“Out of Control”
Doing the rounds on the Sunday morning’s Politics shows, Matt Hancock gave his prognosis for the future of the Tier system and the mutant strain of COVID-19. He did not give the impression of having a grip on the situation. The MailOnline has the details.
Matt Hancock today warned the new mutant strain of coronavirus is “out of control” as he suggested draconian Tier 4 restrictions could be in place “until we have the vaccine rolled out”.
The Health Secretary said people in Tier 4 areas should behave as if they are infected in order to combat the new variant of the disease which spreads quicker than its predecessor.
Mr Hancock said the new strain can be caught “more easily from a smaller amount of the virus being present” as he confirmed areas subject to the toughest restrictions are likely to be in the top tier for the long haul.
The Cabinet minister said “we have got a long way to go to sort this” and it will be “very difficult to keep it under control until we have the vaccine rolled out”.
Mr Hancock said the increased risk posed by the new variant meant existing measures to combat the spread of the disease, like wearing face masks and social distancing, would have to be stepped up.
“All of the different measures that we have in place, we need more of them to control the spread of the new variant than we did to control the spread of the old variant, that is the fundamental problem,” he said.
Not surprisingly, the Government’s scaremongering about the “mutant” strain prompted other European countries to start imposing travel bans on visitors from the UK. Apparently, this entirely predictable reaction wasn’t something the UK Government had predicted. The Telegraph has more.
Britain faced an EU-wide travel ban on Sunday night as European countries moved to halt the spread of the new, more infectious, coronavirus strain.
The ban on passenger flights and freight transport from the UK threatened to disrupt food supplies, Christmas gifts and even the Covid vaccine as well as hitting the festive travel plans of an estimated 250,000 Britons.
France, Belgium and the Netherlands were among 11 EU nations including Germany and Ireland to suspend flights and most freight lorries, trains and ferries from midnight on Sunday for between 48 hours and the New Year.
The Eurostar rail service said on its website on Sunday evening that due to the French and Belgian border closures with the UK it was unable to run any trains from London to Paris, Brussels, Lille or Amsterdam on Monday or Tuesday.
The EU’s 27 member states will hold an emergency meeting on Monday morning to discuss a blanket ban that could cost UK consumers £400 million in lost or cancelled bookings.
On Sunday night the Department of Health said it had contingency plans in place to airlift the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines from Belgium to the UK using military aircraft if the freight ban stays in place for longer than 48 hours.
It is understood that the next delivery of the vaccine is not scheduled for the next two days, but if the ban is extended the airlift will come into play. Contingency plans for getting essential medicines from the continent to the UK are also in place.
The Road Haulage Association (RHA) warned, however, that the plans by France alone to shut its border for at least 48 hours threatened “enormous disruption” to vital food and trade supplies so close to Christmas.
Rod McKenzie, RHA director of policy, said that even though France will allow incoming freight to the UK, they cannot return, saying it was “a bitter blow for the UK logistics industry which is struggling with the transport crisis caused by COVID-19 and Brexit”.
He added: “Drivers can come in but they cannot go back with the border shut for 48 hours. Trade is a two-way street, what goes out, comes back and visa [sic] versa. So any disruption to free-flowing goods at this time of year will have severe consequences. It is an absolute mess.”
Boris Johnson will chair a COBRA meeting tomorrow to discuss the flow of freight in and out of the country. Don’t be surprised if there is another press conference.
Tory backbenchers have reacted to the new Tier 4 restrictions with fury, according to the Telegraph, with some accusing the Government of having deliberately waited until MPs had gone home for Christmas before unveiling what amounts to a third lockdown for 18 million people.
Sir Charles Walker, the vice-chair of the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs, said ministers “knew on Thursday, possibly even Wednesday, that they were going to pull the plug on Christmas, but they waited till Parliament had gone”.
“That on top of everything else is a resigning matter,” he said.
William Wragg, the Conservative MP for Hazel Grove in Greater Manchester, said any deliberate attempt to stifle Parliament would be “horrendous”.
On Sunday, the leaders of the Covid Recovery Group (CRG) of Tory backbenchers called for an evidence-based approach to future lockdowns and the return of Parliament for a debate on the Tier 4 measures.
In a statement, Mark Harper and Steve Baker said: “We cannot expect our citizens to tolerate living under a system of laws that changes so frequently, which avoids the usual democratic checks and balances and which is riddled with so much complexity and uncertainty.
“Any change to the laws on Christmas must be debated and approved by the House of Commons in advance, using a Recall if necessary. Parliament must not be bypassed.”
The CRG called for a “clear exit strategy” from Tier 4 measures, allowing families and businesses to prepare for the end of restrictions.
The mood of these backbenchers is summed up by Iain Duncan Smith in a comment piece for today’s Telegraph.
The old rule that advisers advise and ministers decide is of course true, but when it comes to an issue as complex and far-reaching as this pandemic it is only fair to do all we can to understand what role Sage has played in creating the present situation. That is why I believe it is vital for the House of Commons to debate these new restrictions so we may test the rationale behind them, as we did the previous forecasts that plunged us into lockdown.
From the start, Sage has taken a number of different positions on a number of different forecasts. I recall early in the year, before we locked down, when Sage didn’t think testing was vital or that face masks were important. Then there was the infamous modelling from Prof Neil Ferguson which suggested huge numbers of deaths if stricter measures were not taken. That is not to mention the dodgy 4,000 deaths a day graph which helped plunge us into the last lockdown. Now we are told that this new variant is 70% more transmissible than the old variant.
Needless to say, Hancock is not about to heed these calls to resign, according to MailOnline.
I know that Charles is very upset at the measures we have had to bring in and he has been throughout and I understand that and I understand where he is coming from.
But unfortunately these measures are absolutely necessary to save lives.
I am dealing with a global pandemic in the best way that we possibly can with huge pressures already on the NHS, with case rates that are climbing and we must take action, no matter how uncomfortable we find it.
The Mutant Strain: Show Us the Evidence
The Mutant Strain is said to be 70% more infectious than the original version. But is it? Carl Heneghan of the Centre for Evidence based Medicine asked to see the evidence.
The Daily Mail followed up this tweet:
Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care, expressed scepticism over the 70% figure.
He said: “I’ve been doing this job for 25 years and I can tell you can’t establish a quantifiable number in such a short time frame.”
He added “every expert is saying it’s too early to draw such an inference”.
Professor Heneghan said there was no doubt this time of the year, the “height of the viral season”, was a difficult time for the NHS. But he said failure to put out the basis of the figures was undermining public trust.
He added: “I would want to have very clear evidence rather than ‘we think it’s more transmissible’ so we can see if it is or not.
“It has massive implications, it’s causing fear and panic, but we should not be in this situation when the Government is putting out data that is unquantifiable.”
He added: “They are fitting the data to the evidence. They see cases rising and they are looking for evidence to explain it.”
Professor Heneghan said that if it was true the new variant was more transmissible “we should be locking down the whole country” as people leaving the capital to avoid restrictions would spread it.
“We have to act on information as we have it because this is spreading very fast.”
Peter Horby, chairman of NERVTAG and Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health at the University of Oxford, said the figure of 70% was based on “converging data”.
He said: ‘This is including, but not limited to, the rate of change in the frequency of detection of the variant (the growth rate) and the correlation between R values and the frequency of detection of the new variant.”
Minutes from the NERVTAG meeting from December 18th said they had “moderate confidence” that the new variant, known as VUI-202012/01, ‘”demonstrates a substantial increase in transmissibility compared to other variants”.
The variant demonstrated exponential growth when national lockdown measures were in place, the minutes added
Worth reading in full.
Dr Mike Yeadon isn’t convinced.
In Scotland, even Devi Sridhar was looking for some more information before panicking, according to the Times.
Leading academics have demanded more data on the new strain of coronavirus after Christmas celebrations were curtailed without consulting the wider scientific community.
Devi Sridhar, a member of the Scottish government’s COVID-19 advisory group, said that raising the alarm over a new strain without wider peer review had stoked “unhelpful” rumours about an increased risk to children.
Linda Bauld, chair of public health at Edinburgh University, said that experts around the country had not been shown any data to support the claim from UK Government scientists that the new strain was up to 70% more [transmissible] than existing strains.
The minutes of the December 18th NERVTAG meeting, which was so crucial to the decision, have been released – and one surprise is that our old friend Professor Neil Ferguson was among those in attendance.
Is Travelling Around the Country Against the Law?
The Tier 4 regulations were published yesterday morning at 6.57am and came into force three minutes later. So much for Parliamentary scrutiny. The Spectator has an interesting piece about what you are and aren’t permitted to do by law by barrister Charles Holland:
As is perhaps inevitable when advance notice is given of a stable door shutting, the response of many in London last night was to head for the railway stations and get out of town whilst they could.
The reaction to this has been condemnation. The Health Secretary Matt Hancock described the scenes at stations as “totally irresponsible”. The Transport Secretary Grant Shapps weighed in, not just with condemnation, but hinting at a police response. He said “If you are in Tier 4, the law means you must stay at home and you cannot stay overnight away from home”; “Follow the guidance and please do not come to a station unless you are permitted to travel. Extra British Transport Police officers are being deployed to ensure only those who need to take essential journeys can travel safely.” Peter Hendy, the Government’s “Christmas travel tsar” (who knew?) said that “additional BTP officers are in place to ensure only essential journeys take place”.
The new Tier 4 regulations do not contain any express restrictions on travel, ‘essential’ or otherwise. What they effectively consist of is a cut and paste of the second national lockdown regulations to take effect as Tier 4 restrictions. And so, as was the case nationally during Lockdown Two, the new regulations provide for a restriction on ‘movement’: no person who lives in the Tier 4 area may leave or be outside of the place where they are living “without reasonable excuse”. The regulations then give what lawyers would call a “non-exclusive” list of exceptions which constitute “circumstances in which a person has a reasonable excuse”. The list is non-exclusive because an excuse which is reasonable but not listed will also suffice. Whether or not an excuse is reasonable is a question of fact (ultimately for a court). There are 16 categories of exceptions, too detailed to comprehensively paraphrase here, but they include a mix of broadly drafted circumstances (such as work purposes) right down to the hyper-specific.
What the English regulations don’t do is place any ban on journeys that are not ‘essential’. There is no direct restriction on travel in the regulations, and it is not right to speak of being ‘permitted’ to travel. A restriction is only reached by the indirect route of the ban (for those who live in Tier 4) on leaving or being away from the home “without reasonable excuse”. And indeed what might colloquially be regarded as non-essential may be deemed to be reasonable by virtue of coming within one of the 16 categories of excuse.
So, although the deployment of police at railway stations might have the highly beneficial effect of discouraging travel from a viral hotspot, there is no requirement for residents of Tier 4 to only be undertaking “essential journeys”, and no lawful way by which travel could be policed on that basis.
However, the new Tier 4 regulations have resurrected from the Lockdown Two regulations a specific power to police constables and support officers, where they “consider that a person is outside the place where they are living’ in contravention of the restriction on movement, to “direct that person to return to the place where they are living”.
Whilst Messrs Shapps and Hendy (in my view) go further than the law in saying that only “essential journeys” are permitted, if an individual constable’s consideration is that a journey constitutes a breach of restriction on leaving home, and a direction is given, then a debate at that point about whether that direction was right or wrong does not prevent the direction having effect. This is a significant reinforcement of police powers. It could make the sort of distinctions lawyers draw between law and guidance of less practical relevance on the ground.
Worth reading in full.
MailOnline reports that the police won’t be enforcing the Tier 4 restrictions, at least not on Christmas Day.
Police “won’t be knocking on people’s doors on Christmas Day” a federation chief for the UK’s largest force declared last night as London was thrown into Tier 4 rules.
Police forces around the south of England revealed they would be increasing patrols to punish anyone found breaking Number 10’s latest set of restrictions.
Metropolitan Police Federation Boss Ken Marsh told MailOnline the new rules meant little, because Mr Johnson has “lost the good will of the people” over the festive period.
He said: “It doesn’t make sense. It’s going to be no different now from how it was”
On the latest restrictions, National Police Chiefs’ Council Chair, Martin Hewitt, said: “These restrictions will be upsetting for many after a very challenging year, but most people will want to do what they can to protect public health and the health of their loved ones.”
“We urge everyone to follow the rules in their area, and as throughout the pandemic, we are confident that the majority of people will continue to do their best to adapt and do the right thing. Those who blatantly ignore the regulations should expect to receive a fixed penalty notice”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: A Lockdown Sceptics reader tells us he found himself among those making their way out of capital on Saturday:
Caught out in London while doing some emergency childcare we watched with incredulity as the news unfolded on Saturday. No, that’s a lie. It’s exactly what we expected. You can rely on this government. It always changes the plan. On Sunday afternoon we climbed into the car to head home “somewhere in the North” and bust our way past the police roadblocks and helicopter gunships en route.
Oddly, there seemed to be no difference from any other Sunday afternoon in suburban streets. Cars everywhere, plenty of people out walking busily spreading the new superpower mutant virus. Onto the A2. Same story. Bags of traffic. The Dartford Tunnel approach was not especially busy but there was still plenty of traffic. On round the M25 to the M11 – traffic peeled off steadily to follow the same route as us.
The M11 was just as busy as it always is, and both ways. Evidently while there were plenty of us on a mass Great Escape breakout there seemed to be loads of people also piling towards London to soak up the fun of living in the Land of Non-Essential Retail Closures. Seriously. Perhaps none of them had read the news?
The traffic only lightened off when we entered the dreary territory of Tier 3 but it soon warmed up when we sailed past Peterborough, currently also enjoying the delights of Tier 4. Some time later we made it home. I can say with complete honesty that apart from the motorway signs haplessly exhorting ‘STAY AT HOME TIER 4’ (is that an order or an expression of disdain?) I wouldn’t have noticed the slightest traffic difference either from Friday last week when we drove down or any other Sunday afternoon on a route I have driven countless times in the last 20 years. Apart from one thing: we didn’t see a single police car the whole way. Not even a member of the constabulary looking out for speeding drivers. And no helicopter gunships.
It vaguely reminded me of Nevil Shute’s masterpiece On The Beach when the folks of the last part of Australia waiting for the radiation cloud to come held their motor race on the eponymous seashore.
Stop Press 2: Another reader found a little nugget in the new regulations:
Exception 13: voting (18) Exception 13 is that it is reasonably necessary for P to leave or be outside P’s home for the purposes of voting, counting of votes or activities ancillary to voting or the counting of votes in an election or referendum which is held – (a) in accordance with provision made by or under an Act, or (b) in accordance with the laws or regulations of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom, but in respect of which arrangements are made by a consular post or diplomatic mission in the United Kingdom for persons eligible to vote in that election or referendum to vote in the United Kingdom.
As the reader pointed out, this exception seems designed to allow for voting to take place on May 6th, the date of the next local elections.
Does that mean the Government expects the new Tier 4 restrictions to remain in place until then?
Saturday’s Anti-Lockdown Protest in London: An Eyewitness Report
Parliament Square was the scene of an anti-lockdown protest on Saturday, taking place shortly before the Prime Minister held his press conference. A Lockdowns Sceptics reader was present and sent us this account.
The policing of Saturday’s anti-lockdown protests was deeply sinister and unjustifiably heavy-handed. I say that as a seasoned demonstrator and a globe-trotting football fan. I’ve been around the houses and back, but this was different. I could almost taste the lust for violence on the part of the police from the moment I arrived in Parliament Square.
Gangs of highly menacing masked-up policemen came up very close, way beyond the designated two-metre distancing rule. They were towering above me – I’m not a tall woman – peering right in my face, smiling, smug and sneering. By the time I’d been crowded by the third PC asking “What are you doing?”, “Why are you here?”. etc., I could tell that the general vibe was that they were there to intimidate, gloat and bully under the guise of policing in a civilised manner.
There were around 2,000 armoured robocops compared to between 700 and 1,000 concerned citizens, a ratio of over 2:1. Strange, because when my son was mugged at knifepoint, as many others have been in my locality, there wasn’t a policeman in sight. When my 81 year-old mother, who lives alone, had an attempted break-in, with her front door being kicked in and then a van reversing into it, she had to wait four days before the police visited.
It was a hugely mixed London demographic. Young, old, black, white, dogs, a snowman, a unicorn and a few ghetto blasters. Just freedom-loving people from across our great City questioning the insanity of yet another damaging lockdown and yearning for freedom. Before we even left Parliament Square, there had been a couple of arrests.
An articulate guy with a megaphone was trying to firm up the latest set of completely nonsensical rules. He was asking the police questions and repeating the answers over the megaphone so that we could all understand what we could and couldn’t do. He was aggressively carted away for absolutely nothing. He wasn’t rude or dangerous, he was just trying to communicate.
To be honest, it was the swarms of police that made social distancing impossible. We set off down Whitehall harmlessly in our own small groups, mine no more than three, a really interesting bunch of people, who were there for a range of reasons. We passed the cenotaph in good spirits, until the army of police horses pulled in front of us and then officers blocked our path. It’s a well known police tactic, called kettling, used to break up aggressive groups at football matches. It splits crowds up, but also creates panic and confusion.
Next came the charging groups of big burly riot police, heading toward various random people. It was indiscriminate and remarkably forceful. My camera footage shows the full volley and disproportionate force and how many officers were used to take down people, leaving them face down on the pavement, while they wrenched their hands up behind their backs.
There was no rhyme nor reason to who they picked on or why. I believe that was part of the tactic of wider intimidation. I also noted that many badge numbers were covered up and masks made the police unidentifiable. Again deeply sinister. When people were forced to the ground other officers formed circles around the group to stop observers from seeing or filming what was happening. I politely asked what the person on the ground had done. An officer told me to get back, leave, or I would be arrested. No amount of questioning elicited an explanation. Eventually, I moved on. Not far because we were blocked and told to go back. There was nowhere for us to go
By now there were more police arriving in vans. To make it even more surreal, I saw a guy dressed as Frosty the Snowman being charged at and thrown to the ground awith such violence you would have thought he had just robbed a jewelry store. His only “crime” was walking up Whitehall in a Frosty the Snowman suit.
I witnessed another group of police charge down a young woman. The officer who led the charge was well over six-foot tall and he pushed her with such force she flew to the ground. She was screaming. Again, hands behind her back face down.
Really disturbing. I wanted to come to her aid, but was told to leave or be arrested by an incredibly aggressive officer who yelled in my face. His colleague was calmer and told me: “You must go or I promise you, you will be arrested.” But he refused to tell me what for. He was completely out of control – they were all out of control. I backed off and he kept coming towards me shouting at me to leave and move back. I retreated some more, passing yet another young woman being arrested.
It was an abrupt and rude awakening. I’ve not witnessed anything like this before. How have we been stripped of our freedoms and ended up with our paid servants attacking and abusing citizens in our streets for exercising their right to protest peacefully?
Excess Deaths in the US
Readers may recall that last month the Johns Hopkins News-Letter published a summary of Genevieve Briand’s presentation ‘COVID-19 Deaths: A Look at U.S. Data’ which was subsequently removed from the News-Letter‘s website, although it’s still available via the Wayback Machine. The reason? Briand, Assistant Director for the Master’s in the Applied Economics program at Hopkins, said there was no evidence COVID-19 had caused any excess deaths in the US. A pretty sensational claim, given that the CDC claims there have been more than 300,000 excess deaths due to COVID-19 in 2020. The News-Letter has set out its reasons for archiving Briand’s analysis here.
However, beneath that reasoning there is a very interesting comment that suggests Briand may have been on to something.
Consider the following figures – US Total deaths by year per CDC:
2013: 2,596,993
2014: 2,626,418
2015: 2,712,630
2016: 2,744,248
2017: 2,813,503
2018: 2,839,205
2019: 2,855,000
At present the US is experiencing a 1.12% increase in overall mortality rates for 2020 – not good – pandemicky numbers to be sure.
However, last year, 2019, there was also a 1.12% increase. Did we miss a pandemic in 2019?
But wait it’s even “scarier” – 2018 saw a 1.22% increase in mortality rates, 2017 saw a 1.24% increase, 2016 a 1.27% increase, 2015 a 1.27% increase, 2014 a 1.29% increase – all exceeding 2020’s increase in mortality rate – so does this mean we have had pandemics for the last seven years?
Following the Séance
What’s next? What might lie in store for us in the not too distant future? Today, we’re publishing a satirical piece by regular contributor Freddie Attenborough in which he imagines a Downing Street announcement on the eve of Christmas 2022. On the advice of the Spiritualist Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), Boris has imposed a new safeguard against Covid infection – thought distancing.
10 Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA
I am writing to you to update you on the steps we are taking to combat coronavirus. In just a few years, everyday life has changed dramatically. We all feel the profound impact of coronavirus not just on ourselves, but on our loved ones and our communities.
I understand completely the difficulties that lockdown has caused to your lives, businesses and jobs.
I also recognise that many of you will be concerned by the Tier 17 restrictions that my Government has today announced. Let me assure you that the actions we are taking are absolutely necessary, for one simple reason.If too many people think at one time, the resources of the state will be distracted from the war on coronavirus. This will cost lives. We must slow the spread of information likely to generate cognition in order to save as many lives as possible.
That is why we are giving one simple instruction – from today you must distance yourself from thoughts.
You should not engage in intellectual discussion with either of the disease vectors you have been caged with since the Tier 14 mass urban evacuations. You may only think for very limited purposes such as articulating the words ‘Thank you NHS,’ completing compulsory liquidation forms for any insolvent businesses you may once have owned or confirming that you agree to the state being granted power of attorney over your upper respiratory tract.
If you do have to think, you should ensure, wherever possible, that your head is down a lavatory and that the chain is flushed at regular intervals. This will help us prevent the spread of thoughts.
These rules must be observed. So, if people break the rules, the police will issue on-the-spot injections of propofol. Portable electroencephalograms will also be used to identify disease vectors displaying unacceptable levels of brain activity.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Read Fredrick Edward’s piece in the Conservative Woman, imagining Tier 5, Tier 666, Tier Defcon Whitty, and Tier Full-Johnson
A Day in the Life, Covid-Style
Regular Lockdown Sceptics contributor Guy de la Bédoyère has rewritten the lyrics to ‘A Day in the Life’ by the Beatles. Perhaps some enterprising reader would like to put them to music?
I read the news today, oh boy
About a virus that the Chinese made
And as the news was rather bad
I had to don a mask
And social distance in the bathThe virus blew our world out in a trice
The lockdowns prove we’ve all become deranged
Governments have made us scared
Now we’ll all be poor
Nobody was really sure who’s died from what or if it’s all a fraudI watched the news today, oh boy
We’ve saved the NHS, who knows what for?
Crowds of people turned away
But I just had to stare
Having said a prayer
I think we must have got this wrong …Woke up, fell out of bed
Dragged a mask across my head
Found my way downstairs to switch on zoom
And looking up, I noticed I was late
Found my phone and down I sat
Lost my job in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs – what a joke
And then the PM spoke and I went into a dreamI watched more news today, oh boy
No chance of Christmas here or anywhere
And though our plans were fairly small
We’ve had to dump them all
Now we know for certain that the country’s really hit the wall
I think we must have got this wrong…
Round-up
- “COVID-19 Global Mortality: Comparing actual and modelled patterns” – International variations in COVID-19 mortality are not explained by the age profile of different populations, according to John Church and Raj Bhopal in the Lancet. Could it be due to varying levels of pre-existing immunity instead?
- “Overdose deaths far outpace COVID-19 deaths in San Francisco” – 621 people have died of drug overdose in San Francisco this year, reports the San Francisco Chronicle, while only 173 have died from COVID-19
- “Tiers and national lockdowns” – John Redwood MP responds to the latest developments. “There needs to be more strenuous official efforts,” he says, “to find an alternative to these severe controls to economic and personal freedom.”
- “Stuck in limbo with no escape” – The Telegraph reports on the toll Manchester’s ongoing Tier 3 status is taking on its hospitality industry
- “I won’t have next summer, let alone next Christmas” – The BBC reports the sad story of Lesley Nelson who is terminally ill and who may have just lost her last chance to spend Christmas with her sister
- “The victims of this never-ending cycle of lockdowns are being ignored” – The success of pro-lockdown messaging has crowded out awareness of the non-Covid health crisis, writes Charles Levinson in the Telegraph
- “Beware Boris, the rage of the people reaching the end of their tether could end in your tears” – Simon Heffer, in the Telegraph, takes the Prime Minister to task for his flip-flopping
- “Yes, follow the science in every field” – Richard M. Salsman on the AIER blog wonders where America might be if the science truly had been followed in every field, including epidemiology, politics, economics and philosophy
- “That’s it then” – An entertaining sketch of Saturday’s press conference by Robert Hutton in the Critic
- “The PM’s reluctant Christmas climbdown is a disaster for his personal credibility” – Johnson’s problem is not that he gives way at the first opportunity, but that he gives way at the last opportunity, writes Ross Clark in the Telegraph
- “Prepare to be pleasantly surprised by the speed of next year’s recovery” – Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph has an uncharacteristically optimistic take on the economic prospects for 2021
- “Failed and failed again: Watchdogs accuse Scottish ministers of breaching human rights of residents and staff in Covid care homes disaster” – The Sunday Post reports on the emerging scandal of the Scottish Government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis in care homes
- “Moscow refuses Christmas COVID-19 lockdown” – RT reports on the Covid Christmas in Moscow. Should have booked tickets
- “Are we the baddies?” – RT reports on the UK’s reaction to the travel ban
- “Twelve Forgotten Principles of Public Health” – The Great Barrington Declaration’s Professor Martin Kulldorff has compiled a great twitter thread, complete with links to pertinent articles
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Five today: “You Ain’t Going Nowhere” by Bob Dylan, “Get Back in Your Box” by Fieves, “Quarantine Christmas” by Aaron Taos, “The War Against Intelligence” by The Fall and “The Masker Mash” by Michael J. Talmo.
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
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Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, the recommendation of an article in the New England Journal of Medicine to rethink sex designations on birth certificates. Sadly, the full article lies behind a paywall but the free preview give you a flavour.
Sex designations on birth certificates offer no clinical utility, and they can be harmful for intersex and transgender people. Moving such designations below the line of demarcation wouldn’t compromise the birth certificate’s public health function but could avoid harm.
Wesley J. Smith in the National Review has more details:
The idea is to move sex designation “below the line”, which allows for general statistical compilation of vital statistics, but not an identifiable designation of the particular individual about whom the birth certificate was created:
“Moving sex designations below the line would be in keeping with legal developments deemphasizing sex distinctions. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has held, in Obergefell v. Hodges, that bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, only a few legal contexts relying on sex designations remain. In these contexts, using information from birth certificates is not the best way to categorize people.”
The authors also want sex distinctions removed from important documents such as passports:
“Passports and state identification cards relying on sex assigned at birth for identification pose another challenge. These documents are usually issued or renewed when the holder is an adolescent or an adult, however, so moving sex designations below the line of demarcation on birth certificates would permit applicants to identify their gender without medical verification. Governments could also remove gender designations from identification cards altogether and focus more on identifiable physical features and updated photographs. This change would accommodate nonbinary people and reduce the burdens associated with amending documents.”
In conclusion Smith says:
Publishing ideological advocacy in what is supposed to be a journal that primarily publishes objective scientific information contributes to the growing public distrust of the science sector. That doesn’t help people with gender dysphoria specifically, or contribute to the betterment of society overall.
Worth reading in full.
This is merely the latest social justice battle to be accurately foretold by Titania McGrath, the satirical Twitter creation of Dr Andrew Doyle, a stand up comic and member of the FSU’s Advisory Council. McGrath has compiled a glorious twitter thread of all the occasions she turned out to be ahead of the curve.
Stop Press: Read Douglas Murray in the Telegraph on why the battle against woke gobbledegook is so important.
“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. Another reader has created an Android app which displays “I am exempt from wearing a face mask” on your phone. Only 99p, and he’s even said he’ll donate half the money to Lockdown Sceptics, so everyone wins.
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.
Stop Press: The Telegraph reports on the warning of a group of senior medics that face masks are being used in schools in a way that is damaging to children and which breaches the guidelines of the World Health Organisation:
The use of masks in classrooms has led to a “climate of fear” in schools, according to an open letter to the Prime Minister signed by a hundred academics, medics, paediatricians and clinical psychologists.
They have urged the Government to withdraw its advice on the use of face masks in school corridors “as a matter of urgency”, adding that masks should “play no part in the life of healthy children”.
Their intervention comes amid a major row between ministers and teachers about the roll-out of mass testing at secondary schools next term.
Signatories of the letter point out that ministers justified their recommendation for face masks in schools by citing WHO guidance.
“However, within the same guideline, the WHO states that when authorities recommend masks for children, monitoring and evaluation should be established at the onset,” they said.
This evaluation should include analysing the impact of masks on children’s physical and mental health as well as their development, learning and attendance.
But the Government has not complied with this aspect of the guidance, the medics claimed.
Worth reading in full.
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 in December and the FSU has decided not to appeal the decision because Ofcom has conceded most of the points it was making. Check here for details.
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
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. Doing these daily updates is hard work (although we have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending us stories and links). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links we should include in future updates, email us here. (Don’t assume we’ll pick them up in the comments.)
And Finally…
Lockdown Sceptics reader Philip Leith has imagined an episode of Who Wants To be a Millionaire? in which Boris Johnson is the contestant.
Jeremy Clarkson: Welcome back. Our Contestant Boris Johnson has worked his way up to this final question and he still has all his lifelines. Boris, are you ready?
Boris Johnson: Never been readier.
JC: OK, here is your final question. What policy should you adopt when confronted with a pandemic? Is it A – Do nothing, B – Focus resources to shield the most vulnerable, C – Shoot everybody before they become infected, or D – Shut down the entire country and imprison healthy people in their homes?
BJ: Well before the answers came up my initial thought would have been B, but I’m not so sure now. Can I please use my 50:50 Jeremy?
JC: Okay computer take away two wrong answers please. Interestingly you are left with B – Focus resources to shield the vulnerable, and D – Shut down the entire country and imprison healthy people in their homes. Your instinct told you to go for B. What’s it going to be Prime Minister?
BJ: Yes, yes, but it is so much more difficult when you’re actually in the chair.
JC: Well you still have three lifelines.
BJ: Yes, can I ask the audience please Jeremy?
JC: Okay can the audience pick up their keypads and key in what they think is the right answer now…. Well, that’s interesting. An overwhelming majority appear to agree with you that the correct answer is B – Focus resources to shield the vulnerable. Is that your answer, then, Prime Minister?
BJ: Er… perhaps, perhaps.
JC: You still have two lifelines.
BJ: True, perhaps it would be prudent to use them. Jezza, what do you think?
JC: Well I’m no expert, but here’s what I think. Focussing resources on protecting the most vulnerable seems like the best idea to me.
BJ: Ah, really? You think so? Crikey.
JC: If you still can’t make up your mind Prime Minister, you can still phone a friend.
BJ: Quite right, there is a lot a stake here. Don’t want to rush into anything, only to have to change my mind. [Audience laughter.] I’ll phone a friend. I’d like to call my friend Patrick Valance and Chris Whitty.
JC: Isn’t that two people, Prime Minister?
BJ: Yes, but they think exactly the same way. They might as well be one person.
JC: Okay, let’s phone them. Hello is that Patrick and Chris?
Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty: Yes.
JC: Jeremy Clarkson here, calling from Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Boris is here in the chair and is going to read out a question and give you two possible answers. Boris you have thirty seconds, make sure you leave time for them to answer, starting now.
BJ: Patrick, Chris, what policy should you follow when confronted with a pandemic? Is it B – Focus on shielding the most vulnerable, or D – Shut down the entire country and imprison healthy people in their homes?
PV: D. Definitely D. We’ve never done that in any previous pandemic and it was specifically recommended against by both the WHO and the UK’s Pandemic Preparedness Strategy. But, nevertheless, the science says D.
CW: Agreed. D.
BJ: Right, thanks chaps.
JC: So, Prime Minister what are you going to plump for?
BJ: Well those two are very clever chaps – very eminent scientists – and with all due respect to you and the audience, Jeremy, I’m going to go for D. That’s my final answer.
JC: Boris Johnson… You’ve just lost tens of thousands of lives, millions of jobs and billions of pounds. The correct answer was B – focused protection.
BJ: Can I do a u-turn?
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First! From the USA
goo goo g’joob
dear Tom
My Apology To Facebook about Covid 19 facts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTPreIUN2g0
AwakenWithJP
JP is one of my heroes.
I think we should create an LS Award for people like him.
Sir Desmond Swayne Interview Exposes BBC Hypocrisy As They Help The Government Hide From Scrutiny
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQiNXFfbGa0
He is so funny. Especially as this is seriously dangerous for his business. But he does not back down. If only the pig dictator had an ounce of his courage.
Semolina pilchards climbing up the Eiffel Tower…
Good morning Walrus.
hancock: the mutant strain can be caught
“more easily from a smaller amount of the virus being present”
Cock & Bull more likely.
Exactly. I don’t believe there is anyway they can know that the virus can be caught more easily. Also, if the PCR test can pick up mutated versions of “COVID-19” maybe it’s also registering other corona viruses as COVID also, such as the common cold. Would certainly explain the seasonal rise in cases.
I’m feeling a bit chesty and have a runny nose at the moment so would probably test positive even though the symptoms are suppressed with Lemsip capsules and I can tell from the taste that it is what I sometimes get this time of year.
I prefer the Lemsip drink. It’s lovely.
and on discount along with strepsils and nurofen. That’s a first
Chopped/diced root ginger left in a flask for 20 -30 mins is good. Honey and/or a cinnamon stick to taste if required.
Put some whisky in and that sounds ok
Laphraoigh, neat, as a nightcap.
Leap Frog. One of the best. Too expensive here in Montreal.
The lemon flavour is the best. Avoid the blackcurrant one.
Wait, the vaccine is available in capsules?
Green tea with honey is also good.
Jasmine tea with honey.
Elderberry tincture is great for colds and flu.
Channel 4 News
‘New variant is out of control says health secretary’
Mutant Matt is out of control. There are mechanisms for removing military offices from power when they become deranged. How is such a minister removed ?
From the quotes
“Necessity is plea for every restriction on human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves”
William Pitt The Younger
Even if there is a mechanism to remove Madcock and Co., they would ignore it or remove any chance of it being actioned.
How have they identified 1100 +individuals with this variant? Full sequencing of the genome? I doubt that somehow. The number was very specific. Are these people taking part in studies like the ONS survey?
I am the Egg man, you are the Walrus.
Does that mean that I’m here and you are her e and we here, together?
Coo~coo coo choob
Our only friend…
You may have been first in reality – everyone can see that – but the certified result shows you were second, so that’s what we’re going with.
wlarus do you know how to find lockdown protests in the usa? i cant figure it out
Zip code? QR scan please? That reminds me, I owe Clark County Treasurer my Jan property tax payment. Thanks! This is really a useful website.
There is a major ethical problem with the vaccine release that isn’t being covered (and emails to lockdown skeptics go unanswered). This info is about the US, but the UK also isn’t telling people about a major risk factor: The Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer vaccine, and its briefing document for the review meeting, states there is an unknown risk of future vaccine enhanced disease (which includes other potential enhancement modes and not just antibody enhancement) after the initial immunity fades: https://www.fda.gov/media/144416/download “The Sponsor identified vaccine-associated enhanced disease including vaccine-associated enhanced respiratory disease as an important potential risk [….] 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 that could be conducted following authorization and/or licensure.” i.e. the study simply hasn’t gone on long enough to see if people have sterilizing immunity producing the initial good results that fades, and then when people do actually get infections: the immune response they learned from the vaccine might lead to a worse case of covid-19. Hopefully not: but the trials just haven’t run long enough to demonstrate that. Yet the FDA isn’t telling patients… Read more »
If the vaccine does indeed result in an ADE response, causing more severe COVID, no doubt it will be blamed on a new strain of the virus instead of the vaccine. I think this is a very possible outcome and a key reason I will not be taking the vaccine.
You’re quite right that the vaccine will somehow not be to blame. Every past coronavirus vaccine attempt has resulted in an ADE response so there’s no reason to believe this one will be any different. I’ll be taking a pass on it as well.
Are you familiar with Amazing Polly?
Yes,I am. I recently watched an inspiring little podcast by her about the hidden dangers of passive compliance around mask wearing. She is worth supporting.
Great.
Exactly. Have thought this all along. They’ll never blame the ‘holy’ vaccine in a million years.
Not just that, but once the ‘vaccine’ was rolled out, HCQ was approved for use for Covid cases by the FDA in the US. Any improvement due to HCQ will no doubt be credited to the ‘vaccine’.
I read about ADE a couple of months ago – “Is a Coronavirus Vaccine a Ticking Time Bomb?” “Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE), and is a common problem with Dengue Virus, Ebola Virus, HIV, RSV, and the family of coronaviruses. In fact, this problem of ADE is a major reason why many previous vaccine trials for other coronaviruses failed. Major safety concerns were observed in animal models. If ADE occurs in an individual, their response to the virus can be worse than their response if they had never developed an antibody in the first place.” – Dr Doug, Aug 15th 2020 – https://sciencewithdrdoug.com/2020/08/01/is-a-coronavirus-vaccine-a-ticking-time-bomb/
It’s definitely a thing. I work for a major vaccine developer, and it’s something the scientific community is very aware of as a concern.
One of the difficulties though with this vaccine is that if you are vaccinating the over 90s they are likely to die soon anyway, and before this becomes a potential issue. It’s when you start in younger people that the issue might be spotted. And it may take years before their immunity has waned enough for this to become a factor. Time bomb indeed. I think I will give it a miss.
Better keep taking the boosters then 😀
This will be an even better investment than buying shares in facemasks in February! With no downside, because in a fascist state political cover is 100 percent effective.
I believe this is the third consecutive day this same post has appeared in the comments. Might it be better posted in the forum so that all the replies are together ?
This comments section can sometimes be as maddening as the whole scamdemic, noting the daily rush to be the first plonker to post ‘first’. The articles above also only concern themselves with disproving this scamdemic, and not sparing enough attention to what or who is driving this. This encourages a shadow boxing response where most people don’t even know what we’re dealing with, they’re just encouraged to get angry at the finer details.
Its been posted in the forums: but those don’t seem to be very active and it isn’t getting responses. The ideal place is in the blog itself: but emails to the address given for the blog don’t lead to any responses. Perhaps others could take a try to get the blog to post about the issue.
Its been posted in the forums: but those don’t seem to be very active and it isn’t getting responses. The ideal place is in the blog itself: but emails to the address given for the blog don’t lead to any reply. Perhaps others could take a try to get the blog to post about the issue.
I had thought that but this post is still attracting upticks and new responses from readers who had perhaps missed it previously.
The Independent reports hundreds of demonstrators in London just before tier 4.
Congratulations to all and good luck to the 26 arrested.
Meanwhile Local Live (mirror group news) reports that a single person sadlidied of covid over the weekend at the major regional hospital.
No wonder the government need to shut the country down in time to cancel Christmas just to fuel johnsons fantasy of equalling Churchill in his battle against Catatonic Coronovirus.
When is a thousand a hundred? When you work for the MSM.
It’s Bozo who is catatonic. Any apparent brain function is just somebody jerking the strings.
“Sadlidied” 😂😂😂
Alathea invented the word. For alleged Covvideaths, no other will do.
No, I can’t take the credit – it was Northumbrian Nomad. I merely adopted it because it is darling.
Happilithanks, NN!
Further hilarious news from South Africa:
https://www.medicalbrief.co.za/archives/12-tested-kn95-mask-brands-used-in-sa-fail-international-safety-standards-uct-study/
Who could have guessed?
Screenshot of that for use in live conversations.
12 tested KN95 mask brands used in SA fail international safety standards — UCT studyDecember 16th, 2020 Research Africa All the Chinese KN95 masks, widely imported into South Africa to counter the COVID-19 pandemic, tested in a University of Cape Town study, failed to provide the protection provided by the ‘gold standard’ N95 mask, reports MedicalBrief. The study, published in the SA Medical Journal, found that none of the 12 brands of KN95 masks tested (comprising 36 masks) met stipulated safety requirements known to prevent infection by dangerous respiratory pathogens including (tuberculosis) and SARS-CoV-2. The study, notes that the N95 mask (FFP2 in Europe) is the primary mode of respiratory protection in most parts of the world because of the high regulatory standards to which it is manufactured. However, owing to the severe global shortage of N95 masks during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a growing demand for N95-like FFRs. The most commonly available substitute for the N95 mask has been the KN95 mask, which is mainly manufactured in China to the GB2626-2006 standard, and which is considered equivalent to the N95 by the US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) following Emergency Use Authorisation based on testing of filtration… Read more »
Oh dear!
Pity the poor bastards who actually need one for work to keep gunk out of their lungs.
We are very close now to the point where millions of people who have been relatively comfortable thus far are really going to start to feel the pain of the consequences of their compliance. The invoice for our dreadful collective mistakes of 2020 is due in 2021, and it is going to be very, very big indeed. The absolute best case scenario is a popular rebellion that unseats the government and lifts all the restrictions, but with many harsh years of rebuilding ahead of us to repair all the damage. Last chance saloon and all that.
I agree with your assessment. Many people haven’t been feeling the pinch, public sector workers have got off very lightly so far. There’s going to be a reckoning very soon.
No there’s not, the british public are just fucking dandy with the whole thing. Do be confident that this will pass. They will kill us if we don’t go along with them. We are never getting free from them. I’ll believe we will when we see the likes of Johnstone and sturgeon swinging from a lamp post however that is never gonna be the case and we now live under global tyranny and there isn’t a thing you can do about it. No wait, sorry they’re just incompetent say the liars and the tell tales who come here. Face it there are handful of genuine skeptics but that is all.
The Great British Public might be dandy with it now, but they’re comfortably numb. When the bills and consequences start coming in, as they inevitably must, the comfort blanket will disappear like snow in spring sunshine, and there will be a reckoning, which won’t be pretty and which will affect all of us deeply in one way or another.
I keep hearing when the bill comes in, sometime downtime road etc but i don’t see it. Not gonna happen. This tiers system will be applied to towns so we won’t be leaving our towns and we won’t know what is going on in other towns because the internet is going away too. I keep saying this and everyone keeps ignoring it, they are shutting down the fossil fuel industry because they planet is totally fucked. This is the start of it. Seven billion people are gonna go. This time next year we’ll be reminiscing about how good life was back when all we had to do was wear a mask.
Lockdown’s just fine if you’re home on 80% money, feeling virtuous about it, and, as you put it, stuffing doughnuts – for most people anyway.
But facts are stubborn things. And numbers with pound note signs in front of them are – eventually – even more stubborn.
Didn’t someone say that any organised society is only five missing meals away from anarchy? Something like that anyway. As the saying goes, food first ethics second (again, something like that).
I guess that when the Collapse comes you’ll be holed up at Cape Wrath and go down in a scene redolent of Mad Maz.
I’ll get to Land’s End and escape in a small boat, and lose my pursuers in the tides and currents around the Longships rocks. Thereafter I’ll wander strange lands with a price on my head. These will later become known as my Wilderness Years. But the inherent inconsistencies in the New World Order will lead eventually to its collapse, and I will return as King. First to be sorted will be journalists, then academics …
Meanwhile, better get the kids some breakfast. Solstice in two hours.
Lockdown is not fine for those on 80% money. maybe if you’re on 80% of three grand a week but since most people are on less than 500 quid a week losing 20% has been a deal breaker. When the end comes i’ll be rounded up like the rest of us. How the fuck are we gonna be able to stop any of it?
When they kick at your front door
How you gonna come?
With your hands on your head
Or on the trigger of your gun?
When the law break in
How you gonna go?
Shot down on the pavement
Or waiting on death row?
I’ll probably just crack a few jokes and pretend I know something they don’t.
Some of the furlough fiddles I’ve heard about are obscene. The people I know on furlough have been fine with it, even though it’s meant less money. Clearly some are suffering though – thing is, they’re spread around and unconnected. Once the suffering becomes joined up, and the reaction organised, things will be different.
As much as i love the Clash they were only pretending to be rebels
Yes, I’d go along with that. They were just a laugh really, but a good one. Never have taken ‘political’ bands seriously.
‘Sing along with Bono and save the World’
No thanks.
Just make sure that when they come for you, that you will take one of them with you.
Shelter said people were just three paychecks away from homelessness. I can vouch for this as some years ago I nearly was. People now having to go on UC are finding it not fit for purpose. It’s all building nicely.
And the sooner the damn breaks the better imv, as the longer this goes on the more damage will entail.
Agree with that Biker..I have bee n trying to put this point across for months but I’m just tired now. This whole notion of us ” Winning” is so delusional it’ actually borders to deranged . I have seen war first hand and the situation we are under now is far off winning in any shape or form that it’s not even on the radar. The best we can hope so is survival or a quick demise.
No one ‘wins’ out of this as such, just as no one actually ‘wins’ in war – we’re all worse off in the end. I keep telling people that even for those who are for now relatively unaffected there are very hard times ahead for the great majority of us – the country has pissed its wealth away on nothing.
But if ‘winning’ is defined as getting to a point where we can start rebuilding society again on decent foundations then I’ll take that, whatever we want to call it.
Survival will be difficult, but why let them get off without a fight. Take at least one of the bastards with you.
Yes indeed, you really know what’s going on. Some of those who are really running the scam may actually believe that the planet is, as you say “totally fucked”, while others just want the place for themselves. Either way, we are not wanted and they are working hard to get rid of us. As Bill Gates told us in 2010, vaccines are the perfect way to cull the population. No guns, no gore, just frighten them enough and they will be begging for the lethal injection. You’ve got to admire the audacity of it.
Again I must say that I made ominous predictions back in Spring about how this will play out – so far I’ve been right (not because I’m a smart arse, but because this deliberate collapse of society has been planned for years and discussed amongst people who the public laughed at as being tin-hat-wearing conspiracy theorists). I was predictably mocked here on this site by the more popular posters for being miserable – particularly for saying Christmas will be cancelled. You know who you are!
Well look at us now.
And as you say, this is not going to get better. And I agree, the public will not revolt. They’ve spent years in a coma-like state of consumerism while the criminal actions of their governments only affected people abroad at the same time as mentally conditioning the population to be more obedient through political correctness.
I continue to implore those who are brave enough to accept the reality of what is happening to start taking decisive action to better prepare for what ‘they’ have install for us in the next few years.
Tell us who mocked you so we can mock them!
I think you’ll find the planet is a bit stronger than all of us put together. It’s the height of human arrogance to imagine anything we fleas could to to an elephant’s hide would even be noticed by nature. CO2 was 5 times higher than now when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and it coped very well, thank you very much. All the greenhouse gasses man has ever put in the atmosphere ever since the dawn is only 2% by weight of what is there naturally, NOW. Never mind the fact that there was once 5 times as much. Grow up.
The problem is that with negative interest on government gilts, they are being paid to borrow money. So the ability to pay furlough and the large percentage of public employees is not a worry for a long time. If you add in the employees of large corporates who mainly have remained unscathed through this, you are left with the smaller retail, entertainment, leisure sector and some small/middle sized commercial/manufacturing employers many of whom are going under, but a lot of their employees are covered by furlough. I can’t see where this mass of unemployed AND unpaid is coming from. As long as they keep this model intact they will survive in government because most people still have enough to lose by popular revolt. The only way it changes is through the discontent of tory mps who think they will lose seats at a GE, and that is still years away. And the way the UK is going it might be wishful to think there will be one in the foreseable future. The one thing that could change the balance is no deal at Transend. Things could get very tough, although again it will take time for people to realise how… Read more »
Doesn’t it all depend on how long QE can be kept going?
They can’t go on debasing the currency indefinitely.
And this QE is different from back in 2009-10 (when it went largely to banks). This time it’s going straight into people’s pockets, in lieu of wages – a sure route to inflation, and lots of it.
You speak of genuine skeptics but I wonder how many of those understand that even the Great Reset is misunderstood (deliberately) as entirely a change of economics? The 3rd Temple is being rebuilt, there are no coincidences.
Regardless of your financial situation, lockdown is goin to affect you :-
The gift that keeps on giving. As someone said recently no country has ever successfully improved the health of a nation by making its population poorer.
You’re dreaming pal. 80% of more of the population are right fucking behind this. A truth the Germans still struggle with is almost everyone became a Nazi and did not give a fuck about the killing of jews, children, anyone in fact who wasn’t one of them. After the war millions of German men all of whom had commit the worst atrocities you can imagine just went back to normal life. The British people once so mighty are now nothing but the scum of the earth and will jump on your head till your dead without a single compulsion. It’s a terrifying situation where us handful of skeptics will be taken out no fucking problem.
No, genuine support is not 80percent. People don’t know what to do, and they hope this will just blow over without action from them. But the Corona’s Witnesses are a minority, with little potential of further growth and apostasies every day.
The believers are getting more vocal, however.
You’re right it’s probably more like 95 % support it
Depends how you mean ‘support’.
Most just go with flow, as they cannot conceive, comprehend or countenance the notion that the Globalists are trying to destroy the country, with the knowing or unknowing collusion of the Govt.
I would agree the capacity for true independent thought, resides in just a small percentage.
Likewise the full-on Branch Covidian zealots represent a small percentage.
You are right about that.It’s NOT 80 percent, not even close. Probably more like 98-99%.
99% maskoids in Morrisons today!
Yes, it’s easy to go along with things until the shit hits the fan as it will and fairly soon at that. The corrupt government is running us onto the rocks at full speed and they are doing it intentionally working to the WEF agenda. Expect power outages and basic food shortages before the end of winter. A deliberately contrived no deal Brexit, will also help them further turn the screw.
“The British people once so mighty are now nothing but the scum of the earth and will jump on your head till your dead without a single compulsion.”
Really?
And your evidence for this is what, exactly?
The evidence is there for everyone to see ( or NO to see to be precise). No mass disobedience, mask wearing on public transport around 99%, on the streets around 60% but going up, every single liberty and rights taken away from us but no protests ( only whimpers of the protests). London, city of 11 millions in a country of 66 millions has produced 2000 protesters at a lockdown protest. When the Great Dictator allowed people to see some live sports 10000 people signed up for the waiting list to see a Championship side playing average football ( my team). If we were wrong there would be a millions people marching or more ( remember the Iraq anti war protests!!) every weekend , weekdays etc.. British people have no fight left in them, none. Our ancestors who fought in WW1 and WW2 are spinning in their graves. Good for them that almost all of them are dead now, they would spit on us in the street
People demonstrated in huge numbers against the death of a drug addict ex armed robber 4000 miles away. Yet they are unwilling to protest about their own freedoms being obliterated and their jobs, businesses and economy being destroyed. The great British Public have a very strange sense of priorities.
we sell weapons to despots and no one gives a fuck, i could list things all day long but what’s the point
Everything I see around me whenever I go into towns.
How did this ridiculous post garner so much support? You don’t know your history pal, and you certainly don’t speak accurately of British people.
Your view is borne out by my outing for a pub meal today in Tier 2 in Cheshire. All the tables I could hear near us were saying how well the pub had done to keep us safe and how they were all terrified. 3 women even put their masks on for a photo at the table! I presume that photo will be used for virtue signalling later on social media. The only people who I come across who are sceptic are working class male tradesmen like the 2 blokes who tiled my kitchen yesterday who agreed it was all bollocks. However they said some customers made them wear masks on the job and stayed in separate parts of the house!
Agree. Those who are in cushy jobs in the public sector, media have not been impacted at all. Same with those who are retired and sitting on huge savings and generous pension schemes. And many in this group have been the loudest in calling for more lockdowns, restrictions and still brainwashed to the point of supporting this latest travesty.
The day of reckoning won’t be kind to them and I shan’t feel sorry for them. They’re complicit in all this and the least they can do is to finally feel what it’s been like for the rest of us for the past 9 months.
Did you read my comment? I did say “many in this group” so I’m not saying that all retirees are lockdownistas.
Agreed, but the fear porn is effective. Even those previously asking for a place on the final cruise on the Swale now anxious about new variant rona.
They’ve set up an asymptomatic testing station on the Island and it’s rammo with all the idiots
Damn right. The majority of the most disobedient people I know have been those in their 70s and 80s. Particularly with masks and sitting apart. And they’re always polite in explaining why they aren’t going to do what they’re told.
I’ve seen plenty of rebellious teenagers too. Whole load of them fooling around on the bus the other day, none of them masked of course.
I’m sometimes polite, sometimes rude. 🙂 It depends.
Baby Boomers Rule!
And I’m one of them.
The comfortably off retired really dont give a shit to be honest. I know as I have some in my family….no longer speaking of course! They come out with crap like ‘we are all in it together’. Tell that to the little people who have had their incomes destroyed. Believe me they dont give a shit.
I agree there are exceptions like on here but I think they are hugely outnumbered by the smug ones who are on guaranteed incomes.
Didn’t you post this exact thing yesterday on another subject? Do you only have one point to make or are you just programmed to add comments to stir up dissent between young and old like so many of the fake posters on this website do? You’re so easy to spot and if you’re a person being paid for doing this I feel very sorry for you
If the Corona Scandal house-of-cards ever collapses, then we will be extremely lucky indeed. But the human race has proven itself to be less intelligent than I thought
In this moment civilisation is on a knife-edge. It could so easily tip into global fascism. All veneer, illusion, pretence of democracy and society will be discarded. Concentration camps, immunity passports, poverty, starvation, fascist governance, police brutality will become the norm
If humanity has a second chance, then I hope people will remember the toxic nature of the mainstream media and the way it betrayed humanity. I hope televisions will find new homes in dumpsters and that the BBC is defunded. That YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are never allowed to ban content for political reasons again
Crucially, laws need creating that protect human rights, giving them priority over any health crisis that might occur in the future, and Government ministers and MPs must be prevented from involvement in policy creation if they are found to have conflicts of interest. This would mean the likes of Patrick Vallance et al would be banned from the roles they have now
“The unknowing are slaves to the liars*.”
I’ve been unwilling to link covid/lockdown with Brexit.
Last week BBC Radio ‘news’ was reporting lorry tailbacks at Dover and elsewhere speculating that firms were stockpiling prior to a no deal Brexit (er… wouldn’t those tailbacks be in Calais? More likely it was European truckers heading home for Xmas).
Convenient timing for Brexit wreckers that the mutant covid has arrived just in time for many European countries to use it to put a ban on freight which did not occur at the height of the initial ‘pandemic’.
Let’s see if we get an ’emergency delay’ for Brexit
‘just until we get this calamity covid strain under control’
The freight ban raises the imminent threat of widespread food shortages in January. I think this reaction was genuinely unexpected by the UK government, especially given that freight was not at all affected even in March/April. I would not be at all surprised if some EU 27 governments have taken the opportunity to use the “mutant strain” narrative clumsily vomited out by the Johnson junta (ironically primarily for domestic consumption) as a means of exacting revenge on the perceived British betrayal of the EU project.
The globalist FILTH has been planning exactly that!
Correct.
wrong
Nope it’s the nest phase of the shut down of the world economy. Food shortages coming our way. You’ll be getting a ration card soon. Still it’s all just incompetence
That’s ok, we just buy food from elsewhere while we return British farming to self sufficiency. The folly of importing more people than we export is now laid bare for all to see.
It’s an interesting cognitive dissonance on the part of the government planners. I believe that we need to be self-sufficient in food as far as we can be. So imagine my surprise when the government proposes a post Brexit “re-wilding” of the countryside and paying “farmers” to do so to meet some fanciful green agenda rather than turning more land over to food production.
I just don’t know what to make of that sort of stupidity in not increasing the internal food supply.
There is a lot of empty land that could be brought back into arable farming.
Nope. Disagree. Full-on expected and planned for. If I could predict this was their plan six months ago, then they sure could engineer it. A deliberate crash-out.
Why else the surreptitious construction of all the lorry parks (bypassing all normal planning rules), which was conducted with very little reporting.
Seasoned haulage contractors and (ex or retired) Customs Officers have been predicting this hugely disruptive outcome all year.
If this was indeed unexpected by the Govt, then it represents new levels of monumental incompetence and stupidity, which I just don’t buy.
(I have personally planned for this accordingly…)
It coincides with the attack on the £ which started this morning.
I linked Brexit back with climate change zealots back in March. Remoaners never went away and the fact they kept their heads down only sent warning signals. Bozo is no leader and he is not a Brexiteer, I’m fully expecting a stitch up and judging by the commenting on Internet websites so are many others. Locking down the South of England would bring a halt to any protests when Bozo waters down Brexit.
It really depends upon which of his lies Johnson wishes to preserve the most. Preserving the mutant strain lie forces yet another humiliating U-turn, this time on extending the Brexit negotiations deadline. Preserving the Brexit lie means jeopardising the mutant strain narrative and its associated Tier 4 restrictions.
I am confident that he will choose a combination that guarantees maximum suffering for the British people.
Too much strategic thinking and very little human empathy and compassion. Technocratic mind.
There’s never gonna be a Brexit. We are under the jackboot of the NWO and it matters not a fucking jot what any of us say, think or do
We are going to defeat the NWO.
Tailbacks were on both sides. Many outgoing trucks were going out empty in order to return with essential supplies, parts, components etc. before the crash-out.
Where is this Ramesh email re: excess deaths in the US ?
Thanks. I’d like to see it too.
From the roundup
San Francisco Chronicle reports many times more people dying of drug overdoses than Covid
“Many people overdosed in low income housing, hotel rooms for the homeless. Others died on sidewalks, in alleyways and in parks around the city”
Isn’t that what they predicted would happen if they did not impose lockdown ?
It’s always good news to hear of junkies dying of overdoses. One less fucking leech on this planet
So much for empathy.
If you’re going to San Franscisco
Be sure to wear …
A flower print mask.
Anyone else literally wondering just how much longer they can stand this Lockdown malarkey for? I’m keeping going because I have the purpose that I’m running an anti-Lockdown Facebook group and therefore hope I’m playing my small part in getting things back to Normal. But my patience and sense of purpose are wearing very thin and I am so thankful I’ve only got an estimated 15 years or so of life due to me – because, if I were younger and it was an estimated 60 years then I’d have already cut that short and gone (ie to Heaven). I wonder if “They” will ever allow us to have our Society back again or whether it’s true they never intended to do so right from the outset and were always going to make excuse after excuse after yet more lies to refuse us having Normal Life ever again – written from Gulag Wales
The thing is not to ask what we are allowed to do but to do what we want and take it from there.
That’s precisely what I do and what I guess most on here will be doing. But there is inevitably fallout from the IM’s (Indoctrinated Masses) that impacts back onto us. I am so thankful I don’t need a job for my income (as it’s safely pension) and so the main fallout on me personally is my missing social life (dance classes/films/etc/etc). But, even at a directly personal level – it impacts. A nearby also-single friend of mine is scheduled to come round mine on Boxing Day (Gulag Wales) and rang me yesterday to say she’s checked and figured out that she is “allowed” to do so. She isn’t and has got it wrong – but I’m not going to tell her that LOL. If I did let on to her that Dripford wouldn’t let her – then she’d cancel – even with me explaining the logic that literally a few hours difference between Christmas Day and Boxing Day makes no difference at all (as neither of us expects to see anyone else in the few hours after midnight Christmas Day or have any deliveries). So either way – we either will have it (but not know) or won’t have it… Read more »
I ask myself that question every day. The answer depends entirely on all of us. If there is enough continuing compliance, then we could go all the way into a nightmare technocratic dystopia for decades (and possibly even centuries). If there is any sort of rebellion, then it could be over by the end of 2021.
Thinking – well it wouldnt be centuries – but then remembered British history includes the 100 Years War. I’ve often felt sorry for the more rational people living at that time – as some of them will have gone all the way from being born during it, living a long life, and then dying and it would still be going on. Thus they would never have known what Normal is like.
The HYW proceeded in stages, with interruptions.People adjusted, people survived. Battles were short, forces on both sides small, conflicts localised. It was very bad in places at times, yes, but not everywhere all the time.
The Bkack Death caused a brief interruption to the HYW, but it resumed quickly. People in those days were tough.
Incidentally, if you want a parallel to Turdgeon or Dungford or Wankok for horrific self-satisfied cruelty and utter lack of empathy, try Henry V. Not the Shakespeare one, the real one.
Also in Gulag Wales (which Toby and Will seem to have completely lost interest in).
I know exactly how you feel, but we must, must, must soldier on. I know it sounds pompous, but Humanity depends on us. There is us, and semizombies who won’t break the rules but may ultimately be redeemed, and ultrazombies which ceased to be human long ago. We can’t leave the world in their hands.
My riding lesson this morning was of course cancelled, but I’m going to school the horse and practise what we have already learned.
My semizombie sister refuses to come for Christmas, but my partner and I are going to have a festive day.
I will not go and mumble through face knickers in the Tenby Coward Covidian Church of Living Death, but I shall go to Castle Hill on Christmas morning and sing carols until my voice gives out.
And I shall broadcast stickers like leaves in Vallombrosa.
I shall NEVER give in.
Yes, quite. I don’t understand talk of giving in.
Don’t get me wrong, I find the maskeloids deeply irritating and even sinister, and it’s irritating if you want to go somewhere and it’s closed.
But other than that I just live my life – there’s always plenty to do, and if you can’t do what you were doing before you can do something else. I can honestly say I can keep going indefinitely like this.
Having said that, the TJN family haven’t been affected by some of the more direct effects of the lockdown – loss of employment, loss of health care, or much loss of education. People who have suffered such effects do have my sympathy and I understand that at times they must feel despair. But even then the only thing you can realistically do is batten down the hatches and wait for the storm to pass, which it surely will. And take revenge when it does.
But to return to a subject that I often allude to here: some 130 million in the Developing World facing starvation because of what our society has done. That does make me despair.
That’s obviously something that must make it easier for many – having the TJN family/their own equivalent. There are about 8 million people living on their own in this country – and I know that things could be worse than that (ie unhappily married) – but the assumption is that most couples/families are happy ones and that that is the reason they are still together.
I’m not an only child – but I am an eldest child and nothing remotely in common with the other (adult) child elsewhere in the country – to extent right now of very much doubting my Christmas card due from them has even been sent and there will certainly be no exchange of cards next year or ever again for sure. As an only/eldest child with a totally incompatible sibling – I’ve long since learnt a lot about being on my own from Day 1 – but I still want to see friends etc and, as a single person, I need to.
Yes, it must be tough sometimes on your own, but it’s tough with a family sometimes too.
Regarding meeting people – we just do so anyway, and have done ever since this garbage started.
Isn’t there a meet up bit on the forum section of this site?
think it’s supposed to be for those looking for romance and/or sex.
Is sex still legal lol?
Hi Eliza P. Don’t know if you’ll see this now, but I meant the ‘Meet fellow sceptics’ section under Forums, rather than ‘Love in a Cold Climate’.
https://dailysceptic.org/forums/
There is – and there’s a seciton for platonic friends.
I’m in a similar position Eliza, although in my case it’s an older sibling. I’m widowed but still relatively young (50s) and the company of friends is important to me. During the original lockdown I saw no-one (other than at shops etc.) for months as they were unwilling to break the rules. When it was eased my friends started to ignore any remaining restrictions and I began to see them regularly, but I fear that now we are all in Tier 4 areas they are becoming compliant again.
Loneliness is tough, and a societal problem that’s been largely ignored in the past. Perhaps this tragedy will bring it to more attention in future.
I hope you and Eliza P. and sceptics like you can find some solace on sites like this – not the same as actual human contact, but better than nothing.
My post was meant to say to avoid despair, not to deny suffering in some people.
Loneliness can also build strength and resilience. My guess is that a disproportionate number of sceptics have been lonely at times – true independence and clarity of thought requires you to be on your own at times, which isn’t always easy or comfortable.
I’ve been very lucky as a single adult in having a modest but hugely supportive group of friends and people I work with who have made sure I’m not lonely. What’s also been so heartening about them is that I think they know I’m more anti-lockdown than them but have respected and accomodated my stance just as I’ve done the same for them. That’s the kind of friends you want. I’ve had some lovely birthday and Christmas cards from people thanking and supporting me, and some people who made sure I had an excellent birthday during LD2.0 even if it meant bending the rules a little.
Tell that to Archbishop Jellybaby. Perhaps the thought that he has helped to condemn 130 million people to death may cause him intense pain.
And perhaps he doesn’t give a damn. Stay safe, and devil take the third world, Amen, all hail to the Covid God.
I honestly don’t know how thinking people can square this in their own minds.
But I guess I’ve answered my own question: they are not thinking people.
PS – that’s the figure that’s been bandied around. I’ve no idea whether t is correct or not. But that there are going to be terrible knock-on effects in the Developing World is clear.
Annie I’m with u there!! Never say die. This is a fight to the bitter end for me.
well done Annie – glad your spirit has bounced back after the setback a couple days ago about your sister. You are our spirit of positivity to buck us all up when feeling demotivated! 🙂
I hope one day we can all meet up, but in the meantime have as good a christmas as possible.
Thank you, Sue!
I managed my first stirrupless canter this morning. Really pleased with the horse and myself.
To be honest my life will go on pretty much as usual in tier 2 or even tier 3 but I count myself lucky not under threat of a beating from our thug Police just for wanting a stroll in the park.
It’s never coming back. This time next year you’ll miss how easy it was at the beginning of this. Mark my words you’re life is gonna be hell, all our lives are gonna be hell.
I do hope you’re wrong and am guessing you also hope you’re wrong. I’m still waiting/waiting/waiting at the moment and, if I do go down (and out), then I can at least sit there in Heaven and think “Well – I tried – I gave it my best shot – to try and save that from happening”.
I’m not wrong. Have you not heard them tell you? They’ve been saying for years. Fossil fuels gone and along with it the machine that sustains 8 billion people. They don’t care who dies as long as 7 billion of us do.
There is no heaven you won’t be sitting anywhere you’ll just be dead
Blimey you make Peter Hitchens sound optimistic! Mind you he has generally been right so you probably are too.
‘There was no protection, no security against being constantly made aware of things and being drawn into them. There was no country to which one could flee , no quiet one could purchase; always and everywhere the hand of fate seized us and dragged us back in its insatiable play.’ – Stefan Zweig talking of The Great War
My Apology To Facebook about Covid 19 facts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTPreIUN2g0
AwakenWithJP
Magic. 🙂
Good morning fellow Sceptics. Today we will be venturing out from the safety of our bunker to the virus infested world of the masked zombies to go to Tescos for what we hope will be the last Christmas shop. Originally we planned to leave it until Wednesday but in view of problems at the ports and freight being held up were going sooner rather than later. What a wonderful world Bozo and his clowns have given us. They should be swinging from lampposts, I live in hope they will. I found the article on the London rally alarming, the police are out if control as is this tyrannical government. Yesterday whilst surfing the net it became apparent the 77th Brigade were out in force infesting some of the websites with their unwanted presence and Government propaganda. Who would have thought this could happen?
I’ve spotted a couple of things in a few places where I’ve had the strong feeling the poster was someone in the 77th Brigade (and called them out on it). Any ways to help identify it’s one of them (rather than a real person iyswim) would be appreciated.
yes i found the post regarding the protest also alarming. What the hell has this country in store for us if cannot protest peacefully is truly frightening.
15,000 + government agents can sadly produce a lot of hateful propaganda in a day. Most of the people posting this stuff are useful idiots, what they don’t realise is they will have to live in the dystopian society the elites have planned. One day many of them will be on the receiving end of state power.
The United Nations has hired 110,000 people to enforce global censorship. The United Nations! Defund them.
Have you got a link for that please?
cheers!
Defund the U.N. and dozens, perhaps hundreds of NGOs and many other entities, will dissolve with them.
Ahh i hate those queueing outside shops, people waiting obediently. I always make sure to complain out loud, no body gives a reaction just sheepisly looking. I lost any hope for any kind of mass reaction. It is not gonna happen, history has 1000s of oppressions to 1 rebellion.
Today is a very significant day – the day of “The Christmas Star” event – the apparent alignment in the night sky of Jupiter and Saturn, something that has not occurred since the 12th Century. This also happens, strangely, upon the shortest day of the year winter solstice.
Many will be seeing this event as an awakening against the tyranny and satanic appetites of governments, science and media. The human experience is not that of the virus news, smartphones and deliberate lies but that of humble enlightenment. Simply ignore the rules and resist in numbers the government are running scared.
Somewhat appropriately there is miserable low cloud and drizzle forecast for the next few days in the UK. We won’t be seeing anything.
For those of us who believe in such things it isn’t something that needs to be seen. Just felt.
spooky mumbo jumbo is so comforting isn’t it. Much better than fucking reality.
Posted this before.
Winter Solstice at Lulworth Cove.
The Cove is only a few thousand years old, but it looks like it has been there forever.
The Sun has been arround essentially forever, and is worth worship on that basis alone.
Cheers
The stars are there whether you see them ir not.
Yeah, and it’s raining here tonight and I forgot to look last night.
It should get better now and also the days will get longer.
Brave, criticising the Creator in these times. 🙂
Excellent post!
The Sky at Night will be there.
This morning’s meeting of the EU will possibly confirm an indefinite ban on all travellers from the Septic Isle.
Is this perhaps the opening salvo in the War of the Brexit Secession?
Fish as casus belli have, it would seem, been relegated to their wet slab.
Now the lying incompetents have managed to cut off our food supplies.
Brilliant
Don’t worry- most of what is in the news and most of the posts on this website are fake – I’m out of here as we are being lied to constantly
Bye.
Where is ‘here’ ? Your bedroom?
Out of interest whom do you consider fake? I know i consider Bono and Manly P Hall to be fake but who else
Right about the news, wrong about the posts here.
Entirely predictable reaction from various European governments; the EU itself is, of course, far to cumbersome to have taken a lead itself.
BBC Radio 4. Macron quarantines UK on back of new mutation. Food supplies will be hit.
Will anyone wake up?
Had my stocks in months ago and have been replenishing frequently.
I even bought a spare tin opener just in case.
I have very full cupboards and shed. But had been waiting til tomorrow to get the veg in for Xmas day. Anyone got any spare roasties?
Get ready for ration books.
D’ye know, I gotta sorta feeling that the Eggsperts are about to discover that the Screamage Mutant Covvie Virus is much less dedli than previously thought.
If they want to go on eating, that is.
Even the Chief Dandelion in Ireland (Luke O’Neill of Trinity College Dublin – he of the video shared last month where he was on a Zoom call with secondary school students advocating permanent masks and tracking bracelets) has said that this mutant strain is likely to be nothing significant relative to what is already there.
I am so surprised that mutant strain is automatically a negative = more deadly.
This is just govt/MSM scaremongering for whatever reason.
Read further than the headline and they admit, nothing is known yet and there are very strong indicators it is actually less dangerous!
I have made this country my home, but I find it more and more difficult to stay here, with Brexit as well. I think I can relate to refugees and how hard it is to give up on your country, friends and a live you are accustomed to, but to stay sane and physically well, there is no choice but to leave and find refugee somewhere else.
By the way, are refugees in the camps at Calais changing their mind about coming here?
Channel 4, tonight at 11.05pm Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Virus.
The European Medical Agency announced on the 9th December that it’s confidential data about the Pfizer ‘vaccine ‘ had been hacked
They declined to say what date the hacking occurred
On 8th December the Pfizer share price started dropping and has been dropping every day since
On Friday 18th December the EMA announced it would give a briefing about the ‘vaccine’ on Monday 21st
Mutant virus appears on 18th
Who did the hacking?
Go figure
Russia being amed for cyber attacks in the US. With Biden in it will always be Russia, Iran or North Korea.
So my bet is they blame one of those three
Interesting. Had not heard this.
Do you have a handy link?
Scotland’s most thick and gullible woman posts on Twitter
Nicola Sturgeon on Twitter: “It’s now imperative that PM seeks an agreement to extend the Brexit transition period. The new Covid strain – & the various implications of it – means we face a profoundly serious situation, & it demands our 100% attention. It would be unconscionable to compound it with Brexit.” / Twitter
Sturgeon has proven she will kill for her NWO handlers. She will ignore the votes of millions of people and just demand they do what she wants. Pure evil is what these people are. Thy don’t believe in Democracy and are straight up Nazi’s. The Scottish Nazi Party need a lesson in what happens to people who ignore the rights of others just because they lost.
Nuremberg for starters.
Sturgeon is so think she thinks nuclear weapons are ‘bad’ because they ‘kill people’. Only a complete moron can’t see that nukes have actually been the best thing that’s happened to the world in military terms since WWII – precisely because they ‘kill people’ they mean they will never be used and smaller wars between big nations won’t start, i.e. MAD. It actually pains me that the most important person in Scotland can’t figure this out.
These “police men” who are acting like fascists on the streets of London make me want to puke blood. They’re not British, they’re not keeping us safe they are scum, traitors, a threat to humanity and working for the NWO, Hey John P and the other suspect contributors how do you explain this? Is it just incompetence or is it a plan? Your position is the pigs are only there to keep the public safe but were forced by the bad protesters to act like the fucking SS. Lets not be having any of this fucking nonsense any more that it’s a just a giant fuck up. This country along with all the other western nations have been taken over, the leaders of our countries and bought and paid for traitors. They are leading us into death camps. Handcock was at the Bilderberg meeting, Johnstone has a history of fucking young woman and has been bought with cash. Cunts like John Major and Tony Blair sold us out to these people, signing treaties and dumping cash. They are gonna keep us locked up forever. I can’t believe the police are on their side, no wait i can, sorry i was… Read more »
I agree you are either in the Resistance or a collaborator .
Lots of columnists banging on and the recovery group etc but let’s get them to lead a march and stand up on the street in public to those bullying cowards in uniform.
I have a lot of respect for the police, my father in-law is a retired copper and a bloody good bloke he is but these days he wouldn’t get in all they want are barely educated drones unable to think for themselves and prepared to square in their own minds horrendous actions by acting on orders of a tyrannical government.
Same goes for the Army. Brave men and woman prepared to put their lives on the line for Britain now under the command of foreign agents implementing the NWO.
Biker – We need a name for those of us in the Resistance Movement. Any suggestions? This must feel a lot like the French Resistance felt in wartime France and those in the former Communist countries etc.
Resistant Elm? I’ve just planted one, developed in Paris but what the hell.
We need a Tooting Liberation Front and a Wolfie Smiff.
Classic TV. They don’t make ’em like that any more.
I remember it but it came out in the late 1970s, when Wolfie already seemed a bit anachronistic. He was held up to gentle mockery although some other parts of the media were playing up the “Red threat” well into the 1980s. The opening has him calling out “power to the people!” and just a couple of kids are watching him silently. The message is, nobody is listening.
Ah yes. All very true.
And a lone revolutionary is hardly what is required here.
But classic comic TV all the same, of a type we will never see again…
Do you remember Tucker who worked in the Mexican restaurant??!
I remember the episode when they had a tank in the garage…
As veteran I have to agree about the state of the Armed forces. These are not e man ( and women) I met during my time and who shared their cigarettes’ and Mars bars with me on cold nights in Helmand. I can guarantee that ALL of those would be and are 100% against this shit show but the higher ups are horribly in bed with these scummbags.
Isn’t most of the ‘fighting’ nowadays done in front of a screen directing drones?
Surely tier 4 scandal is one step too far for dictator Boris, time for him and Matt to be ousted.
This does seem to be descending into a ludicrous Whitehall Farce, the Sun is reporting terrifying new ‘outbreak numbers’
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13533485/worst-hit-coronavirus-hotspot-highest-jump/?utm_medium=browser_notifications&utm_source=pushly
It was not clear what is so terrifying? there do not seem to be dead bodies piling up on street corners, the hospitals are busy but it is winter time in the wet UK, perhaps they are just terrified of big numbers?
Most of my life there has been some sort of cold or flu doing the rounds in the winter time people all over the country caught it and we shrugged our shoulders said ‘there is a lot of it about’ and carried on. This year we have got the Wuhan Cold going round, why all the fuss? lots of people catching it like they always do when a new version of the cold goes around. The death rate is nowhere as high as in some bad flu years.
No wonder that people talk about there being more to all this than meets the eye.
It’s time that every Virus broadcast- take your pick, Covid-19, or the Bollocks Virus- had the ‘expert’ linked to a lie detector that we can view in real time. You want our trust, Boris? Earn it.
There are certain words that cannot co-occur in the same sentence. Turdgeon and human. Dungford and sane. Boris and trust.
Sodium Pentothal (Sodium thiopental). It’s just a little jab Boris..
Protest report in the Bournemouth Echo.
Loads of vaccine averse information so it’s probably the end of Apprentice Reporter Maya George’s career.
I live not far from Bournemouth and have mentioned on here a certain mp, related to there.
A series of posts I made yesterday on here, in which I mentioned a “job” and “rank” that mp has, in a slightly rude joking response to someone, disappeared and I couldn’t find it for love nor money and posted to that effect yesterday.
I also posted a reminder about it today and it has now reappeared significantly changed in that it appears that I am replying to different poster IDs (including myself!) and one of the IDs and the comments made are not there at all!
Worrying!
Seems to me, the government panic the public and that makes things worse, then they do it again and again and again!
Not a big fan of politicians and in my 52 years a fair number have been shown as cheating, lying rogues. But what normally happens is politician says X and a big percentage of the population believe it’s a lie or just that Y is true instead,
Not with covid! All of a sudden the vast majority believe everything that comes out of government without question. Crazy.
Snowflake generation and the first snowflake pandemic in my view.
Can I just say do not underestimate the power of the relentless propaganda fake news and manufactured hysteria being pumped out 24/7 in order to push the narrative. It is on an unprecedented industrial level as is the draconian censorship. It’s relentless, insidious nd soul destroying. We are strong and can counter and question it many are no capable.
Ive uploaded yesterdays Radio 4 interview with Charles Walker here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJluyXUCY2Q&t
thanks
It appears that Exeption 13 is for citizens of other countries to use postal ballots for their own countries elections, as there have been issues with it in past lockdown legislation.
Resign, Boris. And take the cabinet with you.
i wish the queen would flippin well dissolve parliament and get rid of that bumbling ‘potato with a toupee’ and get some grown ups in charge. She and the whole royal family are superfluous to our society going round with patronising visits in fancy masks whilst snug in their state homes paid for by us. They should be worried as once the queen passes on i think there will be serious questions as to their legitimacy and I say this as a previous royalist but this year has changed my mind. The only issue is we would be subject to a presidential system and well we all know how well that works eg usa.
The US system is in theory more foolproof than ours. It’s just that when you get people like the Clintons and Obama stuffing every level of government with their loyalists and activists it becomes disfunctional.
There are presidential systems where the president does not have power to make political decisions.
In Germany the president is more like the Queen, he has representative duties and signs legislation, that is all.
The idea the Queen will do anything for the people is laughable ,she will probably be rolled out in a mask to tell us how we are all in it together. The day can’t come any sooner when we get rid of this dysfunctional Windsor family and with it the house of lords and the scum in parliament .When not if we smash the lockdown we should keep rolling the tanks forward for complete regime change .
Upset The Great Reset.
So ‘Kent covid’ came in quite handy then:
‘France’s travel ban on the UK prompts shutdown at Port of Dover causing long freight queues and supply chain disruptions’
‘”Operation Stack is a procedure that uses parts of the M20 to queue lorries travelling towards the continent, to avoid causing gridlock across Kent’s roads. It is used in emergency situations when crossings to the continent cannot happen, such as bad weather or industrial action.” — Kent.gov.uk’
Remind me, which political issue has just taken over top spot right now?
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/trackers/the-most-important-issues-facing-the-country
But good negotiating skills…….
Life must be great….without the voters….or parliament…or real questions from the state broadcaster…..
Zeus: “What’s going on now?”
Hera: “They’ve developed a vaccine. They’re going to inoculate the entire population with it.”
Zeus: “They making it themselves?”
Hera: “Nah. Some company in Belgium”
Zeus: “Good luck with that, then. Here:” Snaps fingers. A more virulent strain of the virus appears. The EU closes its borders to the UK.
We don’t need Zeus to create a more virulent strain of the virus, Ferguson and his mates have modelled it themselves. Their new creation probably has an IFR of 20% and is predicated on everyone being vulnerable.
Boris: “I wonder what’s in this box”
“On Sunday night the Department of Health said it had contingency plans in place to airlift the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines from Belgium to the UK using military aircraft if the freight ban stays in place for longer than 48 hours.“
I sense a Michael Bay film in the offing here.
Sort of Berlin snake oil Airlift?
As long as they don’t start dropping bloody Hershey bars.
EU Air ! Starring Mel GIbson, Bruce WIllis, and John Travolta.