I initially created Lockdown Sceptics – with the help of Ian Rons, co-founder of the Free Speech Union and computer whizz – in March of last year as an aide-mémoire for personal use. I was writing a lot about the new and still largely unknown virus and wanted to create a kind of online reference library, collating all the articles and papers and interviews about different aspects of the pandemic under separate headings. Then, when I’d created it, I decided to make it public in case anyone else would find it useful. I got into the habit of constantly updating it because so much new information about the virus was being published every day and, to do that, I found myself spending the best part of the the evening looking through news sites and blogs and medical journals. That, in turn, led to the daily update – I had gathered all this information, so why not publish it in one place? And so Lockdown Sceptics, as a daily news blog, was born.
Many readers have contacted me in the past 12 months to say that reading the blog has kept them sane because, until they discovered it, they thought they were the only ones who weren’t buying into the official narrative. Compiling it has also been therapeutic for me, although in a slightly different way, which I’ll try and explain.
First, the darkling plain.
For me, the most depressing thing about the past 12 months is that it’s destroyed my faith in so many of the people and institutions that I used to have some respect for – Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock, the Conservative Party, the judiciary, the police, the BBC, Sky News, the Civil Service, Imperial College, the Lancet, Nature, the Royal Society… the list goes on. I’ve always been alive to the risk that crowds are susceptible to collective hysteria and I’ve witnessed a few manias and moral panics first hand, but I hoped that Britain’s elites, particularly those who bear responsibility for steering the ship of state, would be immune to such madness. And it seemed they would be for a few weeks, which made their eventual surrender to a global psychosis that much harder to witness. To see them not only succumb to mass hysteria but consciously whip it up, using sophisticated psychological techniques, has been a shock. (I blame that, in part, for the British public’s willingness to surrender their liberty and hope they will recover their good sense once the propaganda ceases.) I won’t say this has been a deep shock because I’ve always been pretty cynical, but I used to have a sliver of confidence in Britain’s elites and I have struggled to hold on to that. It’s not an exaggeration to say my belief in Britain has been knocked for six.
But what has kept me from slipping into the slough of despond has been all the thoughtful, intelligent people who’ve contacted me, offering not only to help put out Lockdown Sceptics, but to contribute to it, too. They’ve come from all walks of life, different sides of the political spectrum and from a wide range of academic fields, all united in doubt about the wisdom of the Government’s approach to managing the pandemic. Some of them have been based overseas, but most have been my fellow countrymen and their presence and willingness to help has gone some way to restoring my faith in Britain. I often think, when reading a submission from a retired professor of economics or a lecturer in philosophy just starting out on her career, that here is the best of Britain – the heirs of Isaac Newton and David Hume and Rosalind Franklin. Like Orwell, writing in the Lion and the Unicorn during another crisis in our history when the people at the helm seemed to be steering us towards the rocks, I have persuaded myself that the problem isn’t with the country, just the people at the top. As he wrote: “A family with the wrong members in control; that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase.”
The wrong people have been in charge during this crisis in almost every sphere of public life. But there are good people out there – still – and not a few of them have been involved in this website – above and below the line. And the fact that Lockdown Sceptics has become such a thing – a kind of focal point for dissent from the official narrative, with an average of 1.25 million page views a month and – even more heartening – attacked and ridiculed almost daily by the lackeys of the Establishment is also a source of hope. And a tribute to the talent and energy of all those who’ve helped and contributed.
As a country, this has not been our finest hour. But I still believe in Britain – just.
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Thank you, Toby, for this website and all of your work on it. Without it, many of us would be in a very dark place indeed.
As swedenborg pointed out recently, it’s easy for us below the line to criticise TPTB from the safety of our psedonyms, and to quibble about the tone of some of the articles here, but you and your colleagues above the line have been publicly putting yourselves in the line of fire every day for more than a year now. That takes a lot of courage.
hear hear
I second that and thank you as well, just contributed to the upkeep as well. I think this was and still is the best effort and platform in the UK for us and our case. In particular as, sadly, KBF, independent journalism like at Lew Rockwell, zerohedge or by Mr. Reitschuster, large groups of lawyers or doctors (AfA/LfA, Corona Untersuchungsausschuss etc.) getting together formally and publishing on Telegram or organizing demos haven’t really taken off here, in contrast to other countries. It is above all an invaluable source and display of intelligent English speaking dissent-ers, whose quality and quantity is far ahead of that speaking and publishing other languages, which I therefore share in one of those as well. I am sure, that it has also facilitated invaluable cooperation amongst them across borders, like in the case of Mike Yeadon and Wolfgang Wodarg. I share your horror about the sudden collapse of the era of the enlightenment, in particular in science, the disappearance of proper journalism, the collapse of democratic and constitutional principles, the complicity of the judiciary and about the ignorance and vitriol displayed towards any criticism and critics. I am more disappointed than you about the behaviour, gullibility… Read more »
Well put, hear hear and I third that. I’ll say it once again, a Sanity Anchor in this 21st-century Lunatic Asylum. And the lunatics pretty much are running the asylum for now. Some of them have clearly already been lobotomised.
Given Ofcom’s directive to the media to tow the Gov. line and implement project fear, it is all the more courageous that Toby and team and one or two others, choose to follow their moral compass. Thank you one and all. However I am also disappointed that Toby, Lord Sumption etc. see the vaccine as an escape from this lockdown. Lockdowns, despite their catastrophic consequences, are merely symptom of a global endeavour to take away our basic human right to freedom of thought and action. The motive is power and financial gain. Once lockdowns are gone a far worse set of polices to control us will creep in and destroy for ever the freedom and normality we once had. There is hope I believe. It is time to stop exclusively reporting data and counter claims. Individually we should take every opportunity to convince others that their shepherd does not have their wellbeing at heart. Collectively we should encourage those who have a platform like LS to work together to develop and promote a set of actions they and we can use to counter the propaganda machine. A starter for ten imo would be email your MP with whatever empirical evidence… Read more »
I doubt our politicians care very much about votes, now. Labour is clearly marching to the same tune as our government and, hence, an election will only change who’s leading the parade. Sure, the MPs probably wish to retain their seats, for their vanity, but they know they can have no seat without dancing to the required tune.
This may be true, but I live in hope that’s not, as I can see little way out of continuing our loss of freedom in the ‘new normal’. My hope is that if Labour or the Tories see significant anti-lockdown competition for seats then their desire for power will make them backtrack. Just as Brexit success in the local elections a few years ago was probably the catalyst for our eventual departure. And the current shift in Lib Dem stance is another example.
Well said Arthur. Toby deserves praise and support both here and on GP.
You are right Toby, I could not be more politically opposed to your good self; I am a Socialist, a Republican and a remainer/rejoinder, but your site has truly kept me sane over these dark months.
I am 72 and I remember the Asian and Hong Kong flu’s of 50 and 60 plus years ago when society did not collapse and turn in on and against itself.
I have also learnt that Right/Left/ Leave and Remain can unify in a common sense coalition and I honestly believe that we can and will prevail and the Covid cheerleaders, health zealots, and safetyists will be held to account for the great damage that they have inflicted on people’s lives of all ages.
History will vindicate you, Peter Hitchens, Jonathan Sumption, Neil Oliver, Talk radio and many others too numerous to mention.
Thank you again for all you have done and the encouragement you have given me and countless others since this hysterical overreaction started.
Yes. It has provided a really good repository of links to accurate information.
Politically, it has brought to the fore the inadequacy of the simplistic left/right political single dimension that has governed analysis for a century.
The orthogonal libertarian/authoritarian dimension has been recognised for a long time theoretically, but this shit-show has brought it to the fore as never before, with many of us at opposite ends of the traditional spectrum recognising that it may actually be a more important underpinning of those traditional attitudes.
One of the shared experiences here has been massive disillusionment in the old ‘right’ and ‘left’ pretended differences, which, it seems, masked the authoritarian – nay, totalitarian – leanings at both ends.
I’m not sure that it will eventually bear fruit – but the falsity of key British myths has been exposed, as has the utter inadequacy of the miasma of our constitution as never before. That at least would be some compensation.
I come from the other side of the right-left orthodoxy than you, but I wholeheartedly agree with your post. I now understand that those terms have disguised deeper and sinister currents moving within our society.
Your last paragraph seems bleak, but I remain of the view that good will eventually come from this tragedy, and we will relearn, or at least learn, values which as a society we once professed to uphold.
It is quite bleak, TJN. I think you’re right that my feelings have tipped that way, when I have previously been realistically sceptical, but actively engaged in the compromises of politics because, despite all the downsides, I felt that improvement and progress is possible, if not straightforward.
I’m not sure I have that confidence now, having known three generations of local MPs, and have seen what I perceive as a crash and burn in the last example.
I wish it wasn’t so
Thank you for your kind,informative, illuminating and very interesting pertinent reply.
I think we come from the same time and same perspective, Philip – recognizing that beyond the Battle of Britain blarney there are some very solid lessons that shouldn’t ever be forgotten. I also have a profound respect for the two generations that made my start in life much better than theirs.
Like you, I can’t feel anything but shame at the way in which there has been a crumbling of spine, and – despite all the ritual moaning – subservience to the worst political class that I have seen.
.. and yes, I actually copped a load of the 1957 ‘flu – so don’t need any lessons about moderately serious viruses and how to deal with them.
Thanks, Rick.
My brother had the Asian flu and I honestly thought that he was going to burn a hole in his pillow, his body was that red and hot.
My MIL suffered too and she described her symptoms as ” like having buckets of ice cold water poured over her head”.
“Marge” will be 96 next month.
Thank you Toby, and thank you to every single commenter and contributor. If I had not found that others share my sick. stunned horror at what’s been done. I truly feel that I would have either killed myself in despair or had an irretrievable mental breakdown and spent the rest of my life in a secure psychiatric hospital.
Without my stalwart husband at my side I would have lost the will to live for sure. This website and all those who comment have helped keep me sane. ❤
Jo your words have brought me to tears as I too have been at the point of ending it due to terrible despair, much brought on because of not being able to support my father as I would like who lives in a care home.
I too am so grateful to Toby, if you hadn’t have taken the risk of this website Toby what would have happened to all us lost souls. Thank you Toby.
I think we know we are all different and come from different backgrounds prior to this last year but we have supported each other, been united by our incredulity, anger and fear and found hope in the warmth and care of each other.
Please know everyone involved with LDS you kept me alive.
We will win Wendy. God bless you and yours.
Probably has a good library and three good meals a day. Better facilities and feeding than most can expect today.
I’d probably be in good company as well!
I would echo every sentiment in your comment, Jo.
This website has been a beacon of sanity in an increasingly insane world.
My feelings entirely. Thanks especially to Toby, but also to all of you.
Unfortunately, my autistic brother does not have a computer so doesn’t have access to this site. Every life-line for people like him has been closed, including the public library, where he spent much of his time in his obsessive studies of the English Civil War. We live far from him (but we plan to visit him regardless of the regulations), and were it not for the Samaritans I don’t think he would survive this level of despair, a level which none of the over-privileged in government can possibly understand, and certainly don’t give a damn about.
Another drop in this endless ocean of cruelty.
I’m going to clap for LS on my doorstep at 7.00.
#MeToo, but not for long [a] it’s cold and [b] so is the champagne!
When I discovered Lockdown Sceptics in the dark early days, I suddenly felt the light shining like a beacon, to and from fellow sceptics, as we were suddenly able to read real information and share views without being castigated. Many, many thanks to Toby and his team, and all the contributors who have worked so hard being us truth and balanced argument, and vital information so we can follow up with our own research. This site has genuinely been a life saver for me. Long may it continue, to hopefully bring about the evidence needed to break down this horrific, unjust and now plainly evil situation we are all living in right now.
Hear Hear Helena.
Me too. in the early days, after realising that something wasn’t right and doing my own research I was terrified and after finding this site and reading around it knew I had found a home of sorts. At last there was someone who was telling it like it is. I tried to talk to my family about what I was reading but not only could they not accept it, they shut me down and told me that I was mentally ill. I thought to myself “have I been radicalised?” “am I mentally ill??” and I realised I am neither. In being able to see through the media manipulation, lies and propaganda I am probably one of the sane ones and the majority of the population who have gone along with ALL of this are the deluded. However, I have now realised that I cannot talk to my family or my close friends in real life about any of this because they just cannot accept it, and at times it is like living a double life, having to say one thing – the socially acceptable thing – while believing another (I’d never make a good double agent!!). I live alone, so… Read more »
Very well said, Helena.
Very many thanks. Huge admiration for your courage and tenacity. Great journalism.
I’ll echo others’ sincere thanks for everything you have done here, Toby.
“ The wrong people have been in charge during this crisis in almost every sphere of public life.”
I think this is a really good way of looking at things, and as you say restores a bit of faith that Britain as a country is not as bad as it might seem. As your former parliamentary researcher so eloquently argued here recently, it really feels like the modern political class is just not fit for purpose.
I forget where I read this, but it seems to apply here and now!
“Kakistocracy”. A kakistocracy is a system of government that is run by the worst, least qualified, and/or most unscrupulous citizens
Toby: Please accept my grateful thanks for your putting my thoughts into words.
Toby I agree with everything you have said. I see my country through quite different eyes now and I don’t like it!
Thank you, thank you, Toby.
And you’ve nailed it. Your reasons for keeping sane exactly describe mine. It’s sad that salvation has mainly been found online, whilst isolated from those one might have personally conferred with.
Thankfully my husband has pretty much echoed my thoughts on the last year, or I really would have lost it. But for many others I regarded as sane, even my brother, it has been a little like the 1957 film The Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Without denying the fact of what Covid has done, Governmental generated hysteria has destroyed any sense of perspective in vast swathes of the population in the West. And still there is no sense that even vaccination will release us. I’m hoping the local May elections might bring a similar break through as those in 2019. We shall see.
Thank you, Toby. The site has indeed helped me to test whether or not my feelings of living in a nightmare dystopia were irrational. Sadly, they are not but at least I know I’m sane.
Well done Toby et al!
It’s the hypocrisy that gets me, and I’m sorry to say it’s mostly from the left, but I’m constantly asked to deny my own eyes, ears and brain and go along with this crazy crowd.
I was liberal though my teens and early 20’s, it all sounds great, free uni, free health care, free whatever, until you realise that you are being bribed, and then ultimately paying for others to be bribed, with your own money (read hard work, dedication, responsibility and value).
Covid is a clear example of this, take any policy to it’s logical conclusion and the destination is terrifying (social credit, re-education, surveillance, etc). Based on what I can see, from those that so fervently support lockdowns, masks and re-writing biology, we are in for an increasingly difficult, restrictive, punitive, illogical, depressing and lifeless time.
I’m trapped in this county with a bunch of absolute nutters who take no responsibility for themselves and expect me to deny reality, and then to do harm to myself to protect them from something that cannot hurt them.
I’m clinging half way up the last palm tree on Lockdownsceptics Island but the sharks are circling.
Quite . The only way is to try and do something positive, try this :-
home print stickers , with full instructions for the less computer literate
https://t.me/s/jointhewhiterose?before=247
get set up and become a one man/woman truth machine to counter the propaganda
also good printable leaflets at “whiterose.uk”
A friend and I started a website….
FNQ Citizen’s Collective, on a budget and still very much a work in progress. If we all do what we can – we can move mountains.
Agree entirely, well done Toby and team.
If you are feeling helpless, don’t forget the Back to Normal campaign; a ‘peoples army’ of delivery men/women distributing simply and powerfully worded anti-lockdown postcards across the UK. We’ve posted over 400,000 now and have formed multiple local informal groups and friendships in the process. And the tide is turning slowly – more and more recipients are getting back to us asking how to get involved because they thought they were alone in their scepticism.
Thankyou Toby for that amazing piece. The shock of how friends, family and the majority of the nation has acquiesced to the narrative is beyond shocking and shaken my core faith in democracy and friends and family who I considered level headed. LS has been a place of sanctuary for me and will continue to be.
That was worth reading in full! What a piece of incredibly good fortune for us that you felt called to do this when you did. I’m a refugee from the, “it’ll only be a bit longer brigade”. I even sewed scrubs for our pathetically hopeless local NHS trust last May (3XL size because I live near England’s the obesity capital – Boston). I cannot tell you how much I have appreciated this news outlet. And dear God, once you detox from The Guardian and the BBC, your perspective just shifts dramatically. LS is by far the best and most reliable news source, and the quality of the writing is second to none! In the wee hours, when insomnia strikes, I visit, just to check you’re all still here, (and here you all are). I was a Remainer. Now I don’t care. I was a Labour voter. Now I’m completely politically homeless. I was a feminist. Now I wonder what exactly I thought that was? Why I never enquired further? I have however remained a Quaker. And a wife, an unwilling Home Educator and a mother, (although full disclosure – I am in fact not actually a handbag). For what it’s… Read more »
If you really are a handbag you would be a Gucci one. Great post.
I’ll be honest, I was not a big fan of your beliefs, Toby, before the current collective insanity, but strange times makes strange bed fellows, and I think you have done a marvellous job giving both myself and many people comfort we are not alone in hating this destructive, undemocratic and obscene violation of our freedoms. I salute your bravery in this. There are very dark times ahead I still fear, because I am under no illusion these disgusting measures will actually end in June but thank you for Everything so far.
Thank you from the bottom of the heart of this mask less non DNA altered 79 Year old curmudgeon.
Your courage is exemplary in opposing the Stalinist propaganda.
As a long time campaigner against the global warming fraudsters, I find it un remarkable how “they” can waltz from one nonnscientific hypothesis to another without batting an eye lid.
Keep up the good fight Toby and all the awakened good people on here.
I like to thank you for being a beacon of light in an increasingly dark world.
An opportunity to educate myself and express my opinions and to meet like minded people.
Thank you Toby. Similarly to a few others, I would never have thought I’d have aligned so strongly with you over anything, but these are dangerous and depressing times and I can’t abide the identity politics which say that because I’m an environmentalist and do not agree with economic libertarianism, I must also be some kind of sentimental woke sop screaming about masks and ‘flocking’ and ‘flouting’ and all the other vacuous idiocy being spouted. I genuinely loathe most people now. And the selfishness of ‘my’ people – the middle class guardian-reading remainers – has been sickening. And what the hell do Labour and the LibDems think they’re doing, ruining the life chances of those they should be protecting? They have been a disgrace.
So thank you and let’s hope for a return to a society where I can disagree with you again!
Cheers Toby and may the god’s bless you with a thousand bottles of plonk.
If I could add another positive to this website, it’s that it has opened my ears a little to others points of view, that perhaps I would of dismissed a year or so ago. It’s a broad church, both writers and the community here, which for the most part has functioned fairly decently. Thank you for putting yourself out there.
l totally agree with all the appreciative comments. Thank you, Toby.
I hate to say it, as I really do appreciate the hard work that’s been put into LS every day, but I’m really surprised that Toby is surprised or shocked by what those in power have done to this country. I would have thought the behaviour of the establishment over Brexit would have alerted many people. Plus the Climate Change debate had all the same hallmarks, of censorship, and the ridicule heaped upon anyone who wasn’t a True Believer in Climate Change and The Settled Science. As for myself, I’ve feared something…wasn’t sure exactly what, but something coming at us here in the West. It started around the time of the mass migration into Europe from the ME, with Merkel encouraging 1-2 million people to come and settle here. We were blatantly lied to by the media who printed close-up pictures of families with small photogenic children, but never the wider shots taken of hundreds, or thousands of mainly military age men. A lot of us thought the politicians were crazy for allowing this to unfold, and saw a lot of trouble ahead. But someone said that all those European leaders weren’t all stupid. We shouldn’t underestimate them, and assume… Read more »
Agree with everybody’s support for this site. Do people think that there is a faint glimpse of more questioning the government, MSM and science “experts”, than there were 12 months ago?
No.
I do. A year ago there was NONE. Today there is a little bit. Not from the BBC or the usual suspects, eg The Times (subscription cancelled), but some of the other press. And certainly in the mindset of commentators. A year ago the Daily Mail comments (my bell weather of populist sentiment) were universally in support of lockdown and all pandemic related measures. Not so today. It’s the converse.
Yes. There are dissidents on the streets, and the number is growing as it becomes clear that even the “vaccines” are not delivering freedom. But the majority still believe that authority is on their side. Once people have had Covid their attitudes can change more easily. It is important to get the scientific reality, that infection confers long lasting immunity, out there. Most don’t know that.
This website has helped me throughout these lockdowns and, most importantly, armed me in my debates with people regarding these disastrous restrictions. So thank you Toby and all who have contributed, including so many of the regular commenters.
Thank you for saving me from the abyss last year and for giving me hope since then…I thought I was alone but we are not. I have made a donation.
Lockdown Sceptics will be needed more than ever, as we start the second year of this evil.
I’d like to join in thanking you Toby for undoubtably the greatest beacon of sanity I have seen during this national madness. Like another commentator I differ in my views in a couple of areas, being slightly left of centre (I’ve lived in right wing dictatorships) and a remainer. However what has happened in the last twelve months bridges all these differences, at least until we prevail.
This was on the State Broadcaster webpage. Surely we can knock this down and destroy the whole ‘Fact Check’ construct?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/55949640
Thank you Toby, my faith in British humanity has steadily declined over the past 12 months.
As your fellow contributors outlined yesterday I was happy to a accept the first three weeks of lockdown, to squash the sombrero, even though I expressed the view that Covid would return for another go at those who shielded during lockdown 1.
I have lost count of the number of times the junta has announced yet another inane policy, with people cleverer than I pointing out the inevitable outcomes. When that truth comes out, Track’n’Trace being but one example, all the usual subjects who had initially praised it shrugged it off and moved on ‘hey what about compulsory testing, let’s give that a go’.
Thanks for all your efforts here Toby. I was a relative late comer but like everyone else the site and comments have kept me sane in an increasingly strange and hostile world. I am not of any political bent myself but regardless of our leanings we have been pretty united in our opposition to the insane policies pursued by our governments. Let us hope we can soon celebrate life as it should be again and this site will no longer be needed!
Thank you for such an encouraging and enlightening site. not only has it helped to keep me and others I know sane; the quality of the contributions means I have been able to recommend it to a great range of friends, many of whom wouldn’t normally bothre reading “sceptic” material. Many thanks.
Thank you Toby, in a one sided media onslaught your site has been badly needed and will be for some time to come. We need more critical thinkers and less sheep in this country.
Thank you for this site Mr Young it is greatly appreciated.
I agree for me the last year has been difficult not because of lockdowns, as most of the regulations can be pretty much ignored with impunity, at least at a personal level. It has been the loss of faith in institutions and people as a whole that has been upsetting. Particularly the response of most of the churches, which have never voluntarily shut their doors in a time of crisis in their history before.
I know we have lost some of the commentators following the reorganisation but I think quite a few now flit between this site and its diaspora site, rather like one might go between the lounge and public bars in a pub (remember those?). I think such variety is all for the good.