders) are protecting me against nature against my will
They have imprisoned me without trial to keep me safe
To keep you something at least.
I hope you’re both back to full health soon
Vitamin D (75mcg), Vitamin C (1500mg), Quercetin (500mg), Zinc (25mg) are what I take daily to optimize my immune system against respiratory infections.
I’ve ramped these up when I’ve had cough/cold symptoms over the last several months
Even though I’ve had a couple of respiratory infections while on this regime, so far they’ve never progressed to “nasty chesty cough” which is what would have happened fairly often in the past.
There’s potential for the NHS to be overwhelmed in the future…by selfish people who take a vaccine that they have no idea of its side effects. I won’t take it, thus completely eliminating the possibility of me using up NHS resources.
Albie, you are so [sob] noooble and sooooo [sniff] self-sacrificing…
An example to us all.
Don’t overhwhelm the NHS, be a hero, say no to the vaccine.
I’m going back to work today for the first time since Lockdown 2: The Sequel. I shall be welcoming our visitors with my mask-less face and big smile.
Please wish me luck.
Bart, your smiling face will be worth gold dust.
Here’s wishing you luck and every blessing.
Thanks Annie!!
Good luck Bart.
A mask-less face and a smile are gold dust nowadays.
It will be interesting to hear how you get on.
I shall endeavour to produce a report here this evening.
Edit my post: hadn’t seen that Annie had beaten me to it with this simile. So lets say that a mask-less face and a smile are beacons of light and hope upon an ocean of darkness and despair, and serve as guiding lights to harbour, home and happiness after a long and troublesome voyage in the company of doubters and defeatists on tempestuous seas …
Good luck.
Good luck.
Have a good day, Bart. If I’m one of your visitors, I’ll always give you a maskless big smile back.
Politicians have criminalised the smile. Sometimes laws are wrong and immoral
Good luck Bart. You are a hero of these times!
Good luck, and keep spreading the good word.
Best wishes, Bart. Your contributions here are always interesting.
Good luck – you are a shining beacon of hope.
Oh my, oh my, and we thought Covvie was bad:
https://nypost.com/2020/09/26/charging-herd-of-cows-kill-second-man-in-england-this-month/
Ban cows! Don’t drink milk! Eating cheese will get Granny trampled to death!
Anyone can get trampled! Anyone can pass trampling on!
Beware of bull shit!
Cows are the most dangerous animal in this country. Which makes Australians laugh.
Anyone who has been chased by an angry cow would not laugh!
I agree, TJN, up close they are huge and easily able to do you a damage.
Seriously, I got chased by one on Dartmoor once. It had been spoked by a dog while looking after its calf. The dog owner had just been trampled.
It’s actually amazing how fast they can move, and over rough ground. Only the fact that it didn’t want to get too far from its calf prevented it catching me.
Serves the dog owner right for not controlling it in the presence of calves.
Try to get to high ground. Make yourself look as big as possible by stretching out your arms. Face the cows and bellow loudly. Off they go in the opposite direction. Worked for me when surrounded by a herd of 100 bullocks in a field in Anglesey. The tremor of their subsequent stampede away from me was something to behold!
Worked for Marwood.
We are indeed drifting into the arena of the unwell. Making an enemy of our own future. What we need is harmony. Fresh air. Stuff like that.
It was on the high ground and going mental. And out on the open moor there’s no protection you can escape to. Stupid really, but it’s one of the few times in my life I’ve considered myself to be in serious danger.
And carry a big stick. Use it to whack the nearest one on the snout.
A human analogy can be helpful. Bullocks are like rowdy young lads, heifers are like a “girl gang”, not as dangerous as the lads but still worth being wary of. Waving arms, clapping and shouting will usually scare them off if necessary as Mr Dee says. Carrying a stick is also worthwhile – my dad used to say “They know what a stick is for”. A bull is a potentially aggressive man but behaves better when cows (women) are around. A cow with a calf is the most dangerous as it will do anything to protect the youngster. In these incidents where people are injured or killed it usually turns out that a dog was involved.
I live on a dairy farm, and always treat them with the respect they deserve, only been chased once though, and that was a bull
i’d say knife stabby maniacs that live in London are the most dangerous animal in this country
No, our politicians are the most dangerous animals.
Academics who get a sniff of power.
I’d put Cabinet ministers and members of Sage above the knife-weilders.
Long Mad Cow
That’s good///I’m going to use that for a lot of people 👍🏼
Long pig is human flesh in cannibalspeak. Could be applied to the dPPE.
The steaks really could not be higher – we need to beef up our response to this.
You don’t mince your words, Scotty!
As delicate as the bull in a china shop can be
well done!
I think the government should commission Neil Ferguson to produce a computer model for cow trampling, and the projections should be announced at a Cow Trampling Crisis Press Briefing by the Prime Minister, surrounded by sombre and serious looking scientists, explaining to the country that we are going to get through this but we shall have to make sacrifices but they will be worth it.
You missed out the ” with a heavy heart”.
Anyway, don’t give them ideas.
Professor Pantsdown is probably working on a model showing how many lives will be saved if we kill all the cats and dogs on the planet. He’s got form on animal slaughter modelling, of course. When will that narc be put out of our misery?
I am surprised he hasn’t done that already, as cats and dogs have tested positive for the virus.
Ssshhhhhh
Risk of people playing Simpsons Apocalypse Meow and just laughing at him.
What are the chances that SAGE’s response to the cow trampling epidemic will involve a lockdown, closure of pubs, face masks and a vaccine?
With exponential growth, it won’t be long until 4000 a day are killed by cows.
I’m assuming that’s a scenario, not a prediction. 😉
And Wankock saying how tragic it was when his next door neighbour’s granny’s second cousin’s cleaner (since removed), was trampled to death by a herd of sheep.
We must control the pending victuals!
Shh. The climate change activists will be working on animals next. They think that there isn’t enough land to feed us in this country. Not sure what vegetables they will be able to replace sheep with on the upland fells.
I meant not enough land to feed us unless we are all vegans
I often wonder that. You can feed a lot of people with a herd of cows or sheep but a field of kale isn’t exactly sustaining.
I totally empathise with Matt Hancock. Why just last week, my nan’s dog groomer’s second cousin’s great uncle’s partner’s nephew’s best friend’s piano teacher’s gran recently passed away with Covid-19.
It’s really hit our family hard.
That’s not the same if it is only ‘with’.
Snap. I see a pattern emerging. It’s everywhere!😱
And she was 102
I hope that in her short time on this earth she had the chance for a taste of the joys of life, before she was so cruelly taken by this dreadful disease.
so cruelly taken by this dreadful
diseaselockdown.She was only 97 too. Devastating.
Face mask petition
My thanks to the folks who agreed to sponsor this petition, I have amended the wording in the light of comments received from sponsors although the Government web-site has a strict character limit and so there was only so much I could do.
This Petition is now lodged with the Petitions web-site and working its way through their system, i will let you know if and when there is any progress.
Pleased to say that after all the work with petitions, emails and web-sites I am now off for a day of conservation work at one of our local nature reserves, it has been the natural world that has helped keep me sane in all this, the Buzzards and Ravens soaring over the local woods seem totally oblivious to Covid!
Enjoy your well earned mask free vitamin D inducing day off in the fresh air.
Enjoy your day, Steve. Nature is the best antidote to zombie insanity.
Corvids care Nowt for the upstart Covid
I love corvids!
Have a great day in the fresh air & sunshine!
Thanks for doing this Steve. I’ll be sure to sign as soon as it’s live. Enjoy your day.
Corvids don’t get covid. The buzzards are probably riddled with it, tho – if only they’d worn masks. . .
And the corvids?
It is not so long ago that lying to parliament was a resignation offence. The consigning to history of that convention has had serious consequences, but Matt Hancock’s resort to lying about his kinship relations reveals just how far standards have fallen. To lie in order to persuade parliament to rubber stamp an illegal war does at least make sense, even as it shows a complete lack of moral sense. But Hancock’s lie makes no sense. Nevertheless, it is highly revealing. If the Health Secretary is prepared to resort to this lie for no greater purpose than to provide a verisimilitude of personal emotion and elicit a sympathetic hearing, what would he not lie about? What lie would be a lie too far for the lockdownistas, who, after all, “know” they are right, and if the lie could save just one life, would it not be worth it?
Utter lies from Hancock. Dementia is the killer here. Just think what all this money that has been spent could’ve done for the finding a cure and new medications to treat Dementia.
Dementia is the leading cause of death, according to official statistics. Of course, the risk of dementia is age related. If age was accepted as a cause of death (it isn’t officially), it would be the leading cause of death. The older one is, the more likely one is to die.
Poor old Profumo will be turning in his grave, all he did was lie about being with a tart.
Do you remember William Waldegrave? He didn’t even lie. All he did was suggest to a parliamentary select committee that in extreme circumstances it might be necessary for a minister to lie. That was the end of his career, and he could have been a future prime minister. Of course, that was before Tony I only know what I believe Blair.
A proper journo would’ve delved right into that one. Paid a family member to call him a cunt who never cared for his relative at all, make up quotes etc.
Aaaaah do you remember the days of investigative journalism? What would have Paxman done to handjob or jvt in an interview. Do you remember when you used to get both sides of an argument in an interview. And BBC interviewers used to ask informed questions. I miss the old days.
Brian Walden RIP
I miss those days too. All types of MSM journalists are at it.
I used to enjoy listening to James O’Brien’s mystery hour until he started preaching about how bad Brexit would be for our nation economically. He took great pride in belittling anyone whose facts or numbers were (even remotely) questionable – in fairness, some deserved it for sharing the same maths class as Dianne Abbott, fish in a barrel and all that – and took further pride in tearing the Tory government a new one at every God given opportunity (Labour too), yet when it comes to this predicament… The hypocrisy is beyond laughable.
They’re all betting their careers on this and nothing would please me more than them joining Boris & Co in the stocks.
Didn’t he lie to parliament about a fictitious vitamin D study?
Correct. He did.
I am sure that he just makes things up off the cuff.
Except those provided by the Nudge Unit.
Wankock’s egregious act of theatre was performed minutes before the vote. It was a pathetic attempt to pull any of the gullible off the fence and onto the yes side.
Have you read Peter Oborne’s book The Rise of Political Lying? Unfortunately, these things don’t get better with time.
I went to the local Chinese takeaway last night. They’d just been told to close by track and trace and had ceased cooking. But why are the little shops being picked on? My wife works at Specsavers, where several staff have tested positive, but they’ve stayed open. And you never hear of a big supermarket closing.
A lot of these measures seem to target the small businesses, its as if the government wants to kill off SMEs.
That said its not helped the big retailers either. Just look at Debenhams and Arcadia.
Debenhams and Arcadia were on their last legs anyway, a bit like most covids.
I posted yesterday about breakfast at a big chain pub No sign of Track’n’Trace at all
A relative of mine works in a local McDonalds. She confirms that when a staff member is forced to self isolate, it’s kept hush hush and the place is allowed to continue operating. It has not closed once since allowed to reopen back in the summer, and is always packed.
How the flip can they say a Chinese takeaway is spreading the covids?
This is crazy. Sounds like a case of racism or perhaps economic sabotage from a rival takeaway with people with malicious intent reporting them somehow.
The ‘Byline Times’ article in today’s main post:
https://bylinetimes.com/2020/12/04/alt-right-pseudoscience-part-1-lockdown-sceptics/ attacking this website is truly extraordinary.
The author sounds like a sceptic – he starts:
“To be sure, as I have previously reported, draconian lockdowns have always been avoidable; catastrophic Government failures worsened both the first and second waves; and the best solutions to transition out of the crisis to near normal are being overlooked.”
He goes on to criticise Mike Yeadon’s because “he has ties to the Conservative-led UK Government” and in particular Matt Hancock! [Hi Mike, can you do us a favour and debunk everything I’m doing – sincerely, your mate Matt]
He then says the main problem with PCR tests is the high level of false negatives: “Similarly in California, if half the population became infected, comprehensive testing would potentially produce as many as 2 million false-negative results. “
His main beef seems to be Toby’s FSU work and his Conservative friends, which are not of interest to me, but if this is the best the other side can come up with …..!
They attack us.
They fear us.
Good.
It’s pathetic. I can’t say better than that.
The author has produced similar hit pieces for the Jukes box Byline Times, labelling Sunetra Gupta’s work as pseudoscience. Everyone has ties to whatever.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
They must see us as a threat which can only be a good thing.
The interesting question is why types like this feel threatened by covid-19 sceptics. Since contemporary lefties seem to live in a world of symbols, I suspect that has something to do with it. But I’m not sure what exactly it represents for them. The necessity of Big Nanny perhaps?
Well done to David Warbuton and Brendan Cole for fighting the good fight. The former’s reply to his constituent was measured, well thought out and reasoned.
As for the latter, he doesn’t surprise me. As a long time former viewer of Strictly, Brendan was always known for being outspoken and not one to mince his words. He’s never commented in the past about current events but his intervention now is very much welcome especially as his own profession is endangered by the insane “safety” measures dictated to by the government.
Take a bow gentlemen and keep on fighting.
David Warburton’s response is what we should expect from MPs, people in charge of our country being in full possession of the relevant facts and using them to make an informed and unbiased decision. Imagine there were 650 of them doing the same! It just shows what a sad state our parliament is in when he is in a very small minority.
Absolutely. My MP, by contrast, could be replaced by a chatbot trained on government soundbites and no-one would notice the difference.
He seems to have used his own brain and done some homework.
A rare occurrence in politicians these days.
He probably won’t be reselected…
The haphazard vaccine rollout looks like Chris Grayling’s work.
Typical Modern British, I am afraid I must say.
It is scandalous and frightening that the dissemination of pure scientifically flawless facts, like the Danish mask study most
certainly is one, invites and causes such purely ideological vitriolic backlash.
One shudders to think what will still happen before this will end, as it will, one day.
That constituent is lucky. My MP is a useful as a chocolate teapot – wrote to him twice, nowt a reply.
I have particular respect for anyone in arts and entertainment who is willing to speak out against the approved luvvie line on anything, and especially those who are willing to show a bit of rational self interest in decrying the unnecessary destruction of their own industries instead of behaving like a cheerleading nitwits for it.
Exactly. Its odd that apart from the likes of Van Morrison, the Gallagher brothers, Eric Clapton. Right Said Fred and now Brendan Cole; the silence from the rest of the performing arts is deafening.
Here’s a good one to share with any pub landlords you know. Love this guy, it would be great to see this on British TV ( not that I watch it any more )
https://rumble.com/vbkdix-small-business-owner-crashes-news-report-to-speak-out-against-lockdowns.html?mref=22lbp&mc=56yab&fbclid=IwAR3CQn6fM1o-HOtPbmIlJjWyS1NGM8CkxG-6UAYzr5yiG2eWM-6hRpQXQ3w
Awesome guy. Wonderful speech.
Loved how the anchor went into freaky suspended animation. Always thought there tends to be something suspiciously android about them.
Simon Dolan’s silence over the last month while waiting for the decision on his judicial review was baffling. I could not understand why he was not hopping mad over the delay, and letting everyone know about it.
This week the appeal was refused, and he is left to go to the Supreme Court.
But I don’t recall reading anything about this here on the daily news postings, which again is baffling.
Anyone got any ideas?
The courts are stuffed full of judges that fuck young boys why would you except them to do anything other than what the dark shadow government tells them?
Yeah, the courts are loaded: cf. Brexit v. lockdown cases.
But why didn’t Dolan kick up merry hell about the delay and why has this site been so silent about it, especially the result this week?
Check his twitter feed, he re-posts and comments all the time.
Yes, I know he updates a lot, but I don’t understand why he’s been so apparently accepting of being messed around.
A full month to come out with that verdict?? The delay must have been deliberate, and likely political.
I agree, must have been political. I thought Dolan was being careful not to be seen as being political in return! He has to tread a diplomatic line to avoid being taken down surely.
How are things down in Tier 1 Land? Just across the border we are all plague carrying rats who of course can’t possibly traverse the river.
Ha ha – just don’t try! Trelawney’s men are on the bridge.
Lockdown 2 was less hysterical than the first, with less snitching and handwringing, in my little town anyway.
Most holiday cottages have now filled up with visitors, with a bit of local muttering about “them from up country, bringing that covid with ‘un “.
Someone said that visitors should be isolated for a week or 2. I replied, does that mean if any of us travel up country to visit family and friends we should isolate too when we come back?
Tart, I can be very tart.
Some of us think that Cornwall is in Tier 1 because so many politicians and business leaders have second homes here.
I’ve got Cornish ancestry, and in the very old days the effective Cornish border included where we are now, so hopefully Trelawney’s men will let me through.
Cornish Tier 1 does seem in part political, if only to prove on the government’s part that Tier 1 actually exists.
I’ve deliberately not moaned to my MP about tiers though, as even to enter the debate gives them some legitimacy, which I deny.
Agreed, all the chat on Jeremy Vines show is who should be in this tier or that, nothing about tearing all the tièrs down
That sort of talk concedes serious ground, and I think it’s a mistake for sceptics to get into it.
It’s a sign of how far the centre of gravity of debate has shifted in favour of restrictions as a default setting.
Arguing over which prison camp to sit in.
As soon as the tiers were announced I stopped emailing my MP because it was clear he would not vote against being awarded tier 1 status!
Cornwall and IoW are both heavily represented on the no penalty for vaccine avoiders petition.
It’s about time Dumnonia declared independence. And we’ll take the fishing with us too.
Exactly
I would not think he would be invited on any MSM sites? Can’t see blabbermouth morgan inviting him on to prick his bubble?
But I don’t understand the lack of fuss over that month of waiting, and why there’s been noting on the daily postings on this site.
Simon Dolan doesn’t realise this is a global coup and the legal system is part of the coup apparatus
I’m sure Simon was being careful not to jeopardise his already tenuous position. He was probably hoping, as did we, that the outrageous antics of HMG would strengthen his case.
Maybe – but no mention on this site either?? Seems odd to me.
Welcome to Wales and the Land of Our Fathers and the Pubs with No Beer.
Drivelford will go full-on Prohibition unless the Johnson administration acts to defund and abolish the Welsh Assembly. It’s a race against time.
Dungford is mad now, if he wasn’t before.
Cue men in white coats and big, strong psychiatric ward in big, strong prison for the criminally insane.
I remember when parts of Wales were ‘dry’ on Sundays, not exactly a boost to the tourist trade.
We need a Welsh Al Capone!
I was surprised to read about Drakeford’s son. Is Drakeford popular in Wales? Do the Welsh enjoy their human rights being stripped away from them?
I have Welsh relatives and I cannot fathom how anyone could have voted for him
I wish you hadn’t alerted me to Byline Time, made me so angry reading that rubbish!
I agree, I nearly took out a subscription so I could cancel it.
I’m a happy go lucky sort of chap, a live and let live sort of person but if these cunts think for one second they are gonna shoot me with their goo then i will fight back with the same violence they offer against me. It is my duty to stand up to people who want to forcefully use medical treatment against people who don’t want it. If they want to make me carry papers i won’t and will in fact declare us under an occupation army and will fight to the death against the people trying to force their evil shit on me. The vaccine seems crazy to me since i know what the word vaccine means and how it works and yet this “vaccine” doesn’t do any of the normal things a vaccine does. Our last hope is this slides off into the memory hole where the sheep watching the faggots in the legacy media claim millions of us are taking their sick goo and things are ok. it’ll then be left up to people like me saying no one took it you know and the sheep will just nod their head thinking bikers crazy everyone took it… Read more »
We have to not them corrupt us is my view. Good people do evil things and so can you if you let it happen. Push back at every opportunity to prevent it.
It won’t come down to wrestling us to the ground unless you are in a prison or hospital.. they’ll just make having a job, going to school or university, going abroad etc impossible unless you are vaccinated.
At 68 and with a hip needing replacement and cancer I am prepared to die fighting for my freedom. Life under a totalitarian regime is not worth living anyway. I would refuse a vaccine so would be cancelled from any sort of ‘normal’ (normal?????) life anyway.
Nice to see that shout-out to Praga Khan – do a little digging and you’ll find a LOT of Industrial/EBSM music that harmonises quite nicely with both the Present Situation and the Sceptical Response thereto.
My soul is grieving for the loss of social contact
That’s the emotional pain I’m feeling this morning
I know. I miss the inconsequential conversations, the ‘How are you doing’ and ‘Nice day today’ stuff that means little yet means everything.
I’m doing that Shirley Valentine thing where I talk to the wall. It has not yet answered back.
In this same interlude it doth befall
That I, one Snout by name, present a wall.
And such a wall, as I would have you think,
That had in it a crannied hole, or chink,
You know you’re lonely when you talk to the spiders in the bath. And sadly now the colder weather has come, even the spiders have left.
Another clue that you’re lonely is having the sat nav on in the car when you don’t need it so that the robot voice sounds like someone is with you in the passenger seat.
Oh dear!
Thankfully I have dogs. Each morning I discuss the forthcoming day with them. Fortunately they have a happy disposition and go with the flow.
I’ve started talking to my cutlery..
Most of my conversation seems to be either fellow doggy walkers over the park or virtual on the trippy happy. Get the occasion bit of banter down the gym
I believe it takes a couple of years before you can have a conversation with a wall.
Yes, it’s horrible. But we’ve got us.
Should we Zoom? Better than nothing?
someone mentioned a zoom a few weeks ago – can’t remember who but would be a good idea. Be interesting to put faces to names 🙂
I hate zoom! Besides, there are too many of us to connect thereon.
I sit on my local bus stop for hours on end. It’s one of those villagy (no nor me) wooden arts and crafts jobs
Nearly everyone in the village knows me and they all stop and chat
Don’t stay in get out if you can
Being out and about I get to chat several times daily, some reveal themselves as Sceptics but even Covid believers agree that bozo and doormat have messed things right up.
I have drawn a face on a basketball
Buy a punchball and draw Wankock’s face on it.
With my other twin boy now excreting uncontrollably from both ends (and my beloved back in Blighty managing our business), most of my conversations are with the washing machine. Thankfully the tumble dryer is a barrel of laughs.
I will be sincerely disappointed if, once this is over, LS doesn’t have an in-person reunion. You are all keeping me from running the car in the garage. Between laughs, cries and screaming at the white goods, I thank each and every one of you.
Stay strong. Hopefully there will justice in the future
I think my soul has been whittled down to a nub from the continuing separation from the rest of humanity. You have my sympathies.
Woke up this mining feeling fine. Possibly asymptomatic flu. Will get tested today
Must do my bit to save granny
How is the asymptomatic broken leg?
Painless, I was walking on it after twenty seconds
Better get vaccinated, then you’ll have a 90% chance of not having a broken leg, with pain at the injection site, headaches, and infertility.
Oooh, shouldn’t do that. Precautionary principle. You need to stay home and self isolate for the next six weeks, at least.
My “long sore wrist” has now fully recovered, so instead I’ve got an “asymptomatic sore wrist”.
My understanding is that this ‘vaccine’ does not convey immunity, nor does it prevent transmission. So what justification is there for making if compulsory, or for penalizing in any way those who refuse it?
Basically, They love bullying stupid, helpless zombies who will believe any sort of hogwash. Muzzle them, lock them up, stick needle into them, watch them come back whining for more … ooh, what fun.
A vaccine confers immunity on the vaccinated individual (that is what the word means). Thus, if a vaccinated individual comes into contact with the infectious agent (say from an unvaccinated individual), they have nothing to fear due to their immunity. Therefore, anyone who is afraid of the disease can take the vaccine and they will have nothing to fear from the unvaccinated. These simple observations should there is no justification for coercion.
Are you sure about that immunity Steve? Plenty I’ve read says it just reduces the severity of covid, not that you can’t get it at all.
Of course it does not provide immunity. But a vaccine does. That’s what the word means. But as with everything else in the coronavirus responses, they are messing with the words. Sometimes they will use the word to mean what it denotes and sometimes they will use to word to mean something else. And they move back and forth between the two, deliberately to deceive. They did this with COVID 19 deaths, pretending they meant death caused by the virus, when in fact they were referring to deaths presumed to be with the virus. They did it with cases, pretending that they were talking about people who had been diagnosed as suffering from the illness and in receipt of medical treatment, when they were referring to a positive test result. The did it with data, pretending that they were talking about facts when they were referring to the projections of computer models, that were based on obviously false assumptions. In plain English this equivocation is called lying.
Real ‘Through The Looking Glass’ territory.
exactly … they’ve deliberately moved the goalposts, and obfuscated the data and definition. As you say, nothing short of lying to maintain the fear of the populace who are too stupid to recognize this
You did notice I put the word in quotes?
I did.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAV7aZYrddE&app=desktop
hopefully not this..
The 90%+ success rate is b*llocks too, even pro-vaccine experts admit that it will only be 40-50% successful at best llike the Flu jab.
There isn’t. This is a point I’ve been hammering on ever since this paper came out.
What I reckon the PTB are going to say is that, even though there isn’t good evidence that it interrupts transmission, we should assume that it does anyway because normally reduction of symptoms correlates with reduction of transmission (which puts the lie to ‘asymptomatic transmission’, but since when have these sociopaths tried to be consistent?). This would be an absolutely absurd inversion of the precautionary principle, taking no account whatsoever of the potential adverse effects associated with mass vaccination.
A reduction of symptoms would be obtained with any number of existing, readily available and safe medicines. Oh, but they aren’t horrendously expensive, so no scope for graft.
I think the “idea” of most having this vaccine is for herd immunity. So ( and I may be misunderstanding herd immunity) you should risk your health by having a vaccine to protect someone who may not be able to have it or because it hasn’t worked for them. Great idea! But as you say, from the developers own protocol they have said “the vaccine does not stop infection, serious ill health or death..” So really I’m getting a bit confused as to the point of it exactly. I’ve also read that 256 have to have this vaccine to, maybe, protect just 1 person. Well it just gets better and better. Why are they so desperate for this vaccine? Is it money? Is it depopulation? It’s common knowledge that the Gates foundation have a huge interest in Pfizer and they also have been giving a lot money to our own MHRA who are very lacking in honesty. As others say the threat of mandatory or ceoercion is bullying tactics for the brain dead zombies. Sadly it may well be lambs to the slaughter (watch this space over the next months/years) due to lack of long term safety studies alone.. Any… Read more »