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Victory in Spite of the Tiers

Boris looks sheepishly at Graham Brady, like a teenager who’s just got in from an all-night party being told off by his dad

The post-lockdown tier system comes into force today after the Government won the parliamentary vote. Not the result that readers of Lockdown Sceptics would have wanted in an ideal world, but the vote was a damaging blow to the new tier system nevertheless.

  • Only 291 of 650 MPs voted for the Tier system, which means the new restrictions are being brought in without the backing of a majority of MPs. In such circumstances it’s going to be difficult to enforce them
  • The Labour party abstained. Admittedly, a bit spineless of Keir Starmer, but better than voting with the Government
  • 55 Tory MPs rebelled, up from 34 on November 4th and Boris’s biggest back bench rebellion to date
  • 15 Labour MPs voted against the measures. Sixteen if you count Jeremy Corbyn (independent)

For more on the fall-out for the Government, see this analysis by Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.

Here is the list of MPs who voted “No” yesterday:

Conservative:

Adam Afriyie, Imran Ahmad Khan, Steve Baker (teller), Sir Graham Brady, Andrew Bridgen, Paul Bristow, Sir Christopher Chope, Greg Clark, James Daly, Philip Davies, David Davis, Jonathan Djanogly, Jackie Doyle-Price, Richard Drax, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, Mark Francois, Marcus Fysh, Dame Cheryl Gillian, Chris Green, Damian Green, Kate Griffiths, Mark Harper, Philip Hollobone, David Jones, Julian Knight, Robert Largan, Pauline Latham, Chris Loder, Tim Loughton, Craig Mackinlay, Anthony Mangnall, Karl McCartney, Stephen McPartland, Esther McVey, Huw Merriman, Robbie Moore, Anne Marie Morris, Sir Bob Neill, Mark Pawsey, Sir John Redwood, Mary Robinson, Andrew Rosindell, Henry Smith, Dr Ben Spencer, Sir Desmond Swayne, Sir Robert Syms (teller), Craig Tracey, Tom Tugendhat, Matt Vickers, Christian Wakeford, Sir Charles Walker, James Wallis, David Warburton, William Wragg, Jeremy Wright.

Labour:

Aspana Begum, Richard Burgon, Mary Kelly Foy, Andrew Gwynne, Mike Hill, Kevan Jones, Emma Lewell-Buck, Ian Mearns,
Grahame Morris, Kate Osborne, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, John Spellar, Graham Stringer, Zarah Sultana, Derek Twigg.

Democratic Unionist Party:

Gregory Campbell, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Paul Girvan, Carla Lockhart, Ian Paisley Jr, Gavin Robinson, Jim Shannon, Sammy Wilson.

Independents:

Dr Julian Lewis, Jeremy Corbyn.

If you wrote to one of the above MPs, take a bow. And if you feel like thanking them, the standard Parliamentary email address format is [email protected].

There were a number of note-worthy contributions to the debate in the lead up to the vote:

I very much want to support my Government and my Prime Minister in the lobby this evening, but I can’t and won’t inflict deliberate harm on my constituency unless I can see for myself that to do nothing would be worse.

Andrea Leadsom, Conservative (abstained)

Restrictions on much smaller areas work better, they are fairer, and they cause much less economic damage. The Government’s proposed tier system does not deliver this. I will therefore be voting against the government this evening.

David Davis, Conservative (No)

This is a dangerous moment in the life of our country. People feel they have been pushed too far and suffered too much. Government’s analysis should have compared its own approach with alternative approaches to show the costs & benefits.

Steve Baker, Conservative (Teller for the Noes)

Tonight I am voting against new Coronavirus tier restrictions. In the absence of a cost benefit analysis of lockdown, clarity about Trafford’s allocation to – and exit from – Tier 3 and sufficient justification for removal of fundamental freedoms, I have no choice but to oppose.

Graham Brady, Conservative (No)

And a special shout-out to William Wragg MP, who made Guido’s Quote of the Day:

There’s no conspiracy. In my brief experience of it, the British state has never been competent enough to mount or organise such a conspiracy, and indeed if it were so in the present climate plans for that would have leaked already.

William Wragg, Conservative (No)

Stop Press: One of the best speeches in the House of Commons yesterday was by Sir Graham Brady.

https://twitter.com/toadmeister/status/1333801494701768706

How to Fight Back, the Gandhi Way

Wondering what we can do, now that we’re facing the prospect of being in lockdown in all but name until Easter? Professor Ramesh Thakur, a former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations and a long-standing sceptic who’s written numerous articles attacking lockdowns, has a suggestion: take a leaf out of Gandhi’s book. As Professor Thakur points out, there is a considerable body of scholarship that shows nonviolent protest – civil disobedience – is more politically effective than violent protest, with the road to Indian independence being a case in point.

But Professor Thakur has a particular form of civil disobedience in mind, one perfected by Gandhi and still used in India to this day. Here’s the gist of it:

‘Jail Bharo Andolan’ is one technique of civil disobedience. It literally means ‘Fill the prisons movement/agitation’. It’s a deliberate, coordinated campaign to subvert a law or regime by courting arrest and imprisonment in numbers that physically clog the courts and overwhelm the prisons. The fact that those imprisoned are normally law-abiding citizens adds greatly to the authorities’ embarrassment…

So to those looking for what you can do: protest peacefully in large numbers, have several rungs of leaders to take the place of any who are arrested, be unfailingly polite and charmingly courteous to police officers and judges, refuse to pay fines in favour of court appearance and trial, and after the court has delivered its verdict go to prison rather than pay fines to overwhelm the prison system until the justice system breaks down.

It requires sacrifice, courage and steadfastness to refuse obedience to the dictates of a discredited and despised government. The dissenters must be prepared to accept the legal consequences, including imprisonment. But if you don’t fight for freedom, get ready to lose it.

We’ve given this one pride of place on the right-hand side, filed under “The Left-Wing Case Against Lockdowns”.

Worth reading in full.

Eggsactly!

From the Sun

There was another nearly-as-important debate yesterday on whether Scotch Eggs count as a “substantial meal”. The Sun has the details. Michael Gove, as they say, got himself “into a pickle”.

Michael Gove was asked about the status of the delicacy a day after his Cabinet colleague George Eustice told LBC that a Scotch egg “would count as a substantial meal if there were table service”. That means it could be be served with alcohol by pubs in tier two areas after lockdown ends.

Mr Gove told the radio station: “A couple of scotch eggs is a starter, as far as I’m concerned.”

Forty-five minutes later, he said on ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “As far as I’m concerned it’s probably a starter. My own preference when it comes to a substantial meal might be more than just a scotch egg but that’s because I’m a hearty trencherman. The Government is relying on people’s common sense.”

However, by the time he was interviewed by ITV News shortly afterwards, his position had evolved.

He said: “A Scotch egg is a substantial meal. I myself would definitely scoff a couple of Scotch eggs if I had the chance, but I do recognise that it is a substantial meal.”

A Day in the Life of a COVID-19 Physician

Getty images

The Critic magazine has another piece by the Covid Physician on the effect of lockdowns. It is an extensive and wide-ranging critique of how the virus has been handled, written by an NHS doctor. It starts with a tale of the effect on the treatment of a patient in need of specialised care:

Lockdown has dire, hidden consequences for unwell patients in general practice. Take for example the 34 year-old patient with motor neurone disease. English is a second language, she is an asylum seeker who thought she was escaping persecution and tyranny. In addition to the general muscular spasticity and weakness which will eventually lead to a slow death by respiratory failure she has a progressive bulbar palsy which means she can no longer speak nor swallow well. These will worsen. Each morning she risks a death by choking on her puréed breakfast. A feeding tube has been proposed, but she pretends to her specialist it hasn’t been. She is on medicines that sedate her. She can barely handle a mobile phone. Let us say life is already a multiple misery.

COVID-19 has brought her a special new hell. Carers avoid her due to the vulnerability her medical conditions bring to her. Speech and language therapists (SALTs) avoid her and make-believe care through Microsoft Teams. To make this virtual dystopia impressive and even better than the real thing they have given it an incredible name: The SALT proudly states: “Consultation done with AAC meeting”. What is that? I keep reading. My goodness, another Fourth Industrial revolution thing? Augmentative and Alternative Communication. To me, a simple video-call is demoralising doublespeak, for non-existent care by proxy.

My patient’s neurologist does the same: multi-conferencing the locked-down patient as she slowly rots in her asylum accommodation amidst a cold, bleak post-industrial pseudo-apocalypse. A pathetic dripping roast for everyone to make even easier money off. It occurs to me that the dehumanising, forced-impoverishment and restrictions of my refugee and asylum patient group is now upon us all, meagre social credits, not allowed to work, restricted movement, restricted access to healthcare. We are all in the same lockdown boat, now.

It concludes with an excoriation of Johnson, Whitty, Vallance et al, who worry the author far more than COVID-19:

The Prime Minister is fond of saying he is following the science. He is not. He is absolving himself of command, control and blame by saying so. He may also be too classically-educated to appreciate he is not following the science with lockdown, masks and social-distancing. He is ensconced in an echo-chamber following a narrow body of nominal rubber-stamping medics, scientists and mathematicians without the correct skill sets, incentive nor personality traits to think outside of the box. They are the ones who ruthlessly rise to the top and become the best government mandarins in Whitehall. Ambitious, ladder-climbing, back-stabbing Et tu Brute? sociopaths in the image of their Caesar.

While they do politics, we are suffering and dying in their Yes Minister tragifarce for real. They could lock us up forever based upon their over-reactive criteria. Johnson, Whitty, Vallance, Hancock, and SAGE worry me more than COVID-19 and are far more dangerous to the UK. They have infantilised medicine. What would they do to us if a truly awesome contagion were to turn up?

Professors Hancock and Whitty have erased another fundamental medical principle from medicine: Primum Non Nocere: first do no harm.

Worth reading in full.

Dr Wodarg and Dr Yeadon Call for Halt to COVID-19 Vaccine Studies

Credit: Oldschool3d/Shutterstock

Lockdown Sceptics contributor Mike Yeadon, and Dr Wolfgang Wodarg, a German physician and epidemiologist, have filed an application with the European Medicine Agency – the organisation responsible for EU drug approval – for the immediate suspension of COVID-19 vaccine studies and the BioNtech/Pfizer study in particular. More from 2020 News

Dr Wodarg and Dr Yeadon are demanding that the studies, for the protection of the life and health of the volunteers, should not be continued until a study design is available that is suitable to address the significant safety concerns expressed by an increasing number of renowned scientists against the vaccine and the study design.

The petitioners demand that, due to the known lack of accuracy of the PCR test in a serious study, a so-called Sanger sequencing must be used. This is the only way to make reliable statements on the effectiveness of a vaccine against COVID-19. On the basis of the many different PCR tests of highly varying quality, neither the risk of disease nor a possible vaccine benefit can be determined with the necessary certainty, which is why testing the vaccine on humans is unethical.

They are also demanding that the risks already known from previous studies can be excluded. Their concerns are directed on four points in particular:

– The formation of so-called “non-neutralizing antibodies” can lead to an exaggerated immune reaction, especially when the test person is confronted with the real, “wild” virus after vaccination. 

– The vaccinations are expected to produce antibodies against spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2. However, spike proteins also contain syncytin-homologous proteins, which are essential for the formation of the placenta in mammals such as humans. It must be ruled out that a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 could trigger an immune reaction against syncytin-1, as it may otherwise result in infertility of indefinite duration in vaccinated women.

– The mRNA vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer contain polyethylene glycol (PEG). 70% of people develop antibodies against this substance. This means that many people can develop allergic, potentially fatal reactions to the vaccination.

– The much too short duration of the study does not allow a realistic estimation of the late effects. As in the narcolepsy cases after the swine flu vaccination, millions of healthy people would be exposed to an unacceptable risk if an emergency approval were to be granted and the possibility of observing the late effects of the vaccination were to follow.

EU citizens are encouraged to sign the petition by sending the email prepared here to the EMA.

The Call for Volunteer Vaccinators

Source: iStock

Meanwhile, a couple of readers have been in touch about the call for volunteer vaccinators. One had been sent a solicitation because he’d signed up as an NHS volunteer responder, the other a similar flyer by St John Ambulance. The St John Ambulance volunteers’ tasks include:

  • Administering the COVID-19 vaccine to patients
  • Recognising and responding as needed to any medical emergency. This may include helping a patient with their breathing if they have an allergic reaction to the vaccine
  • Working with other St John and NHS colleagues to deliver a vaccination service including escalating problems outside your scope of training to an appropriate person

In order to apply, volunteers must:

  • Have at least two A-levels or the equivalent during their education
  • Have experience of a paid or voluntary role caring for people, providing customer service or providing signposting and advice
  • Understand that they will need to handle needles and potentially deal with blood and other bodily fluids
  • Be able to follow instructions as given by clinical professionals and act on own initiative within the scope of training

You can sign up here. Our reader is signing up:

Out of interest, to see what happens, I’m signing up… (At the moment, as you can see, they’re requiring two A-levels as a minimum, but I assume that the orders from on high will be to have cats and monkeys stabbing the population if that’s what it takes to create some rungs down the ladder). 

We look forward to hearing all about it.

The advert does say that volunteers will undergo:

Extensive training with a pass/fail assessment, and be subject to assessments (observed vaccinations) and clinical supervision at each of the vaccination sites by a health care professional to ensure the safety of patients and that of the volunteers.  

A good, reliable, proven vaccine would be good news, but people are entitled to require evidence that a new vaccine is indeed reliable and unlikely to have any nasty side effects. See Desmond Swayne’s challenge to Ministers in the House of Commons Yesterday: “You have the Vaccine First

Long Lockdown and Human Rights: A Call for Evidence

The House of Commons Joint Committee on Human Rights has issued an open call for evidence. It is considering “the impact of lockdown restrictions on human rights and whether those measures only interfere with human rights to the extent that is necessary and proportionate”. In particular, it’s seeking views on:

The impact of lockdown on university students. Have interferences with students’ right to liberty and right to private and family life been proportionate? Have the fixed penalty notices issued to students been proportionate?

The impact of lockdown on the freedom of religion and belief, and in particular on collective worship. Have interferences with the freedom of religion and belief been proportionate?

Care Home and Hospital Visits. Has current Government guidance struck the correct balance between the right to private and family life and the right to life? Is it being applied fairly and consistently in practice?

The human rights impacts of extended lockdown restrictions on those areas subjected to the most stringent, lasting, lockdown conditions. What have been the human rights impacts on family life and mental health for those communities? Are there ways that these rights might be better addressed?

Policing of Lockdown. Is the use of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) for lockdown offences proportionate, fair and non-discriminatory? Is it clear why FPNs have been issued and are there adequate ways to seek a review or appeal of an FPN? Are the amounts of FPN fines proportionate? Has there been a disproportionate impact on certain groups?

The right to protest and lockdown. How have lockdown restrictions affected the right to protest? Has the correct balance been struck?

Submit your evidence here by January 11th. It is open to anyone. All evidence is published and can be anonymised on request.

Julia Hartley Brewer Eviscerated Colonel Bob Stewart MP

Colonel Bob Stewart MP appeared on Julia Hartley Brewer’s talkRADIO show yesterday and told her he intended to vote “yes” later that day because he’d spoken to Boris and Boris told him he was following the science.

Light blue touch paper and stand well back…

Pageview Update

Lockdown Sceptics got 1,594,371 pageviews during the month of November. Not too shabby.

Round-up

Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers

Five today: “Find the Cost of Freedom” by Gilmour, Crosby and Nash, “Kick Out The Tories” by Newtown Neurotics, “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)” by Beastie Boys, “The Deceiver” by The Alarm, “Hurry up Harry” by Sham 69.

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, Nasdaq’s push for diversity on the boards of its companies. From the Financial Times:

Companies listed on Nasdaq should have at least two “diverse” board directors under new rules proposed by the exchange on Tuesday, in a potentially significant expansion of a global movement to force companies to shed white, male leadership teams.

In a filing on Tuesday with the US stock market regulator, Nasdaq also proposed listing rules that would require companies to disclose consistent diversity statistics for board directors and set a standard for companies to have two diverse directors – including one who self-identifies as female and one who self-identifies as an under-represented minority or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer…

Companies that do not comply will have to explain why not. There will also be some flexibility for foreign groups and small organisations which can satisfy the diversity standard with two female directors.

The proposed listing changes were driven in part by increasing demands from investors for board diversity data, said Nelson Griggs, President of the Nasdaq Stock. He also said that the global demonstrations for racial equality this year had played a role.

Additionally, Nasdaq said that its proposal was “designed to reduce the groupthink” that can occur with homogenous boards, and to prevent “fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices”.

Reduce the groupthink?!? You couldn’t make it up.

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: Coleman Hughes has written a piece for City Journal about White Fragility, the best-selling book by Robin DiAngelo. He isn’t impressed.

White Fragility spends considerable time telling white people that they’re racist, but with a crucial twist: it’s not their fault. “A racism-free upbringing is not possible,” she writes, “because racism is a social system embedded in the culture and its institutions. We are born into this system and have no say in whether we will be affected by it.” For author DiAngelo, white supremacy is like the English language. If you’re born in America, you learn it without trying. Racism, in her view, transforms from a shameful sin to be avoided into a guiltless birthmark to be acknowledged and accepted.

An unstated assumption in White Fragility, and this is where the book borders on actual racism, is that black people are emotionally immature and essentially child-like. Blacks, as portrayed in DiAngelo’s writing, can neither be expected to show maturity during disagreement nor to exercise emotional self-control of any kind. The hidden premise of the book is that blacks, not whites, are too fragile.

The piece is a splendid attack by a brilliant young African-American intellectual on a canonical text in the woke movement.

Worth reading in full.

“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 will not 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: The Netherlands has succumbed to mask-ism. The country has just made it compulsory, as of yesterday, to wear a face mask in indoor public spaces. The rule will apply to those over the age of 13 in public buildings, including shops, railway stations and hairdressers. It is one of the last countries in Europe to introduce such a measure. The BBC has the details.

The Great Barrington Declaration

Professor Martin Kulldorff, Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Jay Bhattacharya

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: The Court of Appeal handed down its judgement on Simon Dolan’s case yesterday, ruling that the Government should not face a Judicial Review into the first tranche of lockdown measures. Simon is now planning to take the case to the supreme court. He said:

The Lord Chief Justice, Lady Justice King and Lord Justice Singh have decided that the Government should not face a full Judicial Review of its actions in imposing the lockdown measures on us all between March 26th and July 2nd.

We did score one important victory. The three judges allowed an important ground of the appeal which concerned the legal powers of Ministers to make the lockdown regulations using the Public Health (Control of Infectious Disease) Act 1984. We argued that they had acted “ultra vires” by using this legislation and that, as a result, the lockdown restrictions imposed by the Government were illegal. The Court of Appeal accepted that it was in the public interest for the appeal to be allowed on this important legal point. In doing so, they overturned Mr Justice Lewis’s ruling back in July that this point was unarguable.

Unusually, having allowed the appeal on the ultra vires point, the Court decided to make a final, substantive ruling on the substance of the issue itself – rather than send it back to the High Court. Unfortunately, however, having considered it, the Court of Appeal held against us. It has ruled that on the wording of the 1984 statute, the Government does have the power to impose measures against the whole population as it has been doing.

We still disagree strongly and the fight will go on. We can and will seek permission to appeal the ultra vires point to the Supreme Court.

You can read the full update and make a contribution to Simon’s fundraiser here. MailOnline also has a good summary.

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

We know they are lying. They know they are lying, They know that we know they are lying. We know that they know that we know they are lying. And still they continue to lie.

Alexander Solschenizyn

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

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

And Finally…

Morten Morland’s cartoon in yesterday’s Times

Comments

This week across the site:

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2.2K Comments
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bebophaircut
bebophaircut
5 years ago

For the past two months I have been watching every season of The Avengers, The Saint, Dangerman (Secret Agent in the USA), The Prisoner and other British TV from the early 1960s. I am suggesting to all of you to that if you revisit these programs you will soon discover that almost everything corrupt in this world of ours was already documented/exposed/treated/hinted at in the scripts of these programs. They were warning us of the present dangers and hinting at future, ever more serious, dangers. If you are seeking a counter measure to all the propaganda, gaslighting and psychological manipulation that has raining down on our heads for the past 10, 20 years or so, you will find these programs very therapeutic and a good method to deprogram ourselves/yourselves from the daily narrative of our new world overlords, as well as a much needed reminder of who we used to be. If all else fails, read Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘Speak Memory’. Finally, if we do not succeed in reversing this runaway train in a timely manner, the only solution left to derail this nightmare will be armed rebellion. These people are deadly serious psychopaths.

Andrea Salford
Andrea Salford
5 years ago

2 hours since the last comment 🤔. Looks like the promise of the wonder vaccine has cured most sceptics’ insomnia? 😃

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrea Salford

Not in the slightest, I am drinking hard and trying to compose my mind for tomorrow’s onslaught. Musical accompaniment is essential to this phase of the day, so naturally my focus on here fades. Day job shit I’ll deal with when I get there.

DoubtingDave
DoubtingDave
5 years ago
Reply to  Andrea Salford

Don’t believe it, I am listening to Richie Allen, first time I have heard him take calls from listeners, well worth a listen.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  DoubtingDave

Allen is a warrior. Celtic origins, now fighting in the Anglo-Saxon lands. Our enemy is gargantuan, but individually we are so much stronger than any of them. One of us is worth a million of their number.

richard riewer
richard riewer
5 years ago

Tiers of a clown.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  richard riewer

Tiers For Fears.

John P
John P
5 years ago

Vaccines are not administered to sick people who are already infected.

They are given to healthy people who have not been infected.

That is why it is vital that they are completely safe and have no side effects. Because there is not any guarantee that a healthy person will ever become infected in the first place.

The purpose of vaccines is to prevent infection. They do that by training the body’s immune system to recognise an invader. They don’t treat symptoms!

It’s like this.

Imagine that your body is the Wild West and the virus is Billy the Kid on the loose. But nobody knows what he looks like. So before you realise he is around he has wreaked havoc in your town and your life is in danger.

An effective vaccine is like a photofit. Everyone sees what the outlaw looks like before he arrives and he’s instantly recognised and killed as soon as he sets foot in your town. Before he has time to do any damage. He’s dead. He’s not going on to any other town.

This is why it is so important to understand the difference between a drug – which treats the… Read more »

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

I fear that public ignorance about this will be exploited to make the case for a mass vaccination programme that is not necessary.

Well said, and it is already happening. The blind deference to pseudo-expertise as presented in bitesize chunks for mass consumption is extremely dangerous. However, whilst the vaccine being offered remains a matter of personal choice, I can have no objections to this state of affairs.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

I’ll ask again. is the Pfizer product not in fact a vaccine?

Hieronimusb
Hieronimusb
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

If it doesn’t provide immunity it cannot be described as a true vaccine, it’s something else. I do not believe that this observation is pedantic, perhaps a new word is needed: non-vaccine perhaps?

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  Hieronimusb

Palliative covers it.

Leemc23
Leemc23
5 years ago

Slightly random. But just found this WHO report on school transmission

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/risk-comms-updates/update39-covid-and-schools.pdf?sfvrsn=320db233_2

One throw away line shouted out at me. Following up on posts exchanged here a few weeks ago.

“Prolonged fecal shedding is more common in children than adults; but infectivity of virus in stool is uncertain”

Now excuse me for dot joining, but as discussed SARS Covid 1 was proven to transmit quite well via human waste. care homes / hospitals / schools / shopping centres / theatres/ cinemas / restaurants and all such similar places have toilets that are communal, poorly ventilated and have high volume use.

It’s a pretty compelling way to get to how transmissions are continuing to happen. And maybe we are at risk of breathing this in, but not in the places we are being told.

Basileus
Basileus
5 years ago
Reply to  Leemc23
karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

The Contant Gardener, great movie which explores and explains.

BeBopRockSteady
BeBopRockSteady
5 years ago

SARS-CoV-2 in sewage in March 2019 Spain
https://www.rt.com/usa/508447-coronavirus-us-before-china/

Linda B
Linda B
5 years ago

Jonathan Van Damn – How dare this creature threaten us with the statement posted below taken from – Just who does this wretched creature think he is? God??
As for B Johnson interjecting – that we MAY want to get back to life pretty much as close to normal ——- Is he totally deluded —
NO we want it to be Totally Normal –
VanTam A vile creature playing God and
B Johnson Vile Liar Playing at being Prime Minister ……

But he then warned that people would be required to take a coronavirus vaccine if they wanted curbs on their liberties and livelihoods to come to an end, as the Pfizer vaccine was today authorised for use in the country. His words appeared to prompt some alarm from the PM, who interjected: ‘It may be a good thing or on the other hand we may want to get back to life pretty much as close to normal. I have high hopes that eventually the vaccine will make a very significant difference to the way we live our lives

Johnson and Van Tam should be FORCED to give the vaccine to their own children and grandchildren – so we can… Read more »

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  Linda B

We still would not know for years if it safe in the long term.

Hieronimusb
Hieronimusb
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

You must believe us, we’re your Government, would we lie to you? Or, to put it another way, do we look like we give a shit?

RickH
RickH
5 years ago

Tom Jefferson (CEBM) In the BMJ – December 2017. A prescient extract :

“Revolving doors are used to facilitate entry or exit into a building. The trick with using these doors is always to get your timing right. Too fast or too slow and you get stuck. The analogy seems apposite for a brace of recent announcements of important pharmaceutical industry figures taking over parts of UK operations in key aspects of healthcare planning and delivery.

Andrew Witty, who left the helm of GSK in April, is going to head up the UK government’s Accelerated Access Review (AAR) programme. The AAR is said to be aimed at helping NHS patients “get quicker access to innovative new diagnostic tools, treatments, and medical technologies.”

Meanwhile Patrick Vallance is leaving his post of head of research and development at GSK as part of a re-shuffle by the new CEO Emma Walmsley. Vallance is taking up a senior position in the UK government, as Chief Scientific Adviser. His job will be “improving the quality and use of scientific evidence in government as head of the Government Office for Science.”

Last but not least, another academic with extensive ties to industry over influenza and… Read more »

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  RickH

An appropriate name for a wise and prescient observer. No relation to his Founding Father namesake I presume.

leggy
leggy
5 years ago
Reply to  RickH

The pieces have been moving around the board, into position, for years haven’t they.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  RickH

GSK Troika, who knew ?

DoubtingDave
DoubtingDave
5 years ago

Great to see The US is slowly waking up, live stream from Staten Island, NY

https://youtu.be/5NakkKxjIiA

calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  DoubtingDave

Yes – great stuff!

calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  DoubtingDave

Party atmosphere.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  DoubtingDave

I’ve visited New York City many times but only made it over to Staten Island once. The ferry service is exemplary, and free. Stunning views of the Manhattan skyline. Good memories.

calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

Yeah – very different from the other boroughs.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

Yes the ferry dropped you off essentially in middle American suburbia. I remember one or two shitty bars near the terminal, and not much else, but the residential architecture and overall atmosphere was an excellent breather from the insanity of Manhattan. The Staten Island Ferry was the only service I ever used in the States that cost precisely $0.

Great to see these guys standing up to the de Blasio/Cuomo regimes (and who would ever have thought that word would be entirely appropriate for State and City governments).

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  DoubtingDave

Cops clearly don’t want to be involved

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago

It struck me today, given how far the Overton window has shifted this year, how quickly we adapt to change. I am beginning to learn that you can get used to pretty much anything, however unusual or difficult, and survive.

The comparison is tenuous, but I wish I could resurrect my grandparents to share their thoughts on living through times of rapid change and upheaval (in particular my grandfathers who survived WW1 as combatants and WW2 as civilians).

godowneasy
godowneasy
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

I have often wondered how anyone (who was not a combatant) could live through the world wars and emerge with any sanity having seen the horror of it – I am beginning to realise how that may have been possible.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  godowneasy

My paternal grandfather was deeply traumatised by his experiences in the trenches (including being badly injured in a mustard gas attack), and apparently never discussed it with family. He died 30 years before I was born, well before his time.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

My dad and a number of uncles all saw active service in WW2, they rarely talked about it but I got the impression that it made them better people.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

Same with my father (WW2). I wish I had pressed him for more details, but as you say the character of those generations was never to open up about those years. No question that it was fundamental in shaping their characters for the rest of their lives. I think many of them carried their suffering in silence to the grave.

stevie119
stevie119
5 years ago

I has been to the pub. I had a substantial meal (Boris special 3 quid) and a right old drink up and a laugh. Fuckin brilliant.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  stevie119

Scotch eggs will be a surprise growth industry. I dislike the grey, insipid Ginsters variety but a decent homemade one is indeed a substantial meal, and a very good accompaniment to beers.

Mrs issedoff
Mrs issedoff
5 years ago
Reply to  stevie119

Great stuff, really pleased for you . Can’t do such a dangerous thing here though, no, we have to remain indoors for our own safey. It is so risky up north where I live, not sure that I can safely see anyone ever again!. Yes, piss take, I really wish they would all piss off to enable my sanity to return. Sorry, I’m ranting and not quite with it tonight as i’m pissed, probably far more pissed than I would have been in normal times. Piss has been my word of choice there, what the hell, I know my comrades on here feel my pain.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  Mrs issedoff

Like you I am drinking more heavily and more often than pre-Covid. Beer is my vaccine against reality.

stevie119
stevie119
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

Works for me. Between us, me and Mrs 119 managed to spend £57! Long live the Pub!

John P
John P
5 years ago

If you have a vaccine and it is safe and it works it will do the following:

CONFER IMMUNITY.

Therefore you cannot become infected. You are immune. You cannot become infected. And you cannot pass it on.

There will be no symptoms because you are immune from infection.

It is that simple!

Any drug company that tries to tell you anything else is LYING.

Either their vaccine is crap and doesn’t work. Or it’s a drug.

And to repeat, I will be saying no to these untested “vaccines”.

OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

If I have a cheese grater and the moon is made of cheese I will have no worries about where the topping for my spag bol is going to come from after I land on the lunar surface.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

To repeat my question, by your definition and their statements have Pfizer produced a vaccine or just a symptom suppreser ?

John P
John P
5 years ago

There’s some dreadful ignorance on these threads. If lockdown sceptics don’t understand the principle of how vaccines are supposed to work and what they are supposed to do then what hope is there?

I feel so frustrated by this. First off: I won’t be having this.

DRUGS REDUCE SYMPTOMS.

Vaccines are not drugs.

Vaccines do not ameliorate symptoms.

VACCINES PREVENT INFECTION.

They do that by stimulating the immune system to kill the invader before it has a chance to get established. If they work.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

The BBC say frequently that the Pfizer product lessens symptoms only, so are you saying that they have not produced a vaccine at all, which has been my view incidentally ?

OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

You should have watched Newsnight you ignoramus – that would have taught yer! There you would have seen the leading vaccine maker’s rep decline the opportunity to claim that those receiving the vaccine will be non-infectious. From the horses’s mouth.

RickH
RickH
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

Wrong, John (whatever the Pfizer vaccine actually does) :

“Drug : A medicine or other substance which has a physiological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body.”

It is a generalised term.

stevie119
stevie119
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

You Sir, are a pillock and have not been keeping up.

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago
Reply to  John P

So is the new Pfizer miracle cure-for-lockdown a vaccine or a drug – or something else?

Ray
Ray
5 years ago

This is getting too much. The increasingly venomous comments and exchanges on so called “Social Media” are beginning to have a serious impact on all our lives and relationships both within Family groups and the wider field of community cohesion.

For example perfectly valid research projects like the recent Danish one on the efficacy of Surgical Masks has been twisted out of all proportion and even well written comment has been “Censored” by FaceBook et al. In fact the study has been “Inverted” from “No Statistically Significant Benefit” to “Yes, up to 46% reduction of infection”

As this discord is being actively fuelled by Governments in the Civilised World I am beginning to suspect there may actually really be a Mortal Danger to Civilisation, or so perceived by the lack of Scientific knowledge evident in many of our Politicians. As an example here in the UK the Health Secretary Matt Hancock is qualified thus, quoting Wikipedia:-

Hancock studied for a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) at Exeter College, Oxford, and an MPhil in Economics at Christ’s College, Cambridge, as a postgraduate student.

Thus his portfolio lies outside his expertise and he has to depend on Scientific / Medical advisors, additionally he… Read more »

Leemc23
Leemc23
5 years ago

I bet he wishes he picked Chris Twitty tonight. Jesus on the day of “vaccine” joy – THIS.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

Londo Mollari
Londo Mollari
5 years ago
Reply to  Leemc23

Overwhelmingly sceptical and downright hostile comments. The 77th must have gone to an early Christmas party.

OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

Lol – at least one is on sentry duty here. If you ever see a post from Leggy,, ask them if they oppose lockdowns, mandatory masking, coercive medication (vaccination) or the horrendous erosion of our liberties. Note how you won’t get the sort of clear replies you would from most people posting here.

leggy
leggy
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

I know times are strange, but that level of paranoia isn’t healthy. Get off my back please, we’re on the same side.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  Leemc23

Van Tam is as much of a ‘do as we say it’s for your own sake’ prick as the rest of them but he’s not wrong.

I quite like not having people breathing down my neck when in a queue.

Plastic screens to protect shop workers from coughs and splutters should certainly remain.

As a child of the 60s and 70s I was required to wash my hands frequently because the germs.

A hangover from WW2 meant that household recycling levels would put todays greens to shame ‘Waste Not Want Not’ was still a thing 20-30 years on even though that war to me was in the olden days.

Lockdown_Lunacy
Lockdown_Lunacy
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

I believe those plastic screens are as much of a symbol of the paranoia as masks are. I would prefer it if they were removed as I don’t really feel the need to be protected during normal interaction with other human beings.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago

Screens are there to protect shop workers from the unsanitary habits of dirty scumbags who think it is ok to cough and splutter all over other people.

Lockdown_Lunacy
Lockdown_Lunacy
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

There are very few people who cough and splutter all over other people.

The screens were installed in shops as part of the idiotic response to this virus. They also infest most other workplaces.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago

Perhaps I frequent rougher retail outlets, think we will have to agree to disagree on this one.

Just in passing, those door signs ‘smoking is illegal in (sic) these premises’ still there years after we all got the message. Do they still put them on new builds and do they get replaced when worn to nothing ?

Lockdown_Lunacy
Lockdown_Lunacy
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

Happy to agree to disagree.

As far as I know, those signs are still required. Why is anybody’s guess, there are no signs informing us of the numerous other things that would be illegal.

calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

No, screens have been introduced to increase the sense of alienation and further the agenda of social control.

Hieronimusb
Hieronimusb
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

I quite like not having people breathing down my neck when in a queue.

Plastic screens to protect shop workers from coughs and splutters should certainly remain.

Do you really mean that? Essential and proportional hygiene excepted, it’s your immune system: use it or lose it.

calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

No, Karenovirus,

It is part of the joy of life to interact on a causal basis with my fellow human beings. I fucking damned well refuse to have that taken away from me by a philosophy of neuroticism.

On top of that the immune system is like a muscle. If it is not regularly exercised, then it withers.

Banjones
Banjones
5 years ago
Reply to  karenovirus

I don’t know why you’ve got so many downvotes. Your last paragraph is spot on!

Hieronimusb
Hieronimusb
5 years ago
Reply to  Leemc23

Sick puppy, you could have more fun with a DVT.

Now More Than Ever
Now More Than Ever
5 years ago
Reply to  Leemc23

Johnson seemed rather taken aback, as though this were the first time that his masters were letting him in on the next stage of the plan.

Banjones
Banjones
5 years ago

He did look quite drippy. More like a disinterested spectator – ”nothing to do with me, guv…”

CGL
CGL
5 years ago

Or maybe he was peed off with JVT for letting the cat out of the bag

OKUK
5 years ago

NEWSNIGHT REVIEW

Emily introduces with that familiar BBC Idiot Vaccine smile.

Briefly the usual anti-Tory venom is put to one side in favour of the overarching globalist message: vaccines good, freedom bad.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

“One may smile a smile and be a villain”.

OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

Sounds like Othello. No wonder the BBC hates Shakespeare and is trying to cancel him from our culture.

Chris Hume
Chris Hume
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

Yep. John Edmunds, and two other Stooges. Laughable lack of balance or questioning from Maitlis. Worth watching for a laugh and to see what the propaganda has in store for us. Joseph Goebbels looking down (or up) in stupefied admiration.

OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Chris Hume

Yep ! See above!!

OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

Can’t believe the idiot they have on representing the vaccine maker…lists the rigorous questions asked of them… Basically along the lines of “Are you sure this is a really good vaccine?” What Big Pharma is going to answer no. Though a Bullshitter even he won’t say you can’t spread Covid if you’ve had the vaccine.

Edmunds on – chief ideologue at Imperial College. Young might recall him as a miserable git. Not now – the V word is acting on him like viagara. Slight error – he says it’s “probably” safer than your average vaccine… hmm. ..not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Then some fucker from some quango claiming to be a long Covid sufferer. It’s “safe”. How can anyone say that? Every vaccine goes through two years of real world trials during which adverse reactions are assessed. No one knows whether it is safe yet.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

This all sounds very weak indeed. Are they deliberately daring stupid people to fall for it, or just totally unconvinced of their own propaganda?

OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

I think Newsnight is allowed to delve a little deeper than the North Korean style 6pm and 10pm news broadcasts.

Nick Rose
Nick Rose
5 years ago

Excellent thread, well worth a read:

https://twitter.com/germ_nation14/status/1308428022182109185

In 1919 the media and her controllers launched a psychological assault on the Australian population pertaining to the imminent appearance of a deadly disease that was headed for our shores, known initially as the pneumonic influenza epidemic.

Tom in Scotland
Tom in Scotland
5 years ago
Reply to  Nick Rose

Thanks! Victoria was highly authoritarian back then as well. Glad I don’t live in Melbourne!

Les Tricotueses
5 years ago

A bit of light relief but a serious message

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=suCeNgAzQhA

JohnB
JohnB
5 years ago

jp is consistently very good.

leggy
leggy
5 years ago

Great quote in the comments there:

“Those Who Can Make You Believe Absurdities, Can Make You Commit Atrocities” Voltaire

OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  leggy

Bit ambiguous. Which absurdities are you referencing. Specifically.

leggy
leggy
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

Why don’t you watch the video?

OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  leggy

Why don’t you state clearly whether or not you oppose lockdowns, mandatory masking, coercive vaccination and the erosion of our liberties?

leggy
leggy
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

I do, regularly. I oppose everything about the outrageous abuse of our rights. I will not accept any new normal. Lockdowns are killing people. There is no proportion or logic in the restrictions being imposed on us. I’m scared about my kid’s future and that of humanity. Isn’t that why we are all here on this forum, venting our anger at this injustice?

JohnB
JohnB
5 years ago
Reply to  OKUK

Voltaire’s passed on, OKUK. Prob due to covid …

Ben
Ben
5 years ago

‘There’s going to be mass unemployment & terrible economic hardship in 2021. But you know the most disgusting thing? Those who pushed hard for lockdowns & other ruinous restrictions won’t be the least affected.’

https://twitter.com/NeilClark66/status/1334183179784163328?s=20

NickR
NickR
5 years ago

Mass testing? Disappeared.
NHS app? Never mentioned
Track n trace? Gone very quiet.
Mask wearing? Ritual compliance
How long do you give vaccines?
I think I’ll rely on mother nature.

Tom Blackburn
Tom Blackburn
5 years ago
Reply to  NickR

Granny killer 😉

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
5 years ago
Reply to  Tom Blackburn

I would kill anyone to return to normal, just saying..


OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Winston Smith

That’s a perfectly reasonable and well argued point as Dean Swift might have commented.

OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  Tom Blackburn

Je suis Granny killer.

iansn
iansn
5 years ago
Reply to  NickR

Masses of money down the toilet into pockets of friends and family of Matt Hancock, amongst others, never mentioned

Anything else that government is normally involved in since March 2020, never mentioned..

Im beyond angry now, if there was a public stoning of a cabinet minister, I think I might be tempted to put my name down.

John Galt
John Galt
5 years ago

I swayed a relative regarding the vaccine today. He said the vaccine was “good news”, I said that it’s brand new technology that’s never been used before and it’s barely been tested. He asked if I thought he shouldn’t get it. I said to him that regardless of his age (he’s elderly), he’s fit and healthy and I wouldn’t worry about him getting covid, but I’d be very worried about him getting the vaccine. He said he thought I was right.

I’m actively worried about my elderly relatives potentially getting this vaccine. There’ll come a point where the government starts using coercion to get people to take it, and at that stage the decision will be their own, but until that stage we need to sway whoever we can. Whenever I discuss the vaccine I stick to two very basic points:

The vaccine has barely been tested. Testing of Phases 1 through 3 usually take 5-9 years, this has taken around 4-6 months. This is brand new technology that has never been licensed for use before. I then mention that lack of testing resulted in the thalidomide scandal, as that’s an example that everyone knows and understands.

The below two… Read more »

James007
James007
5 years ago
Reply to  John Galt

Good link, thanks for sharing
I understand why the government want to spin the shortcut approval into a good story, but it worried me that it was treated like a box tick. Approving a vaccine is a serious business, surely it takes a while because it is carefully trialed and tested.
I also worry about the closing down of debate, and the dismissal of concerns.
My biggest worry is the tacit removal of free choice and informed concent.

CGL
CGL
5 years ago
Reply to  John Galt

My boss mentioned that his elderly mother had received quite a strongly worded letter about her having her flu vaccine. She never goes out of her house so she doesn’t see anyone. He goes to her house but if he feels unwell he won’t go near her anyway. Why on earth should she need any vaccines? He said she doesn’t want it – I said good for her!!

John Galt
John Galt
5 years ago
Reply to  CGL

Yeah, they’ve really amped up the push for the flu vaccination. I know a few people who have never been contacted about it before who are suddenly receiving texts and letters advising them to get it. I was curious why this was, but then I wondered if perhaps the PCR test will pick up a lot of people who have been vaccinated for the flu as having covid, thus increasing infection rates. This is pure conjecture based on how bad the PCR test is, but it seems logical, otherwise I can’t see why they’d suddenly want to push the flu vaccine so much all of a sudden.

String
String
5 years ago
Reply to  John Galt

Someone posted the other day – check P.22 (among others). The flu has officially been eliminated. Unless PHE is lying. so what, exactly is in the GP’s flu vaccine?
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/938650/Weekly_Flu_and_COVID-19_report_w48_FINAL.PDF

calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  String

Flu is likely being reclassified as covid.

Mrs issedoff
Mrs issedoff
5 years ago
Reply to  John Galt

I have been nagged and harassed about the flu vaccine. They then have the cheek to tell me how much I am costing the NHS when they are trying to contact me!. I have made it known that I am not having the jab, it is up to them if they want to keep bothering me. I don’t trust any one any more, I even struggle to cope with my husband now. The majority of people are bastards, with of course a few exceptions….

Steven F
Steven F
5 years ago
Reply to  John Galt

D’you know, the same thing occured to me this morning when four of these invitations landed on my kitchen table (two for us and two for absent neighbours). Not just the usual “come for a jab if you’ve got time” but quite lengthy and emphatic. They are pushing it. Why?

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  John Galt

Instead of the usual single text this year I have had 7 plus an unanswered phone call and an unopened letter.

calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  John Galt

In the argument against this vaccine the point made by Wodard/Yeadon about the vaccine targeting the proteins in the virus spike which are similar to those in the human placenta could be a killer.

Important to get over that this hasn’t been ruled out.

John Galt
John Galt
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

I feel like that could be a good follow up point for someone who is sceptical about the vaccine and wants to understand just how bad it could be. But I think that once you start talking about spike proteins and human placenta, people who are ambivalent towards it could get turned off. This is why I just stick to “brand new technology, barely tested” as my main points.

Mabel Cow
Mabel Cow
5 years ago
Reply to  John Galt

Here’s my go-to aphorism:

“A barely-tested experimental genetic vaccine for a disease that kills only the nearly-dead sold by a company indemnified against prosecution and rolled out to the entire world. What could possibly go wrong?”

Tyneside Tigress
Tyneside Tigress
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

As far as I know there has been no, or at least very minimal pre-clinical testing in animals. So not considered effect on pregnancy or indeed post-vaccine impact on conception. That, in my view, is bordering on gross negligence.

wendy
wendy
5 years ago
Reply to  John Galt

If they are going to give it to care home residents and some die that will be the end of it. I actually think they are holding out for the Oxford Vaccine as it is easier but making a big fuss of this to keep us quiet and on side for oh just a tiny wee bit more time.

John Galt
John Galt
5 years ago
Reply to  wendy

I also noticed that care home residents were put as the top priority, and that really confused me, because my way of thinking was – a person in a care home is vulnerable enough to need constant care, so surely giving them any kind of vaccine, especially an untested one, will be outrageously risky, especially for a government that wants to portray how amazing the vaccine is so everyone will get it. However, I’ve just read this:

https://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/clinical-areas/immunology-and-vaccines/care-home-residents-cannot-get-pfizer-covid-vaccine-due-to-practical-constraints/

The Welsh government have stated:

It ‘will not be possible’ to vaccinate care home residents with the Pfizer Covid vaccine due to practical constraints.

It then says:

The UK Government has yet to declare it will not be possible to get the Pfizer vaccine into care homes, but at this afternoon’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson admitted there were ‘logistical problems’ that need to be overcome to achieve this.

So perhaps they’re not going to vaccinate care homes initially after all.

Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago
Reply to  John Galt

Thanks, JG; that’s an excellent graphic.

karenovirus
karenovirus
5 years ago
Reply to  John Galt

How long will it take before any effects on future generations become known ?

OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  John Galt

There’s no real data on the Covid vaccine. But we know from the flu vaccine that very old and weak people suffer more serious adverse reactions.

An interesting way of looking at this is that of “energetics”. When you respond to an infection with high temperature and production of protective cells you are using a hell of a lot of energy, which is a reason why your body makes you want to just get under the duvets when you are under viral attack.

Vaccines can have a similar effect. Most young people can get through this draw on their energy levels but for very old people it’s not so easy. When you are in your 80s it’s more like the fall of the Roman Empire – there’s no way you are going have enough forces to deal with every boundary incursion by the barbarians. So throwing in the vaccine into the mix is not necessarily doing them a favour. The draw on energy might be enough to crash their system and result in their death “before their time” as the Prime Minister is overly fond of saying…even if the time is only two or three weeks later –… Read more »

wendy
wendy
5 years ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ug9RoFbtrg

This interview with John Lee is excellent. If we ever doubt ourselves just listening to this will help. He even mentions continuing with civil unrest so that’s me happy about the Manchester protest on Sunday

Tom in Scotland
Tom in Scotland
5 years ago
Reply to  wendy

He is excellent, both regarding the actual science (!) and the impact on our society and way of life.

calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  wendy

John Lee is brilliant.

Interviewer was good too.

Londo Mollari
Londo Mollari
5 years ago
Reply to  MutzNutz

I have no shame in supporting President Trump. The “Republican” official is a part of the cabal that supports wars and all sorts of crimes, including the stealing of the Georgia result. Shem on this man for not standing up for fair and free elections, and shame on you also. Are you related to Boris’s controller, the Princess?

MutzNutz
MutzNutz
5 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

So what about Bill Barr?

Londo Mollari
Londo Mollari
5 years ago
Reply to  MutzNutz

A swamp creature. Barr’s father once employed Jeffrey Epstein.

MutzNutz
MutzNutz
5 years ago
Reply to  Londo Mollari

So the sins of the father eh? How very biblical and very revealing

Londo Mollari
Londo Mollari
5 years ago
Reply to  MutzNutz

No, Barr lives in the swamp of his own volition. However, it isn’t necessarily religious to point to the bad influence of parents on their offspring. What were you parents like?

Cheezilla
Cheezilla
5 years ago

comment image

calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  Cheezilla

What’s the crap with ‘covid distancing’?

Ricky R
Ricky R
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

Attracts a bigger crowd of moderates I reckon.

thinkaboutit
thinkaboutit
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

I’d interpret it as 120nm apart.

OKUK
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

A Covid virus particle is certainly less than a nanometre across so I take that to be the measure. 🙂

CGL
CGL
5 years ago
Reply to  Cheezilla

Are you on SORUK too? I saw this one yesterday and thought it was a bit of genius really – lets bring everyone together and they won’t know whether they’re arresting a good guy or a bad guy. Tee hee.

PastImperfect
PastImperfect
5 years ago

How did China recover without a vaccine?

Recusant
Recusant
5 years ago
Reply to  PastImperfect

Ignoring it, which seems like the best strategy by far.

calchas
calchas
5 years ago
Reply to  PastImperfect

They decided in March that it had all been hyped – or knew it all along. They said ‘fuck this for a game of soldiers’, declared victory over the virus and went home, trying to leave everyone with the impression that once again the Party had done a magnificent job.

DRW
DRW
5 years ago
Reply to  calchas

They had another short LD in a northeastern city in May IIRC but nothing since. Set to be the world’s best performing economy this year, they must be laughing their heads off at how well they have played the West.

Richard O
Richard O
5 years ago

In anticipation of the most toxic and vitriolic divide and rule yet – vaccinated versus unvaccinated – and the enormous pressure that people will be under to comply, we need to start thinking about pre-emptive strategies.

First and foremost, those who are not going to take this vaccine need to identify legal resources for defending themselves against discrimination. I can foresee that even this government will not go as far as to mandate it in law (although this cannot be ruled out). Instead they will apply pressure to employers to make it a contractual obligation. Effectively no jab, no pay. Large corporations in particular will be falling over themselves to be perceived as the most fanatical vaccine enthusiasts.

JohnB
JohnB
5 years ago
Reply to  Richard O

My primary legal resource is my contract of employment. Fuck all mention of mandatory medication. End.

Moomin
Moomin
5 years ago

I’m really worried about all the talk of a vaccine. There’s not even any need for one, I still can’t believe what is happening to our country and to people who I formerly thought were rational!

JohnB
JohnB
5 years ago
Reply to  Moomin

The ‘talk about a vaccine’ is quite probably intended to worry you as its prime function.

Ceriain
Ceriain
5 years ago

Popped into my time machine, went forward to Easter, and had a look at the latest Deaths page on Gov.uk.

Doesn’t look good.

Take your time; you’ll see it eventually. 😉

vaccines.png
wendy
wendy
5 years ago
Reply to  Ceriain

Made me laugh out loud

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