Parliament to Debate Petition Calling For “No Penalties For Declining Vaccine”
The petition on the Parliament website, “Prevent any restrictions on those who refuse a COVID-19 vaccination“, has reached over 278,000 signatures and Parliament has announced MPs will debate it on December 14th. You can watch it live on the UK Parliament YouTube channel.
The Government response given on September 11th was hardly reassuring, coming with an ominous “however”.
There are currently no plans to introduce a Covid-19 vaccine in a way that penalises those who do not take up the vaccine. However, the Government will carefully consider all options to improve vaccination rates, should that be necessary.
A Lockdown Sceptics reader suggests: “It’s really important ahead of the debate on December 14th that as many people as possible write to their MPs to oppose any coercive measures when it comes to the vaccine, and to ensure the vaccine doesn’t become a requirement for business, travel, employment etc.”
We quite agree. Time to hit that compose button. Here’s the Write To Them link again.
A Postcard from Switzerland
A Lockdown Sceptics reader has gone to work in Switzerland for the winter, a country which has faced its autumn surge without a new national lockdown.
I’m working in the Swiss canton of Valais for the winter season. I was initially going to be working in France but Macron decided on another full lockdown so that was off, especially as it seems the ski season opening has been pushed back until late January now. The Swiss have been very reluctant to have a lockdown again and at the national (federal) level restrictions are light: masks, limits on numbers gathering and so on. Individual cantons can set their own rules within reason, much like individual states in Germany or the USA. My canton (Valais) has decided to shut restaurants and bars but all shops etc. are open and the lifts are working on weekends. Some of the rules are just stupid, such as wearing a mask on an open ski lift, but as across most of Europe many of the decisions are political and not medical, to play the game whilst ignoring it in private.
The Swiss in the mountains are keen to push ahead again and in about a week the restaurants and bars should be open for business and they are keen to hoover up tourists from Germany, Italy and especially France who are now threatening to stop travellers at the border. The government here knows that the ski season is worth billions and without foreigners from outside Europe and likely no Brits either they need to make all their money from what they can. Pootling around the resort is a little dull but a lot of places aren’t too bothered about masks either so it feels much more normal. There has been a half-hearted effort at putting up ‘two metres’ signs and similar but they are cheerfully ignored. After months of bullying and shouting from the UK authorities it feels great to be left alone.
The big moment will be this weekend when all the lifts really start moving as the snow has arrived, all the way down to the valley with more to come. There have been murmurings at federal level about limiting lift capacity and so on but this seems more to settle nerves. If we can get through December then I see no reason why the Swiss won’t just plough on and be done with it. The trees are coated in snow, the mountains look more chocolate-boxy than ever and hopefully by the time I go home some semblance of sanity will have returned.
Switzerland’s “cases” have been on the decline for weeks, since November 9th, despite no lockdown.
Switzerland is one of the places we’ve highlighted before which proves that lockdowns are not necessary to avert catastrophe and that SAGE’s doom modelling is wrong. Another is Sweden, where the latest EuroMOMO figures show the “second wave” has not yet produced any excess deaths and appears to be on the decline (though these figures could be revised in future weeks).
Can someone please tell Boris, Gove and Hancock?
Save Our Rights UK Censored By Facebook
Facebook has taken down the private group page of Save Our Rights UK, reported to have been 42,000 members strong. Is this part of the social media site’s vaccine crackdown? The lockdown-sceptic group has organised and participated in numerous protests, most recently in London last weekend where protestors faced brutal treatment from the police. The group’s public Facebook page is still up, for now.
More Big Tech censorship of the little guys fighting for freedom.
Take a Bow, David Warburton MP
What follows is a letter sent by David Warburton, Conservative MP for Somerton and Frome, to a Lockdown Sceptics reader explaining why he voted against the new tier system on Tuesday. It’s a corker.
Many thanks for taking the time and trouble to get in touch on such an important question. I’m conscious that last night’s vote was one of the most consequential in recent decades: for public health, the resilience of our economy and for the preservation of notions of individual responsibility and liberty. I did vote against the proposed tier system last night and thought it may be helpful to share my reasoning as to why I could not offer my support for this system in its current form.
I very much welcome the constructive approach the Prime Minister has taken in consulting widely within the parliamentary party. We’ve seen additional support offered to those hospitality businesses – such as pubs – which stand to be most severely affected by the continuation of the restrictions we’ve seen. We’ve seen further ground given in other areas, but I remain unconvinced that this tier system struck the right balance between the competing imperatives we’ve faced since March. The need to balance protecting our loved ones from harm and keeping the virus contained and the equally vital need to preserve individual liberty and the means by which people can provide for themselves and pursue their own ambitions.
I have seven key reservations which I outline below – and led me to vote against the tier system. For the sake of clarity I’ve outlined them below in bullet-point form:
1, First, the regulations fail in their essentials. For government regulations to work (which can only be achieved through public consent), they must be clear, and underpinned by cohesive internal logic. But the rules that have been proposed are contradictory and, in many cases, seem almost arbitrary. From last orders at 10pm but 11pm closing (do we all order four rounds at 10pm, or do venues have to pay staff for an hour with no takings?), to the vaguely defined ‘substantial meal’. From allowing soft drinks all day but alcohol only with food, to an astonishingly labyrinthine and impossibly convoluted ‘bubble’ system, with no obvious sense of cause and effect.
From work meetings being allowed in public or private places (only for self-employed), to no one allowed to meet from separate households either outdoors or indoors, unless they’re on a train or travelling.
2, I have been asking (both publicly on social media and in private conversations with Ministers) for the data – a cost benefit analysis – which informed the decisions around the Tier system. Apparently the Cabinet Office had been putting this together all weekend for us, which sadly suggests that the data was not the basis for the proposed rules. The crucial question we have to ask ourselves is what is the cost to lives, to livelihoods, to businesses, to mental health, suicides, to all non-Covid related heath and – of course – the future of the economy of the restrictions, against the likely lives saved from those same restrictions.
The ONS have calculated that there will be/will have been 200,000 excess non-Covid deaths caused by the restrictions. This is nearly four times the number of presumed Covid deaths. Bristol University put the figure at 560,000. While I don’t suggest these figures are anything other than an estimate (given the circumstances and fast-moving picture), they should nonetheless give us pause to question the wisdom of continuing a course of action that has produced them.
3, The regional basis for the tiering is problematic. The apparent incidence of Covid-19 is inflated in areas (like our own) that are affected by nearby towns or cities. And many, having had lockdown for a month, find themselves moving into stricter restrictions than were imposed before lockdown. This would seem to imply that lockdown was ineffective. Which itself would imply that the stricter Tier system will also be ineffective. Figures show that the previous Tiered system was having an effect on infections, whereas lockdown did not have a proportionately greater effect. So why will 99% of country continue under effective lockdown?
There is also a clear implication that the Tiers will continue until Easter. This will be devastating to lives and businesses in our area – while costing all of us, and future generations, almost £1 billion a day. It’s imperative that businesses are allowed to open – including those in the hospitality and tourism sector which contribute so much to the economy of the West Country. The restrictions have gone a long way towards the destruction of hospitality and tourism (and much else) in the West Country.
4, The NHS pressure argument is dubious. We have seven unused Nightingale hospitals in England (more in the other countries of the union). The excess deaths are barely above the annual average, and there is capacity even in regular hospitals. But even if the NHS does suffer pressure ,this is not unprecedented – and has been the case every winter for year upon year under successive governments of both main parties. But this has never before been regarded as a reason to make it illegal for people to be allowed to take risks with their health.
5, The data showing massive increases in infections/deaths has been shown to be dubious at almost every turn. For the under 60s, there is a 1 in 300,000 chance of death. For the over 60s, there is a 99% survival rate. For the over 80s, it’s still 90%.
6, There is an alternative to hand – based on individual responsibility that we exercise in our own lives anyway. We should allow the vulnerable to isolate and protect themselves, as with any other virus – no-one suffering from ‘flu goes to visit and then embrace elderly relatives.
7, I have very real anxieties about the precedent that’s being set here: of the state arrogating itself the power to impose such stringent measures on its population when the data upon which this is based is chancy and uncertain. Liberty is like innocence, easy to remove and extremely difficult to regain. And a future government with less benign intentions could easily use this precedent to interfere further – and for malign motives.
So, given the economic, social, health, livelihood, business, mental health costs, the unemployment, insolvencies – each of which is a personal tragedy – I could not, in good conscience, vote to compromise lives and destroy livelihoods. I recognise the pressures under which the Government is operating, and applaud many of the mitigation measures that have been implemented thus far. But I felt impelled to vote against a system which poses such an economic and social threat to our part of Somerset.
I do hope this explains my reasoning for my vote last night and my sincere thanks again for getting in touch.
Vaccination Certificates By The Back Door?
GP and Lockdown Sceptics reader Dr Helen Westwood has written to alert us to some serious concerns she has about the Government planned vaccine rollout.
I am a GP and am utterly dismayed by the handling of the Covid response by the Government and the sacred cow we call the NHS.
Currently CCGs up and down the country are scrambling to get the vaccination program rolled out. NHSE have published the service specification for Primary Care Networks (groups of GP practices) to deliver the vaccines. As this “Enhanced Service” arrangement is voluntary, and it is fraught with difficulty, our PCN has decided not to sign up.
Trafford CCG is putting significant pressure on the individual practices within the network to sign up to deliver the service. If the Practices do not sign up then the responsibility for commissioning a service goes back to the CCG. They have no contingency plan in place (in no small part because of a lack of guidance from NHSE to the CCG’s). This is unsurprising and entirely predictable. Despite all the boasting about being the first country to grant temporary authorisation for the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine they have no idea how they are going to deliver it.
Is it also worth noting that it is only temporary authorisation that has been granted – the vaccine does not yet have marketing authorisation in the UK. This effectively means it is “unlicensed” and as such the prescriber has a duty to explain this to the patient. In usual practice this means that the liability in case of adverse effects lies with the prescriber, not with the pharmaceutical company.
An additional concern I have is that the service specification states that GPs are not to record the vaccination on the patient’s GP electronic clinical record system. Instead it is to be recorded on “Pinnacle”, a system used by pharmacists. As reported in Pulse:
“Vaccination data ‘will flow from Pinnacle and Sonar to the GP patient record in a similar way it currently flows from community pharmacies for flu vaccinations’, it said.
“NHS England aims to ‘implement as soon as possible a fully automated process’ via GP practices’ own IT systems, but ‘this is unlikely to be in place from Day 1’.
“PCN groupings will get access to Pinnacle and Sonar as well as training on how to use the systems ‘free of charge and prior to vaccinations commencing’, NHS England added.
“Recording vaccinations in Pinnacle/Sonar ‘will generate payment’, NHS England said.
“However it added: ‘GP practices must make arrangements within their PCN grouping for the nomination of a host practice which will receive payments due under the ES for and on behalf of the GP practice.’
“It said this was ‘necessary to take account of the varying number of practices, PCNs and designated sites within PCN groupings as well as the fact that data recorded on Pinnacle and Sonar will be used for a variety of different purposes’.”
I am concerned that the data are to be used “for a variety of different purposes”. Does this mean vaccination certificates? I suspect many patients would not be happy about this and would be under the impression if their GP was administering the vaccines the information would be recorded in their confidential medical record.
WHO’s Revised Vaccine Criteria “Wouldn’t Have Picked Up Narcolepsy”
A Lockdown Sceptics reader has flagged to us a letter to the BMJ in June 2019 from Dr Jacob Puliyel, a paediatrician in Delhi, who warns that the WHO’s new vaccine assessment system, adopted in 2013, would no longer pick up rare side-effects such as the narcolepsy that occurred with the swine flu vaccine.
In the old system, reactions that were temporally associated with immunization, for which there was no alternate explanation, were classified as ‘probably’ related to immunization. It facilitated signal detection. This cannot be said for the currently used WHO causality assessment.
In the new causality assessment, only reactions that have previously been acknowledged in epidemiological studies to be caused by the vaccine are classified as a vaccine-product-related reactions. Reactions observed for the first time during post-marketing surveillance (Phase 4 clinical trial) are not considered as “consistent with causal association with vaccine”. All new serious adverse reactions are labelled as coincidental events “inconsistent with causal association”, or “unclassifiable” and the association with vaccine is not acknowledged. It has, in effect, made phase 4 trials redundant.
He concludes:
Given these apparent anomalies, the new WHO’s algorithm for causality assessment of an adverse event following immunization (AEFI) is not fit for purpose and it fails to inspire confidence that it can identify new, uncommon AEFI. It will erode faith not only in the immunisation programme but also the public’s trust in their physicians.
Worth reading in full.
Watch Dr Puliyel explain the problem in more detail here.
Stop Press: The CEO of Pfizer has admitted that he is “not certain” their vaccine stops transmission of COVID-19. To be fair, this would largely be due to “asymptomatic transmission”, which appears to be a myth put about by China.
Stop Press 2: The Telegraph reports that the Government has said it will be months before having the vaccine will exempt a person from having to self-isolate if contacted by NHS Test and Trace because it’s not been confirmed it prevents transmission.
Stop Press 3: The Mail reports that the Government is planning to compensate people who suffer extreme Covid vaccine side effects with payments of up to £120,000 under an existing compensation scheme. Instils confidence.
Sceptic of the Week
This week’s winner is TV dancer Brendan Cole, who has been branded “totally irresponsible” for claiming face masks do not protect against Covid.
He dared to quote on Twitter the Danmask-19 study that found even surgical masks correctly worn offer no significant protection. Seems zealots don’t like to hear actual science. The Mail has the details.
Brendan’s fans, including medical professionals, were left fuming by his “c**p” post and were quick to tell him they had unfollowed him.
Others urged the New Zealand-born ballroom dancer to delete his controversial message, claiming it was full of “misinformation” and would “put others at risk”.
Dr Joshua Wolrich claimed that Brendan had his facts mixed up and there was proof of the contrary, adding: “Think before you share c**p that fits what you want to believe otherwise you become directly responsible for people coming to harm.
“Do the right thing and delete this information.”
While one Scottish nurse echoed the doctor’s sentiments, angrily penning: “That is not what we need at the moment. Follow the bl***y guidance and wear to protect others.”
Another fan branded Brendan as “totally irresponsible”, writing: “I work in healthcare and have had patients refuse to wear masks because of this type of misinformation putting others at risk.”
More of his 88,000 followers told the TV star that they were “disappointed” in his “selfish” actions spreading “fake news” and even told him to just “stick to dancing”.
It is not the first time Brendan has voiced his controversial views on social media, as he previously took to Facebook to slam COVID-19 safety measures as “outrageous”.
He penned: “For the first time in recent history we are being controlled in so many ways. Why can we not protest?
“Why can we not have an opinion and discuss these differences of opinion openly without being silenced or called names.
“Why is there so much fear and hysteria being pumped down our airways when the numbers (often put in a certain way to look worse than they are) don’t reflect the outrageous measures being put in place.
“I’m not saying it’s not dangerous and if you have been affected by it then I am truly sorry for you.
“However, other lives are important too and millions of lives and businesses are being ruined.”
In terms of preventing transmission to others – the usual retort from mask zealots – worth remembering that countries like Italy and France hardly seem to have benefited this autumn from their mask mandates, while in America a study claiming to show masks lower transmission had to be withdrawn when “cases” resurged.
Well done, Brendan. Stand your ground.
Round-up
- “Will Britain lose its vaccine advantage?” – Ross Clark in the Spectator on the global supply problems that are holding up the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine
- “Laura Perrins tells it to the Moral Maze” – The Conservative Woman reports on when Laura took on Melanie Phillips
- “First Minister barred from 100 Welsh pubs as fury over alcohol ban grows” – The Mirror reports on the blanket pub ban for the Welsh First Minister
- “What’s the real story of COVID-19 in Scotland?” – Thorough sceptical article in Think Scotland from Christine Padgham, a health physicist now running Recovery Scotland, with input from Dr Clare Craig
- “Mapping The Global Lockdown: Where Air Travel Is Partially Open And Where It’s Fully Closed” – Handy map from Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge
- “The Church flees in the face of the virus” – Sean Walsh in Conservatives Global wonders what has happened to faith
- “Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson arrested in fraud investigation” – Guardian report on the disturbing developing story in Liverpool
- “Devi Sridhar tells Stormont committee anti-lockdown lobby are responsible for stricter lockdowns” – Latest from the upside down world of
scientistProf Devi Sridhar in the Derry Journal - “Belgium’s shops were shut ‘as a coronavirus shock tactic’” – Times report on the Belgian health minister’s recent admission that “shopping does not really involve any risk” and the closures were purely for psychological impact. Well, that was worth killing the high street and destroying thousands of jobs for
- “Viral cultures for COVID-19 infectious potential assessment – a systematic review” – New peer-reviewed article in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases from Prof Carl Heneghan et al, concluding: “Complete live viruses are necessary for transmission, not the fragments identified by PCR… Those with high cycle threshold are unlikely to have infectious potential.”
- “Vaccine or no vaccine, Britain must relearn how to live with risk” – Rachel Cunliffe in City AM on the post-Covid challenges of returning to rationality
- “Revealed: Matt Hancock’s ‘step-grandfather’ whose Covid death brought Health Secretary close to tears in Parliament” – Turns out it was his mother’s second husband’s ex-wife’s second husband (got it?). So not his step-grandfather at all. And he was in a care home and suffering from Alzheimer’s. Accuracy has never been Hancock’s strong suit
- “First interim results from Austria mass tests” – Initial results from lateral flow tests (which Mike Yeadon et al explain here are more accurate than PCR tests) have come in very low again, according to Der Standard. In Vorarlberg the positive rate was just under 0.4%, in Vienna around 0.5%, in Innsbruck 0.3%
- “Alt-Right Pseudoscience: Lockdown Sceptics” – Smear specialists Byline Times turn the guns on us with a laughable effort heavy on rhetoric and light on facts. Like being tickled with a feather duster
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Just one today: “Injected with a poison” by Praga Khan.
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 Nike Japan’s effort to bring Western woke moralising to an Eastern audience in the form of a new anti-racist advert, which backfires horribly. Philip Patrick explains in the Spectator.
The ad snappily titled ‘The Future isn’t Waiting’ features scenes of bullying and discrimination directed at mixed-raced athletes in Japanese schools. They then fight back and triumph through the power of sport – and the power of Nike sportswear. Boycotters have claimed that the ad massively overstates a real, but far from endemic or Japan-specific problem, and is stirring up division under the fig leaf of Nike’s progressive ‘corporate values’ while really just cynically exploiting currently fashionable ideology for profit.
One reason the Nike ad may have been so badly received here is that the Japanese are simply not used to this kind of advertising. Japanese commercials, often far more entertaining than the programmes which interrupt them, are blissfully free of this sort of sermonising. In fact, they are one of the things I feel nostalgic about when I return to the UK, knowing that as soon as I deplane at Heathrow I will be relentlessly battered around the head with messages of diversity from every billboard, poster, and TV commercial I encounter. And it won’t stop until I get back to Japan.
The most egregious faux pas was the US-based company presuming to lecture the Japanese for its own blatant self-serving ends.
But perhaps the more substantial factor that led to the backlash here, and which from my experience is not just limited to older Japanese citizens, is the country’s distinct aversion to being lectured to from outside. Gaiatsu, or outside power, is a word likely to raise the hackles of even the mildest Japanese person, and for a US-based sportswear manufacturer to wag its corporate finger at Japanese society and offer its own self-serving solutions was never going to go down well.
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: A reader wonders whether some lockdown sceptics are missing out on the liberation that is arming oneself with a reasonable excuse and going out with a naked face.
It seems to me that most sceptical commentators are prepared to complain about face masks but are not prepared to take any action, claim exemption and go public about the fact that it’s not against the law to be without a mask if you have a reasonable excuse.
Why is this? If you read the Government guidance it’s quite clear that you don’t have to have a specific disability to claim exemption and the scope for “reasonable excuse” is broad. Irrespective of the fact that there’s no scientific basis to suggest wearing masks works in the community, most sceptics are anxious about the downsides and hence have a perfectly reasonable excuse not to wear them.
Subject to being considerate of those who are terrified of Covid, I find not wearing a mask liberating, especially when I meet other unmasked people, be they disabled or not. I’m sure many more sceptics would feel better if they did the same but why do so many sceptical commentators go on about mask-wearing being the law, reinforcing the idea that we can do nothing about it when clearly we can?
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.
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 Solzhenitsyn
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.
Alexander 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
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.
Joseph Goebbels (attributed)
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…
In his Speccie column this week, Toby highlights the plight of Will Knowland, the teacher who has been dismissed from his position at Eton College for posting a lecture questioning radical feminism on his own YouTube channel.
The conflict being played out at Eton is quite serious, not least because similar battles are being fought across the educational landscape. It began in September with an English teacher, Will Knowland, composing a video lecture in which he encouraged his students to question the idea that there’s something fundamentally toxic about masculinity. According to a letter addressed to the ‘Eton community’ last week, he felt it was important to acquaint the boys with a more positive view of their sex to counter the radical feminist ideology that’s promoted by the school’s leadership team, which portrays traditional male characteristics as inextricably bound up with a system of patriarchal oppression.
After Knowland posted this video on the school intranet, a member of staff complained to the head. The gist of it was that the content of the lecture was degrading and humiliating and, because of this, the headmaster had a legal duty to prevent it being given. Allowing it to go ahead would have constituted a form of discrimination against women — a ‘protected’ characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.
To no one’s surprise, trendy Hendy sided with the complainant. He told Knowland to ditch the lecture and remove it from the school’s internal website. Knowland complied, but when the head also instructed him to take it down from his personal YouTube channel he said he would only do so if he was given a good reason. The head’s claim that the content of the lecture breached the Equality Act is debatable. The Act is ambiguously worded and is often invoked by the promoters of equality, diversity and inclusion to silence dissenters from woke orthodoxy in educational settings. So Knowland was prepared to accept the first of the head’s demands. But even on the most cautious reading of the Equality Act, it doesn’t circumscribe what teachers are allowed to post on their social media accounts. When Knowland stood his ground and said he wouldn’t remove the video unless he was given a good reason, the head suspended him and set a process in motion which ended with his dismissal. Not great, given that the 34-year-old teacher is married with five children, one of them disabled, and they live in a grace and favour house belonging to the school. An appeal is scheduled for December 8th.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Read this tribute to Will Knowland by his former student Cameron Hilditch in the National Review.
Discussion
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“No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.” – Mark Twain
Did anyone else notice the typo in the Department of Health & Social Care’s response to the recent vaccination petition?
“Our evidence-based immunisation programmes are informed by the advice of our *work* leading expert committee”.
Quite apart from the drivel and downright lies it contains, did anyone actually bother to check this after the YTS person wrote it?
This is Glasgow’s “Style Mile”, Buchanan Street, taken this morning at 10:30am, less than 2 weeks before Christmas. It’s taken from just outside Buchanan Street underground, looking south towards St Enoch underground.
A walk around Glasgow’s city centre today revealed shops that will definitely not be reopening. Many had signs on their windows saying as much.
And today we learn that Glasgow level 4 lockdown may not be ending on 11th December.
image service
This is the reverse angle, looking north towards Buchanan Galleries.
And the shot below is St Vincent Street at Buchanan Street, looking west.
In my opinion we have now reached peak pandemic.
There is a growing realization among a large section of the public that it is all bullshit. Don’t listen to what people say, watch what they do. Ever fewer people are scared of ‘the deadly virus’.
In winter people tend to hibernate a bit so it could remain quiet for a while.
However, come late March, if nothing changes much, then the openly expressed public mood could turn on a sixpence, As the weather warms up we are looking in my view at civil disturbances.
Part of our work has to be, to make people realize that the vaccine will not return us to normality. As soon as people realize that then the ‘pissed off’ quotient will rise.
We shall prevail.
There is a lull now. A draw. All they are doing is bad for them. So we just keep saying it´s all a lie. On and on. And the mistakes begin. It is always about the mistakes. And they are always made at the end.
You know what, BJJ; there is. I reckon they know the vaccine’s a no go with the public and they’re bricking it. Could be wrong; could just be quiet because they and the MSM are watching the Brexit talks.
I see no way that enough of the public wull accept a vaccine to allow the politicians to claim success.
Would certainly be interesting to see what their ‘private’ polling says, and not the fiddled YouGov shit.
Have just been looking at DT comments. It gets more like this place every day.
Let’s pretend for a moment that all the vaccine percentage data is in fact correct.
In this scenario, Hatt Mancock has ordered the largest number of the least effective vaccine for everyone in the UK.
I thought we were meant to be protecting granny, not potentially giving her the worst vaccine option of the three.
A vaccine for a disease with a 0.12% mortality rate…….?
I don’t agree with any vaccine for this virus. I was just putting myself in their shoes.
For those people who believe it’s needed, the government has fucked them over by choosing to buy more of the Oxford vaccine which wasn’t ready first and is the least effective (this will be miles short of anything like 90% for all three).
“At least it doesn’t need a special freezer! ” the government will tell anyone who listens.
And they will nod, tell their Auntie Doris all about the freezer and roll up their sleeves.
Granny? Granny? Who the fuck is granny?
Granny was never the point. Obvs. But what was?
I think all the money to be made in pharmaceutical stocks this year is already banked. What’s left for this bullshit?
Congrats to HMG in recognising that the vaccine would have to get out PDQ before the entire country demonstrably had herd immunity. But the narrative is running on fumes. They’re already much too late.
AMERICANT UPDATE
Finally I think we can say this is a genuine smoking gun. It looks like we have captured on video the palming of a voting machine USB between three people. Google on “BenBC Ruby/Shaye Freeman”. Apparently Ruby Freeman is also the woman seen handling the “suitcase of votes” in another video.
If someone can upload the video here, that will be great.
One thing one can say for certain is that Jon Sopel won’t be smiling when he sees it and he won’t be reporting on it either.
What town is your “High Street” coffee shop in? You’ll definitely be getting my custom if not to far away
“Both US and EU authorities and presumably also Chinese, waived the standard animal tests using ferrets or mice and have gone straight to human “guinea pigs.” Human tests began in late July and early August. Three months is unheard of for testing a new vaccine. Several years is the norm. Because of the degree of global panic engendered by WHO over the coronavirus, caution is thrown to the wind. Vaccine makers all have legal indemnity, meaning they can’t be sued if people die or are maimed from the new vaccine. But the most alarming fact about the new Pfizer-BioNTech gene edited vaccine is that the gene edited mRNA for human vaccine application has never before been approved. Notably, two year peer reviewed tests with mice fed genetically modified corn sprayed with Monsanto glyphosate-rich Roundup first showed cancer tumors after nine months as well as liver and other organ damage. Earlier Monsanto company tests ended at three months and claimed no harm. A similar situation exists with the gene edited mRNA vaccines that are being rushed out after less than 90 days human tests.”
….
“Dr. Romeo Quijano, retired professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the College of Medicine, University of the… Read more »
“In Ontario, those of us who still dare to question this narrative are becoming increasingly isolated and marginalized. It is amazing to see how quickly people have chosen their side on this matter and how unwavering their devotion to their cause can be. Whether it is a shut down for two weeks, 4 weeks, 3 months, masks all the time, everything closed or even an experimental vaccine, it does not matter. “We’re all in this together”. Anyone who disagrees is either reckless, selfish, stupid or all of the above.”
https://off-guardian.org/2020/12/05/together-but-falling-apart/
How it feels to be a sceptic seemingly surrounded by believers.
I think he is too pessimistic, but a fine and thoughtful piece.
At least some are having FUN!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1335239408870596611
Just after this they were completely surrounded as the crowd pelted them with missiles and fireworks. Some of those boys in blue will be wondering if they get paid enough to die on the street. We are weeks away from SHTF if things carry on like this.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/12/05/freedom-loving-conservative-cant-wait-get-us-back-living-personal/
Something to look forward to. Hancock speculates that one day he might be able to think about telling us when we could possibly be set free…
The next challenge for Mr Hancock will be persuading enough of us to take the vaccine. A major public information celebrity-led campaign similar to the Government’s “Stay Home. Protect the NHS. Save Lives” and “Hands, Face, Space” campaigns will start in the next fortnight.
It is likely to be fronted by “a combination of clinicians, trusted voices amongst the public” as well as “those of us who’ve made decisions about it. There is a public appetite for us to put our jabs where our mouths are”.
The Health Secretary adds: “We want to encourage people. I say to anyone who can help us to persuade the public that vaccination is a good thing – when the NHS calls you, come forward and show the confidence in the science that has been proved to work.”
However it will take several weeks before the vaccine takes effect after being administered, and he cautions that vaccinated people could still pass on the disease. This means the “elbow bump greeting might be here for a while”, he adds.
… Read more »
I really hope they don’t drag in Sir McCartney – I really don’t want to burn my Beatles cds.
Fucking loathsome little shitbag. Fuck off Hancock.
I think that just about covers it
That’s a very reasonable comment in the circumstances.
Got that just about right.
Wonder what his wife’s ex husbands step sisters cousins godmother might say ?
The one you wept copious tears over when she got her tit caught in the mangle, that one?
The science worshipers are the same as priests hundreds of years ago claiming you can’t argue with them about the bible because they were the only ones who could read it so you must trust them
Exactly! Science and spirituality are both wonderful paths to knowledge but dogma is like a black lowering cloud that blocks out the sun.
Hahahahahaha! What a slimy little twat. His days are numbered.
Fucking “persuade”?
Matt, I’m confused. Why would we possibly need persuading, it’s safe right? Do you think something has gone wrong with the campaign, is it the wording? What does Bill think about all this?
You’re a right honourable cunt and I can’t wait for this to be over so I can give you a hug. Like I said, I’m confused.
Message to Matt: FO pratt.
What a pile of steaming horse’s… especially this bit:
He doesn’t even know how vaccines work: 😉
He knows no-one wants this shit:
Fuck off, Matt
Please can someone do a spoof of this campaign?
Something along the lines of “put your bucks where our mates are”, or “the science that has been proved to work because any death within 28 days of taking ‘the vaccine’ definitely isn’t a vaccine death – let alone 9 months”
Can certainly do a 28 day vaccine death thingie for you. Posted before…
Excellent! I wonder if this will make it onto the BBC?
Covid emergency data deals extended by 5 years
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/we-need-answers-about-five-year-nhs-data-deals-big-tech/
Every crisis and all that
great BBC propaganda photo – just look how tirelessly poor old shabby Boris is working to save everyone from the rona AND sort out brexit at the same time. Like a Dickens character who hasn’t seen a bath in months, working by candlelight with a joint in his hand while the beastly well-dressed european van der whotsit sits in luxury in her well lighted apartment mocking him. we are all in safe hands and can rest easy.
You are funny.
I think there’s something very suggestive about the contrasting blonde coiffeurs as well. His is authentic, breathing stress and ethical commitment. Hers speaks of a fin-de-siecle attachment to the hairdresser’s salon.
Also, is Boris pre-telephone technology? Communicating by the sacred word of mouth alone?
“contrasting blonde coiffeurs” – no van der whotsit is choiffeured, Boris sports a an authentic untrimmed hedge.
If we were not both part of the G7 & G20 I would be soooooooooo worried about Brexit. Load of old bollocks.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1368399/Nicola-sturgeon-news-snp-news-BiFab-administration-latest
More administration news.
Just logged on for the first time today and seen David Warburton’s comprehensive explanation of why he voted against the Govt. last week. I’m sure this has been discussed at length already but I thought I’d add my late evening appreciation for Mr. Warburton’s terrific summary of all that’s wrong with the ongoing restrictions.
I’m copying the salient points and adding them to yet another letter to my own MP (Simon Fell) who claims that his libertarian instincts are troubled but keeps on toeing the Party line. He stopped replying to me but that’s no reason why I should stop being the voice of his conscience.
The petition covered in todays LS (above) demanding no penalties for refusing the vaccine is now approaching 290,000 signatures. Everyone here signed it?
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323442
Apologies if already posted but serious risk of infection in Nottingham https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-55192902
I just love “Gail Ross, from Mapperley Park, said: “This virus is a killer – what does the council not understand about that?”
Lynn Farmer, 56, from Chilwell, said: “I usually go, but no chance this year. I had Covid and, believe me, it’s horrendous.
“How on earth are we going to get rid of this terrifying virus if [everyone goes]?”
How can a 56 year old who has had it have anyhting to fear?
These people are morons.
A virus so terrifying people have to be tested to see if they have it or not. And if they do have it they need to stay at home for two weeks.
Simpleton brain cell structure is ‘terrifying’
deleted
not defeated 🙂
Hitchens latest is up early. It’s not his best to be honest, much as I admire him.
https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/
Pretty good I thought Liam, although more about wokeness tha covid.
I thought his point about a complete change of character underneath a seemingly unchanging exterior was well made.
I’m a fan but thought he phoned that one in a bit personally. He’s been outstanding throughout this, I’m certainly not criticising him.
https://twitter.com/paldama/status/1334512752560394246
This Is an interesting view of expressing excess mortality each month and compare C-19 with the H3N2 pandemic flu 1968/9 and the heatwave 2003 in France.Deaths per million people each month 1968-2020.
The seasonal second wave C-19 much less excess deaths and coming down.The first wave C-19 not worse than pandemic HongKong flu when there were no lockdowns and normal life. Although elderly were also most affected in HongKong flu much more young and middle age persons died in Hong Kong flu compared to C-19.The very localized heatwave death summer 2003 is clearly shown.
Those “circograms” – or whatecer they are properly called – are very helpful in understanding mortality figures, especially where there are seasonal effects. Probably why you don’t see them on MSM TV.
If it has no bar graph with a big curve going up sharply over the next two weeks, well its just not news
Further to ‘swedenborg’s’ earlier comment about Ivermectin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5-S49EqCJ8&t=1390s
This is good advice
https://www.anhinternational.org/news/have-you-decided-what-youll-do-or-say-if-offered-a-covid-vaccine/
Perfectly put.
How is Dagny, John? Please give her my regards.
she must be about 100 years old by now, still i’d give her one
Idiot pundits on the Quest Football League highlights programme criticising Millwall fans for booing players kneeling in support of a far-left organisation. Also I won’t be going to matches any time soon with all the masks and temperatures checks – though it did appear that some fans let the masks slip during the match.
On the Man Utd game and the Chelsea game I noticed they used the fake crowd noise for the kneeling in case there was any booing.
Great news that football fans are fighting back against PC oppression and destruction of our culture. Let’s hope the first mutterings of protests reach gale force. If the police start arresting people for expressing their opinion about this violent and racist Far Left group then fans should retaliate by singing an appropriate song eg Rule Britannia. If that leads to arrests they should hum it – very loudly. There is nothing racist or abhorrent in opposing the BLM Bolsheviks. And there nothing wrong in hating the hypocrisy of multi millionaire prima donna footballers arguing for equality of outcome while building up their massive property portfolios.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/3/moderna-plans-to-test-its-coronavirus-vaccine-on-children
Moderna vaccine moves to testing trials involving kids.
Kids can’t say ‘No’. Aljazeera is just another establishment pro pharma MSM outlet
Or maybe they’ll prefer to pretend that Britain is still free.
I wonder if every 2021 TV program and film will show the characters in masks?
I can’t even bear the commercials with people in masks. No way will I subject myself to zombies as a form of entertainment, unless it’s sci fi. But your question is a good one and I’ve wondered about this myself!
AMERICANT
The podcast that tells you everything that Jon and Emily have made herculean efforts to keep hidden from you, the British public.
1. A smoking gun? Focus is now on Georgia and in particular Fulton County and the State Farm Tabulation Centre . There is now video evidence confirming that after it was announced to poll monitors that counting was being discontinued for the night – allegedly because of a water leak (an excuse now shown to be bogus) – counting continued in secret, without poll monitors present. Large amounts of ballot papers were brought out from what looks like a suitcase from under a table. Don’t be taken in by the sophistry of the denials and innocent explanations of the Dems and their media mates. This is not normal, but it is highly suspicious.
2. Tying in with the above, during the night there was a batch of 23,000 votes, 98% for Biden. This stretches and breaks the limits of statistical probability. Biden claims to have “won” Georgia by just 10,000 votes or so, so this one dodgy batch could explain the “victory”.
3. Another interesting development: Gateway Pundit have a blockbuster story sourced from Taiwan… Read more »
This is the suitcase scene
https://twitter.com/TeamTrump/status/1334569329334083586
Also, unconfirmed reports that there was a firefight in Germany between US Army & rogue CIA operatives re: the seizing of a Dominion voting server. Apparently there were casualties.
All sorts of rumours…this is what happens when the media refuse to report on a story because it conflicts with their overarching narrative.
I’ve no doubt that the CIA have been involved in an orchestrated coup against Trump, not least because of the sheer venom and hatred expressed towards Trump by John Brennan, Head of the CIA at the time of his election – a wonder to behold and for why? Trump has always respected constitutional requirements and decisions of the Supreme Court.
Thankyou for your updates on this, OKUK. Much appreciated here.
Relevance of the Nuremberg Code
https://twitter.com/dockaurG/status/1333772872389693442?s=20
Evening all, had a good day today. I had to make a shopping trip today but there was a
small number of other maskfree shoppers. In one shop there were even three unmasked young women going round together, not seen that before. We all shared friendly smiles, I am admittedly unattractive but nevertheless pleased to see such a positive reaction. There was also an unmasked old guy on a bus, smoking too!
Unfortunately mask compliance is still around 97% and in one shop I made a woman standing next to me go wide eyed and clutch her muzzle. In another shop a prick in a Christmas patterned muzzle stroppy over “not enough space” at a display. No sign of any marshalls to annoy though.
All looked typically busy depsite being a supposedly Tier 3 Very High Red Zone. Guess we’re all dead in two weeks, oh well. Also I heard the Head Shoulders Knees And Toes propaganda on a radio, I now get how annoying it is.
Glad you had a good day and remained muzzle free!
We all shared friendly smiles, I am admittedly unattractive
In a shop, any unmuzzled smiling face is absolutely gorgeous!
Don’t put yourself down. Beauty comes from within.
I have never worn a mask as a face covering. I believe I have a valid exemption but even if I didn’t I would avoid wearing one. I dodge challenges in big supermarkets by wearing it as a chin strap, pretending I am in the process of putting it on as I enter the premises. The chin strap gambit really annoys a lot of mask wearers, which is a plus I feel!
Why do you do the chinstrap thing? Just don’t wear one! If anyone asks, say you’re exempt. Simple!
It’s up to the individual. I just don’t want be challenged every time I go to a big supermarket. I’ve challenged a couple of times when maskless. My tactic now is to immediately ask “is that OK?” after stating you are exempt. You are then asking a question of them.
I’ve never had one. I bought a lanyard when muzzles were first mandated and it lived at the bottom of my handbag. I’ve never worn it.
I realised recently that I don’t even think about muzzle-wearing nowadays and would be taken totally by surprise if I were challenged.
Well done you!!! A smile is always beautiful regardless!
I think I managed to convert someone today when I was shopping in Sainsbury’s.
A young lady saw my unmuzzled face and my sheep-mask t-shirt and a moment later she too was unmuzzled!
It fair cheered me up, did that.
Well done!
Great stuff!!!!
One more sheep leaves the fold, sashays out into the field and turns into a – take your pick. I like foxes; not everyone does. A badger? A deer? A deer would be good. It would bound off, leap the fence and be gone.
Anybody not wearing a face nappy is madly attractive in my eyes. And Venus and Adonis, nappied, would be repulsive.
When are we going to get “Freedom Radio” (or whatever) with none of this nonsense on it? Vive la resistance!
Mate the fairer sex by nature tend to get more compliments, you are probably a lot better looking than you give yourself credit. As a guy your charisma and how you carry yourself goes a long way and I’m sure your willingness to lead by example right now sets you apart. Keep the faith buddy it’s tough being a young guy but it only gets better I assure you.
Good evening fellow sceptics!!
As promised to TJN, here’s a report of my first day back at work:
We were fairly busy today which is not surprising as its Day 2 of our new exhibition opening however the numbers are nothing compared to how it was the previous years.
Visitors did respond well to my muzzle-free face. Certainly more than before who also came without mask but wearing exemption lanyards. However I did notice loads of visitors touching their faces a lot and also pulling the masks away from their faces in order to breathe. This is perhaps one of the reasons why many didn’t stay very long despite their positive feedback.
Had a chat with a visitor who is planning another visit and she’s hoping that things will change as she said “we can’t go on like this.” Very likely she’s not the only one who thinks this way.
It will be interesting to see how this will pan out over the next few days, weeks and months in terms of visitors.
Thanks Bart – I have not yet met anyone who says they enjoy wearing a mask (other than a suspect employee, but I think it is another condition). Everyone I know hates it.My family and I would have responded well to your muzzle free face. Please keep it up!
A friend the other day said he was forced to pull his mask down in a shop because he simply couldn’t breathe. He thought he was going to pass out
This is what the psychopaths in Westminster are doing to us
As the vast majority of our visitors are of a certain age its heart breaking to see them struggle to breathe.
I have had people come up to me asking me where I got my lanyard and asking me about exemptions so its clear that many people don’t really like masks and struggle with them.
Could you supply the sunflower ones, like Sainsbury’s did? Might get more visitors in to your establishment too!
I’m not sure, that’s something I can ask management.
That proves he’s exempt!
Not to us. To the fools who go along with it.
Nice to hear Bart. I don’t think muzzles are that popular, most have been indifferent to my consistent maskfree states.
Same here. I’ve not been bullied or harassed for awhile now and certainly I’m seeing more people on public transport not wearing them.
So glad you had a good first day back! Hopefully your mask-free face will inspire some of the visitors to remove theirs.
Thanks a lot!!! That comment from that visitor shows that there are people waking up.
Do keep us up to date with your experiences, Bart.
Thanks Bart. A tentatively encouraging report indicating that there may indeed be a tipping point somewhere in all this.
A report from someone like you dealing with the public is so much more illuminating than, for example, my anecdotal observations from a Tesco visit.