Teachers Urged to Give Up Part of Six-Week Summer Holiday
A cross-party group of former education ministers is urging teachers to give up some of their six-week summer holiday so schools can reopen in September, according to Sian Griffiths in the Sunday Times.
Five former education secretaries have backed a plan to get all children back to class in September, including a demand that teachers curtail their six-week summer holiday to deal with the “national emergency”.
Under the plan, put together by Lord Adonis, a former Labour minister for schools, the Government must confirm the social-distancing rules, appoint a national director of school operations to oversee safe reopening, and bring back teachers in August to get schools ready.
Hang on, I thought, when I read that. Haven’t we already got a “national director of school operations” in the form of Education Secretary Gavin Williamson? But as the Mail reports, he may be for the chop.
Mr Williamson’s soft approach with the teachers’ unions had damaged his reputation.
“Gavin played nicely with the unions in the hope that they would sign up, and they didn’t. People in there [Downing Street] know how you take on the teaching unions and beat them,” they said.
The swipe is a reference to No 10 chief Dominic Cummings’s previous role as an adviser to Michael Gove at the Department for Education, when he branded the teaching establishment “The Blob” and forced through reforms.
Needless to say, the proposal that teachers should cut short their holidays has not gone down well with the teaching unions.
Kevin Courtney, co-General Secretary of the National Education Union, said he supported much of the plan.
But in a sign of the resistance the Government faces he added: “I do not think that it is sensible asking people to give up their contractual holiday. Teachers have been working really hard in this period.”
In other words, he supports the plan apart from the bit that would make it work.
The teaching unions have won every battle they’ve engaged in so far during this crisis – one of the reasons Williamson is in trouble. As someone who has debated Kevin Courtney many times, I can confirm that he’s an agile, formidable opponent. The chances of schools reopening in full in September are slim.
In other news, Matt Hancock has hinted that pub customers will be expected to provide their contact details in an electronic register so that they can be traced if it emerges later that someone infected was in the venue. Customers will be advised to order using an app, stand as far apart as possible, face away from each other where they can, and prefer outside spaces.
Sounds like a barrel of laughs.
Where Does Coronavirus Rank in the Pandemic League Table?
Interesting table on Simon Dolan’s twitter feed showing how few people COVID-19 has killed compared to other killer viruses.
Of course, lockdown zealots will say, “Ah yes, but the reason Covid has killed so few people is because governments around the world very sensibly locked up their citizens at the height of the pandemic.”
But as we know, there’s little evidence the lockdowns have done anything to interrupt the progress of the pandemic, with infections rising and falling in each country according to the same pattern, regardless of whether or not that country locked down or how severely.
Disappointing not to see the influenza pandemic of 2017-18 in the table. In Germany, for instance, the coronavirus epidemic, which Angela Merkel described as the worst crisis to afflict the country since the Second World War, has killed less than a third of the people killed by seasonal flu in 2017-18.
Has the Epidemic Really Caused PTSD?
There’s a story in the Sunday Times this morning saying GPs are bracing themselves for a surge of patients suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
The NHS faces a “huge surge” in Britons suffering anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the country’s top family doctor.
Months of isolation, economic devastation and the loss of relatives, friends and colleagues to the disease is wreaking havoc on the nation’s mental health, said Dr Martin Marshall, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).
More than 50,000 family doctors are being issued with guidance to help them detect post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) triggered by the pandemic. Dr Jonathan Leach, a retired colonel who has supported thousands of veterans, helped draw it up.
I can understand why being locked in your home for three months would cause some people to suffer from anxiety and depression, particularly for teenagers and elderly people and those living on their own. But PTSD? Isn’t that something soldiers experience after being involved in frontline battle for a sustained period of time? The Sunday Times thinks the “surge” in people presenting with PTSD will be caused by “the loss of relatives, friends and colleagues to the disease”. Really?
According to the ONS, ~53,000 have died from Covid to date. That’s less than 10% of the number of people who died in the UK in 2018 (616,000) and, as Neil Ferguson has conceded, up to two-thirds of the people who’ve succumbed to COVID-19 would have died anyway this year, so the total number of deaths in 2020 may not be much larger than it would have otherwise been. And worth reminding ourselves that the average age of those who’ve died from the virus in the UK is 80.
Last time I checked, the death of an elderly relative, friend or colleague is certainly very sad.
But it doesn’t cause PTSD.
Time for Racing to Resume in Full
There’s an excellent piece in the Telegraph today by racing correspondent Marcus Armytage, bemoaning the absurdity of the social distancing arrangements surrounding the sport.
I have to remind myself the reason owners (and racing correspondents) are not there is because, when Ascot started on Tuesday, we were only two weeks and a day into the resumption of racing and, as the first sport back, it has had no choice but to play it by the book adhering to every letter of every often-pointless rule.
The viewing figures on ITV have been excellent, pretty much double what they were last year; 1.5 million saw Stradivarius win a third Gold Cup though, incongruously, a prescient 1.8 million tuned in to see Hayley Turner win the Sandringham Stakes. Less a breakthrough for women’s sport, alas, that the fact that people were switching on early for the Chase.
But while it is better than no racing, behind closed doors is not sustainable. It is no one’s idea of a business model, it is expensive to run having people checked in and out of a racecourse, employing the traffic wardens of COVID-19, social distancing officers, and knocking up jockeys changing cubicles in what would otherwise be a 300-cover restaurant run by a Michelin-starred chef.
Maybe as an ex-jump jockey I am the wrong person to be talking about our risk-averse society. But never did irony hit me harder than watching this week’s five-furlong sprints when you have had 20 jockeys, eight-stone wet through, going at roughly 40mph down the course on an animal weighing 80 stone in a tight bunch, every sinew, equine and human, straining right on the edge of it.
My horse – Sceptical – came third in the Royal Ascot Diamond Stakes yesterday. (Apologies to any readers who acted on that tip!) But it’s time the Government started listening to this sceptical racing correspondent.
Worth reading in full.
London’s Deserted Transport Network
Got a good email from a reader in London on the pitiful state of the capital’s public transport network. It seems ‘Project Fear on Steroids’ has worked all too well.
On Thursday evening I travelled from Ladbroke Grove to Wandsworth Town for a bite with an old friend. Bus from Ladbroke Grove to High Street Ken; perhaps three others on board [it was a 452; usual capacity, if memory serves me correctly, is c.92, though that, of course, has been…..”trimmed“]. A recorded msg was played twice during the six or seven minutes that it took to reach the last stop on Ken Church St before High St Ken. Given that I was holding a handkerchief loosely to my mouth (but not my nose, through which I breathed), I wondered if they were for my benefit.
High St Ken Tube Station – shortly after 8pm: effectively deserted. One other person waiting for the Victoria-bound Circle Line. Further announcements that face-masks must be worn on public transport and in the station (which, as you may know, is refreshingly open to the elements). Three, perhaps four, perhaps five people, self included, on the Tube. Perhaps one or two more boarded before we reached Victoria, but successive stations were effectively deserted.
More announcements insisting that face-masks were compulsory on public transport and in the station greeted me at Victoria, which usually looks as though it’s about to feature in a documentary about global overpopulation. Deserted – bar perhaps half a dozen travellers, abundant masked staff and three prominent Plods (unmasked).
About five or six people on the train to Clapham Junction (which had something like a dozen carriages; it was one of those Victoria trains destined for the south coast). Remarkably, it had a guard on board – normally as a rare as rocking-horse shit. Yes, more recorded announcements about the necessity of wearing a face-mask. By this stage, I had a minimal, entirely pointless ‘mask’ on, which I wore on my chin, allowing me to breathe freely through mouth or nose as mood dictated.
Clapham Junction was, of course, as deliciously windswept as it always is. But that didn’t silence the inevitable recorded announcement that face-masks were to be worn on public transport and in the station. About half those waiting for a train – of whom there were perhaps twenty or thirty – complied. Very heartening to see that some of the staff had ditched theirs entirely; others opted to wear them around their throats, several inches beneath mouth or nose.
The whole absurd pattern was repeated on the train to Wandsworth Town.
At the end of the evening, I took an Uber home: £12 and 20 minutes. Why would anyone, other than the destitute, ever travel by public transport again?
Regrettably, I had to point out to this reader that face-masks are supposed to be mandatory on Uber too.
Why the Left Should Oppose Lockdowns
A reader in Australia called Phil Shannon has sent me a great piece about why the left should oppose lockdowns. It started out as a comment on “The Left-Wing Case Against Lockdown” by Alexis FitzGerald (see right-hand menu), but then blossomed into a fully-fledged blog post. Phil is a bona fide leftie – you can see his blog here, which is called “green left”. I’m sure a lot of other old-fashioned lefties are feeling the same.
Here’s a taster:
The ideological failings of the left on lockdown are accompanied by a pronounced tendency to behave in politically-revealing stylistic ways, including:
* Belligerence: Converse with most lockdown leftists and you will be struck by their hostility to sceptical views and their lack of respect for the holders of those views. Calm discussion of evidentiary and political differences on lockdown has been replaced by the left’s need to beat down lockdown apostates in heated argument, not with better ideas but with belligerence. In politics, as in fashion, ‘the style is the man’ and the lockdown/woke left’s antagonistic and intimidating behaviour reflects poorly on a political grouping that claims to value liberalism, tolerance and ‘diversity’.
* Straw Men: Say that lockdown doesn’t work and is worse than the disease and the sceptic will swiftly be accused of being a callous granny-killer, a moral monster who places ‘money’ ahead of ‘lives’, and profit over people (cf. the facile “No life is worth losing to add one more point to the Dow” of Joe Biden, or the rhetorical doing whatever it takes to “save just one life” homily of New York governor, Andrew Cuomo). Setting up straw men (lockdown sceptic = murderer) to knock down is so much easier than respectfully contesting an exchange of ideas or exploring strategies such as demographically-targeting the vulnerable for protection from the virus.
* Smear by association: Oppose the lockdown? Why, says the lockdown leftist, you must be one of those kooky 5G conspiracists or whatever. Case dismissed. Yes, it is true that some strange political life-forms attach themselves to the fringes of lockdown scepticism. But neither is the left free from a history of its own unwanted and unattractive political relatives, particularly the wild and fundamentally anti-democratic anarchists, up to and including the Antifa goons and Extinction Rebellion loons. Guilt-by-association is a tawdry debating gambit whether used by left or right. Neither the left nor the right can enforce an ideological purity test to control who marches under their banner. There is not much either can do about the loose threads in the great tapestry of political life.
* Virtue-signalling: Left lockdown lovers portray themselves, overtly or by implication, as a better class of person who is superior to the lockdown sceptic – intellectually superior to those they misrepresent as ‘Deniers’ of ‘the Science’ and morally superior to those whom they caricature as being more concerned with ‘the economy’ over health. We, say the left, may have lost a democratic national referendum or an election, but we are still better than the nativists, the xenophobes, the gap-toothed, knuckle-dragging deplorables and, now, the heartless lockdown sceptics who are prepared to cruelly cull society of its old geezers.
Antifa goons and Extinction Rebellion loons. Love it! I’m going to give this piece pride of place as a subpage of Alexis FitzGerald’s essay. Please do read it in full.
A Pilot Writes
Got an email from a commercial airline pilot currently taking some time off in Italy. Hard to disagree with any of this.
I think I’ve worked out why the Government is ending lockdown in such a prolonged and plodding way. I had assumed it was because it was being wet, timorous and generally sheepish but now believe it’s actually because it can’t end any aspect of lockdown without having written the appropriate tidal wave of new regulations, recommendations and procedures. It must be very frustrating for Whitehall officials that the virus is disappearing faster than they can write all this stuff.
I heard with despair this morning that social distancing might be reduced in restaurants next week allowing restaurants to open with perspex screens between tables. I managed to escape to Italy on June 3rd, the day it opened its borders. And yet here in Italy, which is supposedly only a week or two ahead of us, there are very few obvious rules in force. People are wearing face-masks to go into shops and are using the hand wash on the way in. Otherwise restaurants are laid out in the normal way, there are no screens, there isn’t tape all over the floors, and although social distancing is one metre life looks pretty normal. The Germans are now arriving in large numbers in my area on the east side of Lake Garda and I’m sure the locals will be welcoming them with huge relief. In the meantime our Government is still making up rules for the situation in the UK as if it was about two months ago.
Unfortunately, this points to a greater malaise in the UK which is our devotion to rules and procedure. We have fooled ourselves for many years that the red tape we suffer from is a result of the EU. But for a long time now we have known that we gold plate those regulations. As a pilot, it’s notable that the UK is the most draconian country with its security checks at airports on crew members. Some of the checks on us are more onerous than those on passengers. Other countries reassessed their policies years ago. And of course aviation has many rules and procedures, most of which are necessary, but with a few that are not. The trouble with having unnecessary regulations and procedures is that, not only are they inefficient and counter productive in themselves, they lead to workers, the public and officials imagining other procedures that don’t actually exist. These can then be justified on the basis of “safety” (or sometimes insurance) when really there is no justification at all. Our ‘SOPs’ (or Standard Operating Procedures) clearly contain a lot of procedures, but there is one which basically goes – “in extreme circumstances the Captain should disregard any of these procedures and do whatever he or she considers necessary to ensure the safe conduct of the flight”. This is very sensible. The worst case of mindless adherence to procedure I can think of was the Grenfell Tower fire where it seems the Fire Brigade bosses stuck slavishly to the “stay put” policy when the premise for that policy was clearly redundant from the moment they arrived on the scene. The fire was not “contained”.
Unfortunately, this type of procedural groupthink is very similar to the other types of left wing groupthink we’re now suffering from. The trouble is, this no risk, super safe, snowflake attitude is not just a product of left wing youth. It’s also a product of people sitting in offices producing unnecessary regulation and procedure simply to show that they’ve done something and to cover their backsides. Maybe that’s why productivity is so poor in the UK. We’ve lost the ability to be flexible and practical. Perhaps Toby, once you’ve got us properly out of lockdown, sorted out freedom of speech and won the current cultural revolution you could then start on ‘proceduralism’ in the UK!
It isn’t just Italy where life has returned pretty much to normal. Christina Lamb in the Sunday Times reports that Portugal is rather nice at this time of year too.
Unlocking the Welsh Dragon
Comedian and author Gryff Rhys Jones, who owns six holiday cottages in Wales, has added his voice to the chorus pleading with Mark Drakeford to reopen the country. According to the Sunday Times:
Like all holiday properties in Wales, the six cottages on Griff Rhys Jones’s Pembrokeshire farm have been closed since late March.
“Every now and again, there’s an outbreak of people saying: ‘Don’t come here.’ People get rather furious about the idea of visitors coming to Pembrokeshire, as if in some way it’s so beautiful it should be preserved only for the natives,” said the actor and writer, 66, who was born in Cardiff but lives in England.
“But the unavoidable truth is that the hospitality industry for outlying areas of Britain is vital to their successful economies. It needs to be recognised and it needs to be rebuilt.”
On Friday, the First Minister said Wales’s five-mile travel restriction will be scrapped on July 6th and “self-contained accommodation” will be allowed to reopen a week later.
Too little, too late, Drakeford.
Lord Gumption Speaks
Lord Sumption has another great piece out today, this one in the Mail on Sunday. The headline says it all: “These people have no idea what they’re doing.”
Here’s a taster:
Does the Government have a policy for coronavirus? Indeed it does. In fact, it has several. One for each month of the year, all mutually inconsistent and none of them properly thought through. Sometimes, governments have to change tack. It shows that they are attending closely to a changing situation. But this crisis has exposed something different and more disturbing: a dysfunctional Government with a deep-seated incoherence at the heart of its decision-making processes.
It’s glorious stuff. Definitely worth your time.
I’m going to start a petition demanding that Lord Gumption chair the public inquiry into the Government’s (mis)management of the crisis.
More on False Positives
A reader has got in touch following yesterday’s comment from a geneticist and data scientist about the unreliability of PCR tests.
Following the critique of PCR tests by the geneticist you mentioned in your update, I just thought I’d send you this announcement from Norway’s Institute of Public Health on May 25th in case you have’t seen it.
“Given today’s contagion situation in Norway, health professionals must test around 12,000 random people to find one positive case of COVID-19. In such a selection, there will be about 15 positive test responses, but 14 of these will be false positives.”
This is also interesting and begs the question of test accuracy in the UK and therefore a potential COVID-19 death toll adjustment.
Another Petition to Sign
Please sign this petition to save the statue of Thomas Guy, which is due to be removed from St Thomas’s Hospital because of his links to the slave trade. Some students have even started a petition calling for the hospital to be renamed the Desmond Tutu Hospital.
This is what the petitioner has to say:
These matters have been brought to the fore as a result of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations and the belief that Thomas Guy was involved in the slave trade and made his fortune from this. I am a consultant physician living and working in South London who trained as both a medical student and junior doctor at Thomas Guy’s Hospital and hold this belief to be untrue.
Thomas Guy was a devout Christian, bookseller, astute investor and MP for Tamworth. During his life he acquired a large number of shares in The South Sea Company ( SSC ) in exchange for government debt that he held, which he was required to do. The government paid SSC shareholders a dividend and the company was granted the right by Queen Anne to supply the Spanish colonies with slaves, a right that Britain acquired under the Treaty of Utrecht (1713). He sold his shares in 1720 just before the share price collapsed in a stock market bubble, thereby making a fortune which he largely reinvested in government bonds. As these events show, he was an investor at a time 300 years ago when ethical investing was a pipe dream. He did not own slaves, nor was he a slave trader, nor did he reinvest in the SSC which continued its activities for many years after.
Subsequently, he used his fortune to build and endow Guy’s Hospital for the relief of the poor and suffering of Southwark. As a consequence of his philanthropy, a world famous Hospital was created which for over 300 years has provided healthcare to South East London and has trained tens of thousands of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers who have taken their skills and knowledge to care for the sick and needy all over the world irrespective of creed or colour. Such singular achievement should be recognised.
We ask that the absurd and shameful decision to remove his statue from public view be reversed and that any plans to rename the Guy’s campus be abandoned.
This one’s definitely worth signing.
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:
- ‘Prince Harry backs rugby move to kick out slavery song Swing Low, Sweet Chariot‘ – Quelle surprise
- ‘What’s REALLY Going On in Sweden (No Lockdown)‘ – Good YouTube video by Lana Blakely on life in Sweden during the crisis
- ‘The NHS coronavirus app was a vain attempt to take on Big Tech. No 10 was always going to lose that battle‘ – Rob Colville in the Sunday Times says the NHSX contact-tracing app was doomed from the start
- ‘David Attenborough steps in to save London Zoo from extinction‘ – The Blue Planet star highlights something that really is at risk of becoming extinct (for once)
- ‘“A Staggering Number”: Over $18 Trillion In Global Stimulus In 2020, 21% Of World GDP‘ – Report of the cost of the lockdowns in Zero Hedge, the right-of-centre website recently demonetised by those nice people at Google
- ‘Rishi Sunak plans emergency cut in VAT to rescue ailing economy‘ – It’s all hands to the pump as UK plc takes on water and begins to list ominously
Theme Tune Suggestions From Readers
Only one suggestion today: the theme from the Lives of Others, the cinematic masterpiece about life under the Stasi in East Germany.
Small Businesses That Have Reopened
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. Now that non-essential shops have reopened – or most of them, anyway – we’re now focusing on pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as other social venues. 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. Dont worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
Note to the Good Folks Below the Line
I enjoy reading all your comments and I’m glad I’ve created a “safe space” for lockdown sceptics to share their frustrations and keep each other’s spirits up. But please don’t copy and paste whole articles from papers that are behind paywalls in the comments. I work for some of those publications and if they don’t charge for premium content they won’t survive.
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 usually takes me several hours to do these daily updates, along with everything else, which doesn’t leave much time for other work. If you feel like donating, however small the amount, please click here. Alternatively, you can donate to the Free Speech Union’s litigation fund by clicking here or join the Free Speech Union here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here. (Please don’t email me at any other address.)
And Finally…
I’ve got a piece in the Mail on Sunday today about Oxford in the 1980s. What was it about that university at that time that produced so many of the people who dominate public life today? The photographs of Boris and others taken by Dafydd Jones, my generation’s pre-eminent party photographer, are quite something.
Here’s how it begins.
The pink-faced young man at the dispatch box of the Oxford Union looked slightly bewildered.
He glanced up at the packed chamber, nervously fingering his mop of blond hair, as if he’d been transported there through a window in the space-time continuum.
This was in October of 1983 and it was a “freshers’ debate” , an opportunity for new arrivals to make a good impression on the senior members of the world-famous debating society. I was due to speak after this young man and had spent several days preparing.
“Can someone kindly remind me what the motion is?” he asked in an exaggerated, upper class accent. Who was this pantomime toff?
“This house would bring back capital punishment,” someone cried out.
“Oh yes, right, of course,” he said, ruffling his hair. Then he looked up, feigning surprise: “Crikey Moses. Capital punishment. Really? I’m not in favour of that!”
Then he ostentatiously crossed the floor, positioned himself at the other dispatch box and started denouncing the motion in what might be called the high Parliamentary style – half-serious, half-comic.
After a few minutes, as he happily demolished the case for capital punishment, the young orator interrupted himself mid-flow.
“No wait,” he said. “That’s actually a pretty good argument. I think I’m in favour of the motion after all!”
He then crossed the floor once again, and made an impassioned case for the other side.
The audience at the Union roared with laughter – and it was laughter of appreciation, not ridicule. There was something so winning about this befuddled yet charismatic 19 year-old that you couldn’t help warming to him.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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I attended the demonstration in The Hague last sunday against the new covid19 laws in the Netherlands. The thing that struck me most is that none of the police officers present (and there were a lot!) kept one and a half meters distance of their collegues. Nor were they wearing facemasks…funny a virus that makes exeptions for certain people 😉
Friends in Scotland, is this true:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/23/scottish-schools-fully-reopen-august-11-mother-father-snp-climbdowns/
And with no social distancing, according to the article?
Yes with the caveat “if the virus is sufficiently suppressed”
Ok, thanks. So it will be based on whatever orders Professor Devi Sridhar and her handlers impart on Ms Sturgeon!
My take is that all the threats of making things mandatory, be good or we’ll go back into lockdown etc have been empty threats.
The virus could well have died out naturally by then and they probably know this. They are only saying things to make it look like they’re in control.
I could be wrong of course but that’s my perspective on things.
*Empty threats designed to induce compliance.
I’ve noticed a strange phenomenon in the world of football.
The footballers and managers greet each other with the prescribed elbow-to-elbow touch but then, after having scrupulously avoided touching, they go and ruin it all by laying their hands on the other guy and patting them all over – head, back, shoulders, arms…anywhere that takes their fancy!!
How effing absurd is that?
Proof that in the modern era virtue signalling, whether it be taking the knee or touching the elbow, is more important than good sense.
A disabled woman and a mother of a child with a rare neurological disorder have launched this crowdfunding to campaign for the end of mandatory face coverings on public transport:
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/face-masks/
Done. Happy to support such a good case.
I’m taking time off from commenting here but I thought this should be shared.
Hope all is ok Bart, and that you will be back soon.
Done
Done. Go it – for the disabled, for the deaf, for all of us.
This comment in The Telegraph made me laugh:
“Hairstylists will be told to cut down on the small talk” – best laugh I’ve had in ages.
You couldn’t make it up. Enjoy these moments everyone because I don’t think we’ll see such stupidity again in my lifetime 🙂
Let’s hope not, at least!
I can only hope you’re right Tenchy.
Churches open but no singing. Heard that one today. May be true, may not but the fact that non-sceptics are seeing the absurdity of it all warms my cockles
Yeah, a couple of weeks ago a minister said that singing is problematic in terms of the virus since it involves exhalation! I find inhaling and exhaling pretty fundamental for breathing! The lunatics are running the asylum.
So funny. What virus? We are all healthy
*********** go to the top of the class!
That is the essential point that is always forgotten. Our oppressors have succeeded in convincing the zombies that everybody except themselves is a contaminated death trap.
WE ARE NOT, NOT, NOT.
Its not stupidity its totalitarianism. A government that thinks its appropriate to dictate every aspect of your life even down to the level of conversation you should have with your hairstylist. An effective one party state. It only gets worse from here as long as we continue to comply.
Boris in his speech said he wouldent hesitate to lock down again if we flouted the rules.
In your dreams ! There is no way I’m going through this crap again I won t close my business again I won t obey the stupid rules and il go to jail if needs be .
Like you say… he is dreaming. He fucked up the big one so has no chance with this ‘aftercare’ bollocks. Hancock wins the prize for most delusional idiot however. He is like a kids a sweet shop wielding his imaginary power
Hancock is the typical bully. Not for much longer, with luck.
Jails are going to be pretty full. Hope I’ll be in the same one as you. We’ll sing duets, very loudly.
Can I join you too?
No money left. Magic money tree is dead
There is always more fiat money the question is will there be anything left to buy with it.
He will lock down again once he has ‘seen off’ Simon Dolan’s court case…!
Probably a set up… we all know PCR testing is a load of bollocks
‘Truly, we have reached a surreal point in our history when a Conservative leader gives the people back small portions of their freedom with the proviso that they must be good boys and girls’. Allison Pearson just posted in the Telegraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/lockdown-lift-off-wants-live-new-normal/
Sums it up pretty well!
Yes, but would you have preferred “here are all the ways in which we expect you be good boys and girls, and here’s how I have instructed the constabulary to enforce that you are”? We’re a long way from where we should be, but we’re nearer than I feared we might be.
I think we’ve been here before. Was it London Calling last week where they said they’d heard from someone with connections to the government that they’re planning another lockdown in October? I think we’re just guinea pigs in a giant psychological experiment.
We heard that from a ‘connection’ also, and had to abandon our plan to get our sheepdog mated because the pups would be ready in October just in time for the next lockdown.
It was James Delingpole that had heard it last week – where did you hear it from, out of interest?
They’ll need a really good reason for that. We have until then to organise and prepare.
Its not like they had a good reason last time.
There’s no evidence of any political opposition to another lockdown, so they would really be staring at a “people vs the government” situation if they tried to enforce it. With enforcement by Police supported by Army – has Dominic really thought that one through?
They are the servants of the people and we pay them through our taxes. We delegate various responsibilities to them, and expect them to fulfil their role in the public interest. Don’t show them an inch of gratitude as they seek to absolve their sins!
Don’t mistake my reaction for gratitude. I’m not grateful for today’s announcement and I haven’t been grateful for any of the relaxations that have happened, and I refuse to be grateful for having my rights gradually returned to me.
I am pleased, however, that the way it’s been done is not through another raft of legislation, but by saying “here’s our advice, please go and be sensible.” Its not what I expected. It’s not great, but it’s more progress than I expected to see today.
I’ve not had my rights returned to me. They are where they always were, with me. If they aren’t rights, then it’s time to fight for them. This is why I’ve supported – morally and financially – Dolan’s case against the government. How the judges find will determine my next course.
It does.
I don’t like ad-hominem, it’s crude and artless, but he’s a bloody moron.
Don’t think compliments count as ad hominem do they?
Many more will read the Telegraph than this site – Alison Pearson is a ray of light amid the gloom, and I hope that many will read her article and agree.
That said, the hoped-for ‘many’ seem depressingly few among my (hitherto rational) acquaintances.
It’s got over 800 comments already, and only been on the system for a couple of hours. This is second most popular comment:
‘Great article Allison, and encompasses what most of us older people are thinking. It is a great pity that Boris chose a cabinet of young and inexperienced schoolboys and did not include some senior MPs of ability and rational thought, such as Owen Patterson or IDS, who have experienced life and could have brought some sceptical and analytical views to the table, instead of meekly accepting the mad scientists lunatic hypotheses. Mrs Thatcher, an Oxford University scientist, would not have given Ferguson and his ilk a free ride like this one.’
I agree completely with that comment, and I am especially disappointed that Dr Therese Coffey, an Oxford chemist (even ex-Somerville), could not bring herself to break ranks.
It’s because they have no idea how businesses work.
And they seem to be so out of touch with how normal people function, it makes me wonder where they’ve been all their lives!
Most, but not all, have lived in their own ‘social bubble’. From prep school, to boarding school, to Oxford college, to either nice traditional journalist job, City or civil service. In many cases the only women they have ever come across were mothers/sisters, their secretary, then a woman to marry from a similar female ‘social bubble’.
I got shouted at the other day for daring to find Allison Pearson’s column funny about all the things the government are insisting we do. Free speech has obviously vanished.
I’m going to go on record here and invite my fellow sceptics to demolish what I am saying, because it’s always good to test your thinking. Before I do, I just want to say that I didn’t think there was a corner of the internet left where a group of people with differing views (albeit common purpose) could have a sensible debate and stay civil and it’s refreshing that I was wrong.
Anyway, I’m upbeat this evening, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there’s an easing of the measures on the cards that actually makes some kind of sense. There is a prospect that, from July, we will be something more than 50% back towards normal. Secondly, the best thing about it was the undercurrent of the message, which was – “we won’t be policing, we won’t be putting into law, we won’t be mandating “face coverings”, mostly we are now prepared to trust the British public to exercise common sense and to avoid catching the virus in much the same way as they would normally avoid catching the ‘flu.” If this attitude had been taken in the first place, plus some sensible measures around the old, the sick… Read more »
It’s not over by a long way for all the reasons you state, and more. The Coronavirus Act needs to go.
Yes, a small bounce back (but from what a deep chasm). Whether it will last or turn into a dead cat bounce, I am less sure.
I think the hard part starts now. They were always going to relax the rules at some point but until every trace of this ridiculous nonsense we’ve had to endure since March is completely removed then none of us will be happy.
All the Patronising/obnoxious signs, one way systems, hand sanitizers in shops, wearing of face masks, covid doormen and meaningless slogans need to be consigned to history and never seen again, plus :
No quarantining for travellers
All kids back in schools properly
Crowds allowed again at sporting events, concerts etc
The BBC shut down
I’m sure there is loads more. But the above would be a start
Leisure centres etc
Sport in schools etc
Clubs etc e.g. scouts
Offices where everyone is currently working from home
Nightclubs etc
No restrictions on freedom of movement and who can be in your home
Universities 100% open
Dance studios and dance competitions back with no anti social distancing.
Churches open with LOTS of singing.
I’m hoping that businesses will spend the time before July 4th destroying the 2m signs and assessing how close to normal their overseers will allow them to go.
The bit where Boris claimed dentists were operating as normal just shows he hasn’t a clue!
I will not be happy until those responsible are being prosecuted for the harm and injury they have inflicted on ~60 million people. Much of that harm and injury is yet to be felt even if they returned everything to normal today but they have not.
They have tested the water and found that we the public are more malleable than they ever dreamt. There is no way that can be considered anything but total lose.
Yes, and this has, I fear, softened us up for the consequences of the loony zero carbon policy to be thrust on us.
That’s just for starters.
“I don’t think we can get bored and walk away.”
I wish.
I’m very very wary of allowing my mood to be dictated by the actions of Boris and his cabal. This is the problem – it’s not their place to make you feel anything.
They are there to legislate. Make sensible amendments to existing laws. It’s not their place to stand up at lecterns, preaching at us for our own good. He’s not the fucking Pope. He’s a fucking politician. Pond life. Not to be trusted.
I can see him standing up at one of these lecterns in three years time telling us all earnestly that we can go out to vote. Just so long as we are all good little boys and girls and vote for the Conservative candidate.
Then we can all live happily ever after in Boris’ Cloud Cuckoo Land.
We must remain vigilant.
The MSM are as culpable as the government for the utter horseshit broadcast and printed as “fact”. Right from the start of this virus, there has been a concerted effort to browbeat and terrify the population. If the government was complicit in this right from the start, I do not know. (But why? What’s the reason for that? We must find out.)
I do NOT accept the population had to be shocked into compliance. There was no need for the lockdown at all, and this was fairly obvious at the time, it is not a hindsight comment.
We have been asked to surrender our freedom to walk where we wish, drive where we wish, and holiday where we wish, certainly within the UK. Thousands of small businesses are probably destroyed for no good reason and normal human interpersonal relationships suspended in the most inhumane manner imaginable. Hitler behaved like this towards those imprisoned in concentration camps.
You are right that this must be pursued through the courts. The first step is Dolan’s judicial review. Let us first establish whether or not the government behaved legally in imprisoning the healthy in their homes or not.
We shall… Read more »
One thing to do to remain vigilant is to keep a close eye on Mason Mills Twitter and Parler accounts (I hear he is saying more on Parler now than on Twitter, but can’t verify this as I do not have a Parler account). He gives advance information on what is planned/to be expected – he tweeted way back on 3rd April that the mask advice would be changing – we should maybe have planned how to react then, since we had advance warning..I am now watching even more closely to see what he writes will be happening next!
The government paid the MSM to run its propaganda “to replace lost advertising”. Therefore definitely complicit.
I think it’s obvious the money has run out, hence the way journalists are suddenly finding their teeth
Great comment! The legislation must be repealed, and soon – because there is a lot in there that they have not (yet) tried to enforce and may yet might, eg compulsory vaccination. They also changed the abortion law without Parliament even getting a debate on it…
Can’t disagree with any of that. And I’m generally reputed to be an argumentative bastard who could start a fight in a convent.
No Vaccine Needed
There are 135 vaccines in development. However, none are needed. We do not need a vaccine for what is treatable by safer, more effective means. Even the regular flu vaccines are not effective enough to prevent people from dying of that.
The Who says 650,000 die annually from the common flu. In future years, because of Covid-19, doctors will be able to reduce these high death rates from other viruses from what they have learned in this pandemic.
Modern medicine has never quarantined populations for readily treated conditions, and there is no reason to do so now. The present pandemic has only been a problem for one reason. It is because a small group of health officials decided months beforehand precisely what they were going to do. They still pretend there is no treatment and that everything depends on rushing a vaccine to the public, which they will make mandatory.
https://drsircus.com/general/all-clear-siren-or-lock-them-up-again/
Seen posts today that there is likely to be an inhalable Covid vaccine – so ‘ideal’ for schoolchildren to be given in September, I would guess..? And inhalable so as to ‘help’ enhance take-up levels, because it is not an actual injection????
I don’t suppose they can hide a nanochip in there, or can they?
Hopefully the kids will only end up snorting salt solution while the real deal is being properly tested – for the next 100 years!
It’s just occurred to me that sticking a needle in someone constitutes assault if permission isn’t given.
Would that apply to forcing someone to inhale or ingest something?
B&Q.
At the till you have to leave your purchases there and ‘step back!’ into the yellow box, while the s/he in B&Q Riot Gear bleeps them, then ‘step forward!’ to ping your card at arms length, then ‘back!’, before it is permissable to grab your stuff and flee. If you want the receipt you’ll need to catch it.
Good dose of stupidity
When we got son’s feet measured at Clarkes, a man at the door (wearing what looked like a welders mask) told us when it was safe to enter the empty store. We then walked carefully to the end of the shop (not contaminating any of the displays), and the assistant wheeled out a 3 sided glass screen all freshley sprayed and positioned it in front of son. It was then safe for the masked lady to bend down and measure the feet, with arms out stretched, and standing well back, as if the feet may burst into flames at any moment.
All very strange, like Gordan Brittas takes over s show shop, but also funny.
Sounds disturbing! I hope your son found it funny too.
I’ve heard a lot of dire reports about B&Q, including from my son and a friend who live at different ends of the country.
I think I’d be inclined to step back at the first bark, then march out of the shop, leaving them to put the trolley-full of stuff back on the shelves.
My other son had a good experience in the local Wickes last weekend.
I’ve always liked my local Screwfix and they’re doing click and collect at the moment. Depends what you need to buy of course!
It’s a bit like the Sainsbury’s self-service tills where, as soon as you’ve paid, tell you to please take your purchases and f*ck off.
What the MSM don’t tell you – a positive test does not mean you have the disease, only detectable antibodies.
Yet more crap getting it wrong from the MSM.
I have to say my mental health has certainly suffered, especially since my dog severely injured himself in an accident at the start of May. I’ve been in watching over him to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself, he’s not allowed walks, and in Wales we are not allowed to travel. If I come out of this with any shreds of sanity left I will be mightily thankful. If it wasn’t that I go to the local shop every day I’d have seen no-one for nearly two months apart from the vet. My job’s gone as well.
Sorry to hear. A lot more of this to come. What makes me angry is that most of it was avoidable.
This was all avoidable and if the NHS had not gone insane and started discharging sick people to care homes and refusing treatment to many then far fewer would have died. This was all entirely unnecessary.
I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve had such a difficult time.
So sorry to hear that. So hard to see a loved one suffer. Hope doggy feels better soon.
You are not insane, it’s those supposed to be leading and informing us. They dont know what they are doing. Hope things start to improve little by little.
Sadly, I think some of them do know what they are doing – they are psychopaths.
It’s like the solitary confinement scenes in Colditz (TV series). They soon got back to normal once they were back with the other prisoners. Same with this.
“Back with the other prisoners?” Is that really the best example I could think of?
Scary thought.
Gosh, Peter, I am so sorry. Please keep posting – you are among friends and we all look out for each other.
Sorry to hear that Peter. Lockdown has been miserable for many but your worry for your dog must make it all extra hard for you.
My dog sends wags to your dog and hopes he’ll be completely better soon. xxxxx
If you want to travel, then travel. My local (Welsh) beach was busy today and if all the people there came from five miles around, I’ll eat my hat. ( It’s a riding hat and would be tough going, even stewed.)
So i can go to a pub on the 4th July, but still can’t play badminton, table tennis or any other indoor sport. Boris is just following the science I guess. This virus must be lethal if you stand on a badminton court 5 metres away from anybody else.
Unemployment, race riots & cowering fools.
How very different it was 14 weeks ago.
We are out of austerity, we can look forward to a bright future.
Wait till unemployment hits 6 + MILLION in a year time that’s when the real riots will start
I am not sure the British people are capable of much more then begging government to save them and of course taking the knee or clapping on command.
Agreed, I am very disappointed in my fellow Brits.
I’m not sure if that is sarcasm or ostrich-dom!
How can they be certain where he caught it? Contact tracing?
Wife reported local Lidl was very laid back on a recent visit, no guard on the door, straight in and to the business of shopping.
Contracted the disease through not anti-social distancing and is fine. Thus providing an excellent service to humanity by assisting with herd immunity. Thanks to Mr Djokovic, the human race will continue to survive at least a little longer.
These tests are not reliable
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.15.20117747v1.full.pdf
We have heard about the detection of viral Covid-19 in sewage water in Italy and Spain occurring earlier that the reported outbreaks. This study is from Massachusetts, USA. Very interesting. They tested sewage water from batches from January and onwards. In January and February no Covid-19 could be found but already on 3rd March, Covid-19 was detected. It then increased exponentially March and April and then a steady decline
The most interesting information is that when the first sewage water tested positive 3rd March, only 2 patients had been diagnosed with Covid-19 in Massachusetts. It is highly unlikely that only two persons could contaminate the sewage water at that scale and the most likely explanations was that far more people was already infected 3rd March. Many reports now of massive infection in multiple populations even before we started to detect cases in certain countries. Our detected cases are only the tip of the iceberg, and this together with massive amount of asymptomatic infection makes the use of R factor, based on detected cases, almost useless.
Though this sounds great, they use PCR testing to “measure” the virus. So there is every likelihood that the same attiributions are being done as with “cases” in hospitals
My wife was paying in Boyes on Monday,she handed the sour faced woman at the till a crisp new £20 and without saying a word the woman tapped the counter sternly with her finger,she wouldn’t take it directly from my wife !.I said to my wife that she should have asked for her money back and told the woman to stick the shopping somewhere.
‘Obnoxious’? Because give some people a bit of power and they turn into wannabe Hitler’s.
My comment sent int op Boris today:
Perspex screens? War masks? Following the science? 1m+? Still listening to Bill gates financed “scientists”? Councils throwing there weight round above the law? Still guidance which is not law, has no force of law nor is enforceable? Book tickets to museums etc in advance? Get stuffed Boris et al if you the think this will get the economy moving.Everyday more and more independent evidence comes out that your are not following the science but following agenda so again, get stuffed.
Will he listen? Fucking doubt it.
Your determination and resilience in response to leaden officialdom deserves an OBE! An example to us all – well, me anyway.
And me. I love awkward gits.
A few quotes from Boris parliament speech today:
Our principle is to trust the British public to use their common sense in the full knowledge of the risks.
From now on we will ask people to follow guidance on social contact instead of legislation.
It would be great if this actually meant that we now have our freedom to assess the risks and act accordingly, but I suspect he didn’t actually mean that.
E.g. Is compulsory face masks on public transport now just guidance?
Yes – and what about businesses? Can they act as they choose?
Again, it will depend who has authority over them. The government has just abdicated theirs but we’re at the mercy of the local and professional bodies now.
That’s what worries me,this could well be a false dawn,local councils have been loving this situation,it was the excuse they’d been waiting for to throw their weight about,I can’t see them giving in easily.
It’s government guidance but the businesses can set their own rules.
I hope so, though the social distancing has just been guidance anyway, but certainly most businesses have been compelled to set up their shops (etc) accordingly, if only due to their insurers.
The retreat is welcome but weirdly arbitrary.
I find it incredible that Bloris stands there telling us that swimming pools aren’t safe to open and he’s following “The Holy Science” while flanked by his CSA and the CMO.
Surely they must know that the awful stench that pervades spas and swimming baths is due to chlorine, which is put in the water to destroy pathogens, including viruses?
If they don’t, it would explain a helluva lot – though I doubt that would be the real explanation.
A dip in a correctly chlorinated pool must be one of the safest pass times.
pastimes 🙂
p*sstimes?
Risk of dying from the 30% piss content in the pools must be stratospheric
Billion-dollar investment firm leaving Seattle amid ‘unrest’
Voting with their feet. Not for the first time, with regard to US/UK cities.
Welcome to leftist zealotry, welcome to poverty.
Can we just draw a line under the whole thing, please? Pretty please if that helps. All these rules to do this and do that. Boris needs to make a statement along the lines of “see everything i’ve been saying, forget it and lets just get back to exactly the same way as it was before i make a pigs ear of everything”. Possibly adding “and if any fucker wants to take down any more statues we’re gonna set the Alsatians on them, the BBC will be closed down after Friday’s episode of the Antique Road Trip and Piers Morgan will be locked in a glass box and suspended over the River Thames until he starves to death” Then i may forgive him..
Huzzah!!!!
Vote for that
Chris Whitty just now at the press conference (paraphrasing) – we’re in this for the long haul. Probably still got restrictions this time next year.
I don’t know why you listen to them. I don’t need to know what these idiots say.
He cant stand to loose his 5 mins of fame.
And go back to his pre covid boring existence.
Restrictions round his wind pipe
Isn’t Whitty the guy who went through a slideshow showing how dangerous the virus ISN’T?
Yes. More than once I believe!
Yes, a couple of times he’s pointed at data that is in the public domain. I think both him & the CSO have been throttled & must toe the party line. I had a good deal of respect for both of them early on but soon discovered they were only lap dogs!
Obviously waiting for the vaccine. So pathetic! Economy on its knees, small businesses closing, people made redundant. Uggh
I thought Boris has just said it’s all guidance now… They don’t have a clue what they’re saying!
Isn’t Whitty moving to a job with the WHO soon?
Used to work for GSK I believe?
I think that’s Vallance.
Infections are increasing of that there is no doubt but deaths are not,doctors from italy,usa and england have all said the same thing group of tennis players test positive no symptons meat packing plants in germany and england lots of cases but few people with symptoms surely something Is changing maybe it’s not that deadly after all.
It never was. They’re just doing more tests and finding small numbers of cases.
It is also possible that the virus itself is “attenuating” (evolving to become less severe) and treatments are improving a bit but it’s hard to disentangle these factors.
An outbreak in a meat factory or any workplace would always have been expected to result in approximately zero deaths because the IFR for anyone of working age is extremely low. It’s the outbreaks in care homes you need to worry about.
“It’s the outbreaks in care homes you need to worry about.”
guy, can I just add, “If you’re a care home resident.”
Or related to one. Must be a nightmare beyond imagining.
It never was “that” deadly, but always a little deadly. The new outbreaks are taking place in the working age population, who never really had to worry anyway.
You beat me to it matt
Just kills them a little bit until teatime?
Joking aside, I think it is telling that these new “outbreaks” are in workplaces such as food processing plants. If I managed one of these places, I’m pretty certain I’d want to ensure my workforce are healthy and might be tempted to conduct testing. Perhaps the increased availability – and uptake – of testing has something to do with these “spikes”?
It would be nice to think that normal hygiene measures in food processing plants would naturally prevent a health problem…….
“Infections are increasing of that there is no doubt”
Well I doubt it. Prove what you are saying.
I agree more testing etc but it proves the virus is less deadly so more infections but less deaths is a good thing.
I’m quite certain they are. And they are because the virus is currently going through countries like Brazil, which has a huge population who in large part lives on top of one another. I’m much less sure it’s something we need to worry about (in fact I’m fairly sue it isn’t). Increased testing explains it in countries where it’s been kicking around for a while, but a country needs to have a first wave before it doesn’t have a second.
Brazil has a large population, allowing the MSM to salivate at the big numbers of infections and sadly deaths. The inappropriateness leaves a bad taste in my mouth and always has. However, looking at infections and deaths per million, as with the USA last month, does show a slightly different picture…
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
‘Infections are increasing of that there is no doubt’ – untrue
Positive PCR tests are increasing, the more you test, the more positive tests there are.
How many are false positives?
Test have increased, therefore more cases will be reported. However, most seem to be asymptomatic.
I seem to remember it was either Dr Wolfgang Wodarg (who first turned me into a lockdown sceptic all those months ago) or Dr Sucharit Bhakdi saying that every type of infection or disease needs to have a clinical manifestation in the form of particular symptoms. The problem with Covid19 is that its symptoms are not really distinguishable from those of a lot of other respiratory/vascular diseases (scientists are still not sure if covid is one or the other or both)
The other thing I remember is Wodarg showing graphs of tests done by Glasgow University between 2005 and 2013 showing that out of all the viruses for which they had tests, coronaviruses always accounted for between 7 and 15% of the viruses in circulation each year.
Djokovic and his family don’t seem to have any symptoms. They just have traces of the virus within them.
From the press briefing, it’s pretty clear that muzzles are not being mandated, except on public transport. They’re part of a range of recommended “mitigations” where you can’t keep to 2M, but so are things as simple as not sitting face to face. That is genuinely encouraging.
No doubt that certain shops (Apple…) will be insisting on them, but it looks like nobody is going to have to
We hope…
We hope. But I think it’s a bit late now, to be honest. The press briefing is being done away with. The relaxations have been announced 11 days in advance. There’s clarity that there will be local lockdowns if judged necessary (bad) and national if necessary (worse). I just don’t see how they could now turn around and impose masks. I don’t think they have the platform, the mechanism or the opportunity, short of the other side of another lockdown (god help us all)
Or we’ll all be sitting watching Love Island, the screens will go blank and Boris will pop up with an important “public announcement”.
Boris: Today the R number reached 1.0000000000000000000001 which means we are back in the exponential growth phase. Please be prepared for emergency panic measures. Do not be alarmed…
Relaxed just in time for Simon Dolan’s case…
How will “local lockdowns” work?
Does it literally mean putting up road blocks and barbed wire fences overnight to isolate a town or district?
In which case, isn’t everyone just going to keep watching the case numbers broken down by local authority and make a run for it as soon as they see numbers in their area start to go up?
The police have already said local lockdowns are completely unenforceable. Think it was on TV:AM with Piers yesterday
If not mandated elsewhere, then why even on public transport?
Well they’ve only just brought in that rule, so they’ll have to let it run for a couple of weeks to save face …..