10pm Curfew? Time For Bed, Prime Minister
Our hopeless, busted flush of a Prime Minister is going to announce today that pubs and restaurants will have to close by 10pm from Thursday, with table-only service for the foreseeable future. Exceptions to the “rule of six” for weddings and funerals will be eliminated, too. Needless to say, this is to fend off a wholly imaginary “second wave”. The Mail does its best to relay Downing Street’s spin on this nonsense, although its heart isn’t in it.
In July, Mr Johnson urged staff to “go back to work if you can” in a bid to prevent city centres becoming ghost towns.
But a source told the Mail that employees will be advised to “work from home if you can” during the coming weeks.
The restrictions have divided the Cabinet, with Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Business Secretary Alok Sharma both warning about the potential impact on the economy. But a senior Government source insisted all ministers accepted the move was needed to bring the R-rate, which measures how fast the disease is spreading, back under control.
“The aim is to cause maximum damage to the R and minimal damage to the economy,” the source said. “Unless we act now, there will be greater economic damage later on.”
Businesses and schools will be allowed to stay open, with Government sources insisting the measures do not amount to a second lockdown.
The Two Ronnies of Doom
Richard Littlejohn has a cracking piece in the Mail about Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance’s apocalyptic press conference.
Sitting 6ft apart behind a newsreader-style desk, The Two Ronnies of Doom delivered an alarmist prognosis of a rising death toll, backed up by speculative graphs based on ‘the science’ — what most of us would call ‘guesswork’.
They could have looked at another graph, from Monday’s Daily Mail, which showed that cancer kills around 450 people a day, compared to just 21 from – or should that be with? – coronavirus.
Five people die daily in traffic accidents. In fact, for those under 50, you’re more likely to be hit by a bus than contract a fatal dose of Covid.
But using the Government’s better-safe-than-sorry approach to the corona pandemic, that would be enough to justify closing every road in Britain.
Hang on. Come to think of it, that’s exactly what they are doing.
During Monday’s dismal YOU’RE ALL GOING TO DIE! diatribe, Vallance and Whitty even managed to invert the language, talking about Britain ‘turning the corner’ – and not in a good way. When normal folk speak of turning the corner, it usually means things are getting better.
Worth reading in full.
Many people have ridiculed Whitty and Valance’s prognosis – 49,000 new cases a day by October 13th if cases continue to double every seven days, not least because the killer graph the Two Ronnies used to illustrate this risk showed cases declining in the last seven days.
If cases haven’t doubled between September 9th and 15th, given that the “rule of six” was only introduced on the 14th, why should we believe they’ll start doubling from now on? And, of course, the lion’s share of the new blue cases – the actual cases – are based on Pillar 2 community testing carried out by PHE, so ~91% of them will be false positives.
Sir Patrick Vallance said that if cases do climb to 49,000 on October 13th we could expect to see 200 people a day dying from Covid in November. Sounds grim, right? But hang on a minute. That’s a case fatality rate of 0.4%. Given that the CFR is usually 10 times higher than the infection fatality rate, that’s an IFR of 0.04% – or less than half that of seasonal flu.
Remind me why we need a second lockdown for at least six months, Chief Science Officer?
Sir Patrick pointed to rising cases in Spain to illustrate the danger, claiming we were lagging Spain by a couple of weeks. But cases in Spain aren’t actually rising, according to Carl Heneghan, Jason Oke and Tom Jefferson, who produced a quick response to the press conference.
In a press briefing today Professors Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance showed epidemic curves for Spain and France – demonstrating how cases numbers have been growing rapidly, possibly exponentially, since August. As is often done when using case numbers by publishing date, the raw numbers are smoothed with a seven-day moving average. Drawn this way, the data shows a continued upward trend.
But drawing the epidemic curve for Spain using cases by symptom onset produces a different result. We have put these two methods together on a single graph so that they can be compared:
The epidemic curve based on the symptom onset date does not show the same continued growth – it appears to show cases stalling in late August.
Everyone I know is completely baffled by the smoke-and-mirrors press conference conducted by Whitty and Valance – and, of course, they refused to take any questions so no journalist was permitted to interrogate their data. Do they believe the nonsense they’re peddling or have they been put up to it by the Triumvirate? 49,000 cases a day would put the UK right at the top of the list of world’s countries affected by COVID-19. David Paton, Professor of Industrial Economics at Nottingham University Businesses School, told the Telegraph he would “take a dim view” if his students presented similar data.
So what’s going on? Why have they embarrassed themselves in the way?
If they’re just stooges for Caesar, Pompey and Crassus (Boris, Dom and Gove), what’s their agenda? Why does a Tory Government want to completely destroy the British economy – predicted to lose £250 million a day while the 10pm curfew remains in place? Won’t that just propel Mr Woodentop into Downing Street?
Even senior politicians are perplexed. An ex-Minister WhatsApped me yesterday evening:
What am I missing here? I seem to be in a parallel universe. Deaths are in single digits. So what if young people are getting it? That’s good. They then become immune. All we have to make sure is they keep away from old people. We can’t shut down the f***ing country again on a false analysis of the problem. In March and April cases were high and deaths were high. In September cases are high but deaths are low. I don’t understand the hysteria in Govt at the moment. They aren’t stupid. They can see the same as me. I really don’t get it.
My best guess is that the Triumvirate know, in their heart of hearts, that they made a colossal cock-up in March and are desperately clinging to Neil Ferguson’s doom-laden prognosis as the rationale for all the terrible damage they’ve done. Rather than admit they got it wrong, they have to remain faithful to their original hypothesis which, if you follow Ferguson’s logic, means we’ve only succeeded in postponing the apocalypse, not averting it. So if we don’t lock down again and “protect the NHS” – i.e. turn it into a Covid-only service again – the Government will be buried under half a million corpses. No, the restrictions must continue until we have a vaccine.
“They are running around like headless chickens, seemingly fearful of being blamed for killing people,” said one veteran Tory MP, quoted in the Telegraph.
Brutus, it’s time to start sharpening your knife.
What’s Really Happening to Cases?
A numerate reader has done some number crunching based on PHE’s weekly data and discovered that in most parts of England cases have fallen in the past week.
Meanwhile, in Sweden…
Sebastian Rushworth, who’s been working as an emergency physician in Sweden, has written an interesting blog post about what it’s like working on the front line in Stockholm. Answer: it’s an absolute breeze. This is a follow-up to a piece he wrote in August, in which he speculated about whether Sweden had achieved herd immunity.
In my earlier article in August, I mentioned that after an initial peak that lasted for a month or so, from March to April, visits to the Emergency Room due to covid had been declining continuously, and deaths in Sweden had dropped from over 100 a day at the peak in April, to around five per day in August.
At the point in August when I wrote that article, I hadn’t seen a single covid patient in over a month. I speculated that Sweden had developed herd immunity, since the huge and continuous drop was happening in spite of the fact that Sweden wasn’t really taking any serious measures to prevent spread of the infection.
So, how have things developed in the six weeks since that first article?
Well, as things stand now, I haven’t seen a single covid patient in the Emergency Room in over two and a half months. People have continued to become ever more relaxed in their behaviour, which is noticeable in increasing volumes in the Emergency Room. At the peak of the pandemic in April, I was seeing about half as many patients per shift as usual, probably because lots of people were afraid to go the ER for fear of catching covid. Now volumes are back to normal.
When I sit in the tube on the way to and from work, it is packed with people. Maybe one in a hundred people is choosing to wear a face mask in public. In Stockholm, life is largely back to normal. If you look at the front pages of the tabloids, on many days there isn’t a single mention of covid anywhere. As I write this (19th September 2020) the front pages of the two main tabloids have big spreads about arthritis and pensions. Apparently arthritis and pensions are currently more exciting than COVID-19 in Sweden.
In spite of this relaxed attitude, the death rate has continued to drop. When I wrote the first article, I wrote that covid had killed under 6,000 people. How many people have died now, six weeks later? Actually, we’re still at under 6,000 deaths. On average, one to two people per day are dying of covid in Sweden at present, and that number continues to drop.
In the hospital where I work, there isn’t a single person currently being treated for covid. In fact, in the whole of Stockholm, a county with 2,4 million inhabitants, there are currently only 28 people being treated for covid in all the hospitals combined. At the peak, in April, that number was over 1,000. If 28 people are currently in hospital, out of 2,4 million who live in Stockholm, that means the odds of having a case of covid so severe that it requires in-hospital treatment are at the moment about one in 86,000.
Oh Boris! If only you’d had the courage to follow your instincts!
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The Swiss Doctor has compiled some data about Covid in Belarus. In spite of the fact that it was the least locked down country in Europe – even less locked down than Sweden – it has had a grand total of 785 deaths to date. Can this official death toll be trusted? Probably not, but all-cause mortality figures show that deaths are about three times higher than the official data – no worse than a bad bout of seasonal flu.
Sensible Scientists Write to Boris Urging Rethink
A group of sensible medical experts led by Prof Sunetra Gupta, Prof Carl Heneghan and Prof Karol Sikora have written an open letter to Boris urging him to rethink his Covid strategy. (Does he have one? Who knew!)
Dear Prime Minister,
We are writing with the intention of providing constructive input into the choices with respect to the COVID-19 policy response. We also have several concerns regarding aspects of the existing policy choices that we wish to draw attention to.
In summary, our view is that the existing policy path is inconsistent with the known risk-profile of COVID-19 and should be reconsidered. The unstated objective currently appears to be one of suppression of the virus, until such a time that a vaccine can be deployed. This objective is increasingly unfeasible (notwithstanding our more specific concerns regarding existing policies) and is leading to significant harm across all age groups, which likely offsets any benefits.
Instead, more targeted measures that protect the most vulnerable from Covid, whilst not adversely impacting those not at risk, are more supportable. Given the high proportion of Covid deaths in care homes, these should be a priority. Such targeted measures should be explored as a matter of urgency, as the logical cornerstone of our future strategy.
In addition to this overarching point, we append a set of concerns regarding the existing policy choices, which we hope will be received in the spirit in which they are intended. We are mindful that the current circumstances are challenging, and that all policy decisions are difficult ones. Moreover, many people have sadly lost loved ones to COVID-19 throughout the UK. Nonetheless, the current debate appears unhelpfully polarised around views that Covid is extremely deadly to all (and that large-scale policy interventions are effective); and on the other hand, those who believe Covid poses no risk at all. In light of this, and in order to make choices that increase our prospects of achieving better outcomes in future, we think now is the right time to ‘step back’ and fundamentally reconsider the path forward.
The list of signatories is impressive. You can read the letter and see the full list in the Spectator.
Round-Up
- “Matt Hancock: Obstinate or Innumerate?” – I reworked one of my blog posts on Lockdown Sceptics for the Critic
- “Whitty and Vallance’s attempt to dress down the lockdown sceptics was unconvincing” – Janet Daley wasn’t convinced by the Two Ronnies
- “A ‘circuit-breaker’ lockdown is no strategy at all” – Ross Clark on fine form in the Telegraph
- “We can beat Covid without lockdowns, says top German virologist” – Hendrik Streeck has some advice for countries contemplating a second lockdown: hold your nerve, and don’t succumb to the pervasive mood of mass hysteria
- “Lockdown is too extreme if the second wave is set to be no more deadly than winter flu” – Patrick O’Flynn says Boris needs to show some leadership. Some hope
- “REVERSAL: CDC Removes Guidelines Saying Coronavirus Can Spread From Tiny Air Particles” – Good news from across the pond
- “Spain deploys army to Madrid to help enforce lockdown” – Is this the next arrow in Matt Hancock’s quiver?
- “Daily ‘moonshot’ tests for COVID-19 will not be given out by NHS – the public will have to pay” – Dido Harding says the tests should be seen as a “cost of doing business” for people who want to attend conferences or go to the theatre. Is she really earmarked to succeed Simon Stevens?
- “Supermarkets warn public against another spate of panic buying” – Supermarket bosses have warned the public against embarking on another spate of panic buying, according to the Grocer
- “Boris Goes Full Fascist Against Lockdown Protests – But Not BLM or XR” – Delingpole lets rip in Breitbart
- “We Need a Radically Different Approach to the Pandemic and Our Economy as a Whole” – Interesting piece in Jacobin, based on interviews with Katherine Yih and Martin Martin Kulldorff, two sceptical public health experts, in which the left-wing magazine comes out against shut downs
- “Is it time we learned to live with the virus?” – Has Nick Triggle, the BBC’s Health Correspondent, finally seen the light?
- “James Ferguson: How bad data is driving fear of a second wave of COVID-19” – Listen to Lockdown Sceptics contributor talking to my old mate Merryn Somerset Webb in the Money Week podcast
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Three today: “Long Slow Suicide” by the Divine Comedy, “Masked Hysteria” by BeastTheButcher and “Why?” by Bronski Beat.
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 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.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. But today we thought we’d tell you about an antidote to woke virtue-signalling – QPR’s decision not to take a knee at last Friday’s 12.45pm fixture against Coventry. Or rather, we thought we’d let Les Ferdinand, QPR’s Director of Football, tell you.
The taking of the knee has reached a point of ‘good PR’ but little more than that. The message has been lost. It is now not dissimilar to a fancy hashtag or a nice pin badge.
What are our plans with this? Will people be happy for players to take the knee for the next 10 years but see no actual progress made? Taking the knee will not bring about change in the game – actions will.
You tell ’em Les. Is it too much too hope that this rare injection of common sense into the national debate on how best to tackle racism will put an end to the absurd displays of BLM fealty in the Premier League?
The Guardian has more.
Stop Press: Free Speech Union Advisory Council member Doug Stokes, Professor of International Relations at the University of Exeter, has a terrific piece in Conservative Home on why the Conservative Government needs to stop standing on the sidelines in the culture war.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
We’ve created a one-stop shop 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 (takes a while to arrive). 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. And, finally, if you feel obliged to wear a mask but want to signal your disapproval of having to do so, you can get a “sexy world” mask with the Swedish flag on it 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. (And while you’re about it, sign this one, too, calling for the repeal of the Coronavirus Act.)
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).
Stop Press: London Mayor Sadiq Khan is pushing for face masks to be work in all public spaces in London, not just shops, according to the Mail. Remind me who elected this clown? That’s right, nobody did. His term of office expired on April 20th this year.
The Care Home Scandal – A Call For Evidence
Lockdown Sceptics has asked an award-winning investigative journalist, David Rose, to investigate the high death toll in Britain’s care homes. Did 20,000+ elderly people really die of COVID-19 between March and July or were many of them just collateral lockdown damage? With lots of care homes short-staffed because employees were self-isolating at home, and with relatives and partners unable to visit to check up on their loved ones because of restrictions, how many elderly residents died of neglect, not Covid? How many succumbed to other conditions, untreated because they weren’t able to access hospitals or their local GP? After doctors were told by care home managers that the cause of death of a deceased resident was “novel coronavirus”, how many bothered to check before signing the death certificate? The risk of doctors misdiagnosing the cause of death is particularly high, given that various safeguards to minimise the risk of that happening were suspended in March.
David Rose would like Lockdown Sceptics readers to share any information they have that could help in this investigation. Here is his request:
We are receiving reports that some residents of care homes who died from causes other than Covid may have had their deaths ascribed to it – even though they never had the disease at all, and never tested positive. Readers will already be familiar with the pioneering work by Carl Heneghan and his colleagues at the Oxford Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, which forced the Government to change its death toll counting method. Previously, it will be recalled, people who died of, say, a road accident, were being counted as Covid deaths if they had tested positive at any time, perhaps months earlier. But here we are talking of something different – Covid “deaths” among people who never had the virus at all.
In one case, where a family is deciding whether to grant permission for Lockdown Sceptics to publicise it, an elderly lady in reasonable health was locked in her room for many hours each day in a care home on the south coast, refused all visitors, deprived of contact with other residents, and eventually went on hunger strike, refusing even to drink water. She died in the most wretched circumstances which were only indirectly a product of the virus – and yet, her death certificate reportedly claims she had Covid.
I’m looking for further examples of 1) elderly people who died as a result of the lockdown and associated measures, but whose deaths were wrongly attributed to “novel coronavirus”, and 2) those elderly people who clearly died from other causes but whose deaths were still formally ascribed to Covid because they once tested positive for it, even after the counting method change.
If you have relevant information, please email Lockdown Sceptics or David directly on [email protected].
Samaritans
If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email [email protected] or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year, providing a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them.
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 hard 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.
And Finally…
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
The troops will not fire on the people, and their officers will not order them to do so
They hate the politicians more than we do
Has the dictator explained how people on benefits are going to pay 10k fines?
Whilst Vallance insisted (though he knew the media would ignore it) that the doubling every seven days scare was just an ‘example’ of exponential increase, he also said in his statement: ‘At the moment, we think that the epidemic is doubling roughly every seven days’. The ‘epidemic’? Not even ‘cases’? And is the evidence that it ‘is’, rather than ‘might be going to’? There seems to be nothing in current data that suggests such a dramatic increase. This is the transcript: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/chief-scientific-advisor-and-chief-medical-officer-briefing-on-coronavirus-covid-19-21-september-2020–2
https://off-guardian.org/2020/09/22/do-you-remember-a-winter-without-a-cold/
This is worth reading.
I cannot sleep now; the latest announcements have made the insomnia worse.
If you want evidence of herd immunity, here it is…
https://twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1308489526478766080
Also see the github link on the tweet if you want get a high res version.
It is so obvious… those places that had a significant outbreak in the spring are now NOT suffering a ‘2nd wave’.
These data are scaled to the maximum case count per region.
In each region, a ‘wave’ of prevalence increase and subsequent decrease occurs, taking about 12-14 weeks. Once this has happened the virus does NOT return. Northern regions still in the process of undergoing this, and thereby achieving full herd immunity. But critically, they are all at least half way through the process. So the prediction would be that this pandemic will die out naturally in the UK within the next 6 weeks.
Johnson is off his head crazy isn’t he?
Sturgeon is worse, she’s demented. Claimed the other day we had it easy because during the war some people didn’t see their families for years. I think she thinks we can take this for a very long time. She’s mistaken on that and i fully expect her to need protection for the rest of her days when this is all over. The amount of lives she’s ruined and still ruining will result in unhinged people seeking retribution. Not me though i’m a good lad, no, i’m gonna sit back and watch as Scotland becomes destitute and laugh my ass off. Maybe it’ll bring my dream for an independent Fife. Free from the traitorous Scots and celts who took english money to wade war against us Picts to force us into the union.
All governments are at it. Just been on Mike Yeadon’s witter and found someone had posted him this gem, which I had not seen before:
https://twitter.com/Counterpropag20/status/1307763294053306370
Only a minute long, it is the German version of our behavioural committee’s ‘people need to be scared’ document, but even more blatant.. Has English subtitles!
The demented grin gave it away
This is only the beginning of the tyranny. Boris has said he’s gonna put the army on the streets so road blocks are coming. Once they’ve been on the streets for a short while the full lockdown will come. Then they will miraculously have the vaccine and you’ll need to get it to show the army at the check points you’re allowed out of your home. Unless the public take to the streets in their millions all round the country and refuse to leave until these measures are stopped we are facing a society like North Korea. I know someone who thinks this is just preparing us for the coming environmental shut off. Everything we took for granted is gonna stop. Billions are gonna be starved to death across Africa and other third world countries. I didn’t have much sympathy for that view until today. Sturgeon has us as prisoners for a virus that has 14 people in Fife in hospital and i’d bet each of these poor souls will be very elderly or the dying stages of terminal illness. There won’t be a single person not close to death with some other condition. So obviously this virus isn’t what… Read more »
He certainly sounded like he was threatening us. Nasty.
Army checkpoints ticks all the boxes. Standard protocol in totalitarian systems. Agree with the miraculous vaccine thing as well. The announcement that EU law will be circumvented by dubious legal instruments if one becomes available before 31st December was very telling. A small population of slaves will be required to manage the machines and provide sexual entertainment, but other than that we are all surplus to requirements.
Even if they withdrew every single soldier and airman off foreign defence, there would not be enough military personnel to do what you’re suggesting. Maybe a city or two, at most.
keep sleeping disinformation dude
Dude… I didn’t hear him actually say any of those things. I did hear him intimate that he’d ask the military to back the police, but all that stuff you say does not automatically follow.
and like always one of the disinformation agents pops up
Don’t know what is worse, the fact that Sturgeon felt able to tear every single family in Scotland apart by banning them from meeting up, or the admiring applauses coming from the guardian at her “brave” act.
Just read the Mail article about the police slamming the new measures as absurd. Seems they in fact want the law to be the same as Scotland where no two households are allowed to meet as the Rule of Six is too difficult to police. Sadly I can see that happening very soon.
Has Sturgeon explained why Scotland’s amazing success at beating covid has reversed so dramatically that she needs to impose these measures? Or is it all the Scottish public’s fault, just like in England?
Johnson is pathetic, basically won’t commit himself to either side (letting virus “rip” which of course is not actually the sceptic strategy, vs permanent lockdown. Trying to pacify both sides and maintain some popularity.
This is impossible to police.
Many people have woken up during the last 24 hours.
Time to make hay.
They don’t stay awake for long.
I have been on here far too long, today, but military/political coups don’t occur often in the UK so I thought I should experience this bit of living history.
For those of you still awake, and with respect for Van Morrison, who also spoke out against the restrictions, here is Van at his early best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivHA_1WGjM4&ab_channel=ScottMacGregor
Seen him live a few years ago with my dad and he really won me over. The live version of this was outstanding
https://youtu.be/BqQ88fP23Ok
Yes, very good
Since we are at it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c70E2L_OTx4
Alan Johnson allowed to lie on Newsnight – wrongly claiming the UK has the worst Covid fatalities record in the world. Totally untrue on any measure. No intervention from Maitlis. What is she paid £370,000 pa for?
Alan Johnson ex labour politician?
The Postman
I’ve noticed that Radio 5 Live (or is it Living Death?) uses its station idents (a confusing melange of superloud soundbites and over the top death metal music) to blast out 1984 style messages. Today’s was no exception. At the core was the message “we just need to do whatever they tell us to do, then we’ll be safe”. That’s pretty much verbatim. And I am pretty sure it was said more than once.
So yep that was the message…economic collapse, job destruction, cultural decline, breakdown of NHS services and wearing disease breeding masks will keep us safe.
Lots of new names on here today.
Yes … looking good.
Or could just be bots.
Bots would struggle on here. I would love to know how extensive the 77th Brigade operation is. I suspect their presence has been vastly overstated for propaganda purposes. Or maybe its supposed existence is itself a psyop to sow doubt and discord in forums like this. If it was a serious operation it would be a closely guarded state secret.
“And the raw astonished ranks stand fast
To slay or to be slain
By the men they knew in the kindly past
That shall never come again–
By the men they met at dance or chase,
In the tavern or the hall,
At the justice-bench and the market-place,
At the cudgel-play or brawl–
Of their own blood and speech and race,
Comrades or neighbours all!
More bitter than death this day must prove
Whichever way it go,
For the brothers of the maids we love
Make ready to lay low
Their sisters sweethearts, as we move
Against our dearest foe.“
2800 now! Can we get to 3000?
What are you? 12 years old?
Well, he isn´t a pussy.
Must be the most posts in a day.
It has been quite a day
Can we please, please get Alan Jones on the tele over here instead of boris?
https://youtu.be/xMfGeUkHfTg
Mainstream TV in the UK has arselicked the government and slavishly followed the government line whilst sky tv Australia has ripped the government to pieces. Why can’t we have that in the UK.
That was great – he nails it!
Luke Johnson stating the sceptic position v clearly and effectively on Newsnight. Emily looking like she was having a panic attack.
He did well. Not over the top, but a clear exposition of why what is being done spells disaster for this country and its citizens.
Good job Luke.
Now we need more to speak out against this madness.
Luke Johnson was on TalkRADIO a few days ago, ex boss of Pizza Express. He was talking about the fear being put out by MSM, I assume that was causing Emily a problem.
I was falling dismally asleep – today has been hard to cope with – but was woken up as if into a dream by hearing LJ allowed to voice – twice – the ‘1% of deaths currently caused by Covid’ fact. And he was given the final spot in the Covid section of the programme – so nobody else was wheeled on after him to cover over what he had said.
K so I’m going to bed now cause exhausted (I only get exhausted when demoralised) BUT one final post and I will check the answers tomorrow because I really am interested
One of the top comments on this https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8761215/London-police-blast-Boris-Johnsons-new-rules-absurd-nonsense.html#comments Mail article says this
(2300% increase in testing to generate 100% increase in ‘positives’)
Is this true? Is this taken from any stats? Can anyone prove this to me?
Welcome back
I don’t have the figures to hand but I believe the % positive has increased slightly despite the rise in testing. From something like 0.8% to 1.5% ish but don’t quote me.
Not commented in a while but over the last few days I’ve been thinking how the hell are BoJo and his buddies going to convince even the most stupid of the sheeple that there is still massive danger unless they can quickly generate some deaths (as opposed to cases). My first thought was they would just do as they have before and basically fake the figures but some of the scientific community are wise to that trick.
Today we have the answer. The Bastard has told the vulnerable who have been shielding to go back to normal. They are by default the people most at risk and will have had no chance to develop immunity due to shielding. He is encouraging then them to stop shielding in that knowledge. It looks like he is hoping they will catch the virus and become hospitalised or end up dying – there’s your increase in hospital admissions and deaths to prove why we needed the extra restrictions. Basically he is trying again to commit mass murder as was done previously with care homes.
My sincere hope is that with the virus actually at a very low level these people will still… Read more »
The whole point of shielding was to hide away safely while everyone else got it so that they could emerge safely.
But that would only work if you don’t lockdown the rest of society too, but allow herd immunity to develop naturally instead.
Make sure everyone you know who is vulnerable is taking vitamins D and C plus zinc..
The BBC do it by having a voice over say deaths have “increased” in recent weeks (no details) and then flashing the fear figure if 41000 plus (the year total). Job done.
Bill Gates did say we would notice the second virus.
Can they have further delights in store?
Are they feeding the virus or a virus into the nations by a schedule? That Intelligence are aware of?
I think they tried to kill as many old people as possible in early March by moving out some very ill old people from hospitals into care homes then locking them up with no medical care and killed them off with DNR’s. They did this to inflate their death count. They knew what they were doing.
Also removing medical care caused a huge amount of deaths in the home as people had heart attacks and strokes and didn’t get the help they needed.
Without this artifical boost to the death rates, the COVID boat wouldn’t have floated.
Proves it was deliberate the first time too.Can we just forget the incompetence line now.What we are facing is a coup disguised as a protective measure
They are supposedly off-loading positive people from hospitals back into care homes again for the second wave so that will do it.
I’ve never knowingly experienced cognitive dissonance – a term I’ve recently discovered- until today. I’ve been a lockdown sceptic since roughly may/June but I’ve kept abreast of both MSM views and alternative media for a balanced view, (so I thought!) I’ve given up MSM in the last 2 months as it just makes me angry. I check the ONS to confirm what I read on sceptics and UnHerd etc but today looked a clip from profs Whitty and the other chap from yesterday, and it was as though my brain’s cogs stuck fast. I have in my head that the average age of death in uk from/with Covid is 82 years-above average life expectancy- and the tests coming back are 72%( but up to 80% and this said by Hancock!!) asymptomatic. This is surely a good thing! But they are spewing doom and gloom. My brain simply could not compute! My 72 year old Mum has finally stopped believing the nonsense on the BBC due to listening to the podcasts I send her – London Calling and Planet normal. Sadly many of her friends are terrified and just aren’t interested in looking at actual stats because they simply cannot believe… Read more »
I wasn’t aware of this site for lockdown Mark 1. So much more at ease that I have it this time around.
Not a whiff of fear, plenty of anger though.
I’m listening to Toby & James’ podcast. They conveniently skip over the possibility that their friend Gove has his hand on the tiller.
Which is why they both make me want to vomit. Toby and Delingpole are both obsequious cucks who are hostages to their envy of – and deference to – the wealthy and powerful.
Would you mind changing your profile picture? That and your generally negative comments are quite putting me off reading what you post.
My profile picture serves a purpose then.
Easy Al.
We have a lot to thank Toby for. IMHO.
I don’t deny his entrepreneurial spirit in founding the website and the FSU etc, but since I’m a poor northern peasant, I clearly don’t understand his nuanced and debonair approach to critiquing people who need nothing more than repeated kicks in the balls.
Please excuse my peasantry.
I’m suspicious of people who come on here inciting violence, Are they genuine sceptics? And perhaps you can tell us what cuck means…
That’s a hell of an accusation, matey. Show me where you think I’ve incited anything other than emotions.
Trollistry more like!
Well la-di-da at your sophisticated understanding of internet culture.
Have a grape.
Maybe this is the last whisky and time for bed?
I haven’t slept for about 17 days now.
The truth is a miserable business.
So let me get this straight we spent the best part of three f**king years filibustering about brexit due to the potential economic damage and we’ve heard hardly a peep in six months from Parliament about the titanic costs of COVID.
You are correct and… I don’t know what else to say.
Yup.
Brexit – AAARRGHGGH THE ECONOMY!
This – AAARRRGHGGHG THE COMMON COLD, FUCK THE ECONOMY!
Funniest comment all day. Thanks for that. 😀
Exactly! Just one life!!!
CORRECT
There are occasional moments of dark humour in the absurdity. “Let’s get back to the things we love” was one of my favourites. Or the Orwellian classic from Victoria: “STAYING APART KEEPS US TOGETHER”.
Yep and May still at it, while caring not a jot about Lockdown damage.
Bitch.
Why did she continue after being kicked off the case as leader ?
Let the Lion roar, said the PM
More like Tony The Tiger at the moment. Or Bagpuss.
Anyone remember this?
The CDC did say how and where flu vaccines will be given could change due to COVID-19.
“Some settings that usually provide flu vaccine, like workplaces, may not offer vaccination this upcoming season, because of the challenges with maintaining social distancing,” the CDC said.
Supermarkets, doctors’ offices and pharmacies are expected to have flu shots on hand this year as usual. However, you may not be leaving the house much or going out to work right now. So, you might need more of a plan to get your shot as compared to previous years, when you could easily get your vaccine while out and about.
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, experts say, it is more important than ever to get a flu shot. This will help ensure hospitals are not overwhelmed this season. In a year like this one, even those with regular flu symptoms might feel like they need to get checked out by a doctor.
Fucks’ sake, go to bed and take some paracetamols Jesus Christ
OK Good Night!
The US army found that taking the flu shot increased Covid-19 infection by 36% and led to a 51% increase in pneumonia. Now where do I get my flu shot?
There was at least one study done on kids too, where the same was noticed..
Antibody dependent enhancement. Has been the downfall of many a new vaccine.
So despite the fact (opinion?) that having a ‘flu shot’ possibly makes one more susceptible to C19 ‘experts’ say getting the ‘flu shot’ is even more important?
Are they afraid of people missing out on a dose of C19?
They can take their ‘flu jab’ and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
And before people start, yes I’ve had the ‘flu, it floored me for two weeks. I’ve also had bronchitis which lingered for weeks and I’ve been hospitalised with pneumonia, in ICU for two weeks, nearly died and took a year to recover.
I say again, take yer ‘flu jab and stick it in your eyeball.
The only times – yes multiple – I’ve had ‘flu’, or something very nasty like it, in the past ten years have been years I’ve had the flu jab.
Never again.
Sorry but I do not trust them not to lace this year’s flu shot with something nasty (knowing a lot of people will not take a covid shot until forced..)
Why have a flu shot anyway, when you are hardly allowed to meet anyone any more?
It was this bit that made me laugh!
However, you may not be leaving the house much or going out to work right now. So, you
might need more of a plan to get your shot as compared to previous years, when you could easily get your vaccine while out and about
I think it’s time to announce that everyone involved with GBBO – production, hosting, contestants – should die horribly in a massive pan accident.
The ambulances should take about four days to arrive, during which time everyone injured has been kept alive by sharing a stash of marzipan. The cameras should record the last breath of the last contestant alive and then cut to a Greggs advert. After the break they should explain that the ambulance crew was powerless to help because the critically injured GBBOs had failed to wear covid-secure PPE.
The attempts at bread and circuses are so transparently insulting now, I don’t see why I shouldn’t join in.
You just wait while Strictly Come Wanking starts……
I’ve trained for it all my life.
Ever since I saw Wayne Sleep for the first time in Cinderella at the Scunthorpe Palladium in 1971, I knew what I needed to do.
What is GBBO?
DavidC
Great British Bake Off. BBC light entertainment garbage to placate the masses. Never watched it.
Ah, right! Thanks Richard. Ditto, never watched it (or most of those types of programme!).
DavidC
God I hate that fat Cnut Johnson.
We’ve been led a dance and are being turned into donkeys!
Just saw this via Facebook – a new alternative paper “The Light Truth” being started up. Looks like they’re looking for contributors if anyone interested.
web link here but not much content as yet
http://www.thelightpaper.co.uk/?fbclid=IwAR12tLGQF0F08bFdeGvWRzGwPHo7c7K2PJBd6x10SHm7Jwi2dbPk2kl7XT0
Very interesting! I like the tag line at the bottom, ‘the truth will set you free, but first it will p*** you off’!
Looks interesting. I wish them well.
@Toby WHERE THE HELL IS THIS NEW POLITICAL PARTY ?!?!?!
Brexit Party is gearing up at long last but I think their baggage is going to present a problem to a large section of the sceptic population.
This new Party needs to get going and get going NOW. Every day lost is another mountain to climb. We’re well and truly staring down the barrel here, BoJo is not going to snap out of this, he’s dead set on running the country into oblivion for the ‘greater good’.
I think it’s a bit much to expect Toby to do everything. Personally with this and the FSU he does more than his fair share. People want a new party? Step up and form one.
Well you may be right but to be effective it would need funding to the tune of more money than a small group of ordinary people have because of the need to establish a media presence to counter government propaganda
I agree! The Brexit Party, while it served a purpose, was never a real party. We need a people’s revolt party – first job, to dismantle the Lockdown Lunacy and the Mask Madness.
Actually the Brexit Party had amazing comms and infrastructure. In 6 weeks they had won the EU elections. So thag model would be a good basis to get something up and running. And I loked that all its candidates were real people not PPE clones and journalists.
UKIP and the Brexit Party worked in very different ways, with opposite sets of advantages and disadvantages. UKIP was a genuine political party with a mass membership, thriving local branches and social activities to match. That made for a strong activist base, and rich local data of the kind that can be used for successful political street fighting. But, it was very open to entryism, and even more to media misrepresentation of members who were too ‘little’ to protect themselves.
The Brexit Party is very centralised. It lacks a mass membership (most are just paying registered supporter), so it is immune to entryism. It’s big names are too ‘big’ for the media to dare to misrepresent them too badly. But there is no locally rooted activist base, and no data.
There is a choice to be made for any new party between these models.
Operation Moonshot proposals are scientifically unsound
https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3699
Just published in BMJ
Does this mean that my proposals for using a unicorn to help me hunt elves and pixies are also unsound?
In today’s other headlines:
Technologically impossible goal “scientifically unsound”
Sea “wet”
Grass “green”
The interesting bit is that the BMJ published it – i.e. they haven’t (fully) bought into the bullshit so that’s something to have a credible organisation push back a bit.
Would you be interested in investing in my plan for extracting sunlight from cucumbers? It’s your chance to get in on the ground floor of this exciting project.
How is that our leaders, who wouldn’t even make it as Apprentice candidates, are able, without challenge, to “spaff” a reputed £100bn on such an unrealistic proposal? Something which would be regarded as entirely unnecessary in saner times.
But Boris said just now that we could only be released after
a) repeated testing of the whole population (moonshot, his dream)
b) poisonous vaccine injection.
C get rid of Johnson
Despite this increasingly Orwellian state I am still allowed to call Boris Johnson a c**t (for the time being anyway). So here goes….. C**t C**t C**t C**t C**t!