Getting Schoolchildren to Wear Face Masks is Impractical
The Spectator has published a great piece by Calvin Robinson, the teacher who featured in a recent job advertisement put out by the Department for Education. He thinks it’s completely impractical to get schoolchildren to wear face muzzles.
Has anyone who is recommending the use of masks in schools ever spent any significant amount of time working with young people? It seems unlikely.
Children simply will not wear their masks correctly, if at all. Girls will constantly be adjusting them; boys will be flicking them across the room and pulling each others’ elastic bands. They’ll all be pulling them down to their necks at break time, resulting in pieces of food and drink being spilt inside. That, and the fact that they’ll be wearing them around their necks, mirroring the behaviour of adults they see on public transport, further trapping bacteria. If anything, face masks will be detrimental to the health of young people.
Of course, there is much to be debated about whether face masks are beneficial at all, with the deputy chief medical officer, Jenny Harries, recently announcing that they may, in fact, increase health risks. I’m not a medical expert; I’ll leave the science to the professionals. What I do know is that masks will not work in a school environment.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Camilla Tominey has written a good piece for the Telegraph about the Government’s hopelessly mixed messaging around school safety
Brazil – Not the Disaster We’ve Been Led to Believe
Today I’m publishing a great piece about Brazil, debunking the ‘disaster’ narrative in the international media. In fact, the lifecycle of the epidemic in Brazil has followed the same pattern as everywhere else, provided you break it down into different regions, and in spite of the high death toll it has experienced fewer deaths per million than many European countries, including the UK, and fewer deaths per capita than neighbouring Peru, which has had one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. It’s by the same person who wrote the “Postcard From Brazil“, one of our best international dispatches to date. This new piece is a must read. Here’s an extract:
People without a single clue between them talk like Bolsonaro could have locked down the country by decree and Brazilians would have obeyed passively like in Auckland, and we would have the same death toll as Denmark. These people have never been to Brazil. The effort it would have taken to suppress the unruly and increasingly desperate population of 207 million highly unequal people spread out from megacities to jungle tribes would have required full on martial law being reinstated in a country that was a military dictatorship until the 1960s. Even that might not have worked. Blood would have been shed for sure. Seriously, is this what the ‘progressives’ want? The subjugation of one of the most free spirited countries on Earth by the military? All to try, and surely fail, to snuff out a vírus so deadly you have to be tested to see if you have it? Has the world gone crazy?
Don’t answer that.
The author also makes a very good point about why Brazil’s public health advisors have generally been more sensible than their counterparts in the UK and the US.
Brazil has, without a doubt, some of the world’s best epidemiolgists, virologists, and infectologists, and it is a pleasure to read their non-ideological takes on things. Why? I’d speculate it is because they have actually had consistent, day-in, day-out, on the ground experience dealing with real epidemics (zika, dengue, yellow fever) instead of researching them from the ivory tower. Nobody here generalises about how things might go based on the progress of the Spanish Flu, but instead rely on observation of the unfolding epidemic as it takes place. I’ve even read them putting forward the heretical theory that BLM protests in US states with high levels of immunity (New York, New Jersey, etc.) probably didn’t contribute much to cases, while states that had ‘suppressed’ Covid at first (Florida, California) and had low levels of immunity saw surges as an obvious result of the massive superspreader protests. Refreshing to leave bizarro world for a while, isn’t it?
This piece is highly recommended. Worth reading in full.
Australian Rules Balls
A journalist friend of mine posted this on her Facebook account yesterday. Heartbreaking.
I just spoke to my ‘little’ brother (39) who (like the rest of my family) is Australian; he lives in Queensland. On Aug 1st our 81 year-old mother had a severe stroke. The only reason she survived is that, miraculously, my brother and his family happened to be visiting her at her home in NSW at the time; the difference between life and death. Last week she was discharged from hospital in Wagga and so having spent the previous few weeks packing/disposing of her belongings, my brother prepared to take her back home, where he and his family have rearranged their house to accommodate her.
In order to be allowed to cross the state border from NSW to QLD both my brother and mother had to have Covid tests and the appropriate paperwork — mostly electronic — in place.
However, at the border, after a drive of nearly 800 miles, whatever the paperwork was meant to be it was not sufficiently in order and as a result my brother and mother had to spend 3 days in a (quote/unquote) ‘shitty motel’ waiting for some jobsworths to join the dots. At no point was anybody able/willing to join those dots sufficiently to see that detaining an 81 (she’s 82 next week) year-old recovering stroke victim in a motel for several days was perhaps less than ideal, given that the alternative would simply have been to allow her to cross the border (this is a state border, remember, not another country) in a comfortable car with her son and be driven to the family home… 40 miles away.
The grotesque absurdity — not to mention irony —of forcing a frail octogenarian who had already tested negative for Covid to spend any time at all in a motel in order to protect… well, who precisely? (And from what? ‘Catching’ a stroke?)… is not lost on either me, my brother or indeed our mother. The only upside is that they weren’t attempting to travel out of Victoria, which is now effectively a police state. Anyway, they got home eventually and while they are currently forced to self-isolate for a fortnight, my mother (and my stoic/heroic little bro) are, somewhat against the odds, doing fine. The moral of this story: THERE ARE MANY OTHER (FAR MORE POTENTIALLY LETHAL) MEDICAL ISSUES FOR THE ELDERLY BEYOND COVID-19.
Manchester Police Break Up Party For Terminally Ill Child
There’s a shocking story in the Mirror about Manchester Police’s over-zealous enforcement of lockdown rules.
A police chief said “we can’t win” after officers were called to a terminally-ill child’s birthday party amid accusations of a heavy-handed approach to people breaking lockdown rules.
Chief Constable Ian Hopkins of Greater Manchester Police, used the case as an example of the tough decisions officers are facing each day during the coronavirus pandemic.
The incident was dealt with via “a quiet word”, but the Chief Constable has revealed the force has been compared to “a police state” over the way it has tried to enforce social distancing rules.
Actually, Chief Constable, there is one way you could “win”. You could exercise a little discretion in your enforcement of draconian lockdown rules – or simply ignore the rule breakers altogether.
Even NHS Test and Trace Admits Cases Are Falling
Good story in the Telegraph about case numbers falling. They weren’t going up according to the ONS infection survey, but now even NHS Test and Trace has conceded defeat.
The number of people testing positive for coronavirus has declined for the first time in six weeks – despite an increase in tests.
Only 6,115 positive cases were recorded by NHS Test and Trace across England between Aug 13 and 19, down from 6,616 in the previous week.
The figures were released on Thursday, as ministers decided whether to impose more local or regional lockdowns in order to suppress the virus.
Restrictions remain in place in Greater Manchester, parts of Lancashire, Leicester, Luton and Northampton.
Since the beginning of July, the statistics provided by Test and Trace had shown a steady weakly rise of positive results, outstripping the increase in the number of tests conducted.
They were used as evidence by some experts to argue for the reintroduction of lockdown measures.
Can the pointless local lockdowns now be lifted, please?
Free Speech Union is Looking For a Chief Legal Counsel
The Free Speech Union is looking for a full-time Chief Legal Counsel. Pay is £70,000 to £75,000. Please click on the job ad for more details – and if you know a lawyer who might be interested, please forward. Thanks.
Round-Up
- ‘Take the piss out of the Guardian at your peril‘ – The humourless woke newspaper is using copyright claims to go after satirical websites that mock its output
- Amusing Facebook post about cancel culture – This is worth a watch
- ‘Kansas Democrats’ Covid Chart Masks the Truth‘ – The Health Secretary of Kansas has been caught fiddling the stats to make it look as though the Governor’s mask order has been effective
- ‘Hazmat officials board Ryanair flight at Stansted and drag off Covid-infected passenger‘ – Talk about OTT!
- ‘Lockdowns and Mask Mandates Do Not Lead to Reduced COVID Transmission Rates or Deaths, New Study Suggests‘ – Good write up of the National Bureau of Economic Research working paper showing that lockdowns and mask orders don’t work
- ‘Europe is at last waking up to its lockdown folly‘ – Excellent column by the Telegraph‘s Sherelle Jacobs
- Ivor Cummins Explainer on the Cadedemic – Very good YouTube video by Ivor Cummins on the Casedemic
- ‘Yale prof: “Evidence overwhelming” for fighting COVID with hydroxychloroquine‘ – More evidence in favour of HCQ
- ‘Wahaca to shut a third of restaurants‘ – Another of my favourite restaurant chains is in trouble
- ‘Rolls-Royce loses £5.4bn in first six months of 2020‘ – Jesus Christ. Will there be any British companies left at the end of this?
- ‘Biggest cities deserted as only 17% of staff return to the office‘ – Project Fear on steroids has done its work. Depressing story in the Times
- ‘You are now 67 times more likely to die from something other than Covid‘ – And seven times more likely to die from pneumonia or flu (and it’s August)
- ‘Enough is Enough‘ – Good editorial in Monocle by Tyler Brulee
- ‘Good Hope Hospital’s Dr Ron Daniels says: “Don’t fear second wave – coronavirus is getting less angry”‘ – Birmingham NHS consultant says no need to worry about a second wave
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Four today: “Don’t Stop the Carnival” by Alan Price, “No Common Sense” by Yvonne, “Mixed Messages” by the Bangles, “Insult Your Intelligence” by One Inch Punch, “Brainwashed” by the Kinks and “Hook, Line and Sinker” by Frankie Swain
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 attention. We’ve also just introduced a section where people can arrange to meet up for non-romantic purposes. 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.
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A few 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 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! If they’ve made that clear to customers with a sign in the window or similar, so much the better. Don’t worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
“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 Oct 3rd to Oct 13th). 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 with lanyard for just £3.99 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 30,000).
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
And here’s a round-up of the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of mask (threadbare at best).
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. Doing these daily updates is a lot of work (although I have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending me stories and links). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here. If you want me to link to something, don’t forget to include the HTML code, i.e. a link.
And Finally…
In my Spectator column today I take aim at the BBC. I wasn’t impressed by Tony Hall’s speech to the Edinburgh Television Festival.
Reading the speech Tony Hall gave to the Edinburgh Television Festival, I was struck by his upbeat, confident tone. The outgoing director-general of the BBC talked about how its reporting of the coronavirus crisis had brought its core mission as a public service broadcaster into sharper focus and boosted its popularity, particularly among 16- to 34-year-olds. He said his goal when he arrived at the BBC was to reach a global audience of 500 million by 2022, its centenary year, and this target has now been revised upwards to a billion by the end of the decade. “But it needs extra investment from government and that bid is with them right now,” he said.
Doesn’t Tony Hall realise that the BBC’s future is hanging by a thread? The corporation struck a deal with the government five years ago whereby it promised to cover the cost of providing free TV licences to the over-75s in return for hiking up the licence fee, and it has now reneged on that deal. As of this month, three million pensioners will have to fork out £157.50 a year if they want to watch television — not just the BBC, but any live TV at all. In response, Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, said the government would look seriously at decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee. If that happens, the BBC is toast. Who in their right mind is going to pay a voluntary fee to the BBC just for the privilege of owning a television set, particularly when they’re already subscribing to Sky, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Disney+ and God knows what else?
Doesn’t Tony Hall realise that the BBC’s future is hanging by a thread?
Seemingly oblivious to this iceberg hoving into view, the cheerful captain boasted about the £100 million he has ring-fenced in the commissioning budget to pay for ‘diverse and inclusive programming’ and the 20 per cent ‘diverse-talent target’ he’s put in place — as if that’s going to save the ship. When Hall talks about ‘diversity’ you can bet your bottom dollar he doesn’t mean commissioning more programmes from Brexit-supporting, Tory-voting global warming sceptics. Nor does he mean over-65s, with the exception of Sir David Attenborough. Nor, I suspect, will the BBC be including people who live in rural areas in its ‘diverse-talent target’, particularly if they hunt or shoot. No, he means more BAME people, even though they only make up 13 per cent of the population.
But, of course, the thing that’s done the greatest harm to the BBC’s reputation this year is its coverage of the coronavirus crisis.
The BBC has done colossal harm to its reputation since the beginning of the pandemic by faithfully regurgitating all the information it’s been fed by the public authorities, becoming little more than a propaganda arm of 10 Downing Street. A responsible public service broadcaster would have stepped into the breach after parliament was suspended, scrutinising the big government decisions such as clearing out hospital wards, cancelling all non-emergency surgery, suspending cancer screenings, shutting down GP practices and turning the NHS into a Covid-only service.
But instead of challenging this daft strategy, the BBC did everything it could to make it seem sensible, broadcasting story after story about patients battling with the virus, kept alive by selfless and exhausted NHS staff. We’ll be living with the consequences of that failure for years, with one eminent oncologist predicting we’ll see 30,000 preventable deaths from cancer alone in the next decade.
Worth reading in full.
Discussion
Comments
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Moaning about it as she was Devi spent her last Saturday using her second brain cell to write a thing for The Scotsman.
“Coronavirus: Why Scotland’s school children are among the world’s lucky ones – Professor Devi Sridhar
With children walking happily to school, and some daily routine being brought back for families in Scotland, it’s easy to forget the larger context of the Covid-19 pandemic. A global educational emergency is taking place around the world with up to 1.6 billion children out of school.
Many of these children, especially those in poorer countries, will be forced to work given the economic impacts of the virus, and never be able to return to the schooling system again.”
The rest exists behind a pay/cookie wall.
https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/coronavirus-why-scotlands-school-children-are-among-worlds-lucky-ones-professor-devi-sridhar-2953605
I walked past one school and witnessed wails and crying as children were parted one by one from their parents in a scence that left me thinking about Kinder Transport, did not see ‘walking happily’ as part of that morning.
The accopanying devi twit about the piece is nicely narcissistic:
“My column today on the global educational emergency & the millions of kids in poorer countries who will need to now work and may… Read more »
The one thing I’d say, Basics (being in total agreement with the general sentiment) – don’t over-interpret :
“… witnessed wails and crying as children were parted one by one from their parents”
Remember – we’re still at that stage in the year when children get upset with the wrench of going to school.
That still leaves open the question of the effects of this inhuman lock-up. Has it made it worse – even for children who have already started school? What has been the psychological effect of the Fear pandemic on children.
I know that one of my grandchildren – outgoing and sociable normally – is showing uncharacteristic anxiety at the moment. I hope that getting back into school and more normality will actually help.
She doesn’t have a second brain cell.
DavidC
The BBC have become a national disgrace. As for Boris Johnson I am ashamed that I voted for him as he is proving to be a man not only lacking judgement but a coward devoid of the courage to lead his country –
The one exception to your BBC comment is the programme ‘More or Less’ it is the one BBC radio programme that goes anywhere near checking the reality of all this hoo-haa.
You are forgiven, Linda, only because I can sense your level of despair. I nearly voted for the Conservatives but in the end I voted for an independent in my own area. I’m so glad I did. I would be feeling a huge responsibility right now if I’d voted for this shambolic groups of utter knob heads.
So what’s the way out of this? I mean, we all know what should happen – Boris should stand up, flanked by his representatives of ‘the science’ and say, “I’m sorry, we got it badly wrong, all coronavirus measures are immediately repealed, and I am handing in my resignation”… but clearly that’s not going to happen, and even if it did everyone has been so brainwashed it wouldn’t make any difference. So what could be a more realistic way that the government could get out of this mess while still saving face?
(I know, I know, this presupposes there is a will to get out of it all, but let’s just put that to one side for now).
I’d suggest:
1) announce that since, due to our herculean efforts, which has saved 450,000 lives and prevented the NHS from being overwhelmed by having to treat some patients, the virus is under control – test numbers are stable etc… so henceforth, masks are still highly recommended (except in schools) but are optional.
2) there are no longer travel restrictions – until of course the second and third wave in whichever country has pissed us off recently.
3) after a short period,… Read more »
Not bad suggestions for a face-saving about-turn – better than the government’s current approach of trying to operate two separate policies in parallel: “It’s deadly. No it’s not. It will kill you. No it won’t.”
However we also face an unprecedented economic crisis, especially in our inner cities. I think we need to introduce a tax on home working, as a short term measure to save our city centre service businesses, our transport systems, our cultural life (will people turn up to theatres and art galleries if they have trek in from the suburbs?)…the alternative is to see city centres go into steep decline and end up like some UK version of Detroit. Put a sunset clause on it ny all means, say 2023. Likewise we might need a tax on home deliveries of all kinds to save our high streets.
I’m not against technological change but what we have been through these last six months is an extraordinary act of self harm. We need to heal before we function normally again.
It sticks in the craw to force people to work at home then blame them for the state of our silent high streets and THEN introducing a working at home tax! Sorry, but no. The government is responsible for this fiasco.
Most politicians seem terrified they might get it wrong and be caught out when the mythical second wave crashes over us. Unfortunately that mirrors the view of much of the public who are convinced that a second wave is on its way. Whilst those of us who use this site have done a lot of looking at the evidence and reading facts and counter arguments, much of the public have not and just take a lead from the lurid alarmist headlines in the media. Many people have a 100% faith in the testing system and think they know exactly what the results mean, they cannot understand why I challenge the testing system and feel it should be scaled back to its proper use as a diagnostic tool.
I feel that there are 4 things that will change the situation.
Time, if time ticks on and nothing happens, the hysteria will die down, but this might take some while. The economy; as the economy continues to nose dive, jobs are lost and poverty increases, some sense of reality might creep in. Other health issues; as cancer deaths rise and people cannot get treatment for other health conditions their lockdown enthusiasm may… Read more »
I am not sure a vaccine is going to materialise quite quickly enough to save their bacon in that regard. Mutti, Macron and whichever maniac is in charge of Italy this week know that the show is over if they have another lockdown. Unfortunately, such has been their craven manipulation of the population, openly following Sweden’s strategy cannot be countenanced at this stage.
On the economy – we will be picking up the pieces for ages to come, but we will have lots of excuses ‘”Weren’t me, guv.’
I agree about the vaccines. Kerrrchiiingg! Job done.
But – of course, a safe vaccine needs years of development and testing. All this bullshit about the effort put into initial development can’t alter the laws of time.
I actually think it is much easier than that. The Johnson has two ready made candidates he could chuck under the bus, tomorrow morning, in Cummings and Ferguson. He could hold his hands up, admit he was fatally mislead, as was most of the rest of the world, by Ferguson’s (cat litter) modelling and his advisor’s promotion of it; add in a bit of a play for sympathy over his own illness “clouding his judgment”, Wilf keeping him up at night etc etc.
I think this is a plausible route out of the crisis but I don’t think he can undertake it until after Christmas because he has to hedge his bets on a second wave. If he doesn’t do it, however, Gove will oust him and do it himself.
Can we add Hancock to the bus list please?
And Williamson. Whether The Johnson takes these easy opportunities will be a measure of how shrewd/ ruthless he is. If he doesn’t avail himself of these opportunities he will be a dead man walking as far as Tory MPs are concerned.
The fact that Cummings isn’t under the bus speaks volumes about the danger faced by the country under the acolytes of Mr Toad.
Well – that’s what good leadership might do – might have done.
OK – the bog-paper media would have shouted – just doing what they do instead of investing in proper investigative reporting – but, hey ho, a decent politician would hard-nose it instead of jerking around at the end of their hypocritical hangman’s noose.
But it needed to have been done way back – at the time when many of us were discovering that much of the sad narrative about the ‘pandemic’ was a load of toss. I could have forgiven the initial measures and a a short period of quarantine as a realistic response, given the knowledge at that time.
But no – the Snake Oil Spivs have done the opposite, and doubled down in order to try to protect their sorry arses.
Wearing a mask to stop a virus spreading is like using an umbrella to stop it raining.
You may not get as wet but it’s still going to be raining and you’ll almost certainly get wet if you remove the umbrella.
If it’s not raining you don’t actually need an umbrella in the first place but you could use one I suppose, just in case.
If you fiddled with your umbrella the way people fiddle with their masks, you would get wet very quickly.
Great quote
Put this on a protest board or T-shirt
I can’t get my head around how I and the Tory party were vilified by people I know last year and now these same people worship at their altar awaiting their next diktat. Why aren’t they questioning these useless politicians they supposedly hate? I’ll never vote for the bastards again.
If anybody, Granny or otherwise, dies from an infectious disease should we now hunt down everyone involved in the chain of infection and bring these people to justice?
For COVID, if the person or people involved are found to be orthodox mask wearing conformists should they be treated with more leniancy than those who don’t or would wearing a mask, ironically, grant the wearer immunity from blame?
No worries if Granny dies from flu. Bozo, Sturgeon, Starmer, Khan and Burnham couldn’t give a toss. And neither could the BBC or the Guardian.
Latest tweet from rabid pro-masker ‘Professor’ Trish Greenhalgh:
Just took 5 min out to cry at my desk over an email from old friend living in USA. Describes a horrible, preventable, lonely death of loved one from COVID.
273,000 people were infected yesterday. Over 6000 died.
We’re all tired. But we need to keep going. This research matters.
Somebody replies:
My 24 yr just cried in my arms, a Uni student, he worked throughout Covid in supermarket, now struggling with negativity from colleagues/customers/conspiracy theorists/anti-maskers/world politics & isolation from his peers. Last year he ran 6 marathons for MH. We’ll keep going
Just thought I’d share that with you all, so you know how you are perceived. Grown men are actually crying in their mothers’ arms because of your “negativity” towards, amongst other things, masks.
It’s good to know we make a difference. 🙂
God these people must have had meaningless lives before they made up a “mission” for themselves. It’s over. Who is going to tell them??
We’re all tired. But we need to keep going. This research matters.
I genuinely feel like vomiting.
I just have.
What sort of ‘academic’ indulges themselves in this sort of soap-opera fantasy instead of rational analysis?
How old was the “loved one” who died? Was the death horrible -intubation, ventilator, induced coma etc – because doctors were striving officiously to keep alive someone whose life had actually reached the end of the road?
Came in part way during Newsnight to find a Covid pundit session in progress. Mark Urban began addressing questions to an unpleasant looking woman who proceeded to delight in a making a series of dispiriting statements suggesting that healthy people of working age returning to offices were in some sort of mortal peril from Covid. In other words she was indulging in barefaced lying. Eventually Urban thanked her and gave her name – Susan Michie. Yes, the SAGE advisor who also happens to a Far Left Communist extremist, by definition dedicated to destroying our economic system. Why the hell does a “Conservative” government let someone like that advise them? Don’t they realise what Far Leftists are seeking to achieve?
taking the mickey
This government definitely aren’t small government, or small spenders. Neither are they traditionalists – they seem to be embracing the “new normal”.
So they’re not conservative, and they’re perfectly capable of being utter morons without needing advice from “far leftists” to help them.
“Why the hell does a “Conservative” government let someone like that advise them?”
Because they share the same philosophy. The extremes of right and left have always met round the back.
I’m getting increasingly confused by the Co Vid ‘cases’ figures. Earlier today they were that there’s been a decrease in cases in England. Latest headlines ( including Sky and Guardian) say ‘U.K. reports highest no of cases since 12 June’. Of course we all know ‘cases’ or ‘positive tests‘ in themselves are meaningless, but how can anyone make sense of these contradictory headlines- and within 24 hours? Is it a U.K. v England thing?
World rising up against the lockdown as pressures mount
London protests, Berlin and more
https://youtu.be/xqaesmgKx30
https://www.corbettreport.com/
Fantastic
I see Dr John Campbell on YouTube has made a video on hydroxychloroquine and how a Belgian study has shown efficacy. It’s quite a large study too with thousands of patients.
Fair play to him, it would have been easier for him to just ignore it.
I watched his videos at the start of this but then tuned out when he seemed to just be regurgitating mainstream talking points. Maybe he’ll be worth watching again. Strikes me as a decent enough man.
Just watched it
https://youtu.be/2uzXHnUViro
Yes, he has always been quite restrained. And advicates masks.
But his videos are reaching close to a million views. So that’ll make waves. Trump right again. His ratings will be doing well as this lockdown debate sways his way.
Even the UV light internal cleansing thing was reported by Newsweek as in studies.
I hope he wins another term. I think he’s really got the right priorities in terms of what we are going through and his perspective on the WHO
https://twitter.com/AlistairHaimes/status/1299098311782281217/photo/1
No healthy child died of C-19.Only six children died with serious co-morbidity like cerebral palsy and cancer.Only 1% of all hospitalizations for C-19 were children
And this government and MSM knew during the darkest hours of March and April when the population was locked away that data from China and Europe all showed this what not a disease affecting children. But they deliberately held back this information for millions of families in the UK That might had been at least some consolation in these dark hours. Because they wanted to keep up fear to keep up SD. Project fear. That was criminal psychological manipulation.
I agree. And mandatory masks are another form of criminal psychological manipulation, totally without scientific justification (apart from some weird hamster testing).
Are those 6 deaths just in the UK? As there were more than than reported before the the 1st May by the MSM and also referred to by the Gov.
On the govt campaign to get people back to work:
Adverts are likely to include examples of people who have benefited from going back to their workplace. Discussions about a slogan are ongoing.
Yay, another three.part.slogan. Anyone want to guess what it will be? Here’s mine:
“Back to work. Buy a sandwich. Save the shops.”
Coffee.Sandwich.Beer to save the high street
Ignore. Government. Hysteria.
Work hard. Stay frightened. Remain compliant.
Back to your desk. Catch a Cold. Enrich a Landlord. (probably in the Cayman Islands).
left leg in. left leg out… do the hokey cokey
Slogan form employers:
Back to work on condition that masks in the workplace do not become compulsory. We want to return to normal
They’re now doing project fear trying to get people to go back to work by saying “If you work from home you’re vulnerable to being sacked”, what a load of tripe, just more scaremongering. It the Linton Crosby way and they just can’t help stopping themselves from doing it.
The audacity of this makes me want to fucking do something very unpleasant to whoever thought this was a good idea https://www.facebook.com/UKgovernment/photos/a.438874682931631/1825752884243797/
Just spat my beer across the room. Thought that was a parody but it is for real. Absolutely disgusting.
Nauseating in the extreme. Please pass the sick bucket.
Apart from it being a downright lie ( doesn’t make everyone safer) and manipulative in the extreme- what about the unnecessary care hone deaths, the elderly denied any contact with loved ones, the unlawful DNRs and the excess Unnecessary cancer and other deaths coming down the line due to LD measures? Shameless as well as nauseating. I’m just hoping that they’re laying it on with a trowel now and it’s going to backfire.
Best bit of emotional blackmail I’ve seen in a while, bravo UK G! Jaw droppingly crass.
Doesn’t grandma have to wear one for us though?
Feel free to kill grandad though, obviously. Only grandmas are in any danger.
I pity the persons involved with this campaign, from the person who came with this, the model to the people who have to put up the posters. Mainly the people who decided on this campaign, you all need to stand trial once we win.
grey lives matter !!!!!!!
One 29 year old black man got shot by a Wisconsin police officer yesterday so the National Hockey League decided to cancel tonight’s games and the whole U.S.A. has to stop what they’re doing and take a knee. Geez! These people certainly are arrogant and self-centered. There are 330 million in the U.S.A. That’s absurd.
Virtue signalling bollocks on a grand scale.
Meanwhile in Nigeria, South Africa and Jamaica probably 20 Black men got shot the same day by Police and no one cares.
While Chicago has seen spates of 100+ shootings in a single weekend (approaching 2000 in total, thus far this year) …. & while charred remains of a body have been found in a pawn shop, in the aftermath of BLM riots Minneapolis… & while Jessica Whitaker is shot in the back of the head & her family are attacked on social media (re: her skin colour)…. while a 5 year old boy Cannon Hinnant gets shot in broad daylight and is attacked online for his “white privilege” – how many in the mainstream media or professional sports will even say any of these young people’s names? Absurd isn’t the word.
From the Simon Jenkins Guardian article:
His most spectacular U-turn, into total lockdown on 23 March, was ascribed to an Imperial College algorithm worthy of the KGB’s finest hackers. It told him that if he refused to U-turn, 500,000 Britons “might die”. Johnson is now said to be furious.
Am I reading that right? It implies that BJ is furious about the 500,000 overestimate. Is that really true? If so, why does he still claim to have saved 450,000 lives through lockdown?
Because if we don’t believe it, we might not like him anymore.
I’ll always like him, well when I say like, I mean like to see him on a bonfire on Nov 5th, or like to see his head on a pike, or like to see him in that ditch he promised us he’d be in last year!
one for Lewes bonfire night
It doesn’t wash. Why was no other advice sought? Especially given that SAGE itself had not yet got with the programme. When finally the method was released for scrutiny it was slaughtered in seconds.
No, the decision was made in advance of evidence, and for political reasons.
I agree ,Ferguson was brought into give a scientific veneer to a decision already made despite SAGE advice.Johnson gave the figure in his churchillian table banging speech after his recovery.
They are spinning now because they are being found out and someone will have to be blamed.
I blame the lot,all are guilty for this disaster,that they have inflicted on the British people.
As I have said before Mrs Doubting was laid off way back in April. Due to cv19, she could not carryout the work she was doing as it required people to be working from an office, at least some of the time.
We planned to tightened our spending knowing that it was going to be some time before she found work again.
Looking at our finances, they are better than forecast, because our casual spending has stopped, not because Mrs Doubting is out of work but because shopping now is just for what you need, no casual looking at anything and making a random purchase. When I did a supermarket shop in the past I would look at new items, maybe buy something new to try it, not now, shopping is very purposeful.
This must be crippling high street shops, and we all know what the long term outcome will be.
I do not know about others but I go on Amazon or other online stores to buy what I need not to make random casual purchases.
I have adopted the same shopping technique.
So true! I haven’t been inside a shop in months. My husband does all the grocery shopping based on my list, so very little “extra” comes home. I’ve given up most personal services and am doing them myself. Travel budget is down to zero. Even people I know who can tolerate wearing a mask (I cannot) just go in and out of the stores and don’t bother browsing as it’s just not enjoyable. The days of impulse buying are gone…at least for me.
I do too, but I’d suggest Ebay rather than Amazon if you can. Jeff Besos (sp?) is not a libertarian
Hi Bella, I will try Ebay, but my preferred route is direct to a supplier, even if it means phoning them rather than buying online.
Whereas everything on eBay comes from communists in China. It’s whichever you consider the less of an evil!
I’m now having a Tesco shop twice weekly instead of one big one. If I foolishly run out of anything I now only have to wait a short amount of time before the next delivery.
Sad day visiting shops in nearest city. Masks everywhere including in shopping streets as well as indoors. Door staff everywhere making people wait outside until “safe” to enter. I waited outside local electronic warehouse, eventually got in then waited for someone to assist me purchase IPad. Nobody came so I left and bought it online. The high street’s finished!
I make it a rule not to go in a shop that has maskholes on the door. It’s unavoidable in the big supermarkets but I hardly go in those now.
The Big 6 areas of Covid misinformation
https://www.anhinternational.org/news/the-big-6-areas-of-covid-misinformation/
On Saturday a big demonstration will take place in Berlin. It is expected that more than 1 million people will come and demonstrate for peace, freedom and the constitutional Law. Merkel and leading Germany politicians are scared shitless and are trying by all means to ban the demonstration, but people will come to Berlin no matter what the courts decide. Robert F. Kennedy Jr will also be in Berlin and is expected to speak at the demonstration (!). Now that’s a statement. #IchBinEinBerliner
Here’s the official press release (via Telegram of Kennedy’s German Lawyer @Haintz)
“Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Chairman of Children’s Health Defense and a leader of the health freedom movement, arrives in Berlin Friday, August 28 to attend the inaugural meeting of Children’s Health Defense Europe, the first international chapter of this U.S. non-profit organization. He will meet with colleagues from all over Europe to discuss current global challenges to health and human rights. Organizers of the Saturday, August 29 Berlin rally for freedom, peace, free expression and respect have invited Mr. Kennedy to participate.”
Fantastic
Peru, the country with the most ferocious lockdown, has the largest number of excess deaths apparently.
Can’t read the article ’cause of pay wall, but most of the comments are robustly sceptical:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/south-america/peru/articles/peru-strict-lockdown-excess-deaths/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr
Bullxhit! besides Lima prolly nothing happend…
Just virtue signaling to get loans… from the globalist IMF FAO etc…
If you enjoyed the video Toby posted yesterday by Media Bear, you’ll love this. Please support their You Tube channel. It’s good to see young people thinking for themselves and actually rebelling like they ought to. Too many think Soros funded activism is rebellion but they are just being useful
idiots.
https://youtu.be/ONfvD8hbofo
Nice. Here’s one that predates Covid but makes me think this might be what it’s like behind the scenes at SAGE meetings:
https://youtu.be/gy6p3fjI4VA
Love it. And the media bear one.
We need to laugh at them otherwise we’d go mad!
This is really good. Old enough not to know it is a cover for another but still good https://www.bitchute.com/video/K18DfdNgeXNW/
I probably shouldn’t have watched that right before bed!
Powerful though. Got my gander up
Another media bear one
I see mask people
https://youtu.be/Roweg-c1qmU
Loved that. Hilarious but also well researched.
Don’t let the nauseating photo put you off. This is an important campaign: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/the-coronavirus-act-2020/
We have now established that The Coronavirus Act 2020 is null and void. There are many reasons for this, the main one being that S1(1) of the Act defines ‘coronavirus’ as being ‘covid-19’ or it’s other name ‘SARS Cov-2’. However, by virtue of the fact that it is not legally, medically or scientifically recognised as a disease or virus it cannot be legislated against, and this makes the whole Act null and void.
They have just received an interesting response from the government:
We have now received a feeble response from the government claiming that our letter that was sent on 7th August was only received by them on 13th August, nearly a week later! They further claim that as it is not a “normal sized Judicial Review Claim” they need more time to respond and stated they would “endeavour to respond by 4th September”. This is a new one, now classifying Judicial Reviews as “normal sized” or presumably abnormal sized. This very much appears like they are both struggling to reply and trying to play for time, which is their usual tactic. This… Read more »
It beggars belief they didn’t send the letter ‘Signed for’. Or hand delivered, with a request for a receipt.
I really hope the main drive of the protests will be behind this measure and not be derailed by anything else. It will be all too easy to walk straight into the trap laid by the MSM if there are crowds with 5G/Gates banners etc.
I’m cautiously optimistic that there will be justice against these lunatics.
To be honest, I’m concerned about the “SARS-CoV2 doesn’t exist” angle they’re going for. It’s another on the list of things that make us easy to discredit.
Who cares to spend do much money?
I know many people who wear the same disposable mask for weeks.
ig•no•ble ĭg-nō′bəl►
Snob : Latin sine nobilitate or the French sans noblesse, both indicating “without nobility“.
Has the penny finally dropped that we are staring at economic collapse:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/27/go-back-work-risk-losing-job-major-drive-launched-get-people/
Early days for the comments, but I especially liked this one: ‘Make a start by ordering your civil servants back to the office, you obese oaf’
Sack the last 50% to return to work. Make the rest more efficient
(The civil servants)
Not even Jack Welch was that brutal!
He was my hero before Carl Heneghan!
He was a legend in his own bank account. Got out before GE Capital imploded, although Immelt ought to have divested in the boom boom mid 2000s?
Yes, but he was my hero between 1998-2000. I haven’t had one since until the last few weeks.
MBA?
Heartless capitalist fanboy
Lord Hanson was my hero, and I was also an admirer of Jimmy Goldsmith’s hutzpah (the bid for BAT).
We live and learn. And then you start working with some of these people occasionally and you extrapolate that presumably they’re _all_ fortunate idiots.
Timing is so important – being too early, and always leaving 10% on the table for the next man. Persistence – never accept no for an (one of my old business contacts finally got the deal he wanted after calling the seller every day – for two years). Then there’s luck!
Boardroom coups baffle me. Why would you want to take over a company that’s been badly managed? Almost anyone who thinks they have what it takes to turn it around is kidding themselves.
I won’t go into detail, but our CEO has recently decided that we’re going to manage to the data as recorded in a specific system. This will drive our success. I look at the data and it’s immediately obvious that it’s meaningless. Total trash. It doesn’t record what it claims to record and it indicates nothing more than the effort people are putting into recording the data. And then I laugh.
Many of the corporate raiders of the 1980s were very smart, with clear objectives and had done their homework. In the case of BAT, the firm itself did the restructuring and divestment in defence against the hostile bid. The value created was immense. The problem in many firms, is the smartest people are not the ones who get to the top – they are just the best politicians. Your CEO seems to fit that bill. Time to look for a new position?
How do we sack Mr Toad and cronies? That’s the more important question.
Mmm, that’s the dilemma, and who to replace them with….
My local primary school has quite an active student council…
They would probably be more effective.
Question should be, do they need to be replaced? Do we really need a bunch of over paid, oxygen thieves in our faces all the time? These idiots are given way too much importance.
He’s living on borrowed time, as is Hancock and Williamson. There is a dearth of talent and spine though, so not sure what comes next!
Short of Johnson’s voluntary resignation (won’t rule it out), it’s really hard to see what brings down the government before 2024. I think Hancock will be thrown under the bus straight away when the cracks start to show (only wish it could be a real bus) and Williamson will be out as soon as there’s an opportunity to make it look like it’s not opportunistic, but I don’t know how much further it can go than that.
So banging on about deadly killers stalking the streets, forcing people to stay at home, GRANNY KILLER GRANNY KILLER!, telling them not to use public transport, closing shops and business, masks in schools or all the teachers will die, SECOND WAVE SECOND WAVE SECOND WAVE has made people a bit reluctant to go back to work?
Who’d have thunk it…
The comments on this article are brilliant! Basically people saying get rid of the stupid SD, masks etc and we’ll think about it. Can’t have it both ways Boris, either it’s safe or it isn’t!
.
https://twitter.com/patrilaselma/status/1299027950109630464
He personally knows someone who’s been in the hospital for 4 months and has had 9(!!!) PCR positives, each one listed as a new “case”.
Dr De Benito.We saw him interviewed in Spanish TV.
How often is a repeat PCR + counted as a new case in UK? Never happens?
Hi Swedenborg, just wanted to say thanks for all the work you put into compiling and highlighting all this information. By far the most valuable researcher we have here. It is a shame our paid journalists can’t manage a tiny fraction of what you do.
Hear, hear
Yes, applause from me
Well said
Mass testing in 16 US prisons found Sars-Cov2prevalence of 0%–87%, ~12x more than symptom-based testing. Irrespective of the % of pre-symptomatic cases (~10-40%), this report supports that the majority of C-19 infections are asymptomatic.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6933a3.htm?s_cid=mm6933a3_w
Maybe posted before but fair play Desmond
about time
https://twitter.com/toadmeister/status/1298700422044057601?s=09
Excellent!