What SAGE Has Got Wrong
Today we’re publishing a blockbuster of a piece by Dr Mike Yeadon about what SAGE has got wrong (which is quite a lot, it turns out). To recap for those who aren’t already familiar with Mike’s work for Lockdown Sceptics, as well as his metastasising Twitter threads: he has a degree in biochemistry and toxicology and a research-based PhD in respiratory pharmacology. He has spent over 30 years leading new medicines research in some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, including serving as Vice President & Chief Scientist for Allergy & Respiratory at Pfizer, and since leaving Pfizer he has founded his own biotech company, Ziarco, which he sold to the world’s biggest drug company, Novartis, in 2017.
In this article, Mike identifies two assumptions that SAGE has made, both of which he is convinced are wrong: that the entire population is susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 and that only 7% of the UK population has been infected with COVID-19 so far. It is these two assumptions that are driving SAGE to urge the Government to place the entire country under a second national lockdown. After all, if you think 93% of the country is vulnerable to the virus – and you think the infection fatality rate is around 1% (which is also wrong, obviously), you’re going to want to use any means necessary to suppress infection until a vaccine comes along. “I can empathise with anyone in that position,” writes Dr Yeadon. “It must cause despair that politicians aren’t doing what you’ve told them they must do.”
But both of these assumptions are wrong. Mike goes to great lengths to show that, in reality, about 30% of the population already had prior immunity to the virus, thanks to their exposure to other coronaviruses, including those responsible for some strains of the common cold, and that approximately 32% of Britons have been infected. If you factor in that 10% of the population are aged 10 or under and are therefore completely invulnerable to the disease, that leaves about 28% who are susceptible to being infected, not 93%. Not a million miles away from the herd immunity threshold, in other words, which is why Mike thinks the so-called “second wave” will shortly fizzle out, just as it has begun to do in Spain.
Mike draws on more than 30 years of experience as a working scientist, as well as an encyclopaedic knowledge of virology, to reach this conclusion – the same conclusion, broadly speaking, that the scientists who drew up the Great Barrington Declaration have come to.
The article is long, but it’s easy to read because Mike has such a robust, punchy style, hammering his points home with a kind of merciless aggression. And the reason he’s so merciless is because he is absolutely furious with the sanctimonious, supercilious panjandrums that sit on SAGE and are causing so much needless destruction.
SAGE has nothing useful to tell us. As currently constituted, they have an inappropriate over-weighting in modellers and are fatally deficient in pragmatic, empirical, evidence-led experienced scientists, especially the medical, immunological and expert generalist variety. It is my opinion that they should be disbanded immediately and reconstituted. I say this because, as I have shown, they haven’t a grasp of even the basics required to build a model and because their models are often frighteningly useless (Lee, 2020), a fact of which they seem unaware. Their role is too important for them to get a second chance. They are unlikely to revise their thinking even if they claim they have now fixed their model. The level of incompetence shown by the errors I have uncovered, errors which indirectly through inappropriate ‘measures’, have cost the lives of thousands of people, from avoidable, non-COVID-19 causes, is utterly unforgivable.
As a private individual, I am incandescent with rage at the damage they have inflicted on this country. We should demand more honesty, as well as competence from those elected or appointed to look after aspects of life we cannot manage alone. SAGE has either been irredeemably incompetent or it has been dishonest. I personally know a few SAGE members and with the sole exception of a nameless individual, it is an understatement that they have greatly disappointed me. They have rebuffed well-intentioned and, as it turned out, accurate advice from at least three Nobel laureate scientists, all informing them that their modelling was seriously and indeed lethally in error. Though this may not have made the papers, everyone in the science community knows about this and that SAGE’s inadequate replies are scandalous. I have no confidence in any of them and neither should you.
Very much worth reading in full.
London Lockdown
London will be put into tier 2 lockdown on Saturday at midnight it was announced yesterday, which means a ban on household mixing indoors and discouraging people from travelling or using public transport. Health Secretary Matt Hancock told MPs this was due to an “exponential” growth in infections.
It’s not surprising that the Health Secretary has singled out rising cases as the key metric since the number of Covid hospitalisations in London was 51 on October 10th, with three deaths. That’s three out of nine million, or 0.00003%.
From Business Insider:
Speaking in Parliament on Thursday morning, the UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said more localized restrictions were necessary in London and elsewhere to stop the “exponential” growth in infections.
“In London, infection rates are on a steep upward path, with the number of cases doubling every ten days,” Hancock said.
But are cases doubling every 10 days? Here’s the graph by specimen date.
Looks to be peaking around October 8th, even allowing for the lag in reporting. The Mail has also spotted that it appears to be slowing down. Here’s further confirmation from GP data.
What about Liverpool, placed in tier 3 on Wednesday? Here’s the graph by specimen date. Daily cases appear to have peaked around October 7th there, too.
What about Madrid, the erstwhile “second wave capital” of Europe? Here is its hospital occupancy graph, in sustained decline.
Despite the continuing accumulation of evidence that lockdowns aren’t needed to control the virus, the Government’s new best friend, the many-headed WHO, was calling for lockdowns again yesterday after a brief spell of discouraging them. Reuters has the details.
Urging governments to “step up” swiftly to contain a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the WHO’s European director Hans Kluge said the current situation was “more than ever, pandemic times for Europe”.
New infections are hitting 100,000 daily in Europe, and the region has just registered the highest weekly incidence of COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with almost 700,000 cases reported.
“The fall (autumn) and winter surge continues to unfold in Europe, with exponential increases in daily cases and matching percentage increases in daily deaths,” Kluge told an online media briefing.
“It’s time to step up. The message to governments is: don’t hold back with relatively small actions to avoid the painful damaging actions we saw in the first round (in March and April).”
Kluge’s been looking at some “reliable epidemiological models”, apparently.
“These models indicate that prolonged relaxing policies could propel – by January 2021 – daily mortality at levels four to five times higher than what we recorded in April,” he said.
But taking simple, swift tightening measures now – such as enforcing widespread mask-wearing and controlling social gatherings in public or private spaces – could save up to 281,000 lives by February across the 53 countries that make up the WHO European region, he added.
Kluge does not identify these models, so we do not know if they are published or peer reviewed. (Ferguson’s infamous March 16th model has still not been peer-reviewed). But it’s okay because Mr Kluge has seen them and he can assure us they are reliable. So on that solid scientific basis he is telling the world’s governments to take “swift tightening measures now” such as masks (for which the WHO admits there is no reliable evidence) and “controlling social gatherings”. Just like that. But do such measures work, are they necessary, and are they worth it? What does the actual data say? These questions, as always, go unanswered.
Stop Press: Stanford’s Dr John Ioannidis has a new peer-reviewed study out, published by one of the other branches of the many-headed WHOdra, that estimates the IFR for healthy under-70s at just 0.05%.
Lockdown Zealots Invoke “Scientific Consensus” to Debunk Great Barrington Declaration
You’ve got to admire the gall. Three leading specialists in the field of infectious disease start a petition that is signed by tens of thousands of their fellow scientists and the lockdown zealots write a rebuttal claiming to speak on behalf of the entire scientific community. That’s the boast made by the authors of the John Snow Memorandum – a riposte to the Great Barrington Declaration which appeared in the Lancet yesterday under the headline: “Scientific consensus on the COVID-19 pandemic: we need to act now.” Consensus? Only in their echo chambers. How can an attempt to debunk a declaration that has gone viral within the scientific community plausibly claim to reflect a consensus?
If you Google the “John Snow Memorandum” it’s the top result already and all the other results are positive, too, unlike the Great Barrington Declaration. Funny that, given Google’s explanation for why it took so long for the Great Barrington Declaration to show up in the search results. “It can take a little time for our automated systems to learn enough about new pages like this for them to rank better for relevant terms,” explained a Google employee, when questioned about this. “This delay can vary by country. This page is and was ranking in the first page in the US, has risen elsewhere and likely will continue automatically.”
Of course there isn’t a “consensus” among scientists about the best way to mitigate the impact of this pandemic. But even if there was, so what? A scientific hypothesis doesn’t become more or less true according to how many other scientists believe it. I’m reminded of the book 100 Scientists Against Einstein. When asked about it, Einstein replied: “If I were wrong, one would have been enough.” And, ironically, the public health scientist the memorandum is named after – John Snow – was himself a maverick, challenging the “consensus” among scientists of his day. Indeed, had he not done so, he never would have found the true cause of the cholera outbreak in Soho in 1854 that made his name.
The conventional wisdom at the time – the view held by the scientific establishment – was the miasma theory, which held that diseases such as cholera and bubonic plague were caused by pollution or “bad air”. Instead of relying on this theory, Snow actually did some on-the-ground research, talking to local residents and analysing the pattern of infection. In this way, he was able to trace the source of the outbreak to a water pump in Broad Street and end the epidemic. Snow’s discovery, which came about because he engaged in methodical, empirical research rather than relying on some divorced-from-reality theory, is regarded as the founding event of the science of epidemiology.
For a group of establishment panjandrums to invoke John Snow’s name, given that their entire approach to the pandemic is rooted in abstract mathematical modelling, is almost laughably inappropriate.
Here is the kernel of the John Snow Memorandum (I’ve added some comments in square brackets).
SARS-CoV-2 spreads through contact (via larger droplets and aerosols), and longer-range transmission via aerosols, especially in conditions where ventilation is poor. Its high infectivity,1 combined with the susceptibility of unexposed populations to a new virus [No mention of cross-immunity], creates conditions for rapid community spread [No mention of repeated observations of spontaneous decline]. The infection fatality rate of COVID-19 is several-fold higher than that of seasonal influenza [This is not reflected in the overall death toll, which is in many places only a bit higher than a strong flu wave or, in some cases, e.g. Germany, less],2 and infection can lead to persisting illness, including in young, previously healthy people (ie, long COVID) [Post-viral complications are not unique to Covid and it’s too soon to say how long they’ll persist].3 It is unclear how long protective immunity lasts [The number of people who’ve been reinfected is infinitesimally small],4 and, like other seasonal coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 is capable of re-infecting people who have already had the disease, but the frequency of re-infection is unknown [Most are mild].5 Transmission of the virus can be mitigated through physical distancing, use of face coverings, hand and respiratory hygiene, and by avoiding crowds and poorly ventilated spaces. Rapid testing, contact tracing, and isolation are also critical to controlling transmission [No evidence is presented for these claims, some of which are contradicted by the data]. WHO has been advocating for these measures since early in the pandemic [WHO did not endorse face coverings until June].
It claims: “Japan, Vietnam, and New Zealand, to name a few countries, have shown that robust public health responses can control transmission, allowing life to return to near-normal, and there are many such success stories.” This is untrue: there are not many such success stories. Of those listed, Japan did not have “robust public health responses” and New Zealand is now cut off from the world. The reason why most East Asian countries like Japan and Vietnam were not as badly affected as European countries is not yet entirely clear (many believe it is higher levels of pre-existing immunity, thanks to their exposure to other SARS viruses, i.e. herd immunity) but the reason is unlikely to be their “public health responses”, which a study in the Lancet showed had no impact on a country’s death toll.
This section of the memo directly contradicts the GB Declaration’s herd immunity and focused protection strategy:
Any pandemic management strategy relying upon immunity from natural infections for COVID-19 is flawed. Uncontrolled transmission in younger people risks significant morbidity3 [Only four children aged 15 and under in the UK have died of Covid] and mortality across the whole population [There are always risks, but ongoing restrictions are also risky and deadly]. In addition to the human cost, this would impact the workforce as a whole and overwhelm the ability of health-care systems to provide acute and routine care [Sweden’s healthcare system was not overwhelmed in spite of no lockdown]. Furthermore, there is no evidence for lasting protective immunity to SARS-CoV-2 following natural infection,4 and the endemic transmission that would be the consequence of waning immunity would present a risk to vulnerable populations for the indefinite future [SARS-CoV-2 is already endemic but immunity and cross-immunity provides ongoing protection, plus there are increasingly effective treatments]. Such a strategy would not end the COVID-19 pandemic but result in recurrent epidemics, as was the case with numerous infectious diseases before the advent of vaccination [There is a flu season every year, which includes coronaviruses, and only very limited vaccines, yet we seem to cope okay]. It would also place an unacceptable burden on the economy and health-care workers, many of whom have died from COVID-19 or experienced trauma as a result of having to practise disaster medicine [Surely, it’s the ongoing restrictions that are placing an “unacceptable burden on the economy”?]. Additionally, we still do not understand who might suffer from long COVID [Why is an unknown amount of harm being weighed more heavily than the known harm that results from lockdowns?].3 Defining who is vulnerable is complex, but even if we consider those at risk of severe illness, the proportion of vulnerable people constitute as much as 30% of the population in some regions.8 Prolonged isolation of large swathes of the population is practically impossible and highly unethical [We’re shielding vulnerable groups as it is and it would be less “prolonged” if we go for a herd immunity strategy than if we continue with the suppress-until-there’s-a-vaccine strategy]. Empirical evidence from many countries shows that it is not feasible to restrict uncontrolled outbreaks to particular sections of society [Which countries, what evidence? A number of countries such as Germany and Denmark avoided the high death toll in care homes seen in the UK and elsewhere]. Such an approach also risks further exacerbating the socioeconomic inequities and structural discriminations already laid bare by the pandemic [Unlike ongoing restrictions that disproportionately affect the most disadvantaged, not to mention cushioning the public sector but bankrupting the private sector?]. Special efforts to protect the most vulnerable are essential but must go hand-in-hand with multi-pronged population-level strategies [Having said it is “practically impossible” as well as unethical to isolate the vulnerable it now says it is essential to do it indefinitely].
It ends: “The evidence is very clear: controlling community spread of COVID-19 is the best way to protect our societies and economies until safe and effective vaccines and therapeutics arrive within the coming months.”
But effective therapeutics that lower the death rate are already here, while any vaccines that make it through trials are likely to be only partially effective. There is no argument for reopening society later that doesn’t already apply now, and these restrictions are already intolerable and destroying our jobs, our culture and our way of life.
Stop Press: The Government has told care homes they will need to make room for coronavirus patients who have been discharged from hospital. That’s right, they’re about to make exactly the same mistake they made last time that resulted in such a heavy toll in the care sector. Combined with the official advice to the vulnerable not to shield themselves at home, this is the opposite of protecting the vulnerable. With healthy, working-age people stuck at home because their workplace is closed due to the perma-lockdown, but retired people encouraged to be out and about, it’s the opposite of the GBD’s formula of how to bring this epidemic to an end as quickly and safely as possible.
Putting it Into Practice
Steve Sieff who runs the GreenBandRedBand site has got in touch with a suggestion of how to put focused protection into practice while respecting personal choice.
Following Matt Hancock’s wholly unfounded dismissal of the Great Barrington Declaration on Tuesday, it is difficult to imagine what could persuade the Government to consider any alternative to the suppression orthodoxy. If Steve Baker is looking to help the Government “find an alternative strategic plan between the Great Barrington Declaration and where we are today” he might want to start with the proposal at GreenBandRedBand. The idea is that people should be allowed to assess their own risk level, choose which wrist band to wear – green for prepared to risk catching the virus, red for those who are more wary – and interact accordingly. Those who wished to do so could then mix freely with like-minded people, but would be asked to continue to apply measures to break transmission of the virus to those who remained worried.
Although retention of any of the current measures would be anathema to many lockdown sceptics, it is increasingly clear that the Government is entrenched in its position that herd immunity is nothing more than a callous way of sending people to their deaths. For Steve Baker and the small band of Tory rebels who are trying to persuade the Government to consider a strategy other than perpetual cycles of lockdown, the GreenBandRedBand system has the huge advantage that it is not reliant on herd immunity or on segregation of any group. So it addresses directly the Government’s objections to strategies like the Great Barrington Declaration.
It also builds on the methods of suppression that the Government has been championing throughout. If distancing etc. is truly effective to break the chain of transmission and the rules require people to implement those measures now, then there is no reason why the same measures cannot continue to work when implemented in a more targeted way. Rather than penalising people for failing to follow a host of restrictive and ever changing measures, the system would vastly reduce the restrictions on people’s freedom, and by doing so would give far more incentive to follow the rules that did remain. More carrot, less stick.
If any of the old Boris is left, the system could be the best of all worlds for him. He could appease the members of his own party who are crying out against the restrictions on freedom. He could continue to ‘follow the science’ in that distancing etc. would be maintained wherever required as determined by individual circumstances. He could put Labour back in its box for wanting to shut the country down even further, he could give the economy a huge kickstart without emptying the Government coffers, and he could justifiably claim to be protecting the NHS and the lives of the public by focusing attention and resources on preventing the vulnerable from getting infected.
In addition to the website the system is also explained in the British Medical Journal here and here.
Is the ONS Survey Only For The Housebound?
A Lockdown Sceptics reader agreed to be part of the ONS Covid survey, but found it a waste of his time.
I got randomly selected by postcode to participate in a Covid infection study for the ONS by Oxford University.
Had my first appointment on August 9th. Nice nurse visited me at home, signed me up for a year – one visit every week for a five weeks, followed by one a month – took swabs and blood.
I mentioned that I’d be going away for a few days, but would be in the country and could easily attend a test centre, or whatever. Apparently no problem.
Had a call while on holiday. Could I be home later in the day? Nope, but I’ll be back in a couple of days, will that do? No problem, someone will call you soon. They didn’t.
A couple of weeks later I had a call to say, could I be home in a couple of hours? Nope, I’m at work, but I can do anytime tomorrow, will that do? Fine, someone will call later. They didn’t.
A couple of weeks later I called the helpline and it promised to call me back. Two days later a lovely person did. Oh dear, she said, that’s not good. I’ll escalate this and someone will call you soon.
A week or so later, someone called. Could I be home at 3pm? Nope, I’m at work, but you can see me here, if you like? Can’t do that –we can only visit you at your registered address. Okay, how about tomorrow? Say, 11am? Ah, well, we only get given our list in the morning, then we phone people and go see them. So, you can’t give me more than a few hours notice before coming to see me and you have to see me at home? Yes, sorry. So, don’t you keep missing people? Er… yes, that does happen a lot…
What I take from this, is:
a. If this is competence, it sure doesn’t look like it.
b. If this is supposed to be a random sample of the population, it’s surely excluding almost everyone who actually goes out to work, isn’t it?
Rule of Six Doesn’t Apply to the Lonely
A reader has spotted a loophole in the law that means the Rule of Six doesn’t apply to anyone who is feeling lonely or depressed.
Having perused the new regulations in the Health Protection (Coronavirus, Local COVID-19 Alert Level) (Medium) Regulations 2020, under Statutory Instrument Number 1103 that came into force on October 14th, I noticed a number of exemptions to the so-called Rule of Six.
Under Schedule 1 (Tier 1 Restrictions), Regulation 3, Part 1 (Restrictions on gatherings), Paragraph 3 (Exceptions), subsection 4(e) the following is written: “Exception 3 is that the gathering is reasonably necessary to enable one or more people in the gathering to avoid injury or illness or to escape a risk of harm.”
As the good people of Law or Fiction pointed out, Low Mood, Sadness and Depression act as reasonable excuses for such exceptions. If one feels lonely or depressed, then as far as I can see the law allows for gatherings of more than six.
Sorry if this is a bit confusing, legal specifics aren’t my forte. You’ll find the relevant text in the regulations, about a third of the way down.
I don’t want this to be some sort of get-out-of-jail card to be abused. I’ve had mental illness in the past and depression that sucks the life out of you, and this entire saga is bringing me back to those lows. If depression takes hold, it is very hard to escape, and very easy to see how it can cause personal harm.
This reader spotted a gem at the bottom of the new guidance: “No impact assessment has been prepared for these Regulations.”
Is Public Opinion Finally Turning?
Polling by OnePulse, admittedly not the most scientific data gathering outfit, suggests the public mood on the continuing mishmash of restrictions is beginning to shift.
Asked if they support the new three tier system of local lockdown measures, 24% of the respondents said they support it, 15.02% oppose and 60.98% have mixed feelings about it.
Asked how they feel about the coming months, 42.67% say they feel disheartened, 7.91% fine and 60.44% concerned.
And asked what should be prioritised, the NHS, saving lives or the economy, 16.09% said saving lives and protecting the NHS, 35.47% said saving the economy and 42.4% said a mixture of all three.
These are very different to OnePulse’s earlier polls, which showed overwhelming public support for the forever lockdown. Worth reading in full.
The Xhosa Cattle Killings
In the early nineteenth century, the British colonized Southeast Africa. The native Xhosa resisted, but suffered repeated and humiliating defeats at the hands of British military forces. The Xhosa lost their independence and their native land became an English colony. The British adopted a policy of westernising the Xhosa. They were to be converted to Christianity, and their native culture and religion was to be wiped out. Under the stress of being confronted by a superior and irresistible technology, the Xhosa developed feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. In this climate, a prophet appeared.
In April of 1856, a fifteen-year-old girl named Nongqawuse heard a voice telling her that the Xhosa must kill all their cattle, stop cultivating their fields, and destroy their stores of grain and food. The voice insisted that the Xhosa must also get rid of their hoes, cooking pots, and every utensil necessary for the maintenance of life. Once these things were accomplished, a new day would magically dawn. Everything necessary for life would spring spontaneously from the earth. The dead would be resurrected. The blind would see and the old would have their youth restored. New food and livestock would appear in abundance, spontaneously sprouting from the earth. The British would be swept into the sea, and the Xhosa would be restored to their former glory. What was promised was nothing less than the establishment of paradise on earth.
Nongqawuse told this story to her guardian and uncle, Mhlakaza. At first, the uncle was sceptical. But he became a believer after accompanying his niece to the spot where she heard the voices. Although Mhlakaza heard nothing, he became convinced that Nongqawuse was hearing the voice of her dead father, and that the instructions must be obeyed. Mhlakaza became the chief prophet and leader of the cattle-killing movement.
News of the prophecy spread rapidly, and within a few weeks the Xhosa king, Sarhili, became a convert. He ordered the Xhosa to slaughter their cattle and, in a symbolic act, killed his favourite ox. As the hysteria widened, other Xhosa began to have visions. Some saw shadows of the resurrected dead arising from the sea, standing in rushes on the river bank, or even floating in the air. Everywhere that people looked, they found evidence to support what they desperately wanted to be true.
The believers began their work in earnest. Vast amounts of grain were taken out of storage and scattered on the ground to rot. Cattle were killed so quickly and on such an immense scale that vultures could not entirely devour the rotting flesh. The ultimate number of cattle that the Xhosa slaughtered was 400,000. After killing their livestock, the Xhosa built new, larger kraals to hold the marvellous new beasts that they anticipated would rise out of the earth. The impetus of the movement became irresistible.
The resurrection of the dead was predicted to occur on the full moon of June, 1856. Nothing happened. The chief prophet of the cattle-killing movement, Mhlakaza, moved the date to the full moon of August. But again the prophecy was not fulfilled.
The cattle-killing movement now began to enter a final, deadly phase, which its own internal logic dictated as inevitable. The failure of the prophecies was blamed on the fact that the cattle-killing had not been completed. Most believers had retained a few cattle, chiefly consisting of milk cows that provided an immediate and continuous food supply. Worse yet, there was a minority community of sceptical non-believers who refused to kill their livestock.
The fall planting season came and went. Believers threw their spades into the rivers and did not sow a single seed in the ground. By December of 1856, the Xhosa began to feel the pangs of hunger. They scoured the fields and woods for berries and roots, and attempted to eat bark stripped from trees. Mhlakaza set a new date of December 11 for the fulfilment of the prophecy. When the anticipated event did not occur, unbelievers were blamed.
The resurrection was rescheduled yet again for February 16, 1857, but the believers were again disappointed. Even this late, the average believer still had three or four head of livestock alive. The repeated failure of the prophecies could only mean that the Xhosa had failed to fulfil the necessary requirement of killing every last head of cattle. Now, they finally began to complete the killing process. Not only cattle were slaughtered, but also chickens and goats. Any viable means of sustenance had to be destroyed. Any cattle that might have escaped earlier killing were now slaughtered for food.
Serious famine began in late spring of 1857. All the food was gone. The starving population broke into stables and ate horse food. They gathered bones that had lay bleaching in the sun for years and tried to make soup. They ate grass. Maddened by hunger, some resorted to cannibalism. Weakened by starvation, family members often had to lay and watch dogs devour the corpses of their spouses and children. Those who did not die directly from hunger fell prey to disease. To the end, true believers never renounced their faith. They simply starved to death, blaming the failure of the prophecy on the doubts of non-believers.
By the end of 1858, the Xhosa population had dropped from 105,000 to 26,000. Forty to fifty-thousand people starved to death, and the rest migrated. With Xhosa civilization destroyed, the land was cleared for white settlement. The British found that those Xhosa who survived proved to be docile and useful servants. What the British Empire had been unable to accomplish in more than fifty years of aggressive colonialism, the Xhosa did to themselves in less than two years.
Original by David Deming, Associate Professor of Arts and Sciences at University of Oklahoma. Copyright © 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
The parallels are uncanny.
Round-Up
- “Is there a lockdown alternative?” – Prof Raj Bhopal is interviewed by the Naked Scientists
- “Liverpool’s biggest NHS trust claims its intensive care units are only 80% full – despite councillor’s claims they are 95% occupied amid COVID-19 spike” – The Mail challenging the self-serving claims of politicians
- “Test and Trace consultants paid equivalent of £1.5m salary” – Sky News with a fresh revelation of the scandalous profligacy of this fiscally incontinent Government
- “Tory MPs join Manchester revolt against tier-3 lockdown” – The Times reports that the Government has succeeded in uniting local leaders from all parties against the local lockdown in Manchester, although it’s clear that Labour’s preferred alternative is a national lockdown rather than no lockdown
- “Is London facing Covid restrictions so the North doesn’t feel picked on?” – Asks Tom Harris in the Telegraph. You’ve got to wonder
- “Supermarket rationing ‘did not prevent food shortages’ before the lockdown” – Turns out the recriminations over-stockpiling in March were unfounded as the shortages resulted from everyone buying a bit more than usual, says a report from the IFS reported in the Times. Which, to be honest, I thought was kind of obvious at the time
- “What I got wrong about lockdown” – Rod Liddle brings his newfound scepticism to the Spectator
- “Students who catch Covid may be saving lives” – Matt Ridley in the Spectator makes the case for focused protection and herd immunity
- “Seven looming questions about the rollout of a Covid-19 vaccine” – A good analysis from STAT News
- “Lockdown – Will it Work This Time?” – Douglas Carswell interviews Toby Young for his YouTube channel
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.
Sharing stories: 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 masks 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).
Woke Gobbledegook
Ellie Harrison, a presenter on Countryfile, has said the Black Lives Matter protests have led her to rethink her attitude to the countryside. The Telegraph has more.
The British countryside is racist, a Countryfile presenter has said, revealing that Black Lives Matter has led her to re-evaluate her own behaviour.
There was debate over an episode of the BBC show earlier this year when Scout Ambassador Dwayne Fields presented a section about perceptions by ethnic minorities of the countryside.
The report focused on research from the Government’s Environment Department, published last year, which said that some ethnic groups felt UK national parks were a “white environment”.
Ellie Harrison, a presenter on the show, has spoken up on the issue and said that ethnic minority people do face discrimination in the countryside, and there is “work to do”.
She said the huge reaction on social media to the programme had taken the show’s producers a week to read and sort.
Ms Harrison wrote in Countryfile magazine: “I spooled through the comments, which broadly came in three flavours: ‘I’m not racist so there is no racism in the countryside’; ‘I’m black and I’ve never experienced racism in the countryside’; and importantly, ‘I have experienced racism in the countryside’.
“So there’s work to do. Even a single racist event means there is work to do. In asking whether the countryside is racist, then yes it is; but asking if it’s more racist than anywhere else – maybe, maybe not.”
It’s off to the re-education camp, comrades.
The Great Barrington Declaration
The Great Barrington Declaration, a petition started by Professor Martin Kulldorff, Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Jay Bhattacharya calling for a strategy of “Focused Protection” (protect the elderly and the vulnerable and let everyone else get on with life), was launched last week and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it. If you Google it, the top hits you get are two smear pieces from the obscure Leftist conspiracy website Byline Times, and one from the Guardian headlined: “Herd immunity letter signed by fake experts including ‘Dr Johnny Bananas’.” (Freddie Sayers at UnHerd warned us about this hit job the day before it appeared.) On the bright side, Google UK has stopped shadow banning it, so the actual Declaration now shows up in the search results, although discussion of it has been censored by Reddit. The reason the zealots hate it, of course, is that it gives the lie to their claim that “the science” only supports their strategy. These three scientists are every bit as eminent – more eminent – than the pro-lockdown fanatics so expect no let up in the attacks. (Wikipedia has done a smear job.)
You can find it here. Please sign it. It’s now past the half million mark.
Samaritans
If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org 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.
Request For Help From Investigative Journalist
Daily Mail journalist and Lockdown Sceptics supporter David Rose is looking for people who have suffered severe ill effects or even died as a result of treatment for cancers and other serious illnesses being delayed by Covid. The Mail wants to draw more attention to the disastrous collateral damage being caused by the restrictions.
If anyone is willing to talk to him, please contact him direct at david@davidroseuk.com.
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. (Don’t assume we’ll pick them up in the comments.)
And Finally…
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Another Friday, another day of Government garbage.
btw. First!
Hello Lockdown Sceptics
Approximately 1500 people die a day in Britain – yesterday the recorded Covid deaths were 138
(died of any cause 28 days after a positive tests according to the Government own website)
Last 3 days 143, 137 , 138 death . For this we are killing the economy and freedom
Ivor Cummins: Terrifying stuff. Truly incredible car-crash TV on last night, on a top reputable current affairs show no less!
What in the name of God is going on here? Wtf is happening…to science itself?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPmWYFlUK54
A great video that needs sharing!
Hello Lockdown Sceptics
Full national lockdowns should ONLY be used against coronavirus as a last resort because of the ‘collateral damage’ on mental health, says WHO boss
But he said total lockdowns caused ‘collateral damage’ and should be avoided
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8846019/National-lockdowns-resort-says-boss.html
Did Tedros get permission to speak from his chinese masters The Man makes Hancock competent in comparison this turd blossom Government must go
Tedros is controlled by Bill Gates.
And the CCP.
Agree, it’s excellent and very clear. MW
Hello Lockdown Sceptics
‘It’s a massive claim; I think the pandemic is fundamentally over’
Former chief scientific advisor with Pfizer Mike Yeadon has said he believes the coronavirus pandemic is drawing to a close, despite rising cases in parts of the UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMlfxnCJppE
Truth about the claims scaring us all to death: Soaring infections, teeming hospital wards, and terrifying death rates… but do the numbers justifying crippling new lockdowns REALLY stand up to scrutiny?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8845533/Coronavirus-Soaring-infections-death-rates-claims-justify-lockdowns.html
We desperately need to inculcate critical thinking skills to the nation’s children and young adults, I think it may be too late for (some of) the old dogs who occupy the Houses of Commons and Lords. That said, what political class would want scrutiny of their policies by a truly educated populace? Loss of control of free people, loss of narcissistic self interest, loss of the gravy train, loss of opportunities for gratuitous manipulation, loss of power? What cabal of front bench politicians would want that?
There’s a reason why certain things aren’t taught in schools. A classic one, as author Robert Kiyosaki often points out, is basic personal finance.
The last thing a government wants is an educated population! Those who go university and choose a career in academia are usually brainwashed or Institutionalized.
Interview with annt
MP Chris Green, The First UK politician to resign from government over the crisis – 16th Oct 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eBSwspojh4
I visited him two weeks ago and I like to think I convinced him! (to be fair he was most of the way there himself) maybe I should schedule a meeting with BoJo and Hancock…..
maybe because he was served with notice of legal action?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9pm3Z6nFnk&feature=youtu.be
Hi BD
Mark Dolan: “We are killing Britain”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3oLyFQcGok
Mark Dolan: “We are killing Britain. We can’t do this forever. This virus isn’t going anywhere. Don’t be fooled by talk of a quick fix vaccine. That’s nothing more than snake oil.
A Letter from today’s Telegraph
<i>SIR – Although I am able go to shops and restaurants, I miss being able to talk to shop attendants and waiters, and having a laugh. I am hard of hearing, so cannot make out what people are saying while they are wearing a mask.
I feel isolated and lonely, as I cannot speak to anyone.
David Hunter
Godalming, Surrey</i>
There is many a dim bulb with a PhD or chair in an academy. Certainly, they are not well educated. It seems to me that this is the inevitable outcome of a failed system of education. Uneducated students from the lower levels of education lead to uneducated undergraduates, uneducated graduates, uneducated post graduates, and, ultimately uneducated professors. Seems to me that this is analogous to a very old Italian car (apologies to Italian car manufacturers) that rots from the bottom up. Hence, it seems to me, the total mess we are in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9pm3Z6nFnk&feature=youtu.be
they work for the WEF and UN, not the people
SAGE have got everything wrong. They are working for the vaccine industry and Gates and friends at WEF
legal actions against individual MP’s starting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9pm3Z6nFnk&feature=youtu.be
Local Live (mirror group news) reports total new cases for the County last week down 24% from the the previous seven days.
I thought it was supposed to be doubling.
‘Exponential rise’ still going strong.
“If you tell a big lie often enough people will come to believe it”.
Joseph Goebbels (speaking of the British).
Patrick Vallance suggests there are “up to” 74,000 cases per day. Yahoo News reports this as “If there are 74,000 cases that would mean cases are four times higher than Government daily figures”. Well, IF cases were only 170, that would be a tenth of the cases reported in Government figures, and that’s not correct either. What’s with the scaremongering “if”?
The 3rd way
Very sad for you good folks in the UK – I’ll be raging mad if the lockdown switch is flicked on again where I live…compared to the first round (where I was accepting) a second go at it will really be hard to swallow knowing what I know now.
Where are you, Eddie?
Way over here in Canada, province of BC. I’m expecting we’ll get screwed again but I pay zero attention to our media so ignorance is bliss for now. All the best to you Ann!
BC is a wonderful place.
Let’s all join hands across the oceans – and continents.
Things are bad, but our spirit is unbowed.
When people have suffered enough then they will force the dictatorship out of power
At the moment the dictatorship can kill individuals and groups with impunity
People will fight for their freedom only when they realise that living like this is worse than dying and are prepared to lay down their lives in the cause
Don’t think I am far off that now. It is utterly hopeless. Even the summer now seems like a Golden Age, you know, when restrictions were very slowly being lifted (but I am forgetting the north, sorry). Now it seems clear that the Pandora’s Box has been opened. The Govts have done with us what they will and it can never be right again. There truly is no going back. I actually had one of those moments yesterday, and again about an hour ago when I seriously wondered if I had actually died and gone to hell. It’s a joke I have made flippantly so many times before – and I know it’s solipsistic – but the thought really took root, at least temporarily. None of us in this country have ever known what it is like to be turned on at such a seismic level by those we vote for and pay (not that I voted for them but the others as bad). I have read the words “pure evil” on this site and I now know it is true.
If people are going to die for the cause it needs to be in an organised way, and that might be tricky to arrange!
Remember that the kast thing to come out if Pandora’s box was Hope. Treasure it.
While on the subject of hope, I recommend this video.
https://youtu.be/BiAeS-7vt2k
While you might find Richard’s delivery a bit grating in this video, his point is valid. He only recently started reading posts rather than simply speaking somewhat off-the-cuff. His main claim to fame is helping people recover from narcissistic relationships and complex PTSD.
I’m pretty close to wanting to batter a few politicians heads in.
Can’t be organised online. Too many eyes…
Non compliance is the only way. I personally believe a general strike of “key” workers should do the trick easily.
Alternatively, all key workers phone in sick citing covid symptoms.
Play the fuckers at their own game.
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2014/10/gandhi-win/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protest
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lakey
Building critical mass is the way forward: leafleting, talking to others, writings, graffiti, posters, stickers; then individual non-compliance and the forming of activist groups; then individual and group actions – both traditional methods and creative ‘direct action’.
Absolutely! Cellular level. Non-digital, hard copy, transferable, untraceable…well? Anyway, get the info out, and when the numbers are up and running…mass disobediance. Peaceful, of course. All the elderly, all those children..all out and about. Let’s get covid done by Xmas, eh what?
Remove the Tory government.org
People had better wake up very soon and start doing something about it.
From memory the Xhosa cattle killing omits an important detail. As the craze peaked the believers killed the cattle of the Sceptics and the Sceptics too.
Soz to be a downer.
Mandela was a (posh) Xhosa. The old joke was what’s the difference between an optimist and a pessimist? The optimist is learning Zulu (Buthelezi) the pessimist is learning Xhosa.
Was the joke you refer to one told by white South Africans during the late apartheid era, comparable to the one in late-WWII Germany about the optimists learning English and the pessimists Russian?
“SAGE is Worse Than Useless” Mike Yeadon
Don’t beat about the bush, Mike; tell us what you really think.
By its own stupidity the dictatorship will soon defund itself
However, Gates, Rockefeller, Rothschild, Soros &co will continue the funding.
We have to turn the complicit MPs or the police and military, deny labour and fill the streets with our bodies.
Hello Toby’s Lockdown Sceptics
Approximately 1500 people die a day in Britain – yesterday the recorded Covid deaths were 138
(died of any cause 28 days after a positive tests according to the Government own website)
Last 3 days 143, 137 , 138 death . For this we are killing the economy and freedom
Ivor Cummins: Terrifying stuff. Truly incredible car-crash TV on last night, on a top reputable current affairs show no less!
What in the name of God is going on here? Wtf is happening…to science itself?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPmWYFlUK54
The problem with the “it’s all one big cockup” theory is that the government aren’t just going on unprovable beliefs. They know exactly what they are doing and are lying about everything, the hospital admissions, the death rate, the vulnerability etc. It’s really difficult to believe that they are really this stupid.
The point in the summer when people had basically stopped dying of this virus but face masks were made mandatory would indicate another agenda was in place.
Why has there been no mention of the Great Reset by the editors on this site?
I still believe this is cock up, not conspiracy. I do believe we are now in a situation where major dishonesty is being enacted upon the population and that is due to backside covering. They do know they are lying, exaggerating and cherry picking data now but they don’t know how to stop, having backed themselves into a corner.
I know there will be people who say that we are not the only country doing this by any means but I think that’s just follow the herd. E.g “Oh look France is doing such and such so we’d better do it too or slightly more or be condemned as callous killers.”
Nearly all governments have panicked themselves into a zero Covid attempt and don’t know how to deal with the fact that it just can’t be achieved.
I could be very wrong of course …
I would agree with you Steph as in a cock-up and saving face, rather than a conspiracy. If Blair was in charge, then a conspiracy may be more likely, but Johnson, Hancock et al…..I just don’t buy it, as quite simply, they lack basic intelligence.
They are just actors reading a script, covid is a total hoax.
The best way to control the opposition is to lead it.
Absolutely.
.
No one in their right minds would suggest this was all being plotted by Bozo and Handjob. These two are bit players and their roles are to look dumb, so that people like you, will put it all down to incompetence and stupidity. This is much bigger than the UK and apart from a very few exceptions, it’s the same bloody nonsense the world over.
I agree with this too. Blair evil – Johnson inept and Hancock is – well, words fail me – A health minister who does not know the difference between a virus and malaria and who says – Cancer patients might not get treatment if the covid numbers don’t come down or Don’t kill your granny — This man is a twit of the first order and must, like SAGE, be sacked. He is an embarrassment.. I voted for Boris Johnson – sadly he is not up to it ……
Whilst I can see concerning links to great rarest ideas etc am still just about ok with cock up theory – talking to someone this week who had no reason to lie and a connection into Cabinet Office – two things advised – firstly De Piffle does not like the job – it’s too much like hard work and requires detail and repetition none of which is his idea of what he thought the job would be and secondly (presumably as a result of point one) the basic project management around Covid is pretty much non existent so lurches from one thing to the next. Not sure how we dispose of him but he has to go
I said something similar on here yesterday but I had no inside knowledge of course. Good to get it confirmed. It seems to me that the PM thought he just had to be a figurehead whilst his team got Brexit done and then he would be lauded. Instead he has a real crisis and has no powers of critical thinking or man management to get us through this sensibly.
The Project Management question is interesting. Any Project Manager knows that you have to define success and it has to be achievable. The do nothing approach should also be considered sensibly which it clearly wasn’t here.
Exactly. He screwed over Teresa May and was desperate to be PM to ‘get Brexit done’. He didn’t bank on a global pandemic royally fucking up his plans now he’s in way out of his depth and has no clue what to do. His main priority now is covering his own arse.
His hands don’t reach that far
Good old lazy Boris and his lack of attention to detail.Thats why the government lurches from one policy to the next.Sounds good until you realise that France,Belguim Spain Netherlands are using exactly the same methods.Are they all run by fat useless buffoons as well.
I wrote this on BrexitFacts4EU yesterday – it adds a new perspective?
I get the impression that Johnson’s catastrophic positions on policy are heavily influenced by his father, Stanley:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…
https://www.express.co.uk/n…
– notably pro-China (5G), environment (The Great Reset?), and a globalist approach (ex-World Bank). He has written books on population control and Virus pandemics. Apparently, he will apply for French citizenship once Brexit is done.
–
I have to question whether Boris is working for the good of himself, or for the good of the country.
I expect he has noticed how well Mr Blair has done since being out of office.
The links don’t work I’m afraid.
apologies (just copied my post directly from BrexitFacts4EU website – here are the links afresh):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Johnson_(writer)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1241163/nigel-farage-lbc-news-boris-johnson-family-huawei-ban-5g-network-china
Judging from his behaviour during March, I don’t think that Boris Johnson ever really wanted to lock down Britain: is it not more likely that he was somehow coerced into doing it, perhaps because the Chinese had compromised him through those family connections you refer to?
Rather than coercion, I was wondering whether there is family pressure to favour Chinese/Globalist/Environment policies? Inevitably that favouritism might then suggest there may be some kind of reward or pay-off for the wider family at large in the future? Johnson will not be Prime Minister for long, perhaps he doesn’t want to be, – so perhaps he is open to such persuasion?
Agreed he was panicked into Lockdown – however, what is of concern is that once the evidence came in that this was no worse than the flu, he continued with Lockdown. Why?
Many possibilities, and the above is just one more perspective.
Did you know that covering up a mistake is also a conspiracy
I do agree with that view. However most read conspiracy as something even more sinister that systematic lying to cover backsides so I prefer not to use that term. I concede that technically it is a conspiracy as well.
I think this goes beyond back covering.The vaccine part is not even conspiracy now,it’s government policy.Also digital/health passports.Thats policy too.You can see an embryonic police state taking shape.Scan a code wherever you go.No cash due to false reports,further source of surveillance.These are not the actions of people covering their backs.
Then look across the world and you see the response is pretty similar.This all starts to add up to something very sinister
In any crisis, or even pseudo-crisis such as the ‘Pandemic’, there are always disparate groups and individuals who will take advantage of it to drive their own agendas. Same thing happened in WW2. It doesn’t necessarily mean these groups are driving the events, just trying to manipulate them for their own ends.
I believe that a conviction for Conspiracy carrys no limit on the prison sentence.
Believe it Steph. The problem with the majority is they’re too trusting and do not think the government would do anything to harm us. They have, and will continue to do so.
The way I see things, the govt didn’t really care too much back in Jan/Feb, and assumed that they’d be able to just babble on about hand washing and this would all blow over in a month or so. But once the media decided that this was going to be an apocalypse they HAD to respond, and in the meantime had realised that all this could be a nice little earner for all concerned – the MSM get everyone hooked on terror, billions could be doled out with no scrutiny to all their mates for tracing apps and masks and whatnot, and it provides a great distraction for the complete failure of Brexit negotiations. Tell everyone it’s ‘for the NHS’ and nobody will dare object. If Boris gets to be remembered as some Churchillian hero that’s a nice bonus, but don’t count on it.
He will be remembered. As the worst prime minister ever, leading (?) the worst government ever. His name will be a by-word for incompetence, stupidity and totalitarian malevolence.
Anybody else know C. S. Lewis’s The Last Battle? Boris reminds me strongly of Shift the Ape. Wancock is more like Rishda Tarkaan. In the end, the devil-god Tash ate both of them,
Who cares whether it is a conspiracy or a cock up?
It’s being on the Titanic as it is going down and arguing as to whether it crashed into the iceberg by accident or on purpose. It’s going down. It’s a disaster.
The difference is, if it’s a cock-up, the crew will throw lifebelts to you in the water. If it’s a conspiracy, they will start machine gunning you.
Law of unintended consequences. The government wanted people to take notice of this new disease, so set out to scare them. That worked, but with the consequence that when some really bad news came out from Italy, people panicked. The press panicked. Panic spreads.
So the government locked down. Maybe because everyone else was doing it, maybe because Johnson and Micron are friends and had a little “chat”. But they locked down. An unintended consequence of the panic the government itself had helped in no small measure to create.
At what point does the government admit not only that it called the situation wrong, but also that it had been lying to the population. Hence the floundering around, looking for a way out, easing restrictions gradually and showing people it is now safe to come out.
But because nobody really understands the science in government (nor apparently, on the SAGE committee), the wild card, the joker in the pack, is the fresh increase in numbers who are now testing positive. And the whole panic thing starts all over again.
I am less inclined to believe in an over-arching conspiracy now that central government seems keen on devolving Covid regulations to local government. If there really were a Bond Villain conspiracy, I hardly think they would risk delegating its execution to chain-wearing nonentities in northern town halls.
To which “he” are you referring, and what does this “he” say he is?
I doubt anyone, or many, here think this is pure cockup.
Initial blunder: Attention-seeking mad advice from scientists, combined with cowardice in the face of some risk and media, political and public pressure, and laziness from politicians and other scientists
Continued madness: Covering up the initial blunder, liking for easy power, various groups using the opportunity to push agendas, continued fear of being blamed for deaths
Are SAGE, Bill Gates, the WHO, big Pharma, big Tech, China, WEF all blameless saints who think of nothing but our own good? Of course not. Is some committee of these people sending orders to the PM – I doubt it.
I think my explanation for what has happened is entirely plausible.
As for the editors not mentioning the Great Reset, they may not buy it as a major factor or they may (IMO rightly) choose not to muddy the waters with anything that gives our enemies an easy route to attack us.
Unless the reasons mean we should change our approach to fighting the madness, they don’t matter right now. Best stick to core message.
And in a few years time when we wake up in the morning and realise that our lives have completely changed while this site is still arguing that the government is not following the science.
And if we all woke up tomorrow and realised that it was in fact all a big plan put into motion by the WEF and Bill Gates, what difference would it make? If Toby’s blog tomorrow was entirely focused on exposing the Great Reset, what difference would it make? How would that change the strategy? Would it just mean that we could all sit around congratulating ourselves for being clever enough to see through it? Would it in any way change the options available to us for countering and resisting the narrative? Are the tools available to us to resist a globalist takeover any different to the tools available to resist a government that has made disastrous decisions and is stuck doubling down on its own narrative? Is it, perhaps, the case that the only difference it would make is that it would make it easier for people to dismiss this site and discredit the position it takes?
I’ve said it before – believe whatever you like, I will do the same. Surely we have enough to worry about without getting frustrated with each other and with the authors and editors of the blog for not accepting our truth? And frankly, if it irritates you so much, go and read a different blog instead. I’m sure there are plenty out there that agree with you.
I think it helps if you understand the true motives of the people you are up against.
Reason and facts won’t win the day if you are up against someone with an agenda
But we’re using reason and facts on the general public. I don’t think many of us are trying to convince the PM we are right.
No, you’re quite wrong about the “helplessness” which is often used to dismiss us. There is no helplessness about it. There is agorism, and many of us have been working day and night to make sure we can exist outside of the system. This is exhausting, completely “stuck in” work going fully self-sustainable, and – quite frankly – it’s a public service that we take time out at all to try to get everyone else to do the same. THAT’S humanity.
Believe what you want, indeed, but please don’t make claims that there is some sort of helpless flailing around happening behind the scenes simply because you wish to not peak behind the curtain.
Edit: My first allegiance is to my own children and securing their future. My second is to everyone else’s children. I don’t give two shits about the sheep, but their children are blameless. The more people who get the message about Agenda 21, the more children we save.
Unfortunately, while lambs are appealing, they very quickly grow up to be sheep.
In my humble opinion, evidence-based arguments are key here: while there are plenty of concrete facts that can be adduced to demolish the various governments’ handling of the crisis, unfortunately there is as yet only circumstancial evidence for the plot to usher in a technocratic surveillance state under the guise of ‘fighting the virus’… Until some damning written evidence of collusion surfaces, or a credible whistleblower starts spilling the beans, what can you do on that front apart from always pointing to the same old ‘writing on the wall’, over and over again? The MSM-indoctrinated flock will never allow their reality to be shattered to pieces as long as they can avoid it…
We’re mainly refining arguments to use to persuade ordinary people this is all nonsense, the main and most compelling argument being that the cure is worse than the disease and that the government are making it up as they go along
Toby’s doing just fine. He is doing sterling work in exposing the narrative.
Thanks Toby!
PS – I don’t think its cock-uo eitehr.
cockup either.
Here, here… Toby is doing wonderful work!
We have seen what a great deaal of attention hydroxyychloroquine has received as a possible medication.
Why was hydroxychloroquine made ‘prescription only’ in France on January 13th 2020, after being available over the counter for more than 60 years?
i
I think perhaps some are recent converts and will therefore take longer to get there. It’s not an easy pill to swallow for sure. If everyone knew, it would stop for sure, because no one but the extraordinarily wealthy (1% of 1% of 1%) and utter morons could want that future.
How long do cock-ups, lying, ,saving face, arse covering, excuses and ignoring the data have to go on for before this becomes a conspiracy in the minds of most people?
This goes way beyond a virus at this point and while we all debate over the minutia of the virus itself such as CFR, IFR, infection (case(Positive PCR)) rates, false positives, hospitalisations, ventilator usage, where to wear retarded face nappies etc etc etc, the juggernaut of the NWO moves on, gaslighting the shit out of us.
I can only see that this is moving to a point where people become so tired, so desperate with their own situations, be it financial, psychological etc, that they will end up taking any and all Government handouts such as debt relief (and the subsequent relinquishment of private property a la UN Agenda 21/2030), UBI, vaccine, digital health passports just to ‘have a normal life’.
You have no idea how wrong I want to be about this but the trend towards the total enslavement of mankind has not been curtailed in my view. The biggest problem is that it appears that most men and women WANT their own enslavement because they don’t know that’s what it is.
I’ll leave two Aldous Huxley quotes here:
“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. “Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence, because their human voice has been silenced so early in their lives, that they do not even struggle or suffer or develop symptoms as the neurotic does.” They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness. These millions of abnormally normal people, living without fuss in a society to which, if they were fully human beings, they ought not to be adjusted.”
“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.”
Even if they find a vaccine, which is unlikely, our lives will never return to normal, they have no intention of allowing it to. People need to wake up and realise this! We’re being conned!
And to add to that, my own despair is that I cannot see a way out of this seeming inevitability. Short of creating communities that attempt to live off the land and become totally self sufficient (which people are attempting), I am so, so far away from being able to do that that I perceive I will end up reluctantly accepting all of the impending restrictions on my freedom. I can genuinely see how people are already giving up and committing suicide.
Why commit suicide? Go out and fight. At least you can take a couple of the bastards with you.
Be of good cheer. A certain Austrian gentleman not so long ago thought his empire would last 1000 years, and within 12 years it was in ruins. As the hymn puts it, ‘Pride of man and earthly glory…tower and temple, turn to dust’. Nothing in this mortal life is inevitable, nor lasts forever.
Guy, I totally agree with you. Although I do need to say that I don’t think it matters at the moment, what matters is that we resist and then start to fight back, not on the terms of the enemy (for that’s what they truly are) but on our terms for what is important to us. Cheers, Arnie.
I have resisted as much as I feel I am able to, even wasted a colossal amount of time writing to my MP several times and signing petitions. I have stuck leaflets/posters on walls and lamp posts in my local area and engaged vocally with anyone that will listen. I think most of my work colleagues think I’m crazy.
And I am yet to wear a retarded face nappy. I have worked in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing, Cleanroom Environmental Monitoring, Pharmaceutical Microbiology and Microbiology Culture Media Manufacturing, all in Quality Assurance and Quality Control roles, to know that face coverings DO NOT FU*KING WORK!!!!!!!
So now we have a really, really, really efficient totalitarian state.
I assume no mention of it so that this site doesn’t get taken down…
Amazingly some people are as yet giving the government the benefit of the doubt and still going with the cockup and incompetence theory. Understandable for a week or two but it was clear by early April that the whole Coronavirus fiasco was about much more than a mystery virus. Ask Bill vaccine tsar Gates he knows what the real agenda is.
From the roundup
‘Supermarket rationing did not prevent stockpiling’ which as Toby says was rather obvious at the time.
Note the scary blame words ‘panic buying’ and ‘hoarding’ have been given the Ministry of Truth treatment.
Seemed perfectly obvious at the time that if the government tells you to stay home for two weeks, possibly longer, the first thing you are going to do is get three weeks groceries in.
Added to which one third of food consumed is in restaurants, take aways, pubs hotels, canteens at work, universities and schools.
All that eating was replaced overnight by food bought from shops.
It’s still stupid and inconsiderate, though. But notice how there hasn’t been any panic buying recently, even though we are supposed to be going on another national lockdown next week
Nobody I know has been panic buying this time around because thankfully none of them have any intention of going along with a lockdown. The mood is changing. I live in a very upper middle class country village, normally very law abiding. They may not be very loud about it, but on the quiet they are voting with their feet and saying “enough”. Plenty of home delivery slots available, no panic.
Same
Same here. Lots of food, toilet paper and treats for Halloween too.
I think you’re right as well – people are less inclined to go along with a lockdown now especially as for many they won’t have any jobs to return to when furlough ends.
A second Lockdown will be treated very differently from the first.
Agree. I think people will find creative ways of going about it.
Similar effect to last time going on at the store where I work. Lot more empty spaces on the shelves, people buying that bit more than normal, with average size of the deliveries increasing again.
A certain optician sent an email to all its employers in the last few days telling them to stock up on food and other essentials. The employee then passed this advice on to their family.
No trouble getting an online delivery slot either. Had my usual monthly delivery yesterday with all items (with a couple of substitutes) delivered. Just checked and still delivery slots available with better availability a week out, per usual.
Perhaps the supermarkets have recognised that people are fed up of dealing with the shops and we’re in a semi-permanent switch to online supermarket shopping.
But hasn’t the food industry done a fantastic job, from manufacturing to retailing? While the middle classes hide behind the couch, the workers are out there in crap jobs, cold conditions, making your ready meals, cans of soup, beans, pasta, fish fingers, baking bread, keeping the supply chain going. The delivery drivers are out there getting the stuff to the stores so you don’t need to stockpile any more. The retailers are getting the stock on the shelves, always open, ready for your custom. The food industry is the unsung hero of this whole shambles. Protect the NHS? If the food industry falters, the country will collapse within days.
And with none of us getting ill either. And considering how many pickers were in the shop at the height of covid, social distancing was impossible.
The problem for producers was that they could not convert their distribution from commercial outlets to retail/domestic overnight.
They have now largely done so.
That is one heartening aspect of this sorry mess. When Lockdown was first announced, I wasn’t really scared of the Covids, but of the public’s reaction to it, and I genuinely expected food shortages and rioting/looting etc. The army was also superb in building the Potemkin hospitals, shame they were just for show, but at least it shows we can build that sort of thing quickly if required.
Supermarkets are the real winners, I wonder if they’re donating lots of money to the government.
From a good friend who has a senior role in supermarket distribution logistics – there wasn’t really any panic buying. If you think about the main items that ran out (1. loo roll, 2. bread, 3. milk).
They have a really high turnover in the store because everyone buys them. They’re also really bulky so have to be replenished several times a day. As soon as they don’t do that in time it looks like they’ve sold out when they haven’t.
People naturally then buy extra if they can because they’re busy working families who can’t function without these items and don’t have the opportunity to drive around all week looking for them. Cupboards of loo roll (or freezers of food staples) don’t really have any negatives because we all they’ll get used eventually.
Anyway, my point is that it’s a supply side problem in the first place that then triggers a demand problem.
There was definitely some panic buying. Some customers buying multiple crates worth of milk and bread.
No idea if this is connected, but I’ll mention here that on Monday our university bus service was suddenly cut from half-hourly to hourly. The timetable was also changed. No announcement, nothing on the website. I use this daily to get to my allotment and I wasn’t the only one caught unawares from what I’ve overheard.
Is this preparation for the Great Half Term Lockdown, or simply the bus company and the university realising that there are far fewer students using the bus?
Probably the latter, I drove through the local campus today, it was as deserted as during the summer vacation.
The John Snow thing is additionally funny because, while he rejected the miasma theory for cholera, it is that very same nonsense that drives the push for masks.
Very good point Ryan.
btw, very late yesterday you remarked how much of the Western USA has become Federal property. I replied that it is covered in the feature ‘Endgame’ that I had posted about an hour or so previously.
When I first saw that many years ago I thought it all rubbish but parts of it are starting to make sense (it also warned about Bill Gates 13 years ago).
I thought that, way back at the beginning of the bollox, when parks were closed so that people couldn’t go there and breathe at each other.
One nineteenth-century doctor was so convinced that cholera germs were not water-borne that to refute the idea, he publicly drank a glass if water deliberately contaminated with the ‘eliminations’ of a cholera sufferer. The doctor died of cholera. His colleagues ignored the warning.
For literally millennia, up to the mid nineteenth century, medical orthodoxy remained wedded to completely false theories that resulted in almost every medical intervention making matters worse.Now the cretins are at it again.
PS.
“Conventional treatment consisted of enemas, castor oil, calomel (mercurous chloride; a purgative), gastric washing, venesection (bloodletting), opium, brandy, and plugging of the anus to prevent fluid from escaping. Mortality due to cholera remained high throughout the 19th century.” (Wimipedia)
Looks like SAGE and the WHO were ar work even thrn.
Don’t forget the leeches
Certainly not, though I’m. told that medicinal leeches do have their uses. Unlike the ones in government.
I’m fully expecting a page on blood letting to appear on Wikipedia, backed by the WHO
Some alternative practitioners approve of blood-letting. So unlikely to be WHO backed.
I’d take opium & brandy (no need for plugging of the anus, given sufficient opium) over their crappy vaccines any day …
The Ghost Map is a brilliant book about John Snow for anyone who’s interested in epidemiology.
Some?Pretty well all of them. We are a nation of concrete-headed moronic cowards.
Present company excepted!
I have to agree. I have been speechless at the response by the vast majority. People I thought were intelligent completey neurotic and brainwashed and not doing one bit of research outside of the media to change this and it continues after all these months. I can’t mix with them any more. Even before all the research (although I started from day 1), I have never thought there was much of a risk unless already very sick and I want to shake people and say regardless, just get a grip of yourself and accept that from the minute you are born one thing is certain and that’s one day you are going to die.
Neighbouring local authority reports first Covid death for 4 months (elderly lady) yet still people act as though we are facing medieval plague.
But it was exactly the same during the Brexit Referendum wasn’t it?
There is a slow waking up people need to do so faster
Sadly I agree with you. If my workplace is anything to go by, many of them simply get their news on the MSM and believe what they read. Even after all this time they haven’t done their research and social distancing and mask wearing has become a religion for them.
Despite the woes that our workplace is undergoing including the threat of compulsory redundancy (already certain to become a reality), many of them are still of the view that if only people obeyed the rules we will be OK.
I think the next few weeks, months will disavow them of that notion.
My partner has been telling me for years that people don’t get their news from the MSM any longer. I said they were. Turns out I was right.
In part I think you both are – Facebook/Twitter et al is the main news source for a wide range of people I am in regular contact with.
A lot of my colleagues read the BBC and some the Guardian. Facebook provides the confirmation bias that they already have.
It seems judges get all their info from the MSM too.
Given all the SAGE and WHO propaganda relentlessly pumped out by the broadcast media (and my conspiracy theorist friends certainly have a point here) it’s not surprising that most people appear to support the lockdown. It would help if the government did not pull any punches about the cost – millions of jobs destroyed, poorer life opportunities for young people, increased levels of poverty and all the other collateral damage. Rishi Sunak – over to you. At least The Telegraph, Sun and Daily Mail are now firmly in the lockdown sceptic camp.
Theorist ? Theorist ? At what point will you acknowledge the reality – troops on the streets ? cash banned ? ‘isolation’ camps ?
People will sit in their houses and starve themselves to death until the dictator tells them not to (which won’t be anytime soon)
If people are that stupid, good riddance. A welcome bit of positive Darwinism.
Good. Let them.
So, SAGE should be disbanded and reconstituted. Who will reconstitute SAGE? Who will decide who the members should be? At present, the committee membership is decided by the Government Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance.
I would suggest the real problem is that there is no such thing as “the science” for the Government to follow, and we do not have the breadth and depth of expertise in the Civil Service to give the Government balanced and considered advice. What we have is one man who calls upon a group of outside ‘experts’ of his choosing, to push an argument that he considers is in the best interests of his own legacy and reputation.
Yes, SAGE should be disbanded. But the manner of its reconstitution must be a matter of careful consideration.
Aldous Huxley warned that a future dictatorship would be driven by medics and scientists, for our own good, but that’s the problem with dictatorships, they tend to be self-selecting.
It seems the Science can be anything you want it to be, like a hooker!
If you pay it enough.
Science can certainly prostitute itself, very like a hooker.
Why reconstitute it? Do we need it? Why do we need it? And if it were to be agreed to be reconstituted then not one person, not one, should be allowed to the new body, if he or she were present on the old. Start with a completely new set of staff. Unlike Public Health England or whatever the group is called.
“PARIS (Reuters) – Police raided the homes and offices of France’s health minister, its public health director and former prime minister on Thursday as a judicial investigation into the government’s response to the coronavirus crisis deepened.”
Sounds promising!
”…which aims to establish whether those in charge at the outset of the outbreak showed a “lack of will to fight a disaster”
Sigh
If there had been less will to ‘fight’ the ‘disaster’, there would have been no disaster.
BTW, what were the police looking for?
I wondered that too? What could they have been keeping indoors that might be of use??
Probably high-grade government-only drugs.
It just gets scarier and scarier.
This is really becoming a reign of terror.
I’m highly sceptical of the government’s Covid approach and think the threat posed by the virus is overblown.
I think much of the current approach is rooted in an attempt to justify inept policy that’s in itself caused tens of thousands of early deaths.
HOWEVER… I’ve lost some faith in this website.
It keeps telling me things that turn out to be wrong, and then doesn’t acknowledge its errors.
‘Case increase isn’t reflecting increased levels of Covid, as there’s no associated hospitalisation and death’ [Hospitalisation and death increase]
‘The Spanish autumn increase in Covid peaked on September 17th’ [Still going strong]
‘The false positive rate is around 1%’ [Actual positive rate massively below 1% across the vast majority of testing for the last few months]
Reading back through a few posts there are loads of examples of incorrect predictions.
Which isn’t the end of the world; it’s still an excellent resource with a strong argument. I just think it’d be a stronger one if it was a bit more measured and acknowledged errors.
What do people on here think we should actually do about Covid? Nothing? Tbh I could probably go along with that, but the argument would have to be presented with an acknowledgment that doing nothing would probably result in a fair bit more Covid death. Exactly how much is debatable but it would almost certainly be less overall death than if we continue to try & suppress it.
I’m a fan of GB focused protection, but what would that actually look like? Eg would we stop people visiting care homes, which is absolutely inhumane? If not there’s no focused protection.
There’s difficult conversations to be had.
I think SAGE are a waste of time, and we should stop myopically focusing on Covid – it’s one risk among many, and an overblown one at that – but it does exist and does in my opinion does require some sort of strategy to mitigate its harm – doesn’t it?
‘The false positive rate is around 1%’ [Actual positive rate massively below 1% across the vast majority of testing for the last few months]
I believe you’re wrong there. I think what you’re doing is interpreting the ‘N per hundred thousand of the population’ figure as being the percentage of positive tests. (That would be the sensible way of doing it if the tests were random). This figure is often way below 1%.
But I think that what actually happens is that they do some testing in Bolton or wherever that returns, say, 100 positive tests. They then use that as the numerator, and the whole population of Bolton as the denominator. In fact, it is perfectly compatible with there being 1% false positives, and the government themselves found the median false positive rate to be 2.3% in June.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/895843/S0519_Impact_of_false_positives_and_negatives.pdf
Ironically, the way they do it seems to downplay the absolute incidence of the disease, but the advantage for the government is that the fixed denominator allows them to modulate the trends as they see fit by modulating the amount of testing. The government’s fear strategy is based on trends, not (supposed) absolute prevalence of the virus.
Most certainly we must acknowledge errors. You are pointing them out. That is a vital contribution.
We have loads of theories on the go. Some I wholly disbelieve. But I do want them aired and debated. Tunnel vision is the sin of our enemies.
As for strategies to mitigate harm – the G, B. Declaration points the way. And you do have to balance Covid harm against lockdown harm.
Thanks
This seems like a bit of a troll post. For example, you say that if visits to nursing homes aren’t stopped then there’s no focused protection. This is ridiculous. There are many things you can do besides stopping visitors, such as screening visitors, testing staff and separating sick residents. Then there is protection of vulnerable people living in their own homes, which is an entirely different question.
If you think polite questions are trolling you might be a bit of a snowflake! Maybe I should’ve phrased the GB bit more clearly – I suppose I was just saying that even that response would come at some cost, but the details of how we would deal with care homes are open to discussion, I agree.
This is more like snowflakery.
Sorry Jon, but with the greatest of respects, I would wholeheartedly disagree with this. This website has been a saviour for me, a platform to share views with like minded individuals, and to experience the realisation that you are not alone in critical thinking. Toby has been instrumental in pushing this, and the very fact he is still asked for views in numerous media shows there is still a place for this.
Corrections are more for a newspaper, where essentially it is found that outright lying has taken places. Inaccuracies here are likely less common than that in MSM which you should remember, and it is extremely difficult to keep up with an ever fluid situation.
Stay strong, and be thankful you have a sanctuary away from biased media!
Fair enough
Well, I think the fundamental sceptic case that most here subscribe to is that the bar for the kind of interventions we have seen is set far too low.
On any rational basis, if you do a cost benefit analysis the cost side is orders of magnitude higher than the benefit, assuming of course there is any benefit to the interventions, which is highly questionable.
As for incorrect predictions or statements, that’s inevitable. But in general those predictions and statements are attempts to sell our case without having to resort to the argument that is at once the best and the hardest to sell, which is that governments cannot stop viruses (nothing can) and we have to carry on as best we can. It’s easier to sell the case that the “pandemic” is over. It may not be over in the sense that no-one will ever die of covid again, but it is probably over in the sense that the kind of spike of deaths in April and May probably won’t be repeated and we will have seasonal fluctuations in line with other respiratory conditions.
Mitigation is along the lines of protecting those who are unable to protect themselves (i.e. dementia sufferers in care homes who cannot make their own decisions) and advising people of the risks so they can make their own decisions, and making sure you have critical care capacity as best you can (without turning the NHS into a National Covid Service) and encouraging research into the best treatments (and possibly vaccines, though it’s complicated) and preventative advice.
Thanks
What do people on here think we should actually do about Covid – there is nothing we can do. The virus has a 99.9% survival rate so as like all other years we get on with our lives.
In 6 months I haven’t met anyone or bumped into anyone who looks remotely on deaths door all I see are frightened depressed people.
As a responsible human being and member of society if I feel sick I stay indoors and keep my distance. I don’t need to be told to do it.
We are tying ourself up in knots working out IFR’s, false positive rates, PCR cycles and data. It’s all an illusion, mother nature is a bitch.
I’ve got more chance of being run over by a bus.
Fuck them all, ruining our lives over the flu, it killed approximately 60k people in 2018.
I don’t think we should be doing anything other than taking responsibility for our own health. The government can advise but that’s as far as it should go. There has been no Covid in our household, nor in our extended family or friends. So as far as I am concerned this is an overhyped scaremongering agenda from our government who is deliberately harming our lives. They should be brought to book for this in Court!
You’ve got more chance of being run over by a pink bus with ‘Johnson is a cunt’ on the side.
One just went by. I dodged it.
The only realistic endpoint is herd immunity. We know pretty much who is vulnerable and who is not. All the government needs to do is offer protection to anyone who is vulnerable (isolate care homes, have food deliveries for the elderly etc…) and leave everyone else to crack on. Note that this should not infringe on personal freedom – anyone, regardless of how vulnerable they are, should be free to make their own decisions and ignore government advice. In 2-3 months max we’d be through this thing and probably less would die in the long term than are going to die by letting this virus hang around indefinitely.
Stop taking the bait folks. This from TE and his minions at the 77th
They have obviously run out of panties to sniff
So that’s the real reason for face nappies!
I literally don’t know what you’re referring to!! Maybe I should, but whatever it is I assure you I’m not part of it!
I’m a lockdown sceptic and fairly regular poster on here, generally to support lockdown scepticism.
Genuine question: is there a possibility you see conspiracy in more places than it actually exists?
Nah. Your post got flack for being about some virus or other.
The issues now include dictatorship, human freedom, and the way ahead.
Covid is a bigger scam than Climate change. How they must be laughing at us!
And yet how funny it is that not all of us believe that climate change is a scam. I do think that the covid reaction has been blown out of all proportion to the risk.
Like 5G, Bill Gates, etc. etc. etc., I think there are more immediately relevant things to discuss than climate change.
There are a few of us here who regularly set out what we think the government should do:
This is a short summary, without links to evidence (which I can provide) that I posted on here a couple of days ago and then sent to Sir John Redwood MP:
‘….emulate those countries who have done better both in terms of health and economic outcomes than we have, for example: Japan and Sweden.
Sweden had some problems with care home mortality, but Japan has protected their elderly and infirm.
We can do the same: frequent hand washing, high standards of hygiene, restricted access, disciplined movement/human interactions by care home workers and voluntary BCG vaccination for those healthcare workers/elderly/vulnerable who have not been so vaccinated.’
And turn off the news!
Thanks
Thanks for all your replies – some food for thought.
Just to be clear (if I wasn’t in my original post), I’m absolutely a sceptic of the reaction to Covid; I think it’s hysterical and ridiculous.
I was just wondering what some of you would suggest as an alternative response (and I don’t think there necessarily needs to be agreement between you/us on the detail).
Again to be clear, I think I’d be fairly comfortable with the response consisting of not much at all.
My one concern about this site is that it’s becoming a bit of a religion and not really conducive to critical thought or debate, but most of your responses have allayed my fears in that direction.
I have some sympathy for you, because we were all thinking back in the summer that there would be no “second wave” and yet in many countries, including here, the hospital, ICU and death rates have been rising. I must admit my heart sinks when I look at those rising figures. BUT what I would say to you is:
1) Like other respiratory illnesses, they increase at this time of year and hospitalisations and some deaths are inevitable;
2) There are problems with the accuracy of the data – both in hospital admissions and deaths – while it is almost certainly true that there have been increases (see 1) above), many of the deaths and hospital admissions are attributed to Covid when they should not be (ie only a positive, possibly false positive test, when a person is in hospital for another condition altogether, even a brief visit to A&E – these things have all been identified by medical practitioners on this site);
and 3) there needs to be a sense of perspective – look at the graphs such as https://euromomo.eu/graphs-and-maps and many others, and you will see that there is no real cause for alarm, compared to the incidence of all respiratory illnesses.
Then lastly, 4) Look at the damage these lockdowns are causing – no shortage of material here and also in certain newspapers! Look at who is being temporarily “saved” compared to those whose lives are being cut short by decades, not to mention their livelihoods and life opportunities being lost.
Thanks – that all seems eminently reasonable. My sense too is that the current increase in infection will be commensurate to seasonal flu, etc.
Eg if 100/day die for the next 3 months that’ll be 9k, which is well within the flu range. But no doubt it’ll be presented as a health catastrophe!
And we’d have to assume those deaths are from the same population that succumb to flu, so there’ll be a big overlap there, rather than simply 9k more deaths than most years.
Re the costs of the response, clearly they are and will increasingly be massive, mainly amongst the poorest. I think we’d all agree the western response could be called morally outrageous.
Thanks again for your thoughts.
Focused protection in the context of choice – allowing visitors to care homes if that is the wish of the individual
Surely there is no need for green band and red band, simply signal you are a red band type by wearing a mask. If you have one on and I don’t we can stay away from each other. Occam’s razor and all that.
Not everyone wants to wear a mask. Even those who wish to “shield” may be aware that a mask isn’t going to help or they just might not want to wear one.
I’m convinced that most people in my part of the world don’t want the foul things, but they dread the consequences if they don’t conform. Almost nobody knows there are exemptions, and the Welsh government have made it very hard to find out.
Exemptions are theoretical, not practical. Even if a shop observes the law regarding exemptions, members of the public won’t. And even if you’re legally in the right, who wants to have a public argument with a policeman or, even worse, a tinpot ‘Covid marshal’?
So the anxious person will be more anxious than ever if they don’t wear the mask. Result: people put the masks on, or they stay at home.
Masks are the biggest of the daily life issues for me. I am not medically exempt, but I don’t want to wear one because of how it makes me feel. Even worse though is how it makes me feel to be in a place where everyone else is wearing them. Even if I am feeling up to not wearing one myself, the anxiety I feel being in a shop is still too great. So I don’t go at all now. I don’t go anywhere.
CGL you are close to Two-Six I think? Maybe meet up and team up? I too was really anxious but now think nothing of it. I have the answers ready if confronted but had no issues at all.
You don’t need to be “medically exempt”. If wearing a mask causes you distress you can simply declare yourself exempt.
CGL – see LaworFiction website – Low Mood.
or a German Doctor (Griese, I think, who says lack of oxygen will cause early dementia).
You are medically exempt.
Boris must have seriously lacked oxygen at some stage.
With the effects you describe, surely you are exempt. Remember, no one can demand that you disclose your medical condition.
Carry the government list of exemptions.
Leaflet the ignorant with list of exemptions.
If they choose to nappy themselves and I don’t, most certainly I want to stay away from them and vice versa!
Yeah, I get what they’re trying to do, but I strongly dislike the red band green band thing.
Agree. Having looked at their website I can’t really see how red/green band is any better than the status quo
It’s really that simple. When I was in Japan, pre SARS, I don’t remember seeing anyone with face masks. I think this idea that it’s a cultural thing there is a little bit of BS. It seems that since that time there’s been an increase in people wearing them, but not everyone.
I’ve never really understood this either. There seems to be a misconception that everyone in East Asia was walking around in face masks prior to COVID. Sure, there were more of them in some parts than you would have seen in Europe, but I wouldn’t even have said it was a majority. I often wonder if people who believe this misconception have been to Asia.
I keep hearing that everybody in Asia wears face masks all the time and they have done for a long time. Obviously it’s bollocks but almost everybody thinks this. It’s racism and lazy cultural stereotyping at work and it’s being pushed hard by the usual suspects.
Absolutely.
Agree that assumption isn’t true. OK there’s a minority who wear them in Japan but its nothing to do with health and everything to do with the fact that they possibly have certain mental health issues, something that’s not lost on psychologists and psychiatrists.
You really must ring up the journalist Tor Ching Li in Tokyo who wrote this article and tell him he is hallucinating.:
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/mask-appeal
It looks like they must have spent a lot of time faking up pictures as well!!
Note: I am not saying masks work to prevent virus transmission.
The evidence is fairly conclusive that at best they do nothing and at worst they increase viral load.
Otherwise Japan would not have a higher seasonal flu incidence than the USA or Europe:
https://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/cause-of-death/influenza-pneumonia/by-country/
I seem to remember them being worn in London during pea-soupers and they probably helped a little with the particulate matter.
The bands were mentioned on here before and I looked at the website and wrote a scathing comment yo the owner comparing them to yellow stars. He wrote back explaining, and I wanted to reply, once I calmed down. Haven’t replied yet. I still think they are stupid. They are rubber wrist bands. With winter coming up, and people wearing coats and gloves, how are you supposed to see them? How many people will be aware what they stand for?
Perhaps the Zealots and Marshals could wear Red and Black armbands – then we will know who to avoid.
I agree that there’s no need for green bands but by suggesting that the shielders wear masks aren’t we acknowledging that they work?! I honestly believe they cause more harm than good.
I admit to not really giving it much thought before March but the shielding population already live with their situation. We know we shouldn’t expose newborns to too much before they’ve been vaccinated, we know we should stay away from the elderly if we have cold/flu. We know we should cover our mouths if we cough/sneeze and that we should wash our hands! We know we’re at higher risk of premature death if we’re obese and that type II diabetes etc aren’t good for us. People with hiv know to try to avoid co-infections. This is nothing new! I do feel really sad for people with cancer/transplants etc but covid is not the first time their Dr will have told them that they need to shield is it? Surely they and their families were already shielding to an extent all the time against flu and the myriad of other viruses/bacteria that could kill them?
The ones that are confusing it are the Covidians who have become paralysed by fear to be able to sensibly assess the risks to them. They’re the ones who need the red bands.
I can’t wear a mask (not that I want to) I don’t believe in lockdowns , but I do mostly distance and limit where I go to. I believe we should all choose for ourselves, so I’d put myself in an “Amber” category!
That’s your choice and it’s absolutely fine.
Don’t forget to keep your grin with you!
Didn’t see this comment piece from Sherelle Jacobs referenced in the blog, but well worth a read
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/10/15/lockdown-sceptics-world-must-unite-new-manifesto/
Great feature today, why can’t the maniacs ruining the country read this to get some perspective? You would think the senior members of the tories would realise they have shot the next election and do something to stop the buffoon and hapless.
The way things are panning out there won’t be any more elections.
At least we know how the Germans in the 1930s were brainwashed
The Germans allowed Hitler into power to deal with a real and present problem not a phoney one.
(Not aimed at you, John.).
Ouch!
Lockdown every school holiday until the virus has disappeared, I’ve got a better idea:STAND ON YOUR HEAD FOR 30 MINUTES EVERY OTHER THURSDAY
Haha. I always call it the ‘rain dance’ measures.
I assume you made that comment in jest, but I honestly believe the majority of the population would do it, if Twat Hancock announced it as necessary to “Keep the Virus under control”…
PARADOGMA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrJR1Xz-WV4
I was listening to a bit of Boris Johnson’s conference speech – the section on not going back to normal -and it struck me that the ‘agenda’ is in plain sight. When did we, as a society, decide not to return to normal? How is this an ’emergency powers’ kind of decision? The arrogance of the government is astounding! We have become so used to them telling us what do in the ’emergency’ that we are mute when they unilaterally decree the entire future direction of our society and economy.
This is in the open, now. By interpreting the virus and lockdowns in a positive, not neutral, light (as Boris was undoubtedly doing with evangelical zeal), this should surely cast doubt on the government’s entire strategy. They are not just getting us through this emergency, but have other motives, now out in the open. Why is parliament putting up with it? (A rhetorical question…)
No, we didn’t. But it looks as if the WEF did, many years ago.
This is part of his conference speech:
But after all we have been through it isn’t enough just to go back to normal. We have lost too much. We have mourned too many.
We have been through too much frustration and hardship just to settle for the status quo ante – to think that life can go on as it was before the plague; and it will not. Because history teaches us that events of this magnitude – wars, famines, plagues; events that affect the vast bulk of humanity, as this virus has – they do not just come and go.
They are more often than not the trigger for an acceleration of social and economic change, because we human beings will not simply content ourselves with a repair job.
We see these moments as the time to learn and to improve on the world that went before.
That is why this government will build back better.
Yes, a masterclass in non sequitur and false logic.
Priti Patel announced this was the New Normal back in March.
With twenty-five million GP appointments not having taken place this year, according to the Telegraph, we must spare a thought for the poor dears locked in their fortress surgeries, assiduously Zooming and WhatsApping their surviving patients.
A substantial pay rise would appear to be in order, from the Government Trough.
The cowardice and duplicity of the GP’s ‘s has been staggering
We now know that they never did give a shit about patients
I think this varies considerably from one part of the country to another. Here, in Buckingham, we do not seem to have had any problems; well that is my strong impression. I do know that the situation is much worse elsewhere. Why this is I have no idea.
Please don’t tar all of my GP colleagues with the same brush. In the practices where I’m working they are seeing patients face to face. Also GP practice salaries are not paid from government, nurses working there are not on NHS salary scales.
Then if you are doing that I apologise to you.
Unfortunately you are in a minority
Tip for the day. Get a haircut while you still can…
Or buy some hair clippers
Bought haircutting scissors over at Amazon and have been doing my own since.
Will never set foot in a hairdresser again.
Think a buzz cut makes my ears stick out too much!!
I look like a female Moe Howard but I don’t care anymore. I don’t want to legitimise this insanity so apologies to the hairdressers who will and have gone bust.
Me too. Great investment.
Good point. I’ll better give her a ring today!
This is a problem for me as I haven’t been since mandatory muzzles were introduced for customers. Though I don’t wear a mask anywhere else, I’m not comfortable with sitting in a barbers with a load of mask-zealots glaring at me. I’m toying with the idea of just shaving it all off as there’s not a great deal of incentive to worry about how I look at the moment.
I haven’t had a hair cut since Feb and it’s now shoulder length. I’m looking more like Gandalf (sans beard) every day, not bad for a sixty something. My ‘partner’ doesn’t like it but that’s ok, I don’t like her, so it balances out.
The most important figure is the number of covid patients in hospital (because more likely to be correct diagnosis) and how quickly this is increasing. The numbers on ventilation and hospital deaths follows the same pattern. The 7 day average. rate was doubling every 7 days around 23 September but started to fall before the new lockdown measures although no doubt this will be presented as evidence of lockdown working. Has fallen consistently since that day and is now out to doubling every 14 days. I don’t understand why no one looks at the simple maths. In March the doubling high point was every 3 days. Totally different gradient.
The most important figure is the number of covid patients in hospital (because more likely to be correct diagnosis)
No! You need to see this from yesterday’s LS:
https://dailysceptic.org/2020/10/15/#how-many-hospital-cases-are-really-covid
Regarding hospitalisations as a reliable figure ignores, for example, the resumption of the NHS as a health service rather than when it was emptied out in March. If the absolute number of people being treated in hospital doubles, then the absolute number of apparent Covid ‘hospitalisations’ doubles (all else being equal, false positives, etc.), but it does not indicate that the prevalence of the disease has doubled. To do that would require some sort of normalisation of the calculation, not just the absolute number of ‘cases’. But details like this are lost in the mists of confusion.
These Lockdowns are predicated on saving the NHS from being overwhelmed. Yesterday NHS England announced there are 4379 Covid patients in English hospitals. NHS England has a budget of £129 billion & employs over 1 million staff.
If the NHS cannot handle 4379 covid patients without being overwhelmed when it has all that money & all those staff then something is seriously wrong.
They are scaring the public with talk of the NHS being overwhelmed when the evidence is that the NHS is a long way from being overwhelmed and has the resources and staff to deal with far more covid cases, it needs to get organised and try a bit of effective management.
To the credit of the NHS they are now much better at treating Covid disease, people are getting better and being discharged, any talk of admission numbers should be matched by a reference to discharge numbers
Has every one in here forgotten that Delingpole told us lockdown was pencilled in for the end of October.Everything else is manipulation of the figures to suit that agenda.
There were a few dates that were banded about around 2 months ago. One was certainly the 12th October, but most pointed to the mid term break for schools.
It’s scary how this is just dripped out. Definitely looks like stage management over incompetent reactionary policies as infections rise.
That’s why you need to look at numbers in hospital as it takes account of admissions and discharges. Despite what Barney says hospitals are not at full capacity due to social distancing measures. There is an upward trend but the point I was trying to make was that this is not exponential and the rate of rise is falling and has been falling since 23rd Sept, before any new measures were taken. Here are the 7 days averages compared to the previous average as a multiplier of that previous average. i.e. less than 1 means total cases are falling. 2 would mean cases are doubling. 31st March (worst day) 7 day average against week ago = 3.61 (i.e. more than tripling). Falls to 0.74 by 8th July, hovers around 0.77 for rest of July then begins to rise from end of July. Peaks at 1.67 on 19th September then starts to fall again, currently at 1.44.
You’re forgetting that patients are now routinely tested for Covid on entry to hospital. Plenty of the “covid patients in hospital” can be people who tested positive but are entirely asymptomatic (or even just a false positive) and who were hospitalized for a completely unrelated condition.
But I have also looked at those on a ventilator who clearly are not asymptomatic. Follows a similar profile.
The Great Barrrington Declaration has been accused of being Politically motivated.
A quick look over the main signatorys of the John Snow Memorandum and I see a lot of Public Health Professors and members of SAGE.
What is a Public Health Professor ?.
An advert for a Professor in Global Public Health at University of Bath, States the areas of research include but are not restricted to poverty, inequality and health; public health, ethics and social justice; public health and social welfare; the governance and/or financing of global public health; population health and healthcare reforms; social, behavioural, commercial and structural determinants of health and disease; demography, life course and health; public health challenges in complex environments such as conflict or humanitarian settings, global public health policy analysis.
Sounds like a job for a Champagne socialist .
I picked one signatory at random. Prof. Rochelle P. Walensky, Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, USA. Looking at her Twitter feed, I find a thoroughly devoted member of the church of covid. Have a look yourself. https://twitter.com/rwalensky?lang=en
Trish Greenlaugh and Devri Sidhar also authors. It’s almost worthy of going into the Woke Gobbledegook section. I loved the rebuttals in today’s LS article for everything they’ve said.
I think they’ve now only amplified the GBD even further. Sure, the JSM gives the zealots there stock pro lockdown arguments on a plate, but they are weak. Very weak. And, as reality bites on this document there will be holes a plenty.
I think the authors have essentially signed their own resignation letter. I just can’t see how they get out of the corner they’ve painted themselves into.
They missed out Climate Change, which is odd considering it has been blamed for many of the things listed…
Hypothesis vulnerable people are not being told to shield at home is because someone may have pointed out that to do so could be seen as a Deprivation of Liberty. This could lead to a referral to the courts for every single person in that position.
So the original universal incarceration was not a deprivation of liberty? You could have fooled me.
I think the point is that it’s not discriminatory if we all have to to it! Easy to get round of course by just giving intelligent adults the facts and some advice and let people isolate if they wish to but we have all been infantilised by the government.
Actually it was and I think that there was a statement made recently that it was advice and not mandatory, although it came over as mandatory.
just listening to JHB on Talk radio.
In succession she interviewed Stephen Timms (Labour) and Bernard Jenkin (conservative). c7.00 – 7.15
JHB did her usual of quoting stats to support the assertion that covid was currently a minor issue. It was scary how both MPs were metaphorically putting their fingers in their ears and going “Lalalalalala cant hear you. !!!” Timms kept repeating that infections are rising.. Jenkin kept repeating Sage are wonderful
With morons like this on both sides of the house .. we are doooomed dooomed
No,they just reveal themselves as morons.
Only to us and those like us – ‘the others’ won’t ever hear the indomitable JHB
Timms came across as a bit simple. They should know by now to at least have a sheet of paper with the numbers written down and not be told them by Julia.
Jenkins, I wouldn’t classify as a moron, he was very calculated.
Yes I was listening as well and sent her a tweet to say well done, the politicians were hollow men, I think they really saw the argument she presented but had calculated that the public were still scared so they had to support the lock-down to ensure they get the votes next time round. Mrs Thatcher would have laid the lot of them flat with her handbag, eaten them for breakfast and with her scientific background led the country back to sanity.
Oh to have a Margaret Thatcher type politician once again!
I agree and I hated her back in the day as a young trade union man ,but if nothing else she had courage and would never stand for the likes of Boris and Hancock in her cabinet this nonsense wouldn’t of even got off the ground….mind you i probably wouldn’t of agreed with her back then but would now,shows what 40 years experience does for you
>>>>(they have) calculated that the public were still scared so they (have) to support the lock-down <<<
This is a good analysis.
A three month lock-down, all this mask wearing – the public have invested a strong belief in the virus being a terrifying threat to human existence.
Accepting they could have been misled is too disturbing to contemplate.
‘Politicians’ aren’t necessarily intelligent beings.
‘Politicians’ aren’t intelligent beings
There fixed it for you
She then had Andrew Bridgen MP on. Just the same. She trotted out all the best stats on IFR, FPR, hospitalisations. To every one he gave an answer starting “Yes, but …”
JHB was reduced to laughing at him at one point, and he sort of laughed back. It was quite telling. He knows it’s all bollocks, but he *has* to go out and defend it.
Bridgen is the dufus who thinks the Good Friday Agreement means he can get an Irish passport
Both those individuals are inept on every subject. Other than Robert Halfen, Jenkin is as obvious a business bought patsy as any Tory MP. Most are bought by big business and they are doing very nicely out of CCP Virus.
Bernard Jenkins anecdote for anyone who cares…
In a local pub years ago and a guy walks in and announces to the pub ” I’m Bernard Jenkins, your local candidate and am here to answer your questions”.
After a brief WTF moment, everyone in the pub carries on talking. He stands at the bar for 10 minutes, without ordering a drink and then after 10 minutes sheepishly leaves.
The pub erupts into laughter.
But they still voted for him!
My first pool swim for 7 months yesterday, as it’s getting too rough for the sea.
Few trivial rules, which don’t matter much (and certainly have no effect on covid spread). Even allowed to do butterfly!
But they do take your temperature with one of those zap things which they point at your forehead. I was 36 oC – so I joked that I needed to warm up. The lady doing it said she was sure it was under-reading, and that she’d had people down at 33 oC. I said did you call an ambulance? She laughed, and said that at 33 oC you’d be dead.
So many people realise by now that this is all bollocks. What will it take for everyone to come out, leaving the whole pile of garbage to collapse?
Just a bit of time. Maybe quite a bit.
Have patience, have hope, spread the word, denounce the lies, never give in.
As Mr Hitchens says, ‘stay angry, stay patient’.
Why bother, just write down random numbers in the normal range.
Yes, may as well – like if your were actually running a temperature you’d feel like going swimming???
You are lucky that you have a pool open the 3 indoor pools in our area (Torridge Devon) are still closed, just one of the many things that have been knocked on the head by lock-downs. I have been swimming outdoors at Chagford Dartmoor but that pool is now closed for the winter. I think that around the country many pools have failed to re-open, very sad.
Of three pools the TJN family used to use, only one has re-opened so far, and that one isn’t suitable for children.
Was asked if I’d “scanned in” at a cafe yesterday. Said yes, I hadn’t, no one checked. Everyone happy.
Every little bit of rebellion, every bit of subversion, does its work and undermines the whole.
Wot!!—-no mask?!
‘WHERE’S YOUR MASK?’ said an irate, masked customer to me in Booths supermarket—Ilkley a few days ago. ‘It’s none of your business’ I replied in a calm but forthright manner (whilst mentally wrestling with my ‘fight or flight’ response which had been well and truly triggered.) ‘It IS my business….you might infect me’ he responded as he inched closer with bulging eyes protruding over his black mask (why do black masks always look so much more sinister?). It later struck me that someone who was genuinely frightened of catching something would steer well clear but there’s no rhyme or reason with these fully committed brain washed types.
After seven months of mask non compliance I had mentally rehearsed my response to an ‘assault’ of this nature. ‘If you’re unhappy with my appearance just wait here….please do not move whilst I get the duty manager’. At this, his glaring stare turned to a look of confusion and doubt as he clearly did not anticipate anything like this. And as for me?….up to now, so far so good. My adrenalin had pumped and I longed to either punch him in his ugly face (in the style of Muhammad Ali) or run like hell (with my best imitation of Usain Bolt), but I managed to stick to my mental plan. I contacted the store manager through a nearby assistant and explained the situation to her. Her response was wonderful to behold. I didn’t really get a chance to explain the law, the fines for this kind of discrimination and the duty of care that shops have to ALL their customers because she knew it already. She apologised profusely to me, as did the assistant who I first contacted. ‘Where is he, I’ll go and talk to him’. By this time the masked bandit (as I shall call him) had scarpered from where I left him and was now at the fresh fish counter. ‘He’s over there, that’s him’ I gestured and longed to add ‘make sure you give him a good battering’……….but I didn’t.
Off she went, bent on a mission, and from what I could see gave him a thorough talking to. It was what happened next that surprised and, I must say, delighted me. The masked bandit comes over and says, and these are more or less his exact words, ‘I’m so sorry for my outburst before—I apologise’. And I could see by his eyes that he meant it. ‘I accept your apology but now, perhaps, you’ll be more understanding of other shoppers who might not be wearing masks’. ‘I apologise I’m sorry’ he repeated, and these were his last words as we parted company.
I know from reading this site that masks are one of the biggest bugbears that we sceptics have to deal with. They are an ongoing sign that society has changed beyond all recognition. Seeing the vast majority of people sporting these face coverings, and appearing to us as if we have been taken over by some alien species, is a challenge that none of us would have thought possible just a few months ago.
My experience over the last seven months, in supermarkets and other shops, has led me to the following conclusions. I list them here in the sincere wish that they might help those who find it just as difficult as I do in dealing with this unnatural manifestation of mindless behaviour foisted on us by a criminal government of occupation.
* All large supermarkets are now well aware of the law regarding face masks.
* The last thing they want are scenes and confrontations between customers.
* The law is on your side if you don’t wear a mask and state you are exempt (no further explanation necessary).
* If you are accosted or challenged by other customers stand your ground but control your emotions (even when you feel the blood boiling in your veins!)
* Don’t get drawn into defensive arguments and slinging insults. It may give vent to your feelings at the time but aggressive or frightened people will up the anti.
* Always get a person in authority to intervene. Don’t try to point out the law yourself or try to reason with them…their ears will be deaf to you.
* And if, as in my case, you get an apology…be magnanimous and accept it gracefully, it really will make you feel better.
If you’ve read this far…..thanks, and best of luck to all fellow mask less travellers…..we really are the good guys in all of this.
Thanks for that, Harry. Really appreciate it. I stopped going in shops in July once masks became mandatory, but I still ride the bus every day. I appreciate everything that you and the other folks on this site do by going into shops maskfree and dealing with the blowback.
I suffer from PTSD and will not be able to go into shops until masks are not worn. I was attacked by someone whose face I could not see. Unless I want to suffer continual emotional flashbacks, I have to stay out of shops and minimise the time I spend around masked people. I say this, not because I want sympathy or some such, but because people like you are fighting for the freedom of people like me and everyone else who is appalled by this situation.
Thanks again.
Hello Bees—-I’m so sorry to hear of your PTSD. This current situation is the last thing you need and I fully understand how masks are so frightening and unnerving to you. Indeed, I feel this fear myself but I must be one of the lucky ones because I can channel that fear into resistance. Bugger them is what I say and I can tell you that getting that apology in the supermarket was as sweet an outcome as I could have hoped for.
Bullying and aggressive people are the same the world over and given an opportunity, especially when egged on by those in authority (Cressida Dicks!), will seize an opportunity to behave true to type. However, I genuinely feel that these people are in a very small minority and that most who wear masks are complying because it is the easy thing to do. This is evidenced by the very fact that most who exit shops take their masks off post haste.
I do hope that you continue to get encouragement and support from sites like this. Your comment made me really appreciate that the time I spent in writing my post was extremely worthwhile—–thank you!
Cressida Dick should have received a police warning for incitement. Oh wait, she IS the police – that’s the problem.
It was Cressida Dick who ordered those crazed baton wielding thugs to beat up peaceful protestors in Trafalgar Square. By rights she should turn herself in, but I’m not banking on her doing the decent thing. After all she’s already gotten away with murder, so a little GBH on her CV won’t matter too much.
Great advice. Had prepared my arguments if confronted, but much better to call management. You are right, society has changed, I fear permanently.
Thanks for the idea of getting the manager. Shopping maskless has become a huge problem for me. Customers give me a wide birth or pull their children away when they see me! Now I know what it feels like being an outcast. Even got some dirty looks (over the masks) in the swimming pool changing room which has soured the whole experience.
Do the crazies swim with their masks on?
I liked this, it is a good strategy to offer to get the manager involved since it unnerves the vigilantes.
I am getting a general impression these days that exemptions are being respected.
This is partly because shops are realising that their footfall has decreased considerably, not to mention that many shops have been shamed on social media and even MSM (ex. Asda) which have forced them to retrain staff to be knowledgeable of exemptions and respect them.
However I would like to think that shop owners and managers are also a decent bunch.
Do you think we should list the names of those shops that are good on exemptions?
I think its a good idea however we might unwittingly alert the NKVD who might end up harassing them.
I twice suggested this idea in August to replace the list of shops opening up but it has been studiously ignored by this website
It’s hard to generalise, as it may vary from shop to shop in the same chain.
Never had a problem in the Co-op but I might just be lucky.
Thanks for this. Very helpful and an excellent tip to get the manager involved.
My partner witnessed a customer being harassed at a well known supplier of groceries, last night. Unfortunately it was by a member of staff, they asked the person why they had no mask, he answered he was exempt and had asthma. She then asked him where his lanyard was, he said he did not have one. The staff member then said that he really should have a lanyard. My partner questioned the member of staff as to why they were harassing this person. The member of staff replied that they really did not want to and could not care less, but had been told by mangement to challenge anyone with no mask.
I have not named the supplier of groceries, as I work there. I am most upset by this change of direction as I am exempt myself. I will find out where this order came from and present them with the disability discrimination act, reminding them they have no authority to ask people the reason why they are not wearing a mask.
Well done for keeping your cool. This kind of abuse happens almost daily for me now. Never shop staff, it is the vigilante customers who just feel unable to let me pass. Sometimes I try the “no thanks” response, once or twice I have ripped into them which I know gets me nowhere but is impossible to avoid at times. But I really like your idea of batting it away to the shop in terms of responsibility, as it completely undermines their vigilante authority.
Well done you. As well as Fight or Flight, the other thing that can happen is Freeze. You did none of them. Several stars to you.
That’s genius. What are these people most cowed by? Authority. Very clever indeed.
I haven’t had any issues at all yet, but shall definitely use this method if needed.
I think you have a good point about authority. During my chat with the manager, I did point out that seeing as the ‘masked bandit’ was effectively guilty of ‘assault and harassment’ she could ask him to leave the store if he didn’t respond appropriately. Obviously I wasn’t party to her conversation with him but he did apologise PDQ after she left him. Very profusely I must say.
Booths have a sign outside, at least the one near me, basically saying to mind your own business in a polite way.
The manager did mention that to me during her apology. I did say, in a nice way, that my branch of Sainsburys put out a tannoy announcement every so often asking customers to be tolerant of each other and that this perhaps was the ‘gold standard’.
Great account. I haven’t had any confrontations but I carry around a copy of the Law or Fiction material as a prompt sheet in case I need it. Your point about getting a person in authority to intervene is a good one which I’ll bear in mind as my first inclination would probably have been to reason with the hostile customer.
Agree with you. Appealing to higher authorities is the way to go.
A day or so back, someone posted a terrible account of being harassed by 4 train police. I’m wondering if it would be better in such instances to take the initiative, and go straight to the train guard yourself, rather than waiting for the law to come to you.
It’s people like Harry who are so helpful in providing good strategies to cope with sudden unpleasant circumstances. Thanks Harry.
Great idea to involve the manager!
I saw your post just before leaving for my weekly shop at Sainsbury’s and I was all fired up to try it out.
Unfortunately, as per usual, nobody said a word about my bare face and once again my Everyone Dies t-shirt has failed to stir a response. I’m starting to wonder if the t-shirt is scaring them off.
Whatever works for you Mabel!—don’t knock it.
Never worn a mask in shops as yet and am still waiting for the moment when a Covid true believer makes their move. I shall behave myself as you advise when that moment comes, no doubt it will. I’m kind of looking forward to it, would you believe.
Had my moment last week in M and S.
-Where’s your mask?
-I have an exemption
-What exemption?
-That’s between me and my GP
– Don’t believe you. You’re one of them deniers yeah. I’m telling the manager.
-Fine.
I raised the issue later at checkout. Was warmly informed the manager was au fait with exemptions.
Next time I will get the manager. That’s a great move, thanks for sharing the advice.
‘You’re one of them deniers’ – LOL. I haven’t had that in person, but have been called that on social media for politely querying Covid hysteria. ‘One of THEM’.
Good for you.
A suggestion…I’d love to share Mike’s piece on Sage with my mates who are still lockdown zealots, but the whole layout ‘Lockdown Sceptics’ plastered across the top is just a massive turn off for them – they write it off out of hand. So all the hard work you’ve done compiling this excellent document (and many more) is really lost.
Can they not be presented on another, less clandestine website ‘CovidScience.org’ or something, just so they’ll read it!
In other news, our halloween special will be out this weekend.
https://therealnormalpodcast.buzzsprout.com/
Word – https://www.dropbox.com/s/k23unqbav9tzf3u/What%20Sage%20has%20got%20wrong%20-%20Mike%20Yeadon.docx?dl=0
PDF –
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nl9wiskczij6x65/What%20Sage%20has%20got%20wrong%20-%20Mike%20Yeadon.pdf?dl=0
Your top article says it all really. Boris is an idiot but I think Dominic Cummings has more to do with it than we think, and Boris is such a lazy slob he’ll pass the decision making to anyone else rather than do his own reseach. He’s an empty shell.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-54562795 – cue “Thank you Nicola for making us even safer”. Bit worrying about “There has been one significant easing of the rule on face coverings, however.The first minister said couples would no longer have to wear them during wedding or civil partnership ceremonies.” Surely this means that everyone within a five radius will be infected regardless as to whether bride or groom are infectious.
Perhaps the traditional unveiling of the bride could be reversed, and when the officiant says ‘I now pronounce you man and wife’, the husband could ceremonially place a facemask over his bride to appease the gods of Covid.
Share this seminal destruction of SAGE’s madness far and wide. We all have a responsibility to try and shake people out of their Covid Psychosis, articles like Yeadon’s are our tools. We can and shall prevail.
Ee it’s gettin’ a reet muddle. Tier one, tier two, tier three? and who knows what restrictions apply to which? – and they don’t seemed fixed anyway. Can this hold? I wouldn’t have thought so.
Aye, lad. Tha never nos what tha’s ignorin’!
Boris has said that he will shut down Manchester.
I say to Mancunians:”Remember Peterloo”!
Get off your knees and resist.
They want it!! Most people want ALL of this crap!!
The care home deaths, the restrictions, the masks, the shut-off healthcare system, the lost jobs.
THEY WANT IT ALL
Agree! There will be no dissent, no mass protests, no marches, NOTHING!!! The fact that Anti Lockdown protest in London attracts 35000 people or less in a City of 9 millions is a JOKE,DISGRACE , UTTER SHAMBLES!! I tell you if Chelsea play Shrewsbury tomorrow in 1st round of Who gives a FUck Cup it will be 45 000 easy. People will take this lying down and then it will be too late.This country is fucking lost.I can’t be optimistic about this, I just can’t anymore. Every day more shit is served and the VAST majority just eat it..My emotions every single da range from utter despair to complete breakdown.I feel like crying but I’m too angry . THERE IS NO END IN SIGHT!!!
Equally, this brings me some peace. Hope is stressful. Now I am resigned to carnage until there is a vaccine.
We don’t need a damned vaccine!
The vaccine is only the start
It is easier to decide that you know what the future will hold than to live with not knowing. I prefer to live without knowing, rather than choosing an outcome for current peace of mind.
I don’t know how the Liverpool gyms thing will develop but I find it encouraging – people whose common interests are threatened are banding together to resist.
I think it could be the ‘Rosa Parks’ moment. I am not entirely hopeful, but it is about the one good, decent act of civil disobedience from an ordinary person I have yet seen.
There is no end in sight – until there is one. It may take some time, but the ‘new normal’ has so many systemic problems that I think it cannot last long. A Roman emperor once said that to control people they must have ‘bread and circuses’ (ie, be kept well fed and entertained). But if you think about it, we have already lost the ‘circuses’ because people can’t freely assemble. They will put up with this for months – perhaps even years – but eventually they will crumble. It always happens with dictatorships – as the Latin motto goes: ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis’ – ‘thus always to tyrants’.
Are you trying to discourage people from fighting this? Your message seems to be “we’re outnumbered, give up.”
I don’t think we will win a fight to convert people.
The more effective drivers of an end to this are likely to be economic meltdown / inability of the government to borrow more (no sign of that in the gilt market yet) / vaccine.
These will be far more powerful and self-evident than any information campaign we wage.
Yes – and it will then all get brushed under the carpet, like Spain’s ‘pact of forgetting’ after their civil war.
People go mad collectively ,and become sane individually… maybe?
There probably never was a majority in the Thirteen Colonies in favour of separating from the British Crown. We need to stay strong and win people to our cause. Full marks to Toby, Simon Dolan et al for keeping the fight going.
As a anti-populist and a socialist,I never thought that I would say that I hope that Donald Trump wins next month, but arguments aside about whether he had CV or not, I think that his attitude of Lockdown scepticism and “just get on with life and the virus will burn itself out to be replaced by other viruses,etc” is the only way to defeat this ( For the majority) global madness.
Me too
3% of the population actively fighting was all it took.
We have a different type of struggle to deal with, but I’m certain we’re above the 3% mark.
It was the same in Dublin in 1916 – there was very limited support for the Rising when it happened. However, the question is would the Free State have been established if Easter 1916 had not happened?
In the Telegraph comments to someone flagging up the lead story here ‘Utter nonsense…. as expected from this pseudoscience blog. “The more likely situation is that the susceptible population is now sufficiently depleted (now 28%) and the immune population sufficiently large that there will not be another large, national scale outbreak of COVID-19.”For which there is not a scap of evidence.
Hypothetical, wishful-thinking…..at best.’ So that’s us told
Do any of you good folk have a covid risk assessment template that is written by someone on our side – i.e. not given over to total irrational covid alarmism? My company has an audit imminent and we need to box-tick to be within the law, but without being slavish to the madness….
https://hectordrummond.com/2020/07/03/sam-case-hit-them-with-a-coshh/
Hector Drummonds site is sceptic and may be worth getting on touch with as well. That articles author will no doubt help.
Thanks very much BBRS, Hector’s site looks excellent.
Good from the Ganesh in the FT today on the lack of dissent:
https://www.ft.com/content/541f1bc1-7e8d-42e2-8008-b991f9396ed6
I wonder if we (or maybe just me) are missing something here. It is not so much the government crushing us as as our fellow human beings. All those who go silent when we rant about the injustices of all this, probably support it. The polling in the UK and internationally is consistently in favour of all these measures, regardless of how chaotically and inconsistently they are implemented. The government does all this because they are being asked to by the people (and to an extent the press).
There is no mass civil disobedience, no rioting in the streets, no mass non-compliance. Because the vast majority of people STILL WANT THIS, depressing as it is to spell out. They are happy to see the human costs up-front in their faces, the dead in the care homes, the families split apart, the jobs lost, the missed diagnoses, the suicides. All acceptable to them. And it’s not just Britain, it’s nearly everywhere that takes this view.
My stark conclusion is that things will need to get a LOT worse yet for a mass change in attitude to occur, like starvation in the street etc., or we get a vaccine (never mind if it actually works), before we exit this nightmare.
What we are missing is the complete absence of political leadership.
All sorts of measures, probably including the death penalty and the expulsion of Scotland, would command a majority.
Our representatives are elected to debate these measures so that all useful evidence and opinions are aired in order to arrive at a reasonable consensus.
That is not happening. Instead of leading, the government is manipulating public opinion in order to provide cover for the unpopular consequences of Brexit while waiting for governments/leaders in the U.S. and the eu to change so that it can align with the newcomers.
It is unfortunate that this crisis has arrived in the company of an inexperienced UK government wholly orientated around Brexit, a U.S. presidential election where an unholy alliance (Democratic Party/China/WHO) has combined to try to bring down the U.S. President and a weak, divided eu dominated by the electoral angst of Macron.
But the U.S.A. is a business, not a country, so, after 03 Nov the mood will change, facilitated, in 2021 by Brexit and the need for ourselves and the eu to get back to normalised trading conditions.
Reality bites first in the stomach, and the grumblings on both sides of the Atlantic (and Pacific) are already audible
Do you think it important that Trump wins?
Yes, but the election is Biden’s to lose….although he does look like the kind of guy who could lose it……
Not so sure about that Trump is well in every marginal state. The MSM polls are nonsense, it will be close. The Biden corruption stories from the NYP have plenty to come and the suppression tactics may backfire.
People still believe the government would not deliberately harm us.
We NEED a winter lockdown. 4 weeks at least, to bring home the reality of staying in your house while it’s dark and wet outside. No where to go, no friends to see, no jobs. Only then with the masked majority wake up. At the moment it’s all a game, which the government is paying them to play.
Unfortunately most of them will be happy enough watching trash on TV and feeding their faces with junk food.
I think a ‘Covid Secure Christmas’ might prove unpopular, which is why we will probably get a reprieve on Christmas Day (and perhaps Wee Krankie will do one for Hogmanay as well). Then everyone will be happy that ‘Boris saved Christmas’. etc.
Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill 2019-21
https://www.facebook.com/cheektoo.chic.7/videos/844445982960882/
Purported anonymous leak from member of Canada’s Liberal Party:
“Phase in secondary lock down restrictions on a rolling basis, starting with major metropolitan areas first and expanding outward. Expected by November 2020.
– Rush the acquisition of (or construction of) isolation facilities across every province and territory. Expected by December 2020.
– Daily new cases of COVID-19 will surge beyond capacity of testing, including increases in COVID related deaths following the same growth curves. Expected by end of November 2020.
– Complete and total secondary lock down (much stricter than the first and second rolling phase restrictions). Expected by end of December 2020 – early January 2021
– Reform and expansion of the unemployment program to be transitioned into the universal basic income program. Expected by Q1 2021.
– Projected COVID-19 mutation and/or co-infection with secondary virus (referred to as COVID-21) leading to a third wave with much higher mortality rate and higher rate of infection. Expected by February 2021.
– Daily new cases of COVID-21 hospitalizations and COVID-19 and COVID-21 related deaths will exceed medical care facilities capacity. Expected Q1 – Q2 2021.
– Enhanced lock down restrictions (referred to as Third Lock Down) will be implemented. Full travel restrictions will be imposed (including inter-province and inter-city). Expected Q2 2021.
– Transitioning of individuals into the universal basic income program. Expected mid Q2 2021.
– Projected supply chain break downs, inventory shortages, large economic instability. Expected late Q2 2021.
– Deployment of military personnel into major metropolitan areas as well as all major roadways to establish travel checkpoints. Restrict travel and movement. Provide logistical support to the area. Expected by Q3 2021.
Along with that provided road map the Strategic Planning committee was asked to design an effective way of transitioning Canadians to meet a unprecedented economic endeavor. One that would change the face of Canada and forever alter the lives of Canadians.
What we were told was that in order to offset what was essentially an economic collapse on a international scale, that the federal government was going to offer Canadians a total debt relief.
This is how it works: the federal government will offer to eliminate all personal debts (mortgages, loans, credit cards, etc) which all funding will be provided to Canada by the IMF under what will become known as the World Debt Reset program.
In exchange for acceptance of this total debt forgiveness the individual would forfeit ownership of any and all property and assets forever.
The individual would also have to agree to partake in the COVID-19 and COVID-21 vaccination schedule, which would provide the individual with unrestricted travel and unrestricted living even under a full lock down (through the use of photo identification referred to as Canada’s HealthPass) .”
https://www.nexusnewsfeed.com/article/geopolitics/canadian-control-measures-just-the-tip-of-the-earth-sized-iceberg
Ties in with school holiday lockdowns and Bill Gates smirk when he talks about the next virus.The scary thing is that this scenario is now plausible
Problem number 1. I have zero debt.
I don’t either. Does this mean we should borrow money?
Same here – I deliberately downsized 2 years ago and own my house outright (also have a significant bank balance).
Why should I be punished for being sensible (having said that, as society has moved into an era of group punishments, I can see what I own being taken away for “the common good”).
This is War! It seems as well as stockpiling food and medical supplies we need guns!
Slowly but surely people are working out why the UK and US Bills of Rights (?) were specific about the right to bear arms.
Took a quick look at their site. I have to say it doesn’t look like a reputable source.
I would be very very glad to think it is utter rubbish!
Disnfo warning alert!
I’m a swabber and will / have visited people at their place of work. I ring them the day before to arrange a convenient time. We are allowed to adjust appointments by + or – one day only. I work 7 days a week and the latest anyone has requested has been 9 p.m.. I have, however, heard of swabbers telling people that they only work until 5:00 (there are no rules about this).
and the fact that your flexible approach is at odds with the experience of the person in the narrative above , and that you also say there is no consistency in approach indicates the total lack of organisation and process in this whole enterprise.
And the most amazing thing is that that person actually volunteered for the schemes and willingly agreed to be tested monthly given the upheaval in the life of his family and associates should a test result in a “positive”.
Sir Desmond Swayne made the concise point that Sage as, ‘Scientists’ are asked what they would do to stop Covid spreading, they would answer as scientists, stop people meeting at all. But as the PM, Johnson has the job of considering the impact. Letting people meet at work but not a home, is plain wrong.
Hospitals in London are empty. Talked to a friend who is a consultant at the Royal Free in London, yes that hospital where they have closed the Paediatric A&E, says hospital very quiet. Talked to another friend whose cousin is an A&E doctor, also very quiet, meanwhile one of my nieces who is a private GP says they are picking up cancers, cardio and other serious illnesses missed by NHS GP’s and others. Mega Malfeasance comes to mind.
I have a relation who is a nurse at Sunderland General hospital, like a ghost town (his words). Friends at the RVI in Newcastle, very quite. But according to local councils, we are on a knife edge. I’m not sure who is worse., the government or local councils.
They are all in this together, it was all planned quite some time ago. We are but pawns in this game, disposable ones too! When we were being told the Lockdown was only for a few weeks to save the NHS and the gullible were out banging their pots and pans every week the Agenda had already been planned, I could see back then that Christmas looked like being cancelled as our Christmas Fayre was cancelled in March!! It’s time to burn those masks get your lives back and be prepared to FIGHT!
A friend of a friend, so this is a third hand account,is a paramedic who reports that they haven’t dealt with a covid case for months. What they do report though, is an increase in attending attempted suicides, suicides, spousal abuse and child neglect. They mentioned that they are busy not because of covid but because GPs have fucked off into the long grass to hide and they find themselves dealing with calls that would normally have been handled by GPs.
Sounds like a class action claim for Leigh Day solicitors (they took on the case of those young men(?) who were seriously harmed in a drugs trial about 3 years back.
Sent my MP (Conservative) an email last night protesting at latest lockdowns. He has replied saying he does not believe in further lockdowns yet then goes on to say that in London boroughs should be lockdowned on a borough by borough basis. Sounds he should be appointed as a minister in Wancock’s department with logic like that!
He ends up by saying he will not reply to further e mails from me as they are “personal and unpleasant”. You bet they are as they reflect the anger and despair I feel towards this government. At least he should be in doubt about my feelings. I helped with his campaign last year but have told him I am never voting for him again and hope he loses his seat.
I think all MPs pay should be stopped likewise doctors and nurses hiding behind the Covid bogeyman as an excuse for not doing the job WE pay them to do. I’m afraid my emails to my MP are no longer polite even though she never responds I will continue to email her.
You want lockdown ended tomorrow? Furlough MPs today.
My MIL waited nearly 4 weeks to get a call from the doctor. She had gone to see a private consultant regarding a hip replacement and they found a heart murmur whilst carrying out tests. They said she would need to be referred to heart specialist and would contact her GP. The outcome of this long awaited phone call, that she would be better going private to see a heart specialist!. I can’t believe what doctors are paid while hiding away, all the while the low paid heroes are the shop workers, carers, taxi/bus drivers, the list is endless.
If he feels that emails from irate constituents are “personal and unpleasant” then what the feck is he doing as an MP? He’s paid to represent you as a constituent and part of the job means having to deal with the rough and the smooth.
Methinks he’s tone deaf and if really seriously believes what he said to you then he has no business sitting in those green benches. Time for him to retrain as something else because he’ll need it when he’s voted out.
Perhaps he can get a job ‘in cyber’, you know, that grammatically incorrect land of plenty.
Indeed. See if he likes it.
Exactly. MPs now are so removed from the concerns of ordinary people that I have every sympathy for a reader many years go who commented in a Guaridan op ed piece that he would rather have the Duke of Devonshire represent him than the current shower that inhabit Parliament now.
They don’t care that they’re destroying people’s lives and why should they? They’re still drawing on full pay, can claim expenses and have a good pension when they leave Parliament so they have no idea how we live.
Hence why I’ve long advocated that MPs’ pay should be slashed to minimum wage, claiming expenses should be banned and no pension as well when they leave. It’s supposed to be public service so there should be little to no compensation.
That will weed out those who are in it only for the money and connections. If they don’t like it, they don’t need to stand as an MP.
Wasn’t that the C18th position? So only well heeled members of the landed classes could be MPs?
It was and remained the default position until the early 20th century. Disraeli was perpetually short of funds and his purchase of his country estate Hughenden was only possible with help from wealthy allies.
However even from the late 18th century there were those already in trade becoming MPs
He was a new boy last December. Not yet been made a PPS so I reckon he is not rebelling as he wants to get on the ladder.
I would guess that right now even with 9 months of fear porn, if given the choice, 90% of the people in this country including the Grannies would rather get back to normal and take the risk to them personally that Covid presents. If that’s the case it would mean that we are trashing society and the economy simply to cater for the fears of the 10% of chin wobblers.
Covid has just been the excuse they’ve used. And very skillfully too. It’s an attempted reset.
Thank you Will and Toby for keeping this site going and doing such a brilliant professional job too.
The sage piece reminds me of something an old boss used to often say –
Not sure if this is original to him but another similar one from Ronald Reagan was ‘
Hang in there fellow Lockdown Sceptics. The truth will out.
The truth will out. They need to get a move on before its too late.
The truth has outed. It’s made no difference, we are post truth now. We were the minute masks were made mandatory.
“Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition” (allegedly heard at Pearl Harbour).
Yeah, agreed. A really solid update today, that’s to the point and is a great rebuttal to the nonsense pseudo science.
As always, the arguments here are good and backed by sound evidence.
Sadly, no one in authority is listening or is even remotely interested in these things. It should be obvious by now that they are set on converting the UK into a branch of the globalist New Order, using the virus as their pretext – aka “the Great Reset”. That is why we keep hearing phrases like “build back better”.
So it all boils down to this question: Do we consent?
That’s the only question for anyone on a personal level really. Anyone with principles. Those who comply are often just looking for the safety to say no, but it requires those with principles to let them know how this ends.
I don’t consent, no one would consent if they knew the details of the Great Reset. Prince Charlie, talks about it, does he know, he sounds as if its a wonderful thing.
It will be a wonderful thing for him and his WEF friends.
Already there has been a massive transfer of wealth to the richest few percent..
They want for others that which they wouldn’t want for themselves.
Bang on, KH. Folk who don’t use cafes/cinemas/pubs/public transport etc. etc., and who don’t lose any income, telling the rest of us to do without. Easy.
Also like the Church of the NHS. What are the odds that this lot go private for their health care as well?
When does the “Great Reset” start? Is it when all the people calling for it stop flying around the world, share their assets with the poor and then move into smaller housing to reduce their footprint?
What Alex Jones was saying 15 years ago, I thought he was nuts too. He was right about the Chinese Social Credit nightmare as well.
“It should be obvious by now that they are set on converting the UK into a branch of the globalist New Order“
No it isn’t (a least, not in the sense that will generally be interpreted in this context) and I wish you would have the basic courtesy to choose an original handle if you are going to post here regularly, rather than duplicating one that was already in regular use weeks before you started posting here.
Yes, there are plenty of people wanting to turn the UK into part of a world culture and government, and those people exploit whatever comes along. But they generally disagree about most of the details, as between the Labour and “Conservative” Party globalist groups, for instance.
Do we consent? Well, by and large “we” have done so, so far. I didn’t consent to the Iraq War, but look what happened. The Prime Minister responsible was put back into office two years later.
“bUt We’Re FoLlOwInG tHe ScIeNcE” – UK Govt.
Their ignorance won’t notice but now the JS Memo and the GB Declaration are out there with polar opposite views there is clearly not one strand of scientific opinion.
Had to deal with my girlfriend being in tears last night, she’s a Canadian national (dual UK/Can citizen) and she’s not been back for 2 years to see her mum and sisters. She has bought her flight back for Christmas, and has to do 2 weeks quarantine there when she gets back and call the govt. dept. every day – she found out that she’ll have to also do 2 weeks when she gets back here, which is just ridiculous as she’ll have been in quarantine for her entire 2 week stay in Canada!
On top of this the poor woman has been furloughed since march and her company has posted record profits this year, she’s had 2 e-mails from the company in that time, and nothing about what is going to happen to her.
She has literally lost the will to go on with this now, lays the blame solely at the government, just another example of them prioritising Covid-19 and their weird flip flopping agenda, over the lives of normal working class people. It’s so sad to see such a formerly bubbly woman have her spirit crushed out of her.
Please stop calling them a government. It’s a dictatorship
Regime or Junta have a better ring
Especially if you pronounce junta with a hard “ch” for the ‘J’.
Junta is better, a Regime can be respectably.
Unfortunately, I voted for them, so whilst they are democratically elected they’re a government in my eyes. But I get what you’re saying Cecil.
My vote was hijacked when they used an Enabling Act to rule by decree.
That’s an excellent point actually!
BBC main news item
Oh! the irony. This from the Foreign Secretary
Then again anywhere North of the M25 is a foreign country to the Eton set
If he is not on there already please add Raab to the list
Being held over a barrel is the sort of thing they actually do in Guantanamo Bay, and Raab’s happy for that to happen to Julian Assange.
song for the day – in sympathy for our Liverpudlian comrades in double double dodgy lockdown.
From the great Ken Dodd of Knotty Ash on behalf of all scousers
“Tiers” 1965 (outsold the Beatles) an ode to Boris Johnson
Tiers for souvenirs are all you’ve left me
Memories of a love you never meant
I just can’t believe you could forget me
After all those happy hours we spent (together)
Tiers have been my only consolation
But tiers can’t mend a broken heart I must confess
Let’s forgive and forget
Turn our tiers of regret
Once more to tiers of happiness
In the Guardian yesterday, by Larry Elliott, Britain’s Covid-19 strategy simply adds up to many more jobless people
I looked at this article and saw over 1100 comments. Copied the link over here and now there are zero comments. Checked on a different browser. Still zero. Odd, to say the least.
Not so. 1137 comments when closed at 12.15 pm on 15th Oct, still all visible today 16th Oct.
What a fabulous piece from Dr. Mike Yeadon! To be shared as much as possible!
Is it possible to have the excellent article standalone? Some people literally won’t read anything that comes from certain places
Word – https://www.dropbox.com/s/k23unqbav9tzf3u/What%20Sage%20has%20got%20wrong%20-%20Mike%20Yeadon.docx?dl=0
PDF –
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nl9wiskczij6x65/What%20Sage%20has%20got%20wrong%20-%20Mike%20Yeadon.pdf?dl=0
excellent – thanks!
What’s Burnham up to?
If he thinks this is a terrible disease we need to lockdown for then he should lockdown. Is he holding out for more money? If so how many will die?
I could see his case if he was a sceptic, but he seems fully on-board covtard and just wants more cash
That’s exactly it, Steve. Your last sentence says it all.
But then by his own standards, its worth people to die for money.
Well, he’s also involved in covering up rape gangs in Oldham, so fairly consistent then.
true, and stafford nhs
Look at Essex. They ASKED to be put into tier 2. Businesses are fuming about it as it would mean restrictions but no financial support.
Except for the council, of course.
The last sentence is what I think is his motivation – its all about the money.
With the right price people can be bought off. Look at the culture and heritage sectors – have been silent all throughout and with the culture & heritage fund, the state is able to buy their silence further.
Yes it is all about money and what happens to people do not really matter to them. However, it is quite funny seeing Raab not knowing how to proceed, Raab even said that he is not threatening them. Hopefully a handful of people might get the message that this coming lockdown is nonsense.
And he wants all of us to share his pain
Mike Yeadon makes the fundamental scientific flaw of stating as fact what should only be a hypothesis. The purpose of science is to construct a hypothesis and test it against data, then see whether there is sufficient information to reject the null hypothesis. The above two “Errors” are the null hypothesis. What are the testable outcomes that these hypotheses produce? – what evidence allows them to be rejected?
I have seen no prospective evidence that pre-existing T cell cross reactivity confers a lower risk of infection. I have seen no evidence that people with confirmed infection have not produced some seropositivity. Multiple hypotheses may lead to the same description of observation, but there must be testable outcomes for future states.
By changing the state of the system – leaving lockdown, opening schools, returning to office-based work, what are the testable predictions of his assertion? How does high immunity square with rising hospital admissions, and as surely as night will follow day, rising deaths in a couple of weeks time? How many deaths does his assertion predict in a month’s time? When will immunity prevent such mortality, if that was the primary reason for the previous decline from April? Is immunity really only of six months duration? How does that short duration compare with the first hypothesis?
There is no point appealing to authority (argumentum ab auctoritate), science is science – every confirmatory trial he ever ran attempted to reject the null hypothesis. And I’m also a thirty year scientist, in the same field with a background in Mathematics, Medicine, Biology and Epidemiology.
I think Sweden largely disproves the modellers major assertions.
The second wave here is a very slowly (in comparison to March) rising ripple rather than a wave. Probably sweeping up the 20% that lockdown did shield from the first wave. Although the time trajectory of our first wave was very similar to Sweden, so lockdown can only have had a marginal effect.
I am certain that behaviours now, particularly among those most vulnerable in nursing homes, has changed everywhere. Here, hospitalisations have risen since schools returned on a background of reduced contact rates elsewhere. The null hypothesis was that this is tranmitted like other respiratory pathogens and children can spread it. That appears to have some basis in fact. Unlike influenza, they do not however, appear to suffer appreciable morbidity. My favorite science quote:
“If you thought that science was certain – well that’s just an error on your part” Richard Feynman.
It’s the flu season. Covid isn’t the only illness going about. People are still dying of other diseases, the NHS has been ignoring them since March! The government has lost all credibility since the Covid stats were found to be manipulated and probably still are.
It’s an excellent point to demand scientific process be followed. I would tweet that to Mike and see what he says. He’s very engaging with people on such scientific fundamentals. Please, tweet him and let us know how he responds.
I am not a scientist but I would caution that we are still just looking at data such as hospitalisations in a bit of a vaccum. If, for example, mortality is currently trending well within normal ranges across the UK, what is this deadly virus doing?
It doesn’t seem to be anything exceptional. Source is Euromomo.
Why are we here? Why the lockdowns and self inflicted catastrophe for what appears to be a normal trend.
no excess deaths across europe
flu deaths 3x higher than covid in the UK
many covids will be false positives
most covid ‘deaths’ are deaths of old age where covid may amongst other things be a contributing factor
its a nothingburger. but the lockdowns will kill millions – especially children in developing countries
Crank up the PCR cycles you can get any result you want.
I think Sweden largely disproves the modellers major assertions.
No it doesn’t- not yet. Sweden are a bit behind the rest of Europe. They could still get a second surge. The pause during the summer might just be down to seasonality of the virus.
”JUST WAIT TWO WEEKS”
Due to latitude differences Sweden is a couple of weeks ahead of the UK in regard to any seasonality.
Sweden are light years ahead with their strategy.
A second surge of what?
Covid is virtually indistinguishible from any other coronavirus, or flu or influenza-like illness. PCR is worse than a joke. They will only get a ‘case’ increase if they up their testing, which would be a huge mistake.
You really have a thing for willing Sweden to fail. I’d get help for that obsession, unfortunately, the NHS isn’t providing treatment for anything except COVID at this moment in time.
My reading of the article is that he has made a testable hypothesis on the basis of all his assumptions that local outbreaks would occur and that places previously heavily affected would not see a significant second wave. He makes this prediction based on death rates, which give incontrovertible evidence rather than “cases” which is subject to all sorts of uncertainty.
As with any test it takes time to work through, but at the moment it appears to be a lot more accurate than SAGE’s.
death rates are dodgy too. just because you tested +ve for something it doesn’t mean it killed you. covid deaths are deaths of old age. we dont say granny died of a cold if she passes away at 95 and had a cold. its old age
Excess total mortality seems the only reliable indicator, it’s down across Europe.
it is the best measure, only complicated by the excess deaths caused by lockdown
Exactly – and those still to be caused by the spring lockdown – ie undetected cancers and postponed treatment.
You missed the point about making sure the data is measured with sufficient precision to test your hypothesis.
Why then are ‘key potential impacts of cross-reactive T cell memory…. already incorporated into epidemiological models based on data of transmission dynamics’?
And have you not read the ‘stream of studies that have documented SARS-CoV-2 reactive T cells in people without exposure to the virus’?
And have you not read the ‘stream of studies that have documented SARS-CoV-2 reactive T cells in people without exposure to the virus’?
But how many people? 5%, 10%, ….. 25% ? I very much doubt this group comprises any more than 10% of the population.
You can’t simply jump on a plausible hypothesis and claim that it means Covid is no longer a problem.
The only good data is overall all cause mortality.
That clearly demonstrates that there is no longer any problem, has not been since tens of thousands of the elderly and infirm were kicked out of hospital at 24 hours notice in March.
So I can jump on any hypothesis that I like, but I don’t need to because the confected crisis is a load of old nonsense
I have read the studies. None have provided any context as to what this mean for prevention of a future infection. Nobody has prospectively followed a cohort to see whether those with such T cells have lower rates of infection than those who do not. That is my point. We are testing vaccines to test this assertion, that a vaccine may induce some protective immunity. The sample size for such a study is likely to be large. Wanting something is not the same as proving it, nor predicting the consequences.
A differential rate of return of new hospitalisations and deaths based on previous infection rates is testable. And a valid line of inquiry. How much of a reduction would one ascribe to changes in behaviour as opposed to immunity?
Nobody is dying ‘from’ covid 19: explain…..
I agree with this and have been trying to make the same point since March.
That said, the rate of infection is not even close to that seen in March so strict lockdowns are overkill at the moment.
Yes- there will be more hospitalisations and probably more deaths but that will also happen with flu & pneumonia over the coming months.
No-one has any idea regarding ‘the rate of infection’ because there is no clear definition of ‘infection’ or ‘case’, no single PCR test, and no agreed cycle threshold to determine ‘infection’
“How does high immunity square with rising hospital admissions, and as surely as night will follow day, rising deaths in a couple of weeks time?”
Hospital admissions for respiratory conditions rise at this time of year every year. Please advise how you differentiate between these respiratory conditions in an environment of ‘no questions asked if you record COVID19’ and all other respiratory illnesses that society has heretofore not locked down for.
In addition, you need to differentiate between admissions for COVID and admissions for everything else where a PCR test was administered and determined the presence of COVID – please reference how you strip out false positives from the results of the PCR test.
Influenza admissions are diagnosed using PCR as well and counted separately. As is mortality. False postives are less of an issue than people would have you believe. You need the false positive rate in someone admitted demonstrating hypoxia, perhaps a cough, temperature. Not the rate in someone sampled at random.
False positives are a major issue and will remain a major issue while there is no single consistent PCR test, no universally accepted definition of ‘infection’ or ‘case’ and no agreed PCR test cycle threshold.
The only good data is overall all cause mortality and that has been plumb normal since a few weeks after they kicked all those tens of thousands of elderly and infirm patients out of hospital at 24 hours notice.
Cracks appearing down under:
https://youtu.be/kGBEaYEtiys
“A sledgehammer to kill a swarm of flies”
Momma get the hammer there’s a fly on the baby’s head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SOGwPq_KeQ
Discussions between central government and local leaders over putting the region [Greater Manchester] into Tier 3 have stalled.
It’s so deadly and so urgent, that they’ve put off doing anything, while they have a chat.
Between a rock and a hard place
Burnham’s solution is to have the whole country in tier 3 ie national lockdown 2.
Yes same in Wales.
Circuit breaker will be implemented October 23rd, just before the half term. Drakeford’s ambassadors have parleyed a week’s break in hostilities with the Covids until then.
Young kids can’t mix and play with friends at school. And now they can’t see them at half-term.
Totally unconscionable.
Unfortunately I wish it was only ‘some’ of us, most are braindead.
I don’t believe that. The problem is we are being isolated from each other, and lied to by pollsters. The mask aids the lie: most who wear it do so only out of fear, but the impression given by wearing it is of belief. Conversations I have, and others I eavesdrop, imply a much higher level of public scepticism than we are being told.
“Only out of fear” is too ambiguous: does it mean fear of being infected, fear of infecting others, fear of the authorities, or fear of vigilantes?
Fair point. Fear of ‘trouble’, not any virus
Fear is a broad church…and a movable feast. Can spring on one anytime, just in a trice. Non-compliance and humour. Peaceful solution.
That’s the ones who rip the foul things off their faces the instant they leave the premises.
The site is building in footprint.
The public mood is changing, slowly but surely.
All the evidence clearly supports the sceptical perspective.
The force is with us.
Hang in there.
Mental Health practitioner ended up telling me about the Chinese Social Credit thing and how they are imposing it in Cambodia. Not pretty.
Very very Sceptic about Covid and lockdown.
The zealots are really resorting to dirtier tricks by the day. For me, the Wikipedia page on the GBD, is one example of how they are stooping to new lows. I’m sure it will get worse over the next few weeks. Which makes me me think the force is with us.
The State is in a blind panic trying to bolster their evil fair tale. They are looking more and more like the lying fascist scum that they are. Soon everybody will see the emperor naked. Just a few more weeks guys. It’s shit or bust for these fools.
Thanks, having a particularly low day today! Sorry to sound needy, but these comments have proven many times a great tonic for me. Hmmm, speaking of “tonic”, is 11:21am too early for one with a smidgen of gin?
The pubs used to open at 1030hrs on market day…..
Tim,
We have vim.
We will hang in
Until we win.
I’d take her seriously if she didn’t pose with her knees apart.
London with a population of over 8 million is hotbed and breeding ground for Covid-19, the virus has legs and that’s lots of them. With cases increasing, London should immediately be put into tier 3 with a lockdown now, this will halt the spread of the virus. No one must visit anyone, This lockdown will continue until we have beaten the virus. Banks, Businesses and Parliament must close.
?
Who said this?
CCP bot.
Escaped from the Mails worst boted box
<::> Seriously, push the button in London, you will soon stop the lunatics running the asylum
Push what button? Which lunatics?
The virus has legs?
That’s persuasive.
Oh do eff off you dozy sock puppet.
Ouch, You live in London I presume.
My mum ( in her eighties and living in South Wales) has gone full Rebecca Riots. Facing a full lockdown from Comrade Drakeford (aka Wales’ version of Stalin) she said to me that even if my brother had to drive along every single backroad between her and London, I and her granddaughter would be coming home for Christmas. As ‘FedUp’ put it yesterday – NOT IN MY NAME’. They should get T shirts printed.
Good for her.
We’re planning the same. Break out of Gulag Cymru (Sektor North-East), infiltrate Hotzone 2 (Mancunian District), extract son from his Quarantine Quarters (formerly known as halls of residence), then make the homeward dash to our secret resistance base.
Whether or not I go full-on Rebecca Rioter, I’m not sure yet. It’s a difficult decision. If I get caught wearing female attire, I’ll get extra points on my Social Credit rating for being trans-friendly, but I’ll get points docked for my blackface.
Three cheers for your mum. I drink to her. (slurp)
If you take a position where the most important thing is to “save lives”, how do you shift away from it if any move results, even if slightly, in an increase in death?
Exactly! Worse than saving lives it’s “none shall die”.
You look for scapegoats?
It’s never your plan, it’s because they didn’t believe enough. Like was pointed out in the little story of the tribe and their visions
The photograph of Her Majesty, The Queen, on the front page of the Daily Telegraph, on public duties, continuing her work, without a mask, is what real leadership looks like.
And we get the message, loud and clear.
At Porton Down too where the lockdownistas would probably insist on full Chernobyl (post explosion) kit.
Getting the antidote to the vaccine.
Caught Lorraine on GMB this morning about this. She immediately played down the no mask thing.
“she’s the queen”
Everyone else…mask up
If Queenie now wore a mask would all the bank notes, coins and stamps have to be changed, that would be funny.
Having lived through the blitz, I don’t suppose the virus frightens her much.
The problem is that most of that generation, who could authoritatively put all of this into proper perspective, is gone now.
What we have left is a feeble, self indulging, BEDWETTING society.
Does President Trumps voice sound a lot different since he had the Covid?
“a research-based PhD”
Is there some other kind of PhD?
(Clue: the answer is “no”).
Thank you for your explanation and handy hint, Matt. It can be very confusing to us, sometimes.
Yours, A. Cabinet-Minister.
Getting my daily dose of hilarity and frustration from the Daily Wail and seeing who to annoy in the comments I saw this article:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8845533/Coronavirus-Soaring-infections-death-rates-claims-justify-lockdowns.html
Wow, for the MSM it is a pretty hard-hitting condemnation of the official figures.
Even uses the word “censored” on one graph about the 28 day mortality.
Plus words and phrases like “Truth”, “doomsday scenario is off track” and “claim” and “reality” and “more cases due to more testing”
Some good sceptical comments knocking the trolls.
Absolutely shocking for the MSM. What is going on? Worm turned?
Finally paying attention to their highly informed sceptic commenters.
Some of the worst rated can be funny
“Second wave is all the fault of you thick northerners, first wave too tbh. Make London separate National Lockdown everywhere else NOW!”
Just got to be a wind up
The Mail publishes quite a lot of sceptical articles. It’s the only paper that does, although the DT has sceptical columnists (alongside those helpful articles telling you how to make a face nappy out of an old sock).
Blimey – well said Mike Yeadon. This is possibly the greatest public health scandal ever. SAGE should be disbanded immediately. For my money they are incompetent AND dishonest. They call themselves scientists but they are not interested in truth, only in defending their position.
My area has just changed colour on the covid tracker intensity map
https://covid.joinzoe.com/data
we are at the giddy heights of 2 per 1000 – probably false positives
Woo, make sure you wear your mask! Stay Safe!
I don’t trust masks – too many air gaps. I’m currently experimenting with sellotaping a plastic shopping bag over my he……
The Rubberbandits have beaten you to it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rubberbandits
But they were like this long before COVID!
It’s all a jolly jape ain’t it, all these so called academics and experts spewing out advice, science, graphs, opinions and pontificating.
The wankers have never done a day’s work in their life but they have been waiting for this, their time in the sun, their time to shine to justify their bullshit opinions and knowledge.
Most of them couldn’t find their arse with 2 hands, don’t listen to the people who really know, what’s that a Nobel prize, nah, don’t listen to them, I once won the 50m breaststroke and once nearly done the times crossword.
Fuck off and crawl back into your hole.
What’s that, me, what do I know. I know fuck all mate, but I know when someone is taking the piss out of me.
It’s all pretend. God help us if there is an actual war.
Has the Simon Dolan injunction ‘struck down’ yesterday made it to any of the newspapers, radio or TV? https://twitter.com/simondolan/status/1316784461380542464
WILL/TOBY I thought it might be in today’s LS. Would appreciate if you could address it tomorrow to give it more coverage.
Daily Mail
NEW: Speaker bans the sale of alcohol in Commons bars [from this Saturday]
https://twitter.com/JuliaHB1/status/1316839672736292869
Wow. That’ll never be reversed now.
I loved that when I heard it earlier – he’ll sort them out I hope
LinkedIn. I log into mine about once every four months and look at the feed of woke professionals all making it in their field in these unprecedented times and new normal. So many posts of people in masks and even some talking about colour coordinating with their ties so the masks can be used as a pocket handkerchief too.
Vomit!!
I’ve had three job offers soliticited through LinkedIn in the past 2 years. Turned them all down but went right up to the offer stage just to feel good about myself.
I’ve been contacted this week through it also, so will be chasing that up.
I neve post anything howvert the big 4 firm I work for has training on how to boost your LinkedIn presence and profile. It’s so sickening. I see people who I know hate their jobs putting up pictures of some generic training event with the caption “Another great session and young minds engaged. #diversity #wecandothis”
Is so vacuous
I hope that contact goes well for you
Yuki junior manager at Toby Carvery wearing matching lilac mask and waistcoat.
Ugh, the muzzle profile pictures. At least they tell you who to ignore.
“Facebook for suits”, somebody once called LinkedIn.
This made me giggle (makes a change, these days) at the idea of contacts required from beyond the grave. Tis the season, after all..!
“David Rose is looking for people who have suffered severe ill effects *or even died* as a result of treatment for cancers and other serious illnesses being delayed by Covid…If anyone is willing to talk to him, please contact him direct..”
Ha, I’ve never been to a seance
I find it rather sinister Toby is directing whistle blowers to an Mi5 asset.
MI5 are in charge of internal UK crimes.
MI6 do the overseas stuff.
I was on their’s and MI6’s websites researching who to contact other than the Speaker of the House and the local Police to start a treason investigation.
On their websites it even tells you how to contact them securely and anonymously:
https://www.sis.gov.uk/share-information-securely.html
I actually know a few people into Spiritualism who can help him there… (my mum-in-law for one).
Is anybody theeeeeeere?
Cough once for yes, twice for no. If the medium’s temperature rises, quarantine all present including the spirits.
All ghosts must be masked.
Ectoplasm is strictly forbidden.
I don’t have the time or space for a full discussion of Mike Yeadon’s long post, but I’ld like to pick up on some points. He is sceptical about the role of mathematical modelling, and describes an unfortunate experience he had with a team of modellers in the past. I think his story illustrates quite well how not to do it, and explains why he has the impression he has.
He says
Well, that suggests that he wasn’t willing to engage with them, which was perhaps less than ideal for a VP of research. He more-or-less admits that he set them up to fail.
Well, of course not. That was his job, directly or indirectly. Over those many days, he does not seem to have spent any time trying to explain to that team (which he was supposed to be working with) what the important biological processes were so that they could build a model that reflected them.
I find that rather extraordinary, too, since the obvious answer is: “That’s what we need your people to tell us”.
So I find it odd that Dr Yeadon chooses to criticise mathematical modelling on the basis of an experience where he was obvious not prepared to engage with the process at all.
I think his experience was tainted due to them being brought in by “credulous senior management”. It’s typical that generalist modellers would be brought in rather than ones who would at least know the field and what questions to ask leading to better collaboration. Managers are known to bring in new configuration and improvement systems (hello there Six Sigma) that are unnecesary and wastes of money. But look good to other managers as ‘doing something”
Quite so, and my guess is that what we have an account of here is office politics, as seen from one side, rather than anything useful about mathematical modelling.
But it also riterates the golden rule of modelling which is Garbage In Garbage Out. In fact any IT system holds the same.
So, for me, the important part is to discuss those variables. Maybe MY did indeed provide poorly researched values for those inputs and his model was a poor fit because of that. However we don’t know that.
However in respect of CV-19 the modellers are relying on some very key inputs which most certainly are up for debate. Susceptibility of the population and overall lethality of this virus. We are so rich in data now, surely the null hypothesis of 100% and 1% IFR that Ferguson modelled on is indefensible?
If we focus on just those two inputs, we can make progress. Models can be improved and we don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater
My take on what he wrote is that he left the modellers to build their model in isolation and then criticised them for not incorporating the things he hadn’t given them. But perhaps I’m being unfair.
Any modeller worth his wage surely wouldn’t proceed without clear sign off on the variables to be used?
modellers often incorporate the things that are easy and ignore the things that are hard – they subconsciously justify to themselves that the hard things are second order so its ok.
I don’t think we can really tell for sure what happened in Dr Yeadon’s laboratory, based on what he has written here.
Indeed, and I’m not defending it as a prediction based on what we know in mid-October. I would defend it as a Reasonable Worst Case based on what was known in late February.
Obviously you can’t get worse than 100% susceptibility, and so it suprised me that they couldn’t temper that analysis based on any data they had or even previous coronaviruses. In my data job I place that in the extremist camp. It would only really be used to show a full spectrum but hardly realistic. Is MY correct to say they did not include confidence bars?
As for the 1% IFR, sure. I think given the WHO initially came out much higher they probably gave this a little more thought. However even 0.1% one way or the other would have huge ramifications. So the room for error was extremely small. Not an easy position to be in. However, if you recalibrated your IFR calc as things progressed in the UK, and against other data from European nations, the picture would have become more clear. And you could at leatst manage this errors as best as could be expected
Well, I don’t claim to know what discussions, if any were held on this point. However, simple modelling suggests that the relationship between total cases and initial susceptibility is close to linear, if you assume that the inferred R0 has to be adjusted accordingly. So if a simple model with 100% susceptibility predicts 510,000 deaths, and you assess, say, 100,000 as being the limit you can cope with then you need some reason to believe that there’s 80% pre-existing immunity, or the IFR has been over-estimated by a factor of 5, before you can afford to take the do-nothing route. Would you feel comfortable going to the PMS with that “heroic” level of guess?
One should not lose sight of the fact that data from China was relatively sparse, and that the virus shared 70% of the genetic code with SARS-COV1 – a virus with established 10% IFR. Even stepping down to 1% is in fact a considerable shift for prediction purposes. IFR has been refined, but a population-weighted mean isn’t far below 1%.
There is no generally accepted definition of ‘infection’ or ‘case’
There is no single PCR test in general use so no consistency in testing, no accepted PCR test cycle threshold.
The only numbers of any worth are the ONS all cause mortality figures and those have been plumb normal since a few weeks after the NHS kicked tens of thousands of the elderly and infirm out of hospital at 24 hours notice.
That is all anyone needs to know
Unless you are running a country and in need of a good crisis not to let go to waste……
we would also have needed a reasonable worst case scenario for the effect of a lockdown
The Pharmacometrics group at Pfizer have a long and established track record. Maybe they gave an answer that he didn’t like or agree with. For full disclosure, I know most of them. Modelling is about capturing the essence of the system (physical, engineering, biological), overlaying a degree of parameter uncertainty and then adding statistical insight. You need all three parts. Epidemiological models are no differerent, however the non-linearities lead to exponentially different predictions. One has to make a judgement about the reasonable worst case. With hindsight, this judgement is easier.
If the data on which the assumptions are made is junk, the model is junk.
Yours is a fair comment.
I have been a mathematical modeller for 25 years in a number of different fields – mainly in UK Universities but outside too. I am very aware of their limitations. The modern problem is that modelling is cheap. It costs a postdoc salary and overheads. It is far cheaper than fieldwork which is why its so tempting to do. Modellers often talk of their own models ‘telling us this’ or ‘predicting that’ but they tend not to have the deep knowledge of the subject they are studying to see its limitations. They are often better seen as limited ‘what if tools’.
I read Neil Ferguson’s first paper predicting the 510,000 deaths. It was poor for an undergraduate. I’d have asked a student to go away and a) include error bars and sensitivity analysis b) discuss at length the input assumptions (IFR etc) c) consider the deaths caused by the NPRs suggested (he only suggested nurses might not be able to work if their kids were off school). Certainly we shouldn’t have based an untested and catastrophic policy on it.
I read a paper recently that showed that each covid death lost 10 years of life. The paper was junk. It assumed the any deaths in the particular age/health condition category were the average for that category rather than the least healthy. The input to their ‘model’ was shit as was the ‘output’. But going to GPs and care homes and hospitals to find out the prior health of the covid deaths is hard and expensive, so its not done and ’10 years’ goes into folklore. It’s junk
The modern problem is that modelling is cheap. It costs a postdoc salary and overheads. It is far cheaper than fieldwork which is why its so tempting to do.
Yes, that goes to the nub of the problem.
I think there’s another one: models are a good way of abrogating responsibility: the decision isn’t mine, it was the model’s. ‘The model told me to do it.’
Thing is, Dr Yeadon’s remarks chime exactly with my own experience (on a smaller scale).
For too many modellers the model is the be-all-and-end-all, the model is reality; they don’t accept the limitations of mathematical representation, and are reluctant to – or even downright refuse – to revisit their findings in the light of empirical evidence. In short, too many of them are divorced from practical reality.
Sorry to the modeller enthusiasts on here. Only my experience, but I reached these conclusions long before I read Dr Yeadon’s remarks.
Nevertheless, Dr Yeadon makes some very grave accusations against SAGE – of competence and even honesty. It is, I think, these points that need addressing. Are these accusations fair or not? I’d read a rebuttal with interest; but I’m struggling to think how it might be constructed.
… and not with mine. So where does that leave us?
A difference of opinion! And maybe we are both right based on our own experiences. The truth is rarely absolutely black and white.
But rather more important than whether Dr Yeadon is unfairly prejudiced against modellers in general are his specific criticisms of SAGE.
Indeed. And when his opinions on things I do know about are flawed, then. I am at liberty to presume that his opinions on things I don’t know about are flawed too.
Perhaps a problem with a forum like this is that it isn’t really a suitable platform for such debates – they are ephemeral, and aren’t really suitable for the development of complex points.
I reckon that if you wanted to write a rebuttal of Dr Yeadon’s paper then this site would publish it. I would certainly read it, especially any bits which countered his accusations against SAGE.
I should say I’ve never downvoted you on here, and have always read your posts with interest, even when they’ve been drawn from a different perspective than my own.
It’s tempting, but there are a number of reasons not to. One is Brandolini’s Law. Another is that the situation isn’t symmetrical. Dr Yeadon has a definite proposition to advance, namely that SAGE has got it all wrong, and reliance on mathematical modelling is to blame. I’m not arguing the opposite definite proposition, which would be that SAGE has got it all right, thanks to mathematical modelling. I don’t think it’s as simple as that, and I certainly don’t agree with it. My position would be that SAGE has got some things right; that some of the things that it supposedly got wrong weren’t done by them at all; that modelling has been a useful tool for some things; and a lot of what is said about mathematical modelling in general and SAGE’s use of it in particular simply isn’t true. That’s already a lot more complicated and would require considerably more effort to document. And I would want to document it.
When Dr Yeadon says, for example “No one who had a biology degree and a post-doctoral qualification in immunology. ” is on SAGE, he doesn’t document it (and indeed it’s hard to document a negative). But it took him, presumably, only a minute to write. It sounds good, but it is essentially meaningless. Firstly, it’s hard to know what a “post-doctoral qualification” is supposed to mean here. We don’t have second doctoral degrees (Habilitation) in our system, and the higher doctorate are typically honorary or at least unearned. But more to the point, he doesn’t explain it — it’s an arbitrary combination, presumably crafted to allow him to make the negative. There is a member of SAGE with a first degree in biology and a PhD in immunology who is now a professor of virology. Why is that arbitrarily excluded from his consideration? I say that it is for rhetorical purposes alone: it is intended to suggest something which is not true. Similarly “There were no clinical immunologists”: but there is a clinical physician with a degree in immunology now researching vaccines. So again, why the specification so carefully crafted to make it appear that this person doesn’t count?
Finally, let me allude to the claim “They have rebuffed well-intentioned and, as it turned out, accurate advice from at least three Nobel laureate scientists, all informing them that their modelling was seriously and indeed lethally in error”. I would like to see the evidence for that, because I don’t believe it: it doesn’t sound like the sort of way that Nobel laureates work. But I can’t disprove it, because you can’t prove negative. I believe, but cannot prove, that this is an inaccurate account of something that did happen, but in a way much less congenial to his thesis.
Have you written to Dr Yeadon?
You can contact him via Linkedin
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/mike-yeadon-3818613
The discussion, on whatever subject matter you propose, would, I’m sure, be published here.
This site welcomes debate…….and, whatever our differences of opinion, my thanks for your many contributions.
I think that’s a very good post, and thank you for taking the time and trouble to write it (I’d never heard of Brandolini’s Law). I particularly appreciate the first paragraph, which perhaps may be summarised as ‘the Devil is not so black as he is painted’, which in my experience is invariably true.
Having said that, I believe that in the UK’s policy response to covid something has gone, very, very wrong. And what I’ve read and heard leads me to believe that SAGE have some very serious questions to answer (as do the politicians, and the media). But we can’t hope to resolve that here – that’s for the extensive enquiry which will doubtless follow.
Your second and third paragraphs. Dr Yeadon is clearly very angry at what he’s seen, and that comes out in his writing. The emotional and emphatic style makes it attractive and even beguiling to the lay reader (as Will Jones indirectly alludes to in this day’s blog), and yet this ought to send a warning signal to a serious reader.
Again having said that, I believe that his pointed questions about SAGE assuming 100% of the population being susceptible to the virus, and their assuming that a very small proportion of the population has thus far been infected by the virus, need answering. These are I think the two key points of his article (rather than his more personal attacks on SAGE, however justified or not they may be). For my part, I can’t see how either of these assumptions are justifiable. Caveat as always – I’m happy to be corrected on this, if anyone wishes to propose counter evidence.
A further thing on modelling. I’m not against modelling as such, just bad modelling, and modelling as a cop-out for other work. I’m going to be working outside a lot today, so will be checking the forecast as it predicts the weather hour-by-hour through the day. In my experience such forecasts can achieve a remarkable precision. And of course they are based largely on modelling – but modelling continually revised and updated by empirical data and observations: hence why they work.
As I have just written nearby here, I do hope you see this post, as this particular comments section is presumably soon to be abandoned.
Thanks for that. I agree that there is a serious discussion to be had about whether there is pre-existing immunity and if so what and how much — these are crucial questions for formulating a sensible debate bout, for example, the desirability of a herd immunity strategy. But we need to unpick several points, which are conflated by Dr Yeadon.
Dr Yeadon believes two distinct things. (A) since Covid is caused by a Coronavirus, humans must have a considerable degree of pre-existing immunity to it based on their exposure to other coronaviruses; (B) any assessment that differs from (A) is scientifically invalid. He is of course entitled to an opinion on the subject, and that opinion carries weight because he has relevant expertise. But he is not entitled to conclude that any opinion that differs from his is ipso facto invalid — and that for two reasons. Firstly of course it’s rather arrogant, especially since it’s only an opinion, and this bears on the second reason, which is simply that whether humans have pre-existing immunity to SARS-Cov-2 is ultimately a matter of fact, not of opinion, and is capable of being tested scientifically — indeed, an enormous unplanned experiment on the subject is underway right now.
Dr Yeadon effectively retrofits his answers to my five questions from his (A) and (B), rather than from the evidence before us.
I agree with your 5 questions, although I would add a sixth/seventh: to what extent has SAGE revised its assumptions in the light of experience over the last eight months, and how have those revisions reflected the advancements in our knowledge of the disease?
I’d like to explore these 6/7 questions at some time, although it’s probably going to have to wait for another day and another thread (going out shortly, till late afternoon). I say ‘explore’ – I have my own preconceptions, which I admit I can’t prove, but will of course happily listen to other points of view.
Yes, Dr Yeadon’s opinions can come across as being a bit arrogant, and even didactic – a consequence in part of his evident exasperation – yet arrogance doesn’t necessary imply his views are entirely incorrect.
So you accept that if modellers are not provided with sufficient or correct inputs, then their outputs will be garbage.
All I am taking from that is ignore every single model produced by the Establishment as it is not based on real life.
That is not what I said, and it’s not quite correct. A model can give you qualitative insight into behaviours of complex systems, as I illustrated yesterday with a brief note about “circuit-breakers”. It can also give you indication of how sensitive the output is to errors in the input, and hence give you more or less confidence about the robustness of your outputs when the inputs are less than certain.
Actually that’s not really how modelling works. One formulates a structure and parameters, applies fitting to data and assesses the fit. Then you look to see whether the estimated parameters are reasonable, whether outliers are predictable events, all sorts of diagnostics. Models in biology have worked this way for decades. A failure to describe data with reasonable parameters may inform of something unknown. The debate about the Epidemic models is whether immunity of changes in contacts have driven the decline since April in cases and deaths. The upsurge is challenging to explain based on immunity, behaviour is a more likely explanation (e.g., schools returned just before the uptick). This behaviour is predicted based on known contacts and assumptions about how children spread influenza.
What happens if the data that you are trying to fit the model to is junk…..with the exception of overall all cause mortality; plumb normal?
First time posting here… an oasis of sanity in a mad world. Don’t agree with the use of derogatory terms such as ‘bedwetters’, ‘zombies’ or ‘sheeple’. Divide and conquer is what this speaks to. Remember the Remain campaign’s attitude to those ‘low information’ folk who backed Brexit? Masks are not muzzles but are what people wear when they’re afraid. Or when they want a quiet life in the belief this too will pass. Not all mask wearers with the programme maybe.
Sadly the madness may not pass but not wearing a mask is symbolic rather than effective. Can’t be bothered going out to the shops? Shopping unlined may save you the hassle. Stay at home and vent your anger online. My guess is this will suit the Internet billionaires who will take your money and the governments glad to see you cowering indoors. Is it not time for peaceful protest and the reclaiming of public space? If not now when?
I’ll stop calling them bedwetters and sheeple when they stop calling us granny killers and covidiots.
We have to be better than that… name calling is for the playground. It ain’t no game. Hearts and minds… rational argument and peaceful persuasion.. somehow
If a person calls you names you have a right to call them back. It shows they are not willing to have reasoned discussion. But labelling a whole group of people with a name probably doesn’t help other than to let off steam. Which, sigh, we all need from time to time.
Welcome Hill Street Bluez.
I go live shopping just as much as I used to and don’t care about the strange look since I put down to jealousy.
When indeed?
Welcome to these pages, HSB.
A second comment on Mike Yeadon’s piece.
Since that’s obviously never going to happen, it’s an unrealistically high bar. There are exactly as many brilliant mathematicians who are also top quality experts in viral immunity as there are top quality experts in viral immunity who are also brilliant mathematicians. As Dr Yeadon must know from his time in leading scientific research, it is futile to rely on finding all the expertise in multiple subjects that you need in one person. That’s why you assemble, lead and manage teams and get them to work together.
Specifically, successful projects of this nature require modellers with a sufficient working knowledge of the processes being modelled to engage with subject matters experts, and subject matter experts with a sufficient knowledge of modelling to understand what it can and cannot do for them and how to get it to do the things that they want if at all possible. Both parties need to have sufficient common ground to be able to communicate, and sufficient communications skills and intellectual breadth to communicate successfully. It’s a team sport.
Why pretend otherwise?
‘That’s why you assemble, lead and manage teams and get them to work together.’
That is precisely Dr Yeadon’s point:
‘They (SAGE) have rebuffed well-intentioned and, as it turned out, accurate advice from at least three Nobel laureate scientists, all informing them that their modelling was seriously and indeed lethally in error.’
No, that is not the point. Dr Yeadon criticises the modellers for making a certain assumption. If it was left to them to do so, that is a failure in the team-working. The quality of the model is a completely separate issue to the quality of the model-building process.
I didn’t address the Nobel-prize-winners issue at all, but may do so at some point.
To turn down the offer of help from three Nobel laureate scientists is quite clearly a refusal to harness the expertise that the modellers lacked, to build a competent team, exactly the point that Dr Yeadon is making.
That’s not the point he was making. He said “They have rebuffed well-intentioned and, as it turned out, accurate advice from at least three Nobel laureate scientists, all informing them that their modelling was seriously and indeed lethally in error.” Advice is not the same as an offer of help. (If you fall overboard, my advice to you is to get back on board as soon as possible. Is that an offer of help?)
I think I would like to see evidence of who these three are, what the advice was that they offered, what the response was, and why it was accurate.
That rather depends on whether the advice is helpful or not…….
If a Nobel laureate offers advice, you would have to have a considerable conceit to consider that advice unhelpful, not to avail yourself of that advice, and not to respectfully request some more helpful advice, often known as help.
To spurn the advice of three Nobel laureates is plain hubris; bigotry.
Dr Yeadon makes any number of points and makes them extremely well.
One of those is that the modellers should have possessed expertise in the field that they were modelling.
You believe that is a tall order……which makes the spurning of advice from Nobel laureates who did possess that expertise, frankly, scandalous.
The government is running away from an independent public inquiry by prolonging this confected crisis unnecessarily….but that day will come.
Oh dear. Because if you’re referring, for example, to Prof. Levitt’s preprint Predicting the Trajectory of Any COVID19 Epidemic From the Best Straight Line then I’m conceited enough to say that the mathematics is erroneous, incorrectly applied and does not fit the data. Which is not helpful.
Your words…….
You know that the data is junk
No internationally accepted definition of ‘infection’
No internationally accepted definition of ‘case’
Various different PCR tests, with no definition of useful cycle thresholds and so on
Modelling is of course fun, but without solid foundations in good data, just that, not to be taken seriously; not even occasionally useful.
I’ve explained elsewhere what the possible benefits of modelling are, even when there are uncertainties in the data. Of course I’m not saying that it can always give good answers in the absence of good data — but I am saying that it is sometimes capable of being useful, and if you choose not to accept that, then we’ll just end up going round this loop again.
But I’m surprised that you should hold your simplistic view while at the same time advocating the use of the models of the three Nobel laureates whom Dr Yeadon believes offered their help to SAGE.
I am most certainly not advocating the use of any models regarding this minor common cold coronavirus epidemic that ended several months ago
All models are wrong and none are useful when they use junk data.
I am advocating treating Nobel laureates with respect.
There is good data available: ONS overall all cause mortality:
‘In August 2020, there were 34,750 deaths registered in England, 2,060 deaths fewer than the five-year average (2015 to 2019) for August; in Wales, there were 2,379 deaths registered, 116 deaths fewer the five-year average for August.
The leading cause of death in August 2020 was dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in England (accounting for 10.9% of all deaths) and ischaemic heart disease in Wales (11.0% of all deaths); both leading causes of death were the same in July 2020.
The coronavirus (COVID-19) did not feature in the top ten leading causes of death in August 2020, in England or Wales. In England, COVID-19 was the 24th most common cause of death’
The next such analysis comes out in a week.
I look forward to having another conversation then
… criticises the modellers for making a certain assumption. If it was left to them [Ferguson] to do so, that is a failure in the team-working.
Maybe try substituting ‘Ferguson’ for ‘them’ in this passage, and we perhaps start to see what has gone wrong.
Ferguson made his own assumptions. SAGE should have at least challenged him on those assumptions. As far as I can tell, they did not – and neither did anyone in government.
(Maybe Ferguson was telling them what he already knew they wanted to hear??)
You have evidence for this — especially evidence that contradicts the minutes of SAGE meetings in February?
Nope, but I’m happy to be corrected on this. As I understood it, Ferguson did indeed make his own assumptions. If you can point me to where SAGE challenged this I will read with interest.
As far as I know, I am unaware of the Ferguson model being seriously challenged within official circles.
Well, you made the assertion, so I think the onus is on you to back it up with evidence rather than on me to provide evidence against it. Indeed, I don’t claim to know, but since SAGE 11 formally adopted the RWC before Ferguson issued Report 9, my guess is that as SAGE meetings discussed the data and developed its consensus position on the parameters of the virus, that Ferguson and his team would have been using those figures to develop their model. But I claim no more than that being a reasonable deduction from the evidence,
Ok, fair enough. But I did caveat my comment:
Ferguson made his own assumptions. SAGE should have at least challenged him on those assumptions. As far as I can tell, they did not – and neither did anyone in government.
My ‘as far as I can tell’ bit has some parallels to your ‘I claim no more than that being a reasonable deduction from the evidence’.
I am aware of no evidence that SAGE has ever probed properly Ferguson’s modelling, and the manner in which they have continued to support what I believe to be his discredited analysis raises my suspicions further. That is my feeling, and I’m happy to be corrected on it with counter evidence, and I don’t claim it as a truth – hence why I so often caveat my posts with stuff like ‘as far as I can tell’.
This is one for the subsequent enquiry, which will doubtless take months and masses of evidence to reach its conclusions – effort which we can’t hope to replicate here.
Although we sometimes come at things from a different perspective, I do find your comments enlightening and usefully cautionary. Your remarks on how Ferguson should be judged on what he actually wrote concerning projected BSE deaths have led me to think about his work in a different light.
Late as it is in the life-cycle of this comments section, I don’t know whether you’ll see this post or not.
Thanks for that.
While I agree with what you say Richard about it needing to be a ‘team sport’, in the real world of business, from which Dr Yeadon hails (Pfizer) the concept of ‘team sport’ rarely triumphs. When management brings in a set of outsiders, in this case modelers, it is usually with a pre-agreed agenda that seeks to impose a particular set of ideas into a process. The objective is a de facto hostile takeover, and understandably, the incumbent team will be defensive.
Where I disagree with you is in the idea that there can never be a top quality expert modelers who is also a top quality expert in the phenomena being modeled. I can name a few in key sectors, one very close to home (Mr TT), who appear regularly in ultra high value litigation and other commercial settings.
I accept that “never” was over-emphatic. Let me say that such people are so rare and so much in demand that it is unrealistic in any given instance to rely on being able to find them, and unreasonable to criticise others for not having found them.
I meant no disrespect to any of those few people who are capable of working at the top quality expert level in both mathematics and in some quite different discipline.
They are usually people who have PhDs in statistical techniques/modeling but who have also worked in the industry in question. They are more numerous than you may think, and are available to government departments if they care to look – the emphasis being on ‘if’!
I don”t disagree with that (and indeed the Institute I have the privilege of working with has many such people as members) but I think that Dr Yeadon was imposing an unrealistically high expectation of what this double expertise would look like — possibly for rhetorical effect.
Dr Yeadon does indeed like rhetorical effect, which is both a strength and weakness of his writing.
Where are those top-quality people? Advising the government, are they?
The ones I know are working in academia, business, industry and government.
Have received a reply from the butcher. Any suggestions of how I should reply:
Dear
I am always very disappointed to receive feedback from our customers that highlights their perceived poor service within our shops. Happily, it happens very rarely.
I would first point out that XXXXX, including our XXXXX, XXXXXX, has continued to trade throughout the pandemic. We have kept our shops open and we have served our customers to the best of our ability, taking into consideration Government guidelines at all times. We had to resort to trading from the door at one point and, more recently, our Team have been asked to wear face coverings throughout their eight to ten hour shifts. I would point out that this is very uncomfortable for them, but hopefully in the best interest of all. We have taken orders for delivery to vulnerable customers, those isolating, the elderly and many NHS workers. In short, we have done what we can to maintain a service to the local community.
It has been my own role to maintain Team morale, and to encourage the Team at times when heads have dropped a little. Out Team have been stoic in their efforts. They have shown fortitude and resilience at a time when they have had concerns about their own health, and the health of their families. I am very proud of all of the Team, and the general customer response would support my own appreciation of their endeavours.
At some point in mid-July, the Government made it mandatory for customers entering shops to wear face coverings. As you point out in your email, there are exemptions. As retailers we were asked to monitor and implement this measure. At no point has it been suggested that retailers should ‘police’ the situation. As per Government guidelines, we have implemented our own ‘Risk Assessment’ for trading in the present climate and, on inspection from Camden Council, we are doing everything asked of us.
I have discussed your complaint with our XXXX Team. Their account does not greatly differ from yours. I understand that you were asked to wear a face covering and offered a surgical, disposable covering when you made it known that you did not have your own. You then highlighted your exemption. For your information, we choose, as a Company, to serve those customers unable to wear a face covering, at the front door. This is to protect our Team.
It appears that the basis of your complaint is the stance taken by our Team when you showed limited, if any, inclination to show the card that you are supplied with, that explains your exemption. This put our Team in a very difficult position, and compromised our Company Risk Assessment.
Having considered the situation that you highlight, and have chosen to share on social media, I would suggest that it is incumbent on the general public to work with retailers and understand the stresses and guidelines that they are working with. You were simply asked to prove your exemption. While you defend your right not to, I must defend the health and wellbeing of our Team. I have spoken to the lady who spoke to you, and we will take on board your comments. It is always disappointing to lose a valued customer, but commerce is a two way street.
Yours sincerely,
etc, etc…
Not the point – legally you should not be challenged for proof, or treated differently from any other customer as it is clear discrimination.
Good point. Will add that to my reply.
CGL has it spot on. Everything is in that one sentence.
Point out that I’m asking you to “prove” your disability, and by serving you at the door, they are seriously breaking the Disability Discrimination Act.
Yes, it’s the same as not allowing in a guide dog because the doggie germs.
well done for taking it up.
Keep your reply very short. Focus on the fact that you only have to say exempt and no card required for them to police (Attach a copy of the no masks government section), then point out that this it is disability discrimination and quote the possible fines. It is shocking that they think they can serve a customer at the door and that it is not discrimination. You won’t be able to change their minds, its made up. Then Vote with your feet – not much more you can do (yes, it is not always easy to replace a particular shop)
Thanks for your advice. My plan is to send them a link to the Law or Fiction site.
I have found an online butcher and they’ve been good. They also hold the royal warrant so if its good enough for Her Majesty then its good enough for me.
I can highly recommend Kittows Quality Meats of Cornwall. They deliver nationwide and their homemade pies are awesome!
You could suggest it will go further if they do not admit it is discrimination. You have it in writing that their policy is to discriminate against exempt individuals. So I would make this clear that it can now be taken to a solicitor.
Mr Bart suggested forwarding the reply to he Equalities commission and I am also considering bringing Camden council in as well to report them for discrimination
Only do this if you are willing to go the whole way
I think it may be discriminatory for them to serve you at the front door as this is a different level of service.
Use the Law or Fiction toolkit and threaten to litigate for discrimination.
https://www.laworfiction.com/2020/07/face-covering-litigation-threats-and-administrative-headache/
Great advice.
Bart, attach the fist few pages of the toolkit to your correspondence. https://www.laworfiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Face-Covering-Exemption-Notice-with-Law-Explained-24-July-2020.pdf
Well nobody is “supplied” with an exemption card. They are available to print out but there is no obligation to carry one and no legal right to demand to see one.
Exactly. The law does not mention proof of, or explanation of, exemption AT ALL. And the guidance is crystal clear – ‘Don’t’.
It is clearly DDA discrimination. If a wheelchair user couldn’t get into a shop because the door was to narrow it would be discrimination to insist they had to be served outside.
Take your custom someplace else.
If business prefer to serve people with exemptions at the door they should make that clear by a sign in the door.
I had an altercation with my usually very nice newsagent about this, and have not shopped with him since then.
I guess I should have known better, since they have been wearing face coverings since the start.
I do not like the practice of being served at the door, but at least it shows willingness and a sign avoids the need for an argument and people consequently getting upset.
It is not nice for the workers either. As someone who worked in a customer facing environment, I know how draining it is and difficult to stay polite.
That’s a good point. I work in visitor services and agree that it’s draining it is and difficult to stay polite. We had a very popular and busy exhibition last year and that really tested my patience and ability to stay polite to the limit.
Find a one-way street that goes away from the shop, and continue along it until you find another butcher’s.
We have decided to permanently go with the online butcher that we have found – great products and great service.
“For your information, we choose, as a Company, to serve those customers unable to wear a face covering, at the front door.”
I am not a lawyer, but have they not just admitted disability discrimination?
Yes they have.
Dear The UK Police.
Stop being a bunch of fascist, mind controlled gimps and do something useful. See France…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8843089/Police-search-home-French-health-minister-former-PM-Covid-probe.html
read further – apparently because police think these politicians did not have more severe restrictions in the beginning
<cries/>
Can that fatuous idiot from “Countryfile” give any real instances of “discrimination” which are not the fabrications of paranoia?
I don’t think some people realise that you occasionally come across some unfriendly locals in the countryside. Some people for an example seem to take an exception to walkers using public footpaths crossing their land, also some country pubs can be very cliquey (as can urban ones). Like you say much of it is just paranoia.
That is why we have the new Reclaim party that openly challenges these type of idiotic statements.
Unite, don’t divide [Video with Laurence Fox and Calvin Robinson]
https://twitter.com/LozzaFox/status/1314935151789563905
The Times front page is laugh out loud establishment propaganda today. It manages to both promote the Oxford vaccine and attack Russia at the same time. The story is about how the evil Russians are spreading a rumour about the Oxford vaccine turning people into monkeys – which in itself if true (I doubt it) is laughable in itself and I can’t believe anyone in the world would believe this.
The fact that The Times has dedicated a front page and so much space inside for this story shows how low standards have fallen at UK newspapers. I knew they were planning to go on a pro-vaccine propaganda campaign but surely they could do better than this? https://www.thetimes.co.uk/?region=global
Must be a joke testing if literally any shit will stick. It’s like the Happy Birthday song being exceptionally contagious.
“evil Russians are spreading a rumour about the Oxford vaccine turning people into monkeys…”
Well maybe that’s why they are getting immunity against injury claims.
I knew there must be some reason for this…
It is comical, for those of us who have observed the shameless propagandising about Russia indulged in by our governments, with general media complicity, over decades now.
It would be nice to think that some of the people here whose eyes have been opened to the dishonesty of outlets like the BBC, Times and Guardian by their coronapanic performance might choose to apply their new-found scepticism to past coverage of international affairs.
It’s entirely understandable that most people are not interested enough in geostrategy to bother questioning such stuff generally, which is why they have mostly gotten away with it.
I just wish they spent more time improving this country rather than having their petty geopolitical fights – the only real beneficiaries are the arms industry and military police state.
Well, the monkey bit has to be correct, if you assume that they tried the Oxford vaccine on Wancock.
I might be interested in the transformative vaccine – probably more fun being a monkey than a human at the moments (as long as your not a lab one).
Yet another comment, if I may on Mike Yeadon’s posting.
I seriously doubt that they decided that purely on their own initiative, without reference either before or after the event to subject matter experts from SAGE. As the SAGE minutes show, early meetings were devoted to developing a common understanding of what was know about the then novel virus. If those assumptions were made, they were made by subject experts and given to modellers. Dr Yeadon gives as his personal view that this assumption is wrong, and that it was wrong at the time. Well, unless he can demonstrate that it must have been wrong and known to be wrong at that time, then he can only say that he disagreed with SAGE. Is it possible that he attributes this assumption to modellers rather than to his fellow experts because he does not care to admit that there is a difference of opinion among experts, one which modelling and modellers cannot be held accountable for?
I don’t claim to know the Imperial model in detail, but it’s a trivial matter to set pre-existing immunity as a parameter and investigate the dependence of model outputs to changes in that assumption. The initial assumption of zero pre-existing immunity was the correct conservative assumption for planning purposes (Reasonable Worst Case). Of course I’m not denying that these assumptions need to be revisited as data comes in. If that has not been happening, then a vital part of the communication between modeller and domain expert would been left out. That would have been the responsibility of SAGE collectively and its chair specifically — I have no detailed knowledge of whether or how that went of course.
His point is more fundamental:
Application of ‘The Precautionary Principle’ without the necessary accompaniment of a cost/benefit analysis, a point made by the government’s own guidance on the precautionary principle, will end badly.
SAGE should have been aware of government guidance on ‘The Precautionary Principle’ and followed it to the letter in advising the government.
That they did not so do is a very grave dereliction of duty, incompetence, and they should be disbanded forthwith (at the very least).
Do you have a reference describing this principle as a compulsory mandate for government planning purposes?
Any government spending decision – which this is – should come with a cost/benefit analysis. It’s not their money that they are spending!!
(That they actually do or not is a separate matter)
What can be said immediately is that the ‘precautionary principle’ does not entail shitting your pants every time something looks a bit worrying.
Use of ‘The Precautionary Principle’ is a policy decision.
‘A decision to invoke the precautionary principle to support a proposition is a policy decision’
‘The RPC will expect to see a clear rationale for invoking the principle based on robust evidence of numbers affected, severity and irreversibility of harms.’
‘…..the Green Book states that ‘The recommended approach in situations where expensive precautionary actions have been taken is to monitor continually the situation and to build in specific review points, being prepared to act quickly on the basis of better information’. (Managing Risks to the Public Appraisal Guidance, p. 32) The ILGRA guidance also notes that reviews should ‘ensure that the action taken resulted in what was intended; and check whether decisions previously reached need to be modified to take account of, for example, advances in technology, new knowledge about the risks from research, or any other information which may reduce uncertainty in the nature and likelihoods of potential consequences.’
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/858864/short_guidance_note_-_precautionary_principle.pdf January 2020
We know that the government made the decision to invoke ‘The Precautionary Principle’ because their lawyers cited it in their defence of the ‘Health Protection Regulations 2020’
‘The precautionary principle applies.’
https://static.crowdjustice.com/group_claim_document/20200612_-_Acknowledgment_of_Service_-_SoS_Health__SoS_Education_minus_form.PDF
Thanks for that. But my question was badly posed. The PP, as referred to here, supports the “do something” decision more strongly than the “do nothing” option. It doesn’t apply to the scientific advice, it applies to the stage after that advice is in.
Government policy was to apply ‘The Precautionary Principle’ (PP)
Government guidance is to include a cost benefit analysis in any application of the PP
It was therefore incumbent upon SAGE to provide that cost benefit analysis as part of their assessment. How else could the government come to a balanced decision?
But they did not and that is a serious indictment……
A competent government, of course, would have returned their work to them as incompetent and disbanded SAGE as not fit for purpose.
That will happen. This is a long game.
And, in fairness, one person in cabinet, I understand Jesse Norman, asked about any cost benefit analysis……
Someone should have provided it…..if not SAGE, then who?
Cue scrambling for coats, elbows out, and legging it to the nearest exit…….
It is something that should not need to be said. If it does need to be said, the person you are engaging is not the sort of person you should be engaging.
Bottom line (as I’ve commented above about Ferguson’s model), the SAGE advice has been subjected to the ultimate peer review : reality.
And it’s not passed at any stage.The clearest example is, of course, Vallance’s (you know, the guy with the shares) ludicrous ‘exponential growth’ model.
Now an old research hack like myself, using only a graphics capable spreadsheet, diagnosed immediately, with a high degree of probabilty, that the prognosis would turn out to be pure fantasy, that the ‘pandemic’ was in no way ‘unprecedented’ in its overall effect, and that the current course of mortality was entirely in line with the lowest level of what tends to happen during September/ October.
The Abstract of the paper I didn’t write was simple :
“Basic analysis now shows SAGE statements to be utter bollocks, and most policy measures derived from them to be mainly pointless and potentially damaging.”
It wasn’t really a model, though, was it?
Any attempt to predict real life events using mathematics can legitimately be described as a model.
I think “model” is too kind a word. It should be substituted with “theory” or “hypothesis”, then the inherent uncertainty would be apparent. When using the word “model” there seems to be a mathematical certainty present
Quite so. My question was whether the doubling-every-week graph was an attempt to predict real life events.
OK, fair point. Though my opinion on that is that it was an attempt to dishonestly have it both ways – to cover themselves against accusations of making an alarmist prediction while knowing full well that it would be reported in effect as prediction – as in fact it was.
That is a possible interpretation, yes.
If those assumptions were made, they were made by subject experts and given to modellers. Dr Yeadon gives as his personal view that this assumption is wrong, and that it was wrong at the time.
Richard – we’ve disagreed on this before, but I remain of the opinion that SAGE were wrong to assume 100% susceptibility, and thus support Dr Yeadon here.
At parameters R0 = 2.5 to 3, and infectious for about 5 days, the disease spreads fast, and given that each infected person is infectious before they know they have the disease, it is essentially uncontrollable (without an absolutely draconian lockdown, the likes of which we have not seen).
But by February the disease was out and about, world-wide, and couldn’t be contained. At R0 = 2.8, infectious for 5 days, 100% susceptible, 0.9% IFR, the bodies would have been piling high throughout China long before. But they weren’t. Time therefore to revisit the assumptions. R0 and 5 days had been observed; they were probably close to correct. That leaves IFR and susceptibility. It was clear that those assumptions could not be correct. Even back in February and March.
That SAGE are still – 7 months later – essentially assuming 100% susceptibility (minus the about 7% who have identifiable antibodies) is, frankly, astonishing, and points to its own story.
Incidentally, I was under the impression that Ferguson (i.e. the modeller) made his own assumptions.
Well, while it’s a matter of opinion … but the question is whether SAGE were as justified in their opinion as you or Dr Yeadon is in theirs.
My problem with SAGE is that their stance was not a reasonable interpretation of the known facts at the time – as I’ve tried to explain in my post above. Experts should make a reasonable interpretation of facts, rather than just forward an opinion.
Subjective stuff like a personal experience of previous modelling exercises leads to opinion, but a reasonable interpretation of facts is another matter. This goes to the heart of my problem with SAGE.
The cult of covid, a really interesting blog post about why people are unable to see the giant fraud going on.
https://consentfactory.org/2020/10/13/the-covidian-cult/
Interesting article – it was also featured on the Off Guardian website. Illustrates the scale of the problem we are up against.
It also shows the fragility of their situation.
Sage is not tasked with getting anything right. It is tasked with destroying all that we might have held dear, crushing the economy and supporting the behavioural insights team with its brainwashing.
Yeadon states:
SAGE’s estimate of lethality has not been revised downward since about February.
That’s just mindblowing! They’ve had 8 months of empirical evidence and not revised it once?
No wonder we’re between a rock and a hard place!
It’s because they are still following Ferguson’s model, and Doris & Co have not thought to challenge it because they remain fully invested in it for reasons we can only speculate.
An international panel of professionals are starting a lawsuit.
https://twitter.com/EatlovePray11/status/1316778274983419904?s=20
I don’t know more to include in comment the link has a short clip of the panel speaking. Excellent points spoken.
Saw this yesterday – wanted to post it on fb but not as a Twitter feed link. Not sure how to extract it.
No idea myself. – pssibly working to identify the group then search on bitchute etc for different clip.
Post the twitter link – even ion you do not have a twitter account, it is very easy to watch if you just click on the link and then click on the video.
Doctors and nurses in Netherlands taking government to court. Even newspapers articles now questioning validity of PCR test.
Yes – I’ve watched it – it ought to be dynamite. When I post a Twitter link it’s just a very boring grey box that doesn’t draw the eye, and I fear people on my friends list really won’t bother to check it out at this point. Thought it might be more in their face with a proper picture and the play button right in front of them. I will post it anyway if I can’t work it out. The tag line will be ‘Let’s Go Dutch’
Fwiw, I always try to post a written description or sample text with a link. A link by itself is not too helpful. Better a description .
Could someone please tweet this link to KBF or Simon?
Already there I believe
If not here yet will be soon
https://acu2020.org/english-versions/
ahh interesting bars at the House of Lords still open…..
The average Lords day. Walk from posh house to HoL, sign in, pocket allowance, go to bar, drink and chat, go home.
Simon Dolan expressed these words on twitter. I agree 100% percent with them.
“You are in an abusive relationship with the Govt. Like all abusers they want to break you.
“The way out, is to simply refuse to comply.
“If you continue to comply, they will demand more and more. Witness the last 7 months”.
https://twitter.com/simondolan/status/1316995792767471617?s=20
Yes, we are being groomed
This is why lockdown 2 is happening so quickly, no kickback from Leicester or anywhere else until now in Manchester but then for the wrong reasons.
Essex curling over to be whipped, tossers
It’s actually a brilliant system of repression.Reward local authorities for lockdown measures.This then gets the local authorities begging to be locked up despite no reason for it even using the dodgy Government figures.Ie London and Essex.
I hope not, indeed. not.
Saffron Walden isn’t really Essex, it’s Suffolk. A tougher proposition altogether.
Yes, like this: https://twitter.com/mikemoorhouse/status/1316996485440045058/photo/1
(list of the elements that are part of coercive control – the government are using ALL of them)
1) What gives them the right to use John Snow’s name? Does he have descendants?
2) Anyone working on GBD t-shirts or badges for us to wear?
At last. Real science and opinion. It’s hard to stick your head above the parapet because you’re deemed cruel or a denier and shouted down by frightened people. Thankyou for some real common sense and fact. I hope someone with government weight is reading and and will put this information out. So glad you’ve done this not everyone is on Twitter where a lot of your sound thoughts have been a great reinforcement of scientific common sense.
It’s not enforceable that’s for sure- the police have already told them that
Looks like we’ve lost Lancaster.
“Ferguson’s infamous March 16th model has still not been peer-reviewed”
Well – strictly true. But it’s been subjected to the most stringent peer review of all : reality.
… and the verdict??
Unfit for purpose, just like its author.
Before I discovered this site I occasionally contributed to that state mouthpiece the ‘Guardian’. With regard to Mr Ferguson this was my comment on the 10th May:
The Coronavirus lock downs have been carried out mainly on the results of the work carried out by Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London. Ferguson’s computer model initially showed that 500,000 would be dead in the Uk which was revised to 20,000 the day after. Ferguson has since lost his job as chief government adviser for flouting the lock down by meeting up with his married lover on numerous occasions which at best illustrates his hypocrisy (one rule for them and another for me!) and at worst tells us that he knows something the rest of us don’t.
Ferguson has been around a long time and his record of projecting doom and gloom —which does not transpire—is legendary. Ferguson was instrumental in the modelling of the British Government’s response to Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in 2001 which resulted in the slaughter of an estimated twelve million animals. The farming community was devastated by suicides and bankruptcies that irretrievably altered the landscape of British agriculture — forcing healthy smallholdings into agri-corporate mergers and empowering the EU central governance in the agricultural sector.
In 2002, Ferguson predicted that up to 50,000 people would die from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, better known as “mad cow disease”. 178 people in the United Kingdom have died from vCJD, according to the National CJD Research & Surveillance Unit at the University of Edinburgh.
In 2005, Ferguson claimed that up to 200 million people would be killed by bird-flu or H5N1. By early 2006, the WHO had only linked 78 deaths to the virus, out of 147 reported cases.
In 2009, Ferguson and his team at Imperial College advised the government that swine flu or H1N1 would probably kill 65,000 people in the UK. In the end, swine flu claimed the lives of 457 people in the UK.
Now, in 2020, Ferguson and Imperial College have released a report which claims that half a million Britons and 2.2 million Americans may be killed by Covid–19.
The report has still not been peer-reviewed; despite this and Ferguson’s glaring record of mathematical sensationalism, the British Government has adopted the devastating socio-economic lockdown that Ferguson has proposed.
With a record as glaringly incompetent and spectacularly wrong throughout the past two decades, I would just like to pose the question—WHY?
And for those who might like to open their minds to the possibility that all is not as it seems with this virus there is a fact based site here that is very informative:
https://swprs.org/
This post, based on facts and research, got three ticks.
——————————————————————————————————————-
The following comment, in response, got twenty four ticks:
‘What a load of cack.
Cherry picking, out of context , typically science denier rubbish divorced from reality.
Further through the looking glass.’
——————————————————————————————————————-
Which just goes to show the level at which the ‘Guardian’ tolerate and indeed operate their CIF section.
Ferguson doesn’t need to get his work ‘peer reviewed’. There are plenty in power who are happy to use his complete and utter failed career to further their nefarious ends.
Harry – I got banned from the Groan two years ago for posting unexceptional opinions that contradicted Viner’s party line.
They got mostly annoyed by me taking the piss out of their claims to ‘fearless journalism’ etc. in their begging letters. They really didn’t like me pointing out that the strap line ‘Our reporting can change the story’ was a hilariously ironic admission in relation to the censorship and selective reporting that was going on.
It’s not new, and a lot of readers haven’t cottoned on to how its become a propaganda sheet with just a cover of some alternative opinion.
No, it wasn’t. You can still read the full report at https://spiral.imperial.ac.uk:8443/bitstream/10044/1/77482/14/2020-03-16-COVID19-Report-9.pdf
No, he didn’t. His estimate for deaths over 80 years from vCJD was between 50 (that’s fifty, not fifty thousand) and 150,000 as a 95% confidence interval, and to quote the paper
It turned out to be 177 over 20 years, which is, obviously, consistent with both the wider and the narrower estimate. Of course the media reported the more exciting “up to” figure rather than “as low as 50”. I agree that an estimate covering some four orders of magnitude would in general be better expressed as “we don’t know”.
From Nature, 10 January 2002
So his central estimates were 100-1000 over 80 years, and we’ve had 178 over 20 years. Sounds quite good to me.
No he didn’t. From Nature, 08 September 2005 (my emphasis)
So if avian flu had become human transmissible, then … . But it didn’t and 200 million people didn’t die. Which is good, … . But it didn’t and 200 million people didn’t die. Which is good,
No he didn’t. He was asked for a Reasonable Worst Case estimate. RWCs are explicitly not predictions.
No he didn’t. He estimated 510,000 deaths “In the (unlikely) absence of any control measures or spontaneous changes in individual behaviour”.
I’m a little curious as to why these false statements about Ferguson (whom I have no connexion with, and indeed have never met) are repeated so often and in such very similar wording.
International – ACU 2020acu2020.org › international
ACU 2020
The International Independent Corona Investigation Committee
Has grown out of Arzte für Ausklärung und Anwält fur Ausklärung in Germany..with Dr H Schöning and Dr W Wodarg & Dr Füllmich and Frau Fischer etc now a large an international group as well as doctors & academics but also politicians, activists etc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MWZP4B86rY&feature=emb_logo ,
Their investigation is on going today ;for example.. Taking evidence from an Austrian lawyer on….Corporate power and corruption
Thanks Helen.
Do you know when will they start their class action suit? Canada or the US?
No, sorry I don’t know. They are moving as fast as possible because they view this action as the best way shock people and overturn public support for the measures.
David Kurten from UK has joined + others. The UK resistance is so fragmented, weak and seriously under estimating the depth and breadth of this world wide crisis.
Hello Lockdown Sceptics
Full national lockdowns should ONLY be used against coronavirus as a last resort because of the ‘collateral damage’ on mental health, says WHO boss
But he said total lockdowns caused ‘collateral damage’ and should be avoided
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8846019/National-lockdowns-resort-says-boss.html
Yes. It’s again a sign of faulty logic. Fence sitting. Having your cake and eating it. Many terms of this.
In Psychology it leads to what is called a double bind. You either break through to a new understanding or you remain in psychological distress
What is a double bind?
According to Bateson, a double bind is a communication dilemma that comes from a conflict between two or more messages. So it doesn’t matter what you do, because any choice you make will be wrong. This is a situation in which communication only causes suffering and can even lead to psychological disorders.
https://exploringyourmind.com/gregory-batesons-double-bind-theory/
Eating your cake and still having it, please!
What a sick society the politicians, MSM and the unquestioning sheople have created. Babies and very young children are denied or have delayed corrective treatment that can be life long impacting, cancer patients going terminal due to lack of treatment, dementia patients being physically restrained just to take a swab test, armed police raiding a gym etc etc.
SHAME on the politicians, SHAME on the MSM and SHAME on the unquestioning people who have allowed this to happen.
SW Academy for the deaf just closed down because of 1 suspected Covid case.
They just don’t listen, do they?
And it wasn’t a case, was it? It was a positive test.
THEY ARE DEAF!
I see the latest SAGE idiocy is to recommend locking down the nation every school holiday. Quite apart from the economic devastation any lockdown will bring, this will further rip apart family life. Grandparents who love spending time with the kids and going out for day trips etc as my parents do, would be utterly distraught at this.
In general, as vitally important as the economy is don’t get me wrong, it feels like nobody really even mentions the bans on households mixing any more, but this is a serious mental health concern.
Not if you ignore the ban. I find it uplifting, so more visits.
Completely agree. Along with most people on this forum, I would politely suggest where they could put their new rules. But the problem is that for example my parents, when faced with the law and the insidious threat of police (however unlikely) they and many like them will comply, out of fear. That’s what I find so upsetting, for them.
We will all have to go on holiday and do the things we expect to do in the holidays in term time then, and take the kids out. They cant have it both ways.
It’ll also destroy the travel, leisure and tourism industry even more than it has been already. It’s almost like someone wants that to happen. (Green) Industrial Revolution?
British Airways just been fined £20m for a data protection breach. Not particularly helpful imho.
The aim is to destroy everything that pleases ordinary people. We are not entitled to pleasure. Our pleasure destroys the environment it seems.
Breaking down family life, all part of the Frankfurt School agenda along with organized religion and education.
Despite my feeling that many politicians must have been grown in a lab and transplanted directly into Westminster to remain completely untouched by real life, I cannot believe that they are incapable of understanding that the social fabric of society is being destroyed. Our version of civilisation is a work in progress and far from perfect, but it has been hard won over centuries of war and hardships. Thrown away in the blink of an eye.
they are grown in a lab. Prep school, private school, university, politics.
Why do you say the Frankfurt School agenda?
If you don’t know look it up, it’s been around for 60+ years.
I have three children, so the chance of my parents visiting to see them (IF we follow the rules) is already gone.
Well don’t follow the rules then.
I wonder if people don’t mention it anymore because they’re just not complying.
But I agree – this new SAGE proposal has gone beyond lunacy now. Really worried that we are sleepwalking into some horrendous dystopia where ‘shutting down’ becomes normalised during school holidays. Money is no object now the govt has demonstrated it has a bottomless pit of it so I wonder whether the argument ‘they can’t afford it’ really applies anymore.
Is this because ‘they’ think that in the case of most families with kids and working parents, they presume that the parents usually take the school holidays off, ie locking down then will not involve parents taking ‘extra’ time off work, because they would ‘normally’ have done that anyway?
Maximum benefit would actually be gained by locking up SAGE members for a few years.
… and the SPI-B (‘Goebbels’) crew for a few years more.
You are absolutely right about social and psychological impacts from the experimental Mengele crowd of pseudo-scientists.
Anyone coming up carelessly with these sort of measures has to be a sad misfit who needs to be kept away from policy.
It would be one way of reducing holiday costs for SAGE members.
You can enter. You have my permission as Prince of Wales. I’ve decided to usurp Charlie and imprison Drakeford and his criminal gang in Pembroke Castle, awaiting trial and exec… I mean sentencing.
The court case will be presided over Judge Annie.
The verdict and sentencing are a foregone conclusion, but we will gladly hear the evidence. And publish it.
Then we only need to build the scaffold and set the date.
All Sceptics are welcome to attend.
Anybody caught wearing a face nappy will be detained for life in the Royal Nursery.
Happened to see a documentary called “Pandemic” on Netflix last night. A 20 odd minute jolly of not deep thinking. But there was Chinese wet markets. Bats and (Dr?) Bill Gates. What is of interest is that this was a 2019 documentary and seems to have correctly pointed out the risk of a zoological (right term?) virus and Chinese wet markets. Then what was fascinating was when they touched on SARS Covid-1. And pointed out how it was spreading in apartment blocks via foul waste and aerosol spread.
Not really sure what, if any conclusion, I came to with the documentary other than they all knew the risk……
Apparently zoonotic is the term for this kind of virus.
Has anyone else noticed that whenever a virus story is accompanied by a photo of a member of the the public walking outside, the person in the photo is always wearing a gag? Just more subliminal messaging. I wonder if this the reason why there are so many more people wearing them out in the fresh air?
I no longer watch tennis or motor racing as their organisations force the players and drivers to wear masks even when standing in the open air speaking on camera. I don’t need to see that, not good for my state of happiness.
Always. And definitely.
Because they have lost the ability to think for themselves.
Cause they are fucking idiots
I watch a lot of UFC (fighting) and it always makes me laugh how people around the ring, the team staff and everyone else are all in masks. And yet the people in the ring are grappling and sweating all over each other with blood and god knows what else flying around on all sides, and between rounds staff are rubbing them with wax or massaging their legs before the next round etc. etc.
But of course lots of fights are being held in places like Saudi Arabia, so the perception of compliance will be a condition of them being allowed to continue.
Yes, its brainwashing, re enforcing that people wear masks outside. They have been doing this for ages. The BBC web pages, every photo is of people in masks. I noticed our bastard council have put up big banners now with wear a face mask on them especially outside parks and other open areas.
We now have another target to aim for..
“Around 47,000 Covid-19 infections are occurring each day across England, with daily deaths expected to hit 240 to 690 by 26 October, according to evidence presented to government scientists.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) biostatistics unit at Cambridge University published new predictions this week on how fast the epidemic is growing across the country.”
Let’s see if this prediction follows the same pattern as all the other gunk they’re scaring people with.
Given their definition of a ‘Covid’ death, 240 on a single given day seems at least possible. Nearly 700 though…
lets see if these deaths feed through to excess mortality stats.
covid deaths still negligible in comparison to flu
And (sorry to keep repeating – but it’s an important context) – current all-cause mortality is at the bottom end of the quarter-century range. There is no exceptional infective event currently in progress by this criterion.
Between 240 and 690.
Not much wriggle room there, eh?
Sorry, but i’ve gone past bedwetters and coronaphobes straight to idiots. The remaining people in our population who believe the COVID response is proportional to the risk are idiots. No more no less I can’t dignify myself to being polite.
Indeed, and I have no intention of dropping my use of bedwetter or sheeple while they continue to call us covidiots, granny killers and conspiracy theorists.
Bedwetters.
Disgusting bedwetters.
Disgusting, craven bedwetters.
Don’t think this fully captures their cruelty
They think they are kind. I have been trying to talk to a friend- a primary school teacher. She thinks that Covid Marshals should be respected for doing their job of keeping people safe from rule breakers. After all they may need the money because they may have lost their job. Too many ironies on every level – I am afraid i gave up.
Do you have Covid Marshals in your area?
I don’t know tbh! I don’t go into town if I can help it. Is it mainly Northern territories at the moment? If so, then no we wouldn’t.
I haven’t seen any. I know they’ve been talked about I’m not sure if they actually exist … yet.
The story from on here was from someone living in the north east from memory so they do exist now but not widespread (yet!) maybe.
I am sure a lot of concentration camp guards lost their jobs during the 1930s. So that’s ok then!
Yep – the whole conversation was as a result of a Covid Nazi story that mentioned the holocaust. She was disgusted by it. I could have said I was disgusted by people like her but I’m not as disgusting so i didnt.
I’m really sorry but I don’t buy this ‘best intentions’ argument any more. I was woken up in the middle of the night by my daughter crying saying she didn’t think she could stand being stuck in her room on her own for the next 10 days ( she’s at uni and has just been out in self isolation confined to her room because someone ( no symptoms) in her ‘household’ has tested positive. She has no contact with him. She’s asthmatic but was finding it impossible to get a repeat prescription Inhaler because she can’t get out and her GP wasn’t returning calls. Everything is upside down. No compassion. The age of reason is dead.
My first statement was sarcastic – that wasn’t obvious I can now see. I do completely agree with you, but their minds are just not rational to us – and ours aren’t to them either. It is as if we are separate species.
I cant imagine the torture that these poor students are enduring and you parents too – it is just appalling and terrible – these words aren’t strong enough. None are.
If that happens again tell her to dial 999.
I’m way past niceties. They are told what I think. The only time I have to modify my language somewhat is at work.
My suggestion for song of the day: “Tiers of a Clown”. Dedicated to Bojo.
there is no such thing as an Anglo Welsh border, just county boundaries.
Drakford could put the whole of Wales into special measures and prevent all but essential travel by anyone.
There is a word for Mark Drakeford but with people finding “bedwetter” offensive I will refrain from using it on a family website!
Love, AngloWelshDragon
Try ‘Dripfeed’.
My daughter has been forced into self isolation – now incarcerated in her room – only allowed to use corridor shower and toilet facilities. This is just because one student in the ‘ household’ ( a group devised by the College – has no bearing on actual contact) was tested positive. He has no symptoms and neither do any of the other household members. Who knows if it’s a false positive. Someone from the college has attached a notice ‘Self Isolating’ on each of the doors. They may as well have pinned up ‘Unclean’. One fine art student had previously pinned pictures of students and these were taken down without her consent. Locking up healthy people in their rooms – what sort of country have we become??’‘
this surely has to be unlawful???
Yes, I’d like to know under what legal framework the uni are depriving healthy individuals of their liberty under.
Contract law.
There simply is no law anymore. Covid shalt be the whole of the law.
We ceased to be under the rule of law on March 23.No sign of it returning anytime soon
I have no idea any more ( and I’m a lawyer!). We’ll see how Francis Hoar fares on October 29.
Most likely with a token hearing thrown out the same afternoon.
Well after yesterday he knows that the government will, the day before the court date, repeal the legislation the case is based on and replace it with something out, in order to try and get it dismissed on a technicality..
Surely must be – no fresh air, which is essential for health. How come under the national lockdown people were allowed one hour a day to exercise, but students are not??
These are the laws that appear to have been diluted:
1) Police and Criminal Evidence Act
2) Health and Safety – Display Screen Equipment Regulations Employers of people working from home who normally work in an office should do a risk assessment of the computer set up to ensure that employees do not suffer injury.
3) Human Rights Act
4) Mental Capacity Act
5) Discrimination Act
6) Deprivation of Liberty safeguards.
7) Children Act
8) Education act
Can she not just come home? Or are the lessons no longer all online?
Apparently not allowed. She called me in the middle of night crying as she’s asthmatic snd wasn’t able to get a repeat inhaler as the GP wasn’t answering calls and she’s not allowed out. That’s now been resolved this morning but normal medical services are ten times more difficult while they exert all their efforts on locking healthy people up. No compassion whatsoever.
Go get her
So she’s literally imprisoned? What on earth…
If she did leave and come home, did they say what would happen?
They have staff on the premises – and – as I said – they’ve now all been marked out with signs on their doors. I agree that I don’t think they can stop them leaving – but the fees have already been paid so a They have little bargaining power. And my daughter reports a culture of fear NOT a of the virus but of the strong arm of authority. People seriously need to wake up to what they’re losing or have lost already. No one should dare tell me that this is worth it. I’ll spontaneously combust
Can she leave during the night and come home?
She can leave any time she likes, if anyone lays a finger on her it’s assault, and if anyone claims it’s breaking a rule they’re supporting false imprisonment. Really feel for you Telpin, must be pretty distressing.
Jings take her out of there.
Human Rights Watch, say they are looking closely at what is going on, whatever that means
Speechless. Actually completely speechless. I am truly wondering how to get out of this country with its grotesque culture and utter loss of compassion, care or common sense.
Time for students to cut their losses and start getting refunds, this could be on and off for months. Being at home with time and space to regroup would surely be better than this and if a good number do it it may give universities pause for thought.
Feel so sorry for your daughter.
However suggest they square up with this idiotic student that had a test without displaying symptoms. It is his/her fault that the others are banished to their rooms.
STOP GETTING A TEST
The student concerned absolutely tried his best ( believe me the students are trying to avoid them like mad) but they’re being strong armed into having them by denial of services or not being permitted to play in teams unless they submit.
Sorry to hear this.
Although I’m not a student and have no kids, when I saw the story of IQ residences in Leeds securing the fire exit on a student block with a cable tie, I immediately called security on site to confirm it had been removed. If they hadn’t, I was ready to go to site and cause trouble until they sorted it. I think we all need to be willing to do the same, whether that’s making a phone call, causing bad publicity for them online, or turning up on site and acting as civilian police.
Oh for goodness sake just ignore the nonsense.
Do what you need to do and be done with it.
Why in God’s name are you putting up with this drivel?
Go get her and if anybody gets in your way break their nose.
This is appalling. What universities are doing is cruel and it can only because not only have the swallowed the propaganda whole but because they desperately need the money. Especially in the absence of the lucrative overseas students.
They’re setting themselves up for trouble as well. What happens if harm comes to a student while self-isolating?
Time for parents to band together to protest at this nonsense. Students as well – you have nothing to lose but your chains! (with apologies to Marx & Engels)
A social experiment is a type of research done in fields like psychology or sociology to see how people behave in certain situations or how they respond to particular policies or programs. Are we still at the ‘experimental’ stage,
I think we should get an A** for resistance in the face of overwhelming opposition
Well that’s something to keep us going!
My wife is convinced this is indeed such an experiment, that will end in March. No idea why she thinks this. She was right about the October lockdowns though, which she predicted many months ago.
Please ask your wife her opinion on this! https://thecanadianreport.ca/is-this-leaked-memo-really-trudeaus-covid-plan-for-2021-you-decide/
She is right. It is an experiment. Hopefully and it has an end date, sadly I think that the end date is extending past next March as it has all gone so well so far..
Z-shield (look it up).
From muzzle to collar.
Thought she was in a glass cube for a moment!
A great edition today. Thank you Will.
Yes, it is very good. He doesn’t do the Toby piss-takes so much, but skewers the arguments on the technical stuff.
Prediction (and I’m not talking ten gazillion cases a day by Monday and everyone dead in a week). Sooner or later a Covid Chekist will kill or seriously injure a refusenik, most likely a student, with a chokehold or other restraint.
“Better to be judged by twelve than carried by six” is the argument, but I’m not personally convinced that we are in that situation in this country. I don’t carry a weapon routinely, and I’m a historical weapons collector so I own dozens. But the fact is that you are infinitely more likely to end up serving time for illegally carrying a weapon, or for using it illegally albeit in self defence, than you are to save your own life with it.
There are two main reasons for that. First, we live in a society that is culturally and institutionally biased against self defence, and heavily hoplophobic. Second, in reality the risks are mostly not high enough to justify it (imo, obviously, and to some extent it depends on your personal location, behaviour and choices).
So I’d say if you feel the need to carry a weapon, make it a walking stick so it is at least deniable.
And if you do carry a walking stick for this purpose, learn how to use it, with canne, eskrima or singlestick, or similar. Not that you are likely to come up against anyone similarly armed, but these practices will at least familiarise you generally with the use of the stick in combat.
It’ll probably be me, knowing my luck.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8847125/Berlin-court-overturns-order-shut-Berlins-bars-restaurants-11pm.html I should think Mutti Merkel won’t let that stand
I don’t think she has any choice which is why Germany’s response has been so much more measured than the UK’s. She can only seek to persuade under the federal system and Germany’s regional leaders are considerably brighter than the UK’s.
Some German regional leaders and parliaments are panicking, like my home country of Schleswig-Holstein:
From next week, after the school holidays, all pupils in secondary schools have to wear face coverings all the time for at least 2 weeks.
Fines up to 1000 Euro if you have been found to supplied a wrong name in a restaurant. (How they are going to find you I doubt).
Face coverings on open air markets or busy shopping streets.
Holiday makers from areas with high positive counts are not allowed to stay. This has been overruled by courts in 2 other federal states.
In Hessen, they want to change legislation so that restaurant owners can check your ID.
Luckily there are lots of lawyers, business owners and individuals who challenge legislation in court – and sometimes win.
Ugh.
Find the name in payment records that doesn’t match the signing in list? If you’ve paid electronically of course.
Germany has federal states, who make their own legislation. regulations re C.
Berlin is such a federal state, it introduced a “sperrstunde” starting from last weekend, and it has been overturned by court. It only means they can stay open, but they cannot serve alcohol after 11pm. That is another paragraph in the regulation, which needs to be challenged with a different challenge.
Apparently the court said the statistics compiled by the RKI do not show that being in a restaurant after 11pm increases the risk of getting infected.
Compare and contrast with the UK courts, who merely side with the government.
The judge yesterday tried to throw out Simon’s case in the first few minutes because the government had ‘neatly’ repealed the legislation the case was based on the day before the court date (and replaced it with different legislation)..
Does anyone know how the Crimes against Humanity case is going?
I saw that. Wonder if there is a way to prepare these charges against government taking into account that they will make change legislation for whatever you charge them with. Also top ensure that lawyer cant pull out air the last minute or that witnesses are recalled for a meeting with Boris?
I think they should be able to call Hancock as a witness!
Hancock was called as a witness but then the judge excused him because Boris that morning called a meeting for that afternoon where Hancock apparently had to attend. The underhanded tactics are amazing.
What a surprise…not!
And snitch neighbours to the Inquisition.
You may have seen this advertisement taken out in the Irish Times yesterday. Well, the debunk from the head line click bait mask zealot Journal.ie has also been released.
It admits the facts presented are correct. But…ill let you vomit over the rest.
https://www.thejournal.ie/factcheck-irish-times-covid-19-ad-5234373-Oct2020/
Journal.ie is owned by the billionaire Irish businessman Denis O’ Brien, the country’s largest media owner and perennial Davos attendee.
A quick google for “Denis O’ Brien scandal” produces a wealth of material. A class A crook, swindler and bully.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/jan/11/denis-obrien-under-investigation-by-irelands-criminal-assets-bureau
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-47419221
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/money-trail-denis-o-brien-michael-lowry-and-the-criminal-assets-bureau-1.3283392
Didn’t know that. All roads lead to the same places.
I’ll take this one quote:
“A further claim – which suggests that if a person who has Covid-19 dies after being hit by a bus, they will be added to official statistics on coronavirus deaths – is false.
Since it was published this morning, the ad has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook by pages linked to Yellow Vests Ireland, a group which claims to be apolitical but is connected to anti-government movements.
The group, a loose network of activists that developed through Facebook groups, has helped to organise a number of protests against Covid-19 restrictions and is one of several networks using the pandemic to try to recruit members.
Counting Covid-19 deaths
One of the claims in the ad relates to how Ireland counts deaths from Covid-19.
It states (as a “fact”): “In Ireland, if a person died from a heart attack, stroke, cancer or even having been hit by a bus and if that person also tested positive for Covid-19, their death is reported as a Covid-19 death”.
The way in which Ireland counts deaths from Covid-19 has been the source of misinformation throughout the pandemic, particularly as attributing a death to the virus isn’t a straightforward process.
Attributing a death due to Covid-19 is down to the judgement of individual medical workers in different facilities, from hospitals to nursing homes and other settings.
In cases where a death occurs outside a medical setting, the local coroner is the person responsible – in which case the person’s cause of death can take months to verify.
Deaths due to Covid-19 that are announced are almost always lab confirmed; that is, the deceased has been positively identified as having Covid-19 because they have been tested.
Sometimes, “probable” and “possible” deaths from the virus are notified as well, where a death is notified in a person suspected to have died as a result of Covid-19 but who was not tested.
However, these can later be de-notified, if it has been deemed that the person did not die with Covid-19.”
That last paragraph is the debunk. They can relist the death at a later date. With no post mortem? How do the expect to do that? How many times has this actually in Ireland?
Its disgraceful. To start off by ensuring its labelled as conspiracy and then suggest that CV-19 deaths counted have subsequently been verified is nonsense. So all 2000 or so, were due directly to CV-19? They all had symptoms and deterioration of health due to the virus. No co-morbidities etc. Total and utter nonsense. How many deaths have been registered as CV-19 after this kind of further review is carried out?
To be expected though.
I always look forward to a laugh when I see the next fact checker on the Journal. This one is a classic. Basically they are saying that everything is true but that it is also false. I really don’t know why they bother. They must think their readers are stupid. Noted that they weren’t bold enough to open this piece of shite for comment. They also had the gall to ask the Irish Times if they had fact checked the ad before publishing it.
My issue with modelling is not in the modelling itself but how it is used.
The reaction to the reasonable worst case was not so much how do we mitigate this but more what must we do to avoid this at all costs.
Ironically “doing nothing” would itself have been a form of mitigation as people were already changing their behaviour. So the RWC was never really that reasonable in the first place.
Covid is the New Religion. Its done the same thing all religions have done.
The arguments between Suppression and Immunity certainly reminds me of the ideological debate between the Catholic and Protestant churches.
The Fear and Damnation have worked again
Back in late March I was posting anti-lockdown and sceptical comments on various right-of-centre sites and getting plenty of abuse and a generally negative reaction. How times have changed. Still a mountain to climb, though, with the wider population of this country.
Ah yes, happy days. Abused by all and sundry. Feels like seven years ago, rather than seven months.
Just found this comment on the UnGuardian, not sure if it’s sarcasm…
“How many more hundreds and thousands of people will have to die unnecessarily on the alter of Johnson’s Ego before he bows to the inevitable and pulls the emergency brake on the spread of coronavirus??”
Altar*
Was it Titania McGrath?
It´s always “in a few weeks”…
Indeed. Panic on the ‘Never never.’
What really pisses me is that the perpetrators continually get away with the scam, no mater how often they are proved wrong by reality.
I finally read “Animal Farm” last night for the first time. The sheep reminded me of those who bleat back the government slogans and follow all advice seemingly without any thinking whatsoever. They are given a 6-word version of the rules of animalism which they are able to remember and bleat constantly, which is later revised. Reminded me a bit of “hands, face, space”, or whatever it is or used to be!
The rest of the farm animals are not really sceptical, but do get concerned about the rulings of the secret committee of pigs, which seem to increase in their harshness, and seem to change and degrade the original philosophy, which no one can quite recall.
Squealer is the pig in charge of controlling the animals, perhaps such a character today would be a good fit as a behavioural scientist for the government, or perhaps he could appear at Johnson’s press conferences. He manipulates the animals with statistics, and linguistic games. He mainly uses fear as a method for control, his clinching argument is usually that if the animals don’t follow the advice of the pigs, they risk farmer Jones returning – and despite disagreements amongst the animals, they all agree that Jones returning would be bad.
Anyway not making any parallels, I know the book is inspired by the founding of the Russian Revolution and the USSR, and how political ideals can be polluted by power and corruption, but I did stop reading at points and think about the present day.
It is about Stalin’s Russia, following Orwell’s disillusionment in Spain. But it’s also about the wider issues of power.
Remember! All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others!
I’d have had Hancock down as Squealer.
I keep thinking about the scene after the windmill collapses in the middle of the night. The animals all rush over to see that their work was for nothing, because (in reality) it was badly designed. But Squealer seizes the opportunity to blame a dissident: “You know who has done this? Snowball!” Exactly how we know that lockdowns have next to no positive impact, but “rule breakers” get blamed for their failure.
That’s an excellent point. Uniting people in fear and distrust of a common enemy is a powerful controller. Snowball, from being a hero of the revolution, is said by Squeaker to be in league with Jones. He seems to play a similar role to the opposition leader in 1984.
Fear of Covid is real and very potent. People are more afraid of it than they ever were of other more common and more dangerous conditions. I wondered if it was a factor, that this disease is the first major epidemic in the social media age, in a society hysterical, yet materially comfortable and will dim memories of real hardship, and the fact that we all die, and our odds of another year shorten as we get to 80,90..
I think Sturgeon hopes to be seen as the saviour of her nation. Leading the people safely to her glorious independence. Down south, Johnson wants to be seen to have moved heaven and earth to protect “our” NHS.
To be honest I was afraid of Covid back in the Spring. After the text message of doom, and Johnson’s shutdown, I realised I had far bigger things to fear.
What a bloody mess.
“not making any parallels”…. if you don’t know by now that we’re in the middle of a communist or fascist takeover….
So true.All this talk of models etc is just a diversion.That made sense when you could still believe in the Governments good faith but it’s increasing irrelevant.
The police state is in its embryonic state and can be stopped now if we push back.
Parliament,the Courts,Media and most of our institutions are either complicit or useless.
That leaves ourselves
Yes, saw this and am extremely worried by the strong similarities between it and what the UK government seems to be doing: https://thecanadianreport.ca/is-this-leaked-memo-really-trudeaus-covid-plan-for-2021-you-decide/
Thoughts?
Still makes me cry to think of poor old Boxer the horse.
Yes. The animals see what is written on the van and try to save him. Later they are lied to by squealer and encouraged to believe that what they saw with their own eyes was wrong!
And they do believe it.
These days we’d call it gaslighting.
Does this term derive from the gripping 1944 Thriller “gaslight”?
I believe so.
The Russian Rev allegory is of historical interest only. The real point is the stupidity of the animals, particularly the sheep. They let the pigs get away with it.
The present bollox would not surprise Orwell in the least.
Like Shakespeare, Orwell is not of an age but for all time.
Read “1984” next if you haven’t already done so.
Is this some sort of sick joke?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8843493/Chinese-experimental-Covid-19-vaccine-safe-produces-immune-response.html
No joke, to my mind the Chinese aspect of all this has been a bit sinister and dubious from the start, now they can make shed loads of money by shipping dodgy vaccine around the world, who would worry about having a jab of vaccine from the country that gave us the virus in the first place? Later on the chinese will probably sell us the drug to deal with the side effects of their dodgy vaccine!
Thanks to Mike Yeadon for his comprehensive article today.
Just one thought :
“What there were in profusion – seven in total – were mathematicians.”
… is a justified criticism of the composition of SAGE.
But there is a fundamental underlying point : these modellers were essentially poor scientists.
Implicitly, Mike Yeadon does cover the the issue – it is because in using inferential statistical methods, they forgot the first chapter of the book – which tells you what to do before you do anything else.
i.e LOOK at your data – input and output. Does it stack up in terms of known reality?
It’s absolutely fundamental before you go on to make inferences.
I remember, a few months ago, having a minor argument with a Covid captive (he, unfortunately for him, didn’t know that I knew all about statistical bullshit). His claim to superior insight was ‘I use Principle Component Analysis in my job’. But whilst busy tapping the keys of his keyboard to input stuff, he obviously hadn’t stopped to read that first chapter about descriptive statistical methods.
Sounds just like SAGE modelling.
They should not have been expected to act as scientists, and indeed I’m not sure that they were. They could reasonably be expected to engage constructively with scientists and understand how to work with them to produce models and outputs that were useful to science.
From Dr Yeadon’s piece
Good. Who else would you expect to be building mathematical models?
Nonsense. The responsibility for government policy lies, as always, with government ministers.
Fully agree that accountability ultimately lies with government ministers. For anyone who has run projects using the PRINCE2 methodology, they would use a RACI matrix do define the persons “Accountable” and “Responsible” and that’s how I see this distinction.
I totally agree that it’s the politicians who should primarily be hung out to dry. They choose. They make the decisions.
But re. my remark on ‘poor scientists’ – I am using the term in its basic, root meaning. A meaning by which we can all be judged re. the handling of knowledge – evidence and its analysis.
A modeller who isn’t a ‘scientist’ in this sense should just piss off and get another job like office cleaning, with the hope that they can actually do it despite their record.
But – bottom line : the SAGE group collectively has been a know-nothing disaster.
If you’re using the term in an unusual way, you must expect not to be well understood. I understand you now to be saying that they were bad at their job, namely mathematical modelling. I dispute that and challenge you to produce evidence.
I’d hope that someone who is good at mathematical modelling, who has influence, and who is asked to do a very important task that affects millions of people, might consider the problem they have been given “in the round” and apply common sense.
Rightly or wrongly, I think that is what politicians and the general public would expect someone like Ferguson to do. The politicians are lazy and incompetent and wicked and should have been much more questioning, but I still think that anyone on SAGE really should be trying to act in the best interests of public welfare, to the utmost of all their wide abilities, and I am not conviced they have been.
I would hope that too. In fact, I have no particular reason to believe that they have all failed to do so, as has been so confidently asserted here.
You are obviously a very intelligent man, well versed in debating. First you pick up on mild inaccuracies in arguments, correct a bit of hyperbole, query some assertions, then, when your comments have been countered, you lob in some generalisations or sweeping statements. You nit pick and split hairs, and seem unable to see past the details.
It’s all very well for you, retired, no doubt with a gold plated pension from GCHQ, living in rural Gloucestershire (go on – pick me up on that as no doubt it is not rural Gloucestershire, but the city itself). Coming on here is probably a bit of amusement, a bit of fun. Like shooting fish in a barrel. But there are people on here, and people I know, who are facing bankruptcy thanks to lockdown policy.
Debating the finer points of modelling is not a game to them.
… and it’s not a game to me either.
I won’t bother much about personal comments from someone hiding behind a pseudonym. I write things that I believe to be true and do so openly under my own name. I’ll consider taking remarks like this seriously when posted by someone who can say the same.
Their formulations are so full of maybes that it makes the whole package a complete waste of time. Their disclaimers should be front and centre rather than popped on the end, instead of pretending they can reorder a whole society and avoid scrutiny with some small print. It is highly unethical quackery.
Hard to respond unless you specify who “they” are, and what “their formulations” are. A lot of people have said a lot of things …
Nit picking and hair splitting again…
I appreciate that some people get quite cross when they’re asked to be clear and precise about what they’re saying.
Just booked a trip to Sweden, very much looking forward to a buffet breakfast!
Tell us about it when you get back.
Will do. We’re taking the kids as well, it will be nice for them to experience what I hope will be some normality after so long in this distorted reality.
Due to go on Nov 6th, but because we’re bringing the kids we’ll probably have to rearrange if they add Sweden to the quarantine list between now and then. My daughter will almost certainly tell her friends and teachers all about it when we get back, and unfortunately nowadays it seems you can’t trust people not to inform the authorities! If it was just me and the wife we would go regardless.
Whereabouts in Sweden are you going?
As it’s term time we’ve only got the weekend, so we’ve booked a hotel right in the centre of Stockholm, close to the Vasa Theatre.
Your kids might like the Vasa museum: https://www.vasamuseet.se/en
And if I remember rightly it is free for under 18s..
They might also enjoy Skansen: https://www.skansen.se/en/
Open air and lots to do, including animals to see
Excellent, thanks. I think my daughter would really enjoy the Vasa Museum, and my 1 year old son loves fish and the ocean, so the aquarium at Skansen would be right up his street!
Highlights of our visit:
Walking round the islands of Djurgarden and Skeppsholmen
NK department store (great food hall, toilets)
Pizza from Dell’Attore
Meatballs at Riche
The metro – super-clean, lovely stations, no masks
On the subject of toilets, thinking of children and their tendency to suddenly need the loo (!) – one of the peculiarities of Sweden is that it is *not* easy to just pop into a fast food restaurant and use the facilities, like in the UK – there is always a code that you have to get from the staff and you can only do so if you actually are eating there..
The department store NK has toilets, but the vast majority of shops do not – just a heads-up, Lockdown Lunacy!
There were some open toilets out and about that required a coin – Carrie will know which one. Worth making sure you have some change.
We got caught out – but equally it was so lovely to go into cafes with no hassle that we were quite happy to buy our visit to the loo for a cup of tea and some cake.
Enjoy the Vasa Museum and do go to the Royal Palace as well if you have the time.
Is the Vasa museum the one with the amazingly well preserved old boat? Whichever museum that is in, definitely go. Loads better than the Mary Rose.
Yes that’s the one. They also show an excellent film that details how they were able to raise the ship from the sea.
“Matt Hancock told MPs this was due to an “exponential” growth in infections”
One question: “Is he really that stupid. Or is he just lying?”
…Oh! – and and one other :
“What the f. is he doing in charge of health services?”
He is a dangerous individual. Highly untrustworthy and drunk on power. He’s gone rogue.
Watch him in speeches. He talks as if in slow motion – as if his brain is trying to catch up
It fails.
So many use ‘exponential’ without understanding what it really means, as they do with ‘decimate’.
Indeed. Didn’t Peston say something like “less exponential” or “slightly exponential”?
It’s a big word – it contains 11 letters and 4 whole syllables, so using it makes them look soooo very clever. They wish!
If they said the reality – that the growth rate is exponentially reducing, since it’s a sigmoid function on the left side of the gompertz curve – maybe that wouldn’t sound so scary?
Yes, people don’t realise that if a population is decimated then 90% remain.
Door Matt as the Guardian calls him
Yes he is that stupid, see his comments on vaccines for AIDS or Malaria
No he isn’t in charge of the Health Service. See any episode of ‘Yes Minister’ for an explanation of how this government works.
“if they are published or peer reviewed”
We really do need to stop playing the “published” or “peer reviewed” game. Neither of these things mean a jot in science. “Peer review” is better called “Pal review”, as everybody looking at it will be within the Groupthink.
“Pal review” has been an issue in much of the social sciences for decades and now the same propaganda tricks seem to be drifting into the life sciences.
“Replicated” is what matters – preferably by a team with precisely the opposite viewpoint targeting the result as a null hypothesis.
Without that it is Scientism, not science.
Absolutely correct!
“Quockerwodger”
Great word!
Sturgeon suggests people cycle to a testing centre. If you’re well enough to cycle to one, you don’t need to be tested. If you aren’t well enough, you definitely shouldn’t be getting on a bike!
Great post!
STOP GETTING A TEST
I was under the impression that you could only get a test if you had symptoms? So why would somebody get a test if they didn’t have any? I think the problem again is people’s ignorance. A large majority believe that a snotty nose and sneezing are symptoms of the virus; they are not. So, we’ll basically have tens of thousands of idiots saying they have symptoms and going for a test. I have heard people in my office comment on people sneezing saying “oh you may have Covid”, boils my piss! I of course educate them.
STOP GETTING TESTED YOU IDIOTS!
In one of the Northern towns think it was Manchester, the army knocked on doors ‘asking’ people to get a test.
Brum. (Which is not Northern).
And isn’t Manchester.
Wear a visor to be on the safe side
It would be ironic if you were killed going for a test on a bike!
It would be marked straight down as another COVID death as well!
Definitely a covid death if that happens
But that would be a GENUINE covid death.
She should get on her fucking bike and fuck off
Nicola Sturgeon is a hate crime.
While all the votes against Amendment 8 were Tory, it might be heartening to see how many Tories abstained.
https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Commons/Division/881?byMember=True#notrecorded
Or maybe not ….
Minor rebellion over the Covert Intelligence Travesty:
Keir Starmer ordered his MPs to abstain on the Covert Human Intelligence Sources Bill, which prevents officers from being prosecuted if they commit crimes as part of their work infiltrating criminal groups.
…. Dan Carden, the last staunch left-winger serving as a shadow minister, resigned from his post saying: “You will understand that as a Liverpool MP and trade unionist, I share the deep concerns about this legislation from across the labour movement, human rights organisations, and so many who have suffered the abuse of state power, from blacklisted workers to the Hillsborough families and survivors.”
Margaret Greenwood stepped down as shadow schools minister to oppose the legislation while five more MPs quit their roles as parliamentary private secretaries.
(Source, i)
Good on them!
AI systems usually “learn” based on human example. If they do the same here, their source material will be of very low quality. It could be an incredibly efficient vehicle for corruption.
.
And look how few MPs resisted that… tells us all we need to know..
Wow, Labour, well done. Another great effort at being the opposition.
Does anyone else think that abstentions should be abolished?
Here’s my suggestion: each MP gets (say) 3 abstentions each year. Fail to vote one way or the other more times than that and boom: you lose your seat. Simples.
It’s bad enough that we have this joke of a democracy, without our “representatives” not even damn well voting.
Abstention is just the coward’s way out. If you can’t pick a side, get out.
Thanks for the list chaos. I recomend the first one on your list – Dave Cullen aka ‘Computing Forever’. I have just watched it for the second time. Brilliant analysis. Damning indictment of the wef and its “4th Industrial Revolution” and its ‘Great Reset’ using the ‘pandemic’ to push through policies that would otherwise never be accepted by people. Note early on in the video the mention of a meeting in Parliament in 2018 of the All Party Group on the 4th Industrial Revolution where a very enthusiastic MP introduced this wef founder Karl Schwab bloke.
The enthusiastic MP was Matt Hancock.
Also Have a look at the excerpt from Schwabs recent book ‘Covid-19 The Great Reset’ [at 27:50].
To anyone trundling out the “there’s no point” argument to dismiss the “conspiracy theorists”….. you have done very little research to come to that conclusion! Come join just one broadcast of UK Column News, and you will see that it’s the effort of a tiny army. It’s a news programme like no other that requests every episode that the viewers get stuck in.
Please watch just one episode before you dismiss us as a futile crazed mob. https://www.youtube.com/user/ukcolumn
Have they quoted this on UK column? https://thecanadianreport.ca/is-this-leaked-memo-really-trudeaus-covid-plan-for-2021-you-decide/
Or anything similar?
What do UK column see as the ‘solution’ or way out of this, ie what can we actually DO to stop it?
To be clear, I’m not “trundling out” a line that “there’s no point”. I’m pointing out that endlessly criticising those of us who don’t believe in the conspiracy is not helpful, is divisive and is frankly really irritating. And given that, one way or another, all of us are committed to resisting all of the crap anyway, I don’t understand why it bothers you so much that we don’t “see” what you see, given that the tools we have are the tools we have, absolutely regardless of that the motive is. I’m not saying there’s no point, I’m not saying you should change your mind, I’m saying, stop having a go at me, because I am not your enemy here.
It’s a commonplace phenomenon of making the best the enemy of the good, imo.
(I mean “the best” from their point of view, obviously. Not “the best” from my point of view or yours. Just realised that could be interpreted in a way I did not intend it!)
Uk Column is the ONLY televised news I watch. Brilliant research, brilliant presenters and they tell it as it is. They have a twenty year history of exposing corruption and nefarious deeds so the Covid fraud is only the latest—albeit the biggest—story they are covering.
Same here. Excellent chaps. That reminds me – new episode today. Byeeee….
Jeremy Vine just wasted thirty minutes nitpicking over the niceties of moving between one tier and another.
“Well I’m in tier two Jeremy and the funeral is in tier 3 on a Wednesday when I’ve got the kids from tier 1.. ”
Nobody said it’s all bollocks, ignore it and go do what you want.
One useful nugget, you can drive through Essex provided you don’t stop.
My best friend lives in Cambridgeshire.
Her supermarket is in Essex,
I live in Essex. There are parts of the county where you wouldn’t want to stop!
But parts of it are surprisingly bucolic and beautiful.
Absolutely. I used to live in one of them.
I overheard Sheila Fogarty on LBC discuss this shite. She recommends that if you live in Tier 3 and visit anywhere else you should act as if you are in Tier 3.
How about No.
When I drive through Essex, I try not to stop anyway.
Looks like Lancashire has been bought. This should be a nice little earner for the mayors / council leaders etc…
I’m not sure what you could possibly be implying there, I have no doubt at all the latest taxpayer-funded handout will be spent appropriately and wisely…
We’ve been sold down the river for a for a few extra million quid. Pathetic really.
We certainly have, but if you read the councils feedback on Lancs live, looks like they were going to impose even worse if we didnt cave, and here’s a big stack of cash to shut you up. The Gyms staying open has right royally pissed the scousers off, and you cant blame them.
£2 per head for tier 3 isn’t it?
Court OVERTURNS order to shut Berlin’s bars and restaurants from 11pm because ‘it is not apparent’ it would help fight coronavirushttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8847125/Berlin-court-overturns-order-shut-Berlins-bars-restaurants-11pm.html
Now Tim Martin should put his money where his mouth is
Seems German courts are better than UK ones – maybe Simon needs to use whatever evidence the Germans used to win their case?
I think it has also to do with how the court system works in Germany.
They are specialist courts who deal with legislation.
The judge in this case agreed with the restaurants that there is no evidence that the risk of infection in restaurants is high and specially not after 11pm.
Tbh, which “normal” person who has to work at 8am the next day is still partying at 11pm?
You are clearly not a banker
Apparently the judgment only applies to the bars/restaurants that brought the case – others have to stay closed. I predict more court cases brought by other bars and restaurants!
A lawyer who talked about this on Klagepaten said it was not obvious from the press release if it applies to the complaining businesses only, but assumed that other businesses can refer to the ruling and should be ok.
Good news from Berlin
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8847125/Berlin-court-overturns-order-shut-Berlins-bars-restaurants-11pm.html
Hello Lockdown Sceptics & toby
‘It’s a massive claim; I think the pandemic is fundamentally over’
Former chief scientific advisor with Pfizer Mike Yeadon has said he believes the coronavirus pandemic is drawing to a close, despite rising cases in parts of the UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMlfxnCJppE
Truth about the claims scaring us all to death: Soaring infections, teeming hospital wards, and terrifying death rates… but do the numbers justifying crippling new lockdowns REALLY stand up to scrutiny?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8845533/Coronavirus-Soaring-infections-death-rates-claims-justify-lockdowns.html
The Daily Mail article is great – this is well balanced and focussed on the facts. Hopefully help people to wake up to the reality of the virus and realise that lockdowns and restrictions are not serving anyone.
Superb stuff from JBH. No excess deaths beyond anything we’ve seen in the last 30 years.
None.
Heart disease and pneumonia deaths down significantly. Most likely as they are often found hanging about in the Covid column.
Devastating stuff.
I have posted this in a few places, the Daily Mail site today I got 10 to 1 upticks to down….I guess the down’s were lazy people who are not old or vulnerable but would sooner stay at home anyway !!!
Makes a lot of sense to me !!!
Instead of wasting hundreds of billions trying to save perfectly healthy people who are not at risk under the age of 70, they should let the country get back up and running, while helping the vulnerable and pensioners. For the money wasted on advertising to tell us to wash our hands and paying young healthy people to wear a mask and stay home they could; Double the pension for a year, pay all pensioners heating and electric, give them a free food supermarket delivery, free tv licence etc. Same for the vulnerable for 12 months. Then IF they want to stay home they are well looked after, but I imagine many will still want to live a life and get out like my elderly parents, but they would have a choice. Then schools stay open we stop trying to scare the public for something with the same death rate as flu and everyone gets to enjoy their life again while saving the economy. 550,000 people die every year in England and Wales so far with covid has killed less than the 17-18 flu season!!!
It’s amazing to see how they can find endless pots money when they want to. Something like 3,000 pensioners die every year because they are cold. Yes, cold. They can’t afford to put the heating on and freeze to death. They couldn’t ever seem to find the money to save those lives though could they?
Criminals
Thing is – in terms of the ‘vulnerable’ – of whom I am one, the incidence of Covid is so low that I’m quite capable of protecting myself, and am currently more concerned about ‘flu – a threat faced every year.
Yes – I would not want to catch either. But I’m not willing to accede to the death of normal life in order to avoid that degree of risk!
I hate that expression “covid has killed”. Some yes, but not 50,000+. When the majority of those 50K people died, there was no way of dying of anything else once a positive test occurred. Then, in July, a 28-day window was introduced which still meant that getting hit by a bus and killed within 28 days of a positive test is counted as a covid death. What is the real number of people killed by Covid-19? Well, in England, of the 30K “covid deaths” less than 1,400 people had no co-morbidities. Of those, some may still have been hit by a bus or committed suicide. “Covid has killed” how many? A thousand otherwise healthy people?
Here in Lancashire, we are apparently moving to Tier 3.
I’ve no idea what Tier 3 means in practice, don’t want to know and shall live my life my way.
And government have generously bestowed 12 million quid of our money upon us. Which gives the Labour councils the opportunity to boast to the gullible how much they have screwed out of the wicked Conservatives in our interest. So a self-inflicted injury to the foot for the government, methinks,
Or put it another way, the council sold out.
Will go to the councillors’ benevolent fund, aka Christmas party!
They’ve given us £10 each. Woohoo. That’s three pints! Oh. Ohhh.
Shhh! – they’ll claw the money back. Sage had based the calculation on the price of a pint in London!
Actually according to lancs live its 42 million, they wanted 58, the gov offered 12. All the local councils are coming out say we got bullied into it, either do it and get cash or dont and we will force harsher lockdowns anyway.
snapshot from lancs live
Interesting comment in the DM:
Every year from September to about April, 1 or 2 wards open up in our hospital.They are called The winter pressure wards were patients with winter related illnesses like flu and chest conditions are treated all on one ward.a nurse from each ward in the hospital usually goes up there for a month and they all hate it because they are badly run and not well equipped.It doesn’t change year in year out the only thing that has changed is the name,the winter pressure ward is now called The COVID ward.
I’ve written a refutation to Michael Yeadon’s article, it’s called “What SAGE has got right”, pasted below:
Very good, subtle yet effective.
I suppose their pharma shares went up in value?
In my opinion SAGE has got between 0 and 3000 things right but I can’t be more specific than that.
A damn sight narrower than anything coming out of SAGE!
Bunch of incompetents.
Self-serving, narrow-minded, arrogant incompetents.
SAGE have proved that the earth is flat.
Ha Ha! That’s a plagiarism from a chapter in Corona: False Alarm? !! Under section on benefits of the lockdown! (If I remember rightly, my book is doing the rounds…)
Wales 2 week fire break https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54566566
Yet the tide is apparently turning.
I feel sorry for them but interested to see what happens with diverging policies between nations and regions
And that will really work wonders.
PS. There is a positive avalanche of sceptical comments under the BBC article.
It is a sea of sceptics.
Just had a look, you’re right. No one believes this tosh anymore.
Even my mother-in-law, coronaphobic even before it got trendy, is now happily visiting us with kisses and hugs and a conspiratorial “Remember, I’m not actually here…”
The pre announcement softening up begins….
So cross! Our child’s school in Essex has now said that in all areas of the school apart from the classroom, masks must be worn! What do we do?! I’m minded to email the headmaster and say I will hold them personally responsible should masks be found in future to be detrimental to health. Not that this will achieve anything. This is not a good day!
Don’t they accept the exemptions at schools?
In Germany, they are fighting them tooth and nail, despite needing to possess a medical certificate for an exemption anyway.
Have you seen any videos from Klagepaten?
They had a very good, though complicated, video about advice for refusing face coverings in shops yesterday.
I tried that – they don’t give a shit. Juat following orders.
Tell them your children are exempt? I’d be angry too. Personally I wouldn’t get into a battle about liability, place the onus of evidence on them.
Ask him what his risk assessment is for children who are asthmatic, claustrophobic, anxious, have sinus problems or difficulty hearing. I’m sure you could add others to the list. Does he have procedures for not making these children excluded ( disability discrimination) or feel excluded ( hurty feelings, he’s probably woke)?
Does his risk assessment include increased strep throat, flu, pneumonia, impetigo and so on?
Make him earn his mask zealotry.
Maybe mention the 3 children in Germany that have died from wearing masks?
Don’t forget those in school kids in China as well.
Best place to get info on what to try is likely to be UsForThem.
Exemption surely.
Plenty of evidence now that constant mask wearing can be dangerous. For example:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/medical-doctor-warns-bacterial-pneumonias-rise-mask-wearing/5725848
I managed to negotiate with my daughter”s primary school headteacher for my child to use child-friendly wipes in school instead of the 90% alcohol gunk the schoolkids are meant to use.
Your child is exempt – inform them of that and make sure your child understand why and how to manage snide remarks from staff and children
If child is under 11 then it is against the Government guidelines
Can you ask to see their latest risk assessment? They should have one…they can’t just use the BBC as a source of ‘guidance’…
Ask him to please guarantee that wearing a mask will have no negative health effect on your child. If he refuses to guarantee it, which should be the case if he isn’t a lunatic or if he doesnt reply at all send your child in with a note saying you dont authorise a mask on your child until you receive a guarantee that there will be no adverse physical effects.
The Xhosa cattle killing story is very powerful and blends in nicely with CJ Hopkins latest piece on the characteristics of a Cult.
Both are perfect proof of Voltaire’s saying: “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can (and will) make you commit atrocities.”
I think sharing that story with lockdown, Mask and testing zealot friends might make an impact on some, especially on those who have started to see some of the contradictions, ineffectiveness es, disproportionate etc., more than discussing the Corona numbers and facts with them.
Also Ivor Cummings analogy of the Tiger Horn touches on the use of myth and magical science to deceive
https://youtu.be/K_pFoaUiZoE
Saw on YT a stream from a testing centre in Germany, which was put up quickly to test children from a day care centre. The local Querdenken and parent group had organised a demonstration. Police present, but no hinderance for filming.
What a difference to GB!
I am considering more and more often to go back to my native Germany when this is over, as I do not want to live in this dictatorship.
I came to England as I perceived this to be a more liberal country.
It appears it was all perception unfortunately. Now a challenge to that liberty has come along we have been found wanting.
We used to be…
I wish I still had my dual nationality (which I gave up to get a British passport).
Sweden is very similar.
The system of governance in our country relies very heavily on everyone being reasonable and common sense prevailing.
It leaves room for sensible application but at the same time leaves itself open to abuse.
Johnson and his people are clearly taking advantage of the system to rule in an authoritarian fashion.
Accidentally caught the Ministry of Truth headlines on downstairs. Just the standard sPiKiNg CaSeS hysterical rubbish, don’t even remember anything but still enough to make me nauseous. No doubt they’re pushing/softening us up for national LD II.
Brace, brace, brace. Doris is apparently giving an update in presentation at 4pm. National lockdown imminent – he normally flip-flops within 24 hours?
It is going to be to ‘justify’ the Northern tiers apparently.
Just saw it as a headline on Sky, but without any details as of yet.
Just in time for half term.
Guess that means there won’t be any toilet roll in the shops by tomorrow.
Just read about Khan promising to shut down TfL at weekend unless govt cough up £1bn. Between that and Burnham, plus increasing dissent from his own party, he might well just go full kamikaze at this point and take us all down at the same time.
Not yet – national lockdown will probably be announced in the evening like the March one was (8pm) when most people are at home in front of the TV anyway.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54566566
Fortnight Covid ‘fire-break’ lockdown within days in Wales
————————
I’m so fed up of these ridiculous slogans. Fire-break/circuit-break/break wind. Who cares. Call it what it is – it’s a f***ing lockdown.
All these regional lockdowns are also going to eventually force Johnson’s hand into plunging England into one as well. I give it a week. It’ll be real crunch time during these next few weeks and I predict this second lockdown will be deeply unpopular. Buckle up, the next few weeks and months will be interesting.
Yes indeed, Poppy. This patronising language is getting bloody infuriating. Boris loves it – because he thinks we’re all poorly educated proles anyway.
Most of the population are. There’s a huge lack of any critical thinking ability.
Unfortunately, it’s going to be years. The lockstep scenario document which seems to being used as some sort of blueprint suggests it’d be 15 years before the public got the arse with authoritarianism.
This is Canada’s plan – worryingly the Uk seems to have started following it…https://thecanadianreport.ca/is-this-leaked-memo-really-trudeaus-covid-plan-for-2021-you-decide/
I don’t automatically write off all “conspiracy theories”, but this one looks very fake. It’s too … blatant.
Just ignore it. It’s what I’m doing already.
Seconded.
We can ignore it all we want but once it’s in place there is nothing we are allowed to do.
Ditto
They should use the correct terms…… house arrest, unlawful imprisonment, detention without trial, internment, torture, murder, genocide, crimes against humanity, waging unlawful war, child abuse, treason, etc
We’ve hoped things will become unpopular before, yet the sheep just keep complying.
No call it what it actually is. House arrest.
Johnson’s problem is that he is trapped. If he goes for lockdown, he’s doing what Starmer said and once again will have dithered and left it late. And if he doesn’t he’s going to be held responsible for deaths, however few they may be. Someone will claim they could have been less.
Can’t say I’m not enjoying seeing the bastard cornered.
You are absolutely right of course.
I am now very much looking forward to this weekend thanks to people on this site anyway.
This is what it’s all about, isn’t it? Congestion charge…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8847025/London-Tube-train-bus-staff-told-prepare-total-SHUTDOWN.html
I don’t think I’ve ever agreed with Ghengis Khan on anything, but this time I do.
Very concerning that they are planning on stopping free travel for children and elderly, according to the article..
How will the workers get toothier jobs? Nurses, doctors, care staff, essential IT staff keeping our banks going, builders, plumbers etc
Quite right!
The sun is tentatively poking its head out here, so I’m off out for a good walk this afternoon. I’ll forget all the rubbish and let fresh air and exercise reset the mood-switch.
Anyone who hasn’t yet read the Mike Yeadon article in full please do and pass on to everyone you know through any medium available .He puts the points across so well and explains things in very simple terms which the lay person can understand . He is by far the best communicator of the sceptic message .
Is it on any other site than this? As soon as I share anything from LS, I get conspiracy nut thrown back at me because of the site name.
Yes, I agree that this is a problem. It might help a little to introduce it with Dr. Yeadon’s CV.
You can always copy and paste it into a new document and share that, including the information about Dr Yeadon
I don’t know if it’s on other site’s but as someone says below you can copy and paste . I am not a tech expert so people however you can pass it on please do . Also if you want us to win please ignore the mayo rambling below ,it’s clearly disturbed by Mr Yeadon and wants to rubbish him but has no evidence as usual .
Also if you want us to win please ignore the mayo rambling below ,it’s clearly disturbed by Mr Yeadon and wants to rubbish him but has no evidence
It’s Yeadon who needs to provide evidence and he hasn’t provided any. That’s exactly my point. Papers which ‘suggest’ a wide range of possible prior immunity are useless.
There is clearly a large proportion of the population who remain susceptible to this virus.
So says you ,he says different .He’s on twitter go and argue it out with him .It’s pointless arguing with me as iv’e laid my cards on the table long ago .I never supported the lockdown at the beginning and i wont support one now as far as i’m concerned no one has ever proved a lockdown anywhere saved a single life .The very idea that any government can treat people like children and lock them up on a whim is so deeply offensive to me that even if in some impossible way it could be proven to save life i would never go along with it, because at the end of the day you live and die free or you don’t live at all .
Anyone who hasn’t yet read the Mike Yeadon article in full please do
Why? He says nothing that we don’t already know – most of it, as yet, unproven. Yeadon was calling the end of the pandemic 6 weeks ago – as were several other sceptic bloggers and tweeters.
The bottom line is that it hasn’t ended and we still have no idea what level of immunity we have in the UK.
In a nutshell, Mike Yeadon has provided absolutely nothing on which we could reliable base policy.
Many thanks to the fellow sceptics earlier who have helped with my ongoing complaint with a butcher. Based on your suggestions, here’s the reply I am planning to send, is there anything you think I should add or subtract?
Dear Mr XXXXX,
Thank you for your reply.
One thing I have found most disappointing during this crisis is that good customer service has gone out of the window in the name of “safety.” There was no need for your staff to be rude and they should not be behaving like people from certain countries in Europe during the 1930s to the 1940s who forced people of a certain religion to wear some form of ID and in more recent times from the 1950s to the 1980s demanding citizens to show their papers. The regulations clearly state businesses should not need to ask for proof of exemption and I am not obliged to show you my lanyard or wear it.
May I also remind you that the actions of your staff yesterday could be construed as a breach of the Equality Act 2010 which takes precedence over the Coronavirus Act 2020 and the statutory notices which includes the wearing of masks or face coverings. Legally a person who is exempt should not be challenged for proof, or treated differently from any other customer as it is clear discrimination.
Below I have attached an exemptions toolkit from the laworfiction.com website that sets out the actual law on face covering exemptions – which also apply to staff as well as customers if they meet the criteria for being exempt – and that succinctly and clearly explains who can challenge a person not wearing face covering, what they are legally required to answer, how the challenged person can progress the challenge to court and the fines to businesses and persons who do the challenging:
https://www.laworfiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Face-Covering-Exemption-Notice-with-Law-Explained-24-July-2020.pdf
Please do not use “incumbent on the general public to work with retailers and understand the stresses and guidelines that they are working with” as an excuse for your staff’s poor behaviour. I work in visitor services and have I and my colleagues used that reason as an excuse with regards to a similar complaint brought against my team you can be sure that we would be subjected to disciplinary procedures or worse handed our P45s!
Once again thank you for your reply and I look forward to your response to this.
Yours sincerely,
etc, etc…..
Please don’t compare yourself to holocaust victims, that analogy will go nowhere. Best end the first paragraph after “rude.”
Second paragraph perfect.
Third paragraph perfect.
Last paragraph, off-topic, better removed.
You should end with the letter with the kind of response you would like. Do you want an apology? An acknowledgement that you can do about your business maskless? Let them know what they can do to make you happy.
Other than that, go get ’em!
Agreed – leave out anything to do with 1930s and 40s – concentrate on the employees rude and disrespectful behaviour and their breach of the Equality Act. Likewise the last paragraph distracts from the point. Leaving out those words will make this succint and to the point. Otherwise the rest is spot-on.
Thanks to you both. Have made the changes and sent off the email
We should all sign the petition:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/331430
Repeal the decision to implement compulsory face coverings in English shops.
“Please don’t compare yourself to holocaust victims,”
Absolutely correct.
Not yet.
Great advice.
The butcher says it is “incumbent on the general public to work with retailers and understand the stresses and guidelines that they are working with”. I would put to them that it is incumbent on retailers to understand the guidelines in relation to exemptions and the stresses that those who are exempt are dealing with.
in addition i suggest you also include the link to the government page and mention the section When you do not need to wear a face covering
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own
I did send that in my initial email. Actually I have sent my reply and it was just dismissed.
Never mind. I will never shop there again.
This is not going to stop until people make it stop. These governments know full well that “Covid” is being used as cover for crashing the economies in the Western world. There is not now and never has been a “pandemic”- that is all Kabuki theater to disguise the reality of rapid economic decline brought on by the Ponzi Schemes of financial institutions over the past few decades.
Another update from http://euromomo.eu, another week with no excess mortality in W. Europe. The impact of Covid upon overall mortality in these nations has been non-existent for 21 straights weeks.
https://twitter.com/Humble_Analysis/status/1316925120762490881
While deaths have been at or below normal for months, “cases” have risen to record levels in Europe. Do we need to wait “two more weeks”? It’s already been 13 straight weeks of rising cases…
………
It should be evident by now that Covid is no longer the killer it once was (My Add- it never was- the policies in nursing homes was the killer) in Europe – every nation that saw a “first wave” has seen CFRs plummet to 1/20 the levels seen in the Spring.
https://twitter.com/Humble_Analysis/status/1316925701958864898
I did exactly the same. I can’t begin my morning any more reading the ”news”papers. This is enough for me for the next few days.
I don’t want to be screamed at and told what to think by some cheap hacks who think they know it all.
We really HAVE to stop referring to them all as ”cases”. ”Cases” is a word meant to terrify even more the already Terminally Terrified. They think ”bodies in the streets”, ”dying people in corridors” and so on.
I agree. What instead? Positive PCRs? Positives?
Unconfirmed cases.
”Unconfirmed (and possibly false positive) tests!” (Bit of a mouthful though!)
Fucking great big fat wrapping lies
Dr Lee said that ”…..the only way to identify Covid is with a lab test, positive tests have been equated with positive ”cases”….. We now know that 90 per cent or more of people have Covid asymptomatically. A positive test is clearly not a positive ”case”……”
Dr John Lee’s article in the Telegraph (12 October) pointed out that ”infections” or ”positive test results” are not ”cases”
(I’d copy the paragraph here, but it seems I’m not allowed to.)
You are right. However the Governments over the world chose this ‘Cases’ terminology for exactly that reason – to keep people terrified.
Cases = Positive PCR tests = 1) about 80% are false positives and this include asymptomatic 2) people that have a virus infection with symptoms mostly mild 3) people hospitalised – a small minority of this could die
Just found this comment below Ross Clark’s excellent article in the DM. The final sentence amused me. I assume that the comment is from a troll or is a weak attempt at cynicism. It had 255 downticks.
“Hiw does this paper get away with spreading such lies? Wholly irresponsible and pandering yet again to deniers and Covidiots. We must simply lock down society now and ride this thing out at home, how ever long this takes, regardless of mental well being, loneliness, the economy and jobs. I am sorry but this is fact. Stay Home Protect the Virus Save the NHS.”
I quite like that… protect the virus! Trouble is, irony might not reach the less than sceptical.
That has to have been written by Hand On Cock. Although I’m surprised he didn’t also repeat that cancer patients will have to wait.
I think this is a sarcastic comment, surely?
Made me laugh, nice one!
Wow, our local Labour council leader seems to be sticking up for his electorate!
https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/kirklees-crunch-tier-3-talks-19108852
Unfortunately, if he were to go by the (typical!) comments, we’d be in tier 3 already.
I’m in the same borough as you know. Don’t worry about a few comments (and there are only 13 on the entire article) . I think the public mood is shifting, slowly, but decisively.
Amazon Introduces The Amazon One To Pay With Your Palm
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ilkerkoksal/2020/09/29/amazon-introduces-the-amazon-one-to-pay-with-your-palm/#:~:text=Amazon%20One%20uses%20the%20palm,pay%20by%20hovering%20their%20hand.
“Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.”
Might be fun to have a “pay with your arse” method.
Yes, we should go seek out comedy which is nature’s healing. For a bit of both I would suggest the south park specials to anyone:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=379oevm2fho&ab_channel=SouthParkStudios
How silly, everyone knows covid’s prime operating hours start at 10pm!
Their 11pm is our 10pm. Covid understands international time zones as well as knowing the difference between queueing and siting at tables
It really is clever, isn’t it? And yet, pants when it comes to IT.
I wonder if there will ever be an award for the business that treats it’s customers the most bizarrely ?.
My nephew had his car taken to a local independent garage for repairs,he called them yesterday to see if it was ready,yes it was,but hold your horses,there is a special system you have to abide by before you can have it back.
Firstly he had to pay by card over the phone,they will not accept cash and won’t do card payments in person at the garage.
Secondly he was told customers must not enter the garage customer reception area under any circumstances.
He was then given a pin number to access his key and receipt which would be in a special numbered box in the car park.He was told he would not being having any face to face contact with any garage staff.
When he collected his car,during opening hours,the reception had the door was locked and the blinds were all down and the workshop doors were all locked but all the staff were inside and working.
What a disgraceful way to treat customers,the biggest joke is the fact that the garage owner goes to the same pub as my uncle several nights a week and mixes with numerous different people every time.
Get a photo of him in the pub and put it on social media, alongside a list of his stupid rules.
I hope the customers in the pub rip into him for the nonsense rules. Unfortunately though, most guys in the pub know absolutely nothing out with their football team.
Err, change garage ?
Sage has/is getting it all right . But only in the terms set for it .
research the composition of the members and advisers , eg Deep Blue etc .
What do these people have to do with health ?
Why is actual medical expertise essentially excluded from any input ?
The details of the procedures that are in place and being undertaken are all laid out in the articles of the WHO international health regulations .
The people involved now are the ones who drew up the UK “Influenza pandemic preparedness plan” as required by the IHR.
When the WHO determines that a pandemic is occurring, the national IPPP kicks in ,overseen by the same WHO embedded enthusiasts that wrote the plan .
Van Tam , Valence , Ferguson etc etc . Whole careers have been spent in anticipation of this event and they are going to pursue it for all they can, and they give cover for the ulterior motives of the politicians.
Also see the UN/WHO Global Pandemic Monitoring Board , last September their report “World at risk” page 38
they require 2 system wide pandemic simulations to be carried out before 09/20.
This isn’t a conspiracy, it’s an agenda . They want to change everything about human society . The only thing still up for grabs is which political cohort gets to put their stamp on it .
for info on the ai revolution and monetising of life please visit
Wrench in the gears website . There are good explanatory vids , a bit long but very good .
It’s turning. Reading local social media posts in Essex and more and more people calling it out. Ewan Duffy said same in Ireland. I see and hear the same from northern England as well. The more they do, the worse it gets for them. Furlough ends this month. We are reaching the end game. Keep plugging the message. We are winning.
End of furlough is the litmus test. A fully crashed economy and it’s too late.
And come run up to Christmas we’ll see the beginning of large scale redundancies and bankruptcies.
Especially if the govt ‘cancels’ Christmas via restrictions and all the revenue that would normally come in during that season from shopping, events, visiting family etc just goes down the drain.
Agree. A lot of Christmas events have already been cancelled in London such as Winter Wonderland. Some pantos and concerts will go ahead but I seriously doubt that they will draw in the punters.
I agree, we are getting closer and closer to the end of this nonsense. My call is Johnson will sack Hancock and SAGE on Bonfire night.
Maybe. But Mr Toad – the prime author will still be there.
Had a high level Zoom call yesterday with heads of travel in the UK and they advised that councils and travel companies been told to prepare for vaccine rollout in November!
I read that somewhere else too, but can’t remember where…
Good to see a number of newspapers heaping scorn on Hancock today. I would be tempted to call this utter clown a crypto socialist, or even a WEF fifth columnist, were it not for the fact that he now barely disguises the fact he is much closer to Labour than the Conservatives. Really, Starmer has no need for his Shadow Health Secretary.
Delusional. Everything bad = must be socialist. Good things = true conservatism.
Just to be clear: I’m no cheerleader for the Conservative Party, but true conservatives do value personal freedom whereas many socialists don’t. In socialist societies, people tend to become enslaved to the state – as in the NHS is not there to save the people but the people are there to save the NHS.
Can we ‘help’ this process along a little, by posting pictures of Hancock with Klaus Schwab and/or others associated with the WEF and mentioning the great reset? Might wake a few people up; hopefully at least some people will google ‘global reset’…
Oh dear. Such wishing.
No. Whatever Starmer, or ‘socialism’ is (crypto or not) Hancock is a right wing Tory.
By definition.
Get over it.
Rick, believe me, a right-wing Tory would not go around with an NHS badge pinned to his lapel or show deference to the HuffPost.
Whodda thunk it.
‘Unclear’ whether Edinburgh bars and restaurants will reopen after two weeks, says Nicola Sturgeon.
Unclear if the politicians have the balls to cull the hospitality sector back to the stone age.
The breweries should sue.
Everyone losing their job or business should sue.
This year’s been bad enough as it is!
I think that’s the plan – a wholesale Carthaginian destruction of the hospitality sector which will set them back to the Stone Age.
Museums & heritage will be next.
Apparently Museums and heritage are all waycist and white supremacist anyway. Coincidentally they have been attacked from other directions so I suppose we don’t miss them when they are gone?
Indeed. They’re being destroyed by BLM and such however lockdowns, social distancing and masks will be the final nail in the coffin.
She’s an utter disgrace. Anything you can do Boris I can do better.
It was obvious that this would be the case, I just don’t know why people can’t see they take in drips and drabs rather than all at once. The end goal is the same either way.
So. Bloody. Obvious.
Probably already posted, but in case not, this is a brilliant, direct and public takedown of Sadiq Khan about the recent protests.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvZtgGHAs8o
That is brilliant. Please all watch and share.
Yes. Highly revealing. And pathetic even at he level of basic political jousting.
So good to watch. He also reminds me of Rowan Atkinson for some reason.
It reminded me of the Officer Savage sketch!
https://youtu.be/BO8EpfyCG2Y
Daniel Kahneman, Covid-19 and the Cascade of Fear:https://mitzner.substack.com/p/daniel-kahneman-covid-19-and-the
Uses concepts from behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman to explain the perpetual hysteria.
Good stuff, thanks. A better fit than the “moral panic” I tend to use.
At work, we have a go-live this weekend. The technical part just started with a Teams meeting attended by persons from the UK (me), Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Slovakia, Poland, France and maybe a few others I missed. As I joined the call, they were discussing all of the new restrictions coming in, borders being closed again all over Europe and the huge rise in “cases”.
I saw my chance and pointed out that a positive test is not necessarily a case. It’s potentially an infection (I didn’t ever start on false positives), but it most certainly does not mean that the figure includes only persons who are ill and displaying symptoms. I explained that this is (or used to be!) a basic premise of epidemiology.
It was telling that the only person who knew what I was talking about was the attendee from Sweden! Everyone else (including my own colleagues) hadn’t a clue. I hope I sowed a seed at least.
It’s frankly disturbing (or should be) that a group of presumably reasonably bright and informed people needs this basic fact pointed out to them. But that’s the reality we live in – most people are willing to just accept what they are spoon-fed by authority and the mainstream media, even on something as huge as this, without curiosity or investigation.
A similar phenomenon fuels ignorant gullibility over foreign policy, and in particular allowed the establishment to get away with the Iraq War and other wars of choice.
Exactly Mark. I recall being almost alone amongst my close friends in calling out the Iraq war and the WMD BS. One of those was brave enough afterwards to admit he was wrong and that my scepticism was well judged. I am pleased to say he is very much on our side now.
I get the impression there is quite a lot of crossover between original Iraq War sceptics and lockdown sceptics. Partly perhaps because both were driven by an inclination to investigate for oneself when drastic actions are proposed.
I must say I was totally bought into the Iraq nonsense, although in my defence I was a young kid who didn’t know anything about anything at the time.
Also, the Iraq war if I am correct would have been pre internet or at it’s infancy? Therefore, there wasn’t the option to research alternative sources, whereas nowadays I have no idea why people only listen to the MSM.
One major difference with the Iraq parallel was that Sadam was a genuine danger – even tho’ we (or some of us) knew that waging war was devious bullshit as a solution.
The difference now is that Covid is no unusual threat, but the measures are devastating.
I don’t think Saddam was any threat to the west myself.
Claiming “Saddam was a genuine danger” is a direct equivalent to coronapanickers today declaring that “covid19 is a deadly disease, because look at all these people it has killed”.
Saddam was no threat whatsoever to this country, or to the US, in 2003, and no more dangerous even to Iraqis than were Blair and Bush, who killed hundreds of thousands and handed the county over to civil war, repression, torture and Iranian domination. Granted, it already had torture and repression, but that’s really no excuse.
Being a young kid at the time is a pretty good defence.
As to internet resources, they were very well developed by the time of the 2003 Iraq War. Even at the time of the attack on Yugoslavia (1998-9) there was plenty of info available on the web.
Hi Mark,
It might also be remembered that a Swede (Hans Blix) also got that one right too.
Best regards
Simon
True dat!
Like yesterday’s judge in Dolan’s case, who seemed to base his judgement on what he had seen on the ‘news’…
See the post immediately below (if you are ordered by “newest”) from DRW, and the idea that this is all driven by an “availability cascade”, based on the “availability heuristic” – the human mental shortcut that makes people exaggerate familiar things.
‘below’ ?
‘earlier’ or ‘later’ is maybe more helpful.
Tbh I take the view that at worst it’s 50/50 anyway..
Quite – all IT professionals or C level executives on that call. Incidentally, it’s a large business process automation project, digitalisation, electronic workflow, home working compatible, Schwab would be proud!
All people with the basic intellectual horsepower and skills to find or themselves and grasp the truth, if they were to bother to look, then.
Like the students interviewed on Jeremy Vine today. One from Cambridge, one Nottingham, about the proposed “voluntary” self isolation 2 weeks before xmas “so they do not bring the virus home to granny”.
Why never grandpa? Because we know women live longer?
Absolutely clueless what is going on, just complained how it is supposed to work , as their term ends earlier than the proposed period between 8th – 22nd Dec.
I’ve said it before, but smelly hairy old grandpa doesn’t tug on the heartstrings like a sweet old granny.
Well done. I occasionally use such online meetings to question the narrative. I avoid doing it too often in order to prevent them thinking that i am too obsessed! It is amazing how many people just absorb the MSM and assume that everything that is being done is ‘obviously’ for the best. I have managed to convert two so far. I find those in our Australian office (Perth) are the most difficult to reason with.
Indeed, it was a large audience a lot of whom I only know in passing so I didn’t go in too hard on them. Stick to the basics.
100% right on ‘stick to the basics’ – and keep it light.
Good afternoon leggy,
I find the recent news about Cristiano Ronaldo quite useful in this regard. There are photos of him at a team meal looking happy as Larry (after the 0-0 match with France earlier this week), then another one taken of him smiling on his balcony the next day after testing positive and being quarantined.
People were actually on social media posting that they hoped he gets well soon, fearing for his life etc.. if you look at the photos you see a man the picture of health. In fact even on my best, younger days I doubt I looked as healthy as he does presently!
Best regards
Simon
Oh, great stuff! Dr John Lee, Telegraph 12 October, describes the difference perfectly. There is a huge rise in testing (they tell us, though we don’t get to see the heaving queues) so they’ll find huge numbers of positives (often false) – but we’re being manipulated and coerced by the use of these figures.As soon as the Terminally Terrified see the word ”cases” they think ”bodies in the streets, dying people in corridors, stretcher cases everywhere”….. We’ve got to counter this.
Good presentation about the models in New Zealand from Covid Plan B.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azb3wynr9uo&t=661s
https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/who-official-speaks-out-against-lockdowns-covid-vaccine-trials-sham-designed-to-succeed/
If you do not want to listen to the whole two hours, please listen to Ryan Cristian’s call to arms in the last 5-10 minutes. It’s very uplifting.
Note the similarities between Mike Yeadon’s (MY) pie chart and Karl Friston’s (KF) model:
Friston’s model presumes that 33% of the population has been exposed to the virus. From the data, he has made inferences about immunity. “Of those that have been exposed, 82% appeared to be susceptible to infection; however, 40% of these may never produce antibodies. This means that if you split effective population immunity into seropositive and seronegative proportions [ie with and without antibodies], we should have about 8% seropositive immunity and about 23% seronegative immunity (presumably mediated by T-cell immunity). In total, this means over 30% of the population could be effectively immune.”
https://unherd.com/2020/10/the-case-for-a-circuit-breaker/
* Infected: 32% (MY) vs 33% (KF)
* Prior immunity: 30% (MY) vs 23% (KF)
* Children < 10 years: actually 12% from ONS projection
* Susceptible: 28% vs 32% (calculated)
KF reckons 2500 deaths in the second ripple:
“to put things in perspective, the number of lives saved from SARS-CoV-2 [from a national lockdown] is about twice the number of people dying from road traffic accidents in a year — and less than half the number dying from seasonal influenza.”
Yes – I’ve just noticed that piece.
I think Friston has moderated his estimate of actual population immunity. I also reckon that his ‘saved mortality’ estimate assumes all other things equal – e.g that nothing else would carry off the ‘dry tinder’.
Given that, and reading between the lines, you come to the conclusion that there really is nothing to panic about in comparison with the normal run of things.
After my week’s avoidance of MSM news at the beginning of October, I’m continuing it though not so strictly. I don’t even know or care what tier my area is in!
Heh. Misread that as ‘don’t even know or care what tier my arse is in!
Wales’s First Minister Dripford has said he is looking at a short sharp period of restrictions which mean we have to stay at home for two weeks. So far as I can tell, Covid-related hospitalisations are increasing but deaths have actually dropped.
The last but one Ivor Cummins video is good in illustrating that what is currently happening is just normal for the time of year.
https://youtu.be/gJq8MBgYJ4Q
Yes, and Nicole Junkermann too..
At our local Morrisons for a quick shop.
Staff enjoy seeing and talking to a free-faced customer.
Will moan and complain about the mask wearing edict with almost no prompting.
Got in a few comments about BMA saying no evidence, “in close contact” is not “must wear a mask at all times”, should be defined in risks assessment, have you seen this, look on laworfiction or lockdownsceptics.org for yourselves so they aid they would as they are royally pissed off. Not one of them had seen or heard of a risk assessment sow ere going to ask as this broke health and safety law – ha ha ha.
Even customers especially older ones chatted to me an date wife almost normally – I could see in their faces above the mask them working up the courage to go without them.
Embarrassed one guy as he was directly behind me and in this position I cannot see nor hear him but he did say something to me. Got a bit pissed off as I ignored him until the wife got my attention and got me to turn round and said “he can’t hear you from that position”. Once I turned round and showed him the “take off your mask as I can’t understand you” badge he got very flustered, apologised, said he didn’t think it was a real excuse but was now convinced etc etc.
Also the paper Daily Fail caught my eye – headline was “Epidemic of Madness” which was surprising. Maybe worm has really turned.
All in all a good morning.
Love your ‘normal day’ updates.
https://twitter.com/WheresYourMask/with_replies
This is some Black-Mirror level monstrosity. A Twitter account taking photos of people without masks, without their consent on public transport and publicly shaming them with name and time of train.
No words.
“Caution: This account is temporarily restricted
You’re seeing this warning because there has been some unusual activity from this account. Do you still want to view it?”
Odd.
Shame scrolled through hoping I would be on there – if someone is caught taking a picture of me I’ll have their phone off them and thrown on the line.
Hopefully someone has deemed it illegal? Does it breach GDPR? I’m guessing the idea is that people put names to the photos which surely breaches people’s privacy?
Can we ask Francis Hoar?
It breaches Twitter’s T&C at the very least.
Anyone can legally take pictures or videos of you in a public place, unfortunately
Yes, but doxxing (putting names to photos) is surely not permissible?
Technically this doesn’t include places like the underground, shops, libraries etc. but nobody gives a shit
Hold on a minute, wasn’t there a justification Twitter used for suppressing certain allegations about Biden recently?
Account appears to have been shut down fortunately.
Sounds like a job for Jules Winnfield.
(Although their actions would perhaps more likely constitute an act of disability discrimination under section 119 (Remedies) of the Equality Act 2010, for which you can be ordered to pay compensation of between £900 and £9,000, rather than a violation under section 112.)
Good poster!
” Where’s your lanyard?”
“In my pocket. It’s the one that says Bad Muthafucka”
Nice one!
Only has 3 followers. Good.
Can I ask a silly question? Maybe someone knows the answer.
The flu vaccine changes every year as apparently, the strain of flu changes every year.
So how to they know what the next strain of flu is going to be in order to be able to prepare a vaccine for it?
From what I know, they normally take data from the southern hemisphere and vice-versa to predict which strains will be most prevalent in that hemisphere’s winter.
They guess. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they get it wrong. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but it’s not far off.
About right.
Last year, I asked the practice nurse at my GPs surgery the same question. She shrugged and said, “It’s a guess.”
They don’t. As far as I know PHE/WHO guesses what it will be from the strains that have been circulating in the last one or two flu seasons, then advises on vaccine preps based on the prediction. They get it wrong occasionally (2018):
https://metro.co.uk/2018/01/05/flu-jab-targeting-wrong-strain-health-officials-reveal-7205455/#:~:text=A%20flu%20jab%20which%20has,flu%20which%20is%20currently%20circulating.
The WHO puts their recommendations here and the manufacturers follow it:
https://www.who.int/influenza/vaccines/virus/recommendations/2020-21_north/en/
Its bollox just a money making exercise
The ECDC issued this at the start of last season..
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/influenza-situation-assessment-18-December-2019.pdf
During the previous recent A(H3N2) dominated seasons, influenza-associated excess winter mortality among the elderly has been increased. During the 2014–2015 and 2016– 2017 influenza A(H3N2) dominated seasons, with poor vaccine match, influenza-associated mortality among people aged 65 years and above was 147.41 and 129.90 per 100 000 population over the age of 64, respectively [10]
WHO guesses.
They use previous years’ flu strains in each current year’s vaccine. Apparently the vaccine that they had in China and Italy (Lombardy) last year had four different strains and the vector was of canine origin. The cytokine storms we kept hearing about back in March/April are the results of an over stimulated immune system that can’t cope with the workload of four strains. This is one reason why specific demographics that had the vax died.
I see that Andy Burnham appears to have won his battle with Boris and Greater Manchester is not going into tier 3. This will now be very interesting. We will all have the opportunity to observe whether the stricter measures in Liverpool and Lancashire actually produce a better outcome than the looser ones in Greater Manchester. My hunch is that there will be very little difference in terms of hospitalisations/deaths, thereby proving the lockdowns to be ineffective as a method of disease control.
The Scousers will go out on the piss in Manchester.
But that evidence will be ignored as usual by the zealots holding the political and social high ground.
The thing is, you would have a hell of a difficulty pinning any differences down to political variables.
I suspect the denouement will come before there is enough time to gather data to compare. I don’t see how BoJo can let this go. The precedent of folding in the face of local pressure is too dangerous from his perspective, so he will perhaps either have to bribe (with Rishi’s help) or impose his will (not sure what that would look like in practice), or third option – go for national restrictions claiming that Burnham & co have forced his hand and should be held responsible.
Last option. Blame someone else.
I don’t know, most places are begging to be locked up further so perhaps he can let this one go.
If Manchester even have one more case or death than anywhere else that will be used to prove that lockdowns work.
If there aren’t enough ‘cases’ they will manufacture them.
I wouldn’t take any notice of Trish Greenhalgh (Snow memo). Right at the beginning of this covid brouhaha she was advocating wearing a pantyliner over the face and creating her own masks out of the same. This was the absence of any RCT showing benefit.
Sadly, she has the ear of the policymakers who likewise ignore the evidence on home made masks. These are truly odd times in that evidence is ignored and baseless whims indulged. However, applying a pantyliner to the face is new madness – Ignore.
Has the government now totally stopped listening to Carl Heneghan?
“now”?
Well, stopped even calling him in then?
It looks like they only pretended to listen to him in the first place. Unless anyone has any evidence otherwise?
It could be this. I haven’t seen any attempts at rubbishing the CEBM work, though I bet a few have tried. If Trump tweets any of their data however..
Seems like it. Very depressing, I had a lot of hope in him. After that meeting with No. 10 he said we would see more of a move towards the Swedish approach but if anything the opposite has happened. He’s been pretty quiet lately so either given up or been told to shut up perhaps!
I thought right away that the meeting with Heneghan et al was to find out what their approach was – so it could be ignored, and probably rubbished in the press. These bastards won’t stop unless they are killed.
The irony is that she stated that we don’t need to wait for proof that masks work in order to make them mandatory, or words to that effect.
Just looked her up. She seems like a wet dream for The Guardian.
Oddly the judgment only applies to the bars that brought the case – the others have to stay shut… Am guessing other bars may start cases now, knowing they have a high chance of winning!
Brilliant article by Dr Mark Yeadon.
Shocking video of a protest in Barcelona against the closure of bars and restaurants. Just some of the cries from the protestors: “They’ve ruined us” “they’re starving us to death” “we’ve got nothing to eat” “we’re at the point of having to shoplift in supermarkets” “We’re dying of hunger you bastards” and “we want to work”. These are the results of the criminal actions of the people who claim to represent us. Vile scum who should never be forgiven for what they have done and what they continue to do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5MPJ_Kd0uk
I thought this might be useful as a copy-paste image for social media posting. My muse has deserted me today, so the wording is a bit ham-fisted. Any advice gratefully received.
Sean’s fundraiser is proving quite popular (it’s at £47,049 right now), and the prevent gyms closing due to a spike in Covid 19 cases petition is up to 336,786 signatures.
I have just signed the petition. I don’t visit gyms personally but this is not just about gyms; it is about ALL of our interests. I used to visit the Bodleian Library in Oxford twice per week for study purposes but it is now so tiresome with all these idiotic, stupid, inane and off-putting rules that I don’t go any more.
I know how you feel. I’ve been boycotting the British Library precisely for that reason but now I have to break my boycott for work reasons.
Seeing what I have to go to has made me lose the will to live.
SIGNED! And so glad to see how quickly it’s growing!
(But I do wish they hadn’t used the word ”cases” or even ”spike”. They’re Newspeak words and we really shouldn’t parrot them.)
I know he has backed himself into a corner with his cock up theory not even Boris could be that stupid
Interesting article in ‘Unherd’ re. Karl Friston’s latest analysis.
He’s signed the Jon Snow thingymebob – which surprised me. But you can’t deny his intellect (which you can do for many of the SAGE types).
The views are actually quite subtle and worth reading. Not at all Covid fanatic stuff, although I think even he trips over the basic problem of modelling the course of a disease in terms of the inclusion of all relevant variables. I reckon that he’s on safer ground re. his previous analysis of the factors affecting the incidence of Covid-19.
However – worth a read :
https://unherd.com/2020/10/the-case-for-a-circuit-breaker/
I’m curious how one can utilise immunity in modelling but also sign a memo effectively saying it can’t be utilised.
Easy, set immunity to zero
And then divide the number of cases by immunity to obtain the real number of cases.
Yes – I couldn’t quite work it out.
“Computer wonders why ‘Lockdown Sceptics’.”
I am afraid that’s too subtle for me.
If you stop using Google as your search engine and try DuckDuckGo then the Great Barrington Declaration comes up first.
Good tip. I won’t be donating to Wikipedia again.
So it appears if I had worn the same rag over my face (any rag) and recycled it between my car and my pocket I would then not be a granny killer and I would become an acceptable member of society.
And likely a rather poorly member of society.
You would also have contributed to the obvious beneficial effect that wearing them is having on the number of positive tests- it would be so much worse if we didn’t all wear them!
I think I have finally been broken. Please excuse the language but I have had it up to here with these fucking morons leading this country.
This afternoon comes through an email from my youngest sons primary school that masks must be worn on school grounds at all times (no mention of exemptions.) I mean what the actual fuck!!
Turn up mask free to witness every other parent shuffling into the playground with masks – that is fucking bad enough but then I see the teachers stood outside with the kids and they are all wearing masks too (even though they release the kids from the classes 20 meters from the parents.)
The thing that kills me is that around 20% of the kids (age 4-7) are now muzzled once they reach their parents. This is just on day 1 of it being implemented a coupe of hours ago. My 5 year old is then upset that he doesn’t have a mask and his friends have one – oh and daddy you need to wear one too.
I ask him why and he says otherwise we will die of coronavirus. What are we doing to our children for the love of god!!
This is the final straw – when does the revolution start as I for one cannot live in this dystopian nightmare for months/years to come.
This came in at my daughter’s school weeks ago, reinforced with an aggressive email asking that any parent with an exemption should notify the school (register!).
I have consistently ignored it, as have a few others. There has been no direct aggro. Those of us who still have faces smile at each other.
I tell my daughter that what she is being told about the Covid is bonkers. For example, I explained to her in the school queue that you cannot spread viruses by singing, and the the school’s rule against singing is bonkers (she likes the word ‘bonkers’ and repeats it loudly).
Maybe it will get worse. Maybe it ends with special Covid social workers taking our children away. But right now there is actually nothing these people can do if you just defy them.
It doesn’t help that the teacher spend the day telling them how all adults have to wear masks when out and even showed a picture of her out shopping in a mask to the class.
Sounds like your spore pics will have answered that, Gman.
And Bucky99 has some great talking points I shall use with my daughter in a few minutes time.
I, for one think it is ‘only’ temporary.
Hang in there!
What’s only temporary? The mask thing, global economic genocide or both?
Little point in being overoptimistic, the bastards really are out to get us. They aren’t going away until they’ve got us all.
Little point in being overoptimistic, as the bastards really are out to get us. They aren’t going away until they’ve got us all.
If the Queen doesn’t wear a mask outside – or inside for that matter – why should anyone else. Who do the teachers think they are?
For under 11s the Gov guidance is explicit that they shouldn’t wear masks in school. Refuse under any circumstance, I’d say.
Also, kids tend to have a pretty good sense of right & wrong, so set out some simple reasons why masks are bad.
– they can make you sick
– all the baddies wear them
– if you can’t breathe well, you’re brain won’t work so well, makes it harder to learn
Etc.
Thanks, i have done this just now and shown some pictures of fungal spores – think i may have gone too far as he now wants to call his friends and tell them not to wear masks !!
Sounds like he’s got the right idea!
Pictures of rampant impetigo are suitably ‘icky’ to turn kids off wearing masks!
My opinion is that teacher needs to be reprimanded. I don’t know the law/legal grounds, but is there any mandate for teachers to be doing this kind of “lesson” in class? Is it part of the curriculum?
Great job I’d say!!
That is not going too far, you should be proud of him as no doubt you are.
Dont worry I wont comply and wear a mask – the difficulty is that due to the high compliance I will stand out as some kind of trouble maker and just watch as the offers for play dates disappear. The brainwashing has been so complete that I will be considered a selfish prick.
Play dates have not disappeared for us.
Other parents do not seem to consider me a selfish prick. And I’m not the only non-masko. Chin up (and naked).
thanks Ovis that is reassuring.
Apologies, writing in a rush, as I have to dash. I’m the only parent who is unmasked picking up/dropping off my 4-year-old. I don’t give a fuck. My duty as a human being is all that counts. And if other parents hold this against me for years to come, too fucking bad.
I’ve been on to UsForThem about this – the headmasters have no legal basis upon which to insist on muzzle wearing. I’ll post later if I remember.
And if anyone on here is offended by my language, well I’m really not that sorry. When this garbage starts to affect children or the very old and vulnerable, I glimpse red.
Oh, and in my experience a fair few other parents will quietly wish that they weren’t wearing a muzzle, but they don’t want to step out of line.
Didn’t Country Mumkin on here fight a similar battle with a school a couple of weeks ago? She may still have a copy of the letters she wrote…
Yes, we had a very similar discussion back then, bits of which I’ve reposted here.
Just found a copy of my post on here a week or two ago on this:
Regarding the instruction/request by some schools for parents to wear masks when dropping off and picking up their chidren from school.
I wrote to UsForThem about this, and they replied that ‘this is a worrying trend and we’re seeing it in a number of schools around the country’. They confirmed that there is no legal basis for this requirement, which is thus only a request, and enclosed the Public Health England briefing to headmasters answering the following question:
Due to [sic] a lack of adherence to repeated requests for people to keep their distance whilst dropping off and picking up their children, we have asked adults to wear masks on school property. Would we be within our rights to refuse admission to the playground if someone refuses to wear a mask?
PHE answer (my emphasis):
The government has set out some venues where face coverings are required by law, such as on public transport. School guidance states that head teachers have the right to request visitors wear face coverings when in indoor areas such as corridors where social distancing is more difficult. Government guidance also states that some people are exempt from wearing face coverings, such as those who cannot put on, wear or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness or impairment, or disability.
Thus, although you may wish to encourage people to wear face coverings whilst in the school playground, it cannot be legally enforced. In addition we recommend that schools continue to promote social distancing amongst parents at drop off/pick up times in their communication with parents and also by reviewing the plans they have in place, such as one-way systems at entry/exit points and signage.
So it is clear: there is no legal obligation to wear masks when dropping children off at school, and the headmasters know this.
You’re right – and Gman is also right : it isn’t the legal position, it’s the social dysfunction that is the issue.
Rick – exactly right – couldn’t give two shits about getting in “trouble” with the school – would never wear a mask especially in front of my kids. It is what it is doing to the psychology of very young children that is making me so angry.
Under 11s are exempt. Full stop.
The end of furlough and the coming economic Armageddon can’t come soon enough.
Unfortunately that’s the one certainty to wake up those who are still asleep.
As has been frequently said – this is child abuse, and any teaching professional coming out with this sort of crap should be shamed as they would be for any other form of child abuse.
All you have to say its child abuse. Let them argue that!
They don’t argue it – they just say they’re just following the guidelines and they cant go against Gov advice. My point was that if they are guidelines they can be interpreted any way you want. Trouble it seems is that there are more parents wanting more masks than there are sensible people. Maybe the parents need to go to school more than their kids do.
Raise a safeguarding concern with the school about the member(s) of staff, advising them that you will escalate it to the local authorities specifically social services and OFSTED.( the latter is a somewhat empty threat as OFSTED is like standing adjacent to Matt Hancock I.e. next to useless)
I just received a similar edict from my calf’s school, stating that they will be implementing a “circuit breaker” after half term.
I tell you what, it was all I could do to stop myself from having a stroke, especially considering that I pay for her to attend this school.
Calf and I will be having a chat when she gets home today. I will be recommending that she not attend until the edict is lifted, but she’s free to make up her own mind. Our country might be a dictatorship, but I’ll be damned if my house will become one. If she wants to eat this shit, she can. I’d be gutted, but that’s what it means to let people choose. Mind you, if she chooses the muzzle then she can fucking walk to school. I won’t be aiding and abetting.
In the meantime, I emailed the school asking them for a statement on their policy regarding mask exemption. I’m eagerly awaiting their response.
Thanks Mabel you have put a smile on my face for the first time today
Just tell me where’s the nearest barricade?
just another thing for the teaching blob to indoctrinate the children about . such a pity their purpose changed from education to indoctrination some years ago.
Hi Gman
I really hear what you’re saying about this at your youngest sons school. It makes me so angry too. I cannot believe they didn’t mention exemptions.
I work in the nhs and a colleague said a patient had no mask on as he said he was exempt and she was incredulous that anyone could be exempt. I told colleague it’s the law. If healthcare staff don’t know then I’m not surprised teachers don’t. Everyone it seems is mask mad…
Every week I think things cannot get any worse but they do and I’m just waiting for my youngest 2 children’s primary to do something like this. It cannot be right for young children to witness this, it has to be damaging! Never mind the parents putting masks on their children it makes me feel sick.
My eldest is at secondary and we were emailed yesterday to say mask have to be worn within corridors but not classrooms and that has nearly finished me off, I knew it was a matter of time but even so it horrified me.
I have emailed school and said my child will be unable to participate in the wearing of a mask due to a health exemption (distress caused by putting in a mask but I didn’t specify this as per the law). No reply and he breaks up today for 2 week half term.
I expect when he goes back they’ll make a big deal of it.. I won’t give in. I think it’s disgusting to consider a child to wear a mask. Over my dead body.
I’m losing sleep losing weight as few so angry about the whole thing…
Keep us posted as to what you do
Regards
Present them with a disclaimer to sign saying that they will accept full liability for any negative mental or physical effects if they want to enforce this, then watch them capitulate. Do this in as friendly a fashion as you can. Stay calm but insist that they sign it if they want your son to wear one. Try to get other parents on board and give them a disclaimer for the school to sign too. Good luck and keep us all posted.
Give the school a disclaimer to sign saying that they will accept full liability for any negative mental or physical effects if they want to enforce this, then watch them capitulate. Do this in as friendly a fashion as you can. Stay calm but insist that they sign it if they want your son to wear one. Try to get other parents on board and give them a disclaimer for the school to sign too. Good luck and keep us all posted.
I have emailed this article to the Cabinet Secretary and asked him to put it in front of the PM urgently. It’s the only thing I can think of.
Which article? The whole of today’s post?
Can someone check the numbers of influenza deaths in Japan last year (winter 18/19). My understanding is that they had a bigger than usual flu’ epidemic and if a large number of people died then it would explain why so few people have died this year with covid-19.
Flu has essentially disappeared from New Zealand. Now I know that is good news in general, but come on.
Until next year (or whenever they finally let people in and out again) when they have a horrific flu year because no one has any immunity to the most recent strains…
This may be of interest:
“Normally, the protein made from the IFITM3 gene interferes with how the influenza virus enters cells, though precisely how is not yet understood. (We know that this same gene is used by animals, as mice genetically modified to lack the gene are more susceptible to flu infection.) And people who have a non-functional version of this gene simply lack this component of our immune defence against the virus. In 2012, the non-functional form of this gene was found to be especially common in people hospitalised by an influenza infection. Those in intensive care were seventeen times more likely to have the defective gene. Variations of this gene are also particularly common in Japanese and Chinese people. Because of this, Japanese and Chinese people may be at higher risk for developing severe illness from flu, but this remains to be tested directly.”
— The Beautiful Cure: The New Science of Human Health by Daniel M Davis
Just watched an interview with MP Chris Green who has resigned from government. Sad to see him go as he does actually understand the wider issue affecting ordinary people unlike most MPs. Shame he twice completely avoided the question on whether the ‘Great Reset’ agenda is being pursued, I think from this we can safely assume – yes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eBSwspojh4
A funny take on the insane times we live in:
https://twitter.com/GeoffNorcott/status/1317074221017726977
always funny.. unfortunately he rarely gets a BBC gig. Guess why!!
Doesn’t surprise me. He made a docu for the BBC that essentially skewered the upper middle classes – didn’t go down well with the BBC apparatchiks.
Wales
Have been locked down for two weeks now. Drakeford says restrictions will last for at least another week, during which time he will announce another two week “fire break” (completely different to a circuit break of course, because that’s English and won’t work) which would “mean a short, sharp shock to all our lives” so that’s five weeks all together.
That will be fun.
But at least it will “get us as far as Christmas” albeit with a new, new set of rules for Wales.
Can we trust him? Will I take any notice? Do I care… ?
So when they release you from imprisonment they’ll claim infections are rising then you’ll be locked down again, rinse and repeat ad infinitum.
Used to enjoy watching ‘Groundhog Day’ now we’re living it.
Two circuit breaks in a row. What a surprise. It’s only 2 weeks… etc etc etc.
Next its a wind break
And it didn’t take long. WTF .
COVID-21: Lethal Virus
The climate change has released an ancient rabies virus trapped in the Antarctica ice. A female scientist tries to get to the laboratory to create a cure to save the world, protected by an eccentric and two members of the special forces.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11246434/
Hmmm compare with Canada’s plans for the next year or so: https://thecanadianreport.ca/is-this-leaked-memo-really-trudeaus-covid-plan-for-2021-you-decide/
‘Projected COVID-19 mutation and/or co-infection with secondary virus (referred to as COVID-21) leading to a third wave with much higher mortality rate and higher rate of infection. Expected by February 2021.
– Daily new cases of COVID-21 hospitalizations and COVID-19 and COVID-21 related deaths will exceed medical care facilities capacity. Expected Q1 – Q2 2021.’
That’s RACIST!!!!!!!!
From a friend in entertainment. The New Normal
Unpandemonium new website.
Something isn’t right.
You know it.
I know it.
https://www.tamperproof.earth/home
Some thought provoking comments and blog articles.
I’m now on their mailing list.
Re. the immunity issue. The story seems to be that SARS-CoV-2 is the only virus known to man to which we gain no useful immunity.
But we need to lock down again because only 10% have antibodies so 90% are still susceptible. If more had been exposed we would be ok because immunity would be higher.
But they’ve just told us that we don’t gain any immunity so how does that make any sense?
Rhetorical question of course.
Ouch! ONS Covid numbers don’t look good.
Although, the most recent survey data includes a period which shows a sharp uptick in government data which might – just might – be levelling off. Next few days will tell.
Are they including flu/pneumonia from 8th October?
They are taking all causes of death for the last 50 years and including them all in today’s covid figures.
You be mad to think they won’t try.
Person goes into hospital with flu; gets tested for covid, as is now normal for all admissions; test comes back ‘positive’ (after 45 cycles); person dies of flu within 28 days of test (note: NOT of covid); person is included in covid death stats.
Why am I saying this? It’s because that is what they are doing with every single person who dies within 28 days of being tested, regardless of REAL cause of death.
“Don’t look good”. I think we need to bear in mind that viruses are often seasonal, and that they do infect people and sometimes do them great harm.
All the evidence indicates that government attempts to “stop” viruses simply don’t work, so we have to broadly speaking live with viruses, mitigate where feasible, and look for treatments and vaccines with the proper caution.
There doesn’t appear to be anything exceptional about this virus, so why is the reaction to it exceptional?
The virus might not be “exceptional” but it is able to infect a much larger number of people than the viruses we normally encounter.
Only bad if you believe in Covid
Oh dear.
Christ.
Johnson on at 4 pm to tell us that lockdown’s are about saving lives, when the last one didn’t, plus the WHO have told him they don’t. The lies still flowing.
Thanks for the warning – just in time. Off for a long walk, sans-iPhone, at 4pm. That will do me much more good.
bla bla bla
Fantastic NHS
bla bla bla
deadly virus
bla bla bla
Fantastic NHS
bla bla bla
deadly virus
bla bla bla
Why is the tosser on TV again ? It’s only been a few days.
Implement tier system and assess in two three weeks the impact. NOPE. Introduce Monday and and ramp up your capital city on Thursday. 72 hours !
Why not introduce it on Monday. Hence why is Bunter back on the box within the week. Really sick of him now
But according to him we’re not in lockdown of course. Just tiers and restrictions and measures and whatever.
The thought of him spouting off again this afternoon really is the depressing sour cherry on top of the mouldy stale old cake of life in the 2020 dystopian hell.
Sorry, having a bad day in a sea of bad days (weeks, months…).
“In April of 1856, a fifteen-year-old girl named Nongqawuse heard a voice telling her that the Xhosa must kill all their cattle, stop cultivating their fields, and destroy their stores of grain and food. The voice insisted that the Xhosa must also get rid of their hoes, cooking pots, and every utensil necessary for the maintenance of life. Once these things were accomplished, a new day would magically dawn. Everything necessary for life would spring spontaneously from the earth. The dead would be resurrected. The blind would see and the old would have their youth restored. New food and livestock would appear in abundance, spontaneously sprouting from the earth. The British would be swept into the sea, and the Xhosa would be restored to their former glory. What was promised was nothing less than the establishment of paradise on earth.”
Greta Thunberg via the World Economic forum
She killed a lot fewer cattle than Ferguson 300,000 to his 6,000,000
Oh come on she looks like a goblin.
That girl is most definitely at least one sandwich short of a picnic!!!
Why *only* the British that would be swept into the sea?
If the old are to have their youth restored, and the dead to be resurrected, why are we worried about old people dying????
I’ve been a bit bored. I’m not a great believer in the Covid data and it occurred to me that the “excess deaths” figure might not take into account population growth and ageing. So I did a bit of research and found some interesting information.
The UK population has been rising steadily. The latest figure for the population I could find is 67,886,011, which is 1,089,211 higher than the 2019 figure. It appears that the proportion of the UK population that is over 65, the age group most affected by Covid, has been increasing at a rate of 0.12% per year. As far as I can tell, it stands at 18.54% of the population, or 12,586,066.
Now, the 5 year average mortality rate for this age group from 2015-19 has been 3.76% (I’m going to round to 2DP for this ramble, but I used several more places in my calculations). However, in 2019 it was unusually low, the lowest it has been in fact for the last 10 years at 3.62%. This means that 16,778 fewer oldies died in 2019 than might reasonably be expected.
The ONS death rate data is only up to week 40, and for the 12 months leading up to week 40 in 2019, there were even fewer deaths in this age group: 23,622 fewer by my calculations.
Not wanting to sound callous, but that would appear to mean that almost 24,000 old folks were still alive who would have died in an average year.
Based on an increasing and ageing population, if 2020 were an average year, we might expect to have seen 473,208 deaths in this age group. If we add on those who unexpectedly survived 2019, that total rises to 496,870.
From week 41 in 2019 to week 40 in 2020, 501,049 people in this age category have died. That’s 4,189 more than might reasonably be expected which, to my mind, is a fairer calculation of the excess deaths in this age group.
There have been 43,293 within 28 days of a positive test, or 57,690 deaths where Covid is mentioned on the death certificate. The figure I’ve found for the proportion of Covid deaths that are amongst the over 65 age group is 88%. That means that using the former measure 38,097 deaths and by the latter measure 44,675 deaths have been counted as Covid deaths in the 65+ age group. As the latter figure is the ONS figure, and that’s the source of most of my other data, that’s the one I’m going to stick with.
So, we have 44,675 deaths ascribed to Covid by the ONS, but the figure may actually be 4,189. If that’s the case, then the number of Covid deaths in this age group is exaggerated by a multiplier of more than 10. The 4,189 figure is small enough to be a statistical blip and might suggest that nobody in the 65+ age group has died as a direct result of Covid.
My logic may be completely wrong, my numbers sourced from the wrong places or my calculations may be flawed. If so, post a comment to let me know. I’d also be interested in seeing someone do this analysis properly to see what they conclude.
““excess deaths” figure might not take into account population growth and ageing.
Two things :
The other thing worth mentioning is that figures for ‘Covid’ deaths are so unreliable, it’s best to stick with ‘all-cause’ mortality. The ONS has to take the death registrations as a given – and we know about those as ‘true records’!
Even without looking specifically at the higher mortality for the 65+ age-group, you are absolutely right about the ‘dry tinder’ effect of the greater level survival in the ‘weak’ infection season of 2018-19. And in fact, the last few years have seen a period of historically low mortality, which has come home to roost in nearly 2020.
The effect is so pronounced that, if you average out total mortality over the two seasons, it is almost exactly the average for the past quarter of a century. Some ‘unprecedented’ event!
So – you are not wrong at all in your essential conclusions. There has been little of remark happening (except the infectious spike in April) in the longer term – and despite the narrative, there is bugger all happening now in terms of unusual infection and mortality. It’s all entirely in line with the usual pattern.
Here’s a chart covering the last 30 years that shows the historically low mortality rate that Rick H mentions above.
Ivor Cummins pointed this out for Ireland/UK a few months ago, can’t remember which particular video
Earlier on the thread somewhere I read a discussion about people perhaps becoming less hostile to non-mask wearers. I think if exemptions are getting more acceptance it may be simply because there is perhaps some recognition that those of us who have stayed mask free, and have run the gauntlet of public hostility for the best part of 3 months, must have a legitimate reason. After all, many of the people judging us will have not wanted to wear a mask but will have caved in the face of social pressure. They will look at us and not realise that we are strong in our convictions but assume we must have a very serious medical problem for it to have been worth making such a stand. Ergo: I won’t challenge him/her because they are clearly legitimately exempt and secondly must have cojones the size of space hoppers!
Today was the first time I have been out in public since 3 October. It’s ASTONISHING how many more masks are being worn in the street.
Let the PATHETIC sad gits wear em, we are better than that
Thinking of them all just as ‘pathetic sad gits’ might make you feel better – but it’s a flea bit on an elephant’s arse.
It starts off as virtue signaling. Then they realise how awful wearing one is. They then have a problem with admitting their mistake
I wonder if Public Health England will tell us today how many people died ‘with’ verrucas in the last 24 hours.
It will be interesting to see how far the figure has risen since yesterday.
Hiccups can be very dangerous.
Approximately 20 people die in the UK every year as a result of falling out of bed. Think we should all be made to sleep on the floor instead!
Many people choke to death in the UK each year. I think we should outlaw solid food. £1000 fine for serving, selling or cooking or eating anything other than thin soup.
Kim-Jong Nik has given us permission to eat gruel.
MONEY TALKS UPDATE 1 in English Dr Rainer Füllmich 15/10/202
WHO declares
The Barrington Declaration
PCR test Pandemic only
Massive abuse of power by corporations not new …we will get this job done for the people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kod8XTnhKGE
When you hear about rising deaths and exponential rises, remember that we always get an exponential rise between Sept to Nov (sometimes a factor of 10 over the period).
So it has to be exceptionally higher over that.
Boris saying more people will be in ICU than in March.
Fuck sake.
That is not happening in Sweden as yet…
I really do find the level of gullibility of the population depressing. Government ministers have constantly told us that they are following the science, but when asked what the scientific evidence is for any measure, they offer a Just So story. It does not matter what the measure is. Take the two metre social distancing rule. What’s the evidence? Even Public Health England’s experts can only answer: “the precautionary principle”, as if the assertion “it might be” constituted science. When asked for the scientific evidence for the ten o’clock rule, the answer is people might be less likely to observe social distancing as the night wears on and they drink more. This isn’t science: it is nothing more than making up a story that sounds plausible. The government are not following scientific evidence for their alleged anti-virus measures. The word science is nothing more than a rhetorical device, intended to hide the fact that the rules are absurd. But the so called experts are politicised. Remember how Public Health England advised the people of Salisbury to conduct a decontamination for the world’s most deadly nerve agent: throw your clothes in your washing machine and use a baby wipe for any hard objects. They really do think we are all stupid and gullible and will believe any nonsense. Unfortunately, their propaganda seems to work with the majority of people.
twat Boris up
going on about vaccines
rapid tests for asymptomatics over the winter. they have bought millions
for testing university students!
he says the tests are potentially dangerous so they have to be carefully trialled.
vallance the pharmacy bloke up now
Manchester could be the route out of this. Boris just said that ICU at 40% of peak in April (lies I am sure). Cases all time high but due to lag, the hospitalizations and deaths will undoubtedly follow. As Manchester are not complying right now, if those do not happen in 2 – 3 weeks, argument over?
The argument has been over since close to Day 1. But I guess every further blunder pushes a few more over to our side.
For you and me the argument is over. What will it take for the chin wobblers to see?
Boris now admitted we have pissed money away on useless tests based on the asymptomatic assumption.
Get this man out
Can’t believe that for once I am hoping that a case brought by Jolyon Maugham succeeds!
Johnson, the NWO Agent
Just picked our grandson up from school in a tier 1 area. In his bag was a folder:
”Only open this folder in the case of a further Covid lockdown”
Oh dear!
Wonder how much it cost?
Did it say “DO NOT PANIC” on it?
Will you have to eat it after reading?!
“This message will self destruct”
Go on. Open it anyway.
I did, it just said ‘Boo’
It is all about visiting the zoo. Suspect there won’t be any left to visit after this.
We should be thinking of banning peanuts, they are everywhere, and dangerous
‘Under the stress of being confronted by a superior and irresistible technology, the Xhosa developed feelings of inadequacy and inferiority.’
If this was the precondition of the Xhosa Cattle Killing, what ‘superior and irresistible’ force has generated the ‘feelings of inadequacy and inferiority’ that have infected the minds of our leaders?
Is this another chapter of the ‘revolt of the elites,’ from a caste that felt after 2016 that it was losing its grip? Or are we looking at something else entirely, such that the Xhosa comparison is unhelpful in explaining our current predicament?
Those who regularly write to MPs may find this amusing:
MSP emails constituent ‘tweak my usual response’ in gaffe
https://news.stv.tv/politics/msp-emails-constituent-tweak-my-usual-response-in-gaffe
Sums them all up perfectly
Apparently the wikipedia entry for ‘Spanish Flu’ was edited in December 2019 order to revise down considerably the severity of that pandemic.
….. and therefore more comparable to any new pandemic.
thought of everything
The scientists have yakked on the same since this began, hardly ever watch them and can’t believe they’re using the same graphs and lines today
Latest guidelines:
In case of Sonic Attack on your district, follow these rules…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwRvWpsiM2w
No one will have to worry about taking time to block their ears – they’ve all got their fingers permanently in them anyway, unless they are hypnotised watching the weekly fear porn show.
Hawkwind! De Montfort 1987, the reason my hearings not as good as it should be.
I saw Hawkwind at Oxford Playhouse in 1987 , one of the first gigs with lazers and absolutely no health and safety at all, totally mindblowing and really quite blinding…
Superb band – seen `em a few times and still got my 1988 tour T shirt!
One of my favourite tunes. Hurry on a sundown-Hawkwind
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vobAKWK-hWc
We did a sing along at my mates funeral to this tune and Queens Bohemian Rapsody. Actually it was pretty funny with the head-banging bit. 150 people doing the headbanging thing like in Wayne’s World.
Martin Kulldorff, one of the drafters of the Great Barrington Declaration, said this in an interview with Spiked magazine:
Have any of these plans been released (or leaked)? Because if what Prof. Kulldorff says is right then it blows this entire ‘rebuttal’ out of the water.
Vallance quoting modellers figures as if they are reality. Also showing R without reference to how R varied in March.
Making up shit in their own bubble
I will never understand how anyone can believe an R number – how the hell can the calculation of that EVER be scrutinised or checked. Its purely subjective as far as I can make out and they can say it is whatever they want to say it is.
It’s a statistical outcome. You take the number of daily cases over a period of time and the rate of expansion or contraction provides the R number. This does of course mean that the number of cases reported each day has to be both valid and reliable: and the PCR test is neither.
Thanks – it all seems a bit arbitrary to me. And as you say – if the PCR test results are a factor then it should be completely ignored anyway.
PM’s coronavirus update: Valance, our chief scientific advisor, has just told the world that modelling outcomes are data.
Is the bumbling fuck of a dictator on the TV?
On tv and still lying.
Die you fat bumbling tosser cunt
Well, just turned it off. Estimates. Modelling, Blah Blah fucking Blah. A multimillionaire telling the plebs how we are all going to kill the old. Can they model the numbers for the Euro millions for me ? Can they model if Sagittarius is in with Taurus and result in me getting a bad back next Wednesday?
One point to note. Boris intends to charge business for the tests. Not that this is about the money !!!
C U * T S
What is the point of this press conference? No serious what is the point. Leave people the fuck alone it’s Friday. For the love of god. Leave people ALONE !!!!!!!!
Ooh look its creeping up from those terrible nasty kids again. Let’s make sure they get keep getting the blame when their grannies die.
Yep. Blame the kids. Not the shit show that’s the NHS or the Government. Last year Liverpool had 59 ICU beds. This year, 8 months after the pandemic started it has 61. That alone tells you what the Government really think. Pricks. I am so angry.
I like this game . . .
No – i bet I’m way angrier than you!
I have 2 teenage granddaughters and I don’t think for 1 second they are going to BLOODY KILL ME.
Same here. You know when you’re listening to something and you just know it’s bullshit? This is what I’m experiencing here.
15 – 44 what kind of fucking age bracket is that??
Like his “range” estimate between 21,000 and 47,000 (or close). I noted how GSk’s Patrick Vallance made sure that the estimates got as close in range as possible to him and his mate Whitty’s 50,000 a day modelled number.
Well I agree but it’s also the massive age bracket for whom covid poses an infinitesimally small risk! Then there’s 0-14 years for whom the risk really is zero!
Valance lying – saying lots of younger people ending up in hospital because of covid. The data is the people who test +ve while in hospital (because they have ingrowing toe-nails or whatever)
Its absolutely shameful but they know they can say anything they like because most people are utterly credible and any expert who contradicts them will be rubbished by the MSM.
No, it’s not because they expect to be believed. If they wanted to be believed they could lie more credibly than this. They are taking the piss. This is an exercise in them proving to us that they have absolute power and we are weak. It doesn’t matter that we know they are lying: that’s the key message they want us to take away.
Now that is a truly frightening thought….
The Bastard isn’t saying how unbelievably inaccurate his graph of doom turned out to be
funny how he didn’t drag that out again and funny how the press never asked him about it
The serial lying and deception of Mr Toad is one predictable thing.
The complicity of the journo propagandists is the more serious issue.
Just an afterthought that underlines that point :
If the media was performing its proper role, the politicians, no matter how crap, how dishonest, how devious could never have got to this stage of stuffing the public.
Those creeps in the press conferences are the worse infection IMNSHO.
Worse than any virus, they are scum.
they are worse. they were begging for another lockdown. their jobs are safe they are virtue signalling. lets see what the twats say when the worldwide poverty death stats start coming in
Has he mentioned the IFR of 0.05% yet ?
He might be referring to attempted suicides
Vallance has lots of boodle tied up in the vaccine industry, and he doesn’t even understand the term ‘exponential’.
As a fact – hospital admissions aren’t even at the level of those at the back end of March, and quite normal for time of year. Even the fake ‘cases’ are way below the infamous projection- and levelling off.
‘Nuff said.
Calling the standard flu rise a slower rise of the epidemic is fraud. Saying that it is slower because of the Measures is the Tiger Horn.
Never thought I’d see this.
“While the number has gone up, it has not risen to a rate of 3 – which would be expected without any mitigating measures – due to the restrictions which are in place.”
Oh really – I suppose you can prove its cos of the restrictions can you?
Everyone is dead in Sweden now. And Japan.
And London appears to have reached effective herd immunity without anyone noticing – certainly not the Mayor or SAGE
https://coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk/details/deaths?areaType=region&areaName=London
We’re a bit behind here in the North because you locked us down all summer, Boris, you stupid twat.
And now we are going to be even further behind. Levelled but not ‘up’.
And all the check out staff at Tesco, ohhh no, they made even more profit and didn’t have to pay their business rates
Boris said
“the virus thrives on human contact – and we have to break that”
Wow!
People thrive on human contact too – and the government has certainly broken millions of us.
Can’t believe he said that.
Only a psychopath and narcissist could come out with that!
Put your diktats where the sun don’t shine, Mr Toad. Sane people should take absolutely no heed.
Boris spluttering about our sex lives and how we will manage in different tiers. lol
WTF?
yes, viewer question about seeing his GF in a different tier.
Well at least he’s been able to “ask an expert”? Bojo probably has a girlfriend in every tier!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8848073/Downing-Street-says-couples-coronavirus-hotspots-meet-indoors.html
The only appropriate thing to say is “F. Off”
What an egregiously stupid bastard.
… as you say …
Well, Boris never let the restrictions of marriage affect his sex life. So he’s well placed to give advice…..
No no no no – lalalalalala – not listening
i understand he gets tied up by a different dominatrix every night
Last known photograph of SAGE committee, June 2021
Problem is, Steve, they believe they are invulnerable, and right now they seem to be right.
As I said below, that’s the real message of this blatant lying. They could lie so much better if they wished to be believed. They are deliberately taking the piss. The real message is that they are so powerful it doesn’t matter what we think.
there have been dissenting voices even in SAGE – Mark Woolhouse for example – the clever ones are seeing the effects of lockdown (worldwide). the rest are just trapped in groupthink
That should happen
Sooner than June ’21
You know to expect a massive deposit of bullshit when Boris begins a sentence with “I must level with you…”
Sam Coates from Sky is my most hated of the day
just made my blood boil as well
bubble faced cunt
More draconian??? Ffs!!!
Time for a population cull, Boris? That’s where your “science” is taking us: fewer people, fewer cases.
Certainly need a cull of the mainstream media.
Boris:
twat journo begging/demanding a harsh countrywide lockdown
Immature and selfish. Anyone who champions lockdowns is happy to kill everyone else but themselves. That’s the raw truth.
That’s our defenders of democracy in action folks.
dreadful isn’t it
How can anyone believe any of this, and I include non-sceptics?
Efficient propaganda program coupled with the dumbest population on the planet; present company excepted.
Don’t forget, these are the people who laugh at BBC comedies.
Too dumb to even know they are.
Has GSK’s “Sir” Patrick Vallance said about the good news of 0.05% IFR for the under 70’s yet ?
Has Boris “creep out and cheat on your wife” Johnson accepted that WHO have even said Lockdowns are not a good thing ?
Has Christmas been cancelled in October ?
What’s the fucking point in this ?
Sorry for the swearing, anger boiling up.
Sometimes we need to vent Lee. You’re among friends here.
Every time I hear of GSK I’m reminded of the video I saw quoting a whistleblower from there who said the covid vaccine will contain sterilising agents and that that ‘side effect’ will not show up for 7 years, when there will be a huge explosion in infertility…
Eek. Do you have a link to that video?
It was on the govote youtube channel several months ago… I saw it again somewhere on Twitter last night as it had been picked up in America..
Bill G has ‘form’ when it comes to vaccines that sterilise people – he was using them years ago in Africa – so this would not surprise me. It would also explain why he wants to vaccinate kids even though they rarely get Covid 19 at all..
It was in one of this guy’s videos… https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7I7ava_UM6j9Q_YkAGd3-g/videos
The offocial figures just released suggest around 2,500 less “cases” than yesterday, and 2 less deaths, yeah thats what I would call exponential.
The only thing exponential is the level of utter bullshit
What ? You mean that we did not get 50,000 cases today like Whitless and Bedsheet said. We did you know. ONS have given a modelled range. It could be anything between this figure and infinity and beyond. And everyone over the age of 7 has just died because you were not wearing a mask over your foot.
Lol
Their “prediction” was for the 13th. Today’s figures are for the 15th so we should be at about 65,000 cases!
https://www.covid19assembly.org/filming
Hi. Does anyone want to take part in a film shoot in London next week? We want volunteers to hand out leaflets while we interview members of the public.
We would also film you talking to a couple of people too. You won’t be made to man a stand on your own or anything. It’ll be easy!
We’re looking looking at Thursday or Friday whichever suits you.
Please get in touch by filling in the form on the page linked above.
Thanks!
PHE woman saying we will solve this by ramping up testing
Boris just actually smirked at the suggestion of school holiday circuit breakers
Half term. He’s lucky that he does not even know how many kids he has let alone trying to cover their child care needs over half term.
If she had any ability she would not be working for PHE. She would have a proper job. If she is one of the “upper class elite” in Civil Service, who works for the system rather than the money she is not well placed to say anything that affects the 99% of the country who can’t rely of Daddy’s country estate. In short either way, she should shut up and jog on.
They have more faith in testing than a saint has in Christ.
The saint would these days be socially distanced from Christ. Who in turn would probably be self isolating.
my favourite joke of the day
Yes, the virus that is afraid of being tested for, as Peter Hitchens likes to say
We have devolved back into a medieval, superstitious society.
And we are being ruled by despots and prophets whose primary concern is their own status and power.
These speeches were written back in March. Fergusons model posited restrictions two thirds of the time for 2 years. That’s what they’re doing. They’ve never changed and never will.
Yep. Still not even acknowledged that the IFR is much much much less than the “model”.
“And in Wales due to a lack of a robust independent media there is panic buying rather than defiance. They said there were a lot of sheep in Wales well they’re all queuing now outside Asda.”
Anna Brees’ twitter
It’s because Drakeford has said he wants everyone to stay at home for several weeks. Well, f*** Drakeford. We are not all sheep, but there are too many.
And many of us aren’t staying at home. The Turtle’s Head can do one.
#Metoo in Neath Port Talbot
sweden
… and then they come back and say something like “But in Sweden there’s only like seventeen people living on about 20 trillion square miles of land.
one day Valance will mix up his powerpoints and accidentally show a graph of the value of his pharmaceutical share portfolio
Or a picture of him shagging the au pair
One of four places we’re allowed to visit without a quarantine now right?
Fck fck fck fck fck! We can get it through the cracks in the pavement!!
Masks for our feet?
Beff Rigby, explain!!
I noted, before I turned it off, that he was essentially telling the people of Greater Manchester that people will die because of Manchester politicians; it’s not our fault your granny will die, it’s theirs.
Bastard!
Sadly can’t see the masses ever being too worried about their rights and liberties being taken away. One thing they are usually concerned about is their finances. This video explains the consequences of a digital currency very well – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX7VpTqXJhY
People should be very concerned about what is coming next.
I think a lot of the desperate noise is a vain attempt to extend Furlough for a lot longer. With two weeks to go until it comes tumbling down I can see why many will be desperate to extend it, 80% is better than universal credit (which he was quick to mention today by the way).
Ironic thing is they never needed to do any of this.
Extending furlough for another 6 months is probably a dead cert. The financial system as we know it is pretty much finished – the amount of digital money created world world over the past few years especially the last few months is literally of the scale.
Once we more to the inevitably digital currency, it will be yet another control mechanism for the establishment in place. Truly dystopian once you understand the consequences.
Which is why they are perpetuating all the nonsense. Never in the history of the world have TPTB spent so much of everyone else’s money to create an illusion of “victory” over a non existent “enemy”.
Hey. The country is heading home to try to get through a weekend, let’s do a 4pm presser and rabbit on about fictional testing. Modelling, restrictions and ensure that those who are suicidal kill themselves over the weekend.
A 4pm Friday press conference! Beyond contempt
Indeed. Even the timing of these bollocks theatricals, are all part of the ‘behavioural science’ they’re beating people with.
I’ll be looking forward to those modelling groups letting the press know that these are just models and in no way do they represent data that drives policy. That’s all up to the politicians
They have all got Covid Syndrome which is very similar to Stockholm Syndrome,a psychological response, which occurs when hostages bond with their Covid Cartel. This psychological connection develops over the course of the days, weeks, months,
Exponentially?
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/cases
Can’t post the graph but needless to say very different from Vallances models
Also worth bearing in mind that testing has increased – last couple of days they’ve done around 300,000 tests
300,000 tests. 20,000 cases. 330,000 people tested Do Not Have Covid. That’s GREAT GREAT NEWS. let’s go on TV for no apparent reason and depress everyone…..
here
Nice graph, Steve; what are you using?
That’s CEBM. Updated daily.
Ta much, matt.
Note the flattening out of the positive tests per specimen date. Oct 2 to 4 very similar to 9 to 11, assuming no further spreadsheet problems.
Sky’s Sam Coates.
He suggests “that daily case numbers of 40,000-50,000 a day surely justify more “draconian” action and asks whether the UK is ignoring the lessons of the first wave in not now considering some sort of circuit break, as is being contemplated in Wales.
The PM says “urgent action” is being taken with the highest prevalence and there are “areas of the country that need to do more”.
He says he believes the package of local and national measures can bring the R number back down below 1, without the need for a blanket lockdown which will close schools and businesses.
“That is the trade off. It is incredibly difficult and we think the local approach is the best one for now.”
However, he says he will not rule out the introduction of much tougher measures if needed.
And Vallance says, from an epidemiological point of view, the stronger and quicker the action, the better.“
What dirty dirty bastards.
Christ almighty, I’m shouting at the bloody tv. How the hell is there no challenge to this bullshit?
Why are Sky ‘reporters ‘ calling for more draconian measures? What has happened to challenge and balance and perspective in this country?
There will be a Witchfinder General appointed next.
Mathew Hopkins would do a better job
Already in Parliament, we have a Matthew H…
I would set the real one on the house.
The balance is in comments from msm, the DM today Boris Brings Back the Sex ban, and the comments are hilarious. Doesnt end the situation but does show what people think
Are sceptical reporters banned from these shindigs, or do papers only send lockdown maniacs?
That’s what I wondered. It’s just an echo chamber for Dr Doom and Professor Gloom.
Why is no ‘journalist’ standing up and saying that several respected Virologists and Epidemiologists are challenging their figures and the actions that arise from them?
It’s like they are all employed by ‘The Völkischer Beobachter’ or ‘Pravda’!
This is all being manipulated to make Whitty & Valances “graph of doom” predictions look like it is coming true, rather than making them look like the arseholes that they actually are.
Can someone please have a word with Matt Hancock – this is what happens when you let it rip.
https://twitter.com/nmrqip/status/1317058705658175488?s=09
Done
The only way you’ll get a word into Hancock’s thick skull is if you use a hammer and chisel. Enjoy your meet up :o))
Manchester – why is there even a conversation about this https://twitter.com/Anshul__K/status/1317124151203737602?s=09
I am signing off for the night. Too angry. Looking forward to meeting up with Two-Six and CGL tomorrow.
Yes I need to give it a rest too! See you then then!!!
I got one of those letters from ONS about coming to your house doing a survey and testing you. Read it, laughed and put in the bin. £50 pound payout to take part, which im sure would be tempting for a lot of people. Cash for cases, absolute scandal and fraud of the highest order.
Mrs Tenchy got one from the NHS and IPSOS-Mori. They’d send you a test to do yourself, and no payment! Straight in the bin.
Is this a one off payment of £50 or is it £50 per test? If per test I’d sign up, pocket £50 and ignore any results.
Its £50 for you participating for the 1st time, and if i recall correctly £25 there after, if you re apply or they contact you again.
Swab a different vegetable each week, easy money although highly likely to see you having to self isolate.
We got one of those. Straight in the bin. Then we got a follow up begging request. Straight in the bin – again!
I didnt get a follow up letter Lili, ill keep an eye out for it and use it to wipe my arse!
… and then send it back to them.
A young couple I know signed up for this. The swabber comes to you to do it. Second time swabber rings to arrange, they’re going out to visit family, tell him they’ll be home after 5 pm. He says he doesn’t work after 5 pm, will ring next day to re arrange. They never heard from him again. How is this a random sample survey if this is happening? coincidentally I noticed a swabber here earlier today saying they are able to make appointments up to 9 pm?
Told them to complain to ONS.
Does anyone know if there will be another protest tomorrow in Trafalgar square and if so what time it starts – am sure I saw something a week or two ago about a protest on the 17th Oct but when I google it I just get page after page of black lives matter protest info.
It appears so – go to events. https://www.standupx.info/
Great thanks.
Not at Trafalgar Square. March starting from Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park at 1pm.
Sadly gone very low key on the events. I have a feeling that the only chance we have of seeing 100,000 plus on the streets of London this year will be a Met police / City Hall / Celebrity endorsed protest against the US election result if it doesn’t go to plan.
Londoners on the whole don’t care about tyranny in their own country.
Just walked into a room with BBC news on the TV. Fuck me they are going full on propaganda. Firstly one of their health correspondents helpfully explained the R number…
“If your R rate is 1.5 and you have 10 infected people, they will go on to infect 15 others”. Yep, fine so far… “And then those infected people will each go on to infect another 15 people”. What? Hang on a bit, did you fail GCSE maths? Maybe I misheard, because I can’t believe a health correspondent can be so utterly stupid.
Next article, did Sweden get it right? They through up a few bar charts for total deaths in different countries and kept emphasizing the poor comparison to their neighbours. Surprise surprise there was no chart showing the complete lack of deaths in the second wave.
Next a discussion about their surprise that 40% of hospital admissions are for under 60s, which apparently shows that it is getting serious for younger people. Nope, I don’t think so BBC. What it actually shows is that at least 40% of people reported as being admitted with Covid are actually there for other reasons and have incidentally had a positive test.
Next, a little chat between the health correspondent and the newsreader trying to reassure each other that long Covid was really serious, especially in young people and we will be “talking about it for years”.
BBC One now detuned from that TV.
Defund them, you know it makes sense!
And this is why the Government has u-turned on decriminalising the licence fee; payment for a job well done.
The government can’t even be bothered to be subtle about it.
And yet so many still think that lying excuse for “News” is somehow trustworthy and impartial.
From the Spectator
“ The NHS had been preparing for a second wave with ‘Seacole Centres’ devoted to Covid convalescents. This was deemed unnecessary given the expectation that test-and-trace would would work and – it was argued – would flatten any second wave. So funding for more Seacole Centres was refused by the Treasury, and billions funnelled to Dido Harding’s outfit instead. When that failed, the NHS ended up being used as the backstop. So what’s happening now was not in the original plan”
How come Mr NHS Hancock has not resigned ? Dildo Harding too ?
Hospitals named after a hotel keeper who never did one minute of nursing in her life. Makes as much sense as anything else right now.
She was better than Florence Nightingale who has had an easy ride by history.
Florence killed more soldiers in the hospital afterwards from the charge of the light brigade than the Russians did.
Seacole was an interesting and likeable character, but she never went near a hospital in her life.
Anyway I don’t really want to go down this road while fanatics are burning down our way of life so I’ll say no more.
You may enjoy a book called Hell Riders if you like historical books about military idiocy.
Our military leadership and the way they treat the troops doesn’t seem to ahem changed much in 200 years.
Sounds good ta, will look it up. On Max Hastings’ “Catastrophe: Europe 1914” at the mo.
Then there’s Saul David’s ‘ Churchill’s Sacrifice of the 51st Highland Division’. Austere granite monument sombrely overlooks St Valery en Caux.
Another who wins writes the history
https://twitter.com/MartinKulldorff/status/1315382222858280960
Meanwhile back in Sweden, South Korea, Japan, Belarus and all other countries that either didn’t have lock down or are now back to normal and the people are dying on the streets. Errrr sorry they are just back to normal.
Well let’s be fair, Japan has limited the number of people who can attend live events.
To 5000….
Well, call me Mr Angry if you like, but I say again, I want to see people hanged for this.
Get in the queue!
Or a very, very large audience…
Hanging is too good for the bastards. How’s about hung drawn and quartered. We can then put their heads on traitors gate.
Abraham Lincoln said “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”The SAGE team just can’t accept they were wrong. They should be disbanded and replaced!
I’m not a regular pub goer but I had to laugh this afternoon. Mrs Hopkins does her shopping whilst I get my haircut from a lovely young Iranian bloke who gives me his life story about fleeing from his country (he’s Kurdish) and loves life in Leeds. He even supports Leeds united—which I thought was exchanging one miserable existence for another but of course I didn’t say that. He was so pleasant and easy going that I gave him a big tip which just shows how upbeat I was feeling.
I then went to my favourite Otley pub for just one pint (Timothy Taylor Landlord if you must know) and was greeted by the new landlord who has only just taken over the place. Gave him my name (Hopkins of course) and my mobile no. (composed of memorable dates of my life to date) and he asked me to sit down while he fetched my drink. We had a lovely chat during which his mask gradually slipped further down his face until it barely covered his chin. Our conversation was interspersed by people coming in sporting various face coverings ranging from a dirty crud stained yellow to a sparkling diamante effect (worn by a lady I should emphasise in case you were wondering).
But the biggest laugh for me was a large, over weight bloke who came in, totally unmasked, and said ‘Pint of bitter please’ to which the young bar man replied ‘have you got a mask?’. The reply was music to my ears. After all my painstaking efforts to plot the right approach for any given situation this chap said with a puff and a huff ‘can’t be bothered with all that shite—just show me where to sit and give me my beer!’ And he was served and attended to.
Horses for courses of course and we all negotiate these crazy hurdles we are faced with as best we can, I don’t think that ‘can’t be bothered with all that shite’ will secure a place in my mask resisting armoury—-but I did enjoy witnessing it.
Brilliant, obviously not a diffident type!
#metoo – on both counts
MW
Sounds like the Junction .
You obviously know my town well
Best drinking town in Yorkshire-though to me the Old Cock is the best. I’ll be back once the muzzle nonsense goes -can’t cope with seeing all the muzzles on staff and on drinkers as they enter, leave and go to see a man about a dog.
‘go to turn my bicycle around’
Is the dog muzzled?
Has to be unless under 11 or exempt
Grandson at uni has Covid symptoms (tiredness, loss of sense of smell) Otherwise feels fine. And has no intention of getting tested!
Rest, fluids, vitamins and normal cold/flu remedies, sure he’ll be fine.
Sensible.
Go for it!
Jesus, re-emphasize … for the love of God … Do.Not.Get.Tested!
Elder son had loss of taste and smell in March when he was turfed out of uni. It wasn’t acknowledged as a symptom then. It lasted 4 or 5 days, and he had a slightly raised temperature for one night, and a cough for a day. Suggest switch to white wine to avoid suspicion!
Johnson’s emphasis on giving money to these regions for ‘local contact tracing’ is an admittance that the 12 billion quid wasted on the national program is a failure. Sack Harding now!
https://twitter.com/kylamb8/status/1316890374120628224
“I’m writing a deeper dive but here is the shocking number that should be headline news: 97.9% 97.9% decrease of confirmed flu cases to WHO FluNet/GISRS from weeks 15 through 40 from 2019 to 2020. Last year, 119,737 confirmed flu cases (9.32% positive) This year, 2,457 (0.18%)”
Even taking into account that during this time interval Northern Hemisphere is not high flu season, only Southern Hemisphere should have had the usual “winter” flu.
A 97% reduction of confirmed flu is extraordinary and it is not caused by reduced testing. Is C-19 competing with flu? Perhaps C-19 just replacing flu this year and how will that affect any excess mortality?
I mean this is the suspected thing. Its so mind bending to me that they’ve just reclassified this and we have gone through what we have done.
Vernon Coleman said this ABOUT Australia around 6 weeks ago when they had flu data released.
On a scale of 1 to 10, where do you put this on the smell test? 1 being the most likely to be true.
Actually someone posted this in that thread. Auz flu levels have simply disappeared
Here is the WHO data source
https://apps.who.int/flumart/Default?ReportNo=7
Also Levitt retweeted.
https://twitter.com/MLevitt_NP2013/status/1316975429266382850
New Zealand. No flu. Is this just bad data?
I sent a graph very similar to that to Alan Jones at Sky News Australia. Said he’d look into it; not sure if they ever did, as I never got an update from him.
Isn’t it more likely that a bunch of the Covid deaths were actually people dying of flu? There weren’t many tests available during most of the main part of the epidemic.
Australia and NZ have actually suppressed everything including flu. In most other places lockdowns had a fairly temporary effect. They probably reduced flu deaths a bit but not by that much.
I think the reduction in pos flutest 97% and the same, if not more flu tests being done this year, is a real reduction.Let us take 3 countries reasonably developed with enormous C-19 outbreaks.Argentina,Chile,South africa.They are all participating in flu data and flu has disappeared during the severe C-19 epidemics in all three countries. The famous twindemics might not occur also in Europe? They have even difficulties to design the right flu vaccine for next year as there has been so low circulating fluvirus in the Southern hemisphere.
Trouble is that they will put it down to the effectiveness of face masks.
I’ve just about got over a bout of tonsillitis. My thoughts were so much for masks keeping others safe.
Also, this entirely destroys the argument that we need to “protect the NHS” from a double hit of Covid and flu. It clearly will be one or the other!?
I don’t see how it could be anything else. Similar vulnerable cohorts. It’s possible you could have both infections, either in sequence or together, but you certainly can’t die twice.
Latest patronising idiocy from Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead. Cannot cut and paste the entire announcement but this one paragraph of it is, well, incredible:
‘Local businesses have – in the main – been scrupulous in the measures they have taken. Yet, if people don’t change their behaviour and show they care about their friends and families, it will be those businesses that close.’
WHAT???????
FFS.
We get a weekly exhortion which is fast becoming known as the Friday Doom email. Today’s pronouncement from the gods is that no matter what the outside weather, we must have plenty of ventilation in the rooms we use and so ‘warm clothes’ are needed. Also ‘we do not want to see packs of cleaning wipes unused in rooms’.
RBWM sent out an announcement tonight, they intend to request the borough move to Tier 2 next week… all I can suggest is that people contact MPs/councillors to protest?!
I saw. I think my protest emails all go to MPs junk mail now. Don’t think I even scratch the surface of their virtue signalling skins….
I’ve emailed the lead councillor and MP. Doubt it will do much good and I get fearful about sticking the head above the parapet as the ‘public face’ of all this is to be pro-lockdown (which I think explains some of the opinion polls), but this is too important to not be true to onesself.
You live in the borough? If you’d like to PM to talk more you can on the forums here… !
Waste of time.They are after the government bribe
This is about money and the shift to councils becoming local franchises of the ‘Great Reset’ programme. When you write, spell it out:
https://www.ukcolumn.org/ for more info. MW
Nothing like a bit of emotional blackmail to keep the sheep in line.
Had to go into work this morning to do a course. Was last in that particular building (have been working elsewhere on site) March 25th. We had a 24/7 operation 6am Monday to 4am Saturday morning, with two mini shifts Saturday and Sunday. If we could squeeze 48 hours into 24, we did.
This morning, the factory was totally silent, and almost totally empty.
Mate that’s dreadful. How do you think things will go?
Right, going silent now. Will be back Sunday morning, see you all then.
WHAT THE “BLEEDIN HELL” is a substantial meal?
I course?,3 courses with coffee?
“Oh, and a doggie bag for our pet virus”
It means you can’t class the sale of bags of crisps as meaning that the pub serves ‘food’ and can therefore be classed as a restaurant..
So….are we still chalking it up to incompetence???
This pandemic is crap, let’s slash the seats.
Bottoms up everyone.
Until the media and government scientists started rubbishing the view of ‘doubting’ scientists, one could maybe say yes.
Now, not so much.
Have to add:
Using the MSM to spread their fake numbers (‘cases’, deaths, hospital numbers and admissions)
Using the MSM and social media to close down any dissenting views
Tories giving huge contracts to their friends (massive corruption)
Buying off local government with bribes (massive corruption)
Saying, “we don’t want to do this”, and then doing it anyway
Too many countries taking the exact same measures, even though they’ve seen them fail elsewhere
More when I think of them…
Dripford the Welsh Terrier now says that “Firebreak” lockdowns are a-coming in.
Circuit breakers are so yesterday.
Circuit breaker are English, which is why they won’t work!!
Ever seen film of a fire leaping a firebreaks? It takes about five seconds.
I said to Mrs-2-6 this morning that they would use the term fire-break. SO predictable.
I don’t think that the Welsh public are going to go along with it, no matter what Dripford says. Oh, yeah there are the mask wearers, but how much of a minority do you have to be to actively undermine all this bravo sierra.
Dripford! Love it.
Dripfeed. Aka Josef Stalin II.
We have lots of sheep, from two species…
If you believe in democracy, sign the petition: Repeal the Coronavirus Act 2020. At least 100,000 signatures are needed for it to be considered by the Speaker for debate in Parliament. (Nearly there with 90,155, as I write.)
Do you have a link?
The sheer anger on tonight’s comments thread is strangely exhilarating
Mrs C has just put on a recording of Bob Ross painting to calm me down.
Ah, happy little trees.
My mood is more van Dyke brown than happy little trees.
Aaah Bob Ross a stoners dream
Mr TT is a huge fan. He has sleep problems and often gets up during the night – watches either ‘whispering Bob’ or NHK TV with a cup of decaf tea!
Err… yes… em… interesting.
So I’m guessing I made the right decision to work the last few hours instead of watching the brainwash box.
I’d ask for a summary but their bullshit is so predictable I probably knew what they’d say before they did.
I would say that press conference and the outright lies make it probably the worst so far. There is no possible way this is still incompetence. It has to be conspiracy. It’s incredibly depressing.
I’m really down right now. And my 2nd son was born yesterday! It just feels so bitter sweet, given the world he has been born into.
Congratulations on the birth of your son.
Congratulations. Best wishes to all your family
Nice one, Ken. Hope Mrs A and baby are both well.
Forget this bollocks for a while and enjoy your new son.
I didn’t see it. Did they announce anything that seems to tie in with this plan? https://thecanadianreport.ca/is-this-leaked-memo-really-trudeaus-covid-plan-for-2021-you-decide/
I’m looking for patterns with other countries..
Congratulations on the new addition to your family!
Congrats! Raise him to know the truth.
Hear, hear.
Do NOT let the bastards rob you of joy in your new son!
Yes. Congratulations.
But, you’d be insane to wish this on your son’s future – or anyone’s.
The venality of government + SAGE is hard to comprehend and, as you say, smells of much more than simple incompetence.
Clearly, the doubling down on absurdity can only be explained by (a) follow the vast amounts of money (b) follow the power trip and (c) follow the sad psychology of the perpetrators.
What there isn’t – is any evidence, scientific method, credibility or sense of proportion and balance.
Congratulations on the birth of your son.
Congrats on the birth of your son mate!
Your son will do just fine. He has you and your wife as his parents. Some children have parents whose minds are closed.
Thanks everyone! I think I might take a week or so out, go completely cold turkey on it all even LS, and just concentrate on him.
Good idea I think. Celebrate. Can get better
Leave us and enjoy this special time with your new baby and his mum – and many congratulations btw! He has you as parents – he will know right from wrong.
Keep your spirits up. Join with all of us who WILL NOT let your son grow up in a world of zombie slaves.
I can’t take this anymore. I’m sick of feeling unhappy every single day and of the prospect of being a prisoner in my own home. I’m going to pack up and move to Sweden before the new year, even if I have to live in AirBnBs for the time being. Admittedly, some research is needed first. My understanding is that if I arrive before the Brexit cut-off, I’ll be able to establish permanent residency on the same terms as someone from the Schengen area – is that right? Does anyone have any recommendations in terms of jobs? Thank you in advance.
That’s amazing, less than a minute ago I was googling moving to Sweden and saw I had to do it before the end of the year
Two minutes ago I told my youngest we should move to Sweden!
I can recommend Sweden. I know the small town of Tranås. Seems like a great place to raise a family.
It looks lovely, admittedly on Google Maps. It reminds me of where I grew up.
I might visit next year if they haven’t “caught up” with everywhere else in the latest trendy stupid diktats.
You’re not the only one with that thought.
Please do remember that Sweden is not perfect and there is no guarantee it would be ‘exempt’ from any global reset in the long run…
I’m not expecting perfection, of course. Even a short period of respite from the current COVIDocracy would be welcome.
Id try Belarus (if I was a few decades younger).
I would too if I were better looking.
I am hearing that Sweden is very likely equally involved. My other half works there and I go too. There are also disturbing things going on in terms of 5g side effects that are already happening there. It isn’t the Utopia that people think.
I live in Sweden
Being exempt from that bell-end Hancock would be more than enough right now.
I understand! I usually come to the UK for Christmas with my family who all live there, but right now the prospect of that (if even ‘allowed’) is extremely depressing…
my advice is if Dr. yeadon is right, it will be embarrassingly obvious before any Circuit Break is over, so stick it out for the denouement.
I hope so. Getting through today has been tough, particularly with Chris Green hinting on Twitter that the regime has years of this misery in mind for us. I can’t take being gaslighted by them for much longer.
I’m starting to think the whole point of Brexit is to stop British folk being able to relocate away from this fascist hellhole.
A point raised by skeptics is that Covid is not much different from flu but we don’t see draconian laws, hysterical media coverage, being told to social distance etc. However is there any way Covid is more dangerous than regular flu. For instance, there was a story in my paper about a young fireman who become very I’ll and was suffering from long term effects. Is it common for young people to become very I’ll with long term effects with flu.
Unfortunately yes it is. Although it’s relatively uncommon – but then so is long Covid.
Also literally anyone can self-identify as suffering from Long Covid, even if they have had no symptoms, positive test or evidence of infection whatsoever at any point in the past. And any symptom under the sun is faithfully added to the now gargantuan list. If you tried that with flu, you’d get pretty short shrift from the medical profession I’m sure.
Is it the case to scaremonger and whip up hysteria, the mainstream media are concentrating on the small number of young people who get severe Covid symptoms.
I also think we need to move slightly away from this as the main point of attack because before we know it hysteria will become permanent because of the precautionary principle, if it saves one life, blah blah blah…
The immune system can go into spasm and start attacking the body after any viral challenge, Google Guillaine Barre syndrome, Kawasaki disease, viral fatigue syndrome, ME etc etc. CV19 almost exclusively kills the over 70s; arguably flu is more dangerous, it kills babies too.
Asian flu killed several thousand in 1957/8
Don’t know if it’s common, but long-term side effects from the flu have been documented for sure:
eg. “Patients who survive influenza A (H7N9) virus infection are at risk of physical and psychological complications of lung injury and multi-organ dysfunction.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-17497-6
Keeping with the ‘long’ theme, there appears to be a “long swine flu”:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3424870/
and “long e-coli”:
https://www.infectioncontroltoday.com/view/e-coli-infection-linked-long-term-health-problems
Can you imagine someone before 2020 telling you that they had a cold or the flu but were not displaying any symptoms?
Exactly…
The great chess player Akiba Rubinstein was convinced that a fly was following him from city to city as he went from one tournement to another.
In Boris’s case it’s probably true.Beekzebub, Lord of the Flies.
Good point! I’m going to start using that in conversation…
And that, despite having no symptoms, they are now suffering from a post-viral syndrome that we could call, off the top of my head, Long Flu.
“the lockdown zealots write a rebuttal claiming to speak on behalf of the entire scientific community.”
This is exactly the same play as with the climate change debate, except there’s no real attempt at a proper debate, just censorship and dismissal, and I am coming to the conclusion that it’s for exactly the same goal, i.e. the destruction of Western economies and nations in particular, and capitalism generally. Those that do this have said so.
This virus just gets them there a lot quicker.
“And I’m here to say that XR isn’t about the climate. You see, the climate’s breakdown is a symptom of a toxic system of that has infected the ways we relate to each other as humans and to all life. This was exacerbated when European ‘civilisation’ was spread around the globe through cruelty and violence (especially) over the last 600 years of colonialism, although the roots of the infections go much further back.
As Europeans spread their toxicity around the world, they brought torture, genocide, carnage and suffering to the ends of the earth. Their cultural myths justified the horrors, such as the idea that indigenous people were animals (not humans), and therefore God had given us dominion over them. This was used to justify a multi-continent-wide genocide of tens of millions of people. The coming of the scientific era saw this intensify, as the world around us was increasingly seen as ‘dead’ matter — just sitting there waiting for us to exploit it and use it up. We’re now using it up faster than ever.”
https://medium.com/extinction-rebellion/extinction-rebellion-isnt-about-the-climate-42a0a73d9d49
“What if a small group of world leaders were to conclude that the principal risk to the Earth comes from the actions of the rich countries? And if the world is to survive, those rich countries would have to sign an agreement reducing their impact on the environment. Will they do it? The group’s conclusion is ‘no’. The rich countries won’t do it. They won’t change. So, in order to save the planet, the group decides: Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”
Maurice Strong, who started the UN IPCC
Just stick to the knitting. Leave out the climate change stuff.
It’s the same tactics. That’s my point. And no need to be rude, thank you.
He’s a hypocritical lefty twat.
Well, interesting. That’s the most personal insult I’ve seen on this site. Once we move away from the topic under discussion, i.e., lockdown scepticism, personal insults are in order?
You obviously haven’t noticed Biker’s comments!
Rick didn’t say anything rude. He said that same thing that I often say. Climate change is not relevant to the topic at hand. The government sets lockdown policies, not XR.
it is relevant when in context – making the point of how “the scientific community” is being used to pan the GBD in the same way as the climate change zealots also quote “the scientific community” in criticising any climate scepticism.
Both claiming this mythical scientific community supports their veiwpoint
I would agree that if it is not in context then comments should remain on topic
Belief in man-made climate change is the gateway drug to believing in Covid-19 being as dangerous as it is. Same vague data and use of hypothetical techniques to create data and then apply it to real world policy without validation or verfication.
So yes it is pertinent and something I’ve been saying on here since the start of the site.
I think it’s extremely relevant.covid 19 and the response is to bring about Agenda21/30 The great reset.
Why is Johnson talking about windmills and why are cycle lanes being installed all over the world.
Climate change was just a hoax to control us.They found/devised a better one
He always keeps on about “hobby horses” when other areas are mentioned even when as in this case it is fair comment made in context showing comparisons .
He’s had a go at me before for doing something similar – comparing the BBC attitude and fearmongering about covid with their same approach to climate change even though again that was fair comment, relevant and in context .
I did note a couple of days ago a comment he made comparing something covid related with brexit (which is something he clearly isn’t in favour of). So he is happy to go on about his own hobby horses whether relevant or not
His main hobby horse is an actual conspiracy theory that the coronapanic is “driven by the far right”, who apparently in his mind run this government as well. Not sure how he has managed to imagine up a “far right” who worship the NHS and the magic money tree, allow their senior police officers to “take a knee” to anti-white racists and would-be statue-topplers, and persistently fail to do anything about the unprecedented mass immigration unleashed by Blair and continued ever since, under three “Conservative” Prime Ministers.
Desperation,I suppose.
Did someone get paid for coming up with the slogan ‘hands, face, space’? Seriously? Why not hands, knees and boomps-a-daisy? Or ‘hands, farce, arse’?
I always thought those pesky fish were slippery, especially the (Mc)Sturgeon, who, by the way, has a rather fetching tartan face mask with her initials on it. But shouldn’t they read WK (for Wee Krankie), not NS?
consider the state of mind of a person who wears a face mask with their initials on it
these people are insane
Indeed. Maybe a creative Lockdown Sceptic could design an LS mask and we can find imaginative ways of wearing/ using them? Perhaps a cosy hammock for your pet gerbil?
It’s the mark the Beast.
National Socialist, presumably?
Maybe NS = Not Sane?
Rule of 3. Classic propaganda formula. MW
I think it’s more of an NLP thing, the triad of goals or facts.
https://bylinetimes.com/2020/08/03/fatal-vagueness-these-three-word-slogans-will-be-the-death-of-us/
Hands. Face. Space.”
The newest three-word slogan from a Government which seems to formulate policy using only fridge magnets. Its vagueness goes to the heart of this administration’s failure to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic effectively. A deadly virus has been treated, from the very start, not as a public health emergency, but as a public relations crisis.
It’s not a deadly virus, or it is so long as the common cold is too. Course it’s possibly deadly if you’re over 80, but then so is getting out of bed
For an 80 year old getting out of bed may be more deadly if they fall and fracture their hip.
How about
Smash. This. Government.
Spi B probably.3 slogans are more memorable
Anyone interested in Tesco’s complete risks assessment?
Here they are:
https://www.tescoplc.com/about/how-we-do-business/staying-covid-19-secure-in-2020-in-the-uk/
Will have a full read over the weekend but they basically take the guidelines and put them in a risk assessment format.
Their customer services cannot grasp the fact that guidelines are not law, “in close contact” does not mean wear mask t all times and that it is a breach of H+S law for their staff not to be briefed on the dangers masks can cause.
It is so annoying that businesses up and down the country complied so stringently when all the measures were just guidance. Now, when more people are waking up, government is tightening it and inevitably more and more will become law. Then it goes from being easy to say no to, because there weren’t consequences before, to prosecutions and having to fight in court, which is expensive and difficult, not to mention with the sate of judges “trusting what they see on the news” is not hopeful. But still many have to follow the Liverpool gyms lead and say no, not just to local restrictions but all of them.
As above. If it became law. It serves no purpose when you cannot ever prove without the absence of doubt, the place an infection took place and that the risk from the infection was so severe that the measure of control was necessary. If we (lay people) had the money to take the Gov to court, they would not and could not win. The law does not apply on possible and maybes
Loads of businesses are making the same mistakes. The one thing that is blindingly obvious when you do a RA (I’ve done a few!) is that you cannot and must not invent the risk and it is
essential to appreciate that the health and safety assessment required is not of the risk of transmission of the Covid-19 virus! An assessment is of the risk of significant danger. Those are fundamentally different things.
For example the risk of transmission of a common covid or flu virus may be high, but the risk of significant danger is, no matter how much others pretend, is extremely small !
You could essentially say. We have assessed the premises and we assess no controls are necessary and here is why…..
Added in is the fact you can’t EVER realistically prove you caught a virus from a premises, no matter how many Meal Deals they sell.
.
So the government have run out of students to test them????
Numerous halls of residence are through their lockdowns and herd immunity is done and dusted.
As the students were strictly locked down that won’t have passed to the local community.
It will be touted as local lockdowns working. Suddenly. After several weeks.
Got a source for that, hotrod?
I do worry that they will try to start testing them on a weekly monthly basis “to keep universities safe2.
My point of reference is could I stand next to any of this duplicitous lot with a weapon, no I couldn’t
I don’t think even the cuckmiester Toby can pretend this is just incompetence and stupidity any more this is pure evil
Don’t be hard on Toby.
I don’t think it’s incompetence either, but Toby’s work is exposing just that – ie it shows that what is happening is not explicable in terms of conventional political thinking.
It’s like the television Detective Lt. Columbo, who patiently built his case, putting his suspect into the corner, until eventually the unspoken truth was obvious.
Not being hard on him really just quoting his friend James
It is evil, but incompetence begets evil. Trying to cover up errors and minor crimes is very often a precursor for worse deeds. They have screwed up monumentally, and they know it. Everything flows from that.
As a Christian, I believe there are forces for good and evil that are greater than human beings, but use them.
The Devil doesn’t need to sport a pitchfork and horns and a tail. Total evil can enter any person or group that consents to it.
Even God cannot save a soul that refuses to be saved. Hell exists if you make it for yourself.
Heaven is offered to those who reject evil.
Evil CANNOT enter an unconsenting soul.
DO NOT CONSENT.
The question you need to answer is why are other western governments
Incompetent and evil in the same way
Sink your teeth into this excellent thread!
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1317009458325786624.html
This really is an extremely excellent analysis. Good find.
Dr Clare clearly reveals the direct relationship between massively increased NHS hospital PCR testing and increases in falsely reported Covid19 death stats.
The analysis then goes a step further by revealing the shift in ethnic mix of falsely reported Covid19 deaths away from BAME….which can only be caused by false positives and testing.
See for yourselves.
Have to agree; Clare Craig has been brilliant all through this nonsense.
Really knows here stuff.
Wow, Dr Mike Yeardon’s article is fantastic. Telling it simply enough for everyone to understand and brutally destroying SAGE in the process. More people NEED to read it.
Just noticed you can hear him now as he was on talk radio earlier and it is on youtube,today julia hartley brewer
What the government meant to say:
“We either don’t know what we’re doing or we are being told what to do. Make your own mind up. Either way it’s immaterial, the end result will be the same. We don’t care about any of you, and could not care less whether you are alive or dead. Your wellbeing is irrelevant. We will continue to restrict your lives until there is nothing left to ban or impose. In time, there will be nowhere to go and no means of getting there. And while we’re at it, we are taking all of your money for good measure. Good evening.“
Exactly..
Too much…
ALL RT-qPCR certified!
Nah, I thought it was the queue for the dole office
Three weeks to flatten the curve.
Now forever to eradicate.
“The modern media is not a machine you can trust. Not ever. It is a construction built to control and corral opinion. To shuffle the public mind around a game-board they do not know they are on, based on rules they must never be allowed to understand. It serves no other function. It doesn’t “tell the truth sometimes”; it isn’t “occasionally trustworthy”. It’s a buffet of poisoned courses, selectively stacking your plate to suit your palate will not spare you the toxic effects. You’ll just smile as you choke.”
(https://off-guardian.org/2020/10/16/__trashed-2/)
20 year old German woman talking sense on covid and climate change.
Naomi Seibt speaks to InfoWars:
https://2020electioncenter.com/watch?id=5f88e20a83eec81353fe72ec
Very very good.
Came across her a while back – she’s great! And unlike Greta, she can speak without a script…Have people seen what happens when Greta doesn’t have a script? It’s quite enlightening… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohBiFEHl7s
Greta is simply being used and abused by her parents.
True! And not just her parents; she has a ‘handler’ as well..
She has indeed, Carrie; they claim, of course that that isn’t true.
It’s a boy
Wow – I wonder if she ever did another press conference.
Regarding all those people on here who have been having their heads done in for them by watching the arseholes show their contempt for everyone by lying through their teeth, I just saw this comment from ‘tonyopmoc’ on Off-Guardian and thought I’d share it:
TV is Like sticking your head into a Washing Machine.
One of the best things we’ve ever done, about 15 years ago, was get rid of the TV. Shortly afterwards we stopped listening to anything other than music and the occasional play on BBC radio. We have never participated in social media. To this we reckon we owe what passes for our sanity. MW
Here’s my handy guide to The Great Barrington Declaration vs the New Normal. Please feel free to share with anyone who dismisses the GBD as “non scientific”
Hi Nick
The attached file is too small to read, even when clicked on to open.
Thanks Dave. Hopefully this should do it:
photo to url
Excellent indeed! Definitely being shared.
I’d swap the last three reds over if I were you. People look at green and think of a positive outcome whether they’ve read it or not.
Just a MAJOR PROBLEM… Those dudes and gals endorse the use of RT-qPCR, so the pandemic will never end, since we only have a pandemic of RT-qPCR “positives” and “negatives” till this day!
I’m not certain about that 4-6X rate of the flu season, though. Doesn’t seem consistent with what we’ve actually seen.
The 4-6x rate is only pandering to the figures that the zealots are throwing around. Bottom line is that the result is the same with both strategies
Would you mind if I tweeted this?
Please do
Some inaccuracies :
Sorry – but this is too kind an analysis.
Very interested to see that, though the image is too small to read on a PC browser – any chance of a resize please?
That’s brilliant. Liking your work Sir.
Nice work, nick.
Those 3 ‘No’s” make all the difference.
This is quite refreshing. Julia Hartley Brewer ripping shreds of low information MPs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtxvrLdh9Bs
Frightening that people like Jenkin and Bridgen seem to be fully paid up Lockdown Lunatics. Clear that JHB like most Talk Radio presenters has had enough of the lying propaganda.
What a wanker Timms is. She clearly feels that she’s talking to a brick wall.
Having now watched all three, they’re equally infuriating – though that “knight” is the most sinister by far because you can tell he understands.
I know it’s sad to mock the afflicted but. watching Timms was cringe inducing ,does that man have to be told every statistic .What is the point of him being employed .
That was unbelievable. Stephen Timms is a decent bloke, experienced, and pretty smart. Julia had him all over the place. Surely after that sort of a drubbing you would go away and reflect. Similarly Andrew Bridgen. Don’t expect much else from Sir Bernard – his article in the Telegraph a couple of weeks ago (about putting the army out, a la Tobias Ellwood) was a disgrace – he is Establishment through and through.
Re Timms. He started by saying that it was quite right for London to go to Tier 2 and then showed he didn’t have a clue of the relevant facts. Our legislators – thick as mince lickspittle.
Haha, this is just cringeworthy.
Julia is sceptical about a tier 2 London lockdown based on empirical hospitalisations stats.
Timms is pro tier 2 London lockdown cos he knows a few more people that have got it.
Beyond satire.
It’s a plausible theory what this yeadon fella suggests, and I might buy it; but what if he is wrong….. so I don’t buy it yet, I have to see this second wave dissipate; and so far it has NOT. Once it does, it’s really over bar the shouting (and there will be much shouting since careers have been bet on either side), but it will not take long to know, now. A fe weeks and we will know if yeadon is full of shit, I hope he is not.
You are an epidemiologist and I claim my £10.
sorry Yeadon might be right, and we will know when we see top of current curve. not far off.
Do you actually believe the government’s figures are real?
I believe more people have died of it recently.
Of it or with it?
More people than what? Flu? Stroke? Heart disease? Falling down stairs?
Nope. Covid is a minority pursuit – insignificant in the canon of mortality.
You are ultimately missing the point. It’s nothing to do with the second wave. It’s the arrogant assumption made at the beginning of this, that the State has control over every aspect of ones life and well being.
That a government (anywhere) is able:
1) order you to do what it wants.
2) control who you see
3) separate millions of friends and family
4) deem specific jobs and industry as dispensable
5) lock you up under house arrest for no probable reason.
6) force 80% pay on working people due to their policies
7) use behavioural science to terrorise you and everyone you love
8) stop any democratic process indefinitely
9) Sacrifice the elderly and vulnerable without repercussions
10) Govern by diktat via social media without Parliament approval.
11) Close schools for 6 months and send vulnerable children to the wolves.
Those 11 things, not in an order of importance, are what I am furious about. Not second waves or the 100th wave. If Yeadon is wrong it won’t matter. What has been done has been done and there will be a price to pay.
Even if 1000 people died every day for the whole year it’s comes to 365,000 people. That’s a lot less than ruining the lives of 67,000,000 people. That’s what I simply do not understand. The needs of the many. Sacrificed due to the cowardly few. I don’t want anyone to die. Especially me, but I will one day and I am not stupid enough to think it will be when I am 82…. could be tomorrow and that’s why today matters so much. Life is for living, not being afraid.
What second wave? The one the TV keeps telling you about but that no one can see first hand? That one?
Another “let’s see in a few weeks”. Mayo has been saying that for 6 months. Do you not get It? The jury is in. It would have shown in Sweden months ago. The pandemic is over.
What second wave? The rise in “cases” is a statistical artifact and completely meaningless. Do try to keep up.
A reasonable assumption is that the virus is seasonal, and may lead to some increased mortality in the next few years, over and above the long-running average (though it will be hard to tell in among all the extra cancer etc deaths). But the evidence indicates that the extra deaths, if indeed there are any, will not be of exceptional magnitude.
What we’ve seen doesn’t begin to justify, in any rational mind, the measures that have been taken which are so obviously damaging and which are failing to save many, or any, lives.
IMO the above is the only important argument; the rest is noise.
Facts : There is no ‘second wave’ – just the usual seasonal ripple and rise, with mortality at the bottom of the historical range.
https://twitter.com/kylamb8/status/1317186379483406337
Even if you took CV-19 on face value, 97% drop in global flu levels should at least give you confidence that hospitals will not be overwhelmed, that lockdowns are not needed and you need to up your game because there is a wealth of data to address your concerns.
https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/state-health Chris Whitty on YouTube now talking about the role of the state in public health, was live at 6pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gO2UH3WX5ww
Rammed!
Wow looks amazing! But still within ‘guidelines’ I think.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3oLyFQcGok
Comment on Gateway Pundit
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/10/fire-quack-fauci-new-study-finds-closing-schools-response-covid-19-delayed-herd-immunity-will-increase-overall-deaths/
Rick
Fauci isn’t the head of NIAID because of his expertise with infectious diseases, he’s head of the NIAID because he holds 6 billion dollars in grants from top donor Bill Gates and the pharmaceutical Industries. The reason they donate so much is because when inconvenient facts about their products emerge, Fauci dutifully conceals them. When unpatentable drugs or substances prove to be effective, he colludes with the FDA to demonize them. There is a drug called suramin that’s only approved for African sleeping sickness. In a drug trial of autistic children the drug was enabling children to talk, and was working very well. Fauci ended the study and the FDA made sure no one could use it on anything but african sleeping sickness. – Mikovits book Plague 2014 and Plague of Corruption 2019 covers this. In a Thomas Paine Interview #19 Top microbiologist Mikovits said Suramin, and a drug she and her partner developed called Peptide T would save coronavirus patients. Again, crickets from Fauci and the FDA.
Please can someone give me some hope? Today feels like it’s been the worst day in a long time, with only the promise of worse and worse to come. None of the data matters. The IFR doesn’t matter. The devastation caused by lockdowns doesn’t matter. There’s no exit strategy and they’re not going to stop this no matter what happens. Boris will lock the whole country down again at the flick of a switch and he’ll do it again and again. I know this is defeatist but I’ve been trying to keep hopeful for months now and in the face of all this I just don’t think it’s realistic or possible to keep hoping for an end to it all any more.
Sorry if this is a downer for anyone else. I’m just flat out depressed today.
I sympathise and the last few days have been upsetting. Perhaps I can offer a small glimmer of hope. Today I wrote to the gentleman in Liverpool who refused to close his gym. Seven police constables, carrying firearms, arrived on his premises to fine him. He is refusing to pay. I imagined how I would feel in that situation, so I wrote a brief email of support and contributed to his defence fund. I did not expect a reply, but within a few hours, he wrote back a brief but upbeat and positive message. If someone in his situation can do that, what right have we to be downhearted. There is always hope.
There must always be hope.
In case it’s useful, I’m just reposting a graphic that I created this morning that might help publicise the gym guy’s cause. It might be something that people could post on social media.
Sean’s fundraiser has been proving quite popular (it’s at £48,291 right now), and the prevent gyms closing due to a spike in Covid 19 cases petition is up to 350,788 signatures (an increase of 14,000 since this morning).
The full sized version is here. It’s a bit on the large size for social media posting: I’m in the habit of sizing my designs for t-shirts, hence the high resolution. I can post some smaller-sized versions if anyone wants.
Many people out there are feeling exactly the same, including many with their faces hidden.
It will probably be the conomic/financial situation which will bring this to an end.
It is unsustainable fom so many angles.
Don’t underestimate how far these bastards will push and how far below the U-bend they will swim.
‘Scum’? No. Scum floats on top.
We all feel like that, it’s a roller coaster. I’m just trying to make people see the truth as gently as necessary. Each one I convince to think differently may well convince others and that’s the pathogen I hope to see spreading. Every convert is a small battle won in our war on lies.
Not defeatist whatsoever, but very true. There is no proper science behind the official narrative and no sense behind what the government is doing as it continues to wreak havoc across the country.
It is time to ask what are they really up to and of course we can be sure that it’s got very little to do with fighting an ephemeral shape shifting virus. I apologise for the lack of hope, but as things are at present there isn’t much of it about.
Had a few days like that.
Take a couple of days away from TV, radio, Internet. No news. Spend time outdoors.
You’ll feel better.
Listen to Talk Radio if you need a media fix!
Definitely, Kevin O Sullivan was great tonight, calling out the propaganda and the lies, good chat with James Dellingpole as well. There is plenty of sceptic media out nowadays.
Mike Yeadon on Julia Hartly brewer earlier .Check to out on youtube .
Best wishes Contrarian. I hope you have a good weekend.
I understand as I feel pretty depressed regularly. I think that eventually life will find a way, and we will be free. It may take some time. It may seem like wishful thinking, but that thought enables me to keep going.
When all this is over, we will be able to say we did our level best to oppose this travesty, to stand up for what was right when everyone else was too scared.
I think eventually lots of people will claim to have been lock down skeptics. We will be able to say we actually were. We were never sheep.
True. Be proud.
Life always finds a way.
We are life. We cling to life, real life.
Would you rather be one of the living dead?
Things can change v quickly. The Conservatives went from being totally wedded to the Poll Tax to ditching Mrs Thatcher and the Poll Tax. The Conservatives went from being a pro EU party to being a pro Brexit Party within a couple of months. Labour became a Far Left party on Corbyn’s election. Once we are finally out of the EU there will be no reason to hold on to Boris. A change will come.
Yes i believe you’re right .Most in his party and most other euro sceptics with any say and support ( ie farage and Tice and others ) are waiting to see what deal he gets .After the end of the year whatever happens deal or no deal there will be no need for him and he will be a spent force .I find it very doubtful even if he changed course and ended all restrictions tomorrow he would ever be forgiven by the country ,he has turned out to be a weak and cowardly leader who changes course at the drop of a hat and ( regardless of the made up opinion polls ) will go down in history as one of our most despised prime ministers .
Partly right – but Corbyn was never ‘far left’. A pure Guardian myth.
He would have fitted easily within the Attlee – Macmillan Overton window.
I feel this too. I hold out hope that the truth will emerge eventually and the people in charge kicked out. I also hope there will be some legal retribution in the form of prison for Boris and his cronies but I suspect that is a pipe-dream.
I know one thing though. I’m not going down without a fight. I’m 67 now, but reasonably fit and reckon I can give as good as I get in a bundle. I don’t care what it costs me. My parents’ generation gave their lives for my freedom. I should at least do whatever I can for my own children and grandchildren, so will fight them to my dying breath. If they come for me they’d better come mob handed!
They’ll need two mobs ’cause I’ll be beside you.
Ay up, CF, tell ’em you’ll co-operate and go quietly !
Then produce the machete when they’re off guard.
Thanks for the support. It’s nice to know others are feeling the same, not that I wish this feeling on anyone else of course.
All of us know what you are feeling – we all have days like these. Take heart from knowing that we are all with you in spirit.
I know exactly how you feel. I’ve been particularly down the last few days. I’m trying so hard to stay upbeat but the evil arrogance of politicians, their cohorts, and their paying masters is beyond comprehension. Their refusal to stop the destruction of the country and its people proves they are following a much bigger agenda with billions of money at stake in big pharma, to pump us with unlicensed vaccines. My feeling is that they are getting desparate to push this through because the “virus” isn’t as virulent as they thought (hoped?) and people are waking up and questioning this. We are all under tremendous attack from a spiritual as well as physical point of view. We have to stay positive and stay in the light, help each other – even those who refuse to see – to rise above this. They are trying to destroy us but we are stronger than that, our energy threatens them. Stay upbeat, and find something to laugh at everyday – I find BBC news headlines useful for this, and don’t let it get to you, because this is what they want. Stay strong. Stay sane. We’re all with you.
“My feeling is that they are getting desparate to push this through because the “virus” isn’t as virulent as they thought (hoped?)”
That, actually, is the ‘good’ news.
The actuality of the virus is way, way below the advertised level, and the vaccine money correspondingly remote, that only absurd fiction can keep the narrative alive.
The question is whether more people will twig how absurd is the whole pantomime.
People’s inherent humanity will come through – it always does in the end, even in the face of inhumane politicians.
Try to forget about all this for a few days and enjoy some of the simple pleasures that are still there for us.
Have a walk and take in the changing colours of the trees – the sign of a natural cycle fulfilled and the harbinger of renewal next spring; find a film to laugh at (Laurel and Hardy do it for me every time!); eat a juicy pear or a sticky bun; read a thriller…..
Whatever you do, switch off your digital life and enjoy living in the moment. Let your batteries recharge, then worry about when (or even whether) to return to this particular fray.
I think we’ve probably all been there in the dark where you are, and I’m sure you will emerge into the light again.
I think many of us go through similar serious dips in mood. The art is finding ways out of them – and you will.
I’m sitting here looking at the cover of Hannah Arendt’s ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism’ …. just a reminder that others have been here (and suffered worse) before. And no – it’s not easy.
I agree with all the comments on here and agree with the advice – and to have faith that sense will return eventually – but…
Be prepared for it not to happen anytime soon.
The reason I say this is that the most recent parallel I can see for the world going up a complete dead end was the War on Terror. Like today, that was driven by ‘something must be done’ syndrome, supported by extremely dodgy evidence and a media baying for dramatic action. And had overwhelming public support, with just a minority raising doubts. And do the political class invested heavily in it and sent soldiers off to war. And when the soldiers started to die and the objective was not achieved, what did they do? Double down. Send more troops. More initiatives – remember the famous ‘surge’ which was supposed to be decisive? And so it continued until gradual attrition (militarily and of public support) meant it was finally recognised the strategy was flawed. This took several years and many more lives – but the leaders who had kicked it off could never acknowledge their mistake, because that would be to admit all the sacrifice that had been made this far had been pointless.
And so today we have the same media (and public opinion) demanding more and stronger lockdowns (always with novel words which make the same strategy sound new – ‘circuit breaker’ anyone?) and I would say this is likely to happen in the short term – things will get worse before they get better.
I say this not to dishearten you, but to try and be ready for the rough ride – always remembering we will get back to sanity in the end.
I’ve posted this before (so have others): it’s always darkest before the dawn. Maybe it’s worth asking yourself why you are here. It’s binary really. Either we are just a random bunch of molecules that came together by accident to form who we are and there is absolutely no meaning to life, or we’re here because we chose to be here. There are plenty of people here who have declared their Christian faith so therefore have a spiritual perspective. I’m not a Christian though a big fan of Joshua/Jesus but if you think you had a reason to come here then you came for the fight. Don’t give up. Doesn’t make any sense to enlist and then bog off. Therefore in the spirit of healing I would suggest having a look at the wider meaning of all this. One thing is for sure: the ‘old normal’ was not a bed of roses although we mythologise it as such currently. Things had to change and, looking on the bright side, they are changing without us all going to war with each other. It’s shit at the moment and even in World War II they didn’t shut down the entertainment/pubs but they couldn’t otherwise they wouldn’t have had anyone to fight for them (either side). This is somewhat different because we are at the whims of our own governments. But that makes us stronger: there’s more of us – all over the world. We can win. Ghandi did – and he had a the whole British Empire against him. Patience is needed though.
Why does “Dripford” pose in front of those flags – two of them of course. Who does he think he is, Sturgeon? All this flag waving is bizarre. These flags are ours, not the politicians’.
I don’t know, but the flags just hang there limply. Add the depressing slate sign thing, and it’s like the Lidl version of a White House briefing!
I’ll see what he says next week. i will consider writing to him and comparing him to Hitler. i wonder if he would have me arrested, like that guy in Scotland who Krankie got arrested for calling her a Nazi in an email.
He didn’t reply to me, but I’m probably on the list to be rounded up when he drags Wales back into the middle-ages.
Nit Hitler. Stalin. He is a hard left killer.
I appreciate not everyone on this site will share a Christian perspective, but I shared on Facebook last Saturday’s interview with a nurse, published on LS. One of my friends works for a Christian online magazine, which is published each Friday. The interview with the nurse was included in the magazine’s round-up of weekly news today. All helps to raise awareness of what is really happening.
Thank you for sharing. Do you have a link? I too am a Christian.
It’s the first item in their News – Society & Politics:
https://prophecytoday.uk/comment/society-politics/item/2012-news-in-brief.html
They don’t say much about it, only a brief intro.
Ta
That’s good, I would be interested to read that. As a waining Anglican, I haven’t noticed much diversity of opinion in the Church.
Saw it on PT tonight. Great how the truth links up!
PT fan too, good to see the overlap!
I don’t know what’s more bizarre. The fact that they believe this rubbish they’re spouting or the fact they genuinely think they can micro-manage a virus like this. Either way they are delusional.
I know a girl who was genuinely shocked she got it because she wears a muzzle and keeps her distance. People genuinely think they can go about their business in public and avoid a virus.
On this page, commenting on laboratory studies of masks, the AAPS concludes:
“Wearing masks (other than N95) will not be effective at preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission, whether worn as source control or as PPE.
N95s protect health care workers, but are not recommended for source control transmission.
Surgical masks are better than cloth but not very efficient at preventing emissions from infected patients. Cloth masks must be 3 layers, plus adding static electricity by rubbing with rubber glove.
The cloth that serves as the filtration for the mask is meant to trap particles being breathed in and out. But it also serves as a barrier to air movement because it forces the air to take the path of least resistance, resulting in the aerosols going in and out at the sides of the mask.”
(Mabel note: Source control means stopping an infected mask wearer from spreading the virus. N95 masks are unsuitable for source control because they exhaust the exhaled air without filtering it.)
I like the bit about static electricity.
AKWAYS RUB YOUR MASK CORRECTLY. GET THAT SPARK IN THE PARK.
Hopefully now she’s had it, despite the precautions, she realises it’s all a load of bollox.
Well we will hopefully have more sceptics after today’s shite. Boris banning couples who live apart from going into one another’s homes and only to meet oudside socially distanced. Banning nookie now!
It was banned in the first lockdown and no one cared.
Oh i didn’t know that!
Ferguson had a view on it.
Least of all Neil nookie Ferguson of Imperial College (generously funded by Bill Gates).
He probably had a “Nookie Allowed” lanyard specially made.
Least of all Ferguson.
He’s like an old pervert or his covid cartel are.
It’s not effected me in the slightest. Must be nice problems to have…
Dorris. Married but crept out of his grace and favour house with a nod and a wink most nights. He knows all about nookie in places he should not be.
Easy to joke about – and worthy of it. But, when you think about it, and the lack of any necessity to mention it – it’s a deeply, deeply sinister bit pf psy-op control.
Don’t people realize that the Goebbel’s Brigade are having a perverted laugh at their expense?
its weird how the few can control the masses this way, going from a free society, where no one could imagine when they would tell you who you could have in your own house, to obeying a few crusty old scientists and Eton boys.
Big tech has played its part
Don’t worry, the reckoning is coming for big tech.
The power of propaganda!
I just read an article on a scummy website that propagates fear & scaremongering, it begins with the letter Y…
It says that upto 74,000 people a day are being infected in England.
Now, this is because whitty & valance need to be proven correct with their graph of doom from the other week there.
I am totally done with this now. Everything is totally fucked & it just gets worse each day.
So, I am bowing out now.
So long peeps.
It’s a long game, keep the faith. Just do not watch or read mainstream media, it’ll drive you nuts.
There is a bright side in this.Of these 74000 almost 60 000 wouldn’t have noticed anything of the infection and becoming immune.Most of the 14000 cases today the absolute majority have mild and no symptoms.
I attended a recreational event today that was almost 100% normal, despite various rules, posters etc. Some parents turned up in masks but the event organiser and other parents were mask-free. No distancing among the kids. As the event wore on, the masks gradually disappeared. Lots of people want to be normal, they just need to get angry enough and have a little encouragement.
i am really not ‘woke’ in any way. I am a white bloke from Essex. Why are you making a point about masked people in a car and referencing their skin colour? There are many idiots wearing masks in all sorts of situations including cars (I think that wearing a mask in any situation is ludicrous) and most of them are white. Please don’t bring real (not pretend wokey stuff) racism here. there are many citizens of all ethnic backgrounds who support our cause. Let’s keep it that way.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/czech-republic/
Czechia has been held up as a success story in the first wave of the pandemic. Relatively few cases and a supposedly effective response. Just look at the first wave in the link above and how nicely everything petered out with grand celebrations in Prague in June. They had defeated C-19. But the price to be paid for the national lockdown in the first wave was -8% GDP. And the cooler weather and the ensuing seasonal wave dwarfing anything before. The usual SD with closing bars and other quixotic SD instruments and the famous masks mandated. But the virus just is un-stoppable.
The seasonal wave now in Europe must be the worst propaganda for lockdown but even worse for the mask mandate. All hard lockdown countries followed with mandated masks enthusiastically followed by all. That has not stopped the spectacular seasonal wave now with all current numbers in Belgium, Spain, Italy and France and way above the first wave just like Czechia. I know many will blame mass testing and false pos and that is possible to some extent but hospitals and ICUs are filling up.
They all thought that they had postponed the day of reckoning with masks and SD but the virus will always outsmart them and the illusive vaccine will not help them.
YEP… Just another “pandemic of samples and chemical amplifications”!
We are STILL just watching at a REGULAR INFLUENZA SEASON…
The position is reflected in some other East European countries which locked down in March at which point the virus had barely a toehold there. Most blocked borders too. The virus fizzled and lowered to return in late Summer with tourists once borders had opened and to spread rapidly when Autumn arrived. Lockdown early, lockdown often?
Lockdown forever. By the time you notice the first cough the deaths are already baked in.
That’s what Giesecke was saying in April/May: If you LD early, you’ll have to LD again. And let’s not forget the original purpose of all this was to DELAY, before it morphed into eradicate.
Unfortunately the zealots’ only answer is to keep doubling down, “harder and earlier.”
… which fits that old definition f insanity.
… and we certainly have insanity.
In time we will find out just how dangerous habitual mask wearing is: skin infections, pathogen concentration and oxygen starvation.
Sky website has this piece:
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-sage-says-59-000-people-could-die-with-covid-19-over-summer-in-reasonable-worst-case-scenario-12105863
If I understand correctly, the latest SAGE document dump shows modeling predicted 59k deaths over the period mid-May to early September as a ‘reasonable worst case scenario’. It was an order of magnitude lower, at around 6.4k.
Time to ditch SAGE and the modeling having highlighted the (deliberate) incompetence.
Time to ditch all of these so called ‘health experts’. This woeful expose from Ivor (you can feel his incredulity!)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPn4FsiQP15nudug9FDhluA
Yinon Weiss
@yinonw
·
1h
https://twitter.com/yinonw/status/1317165152928555008
Chicago reports 20% antibody levels after their deaths went to nearly zero.
Scientists: We’re shocked and surprised!
Anyone who has been paying any attention: https://abs-0.twimg.com/emoji/v2/svg/1f926-200d-2642-fe0f.svg
See explanation of 15-25% herd immunity in next tweet.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-coronavirus-antibody-testing-chicago-rate-northwestern-20201009-jxzpyewzlrcgnny2fyflupqdcq-story.html
Very interesting twitter thread.
More on the strange occaisional case of the colour purple.
This is the same tie that swinney wore when telling holyrood Scotland’s ‘diet of exams’ (yes puke) will be suspended this academic year. It is also the same colour as the London Eye illumination which Sky News cut to immediately after emergency bill extension vote announced.
Like the strange case of 33 (£3360 mp pay increase etc.) no idea but keep eyes peeled for purple.
Sorry about the image… it seems I can post images into comments now. I intended to add just the text link.
Personally I think the blue suit is fairly offensive. Makes him look like an oily pimp.
The whole image is unpleasant. I genuinely am sorry I posted it. Never knew I had the ability. It was a duckduckgo image using a share image link if anyone wants to try posting more useful images. I am not logged in – my email is entered. Hope this helps others.
And he isn’t?
Couldn’t possibly comment, I’m too polite.
He’s a sheer charmer and no mistake
He’s my MP… I think I deserve some sympathy from fellow sceptics! (I didn’t vote for him, obviously)
Nah! Makes him look like a Tory toyboy.
Absolutely appropriate.
Looks like someone is fingering his bum
Good spot , Purple is the chosen colour of the ruling elite as it was hugely expensive to produce in Roman times and is the colour of emperors , popes , Kings n Queens ever since . Killery Clinton was often seen in purple prior to the 2016 election
Green and purple are the colours of common purpose
Ahh , No wonder that drone has purple on him.
and Wimbledon.
Yes common purpose and wimbledon share purple and green.
http://s1.r29static.com/bin/entry/641/0,0,2000,2400/x/1687892/image.png
It’s the Purple Revolution. Funded by Soros. A technocratic combination of red and blue.
If I remember rightly, purple signifies Common Purpose!
Yes, but more to it I feel sure. Purple and grean are common purpose. I’ve not seen green about. There was Bercow parading about outside whitehall in ‘civies’ a purple hooped jumper at the very peak of his control, just after iirc.
I fancy the colour is a signal to others, perhaps cp but I am more inclined to something above cp, to fewer people. CP are just grunts. In reality I don’t know.
That tie was cut from the same cloth as Caligula’s toga.
I believe so.
Is it the UKIP colour?
Hazy on UKIP you are right, did they have a turquoise as secondary colour?
The suit is the Tory colour.
Very appropriate.
The tie is the UKIP colour.
Very emetic.
Maybe Quality Street and Cadburys are in on it.
Hi LDS
Mark Dolan: “We are killing Britain”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3oLyFQcGok
Mark Dolan: “We are killing Britain. We can’t do this forever. This virus isn’t going anywhere. Don’t be fooled by talk of a quick fix vaccine. That’s nothing more than snake oil.
ok, what the actual fuck is wrong with people’s brains? This liverpool-gym guy has a “Bernie” shirt on while he’s being interviewed about having armed police officers come shut down his gym. The irony is so thick you can grab ahold of it and squish it between your fingers. Dude, you are currently living through more Bernie-wet-dreams than he could ever hope to accomplish even if he had been elected president. Care to rethink any of that?? Maybe I didn’t see the bottom of his shirt, and it says “… is an asswipe” or something like that?
https://twitter.com/JuliaHB1/status/1316840614420414464
Show him some support .It’s up to him who he supports or has on his tee shirt .He just stood his ground against armed police instead of having a go at him ,we should be at standing at his side .
I’ve already supported him – but also despise his t-shirt.
Give him a break. I have a Peppa pig tee shirt.
Where can I buy Fuck Boris T-shirt?
Does Peppa think only the plod (and criminals) should bear arms too ?
Most commentators here are intelligent thoughtful free thinkers who are trying to find ways to combat the idea that lockdowns with all their side effects are a solution to controlling a virus outbreak.
You are free to express your USA based political dogmatic views but I would appreciate if you can do that elsewhere.
Always good to see cognitive dissonance highlighted. ‘Bernie’ my arse.
Does the pressure being put on Manchester, to go into tier 3 and putting London into tier 2, smack of desperation?
From the graphs and charts that I’ve seen, the increase in positive tests aka cases has taken place in areas which have one or more universities in them and they appear to be on the decline. Those students who have had to isolate should now be being released from captivity.
Sage knows that deaths have not followed the massive increase in testing which has taken place. Yes, they can talk up the numbers in hospital who have tested positive for Covid (even if they went in for something else)but short of murder. they can’t get the deaths up. Looking at the NHS stats. for hospitals in England, daily deaths have been in the 20-70 range for weeks. Someone (Heneghan?) pointed out that if someone went into hospital, had a negative test, then tested positive whilst still in hospital 7 days later, then they must have a fairly serious condition to keep them in there for a week.
When the numbers of deaths don’t show any sign of increasing drastically, how are Sage and the government going to explain the lack of big numbers that they promised us (or threatened us with?)
Easy-“it’s because we put the north of England and London into special measures and it did the trick.”
We really need the likes of Heneghan to sort out the hospital stats.
I am sure he is on the case.
Successful politics is about creating a fait accompli.
They are going to repeat their cunning plan of moving covid-19 patients out to care homes. The instruction to care homes to prepare places went out today. That should get a spike in those death numbers.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
We shall fight on the seas and oceans,
We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
We shall fight on the beaches,
We shall fight on the landing grounds,
We shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
We shall fight in the hills;
We shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.”
And some Friday night music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ejga4kJUts
Public opinion – listen to what Chris Green had to say to Anna Brees about his resignation from government.
https://youtu.be/7eBSwspojh4
Good one! Let’s hope it’s a green light for more to speak out.
The Scotsman writes:
“Socially-distanced seats for 2021 Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo to go on sale next week
Groups of just four spectators will be able to sit together when the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo returns next year – under plans to put tickets on sale within days.”
Cannot wait. This event happens in August. I am fairly sure tomorrow’s planned extinction rally won’t see the carbon-based-absurdity of such an elabourate display for a 60% (?) capacity crowd.
Looks like Laurence Fox is positioning Reclaim to be fully anti-lockdown! Good – a wise move (well done to Toby of encouraging him in this direction).
It’s wise only if his heart is in it. Initially I just felt he wasn’t that passionate about a lockdown stance. I’m not entirely convinced that’s changed – if he was always passionate about no lockdown, why not state that at the start?
The politicians have to hedge their bets until we get going into the respiratory illness spike in the
Autumn/ winter. Now we can see hospitalisations dropping they will start breaking cover.
I don’t think he was that passionate about the issue. But perhaps Toby has at least helped him to some basic understanding of why the Lockdown Lunacy has to be opposed.
The terribly dull and woke Have I got news for you spend considerably more time attacking Fox than having any sort of a pop at Starmer.
Just watched it, and dull and woke it was. The quality of participants is found wanting.
Haven’t watched since it restarted back in spring. Saw the first three disappointing episodes, then cancelled my tv licence.
HIYNFY used to be satire but seems to have completely forgotten the meaning of the word.
Hard for people who are part of or take the side of the establishment, and believe dissenters are evil and/or stupid “populists”, to make comedy that amounts to anything more than tedious bullying, funny only to those who think the bully is on their side.
Think it went off the boil about eight years ago
I hope so. That said, I’d vote for just about anyone right now if it meant kicking the current crop of bastards in the plums. I guess that’s the danger in this kind of situation.
I was worried that Fox would merely prove to be a vote-splitter. I hope he has something substantial to offer.
AIER: The Year of Disguises:
https://www.aier.org/article/the-year-of-disguises/
Sensibly discusses masks, how rare.
Very good article. Thanks!
Somewhat technical but excellent! Best line: Stopping humans from being human will not stop a virus from being a virus.
Just in from a checkpoint at the Welsh border.
How do you post an image?
What happened?
Link not working, sorry.
How do I post the image?
you have to be logged in then look at the bottom right of your posting windows, a little icon, click that
I unintentionally managed without that method. Selected online image chose to ‘share image’ copied link into LS text box pressed post comment and there was Keir Starmer leering out at everyone.
how horrible
Shocking
Has there ever been a less elegant human being than Ellie Harrison? I have seen more grace in a breeze block. I imagine she was about to be sacked so has chosen to self identify as black.
No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.
Horatio Nelson
Keep fighting, No masks, Never give up, dig out that picture of your Grandparents, would they put up with this ?
Keep The Faith
Mike Yeadon argued that 90% of Covid tests are wrong? Can that possibly be true?
He’s probably referring to the interaction between the underlying false positive rate (FPR) of the rRT-PCT test and the low prevalence of infected individuals.
I’ve been using a figure of 0.8% for the FPR, but I’ve seen figures of up to 3% quoted. I’m too weary to dig out any citations right now, but 0.8% will do for illustration.
As for a figure for the prevalence of infected individuals, the ONS was reporting a figure of 0.1% based on their own supposedly-representative antibody testing programme. Recently I have see 0.23% mentioned for the past six weeks for England and Wales. Once again, citation required. I’m going to use 0.1% because that’s the example that I seen used most commonly. Pinch of salt, and all that.
So, using a prevalence of 0.1% and an FPR of 0.8%, and considering a sample of 10,000 representative people, we should expect to see this:
This gives a total of 90 positive test results, 80 of which are false positives.
Thus using the above prevalence and FPR figures, 88.9% of positive PCR tests results are false positives.
Put another way, 8 out of every 9 positive test results are false.
Not very encouraging, is it? The fundamental issue is that when viral prevalence drops below the in-built false positive rate, the test is essentially useless for assessing the true scale of infection. It’s not to say the test is completely useless, since it did identify the 10 truly-positive people, but without symptoms and subsequent testing by other means, we can’t draw any useful clinical conclusions.
This is one reason why the Pillar 2 rRT-PCR testing is fraudulent. The other reason is the inappropriate number of amplification cycles that are being used. Long story short, we should not be testing at any more than 30 cycles if we want to identify infectious people, but (in Wales for certain, unknown right now for England) they are using up to 45 cycles. This is 32,768 times greater amplification than the 30 cycle threshold and produces utterly meaningless results if the goal is to assess the prevalence of infectious people.
Interestingly, First Secretary of State Dominic Raab admitted that only one in ten tests successfully identified infected individuals in this interview with Sky News.
But all of this talk about false positives is something of a side-show compared to the real elephant in the room: the blatantly-misleading reporting of absolute numbers of positive tests (which are always mislabelled as “cases”, which they certainly are not) instead of reporting the percentage of tests administered that have returned positive results.
For example, imagine you had a test that was 100% accurate at detecting human males and further assume that whenever you run a batch of tests, you have a perfect sample of the UK population.
The first week, you administer 100 tests and from these you get 49 positives, representing the 49% of the UK population who are male.
The second week, you administer 200 tests and get 98 positives.
The third week, you administer 400 tests and get 196 positives.
Then you go on TV and shriek at the public that “the number of cases (positive tests) is doubling every week!”.
But of course the actual number of males in the population isn’t changing. All that is changing is the number of tests being performed.
If instead they reported the percentage of all tests administered that came back positive, then each week the answer would be 49%, exactly the proportion of males that would expect for a representative sample of the population.
In my opinion, it is the deliberate choice to report number of positives instead of positive percentage that is the true fraud.
There’s evidence to support the fact that 90% of positives are false.
A friend has mentioned this to me, the words seem to have meaning relevant to LS.
Jack London
Ode To A Scab
After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, He had some awful substance left with which He made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a waterlogged brain, and a combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.
When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out. No man has a right to scab as long as there is a pool of water deep enough to drown his body in, or a rope long enough to hang his carcass with. Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying his Master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab hasn’t.
Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Judas Iscariot sold his savior for thirty pieces of silver. Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commission in the British Army. The modern strikebreaker sells his birthright, his country, his wife, his children, and his fellow men for an unfulfilled promise from his employer, trust, or corporation
Solidarity wins
I think we now know what God did with the leftovers after he’d made the scab.
Is a covid marshal not equivalent to a scab? Or an environmental health officer closing down a peaceful café because it has an alcohol license and the politicians rules are they must close because reasons? Or seven armed policemen entering a peaceful gym to intimidate the people within, who by the way the police were clearly intimidated by – hence guns. Are these people not equivalent to scabs? Scabs against freedom crossing the line into a factory to make gains for the men and women who have chosen our futures.
Jack London’s words seem very applicable to my view of the world tonight.
“Is a covid marshal not equivalent to a scab? “
No – they’re equivalent of Thatcherites and Mary Whitehouse supporters
But I don’t see the point in hating (tempting though that may be), except perhaps in the case of a few individuals and institutions.
The covid womble and EHO are just very small cogs in a very big machine. In a sense, they are also victims in all this, although not in a way hey yet understand.
Jack London was a proto fascist, a worshipper of violence – barely concealed in the piece you quote. Why should anyone be forced to withdraw their labour if they don’t want to? I think he’d be fine with lockdowns, forced withdrawal of labour and mandatory masks, all enforced by paramilitary style police.
“Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.”
I see that in Parliaments up and down the country.
As I added, the covid marshals police and environmemtal health officers I have seen in operation across our city today match the above description.
I don’t recognise your barely disguised physical violence nor to I recognise a desire for the author to lock a nations economy down over some pretend pandemic. Could you be a little more specific in where you are seeing your rationale within those words.
“The modern strikebreaker sells his birthright, his country, his wife, his children, and his fellow men for an unfulfilled promise from his employer, trust, or corporation”
Holy fuck if that does not refect what a ‘lockdown zealot’ does.
Stop the Press! The Irish Examiner has deigned to allow a letter from a lockdown sceptic to be published that debunks the ‘people are dying’ narrative for Ireland.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/yourview/arid-40066049.html
Three loud cheers for Mr Flynn.
Ivor does a good job too…
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPn4FsiQP15nudug9FDhluA
Re-visited an outdoor National ‘Trust’ place after a three-month gap. Last time, I ripped down their foul, offensive one-way signs. None had been replaced. There were some tired-looking s.d. signs which came in useful for posting my stickers.
Met some lovely people. Dog played happily with other dogs. Sun shone. Sea blue. Didn’t see a face nappy all day.
And Mark ‘Josef Stalin’ Dripfeed can go fuck himself.
PS. Talking of dogs: if you haven’t yet seen the ‘Olive and Mabel’ series on You tube, do it now. It will cheer the heaviest heart.
Crappy little council don’t press the crossing button covid19 signs are been turned around across the city.
It is good to see and such a simple methos of demonstration. Indeed, it is good the signs went up so that they can be used to show dissent where otherwise it would not be possible.
People are turning. There is disquiet behind the masks – which is where it is needed.
I was intending to ‘adjust’ a new NHS poster that appeared on a local bus shelter but someone must have beaten me to it because it had gone after only being up a couple of days !.
Excellent, i always make a point of pushing the buttons on my way past
I always get out of my car and kick people like you in the shins. Both shins if I am on my bike in the rain. But I admire your spirit of chaos and sticking it to the man.
They are on a timer but I like to press them for the fun of it just as it sums up wee Jimmie Mugabe’s lust for power, she even wants to control the traffic lights
It is actually true she does.
I feel better when I see you use the fuck word Ann!. Until this scamdemic I probably used that word twice a year and out of ear shot of others. I now use it at least ten times a day, obviously when referring to the evil fascists in government.
Yes. My language has noticeably deteriorated – and it wasn’t exactly angelic before mockdown!
My use of the c word is now off the scale. Plus a phrase from Harlots TV series: rancid womb fruit.
I don’t use it (a lot) normally. But just now I am like Julia in 1984 : her use of bad language when referring to the Party is ‘like the snorting of a horse that smells bad hay’.
And that guy usually commentates on Six Nations Rugby. Thanks for the recommendation..
Here is a one stop shop for every topic to do with 2020’s global corona episode. Not all is what I would feel happy recommending but on a day when a great youtube burning of free speech has occured perhaps the ‘fringe’ ideas have a place in free speech as any other.
https://truthcomestolight.com/home-alt/
Here is one beginning of an article that I feel lends an element of legitimacy and gravitas to the site:
$18 Billion COVID Vaccine Gold Rush Threatens Horseshoe Crabs, Ocean Ecosystem
by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Children’s Health Defense
October 16, 2020
The annual spring congregation of egg-laden horseshoe crabs on the east coast provide a vital food source for annual migrations of millions of shore birds.
The $18 billion gold rush for liability free COVID vaccines now threatens that ancient Atlantic coast ritual. COVID vaccine makers plot to harvest tens of thousands of these primitive and beloved sea creatures. The horseshoe crab’s blue blood is the only known natural source of limulus amebocyte lysate, a substance that detects and eliminates a potentially deadly vaccine contaminant called endotoxin.
Every year, pharmaceutical companies corral half a million Atlantic horseshoe crabs, bleed them, and return them to the ocean — after which many will die. This practice, combined with overharvesting of the crabs for fishing bait, has caused a precipitous decline in the species.
Read on here –
https://truthcomestolight.com/2020/10/16/18-billion-covid-vaccine-gold-rush-threatens-horseshoe-crabs-ocean-ecosystem/
The site is a treasure trove.
Horse shoe crabs, sharks. Just the tip of the Pharma industry horrors coming to light. But it’s the new normal, so that’s okay!
All being tested on the poorest communities too in South Africa and elsewhere.
This ethical aspect has not been revealed to the braying massed public as they clamour for any shot they can get their hands on.
The same people might be quite concerned normally about horse shoe crabs, if only David Attenborough had thought to tell them.
At the start of the bollox, BBC Cuntry-file wheeled out dear David to tell us to be good little zombies and stay at home.
One vacant pedestal for hire in my house.
Part of a response from my MP about the threatened Tier 3.
The latest figures for our constituency I received on Tuesday are 200 more cases in the latest week, up 60% from the week before. The update I have from the Hospital Trust is that we now have 43 covid inpatients of which 6 are in ICU, plus there have sadly been 12 covid deaths in the two hospitals since 1st October. This is having a growing impact on the Trust’s ability to provide other services which is only going to get worse as hospitalisations continue to rise leading to more non-covid deaths as well. This is why we need measures in place to slow the growth in cases to stop the NHS being overwhelmed which would lead to a full extended lockdown with all the economic consequences that would bring.
He’s one of the better ones. He’s just been in the HofC asking questions on his constituents behalf and getting yet another pat non-answer from Wankock. Then the dreaded 200 mile trip back home for the weekend.
Unfortunately, I think he really does believe this NHS rubbish.
Went to the only shop I frequent today….
“That’s £19:84 please”
Ha,funny I say,”it’s what’s happening “
“Oh sorry,just realised what you said”…flusters,can’t compute…laugh
Job done
It’s all 1984, must be a price freeze!
Mark Drakeford deploys police to Welsh border with England.
Request for help please:
My DiL is in hospital with pre-eclampsia and blood pressure through the roof. Thanks to covid restrictions, she is alone and terrified because my son is not allowed to be in the hospital with her.
Meanwhile, my son is also alone and feeling as powerless to help as I’m sure you can imagine.
If you could say prayers or similar for the three of them I’d be extremely grateful.
That’s awful. He shouldn’t give up being insistent, sometimes it can work. Best of luck to them both.
I think it may be a good idea to look into the legal side of this, and complain/threaten legal action.
I’m going to pray for you and your family.
So PPE does nothing, in reality?
Pray for them
I will indeed pray for them.
The government is perpetrating acts of cruelty on its own people. Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do … or do they.
Oh yes, they know.
And. we know.
And we have the evidence.
No denying these abominations at Nuremberg.
Meanwhile, pray for all the millions suffering similar anguish.
My very best wishes to all of you.
Thank you for all your prayers and good wishes. She’s only 6 months pregnant, so is justifiably scared. I can’t imagine how they must both feel.
I would put my faith in the skill and good, caring intentions of the medical staff. The best of what still remains in this situation.
Despite what they’re forced into, those qualities remain, in my (extensive) experience.
Unfortunately, she’s there because of high BP and the conditions are inevitably exacerbating the problem! I’m sure the presence of her husband would make her numbers drop considerably.
My friend had elective surgery today on her hand. The surgeon said this covid stuff is utter rubbish. Good to know not all of them goes along with the scam. That being so perhaps your son could talk with the doctor/nurses, do some insisting rather than accepting. Worth a try. Good luck.
Update: Son’s just called to say her BP is down to normal.
Power of prayer!
Thank you again for all your caring thoughts, prayers and good wishes.
Good news, Cheezy.
Such good news! Very glad to hear it. What a frustrating experience for them both — the cruelty is beyond belief and the fact anxiety can raise BP should make it a non-starter that your son be with his wife under these conditions.
Now look forward to the joy of a new grandchild. We now pledge ourselves to do all we can to ensure so that he, or she, can grow up in a free world.
Great news, doing my happy dance. Hugs to all of you.
I will do. Be sure that God will be with them
He us a God of mercy, but also a God of wrath. He will repay.
PS. At least your daughter-i-l is getting treated!
But who is guilty in all this? Aren’t the people who were given brains to think and voices to speak, but who in the most part thought about nothing, and even if they did said nothing, also guilty? What does God do with them?
All best wishes to your family Cheezilla.
Have you read C. S. Lewis’s Screwtape Proposes a Toast? In it, the devil Screwtape comments on the inferior quality of the souls currently arriving in hell, but is pleased that the devils have no shortage of food. The sheeple flock (yes, Lewis identified it fifty years ago) just follows the bell-wether (leading sheep) into damnation.
Even God can’t save a soul that has nothing in it that can be saved.
Chilling thought. To surrender what’s worth being saved for through intellectual laziness.
I’ve been out of the news cycle this week is their a looming announcement due over this weekend? A feature for several weeks has been a trailing of announcement due followed by a Sunday or Monday speech. Perhaps intentionally timed to break down a peaceful weekend.
It’s their favourite technique of conditioning us to further restrictions. In Wales, we’ve been told the assembly will be considering the situation over the weekend, and chief Druid drakeford will be making an announcement on Monday.
So, we know the announcement is coming, and from their releases of “facts” and quotes, we can work out what it is likely to be. On Monday, when the announcement is made, it’s either as we expect, or not quite as bad. Everyone knew it was coming and accepts it.
I’m sure there’s a proper psychological term for it, but it seems to be a mild kind of brain-washing or other control technique. But once you know what the game is, it stops working.
I’d call it mental torture, and unfortunately it does work, because the monster one hears snuffling and crashing in the forest is worse than the monster that one sees, Ask any maker of horror films.
Nevertheless fuck ’em. Fuck Josef Stalin Dripfeed. Who’s afraid of the Abominable Shitman?
German Neurologist Warns Against Wearing Facemasks
https://www.sott.net/article/442455-German-Neurologist-Warns-Against-Wearing-Facemasks-Oxygen-Deprivation-Causes-Permanent-Neurological-Damage
Thank you will share onwards.
“The second problem is that the nerve cells in your brain are unable to divide themselves normally. So in case our governments will generously allow as to get rid of the masks and go back to breathing oxygen freely again in a few months, the lost nerve cells will no longer be regenerated. What is gone is gone.”
[..]
“For children and adolescents, masks are an absolute no-no. Children and adolescents have an extremely active and adaptive immune system and they need a constant interaction with the microbiome of the Earth. Their brain is also incredibly active, as it is has so much to learn. The child’s brain, or the youth’s brain, is thirsting for oxygen. The more metabolically active the organ is, the more oxygen it requires. In children and adolescents every organ is metabolically active.”
Yup, plenty of longterm brain damage for children wearing masks but in the decades ahead they will never admit it.
It’s hardly Paul on the road to Damascus, but today I had a thought that hit me hard.
The reason why the Great Barrington Declaration and so much of the evidence-based logical arguments against lockdowns don’t work is because it requires people to admit and acknowledge they were wrong.
The sensible recommendation to move from lockdown to focused protection – when you think about it – would be an admission from the UK government/health mandarins and from other countries in the world that they could and should have handled the care home/vulnerable elderly situation better. It’s no wonder they have fought so hard against it because to accept it implies culpability for a large proportion of the deaths already experienced.
The conclusion? – We need to focus our attention on the deaths that have already been caused and will be caused by lockdown. There’s no point in trying to convince people the virus isn’t as lethal as they believe, or arguing about false positive rates of PCR tests or any of the other logical shit that isn’t making any dent in the fear, people need to be more scared of lockdowns than they are of the virus. In order to do that, I suggest a lockdown sceptics propaganda campaign based on 3 core messages:
1) Law and Order breakdown due to lockdown and police and judiciary unable to cope.
2) Constant referrals to the deaths from heart disease, cancer and other conditions affecting people under the age of 65 more than covid, it needs to feel more serious than covid and constantly refer back to the NHS not being able to cope and being unable to provide services for more prevalent conditions other than covid which lead to death.
3) Exaggerate the job losses and the threat of starvation and homelessness. We know this is going to be a major problem anyway, so let’s take a leaf out of the zealots book and go big on the fact that children and families will go hungry, pensions won’t be paid, benefits will stop, 90% of jobs will be lost and people won’t be able to afford basic provisions and food. To echo a sinister phrase from much earlier in the lockdown, we need to increase the sense of personal threat that people feel from lockdown and restrictions so much that taking their chances with covid seems like the safer option.
In short, we need to fight dirtier, not smarter or harder.
Agreed. Also, call it “livelihoods” or “food on the table” not “the economy”.
Well yes thank you for posting your thoughts. The further restrictions here and elsewhere are a fig leaf for the failed lockdown policies in my view as well.
Agreed. Emotional stories from cancer patients or isolated elderly would do it.
Allison Pearson from the DT spoke about that on a recent podcast. The point made was on how many breast cancer check-ups had been delayed/missed and that, based on a usual frequency of identified early stage cancers being found, something like 8,000 women have been condemned to a much more serious outcome or death. Given the ages of those typically screened, we’re talking women who are mums, grandmothers to young grandchildren, workers, taxpayers – people with lives in other words.
Whilst the 8,000 figure is bad enough, now it needs to be personalised into individual stories as you rightly say thinkaboutit.
Indeed, sunk cost fallacy is playing a big part
Agree with your suggestions, but also think reminding people what they are missing and that they might miss these things forever can be effective. We got quite miserable when we came back from Sweden, and we are more conscious than most of what we are missing.
The Corbett Report
Your Guide To The Great Reset
https://youtu.be/HeMsaN6xjAQ
An update on what Alex Jones was telling us in his overlong and messy documentary
‘Endgame’ 2006 which I rewatched last night.
Many things that I thought absurd when I first saw it are now coming to pass, Alex even got the Chinese Social Credit nightmare right, pity he later became so shouty.
I have it in full on an external hard drive but found it yesterday on one YouTube site cut into 10 parts with Greek subtitles.
I’ve been musing on the question “What would Robin Hood do ?” quite a bit this week.
Apparently he’d put up shelves for Maid Marion …
And make live ti her under the greenwood tree wearing a mask?
He would shoot the Sheriff of Nottingham
https://twitter.com/boriquagato/status/1317203873954779137
el gato malo@boriquagato
hey, remember 6 weeks ago when @IHME_UW
predicted a big uptick in swedish deaths unless they all started wearing masks? let’s see how that turned out.
https://twitter.com/PhilipWatson_/status/1316807801134551041?s=20
In an attempt at challenging the thousands of experts that are signatories to the Great Barrington Declaration, a handful of disgruntled doctors have drafted the “John Snow Memorandum”. Signatories include:
-Zoë Hyde who advocates extreme isolation measures for kids..
https://mobile.twitter.com/PhilipWatson_/status/1316807801134551041/photo/2
Google punted an article about the ‘John Snow memorandum’ to the top of my news feed from a magazine I’ve never heard of.
I just told a phone service guy at my work he could take his mask off and he gladly accepted the offer. Damn that felt good!
A very interesting read. Not the subject matter but the topic of how we should view life and death made me wonder if Philosophy still has any place in the modern world where only “facts” and certainty seem to matter.
Robert Dingwall interview: the damage done by our refusal to accept disease and death are part of life
https://reaction.life/robert-dingwall-interview-the-damage-done-by-our-refusal-to-accept-disease-and-death-are-part-of-life/
Interesting article about the ONS survey.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2256942-exclusive-concerns-raised-about-vital-uk-covid-19-infection-survey/
Thing is : the basic inaccuracy inaccuracy of PCR results dwarfs this problem.
See Toby’s main text
‘is ONS Survey only for the housebound’,
explains all but how they can think of carry on with 5% participation is beyond me.
Did you know?
London has 22 hospitals with ‘general and acute’ beds capable of treating Covid patients.
These 22 hospitals have 13,542 ‘general and acute’ overnight beds available. According to the latest figures available of Q1, 2020/2021, on average, about 5000 of these beds were empty daily. Figures are available here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/bed-availability-and-occupancy/bed-data-overnight/
According to https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/healthcare?areaType=nhsregion&areaName=London London has currently 457 Covid patients in hospital today, of which 80 are in ICU beds.
Why tell you this? Because that little bastard Sad Dick Khan says London’s NHS will collapse if we don’t have either a ‘circuit breaker’, or move London to Tier 3. That’s why! Little shit!
/rant
PS. I do know that not all hospitals take Covid patients. Mental Health hospitals and maternity are not included above. I also know that the number of free beds will have changed.
Whole point of my post was to call Khan a little shit, which he is!
(Great, I get to use my favourite word again).
Khan deserves all the obloquy coming his way.
Doh, is that a polite word for s..t?
The NHS has a budget of £129 Billion and over 1 million staff, they have had 8 months to get ready for possible demands this autumn. With that budget and with those staff if they are now ‘overwhelmed’ then heads should roll, starting with hapless Hancock.
DT (paywall): Teachers union at it again!
Sure they would love a two week half term especially those in tier 1 who could ho for a nice Autumn break in the West Country.
You’re so right. And I’m sure if teachers were dropping dead from Covid we’d be hearing about it every second of every day. But we all know the magic of masks is keeping them alive, so why the “circuit breaker?”
The insomnia is ‘a normal response to an abnormal event’
Trying to rationalise something that is incapable of being rationalised means you just keep turning it over and over in your mind without ever finding an ‘answer’
This triggers the human flight or fight response, hormones such as cortisol are released into the bloodstream as the body and mind are on hyper alert to deal with threat
Hope this helps
Easy to say I know, but try and develops some coping strategies
Try:
Exercise if you can, preferably out doors in the brightest part of the day,if you can’t run walking is fine
No point writing to the MP, it just goes in the bin
Choose a moment when you are alone at home
Get a dining chair and place it the centre of the room
Imagine your MP has been captured and is tied to the chair
Tell him/her exactly how you feel and what you think of them
May sound bonkers. Trust me it works
If everyone in the country wrote to their MP, it would make a difference
Only if everyone wrote the right thing.
No it wouldn’t
KLAUS SCHWAB AND HIS GREAT FASCIST RESETPosted on October 5, 2020
https://winteroak.org.uk/acorn/
What a creepy guy. All his reset stuff is an update to what Alex Jones was warning us against 20 years ago
Ravensburg is a lovely town where I spent a week some 40 years ago.
Klaus Schwab the unelected man supported by among many other prince fucking charles to alter human life. Without discussion. Founder of the World Economic Forum. What does he have over drakeford boris etc. Why are they digned to Schwabs plan?
Have a look at this video on utube….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O31AfWoBfaI
It is nearly 50 mins long but having watched it twice now I think it is the best analysis of the WEF’s agenda for the ‘4th Industrial Revolution’ and the presenter shows the UK Government is fully onboard with this agenda. Early on in the video there is information ….
‘In 2018 in the UK Parliament the all party Parliamentary Group for the 4th Industrial Revolution organised its Autumn meeting. An MP, clearly very enthusiastic about this ‘Revolution’, gave the opening speech, extoling its wonderful, marvelous, fabulous virtues; before introducing the guest speaker …. Klaus Schwab.’
The enthusistic MP was Matt Hancock; at that time UK Government Minister for Digital & Culture.
Later on in the video, at around the 28min mark, there is a quote from Schwabs recent book ‘Covid-19 The Great Reset’ describing what this ‘Revolution’ will look like. The Government is using the ‘pandemic’ to push through this agenda. There can be no other explanation for their crazed fanaticism for more lockdowns etc.
Of course. Covid is the enabler of the great reset. It’s a scam.
The Fascist junta’s response to the petition about vaccine regulations:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/549793?reveal_response=yes
And have they taken our concerns on board?
What do you think?
Line 10
‘the virus-the greatest threat to this country in peacetime….
Clearly not.
That proud position is occupied by the government.
Just woken up, is the pig dictator still in power?
Morning Cecil, he’ll still be sleeping off last night’s celebrations.
Just checked the Pembrokeshire figures for the expected avalanche of deaths from the Frightful Scourge.
Yesterday: no new ‘cases’, no deaths.
Wah wah, firebreak.
(Ten deaths this week in Wales as a whole, population 3 million.)
Is Wales broken yet? Are the Welsh ready to accept whatever “new normal” we offer them? Nope? Ok, back into lockdown.
The Ministry of Love at work.
Imagine you had Dripfeed in Room 101 …
What about a demo outside his house?
The lessor pig dictator
How would we tell that Wales was broken? It has so many deep-seated problems that I don’t know what broken would look like.
https://dailysceptic.org/
Hello Lockdown Sceptics
Mark Dolan: “We are killing Britain”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3oLyFQcGok
Mark Dolan: “We are killing Britain. We can’t do this forever. This virus isn’t going anywhere. Don’t be fooled by talk of a quick fix vaccine. That’s nothing more than snake oil.
‘It’s a massive claim; I think the pandemic is fundamentally over’
Former chief scientific advisor with Pfizer Mike Yeadon has said he believes the coronavirus pandemic is drawing to a close, despite rising cases in parts of the UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMlfxnCJppE
Truth about the claims scaring us all to death: Soaring infections, teeming hospital wards, and terrifying death rates… but do the numbers justifying crippling new lockdowns REALLY stand up to scrutiny?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8845533/Coronavirus-Soaring-infections-death-rates-claims-justify-lockdowns.html
Overly Cautious Kate comments in the Mail
‘…National lockdown now no matter what the cost to jobs mental Health or the economy. Stay at home, save lives save the virus protect the NHS’
Listened to Mark Dolan’s speech while preparing tea yesterday, great stuff.
Early March in a bunker deep under no 10 (no not Rillington Place, the other no 10)
Dictator ‘ Dom, what’s our take on this?
Dom ‘ Same as everything else, follow the focus group’s
Dic ‘ What do the FG’s say?
Dom ‘ They are scared shitless and can we please lock them up ‘
Dic ‘ Fuck off, they said that? The British people actually said that?’
Dom ‘ Yep’
Dic ‘ OK, better give them what they want, but even i am going to struggle to keep a straight face with this one’
Dom ‘ Just imagine you are lying to the wife and kids you’ll be fine ‘
Dic ‘ And the exit strategy? Whoa!! Don’t look at me like that, I get it, follow the focus groups’
Dom ‘ Yep, when the half wits have had enough they will let us know’
( Christie, Attenborough, Dom, uncanny resemblance or what?)
Quiz question
Christie, Attenborough, Dom: Which is the odd one out?
Answer: Attenborough, he does not have blood on his hands
People in developing countries without access to cheap energy might argue with you.
Dic, when you have a mo get onto mumsnet, see what they want us to do.
Letter from today’s Telegraph
<i>SIR – Although I am able go to shops and restaurants, I miss being able to talk to shop attendants and waiters, and having a laugh. I am hard of hearing, so cannot make out what people are saying while they are wearing a mask.
I feel isolated and lonely, as I cannot speak to anyone.
David Hunter
Godalming, Surrey</i>
It just dawned on me that it is seven months since I last shook somebody’s hand and kisses and cuddles are even further away. The government has no clue on the unhealthy aspects of their mandates on us singletons.
I spend far too much time trying not to think about that very thing. On a purely selfish level it is the aspect of this I find the most crushing. Oh for a handshake, or even a slap on the back! I have read before that people kept in isolation will sometimes provoke their guards so that they experience touch through restraint or even violence. Makes perfect sense to me.
I am lucky that I can at least converse, unlike poor Mr Hunter. But how many years do they think human beings can survive without touch before they lose the will to live? If it wasn’t for the love and touch of my dogs I would already be there.
I don’t do hugs and kisses but some colleagues still shake hands.
I share the same contempt for elbow bumps as for adults who try to high 5.
Hugs & handshakes still all fine with my mates. Must be heartbreaking for many, though.
Is that because people don’t want to hug you ‘in case’ or because you don’t think you’re allowed to? I don’t give a toss, have several friends i have given hugs to over the last few months, including one who came to stay for a few days in the early days of national lockdown because her partner had been abusive.
I have the same problem. People with good hearing have no idea how isolating masks are. Even visors muffle the sound a bit and it takes real concentration to have a conversation. One simply doesn’t bother trying after a while.
Here is my reply to Kier Starmers email demanding a circuit breaker lockdown.
“I have cut up my labour card and cancelled my subscription. You are a complete failure as an opposition, not questioning any of the ruinous policies of the Conservative party.
In fact you have supported lockdowns, leading to far greater death than the virus could ever achieve. Now you call for stronger lockdowns. F*ckwits!!!!!!!”
I did not censor the email.
I only joined Labour because the Blairites were trying so hard to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn.
Anything they did not want had to be an improvement. Also my usual middle ground vote, Liberal Democrats, were (and still are) bloody useless.
I see a news item about ramping up testing;
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-millions-of-15-minute-covid-tests-being-developed-for-uk-says-pm-12105931
and I have to ask myself why? if you get tested for cancer it is because if it is found you can get treated with a reasonable likelihood of success. But with SARS-Cov2 you only need treatment if you are one of the small proportion who get seriously ill, at which point you do not need a test to know you are ill you will be in hospital, so why the testing?
All this testing reminds me of John Lennon’s words;
I read the news today oh, boy
Four thousand holes in blackburn, lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the albert hall
I’d love to turn you on
Thanks, never thought I would make sense of those lyrics.
Another outrageous piece on the BBC this morning entitled ‘How scared should we be?’- please complain about the highly disputed data being presented as “facts” – https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/health-54570373
No comments allowed.
Presumably the BEEB is worried about sceptics.
Am submitting a formal complaint – you can do it online – just search BBC ‘make a complaint’
No point, they were bought and paid for a long time ago
Totally agree. What a load of tripe. Its exactly the people who read that who then try and put us in our place by telling us the “real facts”
Did anyone say: “Keep Calm and carry on” ?
What a load of horseshit. This fool who wrote this is on twitter. https://twitter.com/JamesTGallagher
This picture is pure fear porn.
“It is estimated that 1% to 3% of people who catch the virus require hospital treatment.
But it is more deadly than flu”-Bollocks
“The number of people that die after catching the virus, known as the infection fatality rate, is about 0.5%. Or one death in every 200 people infected.” Bollocks
“That is five to 25 times more deadly than a seasonal flu infection, despite ongoing myths that Covid is just like flu.” TOTAL BOLLOCKS!
“Influenza kills between 0.02% and 0.1% of people who are infected.”
“We are not at the same level we were at the peak, when 3,000 people were being admitted to hospital with Covid each day. It is currently below 1,000.” Like a few hundred?
“The worry is rising cases could eventually overwhelm the NHS. If that happens then more people will die, from Covid and other causes, because there won’t be enough beds and doctors to go round.” ONE FOR THE KIDDIES
“Most people have not been infected with the virus. About nine in 10 of us in the UK are thought to still be vulnerable.” Monumental Bollocks!
“However, the programme works best when levels of the virus are low and the government’s own science advisers, Sage, say Test and Trace is having a “marginal impact on transmission””. Finally we have an admission for these braindead line-towing, sycophantic obsequious supine evil morons
How scared do you want to be?
Discuss
A nugget from the junta’s ‘response’ to vaccine concerns:
“any healthcare workers administering vaccines will be trained to the highest standards, will have experience of safely administering vaccines and follow all required clinical considerations via NHS and PHE approved training programmes. This will ensure that all measures are taken to ensure patient safety, including but not limited to clinical treatment of any potential reaction to the administered vaccine, such as anaphylactic shock for example.”
I looked up anaphylactic shock.
One of the commonest triggers is administration of medicines.
It can kill you very quickly.
That training better be good.
They will be newly redundant junior health care workers from the ruined care home sector.
Ruined because of NHS emptying diseased patients into them at the start of lockdown so their customers dead and reputation trashed.
A local pharmacist I know refused. he said he didn’t want to have anyone’s death on his conscience for any vaccination (anaphylactic shock etc). And he is dubious about a rushed through vaccine.
They will be trained on how to do a tracheotomy using a biro and some duct-tape
From a parliamentary democracy to a fascist totalitarian state in under 7 months.
Hitler would have been jealous.
indeed, it took him 10 years to overthrow the Weimar Republic which had no support from any significant section of society
Good morning Sceptics. Time to get up and break some laws! I have county boundaries to cross, maskless shopping to do, and people not in my ‘bubble’ to meet! Drakeford and his zombies ain’t stopping me today, bring it on!!
Thoughts to my neighbours in Merseyside from Denbighshire!
Birmingham Live: Shops installing CCTV that blocks entry if you aren’t wearing a face mask.
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/shops-cctv-block-face-masks-19115388
“Banning awkward customers who refuse to wear masks” so that’s the awkward disabled at it again?
Guilt Aggravated by premeditation and right to the top of the Corporate tree, not just the poor mug on the door.
Haven’t been in a none food shop since the muzzles were made compulsory haven’t missed it, I suspect they will be missing customers and going bust soon.
illegal under Disability Discrimination laws.
Surely illegal duscrimination.
Most shops will soon be bankrupt, I wouldn’t waste energy complaining about their behaviour as they die.
No commenting allowed either, which is typical of the local news sites.
Whiteley’s Garden Centre in Mirfield (wherever that is) – *DO* enjoy your imminent administration and subsequent closure, won’t you?!
“Whiteley’s Garden Centre in Mirfield is using a Videcon system to control customers behaviour at the main entrance to the store.”
Contact Details01924 495944
Get Directions
Whiteleys Garden Centre
Far Common Road
Mirfield
West Yorkshire
WF14 0DQ
How about getting in contact with them to “give them some support”
I suspect that all this tiers for fears was planned way back in April/May. Someone did post on here, way back then, that a second lockdown had been pencilled in for October.
Why?
Well back in May, the PTB realised that they had over-reacted massively. They panicked. This was never the bubonic plague nor the Spanish flu. Money for the Nightingales had been poured down an open drain. They were just not needed, nor were places that had been turned into temporary mortuaries. The economy tanked. Someone, somewhere was going to look very silly. They panicked some more.
As Professor John Lee said: “The science changed but the narrative didn’t”
Why pick October?
They knew that they could capture a lot of students testing positive at universities then, plus children would have been going back to school for a few weeks and catching anything going. They started treating patients for other things plus hospitals would be filling up with the normal respiratory complaints by October. That’s the way in which they could ramp up the numbers to frighten us about a second wave.
If they had come clean about it in May and said “Sorry folks, we did what we thought was needed with the information that we had at the time”, we could have forgiven them and moved on.
They chose instead to double down on measures in order to hide their deceit.
We can’t move on. They are in this too deeply.
We won’t forgive them. Ever.
Never
Absolutely agree, had they abandoned lockdown after three or four weeks, with continued support those then seen to be vulnerable, it would be a distant memory of a free holiday for most. The economy not wrecked and Our Boris a National Treasure.
Your analysis of ‘why October’ is masterful and illustrates in what utter contempt they hold us.
Yes I think it was a foregone conclusion that cases would rise at this time of year when cases of every other respiratory infectious disease rise. Why wouldn’t they? My worry is that they are positioning for a “circuit breaker” once it becomes clear that cases are starting to wane (about now?) so they can claim the strategy works.
Yes, this is Operation Save Face At All Costs To The Little People
Remember that from now on they will be combining Covid numbers with ordinary flu which is currently killing 10 times as many.
I am still hopeful that when this casedemic fizzles out Johnson can have his poor mans Churchill moment, tell everyone they have “beaten” the virus etc etc. I certainly don’t see how he can go into a national lockdown and survive; the danger is that this childish, self indulgent man might think he doesn’t much fancy being in number ten after all and chuck the country into lockdown in a fit of pique.
He’s not Churchill, he’s a very naughty boy
He’s not even Neville Chamberlain. Maybe Lord Haw Haw or Tokyo Rose..
Charlie Chaplin as The Great Dictator
They also wanted to get the summer rioting season out of the way
Absolutely 100% in agreement.
I was saying to everyone I spoke to that they would be engineering the October spike because they had predicted it and they would look stupid if it then didnt happen. Well ‘stupid’ would have been a supreme compliment compared to ‘evil bastards’ wouldn’t it.
I have my doubts about the government introduced lockdowns as they didn’t know much about the virus but couldn’t admit their mistake when it was found coronavirus was not very dangerous theory. There are things which go against it –
Coronavirus is like a cow for the government in that they are determined to keep on milking it and have no intention of removing restrictions They will always find an excuse to impose lockdowns eg classing people as cases when they test positive but don’t have a viral load sufficient to make them ill.
Never EVER ever
John Humphrys breaks cover. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8849165/JOHN-HUMPHRYS-public-rising-against-response-Covids-second-wave.html
Nice one John, not before time (since it’s impacting on you personally)
An excellent article. Complete common sense.
Johnson and his cartel should be locked in a room and made to read it until it sinks in
I thought I recalled him writing something before, but I’ve remembered it was the BLM thing. If he and Sue Cook could get together they would be a formidable team – and journalists we know we can trust.
I’m glad I followed Bill & Melinda and bought some shares in Serco…
https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/national/18799139.serco-says-profits-set-soar-test-trace-contract-extension
Every MP will have bought it
SERCO Red Pilled
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kaWxe-ijVg&feature=share&ab_channel=PublicEnquiry
Getting paid on a contract to employ thousands to sit around playing monopoly.
Other branded board games are available
Baal and Malicious Gates.
The Gates Of Hell
That’s what it’s all about, a money making exercise. These people must receive jail time for this.
Serco do get prison time… and they’re paid very well for it
And for tagging offenders who have died.
BBC headline in my Google news feed
“Covid patients less likely to die than in April”.
Thanks beeb, we know that. Pity door Matt , supposedly a ‘ health minister’, doesn’t.
But other patients more likely to die than in April. Why has covid become a religion?
Met a colleague/friend in town yesterday evening for a beer (last chance for a while, we reasoned). For various reasons we ended up on Fleet Street. God, how depressing.
Walked from Ludgate Circus as far as the courts. I would say 7 out of 10 of the sandwich shops and lunch-type shops were closed. Half of the pubs closed, including both of the ones I actually wanted to go to.. Even a branch of Sainsbury’s Local boarded up with plywood and “closed for now.” I must have seen 10 other people on the street – and this is Fleet Street at 5 on a Friday evening. Off and on, I spent years working in the area and it should have been absolutely bustling, with people spilling out of the pubs onto the street.
Of course Bojo would say “Each day that passes before action is taken means more people will go to hospital, more people will end up in intensive care and tragically more people will die,”
He really looks unwell.
I think he’s mentally ill and should be removed.
Does ‘removal’ involve a length of rope? If it does can I volunteer to help? I voted for him but I certainly didn’t vote for this!
Funnily enough, one of the pubs that was closed was the only place I’ve seen Bozo in person. Back when he was mayor. I was there with a friend, Johnson walked in, took off his bike helmet, ruffled his hair, looked around with a confused expression on his face and then walked out again. Very odd behaviour.
I have a Johnson voodoo doll, I poke needles into it. I think it’s working…
That is too depressing! I worked in the City for most of my working life. I loved the atmosphere the energy and the history. It was a wonderful location for work and to hear that it is dead is too depressing. I hate this government for many reasons this news is yet another reason.
If it saves just one life
johnson and door matt should be tied to lampposts with face nappies to see what they have done to Fleet St.
In my local town here on the south coast of the UK 41 shops are boarded up in the town centre. It was on the local news last night. They couldn’t seem to work out why though…
Was the “Cheshire Cheese” open?
Both the Cheshire Cheese and the Olde Cheshire Cheese were open, yes. Went to the Devereux in the end, but wanted to go to the Edgar Wallace (closed).
Also stopped at the Blackfriar on the way back to the station. Mass mask compliance at the Devereux (just outside the Inns of Court, so not surprising). Mass noncompliance in the Blackfriar, interestingly.
Thanks for the reply. ‘Tis only the Cheshire Cheese I really know of, because of its possible links with Johnson – the “Great Cham” that is, not the current great charlatan.
It’s the same in all cities unfortunately. On Friday night in Birmingham every good independent business is closed. Only some of the chains are left. If you do find a decent restaurant, the food is a shadow of what it was as they have had to reduce costs by buying cheap ingredients and serving simple food that doesn’t require chefs. There is nowhere I want to go. The new Grand Central above New Street station is now looking as tired and depressing as the Palasades shopping centre that it replaced.
It’s OPERATION FUCK THE WORLD.
People are dying now of other major illnesses after their treatments were stopped or postponed. The knock on effect from the religion that covid has become. When will the lawsuits start, the coronavirus act, set up deliberately to protect those who caused this must have a million holes
Average deaths per day from Cancer used to be 450, how long before we see the latest stats on that ?
If as I suspect EVERYONE admitted to hospital gets tested for the virus, and the “death” figures quoted in the headlines are all those with a positive test within 28 days, the deaths figure quoted will just reflect the number of people dying of anything and general prevalence of the virus. The deaths with covid on the death certificate are much lower (and still probably an exagerration as most will have been ill with other things).
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/deaths
It’s despicable for media and government to use those figures. If anyone quotes them at you, you know what to tell them.
Categorically, everyone who goes into hospital is tested, yes.
“the deaths figure quoted will just reflect the number of people dying of anything and general prevalence of the virus”
You forgot the false positive rate.
Sorry- good point!
The link on my comment below from the Doctors Alliance gives good details on the scam that is covid
Which also explains why the death rates are at normal levels. The con artists, sorry government, have ‘borrowed’ the deaths from other categories.
What galls me the most is that the majority of the population don’t see this! Wilfully blind…
Indeed. I’m still waiting for them to fold the deaths-with-COVID-19 into the general flu and pneumonia stats. They’ll probably come with a new name (e.g. “COVID-like disease”) and then declare war on that. Say hello to lockdown infinity.
Almost everyone, including the masked, know of at least one way that the government are lying about the figures and, unlike enhanced claims made during wartime, they are not impressed.
I had a conversation with a colleague the other day on the subject of tests and masks and whatnot. This colleague is a lovely person, young but very sharp. I was a bit shocked at how the conversion unfolded.
I had expected an argument over each point, but in fact my colleague tended to accept my arguments as having merit.
But after conceding a point, my colleague would then just move on to another one of the supposed-crisis issues, such as hospital bed shortages. The previous point that I thought I had won was simply discarded. The blatant bias of the BBC was considered to be “a bit iffy” but otherwise not worthy of further scrutiny.
It became a game of whack-a-mole where all that was required was that there was one single point that I couldn’t refute. It wouldn’t matter if I had knocked down twenty other points, the presence of one issue that I couldn’t “disprove” was enough to invalidate my position entirely.
I’ve said it before, but I think it’s standard human behaviour. We tend to just believe what we believe, and no amount of evidence to the contrary has any chance at undoing those beliefs. If anything, contrary evidence has the opposite effect.
It puts me in mind of those doomsday cults for whom the failure of the world to end on the appointed date actually strengthens their belief. They simply refine their estimate for the end of the world and then carry on regardless.
I’m increasingly convinced that we need to deploy the same kinds of deprogramming techniques that are used to rehabilitate cult members.
It’s something I’m looking into at the moment, principally using the book How to Have Impossible Conversations.
You are absolutely right and I have had very similar experiences as I just commented to another message. I am horrified that the majority of the people around us are not in control of their own minds. We should be very thankful that we are not like that.
Pointless, the followers of the cult will just give you that blank stare and sip on their Kool Aid
Some will but not I believe all
There are I believe more neutrals than full on cult members out there
You are right. A friend who is a Consultant Pathologist at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge has confirmed everyone who comes to hospital is tested. However positive tests are repeated using a different method from the standard PCR test and only get counted if that is also positive. They use a Ct of 35 for the PCR. Of course this means that the hospital (pillar 1) false positive rate is reduced but this is not the case with the community (pillar2) tests. I think this shows that the hospital labs are trying to get their figures right.
It does not, however, mean very much if managers and Lt Gruber count anyone who tests positive in hospital as a positive “case” regardless if they have symptoms. As Allison Pearson said in her column in the DT on Wednesday, Addenbrookes currently has very few Covid patients in hospital and even fewer in ICU.
https://worlddoctorsalliance.com/
That is a really great initiative, if there’s one thing you do today, this week, or even this month, please look at the website and sign up.
Yes
Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this son of pork
The Witless, the Vileance, and Wancock our dog
Ruleth all England under a hog.
Yes, I’m sure that’s right. They are trying to compartmentalise everything into a model (a “clock”). It doesn’t work. These local lockdowns are more tinkering with the clock. Science can be brilliant, but it can lead us to forget how much we simply don’t know.
It’s the same level of hubris makes them believe they can model the climate.
Even with a new Biggest Computer In Europe every other year they cannot cope with the butterfly effect.
The belief that everything can be reduced to an app is pretty much the religion of the tech industry.
Computers are no longer the tools of thought that Vannevar Bush proposed in 1945. Now they are the thoughts themselves.
Control the platform, control the agenda, control the people. Just look at Google and the Great Barrington Declaration.
I know we turn our criticism to the politicians and SAGE, but really this is about mass delusion.
The real battle is trying to make others realise they have fooled themselves.
There will be many many denials that they ever went along with it.
A good read is “When prophecy fails’ They will believe until their dying day
Glass of Kool Aid anyone?
My brother recovered well from his flu over the last days (or Covid as he tested positive but who know?)
I told him it’s a shame you’ll never actually know, because you never found out the cycles on your test nor did you have differentiating symptoms. But at least you’ll be immune.
He told me that it doesn’t necessarily make you immune.
I replied, of course it can mutate, but if you aren’t immune to this how the fuck does a vaccine work then?
People watch the news and absorb the fear. And then complain that others aren’t part of the cult.
At least he isn’t ostracising me like cults do
You’re right about the vaccine. That’s why the flu vaccine is a bit hit and miss, I think it’s supposed to only be 50% effective but we all know about statistics now don’t we? I’m wondering how many people are now in hospital as a result of the flu jab they received this year.
My brother is ostracising me. A hard-core Branch Covidian.
“it’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled”
Since March I have had some very heated debates with a very, very intelligent friend. She was absolutely against my opinion that the ‘rona was all exaggerated and was nothing to panic about. She actually got pretty aggressive when I continued pushing it and especially when I provided evidence. Even though my proposed solution (similar to GBD) was compasionate, I was accused of selfishness.
However, in the last month or so, she has independently reached the same conclusions that I had in March. She appears to have employed a psychological twist to cope with that realisation – she has totally erased the memory of our arguments about this and that I was right all along.
This validates a theory I have held for some time that a large proportion of the people around us (even the smart ones) are not actually in control of their minds. An instinct had been triggered that makes them abandon logic and believe totally irrational ideas. It is probably related to religious belief. I find it most worrying that the vast majority run on instinct, and I am surprised that I have only noticed this recently with subjects such as Brexit, Trump, BLM and the ‘rona. Has it always been this way or us it a new phenomenon? For some unknown reason I am thankfully lacking this overriding instinct.
Anyway, my point was that I am not going to challenge her on this. You are right that there will be many denials, but in the short-term we probably need to let them slide and not highlight that “we told you so”.
Peter Drucker, the man who basically invented modern management and tracking of management, used to get CEOs to write down the goals for the year. He would then put them in his safe and revisit them a year later. Barely any of the CEOs goals would match up to what they did that year, even the next month after writing them down.
His point was that unless you track what you do and say you’ll lose sight of things. If you can’t do that, then live on a small set of principles so it’s always easier to get back on track.
I agree. The “brainwipe” effect occurs in hypnosis. Scott Adams has for many years referred to people being hypotised with TDS in the US. Not actually seeing what’s going on and just responded to triggers. It’s the same with the Rona. Fight or Flight triggers.
My GP practice, 7 doctors, has in recent years spent probably millions on extensions, updating, somewhere you would be happy to spend hours in, books, magazines, comfortable chairs, for somewhere you should be in and out of within minutes. Now its a fort knox style situation, where well paid staff, and Doctors whose mantra is First Do No Harm, hide behind the doors and screens.
Not only that, my GP surgery is now introducing an extra layer of security into their sign-in. That is so important in this time of using their on-line services because they have given up seeing patients face to face.
I’m incredulous that people think this is all about a virus!
“Big Pharma Is Policing the Approval of Its Own Vaccines”
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/10/12/big-pharma-is-policing-the-approval-of-its-own-vaccines/
“The boards overseeing the COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials are supposed to be independent of pharmaceutical companies. ICAN’s intensive investigation into these boards has revealed conflicts of interest with pharmaceutical companies that are shocking to the conscience. ICAN, through its attorneys, has therefore filed a formal demand to remove these individuals from these boards.
The boards overseeing the COVID-19 vaccine trials are known as Data and Safety Monitoring Boards (DSMBs). As explained by pro-vaccine bioethicist, Art Caplan, regarding these DSMBs: “They’re very powerful. They’re key guardians of science and safety and are as important if not more important than the FDA.”
There are four potential COVID-19 vaccines that are currently in Phase III clinical trials in the United States. The clinical trials for three of these experimental vaccines – the ones to be sold by AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson – are being overseen by a DSMB created by Dr. Fauci’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (the NIAID DSMB). The clinical trial for Pfizer’s experimental vaccine is being overseen by a different DSMB (the Pfizer DSMB).
The members of these DSMBs were selected in secret. They meet in secret. Their identities are supposed to remain a secret. This veil of secrecy has held with the exception of two members. The identity of the chairperson of the NIAID DSMB, Dr. Richard Whitley, was mistakenly revealed by his university in an announcement that has been scrubbed from its website. As for the Pfizer DSMB, made up of five individuals, one of its members, Dr. Kathryn Edwards, was apparently mistakenly revealed in a CBS article.
Selecting these individuals could only occur by turning a blind eye to their extremely troubling and blatant conflicts with pharmaceutical companies. For example,…” read on at the link the lawyers letter is also available to see
I think the next time we go into national lockdown we won’t be coming out of it for ateast 4 months. It will be brutal. This is where the masked sheeple will realise but it will be too late. At least we know what’s coming. Stock up on non perishable grub. Plenty of water. Get a gas bottled heater or two.
Only happen if we let it.
How do we stop it, Dan? “We” needs numbers, big numbers, but the masses are on board with it all.
I wrote this to my MP, Keri Badenoch, my MP who is a junior minister and always follows the Gov line even when it clearly disadvantages her constituents in and around Saffron Walden which is in rural North Essex but bizarrely has been put in tier 2 restrictions!
Dear Mrs Badenoch,
I understand for unfathomable reasons rural Essex has been included in tier 2 restrictions. It is too much to expect that you argued against this absurdity on behalf of your constituents.
Not only will I refuse to abide by this but I shall never vote for you or your party again.
Regards,
I have to say that Badenoch is in my experience close to a disgrace. I find her a parrot of policy and basically an example of why “safe seats” and box ticking does not benefit anyone.
The mail has an article about CCTV is now being set up in shops to prevent people from entering shops without a mask. AI stopping the door from opening.
It is a society I want now part of. Just 10 months ago people would have made jokes about only letting armed robbers in.
Corporate Disability Discrimination
They seem to be rewriting all the former ‘protections’ or willfully ignoring them
Have just been to buy some horse food from WYNSTAY stores in RUTHIN. Entering the shop I was asked if I had a mask, and gave my usual reply that I hadn’t. Normally that’s an end to the matter, but the assistant told me I needed one to come in. So I replied that I didn’t as I was exempt. She then asked to see my lanyard! I told her I didn’t have one either. She asked me to leave, so I asked another assistant to get the manager. I explained that under the DDA and crazy regulations I didn’t need a mask, lanyard or to explain myself. Apparently their head office has instructed them to see lanyards before allowing exemptees in. Needless to say an email is on the way to their head office and I’m trying to calm down from an extremely stressful encounter.
This is very very important please read. https://cairnsnews.org/2020/10/16/canadian-politician-leaks-new-covid-lockdown-plan-and-great-reset-dictatorship-australia-is-part-of-it/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
Hmm, seems like conspiracy-theory-on-steroids: hope I’m right!
This is great, please repost Saturday
Horrendous, we are slaves at the mercy of the few
This article says the IFR is 0.5% but I thought it was confirmed by many people to be 0.24% and just 0.05% for healthy people under 70?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54570373
John Ioannidis recent paper for WHO gives 0.23%.
Looks like a job for the BBC fact checkers…
I quote from what is written above:-
>>>Stop Press: Stanford’s Dr John Ioannidis has a new peer-reviewed study out, published by one of the other branches of the many-headed WHOdra, that estimates the IFR for healthy under-70s at just 0.05%.<<<
The virus even has a sense of humour:
https://www.stereogum.com/2102619/swiss-yodellers-covid-19-superspreaders/news/
50 million people died OF the Spanish flu.
0.9 million people have died WITH covid 19. (that’s if you believe the figures produced by governments)
At the start of all this the WHO had to change the definition of a ‘pandemic’ because not enough people were dying for covid to qualify.
What a scam.
Like naming storms.
Population was probably a fifth of what it is now back in 1919. So the 50 million would now equate to 250 million. Getting on for entire US population. So yes we are nowhere near that. Another 249.1 million to go.
Saturdays edition is here
https://dailysceptic.org/2020/10/17/latest-news-165/#comments
WHO advocate no lockdowns as they cause immense worldwide poverty. See our dumb leaders, still shouting for lockdowns.
It does not take much imagination to see that lockdowns will be disastrous. It only takes a little principle to know that lockdowns are wrong and should never have been considered.
I am not sure we should be paying much attention to the latest ranting and ravings coming from the WHO – they could change their mind tomorrow. The WHO needs to be shut down and the people involved subject to investigation for their part in these crimes against humanity.
I guess my question is:
Is this battle against these twats won on the great reset front?
Or on the incompetence front? Or a combination of both?
It seems their control, their plan is cumbling either way… thoughts?
On the rationality and empirical evidence front – which covers all bases.
Talk Radio stepping its game up this afternoon.. government is bombarding us with propaganda. You think?
Justr talking to a neighbour.. a good neighbour so I resisted challenging his viewpoint out of courtesy… but he believes everything the government and media have pumped out.. so I still think we are still somewhat fooked.
I’ve read Mike Yeadon’s piece “What SAGE have got wrong” with interest. The only point I want to make is that I disagree with the part in the vaccination paragraph where he states`”You do not vaccinate people who are not at risk from a disease”. We do . I’m a GP and whilst the argument for and against the effectiveness of mass vaccination to prevent Covid -19 is reasonable to debate, the fact is that for other diseases we do precisely that. Rubella for example, is a harmless condition unless contracted during pregnancy , causing major congenital birth defects. We vaccinate males as well as females in infancy in order to ensure herd immunity so that the chance of a woman contracting it during pregnancy is reduced. The same principle is used for Measles prevention. We vaccinate all children in order to ensure herd immunity so that the few who might have developed severe complications do not. I’d like to hear Mike’s response to this.
https://committees.parliament.uk/call-for-evidence/250/data-transparency-and-accountability-covid-19/
Is there any way to ask Mike Yeadon to write a response to this?