Thought I’d post this Guardian front page, not because of the disgraceful headline about Boris – standing up for the leader who saved the world from fascism does not constitute “stoking fear and division” – but because of the red line showing the fall in Britain’s output in April. The worst recession in 300 years!
How instrumental was the lockdown in causing this economic woe? We can’t blame it entirely on the Government’s decision to place us all under virtual house arrest on March 23rd since the more modest containment measures introduced on March 16th would have had a negative impact on the economy absent a lockdown and, even if they hadn’t been imposed, people would have naturally adapted to the presence of the virus in ways that would have harmed the economy. But the lockdown increased that harm by an order of magnitude. Sweden’s economy, for instance, is expected to shrink by just 7% in 2020. The eminent financial journalist who contributes anonymously to this site used the Blavatnik School of Government’s tool for ranking different countries according to whether or not they locked down and how severely they locked down and found there was a positive correlation between that and how much their economies are predicted to shrink by.
The Government will claim that when it took the decision to lock us all up on March 23rd it was merely “following the science”, and that’s the subject of my op ed in today’s Telegraph. Here’s how it begins:
According to the WHO, there are two pandemics raging across the world. The first is the one we’re all familiar with, but the second is more insidious – the explosion of fake news about the virus. “We’re not just fighting an epidemic,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on February 15th. “We’re fighting an infodemic.”
This theme was taken up by the UK Press Gazette which launched a “Fight the Infodemic” campaign on June 3rd. “The aim is stop key platforms like Facebook, Google and Twitter from promoting misinformation about vital issues like Covid-19 and instead to favour evidence-based journalism from bona fide outlets,” wrote the editor Dominic Ponsford.
What surprised me about this is that the biggest fake news about the virus has been disseminated by the mainstream media. I’m thinking of the myth that the Government’s scientific advisors urged Boris Johnson to impose a full lockdown long before March 23rd and it was only because he ignored them that Britain has one of the highest Covid death tolls globally.
As I point out, this is the exact opposite of the truth: Boris didn’t turn a deaf ear to the scientists urging him to lock down. Rather, he ignored their advice to tread carefully and rushed into one of the worst decisions in our history.
That claim is based on an analysis of the SAGE meeting minutes in the period leading up to the lockdown that readers of this site will be familiar with:
Various different social distancing measures were discussed by SAGE, but no one in the group recommended quarantining the entire population. The measures talked about were home isolation of symptomatic individuals and the cocooning of the over 70s – both of which were introduced by the government on March 16.
The penultimate SAGE meeting before the lockdown was on March 18 where it was noted that the impact of the measures introduced so far would not be known for two or three weeks. According to the minutes, the boffins said it was too early to say whether additional measures – such as closing pubs, restaurants and entertainment venues – would be necessary.
In short, Boris Johnson and his Cabinet were not “following the science” when they took the decision to place everyone under virtual house arrest, and nor were they ignoring it by not doing so earlier. On the contrary, their scientific advisors were urging a more cautious approach.
In the SAGE meeting on March 23, the day lockdown was announced, the attendees flagged up the negative impact of the containment measures. “Actuarial analysis is required to estimate deaths caused indirectly by Covid-19, including those caused by the social interventions,” says one of the minutes. Another says: “Given the clear links between poverty and long-term ill health, health impacts associated with the economic consequences of interventions also need to be investigated.”
I also nail the calumny, put about by Neil Ferguson and others, that the UK would have a lower death toll if Boris had locked us all down a week earlier.
Simon Wood, professor of statistical science at Bristol University, published a paper on June 1 showing that the R number in England and Wales was less than 1 before March 23rd. The same conclusion has been reached by Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at Oxford.
In other words, the containment measures introduced on March 16 were more than sufficient to halt the spread of the virus. The government’s scientific advisors did not urge the Prime Minister to go any further, and they were right not to do so. I’m convinced that the decision to place the entire country in suspended animation on March 23 will end up costing more lives than the pandemic.
Former French Health Minister Issues Warning About Big Pharma
This is rather remarkable. Philippe Douste-Blazy, Cardiology MD, the former French Health Minister and at one point a candidate for Director-General of the WHO, has revealed that in a recent closed-door meeting, the editors of the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine expressed their concerns about the criminal pressures of BigPharma on their publications. Things are so bad that it is not science any longer. You can watch the video of Philippe Douste-Blazy being interviewed about this meeting here and a reader has kindly produced a transcript.
Apolline de Malherbe [French broadcaster]: But it’s hard to understand why scientists would voluntarily give bias to studies
Dr. Philippe Douste-Blazy: Exactly! That’s the great question. That’s the great question we are all asking ourselves, finally, and you know those Chatham House lectures in London.
AdM: Remind us what is this all about? This is extremely interesting.
P D-B: These are meetings that are completely behind closed doors, only with experts. No one can record, no one is taking any pictures. It’s only between experts.
AdM: Top secret.
P D-B: Top secret. But still, there was a meeting the other day, of the directors of scientific journals, like the Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine…
AdM: The Lancet, which is that journal which published this study we are talking about…
P D-B: These are extraordinary journals. When it’s written in Lancet, it’s “written in Lancet”. So that’s why… Here, we’re talking about something very important this discussion that happened. And it ended up leaked: the Lancet’s boss, Horton, said: “Now we are not going to be able to, basically, if this continues, publish any more clinical research data, because the pharmaceutical companies are so financially powerful today and are able to use such methodologies, as to have us accept papers which are apparently methodologically perfect but which, in reality, manage to conclude what they want to conclude…” This is very, very serious!
AdM: But what you are telling us is very serious! That would mean that it is the pharmaceutical companies that are putting pressure on, including financial pressure, I guess on the scientific results! But you understand, who can we trust anymore today?
P D-B: Indeed, that’s why I allow myself to tell you about it, because it is one of the greatest subjects… never anyone could have believed. I have been doing research for 20 years in my life. I never thought the boss of the Lancet could say that and the boss of the New England Journal of Medicine too. He even said it was “criminal”, the word was used by them. That is, if you will, when there is an outbreak like the COVID, in reality, there are people… us, we see “mortality”, when you are a doctor or yourself, you see “suffering”. And there are people who see “dollars”, that’s it.
Sceptical is Second Favourite at Royal Ascot
Anyone fancy a flutter at Royal Ascot next Saturday? ‘Sceptical’, a four year-old gelding, is second favourite for the Diamond Jubilee stakes. He’s trained in Ireland by Denis Hogan and will be ridden by Frankie Dettori. I’ve put a tenner on…
Not All Heroes Wear Capes
Great story on the Isle of Wight Radio site. A Cowes man called John Corby has taken it upon himself to wash away all the two-metre distancing street markers the local council has painted on his street, which he describes as “council-sanctioned vandalism”. He told the radio station:
The dots will not save any lives but undoubtedly reduce the vital charm of the high street just when we need to be encouraging people to go shopping again.
Basically council sanctioned vandalism projecting an image of fear, the last thing we need right now.
All I did was remove three dots in front of my house as a sign of defiance against a dystopian Orwellian future which we all seem to be sleepwalking towards.
A “dystopian Orwellian future”! Sounds like Mr Corby is a reader of Lockdown Sceptics.
Well done, Sir.
The Taliban: An Apology
A brilliant piece of satire by Sahil Mahtani has just been published in the Spectator called “The Taliban: An apology“. The idea is we were wrong to condemn Mullah Omar and his shock troops when the Taliban started destroying ancient artefacts to erase the past. “As it turns out, they appreciated sensitivities that we did not recognise at the time: the threat that cultural history poses to the present,” he writes.
The Taliban worked out – in a way that Britain was slow to – that public statues are not politically neutral. They are statements about who and what we honour as a society. They carry the power structures of one age into another. Every collective generation has the right to ensure their values are reflected in the statues they pass. Modernity means that the aperture narrows. Five years ago it was Rhodes must fall. Today it is Churchill must fall. It turns out there was a slippery slope—to utopia
Worth reading in full.
The Free Speech Union Litigation Fund
As you watch the protests today, worth bearing in mind that what the demonstrators are trying to do to statues they’ve done to dozens of living people – cancelled them, that is. The Free Speech Union, which I helped set up in February, has launched a fighting fund on GoFundMe so we can stand up for freedom of expression in the courts. You can find it here. Please give anything you can and share it on your social media feeds. Free speech has never been in greater peril since the man in the box defeated the Nazis.
Round-Up
And on to the round-up of all the stories I’ve noticed, or which have been been brought to my attention, in the last 24 hours:
- ‘Ghanaian footballer ‘stranded at Mumbai airport for 74 days’ thanks to coronavirus‘ – Anyone seen The Terminal? Here’s the sequel
- ‘Universities could see up to ten per cent of British students defer places, Ucas chief says‘ – As few as that?
- ‘Before Catching Coronavirus, Some People’s Immune Systems Are Already Primed to Fight It‘ – More evidence that some people have natural immunity
- ‘How New York’s Coronavirus Response Made the Pandemic Worse‘ – Not just New York, obviously
- ‘We cannot sit in our own little bubbles forever‘ – Robert Dingwall, member of NERVTAG, with a refreshingly dissenting point of view in Spiked
- ‘Cricket fears lost generation as clubs stare into financial abyss‘ – It is game over for cricket, asks the Times?
- ‘Brilliant Seinfeld spoof‘ – Fans will remember the episode when Kramer is shamed for not wearing an AIDS ribbon. Someone has updated it with subtitles so this time he’s being shamed for not sticking a BLM black box on his Instagram account
Theme Tune Suggestion From Readers
Just the one suggestion today: “How Long Will it Last?” by the Jackson Southernaires.
Small Businesses That Have Reoponed
A few weeks ago, Lockdown Sceptics launched a searchable directory of open businesses across the UK. The idea is to celebrate those retail and hospitality businesses that have reopened, as well as help people find out what has opened in their area. But we need your help to build it, so we’ve created a form you can fill out to tell us about those businesses that have opened near you. Please visit the page and let us know about those brave folk who are doing their bit to get our country back on its feet.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the last 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. It takes me many hours every day, which doesn’t leave much time for other work. If you feel like donating, however small the amount, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here.
And Finally…
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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Excellent!!!! This made me laugh because its so true – this is pretty much the subliminal message behind those emails I’ve been receiving from businesses purporting to welcome me back because they missed me.
Just thought I would chip in with a report from the great outdoors. I drove the family from where we live in Greenwich, across south east London to Herne Hill today, to meet with a couple of my wife’s college friends.
Absolutely no evidence through the centres of New Cross, Peckham, or Denmark Hill of any effort having been put in to trying to prepare for Monday in any way – no stupid stickers or paint marks on the floor. No signs, no nothing. The street scenes looked completely normal except for the fact that there were more cyclists on the road (dangerous, because most of them hadn’t the faintest idea how to behave when cycling on a busy road). “Wear a mask” posters at the stations we passed, but that was about it. Some people on the streets in muzzles, but if it was as much as 5% I’d be surprised.
Met at the house of one of the friends (the other had walked over from Pimlico – he doesn’t drive) and went to the local park for a while. No hugging, but I’m fine with that. I’m not a big fan of hugs anyway. The park was… Read more »
Sorry to be personal Matt but since you live in Greenwich…is the Richard the First (aka The Tolly) in Royal Hill going to survive?
The Union is my usual pub (next door). I’m certain that will survive because it’s ultimately owned by Asahi (through Meantime – I never drink the meantime beers). I’m worried about the Tolly – it’s a popular place and it has a decent size and sheltered outdoors and enough room inside nowadays that you could get a sensible number of people inside even with a 2M rule, but they’ve invested a lot of money in refurb recently and so they must be short of cash.
I used to drink there (Tolly) and the Ashburnham Arms. Can’t see that surviving. The Union I used to go to because I knew the guys who started the brewery. I guess they sold out. This is over eighteen years ago (when I left Greenwich).
I saw a bloke cycling up a really steep hill today and he was wearing a face mask. I’d love to know what his thought process was before he set off.
“Better safe than sorry. If it saves one life. People will see me and think I’m a good person. Oh look, a rabbit…”
Here’s a peach of a statement from Welsh Sinister Vaughan Gething:
“The safety of the people in Wales has always been the driving force in the choices we’ve made, right from the choice to stop large areas of NHS activity in the middle of March, to the way we’ve done the testing strategy, to where we are now.”
Yes. They stopped large areas of NHS activity in order to ensure the safety of the people in Wales.
I am speechless. (Seldom happens.)
Reads like something from the late Victoria Wood. Shame she’s not still here to perform this as a sketch on tv. If nothing else, it might have brought some sense to more people.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/14/the-past-three-months-have-proved-it-the-costs-of-lockdown-are-too-high?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Now even in the Guardian
Larry Elliot is one of the few sane voices in the Guardian.
Well he’s good on the costs of lockdown but also convinced about 2nd, 3rd and 4th waves of the virus. He links to CBS and Guardian articles which say Texas and Beijing are considering re-imposing lockowns because more cases have been found.
Curiously, he seems to think young people won’t wear anoher lockdown. Well I hope he’s right because from what we see, they are the among the most compliant and terrified of anyone unless they’re in a C19-free zone aka a BLM demo.
In short, nothing much to see here.
I posted somewhere else that I’m very suspicious about Beijing’s new cases. Too much of a coincidence as it slows to a halt in Europe. Haven’t read much lately about viral load but hasn’t this virus just worn itself out? I don’t believe a second wave will happen, unless it’s forced (i.e. manufactured)
From the bat virologist Chris von Csefalvay US. Seems to be quite outspoken. In the quite interesting twitterlink he is discussing the Covid-19 pandemic. He seemed to initially approved lockdown for at that time for an unknown virus but is now in great doubt of the benefit. He says that the riots and protests in the US proved the Covid-19 to be less dangerous than presumed.
https://threader.app/thread/1272174652832579585
Just two quotes
“There are no winners in this. The losers are all of us. This was the last quarantine America has ever had, or will ever have, in our lifetime. The next pandemic – we are overdue for two more in the next ten years – will burn unfettered through the population when it comes.”
“Yes. We will have at least one serious influenza pandemic and a highly transmissible henipavirus pandemic within the next 10 years.”
Summary of research into wearing of masks.
It’s on dropbox as it is the only way this research stays “visible” on the internet. It keeps being hard to find on wherever the author posts it.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/w5eojbzj13zbnyd/COVID-19_Rancourt-Masks-dont-work-review-science-re-COVID19-policy.pdf?dl=0
Have seen some pretty distrubing summaries of the lockdown and public panic in various newspapers today.
First: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/unshackling-2m-rule-isnt-just-politicians-people-have-shift/ a warning of where we’re headed if we don’t fully abadon lockdown fast, warning how people have lost the ability to weight risks and that fear-porn in the media has made them reliant on the state to do all such thinking for them.
Second: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/14/covid-19-turning-us-nation-irrational-panic-merchants/ another warning about the public panic, how people have wapred their words to insist that “we’re not like Sweden” even when before the panicdemic they were pointing at every aspect of Swedish life as a mdoel to copy, and how our nation is veering toward danegrous authoritarianism.
Third: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8418399/PETER-HITCHENS-Left-controls-lever-power-face-regime-change.html another warning of the rise of authoritarianism, ‘m not sure whethet to agree with his blaming on “the left” as I’ve seen right-wingers embracing dangerous authoritarianism too, but it clearly points out the suppression of individual rights since the Sept 11th atrocities of 2001, warns of the dictatorship of fear, BBC bias, and the rise of a state ever more dedicated to pushing micromanagment into people’s private lives “Stand there. Wait there. Don’t use cash. Don’t cross that line”.
Guardian article today. However, as we know here, hindsight is no excuse. It did not have to be this way. I’m waiting for the first uk newspaper headline on the cover as such – no bets allowed – a sure thing in the comes weeks…
The past three months have proved it: the costs of lockdown are too high
Larry Elliott
Governments now know the economic, social, health and educational costs of full Covid-19 lockdowns scar too deeply
Sun 14 Jun 2020
The past three months have been a global experiment to test whether modern economies built on social interaction are compatible with methods for tackling a pandemic that haven’t moved on much since the Black Death.
The results are now in. Lockdowns are toxic for a world in which people travel to work on buses or commuter trains, spend eight hours with their colleagues at the office, spend their lunch hour doing a bit of shopping, and head off in the evening to the pub, the theatre or the football.
Britain imposed severe restrictions towards the end of March. By the end of April, according to initial estimates by the Office for National Statistics, the… Read more »
Has anyone noticed social distance car parking? Over the last few weeks people in my office are leaving spaces between car parking berths. Its bizarre. Now that everyone has been asked to return I’m intrigued to see what my co workers do now space isn’t available anymore. Will they put a massive mask on the front of their cars? How will they cope with the evil bubo eminating from adjacent cars? God forbid the terrible consequences of cars within 2m of eachother.
As you drive into Stockton on Tees on the dual carriageway there’s a sign attached to a lamppost proclaiming “COVID-19 Maintain 2m Distance”. To all intents and purposes this looks like an instruction to motorists while driving. Local councils are so bloody stupid!
Our local garden centre recommends that. We may or may not take any notice, depending on spaces available.
People tend to try and leave a space in between to stop their car side doors getting damaged.
They had this in our Tesco for a while. Personally I am fully in favour of it if it means my car doesn’t get doored.
Facemasks for cars is a great idea. They would be like those dreadful comic relief noses people used to have. I think you can get poppies too. It’s a great platform for virtue signalling.
HEIL GATES!
It’s not got the same ring to it – but I’m sure we’ll get used to it
Heil Billtler!
Dutch Cooperation Made an ‘Intelligent Lockdown’ a Success
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-06-05/netherlands-coronavirus-lockdown-dutch-followed-the-rules
The Netherlands was opting for what Rutte termed an “intelligent lockdown.” In a nationally televised address, the first by a Dutch prime minister in more than four decades, he noted that restrictions have a price, even if they’re not immediately visible. “We will continue to search for the balance between needed measures and allowing ordinary life to continue as much as possible,” he said.
Rutte’s guiding principles—allowing people to go out but trusting them to practice safe distancing—asked a lot of his constituents. “The whole plan relied upon public support,” says Daan Roovers, a medical doctor, professor of philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, and the “thinker of the fatherland” (an unofficial title bestowed by Philosopher magazine and the newspaper De Trouw ). “When you impose a rule in the Netherlands, there will be a lot of resistance—we’re not that obedient,” she says. “So if you leave people a little room to maneuver for themselves, to think for themselves, you’ll gain more support and it will be more successful.”
How I wish the British people could gain some sanity and pride ourselves on not being obedient.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/14/inside-swedish-city-may-prove-countrys-strategy-right-along/
Inside the Swedish city that may prove the country’s strategy was right all along
It had the same lax restrictions as the capital of Sweden: schools remained open, residents carried on drinking in bars and cafes, and the doors of hairdressers and gyms were open throughout coronavirus.
But the Swedish coastal city of Malmö has shown a remarkably different result to Stockholm, with few fatalities and a remarkably low death rate.
Now some experts are questioning if the Malmo model proves that Sweden’s controversial move to avoid a lockdown was right all along.
Sweden has faced mounting criticism over its death rate. But Skane, the region around Malmo, had by last week registered just 17 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants due to coronavirus, slightly fewer than the 19 per 100,000 seen in the Capital Region of Denmark across the Oresund straits, even though Denmark went into heavy lockdown for two months from mid-March.
According to The Guardian, antisocial distancing may well be here to stay:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/14/what-could-a-physically-distanced-uk-look-like-after-lockdown
It took four people to write this
articlebullshit. At least, I hope it’s bullshit, but in our brave new world, who knows? There seems to be a strong body of opinion in favour of this madness to go on indefinitely.I reckon it’ll topple by the end of the week. The Isle of Man is knocking it on the head tomorrow so I reckon we’ll follow fairly soon after as hopefully people won’t stand for it. The only thing stopping it is how to explain to businesses that have spent a lot of money on anti social distancing stuff that it’s now no longer needed! They do love making rods for their own backs don’t they!
You say that, but I haven’t seen a single act of dissent or irritation, people still sheepishly wait in line to enter nearly empty shops. I didn’t at Lidl today, I waited for 10 mins and then barged in. The man on the door followed me in to try to stop me. I told him I didn’t need to be ushered, I could social distance without being herded and asked what he was going to do about it, anyway. I was then watched by him throughout my shop til I left. No one is dissenting, people even social distance in their own gardens, like Puritans afraid that God is watching. It will not return to normal. It wasn’t normal before, we have become a species unable to connect with each other, we rather the internet over friends, sex, books and family. This was inevitable and we took ourselves here. I simple won’t shop, won’t visit and won’t engage with organisations that seek to coerce me without just cause.
You’re right that it wasn’t normal before, but I’d like to think this will prove to people how much we need workmates, shopping, days out etc. We have been sleepwalking into this and may have woken up before it’s too late.
Might it change if all shops are like Primark and implement this?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=XCo_IPMrQ9g&feature=emb_logo
A few of these experiences might just wake people up…
Yes, I agree, Cruella. We got on the bus on Friday (5 of us on it with half the seats made ‘unavailable’.) I sat on a forbidden seat, nowhere near anyone else and got told off by the driver, a miserable git if ever there was one, and had to move. There were 2 muzzle-wearers, one about 10 and the other about 18, FFS. Apparently, the bus drivers are now being forced to wear them on school buses and they’ve been told to make the kids wear them. There was a fatal crash between a bus and a lorry round here on Friday. How will oxygen-deprived drivers go on?
Today, we went 1 stop on the train, about 12 mins, and it was horrible, just horrible. Only about 12 seats in the whole carriage not covered with ‘don’t use’ cloths and 8 muzzle-wearers staring into space when we got on, all of them very young. You are greeted at the station by huge notices with a muzzled blank face on them and an order: ‘Cover your face’. It is crying out to be graffiti-ed and I have a funny feeling it just might be! However, I can bet that… Read more »
Was in the Peak District on Saturday, only saw one bus in Glossop the lady who got off was not wearing a muzzle.
Lots of people out and about, did not notice a single muzzle. Hikers, bikers, all good except for in the towns and villages where normally the local economy would be taking advantage of these visitors most shops are closed.
anyone who knows the Hope valley area will know how busy the area is on a summer Saturday when the weather is good.
Most of the Saturday services in Glossop and elsewhere have been cut. Unfortunately, the pubs and cafes can’t take advantage of the 100s of visitors – a bit of take-away, at best.
I mentioned the muzzles on buses because they were a rare sight until last week. I fear that most people will comply, sadly.
I did similar in Pets at home, think I may now be banned for over stepping the 2M mark.
Fair point, I’m just on one of my rare optimistic days about this! We definitely need dissent, it’s just that the veil over people’s eyes is so thick and blinding. I won’t be going shopping anytime soon if this nonsense continues. I still can’t believe how far we’ve degenerated in such a short space of time.
I don’t know which part of the world you live in but where I am on the south coast people don’t care.Okay regs may insist shops have to have all the ridiculous signage but no-one is doing any distancing in queues etc. I’m having socials with people are we’re not doing it either.
There appears to be zero resistance from businesses against these absurd and unnecessary restrictions. They are all falling over each other to prove how “safe” they are. Fuck ’em.
You’d think some of the bigger firms would be putting pressure on. Perhaps they are, privately, but it’s disappointing. They should be fighting for their survival. What are they afraid of? Maybe they don’t want to be seen to be money-grabbing and heartless, and are hoping it will all blow over soon. Dangerous game.
Do not know if this has already been posted; big retail gears up for the crowds returning.
https://youtu.be/XCo_IPMrQ9g
It looks like students or interns wrote this article, they even drew the nice diagrams. I’d give this bollocks a few weeks at most. These raft of non essential shops trying to enforce this will simply go under. Only mental, desperate people will try and high street shop under these conditions. Either the shops will fold or people will just ignore this shit. I’d guess even hardened lockdown fascists will tire of this comedy eventually.
Out and about most people I come across seem to be behaving normally and ignoring ridiculous social distancing rules. People are going back to normal, whatever the government says publicly. Of course there will always be the lockdown zealots but they are more than welcome to stay at home – permanently and leave the rest of the world to get on with life
Exactly. Let them wither away hiding from the world.
I feel completely sorry for you, being backed into a corner with insane HSE restrictions destroying you business. I think it will have to give, i just hope those businesses who hate this dystopia can somehow survive. As for shopping, i just mentally block all these insane rules. Theyre powerless to enforce them anyway bar banning you from a shop
Morons. Complete and utter morons. This thing is over bar the shouting. Am I the only one suspicious about an alleged new outbreak in Beijing? How convenient just when it has died down in Europe. I wonder if ‘experts’ are paid to disseminate projections about how we’ll behave post-Covid. What about post effing flu? How about how we behave after that? Has The Guardian really had to pay four people to write this drivel. P.S. pubs won’t work if you have to rely on bookings. Popping out for a pint on a whim is how pubs work. Or you pass one after a heavy’s day shopping and drop in. Society will die if there are no crowds attending events. That’s the point – morons! I’m talking about the ‘journalists’ and the ‘experts’ Tenchy, not you.
Lots of Big Lies out there now:
“The people of Britain made unjust gains from slavery and empire.” This is total crap. The vast majority of people never benefitted from slaving or empire. It was probably quite the reverse. As soon as we jettisoned our empire in fact life improved hugely for ordinary people in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. The beneficiaries were mainly the sort of people who write for the Guardian – people from landed and upper middle class backgrounds who now have a guilty conscience. It’s nothing to do with the rest of us who never voted for slavery or empire. “White British people are racists.” Absolute nonsense. As can be demonstrated by our rate of outmarriage/partnering from white ethnic groups,the UK is probably the least racist country on Earth. How much outmarriage is there in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Russia, China and India? “There is systematic racist discrimination in all sectors of British society” Total bollocks. As can be seen by our TV presenters and celebrities, our acting profession, our popular music, our lawyers, our doctors, and our businesses, all sectors are open to people of all races. This is not the same thing as saying… Read more »
The real truth is that if they want to get angry about racism, they should be angry about lockdown. BAME people are typically poor, usually with less stable jobs than whites and living in lower quality accomodation with less chance of green space nearby and more likely to be reliant on (absent in lockdown) public transport and not own a car to get to green space further away. BAME people are also more likely to be harassed by UK police, though not as in danger as from US police. Anyone claiming to be anti-racist should be standing up against the lockdown before worrying about any other issue.
“any more than there will be an equal outcome for all in the 100 metres Olympics final.”
Which brought an image of all the runners holding hands as they cross the finish line together…
I’d say ignore all the blatant race baiting if it weren’t for the fact that it’s getting people sacked, bullied, etc.
To say that people of our generation have benefited from slavery is like saying its our fault we were born. Think about that for a moment how can we be blamed for something that happened before we were even born. If there is fault lets work on a fairer system for tomorrow and learn from the past.
“the UK is probably the least racist country on Earth“
Trying to get this point across to the majority is very similar to trying to explain to coronapanickers that we should not be trashing our economy out of fear of this disease.
“antiracist laws and mobbing/lockdown laws are trashing our liberty and society and economy”
Yes, but what about victims of racism/people who die of covid?
“There’s no evidence that racism/covid is anything like a big problem, there have never been societies less racist/safer from disease than ours”
Yes, but what about these individuals who have experienced racism/have caught covid?
“It’s always unfortunate for a few, but we can’t build our whole society around preventing every incidence of racism/disease because doing so does damage disproportionate to the problem.”
But what about the victims? Don’t you care about people?
Ye Gods!
In both cases there are people who, by inclination or by virtue of their personal, social or economic or political situation, benefit from pushing the problem as one that requires panic responses, and many such people are in very powerful media and other positions. And for various cultural reasons, too many… Read more »
Adam’s petitions have all passed the “vetting” and are taking signatures:
Allow pubs and restaurants to operate without COVID-19 restrictions
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/325069/sponsors/new?token=bUdZBKyeFfOyFtrrEi1s
Allow cinemas and theatres to operate without COVID-19 restrictions
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/325070/sponsors/new?token=ccbQfFMPPj5Y2dkCGqVI
Allow sports venues to operate without COVID-19 restrictions
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/325071/sponsors/new?token=uWJoByBY15C_usvXDjll
Allow tourist attractions to operate without COVID-19 restrictions
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/325072/sponsors/new?token=AG45L0YPTYT4U8ph6c-2
Allow hotels and guest houses to operate without COVID-19 restrictions
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/325074/sponsors/new?token=FcCURYWRSAJ5iOjPu922
Allow retailers to operate without COVID-19 restrictions
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/325075/sponsors/new?token=RuCr3YS7MQluB4c9kIsz
Professor explains why he’s ‘a bit skeptical’ of idea of ‘systemic or institutional racism’
More hard truths about the lies underlying our current state of cultural collapse.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/money_paid_for_public_health_med#incoming-1565592
FOI was refused by the Cabinet Office – extract of their letter below.
Therefore, the information you have requested regarding the costs of the campaign and
the companies involved is being withheld as it is exempt under Section 22(1)(a) of the
Freedom Of Information Act. Section 22(1)(a) exempts information if it is held by the public authority with a view to its publication at a future date.
NHS cv19 advertisements seem to have gone from YT from this morning. Maybe the NHS advertising budget is exhausted.
Hope so!
For a while now I’ve considered the internet as my second brain. Rather than waste valuable brain space holding knowledge I can simply look it up as and when I need it.
People talking of the Borg and Hivemind thinking has made me realise something. The internet, social media in particular, for many is not just a second brain, it is fast becoming their main brain.
When I became a father I was confused as to why there were so many books and articles giving guidance on how be a father/mother to a newborn baby. What did parents do before this essential knowledge was so readily available? By all rights the human race must have been lucky to get this far without such guidance.
This is just one example out of countless other situations where thinking for yourself is no longer required. The internet will do the thinking for you. It’s not even necessary to do the research yourself, simply ask on the internet and somebody will come back with the answer for you.
I could probably write a thesis on this but I’m sure you can think up your own examples of this in action.
I’ve posted this elsewhere, but I think the Simon Dolan ‘revelation’ could be big, if it allows independent schools to reopen fully. The only reason they haven’t is their insurers’ interpretation of what has been said by the government, but in light of this revelation it looks like it is all recommendations, so hopefully the insurers will change their view. If they don’t, then the independent schools can put pressure on them. Once independent schools reopen, things really change. If the government haven’t actually closed the schools, then the local authorities can surely be sued?
The government are clearly going to ague the same thing in relation to everything else. The 2m distancing is just a recommendation, yet all other guidance is based on it. No law can be based on a recommendation, so everything falls apart. We all just need to challenge and resist everything. There isn’t anything that they can do.
The government have relied on compliance and that has now be shown by this to be all it is. The government are in effect blaming us.
Agree! Can someone start sharing Simon’s revelations with some independent schools or their association?
Yes. I’ve just written a couple of e-mails.
Please also share Simon’s latest post about the gagging clause some teachers have been asked to sign!
We need lord sumption to sort it all out. He’s argued all along about the difference between law and guidelines. I’ve said about the 2 m thing being a guideline to people until I’m blue in the face but they’re convinced it’s a law. The brainwashing means that people think it is law. Someone with a greater mind than mine will be needed to untangle it all, in other words whilst we know that it’s obvious that people have been caused to think that it is law, even though it isn’t, this must now be proven since the government will deny it. Does that make sense? But when someone like Johnson says you must do something it sure sounds like a law. I think lord sumption has said something about ministers recommendations should not be construed as law. It’s like the whole hugging thing by Hancock, people effectively think they can’t hug but it’s not against the law. The way this government has messed with people’s minds is despicable and deplorable in the extreme. I wish people would get hold of this and start to legitimately protest about it.
The government relies on social shaming to make it a de facto law. We’ve seen this before, where the government is happy to let the twittermob become its enforcers without having to attempt to put through controversial legislation.
For us in Wales, it is a law. Not sure what Grandpa Drakeford will do when Boris & co drops the 2 metre thing in the next couple of weeks but he has said he will follow the science…
Given that the proper science doesn’t even support lockdown I hope he’ll realise that and say “to hell with rules”. The people have a duty to point this out and enforce the actual science for themselves if their local government won’t.
He wouldn’t recignise science uf it hit him over the head with a baseball bat, which us what needs to be done asap.
Out of interest, let’s say the UK does keep these stupid rules… in spite of large numbers of countries allowing everyday life to return to ‘normal’ (the old normal, not a new one). Does the government think that other countries will eventually ‘see the light’ and adopt the same rules as the UK? The UK will look completely stupid if all these rules carry on much longer – is that what the government wants? And if so, why?
This has just appeared on Simon Dolan’s Twitter feed, plus the link below – looks like his legal challenge is already having an effect! :
‘Boris Johnson is set to announce primary pupils from ALL years can return before summer
What a coincidence’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8418815/Schools-U-turn-ministers-say-primary-pupils-years-return-space.html
Yes but 15 max. per class. They will not drop the 2m rule because, as we all know, children are in such danger from this ‘awful virus’. There will be no progress until all social-distancing is dropped and some kind of sanity returns.
The 2m distance is also not law, it is guidance, a recommendation. I think Simon intends to submit it to the same legal scrutiny, so it is likely to go.. Remember too that hardly any children (15 I believe?) without co-morbidities have died from Covid 19..
Carrie, I think that’s what I was trying to say:
There will be no progress until all social-distancing is dropped and some kind of sanity returns.
Also, Simon has now posted this:
https://www.tes.com/news/coronavirus-exclusive-dfe-tries-gag-teachers-covid-response
Teachers have been made to sign a gagging clause!
Shocking but, somehow, this doesn’t surprise me. Thanks for posting – I will share this info around.
Please believe I’m a 100% LS, as my several posts on here will attest.
Oh, I’m not doubting you Miriam!
Gagging clause or not, I’m convinced that the real problem is 1) politically motivated awkward behaviour by the teachers’ unions (encouraged by and led by the Labour Party) and by labour-led local authorities; 2) genuine but baseless and artificially-created fear on the part of the teachers themselves; 3) appalling leadership, baffling lack of communication and stubborn refusal to share “the science” on the part of the Conservative government
Staff is going to be the problem. My younger boy (year 1) is back and my elder boy (year 3) is not. Year 1 (along with reception and year six) each has two classes and each class has been split into two “bubbles”. One bubble is in on Monday and Tuesday and another on Thursday and Friday. Wednesday is for deep cleaning (4 days a week we educate children. On the other day we do something expensive and pointless).
So, 4 days a week, the school is half full, so there is definitely physical space to get all the other years back in on the same basis. But they’re using twice as many teachers as they normally would – so nearly all of the teaching staff is already accounted for. If you accept (I don’t) that you can’t share teachers between ‘bubbles’ then you simply don’t have enough teachers.
But if the 2m distancing rule goes then it will be easier!
Surely, it’s the only way?
I totally agree! I was responding to Matt’s post above regarding lack of teachers..
I’m not sure. The interaction between the 2M “rule” and bubble sizes isn’t at all clear to me. On the one hand you can fit fewer 6-year-olds into a given space if you’re expecting them to be 2 metres apart, clearly. On the other hand, there seems to be a general acceptance that you can’t keep a group of 6-year-olds 2 metres apart anyway.
I think the theory of the reduced-sized bubble is based more on the idea of cross-contamination between households – 15 households meeting and exchanging germs is safer than 30 household meeting and exchanging germs (my older boy’s year has a set of twins, but this is unusual, clearly). Then add in the idea that a single adult (teacher) could act as a vector between two separate groups of kids and so that teacher can’t teach _both_ bubbles.
The only answer really is to settle the general panic.
I cant help but see the irony with the JKR debate. She is woman that identities with being a woman and is expressing an opinion and is being denounced as an fascist. In response people are burning her books.
Contrary to popular belief only one of those acts is fascist.
Though I generally agree with the points made by Rowling on this topic, which are mostly common sense, it’s hard for me to have much sympathy for figures of the left falling victim to the primary techniques of the left throughout my lifetime – demonisation, smearing and name-calling, and “cancelling” as it is now termed, but just an extension of the old general shouting down and no platforming of dissidents.
Mark, not sure if you have seen this one yet – relates to discussion the other day about Professor Uhlig, University of Chicago-based editor of Journal of Political Economy. Well, his position on the board of the Chicago Federal Reserve has been terminated. To be frank, I was quite surprised that he was on the board, given the Chicago School economics stance is at odds with the uber-doves at the Chicago Fed. Let’s hope this weekend is nowhere like as bad as last weekend’s shooting fatalities in south Chicago!
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chicago-fed-economist-fired-criticizing-defund-police
Hadn’t, thanks, TT. Tbh sacking for politically incorrect opinions has been prevalent for quite a wile now, but it is really now starting to affect the top levels quite significantly and for more mainstream opinions. How long will it be tolerated before effective resistance arises?
Pretty much every VC in the UK university sector is part of the Common Purpose club. Many are ‘professor’ in name only – several don’t even have earned (as opposed to upgraded for Oxbridge BAs) masters degrees, let alone ever having published articles in leading journals. But then the job is running a real estate investment trust with a light bit of teaching on the side! There needs to be a full-scale delayering of the political appointments across the whole of the public sector – it goes down quite far in many institutions, particularly in the university sector, and this is why it is so damaging.
The long march through the institutions
..indeed – they’ve finally come out the other side wearing Mao caps and carrying machetes.
This chimes with a conversation I had years ago when curious about the massive building projects at the local university (a huge local employer). Playing fields, green space & surface car parking all under concrete “oh they decided they had to build or die” halls for increased student numbers. I heard that the borrowing needed was eye watering although other older estate was sold off as part repayment of loan.
Far left models work intellectually but in practice always end up without exception ruled by the small elite that take advantage of the trust of people that put them there like JKR.
I agree. They don’t deserve our support – they deserve our contempt. Unless they completely change their ways and declare their full support for the free speech principle, their plight is their own, because they don’t support free speech. Why they ever thought that this would never rebound to their disadvantage is something for them to explain – because anyone can cause offence to anyone with their speech.
Well, evangelists burned Beatles records, didn’t stop ’em. Nazis burned books,, didn’t stop writers. It’s just an hysterical reaction by people who can’t think. You know, I know, everyone on these pages know, that history is riddled with power grabs by manipulation of the masses. And I wish people would stop using ‘left’ and ‘right’ in all encompassing ways. I’d love to see a definition of the ‘left’. As someone of that inclination I took issue with Rowling regarding her attitude to Corbyn (and told her so), I stand right behind her on this. The left does not have a blanket identity.
Regarding left and right, if you feel like it maybe you could expand on what your personal version of “left” looks like. I tend to agree that attributing blanket identity to groups is not helpful, but one could argue that the term “left” in this case is being used to refer to a certain type of “left”, and is being used as a shorthand for a set of beliefs and attitudes commonly held by those in this “left”. I am interested to try and identify what the common ground could be here, given that we all feel a good deal of common ground anyway in our views on the reaction to the virus situation.
The idea that ideas etc cannot be defeated by censorship is pretty suspect – a clear case of survivor bias imo. Obviously censorship didn’t stop the ideas that are now established. Though it’s a comforting notion.
As for left/right, generally a generalisation holds true for most but not all. The left/right notion is no exception. In social and cultural terms, it’s progressives versus conservatives, broadly. And there are attitudes, approaches, techniques etc that are common to or characteristic of people on one or other side of that line.
But clearly there are exceptions, and furthermore one does not have to stay on one side of the line, or even be fully of one or the other.
The experience here is very typical – there are plenty of people here from either side of the left/right divide who recognise the folly of lockdown. The BLM issue is a little less bipartisan, because people on the left find it harder to see past the lies of antiracism and BLM, but on the other hand there are plenty on the right who are equally challenged on that topic – it’s one we’ve been collectively very heavily propagandised on for decades.
… Read more »
It’s probably more classic libertarians and those who support small government and free speech (which was once a cornerstone of the Democrat and Labour left) versus the “liberals” who are liberal-minded with regard to sex, i.e., anything goes, including children, but completely intolerant of any opposing views, speech, or ideology. They have pushed identity politics.
The intolerant far left are now the enemies of free speech, and are opposed to reality and science. They want equality of outcome, and say any that doesn’t produce that is “racism” or “sexism” etc. They support collectivism rather than individualism.
I think you’ve got a strange understanding of the proper meaning of the word “liberal”. I would describe myself as a liberal (small ‘l’) and as right-of-centre. John Stuart Mill was a liberal. Burke was a liberal. I don’t pretend to have nearly as developed a philosophy of either of them, but I don’t think any of the 3 of us would describe the world view as “anything goes, including children”.
Huh? and if no one had of stopped them they would have continued to burn every book in history that didn’t agree with them. Then they would have found those writers and ‘terrorist’ and rounded them up.
If the left doesn’t have a blanket identity then I’m sure you will agree neither does the right.
There’s very strong schadenfreude with this one. Although I don’t do twitter I’ve seen many references to JKR’s ultra-woke, snide, nasty, sarcastic, sniping, virtue-signalling tweets over the last few years. That she is getting a taste of her own medicine is rather delicious.
Superficially, she has been rounded on for ‘calling a spade a spade’. The irony is that the various ‘virtues’ that these typical virtue signallers espouse at some point become mutually exclusive.
Yep it’s Far Left Fascism. We see it all around us now and it is supported by mainstream media – the Mail, Times, Evening Standard, BBC, Sky, ITV and mainstream commentators, traitors to their culture. These fools think they are playing a giant game of Jenga and that they can pull out pieces of our culture without it collapsing on them because they are so clever. As we know – eventually if you pull out enough pieces the tower will collapse.
Fools like Bear Grylls and Max Hastings (I see from the Sunday papers) think they can play along with this game and not make any personal sacrifices. They clearly have no clue what enemy they are up against.
Don’t think a son should suffer from the crimes of a father, but..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Grylls
I thinm Hastings has, at least subtly, come out against lockdown:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1260704/Coronavirus-UK-Max-Hastings-BBC-rant-COVID-19-sacrifice-old-generation-latest-news
For me far left fascism eventually turns to far right fascism. Far lefts more uglier unelected cousin.
Very well observed Kh,I am shocked about the one non-compliant business,there is always one that lets everyone down,don’t they know that people are going to die because of them ? !.
Seriously though,keep up the resistance,us sceptics are proud of you.I’ve tried to stir a bit of dissent in my town but most businesses are fully onboard with the new abnormal,one or two aren’t and they are the only ones I will be using for the foreseeable future.
Have a look at this,it looks really fun,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCo_IPMrQ9g&t=301s
Remember, resistance is NOT futile. The Borg failed in the end to assimilate Earth …. 😉
Are you sure about that Carrie?
It sure looks like a hivemind is at the wheel. Sadly it’s a hive of profoundly inferior minds.
Inferior, and inhuman.
But who will be our Locutus?
Hear hear.
But our Covizombies
look more like Borg every minute, don’t they?
Yes, though that was in large measure due to help they had from an android, and a courageous Klingon.
The Bolsheviks didn’t…
…fail
Glorious. Wish it wasn’t so accurate.
My little local market town, already struggling to recover from recurrent floods, has had one of its main streets closed to parking overnight to widen the pavements and allow for social distancing. Local traders are furious – parking is hard to come by at the best of times. They weren’t consulted.
Meanwhile council haven’t collected our recycling for four weeks and counting. Used to be weekly.
No 10 tells it like it isn’t. So we make the rules
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/no-10-tells-it-like-it-isnt-so-we-make-the-rules-9fqvm7n9f
It feels as if we are living in parallel realities. There is the world of the Downing Street press conference, where Boris Johnson carefully expounds guidelines to “open up in a Covid-secure way”, and there is the real world where people have stopped listening and are using their own judgment. There is the world of the Downing Street press conference, where Johnson is going to lead our people back to the high street to boost the economy, and there is the real world where everyone not on a public-sector contract is skint, can buy most stuff online anyway and is far keener to see family and friends than the inside of Sports Direct.
the sense that the more ministers talk, the more they sound like Comical Ali, the former Iraqi information minister famous for the obvious lies he told during briefings during the invasion of Iraq. Most people would congratulate ministers if they admitted mistakes.
This feeling of living in parallel realities is very familiar to those who have had the experience of living under dictatorship – no one believes the official media, and people read “samizdats” in secret.
We are all having the experience of living under a dictatorship.
The high street is finished because of this psychosis. I think people wont go shopping because of the virus but purely because its utter shit. Anyone not willing to use a one way system, not be able to try anything on or touch any items, to queue like an eastern bloc pauper for food, will not touch the high street. I suspect even alot of the lockdown brainwashed wont go there.
Its not even scrap 2m, it’s scrap it all or nothing and even if they did scrap this insanity I think it’s too late. These businesses can’t and won’t survive no matter what happens.
The only option is to go shopping and defy the bullsh*t. See what they do when you try on an item on the shop floor, if you find it fits and say you’ll buy it they’ll be very reluctant to try to push you out, they might even help you jump the ceckout queues to pay quicker. The high street must be reclaimed by the sceptics, the zealots wouldn’t go there anyway so there isn’t much chance of shops losing customers by bending to our will rather than the coronaphobes’.
The high street has been struggling for years with shop closures. Shops are facing a double whammy. They have not been allowed to operate and are introducing measures which put customers off. Are shops introducing these measures because they think the public want them or are they under instructions from the government. If high street shops go bust there is a knock on effect on suppliers and businesses which depend on shoppers eg restaurants, coffee shops, pubs, taxis and buses.
Oddly, the government came under a certain amount of pressure from pubs after 16th March (“avoid going to the pub”) and 20th (closure of pubs) to officially close them down. The reason was that those that had insurance were unable to claim on it until they had been officially closed down.
However, by the Thursday, the insurance industry had pretty much come to the conclusion anyway that “strongly hinted at to close” meant essentially the same thing as “told to close)
“Even Tories increasingly fear they have inflicted the worst of all worlds on Britain
There is mounting dread that we will emerge from the coronavirus crisis with a higher death rate than comparable countries and a more ravaged economy”
“…it chimes with other indicators suggesting that this country will pay a uniquely high price for its sluggish imposition of the lockdown and the government’s chaotic mismanagement of the attempt to grope towards an exit. All of which is fuelling the fear that it will be Britain’s fate to get the worst of both worlds: a higher death rate than comparable countries and a more ravaged economy. That dread now radiates from Tories like a pungent musk.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/14/even-tories-increasingly-fear-they-have-inflicted-the-worst-of-all-worlds-on-britain
But you and I will not be able to say “told you so” because the actual lockdown itself is not questioned. What is questioned is whether the government brought it in early enough. Whether schools should have been closed is not questioned, but the fact that “zoos, pubs and bookies” will be opening sooner than schools is, apparently, the main issue.
Rawnsley (whom I liked when he used to do that programme with Vincent Hanna) uses “excess deaths” as… Read more »
Its The Guardian I am not sure what else you expect.
Yeah, but being the Guardian, you’d think that they’d be all over anything that could destroy the Tories. In this case, there’s an open goal, but they’re toeing the conventional line and just sniping about tiny operational matters. The fact that the economy has been smashed to pieces (with god knows what consequences for their client ‘identities’) isn’t questioned. Being on our side of the argument and looking in on the squabble is a very odd sensation. It’s as though an idea can be too big for some people to contemplate, yet we are able to see it, and have done from the very start. They apparently want to ‘smash the system’ with their salivatory backing of ‘BLM’ and so on, but yet they automatically fall into line with the establishment view about the virus.
I think that is because they exist to control the thinking and behaviour of a certain subsection of the population and get them to conform to the requirements of certain interests – the Tory bashing is a useful tool to achieve this but that’s not actually their primary aim. Their primary aim is becoming more apparent now.
Yes, that’s it. For them the trial run of controlling the population and economy is an even more enticing prospect than getting rid of the Tories. The Tories will be gone soon enough, and then they will have a field day.
As much as I disagree with the whole cancel culture this would be some quite amusing form of unintended consequence: https://www.change.org/p/independent-press-standards-organisation-shut-down-the-guardian-newspaper?use_react=false
Oh delicious… I’m signing that… and sending it to everyone…
The more I think about it, the more lefty organisations can and should be taken down.
The Fabian Society for its endorsement of eugenics.
The New Statesman, founded by leading members of the Fabian Society.
George Bernard Shaw. Fabian.
Marie Stopes – openly racist and eugenicist.
The NUM – members frequently seen in blackface.
I was reading the Communist Manifesto the other day, as you do, and found Marx refers to “barbarians” in contrast to Europeans, and implies that Chinese are barbarians. I was shocked, I tell you – shocked. It’s time for his statues to come down.
Shows what b*stards the Chinese government are that they’d be willing to follow the teachings of someone who called their people “barbarians”, all because doing so gives them more power to oppress their long suffering locals.
“The NUM – members frequently seen in blackface.”
Very good, Aidan 🙂
The first time I went down a mine, I came up and had a shower, but for some reason it didn’t occur to me to wash my face! I had to beat a quick retreat in the face of gales of laughter to correct that omission….
How did they let that one slip through especially as Bill gates invests in both change.org and the Guardian? Common core education?
Fun to get back at them.
Much as they publish lies and rubbish so often, as have many other newspapers at different times I can’t approve of shutting them down. Right now the Telegraph is mostly truth, and the Guardian mostly lies, but is has been the opposite in some past crises and may be so again for future events. Better to make them carry a health warning on the front page “Lockdown
canhas seriously damaged your health…”Am I the only one disappointed that the subject re Simon Dolan’s Tweet last night seems a bit anti-climactic? Re-tweeted anyway but response seems to be ‘well that’s what the (scaredy) people wanted.’
Agree, but as he says – they are in disarray, as they have kowtowed to the unions and are happy for schools to not open till September and even then for them not to be fully open. Despite other countries’ schools being fully open and without social distancing, proving that there is no need for ours to remain shut. And for pupils whose exams have been cancelled, schools having shut unnecessarily is a *big* issue…
I’m with you but what’s increasingly disturbing is that the majority don’t seem to be in step with this. And now that the Tories (whom I loathe) are in disarray is the void going to be filled with the ‘woke’ (I hate that word!) community who demand we ‘take a knee’ for solidarity? I won’t take a fucking knee for anyone any more than I will wear a mask (sorry about the cursing but I am losing it).I passed twelve year olds coming from BLM demos yesterday who haven’t a clue. More cannon fodder for the bullies. Peter Hitchens’ disturbing column today (linked on this page somewhere) thinks it’s coming from the left, I don’t. I think it’s coming from tyrants who are linking themselves to the left. I used to be an active trade unionist, but I no longer can endorse unions whose self-interest denies others. Trades Unions grew as a resistance to exploitation and bullying, when you become the bully it’s time for a reboot. Hitchens’ column says it all – we’re about to lose all the freedoms we take for granted. As someone who used to be politically diametrically opposed to Toby Young (not any more I… Read more »
Well said Bella.
As ever, there’s a quote from the man whose statue they’ve just boarded up:
‘We have differed and quarrelled in the past; but now one bond unites us all: … never to surrender ourselves to servitude and shame, whatever the cost and agony may be.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8418159/As-child-USSR-fear-pictures-Stalin-Britain-heading.html
“EVGENY LEBEDEV: As a child of the USSR, I fear these pictures of Stalin show where Britain is heading…”
I have to respectfully disagree. It’s absolutely from the left, the far Left, i.e. the anarchists, Marxists. Most people who are liberal left, ordinary trades union members, Labour voters, etc, are not part of it, but are going along with it.
It’s those in universities, and quangos throughout government, it’s in the Labour party, Momentum, Trades Union Officials, etc.
Elder son first year at university, had lost pretty much all of winter term anyway due to lecturer’s strike (I have some sympathy with foot-soldier lecturers as they have been shafted royally by the VCs and their admin blob for many years) and still not sure what is happening in the autumn. Younger son is part of this A level ‘experiment’, that along with the sister experiment for GCSEs, looks set to continue next year, and possibly indefinitely for GCSEs if the teaching unions get their way. The whole thing is a disgrace. No thought and consideration for the younger generation at all. The response will be to dumb down the system further, socially engineer to the point of restricting access to top universities for ‘privileged’ children, and in so doing, expunge the middle class/jams and white working class (red wall Tories) for ever. Great job Boris!
Yes,a bit disappointed too,I was hoping for something big that would maybe bring an end to this madness.
Me too!
I’m with you here about it being anti-climatic. It’s defientely no game changers that will turn the media or the lockdown zealots. Very disappointing.
I think it could be big. If it is true, then independent schools can fully reopen. The only reason they haven’t is their insurers’ interpretation of what has been said by the government, but in light of this revelation it looks like it is all recommendations, so hopefully the insurers will change their view. If they don’t, then the independent schools can put pressure on them. Once independent schools reopen, things really change. If the government haven’t actually closed the schools, then the local authorities can surely be sued?
Also, the 2m distancing is just a recommendation, yet all other guidance is based on it. No law can be based on a recommendation, so everything falls apart. We all just need to challenge and resist everything. There isn’t anything that they can do.
The government have relied on compliance and that has now be shown by this to be all it is. The government are in effect blaming us.
Exactly. If 2m distancing is a ‘recommendation’, not a law, then the government should be actively stopping councils from putting up all-too-permanent-looking social-distancing signs and imposing such rules. Next stage is to challenge the masks stuff – is that law or guidance? If guidance then what is with the fines for people not wearing them?
https://twitter.com/simondolan/status/1272089715089514496?s=19
Here it is!
Thanks! According to UK column the government’s long-term plan is that schools *never* re-open (!), but I’m not sure if they have documents to prove this – if so, then maybe someone can send them to Simon as this would surely help his case!
That is obviously what is being attempted.
So it looks Mr. Cooper was correct.
“Schools out 4ever…”
(Except the posh schools of course)
They do have a point. The big players such as Alphabet/Google with their Google Education platform are pushing it big time, and most colleges and universities I work with a planning ahead to make the change if they haven’t already to start delivering with Microsoft W365 and Teams. My company is snowed under getting people working on these platforms.
I think we will very soon see the end of teaching in classroom teaching at schools, colleges, and universities, in preference for video conference learning at home.
What also worries me is having seen headlines on the net that Bill Gates is taking over education in New York (how?)… now that sounds really ominous. I have not dared to click on the links..
Microsoft Teams? Mrs Gates was interviewed on CNBC a couple of weeks ago and was pushing this quite hard. I know they have a minimal direct investment in Microsoft these days, but I am less sure whether the Gates Foundation and associated trusts hold shares through nominee accounts?
Gates personally still holds 330 million shares in Microsoft which at the current share price of $184.74 are worth a total of $61,954,200,000!!!!!!
He gave away 64 million to his foundation in 2017 which at the time was worth $6.4 billion. In total he had sol $35.8 billion of Microsoft stock for the Foundation.
The numbers are huge, but Microsoft market cap is $1.42t. He is also no longer on the board of Microsoft (also resigned from Berkshire Hathaway board on 13 March 2020), so I was just making the point that there seemed to be an (overly) aggressive push on Microsoft Teams.
Are you sure? The Common Purpose State depends on having captive audience 30 hours a week, to get their propaganda embedded in young minds. There is no way that statists will cede that ground.
Over the last couple of years, homeschooling in its current form has increasingly been under threat, with councils wanting to impose a curriculum and also to have the right to turn up at your house to check what you are doing – and even interview your children without your being present. Anyone knows that children are apt to say whatever is on their mind at the time (and can be easily led to give particular answers) so a parent could find themselves in a very difficult situation if their child happened to say the ‘wrong’ thing. Also since when has anyone had the right to enter a private home without there being reasonable grounds that a crime has been committed? Or to interview a child without their parent present?
I worry that if schools close, the powers-that-be will find some way to impose a compulsory curriculum nonetheless – maybe online, with mandatory assignments and constant outside monitoring?
All authority, no matter how desirable it may appear *must* be continuously questioned and monitored. Power is always but always but always abused and must have this continuous pressure placed upon it.
My daughter had home work about April Fool’s Day a few weeks ago, and the topic was the “Spaghetti-tree hoax” from 1957 by Panorama.
There was a question about it that said “Why was this April Fools hope believed by so many people?”, and the answer was “Because it was produced by the world renowned BBC”, as if the BBC still is the great purveyor of truth!!!
That’s the modern day brainwashing of kids in schools.
Can someone quote this here for me? Twitter links never work for me
‘1. Govt defence confirms – as we had suspected all along – that there is no basis in law that the majority of schools in this country have been closed for the few months
They are closed as a result of a trick of words from Boris Johnson and his government.
2. The Govt have conned teachers and parents into believing they needed to be closed and more outrageously, has denied a proper education to millions of children.
3. It is a kick in the teeth to the hundreds of thousands of families trying to homeschool in a desperate attempt to give their children some form of education while dealing with so many other pressures
4. This is something we have suspected all along in this judicial review fight and it is only now the Government has acknowledged this.’
Thanks. Disappointing though – more of a change of context than a game changer.
It’s a big thing if you are a pupil whose GCSEs or A levels were cancelled due to school closure! Or a parent of one of such pupils..
I’m not arguing with the importance of the issue. I just don’t really see how framing the school closures as a request rather than an instruction is a game changer. Especially in an environment where the majority of parents and teachers probably still see it as a reasonable and sensible request.
To add – I may be being obtuse. I’d be very happy to have it explained to me why this is in fact a significant “gotcha” moment.
I understand. But Simon also says that this is just the first of a number of lies so it is nonetheless a start. Social distancing is also a request, not a law – so what are the government making councils set up all-too-permanent-looking signs and stickers everywhere?
The more lies that are exposed, the more we can get people to start questioning the narrative, the bigger leverage will become to make it all stop..
Court cases do have the advantage of pinning slippery customers like politicians down to relatively clear statements and forcing actual answers rather than evasions and subject changes. At least, they do if competent lawyers are involved. So it is likely the Dolan case will clarify things like this quite a lot.
I think it may be a game changer in the world of Law. Which as we know isn’t the real world but at least it’s a start. If Simon and his legal team keep whittling away and finding more and more actions that were incorrectly actioned, the whole house of cards is likely to topple.
5. “The Government’s response is to call the claims we are making absurd claims. It has taken the instruction of one of the top QCs in the land – the First Treasury Counsel Sir James Eadie – and three barristers to come up with this response.
6.They say it is nonsensical for us to say that schools were closed,because they remained open for key workers and there had only been a request that schools should shut their doors,yet the PM and Williamson announced on 18/3 that schools will remain closed until further notice.
Simon has also posted a video of Boris announcing that schools will close!
It makes the PM and the government look foolish, which may help our cause especially with those who voted for them and feel disappointed by their lack of competence.
But I don’t see that it changes much. It hasn’t looked to me like the government has the political will or the support from local authorities and unions to do anything with schools that the schools don’t want to do – open them or close them.
Anyway to my mind the real battle is whether schools and universities can ever open full time, ever again, and be like they were, with the same class and group sizes, face to face contact, social events, sports etc. Until then, whatever happens just isn’t good enough. I suppose a part time reopening could be seen as a step in the right direction, and welcome respite for parents, but the battle cannot stop there.
Agree. It is all tied in with the pushing of ‘new normal’ or ‘new paradigm’. No, there is just ‘normal’ and none of this is. The university sector cannot survive this way, and nor should it. Perfect time, however, to rationalise – lots of campuses at ‘non-universities’ like the one in my provincial city should be turned over to other use, such as brownfield housing development rather than the constant encroachment on the countryside.
How hard is it to make thus govt look. stupid?
None the less, go it, Simon.
From where I’m sitting they don’t need any help!! lol
UK column are good there predictions are not far off the mark
Let’s never have another shutdown by Luke Johnson
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/lets-never-have-another-shutdown-s0b6vng8b
First, we should never allow a mass shutdown again. Apart from anything, we cannot afford it: the government will be lucky to borrow the money spent bailing out the economy, taking our national debt above £2 trillion.
Next time, there can be no 8.9 million on furlough, no business interruption loans, no business rates holidays, no 50% collapse in output for months and other horrors. We may still reach 15% unemployment; another lockdown would harm our industrial base so badly that we might see 25% out of work. Then there is the collateral damage of thousands of unnecessary deaths from cancer, heart disease and other killers that have been neglected, and the awful toll on mental health and education.
Second, ministers need to be better qualified in scientific and technical matters, to challenge expert advisers. The deference of our elected officials towards the unelected gurus on the Sage group of experts has been pathetic. Sage minutes show how meetings descended into groupthink and confirmation bias. Ignoring the costs and consequences of the lockdown was grossly irresponsible.
The government’s scaremongering — “Project Fear” on steroids — has helped to… Read more »
Brilliant article. This is a Johnson that makes sense.
Like his previous associate, Hugh Osmond (also critical of lockdown), he did the first part of the medical degree at Oxford. Interestingly, several of the other prominent critics in the US are former medics (Ron Paul, Rand Paul and Michael Burry of The Big Short fame). Johnson was very good on Question Time a few weeks ago, as was Sir Rocco Forte last Thursday. We need more of these people to speak out.
Science can be summarised thus:
observation:theory::10,000:1
AS regards Simon Dolan’s tweet yesterday
Today update
It seems the MSM were warned off printing the story. We need to get it out far and wide. Detail to follow
9:46 am · 14 Jun 2020
Wonder if they will print it now? Someone tweet it to Peter Hitchens, Guido and other sites, people will get the info somehow!