It’s Official: UK Plunges into Recession
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed this morning what we already knew: the UK economy suffered its largest contraction in Q2 since records began. (Caveat: the ONS only started keeping records in 1955.) GDP shrank by a whopping 20.4% and, since it’s the second quarter of negative growth in succession, that means the economy is officially in recession. Overall, the British economy has shrunk by 22% since the beginning of the year, reducing output back to the level it was in 2003.
The Government will blame the virus, of course, but that excuse only goes so far because the UK has suffered the worst recession in the G7. GDP shrank by 13.8% in France, 12.4% in Italy, 12% in Canada, 10.1% in Germany, 9.5% in the US and is forecast to shrink by 7.6% in Japan. Lockdown zealots will claim our economic woes have been exacerbated by Boris’s failure to place the country under virtual house arrest even earlier, but one of those countries – Japan, which has fared the best in the G7 if the forecast is accurate – never imposed a full lockdown and Sweden’s economy performed better than most in Europe, only shrinking by 8.6% in Q2.
The truth is that if Boris had stuck to his guns and not imposed a full lockdown Britain’s Covid death toll would be no higher, the collateral death toll would be lower and the economy would be in better shape.
Government by Chaos
One explanation for why Britain has fared the worst in the G7 is that our Government has been so chaotic, destroying what the economist Paul Krugman calls the “confidence fairy”. First we were going to “take in on the chin”, then we weren’t. Testing was scaled back because it was unreliable, then it was scaled back up because it was our best hope of containing new outbreaks. Masks outside healthcare setting weren’t recommended, then they were. Schools would re-open before the summer holidays, then they wouldn’t. The lockdown is over, unless you live in Leicester, Manchester, Bradford, Preston, etc., in which case it isn’t. You can go on holiday to Spain without having to quarantine on your return – oh no you can’t. But Portugal’s off the list, right? Maybe not. France? Who knows.
In his latest essay for Lockdown Sceptics, longstanding contributor Guy de la Bédoyère asks the six million dollar question. Is there any method in the Government’s madness – some diabolical plot orchestrated by Dominic Cummings – or is it just one cock-up after another?
There are plenty of people who think this Government, indeed almost any government, is hell-bent on a systematic plan to destroy individual liberty, force people to be vaccinated, inject them with chips, monitor social media accounts, use algorithms as a mechanism of control and to do it all with the cynical efficiency of a Bond villain.
Others think governments are exercises in accidental chaos, masked by spin, staggering from one crisis to another, fuelled by individual self-interest, opportunism and chronic disorganization.
I’m firmly in the latter camp, but Guy is more ambivalent. This is one of his best essays yet and worth reading in full.
A Musician Writes…
I got a message from a musician who spent some time in mainland Europe recently. Not as awful as she was expecting.
I just read the Postcard from Belgium you published a few days ago. I was in Belgium from July 30th – August 1st, as a musician performing at an event in Brussels. When I arrived – off a train from the airport – I was dismayed to find people wearing masks even in the streets, and signs saying that masks were mandatory outdoors. I thought Belgium had gone mask-mad. However, this impression soon dissipated. We went to rehearse at a studio – no masks in sight. Then at the outdoor event the next day, despite the sign saying masks were mandatory, the organisers were scathing about the public wearing masks and told us we only had to wear them when the audience arrived so we didn’t appear to be breaking the law. Even then, audience members were only required to wear them when moving around and not when at their seats (which were spaced out somewhat but people were free to join each other at different tables). After the gig, another musician was telling me about how lockdown scepticism was growing in Belgium and the Netherlands and starting to get organised, though he emphasised it was still a minority of people.
Next we drove to Zurich, rehearsed, and went to a cafe – only the staff wore masks. Then to a gig in France. Despite a new law being locally introduced that masks are compulsory even on the streets, very few people are following this, though everyone is wearing them in shops, and staff in cafes and kitchens wear them. People are concerned about the virus – they are not “corona deniers” – but they are just using common sense.
I’m from Scotland and was talking to people from Catalonia where the rules are also strict. They, like me, were thrilled to be part of an event where people can mingle freely, play music together, even sit next to each other to eat. I was very worried about travelling in this current super-safety-fear climate but actually it’s been like a coronavirus holiday. I’ve been given handshakes, hugs, even a kiss on the cheek, Belgian-style. I don’t mention this too much to people back home because they tend to react with horror but for me this trip has been a massive relief. The countries of the UK might still be quite fear-ridden (though there have always been the pragmatic folk throughout) but mainland Europe feels like a sensible place. People haven’t forgotten their humanity and want to live what I call the ‘true normal’ not the ‘new normal’.
If only I didn’t have to come home…
Anti-Mask Protests Planned For This Weekend
The anti-lockdown movement is gathering momentum. According to the Mail, anti-mask protests are planned for this weekend in London, Liverpool and Hull. And yesterday, a group calling itself StandUp X invaded a Morrison’s in London and told shoppers to remove their masks.
Worryingly for the Government trying to promote the wearing of masks, the protest group’s public Facebook page shows it is converting other people to its views and cause.
One mother called Gemma Munro told them: “I really want to thank this group for giving me the strength and courage to stop wearing that stupid mask!”
StandUp X is not just opposed to masks. It’s also against vaccinations and 5G masts, which will make some lockdown sceptics understandably wary.
Can’t this movement find a better leader than Piers Corbyn?
Postcard From Brazil
A reader in Brazil – a Canadian married to a Brazilian – has written a corking postcard from the South American country. It’s not the usual griping about how an irresponsible populist leader has ignored the advice of his own scientists and let the virus cut a swathe through the favelas. On the contrary, he thinks Bolsonaro has got it broadly right. He points out that Brazil’s per capita death toll is lower than it is in Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, the UK, Sweden, and the United States.
Despite high national case numbers, Brazilian cities that were struck hard early on have now seen new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths fall off a cliff around the 20% infected mark, just like clockwork. Of course, we all know that herd immunity cannot be reached and would result in hundreds of thousands of deaths and untold suffering blah blah blah. So what explains these drops? Will we hear the English language media discussing this? Will pigs fly?
With the numbers now falling in my state as well, I shake my head daily at the bizarro world pronouncements of the state Governor proclaiming that beaches and hiking trails, to which people have been flocking for months, are now open. Restaurants are now allowed to operate until 6pm, despite the swanky spot down the block having been open until 2am every night since the beginning of the pandemic, pumping loud music. I suspect bribery.
This is one of the best postcards we’ve published so far. Well worth reading in full.
Did Re-Opening Schools in Israel Really Cause a Spike in Cases?
Yesterday, I published a series of graphs showing that re-opening schools in most parts of the world hadn’t caused a rise in cases – with one exception, Israel. Indeed, the apparent link between the decision to re-open schools in Israel and the subsequent rise in cases is one of the most common arguments against re-opening schools in full in England next month.
However, a reader has pointed out that this is a case of correlation not causation.
I would like to comment regarding the graph showing an increase in cases for Israel after school re-opening.
The point is that the event (i.e. schools re-opened) is as relevant as “Full Moon”.Israel became an anarchy in the sense that the Orthodox population disregard and disobey the guidelines set for social distancing and mask-wearing.
The result is that a huge portion (over 50%) of the cases are in this group, with an order of magnitude lower rates elsewhere.
However, due to the political situation (PM on trial), the law enforcement authorities do nothing at all.
It would be a mistake to link the cases to “schools re-opened”.
Round-Up
- ‘Stricken Intu’s Trafford Centre shops for £1.3bn buyer‘ – Sky News reports that the Trafford Centre, Britain’s fourth-biggest shopping centre, is up for sale
- ‘Why schools must open in September‘ – Clare Wagner, head teacher of the West London Free School, says the effect of not re-opening schools in September will be catastrophic
- ‘Terrified teacher writes her own obituary saying it’s too soon for schools to re-open‘ – For a contrasting view…
- ‘Summer flu is now more deadly than Covid‘ – Ross Clark in the Spectator points out that more people have been dying of flu than COVID-19 since the middle of June
- ‘No, Europe isn’t being engulfed by a deadly second wave‘ – And here’s Ross Clark in the Telegraph with another great piece
- ‘The Health Passport — A Green Light for Tyranny?‘ – Insider’s account of the proposed new health passport
- ‘Russia Registers World’s First COVID-19 Vaccine Despite Safety Concerns‘ – Something tells me Brits won’t be queuing up to take this
- ‘After Chicago Looting and Coronavirus, Businesses Consider Closing Shop‘ – Black Lives Matter, but the lives of shopkeepers don’t, apparently
- ‘Dan the Dictator locks six million Australians in his pandemic prison‘ – Excellent polemic by Eleni Arapoglou in the Conservative Woman against Kim-Jong Dan, the tyrant of Victoria
- ‘Beauty therapists being forced to work illegally while waiting for the government’s green light‘ – Eye-opening piece in the Telegraph about an unlikely group of lawbreakers
- ‘How The Pandemic Revealed Britain’s National Illness‘ – Well-reported piece by Tom McTague for the Atlantic. Gets quite a lot right, but hampered by uncritically embracing the idea that Boris should have locked down earlier
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A couple of months 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 (and some of them are at risk of having to close again). 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.
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums that are now open, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of publicity. Indeed, I’ve written about it for the Daily Express today. We have a team of moderators in place to remove spam and deal with the trolls, but sometimes it takes a little while so please bear with us. You have to register to use the Forums, but that should just be a one-time thing. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
Meanwhile, if you want to get a sense of what it would be like to embark on a relationship with a bedwetter, the Terrence Higgins Trust has issued some “safe sex” advice for people worried about catching the virus. You should wash your hands before and after each sexual encounter, avoid kissing and wear a face mask during intercourse. I’m not making that up. The Telegraph & Argus has the story.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
I’ve created a permanent slot down here for people who want to buy (or make) a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here and it has the advantage of not explicitly claiming you have a disability. But if you have no qualms about that (or you are disabled), you can buy a lanyard from Amazon saying you do have a disability/medical exemption here (now showing it will arrive between Sept 25th to Oct 5th). The Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. You can get a “Hidden Disability” tag from eBay here and an “exempt” card that looks like as if it’s been issued by the NHS for just £2.79 from Etsy here.
Don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face nappies in shops here (now over 28,000).
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. If you feel like donating, however small the sum, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here.
And Finally…
I have a regular correspondent who suggests theme tunes for this site, but his latest is such a good spot I thought I’d stick it down here rather than throw it away in “Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers”. It’s “Absolute Panic” by Bedwetters Anonymous. Well worth a listen.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
“I can’t recall the Ku Klux Klan or Einsatzgruppen A ever doing that.”
Thank you, Mr Tucker – For that line alone, you win Sceptic Satirist of the Year Award, sponsored by the Siblings of Monty Python.
A sorry Easter tale of diversity, duplicity and derangement.
This woman should be fired and the school shuttered. Atheopathy is a militant mental disease.
Easter is about the risen Christ – not about Eggs, Queers, Trannies, the mentally ill, the Musulman Jihad of terror and rape, the 2 million Hindu ‘gods’, the 3 gods Romans had for your door, Druidic gods of the rocks and trees, globaloneywarming, Satanism etc.
Die-versity leads to nothing but annihilation. You are what you eat. We eat nothing but shit.
I am sure that the Koranimals are uninterested in ‘celebrating’ the risen Christ or the mentally perverted gods of Trannyism, during Ramandanabangakillathon month.
Thoughts and prayers with Iqra and his/her/their ‘neurodivergent’ pals following the Supreme Court ruling and why religion is his/her/their new path to conflict.
What a shame they have nothing better to do with their time.
“What a shame they have nothing better to do with their time.”
Probably on benefits.
But she signed her letter Miss Mander with no declaration of pronouns. This woman is clearly not fit to be a head.
should be Miss Mandate
Miss, so presumably not married. In the traditional sense that is. Who would want to take this fruitcake on though?
I guess that everyone spotted that school holidays were two weeks early this year, aligning them, not with Easter, but with Eid…
In some senses, the number of people in the UK celebrating Eid is probably much higher than those celebrating Easter. Thats not an excuse to drop one for the other.
Not celebrating Easter but having an assembly for the Sikh spring celebration. What motivates these school leaders to sell out their country and where are the board of Governors?
Money.
Trump has been busy unearthing the scams in the US and I have no reason to believe they are not the same in the U.K.
Plus power on the Minorities circuit.
So a deputy head gets promoted to head and they go power crazy? I doubt traditional brown envelopes are involved. I just don’t get it. And, what about the Governing Body? I am wondering if that is where the real rot starts. They appoint the Head as well.
It may have been just my Governing Body (I was a Parent Governor for a year before resigning in despair and frustration), but from that experience I will say that the rot is everywhere and Governing Bodies merely complement the rot. And that most Governors seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that the Head is The Boss.
Weak, smiling, box-ticking sycophants is how I would describe most of the Governors I served alongside. Like those chaps that stand with little notepads alongside Kim, but with brightly died hair, rainbow lanyards and a large collection of coloured highlighters.
I recognise what you are saying but each Governor has the option of escalating to the council. I did that as the Chair of the Governors had a weekly meeting on her own with the Head and there were no minutes. Caused a few problems for sure! So many things went on that surprised me. The Head also wanted to do a PHD and the School Funded it as he was so talented and that’s what the private sector would do. I came in as Chair of the Finance Committee and insisted we added a clause to his contract with a taper repayment if he left. He and I did not get along after that
From Miss Mander’s letter: “By not holding specific religious celebrations, we aim to create a more inclusive atmosphere…”
This is the same approach that Mr Tucker has previously reported as being carried out at the Michaela Community School. Different cultures can only be practised in a truncated form. However, an Easter Bonnet Parade is not a religious service.
The manner of the reporting of these ‘cancellations’ provides an opportunity the rehearse the diversity system of governance and, above all, to broaden the narrative by abstracting away from the specifics. Thus the protesting Christians provide the material for this, and with it the opportunity to talk about and administer identity. And with this, converting the situation into one in which the correct cues for doing so are readily available.
That the ethnic people in this town are a small percentage is of no account since in the system of diversity they are a favoured group. By comparison, the Christians are reported as being ‘regressive’, even if by implication only. As Miss Mander says in her letter. “We are making a transition.” The favoured groups are a chosen people leading everyone to a better future. The has-beens must expect ‘disappointment’.
Now it must be understood that there are two things operating here. Both Christianity and Diversity have historicism as their motor. History is moving from the bad to the perfect, and a chosen people, a favoured people, whether by their actions or their mere presence, is moving it. The two are essentially rivals.
Part of the Easter story is the Gospel narrative called the wilderness temptation of Christ. In this, Christ is urged by the Tempter to leap into self-chosen and self-hastened action. In doing so He receives his kingdom on earth – thus fulfilling the biblical historicism – but as a gift from the Tempter. No Cross is required.
Moreover, this world rule is that of the Roman Empire’s already-established bureaucracy, economy and military; the Romans calling their empire ‘the single authority over the whole earth’. As the Tempter owns this Empire, he is really the sole authority. In accepting his offer, Christ would become only a client king subject to Rome and the Tempter would become the benefactor of mankind, not Christ’s Father in Heaven, since only good things would result from Christ’s world rule however attained.
The contest here is who is the benefactor. Is it Christianity or is it Diversity?
What this teacher, and Ofsted seem to overlook is that they are paid by the tax payer to Educate, not indoctrinate, it seems the idea is to brainwash children from the age of 4.
Let’s examine what these people and the state are actually doing, they are trying to erase the Christian religion, erase the past of this country, and what they are teaching our children is that if they are white, if their family has been here for generations then they are nothing, they are to not learn their countries traditions, because they are nothing compared to those of the Muslim, and other far countries beliefs and religions. The head mistress is discriminating along with Ofsted against British indigenous children.
For me I would remove my child from this wicked system which is Government sponsored and which is teaching young children that they count for nothing because of their nations history.
What should be happening is that schools in this country should be focused on teaching British traditions, Christianity, British History and achievements.People who come to this country must assimilate, we do not assimilate into their belief and behaviour systems. People should be moving here and living here because they want our culture, ways of life etc, if they don’t then they should move to places which reflect their belief and culture systems. It seems that we have allowed institutions and people like Miss Mander to reverse the logic.
Unless and until people in this country start to do things like remove their children from such schools, refuse to pay council taxes, actually speak up and refuse to play the erasure and ashamed game then they are accepting that their country is to be erased to mean nothing,
Nailed it.
Western Nations are to be eradicated ….. One World Government requires it.
I shall once again place her photo here, not as an attempt to encourage any sort of vigilante behaviour (everyone has seen her photo by now), but to make clear what I believe is the crux of the problem. Here is a very simple lady, not a bad person, unwittingly doing her best to destroy everything her ancestors worked for. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Exhibit A; Useful Idiot; Product of and now Supporter of a system which rewards compliance and enforces the totalitarian idea that truth comes from authority.
Just another drone…
That is another way of putting it, yeah!
When we were young, we used to pass mental asylums and point at them. Then they closed them and the inmates are now running the country. Lord help us!!!
We all know why the big brands (Christianity, Islam, Hindu etc) do it, but I have since childhood found the teaching of ‘beliefs’ to children to be faintly disturbing, whether in school or church. Filling fertile enquiring minds with rigmarole, fairy tales and power structures hasn’t even turned out to be that successful in the First World, where religion is broadly being abandoned (and in the UK, being replaced by a militant brand of dogma). In that respect, Ms Mander and the LBGTNUTJOB+ are no better or worse than the rest of them. They ‘believe’ in something (in Ms Mander’s case, career advancement), and we allow them to foist that on children. Resulting in typical brand battles, all of them irrelevant. Let the children watch Star Talk over the holiday instead, and start learning what humans truly inhabit – a tiny ball hurtling at 500000 mph amongst things so strange they make Miracles look commonplace. That’s a much better starting point for life skills than bunnies and chocolate eggs
In the interests of truth, the earth travels along its orbit around the star at approximately 67,000mph, which is a lot slower than 500,000mph.
Apart from this, I agree wholeheartedly
Although 67,000mph is still very, very fast. I hope no-one stamps on the brake pedal. Because, children, what they tell you at school isn’t true, speed doesn’t kill.
Thanks, MAk. The entire solar system, Earth included, is of course moving thru the Milky Way galaxy at just under 500,000 mph. Although there are plenty of strange things in the solar system, we have to look outside the solar system, to the galaxy and beyond to see the really strange stuff. Our galaxy is travelling at about 1,400,000 mph against the Cosmic Microwave Background – and we are along for the ride! This, however, does not apply to people in Wales or to Lib Dem councillors, who will of course only be doing 20 mph
Enjoy your long weekend, may the local star shine on you but not melt your chocolate eggs!
Here’s a free plug for Star Talk https://startalkmedia.com/
Ah yes, the galaxy. Forgot about that one.
I suppose it’s all…. relative!
Or as Green Cross man should have said:Don’t get F’d by an MA.
“That It Now Worships the New State Religion of Diversity Instead”
=
Islam! That’s the covert target of all this shyte, teaching Islam by the back door! (Or even the front door seeing how blatant this is becoming)
Britanistan is fast approaching!
The schools attitude is patronising the”less fortunate” ie the minority groups. This need to be kind is based ironically on Christian values. Also an example of “pathological altruism”
An excellent and highly informative article – the problem here for the parents of the children at this school is how they access such information, rather than relying on the MSM, and deciding what power collectively they have to form the kind of education they wish their children to receive – parents need to be more active to ensure that they have access to reliable sources of information rather than force fed a received line
Okay, I am presently working on a project in the Gulf states. I read this article and, out of curiosity, I ran what this British school headmistress did past several colleagues of a variety of cultures, a high proportion of whom are Islamic. All thought it to be totally weird and ridiculous. Funny thing is that here, in the Gulf states, a variety of religious festivals are celebrated but they are neither denied or conflated with each other. This deluded British school should realise that it is doing nobody any favours but is, instead, the international laughing stock.
Why does this woke head teacher not sign letters with her proper name? Unless of course Miss is her Christian – oops, I mean First – name? Was the letter addressed to the children or the parents?