School Threatens to Send Children Home for Joking About Covid
A school in Hastings has told parents it will send their children home if they make “humorous” or “inappropriate” jokes about Covid. The Independent has more.
Pupils could be excluded for “malicious coughing or sneezing” or making “inappropriate” jokes about the coronavirus pandemic, a school has warned.
And at a second school, any pupil refusing to follow hygiene routines and social distancing will immediately be moved to a separate area, leaders say.
The Ark Alexandra Academy in Hastings, East Sussex, set out a list of coronavirus “red lines” that will result in fixed-term exclusions for pupils breaching them.
The academy says “humorous, inappropriate comments or statements” related to Covid-19 and “purposeful physical contact with any other person” are off-limits and will risk the child being sent home.
You can read the school’s letter to parents here.
Worth remembering that Milan Kundera’s satirical novel The Joke about a man whose life is destroyed after he makes an inappropriate gag on a postcard to his girlfriend was set in Soviet-controlled Czechoslovakia.
Only 84% of Children Have Returned to School in Scotland
Tens of thousands of children have not returned to school in Scotland, according to the BBC.
More than 100,000 pupils in Scotland are absent from school with attendance down to 84.5%, according to Scottish government figures.
Data collected from local authorities shows that more than 15.5% pupils were off school last Friday.
However, only 22,821 of the absences are recorded as “COVID-19 related”.
The Scottish government said it was common for other viral infections to circulate after a “prolonged break” away from school.
Scotland’s largest teaching union, the EIS, told BBC Scotland it believed many parents were “erring on the side of caution” and keeping children who had cold symptoms off school.
Pupils in Scotland began returning to school on August 11th after being away since March.
Provisional figures from 28 August show that 84.5% of pupils in Scottish schools were present, down from a confirmed 95.8% attendance on August 17th.
I wonder how many children won’t return to school in England, thanks to bedwetting parents?
I predict hundreds of thousands.
Christ Whitty Threatens to Resign – Let Him
The Telegraph has a story saying Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, may resign if people return to work too quickly.
Professor Chris Whitty is hampering the Government’s return to work message because ministers fear he could resign if too many people return to the workplace at once.
Cabinet sources have told The Telegraph ministers believe Prof Whitty could leave his post as Chief Medical Officer if they push too hard on their plans to reopen workplaces in an attempt to get the economy moving.
Prof Whitty fronted many of the Government’s first COVID-19 briefings from Downing Street, and is seen by the public as one of the most trustworthy voices in the debate over how to handle the pandemic.
If he were to resign over a conflict of opinion with the Government, it would undermine any attempts by ministers to persuade the public to follow its advice, it is feared.
Prof Whitty has recently urged caution in reopening offices and other workplaces too quickly.
If Whitty wants to die in a ditch to defend his erroneous advice, let him. But worth bearing in mind that he acknowledged the R number was probably below one before the lockdown was imposed when testifying before the Health Select Committee in June.
If the R number was below one before the lockdown was imposed, what makes Whitty thinks it will climb above one if it’s eased?
The Reliability of PCR Tests
A scientist has been in touch to correct the Mail article about the unreliability of PCR tests that we wrote about yesterday.
One of the reports you highlighted, from the Daily Mail, included the quote: “Today the PCR test, which provides a yes or no answer if a patient is infected, doesn’t say how much of the virus a patient has in their body.”
I am sure your readers are intelligent enough to know the truth, which is that the PCR test does reveal how much virus is in the body, but that this information is not provided to ‘patients’ in the yes/no text message. The underlying technique used is qPCR, where the q stands for quantitative. Samples are run for multiple cycles, each one potentially doubling the amount of target DNA. If there is a lot of starting material then fewer cycles will be needed than if there are only a few copies.
A good analogy is the rice/grain on a chessboard legend. Each cycle represents the next square, and twice the DNA. The difference between a test from an infectious individual (fewer than ~26 cycles) and one at maximal sensitivity (up to 42 cycles) is therefore potentially 2^16, or 65,000-times more.
PHE presumably knows how many cycles were needed for each positive test; it would be gross incompetence not to collect this data. The interesting question is whether they are passing this information on in briefings to ministers. My guess is that with admissions continuing to fall the vast bulk of positives have required high cycle numbers, indicating limited to no infectivity.
Carl Heneghan covered this in a bit more depth here.
Et Tu, Wetherspoons?
I thought Wetherspoons was a beacon of sanity during this madness. But apparently not, according to one reader.
I wanted to share with you my concern at developments at Wetherspoons, previously a beacon of sanity in our current mad situation, with clear signage and protocols in place to support the measures put in place by the government, but no enforcement and a lightness of touch seen in very few other places. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks ago one of their London pubs received heavy media criticism for – allegedly – not following the ‘rules’ around track and trace, social distancing, and so on (though in reality I suspect this criticism was based on ignorance of what the law actually requires). Now, individual pub managers have to risk assess their own venue, meaning that the uniformity of practice that previously made all Wetherspoons branches a safe space for sceptics has been watered down.
My experience today will illustrate this. I went into two Wetherspoons pubs in the same city. In the first, new signs said that track and trace forms must be handed to staff, but nobody that I saw was asked for one, and I bought two rounds of drinks and lunch without being challenged. Good for them. In the second, where I simply wanted a drink, I was first of all told off for not standing in quite the right place whilst waiting to order (having in fact moved off the right place at the request of a waitress carrying trays of hot food). Then, I was told by the heavily masked man behind the bar that I needed a table number simply in order to buy a drink. This was a classic piece of jobsworthiness, since nobody was checking and the drinks were still handed to the customer at the bar, so if I’d simply plucked a number out of thin air instead of querying it, I’d have got my drink. Needless to say, I made my excuses and left.
One of the sad things about the current situation is that it has taken all of the joy out of eating or drinking out (and shopping). Not knowing what the rules will be before you step into a place makes it simpler and less stressful simply not to bother. Previously, Wetherspoons was an exception to that bleak outlook. Now, not so much.
Professor Says Stop Listening to the Experts in Telegraph
I spotted a good letter in the Telegraph yesterday from a Professor.
SIR – Like many experienced medical academics who are not members of bureaucratic government committees, I despair at the clear evidence from the precipitate falls in hospital admissions and death rates that the Covid epidemic is drawing to a natural conclusion, and that lockdown has had little, if any influence. It has, however, had profound effects on morbidity and deaths from non-Covid causes, quite apart from trashing our economy.
We desperately need better “expert” advice, proper public discussion and above all decisive political leadership.
If the way out of this mess is not handled better than the way in, particularly the economic consequences, we face terminal decline. However, suggestions of major tax rises from a nominally Tory government do not bode well. On the face of it, would anything have been different had Jeremy Corbyn been successful at the December election?
Professor R A Risdon
London SW13
The COVID-19 Assembly
This got a very positive response yesterday, with over 70 people signing up, so we’re running it again.
The man behind Lockdown Truth, a companion website, is starting something called the COVID-19 Assembly. We asked him to do a few paragraphs explaining what it is.
The purpose of the COVID-19 Assembly is to allow the people themselves to take control of the COVID-19 narrative rather than the government and the mainstream media. By bypassing the MSM we will undertake the job of getting the real facts out to the public. One of the biggest problems with the current situation is that there is very limited information that the average person will come across without specifically looking for it. Most people simply aren’t aware that they don’t know many of the key facts about COVID-19 and “lockdown”.
We will create eye-catching and easy to understand content. Our “Top Ten Facts” can then be downloaded as leaflets, posters, roller displays, public presentations and slideshows for tablets and phones. All information will be based on official data and will avoid “conspiracy theories” which may put people off listening or helping. Volunteers will operate autonomously and present the facts to friends, families, colleagues, neighbours, clubs and amenity groups via pop-up displays in town squares and village halls or small meetings and workshops.
We will aim to create a diverse collection of people from ordinary members of the public to Nobel laureates working together to take control of this matter once and for all. Everyone has a part to play whether you just share our facts on social media or set up and run a local group. We need to work at local level changing public perception one person at a time. If we all do a little then the effect could be enormous.
If you’d like to join the Assembly, click here.
More Bad News For Partners of Pregnant Women
We’ve had a few emails from pregnant women and women who’ve recently given birth following our story yesterday about an expectant father not being able to attend his baby’s scan. This one was the most comprehensive.
Just wanted to get in touch to follow up on the piece in today’s Lockdown Sceptics regarding fathers’ attendance at antenatal scans. I’m afraid it’s not just scans that fathers are banned from – it gets worse. I’m currently pregnant with our second child, so I’m living under these rules at the moment. They differ up and down the country, but are broadly similar. A handful of trusts have lifted some of these restrictions. The rest (including my own) seem happy to stick with their ‘new normal’. Here is a summary of what pregnant women and their families are experiencing in my area and beyond.
Reduction in face to face appointments. I’ve already had two phone appointments so far during my pregnancy. I was surprised and slightly horrified to find that one of my future appointments during late pregnancy, a whole month after a face-to-face appointment, will also be held over the phone/video call. At every normal, routine midwife appointment, they do vital checks such as checking blood pressure, taking a urine sample and measuring the size of your bump. These checks can pick up serious issues for both mother and baby, such as pre-eclampsia, and fetal growth issues. Surely there is a high risk to pregnant women and unborn babies by holding a phone appointment, where you cannot do these vital physical checks? Even if you feel well in yourself, this doesn’t mean all is well with your baby, so how is a phone appointment adequate? Phone appointments have been continuing, even as lockdown has started to lift, and when cases in my area have been very low for some time. Hugely worrying- how many complications will be missed/have already been missed as a result?
No fathers at scans or any antenatal appointments. At our trust, they’ve just started letting fathers into antenatal scans, but my husband has already missed both the 12 and 20 week scans. I have heard stories on social media of women being told when they’re alone, that their baby has sadly died, or has a serious abnormality. Unbelievable when you consider that a father to be is currently allowed to sit in a busy pub, yet can’t be there at such a vital appointment with his pregnant partner.
No fathers/visitors on the antenatal/labour wards. If you’ve had labour induced (I won’t go into detail but I can tell you, it’s no picnic, it’s incredibly painful and it can take DAYS), if you’re awaiting a planned caesarean section, of if you’ve just come into hospital having gone into labour naturally, women are not allowed to have anyone with them, when previously you could have your partner by your side. Once you’re found to be in “established labour”, you get transferred to a private room and your partner can join you. If you’re having a C section, your partner is only allowed to join you just before you go down to theatre. Partners/fathers are being told to sit in the car and wait.
This is a very stressful and scary (not to mention painful!) time, and being separated from your partner at this point in labour must be truly horrible. I don’t know how this works in practice – maybe they’re more lenient than the rules suggest but it’s clear that many, many women have laboured alone.
It looks like this might be starting to change, and at my trust, they’re allowing a short 1 hour visit per day to the wards – not a lot at all though.
The thought of women labouring alone, at all, even in the early stages, or during the induction of labour, for any length of time, sounds awful. It’s well known that stress during labour is detrimental to the normal, natural progress of birth, and the support of your partner is critical. Yet somehow the NHS is allowing this to happen. This is something I haven’t personally experienced, but I’ve seen many a social media story highlighting how awful it was being alone during this time. I’d be interested to hear how women who gave birth since March have found the experience.
No fathers/visitors on the postnatal ward. A few hours after the birth, fathers must leave and cannot see their partner or their newborn baby until they’re both discharged from hospital. This can be anything from a few hours to a few days or rarely, a few weeks. This also looks to be slowly changing, and some trusts are offering short visits per day (an hour or so), but it’s not the same as having round the clock support from your partner. When you’re on the ward, you have a newborn baby to take care of, and some women are recovering from major abdominal surgery (a C section) or a traumatic birth. I personally don’t know how I would have coped on the postnatal ward on my own after our first baby was born.
Every parent knows that those first few days are a crucial time for bonding, and a time when new mothers really need the support of their partners and family. I dread to think the stress that new mothers have gone through being separated from their partners during parts of their labour and then after the birth, as well as the emotional heartbreak for new fathers at what should be an exciting time.
Fathers are not normal ‘visitors’ to the hospital – they are a crucial part of pregnancy and birth, and it’s ludicrous that they are being excluded.
I wonder about the long term negative effects of all of this. Will we see an increase in rates of PTSD following difficult births (where women have been alone for long periods), more cases of post natal depression, and an increase in pregnancy complications from a lack of monitoring?
It’s worth noting what the NHS says about the risk of COVID-19 to pregnant women: “There’s no evidence that pregnant women are more likely to get seriously ill from coronavirus. But pregnant women have been included in the list of people at moderate risk (clinically vulnerable) as a precaution. This is because pregnant women can sometimes be more at risk from viruses like flu. It’s not clear if this happens with coronavirus. But because it’s a new virus, it’s safer to include pregnant women in the moderate-risk group.”
So far, no studies seem to have found that pregnant women are more at risk than others. What covid does seem to have caused among pregnant women is increased anxiety, and the feeling that they need to lock themselves away. I wonder how many women have avoided getting medical attention when they’ve felt something isn’t quite right because they’re too scared to go to hospital, and how many have experienced mental health issues, both before and after the birth.
It’s clear that midwives and doctors are working incredibly hard to do their best for pregnant women and try to support them as best they can during this time, but the exclusion of fathers, and reduction in face to face care in particular feels wrong and disproportionate, especially since cases have been falling for some time.
People are up in arms about this, understandably. Somebody has set up a petition against the restrictions on fathers during birth here, which is approaching 200,000 signatures, but apparently has so far been ignored by Matt Hancock and others.
For now, the only loophole to all of this is to opt for a home birth. They can’t yet ban a father from his own home…
Round-Up
- ‘Liberty in lockdown‘ – Very good piece by Laura Dodsworth in the Critic about the handful of people who are standing up for our rights
- ‘Will evidence-based medicine be another casualty of COVID-19?‘ – Good piece in the Journal of Advanced Nursing by Prof Roger Watson and Dr Niall McCrae
- ‘Portugal likely to go back on quarantine list as coronavirus cases rise‘ – Boris has been throwing darts at a map of Europe again. Bad news for holidaymakers in the Algarve. Some 719 flights with 127,975 seats were scheduled in the 12 days to August 31st
- ‘Greece added to Scotland’s quarantine list as cases rise‘ – Meanwhile, Nic Sturge-On has hit Greece on her dartboard
- ‘Schools reopening: returning children “will be three months behind”‘ – Just three months? Sounds optimistic to me. Estimate based on a report by the National Foundation for Educational Research
- ‘Let’s be honest, the NHS is awful‘ – Provocative piece by Henry Jeffreys in UnHerd
- ‘The Denial of Cancel Culture‘ – Excellent follow-up piece in Quillette by Professor Eric Kaufmann to the recent report he co-authored for Policy Exchange on the perilous state of academic free speech
- ‘A Doctors’ Open Letter to Daniel Andrews‘ – Good piece in Quadrant by a dozen Melbourne doctors
- ‘BBC’s new boss threatens to axe Left-wing comedy shows‘ – That would be all of them, then?
- ‘Academics Are Really, Really Worried About Their Freedom‘ – John McWhorter takes up the cry in the Atlantic
- ‘Thousands Join Massive London Rally against Covid Tyranny‘ – Jim Holt enjoyed Saturday’s rally
- ‘We need to end cancel culture‘ – Excellent piece in Spiked by Promise Frank Ejiofor
- ‘The NHS looks like a heartless behemoth which is deaf to the people’s suffering‘ – Allison Pearson’s on top form in the Telegraph
- ‘Architect of Sweden’s Covid policy given WHO promotion‘ – Johan Giesecke has been voted in as Deputy Chair of the WHO’s Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Infectious Hazards
- ‘Down, but not out: hydroxychloroquine could still have a role against COVID-19‘ – Article exploring the potential of HCQ as a prophylactic in the Pharmaceutical Journal by the Oxford group carrying out trial
- ‘SCAREDY SIR Newly-qualified teacher ridiculed after posting selfie in mask with message saying “I’m scared and so are the students”‘ – Bedwetting teacher ridiculed in the Sun
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Four today: “Let Me Learn” by Krayzie Bone, “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime” by the Korgis, “Will We Ever Learn” by Wage War and “Teaching is the Key” by Aurel Mihaili.
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
We’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 5th to Oct 14th). 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 31,000).
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 (flimsy 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. If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links we should include in future updates, email us here. (If you want us to link to something, don’t forget to include the HTML code).
And Finally…
The latest video from Media Bear is worth watching. Anyone know more about this anti-lockdown band? If so, email us here.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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.
Hospital has ‘closed its doors’ to patients, LMC warns NHS England
GP leaders have written to NHS England to demand that an NHS hospital trust urgently restores routine referrals as it has ‘closed its doors’ to some patients, ‘destabilising’ practices in the process.
Oxfordshire LMC said local GPs are ‘concerned and angry’ about the ‘ongoing closure’ to routine referrals across multiple ‘high-demand’ specialties by Oxford University Hospital Foundation Trust, while warning GPs are also being asked to carry out tests that should be done in hospital.
A ‘significant’ number of specialties are affected, including ENT, general gynaecology, dermatology, ophthalmology, endoscopy and urology, as well as plastics and maxillofacial, it added.
The hospital trust said it had remained open for urgent and emergency care and was accepting clinically urgent and suspected cancer referrals, while reinstating services to support ‘the vast majority’ of routine referrals.
In April, NHS England told GPs to continue referring patients to secondary care despite restrictions on elective care due to Covid-19.
Last month, it outlined that trusts must make their e-referrals service ‘fully open’ to GPs.
But Oxfordshire LMC has this week written to NHS England and the council of governors at OUHFT to demand that… Read more »
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/hospital-has-closed-its-doors-to-patients-lmc-warns-nhs-england/20041326.article
Link to above article.
“NHS England has encouraged GPs to ‘keep patients away from hospital’, despite recent messages to restart routine care.
In the latest update to the GP standard operating procedures, NHS England said GPs should continue to use specialist advice and guidance ‘where available’ to avoid referring patients for outpatient appointments.
But GP leaders said the guidance is ‘disingenuous’.
Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, GPs have warned that they are managing more patients ‘outside their comfort zone’ due to less support from secondary care services.
And one LMC last week warned NHS England that its local hospital has ‘closed its doors to patients’.
However, the standard operating procedure reiterated that GPs should ‘continue to refer patients’ to secondary care, basing judgements around urgency on ‘usual clinical thresholds’.
The document said: ‘GPs should continue to use specialist advice and guidance where available to inform the management of patients in primary care and avoid unnecessary outpatient activity.
‘These services should strengthen existing care pathways and keep patients away from hospital settings unless a referral is necessary.’
It added that they should take into consideration the ‘need for non-face-to-face consultations, likely delays in restarting routine elective activity and communicating likely delays to patients at point… Read more »
PCR testing – asymptomatic people who are testing positive but may have had the virus weeks ago could get a second test perhaps a month later… if this is positive too it would help to expose the Big Lie.
**New update is available**
Flu: The World Health Organization estimates that 1 billion people worldwide get the flu every year.
In the U.S., for Oct. 1, 2019 – Apr. 4, 2020, the CDC estimates that there were 39 million to 56 million cases of flu. (The CDC does not know the exact number because the flu is not a reportable disease in most parts of the U.S.)
So far Covid, supposedly, has affected 25 million worldwide. 40 times less.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-disease-2019-vs-the-flu
Piers Corbyn motto: Stop New Normal, Save Lives
Disobey. Read Henry David Thoreau’s ‘On the duty of Civil Disobedience’. Still valid after all these years.
Go to Piers Corbyn and buy a weather forecast to help fund his defense. Or go to Donor Box on his Twitter account.
So many different groups, all wanting funding. But none of them are achieving very much, it seems. Other than to provide reading material for the likes of us, the already converted. I don’t have any suggestions, sadly. What can we, the powerless populace do? Feels like a bloody coup of governments around the world is the only solution. Sorry, having a bad day already.
He has already reached his target fine!
Stop New Normal is a new blog.
Rally scheduled for September 26, 2020, concurrent with Parliament’s decision to further extend the lockdown. Piers Corbyn on Richie Allen today, Wednesday, September 2, 2020.
Check Matt Cockup’s statement about the MHRA being independent after they received $400000 dollars from the Gates Foundation last September, 2019.
Gates has his grubby fingers in all our pies! Yet no newspaper runs with that story, no need to wonder why.
PuriTyrannical.
I am aware of a protest on Saturday but am also aware of the £100 fine for participants and £10,000 for organisers if it is over 30 people, which it probably will be.
I don’t know the approach the Police will take but knowing the people attending (generally StandUpX) fear they might not be fully conversant with the law and would be grateful to be pointed to advice which can be printed off and provided to the participants for their assistance should the Police intervene.
Thank you.
Firstly, it’s highly unlikely that you will be arrested if you are just walking or standing and generally behaving yourself.
You have your right to remain silent enshrined in law AND we are policed by consent. If you are arrested then you can calmly say ‘I do not consent. I am using my right to remain silent enshrined in law’. You can repeat this as often as necessary and remember you are under no obligation to talk to the police or say anything to incriminate yourself because you have not committed a crime (Criminal Law) you have broken a rule (Administrative Law) that has had no Parliamentary scrutiny and is Ultra Vires, meaning that the government has acted beyond their legal power. {I got partway through a law degree before I abandoned it as my tutor (Australian) didn’t know that Statute Law does NOT override Common Law, something stated clearly in one of my Law texts.)
Don’t take anything with your name on it in case you are searched.
Watch this – it’s the US but their law is essentially our law.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE
Good luck.
And don’t give them your name.
Eh? Do you argue your fixed penalty parking fines on the grounds that they are ‘ultra vires’? Not.
See instead laworfiction website.
One wonders if putting the boot on the other foot would work.
You know – taking their photograph and recording their name and number for the truth and reconciliation enquiry that will be held.
Get the buggers nervous about their pensions, it may make them behave a bit better now.
Last year (up to this March) I helped out coaching my littler boy’s group at the local rugby club at the weekend (U6s). They’re starting up again next weekend (now U7s), so the “coaches” met up today at the pub to talk through the plan.
Firstly, the new rules. Not too bad on balance – and at least the kids will be able to enjoy a relatively normal experience. Stand-out weirdness as follows:
– kids must have a break for water every 15 minutes. Own water bottles only and they must sanitise their hands with sanitiser brought from home (yeah, right)
– all balls must also be cleaned every 15 minutes (this was the topic of a lot of jokey and dismissive conversation)
– no Velcro tags allowed (the kids usually wear a Velcro belt with strips hanging off. Tearing off a strip counts as a tackle). Two handed tag tackles are allowed, however. But no contact (riddle me this!)
And next, the evening out.
Negatives:
– the first two pubs couldn’t seat us inside, despite being palpably nearly empty. So we didn’t stay there
– deeply excessive measures at those first two pubs. Doors manned, one way… Read more »
Phil Murphy has told New Jerseyans that if they don’t like the way he’s running the state, they can leave. And statistically he is in fact the number one governor to get away from.
https://nypost.com/2020/09/01/new-jersey-new-york-top-list-of-states-people-are-fleeing-most/
A diehard lockdowner, with all it entails 🙁
Driving around recently brought 2 depressing sights (with apologies for the Yankee spellings)
1. Car license plate ending in “DNR”.
2. a Jeep Wrangler that had a spare tire cover with the “Life is Good” logo.
Just as well that brand got launched before 2020, cause it needs an edit now.
Is this true? https://www.travelpulse.com/news/impacting-travel/cdc-quietly-drops-mandatory-14-day-quarantine-after-traveling.html
If so then why all this carry-on still carrying-on? Oh that’s right, stupid politicians and civil servants and the lust for power and control.
The link seems to have been removed!
“ The Scottish government said it was common for other viral infections to circulate after a “prolonged break” away from school.”
So masks and other measures stop
Covid but somehow other viruses are able to circulate as normal?
Yes, hard not to burst out laughing at that pathetic excuse.
Mind you it most likely indicates the level of understanding within the Natzi party.
Of course. Don’t you know this is a very smart virus.
Covid knows not to pass through those holes or gaps in your nappy.
It knows not to infect you when you are eating or drinking on a plane.
It knows it is only allowed to infect restaurant and pub customers whilst entering/exiting a premises or going to the lavatory.
It can infect you in the whole school apart from the classroom.
Other viruses need to get with the Covid programme.
This will be interesting to see if seasonal sniffles do actually spread like they usually do even with an the mental measures to stop the covids…I bet they will have very little effect at all. If they do have an effect it will be to BOOST seasonal colds and sniffles as we are all now presumably very susceptible to any kind of exposure to winter cold viruses as we have had little exposure to them (if the PPE and SD Works) which I am sure it doesn’t.. Perhaps the masks will boost other infections. It will be interesting.
There will very likely be an increase in bacterial infections amongst kids, they already have enough problems with facial grease, overactive sweat glands etc.
Somehow we must make the Karens personally liable for this.
All teachers identified as a Karen to lose any pension rights above state minimum as compensation to the young whose lives they have wilfully wrecked?
This is only a taster of the bacterial issues:
https://www.foxnews.com/health/mask-mouth-dentists-new-term
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3572607242773885&id=138007436233900&anchor_composer=false
Public health Agency. Comments brilliant. Shot themselves in the foot again
People are fed up. Even those who follow nothing but the fear based msm are looking around saying “where are the bodies?”
“Can I have a pint yet?”
It’s totally ridiculous. Every other illness, even cancer has had to take second place to bloody Covid. Look, OK in the beginning when they didn’t know what to expect I could understand it, but now? Goodness knows what the mental health professionals will have to deal with when normal service is resumed. I’m horrified by the thought that this already underfunded and overstretched service is just not going to cope.
Yep, apparently 500,000 people alone in this country took an online programme re:suicide prevention.
The point is they’re working on normal service not being resumed and this is what we have to resist. Nothing to do with a virus. And they need to know that we know that.
My first day back teaching after five months today. We are unusual among secondary schools in that we taught a full timetable of live video lessons, with close to full attendance among pupils. So our pupils have not been as badly affected as many. A September free of teaching was therefore never an option, which is presumably why I’ve not heard a single colleague claim it’s unreasonable to be asked to go back.
Teachers seem to divide into three groups. Perhaps a quarter are “bedwetters”, who literally spend their frees wearing masks and plastic gloves in empty classrooms. As irrational as most of them are, they are genuinely frightened, and I have more sympathy with this group than with the sanctimonious bullies, the teaching union types who seem to love this virus and have taken it upon themselves to police their colleagues just as much as the pupils. In a meeting yesterday, when someone asked a member of senior management if it was really necessary to wear a mask in an empty corridor, a member of this second group (who had not even been asked) interrupted to say, “If in doubt wear the mask. We need to be the model… Read more »
Well done. And good to hear so many teachers are sceptical.
I’m hoping my girl’s new teacher is like you. Thumbs up!
Live Video Lessons – Well done to all of you! Shame my Granddaughters school did nothing like that!!
Great post. Thanks for your total professionalism. Wish more teachers and lecturers were like you.
I second that. Excellent report
Great to hear this. Keep on!
The mask fanatics are a cult. The Ku Klux Karen.
This kind of front line information is really valuable.
Thank you, everyone. Liam, as I learned today, masks make excellent hats; they can also be used as catapults, or for garrotting one’s friends. And they double as a handkerchief. They can even be hooked onto friends’ ears and pulled. I fully approve of all of this, of course, but I can’t imagine they have any hygienic value in a school.
Lol, Molesworth would love them…
Good post, could someone with some legal expertise compose a standardised letter of legal liability that we sceptics can hand to the Karens to sign when they are bloviating about masks.
Unlimited personal liability including pension rights for any harms caused by mask wearing etc etc
Wow. Reads like Catch 22 in its craziness. And you are Yossarian.
Thank you, Quodcumque, I am very interested to hear of your experiences. (I am regarding with alarm and incredulity the preparations my university is putting in place for when we start teaching in a few weeks.) It’s a shame it’s late in the evening, as your post won’t be live for much longer: I imagine lots of people here would like to read it. It’s richly textured and encouragingly acerbic. Please post again as your term progresses.
UK – State or independent school?
The dystopian future is almost upon us, at least if Jeremy Hunt gets his way:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/02/mass-weekly-covid-19-testing-of-population-to-be-trialled-in-england
This proposal, from an obvious maniac, is very, very worrying.
This is insane for such a mild virus.
The Guardian. Hunt will not get his way with that.
He’s campaigning – after all when Boris is ‘removed’ he must be next in line given he was second in the contest! He’s a nasty piece of work.
He’s a piece of something…. 🙂
So… I hate to be “this guy” on the thread, here… but let me repeat something that I’ve’ been saying to my Mom.
We’re Christians, and my mom is convinced that we are living “in the end times.” She is absolutely certain of this. I keep reminding her of the Bible itself, which says “nobody knows the time or the place,” and I find myself referencing history as a guide. Early Christians who were prosecuted by various governments all believed that the book of Revelation was in direct reference to their present situation. It wasn’t.
I don’t doubt that nations rise and fall, that conquerors come and go, and that would-be conquerors come and are defeated. Who know this better than the English and the French? Hell, the French are on both sides of that historical fact, within a hundred years.
There are always revolutionaries among us. There are always dictatorial politicians, and power hungry technocrats, and people who want to re-create the world in their own image… and it turns out that these people are not in control. Not nearly as much as they wish.
I am not saying that this dystopian future is not possible, and surely… Read more »
Well said. And agree with you. Sooner or later, they will overstep, if they have not done so already. And our movement is growing daily. The sands of time are running out.
I would love that to be the case and agree that people will turn against it. I fear, however, the decisions made in late March & April mean there is no way back and it is just a matter of time before the collapse. However I severely underestimated humanity and didn’t think we’d get this far so can only hope I have it wrong overall. If there is hope it has to come from those, united on this only as we must be, wanting the end to all lockdowns, masks, distancing and all the rest of it.
Announced on the same day as proposals for a digital health ID. Are they softening us up again?
But as ever good old TB gets a free pass.
Yeah, that’s not going to work. 67 million people every week? The man’s a klutz. Obviously has an agenda but fuck knows what. Think of the logistics that would entail let alone the cost
Needed to take 2 of my cats for checkups at the vets’ today. We had to wait in the car park for the vet to come out to collect the cats. She was wearing a mask even though we were outside. I said “I hope things will be more normal when I next come now corona death rates are so low. She replied “I hope so too but people are just so scared.”
I was lucky to be with my old girl to the final needle recently. No mask required and was allowed to have a good cry in the examination room before exiting.
Then a masked lady offered her rough condolences of “brutal isn’t it?” and without being able to see her face it kind of bothered me.
Hope your cats are doing well!
Sorry for your loss. They do leave little paw prints on our heart, don’t they.. remember the good times & treasure them.
It’s so sad when you lose a pet. Glad you were treated with a bit of kindness.
I’m so sorry for your loss. I’m glad you were able to be with her at the end. My friend and I were wondering if people would be allowed to say goodbye to their pets while we were waiting. My cats received a clean bill of health I’m pleased to say and Harry, who had lost weight unexpectedly last year now weighs a stone again.
Taxing their way out of this mess isn’t possible.
Steve Baker MP writes:
“The tax burden is found to have been close already to the upper limit of historic sustainability before the pandemic. The evidence shows it is difficult to raise the non-oil tax burden above 39% of factor cost GDP for any time.”
https://twitter.com/SteveBakerHW/status/1300402195230330880?s=20
Read his informed letter to Sunak following a committee meeting.
One step at a time. I agree with what he says about the tax, but can we get rid of the lockdown first please?
Steve Baker is also one of the only people talking sense re. central banks and how we do money more generally. Did some good talks for Cobden Centre etc. years back.
Warren Mosler
Says there is in fact a Magic Money Tree
It must be quite exhilarating to someone like Whitty, Sturgeon or Hancock ETC, that after being an unknown in the shadows, that suddenly you make a statement, do this do that, and people actually do it, its how dictators are born.
Mhmm, well many, many people are just ignoring any new restrictions in the North West, mask wearing seems to be decreasing too. Carl Heneghan seems to be in every news article in every paper Express, Mail, Sun, Guardian, Spectator and on TV, inc BBC almost daily. Constantly questioning the data, the tests, the fear. I don’t think people are going to go along with it much longer. So what will they do to us next to make us behave?
The cracks are there Wendy! Kicking off in Oz too, big time :o))
The most encouraginv thing about Oz is the class action against Chairman Dan.
I hope it spreads to here and they can be launched against Kim Il Handycock and Kim Jong SturgOn as well.
Personal liability is the only way to concentrate minds.
The big problem is none of the people shutting the economy down have any skin in the game.
I know. Stocking up on popcorn for the fun and games to come.
I’ve stopped reading and watching the majority of MSM, too annoying, and havent seen Carl Heneghan just read his comments and totally agree. Yes more of the intelligent ones do seem to be waking up and speaking out more now. South coast today, no masks and cafe very busy, all very normal instead of abnormal.
Yes I agree, MSM and TV very depressing, it’s just I found some links on Simon Dolan’s website to Carl Heneghan’s articles and searched his name to see where else he has been interviewed. If they are choosing to interview him and report what he is saying there must be a reason.
I wish I shared your optimism, it’s not like that where I live in keighley, mask wearing on the up, especially outside, it’s very depressing.
Indeed, mask compliance is still very high round here. I really wish there was more pushback.
I am sure it will turn.
I expect more from the North before it reaches us here in the South though.
Alan Jones Sky Australia on Zoe Lee arrest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcHUGZGT9V4
Too shocked to comment further!
How can this go on?
My e-mail to Alan Jones:
Thanks for writing that!
👍
we need someone to say something similar on Sky News UK- might be waiting a long time
As a very worried Australian I thank you!
If you feel as angry about this as I do:
daniel.andrews@parliament.vic.gov.au
tel:+61(0)396515000
To:
[email protected]
Wed, 2 Sep at 21:51
Sir
It is time for you to go. This evil, vile behaviour cannot be tolerated anywhere in the world. We hanged people like you after Nuremburg in 1946.
Done
Every day, it seems I hear something I wouldn’t have thought possible 6 months ago. Flipping Australia, not China FFS!
Strangling a girl for going out without a mask.
Breaking car windows of people too far from home.
6 months in prison for a lady who tried to smuggle herself out of The Peoples Republic of Victoria.
Drones flying round checking you are within the required distance from your home.
And now, arresting a pregnant woman for a post on Facebook.
How there has not been a statewide uprising is beyond my comprehension.
The sheeple are Baaaaaadly brianwashed
It’s coming.
Good!
holy shitstick, that video is awful. There should be massive violent protesting in Australia.
Indeed, if she was a person of no appearance would the police have been brave enough to do that?
In the book Lord of the Flies we are given an allegory on how society might function without rules. Society in this case is represented by schoolboys stranded on an island after their plane crashes.
The 2020 reboot of this would involve politicians on an island just across the Channel from France, overdosed on Haribo Starmix (see this advert if you’re not aware of how they’re advertised: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9scm3NCIH_E) made paranoid by a virus that once swept the land. They can’t be sure that the virus won’t return so set about making arbitrary rules and regulations designed to stop the virus from ever coming back. In their blindness they think nothing of killing some of their own in the pursuit of their goals.
As a modern day twist to the ending there are unfortunately no adults to come and save them and society as they knew it dies with them.
The Truth is Contagious.
https://youtu.be/zxtWzq7HMp4
I’ve received emails about the new season from two football clubs which I follow, to the extent of attending about 5 or 6 matches per season in each case. I won’t name them but one is in the Championship and the other in the National League, both of which are categorised as elite sport.
The Championship club will be allowing season ticket holders only (that rules me out), who will be seated individually or in “bubble pairs”. It doesn’t say if a larger group living in the same house will be allowed to sit together. The phrase “temporarily reduced capacity” is used twice and they expect that demand will exceed this capacity. There is also the club’s own live TV option, free to season ticket holders and available for £10 per match to others.
Clubs at National League level are more dependent on ticket receipts. Capacity will be restricted to 15% or 30% of the normal maximum, not sure how it’s decided which one but may depend on stadium layout. Even at 30% my club will have significantly fewer spectators than their average for last season. To compensate for this they will be increasing ticket prices. Season tickets will… Read more »
I’m really surprised that football clubs aren’t kicking up more of a fuss. Maybe they are behind the scenes. Operating at 10-30% capacity is not feasible for any of them. Even a lot of the premier league clubs will suffer. If the government want to get the economy going then allowing crowds at sporting events is key. It’s not going to happen though. It’s going to be a long, tedious process to get then to even 50% capacity I think.
If masks work, then why do we need capacity limits?
Oh God in Heaven. It just makes me want to scream myself hoarse.
One day I’m going to run naked down the street screaming (apologies in advance to my neighbours). And when they lock me up at least I’ll have a bit of peace and hopefully too many drugs to care anymore.
As long as you wear a mask and mention BLM you should be fine to do as you please
.. & identify as a migrant too. Might as well chuck in the trifecta. Saw a charity rep. earlier say migrants have been through enough, no masks or social distancing required.
I think my club should keep fans away forever thus the toxic home atmosphere at the Emirates will never be experienced again. Surely we can win the league now! 🙂
I do like to read about things I don’t know about. Thank you for this report!
Latest News From Fascist Melbourne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swXk11hxB5U
https://www.instagram.com/p/CEo6o5LHi_4/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
They’ll be cash rich when this recession becomes a tsunami and businesses go bust. Monopolies ahoy!