Government Proposes to Liberate Local Areas in Bid to Placate Rebellion
The Government has said that towns and villages will be able to go into lower tiers than neighbouring virus “hotspots” in an effort to see off a growing Commons rebellion against their new lockdown plans. The Telegraph has the exclusive.
MPs have been told that rural areas with low infection rates could be “decoupled” from cities that have “unfairly” dragged them into Tiers 2 and 3 under the Government’s regional approach.
It comes amid a major rift between ministers and scientific advisers, who say areas of England are more likely to go up a tier than down one.
Government scientists have said they expect few changes within the system in coming months, with Tier 2 areas far more likely to go up than down and almost nowhere likely to get to Tier 1 until March. Scientists are understood to have told Boris Johnson that he should consider moving Tier 2 areas to Tier 3.
The draconian advice comes despite new figures showing the reproduction or ‘R’ rate of the virus to have come down to between 0.9 and 1.0 – its lowest level since August – meaning Covid could already be in retreat.
Up to 100 Tory MPs are threatening the biggest rebellion of Mr Johnson’s premiership when the new tier system is put to a vote next week amid anger over a broad brush approach that has put low incidence areas into higher tiers because they are in the same county as a city with a high infection rate.
Government ministers Nadhim Zahawi and Jesse Norman are among those who have publicly criticised the new tiers.
Labour has yet to decide whether it will vote for the tier system, meaning Mr Johnson could face defeat unless he can persuade enough of his own MPs to back down. The Prime Minister said on Friday that he understood the “frustration” of people who have ended up in Tier 2 or 3 despite low infection rates in their own town or village.
According to reports, Mr Johnson has pencilled in Easter Monday as the day when the strict Covid tiers will be lifted.
Ministers and officials are trying to win round Tory MPs by offering them hope that their constituencies will be “decoupled” from hotspots when a review of the Tiers is carried out in mid-December.
It’s a start, but a very small one given the absurdity and destructiveness of the Government’s intention to keep the tier system in place until at least Easter.
The main reason being given for the extreme ongoing restrictions is the supposed need to “protect the NHS” from being overwhelmed. The Sun reports.
The PM is determined to put the NHS first – and believes he will have to wait until after Covid’s winter peak in February and March to ease his grip.
A senior government source told the Sun: “Boris will not countenance hospitals overflowing like they did in Italy. Nor can we get to the stage where we have to cancel operations and treatments. In all likelihood, the tiers have to stay.”
This must be the most expensive and repressive way to manage demand in a health service ever devised – and it’s dishonest to pretend elective surgeries aren’t being cancelled as it is. Why not simply increase surge capacity? It’s not as though hospitals have been overwhelmed so far, even in the spring. In fact, they’re currently running at below average occupancy rates across the country, while the surge capacity that has been created is not being used. As one reader writes to tells us:
Hot off the press from a friend who has spent the last six weeks getting the Nightingale Hospital in Harrogate up to speed at huge expense – they had a sign-off on Tuesday and yesterday were stood down – they may use it at some point for vaccinations. This is the emergency overspill for the Humber (Tier 3), Leeds (Tier 3) and Bradford (Tier 3).
There is nothing out of the ordinary about the mortality rate this autumn, as this explainer by Joel Smalley makes clear, and neither is there evidence that lockdowns are responsible for preventing a runaway epidemic. The R rate, after all, was below 1 before the current lockdown began, with daily deaths peaking on or around November 13th and infections three weeks or so before that. Oddly, the Government has only just announced that the R has fallen below 1, weeks after the surveys it relies on for this calculation – from Imperial College, King’s College and the ONS – announced it occurred. Could this have anything to do with the fact that, at three weeks into the lockdown, they are now in a position to credit it? Not that we can check their working, which remains as obscure and concealed as ever.
Lockdown 3.0 is SAGE’s “Pound of Flesh” For Christmas Freedom
Iain Duncan Smith writing in the Telegraph sums up perfectly the mood of MPs in the Covid Recovery Group ahead of the crucial vote next week.
The Chancellor laid bare the stark and painful economic reality for all to see this week. The economy has shrunk by 11.3%, the worst collapse in output in 300 years. Unemployment will reach 2.6 million and borrowing will reach an eye watering £394 billion.
The mood of sombre reflection and deep concern among MPs brought on by the Chancellor’s statement rapidly gave way to disbelief and anger as the full implications of the Government’s new tier system became apparent. In particular, many recalled the past use that has been made of dodgy figures to bounce us into lockdown.
The critical balance in decision making required to ensure that our response to the virus does not end up doing more damage than the disease still seems to elude the Government with the figures on coronavirus simply not justifying their ongoing desperate pessimism, particularly when set against the desperate damage to business, livelihoods and lives, beyond Covid.
SAGE predicted 4,000 daily deaths early next month. This rapidly turned out to be absurd. Four thousand deaths a day would be three times higher than the peak death rate in Brazil, which has a population three times greater than the UK.
Then, with a 16-day time lag, a mass of data showed that infection rates had flattened and were falling before the effect of the lockdown could be felt. That, however, hasn’t stopped Patrick Vallance and ministers rather brazenly claiming that the reductions were down to the lockdown. Liverpool is a good example. The fall there seemed to happen long before the nation-wide lockdown even started. Even the mass testing programme rolled out there, despite what the Government claims, didn’t change the rate of decline. Given that, perhaps the most trusted document produced by the Government was the one covered in scribbled and panicky question marks.
Yet despite the facts, instead of returning to the original tiers from before lockdown, we are effectively about to consign half of England to further lockdown after December 2nd. To put this in context, when the new rules come in the number of people in Tier 1, the lightest level of restrictions, will have fallen from 24.5 million pre-lockdown to just 700,000. Previously, nine million people were in Tier 3, post-lockdown that number will have risen to 23 million. Worse, the new set of tiers are far tougher than they were – even those whose tier hasn’t gone up will still find themselves subject to far tougher restrictions.
The announcement brought an outcry from MPs because so many of their areas have been shunted into Tier 3 on what appears to be contradictory and shallow evidence. Take, for example, the city of Bristol. Before lockdown, they had 292 infections per hundred thousand people and were in Tier 1. Now, after a minor increase in the rate to 309, they have been moved to Tier 3. Or Tunbridge Wells, in Tier 1 with a rate of 48.9 before lockdown and now in Tier 3 with a rate of 103, a figure much lower than other areas in Tier 2.
What was the point of the lockdown if, as we come out, we end up with tighter restrictions than before lockdown? We aren’t even waiting to learn what the effect of the lockdown has been before rushing into these changes.
IDS says there is growing concern among MPs that the draconian new tier system is the “pound of flesh SAGE demanded in return for the decision to have five days off over Christmas and that unless the Government stayed in a de facto lockdown for most of the country now then they would be demanding another lockdown in January”.
He repeats the call for proper cost-benefit analyses to be published to enable MPs to make informed decisions.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: IDS talks to JHB here, telling her the Government must stop listening to the advice of SAGE.
Metropolitan Police Issues Warning About Today’s Protest
For those going along to the protest today, be prepared for an unaccommodating police force. The Territorial Support Group is likely to be out in force. The following is from a statement issued by the Metropolitan Police:
Ahead of a planned protest on Saturday, November 28th, the Met is urgently reminding those looking to attend that protest is not currently a permitted exemption to the prohibition on gatherings under the current Coronavirus regulations.
Strict regulations have been introduced by the Government nationally to help prevent the spread of Coronavirus. This means that anyone gathering for protest risks enforcement action by officers.
A robust policing plan is in place throughout the weekend and officers will take action if they witness breaches of the regulations.
Chief Superintendent Stuart Bell, policing commander for this weekend, said: “The Met has a proud history of facilitating protest. However, our city is in a critical fight against COVID-19 and we cannot allow gatherings to jeopardise the progress and sacrifices our communities have made in fighting this virus.
“That is why we will be taking action in relation to prohibited gatherings on the streets of London, including those related to protest across the capital this weekend. Our top priority is public safety and that is why we cannot allow individuals to break the law and put their health and the health of their friends, family and the wider community at risk. If you are planning on attending a gathering, I would urge you to reconsider and stay at home.”
They’re obviously expecting something big.
“If You Vote to Destroy the Jobs of Others, Don’t Expect to Keep Your Seat”
Peter Hitchens has asked if Lockdown Sceptics readers would care to join him in a campaign for a “mass write-in to MPs this weekend on the lines of ‘If you vote to destroy the jobs of others, don’t expect to keep your seat’”. Websites like Write To Them make it easy, as he points out.
Sounds like a great idea. Good readers, over to you.
Government Threat to Business Puts More Firms at Risk
Is the Government about to use its powers to pull the rug from under firms struggling under the Government’s lockdown measures? One reader is concerned.
On December 1st the Government is proposing to reinstate Crown Preference, a legal concept whereby HMRC gets priority over other creditors to recover unpaid taxes in the event of a company’s insolvency. In normal times this would not have been an especially significant change. However, right now many companies have racked up significant tax liabilities because the Government has been using this as a way of supporting businesses in difficulty. We are not talking about small amounts of money – if you think of VAT (20% of turnover) and PAYE bills since March, these have really added up.
When Crown Preference is reinstated on Tuesday, a company’s lenders, suppliers and credit insurers will need to reduce their exposure by the amount of taxes which are owed (as HMRC will now have priority over these debts). For struggling businesses this will probably mean their credit lines will be pulled from under them, and they will go out of business.
In the current circumstances it is difficult to see this move bringing in much revenue for the Exchequer – at the cost of pushing many businesses over the edge at the worst possible time. Why did we support these businesses in the first place, only now to throw them under a bus? It should be a no-brainer to defer this move, but the Chancellor didn’t announce such a deferral on Tuesday and it feels like the issue has been buried under the weight of other news. It shouldn’t be – it really matters.
Further reading on this is available from the law firm Addleshaws.
Care Homes Ban Christmas Decorations
Care homes are being banned from putting up Christmas trees and decorations by local authorities due to “infection control issues”. CareHome has the story.
Care Campaign for the Vulnerable (CCTV) has revealed it has received “distraught messages from care home managers” due to the ban.
One manager told CCTV: “I’m a manager of a residential nursing home. We are being told the local authority are trying to put a stop to homes decorating for Christmas!
“After everything that has been taken away from our residents this year, we’re now expected to take Christmas away from them too!! ‘Infection control’ issues. I had a visit from Infection Control and we’d started to decorate our reception area and she told us ‘I wouldn’t bother going any further, because you’ll be told to rip them all down’.
“I asked the direct question to the local authority bosses and they’ve told me there’s no published guidance as of yet but they won’t allow Christmas decorations.
“Our hearts are breaking for our beautiful residents. We’ve taken them down. It seems they’re intent on taking away any little thing that brings them joy. That in itself is more dangerous to their well-being than Covid would ever be! And we’ve been through an outbreak and I stand by that statement.”
The care home manager said she has heard similar stories from other care homes.
A spokeswoman for Care Campaign for the Vulnerable said: “’I find this downright appalling. As if residents haven’t lost enough this year already. Why deprive them of the joy of Christmas?”
Pitkerro Care Centre in Dundee is one of those making changes to the way it decorates its home due to the pandemic and is asking people to donate outdoor Christmas decorations and lights to put in the back garden.
Normally during the festive period the care home is covered in Christmas decorations and trees, but this year anything that cannot be wiped down daily is banned.
What this over-zealous, killjoy guidance forgets is that even if surfaces spread the disease they can only do so when they are touched. But no one touches Christmas decorations except to put them up or take them down. More to the point, no one has yet succeeded in culturing the virus from surface samples, suggesting surfaces are not a major route of transmission. As the Lancet reported in October: “During the initial stages of the pandemic there was concern about surface transmission. However, latest research suggests that this is unlikely to be a major route of transmission as although SARS-CoV-2 can persist for days on inanimate surfaces, attempts to culture the virus from these surfaces were unsuccessful.”
Woman Goes Blind After Lockdown Cancels Treatment
A woman has lost her sight after she was left without her regular treatment for months during the lockdown. The BBC has the details.
A woman has become blind after her monthly eye injections were delayed for four months during lockdown. Helen Jeremy, 73, said everything she enjoyed doing has “gone out of the window” after losing her eyesight.
Thousands more people in Wales are at risk of “irreversible sight loss” because of treatment delays, RNIB Cymru warns. The Welsh Government said health boards are working to increase services.
Mrs Jeremy, from Bridgend, has glaucoma and was diagnosed with age-related macular degeneration four years ago. Monthly injections controlled the condition and meant she could still drive and play the piano. However, her appointments were cancelled when the pandemic struck and her eyesight deteriorated.
“I was panicking. It was terrifying. Because I’m a widow I’m on my own and it was awful,” she said. “Suddenly my eyesight was basically gone. By the time of my next appointment I was told there was no point in going on with these injections because the damage had been done to the back of my eye. Everything I loved doing has gone out of the window and my life’s changed totally.”
The NHS said it was just one of those things, nothing to do with them.
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board said priority at the time was based on patient risk. “We are sorry that Mrs Jeremy sadly experienced deterioration in her eyesight a few weeks following her last treatment in July,” a spokesperson said. “Sadly, some eye conditions can become worse over time despite ongoing treatment.”
The reference to “treatment in July” is clearly misleading as it is the lack of treatment since March that is the problem, which they do not acknowledge. Mrs Jeremy was just not a “priority”. And now she is blind and can no longer do almost any of the things she loves.
Round-Up
- “We must see the bigger picture and not rely solely on one body’s advice” – CRG MP Esther McVey makes the case against lockdowns in the Telegraph
- “If you supported the lockdowns, shut the hell up about the reckoning” – Laura Perrins in the Conservative Woman has had enough of lockdown zealots belatedly showing concern about the economy when the devastation was entirely predictable, and in fact predicted (not least by Toby back in March)
- “Sir Philip Green’s TopShop empire Arcadia Group faces collapse within days” – More well-known high street names teeter on the brink, from Sky News
- “Fever, aches from Pfizer, Moderna jabs aren’t dangerous but may be intense for some” – Good guide to the side-effects of the Pfizer and Moderna RNA vaccines: “Higher than is ordinarily seen with most flu vaccines, even the high-dose ones”
- “Jordan Peterson v the crybullies” – Douglas Murray in UnHerd on the censorious woke staff at the publisher for the psychologist’s new book who are trying to get him cancelled
- “I am utterly confused about the Oxford vaccine” – Tom Chivers in UnHerd is having some doubts, in spite of having breathlessly welcomed the same vaccine on Tuesday. Lockdown Sceptics never fell for the hype
- “Corona and the tragedy of the rough sleeping pandemic” – Sean Walsh writes in CapX that lockdown is only making it harder to help people get off the streets
- “UK Government running ‘Orwellian’ unit to block release of ‘sensitive’ information” – Open Democracy release a new report detailing the disturbing, and likely illegal, Government concealment and obfuscation operation running out of Michael Gove’s office
- “Court decides that quarantine in state of alert is illegal” – Further coverage from Portugal News of the Court of Appeal decision that the PCR test “is unable to determine, beyond reasonable doubt, that such positivity result corresponds, in fact, to the infection of a person by the SARS-CoV-2 virus”, first reported in Lockdown Sceptics almost two weeks ago
- “Cornwall offers compelling evidence that staycations don’t spread Covid” – Simon Parker in the Telegraph draws attention to more of the kind of evidence that is so glaringly obvious there’s no chance at all that SAGE will see it
- “£6m borrowed for every Covid death: Economist calculates terrifying price UK’s paying for pandemic” – Christopher Snowden in the Mail reports on the eye-watering lack of proportion in the Government’s spendthrift response to the virus
- “The Government’s tin-eared, patronising Covid lecturing is growing more irritating by the day” – Another solid piece from Ross Clark in the Telegraph
- “Warning! Britons’ freedoms being taken from us by No 10’s Covid power grab” – Good sceptical comment from Clare Fox in the usually pro-lockdown Express
- “The new Swedens? European countries shunning winter restrictions” – Annabel Fenwick Elliot in the Telegraph has a look at the few European countries refusing to follow the herd. Who would have thought that in 2020 Belarus would be the freest country in Europe?
- “Tier 2 rules means diners and drinkers must leave pubs and restaurants once food is finished” – More tidings of comfort and joy
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Three today: “Tears of Rage” by The Band, “Ain’t Nobody’s Business if I do” by Billie Holiday and “Mad World” by Tears for Fears.
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 so you can share it. To do that, click on the headline of a particular story and a link symbol will appear on the right-hand side of the headline. Click on the link and the URL of your page will switch to the URL of that particular story. You can then copy that URL and either email it to your friends or post it on social media. Please do share the stories.
Social Media Accounts
You can follow Lockdown Sceptics on our social media accounts which are updated throughout the day. To follow us on Facebook, click here; to follow us on Twitter, click here; to follow us on Instagram, click here; to follow us on Parler, click here; and to follow us on MeWe, click here.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, it’s the news that Eric Clapton has joined Van Morrison in his anti-lockdown “Save Live Music” campaign with a new collaborative song “Stand and Deliver” – and been called a “white supremacist” for his trouble. National File has the story.
Legendary rock-and-roll guitarist and vocalist Eric Clapton is collaborating with Van Morrison on a song called “Stand and Deliver” that is critical of United Kingdom’s laughably stringent Covid lockdowns and their effects on live music. Predictably, liberals on Twitter are seething uncontrollably over the news.
Clapton, the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, told Variety magazine that he chose to collaborate with Morrison on the song after finding the effect of lockdowns on musicians “deeply upsetting”.
“We must stand up and be counted because we need to find a way out of this mess. The alternative is not worth thinking about. Live music might never recover,” Clapton stated.
Morrison, who founded the Save Live Music campaign, said “Eric’s recording is fantastic and will clearly resonate with the many who share our frustrations,” adding, “It is heart-breaking to see so many talented musicians lack any meaningful support from the Government, but we want to reassure them that we are working hard every day to lobby for the return of live music, and to save our industry.”
The attacks on Clapton from unknown verified profiles on Twitter began almost immediately. Buzzwords such as “white supremacist,” stemming from Clapton’s collaboration with Morrison and off-the-cuff remarks he made onstage in support of British nationalism in 1976, appeared at the vanguard of the outrage machine.
“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.
If you’re a shop owner and you want to let your customers know you want be insisting on face masks or asking them what their reasons for exemption are, you can download a friendly sign to stick in your window here.
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: A maskless woman in a supermarket was issued by police with a fixed penalty notice even though she explained to them to them that she was exempt on health grounds. The Mail has the story.
Footage shows two officers from West Midlands Police handing the female customer a fixed penalty notice, saying that she has “broken a guideline”.
A policewoman explains that she can take the fine to court and show her “burden of proof” while the shopper claims that she is exempt from wearing a face covering.
Towards the start of the clip, the male police officer says: “What we’re going to do, we’re going to take this lady’s details.” The man filming asks “what for?” before the policeman urges him to listen to the other officer, who says: “If we give you a fixed penalty notice, what it then does, you take it to court and you show your burden of proof then to the court.”
The female customer says “I don’t need to”, before the policeman responds: “Yes you do.” The policewoman says that, as officers, they “do not have to ask for proof of her exemption” but that they can ask what it is “in a conversation”.
The customer then interjects: “Hold on, hold on. I’ve just shown you my card, I’ve explained my situation.” The policeman replies: “You showed me a card that you printed on the internet. That’s not valid”, to which the customer responds: “So?” He responds: “Because you haven’t got a certificate or a doctor’s note, the onus is on yourself.”
The shopper says: “I can prove to you here that my son’s girlfriend has ordered me a card, which I just said to you, I only texted the other day saying ‘has my card come yet?’ I can prove to you here that she’s put ‘yes, it does take a few weeks, I think my mum’s took a few weeks as well’.”
The camera operator questions whether she has broken the law, to which the policeman says she has “broken a guideline”.
It’s a funny kind of “guideline” that can land you a fine and in court.
The police officers are wrong of course. There is no requirement to produce a certificate or doctor’s note and there is nothing “invalid” about an exemption card. Government guidance explains: “If you have an age, health or disability reason for not wearing a face covering: you do not routinely need to show any written evidence of this; you do not need to show an exemption card. This means that you do not need to seek advice or request a letter from a medical professional about your reason for not wearing a face covering.” Furthermore, people are told to be “mindful and respectful” of the circumstances of people unable to wear a mask: “Some people are less able to wear face coverings, and the reasons for this may not be visible to others.”
Someone needs to tell the police officers. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that West Midlands Police has any intention of doing so.
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 month and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it ever since. If you Googled it a week after launch, 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 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 700,000 signatures.
Update: 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.
Update 2: Many of the signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration are involved with new UK anti-lockdown campaign Recovery. Find out more and join here.
Update 3: You can watch Sunetra Gupta set out the case for “Focused Protection” here and Jay Bhattacharya make it here.
Update 4: The three GBD authors plus Prof Carl Heneghan of CEBM have launched a new website collateralglobal.org, “a global repository for research into the collateral effects of the COVID-19 lockdown measures”. Follow Collateral Global on Twitter here.
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.
Stop Press: Simon Dolan has a piece in Conservative Woman on “Boris’s cruel Christmas joke” that is worth a read.
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.
Quotation Corner
It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.
Mark Twain
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.
Charles Mackay
They who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good, or else that it’s a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions…
Ideology – that is what gives the evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
No lesson seems to be so deeply inculcated by the experience of life as that you never should trust experts. If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome: if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent: if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe. They all require to have their strong wine diluted by a very large admixture of insipid common sense.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Nothing would be more fatal than for the Government of States to get into the hands of experts. Expert knowledge is limited knowledge and the unlimited ignorance of the plain man, who knows where it hurts, is a safer guide than any rigorous direction of a specialist.
Sir Winston Churchill
If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science.
Richard Feynman
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
C.S. Lewis
The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.
Albert Camus
We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.
Carl Sagan
Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
George Orwell
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Marcus Aurelius
Necessity is the plea for every restriction of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
William Pitt the Younger
Shameless Begging Bit
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And Finally…
Discussion
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https://underdogsbiteupwards.wordpress.com/2020/11/26/wrong-flag/
Just putting this out there. If you get a choice that is and you’re prepared/need to take a vaccine for whatever reason.
Everyone will eventually have to draw their own line in the sand.
None of this shit is going into my arm, or any other part of me for that matter!
Or mine
I’m digging a chasm in the quicksand.
The world’s toughest lockdown has resulted in the world’s highest COVID-19 death toll
“For months on end, Peruvians were largely forbidden from leaving their homes. The country began its lockdown like many others, by cutting itself off from the rest of the world, closing its borders to outsiders, and shutting down the nation’s economy and society. Similar to policies seen in U.S. lockdown states and Europe, only “essential” businesses were allowed to be open. Peru then took the shutdown a step further. The military has enforced a nationwide mandatory 10pm-4am curfew (some cities have lengthened the curfew to 8pm-5am), most “essential” stores are only open for a handful of hours a day (most grocery stores close at 3pm), and citizens face extreme penalties and legal consequences for failing to abide by the rigid restrictions. ”
…..
“In addition to the lockdown, Peru implemented a universal masking mandate in its attempt to “stop the spread.” The country has even gone as far as to mandate the use of face shields on public transportation in some cities, including the capital city of Lima.”
https://jordanschachtel.substack.com/p/the-worlds-toughest-lockdown-has
The general point, leaving aside simple between-country differences, is that both lockdowns and masks are a total waste of time and space – and political rather than medical interventions.
Who’d ever have guessed?
This is what I think when I see this dreadful slogan:
Does anyone know where I can find the graphic which show links to other organisations from the Bill & Malinda Gates foundation?
Trying to convince someone that things are not right, but I am just overthinking things apparently.
This one?
“We are many. They are few. “ Use it as a mantra. Chant it throughout the day; before you go to sleep at night and when you wake up in the morning.
It’s a good line (from Shelley, Eton College)but reminds me too much of the Labour manifesto – which was totally against liberty, free speech and our natural rights.
So the right went one further and actually eliminated all basic rights!
2020 may have been the toughest year of our lives, but it’s also the year we’ve had to grow and overcome the most and we will enter 2021 as warriors. – Naomi Seibt
Enjoying a few beers and 3 hours 43 minutes of Dr Mike Yeadon, what better way to spend a Saturday night Sunday morning?
I may need snacks! to go with the beer.
Dr. Mike Yeadon
Just don’t put any Mayo on your snacks. Doesn’t go well with Dr Yeadon.
lololol
Haha, sign of the times.
Imagine saying that a year ago!
Marianna Spring, BBC’s Disinformation Champion (she’s champion at spreading disinformation), has been laying down the law on speech about vaccines. Apparently there are legitimate concerns that the BBC will allow you to express about vaccines but then there are all the other concerns which the BBC thinks should be actively censored, banned and prosecuted. Presumably legitimate concerns would be things like “How soon can I get the vaccine?” “Can we get our pets vaccinated as well?” “Are there any other experimental vaccines you’d like me to take?”
Marianna is aged 26, doesn’t have a science degree and is clearly a bear of little brain, even though she looks perpetually pleased with herself.
Here you go, just look at the range of experience:
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/marianna-spring-279439b6
Are you on twitter?
Comments invited!
https://twitter.com/nadhimzahawi/status/1332672844103364609?fbclid=IwAR02guE9FAAVMMHQjaZRrPecKQx4GITiqhEOsLjes4oofN5Ct9LxP6v2gRY
No thank you.
There have been many missed cancer screenings and operations this year.
This is probably now going to start making an impact on excess mortality.
This is because missed or delayed cancer operations and screenings have consequences.
The lack of social contact – estimated to have the same negative impact on health as smoking or obesity – is also going to start having an effect on mortality.
A certain proportion of all of these groups will ‘test positive’
Do not be surprised therefore if with the seasonal expansion of coronaviruses the ‘covid death count’ begins to rise, along with excess mortality.
Be prepared.
I think pretty soon we’ll also start to see legal action against the NHS because of this.
Better still the government.
And individual GPs? My GP’s surgery is still locked up like Fort Knox.
When Covid is long gone this will be a gift that keeps on giving, year after year. Poverty, unemployment, social inequalities are all part of the collateral damage of wrecking the economy as an over reaction. When a dangerous pathogen actually comes along we are toast!
Yes, each lockdown potentially providing the next wave of excess deaths to justify the next lockdown, which again causes excess death etc etc,
Accompanied by a steadily rising level of economic and social desperation, themselves independently increasing death rates.
This is the thing though, if a genuinely dangerous pandemic came along we wouldn’t be able to deal with it because the government has wasted billions on covid. Also, having cried wolf with this, how many people would be so quick to jump on the bandwagon again?
We’d have to depend on our immune systems that have served us well for the past few million years. Moreover, we now know how to fortify our immune systems.
Well it will certainly be making an impact on mortality.
This is a rather pertinent comment from Jeffrey Tucker. And now the wise experts want to do the same with flu, and Hancock with everything:
So, Mayo, what do you think about the meta study showing Imperial College has had the most inaccurate Covid modelling on the planet?
1/ I haven’t looked at the study so have nom idea what they are looking at.
2/ I have no particular interest in Imperial because it has no influence in my opinions.
Just to add: I understand their models and I can see why they get the results we’ve all seen. Lots of modellers get the same. The models are probably OK – within reason. It is the initial assumptions that need to be adjusted.
2….The models are probably OK – within reason…..”
Now, haven’t you taken your medication yet?
Bought a brilliant car last week. Marvellous! Pity about the fact it’s engine is seized.
What a plonker! One of the key facts of this shit-show is that the modelling has been almost universally crap. I can do better with a graph, historical data and a coloured pencil.
A model is only as good as the initial assumptions made. Ferguson’s model predicted 500k deaths in ONE of a number of different scenarios.
They over-estimated IFR – probably but not by as much as LS readers think. I reckon IFR is nearer to 0.5% – so about half the Imperial estimate.
Ferguson did not give enough consideration to geographical separation.
However, he did project a death toll of about 40k if the UK introduced a strict lockdown. He also predicted a second wave beginning in October.
The assumptions are an integral part of a model, not separate from it.
Bozo in full retreat…he thought it was the calvary coming over the hill, but it was a Tory Rebel lynch mob.
Watching Tim Montgomerie on Sky Press Preview . Don’t know what medication he’s on but he seems to think we have a world beating vaccine! Lol
I think you mean ‘cavalry’…although given Boris’ experiences at Easter, maybe you did mean ‘calvary’…
That’s made me think – there have been some reports that he’s earmarked Easter Monday 4 April as our release date from the tiers (very precise, that). So two Easters in a row cancelled, and a symbolic springing into life for the UK after Easter Day. Just like his release from hospital last year… strange that.
this is because corona bollocks is running to a global script. It’s very inflexible.
Time to crucify him
Indeed! He’ll be gone long before Easter.
The vaccine is fine.
You can’t possibly know.No one can after the rushed trials.
Not rushed – just not held up in the way less urgent medicines are.
Really?
I would define fine as:
a) Preventing transmission
b) Preventing elderly patients with underlying health conditions from dying
If neither of these are provable, then what is the point of the vaccine?
Eff me – another area of expertise! Is it fine if it’s not a walk in the park and it gives you the symptoms of the virus?
Presumably you think the manufacturers indemnity can be dropped then.
That’s the Pfizer vaccine.
‘Giyuz a job, Bozo’ – I’ll certify any rushed and untested vaccine you care to name!’
The TSG has had 5,000+ formal complaints of violence made against them
Not one has ever been convicted of a criminal or disciplinary offence
Out of control thugs
Wow! That’s a lot, but it doesn’t surprise me.
As you say, thugs!
They need kicking in their pensions.
Even the threat of it can have a ball-shrivelling impact.
Yes, I mentioned before that a successful populist party should threaten retrospective legislation to prosecute gross violations of our natural rights. It would havd a sobering effect I believe.
Was it TSG or similar that was sent in during the 1980s miners strike?
There may have been specific gangs – I don’t remember. But the main tactic (that triggered a lot of violence) was the importation of thugs from forces in other parts of the country who had no local allegiance.
The detail is probably in some of the literature subsequently written.
How can anyone believe a word he says, grandparents were sent back to their care homes while ill to clear the hospitals, they didn’t care about granny then, the lies are disgusting.
The violence meted out to peaceful protesters today will come back to haunt the police
I have never seen anything so disgusting as the live streams from London. how the home secretary can say the Police did a good job is beyond me. We have criticised China for less in HK!
I doubt if priti useless has seen any of the film
She’s just parroting what Mrs Dick will have told her
Yes I suspect that they are fed what those who are really “in control” want them to see.
IMO the police and certain other organisations have an acute pyramid of command and those at the top are completely in thrall to cultural marxism. Hence the demonisation of ‘far right anti-vaxxers’ and the kid-gloves approach to BLM protests.
The BLM protestors were considerably more scary with some government agitators in there too for good measure, tooled up and ready to use some ultra violence. Very unlike the peacefully fluffy protesters in London today.
“in thrall to cultural marxism”
Monopoly capitalism, you mean
They are terrible, but what also strikes me is how woefully ineffective they are. They use 5-10 people to take men down who aren’t putting up very much resistance.
A sign of weakness. It would be interesting to see how they would cope if things escalated.
See my earlier point – the arrests are probably more violent because the police just aren’t up to it any more. In the old days before radios, one policeman had to be strong enough to arrest a violent criminal on his own. Nowadays with improved communications, transport and all the panoply of ‘diversity’ it takes ten of them to subdue one old lady.
This afternoon, I was watching livestream with my granddaughter and laughing how obviously fat many of the police were.
Well, I got a reaction from the article I commented on earlier, from a sheep, wishing that I get “CV-19”
https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/huge-group-50-students-gather-19364250#comments-section
I have replied obviously.
But will probably get banned.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/P0a6UR8nFeTR/
For anyone that missed the terrorist support group arrests today.
I was watching a different stream with my granddaughter and spotted when the police suddenly attacked.
We ran it back and agreed that the instigation was absolutely from the police. It looked completely unprovoked, as the crowd was entirely peaceful, however, I think they’d singled out one person and “pounced”.
It soon returned to a peaceful “normal”.
I posed this question a few months ago:
If a government turns on it’s own people in a democracy who will come to save them?
The answer is that the people must save themselves. Think about all the non democratic countries where people protested and then democracy came along to “save” them, yet once you’re in a democracy and they take away your right to protest what have you got left?
Said it plenty of times, only mass civil disobedience will end it. The politicians are useless as most of them are clearly thick.
We need guidance how to respond when arrested (because now there seems a pretty good chance of it!) and how best to mitigate the consequences. Maybe more would take to the streets if they knew this.
1Don’t be violent or aggressive be passive, do not stand up make them carry you everywhere
2 Do not speak other than in the custody suite as its on CCTV and audio
3 Do not give your name, address or date of birth
4 They must ask you if you want a solicitor (it is free whatever your means) Demand the solicitor attends the police station to see you
5 If you say you are suicidal they have to monitor you more closely and this ties up more resources
6 You have a right to examined by a doctor if you feel unwell or are injured
Thanks
Good advice. Thanks.
I thought you had to give your details to the duty sarge on the desk?
Yes, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and the movements that they led, were successful because they made their respective countries ungovernable.
I may be naive, but I think we are still at the stage where organised legal action can end it. The ordinary British people are only just waking up to what is going on. If that fails, of course then civil disobedience is the next step, but we need to remember that we are ahead of the curve on most people on this site.
I very much doubt that any legal action can end it.
Far too much has been invested in this for them to go back now.
If any major country were to go back to normal, the narrative of crisis would be undermined everywhere.
Any attempts I make to look at the legal side of this come back to the Simon Dolan case, well presented, all the points covered and getting nowhere. If Simon Dolan with all his money cannot make any progress on the legal side it is hard to know how anyone else can go down this route.
The MPs are committing a gross injustice by voting these regulations through on the back of the Public Health Act but it is hard to know how we can stop them. I have written to the Attorney General about this but have had no reply.
Sumption is not part of the judiciary.
… and the judiciary don’t act except in legal proceedings.
Yep. 100% agree.
There were A LOT of people there today and they were assuring the police that it would get worse.
After HMG’s blatant pisstaking this week, I’m sure they’re right!
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Vl5trlYBM0iL/
This shits getting out of hand
wow, France is in big trouble. Even more dystopian than here.
Aux armes citoyens !
The French are quite well organised. They had loads of practice with the gilet jaunes.
The cops seen in London today would have no chance in France.
Going after police out of uniform is the new protest. And their families
Milk cartons need photos.
We were the same – normally would be tutting a bit but we were cheering them on. It’s all that’s going to make any difference – and if it doesn’t at least the anger gets a bit of release
Yes I found myself cheering and hoping the TSG might be overwhelmed and given a kicking.
This is something I could never have imagined myself doing a few years ago.
My neighbour and his wife, both in their 70s, feel the same!
How they can get this so wrong is astonishing.
Rather unique unintended experiment in real time. Norwegian scabies can occur in long term care homes. One of the best treatments is Ivermectin. This happened during the spring outbreak of C-19 in France, where one home had a scabies outbreak at the of the height of pandemic and was treated with Ivermectin
https://twitter.com/Covid19Crusher/status/1332732759081676801
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S015196382030627X?via%3Dihub
69 residents of French care home (median age 90) treated with Ivermectin due to a scabies outbreak: 10% of Covid infection and no death versus 23% infected and 5% deceased in comparable care homes from the same administrative district (département).
So how is an anti-parasitic drug that’s effective against insects useful against covid19?
This drug has an excellent anti viral effect against Sars-Cov-2,There are now severalRCT studies
https://ivmmeta.com/
This antiprasitic drug is in widespread use for other purposes has now been used extensively in Africa,South America and India and Pakistan.Also effective in prophylaxis.
You won’t hear of it on BBC.
The Government secured an additional 2 million doses of the almost 95 per cent effective Moderna vaccine, which will be available from next spring, bringing the total number of doses the UK now has access to up to 357 million, from seven companies; Thats 5 times the vaccines we need if we have 100% uptake. Who the fuck is authorising this. Thats right Step forward Matthew (the cunt) Hancock
I’ll donate mine to anyone who wants it
Pass! Thanks all the same.
Surely any spending of public money needs to go through some sort of tender/approval process? Regardless of whether you think you’re in a pandemic or not?!?!
Apparently not. They just put the bucket down into the bottomless money pit and haul up a load more cash.
No, it’s awarded to their mates companies & the ones who the ministers have shares in.
Utter wankers.
Not sure who ordered it but I know who is paying for it and who gets our money
Well well well
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.13.20151233v5
Stopped reading as soon as saw who funded it.
Ahhh Dr and Mrs Dr Gates have paid some one to tell us what we already knew. Professor Pants Down is not very good at modelling.
Change of tactics today, intercepting trains etc
The new tactics included making mass arrests to try and break the back of the movement
A change only works once
Police say 150 arrests
Each arrest ties down two officers and takes them off the street for the duration
The TSG is 750 officers
Do the maths
Unsustainable for the Met
What is TSG? I’ve seen that written several times today.
Territorial support group
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_Support_Group
The Exploited made a lovely song about their predecessors, the SPG. Fuck the SPG
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHKrH199_Vs
The arrests were very very targeted
Watching one of the livestream the first arrest at KX was very early.
Because MSM are not covering these events perhaps the evens would be best run in different cities each week?
I am sure if even a fraction of the numbers in London turned up in say Derby, next Saturday I am sure people would talk about it?
Likewise, Carlisle, Darlington, Stoke, Lincoln, Coventry, Chester, Leeds, Sheffield etc etc
The DM has covered it, but no comments
It’s on the BBC website. Dont’ know if it was on the News at Ten though.
On the BBC? – what did they say? Largely violent Far Right illegal protest attacks Police officers?
What I don’t understand is why the organisers of the demonstrations don’t just say ‘demonstration in central London at some point after noon on such and such a day, all march towards such and such a place, details to be announced shortly after noon on social media.’ This way, the police can’t stop people on trains coming into London terminii because they will be coming from all different directions; once the meeting point is announced on social media (say, Oxford Circus) there will be streams of people coming from all different directions so the police can’t be on all those roads at once. Then at, say, 1pm, once everyone has had enough time to get to Oxford Circus, the end destination point is announced on social media (say, Buckingham Palace) and everyone starts marching, forming different groups to march along different roads. There’s no way the police can prepare for that, surely?
I think that’s pretty much what happened. The venue was changed at the last minute and the route was continually getting switched.
We watched a police inspector trying to get a coachload of protestors to turn back and go home. I can’t imagine the mountain of paperwork he’d inflicted upon himself!
Boris Broke Britain – should be tomorrows headlines!
Bonkers Boris Bonked Britain
Call me an adrenaline junky but this Christmas I’m going to play Monopoly and share a potato spoon.
#YOLO #extremesports #livingonborrowedtime
Naughty boy.
Go to lockdown. Go directly to lockdown. Do not pass Go. Do not collect a roast potato.
Oh pleeease when this is all over can we hire a massive house somewhere and have a huuuuuuge party.
Will handshakes & hugs be allowed? or would that kill somebody?!
it needs a place for a camper van or two.
KH cafe anyone?
I’m definitely in.
How about the House of Parliament. I hear it’s mostly unoccupied these days.
Their bar’s open after hours too.
I think we’re all off to a certain café in Saffron Walden, as far as I know. 😉
Thank you so much for the best laugh of my day..
I can’t stand Monopoly, but, am determined to find it in the loft so we can play it at Christmas!
I can recommend the junior version. It doensn’t drag on for hours!
I’ll be passing round the gravy boat and maybe even doing a bit of hugging, how I do love living on the edge.
Do you intend to lick your knife? That really is living on the edge.
Take a big slurp from the gravy bowl before handing it around of course.
Just the one spoon. Hell go for broke. Pass the bottle of wine around hug like there’s no 2moro make sure everyone kisses under the mistletoe and sing loudly together.
As long as you pass the kutchie on the left hand side.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.25.20219048v1
A preprint looking at the False Positive Rates for RT PCR and the normal CT values used to identify infections.
It suggests reasonable CTs under 30, average at around 25. Contradicts a lot of what Dr Yeardon has been saying regarding use of the tests.
It’s quite technical but I think the conclusions need to be addressed if the charges against the PCR are to hold.
It still suggests non infectious people are being told theybare positive above 30CTs.
They are also deemed positive if only one of teh three set gene sequences are found, which I have read elsewhere is somewhat a liberal use of such tests, but a better person could confirm that for me.
Not quite sure I follow you when it says that it contradicts Dr. Yeadon? He’s been saying along that the tests shouldn’t be run at the cycles they’ve been running them at.
I was just about to ask the same thing. I don’t understand this comment.
What I mean is, the impression being given is that cycles were consistently in the 30+ CT regions and many suggested 40+.
This paper is citing an average of 26.
There are other things that are defeating for PCR that Yeardon has pointed to for example. Like the contamination when the massive scale is considered. So it doesn’t fully defeat the criticisms but I didn’t expect the 25CTs
An ‘average’ of 26. Mean, median or mode?
It’s says median. Not sure why this is being down voted but maybe I’m not being clear. It does support MYs call for low CTs along with others, the key here however is that they are saying this in fact is what they are doing.
So tbe point was to get other opinions on here so I can understand it better.
It’s being voted down because you don’t know what you’re talking about!
It’s frustrating enough without having to deal with this!
I don’t. I have asked that some one better qualified here to take a look.
Figure 1 in the paper pretty much supports using a Ct cut-off of 30, which would support what Yeadon has been saying, wouldn’t it?
Just send it over to Yeadon and ask him to explain and i’m sure he will address it .
You don’t know what you are talking about. Yeadon does.
Who is “Dr Yeardon” ?
I noticed a mention of the Chan Zuckerberg initiative- sounds familiar?-lets just say if you share this to Facebook it’s unlikely it will be censored for being false information
How does it contradict Yeadon ? .He believes there are many different mistakes that can happen in mass testing in the wrong conditions ,when testing 100s of thousands ,The amount of cycles is one thing and how do we know what they have been using till now . Lets wait and see an expert like Yeadon address it before we decide he is wrong .
The PCR test does not detect live virus. If you get a certain load of RNA after (say) 25 cycles then it is inferred that there must be a live infection or there would not be as much material.
I repeat : the PCR test does not detect “live” virus.
Once you get over about 30 cycles the test becomes completely meaningless anyway.
But I repeat again: the PCR test does not detect “live” virus.
Clear enough?
Thank you. Its important that I get this kind of feedback as we are all writing to our MPs regarding PCR.
You may find it frustrating to share this platform with less scientifically minded people but we need at least try or else our MPs can easily dismiss our information.
If asking for that I came across as ill-informed I apologise
Graph C is telling. People with symptoms in and around the test only make up 30% of positive cases. These would be typical possible Covid cases if all medical practice hadn’t been abandoned. And yet higher positive rates for people not showing any symptoms who would in all other studies be called the Control Group.
So the Control is showing higher positive rates than those with various symptoms that could be called Covid.
Thank you. While some, John P, seems to have misread me as being anti something and trying to undermine the criticisms, I just wanted to get some clarification here.
Much appreciated
Not much of a gathering in London today, largely due to Trafalgar Sq being abandoned as the venue and heavy policing; as a result, obviously deliberate, any cohesive spirit was stifled or fragmented by preventing people from assembling in one place. Having narrowly avoided arrest at Kings X and being told that I would be if I returned to the area, I took a bus to Oxford Circus and walked along to Marble Arch. As I crossed to Speakers’ Corner, Piers emerged from the park surrounded by supporters and police in roughly equal numbers, 30-40 all told with maybe another 200 milling about. I shook him warmly by the hand and pressed his arm, enquiring if he was OK; he asked if I would be joining them to march along Oxford St and down Regent St, intending to reach Piccadilly Circus. Having crossed back over to Marble Arch, now filled with TSG and regulars, his progress was slow and eventually ground to a halt on the pedestrian refuge at the end of Oxford St. Here he was put under considerable pressure by plod to ‘go home’ and it appears he was arrested.. again, not absolutely certain about that. TSG were… Read more »
The one good thing about all this is it shows how scared they are. If they thought protests would not have any effect, and that they were the work of a few cranks, they would not bother turning out in such numbers.
Agreed, it’s how totalitarianism works. We need to take lessons from Germany and Poland.
We need an anti-lockdown party including in its manifesto a full disciplinary investigation of all police, from Cressida down, who have been involved in the suppression of protest. A public misconduct process, with dismissal and loss of pension as the possible end point.
Might give them something to think about.
Yes we do, but we will only ever get that with people on the streets; we have left democracy too far behind for anything else to work. It’s put up (effective resistance) or shut up.
“Not much of a gathering in London today” – I though there was still quite a significant impact even if “on the move” mostly from what I saw? No?
Nothing like 29 August or 26 September, many thousands both, not from what I saw.
Ah ok. Shame if that’s how it was. I suspect public opinion is more in favour now though.
Let’s hope so!
Well a watched youtube earlier and the crowd seemed pretty massive at some points .So it would seem that even if many people were intercepted still quite a lot made it even if they ended up being split up .
Well, the BBC were saying the police were saying that 150 arrests were made so that would suggest there were many thousands there.
Haven’t checked MSM or Youtube, had a 230 mile drive to get home and will have a good look when recovered. All I can say is that at no point did I see more than a few hundred people and the whole affair lacked any real focus. Apparently 60 arrests were being touted early evening, maybe that’s gone up.
Firs post alert! Tried joining the Conservative Party tonight as suggested by someone earlier. Apologies to that person as can’t find their comments now.. Was informed that their “membership website is currently unavailable. We’re Building Back Better with a planned upgrade.” How much more sinister does this need to get or did said forum member spook their website. I hope so.
I’ll join them and get my MP out!
Have you ever read such shit:
We can’t just throw it all away – not when freedom is in sight, writes BORIS JOHNSON | Daily Mail Online
‘We are so nearly out of our captivity, we can see the sunlit upland pastures ahead… but if we try to jump the fence now, we will tangle ourselves in the last barbed wire, writes PRIME MINISTER BORIS JOHNSON’
What a cunt
And a fat, lazy, incompetent, duplicitous one at that!
How easy is it to bring a private prosecution against me? There’s literally 100s of pages of evidence to show he’s acted illegally and lied to the public time and time again.
There’s supposedly an ongoing prosecution against all MPs but it seems to have fizzled out.
Have you ever read such a load of shit in your life cunt should be assassinated .
“….Have you ever read such shit….”
Recently? Quite a bit – especially from him!…..
Think he suffered brain damage on the ventilator.
My guess is he has a speech writer who thinks that he/she understands Boris’ classics/public school background and tries to write accordingly, but he/she probably went to a comp and doesn’t really understand it. Hence the over-larding of military and classical allusions and Bunter-esque phrases.
Yeah it becomes quite bizarre at times! He must be thick to go along with it though.
Sad thing is, you just know that all but a few of the rebel MPs will cave in and call assessing the lockdown in January “a victory”.
Its like Boris Gluteous Maximus, waiting to fight Caesar. Who can believe his bullshit anymore. Fight them on the beaches blah fucking blah. No its runaway and hide, Doris Fanny Johnson
.
delete
No, sorry, utterly stumped…
Thanks for your help everyone.Worked it out on my own – so deleted.
Is it ‘cunt’?
Did you get 5 across: Ring of muscle points south (8)?
How dare he sully the memory of our war dead by comparing this sordid episode to Waterloo.
Give me 1 minute with this man. One. Inappropriate dribble. An absolute disgusting disgrace. Daily Mail all over. Giving the son of a bitch a platform to lie.
“To all those who are in a tier higher than they believe they deserve, and especially to our wonderful hospitality sector, I not only sympathise. I grieve for what we have to do…”
Tell that to anyone who is going to lose their job this week. Tell that to anyone who has lost thousands of pound if not all their savings from this folly. Those who have been plunged into debt to this atrocious government for no good reason than protection of the elite. HOPE you say. Well that’s about as valid as your 3 weeks turning into 8 months.
I won’t forgive and I hope no one else does too. “Tin pot Churchill wanna be” go fuck yourself.
“..Give me 1 minute with this man…” –
30 seconds will do me to kick his head in…
Would love to put the gun to the fat cunts head and pull the trigger..
Take a look at the comments. The oublicare not buying from this fat slob of a lying snake-oil salesman.
great comments – makes this site look tame!! i wish this monstrous idiot would have some humility to read the comments and have some shame in what he is doing to the country.
I feel the country is very much on the edge…
The comments were very good.The mail readers have turned
‘As for the vaccines, I now have no doubt that they will come, and possibly very soon. But they are not yet here. They are passing all kinds of tests, but none of them has yet been completely approved as fit to be injected in the arms of our parents and grandparents.’
‘Our’ parents and grandparents? Who does he think he’s talking to here? And why are older people always in the government narrative those to whom, or for, things are done? I’m 75 and a half and I want to make, and live by, my own risk assessment. Is there anyone similarly aged out there who would like to join me in a ‘Not in my name’ movement?
Captivity. Johnson isn’t in his yet.
Can someone tangle him in to the barbed wire. This is a crock of shit.
He loves a military metaphor, yet seems to have no grasp of Pyrrhic victory