Latest News

25 min read

Gyms Are Essential Services

A group of 100 gym owners from across Wales have got together to tell the Welsh Government that it is wrong and harmful to shut gyms during the so-called “fire break” lockdown. They told Lockdown Sceptics:

As of 18.00 Friday we enter a 17 day “fire break” period where all but non-essential businesses will close across the entire country.

As a collective, we strongly believe that gyms are an essential service, and scientific evidence shows that active participation in exercise through establishments such as gyms relieves the strain on the NHS through the promotion of physical and mental wellbeing.  In forcing the closure of gyms, the Welsh Government will be harming a large proportion of the Welsh population and we cannot stand by and allow that to happen.

Just as the Liverpudlian gym community fought (and won) against gym closures in its city, we are now going to do the same for our country. However, we want to take it a step further in getting gyms officially recognised as an essential service by the Government, as they have in other countries across Europe.

– According to ukactive, there were 22 million gym visits in England between July 25th and September 13th and they resulted in just 78 confirmed Covid cases
– The number of cases per 100,000 gym visits in this period was 0.34

It is widely accepted that suicide rates amongst gym-aged males increased during the first lockdown and subsequently. Although we are awaiting official Government data on this, some reports suggest a 40% increase, which if true is a national tragedy. Gyms are not only important for the physical wellbeing of their members but also their mental wellbeing which is just as important given the well-publicised (and significant) lack of funding in the NHS for mental health issues.   

Finally, on top of the multiple billions in savings the fitness industry provides the NHS, gyms provide employment to tens of thousands of people. 

The first lockdown put a great strain on gyms. When we were allowed to reopen, we each had to spend thousands on measures to make gyms “Covid safe”.  The low transmission rates reported from gyms mentioned above are testament to the incredible job that gym owners have done.

It is no exaggeration to say that this further “fire-break” will put the Welsh gym industry in the most perilous position it has ever been in, threatening the employment of thousands of staff and self-employed personal trainers.

We are an industry that relies on our customers becoming members, and member confidence is at an all-time low as they are reluctant to join a gym when it may be forced to close at any point. We need certainty for ourselves and for our members, and being classed as an essential service will go a long way towards that.

Snap surveys across Welsh gyms have shown that gym members also fully support our request to remain open as an essential service and have given us their full backing.

We have a Welsh Assembly Member, Neil McEvoy, who is willing to fight alongside us and as a collective we directly represent tens of thousands of members.

Please consider supporting their campaign through their funding page.

Churches Are Essential Too

Church leaders have written to the Welsh Assembly seeking urgent review of the ‘firebreak’ lockdown measures introduced last night that will ban churches in Wales from opening for three Sundays. Christian Concern has the details.

The pre-action letter argues that blanket restrictions imposed on Welsh churches which began on Friday October 23rd at 6pm will be both unlawful and unnecessary.

Furthermore, the letter states that: “The forced closure of churches by the state is an extreme interference with Article 9 rights. Such a far-reaching and large-scale intervention may only be justified by the most compelling scientific evidence of a resulting benefit to public health.”

The church leaders, who work in some of the most deprived areas of Wales and are from a range of denominations, acknowledge the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic, but argue that the imposition of appropriate anti-pandemic measures should be a matter for church rather than secular authorities.

The group state that they are genuinely open to a constructive dialogue with the Welsh Assembly, but warn that if matters are not addressed urgently they will seek a judicial review of the ban.

Leaders of English churches have also signed the letter, concerned that the forced closure of churches in Wales would set a precedent that England would follow.

On October 19th, Wales’s First Minister, Mark Drakeford, announced, without any parliamentary debate or scrutiny, that Wales would enter a two-week ‘firebreak’ Covid lockdown.

He said the measures were needed to relieve pressure on the health service and slow the spread of the virus in the country.

As part of the measures, he announced church doors will close for public worship other than for funerals or wedding ceremonies for three Sundays, although wedding receptions will not be allowed.

The measures follow a similar blanket ban on church services from the UK Government during the first wave of the pandemic, which saw a series of claims brought to the High Court against the Government.

UK churches faced tough restrictions, which even involved closing for private prayer.

Courts repeatedly warned that the limitations imposed by the secular Government upon the ancient liberties of the Church were potentially unlawful.

In response, the Secretary of State amended the Regulations in July to lift the legally enforceable ‘lockdown’ on the places of worship, which rendered the claims obsolete.

Mr Justice Swift observed at the time that the claims against the Government decision to close churches “raises significant issues”.

In May, a French court ruled that the French Government’s closure of churches was unlawful and a “seriously and manifestly illegal infringement” of religious rights, and ordered the ban to be lifted.

Read more here.

Stop Press: The Critic has a piece by Revd Matthew Roberts on “Why we’re fighting the Welsh lockdown“.

The Sanity of Crowds

Christian minister and Lockdown Sceptics reader Jamie Franklin (who runs the Irreverend podcast) has penned a moving reflection on the many losses of lockdown and the miserable new normal.

I remember as a boy going to watch Spurs at the old White Hart Lane. The feeling of walking up the concrete steps and into the open, the atmosphere tangible, tens of thousands with me, anticipating, hoping, smiling, united. I remember the strange smell of cigarette smoke, the unknown, elaborate obscenities, the sudden silence of the crowd as a chance opened up, the sound of myriad upon myriad plastic seats flapping shut as the faithful arose, eyes focused, breath stopped… the eruption, the euphoria when the ball hit the back of the net. I jumped for joy.

I remember fireworks upon the River Thames at the Millennium. I remember travelling back to my grandparents’ house on the tube and strangers playing charades together.

I remember going to watch musicals and pantomimes with my family, lots of Andrew Lloyd Webber: Cats, Joseph, Whistle Down the Wind to name some.

I remember school assemblies and chapel, singing the hymns in a funny way, making up different words, laughing with my friends when the chaplain spoke of “coveting thy neighbour’s ass”.

I remember Christmas at my grandparents’ house, not being able to sleep Christmas Eve, waiting to go home for lunch and presents as I sat through church on the special morning.

I remember going to Greece with a close friend. Teenagers, we went with his mum who couldn’t control us. We stalked around the island with another couple of lads we met there. On the last night I accidentally got paralytic on Ouzo.

I remember going to Earl’s Court to see Metallica and Iron Maiden. Amazing.

I remember going to university for the first time, the uncertainty and enjoyment of meeting so many new people, the struggle to understand myself in this new environment.

I remember going to church by my own choice as an adult. I remember the feeling of joy as I sang God’s praises with a few hundred other people and really meant it…

I’m told that this is all over now. I’m told that none of it is safe. I’m told that the kindest thing to do is for us all to stay in our houses forever. In order for my children to be safe, they must never hug their grandparents. Old folks in hospital mustn’t see their kids before they die. I’m told by Tobias Ellwood MP that I will need to be vaccinated before I can return to normal life, and, even then, that I must carry a passport in order to go anywhere. I’m told by the Prime Minister that I will need to test myself for a virus every morning before I go outside. I’m told that I must allow the government to track my every movement and interaction.

Let’s hope they don’t make this stunted existence last too long. Worth reading in full.

New Study Claims Lockdowns Work

The Lancet has published a new study by Dr You Li and colleagues purporting to show that various non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) have a significant impact on reducing infections. From the conclusion:

To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to assess the temporal association between changing the status of a range of NPIs and the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, as measured by R, for all countries for which data were available. On the basis of the empirical data from 131 countries, we found that individual NPIs, including school closure, workplace closure, public events bans, requirements to stay at home, and internal movement limits, were associated with reductions in R of 3–24% on day 28 after their introduction, compared with the day before their introduction. Reopening schools, lifting bans on public events, lifting bans on public gatherings of more than 10 people, lifting requirements to stay at home, and lifting internal movement limits were associated with increases in R of 11–25% on day 28 after the relaxation. The effects of introducing and lifting NPIs were not immediate; it took around one week following the introduction of an NPI to observe 60% of the maximum reduction in R and even longer (almost three weeks) following the relaxation of an NPI to observe 60% of the maximum increase in R.

Our analysis suggests that, in the context of a resurgence of SARS-CoV-2, a control strategy of banning public events and public gatherings of more than 10 people would be associated with a reduction in R of 6% on day seven, 13% on day 14, and 29% on day 28; if this strategy also included closing workplaces, the overall reduction in R would be 16% on day seven, 22% on day 14, and 38% on day 28. These findings provide additional evidence that can inform policy makers’ decisions on the timing of introducing and lifting different NPIs.

The study has numerous problems, many of which the authors themselves list in the discussion. They claim, for instance, that closing schools and banning public events have the largest impact on infection rates. But they acknowledge that these were usually the first interventions brought in and that the large impact may just reflect that earliness. In terms of increases in infection after lifting restrictions, they acknowledge that they don’t allow for increases in testing, yet the early summer (when most of the restrictions were being lifted) was when testing was being ramped up worldwide, so much of the increase must be attributed to that. They admit they don’t take the seasonality of the virus into account, and appear to defend this by citing a model that claims to show that temperature and humidity don’t make any difference to transmission, despite it now being clear that the virus faded in many places partly due to the onset of summer and is seeing a seasonal resurgence in the autumn. They also claim schools are major drivers of infection, citing one study about the high viral load in five year-olds, but ignoring all the studies that show closing schools made little or no difference.

They acknowledge that there were varying delays in the interventions having an effect, with a median of eight days to reach 60% of the effect, which seems a very long delay for an impact that should really be immediate (their methodology takes into account the lag between infection and reporting tests results). They argue this is likely to be a result of behavioural inertia, which they say is backed up by Google mobility data, but don’t go into detail. It’s hard to see how behavioural inertia could explain a delay in the impact of the closure of schools, which is by nature an immediate and universal behavioural change. Likewise, if public events are banned then they are banned. Why then the delay and variation?

Crucially, there is no sign they have considered how much of the decline in R would have happened anyway, due to natural epidemic decline (herd immunity). As often happens with these studies, one gets a sense that they are assuming their conclusion (that NPIs work) and thus don’t give proper consideration to the possibility that the reduction in R is unrelated to the interventions.

In some ways, though, this study is welcome to sceptics because it concedes that most interventions have no clear impact, and even for those that do the effect is very limited. If lockdowns don’t really prevent transmission, and vaccines likewise, then what argument is left against the strategy of protecting vulnerable people as best we can while otherwise getting back to normal? None that I can see.

Is Public Opinion Turning?

Revellers in Sheffield out on the town last night

There’s an encouraging piece in the Daily Mail today suggesting public opinion is beginning to shift.

Dramatic evidence of a growing revolt against the coronavirus lockdowns emerged last night.

The public think the rules won’t work, they will break the law if necessary to see their loved ones and believe it is time to “get Britain back to normal”.

These are among the key findings from focus groups that suggest traditional opinion polls have failed to spot a decisive change in attitudes toward the pandemic.

One leading pollster believes Britain could be witnessing a repeat of what happened in the 2015 election and the EU referendum.

Opinion polls forecast Labour’s Ed Miliband would be prime minister and that Brexit would be rejected: focus groups indicated the opposite and were proved right each time.

Since the start of the pandemic most polls have suggested voters support lockdowns and, if anything, want the Government to impose even more stringent curbs.

Some have argued this is because furloughed workers have been able to stay at home on 80 per cent of their normal wages thanks to taxpayer funds.

Many Tory MPs opposed to Boris Johnson’s three-tier lockdown system claim their stance is backed by many of their constituents.

The Daily Mail listened in to one of the focus groups, typical of several that have been conducted recently, and it echoed the MPs’ views.

Carried out last Friday, and comprising a cross-section of society, both Tory and Labour, in London, Birmingham and Liverpool, it appears to show voters have lost faith in lockdowns and are no longer prepared to obey all the rules.

They also think the second wave of the virus will be less dangerous, are increasingly worried about the damage to jobs and the economy.

Meanwhile many will refuse a coronavirus vaccine for fear of side effects and there is continuing fury over rule breakers such as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Dominic Cummings.

The pollster who conducted these focus groups, James Johnson, has written up his findings for the paper.

Stop Press: Only one in 10 told to self-isolate remain at home for two weeks, according to SAGE document.

Lockdown Logic

We’re publishing today a piece by a philosopher who analyses the so-called logic of the lockdown zealots and finds it wanting. Here’s an excerpt.

What, then, is the status of SAGE’s (or the BBC’s, or the general public’s) conviction that a second COVID-19 wave is imminent or already under way? The belief that the NHS is under threat; the conviction that in the absence of further restrictions on personal liberties and economic activity, we risk hundreds of thousands of excess deaths? Clearly, it’s a blik: these are expressions of an unshakeable faith in the most pessimistic outcomes – one that is retained and allowed to govern argument, attitudes in social life, and decision-making, regardless of (almost) no matter what evidence to the contrary. The virus is out to get us; and any evidence that suggests otherwise just shows how cunning it is, and how cautious we need to be to protect ourselves against its malevolence. These articles of faith are ‘meaningful’ to those committed to them, in that they affect the way they live their lives; and they are retained regardless of all rational considerations that count against them. 

Some may be inclined to the view that it is no real accident that belief in the ‘second wave’ (or, perhaps, second coming)’should resemble religious belief. They may suggest that it accords frighteningly well with certain other aspects of the phenomenon as we experience it: the cult of supposed experts – the scientifically-informed ‘priesthood’ controlling and interpreting the models, whose identities were kept secret for so long (as a guard, presumably, against some form of jealous magic that might undermine, them were their identities publicised). For me, that’s going a bit too far: my view is simply that these people can’t think straight. 

Worth reading in full.

Maureen From Barnsley on Good Morning Britain

An 83 year-old woman from Barnsley has done more to rally support for the sceptics’ cause than six months of unrelenting toil on Lockdown Sceptics. But we love her. Here she is socking it to Dr Sarah Jarvis on Good Morning Britain.

Postcard From Albania

Lifestyle writer and Lockdown Sceptics reader Robert Jackman has sent us a postcard from Albania. Sounds like they’ve got the right idea.

There’s a depressing rule of thumb at the moment in Europe that it’s typically the countries on the other side of the Berlin Wall that are the freer ones these days. And a visit to Albania – once the last Communist dictatorship in Europe – proves no different.

Of course, Albania does have some coronavirus restrictions. Masks are compulsory in most indoor spaces (restaurants and bars excluded), but the take-up is far patchier than in Britain. The collective mentality seems to be that, whatever the law might say, masks remain a matter of personal choice.

In a short weekend break, I spot the occasional social distancing sign in a window but nothing more than that. There are no restrictions on how many people can enter a shop or sit on a bus. No martials policing the streets. No irritating one-way systems or taped-over seating.

I suspect there are several factors that contribute to the lack of suffocating restrictions we’ve become used to. As with most poorer countries in Europe, customer-facing businesses in Albania tend to be small and independent, often run directly by owners. 

From serving customers to sweeping the floors at closing time, the average Alabanian coffee shop owner has enough to worry about without fussing about whether customers are wearing masks. They’re also much less likely to want to chase away custom. Nor do they receive orders from a nervous head office intent on minimising potential liability. 

You get the sense that – even putting the virus aside – rules and regulations carry less weight here than they do in the more litigious and bureaucratic West. Cigarettes, for example, are available virtually everywhere and restaurants seem to have the automatic right to let customers smoke – even in a shopping mall. That lack of oversight might not always be a good thing, but I’d happily take it over armed-police shutting down gyms. 

When chatting to a bar owner later, I find out there are some other rules in place. It’s just as well he mentions them, as I’d have never noticed otherwise. One of the new rules, he says, is that pubs and bars are banned from playing music after 8pm. Does he follow the rule I ask? Of course not, he laughs. In three months, he’s received the occasional ticking off from passing police officers, but even then probably only to cover their own backs. The idea that he could be fined or shut down seems alien to him. 

Come midnight, the music is louder than when I arrived. At one point, I even hear the sweary refrains of Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing in the Name Of (‘F**k you I won’t do what you tell me!‘)”. I suspect it isn’t a deliberate act of defiance, but it’s music to the ears of a slightly tipsy lockdown sceptic. 

So how is it all working out for Albania? Their daily coronavirus deaths are still in the single figures but have been steadily ticking away for months now. In typically Balkan style, they have effectively arrived at the Swedish model (well, plus masks) by default rather than design. If this is what ‘letting the virus rip’ looks like, we probably shouldn’t be too worried.

There is one final factor that I imagine contributes to the country’s aloofness in the face of the virus. As anyone who’s been to the Balkans knows, it’s common to see death notices printed on A4 paper and posted on special notice boards around town. While the aim is to let people know about upcoming funerals, seeing those black and white photos also reminds you that death is always out there. Perhaps it helps maintain perspective – and keep away the paralysing fear that has gripped so much of western Europe?

After all, I can’t help notice that, even in the grip of a pandemic, the wall of remembrance is hardly overcrowded. If Neil Ferguson was right, there would be paper blowing everywhere.

Round-Up

Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers

Wales themed today: “Fear Of A Welsh Planet” by Goldie Lookin Chain and “This Sullen Welsh Heart” by Manic Street Preachers.

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 £1.99 from Etsy here. And, finally, if you feel obliged to wear a mask but want to signal your disapproval of having to do so, you can get a “sexy world” mask with the Swedish flag on it here.

Don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face 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 an excellent piece about the ineffectiveness of masks by a Roger W. Koops, who has a doctorate in organic chemistry.

The Great Barrington Declaration

Professor Sunetra Gupta, Professor Martin Kulldorff and Professor Jay Bhattacharya – actual scientists, unlike Devi Sridhar

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 Googled it on Tuesday, the top hits were three smear pieces from the Guardian, including: “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 tops the search results – and Toby’s Spectator piece about the attempt to suppress it is among the top hits – 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 also done a smear job.)

You can find it here. Please sign it. Now over 600,000 signatures.

Judicial Reviews Against the Government

There are now so many JRs being brought against the Government and its ministers, we thought we’d include them all in one place down here.

First, there’s the Simon Dolan case. You can see all the latest updates and contribute to that cause here.

Then there’s the Robin Tilbrook case. You can read about that and contribute here.

Then there’s John’s Campaign which is focused specifically on care homes. Find out more about that here.

There’s the GoodLawProject’s Judicial Review of the Government’s award of lucrative PPE contracts to various private companies. You can find out more about that here and contribute to the crowdfunder here.

The Night Time Industries Association has instructed lawyers to JR any further restrictions on restaurants, pubs and bars.

And last but not least there’s the Free Speech Union‘s challenge to Ofcom over its ‘coronavirus guidance’. You can read about that and make a donation here.

Samaritans

If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email [email protected] or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year, providing a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them.

Shameless Begging Bit

Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. Doing these daily updates is hard work (although we have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending us stories and links). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links we should include in future updates, email us here. (Don’t assume we’ll pick them up in the comments.)

Special thanks to graphic designer and Lockdown Sceptics reader Claire Whitten for designing our new logo. We think it’s ace. Find her work here.

And Finally…

This video about the Asch Conformity Experiment shows how easily people can be induced to go along with a group rather than trusting the evidence they can see with their own eyes, especially when the group is unanimous. Sometimes it is because they become convinced the group must be right because it sees or knows something they don’t. Sometimes it is because they don’t want to stand out or rock the boat. But the more people stand up against the consensus, the more others are willing to look again and decide for themselves. Highly recommended (and only four minutes long).

Comments

This week across the site:

Email me alerts for this discussion
Notify of

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

1.6K Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Azoumi
Azoumi
5 years ago

last I looked, in addition to the scientists and medical professionals, around 600,000 thousand members of the public worldwide have signed it.

H K
H K
5 years ago

All hail Maureen!
It was marvelous watching her shoot straight from the hip against the mainstream media hacks!

Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago

New page up, kids. 🙂

Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago

How soon they forget.

Jonathan Van-Tam (Liar!):

“There is no evidence that general wearing of facemasks, by the public, who are well, affects the spread of the disease in our society.”

“In terms of the hard evidence, and what the UK Government recommend, we do not recommend face masks for general wearing by the public.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-52153145

Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago

Not done one of these for a few days. So, just in case the mayor’s tuning in.

London:

Today’s fake numbers:
Patients in hospital (23/10/2020): 625
Patients on ventilation (23/10/2020): 98
Deaths (22/10 – 16/10): 7, 10, 6, 6, 6, 2, 7

Population: 9.3 millions

Oi, Sad Dick! London’s get herd immunity, mate!

london_20000524.png
Andrea
Andrea
5 years ago

We didn’t do this when we thought Ebola was the problem, why would we do it now with a ‘flu?

captainbeefheart
captainbeefheart
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrea

Because it is a massive psychological warfare operation.

You must have heard people saying things like “that’s about as possible as eradicating the common cold” – well, they have convinced people that this is possible if we all just imprison ourselves and trust massive corporations (who really care about us) to come up with a “cure” for the common cold (slash bad strain of flu).

Their one weakness is that they are very very very clever sociopaths who do not really understand what “love” is because they could never experience such an emotion. So they thought they’d be super clever and use love as a weapon against us (“stay away from granny otherwise you will kill her”, “if you don’t muzzle up, you could kill thousands of people you’ve never met” – that sort of thing)

Good luck with that, you bastards! Very very clever, just totally unwise.

We will win this because they are tripping up left, right and centre. Even the most scared, brainwashed simpleton has started to realise they’ve been had.

Be kind to each other (but don’t let the obvious targets off the hook)

It must be annoying to work for years to put all these… Read more »

Andrea
Andrea
5 years ago

I’m hanging on to what you say ‘We will win this….’ otherwise?

captainbeefheart
captainbeefheart
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrea

Live free or die.

Andrea
Andrea
5 years ago

Prefer the former given the choice, so long as we still have the choice…..’wear a mask, don’t see your family, don’t see your friends, don’t go to the pub, restaurant, gym, holiday, Wales….’ etc

Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrea

Keep the faith, Andrea. 🙂

We will win this because they are tripping up left, right and centre.

Captain’s right, and there are an army (small, but growing daily) of us who catch them when they trip up.

Andrea Salford
Andrea Salford
5 years ago
Reply to  Ceriain

Thank you

Andrea
Andrea
5 years ago

Jeez, I think I’m going out of my mind now with 10 months of this friccing madness. Please tell me it’s over soon I’m close to the edge.

merlin
merlin
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrea

The tide has turned. They wanted the public fearful, but fear is giving way to anger. Truth will win.

Andrea
Andrea
5 years ago
Reply to  merlin

🙏Please let that be true, because the alternative is scaring the bjesus out of me (not the virus, the response)

Girl Down Under
Girl Down Under
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrea

Hang in there Andrea. I spent most of last night emailing politicians with the link to James Delingpole’s interview with Dr Mike Yeadon attached as well as Alan Jones at Sky Oz who is a commentator and quite critical of the federal and state governments’ response to the virus. The reason I did this was I became incensed with a msm news broadcast which not only inferred the virus had caused all this, (nothing to do with governments or advisers etc decisions.), but then stated another $20M would be spent on a different type of testing which would be conducted more regularly on people who didn’t even have any symptoms, prior to work. What? So the same time you are cleaning your teeth, you are testing for virus symptoms you don’t have. What a load of crock. I am now in the process of emailing the broadcaster, (Channel 9) complaining about the unbalanced way they are presenting this news. How many have died today, none. How many have died in the last month, none. How many in hospital, 1. Not on ventilator. How many at home recovering quite nicely thank you very much. You know we are fighting the good… Read more »

Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago

Which state are you in, GDU?

You’re not under Andrews, are you?

Girl Down Under
Girl Down Under
5 years ago
Reply to  Ceriain

No, thank the Lord, Ceriain. Would have been arrested by now!! I’m in Sydney.

Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago

I’m in Sydney.

Certainly better than Melbourne, that’s for sure.

I’ve also popped a couple of emails to Alan Jones during this charade, just to update him and his colleagues at Sky Au. about some of the nonsense we’ve got here in the UK, and to ask him, Adrian Bolt and Paul Murray to keep doing the good work they do.

He’s a smashing bloke; very polite and has replied to all my mails.

Girl Down Under
Girl Down Under
5 years ago
Reply to  Ceriain

That’s great Ceriain. I would love it if he actually got Toby on to have a chat to spread the word in Australia about Lockdown Sceptics. (Maybe he has and I missed it). Toby and Will are doing a great job with this site and the resources and links they put out. I wouldn’t have been able to find any without this site.

Andrea Salford
Andrea Salford
5 years ago

Thank you Girl Down Under, your energy and actions are inspiring. I’ve seen so much in the way of lockdown scepticism (James Delingpole interview with Yeadon, plus nearly all of Talk Radio, Peter Hitchins, Ivor Cummins and the German? guy outlining the case against the government locking down) reflecting my thoughts since March, but I was just losing faith that any of it is making a damn bit of difference. However you’ve lifted my spirits that we will be out of this and return to the old normal (when?). Thank you. A

Girl Down Under
Girl Down Under
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrea Salford

It really got to me last week too Andrea. I think we will be having our moments, sharing on here and then pushing back again and again and again. I have decided to write at least one email a day to a MP or broadcaster. Don’t know when it will be ‘normal’, but it has to be our normal not their new normal. And refusing, refusing to be part of the charade of masks and signing in and QRG’s, track and trace. I have no scientific knowledge whatsoever and struggle to get my head around the clever ones’ posts on here with facts and figures. But like all of us here, I know when something is morally reprehensible which is what is going on in the world right now and it is that fact alone that contents me. Sleep tight.

Andrea Salford
Andrea Salford
5 years ago

Thank you, I shall not indulge myself in negativity and foreboding, I shall take my lead from you and be positive, we have to fight support each other and this nonsense. Night night. A

Andrea Salford
Andrea Salford
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrea Salford

support each other and fight this nonsense

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago

Error

Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago
Reply to  merlin

Truth will win.

Amen to that.

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrea

It’s all good from now on. The pandemic is dying in the UK and lots of other countries. We now know for sure that Lockdowns make hardly any difference to the death toll but non lockdown countries have better economies and better health provision.

Everything is going our way! Multiple reasons to be cheerful!!

Andrea Salford
Andrea Salford
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

Thank you OK UK, the sooner the better especially for the many losing faith. Ax

Basics
Basics
5 years ago

Please ensure the grossly arrogant Richard Pinch sees this. Earlier Mr Pinch attacked me personally for daring to ask after the isolation of the SARS CoV 2 viron, I suggested it appeared to be a missing part of the puzzle. Dick Pinch replied with an arrogance those who have conversed with over these months know is tge best that man has got.

Please ensure Dick Pinch sees this.

“CDC document confirms Principia Scientific International claims there has NEVER been any successful laboratory test to isolate and confirm the existence of the SARS-COV2 virus. In effect, the science tells us there is NO virus.”

https://principia-scientific.com/even-cdc-now-admits-no-gold-standard-of-covid19-virus-isolate/

“Damning CDC document confirms Principia Scientific International claims that there has NEVER been any successful laboratory test to isolate and confirm the existence of the SARS-COV2 virus, alleged to have caused the COVID19 pandemic. In effect, the science tells us there is NO virus!

“This week, former CBS Healthwatch reporter and author of The Matrix Revealed Jon Rappaport obtained the smoking gun from a telling document from the Center for Disease Control which admitted as much.

“In one of their own documents they state quite clearly:

“Since no quantified virus isolates of the 2019-nCoV… Read more »

DavidC
DavidC
5 years ago
Reply to  Basics

I’m happy to be shown wrong, but my understanding on all that I have read about Sars-CoV-2 is that it has fulfilled NONE of Koch’s 4 postulates.

In all the reading I have done about the PCR test there is NO indication I have been able to find of what, specifically, the ‘test’ (it’s not a test, it’s a method) is amplifying. It could be ANY coronavirus fragment, or even, given the number of cycles being used, nothing at all related to coronavirus- and that’s before one addresses issues such as false positives.

DavidC

Basics
Basics
5 years ago
Reply to  DavidC

I am also happy to be proven wrong – thank you for adding to debate rather than the opposite.

As just an interested party there appears to be a vacancy where crystal clear facts ought to reside.

Earlier I was asking if a vaccine can be reliably developed from the SARS CoV 2 sequences that are held. I added the viron/strycture seems not to have been identified, it is puzzling to think how tbe viral intraction with immune systems can firstly be replicated then stopped/lessened from a DNA sequence.

The PCR test is as you say. This testing procedure would appear to tie in with the possible lack of isolation.

Koch’s postulates is a much stronger aspect from which to view this situation than my ramblings. Thanks.

Basics
Basics
5 years ago
Reply to  Basics

Page 39 of CDC document

BJJ
BJJ
5 years ago
Reply to  Basics

Who is voting you down?

Basics
Basics
5 years ago

The British Army are being drafted in to help enforce coronavirus restrictions in Tier 3 areas as the UK continues to battle the second wave of the pandemic.

Five Army and Navy environmental health officers trained in ‘outbreak management’ were deployed in Liverpool on Friday.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8875989/amp/British-army-drafted-Tier-Three-areas-enforce-coronavirus-restrictions.html

Basics
Basics
5 years ago
Reply to  Basics

Recall a few weeks back the army were to take over security of natiinal protected sites to allow plod to get back on the beat.

This latest creep makes plod look like a bunch of hopeless wankers who need back up from untrained for role armed forces. How embarrasing for the police, rapidly loosing consent.

Of course the armed forces are not welcome on the streets they are not needed, part of the war against the population as being waged by 77 brigade and the evil strategists of SPI-B.

Uncle Monty
Uncle Monty
5 years ago
Reply to  Basics

No they aren’t.
More tripe to scare people.

Basics
Basics
5 years ago
Reply to  Uncle Monty

More? Please can you clarify you statement please. You have contrary evidence?

John P
John P
5 years ago

If you can keep your head when all about you   
   Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
   But make allowance for their doubting too;   
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
   Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
   And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;   
   If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
   And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
   Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
   And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
   And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
   And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
   To serve your turn long after they are gone,   
And so hold on… Read more »

John P
John P
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

– Rudyard Kipling.

Girl Down Under
Girl Down Under
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

Wonderful, wonderful stuff John P.

GiftWrappedKittyCat
GiftWrappedKittyCat
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

Listen to Joni Mitchell’s version of this where she puts it to music. Beautiful.

mr ben
mr ben
5 years ago

Appalled by how patronising the gmt presenters and dr Sarah Jarvis were of Maureen ‘from barnsley’ and her husband.
Smirking bastards had no comprehension of how insulting they were.

mr ben
mr ben
5 years ago
Reply to  mr ben

It was actually verging in surreal. The kind of behaviour you might expect from South Korean state television presenters trying desperately to stay on message with ‘the party’

Girl Down Under
Girl Down Under
5 years ago
Reply to  mr ben

I wanted to smack Dr jarvis’ head right off her shoulders. Disrespectful floozies.

Azoumi
Azoumi
5 years ago
Reply to  mr ben

same here…that’s exactly what I thought too! bastards!

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago

Do ursine mammals defecate in forested areas?

Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago

Daily Fail:

At last! NHS workers are ‘set to get a vaccine in weeks’ as the Government accelerates timetable for a mass roll-out before Christmas – while ministers introduce new laws to bypass EU approval for jab

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8875931/Coronavirus-vaccine-weeks-NHS-workers.html

What could possibly go wrong?

I think I’ll pass, thanks.

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Ceriain

“I think I’ll pass” = “You’ll have to tie me to the stretcher, stifle my screams, sedate me and forcibly administer it.”

assoc
assoc
5 years ago
Reply to  Ceriain

Plus you can’t sue the manufacturers if something goes wrong. I have no doubts that NHS workers will queue for hours to have this jab.

Uncle Monty
Uncle Monty
5 years ago
Reply to  Ceriain

A 5ml syringe full of saline should suffice.
A make-believe vaccine for a make-believe pandemic.

GiftWrappedKittyCat
GiftWrappedKittyCat
5 years ago
Reply to  Ceriain

“Protect the NHS”. Inject all the staff with some unknown, untested vaccine. Aye right.

Cheshirecatslave
Cheshirecatslave
5 years ago

I was sent a Yougov survey yesterday. One question was Should the Government care more about saving lives than protecting the economy or should they protect the economy at the cost of saving lives? Talk about a loaded question! If there is not a functioning economy how do we save lives?

BJJ
BJJ
5 years ago

Alternative question: do you approve of the profession of hitmen?

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago

That is exactly how they get the answers they want! They might just be warm up questions before they pose the formal questions that appear in the published survey. It’s really easy to get the answers you want!

captainbeefheart
captainbeefheart
5 years ago

Here’s the government’s record since we “took back control”…

They’ve pissed all over the Bill of Rights They’ve wiped their arse on the Magna Carter They’ve decided that committing economic genocide against their citizens is better than providing targeted care to people who are vulnerable to “the virus” They are so arrogant, that a government advisor can get away with admitting, live on television, that he went for a drive whilst his eyesight was poor, to test his eyes, WITH HIS KIDS IN THE CAR – and this is what any parent would do They’ve imprisoned the entire population of Scotland based on 1 (yes ONE) person unfortunately dying due to the flu They’ve told the people of Wales that children’s clothes are not essential items They’ve sent armed police to issue a fine against a business owner who was just trying to make a living for having the audacity of trying to make a living and provide health services to his clients They have spent way over £350million per week on the NHS, but this amounted to over 300,000 missed cancer screening appointments and basically turned the NHS into the “be scared because there is a nasty strain of… Read more »

Alethea
Alethea
5 years ago

blimey, taking no prisoners with your final sentence…!

captainbeefheart
captainbeefheart
5 years ago
Reply to  Alethea

That nonce factory deserves what is coming to her

John P
John P
5 years ago

I’m probably wasting my time in saying this, but the Queen does not have any power.

This is not an absolute monarchy, it is a constitutional monarchy.

She cannot interfere in Westminster politics.

captainbeefheart
captainbeefheart
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

What’s the fucking point in her then?

John P
John P
5 years ago

It has a lot to do with the complicated history of the United Kingdom and the power struggles between the monarch and parliament.

Royal website:

In a monarchy, a king or queen is Head of State.

The British Monarchy is known as a constitutional monarchy.

This means that, while The Sovereign is Head of State, the ability to make and pass legislation resides with an elected Parliament.

As Head of State The Queen has to remain strictly neutral with respect to political matters.

By convention, The Queen does not vote or stand for election, however Her Majesty does have important ceremonial and formal roles in relation to the government of the UK.

In theory this separation of the head of state from the lawmakers prevents dictatorship. Of course, this year parliament itself has become a dictator.

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago

Well she was a very lucrative tourist attraction before the travel restrictions.

John P
John P
5 years ago
Reply to  Cheezilla

lol, well there is that too!

Biker
Biker
5 years ago

The point of the Queen is to release pheromones so us worker bees know when it’s time to go collect pollen

Tenchy
Tenchy
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

She can sack the prime minister. I wish she’d sack Bunter.

John P
John P
5 years ago
Reply to  Tenchy

No she can’t.

There are usually strict constitutional conventions concerning when these [reserve] powers may be used and these conventions are enforced by public pressure.

Using these powers in contravention of tradition would generally provoke a constitutional crisis.

(Quoting the Scotsman newspaper)

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

Of course she can. She can sack a PM whenever she feels like it. That is the exact constitutional position. What Parliament or the people might do if they felt her decision was a constitutional outrage is another issue entirely.

John P
John P
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

No she cannot. She can’t do what she wants when she wants. This is not an absolute monarchy.

Not a constitutional outrage. A constitutional crisis.



OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

The Queen literally appoints the PM. To remove an existing PM all she has to do is appoint another via the kissing of hands ceremony. You seem to nothing about our constitution.

captainbeefheart
captainbeefheart
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

Luckily, (probably the wrong word), no one ever bothered to write down what our constitution actually is. So it’s anyone’s guess really 🙁

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago

Well, there is convention. We know that every PM since the beginning of PMs has kissed hands with the monarch before being appointed.

Unless you are going to say our constitution can mean anything you want, that convention is surely important.

Girl Down Under
Girl Down Under
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

Her representative in Oz dismissed Gough Whitlam in ’75 who on the steps of Parliament House said this about the GG, Sir John Kerr, ‘well may we say God Save the Queen, but nothing will save the Governor General’.

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

Looking at Hoyle’s response to Dolan’s case, I’d say we have a clear constitutional crisis right now.

John P
John P
5 years ago
Reply to  Cheezilla

I agree. But that does not invalidate my point.

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

Yep and in a constitutional monarchy a monarch has a lot of effective power both formal and informal. I’d put the influence of the monarch as at least that of the average Cabinet Minister but at times it clearly equals or perhaps surpasses that of the PM.

John P
John P
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

She cannot make laws.

Lawmaking is the principal purpose of government.

Influence is not power.

If, for example, the Queen wanted the speed limit on roads to be 30 mph everywhere could she have that made into a law? No. Only parliament could do that.

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

We no longer have laws, we have diktats.

John P
John P
5 years ago
Reply to  Cheezilla

Alright, cheezy. I’m calling it a day now. It’s late. Enjoy the rest of your evening.

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

G’night John!

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

Influence is clearly power. Look at China with the idea of the “paramount leader” . The paramount leader had no formal powers but led discussion on key policy decisions

John P
John P
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

The UK is not China.

captainbeefheart
captainbeefheart
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

She can however attend secret meetings which transcend national governments…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bilderberg_participants

Apolitical – my arse.

Nsklent
Nsklent
5 years ago
Reply to  Alethea

It’s fair comment. Together with the the Theresa May agreement on Europe and this, she has failed, actuslly betrayed her country big time. As for Charles and company … and I say that as a once staunch royalist.

Jakehadlee
Jakehadlee
5 years ago
Reply to  Nsklent

She literally has no power – what she could theoretically do and what she could actually do are different things. She has one job – don’t be political. And she does it, regardless of what we – or other people – would want her to do.

The alternative? President Blair?

Jonathan Palmer
Jonathan Palmer
5 years ago
Reply to  Jakehadlee

The house of Windsor is not the only option

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago

You went and spoilt your rant with “reign” for “rein”.

The Pedant Liberation Front will be coming after you now.

Morse
Morse
5 years ago

Bang on Sir, best post on here for a while, we are being hung out to dry, taken for utter mugs and will be paying for this for ever and a day while the spivs will make a mint and laud it over us for ever more in their ivory towers. Time to take to the streets my friends, enough is enough.

captainbeefheart
captainbeefheart
5 years ago
Reply to  Morse

I probably got a bit angry there.

Please don’t call me “Sir”, I work for a living 🙂

Morse
Morse
5 years ago

Sorry skipper, your anger resonated.

Leemc23
Leemc23
5 years ago

For all I know Gwilym Owen might have a million reasons why he not “worthy” of praise Yet tonight he has one reason why he is a national hero.

Well done Gwilym. Well done.

Now More Than Ever
Now More Than Ever
5 years ago

A delightfully unfussy Italian restaurant meal with sister and brother-in-law-to-be tonight. Wasn’t asked for my papers; made token effort to pull neck tube up just to get to our table but the staff clearly couldn’t have cared less, and thereafter we were totally free to roam to the loo or the bar unmuzzled and unchastised; unmasked chef out and about in restaurant towards the end of the evening, talking to customers; we left at 9.55 (because we’d finished) but there were four or five other parties who were still only midway through main courses and who clearly weren’t going to be out by 10, and everyone seemed entirely happy about that.

Refreshing normality.

arfurmo
arfurmo
5 years ago

No names no packdrill but vaguely which area please?

Now More Than Ever
Now More Than Ever
5 years ago
Reply to  arfurmo

Yorks.

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago

Encouraging!

Eddie
Eddie
5 years ago

I love these snippets of normalcy. We need to know that not every business is cowering under the govt’s watchful eye

RickH
RickH
5 years ago

I reckon that endorsing and encouraging normality is vital – the sceptics’ ‘nudge’ theory.

DJ Dod
DJ Dod
5 years ago

The President of the German Medical Association had the temerity to state on TV that there is no scientific evidence to support the use of face masks. Immediately, the SPD’s ‘medical expert’ Karl Lauterbach demanded his resignation. Why? Because he genuinely thinks he knows better? Or because Covid has become a cult which tolerates no dissent?

https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/medizin/karl-lauterbach-fordert-aerztekammer-praesident-klaus-reinhardt-zum-ruecktritt-auf-a-6a846ac7-ed4e-465a-90ae-fab9340d4fc1

BeBopRockSteady
BeBopRockSteady
5 years ago
Reply to  DJ Dod

Unbelievable. This:

“When Lanz then referred to scientific studies from Hong Kong that demonstrate the positive effect of mouth and nose protection”

You know what study he is referring to? The hamster study that was also cited as the top piece of research to defend masks by the top Epidemiologist in Northern Ireland when interviewed for the Nolan show a month or so ago.

https://fightcovid19.hku.hk/hku-hamster-research-shows-masks-effective-in-preventing-covid-19-transmission/

It certainly is a cult and it’s clear now that global public health interventions are being based on hamster studies.

Christ.

Girl Down Under
Girl Down Under
5 years ago

How on earth do you get a face mask on a hamster? And keep it on, is it stapled or are the hamsters comatose?

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago

Was this from here earlier? I’m easily confused.
Anyway, it’s very good:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1319525341615017987

Alethea
Alethea
5 years ago
Reply to  Cheezilla

yes, delicious

Basics
Basics
5 years ago

Mayhar Tousi
Wales disgrace and London today.
Excellent capture of Britain this very day
https://youtu.be/-FQWnb8QENg

Suggest watching – the tide is turning

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Basics

Yep tide is turning. I am feeling optimistic. Lots of things feeding in but –

1. Strong evidence of herd immunity being achieved in London and South.

2. No evidence of steep rise in Covid deaths generally around the country.

3. Sceptical arguments getting more media coverage (positioning).

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

No one has to admit to a mistake. All they have to do is declare victory. It’s pretty obvious,

Jonathan Palmer
Jonathan Palmer
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

It hasn’t made a mistake.The population are exactly where they want them;under their heel.
The virus is cover for a political coup and short of massive civil disobedience this will continue.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  Basics

Excellent, suggest you repost on Sundays page

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago

From an angry blogpost by John Ward:

Below is an extract from a heart-rending email I received today. I’ve never met this lady, but I do know perfectly well (being myself in the eighth decade) that I have five cancer-suffering friends all of whom are receiving this risible level of “care” from our much-lauded National Health “Service”.

As well as being left to rot by an NHS admin Class unable to grasp the difference between 3 days in bed from Coronavirus and death, the woman concerned has also been active for many years in those movements like BackTo60 and WASPI .

The main point of this post is to give you all a glimpse of the fate that very clearly awaits everyone in the next 10-50 years, depending on your age now…..and to remind everyone that – when it comes to Covid19 management strategy – in reality all major Parties at Westminster are but the creatures of the Unelected State that now has most of the money, power and repressive infrastructure required to stomp on your face.

On GP advice, I had to call an ambulance on Tuesday (20th) as my heart was doing summersalts, my SATs were 87 and… Read more »

Silke David
Silke David
5 years ago
Reply to  Cheezilla

Late at night we get the really furious posts.
What a despicable service for this lady.
Anyone saying, but so many people died with/of covid, I want to spit at them.

calchas
calchas
5 years ago

A lot of people think there’s a pandemic going on, and that lockdowns,masking and anti-social distancing are therefore necessary.

Surely, when there is dicrepancy between how a person (or any creature) perceives the world and how the world really is, then that person (or creature) bears a cost for that erroneous judgement.

Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

I’ve said this before; if it really is a pandemic, it’s a pretty piss poor one.

not_a_pandemic.png
calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  Ceriain

Yes, amd very many – perhaps the majority, owe more to statistical legerdemain than to medical accuracy.

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

Indeed. We are all responsible for our judgements.

More and more people are seeing the discrepancies within the narrative eg “deadly disease” – so where are all the deaths.

Annie
Annie
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

It’s when the creature is able to force its erroneous view on everybody else that the trouble starts.

Silke David
Silke David
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

How many people saying but there is a pandemic know what the definition is?
They only repeat what they hear from MSM.

Van Allen
Van Allen
5 years ago

Only one way apparently.

matt
matt
5 years ago

Knew him at university.

The answer is “prick”

Mr Dee
Mr Dee
5 years ago

First they came for the Welsh, and I did not speak out—because I was not Welsh…

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/uknews/13014483/new-tier-4-covid-restrictions-could-close-restaurants/

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Mr Dee

Because I couldnt speak Welsh?

Jonny
Jonny
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

Cheers OKUK. That made me laugh out loud.

Mr Dee
Mr Dee
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

Have you ever been to Wales Baldrick? … it’s a ghastly place. … Never ask for directions in Wales Baldrick, you’ll be washing spit out of your hair for a fortnight.

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Mr Dee

lol – have Welsh relatives and love the Welsh language…this island’s most authentic link with a very distant past .

AnotherSceptic
AnotherSceptic
5 years ago
OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  AnotherSceptic

I see tge Dail Ricketts hasn’t moved on.

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

That comment had nothing to do with the Irish Parliament and should have referenced “Daily Ricketts”.

Stefarm
Stefarm
5 years ago
Reply to  AnotherSceptic

It is unknown where in Scotland the man is from or whether he had underlying health conditions – there you go, find out first!!!

Leemc23
Leemc23
5 years ago
Reply to  Stefarm

The following is 100% true.

When my cousins were born twins. One was struggling and got put into an NHS incubator. The incubator was too hot and essentially boiled the baby to death. NHS admitted negligence.

The sun / mirror / Mail / Guardian / Telegraph / a n other / local press / radio / tv never published or said one fucking word about it. Not one.

A baby….

Yet when one single case of Covid happens to a “young” person they can’t wait to publish it…..

Funny old world.

We all have stories. And no family escapes the chronic conditions of life. But getting through it takes a hug, a moment and sharing life.

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago
Reply to  Leemc23

That’s a terrible story. Inconceivably awful incident!

Leemc23
Leemc23
5 years ago
Reply to  Cheezilla

Yes. And we recognise mistakes are human. we forgive for the greater good, but how the hell do we end up in a situation like this today when everything has failed the poorest so very much and the greater good is just more injustice and more punishment ?

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago
Reply to  Leemc23

Your cousin was a tragic (and careless) accident but what’s going on today is something else!

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Leemc23

So sorry to hear that but yeah – if you don’t fit the narrative, the media don’t give a shit, however bad your suffering.

They are totally callous towards non-narrative suffering.

Leemc23
Leemc23
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

Thank you. It’s not a recent event. But helps to contextualise the bullshit press. Of course we all probably feel the same about them already, but I find the longer this all goes on the angrier I am getting not just about NOW but also historic things too, things that we have to let go for the greater good. But what was the point of that. I am feeling like if they want the world to change, then I will burn it down for them. Hopefully I will calm down.

OKUK
OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Leemc23

I think I understand your sentiment.

A good society doesn’t overvalue grievance but if we are forced to live in a world of competing grievances and fake emotions, then our real grievances and real emotions have to count for something.

Rosie
Rosie
5 years ago

Regarding the philosopher wanting a Greta-in reverse, she already exists! Naomi Seibt – she’s on Twitter which I don’t use so perhaps someone can post up some of her Tweets.
I hope the philosophy teacher reads this.

John P
John P
5 years ago
Reply to  Rosie

I already have posted her here this week. And unlike Greta, Naomi Seibt is a grown woman (aged 20) and not a child.

Again:

People would rather live in crippling fear than find out that they have been lied to about the threat.

How many mask-wearers are more scared of the mandate and social ostracism than the virus?

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

St Greta is 17. Hardly a child.
It’s just that she is dressed to look like a 12 year-old.
Her physique suggests lack of normal sexual maturity, probably due to her diet. I suspect she could be anorexic too.

Stefarm
Stefarm
5 years ago
Reply to  Cheezilla

I strongly suspect it is a boy another puppet being used.

John P
John P
5 years ago
Reply to  Stefarm

Thunberg is being cynically exploited.

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

I agree!

John P
John P
5 years ago
Reply to  Cheezilla

Oh Greta Thunberg is definitely a child in the laws of most if not all European countries. And an exploited child at that.

If you are 17 then in the United Kingdom you are a child.

18 is the age you become an adult here. But you knew that.

John P
John P
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

Thunberg is also a child in her native Sweden. I’ve just checked. The age of majority is 18 in that country as well.

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

Old enough to be legally married though!

Silke David
Silke David
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

I would not say that at 20y old I was a grown woman. I did not feel “grown -up” until my thirties, and really comfortable with myself until 40.

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago
Reply to  Silke David

We have lost the concept of adolescents, which is a serious oversight.
Don’t forget, it isn’t so long since you weren’t an “adult” until you were 21.
Given that human frontal lobes aren’t fully developed till the mid-20s, adulthood is a shifting concept.

Victoria
Victoria
5 years ago
Reply to  Rosie
Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago

Bloke in Wales fighting back against bonkers restrictions in a supermarket:

https://twitter.com/sapiofoxy/status/1320038245670047749

Draper233
Draper233
5 years ago
Reply to  Bart Simpson

Good on him!

Cue the MSM turning him into a pantomime villain

Bart Simpson
Bart Simpson
5 years ago
Reply to  Draper233

Agree. Nearly wept when he was filmed asking angrily something along the lines of “It’s coming up to winter, are these clothes not essential?”

Leemc23
Leemc23
5 years ago
Reply to  Bart Simpson

Gwilym Owen. Be a hero for the day sir. Whatever comes next. You took a stand.

kenadams
kenadams
5 years ago

Just seen some more Decade of Health adds. It feels so sinister.

Anyone know what it’s about?

Jonathan Palmer
Jonathan Palmer
5 years ago
Reply to  kenadams

Big advert on Piccadilly Underpass.
Bill & Melinda involved so make up your own mind if you think it will be beneficial

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago
Reply to  kenadams

Decade smacks of Agenda 2030

CGL
CGL
5 years ago
Reply to  kenadams

Proper creepy

Skipper
Skipper
5 years ago
Reply to  kenadams

It’s the Gates Foundation

Silke David
Silke David
5 years ago

Someone said the other day that people in hospital with covid die faster than in April.
Is it as they come into hospital more ill than in spring?
Because they have not been monitored for their underlying health conditions as regularly the last few months?
Because they delay going into hospital?

Jonny
Jonny
5 years ago
Reply to  Silke David

My understanding is that the ones who would have taken a week or so to die are now being treated better and surviving, meaning overall death is down but happening quicker

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago
Reply to  Jonny

The article said they are being treated better and dying faster. Go figure!

Lucan Grey
Lucan Grey
5 years ago
Reply to  Silke David

It’s a statistical artefact where the aggregate doesn’t inform the individual.

That trick is used to confuse people a lot unfortunately

Essentially very sick people still die as fast but less sick people survive, so the mean day of death drops

Jonny
Jonny
5 years ago
Reply to  Lucan Grey

Thanks Lucan.
The point I was trying to make but much better put

Yawnyaman
Yawnyaman
5 years ago
Reply to  Silke David

Hard to say as the numbers involved second time around are too small to be statistically significant.

calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  Silke David

It’s because they already have cancer or have had a heart atatck or a stroke – ie the real cause.

Definition:

covid death = somebody who has tested positive within the 28 days befire death.

calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

I think it is highly doubtful whether anybody is now dying of covid.

Statistical smoke and mirrors.

calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  Silke David

How do you know that anybody at all is dying of covid?

Silke David
Silke David
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

Apparently a doctor said sth like that during the week?
Just sth that irked me when I looked at dashboard, and anyway, I said with covid. You said of.

Steve-Devon
Steve-Devon
5 years ago
Reply to  Silke David

Prior to this virus hoo-haa there had been fewer than normal winter respiratory deaths and so statistically there were a number of people still alive who would have otherwise been expected to die, it is thus quite possible that they would have died quite quickly from any respiratory virus.

Annie
Annie
5 years ago
Reply to  Silke David

They’ve had more practice.

Thank you for reading. Please help us keep the Daily Sceptic going by becoming a donor.