Simon Dolan To Challenge “Rule of Six” in the Court of Appeal
Simon Dolan’s legal team is intending to bring up the “Rule of Six” in the Court of Appeal when it appeals the High Court’s rejection of its legal challenge against the coronavirus regulations. The Telegraph has more.
The new ‘rule of six’ Covid-19 restrictions face a legal challenge as the Government is taken to court over its “irrational” and “disproportionate” measures to combat coronavirus.
Amid complaints that the new regulations barring meetings of more than six people will deny grandparents access to their grandchildren, lawyers plan to use them in support of a Court of Appeal claim that the lockdown measures were unlawful.
The judicial review is being brought by multi-millionaire businessman Simon Dolan, backed by a £250,000 crowdfunding campaign
The action was initially rejected by the high court but is now subject of an appeal to be heard on September 28 and 29.
“The appeal relates to legislation that was introduced before the latest [rule of six] measures. One of the reasons the judge tried to kybosh us was on the grounds that it was academic as the lockdown had been eased,” said Michael Gardner, one of the lawyers masterminding the action.
“This shows that it is not academic, with the reintroduction of restrictions. It puts wind in the sails of the action. We will be looking at whether this is further grounds for what would probably have to be a fresh petition that could be bolted onto the existing one.
“I am sure we will not be the only people looking at this and assessing the rationality of what is being proposed.”
Worth reading in full. And if you want to donate to Simon’s CrowdJustice fundraiser, it’s here. Thanks in part to donations from Lockdown Sceptics readers, Simon has raised over £260,000.
New Restrictions Are The “New Normal”
James Black in Bournbrook Magazine puts his finger on what is so disturbing about Boris’s new “Rule of Six”.
The Prime Minister insists this is not a new lockdown. In truth, it is worse than a second lockdown. It is the shape of the New Normal. This new move could amount to the most severe impingement on individual freedom we have had so far, given that the fines of £100 we each face for violating the restrictions are more likely to be handed out than similar fines have been in previous months.
Recent curbs on the right to protest and the £10,000 fines given to anti-lockdown campaigner Piers Corbyn should demonstrate beyond doubt that the government and establishment as a whole is intent on doubling-down on its assault on Britain’s constitution, rather than easing off.
Covid Marshalls, spot fines, enforced tracing amounting to invasive surveillance and the complete annihilation of the organic centres of citizen power are going to be part of the atmosphere of the new hellish reality of modern Britain. We may even be subject to a soul-crushing, economy-destroying curfew. At least during lockdown we were free within our own private castles, now we are going to be forced back out into the world, but with none of the incentives that make public life worthwhile, and completely on the terms of our predatory and sinister health minister Matt Hancock.
With restrictions on assembly, prohibitive rules on going to pubs, cinemas and public buildings, the government is slowly taking over our personal lives, effectively killing Britain’s centuries old implicitly accepted commitment to individual liberty.
Worth reading in full.
The Final Straw
We got a lot of emails like this after Boris’s “Rule of Six” announcement.
As I have watched successive poor decisions, flip-flopping, over-reliance on polling and public opinion and restriction of our civil liberties I have become increasingly incensed. The decision to reduce gatherings to no more than six people was the final straw: As a family of five (myself, my husband and three children under 12) we are now unable to see my parents. My parents are relatively young – mid-60s and in very good physical health. I am incredibly close to them (my brother is abroad and rarely visits) and we see them weekly, often spending holidays together. Suddenly, because of my decision to have a third child, we are no longer able to meet in any circumstances. However, had I stopped at two, we would be able to continue weekly meetings, holidays, the whole shebang. This is just the latest in a long line of restrictions that I (and I believe an increasing proportion of the country) am no longer willing to tolerate. My next door neighbour (a good friend) is a senior ICU doctor at a large London hospital and she agrees: in her large ICU the vast majority of patients came from inside the hospital (as you rightly pointed out at the time) and were morbidly obese, very old or both. Since late April they have been emptying out and she has been “bored” ever since. I could go on with examples of why these measures are ludicrous and, in many cases, dangerous to mental and physical health, social mobility and the economy in general but I know you are more familiar with these than me!
We know exactly how she feels.
The Oracle Speaks
A reader has kindly transcribed some of Lord Sumption’s remarks in yesterday’s Planet Normal podcast with Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan. His ability to speak in fully-formed, grammatically correct sentences is something else.
“I think Boris Johnson is a Johnsonite and that will lead him in different directions depending on the circumstances. Boris Johnson’s main problem is that he is obsessed with PR and he is not intelligent enough to study a problem carefully and in depth. Those are his two main problems. I think the problem is aggravated by the fact that decisions are being made within government by a very very small number of people and that the principle qualification for admission to his cabinet is loyalty as a result of which he is not getting the kind of internal discussion and criticism which makes for better decision making.”
“Well, the most important thing about the Coronavirus Act is that it is not the act which has been used to justify the lockdown or other measures affecting citizens. There are no powers in the Coronavirus Bill to control the movements of healthy people. The government has in fact used the Coronavirus Act only to justify the financial implications of the lock down. Most of the Act is in fact concerned with authorising, with the minimum of parliamentary scrutiny, additional public expenditure”.
“The lockdown and the quarantine rules and most of the other regulations have been made under the Public Health Control of Disease Act of 1984 which was extensively amended in 2008. Now, there is no agreement among lawyers about which I’m about to say but I do not myself believe that that act confers on the government the powers which it has purported to exercise. Because it is a basic principle of British constitutional law that you cannot invade fundamental rights and there are few more fundamental rights than liberty, by using general terms. You’ve got to be specific about it. And the reason for that is that if you use general words to justify draconian invasions of fundamental rights, there’s too big a risk that it will pass unnoticed in the course of the parliamentary process. To invade fundamental rights you have to have absolutely specific language. The only specific language in the Public Health Act which justifies invasions of liberty relates to people who are believed, on reasonable grounds, to be infectious. Ministers can only do things that magistrates could do and magistrates only have power to control the movements of infected people or to control the opening of infected premises. They don’t have power to control uncontaminated premises or healthy people”.
“The government has deliberately – I must assume deliberately because they have plenty of legal advice – they have used an act which to put it at its lowest, its application is profoundly controversial. In my view, an act which doesn’t confer powers. Now, the oddity is, the government does have power to do what it has done under another act which it has declined to use – The Civil Contingencies Act, 2004. The CCA is concerned with emergencies including health related emergencies and it empowers ministers to do anything that can be done by an act of parliament. Now you can’t get wider words than that. Why haven’t they used it? Now the only reason that I can think of for not using it is that the CCA has very stringent provisions for parliamentary scrutiny. A regulation under the act is only provisionally valid for 7 days unless it is approved by Parliament. Thereafter, it only has validity for 30 days; it has to be renewed every 30 days. Moreover, exceptionally there are provisions entitling Parliament to amend a regulation which is laid before it or to revoke it at any time. Now, the only reason that I can think of why the government did not use the one piece of legislation that’s plainly applicable is that it wished to avoid parliamentary scrutiny.”
Dr Mike Yeadon Challenges Government to Produce Evidence of Second Wave
Dr Mike Yeadon, co-author of the paper on the unlikelihood of a second wave that we published on Lockdown Sceptics Tuesday, appeared on Julia Hartley-Brewer’s show on TalkRADIO yesterday and challenged the Government and its scientific advisors to point to a single piece of research evidence that there’s likely to be a second wave of SARS-CoV-2. As he points out, we’ve already seen two pandemics caused by novel coronavirus since 2003 and neither has produced a second wave.
Mike is the former Head of Allergy and Respiratory Research at Pfizer and a successful biotech entrepreneur. He really knows his viruses.
Worth listening to in full.
The New Normal
Have we had a glimpse of the new normal at a pilot scheme at the St Leger Festival at Doncaster Racecourse, where the limited number of socially distanced spectators were not allowed to shout or cheer?
Covid Death Rate Higher in Countries With Mild Recent Flu Seasons
It’s been known for some time that the mortality profile of COVID-19 matches that of natural mortality, meaning people are considerably more likely to die with it the older they get. Your likelihood of dying with COVID-19 is about the same as your likelihood of dying full stop. This has led to the obvious question: how many who die with COVID-19 were likely to die soon anyway? And a related question: has the COVID-19 pandemic been particularly bad because the mild recent flu seasons have left alive many who would ordinarily have succumbed sooner?
Dr Chris Hope at the Cambridge Judge Business School decided to test this hypothesis and the result can be seen above (the paper is here). He found there was indeed a statistically significant correlation between the mildness of recent flu seasons and Covid death toll.
Does this mean that the whole coronavirus debacle only happened because the old had been spared a couple of winters? Scary thought.
Postcard From College
A 19 year-old college student started a childcare course in Wales this week and wrote to tell us about the joys of Covid college.
On Monday September 7th I started a Childcare course, and was greeted at the front desk by the harsh call of: “Masks in the hallways!”
I didn’t have a mask so they supplied one and I went on my way to class where I was informed we don’t have to wear them in the classroom… Apparently Covid waits patiently by the door before it attacks. Once in, we were welcomed by a talk from the Principal, a very nice chap with a lot of good to say but also a lot of bull. By the end if I had to hear the word “safe”, “safety” or “safeguarding” one more time I would throw up. Life will never be completely safe but can we at least do our best to minimise the irritation one must encounter on a day to day basis?
Then our teacher, again a lovely woman, read out the Covid symptoms – which as I understand it is about anything – and informed us that if we developed any then we were to go home immediately. One of these was a runny nose, fair enough. But the thing is they kept the windows open all day and weren’t allowed to close them! By the end of the day we were all sniffling because the room was freezing – what could you expect for Wales in September? Apparently, Covid is terribly frightened of air currents.
It’s as hard on our teachers as it is the students because they aren’t allowed to walk around the classroom to help us with our work, they have to yell from the desk. And anything we borrow – laptops, phones, pens, pencils – have to be wiped down before and after. It’s a huge hassle.
For my particular course, it’s quite frustrating. A a student of Childcare, I have to complete a certain number of placements in order to get the qualification. But they’re not letting any of us out into the schools. They say it might be possible in January, but the way the Government’s U-turns are going that could change any day. I don’t hold it against the school. Most of the teachers and students don’t care about Covid and are just trying to get on with it (there are a few authoritarian types enjoying themselves) and with the rules as confusing as ever that’s all anyone can do.
Empty Cycle Lanes
The Mailonline has flagged that many of the cycle lines that have popped up since the lockdown was imposed on March 23rd are empty. Meanwhile, motorists are being squeezed into ever smaller roads, causing endless traffic jams.
Pop-up cycle lanes set up as part a £225 million plan to get Britain moving again are lying empty while traffic is squeezing onto narrowed streets, bringing the capital to a halt, it can be revealed.
MailOnline visited some of the key cycle lanes across the country at the height of the rush hour to gauge how busy they are, only to find them chronically under-used with cyclists criticising them as well as motorists.
Our research in London, where Transport for London is leading its own £33 million scheme, shows that on the Euston Road, just seven cyclists used the designated lane over a 15-minute period.
Meanwhile 420 cars fought their way through traffic while in Park Lane, Mayfair, just 21 cyclists used the lane as 400 cars battled past.
The Government unveiled a £250 million plan to disfigure our cities with cycle lanes back in May. The subhead on the Guardian story about it was: “Campaigners call for redesign of transport system to help prevent bounce-back in air pollution.” Bounce-back in air pollution? Not even Independent Sage would come up with such unscientific guff.
One reader is understandably incandescent about this colossal waste of taxpayers’ money.
Almost all of this was done to get people cycling rather than taking public transportation. It was rammed through without consultation. It is a spectacular disaster like everything the Government touches.
The incompetence in planning and implementation of cycle lanes in the UK is breathtaking.
This Is Why Brits Aren’t Back in the Office
An office worker has written to tell us about the insanity that has taken over his London workplace.
I just wanted to share my situation with regards to going back to the office (been working from home since early March!).
I really want to go back to work, and with the virus gone, no one dying, no one in the hospital you would think that companies would reopen their offices. Well not mine. Our London office is still shut, with no timeline as to when we would go back.
But today, they held a virtual meeting to explain what to expect when we return. And it’s absolutely bonkers!
Masks will be everywhere in the office. They have to be worn all the time. They are also asking us to wear the mask from the moment we leave our home (they admit they can’t police that but they say it’s the rule).
Arrival times at the office will need to be staggered. Only four people per lift, each facing towards one corner of the lift. We share our building with another company and have been warned that they are not mandating masks so we should wait for the next lift to not be in proximity with such irresponsible individuals.
We will have to check in at reception, where they will conduct temperature checks. We will have to answer questions related to having symptoms, being in close contact with someone who has etc. If we pass the test, we would be given a bracelet, that allows us to be in the office. So anyone without a bracelet needs to be reported as they’ve not been screened.
We might be allocated a desk that’s not our usual desks, as everyone will need to be at least two meters apart, not facing each other. Meeting rooms will have their capacity cut, and will be stuffed with sanitising products that will need to be used on the equipment in the room before use. We’re asked to not use meeting rooms if possible, so if everyone is in the office for a meeting, the meeting will still have to take place over video conference with everyone at their desk.
Food and beverages can only be consumed at your desk. Tables in communal areas (around coffee machines) have been removed.
They’re starting a voluntary weekly testing programme, and we are “encouraged” to sign up (“we’re encouraging weekly testing because people can have the virus without showing symptoms” so a good way to get some false positives, or non-contagious people to become “cases” and scare everyone else).
I want to go back to the office, but not to that! This is just pure insanity.
Meanwhile my friends in France have all been back to their offices since June, all going back to the way it was before…
LinkedOut
Free speech has been one of the most serious casualties of this pandemic as internet platforms have taken it upon themselves to censor anything that doesn’t agree with the WHO’s latest change in policy. LinkedIn appears to be no exception, and a reader has been in touch to say the site has been particularly ruthless with him for his lockdown scepticism.
I was kicked off LinkedIn, no option to even retrieve my 15 years of data, big problem as I work business-to-business only and the 18,000 connections I think was the very best network anybody has in my niche field. No prior warnings or issues with LinkedIn, straight to removal of my profile and 15 years of posts. I didn’t think to ever back up my data/connections as I thought if I ever need it I’ll login and download it, but the download option is not possible as I can’t even login.
He has contacted LinkedIn, but they have not responded. If you are on Twitter and want to show your support please click here and retweet.
Grumpy Brother
Got a disheartening email from a man who had a bad experience trying to buy a bottle of bubbly to celebrate his son’s first communion. Some people do seem absolutely determined to see their shops go out of business.
Having collected the kids from school, I popped into a local off licence this afternoon – Laithwaite’s Wine – with the boys in tow. I needed to buy a couple of bottles of nice wine ahead of my son’s First Holy Communion tomorrow.
The ceremony itself – one of the biggest moments in a young Catholic’s life – has already been rendered close to useless given the absurd hoops we will have to jump through but at least popping a couple of corks would mark the occasion with some of the party spirit it is supposed to bring.
Mask on and having read the list of regulations by which I must comply to buy wine we had barely set foot into the door when we were gruffly told that we would have to wait outside they already had the requisite three customers inside the (massive) shop.
Given I was about to spend money with them I would have thought that the message might have been delivered slightly more pleasantly, but it was clear that we were dealing with people who were enjoying their moment in the sun.
And I needed wine!
When we eventually entered the shop, we were once again told that we would have to wait outside as being three, we exceeded the maximum number of “customers”. I’m not sure how much wine they expected the children to buy (both of them being under 10) but I politely explained that i doubted that rule applied to them. Bacchus’s grumpy brother reluctantly agreed but instructed us form behind his Perspex screen that we would all have to sanitise our hands and “stick together because the children will touch things”.
I should have just walked out at this point but I persisted as i was tight for time.
Mistake.
Whilst I had a quick awkward conversation with one of the two shop assistants and was in the process of paying for the wine, he took it upon himself to shout at my children and castigate them as loudly as he could for “not staying close to me”.
Personally I don’t care. I meet idiots everyday and will delight in not taking them any more custom in the future, that’s easy. But I felt terribly for the kids who were visibly embarrassed and uncomfortable. What sort of message does this give our little people when gleeful, bullying shop assistants feel they can behave this way?
I will drink their wine tomorrow and toast my little boy’s future but I plan to see if they operate a bottle return programme.
If they do, I know exactly where to stick the empties.
Are there no limits to the Government’s authoritarian overreach?
New Party Names
Some good name suggestions from readers: Freedom Party, Liberty Party, Enlightenment Party, Democratic Freedom Party, Libertas, Liberal Party.
Keep ’em coming.
Round-Up
- “Edinburgh police arrest and charge councillor after ‘unlawful’ anti-lockdown protests” – Dissent will not be tolerated
- “Anders Tegnell and the Swedish Covid experiment” – Even the Financial Times seems to be softening towards the Swedish approach in this in depth interview with Sweden’s heroic chief epidemiologist
- “Africa’s catastrophic Covid response” – Ian Birrell in UnHerd lays out the brutal truth about Africa, lockdowns and Covid
- “Counting the dead” – Excellent article in The Critic by Laura Dodsworth on the multitude of failings in our attempts to keep track of the dead this year
- “In defence of Boris’s ‘Rule of Six’” – The normally dependable Patrick O’Flynn has a brain fart in the Spectator
- “A handy guide to staying safe” – The always dependable Andy Shaw in Spectator Life
- “Flu and pneumonia killed TEN TIMES as many Brits as Covid last week, stats reveal” – The Sun brings some more facts to bear on the hysteria
- “Birmingham lockdown restrictions increased” – No mixing in homes at all for Brummies
- “Rising coronavirus infections show it’s time to overreact” – Bed-wetting piece of the day from Tom Whipple in the Times
- “Michael Gove persuaded Boris Johnson to bring in ‘rule of six’” – And they both claim to be a liberals
- “Sweden: People who wear masks get stared at, not the other way around” – Also known as normal
- “It’s time to move to a voluntary system… and for us to actually start living like a free people” – Great quote from Steve Baker MP. More power to his elbow
- “Professors’ message for Daniel Andrews: redo the coronavirus modelling” – The Australian lays out the scientific challenge to Kim Jong Dan. But is he interested in facts?
- “We should maintain the easing of lockdown” – Channel 4 interviews Oxford’s great anti-lockdown epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Seven today: “Everybody Be Yo’Self” by Chic Street Man, Le Voyage Dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) by Georges Méliès, “Governed By Contradiction” by Damon Smith Trio, “Hysterical Blindness” by Misery Stairs, “Resisting Tyrannical Government” by Propagandhi, “The Government Totally Sucks” by Tenacious D and “Clueless” by The Marias.
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums that are now open, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention. We’ve also just introduced a section where people can arrange to meet up for non-romantic purposes. We have a team of moderators in place to remove spam and deal with the trolls, but sometimes it takes a little while so please bear with us. You have to register to use the Forums, but that should just be a one-time thing. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A few months ago, Lockdown Sceptics launched a searchable directory of open businesses across the UK. The idea is to celebrate those retail and hospitality businesses that have re-opened, as well as help people find out what has opened in their area. But we need your help to build it, so we’ve created a form you can fill out to tell us about those businesses that have opened near you.
Now that non-essential shops have re-opened – or most of them, anyway – we’re focusing on pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as other social venues. As of July 4th, many of them have re-opened too, but not all and some will have to close again on September 14th. 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 14th to Oct 23rd). 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 £1.99 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 approaching 32,000).
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
And here’s a round-up of the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of mask (threadbare at best).
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. Doing these daily updates is a lot of work (although we have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending us stories and links). 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…
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Any organisation where Neil Ferguson becomes a professor already has serious issues.
Too right!
Too left!
BINGO
Great response Toby.
I find it astounding that idiots are prepared to borrow £30 – £40,000 a year to be indoctrinated with this propaganda.
Any family member of mine who was that stupid would find him/herself having a very “hard” conversation with me.
I’d just point to the door and tell them not to let it hit them in the ass on the way out. They can have whatever views they want, but I wouldn’t allow anyone to attack me or try to make me feel bad in my own home – particularly when they clearly have no qualms enjoying the hospitality I provide through my ‘white privilege’. Nor would it occur to me to have a go at a guest in my home and make them feel uncomfortable.
They are intentionally out to make us plebs fight with each other, be it over skin colour, religion, liberal versus conservative views – just keep us foaming at the mouth and fighting each other.
There’s been a news item going around called Merry Christmas Jay, where some chap who got caught out in a blizzard in New York State broke into a school and then went to help other people he saw caught out in the storm. A picture was taken of the group afterwards, and it is a mixed group of people, and that’s how it should be – people were in need, someone in a position to help, helped whoever he could, no one will have given a toss about race.
We’re in a war – a fight for our lives and the future of Western Civilisation. Every inch we have given these bastards they have taken a mile. They will not stop until one side is destroyed.
Probably, and the politicised police aren’t leading the charge, dressed in their paramilitary riot gear, for the enemy?
I’m no fan of the direction in which policing has gone, at least in the UK. I know less about the US and suspect it varies enormously from place to place. But they do actually sometimes investigate crime, arrest people etc. We can’t simply remove them, without replacing them.
They recently arrested a woman for praying silently. And a senior police official only yesterday referred to pedophiles as minor attracted people. A feminist activist is being investigated for being “untoward about pedophiles” on her podcast. They escorted men dressed up as highly sexualised women to participate in drag queen story times in UK public libraries. They are making it up as they go along. We shouldn’t be paying for them or giving them a mandate to do that.
As I’ve said I don’t like the direction in which they are going and share your views on the incidents you mention. However IMO if they are simply removed the results would be catastrophic. They are not really the problem, just a symptom.
In their present form and with their present reach, infrastructure and political woke leadership they are the problem.
Not sure what you’re saying. THE problem? Are they not just a reflection of the establishment in general, which is equally captured and woke? They are all in lockstep.
It’s the whole establishment that is rotten to its very core not just the senior police.
I wholeheartedly agree tof. We are in an us or them situation.
As someone once pointed out —-“All it takes for evil to succeed is for good men to remain silent”
And that is why commenting on here is so very important. There really is strength in numbers.
“BLM has faced a backlash over its far-Left demands, which include defunding the police.” I don’t really have a problem with this, the police are part of the problem, as are the NHS, the civil service,academia, the judiciary, everyone in the Westminster bubble, local government, the BBC, the MSM. In a nutshell, The Woke Establishment.
Defunding the police is not the answer
Neither is funding the police as it stands.
I’d love to see a change of direction but failing that I will take what we have over a complete breakdown of law and order which is what we would see.
We already have a breakdown of the rule of law.
Up to a point
It’s only going to get worse if we carry on giving them money to do more of the same.
Probably, but everything else will likely get worse too. The police is not a problem to solve in isolation – there is only any mileage in addressing it when the general drift, which they reflect, is corrected. In the meantime, I am happy for them to occasionally arrest muggers, murderers etc.
What is the plausible alternative?
BLM want to defund the police so their supporters can commit more crimes with impunity. It’s a completely different issue to the politicisation of the police.
Please see graphic
Says it all.
There are two groups that want the police out of their way. Organised crime (or any crime) and Cultural Marxists.
“To produce a maximum of chaos in the culture of the enemy is our first most important step. Our fruits are grown in chaos, distrust, economic depression and scientific turmoil. At least a weary populace can seek peace only in our offered Communist State, at last only Communism can resolve the problems of the masses.” – Lavrentiy Beria
You are oversimplifying. The police that we currently have are organised crime. And we continue to fund them.
You have a point. They have been taken over by the woke left so that they take the knee for BLM, provide water and refreshments for XR, arrest people for praying or ‘hate’ crimes, while stop and search and keeping the peace has gone because it’s considered institutional racist. However, it is possible to correct all that, otherwise without any police we are cutting our noses off and we will be ‘policed’ by the lowest common denominator. There has been a progressive and persistent undermining of the Police. For example, following one of the Islamist atrocities in the Capital the Guardian questioned whether the Police could have done more, or that they contributed to the situation. The confected outrage against the Police in the US was wrong because the supposed racism against blacks is not evident in the data – but that doesn’t matter if you are a Marxist Revolutionary.
“To speak the truth is a petit-bourgeois habit, a luxury of worry-free and aimless people. To lie, on the contrary, is often justified by the lie’s aim.” – Lenin
Considering Imperial College has a long history and must be staffed by people who are highly educated and worldly, I would hope someone there has knowledge of the Chinese Cultural Revolution and what happened?
Here is just one small example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXAOTjNheVg
“Still ashamed of my part in Mao’s Cultural Revolution – BBC News”
Unfortunately, for many people to see something, it has to be *exactly* the same, or they don’t see the parallels. Education is not the key – you can either think for yourself or you cannot, regardless of education level.
When people were pointing out that the treatment of the unvaxxed last year was similar to the treatment of the Jews in 1930s/40s Germany, a lot of big mouths shouted that it was in no way the same, and shame on people for making the comparison.
Were the unvaxxed being carted off in trains into camps with gas chambers and ovens? No, of course not, no one was saying they were. But were they being othered? Were they excluded from their fundamental rights and increasingly from society? Were they being scapegoated, first for a man-made disease, then for the failure of government measures to contain said disease, then for the failure of the
poisonvaxx against said disease? Were governments across the world outright encouraging their populations to blame the unvaxxed, were they suggesting that unvaxxed should be further deprived of rights, even of the right to hospital treatment?The answer to all these questions is a resounding yes. Too many people only focus on the concentration camps, not on the years leading up to it, in which Jews were singled out, deprived of rights and scapegoated in the same way as the unvaxxed were last year. Austria was already on the road to incarcerating the unvaxxed and people would have stood by and let it happen, just like they did before.
Same with China’s cultural revolution – people look at Mao’s China and the outright war on its traditions and do not see the parallels with the current situation, where the onslaught it more low-key and insidious – but just as lethal.
My German relatives got very upset when I compared Covid tyranny with other recent tyranny in their country- apparently not the same thing at all because the current tyranny is for the public good. Morons.
2023 – 1945 = 78
This means no German of 78 years or less has ever consciously lived under NSDAP rule. Don’t you think it’s about time to stop bringing up this topic at every opportunity? I mean, anti-German prejudices are nice and dandy but what about updating them every once in a while?
I have no anti-German prejudices. I’m simply aware that in living memory they have gone through periods of dictatorship and from what I understand a big deal is made of this, in terms of avoiding a repeat. That side of my family are from what was the DDR for a while, and they didn’t see any parallels there either. I was simply pointing out that even those who you would reasonably expect to have a heightened awareness of the dangers of government overreach don’t seem to. The same could be said of Israel, which saw some of the most severe covid restrictions. People alive now of my age will remember many conversations with their parents and grandparents about NSDAP rule – I know I do.
This was reportedly a hot topic for a vocal minority of boom babies seeking to abolish whatever parts of Germany managed to survive it being freed from tyranny by almost 50 years of military occupation (the Germans had to pay for) in favour of creating something more American instead, ie, the current, ruling establishment. But that was about 55 years ago and a lot of things have happened since then. You should also take into account that such comparisons are illegal in Germany or at best, semilegal, and that these laws are draconically enforced. Roughly at the level of Discuss the wrong stuff — interior secret service comes to blow up your door in the early hours of the morning.
BTW, how many Americans did you tell that the American policy the people administrating Germany on behalf of the USA more or less voluntarily imitated amounted to Nazism?
I don’t know any Americans. I use whatever I have to hand to try and make my case with people I know. If you want to interpret that as “anti-German”, feel free.
I was ambushed and ganged up on by some (public sector employed) old friends and their brainwashed children at a dinner party in August 2020 because of my views on the toxic jabs. It was very unpleasant. A similar thing had happened on a previous occasion regarding leaving the EU, although the discussion on political and geographic sovereignty was a lot less sinister than the discussion on personal sovereignty.
I wonder how your friends feel about the jabs now – or in any event their children. I bet at least some have changed their mind, even if they won’t admit it – many won’t, but you can see it in their eyes and how they change the subject if someone starts talking about the poison.
Further invitations haven’t been forthcoming, which is regrettable but ok. I was tempted to text them to urge them to have their boosters.
The forces and mindsets that drove the horrors of the 20th century are all still intact. The environmental movement which precedes the current safety-ism harbours some pretty terrifying individuals that have managed to avoid scrutiny because they have ‘good intentions’. And here are samples of sentiments that would not be out of place in 1930s Germany, but are probably far worse for where they could lead:
If these asswipes actually believed this, they’d lead by example and top themselves and have no children. Some may well not have children, but I suspect quite a few do. Look no further than BoJo, who wrote an article some years ago saying the world had too many people – he should know, he seems to be trying to repopulate it single-handedly.
I’m not entirely in disagreement that there are perhaps more people on the planet than the planet can comfortably sustain over time – or for people themselves to abide, looking at their penchant to start slaughtering each other every so often. I just don’t think I have any greater right to be here than anyone else, contrary to the people you cite. If this results in a melt-down, so be it, part of the cycle I guess.
What I have noticed though, is that most Western government policies are still geared towards providing assistance for families regardless of size, and leaving singletons and the childless high and dry. There is no easy solution, children should not be suffering because they have dumb parents, but all “carrot” solutions (e.g. the tax code, benefits) are geared to families and not singletons. The current push to convince all young people they are gay and/or transgender would be one form of getting their way – except that they do nothing to try to stop surrogacy or IVF, quite the contrary, which seems to defeat the purpose of what they claim they want.
Very impressive list of quotes, did you put this together yourself? It’s worth reproducing where you can, more people need to see that the idea of depopulation is not a crazy conspiracy. Not that it’s proof it’s happening, but it is proof that there are plenty of people who would be happy for it to happen.
This is a collated list as there are more. The credit must go to c3headlines.com which has other interesting ideas and information. Anyway, the full list of quotes is here: https://www.c3headlines.com/global-warming-quotes-climate-change-quotes.html
The world is not over populated or going to explode. We have had more than 200 years of industrialization that has done more to raise the most out of poverty than any of the revolutions. Also, I can still go outside and breath fresh air and swim in the seas that are perhaps cleaner than they were, at least in old developed countries. All the problems we have are being addressed, or should be, and can be. Global Warming, or Climate Change or overpopulation are not real problems. Where ever industrialization happens, people generally become wealthier and family sizes decrease – my mother was 1 of 13 – I am 1 of 4 – I have 2 children. Family sizes are falling across the planet and across religions. Hans Rosling wrote an excellent book, ‘Factfulness’ which explains that humanity has never been in such a fortunate position and with great prospects. I sense that for the control freaks, general human success is a problem, because their threats of doom and their solutions are no longer of value or needed.
Another person you may already know and who IMHO has great wisdom is Thomas Sowell.
“Not that it’s proof it’s happening, but it is proof that there are plenty of people who would be happy for it to happen.”
Take a look at this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXePtV8AX1w
<Lefties losing it: Canadian Army Veteran offered euthanasia instead of chairlift>
Also, I’m hoping Jacques Cousteau’s comment was taken out of context as that is particularly disappointing. What is interesting is we have Mr Cousteau and Mr Attenborough, both of which are revered for their films on nature, and yet David Bellamy, who was an actual Biologist, gets cancelled for going against the man made climate change narrative.
‘… students to have “hard conversations“ with friends and family over the Christmas holiday period who deny white privilege.’
There is no such thing as White privilege; it is an abstract term used by racists to try to reduce the status of White people to sub-Humans and promote Black people as the new master race.
Personally, I would be delighted that some snotnose, know-nothing who hasn’t contributed anything to the economy or society and who would find picking fruit an intellectual challenge, had a ‘hard conversation’ with me It certainly would be hard for them as I wiped the floor with them.
The problem is these putty-brained blobs can’t hold a reasonable conversation, just scream slogans and abstractions they have picked up and repeat like parrots.
Me too, I can’t wait.
Does black privilege exist? I only ask as a fellow student at my university is a senior member of Socialist Worker (he was in the socialist worker student organisation at the time) and also a senior member of black lives matter. Prior to university, he’d attended a good public school and used to get driven up to university by his father’s chauffeur.
I suppose someone who is black and living a privileged life can be said to have ‘black privilege,’ but I doubt you would be thanked for pointing this out to them.
Still, making the point to a privileged socialist who also happens to be black should probably be sufficient to spark a conflagration
As I understand the term “white privilege” it is supposed to mean that you are advantaged in life based on your whiteness. I suppose they would argue this applies primarily in white-dominated societies but perhaps also globally because the world is dominated by rich countries that are often white or with a “white” culture (capitalism?). So I think in their terms “black privilege” could only really exist somewhere run by blacks where whites were disadvantaged. I’m not sure such a place exists. Perhaps Zimbabwe. They’d probably call that justice though. I imagine there is “Han Chinese privilege” in China, and some set of castes in India would be privileged. But I don’t think the people that push this are overly interested in forming coherent arguments, just in pushing their agenda.
I think you have hit the nail on the head and this is probably true of every current woke meme
“There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs-partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.” – Booker Taliaferro Washington
There is an arrogant assumption that they are correct in their views, but I don’t recall democratic debate on the topic. Perhaps Labour should run on an anti-white-privilege ticket and we will be able to judge.
I think even Labour are not quite daft enough to go too far in this direction, not just yet, though somehow the US Democrats persuaded lots of white people to vote for them, goodness knows why they did.
White people voting for anti-white parties is why we’re in the hole we’re in.
Exactly how stupid do you have to be to have found the BNP unacceptable on racist grounds?
I don’t know much about the BNP but yes I think a lot of white people are deluded and/or confused about “racism”.
Essentially: non-Jewish white ethnocentrism is utterly disgusting and should be criminalised.
Other ethnocentrisms should be applauded and subsidised by the state using taxes paid by whites.
Yes, I think that sums it up. If enough people ever wake up to this, it may well be too late.
Isn’t it amazing that there are supposedly educated people in the UK who’ve never heard that particualy, angry undertone in the question Are you Polish? (or – for that matter – have been greeted with mock Hitler salutes by strangers). I’m really glad that I’m so privileged to have experienced both and that I’m not bothered with a right to vote which apparently drags all the oppressed minorities who have it so much down.
Why would educated Englishmen ever have been asked whether they’re Polish?
Good! I think it’s an excellent idea to challenge the propaganda these kids have been indoctrinated with as they emerge from the echo chamber. I look forward to those hard conversations; bring ‘em on.