Is the NHS in Danger of Being Overwhelmed?
Just how great a risk is there of the NHS being overwhelmed? We’re constantly being told by Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock and others that unless we observe the traffic light restrictions in our area, we will witness the kind of scenes we saw in Lombardy back in March, with Covid patients dying in hospital corridors. But is that true? Not according to my friend who’s worked as an NHS doctor for the past 30 years. Here is his guest post for today’s Lockdown Sceptics.
The last three weeks have seen much speculation about the numbers of COVID patients in intensive care units, particularly in the North West and London. Further local lockdowns have been enforced by the Government in the North West, London and yesterday in the Midlands on the grounds that the NHS risks being overwhelmed. But how close is the system to being swamped, and what can we reasonably conclude from publicly available information?
NHS data released to the public to date is incomplete and usually a week in arrears. Carl Heneghan and Tom Jefferson point out in their recent Spectator article that this crisis has been characterised by sequential data inadequacy from the Government’s scientific advisors, Public Health England and the NHS. As they say “a look back at the figures issued shows that the track record, eventually validated against the facts, is abysmal. This is important because major decisions continue to be taken on the strength of such data”.
Some of these mistakes relate to crass errors of basic management, others more disturbing over-exaggeration or over-extrapolation of the size of the threats to public health. It is known that more granular data exist – for instance around the cause of death statistics and in-hospital Covid infection rates. But these figures are not being released to the public by the NHS despite requests for more transparency – seemingly at odds with Freedom of Information obligations.
The data we do have throw up some interesting patterns.
Firstly, the rate of change of numbers of patients in ICU appears to be levelling off in all regions other than the North West up to October 20th (Graph 1). What happened after that we are not permitted to know.
In comparison with the spring surge of Covid, the curves seem very different, especially in London (Graphs 2 and 3). It is clear that the rate of increase in the autumn is nowhere near as steep as in the spring. Further, the number of patients in London ICU beds is not out of proportion to what one would generally expect from respiratory infections at this time of year.
The data curves from the North West look different to London (Graphs 4 and 5). Again, the ICU patients track the ward inpatients, but the slope of the graphs is steeper in the autumn. Why the difference? Broadly, there are two schools of thought. The first maintains that the London population has a higher immunity or resistance to COVID-19 after having been hit harder in the spring. The North West had a surge in the spring too, but national lockdown occurred before the Northern surge was fully mature, hence there may currently be more susceptible people in the North West for the virus to infect than there are in London. Serology data on antibody levels suggests that London has a significantly higher proportion of people with antibodies than the rest of the UK (approx. 15 – 20%). It is reasonable to assume that London also has a higher level of people with T-cell immunity on the basis of greater previous viral exposure.
The other school of thought holds that there is no difference in the resistance profiles between the London and North Western populations, and that the difference in hospitalisation rates is due to poor social distancing habits in the North West and more working from home in the London population. This view inclines to the belief that eventually the ‘second wave’ will travel from the North to London with a lag time of about two weeks.
A deeper analysis of the data suggests this is unlikely to be the case. There is a clear inflection point in the North West where ICU cases of Covid start to rise on or around September 22nd (Graph 6). ICU data by individual hospital can be difficult to interpret as intensive care units usually operate as a network involving several hospitals. In a surge crisis, the larger inner-city hospitals usually receive patients from smaller peripheral units, increasing their apparent numbers accordingly. In the North West, almost all the hospitals saw a sudden increase in ICU cases after September 22nd.
The inflection point in the London figures is different and the distribution of cases between trusts is also very different (Graph 7). Overall numbers are substantially lower than in the North West – a region of roughly comparable population. In London, ICU cases started to rise on September 20th – so, rather than being two weeks behind the North West, London may be seeing a ‘second wave’ at roughly the same time. Unlike the North West, where cases were spread equally between hospitals, cases in London were concentrated in the East of the City, with Barking and St Barts seeing the majority of cases. Hospitals which had been seriously stretched in April, such as Lewisham, Guys and St Thomas’s, the Whittington, St Georges and Northwick Park, have so far not seen many Covid patients, lending support to the enhanced resistance theory.
So what does all this mean? The fact that respiratory infections increase in autumn is not a surprise – the annual winter beds crisis has been a constant feature of my three decades in medicine and cancellation of routine surgical work due to winter pressures is commonplace. Certainly, it is very difficult at the moment for hospital staff in the North West – having been in the eye of the storm last time round, I have the utmost sympathy for them. However, the Mayor of Manchester and the head of the regional ICU network in the North West have both stated on the record that the healthcare system can cope with the surge. Meanwhile in London, Covid patients occupy 10% of ICU beds – completely in line with normal winter pressures at this time of year.
An objective reading of the available data does not currently support the hypothesis that the NHS is in imminent danger of being over-run. The argument from ‘circuit breaker’ advocates is that winter pressures may increase in the coming weeks and create further stress on the system – and that may come to pass, but should Covid admissions or influenza cases increase, there are several measures hospitals can take to manage the problem, such as cancellation of elective work, and use of overspill facilities constructed in haste and at substantial expense in the spring, before resorting to mass incarceration of the public and destruction of viable businesses.
So why the Tier 3 lockdowns in the North and now the Midlands?
Governmental restrictions of civil liberties must be a last resort in a democratic society. To justify such radical measures, both the Government, their scientific advisors and the NHS must be more honest and transparent with the public in respect of the data driving lockdown decisions. Simply asking the population to trust the experts is insufficient, particularly when the experts have clearly been so seriously in error in recent months.
Failure to provide sufficient evidence to justify unprecedented curbs on citizens’ rights suggests arbitrary deprivations of civil liberty are being enforced for political reasons rather than medical necessity.
Trust and confidence are essential for the operation of a modern liberal democracy. Our current leadership is rapidly running out of both.
50 Northern Tory MPs Demand Roadmap Out of Lockdown
Fifty Northern MPs have demanded a roadmap out of lockdown as a further million people have been told they’ll be placed under the most severe restrictions from Thursday, with the addition of Nottingham, Broxtowe and Warrington to Tier 3. The Mail has more.
A letter to Boris Johnson from the Northern Research Group – a newly-launched alliance of Tory MPs led by ex-Northern Powerhouse minister Jake Berry – outlines the group’s demands, which include a tailored economic recovery plan for the north.
Mr Berry says that the virus could widen the North-South divide and “send the North into reverse”. His group is now calling for Mr Johnson to “level-up the North”, something the PM claimed he would do following sweeping Conservative gains in the region in the General Election.
It comes as around eight million people in England face living under the toughest COVID-19 restrictions by the end of the week after officials confirmed four separate parts of Nottinghamshire will be thrust into a Tier 3 lockdown from midnight on Wednesday, following three days of crunch talks with the Government.
Officials have agreed to adopt the draconian measures in Nottingham City, Gedling, Broxtowe and Rushcliffe in an attempt to drive down transmission. It will mean all pubs and bars have to close unless they serve meals, while people are banned from mixing with anyone they don’t live with indoors or in private gardens and beer gardens.
MPs from the Northern Research Group describe how the region has been hit with harsh local restrictions and local economies will continue to suffer, with many losing their jobs and facing the prospect of closing down their businesses.
MP for Rossendale and Darwen, Mr Berry, said: “The virus has exposed in sharp relief the deep structural and systemic disadvantage faced by our communities and it threatens to continue to increase the disparity between the North and South still further.
“Our constituents have been some of the hardest hit by this virus with many losing jobs, businesses, and livelihoods. Never has there been a more pertinent and urgent political and economic case to support people living in the North.
“However, instead of moving forwards on our shared ambitions, the cost of Covid and the virus itself threatens to send the North into reverse.”
Ironically, Nottingham has been placed in Tier 3 in spite of the fact that daily new cases are falling. Department of Health statistics show that the number of COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Nottingham each day has been dropping since the start of the month.
Over the weekend, South Yorkshire became the latest region to fall under the highest tier of controls, following Liverpool City Region, Greater Manchester and Lancashire. If you add the areas announced yesterday, a total of eight million people will be living in a Tier 3 area, which means no household mixing – indoors or out – pubs closing unless they serve food, and locals advised only to leave their areas for essential travel such as work, education or health, and they must return before the end of the day.
Stop Press: ITV reports that drive-by testing facilities across the UK’s hotspot areas are well below capacity, with very few people showing up for tests.
Generation Covid
Panorama on the BBC last night documented the damage the lockdown and ongoing restrictions are doing to young people. An accompanying article on BBC News summarised the main points.
Young people, particularly those from deprived backgrounds, have had their earnings and job prospects hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, adding to fears for the long-term impact on their futures.
BBC Panorama found people aged 16-25 were more than twice as likely as older workers to have lost their job, while six in 10 saw their earnings fall, according to new research.
It also highlighted the impact of school closures on young people and added to growing evidence that students from poorer backgrounds have fallen behind their more privileged peers.
A quarter of pupils – some 2.5 million children – had no schooling or tutoring during lockdown, the survey by the London School of Economics (LSE) suggests.
But, the study adds, nearly three quarters of private school pupils had full days of teaching (74%) – almost twice the proportion of state school pupils (38%).The study’s authors warn it could lead to poorer pupils suffering “permanent ‘educational scarring'” when it comes to key academic milestones such as exams and securing a university place.
One of the most moving stories featured on the programme was that of Rasheed Graham, a 23 year-old from north-west London who’d secured a place on a fully-funded pilot’s training course before the coronavirus outbreak brought it to a halt.
Rasheed was told the flying school was closing and the airline could not afford to fund the training anymore.
In order to continue, he needs to find £60,000 to cover the costs.
“This is why the cadetship is worth its weight in gold, because if you don’t come from wealth or money, it gives you the opportunity to pursue a career as a pilot if you didn’t have the means before,” he told Panorama.
Rasheed is trying to crowd fund the money to pay for his course and has raised almost £22,000 so far.
“This could work out or it couldn’t. I’ve actually accepted both eventualities,” he says. “But I’d rather look back and realise that I’d tried to do something to return to flight training than sit back, and let the opportunity go by.”
You can contribute to Rasheed’s GoFundMe here – although it looks like he’s already raised the £60,000 he needs.
You can watch the programme here.
Lionel Shriver Speaks Truth to Power
I interviewed arch-sceptic Lionel Shriver for the Quillette podcast on Friday. She was predictably marvellous. As she said in the course of the interview, this crisis has sorted out the men from the boys when it comes to distinguished scientists, celebrated intellectuals and literary celebrities – with the vast majority proving bitterly disappointing. But a handful of independent-minded giants have emerged and Shriver is among the most impressive. Definitely worth listening to.
Stop Press: Stacey Rudin has written another terrific post for the American Institute For Economic Research, this time arguing that where you stand on the lockdowns is a test of character. She says the sceptics deserve the public’s trust because they have the least to gain from their position.
If COVID-19 is Not a High Consequence Infectious Disease, Why Lockdown?
Martin Neil, Professor of Computer Science and Statistics, School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Queen Mary University of London, has done a twitter thread posing an interesting question. Reprinted below.
- On 19th March the UK 4 nations public health HCID group made a decision that COVID-19 is NOT a high consequence infectious disease (HCID):
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/high-consequence-infectious-diseases-hcid - Note this important statement: “The Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) is also of the opinion that COVID-19 should no longer be classified as an HCID.”
- In the UK an HCID is defined as an acute infectious disease, with high case-fatality rate requires an enhanced individual, population and system response.
- Professor Neil Ferguson is a member of The Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP).
https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/advisory-committee-on-dangerous-pathogens - I understand the committee reached the UNANIMOUS view, that COVID-19 is NOT a HCID, at a meeting on 13th March 2020.
- Despite this the UK SAGE group published a document on 14th March recommending enhanced individual, population and system responses to COVID-19:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/update-from-sage-delay-phase-modelling - The SAGE group, Whitty and Vallance made this decision on 14th March – the day after the ACDP committee decision and five days before the HCID group’s decision.
- They therefore made this decision despite, and in contradiction to, official scientific advice.
- What happened between 13th and 14th March? Why did Ferguson, Vallance and Whitty change direction before the 4 nations HCID group made their decision on 19th March?
- Professor Neil Ferguson is a member of SAGE and a member of the ACDP. How can he make a decision one day and then contradict it the next?
Prof Neil has written for Lockdown Sceptics before about how most ‘positive’ cases are either asymptomatic carriers or false positives.
C.S. Lewis Could See Into the Future
The Price of Panic
Great new website collating the collateral damage of the lockdown under five different headings: Hunger and Poverty, Deaths from Other Diseases, Harm to Children, Anxiety, Depression and Suicides, and Oppression. Here’s an extract from the preamble:
The negative effects of lockdown are too often dismissed as small sacrifices, necessary to keep a highly deadly disease from spreading. These sacrifices are, in fact, neither necessary nor small, and the disease is only a threat to a minority of the population that can be protected without lockdowns. Sometimes, where major harms become hard to ignore, they are lamented as further damage caused by Covid, even though your panic-driven measures are to blame. This is an effort to bring focus to the magnitude of suffering taking place around us because of lockdowns.
Worth bookmarking.
Poetry Corner
A reader – Dylan Lovelock – has sent us a poem. I know how he feels.
No New Normal
I do not accept the new normal, I do not want a new normal thank you very much,
I’m quite happy with the old normal, I’m not a rabbit in a rabbit hutch
There is not a fox lurking around the corner, I’m not hiding in a chicken pen
I’m not masking my smile through fear or phobia, I will shake the hand of my good friend
I will walk freely wherever I choose to, that is why I bought these shoes new
I’m not residing in a prison cell, nor have I committed any crime
So do not expect that any time soon I’ll be doing any time
Please turn off the loathly TV and do not read the news
Unless of course you want to be misinformed and served up sour mistruths
Do not give up on your freedom, do not hand it to the machine
Do not let them take away your cash, this insidious agenda is entirely obscene
Liberty is a precious right for each and everyone
We must protect our way of life for our daughters and our sons
I am a human being, born free to live and breathe
This is not my new normal, I simply will not believe.
Spooky Parallels With Mad Cow Disease
We’re publishing an original piece today by Dr Janie Axelrad, a retired academic who wrote a book about Mad Cow Disease (BSE: A Disaster of Biblical Proportions Or a Disaster of British Science?). She sees uncanny similarities between that crisis and this. During that panic, the equivalent of SAGE was SEAC – the Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee. And, predictably, it massively over-reacted, got drunk on its own power and caused an enormous amount of needless economic damage. Here is an extract.
Once a course of action is established, original predictions become untestable, and mitigating actions can always explain the discrepancies between predicted and actual figures. The BSE crisis continued for years, and although it became increasingly clear that the dire predictions would not materialise, SEAC maintained enormous power over the narrative, the funding and the media. However, all good things must come to an end: case numbers refused to rise and the funding started drying up. In the midst of the BSE crisis I was asked to write a book for the Institute of Economic Affairs, in which I predicted that fewer than 200 CJD cases would be recorded. Later, in 2002, Neil Ferguson’s Imperial College team proclaimed that the 50,000 predicted deaths could be an underestimate. To date, the number of CJD cases is 178.
The course of that crisis has obvious parallels with the current COVID-19 pandemic response. The impression is that we are following the same handbook, albeit with a copy that is a little dog-eared. So when Ferguson predicts 500,000 deaths from COVID-19 if we ignore his advice, I suggest we should be a little sceptical. So far the UK mortality is around 45,000. Despite a total lockdown and numerous local restrictions, our death rate per million is still higher than that of Sweden, that has no such restrictions. Ten or 20 years in the future, the scientists and politicians responsible will be retired in the comfort of knowing that most people have forgotten their roles, just as happened with the BSE crisis.
We’ve added this piece to the right-hand menu in the section “How Have We Responded to Previous Pandemics?”, one of the strongest group of articles on Lockdown Sceptics.
Worth reading in full.
Our Finest Hour
A reader has adapted Churchill’s famous ‘finest hour’ speech so it applies to our current predicament. It required surprisingly few changes.
My fellow sceptics and I know that the Battle for Britain has now begun. Upon this battle depends the survival of civilisation and democracy. Upon it depends our own British way of life, and the long continuity of our culture, our institutions and our freedom. The whole fury and might of the enemy will soon be turned on us. He knows that he will have to break us and our spirit or lose his agenda. If we can stand up to him, we will be free, and all Europe may be free, and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole free world, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, remove this tinpot despot and his puppet master, and so bear ourselves that for the next thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”
Et Tu, New Scientist?
A reader points out that it isn’t just Nature that has abandoned scientific rigour for woke dogma. New Scientist has also been captured.
The most recent issue highlights on the front cover – “The Herd Immunity Myth – why let it rip arguments are fatally flawed” . This article is totally unconvincing and describes herd immunity as “unscientific and irresponsible”. In addition, the leader calls herd immunity “bad science”. This approach is typical of many items published of late.
It is disappointing that a once interesting topical magazine is now so superficial and lacks balance.
A Retired Police Sergeant Writes…
I’ve had a lot of emails in response to my query about whether the Territorial Support Group has been recruiting EU nationals to duff up anti-lockdown protestors. Most have been a bit too speculative or conspiratorial to publish, but this one struck me as reliable.
I am a retired police sergeant and can confirm that the police have been recruiting EU nationals for quite a while. I was a Cheshire officer and, towards my retirement, came across a number of Polish officers which, to be fair, made a lot of sense given the significant Polish population in the county and, in my experience, their spoken English was perfectly acceptable although I can imagine quite a lot would have been lost in translation with our usual customers. The main problem was their written English which was, to be frank, incomprehensible. My last role in the police was to assess evidential files before they were sent to the CPS for authority to bring prosecutions and I found myself trying to decode witness statements and frequently having to request that that they were retaken by officers who could actually write in English. This was further complicated by the fact that a significant number of the British nationals were incapable of stringing a sentence together due to the lack of standards in recruitment.
So it’s perfectly possible that some members of the TSG are non-British passport holders if the police routinely recruit EU nationals to fill their ranks. Could that be why our correspondent who wrote about last Saturday’s demo found that many of the TSG officers spoke only very halting English?
Postcard From Argentina
We’ve been sent an excellent postcard form a social science professor in Argentina. He describes his country’s lockdown as the longest and most irrational quarantine on the planet. It sounds like a complete shitshow – even more bizarre and inexplicable than our own festival of incompetence. Here is an extract.
At one point, the city Government of Buenos Aires attempted to require elderly folks to call a hotline to get permission to leave their own house for any non-essential task, the idea being that some poor Government call centre employee would patronisingly explain to them all the risks (as if they had been living in some bubble or under a rock) and attempt to persuade them to stay at home. The most ridiculous thing? The elderly were expected to call and request permission to leave their home every time they needed to go out! And if they left their home without permission, they were threatened with – community service! (Presumably outside the home? One can only guess). The resulting outrage, not least from the elderly themselves, forced the city Government to backtrack rather quickly, not least because was no practical way to enforce this policy anyway.
Since I qualify as an “exempted worker” (which means I did not have to lock down, but I am not allowed to use public transport), I have been able to travel through the interior of the country for work-related reasons. In the countryside the picture looks different to the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area. Local mayors have often reacted to the pandemic like medieval peasants, blocking most access roads to their towns with earth or concrete barriers, and instituting nonsensical additional measures to try to keep the virus out of their communities.
The only consistent criterion for policy adoption and implementation seems to be “monkey see, monkey do”, with local leaders copying each others dumbest ideas without regard to any actual science or cost-benefit analysis. In most places I have been to, whenever you want to enter a town, you have to drive through a disinfection area that will spray the outside of your vehicle as you come in. I have repeatedly argued how ridiculous this is – after all, if someone were sick, the virus would be inside the car, and not stuck on the outside surfaces. Makes as much sense (none) as disinfecting shoe soles, or spraying disinfectant on outdoor sidewalks.
Worth reading in full.
Round-Up
- “Schoolchildren Seem Unlikely to Fuel Coronavirus Surges, Scientists Say” – Even the New York Times concedes children aren’t infectious
- “This Harvard Epidemiologist Is Very Popular on Twitter. But Does He Know What He’s Talking About?” – Entertaining take-down of a know-nothing Covid hysteric who styles himself a “Harvard epidemiologist”
- “The Impersonator: Eric Feigl-Ding, COVID-19, and an implicit far-left agenda” – And here’s Jordan Schachtel on the same fraudster, but more hard-hitting
- “The land where books are banned” – The Mail‘s Guy Adams pays a visit to locked down Wales and discovers that magazines are ‘essential’, while clothes aren’t
- “Why are alternative Covid strategies being dismissed without adequate debate?” – Good piece by David Yorath in Reaction
- “Journalist Darren Grimes files formal complaint over Scotland Yard’s handling of ‘race hate’ probe” – Darren, along with David Starkey and the Free Speech Union, has filed a complaint against the Metropolitan Police
- “Delta adds 460 people to no-fly list for refusing to wear masks” – Delta Airlines has added 460 people to its banned list because they won’t wear masks
- “Parents back head over ‘offensive word’ at black history assembly” – Parents of pupils at Benenden have questioned whether the headmistress needed to apologise “unreservedly” for using the word “negro” in a school assembly
- “No let-up in Covid restrictions, Nicola Sturgeon insists” – The shutdown of pubs and restaurants will persist indefinitely across much of Scotland as Nic Sturge-On said that there would be “no immediate change” when a new five-level system is introduced next week.
- “Millions of coronavirus tests are just costly overkill, says Chinese expert” – China’s top epidemiologist thinks mass testing is overrated, reports the Times
- “Second lockdown spells an unprecedented non-Covid health crisis” – State scientists tragically overlook the collateral deaths that will result from a tunnel-vision strategy, says Charles Levinson
- “Matt Hancock has one of the most crucial roles in Government… Boris Johnson’s whipping boy” – Michael Deacon, the Telegraph‘s Parliamentary sketch writer, skewers Hancock
- “We cannot sacrifice the future of the young to keep my generation safe” – Norman Tebbit says the forever lockdown is madness
- Chris Whitty Confession – A clip of Chris Whitty at the Downing St briefing on May 11th being remarkably sanguine about the danger posed by the virus
- “Nine in ten police forces haven’t fined anyone for breaking Covid face mask laws” – Good news in the Sun – just four police forces out of 40 have issued fines for not wearing masks
- “‘Remdesivir for COVID-19’ Study accidentally proved effectiveness of Hydroxychloroquine” – A study designed to test the effectiveness of Remdesivir has actually shown that Hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment
- “All fun is tracked, traced and cancelled in our misconceived efforts to beat Covid” – Sean Walsh takes aim at the puritans in CapX
- “COVID-19 is destroying global freedom, and it may not rebound” – Dan Hannan in the Washington Examiner on the precious inheritance we’re squandering
- “Student, 22, fined £6k for breaking covid quarantine rules after she was caught eating at restaurant in Insta snap” – That’s one expensive meal
- “Escape from Lockdown” – Alex McCarron talks to Telegraph cartoonist and arch-sceptic Bob Moran for his podcast
- “On balance, a circuit-breaker lockdown doesn’t make sense” – Good piece in the Times by Professor Barry McCormick arguing that the number of QALYs saved by a ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown would be outweighed by the number of QALYs lost
- “School could face legal action after pupil is excluded for failing to wear face mask” – Camilla Turner reports on a miscarriage of justice at Brockhill Arts Performing Arts College in Kent
- Must-Read Twitter Thread by Alina Chan – This Twitter thread by a post-doc at MIT exposes some of the discrepancies and elisions in the early papers on the virus coming out of China. Draw your own conclusions
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.
Stop Press: The Swiss Doctor has translated the article in a Danish newspaper about the suppressed Danish mask study. Largest RCT on the effectiveness of masks ever carried out. Rejected by three top scientific journals so far.
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 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 my 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.
Stop Press: The authors of the GDB have expanded the FAQs to deal with some of the arguments and smears that have been made against their proposal. Worth reading in full.
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…
In the latest episode of London Calling, James Delingpole and I talk about James’s confrontation with a pro-masking fanatic on a train (which he wrote about yesterday for Lockdown Sceptics), the fiasco that is NHS Test and Trace and my new favourite TV show – Barbarians. Worth listening to on your daily walk and don’t forget to subscribe.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
The government has a reason for imposing these lockdowns but it’s not one they dare to tell their citizens. They have been preparing for this since the early 1980s
We are about to start a multi-year series of cataclysmic events and the Deagle forecast of masive depopulation by 2025 is quite realistic.
Here’s some links for those who wish to know more:
https://archive.is/ldCOR
https://pastebin.com/W7diHHqv – there’s a warning that this paste is offensive but that’ll only be if you are offended by the truth
https://pastebin.com/Dzav81Z8
Line 50 gives you the reason for the COVID hoax
Here’s another interview with John Moore
https://www.brighteon.com/c0fdc799-ac8c-42a9-9447-69f3735e1147
Many Brits have seen it in 2017
https://archive.is/LCQf3
This planet is being perturbed.
People report the sun is no longer seen in its usual position in the sky
https://tinyurl.com/y5uac4lm
Look at the comments to the video
We are in deep doo doo and people are still obsessed about COVID
https://tinyurl.com/yyvsyalc
Keep an eye of this guy’s videos on the earth changes
https://tinyurl.com/y2j7tu3e
NEW PAGE IS HERE
Please move along and maybe repeat anything recent that needs repeating
Brilliant piece by Neil Oliver on Talk radio saying amongst other things that LOCKDOWN DOESN’T WORK!!!!
When will the Covid collaborators BLOODY well admit it!!!
He ‘s great everyone listen its on now and Richard Madeley is proving a good stand in for Mike Graham .
Interesting to see here how Covid-19 has reduced the number of deaths from flue by about 30% over recent weeks compared to the five year average.
Is this taken into account when predictions of the NHS being overrun are made?
Also see that through the summer All deaths were lower than the five year average
source
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending16october2020
Interesting experience in a private hospital yesterday. NHS can’t, I mean won’t see my son to check his hearing unless it’s urgent. So we went private. I had actually seriously considered wearing a mask seeing as I was going to be in a health care setting, but actually don’t even own a mask and forgot about it until I got there. Husband wore his biker face covering. A woman dressed almost in full hazmat mode met us in the waiting area and took our details for T & T (which the hospital would have had anyway for our appointment). Asked about 10 questions, asked me was I exempt from wearing a mask and I said yes. She said that’s ok then took all our temperatures, then told me than only one parent was allowed in to see the consultant and the other parent would have to wait outside. Could have told us this when we booked the appointment.
Anyway I was the only non masked adult there and I did feel a bit uneasy with some cold stares from other people in the waiting area.
Got in to see the consultant, upon chatting initially, I explained about the NHS not… Read more »
In six months time after the economic shit has hit the fan you will be able to get a Consultant to come to your home for less than a tenner
If you insist they will crawl the last fifty yards on their knees
Very sadly, that is already the state of Ukraine. More due to gangsters in government than covid, but the bollox is making things worse.
Ever wondered if the fact that this consultant was available on a private hospital might be one of the reasons why the NHS can’t get through its waiting list?
If he wasn’t available for hire for £150, then he could be seeing people from the NHS waiting list. But that would mean people with money would have to wait in line along with everybody else.
Do we really believe that people with money should be able to jump queues? Have we turned everything into Alton Towers?
There is a supply side limit to medical services globally. That’s why we have demand queues. Money doesn’t change that limit – whether that is public money or private money. All it does is reorder the queue.
If the state refuses to treat you then it is utterly rational to seek aid from any doctor who will, even if you have to pay them. I guess you are probably not reliant on food-banks but use your money to buy your way out of hunger. Do you not realise that if it wasn’t for privileged people like you shopping for food from private suppliers the cost of food would plummet?
Ah, yes. Hearing is now non-essential. Glad your son is AOK.
Very good. 🙂
Suicides among young people nearly double in Wisconsin county.
https://fee.org/articles/suicides-up-nearly-100-among-young-people-in-wisconsin-s-second-largest-county-as-medical-experts-cite-perils-of-social-isolation/
“The COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge for everyone, but evidence suggests that few demographics are suffering more than young people. Data show they’re suffering more economically, and emerging evidence shows that many are less equipped to deal with the “collateral damage” of forced lockdowns mentally.
A new report from the Wisconsin State Journal examining mental health trends in Dane County, the second most populous county in Wisconsin, shows that many are struggling to cope with the mental toll of social isolation precipitated by the economic lockdowns.”
Essentially murder.
Just took the car to my local garage for repair
Sign on door
Mask=No Entry
I found me in a great surging space,
At either end a door,
And I said: “What is this giddying place,
With no firm—fixéd floor,
That I knew not of before?”
“It is Life,” said a mask—clad face.
I asked: “But how do I come here,
Who never wished to come;
Can the light and air be made more clear,
The floor more quietsome,
And the doors set wide? They numb
Fast—locked, and fill with fear.”
The mask put on a bleak smile then,
And said, “O vassal—wight,
There once complained a goosequill pen
To the scribe of the Infinite
Of the words it had to write
Because they were past its ken.”
Recently, I’ve often kept thinking of that bit in Tess, where she walks through the mud to ask for help, gets spurned and returns to find her shoes have been nicked.
Combat boots, or at the least sturdy footwear, for all for the next few months. 🙂
Just ignore it. If they insist you can apologise and leave, taking your cash with you. I’ve ignored all such signs, and found that the proprietors put them up in the mistaken belief they have to.
Read it again
Apologies! So used to no mask signs I’m conditioned to them!
But doesn’t that show how wording can be manipulated to make you think it says one thing when it actually means something else? Pretty much the MO of the MSM.
Garage owner is full on sceptic
I gave a lift to my step-daughter’s best friend’s boyfriend the other day, a young chap. Bless him, once he got in the car, he put on a mask, I assume out of politeness.
As soon as I realised he’d put on a face nappy, I promptly stopped the car, and explained to him the rules, with mock severity. “This is a strictly no-mask car. Remove that thing!”
He did so, and we drove off, with me crying out aloud “Freedom!”
FANTASTIC.
Here she is! JHB on talk radio talking to professor stupit Paul Elliot. A nice start to they day, Paul is not good. He is quite rubbish. Please not tge contempt he shows for his workload on the shelves behind him.
Just speaking to a young team member.
fuck this pussy footing around i thought.
Me ‘we are never returning to the office’
‘bbbut we will be back to normal when we have medication and more scientific studies to keep us healthy’
‘ha, you are barking up the wrong tree love* you need to do some proper research’
……..the sound of silence………
*I didn’t reall say ‘love’ as I’m not allowed anymore.. probably.
Well you should say ‘love’, especially if its not allowed.
Noted
I prefer “duck”, or “chuckles”, sweetie!
“Poppet” is better to patronize and nobody as vetoed it yet.
Not much chuckling going on in Duckfuck land right now!
I’m increasingly doing this with colleagues too.
I consider it especially important at a time when the authorities re striving to break social bonds, that we do what we can to counteract that.
Irony is that about 2 weeks before lockdown we were packed shoulder to shoulder in the pub until we got chucked out, probably when we were at most danger. Short memories
Pedant alert
Was the member of staff male or female?
‘Love’ is fine but it’s actually spelt ‘Luv’
However ‘pussy’ was banned shortly after the last episode of Are you being served
Female*
*Can I still say that. I can’t keep up
Not sure, will ring 101 and come back to you
Banned
I do that every day..A couple of meetings ago somebody was trying to be a bit cute and said ”You sound like a Trump supporter to me..hahaha..I replied And what is would be wrong with that? Tumbleweed for more than a minute..And I dont really like Trum6,I just hate cowardice of the brainwashed at work a lot,lot more!
I know, I think she was about to say about me being a conspiracy theorist so I ended the call 😉
https://fortuneandfreedom.com/topic/what-will-the-coming-currency-reset-look-like-for-you/?
What will the coming currency reset look like for you?
“Yesterday’s Fortune & Freedom explored currency resets. We learned what they are, why they matter, and that one may be lurking just around the corner according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Economic Forum.
But what could actually happen?
Today, we learn from history’s many currency resets to try and predict how things will unfold this time.
There are three big questions which will decide the shape of our coming currency reset.
Will we return to some sort of asset-backed form of money?
Will the currency reset be orderly or chaotic?
Will the global currency system be multipolar or dominated by one nation?
These three questions suggest a variety of different possible outcomes”….contd
Chinese and Russians are buying gold like there is no tomorrow.
https://www.kitco.com/news/2019-10-09/China-and-Russia-bought-251-tonnes-of-gold-this-year.html
Western bankers hate gold.
Digital SDR ?
https://www.omfif.org/2019/10/digital-sdr-to-enhance-payment-systems/
Tend to put any spare cash into sovereigns myself too. Though I guess our new nwo overlords will go house-to-house trying to collect them. 🙁
The panel discussed the advent of digital currencies and its implications for the future of cross-border payments. Discussants focused on the benefits and challenges associated with the central bank digital currency (CBDC), the importance of global policy coordination, and the role of the private sector.
https://meetings.imf.org/en/2020/Annual/Schedule/2020/10/19/imf-cross-border-payments-a-vision-for-the-future
This seems to present a currency reset as a fait accompli…
https://twitter.com/news18dotcom/status/1321356858511126528?s=20
more evidence for Vitamin D. This time from Spain
‘Mike’ posted the following below, after speaking to colleagues etc, who he assumed, because of their generally compliant attitude, were on board with the narrative:
“However, the thing that really scared me is the fact that they were remaining silent and avoiding the topic primarily because they were afraid of being ostracised or criticised for stepping away from the general consensus.
They were nervous about conspiracies, nervous about having a gut feeling that things weren’t right; most importantly they were very nervous about who they spoke to in case it got them in to trouble. Its almost like a new religion!!”
This is so important for a number of reasons.
This is how all dictatorships work. People mutually policing each others’speech, although many are critical. Conformity to waht one imagines everybody else thinks. It shows that there is quite possibly a latent majority for scepticism. It shows the importance of openly questioning,of normalizing dissenting speech, so that others know they aren’t alone, which encourages them to speak up, which in turn encourages still more etc etc. It shows that the propaganda of the dominant narrative isn’t working nearly as well as we usually assume. This,despite all of the advantages the… Read more »
Brilliant post.
Yes, very accurate summary.
Amongst the communist it was the greeting ‘Comrade’
Walking along the street and the person passing in the opposite direction says ‘morning comrade’
If you repeat the greeting fine
If you leave out the word comrade you end up on a list
They still greet each other (in private only) with ‘comrade’ in the Welsh Assembly
If they didn’t have that feeling in March, they certainly do now.
Excellent points raised there and spot on. Many are critical but not wishing to express it and are going along with the masks etc with the thinking that it won’t last forever and will return to normal some day.
Admittedly I was also afraid to voice my scepticism at the beginning but now I don’t give a shit. I don’t ram it down peoples throats but I’m speaking out when I feel the need to.
Yes an excellent point. What it is when all is said and done is peer pressure. We learned about that in the school grounds as part of growing, er, up. Well done to those people who have recognised their gut instinct – just now remember the lesson of peer pressure and be free of your own mental prison.
Very well said;congratulations. Succinct and clear.
Yes. Which is why Delingpole’s appeal to us all to not conform was so important. Visible non-conformism breeds more non-conformism. Keeping your non-conformism to yourself does nothing.
Not just Delingpole. Lord Sumption was basically saying we need to peacefully disobey.
“ there is quite possibly a latent majority for scepticism.”
It’s the latency that’s the problem.
The compliance factor is very strong and it comes from two directions – from peers, and from a more general overblown compliance with ‘the law’ and ‘what the government says’.
So – people aren’t wholly sold on the official narrative – but that’s not the same as triggering its breakdown.
But your last point is essential – trying to get the message across (and not just slagging off conformity).
Morning all.
I’ve just had a quick glance at the DT and the Grad headlines. The DT is just full of doom-mongering covid articles. Looks more like you’d expect from the Grad!
The Grad on the other hand, has a pretty good report of Sumption’s Freshfields speech.
It’s going to be a strange day!
I appreciate the DT needs to sell papers and arguably try to represent all views but the doom mongering headlines really do need to stop now. It’s irresponsible.
There have been some good sceptical articles in there recently but this morning there wasn’t a sniff of anything that smelled like common sense.
Unless I missed something. I find the DT site quite hard to navigate and often miss stuff!
First assumption is that party political loyalties have been reasserted. The Guardian probably hate Sumption’s stuff as dangerous to their treasured coronapanic agenda, but have chosen to hold their noses and print it because they think it will be very damaging to the hated “Tory” government.
On the other hand, somebody with influence has presumably put pressure on at the very top at both the Telegraph and the DM, probably saying this anti-coronapanic stuff is all very well, but now the mainstream credibility of the “Conservative” government is really threatened, and you wouldn’t really want that would you?
I think screws are being tightened in several camps.
There are few certainties in science, but one fact of which we can all be certain is that one day we will die
Our atoms won’t disappear, they will return to the Earth.
Some will become parts of the living future.
But they will carry no imprint, no memories, no knowledge of the pattern once known as you.
In five billion years our Sun will cease to shine.
Our planet will die in the searing heat, engulfed by the dying star.
The atoms once known as you will be ejected out into space.
In billions of years they may become parts of new solar systems with their own stories to tell
The great cycle of stellar death and rebirth offers a sort of limited immortality.
Whether that’s comforting is up to you.
But ultimately nothing will survive.
It will all be gone
In the far future there will come a time when time has no meaning as the Universe expands and fades.
Our descendants isolated on an island drifting in ocean of dark will watch as the galaxies evaporate away
How does that make you feel?
Yet something remains in the darkness.
An idea.
Science is the ultimate exercise of… Read more »
We are stardust!
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the Garden!
We are stardust, we are a billion year old carbon
We are golden, caught up in the Devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the Garden
O that takes me back!
Matthews Southern Comfort.
Better still….Joni Mitchell’s version. She wrote the song too!
She also wrote, “We’re only particles of change I know, orbiting the sun…” ~ Hejira
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRjQCvfcXn0
Awesome!
Green New Deal = Zero Carbon.
A job with SAGE awaits, Mr Dee …
“Every man and every woman is a star,”.
Quick almost final one off topic.
Son says farce book giving him trouble about posting this:
https://rumble.com/vauxz7-when-trump-enters-a-rally-vs.-when-biden-enters-a-rally.html
Told him today telling the truth is an act of defiance.
I thought the funniest image was Obama addressing about 10 people who were about 10ft away with a megaphone.
Fucking old twat can hardly walk, looks like bambi
I feel sorry for him. I think he is being exploited shamelessly
Defo. Have you seen how he has aged backwards??? All thanks to plastic surgery…he is no Benjamin button!
I think that’s Alzheimers. The handful of people I knew with it all seemed to acquire a more youthful look. My theory is it’s because they are living so moment-to-moment.
Yes but he volunteered. And anyone voting for such obvious nonsense and fakery are idiots.
Oh wait ….. memories of a toe-curlingly faked doorstep milk delivery and a bulldozer toppling polystyrene bricks suddely flooded my mind!
Did he really? Could he even be considered able to give informed consent? He might have volunteered to run against someone called George, but I don’t think he’s got a clue what’s actually going on around him most of the time.
With his filmed behaviour around young girls, I’m pretty sure they don’t need him to volunteer.
Wow. Such clear depictions of the old normal versus the scary new abnormal.
Apart from Biden’s silly shoes, I would say he needs a zimmer frame, whereas The Donald looks confident and sure of himself.
We shall see.
They are remote controlled shoes, someone is driving him
Hey guys and girls, you do realise that Biden is not the real presidential candidate, Kamala Harris is. In the unlikely event that Biden actually won, the shock would probably trigger a heart attack and he wouldn’t even get as far as being sworn in. If he did make it that far , they will quickly roll out the Alzheimers card and get him removed anyway. The choice for the American people is between Trump and Harris not Trump and Biden. And Harris is about as woke as they come.
Am I last?
Ah, no.
According to the Mail were heading for a lampshade second wave! 😂😂😂😂😂
Well that’s done it for me. If lampshades are involved then I will surrender all my sceptic credentials and conform immediately. Terrifying
Subliminal messaging? Check out the clock behind Nabarro and then search for Agenda 2030 logo:
At least he’s anti-lockdown.
Maybe anti-lockdown but probably supports all the rest of totalitarian crap they have planned for us.
The writing in the middle of the clock is 4SD, For Sustainable Development ?.
There is no question that the logo is AG2030 see below.
But what’s that again…. we’re just conspiracy theorists? Writing is literally on the fucking wall!!
Those nervy skeptic moments where nerves jingle jangle. Do I post? Do I refresh? Is the new page here yet? Fingers twitch as they hover over buttons. A feverish brow is wiped. Eyes glint as they slide to the side – phew another new post, someone else is still here, they’ve not all already gone . Overhead vultures circle, the sun beats down. Try a refresh or post? Will the effort come to late. These are nervous times for a skeptic. Waiting, forever waiting.
Is that a roundabout way of saying you want to be first ? (Smiley face if I was techy enough to know how to do one).
colon + right-hand bracket
🙂
Far off, a runaway scruff of a dog pads across mainstreet.
You need to get out more Basics!
“Countries should have been locked down with NO non emergency international travel in or out of each countries – that would have controlled the numbers (and the virus within each country). Then when those restrictions were lifted in the summer, we wouldn’t be in this situation now.” – saw this comment in the DAILY MAIL and I thought to myself isn’t that what Trump did back in March- made no difference to the US?
I’m not sure all international travel was stopped. He banned flights from China in January, and they called him a racist. Italy and New York politicians encouraged people to hug Chinese people in response.
Flights were still coming in from Europe, and the virus was already within the country by then.
Just watched Julie Hartley Brewer take apart that twat from Imperial Collage. He would not answer any of her questions, a very evasive individual, however we shouldn’t expect anything else from them.
Good to see a stooge taken apart by a proper journalist. BBC et al, this is how its done!
She was glorious!
She certainly was. Love how she just cut him off at the end with utter distain.
https://talkradio.co.uk/radio/listen-again/1603866600# 08.30-09.00 about 08.40
Yes heard it he would not discuss t cell immunity ,just said we would have to continue living like this till we get a vaccine, which of course Imperial college A SAGE stooge is testing at the moment
Watch all her interviews with Matty, Raaby, Schappsy, and various other covid-hysterical noodles, and see them squirm. It delicious.
…and it’s a simple as being reasonably informed and asking the right questions. Who knew?
If I were PM:
And put a 1000% tax on face masks (except for doctors and hospitals).
Not many politicians have the witty to do such sensible things.
Boris only cares about Boris, his cock, his gut, and his finances. Nothing we are doing is about or for the cold aka covid 19.
Maybe I’ve got this wrong, but I’m sure I read that VAT has now been slapped on face masks.
You presume that they *don’t* want people to die – remember there is a depopulation agenda here..
You have my vote!
The latest terro graph in the torygraph. The expotential graph didnt work so lets try the level graph and pick a number, you know just like the average number of respiratory deaths in a day for the winter and call them all covid. The bullshit never ends, why the hell do the papers keep feeding this shit to their reader, I know – because they love it, fear porn really turns the average MSM reader on.
It’s prepping the “success” story.
They are setting it up so their measures will be evaluated against outlandish predictions. That way it looks as if their measures have been a roaring success.
Millions will buy it.
Yes, it’s the “management of expectations” trick on a big scale. Like when a company says “We’ll deliver your order in two weeks”, and when you get it in ten days you’re supposed to think it’s great service.
Well at least the curve is flattened eh!
need to see flu/pneumonia deaths for the same period in previous years. As I recall there were some 5,000 excess deaths in Nov/Dec last year-maybe that was the real first wave?
I doubt there’s hardly any difference in the last 5 years statistics. What I do know is this is a conspiracy against the people and this government and its advisors should be up before the Hague.
Looks like a big standard flu year, the flattened sombrero that started out as the holy grail.
I have to say this graph lacks a certain amount of credibility. The timescale (horizontal axis) isn’t marked, but the plateau appears to last for about a year, suggesting 150,000 deaths in total. It seems extraordinarily unlikely that social constraints would keep the R value at exactly 1 for a whole year especially since there would be tens of millions of cases over that time period, which would by itself probably achieve herd immunity.
“I have to say this graph lacks a certain amount of credibility.”
You win the ‘understatement of the year’ award.
Have you ever seen anything remotely resembling it in this context of disease mortality?
“…she also disclosed an advisory group has been set up to study whether venues across Scotland should be allowed to reintroduce background music in licensed premises after her government banned it”
Can’t believe I’m actually reading those words. There must surely be some higher authority, in this United Kingdom that can intervene, isn’t there….? What if she’s actually mentally unfit for office?
Simple its jobs for the mates of the SNP
Absolutely. As always.
If she’s mentally unfit for office, the only hope is Dr. McCoy.
Beam her up, Scotty!
Warp drive-one way-please!
Advise her to fuck off
well there’s a reason for that. I went to a bar the other week. One customer per table, not known to me previously, but because of no background music we were able to talk freely-about youknowwhat and how stupid everything is
Lord Sumption’s lecture in written form:
https://resources.law.cam.ac.uk/privatelaw/Freshfields_Lecture_2020_Government_by_Decree.pdf…
Error 404
take the … off the end of the url
Ah! Thanks 🙂
I’ve just downloaded it, 16 and a half pages but looks well worth reading.
Well, just had a glimmer of cheer to my morning after the depressing change of tack by DT and DM. Sent the recent Lord Sumption input to my MP, plus Delingpole’s interview with Mike Yeadon – attached was a rather curt message regarding that as MPs appear to have little interest in their constituent’s concerns, maybe you might take notice of Sumption and Yeadon. I also questioned how further must we spiral into authoritarianism before MPs actually start challenging the government. This is an MP who has responded twice in six months, usually via one of his assistants weeks after the email. Well, sent the email at 09.45, personal reply at 09.55, thanking me for the links.
Could I hope that the complacency is shifting. Don’t answer, let me have my little fantasy for this morning.
.
I meant 08.45 and 08.55.
Its very likely your MP is waking up. Or of course s/he has received several thousand similar letters and is now running scared at the prospect of losing your votes.
He already knows that as we sent him our torn up conservative members card back in June and vowed never to vote conservative again – unless it becomes an actual conservative party of small government.
Hope this shit show will lead to the shrinking of the state as people will have seen for themselves how a large state can be a vehicle for abuse.
I think it is indicative of where we are that an MP behaving with normal politeness is considered something extraordinary.
My MP finally wrote to me last week after sending her about 8 emails. I haven’t responded yet but when I do it will include a final paragraph stating that these past 8 months have proven to the voters how superfluous MPs now are and if they all disappeared tomorrow we wouldn’t notice any difference.
Michael O’Bernicia having an effect?
A ‘free press’ is an illusion
Yes in theory the press can publish what they want short of liable/defamation
However the Newspaper have owners The owners publish what is in their financial interests to publish
A newspaper tax would see them off
Same with television
The grandstanding earlier in the year about decriminalising the licence fee was not for nothing. It was a message. Broadcast what we want you to broadcast or your six figure salaries are down the swannie
It has now got to the stage that the medja is a rather boorish parody of the East German equivalent before the wall came down
How do article writers confine their opinions within the limits of the official narrative? Surely that is more difficult than actually writing an honest article unless your opinion does happen to agree with the official narrative or the editor edits out all that might be troublesome or too close to the truth? In other words, how can Peter Hitchens, Toby Young, Brendan ONeill write and say all that they do without ever mentioning The Great Reset once?
The. ‘long march through our institutions’ now include MSM who are now the governments useful propaganda tool.
Nice figure, can the UK be found on the same website? Just having a look.
Anyone think this is a ‘Social Experiment’ on the back of Event 201. ‘To see the reaction’. All of those essential workers and they are all still working. And the 1600 a day, normally, seems to have been forgotten.
No clear timeline funnily enough.