He Is Risen
When I first heard the news that Trump had caught Covid, I was worried. What if he died? Not only would we have to endure the triumphalist crowing of the lockdown zealots, but his death would become the central plank in the case for maintaining all the current restrictions or making them even more severe. Donald Trump didn’t take the virus seriously and look what happened to him! We’d all be wearing masks in public for the next 10 years.
As if to confirm these fears, the zealots already started making this argument in anticipation of Trump’s demise. Heather Mac Donald makes this point in City Journal.
The media and Democratic establishments are in a frenzy of Schadenfreude over President Trump’s Covid diagnosis. Trump’s contracting the disease, they argue, discredits any coronavirus policy short of lockdowns and mandatory mask-wearing, outdoors as well as in. Trump is now “exhibit No. 1 for the failure of his leadership on coronavirus,” Democratic pollster Geoff Garin told the New York Times. …
New York Times columnist Frank Bruni claims that Trump’s infection proves that the country has been lax in its coronavirus response. “It is time, at long last, to learn. To be smarter. To be safer. To be more responsible, to others as well as to ourselves,” he wrote on Saturday. “We cannot erase the mistakes made in America’s response to the coronavirus, but we can vow not to continue making them.”
But I didn’t think through the alternative scenario that actually helps the sceptics’ cause – he makes a complete recovery within a few days and comes out swinging. Well, that’s exactly what’s happened! Trump left Walter Reed Medical Centre yesterday evening and told his followers on Twitter: “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
This tweet was immediately condemned by mainstream media commentators as “dangerous”, “gross”, and “almost impossible to believe”, fearing that if Trump brushes off the virus in such a cavalier fashion it will mean the American people won’t take it seriously. But that’s his intention, obviously. Trump is effectively telling the American people that catching COVID-19 is not a death sentence. We’ve learnt so much about how to treat it, that even an overweight, 74 year-old male can recover within a week. He has now become exhibit No. 1 in the case against needless restrictions on our liberty.
Trump’s reaction to his bout of coronavirus is in stark contrast to Boris Johnson’s, who went from being the biggest beast in the Westminster jungle to a kind of Mowgli figure, leaping in fright at the sight of his own shadow. This, too, has confounded the lockdown zealots, as Heather Mac Donald says in her article.
Lockdown proponents are hoping that Trump will follow the course of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who reversed his position on keeping the economy open after his own hospitalization for coronavirus. Trump should foreswear such a self-involved about-face.
Instead, Trump should tell the American public something that it has needed to hear from a political leader for months: we must go on with our lives. There will be more coronavirus cases; there will be, tragically, more deaths. But we cannot shut down our human interactions in order to prevent one kind of death. We have never done so before, and the consequences of having done so this year will cripple human life for generations to come if we do not overcome fear now.
I’ve had my reservations about Trump in the past, but he’s remained largely faithful to his sceptical instincts about Covid and his reaction to contracting the disease is exactly how Boris should have responded.
Chapeau, Mr President.
Tory MPs May be About to Call Time on the 10pm Curfew
According to the Telegraph, there’s a possibility that a sufficient number of Conservative MPs, as well as the Parliamentary Labour Party, will vote against the renewal of the 10pm curfew on Wednesday night when it’s expected to be put before Parliament.
Ministers have to ask MPs to approve coronavirus lockdown measures in simple unamendable “yes/no” votes in the Commons within weeks of them coming into force.
Two votes on lockdown restrictions in England are expected in the next 48 hours – one on Tuesday night on the “rule of six”, which limits gatherings to six people and came into force on September 14th, and a second on Wednesday on the 10pm curfew, which has applied nationally since September 24th.
While only a handful of Tory MPs are likely to rebel on the “rule of six”, dozens more are expected to try to vote down the curfew.
Rebel Conservatives – emboldened after last week forcing the Government to give MPs a veto on all future national lockdowns before they come into force – said on Monday that they could muster the necessary 43 Tory MPs to vote with Labour to overturn the Government’s 85 working majority.
One Tory MP said: “My sense is that a material number of MPs might vote against the 10pm.” Another said: “If it transpires that Labour is going to oppose it, then I would think there would be enough of us who would be inclined to vote against it.”
Steve Baker, the former Brexit minister who last week acted as an unofficial whip for Tory rebels, said: “Very few members of Parliament have constituencies which will bear voting against every infringement of liberty.
“However, there is a growing consensus that neither the 10pm curfew, nor including children in the ‘rule of six’, are well evidenced. I expect quite a few members of Parliament to take issue on those two points.”
Sir Desmond Swayne, a senior Tory MP, said: “The 10pm [curfew] is a huge mistake. The virus can’t tell the time. It is just absurd to impose this across the country.”
Sir Graham Brady, who is expected to rebel, told the BBC that patience with the Government’s local lockdown restrictions is starting to “wear thin”.
On Monday, Mr Sunak said of the 10pm curfew: “Everyone is very frustrated and exhausted and tired about all of this.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Harry Lambert has written a long read for the New Statesman speculating about Boris’s future. Entitled “The End of the Affair”, it’s based on searching conversations with 15 Conservative MPs, most of whom are pretty damning. “It is hard to find a Conservative MP who is impressed by the present government,“ he writes. The most telling quote comes from Steve Baker: “If a smash comes, it will come very hard and fast. And the more isolated he is, the more at risk he will be.”
Are the Rising Cases Just An Artefact of Increased Testing?
If like me you’ve argued that the recent increase in daily cases is because we’re testing more people each day, you’ll be used to the standard rejoinder: it isn’t just case numbers that are increasing, it’s the percentage of people testing positive. But is that percentage really going up? Dr Clare Craig, a Consultant Pathologist, has spotted an interesting anomaly in the Government’s treatment of people who’ve been tested repeatedly when it comes to recording their test results in the data and written about this for Lockdown Sceptics. Here’s an extract:
There are two ways to indicate the percentage of positive tests in a coherent and consistent manner. Either a figure could be published giving the number of positive tests and the total number of tests done – but these figures have not been published since August 20th. Alternatively, the percentage could be given by the number of newly diagnosed patients and the total number of patients tested. The difference between the two is that many people are repeatedly tested.
Instead, the Government press briefing on September 30th, published alongside the data, indicates that the official published figures need to be treated with some caution: “The number of people tested in a given week will exclude some people who have been tested in a previous week, so may not be an accurate denominator to use. For example, someone testing negative for the first time in week 1 will be counted in the ‘people tested’ figure for that week. If that same person tests negative again in week 4, they will not be counted in the ‘people tested’ figure for week 4.”
What this means is that for all the people tested more than once, a positive test result will count towards the numerator, but a negative test result will not count towards the denominator. Someone who tested negative in May could be contact traced again now and if they test negative their result would not be included in the official figures but if they test positive it would be. The relevant percentage of positive tests would therefore be falsely elevated.
Brilliant spot by Clare – Carl Heneghan-esque. Worth reading in full. Let’s hope some bigwig at PHE reads Clare’s article and fixes the problem.
Are the Student Drug Deaths Due to the Covid Restrictions?
A reader in Newcastle has made an insightful observation about the deaths of four young people in the North East, including a Newcastle University student.
It – the Corona response, not the disease – is getting rather close to home.
You’ll be aware of the 700 plus students tested positive by RT-PCR and now – tragically – there have been drugs deaths involving students.
The BBC quotes a criminology professor who observers a problem with nightclubs being closed is they offer a somewhat safer environment for partying. Formally organised freshers’ week events also offered a much safer environment for students away from home for the first time, as did the old halls of residence bars – if there are still any left.
Students do fall victim to drugs from time to time, unfortunately, but it’s hard not to see these ones as avoidable deaths of promising young people with their whole lifetimes in front of them, who might still be with us if it wasn’t for the scientifically misguided and futile efforts not to ‘kill granny’ and, in my opinion, the cynical way in which university Vice-Chancellors have behaved towards these young people.
I just checked the NHS dashboard and deaths from COVID yesterday in the entire North East of England were zero. I guess it may go up, but the daily rates are in single figures. COVID-19 – the disease – is not the problem.
The Great Barrington Declaration
Three sceptical public health experts – Professor Martin Kulldorff (Harvard), Professor Sunetra Gupta (Oxford) and Professor Jay Bhattacharya (Stanford) – have come together in Great Barrington, Massachusetts to launch the Great Barrington Declaration, a petition calling on governments around the world to adapt a more proportionate approach to managing the pandemic that they call “Focused Protection”. They are the three main signatories, but the co-signatories include Dr Michael Levitt, Dr Gabriela Gomes and Professor Karol Sikora among others, as well as several scientific contributors to Lockdown Sceptics.
Coming from both the left and right, and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health. The results (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health – leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice.
Keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed.
Fortunately, our understanding of the virus is growing. We know that vulnerability to death from COVID-19 is more than a thousand-fold higher in the old and infirm than the young. Indeed, for children, COVID-19 is less dangerous than many other harms, including influenza.
As immunity builds in the population, the risk of infection to all – including the vulnerable – falls. We know that all populations will eventually reach herd immunity – i.e. the point at which the rate of new infections is stable – and that this can be assisted by (but is not dependent upon) a vaccine. Our goal should therefore be to minimize mortality and social harm until we reach herd immunity.
The most compassionate approach that balances the risks and benefits of reaching herd immunity, is to allow those who are at minimal risk of death to live their lives normally to build up immunity to the virus through natural infection, while better protecting those who are at highest risk. We call this Focused Protection. …
Those who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal. Simple hygiene measures, such as hand washing and staying home when sick should be practiced by everyone to reduce the herd immunity threshold. Schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching. Extracurricular activities, such as sports, should be resumed. Young low-risk adults should work normally, rather than from home. Restaurants and other businesses should open. Arts, music, sport and other cultural activities should resume. People who are more at risk may participate if they wish, while society as a whole enjoys the protection conferred upon the vulnerable by those who have built up herd immunity.
This is welcome attempt by a group of sensible scientists to try and inject some common sense into the debate about how best to mitigate the impact of the virus. You don’t have to be a public health expert to sign it, either. Members of the public are welcome to do so and I’ve already signed. Over 14,000 so far and I’ve a feeling it’s going to climb very high, very quickly.
Bursting the Bubble
A reader has come up with an excellent argument against the separating of children in bubbles at school.
To make our schools so-called “Covid Safe” many or all of them have developed “bubbles”, where each classroom or year group is kept separate from the others. Separate play areas, separate canteen times and even separate arrival and collection times.
The theory seems sound, even logical – until you realise it isn’t!
I have two grandchildren in one school in Wales and three others in another school in England. The schools both operate on a broadly similar methodology to keep everyone “safe”.
The problem with this theory is that there are many, many siblings (and close out-of-school friends) in each bubble. Inevitably, a family with two kids, three or more will have a child in a different year or classroom bubble. One of my two grandkids caught the snivels and then a day after that his older brother had it. Probably caught in one bubble and then it gets passed to another bubble.
So I reckon this simple fact of life makes the whole “keep ’em separate” effort a waste of everybody’s time.
Poetry Corner
A reader called Veronica Richards has sent me rather a lovely poem about why friendships whither – poignant, given the pressure the lockdown has placed on friendship groups.
RIFTS
And when, my dear, on my death-bed I lie, reflecting back on the ploys of my mind,
the greatest mistake I will see I made
was to allow Opinion which appeared adamantly pressing
to tear our friendship apart,
‘apparently’.Yet as I lay prone with a cool to my breath,
there will return the Knowing:
that the you that you are, lies also in me,
in all aspects, and primarily Essence.
That what I perceived to be
your manipulation, ignorance, your cowardice,
and you perceived to be my stubbornness, scornfulness, anger
were mere postures we chose to adopt awhile,
occasionally inter-changebly.
Stances which could be,
can be,
dropped at any moment,
so that all that remains is this Innocence recognized by the heart, not the mind
…this Light …of our timeless Existence,
great Healer of rifts.
Prior to thought and to word but not excluding of them.And the good news, my sweet, is it is never too late for miracles to occur
so long as we are willing to stop
bestowing mind-made fake-power in crazy directions.At least: right now.
And now, and Now again.
Shall we do it?ALL of us TOGETHER!
Or at least you and me
for seventeen seconds at least?
Shall we? – while smiling and counting to test our resolve.I’ll start if you like. Or you can.
Round-Up
- “And a plague shall cover the land of Trump” – Excellent piece on the crowing among lockdown zealots about Trump catching the virus by Brendan O’Neill
- “Missing 16,000 coronavirus tests glitch ’caused by large Excel spreadsheet file’” – Turns out Serco, which is keeping a record of who’s infected for PHE, uses Microsoft Excel to store the data and the reason for the missing ~16,000 cases is because the spreadsheet reached full capacity, making it impossible to store any additional names. That’s not a glitch; that’s rank incompetence
- “Why won’t the UK vaccinate the whole population?” – Peston in the Spectator calls for the entire UK population to be given the Covid vaccine when it’s available. Yikes!
- “Despite trying to appear united, Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak are increasingly at odds over Covid” – The rift is deepening, according to the Telegraph
- “All the clubs and pubs in Carmarthenshire that have been handed closure notices” – Local authority enforcement officers in Wales are serving 14-day closure notices on premises deemed not to be ‘covid secure’
- “Dalton Parents Revolt Over Prep School’s $54,180 Online Classes” – If you thought English private schools were expensive…
- “Paris put on ‘maximum alert’ as more COVID-19 restrictions are imposed” – Bedwetters triumph across the Channel
- “The NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) Scandal” – Retired Rear Admiral Philip Mathias, a former Director of Nuclear Policy at the Ministry of Defence, has Hancock in his sights and is seeking judicial review of the NHS’s Continuing Healthcare Scandal
- “Tories won’t forgive No 10’s incompetence” – Another damning piece about Boris and his top team, this time by Rachel Sylvester in the Times
- “This test and trace shambles is far more than a ‘technical glitch’” – Lea McKinstry in the Telegraph says Britain now has is the worst of all worlds: authoritarianism mixed with amateurism
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.
Update: Some of you have asked how to link to particular stories on Lockdown Sceptics. The answer used to be to first click on “Latest News”, then click on the links that came up beside the headline of each story. But we’ve changed that so the link now comes up beside the headline whether you’ve clicked on “Latest News” or you’re just on the Lockdown Sceptics home page. Please do share the stories with your friends and on social media.
“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 £1.49 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.
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).
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…
Yesterday, I linked to the trailer for the South Park Pandemic Special – which is packed with anti-lockdown jokes. Today, I’m linking to the whole thing. Guaranteed to raise a laugh from even the most depressed sceptic. Enjoy.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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Bill Gates ‘back to normal late 2021. I say ‘The Best way to predict the future is to create it”
The dictator cannot defeat the British people. He cannot defeat love, loyalty, resolve, and family
He is a bum who will be gone soon enough
Unsure about quite what the protesters are asking for, I’m sure some are for ending all the bullsh1t and returning to civilised life (plus some well deserved compensation for all the cr4p they’ve gone through already), but I think some among them are bedwetters who’d just like some more furlough while they cower. It certainly seems to be such a mix from the coverage I’ve seen, or maybe the MSM are just picking up on a few bedwetters in the crowd as a way to try to weaken the anti-lockdown case made by the good people at that “concert”.
“What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you”
― Tony Benn
I’ve never been a party man, but I miss Tony Benn being part of our politics.
I disagreed with most of what he said but still had a lot of time for him.
He was a good man. If only that were true for all politicians.
Who on earth gives their son a girl’s name?
(Sue’s dad is not a valid answer as it’s a made up story)
Evelyn Waugh’s dad?
Up to half of the cases were old and should not been counted as new case during 3 months.Too high Ct in PCR test in Belgium
https://www.brusselstimes.com/news/belgium-all-news/health/134209/coronavirus-test-infection-positive-antwerp-belgium/
“Het Laatste Nieuws was able to consult the results from one of the country’s largest laboratories in Roeselare (in the province of West Flanders) and found that in June, July and August, almost half of the positive cases were in fact people with a previous infection.
The same pattern was reportedly observed in Ghent, Bruges and fifteen other regions. Only in Antwerp did there seem to be many new infections.”
James Corbett’s latest is titled ‘I Am A Conspiracy Theorist’, the intro text is relevant to LS discussions.
“If you are afraid of being called a conspiracy theorist, then those words are having their intended effect. I will not censor myself to appeal to the Normie McNormiesons of the world. Yes, sometimes I theorize about conspiracies. And guess what? So do you! Now let’s discuss some evidence, shall we?”
He has a point, or more.
I think as far as Covid goes it’s much better to talk in terms special interest groups seeking to capture public policy for their own, often dubious ends.
We often forget the variances between the responses of different nation states. Don’t wear a mask in the UK? You are sometimes challenged, occasionally in an unpleasant and aggressive way, but exemptions exist. Don’t wear a mask in the Philippines? You are summarily executed on the spot by police.
I was thinking today, if they were so set on the pantomime of lockdown downs. Why did they not open up in May and say then, it might get worse in October and we plan to shut down again for two weeks then. Also in February for two weeks both shut downs coincide with half term and the other viruses peak season. But if things go well we will stay open. We want everyone to feel certain about what we are doing, why and for how long. Plan your lives around this and if we all do our bit we can avoid October and Feb shut downs and make the most of the rest of the year….
That would surely have been honest, direction setting and optimistic while also making people be aware. You could have carried on with protecting the most vulnerable behind the scenes. Stop all the bloody publishing of PCR tests / deaths. Just stop hanging themselves.
This constant shitting the bed every week is so damaging to everyone. What’s the point ? It can only be deliberate now.
The constant pessimism is taking its toll. Leadership by threats and intimidation is counterproductive. Our society is falling apart at the seams because of it.
Interestingly, this has kind of been acknowledged by Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe today:
https://www.euro.who.int/en/about-us/regional-director/statements-and-speeches/2020/statement-rising-covid-19-fatigue-and-a-pan-regional-response
Thanks for the link, encouraging that this has even been formally acknowledged by the WHO. Shows that such big institutions are not quite the monolithic entities we might think they are.
Actually, it gets better. There is an accompanying framework:
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/335820/WHO-EURO-2020-1160-40906-55390-eng.pdf
I’ve not had any time to fully read or digest, but the 4 key strategies are:
Allow people to live their lives, but reduce risk. Wide-ranging restrictions may not be feasible for everyone in the long run.
Understand people. Collect and use evidence for targeted, tailored and effective policies, interventions and communication.
Engage people as part of the solution. Find ways to meaningfully involve individuals and communities at every level.
Acknowledge and address the hardship people experience and the profound impact the pandemic has had on their lives.
This is more of a playbook that could have come straight from Tegnell et al.
Its just NGO speak gobbledegook. It will have no effect on anything. When they say that there are no more deaths this year than most previous years therefore there was / is no pandemic, sorry we effed up, then I will read and listen.
It’s also starting to see through it.
Because the whole point is the constant psy-op of fear.
https://twitter.com/MichaelYeadon3/status/1313589764608724992/photo/1
“The grey are hospitalised Covid19 patients by bed type, as of yesterday. Why the media focus only on admissions for one respiratory virus is unclear. There is no public health crisis nor any sign that one is imminent.”
The fact the mainstream media is so determined to push the establishment / globalist narrative so unquestionably should set alarm bells ringing amongst the general public. They just keep on finding (making up) new scare stories.
The media is as deeply committed to the narrative as the politicos. They can’t retreat without losing face, and face is valuable to ‘opinion formers’.
They’re in receipt of government Danegeld.
Mike Yeadon asking for help – anyone here know how to do what he is needing assistance with?
https://twitter.com/MichaelYeadon3/status/1313608501411880962
It’s regarding mandatory vaccinations..
The BBC want to keep their bloated six figure salaries that are in the. gift of the dictator
Just received a response from my MP, Hilary Benn. It’s the first response I have received that isn’t a stock answer from his administrator. I was deliberately evil to be fair, here’s my message to him:
And his response:
Won’t achieve anything, but since he’s not going to do anything useful about it I thought – why not get a little bit of joy from rattling his cage?
Tee-hee Tee Ell – you achieved the near impossible…a real reply from an MP!
Judge me, but I like tgat he pretends to be personally offended. Tony Benn stood up – regardless of rights and wrongs he stood up.
It’s very fucking personal to millions. And this over-paid waste of skin is offended. Fuck him. I’m glad that it’s personal.
Making mistakes is part of life. The only things I would feel ashamed of would be if I had said things I hadn’t believed in order to get on. Some politicians do do that. Tony Benn
Now that I’ve got his attention, thought I’d send him a follow up. Decided to try and show a bit of compassion just on the off-chance he reads it.
I apologise for being so rude. It was utterly unforgivable and I should not have stooped to this level.
I was rude because I am incensed and deeply concerned by what is happening. I did read your response, in full. To quote a passage from an article by your father, who I genuinely do respect as a great and wonderfully articulate man with a brilliant mind (emphasis mine):
“It used to be clear that the ruling classes had the wealth, authority and power while those underneath did not. This started to change when the right to appoint our rulers moved from the wallet to the ballot. Now they are doing everything they can to preserve their power. This is why democratic rights and civil liberties are so important and essential. We must now preserve our right to speak, to assemble, to organise, to move around freely and protect our identity, and not become crushed by the state.“
I would implore you to vote against measures rather than abstain. Further lockdown measures will increase deaths… Read more »
Tony Benn wasn’t a fascist, unlike Hilary. I wish he was still alive despite not being a supporter.
“I think there are two ways in which people are controlled. First of all frighten people and secondly, demoralise them.”
― Tony Benn
John Edmunds on Newsnight just now. A miserable arrogant cunt. And wrong about everything. No wonder we are in the madhouse we are in if anybody is listening to him. Appalling.
He’s an absolute arsehole. I didn’t see him tonight, but last time he was on the box he was almost breaking into tears about the “second wave”.
Yep. Quite possibly the most cynical of the lot. A real creep.
Yes I remember that. Nauseating.
Another cosy chat with a BBC friend and ally in lockdown lunacy, this time Maitlis. No challenges to Edmunds’ absurd claims. Why did Brazil, Japan and Sweden also see huge reductions in incidence, without lockdowns? Why are Ecuador snd Belgium at the top of the death league when they implemented strict and early lockdowns?
Maitlis pathetic.
Maitlis goes full on Banshee if she’s interviewing a sceptic or a brexiteer but all nice and cosy with a slimeball like Edmunds. Sooner she is sacked by whoever takes over the better.
Does anyone know if Edmunds has enjoyed any funding from any interesting sources during his career?
I’d have more faith in Noel Edmonds
He was all for herd immunity at the start.Was he got at?
Maybe he fucked the pangolin (with apologies to South Park)
Is an excellent piece. 🙂 Have forwarded the link to anyone I assume can cope with seeing Mickey Mouse fucking a bat …
https://www.computerweekly.com/feature/UK-government-coronavirus-data-flawed-and-misleading
UK government coronavirus data flawed and misleadingGovernment Covid-19 coronavirus data has been a miasma of inexactitude, often basically flawed and misleading
Great to hear POTUS45 was released from the hospital. Love to hear a rational response to the hysteria from some “dissenting scientists” (as if science was built on consensus)…
My ONLY critique is the headline. You just KNOW someone is going to turn this headline into “Right Wingers believe Trump is the Messiah!” I can appreciate the snakiness in choosing those words in sarcasm and trollery, but really?
Just sent to Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow:
Dear Professor Muscatelli,
I am ashamed of my university for its recent treatment of undergraduates in halls of residence and for its decision to require face coverings to be worn in university buildings from 7 October. I cannot reconcile the intelligence I remember from your lectures, or that is contained in the pages of Macroeconomic Theory and Stabilisation Policy, for example, with these overreactions. What hope is there if an institution of the standing of the University of Glasgow exaggerates the danger from SARS-CoV-2?
My daughter’s school is on two different sites, one for sixth form and one for other years. There is no interaction between the two and are nearly two miles apart. One case in the junior school (in good health and fine). Result whole school shut pending further guidance. Beyond a joke.
The people who make these decisions are as thick as pigshit. That’s all there is to it.
And aren’t these the same sanctimonious busy bodies who used to lecture the working class that taking their kids out of school for a week’s holiday would ruin their education?
Precisely.
There might be a few members of staff who’ve got Long Workshy. They’ve been back for a whole 4 weeks now, they might need a rest?
I spent a bit of time this evening chatting to a youngish lady about the “pandemic”. I suppose one could describe her as well-meaning and idealistic. She’s far from sceptical, but not afraid either. Her views on the subject seemed to be quite politicised and bound up with her worldview, and she sees the issue in the context of things like the need to be nice to people, hope for a better future, selflessness. I think she’s naive and deluded, but that’s how she approaches it.
She was happy to listen to me talking about the need for balance in the reaction, considering public health and welfare as a whole. So she did not appear completely close-minded.
On the other hand she talked about the “old normal” not being that great, how anti-mask protesters were awful, though she doesn’t wear one and was happy to talk to us for an extended period, face to face, close up (she was serving us food in a restaurant), how evil conspiracy theorists were, how Swedes were a bit blase about old people dying (while appreciating the freedom she enjoys in Sweden).
Never did she look at it from the point of view of… Read more »
I admire you trying to reason with her type she sounds absolutely incorrigible!
I think more extreme examples of “her type” may be incorrigible, but I don’t think she is. I think there are angles you could exploit, for example emphasising wider public health concerns.
I admire your optimism and persistence but I’m afraid I don’t think it will work. I think people fell into one camp or the other very early and we stand no more chance of moving the vast majority of them than they do of moving us. I actually think it was the same with Brexit. Very few people were undecided and very few people have changed sides since. The best we can hope for is to get the “shy sceptics” to come out of the closet. The country has been fractured on a psychic level which will persist for at least a generation and I don’t blame potential donors for not throwing money into what is probably a lost cause.
You may be right, though I think the key difference between this and Brexit is that this has a dramatic effect on people’s lives – Brexit didn’t/won’t in anything like the same way. Losing work, increased taxes, loss of personal freedom, loved ones denied medical treatment – these will be powerful motivators.
As for donors, it’s easy for me to say as I don’t have millions to spare, but I like to think that if I did, I would happily give it a go – if only for the chance of going down in history as a hero.
I haven’t changed sides on Brexit, I’d still rather remain, but my “rather” has become very slim since seeing the civil liberties crisis of the lockdowns. And I’ve long stopped being bitter at brexiteers, so long as they’re against the lockdown then nothing else matters to me now. Amid the Brexit saga I was a rare kind of individual, one who felt strongly, most people were only weakly to either side, the real hating was done by two small groups (maybe 20% of population, 10% on either side), as even I can forgive the whole Brexit business now I suspect most of the country have forgotten it. In this panicdemic most of the country don’t believe strongly either, but in this panicdemic the weakly polarised are all on the lockdownist side, the sceptic side are all strongly opinionated. I think there could be scope for getting a lot of those weakly held views to drift, we never need to get the small proportion of ultra bedwetters round to our side, as long as we can get up our numbers with the converted (even if only weakly).
One thing that strikes me in your narration, Julian, is the total lack of consistency or rationality that you are describing.
And I think that’s a major problem : so much is at the level of knee-jerk preconception and haphazard thought processes.
None of us are immune to emotional thinking – but it gets as dangerous as simplistic rationalization beyond a certain threshold.
BTW – Is this still Sweden – or are you back?
Indeed, lack of rationality. That’s why different techniques are required to bring people round to our position. Play the SPI-B at their own game.
Still in Sweden. I’ve tried to gently but firmly get the message across as to how lucky they are, in a friendly way as I am a guest in another country. Some are well aware, some not.
The lady I refer to above was actually an Aussie, living and working in Sweden for many years though – but I am sure there are plenty of Swedes who think like her.
“While isolation concerns only the political realm of life, loneliness concerns human life as a whole. Totalitarian government, like all tyrannies, certainly could not exist without destroying the public realm of life, that is, without destroying, by isolating men, their political capacities. But totalitarian domination as a form of government is new in that it is not content with this isolation and destroys private life as well. It bases itself on loneliness, on the experience of not belonging to the world at all, which is among the most radical and desperate experiences of man.”
Hannah Arendt
“It bases itself on loneliness, on the experience of not belonging to the world at all”
Such a penetrating insight. For my part I am not lonely at all, just alone. But there is an absolute sense of not belonging to the world at all that, after just 6 months, I have become frighteningly accustomed to.
Published in 1951 but fits the situation today perfectly.
As I can’t find the original comment, just wanted to say well done to NoCheeseGromit for making an effort to promote scepticism on university campus. I struggle to get out of bed these days, let alone put up with hyper-zealous hygiene theatre.
Thank you! Sorry to hear that. I’ve nearly finished my posters now – I could upload them here if you’d be interested in distributing them on your campus too?
You might think about popping them in the Posters and t-shirts topic in the forum.
Social Distancing:
“Terror can rule absolutely only over men who are isolated against each other… Therefore, one of the primary concerns of all tyrannical government is to bring this isolation about. Isolation may be the beginning of terror; it certainly is its most fertile ground; it always is its result. This isolation is, as it were, pretotalitarian; its hallmark is impotence insofar as power always comes from men acting together…; isolated men are powerless by definition.”
Hannah Arendt
Good reference – from someone who has looked at the issue in depth.
Boris Johnson can stick his new Jerusalem up his fat fucking arse, the flabby sack of shit. If I ever meet the shaggy-haired turd, I’m going to rip his head off and shit down his neck. Fucking angry tonight.
We’ve all been there. Just let it out
Neil Ferguson – known as ‘Professor Lockdown’ – warned this morning that pubs could have to shut altogether in parts of England to keep schools open.
The Westminster government’s Covid modelling guru said the extra cases added to the UK’s tally after an Excel blunder painted a ‘sobering’ picture of the outbreak.
He said it was not clear that the government could contain the virus while keeping children in secondary schools – and suggested that the wider population will have to ‘give up more’ to maintain the education provision.
That could include shutting bars and restaurants altogether, as well as extending the October half-term for a two-week ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown to break transmission chains.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8810977/Coronavirus-Anti-lockdown-petition-calling-herd-immunity-reaches-30-000-signatures.html
Modelling guru???????????
More like paid puppet. He’s trotting out a party line that’s two months old and very tired.
In my view, there is/has been a nasty undercurrent of temperance emanating from some of the advisers. Of course, pubs fulfil a role beyond serving alcohol, specifically in allowing ordinary people to meet and discuss the politics of the day. Attitudes to alcohol consumption are puritanical in some circles.
Attitudes to the young too!
Yes, that has been a feature. My son (20) was accosted by an elderly lady on the train today when he took his mask off to drink his coffee. If she had said it to me I’d have told her to P Off, but he is too polite to do that.
Judging by these invaluable testimonies of daily life provided on here, it does seem to be getting more hostile out there. I will gladly continue with my self-imposed self-isolation (now 203 days and counting).
There’s more zombies, for sure, but I was unchallenged for not wearing a mask in Debenhams and Tesco today.
The girl behind the counter in Debenhams even let me off for returning an item back 3 days late!
Whilst queuing for self serve at Morrisons a few days ago, I heard an “excuse me” from behind and thought “ok, here we go!”. I turned to find a young lady picking up a tube of toothpaste from the floor that had fallen from my basket!
There is plenty of humanity out there still, trust me!
Glad to hear it. I really appreciate all of you who confront and defy the new cultural orthodoxy in the flesh, every day.
Needn’t swear, but needs to stand up for himself, and also put rude woman (lady ?!) in her place.
There’s a nasty puritan streak that is finding expression during this coronavirus episode. The Blakeys and Hodges of the world are having a field day.
Haha, Blakey! That image has just made me giggle…he’d be right in his element!
I have been seeing a lot of comments like: “We don’t need pubs, they should be shut immediately”. Puritanical philistinism.
As a smoker, drinker and sceptic I am in multiple crosshairs. It is what it is.
The Puritans banned Christmas and Maypole dancing. 400 years later their successors are in the ascendant once again.
As a smoker, tell me about it …
Ferguson is a dangerous prick – as long as other pricks give him airtime.
Exactly someone should have a word eith him ,outside the pub obviously
But why shut pubs ?
Cause the political class hate pubs unless those pubs are in Westminster of course.
Because it’s a place where people talk to each other – for the government that means exchange of ‘sceptical’ information that they cannot control..
As with much of government policy, I am confused. I don’t understand why schools and pubs are linked.
Do schools being open actually contribute to increased deaths/hospital admissions- or even “cases”? Children don’t seem to transmit the virus, and most schools are “Covid Compliant” – with teachers distancing and sanitising. Mingling at the school gates is one of the many simple pleasures banned.
I’m not sure closing pubs would make much difference either.
Ferguson et al. need to be kept out of harms way.
That’s how these deficient fuckers think.
I think they just make shit up – it doesn’t matter whether there is even a notional rationale as they are not questioned on it, and I am quite sure they don’t know or care what difference any of it would make. It’s just stuff to keep the theatre going.
From what I am reading the schools are indoctrinating children in the Covid narrative.. so advantageous to the government. Also adverse health effects when kids wear masks, leading to ‘opportunities’ for the schools to insist on testing, keep cases rising and of course via testing, build their DNA database..
Kids are younger so more useful to have their DNA for the future..
Modelling guru- graph to the moon author confirmed.
Valance: “Neil, do you think you can times things by 2 and put it into a graph?”
Ferguson: “not sure, Pat. But I’m willing to give it a shot”
Whitty: “Don’t screw it up Neil. We’re going to have trouble looking credible as it is.”
At what point do they step outside his algorithm and look around. Baffling.
I don’t like little twatty Edmunds as well. Another one for ‘the list’.
‘Give up more,’ is the key phrase. Priests of a bullshit religion demanding ever greater sacrifices to their Molloch.
https://www.covid19assembly.org/
Join us! Set up a local group.
The Covid demon addresses his grovelling worshippers in the Anglican church:
Christ died for you,
And more fool Christ.
You are not worth
His sacrifice.
Don’t pray to me,
It’s waste of breath.
I offer only
Living death.
All trussed and muzzled
You look well.
Now I shall lead you
Straight to Hell.
Talking to a friend today who thinks she is the only sceptic in her village,everyone else seems to be pretty far-gone into covid la-la land.
She was in the pub a few nights ago when someone told her that she shouldn’t pet the landlord’s dog because ‘someone with covid might have touched it’,she of course told them to piss-off !.
On the way to see her I noticed a pheasant shoot underway,no rule of six or social-distancing there,must of been fifty of them,still,one of the beaters had a muzzle on so that’s all right then.One rule for them and another for us peasants.
You mean for us pheasants.
Yes,we are just cannon fodder one way or another to them,completely expendable.
Were there any pheasant pluckers there?
Rishi on resignation watch?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/10/06/cabinet-split-tougher-covid-lockdown-measures/
Rishi against further lockdowns and wants to repeal 10 pm curfew. Proposing a new committee to decide – him, Hancock and Boris – so excluding Gove (who is a lockdown dove)
Hope Rishi holds firm – his optimal strategy is to resign now.
The first UK politician to ‘do a Trump’ will clean up
💨
Rich Goldman Sunak as principled ? Don’t make me laugh.
I’m not saying he is or isn’t principled. He is a politician, after all. However, if he sets off a grenade that hastens the demise of this current government, I would welcome that.
He would be sensible to abandon the sinking ship and return to investment banking. Sure he will know how to profit wisely from the great reset.
The 10pm curfew will now be debated in a Commons committee on Monday – a move that could infuriate Tory backbenchers who thought they had been promised the chance to debate national measures in the Commons by Mr Hancock last week.
Did they really expect him to mean what he said?!
Actually it could be a good thing because he’ll just make them more inclined to rebel and maybe cause them to grow some cajones.
I’m not sure Labour and the Lib Dems (who brought the emergency question in the HoC last week) will be happy either.
I hope that pathetic bunch are thoroughly miserable!
Last week, Boris Johnson hinted the Rule of Six could be suspended on Christmas Day to ensure a family of five can have both grandparents round for festive lunch.
Does that mean they’ll stretch it to 7?
What about Uncle Ted? Or Aunty Susan? What about the other two grandparents?
The assumptions being made are quite breathtaking!
Also, it makes an obvious mockery of the rule of 6 in the first place. Is covid going to call a truce for one day? Will it double its efforts to kill us all on Boxing Day?
Can’t imagine any of the Johnson clan going with that, bearing in mind the various permutations of children, wives and mistresses.
Doesn’t he have 7 children? Is the baby going to miss out on his first Christmas?
So he’s broken the ‘rule of 6’?
I guess he could claim ignorance 🙂
Of course Covid will take a break – its Xmas after all. It will join us outside for a game of footy and an exchange of gifts, then return to hostilities on boxing day and start killing us all again…But that’s the least of our concerns – we are totally lost if it starts to get feisty before 10pm at night or breaches the England/Scotland border….
Christmas truce. I’m looking forward to playing footie with a Covid on Christmas morning.
Which Christmas Day? Are the Orthodox going to be treated differently?
In fact the Orthodox are stalked by two Covids: the Greeks face a new calendar Covid, who will let them off on Gregorian Christmas Day; the Slavs face a more rigorous Covid, an unsleeping Covid – unless of course the Divine Johnson commands that Covid to respect Julian Christmas Day.
It’s the science.
Any other commenters who normally loathe Trump absolutely loving his retaliations in the next couple of days?
He is the boy. I only wish I could stand behind him shouting, “G’won lad!”
“He is the boy.”
…still in nappies.
What’s with this Trump worship? I’ve been following his career since before he was elected – and he’s a total narcissistic prick and fraudster.
As anyone with a bit of nous should realize.
Accidentally being (briefly) on the right side about Covid as an electoral ploy doesn’t alter that fact.
Who cares?
Winston Churchill was a pissed-up warmonger. He was also the boy.
I wouldn’t mind being a penny behind him!
Well, he hasn’t started any wars?
Can we not get over these tribal divisions at this moment in time? I don’t give a damn about him being a prick and a fraudster. What he said about Covid after leaving hospital was absolutely on the money and we should all be cheering him to the rafters. There is nothing more important than this.
It’s not worship . Anyone can see his personal failings. But there’s no one better for provoking and getting under the skin of the would-be dictators of the Left. And in terms of policy he’s achieved a lot both domestically and abroad. He was right to oppose the export of millions of American jobs.
I’m not so keen on what he said a hour or so ago. Not sure exactly what it was – something about an economic stimulus – but the global markets immediately tanked like you’ve never seen before.
He said that he’s not going to fund more Covid stimulus. Good. The sooner markets are weaned off the funny money, the sooner people will wake up and realise the real costs of this nonsense. I presume Trump is going to say ‘no need for any more support measure, we’ll just open up the economy. If some idiotic Democrat state leaders want to continue with the stupidity then we won’t bail them out’
Exactly right – see the article I posted earlier from ZeroHedge.
Thanks Tigress. Will look for that.
Here it is again – has some updates now:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stock-plunge-after-trump-says-he-ordering-halt-stimulus-talks-until-after-election
*Last… d’oh
Yes, me! Strange times we live in for sure
Yes, that would be me. Still think he’s a narcissistic, feeble-minded, disgusting excuse for a human being but it says a lot about the times that I find him now to be less dangerous than Biden and the Dems. I never thought I’d pray for him to make a full and quick recovery — I’m an atheist — but this is an existential crisis and I’ve been keeping strange bedfellows over the last 6 months. These are crazy times, that’s for sure.
Nearly all top politicians are narcissists. Trump is refreshingly open about his narcissism.
So true! And I do like his political incorrectness. I’ve disagreed with a lot of what he’s done but stopping the “inclusiveness” training within the federal government was brilliant.
Don’t like him at all, but he’s come round to our side and we must see him as a temporary ally. Must say that since his post-infection comments have been coming out I’ve gone from despising him to thinking him, not likeable, but nonetheless right, and hilariously funny in just how badly he is able to mangle his words (still keeping meaning but sounding like he has no vocabulary). He’ll bring the Trump supporting half of america very quickly round to lockdown scepticism, the hope then is that this will provide stimulus to anti-lockdown views everywhere else too.
Just back from the gym it may be one of the few places that is actually better post-COVID with a general increase in cleanliness from the gym and users alike.
I do feel sorry for the PTs though who now appear to be glorified cleaners on I presume no more pay.
It’s the only place of business I’ve been to where sanity still reigns. Enjoy it while you still can.
Sanity doesn’t still reign in Pure gyms, you have to wear a muzzle going from one piece of equipment to the next. I would stay stuff it and cancel my membership. You are right though about the gym workers, my son works in a gym and that is how they now spend their time, spraying that bloody awful stuff and cleaning.
Current stats for the GB Declaration:
It’s good. But it needs more zeroes.
Slightly surprised not to see Heneghan on the list of co-signatories
Who’d have thought there were so many conspiracy theorists in the medical profession…