Happy Boxing Day!
For the three days over Christmas – starting yesterday – we’re publishing a pared down version of Lockdown Sceptics so we can have a bit of time off over Christmas. Cartoonist Bob Moran has very kindly given us three original cartoons which we’re running on consecutive days and, below them, we’re including a round-up, as well as an And Finally…, but little else.
Happy Christmas to all our readers. Thanks for all your links, stories and suggestions, as well as your comments below the line and in the forums. Lockdown Sceptics is really a collaboration between our small team, the writers who contribute original material, and the readers who post comments or email us at [email protected]. To date, we’ve had over 21,000 emails and we do our best to read them all.
Back in April, when I set up this blog, I imagined I’d be signing off about now. Turns out, that was a bit naive. God knows when this madness will end, but at least there are some comforts in this digital camaraderie. Readers often get in touch to say Lockdown Sceptics has kept them sane. The feeling’s mutual.
Trouble Down Lab
The Milton Keynes Lighthouse Lab has been hit by an outbreak of coronavirus, according to Sky News.
Positive cases have been reported in three of the four scientific teams at the Milton Keynes Lighthouse Laboratory, as well as among administrative and warehouse staff at the site.
It is not known how many people have been affected by the outbreak, but around 20 people in one 70-person lab team are currently isolating, according to a worker at the laboratory who asked to remain anonymous.
The outbreak has placed considerable strain on the lab, which has been asked to process 70,000 tests a day in order to keep up with rising demand.
The source said that 47,000 were processed on Tuesday, adding: “No chance we’ll ever hit 70,000 a day the way we’re going.”
The lab worker also raised concerns about the safety of the lab, saying that rules put in place to keep staff safe were being broken in order to meet targets – a claim the Department of Health and Social Care denied.
Sky News understands the Lighthouse Lab is supposed to have a bubble system in place in order to keep staff separate, following a recommendation from the Health and Safety Executive, which visited the site recently.
Yet according to the source, the bubble system is not being respected with workers at the short-staffed lab being moved between groups, risking further cross-contamination.
The lab worker said there had also been mixing in the building’s lobbies and at the canteen.
Staff at the laboratory have been offered an unlimited number of tests and new staff are tested when they arrive.
The lab worker said that new recruits had been sitting in the canteen while they waited for their test results.
According to the lab worker, one new warehouse staff member received a positive test result after they had sat in the canteen during a period when a whole lab team had been in there for a break.
“The whole thing’s a joke,” they said.
Worth reading in full.
This outbreak won’t come as news to readers of Lockdown Sceptics. Last month we ran a piece by Lighthouse Lab whistleblower Dr Julian Harris flagging up health and safety breaches at the Milton Keynes facility.
Read that piece again here.
The Queen Lifts Our Spirits
No, she didn’t say that. In fact, this year’s Christmas message from the Queen was another triumph. Robert Hardman in today’s Daily Mail has more.
Even for the most experienced monarch in history, this was a tall order: how do you sum up the worst year in living memory without leaving the nation in floods of tears or reaching for the Off switch?
The only solution, therefore, was to accentuate the positives. And that is what the Queen did yesterday in an exceptionally upbeat Christmas message – one which also turned out to be the most multicultural of all time.
From beginning to end, here was a montage of warm-hearted or inspirational scenes, many of them illustrated by images from the Duchess of Cambridge’s Hold Still photography campaign. The only mournful moment consisted of the Queen herself paying homage at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior.
What began with the magnificent sight of the Band of the Household Cavalry playing the National Anthem on horseback outside St George’s Chapel concluded with the Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Choir belting out one of the jauntiest numbers in their Christmas repertoire: “Joy To The World”.
Running through it all was the theme of selflessness, of what the Queen called ‘the kindness of strangers’.
Worth reading in full.
And in case you missed it, you can watch it again here.
A Hospital Worker Writes…
A hospital employee has sent us an email that contains an interesting detail about the PPE he and his colleagues are expected to wear.
I work at one of the main hospitals in Oxford, and the vast majority of the people that I work with just blindly believe everything they hear from the media. It’s so frustrating and annoying.
I along with everyone else who works at the hospital continued to work right through the peak of the pandemic (no social distancing, no face masks) with not so much as a sniffle.
I do know a couple of people who died during that time, whose deaths were almost certainly because of Covid. However, as you and others have pointed out, the vast majority of people either don’t know that they’ve had it, or, if they did have it, they lived to tell the tale. A few of my close work colleagues did have the virus, and the were knocked for six because of it, but they’re now back at work.
Anyway, aside from writing to you to say: thank you for all your hard work, I wanted to let you know if you didn’t already, that all of the masks, gloves and gowns that we are using and have been using for most of the pandemic come from… China 🇨🇳
Just thought how crazy it is that the very country where the virus came from is where so many millions of pounds of tax payers money is going to pay for the PPE.
As one of my Northern colleagues (who is also a fellow no masker) said, “They’re really rubbing our faces in it. Literally.”
Round-up
- “A very Covid Christmas: Six million MORE people move into tough Tier 4 restrictions TODAY – bringing the total to 24million” – MailOnline reminds us of today’s bad news
- “Happy Christmas, the Brexit war is over!” – Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail on the good Brexit news
- “The music that makes Christmas” – Douglas Murray in UnHerd on why cancelled services, or services without carol signing, won’t take away the beauty of Christmas music
- “Why my church doors are staying open” – Giles Fraser says he won’t be closing his church this Christmas
- “CDC to Require Negative COVID-19 Test for Air Travellers from the United Kingdom to the U.S.” – The CDC has said travellers from the U.K. will need a certificate showing they’ve tested negative within 72 hours of departure. Without the documentary proof you won’t be allowed to board the plane
- “Covid kicked us all off the featherbed of civilisation” – William Boyd in the Times says we’ve gone through Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief in 2020, but in reverse
- “Reasons to be cheerful at the end of this bleakest year” – Gerard Baker is remarkably upbeat after the terrible year we’ve had
- “You’ve been spotted at Gran’s, go directly to jail” – Giles Coren and his family are so bored this Christmas they’ve created a Covid version of Monopoly
- “Professor Neil Ferguson: People don’t agree with lockdown and try to undermine the scientists” – Professor Lockdown continues his comeback tour with an interview in today’s Times
- “The economics of unused gift cards” – Interesting article in the Hustle about who benefits when Christmas gift cards go unredeemed
- “Spiked’s heroes of 2020” – Spiked‘s heroes include J.K. Rowling, Nick Cave and Lord Sumption
- “A beacon of light in the gloom” – Michael Fahey in the Conservative Woman looks at the few bright points in a dark year
- “17 Remedies for 2021” – Psychologist Dr Hugh Willbourn has 17 tips for how to convert lockdown believers to scepticism
- “The drug that gives ‘instant immunity’ to coronavirus?” – MailOnline reports on a new superdrug being trialled by the NHS
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Three today: “Sheep” by Pink Floyd, “Where’s the Revolution?” by Depeche Mode and “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)” by the Beastie Boys.
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.
Alternatively, you could just promote the site in the way this enterprising reader has done: a decal in his front window.
Social Media Accounts
You can follow Lockdown Sceptics on our social media accounts which are updated throughout the day. To follow us on Facebook, click here; to follow us on Twitter, click here; to follow us on Instagram, click here; to follow us on Parler, click here; and to follow us on MeWe, click here.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, it’s the turn of June Sarpong, the BBC’s Director of Creative Diversity, who is interviewed in the Telegraph.
From humble beginnings, and via a career as a TV presenter, Sarpong, 43, has earned a place on the BBC executive board and the power to ring-fence £100 million of licence fee money for “diverse and inclusive content”.
When she was appointed in October 2019, diversity was a buzzword. A year later, it’s at the centre of the culture wars. Ms Sarpong has just released her third book, The Power of Privilege: How White People Can Challenge Racism.
White privilege is a hot button issue recently, and the women and equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, claimed it was a “dangerous trend” in race relations and said any school that teaches it as fact is breaking the law.
But Ms Sarpong is in no doubt that white privilege is a fact of life. “There is unfairness baked into our system,” she says, and while the “elite white male” is at the top of the tree, even the white working class has an advantage over people from black and Asian backgrounds.
To be fair to Sarpong, she says she supported the BBC’s reverse ferret on not singing “Rule Britannia” at this year’s Proms and claims not to know what the word “woke” means, which is quite endearing.
But there’s no getting around the fact that it’s a bit galling to be lectured on “privilege” by an ex-children’s television presenter who now earns £75,000 a year for working three days a week.
“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. Another reader has created an Android app which displays “I am exempt from wearing a face mask” on your phone. Only 99p, and he’s even said he’ll donate half the money to Lockdown Sceptics, so everyone wins.
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 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 three quarters of a million signatures.
Update: The authors of the GBD 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. 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 in December and the FSU has decided not to appeal the decision because Ofcom has conceded most of the points it was making. Check here for details.
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
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…
You may have seen this already, but if not you’re in for a treat. Translator Peter Prowse created a very funny skit about more and more consonants being banned as the tiers ratcheted up, and in this version two American listeners have recorded their reactions. Top satire from Prowse.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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Look what you’ve done to us??? Good thing we’re already locked down for the next 4 weeks. Are you feeling ravaged yet? Good thing this new strain won’t impact vaccine effectiveness (cause they know so much about the vaccine given the long-term trials it has been subjected to). Phew, what a relief that is. FFS, will this ever end?
“A variant of COVID-19 that has ravaged the U.K. is now in Canada, health officials said Saturday as they announced an Ontario couple had been diagnosed with the contagious new strain.”
I’ve seen quite a bit of comment about the BBC on here, and for myself, (and it may be obvious questions) I would like to know the following:
1) Why do they keep repeating that USA and Brazil have the “highest Covid deaths”, with no mention of the fact that Peru and Belgium have a higher IFR (and also had strict lockdowns)?
2) Why do they uncritically report the results of a rigged vitamin D test, allowing the dubious conclusion of those conducting it that there is “insufficient evidence that vitamin D boosts immunity against viruses” to pass unchallenged (and never mind that elsewhere on the BBC they report that there are more deaths in winter when there just happens to be less sunlight)?
3) Why do they not challenge government ( and by extension CCP and big pharma) propaganda that vaccines are the only way out of the extreme restrictions that they’ve been imposing on healthy people?
4) Why are they allowed to continue imposing a de facto poll tax on every household that owns a tv when they are manifestly failing in their duty to provide balance reporting?
Yes, the government did bring out that anti free speech… Read more »
“insufficient evidence”
Suddenly they go all ‘scientific’
I actually agree that claims about prophylaxis should be subject to examination. Of course.
But it’s amazing how the now conclusive ‘lack of evidence’ for masks and lockdowns etc. can be brushed aside .
If you Google on Chinese ambassador, or China, and Imperial College you get lots of links pop up indicating Imperial College has a very cosy and very close relationship with CCP-China – a genocidal state ruled by a single dictator that uses medicine to persecute minorities and dissidents and disregards all international norms on trade, intellectual property, the law of the seas, and hunan rights.
Shocking that they even have such a relationship.
But even more concerning – how far are epidemiological recommendations emanating from Imperial College being influenced or even dictated by China?
BliMeY!
LoOK
https://twitter.com/Laura__Farris
Fucker farris is re-tweeting and agreeing with JHB!
Well….gag me with a spoon.
Sorry, but she’s not agreeing with JHB. She’s retweeted Tom Davis’ outraged response to JHB. No spoon required.
Oh yer…What was I thinking. Muppet
Well, anything could happen in this distorted version of reality!
The fake concern for the elderly makes me sick.They are complicit in 20,000 deaths in care homes through DNR orders and refusal of NHS care,plus the sending of infected people into the care system.They then want to throw the accusation that those that are against lockdown don’t care about the elderly.
Er no. She’s retweeting someone critical of JHB’s tweet. Someone who thinks we should imprison the whole population, muzzle us, and destroy our economy, culture, education system and health service in order to protect less than 400 very sick people.
Yer I see that now. Incredible that she thought this was worth contradicting and tweeting about. JHB has a very good point.
Is this 4D chess for Fucker Farris? Is she trying to get out some real data while pretending to be outraged, or is she just a twatt?
Just a guess but I’d say: complete twat! She doesn’t look capable of 1D chess.
Very sad all the comments of people who think
a) lockdown is working
b) oblivious to the fact that lockdown is killing millions (Yes Millions) due to starvation throughout the world
c) Totally believe this is about the virus
d) are total bed wetters
e) Believe the crap that they and the government are saying.
So since I found this site in October I come here for sanity sake. And equally over Christmas I’ve tried to avoid coming here for sanity sake (eg a few days of ‘head’ ‘bucket’ ‘sand’). Still, I can’t resist – ‘Just ’cos I ain’t looking don’t mean it ain’t happening’.
Can’t bring myself to watch the full back and forth between Ferguson and Tony Blair. Have seen enough in the clips. Here the ex Prime Minister of the the UK believes draconian measures are needed and the public want them.
https://mobile.twitter.com/lyne_ian/status/1342905025555619840
May they both burn in hell.
We have to execute them first.
This is why a populist party seeking power must promise retrospective legislation to allow prosecution of people who are currently acting to deprive us of our natural rights. Just as we have natural rights we also have a natural duty not to deprive others of their natural rights.
Just been watching the latest tv version of Brave New World. Years since I read it A bit tame for our persecutors. Total surveillance and control via pharmaceuticals, but human contact is allowed (as long as it’s not a monogamous relationship). They will have us all in individual, sealed pods from birth.
Vermin – let them burn – a favourite band, The Hamsters, had it right.
I miss these guys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Akuiv4udoqw&list=RDx-Wu35GzpFM&index=2
Awesome. Thanks for that. Saw them live some years ago, outstanding. Even today, there’s not that many out there, who can pull off a lot of Hendrix stuff.. serious chops on display! 🙂
I saw them more than 10 times (sad but true):
Voodoo chile : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iFpmeFLZVs
They came from Southend. In their own words there was more culture in a pot of yoghurt than their home town. Boy, did they make a great sound.
https://news.sky.com/story/sundays-national-newspaper-front-pages-12173278 -Telegraph . Whether you are pro or anti ,what on earth is a huntsman doing with a muzzle on blowing a horn. It’s outside for godsake .
Virtue signalling ?
If he stuck the horn up his arse, he could blow it without compromising his face covering, and no offence against Covid decency would have been committed.
We all need to adapt to the new normal 😉
Adapt? Hell no. But I’m happy to stick the new normal where the sun don’t shine.
Good job we’re cleaning everything!
Some brightspark from Sage recently suggested that we should have our Christmas drinks round the firepit in the garden – do they live in the Scilly Isles? Do they have gardens?
They also suggested we add an extra dining table so people could socially distance.
We didn’t manage the firepit – you’re not allowed to have such things in “socially affordable” rented housing, though at least there is a garden. We compensated by adding two extra tables (ok, they were really pasting tables) into the 4mx4m dining area – and proceeded to fit 17 people round them.
Save the country
stop covid deaths
DO NOT GET TESTED
100% agree. Who are these perfectly healthy people queuing up to be tested?
– hypochondriacs
– hysterics
– power hungry
– lazy asses
– sheep
Me fear we are outnumbered.
Good news is the Liverpool pilot testing regime was a complete failure. Scousers have more sense than to ruin what remains of their private lives by being sucked into twice weekly testing.
That is good news. The pressure is certainly on given the government will pay people to be tested on a regular basis. And pay them to sit on their tootsies all day not working. And criminalise them (in certain industries) if they want to work. I can’t get over how selfish people are to not see how disgusting and obvious and manipulative and criminal that is. But then again what do I know? I’m a covidiot.
That’s why the whole thing smells rotten.Just because we don’t have proof as to what it is,it is undeniable that something very wrong is going on.
You inspired me Jonathan…
I smell a rat
Of that
I’m sure
Or else the perfume
Of algae bloom
Mixed with bull’s manure,
Perhaps
Patrick craps
In these parts here about
Or Boris and Chris
Take a piss
On a mouldering trout.
I think we can tell
From whatever the smell
That something is wrong, very wrong.
Something is wrong, very wrong…
I’ve never been a muse before
Well, that was amusing. 🙂
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/covid-lockdown-deaths-england-b1778171.html
It all came down to a week in March according to Imperial College. Labour and the lockdown left will take this argument to their grave.
“Experts from Imperial College”. That’s as far as you need to read (and it’s close to the start of the article).
Indeed. But this is the barrel to hold Bozo over for the scientists. They claim he presided over 20k avoidable deaths- he must now listen to whatever they instruct forever and ever amen.
Exactly. It’s basically a slogan, as vapid as build back better.
All based on the magical ICL R0 number as well.
Lol. What bollocks! How do they explain Belgium? Early strict lockdown and one of he highest death rates in the world. Imperial College is a propaganda front for Gates and the CCP.
Yes. Spot the contradiction in terms in those four words.
Notice how their abject failure in analysing outcomes is ignored. Remember ‘4000 deaths per day’? Most of us with a spreadsheet could have put them right on that one.
Nah he still wants everybody vaccinated.
Save lives
stop covid
DONT GET TESTED
I have just read the rules for buying things in shops in Wales and its pretty obvious that they were written by a fucking madman
Dungford is mad, for a start. As se used to say about the school where I briefly taught, ‘You don’t have to be mad to live here, but it helps.’
You also have to be mad to comply with the rules. All Welsh businesses are run by madmen.
but not the “old normal” b ‘n’ b I usually go to in north Wales 🙂
Covid sceptic loose in the BBC newsroom. 😉
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news
Great work my picture friend – you have raised the bar. I’ll have to get onto this tomorrow.
Thank you, most kind. 🙂
I originally had ‘Handjob is dead’ as the headline, but the Mrs said it might have been a bit too much and that Toby might have got complaints. The truck drivers were topical enough to ‘soften’ the story enough. 😉
New policy – I am going to ask anyone who engages me in conversation – do you support the lockdown? If they yes I will reply you are a fucking cunt.
Despite the article today, about 17 ways, I can’t do it.
And as a former mental health lawyer who was used to arguing her way to win people’s freedoms – we are beyond it. I am past caring about what people think about me in my village – and there are plenty of sceptics now. They may not support my new stance but they won’t hate me for it.
Especially next year and 2022 when the shit really hits the fan. Their are so many rich, but not rich enough arseholes thinking they will be alright – the only thing to look forward to is their losing their wealth!
Sorry for being bad. I guess I just am.
I’m with you, Jo, though I will need to moderate my language to have any chance of earning a living. We are beyond it My job is all about persuading people to do things differently for their and others’ benefit, often against the odds (important caveat is that they’ve asked for help- I’m not in public health or psyops). I doubt either of us are bad, just realistic about the extent of wilful ignorance and the power of the negative. Many people will only care when the shockwaves finally reach them.
Can’t say I could follow your policy, but it’s honest and factual. I’ve found the thoughts when accosted by idiots have become muttered under my breath, getting louder over time so I understand.
You’re right about those well off, plenty round here as well who go along with everything because they, as yet, are financially unaffected.
Just tell them they are supporting the death of tens of millions and that they are fecking cnuts who don’t deserve liberty or safety
As hard as it is, if they say yes just respond ‘oh interesting and why is that?’ Then take apart whatever their answers are methodically and politely eg ‘of course you’ll be aware that…bah blah (true facts)..have you seen that? Sounds wild but (important impressive person) told me so I’m inclined to agree….’ blah blah etc etc
You have the advantage over them (me) of being a mental health lawyer, playing Devil’s advocate what would convince you to reconsider your opinion? Use that insight of powerful belief.
I’ve shown people a level of tolerance I never imagined I could dredge up these last nine months as they have been terrified – deliberately, unforgivably – by the government and media fear-mongering. I’ve seen two friends driven to the very edge of insanity – one admitted to psychiatric care for a month. However, I’m now so far past the end of my tether I doubt even the Hubble space telescope could find it: anyone whose pee isn’t boiling I regard as either a collaborator or so stupid they might as well have devolved into lichen. If people insist on remaining bedwetters, so be it – but why should the rest of us be expected to lie in urine-sodden sheets alongside them? The only thing keeping me going is dreaming up suitable punishments for all the guilty vermin.
Marianna Spring claims (no evidence beyond the anecdotal) that conspiracy theories about Covid and Lcokdowns break up relationships and destroy lives…but in reality (plenty of factual evidence) it is hysterical fear of Covid and Government lockdowns that break up relationships and take lives.
The BBC are evil
When the time comes heads will roll there, as well as in government.
A new set of people to blame
BBC TruthWitch
She certainly seems to be in Witchfinder General mode. She now claims people are “under the spell” of conspiracy theories. Might be a case of too much Hogwarts nonsense as a child…
So it is the dissenters who are are a spell ? Once again the BBC gets its “facts” 100% back to front
Marianna Spring is a shill who talks a load of bubbles.
friend just sent me this … . cant stop laughing !!! not sure where it is from but allegedly it has caused panic and retractions
apparently published in Philipines
I saw this (don’t know the source) a while back and had a good laugh. It does look fairly realistic; must be a professional job.
If you can’t laugh at this shitshow on occasion, you wouldn’t get out of bed.
my source suggested it was real footage from a new york hospital following a major shooting incident. but i do like the idea of 90 year old zombies
How stupid next you’ll be telling us there us some killer virus needing which needs us to destroy our economy and never see our parents again..
Are you set for the Great Reset? – coming to a TV screen near you in the New Year…
Normally the MSM are only too happy to report fron Davos. This year’s Davos theme is the Great Reset. Will the MSM tells us that or will there bd a tactical decision be taken to censor that fact? After all, they censor lots of genuine news these days e.g. Biden’s senility, Biden’s corruption, Biden’s son’s corruption, CCP infiltration of the West, effectivness of Covid treatments such as Ivermectin,
It has been rescheduled for May in Singapore – pretty telling that the Far East will be where they discuss how to end the West as all the major banks have moved their HQs out there.
Really? – that’s new to me…
Apparently there will still be a virtual event during Davos Week -25-29 Jan. It’s being billed as The Davos Agenda.
Are they quietly dropping “The Great Reset” as a bit of an own-goal PR disaster?
Just found this in the Telegraph ‘below the line’ (where comments have started to become almost indistinguishable from LS’s). It’s from Sky Australia and about the ‘Great Reset’. Sharp, funny and spot-on. It’s from November so may have been posted already, but in case not, or you missed it, here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF_kXE-HXSQ (from about 50 seconds)
itv – the masked singer. some irony here given that there is also a masked audience . yet the masked singer when unmasked is unmasked .
the programme is shite — just curious about it ( and i know who sausage is) .
Im not sure whether this has been shared yet –
Our year of bowing down to ‘The Science’
by Bruce Pardy (professor of law at Queen’s University, Canada)
https://financialpost.com/opinion/2020-hindsight-bruce-pardy-our-year-of-bowing-down-to-the-science
Thanks for this. We subscribe to one of the other national newspapers in Canada but I think the Financial Post has been more sceptical. This article may push us to make a switch.
If you want to read something amusing it’s our pal Marianna’s review of the year, she’s still insisting HCQ is ineffective against covid
https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-55355911
Well she would, wouldn’t she…if she was part of a conspiracy.
I think some of these BBC journos would pipe down if required to put the figure for how much they receive from the BBC next to the byline. If we saw £280,000 next to a biased, tendentious bit of reporting by Jon Sopel, I think that would help everyone. If we saw £150,000 next to an article by Nick Bryant containing a searing indictmemt of poverty and injustice in the USA that would also be helpful. Likewise, seeing a figure next to a piece by Marianna Spring (£75,000?) would surely be an aid to understanding when she writes about people profiteering from conspiracy fheories.
More scariness from MSM and the Covid junta;
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13579450/all-of-england-must-be-tier-4-immediately/?utm_medium=browser_notifications&utm_source=pushly
The question is, do they really believe all this piffle? or are they running a huge scam?
To some extent I think they are the all time control freaks, they cannot accept that this virus is a ‘will o the wisp’ and does not follow their plans and thus we all suffer.
Message from a friend:
‘My sister phoned today. She had Christmas Day on her own but her dinner came from son Pete who ran it over and just handed it over on the doorstep.’
That people should do this to themselves – and their hapless relations – just totally confounds me. Totally.
Their humanity has gone altogether as has their sense of proportion,they must be living in a state of continuous fear,they may be alive but they certainly aren’t living.
The deep psychosis that some people have descended into this year is going to take a hell of a lot to reverse.
Yes, it’s bad enough for those suffering from the psychosis, but I’m more concerned about the damage the Covidians are doing to the rest of us and our formerly liberal democratic societies. They are the real danger and it will take a huge deprogramming effort to reverse this, and I’m not even sure that the magic vaccine (an obvious placebo) will do it.
The vaccine will simply embed the myths. Deprogramming requires a realization that they are myths.
Yes, but I think governments want to get the economy back up and running somehow. I also suspect that they will introduce new magic vaccines for every scary virus that pops up, plus bigger uptake for vaccines against the flu viruses that come every year. Yes, myths will be embedded unless we keep fighting for the truth.
I know someone who had a Zoom Christmas with scared older relatives. What a joy that must have been, at least you can mute them when they start going on about “it”…
I hate to say it, but there may be advantages of a Zoom Christmas for some families.
I must admit that I’ve never enjoyed university staff meetings like I have via Zoom – I just mute myself and turn off the camera! Then I can do something actually productive (or scroll through Lockdown Sceptics). It’s called multitasking. Nearly all of my colleagues do this. I initially tried to be polite and keep the camera on, but hardly anyone was doing it. This is an area where herd mentality actually helps.
And that ladies and gentlemen is how Hitler rose to power, now you understand the power and propaganda and fear.
Can anyone help me please? I’ve just been arguing on Facebook about the asymptomatic transmission of respiratory viruses myth, and then somebody posted this scientific paper from 2019 (pre-covid). Any thoughts? https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/epidemiology-and-infection/article/rates-of-asymptomatic-respiratory-virus-infection-across-age-groups/D8E75BDC5B16AEC88DB57CD9B291BB37
I’ve had a quick skim through it and it appears to indicate that a large % of positive tests were asymptomatic for the viruses they were testing for but doesn’t seem to come to any conclusion about whether these individuals could infect others.
Same looking at it it just shows positive test results nothing about transmission.
Sorry dpj, didn’t see your reply until I’d posted mine.
agreed, the only reference to transmission in the paper that I can see is “Asymptomatic carriers can, in fact, contribute to disease spread by generating (possibly symptomatic) secondary infections” – all sounding fairly vague, and far from solid evidence
I didn’t pick up on the secondary infections bit – thank you.
Sounds like a load of bubbles to me.
Thanks (and to others) for your comments. The uncertainty appears to be in the discussion section. I responded to a number of comments in the local community Facebook page about sticking tot he rules and I just set out the case we put on here. Got viciously attacked by a number of people, got a few comments in support and quite a large number of likes. So, maybe there are quite a few people out there who support us but aren’t prepared to take the heat from the lockdown Nazis.
The study found that many participants tested positive for various viruses while asymptomatic but it makes no attempt to investigate transmission. I don’t see that it supports or undermines the case for asymptomatic transmission. The person who posted the study either doesn’t understand it or expects that you won’t.
You have to be careful what you mean by asymptomatic, do you mean completely without symptoms or pre symptomatic? There is the incubation period which is the period between infection and showing symptoms. It is suggested that the day or so before the appearance of symptoms you are infectious. There appears to be a difference of opinion over when you’re infected/infectious between virologists like Vincent Racianello and people like Mike Yeadon or Claire Craig.
My personal opinion is that you’re infectious around the time you show symptoms, as symptoms are showing an immune response (symptoms such as temperature or cough)
Interesting point, but Yeadon’s argument is that infection is spread by symptoms and so asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic would both look the same. I understand that measles, mumps and chickenpox (the latter two I had in adulthood – uhg!) are spread during pre-symptomatic stage but I am not sure how. The “R” figure for measles, mumps and Chickenpox seems to be through the roof as compared to flu and covid.
With measles and chicken pox the identifying sign is the rash, but there are symptoms such as temperature and feeling generally unwell. For mumps it’s the swelling of the parotid glands that is the definitive sign. There is a relatively long incubation period before the main signs appear, Racianello would argue that a person is infectious during the incubation period as the virus is multiplying in that time. However, Yeadon would argue that a person is not infectious until the rash appears for measles/chicken pox/rubella. Taking the measles example, children continued to go to school until the rash appeared. For chicken pox when the vesicles appear they are full of virus, which is why a person is infectious until the spots have all scabbed over. Of course, with chicken pox the herpes zoster virus never leaves you, you are always infected with it, it lies dormant in a nerve root until something causes it flare up as shingles. The whole face mask scenario is based on asymptomatic viral spread alongside the Typhoid Mary scenario (I have a hypothesis that she wasn’t a typhoid carrier but as she was a cook it may have been some other food poisoning such as… Read more »
The R for measles is between 10&15 available at https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/52/7/911/299077
That’s always been my take. If you’re not experiencing symptoms, presumably your immune system is completely on top of things.
It’s a bit like a leak. It’s as if the various components of an efficient immune system seals off the crack and mends it. (NB not literally!)
Just my hunch but it seems entirely plausible to me that some people can keep the infection essentially isolated in the nasal cavity. If they are frequent nose pickers/touchers they could deposit quite high viral loads on surfaces to be picked up by other nose touchers.
It’s a plausible hypothesis but lacks evidence.
They will presumably be asymptomatic, so only those with very poor immune systems would succumb to a noticeable transfer of infection.
Maybe that’s a benefit of masks – they prevent people from picking their noses!
I think you’re confusing cross immunity with a healthy immune system. You can have a very healthy immune system but if you haven’t been exposed to the disease before and you get a high viral load infection, you’re going to get sick. Healthy people get colds and flu. People with healthy immune system will normally start to recover after 3 or 4 days. That’s the difference from sick people.
Upload this on your FB, but these zealots will always find a reason to justify being stupid.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2774102
https://twitter.com/ianmSC/status/1338720650215579648
“New JAMA meta-analysis of 54 studies with 77,758 participants finds household secondary attack rate (chance an infected
person will infect one or more people at home) is 18% if the
index case is symptomatic and 0.7% if asymptomatic.” “Asymptomatic spread is so rare that it only happens 0.7% of the time even in households Asymptomatic spread is one of the main justifications of mask mandates for the general public
Since lockdown measures which have been introduced in March are so extreme the justification for such measures deserves to come under scrutinity and a question which I have researched is the issue of asymptomatic transmission. There are numerous issues raised with asymptomatic transmission :-
Is the notion of asymptomatic transmission just a bit too covenient for the government. Imagine if asymptomatic transmission was not accepted. It would be impossible to justify draconian lockdown laws which apply to the whole population and frightening people would much harder. We are told healthy people with no symptoms can transmit covid. On the one hand we are told covid is a dangerous disease which will make you severely ill or kill you and on the other hand we are told if you catch covid it will not affect you at all. How do you explain this blatant contradiction? Person A is healthy and has no symptoms and infects person B who becomes severely ill, may need hospital treatment and even die. How credible is notion two people can have totally different reactions to the virus even if person A is a younger person with a stronger immune system and person B is older with… Read more »
As far as I can determine this study does not cover the topic of asymptomatic transmission at all. I doesn’t involve any contact tracing but simply looks at whether you can have a disease but not show symptoms. Since we are told that coughing and sneezing spread the disease it would be reasonable to conclude that in the absence of these symptoms the disease will not spread so fast, or wildly, or even at all. That is not to say that it might, but this study certainly does not show that asymptomatic transmission occurs. To put it clearly, this study is proof only of the existence of a disease in people that don’t show symptoms.
Also for this study to have relevance to the question of asymptomatic, it would have to follow up for long enough to be certain that these were actually Asymptomatic and not PREsymptomatic. I don’t think the study mentions that they have ruled out this possibility.
Seems the WHO changed its definition of herd immunity to only include achieving it by vaccination. https://www.aier.org/article/who-deletes-naturally-acquired-immunity-from-its-website/ It now says that herd immunity is acquired only by protectiing people from infection, not exposing them to it-countering thousands of years of biology. Rather convenient for the pharma vaccine-producing companies. The WHO is of course half funded by governments and half by private companies.
Yes indeed – but the oracle wikipedia still has the correct definition.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity
Screengrab that for future reference – it may well be changed very soon.
Into the digital memory hole like asymptomatic transmission being very rare and political pressure to mandate mask wearing.
No need to. All versions of Wikipedia articles, even if a change is minimal, are kept in the article history.
I just had a look. It’s a good article, unlike this one, which is one of the worst articles on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Barrington_Declaration
For now!
Both fascinating and frightening in its vivid illustration of the WHO bending data to firt a commercial narrative – because I can’t think of any other explanation. Ditto masks. Dirtto – lockdowns ….
The WHO redefined pandemic, case and now community immunity
This does not seem to be bogus. In fact,, already starting to commercialise this discovery.
https://aftau.org/news_item/led-lights-found-to-kill-coronavirus-global-first-in-fight-against-covid-19/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1011134420304942?via%3Dihub
“The entire world is currently looking for effective solutions to disinfect the coronavirus,” said Professor Mamane. “The problem is that in order to disinfect a bus, train, sports hall, or plane by chemical spraying, you need physical manpower, and in order for the spraying to be effective, you have to give the chemical time to act on the surface. Disinfection systems based on LED bulbs, however, can be installed in the ventilation system and air conditioner, for example, and sterilize the air sucked in and then emitted into the room.
“We discovered that it is quite simple to kill the coronavirus using LED bulbs that radiate ultraviolet light,” she explained. “We killed the viruses using cheaper and more readily available LED bulbs, which consume little energy and do not contain mercury like regular bulbs. Our research has commercial and societal implications, given the possibility of using such LED bulbs in all areas of our lives, safely and quickly.”
Didn’t Trump suggest that ages ago?
He was LED to a revelation and the light shined upon him?
How ironic if Trump really did have the answers to the virus all along!!
Well, he is an incredibly stable genius, so why not? 🙂
He did. Russian scientists were looking at using UV light on humans as a way of treating infection. Of course the conference where it was mentioned was very loose and he hadn’t scripted what he said.
So it came off like something he’d overheard on a bus.
He was also right about HCQ, about the rona being no worse than the flu, that lockdowns are extremely dangerous. The MSM will tell you he lost the election because of his handling of the coronavirus response. The truth is that is how the MSM portray his loss and the US, if Bidens victory holds, will spend the next 12 months just how right Trump was while paying a huge price
WOW, Imagine if they installed UV lights everywhere…that would be freekin cosmic!
Sounds a great idea, so I doubt it will survive for long.
Did it never occur to our crazy Government that cutting Christmas gatherings to one day would most likely lead to larger gatherings, people packed closer together in homes and buses and trains more crowded, therefore leading to more bugs of every variety to plague the sainted NHS. I sincerely hope people kept to their original plans as I did.
Absolutely we have, my folks have just left after their traditional Boxing Day lunch visit. No fear 4 rules observed here.
Here normality reigns.
Great!
Good for you.
In a word – no. Just like it didn’t occur to them that people might go out for one last drink/meal/party before Lockdown 2, or that people might try to get out of London when Tier 4 was announced with only 8 hours notice.
This is because they are basing policy on models produced by academic geeks with no experience of living in the real world. They don’t seem to understand how humans think or behave as the models all assume we are robots.
I feel that too, they forget we are human. Then they do things like closing pubs at 10 so people might gather in a one-room bedsit to keep drinking which is way riskier!
All their mental planning is based around how thing USED TO BE anyway. Things have been so far from normal for almost a whole year now.
So all this crap they come up with about pubs and resteraunts and how we interact is irellevant now. Society is so broken it bears no resemblance of how things were before the bastards dropped the COVID1984 bomb.
It’s all 100% BS.
Well cases were dropping, despite their best attempts ……
I will just leave this here..
Lot of haters of Matt Wankcock 🤙🏻
https://is-a-cunt.com/2020/12/matt-hancock-2/
I found my Christmas visit to church friends S and B a real eye-opener. Everyone at church knew B is so scared of the virus he won’t live with his wife, but knowing and seeing is something different. He treated me as if I had every deadly plague in existence and poor S even worse keeping telling her to move further and further away from him and from me. He even demanded she don a mask when not eating. He wears 3 masks soaked in TCP. At least he accepted I was exempt. I told him of the Marines study and that I was cautious but to no avail. He is 71, but healthy.
The day before I visited my cousin, we both are vulnerable with health issues, but we didn’t act like B!
Seeing a grown man as a quivering jelly is not a pretty sight. At least I could get away. B said (It’s too dangerous for you to stay long. Everyone should keep the rules, why don’t they?) SAGE are literally driving people crazy and I thought I was nervous of catching anything! It is alarming no one seems to are that fear and stress wreck the… Read more »
“so scared of the virus he won’t live with his wife”
He’s severely mentally ill.
She should divorce him.
I certainly would! S is a saint. She takes his meals round to the house where he lived before they married. I think he needs professional mental health, but that is hard to come by at the moment.
A sainted fool. If I were her I would tell him it was far too dangerous for me to prepare his food and thereby contaminate it.
I’d let him choose between starving to death and risking the virus. And Iwouldn’t worry either way..
I’d tell him to order his groceries from the supermarket delivery service or if I felt generous leave a week’s supply of ready meals on the step, not go round several times a day with freshly cooked food!
Exactly. She’s enabling him.
I’d buy him a toaster and some tins of beans.
Yes. That’s the way to deal with induced mental illness, isn’t it?
Psychological abuse on an unprecedented scale. I don’t know how those responsible can live with themselves. Do they have no morality?
Sadly so, I had to do a lot of tongue biting, though I did express some of my views. I think he is mentally unwell
It’s for his own good and that of others.
Obviously he believes that.
I often complain about people on here but you guys always know worse!
This is my first prolonged encounter with such craziness though I guess I could also count my former friend who decided in March it was too dangerous to see me as someone might touch her on the way and give her the virus.
I’d imagine the TCP fumes and skin contact with it won’t be doing him much good either?
I’m sure they can’t be, he kept coughing. He even talked on the phone wearing a mask while I was there and goes for country bike rides wearing one!
“He wears 3 masks soaked in TCP”
Perhaps he’s worried about “mask mouth” the infection discovered on people wearing masks for long periods. Lol!
But seriously, he must be mentally ill to behave like that.
I think all Covidians are mentally ill! They are suffering from psychosis.
Yes I’m starting to think that must be true.
I know someone who was obsessively dipping his fingers in a bowl of dilute bleach. He now seems to be in a state of weird flux – generally quite sceptical, but occasionally lapsing into full on lunacy. Still, he was at our Christmas dinner with no hint of nuttiness.
So yes, this is psychological abuse. But the effects appear to be wearing off, even compared to the Summer.
I am personally seriously pissed off with all the “infomericials” – you know “hands, face, space” etc and all the other crap on radio, that comes on every few minutes. I mostly manage to filter it out but, just sometimes I want to smash the radio or iPad.
As you say I think slowly, slowly people are starting to become suspicious about the “facts” being presented to them.
I never miss an opportunity to try to pass the truth to people I interact with daily – trouble is, it’s an uphill struggle!
Do you mean to say you didn’t spend Christmas day with all the windows open to “blow the virus particles out of the house”. I use my vacuum cleaner to suck them up, so I am alright.
Ah yes those those “particles”………..
It also plays havoc with the fingerprint lock on computers.
I feel he needs professional help. Whether he’d get any at the moment is another matter. He had to go to hospital with a tooth abcess.
Yes it’s a bit of a lottery at the moment. I guess he might be more worried about that (rightly probably) than anything else.
We are being mentally tortured here.
Personally I believe that “crimes against humanity” fit the bill, strong I know, but not irrational when you look at how people are being affected by this nonsense.
I agree with you. My mental health suffered in the spring, now I’m angry.