Greetings From Venice
I’m in Venice where today is supposed to be the climax of Il Redentore, an annual festival held on the third weekend in July celebrating the end of the plague in 1576 that killed 50,000 people. In 1576, the Senat decided to build a small wooden church on Giudecca Island, now known as the Redentore Church (Church of the Redeemer). It’s actually opposite the hotel I’m staying in on the main island and I can see it out of my window as I write. If things were unfolding as planned, a temporary bridge would be built out of barges across the Grand Canal and thousands of people would cross to the Church and give thanks to God for ending the plague.
But of course it’s been cancelled. The local authorities took that decision on July 10th, just one week before the festival was due to begin, delivering yet another blow to the local businesses that depend on tourism, which is the vast majority. Tourism is the city’s main source of income, with 23 million people visiting in a normal year, but that’s dwindled to almost nothing during the pandemic. The cancellation of the Festival of the Redeemer follows the cancellation of the last two days of the Venice Festival in March, as well as the postponement of the next Venice Biennale from 2021 to 2022. The hotels, museums, restaurants, bars, cafes, water taxis and gondoliers are all struggling to stay in business.
The irony is that the absence of tourists makes this the perfect time to visit. Normally in July, the old city is like Oxford Street on a Saturday afternoon, with the main thoroughfares becoming virtually impassable, let alone the narrow streets. But now, almost the only people here are Italians, either the local residents, or visitors for the day from nearby areas. I’m having a lovely time wandering around museums and churches with my family, and eating at the city’s finest restaurants. You have to wear face coverings in shops and all the visitor attractions, as well as the communal areas of the hotels, but apart from that it’s heavenly. Or it would be if I wasn’t constantly being reminded that without a massive bailout a lot of these businesses will go bust. Not only will that mean tens of thousands of people losing their livelihoods, but also less tax revenue to spend on the city’s crumbling buildings and infrastructure. Not that the Italian Government will be in a position to plug that hole. The entire Italian economy has been propped up by tourism for years and the ongoing travel restrictions around the world, as well as the public’s irrational fear of the virus, will mean a huge black hole in the country’s finances this year. I fear for the future of this beautiful city.
Must-See Interview With Professor Carl Heneghan
Freddie Sayers, the Editor of UnHerd, has done another of his interviews with high-level lockdown sceptics, this time Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson from Oxford’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine. And it’s a blockbuster. Both pour scorn on the conventional wisdom about the virus. Here are some of the highlights of Professor Heneghan’s contributions:
- On the effectiveness of masks: “By all means people can wear masks but they can’t say it’s an evidence-based decision… there is a real separation between an evidence-based decision and the opaque term that ‘we are being led by the science’, which isn’t the evidence.”
- On whether this a proper pandemic or just a bad bout of seasonal infection: “One of the keys of the infection is to look at who’s been infected, which shows a crucial difference when comparing the pandemic theory to seasonal theory. In a pandemic you’d expect to see young people disproportionately affected, but in the UK we’ve only had six child deaths, which is far less than we’d normally see in a pandemic. The high number of deaths with over-75s fits with the seasonal theory.”
- On the lockdown strategy: “Many people said that we should have locked down earlier, but 50% of care homes developed outbreaks during the lockdown period so there are issues within the transmission of this virus that are not clear… Lockdown is a blunt tool and there needs to be intelligent conversations about what mitigation strategies can keep society functioning while we keep the most vulnerable shielded.”
- On whether trying to suppress the spread of the virus is a good idea: “The benefits of the current strategy are outweighed by the harms…When it comes to suppression, only the virus will have a determination in that. If you follow the New Zealand policy of suppressing it to zero and locking down the country forever, then you’re going to have a problem… This virus is so out there now, I cannot see a strategy that makes suppression the viable option. The strategy right now should be how we learn to live with this virus.”
- On the infection fatality rate: “We will be down about where we were with the swine flu: around 0.1-0.3% which is much lower than what we think because at the moment we are seeing the case fatality.”
Worth watching in full.
DHSC Has No Fear of Winter Surge
A reader with a relative who’s quite high up in the Department of Health and Social Care has some inside dope about the “second wave”:
A very close family relative who works in the DHSC turned up today with some interesting information. Apparently, there is in reality within the Department’s walls no current expectation whatsoever of any big health crisis in the winter to come, regardless of the current propaganda campaign telling us we face catastrophe. “How so?” I hear you cry. The reason is simple. They’ve twigged, as has anyone else with half a brain, that a large number of the people who might be susceptible to to the so-called second COVID-19 wave or an outbreak of influenza have – wait for it – already died.
Round-Up
No time for a proper update today, but here’s a round-up of all the stories I’ve noticed, or which have been been brought to my attention, in the last 24 hours (and a special thanks to Mitesh Kariah who has been tirelessly flagging stories up for me for months):
- ‘Stop pretending the BLM protests were peaceful‘ – Micheal Tracy points out in UnHerd that the BLM protests were far from peaceful
- ‘The COVID Coup‘ – Good essay by Angelo Codevilla in the American Mind. He’s one of us
- ‘“Take it or leave it” deals put rail on track for nationalisation‘ – Looks like re-nationalisation of the railways is looming in spite of the fact that Labour lost the last election
- ‘Scientists criticise modelling that predicted 120,000 winter deaths‘ – Professor Robert Dingwall, who sits on NERVTAG, says the projections are based on “flawed” mathematical modelling
- ‘Extra cancer victims may reach 35,000 after screening and treatment missed‘ – That’s 35,000 in the next 12 months, as estimated by Cancer Research UK. The charity warns that deaths caused by delays in care will exceed coronavirus casualties
- ‘Government suspends publication of daily UK-wide death toll over accuracy concerns‘ – About bloody time
- ‘Here’s why BLM protests, crowded beaches and eased lockdown have not caused a second wave‘ – The Telegraph‘s Paul Nuki, usually a lockdown defender, puzzles over why mass events don’t seem to have resulted in an uptick in infections
- ‘Rouhani says 25 million Iranians may have been infected with coronavirus‘ – Given that only ~14,000 Iranians have died of COVID-19, that’s a very low IFR (if true)
- ‘Impose sanctions on China over its treatment of Uyghur Muslims‘ – UK Government petition objecting to China’s appalling treatment of Uyghur Muslims. Sign it to show solidarity with Maajid Nawaz who has gone on hunger strike to draw attention to this abuse of human rights
- ‘Face Masks Mandated by UK Government Specifically Say They Don’t Protect Against COVID-19‘ – Anything other than tight-fitting, surgical-grade masks are utterly pointless, and the evidence that even they are effective outside healthcare settings is threadbare
- ‘The mask slips‘ – Listen to Brendan O’Neill, Tom Slater, Fraser Myers, and special guest Lee Jones pour scorn on mandatory face coverings in the Spiked podcast
- ‘London ponders its future as pandemic turns capital into a ghost town‘ – Depressing article in the Telegraph‘s business section
- ‘The most logical explanation is that it comes from a laboratory‘ – Well-known Norwegian virologist Birger Sørensen and his colleagues have examined the virus and concluded it cannot have evolved naturally
Theme Tune Suggestions by Readers
Only one today: “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang” by Heaven 17.
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
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 re-opened, 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 re-opened – or most of them, anyway – we’re now focusing on pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as other social venues. As of July 4th, many of them have re-opened too, but not all. 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 – particularly if they’re not insisting on face masks! Don’t 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 papers and if they don’t charge for premium content they won’t survive.
I know it becomes difficult to navigate the comment threads after 24 hours. One alternative to continuing to post below my updates is to move to our new Lockdown Sceptics Forums, which webmaster Ian Rons has just created. (You’ll need to verify your email address before you can start posting.) Apologies for not creating them sooner. Any problems, email Ian here. Or just email him to thank him for creating such a great website. (For some reason, the Forums have become a spam magnet so we’ve closed them temporarily while Ian writes some code to stop that happening.)
Gone Fishin‘
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation recently to pay for the upkeep of this site. If you feel like donating, however small the sum, please click here. But I’m on holiday until Saturday, July 25th and won’t be doing much work on this site for a week. If you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here.
Salem 2.0
I thought I’d give my readers something to chew on while I’m on holiday: Salem 2.0: The Return of the Religious Police to the Public Square. This is a book about cancel culture that I’ve been working on for a while now, but which took a back seat during the coronavirus crisis. Hoping to get back to it as the crisis recedes – although that’s happening more slowly than any of us hoped. It’s a work in progress, so don’t expect too much.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
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Last week should have been Graduation during which hotels, restaurants, gastropubs and taxis are usually fully booked all week long. A few families used the bookings made months ago by way of a short break but there was little evidence of them around the City (you can tell Graduand parents from the townies).
The riverside leisure and tourism hub was packed with locals on sunny Saturday, some of the bars and restaurants had so much additional seating on Council owned pedestrian areas they probably had more capacity than before.
Nobody wore masks except the waiting staff who all did.
Peter Hitchens raises a powerful voice against face-nappy hell.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8537489/PETER-HITCHENS-Face-masks-turn-voiceless-submissives.html
Wait for the howls from the deluded gagged. But he will have supporters too. Be one of them, leave a comment!
Reads as a call for rebellion – for widespread civil disobedience.
Good on him.
Yes, he has changed his tune a bit. He previously said he complies (this was when it was mandatory just on public transport) as he believes in the rule of law.
That’s how I read it anyway – a call to arms. I guess they put it past the lawyers to check that fell an atom short of actually calling for all-out lawbreaking.
I don’t like the idea of law breaking. But public muzzle-wearing has never been debated in Parliament, let alone passed by Parliament. It’s a ministerial decree, by two prats (Johnson and Hancock), based on abject lies and misinformation. I don’t feel in anyway bound by that.
Indeed, there is a quite compelling argument that it is a civic duty to rebel against tyranny!
Yes, I read it as a call to arms.
Interesting point about the lawyers. Hitchens is very controlled in his statements, always, wherever he makes them. That may be partly down to his desire to keep his platform with the MoS, but I put it more down to his natural style and his Christian beliefs. But I guess the MoS have editors who might check these things first.
I think there was a debate in Parliament on face coverings: https://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2020/july/coronavirus-statement-14-july/
I don’t think there was a vote. Everything has been done using the 1984 Public Health Act and the Coronavirus Act 2020. I’m unclear as to the exact connection between the two. Anyway, the Coronavirus Act was debated, but passed unopposed.
Unjust laws should be resisted.
Oh thanks – I’ll look at that statement (debate?) later. Off out now, so apologies for not being on this thread for a bit.
As reported, it hardly constitutes a debate, though I do think Ashworth should be muzzled asap.
However, I did notice this:
Mr Hancock told MPs that the Government’s strategy is to protect the NHS, get the virus down and keep the virus down while restoring as much of normal life as possible.”
Notice his first priority? Talk about broken records!
Yes the MP’s have totally colluded in this criminal attack on the UK population.
Remember the virus was downgraded on the 19th March as non consequential.
Why did no one asks any questions?
It is not law breaking if the law is designed to do you harm.
Don’t know if this has been posted yet.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-potentially-infectious-people
I’ve just read it. Some of the comments are amusing One complaining the article was dangerous and moaned about the standard of education. LOL. Peter Hitchens may be many things but uneducated!! The photograph showing passengers in a tube train was amusing but if they are going to wear masks they should cover their noses unless it was a form of Rebellion.
Yep, I saw that too.
Another link, to Hitchens personal blog version, which avoids all the irritating Daily Mail videos etc is :-
https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/
I read the article and this bit is spot on:
This also reminded me of those asinine articles that appeared in the Daily Telegraph and Teen Vogue that was pretty much a licence to denounce those who can’t wear a muzzle for various reasons. That was very low even by the abysmal standards that pass as “journalism” these days. Anyone who still thinks “we’re all in this together” either are lying or would be one of those denouncers or both.
their wide eyes peering out anxiously from above the hideous gag How true!
Another thing that I’ve noticed is that when I try to explain to people my scepticism by using erm, facts, often the only response I’ll get is they just stand there with a weird, blank look on their faces. All seems a bit ‘Stepford’ to me!
Agree. When I speak to people wearing muzzles, I always wonder if they’re getting what I’m saying because for the life of me, I can’t see their expressions.
If I’m having that problem, it must be hell for both disabled people especially those who are blind, visually and hearing impaired and those with learning disabilities.
i refuse to have a conversations with anyone with a mask on. I’ve noticed that wearing these has reduced human conversation or interaction, even eye contact. Everyone just avoids behind the mask of fear – utterly ridiculous.
i just went to tescos which was very quiet for sunday. There was a young bloke wearing a neckerchief thing like a highwayman … thing is he didn’t have it over his nose and kept fiddling. Since he doesn’t have to wear as covering yet, and assuming he’s doing it out of some civic duty or scared why doesn’t he wear a proper mask. Absolutely crazy and I laughed at him and told him he looked f**king ridiculous (note to self… keep your gob shut in public places! Think i’ve got tourettes and sometimes can’t keep a lid on it – maybe next friday being muzzled will help
and spoke to store staff who said they would not be enforcing the masks, but weren’t sure if they had to wear them – we shall see…..
Tourette’s, no just frustration, lack of patience and not being able to suffer fools much anymore!
My last visit to Tesco didn’t start very well. I parked in the only general (?) space next to a long line of ‘parent and child’ spaces. I got the bags out of the boot and as I was walking off, a bloke getting into his car near me said, quite aggressively, ‘see you haven’t got any kids in your car pal’. I explained that it wasn’t a P&C space and he got in his car and drove off.So next week… no kid, no mask….I’d better wear a stab vest!
To be fair, Hitchens has pretty well cribbed this off Biker, on here a couple of days ago:
‘Here’s the kicker, no one with a mask will say a word to you because they are defeated. Their eyes have become void, they are less than human and the sight of you without your mask will only reinforce what they’ve become.’
And the Government website implicitly warns against muzzle-wearers against confronting the sane:
‘Please be mindful and respectful of such circumstances [i.e. exempt conditions] noting that some people are less able to wear face coverings’
It also says that the muzzle-wearers should wash their hands, either 20 secs with soap and water or with hand sanitiser, every time they take the thing on and off. Hopefully those that don’t – every one of them I’ve seen – will be liable for a fine.
Does anyone know how to contact Hitchens, rather than just posting in the comments?
He says there’s never been an RCT on muzzle wearing but there’s this:
From an RCT reported in the BMJ:
Conclusions This study is the first RCT of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks. This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection. Further research is needed to inform the widespread use of cloth masks globally.(https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/4/e006577.long)
I seem to remember seeing an email address for him on the Mail articles once upon a time, but not sure..
I would try his twitter maybe? He seems to be particularly prolific on that platform. Not fully up to speed how it all works but something like tag him in a tweet that has the report.
Peter.Hitchens@mailonsunday.co.uk
Thanks!!
I’ve emailed him.
Sorted!
(edit: turns out the study I linked to was the same as the one Cheezilla posted, just a different URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4420971/ )
Interesting that at the time I read it, the little blue flag at the top (facebook I think) shows 16.6 million ‘likes’. So maybe we are not as alone as we think.
I clicked the flag to check it out but it looked to be for the general Mail fb page.
Oh dear, so we are as alone as we think. Thanks for checking, I don’t ‘do’ facebook (or any other social media unless you count this forum).
Pasted it onto my facebook page. Was met with howls of derisive laughter, well argued statements such as ‘utter boll*x’ and the usual hysterical ‘friend of a friend of an acquaintance watched someone die in the ICU’ nonsense.
Toby isn’t wrong! The interview with Professor Carl Heneghan is quite extrordinary. Here’s the description for the interview:
“Professor Carl Heneghan is Director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University … yesterday evening he revealed an extraordinary detail: the Public Health England daily death totals announced to the media include anyone who has ever tested positive for Covid-19 — even if they recovered completely.”
This should be the main news story everywhere.
So if you get the miraculous bug, you can be simultaneously alive and dead?
I presume, then, that Boris has been counted as dead?
It would explain his zombie-ism.
It’s Schrodinger’s Virus
Beware cats in boxes!
Beware of cats lurking in hallways!
I stepped out of my apartment last night to deposit some garbage down the chute near the elevator. In doing so, I left my door open. When I turned the corner a white cat ran past me and entered my apartment. It proceeded to rub against various pieces of furniture, like The Cat in Red Dwarf. I tried to tempt it with a can of cat food but it refused to follow me out the door and into the hallway. Finally I picked it up, slightly scared that it might resist. It didn’t, so I put it out into the hallway so it could return to its owner down the hall.
A pigeon as intruder is far worse than a cat! lol
We are not allowed to feed the pigeons where I live so they never established themselves as regular visitors or potential intruders.
Not yet, I believe, but if he were run over by a bus and killed he would be listed as a covid-related death.
If coronavirus is so deadly why is necessary to fiddle the statistics by including people who have recovered from the virus and died of something else.
Think you’ve answered your own question
Once again, the question is giant cock-up or giant conspiracy!
Watch this 40 second video. There’s the answer:
https://olivefarmercrete.blogspot.com/2020/07/bill-melinda-gates-giggle-smirk-over.html
Both.
Two white male scientists taking an understated, rational, evidence-based approach to the Covid situation isn’t the kind of news the BBC tends to pick up on these days unfortunately
Perhaps the president of Tanzania could make an appearance. He seems to have the right idea.
Great news for Catholics in our town: church services have resumed. Sadly truncated, but God has been allowed to return and meet His children in His house.
Meanwhile, our Anglican church has graciously been permitted to open for private prayer, one day a week, bristling with precautions, from some date in August.
I’m beginning to wonder if God has favourites. Or is it just that Church in Wales bishops are the lousiest cowards and quitters in the created universe?
They have these special Bibles where the counterpart to ‘render unto Caesar’ is missing.
Or maybe they don’t like work!
God is obviously punishing the ABC for his idiocy!
My Mum is very active in the Methodist Church. Her church is one of the busier ones in the area. They have decided not to re-open yet due to the extreme number of rules they would need to follow. For example, they are required to remove any tapestries and alike from the walls!!! She told me yesterday that her church estimate that they’ve lost £25k since March. As far as she is aware, there are no government handouts on offer. They have some reserves to draw on so should be ok. A number of other churches in the area don’t have reserves so she expects them to go under. When you compare this to (secular) village halls who are getting grants of up to £25k with no strings attached, you really start to wonder if there’s a plan to further erode the foundations of our judaeo christian society.
Our Methodist church is similar. Having read the requirements, including no singing allowed, many of us feel it is pointless to even try and open until they change the rules. A Methodist church without singing is unthinkable. Talk about possibly reopen in September. We are solvent at the moment (mainly because those paying offerings by standing order are continuing to do) but it can’t go on for ever. Zoom services are OK but not a long term option and some of our members cannot join anyway.
I would also say that we have a whole lot of community groups who use our premises but cannot for the foreseeable future. The night shelter we run every year from December to March is already cancelled this year – although that puts the responsibility for helping the homeless directly back to the council. By ‘tapestries’ we have various banners which are hung on the walls and obviously cause no problems for anyone.
What happens if you hold services in the open air?
I’ve been asking that, but the rest of my choir are cowards.
Wouldn’t just have to be the choir. Groups singing carols don’t have to be tuneful! Just has to be organised. Wouldn’t have to be a priest organising it either.
Is licking tapestries a Methodist thing then?
I wonder if many are feeling spiritually bereft. I certainly do.
Sunday for me is different to other days. Meeting others and celebrating music, communion etc.. is obviously an in person thing. We can pretend church hasn’t stopped with YouTube and zoom etc… but church has stopped, for the first time in centuries.
This has to do with something about the architects of the lockdown being SATANISTS
A family member is being denied proper follow up cancer consultation and treatment. When I say denied, it’s more like delayed, not followed up such as offering only a telephone consultation, not being booked in for CT scans and so on. Yet I know the hospital stands practically empty. It’s absolutely disgusting.
Other than complaining to the GP and hospital I suggested writing to the local MP as well. Is there anything else we could do?
Go on hunger strike at the hospital gates
Stand in the market place and shout it out. Denounce evil. Utter evil is what it is.
This has something to do with the architects of the lockdown WANTING TO KILL AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE
Wear a sandwich board and protest in front of the hospital.
I’d been thinking we could see a return of the sandwich board – more room for our message than a muzzle.
I’m thinking of wearing one at work while on break to wake up my colleagues who are still acting like Rip van Winkle over this.
Go on MSM comments sections and every time some smug b*stard insists that lockdown saves lives, tell your story – because it’s one of thousands.
Ideas you probably have already thought of. You have to keep knocking on doors until one opens.
Write to other MPs with health responsibilities.
Questioning publicly via twitter puts more pressure on these mp functionaries. Yes, twitter more effective than a letter sometimes.
Local press may be interested – not in the empty hospital but in the lack of treatment, carefully speak to them.
Trying to contact a simple cancer nurse (any NHS friends) with a moment to spare might be very helpful in understand what you can do. A 10 minute chat with a friend of a friend coukd help you see the direction to work in.
Macmillan are supposed to help, ditto cancer research.
Hospitals have patient councils, it may be worth contacting.
I would not be afraid at all to seek out any specialist cancer trials outside your area and phone them. I don’t mean with the intention of volunteering for a trial. Discussing with professionals can sometimes lead to an opportunity being discovered.
Just ideas. Good luck.
One dead Corona person is worth 10 dead cancer persons.
One prevented Corona death is worth 100 prevented cancer deaths.
The perverse new normal since March.
Write to the PM, your MP, the chief exec of your local hospital, whichever one provides your care. I would also suggest you contact the local media, people need to make this stuff public knowledge. Make it known that you don’t think the delay to your treatment is an unavoidable consequence of a terrible pandemic but the consequence of politics and unforgivable mis management by PHE. Never forget, you pay these people to be there for you when you need them and they are failing in their duty.
Defund Public Health England!
Write to the head of you local hospital, your health authority and each time copy in your local MP and your local newspaper(s), local radio, regional TV etc. Doesn’t take much time if done on e mail.
In March parliament voted in a Dictatorship.
Our MP’s then took their bungs and retired to their country estates
If today the Dictator decides that on each third Monday in the month the customers in Tesco are required to hop on their left leg, then that is the law.
Of course most people will willingly comply, only the grannie killers will dissent
The Gauleiters in Scotland and Wales (in the best traditions of anyone worthy of the title) implement the will of the Dictators as they see fit
Has there ever been an example in history where a Dictator gave up their power without a fight?
Some coups are bloodless …..
I think we should put Wankock in the stocks and pelt him with used face napies.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x64m0ss
Monty Python’s Hospital Sketch. Check the audio mute button, it’s off.
Hi gang
Been off the grid for a while, simply because I couldn’t hack it any longer, I am so angry. In fact, it’s not so much anger as contempt. I feel like I’m being gaslighted on a mass scale. What’s even more infuriating, nobody cares, I simply cannot get anyone to listen.
We’ve now had two family members die during the lockdown, one (my cousin’s father in law) died of stage four prostate cancer, no family member clapped eyes on him for five weeks, he was moved so many times, we didn’t even know where he was. We had to rely on him being coherent enough (lots of morphine) to call and tell my cousin. He was very scared. He was finally moved to a local carehome, where they promised they would call when the end was nigh so one family member could be with him for an hour. They forgot. He died alone and scared.
Secondly my other cousin’s mother in law (cousin one and cousin two are sisters). She had very advanced dementia. Had a fall, got pneumonia, was taken to hospital. Her husband who had nursed her for two years was not allowed to see her. Again she was moved. The nurses (one would say overworked nurses, but we all know that’s not true) did not check her notes, and failed to note she was so confused she’d forgotten how to feed herself or drink. She died alone and scared.
And then my aunty’s dog got lymphoma. He was her late husband’s dog, and her last link with him. Poor mutt was put to sleep in a carpark.
Then my dog got cancer, mast cell cancer which degranulated very fast, and my poor old hound was very sick. I refused to have our loyal friend put to sleep in a carpark in the rain, so we paid Dignipets £300 to come and do a home euthanasia. However, our kind hearted and friendly dog was scared of the vet’s mask and PPE. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/18/dogs-scared-masks-give-four-legged-friends-stress-free-lockdown/
This means the dog screamed (I mean screamed like a human) when the vet tried to sedate her, so much so the vet fumbled, dropped the needle and had to do it again, with us pinning the dog in place. FFS. Then as she was so poorly her blood pressure collapsed and the now flustered vet couldn’t get a vein. All four fucking legs, before she could do it. This is not the end we wanted for our dog (fortunately she was sufficiently sedated to not know anything about it).
To say I was a wreck by that point would be an understatement! I have to say when I was watching my dog take her last breath I thought to myself, people are dying like this. I mean, at least we there to soothe and reassure her, many many people are dying alone, surrounded by masked up strangers, with no smiles or facial expressions or kindness, all alone.
I’ve been reading everything, so I know that anyone who is still signed up to lockdown ideology either has a political axe to grind, is too proud to admit they made a mistake, or frankly not very bright, but Simon Dolan’s case getting refused was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It’s just so depressing. And now masks! I’ve ordered my exemption card, and every check out person I’ve spoken to readily admits it’s utter bollocks. I’ve apologised to all of them and made it clear that I don’t want them to wear a mask for me, or for anyone, it’s demeaning, and I’m really sorry that they’re going to have to. The little Hitlers though are having a field day. I don’t like the mask thing, as it makes us sceptics easy to spot.
Bec
Bec, I am so, so sorry for everything. I shall pray for you and all your family and the dear dogs.
Everything you say is evidence to damn – and I mean damn – our Fascist oppressors. The evidence is accumulating on this site and elsewhere.
The reckoning will come. Have courage. You will stand as witness when they are in the dock.
PS. Send a copy of your message to Peter Hitchens and to Simon Dolan.
That’s a good idea, I’ll do that.
Thanks Annie. It’s where this is all going that scares me the most, people are so gullible.
I work in charities, for my work I’ve been doing a lot of research about children and mental health. It’s absolute armageddon for kids, the evidence is just mounting up. Safeguarding, food poverty, even a doubling of malnutrition. Never mind a more than doubling of domestic violence murders (90% of which are either overheard, or witnessed by children), and on and on and on.
Dogs are like children, they are innocent, and without guile, our dog had never not trusted us, putting her through that felt like a betrayal, she was confused, it was awful. I think that’s why my heart kinda burst, and I collapsed in a puddle of tears. It was kind of the flash point for all the sadness, not just for me and my family, but for everyone.
All those idiots waffling on about sit on the sofa and watch netflix you selfish murderers, cover your face (I mean have we gone MAD? Cover our faces???), where is the empathy, or even the imagination for how other people live? That’s what I find so disgusting, this inability to put themselves in someone else’s shoes. More children have killed themselves than died of covid, just think how desperate you’d have to be to do that! I feel like I hate people (and that scares me about me!).
It’s just so awful, I agree there must be a reckoning and we must never, ever, ever allow them to do this ever again. That means people need to go to prison. Although I reckon, like the Iraq war, it’ll be a couple of years before we can actually talk about it properly.
Anyway, thanks again.
Bec, your story has moved me to post a comment for the first time in this forum (in fact for the first time, ever, on any social media platform!). It just encapsulates so many of the feelings of disbelief, anger, frustration, sadness and loss, that we all seem to be experiencing as this goes on, not to mention the absolute sense of powerlessness we can feel as individuals to do anything about it.
I would love to join some sort of ‘visible’ protest against this tyranny, but it is so difficult when you live in a rural area to rally enough people to go to it, particularly if the people who are dissenting are mainly in the minority, and usually law abiding citizens!. Personally I am getting to the point where I would be happy to be arrested at for not ‘obeying’ these pointless rules, as I feel so strongly about it all, but then who would notice or comment on it enough to effect any real change???!! I have tried lobbying local MPs in the past about matters of concern, but there really isn’t much point as they either don’t respond, or respond with some fatuous comment about ‘ we are looking into it’ and nothing ever happens.
I hope the tide will start to turn at some point soon, and at least Peter Hitchens’ article has been published today in a MSM newspaper. It really does hit the spot, so to speak, and I like Annie’s suggestion, Bec, of sending a copy of your message to him, and also to Simon Dolan, if you comfortable with that, as it may help get the message across to the wider public about what is happening in the ‘real’ world.
“What’s even more infuriating, nobody cares, I simply cannot get anyone to listen.”
I know what you mean. We care and we’re listening! I guess the sceptics are still in a minority, but I like to think that over time more people will come to think that we should move on. I think they already have. I’m less confident that we’ll persuade everyone this was a huge mistake to start with, because there seems to be a blockage for a lot of otherwise intelligent people that such a huge mistake could have been made by so many.
Our best hope is that the human social instinct will gradually reassert itself. It already is – people are out and about, more relaxed. The shame is that there will be places where things like distancing and masks persist forever, because the people that run those places have dictatorial and virtue signalling tendencies, with the excuse that they are making the fearful feel comfortable. For example, I have a friend at University and they have decided to insist on masks on campus – they didn’t need to do this, but they did, and I can’t see that changing. We can all vote with our feet and avoid places that do this kind of thing, but it won’t always be possible. So we will be stuck with the health and safety zealots on steroids, forever.
I hope you have people close to you with whom you can share the burden and stay sane and happy.
Thanks, on my better days I know you are right but the zealots scare me, social pressure was a big part of Sage’s behaviour plan, I think we have to try and turn it back the other way, it’s got to become socially unacceptable to poke your nose into other people’s business. I feel really sorry for kids going to uni, it should be a right of passage, not health panto as a pawn in adult’s political games.
Adult’s political games, and personal madness/laziness.
Fundamentally we’re seeing a battle between those who want to get on with their lives and by and large are happy to leave others alone to get on with theirs, as long as they don’t threaten your person or your property, and those who think their views on how to live life should be imposed on everyone else.
To that extent, this current situation is the culmination of tendencies that have been growing for a long time, and it has been an almost perfect vehicle for people to use – except that it just hasn’t caused enough deaths so they are now having to resort to even more perfidy to keep it going.
The people to persuade are those who are lazy. The mad ones there’s no hope for. The lazy may, over time, realise they’ve been had and get fed up with being bossed around for no obvious good reason.
We just need there to be a focal point that has sufficient public profile around which opposition can coalesce.
I agree, it’s identity politics, I am watching people who cannot bear to give this government an inch no matter the price, and it’s those people I won’t forgive. If this truly was a national emergency then the greater good would come first, and yet every activist with an agenda has seen it as an opportunity, whether remainers getting their own back (I say that as a remainer, although a reluctant one now), BLM, socialists (what better way to smash capitalism?), environmental fundamentalist (ground the airlines, yay!), and on and on and on.
As I’ve said here before, it seems quite class based too, the middle class contempt for ordinary people, and what they are suffering (heck, who even just wanted to take their kids to the beach) has really turned my stomach.
And now a 25% contraction in the economy (I looked it up, under Thatcher it was 2%, 2008 was 6%), and yet they still mock people like us, when what is coming will devastate the poor and already hard done by.
Animal cruelty and the neglect of the elderly – that’s me done!
I agree, there needs to be more high profile dissent, I was wondering if some high profile scientists / economists / virologist etc would sign an open letter. It would need to be a broad church to get traction, but the sceptic camp needs to be better organised I think.
I agree, we need to get organised. I just don’t know how to go about it when we are in a significant minority. That is why I feel so bloody impotent. I am staying in at home, alone, with my work and books around me. I will not associate with anyone wearing a mask and will not wear one. If I go hungry, I go hungry. Fortunately I have a small garden where I can commune with nature and/or God. My second home was always a bar or pub somewhere near. Bye bye second home, I will not compromise, and boy I like to socialise and drink
I emailed the mask sceptic MPs and encouraged them to start a movement, in a roundabout way.
Toby Young has more of a platform, and contacts, along with Simon Dolan. Maybe they are moving in that direction.
I think there may be a class element to all of it. Last weekend we stayed at a caravan Park in Lincolnshire for cheap accommodation while house hunting. Most tourists in that town were somewhat rough and ready,but they didn’t seem worried about walking near to others on the pavement, and frankly it was refreshing. In the middle class area where we live people are still walking into the road to avoid you.
That’s my observation also. I mean, if you’ve been working in Lidl or driving a van or whatever, what’s different? Nothing.
Hopefully there will be some decent reporting of today’s protest which will get people thinking.
I hate to say this but, wishful thinking. Couple of years back 25,000 marched in London against austerity. MSM didn’t touch it.
They are not adults, they are overgrown adolescents suffering from arrested development.
That is all so terrible, I’m not surprised you are angry and depressed (we all are, of course, in varying degrees). Take strength from all us sceptics. I haven’t lost any human family members but did have a precious pet put to sleep last month. I could not be with her; it really hurt, but thankfully I know the vet was kind and caring and it would have been done properly and gently. This government should be strung up for all the pain they’ve caused.
Really sorry to hear that about your beloved dog. It’s crap isn’t it? The other thing people aren’t thinking about is lots of dog’s homes and shelters have gone bust. Lots have been putting to sleep because they couldn’t rehome. That’s before the animal welfare crisis hits because people lose their jobs. I’ve got horses (both rescues), there’s a big horse welfare crisis brewing as it’s an expensive hobby, horses being dumped etc. Most of those horses end up on a meat lorry to France.
I’m just sick of the sanctimony about it all, what we have done is not kind. When it all comes out about what we’ve done to our old, our sick, our kids, our pets, at least I’ll know my conscience is clear.
Thanks again xx
Thanks, what’s even sadder, this is happening to families everywhere, I think that’s what made me so upset, my dog had a better death than some people’s elderly mum or dad!
Twas ever thus Bec, such is the glory of our wonderful NHS.
But my sincere regrets and anger for the government imposed violence you have been forced to endure.
Thanks, how we treat our elderly is a disgrace at the best of times.
Bec, really sorry, man. This horror story is the true cost of what they are doing. There’s a special place in hell…
I know, the absolute bastards. I think it’ll be like Germany after the war, no one will want to admit they were a signed up member, but we’ll be here to remind them.
Sorry to hear about your family and animal issues, that have made this generally disastrous situation so especially bad for you, Bec. I’m as pissed off as you are about the overall situation, so can only offer the usual optimistic platitudes in response, so little
useful for me to contribute here..
Thanks, the family members was one step removed for me, obviously my cousin’s distress was awful but it didn’t happen to me, but the dog was very very personal, as I say down thread, dogs are innocent like children, they have no guile, and what we are doing to children is even worse!
Now they’ve admitted the data is a farce I hope people will start to doubt, but some people seem so wedded to it all, so certain, I think it’ll be a long time before we as a country can look at it dispassionately, if we ever do.
Very sorry to hear what has happened. Its distressing to hear about people dying without their loved ones with them. The bit about the dog was distressing as well especially that she was unhappy at seeing the vet all muzzled up and wearing PPE.
The only thing I can say further is condolences to you an your family on your loss.
Thank you x
I wonder if more publicity for the human costs of the lockdown disaster will help change public opinion.
One can only hope so…but the hard core fanatics will never change their minds.
Very moved by your post. Completely understand about needing a break from things. We all have to look after our mental health.
Also emphasise with your anger. Those in power cannot fix the mess they have created with bailouts we cant afford. I hope that there will be a reckoning.
Me too! I think we are entering politically very choppy waters, I think those playing fast and loose with this situation for political reasons really need a very long think about they are messing with!
The list of grievances is growing apace. They should all be written down on parchment paper, sealed with wax and sent to the PM’s office.
WOW, poor you, how totally horrible. Yes, stay strong, you are not alone, there are THOUSANDS of stories like yours.
This lockdown has been just the most EVIL thing I have ever experienced. Literally like an evil spell has been cast over the world.
The truth will come out. Try to bear in mind that the last 4 months have been just a short blip in time.
These evil bastards who did this to us will have their day in the sunlight when we will ALL see clearly what they have done and the damage they have caused. There will be a reckoning.
Try to remember how in normal life 4 months can pass with out you even noticing. Yes it’s been HELL and the last four months feels like a living unending nightmare. But it’s just been four months. These bastards can’t stop the time.
Thanks, and you’re right, I hang onto that, one day this will be in our rear view mirror. I do worry about the long term damage we’ve done, particularly to the young and the very old, but I think overall British people are sensible, I do think good will win out in the end, although I think possibly it’ll get worse before it gets better. At least, like all of us here, my conscience is clear.
Yes, evil, evil evil. We are living in a regime of diabolical evil.
But there is goodness around. Believe in it, nourish it, stay with us, never give in.
We had our 16-year-old cat put to sleep in the dark days of full lockdown too, and like you, we had it done at home. It took many phone calls to find a vet willing to take the risk, rather than to take our cat into the surgery alive (whilst we waited in the car park) and bring her back out to us dead. One receptionist even shouted at my OH that it was “far too dangerous” to expect a vet to come out – to be that rude to someone who is calling to ask a vet to come and euthanase a much-loved pet is incomprehensible to me. Fortunately our cat didn’t care about the frankly terrifying big black mask the vet was wearing, but I did. It made the process feel ten times worse. But at least I was there with her, and to think that humans aren’t even being given that opportunity is horrific.
Really sorry to hear that, but well done for insisting on a dignified end. I know, people are brutal aren’t they, they just don’t think. I have two cats, they make me smile daily, ‘lockdown? What lockdown?’ they just suit themselves, does my heart good! I hated the PPE of the vet as well, she was kind, but clearly flustered because the dog was scared of her. I mean how the F do you explain to a scared, dying dog, ‘don’t worry it’s just a mask?’ it’s so stupid.
The inhumanity is breathtaking and the vet had more chance of dying in a RTA on the way to your house.
Bec, words fail me but the tears didn’t.
All this inhumane treatment! No wonder you’re angry.
Do post your horror stories at every available outlet. People need to wake up and realise what’s been going on!
Thanks, I know, and we had the money to pay for an expensive home service, others don’t. Elderly relatives, it’s rage inducing. It’s so unjust, and it’s going on everywhere, they reckon most of the excess non covid deaths are elderly dementia patients, before they die what we are doing to them is pretty much torture, and people stood and clapped!
I never clapped once…but thats because I have seen many previous times the inhumanity of the NHS. I was just as likely to have clapped for the BBC!
Well I, like many others, have noticed your absence and missed you and your intelligent comments and observations. I am so sorry to hear about all this. You have my profoundest compassion. Gaslighting is right. My mother (late eighties) is now in hospital, for no other reason I can ascertain than they need something to do. She is scared and in tears, no-one can visit her and she has no outward signs of illness. All the tests they did on her proved negative, including mandatory Covid. Can I get to speak to anyone about her? No I can’t.. She might as well be in Colditz. I have such contempt for the NHS and their arrogance. That’s noweher near your level of grief but I can’t get anyone to listen either BecT, it’s like they have all been brainwashed. Suddenly all the evidence for masks being useless has been overturned and everybody is in favour of 99.95% of us having to wear the damn obscenities to protect us from the 0.05% who might be carrying the thing. Look at those figures! That is absurd and I am sorry to have to say it again, but this is a coup. People dying in hospital alone, the majority willingly wearing a symbol of obeisance and subjugation. Willingly!!!! And hurling abuse of those of us clutching at the straws of freedom. I never believed I would see this. I think I am happy now to die fighting this. You are forbidden (or have been forbidden) any joy: singing, sex, celebration. Singing???!!! But they’ve opened gyms now so you can cough and splutter through a circuit but express love through singing? Never. Gaslighting is the polite term. Actually it’s evil, and we have to call it out. Now.
I am so sorry to hear that! In your shoes I’d contact PALS immediately and complain. If that doesn’t work, ask a solicitor. Another friend of the family had a massive tumour removed, his wife spotted it and the GP got them admitted, saved their life. But they didn’t hear anything for days and days. In the end they got the registrar and said we are coming now and we are not leaving until someone comes to talk to us. If I was you I’d just go down there and get her discharged. That’s utterly appalling. I’m so very sorry you are dealing with that.
Yes no real evidence that lockdown has saved any lives at all but vast amounts of incontrovertible evidence that lockdown has led to large numbers of deaths ,vast mental suffering and economic genocide. I have lost all faith in humanity….though its been dwindling for a long time anyway.
Hello Bec, I am so very sorry to hear about your family members but distressed to the point of crying to hear about your dog. I know, humans should count for more, but dogs have a special place in my heart and I can’t bear to hear of their suffering. The very worst aspect of all this is that we are, at the moment, powerless to do anything about the situation. I can only hope and pray that that changes in the very near future. I share your rage and despair.
Thanks, I’m close to my cousins, but I wasn’t close to their relatives, but the inhumanity and lack of dignity really upset me, but the dog did send me over the edge, she was so scared! It should have been peaceful. At least with a human you can explain what’s happening and why, but how do you tell a dog?
I am so sorry to hear all you have gone through Bec,it is heartbreaking and I am in tears reading your post.
The removal of nearly all human decency and compassion during the past few months has been abhorrent,most people don’t seem to care for anyone except themselves.
Reading about the loss of your precious canine family member brings me painful memories from earlier this year when we had to say goodbye to our precious boy,his back legs became paralysed and he could not be treated,apart from that he was in good health for his age and his heart was very strong,I will never forget hugging him tightly in floods of tears whilst the vet needed to give him four injections to take him away from us.I will never,ever forget that day.
I now cling to a very small hope that more people will realise what is happening to us all and start making a stand.
Ah so sorry Paul, dogs are family, that must have been heartbreaking! And I agree, what we are doing to people and to animals is just disgusting. I never once clapped, and I have no time for the NHS. I’ve been reading about nurses playing cards for weeks, or getting hairdressers in to get all their hair done. OK so they were told they couldn’t talk about work, but a decent whistleblower would have done it anyway. I’d rather have an insurance system like the French or the Dutch, and do away with the whole creaking pile of crap.
Most definitely the NHS needs ditching but its now a state religion. Everywhere I go I see posters saying thank you to it…for what exactly? Almost all services have been withdrawn whilst the staff get priority shopping and ten per cent off the bill at my Morrisons. Wrights bakeries give all NHS staff free food at lunchtime. How about free food for those whose businesses have been decimated for no fault of their own. I was asked to sign a petition in town asking for free haircuts for NHS staff…I did not sign but wrote instead that NHS staff are on full pay and can afford to pay for their own haircuts. The woman was incensed but I wrote it in pen….maybe she got the tippex out later! I know NHS fanatics and they they get very angry if I dare to criticise it….they all either compare it to the USA or health care in Britain before 1948. Talk about setting the bar low. What you will never hear them do is compare the NHS with health care in Germany or Switzerland or Holland etc. Now I wonder why that is. For them the British NHS is the envy of the world. Later on if the conversation moves on to Brexit they accuse you of being a Little Englander! Somehow their much cherished internationalism evaporates when it comes to discussing health care. Has anyone else noticed this about NHS pilgrims?
So very sad to hear about your relatives and your dog Bec. Anyone who has ever lost a pet will understand how devastating that must have been.
Glad to have you back
Welcome back. I have missed you.
Bec, do not wear an exemption card / badge – it’s the 21st century equivalent of a yellow Star Of David. In law (for now anyway) no one has any right to know why you’re not wearing the muzzle. And you’re under no obligation to provide that information.
The account you provided above was utterly heartbreaking to read, and I’ve no doubt there are thousands more such accounts waiting to be told. But, perhaps, a little rebellion against the oppressive diktat of our tyrants will be a salve on your hurt.
I shop every day in a local supermarket (company policy is not to enforce the muzzle) and I’ve begun a little game: I count the number of homo sapiens I observe during my visit (muzzle wearers are clearly not sapient, and, therefore, are not the same species as me). The number varies: between 3 and 20+ so far, but the general trend is upward. So, while I still feel like I’m in a remake of ‘Invasion of the Bodysnatchers’ I’m starting to take heart. In fact, perhaps if more sceptics adopt this little game we could have a leader board on this site. Could be a useful proxy to gauge the degrees of scepticism across the nation.
‘Government suspends publication of daily UK-wide death toll over accuracy concerns‘ – About bloody time
As someone pointed out yesterday, they may be all too happy to have an excuse to suppress the figures now they have fallen to zero.
The figures are still published daily at https://twitter.com/UKCovid19Stats
8 deaths reported for England yesterday, but 4 of of those actually occurred over the previous week. So we’re in low single figures now, surely not long till there’s a day with no deaths at all?
Yes even the BBC will report that…as bringing the dreaded second spike even closer!
Love the Plague mask! Have a great holiday. Venice is a place we’ve always wanted to go to. Perhaps now might be the best time to go afterall!
Just a quick comment in the round up bit with articles today note the one regarding Iran. Rouhani says 25 million have been infected. Now considering in Iran the covering of the face for women is mandatory does this not demonstrate the ineffectiveness of a mask. I would have thought the strict Islam coutries would have seen little rates of infection and death as a result of the covering of faces
No my husband is iranian..covering the face is definately not mandatory. Wearing a hijap to cover your hair and clothing to cover your arms and legs are but the girls in tehran wear hijap on only half of their heads, almost all their hair out, wearimg tight jeans but coverimg their backs with long vests etc.. all of my many times in iran i have seen many women in different cities wearing those black deesses called chodar but never seen a covered face like saudi or afganistan ever..
I visited like minded sceptical friends yesterday and must admit to laughing a great deal as you have to laugh to keep sane at the present moment.
But one thing they showed me on my iPhone was that there is already an App or similar software that has been downloaded on to all our phones by the Government via Apple to track our movements when it is ever turned on by them, I had no idea!
Looked in Settings, Privacy, Health then you will see “Covid 19 Exposure Logging” and an on/off switch. It was there in all our iPhones, I guess on Android platforms tooand you cannot remove it as much as we tried, I guess I would have to disable Bluetooth to nobble it working
What is happening to this country, with 70% of the public supposedly thinking that wearing masks in shops is sensible, utter madness.
You’re only about 4 weeks late on this, this was posted on here on the 20th June.
Even if you do disable Bluetooth, you do not actually know if it is off or not for the app unless you have a device to constantly detect bluetooth acticity. It is possible that the code for the Covid 19 Exposure Logging allows it to be enabled ever so often. If you look at what Edward Snowden disclosed about how we were being spied on, the backdoors and zero day vulnerabilities allowed them to activate cameras, microphones, etc whenever they wanted.
Yer, just because you switch a little picture of a slidey switch doesn’t mean stuff IS turned off.
Faraday cages are our friends.
Ghislaine Maxwell was carrying her phone around in tin foil to try and create a poor man’s Faraday Cage, even though she’s got £20mn in the bank and could easily have just brought a Faraday Pouch.
As I understand it, deleting the Health app will solve this?
There is no App, the code has been put into both the Apple iOS and Android operating systems in recent updates. You have no option to remove it.
Ditching the smart phone will solve it!
Toby,
You’re meant to be on holiday!
Please don’t feel obligated to post a long daily column (much as we love it) – a blank “Gone Fishing” page is all we need, for the community to hang thoughts and chat below.
Family first!
Hear, hear, have a holiday, the flag will still be flying when you get back
i’m glad he’s replaced that picture of that vile sturgeon woman with her mask on though!
Don’t you mean “Stile vurgeon”
The UK government has halted the publication of the daily number of coronavirus deaths over concerns that “statistical flaws” might be rendering the data inaccurate.
On the government death statistics website for England, the issue is acknowledged, saying: “Deaths are counted where a lab-confirmed positive coronavirus test result is reported in any setting.
“This means that not all deaths reported here are caused by coronavirus.”
What the review will not pick up
Corona only made Notifiable disease on insistence of business worried about insurance claims.
But the Elephant in the room
The test for presence of infection sars2 covid (that do not establish the viral load) if positive are enough to add to death certificate. But this does not prove the infection has developed into the disease covid-19. This slight of hand helps inflate the numbers reported 24/7 on the news
We receive a newsletter every month from our local Tory MP telling us what he has been doing. We’ve just asked to be removed from the mailing list (not sure how we got on the mailing list in the first place-could be that we’ve been writing to him on a regular basis). We filled in the reasons why we no longer want his newsletter and gave it to him with both barrels!
Well done. I emailed my MP and told her the government could go hang,
I’ve done the same but it won’t worry as dictatorships don’t need to hold elections.
Ask him what he has been doing with his £10,000.
I’ve been reading this page since it started, and am among the most sceptical of sceptics.
I work for a large pharmaceutical company, that is required by regulators to have evidence based proof for all of its drugs. And rightly so. Before approval is granted the evidence is thoroughly scrutinised.
So you’d think my colleagues would be very evidence and data minded? And not susceptible to groupthink? Not a bit of it. Looks like masks are going to be mandatory in the office, which I was looking forward to, but now am trying to avoid.
On the occasions when I do go in, I am thinking I either construct myself the most flimsy mask of chiffon possible, and when challenged on its efficacy ask sternly “And where, might I ask, is any evidence that yours isn’t powered by magical thinking?” …or get one made with “WARNING: this mask is for appearances only and there is no evidence it stops the spread of disease”
Any other ideas?
If you’re up for possibly some stressful encounters, just don’t wear one.
Don’t wear one. You cannot be forced to wear one. There are clear exemptions. It’s all bolox.
If they sack you its against the law and the law will be on your side.
How about you just leave your job, big pharma is EVIL anyway.
I don’t subscribe to that idea. Who else would develop medicines? It’s very expensive & highly risky. You need private capital, not tax payer funding.
Speak to HR they will have to weigh up this diktat against possible claims of long term mental health issues.
The last thing you ever want to do is speak to HR.
Agree! Unless you’re trying to fire someone. Then they are v useful
HR are there to support and enforce the company policies – they are not there to support the employees. Bit like MPs who you’d think are there to support their constituents who voted them in, but no they enforce the government policies.
Probably waste of time speaking to them and in my experience quite useless.
Agreed and the unions would be even worse.
I’m a bit late in on this Sophie123 but be brave and don’t wear a mask.
When challenged / derided / accused / wheedled at, just say,
“Wearing a mask such as yours is not an evidence-based choice – it is an emotional choice. I don’t share your emotions on the issue.”
When then accused of being selfish and a ‘granny killer’, just smile politely and say, “There you go. That’s the emotion I was talking about,”
and carry on with your work.
You will be fine!
No doubt cited many times previously on this forum…apologies…..
‘Sweeping mask recommendations—as many have proposed—will not reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission, as evidenced by the widespread practice of wearing such masks in Hubei province, China, before and during its mass COVID-19 transmission experience earlier this year. Our review of relevant studies indicates that cloth masks will be ineffective at preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission, whether worn as source control or as PPE.’
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data
If anyone watches the Formula One race in Hungary today, observe how often the wearers touch their masks when talking. Given what we have known since 06 Feb, covid 19 transmits mainly through personal contact, masks are part of the problem, not the solution:
‘The second factor is that of personal contact. With Sars once it was discovered that the virus was spread through the fecal oral route there was much less emphasis on the masks and far more emphasis on disinfection and washing hands. HK has far more cleanliness (than China) and they are very aware of social hygiene. And other countries will be more aware of the social hygiene (than China). So in those countries you should see less outbreaks and spreading. A couple days ago the fecal-oral route of transmission was confirmed in Shenzhen.’
Prof John Nicholls, Coronavirus expert, University of Hong Kong 06 Feb.
If Britain simply returned to age old practices recommended by all Mums and Matrons, always carry a handkerchief and wash your hands as often as possible, then we could all ‘keep calm and carry on’……..instead of a seemingly endless production of ‘Carry on Covid!’ apparently still starring Professor Pantsdown……
Given the number of people who don’t even wash their hands after going to the toilet, it may be difficult to get many people to take up even normal hygiene practices.
I was reading the new “framework” for local authorities to use to close down businesses last night.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/containing-and-managing-local-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreaks/covid-19-contain-framework-a-guide-for-local-decision-makers
Couple of very very interesting paragraphs, to me perhaps the absolutely most important ones in the whole document are:
o address more serious and wider-spread cases, ministers will be able to use their existing powers (under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984) to implement more substantial restrictions (regulations would be produced – and approved by Parliament – on a case-by-case basis) which could include:
and
So reading between the lines central Government has told local authorities to stop making it up a you go along, you cannot use health and safety legislation to do enforce any restrictions and to start doing it by the book – which is pretty involved and means paying out compensation by the council to anyone and any business they serve notice on.
Council has to prove that the premises are contaminated by the exact virus as defined in the supporting S.I. – which at the moment cannot be done – before applying for a JP to sign a notice.
A bit of a win (albeit small at the moment until people and businesses spread the word and learn how to handle the councils, appeals, compensation process and so on) I think.
Be a bit bigheaded here – Exactly as my arguments with the local councils have been about in recent months and I received in writing from 3 different councils they are not following the correct legislation.
One to the little people maybe?
Good work AG
Sadly, AG, no. I like what you are saying and wish it were true. Well, it is true, but you are talking about local tinpot dictators here. They’ve got a sniff of power and they will use it.
Even if they are eventually tripped up by your reasoning, it will be too late; that pub/shop/park will already be closed.
Our lot are already pushing it: “wear masks now, don’t wait til July 24”, “limit home visits to 2 people” etc.
Unfortunately, as through all of this, “they” will do what they bloody want to.
Of course they will do whatever they want to, especially at council level but at least doing things under the 1984 public health legislation it is a lot harder to arbitrarily impose restrictions and you can fight back – as long as you know the law which is the problem, most business owners don’t which is why they are asked all over.
walked all over, not asked – bloody predictive text autocorrect.
“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”
― Charles MacKay, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds 1840
Boris should resign and take the ghastly Matt Hancock with him. If he won’t resign, the 1922 Committee should compel him to go. They should pick an experienced senior leader and make a new start. Does anyone think Boris is the man to lead us out of this? Or perhaps the backbenchers are looking forward to twenty years in the wilderness.
I doubt anyone here thinks the PM is fit to lead anything. I expect most of us think he may be liable for criminal charges. Certainly should never be allowed anywhere near power ever again. Ditto, in my view, the rest of the Cabinet.
As for the 1922 Committee, why would they compel him to go? Aside from the 3/4 mask sceptics, MPs have been utterly complicit in this.
It will be interesting to find out who ordered the discharge of patients from hospitals into care homes.
If they were advised not to do it because of the potential risks; but then did it anyway, yes, it’s prima facie evidence of manslaughter
I’m not a betting man but I’ll have a couple of quid on that’s what happened
Possibly. Aside from care homes, ordering a lockdown without doing a cost benefit analysis has got to be negligent, though I don’t know enough about the law as it relates to government to say whether that was criminal. And pursuing a deliberate policy of exaggerating the threat, and manufacturing it (see Leicester) has also got to be questionable, though again maybe not under any criminal statute.
It was official policy by PHE, was posted on their website and keeps getting updated:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-stepdown-of-infection-control-precautions-within-hospitals-and-discharging-covid-19-patients-from-hospital-to-home-settings/guidance-for-stepdown-of-infection-control-precautions-and-discharging-covid-19-patients
but still says that even if you are exhibiting symptoms you can be released from hospital.
So it was instigated by whoever is ultimately in charge of PHE which is under the DHSC which is Matt Hancock and Whitty.
Duncan Selbie is PHE’s chief exec.
Here’s his Friday Message:
https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/2020/07/17/duncan-selbies-friday-message-17-july-2020/
And here are the registered interests of PHE’s advisory board:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phe-advisory-board-register-of-interests/declared-interests-of-phe-advisory-board-members-september-2019
And yet earlier this month Boris made a statement basically blaming the care homes themselves for all the deaths. I was totally gobsmacked when I first read that. There doesn’t seem to have been that much media or political reaction to his attempt at shifting blame, though (or if there was, I missed it)
Here is an interesting thing. The backbenchers have put up a determined fight against Huawei. I think they may more restive than appears, possibly because have swallowed the Covid narrative and because no one wants to pick up the responsibility for recovery. And true, who would want the job? I was trying to keep my post short, but I wanted to say that I believe there are Conservative MPs whose love of country and lack of personal ambition (due to age), along with expertise would enable them to bring much needed stability before the economy goes over the edge. Of course, fear of future electoral disaster will help to focus the minds of the others.
How quickly things change. Whenever I browse articles related to Covid these days or even glance at a newspaper, I am bombarded with adverts for muzzles. Designer muzzles, fashion muzzles, muzzles of every colour and style.
Add to that the increasingly horrific normalisation of muzzle wearing on TV adverts, this ceaseless propaganda campaign and opportunism is thoroughly gross. In fact, it’s more than that – it’s downright wrong.
This should NOT feel normal. This should NOT be just meekly accepted by what I have now learned is a largely docile, compliant British public. We should be rejecting this absolute horse shit wherever we encounter it!
It made me depressed this morning seeing the increased number of masks worn by local shoppers, knowing that by the end of the week they’ll (maybe) all be wearing them, just because they were told to do – now, when daily deaths in England are in single figures (going down in a steady curve unaffected by the relaxing of lockdown over the last couple of months) and the chance of even meeting someone infectious, let alone catching the virus, is negligible.
I will be very interested to see how things turn out from the 24th onwards. I am kind of hoping people won’t be as universally compliant as the media seem to be hoping/assuming. But I suspect I’m being too optimistic there!
Drawde927, I don’t know where you live but around here the number of mask wearers is tiny, usually just those at bus stops who, once boarded, lower them beneath their chin.
My local (independent) supermarket/general store are obviously keen on masks as they had the official “wear a face covering in shops” poster in their windows and on a sign board outside their door for the last couple of weeks, starting well before the official announcement.
I haven’t made a conscious decision to boycott them but I have to say I haven’t been in there since, and I used to get about half of my everyday groceries there.
They deserve boycotting.
Sky News Raab interview. Watching his eyes flick about looking behind his camera it’s clear he is getting info from either notes or people out of shot. To his right our left. This is significant in the web camera way interviews aee conducted. All others will be doing similar.
I thought all government opinion now was to look to the left!
A smile thanks!
The mask is the perfect motif for the Nanny State that’s female in nature and sentiment and naturally prone to mass hysteria ; the hard truth is that ,generally speaking, women are hopeless at risk assessment and taking calculated risks ; they become paralysed by indecision like hand wringing Hamlets and will always err on the side of caution and the result is an obsession with SAFETY-ISM like we’re all a bunch of schoolkids .. the fact is that these Nanny State-ers will make a mountain out of every single mole hill and then smugly congratulate themselves for ”keeping us safe” while destroying the economy in a fit of hysteria !
Question. If IFR for Covid turns out to be similar to a bad Flu season (as seems to be the case) AND is affecting healthy under 75’s less severely than Flu (as seems to be the case), why are drastic actions necessary even if the number of infections rise steeply?
Drastic actions are necessary to cover up the huge overreaction to the virus on the part of the UK and other governments, and on the part of the media and parts of the scientific community and bodies like SAGE and the WHO.
If we were now told to carry on as normal, people would be asking what it was all for, which would be disastrous for the careers of those who made the decisions.
There are also many organisations, governments, movements and strands of thinking for whom an endless climate of fear is beneficial in furthering their goals, because frightened people will go along with things that the unfrightened will not put up with.
I would recommend anyone who can to move to countries where freedom seems to have been preserved during this global madness, if you can find any.
France is not one of them, sadly.
Much harder to obtain exemption from muzzle-wearing here as well. Doctor’s certificate required – and to get that you have to visit the surgery…
Drastic actions are being taken because this is a coup. I was quite happy initially to accept people who thought I was being a bit conspiracy-theorist, but no more. Mandatory facemasks, which is a volte face without any evidence, is there simply to demand your obedience. No other reason.This is a coup, nothing less.
What is happening in Melbourne is horrendous and Australians who tend to be wary of authoritarianism have no voice .Masks must be worn in public places and are mandated for a very long time according to the Labor party premier Dan Andrews
” We are going to be wearing masks in Victoria, and potentially in other parts of the country, for a very long time. There’s no vaccine to this wildly infectious virus, and it’s a simple thing but it’s about changing habits,” he said.
The comment section is 100 % in support of this insanity.
Australians what has happened to you ??
https://www.theage.com.au/national/coronavirus-australia-update-live-victoria-sees-covid-19-spike-continue-and-three-more-deaths-nsw-upgrades-restrictions-australia-death-toll-at-119-20200719-p55dca.html
The comments like on social media are posted by political bots, the purpose being to make it look like people who object to these new laws and guidance seem to be abnormal and in the minority.
There is a whole industry based on this now which has been utilised mainly by the left which is so powerful that is shapes modern day policy.
I was gonna say something like that, there are thousands of fake social media accounts being managed by a number of groups to push the narrative. Their fake voices over-amplified to a stunning level.
Indeed. Sadly the government here seem to be more worried about nutters on social media than by genuine public opinion.
So the opposite should be pushed in exactly the same manner. Very low percentage of people wearing masks in Melbourne.
Maybe more of us should get onto social media. Trouble is, I can’t stand it. Probably people with normalish, moderate views have better things to do with their lives. Though I’m sitting here typing…
I don’t want to get into another left vs right argument here, but the “left” tend to be better at organising themselves and protesting. The “right” seem to feel less strongly, probably because we wrongly assume we’re still running things…
The left always seem to have an agenda or cause. Many on the right simply want to be left alone to have a nice cup of tea and some cake.
The Right have been routed in the Culture War…have a read of the new book ‘The Long March’. It shows how all key institutions have been captured by a mixture of liberals and communists.
It’s why the majority of the time to these comments you do not get a reply, they just voice that one opinion to set it in peoples minds, they the rabid pack that fall for their opinions set on people.
Here’s some fake accounts the NGHS was doing in April
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2020/04/20/more-coronavirus-propaganda-hundreds-of-fake-nhs-social-media-accounts-set-up-by-health-dept/
Neighbours and Home and Away has melted their minds into psy-op jelly mate.
I was called a racist on twitter a few weeks back for opposing the the BLM Anti-Semitic tweets. When I looked into the person who called me this I believe it was only someone aged 12-15, which doesn’t bode well for the future and explains why all these youngsters think Corbyn is god, and that everything they hear about COVID-19 is the truth. The moulding of young minds.
rack off bouncer!
I spent a few months in Oz many years ago. The people were great. No nonsense, down to earth, honest muckers. Not anymore it would seem. My recently returned friend says that there is a pronounced urban/rural divide though….
I cant say I am surprised at this. I watched a QE programme on you tube with Germaine Greer and Peter Hitchens. The mindless conformism of the audience was even worse than our own Question Time. To call them sheep would be to insult these lovely animals. The myth of the independent free thinking non PC aussie is just that….pure mythology but no doubt useful propaganda for some.
Everyone, please read BecJT’s post below.
Look at what they have done, just look.
Then look at their fake death figures, double counting, fear mongering and mask grandstanding.
These bastards should burn in hell, I’m reminded of lyrics from The Gates of Delirium, by Yes:
Listen should we fight forever
Knowing as we do know
Fear destroys?
Listen should we leave our children?
Listen our lives stare in silence
Help us now
Listen your friends have been broken
They tell us of your poison
Now we know
Kill them give them as they give us
Slay them burn their children’s laughter
On to Hell
Strong stuff, but appropriate.
Yes, yes, yes: I want to see them burn (almost literally!).
Almost?
And it ends with the lovely song ‘soon’.
Insanity piles on insanity and, yet, there is so little we can do about it. Again I feel compelled to write to my MP, albeit with little hope of any action – but perhaps, at least, he may start to realise the level of disgust in which many MPs are held.
My email, if anyone is interested:-
“I am one of your constituents (Name, address and post-code) and would like to urge you to read Peter Hitchens’ latest blog post ( https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2020/07/peter-hitchens-face-masks-turn-us-into-voiceless-submissives-and-its-not-science-forcing-us-to-wear-.html#comments ), entitled “Face masks turn us into voiceless submissives – and it’s not science forcing us to wear them, it’s politics”.
I am sure you must be aware of the scandalous over-counting of covid-related deaths due to PHE’s total incompetence and must also be aware that the WHO changed its advice on facemask-wearing due to political lobbying and NOT due to any science. This MUST NOT be allowed to stand – it is time for our MPs to stand up for what is right and compel Johnson and the serially-incompetent Hancock to withdraw the insane new ruling about masks after July 24th.
This government’s suicidal over-reaction to a flu-level pandemic will live in the history books as the worst mistake ever made within a supposedly democratic government. Tory MPs should be the first to force rapid pull-back from this insanity – accompanied by grovelling apologies from those who perpetrated this catastrophe on our nation. I expect you to do your duty as a representative of the demos and to start opposing further insanity.”
Stirring stuff, IanE, but unfortunately, your MP will hit the Delete key at the word ‘Peter’.
Probably!
Unfortunately ‘insanity’ and ‘over reaction’ seem less and less credible explanations of the government’s actions as time goes by.
You can understand if a single ‘crazed’ dictator of a third world country was implementing these steps and label him insane and paranoid, but we see the same policies (with minor variations) being rolled out by governments across the world, and with the same deadly results for the sick and elderly and for the most vulnerable economically.
Saw this article yesterday and though it was worth sharing:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/stockman-clown-cars-are-fully-loaded-and-dr-faucis-leading-parade
Will the ‘vaccine’ be the only way to get exemption from mask-wearing?
Zombies don’t need muzzles…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ltZ3bYMQeqs
Mark Dice: “Masks!!”
Mark Dice showing the hypocrisy of some of those promoting the wearing of masks for the public.
“Are the people there not worried for their own personal safety?!”
So they’re not wearing masks to protect the grannies!
A bit frustrated with the Unherd interview. Yes, it’s good to see uncertainty recognised and the kind of caution displayed that is noticeably absent from most of the media interviews of panic advocates, but I feel there are points they could have made more clearly and some rather unnecessary equivocation.
There was some equivocation yes but if you want 5 star clarity this article from Peter Hitchens is the one. He nails it.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8537489/PETER-HITCHENS-Face-masks-turn-voiceless-submissives.html
Medical professionals will only go so far in their comments. At all times, their allegiances are wholly to their professional class, not to the common person.
I think they are just very careful not to speak in absolutes.
Very much agree they are guarded but its fairly obvious what they think.
Yes agreed…. If you haven’t seen it here is Prof. Levitt demolishing the Ipms (Imp. College Modellers). Start from 2 hrs to hear his attack on them. Levitt’s clear description of his analysis of the data with simple conclusions begins at 28 mins and the Imps incoherent description of their model to support lockdown at 48 mins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1u_yworTco&feature=youtu.be
They are a bit cagey, but if you listen closely what they say is pretty damning with regards to the way governments and some of their colleagues have reacted.
I think the interviewer should have tried to pin them down a bit more – he let them ramble a bit. They have the tendency that I suppose many nerds do (I’m a nerd and I don’t mean to insult or demean nerds) of liking to give comprehensive answers.
I think if they had been asked to distil their thoughts into a few minutes each, the result would have been much harder hitting.
If they had been in charge of SAGE, I don’t think we’d be in the mess we’re in now.
Peter Hitchens is a political commentator so inevitably will make more political points.
The public health legislation that enables the government to lock us up is dated 1984
Spot the irony
Yes – and introduced by the last (perhaps, indeed, the last ever) Conservative Prime Minister, Maggie, who must be turning in her grave!
I am not uncritical of Mrs Thatcher but the like of her in terms of leadership qualities and an actual belief in clear political principles will not be seen again. The current Tory prime minister and whole cabinet are not fit to lick her boots.
Refreshingly old normal evening meal out in Newcastle yesterday. A warm evening, people out enjoying themselves, hardly a mask to be seen, and the city more alive than I’ve seen for a long time. The restaurant was welcoming, and apart from the hand gloop by the entrance there were no in-your-face covid hysteria measures to intrude on the experience. One person came in wearing a mask and stood at the bar area, looked uncomfortable and out of place, constantly adjusting the thing. Felt important to give some positive reinforcement when we paid the bill – I congratulated waiting staff and management for the low-key enforcement of the “guidelines”. Found myself getting pretty furious as I listed all the inhuman and detestable “safety” measures we were heartily glad were NOT there in our dining experience! We were glad to be treated as human beings again, and it felt good.
A couple of ways to make a point on this mask nonsense. An apology, if this is already well known.
Do not carry Identification. Police or other relevant persons require your name and address to issue a fine.
Police will threaten to arrest you if they cannot get this information. They can, and will do this. But I know that it’s a real pain. Many police (not all) are already fed up with paperwork, social work and domestics. A trip to custody (can be quite a way now following cuts); waiting in a queue, 2-4 hours paperwork, presenting an unamused custody sergeant with your prisoner is not something they are going to look forward to.
You would probably have to give your details in the end but not until you have wasted many hours of the state’s time. Imagine if we all were able to do this.
Clearly the above is nuclear option. A lighter option would be to withhold your information just long enough to make an officer wish he really hadn’t bothered.
A PCSO will have to hassle the police to attend and can detain you for 30 mins max. A person under 18 cannot be given a fixed penalty notice.
However depending on how I feel, I may just wear a mask but I will arrange for it to be in such a diabolically poor state that, despite complying with the regulations, will appear even less use than it already is.
Like your post. But why might you just wear a mask?
Thank you very much for the comment. I do not intend to wear a mask at all.
However, I was thinking that I do have to get food for my up and coming work shift. If I find myself confronted I will have a standby deliberately crappy waste of time mask in reserve. I might perhaps try and explain I have a medical issue but I simply don’t want to be delayed. But that, I must admit, is giving in isnt it!
A possible suggestion is ask the shop to bring items to the door. See if they are willing to take your custom or prefer that you are not a customer of their shop. Not for all occasions but it is an option.
Just explain that that have a medical issue which exempts you from wearing a face covering, if they ask for details tell them that it is none of their business and no, you don’t need a doctors note.
Would rather die
A doctor writes
No all you have to say is you have a medical condition that exempts you from wearing a mask . That is all . Nothing more.
If you feel obliged to give your condition ( you are not ) then say extreme anxiety . How do you define extreme anxiety ???
Extreme anxiety is the equivalent of ” Back pain ” written by many doctors on work certificates . It is often subjective and impossible to evidence.
Thank you. I might well consider that. Just making the point that enforcing fines may not be easy for the state if you refuse to give your details. If I can make it as difficult as possible for the state to force compliance then that is “job done”
The message is: stand up to bullies. They will crumble.
My mother told me that when I was six, and my mother was always right.
i think one of the exemptions listed in previous posts is “if the wearing of a mask will cause distress”. This is not even a medical condition. And how do you define distress… it is completely subjective. for example, I am happy to walk the world without fear of dying. For other people , getting out from behind the sofa causes them distress.
This has been making the rounds on Twitter and it does make sense:
https://www.carolinestephens.net/post/the-mask
There is actually a procedure that police should follow and if they don’t, they can land in very hot water as evidence of the CPS already having invalidated those fines that the police issued way back in April for breaking antisocial distancing guidelines.
Also there has been a lot of talk that police are not going to enforce this muzzle guideline as they are already busy with rise in domestic violence, stabbings and other crimes associated with increased drug and alcohol abuse.
Thank you
You’re welcome
Obviously that has not crossed their minds. What a maroon, I’m sorry to say.
Video of the same info by Caroline Stephens here:
https://youtu.be/mkp-_XNYLuc
Thanks for that. Just watched it.
The cops won’t do anything
You are public enemy no.1 in your are after all !.
‘in your area’ ,should say !
Will anyone be recognised in a mask…Peter Hitchens excepted!
These people are very sad….makes you weep for the future of humanity.
Sorry, can someone clarify this? I thought mask wearing was mandatory in shops i.e. law and not guideline. So if you’re breaking the law police can arrest you and that is not unlawful detention.
It’s a civil thing like trespass or parking infringement, not something for the Police to get involved in.
With trespass it does not get to court once you have ceased the act, of trespass, so presumably the same for maskless shopping.
What arseholes they are !,if your custom of 17 years means nothing to them they deserve to go under,there is a frightening atmosphere of menace and nastiness rising rapidly in this country and the outcome is going to be dire.
They sound like a master baker!
I have done it already, tied them up for five and a half hours
I also find that if you shit your pants whilst in custody they let you go
Thanks, I will carry a spare pair in future.
There’s a limit.
I also made a formal complaint of unlawful arrest and false imprisonment.
Investigating that should tie a few more of them up
Resist, refuse, say no
Non violent civil disobedience
They can’t lock us all up
yes i’m going to put holes in my mask so to breathe – use only one disposable one and purposely dirty it (red wine stains sound good) and wear it haphazardly. May write on it something like “muzzled”. Looking forward to the cowardly sheeples tut tutting behind their masks.
on the other hand i live near bristol and I don’t think they are yet mandated in wales (probably only a matter of time), so may drive across to wales to do weekly shop unmuzzled.
Don’t wear one. You don’t have to. The exemptions are clear. If you find it hard to breath, that’s all you need to say. If you find wearing one stressful. That’s all you need. No doctors note, nobody can ask you to prove anything. It’s all bullshit.
These people must be crazy, bragging about losing customers at this time when the economy is being destroyed. If they want to lose customers then they’re just accepting losing their business and livelihood.
Many of the local businesses in your area must have a death wish. I take it they don’t realise that they are actually signing their own suicide notes.
No they don’t. They will quickly change their tune once their businesses go bust and they will have to file for bankruptcy.
They usually tend to be the worst because you can bet that they have the “I’m all right Jack” mentality and don’t really care if they go bust or not. Hence why they can afford to behave like petty dictators.
I was wondering when the flagellants would pop up.
Don’t use the don’t have one excuse. Many premises will promptly provide one and you’ll have no option but to wear it. Use the medical condition – after all, masks make your blood boil!
These businesses deserve to go bust. It seems much of the private sector is as bad as the public sector these days. I wonder what Hayek and Friedman would make of these cucks?
This article from the BBC really needs to tell the complete story to be accurate. All endoscopies which are so important in detecting cancer in the stomach and bowel were suspended by the NHS on March 15 2020. They have only just resumed and the waiting lists in some areas are horrendous.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53430335
They never stopped doing endoscopies in Germany . A German colleague of mine explained that no endoscopies meant no money for the specialist . The Health system in Germany is fee for service insurance based.
Yet every Sunday they would come out of their houses to clap for the local NHS hospital which was empty and idle by government diktat.
Herd madness.
Regarding being denied access to healthcare: I’ve been trying to see a physio for an injury that occurred just before lockdown, and has got steadily worse. I have had two video appointments with the physio, but he admitted he was uncertain of the diagnosis because he couldn’t examine me. He won’t be allowed face to face appointments until the local NHS Trust gives him the go ahead. On their website they state: “Wye Valley NHS Trust provides health services to the people of Herefordshire and further afield.” But of course they’re not doing that at the moment. When I called them to ask why I can’t see the physio, I was told ‘because of Covid’. I’m going to make a formal complaint, because as we all know there is no Covid now, there’s nobody being treated for it in my local hospital and there is absolutely no reason to continue to deny healthcare to anybody.
Has anybody else tried to complain, and what was the outcome?
My midlands-based brother-in-law, in his mid-80s and otherwise healthy, had an operation in March that was initially successful but necessitated a drain and bag (painful and very restrictive of movement) for gall bladder fluids.
He was given an appointment to return 10 days later for a concluding operation and to remove the drain.
He is still waiting.
Ffs. Unbelievable.
Of course there’s Covid now Emma, and from 24th July it’s going to be doubly dangerous. The virus has recruited more troops to increase its load after a wee sabattical for R&R.. The science (which knows better than you or I) has said so, which is why we have to all wear those asinine masks, especially in consideration of others. (What do you mean me getting in a car to do unnecessary journeys is inconsiderate to others? How dare you suggest taking away my freedom to drive five miles for a pint of milk!)
Another update on a recent outing. Ventured into a town I’d not visited since this all kicked off. Very busy, noticed more mask wearers than I have any other time but just tried to ignore them as I find it makes me genuinely uneasy to see so many people wearing them + it not be a medical setting.
Decided to try one of our favourite Thai restaurants, despite the website saying they were operating on a reservation only basis. Waitress outside said we could just go in, but would need to provide some contact details. Didn’t bother me as I’ve used their online booking system before so they already had my main details anyway. Couldn’t avoid it really! Great atmosphere overall with almost all the tables in the main seating area full. Nobody frantically wiping down everything all the time, food served promptly + was delicious as always.
HOWEVER. In the town centre itself, despite it being lovely to see so many people out + about, the overwhelming amount of Covid signage was beyond stressful. My boyfriend, who has been sick of this whole situation since it first started, became visibly stressed with all of it. We don’t need to be bombarded with it like that, especially not when we’re trying to have a nice mooch around town.
But on the plus side, when entering Boots I noticed a sign asking customers to wear face coverings. When inside, I don’t think I saw a single person, staff or customer, wearing any sort of mask, shield, gloves etc. Although they’ve still got a one way system but honestly, who can really tell you to not go that way round? Who genuinely cares anymore?
Our last visit was to an independent bookshop that opened only a few months before this all started. As they’ve got a little cafe facility inside as well, the few tables/armchairs they had, both inside and outside, were taken by people having a coffee. The till/cafe area was behind a screen but didn’t feel oppressive. And here’s a strange one that I’m not sure about: they’d wrapped every single book in plastic. Every. Single. One. Okay so they’re not a big chain like Waterstones but my goodness they have a fair amount of books! I purchased two hardbacks I’d been wanting to read for a while, also helping out one of my favourite local businesses.
I don’t know who’s actually all that interested in my experiences but it’s nice to actually be able to say when I’ve left the house + done something that has some semblance of normality!
We’re all interested, because we’re all on the side of sane normality against psychopathic Fascist terror.
Keep on with the bulletins!,
Great stuff. Enjoyed reading that as it gives one the idea of what’s going on in the rest of the country.
Keep it up – you’re a good writer too!
Much appreciated! I’ve written in numerous formats over the years, including fiction, poetry + blogging, all just as hobbies though. But I’ve recently started a course to become a certified Copywriter
(Slight sidetrack there but hey, we all need some positivity in these bizarre times)
Exactly and keep up with your writing.
All the best with your copywriting course!
You and your boyf are not alone. Don’t comply with any of this insane bullshit. Don’t give your real name to track and track. You don’t have to give a name, it’s voluntary. You don’t have to verify your identity and neither does the establishment that requests it. Its perfectly acceptable to give a false name. Pay with cash.
It amazes me how every shop has to tell everyone about COVID 19 as if we had just got off a UFO. As if we have not heard it one billion times already…….yawn. I agree with your boyfriend…it makes things very tedious and stressful and really puts me off going anywhere where there are people now. Horses ,cows ,sheep (real ones!),goats etc are fine they de stress me now and its lovely to be around them. So much for dumb animals…humans are the dumbest species on earth.
Not a fully formed thought here – so your bad luck and my apologies!
I’ve been thinking about the absolute thorough bad luck of it all. What are the chances of being alive during 2020 when a Corona virus has gone so rogue to cause the traditional human ways of life to be ended. Thank god our physcopathic leaders shut our economies down, etc., etc.
Unread as I am it is hard to imagine how the Tudors, Barbarians, the Maya (hmm..?), or Ming and his dynasties survived. Throughout all of time bat soups have been bubbling away, yet only now does a Corona monster crawl forth with such certain intent and speed.
The single reason we are not all dead is Science. Thank you heros of Science, we need statues of you and you need medals. We know Science has saved us all because we are told it is so.
Before Science (BS…) these Corona viruses politely kept themselves to themselves letting others have a fair go – Cholera and Typhus, Leperosy, the odd bubonic plague* each had a go and even a pox now and then too.
How is it that Corona viruses only recently, after the development of western Science, appear on the scene? What are the chances of that?
The good reasons for why now? that I have encountered are bigger populations, air travel and hygiene. I admit I don’t fully understand the hygiene reason since soap is a relatively new fangle. However, it remains throughout all of time we only now come up against such a foe as Corona sars 2. SARS and MERS have had a few goes at us in the past 20 years, puny goes they were too. Hong kong flu in the 60s and the Spanish Flu in 1918, both influenza. All of which occured during the rise of ‘western’ Science. Thank god for science.
What are the chances? It has been announced there are an estimated (by Science) 1.5 million viruses out there waiting for us to unlock the myriad deaths within. What on earth were the Mongols/Clovis/Beaker people doing with their time – did they not ever look into caves?
We hear Science telling us now that Homo sapiens are susceptible to Corona Sars 2 because of a defect given to us by Neanderthals. We are not sure where Corona came from, or what it does, but we know it’s because of Neanderthals that we are in peril. Science just reveals so much to us, it is unbelieveable, thank you Science.
Can Science please give a percentage for the likelihood of being alive when this way-of-life-ending-circumstances befell the world? 80% chance? 50% chance? 1% chance? Less, more?
* how the heck did the black death disappear without Science? Thank god for Science.
Excellent post, but a teeny point if I may. There’s nothing modern about soap or its use. It was well known in the Middle Ages. People who could not afford soap often used soapwort (seriously, Google it if you don’t believe me) which makes soapy water when boiled.
Soap only disappeared in England after some bright spark, during Queen Anne’s reign, decided to slap a tax on it.
I did take a liberty here and there. Your teeny point is welcome, totally believe you and know the plant kingdom gives all manner of cleaning agents. Makes me wonder why whales were ever hunted. I’ll use the word hebiscrub from now.
Conclusive proof – Masks do not inhibit viral spread
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/07/19/are-face-masks-effective.aspx
Conclusive proof does not match the policy being used for COVID-19. What you need to do is find very flimsy proof, submit that, and then the next day it will be official policy and written into law!
The observational evidence for mask usage is conclusive as long as we ignore countries that didn’t use masks.
Similarly lockdowns have definitely saved lives as long as we ignore countries that didn’t impose them.
The evidence is clear if we simply ignore any observations to the contrary.
Might actually send this into Viz for their Readers Letters tips.
We should invite the cartoon characters from Viz to form the next government. They couldn’t do a worse job than the muppets we have right now!
There is however a BIG advantage to masks for retailers with a lot of mask products to shift!
It’s a “cover up” !! That’s what i’m going to write on my ‘mask’ next week!
Why Masks Are Used During Surgery
“Many firmly believe wearing a mask in public will protect themselves and/or others, and one of the reasons for this is because they appear to work in some circumstances, such as operating rooms. If they don’t work, why do surgical staff and many health care workers use them on a regular basis?
The reason surgical masks are worn in the operating room is to prevent spittle from accidentally falling into an open wound, which could lead to infection. Surgical masks have been shown to be important in that respect.
Preventing microbes and bacteria from falling into an open wound is very different from preventing the spread of viral particles, however. Not only are viruses much smaller than bacteria and many other microbes found in saliva, they are, again, airborne. They’re aerosolized and part of the fluid air. Therefore, if air can penetrate the mask, these aerosol particles can also get through.”
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/07/19/are-face-masks-effective.aspx
Apart from anything else, it has to be over 60% alcohol content to work (our local gin distillery has been making it for NHS workers – yum!)
If it’s for your shop, why don’t you put some food dye diluted in water in a pretty spray bottle and say you got it from a zero waste shop?
There is a danger from hand sanitizers which has been overlooked. We had a notice in work with an account someone had placed his hand near a heater before the sanitiser dried and he was burnt. As sanitizers are high in alcohol, they can burn if you place your hand by a heat source before the sanitiser dries.
Someone online (can’t remember where) suggested that if a shop insists that you use their hand sanitiser and refuse to let you in, you can demand to see the list of ingredients.
Many of the cheap ones could contain methyl alcohol which is dangerous and toxic.
At one of the places I work for, they have to provide alcohol free wipes for cleaning the keyboards and laptops, so that Muslim staff members can use them.
Yeah we’ve been provided with those as well not because for religious reasons but one colleague is asthmatic and its also for conservation reasons. I work in a museum and the curators and conservators are worried that alcohol based sanitisers and sprays could cause damage to the displays.
Always insist to read the label and check the ingredients for any product that you have to put on or in your body or are are exposed to such as air fresheners.
For instance people with eczema and psoriasis should never use products that contain Sodium Laureth Sulphate and its close relative Sodium Lauryl Sulphate commonly used in many in many soaps, shampoos, detergents, toothpastes and other products that we expect to ‘foam up’.
I have sensitive skin that’s why I’m wary about using hand sanitisers and hence why I’m picky with the make up and skin care products I use.
Thankfully at work we are not mandated to wear the disposable gloves because latex does not agree with my skin and I’m a bit dubious about vinyl as well.
Just ask to see their COSHH risk assessment. That soon stops them in their tracks. Premises have to have COSHH assessments for any product their staff or customers use which contains chemicals.
That’s a good reminder. Thanks.
kh1485, sorry can’t find the exact details I posted before. Hopefully this will help:
“You may ask why soap is so effective against COVID-19. The answer lies in its chemical structure. Viruses are protected by a two-layered row of tadpole-shaped molecules of fat, protein, and water. Soap molecules also have the same structure, and soap leads to a chemical reaction, dissolves this layer of protection, and deactivates the virus.
While alcohol-based hand sanitizers with 60% or more alcohol are also effective for preventing the spread of COVID-19, they are not the best news for your skin’s microbiome. Your body and immune system rely on the diversity of microorganisms inside and outside your body, including those on your skin.
Using hand sanitizers can kill some of this diversity and be counterproductive for immune health.
Many conventional hand-sanitizers also contain endocrine-disruptive compounds (EDCs), including parabens, phthalates, fragrances, triclosan, and benzalkonium chloride. Overusing hand sanitizers can also increase your risk of developing resistance to these products and increasing your risk of infection.
Conventional soaps also include toxic chemicals, so it is important that you use non-toxic, natural soaps.”
https://drjockers.com/covid-19-prevention-steps-and-medical-treatments/
Why don’t you put a bottle of “Santizer” on your counter or whatever AND JUST FILL IT WITH WATER most of the idiots who use it probably won’t notice.
From the Telegraph article reference by BecJT below:
“But the animal charity Dog Trust has said the addition of face masks could make our canine pets feel “confused” and “concerned” as they can’t read human facial expressions.
Dogs use facial expressions to tell how humans are feeling, so if face masks become part of their owner’s everyday lives and suddenly people’s faces are covered, dogs can’t see or potentially even hear clearly when spoken to, the charity warned.”
All of the above is applicable to humans too – we are, in the end, just animals. We use facial expressions to tell how humans are feeling, and lip-read to hear. Masks certainly make me feel confused and concerned. Poor old dogs, they need help and reassurance – but any humans that are struggling are granny-murdering idiots and should be shouted at and humiliated, rather than given sympathy…
Really interesting point. Thanks for posting it.
Yes, we are animals. Except for the zombies and their controllers, who are lower than bacteria, or even viruses, on my list.
Someone ought to tell Bloris that his bellicose language is inappropriate!
Boris Johnson has insisted he can avoid imposing another England-wide lockdown this winter, describing it as a “nuclear deterrent” that he hopes never to use.
Despite chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance saying “national measures” might be necessary if there were fresh waves of the virus in the coming months, the prime minister said he “certainly” did not want to have to order the public to “stay at home” again.
“I can’t abandon that tool any more than I would abandon a nuclear deterrent. But it is like a nuclear deterrent, I certainly don’t want to use it. And nor do I think we will be in that position again,” he told the Sunday Telegraph.
A nuclear deterrent is a psychological disincentive. You can’t psychologically disincentivise a virus, so who is his nuclear deterrent aimed at?
Do you really expect Billy Bunter to think of anything except where his next shag is coming from?
If you don’t listen too closely he sounds intelligent when he speaks. He’s certainly fluent. But what comes out is increasingly gibberish.
Us.
And will be ignored if ever used again.
To use a nuclear analogy, we’ve used a nuclear bomb to destroy a few tanks that made it onto UK land and the fallout on the economy and NHS not dealing with other conditions could last for decades. We can’t afford to do it again for many years, so gawd help us if there’s a really serious pandemic in the near future.
Wish I could go to the “Keep Britain Free” event in Hyde Park today. Unfortunately it’s a bit difficult getting there today, having two young children. Perhaps there will be more events.
Hope some of the talks make it on to YouTube!
Sky news are going to be there, interviewing speakers, etc, apparently.
I emailed the BBC to remind them they might want to cover it, in case they had missed the announcement. I’m glad I don’t personally know anyone who works for the BBC, because though I am not a violent person I would be very tempted to try and settle our differences in the car park.
The BBC no longer have the journalistic capacity for news reporting. I’ve been told a lot of their content comes from social media.
They are probably not overly interested in the actual news, unless it’s news that furthers their agenda.
I was a bit shocked when they falsely attributed a quote to Darren Grimes, which they later said they had read in Pink News.
Used to be a world class news organisation.
Oh LORDY do I hate the BBC
Indeed. I recently copied an exchange on twitter between a BBC journalist and one of the only tweets that supported face masks asking her if he could quote her.
Always seem to find enough bodies for Glastonbury every year.
I’ve got first dibs on slack jawed flappy eared Marr
I dont think I could bear to watch the BBC coverage. The only think I will read of it will be any first hand accounts, and the only things I will watch of it will be original footage.
Once I had a date with a very nice person who disclosed they had friends who were BBC employees. Not being wise, my automatic reply was an unwitty, “ooh the enemy!” There wasn’t a second date after that.
Lucky escape!
I’ve cut off contact with a few lockdown supporters, but still need to talk to colleagues
I socialise as little as possible now, other than with known sceptics
Ha ha you missed a bullet there….what a crap life it would have been with them.
If BBC do cover it . it will be portrayed as a right wing march looking for a violent encounter (as opposed to those nice BLM people that the BBC like)
Surely ‘far right’ at least……and definitely not ‘mostly peaceful’.
I will not wear a mask. We still need a clear explanation as to why we need one. This is a world wide social control experiment by the (evil) globalists. No one should comply, its a slippery slope to dystopia
Sorry, this is obviously completely off topic! It’s just come up in my Twitter feed that today is legendary rock guitarist Brian May’s birthday. As a tribute I think that at 8pm tonight, particularly if you are in Scotland, everyone should play their favourite Queen song that he wrote as loud as possible.
“Who wants to live forever” it is then.
Or “I want to break free”
For wee Jimmy Crankie it should be “fat bottomed girls”
I only liked the early stuff…now thats an original comment!
On a more serious note I posted this the other day but I think it got lost as my account was still waiting to be verified. This is a proper academic study of covid deaths versus other deaths which comes to a not unsurprising conclusion. https://wintoncentre.maths.cam.ac.uk/coronavirus/covid-19-resources-make-sense-numbers-test/how-have-covid-19-fatalities-compared-other-causes-death/
The problem is that ‘Covid’ deaths are a fictional number/finger in the air job – so the comparisons can’t be made, no matter what the conclusion. The exercise becomes pointless
I’ve noticed that all the Government guidance only refers to “Face Coverings” rather than “Face Masks”
I’ve read Section 8 here about Face Covering: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/staying-safe-outside-your-home/staying-safe-outside-your-home#face-coverings
Their does not seem to be any official definition as to what the Face Covering needs to be, what standards it needs to meet, etc.
Therefore, doesn’t this mean that make up, moisturiser, oil, sun cream, chocolate spread, etc is classed as a Face Covering, as you have applied something that has covered you face?
Also, there does not seems to be a percentage defined for the face cover or what area of the face should be covered, so I could just pop a spot plaster on my face or wear a Zorro mask on my eyes.
Does anyone know if there is a more specific definition that means a surgical type of face mask is required which people think they should be wearing?
I’ve found the legislation that says “A face covering is a covering of any type which covers your nose and mouth.”
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/592/regulation/2/made
There is no mention of it needing to be a fabric mask, so if I put Zinc cream on my nose and lips, then I’m covered aren’t I?
If only I could grow a really bushy beard…
You’d have grow it on your nose too though, which would be a bit odd!
No – just comb it upwards!
lol!
my nose hair just gets more vigorous every day as I get older. With no attention I could probably weave it into some kind of nose covering in the next few days.
I think my hair production has re-located from my head to the rest of me these days.
yes – annoying when it goes for the ears, and the front of the nose.. then finally you get those tufts on the top of the cheeks I weave mine into merkins to sell on ebay
I’ve seen some spectacular nose hairs in my time. But not on my own classic hooter, unfortunately.
Might make up as a bearded lady, though…
My face covering is a motorcycle helmet
Also the dictionary definition of “wear” from Merriam Webster is:
Definition of wear
transitive verb
1
: to bear or have on the person
2
a
: to use habitually for clothing, adornment, or assistance
Nothing says it has to be worn as per manufacturer’s recommendations etc or used as it’s description states.
Soa s long a you have it on your person you are “wearing” it.
I had a thought.
I see many comments about us being in a minority, but I’m not sure that those of us on this site are totally representative of the population. Much like the governments own statistics…Check the holidays in Magaluf that made the press recently, anyone been there recently who’s on here? There’s more of us than you think.
But, the mask shopping and zealots issue is a potential issue. The legality of any fines is totally questionable and unenforcable. But the horrid screams of a zealot are likely to cause anxiety in anyone. So, whilst we may not be outnumbered we can tip the balance in certain situations in our favour.
I propose group shopping across the country. We don’t need to be large in number to even up the masks v non-masks in many situations. An informal car park meeting of the (insert absurd name here) anxiety support group to help with difficult times when shopping. I would happily defend someone suffering a verbal attack. But you’re unlikely to get too much trouble in in a small group of maybe five people. And the social side might be a side benefit as critical thinkers unite, with trolleys.
Divide and conquer is a phrase I hear used time and time again recently, so why not side step them and get ourselvs into a visible group. Strength in, even limited, numbers.
We might need a section of the site to organise these, just a page to get together group food shopping.
What does everyone think?
P.S, Many thanks Toby, and happy holidays :>)
https://twitter.com/LearnLeapLean/status/1284591459694522369/photo/2
This is total deaths per 100 000 October through June all causes 13t July 2020 from Sweden,1989 -2020. This is serious reliable data. Sweden death statistics started in the 18th Century and since 19th Century one of the most reliable in the world. This period covers March-June 2020 of the Covid-19 outbreak where 90-95 % of all Covid-19 deaths as the pandemic is dying down rapidly in Sweden.
Quoting the twitter below
“Please, everyone—listen up! I have an announcement to make. Make your own opinion about the total mortality rate this mild or severe flu season. After, you may be free from the agenda of the tyrants”
Thanks for this. ALL – This is one to save. I think it’s the single most powerful thing I have yet seen that shows what nonsense this all is.
Do you know what the “as at” date is for the England and Wales graph?
Because of the very low incidence of deaths of Covid, Why are they insisting on masks, why are the scientists advising this. Only thing I can think of is that the money flowing into the pharma industry, its too lucrative to let the chance go and masks ramp up the anti and also low resistance and the possible need for this
A lot of it is arse-covering – those who shut the world down would be exposed as blunderers if everything went back to normal and the sky didn’t fall in.
It also serves many agendas as a fearful populace are much easier to control.
Just been to Morrisons -about 5% wearing face nappies. Relaxed atmosphere -you would almost have throught back to normal. Fast forward a week and it will be a miserable atmosphere -and for what ? How are things going to worse in a weeks time such that muzzling is necessary?
“Because of the very low incidence of deaths of Covid, Why ….? etc.”
There are a number of possible answers – all or some of which may be true.
But the one thing that you can be certain of, analysing the evidence, is that one reason can be ruled out – i.e. the severity or exceptionality of the disease. Note Carl Henighan’s outline of the difference between a pandemic and a seasonal infection. Note also the low current incidence of the virus and death from it.
Major *health* issue it isn’t, and wasn’t. Which leaves only other explanations in the field of runners …..
I agree. the government has said with no parliamentary scrutiny that masks it will be, and I’ve said No. Quite clear as far as I’m concerned.
see my full article above:
The establishment desperately wants to convince us to wear masks because personally wearing a mask, psychologically cements in the person this idea that we live in a world where there are dangerous viral pathogens that cause respiratory diseases that are extraordinary. And that the only way you can be protected is that the state is going control your life and is going to give you vaccines.
— Denis Rancourt, Ph.D. —
https://mercola.fileburst.com/PDF/ExpertInterviewTranscripts/Interview-DenisRancourt-CanFaceMasksProtectYouFromAerosolParticles.pdf
I had a thought.
I see many comments about us being in a minority, but I’m not sure that those of us on this site are totally representative of the population. Much like the governments own statistics…Check the holidays in Magaluf that made the press recently, anyone been there recently who’s on here? There’s more of us than you think.
But, the mask shopping and zealots issue is a potential issue. The legality of any fines is totally questionable and unenforcable. But the horrid screams of a zealot are likely to cause anxiety in anyone. So, whilst we may not be outnumbered we can tip the balance in certain situations in our favour.
I propose group shopping across the country. We don’t need to be large in number to even up the masks v non-masks in many situations. An informal car park meeting of the (insert absurd name here) anxiety support group to help with difficult times when shopping. I would happily defend someone suffering a verbal attack. But you’re unlikely to get too much trouble in in a small group of maybe five people. And the social side might be a side benefit as critical thinkers unite, with trolleys.
Divide and conquer is a phrase I hear used time and time again recently, so why not side step them and get ourselvs into a visible group. Strength in, even limited, numbers.
We might need a section of the site to organise these, just a page to get together group food shopping.
What does everyone think?
P.S, Many thanks Toby, and happy holidays :>)
Banksy has come out in favour of masks, with the slogan, “If you don’t mask – you don’t get”.
This following his nonsense about the Colston statue (in the same story, below).
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/jul/14/banksy-creates-mask-themed-work-on-london-underground
What yhe Anti-Establishment Banksy, who is the most Pro-Establishment figure ever.
And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
The man who vandalises TFL property and isn’t charged?
A thought that struck me about the video of the “cleaner” who it is alleged is Banksy, telling other people to leave that area of the train. What if a terrorist wanted to plant a device in a tube train – they could do similar by dressing as a cleaner and order everyone out of that part of the train to work unhindered.
Why does the DHSC need these and help from consultants to procure them:
“CPI requires support with management of the UK supply chain manufacture of 40 million self-amplifying RNA Vaccine doses.”
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/c9cc2c89-d102-47d4-93d6-cf95880ec1b5?origin=SearchResults&p=1
They are going all out for that RNA type vaccine then.
The interview(s) with Carl Heneghan are really worth a list.
The CEBM group has consistently provided good information, and Heneghan has always been measured in his utterances – as an academic should be. This is in marked contrast to the several time-servers who go overboard to lick the arse of government.
But cut through the balanced, properly measured tone, and you have a devastating indictment of the mythology and dishonesty of the Covid-19 narrative.
The summary points taken from the interview (above) are key for anyone who is a sceptic.
The masks fiasco proves the government have no intention of going back to normal. We are bumping along at the bottom of the curve and have been shopping in supermarkets and corner shops for weeks without wearing masks.
And now the government wants us all to wear masks. Feeble excuses such as preventing a “2nd wave” are just that – feeble excuses. There is no evidence for a 2nd wave. Ratcheting up the control just because “something might happen if we don’t” is totally unreasonable.
The virus will always be out there, even if the odds of contracting it, yet alone dying from it, are vanishingly small.
Now is the time to refuse to wear masks in shops. If we clog up the courts, the government will have to back down. If we simply go along with it, the government will come up with an even more draconian rule – e.g. wearing masks outside.
The government wants to keep the fear going until there is a vaccine, then make that mandatory. But who will want to take the vaccine when the virus has gone?
They can’t even define what a second wave is. Any increase in the infection numbers is a second wave. How can laws be imposed with no clearly defined parameters, which means there are no parameters for removing them and why are people just accepting it?
There are already articles in the newspapers touting the annual flu vaccine stating that it will protect people and link it to covid ‘protection’.
Absolute nonsense. There is a research piece that found people who had the flu virus is more susceptible to contracting Covid (link in one of the previous LS article comments)
I find myself asking WHY, all of the time. Why are they pushing a vaccine in this way? Is it the money/grants?
Follow the money. It will be extremely lucrative to have all vaccine mandatory
Who makes the tree-ply face nappies, btw?
Control is as big an incentive as money. They can take my money(I won’t give it tothem) but I’ll die to defend my freedom.
Why are you taking these tablets?
…To keep elephants out of the garden.
But there aren’t any elephants in the garden
… that’s the proof that they work!
They’ll tell us that unless we have the vaccine, they won’t be able to lift the restrictions, i.e. make out that it’s up to us.
Wearing masks outside will be next .Probably by the end of the summer. They’re not going to stop. It is about enslavement after all.
Yes, I think the shops issue is where we need to make a stand. Otherwise the next battle will be against mandatory masks everywhere outside the house.
Yesterday at the coast, it was busy. Groups of people all over, cafe’s, bars full. Not a mask in sight anywhere and I was observing. Cant see things changing. Maybe its the cities where people are complying. The small supermarket I go to has a few signs up about distancing but that is all. The propaganda from the globalist media is the reason anyone wears a mask and goes along with this, no one knows anyone who has actually died of covid. I’m done with it, won’t wear a mask and if they don’t want my custom anywhere so be it.
That’s the spirit!
Yeah, not many masks round my way, people relaxed, not too bothered about distancing. Expect many will comply with masks though as they are too lazy/busy with other things/law-abiding by default to question.
Cheers!
Yeah, same here. I live by the beach and watched the press reports since late April, taken with telephoto lenses, awaiting Armageddon..nothing.
Unfortunately the only masks I’ve seen on the beach, have been floating in the water!
What we are experiencing is an extreme case of Survivorship Bias, my emphasis below.
Survivorship bias or survival bias is the logical error of concentrating on the people or things that made it past some selection process and overlooking those that did not, typically because of their lack of visibility. This can lead to false conclusions in several different ways. It is a form of selection bias.
Survivorship bias can lead to overly optimistic beliefs because failures are ignored, such as when companies that no longer exist are excluded from analyses of financial performance. It can also lead to the false belief that the successes in a group have some special property, rather than just coincidence (correlation proves causality).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias
Countries that have ended up with low death count are assumed to have done well regardless of whether or not their specific actions had any effect on the result.
US has tested more people for the coronavirus this weekend, then it did for the flu all of last year.
Last 2 days of testing for Covid-19 reported in the United States (Fri., July 17 and Sat., July 18) 1,613,519 tests (source: Covid Tracking Project) Nov.-Apr. 2019-20 flu season 1,531,570 tests (source: CDC Fluview public health and clinical lab testing).
Why are people tested? Symptoms? This is very unclear .There is mass screening required by employers, repeated testing, screening of all admissions to hospitals etc.
(Btw Florida just reported 16% seroprevalence antibodies soon reaching New York City/Stockholm 20% i.e. herdimmunity)
https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/news/articles/2020-07-18/florida-s-desantis-says-virus-antibody-tests-show-16-positive
From that antibody study it seems IFR in Florida would be about 0.145% (with the 5000 deaths they have so far).
“Why does the establishment want us to wear masks?”
“I’ve come to the conclusion, the following conclusion.
The establishment desperately wants to convince us to wear masks because personally wearing a mask, psychologically cements in the person this idea that we live in a world where there are dangerous viral pathogens that cause respiratory diseases that are extraordinary. And that the only way you can be protected is that the state is going control your life and is going to give you vaccines.
So this is the thing. It’s fear-based. It’s a frenzy, it’s like a call to war, and it’s irrational. And it’s intended to foment a kind of nationalism like you would in going to a war that is unreasonable and that is done for other reasons than the ones that are claimed by the government. So it’s like a call to war where you’re fomenting this nationalism, but the nationalism in this case is a belief that you live in this extraordinarily dangerous environment all of a sudden, which is untrue.
Well, I don’t get to sit in the board rooms. I don’t get to be in the Zoom discussions where the elite financiers say how they’re going to direct their think tanks to say what and to do what.
But it’s clear that top influencers that also control our economy have a lot of leverage. And it’s clear that they think about how to keep control and have greater control over – they’re very concerned about middle class and professional class people in the Western nations because their power depends on these people being compliant and agreeing with their schemes.
So there’s a lot of propaganda, there’s a lot of institutional design and control to keep people in line and to keep them managing the global system that these global financiers live off of.”
— Denis Rancourt, Ph.D. —
— former full professor of physics, is a researcher with the Ontario Civil Liberties Association in Canada —
https://mercola.fileburst.com/PDF/ExpertInterviewTranscripts/Interview-DenisRancourt-CanFaceMasksProtectYouFromAerosolParticles.pdf
if it’s a call to war which i think you’re right, then i’m going to be a conscientious objector! Or at least a ‘bloody difficult woman’!
Bloody difficult.
Speaking as a middle class professional, living in a western country, they can sod off and I’m not wearing a mask, even if they throw me in prison for it.
Anyone remember Heaven 17 track “We don’t need this fascist groove thang” (not spelling mistake). Bit different context but fun to listen to all the same
Here’s link to track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWs1-2foKoo
Thanks for the link – Glenn Gregory’s got even less hair than Phil Oakey! Saw The Human League a couple of years ago – Wow. If only I could go back to those days!
Afternoon folks, I’m formulating a letter to the chief executive of Marks and Spencer, Steve Rowe. A couple of questions – any ideas as to best postal address? And am I correct in thinking he has warned of the detrimental effect on trade of enforced muzzling?
I think it was the chairman, Archie Norman – former CEO of ASDA and Tory MP too!
Thanks for that. Archie it is, then! Oddly, Google is not bringing up his comments re: masks. It’s as if the algorithms were designed to exclude dissenting voices…
Look up the registered office address on companies house.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/search/companies
I’ve just searched and the registered address is not HQ. I’ve been to HQ and I’m wracking my brains to try to remember where it is. West of London somewhere.
If you had started out to plan this whole thing in advance, how long would it take to organise? Five years? It would be interesting to read the (real) Davos minutes for around then.
I’m not convinced it was organised and at this stage don’t think it matters too much – either way it’s all wrong. But certainly the speed with which various forces for evil have seized the opportunity is impressive.
I don’t think the lab leak was deliberate, but I do think there were plans laid ready to spring into action. How else do we account for the concerted actions taken around the world?
The reason I think the virus release was accidental is this: why would the Chinese destroy their own economy and become a pariah state? Also, if the release had been deliberate – in other words a bio-weapon – they would have had the vaccine ready. Back before the lockdown and before anyone knew what was going on, the Still Report (youtube) suggested that the Chinese had an antidote which they intended to use as leverage. I have not been able to find the video since, so assume it has been removed. For the nervous, Bill Still is a proper journalist not a crazy.
Well, I don’t believe any of it, but I will point out that 1) China shut down a single (admittedly very large) city among many many enormous cities, 2) China was virtually back to normal by the time we in the west were beginning to collapse our economies, and there’s such a thing as “first mover advantage” and 3) China clearly couldn’t care less about being a pariah state.
China, and Russia, are the biggest strategic beneficiaries or our ruinous lockdowns.
I don’t know where the virus originated and if it was planted why, but it is very clear to me that they grasped early on what an opportunity this presented and how to make the most of it, luring us into making those catastrophic responses.
Now, Nordstream2 will be built, sanctions will probably soon be lifted and trade talks become less confrontational out of necessity, the US has no more money to dabble in the South China Sea, and it and the West has no more money for 2% of GDP defense spending, Trident renewals, new tactical nukes or any Star Wars crap.
On top of that, their totalitarian systems, censorships and media propaganda are now legitimized in light of our similar recent and current actions.
You shouldn’t be so fastidious about conspiracy theories!
Maybe. But I am.
It was organised 10 years ago.
Read the pandemic scenario and the hack attack one.
https://www.nommeraadio.ee/meedia/pdf/RRS/Rockefeller%20Foundation.pdf
It’s a blueprint for this Plandemic.
https://twitter.com/Brixton_Ben26/status/1284046704984104961/photo/1
Did you know that? Not a single patient below 65 died in England of Covid-19 in England,can’t be true? Or so few that they don’t bother with age specific mortality rates?
Comment from the twitter
“Where are all the deaths of Under 65s? Surely there were some in June. Why else would we stop millions from working and only open schools for a few year groups?”
Another cracker!
Isn’t mandatory face mask wearing just bigotry against rational people?
It’s just one more attempt to get the silent majority in the country to react. We are constantly being poked at the mo.
Congratulation to our host on this brilliant (and richly deserved) gig, very jealous. Who can forget Emma amd Greg fleeing, at the first signs of the plague, back to Scotland (having sworn weeks earlier never to return); talk about frying pan to fire. My advice to our host is to stay away from the “Fragole fresche!” (and gazing fondly at beautiful youth of course).
“Truth and clarity about what history will record as the 2020 COVID coup is the necessary condition for the American people to overcome its effects. Overcoming those effects must begin with discrediting these pretensions and the reputations of those who made them.” – The Covid Coup, Angelo Codevilla.
Truth and clarity is what is required in the UK also. The public will not recover its equilibrium until it sees the pretensions of the establishment for what they are: lies. Boris has now missed his window of opportunity for telling the truth – he should have admitted his mistake around week 4 of lockdown; it is now too late. Since he cannot speak the truth nor not speak the truth, he should resign.
I thoroughly recommend this rather long article. It gives the whole rationale for the corona debacle, and for those who dislike American politics, you will find that events there and here are disturbingly similar.
‘All I maintain is that on this earth there are pestilences and there are victims and it’s up to us, so far as possible, not to join forces with the pestilences.’
Camus.
The pestilence is the Fascist fiends, needless to say, not the literal pestilence. So in Camus’ day, so in ours.
Also this in ‘The Rebel’. “Even lip service paid to faith will not suffice; it must be lived and acted in order to be served properly and the citizen must always be on the alert to consent in time to the changes in dogma.” Not quite there yet, of course, but further along the path to totalitarianism than we should be.
I thought that Boris could have said they made a mistake apologised and climed down after the first few weeks of lockdown. Yep, too late now. The lying evil bastard.
Johnson is at least as slippery as any other politician. Why would he admit a cock-up on this scale?!
If he had admitted his error in time, it might have saved his skin. It’s too late now. I think the drip drip drip of revelations will destroy him.
Problem was he got the virus. That made them panic even more and left the country leaderless at the crucial moment, then they dithered and did nothing even when faced with increasing evidence as to the harm the lockdown had done.
He needn’t have admitted anything if he’d just removed the lockdown at week 4.
Proves there’s something else behind all the foot-dragging.
True.most people would have given him a pass and the economy would have just rebounded.The facts were known by then and the NHS had spare capacity.No excuse and no good reason 17 weeks later.
An update
Been out for the first time today since lockdown (not counting the time I was lifted by the covid police)
Outside my flats there were five or six covid corpses in the gutter. Both male and female, aged between 20 and 30 years of age, looked like they had just fallen asleep
Walked to the newsagent to pick up a newspaper, a distance of about a mile, lost count of the number of bodies once I got to 80
The woman at the front of the queue at the newsagents, dropped dead then and there from covid. The newsagent threw her body out in the street.
When I remonstrated with him he told that was the third this week and “people should be more bloody considerate” He said Shipmans who had the local contract would be along shortly to cart her off to be burnt (Don’t know them must be a new company).
Looked angry as he said he was stopping credit as she still owed him 20 quid for last weeks papers
Picked up paper, headline read “Ferguson vindicated”
Don’t know who Ferguson is but he’s gone to Germany for some reason
Wonderfully Black Humour.
Nearly ended myself laughing.
Thanks
Genius. Thank you
Certainly made me laugh which is a rare feat as I normally only laugh at my own jokes.
Dead funny.
Actually Ferguson had turned necrophiliac and had his pick of the corpses. He was ok as he considered himself immune.
The Guardian will pay you for this.
use this address and telephone details for contacts for track and trace:
1 Park Farm Cottage
Park Farm Business Centre
Fornham Park
Fornham St Genevieve
Bury St Edmunds
IP28 6TS
020 219 7186
It’s handjob’s constituency office.
Brill!!
I can see a potential National Security issue with all these hand santiser points in public places. They could easily be exploited by either replacing the hand sanitiser, or injecting into the sanitiser a nerve agent such as Novichok. Just think of how people would be affected from using the sanitiser at a public toilet in a city center or at a major event, where these containers are just filled, and then left there with no supervision.
good point, when would ever in another time use something thrust at you in a shop
A more everyday issue with them in my opinion, is that they become a common point of contact, touched by everyone who uses them. Even assuming that sanitiser is 100% effective, unless you sanitise thoroughly after using them, which most people don’t (they just do a quick rub around) I think they’re more likely to spread viruses around, not less!
agree – most of them have to push the top lever – so everyone pushes this and is in contact – sounds a perfect way to spread some nasties around.
I remember seeing people queuing to use the hand sanitiser at a B and M store a couple of months ago. They seemed to be totally unaware that the table on which it was placed was absolutely filthy and the bin for paper towels was overflowing with detritus. I avoided it like the plague!
Don’t tempt me.
I just pointed out to a you g waiter that the anti- bacterial muck he was touting was useless against Coronavirus because it was a virus. He seemed very surprised.
Why are people who are afraid of a virus using antibacterials to protect themselves?
That is the funniest part, antibacterials will not kill viruses only bacteria.
Because if they read Young Vogue it tells the virus is ‘germs ‘.
That cartoon from the Telegraph made me laugh and Toby, many thanks for all you’re doing and hope you’re enjoying your holiday.
On a side note, has anyone here seen and remember that clip that Sadiq Khan put up on the Mayor of London’s twitter page about the wearing of muzzles? If he seriously thinks it will make Londoners go out more, he’s seriously mistaken.
Last Friday I went back to the City of London to see if anything had changed since I was last there before the mandatory muzzling on public transport. While there was certainly a bit more traffic, the buses were still dead and so was the tube, at one point I was the only person in the carriage on the way to the City.
The vast majority of offices were still shut and while a few cafes and pubs were open, they were virtually devoid of customers. The area around Monument was deserted as is St Paul’s which was eerie because they would be normally teeming with tourists and people going about their business.
As for shops? Leadenhall Market and One New Change had a few shops that were open but their dystopian rules would put me off (and I have been boycotting them anyway) and looks like everyone else had the same idea as there was virtually no customers coming in and having a browse.
If its already bad now then imagine how it will be come 24 July when mandatory muzzling in shops start. They might just as well close.
Sadiq Khan has been useless. He’s done bugger all to tackle knife crime and gang violence and now he’s aiding and abetting the destruction of London. He really has got to go.
I thought Sadiq Khan was a weasel before he got anywhere near being Mayor – my opinion hasn’t changed since he’s been Mayor. He’s incompetent.
DavidC
There was always something slimy and shifty about him that’s true and the more he opens his gob the more you notice it.
Even Johnson wasn’t so vain as to insist that every poster had his name on it.
“Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan”
Piss off.
I’ve worked in the square mile for 20 years, except for 4 years in the 00s when I lived in Frankfurt (I’m not in finance).
I really cannot think of a scenario – and I’ve been trying – where the City doesn’t become completely irrelevant forever. I don’t mean the City as a shorthand for financial services, I mean the City geographically. Millions of square feet of office space in a world where employers in the services sectors have realised they need only a small percentage of their workforce to be on the office, ever. Most of that office space in buildings at least 8 stories and often 20 stories+ high, in a world of social distancing, where it would take you all day to fill a space made for 7,000 with 4 lifts. Sandwich shops, bars, pubs, coffee shops, restaurants, shops all designed to be places people go in their lunch break or with their colleagues after work, in. World where nobody is going to be there anyway and anyway, they’re too small to get any kind of decent throughput even at 1m.
I have no part in any decisions about real estate, but if I did, why would I renew any lease at all, when I think I need at most half of my employees to be in the office regularly? I certainly wouldn’t be renewing a lease on the 20th floor of the gherkin.
What happens to the City then? My wife suggests the building will become mixed use/residential – but if I don’t have to go to work in the City, why would I want to live in the City? And certainly, why would I even consider paying rent that’s even a meaningful fraction of what a commercial landlord would have expected a few months ago.
It makes me feel sad, but I really can’t see a way that the City of London doesn’t become an empty museum piece. People can do tours of the empty streets “this used to be an office. Can you imagine – people used to think it was a good idea to have thousands of people all working in the same building. This one was once twice as tall as it is now, before it collapsed through lack of maintenance. Try to picture it in your minds.”
That’s the agenda, turning these offices into residential buildings, a smart city. It’s sustainable and very low in CO2.
++good
So, never mind Bloris’ brownsite build, build, build housing plan. Convert the office spaces!
I’ve already written to my councillors and pointed out that they might as well start converting the buildings in the town centre into homeless shelters because businesses won’t be able to pay rent.
I don’t think I’m making myself very clear. You could probably house the homeless population of London in maybe 2 of the soon-to-be-vacant towers in the City. Even taking into account the economic apocalypse heading our way. So great, you have a way to use some of the vacant real estate.
But the knock on effects are mind boggling. The City was amazingly vibrant last year (and always has been) – people crammed together and spending money in big businesses and small businesses in a tiny area, eating, drinking, shopping. The economic impact of that stopping forever is… well, on its own, it’s catastrophic. I couldn’t even guess how many hundreds of millions were talking about in terms of GDP.
You make a very good point. I can’t imagine that destroying the City as a location for the long term was an intended goal for the “Conservative” hierarchy – just another unintended consequence of their cowardice and moral degeneracy.
When will some of the fantastically rich people who have lost and will lose literal fortunes as a result of this panic start to put some real effort into payback?
The Conservative Heirachy AREN’T IN CONTROL, the banks are.
I was making this point with family the other day. The city isn’t just the big corps and their glass temples, it’s thousands of independent businesses that service and make up the local economy. If the offices aren’t reoccupied very quickly, it will become a ghost town and an even bigger economic disaster. I normally try and see the positive side to most situations, but like you, I can’t see any way this will end well.
Also the West End and theatre land, are vital for a huge part of the London economy. If this sector is unable to bounce back quickly, it’s really not a great prospect. The fact that so many people haven’t been able to see that the economy, is peoples lives, has been the most infuriating part about this ordeal.
I work in London,or I did and what most people don’t realise is that very few people live in the area bounded by the congestion zone.The life blood of the city is commuters, tourists and visitors.There is a whole economy dedicated to the movement of people throughout the city.Take away the movement you destroy the economy.A few more weeks of this there will be nothing left in the centre of London.
Exactly. London is being destroyed and if antisocial distancing isn’t lifted that will be the final nail in the coffin of this city.
Well said. The City has lived through loads of disasters throughout history – war, plague, fire, violence, recession and every time it has risen from the ashes like a phoenix. It remains to be seen if it does recover from this or if this will finish them off.
HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY TO A BUDDING TIN-POT DICTATOR!
Very insightful interview with sturgeon today on her 50th birthday and her clear power grab under the “virus crisis”.
I QUOTE, she found the covid crisis “liberating” from her usual role and “I have tried in a way that I have never had to do with other issues, to strip the traditional rules of politics out of my decision-making”.
In other words, to strip individual freedoms and liberties (weaken democracy).
Welcome to a totalitarian snp scotland! Its real and growing!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-53463665
Tradintional rules like keeping minutes, notes or written records of descisions made that caused a country to break and lives to be lost.
I’m talking about the FOI request that has returned Sturgeon has no records of the decisions she took in locking up her nation because it was all spoken and therefore – clearly why would you – not recorded.
One of the elements that must come back to bite, what a civil service to allow this single point to have occured.
That’s breathtakingly revealing!
A couple of snippets from Sturgeon Land: yesterday, a whacky conversation with a friend and neighbour, the gist of which was that she’s bought a couple of cheap paper gags from the local convenience shop, which she stores in her pocket.
She puts one on, enters a shop, does the necessary, leaves and puts it back in her pocket.
This is repeated regularly. She didn’t want to make a fuss about not wearing one and said it didn’t bother her, even though I explained that I’ve never worn one and never shall and that she would not be challenged.
This friend exemplifies the many who aren’t convinced but who will never take a stand and go against the grain:( she has no time for the Dear Leader whom she calls Braveheart).
This attitude will be very difficult to overcome, I think.
Secondly, early morning trip to Morrison’s; five of us waiting for permission to enter; 3 masked, 2 without-myself and a young scruffy bloke.
8am; in we go: female security guard wearing plastic space helmet ,along with several shop staff.
I showed her my badge, which she didn’t look at, but didn’t challenge.
This young woman is approaching morbid obesity-literally bursting at the seams of her uniform. It saddens me to see so many young people like her carrying so much excess weight, and it is also increasingly seen in this area amongst those who are doing the poorly paid work which keeps us all going in these batty times.
No one challenged me as I went round, and some even greeted me.
So, 2 of us without masks today, but the staff wearing space helmets looked decidedly uncomfortable.
And no, I Shall not be celebrating the Dear Leader’s half century-(I don’t know anyone who will; so no fireworks or candles here, I hope).
What will she do if the rule is extended to anywhere out of doors, as in Spain?
After all, we can’t write off that possibility as absurd, since that’s where we are already.
Who knows? I’m trying not to think about it
When I went for my x-ray, I was provided with a mask. I decided to hang onto it, just in case I ever suddenly needed a taxi or something. This was before the shop announcement.
It was a hot sunny day and I pegged it on the washing line. Heat, oxygen, ultra-violet. Sorted.
When I went to fetch it in a few hours later, a bird had crapped on it. Sums it all up really!
I’ve come up with a good medical term for those wanting something specific for an exemption (not that you need to say, but nonetheless): Prosopeiophobia, which is the irrational fear of masks.
Great! Better than Sceptic’s Lung, which I was considering.
No word for a rational horror of face nappies, I suppose?
Fears never seem to be seen as rational so I would imagine not, though I take your point – it’s a perfectly rational fear to have (and frankly I dread going anywhere now because of all the masked faceless ones wandering about). I’m asthmatic so I don’t need to worry so much about my reason for exemption, but that doesn’t mean I can’t throw out ideas for those of you who do!
I have asthama too, its pretty mild now but if required I can make a pretty convincing wheezy noise. Like Mutley.
I had a huge flare up a year or two ago after building a balsa wood glider, lots of sanding in my garage, the dusts really messed me up for months.
Is your garage part of Colditz castle?
oooh dear i’m accumulating a list of phobias – already got “gamophobia” which at least i can spell/pronounce – now “prosopeiophobia” – try saying that after a few sherbets!!
I’ve said it before. Keep it simple and truthful :
‘Any mask I wear provokes Hypoxia and Hypercapnia, and profound discomfort. There are no balancing benefits to me or anyone else.”
Sturgeonausea
A really nasty one, that. Could lead to projectile vomiting from sides of mask.
Phobia does us no phavours (see what I did there?). It’s an irrational fear, an unfounded one.
Us: “I have a phobia about masks”
Them: “That’s irrational, masks are good.”
We need simple, real hatred of the things.
Share around with anyone who might sign!!
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/331174
I’m only number 100! Needs support.
Exactly!
signed #103
Up to 102 – a long way to go!
Signed
Have signed
Signed
Signed
Signed and shared on Twitter.
No 148
Signed. 153
done, for all its worth
It’ll likely be noncompliance + them realising it’s unenforceable that’ll help the cause, but a petition can’t hurt at least
nope can’t hurt for sure
156…
Signed – 165
224
Signed 359
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LgJ8_K6WCiw
“No Correlation Is Causation”
Tony Heller
Of interest, customers voting with their feet is having an effect. I have censored **** the business name to not give them any publicity. You can follow the link to read more.
Edinburgh Live reports:
‘No more no shows’ – Edinburgh bar pleads with customers after over 100 tables don’t turn up
**** have joined the ‘No More No Shows’ campaign as the hospitality industry tries to get back on its feet after lockdown
https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/no-more-no-shows-edinburgh-18623150
Good. Please keep us uodated!
Not surprised this has happened, its another way that people are boycotting all these insane measures and the NHS test and trace.
Notice the campaign.. no more no shows. Possibly coming to a town near you? Twitter fiends may find a way to comment.
Will update.
The article talks about walk-ins covering the no shows so far, but obviously there is a real issue here. Especially for places where there isn’t foot traffic.
Consider carefully walking in are you crossing a local picket line?
If they want no more no shows then campaign to end all these antisocial distancing measures and the NHS test & trace. The people have made their stand by doing this so the ball is now in the court of these pub owners and restaurants. If they want to hold on to their businesses they should be prepared to fight for it.
Cowards the lot of them.
Thats a very good idea that. I hope the really mess it up for these businesses. That will be a valuable lesson for them.
Toby is a journo!
This job – Lockdown Sceptics – is one of his current income streams. It is a life-saving, steam-releasing forum for us bewildered souls for now (but not forever, god willing), but for Toby it is a job. A performance even.
One day, Toby will find another sawhorse to ride and will gallop off, begging bowl on head, to seek his fortune from another group of disenfranchised folk. That’s what journos do. They are useful people but can be seriously flaky…
Simon Dolan is, on the other hand, a truly angry man. He is unencumbered by the need to make money from his hostility towards the issue at hand. His passion is very real.
I presume you are employed bots . Really sad you can’t offer any worthwhile argument .
Neither of us are bots – we are real people and contributors.
Journalism & writing is Toby’s livelihood and this obliges him to seek stories and events that he can turn his wit, skill, humour, criticism, observations and time too. He is not doing this out of the goodness of his heart!
He might very well sign up 100% to the Sceptics Position but that does not detract from the fact that this is his JOB.
His living is the ‘begging bowl’ bit at the bottom of the newsletter, amongst other sources.
And yes, he will bend in the wind when he has to. He is a journalist – not a saint!
There’s no obligation for you to donate to the site if you don’t want to.
DavidC
What a totally crap slight, oooh he makes money out of this site, pathetic.
I was only attempting to console ‘concrete 68’ as he seemed so disappointed that Toby was wearing a mask in Italy.
I simply pointed out that Toby is a paid journalist – not some kindly soul reaching out to each and every one of us from his basement whilst being financially supported by his mum’s pension.
As a journo and a pragmatist he deals with things in a sensible and practical way, basing his position and behaviour on practical rather than theoretical considerations. Hence the mask in Italy.
How does he make money out of this site?
He was selling merchandise at one point, don;t know how popular it was. This was his Tweet from the 1st June:
“Latest update on Lockdown Sceptics is here. We’ve launched our merch store. T-shirts, tote bags, mugs… you name it. Dirt cheap, too.”
Also, we don’t know how much is taken is donations, so it’s hard to say if he’s making money or not.
And now he’s ditched the merch as it was costing him money.
I rest my (clearly irritating but nevertheless accurate) case..
I have no objection to Toby trying to generate some income from this place, which clearly takes him significant amounts of time almost every day. He’s a journalist and makes his money from writing, has a number of other jobs to hold down and a family to support and maintains this page out of principle, which helps the rest of us cling to sanity. I’ve donated and will continue to do so and I resent not a penny of it.
Me too! The fact that he tends to post the newsletters very late at night shows how hard he’s been working.
Donations are optional and I think he earns every penny – if only for providing us with an opportunity for like-minded community here.
Agree Matt. Typical MSM underhanded approach to query whether someone makes money.
Money is needed any site therefore the donations.
Neither ‘querying’ nor MSM!
I was just surprised at the collection of shout downs when I suggested that this site is one of Toby Young’s jobs; that he is a journalist. He seeks payment for the words he writes – as is only fair – and shows an undeniable shrewdness when it comes to earning (and keeping on earning) that crust. Hence the wearing of a mask in Italy.
He is much more than just an enthusiastic writer who is working the hours on ‘principal’ alone. He is a professional journalist. One of THOUSANDS. Except he happens to be one that you have made into an almost messianic figure because he is, to all intents and purposes, a lockdown sceptic.
Had he taken the other road you would be calling for his head to be put on a spike!
We are the amateurs, chaps!
Well some of us, anyway.
Given that the number of sceptics is many fewer than the Kool Aid drinkers I would have thought if Toby is doing it for the money he wouldn’t be on the sceptics side of things!
DavidC
How on earth do you think he earns his living?
He writes and blogs and hosts forums and makes videos and writes for the papers and writes books and does what he can – from an often sceptical position, I grant you – to put bread on the table.
You cannot be so naive as to think this is all put together by volunteers, do you?
It’s all good stuff and very useful in these wacky days but be real…!
I can’t imagine he’s making much from this site, or from his other lockdown sceptic ventures. Even if he is making a bit, he looks to me to be doing a reasonable job so good luck to him.
Agree Toby makes nothing from this site.
Jeepers what is it with people that always look for something to tar other people with good intentions. So glad Toby started this blog. In addition his Free Speech Union are fighting for our rights of freedom of speech – do not see any one else doing that.
Simon Dolan is fighting for our rights and liberties. Again, do not see any one else doing that.
He must make something even if miniscule. I’ve donated a few times (small sums) and I know others who have done so. He does thank people for donating on every update. And it’s his business not ours.
Not tarring anyone – just be aware that this is our therapy session but the therapist is paid…
How do you know he doesn’t make anything from this site?
The accounts aren’t publicly open for everyone to see how many donations have been taken, how much merchandise he’s sold, and what his expenses are.
I never said that I think this site is put together by volunteers. Read my comment again, properly this time.
DavidC
We are not naive. It is obvious that Toby is first and foremost a journalist. As you say he writes for papers etc and his main income is from the likes of the Spectator and other newspapers where he writes regular columns. And this endeavour and the Free Speech activity will enhance his brand and may lead to more fee paying outings on various media. But this blog will not in itself be an income stream.
I think we all understand this and dont really need any cynical explanation of the bleeding obvious
No cynicism here – just my own observations that journalists and other media hacks (their own self-description) such as James Delingpole – are in the business of writing to earn a living.
But they are pragmatic in their positions too – none of them will truly jeopardise their livelihoods by being as aggressively opinionated as the least of us on this comments forum for example.
And neither will they draw fire by being – actually and really – seen to be hostile to the current group-think by, say, not wearing a mask in public. That would simply cause their work to dry up.
Even Peter Hitchens wears a (WW2 gas) mask whilst on the train. It is pragmatic for him to do so. It makes a point but is nonetheless compliant.
Toby Young has and does create written material for a variety of outlets and he does indeed earn a living from this LS business as much as any other. Just ask him.
If Toby chooses to wear a mask – in Italy or in the UK – it is not because he is jumping ship but because he is a pragmatist. And a journalist. It certainly gave him something (else) to write about for this newsletter, didn’t it? So there you go…
This is in no way a criticism or either Toby Young or the above (thin-skinned) contributors – it is simply a gentle warning not to cling too tightly to the sleeves of these wordsmiths, as they are wont to shake you off and vanish over the horizon without hesitation when another intriguing cause appears in their sights.
I mean, how many of you followed Toby’s written adventures before ‘Lockdown Sceptics’ hove into view?
You do know that Boris Johnson was editor of the Spectator, don’t you?
And that it is just the teenyist, tinyist bit possible that Toby Young knows him?
Quite well…?
I think I read that he was at Oxford with him among others.Probably accounts for his reluctance to believe that the jolly posh boy has turned into a totalitarian dictator,although he seems to be coming around to that point.
Here’s a thought…
What if Toby Young is a stooge – allowed / encouraged to play to the Sceptics by his school chums so we clamour and obsess about masks and Covid bollox and tin-pot dictators and thus disappear down the rabbit warren of anger and conspiracy.
With our heads buried deep in that rabbit hole, we fail to see the truth of the situation and so allow Boris & his Merry Men to carry on their monstrous deception (with a little help from his friends) behind a vast smokescreen…
Don’t forget the database of users, that is probably the biggest way you can make money from a site like this, by using it as Marketing data. The Privacy Policy on here confirms that they are collecting your data.
It can be found at the bottom of the page for everyone to read.
It says:
“We collect information when you provide that information to us. We also collect some technical data automatically through this website. We can also collect data from outside sources.”
Right, here we go. Letter to M&S CEO Steve Rowe, CCed to Archie Norman and the manager of our local branch.
Dear Mr Rowe,
I had originally intended to write to you at the end of lockdown to express my gratitude to the staff of M&S Simply Food Xxxxx xxxxxx. However, since the announcement that face coverings are to be legally enforced from 24 July, I feel I should write now, and sadly with different intent.
Although within comfortable walking distance, it is not the closest supermarket to our home. We have made a conscious decision to shop there. The attitude of the staff and the pleasant atmosphere, along with the quality of the produce, have been leading factors in our decision to buy most of our food from M&S.
Needless to say, on 24 July, this pleasant atmosphere will end.
The decision to insist on customers covering their faces some four months into the Covid-19 crisis will cause discomfort, make communication difficult, and discourage non-essential interaction.
What was one of the few near-normal activities during the lockdown is now freighted with anxiety. I will keep dwell time to a minimum and shop only when absolutely necessary.
Discretionary shopping will now be carried out online, if at all. I do not intend to enter any retail premises unless it is absolutely essential.
I am sure I am not alone in feeling this way. Repeated nationally, this will be a disaster for the retail sector, just at a time when those with a disposable income should be encouraged to spend it.
As chief executive, you have a responsibility to your customers, staff and shareholders. It is my belief that none will benefit from the imposition of face coverings, and all will suffer.
As I said at the outset, I had originally intended to write as I wanted to make clear my appreciation of the staff at M&S Xxxxx xxxxx.
It would be a terrible irony if their reward for months of hard work in extraordinarily difficult circumstances is to find themselves at risk of redundancy because of the government’s latest ill-thought-out policy.
You got an email address? I’ll send my own version. I don’t use snail mail anymore for a number of reasons. Perhaps we should start a free digital store of template emails along with email addresses that we can bombard various CEOs with.
When the forum is back, might be an idea to put all these excellent emails in a folder in there. Then we can all access them.
Instead of saying “four months into the Covid-19 crisis” you should say “over three months since the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak”.
Actually it’s both, they emphasise different points.
A bit off topic but it’s not often the UK gets into the US news we’re such a small unimportant nation, not even a small independent news channel, so thought this is quite an achievement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWMaE1IUItM
I think it’s a shame that they transported it upright, looked more like a ride of triumph. Should have been laid down out of sight.
The mayor’s said that if the sculptor doesn’t claim it, the people of Bristol will decide what happens to it.
Personally, I think they should blow it up!
More from Edinburgh live:
“Yesterday Scotland recorded its highest daily positive coronavirus tests for almost a month.
Figures released by the Scottish Government showed there were 21 confirmed results over a 24-hour period as of 2pm on Saturday.
It is the highest number since June 21, when there were 26 positive test results.”
Swinney (education) not sturgeon (doesn’t work weekends) goes on to say death, doom and lock up just around the corner, very creepy.
So, masks in shops work then. Of course the numbers are so low that it is all within variable margins anyway. Location of these cases not given, perhaps a carehome, perhaps a pub, perhaps a ferry to a Western Isle. Certainly not a shop or hairdressers, that would put a cat amonst the pigeons.
The awesome number of 18,000 tests have been carried out in total – in a population of 5.5 million.
What the people and the journalists should asking is: How does the number of tests compare? You really need to look at positives per number of tests carried out, not absolute numbers. It’s Leicester again probably – do more testing and you’ll find more.
What evil tossers.
Ignoring the fact that any residual virus, however small its load, will show a positive result. This test wasn’t designed to diagnose the illness so more bulshit. Any ‘reasonable’ excuse to keep you enslaved.
Presenting cases as a figure is only useful to introduce vagueness. 23, 20 more than 3 yesterday. That is it. No other usefulness can be gleaned, no percentage of tests positive, etc. And then, as you say Bella, the test does not give any signal the ‘case’ is of significance to health.
EVIL!
So on 21 June there were 26 positives. Did doom and destruction follow that? No. So why will it follow 21 positives today? Idiots.
Anyway, one data point can’t possibly be used to infer a trend!
We are having a spike ok. We need a spike. It does us all good if we have a spike. People like a spike. Let them have their spike. Spikes all round and one for luck.
Good footmen win by push of spike.
Well that will keep the “cases” down!
Actually, I noticed they’re using “positive tests” now instead of cases or infections. Is that ann encouraging sign – or does it mean the brainwashing worked?
“Positive tests” does not imply infection but allows them to keep the fear up and the control measures in place.
An update at 7.30pm 4 hours after my post above.
Yes 23 cases appear in Scottish care homes.. – not on a Western Isle ferry or, say, a shop. Nonsocial cases.
https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/coronavirus-scotland-deaths-infections-lockdown-18622894
Sturgeon said “But we must all play our part by remembering FACTS”
!!!
You have to remember them because they’re not written down anywhere.
Don’t! Leech coming on the radio without warning with his grating voice.. remember f a c t s. There are better ways to spend life that listening to leech and sturgeon.
This is likely to be a problem for all of us who are hoping for a break in the sun this year.
When we fly next week, to the place where we lived for fourteen years, we will be able to claim exemption at the airport and on the plane. When we arrive at our destination, we know that claiming exemption without a doctor’s certificate (unobtainable in the U.K. as the Department of Health and Social Care deems them unnecessary) may well be impossible. You don’t argue with the police there-they carry guns.
When we lived there it was always a case of. “Follow our rules or go home”. So we followed their rules quite happily, even though some of them were a bit crazy.
I utterly abhor having to wear a useless face nappy but in the past, even as an agnostic, I had to respect the dress code for churches otherwise I would not have been allowed inside. That would have been cutting off my nose to spite my face.
We can and have been fighting against our own government on the subject of face masks but trying to argue against a foreign government is just likely to get us arrested. It’s a tough call, especially for Toby.
I agree. The U.K. is my home country, I was born here, and therefore I have the right to disagree with the government and stand up to them. I have the right to say NO to face nappies, However when I am at my summer home abroad, as I will be later this week, then I keep to their laws. I don’t vote there, I’m a semi permanent visitor, so good manners dictates that I follow what they ask of me. It’s different.
Yes, totally agree.
yes i agree – although i’m not going abroad (courtesy of easyjet cancelling my flights) but I think if i were I would be totally adherent to the laws and customs of another country – after all armed with the information if I don’t like it then I shouldn’t go there – simples!
I won’t fight foreign Fascists, I just won’t go there.
Which airport and airline, please, Margaret ?
The Carl Heneghan/Tom Jefferson ‘Unherd’ interview is a must for those interested in sane rationality, as opposed to the garbage spouted by O.B.N ‘scientists’ currying favour.
Spread the link around.
https://youtu.be/Z3plSbCbkSA
Hi, I’m new here. Never commented before but have been reading the updates and comments for some time.
It stuck me that as we are now entering a new phase of this Covid thing (the phase where BJ is not even attempting to hide behind ‘The Science’, but is trying desperately to get us to go out and spend money), we could do with a new 3-part slogan. How about ‘Shut up, Muzzle up and Carry On Shopping‘?
The forum doesn’t seem to be available at the moment, so may I ask a non-Covid question of all the intelligent people here please?
I need a list of words which contains “unique” synonyms mapped against a single word, which they all mean.
A typical list of synonyms has two problems for me – first, it uses a “single word and its synonyms” approach. Second, many of the given synonyms have other meanings.
I need a “here’s a list of synonyms and the single word that they are synonyms of” and also the synonyms need to have exclusively the same meaning of the single word.
Does such a thing exist? If so, what is it called?
PS: I do post on this section on Covid-related matters as well. This isn’t spam. Thanks
You say (for reasons not vouchsafed to us) that you need “a list of synonyms and the single word that they are synonyms of”. Clearly, the single word that they (the synonyms) are synonyms of, would be the word you used when carrying out the search.
Yes, but I need to start with the list. I only mentioned how current synonym lists work by way of explanation.
Thanks for replying.
In my experience there are so few synonyms that convey exactly the meaning of another word, without a different emphasis of some kind, that the sort of lists you require would be pointless. You need to look in a thesaurus and find the synonym that most accurately conveys what you want to say.
Can you give me an example of two words meaning exactly the same thing?
Sure,
Exterminate – kill
Assassinate – kill
Slay – kill
Murder – kill
Those words (in my opinion) exclusively mean ‘kill’. Unlike…
Execute – Also means execute an order
Eradicate – Also means eradicate pests
Butcher – As in buy from a Butcher
But all seven are listed as synonyms of kill (at least in my source).
Edit: Exterminate may not be such a good example.
To take your first example:
Dictionary definition of “exterminate” = destroy (animals or people) completely.
Dictionary definition of “kill” = cause the death of.
And so on. These are not exact synonyms.
Enough already. Chill, pour yourself a glass of wine. I’ve had three.
Ok, thanks for your time.
My pleasure.
They all mean different things. And this is unsurprising. There would be no point in having different words for the same thing. When it has happened in English, it has been because the language has changed. For example, near where I live there is a hill called Pendle Hill. This is really funny because translated into modern English its name is literally hill-hill-hill. This happened because people did not realise the former name(s) meant hill.
River Avon. Lake Windermere.
The nicest thing about the English language is that no two words mean quite exactly the same thing and we have the largest vocabulary of any language in the world (the next largest is Hindi, which is half the size). There are lots of ways of saying very similar things, but no exact synonyms because each word carries a subtly different technical or emotional sense.
This, by the way, is often a real problem when translating between languages. Sometimes, there simply isn’t a direct translation. “To have another language is to have another soul”.
Agree two words very rarely if ever have exactly the same meaning. But Earthenware’s example is not based on equality but implication.
“You can’t Y without X” is the criterion where X is “kill” and Y might be “murder”. The idea is to list the Y words that at least imply the X word, although they probably mean other things besides. Murder doesn’t mean the same thing as kill but you can’t murder without killing.
This would be an interesting project and a new kind of Thesaurus. I don’t know if such a thing exists although IIRC Roget’s Thesaurus might be supposed to be sorted from general to specific in some ways which is a similar idea.
It would be useful for an automated crossword solver but would probably have other AI uses. I think it would possible to classify most words this way (many would appear in more than one list) but that some words would be problematic and would basically end up as the keyword with no synonyms.
Spoken like a scientist…
I’m sure there’s been a huge amount of work put into this already by Apple, google and amazon for the natural language processing in the voice assistants. It would be fascinating to see some analysis of the results.
German is my second language and – grammar aside – it must be much easier to put through AI. Almost everything about it is logical and almost nothing about English is.
Didn’t George Fox “sound the day of the Lord” up there?
Whether and when one wears a mask or not, is an individual choice. In general it would be idea if all of us and people who think like us, refused to do so, always. But I doubt that’s going to happen. If you feel that ANY mask wearing is unforgivable treachery then you are entitled to your view but there may not be many of us left.
I would have thought we’re all entitled to a holiday.
I’m not a Toby Young fanboy, and don’t know much about him. I’ve read about some of the stuff he does around freedom of speech, which seems in general a force for good, and of course I am aware of what he does regarding lockdown scepticism, and I am glad he has got involved. Unless someone can prove to me that he’s literally Hitler or secretly making huge sums of money from this and doesn’t plan to see it through, I don’t much care about what other views he has, or whether he’s getting some money from this site (I doubt it’s much).
Wow look at this for extensive + selective reporting
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hyde-park-protest-wearing-masks-a4502671.html
Just watched Sky interview (reporter in what looked like an upside down fireman’s helmet acting as a mask!) with Leah Butler-Smith. Leah, if you are a poster on here – you are a superstar! Very coherent – spotted the big issue – they want us all in masks until the vaccine is available. The Sky reporter did not stop her speaking, and she got all the points across calmly and coherently from the perspective of thorough knowledge of the mental health and coercive impact of masks.
Do you have a link for that?
Sorry Julian, I have searched around the Sky site and elsewhere but cannot find the full interview, although I am aware clips are being played on the on-the-hour Sky bulletins. Mail now carrying it as the main article:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8538465/Hundreds-anti-mask-activists-march-Londons-Hyde-Park-wearing-plague-doctor-costumes.html
Thanks
After your post I tuned in. Sky are repeating a short segment with the interview of Leah. Excellent as you say. Gets across how stupidly thought out the law is. Interviewer went in for a conspiracy question, rebuffed excellently.
A goodish turnout but not huge by any means. People can protest by not complying so perhaps expected.
AUGUST 1ST is a date I have heard for another protest at the same spot for the same reason.
The sky reporter mask appears to have a vent on the front. Is that the thing now?
Please everyone get your comments posted on the article (you’ll need to register, if not already done so, but it’s easy).
If it asks me to sign in using Google, THEN asks me to register as well, then the answer is no to that one.
Just register directly, not via Google. You don’t even have to confirm via email.
Those comments, the 77th have been busy today, the bastards
Any of them been on here yet today? Can usually suss them out quickly enough, nowhere near as good as the lads and lasses of Cold War vintage.
If only we posed a big enough threat for the 77th to bother with, but we don’t, yet. If they are active at all it will be around Twitter and other social media accounts with huge followings.
They pop in now and again.
I’m pretty sure “Earthenware” was merely filling comments space. Unfortunately someone kept replying!
I added a comment to the article – a perfectly reasonable one, supporting the demo, no bad language. It’s been deleted. So has another comment in support of the demo.
I just commented again:
“Masks don’t work. Even the manufacturers state as much. Their compulsory introduction will do nothing to stem the spread of the virus; a virus that has largely disappeared anyway. The masks have been introduced for political reasons only.”
They just the deleted the above one as well. So I posted the following, which didn’t get displayed at all:
“You keep deleting my perfectly reasonable comments supporting the demo, but allow the comment describing the protesters as “plague rats”. Call yourself a newspaper? You are a fucking joke! No wonder you can’t get people to buy your rag and have to give it away.
My comment disappeared too. I have posted another, blander one.
fs451? If so I responded to it.
All gone
Moderators working hard
Worst comments section I have ever seen in terms of naked censorship
Reposted the above (minus ‘fucking’). Let’s see how long it lasts.
One of mine is still surviving, but it is a reply. Saw your good-bye comment.
I can’t believe it’s still there – after 7 minutes.
Yes, when I visited, there were six comments. We’ve seen them delete, so we know for certain the Standard has bought into the narrative!
The Standard is only good as a lining for my husband’s allotment. I call it the Evening Apocalypse as the headlines since 2016 have been straight out of the Book of Revelation.
I somehow ended up as the very prominent face next to the headline on the YouTube image link to the ES video for that story.
Has been spotted by a few people who know me and I’ve already had one ‘Put on a face mask’ message, from someone who otherwise hasnt got in touch with me for years. Sadly I fear that won’t be the last
Glad I went though!
Latest wonder treatment:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/19/cholesterol-lowering-drug-could-see-coronavirus-treated-like/
They found that fat which accumulates inside lung cells is a key component of what the virus needs to reproduce.
Cholesterol drug clears up fatty lungs. Well who’d have thought it!
“If our findings are borne out by clinical studies, this course of treatment could potentially downgrade Covid-19’s severity into nothing worse than a common cold.”
During the study, which was previewed by the Cell Press – a publisher of biomedical journals, including Cell and Neuron – scientists screened medications that could interfere with the virus’s ability to reproduce.
They found that one cholesterol-lowering drug, fenofibrate, showed promising results which allowed lung cells to burn more fat and therefore depriving the coronavirus of the conditions it needed to survive.
I’d be wary of this since cholesterol-lowering drugs are said to compromise the action of Vitamin D in the body – essential for fighting respiratory diseases
How ironic!
The Phara corporations would say anything to sell their statins.
pHARMa
I ran it past Malcolm Kendrick who, unsurprisingly, replied that “it sounds like a load of nonsense.” I’m sure his preferred description would have been less polite!
My mate just said that Boris has just said face masks will not be compulsory after the 1st of August.
It that true?
I doubt it – but who knows. Anything is possible with this government.
unlikely but maybe 1 st of August 2022
That would be hilarious considering the mask law for shops only comes into effect on July 24th. Is Covid especially virulent during the week of July 24th – August 1st?
Unfortunately, unlikely. Can’t see the bed wetter in chief, Cummings allowing us out of face nappies until 2025.
Think it through logically, law not yet in action, already being repealed. Why woukd anyone comply?
I felt slightly optimistic for about 40 minutes. Crazy.
What a strange feeling.
if only it were true
Apologies if anyone has already linked to the article, but I think the second most liked comment (from Captain Blake), could form the basis of 10 questions to all MPs. How do they face themselves in the mirror every morning?:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/18/boris-johnson-exclusive-interview-will-not-need-another-national/#comment
I would love to interview Johnson. I would metaphorically tear him a new one. I would ask the following questions:
1. Why did you shut down the UK over a virus that kills the elderly with multiple comorbidities mainly?
2. Why has lock down dragged on for four months when the initial shut was due to run for just three weeks to enable the NHS to maintain capacity?
3. When it became evident that the NHS would not be overwhelmed why did you persist with your ruinous lock down policy?
4. How does your conscious deal with the fact that 30,000 cancer patients are going to die because the NHS closed its doors to the general public?
5. Why has the Government deliberately pursued an agenda of fear despite the data coming in which proves beyond question that CV19 is no threat to children and the vast majority of human beings?
6. Why did you ask Neil Ferguson, who has previous for producing wildly inaccurate forecasts, to model the potential outcome of CV19 if left unchecked?
7. Why did the NHS send elderly patients back to their care homes without testing for CV19?
8. Why has the Government deliberately misled the public regarding the many rules and regulations that are in fact mere guidance?
9. Are you prepared to admit to the nation that in actual fact you made a monumental error by locking down the UK and over stating the deadliness of the disease?
10. The national risk assessment office released papers last month which list all pandemics since 1918, CV19’s mortality rate is right at the bottom, lower than any of the others. How on earth can you justify the continued curtailment of our basic rights and freedoms?
That’s a cracker!
Oh that some journo would have the guts to ask that lot!
Did you notice the photo of Bloris alone. Something struck me as wrong. Then I realised, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him stand with his hands behind his back. After all the bollox about nuclear deterrents, is he still trying to be Churchill?!
Hear! hear!
I totally agree. But his response wld be that virtually every other country in the world did the same or worse!
It’s this that drives me up the wall. Why is this relevant? When I used to make this kind of argument to my mum when I was a kid, she would say something along the lines of “if Johnny jumped off the Tyne Bridge, would you do it too?” How is this different.
The only two things worse are:
– “it wasn’t as bad here as it was in other places”
And
– “sure, yeah, but there’s not point in getting upset about it because there’s nothing you can do about it”
GRAAAAAGH
Great stuff!
They are bringing in the new world order.
Billions will die of starvation worlwide so depopulation.
The green agenda is being pushed aggressively.
They want to do away with money and make us all conduct transactions through apps on our phones.
We will be tracked and traced to the max.
Our freedoms will be severely curtailed if we don’t submit to vaccination.
It has started under the guise of Covid and we have to resist.
Yes
Had a quick recce of my local town centre the other evening. It was depressing before lockdown and I wanted to see how bad it was now. The council had said they were going to make it more “cycle friendly”.
I live amid some seriously steep hills and valleys. The town centre is in a valley bottom, all visitors will have to go up a steep hill of some sort to return home. Pushbikes? Only for the lycra-clad.
Well, the brightsparks have closed off part of the main street, making all traffic turn right. The decades old traffic-hostile one-way system was a nightmare before but this is crazy. My bank is just past the closed off bit, with no accessible roads leading to it. How are disabled people going to get to the bank? I intend to ask my councillors to send me a suggested route.
Anyway, I’m writing this because look what I just found:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/18/closing-narrowing-roads-cycling-revolution-leads-campaigners/
A grassroots revolt against councils closing or narrowing roads as part of a “cycling revolution” has led to campaigners preparing to sue over “abuse” of emergency coronavirus laws, The Telegraph can reveal.
…. Many councils enthusiastically embraced the green emergency policy by introducing new or wider cycle lanes, closing some residential side streets to traffic and expanding footpaths, occasionally with little or no public consultation.
In what may prove increasingly embarrassing for the Tory Government, local conservatives are leading much of the opposition to the policy as motorists return to the roads, often seeing personal cars as a better form of social distancing than public transport.
…. The Telegraph can reveal the Alliance of British Drivers (ABD) has contacted solicitors to try to challenge whether councils have the right to close roads without a full public consultation.
….“This legislation has been rushed through and is being used by councils to close roads, creating pinch points, congestion and unwanted one way systems. Meanwhile, new cycle routes have cut road width causing more problems for motorists.”
He said road closures had increased congestion and pollution on main roads, with ambulances getting stuck in traffic, fire engines trapped by bollards closing off roads, and cars mounting pavements to get past closed routes.
As a supermarket delivery driver this is becoming a real problem. Key routes have now been closed off, which completely throws out some of our schedules and has definitely increased congestion at some of junctions as the short cuts to avoid the bottlenecks have been closed. These closures are going to hurt the economy in more ways than one.
Imagine how it must be for emergency services too!
Global conspiracy or not, there’s also a gobsmacking amount of idiocy being played out by people who haven’t a clue and seem incapable of foreseeing the consequences of their actions.
These people all seem to inhabit a parallel universe. Things are obviously done differently there.
The highways department have always been the worst around here. Some of their ideas have been totally impractical. My DH had several run-ins with them over the years.
OH and I used to say this about decisions taken in back room Council offices or drawn on maps which turn out to be utterly ridiculous and often downright dangerous. In a suburb of our city, we had a traffic calming measure which actually forced cars approaching each other to move into the middle of the road to avoid bollards and almost meet each other head on. Needless to say, after several accidents, it has been removed.
And they will be enacting this Nazi policy.
God help us.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-potentially-infectious-people
Here’s another contact detail to give when necessary. Just pick a “house number” from the selection:
Mr/s PH England
133-155 Waterloo Road
London SE1 8UG
Tel: 020 7654 8000
You guys are going to be driving those little electric trike/vans that DPD have pretty soon. That will stop the sea rising you see.
So are you 2-6! They aren’t going to all this trouble for just a select few, they are going after anyone who currently uses a vehicle. Tax, emission targets, you’ll be on a cycle in a january frozen rain storm before you can say frozen knuckles. Travel will be a luxury not a right, follow saint greta to zero carbon the realise what that mean for our own lives. Consider how roads will be paid for when everyone is in zero emission* tax exempt cars. Zero emission in the locale of the vehicle in use, plenty of emissions creating the vehical out of rare minerals – see congo mines for things saint greta doesn’t want to mention.
Ranty sorry!
Yep totally right. Volvo will make no more internal combustion engines after 2030 they say. Actually I did wonder pre Plandemic how the world economic forum would force people off the roads and into EV’s. Well this is how to do it.
Yes the “carbon” (what ever that means )to did up the precious and rare metals for the li-ion batteries will offsetts the emissions over a car’s lifetime in terms of conventional fuel.
Also EV’s can be quite dangerous, after a crash damaged EV’s represent a MAJOR hazard until the batteries are made safe by specialists.
Apparently all new builds and conversions of dwellings in Wales now have to have EV’s charging point installed as a condition of planning permission.
wow.
That’s what they want.
UN Agenda 21 in action globally.
Toby you need to wake up.
Cheshire West have spent money narrowing the roads through Neston. I noticed last night that half the bollards had been snapped off, presumably by a wagon trying to get through! It’s on the main road too, the one all the traffic uses to get to Parkgate.
Bollard bollocks!
As one of the lycra clad lot you mention, I can assure you that 99% of the changes are not to our benefit and cyclist groups are rarely consulted on what would actually help both new and keen cyclists. Most of the schemes make things worse for everyone, in my experience,whether on foot, 2 wheels or 4
I can believe it!
I bet you don’t go leisure shopping on a pushbike, wearing lycra, surely?
Mark 11, do you cyclists have an equivalent to the ABD? You could maybe join together and strengthen your case.
No I’m in normal clothes when visiting shops by bike
There are some cycling groups (cycling UK and British cycling) but they are always focused on this idea of turning every city and town into British versions of Amsterdam where the entire population are riding around at 5mph and never have more than a couple of miles to go, so the vision they fight for is useless to most, which is why we end up with bike lanes too narrow to allow 2 cyclists to pass, which often intersect with bus stops and which consequently get ignored by large numbers of us on bikes as they’re not fit for purpose – instead now in greater conflict on the now much narrower roads with motor vehicles… Which is not much fun.
Nice to hear you’re enjoying (well, as much as you can) your holiday Toby- and that DT cartoon is one of the best.
I spoke to a friend yesterday- a fellow sceptic but an optimistic one. Likened our current state to Cromwell’s Puritanism, and said if human spirits survived 10 years of that, then we’re still eventually due a restoration.
Cromwell didn’t have social media at his disposal, but it’s a good point. Humans are animals of instinct, a social instinct. At least, most of us are. I am beginning to wonder about some…
Your friend is right us humans are naturally social so at some point normal behaviour will come back. Pro Robert Dingwall did an article on this back in May I think. Can’t find the article currently.
Personally I can’t wait ten years
me neither I really don’t want to live like this in this country
I do feel trapped and helpless. cripes I’m low again today
I took a photo of the City of Montreal’s new bicycle path message. The name has been changed to protect the innocent: It is now called An Actively Secure Path and states that the 100 km permits us to
. more easily respect social distancing
. take advantage of public space during the summer festival period (they were all cancelled)
. to give greater access to parks, river banks and the like
You’re welcome!
There was a portatoilet on the sidewalk near this sign but it had a padlock on the door.
You’re not welcome!
Also has kerbside jets spraying disinfectant on passing cyclists. Sorry, just made that up.
Bluster Keaton.
Any news on the anti mask protest at Hyde park?
There was a post a while ago on that, have a scroll
not on BBC website !!!! They have their fingers in their ears and going Lahlahlahlah
Same in the Grad but they did have this in pole position:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/19/coronavirus-senior-doctors-warn-second-wave-could-cripple-nhs
Coronavirus: senior doctors warn second wave could ‘devastate’ NHSMedics appeal to public to prevent ‘overwhelming’ resurgence by following face mask and physical distancing guidelines
Well I doubt anyone will notice because the National Covid Service is unavailable to most of the population.
Prof Carrie MacEwen, chair of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, said doctors were now relying on the public to help avert a “perfect storm” hitting the health system this winter.
“If we get a second surge it could be bigger than the last one and economically that could cripple us and it could damage the NHS in the long-term, especially with the backlog [of elective care, including cancer care] and flu,” she said.
…. She added: “The most important thing about being prepared for this winter is the population gets the flu vaccine if they need it and they behave in a way that reduces the risk of them catching Covid which is to socially distance, wash hands, wear masks and isolate if symptomatic or told to do so by test and trace.”
Economically that could cripple us??!
Try not to despair!
No need to think about how to reduce transmission in hospitals and care homes then. It’s all down to the filthy, stupid general public to stop being so careless as to catch these things.
These people, for goodness sake. Crazy
Ha ha, how gullible of this Professor. We haven’t even had a proper 1st wave.
Hang on a minute: up until about a month ago these same people were saying masks were not effective
Good old reliable BBC. Project fear continues
Coronavirus: Are mutations making it more infectious?and of course
Coronavirus: WHO reports record single-day global increase in cases
The Grad did something similar this morning.
Of course it would have been equally valid for the headline to state “Are mutations making it less infectious?”, but why miss an opportunity to be the prophets of doom.
Exactly
If mutations are making it more infectious, they’re very probably also making it (even) less dangerous.
Alternatively: ignore.
Record single day increase in tests, more like.
The headlines and snippets are disgusting:
Sky – Coronavirus: No spike in cases since lockdown restrictions eased – but there’s a warning for autumn
BBC – What is happening in the US?
Cases are surging in several US states, particularly in southern states that were initially reluctant to enforce lockdowns or mandate the wearing of masks. Florida, Texas and Arizona have seen particularly high surges.
Guardian – Boris Johnson may be calling for a return to offices and hoping for a return to “significant normality” by Christmas, but the feeling of dread hanging over this strange, uneasy summer is becoming inescapable. A second wave of Covid-19 now seems to be a racing certainty. And a gathering avalanche of numbers attests to an economic disaster that is probably already upon us.
I am genuinely speechless at some of the shite they spout. Problem is a s we see form comments and the world outside, the masses lap it up.
Cases or positive test results?
From Covid-19 to coronavirus because they know the tests can’t pick up Covid, which has not been isolated but will pick up the common cold ie coronaviruses.
They are criminally corrupt.
Just back from the Speakers Corner demo.
What a farce.
Seen a better organised chimps tea party.
Speakers did their best but were clearly unable to address a crowd without a microphone.
Although the copper who spoke did so effectively and I though he was very good.
Why the demo then decided to meet again next to a zebra crossing at the park entrance rather than actually at the Marble Arch is a mystery.
Gave up and went for a nice cup of tea and cake with the wife.
Didn’t wear a mask there or back on the Tube and not a word was said to me.
We don’t need demos.
Just ignore this nonsense.
Thank you for at least showing up! There are many of us around the country who would have loved to have attended to show our support for this important movement, but couldn’t make the long journey. With or without ‘the wife’.
We nearly went but the thought of running the gauntlet of public transport and face-mask hell put us of.
There is no face mask hell.
Ignore it.
You can effectively self assess as finding it distressing.
No need to wear one.
Understand this and we win.
I might go have have a look at some trains and see whats going on. I never ever use them usually, just once in a blue moon. This is reassuring to know. However mask wearers really freak me out.
Was thinking of going, as a nice day out for the missus. But then she burned the breakfast bacon …
People are able to protest by simple none compliance.
I don’t think anyone is allowed microphones at speakers corner. They probably did it there as anywhere else requires a public event licence or whatever it’s called which would almost certainly need to be “covid safe” (except if it’s a Marxist leaning organisation).
I thought the lack of megaphone was a bit daft.
The demo got some publicity. People who thought they were alone, now know they are not.
So true. They achieved a lot and got publicity. Well done to all the people that attended.
True.
From small acorns and all that…..
Maybe I was expecting a bit more …. but the publicity seems to have been good… better talked about than not talked about ……..
Self certify as not having to wear a face nappy…. job done.
Simple as that.
Dunno why that is not a headline for Friday.
Self Certify as Exempt.
It stops on Friday if enough people SELF CERTIFY AS EXEMPT.
Just bringing this to the top again:
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/hyde-park-protest-wearing-masks-a4502671.html#comments
You can post a comment on the article (registration (easy) is needed), but if the comment in any way supports the demonstration, or goes against the official narrative, it will be quickly removed.
I bet these 77th dudes are getting bored and lazy and just copy and paste their bile into loads of different comments sections. It might be a good project for somebody to search for identical cross postings from “different” commenters on different platforms.
I have noticed that there are many actors, authors and media types peddling the government’s propaganda on Twitter almost like they are being paid to do it.
They never respond to tweets.
Not gonna get their MBE, OBE, CBE, or Knighthood if they don’t.
They even have the audacity to put a mask advert in amongst the pictures when you scroll through them!
The trolls are back.
You made an interesting observation. It was very welcome.
There is an uncomfortable level of hero worship and abusive bilge on these sites which is all fine & dandy if it is fully informed worship & bilge.
In response to your disappointment, I sought to console you with the truth about Our Dear Leader and I mentioned the fact that Toby is a professional journalist and, like professional footballers, maybe does not have that fire-in-the-belly that one sees in the passionate amateur.
It probably does mean more to you than it does to Toby – I do not know your circumstances.
It certainly means more to me than it does to him because – unlike him – I have been made unemployed by the lockdown and am likely to lose my home into the bargain.
That’s where the difference between us becomes a yawning chasm – Toby has a new Lockdown Sceptical income stream (maybe small, maybe huge) and I have first time unemployment and terrifying poverty when on the wrong side of 50. That’s why it means so very, very much.
I’m absolutely militant about not wearing a mask. I don’t expect anyone else to be. I might be less militant in another country with a paramilitary police force, where I didn’t know my way around. I might choose not to go there in the first place, but that’s a different matter.
There’s no one way to feel about this. I’m with you in saying I won’t do it. But if others aren’t, that fine too.
Went to local shops yesterday and was very perturbed by the increase in face nappy wearers since the previous week. But in the supermarket today there was no noticeable increase in the numbers of the muzzled. Are we all going to refuse to wear them? I have ordered my lanyard but pretending that I have a ‘disability’ feels like a bit of a cop out.
They’ve made it on Ladbible…and, no surprises, the comments I’ve seen on my Facebook are mostly along the lines of calling all who attended a fucking idiot
https://www.ladbible.com/news/uk-hundreds-gather-in-london-to-protest-against-wearing-face-masks-20200719
There are roughly 165,000 cancer deaths in the UK each year. According to Cancer Research UK, 50% of all people survive cancer for 10 or more years, so therefore half of people will die in that period.
Compare that with Covid-19, a disease that spares 99% of healthy under 65s if they contract it.
In what world is it even remotely justified to suspend cancer screenings and withdraw cancer treatment from these innocent people, many who will now die as a result of the hysterical overreaction to a distant cousin of seasonal flu?
It is estimated that an additional 35,000 cancer deaths could be just one part of the tragic human cost of the lockdown. We’ve torn down the flood defences to protect them from a light drizzle, and now we’re at the mercy of a fast-approaching tsunami.
Perhaps HMG calculated that anything covid would be front page news, whereas cancer patients would not.
Well they have bribed MSM to make sure it is.
I received this tweet from a worker in emergency surgery.
Totally bonkers.
CoronavirusNHSstaff
@NHSSTAFFCOVID19
Replying to
@AHUGISHEALTH1
The whole hospital is COVID? We are a dirty hospital, it’s in our hospital, it’s in our air, it hasn’t gone? The tests are so inaccurate can’t rely on a negative tests. People are ill across the whole hospital. You need to contact your local hospital if you think it’s empty
Oh boy!
Mental.
“The tests are so inaccurate can’t rely on a negative tests.”
But you can rely on a positive test? Logic fail.
The writers of this sort of journalism should be arrested!
It’s like shouting “Fife” in a crowded theatre.
Not “Fife” “Fire” Scottish Freudian slip!
Could be a tea leaf I suppose. Stop! Fife! He’s got my wallet!
Are gloves the next step?
Probably, in this mad, mad world.
Please Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!
The DM has an article on the hyde park protest
It’s the main article now:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8538465/Hundreds-anti-mask-activists-march-Londons-Hyde-Park-wearing-plague-doctor-costumes.html
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster faced further criticism for emerging without one (mask) from a Pret in London on Tuesday.
In contrast Cabinet colleagues Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak were pictured protecting themselves at the same store.
So they weren’t virtue signalling then?!
I thought they were protecting others!
Are you suggesting some MPs might consider doing something for the benefit of their electorate?
And these are Cabinet ministers, so it’s even less likely!
I haven’t looked at Facebook in a decade, but my wife tells me that my brother in law is an active pro-masker there. I’m sorely tempted to log in just to give him both barrels. But I also aware that this will make Christmas awkward (assuming Christmas isn’t cancelled)
I wouldn’t be surprised if it were.
Alternatively, we might be provided with a confusing mess of intersecting bubbles in which we’re “permitted” to see our friends and family…..
Saw this on Reddit: High Priest Fauci preaches well-marketed mass manslaughter:
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoNewNormal/comments/htqfnj/fauci_holds_up_new_york_as_model_for_fighting/
Good comments on that.
He’s also doesn’t want an independent study into how good masks work either:
https://americanpoliticaldaily.com/dr-fauci-doesnt-want-study-on-effectiveness-of-masks/
And yet ironically “SCIENCE DENIER!” is one of his followers’ favourite lines!
Here’s one of the best comments:
Whilst I an broadly in accord with your views, we do have to acknowledge that this virus does have a horror story side to its character. A few people who get the virus do get horror story symptoms, respiratory trauma, strokes and other horrible effects, it is the fear of being one of the few that gets these symptoms that drive much of the fear in the general population.
Like this one:
A truly dangerous virus doesn’t require a marketing campaign. It doesn’t require virtue signaling imbeciles on social media. If something like Ebola with a 50% fatality rate got loose and was spreading across the world, people would naturally stay home and wear hazmat suits if necessary to keep from dying. No one would need to be convinced this is a good idea.
Very good point!
Been thinking about what Hancock said about masks being enforced by ‘the great British public’ (i.e. non-mask wearers being shamed and informed upon by muzzled Stasi-esque tossers) and the implications of this for disabled/exempt folk.
Disabled people are already marginalised and discriminated against, and from speaking to them, a lot of them have felt like outliers their whole life. So imagine feeling like that and then being marginalised even more by complete twats who only think about themselves and how ‘virtuous‘ they look for ratting out ‘non-compliants’, even if those people are exempt. It’s horrendous. I have a friend who is autistic and she has a Hidden Disabilities lanyard but she uses social media a lot for social contact and she finds all the muzzle virtue-signalling on there very difficult to deal with as it basically erases her struggles.
Furthermore, I know someone who reuses the disposable light blue medical masks – she sprays them with Dettol to ‘disinfect’ it after each use. The mask has her foundation stains all over it. Talk about gross! And it can’t be good for someone to inhale Dettol fumes every time they reuse the mask. I wonder if anyone else is doing this in order to avoid the cost of constantly buying new masks. Imagine if I disinfected my disposable sanitary towels with Dettol after every use. Absolutely rank
Tell your friend she is insane.
The autistic friend or the other one?
the dettol/face mask one
Long term lung damage from constantly inhaling the Dettol.
The disabled have been thrown under the bus with this crisis. During one of my training sessions, one of my colleagues was going a bit neurotic about antisocial distancing and I pointed out that there are many people who can’t and when she asked why, I mentioned people who are blind, autistic, ADHD, etc.
Makes you wonder how some people can be dense.
Jesus wept.
Jesus wept? must have made his face mask wet! I hope he self isolated for 14 days.
Yes, he did. He weeps every day for the brutality of this putrid regime.
And the churches have been a disappointment as well.
The Standard has given up kicking us off the comments and now just show it as “0 comments”
shut it down!
Well at least it gets rid of the other sort!
Lol. Made our point perhaps.
Bastards. What a joke.
Just like Sky News after the Brexit referendum.
I haven’t fact checked all the quotes but it seems pretty damning nonetheless
The point about sideways and backwards-directed jets of out-breath was particularly telling, given that everyone is being told to minimise face-to-face orientation. It sounds as if there could be especially virulent streams of air directed out by some of the virtue signallers who will, in their own words, evidently be mass murderers!
The virtue signallers will be killing their grannies, not us.
Occurred to me earlier – a good slogan for your mask if you must wear a mask: I’m not doing this to protect you and I don’t care about your granny.
https://twitter.com/FatEmperor/status/1284849412204879877?s=20
I call them side breathers. Anyone who’s had to work in one of these masks for any length, will know why.
https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2005/2005.10720.pdf Copy and paste should give you access to one of the full research papers
Just click on the link!
You just can’t make it up
Coronavirus: Potential Covid-19 cluster in Lanarkshire BBC Scotland understands the outbreak involves a call centre which carries out coronavirus contact tracing for Public Health England.
Hahahaha!
Confirmed: COVID can now be transmitted by telephone.
Should have paid up for the anti-virus software!
There goes my telephone appointment with the doctor. Perhaps as well, I’ve got to protect the NHS.
another reason not to answer the tracing call
It sounded like a good idea but the way it is panning out I would avoid the test and trace system at all costs!
I’m sorry, but
“One employee said they believed at least seven colleagues had tested positive.”
And have any become unwell?
Are these virus tests or antibody tests?
Oh my! Oh my! Prop me up before I collapse with laughing.
Bumping this antimask petition:
Pkease share around with anyone who might sign!!
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/331174
Interesting article about masks and tribalism:
https://off-guardian.org/2020/07/19/the-scarlet-letter-of-covid19/
…. Since it is human nature, it certainly is controllable. We must all strive to be more conscious, more aware of the powers that internally, or externally, propel us into behaviour that is not only consciously irrational, but unproductive and ultimately quite dangerous.
Serious question everyone. I know, I know, it’s the Daily Mail. But I like to read the comments to see what opinion is, and whether it agrees with me, and everyone on this site. But, despite an improvement in recent weeks, the top story on the Daily Mail today, about the mask protests…..seriously, the top comments and likes on this are bordering on ridiculously serious amounts of Government shills. Is it just me that thinks this? It is actually quite shocking looking at the top rated comments. Is this what we have come to? Government shills convincing is that communism is fine, as long as it is dressed up beautifully in a “western” manner. Anyway, rant over. I’m just annoyed with the country and it’s people tonight!
I do not understand what you are saying?
The Standard kept blocking everyone’s anti-mask comments earlier. 100% of comments were pro-mask and very much anti anti-mask.
That’s more of a true indication. No need to block the anti-maskers unless they’re in the majority.
As a fun experiment (well it was fun for me on a Sunday night after a day of running around after kids and chores!), I just posted a comment a few minutes ago saying words to the effect of “Hi Government Shills, how much are you being paid to take time off from Twitter to try and manipulate the public. That went so well in the last general election. But the silent majority are growing.”
I got about 10 likes and then the comment was deleted. No surprise there! And no email notification of deletion too. This is disgusting and media complicit.
Yes, we’ve been a disappointment. I voted Leave because I thought it would give us the kick needed to fulfil our potential, and we’ve been pathetic, mostly.
I think they are as you say government shills. I have read the Mail on and off for years and in the past 4 months the comments have been very un -Daily Mail like to say the least. Never forget the government wants us all to think most people are for this. To wear us all down bit by bit. Do not let them.
Time was when you could type a term into google about anything and get page after page of results.
Now, type a term into google and get page after page of msm news articles describing and prescribing thoughts you are to have about your search term. I rate google a next to useless to get to the bottom of any matter worth the use of a search engine.
It does not take much to act in tadem with google’s triage to rig comment algorithms, censor comments and load threads with tag teams of thought leading posts.
77 brigade, 13th signals have the stated goal of shaping internal national thought and a compliant media working in tadem. And state they will use proactive methods – posting on social media. Daily Express publishing at least one c19 article authored by quote ‘UK Government’ lets you know this is physcological warfare against the UK population. This was not a sponsored editorial, etc.
Army high ups are reported as having asked wtf of 77 and 13th. Regardless. You’ll not see an honest stacking of the deck for a long while yet.
I think a lot of people really are that scared of the virus, there’s no need to astroturf the comments. I plump for cock-up over conspiracy, but I will say that the almost complete lack of mainstream dissent during the past 4 months has not been organic.
Why aren’t you weaaring a mask?
Why aren’t you?
I am wearing a mask!
No, that’s just a piece of cloth. The scientific research shows that only surgical masks make any difference.
Health Secretary Mr Hancock, who insisted coverings will be required in venues like Pret when people buy things to go.
However those eating inside the sandwich chain would not need to wear a mask.
He suggested the crucial point was people needed to wear masks if they were not receiving table service and claimed ordering at the bar is not permitted at pubs – despite official guidance saying it is.
What???
He needs sectioning. Not intended as a joke.
Oh yes, multiple sections, plus full evisceration, mincing and the pissing on of ancestors gravestones.
I pride myself on my moderation.
I’d spare the ancestors. They didn’t know they were going to produce filth.
He needs to be defenestrated from the Tower of London!
I suggested earlier that he should be put in the stocks and pelted with used face muzzles.
Moderation is fine in moderation I find!
Did I mention Boris should resign and take Hancock with him? I’m more convinced of this than I was earlier.
Hancock is basically trying to stop people buying food without wearing a mask.
I’ll bring a pitchfork – that will be more than the maximum needed for antisocial distancing
I would have dismissed your comment until recently, but I’ve been thinking about the panic buying before lockdown. The Mrs and I often questioned why the papers were allowed to panic people and why nothing was done to prevent panic buying for – what – two or more weeks till ‘rationing’ came in. By this time shelves were often stripped. I think the answer may be it was used to disturb people, make them feel vulnerable and prepare for the rest of the propaganda process.
Yep, sounds likely. They are evil, these SPI-B fuckers, but pretty competent so far.
Hancock is as mad as a box of frogs nowadays. I think it’s all too much for him.
Since when was it not?
This reminded me of a famous gag from Geordie genius, Bobby Thompson (aka The Little Waster):
Mother-in law to Bobby: Do I look different?
Bobby: You’ve had your hair done?
Mother-in-law: No, I’ve got my gas mask on!
Or as Groucho might have played it:
– Why aren’t you wearing a mask?
– Why aren’t YOU wearing a mask?
– But I am wearing a mask.
– Call that a mask? You should go the whole hog. Not that I’m comparing you to a hog. ..well, not the WHOLE hog. Try a ski mask, then I can look deeply into your eyes and say: “Hey weren’t
you that guy who ran me off the slopes back in Colorado?” Talking of slopes, where’d you get that dress – a Moroccan bazaar?
Something that I think will die with the ‘old normal’:
Before everyone became aware of ‘the science’, models and statistics, I’ll bet that most people not only weighed up risk on the basis of raw figures, but on a personal assumption that they were to, some extent, immortal. If they were reasonably healthy they might have the idea at the back of their minds “I never get flu. And even if I do, I’ll be fine”. They probably had this attitude to their own driving skills, or abilities in dangerous sports.
I think this is an essential element in the human psyche that allows us to be conscious, highly rational and logical beings, and yet ignore potential horrors that could befall us every day when we leave the house.
The practical result, in our own minds, is that we used to perceive zero risk from infectious diseases.
I think the government and media have upset a very delicate equilibrium that each of us had achieved in our minds. The difference between perceiving zero risk from leaving the house, and 0.001% risk, is huge. Humanity may never recover, it seems to me.
A fair, concerning and ultimately sad comment. The answer lies in what is human spirit. If they wire in an bureaucracy that seals this change you could be right. If personal liability for flu switches into this model forced with c19 I see no reason other than human nature to think we have lost a fundamental element from humanity.
I should add that I, personally, have managed to re-achieve that perception of zero risk (or at least zero fear) from Covid through ‘doing my own research’, but also a mitigation based on the idea that in the extremely unlikely event I catch it and die, it doesn’t matter because life’s not worth living in the ‘new normal’, anyway.
I agree – a life without theatre, live sport, live music, dating, new films, dancing, parties, drinking and chatting in pubs, holidays abroad, proper funerals and wakes, shopping without masks, proper weddings etc etc is a wretched sort of life. We should be prepared to take some risks to enjoy the savour of life.
I feel that lockdown is a form of torture invented by puritanical psychopaths. When you analyse lockdowns, your life is taken away from you. Many businesses have had to close and people have not been unable to work and many have lost their jobs permanently. Family and friends are important and in the early days of lockdown we couldn’t see people from outside your household and there are now still restrictions in place. Our hobbies and leisure activities were taken away. Pubs, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, concerts, festivals, gyms and hotels were closed.
Is this torture?
https://youtu.be/3yk3xezML8Q
The Puritan v Cavalier divide seems to reflect a universal antithesis across all societies. Genuine crises often allow Puritans to get a grip on real power.
Fear of this virus is elevated into the stratosphere. It’s just so INSANE.
Don’t think so. Holiday area here, everybody doing everything they can to act as old-normal as possible. It’s only the perpetual terror porn that keeps most people zombified. And the terror merchants are beginning to scrape the barrel.
Have hope.
I have some of that hope too. A mighty amount. The coming friday may jolt you, Scotland being culted is not a true indication of compliance. Even so, hope exists more strongly for the opression upon us.
Real world is not found on a screen despite the claims of media. Hope exists as does spirit.
Hope is hard to find right now but that said we have been out on tour recently and have met with a fair few people. Many aren’t so “into it all”, they kind of believe the story, some just are totally bemused at it all like me, wondering what the hell happened to people, some are just not very bothered at all. Some really like it, especially the working from home bit and they don’t give a crap what has happened to the old normal. Many are still shielding, not worried about themselves but their parents, child, baby etc
Some people were into it at first then started thinking something was wrong with the story and now are raging sceptics.
Country folk seem to be much less paranoid and naturally sceptical but still quite “into it all” I met some cycalists and they didnt cycle anywhere for 16 weeks incase they needed an ambulance, they didn’t want to strees the NHS.
Then you have the PPE people, usually not seen anywhere outside of town centres.
We went to a few pubs that had varying degrees of insanity going on, the pub owners were all pretty pissed off with all the BS but going along with it. Some pubs are still closed. I had success with evading the T&T every time, I even said blatantly I would give a false name, no problem “and you don’t need to give your phone number either” said the landlady.
There are lots of people, young guys getting back to work, or still doing what they usually do through the lockdown who don’t worry about catching covids. Lots of these people.
Ultimately what can people do about any of it anyway? To a lot of people they are doing what they can do which is pretty much nothing..
The mass psychosis has to wear off something.
And the young have the most skewed perception of their own risk — they seem not to realize that driving to work carries more risk than getting the virus. Like you, I have days where I don’t want to live in the “new normal” either. The virus at work here is temporary (I hope) insanity and it has interfered with people’s ability to dispassionately assess risk. I’m afraid that the only “cure” is for lives under the draconian rules and resulting economic carnage to become so miserable that people do a re-set and opt to take their chances with the virus. Here in Canada we are still in what I call the CERB coma (Canada Emergency Response Benefit) which is paying people to not work, commercial landlord rent relief, tenant protection from eviction, protection against mortgage foreclosure, etc. When the patients awaken from their comas and their jobs don’t come back, they can be evicted or lose their homes, perhaps then they will understand that the cure is worse than the disease. Oh, and they’ll realize they have traded their rights and freedoms for a false sense of “safety” from a virus that was not likely to unduly harm them in the first place. The only good news I’ve had is from sitting in on a call last night and hearing from the constitutional lawyer who is challenging the government’s draconian emergency powers, mask mandates, etc. It gives me hope when so many days seem hopeless.
Very wise words Barney. This is my concern. It’s odd how people can appreciate the incredible complexity of ecology in the natural world but not that our human culture also exhibits a similar balanced complexity. Scientists rarely understand human culture, Following the science in this contact could prove deadly.
I think humanity can recover but government and epidemiologists need to stand back and let the patient sit up in bed first! Constant reiteration of risk is imolding a return to robust good health.
I asked the manager at M&S about the compulsory muzzling and unfortunately she doesn’t know as nothing from head office has come yet.
Was rather unimpressed by her reply, that said this branch I went to today wasn’t the usual branch I go to..
Tonight live at 21:30 Mark Windows.
https://windowsontheworld.net/live-shows/
There is live chat too!
Thanks. Mark is great at spelling out what we see locally and how it fits in with the global aims.
Did I mention I thought Boris should resign?
Solution:
* Only carry a bit of cash. Leave your cards at home.
* Walk to the supermarket – do not drive.
* Do not give your name to any officer. You can always say “Seth Brundle” if they insist.
The Oxford University discovery that the PHE method of calculating deaths is missing a ‘sunset clause’ meaning that anyone who has ever tested positive for Covid will necessarily die from it is stunning in many ways.
It is stunning that PHE and ONS, who are both arms of Government, with enormous resources, a staff of likely hundreds of statisticians, most with masters or doctorates have not spotted this and allowed it to persist. How incompetent can these organisations be that it needed a couple of Oxford Professors to point it out to them.
Of course this feeds into all the other publicised statistics. The headline figures released by PHE and regurgitated by the media are confirmed (tested) ‘cases’ and deaths. The confirmed cases figure is cumulative and takes no account of the fact that most of these ‘cases’ have either not had symptoms or have recovered. I am not sure if they even subtract the number of dead from this ‘cases’ figure. The actual best estimate of present infections (‘cases’) by the ONS in the UK is 24,000, not the much scarier figure of 295,000 which is in error by an order of magnitude. (10 times seems to be the gold standard in modelling and statistical reporting, I think ICL started it.)
You will all have noticed that the UK is an outlier in the world in that it does not count or disseminate the number of recovered cases. Now we know why! Given that the duration of the disease is known (Scotland and Wales say its 28 days), the number of cumulative test positives and the number of deaths are known, I would have thought that some boffin in PHE could calculate the number of recovered ‘cases’ and fill in the box with a ‘-‘ in the infographics. Even a poor degreeless soul like me can work out that 295k less the 45k who have died with Covid less the 24k presently infected means that about 226,000 people have recovered. Wouldn’t that be a heartwarming statistic to read every day!
Excellent observations.
Another urgent thing that needs numerate brains to consider is the PCR false positive rate. As I have posted before, the number of cases relative to the number of tests is currently running at about 0.5% in England. Is the false positive rate really much better than this? Or are local lockdowns, and associated economic destruction, being enacted based on false (or FAKE) positives?
Haven’t people also suggested that genuine positives include people whose nasal cavities retain traces of viral particles following their bodies having successfully dealt with infections weeks before.
To me that would seem like a false positive also. But I am no expert. I have emailed Prof Hennegan at the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford to suggest they look into this, given their recent success in debunking PHE death stats…
Tests are only tests for what the test is looking for! They can’t answer philosophical questions. lol The average human has something like 80000 cancer cells in them at any one time. Does that mean everyone has “got” cancer? Of course not!!
Our decision makers (politicians) are renowned for having fallen asleep in their maths class and most do not know the difference between a kilowatt or a megawatt so they rely on expert advisors in their decision making. If PHE can make such blindingly obvious mistakes in their statistical analyses there is no hope for sensible decision making.Other Government departments, even the Treasury, have admitted that they have not analysed the financial implications of the lockdowns and other measures taken. Its the blind leading the blind.
Absolutely agree. I was already tearing my hair out in March about the complete lack of understanding of the numbers by the powers that be. Even then, there was a fixation on the exponentially increasing number of cases, without any consideration of the number of tests, which was also increasing exponentially. At the time I became quite depressed about it…
Great post and really pleased to see you back, BobT
Re the Blackburn Covid “outbreak”
Blackburn mosque ‘faces police investigation’ over 250 at funeral
One law for us……….
And if you want a bit of amusing reading, a fairy story before bedtime
Learn how the BBC is working to strengthen trust and transparency in online news
an oldie but a goody
It reads like the begging letters in the Grad!
Is it because a lot of people are cancelling their tv licences?
No wonder Blackburn is being threatened with lockdown! However, it proves that lockdowns are political and nothing to do with public health.
Good for tge folk in Blackburn. They know where their humanity lies. Give a shit about religion, those folk chose to turn out to respect and give dignity to another human. They did so agaisnt what other human decreed. Good for them and well done. It’s a fine example to set.
Stopping mass gatherings along with migration controls (quarantine) has always been part of our response to particularly dangerous pathogens. There’s an argument to be had over whether Covid is more dangerous than a bad flu virus (probably not). It’s the total halting of everyday life and the mandatory mask-wearing that should be the prime focus of our scepticism,
And funerals aren’t a valid part of everyday life?
You seemed to be saying that mass gatherings are always OK. I don’t agree with that. For at least 500 years closing down mass gatherings has been part of a rational considered response to novel pathogens. Sweden restricted gatherings to 50 (with various caveats). That seemed like a sensible response.
And religion doesn’t get a free pass…
But theatre does…
“I agree – a life without theatre, live sport, live music, dating, new films, dancing, parties, drinking and chatting in pubs, holidays abroad, proper funerals and wakes, shopping without masks, proper weddings etc etc is a wretched sort of life. We should be prepared to take some risks to enjoy the savour of life.”
My opinion is that respecting dead is more important to family life than a trip to the opera. But I accept others may have a different opinion.
Gatherings have repeatedly shown no increases, from the beaches of Bournemouth to the closed casket funeral of Mr George.
I guess I end my conversation here with you OKUK, it appears you may be looking to argue.
Exactly. Everyone has different opinions but pathogens don’t care whether they are at a funeral or a play. I am being entirely consistent.
How do you feel about 175 people attending a gathering? 50 is quite radical compared to 30.
You can argue about precise numbers. But banning mass gatherings in the face of serious public health threats has been part of our armoury for several hundred years now. It’s served us well I suspect. Total lockdowns ie imprisoning whole populations are a malign innovation.
I was not arguing about anything pal. Don’t spin your opinion towards me.
It is absolutely right that we dignify death by resprctful funerals. You come out arguing its is correct practice to condemn people who have done just that. At the same time posting virtuously in favour of funerals elsewhere. Have your opinions, but don’t expect politeness with language suggesting I am argueing.
I asked you a question, how do you feel about 175 people at a funeral? The reason I asked was because you claim 50 is ok but 250 not.
It seems you perhaps are an arbiter of the allowed, if not then perhaps a more considered approach towards those who hold a different view might be appropriate.
Agreed…let’s try and encourage and appreciate basic acts and traditions of humanity common to us all in these disturbing times where they want to shut down life to “save lives”…it is very easy to set people against each other as we have seen
Yes and it’s very noticeable that it’s the Muslim communities that are being targeted.
Really? You’ve got to be joking. The Police know the extent to which laws have been ignored but gave done v little. Similarly with the Roma community in Sheffield which pretty much ignored the laws from the get-go. If you’d said sun bathers and dog walkers have been targeted you’d be right.
A smile is something we can all give. It will soon become an act of protest in certain places soon in England, as it is already in other parts of UK, can you imagine!
Brilliant post from John Ward today.
He asks some very damning questions and suggests why they will never even be asked.
These questions go unanswered for all kind of reasons: the media have now kept the public in the dark for so long on Contrick19, even to ask them would leave some people baffled; and all three men [Trump, Bloris and Macron] are careful to avoid contrarian interviewers.
But that they add up to a pattern is undeniable. For example, to reject the relevance of such questions is to suggest that our politico-bureaucratic élites are mathematically dyslexic, economically illiterate, and incapable of reading engagingly expressed medical opinion condemning Lockdown, extolling herd immunity, and raising doubts about the possibility of a viable Coronavirus vaccine in the first place.
Or even, taking on board that an inevitable reduction in the global population of 0.0064% represents a cull of the old and ill that is almost homoaeopathic in its nature – and most certainly not a “reason” to plunge the global economy into a slump of unparalleled severity.
https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2020/07/19/an-inquiry-into-media-enquiries/
Seconded, John Ward is the source of many keen insights, well worth following…
I went out shopping in two supermarkets yesterday, M&S and Sainsburys, very few wearing masks, I thought there would be more, Asda was the same when I went there on Friday. I saw no staff with masks on.
An interesting article in The Telegraph saying we could have 200,000 deaths due to the lockdown, large numbers mostly due to delayed healthcare. In my case instead of an in person consult with my doctor, I filled in long drawn out forms and got email advice back several times since April, which was not great as when I was examined on Friday in person, I was immediately put on the 2 week cancer referral, my symptoms are horrible, and I am furious, beyond furious, incandescent with rage would describe how I feel right now. Hopefully I will be OK, but as a self employed person who also got no government compensation when I couldn’t work during the lockdown period this is another kick in the teeth.
Thanks Boris
Your sorry experience will be multiplied thousands of times across the country. All the best for speedy and effective treatment from hereon in.
Thanks, it’s such a relief to be able to talk to like minded people on here, it’s been a godsend for me during this horrible time.
Sending you kindest thoughts.
I feel sick inside and so angry because of what is happening to people in your position. My husband is waiting on a hernia repair — not urgent, so we’re not complaining — but I know there must be tens of thousands across Canada in far worse situations than ours. From the beginning of this nightmare I’ve tried to counter the argument that the government is mandating lockdown to save lives with the counter-argument that they are possibly saving some lives, but at the expense of other lives. Whether you’re a bedwetter or a lockdown skeptic, you’re privileging some lives over others. The fallout in lives lost because of the overreaction to this virus will far exceed the lives lost to the virus in the form of economic depression, increase in poverty, delays in medical testing and care, suicides, drug overdoses, etc. Why were so many of us able to see this clearly back in March and others will never see it or will only see it when it hits them? My hope is that you get the care you need very soon. Hugs.
Keep your spirits up
That is awful, I am so sad to hear about your health problems. An example of how the cure is worse than the illness. We should NEVER have locked down and prevented people from receiving treatment that they need.
No one is interested and that is the way it should be. However, I report no clap for the Bint in my area. Not a sound at all. I don’t know when it was due but there has been no clap. It was a sick idea that even highly passionate SNP supporter did not get behind, at least in my area.
Hi Toby and brilliant comment contributors!
I may be in the minority, and I hope I am not!
It would be amazing if someone could come up with a list of countries who do NOT recommend nor mandate face masks whatsoever. We can then show how it has not affected their situation, as we all know full well it will not. Might be a good “sticky” along with the excellent database of businesses Toby introduced.
From a selfish point of view, I have worked from home throughout this pandemic, and am therefore extremely fortunate and would wish hardship on no one. As such, if we had a list of such countries, it might give me a list of potential countries to move to, as I am sure as hell fed up with this one. As I keep saying, we are in Communist China, and it is simply being dressed up differently because we are Western. We can’t think, we can’t challenge the narrative, we can’t wear what we like. I am truly sick and tired of this.
The only satisfaction I have these days, is my 12 year old daughter appears to be popular and is incredibly forthright and forceful with her opinion, and she is constantly relaying my opinions to her comrades. So I feel I am doing my bit for the next generation!
That is dealt with here.
There WILL be evidence but they will ignore it or explain it away.
Though not if I can help it…!
Belarus, especially if you like saunas and wodka.
Some very interesting comments here from a like-minded reader of The Slog:
The masks-in-shops idiocy took me a bit by surprise so I’ve been checking out work-arounds. …. I have the maxim ‘Your Gaff your rules – My credit card my rules!” and flounce off.
…. I always thought the best way to fight bureaucracy is to let different wings fight it out amongst themselves. I’m going to give the [TFL] exemption card a go in some of the local shops – ‘if its good enough for the Mayor…etc.’. If I’m challenged I’m going to say I’m claustrophobic and can’t help myself punching in the face anyone within swinging distance.
…. Other things to do? Anyone in London please do join in Piers Corbyn’s protest March on 1st August – details here- https://www.standupx.info/. Would be great to see a few thousand there.
Having raised their £30k they will be serving No10 a writ to prove Covid19 actually exists on 22nd July. Please do throw them a few bob if you can.
Further developments in my contaminated test kit box set: Police have now handed my case over to Trading Standards. Something I suppose… but not good enough I’m afraid so gone to an investigative journalist. My MP is a useless git.
So, I had a look at the linked website. Loads of lockdown sceptical events happening that I certainly didn’t know about. Do check it out!
https://www.standupx.info/
Sky’s Michelle Clifford just did her live piece from Barcelona wearing a mask. I counted her fiddle with it (it kept dropping down below her nose) EIGHT times during the course of a 2/3 minute slot. Hope she washes her hands regularly!
Par for the course! Meanwhile in the supermarket this morning the young girl (unmasked) on the checkout rubbed her nose with the ends of her fingers just before she started handling my purchases and did so a couple more times before the transaction was complete. What is the point of the elaborate anti-Covid measures if supermarkets can’t train their staff in the most basic health measures?
https://twitter.com/JenRoss4Scot/status/1284735066304909313/photo/1
Keir Starmer,the man to replace Boris.
Twitter comment
Has everyone gone completely mad?
what a massive bunch of charlies
It does seem that way!
One day in a future campaign, I’d love to see THAT image being used against Labour as an illustration of the complete abdication of responsibility by the opposition, in a time of national crisis. CRISIS, WHAT CRISIS?
As P. Hitchens said: they’re actually paid to be in opposition, not in concert.
There are no words.
Actually, there are lots of words, but I hesitate to use any of them.
You’ve heard of the Twittersphere – well this is the Twattosphere.
He’s the main player responsible for bringing Shamina Begum back to the UK!
Hi folks,
I attended the protest today in Hyde Park. I quite enjoyed it, although sadly was hijacked a little by a few 5G conspiracy theorists.
I did a few Tweets throughout the day on my Twitter page: https://twitter.com/WeWillBeFree82
As you can see from the comments, 90% have been supportive but sadly I also received some vitriolic abuse, with some even wishing death upon me. Nice.
This does not do wonders for my mental health and as I write now I am feeling very low. The general consensus of the public mood is extremely pro mask and it worries me how easily the public have been duped by the fear mongering.
I emailed a few pics to Toby so he might use them in future updates. I’m sure you have probably seen some of the coverage in the national press?
Anyway, I am pleased I can find solidarity with you all. I think I need to take a little break from Twitter and fighting the good fight, purely for my sanity. I’m not nearly as thick-skinned as Toby.
Goodnight everyone.
Ryan
Well done Ryan for attending the demo – try not be low and don’t let the bastards get you down, it’s really not worth it (though it happens to all of us periodically).
We’re all batting on your team! Have a drink or two, watch a nice movie and tomorrow is another day and the sun will be out.
Night and sleep well.
Thank you.
Ryan – don’t feel low. You’re on the side of the angels, and however many devils and sheeples beset you, you are armored with righteousness.
Cheers Matt.
Something doesn’t quite compute with this supposed big majority in favour of masks. If it’s true, why aren’t they all wearing them already? My impressions over the past few weeks are that it’s fairly constant at around 1 in 20.
Thanks for caring to post Ryan. Remember you are dealing with a very small demograph within the twitter storm
Hi Ryan, there a way to do social media, and that is to post your tweet and then just let people respond to it, do not read the replies or you just get sucked into the world of negativity and it waste s your time. Turn off alerts and notifications so you don’t get alerted every time someone replies.
Replying isn’t worth it as those sending the hateful tweets are so insulated in their own bubble that you cannot reason with then anyway.
Hi Skipper,
Absolutely. I think you’re right. Very easy to get caught up in the comments and as you say, probs best not to read them.
Thanks for the support.
Screw Twitter. You know it makes sense.
Thanks for the report and hope Toby uses for your photos. Keep up the good fight.
Anyone read anything on the current situation in Melbourne? Cases still rising or just more testing? Or is Australia just a victim of not allowing CV to spread far enough the first time ie they hit the stop button not the pause button
They agree with the idea of other people having to wear masks, just not them.
More likely, the “surveys” are rigged…
I think this woman should be cancelled as she is clearly not apologetic about her slave-owner ancestor:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53444752
Can the BBC get more hypocritical? I don’t think it’s possible, but am willing to be surprised. Reading the article linked above made me want to throw my laptop through the window. It says everything any reasonable argument against the iconoclastic race warriors makes, yet is promoted on the BBC’s news page, whereas another person making those same arguments but hailing from the wrong background will instantly find themselves at the centre of a twitter mob and probably losing their livelihood/being prosecuted for hate crimes.
Indeed, we have to back reason and free speech on all fronts. Perhaps the BBC need reminding they were part of the oppressive imperial system establishing pro-imperial propaganda outfits in nearly all of Britain’s colonial outposts. When is the BBC going to apologise and start paying compensation to the peoples they oppressed? Their pretend friend Orwell was scathing about the BBC’s role in maintaining empire.
Thank you for your reply to Edgar. You have saved me sacrificing anger tokens by describing so well. The answer is yes the BBC will get more hypocritcal as it continues to tail-spin in desperation.
Are the BLM movement and apologists going to claim compensation from her? Surprises me that the BBC actual admit that the africans were responsible for creating the slave trade. Noted however that the huge diagram only refers to slave movements from africa to the americas. Doesnt mention any slave movements internally within africa of from africa to the arab areas . Coincidentally, C4 news had a piece on black/people of colour (delete as necessary) relocating from USA to Ghana (going back to my roots) because there is no racism there. Really? The African states have such a recent history of brotherly love
I’ve been reading some of the comments about ‘following the guidelines’ issued by government, eg for churches, so they can re-open, like taking down tapestries from the walls.
As with all if this lockdown, it is all a con – these are guidelines, so, no, don’t take the tapestries down – what is the point? They are on a wall, so how are they going to affect or even infect anyone?
Wearing masks us the only think that has been made mandatory in law. Everything else is open to interpretation, common sense, whatever.
Unfortunately, the MSM & government have done such an incredible job with Project Fear, people are thinking they gave to do exactly what the guidelines say. They don’t.
So, in a church, if there were a group of half a dozen, who prepared to be sensible, they could start up the services again, including singing.
It is like the emperor’s new clothes – we all have to wake up very quickly.
I think part of the problem is that insurers will be telling churches etc to follow government guidance in full.
But even if on eof the congregation gets a positive test for covid, no-one could ever prove it was caught in a non-compliant church. So I don’t see a problem!
Somebody commented yesterday (I think) that their daughter’s school wasn’t allowing shorts for PE next year because of skin contact with surfaces.
I would like to hope that teachers were above the average level of education, but this is insanity. Have people really been indoctrinated to the point where they think that the virus transmits through skin contact?
I despair of my fellow man, I really do.
Indoctrinated to think that Dr Evil was right to wear the isolation suit. That was a stupid comedy people!
Telegraph getting oven warmed up.
By Christmas Boris’s goose will be well and truly cooked.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/19/lockdown-may-cost-200k-lives-government-report-shows
Shame they’re still quoting Ferguson’s half a million dead without lockdown, however.
Worst case scenario was 120,000 yesterday so they’ve bumped that up. Going on Fergusons past record that means 12-20,000 deaths which is way lower than normal.
I spotted the corona death count creep too. Funny how it’s predictable. Patterns from liars do always become predictable.
Exactly so, I’very just noticed your post but made a similar point in my reply to RDawg.
Sorryabout the I’very – that’s the crazy autocompletion talking.
https://twitter.com/ezralevant/status/1284842740006531074
Pepper spray, choke hold, for not wearing a mask in Canada. They’re flattening the curve of our civil liberties.
To be fair, I think he was arrested for not leaving private premises when requested to do so.
(Plus he is a barbarian, white socks with black shoes/grey trousers, ffs).
Had a couple of interesting things happen today.
1) Was in the garden as guy was delivering next door neighbour’s paper. Couple of sentences about the weather, then he was off ! Plandemic, Gates, social control, cashless society, all off his own bat. He makes mugs, is going to bring me one.
2) As my OH likes to spend her time and our money at the Hove tkmaxx, I found myself in the Burger King next door. Nice coffee, and a toilet. Coming out of the loo, I received a full-blown anti-lockdown rant from a fellow customer. He was very very angry, talking tyranny, bollocks, fake crisis, media control, etc.
Was amazed, both of these scenarios are usually me, bending the ears of total strangers. Very encouraging, although I have thought for a while that, to a large extent, polls are faked, and that social media is controlled and/or infiltrated by 77 etc. I would venture that a lot of normal people are realising this is the nonsense we know it is. Huzzah.
Farmers Market yesterday – only one stallholder in a mask. Asian lady selling vegan snacks. Told her I would purchase a courgette and cauliflower pastie (the things we do for the cause …) , if she would take her mask off. No dice. Settled for organic pork pie elsewhere. The other stallholders I spoke to were of the unanimous opinion that ‘it is over’ ‘load of nonsense’ ‘ludicrous’.
Booked haircut for next weekend. “We can’t do beard trims at the moment” I was told. I said it would be ok if his clippers slipped a bit – he grinned, marked me down for the full monty. Also vandalised 3 or 4 posters, left lds.org stickers in suitable places, and continued my ‘street art’ improvements to the ‘social distancing’ posters. Got a good few chuckles for those.
A very welcome read! Thanks. I sense the same hopeful under current you do. People are wise.
I’ve found a good way of p*ssing off mask wearers now, when they talk to me I keep asking them to repeat themselves. It’s amazing how wound up they get, and eventually they pull the mask down and say “it’s this bloody mask no one can tell what I’m saying!”
Stood at the meat counter in Waitrose yesterday. Had to wait about two minutes as a masked father and daughter (about 8) got served. I watched with interest and in that 2 minutes, they must have touched the masks about 20 times between them and the father had to pull his down for the counter guy to understand. They both also touched the counter surface several times.
Also saw so many elderly struggling around looking visibly distressed behind the masks. Was like a bad dystopian nightmare.
And also coming closer. If they tell me off, I would say “well, if you want me to social distance you’ll have to take that thing off as I can’t understand what you’re saying.”
Notice on breakfast tv this morning that BBC are starting to soften us all up for Friday , A piece on how people in retail and service sectors have been subject to abuse and violence because of them trying to impose social distancing (and all the other rules). Clearly preparing for the abuse that they will get this friday when they try to impose the mask rules…. and how we must therefor be nice little sheeple and do as we are told
DONT FORGET.. new page already set up for Monday
https://dailysceptic.org/2020/07/19/latest-news-79/#comments
https://coronavirusbellcurve.com/science-and-common-sense-in-the-debate-about-masks/
The best update about science about masks.This is now only a political decision to require masks.At the moment 130 countries require them up from about 10 in March.If masks were effective why does Japan(tradition of face masks since 1918) have influenza epidemics, in fact a rather severe one recently? Look at Los Angeles and Poland requirment dates of masks and the increase of SARS Cov-2 virus afterwards.Instituting the masks at the end of the pandemic in many Euoropean countries is politics and has nothing to do with science. You can never stop the spread of any respiratory virus with masks.Common sense that during the height of symptoms in an epidemic a mask would reduce the spread mechanically in ill people.But you can never stop the spread in the end of the respiratory virus in the population.It has never happened before in mankind.Biggest hybris ever to think that is possible now. Just shows the medieval stage of thinking in our politicians.
http://inproportion2.talkigy.com/cause_of_death_20jul.htmlNine out ten leading causes of death were below average in June.Strange?
http://inproportion2.talkigy.com/cause_of_death_20jul.html
Link got messed up
No iatrogenic fatalities?
No mandatory face masks.resist.
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