Christmas Cancelled?
As London and Essex wake up to Tier 3 this morning – the end of nights out at your favourite pub or restaurant (or should that be, the end of your favourite pub or restaurant?) – talk has turned to whether the Government will stand by its promise of a Christmas lockdown amnesty, made by Boris Johnson just last week.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has written to the PM urging him to rethink the five-day loosening of restrictions. Sky News has the details.
In a letter to Boris Johnson, Sir Keir said that while he understood that people will want to spend time with their loved ones after an “awful year”, the situation has “clearly taken a turn for the worse since the decision about Christmas was taken”.
“It serves no-one for politicians to ignore this fact,” the Labour leader said.
“It is my view that you should now convene COBRA in the next 24 hours to review whether the current relaxation is appropriate given the rising number of cases.”
It comes after two prominent medical journals said ministers should “follow the more cautious examples of Germany, Italy and the Netherlands” and not ease COVID-19 restrictions over the festive period.
The public health establishment also piled in.
In a rare joint editorial, the British Medical Journal and Health Service Journal said the government should “reverse its rash decision to allow household mixing and instead extend the tiers over the five-day Christmas period”.
They said this would “bring numbers down in the advance of a likely third wave”.
The Government is “about to blunder into another major error that will cost many lives”, the journals went on to warn.
“When Government devised the current plans to allow household mixing over Christmas it had assumed the COVID-19 demand on the NHS would be decreasing. But it is not, it is rising, and the emergence of a new strain of the virus has introduced further potential jeopardy.”
Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan joined the clamour:
What I’d say to the Government is I’m not sure you’ve got it right, in fact I’m sure you haven’t got it right in relation to the relaxations over Christmas. If they don’t change the rules, my message to your viewers is we’re under no obligation to do all that’s allowed, there’s no reason you have to kiss or hug an older relation.
The inevitable quote from Professor Devi Sridhar appeared:
Mixing at Christmas is a terrible idea and that should be the message. We’re going to pay for this at some point. It’s not like it can just happen and that we won’t bear the consequences in January and February.
Even Chief Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay poured some cold mulled wine on the festivities:
We don’t want to criminalise people for coming together as family over Christmas. But, it is important that people do the minimum that is possible.
Barclay did add though that “people will be making their own judgments”, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock said “no” when asked if Christmas could be cancelled. But haven’t we heard that before?
Katy Balls in the Spectator had an evening update.
After various scientific advisers warned the UK Government against going ahead with its planned five day relaxation of the rules (which would see three household permitted to gather together), representatives for the four nations discussed the policy on a call this evening.
The result? No decision as of yet. As things stand, there has been no agreed change to the rules. Instead one source on the call tells the BBC:
“There was broad recognition commitment has been made to people and they will expect us to honour it – but there is a need to be stronger and clearer in guidance and messaging.”
Talks are expected to continue tomorrow – and there is a chance that a unified approach is scrapped in favour of different rules for different parts of the United Kingdom.
Ministers in Westminster are reluctant to change the rules after Johnson told the public about the relaxation weeks ago. Instead, their preferred approach is a toughening of the rhetoric around the rules and a focus on individual responsibility to act sensibly and cautiously.
The Telegraph went further.
Boris Johnson is determined to push ahead with plans to allow families to meet this Christmas, but will urge people to self isolate before joining up with other households, The Telegraph understands.
The Government is expected to issue stronger guidance about what people can do over the festive period in the coming days, but stop short of changing the rules which say three households can meet for five days from December 23rd to 27th.
It is understood that No 10 was concerned that if Christmas plans were cancelled, it could lead to lower compliance with the rules in January and later in the winter. For months, ministers have promised a relaxation over Christmas if the public followed waves of new rules including a lockdown and the introduction of tiers.
There are also growing fears over mental health if families planning to meet up were now forced to spend time alone.
Locking down London and potentially cancelling Christmas to protect the NHS from its annual winter crisis? Must be 2020, when all proportion is out the window. Here as a reminder is what admissions for respiratory conditions normally look like.
In other words, there is always a big spike in December. Best not to panic then, eh?
Locking Down London Makes No Sense
Sceptical stalwart Dr John Lee penned a scorching piece in the Daily Mail yesterday criticising the Government for its ineffective, authoritarian response to the virus, and in particular for its latest vandalism to the capital.
No one can predict the number of people who will lose jobs, suffer poor mental health or who will have life-saving operations postponed until too late.
All we can say with any certainty is that all these things will happen, and not to a few isolated people. The harms caused by these new restrictions, like those caused by the previous over-reactions, will be immense.
Yet the Government seems oblivious to all this, gripped by a new puritanism that places no value on quality of life. All that appears to matter is the headline figure on a weekly death chart. It is bureaucratic insanity.
You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist, he says, to sense the Government is withholding important information from us that might give some context to the scary stats.
For example, when Matt Hancock announced the latest restrictions yesterday, there was no mention of the fact that, according to the latest data on the Government’s online Covid tracker, the weekly average number of Covid deaths in the capital is just over a tenth of what it was at its peak in April.
Nor did he highlight that weekly average Covid admissions to London’s hospitals are a quarter of what they were in the spring. Crucially, that disparity is equally large for the number of severely ill Covid patients using mechanical ventilation beds.
Instead of addressing this reality, each day the Government insists on only telling us how many people have died after testing positive for COVID-19, implying that they were killed by the virus.
What’s missing is a proper sense of proportion, and a response targeted at the vulnerable.
What the Government cannot disguise is that the initial hysteria over this pandemic was irrational. This disease is not like Spanish flu, or the plague. It does not sweep away young and old indiscriminately. In fact, many younger people – now more likely to catch Covid – will have it without even being aware. They will be infected but not affected.
That is why the average age of people dying with a Covid infection is 82 years and four months – 14 months more than the average life expectancy in Britain.
That goes a long way to explaining why in November the total number of deaths in London was very little different to the average over the past five years.
And so it should be obvious that the correct response to this virus is targeted support: to help the vulnerable shield, not to wreck the lives of everyone, whatever their age or health status.
Yet instead we endure a dictatorial insistence that we must all stand a metre or two metres apart, when Covid is a respiratory virus that spreads on the wind. Just look at the leaves blowing around – that’s what viral particles do when we walk past each other.
And cloth or woven paper masks are no barrier to this tiny virus either, as shown by the world’s only controlled study, from Denmark, which found that they only made a small, “non-statistically-significant” difference. Our breath escapes (as it must, or we would suffocate) and the virus escapes with it.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Today’s Covid ZOE app report shows new symptomatic infections in London flat since yesterday across most age groups – the rise among people in their 20s, 40s and 50s of the last few days didn’t continue today. True, it’s only one day, but it shows you can’t necessarily predict what’s going to happen next and that there are no real signs of a runaway epidemic.
“No Plans For Mass Asymptomatic Testing”
In a letter from Lord Bethell to Bill Wiggin MP, the Government appears to have confirmed that it has abandoned plans to mass test everybody whether or not they have symptoms.
We are not currently planning mass asymptomatic testing; swab testing people with no symptoms is not an accurate way of screening the general population, as there is a real risk of giving false reassurance. Widespread asymptomatic testing could undermine the value of testing, as there is a risk of giving misleading results. Rather, only people with COVID-19 symptoms should get tested.
This seems to be largely motivated by the supposed high false negative rates of the rapid LFT tests. However, there may be a tacit acknowledgement that PCR tests may not always get it right either.
Read the letter in full below.
Unemployment Rising
Jobs and livelihoods continue to be among the chief victims of this crisis as unemployment slopes upwards. Sky News has more.
The latest job statistics show 819,000 fewer people in payrolled employment since the start of the coronavirus crisis in the UK – with the hospitality sector accounting for a third of the figure.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the estimated total, using PAYE (pay as you earn) data from HM Revenue and Customs, covered November as England entered its second national lockdown amid tougher COVID-19 restrictions UK-wide.
Its wider figures also showed a rise in the jobless rate to 4.9% in October from 4.8% the previous month – less than the 5.1% economists had expected – as the clock ticked down to the original conclusion of the Government’s furlough scheme.
The Job Retention Scheme was extended at the end of October, with the chancellor later confirming that wage support would continue until the end of March 2021.
The ONS said the pace of redundancies slowed in October but still hit a new record quarterly high of 370,000.
The hospitality sector – pubs, restaurants, hotels, nightclubs – has argued that it is worthy of additional Government help and has urged Rishi Sunak to channel over £2 billion in business rates relief…
Still, employment is holding up better than one might have expected given the mammoth scale of the hit to the economy. Ross Clark in the Spectator takes a closer look.
The employment rate stands at 75.2%, 0.9% down on a year ago, and the unemployment rate is 4.9%, up 1.2%. Still, this is pretty low by historic standards: unemployment peaked at 8% in 2011, following the 2008/09 recession, at 10% in 1993 and at 12% in the early 1980s. Considering that the economy has shrunk by 8% this year, blowing previous recessions out of the water, employment has held up extraordinarily well – albeit at the cost of record Government borrowing.
Pay, too, is remarkably strong. Payrolled employees who have managed to stay in work have seen median monthly earnings rise 4.6% over the past 12 months, well ahead of inflation (the Government’s preferred measure, CPIH, currently stands at 0.9%). It is not a case of high earners benefitting at the expense of the poor: the highest rise in median pay was at the 10th percentile level (5.7%) and lowest at the 75th percentile (3.3%). This is an extraordinary change from the stagnation in real pay of much of the last decade – all the more odd given it has happened during the deepest recession in modern times. Employees in the finance sector have been doing especially well, with median earnings up 6.5% – so much for predictions that Brexit would hollow-out the sector. Unsurprisingly, it is a different story in the accommodation and food industries, where median pay is down 4.1%.
Today’s figures confirm how public sector employees have been able to sail through the crisis: public sector employment was up 2.6% in the year to September, while it is down 1.5% in the private sector. No wonder there has been so little resistance in some quarters to lockdowns, even though they have devastated other industries.
Worth reading Ross’s piece in full.
Stop Press: Ofsted has released a report detailing another aspect of the huge collateral damage of lockdown: the welfare of children. The report, written following nearly 2,000 visits to education and social care providers during the autumn, finds that “many children are thought to be at least six months behind where they should be”.
The impact on children with special needs has been particularly severe.
In children’s social care, the need to isolate had a more detrimental impact. When children arrive at secure children’s homes, they are required to self-isolate for 14 days, which in effect creates a form of solitary confinement. This had a negative impact on many children’s well-being. In some cases it also undermined the child’s safety, and that of others in the home, because the child’s anxieties resulted in self-harm or physical attacks on staff.
Elsewhere, inspectors found that children with SEND often struggled with the restrictions placed on them. Many were not attending school full time. Remote education was a challenge for some of these children, particularly if their parents were unable to support them. And when vulnerable children are not at school and are out of sight, they may be at risk of abuse or neglect.
This treatment of vulnerable children in the UK in 2020 is almost unbelievable, particularly when you consider how little risk this virus poses to children.
Stop Press 2: The i reports that staff at Excluded UK, the campaign group set up to support the millions of people unable to access the Government’s COVID-19 support package, “have been given training in how to deal with suicide after eight of its members took their own lives”.
How often do we hear about these hidden victims of the lockdowns? Never in the Downing Street briefings and rarely from the broadcast media. In 2020 it seems only Covid deaths are tragic.
Stop Press 3: Don’t forget that the good folks from the GBD and CEBM have set up Collateral Global as “a global repository for research into the collateral effects of the COVID-19 lockdown measures”. One to bookmark.
The Risk to Granny
Today we’re publishing the latest piece from Lockdown Sceptics regular and statistical whizz Guy de la Bédoyère, looking at how much risk “Granny” is really at from COVID-19 compared to other hazards. The essential point, he says, is very simple: “Granny – being an old lady – has a much higher risk of dying from something else.” The question is how much risk any individual wants to take – though Government control and hysteria have made it very hard for people to make those judgements and act on them.
Do you risk seeing Granny at Xmas? Or do you keep away and risk her dying from something else before you get to see her again? And what does she feel about it? When this is all over, if it ever is, there will be families breathing a sigh of relief in six to nine months’ time, once more able to resume normal family relations. There will be other families tormented by the discovery that death caught up with their elderly female relative – especially if she had a serious underlying health condition already – before they were able to see her again. That, sadly, is the way it is. No-one in any individual instance can know what will happen. One thing is always certain: life is a series of difficult and sometimes tragic choices, but a properly informed choice is always going to be a better one.
Worth reading in full.
Inflating the Covid Death Statistics
What follows is a guest post by Professor David Livermore, Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of East Anglia.
Guy de la Bédoyère argued on Monday, and last week, that COVID-19 was being over-estimated as a cause of death. Put simply, his assertion is that if one subtracts deaths attributed to COVID-19 from weekly mortality totals then the remaining “non-COVID-19” deaths are improbably few compared with previous years.
It follows that many “COVID-19 deaths” must really be deaths that would have occurred anyway.
This view is supported by two graphs that the ONS publish and update weekly.
The left hand panel is for COVID-19 and the right hand for influenza and pneumonia. Dark blue is “died due to” and light blue is “disease was a contributing factor to death” or, as the ONS footnote puts it:
We use the term “due to COVID-19” or “due to Influenza and Pneumonia” when referring only to deaths where that illness was recorded as the underlying cause of death. We use the term “involving COVID-19” or “involving Influenza and Pneumonia” when referring to deaths that had that illness mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not.
It is immediately obvious that over 90% of the deaths among patients with COVID-19 are recorded as “due to” the virus, whereas over 90% of the deaths among patients with influenza or pneumonia are recorded with infection as “contributory”.
This would be just about plausible if, like the Spanish ’Flu of 1918, COVID-19 frequently killed the young and otherwise healthy whereas other pneumonias afflicted those whose chances were already minimal. But we know this is not the case. Around half the COVID-19 deaths have been care home residents who, sadly, are in the last few years of their lives. Median survival after entering a care home is 462 days. More generally, the median age at death is 82 years with COVID-19 and most deaths are in people with underlying illness.
90% direct mortality isn’t tenable in these populations.
But what really gives the lie is the April/May spike of deaths in the influenza/pneumonia panel on the right. This exactly coincides with the spring peak of COVID-19 and, since no other respiratory plague was circulating concurrently it follows that it too comprises COVID-pneumonia deaths, but without the virus directly demonstrated. Yet here, without a formal diagnosis, physicians rarely recorded pneumonia as the underlying cause of death, noting it only as a contributory factor. The pattern recurs, on a smaller scale, in the autumn.
The inescapable conclusion is that confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 is a strong prompt to write “COVID-19” on the death certificate as the underlying cause of death. This puts the death into the “due to” category, leading to the distortion that Guy de la Bédoyère describes.
And, not just here. This (via Google Translate) from Sweden is instructive:
The Östergötland region has examined all deaths that have died at home or in special housing with confirmed COVID-19. Records from 122 people have been reviewed, which is 51% of the 240 people who had died in the county when the review was done.
The cause of death on the death certificate is COVID-19, but the review shows that other diseases may have contributed or been the decisive cause of death – for example, heart disease, lung disease or dementia.
111 of the deceased outside the hospital had extensive comorbidity and 11 moderate comorbidity. Half were 88 years or older.
COVID-19 was estimated to be the direct cause of death in 15% of deaths. For a majority of the deceased – as many as 70% – COVID-19 was a contributing factor rather than a direct cause. In 15% the cause of death was judged to be other diseases, most often heart disease.
In some cases, COVID-19 may have contributed to the death occurring earlier than it otherwise would have done. The review shows that very many of those who died with COVID-19 outside the hospital were not expected to survive for long.
The consequence of over-attribution is to inflate country death counts and apparent infection fatality rates.
SARS-CoV-2 is an unpleasant virus, without a doubt, but we live with the consequences of this exaggeration, which must be obvious to the (not stupid) people compiling the statistics.
Stop Press: OffGuardian has a new report on the inflation of UK and US Covid death data: “The COVID-19 Data is a ‘Travesty’“.
A Pandemic of Fear – the Psychology of Emotional Contagion
Fear is perhaps the defining emotion of 2020, driving so much of all that has happened. But is there a way to control it better so it does not become our master and our enemy?
Today we’re publishing a piece examining this question by psychologist and Lockdown Sceptics reader Galina Gardiner, who is studying for an MSc at Arden School of Psychology.
Fear of Coronavirus has led to extreme personal and governmental responses, from panic-buying and social distancing to school closures and lockdown. In Spring 2020, such measures appeared necessary. Their long-term effects – recession, neglected health, damage to education – were considered a price worth paying, though subsequent research indicates that the damage caused by lockdown may exceed that of COVID-19 itself .
The impact of fear on society should not be underestimated – studies have shown it to be the biggest predictor of compliance with new measures, over and above moral or political leanings. Understanding fear – how, and why, it rips through society – is vital if we are to react proportionately to global events such as COVID-19.
Worth reading in full.
Another Victory For The Free Speech Union
Last month, several student organisations at McGill University in Montreal published an open letter asserting that the school is “built on a history of oppression” and that it owes its existence to “the labour of enslaved and marginalised peoples.” The groups asked the University to overhaul its Statement on Academic Freedom so students and professors were prohibited from committing “acts of rhetorical violence against marginalised communities” that threaten the “safety, security, and wellbeing of people of colour”. The letter also called for Emeritus Professor Philip Carl Salzman to be stripped of his title and privileges because he’s written articles about the Middle East and the BLM movement that allegedly make Muslims and people of colour feel “unsafe”.
In response, the Free Speech Union started a petition calling on McGill to affirm its commitment to academic free speech and assure Prof Salzman that his Emeritus Professorship was not in jeopardy.
Yesterday afternoon, Professor Christopher Manfredi, McGill’s Provost and Vice-Principal, responded to the petition, doing exactly what it asked. He affirmed McGill’s commitment to academic freedom and made it clear that Professor Salzman’s status as an Emeritus Professor will not be revoked.
Chalk this one up to the good guys.
Round-up
- “In defence of ‘Christmas bubbles’” – Ross Clark puts in a word for personal judgement and responsibility in the Telegraph
- “Covid testing: We have a right to the facts on PCR” – Reform UK (formerly Brexit Party) chairman Richard Tice has written for Conservative Woman demanding more honesty from the Government on Covid testing
- “Expert reaction to the new variant of SARS-CoV-2” – Science Media Centre has gathered some quotes from scientists on the new strain. Not many sound impressed with the way its being spun by the Government as a way to scare people
- “Covid vaccine may need ‘tweaking’ for new virus strain but process ‘should be easy’” – Don’t panic, reports Sarah Knapton in the Telegraph
- “It’s not our job to protect the NHS” – Sacrificing so much to help the NHS cope has set a bleak precedent, says Timandra Harkness in UnHerd
- “The Netherlands to go into five-week lockdown” – Schools and shops to close, reports Politico. Another country that appears suddenly unable to face up to the reality of excess winter deaths
- “Anti-vax protesters clash with police in central London hours before capital plunges into Tier 3 Covid restrictions” – More than 16,500 protestors came out on to the streets to remind the Government that a lot of people are unhappy
- “Why have Black and South Asian people been hit hardest by COVID-19?” – The ONS looks at the data, but oddly neglects to mention Vitamin D deficiency as a contributory factor
- “Lawson’s vaccine jab at lockdown sceptics” – George Dance takes Dominic Lawson to task for his feeble attempt to refute lockdown sceptics
- “Backers of ‘herd immunity’ shouldn’t have been allowed near Boris Johnson” – Alan McNally in the Guardian says “the fringe view that we should avoid coronavirus restrictions” should never have been presented to the PM in September as it deterred him from imposing a “circuit breaker” lockdown. Such unutterable balls it’s hard to know where to start
- “Keir Starmer called out for not calling out ‘racist conspiracy theory‘” – Daniel Goldstein on the Conservative Liberal UK blog says the “racist conspiracy theory” advanced by a caller to Starmer’s LBC radio show is nothing of the kind
- “South Africa’s lockdown was based on ‘crude and exaggerated’ evidence” – South Africa’s strict five-week lockdown had devastating social consequences but did not achieve its COVID-19 objectives, writes Seán Mfundza Muller of the University of Johannesburg in Medical Brief
- “The Rescue From Madness” – We are watching, in real time, the destruction of our own civilisation, says Joakim Book on the AIER blog
- “Neil Oliver: ‘We’re not hearing from the broken people” – The TV archaeologist is interviewed by Mike Graham on talkRADIO
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “Last Orders Please” by the Faces and “Let’s Shake Hands” by The White Stripes.
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.
“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. See also the Swiss Doctor’s thorough review of the scientific evidence here.
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 in October 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 three quarters of a million 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. Alas, he’s now reached the end of the road, with the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear his appeal. Dolan has no regrets. “We forced SAGE to produce its minutes, got the Government to concede it had not lawfully shut schools, and lit the fire on scrutinizing data and information,” he says. “We also believe our findings and evidence, while not considered properly by the judges, will be of use in the inevitable public inquires which will follow and will help history judge the PM, Matt Hancock and their advisers in the light that they deserve.”
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’. A High Court judge refused permission for the FSU’s judicial review last week, but the FSU may appeal the decision. Check here for updates.
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)
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.
H.L. Mencken
I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.
Thomas Paine
Shameless Begging Bit
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And Finally…
All is not at ease between Toby and James. Donald Trump has come between them, it appears. Toby spills the beans in his latest piece for Spectator USA.
“You’re a cuck, Tobes, an absolute cuck.” My friend James Delingpole was furious. “Honestly, I thought I could depend on you of all people, but you’ve surrendered, just like every other right-wing commentator I know. I can’t begin to describe how disappointing this is. I would have expected it from some – Dan Hannan, Jonah Goldberg, the editors of the National Review – all bloody cucks, the lot of them. But not you, Tobes. I’m alone in the foxhole.”
This outburst would have been hard to listen to under normal circumstances, but it occurred on air during our weekly podcast on Ricochet. Needless to say, we were discussing the presidential election and James is 100% convinced that Donald Trump was the victim of a massive electoral fraud. He’s reached the final stage of the five stages of grief – and I’m not talking about Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s stages, but those of die-hard Trumpers: denial, anger, paranoia, grievance and incandescent rage.
Toby does not share James’s view of how Biden beat Trump.
“Look, mate, I’m not claiming everything about the election was completely above board,” I said. “I dare say some unsigned postal votes for Trump were declared invalid in some districts and some unsigned postal votes for Biden were counted when they shouldn’t have been. But the opposite probably happened in other districts. Yes, some votes got lost and, yes, quite a lot came in at the last minute. But do you know for certain that Biden was the beneficiary in every case or even the majority of cases? And even if there was a pro-Biden bias in the way these things fell out, do you really think that accounts for his entire margin of victory? We’re not talking Bush v. Gore here, James. Biden beat Trump by more than six million votes. That’s 6,173,445 ballots getting lost down the back of the sofa.”
There was a pause and for a second I thought I was making some headway.
“James, are you still there?”
“Sorry, Tobes, I was just picking my jaw up off the floor.”
James buys into a lot of the Gates-Schwab-Great-Reset conspiracy stuff and Toby, well, not so much.
But can they still be friends? Toby thinks so, but James isn’t so sure:
“That’s the cucks’ manifesto, that is. ‘I won’t stand beside you when the going gets tough, I’ll abandon you to fight that battle on your own, but after it’s over and you’ve been beaten half to death I hope we can still be friends.’ It’s not really on, is it Tobes?”
Worth reading in full.
Me? I tend to think the American public is turning a blind eye to a whole lot of electoral fraud because it doesn’t want to do the unthinkable which is to overturn the result and rerun the election.
Stop Press: Toby and James continue their argument on this week’s London Calling podcast, “Fighting our Dystopian Future“, now available.
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The first shall be last!
Merry Christmas – I wish.
Gonna be an awful lot more Tiny Tims this Christmas – and for what exactly? I really hope we have that Nuremberg Mark II and find out how many of them knew exackerterly what they were doing.
2nd
I’ve no idea where the second shall end up (maybe in a minute, eventually?)
I never saw Granny (in the carehome) after March, too late now. Please please please see your Granny this Christmas if you can!!!
Hello – Ontario counts suicide victims as COVID-19 fatalities
https://tnc.news/2020/12/13/ontario-counts-suicide-victims-as-covid-19-fatalities/
Now that is Science!
Hot mic moment. Ontario Canada ‘Chief Medical Doctor and expert’ on CV 19 says ‘I just say whatever they write down for me’. Before this, she is telling the sheep that if you are not sick you are still spreading CV 19 so you need many many Jabs. No science to that claim.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/CDcj9YuLxDBn/?fbclid=IwAR3
Criminals cover their crimes.. This is disgusting
It’s happening in Ireland. Definitely crimes against humanity.
It’s sadly too late for me too, mine died in August in a care home.
She was a huge part of our Christmas Day and I’m going to miss seeing her this year.
Dear T <b>Stop this pro lockdown nonsense. Actions speak louder that words. Beth Rigby and Kay Burley have demonstrated clearly that the entire media and political class know the The Corona hysteria is a load of nonsense.</b>
<i><b>Dr JOHN LEE saw through the nonsense early on. He was once allowed to write in the Spectator.</b></i>
<i>The clampdown that is just bureaucratic insanity: Dr JOHN LEE argues that putting London into Tier 3 lockdown could cripple the capital</i>
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9053311/DR-JOHN-LEE-clampdown-just-bureaucratic-insanity.html
The Corona Scandal/Crimes Against Humanity trials will be the biggest in human history. Most likely taking years to complete. Politicians, Pharma, the banks, the media etc. will need to be tried in their own categories by specialised lawyers. I hope to see those responsible face life sentences for the poverty, deaths from cancelled medical treatments and the suicides they’ve caused. There is also the issue of future health problems yet to surface from face masks, especially worn by children
A usually busy, centuries old pub in my home town has closed. Boarded up for sale. Shocking to see. The virus didn’t shut it down – politicians did
If current events are indeed part of the World Economic Forum’s ‘Great Reset’ then maybe justice will be impossible
If the situation were hopeless, the propaganda would be unnecessary.
There is no intention of going back and bridges are burning with every passing day. Stalin used people to get power and later got rid of them. Likewise to set up an industrialised Soviet – and then got rid of them. So you may see in due course a new source of mind leverage for guilt and shame in many who are currently selling out or complying in ignorance. Doctors will be replaced with AI or screen systems linked to smart devices and medication directives. The political system has to be set as so dysfunctional and incompetent as to drive the morally disgusted into the arms of the technocrats. Free thinking is being reframed as dangerous and unregulated. So yes the ‘system’ may morph to evade disclosure. The Reset is similar to the depiction of the Tower of Barad-dor in Tolkien’s Mordor. Babel was another famous tower. I don’t seek vengeance but the restoration of the conditions for support of life in truth, rather than life in captivity. I give (the wish for) vengeance to the trust that all is truly resolved under a Higher Court. You have to answer to your self – regardless how you may engage in… Read more »
Barad Dur surely?
These up and down ticks – no way of knowing if someone has got 20 upticks cancelled out by 20 down ticks, or if they have simply had no ticks either way as no one feels strongly about their post, is there.
No matter, likely no one will read this now anyway…
I just want to live long enough to see condign punishment visited on all the Covid criminals.Even if I have to live past my century and will be too old to dance on their graves.
Me too!!
Do a jig.
We’ll dance for you!
So wasn’t Easter supposed to be sacrificed and put off until Christmas? Now they’re trying to push Christmas off until Easter. I’m sensing a pattern here. I don’t have a horse in this race as I don’t celebrate either, but I’m pissed off on behalf of everyone who wants and needs to see their families over the holidays. I’m fortunate that my family isn’t fussed and we’ve continued to see each other throughout. Don’t comply!
We do not consent!
Christmas is an important Pagan Sun worship festival that was appropriated by the early Christian church. The modern incarnation is nothing more than Consumermas, which personally I am glad to see the back of this year. But the way the UK government has abused the good will of the British people regarding these “five days” is nothing short of abominable.
Fishy Sturgeon’s going to be popular if she ruins Christmas as well as hogmany (another pagan festival no doubt) isn’t she?
Incidentally, the Summer solstice was appropriated by us for the feast of that voice in the wilderness, Stt. John the Baptist. I dare say things will still not be back to normal by then. Good night!
Even for the godless, it isn’t the consumerism that matters, it’s the socialising, the gaiety and the goodwill. As a Christian, I’ve always disliked the consumerism, but the goodwill is an emanation from the central Good and do destroy it is diabolical. And to consent fo its being destroyed is nearly as diabolical as to be one of the destroyers.
I dare the UK government to go full-on Puritan and declare the total cancellation of Christmas.
The last time they did that it didn’t go down well.
Sir Desmond Swayne has been consistently reminding the government that fact.
No one will do anything bro, the British people are spineless fucking cowards and will walk hand in hand into total lockdown tyranny forever and no cunt will do anything. I predict in whatever i end up doing i will be shot and killed by the state for doing it. The fucking people will just turn away. I wear my confederate t-shirt with pride because i’m a rebel at heart. Funny how it’s the Children of the Stones whom have the bottle while all the salt of the earth working classes sit on their fat stupid asses and lap up this whole fucking shitshow. As long as they can watch TV, surf the internet and eat fucking doughnuts these cunts will let the facist government rule over them any fucking way they like. I was in England at the weekend and let me tell you there are way more people in Scotland upset about this than down in England. Holy shit it’s like everyone is already dead. I pulled into a Tesco’s and saw a hundred people lining up to wash their hands in sanitiser, not the queue to get in the shop, no just for the hand wash. I… Read more »
Unfortunately you’re right. I live in an area with a high-ish immigrant population and they’re the worst when it comes to compliance. It’s pretty much zombie central here.
I agree the asians and blacks seem more paranoid than the whites…not that the latter are much better now. However early on it was noticeable that all asians wore masks.
Not where I live. I go to the Indian-owned shop and most people don’t wear masks and it’s about the only place I haven’t once been challenged. Also my friend lives in a road in Slough where hers is the only white family. She told me her neighbours and plenty of others had people round all the time including in first lockdown. Apparently they’ve nearly all had the virus, some were a bit ill and now just cracking on as usual.
A virus?
Actually that doesn’t match my observations – I see quite a lot of unmasked young black men.
Well said Sir
100%..I keep saying this almost every day. The fight has gone out of the people, compliance is almost total. Sometimes I think my life would be so much easier if I just put on a mask, swallowed the bullshit, complied with everything and just followed the flock blindly. But I can’t , I’m a fighter at heart and so I plod one, day after day. Like I said yesterday, I do not know a single person who is sceptic, everybody has swallowed this wholesale. yes people complain how they can’t breath in masks, and then pull their right up, how they hate going to the supermarket and then take the sanitizer from their bags and pockets and manically clean their hands, how the government will not tell them what to do and then look at you like you are insane when you invite them to your house for a cup of tea and cake…Like Biker I will probably not live longer as I will violently resist this until I go down fighting.
The fight has gone out of the people, compliance is almost total.
Yep, that’s what I’m seeing down here. It’s like a load of vegetables wandering around.
That’s their problem not mine.
‘Maskoids are us’ it is in staffs and shropshire. I know a few local sceptics and they all seem to be 40s/50s….male…and self employed.
maybe thats what we all have in common w e re all fighters at heart like thomas
I am as angry as you but I also live in hope. There are many many sceptics worldwide against this shitshow. Many more people ( I believe) have woken up. It’s up to us to keep fighting and show these people they are not helpless.they are just taking longer than us.
😉😊
Got it in one. I’m ashamed of so many people that were family and friends, that are lying on their backs waiting for the government to tickle their tummies or throw them a scraggy bone, or chain them to the doghouse outside, whilst all the time they cuss me for not being obedient enough. Mr Hancart and me feel like the only rebels in town, amidst the frankly vile looking maskies. But I’m proud and thankful of all my fellow sceptics who are standing up to this crap, and fighting against this tyranny.
I agree with you Biker. For an exquisitely low opinion of the human species, they have somehow still managed to utterly fail me. They deserve what’s coming.
Not where I live it’s not, but then our lives don’t revolve round fucking Tesco
if i see there annoying Tesco advert with it’s naughty step I am going to fire bomb My local tesco extra
If they did then maybe a few more zombies would wake up. I think the harder they push, more people will start to resist.
Here, here. I’m an Atheist and anti-consumer. Christmas is about the family, the good will, the traditions, and the marking of the passing of the seasons and years. It’s necessary ritual for the soul.
Very much agree with that. My favourite item on the Christmas menu is to visit a cathedral and hear a mighty organ and the hushed voices of the choir. Of course that has been destroyed this year. I gave up commercialism and Christmas presents many many years ago.
Oh, bullshit.
But I’m with you on the abuse of power bit.
NO such thing as Pagan’s bro. That’s a word christians used to describe the people they murdered who were before them. Picts like me aren’t Pagans, we’re Picts and we understood that the Equinox was an important landmark in the earths passage round the sun. So accordingly we had a little knees up. Christians on the other hand believe in utter pish and as such had to murder anyone who didn’t agree with them out of embarrassment that they could believe in such mumbo jumbo. I too despise Christmas because of this. 20th of December is the winter Equinox and on that night we will be partying in the studio resulting in a mass orgy of all our friends. Wine, weed, whisky, Grape, Grain and Port for my old man, he’s old fashioned like that.
Sounds like a cool Yule.
The Winter ‘Solstice’ is the 21st or 22nd of December each year.
Apparently, it used to be the 13th – St.Lucy’s day – that was considered the shortest day. I remember my old boss always saying ‘winter draws on’ on the 21st, and ‘winter draws off’ on the Spring solstice. I was a simple soul and always laughed. Well, you do when you’re a kid, don’t you? 🙂
I’d imagine that would be because of the change from Julian to Gregorian calendar.
I believe the confusion in solstice dates comes from the time lags between the old (Roman) Julian calendar and the roll-out of the more-accurate late-Medieval Gregorian calendar.
In Roman times under the Julian calendar, the winter solstice fell on 25th December so this was chosen as the fixed feast date of Christmas. After 2000 years of drift, the Julian solstice date doesn’t align any more with this fixed Christian feast date. And in the Scandinavian countries, which only converted to Gregorian in the last 100 years, the solstice date under Julian fell on the 13th December.
There may be ritualists who still stick with the Julian calendar solstice date (13th December) for traditional religious reasons, who enjoy the St Lucy’s day symbolism even though her 13th December feast date is no longer the actual solstice on the Gregorian calendar.
As long as we all have a big Yuletide party and tell our evil governments to GIRFUY this year, I’m date agnostic to be honest.
you might think that but it starts on the 20th
It isn’t what I think, it is an astronomical fact that the sun reaches its most southerly declination on the 21st or 22nd. When you decide to party is your choice, obviously.
More condoms than masks at the orgy? Had enough of all this safety lol.
Ah, but the evenings are getting lighter from today!
No, from the 19th, and here in Scotland that still means sunset at 20 to 4!
Really? Down here in SW Devon by my calcs sunset is getting later after the 15th, from 16:12 or 13, and by other calculators after the 13th, but we’re talking seconds here obviously so there may be rounding errors. Don’t know why it would be any different in Scotland.
Yeah, I see that. I think it has to do with the difference in latitude, though I am open to being corrected. The difference in latitude certainly affects the particular day that, according to our calendar, the sun rises due east in the Spring
As I said, the choice of when to party is the partier’s (and if it is a party of the ‘eve’, it won’t always be on the 20th either), but that wasn’t the initial statement.
I’m liking you more and more! even if we don’t agree on much else.. I’m a Burns baby btw
It is The Solstice.
Saturnalia was a Roman winter pagan festival around the solstice which consisted of eating and drinking to excess amidst riotous behaviour. That is probably as close to what happens normally but most people don’t realise what it is they are ‘celebrating’.
It’s tougher now that we moved out of Toronto permanently and are 2 hours away from family, but that’s the only thing holding us back. My daughter and her boyfriend will be with us after spending Christmas with his family and my brother, niece and nephew will be up visiting us as well. Technically, where we live now is not under lockdown and we’re “allowed” to mix with people outside our household, but if I were still in Toronto I wouldn’t do anything differently despite the lockdown.
Very much wish that everyone would get back to normal and forget about all Christmas restrictions now. It’s not just the “spending time with family” thing – but I’ve personally come across family people that are obviously minimising/foregoing contact with friends before Christmas (for “the sake of their family”) and bang goes social contact single people were expecting/need to have. So their own families may not be suffering – but us single people are – because of our “friends” doing this.
Single people have been thrown under the bus by this virus response, it is appalling, if you don’t have a “family” or a “granny” you don’t count. When I was single my friends were my family. I wish I could arrange a big party for all the single sceptics.
No doubt. But as one of those single people I am also conscious of all the people who live in households where there is abuse, neglect and fear who no longer have access to wider support networks and extended family. However isolated I feel I remain thankful that I have not had to endure all this while trapped in such a situation.
Absolutely. When this all started, my main thought was, ‘Thank God I don’t live with anyone else’. If I had been living with my mother she would be dead by now, but not of the virus.
As a mixed group of London singles and coupled-up twentysomethings in the 90’s we would gather at whoever had the biggest flat and spend the evening of Xmas Day relaxing together, just the core 15 or so, no strangers.
We would not not have paid the slightest attention to hancock’s silly rules.
‘Tronno’ used to be famous for the ‘lookdown’ glass floor in the CN Tower. Now …..? An Ontario winter and high BAME population minus vitamin D? Not good. Got friends in Windsor – not happy.
both Our Countries are run by pricks Johnson & Trudeau enough said
I think those who really want to see their family will do. If its banned that makes lots more rule breakers which will hopefully red pill them. Plus more people see that the government are a bunch of lying bastards who cannot be trusted. The more people see that the better for us.
The basic truth is they don’t care about infection spread. What they really care about is people having a great time, feeling free and noticing that none of them got ill, despite all their cuddling and kissing granny she is still okay. As fighters will tell you, if you have someone on the floor keep you foot on his throat and do not let them up.
I shall remember that one if I become entangled with a Covid Marshall!
Politicians hate humanity
The intent is to condition the populations to willing compliance under adjusted expectations – and is ratcheting up tighter after every seeming relaxation – and in a line from the Terminator movies – “It will not stop!”. Initially shutting most everything down convinced the public that the virus was THAT SERIOUS! – and while the revealed facts belie the claim, the underlying act of power to do this – and maintain it is itself the revealing of the fist behind the mask. Unnamable fear is not really limited by its seeming specific limit to a virus and its narratives of shame and guilting, nor to a corrupted and evil suruping of our institutions and government that suddenly seem to have turned against us. This is too disturbing to even look at for many, as is the WEF/Rockefeller/China et al open (but tedious and boring mindf**k of PR) agenda for destroying the world to reset in their image. God is sacrificed to a Virus. Covid runs as state religion. There can and will be no other – except as a form of identity conformed and supplied by the State. That Script is the logical outcome to power struggle. An Awakening Script… Read more »
I am thinking of the Czech Resistance tonight, who fought against desperate odds and yet ultimately prevailed against brutal fascist occupation and communist dictatorship. We can draw much inspiration from their example. They never, ever gave up, despite everything being stacked against them for years and decades on end. History only remembers this resistance, who comprised probably no more than 5% of the population. Nothing is written or remembered of the 95% who complied with every demand of their occupiers throughout. We may well not live to see our victory, but our fate as individuals is unimportant.
Antony Beevor discussing his book The Fall Of Berlin recalls a German journalist who, in January 1945, as a member of the Hitler Youth entered a grocery shop and gave the ubiquitous queue the zeig heil salute.
He was surprised that everybody stared at him as though he was mad, little realising how much things had changed in the short time he had been away.
In the later stages of the war, Nazi Party members tended to be less willing to wear their party badges in public. Normally these were worn on a lapel or sometimes a necktie.
You’re right. History is not made by sheeples.
No Resistance in WW2 succeeded in throwing off the Nazis by its own unaided efforts. But they sere the keepers of theit country’s soul. Just as we are.
NEVER give in.
Richard O, that is a great way to look at it, we may be the 5% but we are on the right side of history.
I’m resisting this dystopian hell not just for myself but for my grandkids, everyone’s kids and grandkids.
I just want them to enjoy the rights and freedoms I have and that were fought so hard for down the centuries by those before us.
Governments can try to inflict all manner of control over the people but they always fail once the majority of people resist.
Sadly, although the majority are quietly starting to complain, they are still compliant due to fear, not of a virus but that even more contagious phenomenon of social conformity…….and a massive dose of cowardice!
Can someone invent a vaccine against both of these deadly contagions…..please!
Yes, lots to learn from the Czechs. They actually count three resistance (odboj) movements: 1914-18 (independence movement), 39-45, and 48-89. Apart from the first, relatively few people were actively engaged.
An interesting figure for current crisis is Josef Šafařík, who is not well-known even in CR but was a major influence on V. Havel. In his book Letters to Melin, Šafařík, an engineer turned author, examines the metaphysical underpinning of technocracy, science as a power structure (and lots of other stuff). Published in 1948 (and withdrawn from shops only a few months after publication), still very relevant today and deserves to be better known.
That is the problem we (as in Lockdown Sceptics) face. Whilst I hope that sanity eventually prevails over here, I doubt that I will be around to see it. As others have frequently noted, the majority of British public seem blind to the severity of the situation. It could be a long time before enough of them start objecting with the force needed to bring an end to this shitshow…
My concern is that even if these stupid lockdown laws were overturned, they might not be overturned for some time. The issue this creates that people will miss out on things which has happened to me. This year I have missed out on my annual holiday. I live with my parents who have swallowed completely the fear porn propoganda pumped out by the MSM and government. In work we were going to have a takeaway at another office as a Christmas dinner as we couldn’t eat in a restaurant. I couldn’t go because my parents thought it was too dangerous and I had to miss it. My brother would bring his son to visit us every week. We had to miss out on this when visitors were not allowed in people’s houses. I used to go the gym twice a week but the gym had to close during two lockdowns in Wales. I can’t use the gym because there are no shower and changing facilities. Other people will be in the same situation eg missing out on work Chrismtas dos if restaurants can’t open, not being able to invite friends around for children’s birthdays. I have done distance learning courses.… Read more »
Well said. I would also recommend The Secret Army, a contemporaneous account of the Polish resistance under occupation. Virtually every Pole was either an active member of the organisation or aided it in ways both large and small.
On the wall of St Cyril’s Church where the Czechs fought to the death is a plaque memorialising the last stand of the Czech parachutists who carried out Operation Anthropoid, the assassination of Reinhardt Heydrich.
When they were cornered, the Germans shouted that there was no hope and that the parachutists should give up; they shouted from the crypt “We are Czechs and we will never surrender!” This phrase is carved into the plaque, and has become a national motto.
I pray that this motto become ours, in due time.
There is a major ethics problem with how they are handling the vaccine. It amounts to unethical experimentation on millions of people without their consent. The International Journal of Clinical Practice has an article on: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ijcp.13795 “Informed consent disclosure to vaccine trial subjects of risk of COVID‐19 vaccines worsening clinical disease… ….disclosure of the specific risk of worsened COVID‐19 disease from vaccination calls for a specific, separate, informed consent form and demonstration of patient comprehension in order to meet medical ethics standards. The informed consent process for ongoing COVID‐19 vaccine trials does not appear to meet this standard.” Yet the patient information for the vaccine from the UK, US and Canada don’t even mention the issue exists, let along ensure people understand it. There risk is still there: the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization explicitly notes: “risk of vaccine-enhanced disease over time, potentially associated with waning immunity, remains unknown and needs to be evaluated further in ongoing clinical trials and in observational studies”. No matter how well intentioned this is: it should be viewed as an astonishingly egregious violation of medical ethics. Millions of people are lining up to get a shot without fully realizing the risks or grasping how experimental… Read more »
This is a very important disclosure of a significant risk. The paper states:
‘COVID‐19 vaccines designed to elicit neutralising antibodies may sensitise vaccine recipients to more severe disease than if they were not vaccinated. Vaccines for SARS, MERS and RSV have never been approved, and the data generated in the development and testing of these vaccines suggest a serious mechanistic concern: that vaccines designed empirically using the traditional approach (consisting of the unmodified or minimally modified coronavirus viral spike to elicit neutralising antibodies), be they composed of protein, viral vector, DNA or RNA and irrespective of delivery method, may worsen COVID‐19 disease via antibody‐dependent enhancement (ADE). This risk is sufficiently obscured in clinical trial protocols and consent forms for ongoing COVID‐19 vaccine trials that adequate patient comprehension of this risk is unlikely to occur, obviating truly informed consent by subjects in these trials.’
The responsibility for explaining all of the risks falls on the shoulders, not of the vaccine creators, or even the person administering the injection(if they are not a registered healthcare professional) but the prescribing physician as it is an off licence medication. If the person administering the vaccine is registered then they have a duty to check consent is informed. I don’t think there can be implied consent, usually if a patient presents an arm for blood pressure measurement for example then there’s implied consent, rolling up your sleeve for an injection wouldn’t be valid.
A rushed, experimental, indemnified vaccine predicted to cause unpleasant side effects and with Government ministers holding shares in the vaccine manufacturers (Sir Patrick Vaccine-Shares), I would say events have helped BuildVaccineDistrust
Additionally, there is a weight of scientific evidence to suggest vitamin D supplementation provides protection against viruses at a fraction of the cost and without side effects
So would anyone care to tell me what is going on?
Can we have all our rights back once all the over 65s who want to take their chances have been offered a cv “vaccine”? Will it be safe and effective? And if not, will the pharmaceutical companies be in a lot of trouble next year, or will their exemption from liability see them right? Will they not sell anything too risky even so because of damage to their reputations? Or will ways be found of hiding the damage? And do the politicians really believe what they tell us, or do they know jolly well they are playing politics, keeping their funders/supporters happy etc? Or maybe a mixture?
We have not lost any rights that require regaining. They have merely been temporarily, arbitrarily and illegally suspended by a criminal government which should have no authority but for the millions of citizens who are unaware that their rights are inalienable, and thus have unknowingly ceded them to the state.
We trusted our rights away for three weeks back in March. The government have been abusing that trust ever since in collusion with the opposition.
So true. The near total compliance with the late March orders was our fatal error, and we continue to suffer terribly for it. Much like the recipients of Blitzkrieg in WW2. This attack came from a similar mindset (albeit with psychological weapons only). The end result for the perpetrators will be the same, but they can cause a lot more damage yet before they are defeated.
Absolutely right. The theatrical March lockdown in Wuhan was a dead giveaway. As soon as I found out the average age for Covid deaths was over 82 that was me done. I was ranting about this anti scientific crap in March to some bewildered friends and family. I’m so pleased that I was listening to Hitchins and Delingpole back then. Other wise I could have been the only sceptic in the country as far as I knew.
Yes you’re right. It was all super theatrical, from the beginning. I realize that now.
I didn’t trust them then, not for three weeks, not for three hours, not for three minutes. It was so obvious that human rights meant nothing to them and never had.
I have been against lockdown even before it started. I know some on this forum are willing to give the government the benefit of the doubt at the beginning, but I am not even prepared to do that.
agreed
I was suspicious from the start but the rona lives on cash bullshit did it for me as the final straw..a cashless society has always been their game so use cash as much as you can and civil disobedience whenever you can..😁
When PM Johnson announced that he was considering herd immunity I was impressed and hopeful. Sucker!
I nominate Covid-19 for Best Actor (gender neutral) in a supporting role.
Me neither I knew they were bad uns immediately on the 23rd March….no honeymoon period for me.
Bojo’s announcement was worse than sinister. It was transparently naff. He and his accomplices have been openly taking the piss since March. That’s the element of this that is so frightening. They might as well come out and moon us. They’re barely even pretending.
well sociopath hancock did pretend to cry.
Tiers(tears) of laughter
Just looked over yesterdays comments and i noticed you asked me why Talk Radio was off youtube last week.What people said at the time was its simply a technical problem.
Is it too late to nominate him for an Oscar?
Hah! I’m with you there, too.
Same over here in the good ol’ US.
Damn straight.
Silly goose
They were always privileges – not rights
Breaking News Welsh Government press release Contrary to press speculation we are pleased to announce that we will not be cancelling Christmas. The previous commitments in relation to Christmas will be honoured We appreciate this has been a long hard year with many false dawns and we thank you once again for your perseverance We are also pleased to announce an exciting new initiative that will completely eradicate the virus by 31st March 2021 As with many scientific breakthroughs the answer was right under our noses all along As many of you know our great leader has been living in his garden shed since March. Our dear leader has been virus free as a result Research shows that all virus carriers have been living in traditional residential properties such as houses, flats, etc Therefore from 31st December we will commencing a policy of Residential Rationalisation The plan is to destroy all traditional residential properties in Wales and replace them with garden sheds Early on the 1st January REME units will commence the demolition of remote Welsh villages Unfortunately it would take REME 14 years to complete this all Wales project As a newly emerging world power we have been able… Read more »
At last, a plan to get out of this mess, which makes real sense!
Destruction as the only path to salvation. It would have to be the USAF (or similar) as well, the UK government cannot command sufficient military resources for such a plan. Short of nuclear weapons of course, and I bet even those are rotting and unusable.
“Short of nuclear weapons of course, and I bet even those are rotting and unusable”
The last time they fired one, it went off course (towards the USA instead of out towrds the open ocean) and it had to be destroyed. Past their “nuke-by date”, I think.
o/t Cecil, yesterday Alex Belfied YouTube had Dragonbreath giving the vote to 16 year olds, foreign residents and guests of HMP.
Why ?
Because they have been thoroughly brainwashed.
Dungford will ensure no tiers are shed over this plan!
Sounds like he’s becoming Drakeford Drakeford Drakeford with a nod to Catch 22
More like Torah Torah Torah.
One does hope that Dripford realises this is typical British satirical humour LOL. Do you think he shares the British sense of humour – or won’t the Nationalists let him?
Brilliant!!!!
In that case Happy New Year!
As often, C. S. Lewis sums up the quintessence of good and evil in a ‘fantasy’ stories that have turned out to mirror a deadly reality.
What epitomises the sufferings of Narnia under the Evil Witch? It’s always winter and NEVER CHRISTMAS.
And when the Witch comes across a happy party nevertheless enjoying a Christmas dinner, she waves her wand and turns them all to stone.
I’ll tell you why the evil bastards are so terrified of Christmas. It’s in case people mix and mingle in hordes and NOTHING HAPPENS. No ‘surges’, no dead grannies. Where’s their terror-power thrn, the evil bastards?
Sadly,they’ll just invent and present yet more lying stats that the majority will faerfully accept without question.
I don’t think they can get away with that tactic anymore because Heneghan is after them. Hence the ludicrous “new variant” nonsense this week.
There will be new variants conjured up so long as governments find them useful and so long as stupid humans believe them
But we thought, back in June, that the BLM marches would have had this effect on the minds of the Covid-enthralled. Sadly logic no longer reigns.
Nobody thought that. Because they were outdoors.
The problem with organised protests is not that they spread disease, it’s that they spread ideas, info and hope.
Hence why it’s ok for work nonsense but not for anything else.
Don’t protest outdoors, protest indoors.
All those selfish granny killers invading the parks and beaches.
That is exactly the situation of which they are terrified. They know the “second wave” peaked in the week ending the 23rd October and it peaked in tier 3 (MK 1) before the tiers even came in. Whether they will be able to manufacture another “spike” in the new year we will see but the vaccine rollout isn’t going to happen fast enough to cover up a lack of a peak and then people might start noticing the emperor hasn’t any clothes on.
Quite. It didn’t “surge” with the XR protests. It didn’t “surge” with the BLM protests. And neither did it “surge” on the supposedly overcrowded beaches in the summer. Three data points and people still don’t see the obvious.
You know the real problem annie, it’s where they get their propaganda from. I bet the vast majority have never stepped away from MSM or the BBC, GMB bubble. But what a fantastic use of propaganda, from the faked Wuhan deaths, the Italian hospitals, the daily death toll, asymptomatic transmissions, killing granny, save the NHS, police arresting walkers, drones, then summer holidays bringing back more death, BLM peaceful protests, violent anti vaxer protests, Cases rising, cases rising dangerously, the vaccine will save us, cancel Easter. Close schools, the young are killing granny, more cases, government terror predictions, death, death, and Cases. And now cancel christmas to save the NHS. Reminds me of mr incredible in the Pixar film. I keep saving the world, but then it gets into trouble again and I think can’t you stay out of trouble for five minutes! Replace world with NHS. I look at the BBC website every day to get a feeling of what we are up against. Its mostly lies, and doom and gloom. The only positive things they show is if it’s to do with the vaccine.
That’s why they want to destroy pubs, cafés, restaurants, bars, concerts, sporting events,.. Because those places and events are where people mix and come together and that’s what politicians are afraid of
You are close, but my own thoughts are that they want to shut down the main causes of people going to A&E and hospital in general. As alcohol is one of the key drivers of A&E admissions, removing the key ingredient is their answer to solving the NHS demand issue.
The other, of course, being GP referals, which is why since Febrary, almost nobody has been able to to see a GP. Why else would surgeries have answer phone messages saying
“If you are ill, do not come to the surgery.”
You have to ask where am I suppose to go then, bloody Asda ?
Ontario counts suicide victims as COVID-19 fatalities
https://tnc.news/2020/12/13/ontario-counts-suicide-victims-as-covid-19-fatalities/
Canada is fucked, they used to be made of hardy stuff and fucked moose outside in Winter but now they’re run some racist cuck who hates white people, and white men especially, loves black cock and wants to kill everyone until those left do exactly what he wants.
Underrated post
Calls for an emergency COBRA meeting not to discuss domestic terrorism or the next cyber attack originating from Russia or Iran – no, to decide whether or not the stupid plebs should be allowed to celebrate Christmas with their families in the privacy of their own homes.
Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem, it matters not – we need to urgently consign these Communist, WEF puppets to the dustbin of political history. These are sick, dangerous people who must be stopped.
Celebrating Christmas is domestic terrorism. That’s why it was hammered home relentlessly back in March/April that we were transitioning into a new normal. No idle propaganda gimmick, this was a vicious and premeditated attack by a remorseless and relentless enemy that will never stop until we stop them.
Right on brother! It’s a step by step erosion of all our rights and freedoms. Time to reverse the process.
Yes the destruction of our culture seems to be very important to them.
Do you know what, I hope they do ban Christmas because then, when they want to lock us all down again in January, because of a so-called ‘3rd wave’, they can’t blame ‘the people’. Except, oh no I forgot, ‘the people’ will be blamed anyway, won’t they, as they were obviously not following the rules properly. I’m sick of meeting people in our local area who are now so cowed and indoctrinated by the fear-mongering and one-sided reporting of all this, that they have literally become like robots going about their daily business. The only positive thing I saw in our local town yesterday was the new ‘Covid truths’ newsletter, papered across the inside of the windows of our local Wetherspoon’s for all to see. Wonder if it will still be there this time next week?
You express a very strange psychological state that I have strongly felt and which must have recent, documented historical precedent. As a society degenerates into authoritarianism, those who oppose it are willing the authorities to implement ever more absurd restrictions in the hope that it will trigger a mass resistance. Sadly I think we are well past that point now, the Rubicon has been crossed and the majority will continue to do whatever they are told by the state. I don’t think any of us will really know when the actual turning point has been reached. Our only choice is to battle on, day after painful day.
https://youtu.be/V_g3CwEbQtU
Quote from William Kingdom Clifford plus discussion.
You’re right. The sheeples are jostling to enter the slaughterhouse. There’s nothing, nothing they won’t take. It’s up to us to fight tyranny, not assist it.
Someone posted here recently that most people living under tyranny don’t realise it. A good example is North Korea – this attitude was evident in Michael Palin’s TV programme about his visit there a year or two ago.
I’m sure you are right. If Hopeless Hancock told people to hop on one leg 3 times before entering a shop ( it shakes off the Covid, don’t you know) they would do it. No brain is engaged by the public.
The Ministry of Silly Cucks.
Do you really think so Richard? I’m still hoping that something will happen to wake people up. Am I being naive?
That was reported as happening in Swale, Kent, yesterday here on LS, is yours somewhere else ?
Same here. My local area is populated by zombies and my workplace is no better. After having to put up with my local area during the first lockdown, I actively boycott it now – its a depressing place with no local businesses, little to no green spaces and loads of people particularly students making a nuisance of themselves.
Blimey where is this area?
Yes I saw them too as all the muzzled sheep shuffled past the closed pub.
35th!
35th taketh the pifth.
This is well worth reading in full and pondering on: https://dailysceptic.org/the-risk-to-granny/ Guy de la Bédoyère looks at women over 75 in England & Wales and calculates that in an average year 6.7% of them will die, based on freely available stats Then he says this: “This recent Imperial College article (October 2020) explains that that an IFR for COVID-19 of about 0.1% for under-40s rises to over 5% for the over-80s (it doubles for about every 8 years of life over 40). In other words, of 100 people aged over 80 who catch COVID-19 up to about 6 will die. That’s another way of saying that 94 will survive Covid. That’s both sexes and we know women do slightly better.” The risk from covid to this group seems to me to be remarkably similar to the risk of dying anyway. Now we here all probably knew this, but in my view this is the most realistic way of looking at it and a very powerful argument – instead of telling people that the IFR for over-80s is over 5%. which still sounds scary, you can tell them that the chances someone dying from covid IF THEY CATCH IT are more or less the same… Read more »
That the risk of dying of covid is similar to dying of anything else this year was known when the first data came back from Italy in March. It was popularised mainly by Professor Spiegelhalter from Cambridge. In the early days he said we just have to sort of get through this and that any intervention was just to stop that 1 year of extra death happening in a couple of months if everyone got rapidly infected.
Michael Leavitt always contended it was more like 1 extra month of death (due to the IFR being lower than presumed, previous immunity etc).
Private Eye pointed this out, back in the spring, yet has continued with its orthodox lockdownism ever since. I agree with you that it sounds like a killer fact: but apparently the people who believe in the covid cult aren’t reachable by facts.
‘Cult’ is the opposite of ‘fact’.
It has been a shock to realise that the country in which I thought I lived no longer exists.
It should not have been. There have been blindingly obvious clues along the way; the impossibility, any longer, of being a ‘Briton’; pedestrians in Sloane Square, none of them looking skywards as the Battle of Britain Flight flew over; the bizarre outpourings of grief by so many over the death in a car crash of Diana, Princess of Wales; 40% support for Mr Corbyn; parliament’s refusal to implement the democratically expressed will of the electorate; the British Army diminished to a militia and sent to an arguably illegal war without essential equipment; Blair and Teflon Terry’s (oh..and then he did something just as illiberal at Ofcom!) illiberal tyranny of the majority hunting act……….and so on and so forth, culminating in this total weird out…..
Britain, in my lifetime, has welcomed roughly 4 million new citizens 1945-1997 and at least another 10 million, net, since then.
Make of that what you will, but in numbers alone, that is seismic……..
For the record I voted Remain in 2016 and Corbyn in 2019, totally against my principles, and fuelled purely out of a near irrational (at the time) hatred of the leader of the other side in both of those elections. Namely Johnson. If he has anything to do with anything, it has always been, is and will continue to be toxic death. Above all others he deserves a lifetime custodial sentence.
He is a politician, most of whom are complete nincompoops, simply talk for a living….but he is supposed to be supported by a competent bureaucracy. It is crystal clear that he is, in fact, surrounded by other politicians with civil service titles but no professional substance……..
Has there ever been a politician who harboured a greater distance between their image of themselves and their actual performance than Johnson? Dictators like Stalin surely did, but at least he excelled in evil. Johnson can’t even do that.
I admit to having been fooled by Johnson, or rather by wishful thinking. I wasn’t too bothered about his ‘competence’ because I assumed that his job was not to understand how a spreadsheet worked, but to understand history, the importance of liberty and so on. I assumed that Johnson was the man to do that. I was wrong.
I don’t know what to make of him, now. But I have learned something: until you have experienced it, you can’t grasp why those older than you are so implacably cynical about politicians. I understand now.
The articles from his days in journalism are very revealing. Here speaks an eccentric, upper class libertarian, seemingly committed to upholding the freedom of the individual and the independence of the nation state.
Now we know he values none of these things. The public persona was a charade. This is a man who above all else loves his image of himself, and nothing else. In reality he is utterly hopeless, and very weak. Which is why he is one of the worst political leaders in all of human history. Not necessarily a bad guy actually (although I believe he certainly is), just thoroughly shite.
He wrote those libertarian articles at a time when it cost him nothing. This year he has been called to account for his principles. He hasn’t any.
Narcissist.
Yep. No doubt about it. Full blown NPD.
Carrie loves him though…for the time being…..
56 year old, serial adulterer, two marriages shot to pieces, 32 year old girlfriend/soul-mate and mother of his 6th, 7th or 8th child. She will not be his last conquest.
For me this was always the red flag. He’s a man-boy. And he cares not for the hearts of others.
Power may well be an aphrodisiac, but most of these children were conceived when he was nothing politically.
Kissinger had a much more solid approach. A far superior bastard all round really.
How the fuck could you vote remain? The EU is just another layer of government we need rid of. For that reason alone you should have vote leave. I’d get rid of Parliament, the scottish parliament and local councils myself. I think between us we can get by without the kind of people who want these things
On the plus side Left and Right are now meaningless terms
Coronatarians are on both “sides”
Freedom fighters also
My doubts about Johnson began when I read about his state visit to Erdogan in Turkey. Brown nose.
Blair was given the Native American name of “Walking Eagle”.
(WE is applied to eagles that are so full of shit that they can’t fly.)
It should have been ‘The Eagle That Cannot Even Walk’!
UPDATE
That’s even better than Fat Pang for Patten.
At least Corbyn voted against the second lockdown …
And the Iraq war
Thats true…I am not too sure what his reasoning was but a vote against is a vote against.
It’s remarkable to look at the ONS data
1970 55.6M
1980 56.3M
1990 57.2M
2000 58.9M
2010 62.8M
2020 67.2M
Growing up in th 80s, the 56M figure was a typical quiz question and well known because it was so stable.
add at least 10% to any official figure quoted
I would wager the UK population is closer to 90 Million
They wouldn’t be trying to implement Halal on the downlow if it wern’t
So the thing that I and others pointed out many months ago, that the way Covid was attributed was vague due to policy change and wide symptom ranges, coupled with clear confirmation bias took LS 6 months or so to work out.
And the government not.
This same data is then fed into models and was fed into the original Ferguson model and other simple ones providing stupidly overblown projections and damage.
All of which could have been prevented if theoretical people had listened to the practical people.
It’s very simple: make sure you measuring the thing you say you are measuring.
Frankly in any job I’ve worked on this would have got my fired and most likely charged.
So as we have said all along THERE IS NO CRISIS.
Not a Covid crisis, no.
A totalitarian oppression crisis.
Every lie helps them.
Evert bit of truth helps us.
About ready to call it quits. Don’t care anymore, lost everything, and this world is raving mad. Fuck it.
What are you going to do?
I think that’s obvious – unfortunately. I know there’s probably a lot of us considering our options (as the phrase goes) and that have got some stage we will not go beyond. I am certainly thinking that “I can give this Bloody Lockdown only so long to go away and life to get back to Normal – and, if it still hasn’t done so, then I can’t shift my Society, but I can/might shift myself (ie right out the door in the direction of Heaven via suicide)”. The Government can continue to deny me my rightful life I should be living – but they can’t make me stay on Earth and put up with it and I reserve the right to leave and will seriously weigh up whether to “stay here waiting for Normal Life to resume” or give it up as a bad job and leave. So – yep – I think that’s what he/she means – and I can fully understand and sympathise.
Many of us are circling this drain. Death is something I have devoted a lot more of my time to this year than I was expecting. I have little invested here but will stick around as long as I can, if nothing else to fuck off the assholes who want this new bullshit world.
And I’m still convinced that the truth will prevail here, but accept that I may well not live to witness this.
I don’t think it is obvious Eliza.
There’s a whole raft choices.
1. Dismantle their business and claim benefits.
2. Stop visiting this site and watch BBC news.
3. Commit suicide.
4. Turn violent in Tesco.
5. Commit a terrorist crime to get rid Boris.
6. Start a new political party.
7. Organise a demonstration.
8. Live their life according to the teachings of Alistair Crowley.
Need I go on?
Yes, I can fully understand and sympathise too. But stay strong, resist, don’t let the bastards win.
This is the essence of it, as you say. The Government is denying us the right to live our lives
You can’t call it quits. You can’t become a zombie. You know the truth.
The world has not gone mad, a significant proportion of the humans are having one of their periodic psychotic episodes but the Ravens and the Buzzards soaring over the local woods have not gone mad at all. The sparrowhawk shooting through our garden and taking down pigeons has not gone mad and this death does not bother the other pigeons, they have had a good year and their numbers are well up. It has been a close contact with the natural world that has helped me keep all this in context especially when it all seems very bleek.
I wholeheartedly agree. I live in the countryside and not much has changed. All the things that make city living good have gone. Everything that makes countryside living good is still here
Me too. Seagulls, waves, horses, rooks, rain, manure, dogs, robins .. Nature is sane. Only Zombie is vile, and Zombie lives in ratholes in cities.
Go live with people who have not been tainted by all this bullshit. Find some support groups.
But let’s look on the bright side…..trials may very well confirm that BCG vaccination provides protection against viral respiratory infections.
‘Between May 11 and June 18, 2020, 6,201 healthcare workers gave blood samples and answered questions about their medical history, including whether they had received BCG and vaccines against two other bacterial infections and influenza.’
‘“We were interested in studying the BCG vaccine because it has long been known to have a general protective effect against a range of bacterial and viral diseases other than TB, including neonatal sepsis and respiratory infections,” says co-senior author Dr. Moshe Arditi, director of the Pediatric and Infectious Diseases and Immunology Division at Cedars-Sinai.’
‘these results indicate that a history of BCG vaccination confers a nonspecific protective effect against infection with SARS-CoV-2 and decreases the presence of self-reported COVID-19 symptoms.’
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/tuberculosis-vaccine-may-help-protect-against-covid-19#COVID-19-symptoms-and-antibodies
BCG vaccinations were introduced in 1953 and so I guess many people in their mid to late 70s will have had BCG but people over 80 much less likely. I think it was phased out as a routine treatment in 2005 and so only targeted people under 30 will have had BCG. Just sets me wondering whether the Covid vaccines will interfere with this BCG immunity? The human immune system is complex, delicate and finely balanced I do wonder how much vaccine interventions our immunity systems can reasonably take?
Having had TB (twice) due to not being inoculated as a teen, I can tell you that BCG has a life of 14 years. Hence teens being previously given it to take them up to the age of 30.
I have 3 children who were all given BCG when they were babies (as I had TB when pregnant with my first). They needed another jab in their teens.
My point is, BCG coverage wanes with age.
Sort of. BCG inoculation is also not very effective in adults so 14 years old is about the oldest that it’s worth giving it to someone anyway. Lots of vaccines benefit from a “booster”, but it is still very much an individual response. Hence why it’s usually preceded a week before by that little antibody test on your wrist to see if you needed it or not.
‘Investigators now report results of a unique 60–year follow-up to a placebo-controlled BCG vaccination study among American Indians and Alaskan Natives, who were deemed to be at high risk for developing TB. Vaccinations were performed from 1935 through 1938, when participants were 1 month to 20 years old.’
https://www.jwatch.org/id200405070000002/2004/05/07/bcg-vaccine-efficacy-lasts-60-years
I agree, but it should, of course, in my view, be a personal choice. If individuals are terrified of covid 19, then a vaccination may be of considerable comfort to them.
As far as I am concerned, so many of us are going to die of respiratory disease in advanced age that trying to avoid well over 160 different viruses, most of which kill people on or about the normal life expectancy, is utterly pointless.
But, clearly, very large numbers of people see it completely differently…….
I had a terrible reaction to a BCG jab I was forced to have at work (NHS) and it ruined my heath forever, I had to retire. As for protection against viral illnesses, I had the vaccination around 2000 and nearly died from pneumonia in 2004. My health was permanently damaged and I was told at the time that the BCG jab can have serious implications as it can send the immune system into overdrive. I had terrible urticaria and couldn’t even wear shoes, jewellery and my lips split and I ended up being unable to swallow. Then I got auto immune diseases and other issues, including cancer.
I ended up in hospital as a teen after the BCG jab
Hopefully this gets me out of the Frankenjab
Really sorry to hear that.
NHS current advice appears to be that BCG vaccinations should not be given to adults.
That is no doubt why current trials of BCG vaccination for healthcare workers are taking their time.
‘Two groups at especially high risk of infection and disease are front line health care workers working directly with COVID-19 patients and elderly residents of group homes or facilities that provide skilled nursing care to this frail population. Interim measures to protect these groups while we await a high efficacy vaccine are desperately needed.’
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04632537
I see the Government are spending £12bn of taxpayers money on vaccines. What an absolute disgrace. I must remind everyone there is a 1 in 300000 chance of a healthy person under 70 year old catching Covid and dying. There is absolutely no need for a vaccine!
Having spent the money, they will need to use them.
Pharma shareholders want feeding
Hugh has posted below that he hopes to see a Nuremberg Mark 2 take place after this.
Whom would we like to see on the “Judging Panel”?
There are so many from which to choose.
Anders Tegnell? Alan Jones from Sky News Australia? Peter Hitchens? Dr John Lee? Professor Carl Heneghan? Dr Mike Yeadon? Certainly Lord Sumption as chief judge. Sunetra Gupta? Dr Claire Craig? Professor Allyson Pollock? I might even let Julia Hartley-Brewer sit at the very end of the bench (if she didn’t mention the vaccine) for the excellent job she has done in making politicians look stupid.
I couldn’t fit on here all the evil ones who should be in the dock at this trial, but I do think there should be a special dock built for Matt Hancock, at least two metres away from the rest of them. He so deserves it.
Now who is going to volunteer as chief executioner?
Stand back, I’m first.
Hugh must be dreaming, these fuckers will be given Peerage’s and be living it up in the House Of Lords until their nose falls out the trough for their service to keeping us all safe.
I’m afraid you’re right Biker. It’s more than disgraceful-rewards for bad behaviour.
‘You see things as they are and ask ‘Why?’, I dream of things as they might be and ask ‘Why not?”
George Bernard Shaw
Does anybody know the chain of command that sent infected people into care homes?
NHS?
Health Secretary?
Civil Service?
Has this been investigated at all?
“In 1346, the bodies of Mongol warriors of the Golden Horde who had died of plague were thrown over the walls of the besieged Crimean city of Kaffa.”
The Amnesty Care Homes report may help you:
https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/2020-10/Care%20Homes%20Report.pdf?kd5Z8eWzj8Q6ryzHkcaUnxfCtqe5Ddg6=
The Fascists buried that report very effectively.But it still exists and will be used at their trial.
Is anyone following this bollocks? I’m at the studio or garage every day where loads of us meet and do what we do, i’m in and out of all my friends houses, i don’t wear a mask, i’m still doing everything normal people do. These lockdown people need to fuck right off. I’ll be having my very elderly parents round for Christmas just like they’ve been coming round whenever they want all through is nonsense.
When are these clowns in charge gonna get it thru their thick fucking skulls lockdowns don’t work, we don’t want their Davos new world order and we don’t believe they are saving anyones life?
That Labour cunt is really annoying me with his self-righteousness, If it were to come out he was friends with grooming gangs and had a history of living in Leeds under an assumed name it wouldn’t surprise me.
Therein lies the rub, he was crying crocodile tears on Twitter over the loss of jobs but its glad to see people calling him out on his hypocrisy and reminding him that he wanted a harder lockdown similar to France and Spain.
Labour never learn and having that man as leader who is as bad as the previous one shows that they have a death wish.
Anyone with socialist tendencies is a total fucking moron and needs to be self-righteous because their beliefs are so stupid that when forced to defend them they can’t.
Socialism is slavery for people who are bad at maths.
Well said and I think deep down they know that they haven’t got a leg to stand on. I used to challenge my mother-in-law to think of policies that don’t involve “taxing the rich,” she could never always answer that.
Socialists don’t understand that the consumer always pays the tax. If they tax a company more, they pass the rise on to the consumer. It’s so simple that i can’t comprehend how they don’t know it. My answer is they pretend to like people but they actually hate them and themselves and when they see independent conservative minded people doing their own thing, supporting themselves etc they hate it. They are always moaning and blaming others for their own failures. I could have lived my life off my family no problem at all but i wouldn’t take a single penny from any of them. I made my own way in life, like my daddy and his daddy before him. We can look each other in the eye knowing we did it ourselves. Socialists imagine that someone i’m meant to help them out and always go one about what about people who can’t help themselves proving once and for all all they care about is virtue signalling. I’ll help out other people if i feel i can without causing them to lose face but i won’t just help some fucker who just wants me to.
As Mr Bart says its in their interest to keep people poor and discourage any aspiration. And woe betide and if you’re an ethnic minority (like me) who thinks for themselves and not parrot the narrative the left have created.
Reminds me of an interesting saying about the Democrat and Republican parties in the US. People say that the Democrat party is the party of the poor and the Republican party is the party of the rich. Well then, surely the Democrats want as many poor people as possible so they have a large voter base, and the Republicans want as many rich people as possible.
There will always be socialism, as a response to inequality, real or perceived. Bill Gates, a billionaire, calling for shutting down bars and restaurants for many months when he can very well afford such a step and is not affected by it is a good example of the “let them eat cake” attitude that actually encourages socialism and perhaps revolutions.
That’s what i keep telling people who want a tax on carbon emissions. They don’t seem to understand that companies pass all expenses onto customers as part of the price. They somehow think that companies will voluntarily take a massive hit to their income just to keep prices the same.
Why they seek to muzzle and divide us:
“We talked the matter over and could have settled the war in thirty minutes had it been left to us.”
– Unknown Confederate Soldier referencing a meeting he had with a Union soldier between the lines.
Generally true in wars, which is precisely why the Christmas truces of 1914 were considered threatening by high commands and repetitions in WW1 were discouraged. Soldiers freely fraternising can be a sign of military collapse – Russian troops fraternising with German or Austro-Hungarian troops in 1917 was one symptom of the Russian army falling apart although the other armies were not too steady either.
We had to read “no news from the Western Front” as part of our curriculum.
I found it very upsetting, but therefor would recommend it to anyone.
My favourite part was, where a soldier says: Instead of sending us into the fields, the politicians should meet here and have a boxing match.
‘All Quiet on the Western Front’.
Silke gave an accurate translation of the original title.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=all+quiet+on+the+western+front&ia=web
https://www.brainpickings.org/2010/07/09/mark-twain-the-war-prayer/
Survey: do you support tighter lockdown restrictions?
Sure – but for other people, not for me |_|
No – I want puppies, kittens and babies to die. Also I’m a Nazi. And a Tory party supporter |_|
Not sure if it’s been posted here yet, but here are the results of the “no restrictions for refusing vaccine” petition debate:
Video: https://youtu.be/6juJ_nd73Tw
Transcript: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-12-14/debates/782DBCA8-620D-473C-A8CB-CCB9C0F78DF5/Covid-19Vaccination
I see no one critical of the vaccine offered any input. I see a lot of circle-jerking (yes, that word again, simply because it’s such a good description – see how Alex Baker decided to use his time at 6:46 in the transcript). And even though the petition said “prevent any restrictions on those who refuse a Covid-19 vaccination”, parliament decided that this only applies to them, and as such some applauded eventual restrictions placed by private businesses, like Quantas did just a little while ago.
Conclusion: Government will probably not force anyone to take the vaccine (yet). Probably because they know that they won’t even be able to vaccinate those at risk. But they seem more than willing to outsource this to the private sector, meaning that they are condoning discrimination.
IMHO the petition was the wrong one. Getting there to be option for anonymous vaccination would have been an irreversible win on this, one that would prevent a U-turn. Nonetheless, congrats to those who petitioned and protested to get this done.
My stepfather is 92 in February. Has farmers lung, COPD and is hospitalised most winters with pneumonia. He made it clear in April that he had had enough of lockdown; his line was “I have had a jolly good life and, if it is to be this that finishes me off, so be it”.
My grandmother is 94 and for many months has been openly expressing a wish to pass away in her sleep, rather than continuing with life under this new regime.
Real unemployment is much higher than 5%. Gov’t is paying the salaries in part of 8-10 million with either debt, taxes or printed plastic. This runs out in March. Then what? There are roughly 24 million private sector workers in the UK. Since when is welfare for 8 mn declared not to be a form of unemployment? If the supports were lifted tomorrow what would happen to the unemployment rate?
The gov’t issued unemployment number is a chimera and another eg of data fraud. Just like the made up CV 19 dead and tests.
You are bang on Ferd. The shit will hit the fan on this by mid April
Thought that in October tho didn’t we and rishi just found another magic money tree to pretend it all away. What’s to say he won’t discover another one and another, until eventually money has either lost all meaning or us plebs are consigned to a life of mental tax rates to pay for their mess.
IMO lockdown scepticism and real social discontent will take off in the spring, probably coinciding with the virus – whatever it is – tailing off, probably in a way too obvious for even the MSM to hide.
I had read that unemployment figures are only counted as people that are actively seeking new work? Figures are not based on actual redundancies, job losses etc?
So yes I would agree the rate is far, far higher.
Yes and they are not counting those who are getting furlough even though the place where they work no longer has a job for them. This runs out in March? Probably add another million. I love the fact that the MSM and BBC are shocked by these numbers!
Looking forward to your work’s Xmas do? Standing on a pavement, in your 2 metre virus space, with your mince pie and cold mulled wine, clutching your mistletoe, cos you hoped to get a kiss from the hottie in Accounts this year, while you wear your everso funny secret Santa pressie: a tinsel and glitter face nappy.
Nope. Would rather eat a light bulb than attend a work do especially if its on Zoom.
Me too. If I can’t do things ‘normally’ then I refuse to participate at all.
And given how many work colleagues have exposed their not so good sides to me, I don’t think I can put up with them outside a work environment.
In my wife’s office, they put up decorations at the beginning of the month to cheer things up. One of the bosses stormed in and got them to take everything down again because, you know, Covid. The same person has organised a Christmas buffet this afternoon mixing two departments in one office space, where it will be impossible to maintain social distancing.
“cos you hoped to get a kiss from the hottie in Accounts this year,”
In my 24 years working as an accountant, I’ve yet to meet these hotties that everyone talks about 😉
I’ve come to hate the modern ‘do’ consisting of a tame trip to a restaurant (thankfully off this year). In the 90s it was a car boot full of food and drink delivered on the last day and consumed in the office from lunchtime onwards. The latter is perfectly allowable as far as I can see – a work meeting
Standing on a pavement? Right where people have opened all their windows to let the covids out? That mistletoe ain’t gonna protect you.
I’ve just been on the gov.U.K. Covid website. There is a section where you can type in your postcode and it gives you the number of positive tests in your area.
They can’t even spell the name of the area correctly. Why should I trust their numbers therefore? Unbelievable!
I looked there. Is it the one with a map on one side and postcode input on the other? if so, I think the site is bust. It shows every region I tried with less than 3 cases.
Maybe it’s telling the truth…?
Well yes, I realise that. I looked at London and some of the other so-called heavily infected areas…..random selection….all less than 3.
It’s the PHE website which takes you to a section which tracks “cases”. It seems to be working as the numbers are reducing in my local area on a daily basis.
In my area it jumped from around 20 for 3 days to 41.
I wonder who these idiots are!!
I have seen a number of comments in the forums that show the impact being the lone voice in the wilderness has on the mental health and wellbeing of all of us that see the truth. We already know the incidence of mental health issues and suicides has increased and this will continue to rise so it is important that we take care of each other as it is clear it becomes overwhelming at times. Would it be worth the site having a link for mental health support services as a standing item alongside the obvious support from members?
This is a good idea although I’m cynical of the likes of the Samaritans who have exposed themselves to be the mouthpiece of the State’s destructive policies.
I can’t find a way to excuse Samaritans’ collusion, but I don’t think it makes the support offered by their volunteers less valuable to anyone in crisis.
Bearing in mind how much harder it is to get treated by the NHS for anything other than covid these days, I can attest first hand that mental health services have been completely decimated. It’s gone from a poor and patchy service to largely non-existent.
What would really make me feel better would be to engage in person with other lockdown skeptics. I don’t know how we could organise local meet-ups though without potentially falling foul of cultists?
What would be good would be a way of sending private messages to each other on here, which might allow local communities to grow. Is that possible?
Excellent idea. But don’t know how to go about it.
I think it one can private message via the forums. I’ll give it a try and message you.
Judy, go to forums, hit the envelope icon and see if there’s a message from me.
Thank you. Went to forums and onto site en.m.wilipedia.org. Found several envelope icons but nothing. Probably me, I’m a bit computer illerate
As I said earlier for me the best way to stay sane is to get out and become an activist. Find your local groups of sceptics – better than staying in and phoning a help line.
This from a friend.
”I’m so angry and depressed and so so sorry for the whole innocent hospitality sector.
I’m heartbroken it now looks like I won’t even be able to see my family in Bristol over Xmas after all
I hate hate hate this government”.
What’s stopping her seeing her family?
FFS.
It’s in Wales. They probably will arrest her if she’s from England.
This is the real reason most people back away from it, fear of getting caught and/or fines. I have sceptical friends who won’t come over for dinner because, understandably, they don’t want a whopping great fine for having dinner. As always it breaks along wealth lines, got a nice big house with a driveway and secluded entrance? People can show up and you’ve no neighbours to know and snitch. Live in a fla, terrace or semi with no driveway? Loads of neighbours to worry about behaving like cunts and grassing you up.
Yes..because we now live in E Germany circa 1976. Fuck this government to what I has done to this nation, they deserve to be shot, all of them!! P.S. In the gut, so it’s not over too quickly, that would be a mercy they do not deserve.
Drakeford should stand trial for Crimes against Humanity
I look to the day. The man is a psychopath.
The family home is small and cannot accommodate extra staying overnight. Hotels refusing to provide food. Disgrace.
I’m sorry, but there’s far too much of this ‘poor little me I can’t etc etc’ stuff going on. If your friend wants to see her family, and they want to see her, then she should just go and see them.
I try not to waste energy feeling sorry for myself but I’m sure I am not the only one who lacks any family or friends who are remotely sceptical. Unfortunately having social contact isn’t a unilateral decision.
Find some new sceptical friends by searching your local Keep Britain Free or Save Our Rights group and move on from the compliant ones. I’ve learnt the hard way but now I’ve made the effort to meet new sceptic people life is so much better.
I think I may have posted this before, but I will do so again. When there is talk of the hospitality sector, people think of pubs and restaurants, There is another part to the hospitality sector consisting of conference centres; and conferences themselves. Every year I organise a conference for my Greek, Hebrew and Theological students; an event appreciated by all attendees. Our last was in February and I have moved the next one from May 2021 to October 2021. No one knows what the conditions will be then but the venue was able to tell me how conferences were organised in October – they are now closed until April 1. These are the conditions: Masks face nappies must be worn Anti-social distancing must be observed Breakfast, lunch and dinner is served in individually wrapped packets The staff must wear full PPE For morning coffee and afternoon tea tables are set out and allocated specifically for one’s own ‘conference’. No mixing between different ‘conferences’. All of the fun has been removed. Who would want to attend under such conditions? Probably one goes once and never again, it is no longer enjoyable. Two conferences that I wished to attend next year… Read more »
My friend works for one of the biggest eventsvenues in London. Initially their management thought they could ride out the storm but once the two largest events in the autumn were cancelled – the Travel & Tourism fair and the Christmas show, that was the last straw for them.
My friend was forced on a reduced hours contract and it was so bad that staff were not even given the option of voluntary redundancy but rather went straight to compulsory ones.
You can bet its the same with venues up and down the country.
Quite. As this shitshow looks like continuing throughout 2021, some memberships that proved pointless in 2020 will be cancelled in January:
National Trust
Cadw (Welsh equivalent of English Heritage)
SYHA
No point in even being a member.
I didn’t renew my National Trust membership during the first lockdown this year. Couldn’t see the point of having it and can’t stand all the crap they’ve been coming out with recently.
They will not see my money ever again, with their locked and chained car parks and their one-way systems and their bloody wokeness.
I killed my membership once their woke crap came to light. Tossers
I’ve already cancelled my National Gallery one – its rather pointless.
And thank the Lord we never pushed through with the National Trust, there’s no point to them now.
Stephanos, you are part of Western civilisation and you are under attack, but you are fighting back.
I have realised that I am actually grieving for my old life and what has been stolen from us all. I think I am near the end of the process. My focus is now on reconstruction and punishing the purpetrators to set a strong deterrent.
The Purple Traitors.
That’s the spirit.
This kind of crap annoys the hell out of me. If you want to see your family then just do so. Why can’t people bloody well wake up and see that if they stop complying with this shit then it’s over. They are imprisoning themselves.