Postcard From Dystopialand
I’ve had a very busy day and unfortunately don’t have time to do a proper update. So I thought I’d just publish this marvellous postcard I’ve received from Disneyland Paris. Disneyland has become Dystopialand.
We all need a little normalcy in our lives. And a little fun. Hence, with lockdowns threatening to make a comeback in the winter months, it was quickly determined in our household that it was now or never to get our fill of the Disney themepark experience. It is still not popularly acknowledged, but such attractions are genuinely at risk of permanent closure due to the appalling economics associated with low capacity operations. I had run the numbers on the airline sector. They were bad enough. But theme parks like Disneyland were equally vulnerable. (Do see South Park’s Cartmanland episode to get the basic idea). V-shape or no v-shape recovery, the economic damage is such that in the long run only government bailouts or nationalisation are likely to preserve such assets. A nationalised Disneyland, however, is not something I can realistically stomach. And so it was we decided to set off to Paris and bear the consequences of quarantine.
Unfortunately, what we encountered upon arrival was worse than anything I could ever have anticipated. Disneyland Paris is no more. What used to be a beaming beacon of American enlightenment values, liberty and human potential has been radically shifted and morphed into the exact opposite. Disney is now dystopialand. A corporate conditioning exercise promoting the new normal. Merchandised, to boot. Which means you get to go to dystopia and keep the face mask.
Annoyingly, I’d missed the clues to Disney’s capitulation to this state of affairs. Or the scale of the dystopia they were now peddling.
A few weeks ago Disney had put out some exceptionally creepy mask-ridden propaganda in a bid to present the illusion things were business as usual. I only caught the video once we were already here. (Had I seen it before I might have saved myself the €1000.)
My rationale for going had instead been misguided by an absolutely delightful trip to Peppa Pig World earlier in August where normalcy, common sense and fun had properly prevailed. Plus, I had wrongly assumed that outdoor mask-wearing, while recommended, would somehow be rationally and compassionately enforced.
How wrong I was.
There is nothing quite like the Disneyland experience in France, a country that is now enforcing mask-wearing everywhere, to make you realise the extent to which the rule has absolutely nothing to do with virus suppression and everything to do with social control, population conditioning and the normalisation of a Nazi-like mentality among those entrusted to police the standard. And that, really, is what’s truly frightening.
Control is asserted via a hierarchal top-down formation.
At the top of the pyramid lie the mouse gestapo – intimidating-looking private security guards bearing what appear to be either guns or at a minimum a taser arsenal. They monitor the outdoor areas demanding full compliance with the company’s mask-wearing protocol at all times. The usual exemptions that work in Britain simply do not apply. Don’t bother telling a stormtrooper you have asthma or a visceral fear of masks. You will be escorted out of the park pronto. The only exemption comes by way of a signed off medical release which entitles a visitor to a coloured exemption wristband. No wristband, no exemption.
The active enforcement of this standard on people simply peeking their noses out while walking many metres apart is what’s really gut wrenching. If the stormtroopers don’t get you, it will be the park employees that do – they’re the next down in the structural enforcement order. “EXCUSE ME!” they shout, if they spot a stray nostril. “Please put on your mask properly. It must be worn over your mouth and nose at all times or else it is not effective and you will put other visitors in danger.” The shaming is very loud, clear and self-righteous.
Eating and drinking is a key park revenue generator. So there’s obviously an exemption for that. But here is where even greater madness lies.
Word from staff is that after outdoor mask wearing was first mandated, people were buying bottles of water and carrying them around to avoid the masks. But this is now verboten. A mask must be maintained on your chin – literally, on your chin – at all times even if you are walking and drinking or eating. The only time you can remove it is while sitting down to eat or drink (or in the privacy of the public conveniences).
The walking rule is perhaps the most egregious example of the disingenuous norms at hand. If this was really about virus control nobody would be encouraging people to keep a mask on their chin while scoffing popcorn or ice cream.
Defiance of the system however is hard. I had brought visors with us. But they were also soon deemed verboten and “dangerous”. We then thought a good workaround might be the consumption of lollipops. That worked okay for a while, but eventually the sugar intake began to take its toll. And even then you could feel the watchers – i.e. all the other visitors – judging you all the time. The watchers represent the final rung of the enforcement pyramid. It is they who ultimately give the control system its strength. The system works because even those who don’t believe in masks end up watching everyone else, just to ensure they are not being unfairly disadvantaged by others who are getting away with not wearing them.
All of this leads to a highly dystopic and sinister experience. The reality is that without the feedback of smiles or happy expressions, there is no fun or laughter to be had. The human spirit is highly sensitised to such feedback. Without it, everything becomes miserable. All there is is permanent scrutiny of others and dutiful compliance with orders. It’s a process-oriented experience focused on working your way through the rides. You become an automaton. De-sensitised. Disempowered.
After the sixth or seventh time of being told off for not wearing a mask properly, you begrudgingly begin to conform just for the sake of some peace and quiet. And then you realise this is exactly how liberty dies and how everything we as humans value in life becomes eroded. You also realise this is undoubtedly the same process by which perfectly normal people allowed Nazism to take root in their communities.
When this realisation sinks in all you can do to stay sane is try to identify other potential allies who might rally to your cause in the event you finally lose your shit. Look there, you think to yourself, that chap has his nose out! Quickly, give him a look of knowing support and solidarity. Oh darn it, he thinks you’re scolding him because you can’t effectively express solidarity with the power of eyebrows alone. It is then you realise the dissidents in the park need their own secret way of signalling to each other. Ah ha! The Winnie the Pooh balloon. Surely that’s the most effective show of disdain for authoritarianism at Disneyland? But does anyone else get the Xi Jengping reference? How about hanging around the liberty court on Main Street in quiet protest against authoritarianism bearing said Winnie the Pooh balloon? If only we dissidents could get the message out.
Oh bugger, you then realise, even Winnie’s been repressed. There he is caged off in a character safe-space because a full-on character hazmat suit has been deemed not enough to protect workers from the hazard that are masked-up parents with children. Mickey, Donald, Minnie, Pluto – they are all caged or cordoned off.
That’s the sadness of it all. It’s not just that they’ve cancelled all the character meet ups, all the parades and all the fireworks. It’s that even when you are taking a selfie five metres away from Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse you get scolded for the audacity of trying to take a maskless picture. This surely is insanity?
Other mad procedures in play include no housekeeping, no room service and no buffets. Many rides and shows remain closed or not operational, and half of the park’s hotels never opened to begin with. Not that there are any significant discounts!
To sum up: Don’t go to Disneyland Paris. The magic is gone. Disneyland is now a horror show.
Round-Up
- ‘Should we be worried about the uptick in Covid cases? Almost certainly not‘ – My piece in the Telegraph pooh-poohing Matt Hancock’s talk of a second wave
- ‘Covid Dystopia Comes To Melbourne‘ – Great piece by Gideon Rozner in the American Conservative about the hellscape that is Melbourne
- ‘My mission to keep Britain free, by Simon Dolan‘ – Interview with Simon Dolan by Kathy Gyngell in the Conservative Woman
- ‘Our Parliament is a Dead Parrot. Write now and ask your MPs what they are being paid for, since they are not doing their jobs‘ – Peter Hitchens’s column in the Mail on Sunday in case you missed it
- ‘UK BLM leader banned from Twitter‘ – Twitter has taken down a tweet by UK BLM leader Sasha Johnson (no relation) saying: “The white man will not be our equal but our slave.” Shame
- ‘Legal lockdown challenge by the English Democrats‘ – More detail on the Judicial Review against the Lockdown Regulations and the Coronavirus Act being brought by Robin Tilbrook and the English Democrats
- ‘My boy’s own adventures all pass the woke test‘ – When Giles Coren is good, he’s very, very good
- ‘Northeastern University Dismisses 11 Students for Breaking Virus Rules but Keeps Their Tuition‘ – Eleven freshmen at Northeastern were caught having a party in temporary accommodation and they’ve all been expelled, with the University keeping their $36,500 annual tuition payments!
- ‘Northwestern University president apologises and reduces tuition after shifting 1st- and 2nd-year students to remote learning: “I understand that anger”‘ – Imagine signing up to a four year degree, shelling out $36,500 or thereabouts, and then being told that you’ll be learning remotely for the foreseeable future
- ‘Italy’s face mask rules make as much sense as a peeing section in a swimming pool‘ – Excellent piece by Oliver Smith, the Telegraph‘s Digital Travel Editor
- ‘There’s no good reason why Sweden isn’t on our quarantine-free list‘ – Another great article by Oliver Smith
- ‘Caerphilly county to go under local lockdown‘ – Hopelessly unreliable PCR testing indicated there are 55.4 cases per 100,000 population in Caerphilly so it’s back on the naughty step for the Welsh borough
- ‘Seven Greek islands axed as Government announces new quarantine policy‘ – Just to add to the confusion, Grant Shapps has decided to change the quarantine policy so areas are differentiated by region, not national borders. Lesvos, Tinos, Serifos, Mykonos, Crete, Santorini and Zakyntho have now been red-listed
- ‘What does RCGP surveillance tell us about COVID-19 in the community?‘ – The latest post on the Centre For Evidence-Based Medicine blog looks at GP data. Turns out, only 0.48% of patients think they’ve got the virus and of them only 1.7% actually tested positive
- ‘COVID-19 and the end of clinical medicine as we know it‘ – Here’s another from the saintly Carl Heneghan, this time with Tom Jefferson in the Spectator
- ‘We’ll pay a high price for Covid complacency‘ – Bedwetting nonsense from… Melanie Phillips of all people. Et tu, Melanie?
- ‘Evidence Not Fear‘ – Another plug for this well-curated sceptical website
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” by Bob Dylan and “There Aint No Sanity Clause” by The Damned
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums, 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 9th to Oct 19th). 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 31,500).
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 not so much today). 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 a link).
And Finally…
This satirical squib by a YouTuber calling herself WhatsHerFace is brilliant. Not sure who she is, but she’s a committed lockdown sceptic and has a razor-sharp tongue. Not everything she does is intended to be funny. In this video, she lets Kim-Jong Dan have it with both barrels.
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.
https://brandnewtube.com/watch/i-039-m-back-september-6th-2020_ZREIFY8auhMpzzQ.html
I’m Back! (September 6th 2020)
Dr Vernon Coleman
06 Sep 2020
did he get banned by the perverts at Youtube?
Almost. They kept taking his stuff down. He explains all in the linked video.
Dr Coleman was on the Richie Allen show yesterday and he explained where he moved. Something tube.
“OUR MOVEMENT, WE CAN WIN” Says Piers Corbyn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bjCkG6n0RI
This is someone I can get behind.
I don’t care too much what his thoughts are about other things.
There is nothing in that speech I disagree with and if that what he is going to fight for, I’m right behind him.
I like his optimism and definitely support his stand against the Covid Police State.
But it looks increasingly like our future has already been decided by powerful people months or perhaps even years ago behind closed doors – they are certainly going along with the Event 201 and Lockstep plan. There needs to be a mass awakening to avoid dystopia.
Its in our hands, as in we the people.
I think a lot of people just want to obey the law (as they see it), but think the whole thing is utter bullshit. They would be the ones who might push back.
There are us on here who know its bullshit.
Some are genuinely scared and/or are genuinely in at risk groups.
The rest are just bedwetters and lockdown/face nappy zealots and are lost souls.
It already is Dystopian. It’s just getting worse by the day.
Why Are Covid-19 Cases Soaring In NZ? PCR Test Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcONxyAJ8S4
Dr. Sam Bailey
87.8K subscribers
SUBSCRIBE
Dr Sam talks about what is happening in NZ in regards to COVID-19 and important information you should know about the COVID-19 PCR Test.
Cases are not soaring in NZ. And Dr Sam doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know. The UK uses several lines of evidence, e.g. the Covid symptom study tracked the daily cases numbers (~75%). The uptick in cases has been matched by an uptick in symptomatic cases.
She’s anti lockdown, anti social distancing and anti testing. She says cases are only going up because testing’s going up.
I’ve never been remotely tempted to visit Disneyland but that description of how it now operates is very saddening.
It reminded me of the young woman who visited Weston Super Mare for the August Bank Holiday. From going through the turnstile onto the pleasure pier she was obliged to wear a mask even though the purpose of such a pier is to be able to enjoy bracing sea airs while greeting fellow visitors with a cheery smile.
That would not be possible anyway since visitors are obliged to walk up one side and return down the other like a herd of donkeys, each following the arse of the one in front.
It sounds truly horrifying, and seems like the definitive example of the negative social and psychological effects of compulsory mask-wearing.
The Telegraph article on Italy linked below isn’t quite so crushingly depressing by comparison, but it does show very clearly how farcically pointless it is, masking up to walk through a restaurant crowded with unmasked diners for example.
Such a pity Toby didn’t enjoy Disneyhell.
But he failed to enjoy it for all the wrong reasons, as explained by this post on Trip Advisor:
“To conclude… if you are thinking of going I would wait until the pandemic is over as exposure to the virus is high risk here. Definitely feels very profit orientated which I find very sad when children are involved. However, Disney do not care as they know they have guaranteed custom but our family definitely won’t return and will encourage others considering not to either unless the park can up their game and make health a priority!”
Vive Disneysanté!
PS. Posted on 1 September,
(Pst… it wasn’t Toby sssh).
Good, maskoid miseryguts like that ‘trip advisor’ deserve to to stay home long after this is all over.
It wont be over unless we get together and do something about it. See my earlier post
I’m not entirely sure it isn’t Toby writing half of these postcards himself. I don’t know anyone other than the Toadmeister who consistently writes ‘normalcy’ when ‘normality’ will do…
Lots of people do it. It’s very irritating almost as irritating as people who say ‘disinterested’ when they mean ‘uninterested’.
“I am uninterested in writing interesting stories and disinterested in the reactions of others.”
For example.
or people who reach out instead of contact.
Stakeholder
customer
I always call my wife let a brand manager for LinkedIn when I hear such ludicrous terminology applied in a telephone call/zoom
I was upset about that but even more so by Fowler’s acceptance of the usage.
Fowler be damned. Disinterested is not the same as uninterested [yawn].
It appears to me that if Disneyland Paris, or anywhere else, carries on like that the visitor numbers will drop and it will have to close. No tears from me.
Capitalism in action. You can no more prevent it than prevent a viral inspiratory infection like covid from spreading through the population.
Ultimately, whether the mask zombies know it yet or not, people have a choice.
Exactly. People have the power – it’s their cash and their feet.
Where I work is experiencing the same as well. My colleagues think its because people are still scared to venture into Central London but I always point out two factors that they seem to overlook all the time:
I remain convinced that this garbage is going to break on the rock of economics. Numbers, like facts, are stubborn things.
And unfortunately many people are economically illiterate. They will keep on shouting “people before profit” even when everything is falling down around them.
This kind of reaction seems like the precise reason why the likes of Disney are taking such a hardline approach, they’re afraid of being shamed on social media and review sites for putting “people before profit”. Though when have Disney not been “very profit orientated“, anyway?
But if even taking a police-state approach to mask enforcement doesn’t appease people like this, what’s the point? (And what would appease them? Every visitor in a spacesuit with their own oxygen supply?)
Disneysantépublique. Health Fascists.
I saw two “No Mask, We wont ask” signs on my local high street yesterday! Thank you Lockdown Sceptics!
Good to hear! We need some better news… The past few days’ updates have been depressing.
Have you got a local 6th form College?
If so go and see if their students are behaving like ours are.
No masks
No Social Distancing
No Problems
That is very cheering.
We need the positive reports.
I posted about it on Friday Annie with a response to ConstantBees on Saturday who witnessed conformist Compliance at Bournemouth Uni.
I just passed a mixed group of about 30 school kids waiting at a bus stop, all maskless; the only distancing going on was that the girls tended to be to one side of the stop with the boys to the other, twas ever thus.
Local sixth form no social distancing, masks optional in corridors and halls, heard a story of one group of boys essentially bullying one of their friends for wearing a mask, which I normally wouldn’t encourage but I think it has to be done to get through the stupidity of it all. There is no way schools can continue with the measures. Teachers not allowed to mark books, having to stand in little squares so unable to look over people’s shoulders at their work, limiting photocopying so there is a week long backlog, won’t be long before everything is completely ignored and back to normal I expect.
I’ve just been reading the local community FB page – lead post is from a parent complaining that the school bus from local town was crammed full, no social distancing or muzzling. Followed by 40ish (probably more by now) comments all wailing about how dangerous that is, why is there only one bus, why aren’t the rules enforced, contact the council, contact the local MP. Sigh of despair.
Add a comment that BTP Officers shouldbe on board to get them in head locks after a liberal dose of mace.
as soon as these parents have to pay for the extra buses I am sure they are happy with one.
Same here in my area – school kids not wearing masks and no social distancing either. When a group of them boarded a bus, it was the usual gaggle all trying to get in simultaneously. The driver just let them get on with it and not one of them were wearing muzzles.
I hope that Whitty is scaremongering. I don’t think that pubs and restaurants will stand for anymore nonsense with many of them extending the Eat Out to Help Out out of their own initiatives. That said I do wish they start fighting back by binning the Test and Trace nonsense for a start.
It will have to be soon because furlough is ending and more and more redundancies and bankruptcies will follow. I have been amazed at how cowardly and supine business leaders have been and many of them have treated customers appallingly since June. If and when they go bust I won’t shed any tears for them. They had the means to fight back, why didn’t they?
Virtue signalling that backfired.
Whitty’s a twitty.
He did that quite deliberately so that virtue signallers could wail
“so you think getting pissed is more important than my kids ejukaition!”
There is a word for this that I can’t remember.
Fuckwittery ?
BTW what about his recent promise to resign? Come on, Whitty old bean, don’t disappoint us! Although it will be a shame not to see pictures in the paper of a man with a head like a light-bulb.
Actually chuckled at that one. Haha.
Bloody hell had to re-read this twice on first read I thought I saw ejaculation!! Haha
Wash your vocabulary out with soap tonyspurs
I call it moral blackmail or emotional blackmail.
My daughter’s school said masks in class were optional so I told my daughter not to wear one and I would back her up if challenged. She was the only one not wearing one in tutor group and the corona-karen teacher tried it on with a load of ‘I get sick etc…’ but she resisted and it’s all fine. My son is older but in the same school and none of his classes are wearing masks.
She will get sick, we all will. I adore that an Educator thinks a piece of cloth will prevent illness!
In a secondary school near me they were behaving normally outside. But things may be different inside the buildings.
Good news!!! A beacon of positivity and hope more shops follow suit.
That was exactly my reaction when I first saw it on Friday Bart.
The College students are keeping it up, I just saw a large group coming from the main train station, they might have been wearing on board but they were gone asap.
Wearing masks is definitely UnCool or whatever word they use these days.
Good point about college students – either not muzzled or if they have them its clear that they’re taking the piss.
Even the large chains like Pret aren’t policing it. The other day I was getting something to take away, there was a small queue and not one of us were muzzled and no one was following the dots on the floor either.
Well, this gets difficult. Not wearing a mask is well, ‘sick’. Though not as you would normally ‘sick’ to mean. Think the reverse of sick and you have the idea!
took a walk down Portobello road market yesterday. Everywhere mask wearing,information registration was being rigidly enforced.
Thanks for the heads up. I’m going to London for a few days next week. I will be wearing an exemption lanyard but even so, places like this are too much hassle. Is there any other places with this rigid enforcement that I should avoid?
Any places that say “No Mask No Sale” should be avoided at all costs.
Apart from that, I think its been OK. Was in Foyles the other day and I didn’t get any looks when I went in without a muzzle.
Is there somewhere you can report shops like that, for Disability discrimination?
That is an excellent point it’s exactly the same as saying ‘no guide dogs’
The local council would be a good place to start, ask for Licensing or Safeguarding.
Local councils or trading standards I suspect would be the place to go.
I understand your point, but the loss of business is what will cause those signs to be removed.
Also shops saying ‘card payments only’.
The other day I met an off duty Subway lady. She said
‘we don’t see you so much these days’.
“You don’t see me at all because you insist on card payment and you closed your toilets to customers”
‘Oh, it’s the Covid, head office…’
“Stabucks next door didn’t so they will be getting my custom now.”
Never been keen on Starbucks but needs must.
I would recommend Caffe Nero as well – toilets open, accept cash and have no problems stamping your loyalty card.
It depends on the individual cafe. In Edinburgh, for example, the one on Lothian Road is pretty much hassle free; the one at the West End is all “no cash” and lots of messing around.
The ones I’ve been to here in London have been OK so far. I used to go to the one in Lothian Road quite a lot when I lived there.
I was in a Caffè Nero which only took cards, but apart from that and the perspex screen it was OK. I told the assistant that I would pay by card didn’t approve of not taking cash. Of course she said it wasn’t her decision but every little helps in making one’s opinion known.
Agreed and when they asked me to scan a code on my phone, I pointed out that I was take away and wasn’t planning on scanning anything, they explained they were contracturally obliged to ask me – no further hassles. The two maskless guys in front (one using his t shirt as a mask at till point) got served, no questions asked.
Thanks. I really don’t understand the card only thing because it actually costs the business to process the transaction. I was in a local independent gift shop near Glasgow last week and as per usual I asked if they would prefer cash or card. The lady serving said “cash please because it doesn’t cost me anything”. It’s almost as if the ones not accepting cash want to put themselves out of business.
The only reason it wont cost her anything is if she is not declaring it for tax – banks charge businesses to lodge/withdraw cash.
Not if she then pays her bills with cash. Only costs her if she pays it into her bank. Nothing illegal if the transactions are recorded in her books either.
Thigs are mostly logged by the till nowadays.
Card companies charge shops to process the transactions and it adds up.
The transaction costs are probably tax deductable as a business expense but that won’t help a small business much.
After what the government has done to businesses they shouldn’t be paying any tax. Why would they want to support the Nazi’s who ruined them. Let the government see what it is like to have no budget to hand with which to maintain day to day operations.
The banks charge for depositing cash, so only no cost if you can spend cash at wholesalers or deposit in personal account (perfectly legal but a bit messy for accounting). I was charged 1 percent of cash deposited when I owned a pub ( long sold thank goodness).
Card companies charge something more like %5 of transactions though, if I remember rightly. And can back-charge the seller in all kinds of really inconvenient, money-all-gone-in-a-moment, ways if transcations go wrong.
Well it’s full insta’s these days, so that explains it
I wish more shops would follow your lead. Where I am, the masking seems to have increased over the last couple of weeks, with even shop staff wearing masks when they were not before.
Your shop is clearly a hotbed of circulating Karen killers!
We’re you doing loud, open mouth coughing at the time? Just wondering?
Twitter should not ban that BLM leader Sasha Johnson, I agree with Ewell Gregoor— it’s her right to say what she likes, so that people are able to see what she’s really made of.
The final test of truth is ridicule. Very few dogmas have ever faced it and survived.
Indeed, give her enough rope…
I agree, and I defer to no man in my contempt for BLM, its zealots and its dupes. In fact, Toby should message this other Johnson to offer Free Speech Union support. In the full expectation of being spurned of course, but nevertheless.
There’s a legitimate argument that those who don’t uphold freedom of speech for others don’t deserve it for themselves, of course, but in the end the only real defence is a hard principle with no (or as few as possible) exceptions for the censors to exploit.
Twitter should be forced to choose between being a neutral message carrier, with appropriate protections, or a censored political advocacy platform with no protections, and if it is to be the latter then it should be actively boycotted by those who dislike its censorship policies.
I can’t be bothered to hold an opinion on BLM’s organisation, views or aims, but I’m blodoy furious how they can run massive disruptive marches unopposed while the uniformed thugs arrest a 73 year old peaceful anti-lockdown protester for calmly addressing a small crowd.
Agree. I suspect they censored her not because they fundamentally disagree with her, but because they saw her message was beyond the pale and likely to do more harm than good to the movement.
My thoughts exactly. It was a step too far.
And now we discover that the Infection Fatality Risks frequently quoted for influenza are total nonsense
‘The consistent estimates of the infection fatality risk at around 1 to 10 deaths per 100,000 infections identified in our review (Figure 3) may represent the seriousness of H1N1pdm09 in developed countries where data were available. Similar estimates for seasonal influenza viruses, however, are not available for comparison, and neither are estimates from less developed countries in which the seriousness profile would likely be higher.’
‘The use of the term “infection fatality” differentiates this risk estimate from the case fatality risk since the asymptomatic, undetected and undiagnosed infections included in the denominator would not appear as “cases” under typical case definitions.’
‘…updated pandemic plans must clarify how severity will be estimated and interpreted.’
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3809029/
‘The highest mortality rates were estimated in sub-Saharan Africa (2·8–16·5 per 100 000 individuals), southeast Asia (3·5–9·2 per 100 000 individuals), and among people aged 75 years or older (51·3–99·4 per 100 000 individuals).’
‘These global influenza-associated respiratory mortality estimates are higher than previously reported, suggesting that previous estimates might have underestimated disease burden.’
Estimates of global seasonal influenza mortality 14 December 2017 – Publisher: The Lancet
So IFRs and CFRs for covid 19 we know are nonsense. So are frequently quoted mortality data for influenza.
Conclusion:
Anyone modelling from currently available influenza epidemic ‘data’ is a complete numpty. And anyone basing draconian policies on such models and data is hopelessly incompetent; should be found to be in gross dereliction of duty; instantly dismissed.
Instaant dismissal for most of the world’s governments, then.
Can’t happen too soon.
Return of Sweden as a world power?
Given the alternatives,, I think anarchy in the UK is the only answer.
Looking at the economic devastation the lockdown has caused I don’t think we are far away from hyper inflation and everything that will bring in its wake
Knew the Sex Pistols were onto something – are the youth listening? You do not understand the power you have oh young ones. Seriously change so often is driven by the young – we need them to find the rebellious spirit of former generations. Can you imagine a latter day Johnny Rotten being so supine as the current generation?
But when was Sweden a World Power??
When it took on the Holy Roman Empire and won the 30 years war?
There was a sci-fi novel, Tau Zero, in which the worl’d governments had all given up and just given Sweden power as they were the only ones who could be competent with it. i wish that could become reality today.
I suspected as much when reading that Malcolm Kendrick article. The influenza mortality rate – nobody – NOBODY – seems to know how it is calculated and whether it’s an IFR or CFR.
I’ve googled until I am blue in the face.
Hello Sophie123,
I believe 17000 people die every year of flu/pneumonia the average for last five years. This means the infection fatality rate is 0.1% in other words one in four of us will get flu. Where it becomes complicated is when we talk about case fatality rate. So in March the government was only counting those people with covid symptoms. These are what the CFR is based on of which 5% died overall,today that rate is down to 0.8% and will continue to drop as more younger and healthy people are counted as cases. If want to see where all this is heading cast back to when the cruise ship Diamond Princess suffered an outbreak of covid. Then 19% of the crew and passengers became infected of which seven sadly died or 0.2% of everyone on board, this is the IFR. I mention this because ships are a great place for studying the spread of infections. I believe one in four of us will get covid and just like flu 0.1% will die. To me when you think of covid you should think atomic bomb a lot of people will die quickly followed by less and less dying as time goes on.
One in four of us gets flu when? I don’t know anyone who had flu! Or do you mean asymptomatically? How do we know that one in four of us gets flu?
Exactly. I had flu a couple of years ago. I was the only person I know who got it. The reason I got it was because my husband had recently died, after a gruelling couple of years and my energy and immune system were tanked.
I didn’t contact any medic. I just made a date with my sofa for a couple of weeks and took various supplements etc.
Most people know what to do when they get flu and it doesn’t involve medics unless there are serious complications. Surely only those who land in hospital become statistics?
I don’t know that the flu IFR’s quoted are nonsense. There are studies of flu in the population covering the whole cohort, see e.g. this Lancet article:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(14)70034-7/fulltext
‘Flu Watch is one of the largest and most comprehensive studies of its type since the 1980s…Using preseason and postseason serology, weekly illness reporting, and RT-PCR identification of influenza from nasal swabs, we tracked the course of seasonal and pandemic influenza over five successive cohorts (England 2006–11; 5448 person-seasons’ follow-up).
On average influenza infected 18% of unvaccinated people each winter. Up to three-quarters of infections were asymptomatic and about a quarter of infections had PCR-confirmed disease.
Panel
On average, based on rates per 100 person-seasons, PCR-confirmed influenza was identified in 4% (95% CI 3–5) of the cohort each winter:
On average, based on rates per 100 person-seasons, influenza infected 18% (95% CI 16–22) of the unvaccinated population each winter season.
Most infections were asymptomatic.
Most people with PCR-confirmed influenza did not consult and among those who did, influenza or influenza-like illness was rarely recorded in medical notes.
Primary-care-based surveillance greatly underestimated the extent of infection and illness in the community.
In children aged 5–15 years, protective antibodies were mainly acquired as a result of natural infection over the first and second pandemic wave, in young adults (16–44 years) protective antibody levels increased mainly as a result of natural infection in the second and third wave, in people older than 45 years protective antibodies were mainly acquired as a result of vaccination during the second and third waves’.
If you think Covid19 runs through a population much as flu does, you might conclude that if the UK population is 66 M, 20% might get infected = 13M. Maybe 80% are asymptomatic (younger age cohorts), giving 20% ‘cases’, i.e. actually ill (although mostly mild and not hospitalised) of 2.6M. Covid deaths of c.40K would make the CFR c.1.5%. [IFR 0.3%].
Hello,
I don’t know what I do know is 17000 die every year of flu/pneumonia and that the mortality rate is one in thousand. So if we multiple 17000 by 1000 we get 17000000 or about one in four of the population. A mean I’ve never heard of anyone dying from flu but it’s the pneumonia which does the damage.
Trouble with finding the IFR is that for flu we aren’t so paranoid as to try to track every case, so we haven’t a clue how many people get it, all we can properly count is the smaller number that die with it. As pneumonia goes, its pretty similar for covid really, viruses don’t kill directly, but by making the immune system do things which result in death. Given the size of the excess deaths spike we’ve seen (on a par with some of the worse flu seasons of the last few decades, smaller than some, bigger than others) it make sense to say covid and seasonal flu have similar levels of danger, and affect similar groups of people.
The demographic for cruise passengers is hardly a representative cross section of the population!
Hello,
totally agree cruise ships usually don’t have many children on board as it’s usually retired folks who can afford such luxuries. For a scientist ships are ideal for carrying out research on the spread of infections. As said earlier 19% of the crew and passengers became infected of which seven sadly died or 0.2% of everyone on board. These facts are known and indicate how bad covid could get and possible outcomes.
Intriguing how on a ship, a very confined and recycled enviornment, shared ater, lose proximity… only 19% got it. Does imply that it burns itself out afetr a fairly small proportion of the population get it. As far as working out IFR goes, the CDC estimates 0.26% (on a par with measles) for populations as a whole. In groups of younger people (military bases, homless shelters, jails, german villages, aircracft carriers) there has been a MUCH lower death rate observed.
Hello,
this 19% figure is an approximate for all places. Wherever you look around the world once this percentage of the population is exposed to covid you see this burnout. In Sweden unlike the UK and Europe case numbers are lower than lockdown neighbours Denmark and Norway. This is because they allowed they population to build up immunity.
With lockdown you suppress not only covid but all other infections which make our natural immunity lower. So we will see an increase in infections but hopefully not too many deaths.
Nobody ever knows the IFR for anything, you can only ever estimate it, because you never know how many people were infected. The study Sylvie posted below (which I think you first mentioned actually) is the best I’ve seen. People are still arguing over what the IFR for the Swine Flu was, and the estimates vary by at least a factor of 10.
The CFR is much better defined but now that we do so much PCR testing of people with few or no symptoms we’re stretching the definition by calling those “cases”.
The only thing you can say for sure is that the IFR is lower than the CFR. If you did antibody studies you can get a better estimate of the IFR, but the testing does have to have been calibrated properly against mild cases.
It does seem that many in charge use data and say what figures mean when there is no historical precedent and so many gaps in our knowledge. Sometimes I think you would might as well use Tarot cards or get a tea leaf prediction from the lady at the local fairground!
There has been too much arrogant and pompous talk about what might happen as if ‘they’ are in charge of what this virus does! Rather than all this high handed soothsaying there should be more focus on the actual facts; ONS registered death figures-now settled around average, Covid 19 hospital cases-now very low and Covid 19 hospital deaths now very low.
There also needs to be more care with language and terminology;
A SARS-Cov2 +ve test result is not a case, at a stretch you could call it an infection.
A Covid 19 case is where the above virus has caused significant disease symptoms requiring medical intervention.
Politicians and medical experts all seem to muddle up their terminology which just ramps up the panic.
there should be more focus on the actual facts; ONS registered death figures-now settled around average, Covid 19 hospital cases-now very low and Covid 19 hospital deaths now very low.
As an argument, though, it cuts no ice. They’ll just say it is evidence that the lockdown and social distancing worked; to relax now would be to throw it all away and risk a second wave.
We knew that would be the argument before the lockdown was even imposed. Sweden was our last hope, but a huge propaganda effort has now discredited Sweden in the public’s eyes: the death rate is huge (compared to its neighbours, it says in the small print) and anyway, they effectively locked down, too, because they are more mature than us and have fewer Covidiots (it’s always a good move to accuse 52% of our own population of being irresponsible idiots whenever possible).
I just don’t think that empirical data on its own is a viable way to argue against the measures. The best argument I have seen is Malcolm Kendrick’s: we can show that Fauci mixed up IFR and CFR, and we then see where Neil Ferguson got his ‘IFR’ figure from. As Kendrick says: “All else flows from that”.
Get Fauci in a chair in front of a committee and very specifically home in on what he publicly said. Then get Neil Ferguson and home in on the figures he put in his ‘model’. Where did he get them from? And what would the consequences have been had he used a different, more justifiable, figure? Get him to tell us the expected deaths based on the new figure.
And I would also like someone to ask Neil Ferguson about cross-reactive T cell immunity, the non-binary nature of infection, the fact that 80% of the population already had some immunity and so on. Did his model incorporate any of these factors? (answer: no). What would be the result if it did? Were these factors unknown, or a secret among immunologists? If not, why did his model not incorporate them?
Also correct. The British government, in the throes of Brexit, is at the mercy of international pressure, U.S. politician (Brendan someone……) threatening Britain only this morning……
Post 03 Nov, Brexit and U.S. Presidential election pretty much done and dusted, British MPs must be pressurised to clamour for an independent public inquiry so that this debacle, licence for charlatans, never happens again.
Correct. More drivel on all broadcast media this morning. The off switch is almost worn out now…….
I have forgotten how to turn on the TV or the radio.
BBC R2 7am news.
“Companies employing more than twenty workers have indicated that they would lay off 305,000 workers to the end of July…. as the worldwide Pandemic continues to cut a swathe through British industry…”.
Come on BBC, you’ve all been on the course about how it’s best not to lie to your viewers.
It’s not the Pandemic cutting a swathe, it’s the Lockdown.
The DBC=Drivel Broadcasting Corporation
I prefer Bed-wetting, Bullsh**ing, Corporation
They are deliberately using the worng terms to keep the fear ball rolling. The Bastards.
This. The opening statement of the infamous model, suggests it is based on influenza. I think going down the route of witch hunts against scientists, is a dangerous path. But there are extreme circumstances such as this, where catastrophic errors need to be accounted for.
A technical point, Things move on so quickly, I sometimes see a comment on here then try and find it again but cannot. Someone once told me how to do a search but I have forgotten, I would be grateful if someone could remind me (I use a Chromebook Computer).
I find I can only do it on a laptop, then you open comments, wait a while for it to fully download, then use the three little dots in top RHS of browser and use the find function. It doesn’t always work.
It’s annoying as I am always looking for stuff! now when I see something interesting i copy and paste it directly into the notes on my ipad.
I just use CTRL + f on my chromebook, if that helps.
Yes, thankyou
ctrl+f should work in all browsers on all laptop and desktop operating systems, very common shortcut
try control plus the “f” key to search – it should produce a box you can type your search text into
Or the three dots top right corner, gets you there. I can never remember those ‘ctrl’ commands. Often lots of ‘scrolling down’ needed to load everything.
Could try closing the replies if the comment you want is an opening one.
Copy and paste it in a text editor. I use my PC’s Wordpad.
My mission to keep Britain free, by Simon Dolan
The Conservative Woman September 7, 2020
https://conservativewoman.co.uk/my-mission-to-keep-britain-free-by-simon-dolan/
Kathy Gyngell interviewed Simon Dolan over the weekend about his one-man battle for Britain’s freedom from the illegal lockdown imposed by this government. She began by asking him what drove him to this action.
Kathy Gyngell: You started legal proceedings on May 1 to challenge the Government’s lockdown decision. Why, and why you?
Simon Dolan: The measures imposed by the UK Government in March were the most draconian in living history, instantly making life unrecognisable from what the British public once knew. Within weeks the devastating effect lockdown would have on the economy and the livelihoods of thousands of people was clear, and the longer it went on, the more outraged I became. It is now widely recognised that lockdown has sentenced tens of thousands to death, millions of children have and continue to be deprived of an education, the economy has been left in ruins and we are experiencing the largest fall in employment in generations. All this due to measures the Government chose to take. I do not believe these measures were legal – they were completely disproportionate to the problem and to me it was terrifyingly obvious that the Government needed to be challenged. So I set out to determine whether lockdown was in fact lawful, who took the decision and what data and information was used to arrive at it.
K G: You have raised over £200,000 to fund this challenge from ordinary people. What about business backers? Have there been any? Do you feel a lone figure?
S D: I’ve been blown away by the level of public support – we’ve now raised over £250,000 from more than 8,200 individuals and rising. The ongoing success of the campaign shows that I am in no way a lone figure. Thousands share my belief that the Government’s lockdown measures are the most serious imposition on personal freedoms in recent history. So much so that they have given their hard-earned money to do what they can to ensure lockdown never happens again.
K G: Why do you think the business world – which is set to be pulverised in so many sectors by the government’s heavy-handed and draconian Covid response – has been so docile? So slow to dissent? What are they scared of?
S D: When lockdown was announced the Government was quick to promise support packages for businesses of all sizes. So far over £11billion has been given out to small and medium-sized businesses across the board. It’s disappointing that so many businesses have chosen to accept these hand-outs and stay quiet, but at the same time I understand that no one wants to bite the hand that feeds them. For businesses worried about staying afloat, denouncing those who have the power to bail them out could feel like a rash move.
My mission to keep Britain free, by Simon Dolan – Continued
The Conservative Woman September 7, 2020
K G: What is the current position on your appeal?
S D: I started proceedings for the judicial review in April, appointing a legal team to amass evidence against the legality of lockdown. We gathered 1,200 pages of evidence and our case was heard by a High Court judge over video link on July 2. The case was denied, as the judge came to the decision that Parliament has the power to do what it wants. In no way did the judgement engage with, or consider on any analytical level, the vital issues we set out in the case. Nor did it take into account the impact all this has had on ordinary people. So we put in for an appeal straight away. This was heard by Lord Justice Hickinbottom, who agreed that the lockdown measures are the most draconian in living history and that our case raises important points on the relationships between politicians, lawyers and the judiciary. It was decided that a rolled-up hearing would be held at the Court of Appeal at the end of this month and we are awaiting a date.
K G: Are you optimistic at all regarding the further hearing?
S D:The response from the second judge was certainly more promising, but it’s impossible to predict what will happen on the day. I do believe that as time goes on and the devastating impact of lockdown becomes increasingly clear, so the significance and strength of the case grows.
K G: Do you think ordinary people understand how important your challenges are for our country’s economic and social future? Are they sufficiently aware of what will happen to them if the economy does not get back into full gear sharpish?
S D: Yes. I don’t believe there are many people who would argue that lockdown has saved lives. Evidence is fast amassing which shows an inverse correlation between the strictness of lockdowns and the number of people dying. Just look at Peru, which had the longest, most severe lockdown and now has one of the highest death tolls on Earth. As reports of the disastrous effects of lockdowns increase, whether it’s deaths from missed hospital appointments, suicides or unemployment and poverty, the consensus is definitely turning. At first we were a minority but now it’s impossible to deny that lockdown was a catastrophic mistake. With hundreds of thousands out of a job, who could deny that a swift return to normality is needed to rebuild the economy and restore livelihoods?
K G: Do you worry about the level of government propaganda used to win compliance?
S D: Yes, the Government’s messaging carries a huge part of the blame. The ‘Stay Home, Save Lives, Protect the NHS’ mantra was taken too far, drilled into the public’s minds to the point where people were too afraid to step outside of their homes. This collective mentality prevails and will continue to prevent any kind of normality from resuming. The way the Government used this messaging to influence the mindset and behaviour of millions was nothing short of shocking.
K G: What is your worst fear if your appeals are refused? Do you think at least they will have any moderating impact on government policy?
S D: We must be able to hold the Government to account for its actions. If the appeal is refused, we will have been denied the right to question the actions of our leaders and to determine whether they are right and legal. That will be a scary moment for me and for anyone who believes in freedom and democracy.
K G: What do you still need by way of support?
S D: Every show of support makes a huge difference. Whether it’s a monetary donation to the Crowdjustice appeal, an interaction on social media or attendance at an anti-mask protest, our strength is shown in numbers. The more people we can bring together, the stronger we will seem and so the risk of further lockdowns will decrease.
K G: We recently argued on The Conservative Woman that Gordon Brown took ten years to wreck the economy but Johnson’s done it in six months. Do you agree?
S D: Yes, in just six months Johnson has managed to throw the economy off the cliff edge. The UK has crashed into its deepest recession in history because the PM panicked. The Government’s crisis response has been characterised by U-turn after U-turn, with our leaders repeatedly bending to public opinion rather than choosing what’s best for the UK and the economy. It’s been embarrassing. Recovery will be long and hard, largely because the Government has terrified the nation into being work-shy. It will be years before normality returns and companies can say ‘business as usual.’
You can donate to Simon Dolan’s campaign here. https://www.keepbritainfree.com/
I would make one correction the the last section about bending to public opinion, and add perceived public opinion, by very skewed polls usually of about 2000 people. Pity they hadn’t had a peak at the comments here.
Or the comments in The Telegraph and The Mail. Love it or loathe it The Mail has a much the largest readership of any MSM publication
Regrettably* it doesn’t, that “honour” goes to The Sun, and depending how you define “publication”, the BedwettingBullsh**ingCorporation (BBC).
*I say this having always hated the Mal before, but now being very glad to see that it has the sense to host some anti-lockdown articles, today I find the Mail much better than the Guardian (which I favoured in a distant pre-coronapanic age)
Gordon Brown lives near me in a massive ten bedroom house with a huge garden and lives as a millionaire. He has never had a proper job and for the life of me i can’t work out how he could have made so much money. It’s as if he was bought off like Blair. Everyone round our way knows about Brown and knows why he did what he did to keep the story quiet, off course the money helps but the silence is golden.
Doesn’t he get paid massive amounts for making occasional boring speeches to audiences of bigwigs? (though presumably that’s not happening at present).
Like Obama.
Thank you Stephen. I might not have got around to reading that if you hadn’t posted it.
It’s interesting that Simon Dolan thinks that not many people think that lockdown has saved lives. That’s not my experience, I know quite a few who think we should have locked down earlier and saved even more lives.
Suggest to them like Belgium and Peru?
From the Heneghan piece:
The patient has become a prisoner of a system labelling him or her as ‘positive’ when we are not sure what that label means. Physicians have been completely bypassed in the biotech decision making machine that now makes and reports the diagnosis.
That is such a good point. In fact we (with independent thought) can sense that our entire lives are now controlled by dumb ‘systems’ and their attendant technicians. And the media have become just another part of the machine, too.
I don’t think people quite grasp the magnitude of the change in our lives since March 2020.
Until March, we were all 100% free and responsible for our own health and wellbeing. If you got sick it was entirely up to you how you responded and dealt with it. You could stay home, you could try to push through it, if you needed treatment it was ultimately up to you whether you wanted to go through with it.
Since March, that freedom has been taken from us. Now if you get sick, it is no longer your decision or choice. It is the state’s. You will do as the state says. The vaccine will be the culmination of that new process. The precedent will be set and from henceforth, if the state declares a disease a national emergency it will tell you what you have to do, submit you to whatever measures it deems necessary “to protect society” including vaccinating you.
Much like livestock.
I saw one article that concluded that it was the existence of the NHS that made this inevitable. Because we all own the NHS supposedly, it justifies wider society (in the form of the government) imposing its will regarding our own health on us.
I like that as an argument. It reveals a built-in self-destruct mechanism once you go down the route of ‘socialism’; the inevitable imposition of, well, fascism at some point in the future no matter how benign your shared resource appears to start with.
Seemed to work ok for 70 years, no? Doesn’t it depend on the constraints society wants to put on state authority?
Depends what you mean by “work”. What it does is change the basic structure of the debate around what limits “society” wants to put on state authority, in the way Barney described.
Part of the problem is that once a change has been made, unless there’s a prompt disaster attributable to it, most people obviously think the new situation is normal, because they become used to it. Seems no reason not to have made the change, and why were all those people objecting?
In the early C20th it was generally assumed that government has no place running details of people’s own lives for their own supposed protection. Now it’s accepted that seatbelts can be enforced by law, for people’s own good (and the argument that personal injuries are now society’s concern because our taxes pay for the treatment was probably decisive in getting it through – certainly that’s usually the first resort of those defending the law). People have gotten used to it, and mostly can’t understand why there should be an issue over it. but for those who stood against it on principle, their principles have been overridden by force, much as those of us here are faced with having our principles overridden by force on facemasks (though for the moment in a rather half assed way).
Totally agree. And the fundamental problem at the heart of it all is that the right to liberty argument is understood and considered important by only a small part of the population.
I think a lot of people feel “safer” not having to make decisions for themselves, or take responsibility for themselves.
Pathetic wastes of skin that they are.
The NHS was formed by nationalising existing assets that already provided health care to 90%+ of the population.
My mum, as a newly qualified State Registered Nurse, was proud to be a part of that process whichwas launched on a Tsunami of goodwill from both the staff and patients.
Mum saw the bean counters take over and milk that goodwill to death, she took retirement early because of it and spent 5 years ignoring ‘return to nursing’ begging letters.
Despite Management treating all levels of staff like shite the NHS still only staggers on through their goodwill but if they went on ‘Work To Rule’ it would collapse faster than our confidence in Johnsons fitness to rule.
As I have said before this was always going to happen when they took us down the path labelled ‘Public Health.
cf the French Revolution and their Committee of Public Safety.
Public Health by Stealth.
You might like Matthew Crawford’s latest book, kh, which was linked here a while back:
Why We Drive: On Freedom, Risk and Taking Back Control
Cheers, kh, was away for a week on a family holiday. Still no sign of farinances, it seems. Did she give a farewell or just vanish, did you notice?
Yes, she could be very ..pungent, when she wanted to, and made some great comments. I last remember seeing her here around the time you were having internet problems at home iirc.
I’ve missed her ascerbic wit and astute comments.
I was hoping it’s because she’s in Greece with her family.
It’s been couple of weeks. I miss her too!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54066831 “cases” rising exponentially again
I am wondering whether we can make a link to the rise in cases on the testing of school children. The local schools here have a policy, which I think is based on government advice, that if any child has any symptons, which could literally be a sneeze, they must go home and must have a test. As we know these tests are designed as a diagnostic tool and should not be used for screening, potentially unreliable as they pick up any strands of genetical material, so more young people being tested combined with more false positives. But then, they will have their second wave. We even have the UN spouting this to be an opportunity for embracing equality and inclusiveness.
Just saw this rather worrying post on Twitter showing the attitude of some schools:
‘I just hauled my son out, little over 30 mins of him arriving for 1st day back. I advised mask exemption due to distress. Deputy head told him ‘school decides exemptions’ that masks are ‘not about him’ and without one he would have to be escorted around school. I cant allow it’
Treating children like convicts in a prison yard. Beyond absurd. Criminal.
An acquaintance has a child with a high temperature. They’ve been told they must get a test before child and siblings can return to school. Nearest test centre – 100 miles away.
How does that work if you are a single parent on benefits then? Utter madness.
Spend hours in a car with sick children. Genius.
Assuming you have a car!
They ended up going to local test centre, on spec – empty!
Three of our local school have children who have tested positive. Those children had in fact never returned after the holiday, so why were they tested. Other children who had been with the out of school have been asked to isolate but the schools remain open. It seems 9 positive tests in our town yesterday after a long time with none.
Climate Change all over again.
2988 Sunday, 2948 Monday . That is not an exponential rise. And from a professor and from a Sage member. What hope is there?
Yet none of the other main news websites lead with this today (not even The Guardian). Most have turned their focus (rightly, in my view) back to Brexit.
Couldn’t help but notice that under the BBC’s scamdemic headline this morning, further down the billing, was an article about the 300,000 redunancies that businesses began planning in June and July. Wonder why they didn’t lead with that, since it will affect 300,000 people, not just a few hundred at worst.
Decent update from The Mail.
Daily positive articles now.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8707341/SIR-JOHN-BELL-live-terror-cut-world-Britain-open-again.html
I’m not sure a compulsory testing regime is particular “positive”; it’s just the latest evolution of the carrot-and-stick game.
See for example the recent stories floated about testing at airports (your way out of random quarantine pain, airlines will even push for it), 24-hour-valid tests to get into theatres (your way out of the cultural desert, artist will even push for it), the test-on-exit strategy of Rome (why can’t we do it like Rome, maybe even between individual cities, city councils will even push for it), and so on.
It ultimately all still resolves to the justification for a system of societal gateways and behavioural constraints linked to a scoring system, to be enabled by the comprehensive and centralised surveillance of all individuals. The general format of the “solution” has remained consistent throughout, even as the arguments for it have shifted relentlessly as each (ad hoc, disingenuous) justification crumbles and is forgotten.
“This is the plan and I am selling it to you right now.”
Exactly!
starts off sensible, but then goes down the compulsory testing route. Despite PCR being useless as screening tool.
It’s the “gold standard” according to the prof!
He says, rightly: Now we need to get more people back on public transport, and into offices, back into coffee shops and sandwich bars and shopping malls.
We need to claim back our old lives
However, he’s preceded that with some pretty scary language:
The spike in infections reported in the past few days was to be expected as life slowly returns to our streets and workplaces.
They are concerning and, yes, we must be prepared for a second wave of Covid-19
…. As summer turns to autumn, cases will continue to rise and clearly, university towns face potential dangers as thousands of new students
I’m glad he pointed out that: Much of the increase in infections is among the young, who tend to experience moderate or no symptoms. Crucially, we have not yet seen a jump in hospital admissions or deaths.
But he uses the dodgy R number argument and claims that the PCR test is the gold standard!
This is just plain ridiculous: Regular testing needs to become the norm for most of the population – and I have no doubt it will.
Now we get to it: But it will take time to vaccinate larger populations, whole cities for example, so we need flexible testing in place too.
A very mixed message from someone who really ought to know better!
The Welsh Deputy Dictator, and Minister for the unhealthy has announced a new term of internal exile for the the residents of Caerphilly
Apparently the second wave of the virus is rampant amongst the cheese makers
He has further announced that a spike in deaths will occur in “two to three weeks”
This is concerning as I know how much they like to hit targets.
In my opinion the only way the required additional deaths can be achieved is if the dictatorship poisons the water supply, or starts abducting and executing it’s own citizens
I think we know the answer, it’s their way of forcing masks inside without making it look like a U-turn. Give it a few days…
Continue withholding medical treatment, destroying peoples livelihoods, terrorising them and eventually the death rate will start to increase.
Of course it may not rise quickly enough for these psychopaths and now that we have established the the government can tell any lie, commit any outrage with complete immunity to consequences it does make you wonder what they will do to us next.
Continue withholding medical treatment…
How are they getting away with that? Where are the human rights experts on this?
Bill Gates did say “they will notice the next one” (a second virus)
This is for Bill & Melinda:
And when the end of the world doesn’t happen in two to three weeks, the prophet of doom will revise the date.
Is anyone still alive in Leicester?
I have some caerphilly in the larder, should I tell The Council ?
Yes, then take it to the local disposal facility wrapped in 2 layers (please consult council website for details of permitted materials). An operative will meet you at the gate and escort you, socially distanced, to a secure environment where you may place the item. You will then be escorted back to the gate. Please do not engage in conversation with the operative, or sing, or attempt to shake hands.
Stay safe, stay alert.
I would be very caerphil if I were you.
No more double Gloucester.
If the welsh state does not use genocide to manufacture the death sike they lust for then they’re going to have a rude awakening when it DOES NOT COME. We’ve seen cases rising a fair bit throughout summer, but no spiking of deaths, that isn’t going to change even if spikes get bigger and even if there are spikes caused by an increase in spread rather than increased testing.
https://twitter.com/simondolan/status/1303207481573814272?s=20
We are well beyond ‘huge mistake’ at this point.
Disney is evil. They pump out social justice propaganda, encourage sodomy and perversion and is designed to destroy the mind of your children. Walt must be turning in his grave, that man called a dwarf a dwarf.
I’m not sure why you think that it acceptable to use that kind of bullshit and offensive crap. This is supposed to be about Coronabollocks and where it is leading, Not about how you personally want to decide people’s sexuality. Please just go away.
I said it so it would expose people like you. We can say what the fuck we want and that is the point. You’ve exposed yourself for a censor. What gives a nonentity like you the right to stop me saying any god damn thing i like? I wouldn’t stop anyone reading the piss poor post you made. So pal fuck off you utter cunt.
I will not be feeding the troll any further.
good, cause one, i’ve been here from day one and i’m no troll and two that’s what a lefty does, they just can’t deal with anyone who doesn’t do what they want so they put their podgy faggy fingers in their ears and go la la la la. You do this no matter what someone says who you “disagree” with. You’re exactly the problem
You should go to Disney Land
“Not about how you personally want to decide people’s sexuality. Please just go away.”
If you disagree with biker’s implicit opinion on sodomy and perversion (which seems a reasonable inference from your response), you have two legitimate responses available to you, and one illegitimate one, given that the owner of this blog has set no limits to the topics that can be raised here.
1 You can choose to ignore his expressed opinion.
2 You can choose to debate his opinion.
These are the only acceptable responses in a civilised and tolerant society.
If you choose the route of intolerance (which is what you did in this case), you can choose the third option:
3 Try to silence his expression of his opinion.
You probably ought to reflect on this and why you thought this intolerance of dissent on your part seemed acceptable to you, because you are far from alone in resorting to it. Indeed, your approach of intolerance of dissent is arguably the majority one in our modern society, and that’s a real problem, to which you are evidently contributing.
What if he called them midgets?
Funnily enough there was an item on Woman’s Hour today about Dwarfism the managed to bring coronobollox into that too.
Well guys and girls, message received, assuming that the troll hasn’t up-ticked himself ten times I’ll be following Biker’s advice and fucking-off from these forums.
Obviously some of you have become so hateful (understandable given the pressure we are under) that you think it acceptable to use phrases like “faggy fingers” and choose to attack Disney not based upon its disgraceful credentials but based on “encouraging sodomy”. Honestly it’s as bad as the fascists that we are supposed to opposing. I suggest you redirect your hate towards the criminals Hancock and Johnson.
I’ll continue visiting the news section of course and will continue financially supporting Toby. I’ll miss peoples’ amazing contributions to this such as the excellent data from Swedenborg and the positivity from Poppy. It is nice to have an affinity with similar people, it is a shame that it has now been spoiled by bigots. Once they have alienated all the reasonable people they can consume themselves. Cheerio.
Just to clarify this situation. You have chosen to exclude yourself, because you were incapable of tolerating the expression of opinions you dislike, in terms you dislike.
That’s absolutely your prerogative.
(Though I can’t help but add that “it’s as bad as the fascists that we are supposed to opposing” is pretty embarrassing on your part. Biker expressed an opinion, which you are free to ignore or disagree with. He isn’t making laws to control your behaviour, or trashing the economy, culture, and society of the nation. A sense of proportion failure here, I think.)
Well, I suppose if I found a large majority of posts here offensive, or stupid, or uninteresting, I suppose I would be tempted to stop looking.
But there’s enough here for me to keep coming. I just ignore stuff that doesn’t interest me, and either debate or ignore stuff I don’t agree with depending on the person involved and how I feel.
Baby please don’t go, i’ll miss you. I’ll let you into a little secret, i don’t dislike Gays in any way shape or form and fully respect the right of any individual to stick their genitals anywhere they please save children, i also support their right to get married and have very single protection under the law as i do, i even think children should be told about gays in sex education. But if i choose to consider them sodomites then that’s up to me. You lefty fucks need to listen close because i’m sick to my fuckin back teeth of being censored by snivelling tossers like you. Don’t you understand that one day it will be you that is censored and i won’t be around to say let the blue pill say what the fuck he wants, it might be total pish but god damn let him speak it.
You’re right when you say there are loads of amazing contributions on here – I never cease to be amazed at the scale and scope of what’s posted on here.
I grew up with the Mickey Mouse Club and Annette Funicello. M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E.
Never mind sodomy, if consenting people want to f*ck each other I’m happy to let them. But I’m against civil liberties and the economy being f*cked by lockdown.
…And lockdown is f*cking all those things without our consent.
More covid porn from the BBC
Two of the UK government’s scientific advisers have given stark warnings over the increase in coronavirus cases.
Prof John Edmunds, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said cases were now “increasing exponentially”.
And England’s deputy chief medical officer, Prof Jonathan Van Tam, said people had “relaxed too much” and must start taking the virus seriously again.
Any mention that hospital admissions and mortality figures were flat lining? Just a little nod no more?
Twice now I’ve heard it said whilst the number of cases is going up it has not happened with figures for hospital admissions and mortality. No, it hasn’t they’ve been going down.
A lot is being staked by these advisors on the number of deaths increasing. They are so low now it is about the only way they can go. They should really be asked to put a number on it.
What would it be if their suggestions weren’t followed? What is the most t could be if they are?
I am quite prepared to believe that we will see an increase in deaths of older people who happen to test positive (putting aside that that in itself is meaningless at the moment). More vulnerable people depart this world during Winter. There has still been no explanation of how that justifies ongoing destruction of our collective future and a dogged commitment to ignoring death and misery from every other cause. I have no idea how so many individuals in power have failed to understand what makes us human and what makes life worth living
All of 3 yesterday according to R2 Jeremy Vine show, it would only take a small batch of mislaid fatalities to produce
“Shock as Covid Deaths Double Overnight ! ! “.
“relaxed”? no one is relaxed about this bullshit. I despise these people. Are they enjoying the destruction of our lives? What do they think they are saving? When are they gonna stop? And when are we gonna do something other than make posts on a website? When are we gonna burn these motherfuckers to the ground? How come the lefty wankers are rioting about fake shite like racism and not rioting about this lockdown?
I have to agree with you..I fucking bled for this country ( 2 tours in Afghanistan) only to see all that my brothers and I have fought and died for going down the toilet. We are a step away from what France is and if that happens fine they will just have to arrest me as I’m not fucking wearing a piece of cloth to virtue signal to the public that I have been beaten down by the people in power.
”I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees”
Good on you bro, i spent many a year in bilges fixing submarines and minesweepers to help defend our nation and we have a bunch of fuckers in charge who hate us, claim we’re all evil and everything we have is built on the back of slaves. We are the greatest nation to have ever been and it’s about fucking time we stood up again and proved it.
Pretty soon we’ll BE the slaves upon whose backs stuff gets built, ensuring NEVER AGAIN to lockdown is the only way to stop that.
They are using coronavirus to bring in a police state. I think we need to move away from discussing the medical side of all this now, as the underlying political goal of track and trace and removal of rights is emerging so clearly now.
I think you are right – we can moan all we want about the insanity, the stupidity, the incompetence, the arrogance or the impropriety of the way the politicians are handling the virus but we are just being distracted while tyranny tightens its grip.
I agree with you Kate. The government’s lies and deception are being exposed nearly every day. They could care less, they are not on our side. Time to revolt.
The problem is, the cat is now out of the bag. I’ve had two conversations with people in the last week, who had become housebound with fear and I was convinced they would be lost causes. In both cases, I couldn’t get a word in, as I was bombarded by “it’s deaths with, not from ” etc.
While the masks are everywhere, I think they’re hiding the massive level of scepticism in the community. People like Van Tam are so wrapped in their self important world, that they’ve not noticed the sea change. People haven’t relaxed, they just know they’ve been had.
I agree, almost every conversation I have now is about how much nonsense it all is, with two provisos; 1) skepticism is most prevalent among working blokes;
2) I tend to avoid talking to people in face nappies, sometimes they make me feel sad, other times I want to laugh but that would be rude.
Latest HSE Covid-19 report is a BOMBSHELL:
Total number of deaths with no underlying conditions in Ireland = 100
https://twitter.com/Credalytics/status/1303100491828809728
5.6% of the official 1,777 total for the Republic.
Surprisingly similar to the US’s 6%. Who’d have thought it!
That postcard from Disneyland Paris is depressing. I was glad I went to Disneyland years ago when sanity prevailed.
This is an example of how amusement parks and heritage sites will go under if they don’t fight back – people will vote with their feet and wallets and go Never Again.
Is that what they want?
I want to see state-run amusement parks. I really want to see it.
It would be interesting to see what they will look like.
On this site we could design one.
My first idea was a good old fashioned ‘House of Horrors’.
Oh yeah and various rides and experiences to go along with the whole horror show.
You’re living in one right now.
The Soviet Union would give you examples to look at. Pripyat (near chernobyl) in Ukraine has a well preserved one, and although the radiation level in the town area is safely low nowadays, it is still much more dangerous than covid.
I don’t understand why the state stepping in would even be on the table and why we would think this is a way to save the park. If the state steps in the reason will be to bail out vested interests and/or creditors and it will actually prevent the assets of the park from being properly priced and hinder not help its long term survival.
Allow the park to go bankrupt on the other hand and the assets will have to be sold at a price at which there is an actual buyer, a buyer who in theory has decided what they are actually worth in the present circumstances increasing the possibility of the business being operated in a long term viable way.
Sounds like an abomination, pity everyone doesn’t say at the entrance, forget it and walk away, that usually works.
It is an abomination and bizarre how people have simply keeled over without a murmur of protest.
Paid upfront!
A big issue going forward is authenticity from any politician, business, speaker, etc who supported the lockdown.
How will they talk about rights, freedoms and anything to do with justice when they were collaborators?
I don’t care what excuses are made. We did not need to do this. And even if the effect was small for many, your rights were trampled on. The very heart of why you live in this country was trampled on. And the irony: it wasn’t down by aristocracy or a regent.
It was done by democratically elected people.
I suspect there will be an extension of the Covid bill and powers because why not? Once you’ve tasted the drug it’s hard to get off it.
Any smart politician will get back to normal as quickly as. Then resign.
The “exponential” increase reported by the BBC will be the justification in a fortnights time to extend the powers for at least 6 months.
That ““exponential” increase” will need to be backed by some sort of increase in mortality figures in a fortnight’s time to justify the renewing of the “Enabling Act”.
So the experts, the advisors and politicians should be held to putting a figure on it now.
Also, we need to keep asking them for the medical dictionary definition of a “case”. And make them use the term “positive swab” instead.
Yrs, a distinction needs to be made i.e. case equals requires medical intervention, and more than a paracetamol.
Totally agree. The exponential increase is a fiction due to testing at the tail end of the infection curve. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sars-cov-2-rna-testing-assurance-of-positive-results-during-periods-of-low-prevalence/assurance-of-sars-cov-2-rna-positive-results-during-periods-of-low-prevalence#recommended-actions
And even if the effect was small for many
It hasn’t even started yet. Even if they reversed all the measures tomorrow, the effect would not be small…
I was referring to during the lockdown itself. As in you might not have been that inconvenienced. Others though? A lot
We cannot begin to heal until collaborators are on trial.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
This is my first time posting here and would like to offer some hope. I have just spent the night in my local maternity hospital and they were very easy going about face nappies.
Although the staff all wore masks some were nose free and one had it hanging off her ear walking through the corridor.
I was even more shocked when they moved my wife into the theater and dressed me for the part including hairnet (not got much) but no mask, even took a photo of me and baby in there.
I won’t name the hospital because I do not want to get the staff in any trouble but it is in southern England.
There may be hope for the NHS yet.
Welcome to the world of sanity – sort of. And congratulations! Hope mum and baby are doing well.
Congratulations and well done to the staff for treating you and your family as decent human beings.
Welcome to this oasis of sanity.
The NHS have downgraded the need for PPE in various procedures. Essentially it’s returning to normal now. Funny how that isn’t being reflected in the public.
That’s so good to hear. Hope my daughter’s hospital regains their sanity before her baby is due.
Thanks for the post. Great to hear. Big congratulations. Life goes on.
Welcome and congrats! I’ve seen a few celebs who have had babies recently recount how they spent 20+ hours in labour wearing a mask. Appalling! I can’t wear one for 2 minutes. So glad to hear that at least one hospital isn’t torturing labouring women!
Welcome Andy, pleased to hear that you did not face some of the horrors we have read about here.
One poor chap had to wait outside maternity in his car.
I wonder at what level of NHS management is the decision made to relax rules or make them more draconian?
It depends on who’s running the show.
I understand why you can’t name the hospital, but I wish there was a forum for lockdown sceptics to which only genuine sceptics have access. Somewhere that we can be sure busybodies are not watching us. Somewhere that lockdown sceptics could set up a community of our own, an independent state within Britain, knowing which businesses you could given your patronage too and be assured of no coronaphobic bollocks in the process, knowing where jobs are going which are only willing to hire anti-lockdownists, knowing which hospitals are performing actual treatments as opposed to performing dances for online videos, ensuring we can live under our laws, not HandyCock’s.
Another boost for positivity here:
A friend of mine who should have claimed exemption from the word go has ordered her exemption lanyards. She has been complaining of headaches, bad sinuses and chest infections for awhile now.
I have been telling her to ditch the muzzles, get an exemption lanyard and just go barefaced and looks like my message has come across.
Result!
Yes, but as the price, she has to wear a symbol that literally says “Keep your distance from me”, and indirectly says “Have a good look at me. Can you guess my medical conditions? Or am I just lying to avoid wearing a mask?”
True however it is a first step. She wore muzzles because she didn’t want confrontation but the price has been her condition has worsened.
The one positive is that when other people see that non-mask-wearers are ‘not* dropping like flies, they may start to question why they themselves need to wear them..
You are missing the genius of the propaganda.Their mask protects you.You are a selfish physcopath for not wearing one and are putting them at risk.
I’m coming to the conclusion I am a psychopath , because I no longer care.
I’m not a granny – but I’m older than a lot of grannies. And my own advice to youngsters yea, even young adults, wouldn’t be Matt Hancock’s it would be:-
Do what you bloody like, your lives have been blighted enough by this carry on. My generation has had a very good whack, thank you very much. And it’s us that should be making the sacrifices if there is any to be made.
One conclusion we can already draw from the great covid experiment: if we ever do face ‘the big one,’ a really contagious and deadly disease, there will be nothing to do but prepare for death.
Nothing the state has done, not a single measure, can be credited with any impact on the spread of covid – except to accelerate the spread to vulnerable groups and worsen the impacts. Maybe this is why Devi et al. are frit. We have seen the efficacy of what they are selling.
It is just that. it’s the ultimate call. They went all in and had nothing but a random hand.
Ha, so true. At least I won’t have to suffer through their attempts at stopping it if it is really deadly..
I find that Sweden vs Peru flaws most arguments.
And for that matter Belarus vs Belgium.
The government need to do an experiment, after banging on about getting the country up and running, remove the compulsory mask THING and see how it comes back to life.
The government has no intention of permitting things to come back to life. If that is what they see they will take whatever measures are necessary to stamp it out.
This can now only be a plot to destroy the economy.No one can be this stupid and cannot see the carnage they are causing,by trying to eradicate a not very dangerous virus.
It could be that the financial system was about to collapse anyway (I have been waiting for the big collapse since 2008) and they are performing a controlled collapse which will funnel all the wealth to the elites and blame the ensuing devastation on coronavirus.
I’ve heard that theory before,it is obvious that an economy cannot function with social distancing measures.The virus is almost gone and is definitely not a major threat so why the reluctance to open up.The government have had many opportunities to roll back but have instead doubled down so it leaves the question.Incomptence just won’t wash anymore,why?
Deliberate and in pursuance of a predetermined end.
Almost 6 months. The U.S. might rebound but I doubt the U.K. will.
Very worried to see the Caerphilly local lockdown in Wales. Wales is an oasis of sanity for us, especially for shops; quick whizz across the Severn and joy, no shop masks. This lunacy is going to be ramped up as winter comes, we’ve all said that. Just what on earth else can we do? I’m in North Somerset, where over 90% of people are obediently wearing their control-gear, it’s like living in an asylum.
Can we for one, heavily lobby MPs to overturn this corona virus bill at the end of the month to end this rule by decree/diktats which basically renders us under authoritarian rule.
Definitely needs to be done!
Lobbying your MP is an exercise in futility. All the MP’s are just going to back up the bullshit narrative, they don’t want to stand out. The Bastards. I can’t think of ONE MP that is saying anything against the evil that has suffocated the world to death.
I’m afraid I wasn’t listening to the radio that closely just now – but some bod overseeing the health of Wales gave a figure of 4% in relation to Caerphilly. A 4% positive result from random tests I think he said. I can’t recall if he mentioned the number of tests undertaken. Does anyone recall?
I read 19 positives from 450 tests. That’s their 4%. County population about 180,000 by the way…
Again, the numbers don’t match:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/cases
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54064915 -why the bloody masks? It seems to be the knee jerk reaction despite them not working.
The thing that mystifies the most about these zealots is this. If I genuinely believed that a Black Death style, apocalyptic plague was sweeping the world, taking one in ten of us at random, I would be barricaded in my house with enough cans of beans to survive for a year. My child would not go to school. I would not go to work, regardless of the consequences. Life would be my priority.
I would not place a sock over my nose and mouth and get into semantic debates over the angle it would be safe to sit facing somebody at work, or whether 15 minutes in a room was safer than 16 with open windows.
My point is, if I genuinely believed all of that, and the biblical plague was upon us, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t one day look at my family, hiding terrified in our attic like Anne Frank, and say “Disneyland anyone?”.
Good point. It is because the hypothesis is unprovable. Wear a mask to stop other people from getting infected. How do you prove it is NOT required?
Anyone with any intelligence would realise that at the height of the so called pandemic, no one was told to wear a mask, and here we still are, weeks and weeks later.
And of course the current rise is entirely due to the wearing of masks spreading infection. Proof that they don’t work. (this aspect never mentioned by the media)
Thanks for this point, as it is something I have thought. Yep, if Ebola was out there or an equivalent nasty, no one would have to tell me to social distance, stay indoors, I would voluntarily have the drawbridge up. That’s another aspect of zero critical thinking by the sheeple – we are humans with a brain, and if there was a real risk, we wouldn’t need rules, signs and tape to make us protect ourselves, but then again the public have been infantisised with a risk averse society.
I wouldn’t go to Disney for a teachers pension. Surprised at Toby there. I would expect it is a two tier system in France. The authorities won’t be queuing up to enforce the diktat’s of state in Saint Denis and the like, you are never too far from a ZUS zone in a French city. I think I would rather spend a day there than Disney
ZUS zone ?
(Do we work for the same acronym-addicted company ?
)
i don’t see how this can end soon. There is no possibility of a government choosing to go against the advice of the public health professionals, especially when other countries are not. The health professionals have too much invested in this, but anyway they seem to have moved to a zero-death absolutist position regardless of cost.
I think the vaccine is the political way out. Get a vaccine, even if it is a placebo, and they can back down without losing face. That’s what it is all about now.
Yes, I mentioned the possibility of a placebo vaccine some time ago. The issue I see is this: the zealots are going to want to see evidence that the vaccine works, because they really do believe that granny’s life is at stake. This would be a big obstacle in the way of a placebo vaccine.
I suggest this: the government uses the media to ramp up disapproval of the publication of “dangerous misinformation” (e.g. even extending it to real science like Gomes’ and Gupta’s), eventually preventing all public analysis of the vaccine(s) – for our own good. The pharmaceutical companies will obviously be happy to keep their ‘data’ secret, and perhaps the government simply stops testing the population for Covid after the vaccine is administered.
I believe they will stop testing after mass vaccination also, will keep quiet about death’s just as they did in 2014 and 2017/18.
You are right that the political aim is to save face and avoid accountability for the lockdown. But the vaccine does not look like a light at the end of the tunnel.
For good reasons, too few people will voluntarily accept the vaccine to make it credible that the vaccine has defeated covid. So Bojo will be forced into mandatory vaccination, and that opens up a whole new can of shit.
Attacks on G.P. surgeries and/or vaccination centres, followed by curfews to ‘protect the NHS’ in a whole new way. More reliance on policing. A further economic downturn in that context. No, the vaccine does not look like the Hollywood ending, it does not allow Bojo to do his Churchill impression and declare victory.
I think that enough people will take the vaccine voluntarily – I’m guessing 85%. A propaganda campaign is already underway to ensure that ‘anti-vaxxers’ are shunned by society.
I think not; they will be forced by dint of certain services (benefits?) being linked to having had the vaccine.. Like in Australia, ‘no jab, no pay’…
Well I’m not saying they won’t do that, too. Just that it wouldn’t be necessary.
This is my better half’s view too. Lets hope that’s the case so the the not stupid enough people to take a rushed untested vaccine will hopefully be able to give it a miss.
Just found this link in a comment on a Mercola article: https://ise.media/video/exclusive-covid-vaccine-patent-warned-of-31.html
Apparently Moderna applied for a patent *months* before the pandemic (suspicious?) but they may not actually be able to use their vaccine now due to another company’s application.. the plot thickens..
I watched Brian Rose’s interview yesterday with David E Martin, one of the main contributors to the recent “Plandemic: Indoctornation” film (which is absolutely worth watching, and you’ll find it on the London Real website – it’s been deleted from all other social media platforms). David Martin said much the same thing from the patent papertrail, which he’s been following for many years. https://freedomplatform.tv/david-e-martin-exposing-moderna-the-star-of-plandemic-indoctrination-reveals-the-truth/
It doesn’t help with the virtue signalling that this is the most unprecendented crisis in current history (or words like that).
Yes it is. It’s self inflicted. It’s the most unprecendented action of self-harm ever done by a government to its country.
Where’s the helpline for that?
good news from one area of London. Two pubs 50 yards apart re opened a month ago. Both with rigid entry requirements. One has now closed again and the other has relaxed the entry to voluntary writing down of name and number.
There appears to be a pattern of after 3 weeks a scaling down of the security.
Yes, although a pub closing isn’t immediately obvious as ‘good news’, we don’t want people and businesses to tolerate the ‘new normal’. A pub closing sends a signal, and reduces a local authority’s funding. Hopefully telling TPTB that they need to drop this BS.
Yes I’ve noticed that, as each sector opens up it goes full on Covid safety crazy and then relaxes I thought more like a month.
I think it’s more to do with keeping the Council inspectors happy rather than a belief in the measures themselves.
Debating query. Here’s a point that comes up occasionally in discussion that I have to respond to with a bit of handwaving, because I don’t have the actual numbers to hand.
The point under discussion is the old “flattening the curve” issue of hospital capacity, back in March and April. Did the emergency measures taken prevent NHS overload? My recollection is that capacity was never approached, except perhaps momentarily in particular locations (and there were many stories of empty and unused hospital spaces). But the response is occasionally: “ah yes, but that’s only because of the measures taken to free up and increase capacity”.
Anyone have numbers of ICU beds and usage during the period? The normal ONS data series seems to have been suspended. (Not percentage occupancy, which incorporates capacity expansions, but absolute numbers).
we do know that the NHS was going to be swamped with dying covid patients so they build all the Nightingale wards at great expense.. and not one was used .
Yes, but that doesn’t help with whether the clearing of normal hospital capacity for anticipated covid cases could be justified.
No, but it does help with scale.
Infections peaked before lockdown so I don’t think there was much chance of the NHS being overloaded.They overestimated the threat and virulence of Covid and in the panic or design,have killed many more people through the withdrawal of care.Understandable,never justified
“Infections peaked before lockdown so I don’t think there was much chance of the NHS being overloaded.”
It’s not really a lockdown issue – I don’t recall when exactly the emergency NH measures were introduced, but that’s the key date in this regard.
“They overestimated the threat and virulence of Covid and in the panic or design,have killed many more people through the withdrawal of care.Understandable,never justified“
This is the point at issue. If the emergency measures imposed freed up enough beds to stop the (dramatically increased) capacity being exceeded, then the panickers could try to argue that the measures at least saved lives. If not, then they can’t. That’s why I’d like to see the numbers.
I think they did it for show! Get the army to build a hospital in 9 days looks impressive(and it was). However if it was based on a scientific model of beds needed to deal with Covid 19 patients, they got it wrong big time!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52125059
They earmarked a very large site for our local Nightingale but nothing happened for two months when they scaled it down to a smaller site at another location.
Nothing happened there for a further month before the builders swung into action completing it in 6 weeks, in the 4th month of lockdown.
That’s some expensive virtue signalling!
I don’t see how knowing the figures helps the argument though. If it was a flat zero that would just be an indication of how effective the measures were.
It’s in discussion of whether the NHS emergency measures to increase capacity were, or could be, justified, bearing in mind that they cost lives.
Ah, yes, I see. Good point. I suppose they’ll just say it was a judgement call and they erred on the side of ‘caution’ – even though we know that the result of that caution is unknowable consequences down the line.
Indeed. But that’s why I’d like to see the actual numbers, so I can know how strong the case would be, either way.
Can we apply for an FOI regarding this?
I think the ONS series was suspended because central data collection was halted, so I think we’d have to know where to get the original data, and it might involve tedious compilation from multiple sources. Though I suppose the numbers must have been collected for PHE and SAGE use and monitoring. I’m hoping someone has seen the numbers collated and published somewhere.
You’re right. Initially, preparing hospitals was a reasonable idea, given the misleading information coming via the WHO. In my observation that process was carried out efficiently.
But … as said, infection had taken place before any mitigation was in place, so the peak demand was real, I think. And that peak demand did not generally overstretch to NHS. Staff were underemployed as the peak passed.
This was when it could have been different, with a staged return to normal … but the rest is history, and that history gives rise to the questioning of the motives behind this continual faking of a continuing emergency.
None of this is helping. Complaining ain’t doing jack shit. Nobody gives a fuck. Will it take the road blocks and forced testing by the goons that join the army to make people rise up? People will accept that i believe. Then comes the forced Vax at the side of the road by some so called Dr who’ll give medical procedures against your will, will people accept that? I believe they will. When they come round your house and remove your children because you’ve not been tested or vaxed will your neighbours cheer like they did for the commie useless NHS? I believe they will. Will the people just accept a life in their house living off government handouts? Yes they will. Will people line up for food parcels at distribution centres? Yes indeed. Will they dig their own fucking graves and climb in? Too fucking right they will. I feel every single one of us is pissing in the fucking wind. Toby is so very nice and all, Hitchens is a clever chap and everything but when are they gonna get angry? When are they gonna call out these evil bastards for what they are. I’m beginning to think they are as useless as cretins like David Icke. It’s a funny old world where Piers Corbyn is about the only one out there putting their ass on the line.
I was at the protest in Edinburgh at the weekend, me, a handful of loonies and and couple of Tourists and some nice middle class kids who think it was all a big fucking joke. It achieved nothing. It didn’t even make the fucking news. I now almost believe this site is just part of the whole thing put up so those of us who oppose this will expose themselves and when the brave soldiers come round the doors testing and vaxing people who’ve posted here we will be first.
Yes I have worried about this. The secret services can read everyone’s IP addresses here.
I posted this earlier
Common Law action.
http://tapnewswire.com/2020/09/citizens-issue-stand-down-order-to-authorities-after-nullifying-and-outlawing-covid-regulations/
We have to come together and why not through Common Law?
Another site to evaluate:
https://www.earthunited.global/
I would work for the secret services if i could. You won’t find a more patriotic British person than me. I love our country and it’s history and i don’t think most of the secret service, army, police etc are behind what is going on. Imagine it this way, if in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy George Smiley came to the conclusion that it was Roy Bland or Toby Esterhase who was Gerald and Bill Hayden remained in charge of the Circus this is what we would be suffering. I don’t think Boris is in charge or if he is then he’s working for the other side. I want us to go back to the sleepy wee place we were before they brought the third world here to destroy us, before Parliament declared itself sovereign and removed the Queen and before they imposed this medical bullshit on us. We are common men under common law and that must be fought for and i’d hope the chaps that work for the Secret Service are behind that.
I agree with you about this site, Toby’s job is to deflect all blame from the murderous Tories and rubbish those who demonstrate this covid hysteria is a carefully engineered hoax.
I used to belong to a website for people with CFS/ME.
Recent research has now linked a third of CFS/ME cases to vaccine injury – a finding which may explain the drive to stigmatise this illness as “yuppie flu”.
I knew the person who built and maintained the website and he told me the website was monitored night and day by two IP addresses in Whitehall. If anyone’s post went too far, he would get a message to take the offending post down
Specific sites are great in their own contexts, but we need one to encompass everyone.
That sounds somewhat like the last days of the Soviet Union; forced medical procedures were the norm as were road blocks and the removal of children for any reason or none. People didn’t stay at home to get given government handouts, they had to pretend to do an unnecessary job to get them.
Piers Corbyn would be headed for the Psychiatric Hospital by now.
Every now and then rules were relaxed only to be tightened later just to show who was in charge (sound familiar?)
You didn’t mention conscription into the Soviet Army in which homosexual rape of newbies was regarded as essential to the maintenance of order and discipline.
These days they won’t need to demand “show me your papers”, they already know who you are from facial recognition. Neither will they need to torture you to find out your opinions, they have read all your Social Media.
And then there were the state sanctioned shnitches, internal passports (Caerphilly, how topical).
Permission to go to University or in which sector you could or could not work or shop or live in decided by caprice. Now to be decided by the Health Passport algorithm App.
The reason people put up with it was because they or grandad, rememberd how much worse it was before.
I could go on but having not come to a conclusion I have to go.
I don’t know about anyone else but I’m starting to feel like we need a symbol, a subtle one, which we can wear for other sceptics to recognise when out and about (think poppy etc). I very rarely wear a face nappy and always feel a little sense of triumph when I see someone else likewise unmasked; but even I am starting to tire of seeing a sea of compliant muzzled faces when I venture out into town. I know they can’t all be ‘true believers’ in this rubbish, but it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the psychologists behind this fiasco have certainly played a blinder on the general public.
Literally a non-red poppy isn’t a bad idea… ‘civilians’ wouldn’t be sure whether it meant you were a ‘Covid denier’ or it had some other significance. If a moron challenged you you could claim it was the symbol of the Invictus Games, or Animals in War or some such.
My symbol is the orange poppy – feel free to use that as an idea.
A Coronavirus logo with a slash through the middle of it. Like défense de fumer. No smoking. Or this or that.
I got a bunch of small badges made a few months ago with “AWAKE” on it. Has started a few conversations, and I give them out to anyone who knows what’s really going on.
I quite like that idea.
It reminds me that I’m the normal one, if nothing else, Mike! Happy to send some over to you if you’d like – I got some small stickers made up for car windows too. Or I can send you the template I used if you want to get some made up yourself.
Here’s the badge I made.
According to Plato Socrates said ‘ the unexamined life is not worth living’. Socrates. Or The Thinker.
Ban the Bomb button. Two birds with one stone.
A week or so ago i emailed Aldi complaining about a product but also raising questions about their mask policy for staff.
Initially I said “i think you should stop enforcing mask wearing on your staff. Other supermarkets do not do this and it is not government guidance . I have noticed several of the staff suffering from skin complaints and wearing a mask, all day, fiddling with it etc is potentially a bigger hazard than being mask free”.
Response “All colleagues have been provided with facemasks and are asked to wear these whilst working on the shop floor. If a colleague has a medical condition and they are unable to wear a facemask, they will be exempt from wearing a mask.
The Government has however confirmed that colleagues working behind Perspex screens are not required to wear a facemask due to the enhanced protection provided by a screen.
my reply ” you are incorrect in your interpretation of government guidance. Shop workers do NOT have to wear masks. I quote from https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-coronavirus-covid-19/shops-and-branches
“Employers should support their workers in using face coverings safely if they choose to wear one. It is not mandatory for shop or supermarket, indoor shopping centres, banks, building societies, post office workers, premises providing professional, legal or financial services and auction houses to wear face coverings although the government recommends that businesses consider their use where appropriate and where other mitigations are not in place.”
I know the staff that i speak to do not choose to wear one and are only wearing a mask because Aldi have instructed them to (or as you have indicated .. colleagues have been asked to wear them….. ) . is this under threat of disciplinary action?
Response “Thank you for responding to my colleagues email.
As my colleague has stated Aldi are adhering to the Government Guidelines regarding our colleagues and customers of wearing the face coverings. If staff have any concerns at all regarding wearing the mask they can speak with their manager who will support them. Our Staff and customers health and safety is our highest priority.
my reply “As i explained in my last email, Aldi are not following the guidelines. I quoted the specific wording from the guidelines below.
So my question is still unanswered. As you are forcing your staff to wear masks or have they all asked you to support them in their wish to wear masks? And if staff choose not to wear masks, which they are entitled to do, will this be allowed (without a medical issue) or, if they do not wear a mask, will they be disciplined.?
As i said , this is an Aldi rule and not government guidelines. Who decided this would be the rule and on what basis?
So .. I seem to be going round in circles. Aldi wont admit that they are going beyond the government guidelines or explain why.
10 out of 10 for persistence!
i actually like Aldi. I like the staff at my local branch and always chat with them. So i was just curious why they had to wear masks. and obviously the inability for HO to give me a straight answer has made me even more curious.
Like just about everyone, bar us on here, they are following the government guidance very carefully, mjr. It’s just that they haven’t actually looked at it!
I’ve previously posted about talking to an off duty Tesco lad about why he has suddenly started wearing a mask having worked through early lockdown without one.
He told me it’s ‘not exactly compulsory but management “strongly advise” that we wear them’.
ie your career with XYZ.plc is compromised if you don’t.
To be fair, a lanyard touting Granny tells me that this does not apply to Sainsbury’s.
Common Law action.
http://tapnewswire.com/2020/09/citizens-issue-stand-down-order-to-authorities-after-nullifying-and-outlawing-covid-regulations/
We have to come together and why not through Common Law?
That is very interesting. Could it work here?
We must find some way.
Have yet to make up my mid about this site:
https://www.earthunited.global
Check out their alliances.
Not sure if this has been posted yet. Finally, a start.. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sars-cov-2-rna-testing-assurance-of-positive-results-during-periods-of-low-prevalence
I think this a very important document and going in the direct direction. But they don’t want to define limit of detection and pass the buck to the laboratories. But at least they don’t think Pillar 2 is eq.to Pillar1 in that a repeat sample with limit of detection should be regarded as non infectious in Pillar 2 and not need any isolation or contact tracing. They assume therefore that Pillar 2 is mostly asymptomatic. Let’s hope this is the first step in reassessment of mass-testing
Agreed. Only 5 months late but hopefully more pushing from non sage scientists will keep nudging them along at a faster rate. Unbelievable really that still no cycle threshold has been set as standard.
It would be nice if the cycle count has been stored along with the result – it would be nice to be able to revise down the total cases in the same manner as the deaths.
They also seem to suggest that patients are infectious for far longer than we’ve previously been led to believe. They don’t count someone as being safe until five weeks after onset of symptoms.
I was wondering about that myself. Seems like massive overkill still but it’s a step in the right direction for a change.
A good find! This looks like a step in the right direction, the trouble is that the steps are so slow…….zzzz………
Reading today about the apparent absence these days of any non-CoVID NHS service, I recall a comment I once read somewhere: “When I was a child, my parents made all my doctor’s appointments for me. These days, I just take two aspirin and hope I don’t die.”
Sorry if already posted, but this is quite sensible from one of the senior Oxford medics:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8707341/SIR-JOHN-BELL-live-terror-cut-world-Britain-open-again.html
Helpful (although would prefer non-promotion of experimental vaccines), and something of a counter to JV-T and Edmonds’ hysterical musings of last night. We need Heneghan, Gupta and Lee out in the press in the next few days in the run-up to the consultation deadline next Friday.
I wouldn’t be testing though. That’s a fool’s errand. No context at all. If you test for one thing you need to test for all others and then see how you deal with that knowledge. It’s actually better not knowing.
In a sane world that would be bleedin’ obvious, wouldn’t it?
I ripped this to shreds when it was posted earlier.
He does point out that deaths and hospital admissions are negligible but he’s also rabidly pro 2nd wave, pro vaccine and pro mass testing.
You’re right we need much more Heneghan, Gupta and Lee.
The very safe way masks are made
Forward this to your muzzle mates
Inferior masks made in slums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSQi9yXkfUg
Slave labour making masks for future slaves.
Royal College General Practicioners Research & Surveillance Centre – Weekly Returns Service. This is data from doctor’s practices on what they’re seeing:
COVID-19:
https://www.rcgp.org.uk/-/media/Files/CIRC/WeeklyReport_Summer_wk35_2020.ashx?la=en
This is all so interesting. If you look at the link you’ll see that effectively every communicable illness is running at about 1/2 it’s normal rate! How much is simply due to no one consulting the doctor and how much because all the covid measures have suppressed normal illness.
Ooops, I should have said the numbers are incidents per 100,000.
“how much because all the covid measures have suppressed normal illness”
More worrying – how much does that indicate a real problem with weakened immune systems – a problem that will come home to roost.
… and then blamed on Covid.
I can’t find anyone to go with me to Doncaster race. I can’t think why -I’ll even pay. https://www.doncaster-racecourse.co.uk/news/racing/code-of-conduct
For your safety, and the safety of others, please make sure to observe the following whilst at our Racecourse.
Thank you so much for your support and co-operation. Stay alert and stay safe!
To be honest – I thought this was a wind up! Only bookmakers will accept cash! Hugs etc
God, so did I! And then….
Perhaps it’s there way of saying how ridiculous it all is! You know what I’m tempted to go!
Don’t forget your wads of cash!
Changed my mind!
For general attendance tickets, the racecourse has two zones available, both offer slightly different viewing areas. Each zone is self-contained with its own, lavatories, bar facilities, catering, betting facilities and big screens. Hand santisation stations, and social distancing officers will be present in every zone and all attendees will be required to sign up to the racecourse code of conduct.
Well you could take some curtains to hang over the screens and pretend you’re in a private box?
This is the problem we have – you read screens and thought plastic – I read screens and thought TV!
Oh you’re right!
But the race course experience would be much safer if punters were in little plastic boxes.
Tell me again, what’s the definition of insanity?
Bookies may be the last bastion of cash. They tried cashless, someone reported taking 20 minutes to put a big bet on due to the bank approval system – the race is over by then
Huge crowd of one?
Totally mental. I hope NOBODY goes. Sadly people will go, and spend their wads of cash.
The WADS OF CASH they got from: Sitting at home doing nothing, sitting in a paddling pool doing zoom calls in their gardens, planning town centre signage and where to put the sanitizer stations and stay 2 meters apart stickers, selling 40 million face nappies and pairs of plastic gloves, selling perpex safety screens and stay 2 meters apart-stay-safe-masks must be worn signs, from selling test kits and running testing centres, from selling remote working software, from being consultants on all this covid safe policy insanity….
I have never been to a horse race I have have never had any money to gamble with.
FFS.
Re: My recent criticisms of Prof Gupta & Prof Michael Levitt. A number of people have asked me to provide evidence. Here it is:
1/ Michael Levitt wrote this medium blog in
https://medium.com/@michael.levitt/the-excess-burden-of-death-from-coronavirus-covid-19-is-closer-to-a-month-than-to-a-year-83fca74455b4
Levitt is challenging David Spiegelhalter’s expected death excess
Leaving asked the fact the DP death toll is now 13 (Levitt as usual jumps in too early) the calculation he makes is laughable. We can all make simple mistakes but any scientist worth his salt would have quickly realised that his numbers were nonsense. He’s used percentages of the whole 700 rather than the numbers in each individual age group – and then published them.
2/ Sunetra Gupta
In March, Professor Gupta was lead author of a study which concluded that “Coronavirus may have infected half of UK population”
Take your pick from any of these
https://www.google.co.uk/search?source=hp&ei=KTlXX4rzLfiCjLsPvp-M0AQ&q=Coronavirus+may+have+infected+half+of+UK+population+%E2%80%94+Oxford+study&oq=Coronavirus+may+have+infected+half+of+UK+population+%E2%80%94+Oxford+study&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQA1D_DFj_DGCTE2gAcAB4AIABR4gBR5IBATGYAQCgAQKgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjKq_XfitnrAhV4AWMBHb4PA0oQ4dUDCAk&uact=5
At least Ferguson’s estimate turned out to be pretty accurate (~40k). The 500k figure was based on a scenario in which no mitigating action were taken.
Sunetra Gupta is a “theoretical epidemiologist”, by the way.
How did Ferguson’s figures work out in Sweden? Maybe you could do some calculations for us.
I would need to know what geographical separation parameters Ferguson applied in the UK. He clearly did not assume a 100% homogeneous population.
They did certainly use an assumption that everyone was equally susceptible to the virus. That is, no immunity. This was confirmed in Levitts zoom call with the modeller from ICL
Since we have no definite evidence to say otherwise – YET that is not an unreasonable assumption.
Better than Levitt who assumes an epidemic is over just because case growth declines.
Usually because it is. Unlike Ferguson, who has been proven wrong repeatedly over two decades, Levitt does predict disease trajectories extremely well. And when case growth declines, your epidemic is well on its way out. As has been shown, repeatedly, by the real world data.
Merely being aware of things that you and Ferguson aren’t makes them better scientists. Ferguson and his acolytes are profoundly ignorant of the way the immune system works. As a result, their models are just toys with unquantifiable errors built into them. If they ever made an accurate “estimate” it was by pure chance rather than reasoning.
You may turn out to be correct about the immune system, but Ferguson could not assume anything in Feb & March. We still don’t know how much innate or prior immunity the UK population has. Some RECENT studies have suggested it might be a significant proportion but the pattern of spread, i.e. clusters, would put this in some doubt.
Why would people in, say, Coventry have innate immunity while those in Birmingham are more susceptible.
Ferguson has been consistently wrong over a span of half-a-dozen infections.
The Swedish data confirms that his only ability is to continue to be egregiously wrong
Ferguson didn’t model Sweden. We have no idea how he would have handled geographic separation.
You can’t simply use a pro rata figure based on UK estimates
https://www.aier.org/article/imperial-college-model-applied-to-sweden-yields-preposterous-results/
I’ll repeat. Ferguson didn’t model Sweden.
This is correct. I’ve downvoted all your other posts as they’re full of poor assumptions, bad maths or outright lies – but upvoted this one. Not sure why people are disagreeing, it’s a fact.
You will point out my bad maths at some point will you?
As for poor assumptions, I don’t rely on assumptions. I only rely on what is scientifically proven. That is my main point.
I rely on data. That is the only truth.
I’m sure some Swedish Ferguson made their own model.
Maybe the people of Coventry were exposed to the virus early on due to a super spreader? I know nothing about this, but what factors would have to be in play for viruses not to spread in clumps and clusters right at the start of of an epidemic given the random or chaotic nature of people meeting, flying in from abroad, etc. ?
Coventry must have had more immunity then because I don’t think there were many hospital admissions or deaths due to respiratory problems.
I rather think, though, it’s because not many have had it.
Yes he could. We had “Diamond Princess” data by the end of February.
So true. A well functioning immune system will protect people from dying from Covid-19
So how many people have a “well functioning immune system”? Do we all have one? 80%, 50%, 20% …… ?
Do tell us.
You keep on telling us all the things we don’t – and can’t – know. And on that basis you then proceed to tell us how to live our lives! NO! We accept that there are things we can’t put a figure on, and in those circumstances we have to, effectively, take a chance and leave the house without knowing. Just as we have every single day of our lives so far. You can ‘shield’ if you want to until Uncle Matt and Professor Ferguson have made you “safe” (which they can and will never do).
In 2017 I believe there was a bad flu epidemic. Did you plot the state of your immune system throughout, and sometimes wear a mask as a result, or keep your distance from people. Did you f***.
It is not for you to tell me how to live my life because you’ve been taken in by a fake panic over a standard-issue respiratory virus.
On Sunetra, it’d help if you can publish any findings saying that half of the UK pop hasn’t been infected. You’ve just assumed she’s wrong. Afterall its a highly viralent disease (or so the fearmongers would have us believe)
On the Ferguson, his models have been applied to Sweden with no mitigation, medium mitigation and a full lockdown. At best he is proved wrong by a factor of 10. Even more laughable is his complete disregard for immunity following infection. Even Google modellers called his model ‘Bad practise’
In 2005, Ferguson said that up to 200 million people could be killed from bird flu. He told the Guardian that ‘around 40 million people died in 1918 Spanish flu outbreak… There are six times more people on the planet now so you could scale it up to around 200 million people probably.’ In the end, only 282 people died worldwide from the disease between 2003 and 2009.
How did he get this forecast so wrong?
On 22 March, Ferguson said that Imperial College London’s model of the Covid-19 disease is based on undocumented, 13-year-old computer code, that was intended to be used for a feared influenza pandemic, rather than a coronavirus.
How many assumptions in the Imperial model are still based on influenza and is there any risk that the modelling is flawed because of these assumptions?
Wasn’t the same model used to predict outcomes from Foot and Mouth that resulted in hundreds of cattle being slaughtered unnecessarily? The same model was also used to predict Ebola casualties.
The ammended code (including modifications) was on github to download, and it was an appalling mess without any apparent comments on how it worked.
Use a simple S-I-R model with basic assumptions.
There’s a video by the Swedish epidemiologist Tom Britton. Watch it. Then comment.
And that is the problem. The SIR model does not reflect real life epidemics. It is a toy model, suitable perhaps for a “My first lecture on modelling”. Ferguson (and others) bases his entire, disastrous career on it.
Forget S-I-R models. Just look at the actuality that they don’t predict very well.
If the assumptions used in them are correct then they model epidemics fairly well. Unfortunately, uncertainty over initial assumptions is a problem.
Indeed, an important part of the modelling process should be bringing those assumptions to light.
Tell Tom Britton that. He’s involved with the Swedish response.
Quite sophisticated SIR models can be developed as more is known about a pathogen.
Unfortunately, the initial parameters are very uncertain at the outset of a pandemic.
But I still say it’s not over. And we are still very uncertain about population immunity.
An SIR model WITH THE RIGHT PARAMETERS gives something much closer to the data we’ve seen than Ferguson’s over-complicated rubbish does. And Ferguson knowingly fed overly pessimistic parameters in to his messy model to reach his doom and gloom conclusions.
Did you hear about the Neil Ferguson Investment Fund? Someone calculated that if you put a trillion pounds into it twenty years ago, you would now be left with …two pounds eleven pence!
(it’s supposedly the actual figure you get if you chain all his errors together…)
Because it wasn’t a forecast. A newspaper interviewer asked him what would happen if avian flu was transmitted between humans, and he gave the worst-case answer, which is of course what the newspaper chose to print. As it happens, avian flu did not become transmissible between humans and so lots of people didn’t die after all. Which is good.
Then don’t say anything when asked. That is blatantly unethical. These theorists need firing.
“Blatantly unethical” — no. Unwise — possibly.
It is unethical to apply hypothesis to real life situations where your words result in actions being taken by others.
You can apply hypothesis to yourself all you like.
I disagree. It is unethical to misrepresent the level of certainty or accuracy in any estimates or predictions, of course. It may be considered unethical to make statements which you know, or have reasonable cause to suspect, will be misunderstood or misrepresented, which might apply to giving interviews to certain newspapers.
Unless you are very careful to point out that your conclusion is very dependent on assumptions X,Y,Z… Which I don’t think Ferguson did, he was making these models for government not for public consumption and in showing them should have been in a position to know to be very careful about making over statements and the risk of under-emphasising the limits of his theories. Although the media undoubtedly cut off the “dependent on…” part of the conclusion when they spread the panic to the public and made the whole thing even worse.
On Sunetra, it’d help if you can publish any findings saying that half of the UK pop hasn’t been infected
The paper was published on March 22nd and was based on data up to and including March 19th. I am SCEPTICAL. It’s up to Prof. Gupta to provide the evidence.
I find it unlikely that 50% of the UK population were infected in March when I don’t know a single person – even now – who has had Covid.
On 22 March, Ferguson said that Imperial College London’s model of the Covid-19 disease is based on undocumented, 13-year-old computer code, that was intended to be used for a feared influenza pandemic, rather than a coronavirus.
That’s completely irrelevant. Any competent epidemiologist or mathematical modeller could cobble together an SIR model to give a ball park figure. I’ve done it, Nic Lewis has done it and I dare say hundreds of others have done. We all get similar results to Ferguson (using the same assumptions).
If Ferguson has it wrong it will likely be because
1/ He’s over- estimated IFR
2/ He has not included sufficient Heterogeneity.
Since these parameters were very uncertain in March (and still are) his IFR estimate of 0.9% was a decent first stab.
“I don’t know a single person – even now – who has had Covid.”
In which case, why are we in lockdown given how few people are affected.
Lockdown is effective at preventing spread.
See NZ for details.
So what do they do next?
See Sweden for details.
See Peru you mean!
Firstly, NZ didn’t stop spread by lockdown, they stopped introduction because they sealed themselves off from the world before covid arrived ( I don’t, by the way, approve of closing borders, I agree with free movement and free trade, blocking those always has bad effects internally, virus or no virus). They are still living in fear because the virus could arrive at any time. As for countries which, being, unlike New Zealand, international hubs and unable to close borders early eough to stop introduction, tried an internal lockdown, it never helped at all. Belgium, locked down hard and early, worst percentage of covid deaths in Europe. Phillipines, locked down very hard, virus still spreading and deaths climbing fast. Peru, locked down hard, virus getting worse, further more desperate lockdwon measures all failing. Then look at Sweden, handled it rationally, small but effective measures, viral wave passes and doesn’t seem to be returning. Or look at Belarus, totally ignored the virus (the Swedish strategy probably makes more sense than this one), but the country is not racked by a ruinous death toll, instead it is busy boiling up to a civil war over the matter of how its dictator (terrible man but great covid policy) cheated the recent election and harassed the wives of his jailed opposition, the people there have forgotten the virus, even totally uncontrolled spread of this virus isn’t a nation wrecking calamity.
“That’s completely irrelevant. Any competent epidemiologist or mathematical modeller could cobble together an SIR model to give a ball park figure. I’ve done it, Nic Lewis has done it and I dare say hundreds of others have done. We all get similar results to Ferguson (using the same assumptions).”
Apart from the snide observation that the words ‘competent’ and ‘epidemiologist’ often part company – certainly in the hallowed halls of ICL ….
This is a circular argument that is laughably unscientific. It assumes that the internal logic of a bad program is its own justification. If we know anything after the Ferguson debacle, the SIR model is spectacularly prone to errors of theoretical simplification.
In layman;’s terms : GI > Garbage Code > Garbage Out.
By “layman” I assume you are referring to someone who has made no attempt to understand the process by which these estimates are made but are happy to regurgitate the rantings of random bloggers.
There is a logic to Ferguson’s work. Subsequent research might mean that the model’s initial assumptions were wrong.
However, Ferguson is not likely to be any more in error than Levitt or Gupta. One tweet by Levitt suggested South Korea would peak at 8048 cases. That’s not aging well. It’s simplistic nonsense based on short term data.
No – just someone who tests hypotheses against the real world in a recursive process – i.e uses scientific method rather than p0laying in a hermetically sealed room of speculation.
I’m, actually more interested in historical data than projections and modelling concepts such as ‘excess deaths’ (simply the actual error component of a particular projection)
This virus was rightly downgraded way back in March, and the figures of mortality show, in retrospect, that, despite the April spike, it had only a moderate effect in a comparative framework.
Yet I’ve just heard some numbskull from the WHO still banging on about what a terrible disease it is – evidence free nonsense generating a massive decline in the quality of life for millions.
20,000 lines of code in one file (before MS tried to finesse it), no unit tests, few comments (except where extant bugs are observed), tries and fails to be multithreaded.
Apparently software engineering expertise is entirely optional for competent computer models.
I’d really like to see the original model that caused all this rather than the post hoc one that MS tried to make look somewhat acceptable. We all know it won’t happen.
So you’re admitting that South Korea’s mitigation measures failed then? That doesn’t surprise us here, we know lockdowns and quarantines don’t work. Real world data, not theory. How unfortunate.
Yes, I’ve done it too and got compatible figures, as one would expect. The other parameter of an SIR model is initial proportion of people already immune. One would need that to be around 50% to fit the experience of places like Manaus and Guayaquil. Heterogeneity would also have that effect, and I think it likely that a non-Poisson model for infections would as well.
Regardless, the consequences of his first stab have been frighteningly inaccurate. We need to seriously consider the process by which we allow such predictions to drive policy in that way.
I’ve heard it claimed that we have saved 350,000 lives with the measures if we take Ferguson numbers. How can that ever be proven? If we take it as true it is the most spectacular public policy success of all time. Boris deserves a statue.
You fundamentally do not see the issue. Models from hypothesis cannot be applied to the real world before being validated and verified. Theorists like yourself just cannot get over this. Models can be useful but when it comes time to get real you go with the Null Hypothesis when you don’t know.
I could knockup an SIR model too. But I have enough experience and ethics to know that I would not have minimised my assumptions pr tested things
If Ferguson’s model were for a product and it managed to get to production, the company would be sued out of existence and the owners most probably in jail.
Ferguson’s folly was thinking he was entitled to get away with applying anything to the real world without the caveat: do not take this as anything but speculation.
I’m not a “theorist” as you put it. However, pandemics rarely give us an opportunity to run a real world validation.
Epidemiologists need to make assumptions – so will tend to err on the side of caution.
You criticise Ferguson but accept pretty much any old codswallop from Gupta, Levitt et al without question.
You are not applying the same standards. Likne more readers of this blog , you are not a true sceptic.
No? Well, one one person’s predictions are closer to the real data than another’s, I know which one of the two I’m going to treat with more respect. Hint: it isn’t Ferguson.
Sadly, that’s not always possible, or ethical. This was an occasion where a decision had to be made at a certain time. It’s a mistake to take the 510,000 figure as an answer to a numerical question. The answer was “Catastrophic”, and on any reasonable variation on the then known data, the answer was always the same. As it happens, we now know, from the experience of other places, such as Manaus and Guayaquil, that the numerical answer was an over-estimate, but the answer “Catastrophic” was the correct one.
The business analogy isn’t really a good one. If you do nothing until you’re sure, typically the worst that happens is that you lose what turns out to be profitable business to a competitor. In this case, the do-nothing option would have led to a death and civil disruption on an intolerable scale.
Doing nothing isn’t a great option, especially when the threat is unkown, but we now know that doing nothing about covid-19 does not lead to intolerable levels of death, and barely leads to disruption at all*. And we could see pretty good evidence even in March that doing nothing wouldn’t be too disasterous (though back then we didn’t realise quite how mild doing nothing could be) .In Belarus, or some developing countries which chose to totally ignore covid, life went on, pretty normally. I don’t recommend total ignorance of it, I recommend a proportional response, as Sweden took, and where doing nothing about covid doesn’t lead to anything too terible, doing only the small sensible things keeps deaths low and disruption almost non-existent.
*lockdown, and the panic buying which occurs when one is declared, are both disruptive though
How do you know? Has everyone you know been tested twice? If the answer’s no, then you’re lying – but I appreciate the lie is due to ignorance rather than bad intention so I don’t hold it against you.
So the conclusion is, he might know people who had very mild or asymptomatic cases (he may have had one himself), but doesn’t know anyone who has had a serious case. From which we conclude that the virus could have spread pretty widely, but severe cases are rare enough that many people won’t know of anyone who’s had one. While his logic on the spread may have been flawed, the choices of action he derives from that logic still appear to match those we can derive from the more complete logic of including asymptomatic cases.
Actually Fergusson said if mitigation was put in place then the figure would be 250,000 . So only 5 x out .
” Even with the most effective so-called “mitigation strategy” and under the assumption that all patients are fully treated, the paper concludes there would be around 250,000 deaths in the UK and up to 1.2m deaths in the US. “
Everyone’s assuming that the 50,000 deaths was real. Apart from disputing whether the passing of a 90 year-old with three co-morbidities is really a ‘Covid death’ at all, I’d guess that at least half of the 50,000 are just PHE statistical shenanigans, care-home owners routinely attributing all deaths to Covid, etc.
Indeed . The only deaths of patients WITH Covid in my patch have been a number in three local dementia homes ( normal life expectancy on admission to said homes 12-18 months ) and a few revolving door patients with severe morbidities and frailties who had a life expectancy at most of a few months.
Indeed. It’s just a coincidence that All Cause Mortality excess deaths are currently ~53k above the 5 year average.
60 % of that number would be caused by the policy of lockdown and shutting the NHS down on March the 16 th.
Would it? I doubt that very much given that the bulk of deaths occurred in first 6 weeks.
The age-related mortality of the April spike was closely linked to the low mortality in 2018/19 and the consequent much larger than usual vulnerable population.
It’s very easy to see.
Show me what you mean. Your statement needs clarification.
Hmm interesting thanks for explaining it. Weren’t some care homes preventable because of Boris’ terrible policy of putting hospital patients into care homes?
Have you got any links? I’d like to use this info to explain to the hysterical Australians who think that the UK death toll is completely disastrous. The UK is used as a cautionary example how dangerous covid is and what a mistake opening up too soon is.
… as they are in any year of infection. In my three-quarters of a century, I have lived through approximately two dozen years of worse infection and mortality. Without particularly noticing (and yes – I copped a load from two of them).
Forget the term ‘excess deaths’ – as said, it’s just a moveable feast representing the error in a model., and varies massively with the method used – not to say also with incidentals like the impossibility of analysing the actual Covid contribution.
Just use a population-adjusted comparison over a run of historical data to get an idea of severity. It’s really simple – if painstaking – and boots ‘excess deaths’ into the area of supposition where the term belongs.
This non-epidemic resulted in mortality (up to spring) only at the 75th centile for the past 27 years. Really not something for the Corporal Jones’s of theACM (Association of Crap Modellers) to wet their knickers over.
Forget the term ‘excess deaths’ – as said, it’s just a moveable feast representing the error in a model.
What do you mean by this? Age Standardised Excess deaths have nothing to do models.
Let’s see where we’re at come end of year, eh?
The effects of lockdown can rather explain some of those excess deaths. For the others covid is the cause, but the reduction in death rates to below normal levels that we have seen recently implies that covid took, mostly, the lives of those who hadn’t more than a few months left anyway. And do remember, the excess deaths peak due to the combined action of covid and crime of lockdown still doesn’t compare to some of this decade’s winter flu season excess death surges, it just occured at a different time of year, after a pretty mild flu season (implying it may well have taken lives that would have been lost to flu a few months earleir had the flu season been bad in the winter of 2019-2020).
Ferguson used several mitigation scenarios. Under the lockdown he predicted 48k – (assuming R0 = 2.6 & high trigger number)
Sorry Devi you are wrong ,
I quote from his paper as reported in the FT .
” Even with the most effective so-called “mitigation strategy” and under the assumption that all patients are fully treated, the paper concludes there would be around 250,000 deaths in the UK and up to 1.2m deaths in the US. “
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51915302
The current lockdown is an example of a “suppression” not a “mitigation” strategy.
Let’s have a bet – £1000 on Ferguson’s predictions.
On the other hand you could read the actual paper (not the MSM)
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf
Ferguson’s modelling was on confirmed deaths by Covid. If we were able to measure accurately who died of Covid then you could make that comparison. But as there are many vagueries then you don’t even have sufficiently low noise in you signal.
Tell you what? Why don’t you model that and assume it’s reality.
He also downgraded to 20,000 at one stage. If you make enough predictions, one might be right.
It’s not a joke. That’s clearly what he did. They can ignore the other stuff and say he was right.
Jeez. The 20k figure was in the original paper.
Read the paper and then comment
R0 is an assumption in itself, probably the worst invention of entire event. Unless you test 100% of your population each fortnight, you cannot possibly quantify R0!!
If you’re referring to the famous Report 9, that paper addressed “the impact of five different non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) implemented individually and in combination”. Your quote is taken from a paragraph comparing the effect of “mitigation” with “suppression”:
Since we are currently in a “suppression” scenario, the “mitigation” scenario figures are not relevant.
Among the conclusions of that paper are, referring to suppression
I think most readers of this blog will be in agreement with that last “prediction”.
I missed the disclaimer bit saying “In no circumstances, apply this to real world policy” – you know like a proper scientist is supposed to add
I think this is the same point as the proposition that it is unethical for a scientist to make a prediction, which I answered above.
Any chance of making some sort of coherent argument?
What is it that you don’t understand?
Is it the fact that a Nobel Prize winner performed a simple mathematical calculation that was obviously wrong – and then included it in a blog post?
or
The fact that Sunetra Gupta has not rowed back from a March prediction that 50% of the UK population could be have been infected.
Mayo, while you’re here, please could you point us to the data on increased hospital admissions for covid cases that you mentioned? Thanks!
Follow David Paton on Twitter. He picks up all data indicators.
Who is David Paton and I am not on Twitter. Can you give us a link of some kind please?
Professor of Industrial Economics
Nottingham University Business School
Thanks!
You are doing it again. Equating ‘infection’ with antibodies. I thought we progressed past that on the first day of this web site. 100% of the population may have been exposed and at some level ‘infected’.
I’m not equating infection with antibodies. I am though suggesting that you have no idea how many infected people don’t develop antibodies.
Clustering suggests not that many. There is no reason why individuals in one region should develop antibodies while those in another region don’t (age adjusted).
If 15% of population in London have developed antibodies then it’s reasonable to assume that at least 15% of the rest of the country will need to develop them. The serological survey suggests this hasn’t happened.
Oh contraire… different doses and frequency of infection exposure will affect the immune response. In prisons the infectious viral load is large of frequent. 80% of them become PCR positive and most create antibodies. In contrast, in the general population the infectious load is typical a one off event with a small viral dose. Most people fight that off via a T-cell response, often without even getting symptoms, and generate no antibodies. You obviously have no immunology training (unlike some of us)
So you ascribe tot he theory that once a person has been diagnosed with COVID, that is a COVID death regardless of when they die?
Not necessarily but all cause mortality excess deaths currently stands at ~53k. Given that the bulk of these occurred in the first 6 weeks of the epidemic ‘growth’ it’s reasonable to assume at least 35k were Covid-related.
“it’s reasonable to assume at least 35k were Covid-related”
That might be a reasonable assumption if you believe stress has no effect on people’s susceptibility to disease (of all kinds) but it is widely recognised that it does. Since lockdown put huge swathes of the population under exceptional stress, I don’t see how we can make any reasonable assumptions about the intrinsic lethality of the covid-19 virus without first establishing how many deaths were caused by the lockdown and the general atmosphere of panic.
“At least Ferguson’s estimate turned out to be pretty accurate”
Now I know you’re joking.
“Sunetra Gupta is a “theoretical epidemiologist”, by the way.”
.. an Fergusson isn’t even that – just a bad modeller playing with bad computer code.
The only thing he can claim is that his results are remarkably consistent – in the inaccurate sense.
Just some hard facts :
And we’re still being asked to cower behind the sofa?
The mortality of the recent infection season was high, but not remarkably so : only eighth in the run of 27 years from 1993/9.
Any chance you could wait until it’s over.
Over? This will never be over with our current approach to case madness.
We are not seeing deaths or any hospitalisations however. That is they only way to cut through this. More rigorous assessment of ‘from’ and ‘of’ Covid would help too. Is that too much to ask?
If we kept the same measure as in April, it would be over. Completely over.
You are trying to compare apples and oranges. If you want to compare covid ove the long term you’ll need to wait for it to be endemic and add up the effects over multiple years, then compare to long term averaged effects of the likes of flu (an endemic disease). If you want to compare the spring spike you can compare only to brief several motnh spikes of flu, as we see in the UK in winters.
Mayo, or Neil, or whatever your name is, you are way, way off the mark.
You are on the same page as Neil Ferguson and other modellers, but the SIR model is a toy model that doesn’t reflect the reality of the population-wide immune system and the way it responds to small doses of viruses. Modellers don’t talk to immunologists and vice versa and that is a big problem.
The calculation of herd immunity threshold is a toy calculation based on a toy model. the reality is that enclosed populations like the Diamond Princess routinely top out at 20% showing antibodies in standard tests. This doesn’t mean that the remaining 80% weren’t exposed, or infected, and that their immune system doesn’t have some learned or innate immunity.
Oh, and Ferguson used the CFR value as his IFR – building an approximate factor-of-ten exaggeration in right at the start.
You keep banging on about immunity without having a clue what level of immunity exists in the population. It’s not much more than speculation at the moment. Meanwhile SYMPTOMATC cases have been rising quite sharply over the last 2 weeks. This is step 2. Next it might be hospital cases.
Unless we have clear scientific & medical proof that significant immunity now exists we cannot assume it.
Oh, and Ferguson used the CFR value as his IFR
He used 0.9%. That was not the CFR. Read the paper.
the reality is that enclosed populations like the Diamond Princess routinely top out at 20% showing antibodies in standard tests.
Big ship. 20% infected after 11 days – then quarantine. That’s fast.
It wasn’t 20% infected. By the same theory using the R rate, everyone was infected (in that they had contact with the virus), only an average of 20% tested positive and showed symptoms.
The problem then is how do tell that it is uniquely Covid? How you eliminate other conditions? That’s been the problem from day one. So you don’t have clean data – you have high uncertainty – which feeds into your model or if high enough makes them moot.
Do you even know about the scientific method?
“Unless we have clear scientific & medical proof that significant immunity now exists we cannot assume it.”
Unless we can distinguish that we Covid causes serious problems, is a unique infection that leads to deaths greater that the flu, we CANNOT ASSUME IT.
This is a risk mitigation situation. The government got it wrong. Sweden got it right. It doesn’t matter if they had more deaths than normal (on average over the years it looks not)
In line with a sharp rise in testing too. So what? How many have presented at hospital? How many are dying? Have those numbers increased? No. Besides, finding more potential infections with increased testing does not necessarily suggest increasing rates of infection.
Especially as hospital admission and death numbers remain flat.
You are completely ignoring the fact that while we continue with the fear, the economy is dying. Many people are going to die of other causes than Covid. People are going to go without medical treatment. Eventually, probably without food.
You talk as though not knowing something ‘scientific’ means that you must always err on the side of simple-minded ‘caution’. We also don’t know how many people would test positive for flu, or TB or many other diseases. But we don’t shut the economy down. In most instances in life, doing nothing, or what comes instinctively, is the default position. People like you and Neil Ferguson have ‘got a little knowledge’ and have been given too much influence, and you think you are in a position to outflank nature – on my behalf. Ridiculous.
You are willingly throwing your life away with this crap, along with about 85% of the population. You’re going to drag me down too, but at least not willingly.
If I remember correctly, when Freddie Sayers asked Sunetra Gupta about her ‘50% may already have it’ study in his Unherd interview with her, she said it was simply an equally plausible counterpoint to Ferguson’s figure: not a ‘prediction’, just her guess at that time. I think she acknowledged then that the actual figure had been lower. What do you expect her to do? Constantly apologise that the figure she pulled out of the air wasn’t right?
In early March Fergusson estimated that 3% had it. And prevalence was doubling every 3 days back then. It does not take many doublings to get to 20%, or even 80%!!
Plus Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 tests were reporting >40% of tests as positive by late March. That measure has fallen steadily, but if you sum the area under the curve and allow for the virus being detectable for a few weeks per person, again you get >>60% having been exposed.
Herd immunity does not mean everyone has to have been infected. It just means enough have been infected to push R below 1 for the population and behavior under consideration. So there might well be a good chunk of the population (1/3?) who have not yet been infected and do not have prior immunity to corona-viruses. And so as youngsters start mixing more freely we can expect a slight uptick in prevalence – but temporary (as their resultant immunity bolsters herd immunity) and without deaths.
We KNOW the above is the reality, by looking at patterns of viral epidemic elsewhere, such as Sweden !!
Ferguson is a theoretical physicist. So your point is…? His estimate was between 25k with mitigations and 510k without. He did downgrade this weeks after the lockdown was introduced.
Access to all Ferguson’s results are here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/mrc-global-infectious-disease-analysis/covid-19/
Operative word with Gupta’s assertation is “may”, she did not say “has”.This is because she was theorising, not stating as fact. This was perfectly clear at the time. Ferguson’s models were taken as fact, not as theory.
Given the examples of Sweden, Belarus, Japan, Taiwan, et al, it is perfectly clear that lockdowns do not work, else the examples I quote would be in the top five, rather than Peru, Belgium, UK, Spain, Italy – all of whom had or have in place lockdowns.
Anybody who bothered to analyse the infections and deaths aboard the “Diamond Princess” would have had real world data, but the modellers, including Ferguson, decided to ignore it. That ship was a floating petri dish, and they all ignored it.
Practical data, not theory, speaks the truth.
The CEBM piece was particularly interesting today. The vast majority of detected infections are of an unknown pathogen and not of Sars/Cov/2; am I right in thinking?
Otherwise have noticed a fair few comments on pieces about Long Covid mentioning that the individual the commenter knows was on a flight when they apparently caught it. Not saying that’s all cases by any stretch, but certainly not all Long Covid cases have the blood-clotting issue. We know flights can cause DVT/PE and you’re more at risk if over 40 of getting blood clots – average age for Long Covid sufferers is 42. Where someone might have just been diagnosed with PE before, now it could be Long Covid due to testing positive at some point?
I watched a particularly interesting interview with Dr Zach Bush (by Del Bigtree) who said that the covid-19 presentation seems more hypoxic than viral (you may remember the New York doctor who said he was treating patients who presented as though they were at 30,000 ft). https://zachbushmd.com/video/the-highwire/.
Nice to see the Welsh are being encouraged to grass on those humans who may be enjoying themselves. 1984
We are?
Out of respect for Piers Corbyn and his trials of last weekend, I’ve once more emailed Geoffrey Cox, my MP. I doubt he will read this, as by now on this matter I’m probably a vexatious correspondent. I thought I’d put it up here, so at least it’s on record, and maybe give readers ideas on which to email their own MPs
The threads will be familiar to anyone on here, so don’t bother reading it to find anything new or exciting. It’s just over 5000 characters, so I’ve had to split it into two parts.
Dear Mr Cox,
It must be privilege to serve as a Member of Parliament. The opportunity to sit on those green benches, alongside the centuries of tradition and example, must bring with it a sense of great responsibility, and justifiably of humility. And your constituency, Torridge and West Devon, must count among the best to represent in the whole country. You are especially privileged in that, as well as having been a minister, you have had a successful career outside of politics, which should enable you to view events from a deeper perspective than that perceived by mono-career politicians.
But with privileges come responsibilities. By standing for and being elected to Parliament you have relinquished the right to remain silent on great matters of the day as they affect your constituents.
With the covid-19 crisis we are now six months into the greatest matter to affect our society since the Second World War. I know of no parallel in the whole of British history – not even the 1650s Commonwealth – to compare to the curtailment of rights and liberties such as has been inflicted on the British people since last March.
My view of covid-19 formed early in this crisis. As a respiratory viral infection, which is abundantly infectious for many days before symptoms appear, in a densely inhabited area such as the UK it is impossible to prevent covid-19 from spreading through most of the population. In short, the virus will do what it seeks to do largely (although not entirely) irrespective of measures to control it. Think of King Canute and the tide. The disease presents very little risk to people without underlying health problems. It may have been possible to protect vulnerable people from catching the disease, but we will never know: there was no serious attempt to do so. The government response to covid-19 has been a social, economic, and public health catastrophe. Even in the narrow terms of the disease itself, it has been highly damaging. The concomitant assault on our liberties has been wanton, sinister and malevolent – as has the associated psychological warfare directed at an essentially credulous and scientifically illiterate population. Further, I believe that the perpetrators of the government response – with their mix of incompetence, negligence, dishonesty, and even malignity – should be the subject of criminal investigation for their actions and the disastrous consequences which have entailed. Manslaughter is a serious crime; so is manslaughter repeated tens of thousands of times.
[End Part 1. Cont.: ‘That, in a nutshell, is my view’.]
I have drafted a letter to my MP, will be one of many, with the intention of sending it today, so if I may, I might steal a couple of excerpts from your letter.
Please do. If an MP wants to support the government line, then fine, let them do so. And stand the consequences.
What I find unforgivable is that they just hide and say and do nothing.
Yes, but I can quote it back at him. Next time either he or the Conservative Party are asking for votes round here, councillors too.
And I have the small consolation that I’ve tried to do something to live up to Piers Corbyn’s example.
Oh, I know you weren’t saying I shouldn’t have bothered – sorry, been out for a bit or would have got back sooner.
I’m sure you’re are correct – they are happy to ignore this sort of stuff. That’s why I’m goading and baiting him.
I struggle to think what I can do about this shitfest. Just reading LS and making the odd comments here simply isn’t enough. So every little knock I can send their way is something.
The initial reaction I had to emails from month one, was standard central office gumpf or nothing, but then I was asked for supporting evidence to my argument on face masks and a month after I sent the documents I actually received a more meaningful reply which did appear to show a recognition of the point I was making. I actually think a lot of MPs are quite ignorant and have done little research themselves to enable them to challenge the government narrative, or to realise the consequences, either down to laziness, apathy or just plain old bury ones head in the sand. Possibly the chip, chip method may yield some results and sending links and evidence to them, and as your letter did, lay it clearly before them what the consequences of their actions are; it might actually dawn on some of them what the reality is. Was it not Johnson that responded Christ! When he was informed of the potential unemployment figures – we all knew, how come he didn’t figure it out. Wish IDS made a bit more noise and where is JRM, a so called lover of liberty.
Yes, we need more ‘Christ’ moments. Ignorant shower that they are.
Busy sharpening the knives.
Gove is the big unknown here, methinks.
JRM? Spell out his name.
Mr Cox is my MP also. You will get a standard reply.
I don’t get replies from him any more.
Where abouts are you, if you don’t mind me asking? I’m down south.
North Devon
Wonderful country around there! I’m near Tavi, so the other end of the constituency.
[Start Part 2. Cont. from: ‘repeated tens of thousands of times’.]
That, in a nutshell, is my view. You are my MP; and six months into this crisis I have almost no idea of your view. As far as I know, you have had precisely nothing to say in the Commons about this matter. In public you appear to have toed the government line, although without any enthusiasm or apparent conviction, and merely repeated the patronising platitudes about ‘Following The Science’. In short, you appear to want to ride out the storm while doing and saying as little as possible. And in this craven and cynical tactic you are in company with the majority of MPs, and in particular Conservative backbench MPs.
You will be aware of the actions of Piers Corbyn and his recent encounters with the police. In summary, a ministerial decree on a Friday evening was used less than 48 hours later to inflict a £10,000 fixed penalty fine on him for speaking at a peaceful public protest. It is clear to everyone who cares to look that this fine was politically motivated. As such, it is an attack on us all. Piers Corbyn is an unlikely candidate for a national hero, but he is fast becoming a latter day John Lilburne. Likewise, you may be aware of that online video of British Transport Police assaulting an unmuzzled and peaceful traveller on a Liverpool train a few days ago. Last time I looked it had received nearly 5 million views. Most of those viewers will have been disgusted at what they saw; so should MPs, the supposed guardians of our freedoms and liberties.
As a mark of the times in which we live, activists like Piers Corbyn, and that man on the train, will have no trouble in garnering free legal support, nor in crowdfunding any fines inflicted on them.
But that is not the main point I am making here. My primary point is that this is not law: it is tyranny. Every right-thinking person has a duty to resist it. And every right-thinking MP has a duty to hold the government to account, over this and the entirety of the government’s response to covid-19.
If you support the government’s handling of covid-19, then you should come out and say so. Argue the case and attempt to justify the vast collateral damage – perhaps 200,000 additional deaths not related to covid, including up to 30,000 from treatable cancers; locking up people in their homes for weeks; closing the health service to anything but covid; the loss of schooling; relatives unable to be with loved ones as they die; the issuance of DNR certificates without permission; the discharge of covid patients into care homes; the quarantine fiasco; the muzzles outrage … If you want to defend that lot then be my guest. You can then stand accountable for what you have supported.
But if you don’t support the government line, then stand up and be counted, like the rest of us – and like Piers Corbyn, and that man on the Liverpool train. Right now they are worth more than our 650 MPs. That should make you feel ashamed.
I am not some internet troll peddling insults here. My name and address is at the bottom of this email. I’m writing nothing that I would not say to your face.
And I’m calling you out. As an MP you have no right merely to sit there and – as our society and all we have cared for and valued is falling apart – say and do nothing.
Yours till next time,
A former Conservative voter.
Wow! TJN for prime minister?
Maybe of Dumnonia.
The Johnson family farm and Cameron’s holiday home will be in my fiefdom …
I’d forgotten about the Cameron’s holiday home – that may explain helicopters patrolling the coast line. Well, that and observing all the people enjoying themselves on the beaches.
Excellent!
Clapping away.
The point made that if they support the lockdowns then they must own its consequences and ongoing torture our elderly are experiencing in their care home prisons.
Absolutely spot on. Stealing this for my own MP to get a taste
I hope you don’t mind if I copy this to my MP.
Please do. It’s perhaps not to everyone’s taste to bait, goad and ridicule them – but it does me.
Excellent stuff, do you mind if I use it?
No copyright!
Does anyone have any up-to-date data on tests carried out. As far as I can see from the government Covid-19 website, the testing data is to 2 September, yet Handsy Hancock has been referring to a spike in positivity based on the increase in positive cases recorded in the last two days.
Is anyone else suspicious about the timing of the ‘spike’ in positivity bearing in mind the end of the consultation on the unlicensed vaccine next Friday? The ‘usual suspects’ have all been lined up and ready with their presentations to the MSM.
I’m suspicious that it coincided with school starting too, thus giving the govt an excuse to shut everything down again so that schools can stay open.
Whitty did say that,in order to open schools we may have to shut pubs
I think it is all in order to extend the emergency measures also.
Ah yes, 26 September is when the measures are due for extension. Perhaps it is to discredit the protests as well and turn people against each other
I think that’s a highly likely suggestion.
Yes I was wondering the same. No increases in hospital admissions or deaths to any great extent in north west despite big increase in positive test results. Where are all these results coming from. Is it schools going back?
They could be just 100% made up. Is there a paper trail? What proof is there that the tests were done or how many or how sensitive the test is? It could be rigged to show false positives at any rate they want.
I’ve wondered this too. Our testing centre is always deserted. Do we even have the infrastructure to carry out many tens of thousands of tests a day, and deliver the results?
I (accidentally) had the box on yesterday when the BBC News started up with Huw Edwards with his pompous best face that he uses to pretend to be a journalist.
I quickly turned over, but still caught the News from Nowhere that related to nothing on Planet Earth – re. this invisible presence that suggest that ‘the virus’ is actually getting milder by the day if reports of supposed ‘cases’ are true, given that there is no visible impact in the real world.
Having driven back from Bristol the previous day, the disconnect with what I was seeing around in the real world (relatively few masks and people gradually getting back to sanity) was amazing.
The government and the fake science brigade seem to be really wetting themselves to keep the panic levels up with PCR tests and any other cunning plot that comes to mind.
They used to publish the Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 stats (tests done, positive results) daily. But around 20 August they stopped. They now only publish combined P1 and P2 positives against numbers of tests done, and only publish the daily figures once a week. Next release is due this Thursday.
I work at an office near Borough Market and there most of the pubs and stall have reopened. There is a Mexican restaurant I wanted to go to with my colleagues (BTW they have tables outside) and before going in they wanted to take my details and measure my temperature. When I said I don’t comply with that they did not know what to do..They were thinking of calling the manager but I just turned around and said don’t bother…There was a place right next to them, nothing like that was not required so they got my custom. Sooner or later business will have to make a choice
Well done. We have to make a stand to show that we mean business and support those that don’t require all these “safety” nonsense. The hope is that in time these businesses that have stuck rigidly to all the regulations will realise that they’re not getting the footfall and either adapt or go bust.
Is Boston Sausages back yet?
Borough Market is my go-to for cheese at present. All of the stallholders so obviously think the whole mask wearing thing is rubbish. Lots of smiley faces, and delicious cheese, obviously.
Good for you, too bad for them.
Looks like Wee Krankie’s gone toto mento. threatening to shut down the Scottish economy…again.
Maybe she’s got tangled in that rope she’s been running with. Pity. Not.
That woman is psychotic. Needs a straightjacket.
Gosh that Disneyland postcard seems dreadful.
A few weeks ago, I was at Thorpe park, and I was going to write a postcard from there, but it would pale in comparison to what’s above.
Thorpe park was a fairly miserable experience (booked in Jan before The Madness).
Massive queue’s for even the shittiest of rides because rides were shut every hour (!) for a deep clean of 30+ minutes or more, and rides are loaded about 50-60% full.
Tannoy announcements every 5 minutes (!) reminding you of Covid-19 related safety protocols.
The inconsistent application of face masks edicts seemed boggling! I can be in a snaky queue standing and sitting within 1 meter of strangers without a mask for 60-90 minutes, but as soon as I get on a rollercoaster seated next to my son with my family in the seats in front (and an empty row between them and the next group), I have to put on a mask?
My youngest is 9 and a Nazi-mask enforcer pointed a finger at him on one ride and simply yelled: “MASK!” when he wasn’t wearing his. When I politely mentioned he was under 11 and exempt, she said: “Well, he’ll have to go at the back then.” I’m pretty sure that’s illegal/immoral, but let it go – it was his day afterall.
And masks: dirty, wet, sweaty, soggy ones hanging off people’s chins, foreheads and ears (when f*cking hell did this become acceptable – walk around like some right twat with a mask dangling off a single ear??). Not to mention mask debris everywhere.
The only partially positive experience I had (giving Thorpe park a 3/10 on the Covidwankometer scale) is no one enforcing masks in Burger King, KFC, toilets, in-door concession stands, and when I went into the theatre and was asked to put on a mask, I started to reach for my exemption card and was told (by a smiling face behind a shield): “Oh it’s okay,” and was shown to a row.
A small moment of sanity – sadly, sometimes that’s all we get.
Dare I say it, but with *ANY* sort of Covid-19 related restrictions in place, I won’t be at any amusement park. Thankfully, both my sons and wife agreed!
Cheers
Dave
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/07/covid-19-testing-1000-times-too-sensitive/ – Anthony Watts usually comments on climate change, but has also looked at SARS-COV-2/Covid19, as in the link above
Excellent.
If I had a test, would I be able to get the cycles information for that test? Would labs have that information readily avaliable on their databases?
Tucker: The COVID pandemic empowered mediocre politicians
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pobO-C1TPbQ
I like Tucker, he talks a lot of sense. Thanks.
I’m absolutely fuming. Just received all the details of what hoops we have to jump through upon returning to work. Won’t bore you with all the insane details but one thing jumped out at me – you will not be allowed into work unless you can confirm:
“I have been complying with all of the Government’s social distancing
rules at all times.”
What the flying fuck?!! Who the hell are they to tell me how to live my life when I am away from work??? I certainly have not been complying with the idiot governments totally ridiculous, contradictory and arbitary rules and I have absolutely no intention of doing so.
Sleepwalking into authoritarian rule.
They have something similar at my work…I just ignore it…Fuck them
Sound advice, methinks.
What is the actual reason for that confirmation to be required? Is it a legal thing so they can’t be sued for any infections detected among their staff?
Unfortunately, when it comes to our jobs, there is little we can do but bite our lips – for now. We just have to ensure we support the pushback in whatever other ways we can.
And BTW…how the fuck do they know what you did before entering the office…They don’t so this is something they are not able to either confirm or enforce..Stupidity to the highest level
Well, they don’t. Although if I was arrested at an anti-lockdown protest they might find out! I’m wondering about the legality of this though nowadays who knows?
we have seen how unwoke comments people have made on social media when they were younger have come back to bite them and in extreme cases caused problems with work.
Everyone has to lie more and more tin these times! Perhaps this is more about their insurance policy. I can see workers telling tales on each other, making us have to lie and be crafty even more.
That was life in Soviet Russia. Lie, cheat the system, fear your neighbour, grass on your neighbour.
This is just horrible at so many levels. What are we doing to ourselves…
That is life under all totalitarian systems.The government is building a nice new one
i used to work contract (well still do except the contract market is dead) and it was a standard joke about being able to sue other contractors who gave you a cold which meant you had to take unpaid sick time .
Not so funny now .
Just ignore it. Unless someone grasses you up, keep calm and carry on
Each employee has an individual contract of employment with their employer, and unless you have agreed to changes in that contract that specify that the employer has control of your actions outside of work, you do not have to comply.
They may have some generic clause in their contract with you about ‘behaviour’, but I doubt that it was ever intended for such circumstances, so they would be on very thin ice trying to enforce some sort of compliance at this time.
I would suggest that if you belong to a union you seek clarification from them, but given form what I’ve seen elsewhere, they are as worse, if not more so, in demanding adherence to all the rules and regulations, and then some!
Good luck and Illegitimi non carborundum!
Yeah. Unions have a ‘Don’t return to work until its safe’ mantra to beat the government and big businesses with. So they welcome any silly bit of safe theatre to make it look as if they’ve made some kind of difference.
Socialist parties have been disgraceful throughout this, especially the way this is all top down WEF, WHO, directed
Curious. I believe you can’t be asked if you have a serious disease, like HIV or Tuberculosis. That would be a breach of your privacy. But those are only serious diseases. We need a special policy for Covid, apparently.
Rules as in the law, or guidance? There is a big difference. However, I agree that this is a complete invasion of privacy.
To be honest I don’t what are rules (or guidelines) are anymore as they seem to make it up as they go along. I doubt our HR department has anymore clue either.
Yup, pretty much why I got fired a few days back.
The headline was that I was guily of gross misconduct for not believing there is currently a pandemic.
Trust you have instigated legal proceedings against them?
I’m hoping the same does not happen to me but we are living in strange times.
Four options:
1. Lie.
2. Tell them to fuck off.
3. Ask them what the regulations are and were, and the dates those regulations have changed, so that you can check you’ve complied.
4. Tell them you’ve been on BLM demos.
If you want to be smart, you could just say that the ‘rules’ were just guidelines and as such they were not law.
Wonder if law or fiction can look into this
So the MSM are starting at last to question ‘The Figures’. DM at it.
‘Fewer than 2.5% of Covid-19 tests in the UK are positive, data shows’
https://mol.im/a/8705951
They’re not quite there yet, but you can sense they’re feeling their way towards asymptomatic positives might, just might be ‘false positives’. In which case, Mr Hancock, you might need a few of those cardboard boxes they give you when you have to clear your desk. And Boris may need a few more.
By winter we could be looking at around 170,000 false positives.
https://logicinthetimeofcovid.com/2020/09/08/why-are-we-seeing-an-increase-in-cases/
Good analysis in general on the issue of false positives. It’s an as easy to unpick as some might think, but it’s certainly a serious issue when we are so obsessed with cases.
Neither of them will be missed.
I’ve just had a text message from my medical practice about this year’s flu jab in which they say ‘we will have to do things a little different this year’. I have three options :
1) Drive through at the place where they do Covid-19 testing
2) Walk through at the church hall
3) I won’t be having the vaccination this year.
A week after having the flu jab last year I was in bed for four days on pain killers so it’s going to have to be…………Option C.
Nice to see that option C is still an option. Let’s see how long it lasts.
For the first time in 11 years I received a reminder to book an appointment for a flu jab. I have never had one and don’t intend to start now.
Me neither. I signed a form years ago to say I would never have a flu jab, and still occasionally, in January or thereabouts, I get a reminder. And I think, oh they’ve still got a lot of packets sitting on their shelves.
I have no idea what is fact or fiction anymore!
Might Flu Shots Increase COVID-19 Pandemic Risk?
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/09/08/will-the-flu-shot-help-with-coronavirus.aspx
A worrying article..
so they cant do it via phone call or video..(as with all other consultations) – how disappointing
Here’s an idea – remotely administered injections. Send the patient a loaded syringe via secure courier. Syringe has some kind of electronic whizzery in it, patient instructed to hold syringe to the injection site, doctor presses the big red button from the comfort of his empty surgery and the needle shoots out and injects the drug. Job done.
There’s many a true word …
Hint, give up on that method. Vaccines are a nightmare to transport, have to be kept chilled or they become ineffective. The only way to get a vaccine easily deplyoed orlwide is to go for patch vaccines, a sticker of invisibly smal microneedles that you press on the skin, no pain, no trained personnel needed, no storage dificulties, pop it in the normal post. If the NHS ever wants me to get a covid vacine, once it has been out a few years and no serious effects have been seen to be common, they can put it in patch form, I hate needles. I contemplated a flu jab almost a decade ago, said I would pay but upon seeing my only option was a needle (patch technology has been in development that long) gave up and haven’t sought such innoculations since.
The GPs won’t be around, just nurses.
https://bjgp.org/content/early/2020/09/07/bjgp20X712601 reports on the discrepancy between GPs reporting possible Covid19 and those testing positive. With BAME being most at risk.
The number of cases as suspected by GPs is significantly higher than those who test positive. It is suggested that GP suspicions should be used as an early warning for potential problems. However, going out on a limb, I would suggest that the GPs were being overly cautious, especially since most of those they suspected of having covid19 were in the 18-49 age range.
GP reporting? LOL. They are all sitting at home with their feet up. How do you get to see a GP these days?
This lot are the ones behind the tourism and travel bullshit in theme parks and so on:
https://wttc.org/COVID-19/Safe-Travels-Global-Protocols-Stamp
Nothing in their “new normal’ encourages me to feels are nor will it encourage me to spend my own hard earned money travel for pleasure until this nonsense is dropped unless forced to by the wife.
CEO and a few others are all WEF linked and/or graduates of WEF education programmes.
Notice all documents have “new normal” in the title?
Grim.
I just sent them a suitable comment via the Contact Us link. Please, everyone, do likewise.
I’ve written to them with my rebuttal of this:
https://wttc.org/COVID-19/Government-Hub/Global-coordination-to-save-the-sector
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Agv7JEO8MngCiUKobYEvbSO77JTA?e=TPzxY9
Plus sent a letter to Cunard asking them if they know and agree to what the WTTC is doing in their name but might work through the list of signatories as well if I get bored:
https://1drv.ms/u/s!Agv7JEO8MngCiUC5qpLgQuOGO_UK?e=tL2UmR
No doesn’t help I’m afraid.
No interest in changing one dystopian experience for a different dystopian experience with a few hours of hell in between unless forced to.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/09/07/covid-19-testing-1000-times-too-sensitive/ Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, says that “The standard tests are diagnosing huge numbers of people who may be carrying relatively insignificant amounts of the virus… Tests with thresholds so high may detect not just live virus but also genetic fragments, leftovers from infection that pose no particular risk — akin to finding a hair in a room long after a person has left”.
This was news 5 months ago
I have noticed a lot of sleepy sheep talking about it this week however, as is the lag between real news reporting and the msm.
Some calling it Fake News and the government massaging the numbers. That the virus is the plague and anything counter to it is misinformation from conspiracy theorists.
But at least they are now talking about it. They’ll never open their mind to the possibility of error however, they’ll just dig a deeper hole
https://www.rebelnews.com/australias_shame_watch_melbourne_police_bodyslam_our_reporter_covering_a_pandemic_lockdown_protest?utm_campaign=el_stand_with_avi_uk&utm_medium=email&utm_source=therebel
Rebel News: AUSTRALIA’S SHAME: Watch Melbourne police bodyslam our reporter covering a pandemic lockdown protest
https://www.rebelnews.com/police_state_canadian_journalist_arrested_on_the_street_for_breaking_story_on_crooked_mayor
POLICE STATE: Canadian journalist arrested on the street for breaking story on crooked mayor
Funny how the politicians and police are behaving in exactly the same heavy-handed authoritarian way against anyone who questions their authority, whether in Canada, or Australia, or in the UK.
And they call Donald Trump the Nazi…..
the australian video is bad.. The canadian one isn’t really relevant as this is standard bent politican influencing cops – which is something that has always happened
We cannot live in terror cut off from the world. We MUST get Britain open again, writes Professor SIR JOHN BELL, Regius Chair of Medicine at Oxford Universityhttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8707341/SIR-JOHN-BELL-live-terror-cut-world-Britain-open-again.html
“Regular testing needs to become the norm for most of the population – and I have no doubt it will.”
Are you sure you agree with this?
No it doesn’t. We aren’t cattle.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8707341/SIR-JOHN-BELL-live-terror-cut-world-Britain-open-again.html
It’s a load of pro-2nd wave, pro-vaccine, pro-testing bollox.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pobO-C1TPbQ
Tucker: The COVID pandemic empowered mediocre politicians
https://nypost.com/2020/09/06/its-now-looking-like-the-lockdowns-may-have-been-a-huge-mistake/
“Governors imposing continued lockdowns claimed to be “following the science.” But only in one dimension: reducing the immediate number of COVID-19 cases. The lockdowns also prevented cancer screenings, heart-attack treatment and substance-abuse counseling, the absence of which resulted in a large but hard-to-estimate number of deaths. What Haidt and Lukianoff call “vindictive protectiveness” turned out to be not very protective.
“Examples include shaming beachgoers though outdoor virus spread is minimal; extending school shutdowns though few children get or transmit the infection; closing down gardening aisles in superstores; and barring church services while blessing inevitably noisy and crowded demonstrations for politically favored causes.
“The new thinking on lockdowns, as Greg Ip reported in the Wall Street Journal last week, is that “they’re overly blunt and costly.” That supports President Trump’s mid-April statement that “A prolonged lockdown combined with a forced economic depression would inflict an immense and wide-ranging toll on public health.”
“For many, that economic damage has been of Great Depression proportions. Restaurants and small businesses have been closed forever, even before the last three months of “mostly peaceful” urban rioting. Losses have been concentrated on those with low income and little wealth, while lockdowns have added tens of billions to the net worth of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.
“The anti-lockdown blogger (and former New York Times reporter) Alex Berenson makes a powerful case that lockdowns delayed, rather than prevented, infections.
“There are old lessons here. Governments can sometimes channel but never entirely control nature. There is no way to entirely eliminate risk. Attempts to reduce one risk may increase others. Amid uncertainty, people make mistakes. Like, maybe, the lockdowns.”
We are living through ‘The Great Suppression’ aren’t we?
Now the MSM is, albeit slowly, turning, time is running out for the government.
Could someone please post the graph showing “+the” tests as a percentage of the daily tests, please.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/number-10-set-to-reduce-the-size-of-legal-gatherings
And here it comes, Lockdown Mk II begins.
It’s a cast iron certainty, and has been obvious since as early as April when the first rumours started circulating.
The only question is when. If I was a betting man I’d put my money on mid-October by the latest, to last for at least 6 months. I’ve seen various references to this as the “Darkest Winter” on the internet.
I’m in two minds as to whether to start prepping, for one simple reason: do I really want to survive this?
Links re the ‘darkest winter’?
Hundreds of them, below a duckduckgo search:
“darkest winter”
This is the book:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Darkest-Winter-Ending-Savage-Chronicles/dp/1096813076/
Yes, and we survive it by ignoring it as far as we can. Don’t comply.
A freudian slip from Peston:
…Joint Biosecurity Centre, which is charged with advising the government on whether the rate of injection is rising in a dangerous way.
One source says that this is a response to the ‘early warning system’ from the Joint Biosecurity Centre, which is charged with advising the government on whether the rate of injection is rising in a dangerous way.
Freudian slip?
Control?
Where are all those Conservative MPs demanding and end to this Covid nonsense.
Worldometers
UK – 3 reported deaths.
Europe – Reported Covid 19 deaths: 263
Total population of Europe over 741,000,000 people
Why is the Government wheeling out all the experts saying cases are rising ‘exponentially’? If you keep testing you’ll get positive tests. Most of these people aren’t ill.
This is madness. It looks like the Government gearing up for another lockdown. What happened so far has been a disaster.
Is Boris Johnson aware that Peru went into lockdown before Britain and now has the highest Covid death rate in the world. Much higher than no lockdown Brazil.
We can’t live our lives behind masks, walking around perspex. It’s crazy. The likes of Jonathan Van-Tam and Chris Whitty seem to like their unelected power far too much.
The politicians are manufacturing their “we have beaten it” moment.
I doubt the PM is aware of Peru, or much else really. He’s probably aware of Sweden in so far as he advisers tell him not to mention it. No evidence he’s remotely interested in considering this issue properly.
Boris probably knows Paddington Bear came from Darkest Peru, but that’s about it.
I’ve just written to my MP asking what she and her colleagues have been doing for the last few months, and asking that she oppose any attempt by the government to extend the Coronavirus Act at the end of September.
I concluded by saying that I have lived through various crises including the Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation, the miners strike, the ‘weapons of mass destruction’ panic, threats from a variety of diseases and viruses and I have never, ever, been as angry and worried about the future as I am now.
I’m not very hopeful.
I’m thinking of writing a complaint to the Parliament Standards Commissioner about the behaviour of all the MPs as mine never acknowledges correspondence:
Kathryn Stone OBE
Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA
standardscommissioner@parliament.uk
The reasons:
On various webpages about Parliamentary standards and the associated Code of Conduct:
“Members have a general duty to act in the interests of the nation as a whole; and a special duty to their constituents.”
Openness
As I asked my MP in a recent letter and e-mail:
“So derogating and give away responsibility and oversight of the law making process of this country, destroying the fabric of society, destroying social cohesion and turning people and families against each other, splitting up families, refusing dying and vulnerable people visits from their loved ones for months on end “for their own good”, allowing people to die alone without comfort or human contact, destroying the economy, destroying the livelihoods of millions of people, destroying businesses, racking up billions of Pounds of debt for future generations to pay off, of dragging millions of people into penury, debt and hunger, both MPs and Ministers refusing to answer constituent’s/the electorate’s correspondence and questions is:
– in the public interest?
– in the interest of the nation as a whole?
– is not causing significant damage to the reputation and integrity of the house?
– being as open as possible?
– giving reasons for the decisions?
– submitting to the scrutiny appropriate to the office?
– helping to make laws?
– scrutinising the work of Government?”
Just found this site about the parliament Standards Commissioner:
http://www.intelligenceuk.com/newsx10.html
The endless policing videos have now become a feature of Lockdown in recent weeks. As though a tap has been turned on, by whom and for what purpose?
The pyschological effect of seeing police brutality is strong. People feel angered and ill in the moments watching. Normal instinctive reactions to witnessing oppression.
With all that said it is important to keep in mind these are small in number compared to the large numbers of people who are peacefully dissenting and asserting their rights around the world. Don’t be discouraged by seeing these images – they are amplified to do just that.
Arrests are being done publicly for effect. Corbyn manhandled when he could have been picked up at home next day. Theatre.
The DT yesterday covered the video of a 12 year old girl in Hong Kong being chased by police grabbed to the ground and arrested for not socially distancing.
https://t.co/4BuoAiUHFF?amp=1
If you have the ability time is now to stand peacefully with others.
The worry is that following the outrage nothing happens and the situation becomes normalised and those who are against all this simply despair even more.
Yes if the outrage is frustrated by the police. I sense a reaction away from LS among the younger LSs elsewhere the arrests are playing badly in term of respect for the police.
Viewing causes a primal reaction, keeping a lid on the anger might become our struggle. Being aware of the instinct helps.
They are playing with fire in this area (assuming the increase in police brutality videos is part of the plan).
Once channelled and constructively directed, outrage and anger are extremely powerful emotions.
This is my concern too.
Concern ? We want an end to all this bollocks, yes ?
Good one. Let’s have a riot a break stuff up. Do the bidding of the establishment to bring in harsher lockups and curfews.
Without a full scale revolution coup with rolling heads a purile fire storm riot is going to get us know where. It’s probably likely that’s why there hasn’t been one.
If you are concerned I might no want an end to this situation you are mistaken. Very much mistaken.
If only I’d said ‘constructively’ …
What we see in these videos is only the last act and who knows what has taken place before. Filming often only starts when things get interesting. We rarely hear an outcome either, it’s a scene intended to shock.
I thought it was particularly nasty that in one of his arrests he was handcuffed – as if six burly police officers couldn’t control him. Mr. Johnson ought to be asked if he supports those police methods.
It’s probably “standard practice” now for the scum to handcuff everyone they arrest. I remember a while ago an 80+ year-old woman being handcuffed for some trivial matter. And don’t forget – everyone arrested is abused and humiliated back at the police station by being photographed, fingerprinted and DNA raped. And virtually all offences, however trivial, are now deemed arrestable offences.
Not standard practice. My police friend hasn’t used her cuffs once since starting work. Depends how thuglike are the individuals concerned.
I agree and it’s a cause for serious concern.
My friend came this morning. She’s a recently-qualified PC. She knew nothing about what’s really going on. Left looking rather worried.
I mentioned about the guy at White Rose yesterday and she noted that those incidents are all that gets circulated so are blown out of proportion.
I completely agreed but pointed out that we’ve some very hard times ahead and the Police need to stay on the side of the public and need us to side with them. Idiots like the PC at White Rose don’t do the cause any favours.
Unfortunately, clips of the police helping people don’t tend to get made, let alone circulated.
I have no way of knowing whether anything I see that seems amateur filming is in fact what it portrays.
I do know that the intent to condition the mind of the many is being effected by the few using every kind of resource and strategy, and so I look always to the truth in the heart – as the underlying context for whether to or how to respond.
This is an era where fakery knows no limits.
Truth is not defined or contained in the forms or appearances of anything. If we react to external appearances as ‘self-contained’ truth, we are PHISHED.
You give the world all the meaning it has for you. In connection at the heart extends the heart of compassion. In the disconnect of mind in reaction, the projection of sympathies and antipathies operates the symbols of good set against evil – and indeed the good set or defined by fear, guilt and denial.
The set up is the frame in which an Expression of the Creative, is induced to consent to attack as a hate that WANTS to hurt and destroy – so as to give UP or abnegate creative agency to a dissociated mind – set in claim of right to power over anything that does not support its claim.
Yes this is a bit deeper than Peppa Pig. But I look to restore an integrative Perspective, not to reinforce distorted parodies of life set in hollow masquerade.
Exactly great points.
I’ve been thinking this a lot too.Most of these videos are showing up on social media, which as we know is being heavily monitored and manipulated. I understand footage of the arrest of the pregnant girl in Victoria has been shown to be a fake,but the emotional impact of watching this, and the other videos, seems to be designed to get people angry, frustrated and upset, and to see the police as “them” and “us”. It’s more likely to create friction at protests. So I take these videos with a pinch of salt – they certainly don’t reflect what I see actually happening in my neck of the woods.
Creating fear and anger is playing into the agenda’s hands. I completely agree that we need to meet anger with peace, and not do anything to provoke the police whilst standing up for what we believe in.
Was that footage of the pregnant girl faked? Haven’t heard this…
This website was shared last week – https://reclaim-democracy.weebly.com/. Now this might be fake too, but I remember when I first watched the footage, something didn’t ring true about this.
“ I understand footage of the arrest of the pregnant girl in Victoria has been shown to be a fake”
Apparently not.
I think you have hit on something really important here. These videos are being used for psychological intimidation, and are not being censored on social media.
Some of them look staged. If the police really were being brutal, the first thing they would do is smash the devices of anyone filming them. If people really were being harassed, they would be pleading with the people filming them to make sure that the police brutality is recorded and distributed. Instead both parties dutifully perform their roles without even acknowledging that they are being filmed.
I haven’t seen any that look staged in the sense that the police and arrestee are in cahoots. But I don’t think thats what you mean anyway.
I’m thinking orders from above have ‘witless’ order following police acting as we see.
A relevant detail from Trafalger square was the passing on the 28th of the new stat instrument allowing junior police to issue fines. Piers Corbyn’s statement said the arresting squad were not the same group the organisers had been arranging the day with.
The arresters were the TSG. Different ballgame.
No. I have watched a lot of internet footage of the UK police – pre COVID – got lost down a youtube rabbit hole once.
People DO film all arrests and police interactions now, because the police film too. You do need that if you don’t trust the police, to provide proof. And lots of people don’t trust the police. Understandably so as so few police seem to comprehend the limits of their powers.
Read Iain Gould’s blog. There are some absolutely shocking examples of police behaviour which would never have seen redress if people didn’t film members of their family being unlawfully detained.
Wow – it takes all sorts to make a world.
I have long regarded Disneyworld as dystopian conditioning – even before maskworld was opened.
If its any comfort to those who hate the ‘social exclusion’ and divisions of a broken worldview to a ‘masked agenda’ – know that there is nothing new under the Sun – and that it seems new because an old ‘normal’ never was real. When ‘unreality regroups’ in even tighter and denser masking of sacrificial rites set over human rights, and you find you simply CANNOT consent – then rejoice, your life has called you from nightmare – even if the symptoms still persist.
Relative to not even knowing the mind of presumed reality was in error – you now have a spark of sanity from which to live differently. If you so choose.
Or you can remake an identity in grievance, suffer a ‘bedwetting’ world and make a bubble of anti ‘whatever’ in search of reinforcement or indeed more soap (drama).
Great perspective. The surreal nature of the descendent path our civilisation has taken was already well established long ago. What we are observing now is the final reveal – literally an apocalypse – to alert all those with eyes to see. It is now getting so absurd that I am struggling to take it seriously. Maybe this is one of the critical lessons.
Just written to the Sunday Times Travel Section who had this charming request last Sunday:
‘Have you spotted your fellow passengers not wearing masks on the plane? Let us know at travel@sunday-times.co.uk ’
Why are you trying to encourage this? There is enough abuse being given to those of us who are exempt. Not all disabilities are visible.
#Stasi-Times
Glad you did it. It is shocking how even newspapers participate in bullying people with exemptions from wearing a mask. How dare they? It is disability discrimination
I see the ONS stats are about 800 extra deaths on the 5 year average. NOT Covid as that is next to nothing. It will be people denied Dr’s, Hospitals etc for month after month. Plus I imagine additional suicides and people giving up as the Government has turned a problem into a disaster.
You would think the MP’s would be asking questions of Boris, but they are all as bad as each other. Biggest bunch of weak willed halfwits we have ever had to run the country. And as for Hancock…..well…..the man makes Boris look intelligent as he awaits for his future Knighthood and mega future pension whilst ruining the country and millions of people lives.
You may laugh but this is where we are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxznGIj8Ja0
So my daughter’s primary school has reopened this week. They sent a letter home ordering parents to wear masks when outside the school, collecting their children.
In the public street. Apart from the illegality of this demand, what astonishes and saddens me more, is that as of this morning, I was the only one refusing to do so.
Then her actual teacher apparently stands at the front of the class teaching, and then every time a kid asks for his help, he dons a visor before going across to them. Oh and he has also banned kids from bringing reading books in from home, insisting they must have books that stay at school, and books for home separate. Apparently, it is a “covid regulation”.
Tried to fathom the thinking behind that one but am at a loss.
this is a person entrusted with parting knowledge to children?
It’ll be a ‘covid regulation’ he’s pulled out of his arse.
Yep, same with my little one. And the only parent not in a muzzle. Couldn’t care less.
Jeremy Vine apologises for Matt Hancocks unfortunate name:
https://twitter.com/theJeremyVine/status/1303253036001832960
Some worrying sabre rattling:
This morning Robert Jenrick, …. essentially backed Van-Tam’s message. He urged people to take “great care”.
The coronavirus is still with us so we all need to take great care. There is a concerning rise in cases and it reminds us that we have to keep following the guidance.
Although we are encouraged to return to the workplace to support jobs, cafes and so on, we need to do so responsibly … Nobody wants to see a return to full national restrictions of the kind we had earlier this year.
From Grad live
So we have been in lockdown, walking round like automotons, prevented from gatherings, parties, weddings etc., and seeing relatives, masked up, and they declare cases are rising and to expect high flu cases – so if all these ridiculous restrictions successfully stop virus spread, why are cases rising, never mind it isn’t really an issue with no associated illness, and why should the flu virus be so prevalent this winter. So by their logic we will carry on with the destruction of life, society and the economy even though it is blatantly useless. There is some MP claiming ‘ deadly wave ‘ and demanding zero covid; but no mention of deaths and illness from denied medical care, deaths from suicide. Nope, just plain old Covid.
Yes, I clocked these two wankers manufacturing Fear out of thin air.
PROOF – the vast majority of RT-PCR tests identify false positives, and so do NOT need to be quarantined.
The report on this page (https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1808/rapid-responses) from Brendan Healy et al (Public Health Wales) shows that in this current era of low prevalence, >80% (26/31) of PCR positives are weak signals.
And those 26 were pretty much ALL false positives (19/19 were negative when retested)
Furthermore, it is also now known that true positives represent subjects who were infected anything up to a few months earlier – and these people are only infectious for about 1 week (typically days 3-10). Therefore, many of the <20% that were not false positives will not be infectious.
So overall, perhaps only a few percent of all “RT-PCR positives” (in the absence of retesting) should be required to quarantine. And these will generally be symptomatic individuals – i.e., people who are very aware they feel unwell and so are most likely isolating themselves anyway.
My latest missive to my MP, a junior Minister. Won’t do any good but it makes me feel better. Listened to Toby’s Quillette podcast interview with Douglas Murray yesterday and Douglas’ plea that “The silent majority needs to speak up – now.” really hit home.
Dear
What has happened to our Parliamentary democracy?
I am writing to ask you what action you intend to take over the complete side-lining of Parliament by The Government during the recent Covid-19 epidemic? Instead of Ministers bringing legislation before both Houses of Parliament with debates, readings, votes and Royal assent, we have the appalling spectacle of rule by statutory instrument. At the last count 133 regulations had become law by statutory instruments made by ministers (mostly Matt Hancock), many of them making new criminal offences, and none of them having been considered by Parliament. Thus last week, Mr Hancock made a new law allowing a fixed penalty notice (FPN) of £10,000 to be issued for organising a political demonstration and Piers Corbyn was the first to be caught by this. The quasi-criminal procedure of the FPN was originally devised to deal with minor parking and traffic offences. Over the years their use has expanded, to include minor public order incidents, litter, dog fouling and the like. Until the Coronavirus Regulations the maximum fine under a FPN was £500 for permitting noise from a licensed premises. The procedure has now been deployed, with 2 days’ notice and no Parliamentary scrutiny of any sort, to target the organiser of a political meeting with a sum 20 times greater than any fixed penalty ever before created under English law. This is unprecedented and deeply disturbing and no less so because it is being used against a crank. No doubt you will say that this is all justified by the current “public health emergency” but it is quite clear that the Covid-19 epidemic has long since passed with very few hospital admissions and small numbers of deaths despite hugely increased testing detecting asymptomatic cases.
I look forward to hearing how you propose to help Parliament to regain its role of scrutinising regulations and holding the Government to account.
Kind regards,
I think calling Corbyn a crank was unfair, though you are entitled to your opinion. There may be elements that I disagree with, but would need to look more into that, but his arguments for leaving the EU and climate sceptism I would pretty much support. I feel you have to admire his bravery in standing up against the lockdown inspite of the harassment. I haven’t looked at his thoughts about 5G which I assume is where the crank insults come from, but then if you had said a year ago where we would be now as a world, I think you would have been labelled a crank.
Can see both sides on that one.
But I will say both deserve respect regardless, Corbyn for standing up to be counted and facing real costs in doing so, and DocRC for doing his own bit to speak up in his own way – it’s a good letter and letters from professionals carry more weight with MPs imo.
I’m currently reading a book called “The Invisible Rainbow, a history of electricity and life” It hasn’t mentioned wi fi as yet but is really interesting, making links between influenza outbreaks and upgrades in electricity (although not for everyone, you’d need to be open to it!). Personally I haven’t looked into the 5G conspiracy enough to be able to comment on it too much but I certainly would not dismiss it.
I wonder whether the doc is dismissing Piers Corbyn as a crank because he wants to put some distance between the views of PC and his own for the purpose of this letter. I think Toby and Brendan O’Neil on Spiked! do that too – demarcate a clear boundary between their own thoughts and those of so-called conspiracy theories. That may be the better tactic. I tend to keep my conspiracy theories to myself as I’ve learnt that most people are definitely not ready for them … timing is important.
Letter to our MP regarding hydroxychloroquine. Clearly a complete lot of waffle. Hydroxychloroquine is already being used in a lot of countries and it works in the right dose
The Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP
By email to: john.redwood.mp@parliament.uk 8 September 2020
Dear Sir John,
Thank you for your correspondence of 4 August on behalf of your constituent, Ms Sylvia Priest about the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). I have been asked to reply and I apologise for the delay in doing so.
Before a treatment can be rolled out to the population, robust clinical trials must be completed to prove its effectiveness and safety. Clinical trials are taking place across the world to test the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in a vast number of different settings and patient populations. In the UK, the RECOVERY trial produced clear results that showed the use of hydroxychloroquine in hospital settings did not have a statistically significant impact on patient outcomes.
The Department’s Therapeutics Taskforce is monitoring over 230 worldwide studies of the use of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment or preventative medicine. Many of these studies are trialling hydroxychloroquine in earlier stages of disease progression, or in combination with other drugs. If the results from these trials clearly show efficacy and safety, then the Government will review the case for patient use in the UK.
Many trials across the world, including in the UK, are also testing hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure. The COPCOV study, led by the University of Oxford, is one of these studies and has been granted Urgent Public Health priority status by the National Institute for Health Research. This means that the trial is supported by the national clinical trial infrastructure to run at pace and effectively recruit patients. This trial is ongoing, and results are not available at this stage. More information can be found at http://www.nihr.ac.uk by searching for ‘COVID studies’.
More generally, from the beginning of the outbreak, the Government’s policies have been guided by the advice of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, which is led by the Chief Scientific Adviser and Chief Medical Officer for England, and the response is kept under constant review.
Public safety is the priority and the Government has a team of public health experts and scientists working round the clock to make sure the NHS, the care sector and the country as a whole are fully prepared.
The Government understands that these are difficult times and that the measures people are being asked to take are very disruptive to normal life. However, it is vital those who are most vulnerable are protected, and people are therefore being asked to act in the interests of everyone in society. I hope this reply is helpful. Kind regards, pp MARIE TURNER
If I remember correctly the “recovery” trial tested the impact of overdosing already sick people with HCQ. As far as I know it didn’t look at prophylaxis at sensible doses, which is where most research says we should be looking.
Correct. This has baffled a lot of people as the official guidance on HCQ indicate the dose. John Campbell pointed this out in one of his videos where he agreed ten treatment works.
The accusation is that the patients were overdosed to ensure failure of the study.
Fauci said many years ago that HCQ was effective for coronaviruses – guess he has been bought by Gates? https://twitter.com/MichaelCoudrey/status/1284720309505937408
Apparently Gates bragged recently that he spends a lot of time with Fauci. Veiled threat?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ato5NS9dW0A
The putting vivid-19 sufferers on ventilators clearly skipped the ‘robust clinical trials’ stage killing many unfortunate souls
I have come to the sad conclusion that this will not end until there is a vaccine, Governments around the world have already committed to buy billions of doses, pharmaceutical companies have already committed 100s of millions of dollars to creating and manufacturing the vaccine and in fact it seems that some companies are already mass producing vaccines that are not out trials yet.
Does anyone really think that Governments around the world, with all the money already spent, reputations already leveraged and economic damage already done are going to admit that the disease has already fizzled out and we can all get back to normal?
They will need to save us with an expensive relatively ineffective vaccine that hopefully will not cause to much damage to the recipients further down the road
I have already resigned myself that I will not see my friends and family in the UK, or that my parents will not see their Grand Children in Romania until at least summer 2021.
I expect further restrictions over the winter to soften everyone up for the vaccine and the resulting vaccination passports that will allow you back into normal society
I am not an anti vaxxer or a conspiracy theorist, I have been vaccinated and so have all my children and I don’t believe in the Illuminati or the lizard men, I simply believe that with all the money already spent there is no way we are going to get out of this without someone getting paid.
It is not going to end. We are in the process of having our rights removed and they will not return.
They won’t be returned voluntarily, for sure. But we can insist.
But who’s going to insist? The pathetic sheep that are just passively accepting this insanity? I keep thinking that people are going to wake up with every new bit of madness but it just doesn’t seem to be happening.
Doesn’t need a majority even. Once a sufficient number of people is animated, it’ll happen.
Resist. La Résistance Globale. Global Resistance. Britain, America, France, Spain. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Italy…
Ireland has just had a bill passed – everyone has a right to housing, not a home or to own one. They are preparung ground for taking private property where it is in “the common good”. Not lockdown related other than it is a strange law to pass under the cloak of covid.
Not true. A bill has been prepared (with little chance of success) to amend the constitution. It will not succeed.
It will not end even with a vaccine. There has already been talk that the protection offered by a vaccine will not be permanent so you will need a “top-up” every six months or so. I have little doubt that people will be required to carry around their “vaccination status” on their phones and will be denied access to transport, shops etc… unless it is up to date.
It could be top up vaccines or could go like the annual flu vaccination where different strains are vaccinated against annually, either way, unfortunately I agree with you that some manner of proof will be required to show vaccination status initially, this may fade as time goes on but with the culture of bedwetting in the corporate world companies will cover their backsides
There was lots of talk by “scientists” a couple of months back about how the vaccines might only boost antibodies for 6 months, whereupon they’ll need boosting.
Just say no. Never accept any proposal that they make to the best of your ability. You say yes to one and before you know it they’re proposing something else. Never ends.
Yep…spot on…Too much capital ( political and real one) has been spent, to many reputations put on the line, to many freedoms removed…We will NEVER go back to normal, can’t happen as we would need to remove every single politicians and businessman in the world..Masks everywhere, social distancing, no live sport, forced vaccinations.. To quote 1984..We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.
Sounds like a plan to me.
It’s easy to become negative in the face of the continual barrage of fear-inducing propaganda. (Not sure if we need to be negative in CAPS though …). But causing depression, negativity, fear, gloom, etc. is a big part of the bad guys’ intent. So it’s clear we must frustrate them.
We vastly outnumber them. We are more motivated. People are waking up to the fact they’ve been lied to and shat upon.
Personally, I think the battle will be won once all the tv transmitters are smoldering bits of rusty iron.
https://twitter.com/alfo13676851/status/1303267793543081984
What do you make of this? Relevant as regards vaccines as there is talk of them being RNA ones, which would be now..
The vaccine is being sold as the passport to returning to normal, but it won’t be. It will be the gateway to a dystopian nightmare that will surpass anything Orwell or Huxley imagined. I am not living in that world, and will gladly sacrifice myself to avoid it.
I don’t think so, but I do think that governments around the world have been quietly surprised that people have been scared so easily and not pushed back more.
They may have over estimated this effect, there is some evidence that there is such a thing as psychological vaccination, which results in less attention and more push back the second time something similar happens if the results of the first thing were not very severe. One theory in why the people of London were able to cope with the blitz was that London was very ineffectually bombed during WW1 and the older residents remembered it as not a big thing so could cope better when it was more severe
I would always follow Cicero and ask the age old question “Cui Bono?”
I posted (elsewhere) about accepting a vaccine being the price for being let off wearing masks before masks became a thing.
It was meant to be a joke.
Can anyone explain the discrepancy between these figures:
On Sunday, 2,988 new cases were announced, the highest increase since May 22. A further 2,948 cases were recorded on Monday. (DT)
..the number of new coronavirus cases in the UK came close to 3,000 for the second day in a row (Grad)
And the figures on HMG’s website??
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/cases
Have been looking at this earlier, Cheezilla. The spreadsheet total positives for UK and the daily increases do not tally. Sky breaking news is quoting the head of testing saying there has been a ‘backlog in analysing them in labs’. Somebody (Heneghan?) must have queried the data. It looks to me as though there has been some manipulation/mistakes (overcounting)/something else. Pretext for Lockdown II, just before universities start, and all the ‘usual suspects’ have been primed ready to go with the authoritarian narrative.
I must admit I am waiting for a shutdown just before universities start.
What this actually reminds me of is CIA tactics to deliver a massive shock to civil society prior to destabilisation, asset stripping and political takeover.
Last night here BTL, we were discussing rumours of another full lockdown. They certainly seem to be working on it.
Why Universities specifically?
Has that happened in Europe?
Why just the UK?
The education sector is very important in the UK economy, and we need the 20bn pounds per annum that it generates.
I was in Oxford recently, spoke to one of the fundraisers there (yes the colleges need fundraisers) and was musing on the value of the Oxford “brand.” Ripe for takeover maybe?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/education-generates-billions-for-uk-economy
unfortunately too much of a dependence on Chinese
spies and fifth columnistsstudentsWould the backlog (or administrative problems) be explained by the Pillar 2 tests now needing to be done twice for positives? This might clog up the system a bit? As per the weblink posted by Adele a little while ago.
No, I can’t and I’m not interested either. “Cases” are meaningless as has been said many many times.
Jeremy Vine is currently worrying the nation about how so many young people are getting infected that three (3) people died of the Covid yesterday.
I went to the doctors surgery this morning for a blood test (I didn’t wear a mask), I was in the waiting for the nurse for 20 minutes and I was the only person in the surgery waiting.
From what I observed, the only doctor at work (normally 5) was a locum as I over heard the receptionist say so.
The blood test was for a CAT scan later this week. The last time I was at the hospital (large regional hospital) was in July and it was virtually deserted.
So much for all the lovely people clapping for the covid-19 only NHS
Also concerning is the dodgy inflation of the recent ONS stats:
The latest Office for National Statistics weekly report on deaths in England and Wales out this morning says that in the week ending 28 August coronavirus accounted for just 1.1% of deaths.
But, on the basis of the figures in the report, PA Media says just over 57,400 deaths involving Covid-19 have now been registered in the UK.
The ONS report says that 52,316 deaths involving Covid-19 had occurred in England and Wales up to 28 August, and had been registered by 5 September.
Figures published last week by the National Records for Scotland showed that 4,228 deaths involving Covid-19 had been registered in Scotland up to 30 August, while 873 deaths had occurred in Northern Ireland up to 28 August (and had been registered up to September 2), according to the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.
Together, these figures mean that so far 57,417 deaths have been registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate, including suspected cases.
This is far higher than the headline UK coronavirus death figure published on the government’s dashboard, which is currently at 41,554. That’s because the headline figure only covers people who died with 28 days of testing positive. Although tests are routine now for people with symptoms, earlier in the crisis thousands of people died from coronavirus without being tested.
Source = Grad live – or does that explain it all?
I am sick and tired of this crap. If it’s not being reported in the MSM then forget it.
All you have succeeded in doing is telling the world about it.
All you have succeeded in doing is giving those who want this shitshow to continue further ammunition.
Thanks idiot.
We know that the figures are inflated. We know that death certificates have been falsified. We know this. When these figures get sicked up by Piers Moron on This Morning then we should start to worry.
Which they probably will now you’ve opened your big mouth.
Rather than cowering behind your computers and phones, engage my comments.
Speak! Write! Disagree with me.
In fact, you would be far better getting off your backsides and out into the streets.
Griping on here seems to have little effect.
Okay. I have made another post above to explain. I apologise cheezilla. It got to me this morning.
It was obvious you’re having a very bad day. I hope you soon feel better!
Thanks for understanding. You were right to highlight this. I was out of order.
Just to again say. I was out of order with my comments below. I apologise.
We all have days like that, not a big problem when you are among grown-ups.
No problem John. I had an idea what was going on. That’s why I didn’t take issue with you. I hope you find this – it’s a few hours later!
Can anyone help me out? I think it’s clear that Governments are reluctant to return powers once seized from citizens. I’m trying to think of examples where they have, but I’m struggling. Any suggestions?
The obvious cases are the more dramatic wartime ones, such as rationing.
I guess they did it after the war, and possibly in Northern Ireland more recently. Both of those things were genuine crises that had a more clearly defined endpoint that could not be fudged.
Income tax.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_tax#United_Kingdom
The Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 was not repealed until 1959 and the last of the Defence Regulations remained in force until 1964.
The Prevention of Terrorism Act 1973 confers emergency powers on the police in Northern Ireland. This was replaced by the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 which covered the entire UK. This was repealed in 2011 when its provisions were found to be against human rights legislation.
Thanks all – I had meant to mention “outside wartime” but forgot! Will take a look at the taxes one, thanks.
and remember – pub licensing hours were introduced in 1914 at the start of the first world war under DORA so that war production was not affected. Not changed until 1988
WW1, controls on marijuana were introduced as a wartime measure to improve industrial productivity.
Still with us.
After a war was declared over – in the past, many of the martial overrides would be released – but often in stages. IE: rationing carried on in UK long after war – but not in Germany where it was decided to rebuild an industrial base.
Wars are not declared anymore but perpetual war operates the ‘normal’.
Perpetual infection operates similarly.
By the fruits we know them.
What It’s Like to Believe Everything the Media Tells You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcUAG6t5aN8
Is it just me, or does anyone else smell a rat over the positive test figures for the last two days? If the prevalence of Lab Flu is actually increasing in the community you’d perhaps expect a gradual increase of test numbers – leaving aside all the false positives and increased testing issues – not a sudden 50% increase, persisting for two days (at least). They wouldn’t be trying to threaten the sheeple with bogus, or exaggerated, test results just to keep the fear going – would they? Surely not!
Lab flu?
Wuhan Lab Flu. Surely that’s where it started. Okay, it probably originated in bats, but they were no doubt experimenting with zoonotic transmission and somehow or other the material found its way into the outside world.
Sorry, but I do not accept the lab theory.
So you put it down to a coincidence? A coincidence that within a stones throw of the alleged wet market source in Wuhan, there’s a major virus research facility?
Coincidence. Yes, why not?
Of course it could be, but see the comments from Kate, below. I wonder if, in the fullness of time, we’ll ever get to know for certain?
I looked into virology a few years ago.
The Wuhan lab was jointly funded by the CCP and the US, (Fauci sent 4.7 million dollars to Wuhan) and has been growing bat coronaviruses in human epithelial airway tissue for the past twenty years.
This could explain the extraordinary affinity of this bat virus for human lungs, hence its infectiousness. I assumed at the outset of this “pandemic” that it was an accidental escape and was annoyed that the dangers of this research were not discussed publicly.
Now I realise there is an underlying agenda which goes beyond that.
The accidental escape was in the US. That US lab was closed down but Fauci then funded the Wuhan lab ….
The military games in Wuhan have also been suggested as a possibility ….
https://twitter.com/alfo13676851/status/1303267793543081984 (second post in thread) See what these French reservists say – they agree with you!
Yes, I do Tenchy (see my earlier posts). Suspect this is also to do with the pending unlicensed vaccine consultation – many have already submitted to it and pretty sure the powers that be are not liking what informed individuals such as folks on here are saying.
Thanks. Just read them. Hopefully someone like Heneghan will get to the bottom of it. Talk about opaque data! Anyone know of a readily-available graph or data set showing positive tests against total number of tests, and when the testing took place?
I am working my way through the various spreadsheets (newly uploaded this morning, I think). Start from the main page below, go to each of the four sections, click on ‘more on cases, testing’ etc, then scroll down for UK total sections. To the right of each is an arrow that directs you to the raw data. They keep changing it of course, so in testing, for example, they now have Pillar 4 included, when previously it was split out from Pillars 1 and 2.
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
Thanks. I’ve previously looked at the top level stuff on that site. I’ll now look at the detail.
Well they’ve been sussed fiddling everything else so why not ?
Yes! That sudden jump is very suspicious. Any big increase like that overnight is so unlikely to be natural. Something is going on.
There is something fishy about the way the Telegraph reported the rise in cases today. There was an article at about 5pm today by Adam Holt with a title saying something like charts prove secondwave is on the way (sorry, didn’t screenshot so can’t remember exact title). All the comments underneath were scathing. Looked again just now at 10pm – same article with a different title and no comments allowed. All the comments that were there earlier have been removed. Do the newspapers get paid/forced to publish these propaganda pieces? I find it alarming.
WHEN WILL THIS END?
I am coming to the end of my tether. France has mandatory masks basically everywhere …. forever???
I am struggling to imagine a way out at all and all the articles discuss how masks are permanent, here forever and they’re never going away – I honestly don’t know if I’m the only one staring into the abyss and thinking of jumping ship. I don’t want to live in the new normal and everywhere is imposing it :/
Sweden and Texas my friend, Sweden and Texas…
The masks thing is such a draconian measure. Without it you could have a relatively easier time just following one way systems, sanitising and not doing anything that constitutes fun.
But the masks are a visual reminder of the dark place we are in. Just back from my local shop in a small village and was about 20% mask less 3 weeks ago. Now all masks bar myself. I wasn’t challenged though which is small comfort.
The number of deaths here where I live? Not a single one since early July. Around 20 since we started in an area for which the hoisptal Trust covers around 200,000 people.
Nobody has even been admitted to hospital with it since the end of May.
Yet, try telling people this and I am considered dangerous. Its absolute insanity
Understand that it cannot be as it was before and that those who have ‘come out’ as an overt control agenda haven’t exactly got a way back even if they had second thoughts.
But there is a always a way forward – and making your own decisions as a result of your own core values – which means digging deeper than ‘normal’ to find who you are and being from there as your way of responding to whatever conditions your meet.
Reining in a fearful imagination is robbing ‘Peter’ to pay ‘Paul’ – that is what you withdraw from fear you invest in something – anything in the moment at hand that resonates with you that aligns you in life and the living. I am saying nothing here to do with combating ‘Them’ – but of withdrawing the backdoor through which fear-agenda operates.
Accept that it is a compression in which to learn to hold to what is truly worthy and release what ultimately doesn’t have to matter.
At least – that’s my offering to your strengths – whether you know you have them or not.
I agree. I should have been getting back to swimming club this evening but reading the rules that I can’t accept has had me throw in the towel before I’ve even tried.
Help me out?
This is the modelling used used for justification of the lockdown for Victoria. Now the models estimate that Victoria will have amongst the highest rates of infections in the world and full hospital wards without lockdowns which we know is rubbish. But I don’t understand programming so could somebody explain it? Wish that Sue Denim could review it.
https://github.com/JTHooker/COVIDModel
https://www.mja.com.au/journal/2020/probability-6-week-lockdown-victoria-commencing-9-july-2020-achieving-elimination
BBC R2 News, midday.
In response to the (pitiful) dearth of Covid testing kit the expert said
“We are concentrating testing in the areas with most infections.”
By quantity or proportion he did not say but that is exactly what I would do if I wanted to create a self-perpetuating cycle of new ‘cases’.
Has anyone noticed that BBC current affairs such an Breakfast show and longer news broadcasts are showing more feel good videos. Surfing dogs. baby leopards…. Or is it just me noticing something different to covid scare propaganda.
just noticing politics live – small outbreaks of scepticism … but the sheep dont watch this programme!!!
They still do it on the radio. Case in point was last weeks report that a couple in London needing to be tested were referred to the Brecon Beacons, chortle chortle, those computers eh!
Turned out not to be so funny after all (well not from the governments point of view).
It’s a toxic combination – scare stories and fluff to make people think this is now normal
Evil
You can look at things like Google story count to scientifically assess whether there has been a change.
Old Wankock never gives up, does he? This from The Telegraph live feed (my emphasis):
Matt Hancock: long-term effects of coronavirus not “very strongly correlated” with severity of infection.
Mr Hancock said that the long-term effects of coronavirus were not “very strongly correlated” with the severity of the infection.
He added: “This is not just about people who were hospitalised, in fact, and this is really relevant for now because the latest rise in the last few days has been largely among young people.
“But it doesn’t matter how serious your infection was first time initially, the impact of long Covid can be really debilitating for a long period of time, no matter if your initial illness wasn’t all that severe.”
When asked if there would be a campaign to educate people about the long-term effects of the virus, Mr Hancock said there were not “easy and clinically validated” treatments.
He added: “There is a challenge which is supporting people when actually there isn’t a readily available treatment.”
A long period of time? How does he know that? The lab flu has only been with us for six months, in terms of significant numbers of cases.
‘Long covid’ will miraculously disappear as soon as a vaccine appears!
They need this narrative. They have over-invested in it, along with every other government around the world. The lockdown and The Madness need to keep being fuelled.
They’re pulling out all the stops to keep the panicdemic going, aren’t they?
To me, it always seems very odd to highlight long term effects of a condition that has not existed long term. How can it be proven? Am I missing something obvious? Time travel perhaps?
Some cretin on the radio yesterday (LBC to the guy on after Eddie Mair I think) was saying “long COVID” could harm young people FOR LIFE!!!!
AND IT WASN’T QUESTIONED!!!
Insane.
A novel turns into a trilogy… of trilogies – and wait – the prequel!
But stringing you along is the buying of time such that the restructuring necessary will be in place for when the patient comes round to find a boot in their face.
FAO Cheezilla and Tyneside Tigress.
Regarding your question on the cases stats.
Yes I spotted that too.
Cases by specimen were over 2000 last week but this didn’t tally with the daily count.
Is that what you noted as Carl possibly querying?
Yes, Hotrod, positives by specimen date and announcement date is well out of synch. The number of processed tests seems to have fallen dramatically in the last week, and hasn’t been updated since 2 September. The accumulated positive of 350,100 doesn’t tally with the daily change reported either. Again, there is something going on with the dataset. In early July, if you recall, they announced there had been 30k double counting of positives and the stats were rebased accordingly. It is the sort of thing Carl Heneghan and his team will be onto I assume? The NHS test and trace head has said there is a problem in analysing the lab results. Suggest active data manipulation, or another cockup!
My hope is that economic meltdown focuses minds and prompts a re-assessment of risks v. rewards. Continued bailouts and furlough schemes (and nutty talk of Modern Monetary Theory) only allow further indulgence of coronaphobia. We need mass unemployment to save the economy. Counter-intuitive yes, but in the absence of a vaccine we cannot go on like this and the acquiescent working age populace need to experience some real pain not just fear of the abstract. THEN maybe we will get the change of attitude we need.
I am sure that will help
I’ve gone back to work in London after nearly 6 months off.Looking at the boarded up shops and general lack of people on the streets my guess is you won’t have to wait too long.
I’m going in next week. Dreading it. Easier to visit Chernobyl than my office. It’s the sad site of mask-wearers shuffling around like drones that really upsets me. Pray for a vaccine – or a change of attitude. But neither will be immediate.
It’s my hope that we won’t need such destructive forces to focus minds. The fallout will be capitalised on by all manner of extreme forces that can only lead to bad places. You think we have sheep now? When economic collapse is on the cards, such people, already scared to death by a flu will cry for protection from anyone offering it.
How about Amazon run for parliament and promise everyone jobs in their Covid safe warehouses. Back at work, covid safe, healthy balance sheet, free prime membership. What’s not to like?
I’ve pretty much had enough already today.
I live alone. I’ve already had an idiot on here doxx me which is why I have been quiet for about two months.
I have suffered from depression throughout my life. My life is fairly shit at the best of times. I had an innocent dream of being married and having a family. But I can’t get it together with women.
Rather than assuming bad faith in others – like me – here maybe sometimes have a little consideration. Understand that life for others is not always easy.
“Unfortunately” perhaps, “self-harm” isn’t my thing. Otherwise I’d have left this planet long ago.
What is ‘doxxing’?
I am sorry to hear you are not having a good time of it.
The response to the virus must be making things horrendous for those with mental health issues. It is so unfair.
Unfortunately, you are part of the ‘unintended consequences’ side of the balance sheet that the government and most of the public simply refuse to assess when they implement all the stupid rules and measures to stop this 0.03% death rate virus.
Stay with it, things may improve via a vaccine or a change of attitudes before the end of 2021.
public posting of personal details online
used to attack truth seekers / whistleblowers amongst other things
It may not have been intentional, just clumsy. I’m not going to say who it was.
Thank you. I generally prefer not to mention any “issues” I may have. I prefer not to consider myself any sort of victim, but I get frustrated at times.
I think I just felt overwhelmed.
Sorry to hear that
It’s not unfortunate that self harm is not your thing
You’re clearly sane which is more than can be said for many at present
Thanks Julian. Much appreciated.
Maybe you need some time off this site, John. I come here to get the lockdown news, but we here are focusing on just this one subject. If you can avoid the BBC news and just go out, you will find a lot of normal life carrying on and that will do you good.
chin up John. I’m in the same boat as you
we’lll get through it
Just hang onto the fact that your despair isn’t you. It’s no good me saying things aren’t that bad – but rest assured that even those of us with more fortunate circumstances are struggling with this never-ending corruption of society.
Keep going.
Thanks Rick. I generally say nothing, but it really got to me this morning.
However bleak things seems remember NOTHING lasts forever so even this nonsense has to come to an end. Plus NEVER let the bas***** grind you down.
“This too shall pass.”
Thank you. I like to think I am strong enough to cope with this, but I have my moments.
Chin up John, we are all here for each other, don’t forget that!
Oh John. I’m sorry that somebody on here added to your troubles. All of us on here understand that life is not easy which is one reason why we’re on here. And we see you and we empathise.
John you are in my thoughts & prayers. I’m ex-military, got PTSD & depression plus physical injuries/disability from fighting for this country. I’ve lost six of my mates, four to enemy action, two to PTSD. Life can be pretty rubbish at times. I have a young family, a supportive other half and some reasonably good support from the Navy & the NHS (yes honestly!).
What you are going through is real, it will pass & you can see it through, because if I can you can! One day it will be me asking for your help.
Keep your chin up my friend.
Arnie.
Statutory instrument published: The Prosecution of Offences (Custody Time Limits) (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 – extending time people can be kept in custody before trial to 8 months.
In force from 28 September – no parliamentary debate.
https://legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/953/pdfs/uksi_20200953_en.pdf
chilling
goodness me
We need two sections in the Comments area. 1. ‘Outrages’ to highlight the injustices and madness. 2. ‘Victories’ to highlight progress made against the lunacy. So you can read 1 but before getting really upset you can move onto 2. And 2. can be small-scale, like I didn’t wear a mask, got challenged and ended up converting the challenger to the cause. &c &c.
I too have found coping mechanisms to deal with all this!
That’s a job for the forum.
What? Someone please let Francis Hoar and Simon Dolan know asap.. Also Peter Hitchens and Toby of course..
What was the previous time limit, by the way?
I got it from Hitchens twitter feed
Amendment of the 1987 Regulations
2. Regulation 5 (custody time limits in the Crown Court) of the 1987 Regulations is amended as
follows—
(a) in paragraph (3), for “112 days” substitute “168 days”;
(b) in paragraph (6B), for “182 days” substitute “238 days”.
What Covid related crime would have an 8 month remand? Unless it’s designed for Johnson, Hancock, et al!
Oh My God!
Hi Concrete. Are you aware of the kbf sussex group which meets fortnightly in Lewes (Zu cafe) ? Very active and civilised.
A week today (15th). It was 6pm for 6:30pm, but there was talk of shifting to 7pm for 7:30pm. I must have been dozing, as can’t remember the decision.
Go to the kbf website (https://www.keepbritainfree.com/), navigate to community | forum | kbf local | kbf south | kbf sussex.
Website is a bit clunky but works. We have anti mask-flyers already – whereabouts are you ? Once in kbf sussex, Paul, our admin, can set you up for the private messaging group.
(Evil people keep taking down the posters I put up in Lewes.).
Reading comments on the BBCs website just fills me with despair. Words to the effect of “ we need more lockdown, more restrictive measures!” Etc. Fixation on meaningless ‘case’ statistics. No examination of facts. We just seem to be losing the battle. Now it seems we need to blame young people and children for the rise in ‘cases’. I’m my local authority yesterday on the 3rd day back for many pupils, 8 schools sent classes or entire year groups home to isolate because of a single ‘case’ in school. Whether these are actual positive Covid tests or whether due to a pupil having a cold, who knows? What is clear is that as soon as the groups are back in and another pupil coughs they will be all out again. Insanity! Meanwhile the mayor comes out with the usual “unfortunately this will happen under the new normal” crap.
Caerphilly today new travel restrictions. They can’t leave town without a reasonable excuse. I would have thought that complete infringement of a person’s liberties is a reasonable excuse but apparently not. What next, martial bloody law like Victoria. Meanwhile the sane, measured fact gatherers on sites like this are treated like flat earthers.
i can’t see a way out. I have tried the calm factual approach when discussing this nonsense – doesn’t work. For most it seems to be like a religion. The shouty/ranty approach just labels you as a loon. The British public will compliantly hold out their arms for a vaccine and beg for a health passport so they can enjoy the beach in Majorca. Being policed on said beach by a helicopter to demand they keep their distance will just add to their holiday ‘fun’. Meanwhile we will foster a generation of terrified kids, see a massive rise in mental health issues in the young and send them on their merry way to look for jobs that will no longer exist.
If there was another Nazi Germany, there would be no Churchill and no Battle of Britain. We would have come to terms already. We have given up freedoms because we don’t value them. Maybe we deserve this? Sad.
This is what I feared the return to schools would trigger. Children mixing with each other for the first time in 6 months and immediately coming down with respiratory viruses. Then tested “positive” en masse all over the country and hey presto, suddenly Covid-19 infections are on the rise in the young, so we must go into lockdown again.
I agree with you that the vast majority are irredeemably brainwashed into the Covid Cult. This will take as long as Communism to defeat (i.e. decades).
I don’t think BBC website comments are representative, though obviously many people still do think like that
Many others are just apathetic and hoping it will all blow over soon – those are the people we need to work on
Ask them how long we should continue like this
I’m with you. I’m so angry. I know it sounds crazy but wancock proselytising about the worrying spike in coronavirus ( not even necessarily Co Vid 19) on ‘ young people relaxing’ and how they’re threatening the lives of their grannies is seriously pushing me over the edge. That and my 19 year old student daughter today getting a text from her GP reminding her that just because she’s young doesn’t mean she can relax social distancing. This from the GP who couldn’t even be bothered to answer the phone when she desperately needed a replacement steroid inhaler ( when she actually had Co Vid and is an asthma sufferer) – so I effectively had to beg a GP friend to write her a script. When is a decent politician going to emerge to promote rationality again?
Can anyone make sense of what, on the face of it, appears to be extreme bullshit and monumental exaggeration:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54031587
Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London and leader of the Covid Symptom Study app, said around 300,000 people in the UK have reported symptoms lasting for more than a month – so called “long Covid”.
He added that data from the app showed around 60,000 people have been ill for more than three months.
However, many of these people may not have been tested for Covid.
But – to date there have only been 350100 “cases” (positive tests)
Double counting at the very least. Ask person A if they have symptoms on day 1, register a positive. Ask on day 2, register another positive.
Plus hayfever, hypochondria and the power of suggestion.
Because it’s all made up rubbish and you shouldn’t believe a single word BBC “journalists” say as a general rule. The latest push is this “long lasting effect” tosh.
plus, there has been so much change in what the symptoms are of covid (basically anything) then it is quite possible that someone has had a continual problem which has a symptom that matches covid and so assumes that they have long covid.
“i have had a cough for a month.. it must be long covid” “maybe you should see a doctor – it might be lung cancer” “oh i have an appointment for that in November but they can do me a covid test this afternoon”
Completely fabricated no doubt.
Possibly. It’ll be based on the app they have distributed which allows people to log symptoms. They say they have 4m users, not sure if they all report daily. Arguably the sample is not representative – likely to be people worried about their health.
They take the reports from the app and combine with testing results to estimate number of cases
https://covid.joinzoe.com/data
They are currently estimating 30,000 symptomatic cases UK-wide, about 1 person in 2,250
There’s some interesting stuff coming out of the Zoe thing. One survey, which had about 1.8m respondents, probably very self selecting, worried well. It looked at eating habits, exercise & weight gain/loss over lockdown. What a surprise, fat people got fatter by about 2.5kg & thin people got thinner by about 2.5kg. 5kg is a big delta.
Has Boris already forgotten his fine talk if getting people fitter?
Doubt the PM remembers much.
I don’t give the BBC and others my attention – let alone try to make sense of their output.
But consider – have you ever had any kind of cold or flu that didn’t just disappear but had persistent symptoms of under par in one way or another?
But so what?
Be clear the ‘authorities’ that seek to manipulate you, are lining up a bio-security (sic) state as part of a billionaire’s dream.
Well done.
Waitrose is doing extremely well in getting rid of customers by using door guards (on minimum wage) that enforce mask wearing on behalf of the Government. I experienced that one time to many and last week waved goodbye forever after 16 years ( monthly average £800)
All this pathetic hand-wringing and despair over test results and naughty young people having fun, these ‘experts and politicians’ need to get a grip and get real. The one set of figures that seems indisputable in all this are the ONS weekly registered death figures, today they reported 101 deaths involving Covid, of these 70 were in people aged over 75.
So Covid related deaths were 1.12% of total weekly deaths and 69% of those Covid deaths were people aged over 75.
I would have thought that anyone with a rational view on things would look at those figures and decide to focus on the elderly and vulnerable and that otherwise things look OK.
unfortunately they still refer to cases and infections on BBC and other MSM.. So all the sheeple still buy in to the “3000 people became ill with covid” narrative
Until someone in the MSM has the balls to say “This is 3000 positive tests, and not illnesses” enough times for the sheeple to understand, nothing will change
Ha! Dawn Butler on politics today. “we have a right to protest”. unfortunately she is only taking about XR blockade . She also reminded us that we cannot sing because of covid. I could fill a page with the other incoherent garbage she spouted
Is it me or have I detected here over the last couple days, a very real darkening of the mood in our comments BTL? What with the recent government and public health pronouncements, castigating of young people, compliance through guilt, acquiescence of the majority, inevitably of an ‘almost mandatory’ vaccine – there seems to be a real sense of gloom descending for the coming winter!
Is it just me??
No, I’ve noticed it as well. It’s terribly sad. I absolutely loathe winter as it is – my least favourite season of the year – and I’m really dreading this one, not least because of the possibility of a second lockdown that I once thought was impossible but is now looking increasingly likely in this clown world.
Rather this than the blissful ignorance of the majority. We will be far better prepared psychologically for the onslaught when it arrives.
The talk of lockdown Mark 2 is the cloud you see. How they can even get that into the ongoing chit chat with such ease is disturbing.
I actually think things ARE turning. So I’m not gloomy. I’ve seen bits emerging from government papers which suggest a change.
It’s as if there are two sides to the government now – the ongoing Project Fear that we’ve all lived with. They appear to want to live up to the Reasonable Worse Case Scenario, as leaked to Deborah Cohen, make it self fulfilling. Heading for increased measures later this month, and possibly lockdown later in October or November.
But less noticed, in the background, I’ve seen signs of common sense breaking out. It’s as if there are elements in government which recognise that we can’t go on like this.
Hancock is on the Project Fear side. But he’s pretty well irrelevant – the archetypal useful idiot.
Do tell us where you’ve seen common sense.
Hancock and Johnson the worst of them, plus the “scientists” who want power and attention.
Sorry for quick reply, but I have to dash.
First, this doc.:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sars-cov-2-rna-testing-assurance-of-positive-results-during-periods-of-low-prevalence
Second, copied from a post I made here last Friday:
Mrs TJN and I has just received guidance on how our daughter’s primary school will be approaching the potential problem (small, I know) of virus spread in school. It quotes a letter from Yvonne Doyle, (the Medical Director and Director of Health Protection, Public Health England) and Susan Hopkins, (the Interim Chief Medical Adviser of NHS Test and Trace).
A bit of a haul I know, but here’s the text (my emphasis):
The Department for Education has worked closely with Public Health England (PHE) and NHS Test and Trace to ensure that we are doing all we can to minimise the potential risks of spread. A key part of this is the appropriate use of testing to help identify people who are positive and subsequently their contacts. We have made testing available throughout the country and anyone with symptoms can book a test online or over the telephone through 119 to get the certainty they need to protect themselves and those around them.
Crucial to our overall support for schools and colleges is ensuring that everyone with coronavirus symptoms has access to a test as soon as they develop those symptoms. It is vital that we learn from the recent Scottish experience, where the return of schools saw a huge increase in demand for tests from people without coronavirus symptoms. We want to avoid a similar surge in test demand as England’s schools and colleges return to ensure that we continue to prioritise our testing capacity for those with symptoms and to avoid children, students and their families self-isolating unnecessarily.
To ensure we identify those with coronavirus while avoiding a huge increase in demand for tests from people without coronavirus symptoms, we ask that you recommend to your pupils, students and staff who feel unwell, that they get tested if:
they develop one or more of the main coronavirus symptoms:
a high temperature
a new, continuous cough
the loss or change of their sense of taste or smell, or
they are recommended to get tested by a healthcare provider (e.g. GP or nurse)
If a pupil, student or staff member develops one or more of the main coronavirus symptoms described above, only they should be tested. There is no need for their households to have a test, unless they are also symptomatic. Unless a pupil, student or staff member has one of the three main coronavirus symptoms, they should only be tested if instructed otherwise by the local authority, health protection team or their GP. As schools and colleges across England return, pupils and students may feel unwell for example with a sore throat, stomach upset or a headache. These pupils and students don’t need to book a test but may need to stay off school or college and seek medical advice through their GP or pharmacist as usual.
Maybe I’m being overly optimistic, but what I take from this is that they are aware that mass random testing will throw up lots of ‘cases’, which aren’t actually cases at all, leading to unnecessary measures to combat a ‘surge’ in the virus – in this case closing schools.
It seems to go against the ethos of what Hancock was saying yesterday (Radio 4, Today) about ramping up testing, blah blah blah. (But I’m not sure that Hancock is in control or even aware of what’s going on is his own department.)
But has someone with government, or at least the Civil Service, started to see sense at last? Have they realised the damage that is being done, and that they can’t carry on as they have been doing?
Schools seem now to be the central battleground.
Thanks. Conflicting messages. But better than nothing.
Is the temperature 38.6 or 37.8 for a fever now?
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffhp&q=temperature+38.6&ia=web
Umm, don’t know. 37.8 really doesn’t sound that high, especially as I thought children can run a bit hot anyway.
No – it’s not just you.
I was fairly (well sort of) optimistic on Sunday after observing wide ignoring of face masks etc.
But the intent behind the ramping up of the Scary Fairy is too egregious to miss.
Conditioned reaction is the name of the game of manipulating it. If you want to live – find where you are truly alive instead of rushing to see what the next threat is, whether the bad guys have gone away or what happens next.
You are looking at the way ‘contagion’ operates the mind.
Where is your core immunity? Not in fearful thinking, indecision and ungrounded ongoing anxieties.
i didn’t say we are not all going to release the world one day in one way or another – but that we live Now – and can be induced to throw this away for carrots or even the carrot of being hit less with a stick.
I note that Handycock is to answer questions in the Commons about ‘Test and Trace’.
It will be fascinating to see if any MPs raise the fundamental issues around PCR testing and the notion of ‘cases’.
My guess is a resounding sound of ‘Baaaaaaa!’
According to the ONS, deaths for week 35 (ending 28 Aug) of 2020:-
Total: 9032 (down from 9631 prev. week, up from 5Y average of 8241, on par with the 5Y max of 9031)
‘flu/pneumonia: 1040 (down from 1151 prev. week)
COVID-19: 101 (down from 138 prev. week)
‘flu/pneumonia:COVID-19 ratio is just over 10.3:1 (8.34:1 prev. week), COVID-19 mentions as a proportion of all-cause deaths: 1.12%, ‘flu/pneumonia: 11.51%
‘flu/pneumonia to COVID-19 ratio still is going up a month after the increase in mask wearing, while no causation can be claimed, what can be claimed is that this indicates that wearing face “coverings” does not protect against aerosolised infection.
The amount of money, effort, and extraordinary measures spent on a disease that currently has 10 times lower mortality is astonishing to the point of being insanely (literally!) irrational—the nosophobes have taken over the clinic and are running a riot!
Ref: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending28august2020
The ‘Welcome to the masquerade’ video above is so good I cannot send it to any maskers because it is, quite simply, too destructive….; pathetic, I realise…..
Also the quotation yesterday from ‘The Man Without Qualities’, previously brilliantly used by Mr Young (so many thanks, again, for this site) about Blair, so good that, in my view, it bears repetition:
‘And indeed the most coldly calculating people do not have half the success in life that comes to those rightly blended personalities who are capable of feeling a really deep attachment to such persons and conditions as will advance their own interests.’
And there is another quote from the same source which sums up what is going on in the world at the moment, and particularly, with a few honourable exceptions, the fourth estate:
“People were always chasing after some leader or another, and stumbling from one superstition to the next, cheering His Majesty one day and giving the most disgusting incendiary speeches in Parliament the next, and none of it ever amounted to anything in the end! If this could be miniaturized by a factor of a million and reduced, as it were, to the dimensions of a single head, the result would be precisely the image of the unaccountable, forgetful, ignorant conduct and the demented hopping around that has always been the image of a lunatic’
‘Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften’ Robert Musil 1943
More nonesense from the Evening Standard:
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/uk-coronavirus-live-true-covid-19-death-toll-hits-57-400-as-brits-urged-to-take-pandemic-seriously-or-face-bumpy-road/ar-BB18OHMX?ocid=spartan-ntp-feeds
Headline reads: “UK coronavirus LIVE: True Covid-19 death toll hits 57,400 as Brits urged to take pandemic seriously ‘or face bumpy road’ “
At least it recognises that deaths are still low:
“More than 57,400 deaths involving coronavirus have now been registered in the UK, new figures from the Office for National Statistics show.
However, data released today also found that weekly deaths involving Covid-19 in England and Wales have dropped to the lowest number since mid-March.
Meanwhile, deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam has said coronavirus must be taken very seriously again or the UK will face “a bumpy ride over the next few months”.”
Of course, the 57,400 figure attributed to Covid is utter unadulterated bollocks.
A bumpy road? I am reading that as the threat of further assaults on any freedoms we have left. This government and their advisers has to go.. by any means!
Lots of people die: panic.
Very few people die: panic.
I just wanted to extend a big thank you to all who kindly responded to my personal comment below with words of encouragement.
It does make a difference and my dark mood began to lift almost immediately.
Keep your chin up – I’ve been feeling rather dark today as well, but it’s times like these where we must draw upon inner strength because everything outside of us is failing.
Me too. One of the most depressing days in a long time.
It might have been something in the air. I felt very depressed today as well and lacking energy. A Global Depression.
Glad to hear it
I’m sure lots of us are finding this hard – I know me and my family are
Richie Allen is too. It’s infectious.
I’m glad to hear that
I’m a grown woman who hasn’t seen any Peppa Pig episodes and I want to go there if it means normalcy.
Take me to “Mr Crabtree goes fishing ” circa 1950.
Rocky & Bullwinkle.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54066831
Slightly off topic but following a general theme of zero risk:
These are the 24 new speed camera sites across ScotlandExtra enforcement part of new plans to cut Scottish road deaths to zero by 2050
https://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/these-are-24-new-speed-camera-sites-across-scotland-2964812
Live at all costs. ALL COSTS.
To ensure your future, some freedoms must be surrendered.
More about revenue enhancement than safety, in truth.
That’s the old normal though. My impression since all the security theatre ramped up after 9/11 is that these things are politically pushed also by the security establishment because they all feed monitoring info into the “anti-terror” structures.
And remember, the current theme is to create a “right wing” terror threat so that the majority ethnicity can be plausibly targeted along with muslims.
Presumably part of their plan to eliminate death completely…
even if some of these cameras are gatso type , others are constant speed or mobile units which means that they can also be used as ANPR cameras. Just saying……….
This JP video was posted earlier but it is so relevant to your post
There seems ‘no end to the untruths being told’ to Australians: Alan Jones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P1zEAP4prg
Sky News Australia
Sky News host Alan Jones says there “seems no end to the untruths that are told” as Australians continue to suffer, lose their jobs or remain just hanging on via the JobKeeper lifeline.
Take me to “Mr Crabtree goes fishing ” circa 1950.
The faerie kingdom seems to have been taken over by an effing great Lizard and it’s hordes of Cov-fascist acolytes… Shame St George isn’t the patron saint of France….
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/ Sorry but I cannot be bothered to go through the individual reports but the theme is obvious
Feeling quite despondent today. I really thought that there was absolutely no way that another lockdown, local or national, would ever be so cruelly inflicted on the people of this country but all this hand-wringing over increased ‘cases’ suggests that we might soon be locked up again. Unbelievable. We patently cannot afford another house arrest (not that we could afford the first one) either economically, socially, or culturally. I thought that the government would keep up the pretence of control with various local mockdowns and unenforceable ‘social’ restrictions but nothing more serious than that.
Someone said on here yesterday that if there were another full lockdown then he/she would suspect malicious intent. I am inclined to agree. It has gone beyond incompetence now. It was incompetence which started off the chain reaction and made the government overreact and make errors, but rather than admitting their mistakes and rectifying them, we must suffer instead. I find it very hard to believe that our elected representatives are still unaware of the mass suffering lockdowns cause which outweighs their (total lack of) benefit, and that they genuinely believe that there is still a deadly virus out there stalking the land. They KNOW that they are needlessly causing suffering to justify their own pathetic failure to manage this problem, which they have now inflated into a crisis of their own making. That, to me, is deeply malicious. I will never, ever vote for these people again – not after the despicable Hancock took aim at my generation and blamed us for his failure to protect the vulnerable and threatened to forbid us from living a normal life. I don’t make government policy. I’m not responsible for the spread of an infectious disease beyond quarantining myself when I am ostensibly SICK, not when I am healthy with no symptoms. This divide-and-rule strategy of pitting generations against one another is totally revolting and the opposite of what we need to get through this horrendous time.
But Biker is right – complaining on here solves nothing. It’s satisfying to rant to each other and this site is a beacon of sanity, and of course Toby’s compilation of evidence is a serious strengthening of our case, but remember we are still a minority and the people of the UK don’t come here for news, they go to the MSM which is still peddling the fear narrative. Biker’s comment speaks to why I, and probably so many others on here, feel so low. We’re powerless. There is the odd protest but it’s not greatly attended and certainly not covered by the MSM (or covered in an unbiased way), and many of us who don’t live in London cannot attend. It’s hard to organise one’s own protest, especially if there are so few of us.
It just feels as if there’s no end to this insanity and as long as people can still access food and Netflix then they’re not going to care enough to do anything about it. ‘Bread and circuses’ as my bf says – just keep people happy and they won’t give a shit. It sounds terrible and I really wish there were another way out of this lunacy but I get the impression that millions more will have to suffer before the public revolt en masse.
Actually I think there is a lot of small-scale stuff you can do. Use the mask exemptions to not wear a mask, that gives great encouragement to people wondering whether to do the same. Tell friends and family and acquaintances you’re a sceptic and point them to this website. Generally make it clear that you are not in favour and others may well follow. Part of the problem is that there is no mass small-scale signalling. Many wear a mask because they ‘don’t have the energy’ to make a point. But this, along with advocating sceptical views at every opportunity could change the narrative at the ground level if enough people do it. If you go out, ask the pub or restaurant how ‘fussy’ they are about it or if it’s quite relaxed. They will understand what you mean. Vote with your wallet. Write to your MP and ignore the stock answer, keep writing and writing and writing. Don’t despair, there are many ‘micro-victories’ to be had which can cumulatively change things.
Absolutely. Saying ‘I despair, I despair’ is the one response that will NOT help.
Can I suggest that people carry spare exemptions with them to hand out to people too?
Well said. Our numbers are growing. People just need to know they are not alone.
Drip drip drip!
For me the war was lost the moment we accepted the first lockdown. We failed to grasp the magnitude of the surrender of freedom that was. There is no going back now.
Protests are already effectively illegal by virtue of the £10K fine. The police have clearly demonstrated whose side they are on.
Regardless of whether the politicians know what they doing, clearly they are now enjoying their power and making people suffer, so this is beyond malicious. It is sadistic and evil.
We are learning the hard way that if the majority of a society lives in wilful ignorance, it invariably ends up in an authoritarian state. I would suspect our numbers are around 1% of the population, so naturally there is only so much we can achieve.
“the war was lost the moment we accepted the first lockdown.”
Just remember, though – the original idea was sold on the basis of a short-term measure to keep capacity under control. And this was at a time when the severity of the virus was unknown.
It was later that the whole thing became ludicrously extended.
That has already been written out of history. People I mention this to literally cannot remember this.
That’s what worries me, how little people can remember anymore.
Almost like the googlebox is screwing with their brains.
They knew what they were doing from the start, or at least some of the ‘they’ did.
Indeed. ‘Three weeks to flatten the sombrero’ – hey, Boris? You liar!
How could you break it? Go shopping -no all shops shut . Go to pub , cafe, restaurant? Ditto. Day trip to seaside ? All shut and no loos. About all you could do was visit someone.
Actually, I’d put a poem here but changed my mind and want to delete it.
So I’ll replace with my comment to ScooBieDee below, as it seems equally appropriate here.
I actually think things ARE turning. So I’m not gloomy. I’ve seen bits emerging from government papers which suggest a change.
It’s as if there are two sides to the government now – the ongoing Project Fear that we’ve all lived with. They appear to want to live up to the Reasonable Worse Case Scenario, as leaked to Deborah Cohen, make it self fulfilling. Heading for increased measures later this month, and possibly lockdown later in October or November.
But less noticed, in the background, I’ve seen signs of common sense breaking out. It’s as if there are elements in government which recognise that we can’t go on like this.
Hancock is on the Project Fear side. But he’s pretty well irrelevant – the archetypal useful idiot.
It’s not only hard to organise your own protest, you also run the very real risk of being fined £10,000 if you do so.
There’s a protest in London on 26th September. I haven’t a clue who is organising it.
I have this argument with my son. He is essentially sceptical, but tends to take a charitable view of motivations (cock-up way ahead of any intent).
Being an academic (and honest), he is also reluctant to see fellow academics as self-seeking publicists etc.
But this latest ramping up of the Fear factor and the use of the Mengele Brigade (SPI-B), as I’ve pointed out to him, tends to diminish the concept of honest mistakes, when the evidence is so incredibly thin and the social and economic damage so immense.
Mis- labelling a fairly ordinary virus as ‘unprecedented’ is in the world of total fiction, not an honest mistake.
Some people are making honest mistakes, but not all of them.
How do folks feel about this mooted new lockdown being incompetence or to cover incompetence?
or just evil.
I do think there is an understanding across society that at some point a return to the old normal has to happen, but this is a vague fairly unformed notion in most peoples heads. As so often it comes down to leadership, if our political leaders pushed it we could return substantially to normal, the problem is of course that our ‘supreme leader’ doesn’t seem to know what he wants from one day to the next.
I know exactly how you feel Poppy. Yesterday I felt very low but seem a little happier today. Maybe going to Tesco this morning and seeing another maskless customer helped, I don’t know, but the longer this nonsense goes on there is no light to be seen. I have a pretty small circle of friends, and sadly those in my church believe everything the media throws at them. But we have a new minister at our Methodist church starting today, maybe as I get to know him there will be somebody who understands how we all feel. But it will do nothing to change the rollercoaster ride to extinction we are heading.
I never believed it was incompetence. Haven’t you heard of the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset? And you do know that Boris is fully committed to zero emissions by 2030? And you do also know that ‘Covid’ has delivered both of those things ‘accidentally’?
Boris SAID he’s committed to zero emissions but is the blathering liar really capable of being committed to anything?
On Melanie Phillips bed-wetting: This is actually consistent. We need to remember that she was a dissident in the 9/11 fake emergency because she wanted MORE harsh reprisals against Muslims, not LESS. Now she wants MORE action against sane science, not LESS. Dissidents aren’t always pro-freedom. Some dissidents want LESS freedom.
(Disclaimer: I was also on the more harshness side in 2001, but I’ve learned a few things since then. Melanie hasn’t learned the same things.)
Phillips is a long-tern consistent idiot.
Nothing to see there. Move along.
The latest from Alan Jones in Australia:
https://youtu.be/Dy2RsNIC1Og
Superb. Why have we not got someone like him over here? Well, I suppose we have, it’s just that they don’t get air time.
New normal.. Watching triathlon highlights from Hamburg. Shortened course, no spectators (even though it is outdoors and in a park). Commentator said that in the swimming leg where they go round a marker the swimmers have been told not to bump into each other,…to maintain distancing.
Oh . and BBC then showed a brief highlight of the 2017 Leeds triathlon with “the way we were ” playing over the top. Showing when things were normal.. Now then BBC.. whose fault is it that things are not normal ?
No Covid worth mentioning out there, and still the restrictions on freedom keep coming. They’re not even trying to hide it now – they’re after us meeting in upstairs rooms of pubs and trying to oppose the totalitarian state from the grassroots up.
This is getting as dark as the storm clouds gathering in 1939. I’m sitting on a village green writing this and there is a big group of silly women laughing and talking about men’s willies and transitioning women, FFS. Oblivious, mindless sheep.
A huge turnout is needed on the 26th if this bunch of petty tyrants are to be stopped from turning London into Melbourne.
I’ve shared ‘Number 10 set to reduce the size of legal gatherings’ with you from Spectator
https://app.spectator.co.uk/2020/09/08/number-10-set-to-reduce-the-size-of-legal-gatherings/content.html
The extension to the Coronavirus Bill will sail through Parliament, the only question is how long will they extend their “emergency” powers for? At least another year, maybe two would be my guess.
I think they’ll keep it indefinitely or at the very least a watered down version ready for use in any and all future emergencies.
It’s called the ‘coronavirus’ act too, not ‘Covid 19’ act, so can easily be ‘adapted’ to suit any future virus..
Yes we certainly need a very large crowd on the 26th – the MSM tend to divided the actual number of attendees by 10 for non-state approved causes. And lot’s of people who have had their lives destroyed need to attend so the media can’t say it is only ‘conspiracy theorists’ (not a term I would use to discredit people) attending.
Covid is now being used as a tool to control and socially engineer the population for a ‘new normal’.
So our Deputy CMO for England J Van-Tam is worried is he?
Here’s a job’s list for him:
Professor Van Tam has also held the following posts:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-deputy-chief-medical-officer-appointed
He’s also worked for what is now called GSK, Roche and Aventis Pasteur MSD, 3 vaccine manufacturers.
Just another establishment cabal placement then.
That info about him needs to be posted widely! Anyone who has worked for a vaccine manufacturer will not be impartial and will have been ‘bought’ by Gates…
Well disaster struck, I have caught a very very mild cold, sore throat which has affected my voice, terrified of anyone finding out as they will assume I have corona, even though I have none of the classic symptoms, no cough, no high temperature, no fatigue, I had to write off this week work wise with silly excuses so wont earn, cant answer my phone as I dont want anyone to hear me. I am so fed up. I would have normally worked through it but now I feel like a leaper. Anyone else had this, I assume this is why no one can get a corona virus test locally as everyone is getting tested as they have the common cold.
If you feel sick it’s probably not Covid.
What really gets me is I know it’s just a cold, but I have to hide away like I have the plague, please got it gets back to normal soon.
My ex-wife coughed yesterday after we dropped off our kid n her first day back at school. “Oops, can’t let the teacher catch me coughing.” She said.
Take large does of vitamin C (ascorbic acid powder works fine – mix it with bicarbonate of soda). Also take vitamin D3.
Spray throat with colloidal silver.
I absolutely know what you mean – I was sneezing the other morning and thought, oh I hope nobody heard that.
Going by the symptoms it could easily be Covid. Indistinguishable from a cold for most people. But the prevalence of SARS2 is now so low it has about a 90% chance of being some other cold.
That’s re-assuring
Re lockdown in Caerphilly: If you stand for this, your children we be next.
With apologies to the Manic street preachers and the few remaining victims and veterans of the Spanish civil war.
WILL BE NEXT!!
A great track!
Apologies if you know this already but on some devices if you point/tap at the bottom right of your post you will see a cogwheel icon that will bring up an ‘Edit’ menu for a short while after you post.
Thanks.
Hancock providing stats on hospitalisations and deaths in France and Spain.
Is that in any way accurate?
Where are these stats?
Posted a link to the French stats yesterday.
French data also available here https://www.santepubliquefrance.fr/dossiers/coronavirus-covid-19
SPF is their PHE, so make of that what you will
Casedemic from Ivor Cummings updated
Just researching J Van-Tam and come across this:
Strange comment on wikipedia, after listing his SPI, SAGE and NERVTAG roles it says “His unit is an officially designated WHO Collaborating Centre for pandemic influenza and research “.
Not quite sure what that means.
If you put into duckduckgo “WHO Collaborating Centre for pandemic influenza and research” the first hit after the WHO link is this:
http://www.influenzacentre.org/index.htm – based in melbourne, Victoria, Australia by a strange coincidence.
Here are all the 5 centres for WHO:
https://www.who.int/influenza/gisrs_laboratory/collaborating_centres/collabcentres/en/
I had a mooch through some of the links on the page, very interesting stuff on it like this from February:
Recommended composition of influenza virus vaccines for use in the 2020 – 2021 northern hemisphere influenza season28 February 2020It is recommended that quadrivalent vaccines for use in the 2020 – 2021 northern hemisphere influenza season contain the following:
Egg-based Vaccines
Cell- or recombinant-based Vaccines
It is recommended that trivalent influenza vaccines for use in the 2020 – 2021 northern hemisphere influenza season contain the following:
Egg-based Vaccines
Cell- or recombinant-based Vaccines
Will have to see what else is on it.
Has anyone ever discussed the possibility of the March 2020 to May 2020 outbreak in the UK being the second wave? With tests now just picking up the dead virus. With so many infected in the past, this could well explain rising “case” numbers.
Now, I mention second wave, because it is quite interesting doing detailed searches of Google’s news archives. I think it may have been suggested before, but reading between the lines, was the first wave actually right in front of our eyes, and no one noticed it?!
Huge increases in UK hospitalisations, reported on 19/12/2019
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7810129/Flu-cases-EIGHT-TIMES-higher-point-UK-winter.html
Serious strain on health services in Ireland, reported on 27/12/2019
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/flu-outbreak-linked-to-18-deaths-and-strain-on-emergency-departments-1.4125414
This is an interesting one, reported 11/12/2019. Hospitals at breaking point, due to a winter surge. Snippets such as “Lewisham and Greenwich Trust in London declared an internal black alert after recording its busiest day ever at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, with 605 patients attending its A&E.” And: “Portsmouth’s Queen Alexandra Hospital declared a “black alert” on Saturday night after 195 ambulances turned up with sick patients, a 46 per cent rise, the trust said.”
And, patients in corridors….sound familiar?! A quote: “I’m fed up with slaloming my way between patients on trolleys in corridors to get to other patients.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/nhs-hospitals-boris-johnson-winter-crisis-emergency-beds-a9242961.html
Of course, Wales joined the party too on 12/12/2019:
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/flu-vaccine-wales-nhs-gp-17408950
New York too would you believe on 26/12/2019, with state officials saying: “there are more cases at this point in time than the past three flu seasons.”
https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2019/12/26/flu-nyc-department-of-health-flu-symptoms-flu-shot/
Would it be wrong to say this is what they tried to blame vaping for pneumonia originally? This report from 23/12/2019…
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/health/vaping-illness-tracker.html
And finally, India, as reported on 5/12/2019, saw a 60% increase pneumonia and viral fever in the last week:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/60-rise-in-pneumonia-cases-as-winter-kicks-in/articleshow/72374835.cms
So have we had the second wave already? Could a huge percentage have had “it,” not known it, and this is then picked up when people get tested in recent days, and probably have a different virus too which caused them to seek medical assistance.
Interesting….
I’ve thought about this too. It’s definitely a possibility. Although hospitals are overwhelmed pretty much every winter now and continue to operate on an emergency footing throughout the summer at times.
It is an interesting theory, and one that crossed my mind as well. Thanks for finding and posting the links to the contemporary reports.
THERE IS NO SECOND WAVE. IT’S A FEARMONGERING MYTH.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddiaPRwhb1s
What is the current reason put forward for why 7 billion need this vaccine?
Looking for a summary reason why it is important for the vaccine efficacy that no one is allowed to go without.
It used to be an individual was protected by having the shot. Now that isn’t good enough. What is their stated rationale?
I have not been able to find one other than Bill Gates saying “it’s not an option”.
except he will not be taking it himself, nor his family…nor any deemed ‘elite’…
Everyone who doesn’t need it needs it to protect those who are at risk.
ergo, anybody who doesn’t need it will be forced to have it.
That’s the logic.
Thanks. I appreciate you saying. It’s not something you can search. And genuine opinion is what I was looking for.
You can hardly believe it can you.
It rounds down to the vaccine doesn’t work and therefore 7 billion need to take it.
because Gates is a eugenicist and knows a lot of people will die from the vaccine alone…
It goes like this (don’t kill the messenger – I’m not agreeing with it):
The old and immunocompromised are unlikely to gain significant benefit from a vaccine and the vaccine anyway is unlikely to be 100% effective.
In order to achieve herd immunity through vaccination, you therefore need to vaccinate the maximum possible number of people, in order to make sure that the maximum possible number of people are immune. This in turn will limit the spread of the virus, because it will have fewer people it can infect. This then protects the elderly and the vulnerable, because they are less likely to come into contact with an infected person.
We’ll ignore the fact that you could achieve the same thing by – say – allowing fit, younger people to mix as much as possible and in the largest numbers possible over the summer.
We’ll also ignore the simple accuracy of the natural way cannot be replicated by pharma factories.
Thank you Matt. Really very helpful.
Extraordinary the explanation is so hard to find. It is a weak spot.
Found this an interesting read:
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/274298/9789241514507-eng.pdf?ua=1
It’s one of quite a few handy guides on here:
https://www.who.int/influenza/preparedness/en/
There is even a nice handbook for journalists at the bottom – one for Toby maybe.
Any news on what the behavioural scientists have been up to since March? Any attempts made to better nuance their psy-op at all?
Involved with mask propaganda no doubt .quarantines as well.
“Don’t kill granny” was probably their doing.
Don’t know if we can do a freedom of information request on the work of the Behavioural Insights Team? they are undoubtably running (and completely ruining) the country in my opinion.
Worth watching. Interview with Bjorn Lomborg on his latest book on Climate Change,
False Alarm. He is not a denier or irrational about the subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxWYglbtqnQ
The Irish Health service published their analysis of Covid-19 deaths. The average age was 82. Averga elife expectancy is 82 as it goes. Those who died of Covid with no underlying conditions from a total of 1,777? 100
Found this one, very informative I thought:
https://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/swineflu/framework_20090626_en.pdf?ua=1
Pity the world’s Governments didn’t follow it.
The chart/flow diagram on page 5 says it all really.
Hancock https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddiaPRwhb1s
Bolton: take aways only. Venues closed between 10pm and 5 AM
Its a very clever virus, it can tell the time as well.
Clearly nocturnal
Well it is bat flu………….
I have known this since we started “socially distanced” time-limited church bellringing. We are only allowed to ring for 15 minutes. So the virus keeps itself to itself for 14 minutes, but if we keep ringing for 16 minutes it will suddenly appear, having been hiding in the bells, and slide from the belfry down the ropes and infect the ringer on the end of the rope. It is a fact. It also knows if we are ringing for a service (it keeps at bay for 15 minutes) or a practice – it will come and get us straight away.
Another locked down place with a high % of ethnic minority population
I wonder if the population has received instructions from community leaders to get tested and blindly gone along with it, not realising they are causing their own imprisonment. Not convinced the communities realise the complete scam that testing the perfectly healthy to lock them up is.
Socialising outside of household will become law and not just guidance (Bolton only I think)
Better start learning (East) German…
Disgusting Grad journalism.
“The first minister said a majority of the big spike of cases in Scotland, which has led to three deaths overnight of confirmed patients in hospital,”
Led???? Really?
So – the lying and distortion has become even more egregious.
Looks like that’s the way we’re heading as the virus recedes.
My predictions for Q4 2020:
1) Second wave
2) Second lockdown
3) Mandatory masks everywhere at all times (including private property)
4) Mandatory testing
5) Economic collapse
6) Food and water shortages
7) Power and communications outages
8) Internet purge
9) Civil unrest
10) Martial law
Leading to the following in Q1 2021:
11) Mandatory vaccination (refusal leading to exclusion from work, travel and access to money)
12) Great Reset (to last until 2100 and beyond)
Liverpool to retain the league
Now you’re in the realms of fantasy.
Feel free to do one, AG.
I thought I was pessimistic… But some of it is certainly a possibility.
Unfortunately I think all your prophecies will come true apart from 9) Civil unrest – the vast majority of the population have fully brought into the state propaganda to to the extent that that it is probably irreversible – like a ‘Covid-19 Cult’. Only a few of us will put up any resistance.
That is my thinking, that there will always be a minority who will rebel. The numbers might increase a bit if/when food starts running out, and this will provide enough pretext for an authoritarian crackdown. It’s already been done in Victoria with only a minuscule percentage of the population actively protesting.
Not sure how true the anti Iraq war protest attendance was as much of the media and left was supportive of the movement. But it would be great to see similar numbers. Unfortunately the left support harsh lockdowns and the young only come out and protest for establishment backed movements like Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion. I still think a 100,000+ peaceful protest is possible if we wake enough people up.
The last big protest had many elderly and disabled attendees but the young were underrepresented and yet their futures will be completely screwed – I don’t think they realise what life is like if you lose true freedom.
This is not confined to a single country however. Hopefully we can bring some Anglo Irish rebellion to bear on this for one
We should add in the end of furlough at end of Oct. Plus I think the food shortages will kick in before the end of the year, as it becomes obvious that we are about to crash out after the Brexit non-negotiations. 4-5m unemployed. And the £ takes a hammering any time from here on in, leading to higher prices on all imported goods. This will be aided by Soros et al shorting (selling without actually buying) the £. EU hauliers will simply stop coming if their lorry and goods are impounded for an indefinite time. Immunity passport required for ration card?. £ 40-50% depreciation by year end? What do people do when they have neither a living income and there is no food in the shops? That is when I can see civil unrest (to put it mildly).
It’s not 50% of food imported; it’s really 80% before processing in the UK.
The business pages often actually give away more than other news outlets on economic impact (and vacccine development).
https://www.businessinsider.com/no-deal-brexit-percentage-british-food-imported-shortages-2019-1?r=US&IR=T
I bet you’re really in demand for dinner parties, Richard.
Something I read earlier coupled with other discussion seen on Twitter made me think (it happens sometimes).
https://dailysceptic.org/2020/09/08/latest-news-128/#comment-119421
The point was made that the Ferguson/Imperial models were not predictions. This is a valid point that I don’t disagree with. I have likened modelling to pension planning illustrations.
However, only recently (didn’t realise it was June) it was reported that the same people involved in the original modelling essentially “marked their own work” and claimed that they saved millions of lives.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52968523
If they are not predictions then they cannot possibly claim to have saved any lives. It would be akin to claiming to have almost made a maximum 147 break in snooker but missing on the first red.
It’s the same double speak that is in climate science. The models are projections not predictions. I don’t really care as all that counts is that they SHOULD NOT BE USED to drive real world policy.
That point never seems to come up with these esteemed modellers
“they SHOULD NOT BE USED to drive real world policy”
That is the essential point.
And nor should crap scientists be allowed anywhere near setting a policy agenda.
Total disqualification for anyone receiving finance and/or support from the Pharmaceutical Industry or related foundations etc.
WHO relationships to be critically vetted for independent thinking and lack of political influence.
Yeh – I know. “You wish!”
Indeed – like I’ve said here before re Ferguson, public health officials etc. – what an easy job when your key performance indicator is that reality should never be as bad as your prediction!
I saved £200,000 this year, by not buying a Bentley. The misses was dead chuffed.
My mother saves so much money taking advantage of BOGOF (Buy One Get One Free) offers. The money she’s saved buying things she wouldn’t have bought otherwise really adds up.
Crazy Over “Cases” | Carl Vernon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jWyIe1VkEE
RT tv are covering a survey of 1700 NHS workers. Two thirds are saying they plan to leave the NHS. Mixed reasons, the handling of the Covid (political) crisis, gagging orders and a removal of benefits. Only caught those details in passing.
That could be interesting… might they set up an underground alternative health service?
Have often thought tge people should set up parallel institutions. In my more hopeful moments. Tax that is the stickler.
I’m getting a lot of companies telling me that staff returning to the office is not going to be sustainable as they’re not allowed to turn on the air conditioning and heating systems because of the risk of transmissions of COVID-19. Fortunately the hot weather seems to have gone for this year, but come a few months time staff will not be able to work in the office again as the offices will be freezing. An employee at one company was telling me that they returned last week and the office was freezing then, so much so that staff were having to go to their cars during breaks to start their engines and put the heating on!
Has anyone else come across this who has returned to work recently or knows of people that have returned to work?
Also, the new way of working is peeing a lot of people off with all the red tape they’re having to follow and there’s no enjoyment from being at work with colleagues anymore. Here’s just a few of them:
At least I don’t have to cope with this extra.
I feel for you; total fairy-tale bollocks.
Complete nonsense. Nearly as ridiculous as the ban on playing the organ in church…
It is nonsense, as the staff have to work like this, but they can finish at 5pm and go to the pub together where they don’t have to bother with any of this!
What is the theory about no food in the office?
Seems to be something truly bizarre about crumbs from food I’m being told.
Coronacrumbs.
My office took the opposite approach – they said they cranked up the air conditioning to the max to filter out all the coronas! I guess everyone’s making up “the Science” now.
They also decided to gold-plate the government requirements and said we have to be also be masked any time we are away from our desk (including in the toilet cubicles, though not sure if they are monitoring that yet). Plus >2m away for other people at all time. No exemptions. Still have the option to WFH, so most people continuing with that as long as it lasts, as it seem completely anti-social in the office (or they are scared, or both).
It really is anti-social, staff are not allowed to look at each other when passing on stairs and when talk, so they’re sitting back to back having conversation! I was told there’s no conversation going on or normal interaction, staff are just clock watching waiting for the day to end so they can get out of the place.
Pretty much the same rules at our place. Air con and heating has to be off and people have to “dress accordingly”. Will be fun in the winter.
Typing in sheepskin mittens should be interesting.
Here is a screenshot of page 5 mentioned earlier
Thanks for this. Pretty much the same advice the government gave at the height of the pandemic. I came across this relic from that time…
I kept the leaflet sent to most households at the beginning of this farce. The 6 diagrams showing how to wash your hands still makes me laugh.
I sometimes wonder what I would have done differently back then if I knew where we would be today. I knew things weren’t right, but I don’t think I would have imagined it would have gone so badly so quickly.
First, find your hands. In most people, the hands are the fingery things at the ends of your arms.
If you don’t know how to find your arms, consult us online…
Yep, what they ere doing until march 23rd.
A five year old could tell you that.
Letter from Janet Menage, retired GP in BMJ Rapid Responses – I won’t comment further about bed-wetting:
Re: Covid-19: testing asymptomatic schoolchildren risks psychological harmRe: Covid-19: Government faces criticism over £500m plan to pilot mass testing Gareth Iacobucci. 370:doi 10.1136/bmj.m3482
Dear Editor
It is reported that more than a thousand children in the Manchester area have been sent home to self-isolate after testing “positive” with a notoriously non-specific and unreliable PCR test. (1)
What is sadly missing from the medical discussion is an acknowledgement that terrifying asymptomatic children (and their parents) into believing that, despite feeling perfectly well, they harbour a deadly virus, that they are powerless in the face of this threat from within their own bodies, that they might die or cause their friends and family to die, merely by being near them, will inevitably lead to psychological trauma.
This has been publicly documented by a child and adolescent psychiatrist who has seen, “a “rapid and substantial increase” since March in cases of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, bedwetting, self-harming, violence, panic attacks and related symptoms of emotional illness among the children he treats”.(2)
Are doctors so lacking in imagination and empathy, that they cannot envision the grief caused by being separated from grandparents, from being forbidden to hug their loved ones or being unable to see their faces? The guilt engendered by worrying that they are a danger to other people and are so toxic that they have to be kept away from them, cannot play, cannot sing, cannot do sport, in other words, cannot enjoy childhood?
When will my profession come clean, admit that it has been misled, take back control of its mission to Do No Harm, and desist from colluding with what can only be described as state-sponsored child abuse?
(1) https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/newsmanchester/more-than-a-thousand-pupil…
(2) The Negative effect of Covid Lockdown On Children. YouTube 27 July 2020.
Competing interests: No competing interests
08 September 2020
Janet Menage
GP retired
None
Wales
The problem is that she’s retired. When will the practicing physicians show some courage? I don’t know how they live with themselves.
Listen carefully, I will say this only once, the resistance has arrived
Beauty salon is slammed after putting up poster denying coronavirus exists and telling customers they don’t need to wear face masks
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8708875/Merseyside-beauty-salon-slammed-putting-poster-denying-coronavirus-exists.html
I think we should start a list of shaming GP Surgeries who are refusing to see patients but are firstly triaging by phone to make diagnosis. I think by having a shaming list it might actually force these people back into doing their jobs instead of doing a task which quite frankly an algorithm could do. I am happy to be the first to shame my local local Sugery.
First I will explain the nature of my medical problem. I had an hysterectomy some 10 years ago but my Ovaries were left in place. Recently I have had pain and pressure in my abdomen and many of the symptoms seem consistent with either Ovarian cancer, a prolapse or a hernia.
Today I called my GP I am not a frequent user probably less than 1 visit per year. first I was treated to an approximate 2 minute speech on what to do if it is an emergency, call 999 er duh! then if not then If i were to visit the surgery I must wear a mask go in a certain door because there is a pandemic things would not be as usual. After this I had to wait in a call queue for another 5 minutes. Incidentally you cannot book an appointment to see a Doctor if its a none emergency so everyone is advised to be on the phone at 8,30 am in the morning if they want to have contact with a Doctor that day.
After 5 mins call queueing a receptionist answered. I said I would like an appointment to see a Doctor. she asked was it an emergency, I said I didn’t know but I think from the symptoms i may have Ovarian cancer, a prolapse or a hernia, and I would like a blood test to check for the former. I was then told the Doctors were triaging (not sure if thats the correct spelling) by phone and that a Doctor would call me after 5pm this evening.
My question is how is this Doctor going to be able to find out what the problem is without examining me? or taking a blood test? So after this pointless call I guess I will be given an appointment some time hence one appointment to see a GP, another to have my bloods taken by a nurse as the GPS don’t do that, and then what? I wait. So in the worst case if its Cancer it gets another few weeks to do its thing in my body.
How many other Surgeries are behaving this way for an illness Covid that kills 0.04 percent of the population, whilst hospitals lie unused?
So I think naming and shaming surgeries is the way to start.
I will update post my Triage
My surgery is
The Whitehouse Surgery – Moreton in the Marsh
Yarm Medical Centre, Stockton-on-Tees
I think that there is another dimension : the additional anxiety caused by this Scary Fairy Dance around GP services.
The last few months have been an object lesson in answering the question about the Third Reich :
“How on earth could it have happened?”
Scotland. The government have annouced that ALL gp condultations will from now on be by video link (skpye/zoom/etc) with the option to opt out. This was declared within the last week.
Expect to see huge waiting lists for surgery appointments as fewer slots will be offered to push people online.
So we can tick two boxes for explaining the financial influences :
I work in healthcare. I am seeing patients referred by GP surgeries. Sometimes the patient has been spoken to by a GP who decides that a face to face appointment is needed or can disgnose without seeing the patient. Usually, however, it is a receptionist who makes the appointment with me, either face to face or sometimes a telephone consultation/triage; I then have to find time to see them face to face or even worse send them to A&E unnecessarily.
Just copy and paste that to your MP/Councillor
What the hell are they there for if they continue to stand for this stuff?
That’s absolutely disgraceful. I’m very sorry for your predicament; I don’t think it’s as bad here in Canada, but I stay as far away from the medical system as I can so I’m not sure. My daughter used tele-health for her recurring tonsillitis and got antibiotics without being seen or swabbed, but that’s a situation where maybe not being seen is a good thing (other than over-prescribing antibiotics when not necessary). But your concern is absolutely one which requires an in-person appointment. I can understand a very timely call back to asses whether in-person is needed, but then an appointment should be made for a proper consultation immediately if indicated. Hoping you get the care you need and please keep us posted.
I can only say, it’s a scandal and an outrage and you MP ought to step in.
Some hope…
Matt Hancock: ‘This virus thrives on complacency’
Who the hell does he think he’s talking to – a load of children! The virus is a piece of genetic material. It doesn’t think or breathe. But like Thomas the Tank Engine, anthropomorphise it. Then the sheeple will understand. What an absolute tosspot!
He is a complete fucking idiot. And he has the sort of face you just wanna punch.
I agree – and I’m a pacifist
Just think of your fist as a pacifier.
Yes a loathsome creature. He loves it, he can’t hide his relish when telling his fairy tales of doom.
… and if you want ‘complacency’, I can think of no better example than those who think this social and economic damage doesn’t matter.
He’s ignorant, arrogant and patronising. And those are the positive things about him.
Maybe being married to one of the aristocracy and nobility has gone to his head.
“Hancock married an osteopath, Martha Hoyer Millar, in 2006, and together they have three small children, a daughter and two sons as well as a dachshund called Hercules (which Hancock will occasionally document via his Instagram). With noble connections, Martha, a red head, is the granddaughter of Frederick Millar, 1st Baron Inchyra, a British diplomat who served as Ambassador to West Germany from 1955 to 1956. Baron Inchyra had four children, two sons and two daughters, their youngest, Dame Annabel Whitehead, was a Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Margaret and later to the Queen.”.
Hugh Laurie, Blackadder – Prince George(?) Hancock. To a tee!
There are some excellent comments on his Instagram but not nearly enough (I imagine they are censored pretty aggressively though).
https://www.instagram.com/matthancockmp/
This virus thrives on Hangcockism.
Where are all these thousands of people coming from, who are being tested all over the country? I know of only three people who’ve had a test before a hospital procedure, and they said they were the only ones there! Shouldn’t we expect to be seeing mobile testing stations everywhere? Queues of people waiting?
In Caerphilly – 44 new ”cases” (ie positive results, not ”cases”). What proportion was that of the number actually tested? And where did these people come from? They’re not ill, or being taken to hospital.
Are we being duped?
“Are we being duped?”
I think the answer is self-evident.
They go door to door in targeted areas.
Is a return to the middle ages called for, when people emptied chamber pots out of upstairs windows ?
Don’t put ideas in my head.
That was my hope …
Wasn’t there a “None, because they are fucking useless” option?
The MSM is seriously pushing the “surge in cases” narrative. I’m despondent.
Yes – to the informed it’s blatantly a scam, but an indicator of things to come.
… and just to add : Recognise what you are dealing with : Psychopathy and Gullibility, with a bit in between.
Remember : Your narcissistic and sociopathic PM has appointed this cabinet that the Ship of Fools wouldn’t want as crew.
That PM is the homunculus representing what we face in terms of ‘Houston, we have a problem’.
I ask again – where are they finding all these people to test? They’re quoting figures in the thousands!
The local park today had sun in it. A popular bench has fine views and is itself overlooked by homes at the edge of the park. At the height of the 3-weeks-to-save-humankind the overlooking homes felt so alarmed at people using the bench that they taped a sign to the seat of the bench.
Words about if only you knew how many people sat on this bench you would not use it. This is where you will catch your death – this was before the halcyon days of granny killing upon us.
Today with the sun and the tatty sign long ago ripped off by one passing human or other the scene was idylllic. Two smooching students on the bench and the overlooking house looking on and onwards at the majesty of it all.
Times are a’changin’. Another way of looking at the 6 months is they haven’t beaten us and we are stronger.
Long live the smooch.
The number of “positive test results has doubled suddenly and stayed at the higher level this is obviously because they have changed what is reported as a “positive” does anyone know what has changed?
They are calling it a backlog
Not related but the backstop has become the… frontstop. It is all proverbial meaningless twaddle isn’t it, truly.
Ooh, agile comes to corona town !
No more demonstrations? No 10 not ruling out reducing size of gatherings as cases riseDowning Street is not ruling out reducing the number of people who can meet in groups in England in response to a recent rise in infections.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said it was taking the increase “extremely seriously” and there was a need to “act decisively” to stop that translating into a rise in hospitalisations.
He said that meant “ensuring that we continue to have a robust quarantine policy….acting “decisively where there are local outbreaks” and “keeping all of our guidance under review to see if there are any further steps that we need to take”.
Responding to reports that the government is looking at restricting the number of people who can gather to a maximum of six, he said that it had kept regulations under review throughout the pandemic and wouldn’t hesitate to act if further steps were needed.
2000 folk assembled booed and hissed – yes literally – at Lesley Mcinnes Edinburgh council unlikeable transport infrastucture change agent. This happened in a local park with covids doing whatever covids do.
If a gathering of 8 is only allowed… then what is the distance that declares one gathering from another gathering? Is it intent that law defines as a gathering? Assembled for one reason. Well I can think on hundreds of different reasons while I type that people may like to gather.
Right lads – Split up. One gang on each corner.
could you have a BLM anti-lockdown demonstration?
Perhaps after Biden is elected and Covid suddenly disappears.
But Biden has said he will bring in mandatory masking!
Kamala Harris walked that back this weekend, which I found very interesting. Perhaps they are beginning to realize that infringing on civil liberties isn’t a winning election issue. One can hope…
Got a feeling Biden is completely controlled by his advisors – he can say completely different things different days and the media wouldn’t take issue with it – a bit like with Fauci. Biden’s advisors would soon change their minds depending on opinion polls. The media would forget about Covid with a Democrat victory, and the media is the real virus.
Let’s see… Righteous outrage against draconian measures: 73 yr old arrested and fined £10,000; BLM riot, damaging property: police kneel, nowt said.
Oh yes, I think we could allow that. Getting royally fucked off with this, now.
Edit: didn’t see Darryl’s comment below.
It’s clear they want to clamp down hard on any public dissent of our rulers, hence the rough treatment of Piers Corbyn. Where are the international human rights charities when you need them? there would be outrage (and riots) if a BLM protest figurehead was treated in this fashion.
If anyone knows anyone connected to such charities might be a good time to make them sweat a bit by inquiring what they are doing to help our hero Piers.
Have just come back from a local shop. The person serving me has been a full on sceptic since the start of this and I’ve always enjoyed our sceptical chats. There was a man in the queue behind me and he said “at last…some sensible conversation” – we all ended up having a good chat – this person queried the testing – and that his dad does (he said his dad works at the hospital); he said he had just got chatting to two other ‘sceptics’ in another shop. We forgot there were others around – a bloke who seemed inquisitive and a lady who said nothing (wearing a mask) but heard everything we were saying. I was having a shocker of a day with all of this, but, maybe people are starting to query things more?
Sorry, folks, but it’s getting bad. Very bad. We are right, we are reasoned and scientific, but we are few, very few.
Maybe more than you think, I know at least two(myself included).
Agree with that…This will be a bad long winter.We are in such small numbers that it’s fucking depressing. Look at a London lock down protest..35,000…for a City of 9 million people that is a fucking disgrace. Every Rugby or Football game would produce considerably greater numbers…9 of of 10 people have completely swallowed the MSM narrative and will BEG the government for their freedoms to be taken away…
I can feel the anger growing though. This could get very messy.
True, but the shift is in our favour. People are waking up one by one. I’ve yet to hear of a sceptic suddenly being converted by Handcock’s rhetoric.
Soon we will be mighty. If we stay positive, rational, and loving, we can’t fail.
As I commented elsewhere, we (people with little to gain and everything to lose from this nwo/reset) vastly outnumber the bad guys. And we are infinitely more motivated.
Here come the ‘non mandatory’ vaccines folks!
Apparently they aren’t mandatory, but you won’t be able to work, shop or travel if you abstain.
https://twitter.com/YellowCube7/status/1303287412110491651
Sign the petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323442
It won’t do any good – but at least it shows some of us care, and are on to them.
It’s well over the 100,000 now, so the buggers will at least have to admit that it exists.
Great article in the Washington Times
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/28/covid-19-turning-out-to-be-huge-hoax-perpetrated-b/?fbclid=IwAR1LDEvdGCnGRVxF4_of8THdQTUBG3LDGc6UiXLCDsuDEQDlc8YYmfbWIxc
We are at a very very dangerous crossroads right now. Freedoms are slipping away at lightening speed and most of this country can’t see what the f$ck is happening.
There’s that bemused “Ooh, you and your rebel nonsense” look isn’t there?
Nutter?
Maybe best to try the verbal rational approach first …
Words of 2 syllables rather than 4 might be easier for them to grasp.
“Did she say dystopia? Better get more toilet paper…”
Me and Mr TT were in town this morning. Mr TT has to stop frequently as he has a long-term autoimmune condition. He sat down beside another man and they got talking. A working-class, fellow sceptic, he has also come to this conclusion too. As he said, so many of the population are engrossed in the latest events of Love Island, and are too poorly educated to understand what is going on around them. It is too late for me and Mr TT, but we are terrified of what lies ahead for our sons. Agree with Barney’s post – we are heading for either mass starvation and death or fascism, all for want of spineless and useless government being manipulated on the one hand by globalist money bags and on the other by neo-Marxists who they are in bed with. Someone on the Telegraph likened Boris to Mussolini. I had only just said to Mr TT he was more like Hitler than Churchill. Time will tell, but it is not looking too good!
My husband and I are mid-50s and not nearly done living, but we’ve had a great run. Like you, I worry for my kids. I just wish they were as concerned about themselves as I am about them! I do get it — they just want to go to school, live their lives, see their friends, go on dates, etc., and they’re going to put up with the masks and crap in order to get on with it. I don’t know if young people have the experience and foresight to see where this could be headed. They’ll say, “I agree with you mom, but…” I will continue to fight for them, but it’s disheartening that we’re still a small minority.
My younger son is very much on the case – he has always had a ‘sixth sense’ that is very unusual, especially for a boy (other parents have commented as such too). Elder son is slightly more biddable, although he gets it eventually (he is moderately autism spectrum). They are both gifted linguists and have started to learn Swedish!
Frankly, it’s up to the kids. It’s their future.
Mid 50s? That’s not old FGS! Mid 50s is the new 40s!
Mr H and I are the same, mid 50s, had a good life – holidays, friends, parties, nights out seeing bands, cinema, theatre, restaurants, days out wherever and whenever we felt like it, over the course of our 36 years together. It all seems a long time ago now. It breaks my heart to now see my family’s and friend’s kids and teenagers trapped at home, unable to go to school or uni normally, unable to socialise with their friends normally, denied all the freedoms us old gits took for granted. And now THEY’RE being blamed for the rise in CASES? Even more sad is how some blithely don face masks, looking absolutely terrified or proud to wear them because they are suddenly deemed “fashionable.” They seem totally unaware where this going. Where is the anarchy, the tribes? Or has it all been infiltrated by the woke brigade, swallowing up and destroying any free speech and individualism…and fight?!
I chose not to have children as I didn’t like the way the world was going and that was 30 years ago. I’m so glad I didn’t because THEY my have had children and I would feel sick at the thought of what world and what country my grandchildren would be inheriting.
Maybe your kids and grandkids would have been the John Connors we need …
The dictator is hoist by his own petard. To stay popular using the minimum of effort he promised the plebs immortality
The plebs were pleased by this, again for no effort they were gifted eternal life
One day, don’t know when, some mischievous person might unlock the asylum, or the asylum will fall down because there is no-one left to maintain it
Then they have to venture out and face reality
Talking to one of our more simple-minded members, it is clear that we are doomed. The attitude is that a dumb, toy model is better than no model at all. Doing ‘something’, even if it is in response to the toy model is better than letting nature take its course – despite humanity having survived this kind of thing previously. Worst of all, that people who are clearly learning on the job – and not very well – should be given ultimate control of all our lives. If they say “Lock down!” we do as they say; if they say “Vaccinate!”, we vaccinate. They will never stop.
These people are not philosophers, and not even scientists; they are technicians. Nothing more.
I think this really is it: we are heading for either mass starvation and death, or fascism. Maybe no one actively wants that (no shadowy people waiting in the wings), but we will end up with it because it is the unavoidable result of handing control of the world to dim-witted technicians.
Have to agree. I’ve seen this countless times. “Your hypothesis is wrong” – response: ‘Well unless you have an alternative then it will have to do”
No. No and again NO! The default alternative is the Null Hypothesis i.e. we don’t know. When you don’t know you think more about contingency than prediction. Do we have enough to survive? In the absolute worst-case no you won’t survive anything. But in most cases survival means doing what you currently do with no or only small variations.
And we already could see this. What is paramount is that you measure the thing you are supposed to measure, which means no exagerrating or conflating results. You err on the side of caution and take notes. This means we don’t run the risk of false positives and hence destructive action in relation to this.
When in this situation there is much more chance of you doing something wrong and causing catastrophe than riding it out and trusting the inherent qualities of the system.
As a physicist and engineer it took me a long long time and a lot of humbling scenarios to find this out.
You’ll be relieved to learn that “Do nothing” is always an option on the brief sent up to the minister. Fortunately for the scientists, somebody has done the experiment. Manaus in Brazil and Guayaquil in Ecuador were both pretty much do-nothing cities. The infection rate for Manaus was around 20% and for Guayaquil around 33%. In each city, about 1% of those infected, died. In each city, the healthcare system collapsed. Scaling that to London, that means around 2million cases, 20,000 deaths, with the peak being around 40,000 cases, 1500 hospital admissions and 400 deaths a day for a couple of weeks in London alone, with similar figures in other big cities. That’s a collapse of the healthcare system in London at least. You’re entitled to say that you would prefer that to our present situation, of course.
In effect – nothing useful was done in the UK, beyond the original reasonably sensible measures.
Lockdown was irrelevant; masks have no ascertainable effect.
… and the virus helped by being not very serious.
Everything else is just political posturing.
Infections peaked before lockdown.Even Whitty has admitted that,so when you throw in the deaths caused by the lockdown itself you would have been better off doing nothing.
So the figures for Manaus are 3300 attributed as Covid deaths in a population of 1.8 million people. There was a large reduction in deaths recently with watchers believing that herd immunity has been reached.
This is in a town that has much higher rates of poverty than here and has other diseases associated with living in a rainforest. So lets assume that this is applicable to the UK directly –
3330 applied to the UK with roughy 67 million is 67 /1.8 * 3300 ~ 123000 people doing nothing.
For Sweden the do nothing approach for 10.3 million people is around 18800 deaths.
Sweden’s light approach resulted in around 5800 deaths and now some of those are believed to have been misattributed.
So for the UK, 123000 in a do nothing approach is a serious death toll but still within the bounds of variance. It’s high so maybe we do something like take care of the elderly more and watch for crowded places. More hygiene but nothing stupid.
We currently have 40000+, in some cases it’s been said to be 50000.
By doing a full lockdown and other measures we have reduced the possible toll if using Manaus by half. Sweden reduced than by 4 doing a light lockdown.
What does that tell us?
It tells us that there is something up about the figures who have died due to Covid first and foremost. Secondly how many people die of the flu in Manaus per year. Was there a significant uplift or is this just a case of people not knowing their city statistics. We could go on an on but using Manaus is not exactly the best example if compared to us or Sweden
It’s neither true to say that the Manaus “do nothing” scenario resembles a London “do nothing” scenario nor that the Sweden model was a “do nothing” scenario.
In reality, there was always going to be a social distancing, wash your hands, avoid traveling to work, avoid congregating campaign in the UK (as we did before lockdown and as happened also in Sweden). Also in reality, Manaus is too densely populated, has too much multiple-occupancy, multi-generational housing, too little sanitation, too little infrastructure and insufficient access to media (for public health campaigns) for that to have worked.
To draw comparisons between a counterfactual London where lockdown didn’t happen and Sweden is reasonable, but to claim Sweden did nothing isn’t.
I don’t think you can compare London with Manaus just because of the huge differences in state of development.
I’m nonetheless not sure that I wouldn’t prefer the short, sharp shock of the Manaus result to the living death that we’ve ended up with in London.
I agree that “do-nothing” was never going to be literally true, since people would undoubtedly have taken informal precautions such as hand-washing, and people in London have the privilege of fresh clean water on tap to do that effectively. But the Manaus and Guayaquil figures lead me to believe that even a first-world health care system would have collapsed under the sheer volume of cases. Maybe 10% of cases need serious hospital treatment, often for days, and there would have been about 30,000 places for them nationally. We could have coped with about 3000 cases a day coming into hospital, suggesting we could have coped with 30,000 cases a day in the population. Anything like the Manaus and Guayaquil figures would have peaked well over that, at 2million cases spread out over about 16. weeks.
Adding this as a placeholder to say that I will come back on this, because I need to go and cook for my kids now and (especially following my comments yesterday) I don’t want to be seen to ignore it!
Hi Matt, Richard, Tim, mhcp, et al,
Interesting article on the problems with coding models from 2014.
When All Models Are Wrong
“More stringent quality criteria are needed for models used at the science/policy interface, and here is a checklist to aid in the responsible development and use of models.”
George E. P. Box’s 1987 observation (is) that “all models are wrong but some are useful.”
It’s not a ‘privilege’ to have fresh water on tap, it has been pouring with rain, as it does most days in this country…….
Well, I suppose it’s up to you whether you take for granted things that other people have worked hard to make sure you can have without thinking.
The rain?
Children fed and (nominally) in bed.
The UK government at no point showed any indication that they planned to do nothing. Nor, by the way, did the British public (in London at least). I was in the City for 6 of the 10 working days before lockdown was imposed. It was noticeable that, with every passing day, it became emptier. The government ran a campaign of wash your hands more often, work from home if you can, keep your distance and people paid attention – but, more noticeably, it was absolutely noticeable that people anticipated the government advice. Even if the government had elected to do nothing, the populace would have done something.
The effects of this are shown by the fact that a Bristol University study has demonstrated that infection rates were falling before the imposition of lockdown. Chris Whitty has also stated this in front of a parliamentary committee (and was, by the way, explaining the words of Patrick Vallance at the time, so we can assume that both of them agree). The fact that it took a study to work out what many of us had established weeks before – that, of the peak of deaths occurred on 8th April, then the peak of infections must necessarily have occurred before 23rd March – is slightly irritating, but is an aside.
So, we should be able to take as a given, surely, that zero response to the threat of the virus is not a reasonable counterfactual.
I would assume that something to a degree similar would apply to Manaus. I think it’s unlikely that the public had no idea what was coming and – although I suspect that access to mass media must be lower than it is here – there must have been some government messaging (not sure. Bolsonaro ploughs his own furlough, rather).
Much of Manaus consists of overcrowded slums that suffer from poor sanitation and contain multi-generational households living cheek by jowl. For obvious reasons (poor surface and hand hygiene, likelihood of higher viral load, overall poorer health of the population);you would expect both a higher infection rate and a higher fatality rate. I would be very interested to see some numbers around the outcomes in the wealthier areas of Manaus – but I don’t imagine they’re separately available. I would also assume that 1) antigen testing was less available than it is here and 2) antibody testing is probably both less available and no more reliable than it is here.
Both the apparent 33% herd immunity figure and the apparent 0.8%-0.1% IFR are very interesting but I wouldn’t be inclined to extrapolate from them and apply the numbers to a Western European nation.
Sweden maintained the advisory nature of its measures (apart from limiting the size of crowds) throughout, but I also wouldn’t be inclined to take the Swedish numbers and apply them directly to assume the same outcome in an “advisory only” UK, because there are factors that differentiate – cultural, demographic, geographic. But it’s easy to exaggerate the differences and on balance, it’s an imperfect, but closer parallel.
I don’t think we will ever be in a position to demonstrate conclusively that lockdown didn’t “work” in terms purely of the spread of the virus. Logically, limiting human contact must limit or slow transmission. However, regardless of how good the maths might have been and regardless or how outlier scenarios like Manaus may justify some of the inputs, it is still impossible to credit models that returned hundreds of thousands of deaths given the benefit of hindsight and it is still very hard to believe that they shouldn’t have been at least robustly challenged in the moment.
That’s not my point. My point is you need to always be conservative and make sure you are measuring the thing you are supposed to measure.
The deaths in Manaus could be from many things including how people react to what they think is Covid. Same here.
You aren’t seeing the actual data so trying to state that Ferguson’s guess was good at the start is typical modelling wank. And it’s not borne out by reality.
We could have simply worked out how much contingency did we need, kept society open, measured properly and you know been professional about it
I think what you’re saying here can be summarised as all models are wrong, and if they’re right then they’re still wrong.
Of course they’re wrong.
‘All models are wrong, but some are useful’
The quotation comes from George Box, one of the great statistical minds of the 20th century.
You’re repeating Ferguson’s mistake. The IFR is 0.1% not 1.0% That equates to 2,000 deaths. Check Stockholm’s numbers.
Ferguson was using the best figures available in February, of course. The Manaus and Guayaquil figures show IFR in the range 0.8%-1%. These are from a near enough to “do nothing” scenario. New York City shows IFR has to be at least 0.25%, and that assuming 100% infection. If we take 25% for infections, then that’s 1.0% again. Granted, these are all densely populated urban areas.
While it is true that Ferguson had limited data, Levitt’s model used the same available starting data to produce a very different result and it is Levitt’s numbers that have proved to be the more accurate in most countries.
Again – Manaus is a legitimately interesting “worst case scenario”, given the density of the population etc. It is also very interesting from the point of view of the worst case scenario herd immunity. It is not, however, a good indicator of the process of the disease in a first world country.
While Ferguson may be a superb mathematician, one wonders exactly how many times his domesday predictions will need to be found laughably overblown before people stop listening to him.
There’s an interesting interview on Unherd in which Prof. Levitt, very sportingly, discusses all the things he got wrong.
Yes, it’s very good.
To be clear, I don’t think he’s a prophet – he’s not been spot on throughout and some things that he’s said have turned out to be wrong. However, as I say, using the same available data and a good deal of observation, he got closer to reality than did Ferguson and he has used what platform he has to argue for proportionality of response – which is the thing that has been lacking everywhere, throughout (for clarification, “do absolutely nothing” was also not a proportional response in my opinion).
I think that the last 6 months have exposed the fact that mathematical modelling of any scenario can only ever inform public policy and must never dictate it. Ferguson’s crime (and I do think it was criminal) was to encourage the media to make his model widely publicised, when it should have been presented as one of a wide range of possible scenarios.
I’ve no quarrel with that. Advisers, scientific or otherwise, advise, and ministers decide. I admit to a certain apprehension that “the science”, or the scientific advisers, are being set up to take the blame for anything that goes wrong …
There weren’t any ‘best’ figures available in February. The Chinese case definition changed seven times….
He just stuck a finger in the air……
To the rest of us……..
Perhaps you didn’t look at the SAGE papers on the subject. They did their best to reconcile the conflicting data.
‘…….did their best’
The motto of the good intentions paving company.
Perhaps you, and they, didn’t look at the remarks of a leading Coronavirus expert, Prof John Nicholls, University of Hong Kong 06 February:
‘So the 20,000 cases in China is probably only the severe cases; the folks that actually went to the hospital and got tested. The Chinese healthcare system is very overwhelmed with all the tests going through. So my thinking is this is actually not as severe a disease as is being suggested. The fatality rate is probably only 0.8%-1%. There’s a vast underreporting of cases in China. Compared to Sars and Mers we are talking about a coronavirus that has a mortality rate of 8 to 10 times less deadly to Sars to Mers. So a correct comparison is not Sars or Mers but a severe cold. Basically this is a severe form of the cold.’
Very interesting the higher death rate in Ecuador and parts of Brazil. Peru has also a high death rate. These are areas with Indian population and one might wonder if they are more susceptible to coronavirus. There are also remarkable contrasts. Haiti ,African origin, no SD, no lockdown C-19 sweeping through without much loss of life. Pakistan the same remarkable figures with low death rate and no SD. Many places 25% sero positive. The same in Bangladesh, and although India is at the top of the peak, death per million is very low. Africa, Nigeria and Kenya C-19 just went through without SD and 25-30% seropositivity with remarkable low death rate. These are countries with worse health system than Brazil and Peru.
The high death rate in South American Andean region is puzzling but contrast this with Argentina and Uruguay with low death rate. Then Mexico, and Central American countries (with exception of Costa Rica which has an excellent health care system) with high death rates also Indian connection. There must be some form of population susceptibility according to ethnicity or race, if one is allowed to use that expression
The only thing it would be a relief to hear would be that all Ministers have been sacked…..
For not taking the (more usually than not excellent) ‘Do nothing’ option…….
The really sad part of this is that people are still laughing at David Icke.
I’m Canadian and had no clue who he was, so when I listened to his mid-March interview (months after the fact) with Brian Rose on London Real I was a blank slate. The interview was before the lockdown and what he said came true pretty much to the letter. I’ve listened to all his interviews on London Real and, while I may not agree with some of what he says, he certainly doesn’t sound like a crackpot to me. I suppose if the mid-March interview had happened a few months earlier you might have taken him for a conspiracy theorist, but look where we are! I’d say the same about James Corbett (The Corbett Report) — had I listened to some of his stuff a year ago I’d have thought he was nuts.
Have to agree. Neither of them will say they are the gospel. They’ll insist you check their assessment yourself.
The Brian Rose interviews keep to a very tight line in terms of where Icke can go, I think that was intentional.
Well yeah. I don’t want to be associated with a 5g conspiracy theorist.
My wife has electromagnetic hypersensitivity so done lots of research over the past 10 years finding out what was wrong with her..
I’ve looked at EMFs and 5G amongst other things.
It’s not a conspiracy theory as such but it certainly has not been proved safe as there have been no studies done to prove it is safe and this has been state din Senate/Congress hearings by the 5G telecoms people last year and Sweden also banned it until the mobile companies can prove it’s safe – sounds much like masks doesn’t it.
I’m not laughing at him i’m laughing at the fools so deluded they think Icke is saying something. Come on bro the dude is a BBC employee doing his best to destroy alternative views with his sci-fi bullshit.
BBC article about new lockdowns in Bolton. Caption on picture:
Demand at local coronavirus testing sites in Bolton has led to queues of people and cars
Well then, what did you expect..?
All those cases … head cases are they?
You get your test, even though you are healthy. Positive? Congrats you just contributed to local lockdown. Negative? So what, you could catch ‘it’ tomorrow…
But thanks for the DNA sample.
I cannot imagine a more foolish thing for people to do. I would have thought people have enough rational self-interest not to condemn themselevs and their area to a lockdown for a gain only of hearing a test result which won’t be of any ability to further reduce the already low probability of a case, should they have one, being serious to an even lower probability of severe symptoms.
Government Open Consultation re COVID-19 Vaccine ACT NOW to have Your Say 18th September Deadline
On the 26th September it will be 6 months since the Coronavirus Act 2020 was originally formed.
This was a 324-page piece of legislation which was given only one day of evaluation and debate before being passed as law. It has since been the basis for over 600 changes to legislation, many removing the much-needed protection for the vulnerable, especially the elderly, children in care and those experiencing poverty. Some of whom may be our clients, family and friends.
The Government have now issued an open consultation enabling UK residents to express their views on the proposed changes to the Human Medicine Regulations relating to the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine and the expansion of the existing flu vaccine programme in the UK. The deadline to contribute is Friday 18th September. Whatever your view may be, it is important that you are heard and contribute now. The link to the consultation can be found here.
Over the last few months, there have worldwide protests concerning the breach of human rights imposed by the ongoing restrictions of lockdown and the need for transparency and freedom of choice with regard to healthcare and vaccinations. The ANP attended Health Freedom and Unite for Freedom events in Dublin and London on the 22nd and 29th of August respectively.
In London, over 10,000 people turned out on the day gathering in Trafalgar Square. A range of views and opinions were expressed. Both events were covered by major news titles, with fairly limited and biased reporting.
These events followed similar protests in Berlin, where over 38,000 people took to the streets to speak out against the infringement of basic human rights and freedom that are part of Germany’s constitution.
There have been several announcements regarding a call to ban protests in London due to the recent upsurge; it is even more important than ever that we express our views through official channels where possible and contribute to the Government’s open consultation.
For more information on the protests and a link to excerpts from a 31-page Affidavit of Dr. Judy A. Mikovits Regarding Sars-Cov-2 regarding the safety and effectiveness of face masks; click on the links.
Health Freedom Ireland released a press release giving a truthful depiction with references to what happened on the day in Dublin, and you can see it here: Also here is one of the few articles taking a critical look at media coverage of the event
Some coverage of the event in Dublin and London below.
I know that Ludlow has had some bad reports from fellow sceptics lately but we went there this morning and apart from 1 pratt who almost climbed over a wall to “social distance” from us, it was fine albeit a little quiet.
Then around midday the college kids had their lunch break and did what normal teenagers do; sat together, hugged and snogged one another and joyfully ignored “official guidelines”
Perhaps the long awaited revolt against this stupid situation will begin in the tory “shires”
Ludlow is, or was, a lovely town. I would like to think that its young people are living free.
Ludlow would be a place I could move to, should we decide to up sticks.
I can recommend Bewdley just over the border in Worcestershire as well.
And cheaper.
And on the Severn Valley Railway.
ABSOLUTELY.
And the West Midlands safari park if you like that sort of thing.
Certainly sounds better than the experience at the market on Saturday.
That was miserable.
Still no reply from the local council to my e-mail on the legal implications of the “no mask no service” signs or their pro-BLM and white privellege comments on the town council’s website.
We are talking about Ludlow here, a town who tried to stop Pizzahut opening a restaurant in the town because they wanted to put up signs outside their premises which would not be “suitable for a town like Ludlow”
Pizzahut won but “Irony of Ironies” had to close because of the effects of the lockdown.
I visited Ludlow about 15 years ago, mainly for the castle, and its reputation for food – I bought a delicious pork pie!
The food is still just as good.
I live near Ludlow. It’s been quite a depressing experience seeing the change from the buzzing town of last year to this gloomy quiet place. I used to be annoyed by the number of tourists but I certainly miss them. I managed to screw up my courage to take down a few signs but I’m still working up to the big one, where I run amok and cut down all the damned red two-metre signs that disfigure the place (disguised and – for warlike purposes only – masked) then scarper to my car (parked well away from the centre, and not in view of any cameras) discarding disguise as I go, possibly turning my jacket inside out to change its look entirely like Tom Cruise in one of the Mission Impossible films. A man can dream.
A very patronising article in the Spectator:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/are-we-really-seeing-a-second-european-spike-
Apparently, if you think that cases are decoupled from deaths, you are a “headbanger”.
It might help if people like him used the term “case” correctly rather than creating a new definition specially for Covid.
An observation: the rise in deaths in France (if we believe they’re really Covid-positive deaths and not just a care home owner’s visual assessment) would be quite easily explained by the earlier ‘harvest’ of old people leading to a natural drop in deaths in the middle of the year, and an inevitable rise as more old people start coming through for natural demise, now. It could be entirely decoupled from the rise in “cases”. In the words of the author “I can’t believe I’m having to say this…”.
Well also that the official case count is an underestimate of the true number of infections by a factor of about 100, pretty much everywhere. So you can make a nice graph with two “waves” but the second wave only looks comparable to the first because the first is 1/100 the height it should be. This is all a complicated way of saying we’re doing more testing but the scale of the situation should not be underestimated.
nb. French citizens had to pay for their tests until late July when the government waived the fee. The amount of testing per day then started to sky-rocket, and explains most of the increase in positive ‘cases’ reported since then
School days. We’ve all had ’em. Remember the lessons of history when we looked back at mediaeval days of plague. We learned how a rat in fine cloths had sailed across from Holland. Then the part that baffles me still the rat in a box found it’s way to Eyam in landlocked Derbyshire.
So, that is a foggy recapping from school days. What I do clearly remember was the humour that turned to pity as we learned about plague masks. How these silly mediaeval peasants did not know anything and had thought posies would stop the plague (they never told us what the plague was come to think).
Those stupid supersticious peasants are your neigbours in masks. There is no difference.
Other mediaeval peasants could think and do extraordinary things, the evidence for them is all around us too.
We were preconditioned at school for these days. Why more people haven’t realised as a child they laughed at futile, scared people wearing masks to fight an invisible supposed plague has been remarked on throughout.
While in primary history lesson it might be interesting to add that around 2005 graves of WW1 soldiers were dug out of the arctic permafrost by scientists. The purpose to resurect the Spainish Flu. It doesn’t sit well that permission was granted for such an invaision of resting place. Search for yourself but
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15020331-200-spanish-flus-frozen-secrets/
Governments top lawyer resigns
Name? Link?
DavidC
https://www.thearticle.com/why-has-the-governments-top-lawyer-just-resigned
Jonathan Jones
Looks like he’s sick of government lying and deceit.
A pity that some aren’t pointing out the same sociopathy re. Covid.
Brexit related. I dont hold out much hope for an orderly and fully thought through final exit at the end of December. They may need us in lockdown as they try and sort out the food supply, plus other supply chain disruptions, along with the inevitable floods. Going to be interesting in January if so.
I voted leave, I was absolutely behind brexit, but now I really hope it’s put on the back burner.
I voted Remain – but that’s beside the point.
The unreliable joke that this country has become hurts everyone.
I voted Remain too, as did all my friends who are against the lockdown. But I actually feel less positive about the EU since this farce began. I think we should aim for a tide-over deal and things can be amended as we go along, because it’s in all EU countries’ interests as well as ours to do it. But leaving is nothing like the threat of the loss of our rights and way of life that have resulted in the almost global response to this virus. If I were younger I would try to move to Sweden. As it is, I have nothing to offer them.
No thanks we’ve waited 4 years for Brexit it must happen now!
Should have been enacted on 24th June 2016. Hey ho.
What a welcome reward for lockdown that would be, to give the bastards what they want on Brexit.
No, there is never a good time to put democracy on the back burner.
My OH got a missive from the govt yesterday advising her employer to prepare for no-deal. Apparently the govt believed their own guff that it wouldn’t come to this, so the no-deal plans are about as good as the pandemic plans. One of the gaps includes no plans for how to handle import/export of electricity over the interconnect(s), so we may have power cuts to look forward to in January.
I wouldn’t put it past Johnson to use the corona-crisis as cover for a bungled brexit implementation.
Strange, my company began planning for no deal back in 2016. Wtf has hers been doing since the referendum result??
Oh they have been planning, it was just a head’s up from the govt department they work with that they actually mean it might happen now.
Shouldn’t make any difference. They are still going to sell their stuff to us, those who buy our stuff will need time to resource if the tariffs are too much for them, we don’t have to put tariffs on anything if we don’t want to. Supply chains are not usually affected by tariffs, only the final product. There’s no such thing as no-deal by the way, WTO rules apply in the absence of anything else.
Contrary to what people seem to believe, the single market was never a level playing field, and there has never been a single market for financial services. And also, if the EU is looking for finance for its €700 billion rescue package, that can only come from the City of London. The US isn’t interested and the EU are wary of Chinese involvement.
I wouldn’t worry too much, if I were you.
I agree with that in principle. The problem in her case is she works in a heavily regulated industry (energy) and the govt hasn’t yet published details of exactly what regulations will apply from January 1, which is not very far away. e.g. will the UK still be part of the EU carbon trading scheme, or will there be a replacement UK scheme or just a flat tax. What are the nuts & bolts of what information will need to be reported to which regulators and when etc. It would be nice to know now, so that their business process can be adapted and contracts for trading next year can be finalised, especially since there are penalties for not following the (yet to be published) regulations.
Anyway, getting a bit off topic, but the point being my faith in the govt being able to execute a smooth brexit transition has been severly dented by their handling of the virus.
Due to Brexit issue. Sadly.
Serious question: Do you believe that whichever government was in power this would be still happening?
Hmm. The media would be more sympathetic to Labour, thus giving them breathing space to have gone for herd immunity..? On the other hand, many left wingers would absolutely love the possibilities for expansion of the state, and socialism.
Oh, come on. The MSM ‘more sympathetic towards Labour’. ?
What planet are you living on that induces such one-eyed and distorted nonsense?
The MSM – to the last piece of bog-paper – was observably antagonistic to Corbyn, confecting a welter of fictions about him.
The data is there to illustrate the fact.
Kuennsberg, Marr et al are noticeably continually hostile to eeeeeeeevil tories.
Ditto Beeboid scotland, the land of the sycophantic question
The two you mention were never friendly to Labour. Both wee happy to perpetuate ‘antisemitism’ rubbish.
Meanwhile, the facts of Boris’s actual propensity for dishonesty got a relatively free pass.
The analysis of the media is there.
Marr not friendly ro Labour.
Bwahhhaaaaaaahaaaaa
BBC and MSM were always pro New labour ,, but i agree they were never pro corbyn… to far from the new labour mould. That is why they favoured Cameron/Clegg .. because they were also New Labour. The New Labour ideal transcended politics of right and left .
As pointed out to you repeatedly whenever you try to make this laughable claim that the BBC is not institutionally pro-Labour, the BBC hierarchy took a side in the Labour civil war between Corbyn and the Blairites. That doesn’t mean the BBC as an institution and the vast majority of its staff aren’t hugely biased in favour of Labour, to the left in general, and against the “Conservative” Party, and most certainly against anything remotely genuinely conservative or traditionalist, which they now routinely smear as “far right”.
Here is the reality, yet again, from the horse’s mouth.
Jeremy Paxman in 2017:
“If you asked me what the politics of most people at the BBC are I should say that most people voted Remain, that most people were Labour/Liberal Democrat. I should say that by and large they were liberal with a small l on social issues. I should say that they were people who detested certain kinds of right-wing behaviour…”
So are most of the medical profession:
‘UK doctors are left-leaning and liberal in general, which is reflected in their opinions on topical health policy issues. Doctors in the UK voted differently from the general electorate in recent polls.’
https://jech.bmj.com/content/72/10/880
So was most of the parliamentary labour party…….
this is where your delusion shines. The BBC is as woke as Bez on ten E’s. If you don’t understand this then you’re either lying or wilfully deluding yourself. Every single thing they do is so left wing Stalin is getting embarrassed
Maybe if the Tories had been in opposition they would have opposed for the sake of it, but it seems doubtful given their lack of spine
Labour or Lib Dems would have done the same most probably. Maybe Corbyn would have been more bloody-minded than the PM. Most governments around the world have screwed this up.
I sincerely doubt that Starmer would have done other than go along with the fake narrative – albeit with probably more coherence than Johnson is capable of.
All indications are that he is an establishment placeman. He has already sold out core aspects of the Labour Party, and has shown that his key allegiance is to the establishment and the security service’s agenda – as was the case with Blair.
Had Corbyn still been leader – I think that there might have been reluctance, but in the end, the same massive force would have come to bear on him, with the sort of propaganda operations that we have seen, and – although a much more principled individual, I doubt that he would have had the skills to resist, particularly given the known infiltration of the Labour Party by establishment shills (who Starmer has paid off in various ways).
The deep malice of the state apparatchiks against the population has been truly on display during the Covid period – but it’s not new.
P.S. When I say ‘it’s not new’, I mean that the subversion was happening at the time of the Wilson and Callaghan governments. An old friend of mine was a senior member of those governments – a serious political operator, but straight as a die within that context; never went to the Lords; never spilled the beans in a memoir.
He knew what the backroom was up to, however – to the point of members’ flats being broken into.
A few lies planted in propaganda sheets like the Groan are as nothing.
Where has Jeremy Corbyn given the slightest indication that he is not entirely and voluntarily on board with the coronapanic and with the Labour Party’s official line on it of “faster, deeper, harder”? I mean, you’d have thought that by now his own brother might have at least persuaded him to be a little equivocal on it, if he felt the slightest doubt.
If you can produce some evidence of questioning of the rush to panic by Corbyn from Feb/Mar/April, I’d be happy to reconsider – I prefer Corbyn over the Blairites in general, given a choice of lefties. At least he’s relatively honest in his foolishness. But without some reasonable evidence, it must be assumed to be just more of your wishful thinking, like your clear personal wish fulfillment fantasy expressed the other day that the coronapanic was “driven by the Brexit wing”!
You seem to desperately need for this all to be somehow all the fault of your worst political enemies.
Good question. Yes. If by ‘this’ you mean endless lock up and disarming of rights, with no end in sight, etc. The Consevatives had the perception of being the only credible group able to govern. Certainly up until 2020 labour were not able to govern and there lies a catch in the supposition. The only change is the conservatives have shown they are not suutable to govern.
Lockdown orders are coming from a different place to the government. The pattern around the western world shows this in my opinion. Therefore yes it would be happening regardless.
Not really the whole political class are charlatans and conmen. It would have happened no matter who was in office. The tragedy is originally Boris seemed to be on the right track but then it seemed as if his brain had turned to mush, he was suddenly a different person.
In fairness, something like. I suspect everybody was panicking, which is why none of them stepped up to offer any real leadership. Of any political colour. Also the reason they’ve kept their heads down since. And it was the same in the MSM, they were all almost literally soiling themselves.
Yes. I dislike the thugs in No 10 as much as anyone and did not vote for them but any other party would have been worse. It’s possible that different Tories would have handled it better but the Tory party now is what it is.
No doubt about it.
Is that “WE WILL MOCK U” pub sign real or Photoshopped? Definitely hoping it’s the former
Surely inspired by this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaQijAMaiOQ
Nicola Sturgeon is trumpeting the tragedy of three new covid19 deaths in Scotland. Is everybody in hospital in Scotland willy nilly tested these days for covid19? Were these people already ill with something else and happened to test positive for the dreaded virus? No details are forthcoming. I seem to remember there was a link a few days ago to the discrepancy in Scotland between number of new hospital admissions and number of people in hospital with covid19. One thing is clear, though. The house party with 300 guests in Mid Lothian on August 30th can’t be blamed for the three deaths yesterday.
George Galloway on good form today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzxix9GKmB8&start=604
“The SNP killed our grannies”
Go look see. These are Sturgeons figures, the ros figures are different again. https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/
Notice the: * This figure includes people who are no longer being treated for COVID-19. This is being reviewed and will be replaced next week with a measure that focuses on hospital in-patients with a more recent positive COVID-19 test. Data for Saturday 5 September has been used for NHS Highland.
That refers to tge perpetual 250-60 cases that have remained in hospital statistically. 3 deaths could be serverly illl long term cases dying of something other than covid. 3 related covid deaths
And of course no death tally of the usual 1600 people that die in the UK everyday. It’s unbelievable how numerically illiterate people seem, as nothing is put into context or perspective regarding the normality of tens of deaths a day.
You’re right : but some of it is wilful ignorance, since the actual, contextualized figures blow the official narrative out of the water.
Average of just under 5 road crash deaths every day, plus 70 serious injuries in Great Britain, based on 2019 figures.
Because you must remember no one ever died before Covid19 came on the scene!
Let’s ban all car travel for ministers in order to lower those figures!
That’s for next year
I’m guessing that these 3 poor souls were likely to have been very elderly and / or suffering from other serious health conditions. If three healthy people had felt fine at breakfast then dropped dead from Covid by lunch time the bedwetters would have been all over it.
A few deaths is actually reassuring confirmation that the virus is at an endemic equilibrium and has not been suppressed (and therefore will not come back).
There are two ways you can have only a few deaths a day. Either you’re at the very start (like NZ) or you’re at the end (the UK).
Its pretty obvious the UK is at the end of the curve but the official story is still that 94% of the population are still susceptible and the only reason the death rate isn’t 1000 per day (or more) is the mockdowns and masks. In other words we are teetering on the start of a second wave. This is arrant nonsense but still the more evidence against it the better.
That’s re-assuring
Well if three people have died let us shut down society, bankrupt business and lock everyone in their house forever. I mean three people have died, i’m devastated. I don’t know them and don’t give a fuck about them in any way but god damn they’ve died so everyone must give up their lives, who knows but three more people might die tomorrow. I won’t be able to cope with such tiny numbers of people dying. With figures like these it certainly puts into perspective the numbers of dead at the Somme and the innocent dead people in Nazi death camps. We should stop Remembrance Sunday (it’s probably racist anyway, someone ask Lewis Hamilton he knows all about it) and forget about the Holocaust these things just can’t compete with the horrors of the three dead covid victims
Christ. That kind of thing is the real virus. Protect yourself, stay safe. Keep your head.
Hancock has a first from Oxford in PPE and a masters in economics. Yet when I see him talk he looks clueless?
Thoughts?
Masters in Economics… HAHAHA Master of Economic Destruction more likely
Drunk on his own power.
Intelligence is no guarantee of good judgement.
He’s a bit too adept at fear mongering. Very good at what he does unfortunately. Let’s be honest, facemasks, local lockdowns etc are all pure theatre and he has sold it to the masses
Then why is he so thick?
It’s a PPE degree. A sort of Hairdressing degree for the aspiring middle class.
Other aspect – you can have a Masters and still be pretty slow at real world stuff.
When I was at university firsts were as rare as hen’s teeth – a 2.1 was considered a good result. Now more than a quarter of students get a first, but obviously kids are more intelligent now. We’ve just seen record GCSE pass rates from school pupils who missed half the academic year and didn’t sit any exams.
It’s one those “a-degree-any-degree-so-long-as-it’s-a-degree” things. Shame the philosophy part probably doesn’t include Voltaire, because then he might have learned all about Admiral Byng, “pour encourager les autres”.
That’s Oxonians for you.
ppe is easy entry into oxford for public school boys on recommendations from public school tutors. candidates can get very low grade offers ….to ‘secure’ them
this was the case not that long ago at least
ppe graduates who take this route are often primed for ‘intel’ or mps (and the tutor at the public school usually knows this and acts accordingly in their ‘recommendations’)
intel can mean mp too through this path
Cases lower around 2400 today.
However deaths seem higher yet lower from NHS England.
30 v 8.
Which is correct?
The mini-spike of 30 only appears in the “deaths by date reported”. There is no such spike in the “deaths by date of death”.
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/deaths
Exactly. CEBM data reporting makes this clear.
Do you have a link to that?
Would this suggest the 30 were backlogs deaths that have all come through together?
Either way this is someone’s life and that does need to be noted
Backlog, or deliberately held back??
Cases a bit lower today – quick, add some deaths or people will stop being so worried.
THe CEBM site is updated daily :
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-death-data-in-england-daily-update/
You’re right about them being ‘someone’s deaths’ – bit so are the other one and a half thousand per day (roughly). Death is a consequence of life – and I for one don’t want Life to stop because I die.
The unrealistic fragility of so many at the merest thought of death is – frankly -pathetic.
Deaths in the community are calculated somewhat haphazardly – this looks like a catch up.
The data is being manipulated and altered. Scotland had 3 deaths, having not had this many on a single day since end June. They must think we are stupid!
2400 can’t be right because Professor Jphn Edmunds (of Sage) said cases were increasing exponentially but 3000 to 2400 is a drop.
Any increase is exponential until it’s not.
Just a thought:
Jonathan Swift would have had a field day: In ‘Lockdownland’ people quaked in their boots fearing an illness that was mostly harmless, as they stepped over the bodies of those who perished from no treatment to illnesses and conditions that were actually dangerous. Madness. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so destructive
Yes, I thought of Swift recently too when I saw a story about government funding for some ridiculous scam.. I mean scheme. Can’t remember exactly, something like a tap that kills Covid as the water flows out – actually, that sounds fairly sensible so couldn’t be that. Anyway, it reminded me of the device for “extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers”, which is pretty much where your tax dollars go these days, folks.
https://twitter.com/ianbrown/status/1303353654745931777?s=20
The libtards will not like that. He’s spot on though.
Looks like he’s entering the fray. Could do with a few more tbh. Every credit for Denise Welch speaking up as it looks like she’s got the ball rolling.
Is Liam Gallagher going to be next?
Seemed on the sceptical side of the fence judging from some comments he recently made on twitter.
Richard Madeley wrote skeptically in the express a day or so ago.
He’s getting an awful lot of stick as well
I’m sure he can handle it.
Short, sweet, and factually correct!
Glad to see he’s not come out with some apology for the other day’s tweet and is sticking to it.
That was the test.
Great quote
I get so incensed every time I see a survey that only gives you the option of choosing between bad and worse. Questions like: Do you think the safety measures in place are sufficient or need to be strengthened? Do you feel it’s safe to open schools? (No, because of mandatory face masks on kids — but that answer is not an option). We’ve all seen them.
Don’t politicians at every level, and of every persuasion, talk utter bollocks? Look at this from some dumbass in Bolton (The Telegraph live feed):
Extra measures in place in Bolton as virus is ‘moving round borough uncontrolled’
New measures introduced at hospitality venues in Bolton are needed to halt the transmission of Covid-19 which is “moving round uncontrolled”, a council leader has said.
The Government has ordered that restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs will be immediately restricted to takeaway only and all hospital [sic] venues will be required to close between 10pm and 5am.
A ban on mixing outside households in public outdoor settings will also be enforceable by law.
The majority of new coronavirus cases involved people aged 18 to 49.
The Conservative leader of Bolton Council, councillor David Greenhalgh, said: “This is not something we want to do but it is clear the virus is currently moving round the borough uncontrolled and so we need to halt the transmission rate.
This intelligent virus is moving around “uncontrolled”. Anyone would think it had legs – and could tell the time!
Pathetic numbskulls.
Think of some words you’ve been hearing lately, that you think sound good, then throw a few into a sentence: ‘transmission’, exponential’, ‘R’, ‘surge’, ‘dreadful’ etc. are good ones. Oooh, don’t forget ‘second wave’. Then pontificate away… you are a councillor!
Unprecedented, New Normal, Long term complications, Second Wave, Masks are about solidarity.
There’s another (female) Greenhalgh involved in this bollocks. A relative maybe ?
In the strange backwater some call London there is a news outlet called the Evening Standard.
Headline this evening reads: ‘Number of Londoners dying from coronavirus drops to lowest number on record’
Whoops. Putting aside the weird London way of dying by coronavirus the report is getting across good news – at a time when the politicians and msm want much more bad news.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-coronavirus-death-rate-drop-a4542526.html
I call that paper “the journal of the sneering metropolitan elite”. But it’s not all bad.
I think they realise they have to start pushing a more realistic message otherwise the overall chances of getting London out of the economic free fall are practically zero. People are starting to come back to the City but it’s for two days a week and three is probably a third of the old workforce never coming back. That probably means that a working population in March of 500,000 is less than 100,000 now on average and with zero overseas clients visiting. Play that out across Canary Wharf, Whitehall and the West End offices and the impact is enormous.
A big fall in Evening Standard circulation, so no advertising. They are preaching to empty stations.
I don’t even think it’s that many at the moment.Been back a few days and it’s scary how much economic devastation has been caused.
If there are any Yello fans here besides myself you will enjoy this interview with Dietef Meier and Boris Bland at the Ibiza IMS Festival in 2016.
There are a few ads but they last 4 seconds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw60om4GgDM
Well I can perhaps shed some light on the recent rise. In my patch we suddenly had four positive cases . Where did this come from. ? All young teenagers recently returned from Croatia . Last week a lot of teenagers went to have PCR tests as they were going back to college . They had no symptoms but they had been partying hard . Seek and ye shall find ; they came back as + ve so no college this week for them .
Whether the infection was from last week or two months ago is unclear. This explains the young profile of the cases and also why the sudden rise last week.
This makes a lot of sense.
Yes agree. I know of others from Greece in the same situation.
Peter, I was wondering if you can confirm something that’s been bothering me all afternoon.
If a GP was to check a young mans testicles these days would they still ask them to cough?
for those that assiduously wear mask i think the doctors should check if they have any
Bing!
You and I work for the same civil service department! I was tempted to ask where the option was for ‘I’m exempt’. Totally agree that they are usually so big on ramming inclusion & equalities down our throats but apparently that’s only when it suits them. Clearly going against the grain and not wearing a muzzle doesn’t fit the narrative.
No offence to you two or your colleagues, but I’m so glad to be out of that fucking cesspit. My equally unprincipled and disgraceful former employer did my head in with promoting conformist shit like that.
I had my car MOT’d and serviced today. When we picked it up from the garage they had specially printed sign hanging from the rear view mirror stating all surfaces that had been touched by the mechanic had been sanitized. FGS!
Different experience for me, garage had the obligatory signs up and flimsy perspex screen at the receptionist’s desk but no questions on “where’s your mask?”, no social distancing, other’s at another desk in a huddle, mo PPE on mechanics and so on.
If you ignored the signs and screen totally normal.
My mechanic scratched his bollocks then threw me the key.
means he likes you.
Haha. You should have asked if the oil filter and sump plug were sanitised.
Prof Richard Ennos, University of Edinburgh – 8th Sept 2020Utterly SHAMEFUL and DISRESPECTFUL treatment of a scientist. Wow. Shame on you BBC.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9g9NyDD4FWo
Gobshite presenter who I’ve never heard of dropping names saying he “could get the first miniter on”, etc. Sums up the attitude of journalists at the haunted bbc towers. Disrepectful ****.
Prof Richard Ennos is employed by the same university as the devi. Richard is inexpressably courageous. It clearly matters to him, he speaks with such genuine passion. It must be exhausting for him to keep his emotions in check like he does.
Good to hear another academic come through. Will be following him now
Typically arrogant and ignorant establishment figure making himself look an arse but completely unaware of it because he’s parroting “safe” establishment dogma, so he can’t possibly be wrong, can he? But in reality, in its appeal to authority and its insistence on the inherent truth of establishment opinion, his position is the very opposite of rational or scientific. He’s just too ignorant to understand it.
John Beattie – ex rugby international.. Clearly had his head stamped on too often in the scrum
Actually you know, I’ll take my words back and apologise to John Beattie (the interviewer). Having listened to the full niterview, I think his comment is not made in an abusive or particularly disrespectful manner, but rather in a tone of “putting to him” what others might say.
Actually, it’s a reasonable interview, and the academic, Prof Richard Ennos, was excellent.
Well worth a listen in full. For the next few weeks it’s available on BBC Sounds (if you have a licence-payer’s account to use, or aren’t bothered about that nonsense):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000mb1l
Interview with Prof Ennos begins at around 1:08:58.
Riverside’s “The Day After:
What if it’s not
If it’s not meant to be
What if someone
Has made a mistake
What we’ve become
There’s no turning back
Maybe it’s time
To say that out loud
Question marks are falling down
Crushing underneath our memories
As we stand and look around
The world that remained
On the walls we paint our dreams
Hiding in the fallout shelters
While The Gardens of Eden
Are burning above
What if it’s not
If it’s not meant to be
What if someone
Has made a mistake
What we’ve become
There’s no turning back
Maybe it’s time
To say that out loud
Another song with eerily appropriate lyrics.
I heard a song by Orbital today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_txIsgwOxbo
with a spoken word sample:
This is what your descendants will know, a featureless, life-despising mess whose only message is that life is a prison.
And do you know what the price is you are paying for this sort of thing?
It’s actually from an 1980s TV program about architecture (the quote is referring to Brutalist buildings…)
Re the sign “do not wear you muzzle here”;
If someone says to me I am not considerate to others by not wearing mine, I will reply: you are not considerate to me and my anxiety, which was caused my mask wearing people.
So we have a stand off.
I enjoy reading people’s retail reports, though it’s difficult to draw any firm conclusions or spot definite trends. All I can really say is:
(a) Some shops, pubs, restaurants etc. provide a bad customer experience, others middling, a few good. Independent establishments can be in any category subject to the whims of the owner or manager. The same is also true of chains, depending on how their local staff interpret their instructions from head office. Waitrose get a lot of bad reports.
(b) Compliance with mask-wearing by customers remains disappointingly high.
Anyway here are my snippets from today.
(1) Picking up a prescription from the pharmacy within the doctors’ premises. When I was last there in June there was a ludicrous rigmarole with a corridor between two doors. I had to go out again while the assistant put the medication on a shelf, then when she had vacated the corridor I could go back in to pick it up. No such nonsense this time, straight in through the first door. I made a concession to face covering by doing my loose scarf thing. One pharmacy assistant barefaced, the other with a visor. Surgery receptionist barefaced behind a perspex screen (but that was the same before). They’ve done some internal remodelling so there’s now a door to the surgery waiting area, so I couldn’t see how many were waiting – probably none.
(2) Poundland, no door monitor, straight in, not bothering to display my exemption badge. Couldn’t find what I was looking for, asked a member of staff (a supervisor I think, unmasked) who pointed me to the right place, all very normal.
(3) A few more unmasked in the shops, mostly young, male and female both. Quite common to see a couple with only one masked. There may be a gradual realisation that very few £100 fines are being imposed, let alone £3200.
Shhh! It’ll encourage the ramping up of Scary Fairy stories.
Why anyone concerned about the shameless, manipulative big tech censorship we are seeing in operation more and more openly these days should be praying for a Trump victory. As far as big tech is concerned, the Democrats are in their pockets, and the last thing a Democrat regime will be doing is addressing this manipulation by their political allies, that benefits them politically.
Tucker: Why Silicon Valley is doing all it can to help the Biden-Harris ticket
Sorry – but a gold-spoon wanker like Trump is no answer to the corruption of US politics. He is part of it.
I understand that you don’t like his politics, and I’m not going to claim that he’s some kind of Platonic Ideal of a politician, but the fact is that we have a serious and fundamental problem here that the Democrats are happy to exploit and encourage because it serves their personal and political interests, and only putting the alternative in power offers any possibility of addressing it.
You might be too hidebound by your partisan politics to care if “your side” gains by such profoundly illiberal and inherently antidemocratic means, but that just means you are part of the problem, and not part of any solution. I do wonder if, had it not been for the propaganda and censorship guns having been deployed in support of the coronapanic, and previously (in the case of the BBC and Guardian rather than big tech particularly) on the Blairite side in the left’s civil war,the issue would have concerned you in the slightest anyway, so long as it was targeting people whose views you regard as bad.
Leaving aside US politics, I am concerned that Biden and the Democrats are fully bought into the coronapanic narrative, and Trump isn’t.
This is a global issue, and if the weight of the US gets behind perpetuating this thing, even countries that want to resist will struggle and become isolated.
There’s half a chance Trump will declare it over, if he wins.
I think this is the biggest threat and the biggest evil that we have ever faced in peacetime, I am prepared to forgive an awful lot to any politician who stands against it.
you’re just wrong on that Bro
I am still trying to understand the apparently endemic lack of, at best, a basic sense of proportion, at worst, a complete absence of independent thought within parliament.
This situation derives from a general policy slide towards ‘the precautionary principle’ particularly over the last three decades but rooted, essentially, in the nineteenth century industrial regulations of Prussia
The 19th-century liberal conceptions of the Prussian state regarded the protection of people from “dangers” to life, freedom and property as one of the few legitimate grounds for State interference in the lives of individuals, manifested in Prussia’s Gewerbe-Ordnung of 1845
This doctrine of Schutzpflich re-emerged in West Germany in the 1970s as the Vorsogeprinzip given effect within 1980s German environmental policy determination.
The U.N. rio declaration 1992 incorporated the precautionary principle and the eu included it in the Maastricht Treaty to which that hopeless nincompoop, Major, signed us up. WHO jumped on the bandwagon in 2004 and this principle has been progressively consolidated in international environmental law so it has since become a full-fledged and general principle of international law.
But the Maastricht Treaty did not define the precautionary principle.
So In 2000, the European Commission offered a definition of the precautionary principle and guidance on its application that called for the consideration of costs and benefits, rather than “aim at zero risk.”
The British (and Scottish!) government has clearly departed from that guidance in any number of areas
Proportionality: ‘…must not aim at zero risk’
Non-discrimination: ‘comparable situations should not be treated differently.’
Consistency: ‘Measures should be consistent with the measures already adopted in similar circumstances.’
Examination of the benefits and costs of action or lack of action: ‘A comparison must be made between the most likely positive or negative consequences of the envisaged action and those of inaction in terms of the overall cost to the Community, both in the long- and short-term.’
Examination of scientific developments: ‘The measures should be maintained as long as the scientific data are inadequate, imprecise or inconclusive and as long as the risk is considered too high to be imposed on society. The measures may have to be modified or abolished by a particular deadline, in the light of new scientific findings.’
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2000:0001:FIN:EN:PDF
It would be very interesting to know whether any element of that eu guidance has been incorporated into any English (and Scottish) law?
Your analysis neglects the role of deregulated global corporate finance and commerce in magnifying this precautionary principle as an aid to profits.
Look at the sort of advertising on afternoon television, aimed at amplifying the fears of the vulnerable, for instance (at least the Beeb, whatever else, doesn’t pipe that crap).
Not sure if this video link has been posted here before but I thought it was very encouraging. Police in Spain attempt to detain a maskless woman (outdoors!), other nearby members of the public intervene to stop them, chanting “Libertad!”
https://twitter.com/justin_hart/status/1302976062725341186
I don’t know anything more about this or when it happened (the video was tweeted yesterday). I really hope this is for real and not somehow staged!
How can the Telegraph “swing both ways”?
Toby v this cretin.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/08/charts-uks-second-wave-picking-pace/
Click bait or just plain thick?
Imo it’s fine to have newspapers swinging both ways. If only the rest of the panic-mongering newspapers and all the broadcast and online media outlets did as much.
Especially the double damned BBC – by which so many of us have been forced to pay for our own society’s indoctrination for 70 years and more now.
‘forced’ ?
License fee
It’s a voluntary thing, Julian.
If you are prepared to forego tv and radio. Which you and I might be, but most people haven’t been.
I couldn’t find one supporting comment for that bilge. Which is good news.
In other good news I did like this comment though from one reader – “total crap!”
But the comments keep saying that but they keep publishing the articles.
Surely the “journalist” reads the feedback and ponders that?
Nah. THe vast majority of ‘journalists’ are functionally illiterate … Quod erat etc.
the vast majority of journalists are hacks that just process press releases without question
I don’t mind a newspaper giving both sides of an argument. Unfortunately when the Grauniad and the BBC only ever spout Goebbels level propaganda things do become imbalanced.
I would more or less agree with this. Showing different sides to an argument, or different views on the same subject, makes it clear that the issue is controversial, and might encourage people to think for themselves.
Always presenting the same perspective – especially with a “trusted” source like the BBC – is likely to make people unquestioningly assume that perspective is fact.
The thought of the BBC or the Guardian (both of who accept funding from Bill Gates) being impartial, is about as likely as me soaring to the moon on a dragonfly with a tail wind of unicorn farts.
“Daily new infections in Britain are doubling at the same rate as they did at the start of April”
Absolute bollocks – just plain thick.
Every day, in every way a little joy has been expunged from life as we knew it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJvNluvSgPE
No singing Happy Birthday now, what fresh hell is this?
I might blame the government, but the thickoes who put up with having their wires pulled have to take some responsibility.
Oh but I need to sing it twice whilst washing my hands….
Of course, but that was the instruction of – oh God I can’t remember 5 months ago?
6. Depressing, no?
Evening all, I present my observations for today. I went on a walk this afternoon to quell my anxiety and see what was happening with the schools and have a look at my neighbouring town.
At both primary schools, there was no obvious antisocial distancing at all. The adults were happily speaking to each other and hugging their children as if Covid never happened. The first school has 2m distanced queueing spaces outside but absolutely nobody used them.
That said, they have done the ‘no changing for PE’ thing and one school had ‘No Entry’ signs one some doors so they might have one-way systems. Most of the children looked happy enough, not sure if that was being back in school or that it was home time.
I then went to the neighbouring town. Those shops are on a traditional high street as opposed to the covered plaza in mine and are a more pleasant atmosphere. Very few are muzzled outside and the pavements aren’t mutilated with the stupid outdoor one way arrows or queueing areas. it still feels dystopian though, just more subtly with bossy Council “safety” conformity orders on every second lamppost and unashamedly muzzealous shops. They’ve all seemingly joined the virtue party with pretty cartoons of muzzles and cringey slogans in the windows such as “Protect our retail heroes”, “Keep everyone safe”, “Social distancing saves lives”. The country supplies shop has even gone flat out tinpot Hitler with a very aggressive “NO MASK NO ENTRY!” sign. Speaking of tinpot Hitlers, remembering a bad encounter with a jobsworth doorman the last time I went deterred me from checking out the Waitrose. Didn’t challenge any of them though as I’m boycotting indoor non-essentials and the coffee shop looked really uninviting with a full list of ‘rules’ on the doors.
On the way home it was nice to see the playground used as it should, with the capacity limit and other stupid rules getting the zero compliance they deserve. Did feel better for the excercise and I’ll see if I can report again tomorrow.
Yes – I reckon the school thing is determined by the quality of the head. Lots of ‘do’s’ an ‘dont’s’ and you have a dickhead pole-climber in charge who a di scriminating parent wouldn’t want anywhere near a child.
On the other hand – nobody making any fuss beyond token gestures, and your child has a chance of a real education.
It’s not a bad litmus test.
It has always been thus.
Sounds spookily very similar to where I live right down to the signs in the market town with the Waitrose.. Outer Bristol area?
Macron choking in his muzzle:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Drx-1hxUe1U
He should try teaching a classroom of kids for 6 hours in a mask like our teachers will have to do soon.
I had my haircut today.My barber looked exhausted,asked what was wrong,he said it was wearing the mask all day.Hes ditched the visor because he can’t see through it.On the plus side of there is another lockdown he will pull the shutters down and I can go in through the back.
If there is another lockdown I suspect a lot of hairdressers will move to secret, ‘underground’ services…
Apparently mobile hairdressers were good to go – I think it was on the Fact or Fiction website so maybe look into that if there is a next time.
Did he survive?
Nasty sounding dry cough he has there…
Got talking to someone at the gym today. After the usual “how you doing ?” I proceeded to start a little rant (couldn’t help myself). To my delight, he totally agreed calling Piers Morgan a dickhead and we continued with a heartening conversation regarding the over reaction by the powers that be.
It turns out that he spends some time in the USA and had concluded that the vested interests of big pharma had a lot to do with the exaggeration of the Covid figures.
I don’t know ‘This Morning’ show or who Denise Welsh is but I like her. About the fearmongering effects in the UK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFqpt9UuKCY
this morning is a magazine show aimed at women at home …..
Denise Welsh is an actress (usually soaps or light drama) and she sings a bit. For a few years she has also been a host on a lunchtime programme called “Loose Women” an all female magazine show. She has spoken out quite sensibly over the years on a number of subjects
She is also the mother of Matt Healy of popular beat combo The 1975 (and ex wife of Tim Healy of Auf Wiedersehen Pet fame). Her son is normally quite outspoken but he appears to have deleted his twitter account after causing offence with an ‘All Lives Matter’ tweet.
Moving on from those snuffing it to those affected with “Long Covid” now. Let’s fuck the economy because some folk might get post viral fatigue.
Hancock is talking about it like it’s a big thing and I’m fascinated to see if there is any actual assessment.
Anecdote is not the singular of data, but I know 4 people who have had it relatively badly (badly enough to be genuinely ill, but not badly enough to go to hospital). They’re a varied demographic spread:
My brother (overweight male, mid 30s). Was unwell for a week or so and then very fatigued for a couple of weeks after. Is fine now.
A partner in my mother’s GP practice (overweight male, mid 40s). Was very unwell for a couple of weeks, tired for some weeks after that. Is fine now
A friend of mine who lives nearby (overweight male, early 50s). Was sufficiently ill for an ambulance to be called, although it didn’t end up taking him to hospital. Was very fatigued for 3-4 weeks. Is fine now.
My aunt, who is a qualified nurse working at and living in a care home (underweight female, mid 60s). Was unwell for about a week. Felt the after effects for a week or so. Is fine now.
I wonder if the new “I don’t know anybody who’s died of Covid” will be “I don’t know anybody who has long Covid”?
I guess many of us have had colds (‘Corona’ viruses) that have affected us for a month.
Big f.ing deal!
Exactly. Doesn’t sound any worse than having chicken pox as an adult (which both me and Mr TT had in our early 30s).
i had it in my 40s .. hated it. had itches in some very strange places
Yes, back in the day if you had viral symptoms a GP would just tell you to sod off unless you’d been ill for at least 3 weeks, never mind just feeling a bit tired.
Was mostly my point.
Matt, those people had flu. End of.
It will become the new, trendy “thing” to have. Cue sad photos of people looking a bit knackered on Facebook or whatever it is young people use now. If you’d just worn a mask, this wouldn’t have happened etc etc.
It hasn’t been around long enough to judge long term effects.
“Yuppie flu” has been around for decades. It’s a thing, not imagination, but it isn’t reason to stop life and the economy.
Melbourne comes to Caerphilly (from The Telegraph live feed):
People breaching local lockdown restrictions that come into force in Caerphilly county borough from 6pm on Tuesday face convictions and fines.
Under the legislation, people must not enter or leave the area unless they have a reasonable excuse for doing so.
The 181,000 residents of the county borough should not meet anyone who is not a member of their household indoors – including at cafes, pubs, bars and restaurant – without a good reason.
“It is a criminal offence to deliberately meet someone from outside your household in any of these settings,” guidance issued by the Welsh Government states.
Restrictions are being enforced by local authority environmental health officers and the police, who can issue fixed penalty notices or recommend prosecution in a magistrates’ court.
I’m really quite cross. Just had call with friend haven’t spoken to in months (I’m not a very good friend and need to do better for her) she had a stoma bag fitted after long op last year due to be reversed in March. Of course it hasn’t been done. She is in much pain huge quality of life impact no idea when or if it is ever going to be done. The consultant who was going to do it this month has retired. His sec is not answering her calls for help. Her GP refuses to do anything as says it’s the specialist problem. She’s not really up to getting cross with grumpy receptionists (& has had previous run-ins in the past) but the injustice of her ill health (although she admits that being alive is better than the alternative) is shocking. This is not health care for all. This is going back pre 1947 care which was only for the more affluent. Appalling. The whole medical profession needs to take a long look at itself.
I’d say that the GP has a duty of care to chase this up with the hospital.
Failing that, she could try contacting PALS, if only to find out who is supposed to be taking over the consultant’s service.
There should be a General Manager for the whole department, which the specialty will come under, who can be contacted to find out who the new consultant is.
Or she can contact her MP.
Does she have anyone nearby who can fight her corner?? Sometimes it’s easier for someone else to do it, and they shouldn’t be robbed off with “data protection.”
Her GP is wrong. I would think that in this case she needs to be referred again to the specialism as her earlier procedure was cancelled. If that is the case it is her GPs responsibility to make that referral for a new appointment. The GP should make a referral in any case just to make sure that she doesn’t fall through the cracks.
Thanks both. Think it might be something I can get my teeth into. I relish venting my anger on some incompetent smug lazy not helpful person..
The surgical reversal would not have been cancelled but Boris ordered the NHS to stop all elective surgery on lunchtime March 16 th. It will be there on the ” to do ” list which is extensive. Your friend should in the first instance contact PALS , who are usually able to answer these sort of questions within the day.
https://www.nhs.uk/common-health-questions/nhs-services-and-treatments/what-is-pals-patient-advice-and-liaison-service/
Lockdown doesn’t work.
Remedy: more lockdown.
This reminds me of a passage from C. S. Forester’s The General, a brilliant novel about Allied mismanagement of the trench warfare in WW1. Forester draws this analogy for the way the failed tactic of bombardment followed by ‘over the top’ was repeated again and again:
“In some ways it was like the debate of a group of savages as to how to extract a screw from a piece of wood. Accustomed only to nails, they had made one effort to pull out the screw by main force, and now that it had failed they were devising methods of applying more force still, of obtaining more efficient pincers, of using levers and fulcrums so that more men could bring their strength to bear. They could hardly be blamed for not guessing that by rotating the screw it would come out after the exertion of far less effort; it would be a notion so different from anything they had ever encountered that they would laugh at the man who suggested it.”
Applies to the savages who govern us. Brutish stupidity. Except that they can be blamed, because the herd immunity tactic has been successfully applied in Sweden, and they know it.
“Except that they can be blamed, because the herd immunity tactic has been successfully applied in Sweden, and they know it.”
And it was the accepted approach here, ffs, before a bunch of toddler-brained bedwetters, including far too many medically qualified people, started bleating about “putting money before lives”, “acceptable level of deaths” and “herd immunity is social darwinism”.
Our tragedy was that we lacked a government with the basic maturity, wisdom and moral fortitude to stand up to them.
It is the same mentality precisely.
Was a follow up novel written? Something like ‘Tommy’s revenge’ perhaps. It would be useful to look at . How was armistice brokered?
The BBC’s ‘One Show’ is treating us to fine example of brutish stupidity at the moment , all the lockdown cliches are there plus added snarkiness from a tv doctor About Dominic Cummins, which has left him looking immensely pleased with himself.
Where do they find them? In the phone directory?
CDC this past week started publishing caseline data for 3.5M cases resulting in 125K deaths. Interesting data
https://twitter.com/justin_hart/status/1302991924425449478/photo/1
Case fatality C-19 rage by age bracket. Deaths almost halved in over 80s in 3 months.
https://twitter.com/justin_hart/status/1302991922814840839/photo/1
CFR in US from 8.7% to 1.7% in mid July but seems further down in Aug. Remarkable. Better treatment? Younger patients? Milder virus?
Cases vs Illness?
In Sweden, 70% of deaths have been of people either in care homes or receiving care/ support in their own homes..
Manchester Evening News: GMB’s Dr Hilary Jones warns ‘covid deniers’ could trigger virus spike next month.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/tv/gmbs-dr-hilary-jones-warns-18896840
Dr. Hilary Jones should take a running jump off a long pier.
A wrong un. Another one to be put on ‘the list’
…. short pier …
Does that mean believers can’t spread the virus? Everybody get back to normal, we now know heaven awaits those who believe.
Channel 4 News, 7 pm. COVID-19 Headline:
30 DEATHS TODAY !!!
Did they die today?
Did they die from CV19, or was it a coincidental finding?
According to CEBM, 8 deaths were announced for England for 8/September, 3 died yesterday, 3 the day before, and 2 the day before that.
30 deaths is a big jump, and I doubt they know the full details.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/covid-19-cases-and-the-weekend-effect
My understanding is that it refers to deaths reported today, from all settings. There is a graph online somewhere that shows the true picture of actual deaths per day, but I can’t recall where it is. C4 and the rest of the MSM just home in on the published figure and mostly don’t give an explanation.
Sadly it is quite difficult to contact them to complain about their false reporting. I usually use their FB site.
Do we still have to quarantine if travelling back from Sweden (rhetorical question):
https://cf-particle-html.eip.telegraph.co.uk/926a8bb5-a35a-4f71-923b-5e3548679f1b.html
Data are from https://ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/download-todays-data-geographic-distribution-covid-19-cases-worldwide…
and https://folkhalsomyndigheten.se/smittskydd-beredskap/utbrott/aktuella-utbrott/covid-19/statistik-och-analyser/bekraftade-fall-i-sverige/…
One country on this list is subject to quarantine, the others are not. Can you guess which one?
I have this vision of Britain in say 2023 or so.
Having snatched a crust from a mongrel in the gutter,I look up and see a poster on one of the few remaining buildings still standing in our destroyed country and read “Rejoice, Covid finally eradicated “
Bad choice. Roast and eat the mongrel (and the crust).
I didn’t say the mongrel was a dog.
Nor did JohnB…
Actually I think his name was Boris ( The mongrel that is)
Too optimistic, Covid will still be around.
If you’re really lucky you may snag a passing rat. You may have to fight for it though.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.03.20187856v1 Immunological characteristics govern the changing severity of COVID-19 during the transition to endemicity
“Our analysis of immunological and epidemiological data on HCoVs shows that infection-blocking immunity wanes rapidly, but disease-reducing immunity is long-lived. We estimate the relevant parameters and incorporate them into a new epidemiological model framework which separates these different components of immunity. Our model recapitulates both the current severity of CoV-2 and the relatively benign nature of HCoVs; suggesting that once the endemic phase is reached, CoV-2 may be no more virulent than the common cold.”
The last sentence is the clincher, but unfortunately it won’t wash with the zero-covid maniacs.
“The benign outcome at the endemic phase is contingent on the virus causing primary infections in children”.
I read a very good article in Stat back in January suggesting that this would likely be the trajectory of the virus, and nothing I have seen since contradicts that perspective
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/914931/s0712-tfms-consensus-statement-sage.pdf
Consensus statement from SAGE about mass testing.
Interesting but I can’t fathom it. From this, can we work out roughly how many false positives there have been?
‘Choosing the right tests from the available technologies is an essential step in building a viable mass testing system.’
So no suggestion of NOT doing mass testing at all…. merely a question of which system to build – grrrrr!
‘
Twatcock still at it:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/08/credible-cases-coronavirus-reinfection-emerging-matt-hancock/
More like ‘IN’credible – ie unbelievable…
Not the old “reinfection” chestnut again. What a wazzock.
Wazzcock
Most of Disney’s studio work in the war years was for government agencies. They produced masses of anti Nazi and anti Japanese propaganda. They encouraged children to support the war effort through savings & Donald Duck became a US ambassador.embodying USA values …. fast forward 75 years… interesting that the company seems to be going into overdrive to once again show they are fighting a new war against a new Enemy:-)
Is there one MP who has spoken out against the lockdown?
No. There have been some rumblings about masks and re-opening quicker, but none who have admitted it was wrong and none who have said we should get back to normal, now.
And worryingly I have not heard of any MP saying they will NOT vote to extend the coronavirus act either…
It is concerning me that it is called the ‘coronavirus’ act and not the ‘Covid 19’ act – could it be used indefinitely if there were another coronavirus released on us?
David Davis gave a good speech about the failure of Parliament, that it simply wasn’t working despite the current situation and several big decisions that need to be made, which should be debated at the least.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3rAFwzcH8v0
Weakest Commons ever seen! Senior Conservative hits out at government arrangements
On the lockdowns, I’ve heard nothing from any MP that i recall.
He didn’t have the balls to say: “we should get back to working normally here immediately, no tests, no restrictions, no masks, no nonsense. The business of Parliament is just too important to pay such a relatively unthreatening disease any mind in here”.
That’s what he should have said. Instead he came out with some appeasing drivel about “testing MPs every day”, which would just be another big waste of time and resources and another piece of scaremongering theatre to promote the panic.
Useless.
Utterly useless.
To think not a single one has just said “the Emperor has no clothes” – pathetic
Thought it was the Speaker who wanted the daily testing? Mind you as a diabetic he may be extra worried about the risk to himself…
If you watch the clip linked by Lms2, Davis suggests it at 4:20.
He’s making a legitimate point, that Parliament needs to get back to working properly, but he seems to think the way to do that is to dance around pretending this disease is some kind of infectious airborne ebola variant.
I don’t think diabetics face increased risks, type 1s anyway (don’t know which type he is). though he’s probably old enough to have slightly higher risks than most, but the risks are still trivial and should not be allowed to interfere with governance. Indeed at the moment it should be a point of pride for each and every MP to refuse to hide from these risks in the slightest, on principle, in order to set an example and reduce the panic that is disabling the country.
He could just wear a hazmat suit and let the rest of the country get on with some work.
Steve Baker: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/05/03/boris-johnson-must-end-absurd-dystopian-tyrannical-lockdown2/
That was ages ago though – has he said anything since then? Not actually seen him in Parliament..
Most recent:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/search/MemberContributions?memberId=4064&startDate=2015-08-01&endDate=2020-09-08&type=Spoken&outputType=List&partial=False
No. Steve Baker was concerned about rights and liberties, but that’s about it.
Toby Young making some great points here. As for the guy who wants a lockdown until next spring enforced by the army …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR_9kMB57lw&ab_channel=talkRADIO
toby is brilliant .. and as for the other guy .. there is a village in Lincolnshire missing its idiot
Don’t worry,here in Lincolnshire we’ve got plenty of spare idiots to go round,I imagine a lot of my fellow yellow-bellies are probably in full agreement with the prat in wanting lockdown forever.
Thanks for posting. Toby nails it.
Well that’s just great. The army to enforce a new lock down and one member of your household ‘let out’ once a week.
You can’t blame the poor chap as he’s been scared shitless by the MSM.
What of those key workers though? Are they allowed to do their jobs? If not who will care for the elderly, produce or distribute our food? Oh, that’s OK the virus has recently developed new powers enabling it to distinguish between Key workers and others.
Jesus, please let me wake up from this nightmare soon.
Sadly, i think Toby et al are still in the minority and there are many out there that would support Simon from Lincolnshire – which goes to show that with a small amount of media propaganda the majority will succumb to absolutely anything, and do absolutely anything that is asked of them, regardless of science, morals or anything else.
…until they are actually locked up for months on end and cannot leave their homes at all.. Christmas would be ‘interesting’…
And until the money runs out. Or the lights go out. Or the drainage no longer works.
Still, if it “saves one life” it will all be worth it…please tell me that’s true…
Yes, and did you notice he talked about the one person being let out to ‘gather’ food – an interesting image…which would imply he thinks there is going to be a food shortage?
Not only do these lockdown lovers over-estimate how many die from Covid, they also seem to think we have a massive army, capable of enforcing a nationwide lockdown. Our army is barely large enough to enforce a lockdown on the Isle of Wight. Even with Portsmouth just across the Solent, I doubt if our navy could prevent the chalkheads from fleeing to the mainland in rubber boats.
Our leaders and media have raised the stakes over the few days; if they don’t get their hoped for large increase in deaths explainations will need to be good to keep their narrative on the road. There will be some increase, it’s inevitable when deaths within 28 days of a positive test are recorded as Covid, but if as we all expect it is considerably lower than six months ago we should all be ready to ask the awkward questions of our leaders.
I’d love a nice long Indian summer to piss on Hancock’s bonfire.
I don’t need that excuse. That it’s Footpenis is good enough for me.
I didn’t think Kay Burley was buying it this morning. Alison Pollock (alternate SAGE) seemed a bit sceptical this afternoon when interviewed (I was a bit surprised). Certainly, if positive ‘cases’ is flat or down over the next few days, some of the ‘experts’ out and about yesterday are going to be feeling a bit sensitive. The media is very good at building you up only to knock you down, so when they turn, these guys will be shown no mercy. As for the politicians – very thick skin and telling untruths goes with the territory, so don’t expect any mea culpas.
Will they divert to a new narrative of ‘covid-like infections‘ – which are in fact infections resulting from mask-wearing??
By the way, it would seem that they are actually being described as ‘masks‘ now, not ‘face coverings‘ any more…
The restrictions are being tighetned in Bolton and the local authority are next door to Caerphilly – Rhondda Cynon Taf – may be the next to go into lockdown. Really depressing. All based on tests.
STOP PRESS – BREAKING NEWS
NY Times discovers previously unknown Human Immune System…
https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1303339862767161344
Covid-19 patients who are 80 or older are hundreds of times more likely to die than those under 40. Some scientists suggest a likely, if underappreciated, driver of this increased risk: the aging immune system.
How the Aging Immune System Makes Older People Vulnerable to Covid-19As we age, the immune system begins to shift into a heightened state of alert, dialing up inflammation and running out of certain immune cells.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/08/health/covid-aging-immune-system.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes
Major scientific break through there – broadly translated as old people are more likely to die than young people because they are, well, old. And all this time i thought we were all immortal……
I did wonder where all those people I used to know had gone…
One of the few good things to come out of the last few months, is some of these daily dumbfuck, horseshit, laugh out loud, nonsense articles.
Allison Pearson is brilliant in the Telegraph, cheered me up no end after a demoralising day. The example of the woman who sleeps in face nappy and gloves sent beer through my nose!!!
STOP PRESS Breaking News
A journalist gets off their backside – tracks down the ravers and sees how they are getting on!
As a covidiot myself, I’m more than happy to be interviewed about my many pub visits, house parties and holiday that all went swimmingly.
I came across these petitions and thought some of you guys might be interested in signing.
https://liberty.e-activist.com/page/58612/petition/1?locale=en-GB
https://liberty.e-activist.com/page/63721/petition/1?locale=en-GB
Thanks. Both done.
This satirical squib by a YouTuber calling herself WhatsHerFace is brilliant. Not sure who she is, but she’s a committed lockdown sceptic and has a razor-sharp tongue. Not everything she does is intended to be funny. In this video, she lets Kim-Jong Dan have it with both barrels.
Jr Walker & The Allstars: Shotgun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnhI_ECOAK4
France and Spain cases dropping – second day?
Can someone do a favour.
Updated headlines I think now show two days of falling “cases” France and Spain.
Does anyone have a link to this, the latest graph for both countries?
It would be quite a surprise to Hancock if in fact their “wave” is over already.
Spain particularly seems 50% down on a few days ago.
I imagine both countries have concluded that the virus is now no more dangerous than a common cold and have reduced their testing regime accordingly. If the UK wasn’t run by the most useless collection of woman’s areas in it’s history we would be doing the same.
Poland has done the same, new Health Minister, miraculous drop in “cases” …
Sweden’s positive tests are at 1.6%…so only very few of those being tested are showing as positive now.
Hospitalisations continuing to fall – only 3 (of 21) regions with double figures of people in hospital and a lot discharged from Stockholm in the last few days..
Germany getting it right. Just down to airport testing? Low cases low deaths.
How they must laugh at us.
Not that you would notice behind the mask.
Still working my way through posts from 6 hours ago!
Found one about Leicestershire.
Look at this!
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/coronavirus-testing-service-unavailable-people-4495493
How can cases have spiked if people can’t get tested because the labs are backed up?!? Home tests kits are not available either.
People are driving round determined to get tested! Can anyone explain the logic of testing in this case: “People will give up and not bother, if it gets to four or five days after you start showing symptoms the system won’t let you book anyway, others just won’t have a test at all.”
PS Article written by Amy Orton Local Democracy Reporter.
Such irony!
I think nearly all the tests are in workplaces and now schools. It seems that some people being tested 2-3 times a week is possibly what’s driving this. Seek and you will find.
https://english.elpais.com/society/2020-09-08/woman-arrested-for-surfing-in-northern-spain-after-testing-positive-for-covid-19.html
There really is no escape ….
How did they know where to find her?
Fairplay to her, the waves looked good!
Sorry if this has been posted before but it brought a big smile to my mask less face:
https://youtu.be/dgvTdEZk-w4
It is extremely frustrating to hear people still think the controls are anything to do with ;covid’. Hancock has already come about a Covid pass to go to the theatre. He is a globalist plant and thinks there is a chance he can swing this for his masters.
I’m sure they are nothing to do with covid, but I don’t think it follows that Hancock is a globalist plant. It could just be about Hancock liking the attention and the power, and not wanting it to be over.
Hancock has links to Big Pharma. He’s probably in line for a nice little payoff from vaccine revenue.
Big Pharma and AI
There are some Tory MP’s kicking up about what he and Johnson are doing, they should stick a target on their backs
There are? Who?
Yes, who?
He has no self awareness. He likely thinks he will be PM. He is a dangerous deluded fool, but sadly, we could be stuck with him for some time yet!
Hope not, he’s doing a lot of damage to the country
Self awareness and political life seem increasingly mutually exclusive
I for one, welcome our insect overlords.
The “simulation with the release of a lethal pathogen”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7I5LzLgNSI&t
Does This Make Sense To You?
A review of Govt and Media lies and manipulation
Good watch that. I’ll look for the earlier chapters.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/covid-19-cases-and-the-weekend-effect
Heneghan again, I knew he’d be all over the “spike” like a rash.
Could you provide a précis?
Test numbers are always lower at weekends, and this effect is accentuated by the Bank Holiday Monday on 31 August. And (contrary to John Edmunds spectacularly bedwetting performance on ITN yesterday), “the data is not exponentially rising”.
Day-on-day it is exponentially declining!
Shame he got his chart wrong, can’t have 5 normal weekdays in a bank holiday week. Short copy for Will:
There’s significant mounting interest in the increase in detected cases in the UK. However, it’s worth looking at the data to try and understand what is going on.
First, it is essential to analyse cases by the date the specimen was taken, as opposed to reported. The second vital thing to do is to observe this data for emerging patterns, even before looking at the numbers.
If you do this, then the Government’s Staging Data shows an emerging pattern, whereby the number of people testing positive on the weekend is significantly lower than that observed in the week. Furthermore, if you assess the data for the last week, you see this effect is accentuated by the Bank Holiday Monday on 31 August.
This suggests people would rather not come forward for testing on the weekend or, alternatively, the system has less capacity at the weekend, meaning it is more challenging to get a test. Undeniably, viruses work seven days a week; so, are people waiting till the Monday to get their test done, or is the system just not up to it?
This weekend effect pulls down the seven-day moving average – and looking at the low numbers on the weekend might give you a false sense of reassurance. This is because it seems cases are down, and therefore elimination of the virus is possible. But, unlike our population, viruses do work weekends.
Suppose you remove the weekend effect, by standardising the cases numbers to the previous Friday’s results. In that case, you get fewer troughs in the data and observe numbers have been much higher than considered throughout August.
The Office for National Statistics Infection survey data has already told us this is the case. An estimated 27,000 people – and as many as 37,000 – in England had Covid-19 during the week from the 19 to 25 August 2020. Yet, government testing only picked up 6,900 over this same period, less than one-fifth of the upper number of infections predicted by the survey data.
What is damaging, at this time, is advice that jumps to rash conclusions; the data is not exponentially rising. Will cases rise as we go into winter? Yes, as they will for all acute respiratory pathogens. In a good year, they will increase about fourfold between now and Christmas; in a bad year, about eightfold.
Could the bank holiday have, therefore, facilitated the increase due to delays in those coming forward for testing? It would seem the testing is not functioning seven days a week, unlike Covid-19.
Written byProf Carl Heneghan
I can sense a growing tone of exasperation and contempt in his output – I get the impression he is furious. Doing a good job of keeping it in.
So far, in addition to Hancock, Devi Sridhar (Sunday), JV-T and Edmonds (yesterday) have jumped on this and forwarded another round of scare stories. If the data settles down, and/or the ONS random testing survey shows no material change, they should all consider their positions.
The key fact still remains that there is no clear calibration between illness and ‘cases’ detected by PRC testing. It’s a massive hole.
Just listening to TalkRADIO, 20:30 on Tuesday Kevin O’Sullivan with guest Carol McGiffin sensible talk about lockdown madness.
Seems to be the only place on UK MSM to hear sensible conversation.
Maybe this is the reason for the sudden jump in positive tests over the last couple of days (The Telegraph – paywall):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/08/labs-told-run-patients-covid-19-tests-twice-amid-concerns-false/
Coronavirus labs have been told to test patients twice in some circumstances amid concerns that false-positive tests could be exaggerating the national picture.
…..
Experts have warned the new guidance may have been issued due to varying standards used across testing sites, particularly at the Government’s flagship Lighthouse labs.
Previous reports have raised concerns of staff working in these private labs who say that standards hugely differ between sites.
Just as long as if they get a second confirmatory positive they don’t count it twice. They wouldn’t do that, would they ….. )
They’re really taking the p155 out of us…
That’s because he’s a government official.
Yes, they absolutely would. They have now also gone away to ‘find’ some extra deaths. Every time they change the methodology, you know they are up to something.
Here are the new rules for testing. Guy (or others who understand this), can you advise whether this regime will result in more +ve’s?
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sars-cov-2-rna-testing-assurance-of-positive-results-during-periods-of-low-prevalence/assurance-of-sars-cov-2-rna-positive-results-during-periods-of-low-prevalence
It seems to be a response to the recent review by Carl Henegen, what a hero he’s been. However, they’ve been less than specific.
They ask labs set a cycle threshold for what constitutes a positive test. If someone tests positive above this, a second test with the same or a second sample should take place to confirm. Even then a decision should be made as to whether a person should be deemed infectious.
Sounds good.
However the devil is more than likely in the detail. What cycle threshold are going to use and, as this guidance was annouced yesterday, what have they been using till now? Because they are locking down based on averages seen over the recent term.
I’d expect a follow up from CEBM on this. Anyone on twitter able to tweet them for a response?
I have a feeling HMGs corona policies are entirely dependent on a person who reads the entrails of sacrificial animals..
Truly we have returned to Sumer
An update on the political situation in Caerphilly County Borough. there’s some annoyance about the fact the ruling Labour group did not consult the other political groups (Plaid Cymru, Independents etc), but essentially everybody thinks there was no alternative. So, very depressing as nobody on the council (as with Westminster, Holyrood, Cardiff Bay) seems to be able to think of the consequences or of the false test results. We are truly on our own.
Caerphilly folk are fab! Lovely community atmosphere, well…that’s what I’ve experienced over 20 years or so (visiting friends and knowing people from everyday life)…I’m hoping they’ll just bloody ignore it.
Unfortunately, they’re all on the same train. There’s no getting off, it’s going to hit the buffers.
Does anyone know of any petitions to the UK Government regarding gagging orders imposed on NHS staff? In particular, proposing such gagging orders are made null and void in the case of any issues relating to covid-19 (sars-cov-2)?
Time for an FOI maybe?
Talking of which, does anyone know whether GPs get extra funds if they treat Covid cases (thus incentivising them to boost the ‘case;’figures?)
My friend GP told me in March that if they suspected Covid during telephone consultation they just adviced to go to hospital.
I have created a petition, need 5 signatories to progress please!!!
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/550598/sponsors/new?token=sA6qNkLhCnx5THGWq7mZ
Details:
Nullify non-disclosure agreements/gagging orders for NHS staff for covid-19
Pass legislation to make null and void any non-disclosure agreements or gagging orders, irrespective of when entered into, when related to covid-19 (sars-cov-2), and to protect any staff who speak out. Apply to all current and former employees, directly or indirectly employed by the NHS.
The Coronavirus (sars-cov-2) pandemic has had profound implications on society in the UK, and on the NHS. NHS staff, either presently employed or previously employed, have a wealth of experience to learn from. There should be no barriers, to NHS staff (present or former, direct or indirect) to freely speak out, to enable lessons to be learnt from this pandemic. Furthermore this should not be done “when the dust settles”, but now, when there is still time to make a difference.
Signed!
signed
Done
Thanks to all so far!
Signed
We Are Victims of the Greatest Crime in History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhYX8RzyMC4
Some thicko calling for a full scale national lockdown till Spring, enforced by the military?
He should be locked down and permanently muzzled!
Toby’s interview, sorry if it’s already been posted. He gets quite passionate!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR_9kMB57lw
Geez…these people are in serious need of medication.
Toby was very good. I did wonder, however, whether the man from Lincoln was ‘having a larf’. In the alternative, he was mentally challenged!
Teacher to my son today when he was boarding the bus: You have to a mask on the bus as it’s the law. There was 3000 cases today and you don’t want one of them to be your fault, do you?
Me: Firing an email to school tomorrow!
Terrifying kids and trying to blame them if they don’t wear a mask. Disgraceful and scaremongering.
Disgraceful. Would he/she say that to an adult? Coward.
No, I doubt it. Luckily my son lets it go over his head and started to explain to his friend that there are exemptions for not wearing a mask of which I’m super proud of him but to say that to kids who may be terrified is disgusting.
Unfortunately teaching tends to attract more than its fair share of bullies who get a kick out of making kids lives a misery. Most would not survive in the real world of work – a bit like Hancock, but’s that’s another story. Do report it though and hope your son and his friends are coping with what is a totally unnecessary set of restrictions.
I will report back once I hear from school.
Ignorant, uneducated moron. They disgust me.
Me too!
I guess arguing the MERITS of the virus moving between school kids is lost on this whopper!
I’ll see tomorrow Tom once I receive a reply.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2770250
Comparison of Clinical Features of COVID-19 vs Seasonal Influenza A and B in US Children In this cohort study of 315 children with COVID-19 and 1402 children with seasonal influenza, there were no statistically significant differences in the rates of hospitalization, admission to the intensive care unit, and mechanical ventilator use between the 2 groups
This is not the flu. Repeat that 20 times for your homework. See you again tomorrow
No – it’s not generally as dangerous.
The conclusions of that study worry me
“Meaning The findings suggest that prevention of both COVID-19 and seasonal influenza in US children is prudent and urgent for the well-being of this population.”
Masks forever?
Even the hairy scary DT fear the casedemic story had to finish on this delightfully sensible quote –
On the other hand, Dr Neil Stone, an infectious disease specialist at University College Hospital in London, said: “I don’t believe the Covid-19 epidemic in the UK, US and elsewhere has ‘shifted’ to younger, healthier people.”
“They just weren’t being tested before.”
Typical gas lighting!
He said, with devastating logic.
https://www.oecd.org/education/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-education-insights-education-at-a-glance-2020.pdf
The worst mistake in the pandemic, school closures?
“Because learning loss will lead to skill loss, and the skills people have relate to their productivity, gross domestic product (GDP) could be 1.5% lower on average for the remainder of the century.”
The government don’t need skilled people. They need fools.
When I was growing up in the early 60s there was a hospital program called Dr. Ben Casey. Now we have Dr. Bill Gates.
…who has ZERO medical qualifications..just lots of money to buy influence with..
N hs Louise Hampton (New) – Whistleblower
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JpqAa25uZ0
This woman is a bit of a star fighter, we need to support her
Another pathetic knee-jerk response:
https://www.itv.com/news/2020-09-08/government-to-cut-numbers-we-can-see-at-home-in-response-to-coronavirus-surge
Anyone else planning on ignoring this? We will continue to allow as many of our friends or family who want to come to our house to do just that. Screw the government. I was a Conservative party member from the age of 19. I have been a constituency secretary and a councillor. I will never ever vote for them again.
Well done you.
Fundamental rights are being eroded and we seem to totally unrepresented by the political class
Throw out the bums!
I’ve pretty much ignored it all throughout. Not going to change now.
Same here but I think the majority will now.The government have overplayed their hand.
Indeed. Two-fingered salute is appropriate.
Can’t say I see much point in voting again at a national level unless things change dramastically – this man made crisis has shown that national politicians don’t really matter. Global organisations such as the UN, World Economic Forum and the big multinational rule the world.
Don’t see how anyone can argue that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation isn’t more influential at a global level apart from perhaps a handful of countries.
That’s if we ever get to vote again at this rate.
I’ve been ignoring their BS for months.
I have been ignoring their rules and will continue to do so.
National ‘mockdown’ imminent?
Ignore – just like the rest of it. It’s when they start shutting schools and pubs that one is forced to sit up and take notice.
Paywall – but just look at the comments, which are rapidly accumulating:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/09/08/social-gatherings-seven-made-illegal-fears-second-wave-grow/
Not a single one positive. Surely there is ample kindle there to spark substantial protests
Yes, this one is typical:
‘The idea that we have fundamental rights and freedoms is now proven beyond all doubt to be a falsehood.
We have no fundamental rights or freedoms.
We are allowed permissions, and they can be revoked at any time by government.’
Why are these announcements made late in the evening?
When most people are tired and are more sleepy maybe? They do this deliberately, such as when they imposed muzzling in shops and the local mockdowns.
I am sure there is a reason everything is done on the advice of the Behavioural Insights Team. Maybe to give us sleepless nights?
There’s probably some truth in that actually..
Winding up the nation to action is what I think. Deliberately.
Comments streaming in thick and fast – all negative: Here’s another good one:
‘Have we seen enough yet?
This is not about public health. Its about exercising extraordinary powers through dictat.
They have a very clear plan to blame the public and shift focus through winter. Then when inevitably the serious second wave NEVER arrives, they can tell us how their guidance led us through. “But don’t let your guard down” they’ll say, “it is still dangerous and it could go return any day” in perpetuity
We must hold this charlatan party to account.
How have we come to this? How is going about our lives suddenly a dangerous act akin to manslaughter? Since when is meeting your family a crime punishable by fines? How are we allowing young people to be chastised for having the audacity to live and have relationships outside their home?
All joy has been stripped from life. There is nothing we look forward to, because we are told those acts are irresponsible and dangerous.
What is irresponsible is the economic woe, healthcare and mental health consequences this government have unleashed upon us.
It is not our actions, those of free citizens in a free society, that are reckless, it is those of government. They have shut the NHS, no longer a service but an ideological behemoth we must all bow down to.
How many died in care homes and hospitals because of their actions in March? How many of the 99% of excess deaths in the last month not attributed to C19 were due to citizens scared to get the healthcare that WE pay for through taxes?
How many will die through the continued mothballing of outpatient services, both acute medicine and mental health. What is the loss in quality life years compared to that of the average age 83 C19 death?
I for one want answers. And I want them now
There is a six month review of the Coronavirus Act coming up.
Campaign your MP’s because God knows this power needs removing. We have never needed debate more than now and to exercise parliamentary process.‘
The Telegraph readers are probably the most clued up to this scam. Not much criticism in the Times which sadly always seem to support the Establishment.
The Guardian readers sadly still on the whole seem to think we should be in some draconian Melbourne style lockdown – surprise so many of them were out supporting Extinction Rebellion last week – complain about Tory fascism for years and go into hiding when it actually happens.
That’s because the only change they’d make if they had the power would be to have Labour fascism instead of Tory fascism. Though probably with added re-education camps for “hate speakers”.
There isn’t much hope for those of us who despise all political parties at the moment! so many MPs yet no resistance to the madness.
Time for “populism”, new parties, and a refreshed political class.
The UN, World Economic Forum and Technocrats really hate ‘populism’ – so in my mind it must be a good thing! A clean sweep needed.
There’s political chitchat about US withdrawing financial support for UN ala WHO. It would be a start.
Don’t give them any ideas.
Guardian readers are weird all passionately anti facist but give real facism and absolutely love it
When readers of the Telegraph are calling for civil disobedience, I would say that this government’s days are numbered.
The Conservatives tend to ignore the views of Telegraph readers. I think the Times is very much the paper of the establishment. The Telegraph has had quite a few critical articles over the months of the government – the Times has pretty much been full of pro-government propaganda. If the Times opinion pieces tomorrow are critical I think it would be a turning point – don’t bet on it.
Calls for the old classic. Many a true word:
Jim Hacker : Don’t tell me about the Press. I know *exactly* who reads the papers. The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country; The Guardian is read by people who think they *ought* to run the country; The Times is read by the people who actually *do* run the country; The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country; The Financial Times is read by people who *own* the country; The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by *another* country; and The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.
Sir Humphrey : Oh, and Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?
Bernard Woolley : Sun readers don’t care who runs the country as long as she’s got big tits.
So maybe we should be commenting on the Times and Daily Mail sites then!!!!
Haven’t looked at the Times online in years, but I imagine the comments are pretty mainstream, behind the paywall.
Still as true today as it was then!
Yes, and just in the time I looked the number of comments increased from 140 to 300 – they were literally streaming in – and probably still are!
Basic COVID19 Response
John Galts words ring true:
https://youtu.be/zN6JV2GXyvg
Atlas Shrugged
Sugar, while paying lipservice to all the stuff any businessman has to these days, has noticed what’s going on:
“Excuse me. [5 times!] I’m sick and tired of watching CNN, … Sky, Bloomberg, BBC, the lot, because all they do is cause panic amongst people. I’m not interested in any of this stuff because you can switch the television on any time of day and the first thing you see is more bad news. I’m not interested, quite frankly.”
Lord Sugar Clashes With Phillip Over COVID News Coverage | This Morning
So Matt Softcock stands up in Parliament and justifies lockdowns by saying:
1. Young people are dying
2. There are dreadful long term effects of C19.
You can’t lie about facts in Parliament can you? This isn’t opinions, he is lying!!
Bare faced. Where are those picking up on the spin? Absolutely spineless
And… now we know why – the lie to back up a nothing helping of totalitarian freedom removal.
Again, too gutless to single out the minority group they ought to target, they make a nonsensical blanket diktat
Yes, but there aren’t exactly lots of hospitalisations or deaths in minority groups – they have just targeted whole communities for testing. Community and religious leaders have told residents to get tested and this has caused a spike in positive tests. If they weren’t testing would there even be any noticeable problem?
Yeah, that minority group who will insist on catching it, the over 80s with dementia I mean, and the ones passing it around to them, those wicked workers who go in and out of care homes without a care in the world, passing it around like sweeties. Terrible, send them all home I say.
FOI on deaths of young people?
They are doing it to extend emergency power.
Banned from seeing people again… don’t think that’s going to be happening in my household! Utter nonsense.
Another couple of short videos worth viewing on the Spiro Skouras YouTube channel (one of the last sceptical channels still standing). He has been very accurate in his coverage over the last 6 months.
COVID-1984 From A Two Week Lockdown To Mandatory Vaccination & Life In Prisonhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMpUpKmP6So
As COVID-1984 Accelerates Bill Gates Blames ‘Freedom’ For Spread of the Virushttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM15RnElRfg
Life in prison?????
Yes, unfortunately in some counties they are charging people with attempted murder for not following Covid regulations. Pure insanity.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/09/08/social-gatherings-seven-made-illegal-fears-second-wave-grow/
The limit of six people from up to six households will apply to adults and children indoors and outdoors, in homes, gardens, parks and venues such as pubs and restaurants.
“We need to act now to stop the virus spreading,” Mr Johnson will declare at a Downing Street news conference coinciding with a new government advertising campaign entitled “Hands. Face. Space.”
More muzzling is coming isn’t it?
And gloves no doubt. Of the three, I would gladly go to space (one way) right now.
Once people meekly accepted masks in the shops and on transport, it was inevitable they would push further. It is about submission, break the population down so that it can be built back up in a new vision – A Great Reset (it isn’t a conspiracy theory). It’s worked a treat so far.
Once again, ‘interpretation’ by venues is going to be worse than the actual regulations.
Hasn’t that 3 word slogan been used before?
We need to act now to stop this government spreading!
What happens if there are more than 7 people in your family?
Christmas, anyone?
you have to kill them
You jest, but I’m sure there are coronazealots who would comply if it were ordered by the government with supporting WHO and SAGE advice.
“We had to kill the child in order to save it”
Who cares? The enforcement will be the same as police enforcement of quarantine after travel.
I do! Any attempt to further restrict our freedoms is beyond the pale, regardless of how successful it is in practice. The direction of travel is clear.
The Telegraph article re the new limited numbers allowed to meet is behind a paywall, but I read on Twitter that the article also says curfews are now being considered:
‘The Telegraph has learned that ministers are also considering imposing a national “curfew” after hospitality venues in Bolton were ordered to close between 10pm and 5am’
Yep. We are on a runaway train.
Having seen the police in action outside Downing Street at the weekend, I have a bad feeling they might be very different this time (and I don’t mean in a good way). They are now all masked and mostly aggressive and confrontational – their behaviour has deteriorated over the past few months, I believe due to orders from above.
This is madness. The Government is desperate to justify their catastrophic ‘lockdown’ decision by keeping up the illusion of a threat. They are never going to admit that they have trashed the economy for something no more deadly than winter ‘flu.
At one time I thought that they would admit that they had got it wrong and blame Prof. Ferguson. Now I suspect that he’s in line for a peerage.
Saw this on Reddit- 25,941 COVID cases from College, 0 hospitalizations:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/ip1wtf/25941_covid_cases_from_college_0_hospitalizations
Just demonstrates the true risk for us youngsters.
Just had a pile on me in the uni group chat about how it’s all nonsense and risk is low and all the evidence blah blah blah we know all that here. Hard to argue with people doing arts degrees who care more about “the principle” and actual “lives” than evidence of efficacy if it might possibly make a slight difference to someone, even if you do have to do it indefinitely so be it!
Just say if they’re not at absolute zero risk then they’re not doing enough. I would be inclined to say that I have don’t open my mouth days because I’m that serious about saving lives. The more ridiculous the better.
I remember an item about the UK having one of the lowest average IQ scores in Europe.
I’m always sceptical about stuff like this , given the questionable nature of the term ‘IQ’. But, since March, I’m seeing more substance in the idea.
The latest round of the Big Con that we’re seeing starting will be a pretty good indication of whether there is substance in the idea.
Latest on news that social gatherings >6 banned.
How the f*** does that work in a large resteraunt /pub thatvis still allowed to operate.
Why can these buffoons not understand that we need as many young people as possible to get the virus before winter.
All this bollocks about rising cases.
Will no MP grow a pair and ask where are the fatalities.?
The virus is kindly waiting until Monday for us though so I am sure they can muster some up from somewhere.
The virus can not only count to 6 but it also has a calendar.
And it knows if you’re in someone’s house or at a pub!
They know there won’t be any but can take the credit from this adjustment for that outcome.
All I could say when I saw it, ‘what the fuck man, what the fuck’.
or the Piccadilly line?
It doesn’t work. People will just ignore it and rightly so.
Literally no-one represents us anymore. MPs are a joke, but we’ve known that for quite some time I guess.
Just one more signature required for now…
https://dailysceptic.org/2020/09/08/latest-news-128/#comment-120575
That’s 5, thanks all! Now it will no doubt languish inside the Government machine for an unreasonable length of time…
Done.
Was away last week, apologies for lack of obscenity/apoplectic fury/sad humour.
Quick update :-
Went up to London on 29th, along with around 25 others from Sussex. Distributed anti-mask flyers throughout the train. Masked geezer gets on at East Croydon, sweary and abusive re us all being unmasked and sitting next to each other. “Don’t be frightened’’, “Let’s discuss it”, “Bless you” from the mostly female group. “Fuck off” from me – which he did. My companions were a bit cross with me, but I don’t like being shouted at or sworn at for no reason. We can heal/convert him next week, I suggested.
Walked to Traf Square from Victoria – didn’t see St James’ Park pelicans.
(An unusual bird is the pelican, it’s beak can hold more than it’s belly can.).
Good natured very varied crowd. Difficult to hear much from the speakers, but many individual conversations. Folk from all over England and Wales. I’d have guessed even fewer people than the estimates. I didn’t stay for the walk to Parliament Square, but did catch the pelicans on the way home.
Watched the Mighty Reds once again lose the Charity Shield 5-4 on pens. A good omen, the same as last season.
KBF Sussex meeting on Tuesday 1st had again almost doubled in numbers. Soon just holding our meetings will be an illegal act.
We are lucky to have such good leaders/organisers. More anti-mask leaflets distributed. Focus on contacting MPs, and what local schools are up to.
So, where to go for our break ? Only one answer really, given the summer’s daftest noises. Yep, Bournemouth it was. They still have a solar powered sign on the prom, saying “Think twice; too busy; stay home; #save lives”.
Hotel pool was open, apart from booking the pool and a breakfast slot, all pretty normal. One highlight was a pub in Lulworth ; Can I ask you to order and pay via our app, sir ? You could if I had a smart phone. Ordered the old way, paid cash, all good. While we were eating and drinking, saw some poor souls on next table taking 20 minutes (warm day, they’d been walking) to order and pay for their drinks. My offer of a loan of £20 met with some strained grins.
Visited Dorchester, where there is a famous bronze statue of a noble shepherd.
Work are still harassing me re a flu jab. Next time I shall respond with the factsheet from yesterday’s blog.
And now, yes, your meetings are going to be illegal!
One giant leap backward
It was good to see lots of fellow sceptics at the KBF Sussex meeting. I am sure the governments new restrictions are deliberately planned to quash any growing resistance to the ‘new normal’ they have planned for us.
Wonder if they’ll be encouraging snitching for these ‘unapproved gatherings’.
No doubt they will and there will be many volunteer informants based on people behaviour since March.
Various constitutions, and the US Bills of Rights, don’t make a big deal about the right to assemble for nothing.
It’s much harder to communicate effectively online than face-to-face. I plan on ignoring any draconian regulations but finding accommodating venues will be hard and outside meeting are screwed with Autumn approaching.
We’re motivated though Darryl. Barrows on the South Downs. Forests. Caves. Beaches. What’s a bit of wind, rain, or snow to us ?
so Wetherspoons will still open with no more than 6 customers?
Parties of 6.
Pubs will not allow tables of more than 6, but beyond that it’ll be impossible to police.
‘French deaths are slowly but surely on the rise….Overall, I think France has serious problems: their test positivity rate keeps going up too, and it’s not obvious how they put the brakes on. The interesting question is how much of this is Britain’s future.’ Oliver Johnson in The Spectator this afternoon. Is this scaremongering or have we here at LS got complacent?
Scaremongering at best. In terms of deaths, we’re talking about 30 at most – a statistically insignificant number of people.
‘Cases’ are up. It’s a statistical inevitability that deaths will be up, because any death is logged as Covid if it’s within 28 days of a positive test.
We are being played.
My God. Yes. The fucking bastards. Of course. Test everyone. Brilliant 100% guaranteed that ‘deaths’ will rise. As you say, a statistical inevitability.
Many European countries have had second waves of one sort or another, some in the Far East are maybe on to their fourth. If there was an early lockdown eg Slovakia they could well be larger though not generally deadlier than the first. Otherwise second waves are rather like the one in the US – regionally distinct, generally more moderate and with substantially fewer fatalities.
Anyone who refers to anything to do with this disease as “serious” is scaremongering and part of the problem – it just isn’t any more serious in national policy terms than seasonal flu, unless we make it so by panic over-reactions.
Now in an ordinary year it might be forgivable hyperbole to describe such a disease as “serious” in order to try to push for a governmental response. but in the current climate of panic and hysterical over-reaction, doing so is irresponsible, pure and simple.
Deaths with covid will rise in the coming months as they will with all respiratory illnesses. It still won’t be a justification for hysteria and the destruction of our society and futures.
Hmm. There are more positive tests/infections/cases in France now than earlier in the year. Yes, probably due to exponentially increased testing, but a quick glance at Worldometers shows nothing out of the ordinary regarding deaths. Seriously.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/france/
Worldometers gives the total number of tests for each country, but I can’t find the numbers of tests per day. Do they record that data?
No idea. But I’ve used their numbers throughout. The main thing is that we can see the huge increases in “cases”, but no corresponding increase in death. We would have seen that by now if it was going to happen!!
If you increase the sensitivity of the test you get more positives
If you increase the number of tests you get more positives
If you count anyone who tests positive and dies as a covid death you get more deaths
If you test everyone in hospital you get more covid deaths
But it is all just numbers no one is actually dying of covid only with a positive result
The POS will be getting busy – that’s Police Over-reach Squad. You cheeky monkeys thought I meant Pieces Of Shit, didn’t you, hmmm?
Same thing.
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/astrazeneca-shares-plunge-covid-vaccine-study-put-hold-due-adverse-reaction
Just heard it on the BBC. This is a big one.
‘the large, Phase 3 study testing a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford at dozens of sites across the U.S. has been put on hold due to a suspected serious adverse reaction in a participant in the United Kingdom.’
Does serious adverse reaction = death????
It would seem it is only about ONE person…so it would have to be a major event to actually halt the trial…
Sad if one has died. Do they sign silence agreements, we hear nothing of the test participants. Youtube money to be made on the test journey.
Indeed… but if death has occurred, then just *possibly* any family might actually leak the news?
One of the comments:
‘this little side effect: the participant was placed on table and then something broke out of his chest and escaped into the dark’.
Here’s another of the comments:
‘Oops…
This will also have an adverse effect on willing participants for the regular flu vaccines.
Those pesky unintended consequences…’
Oops, yes, sorry, that was me in there. It was getting a bit tight.
Yes, I’m the rona, I’m jolly clever, I can count to seven, tell BLM and XR from LS, and type on a smart phone late at night. Face it folks, with me around you’re just totally fucked.
I’m surprised they can’t just magic up a positive test result and chalk it up to covid.
Can’t be true. Vacvines never harm anyone ever anywhere. All the TV doctors tell us it’s so, so it must be true.
With any luck, given the reaction in the Telegraph, the next Trafalgar Square lockdown protest (26th Sep) ought to be interesting.
Unless they add another change to the law between now and then, that forbids protests…
The ban on more than 6 people meeting outdoors already covers it!
Ok – thought the new limit was indoors, because you used to be allowed 30 visitors to your home…
Ah, you fell into the trap of being logical, Carrie. Sorry. Outdoors too and covers children and adults.
So what if they do? If thousands turn up, what can they do?
There is also a Trafalgar Square protest schedules on Saturday 19th. I look forward to attending both, whether approved or not. I am sure Piers Corbyn will attend on the 26th no matter what.
Maybe got my dates wrong. Thought the main one was the 26th… Sooner the better.
Main one is 26th.
Any logic to the magical number 6?
7 people together means certain death, but 6, well, that’s ok.
Jesus wept.
If they have to say anything, why can’t they just say two households? A family of 5 now can’t see both grandparents together. They’re not even considering how real life actually works.
Just my immediate family consists of 4 households (3 single person households and one unit of 4) – how does that work at Christmas then?
I think six people from six different households can still meet, but I’m tired and as ever it’s not clear. However two households totalling seven people is illegal despite only consisting of one potential onward transmission chain rather than five. Logical as ever.
And Christmas, of course, will be cancelled.
That would likely result in assassination attempts on Hancock and Johnson at least….
Someone at GCHQ just flagged your comment!
Lol… I never said I would try myself, and in any case I don’t even live in the UK at the moment! But it would not surprise me if someone else did, if Hancock and Johnson did try to ‘cancel’ Christmas…
They’re welcome to come round for afternoon tea.
As long as there’s no more than five of them!
GCHQ monitors US comments. NSA does ours. It’s all part of the deal.
I hope so. Sooner the better.
Christmas is the last national unifying festival we have left.Touch it at your peril
So basically one of my immediate family will not be able to attend any Christmas gathering then, because there are 7 of us in total…great…
We are generally 8 so who gets the boot? Husband’s parents? Son and daughter in law? It’s not looking good for my brother in law and his wife.
As I wrote elsewhere, the virus can not only count, but it also has a calendar, because most new restrictions they introduce do not come into force with immediate effect..
Guess I won’t be getting any sleep tonight, now dreading what horrors the CockN’Clown show will announce tomorrow. Muzzles everywhere? Melbourne brutality? I’m actually terrified now.
Masks everywhere is a given. They have to be seen to do stuff
The Melbourne style policy brutality arrived last weekend at the Sheffield and London anti-lockdown protests. Remember the Behavioural Insights Team wants us fearful so do the opposite.
Tomorrow is msm increase Long Covid awareness day. Edinburghline have a story – yahoo news has a story, local – global. Flood the zone with long covid comes the announcement from the vaccine marketing depts, keep the fear up and the demand high!
Long Covid. Its boring how fake this is all getting – like living off nothing but fast food for months.
“Two previously fit and healthy Edinburgh women describe the hell of living with ‘long COVID’
“We’ve all got something that we want to be getting on with, nobody wants to be sat at home watching telly and feeling that their life is just passing them by.”
We would be in a much better position now if, at the beginning of March, we had all actually licked each other. Well, not all, as that would be even more impractical than daily covid testing for MPs. But a national ‘lick a stranger day’ in March, and there could have been no excuse for any of this crap now.
I’ve just realised – we don’t need to bother about these new moronic restrictions. The government says it’s okay to break the law:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-54073836
Perfidious Albion. Actually I think this government has finally run amok.
Finally? It’s been running amok the moment the Fascist Bill was passed, aka Coronavirus Act.
Do not resist the new directive.
Compliance is double plus good.
The party should mean more to you than your own family. Do not question us where Covid is concerned.
War is peace. Freedom is slavery.
Your mask is your face. Lockdown is liberty. Failure is success.
You should copyright that – it’s brilliant.
While I’m on a roll, I think we could adapt the government’s flu advice:
The truth spreads quickly and is extremely dangerous – always follow Government advice:
MASK it
BIN it
KILL it
Arrest it instead of bin it maybe?
Certainly CENSOR it!
It’s just to stop group dissent. There are initial exceptions allowed though. XR, BLM, ETC.
For vaccine fans (what are you doing here?)
https://twitter.com/ballouxfrancois/status/1303462422884343810?s=21
One of the problems for the pharma-physician-politician alliance is that while Covid provides great opportunities for extending mass medicine and making trillions, it also opens up areas of risk. One in particular is that they have to admit to the public, albeit implicitly, that vaccines can be dangerous and harm the health of individuals. Normally they can rely on the media to tell us ad nauseam that “vaccines are safe”. That won’t suffice with the Covid vaccine.
We need to make sure the ‘adverse reaction’ that has halted the Astra Zeneca/ Oxford trial gets maximum publicity!
It’s interesting that so few of the 30 Covid deaths announced as a daily total were in hospitals. Effectively, the government can keep a rolling reserve of non hospital deaths and add them to any daily total they choose as and when they need to frightened the public. Will be interesting to see if the daily death total continues to rise.
Astra Zeneca’s phase 3 Covd vaccine study trial put on hold due to serious adverse reaction. https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/astrazeneca-shares-plunge-covid-vaccine-study-put-hold-due-adverse-reaction
On a serious note, while not directly mentioned, can any face-to-face teaching in universities go ahead after this?
Any student who has already paid for accommodation is facing the feared bate and switch even earlier than anticipated, and courtesy of Bojo himself.
I have no doubt in my mind that universities will use this excuse to shelve in person teaching in favour of online. This rule kills the social aspect of university completely. No societies and no socialisation.
Hoping I’m wrong but at this point I think tonight has shown that a second lockdown is a certainty.
If they go down that route, I’ll be voting BNP from now on.
We saw how the school masking initial statement about only being in local lockdowns got immediately blown into all schools – this will happen here too. Unis are stuffed, how do you do a college under this rule?
This is a social change. Education will be different else how can schools operate.
Groups of six can still gather.
Anyone planning to get married is stuffed…
Weddings remained unchanged.
“The rules for indoor interaction, limiting this to no more than two households or bubbles, remain the same. Weddings, funerals and other such events also remain unchanged.”
Not saying that this is acceptable but this change does look to be targeting groups of young people that the police can’t control.
It’s clearly not going to work in educational settings which hence questions why do it at all?
So the virus knows when it’s at a wedding or funeral now!!!
Boris will breathe a sight of relief but Carrie won’t be happy.
Schools are different, both for the practical reason that homeworking is ineffective without childcare, and because children are not at any risk. Even Divi Shreder (sic) has admitted that and attributed invulnerability to the rona to their shortness.
Universities are for adults, including adults of all ages. They don’t need babysitting to enable their parents to work. And the last thing HMG will want is young adults getting together and agreeing that this is all a fat lot of wank.
Help me out here please. 7+ people from the same family cannot now meet together anywhere but all those people can (individually or in smaller groups) go to work, go to pubs and restaurants and mingle with strangers or colleagues. What is it about bonded family and friendship groups the virus loves so much and our government apparently hates so much?
They want to implement the East Germany style of a nuclear family. Reproduce the species then the government takes over.
That’s a great point. We all must be isolated from those we love because the virus has a thing for attacking whole families rather than random individuals.
They don’t want you to convert any family members to the skeptics camp.
They can’t mix with more than one other household according to the “rules” (for England, for pubs) – not sure of the legal status of the rules but I think pubs can be shut down if they don’t follow them.
Policing that will be a nightmare for publicans.
Those are the existing rules for indoors and probably in the majority of pubs they aren’t being followed now.
Break up the family and you control the people. Standard Soviet Communism.
Snatching some comments from the DT thread.
***
***
***
***
Yes, from our point of view it is encouraging…Anyone on here got an account and can post in the comments and encourage people to visit this site?
I have and do.
Thanks!
I used to have an account, but they keep moving the goalposts. I’m not paying any money to the MSM until they stop having us over.
Never seen so many fucks in a DT comment section. They are playing silly buggers with the upticks though: mine went from 25 to zero and someone else’s comment went from 21 down to 2.
Yes, they always manipulate the upticks on comments they don’t like. I am sure the 77th Brigade trolls will shortly get to work with their comments supporting the government actions – they normally do, or they close and wipe the comments sections.
Some on there now. The comments were far too unanimous against the government, lol.
Just added a few up votes and another negative comment on the Telegraph site. There are a few odd supporters of the government still, but overall an avalanche of negativity.
Trolls are on there now and comments being removed – one mentioning global reset and event 201 ‘disappeared’ just while I was there..
Thanks for reports carrie!
Crowdtangle-like tools are essentially like bat phones… when traffic starts getting busy at a link the alarm goes off in New Bletchley and the 77th troll army arrives.
Its a result of tech not through word spreading on the grape vine.
That might have been mine! They hate global reset and event 201 being mentioned – I take it that it is obviously true if they delete it.
https://twitter.com/cake_walk/status/1303451980438941697?s=21
“F££k off Boris.
You fat, ludicrous tyrant.”
Succinct. Accurate. Moderate.
Nothing I can disagree with there.
All those elderly people who died in care homes and elsewhere over the age of 75 were alive when Britain was at war with the Nazis. They killed off most of them in just a few months. Memories erased. Time to brainwash the children to accept The New World Order. PM Boris Johnson should be ashamed for allowing that to happen.
Flu Jab Drivein: Could I have a burger fries and a milkshake with that flu jab?
It will be a free burger fries and milkshake!
https://twitter.com/cake_walk/status/1303451980438941697?s=21
Did I see someone comment on here that the recent video of a pregnant woman being arrested had turned out to be faked? Looks to be pretty high profile in Aus. Unless there was another pregnant woman arrest video?
‘By hook or by crook’ Zoe Buhler mustn’t go to prison
(And by the way, Sky News Australia look to be all over it, continuing their excellent record on the coronapanic. So much for the “Murdoch media” that the lefties here were always going on about – SNA have been infinitely better than the BBC or Guardian, based just on the clips I’ve seen posted to the internet.)
Oh yes, this comment, by Quernus. I’ll link to this as a reply to that post.
When the Fifth Estate sang This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius this is not what they had in mind.
Drug companies going through motions to reassure public. US numbers are encouragingly high for safety concerns with this entire vaccine bad science warp-speed plane crash spectacle Bill and chums are putting on for us.
https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/08/pharma-pledge-reassure-covid-19-safety/
“Already, the Trump administration’s rhetoric, and scientists’ criticisms, have led to dramatic shifts in how Americans view the FDA and vaccine safety. In a recent STAT-Harris survey, 82% of Democrats and 72% of Republicans expressed concern that the Covid-19 vaccine approval process would be driven more by politics than by science.
More than 80% of independents, Republicans, and Democrats said they would worry about the safety of a vaccine that was approved quickly.”
On the beach with Number Two and Number 6:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ato5NS9dW0A
Biden has now completely reverse his mask policy.
Biden now says a national mask mandate is probably unconstitutional and he wouldn’t do it.
This is a full 180-degree reversal.
Unfortunately with Biden he might go 360 degrees. He doesn’t seem to know were he is most of the time so I don’t expect any stable policies.
Yes. Agree. He is not up to it.
He probably forgot.The man is senile.
Francis Hoar tweets
It is time for this country to wake up and stop tolerating this.
Lord Sumption was right. Obedience to the law is a civic obligation but not necessarily a moral one. This government has long passed the stage where its legislation by fiat can have any moral authority.
&
What this country desperately needs is normality: no more crippling social distancing, testing asymptomatic people and using the increase in ‘cases’ (a dishonest description as a + test isn’t a treatable ‘case’) to increase fear.
Yet this is what it gets.
Berlin’s left-wing officials are ordered to remove cycle lanes installed during pandemic after court rules Covid-19 was unfairly used as an excuse to push through their ‘traffic agenda’
A couple of points here.
First, Germany is again proving its governance superior to ours. I foresee zero possibility that any of the opportunist power grabs by zealots on coronapanic pretexts in this country would ever be overturned by either courts or government.
Second, note that it’s the AfD (the demonised “far right” “populists”) who are actually standing up against the coronapanic opportunists, and here actually getting a concrete achievement.
After this latest edict can Toby Young finally realise this is not incompetence but a deliberate attack on our liberty
It’s not incompetence, they told us via the controlled media and international institutions that this is a ‘new normal’ and that life would never be the same – they certainly meant it. Unfortunately most people still won’t accept this, and probably still won’t even when the country resembles a scene from 1984.
And kind of ‘predicted’ in this episode of the Simpsons: https://mobile.twitter.com/pwafork/status/1287688078094606336
So many parallels..
Yes! But I don’t think it’s fair to single out Toby – many find it a monsterous proposal to say their are people willing to actively cause this harm and death in our own country. But…
Coldly caluclating were the boys and girls of bletchley. Once they cracked the code they had to hide that they had and watch large numbers of deaths occur.
The bletchley wannabies of today are willing to make cold calculations and stand by as people die and suffer as a result.
The difference is there is no enemy for new bletchley to fight. It is imagined or feined.
Skewed away from what I was trying to say. It’s late. A good comment Jonathon. Incompetence becomes harder and harder to defend/believe, surely.
I’m very grateful to Toby for this blog.It has kept me sane throughout and the links have enabled me to educate myself,but his refusal to see what is painfully obvious is frustrating.It should not be left to oddballs like Piers Corbyn to lead the fight back.
I second that.
It was incompetence that got us into the mess, now it’s arse covering as they know they’ve fucked up royally. If Johnson was so amazed when he was told the bleedin’ obvious about the effect of the lockdown on the economy, then yes, this really can be true incompetence. These people know nothing about anything.
I refuse to believe our leaders are this stupid.I was told they were planning for a 12 week lockdown 2 weeks before.
And every western government is incompetent in exactly the same way.They are not all stupid.
Feel free to disagree if you wish, but I know panic when I see it. And they certainly panicked when they saw what was happening in Italy. They looked around and copied a Chinese Communist policy of lockdown. Agree or disagree, that’s what happened.
We have a government that has arrogated to itself powers that would make Hitler salivate, and they have decided that the people will put up with anything. But they are deeply stupid/incompetent, they do not seem to realise that the people, poorly led, also panicked back in March. Those people are waking up now, they can see through the nonsense. This change began probably just before the mask mandate and it is now gathering pace.
It doesn’t matter,the end result is the same.Devastation of the economy and curtailment of liberty.We can agree to disagree
I agree. I think they have become lazy in their rhetoric and arguments. They have failed to notice that people have wised up. This is particularly true amongst their natural support base. Each time they try the same arguments it gets less traction. That is why they are trying to dial it up with ‘Don’t kill granny’ and we might have to cancel Christmas. I think they have misjudged the mood out there and very few have felt any of the real pain yet.
This has been planned for some time.
With great respect to you Nick and others, you obviously are an experienced and intelligent person. I value your comments and see all as thoughtful.
I disagree entirely about this being incompetence. It frustrates me others see it that way.
The same pattern of incompetence then spiraling cover up occuring in all western countries isn’t chance.
But. That does not need to divide the arguement we are collectively making. This needs to stop. We need to end it because by intention or incompetence this is wrong and out of hand. We agree on that.
We do.
It’s a gigantic money making exercise for the big pharmaceutical companies including of course Bill Gates. Our government is involved up to their necks!
Tge new rule of 6 is or should be the end of the line.
We need to mobilize this Saturday on Downing Stret.
There is no time left.
This does feel a bit different to me. I think this could be their Stalingrad moment. I wondered what was going on when all these Sage characters were being wheeled out with doom and gloom messages about cancelling Christmas and Hancock with his grotesque ‘you are killing granny’ stuff. Now we know. Anger on DT BTL is huge. Suspect Mail will be similar. This won’t fly. People are seeing through it in increasing numbers and they will lose control of the narrative. I suspect they may row back on it, but part of me hopes not. The next protest march won’t be a few thousand that’s for sure.
Exactly. I had hoped the mask mandate would be the final push, but it is looking like this new shit will tip people over the edge. About bloody time too.
Yes, daily testing has been ‘flagged’ in the posters about ‘Getting back to the things we love’, (although the posters did not mention it would be daily) but the bigger agenda is all too clear and I do not think people will take this incursion on liberty – which is probably why they seem to also be intent on locking everyone up again, so they cannot protest..
Some people belatedly responding to our mad government as they should have the first time round:
‘We can’t lock the UK down again’: Scientists, MPs and industry leaders warn Boris another coronavirus shutdown could cripple the country
Business leaders, MPs and scientists told PM to consider other options first
New coronavirus figures on Sunday showed highest daily rate since May – 2,988
Economist Christopher Snowdon said second lockdown would be ‘catastrophic’
Boris Johnson was last night urged to think very carefully before imposing a new lockdown in response to a spike in virus cases.
Business leaders, MPs and scientists told the Prime Minister to consider other options first, with one think-tank warning a second shutdown would be ‘catastrophic’.
Concern within government was prompted by figures on Sunday showing there had been 2,988 new infections in the previous 24 hours, the highest daily rate since May 22.
Monday’s numbers were at a similar level, with an additional 2,948 positive cases up to 9am, a jump from the 1,175 reported on Saturday. The latest death toll of 30 was the highest in six weeks.
But Christopher Snowdon of the Institute of Economic Affairs said: ‘With UK case numbers at a fraction of where they were back in March, a second lockdown would be catastrophic and should be avoided.
‘Sweden has shown us a more sensible way to balance risk, liberty and the economy. The Government’s justification for the nationwide lockdown in March was to protect the NHS. After six months of preparation, it is very unlikely that the NHS will be overwhelmed by a second wave.’
Mike Cherry of the Federation of Small Businesses said the first national lockdown was incredibly damaging, adding: ‘If we can avoid a second through the utilisation of alternative measures to contain the virus, that would give hope to a lot of small firms as they try to get back on their feet.’
Tej Parikh of the Institute of Directors said business leaders would be flinching at the prospect of a return to heavy restrictions.
‘It’s paramount that whatever measures have to be taken, the support for businesses matches them,’ he said.
‘The Government should also be wary of withdrawing existing support too quickly, as the virus isn’t done and dusted yet.’
Shaun Fitzgerald, a Cambridge professor and government adviser on social distancing, urged the public to take more responsibility. He said: ‘Perhaps the question should be ‘could I be doing something differently to help?’ For example, can I reduce the frequency I go to the shops by planning ahead more rigorously with my grocery shopping?
‘Am I washing my hands as regularly as lockdown? There are lots of things perhaps which we can all do to help.’
Responding to last night’s Government announcement that social gatherings of more than six people will be banned from Monday, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘This is just mad. It’s ludicrous.
‘This will be a hammer blow to the economy just as we were starting to get things on track.
‘Why is it that we are having this ‘push me pull you’ approach? This can’t go on.’
Former environment secretary Theresa Villiers said: ‘Going back into lockdown would be a huge setback for the economy. I hope the Government will exhaust all other possible options before they consider the drastic step of closing down the economy all over again.’
Tory MP Steve Baker, a former Brexit minister, said: ‘A new national lockdown would spell economic, non-Covid health, educational, civic and social doom. It cannot be allowed to happen.’
Yesterday Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he would not ‘shy away from taking targeted local action’, such as that imposed yesterday in Bolton.
‘It cannot be allowed to happen ‘.
Steve Baker rehearsing for the role of Prince Yusupov to Rasputin Cummings? Mind you, the Empress Alexandra de Pfeffel didn’t outlast him by all that long, either.
Well hopefully he will chose his moment and opportunity better than last time. Now might be good…
Hopefully the example of Sweden will be used by Simon Dolan in his appeal re proportionality – there are almost no people being hospitalised or dying now, and there are very few restrictions on people (and those that exist are now being gradually lifted)..
I am at a loss to understand why they haven’t sectioned Johnson and Hancock.
Today on the Richie Allen both Richie and his guests keep repeating that the energy in the world is very low today. Global Depression.
I’ve had a lovely day. With syncronicities all linking up into interesting times. My spelling has even been better today!
Here’s a positive thing I thought today. A simple pleasure most of us have long forgotten. The joy of finding a really good spot out of the wind on a sunny day. Just that. If it sounds crazy try it then decide! Just a bit of comfy grass in beside a boulder providing shelter. Enjoy the calm, flask of tea. Raise your vibration.
Would more than 6 people coming together to have an argument be legal on the basis that it would be an anti-social gathering?
SKY News clip of independent SAGE professor saying something useful.
44 sec.
https://twitter.com/TheStephenReed/status/1303353598076690432?s=20
Possibly worth sharing.
are Alcoholics Anonymous meet-ups exempt? We’ll all be joining them soon!
New news in Melbourne. Journalist grabbed by 5 police officers and thrown to the ground. He had a permit to do his work. Aussie Nazis. Look like Robocop.
I watched that, Avi is no trouble maker what they did was downright brutal!
So, apparently the individual in question in the vaccine trial that got halted got transverse myelitis.
And to think this is totally I necessary!
I tried posting this on the Spectator and it went to moderation obviously Gates GSK and vaccine are the triggers!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_logo&time_continue=64&v=KkzDQAeKcIU
Lockdowns quadruple the reported C-19 death rate.
Here’s my latest analysis, using Wiki’s list of non-lockdown countries: http://www.theanarchistalternative.info/NLD.pdf
Even worse than the pattern found a little while ago at TinyURL.com/ZGBlog/20A035.htm