Free Speech Union Overturns Ban on Bob Moran in Cartoon Competition
Telegraph cartoonist Bob Moran was originally excluded from this year’s ‘Political Cartoonist of the Year’ competition because the organiser, Tim Benson, disapproves of the fact that he’s a lockdown sceptic. But thanks, in part, to the intervention of the Free Speech Union, the ban has been overturned and Bob is now in the competition. Turns out, the company that sponsors the annual event, Ellwood Atfield, wasn’t aware of the ban and as soon as the FSU flagged it up to the owners they intervened on Bob’s behalf.
You can view the shortlisted entries here and anyone can vote. Bob has cartoons in two categories – the Political Cartoon of the Year and Covid Cartoon of the Year – but there are plenty of other strong candidates. I’ve voted for Bob, naturally.
Where’s That Pesky Virus Gone?
The lateral flow tests have struck another blow against the Covid hysterics. According to the BBC, the mass testing of students in the run-up to Christmas has so far turned up almost no cases.
The University of Portsmouth is reporting “very low numbers” of positive cases from its Covid testing.
“We are seeing fewer than two per day on average at present,” said vice-chancellor Graham Galbraith.
He criticised a “blame culture” in which students had been accused of spreading infections.
“Prevalence in students is now very low indeed,” said Prof Galbraith.
Edge Hill University in Lancashire says it has so far found zero positive cases in its end-of-term testing.
The mass testing of students, launched on campuses last week, has been screening hundreds of thousands of students preparing to leave for the Christmas holidays…
At the University of Portsmouth, an initial sample of about 4,500 students, showed a rate of 0.2% positive results, or about nine students.
This follows the recent news out of Cambridge in which zero students tested positive out of a sample of 10,000. Initially, some Cambridge students did test positive, but when they were retested every single one of them turned out to be a false positive. Needless to say, the test in the Cambridge case was the PCR test not the lateral flow test.
Hmmm. This is a head-scratcher. If not a single Cambridge student in 10,000 has the virus and only 0.2% of students at Portsmouth have the virus, does that mean… could it be… that the student population has achieved herd immunity?
Stop Press: In case you still have any faith in the accuracy of Covid tests, check out this story. An Austrian lawmaker tested a glass of Coca-Cola for coronavirus during a speech accusing his Government of medical tyranny – and the drink turned out to be positive.
Rumours of Covid Deaths Have Been Greatly Exaggerated
We’re publishing an original piece today by Neville Hodgkinson, former medical and science correspondent of the Daily Mail and Sunday Times and a sharper, more clear-eyed analyst of the Covid fiasco than many of his present-day counterparts. He has spotted that the number of critical care patients in hospitals was no higher in October than it has been for the previous five years (see above). Odd, when October was supposedly the peak of the “second wave”, when, according to Witless and Unbalanced, NHS trusts were so close to being overwhelmed that if we didn’t lock down immediately Covid deaths would climb to 4,000 a day. I’ll let Neville take it from here.
The October figure shows an increase in patients in critical care whose illness was attributed to Covid, but nowhere near that of the April peak. And it hasn’t continued to rise: latest figures show a decline in both admissions and deaths where Covid was involved.
Total deaths are running at about a fifth higher than the five-year average, though how much of that is attributable to the massive disruption of people’s lives caused by the lockdown, or to the virus, is questionable.
About 1,800 people die each day in England and Wales currently, and out of those about 430 are said to involve Covid. This is a far cry from the prediction of up to 4,000 deaths a day by this month, made in one of the slides shown by Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance and Chief medical Officer Chris Whitty when they explained the necessity for a second national lockdown.
The figures have immense implications for Government policy. They call into question the value of the restrictions that are still in place, which are continuing to damage the wellbeing of millions.
Worth reading in full.
Schools That Close Early Could Face Legal Action
State schools in England that close a week early have been threatened with legal action by the Government, according to the Telegraph‘s Camilla Turner.
At least one council has already told some of its schools that it would support them to move to online learning only for the last week of term, and secondary schools across London and the South East are expected to tell parents that they will be closing early for the holidays.
Headteachers whose schools do stay open also intend to turn a blind eye if parents choose to keep their children at home, the Telegraph understands.
However, senior sources at the Department for Education warned schools and councils that it would be prepared to apply for High Court injunctions to force them to stay open.
Presdales School, an academy in Hertfordshire, is the first school in the country to be told it could be taken to court over its plans to move to remote learning at the end of term.
Good to see Gavin Williamson finally getting tough with schools that aren’t discharging their duty to pupils.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: A reader has passed on a letter she’s received from St Marylebone CE School in London, notifying her that the school is going to shift to ‘online only’ for the last three days of term, meaning her child will be sent home. She asks: “Is this legal?”
You might know that recently the Schools Minister has suggested that schools can put an additional INSET day at the end of this school term, to finish teaching a day earlier.
At St Marylebone School, we are not going to do this, as we want learning to continue until the end of term and we have planned our INSET days for the rest of the year. But we are going to do something developmental for staff and students next week which you need to know about.
Monday and Tuesday at school will continue as usual. Year 10 and 11 students’ learning will continue online as it has been.
On Wednesday and Thursday, learning will continue online, via Google Meet, for everyone. Students will not attend on-site. This is a two-day opportunity for all students to adapt to learning online, which is especially important for students new to St Marylebone in Years 7 and 12, and for the many of our students from disadvantaged backgrounds who need the opportunity to check they are able to access learning via Google Classroom and Google Meet. Lessons will be live online all day both days and all students will be expected to attend, from registration at 8.30am onwards. Full attendance is expected, as are the usual high standards of participation and engagement.
Teachers will be using this as an opportunity for their own professional development and confidence with delivering remote teaching. In a sense, this is an INSET, but one which includes students.
Friday 18th December is our planned half-day. This will also take place safely online, with registration starting at 8.30am, planned form group activities, year group assemblies and the Carol Service. Full attendance is expected, as are the usual high standards of participation and engagement.
This plan means that students’ last day on site in 2020 will be Tuesday 15th December. Activities planned on-site after this, including immunisations for Year 9, will be postponed.
Having taken advice, we feel it is appropriate to do this in the context of our school in current circumstances, our students’ learning, staff development and the well-being of all. It is no secret that cases of covid are rising and that secondary schools are increasingly affected by this. We are making this plan in the context of the recent confirmed cases of covid in our school community and to promote teachers’ and students’ development and well-being.
This letter really does take the biscuit. It’s as if the school is sending all the children home as a favour to them. The author of the letter, who I won’t name to spare her blushes, even has the gall to say this will benefit children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Pretty extraordinary, given the overwhelming evidence produced by Ofsted and others that kids from poor backgrounds suffer far more than their peers from school closures.
Williamson, here’s your test case. Get on the phone to the Chair of Governors on Monday morning and tell them to raise their bloody game.
Stop Press 2: Rod Liddle pointed out in his Sun column yesterday that some heroes among frontline workers have emerged during the coronavirus crisis, but teachers aren’t among them.
Covid Marshals Patrol Pubs
A reader has sent an alarming email about an experience he had in a pub in Watford earlier this week.
Last night the local pub I was in was visited by two goons only one of which was wearing a hi-viz Covid Marshall jacket. The other was dressed head to toe in black with a huge mask and hat. You could only see his eyes. He must have been well over 6ft tall and built like a brick shithouse. He was obviously trying to intimidate everybody but didn’t have much success around the people I was near to. A couple of cheery “f*** off’s” which they both chose to ignore let them know how welcome they were.
The pub is struggling as it is but these actions are going to kill the place completely. They told the bar staff that they would be back a bit later to make sure the people drinking and eating had left. Presumably an empty pub would have suited them just fine. Then they left and started taking pictures of the customers through the pub Windows.
Do you know if this is even legal? As far as I can tell Covid Marshalls don’t have any powers at all.
I needn’t point out that they stood very close to each other and approached the bar, something that nobody else is allowed to do.
What has happened to the country?
Stop Press: A publican has written a piece for the Conservative Woman about the devastation that lunatic Covid restrictions have wreaked on the pub trade. Worth reading.
How Will the Fiction be Sustained?
We’re publishing another terrific piece by David Mackie today, Head of Philosophy at d’Overbroeck’s, Oxford.
It starts with a healthy dose of scepticism about the Government’s mass vaccination programme.
Wedded as it now is to the idea of the vaccine as the ‘solution’ to the coronavirus crisis, the Government will continue to exert all the pressure that it can on the population, through the media and other channels, to downplay any public concerns about the reliability or the safety of the vaccine(s). We already know the form that this pressure will, for the most part, take: it will consist largely of the kind of pro-vaccine propaganda masquerading either as news stories or as ‘myth-busting’ public information broadcasts that we are already seeing.
Mere pro-vaccine propaganda, however, will clearly not suffice on its own: not if the numbers of ‘Covid cases’ reported and ‘COVID-19 deaths’ fail to decline in line with public expectations. Yet it must be obvious to sceptics of my kind that, if testing continues at current or increased levels, there is no reason at all to think that the numbers of positive tests or COVID-19-related deaths will decline. If testing is as unreliable as we believe it is, persuaded as we are by the scientific analyses by Dr Clare Craig, Dr Mike Yeadon, and others, then continued mass testing of the asymptomatic must inevitably continue to produce thousands upon thousands of positive tests and deaths attributed to COVID-19. As Mike Yeadon has said, if the testing continues, then, given the false positives, the appearance of a lethal epidemic can never end.
Sceptics of my kind, of course, believe for these reasons that the mass vaccination programme is in reality just one more gigantic coronvirus-related waste of public money among countless others: it can serve no genuine, scientifically legitimate, purpose in bringing the epidemic to an end, or in justifying an end to lockdown-style restrictions. This is because its explicit aim is to bring about a result – ‘herd immunity’ – that has already been substantially achieved by entirely natural processes to which all deliberate interventions have been essentially irrelevant.
David then poses an interesting question: if the current number of ‘cases’ is a pseudo-epidemic produced by the shortcomings of the PCR test, as well as the testing facilities and the superlabs, how will the Government create the illusion that the vaccine is working? Will they test fewer people? Increase the number of cycles used in the PCR testing lab to identify fragments of the virus? Or finally admit that the test is unreliable and not to be trusted?
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: A reader is pleasantly surprised by Public Health England’s new poster promoting the Covid jab.
The flu jab poster this winter was still written in new speak, i.e. protecting the NHS, not killing granny, etc. The Covid jab slogan is subtly “old normal”. Enjoy life. Protect yourself. Then look at the graphic. In reply to all those wondering when we will be allowed to stop the mask wearing, it’s in the poster. Once the over-65s have been vaccinated. Look, they’re not wearing masks below the line.
The other resources are here.
This includes the shiny new “green book” (the immunisation Bible) entry as Covid immunisation takes its place among the many other immunisations available with the quietly sane sentence “Symptomatic and pre-symptomatic transmission (1-2 days before symptom onset), is thought to play a greater role in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 than asymptomatic transmission”.
It’s all so understated. This is THE VACCINE for THE VIRUS! It reminds me of the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark when they wheel an unmarked box containing the ark into a warehouse full of other unremarkable boxes.
Could this be designed to nudge us, with the help of the vaccine of course, out of the panic and back to a “personal responsibility” approach as hinted by Hancock last week? I really hope so.
Round-up
- “A victory for freedom at Cambridge shows the woke mob can only win if we let them” – Juliet Samuel in the Telegraph hails the free speech victory at Cambridge University. Led by Arif Ahmed, a member of the FSU’s Advisory Council.
- “PPE ‘Covidarchs’ awash with YOUR tax millions” – Gay Adams in the Daily Mail identifies a few of the ‘Covidarchs’ who’ve become multi-millionaires on the back of the crisis
- “Five genes often found in severe cases of COVID-19” – Interesting research out of Edinburgh on the five genes that render people particularly vulnerable to the virus
- “Risk of dying from Covid-19 in British hospitals has HALVED since the peak of the crisis in spring, SAGE papers show” – Kept that quiet, didn’t they?
- “London in Tier 3 for week before Christmas would help bring down ‘serious rise’ in cases” – More unutterable balls about cases going up in London
- “Town Hall Stalins Are on a Covid-Fuelled Ego Trip” – Good stuff from Giles Coren in the Times
- “Test and Trace callers worked just 1% of time as £22 billion was ‘thrown at’ efforts to stop second lockdown” – That’s five minutes in an eight-hour shift. Data based on a National Audit Office report. Alex Belfield’s YouTube jeremiad is worth watching on this
- “The damning verdict on NHS Test and Trace” – Ross Clark weighs in on the same subject
- “Coronavirus self-isolation cut to 10 days” – I suppose we should be grateful for small mercies
- “What would Scruton have thought about the Covid obsession? He’d have been appalled” – Great piece by Frank Palmer in the Conservative Woman
- “More than 10,000 patients caught COVID-19 while being treated in hospital” – A Telegraph investigation into hospital-acquired infection. Pretty sure I caught the virus in Charing Cross Hospital back in March
- “The ‘Expert Consensus’ Also Favored Alcohol Prohibition” – Good piece by Jeffrey A. Tucker for the AIER blog reminding us that public health experts have been wrong before
- “Can £3,000 make me as pretty as Emily Maitlis?” – In my latest Spectator column I confess to having spent some money on trying to improve my appearance when broadcasting from my garden shed
- Michael P. Senger has produced a fantastic Twitter thread for the victims of lockdown, which he describers as the greatest crime of the 21st century
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Four today: “Gimme Some Truth” by John Lennon, “Pub Feed” by the Chats, “How did it come to this?” by Take That, “Lacrimosa” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
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
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Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, we’re bringing you the story of how Roedean, the £40,000 a year girls’ boarding school, has decolonised its curriculum. The Times has more.
With its view across the Channel from an East Sussex clifftop, the elite girls’ boarding school Roedean has always had an international outlook.
It will now become one of the first private schools to rewrite its history syllabus, abandoning the “island story” beloved of Michael Gove and challenging the “white western narrative” after this year’s Black Lives Matter protests.
The school, founded in 1885 by three sisters to help girls to get into the women’s colleges at Cambridge University, is transforming history lessons for pupils aged 11 to 14.
Girls will learn about black Tudors, Queen Victoria’s black goddaughter and how Africans helped to resist the slave trade. As well as the Norman Conquest, they will have lessons on the Song dynasty that ruled in China from 960 to 1279.
Pupils will be encouraged to see the Second World War in a global context, examining how it was experienced in countries other than Britain. They will also study global societal changes in the postwar era…
Oliver Blond, Roedean’s headmaster, said: “We wanted to challenge the predominantly western European narrative and to look beyond the limitations of Britain’s ‘island story’, to discover hidden histories both nationally and internationally.
“The question was raised as to whether everyone in the Roedean community saw themselves in the history they study at school and to this end more diverse perspectives have been incorporated within the existing programme, in order to challenge preconceptions and stimulate debate.
“We hope that some of this passion to rediscover the past both at home and around the world will inspire the pupils towards a deeper love of history.”
I’m delighted the school is teaching its students about Africans who resisted the slave trade. But will it also be teaching them about the slave trade in North Africa? Somehow, I doubt it.
Stop Press: Honours associated with the British Empire are “offensive” and should be rebranded, says Labour MP Kate Green, the Shadow Education Secretary. Ms Green is, of course, an OBE. Is she going to give it back?
“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. See also the Swiss Doctor’s thorough review of the scientific evidence here.
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 in October 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 my Spectator piece about the attempt to suppress it is among the top hits – although discussion of it has been censored by Reddit. The reason the zealots hate it, of course, is that it gives the lie to their claim that “the science” only supports their strategy. These three scientists are every bit as eminent – more eminent – than the pro-lockdown fanatics so expect no let up in the attacks. (Wikipedia has also done a smear job.)
You can find it here. Please sign it. Now over three quarters of a million 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 here. Alas, he’s now reached the end of the road, with the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear his appeal. Dolan has no regrets. “We forced SAGE to produce its minutes, got the Government to concede it had not lawfully shut schools, and lit the fire on scrutinizing data and information,” he says. “We also believe our findings and evidence, while not considered properly by the judges, will be of use in the inevitable public inquires which will follow and will help history judge the PM, Matt Hancock and their advisers in the light that they deserve.”
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’. A High Court judge refused permission for the FSU’s judicial review yesterday, but the FSU may appeal the decision. Check here for updates.
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)
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.
H.L. Mencken
I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.
Thomas Paine
Shameless Begging Bit
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And Finally…
Discussion
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Captain’s report WE 13/12/2020
I’ll start with the BAD NEWS and then go on to nicer things…
BAD NEWS: Santa Visit
In October, we had booked tickets to see Santa at NEARBY GARDEN CENTRE for our baby’s first Christmas. I know it’s wrong to brainwash people about something that doesn’t exist (Santa), but I don’t want her to feel left out…
There was a queue, then a gate, then the main attraction (you go up to the “grotto”, you go inside to meet “Santa”, you *get your picture taken* then you go out the back and get your picture printed and set into a variety of souvenirs)
This would usually be a pleasurable experience for a father on his first child’s first Christmas, but as you could imagine, it was like a scene from the revenge of the living dead (starring Keith Richards, masked and still smoking somehow).
I wish I was strong enough to not comply in any way, but I just wore a scarf loosely (I’m quite a big boy, I shouldn’t feel this scared about not wearing a face covering…)
The Mrs wore a mask. Obviously the baby didn’t (and if anyone ever asked her to, I’d… Read more »
Excellent report Captain. Well worth repeating on Sunday.
Unless someone is clearly a zealot (mask outdoors or plastic gloves are giveaways) I find that most are either sceptical or scornful once you let them know your own stance.
Most seem to fear shaming if they express doubts about Covid, lockdown and now the vaccine but are happy to be able to Come Out if given the opportunity.
Listen up people! Why don’t you follow the BBC’s hugely intelligent Marianna Spring (their Orwellian-sounding “Disinformation Correspondent”) instead of trusting your own judgement, eh?
If you did, you would realise there are three types of response to the wonderful Covid vaccine: anti-vaxx resistance, hesitancy and legitimate concerns (she’s so thick she forgot the fourth one: BBC-style total trust in whatever the authorities are saying today as opposed to tomorrow). So there are, according to Marianna, three very clear responses, which she says are also, er, “blurred”. You decide: distinct or blurred? Marianna obviously hasn’t got an effing clue.
I suspect her cozy little BBC bubble world was somewhat shaken to find that vaccines are not cuddly little bunnies but things that (according to the Department of Health, not anti-vaxxers) can cause life-threatening events in people with histories of serious allergic reactions?
She’s only in her mid-twenties so probably hasn’t learnt all the dishonest ways of the BBC yet.
I see someone posted that some children killed themselves because of lockdown. I would add that, 100 per cent, more children will die from lockdowns than will be saved by them. Indeed, it’s doubtful if any children will be saved by lockdowns.
It’s evil what’s happening, and I don’t see how anyone can justify it. (Or maybe the sort of people who chastise a coastguard for rescuing a girl stuck up a cliff because he broke safety rules. Something like this really did happen. The coastguard resigned, as I recall.)
Daily mortality curves Germany : 2018, 2019, 2020 (to (.8 Nov)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EpCQ2lQXMAAv11Y?format=png&name=small
Nothing special going on in 2020..
Thanks Steeve but we are in prison.
I don’t want to be fucking entertained.
In the light of police oppression regularly seen and reported on these pages. can readers suggest a suitable slogan with regard to the future funding of our brave constabulary ?
🙂
The best part of that is the nose!
Peru suspends trials for China’s vaccine after ‘serious adverse event’
Peru has suspended trials of China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine due to a “serious adverse event” that occurred with one of the volunteers for the study, the Peruvian government has said.
The country’s health ministry said the event is “under investigation to determine if it is related to the vaccine or if there is another explanation.”
The trial, which involves 12,000 volunteers, was due to complete its first phase in the next few days.
This is not the vaccine which has begun to be administered in the UK.
Peru has lost 36,544 lives to the coronavirus pandemic so far.
They killed Paddington.
Evan will be sad but will probably blame Nigel.
o, he git away, but his aunt Lucy was in a home for retired bears in Lima, and there can be little hope for her.
The names that pop up in this article scream rear guard action for me.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/12/where-did-coronavirus-come-from-covid?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Oh! So it didn’t come from the Wuhan Institute of Virology then?
Bollocks! Of course it did!
Nothing to see here – move on
“They knew it wasn’t SARS”????? Its effing called SARS!!
You could just as easily call it FNARS-CoV-2 (For No Apparent Reason Say CoronaVirus 2) except the joke is on us. It doesn’t satisfy the Koch Postulates gold standard test for a novel pathogen, has never been isolated as a complete virus taken from any living cells, only assembled from a box of bits in the lab like a jigsaw where the image is unknown and then detected using a wholly inappropriate assay, has no defining symptoms that aren’t shared with various other respiratory infections, and on, and on. Can it truly be said to exist?!
In the minds of the lumpencovidariat it is the destroyer of worlds.
Starting with their brains, assuming that they had any to begin with.
This gave me some hope…
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/anti-lockdown-protesters-gather-outside-23157591
There are too many failings with Sturgeon and the SNP for them to deal with at the same time.
Scotland is run like a bowling club committee. It’s beyond embarrassing.
Some people still think she’s doing a good job but there’s a huge tide of mounting anger and resentment which will hopefully force her resignation asap.
If any Scots at all are outside the Cult of the Great Leader, there is hope.
I just posted this but with a few links and it got put into suspension so hre is my 2nd go with the links removed
Some postings from a forum, I call “The campervan idiot” forum.
***************************
VACCINATED!
“Well today by virtue of my working role I was lucky enough to get the first dose of what I sincerely hope will be the vaccine that gives me long term protection from coronavirus and if we are all lucky will stop me transmitting the virus to others.
It’s not the only immunisation I’ve needed, and received, as a front line healthcare worker but it could well be the most significant for our population in my lifetime.
Second dose booked for 30th of this month.
In all honesty I do have a slightly sore arm but it will be a very small price to pay for the protection it should bestow.
Let’s hope the programme is received the way it should and gives us all the chance to get out and about again.”
Some comments…brace yourselves, this ain’t pretty…
“Wow how lovely to read this , thanks for all you do as a front line health worker.
Like you I hope the… Read more »
What is this thing about coke and vaccines? I’ve seen more than one person suggest that those who are cautious about vaccine safety do coke from dodgy men at the weekends. How is that even a thought anyone would have? Me thinks they doth protest too much.
Also, as for the last one, all these people who think the vaccine will let them out are in for a rude awakening when they aren’t. And, even if eventually they are, at this rate there will be nothing left to come out to!
Because anyone who resists this preposterous narrative is obviously a decadent anti-social proto-psychopath, as casually keen on his or her own death as on everyone else’s.
I’d say that it’s pretty clear by the accusation that they are the ones who have experience of buying white powder from men on street corners.
Dark times ahead people.
I’d just leave these idiots, the higher the voluntary uptake the more opportunities there are for disaster.
eeerrrggghhh
““Plenty of people not trusting of the free vaccine saying we dont know if its safe. Then at weekends spend hundreds of pounds snorting coke bought off some scroat on a street corner. Hmm thats safe ! ”
My questions to this person:
How many people have snorted coke – and over what period of time?
How many people have taken the vaccine – and over what period of time?
Conclusion – effects of coke much better known than the vaccine, therefore vaccine much more risky.
At least you know what your getting with street coke, 40% novacaine, 10% lignocaine, 20% Amphetamine Sulphate, 10% Vim and 20% cocaine (if your “lucky”)
I have had the same conversation, 1 dealers don’t cut it with shit that kills you as they want you back next week. 2 it personal choice not coerced or mandated. But then again I’m a granny killer.
Plus a bit of powdered chalk, I’m told.
It’s not exactly setting the bar very high, is it? I can see the marketing campaign now – “Get the Covid vaccine. It’s safer than the cocaine you get from your dealer”…
So they wouldn’t let the vet inject the snake oil? Wonder why. I’ve seen innumerable vets administer injections to my dogs and they are neat, skilful and quick. Of course, though, they are used to treating intelligent animals, not zombies.
Doubtless a Covid marshal would be preferred, after half an hour’s training. They would inject with the correct attitude.
America Matters.
If the Dems steal the election it will be the end of democracy in the US and it will be victory for Globalism, PC ideology, the Far Left and Chinese infiltration – and of course with their victory so too Lockdownism, Big Pharma, Vaxomania and Inhuman Masking are all victorious as well.
A physicist John Droz has with a team of experts been analysing precinct results in Michigan. What they have found is more than statistically improbable – it is impossible, or the equivalent of one person winning the lottery 65 times in a row. An example is in Ingham County, Michigan where the Biden-Trump votes track each other with literally unbelievable consistency (in the 50-55% range for Biden) . This just never happens in the real world as the precincts are small. The 2016 show what one expect a complete lack of consistency. And if course as this is repeated jn county aftercounty the odds of the phenomenon being the result of genuine voting vanish into nothingness.
It is crystal clear these votes were being generated by computer algorithms.
It is clear this is a stolen election.
There was no announcement but it has now been revealed that four people have been seconded from Big Tech corporations (the usual suspects: Facebook, Twitter etc) to serve on the Biden Transition Team. A clearer example of the corrupt relationship between Big Tech (which censored and suppressed the evidence of Biden crime family corruption) and the Democratic Party (which could not have won without them) could not be imagined.
No real surprise. FB exec Sheryl Sandberg previously spent so much time & effort openly colluding with the Democrats, that she was tipped for a Cabinet job in the [then-anticipated] Clinton White House after the 2016 election…!
Only one Dominion voting machine (from Antrim County, Michigan) has been released for independent forensic analysis under a court order. The analysis has shown it was the machine that generated a 6000 vote switch to Biden, not “human error” as claimed by election officials.
watching the boxing. 1000 fans allowed into the Wembley arena. Looks like most of them are not masked – but of course are distanced .
However everyone else – referee , seconds etc masked. in fact cornermen all wearing masks and visors at the same time. At least boxers arent masked
The arbitrary nature of masking is just a sign of of how much they are laughing at the gullibility of the population
In an amusing twist (to me anyway) the person who I had a disagreement with about track and trace on Thursday at work was contacted and told to isolate later that afternoon. Suddenly not so happy about it. At least I won’t have to see him this side of Christmas.
Schadenfreude
noun [ U ]UK /ˈʃɑː.dənˌfrɔɪ.də/ US /ˈʃɑː.dənˌfrɔɪ.də/
a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction when something bad happens to someone else
Or, as the younger folk would say: karma is a bitch.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55279371
What a load of bollocks. Amazing how the BBC gets away with this continually – trotting out the opinion of a total non-entity as though it’s some sort of authoritative news.
A quick google of this Bauld woman shows she is just a puritanical Prohibitionist with letters after her name. A career dedicated to saving the peasants from their filthy ways.
Please watch and share with your friends:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V3yxrJwJQs&t=368s
Wait 6 months.
They will implement the re-education camps of Xi’s dreams.
From a forum, I call “The campervan idiot” forum.
VACCINATED!
“Well today by virtue of my working role I was lucky enough to get the first dose of what I sincerely hope will be the vaccine that gives me long term protection from coronavirus and if we are all lucky will stop me transmitting the virus to others.
It’s not the only immunisation I’ve needed, and received, as a front line healthcare worker but it could well be the most significant for our population in my lifetime.
Second dose booked for 30th of this month.
In all honesty I do have a slightly sore arm but it will be a very small price to pay for the protection it should bestow.
Let’s hope the programme is received the way it should and gives us all the chance to get out and about again.”
Some comments…brace yourselves, this ain’t pretty…
“Wow how lovely to read this , thanks for all you do as a front line health worker.
Like you I hope the programme is seen in a positive light.”
“Looking forward to my turn. They need more vaccinators here so my daughter applied to to told she doesn’t have the… Read more »
I’m H A P P E
I’m H A P P E
I know someone in government
I’m $UR£ I am
I’m H A P P E
I want to say something positive. I’ve noticed that over the past couple of weeks the number of maskless shoppers at my local co op has risen considerably. It’s rare now for me to visit without at least one other person being massless and it’s only a small corner shop.
Great news!
Nice to hear. Compliance is also dropping if more slowly around my shops, I’ve not been the only unmasked shopper for the past few trips now. I see similar on public transport.
I wish I could share this optimism. I went to M&S in Kew today and my wife and I were almost the only unmasked people there, apart from one old bloke and a young black girl who had a lanyard on. Maybe one or two others with the below-the-nose thing.
I was in Waitrose in Ealing a few days ago and I was definitely the only unmasked person there. But that’s to be expected.
Interestingly one of my most sceptical friends has been broken after too much pressure from some miseryguts in the Cotswolds (again, to be expected). But I have only ever had the lightest of polite challenges and never bowed. It must be to do with bearing. She is only about 5’ and a girl, I am a 6’ man and evidently carry a look not to be messed with. I can only put this down to my genuine rage at having my family’s income removed by this whole shitshow.
Perhaps you could arrange to go shopping with your small but valiant
friend?
You’re right, I should. She is totally on side but just needs a bit more support. I even sent her the excellent info from http://www.laworfiction.com but this busybody near her is obviously a real piece of work. She actually kept this altercation from me but now I’ve found out I am going to ride in!
I make a point of positive engagement with fellow unmasked shoppers, many I’ve seem have appreciated a smile and thumbs up. I try to hold on to these memories and fall sleep at night thinking of all the good people like them out there.
One of my most interesting observations has been young women all going round shops and on trains in unmasked groups, safety in numbers I guess.
I think group excursions may be the answer. Being bitched at by spiteful, nappied numpties is very unpleasant when you’re alone, particularly when there’s a baying mob if them. Talk about being savaged by dead sheep!
Fully masked (all bar me) in Tesco Loughborough I regret to announce.
First time I’ve been in for many weeks, for emergency supplies!
Co-op have been using facial recognition and AI, they now know all the unmasked. Isolation camps await.
On other notes about facemasks, one good one bad. We were in our chippie having a sit down fish n Chips. Everybody buying takeawy were muzzled. Except one guy who shouted at the chip shop owner to lower his mask as he looked like a gangster. I turned around and gave hime a thumbs up. He returned it. I think he knew what that was about. However on another note we were in a bathroom superstore where everybody was muzzled, me and the wife wasn’t. We couldn’t get any service then a muzzled staff told us very rudly I’m not coming near you guys as you are not wearing a mask. 🙁
“I’m not coming near you guys as you are not wearing a mask.” probably for the best. I mean, — who knows if that staff member has asymptomatic tuberculosis, diphtheria, or rocky mountain flu? it’s a minefield out there 🙂
What an arse he was….fuck his business then.
They were discriminating against the disabled. That’s illegal.
I live in Solihull (T3), but very close to the border with Worcestershire (T2). Naturally, a few of us walk the 50 yards to the Drawbridge Pub for a pint. Last night, a couple of ragged-arse PC’s entered the place and walked around it asking everyone for their postcode. If you couldn’t reel it off immediately, you got a £100 fine. “What if I have a speech impediment and cant get it out quickly?” “You still get the fine, but can appeal and if genuine, have it revoked”. Great. Whatever happened to a bit of discretion along the lines of “If you’re from T3, drink up and leave”. I’ve always tried to respect the police and provide whatever support I can. Its a difficult job, etc. But I shall see them in a different light from now on. Another triumph for SAGE.
Police state in actiin.
Mrmorise a postcode from T2. You can get them very easily online.
One of the doctors behind this also had the same treatment
https://swprs.org/facts-about-covid-19/
He was on the Richie Allen Show talking about it.
It’s also happened in Australia
Diseases worse than Covid:
• Malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus and lung.
• Ischaemic heart diseases.
• Influenza and pneumonia.
• Dementia and Alzheimer disease.
• Cerebrovascular diseases.
• Various cancers
• Matt Hancock
Bromidrosis
Incurable stupidity. I saw you had Matt Hancock but you didn’t name the disease.
That’s the name of the disease
Only COVIDIUS matters…
Had a great day – drove from Hampshire M3/M25/M40 to visit my widowed step mum in Tier 3 Coventry with the wife. Step mum lives alone but fortunately now has so many bubbles she has lost count. No-one has ever asked. No-one ever will.
My Daughter and her family turned up at the same time. We all hugged, ate a wonderful meal together, and then spent a couple of hours enjoying ourselves. Normal healthy family stuff.
Motorways reasonably busy, even in and out of Coventry, so most people seem to be ignoring the rules, whatever the rules are today.
Yes, I was on the M1 today. The roads were as busy as they used to be.
Good!
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/covid-19-list-tier-3-182500396.html
I expect the little dictator El Presidente Sturgeon to follow suit, but with even harsher measures.
& All the sheep will lap it up.
Also, I am aware Yahoo is like the BBC with keeping up the fear mongering & propaganda.
Fucking Scumbags. If you are reading this Nicola, the term Scumbag applies to you also.
Wow. It must be a magic money rainforest we’re tapping in to now to fund all this madness.
The future …
The future’s not bright and it’s not orange, it’s dimly lit and shit.
I’m glad my area isn’t being included in the mass testing. Will save me the trouble of telling them to fuck off.
Yeah, this is a non-story
The worst collaborating store with petty rules are in my opinion is TK Maxx.
Thanks, good to know so I can avoid.
No problem.
Ive been to two different TX Maxx since March inbetween lockdowns/restrictions and havent had any issues with either. I’m always unmasked and staff have been really friendly. In northern ireland.
Same here in Norfolk.
So how many kids have died of Covid since they re-opened our schools in September? Does anyone have a link to the official figures? What about teachers? Any figures for them? Just asking.
It is very nearly 9 months since lockdown began.
I am expecting a slump in births.
After all, who wants to bring kids into the world under present conditions.
The question is:
How many children will not be born because of lockdown?
There’ll definitely be a slump in births once young women are persuaded to have the vaccine.
Apparently there hasn’t. It was discussed on here a few days ago. It will surely come tho as the economic mare arrives.
There’s a slump in marriages for sure. Also a slump in Christmas office quickies
Ouch. Good point. My daughter was planning another child but this has been delayed as her partner, a pilot, lost his job. He is now fitting windows and hopes to get back in again in March/April. There will be a huge slump in Births.
Couples are spending more time at home. Plenty of opportunities for accidents.
I don’t think the birth rate will slip until the money runs out. That’ll be when the real crisis hits and the government can’t buy people off anymore.
None here at Hogwarts and the bastards have got us in tier three and a half
Ye’d better be in Griffindor then and see off wee scumbag Umbridge
Umbridge is alive and well and queening it at Holyrood.
Some school children killed themselves because of lockdown
Is there an official cutoff number between tiers 2 and 3?
There are some seriously unfair allocations at the moment.
eg.
Epping Forest: 275 tier 2
Stratford-on-Avon: 51.5 tier 3
https://electionmaps.uk/covid19-tier-map
I guess the testers must have moved camp …….
I am starting a petition to erect a statue of Matt Hancock in parliament square to celebrate all he has done for this country
Presumably he’ll be depicted in a pillory and rotting veg and eggs will be freely available?
Never mind the statue, the live beast will do fine.
The other day, Biker (hallowed be his name) posted that he wanted a statue of Nik Sturg Un in his hometown… so he could piss on it every day.
A study on droplets and face coverings which shows some are more harmful than no mask.
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/36/eabd3083
The rest of it is too technical for my old brain, so if anyone can interpret it, that would be great.
Thanks
It assumes from the outset, on no evidence, that nappying is a good thing, snd that asymptomatic transmission is a fact. Does not include any trial unvolving a non-nappied subject.Therefore biased.
AD CONCEPT
WOMAN’S VOICE: I wear a mask because I’ve been brainwashed and didn’t realise it was a danger to myself and others. I will carry on wearing it.
[SOUND: Loud sheep bleat.]
OLD PERSON’S VOICE: I wear a mask because I am a follower and can’t think for myself.
[SOUND: Louder sheep bleat.]
MALE VOICE: I wear a mask because I don’t care about my freedom.
[SOUND: Bleating of sheep grows in intensity and volume. Then cut to 1 second silence.]
ANNOUNCER: Don’t go like a lamb to the slaughter. Do something about it. Drop that mask..
Good one but you forgot the virtue-signaller.
Yes! !
There are actually satirical YouTube skits along these lines.
Sorry I don’t have a link handy.
““My mask is a danger to you, your mask is a danger to me.”“
Not really. The fact is they hardly make any difference. Any enclosed space will soon fill up with pathogens as a result mainly of breathing as pathogen laden air escapes through and around the mask. However this can be beneficial for priming immune systems with dilute doses of any new pathogen that people have encountered.
But
“Your mask is a danger to you, my mask is a danger to me” because we breathe our own pathogens back into our lungs.