A Defence of Lockdown Sceptics
What follows is a guest post by Toby.
I was disappointed to read the Spectator article by Lockdown Sceptics contributor Alistair Haimes about his departure from our ranks. The brilliant data analyst has been a valuable ally and I hope he will return to the fold in due course.
His argument boils down to this: “When the facts change, I change my mind.” But what facts have changed? He cites three. First, the health service is under severe stress and unless we can reduce virus transmission over the next few weeks it’s at serious risk of being overwhelmed. That wasn’t true when the second national lockdown was imposed in November, he says, but it is today. Second, we now have two approved Covid vaccines, with more to follow, so any new restrictions will be short-lived. Third, there is a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 which is around 50% more transmissible than the pre-existing variants.
I’ll take each of these in turn – although I may digress a bit.
First, I’m sceptical of the claim that we have X number of days to save the NHS – a familiar trope that I thought the Labour Party had flogged to death. Let’s not forget that a winter bed crisis in the NHS is an annual event, as you can see from this collection of Guardian headlines. According to PHE, there was no statistically significant excess all-cause mortality in England in the final week of 2020 and while excess winter deaths this season are above the five-year average, they are currently below the peaks reached in 2016/17 and 2017/18. We published a piece on Wednesday in Lockdown Sceptics by Dr Clare Craig on Emergency Department Syndromic Indicators that looked at various indexes of ill-health, such as hospital admissions for Acute Respiratory Infection, Influenza-like illness and Pneumonia, and those are all below the baseline for an English winter – or were until a week ago. These data suggest that some of the people currently in English hospitals with COVID-19 have either been misdiagnosed or would have been hospitalised with something else if they hadn’t been laid low with Covid. In some NHS regions, Critical care bed occupancy numbers are currently above what they were in December 2019 – an unusually mild flu season – but there was still some headroom on December 27th, as you can see from this bar chart.
But let’s allow that things have got worse by an order of magnitude in the past week or so and some NHS trusts really are on the cusp of being overwhelmed, which they may well be. (See today’s report from the senior doctor.) Will the lockdown Boris announced on Monday do anything to avert this catastrophe, as Alistair seems to think? The only difference between the new national lockdown and the Tier 4 restrictions that were already in place in 80% of England on January 1st is that restaurants and pubs can no longer serve alcohol to take away and schools will be closed. But schools had already closed when London went into Tier 4 on December 20th and there isn’t much evidence that those restrictions reduced the R number in the capital. As SAGE member Professor Andrew Hayward pointed out on Tuesday, nearly 10 million key workers are still travelling to and from work. In addition, people are still going to supermarkets, chemists and corner shops. The statistician William M. Briggs, co-author of The Price of Panic, argues that it’s misleading to think of lockdowns as quarantines. Rather, they just create a number of ‘concentration points’, herding people into a limited number of spaces, and in that way increase the rate of transmission. If masks worked this mobility might not matter, but the recent mask study in Denmark suggests they don’t.
Some lockdown enthusiasts pick out a handful of examples where lockdowns have coincided with a fall in Covid deaths but that’s not a scientific approach. Numerous research studies, published in reputable, peer-reviewed journals, have concluded that there’s no association between Covid mortality and the standard suite of non-pharmacuetical interventions, such as mandating masks in indoor settings, closing schools and universities, shutting non-essential shops, imposing curfews and banning domestic travel. You can adjust the lockdown variables all you like – timing, severity, etc. – but there’s no signal in the noise. The American Institute for Economic Research has collected some of the best of these studies here and we’ve created a compendium of the evidence that non-pharmaceutical interventions don’t work at Lockdown Sceptics. The epidemiological models that SAGE uses to persuade the Government to ratchet up the restrictions rely on counterfactuals – if you don’t do y, x number of people will die – that cannot be falsified because the Government always end up doing SAGE’s bidding, as Alistair Haimes has pointed out.
On the other hand, it is incontestable that lockdowns cause harm. Lockdown sceptics are sometimes accused of putting profit before people, but I’m not just talking about economic harm – increased borrowing, businesses going bankrupt, growing unemployment. The negative impact of school closures on children has been flagged up by numerous educational organisations, including Ofsted, with the most disadvantaged paying the highest price. The Centre for Mental Health estimated in October that that up to 10 million people will need either new or additional mental health support, thanks to the trauma of enforced isolation, and reports of domestic abuse to the Metropolitan Police increased by 11% during the first lockdown compared to the same period last year. Drug overdoses in San Francisco killed more than three times the number of people last year than COVID-19.
It’s also nonsense to imagine the economic damage caused by the lockdowns won’t have ruinous public health consequences – anything that hurts profits, hurts people. Professor Sunetra Gupta estimates that the global economic recession caused by the lockdowns will result in 130 million people starving to death and the United Nations predicts it will plunge as many as 420 million residents of the developing world into extreme poverty, with low-income countries seeing average incomes falling for the first time in 60 years.
Even in the absence of the detailed cost-benefit analysis the Covid Recovery Group of MPs has repeatedly asked for, it seems overwhelmingly likely that the harms caused by lockdowns in the UK alone are greater than the harms they prevent. According to one study out of Bristol University, the ongoing restrictions will cause 560,000 deaths, 310,000 more than Professor Neil Ferguson and his team predicted would die absent a lockdown but with voluntary ‘mitigation’ measures in place. As the now disgraced President of the United States said, the cure is worse than the disease. That essential point hasn’t changed, so I see no reason why sceptics should change their minds about lockdowns now. Yes, the NHS may be in genuine peril, but that doesn’t mean we should set aside our well-founded doubts about the effectiveness of heavy-handed interventions. On the contrary, trying to quarantine people for a third time, given that the policy clearly hasn’t worked, seems like Einstein’s definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
What about the vaccines? True, some sceptics did argue that shutting people in their homes until a vaccine became available was impractical because it might take years to develop one. But that was never the central plank of our case (see above). On the contrary, our preferred alternative to locking down is ‘focused protection’, as set out in the Great Barrington Declaration, and vaccines make that strategy more attractive, not less.
Our starting point is that the number of people who died from COVID-19 in English hospitals in 2020 who were under 60 with no underlying health conditions was 388 and the virus is less deadly than seasonal flu for healthy people under 70. Note, we’re not claiming that SARS-CoV-2 is less deadly than the average bout of seasonal flu for the entire population – although that’s true of some flu seasons – only that it’s likely to kill fewer healthy people under-70, including children. Whenever we cite that 388 statistic, critics accuse us of being callous, as though we’re saying older people and those with chronic conditions don’t matter. Far from it. We think the Government should pull out all the stops to protect those who are vulnerable to this disease, including care home residents, who made up about 40% of those who died from COVID-19 in the first wave (and 50% of those who died in Scotland). Shielding for people in these groups should not be compulsory – we believe in trusting people to make their own risk assessments and adjust their behaviour accordingly. But it should be a viable option, with all the necessary support. Meanwhile, the rest of us should be permitted to go about our lives, taking the same precautions we would in a normal flu season.
The arguments for and against ‘focused protection’ have been well-rehearsed, but the vaccines deal with one of the best objections – that it would be inhumane to expect the vulnerable to shut themselves away until the rest of the population develops natural herd immunity. That would create a two-tier society. But now that we have a vaccine, those groups only need shield until they’ve been immunised, at which point they can re-enter society (something they can’t do at present, even after they’ve had the jab, because there’s no ‘society’ to re-enter). The Government is planning to vaccinate 13.9 million people by mid-February – although that number includes everyone who works in health and social care settings – and there are about 16 million who fall into the above vulnerable categories.
So, yes, the vaccines do make a difference – they strengthen the sceptics’ case by making ‘focused protection’ more palatable.
What about the new variant? I’m reserving judgment on whether it’s more transmissible. As Mike Hearn pointed out yesterday, ONS infection survey data released on December 23rd show that the percentage of the UK population testing positive for the new variant began to fall in November before taking off again, and in some areas it has already started to dip, as was clear from the plot presented by Chris Whitty on Tuesday. If it’s 50% more transmissible than pre-existing variants, why isn’t the percentage just constantly rising in all parts of England?
But suppose the new variant is more infectious. What evidence is there that the new lockdown measures will interrupt transmission? If the first two lockdowns didn’t stop the original virus in its tracks, why will a third stop a turbo-charged version?
I sympathise with Alistair Haimes. He believes the NHS is at risk of falling over and wants us to do something – anything – to protect it. Lockdown sceptics also don’t want to see the NHS fall over, but where I part company with Alistair is in believing that a third national lockdown is the right mitigation strategy. Wouldn’t it be better to offer robust protection to the vulnerable and make vaccinating them an absolute priority? Not only would that be more likely to ‘save the NHS’, it would save the rest of us from the harms caused by yet another lockdown. ‘Focused protection’ is sometimes dismissed as not scientifically credible, but the 700,000+ signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration include over 13,000 medical and public health scientists and nearly 40,000 medical practitioners.
Alistair thinks this lockdown is more palatable than the others because there’s light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to the vaccine. Within 100 days, he estimates, it can be dismantled, hopefully never to be seen again. I wish I shared his optimism. At Tuesday’s Downing Street briefing, Chris Whitty said restrictions might well be back next winter and some people have called for masks to remain mandatory indefinitely.
The problem with allowing the state to suspend your civil liberties is that you may never get them back. I treat the Government’s claims that it will relinquish the powers it has arrogated to itself when the crisis is over with extreme scepticism, just as I do every official announcement about the virus.
One final point. Over the past week or so, some of the most prominent lockdown sceptics have been vilified in the media, accused of encouraging members of the public to ignore social distancing guidelines and thereby causing people to die. These attacks may ratchet up over the next few days as the NHS comes under more and more pressure, although it’s hard to imagine them becoming even more hysterical. Paul Mason wrote a column in the New Statesman on Wednesday saying that Allison Pearson, Laurence Fox, Julia Hartley-Brewer, Peter Hitchens and me should be consigned to the seventh circle of hell. But the assumption underlying these criticisms is that lockdowns work, which is precisely the point under dispute. Is it reasonable to expect us to just take that on faith and keep any doubts we have to ourselves? After all, we don’t ask the Paul Masons of this world to take it on faith that lockdowns cause more harm than good and accuse them of killing people by advocating for tougher restrictions. We think history will prove us right, but we’re not so full of righteous certitude that we want to silence our opponents.
One of the most unpleasant aspects of this crisis is that it has brought out an ugly, authoritarian streak in so many people, particularly those in positions of authority. Before March of last year, I believed that totalitarianism could never take root in British soil because we are such a Rabelaisian, freedom-loving people, fiercely proud of our independence. Now, I’m not so sure.
Stop Press: Claire Fox defended lockdown sceptics in a House of Lords debate yesterday.
London Hospitals Really Are in Crisis
What follows is the regular weekly update by our in-house senior doctor, based on the just-released NHS data. It makes for grim reading this week.
Toby has kindly asked me to have a look at the weekly data packet from the NHS hospital statistics website and draw some observations from what we can see in this information and from other data sources. Clearly it has been a busy week on the Covid front, with the closing of schools and a parliamentary vote on a further National lockdown. The media coverage of the issue becomes ever more shrill and disappointingly antagonistic. The usual caveats apply to the data – we can only see what the Government release and we take what is presented at face value.
The first thing I wish to look at is Covid inpatients in the English regions (Graph 1).
The steep rise of cases within London (the orange line) over the last two weeks is obvious, with increases in the South East, East of England and the Midlands. At the risk of sounding metro-centric, I am going to focus on the figures from the capital because I think London is going to be at a very critical point in the coming days. Since December 15th, cases have been rising remorselessly in London hospitals. Prior to mid-December, the numbers of patients did not look out of the normal range for the time of year, but they are well in excess of normal now. I commented last week that London hospitals were in for an extremely uncomfortable time over the next two to three weeks – that now looks like an understatement.
It is not entirely clear what has triggered the rise in cases, but applying Occam’s razor it is probable that the new more transmissible strain is responsible for the rapid increase. There is certainly something radically different between the beginning of December and the end of the month. In one major London hospital, the new variant accounted for 15% of cases admitted at the beginning of December. This week it accounted for 90% of cases. Graph 2 shows the Covid inpatients in London hospitals (orange bars) compared to the spring (blue bars). London hospitals now have substantially more Covid patients than at the spring peak and the trend is still upwards. (I’ve updated the figures below to Jan 5th, but wasn’t able to change the legend.)
Graph 3 shows the number of Covid patients in ICU in the English regions complete to January 7th. Again, the rise in cases in London is much faster than in the other regions and, with 961 cases as of January 7th, this is fast approaching the ICU spring peak with no sign of levelling off. This is an important graph because these are the sickest patients and use up a large number of resources. Further, ICU patients require the attention of the resource that is in critically short supply – intensive care trained nurses. I will return to this point later. Interestingly, the ICNARC data (intensive care audit) to December 31st shows that patients admitted since September 1st still have a survival advantage compared to the cohort to August 31st, but that this advantage has narrowed compared to earlier in 2020. There are multiple possible reasons for this – one of which is that as the volume of patients increases, the level of care may drop, particularly if nursing:patient ratios rise. The normal nursing ratio in ICU is one nurse per patient. This is now stretched to one to two in most hospitals and to as many as one to four in some places, which is really hard to sustain for long periods.
Graph 4 shows the comparison in London between the ICU occupancy in spring (blue) and in winter (orange) showing numbers in ICU approaching the spring peak and again the trend is still rising. (I’ve updated the figures below to Jan 5th, but wasn’t able to change the legend.)
Graph 5 shows the number of Covid positive patients admitted from the community every day. There is just a suggestion that the London admissions may be starting to level off, but there is still a significant upward trend which is higher than all the other regions.
So far the numbers look worrying. Is there any good news this week?
Possibly, from the ZOE app. For those that don’t know, this is a symptom tracker app run by Professor Tim Spector from King’s College Hospital. The data is uploaded by members of the public who have either tested positive for Covid or who have symptoms. Some people think it is a more reliable measure of the level of community infections than the officially released PCR test numbers – it has certainly proved useful so far in the pandemic. Graph 6 shows the data for London to December 31st. A rapid rise from mid-December followed by a slight tailing off, but the numbers remain much higher than in the earlier part of December, suggesting that there are substantial numbers of patients in the community who will present to London hospitals with symptoms in the coming days.
Analysing numbers can only get one so far. Talking to people on the ground is also necessary to get a better idea of what is going on. I have referred to the differences between the winter and the spring in previous posts – the critical problem now is staff absence due to illness or positive contacts. This can make interpretation of bed occupancy levels in comparison to previous years a bit misleading. For example, there has been a massive expansion of ICU beds in all hospitals and especially in London since the spring, but if there are not enough nurses to service those beds, they are of limited use. So even if bed occupancy on at 85%, a hospital may be at capacity because it can only staff 85% of the available beds. A few weeks ago, when we had sufficient nurses to staff the beds, bed occupancy rates were comparable with previous years. Now the nursing resource is so stretched, I’m not sure how much comfort we can take from those comparisons.
In previous posts I have noted the reduction in ward beds due to increased spacing requirements and the organisational friction caused by patient cohorting and constant use of fatiguing PPE. What is less measurable but more important is staff morale. Morale is difficult to quantify. It’s a bit like an elephant – hard to describe, but you know it when you see it. Low morale leads to increased absence with illness and stress. At a time of crisis, medical and nursing staff are often required to go the extra mile and encouraging a demoralised and tired workforce to do that is phenomenally difficult and subject to the law of diminishing returns. You get a harder ‘squeeze for juice’ ratio, until eventually there is no juice left. In that sense, the situation is worse than the spring when morale was very high. The responsibility for this rests squarely with senior NHS management for failing to prepare, train and rest critical workers for an anticipated winter surge which was a predictable and indeed predicted risk.
Further signs of stress in the system have become evident this week. Most London hospitals have now ceased all routine activity and several have ceased urgent work as well, particularly in the SE and NE sectors which are the most stressed. Graph 7 shows paired data for selected London trusts. This graphic can be a bit tricky to read, but one can see that Barts and Guys and St Thomas’s have had rapid rises in ICU patients to spring levels in the last week because they are increasing their bed numbers to offload peripheral hospitals. Their feeder hospitals of Lewisham and Barking are at capacity, the same as in the spring. There is still some spare capacity in the West of London at Imperial and St George’s, but numbers are rising there too.
Problems have arisen with oxygen supply at some hospitals – this is not due to lack of oxygen per se, but an engineering problem with the pipe pressure. Non-invasive ventilation with CPAP which most patients require needs a lot of oxygen and the requirement is more than the pipework can supply in some places. Some hospitals are unable to operate on surgical patients because all the operating theatres have been converted into temporary ICUs. Paediatric ICUs now have adult patients in them. Some outpatient facilities are being converted into temporary acute wards. Staff are being re-allocated from normal duties to support critical care and acute Covid wards. All these observations are as useful an indication of the stress in the system as the raw numbers.
So, what does all this mean?
Earlier this week, NHS England issued an Alert Level 5 – the definition of which is that there is a material risk of the NHS being overwhelmed and unable to cope with demand in several areas in the following 21 days.
Since September, NHSE has regularly been issuing exaggerated and hyperbolic statements about the risk of the service being overwhelmed that were not supported by the published data or the ‘ground truth’ – this has diminished trust and confidence with the public.
Unfortunately, they are not exaggerating now. The situation in London is the most serious I have seen in over 30 years as a doctor and it will probably get worse before it gets better. The deterioration in the last week has been incredibly fast and has taken people by surprise. The service is incredibly resilient but it is a finite resource and can be exceeded by demand in extreme circumstances.
The final question of course is will lockdown make any difference? I’m not convinced of the efficacy of lockdowns from experiences in 2020. It’s likely that community cases were already falling before the spring lockdown started. The multiple harms of lockdown have been well documented and many of these such as delayed treatment for cancer or heart disease will not become apparent for many months or years. On the other hand, faced with the current situation, there is literally no other intervention available. The current lockdown on this occasion fits the WHO definition of an intervention of last resort, which was not the case in the autumn. If the Prime Minister did not act, he would be subject to serious criticism should the London NHS be unable to cope in the coming weeks. Of course, that might happen anyway, but the Government have to be seen to act – so I don’t think there was any choice politically. Whether lockdown makes any practical difference to the number of cases presenting to hospital will not be known for several weeks and probably be the subject of intense debate.
The observation that the new variant was spreading rapidly even during the severe restrictions in December is worrying and suggests that there may be an ‘illusion of control’. One must hope that the ZOE app proves to be correct again and that cases have actually been falling in the community since the end of December. But even if that is true, hospital admissions will continue to rise at least for the next few days.
Eventually, we will get to the other side of this problem, but it will be a bumpy ride for the next few weeks with many difficult decisions to be taken.
Hancock: Freedom Will Be Restored Once Vulnerable Are Vaccinated
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has ruled out a “zero Covid” strategy and said restrictions will be lifted as soon as the vaccination of the vulnerable makes Covid a “manageable risk” – a target pencilled in for mid-February. Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth interviewed him for the Spectator.
It’s not yet clear what counts as a win in the game of Vaccine Monopoly. Hancock rules out eradication. “It is impossible for any country to deliver a zero-Covid strategy. No country in the world has delivered that, including the ones that have aimed at it,” he says. “Covid is going to be here, but it is going to be a manageable risk.” His focus is on fatalities and, he says, abolishing restrictions as soon as it is feasible.
When Covid hospital cases fall and pressure on the NHS is lifted, he says, “That is the point at which we can look to lift the restrictions.” So what about herd immunity, vaccinating so many people that the virus dies out? “The goal is not to ensure that we vaccinate the whole population before that point, it is to vaccinate those who are vulnerable. Then that’s the moment at which we can carefully start to lift the restrictions.” But at that point the majority would remain unprotected. Would he – as Health Secretary – still say it’s time to abolish the restrictions? “Cry freedom,” he replies. “Covid is going to be here, but it is going to be a manageable risk.”
Freedom, we say, is not a word that many would associate with him. People associate him with lockdown. “No,” he replies, “they associate me with the vaccine.” Do they really? “Yes.” Even when the rules go, Hancock thinks that some changes to behaviour will remain. “The social norm may well become wearing a mask on public transport, for instance, in the same way that after SARS the social norm in many Asian countries became to wear masks in public. Essentially out of politeness.” But he stresses that these decisions will be a matter of “personal responsibility”, not government diktat. Nor does he see immunisation certificates being brought in. “It’s not an area that we’re looking at.”
It’s clear he’s a true believer in the Ferguson-Imperial modelling complete with its dubious assumptions of no pre-existing immunity, high death rate, and lockdowns saving lives.
The moment he most looks forward to? “When I have the duty to declare that the Coronavirus Act is no longer required, upon medical advice. That will be a great moment: when we repeal these draconian laws.” He says he’s mindful of the side effects: people dying who would otherwise have been treated by the NHS. The economic devastation and business closures. But without lockdown, he says, both the Covid deaths and the side effects would be far greater. “I think that’s one of the things we’ve learned all the way through this. The public have totally got that: I mean, they are more strongly supportive of lockdown now than they were at the start.”
Politically, he feels events have justified the decisions he made. “I hope that one of the consequences of this crisis is that it emboldens politicians to do the right thing even if it isn’t the immediately popular thing. Because that is what earns you respect.”
That’s what we’re worried about, Matt: politicians emboldened to impose lockdowns every winter regardless of the cries of protest.
Worth reading in full.
Vaccination Priority List Ignored As NHS Administrators Use Up Expiring Stock
A reader has emailed with an anecdote about how the vaccine priority list is getting skewed by who happens to be available at the time.
My wife logged on to her village club meeting this week, now on Zoom of course. One of the regulars, who lives across the road from us, announced to general incredulity that she has had two Pfizer jabs already. What? She’s about 60 and works as a part-time NHS administrator in a department in a Midlands hospital – and she’s been working from home throughout! How can this be? It transpires that since the Pfizer jabs have to be used up in double-quick time, the hospital staff are bombarded with emails to come and make the most of the day’s slack because the oldsters can’t be wheeled in fast enough. Needless to say, the frontline staff are too busy in an “I-haven’t-got-time-to-check-my-emails-or-be-vaccinated” sort of way, so they are frequently being missed out. How much more of this has been going on? Since their biggest beef is the risks they are taking, why aren’t they being frog-marched down to be vaccinated with the leftovers? Still, I suppose at least it means the NHS can make sure its pen-pushers keep the outfit going.
Another reader tells us that at a hospital where a friend works, “all staff were contacted yesterday to come and get vaccinated as their stock of the Pfizer vaccine was about to expire”.
This is a known problem. Yesterday the Telegraph reported on the concerns of the BMA.
The BMA criticised the way hospitals are distributing jabs – especially doses left over at the end of the day – amid concern that frontline staff have been losing out to administrative workers. It follows fears that some hospitals are inviting any staff, including non-clinicians, to use up doses after vaccine clinics close rather than prioritising those in patient-facing roles.
Under rules set by the joint committee on vaccination and immunisation, frontline healthcare workers come in the second category of priority, behind care home residents and staff, but a number of trusts have allowed staff from all groups to come forward when stocks are at risk of going unused.
Dr Simon Walsh, the Deputy Chairman of the BMA Consultants Committee, said hospitals should ensure that the highest-risk staff come first.
“The BMA is very concerned about why, when there was quite a long run-up, the Government has not ensured that the NHS delivers the vaccine in a way that prioritises healthcare staff most at risk from Covid,” he said. “It would seem obvious that you should use systems the trusts already have to see which staff are at the highest risk – by virtue of their role, or age, for example – and prioritise them.
“We are astonished that this is not in place. The problem with calling anyone for a jab is that those most in need are those least likely to be able drop everything to come and get one.”
One unmentioned problem might be a reticence among healthcare professionals to get the experimental vaccine.
What Does Endemic Covid Look Like?
We’re publishing a new piece today by Dr Clare Craig, Jonathan Engler and Joel Smalley that explains what is going on this winter and how it relates to the pandemic in the spring.
Viruses do not disappear. When a novel virus is introduced to a naive population there will be an epidemic. Spread will be exponential, some susceptible people will die but eventually we will reach a point where there is sufficient population immunity that spread is slowed and the virus stops spreading in an epidemic fashion. Thereafter, localised outbreaks can still occur and susceptible people can still die but there is no longer a risk of epidemic spread because every outbreak is contained by population immunity.
Coronaviruses are seasonal, so it is only now that we have had some winter weather that we can assess what endemic Covid will be like.
Figure 1 shows the sharp spike in excess deaths seen with epidemic Covid in spring. These deaths were in excess of the usual winter hump. Compared with previous years, this year’s winter excess deaths started earlier but the shape of the curve is consistent with previous years. However, we have now reached the bizarre situation where so many deaths are being labelled as caused by Covid that, for the first time ever, this winter there are fewer non-Covid deaths in winter weeks than there were in summer.
They look at what might be causing the current pressures on the NHS.
Normally, hospitals work very close to or at capacity in winter. The only way this can be sustained is by a carefully choreographed flow of patients from admission to the wards and then back out. This flow has broken:
1. Bed managers, who organise the flow, used to only be concerned with whether a patient was male or female or needed a side room to avoid spread of other infectious diseases. They now have to try and keep patients with a Covid diagnosis separate from those with a suspicion of Covid and those without. This is no small feat in a full hospital.
2. In some hospitals patients are not being discharged until their Covid test returns as negative. Clearly returning patients to care homes during the window of infectivity would be a bad idea. Beyond that this policy is not justifiable. Some patients continue to test PCR positive for 90 days after infection.
3. PCR testing has led to a staffing crisis as even asymptomatic staff are made to self-isolate for two weeks, with 12% of staff absent when it would normally be 4%.
4. Staff are having to work in PPE and change it between patients, adding a significant additional burden to an already heavy workload.
If patients are no longer moving smoothly from the Emergency Department to the wards, then the former will quickly fill up giving the impression that the hospital has been overwhelmed. It is easy to see how this could cause a backlog of ambulances unable to drop off their patients.
Worth reading in full.
How Sweden Confounds the World
Kathy Gyngell in Conservative Woman has written a handy summary of Ivor Cummins’ latest “Crucial Viral Update” where Cummins shows how despite not locking down Sweden’s death toll from the virus is neither catastrophic nor unexpected.
Taking a look back over the last 10 decades, he shows that Sweden’s COVID-19 outbreak is of a very similar order to many of the flu epidemics that the country has experienced, and is hundreds of times lower than the Spanish flu of 1918 which, unlike Covid, had a median mortality age possibly as low as 40 (certainly less than 60) and included many infants in its grim toll. Which is not the case with Covid, with an average mortality rate of over 80.
Nor, he shows, is Sweden’s mortality rate materially different from ours, a ‘result’ if you want to call it that which has been achieved without crashing the economy or closing schools or putting the population under house arrest. The slight resurgence this autumn that many zealots have gleefully latched on to to say the Swedish model doesn’t work has a different explanation, he explains. Seasons must be compared with like seasons. Winters with winters, summers with summers. A low mortality winter season one year is likely to be followed by higher mortality one the next year. Deaths invariably catch up, for the elderly especially. Sweden had just experienced two “soft” autumn/winter seasons. This late 2020 spike and outcome was inevitable.
Cummins reminds us, too, that at the start of the pandemic the World Health Organisation did not recommend quarantine and that since then 25 published papers have continued to support their initial advice. These studies show that lockdown has no efficacy; and for those zealots who think the reason is because we are not obeying them diligently enough and we should crack down harder, he has this message: comparison of the stringency of lockdown across 50 countries shows that more stringency has no more impact than less draconian lockdowns. That is it makes no more difference than lockdown itself.
Cummins, Kathy writes, suggests the Japanese success story can be put down to the “far higher rate of metabolic health of the Japanese elderly (Vitamin D levels in particular, which by contrast are strikingly low in Italy)” and “prior SARS immunity and the quick accretion of COVID-19 antibodies in the population”. The US, by contrast, is suffering because “good metabolic health is low overall”.
Florida also confounds the lockdowners since early on it followed “the advice of Professor Michael Levitt of Stanford University, a scientist who’s argued that restrictions would have no impacts”. Thus, “the State Governor dropped them all and has proved Professor Levitt quite right. It has had no negative impact on Florida’s mortality at all.”
Cummins draws attention to the latest pre-print study from Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute, which shows “how futile the interventions of countries have been. Each country’s mortality rate could have been predicted before the Covid pandemic and no lockdown could ever have done anything about it.”
Worth reading (and watching) in full.
Stop Press: Photo-Journalist Sean Spencer and Claudia Adela Nye have released the fourth and final trailer for their lockdown film. It’s called “Schools Closures in the UK Again, while Sweden keeps their primary schools open…” and is worth a watch.
The Glitch that Stole Christmas
We’re publishing today a piece by James Ferguson, founding partner of research company MacroStrategy, which looks in-depth at the evidence around the new “super-contagious” Covid variant that was used as the justification for cancelling Christmas.
On December 20th the UK Government put 44% of the English population into Tier 4 lockdown, cancelling Christmas get-togethers for 24m people, following a recommendation from the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG).
NERVTAG had identified a new variant of the novel coronavirus in the South East of the country, which was 70% more transmissible than its predecessor, carried a viral load up to 10,000x higher and which the primer on the widely used Thermo Fisher TaqPath PCR machines failed to pick up.
However, these conclusions are highly dependent on the interpretation of the data and logically (Occam’s Razor) none of the claims made at that time about the new variant’s increased transmissibility, higher viral load or ability to escape detection appear justified.
This is a thorough examination of the scientific data and evidence and is worth a read.
A Frontline GP Writes…
A GP has written a fantastic post on one of our forums entitled: “Why Lockdown Cannot be the Preferred Response to Coronavirus – The View of a Frontline GP.” He wonders how it is that lockdowns have suddenly become standard policy in response to a virus very similar to the ones that circulate each year.
It is true, that COVID-19 seems to be more transmissible than seasonal flu and, initially, there was no effective vaccine, meaning that peaks of infection and, therefore, peaks in admissions and deaths had the potential to be higher, though it is still not clear why ‘lockdown’ was considered to be the most appropriate response to these factors. Bearing in mind that the main risk factors for a poor outcome from COVID-19 infection can be reasonably easily identified (advancing age, chronic lung conditions, diabetes, obesity to name a few), surely it would make more sense for these people to stay at home with appropriate physical and financial support, whilst the rest of the fit and healthy population live their lives, go about their business and keep the economy afloat. Bearing in mind that a very large proportion of the at-risk group are already beyond retirement age, the removal of the remainder from the standing workforce could be anticipated to have a minimal effect on the overall economy.
Looking at a specific area of society, schools, raises even more questions about the appropriateness of ‘lockdown’. It is widely accepted that children and young adults are extremely unlikely to suffer significant morbidity or mortality from COVID-19 without significant underlying medical conditions, in fact, recent statements by the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) suggest that children are not affected by the new variant of Covid at all – schools are full of children and, on the whole young adult teachers, the parents of these pupils will generally also be young adults – so how can we justify closing all the schools and cancelling all exams? This makes no sense whatsoever.
Whilst we consider the subject of ‘saving lives’, the current ‘lockdown’ response to the COVID-19 threat is entirely at odds with the government’s usual response to circumstances and conditions which are known to cause significant morbidity and mortality amongst the UK population. Data published by the NHS tells us that in 2019, 78,000 deaths and 490,000 hospital admissions were related to smoking, the ONS have published data which identifies alcohol consumption as the cause of 7,500 deaths in 2018 and the Diabetes UK website informs us that diabetes (the major cause of type 2 diabetes in the UK being obesity) treatment uses 10% of the annual NHS budget and is responsible for 24,000 early deaths every year. This being the case, why are the government not banning smoking, excessive alcohol consumption and over-eating? I imagine that to do so would be considered an infringement of human rights and an attack on personal freedom (which it would). This being the case, how can we now justify effective house-arrest for the entire population of the UK with no right of appeal, fines for those who disobey, no right to protest and no clear end-point in sight?
Far from saving lives, it is reasonable to believe that the significant curtailments to ‘normal life’ in the UK is storing up a great deal of trouble for the future. We already know that patients with signs and symptoms of cancer are not presenting to their GP surgeries at anything like the predicted rates, often due to fear of exposure to COVID-19 or the belief that normal GP services are not available – these patients still have cancer and will, eventually, present to the NHS but probably too late to be effectively treated resulting in early and potentially preventable deaths. Poverty is on the increase due to growing unemployment – poverty leads to poorer health and poor health outcomes – in brief, a poorer society is more unhealthy than a rich society, with more chronically unwell citizens and more early deaths – a greater burden on the NHS. Every week I meet patients with known mental health problems who are declining due to lack of contact with their usual social supports, lack of access to mental health services and anxiety caused by scare-mongering reports in the media – eventually these patients will present to mental health services and threaten to overwhelm them due to the sheer number of cases. Every week I meet elderly people who were previously active and independent, now too scared to leave their homes, many of whom will never join mainstream society ever again – these people will need care at home, a further unnecessary burden on their families and the social care budget.
What of the NHS which we are trying to protect? It seems to me that we would not need to be going to the extraordinary lengths discussed above to ‘protect’ our health service, if the health service had been properly managed and properly funded prior to COVID-19 arriving in the UK. Every year whilst I have worked for the NHS, I have received emails in October warning me of upcoming ‘winter-pressures’ and how we must all take care with referrals to hospitals and how services may be negatively impacted in the coming six months. These so-called ‘winter-pressures’ are entirely predictable well in advance, so why do they occur at all? The obvious answer is that the NHS does not, and in recent history has never had, enough clinical capacity to deal with predictable peaks in infection rates. If we recognise this fact, it was obvious that the NHS was always going to struggle with a new virus which blind-sided us as COVID-19 appears to have done. Surely, when designing a health service, we should plan for the peaks and not the troughs, we should build in flexibility, we should stock more of every medicine and piece of equipment than we will need in the next few days. If we had had an NHS which was already equipped to deal with ‘winter-pressures’, we would have been very well placed, strategically, to take COVID-19 in our stride. This may sound like wishful thinking but actually there are a few simple steps which I have been keen to see implemented in the NHS for many years which, I believe, would transform our ability to respond to threats such as that posed by COVID-19.
He offers some ways the NHS could improve its preparedness for pandemics, before going on to consider the use of state scaremongering and the importance of personal freedom.
Worth reading in full.
Call For Evidence on Lockdowns
The deadline for the call for evidence on the Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights is fast approaching on January 11th. The committee explains:
In order to seek to control the impact of COVID-19, the Government has introduced successive restrictive measures, with varying degrees of severity, both nationally and locally. The impact of these measures has been widely felt, and some groups have been more affected than others.
As part of the ongoing work into the Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Joint Committee on Human Rights is examining the impact of lockdown restrictions on human rights and whether those measures only interfere with human rights to the extent that is necessary and proportionate.
More details here.
Question For The Legal Eagles
A reader asks:
If basic care is to be curtailed to promote vaccination programmes, can I sue the GP practice if my elderly mum doesn’t get the care she needs and then goes on to be hospitalised unnecessarily?
Answers to the Lockdown Sceptics email address.
Suggestion For the Researchers
A Lockdown Sceptics reader had a brainwave about how some hard data on the impact of Covid could be gleaned.
Having worked in business intelligence and data analysis for some years, I wanted to draw Lockdown Sceptics’ attention to a potential aspect of Covid analysis which – to my knowledge – I have not seen suggested or discussed elsewhere.
The idea crystallised after having seen Brendan O’Neill, Editor of Spiked, interviewed recently on the New Culture Forum’s YouTube channel (other video sharing platforms are available…) During Mr O’Neill’s very perceptive commentary around the Coronavirus pandemic he made the point that, irrespective of any epidemiological arguments, this has only ever really been “half a lockdown”, cleft largely along legacy social class lines. Although knowledge workers and laptop users, mostly middle-class, have been dutifully locked down at home, substantial sections of the workforce, predominantly working-class, have had to continue to work in the “meat-world” very much as usual: supermarket workers, delivery drivers, water and sewage workers, electricity grid workers, refuse collectors, care and support service providers, transport staff and so on.
In these workers, we have, therefore, a massive statistical sample (n=potential +/- ten million). Since many will be working for large organisations with concomitantly large and efficient HR departments / modern electronic data record systems, it would be entirely possible to collate and examine their data in order to see who developed coronavirus, for what length of time they became ill, and what any medical and health outcomes of all this were.
Supermarket workers in particular have been in close proximity to the general public day-in day-out throughout the entire duration of the crisis. The chains for which they work are both extensive geographically, and are visited by tens if not hundreds of thousands of people every day. All of these large supermarket chains, for example Tescos, will have staff data showing [1] who their staff are [2] where they are [3] their demographic information and [4] their sickness information. What better way might there be to assess the actual dangers of proximity, transmissibility and severity than to study this data?
Given how flexible and adaptable these organisations have proved themselves to be over the past 10 months – and given the gravity of our current situation – it would surely not be impossible for these data sets to be anonymised and made available for analysis. Rather than relying exclusively on the highly questionable, if not downright inaccurate, ‘predictive models’ used by Imperial College and their ilk, we could perform additional analysis on this real-world operational data. What percentage of staff were falling ill due to the coronavirus? How long did their illnesses last? Were they fatal? How many employees suffered from “long Covid” symptoms?
Few organisations or businesses would rely on predictive analytics alone to draw-up or support their business plans, they would almost always analyse past data in order to show baseline figures and patterns around performance, sales, failure demand, customer numbers, complaints and so on.
It seems that in this case, however, when parts of our very society are hanging by a thread, we are relying solely on predictive analytics, and neglecting almost 10 months of actual, real-world data which might potentially yield some hugely important insights.
Round-up
- “The EU has botched its vaccination programme” – Matthew Lynn in the Spectator on the chronic maladministration that threatens to delay the recovery on the continent and aggravate divisions between nations
- “Angela Merkel mulls Russian answer to EU coronavirus vaccine bottleneck” – The situation is so desperate the German leader is considering talking to Vladimir Putin about using the Sputnik V vaccine, the Times reports
- “NHS staff sickness rates caused by coronavirus are FOUR TIMES higher than in September as nearly 10% of frontline medics are now off work with half of absences linked to Covid” – Mail report on one of the key sources of pressure in the NHS this winter
- “Are we about to risk another disaster in care homes? Fury as NHS bosses are considering using their empty beds as overflow for busy hospitals as sector warns it would be a ‘grave mistake’” – History might be about to repeat itself with tragic consequences, reports the Mail
- “I Now Better Understand the ‘Good German’” – Dennis Prager in the Epoch Times says apathy in the face of tyranny turns out not to be a German or Russian characteristic, and is dismayed to find it so prevalent in America
- “Angry Phillip Schofield slams Chris Whitty for predicting 2021 winter lockdown” – Mirror report on comments from the This Morning presenter that are not as sceptical as they first sound – he was just saying he didn’t want to have the bad news quite yet
- “The ethics of using covert strategies – a letter to the British Psychological Society” – Dr Gary Sidley’s letter, featured in Lockdown Sceptics last month, has now been sent, complete with 47 expert co-signatories
- “Where the mesh inquiry leaves us regarding a register of doctors’ interests” – Clare Dyer writes in the BMJ about the murky influence of commercial interests in medicine
- “The inconvenient truth about remote learning in lockdown” – Molly Kingsley from UsForThem writes in the Telegraph on the misguided notion that remote learning is an acceptable substitute for going to school
- “YouTube censorship is a symptom of a corrosive philosophy” – Lord Sumption in the Telegraph on the importance of not censoring alternative views if understanding and scientific debate are to advance
- “1 in 100,000 Had Severe Allergic Reaction to COVID Shot: CDC” – Insurance Journal brings the new data from the latest phase of the vaccine trial in the United States, the one where the whole public takes part…
- “Year of extraordinary popular delusion” – Financial Historian Edward Chancellor in Reuters on 2020s terrible illustration of the madness of crowds
- “What’s Up with the Great Reset?” – Stacey Rudin in AIER takes a closer look at the UN’s longstanding “Sustainable Development” agenda, now repackaged as the “Great Reset”
- “How busy are hospitals in England?” – Surprisingly balanced BBC explanation of the situation in hospitals by Ben Butcher
- “Demand for ‘key worker’ school places soars as heads accused of twisting rules to turn children away” – Telegraph report on the unsurprising wish of many parents for their children to go to school
- Julia Hartley-Brewer clashes with an NHS panjandrum who compares lockdown sceptics to people who think Elvis is alive and well on the moon
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Three today: “Misery and Gin” by Merle Haggard, “No Face, No Name, No Number” by Traffic and “Virus is Over (If You Want It)” by Unknown Rebel.
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 as well as post comments below the line, but that should just be a one-time thing. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
Sharing Stories
Some of you have asked how to link to particular stories on Lockdown Sceptics so you can share it. To do that, click on the headline of a particular story and a link symbol will appear on the right-hand side of the headline. Click on the link and the URL of your page will switch to the URL of that particular story. You can then copy that URL and either email it to your friends or post it on social media. Please do share the stories.
Social Media Accounts
You can follow Lockdown Sceptics on our social media accounts which are updated throughout the day. To follow us on Facebook, click here; to follow us on Twitter, click here; to follow us on Instagram, click here; to follow us on Parler, click here; and to follow us on MeWe, click here.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, Will Knowland in the Spectator describes the Eton kangaroo court that sealed his summary dismissal for transgressing the sacred precepts of wokery.
It was the boys themselves who suggested and named the YouTube channel Knowland Knows, which has since got me summarily dismissed. The axe fell swiftly after I asked why a video entitled “The Patriarchy Paradox” (originally intended as half of a debate on the new gender orthodoxies at the College, which never saw the light of day) should be deleted from this public platform. The reason given was the presence of an Eton disclaimer on the channel, originally added at the College’s own request.
I’ve since been called everything from a free-speech martyr to a misogynist. While the video has received views equivalent to more than 100 times the size of the Eton student body, it was the boys themselves who first came to my defence, with a compelling open letter saying they felt “morally bound not to be bystanders in what appears to be an instance of institutional bullying”. They boldly claimed that “young men and their views are formed in the meeting and conflict of ideas”, and correctly pinpointed free speech as the principle at stake – otherwise why was it so essential the video should come down? My disciplinary process was only the latest in a series of lustrations turning Eton into a monoculture
They had already sensed the need to resist a drastic narrowing of debate in the schoolroom, which has reportedly led them to set up private debating groups to test viewpoints forbidden in class. Their wit seems to have inoculated them against being wholly ventriloquised by the new regime blighting the school. “But sir” – deadpan again – “I thought the College was meant to be diverse?”
The charges kept changing, but in the end it was the college’s “approach to equality and diversity” that was deemed to have been transgressed.
At my hearing, two of the three “senior teachers” specified as disciplinary panellists by the College’s constitution were the headmaster’s new appointments to his inner circle, and the third was his own deputy. The College had lawyers present (at one point attempting to replace a Fellow with an external QC) while I did not. A colleague’s character witness statement was significantly altered, being restored to its original only after she protested in writing. Only in response to pressure did the school provide an external note-taker.
“A lie,” as James Callaghan said, “can be halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on.” And so it was that the Provost – once described as “apt to mislead” in the pages of the Scott Inquiry – tried to quell the public outpouring of disquiet around my case by suggesting the video had breached the Equality Act. But neither the College’s initial legal advice nor my dismissal letter claimed anything of the sort.
It was not new legislation I’d transgressed, just a new religion with an old-time zeal to suppress dissent and punish heresy. The College’s “approach to equality and diversity” – which it finally claimed I had breached – has never been explained to staff, making it impossible to follow.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Ofcom is trying to “no platform” trans-sceptics, writes Neil Davenport in Spiked.
Speaking before Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sports committee in December, Melanie Dawes, chief executive of broadcast regulator Ofcom, said it was “extremely inappropriate” for broadcasters to seek to “balance” the views of transgender people by also giving airtime to the views of “anti-trans pressure groups”. Ofcom has now followed through on Dawes’ comments by expanding its definition of hate speech to include intolerance of transgender issues and “political or any other opinion”. As a result we can now expect many critics of trans ideas, from feminists to gay-rights campaigners, to be denied airtime.
“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. Sign up to the newsletter here.
Judicial Reviews Against the Government
There are now so many legal cases being brought against the Government and its ministers we thought we’d include them all in one place down here.
The Simon Dolan case has now reached the end of the road. But the cause has been taken up by PCR Claims. Check out their website here.
The current lead case is the Robin Tilbrook case which challenges whether the Lockdown Regulations are constitutional. 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 and Runnymede Trust’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.
And last but not least there was the Free Speech Union‘s challenge to Ofcom over its ‘coronavirus guidance’. A High Court judge refused permission for the FSU’s judicial review on December 9th 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 jo@samaritans.org 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.
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…
Watch Dr Clare Craig talk to Julia Hartley-Brewer about the significance of the data from her recent Lockdown Sceptics piece on the strange alternative reality that appears when PCR tests aren’t involved.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
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Can the government and “our” NHS please start taking advice from the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service and the Campaign for Truth in Medicine, rather than Bill Gates and his big pharma mates (and their proxies)? Then we might get somewhere! If not, why not?
Yes, money talks doesn’t it??
Ps Sir Graham Brady for PM (well who else have we got? realistically?)
Beat me to it, you sod!
Wasn’t even close this time! The competition has been quite hot recently though.
PS Someone I knew from near Sheffield, we used to call Bungle. I preferred Rainbow though (not THAT rainbow, the proper one)
High Hugh – I was originally called the Headingley Bugle but started putting it like this Bu(n)gle. Somehow the brackets got dropped, probably a mistake, always dropping things and bungling up!
Or Esther McVey, who I have seen in action pre-lockdown and consider her the real deal.
But Sir Graham is the one to get things done imo
Here here I totally agree Hugh
I second that.
I don’t really care who they have as PM. LibLabCon, SNP, PC, Green, DUP or whoever is sat in that place are beyond the Pale as far as I’m concerned, with apparently sixteen honourable exceptions. Until the remainder are gone, and the existing party system is replaced by one of Direct Democracy, I refuse to consent to or co-operate with, whatever vile government exists, of whatever political colour.
He seems to have the heart but I’m not sure he has the weight.
Charles Walker?
Indeed. He has the most empathy. He is clearly very pained by the restrictions that are being imposed. His latest speech a couple of days ago was really good.
The 8pm Ceaucescu silence was inspiring
I could touch it, feel it, smell it, a whispering death
‘ We woke up one morning and the guards had gone ‘ Concentration Camp survivor
10% and rising of the Met not turning up for work anymore
It’s starting to unravel and the pig dictator will not be able to ravel it again
I smell freedom
Hancock clearly in retreat saying that restrictions can be lifted once X% are vaccinated with no reference to cases or even deaths (from the main article).
Oh please let it be so. Has he realised he’s pushed it too far and is now backing off? The ideas quoted above are really quite mild and almost could be lived with. I don’t mind a social norm of mask wearing “like the Far East” because we know that really isn’t the case there and the Great British public will drop it like a hot potato as soon as possible. Not his usual psychopathic dictatorial stance at all.
I am no expert on psychology but if they were smart they would row back on the stuff from time to time, merely for tactical reasons. The constant “doom, doom, doom” frightens people but eventually starts to exhaust them and creates potential scepticism – it isn’t like corpses are piling up in the street, even as the high street goes bust.
They may be rowing back. However, the Push/pull seesaw is a psychological manipulation tactic to keep the victim weak. I believe that’s what’s going on here, and reckon narcopath Wankok is playing us.
Hancock may be playing the weak-kneed Alistair Haimes, but he’s not playing me. Those who are now apparently falling for the propaganda concerning the second wave and for the worse than dodgy vaccines were never real sceptics to begin with and I have to wonder about their real motives. Perhaps calling them bedwetters, would be a fair description.
The engineered “pandemic” has been about vaccines from day one and it seems that these conjured up products will have very little do with protecting the people from any form of a respiratory illness. Their real purpose is ‘highly likely’ to be something much more sinister.
Somehow those running this “pandemic” event knew all along that there would be a second and perhaps even a third wave of Covid-19, though even a second wave would have defied all what was previously known about about wild coronavirus infections.
If thinking people aren’t yet suspicious about what’s going on, then it seems that they have been sleeping through the past nine months. These same people have effectively abdicated responsibility for the welfare of both themselves and their families and are highly complicit in the utter shit, that’s now coming for all of us.
How did these experts know that there would be a second and third wave? Did a little birdie tell them?
Ferguson’s computer said so.
Giving small short term concessions is part of the N. Korea brainwashing game, it leads people to think greater concessions might be made if only they cooperated a bit more.
That’s probably a bit too subtle for hancock though.
Trouble is that soon after they row back they turn round and become more vengeful and spout more screwy demands.
They wear masks in the Far East because of pollution.
And they’re causing social issues as well.
When he was doing the press rounds yesterday, there was one revealing exchange in which Hancock seemed shocked to hear that his legacy would be to be remembered as one of the key proponents of the repeated lockdowns. He’d obviously laboured under the misapprehension that he would be forever revered for his role as the “the man who had delivered vaccines to the nation”. The fact that he’s so obviously and completely out of touch tells you all you need to know about our political leaders and their advisors.
Have you got a link to that?
Yes, I always think of him as Boris’s tethered goat. He’s only kept in post to be a target and take the flak.
He lives in a bubble. Like most of us.
Yes I detected a climbdown too, perhaps he has experienced a lot of hate mail OR he knows he will be the fall guy when the truth comes out.
I actually want to kill him. And I am not a psychotic murderer.
I actually knows someone who knows him (their kids go to the same school). I dont know how he hasnt stabbed him to death yet.
You could look at him for long enough to kill him? You’re one up on me there then – as I am a visual person and so couldn’t look at him for long enough to do so (ie because he’s ugly and I hate anything/anyone that is ugly and literally can’t look at them if I can help it) LOL.
Careful there. You’re dealing with a Gorgon. Need special PPE, not available from China, perhaps Greese has som old stock? Check eBay.
I get the feeling he knows his days are numbered.
By Election in West Suffolk soon hopefully, as one of his constituents it would give me great pleasure to get him kicked out.
And before that, removed from the cabinet and consigned to the back benches.
Better still. Taken to the International criminal court for crimes against humanity.
The Hague is going to be a very busy place in the coming years.
I’m actually sick of Matt Hancock, he is a slimy little creep and useless as health secretary.
Oh sweet sweet smell of roasting pork.
The police statistic is interesting – they are relatively well-paid, have more powers than nearly everyone else in lockdowns and a proportion of them, the worst ones, get a kick out of all this. If nonetheless the Covid circus is starting to get to them there is hope yet.
The police are in the main utterly imbecilic. it’s part of the entrance exam. Plus you have to take pleasure in hurting people. I despise everyone who works for the state no matter what job they do. These people are fascists who take the money i earn and spend it themselves claiming they need to force me to pay for services they are supplying. They are just the Mafia
This is plainer to see than ever
In London during the 70s and 80s hardly any coppers were local, they were always asking people the way.
High flyers came in from the provinces for the enhanced career opportunities working for The Met and provincial failures were taken on to provide the street muscle.
Did you ever watch Heartbeat? That was how one of the characters exited the programme – a visiting DCI from the Met was very impressed with one of the local policeman’s work that he engineered to have him transferred the Met as a DI which he quickly accepted following the death of the doctor he was planning to propose to.
A factor as to why so many met officers were not from London was that provincial forces didn’t recruit very often whilst the met was always recruiting. A friend of mine applied for the met.
Didn’t you post once that you’d worked on mine-hunters in Rosyth?
Ever since the College of Policing was set up and the oath changed
My late father in law was a force trainer and he would be utterly appalled at the way modern policing has gone – they’re scruffy.arrogant and far to handy
Very few know how to talk to people or how to de escalate confrontations
This is the perfect example
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9123839/Coronavirus-Scotland-Three-people-charged-assaulting-police.html
A good mate of mine, one of the most decent, gentle, human beings I’ve known (he fuckin detested bullying of any kind), is an ex-armed copper who was part of a personal protection detail to a very high profile diplomat.
This diplomat used to frequent one of those central London old boys clubs and on one occasion he witnessed a recent ex PM getting his arse chewed out by one of the members (metaphorically, although they may very well indulge literally but he didn’t say). He was aghast that someone would speak so disrespectfully to him like that in front of everyone.
Being the professional that he was, he never disclosed what was said throughout the evening but he was certain of one thing:
“Buddy, if you think the Prime Minister and the government are running the country, you are sorely mistaken.”
I remember a case in the USA where either a serving policeman or a potential police recruit was penalised because he did too well on an intelligence test. While plainclothes detectives might have something going on upstairs many uniformed cops in my experience are not bright and might feel threatened by people who are.
LOL – as I recall looking up the respective IQs of myself and my younger brother one time. Up came our chances re getting into the American armed forces (courtesy of Google). He is only 80 IQ and came up as = they wouldn’t take him on because they would wonder if he would literally understand orders. I then looked up my own IQ (ie 130 IQ) and they wouldnt have taken me on either (as, in my own case, = I’d understand the orders alright – and be questioning them LOL). So I guess they want the average IQ – of 100.
Probably swinging the lead and “on the sick”. A bit like a lot of NHS staff atm.
I feel retrenchment coming up, followed by retreat and capitulation dressed up as victory, bozo the classisist will know some examples.
Crassus being torn a new arse by the Parthians?
I like that historical example.
Sic semper tyranis
Perillos and the Brazen Bull.
The bed of Procrustes for Boris.
Does it do too fat, as well as too short and too long?
archive.today
Keep a record of the collaborators whenever you can
They will swear blind they were on the right side
Jason and the Argonauts?
Pyrrhus most obviously. Quietly pushed off home after the battle of Beneventum. “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.”
I’m reposting this from late night just for you kh, hope it brings some cheer.
The promotion of informer culture has been one of the most dispiriting aspects of this.
Agreed
Quintessential totalitarianism.Oppression works best when the victims oppress themselves – and one another.
In German-occupied France, poison pen letters were extremely frequent. Of course there were people who denounced their neighbours to the Germans or to the French police (almost the same thing). Then the Liberation happened and people sent in denunciations of others for collaborating. It may well have been the same people writing both types of letters at different times.
Keep a note of the lockdown zealots because they will flip when the worm turns
They must not be allowed to get a way with it
Use
Archive.today for any posts/profiles to keep a record forever
If this thing ever finishes and we win, I advocate we shave all the hair off the lockdown zealots
Plus scalp?
I believe that the generally adopted name for these people in WW2 was quisling. after Vidkun Quisling who founded a fascist pro Nazi party in Norway.
So true. That “friend” who posted about his disgust at the “covidiots” not wearing masks couldn’t even say it in my face and instead just posted his rant on Facebook.
People who virtue signal on their social media platforms and grass others to the police should be careful. They will get their comeuppance at some point especially when the day of reckoning comes.
This is the trouble, people will spill their bile online but are too cowardly to say anything to your face. I know a few like that. I now just ignore most social media. Facebook & twitter are now like poison.
Exactly. Facebook especially is the worst – loads of virtue signalling and enables people to say things that they wouldn’t say in person.
I doubt the whole lockdown charade would have happened if it wasn’t for the internet. If there were no zoom calls, ordering shopping online, working at home online, social media etc then I think the covid edifice would have fully crumbled by now. The internet has allowed this rubbish to carry on for this long.
What about the thousands of people who embraced working at home and shopping online?
They’re all right Jack, thank you very much.
I wasn’t having a poke at anyone who works from home/shops online. The point I was making was that the internet has allowed the whole “stay at home” thing to go on. If we didn’t have the net I doubt they’d have been able to keep people locked down for that long if they had to leave home for work, shopping etc and people didn’t have the ability to do everything online.
I’ve been saying that for some time – with the last Big Virus event being 2016 (and, even in that few years to 2020, the Internet has become yet more prevalent) and that is the difference imo as to why Lockdown happened this time – but not for previous ones.
Its mass media in general as well as the net, the last big pandemic we had in the UK, Hong Kong flu in 1968 in which around 80k people died, my parents remember it. We only had 3 tv channels, daily newspapers and the radio. The papers usually just stated the facts and that was that. Thus it wasn’t known about that much or heavily publicized. Now with 24/7 news coverage and the media running fear porn it has sent the general public into a frenzy.
A couple of years ago I was falsely accused of sexual harassment in a Facebook post by a (then) friend. I wasn’t named in the post but it included the phrase “he knows who he is”. But the accusation was so out of line with what had actually happened (nothing different from previous interactions we’d had), that I didn’t realise at all that it referred to me, until an exchange of personal messages a few days later. “Unfriending” on both sides duly followed, but I also knew her mobile number and sent a message suggesting that it was worth checking the law on defamation of character. From other sources I think she deleted the FB post but there is at least one person (an associate of the accuser) who pointedly ignores me now (in real life). However there are others who I have reason to believe know of the original accusation but are still fine with me, so I’ve limited the damage. It illustrates exactly your point about people spewing bile on social media rather than having a word in private.
You shouldn’t have to put up with people like that.
A brick through the window would be good for openers.
And what will follow will make them wish that they’ve never grassed on their neighbours or virtue signalled on social media.
Oh you really don’t want to be on some Facebook pages. I pity the poor admins, for instance, of the I Love Pembrokeshire Facebook page – given the number of times recently someone puts up stuff appropriate to the page (eg photos of nice countryside etc) and …bang…..up comes a Covidian (or two) wanting to know if they’ve taken those photos since Lockdown started or before…..grrrr.
I had a friend like that we’d text a few times discussing the situation so he knew my stance then last week did a full on rant on FB saying those that disagree with the government and scientists and don’t follow the rules are ignorant selfish bastards and finished it with just wear a mask you dumb f**KS
So I immediately text him and gave him a piece and told him I will be replying on his post and lo and behold he deleted it ,he text me back to apologise but I haven’t replied and won’t be either
My”friend” did apologise too and I replied but I don’t really talk to him all that much anymore.
It looks like many people on here (me included) now have fewer friends than was the case before the battle lines were drawn. Very strong feelings have been expressed that make resumption of old friendships just about impossible. I’m certainly not about to be very forgiving towards those who I regard as collaborators. So, if the tyranny ever ends, I would like to think it would be possible to organise a bit of a Sceptical ‘do.’ for all the faithful freedom lovers and determined dissenters. It would be good to meet some of the fine LS people who’ve kept the flag flying, provided rationality/data/stats/humour/hope and generally made the isolation considerably more bearable than it would otherwise have been.
Anybody got a big field?
I have eight acres of grass and a very large shed. And a sea view. Everybody will be welcome.
Terrific! What a party it could be! I know lots of musicians who would appreciate an audience and, if your large shed isn’t quite large enough, I have a barn; I’ll bring it with me.
Early in lockdown Toby had a permanent and ever growing list of businesses that had reopened
I discovered two outdoor cafes from that and frequent them still.
Perhaps he could create a similar list of businesses that refused to bow to the nonsense, displayed notice of contempt for it or only adhered to the strict requirements of the law.
I had an interesting facebook exchange with the landlady of my favourite pub/microbrewery yesterday. I was ordering some takeaway food for Friday evening, and bemoaned the fact that I couldn’t add any beer to the order. She told me that she’s challenging the ruling, on the basis that she’s operating a brewery and should be able to sell her wares. We’ll have to see how that story develops…
I have been wondering why the Federation of Small Businesses has not been more prominently active defending their members’ interests. Their small businesses have been bearing the brunt of the ‘government’ misconceived actions.
Let’s hope so
Psychologically mistimed. Now is not last year and people are tired of this thing. They call it “war” but by 1915 the patriotic enthusiasm of 1914 had died down though mutinies had not yet started.
I wonder if it was promoted again as a trial balloon to see if they could get the performing seals act again? If so, the response was disappointing for them.
Hence hancocks sudden backtracking.
Grant Shapps was on the Today Programme this morning, all about people having to test before coming into the country. A nice little earner at £150 a pop and with calls to make it the same internationally that will price a large proportion of people from foreign travel so they will want it firmly in place before they cave.
heard him on talk.. JHB seemed a little too chummy and gave him an easy ride
Not literally I hope lol.
Will devastate airline industry. That is certainly what the Greta fanatics want. But is it really what the public wants?
Public wants cheap flights to cheap resorts with lots of booze and sun.
When not zombified, that is.
Was dead quiet last night, plus parents told me their village & street was silent at 8pm. I’ve noticed ITV showed a report this morning about a street clapping (some in masks) but it looks staged to me. I think people are fed up and the mood is now turning.
The silence of the lambs
Like I’ve said here and elsewhere, it may be sluggish, but the tide turned some time ago. We are catching the waverers, who will always be waverers of course, but we can now expect the tide to run faster and stronger as time passes.
No no no no no! No!
Sorry to nitpick first thing in the morning – but the marvellous painting gracing this Newsletter isn’t depicting the Charge of the Light Brigade riding into the ‘Valley of Death’ – this is the Union Brigade with their “terrible white horses” (Napoleon) who charged the French columns of D’Erlon at Waterloo and destroyed them utterly.
Sorry – it had to be said. After all, honour to whom honour is due!
Easy mistake to make though.
You know, the Guardian once mistakenly showed a picture of one of those steamy volcanic springs in Iceland in an article about some of the more polluted areas of the planet(as I remember it). The person (or should that be “peroffspring?”) later wrote a penitential piece about how wonderful Iceland is (genocide against Down’s Syndrome babies notwithstanding).
Well, goodnight!
G’Night, Hugh!
Iceland is wonderful.
The misattribution of the painting was the first thing I saw about the column today and after almost having stroke (I know we live in the twilight of Western culture but really!), was going to say the same thing but you beat me to it. (Sorry, this was actually a reply to Viv but I don’t know how to delete it and put it in the right place).
Heck, I didn’t know that! I love a corrective statement with my morning tea! Thank you!
Well, the Waterloo Bicentennial was only five-and-a-bit years ago and we were given en articles galore then. Since my memory is still working better than that of the common-or-garden snowflake which only goes back to Tuesday, of course I remembered. ‘Tis one of the seminal paintings, after all.
Not that I’m accusing the owner and editors of these august pages of, ahem, suffering from memory-deficit.
I went on a tour of the Waterloo battlefield in August 2019, which seems like an eternity ago but is not even 18 months past.
It’s BC. Before Covid.
Or WN. When Normal.
Takes an effort now to remember it.
This tale seems relevant now.
At last after he had left the town, he found in a little meadow on the right a small bivouac fire made by some soldiers. He stopped by it to warm himself and said to General Corbineau,
“Et bien Monsieur, we have done a fine thing.”
General Corbineau saluted him and replied,
“Sire, it is the utter ruin of France.”
Jardin Ainé; Equerry to the Emperor Napoleon
And then there was the TOTP episode that had Jocky Wilson (Darts player) as a backdrop for a song about Jackie Wilson (soul singer) by Dexys midnight runners.
Think it was called Jackie Wilson says.
Last year the early morning radio 2 presenter was doing a culture slot
‘Ooh look, a fab new lifestyle about the brilliant Denis Nielson, isn’t he fantastic! Yes it says here Dennis Nilson one of the country’s wors t . . ser..ial um kill..ers. . .’
Cut to music.
“Next up – John Wayne Gacy, and how some Americans fill up the empty spaces under their apartments.”
had to look him up .. Next week an episode of Brookside about how to level off your patio .
Jackie Wilson said
Jackie Wilson…. sympathy for the BBC.. So difficult to tell Jackie and Jockie apart. Imagine the woke complaints from BLM if that happened today
Thanks.
The painting is “Scotland Forever!” by Elizabeth Thompson. It’s in Leeds Art Gallery:
‘”Scotland Forever!” is an 1881 painting by Lady Butler [Elizabeth Thompson] depicting the start of the cavalry charge of the Royal Scots Greys who charged alongside the British heavy cavalry at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 during the Napoleonic wars.’
Yes. They won, crushing an arrogant enemy who had wasted Europe.
Why does the LS movement keep painting itself into this corner of heroic defeat? We do have a powerful ally: the truth. The regime is losing support because people do have memories, they know the story does not add up.
I know people who have been shitting themselves for a full year, who have realised that they can’t keep living like that. They’re still scared and disorientated, but their faith in the official narrative is gone. It must feel a little like being on the losing side in a war. They have made huge sacrifices and know it has all been a waste, but at least they are ready to start living normally again. The regime is no longer a saviour in many people’s eyes, it’s just an obstacle to moving on.
Its often hard to be someone who knows the truth when the whole world seems to be wrapped up in the lies and disbelieves you but it does seem people are starting to have the blinkers removed.
Hmm, well, much of Europe was despotic and he did liberate and introduce significant constitutional improvements (although clearly at high cost). Of course, he was the enemy but post his fall British and other Govts (e.g notably Russia, with long term consequences) were able to roll back and double down on repression of dissenters through early 19C. Just saying, it’s complicated…
The Napoleonic regime in Spain was certainly far better than the awful dead hand of the Spanish Bourbons, which returned after Napoleon’s fall.
Napoleon was by no means all bad.
Unlike some I could mention.
Despite his arrogance and egotism.he was vastly better than the ancien regime and he did curb the excesses of the Revolution. He badly miscalculated in Spain though. No matter how poorly the Bourbons ruled, the French were seen as foreign invaders and the people rallied against them. Spain was a quagmire for the French armies, who were embroiled in a tenacious guerrilla war whose atrocities were preserved in Goya’s etchings.
Not white horses but grey. The 2nd Royal North British dragoon’s aka the Scots greys. They formed part of the union brigade alongside the 1st Royal Dragoon’s and the 6th Inniskillen dragoon’s under general Ponsonby.
Really appreciate the article “London Hospitals Really Are in Crisis”. This is the only source I trust for news like this. I still believe Lockdowns are the wrong answer but the problem is obviously serious. It’s also an indicator of the high quality of news presented here.
It’s also a warning. If you get ill in London, for God’s sake make sure you’ve (also) got Covid, or you’re doomed.
Just insist on a PCR test at 40 cycles… you’ll have covid alright.
Your “in-house senior doctor” supplies 7 graphs relating to ‘Covid’ with one from Zoe in the middle. Since reference to ‘Covid’ depends on nonsensical RT-PCR test, those 7 are not worth putting in this blog. The Zoe one, while more interesting, is still merely about symptoms which could be flu. Your doctor finishes with their opinion on whether lockdowns work or not. ‘Expert opinion’ is the lowest form of medical evidence and your doctor is no expert. Ivor Cummins points to 25 papers showing lockdowns do not work – this is what we should be looking at, not the opinion of some no-doubt hard pressed, stressed front line worker.
On the subject of using up Pfizer stocks before their sell by date (main article).
They should put Weatherspoons in charge since Tim Martin’s Business Plan is buying up soon-to-be out of date beer in large quantities and shifting it, cheap, to the punters who want it.
I’m afraid that is an urban myth -see https://protzonbeer.co.uk/features/2012/09/16/beer-taxes-stop-crippling-pubs-says-w-spoon-boss-in-plea-to-government and “On his pricing policy he laughed again and, before I could pose the question, said: “You’re going to ask me about ‘short dated beer’ – well, we don’t do it.” This is the persistent rumour that Wetherspoon buy beer that’s close to its sell-by date from brewers. “The beer we sell is the freshest you can get. We buy 90 to 95% per cent of Greene King’s production of Ruddles. Beers from micros sell faster than anyone else’s and we take beer from 50% of the country’s micros.”
Even Tim Martin couldn’t get me jabbed although I shall be back at The Leading Light drinking his beer and eating his food as soon as possible.
I’ll only be back once the muzzles have gone and I can sit at the bar if I so choose .
Good writing by Toby but, Toby, comrade, don’t give them a crumb. You told Emily Maitlis you were wrong when you were not and now you’re saying what a good thing the vaccine is. We don’t need a vaccine since the kids are generating herd immunity and we certainly don’t need dodgy ones – is David Cameron involved? Keep up the good work. LS is the first thing I do in the morning!
Toby needs a slap around the chops. This new found defeatism stinks right when end is in sight. Whether it is fatigue or not, I don’t know but I don’t like it right when we are on the cusp of victory.
I do think the other side is starting to feel the pressure.
Solidarity to you mate/comrade/friend – choose the one you prefer.
Nothing except a battle lost can be half as melancholy as a battle won.
Wellington
“What is best in life?”
“To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women.”
OK that’s fiction, but a lot better than Wellington’s twaddle.
His most memorable comment for me was describing his own troops as “the scum of the earth”. Nelson was never so crass about RN sailors, as far as I am aware.
Wellington also said that the ‘scum’ ‘made fine fellows’ in the end.
Yes let’s crush our foul zombie enemy. But if you read the descriptions of the field of Waterloo next day, you can certainly see Wellington’s point. And he had seen many, many battlefields. And he never lost a battle.
That’s Conan innit?
When I saw the interview by Emily Maitlis I could not believe what I was seeing when Toby apologised for something which he could so easily have defended and justified with expert evidence he has been publishing on here for months. Was it a rabbit in headlights moment? That’s the problem we are up against. Just when you think lockdown sceptics have taken two steps forward in their battle something like that happens and we go back at least two steps.
I confess I didn’t read every ATL article in detail today but glanced through trying to identify the salient points being made. In some places I wondered if I’d mistakenly ventured onto a pro-lockdown site: pro-vaccine sentiments; meaningless statistics; promulgation of the idea that all the hospital admissions are directly caused by covid; no acknowledgment that any surge in hospitalisations could be, at least partially, lockdown collateral; failure to make the important distinction between cases and infections. I’m sure there are other examples but it’s very odd and doing ‘our cause’ no good whatsoever.
Mr Young should have listened to dozens of Maitlis interviews to properly prepare himself for her attacks. And how to parry them.
If the surge in hospital admissions can be caused (partially or otherwise) by the lockdown itself, why are admissions dramatically increasing in recent weeks when we have just entered lockdown a few days ago? Why were hospital admissions significantly declining the longer the first lockdown endured – shouldn’t it have been the other way around?
You seem very entrenched in your views and tribal. All about the “cause” as opposed to actually getting to the truth.
It’s certainly no time to wobble.
Yes, I was alarmed by his enthusiastic vaccine stuff.
I am not sure if this is allowed to be mentioned these days but at one time there was discussion about the vulnerability of Black and Asian origin people to Covid. Is this still the case or is this not discussed anymore? Living in Devon I note that many of the local authority areas with low ‘case’ rates are areas that are probably lower in average for BAME people, although they are also more rural which may have an impact.
Shock horror devastation.
Remember that the ultra-lefties simply adore Covid, their key to world domination. Darling Covvie just couldn’t be racist. It just isn’t possible for this splendid totalitarian virus to be racially selective, no sirree.
I have just managed with some difficulty to pick through some Public Health England data, looking at total registered deaths since March 2020, the % of deaths with Covid mentioned on the death certificate;
People of Asian origin 29%
People of White origin 18.5%
I don’t have statistics but I know Turks and Kurds in London and they have been hit quite hard by Covid.
Vitamin D deficiency is higher the darker the skin
bloody racist vitamins
but you know ‘mentioning covid’ means nothing
Hi Annie, honoured to address you. : )
On the Worldometers site, looking in the USA, there is data for at least some states which shows demographic breakdowns.
Black ethnic people around 50% more likely to suffer serious effects than white.
Economically disadvantaged about 50% more likely to be affected than rich.
And of course, older people, and those suffering other significant ailments, also more in the firing line. And obese players…..
Keep up your good work. Exemplary.
Asian diabetes rate is 2x White folks.
Annie, so-called lefties and righties come together on Covid. Could I please ask you to stop slandering Socialists (for the many not the few) like myself? Thanks.
Sorry. It’s true that extreme left and extreme right ‘ come together in situations such as this. Both are equally loathsome. But it’s generally the lefties who play the race card.
Early on in the bollox, a Grauniad journalist was heard to say ‘If Britain isn’t racist, how is it that so many Black and Asian people are dying of Covid?’
Right at the start there were assumptions in some quarters that Covid was mainly dangerous only to Chinese and not much of a danger to others (this was also accompanied by speculation that it was biological warfare directed at China). Then it hit Italy even though it is possible that was another strain.
100s of thousands of Chinese guest workers in northern Italy but that probably accounts more for Transmission rather than ethnic bias from the virus.
Yes, in this country Chinese are close to WB; Indians next with lowest Covid rates-they have smaller families and more professional jobs (more than WB) but all Asian communities have many more community contacts-ie giving away food and eating together is very important so unsurprising all Brit. Asian rates are higher.
I saw the remark about Italian VitD levels being extremely low in hit area. That’s surprising unless it is an ethnic difference in immigrants. Is that the case?
Somebody mentioned very high levels of atmospheric pollution.
I think they steered it towards obesity which is apparently more prevalent in some BAME communities.
Not however accompanied by any campaign to make people lose weight, and lockdowns make keeping the pounds off harder.
If this was all about health; the government would have encouraged us all to eat healthily & sensibly, go out & excercise, get Vitamin D, socialise as well as resurrecting the good “catch it, bin it, kill it” adverts.
With regards to obesity being more prevalent in some BAME communities, I had a colleague who was of Pakistani origin and she admitted that she preferred East Asian & SE Asian food than Indian/Pakistani because it was healthier and much more balanced especially with the mix of meat and vegetables.
The powers that be have essentially been trying to f**k us up healthwise while pretending to do the opposite – cops harassing people who go on long walks and encouraging people to shop neighbours who take a walk twice a day rather than once, lockdowns, closing gyms, educational establishments, turning us into a nation of depressed couch potatoes with weight problems. Even more than before, at any rate.
That’s what doesn’t make sense – why are tennis courts, swimming pools, gyms shut? Gym particularly are very useful at this time of the year when its cold, damp and gets dark early.
As for cops harassing people who go on long walks I can only speculate that they have managed to solve all the crime in this country. As I’ve said on Twitter, its odd that with Covid rule breakers they’re as quick as a flash but take 10,000 years when it comes to knife crime, grooming gangs, theft, assault, etc.
PHE had millions, a lot of which it delegated to local authorities but health campaigns have been ineffective. We have the second highest obesity rate (after Malta) in Europe. A country like Japan with few deaths has very few people who are obese.
I think the ethnic minorities are more likely to be vitamin D deficient which many believe is a factor in bad outcomes with covid
They have much lower levels of vitamin D likewise the elderly in care homes who spend all their lives indoors. It is so startlingly evident to me why these two groups have been hit the hardest, I find it outrageous that it hasn’t been properly addressed.
Obese and diabetics also more likely to be Vitamin D deficient than the general population.
Hi all, I think one over looked factor is the consumption of vegetable seed oils in culinary traditions of various groups. See here…
http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/2020/09/sars-cov-2-loves-linoleic-acid.html?m=1
Ivor Cummins book Eat Rich and Live Long is worth a read especially with regard to vegetable seed oils. Olive oil is the way to go with oils!
Steve, Ivor Cummins had 3 doctors on and one attested to 25 BAME doctors dying in 5 weeks. A message went out to have vitamin D supplements and there has not been 1 death since. Good old Ivor, eh?
I think Ivor Cummins’ recent podcast interview with retired scientists/doctors on the subject of vitamin D probably nailed this phenomenon; it seemed to satisfactorily explain how a deficiency in this vitamin/hormone was an indicator for susceptibility, and darker-skinned demographics in cold northern climes were almost inevitably unable to synthesize it naturally in our often gloomy climate. No hint of racism, but some would jump on the bandwagon.
No secret that multigenerational households spread the virus more easily plus Asian elders’ health is poor compared to those born in this country, who mirror everyone else. Older folk who migrated unfortunately often had TB in their youth and have scarred lungs.
You have to recognise the work exposure profile for ethnic minorities, inner city dense population distribution which coincides with higher infection rates and the comorbidity profile such as diabetes and CHD, lower VitD. All skew the stats.
I read that the initial impression of BAME vulnerability was a byproduct of population demographics within the M25. As cases rose in the regions and more demographic data came in, the effect disappeared.
The bit about using up Pfizer vaccine reminds me of the anecdote about (I think it was) Blenheim Palace. Apparently, each day’s uneaten food always used to be put outside the gates in huge bins for the benefit of the poor. It was not until the 1920s that a low-born but wealthy Duchess suggested that the savoury matter might be put in a different container from the sweet.
Likewise, end of day. Jabbing centre opens door and bins full of expired vaccine are put out for the benefit of the Great Unjabbed And one day, a lowborn jabber suggests that at least the Pfizer should be put in a different container from the AstraZeneca.
That was Consuelo Vanderbilt. When she moved in following her marriage in 1895, she was horrified at the food all mixed together and put a stop to the practice instead requiring that everything should be separated and let the poor help themselves.
Alasdair Haimes has abandoned his scepticism and his common sense and embraced fear and propoganda.
Typo: Alistair, not Alasdair.
More properly should be Alas-dear.
To be honest he was never a real sceptic. I heard him on a podcast with James Delingpole ages ago. He is not even political in the most general sense. He is just a numbers man…all maths and no trousers. Hs scepticism was not borne out of the principle that it is wrong to lock up healthy people to save ill people…which for me is what it is ultimately about. Ironically I teach maths but this is not really about numbers at all its about moral principles.
For me it’s about not robbing people of their rights. These cannot be removed for any reason. Criminals temporarily lose their freedoms while paying their debt to society, but not even they lose their rights.
I agree absolutely….in some ways we are treated worse than criminals and our crime is…..to want to work and live a normal life. Thats why I could never vote for any of these existing parties again. For me they have abused and violated my rights in a way that can never ever be forgiven.
Same. I don’t trust the numbers but, ultimately, they make no difference to my opinion. You simply don’t remove the basic human rights of the entire population as a means of disease control, in free societies. This was accepted right up until last year when most of the world decided that following the lead of a ruthless, totalitarian regime was a great idea.
Exactly and that was why I was opposed to this crap not just from day 1 but from second 1 on the 23rd March 2020. All those who accepted the first lockdown on the basis that ‘we did not know much about it’ (a position I got sick of hearing Talk Radio presenters come out with) are fully complicit in this deadlock situation where they will be very reluctant to ever allow us to come out of this and also it will be their immediate response to any new virus or ‘mutant variation’ of it.
The movement from being opposed to lockdown restrictions to being in favour of them strikes me as so strange that I find it difficult to believe it is the result of an impartial evaluation of evidence. Rather, attention to the evidence would be likely to move someone in the opposite direction (Julia Hartley Brewer, for example). Whatever the difficulties the NHS may have, lockdowns are clearly not the solution. At best such measures may push the problem into the future, but even then at the cost of creating many more health problems, resulting in an NHS that is even less fit for purpose.
The NHS problem is not the virus. It is a lack of capacity. This problem did not suddenly happen last year. It has been a deliberate policy choice that goes back decades. However, to stay with recent history, back in 2016 Exercise Cygnus concluded that in the event of a pandemic the NHS would be overwhelmed. The obvious policy response to that conclusion would have been to have increased NHS capacity. The government decided not to do so. Even last year, when Boris Johnson was introducing the lockdown to flatten the sombrero, the government did not use the time to enhance NHS capacity, rather it engaged in a piece of political theatre: the building of the Nightingale hospitals. And here we are, a year after the government could see the coming pandemic, and the NHS has less capacity, not more.
The current cries that the NHS is about to be overwhelmed are no more than the previous iterations of this trope. They provide emotive rhetorical cover for political decisions: decisions that are irrational, irresponsible, incompetent and counter-productive when assessed against the criterion of saving lives. Lockdowns kill.
The government’s responses to the virus have caused, are causing, and will continue to cause more harm than the virus ever could. But it is even worse that this because government policies are wilfully killing people. Whereas, nature is amoral, government policy decisions are always and necessarily moral choices. Those in favour of lockdown policies, notwithstanding the if it saves just one life rhetoric, are supporting policies to kill people, and to do so in massive numbers.
So so true, these problems manifest every year. Here’s the NHS Providers briefing: The real story of winter 2018/19
https://nhsproviders.org/media/644175/the-real-story-of-winter-2018_19.pdf
They highlight that last year Brexit fighting and the General Election kept them off the front page, but the usual winter overload/crises occurred. All the warnings are there yet nothing has been done. Instead their NHS bureaucratic incompetence is to be solved by locking us up!!!
Timidity. There has been an increasing barrage of hostility to people who question the BS, and some people will cave.
At Boris Johnson’s press briefing yesterday, Simon Stevens was particularly vicious in his attack on people taking pictures of empty hospital corridors. He made no attempt to dispute the authenticity of the pictures. He just attacked people who have put them on the Internet as dangerous and he made a point of painting an emotive picture of a nurse who has bravely struggled through a twelve hour shift battling the dreaded virus. Posting such pictures was an insult to her.
As sceptics we naturally prefer fact over fiction and emotional hyperbole. Unfortunately we have to swallow our disgust and use the same approach to get our message across – it’s not as if we need to invent or exaggerate the examples of lockdown suffering. Not that we have a MSM platform to use sadly.
Especially those like Hames who have no serious political philosophy whether of Left or Right.
Is it not also due to the testing regime that dictates everyone within a “ten mile” radius of a positive test case must lock themselves away for ten days? Thus heavily depleting the availability of front-line staff. They have shot themselves in the foot and are now wondering why the foot hurts so badly.
The CEO of the NHS hospital trust where my wife works recently outlined a change in the rules for staff self-isolation. From mid-December (presumably as the NHS finally recognised that it was going to be up shit creek in January), staff have been told that, in order to go for their proscribed period of self-isolation at home, they have to provide evidence of contact with a confirmed Covid-19 infected person, at a time when they have not been protected by the approved PPE.(Obviously, there could be competence/disciplinary implications if they admit this.) It seems to be a belated attempt to end a very popular scam for the staff…
No excuses for lockdown. Not ever. Under any circumstances.
A little disappointing to see the choice of articles on this site today. Both basically suggesting a major problem. We have enough of that with every single newspaper and TV channel in then country with the possible exception of talk radio thanks.
Yes Covid can kill the vulnerable, yes into can add to the strains on a winter NHS, but the whole point is, the response is utterly disproportionate and most importantly, taking more lives than it saves whilst at the same time terrorising a nation with unnecessary and cruel measures such as masks, banning families and closing schools.
Exactly. Prepare for the NHS to be overwhelmed by the greater demands of dealing with the lockdown victims
It won’t be given the same attention by the MSM. So Sceptics need to.
I always thought that the NHS was stupid to go along with this. Did no one ever raised the point that if they were to be overwhelmed, it would be from those who had untreated illnesses, mental health issues, victims of domestic violence and substance abuse?
And don’t forget mask wearing that can lead to a whole host of problems – chest infections, bacterial pneumonia, dermatitis, impetigo and a raft of psychological problems.
Being constantly on the edge of collapse is how the apparatchiks of NHS/Moloch maintain their funding and power.
And my own cynical view is also that, because of the fear propaganda, many people are phoning the emergency services if they have the slightest hint of a cough or shortness of breath or panic and it suits the government’s agenda to take as many of these people to hospital as possible. They are then checked over and ‘kept in for observation’ (adding to the hospitalisation numbers) just in case it is the ‘dreaded’ covid whereas a year ago, if they had even been seen in hospital, they would have been sent home and told to take a paracetamol.
Exactly. Whatever happened to the old days when the doctor simply says: “I can’t do anything for you. Go home, rest, take plenty of liquids, take nourishing meals and paracetamol every 4 hours?”
All sense of proportion and common sense has gone out of the window.
I think those masks are already causing dire health problems, gauging from how listless many of the local shop staff are, they have a real sicky look about them. The masks have also caused absolute foul breath in some.
Hence why I’m seeing more and more supermarket staff claiming exemption.
I wish more would on both sides, its horrible to watch people suffer in the damn things.
Agree entirely Danny.
The inhumanity of lockdown. Not only a stupid policy, not only a failed policy, but also a crime against humanity. No excuse for it and no forgiveness for it, ever.
Agree Nick, totally inhumane.
The article from the doctor is enough to tell me this is extremely serious. I was in hospital on Wednesday, for half a day and the panic was palpable. Lockdown, test and trace, face nappies has caused this shit but shit it is. We do ourselves no favours in terms of making that point, down the line, by denying that this shit, unlike anything we have actually seen so far, is real. They have cried wolf and cried wolf but now the wolf is at the door. Lockdown won’t make the situation better, only nature will do that, but I don’t think lockdown can make it any worse as long as people are going to take the snake oil, which I think they are.
It is, of course, The Scots Greys, pictured at Waterloo charging in a brilliant action by The Union Brigade.
The Brigade took 50% casualties throughout that day in capturing two Eagles.
The gallant 600, at Balaclava, in the Crimea, took 40% casualties in one charge, seven Victoria Crosses, and then back home for tea on his steam yacht, Dryad, moored in Balaklava harbour, for their commander, Lord Cardigan.
There was some probably unfounded speculation that Cardigan did not take part in the Charge at all. He certainly did not bother to look after his surviving troops after it ended.
‘“I’ve been in a serious affair, and my brigade is almost destroyed. My opinion is that Lt General (Lord Lucan) ought to have had the moral courage to disobey the order…I led the attack…the shower of grape shot and round shot for ¾ of a mile was awful…almost every officer, but myself was either killed, or wounded, and how I escaped, being in front, and more exposed than anyone is a fearful miracle and I am most grateful to the Almighty for such an intervention of Divine Providence. I considered it certain death, but led straight and no man flinched…”
Letter to his brother-in-law, Lord Howe, three days after the battle
In his defence, he was 56 years old and a sick man at the time; had remonstrated with Lucan at the idiocy of the orders.
Neither he, nor Lucan or, certainly, Raglan, should have been in command of anything at that stage. The Cardwell reforms eventually followed on from The Crimean War.
Let us hope for something similar for the NHS after this far greater debacle
Cardigan’s splendid charger, Ronald, also survived the action. His head may still, today, gaze quizzically out at the world from its position in the hall of Deene Park, Lord Cardigan’s country house
The purchase of officers’ commissions was gradually ended after the war. It had been seen as conducive to social stability but could result in well-heeled fools commanding troops.
The Crimean War is an interesting parallel of command incompetence similar to this present medical weird out
In this context, interesting to speculate on how membership of SAGE is obtained; not by money, certainly, but, just as certainly, by some other currency; the results a great deal more damaging than any nineteenth century military action.
Reform of the NHS is required, forthwith:
https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Niemietz-NHS-Interactive.pdf
Supposedly, these people are experts – science-led etc. If there is corruption it is of a different kind from the sale of officers’ commissions.
The Cardigan phenomenon might well be endemic in the NHS. A well heeled middle class person has a rather middlingly- thick child. Said child goes to university to get a “Something Studies” degree then becomes an NHS “manager”. Not quite the same as buying a commission but similarly well heeled opportunism. The NHS is stuffed with admin people whose main strength is walking around with a lanyard.
or they become a politician.
one thing about crimea. Out of that came the best medical statistician this country has ever seen .
Here’s question for you.. in this context who was Athena? . Answers on a postcard to Neil Ferguson, Imperial College.
The entire public sector management is suspect. Like I said, it hasn’t changed much since Crimea.
The sale of Officers commissions was not in fact corrupt, supported by the Duke of Wellington
‘The late illustrious Duke of Wellington had left a memorandum upon the subject, in which he seemed to look upon the system of purchase somewhat in the light of a political institution, and defended it on the ground that it brought into the army men of the higher classes who had a stake in the country, and were not likely to take part against its authorities or its institutions.’
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1856/mar/04/sale-of-commissions-in-the-army
Appointments to SAGE are not financially corrupt either but certainly seem to suffer from that other unhealthy corruption: ‘cronyism’
Wellington defended it as conducive to social stability. He was a member of the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland and that moulded his attitudes. I think Cromwell also cast a long shadow. Wellington died in 1852 – had he lived to witness the Crimean War perhaps it would have changed his attitudes.
Politics certainly played a part. I believe it was impossible to purchase naval officer rank in the same way in the Royal Navy, but naval officers had to know how to operate a ship and were not allowed to be moneyed incompetents. Moreover the RN was unlikely to march on Whitehall but the army might.
Influence and career peddling by a back scratching in-gang
So much of the traditional discipline of scientific thought has been undermined by political or commercial pressures. As Toby mentions in his article today, so much of the evidence presented to SAGE, NERVTAG etc. has never even been subject to peer review. Even if it had, it’s obvious that the authors would ensure that the peer reviewers would all be selected from the same “Band of Brothers” which is, essentially, a good description of SAGE itself.
True, but the best parallel to lockdown strategy is the war in the trenches 1914-17.Big offensive after big offensive turned out a bloody failure. The reaction: the last offensive wasn’t big enough, let’s have a bigger one, the next one will be so big it will work. But it doesn’t, and men bleed, but not the men who planned the offensive.
C. S. Forester likened this to a bunch of ignorant savages trying to get a screw out of a piece of wood. They hit it harder and harder and harder, to no effect. It occurs to none of them to try unscrewing it.
As somebody posted here the other day, third lockdown is like the third Battle of Ypres.
Yes the phrase “Lions led by donkeys” springs to mind.
Except it’s now sheep led by donkeys.
Not much has changed, tbh
It was a convenient place to dump your younger sons who weren’t going to inherit your estate.
Are GP’s surgeries being paid a flate rate per vaccine jab?
Will that incentivise them to work at weekends?
Probably and
Did I see something about not working Sundays? Or was that just for before Christmas after Boris had promised 7 days a week for the rollout?
Yes, £10.00 more than for the annual flu jab X2 = nearly £50.00 per vaccinee.
And it seems they don’t want to share it with pharmacists. Nooooo that would be too logical.
I think it’s 15 pounds for every shot.
They won’t need to work weekends because once the couple of million cowards and hypochondriacs are injected no one in their right mind is gonna take the vaseline. Then what will these cunts do i wonder?
Probably not, but it will certainly encourage them to vaccinate people from lower risk groups at the expense of the vulnerable, hence the stories today about the Pfizer vaccine being given to random NHS administrative staff to avoid it going to waste.
So Toby, “Disgraced” President of the United States is it? Buying into the propaganda then without actually delving into the details. The illegality is still there. Maybe take some time and realise that the crowds who were in DC were there because they can see the steal. 4 states by default have enabled voter laws outside their consitutional remit. And that’s not even accounting for the other fraud practices
As he for Alastair Haines he is weak. When the facts change I change my mind. Well Alastair facts in science are something you can audit and they still come up the same. It all depends on how you measure stuff.
The problem is that nothing has changed, the data upon which this whole edifice is built is like sand. As John Lee pointed out, you don’t know if anyone labelled as Covid has Covid or if that is the major factor in their illness of death.
There’s a simple test: looking at mortality if you did not know or have heard about Covid what would you think about the deaths this winter as different? Of course you wouldn’t.
In fact if there was no response to the panic of “Covid-19” the spike in March April wouldn’t be there because you wouldn’t have reduced beds, changed care pathways and sent older people with general respiratory problems back into care homes. You may have had a hump but then the start of the flu season was weak as was 2019.
The sad fact is that people are looking around for extraordinary reasons when the real reasons are mundane and non-sexy.
But in doing so taking a wrecking ball to the economy and society
In all probability he was got at. It seems to happen quite a lot. The Establishment send out the attack dogs and some people buckle under aggression. Such a shame.
There was that prick Hopson yesterday on Talk Radio. He was seen off appropriately.
Yes, JHB gave him every encouragement to complain to Ofcom if he felt that Talk Radio’s coverage was biased or factually incorrect, but he was far too intesterest in trying to belittle her. The man is a turd.
He unfortunately isn’t a Man from Missouri. You simply ask how was that measured? Show me.
Its happened in every conflict in history…some people are just weaker than others. I was subject to verbal attack the other day by 2 maskoids at the same time who did not even know each other. I know some people would have buckled under that but I did not. Its everyone’s choice.
Excellent post by Toby today (happy new year, everyone), missing one vital point: that the very practices of isolation (including lockdown), distancing and mask wearing severely DAMAGE the human immune system, thereby making it MORE likely that people cannot fight off seasonal viruses, the SARS-Cov-2 one in all its strains included. The human body has an excellent immune system. To function well, even in elderly and vulnerable people (in all but the medically immunosuppressed), it needs a regular work out. In other words it needs to be continually exposed to bacteria and viruses to keep it flexing its muscles, otherwise it will atrophy. When you stop people mixing – especially when you keep the young away from the old (the young expose the old to mild viruses in little loads) – you damage a normal function in their body. Maybe you even make them vaccine dependent (though I’m not a conspiracist so I’m not suggesting this is being done deliberately). I’ve never worn a mask, when lockdowns happen I go out every day and handle everything I can in supermarkets, I hug whomever will let me hug them, and I even licked the grass in Hyde Park once to prove a point to someone. Anything to expose my body to a bit of bacteria to keep my immune system in check. I breathe uninhibited at all times… another essential part of staying healthy. Masks do far more harm than good… common sense will tell you that. I go outside for as long as possible every day and breathe fresh air. Anyway. I’m going to continue doing everything I can to stay healthy and keep my immune system strong. That’s me, bravely using my best judgement and knowledge, just doing my part to PROTECT THE NHS!
I agree. If I’m healthy, I don’t need to bother the NHS. I did need to bother them in April 2020 when I spent a day in hospital after a series of violent panic attacks, caused by Lockdown anxieties.
Very good point! The mental health crisis caused by the barbaric practice of isolating people is far more catastrophic. It’s taking perfectly healthy people out of action. I’m emotionally supporting many people suffering from severe panic attacks, some having suicidal thoughts. These were mental strong, healthy people before this war on humanity. I’ve had a lot of experience in trauma release (from a practical and academic perspective). I feel very fortunate that I understand how to deal with trauma (release it!) But most people don’t, are not being given help, and are suffering extraordinary stress. STRESS KILLS PEOPLE. Stay strong. Your community here supports you!
Again you’ve hit the nail on the head.
Underrated post
Lol why have lockdowns when you could just have everyone go and lick the grass
great comment-
but I strongly suspect that Xi Jinping’s lockdowns are indeed carefully calibrated to inflict maximum damage to the immune systems, ensuring the pandemic is never recovered from. All measures currently favoured -lockdowns, distancing, masks- fly in the face of all accepted good medical practice and general life advice prior to March 2020. And the monomaniacal focus on lockdowns and vaccines is to the exclusion of everything that might boost the immune system, as you say. This has been refined through experiments with the Uighur I’m afraid.
keeping everyone isolated will have catastrophic and tragic health impacts even more than we have now down the line.
Nope. “Our” governments did this to us and chose to. Whatever the disputed origins of this thing are, governments outside of China could have behaved differently. It is also noticeable that if they imitate the Chinese it is only the draconian stuff they imitate. When the Chinese loosen up, they do not follow suit.
Excellent point. I am also convinced lockdowns harm the immune system and the longer they go on, the worse the damage becomes. I have tried to find evidence to support this, but most of it is vague, probably because it would take years of research post lockdown to analyse.
There’s no evidence they save lives (even that mythical ‘one’) but plenty of evidence that they; increase relative mobility of the vulnerable, slow onset of herd immunity, slow the evolution of less harmful strains, increase spread by concentrating people.
Hear hear! Another point is that keeping people isolated will FORCE a virus to evolve to become more infectious – it has to do this to keep on spreading.
Yes, this is exactly what Patrick Vallance said in March when I held out hope that the UK would stand alone in doing the sensible thing and accepting “herd immunity” (the original kind led by the human immune system) would ensure the virus eventually diminished in severity, as it has with all other coronaviruses. Sadly herd stupidity took hold, driven by online hysteria (“you can’t just LET PEOPLE DIE”), and we ended up ruled by mob mentality… MANY MORE will die as a result. But hindsight is 2020, right?!
Terror of Piers Morgan screeching at them on telly played a major part I think. The hapless Whately was repeatedly thrown against him like the 1/5th North Staffordshire Regiment against the Hohenzollern Redoubt at Loos (with similar results).
Exactly – they are forcing all the viruses to find new ways to get at us.
Coupled with the rusty immune systems of the work from home crowd and we are looking at a cataclysm
People need to mingle and exchange germs to actually charge their immune systems. Social distancing is actually counter productive.
Completely agree, we are not biologically attuned to this way of life. We have immune systems for a reason. I’m much the same as you; never wear a mask, am not over hygienic (e.g. incessant hand sanitizing) and have a job working outdoors in a dirty yard where we all mingle. My immune system is in top form and its staying that way regardless of what those twats in parliament say/do or try to push on me.
The new normal: New virus, lockdown, vaccine, repeat.
The most powerful figure is that the number of people who died from COVID-19 in English hospitals in 2020 who were under 60 with no underlying health conditions was 388.
Tell this to most people and their eyes go wide.
This should be on the top of the page, every day, updated for 2021.
When people are being arrested in their own homes for uploading pictures of empty hospitals, if the Establishment are willing to destroy people’s credibility and livelihoods they are capable of anything.
Well the “establishment” are all bought with money or child abuse, both probably. These people are child murderers wither they do it for pleasure or sell weapons they know will be dropped on innocent people they don’t give a fuck. Why would they care about the British people? Now we are one planet Britain can go fuck itself and bought and paid for child abusers in Parliament are just doing the bidding of the evil shadow government.
Disgusting what has happened in Scotland. Just seen it on Mahyer Tousi’s channel. Police actually turning up to a woman’s home to investigate a gathering after a neighbour snitched that they’d seen someone going in. Turns out it was the woman’s daughter who’d just been released from a hospital operation (or something along those lines) and I think she was living there but the police just came in, caused a scene and arrested the woman and I presume her partner. Horrible Nazi behaviour.
I think we should spend less time talking about whether the NHS is overwhelmed or not and spend more time talking about whether lockdown should even be in the toolkit of options for dealing with this.
I don’t see lockdowns are ever justified – surely we would need a higher burden of proof than the NHS is having a wobble at least. Locking people in their homes is just not an appropriate way to manage demand in the NHS.
Exactly. This site has become way too bogged down in details about hospital admissions, cases and testing. We should be opposing lockdowns on basic principles of public health and human rights and the disruptive effects of lockdowns on societal functioning, which should be preserved to the maximum possible extent in an epidemic.
There are lots of improvements that could probably be made to the NHS and the democratically elected government can enact them. Just because it hasn’t doesn’t mean we should all be locked in our homes. It doesn’t work on a fundamental rights basis (my rights are not contingent on the current pressure on a government service) and certainly doesn’t on a cost/benefit analysis as you allude to.
I’m not disagreeing with you – more trying to reinforce the point!
EXACTLY!! if we were to send the entire population to the gas chambers on their 60th or 50th birthday, along with everyone who has a chronic or terminal condition, it would do wonders for relieving the pressure on the NHS. the ends do not justify the means. if the NHS can not cope when people get sick then this means the NHS is useless and not fit for purpose, and it’s the NHS that needs to go, not the people. this deification of the sacred NHS has to stop
Also, it faces unlimited demand. Its very successes ensure its ultimate failure.The more people it keeps alive long after Nature has called time on them, the more expensive their care becomes. And the more sophisticated drugs become, the more they cost. The NHS will NEVER be able to ‘cope’.
Having seen how NHS/Moloch keeps the elderly alive I shall be taking the Laphroaig/Swale option when the time comes. Timing and courage critical of course, let’s hope they don’t fail me.
Good points!
This is the point…I am sick of hearing about the bloody NHS as if its god. When I was a young adult you hardly ever heard about it…now its a national obsession…thats partly why we are in this mess.
Exactly, the NHS has been Deified. The clapping, symbolic mask wearing and reciting “stay at home” diktats are just like religious rituals. Covid 19 is now a cult.
The plan is working – how to destroy the NHS as a symbol, so it can be piratised for US-style operations?
I think the NHS needs to be scrapped completely and replaced by a more continental style medical service which is more fair, more efficient and better run. The NHS has become the medical equivalent of British Leyland.
Yes for decades we have been told that the way to help the NHS was ever increasing sums of taxpayers money. Now thats no longer enough. Now the taxpayers have to be put under house arrest too!
At a very early point in the pandemic, Rishi Sunak wrote off the historic debts of the various NHS trusts, thereby throwing away any hope that they could be used in the future as a lever to encourage reform. As a mechanism, it was hopelessly naive – any new money should surely have been ring-fenced to improve current performance?
‘As the now disgraced President of the United States said, the cure is worse than the disease’
Tut tut Toby, wait until Delingpole sees that.
Also not necessary or appropriate. You insult the millions of Americans that voted for him thus falling into the Maitless approach.
Trump is a hero. America has been stolen from the people by the same people that brought the world the middle east wars, 9/11 and all these fake muslim terrorists. I predict a rise in war, terrorism and more lockdowns from these clowns. It’s a crazy world when Trump stood alone as the saviour of the West. I say this without any irony nor am i kidding. Anyone denying the election wasn’t stolen is either lying and being paid to say that or so fucking stupid they’re probably a socialist. We are in for a dark night of the soul under these people
Socialism distancing, as one wit – JP Sears – recently put it.
Indeed, warp speed to restart all the profitable worldwide conflicts increasing when Proconsul Harris kowtows to Emperor Xi. The peace agreements in Middle East would be enough to secure anyone else’s legacy let alone a Peace Prize or two.
It wont be Proconsul Harris for very long. Biden will be deemed to be unable to fulfil the office of President on medical grounds possibly dementia or he will trip over his dog and break his neck. then it will be President Harris!
This whole presidential election farce has been pre-planned, pre-arranged and pre-paid. Welcome to the United Socialist States of America.
With Hilary as VP…. She finally gets what she wants (almost) and the leftards celebrate
Trump was robbed
You dont even have to be a Trump supporter to see that election as corruption on a giant scale. Toby will never see that though …he is terrified of losing his modest foot in the door of the mainstream media. James does not call him a cuck for nothing.
Toby should just have left the ‘disgraced’ out. He has enough work on his hands with Free Speech and Lockdown.
I agree. It jarred with me to see him include that ‘disgraced’ and why use it when the statement he is referencing is 100% what this site stands for?
What has happened in USA now is terrifying, many feel as we do about Trump and the massive election fraud but you’ll never see it in the bent MSM. How do we make our voices heard?
Agree, it was a stolen election.
Unless something happens in the next 2 weeks to overturn what went on yesterday then we’re all doomed.
Is this a cunning plan to get all the enemies in the open including his allies who were stabbing Trump in the back the whole time he was President so they can be arrested as they have shown themselves openly to be enemies of the people or is this the end for good and we’re all screwed?
I was reading a piece the day of the Georgia reruns, with one Dem canvasser claiming that their office had signed up 125,000 new supporter, most of whom would be using absentee votes, becuase they don’t have to produce ID at polling stations. They took a lesson from Labour about postal votes and how the minority community leaders love them.for the ability to influence block voting.
Disgraced only in the eyes of the mass media – the legacy mass media. If I was disgraced in their eyes, I would consider it an honour.
I’m a Socialist (for the many, not the few) and agree totally.
I think its going to be an even more bitter London Calling next tuesday…cant wait!
How close to Herd immunity?
Looking at the governments ‘cases’ map, zoomed in to local level, you can see pockets of blue in inner London, as well as some in Birmingham. These appear to be more cosmopolitan areas, perhaps areas which had experienced more cases early on and might now be close to Herd.
I have also read that around 60% of school children may have already developed immunity. This suggests they are very close to herd and closing schools a completely useless strategy.
However, apparently we don’t do any measurements about herd, T cells etc these days, so we’ve no idea. I could be wrong. If anyone has any data on this please share your.
.
I think we are at herd immunity. The progression of the virus is as you would expect for a normal seasonal winter virus that is endemic. Zoe shows 70,000 new infections per day and we would expect 400,000 infections per day of all cold/flu variants. It is just one (a major one) of the 200 or so respiratory illnesses that go round in winter and kill 40,000 extra (comparing Dec-Feb to other months) every year.
Lockdowns are an emergency measure for a deadly pandemic. Not a tool for propping up the NHS. This isn’t a deadly pandemic or national emergency therefore lockdowns are being imposed illegally by our government.
End of.
Prior to this year there was a scientific consensus that lockdowns should never be used as a pandemic control measure. The deadliness of a pathogen is not really relevant. In fact, the more deadly the pathogen the more likely an epidemic is to die out quickly without intervention.
Lockdowns should go back into the textbook as something never to be done.
This is what worries me the most. If we don’t win the argument against lockdowns then they’ll be used again in the future.
The truth is our braindead politicians have simply no idea on how to run things, they are like headless chickens. None of these measures make any sense whatsoever.
They only make sense in the narrative of ‘The Great Reset’ and if they don’t want us to believe in that ‘crazy tin-foil hat conspiracy’ theory then they need to stop this shit show down and fast.
I wouldn’t worry about any “great reset”. What appears to be happening is incapable & incompetent governments around the world are acting in groupthink with covid-19 (probably inspired by the lockdown tactics used in China) and a few nefarious chancers like those in the WEF are hoping to use the ongoing fiasco to push their own agenda. Much of it will eventually fail because of human nature and the fact humanity is too diverse be be run as a technocracy. I’m not a conspiracy theorist anyhow, just a realist.
Lockdowns are not needed. Ever. In a truly deadly pandemic, there would be absolutely no need for the government to mandate people staying at home as people would do this anyway.
This is so true.
SAGE minutes ceased referring to a pandemic probably May/June time. It has been called an epidemic consistently since then.
Let’s put some reality back in this.
Firstly, I have gone through the NHS stats produced yesterday morning and, as at 3 January 2021, there were 1,074 patients in critical care in London. That compares to 741 on the same day 3 years ago, and if you adjust for the population of over 70s (who represent around 80% of deaths every year) that is equivalent to around 800 in terms of today’s population. The national figures show 3,981 this year and an equivalent 3,528 on Jan 3 2018.That’s without even looking at Jan 2015 where the equivalent national figure was 3840. And as I’m sure you’re all aware, G&A occupancy is well below its level for previous years.
So coming back to the London figures, the NHS crisis is about 274 people out of a population of 9 million, of whom an estimate of 20% (55) are under 75, and that is the reason our children can’t go to schools, we are under house arrest and normal life has been cancelled. Not to mention the horrendous toll in unemployment, mental illness, poverty and death from other causes. Taking into account the growth rate in critical care patients over the last two weeks that may go up to 1,200 at the peak, but also could be far lower as London seems to be close to or past its peak.
If this were treated as a normal illness and NHS staff were not forced to self-isolate on the basis of no symptoms and highly unreliable tests, there would be far less pressure on the NHS, but that is not even the issue. Are we seriously saying that the NHS in London is overwhelmed by under 300 people, and a total of just over 1,000 in critical care. It is beyond negligent that this should happen, and there are no words to describe the revolting and sick response by the government.
It is blindingly obvious that lockdowns don’t work, compare the graphs of Sweden to UK, Italy, France etc and the graphs of Brazil to Peru. Even the countries that applied them early (Germany, Poland etc) are now ‘catching up’ in terms of deaths per million. The argument for lockdowns is self-serving and disingenuous and people promoting it are a disgrace.
The excess deaths in England and Wales for week 51 were around 502 (on a population and age adjusted basis) and for week 52 (to December 25th) around 500-1000, difficult to say precisely for that week because of the bank holidays, and for the whole year about 30,000, 1 person in 2,000 when about 1 in 100 die every year anyway.
Let’s get real – anyone who supports a lockdown should be feeling shame this morning. The government’s response to the pandemic is revolting.
Superb post.
Yes, thank you, time for the ‘managers’ at NHS/Moloch to fall on their swords like the chap on the doors at US Capitol.
Now that’s the sort of crisp summary I’d like to see on lockdown sceptics every morning. Thank you for digging out those stats & presenting so clearly.
I’m also viscerally anti-imprisoning healthy people because I think it goes beyond where a state can and should properly act. I agree with Jonathan Sumption that it’s illegitimate in a democracy to apply criminal law to who I meet with, what I wear, and where I go.
That’s why I had panic attacks for the first time since I was a child when the first lockdown was announced (thank goodness for a supportive husband), despite us not being financially affected. The horror of all those affected – domestic violence, small business owners, loneliness… Almost unbearable, but at least I have young children to distract me.
But I felt totally alone. Comfortable middle class people, relieved to be able to watch Netflix in place of their commute, just didn’t think like that. *I* was the immoral one.
The penny’s dropping with more people now, but still with far, far too few. It’s still weirdly acceptable to say “I approved of the first lockdown but not the later ones”. But that set the percent for how the state could act! If it’s ok to lockdown in some circumstances, trust the government to find plenty of relevant circumstances.
Yes, the idea that it’s somehow OK for 130 million people to starve to death highlights the immorality. As with thermageddon the world’s poor must suffer so we can feel safe and virtuous.
What’s even more immoral are the comfortable middle classes in the developing world who support lockdown even at the cost of their poor counterparts and are tone deaf to the mental health impacts of lockdowns, social distancing and enforced mask wearing. That’s the reason why I’m done with my family for awhile now – their inappropriate responses and remarks to my perfectly harmless gestures such as thanking them for Christmas presents and asking them how they’re getting hints at their having swallowed the propaganda whole and allowing for no dissent. The final insult was my brother-in-law telling me to stay at home because a friend died of Covid. While I wouldn’t take lightly someone dying at a young age, I would query whether it was actually Covid or something else.
At the risk of sounding callous, I wouldn’t shed tears for my family if they run into financial difficulties and my nieces develop psychological problems as a result of all this. They made their bed and they can lie in it.
Lockdown is a comfortable middle class policy, for those of us who actually have to go out and work (my job can’t be done at home) and live in flats with no garden etc its no fun and a violation of human rights.
If all stats are confirmed, this should appear as a permanent piece on the right-hand side and (with all due respect and gratitude) Laurence should be Toby’s spin doctor the next time MSM want to humble him on telly. This government is a fucking disgrace and is treating us like thick subservient cunts. My greatest fear is they, along with Starmer’s cluster-fucks, know we’ll never vote for these spineless pricks again thus under Klaus’ direction they’ll never give us the chance.
Stacey Rudin’s piece in today’s extras should be an international heads up to anyone supporting or condoning any type of lockdown. How can any of this bullshit be remotely acceptable.
I still think lockdowns are wrong and always have been wrong. They don’t work in any material way and they cause more harm than good. It really is that simple.
In any other year, if the NHS was at material risk of being overwhelmed by a combination of a virulent strain of flu, cold weather, and the usual winter ailments, any calls to shut down the entire country just to stop it from being overwhelmed would have been met with understandable derision.
There is absolutely no excuse. This disease has been circulating for a year now and scientists have known for months that it is seasonal. Sir Patrick Vallance himself admitted back in March that a long spring lockdown would just delay the proper peak of the disease until winter, when everyone is already weaker and there are fewer healthcare resources – and yet that’s exactly what we did, and had summer restrictions to boot as well. The government have had ample time to prepare the NHS for what they knew was going to happen, but instead of doing that, they have just used the information to spread fear and panic. If this really is a ‘wartime’ situation, then why can’t the government make a massive mobilisation effort to scale up beds, get required medical staff out of retirement to volunteer, buy treatments in bulk so that patients can be discharged quicker? If the political will is there then surely it can be done? Surely shutting down the entire country is the nuclear option, so why is it being treated as the only option?
There is a reason why full lockdowns of entire countries have never before been used to stop the spread of the disease. They don’t save any lives and cause more harm than good. Again, it really is that simple.
Not really a full shutdown though what we have. Production, Construction, Haulage and big retail all fully firing. All I might add include big Conservative donors. The cynical might conclude that might be a factor in the government’s shutdown selection, or shutting them down so close to tax year end would hugely dip the tax take after April. Remember 29% is due back on last years grants. Choke of 3 months income in construction and HMRC would potentially lose much of that.
I did hear the rapist’s dad this morning indicating he would love a hit at some of the sectors the government has so kindly allowed to trade.
I am appalled at this ‘Protected the NHS’ mantra, like it was some frail elderly relative of whom not much can be expected. As I have mentioned before, if I pay a plumber £5000 to fit a new bathroom and end up having to defecate in the garden because the toilet does not work I do not say ‘oh well never mind we must protect the poor plumber, no, I will give the plumber merry hell until they get back and do the job for which they were paid! With this current crisis why are the NHS top brass not all on the carpet, being dressed down and getting final warnings for failing to do the job for which they are paid very highly?
The current NHS model is fatally flawed we cannot carry on like this, being made to suffer for a bloated organisation that seems incapable of organising an inebriated celebration in a place of alcohol production.
Me too. If this (NHS) isn’t sorted out over the summer heads should do more than roll, they should be on spikes. No more lockdowns after this one.
Be careful criticism of the NHS may soon lead to the police breaking your door down
“Protecting the NHS” is one of the biggest albatross around the British public’s neck. I always thought that the NHS was there to serve us not the other way round.
Trouble is the NHS is stuck in the late 1940s-early 1950s and has never kept us hence why we’re in this mess. Meanwhile we’re spoon fed propaganda about how wonderful it is and any dissent or suggestions of reform is always shut down by cries of “we will end up like America” as is the USA is the only other comparable health system (same argument is used against suggestions of reform in the BBC). If the NHS is so wonderful why haven’t other countries especially those in the Commonwealth have copied it?
When this is over, there really needs to be a root and branch reform of the NHS or perhaps put it out of its misery and let us move to a system similar to France or Germany. Let’s face it, the NHS to me seems to be practically begging to be euthanised at this point.
Absolutely right…I am sick to death of the bloody NHS.
I get sick of insurance companies in other fields ripping me off and refusing to pay claims. Charlatans.
Half the world uses a variant on a government-run medical system because no-one’s found anything better (or less bad) that can cover a country’s healthcare needs on about 10-12% of GDP. One reason the UK NHS is pathetic is that it only pays 8-9% of GDP.
The German system will deny people treatment for serious conditions if they don’t have an adequate insurance record. Happened to a friend’s brother. They’ll be means-tested until their savings have mostly gone. A slightly less cruel version of the US system.
Indeed – people seem to forget that the S in NHS stands for Service, just like the Civil Service – they work for US, WE pay THEIR wages… It is almost punishable by death (well actually it is punishable by death) to criticise the NHS, akin to saying you eat live babies. The mismanagement and abuse of the system by staff is eyewatering – I know of a nurse who books two weeks’ holiday, then does her job as “bank” staff (on three times the money), goes back to work for a couple of days, gets signed off sick for two weeks and goes on holiday…. I also have a mate who offered to supply his local NHS trust with surgical gloves at £5 a box (whilst still making a profit), the response was “no thanks, we’ll stick with our supplier at £9 a box”…
Good post. Mrs TJN and I have been having that exact conversation over breakfast.
There’s all that they could have been doing to prepare for what is happening now. But we find that the NHS has some 5k to 10k fewer beds than this time last year. Isn’t that literally criminal?
There’s loads they could be doing right now to try to get on top of this, but there’s no sign they’re doing it.
Fundamentally, once we’d got to about mid-April last year covid wasn’t a difficult problem to understand. Enough information was in. What was needed was clarity of thought and the moral courage to see it through. Both have been woefully lacking.
One difference between Mrs TJN and I is that I get very worked up about it, I chew it over constantly, whereas she can compartmentalise it.
It seems to be acknowledged now that the key reason reason that they’ve reduced the number of available beds is because they never planned for the hospitals to be full of sick patients. If this was line from “Yes Minister”, that would have had the audience rolling in the aisles!
A true sceptic might suggest they’ve reduced the beds knowing full well what they’re doing.
My right to do what i want is more important than not overwhelming the NHS. I could give two fucks about the NHS. Anyone supporting the destruction of society, our rights and all the rest of it is a direct threat to me and will be treated as such if the need be. Just saying all you fuckers supporting the tyranny might face those who’s live’s they’ve destroyed
Yes this is the real nub of it…utterly sick of the NHS being put before people’s jobs and businesses and general ability to enjoy their lives. It is now a form of ‘health fascism’. Every stupid Tory feels obliged to worship the NHS just in case they are pilloried by the Labour Party. They might as well just join forces,,,they really are no different.
No one should be willing to surrender their rights, liberties and freedoms which grandad’s generation fought so hard in WW2 to protect.
Waiting at the bus station yesterday. The bus came in, empty except for the driver and a small girl sitting on the bucket seat behind the driver, intent on an ipad. I got on, nobody else did, the small girl stayed in place. As the bus wended through miles of suburbia I gradually twigged.
As I got off:
Me (indicating small girl, to the bus driver):”Is that your childcare?!”
Bus driver (ruefully): “yeah.”
Evidently bus drivers don’t count as key workers.
Interesting also that some teachers are complaining that the number of key worker children in schools has rocketed compared to spring, a good sign I think as the novelty of furlough wears off and the reality of redundancy hits home; it may also show that parental fear of the virus is dropping like a stone.
Dog walking yesterday I met 3 neighbours on my block. Had long chats with them all. One said she and her husband had gone back to work they are so bored. On previous lockdowns they did WFH.
While working they use a dog walker who visits their home, a tiny boost to the local economy , so 3 people usefully working.
No masks at all and the only pavement dancing was us trying to stop our dogs on leads doing the maypole dance around us.
Also no clapping. We are all fed up.
that has serious implications from an insurance point of view. The child was not a fare paying passenger etc . I admire the drivers initiative but i hope he does not have an accident
I suspect Alastair Haimes was “got” at, perhaps by those he works with or whose funds he manages. And perhaps he couldn’t resist the kudos of writing for the Spectator. From Twitter exchanges in the spring, he did not believe – based on robust data – that lockdowns worked. That said, he was always more centrist and circumspect than his promoters would have you believe – I remember being surprised by the wetness of some of his comments on the Delingpod last summer.
Speaking of the Spectator, what a hopeless disappointment that’s been. A combination of getting too close to their sources, logical data analysis not being their strong point, and a desire by management to massively grow readership by becoming more “mainstream”, has hollowed out the quality of their journalism.
In short, thank goodness for lockdown sceptics!
He may have been “got at” but I suspect it’s more likely he was suffering from the pressure of being vilified by all and sundry, and with the vaccine sees an end in sight, and is justifying his change in position to himself as the data having changed.
yep, he just had a wobble
You are being kind.
Well he should have his wobbles in private!
Yep, perhaps “got at” sounded too conspiracy theory. I meant something similar: your friends shrinking from you; perhaps your wife disagreeing with you; your fund management colleagues & major clients implying your views were unacceptable…
But on top of all that, to have such a high profile article in the Speccy implies someone senior/influential involved.
Anyway, wholly disappointing either way.
he’ll kick himself. he should have stuck to his guns.
I doubt if Hames was got at….he was never really there…I thought he was politically clueless on the Delingpod. This is not about numbers anyway..its about moral choices.
As for the Spectator its gone…I never bought it anyway…I think I always suspected what it was really like underneath….its just pure Establishment. Look at the way Liddle caved in when things got tough.
Re: Suggestions For Researchers
I live close to a major shopping area in Newcastle upon Tyne. I frequently use the large Tesco store. It probably employs 200 to 300 people aged 18 to 70. Until well into the summer the checkouts did not have plastic screens nor wear masks generally worn.
Every Tesco employee would have been exposed to the virus either from colleagues or from the public between early March and say July. Their working lives were unaffected by Lockdown rules.
I am on chatty terms with several of the people on the check outs. I know them well enough to ask if they have had Covid and how many of their Tesco colleagues have had it. I have been doing this since mid March.
By September I gathered that less than 10 had reported in sick with Covid. Some had been quite ill but none that I heard of had needed hospital treatment. One or two had reported long Covid problems.
One lady said that she was surprised that so few of her colleagues had caught Covid.
Allowing for inaccuracy in my figure one thing is quite clear. Of a hundred or more people who were repeatedly exposed to the virus the great majority were either immune to it or had the disease asymptomatically. I got the same picture when I spoke to people who work at other local stores.
I think this is a gives clear indication of the effect on society if we had continued as normal in March and not imposed a Lockdown. Dealing with Covid would have been manageable for the NHS. Most people would not have shown symptoms of the disease. For a time extra resources might have been needed to be diverted to ICU units. I have been opposed to lockdowns from the start.
One reason I know covid was going round the store in March is because I am sure that is where I caught it. Fortunately I had the Prince Charles version (I am of a similar age) not the Boris Johnson one. Go to bed immediately and sleep as much as possible is my recommendation to those who get it.
I don’t know about you but I don’t buy this “asymptomatic” business. They didn’t catch it. The test they have been using is flawed and not fit for purpose. Our politicians have been led up the garden.
I agree, i don’t buy it either. Are there any other diseases that are known that you can have and pass on to others but never show any signs or have symptoms of? Perhaps there are, does anyone know?
Covid is strangely media-driven. The other great plagues in history were killing people very obviously in large numbers. Plagues, the “Spanish Flu” of 1918-20 etc. Although even reports of the latter were widely censored until WW1 was safely over.
If the MSM weren’t devoting most of their coverage to it most people would hardly know it was there.
I think the term “Hysteria” was coined for situations like this.
I can’t think of any. I’ve never heard of colds and flu being spread asymptomatically, and most common cold bugs are coronaviruses.
It is accepted that it is possible to have a viral infection asymptomatically. It was estimated that about 72% of the passengers on the cruise ship Diamond Princess had covid but had not displayed symptoms.
CT scans showed that some of these asymptomatic people had marks on their lungs called ground-glass opacity. This means, apparently, that the corona virus had caused internal damage but produced no symptoms.
I accept, of course, that the PCR test gives a significant percentage of false positive results.
The issue is how infectious are asymptomatic people? In some cases I think they must be shedding enough corona virus to transmit the disease.
Fair play to Toby for publishing the piece by the London Doctor. Unfortunately, we are in a perfect storm because of the stupid decision to maintain the lockdown in the late spring/ summer. We are seeing exactly the scenario that Vallance predicted, allied to the scenario that Whitty predicted whereby any (negligible imho) suppressive effect of lockdown would be completely negated by demoralisation/ fatigue/ understandable non compliance. Neither of them factored in that a third of NHS staff would be absent because of the ridiculous test and trace system and the side effects of the vaccine. And they certainly won’t have factored in that crying wolf, with dodgy data, for months on end would exacerbate the non compliance.
The lockdown has caused this dire situation, of that there is no doubt, and any lockdown now is not going to stop the spread of the virus, although it might suppress the virus on its downward trajectory as it did, pointlessly, in the summer, thereby kicking the problem down the road, into the winter.
But, whether or not this lockdown is going to work, and I very much doubt it will, I support it out of solidarity with those decent NHS staff who are flogging their guts out. Yes there are still plenty of lazy pricks in the organisation and it needs to be completely reformed, but right now, if it helps those people on the front line to know that the country is making a massive sacrifice to support them then that is what I will do.
But no one should be under any illusion, the reason we are in this mess is because of the lockdown, Sweden shows yet again that the decision to try and stop the virus was utterly futile and has made matters worse.
I agree with you Will. Right from the very beginning it was made clear that the initial lockdown was to allow the NHS to gear up because lockdown would inevitably push the peak further down the road. Instead of taking the summer lull as an opportunity to build capacity, increase herd immunity and prepare people for the the inevitable winter uptick (vitamin D etc) the government created false hope then launched into an insane suppression strategy. Test and trace and false positives has resulted in huge numbers of NHS staff having to isolate unnecessarily and often repeatedly. People think we are experiencing a second or third wave but what this is now is the first wave with bells on. To mix metaphors, it’s the can the government kicked repeatedly down the road in the forlorn hope that the vaccine would ride to the rescue before the chickens came home to roost!!
Yes the NHS is very sick, as is our world. They were infected by an insidious Virus that works by exploiting one of our basic Sins, that of Sloth.
And where did this Virus come from? From a certain William Henry Gates III, the same one that is now playing Doctors and Nurses.
Remember the days of DOS, Windows 3, Windows 5, Microsoft Word and then Microsoft Office, well such well intentioned tools fell into the hands of Bureaucrats, and all of a sudden Management could retreat from the “Coal Face”, “Front Line”, “The Shop Floor”, – call it what you like – to behind a wall in a comfy office divorced from reality, beavering away producing impressive Power Point Presentations, Spread Sheets with detailed data base generated predictions, all whilst the unfortunate foot soldiers have to meet deadlines both financial and production based on purely theoretical outcomes. This is bad enough in manufacturing, but in a Behemoth like a government agency or the NHS it resembles a pathogen such as Rabies.
Our NHS has been managed to meltdown while governments have squandered billions that should have been invested in Hospitals, Medical staff and equipment (think pipes that can carry sufficient Oxygen you “Might” need in an emergency). But I suppose it looks OK on the lovely Power Point Shows, and meticulous Excel spread sheets.
“But, whether or not this lockdown is going to work, and I very much doubt it will, I support it out of solidarity with those decent NHS staff who are flogging their guts out”
I am confused. Elsewhere you’ve said trying to stop the virus is futile and makes matters worse, but you also say you support the lockdown. Doesn’t make sense to me.
You talk about non-compliance but from what I have seen that’s not the case – mask compliance is high, most people who can are working from home, almost all businesses that are forced to close have done so, and private socialising is down hugely – sure some are doing it but not many. I don’t think it is credible to say that non-compliance has made a significant difference.
The fact is that short of a complete shutdown, lockdowns are futile so supporting them is unhelpful.
Those NHS staff flogging their guts out hve signed up for that, and any difficulty they face is down to govt stupidity, incompetence, lack of planning, evil etc etc. I don’t see how supporting a lockdown helps them at all.
I can’t agree with you on the part about supporting it out of solidarity with some good people working hard given the damage it is causing and the futility of the policy.
Why make so many suffer for an empty gesture?
‘But, whether or not this lockdown is going to work, and I very much doubt it will, I support it out of solidarity with those decent NHS staff who are flogging their guts out………but right now, if it helps those people on the front line to know that the country is making a massive sacrifice to support them then that is what I will do.’
NO NO NO NO NO NO….
Sentimental hog wash! What sort of person under stress in their job would be helped by knowing the rest of the country suffering the misery of lockdown, businesses bankrupted, children denied education, suicides. Who is this selfish narcissist of whom you speak? Most NHS workers I know are sick of the lockdown effects themselves.
Spot on. I’ve never come home after a hard day at work and thought, ‘ah, if only everybody else was having a hard time, that would make me feel so much more energised’.
The piece above the line about the control group and making comparisons between groups to see the impact of lockdowns (“Suggestions for researchers”) highlights what to me has been one of the most remarkable aspects of this whole nonsense – the lack of any interest from SAGE and others in finding out anything useful about the virus and how it spreads. After nearly a year, if you look at their public prouncements they come out with nothing even vaguely defnitive. Almost as if they don’t really care and they are sticking to their original script and bending the data to fit it.
Outstanding update today I thought. Well done to Toby for a great piece, he must be feeling the heat at present. One point on the doctor’s update though, the figures for patients in ICU never seem to distinguish between those there for covid and those in there for other reasons that simply tested positive. Surely this is critical data that needs to be made available?
No-one knows who has Covid. There is no reliable test!
That’s been the major issue throughout and something I was at pains to point out to Sir Desmond when I wrote to thank him. I doubt he needed me to tell him that, though. The shame is there are at least 630 other MPs too dense to realise it.
Stop the testing! Even in a control area. See what difference it makes to hospitalisations and deaths.
Congratulations to drakeford for identifying a previously undestroyed section of the economy, kitchen showrooms. What an absolute bastard.
It isn’t just the showrooms. It’s all the kitchen fabricators, the stonemasons and fitters, and the plasterers, electricians, tilers and plumbers who will be short of work.
If I want to go for a drive but I don’t have enough fuel for the journey I would say the problem is that I don’t have enough fuel. I wouldn’t say that it’s because I want to go on a journey that’s made the shortage of fuel a problem and I certainly wouldn’t ban myself from driving so that it would never be a problem again.
So when the NHS is in danger of being overwhelmed due to a reduced number of beds and staff shortages it is pretty clear what the problem is.
In this case it’s not a case of simply refuelling because that would take too long and perhaps it’s a good idea to not take this particular journey but let’s not pretend that the problem is anything other than a lack of fuel.
The problem with the NHS is the NHS. Staff, management and unions. Very similar to British Leyland, and the NCB. Look what happened to them, we still have cars to drive and our homes are heated. Watch out NHS, you’re next.
We hope so and not a moment to soon.
Undoubtedly but there are still some bloody good people who work in the organisation.
And like all Stalinist-Socialist organisations many bloody bad ones – some of whom produce dance videos in empty hospitals.
Absolutely no doubt about that, just a shame not many of them are in charge of running it. Reform of the NHS doesn’t do away with the good ones – they are propping it up – but it would give them the chance to be part of a better model apart from the current incompetent bureaucratic blob.
https://twitter.com/rwjdingwall/status/1347450930367778816?s=20
Not to mention the ethics of ICL coming on TV talking about the worst cases without caveats. Or that some of these models are the equivalent of saying in the next ten years it will rain on between 3 and all days of that period. (3 orders of magnitude)
There is another interesting article on this site concerning vaccine hype:
https://www.coronababble.com/post/covid-19-vaccines-is-the-hype-justified
https://www.research.ox.ac.uk/Article/2020-07-19-the-oxford-covid-19-vaccine
After yesterday’s fiasco when taking M-I-L for her jab, I thought that I would look into the Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine for myself. It’s difficult for me, as a non-scientist, to understand but unlike Ferguson, I do have biology O level!
It struck me that, as this type of vaccine has been in development for years so was able to be modified once they had the genetic code for Coronavirus, it has been tested using chimpanzees. How will the animal activists feel about that?
Secondly, yesterday there was no social distancing going on between patients and staff, not just those administering the jab, in spite of the hands, face, space mantra. Forms and clipboards were passed between staff and no-one was being encouraged to sanitise their hands. They did ask some people to pull up their mask but, as I said yesterday, no-one commented about our maskless faces, nor the fact that M-I-L had a mask hanging off one ear.
I think that this is all theatre, just as the masks were introduced to make people feel safer about going shopping, vaccinations will make people feel safer about rejoining society once restrictions are lifted. I do hope that I am right.
It could be dangerous theatre too with a ‘vaccine’ which is being tested on the general public.
https://principia-scientific.com/what-vaccine-trials/
There is at least one peer reviewed scientific per about the attempts to develop a SARS vaccine. It resulted in the creation of antibodies but upon exposure to the actual virus the animals all died of multiple organ failure. This led to the paper’s authors warning of any attempt to develop a vaccine for human use. I believe the phenomenon of hypersensitising a person by way of a vaccine is called “pathogenic priming.” And Covid-19 is actually SARS 2.0
Chien-Te Tseng , Elena Sbrana, Naoko Iwata-Yoshikawa, Patrick C Newman, Tania Garron, Robert L Atmar, Clarence J Peters, Robert B Couch “Immunization with SARS coronavirus vaccines leads to pulmonary immunopathology on challenge with the SARS virus,” PLoS One 2012;7(4):e35421.doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0035421. Epub 2012 Apr 20
That is one scary paper
All theatre, yes
Masks introduced to make people feel more like there was a deadly threat, not safer
I read a great analogy – ME wearing a mask to keep YOU safe is like ME wearing gloves to keep YOUR hands warm
Face knickers don’t make the zombies feel safer. They feel less safe, and more vinductive against those with human faces.
Which shows that they work exactly as intended.
Face masks are evil
It’s a slave rag
Just like the Islamic one
Yes, Julian and Annie, I made the point months ago that you wouldn’t want to visit Johannesburg, the murder capital of the world, if you had to wear a bullet proof/stab vest for your visit.
anti-empire.com has the Overly Attached Girlfriend meme with “Do You Know Our Lord And Savior The Vaccine?”
One of the most telling things about this whole debacle is that it shows up the fantasists and the realists. The fantasists are currently running the show believing in all types of devils and reading the entrails only to shout the sky is falling.
The realists are pointing out this very fact.
The missus usually has BBC on. She’s isn’t originally from the UK so to her it’s just noise.
I was actually a little taken aback with Jon Sopel reporting on the Capital Hill walkabout. He actually compared and contrasted the Antifa riots in Washington to the demonstration the other day showing they weren’t the same thing. Maybe, just maybe a little chink of the idiot armour is starting to show as the MSM are realising the monster that is awakening.
I was told the joke once that the Celts are prone to flare ups and passions but with the English, watch out. They may look calm but when they finally lose their shit you get a 100 years war.
I think generalisations about nations are risky though like most generalisations there is some truth to them. The English for example have sometimes presented themselves or at least thought themselves to be particularly fond of liberty. The dread contagion and all the things that go with it suggest this is not the case. Another generalisation, that they are somewhat conformist and find it hard to go beyond complaining, seems more true.
Sopel is one of the very worst. Yt used to hold a video of him in news studio acting like god towards a guest. Even his fellow presenter was astonished with a gasp of Jon! To which sopel just doubled down.
That’s why I was so surprised. The man drips so much hate for Trump he could sell it as butter
I think that last sentence is a perceptive point. History seems to show that the English are pretty laid back, will go along with things in their own quiet way, be patient patient patient, and then when they’ve had enough suddenly turn. And at that point someone has a formidable enemy. Here’s hoping.
Thats whats most likely happening, we English have got a long fuse but do eventually reach a breaking point. I now thankfully think we are close to that blow point with the third lockdown.
Flu Vaxx’s have never stopped transmission, for some people (30% maybe), with weak immune systems they ‘may’ reduce symptoms. 60 years of data proves this. They also injure and in some cases kill.
So what happens when they finally admit the obvious that jabbing you is unlikely to do much except injure or be neutral in 70% of the pop? Will that be good enough for Hands-in-pants to end the dictatorship?
For sure that’s where it will end up. At every turn any real analysis is drowned out by the marketing push
In the future when people suggest we fund the NHS more generously we have a great excuse not to! Demand can be managed by restrictions on the public. Surely there can be no downsides.
Maybe automate the system. In the mornings log onto the NHS dashboard – if admissions or occupied beds are below some threshhold you can go to work, if not work from home.
Your car computer can be directly linked to the NHS. Some days it just won’t start!
etc
Don’t feed the dragon of totalitarianism.
Please. Be careful what you wish for, even if you didn’t actually wish for it.
Well, there are some people who think the move to e-vehicles is all about that (control through IT), and nothing to do with saving the planet.
Not a car driver myself.
The Mandy Boy is a dead cock walking
The lazy, living on past glories Spectator have given the genocidal maniac a platform
The moment he most looks forward to? “When I have the duty to declare that the Coronavirus Act is no longer required, upon medical advice. That will be a great moment: when we repeal these draconian laws.”
‘Upon medical advice’ yep, getting his retaliation in first as we say round here. Well ‘it was the medics that dun it’ won’t wash. You could have stopped them and you didn’t
Or ‘when we repeal these draconian laws’ Makes it sound like the draconian laws were nothing to do with him. Listen Butt, as we also say round here, they are your draconian laws and it will be you that pays the price
As they once sang on the football terraces round here
‘We’re coming for you, we’re coming for you
Mandy Cock, Mandy Cock
We’re coming for you’
The snivelling lying little toe rag Twatt Handycock is never going to be able to move freely in public again. The same goes for his compatriots…..
Yeah he is my MP and if I saw him in the street it would take a lot of willpower not to give him the Doc Marten treatment. Loathsome little turd.
We need a more accurate test to tell if the subject is infectious or not. Why spend billions trying to fight something that is not there or not a risk to others?
Because this long ceased to be about a virus. The cockup theory no longer fits and hasn’t fitted for ages. It’s a coup. A globalist coup.
You’d think, wouldn’t you? Except the “scientists” and politicians don’t seem very interested in reality
If we accept that the Virus is now endemic isn’t it obvious that testing for it in general population is going to find a lot of it! This was my first thought last summer when thinking about the likely situation we now have. Have we ever mass tested for an endemic pathogen before??
Just wanted to suggest a different painting for the top of today’s LS page, please. (This may already have been pointed out in comments earlier this morning.)
The painting showing at the moment is called “Scotland Forever” by Lady Butler, and is of the Scots Greys charging at Waterloo in 1815 – not the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava in 1854.
There is a classic painting of the latter which I have found on alamy.com
Many thanks. And thanks for the vital work you do each day.
crickle crackll..sclii..
It’s me again, from the future. Tier 9. Otherwise known as lockdown 11. We are not allowed shoe laces. Or windows. Everyone is cold. Burglaries are up. When walking or running our shoes fall off. At first they came for the laces but I did not speak up because I had velcro fasteners. All the old people have vanished. They said it was covid but Findus crispy pancakes now taste very strange. Boris has moved his new girlfriend Greta into number 10…
Crickle crackle.. spplllittttt ccc…
Is Greta old enough? Is this not an abomination against the laws of God and man?
She is now 18. Old enough for Boris.
“In Tier 12. Have begun to have sexual fantasies about Greta whose appearances on TV are increasingly frequent. This is probably a token of my complete moral collapse. Along with the cannibalism.”
Correction: too old for . . . well, let us just say, too old for many of our elite class.
18 and presumably anorexic cos she looks about 12.
18 and flatter than day old Pepsi
so she still ticks the yew tree box for the House of Commons
They will never get rid of windows. They want to reintroduce the window tax. That way, we will all be incentivesed to remove our own windows leaving them blameless, while we are tax avoiding bastards.
BBC TV
8pm next Thursday
The silence of the lambs
“A neighbour reported me to the police for holding a dinner party. I ate his liver with fava beans and a nice Chianti…”
Hi, Hannibal.
Telegraph is all American today. Not a peep about the UK. What a strange conservative paper it is.
Well, I’m now fairly sure vaccination won’t be mandatory as the inlaws have just had their first ones and the medics/GPs seem incapable of recording it properly or tracking their follow up. The idea that I might need a digital certificate of vaccination to get into a gig or a sports event in future is laughable. There’s no way they could organise something like that. You’d just have to say you’ve had it.
A ray of hope!
that’s what i’m hoping for that their sheer incompetence would limit the rollout of digital-id / proof of vaxx etc. Do they issue a card or something to say they’ve had a jab?
Yes. There is a record card which was supposed to show the follow up date but they’ve left it blank because they’re unable to book people in now.
I think if they do ever introduce digital passports to get into gigs/on holiday etc the program will be hacked apart within days and convincing counterfeit apps will spring up everywhere. People will find ways around it. I’m not worried as this government are useless, just look at the failure of the test and trace app.
I read somewhere that in German-occupied Poland during WW2, something like one ID document in every eight was fake. In occupied countries resistance groups often churned out fake documents. Not just ID but ration coupons etc. The black market was also active in that regard. In Berlin the black market started producing hammer and sickle insignia and even Stars of David in spring 1945, sensing a change of management.
Exactly people will always find ways around authority and control. I’m actually starting to feel like a member of the resistance!
In the Great Escape film, Donald Pleasance and his team of skilled forgers appeared to perform miracles producing all the necessary travel papers. In reality, many of the guards had been quite happy to be bribed to provide them with original documents to copy. (By the time fo the escape, it was so blindingly obvious that something dramatic was about to happen that the camp management expressly told the senior British officers not to do anything silly. The rest, sadly, is history.)
Plenty of fake docs will be available on the interwebs
Do not panic
Correct, government IT programs always fail spectacularly and expensively. That’s why for years we all had to be Prince II practitioners if we wanted project management work in either the public or private sectors. It was supposed to give a framework to avoid such cock ups. Whether it would have or not, needless to say I’ve never known a client follow it.
The fact they always fail so spectacularly is why I’m not bothered by all the talk about technocracies, great reset, digital ID/vax records, covid passports etc. Every one will be an expensive flop and many are just pie in the sky.
Friend of mine in IT is also confident these agendas will fail for the moment because of technical/logistical reasons.
But I would not underrate the future danger. I think it is clear there are powerful forces pushing digital vax IDs, etc. and a lot of money is being thrown at developing technologies to make these realizable.
Well we’ll see, but I think we’ve got a reason to be optimistic. The government recently threw over £12 billion at the test and trace app and that has flopped completely. You can throw all the money you like at establishing a digital surveillance state but if people refuse to play along its a waste of time.
Tricky to make it mandatory when the regulatory documents state it is not to be used by individuals under 16, pregnant women, individuals with immune system issues, people with allergies … It seems that the only people it suits are those who are least at risk from the virus.
A huge Thank You to all concerned with today’s ‘Lockdown Sceptics’. This is a really excellent edition.
I hope serious consideration is given to turning ‘Lockdown Sceptics’ into a fully blown online newspaper in due course.
Mr Young is brilliant, intrepid and immensely hardworking, a rare combination. We are so very lucky to have someone of such calibre so committed to this matter.
The splendid picture at the head of the page refers to a brilliant cavalry action during the Battle of Waterloo. The Commander that day brought in a program of reform to the British Army as a consequence of his experiences.
The caption to that picture is taken from a poem written about a later cavalry action during the Crimean War. That war was followed by further swingeing reforms to the British Army.
There is no question now but that the organisation and leadership of the NHS and its associated bureaucracy, particularly SAGE, and most particularly the SAGE membership recruitment system, is in similar need of root and branch reform, for it has been responsible for a national and international calamity, lives lost, on a scale unimaginable during either the Napoleonic or Crimean Wars.
https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Niemietz-NHS-Interactive.pdf
Clapsilence for carers. DM has an article and the comments are almost universally reporting no clapping.https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9123391/National-landmarks-capital-light-blue-celebrate-NHS-frontline-workers.html
Thats because the NHS has never been so useless since its inception which was somewhere around 1936. (I know it came in in 1948). My wife has now gone blind whilst waiting for a consultation in the NHS. I can’t believe how useless they are.
The pre-war government set up the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) to deal with the possibility of casualties from bombing.
Sorry to hear that.
These criminals need to be held to account.
and they will be
they won’t, you’re deluded
The organisation has more managers than beds.It has become a safe haven for megalomaniac, checkbox-ticking mediocrities.
That is shocking but not the only similar case. I’m so very sorry that our leaders let her and many others down so badly. I am personally ashamed for having voted Conservative. I now have no political home unless the new parties take off successfully.
We have effectively been a single party state since Blair was selected for leadership of New Labour. TINA at last.
You have failed to partake in the great clap, that is 200 points off your social credit score
This barrister, Adam Wagner, is worth following on Twitter:
Adam Wagner (@AdamWagner1) / Twitter
He dissects the difference between guidelines and laws re. the new lockdown ‘rules’.
I don’t think he is a sceptic per se, but he has already highlighted some instances of the police over-reaching, e.g. Derbyshire force at a National Trust site the other day and Chorley.
Thanks for that. Good recommendation,
In Lockdown1.0 the Lancs police were flying the helicopter over Rivington area and Winter Hill on the bank holidays. I suspect they’ll be using drones this time round – I was followed by one as I was walking the streets at night (10:30pm) recently and I’m pretty sure it was police. I couldn’t see any markings in the dark, but it was a serious piece of kit, not a toy.
There are plenty of places to walk without going to the most popular spots so I’ve avoided Rivington Pike, and I’ve discovered some good walks which (oddly!) have lasted longer than the guideline 60 minutes. They can’t be everywhere, even with aerial surveillance.
One day in April I came across a police car tucked away in a country lane and thought I’d be questioned. No problem though, the WPC was interested only in her knitting! A reminder that they are human, just like us.
She probably didn’t want any trouble. Why are they so reluctant to challenge traveller sites – because it’s work, stressful and trouble. Easier to fine middle class people speeding in their Audis.
The rantings of the junta are getting more hysterical (the empty hospital video rant being a good example)
It’s taking on the feel of ‘Downfall’
“Der Angriff Fergusons was ein Befehl!” (Johnson throws coloured pencils in fit of rage)
Boris’s Downfall. 2 months old, but still hliarious!…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4bzwNH7XnM&feature=youtu.be
Israel leading vaccination programmes, copy Israel, now
Change made:
Botswana, Israel (and Jerusalem), Mauritius and Seychelles will be removed from the exempt list at 4am Saturday 9 January.
Copy Israel? You mean Handycock should bomb Damascus? I mean, Bashir al Assad invented covid-19, right?
Israel is supposedly leading the world in its vaccination programme. They expect to be the first country to use a vax passport (internally), and then England says they have to quarantine if they come here from Saturday.
they’re behind the whole thing anyway, surely? No wait, wrong forum.
Actually, the Israel model is highly appropriate – the violent suppression of the indigenous population by the elite, and expropriation of assets. The UK security services have always had close links
They have registered the Pfizer and Russian vaccines. The plebs get the Pfizer (and die at similar rates to elsewhere) while the nobs get the Russian vaccine (allegedly).
The Bozzer says that nobody will be more than 10 miles from a vaccination centre so how come our nearest one is 15 miles away?
Obviously the responsibility is on you to move! You people keep letting our beloved leader down!
Does anybody know where I can get some sackcloth from, I think that I can manage the ashes.
You can’t mean Bozzer is wrong?
No, he was obviously advised by Wankcock,Witless,Vacuous,Fungalson and many others too numerous to mention.
This new wording was quietly inserted into the Gov UK coronavirus lockdown rules a couple of days after they were published:
“If you (or a person in your care) have a health condition that routinely requires you to leave home to maintain your health – including if that involves travel beyond your local area or exercising several times a day – then you can do so.”
Of course, no reference to it (or indeed several aspects of the rules) in actual legislation.
But I’m curious – what kind of health condition would require “leaving home beyond your local area or exercising several times a day”?
Anxiety? “I need to see the sea”…
Maybe husbands taking a break from the nagging wife. Wives taking a break from the ranting husband?
Partners having enough of partners of all types?
hahahaha I know the feeling…
You don’t need to go into detail. You just say:
‘I am going to work’
‘I am tending to someone vulnerable’
‘I am escaping abuse at home’
‘I am going for medical treatment’
Police can’t probe further. And you cannot be detained without arrest. Always have your camera running.
I’m manufacturing Vitamin C.
Not if you are human. Along with some birds and guinea pigs, humans are one of the few animals that do not manufacture their own vitamin C. You mean D. Like other animals we make D when exposed to sunlight.
Gorillas make several grams of vitamin C per day but sunlight isn’t required for C manufacture. Besides, at this time of year you make very little D.
Did I say that – typo.
I hadn’t occurred to me that there may be a statutory minimum level of Vitamin D manufacture. There are rules for everything these days.
Thanks for that advice.
I’m surprised that they haven’t tried to introduce something similar to the French system, where you have to carry a piece of paper stating the reasons why you’re away from your home, along with the expected duration of your jaunt.
Poor eyesight. It’s ok to go for a long drive to test your eyesight regularly.
This is a joke in case I get accused of inciting insurrection.
But only if you go to Barnard Castle.
If you or your child have a child with a disability or special needs. Some young people with autism or anxiety disorders cannot stay cooped up indoors all day. If travelling to open flat ground to enable use of an adapted trike or wheelchair for example. Actually, taking two short walks for older people with arthritis could be much better than one long one.
That’s interesting. A friend of mine and his daughter both suffer anxiety and I have been advising them on whether they can drive to the coast tomorrow for their exercise.
Police arresting people in their own homes in the UK, for spending time together! can you believe they want this to go around the world. What audience are they hoping for?
I’m now in my 70s and when I gave up ice climbing 15 years ago, I took to visiting SE Asia and have a very special person there who keeps asking me when I am coming. I am sad because I can’t but I still have my short curved ice axe by my french windows and if the police do come, the first poor deluded sod will get the pick straight between the eyes!
Morning all, there is clearly a long way to go and no doubt a lot more government inflicted pressure but I am more positive today than I was at the start of the week
A) the big tell for me is the demand for key worker places at school – last in March / April lots of parents (including me) were withdrawing their children and pretty much made the decision to close the schools almost for government. This time round the demand for key worker places is very large – appreciate there is economic necessity and people now know what they are taking on with home schooling – but whether they realise it or not we are fundamentally programmed (with tiny minority of exceptions) to protect our children and instinctively a lot of people are saying this isn’t a risk.
B) looking around where I live there is no difference in activity (if anything more) than there was in December
C) the lack of clapping and actually the fierceness of the pushback when it was proposed is a hopeful sign – but it took at couple of weeks to get going last time – so let’s see if they try and run it again next week – given how quickly the TV companies gave it air time suspect it had been planned for longer than it was public.
D) The ramping up of the fear and frequency of fat dictator on our screens – four times in five days – they are not mugs they know they are losing the narrative in terms of people’s behaviour and general view now of the levels of personal risk.
There is clearly going to be three or four weeks of NHS overwhelmed issues but after that there is nothing left to cry wolf over – how many people will buy the next “super ninja mutant scare” ?
The government have overplayed their hand, people have had enough with the nonsense
Only at the margins – not the core.
Good morning Norfolksceptic,
I can absolutely confirm point A is true.
My daughters Primary opened to everyone on Monday with a 73% attendance rate (as confirmed by the interim head). So approximately only 1/4 not sending their children in.
Since opening for children of keyworkers only, they initially wanted children to attend every day regardless of whether the keyworker parent was working every day or not, or had another parent WFH.
Yesterday that changed to, please can you let us know which days you actually need your child to be at school to accommodate all the requests for places we have had.
Best regards
Simon
Hopefully more people are waking up as looks like the threat of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Virus didn’t really have much effect.
Plenty of meat ATL today. Funnily enough I bet a Lockdown Zealot won’t bother to read something like “London hospitals really are in crisis” if it was presented to them.
evening all
just a reminder from yesterday.
https://dailyexpose.co.uk/2021/01/07/children-scream-as-police-enter-home-without-permission-and-wrestle-parents-to-ground/
aren’t our police wonderful .
mind how you go
a sign of things to come maybe
My IP/Internet has been hacked several times and I just don’t know how to fix it
Dixon of Dock Green was sometimes discussed in the 1980s as it was clear police did not particularly fit the ideal of that show (I doubt if they ever did). The Sweeney came out in the 1970s and was considered particularly graphic at the time.
Life on Mars.. “Give yourselves up, you are surrounded by armed bastards.”
I’m not sure if this is true https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9125789/Are-police-taking-Covid-crackdown-far.html seems to have the same footage but no mention of a child returning from hospital.
note there are two videos. a short 1.09 as per the mail site and a longer 4.45 version on the site i linked to . there is reference to a child with epilepsy
Is the government going to start killing us off? Serious question.
Too many ‘thought-crimes’ under the Mental Health Act 1983, only a period of ‘care’ in a ‘Joy Camp’ (now ‘Nightingales’) will ‘cure’ sceptics. Soldiers and nurses ready, courtesy of the Ministry of Love
If they gave us safe passage to our own town where we could all live – I would take it
They started last March. with the care home policy.
archive.today
keep a record of the collaborators wherever possible
Just pop the url in the top; press go and it will save forever
The masses of hysteria and ignorance have demanded pointless testing when people enter/return to UK. The government have seen the opportunity and granted them their wishes. So;
lots of extra expense,
when returning from the family holiday – what happens if one of your kids has a false positive,
but don’t worry – my crystal ball tells me that you will be able to forgo the test if you have a vaccination certificate – (the opportunity mentioned earlier)
Yep. Just another pointless business/freedom breaking measure. No benefit to public health here.
It will be popular with the public though, many of them believe you can stop an already endemic virus by closing the borders. They also believe that stopping/curtailing travel from areas with LESS covid (or maybe more accurately, fewer positive tests), can reduce rates here.
Don’t get it. But then I don’t get much of what the public thinks these days.
In a world where intelligent people still believe in gods we’re totally and utterly fucked. People will believe any old shite and they will also try and shit in your mouth to shut you up. There is no hope. The only way out of this is too switch off the control grid. Ultimately the total destruction of the mobile phone and internet will free us from this Technocratic nightmare. No one wants to face it but we walked into this because we all like to sit on our arses looking at pish on a screen instead of living and now to continue with this type of life they are gonna kill those of us who just want to live our lives as we see fit. if you’re not a Libertarian at this point you are the problem
The utter failure of Clap For Carers 2 is good news for us as make no mistake Boris will be very aware of what this means for where the public mood is at the moment as that’s pretty much all he cares about. I fully expect the BBC to double-down on it next week though and push the clap for all it’s worth.
This could be a clap trap. <sorry>
Apology accepted.
I doubt if anyone will notice it on top of all the other claptrap.
The last clap was just mass virtue signalling, basically the two minute hate inverted and dressed up as showing obedience and love for the sacred NHS. I never took part in it, I’d rather they’d reform the damn thing, cut out the mass bureaucracy and give it the proper resources to cope with all the seasonal lurgees we get every year.
The first crap clap was during a balmy spring. This one is during a cold winter.
The definition of ‘covid patient’ is a patient, in hospital for any reason, who has recently given a positive PCR result.
WE are all aware of the impact the crisis has had on the normal functioning of the NHS within the past year. There have been hundreds of thousands of missed cancer treatments and screenings.
This graph from NHS England via the BBC
This situation continued through the summer and into Autumn.
My point is that at some point hospitals are going to start getting occupied by many people whose missed cancer treatments/screenings within the past year, have led to a situation where their symptoms are such as to require urgent admission.
Perhaps that is beginning.There must now be quite a few people,in whom cancer would have beeb detected or treated in Spring and Summer, who are now suffering the negative consequences of that.
I don’t know how much of a lead time there might be, but sooner or later there must be an impact.
That ~50% drop in 2020 is horrific in its implications, even if ultimate diagnoses don’t fall in precise ration.
A doctor friend who works in a hospital says ones of the reasons why the numbers of people in hospital with Covid is high is that there is a new policy meaning they have to wait 14 days to send any patient who has had Covid back to a care home from when they first test positive for Covid in the hospital. This means you have scenarios where a patient is admitted to hospital for a non Covid reason then test positive for Covid and then block a bed for 14 days even if the issue they were admitted for has been resolved and their Covid symptoms do not require hospital treatment. This adds up very quickly and is putting a lot of pressure on beds. These types of patients also require a high level of care putting extra pressure on the staff. I can see why they don’t want to send Covid positive patients back to care homes but it would be interesting to get more detail on what these numbers looked like
Interesting. Increasingly it seems tha most of these ‘pressures’ are self-inflicted.
Indeed they are. It was foolhardy to get rid of the convalescent homes where vulnerable patients were for rehab before they were discharged home. This crazy decision has resulted in the many being bed blockers. We need to bring back this sort of facility where groups of patients can be cared for and safe environments before being sent back home or to a care facility.
It beggars belief that NHS management did not think through these foreseeable problems and put in place mitigation measures during the summer.
In the case you document, the patients are well but need to be isolated. So a solution that suggests itself is to have convalescence wards for this purpose.
And while they are in a regular ward for 14 days they are at risk from further infection.
I have tended to become more cynical.
Why, when the whole summer period demonstrably took pressure off the NHS with exceptionally low infections, was the opportunity not taken to prepare for a normal autumn rise?
Just incompetence – or planned myth-making about a non-existent resurgence?
Summer was a particularly happy time for those at the local NHS Trust, where my wife works. The place was largely deserted, with even some clinical staff being encouraged to WFH, to the point where many staff working at the hospital found the working conditions unnatural and stressful. My wife’s hospital didn’t get invited to contribute to the TikTok videos, but she walked into the Physiotherapy department one day and found them entirely focussed on teaching each other how to juggle!
Don’t forget they also kindly move such patients to the red zone. Thereby increasing the chances a positive test becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
Yes.
I think the statistical waters are going to become increasingly muddied from now on
My post below on missed cancer treatments and screenings points out one reason why this is so.
However, there must also have been many cardiovascular events – heart attacks and strokes – during the past ten months, which because they were not optimally dealt with, will require more hospital treatment than they would have done under normal conditions.
I would also expect social isolation start to take a toll on people’s health as time goes on, leading to even more admissions.
Of course, many of these will produce a positive PCR, leading to them being classified as ‘covid patients’.
PCR and the 28 day rule (for classification as a covid patient), really are the gift that keeps on giving-
Why arent they using the Nightingales for these people? That would be the obvious solution. They are not ICU and are very low maintenance. Yet another NHS cock up that is feeding the problem.
I think a better solution would be to add a convalescence ward to each hospital where space permits. This could either be some sort of prefab building where there is space in hospital grounds or reopening mothballed wards. The hospital I worked at up to 2014 regularly had one or two ward empty to keep costs down. I’d like to know how many such wards there are across the country.
They can’t staff the Nightingales and they never could. They were a combination of vanity project and a response to the cries of “something must be done”.
Another expensive white elephant in a whole pack of expensive white elephants.
It has been suggested that student nurses and doctors could be used to either staff these or back fill.
The use of PCR+ results is also a self-fulfilling prophecy, whereby the larger proportion are not unwell (the precise proportion is hard to establish – but it vastly magnifies apparent illness).
This is all on top of the major reduction in ward beds, and the effects on staff absence.
Truth told, PCR testing has created an uncontrollable monster (which, of course, from one perspective, was its aim).
.
Yes – bang on!
If they want to keep this going for years, then unfortunately that is statistically possible – without any real pandemic.
All you need is a somewhat higher death rate, provided by lockdowns and their knock-on effects, many of whom will inevitably ‘test positive’ and hey presto you have got yourself a neverending pandemic.
The only real question is:
“Do the authorities want it to end”?
.
… and, of course, the one flaw in the plan is that the deaths have not emerged. A fact that the MSM will not expose you to.
The soution seems so simple.Use LFT and new PCR test with Ct value.If you are hardpressed send them back with a neg LFT.If not use a LFT and PCR test with Ct and send them back. C-19 are only infectious up to 10 days.Why can’t they sort out this with an intelligent testing system? How can we have bedblockers with remnants of non viable virus givng meaningless PCR test?
100%
As you say – it seems simple. But, of course – to be cynical – it doesn’t produce the desired outcome.
No rational system would be using PCR given what is known.
That’s a very good take on it.
Not a popular viewpoint on here I suspect, but I think Alistair Haimes is correct; the situation has changed and we should adapt.
For me, the fundamental reasons for being a lockdown skeptic were:
Point 1 is still valid. But it’s pretty obvious that overwhelming evidence isn’t nudging the viewpoint of most people, who seem to be driven by some sort of emotional and perhaps irrational response. We’re flogging a dead horse with this.
Point 2 has changed. The vaccine program gives a route out. This is where we should focus our energy; trying to hold our politicians to account in terms of a lockdown rollback plan that gets us back to normal as soon as possible.
We can spend the next few months trying to show the folly of what’s already happened, with endless data that shows lockdowns don’t work or we can start to make our voices heard on setting exit dates and exit measures.
Don’t get me wrong, I firmly believe lockdowns don’t work and that covid has been monumentally mismanaged. I am someone who has not complied throughout – never worn a mask, kept my offices fully open, never tracked and traced, had birthday parties and a normal Christmas, etc. But I don’t see any value in being the person who says ‘I told you so’ a couple of years down the line. Don’t lose sight of the prize – we want our liberty restored.
The problem with this is we cannot have our liberty restored if this strategy is seen as viable in the future.
We will forever have the threat of restrictions hanging over our heads as a response to respiratory viruses.
This is the key point…lockdowns are now ‘on the statute book’ and they will be used as the default policy from now on to deal with viruses. To just push for the vaccines is pathetic short termism. It does not deal with the real problem…..its not just that lockdowns dont work it is that they are WRONG IN PRINCIPLE.
The issue with that is that if people believe the lockdowns were effective there will be no resistance if and when they are proposed in the future. Not that there will be anyway it seems.
I agree. But that’s tomorrow’s battle. Work to get our liberty restored and then in calmer times address the fact that lockdowns don’t work. It’s simply wasted effort at the moment
My argument is that any liberty bestowed on the nation, by the government, because of the vaccine, is not liberty.
And it will stop people listening when the real battle starts to highlight that it is lockdown, masks, T and T, scientists crying wolf with lies and, quite possibly, all of the above precipitating a more virulent mutation than would have happened with a GBD approach, that has caused this crisis. But this is much more of a crisis for the NHS than anything seen, outside of a few London hospitals, in March and April; that it is self inflicted is immaterial right here and right now.
I think you underestimate the fact that people look at what is right in front of them. When the vaccine comes and people are no longer terrified, and the MSM aren’t churning out fear and panic every day, but reporting on all the harms that ‘Covid’ (ahem), has caused, then the anti lockdown message will gain traction and will be in the ascendancy. As more comparative ‘real life’ data and analysis becomes available, and the emotion recedes, the lockdown zealots will be on the back foot sooner than they would like. The vaccine is a double edged sword for them.
Exactly, it is time to bide quiet now.
I don’t get that logic. Strip away the PCR noise and where are we at? It’s so hard to say, I think your argument is based more on a pragmatic approach to getting away from lockdowns rather than actually wanting to be convinced of the situation.
Yes, numbers may be high in hospitals. However, we need to ask if we had lateral flow for example, how many more staff would be avaliable, how many more beds, would there be more discharged at a faster rate ebecause of testing negative?
The PCR is the killer here. We are in a constant fog and we may see a light, but for me it’s not an exit, it’s a train coming straight towards us
Suddenly, I’m seeing echoes of the official panic narrative.
What are the facts?
Mortality shows this to be an average autumn-winter infection season. Nothing exceptional happening.
… and yet the NHS is being treated as if there was an exceptional viral epidemic event in progress.
No there isn’t. There is an exceptional political event in progress to which the Alastair Haimes of this world decide to lend there new-found assent.
I generally agree, but we have to make sure that ‘Lockdown’ is never the solution to anything like this ever again. Unless it’s something hugely deadly like Ebola where a short sharp one might have some clear and tangible benefit.
No, not even for Ebola. If there was an Ebola outbreak and people were dropping dead in the streets do you think it would even be necessary for the government to tell people to stay indoors?
“The vaccine program gives a route out.”
Apart from the obvious dangers that have been much discussed – the under-tested snake-oil syndrome, driven by non-medical interests, there is another major danger in taking this naive stance.
We have seen totally barmy NPI measures being swallowed by the public on the basis of a false narrative. The over-use of putative vaccines in the interests of the industry then becomes the next stage in this coup. The unquestioning submission becomes endless.
I have seen enough in nine months to know that there are no limits to the cynical exploitation of the populace.
Do you really think that vaccinations offer an exit plan?
Hasn’t it already been made clear that restrictions – masks, SD – will remain?
There will be rows aplenty within the corridors of power about who thought it was a good idea to reintroduce Seal Clapping Thursday which backfired badly.
They know public support is at its lowest, some at least will be scrabbling to escape the fuhrerbunker before the end comes.
It will be interesting to see if those in power will turn up the propaganda up a level and try to get the clapping started again next week or let the idea rest.
We could do with several weeks bad weather to really make the public fed up and questioning why the establishment didn’t prepare better for the winter.
Many people are selfish and only care about when job losses, depression and suicides happen to people close to them particularly if they have a comfortable life. Don’t think the population will be happy if their vaccines are delayed either.
The vaccine program will be repeated periodically. Acceptance of it is acceptance of the idiotic policy that drove it. Don’t be naive.
The truth is the truth. This has been an omnishambles from day 1 of using hypothetical models and vague data to convince you that the Devil is amongst us.
If you have tried this for any other safety critical system you would be in jail. Do not lose sight of that.
That’s right the template is set now. If someone coughs in China from something newish we lock down until a vaccine is developed and distributed. The emergency legislation will remain on the statute books in some form under the justification of needing to act quickly in the interests of public health without the delay of democratic process. The liberties have gone. They will be able to turn them on and off as they like from now on.
… and it’s no good blaming China, even though they are laughing all the way to the bank, with an increasing GDP as they mop up.
garry,
See my reply to David T below. Another aspect to our way forward may be to 1) confirm that the current NHS crisis is at least in part self inflicted 2) campaign on the basis of specific reforms to NHS management with concrete solutions that could be implemented in time for next year.
Step 1 should be possible when NHS activity data sets are published in the coming weeks, supported by anecdotal evidence from insiders.
Step 2 would requires some inside knowledge and business analysis skills.
A key part of this is maintaining a constructive spirit and focusing on organisational and management solutions.
And for those that refuse the vaccine? Liberty remains I hope
Yes the vaccine program offers a way out but at what cost. I cannot support what is basically a mass trial of a new therapy masquerading as a vaccine. It merely ameliorates the symptoms and does not confer immunity. The vast majority are being led to believe it will make them immune.
Doesn’t matter a hoot what they believe, so long the Fascists think they have been successfully fooled.
Fear not fellow sceptics, as that famous WW2 quote goes ‘you know you’re directly over your target when the flak is at its heaviest’. The Governments attempts to scare the 15m people it needs to be vaccinated, to get itself out of the mess it’s got itself into, is already failing. Who else can they blame but the Lockdown Sceptics, I think when they lift the protesting ban they will be surprised at the numbers who turn out to reform the NHS /No more lockdown marches. Boris and his mates can feel the ides of March creeping ever closer, they know their political careers are fatally wounded and they are lashing out at those they see as the cause. We should celebrate being ‘cancelled’ and wear it as a badge of honour.
Herd Mutiny
In one way I want them to find their 15m vaccinees asap because as soon as they reach a respectable number the government can claim Victory and let us get back to normal.
On the other hand the easier it is made for them them the more likely they are to do it again so a nice nest egg for them and thei big pharma mates.
The quote gave me a little lift. Thank you
you’re fucking dreaming pal. Fuck sake. This isn’t going away and is gonna get worse. To remain a free person is gonna take bottle. We are gonna have to deal with the state thugs trying to ram the vaseline up our arses and trying to lock us in our house and deny us the ability to move. Make no mistake within two years we will have armed revolutionaries fighting the state. I too sometimes get the feeling that maybe this is a losing battle for them and we’ll get back to normal but in reality our nation has been taken over by people who take their orders from fuck knows who but one thing is for sure we didn’t elect them, we elected people who sold out to them and they ain’t going back. By 2030 you won’t anything and you’ll be happy.
“Make no mistake within two years we will have armed revolutionaries fighting the state.”
I actually believe you are probably correct on this. They are pushing so hard that it is inevitable some will see no other way to respond.
The problems with that are threefold (at least).
First, innocents will die and many more will suffer.
Second, it will make things far worse, in many ways, before it can possibly make them better.
Third, there’s no guarantee in the real world that the right side will win such a struggle. They didn’t in, for instance, revolutionary Russia, or China. Any illusions that Brits are any longer (if they ever were) unusually moderate or liberty-inclined have been harshly and incontrovertibly dismissed by the snitches, the abusers of and apologists for power, the demonising calls for suppression and punishment of dissenters.
If the totalitarians keep pushing as they seem inclined to do, there might be no choice, or we might get it anyway. But violence is not an attractive option.
Usually when things start to get stupid its often a sign that the dam is breaking
I’ve thought hard about this and I agree that we now need to stop banging on about the NHS and move quickly ( as 2 others have said here already) to a highly critical position on collateral damage. We need to spread all the data we can on the cost of lockdowns in both monetary and human terms.
roger – have a good day!
Day time TVs very own Martin Lewis tweeted avec cool about his shiny brand new covid-distance tag. The tweet has now been deleted -slated? Here is a screen capture of the influencer’s brag he presumably no longer wants people to see.
https://twitter.com/MaizyDaizyZzzz/status/1347476425310404608?s=20
That is hilarious.
If they are spending money on and implementing these things, does it mean anti social distancing is here to stay?
Obviously there’s a possible logic to what you say. Also I can remind you of Sinclair C5 and add to that the BBC are usibg tv tax to tag their 22 thousand staff. Does the BBC set the trend for anything of such nature?
I would guess these tags will record the number of ‘bumps’ to feed into management.
One thing however, whatever tge outcome of the tag it does seem quite a large gamble to adopt on the back of incompetence.
The Biased Bullshitting Covidians days are numbered anyway. The bleeping SD tags is just the latest in a never ending line of idiocy (all the woke drivel etc). I’m so glad they are starting to get defunded, their coverage over the pandemic has been nothing short of alarmist.
My local test centre now asks that you sit in your car and do the test yourself. Pro level science
Up yours, eh?
Ours is in the municipal car park, which is also closed to motor traffic for the duration.
Debbie Hicks, the lady who was arrested in her own home for filming an empty hospital has been arrested again. The treatment she received was barbaric. It was a stark difference to the ‘kneeling’ that took place when BLM were demonstrating.
‘I’m sure you all heard I was arrested in Parliament Square yesterday.
Three of us were lined up in the freezing temperatures yesterday in the middle of parliament square for an hour with hands cuffed behind our back. We were then held for a further 2-3 hours outside Kentish Town Police Station – with the cuffs still behind our backs. When I was finally taken in (about 3:30-4pm) I was detained for about 4 hours without the offer of food or water and ignoring my overly swollen hands from the prolonged wearing of cuffs and where I couldn’t remove my jewellery.The nurse said they looked ‘fine’.
I had the shakes you get when you’ve been out in the cold too long and managed to warm up after about 4 hours.
They ignored me ringing the bell. I demanded a solicitor and complained after excuses there was a ‘computer glitch’ they sent the superintendent – who was very apologetic and agreed my hands were in a state. I finally spoke to the solicitor I had asked for at about 10:30 and he was very good and very concerned about my welfare. They let me out just before midnight without charge (it’s a non chargeable offence) pending ‘investigation.’
I was then taken care of by some amazing women that expressed and gave outmost kindness and love. I have genuinely never had this from people before and I was overwhelmed.
The other lady who was arrested is amazing and experienced the same abuse of her rights in custody and detention.
I finally got home this afternoon and have had a good sleep.
Once again, please don’t let these things scare you. They arrested us to scare others.
Boris was really scutinised about the real numbers in hospitals at a press conference today and was really on the backfoot.
Keep finding ways to open up the cracks and you must get out in huge numbers – it’s easier for them to arrest when you don’t show up.
We MUST be there for each other’
“Three of us were lined up in the freezing temperatures yesterday in the middle of parliament square for an hour with hands cuffed behind our back. We were then held for a further 2-3 hours outside Kentish Town Police Station – with the cuffs still behind our backs. When I was finally taken in (about 3:30-4pm) I was detained for about 4 hours without the offer of food or water and ignoring my overly swollen hands from the prolonged wearing of cuffs and where I couldn’t remove my jewellery.The nurse said they looked ‘fine’.
I had the shakes you get when you’ve been out in the cold too long and managed to warm up after about 4 hours.
They ignored me ringing the bell. I demanded a solicitor and complained after excuses there was a ‘computer glitch’ they sent the superintendent – who was very apologetic and agreed my hands were in a state. I finally spoke to the solicitor I had asked for at about 10:30 and he was very good and very concerned about my welfare. They let me out just before midnight without charge (it’s a non chargeable offence) pending ‘investigation.’”
This is of course exactly the kind of harassment and low level physical abuse routinely dished out to dissenters in authoritarian regimes (among whose numbers we must now count our own)
There is no doubt that the hypocrites in charge of applying these policies (for these kinds of things do not happen by accident, they are merely set up to be “deniable” by the perpetrators and by the authorities who permit and encourage them) will all have spent plenty of time piously denouncing such practices by enemy governments.
Contemptible, hypocritical scumbags who should be treated with contempt henceforth by any civilised person. There are clearly many of them at all levels, but short of full trials or a “reconciliation” process, we can identify for certain Cressida Dick, Priti Patel and Sadiq Khan as being prime suspects..
The police wouldn’t dare to treat BLM protestors this way. This is the kind of inhumane treatment given to POWs. Still there are endless people defending the police saying there are lots of good officers – I don’t hear any condoning this.
Why do you seriously need to keep 2 women in handcuffs for hours out in the cold other than for an unlicensed form of punishment (fortunately it is harder for the police to give physical punishment beatings now like they used to due to camera footage). Under Khan, Patel and Dick anything seems to go.
exposure to temperature extremes of hot or cold, or indeed being kept wet, and being made to stand or sit on narrow ledges for long periods, was on the repertoire of Stalin’s gulags – as detailed by Solzhenitsyn. sleep deprivation or being confined to tight spaces will be next, you’ll see
Indeed. I suspect the Met officers are trying to get protestors to urinate themselves for some type of unofficial punishment or sadistic reasons some people particularly in high office have weird fetishes.
On Monday, I attended a ‘Day of Prayer for the Pandemic and Brexit’ at our local Church. It was a rather dispiriting day with the usual stale platitudes, but in my ‘feedback’ I mentioned that someone had prayed for ‘those who had been left alone while dying’ and other things like that. And why had they been left alone? Because some feather-bedded overpaid bureaucrat had decreed it that’s why. In this country we used to applaud those Christians who stood up against cruel and unjust laws and this is what you have done so all credit to you and all contempt to those who sit back and simply mouth pious phrases.
I have never felt so much contempt for politicians and those in ‘authority’.
Off to distribute some ‘Back to Normal’ postcards shortly.
At the end of Vernon Coleman’s videos, he usually signs off with “you are not alone, more and more people are waking up and once they are awake, they don’t go back to sleep” so it is disappointing that Alistair Haimes has ditched his scepticism.
Maybe he never fully awoke in the first place.
It would be hard for me to go back to a “the government know best after all and they have everyone’s best interest at heart, they really want to end lockdown and give us our freedoms back so we should continue to lock ourselves away until we are all vaccinated” position.
This might be because I never held that position in the first place – it always sounded a bit bonkers to me.
Maybe Vernon Coleman is wrong (he’s wrong about everything else in the known universe as we are all told). We’ll visit this site one day to find “Lockdown Sceptics 8-Jan-2031: This site is closing down because we were wrong about everything. We agree with SAGE”
“He gazed up at the enormous graph. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of facts were hidden beneath the models. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the scientific breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved SAGE.”
I’ve just read the Alastair Haimes item in the Spectator.
Let’s not wrap things up : it is so flawed as to represent a white flag of anti-intellectualism, not a considered revision of opinion.
Suddenly, evidence-based analysis is thrown out the window with a capitulation to all the main myths from SAGE and government – based on a naive trust in a massively rushed set of vaccines.
We know that the Spectator has been got at – and here’s the result. If I was a telephone scam merchant, I’d really want this guy’s number!
So on a positive note, my daughter is back at school and the school was fairly busy this morning.
On a negative note, they plan to keep the windows open all day. Great strategy to prevent 5 year olds getting runny noses. ‘Pro level science’, as I saw posted below.
I thought schools were all closed. Is that not the case?
They are open to children of “key workers” (I hate that term). The good news is that many more people seem to have decided that they are “key” this time around, as every class is open, albeit at reduced numbers, as opposed to everyone lumped into one or two “bubbles”.
I’d like to think it’s a good measure of rising opposition to school closures, but there’s no doubt some hypocritical “rules for thee and not for me” thinking going on too.
It seemed to be business as usual at my local primary school yesterday. It wasn’t what I’d been led to expect.
Some information about what is going on at the Excel Nightingale:
https://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/
From Diamond Geezer, who does a daily blog of his travels, he lives in Tower Hamlets. No close up photos of the interior and it is a little unclear what is actually going on there. Interesting that has been used as a film studio during the summer months.
Is the argument that witty and Vallance were right all along, or that the historical science is and that they got lampooned by the modellers and behavioural scientists into lockdown based on emotional logic and now the chickens have come home to roost?
We’ve known that this virus is on par (IFR) with a bad flu but he immune nativity of the population is larger thus hospital pressure in respiratory viral season will be higher. By simply ignoring this fact and ignoring trying to increase safely (as possible) community immunity we’ve simply exacerbated the usual winter with this new virus trying to rely on the vaccine which was always going to come too late. Relying on masks (with almost zero efficacy) and lockdowns which paradoxically increase the vulnerable mobility and put them at greater exposure to the virus in the community and nosocomially. Seems to me the result is the worst possible outcome, and as Witty and Vallance both said, something to avoid from day 1.
Here is what Vallance said on March the 12th 2020:
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/uk-scientist-warns-coronavirus-lockdown-risks-more-deaths-a4386661.html
“If you completely locked down absolutely everything, probably for a period of four months or more then you would suppress this virus,” he told Sky News.
“All of the evidence from previous epidemics suggests that when you do that and then you release it, it all comes back again.
“The other part of this is to make sure that we don’t end up with a sudden peak again in the winter which is even larger which causes even more problems.
“So we want to suppress it, not get rid of it completely which you can’t do anyway, not suppress it so we get the second peak and also allow enough of us who are going to get mild illness to become immune to this to help with the whole population response which would protect everybody.”
Thanks Will. Seems like a failed experiment happened between March 12th and now. I wonder if they’ll be uttering to themselves ‘i told you’ but scientific unorthodoxy tried to save everyone without thinking whether this was possible or even right.
If only we had a control population to compare with…
What you’ve quoted from Vallance above makes no sense to me whatsoever
It’s a bit out there but a lot of what is said here, especially in the 2nd half of the clip is true of what is happening now.
R.I.P Rik Mayall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrHmXt1jgtw&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR12AuhsSdyn5pKpqzPveEgl42AX7h8uHQbUXhmpwwcBV4Q6Lj8Whsrqa-M
https://twitter.com/willdhislop/status/1258457955189641224?lang=en
The ghoul Sridhar seems to have made an utterance on SkyNews. Partrick Heningsen points out some devi truth, others chip in with fair comment too. All in all and pleasing little twitter thread.
https://twitter.com/21WIRE/status/1347468336746143746?s=20
What the utterance was as highlighted by SkyNew was, “We’re in quite a deep pit and so we have to have a more proactive strategy” Impressive language from esteemed Devi Sridhar. Reveals what is going on in her head to describe all around us as quite a deep pit.
I don’t agree with Devi’s strategy of maximum suppression or zero covid (although I’m not sure if she is pushing for the latter these days). I think it’s too late for that and I get the impression she thinks that too.
I don’t think she’s evil just because she believes in a different strategy. We all probably have a similar objective of getting to the other side whilst minimising the damage and both sides have a different emphasis on what damage is more or less acceptable. Let’s not fall into the trap of painting everyone on the other side of the argument as the most extreme example.
She is right that we are in a deep pit and that is because the government have had no real strategy other than to see where the numbers take us whilst waiting for the cavalry to come save us.
In some ways I’d have preferred it if they had chosen either zero covid or the focussed protection route as then there would have been a clear objective either way. Instead what we got was a real time guess and check experiment to see what worked and what didn’t, adding bits here or taking away bits there depending on how the virus spread.
She’s evil because she is driving us towards a relatively more evil society (a technocratic medico-totalitarian dystopia, basically, in which all the things we formerly thought were “rights” are now privileges to be withdrawn by government at need), and she has from the start misrepresented her qualifications to say the things she has said and the advice she has given and grossly lied about the dangers she has used to rationalise her proposed “solutions”.
We are not in a particularly “deep pit” societally. We are going through a period of increased pressure on our healthcare system due to a new endemic winter respiratory virus, and a small number of people will die or suffer bad health problems in the course of it. The misrepresentation of it as a “deep pit” and an “emergency” is precisely the kind of exaggeration always used by totalitarians and power-seekers when they try to take extraordinary power for themselves or for their proposed reorganisation of society.
We disagee. She have had her soul sucked out and in entwined totally with the fraud of it all. She is in direct sicophantic communication with genocide tedros. Here mission in academic life has been to set up the global dept at edinburgh and serve the purpose she now does. This is much much deeper that a strategy she is not qualified to preside over. The manoeverings she has made to date are to serve the grand purpose. Alcohol going missing from our social lifes is something long in the making with sridhar at times present in that attack.
Not everyone with a PhD is very clever (I’ve got one).
Where is your opposition to lockdown on principle? Is it just about what ‘works’ for you?
Don’t understand your questions.
She makes the 1000 people did of Covid today error every time.
Excellent from Conservative Woman.
”Today’s talking point: How many (or few) Covid deaths near you?”
In my area six deaths from the virus since March and this is in London. It would be most helpful if Sceptics readers could post on this site the situation in the localities.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/todays-talking-point-how-many-or-few-covid-deaths-near-you/
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/articles/deathsinvolvingcovid19interactivemap/2020-06-12
20 in my area which I believe covers around 60k people.
8 in my postcode, though I see that they only have data up to the end of November at the local level (not that I am imagining there has been a huge increase since then).
14 in my area.
Cant tell yo the covid-19 deaths but can tell you (ONS data) the monthly all death stats for a City of 260,000 souls.
Mar 1
Apr 115
M -15
J -17
Ju 12
A -17
S 11
Oct -11
Nov 4
The figures are a comparison with 2019, The minus figures show a decrease in deaths. You can see in Apr that there is a big increase.
4 in my little area. Last census showed population of around 10000, so that is 0.04%.
current UK death rate around 9.5 per 1000 that is 0.95%
or put is another way… last year we should have had 95 deaths and we had 4 “covid” deaths – so around 4% of deaths were attributed to covid.
I went back through the local paper’s obituaries just to see if anybody I know had died and I hadn’t heard about it. I went back to last January and honestly there was absolutely NOTHING out of the ordinary about the numbers of dearly departed who sadlidied.
I wonder if anyone has ever tried to explain why the mantra ”ventilate ventilate” isn’t at odds with the wearing of muzzles in the open air.
Meantime, this is how “cancel culture” operates (in this case on the coronapanic) to warp and distort the very foundations of what we think we “know” in our societies – dissenters hounded and pressured via their employers and harassment even of their families to shut up and stop saying controversial things:
“Unfortunately we were forced to cancel..because he was strongly advised by his university to maintain silence and not speak publicly — to step back from this issue. I learned from a source that his university was heavily assailed by many complaints. Other scientists who have signed the review criticizing the PRC [sic – PCR obviously]..test, the “Retraction Request Letter”, a critique that got worldwide attention, have also been bombarded with attacks, their relatives are being called at night, and their universities assailed. Some are at risk of losing jobs. Even former employers are being harassed.”
https://twitter.com/naomirwolf/status/1347267414652641280
First the tory party came for the poor, but I was not poor so I did not speak up. Then they came for the unemployed, made some of them work for free, but I was not unemployed and I agree with the Daily Mail that they are all scum, so I did not speak up. Then the tory party came for the sick and disabled, made it difficult for them to get benefits, even killed some of them, but I didn’t give a shit about those fakers. Then they closed everything down but I was able to work from home so happy days. Then they closed all the pubs but I get my wine from Waitrose so again happy days. Then they came for the schools but my sharp elbows made sure Jemima and Edward got A’s for the exams they did not take. Then all the business closures started to affect my job and I couldn’t go anywhere unless I had a rushed unnecessary vaccine and my wife’s cancer was missed and I couldn’t hug my mum in the care home and finally I woke up.
They may well be the ‘evil’ party the left have been saying for years, unfortunately the other options such as Labour as equally as bad. I would like to see government massively reduced in size so they are unable to impose this type of tyranny on the population again – wishful thinking. I am sure new state roles will be found for the ‘covid marshals’ to make a nuisance of themselves.
Kier Starmer- lockdown more, lockdown sooner.
I hate to break it to you but it was the Labour party that turned on the poor. Under Thatcher you got your money no questions asked it was Blair that brought in all the bullshit and outsourced it to some corrupt people to skim off a fortune for the state. Anyway there should be welfare of any kind whatsoever.
Blair introduced The Jobseekers Allowance which brought in sanctioning of benefits for not looking for work hard enough and other minor rules breaking. This has brought misery to millions. The Tories extended it and made it even worse. Food banks everywhere. The UK has the highest child povery levels in Europe.
Both parties are evil.
More excellence from Conservative Woman. The You Tube video made our day.
https://youtu.be/trnpediKoyw
Yes, saw a twitter item about the same subject yesterday:
The British Government has released rules for sex during the new COVID-19 lockdowns. The rules state you should wear masks during the act, avoid kissing, and avoid any face-to-face contact. They even said “your best sexual partner is yourself or someone within your household”.
Person posting this said something like: now they’re telling us we must wank or do incest!
but dont kill grandma…..
a friend of mine told me he was into flagellation, necrophilia and bestiality
I told him it was pointless – he was flogging a dead horse
I believe this was actually from the Terence Higgins Trust.
They sound a barrel of laughs!
So. What happens if none of this works? So far the latest lockdown actually seems to have made things worse rather than better. It’s been in operation since Tier 4 was expanded to nearly everywhere, as Toby points out – I refuse to believe that pubs selling takeaway in the middle of winter has any effect on anything.
The vaccines will not prevent the spread. Will they prevent hospitalisations? Maybe. But they may even increase bed occupation if they – and they hopefully will – help people to survive.
The vaccine roll-out already seems to be a hopeless muddle.
I suspect an every-increasing tightening of the screws until disaster of one sort or another shatters the illusion.
They will just stop reporting on it when it is convenient
Just like the kids in cages during the Obama/Biden years
It’s a given that it’s not going to work
If these vaccines actually DO harm certain people, then for a while the hospitals really will be ”overwhelmed” – at least till all the over 70s have been weeded out and disposed of, the the bodies shovelled into the plague pit, and the younger ones (and the hospital staff) have recovered.
Is that another chapter of the Great Reset?
Quietly stop doing PCR tests and move to lateral flow.
Problem solved and crisis over.
Ernesto Araujo, Foreign Affairs minister, Brazil. He gets it.
“Brazil is a founding member of the UN, and hence, is committed to its basic principles: peace and security, cooperation among nations, respect for human rights, and fundamental freedoms,” Araujo told the UN.
“COVID-19 must not be taken as a pretext to advance agendas that extrapolate from the constitutional structure of the UN system,” he added.
The Brazilian minister went on to say, “Fundamental freedoms are not an ideology. Human dignity requires freedom as much as it requires health and economic opportunities.
“Those who dislike freedom always try to benefit from moments of crisis to preach the curtailing of freedom. Let’s not fall for that trap.
“Totalitarian social control is not the remedy for any crisis. Let’s not make democracy and freedom one more victim of COVID-19.”
Good chap.
Researching emigration to Brazil right now,
Source?
https://www.technocracy.news/brazil-slams-wefs-great-reset-totalitarian-social-control-is-not-the-remedy-for-any-crisis/
ta
Excellent words.
He’ll be accidentally bumping into a covid tipped umbrella any day now.
REAL TIME EXPERIENCE:
Walked into local bakery. One woman inside with a young child and a baby in a pram. I adore babies, don’t see enough of them anymore. Stood in front of pram cooing at baby who smiled and smiled at me. Mother engaged pleasantly with me, telling me the baby’s name. Shop assistant finally notices my unmasked face…
SHOP ASSISTANT: Have you got a face covering?
ME: (usual weary tone): I’m legally exempt, thank you.
The baby mother speaks from behind her hideous mask.
MOTHER: I wondered whether I would be exempt whilst pregnant but I wasn’t.
ME: Yes! Yes, of course you were. You are exempt. You are always exempt if you have small children because the sight of masks is psychologically damaging to them.
HER: No it’s not!
ME: Yes it is!
HER: (pointing to baby): He’s never known any different and he’s fine!
(Penny drops in me…)
ME: Okay, of course you need to think that. I’m sorry. What I’m suggesting would mean you are harming your children. I’m not suggesting that. But they ARE psychologically damaging to children.
HER: That’s rubbish and insignificant compared with protecting these poor people in this shop.
ME: But masks have not been proven to be effective.
HER: Yes they have, you just don’t want to hear it.
ME: They have NOT!
SHOP ASSISTANT: Please don’t raise your voice to customers.
(Moral of the story: brainwashing is a highly effective strategy. Every religion relies on it and there’s no arguing facts with religious zealots as in – a man can’t physically be dead for three days then come back to life. One-on-one confrontation is not an effective strategy for dismantling it. We need more power in numbers. Spread the truth through other means.)
Note to self: beware the “innocent” remarks of mask wearers trying to catch you out.
I’m really upset by this exchange. Scared to go in the bakery again (it’s the best in town, it would be a shame to have to avoid it). But most of all in despair. What can we do? Wait until the inevitable end?!
A particularly difficult situation as it might be seen as you getting between a mother and her infant.
Otherwise known as
‘You callin’ me a bad muvva! ?’ syndrome.
I actually got that once when I said to a mum she should not be smoking next to her baby. I just : Yes, that is correct. So now what ? Silence, complete shock, but like I said before I’m a 6 foot 3 former rugby player, soldier so I guess he figured the odds are not in her favor.
I know. I realised my mistake as the words were coming out of my mouth! Well, maybe I did make her think. Maybe she will look into it…
Having a baby is no more magical than doing a shit that’s why any fucking mong and their dog has kids. Most people are terrible parents. Just a bunch of fucking retards dropping more retards into the soup
You go back to the bakery without a mask and continue living like you did untill now. Ignore the mass brainwashing , why would you suffer because they are all fucking insane. You put your point across, she proved she is an idiot ( fact: no pier review study in the last 13 years has proven ANY efficacy of mask in preventing infections) and you still got you iced bun.
Thank you. I will. I must not give in to fear…
It was the WHO who made the point back in the summer (I wish I’d kept the link) that masks are ineffective except in that they remind people to obey the rules.
Face masks: WHO stands by recommendation to not wear them …
Search domain http://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/world/coronavirus-who-masks-recommendation-trnd/index.htmlhttps://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/world/coronavirus-who-masks-recommendation-trnd/index.html
30 Mar 2020(CNN) World Health Organization officials Monday said they still recommend people not wear face masks unless they are sick with Covid-19 or caring for someone who is sick.
Do what the left is very practised at doing.Throw the guilt trip back at them.
Say something like
” Well as long as you are happy with the psychological damage your child is getting and the liklihood of developing violent behaviour – as you have no ambitions for your kids it won’t matter”
The progs have been using the guilt trip for years, twist their own weapons against them
You were a victim of your own kindness, generous spirit and common sense. YOU are the normal person here and never forget it. When all this is over you will have the satisfaction of being able to look in the mirror and like what you see—-unlike the vast majority it’s sad to say.
I have Jewish ancestors who were killed in the holocaust. Sometimes I’m doing this because they gave their lives to show that we must stand up – to our death beds – for what we believe is morally right. The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. I see your point. It hurt (both me and the mother) but I DID something. And we must persevere. I would not have survived this madness without the constant support and sanity shown by this community on LS. Thank you!
You never know – you may have sown just one little seed. I hope so. You’re very brave.
One of my favourite films of all time is Stephen Spielberg’s ‘Schindlers List’ I must admit that I can’t watch it too often as, whilst inspiring in one sense, it is thoroughly depressing in another. But the message is clear: When evil is being done it takes great courage and indeed the risk of self sacrifice to be one of the ‘good men’.
After the event of course, everyone feels that they would like to have behaved like Oscar Schindler. But what matters, and only matters, is how do we behave when we ourselves are tested? How do we behave when those about us are doing wrong or are just going along with it for an easy life?
We may not be faced with having to save concentration camp victims but in our own small ways we are having to face down our fears and stand against the baying crowd. Well done to you for your actions…..Brownie points from me!
Seriously? You talk of the a Jewish community as if it was a homogeneous blob. Why should the Jewish community stand up to this anymore than any other religious community? I know it is hard for us to countenance but the people on the other side also believe they are standing up for what is morally right.
The point being made was that Jewish people [in general, implicitly] should be particularly sensitive to this kind of thing because of the precedent of the experience in Nazi Germany, and kh reported a friend saying that he was shocked that “those he knows” in that community are not doing so. (By the way I understand there are many in the New York Jewish community in particular who have been making exactly that point very loudly and forcefully, to their great credit).
Is this really a problematic suggestion?
Is there something wrong with suggesting that cultural, religious or indeed racial groupings have particular historical experiences (eg slavery) that will tend to colour their current attitudes? That seems basic common sense to me. It’s not denying that there will be individual differences in any such community, nor does it inherently empower those who seek to claim unwarranted supposed entitlements from such historical experiences. It’s a generalisation, which are necessary things for almost any useful conversation about the world.
I am finding this more and more…whats so pathetic is that people think they are well informed when all they do is watch the news.
My next door neighbour died in November from a brain tumour. His treatment was cancelled for three months from March of last year. This did not stop him and his wife from clapping the NHS at the time. His wife (now his widow) was NOT outside clapping last night, neither were any of our other neighbours who were enthusiastic clappers first time round. Our area was deathly quiet.
Undoubtedly the days of free pizzas, hero worship and idolisation of a service that was non existent have paled somewhat even to the most hardy of lock down zealots. And don’t forget of course the dancing nurses, supposedly at a time of national crisis!! Even stupid people aren’t stupid all of the time and the government are realising just that.
Fantastic to see this morning around 50+ people, mostly family with younger kids all mixing and sledging in the fresh snow just on the field outside my house. No one masked, kids having great fun and parents all chatting closely.
Where is this? I want to be there! I’m so bereft of human contact, especially the smiles of children.
Scotland.
Excellent that’s what I like to hear.
where is this? call the police!!!!!
Got help them if they are in Derbyshire!
Won’t be long before Krankies Karens and Kapos turn up to ruin some more childrens lives after the maltreatment of a child with epilepsy they indulged in yesterday. ( Memory holed already?)
“becoming centrist”
This isn’t some moderate., balanced position.
Let’s tell it as it is – it’s accepting falsehood as reasonable – i.e capitulation to lies.
Here’s a brilliant article by John Ward, looking into the army of engorged leaches on the back of the Citizenry that is the PHE.
https://therealslog.com/2021/01/08/public-health-england-under-the-microscope-a-massive-sprawling-mess-that-signals-a-much-bigger-problem/
The new government slogan.
COVID is for life not just for Christmas.
More overreach by Derbyshire police https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-55560814. A takeaway drink is a picnic?
You cannot leave home for recreational or leisure purposes (such as for a picnic or a social meeting). Who are the dictators thinking up all of this, hope we see them as part of the homeless eventually.
You can leave your home for as long as you wish if you are a victim of domestic abuse
I believe you can have people around if you’re selling your house.
And I can have my cleaning lady round but not my family.
The Government is now a domestic abuser so yes – carry on
How can any person who has lived in a democracy fail to find this utterly chilling and outrageous? I foolishly imagined that we had moved past this after the ridiculous overreaches of lockdown 1. Just reading about this makes me feel suffocated.
Give the bastards power and they will abuse it.
No sign of them out and about yesterday, fortunately.
this is what the bbc say
Derbyshire Police said: “It is up to each individual officer on a case-by-case basis to decide what is reasonable as the legislation does not proscribe a distance.”
The BBC contacted the Cabinet Office, Home Office, College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council to ask for clarification over what they define as “local area” in relation to exercise. None could clarify this.
However, the College of Policing said: “In overall terms police officers across England and Wales will be using their discretion and professional judgement about whether or not someone has a reasonable excuse for travelling for exercise and being outside the place where they are living.”
so they are being judge and jury. so if the copper didnt get a shag last night and is in a bad mood then he (or she) might just think everything is unreasonable. ,.
In this case the ladies should have refused the fine. I would love to see the police try to prove that a coffee is a picnic in court
“In this case the ladies should have refused the fine. I would love to see the police try to prove that a coffee is a picnic in court“
Haven’t seen the wordings for any coronapanic notices but usually getting a ticket isn’t a conviction or an admission of guilt. You can still contest it and I assume if these ladies refuse to pay they will probably not even be prosecuted, let alone convicted.
As I posted earlier today, just avoid the obviously popular spots, because that is where the unimaginative plods concentrate their efforts.
It’s not how we should have to live our lives, but for now settle for the gratification of beating them.
It was -4 degrees in South Derbyshire yesterday so having a warm drink on a walk would be sensible. Surely a picnic is something you do sitting down with food and not drinking and walking.
And since when can someone be fined for breaking the spirit of a poorly defined guideline as opposed to the letter of the law?
I live between Ashby and Foremark. The two are in diffferent counties but are only a few miles apart. Surely anyone can see it’s preferable for these ladies to walk in the countryside than on the crowded pavements of a busy market town? Derbyshire police have been for years and clearly remain a contemptible outfit.
From yesterday’s Sceptics.
Seen elsewhere…”Here is a lockdown ‘travel pack’ for you to print off and have with you while out and about in case an overzealous police officer or PCSO challenges you for not taking your exercise locally or for being out for too long (neither of which are offences in law):
Schedule 3A of the lockdown legislation regarding exercise:
The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020 (legislation.gov.uk)
NO wording on having to take local exercise or any time limits on that exercise.
Gov UK national lockdown ‘rules’:
National lockdown: Stay at Home – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Note the wording on local exercise and time limits uses the term ‘should’. That is key, because there is no legal force behind it.
College of Policing national lockdown guidance for officers (page 6):
Tier 4 The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020 (paas-s3-broker-prod-lon-6453d964-1d1a-432a-9260-5e0ba7d2fc51.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com)
NO wording on having to take local exercise or any time limits on that exercise.
Armed with these three, you can legitimately ‘take exercise’ wherever you like in England and for as long as you like. Speaking to a solicitor yesterday, we discussed whether in a court of law a jury might be convinced that it wasn’t “reasonable” to exercise far from your home but we agreed that the point was a subtle one not made clear in any of the documentation and certainly not one that a police officer was likely to raise on the spot. My advice would be to take your exercise wherever you want (in England) and for as long as you want but if a police officer challenges you, go through the above rationale politely and calmly with them. You are very unlikely to get a FPN after showing the College of Policing guidelines which the police themselves obviously take their cue from”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/55536762
This is the BBC (!) asking how busy actually are the hospitals in England. The article goes on to talk about the problems of comparing data with previous years because this year they have Covid rules about infection control. They also talk about the fact that patients are having to stay in hospital longer because of the need to produce a negative test result, before they are sent back to care homes, which is clogging up beds.
After reading the report from the doctor ATL, I have some questions.
In Germany the number of intensive beds was reduced by 20% in the 5 months to the end of December.
What conclusion can be drawn from this?
Graph at link.
https://twitter.com/marcfriedrich7/status/1345809420069052416/photo/1
Reading Clare Craig et al (link above) suggests that the problem, as always, is a bed management and other policy decisions problem. This is from my local paper website https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/health/one-four-hospital-patients-now-4866667. What is not pointed out is that one hospital Glenfield is a cardio respiratory hospital for the local area, and patients from all over the east and parts of the West Midlands can be admitted into that hospital.
Explosion at Naples covid care facility
https://www.ruptly.tv/en/events/202101080940-LIVE5876-Live-from-Naples-following-explosion-near-COVID-19-care-facility
Not reported by the BBC
A thought provoking feature. Regardless of whether your a sceptic or not the NHS has a winter crisis every year. Given that fact, knowing because of this we are having to shut the country down has anyone seen the government’s plan to sort things out ready for next winter?
Have they confirmed 20 percent more beds within 12 months 40 percent more within three years? X tens of thousands of extra frontline nurses in three years time?
Doubt we will be any better off in five or ten years as the politicians are beyond hopeless.
Very good point
The NHS could doubtless be improved or replaced, but it or any replacement will never be perfect
You either build in surge capacity, and accept there is a cost to that, or you don’t and accept there are consequences
We cannot have our cake and eat it
In general the electorate have in recent elections chosen governments that limit public spending a little in order to keep taxes low (I know this hasn’t happened this year) so to now panic because hospitals are busy is just daft
I worked in A&E from 2008 to 2013. When I first started we had 350-400 patients per day coming through the doors, when on nights we actually had zero patients for a couple of hours at around 2 AM. When I finished there were close on 700 patients a day and the department was never empty. The ED had to be modified to take the extra patients and more recently a new ED was built.
I think a trend was established in the 1990s. Anyone who lived in central London at the time might recall how it became increasingly difficult to access a GP. Response – just go straight to A&E (in my case, the Chelsea & Westminster). By the time I moved out of London, this was increasingly evident elsewhere, especially outside of normal hours – consequently, several visits with young kids to A&E in Oxford. Is this now what is happening on a much wider scale – having stayed at home in the first lockdown, now that there are no GP services operating even in normal hours, are people just going straight to hospital?
Yep. Last time my wife tried to get a GP doctor’s appointment, she was told 2 weeks. So loads of people will go straight to A&E.
At Boris Johnson’s press briefing yesterday Simon Stevens made a point of attacking people who put pictures of empty hospital corridors on the Internet. He made no attempt to dispute the authenticity of the images, but denounced them as false and dangerous, and went on to claim they are an insult to the hard working nurse who has just finished a twelve hour shift combating the deadly virus.
Why are they so afraid?
Because their lies are being found out and it’s all falling apart
‘Downfall’
To stop the truth from coming out, stamp on it before it actually does.
Simple way to deal with this. Authorise a small team of reputable and fair-minded journalists (Julia H-B, Majid Nawaz etc) to visit simultaneously a sample of hospitals across the country, accompanied by a senior consultant and nurse for a 12-hour shift. Access to all wards, including ICU. At the moment all we have are a handful of citizen journalist reporters who have managed to sneak into the more obvious parts of a few hospitals on the one hand, and the orchestrated and heavily controlled access from the MSM on the other (BBC). I think both are likely to be misleading.
I was just in hospital myself, for three days and two hours. I saw for myself what it was like. I wrote a post on my observations: https://viewsandstories.blogspot.com/2021/01/admitted-to-hospital-in-time-of.html
Thanks for that Steve. A very informative post. My husband had a minor procedure in early December, and the local general hospital was deserted. Others have said the same elsewhere in the country. I don’t doubt the report from the doctor on today’s paper, but I wonder whether hospitals in NE and SE London are the exception rather than the rule.
The official narrative has it that the NHS is stretched and in imminent danger of being overwhelmed, but lots of official data do not square with that. For example, respiratory illnesses requiring hospital admissions are normal. Yet, if the NHS is about to be overwhelmed by COVID there would be far more respiratory illness hospitalisations than normal.
Agree. The other misinformation that particularly jarred was the nurses and doctors crying at the number of young people (30s and 40s) dying in one of the London hospitals in a report the other day (BBC I think). Yet, the dashboard has never shown more than 4 in this age-range per day across the whole of the English hospital estate, and even then, marrying that with breakdowns of with/without underlying health conditions in the last few weeks, I can only remember two at most in this age range.
But if the number of beds have been reduced for distancing/ infection control (if only) and lots of staff are off work (for whatever reason) then they may well struggle to care for patients in some hospitals. Respiratory admissions may be normal, but it seems that the capacity to respond to them is not – due to failures of planning and preparation.
Somehow I don’t recall Hancock, et al, telling us that they had so mismanaged the NHS that is in imminent danger of being overwhelmed so all of us have to stay at home so as to minimise its workload. I must have slept through that press briefing.
Good plan but won’t be allowed to happen as they are not interested in objective reality
If they were interested in objective reality they wouldn’t be so actively trying to shut down dissent and debate. And of course, as we here all know, it’s their explicit stated policy to promote fear in order to increase compliance.
https://www.coronababble.com/post/the-ethics-of-using-covert-strategies-a-letter-to-the-british-psychological-society-ii
Quick theory
Remember the school bully, got you in a headlock and will only let you go when you apologise (for something you haven’t done).
Is that where we are with Toby being allowed on MSM on the understanding he apologise and admit sceptics were wrong (even though we know we’re not) the narrative can remain the ‘government did the right thing’ as they roll back and we’ll be able to come out of lockdown? (In simple terms I know)
Imagine if all the money stolen from the public purse had been spent on actually protecting the people who needed it and on the NHS to deal with anybody missed.
I think the outcome could/would have been a lot better than where we are now.
This could have beeen said in June. Since this virus is not that dangerous and you cannot shut an economy down everytime a virus appears – the only logical conclusion is they intended to crash the economy.
I don’t agree. An alternative conclusion is that lots of powerful people have been functionally very stupid (ie they choose to believe things other than the truth because it suits them politically and personally, or they pretend to believe those things because they will gain personally and politically and don’t care about the consequences for others, or their reason is simply overwhelmed by fear).
Those seem more plausible to me than a conspiracy to intentionally crash the economy being sufficiently powerful,and competent to drive all that we have seen.
Ymmv of course.
You’re too nice Mark.
The economic ‘alterations’ are clearly part of the plan.
Clearly, we disagree on this point.
An extremely powerful argument and one that I use when I can on lockdowners – they never have an answer to it
Just returned from the local butchers. I suspect he’s on the sceptic side but has to comply with the rules as he’s a butcher and wants to keep his shop open. Anyway, to comply with the “rules” he wears a Perspex face mask (not a visor), which I noted was thick with condensation. The condensation was so thick, beads of moisture were forming and running down the mask.
The beads appeared to be forming into droplets and although I didn’t observe anything, I suspect these droplets could fall from his mask onto meat, the counter etc.
My question is how hygienic is that in “normal” times let alone in these scary killer virus times.
Well.. condensation is water.. distilled water actually.. deionised.. how hygenic? Are you sure it is condensation? Perspex is a good insulator unlike glass or metal.. therefore tends not to get cold enough for water vapour to condense on. If vapour from his breath.. then I’d say it was more of a concern.
Definitely from his breath, as I say it was like a face mask but made out of Perspex, very close to his mouth.
If it saves just one lamb chop
A reminder of an age of such innocence: Shari Lewis and her Lamb Chop, when a sock puppet meant just that.
Aw, happy times.
Days of black pudding too and tripe and cabbage and ribs at my nana’s.
Tripe -yuk , I still gag at remembering the smell of it cooking
I associate it with my nan too. Plenty of salt, pepper and vinegar in the honeycombs, an apology for a salad alongside it, on a summer evening.
(That’s much better than tripes a la mode de Caen, which tends to be glutinous, though is not unpalatable.)
Black puddings and Lancashire hotpot on winter evenings, too.
Or the early stages of the dumbing down of society ?
How one EARTH can a bastard VISOR protect anybody from any kind of viral pathogen. Insane.
They won’t, nor will the face nappies. Its been scientifically proven masks do not work at stopping viruses and are actually making things worse including covid spread. Unfortunately the politicians can’t get that fact in their tiny heads.
I note this typically apologetic statement in the first item (above) :
“we’re not claiming that SARS-CoV-2 is less deadly than the average bout of seasonal flu for the entire population”
Well – actually – depending on the ‘average’ definition – the numbers are now in for 2020.
And the majority of the year (i.e. excluding the actual epidemic in April) has shown rather low mortality compared with the run of ‘flu seasons. And even including that genuine infectious episode, the year has not produced unprecedented levels of mortality overall.
The autumn has – despite SAGE’s best efforts – been remarkably average (the Chuckle Brothers overestimated deaths by 150%)
Lower mortality (excluding April/May) presumably because the emptying of hospitals into care homes in March led to tens of thousands of deaths (from all sorts of causes, mostly not covid), many of which would otherwise have been spead out throughout the rest of the year.
No. This is ‘all-cause’ mortality. Simply weekly reflection of total weekly deaths anywhere – the only reliable data available.
That’s the point. This year was not wildly exceptional in any sense., and the autumn period was boringly normal.
No, you didn’t understand my post. Of course it’s all-cause deaths. The original post said that Jan-Mar and Jun-Dec combined were slightly lower than normal. Well, they would be, because of the Apr-May spike that brought forward deaths that would have happened later in the year. The overall total was normal and would have been normal anyway, without the lockdown.
Is there anyone in the world more self-deluded than Handoncock?
So, if the vaccination programme goes bottom over bosom in any way, he has set himself up very nicely to shoulder the blame.
Well, just a little prick. I can see the resemblance.
The leader of the Labour party has been traditionally the dumbest fucker they could find at the time in the country but i’ll give you Handcock is giving him a run for his money. I say him because the labour party and socialist in general despise woman and would never ever ever have a woman leader
I read the ludicrous Paul Mason New Statesman piece that Toby linked to above. There was too much bs to fully mention but one sentence caught my eye:
“Elderly scientists questioned the severity and the certainty of climate change”
What on earth does the age of the scientists have to do with anything? Is he suggesting that because they are “elderly” they are stupid??
Probably.
The over 70’s are portrayed as stooped and using walking sticks in the Covid vaccination “adds”
They’re also the most in need of protection because it’s our duty to treat them as invalids.
I can’t keep up with the propaganda line that they’re trying to push about the over 70s.
One minute I’m supposed to believe that over 70s are all terribly frail, but lovely and extremely valued members of society who need to be locked up to be saved.
Then I’m supposed to believe that over 70s are so stupid and behind the times that they aren’t really worth saving at all.
Need some clarification from the Dear Leader on this one so I think correctly.
Yes, what happened to “70 is the new 50 and 60 is the new 40” patronising claptrap?
Remember the Brexit vote? We were all supposed to hate the oldies as they all voted “leave” and destroyed the futures of all young people who couldn’t do Erasmus and stuff. They had had their fun and the remainers were quite publicly wishing them dead. OK Boomer? What changed?
One Remainer said he hoped all the old brexiteers would die of flu. I wonder if that tweet is still there?
I am 72 and voted remain but I am a proud sceptic and I can recognise bs, lies and manipulated statistics better than most 30 somethings.
That they have more wisdom
That’s a very patronising statement considering that the so-called elderly scientists have more experience, wisdom and less susceptible to BS.
Whitless looks about 200 if it comes to that!
The relevant point is no so much that they are elderly, as they not in need of the approval of anyone being no longer concerned by such things as promotions and research grants.
The particular dominance of the contempt for age (and consequent wisdom) in our society is mostly the result of three factors I think.
First, we live in an era of rapid technological change. Alongside that, the triumph of radicalism through the late C19th and C20th, which is inherently a young person’s position and which benefits from the discrediting of established wisdom, and finally the particular circumstance of the disastrous wars of the early C20th quickly followed by the “baby boom” era that gave massive economic and cultural power to a generation inclined to listen to and propagandised by those radicals. Mason of course has always been a self-confessed hard left radical.
Contempt for age and wisdom has been systematically pushed in our culture for more than a century.
Interesting concept of rapid technological change, I would suggest that these “elderly” scientists have lived through significant technological changes.
It wasn’t directed at any individuals, just the implications for society as a whole.
“Extremely experienced, impartial scientists. Impartial because they have retired and no longer need grant money”
No, the purge of academics who did not push the man made global warming theorey started in the late 1990s, I think, when you could not get a grant unless climate change was in the title. Hence established academics got pushed out if they were not true believers, and all subsequent jobs would be taken by younger academics who have been indoctrinated.
I remember a conversation I overheard as a student between a male and a female at a restaurant we were all in. I was slightly drunk so my recollection is a bit hazy.
The male was complaining about women who lead men on and how they shouldn’t be going back home with a man if they didn’t intend to put out. There was a lot of back and forth between them before I decided to stick my oar in. I simply asked, what if she changes her mind? There was no answer and I do believe I earned some brownie points with the female but that’s a different story.
The point I want to make here is that the idea of freedom of choice is not just the freedom to choose to do something. It is also the freedom to change your mind.
Those who think that mandating facemasks, lockdowns, vaccines or whatever don’t realise that once it’s law there’s no option to change your mind. If it’s voluntary you are still free to wear a mask but you are also free to not wear one, if you choose to wear one you can change your mind and not wear one. If you choose not to wear one you can change your mind and choose to wear one. That is the essence of what freedom is.
Absolutely. and this is the essence of what is wrong (actually evil) about those who advocate lockdown, and other coercive measures such as compulsory mask wearing, whatever the levels of sickness in the community.
It is fundamentally a denial of the entire basis of liberty and of democracy – it says that people as a whole are too stupid to be trusted to make their own decisions. So why do we pretend to trust them with the vote in the first place?
They have told so many lies they can’t even remember them
Sometimes I forget when the BLM protests were because it seems so long ago.
Haha. Every 4 years. Like Maybugs
I lost my rag with a bedwetter friend on Facebook Messenger last night, and sent him this, which I composed in a red mist of fury…
At some point in the future, the following questions will be asked of us:
How could you have surrendered a generation of children to a life without education?
How could you have forced masks onto everybody’s faces (including children), when all the available research told you that they had no useful effect whatsoever?
How could you have consigned vulnerable people to a life without vital social contact?
How could you have prevented old people from seeing their loved ones in the final days of their lives?
How could you have closed churches and places of worship, when this is unprecedented in British history?
How could you have made seeing members of your own family an offence?
How could you have encouraged people to report on their own neighbours?
How could you have locked-up university students in their accommodation?
How could you have abolished the right to demonstrate?
How could you have allowed social media companies the right to censor opposing points of view?
How could you have borrowed and printed so much public money, that our masked and education-less children will be burdened with debt for decades to come?
How could you have destroyed the jobs and businesses of so many people who have to work hard for a living?
How could you have condemned thousands of people to premature deaths, due to cancelled hospital appointments and operations?
And finally, and perhaps most importantly, how could you have unleashed a poorly-understood and under-tested vaccine upon millions of people?
How could you have done all of this, for a virus that has killed, at the very most, 0.1% of the population? And with an average age of mortality of 82?
HOW COULD YOU HAVE DONE THIS?
HOW COULD YOU HAVE DONE THIS?
Fear.
The three British values: credulity, cowardice and compliance.
“However did they win?” (Fawlty Towers, The Germans)
Let’s hope we don’t have to do anything similar again, eh? We are not the nation we were.
Fear and apathy.
But mostly fear.
Brilliant.
Do you think the answer will be: If it saved one life, it was worth it?
Yes, that’s what they’ll say, ignoring the millions whose lives have been blighted or destroyed by the measures that have been taken.
Of course. On a net basis it has already cost lives – see the slaughter in the care homes.
Most of the people whose lives will be shortened by the first lockdown have yet to die – many many cancer victims for example, whose screenings or treatments were postponed or cancelled.
I wonder if your friend is familiar with the psychology/ethics thought experiment about the trolley bus, where one has to decide between killing one person to save lives of others or not?
Well, you make a good point, but, as I’m sure you know from your own experience, it’s impossible to engage in any kind of rational debate with a majority of people.
Let me just give an example of how delusional things have become: I have a Bulgarian friend who lives here in France. She came around in a state of hysteria a week or so ago, saying that she’d been telephoned and told that a very close family friend of hers in Bulgaria (a man in his sixties, in rather poor general health) was severely ill and propped-up in bed at home, having collapsed onto the floor, whilst paying a visit to the toilet.
Apparently, the ambulance people over there wouldn’t come around to attend to this man, because they said it was likely to be Covid-19, and they didn’t want to put healthcare staff at risk.
The first thing I said was, “Why does everybody automatically think he’s suffering from Covid-19? He’s an older man with a number of health conditions, and I can think of several other things that might have caused him to collapse onto the floor.”
But no, this poor old geezer spent 24 hours propped-up in bed, drifting in and out of consciousness, while all around him fussed about in face masks, doing their best to treat him for the symptoms of Covid-19, until a friend of the family, who is a retired nurse, came around and immediately said, “He’s had a stroke”.
She was able to see the signs straight away, and so, eventually, an ambulance came to take him to the hospital.
I’m pleased to say that this gentleman is making a recovery, but this episode is just another example of how deranged everybody’s thinking has become; it’s as if no other disease exists except for Covid-19.
I told a local that my son was hospitalised before Christmas. His first question was “Was it Covid?” When I said no he completely lost interest. Only covid deaths matter.
(Son now recovering).
I’m pleased your son is getting better.
Yes, it’s as if suffering from Covid is somehow superior to having any other kind of ailment. It’s utterly bizarre.
It also reminds me of the infamous Milgram experiment.
Excellent questions.
This society is finished.
If the question is how could you accomplish this, we have all seen how. If the question is how can you be an ethical human being and do all this, the answer is you can’t.
Well, that’s the thing; my friend believes he is ethically superior to me, because he supports the measures described above. Oh, and by the way, he freelances for the BBC…!
Ask your friend what she thinks the implications of this are:
That is a truly terrifying piece of data. Thanks for posting; I’m going to use that.
Agreed it really is Jody. What’s even better, that with both the NHS & BBC logos featuring even the most zealous of zealots should believe it
This definitely needs answers and an investigation!
I actually fantasise about the day when Hancock, Whitty, Vallance et al are dragged-up from the cells, clad in prison uniform, and forced to testify before a tribunal, which has an extensive range of sentencing powers…
‘Red mist of fury’? Seems quite calm and reasonable to me.
Thank you!
Wonderful comment. I shall copy it for future use.
Coronavirus: Women on exercise trip ‘surrounded by police’ – BBC News
Urgh, Derbyshire’s finest going over the top yet again.
I have written to the force via their online portal to complain.
To re-iterate: the College of Policing guidelines AND the legislation do NOT stipulate ‘local’ for exercise.
Is that right? We can exercise anywhere?
Yes, 100%.
But be prepared to deal with ignorant police who don’t know the difference between a guideline and a law. Print out the legislation, the College of Policing guidelines and the GOV UK guidelines and be polite in case challenged!
College of Police guidelines is 30 pages, I’ve looked
Tier 4 The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020 (paas-s3-broker-prod-lon-6453d964-1d1a-432a-9260-5e0ba7d2fc51.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com)
Page 6 is the one you want. No mention of ‘local’ or number of times you can exercise.
Oh and stay within England. Assume you live here. It gets more complicated if you cross borders.
More importantly stay safe
Yep. This isn’t even a sceptic v. zealot thing. You can ‘stay safe’ just by following the law. You go for outdoor exercise with your household or one other person then you come straight home. Even zealots can be happy with that.
I put stay safe as a sarcastic comment it’s a pointless thing to say to anybody at any time. Completely meaningless. Same as take care, drive carefully and all the other crap people say.
Yes sorry, didn’t know where you were coming from.
And yet it is absurd. You’re more likely to die of 22 other causes than Covid.
Changing it to Stay Sane may be more relevant with all the Branch Covidians about.
You didn’t have an offspring write off 5 cars before he was 21, did you ?
Looks a bit like a ‘photo opportunity’. Mint tea counts as a picnic ? Nah.
For those interested, I got an informal legal opinion on it just now:
“I think this was heavy handed and I would like to challenge the notice. But I would not advise to challenge the notice because appreciable chance of losing and that would turn a fixed penalty into a declarable criminal conviction and record.
The problem is that a good arguable interpretation is that the exercise exception is conditional on being reasonably necessary and that is open to interpretation. The police force press statement is carefully worded on legal advice. There is a discretion and it will depend on all the circumstances.”
The ladies in question probably didn’t help themselves by being speechless rather than knowing the law and saying what their excuse was and holding ‘luxury’ coffee cups and looking rather glam. I think it’s about ‘looking the part’ for exercise and having your reasonable excuse to hand immediately.
This is what things have come to…
I think I’d politely decline the penalty notice & opt for a summons. There’s a world of difference between a PC who hasn’t read the legislation properly & is relying on what he’s been told by others and a CPS lawyer reviewing the matter. The latter is probably not going to make an arse of themselves by trying to argue in court that government guidance is legislation for the purpose of prosecuting someone (however much the Daily Mail may think it is).
Don’t underestimate the pressure that some junior and middle ranking Police supervisors will put on their staff to dish out notices to show how “on message” they are (it doesn’t matter to them that the CPS will ditch the them like a shit sandwich a couple of weeks down the road). Being “on message” is how you get evidence for your next promotion panel.
Would that it were so simple. Magistrates tend to favour police accounts and if something goes wrong on your day in court you could end up with a criminal conviction. Is it worth going for summons with risk of career-ending criminal record just to overturn a £200 FPN? I see it that it’s worth risking travelling for exercise for a £200 FPN that I will accept as that risk. Chances are you won’t even encounter an officer.
Wikipedia/dictionary addition for 2021. (I wish)
The Covidians. A widespread Cult predicated on the delusional belief that a virus which is endemic in an entire population can be controlled; postulated by a neo-communist/totalitarian Establishment, maintained by a Police State and perpetuated by the mainstream media which has become the Propaganda Arm of the State. Cult members worship at the alter of bad science and the NHS, and Dissenters are considered as Heretics.
Excellent – stick it on there !
Actually, it’s a neoliberal free market/totalitarian establishment.
lol, free market, where? where is the free market bro? What we’ve got is statists like you shoving they tiny dicks into any fucking hole they think they can extort money from. You won’t see it off course you’re fucking retarded
Neo-liberalism has nothing to do with free markets
It is a Corporatist ideology
Oh to be in Covid free Oz -oh wait https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-55582836
Yes a friend in Brisbane WhatsApp’d me about this. Previously a staunch supporter of Lockdown now at last beginning to question the whole strategy. Hopefully we are slowly getting there.
“Hilarious” Jones is losing patience with the “rule breakers” with “blood on their hands”.
As I am now in danger of throwing something though our window, I will leave my FS’s to comment.
All the real blood is on the hands of the zealots. Any blood on our hands is purely hypothetical.
The boy is an idiot.
Of course, by his criteria we should never have fought WWII. It would have saved lives not to have done, even if a few went to the gas chambers.
The problem with that argument is that we didn’t know about the “gas chambers” at the start of WWII.
I’m not saying that Britain should not have gone to war with Germany but many of the arguments which are now put forward for doing so aren’t really valid,
It’s not an ‘argument’. It’s an illustration, raising the question of whether ‘saving lives’ is the sole worthwhile goal in any enterprise.
I wasn’t having a go. Just pointing out, in a roundabout way, that those who opposed war did so on what they knew at the time.
Ah yes, but many were aware that the Nazis were totalitarians whose expansionism threatened the freedoms of all, whose regime was backed up by ruthless and relentless propaganda, who persecuted anyone who disagreed with them, who used popular science (eugenics) to justify their philosophy, who were quite happy to turn its people against eachother and encouraged them to turn neighbours in for ‘non-compliance’, and were creating an atmosphere of oppression that could not be allowed to prevail if we were to conserve our very way of life. . .
. . . Nothing at all like today, then.
PS. My Dad flew in the BoB to fight this oppression against all odds. I could not live with myself if I did not at least attempt to do the same.
Amazing as I was reading your comment the comparison to this government was shocking.
The “gas chambers” did not exist at the start of WWII.
To be fair, not a bad summary
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/55536762
Except for that photo being identical to what I posted earlier at https://diamondgeezer.blogspot.com/
Those ambulances are on a training exercise and the Excel is not currently admitting patients. .Pity they couldn’t have found a hospital with a real line of ambulances waiting!
”Pity they couldn’t have found a hospital with a real line of ambulances waiting!”
maybe there isn’t one
The most powerful figure is that the number of people who died from COVID-19 in English hospitals in 2020 who were under 60 with no underlying health conditions was 388.
I have been thinking about this for a while. I know of two people (aged 39 and 40) who were fit non-smokers who died of heart attacks with NO previous history of problems. Also some older people. My friend could think of three such people he’d known off the top of his head.
So I do wonder whether these people might have actually had an undiagnosed underlying condition rendering them more susceptible to serious Covid-19.
Highly likely.
Probably. There is an assumption that younger people cannot have undetected underlying conditions. For example adolescent children suddenly becoming unwell and dying because of cardiac problems.
My cousins son dropped dead with a heart attack aged 10 on sports day. No warning whatsoever, bless him.
I know of young one guy in his teens who died of a heart attack at school playing rugby. Very fit and very healthy you would think. A childhood friend of mine passed away soon after his 30th birthday with heart failure and had no pre-existing medical conditions.
Unfortunately we will never know what of that figure had unknown problems.
Yes, some people just die, quite young, for no reason that could have been predicted.
It’s rare, but not that rare. Not unheard of. I don’t know the figures, but I would have thought probably in the range of 388 in a normal year.
almost certainly they did. recently I have even started to wonder if ‘covid denial’ is in fact as stupid as it sounds. such is my distrust and hatred of the lying establishment now that to be frank it wouldn’t surprise me if there was really no such disease at all – in the sense of no one clinical syndrome linked to one particular viral pathogen. they have really done no more than spin a narrative from the usual array of pathogens and diseases and deaths, and 2020 was in fact no different from any previous year. The only data which matters, the overall death rates and the demographics of the dying, don’t exactly contradict this theory
Not only that but the over use of medication in Western countries could be a serious contender to explain why we have a more susceptible population, among other things.
I am in no doubt at all that the willy nilly prescriptions issued on huge scales will definitely have a considerable impact.
A friend of mine died of influenza at age 29 in 1998
Autopsy did not find any co-morbs
Chalked up as one of the outliers
What I am not reading in any of these accounts of overrun hospitals is whether they are treating the covid patients with Ivermectin. Or perhaps they don’t need to because, although the patients have tested positive, they are really in hospital for entirely different reasons?
I wondered this too, when clinically it’s been proven to make a massive difference to recovering from Covid……if not possibly life saving?
It needs to be taken as a prophylactic so as soon as you get symptoms and even just as a precautionary treatment for extremely vulnerable without symptoms at times of risk. Such as winter.
I think Ivermectin, unlike Hcq, is effective at all stages of the disease. It’s even been show to have a positive effect on those suffering from the dreaded “Long Covid”.
They most certainly are not using Ivermectin. HCQ will never be used. Dexamethasone, Oxygen, pain relief, treating symptoms
One thing that I’ve not seen anyone comment on, and that I believe could potentially end up in the greatest lockdown induced loss of life of all, is the massive open goal this precedent advertises in flashing neon to the adversaries of the West.
There is evidence that this particular coronavirus is an artificial combination of components from related coronaviruses found in the wild and catalogued by virologists. If indeed it is man made, then although the likelihood is that it’s release was a mistake; by pursuing this policy of lockdown, and handing the keys of the world economy to the Chinese, to my mind we’re almost guaranteeing that release of further pathogens (say maybe an engineered Rhinovirus) be actively considered by the Chinese – since it’s been proven to be such an effective weapon against and exploit of our western democracy and the culture of common law, the magna carta, etc.
yes if nothing else it’s shown that the west are nations of pussies, they will wet their pants at the prospect of catching a cold, gullible, prone to hysterics, easily manipulated and controlled – they will not pose a serious problem for more serious and motivated actors
I would put it slightly differently.
The course of this crisis has shown that Western political regimes are concerned about saving face and maintaining power from day to day, and have no concern for the best interests of their countries.
That makes them very malleable.
Compare with China, where the state simply declared victory and stopped being silly.
Yes! also.
Yes!
Stop testing asymptomatic people. They couldn’t follow this policy unless asymptomatic spread was bullshit. Which it is.
Quoting Toby :
“I was disappointed to read the Spectator article Alistair Haimes about his departure from our ranks. The brilliant data analyst has been a valuable ally and I hope he will return to the fold in due course.
His argument boils down to this: “When the facts change, I change my mind.” But what facts have changed?”
Yes, it’s extremely disappointing, but I’d be less inclined to the flattery. He’s clearly not that bright if he’s swayed by the latest government arguments.
Haimes will no doubt be sticking his Conservative Party membership card back together as I type.
I don’t believe what we are being told by this government. The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) on SAGE are cleverly manipulating people to conform to their wishes.
Haimes has clearly fallen for the propaganda this time, as – I note – have many members of parliament.
What an arse licking piece has LS been got at.
Toby no doubt treds a fine line. There is going to be a breakdown in all traditional networks for people as we are forced to pick a side. Got at how exactly?
I think that Toby has done a very good job over the past ten months of keeping one foot in the mainstream camp, but without ever agreeing with mainstream opinion.
I really question whether Haimes was ever a true sceptic. Like Ferguson, he has no training in biological science. Haimes only really understands graphs and mathematical models.
Without an understanding of biology and of how viruses work your knowledge will always be incomplete and your conclusions flawed.
drakeford about to address the nation. He can’t do the 5pm one like Boris, as his mam says it’s teatime, and 8pm is past his bed time.
Will be a very RapEacious speech i’m sure
Only part way through the comments today, but has anyone noticed another factor in the winter ailments/hospital loading argument . . .
. . . It’s bloody cold . . .
It is well known that winter severity is a large factor in winter ailments & deaths (last year, by contrast, was rather mild). There was a small but noticeable spike in August during the ‘heat wave’ (didn’t see much of it here in Bris, but it happened, apparently). The same is true for cold snaps & bad weather (but more so, by a factor of 3-6). It has also been very misty & constantly cloudy (which would increase pollution).
Should these factors not be taken into account also?
You would think! No one dare have a cold or flu or chest infection these days.
Search “More than just a cold OC43”
All the human coronaviruses can kill/hospitalize the already sick
Nothing new 2021
Indeed. Something I wasn’t aware of before this sh*tsh*w kicked off.
I was going to post this morning and ask if anyone was tracking hospital admissions against temperatures but you have beaten me to it! Unfortunately we will probably get more of the nonsense about the virus being spread indoors more in the winter, as if the cold had nothing to do with it.
Very true, this is what Ivor Cummins has been saying since the summer. The last really cold winter was 2017-2018 that was almost as bad as 1962-1963. The following winters were less severe and less vulnerable people died.This left a significant number of people vulnerable to any virus. Also the cold temperature is known to increase the death rate amongst the vulnerable. If a person is admitted with hypothermia and tests positive then that is a covid admission.
delete
It’s a disgrace and a systemic, managerial and political failure that any hospital should become overwhelmed. Winter pressures are always there and could have been creatively planned for years ago. The health service will have to be reviewed and Johnson and his government should be ashamed to have found themselves in this situation. ( I’ll leave aside from this post the terrible messaging and fear mongering going on ).
I worked for the health service for over 30 years and after years of trying to protect the patients I worked with from the health service’s inflexibility I left finding the personal toll became too much as I was getting older.
There were so many suggestions I made which were always deemed impossible and one of the easiest was to work less hours and take more time off during the summer months when even in my area of mental health demand was lower. I would have preferred this way of working and would have readily worked more and longer hours during the winter. No this one simple thing was not workable. Why?
I am not the only person in my health service working circle who left or is planning to leave because of inflexibility. I know the issues are much more complex than my simple example here but I can never agree that Lockdowns are the right way to do things.
I was not a manager of people or systems so perhaps others commenting here who were/are have more to say on this. Would be good to hear others views.
The illusion of control. The technocrats believe just acting will solve Covid, greater effort, more tightening of screws. We are going to learn a very very harsh lesson. It creates a deep unease in me.
You think we’re reached peak stupidity and then…
https://caldronpool.com/nsw-government-says-avoid-sex-during-covid-instead-masturbate-in-front-of-your-partner-while-social-distancing-wear-a-mask/
I saw that yesterday. There is no end to the absurdity.
Maybe Boris can demonstrate in one of his 8:00pm performances.
He might as well.
So much for the missionary position.
In the David Lodge novel Nice Work Robyn and her lover avoid penetrative sex, partly because of AIDS, although it was not seen as much of a threat to heterosexuals in 1986, the time the novel was set.
Ooooh, I like a pervy novel.
aagghh – my eyes , my poor eyes
Please uuggh the imagery is too much. Was just enjoying an Eton mess!!!
Sex with BJ requires a paper bag as well as a mask.
Ha ha!!!! Boris is just the man for that particular job.
Speerless! ! Govt now interfering with people’s intimate relations!
The pseudo lockdown. What we have outside China is a pseudo lockdown. China has only used lockdown locally and can never have a true national lockdown. That would be impossible. Everyone else, outside China, use the national pseudo lockdown which is useless and increase transmission and destroy the economy and public health.
Let us go through a true lockdown, Chinese style. It means cordoning off effectively a region, town or block. Also in China even that not 100% effective, when they start doing this. Wuhan inhabitants fled, and as seen in Bejing airport recently, we saw some climbing over the fences. But when closed, it is really closed. You mobilise outside resources running the cities, blocks or whatever is lock downed. Nobody leaves their home. Food delivered by the outside mobilised force. Would it be effective? Theoretically, you have an immobilised population really locked up. They can only spread in the household locked up. I will not go into the possible outside spread from the feeing from Hubei inside China. Personally, I think they recognized the deaths were like a flu. How come they have not vaccinated their whole population now and instead, selling their vaccine to Indonesia and the rest of the third world?
Italy. The inventor of the national pseudo lockdown.
Important to look back at Italy. They had a regional explosive outbreak and then started cordon off cities, smaller region at first. They had paramilitary forces really preventing people leaving and in the affected areas quite harsh restrictions but never come close to the totalitarian Chinese one. Cases increased and panic in the central government. In a ruthless state, the obvious solution for the stretched hospitals in Bergamo etc would be to fly in Sardinia and Sicilian doctors, nurses to the affected, still small, locked down areas. This is very difficult to execute in a non-war situation. And in Italy. They say that in hell the Italians are organizing it. The Conte government considered regional Lombardian lockdown. His government leaked like hell and thousands fled Lombardy. Conte panicked and against medical advice declared a national Italian lockdown, the pseudo lockdown which were imported everywhere.
China exported a virus all over the world but this did not contain RNA. The lockdown concept, which mutated in Italy to the disastrous pseudo lockdown now affecting the whole world.
The pseudo lockdown will allow 25% of population (mostly middle, working class) to do their essential duty for the benefit of the richest. The whole pseudo lockdown has been the biggest assault on the middle and working classes ever. The stock exchange almost highest despite collapse in the real economy. The oligarchs in social media, Amazon have increased further their enormous wealth. And the irony of it all. The biggest cheerleaders for the pseudo lockdown, giving the rope to hang the middle and working classes, is the new pseudo left.
Opportunism + greed pure and simple
No need for conspiracies
A superb account, I think. Thank you, Swedenborg.
Do you ever rest? Your work for this site is unflagging.
Yes, you’re a hero swedenborg.
TOBY, why the use of ‘disgraced’? That is typically how the media censor and smear people
I note how Russia and Belarus are commenting on the evident fraud in the US elections and state the US electoral system is not up.to modern democratic standards.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-unironically-chastises-us-not-modern-democratic-standards?
Ivermectin reduces the risk of death from COVID-19 – a rapid review and meta-analysis in support of the recommendation of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348230894_Ivermectin_reduces_the_risk_of_death_from_COVID-19_-a_rapid_review_and_meta-analysis_in_support_of_the_recommendation_of_the_Front_Line_COVID-19_Critical_Care_Alliance/link/5ff41e0745851553a01de435/download
‘The FLCCC has called upon national and international health care agencies to devote the necessary resources to checking and confirming this groundbreaking evidence. Given the urgency of the situation, I undertook this rapid systematic review and meta-analysis of studies included in the FLCCC paper to validate the FLCCC’s conclusions.’
These findings have only now hit the headlines because vaccines have been approved. If they’d done so before, and they’d shown results, vaccines would have had a much tougher approval process.
Thats my take. They went all in with vaccines as was always the plan, everything else was secondary
Police are looking for a man who injected an old lady with a dangerous vaccine and charged £160.
maybe it is this dodgy looking guy who has a history of getting old people injected with dodgy vaccines
He looks guilty to me. Even worse is that he charges a hell of a lot more than £160 and you have to pay even if you don’t take his snake oil.
I like Clare Craig. She has a keen analytical mind and makes some good points but I wish she’d back off the False Positive argument. She is technically correct but it’s largely irrelevant. If the bottom line numbers feel real to people then it doesn’t matter how many tests are wrong.
I knew no-one who had Covid in the Spring or Summer – at least not personally but in the past few weeks that’s changed significantly. Friends, acquaintances and close family members are among several people I know who have developed Covid symptoms recently AND tested positive.
The government says 1 in 50 have Covid. That’s a figure I can believe because it’s well within my range of experience. The same goes for a lot of people.
The government figures match my own experiences. Mike Yeadon and to a lesser extent, Clare Craig claim Covid is over and the 50k positive tests per day are mostly False Positives.
Ivor Cummins released a podcast yesterday in which PHEs own published figures show that even in ideal lab conditions 25% of results are false positives.
https://mobile.twitter.com/FatEmperor/status/1347283636345851913
Thank goodness for Ivor Cummins a voice of common sense in this madness. The fact this government prefers to listen to Neil Ferguson should send up red flags.
But it’s irrelevant.
The number of cases is increasing. Testing doesn’t pick up all the cases.
Bottom Line: The government estimate 2% of population have Covid.
I agree – so do others because that is exactly what we are experiencing.
Yes but are “cases” a useful measure of anything as currently constituted, given that it seems like a poor predictor of death and serious illness
That’s good news surely.
The ‘virus’ is in ‘let ‘er rip’ mode.
Once that sucker has made its acquaintance with every immune system in the country, it is over from a medical perspective.
Doubtless the noise and reverb will continue for a while beyond.
…..
The danger is, or course, that when being admitted to hospital for whatever reason, you are tested, frequently. It only takes one false positive and you are in a ward with other genuine covid sufferers. For many, that is potentially a life threatening scenario, especially for the aged.
I fear more for my mother’s safety from her ending up in hospital for any number of manageable conditions that she has, than I have ever been about her catching covid-19 in day to day life.
Agree. False positives are of greater concern when there is low prevalence. As it is undoubtedly ‘on the rise’ false positives become less relevant.
The core argument should remain – lockdowns don’t work (I think this is being realised now) / they are harmful.
I don’t agree that “it is on the rise” Tom.
Seasonal respiratory viruses arise every year in winter. I think that what we are seeing now is probably simply the flu, dressed up as a new (and super scary!) variant.
I think that is is and that view isnt based on official figures or TV – both of which I avoid – just my own experiences of people I know.
I didn’t really think it was debateable with the Rona displacing flu – It is winter after all.
“… close family members are among several people I know who have developed Covid symptoms recently AND tested positive.”
But this still doesn’t mean that they have it though. They could have the flu. The symptoms are essentially the same and respiratory illnesses come around every year.
The PCR test is so unreliable that it should not be used in my opinion. It has it’s place, but at the moment the government is using it as a convenient propaganda tool.
The government’s view is “the more the merrier”, the more positive tests that arise the more likley the people are to obey their dictats. Little wonder they are unwilling to abandon PCR for more reliable tests!
The problem is that Covid symptoms and testing positive can also be the common cold.
Trust me – the people I know are familiar with the common cold. This is nit the common cold.
A 35 year old doesn’t spend 10 days in bed with the common cold. A 38 year old isn’t admitted to hospital for oxygen because of the common cold.
Trust me, they do:
‘More than just a common cold: Endemic coronaviruses OC43, HKU1, NL63, and 229E associated with severe acute respiratory infection and fatality cases among healthy adults’
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jmv.26362#:~:text=Highlights,and%20death%20in%20healthy%20adults.
Lorry driver training is a big help, though…..particularly in Kent.
‘Update on Kent lorry situation: 15,526 #Coronavirus tests now carried out. Just 36 positive results…..’ Grant Shapps 26 Dec
Pretty much anything is a ‘Covid’ symptom these days. Headaches, sore throats, nausea, diarrhoea, cough, temperature..It’s a joke.
But this still doesn’t mean that they have it though.
It means there is a strong probability that they have it. While we have has flu outbreaks in the past I’ve never known it affect so many people.
The people I refer to are generally fit and healthy and very rarely suffer from respiratory viruses.. It seems a strange coincidence that they should all succumb to the flu this year when flu prevalence is pretty low.
You’re desperately clutching at straws.
If the Lateral Flow Test says they don’t have it, then they don’t have it.
Influenza like illnesses are being picked up by the PCR test but not by the Lateral Flow Test.
This is not an argument that is going anywhere until the Drosten paper has been properly reviewed.
I have been wondering about why we differ. I now see. You have adopted the postmodern relativist epistemology, preferring feeling or narrative over evidence and reason.
Agreed. This is not a strong argument by Mayo.
Read my reply.
I use both data and my own experience.
If I note that data is telling me that around 1 in 3 will develop cancer at some point in their lives I accept that figure because that is consistent to what I observe in the 2000 or so people that I know.
Clare Craig said there are more accurate tests available, its a shame these are not being used for confirmation, but apparently PCR is the ‘gold standard’
Someone in our government is obviously heavily involved in pushing these tests. Even if they receive a £ for every test used that amounts to a lot of money.
“If the bottom line numbers feel real to people then it doesn’t matter how many tests are wrong.”
Of course it matters. The proportion of PCR+ results that represent actual viral infection is a crucial metric.
For what it’s worth in the subjective perception stakes, the government figures don’t reflect my personal experience. Nor do mortality figures to this point.
Of course, I could be wrong, but I tend to be multiple times more accurate than SAGE and its wild overstated predictions.
Of course it matters. The proportion of PCR+ results that represent actual viral infection is a crucial metric.
Ok – knock 25% off all the government numbers – then what?
The tests are detecting a trend. This is confirmed by ZOE & ONS data.
MAYO with every post you sound more and more like a government employee
And you sound as though you are out of your depth.
My background is in maths & statistics. PCR tests were detecting only ~0.03% positive cases in the summer.
Why are they detecting 20,…30…40 times that rate now?
Feckoff back to your 77th bridage
Lot more tests. Knackered techs, couldn’t give a toss ?
Lab or delivery system contamination ?
Cycle threshold change?
Trust you have looked at the protocols around how to do these tests ‘properly ‘. And then compared to reports of what is actually happening ? As you know, the map is not the territory.
Oh and there’s a lot of colds and flu about at this time of year .( checks data on overwhelmed NHS every previous January). The PCR will likely pick up this factoid.
Then we have the possibility of straight out lies. Perish the thought.
Not waving but drowning in mayhem.
Oh God, are you Neil Ferguson in disguise.
When PHE come out and say in their own report on the accuracy of PCR testing, that the maximum ct number that can find any strands of Covid RNA that can be consifered infectious is 31, why the fuck are they still using ct tests well beyound that and still calling them positive cases?
False Positives and PCR fraud are underlying this on a massive scale. Absolute number in some hospitals are important to keep balanced, but capacity issues are also being hit by the very measures being overwhelmed by the PCR noise. Staff off, beds under supply, longer stays until PCR negative.
We know nothing. The fog is so PCR thick what can we do. The PHE paper on the new strain itself showed that even under perfect conditions the PCR is returning 25% false positives.
So it’s still an issue and if we actually admitted it, we can largely deal with these winter pressures
Hi Mayo, my experience is the mirror image of yours. In-laws had it in the Spring (test confirmed, one in hospital needing oxygen). My sister who works for the NHS had symptoms and was appreciably ill, but tested much too late so who knows. I also was in bed with a chest infection over Easter. No test, but I had probably had exposure to the rona given my line of work.
I now know absolutely nobody with the least hint of rona-like symptoms. So, if we are accepting personal anecdote, the rona is gone.
For the record, even when feeling quite sorry for myself in bed doing a bit of a George Floyd act, I did not resile from my conviction regarding lockdown. Palpably, lockdown had not prevented me getting infected (with something, whether or not the rona). Had it succeeded in doing so the situation would have been even worse, because it would only have postponed the inevitable till the weather was worse.
I now know absolutely nobody with the least hint of rona-like symptoms. So, if we are accepting personal anecdote, the rona is gone.
No. The virus is spreading in different regions. This is the reason I knew we were nowhere near herd immunity as Yeadon claims. I knew we had barely any exposure to the virus before summer. We are getting it now.
Palpably, lockdown had not prevented me getting infected (with something, whether or not the rona).
I am not in favour of lockdown. Eventually the penny might eventually drop for LS readers.
The penny dropped for most of us nearly a year ago. The rest of you will catch up eventually.
‘Update on Kent lorry situation: 15,526 #Coronavirus tests now carried out. Just 36 positive results….’ Grant Shapps 26 Dec
People are admitted to hospitals based on symptoms not test results. Something the likes of Craig (a pathologist no less) and Mike “epidemic largely over in October” Yeadon seem to ignore. Testing is only providing confirmation of the obvious – infections are rising.
I sent on this letter posted on lockdownsceptics yesterday:
I have a couple of questions in respect of the government’s vaccination
program/ongoing lockdown strategy (and its tragic impact) that I would
be grateful if you could supply answers to.
Preamble: It has been scientifically established that COVID-19 is a low
risk pathogen to most (group A), to such an extent that the majority
who are infected suffer no symptoms, and that even for those who do
suffer symptoms, they are generally mild/akin to flu.
It has also been scientifically established however that for a minority
of primarily very elderly or unwell people (group B), COVID-19 presents
a high risk pathogen that often proves fatal.
Question one: In the UK, group B consists of c.2.5M people, to which
end why should some 30M or more people be vaccinated once the said 2.5M
people have been?
Shelving questions of cost, necessity and disruption, it is important
that people who don’t need vaccinations don’t have them as it enables
their immune systems to develop a natural resistance to the pathogen in
question, a resistance that may save them when its next variant
inevitably besets them (such immunity preventing pandemics).
Moreover according to the ONS in the week to December 3rd alone 800,000
people in the UK were infected with COVID-19. Mindful of the fact that
70-90% of those infected with Covid show no symptoms, this would
indicate that, even allowing for the well who got tested and whose
infection was thus detected, some 4M+ of the UK population was infected
in a given week, such that, allowing for the fact that the virus has
been alive in our society now for an annum, surely it is only a matter
of weeks before 30M people have either established a natural immunity
to COVID-19 by dint of infection, or were always immune to it by way of
past exposure to coronaviruses (last week 341,946 people were recorded
by the ONS as having been infected, meaning, a la the same metric, a
further 3M+ people were effectively immunised in just that seven day
period).
Question two: In light of the fact that all of group B who wish it will
be vaccinated by c. January 14th at the going rate, and that those not
in this group have little to fear from COVID-19, and that tens of
millions of people must already have had COVID-19 (or are immune to it
by virtue of exposure to past corona viruses), why is it necessary to
perpetuate lockdown measures beyond this date, measures that are both
economically, socially and literally murderous? (Please see ref. below
re the lockdown death toll).
This is not an idle question. As you are no doubt aware Bristol
University, for one, has forecast that Parliament’s response to
COVID-19 (as of early November, 2020) will ultimately kill 560,000 UK
citizens, a figure more than twice that of the worst case Covid-death
scenario of 250,000.
Similarly the ONS predicted earlier in 2020 year that Lockdowns and
anti-Covid measures will kill 200,000 UK citizens of all ages in the
medium to long term, due to missed medical diagnoses, missed
treatments, loss of jobs, loss of tax revenue etcetera.
In line with these dire estimations, the 2020 death statistics (as
tallied by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries) indicate that of the
71,200 excess deaths recorded since the pandemic commenced, 46,721 of
these must be attributed to lockdown measures – a rate of over 1000
people a week – which is nearly double the remaining 24,479 people who,
according to the Institute, died during the same period due to COVID-19
(NB though 73,512 people died in 2020 with COVID-19, 66% of these would
have died of other pathologies in 2020 anyway, as was freely admitted
by Professor Neil Fergusson before the House of Commons Science and
Technology Committee on March 25th, and thus would not figure in the
71,200 excess death figure for that year).
To conclude, setting aside human rights, civil liberties, Magna Carta
and other, now apparently trivial issues (which two million British
servicemen laid down their lives for), it can be safely taken that the
unjust impositions placed upon the UK public, as well as ruining lives,
livelihoods and the economy, are killing a thousand among our number a
week at least, and thus must be lifted as a matter of urgency (and
certainly not left in force until Easter, like some devilish Lent).
and got this reply from Fabian Hamilton today:
I’m afraid I disagree entirely with the premise and content of the letter you have forwarded. Whilst the restrictions have had a huge impact on people’s lives and livelihoods, they have been absolutely necessary to protect people from this dreadful virus.
With over 1,000 daily deaths now reported several times this week, the situation is extremely serious and getting worse. These are not just numbers, but people with families, friends and loved ones who will be utterly devastated by their loss. The fact is that it took the Government too long to bring in restrictions on several occasions and this has undoubtedly cost lives.
This virus is nothing like the flu. Death rates and hospitalisations have spiralled out of control in a way that has never been seen in a regular, seasonal flu season.
Vaccinations are absolutely vital for the entire adult population in order to stop the spread of this deadly virus and protect those who may not be able to be vaccinated. It’s quite clear that, while this virus does disproportionally affect the elderly, it can lead to the deaths of many people under the age of 65 with no underlying health conditions. Just last week, we saw the tragic incident of an 8 year old girl losing her life to COVID-19.
The science, as well as extensive clinical trials, show that every vaccine that has been approved by the MHRA meets all safety requirements and produces a robust immune response with very minimal side effects, if any. There is no reason not to get the vaccine if you are able to do so.
I don’t recognise the so-called ‘fact’ you quote regarding asymptomatic infections, which only account for up to one-third of infections. According to the ONS infection survey, herd immunity is nowhere close to being achieved, with only a very small fraction of the population currently having antibodies to protect themselves from this virus.
As we can see by the spiralling hospitalisations and deaths, the virus is out of control. The vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel and refusing to be vaccinated or spreading misinformation about it will only prolong this crisis.
I do not accept your bogus claim that lockdown has killed more than it has saved. On the contrary, restrictions have saved countless lives and I will continue to listen to those brave workers on the frontline – in our hospitals and care homes – fighting the virus, rather than to the conspiracy theories and lazy tropes contained in this letter.
As soon as it is safe to do so, I will support lifting restrictions, but only when it is recommended by the science.
Sanctimonious uneducated virtue signalling, shroud waving, dangerous hogwash. Every point he makes is ripe for ripping apart. It’s just blanket SAGE propaganda that completely ignores the facts. Not once does he address the data.
You might want to reply to him, even though they ignore data and evidence, the 8 year-old girl had multiple underlying health conditions (suspect leukemia). The numbers of under 60s in England, without significant underlying health conditions is less than 400 – within the range of the 600 who die every year from SADS.
I used to know Fabian Hamilton (it was decades ago). He was a smug, self-righteous, arrogant ignoramus even then. He is even worse now.
I don’t know him from Adam. But that summary seems accurate.
Agree entirely, Steve. I know the bar is set high and the competition is stiff, but Hamilton (his Parliamentary constituency is nearly adjacent to mine) is possibly the most up-himself twat in the House of Commons. As we scousers say, if he were a bar of chocolate, he’d eat himself. In fact I could imagine him doing exactly that if his back was a bit more flexible. A repulsive individual.
What a f**king liar. And a closed-minded, ignorant pillock who clearly has no idea what ‘the science’ is (hint – it doesn’t exist, though ‘science’ does, and is being willfully misused). This is why I’ve not bothered writing to my (Labour) MP – the reply would make me even angrier than I was before writing it.
Strangely, the same thing happened when I rang my doctor. I meekly suggested that I was worried about what the Government was doing – he then launched into a detailed description about how bad it was, how children got it, how we should have locked down sooner etc. This took more than 15 minutes out of a 22-minute consultation, and left me a great deal angrier (and more worried) than I was before I mentioned it. I’ve not been in contact with him since, though I might want to.
Tw*t! Why are these people so brainless (whyohwhy)?
Has anyone told him that 1,600 people die each day in the UK, on average?
DavidC
“Recommended by the science”.
Who are the science and where can I find their recommendations?
Herd immunity will suddenly be achieved when there’s an axe through his door. To paraphrase Mike Tyson: “Everyone thinks they’re right until they get punched in the face”
Stopped reading at 1000 daily deaths. He’s lying
They think by adding awful, terrible, lethal, deadly to the word virus it makes it real.
What! He can’t remember the flu season of a couple of years back?
He can’t remember the Labour Party screaming every winter that the NHS is on its knees because of ‘the out of control’ flu!
What a knob!
“for a minority of primarily very elderly or unwell people (group B), COVID-19 presents
a high risk pathogen that often proves fatal.”
No. Even for this group, the risk of fatality is still fairly low.
… and (again) – just forget the term ‘excess deaths’. It’s bollockspeak.
Everything is fatal if you live long enough.
I wrote a thank you to the 18 that voted against the lockdown and received this message back from Andrew Rosindell MP, hopefully reading this will lift your spirits – there is hope. Maybe we could ask him to have a word and educate Mr Hamilton.
Dear Andrea
Thank you for getting in touch and for your kind words about my recent opposition to the latest Government national lockdown measures.
I believe that with these latest measures the government will be condemning the British people to bankruptcy, mass unemployment and an explosion of non-COVID related health issues that will be neglected during this lockdown.
This new lockdown will also signify the biggest loss of our freedom and liberties in my lifetime, as people are prevented from going about their daily lives.
I therefore could not support the introduction of stricter measures, and I had to speak out and vote against it in the House of Commons. I will continue to do everything else I can to raise my concerns with the Government and persuade them to adopt a different strategy.
Thank you once again for getting in touch and for your kind message.
With every good wish.
Yours sincerely
Andrew Rosindell MP
An MP with common sense. That is a reassuring letter.
An MP who actually gets it; that’s really cheered me up! Well done for writing, Andrea!
This explains this nicely.
https://rumble.com/vcesav-brave-reporter-goes-off-script-on-air.html
Quality not the best though.
Heard a story yesterday that shows the current state of the NHS.
Mrs B met up with a friend she hasn’t seen for months and she told her about her son who works in London. He had been suffering from abdominal pains and contacted his doctor. There was no face to face consultation of course, it was done over the phone. The doctor told him it was irritable bowel syndrome and that it would improve given time.
When it didn’t get any better he spoke to his doctor again who still thought it was IBS. He decided to get in touch with his Mum and she said he should ring 111. It was a good thing he did. The woman he spoke to immediately arranged for an ambulance and within hours of arriving in hospital he was having emergency surgery to have his appendix removed as it was about to burst. If it had it could have killed him.
So just another example of the situation that Boris and co have created.
I’m sorry but GPs and the NHS were that incompetent well before Covid.
And made worse by having to do consultations over the phone.
They don’t have to though. They choose to
Absolutely
Yes, my friend had her appendix rupture in 2003. Turned away by A&E and ignored by GP. It took 5 days to get admitted and a miracle she lived. Hospital and GP were sued and paid out six figure sum in compensation.
I was once diagnosed as having trapped wind a few days later I was having emergency surgery for an ectopic pregnancy.
Absolutely shocking.
My son was treated so badly I contacted a medical negligence lawyer about it. She said we have good grounds to sue but covid complicates it.
Me: You mean they’ll use it as an excuse?
Lawyer: Theyll use it as a justification.
Thats why I’m not a lawyer. I call it an excuse, they use words like justification.
And neilhartley is right, it was a crap system before covid. Hope your son makes a full recovery.
Edit to say Mrs B’s friend’s son.
I guess until they invent touch telephones abdominal pain should really be seen face to face by a doctor.
He should report the lack of care.
Wah! Wonder of the world.
Why will none of the clapping morons ever accept that the system in most other 1st world countries from Norway to Australia, Germany Netherlands, Austria Switzerland, Japan, Singapore etc etc etc is far better than the 2nd world crapulence we have.
The envy of the world propaganda has seeped so far into the consciousness of the British people I can never see it changing.
The WHO says we have the 18th best healthcare system in the world.
“That good?” I thought to myself…
World-beating zzzz
The NHS are operating in the Ivan Drago style of health care with their motto “if he dies, he dies”
Great blast this morning, been to the local hospital with my 86 year old mother appointment 10.00am eye problem, I have my WW2 gas mask over head for max protection old dear is a little hard of hearing so between myself and her communication with staff almost impossible,a thirty minute appointment turns into over two hours..I milked new strain for all it was worth refusing to take mask off.. one doctor was so concerned as to my mental state he begged me to get professional help assuring me new strain was nothing to worry about.. couple of nurses were pissing there pants with laughter obviously had me rumbled..old dear could not understand what all the fuss was about, Fucking hilarious…
LOL! Best thing I have read all day!
Brilliant, as ever!
I must say I could hardly breathe in that mask, eye holes steamed up how the Fuck civilians during the 1940s could wear them for long periods I will never know…
They didn’t; many women, like my mother, took out the mask and put in cosmetics after the initial scare.
That’s exactly what my grandparents told me. Basically, they were never used- as gasmasks, I mean.
Got a slightly newer one, NATO issue? Also got 1950’s Geiger Counter. Mulled over going for a walk with these plus, naturally, a Hi Viz!!!
Keep up the good work.
Going to the dentist in full gas mask next week
Can’t wait
I’m going to Sheffield dental school next Friday so you and me both will give them something to remember…
This is just wonderful, I’m going to spend the rest of my giggling quietly to myself, totally made my day.
hahahaha I bet it was total chaos. I still want to walk the high street in a hazmat suit one day and see how many people DON’T bat an eyelid…
Belter absolute Belter. I take my hat off to you and I also thank you for bringing tears of laughter to my already happy day.
My pleasure, bloody hard work though breathing in that mask need lungs like bellows..
If it ever becomes too hard to dodge the mask mandate then that will be my mask of choice
great stuff – you should take a video to share with us – sounds a good laugh, wish i had a gas mask! I was thinking of going to supermarket completely embalmed and with a mask and snorkel -would certainly attract some attention!
HAHAHAHAHA
I laughed out loud.
This is the way to defeat the nonsence. Laughter and ridicule. Brilliant.
Since my swearing has improved to almost professional standard while in solitary, I thought I’d try to take it to the next level by rewatching the ‘Gorbals Goebbels’, ‘Pol Potty Mouth’ Malcolm Tucker in ‘The Thick of It’ on Netflix. When you run out of cliches for the decayed Leviathan of the NHS, and its apologists, maybe try these Tuckerisms:
Superb.
When I need your advice I’ll give the special signal, which is me being sectioned under the fucking mental health act.
i never fancied that show, just another BBC bullshit show stuffed full of pedo’s and woke bullshit and the totally unfunny Armni Dildo who wrote it gives me the total creeps. You just can’t trust anyone or anything touched by the BBC.
High level of non-covid deaths may reflect health system pressures
“As hospitalisations have increased substantially over past weeks, and look set to continue, this could have a profoundly negative impact upon common causes of death such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, and dementia in the short and longer term. The trend of excess deaths in the community has continued throughout the pandemic, which is again of real concern and speaks to the ongoing indirect impacts of the pandemic on mortality”
https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n44
One of the most unpleasant aspects of this crisis is that it has brought out an ugly, authoritarian streak in so many people, particularly those in positions of authority.
Positions of authority attract authoritarians, precisely because these positions allow them to indulge their innate desire to tell other people what to do, how to live, and etc.
Indeed, the opportunity to express these authoritarian tendencies provides a massive incentive for people in positions of authority to manufacture crises and there’s a very long history of them doing exactly that.
I have no idea if there really is a virus behind all this nonsense, and nor do I much care. What I do know is that what is happening is nonsense. There is no medical crisis at work here, but there IS a civic crisis. There’s a global power grab invading the body politic and there’s a disturbingly weak immune system response to it.
I thank God for the white corpuscles like lockdown sceptics and I consider myself a mere helper cell.
I am just old enough to remember certain people who relished petty power in WW2. We called them ‘Little Hitlers’.
There was that TV series On The Buses in the 1970s and one character actually had a rather significant moustache.
My position is steadfast, even if is the worst pandemic since the plague, no one has or should expect to have the right to take my freedom for their safety.
It is morally reprehensible for any government to assume such power & their mitigation measures violate international human rights, the nuremburg code & medical ethics.
I DO NOT CONSENT!
If frightened people wish to hide from a virus that’s their prerogative but they mustn’t be facilitated by authoritarians to force or coerce others to do the same. I’ve heard it said health is a human right that over rules all other rights, this can not conceivably be so, because no one can guarantee good health, freedom can & should be. Government power over individual human rights must have limitations in a free democratic society.
Well said!
I went to pick up our medicines today. Our medical centre shares carpark with a school and I was surprised to see it so busy as I thought the schools were not opening.
The explanation was that the sheeple were hurrying along to get their not-a-vaccination jabs. I managed to tuck a leaflet behind a cable where we queue.
Pleased to say fully half of my son’s year are still in school.
Decent turnout at my daughter’s school this morning too on the first day of “reopening”.
Splendid – good to hear!
Propaganda sheet and vaccine marketing booklet sent out to all scottish homes branded in scottish government logos signed by Fiona McQueen Chief Nursing Officer, Gregor Smith Interim Chief Medical Officer, Jason Leitch, Nat Clinical Dir.
‘All our lives turned upside down by COVID-19 (their caps)’, starts the first sentence… and so it continues.
‘Since December the NHS Scotland vaccine programme has given us much needed hope’.
‘NHS Scothland will only use a vaccines if it meets the required standards of safety and effectiveness’, The sheet contiunes MHRA has to do all checks to ensure standards are met – says nothing about those regulation standards having been bypassed due to emergency.
Blah blah ‘light at the end of the tunnel but not a quick fix’.
‘Even with a vaccine, Scotland will face some restrictions for the foreseeable future, so we need to continue to stick to the rules for a while longer and follow the FACTS.’ No explanation why we need to follow *the rules*. FACTS is not sign posted to so here it simply reads as upper cast facts. Is the use of ‘for a while longer’, good English? It feels a little Americaised to me.
Rough, fast summary of pamphlet, question and answer format to control thinking by asking only questions they want to answer.
Most at risk are over 50s yes fifty.
UK Government ‘has agreed’ to provide all vaccines for niklaland.
Are C19 vaccines safe? -the pamplet screamingly does not answer yes. It weasel words around and references MHRA as above – implication of responsibility lies with MHRA yet NHS Scot ‘will only use a vaccine if it meets required standards of safety and effectiveness’.
‘How do the vaccines work?
The C19 vaccines do not cause C19. They build your immunity to the virus, so your body will fight it off more easily if it affects you. This can reduce your risk of developing C19 or, if you do get C19, it can make the symptoms milder. The vaccine is also suitable for people with disorders of the immune system. The caccines’ effectiveness will continue to be monitored as the vaccines are rolled out.’
Bored now so may relate the remaining 6 pages later. SARS CoV 2 is not mentioned throughout. COVID-19 is.
Finally, the Fever After Vaccine section says it’s ‘quite common’ to develop a ‘fever’ for 48 hours after ‘a’ vaccination.
The booklet is tat, to think this is the lifeline properly terrified people have awaited is quite sad. It is a paltry marketing booklet geared to get those needles through skin. Surely it would be responsible to explain how important it is to report any ill effects post vaccination.
‘WE do not know whether having the vaccine stops you spreading the virus to others so it’s important we all continue to follow… blah’.
depending on the type of paper they’ve used it might make good roach material
A Defence of Lockdown Sceptics
Thanks again Toby! An excellent summary of why I remain a lockdown sceptic based upon rational thought. As ferguson clearly gave away in his recent interview with the times, there was always a second more plausible path we could have taken and its still up to the lockdown supporters to evidence via data (not emotion) that the draconian path was the right one based upon good old cost versus benefit analysis.
Hancock et al are deluded if they think history will judge them well. Its called euphoria in the heat of the moment. The worst of it (ie impact of lockdown), otherwise called the butterfly effect, is yet to come….
In the meantime, london calling!, stop nhs staff quarantining who are able to work, use the nightingale hospitals as intended with the support of former healthcare professionals and remove the extra pointless spacing in covid wards. Its called contingency planning for an organisation with a spend of £200 billion.
Good afternoon Tony,
Be fair now, I mean they’ve only had since October 2016 to plan for this…
Report of UK’s pandemic preparedness leaves questions unanswered, says doctor
An NHS doctor who launched legal action in the High Court to force the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to publish a 2016 report into an exercise wargaming a future pandemic has dropped the case after the report was finally published on the department’s website.
The report on Exercise Cygnus, the simulation of a fictitious influenza pandemic, warned that “the UK’s preparedness and response, in terms of its plans, policies, and capability, is currently not sufficient to cope with the extreme demands of a severe pandemic that will have a nationwide impact across all sectors.
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4499
—
Obviously, I agree with you 100%.
Kindest regards
Simon
Thank you!
I think part of the problem is that a lot of people confuse covid sceptic with lockdown sceptic. So now that more people are getting covid, because it’s winter, they think that means that the lockdown sceptics were wrong. Personally I believe that covid is real, I believe it can be very nasty for certain people, and I believe that some hospitals are very busy like they often are in Jan (but made far worse by the cut in beds and lack of staff due to social distancing/isolating). But I DO NOT think that lockdown is the best way to deal with this problem, especially at this late stage in the game.
“a lot of people confuse covid sceptic with lockdown sceptic” There is some overlap, but in general this is a smear from our enemies who know their arguments are weak
Indeed.
While Trump seems done, the fraud issue simply won’t go away. Biden will have a dark cloud hanging over him as long as they refuse to actually look at such practices. If this was a video from the UK elections, I wonder how it would be handled
https://mobile.twitter.com/JamesOKeefeIII/status/1347262405299097604
Trump will be back 75 million Americans voted for him, no way you can keep this man down for long…
I also think, despite the rhetoric from the MSM, few, if any of those 75m will have changed their minds. In fact, the more they push and seek to silence, the more resolute will be the support. They ought to be careful what they wish for.
Many have indeed changed their minds. Trump has promised them many drops, they’ve never happened. He encouraged their patriotism to come to the fore and he was nowhere to be seen when it mattered to them. He’s a sideshow now for the real issue of fraud
The establishment will annihilate trump & anyone connected or supporting him, the second he leaves the white house, he over played his hand the other day & they’ll be ruthless in destroying him for it, i’m afraid the marmite president is finished.
There’s standing between them & us now, the next 4 years will be brutal.
https://siasky.net/AAC1BbOUU2qzuyeXkcwDwKlrbhMyM5fA3PIDYYG3F57qLw
Interesting conversation re the fraud.
The party out of power tend to sweep the mid terms
The Republicans are snakes though
See how controlled opposition works? Quibble about NHS occupancy rates, push message of importance of saving the control grid that the NHS represents, and reaffirm idea of Covid-19 as voracious plague. This opposition will all peel off back to the official line, taking you with it. This is its job to do.
Soon: Organising around home schooling could be first step to setting up real common law jurisdictions. Plus “Let my people go!” The lesson of Exodus is to make a country ungovernable for the ruling class.
Action To End The Interminable Unlawful Lockdown
Wolverhampton Express and Star boasts that 14,000 care home residents and staff will be vaccinated by the end of January in Staffordshire and the black country; Christ! that’s less than 500 a day.
I don’t think that’s anything to boast about.
So Khant declaring major incident in London. In London today people still out and about and bodies not piling up in streets. I despair.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/major-incident-london-covid-hospitals-overwhelmed-sadiq-khan-b759404.html
Pushing for face masks outdoors again I see
Just carry your lanyard.
Read teh SAGE minutes from the 26th. It’s masks outside, more insistence on certain types of masks and some recommendations for masks at home
Wise guy. Pity that his philosophy is so out of fashion these days.
https://www.ukcolumn.org/ukcolumn-news/uk-column-news-6th-january-2021
Shocking disclosure that the NHS are withholding data blaming Covid as their excuse!! Doctors are now being forced to sign non disclosures. Oh so nothing so nothing sinister going on then?
Forced to sign and also coerced to sign. Gagging contacts cost NHS 2 million at least. https://youtu.be/YSUKt4ROcNc
Lying by omission to you and I.
Zoe app shows the total UK new daily infections has fallen for the first time in this seasonal wave. I expect this is the first day of the long fall of infections. As expected for a seasonal virus.
yesterday new infections 69958
today new infections 69231
Zoe always far smoother than the junk govt PCR tests
new daily infections (symptomatic)
and peak infected in society will come on 16th Jan (give or take)
https://covid.joinzoe.com/data
and
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/8january2021
but far lower than in the first season at 2% rather than the previous 5%
infected in society to be half of peak by the end of january
Obviously, just in time for them to say that lockdown worked.
yes, and as before the maths will prove them wrong. The lockdowns have caused no noticeable change in R and R for this season actually peaked on the 18th Dec – just due to natural factors I’m sure
Yep – Just to clarify the number currently infected will keep increasing for a while – albeit at a slower rate. This is because the number infected is still above the number recovering. This will continue for another for a further week or so before recovered cases exceed newly infected cases and Total cases will decline (we hope).
yes, for about 8 to 10 days. The Zoe App only graphs currently infected (and just gives a number for new infections which I record).
Thanks, but does that apply to lorry drivers in Kent?
Cases in Northern Ireland peaked around the 29th, dropping like a stone since. Fastest decline we’ve seen. If cases rising is exponential what is a drop at similar pace? Is there a word for that?
Nazi thugs at it again
I mean Derbyshire police
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-55560814
I hope these women do not pay any fine and if they need any expenses for court I would gladly contribute.
I have read the regulations and the guidance. They are not the same document and police have no right to start behaving like this.
Police too thick to read the law. Problem with these fixed penalties, they can be handed out with impunity. No comeback when they are wrong.
But you have the right to refuse to accept. The police have no powers to issue punishment without a court case. My understanding, I am not a lawyer.
Awful. I know in practice it is unlikely happen to me but what’s the best approach when faced with this? My current plan is to first try to discuss it and state that the regulation on exercise is guidance not law. It does feel like in this particular case you wouldn’t have much luck as the police appear to have gone out specifically to catch people breaking the regulations so are unlikely to be dissuaded by a rational discussion. So if that fails and the cops attempt to issue a fixed penalty notice I plan to simply refuse to accept it. An option if I was feeling brave would be to refuse to give my name and address presumably that would mean an arrest but it would take mean they would be unable to hassle any other members of the public while they are dealing with it. What have others done who have faced this type of situation?
A bit of googling about rejecting a fixed penalty notice found me this
https://www.askthe.police.uk/content/Q213.htm
It can go to court and you may pay a bit more if found guilty which you won’t in this case surely since no law would have been broken. Seems like a fairly low risk thing to reject so I think I’m safe not to worry about it in the unlikely event I get in this situation. (NB I’ve no legal expertise). I could be wrong but it seems like you are worse off if you accept it and then refuse to pay since you then would be charged with not paying the fine rather than the original “offence”.
My feeling is that if in this situation, you should refuse. It could mean taking the paper and sending it off saying that it has been issued in error (stating regulation). The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are likely to consider that it should be dropped and not go to court. I feel the police are doing this knowing that is the case, as they think bully boy tactics will deter others from the stress of going through this. Indeed it will, but if I got one I would still refuse and prefer to go to court knowing I was in the right.
A cup of Starbucks mint tea a fekin picnic?? I’d say those coppers were a packed lunch short of a picnic.
Just remember folks: One in three coppers is just as stupid as the other two!
Is it currently legal to jump on an available flight to fly to a country that allows us entry?
Just mentally add 200 quid to the cost of your ticket
I went away twice last year and both times it was a doddle. Don’t believe what you read about being turned away at the border etc – complete nonsense. Check the entry requirements of the country you want to go to (their instructions not the UK.gov interpretation of them) and you’ll be fine.
Thanks, I was asking about the rules at this moment in time from our gov to travel abroad, I understand about quarantine/test on rtn etc
Yes, but it is illegal to visit your friends and family.
Good question
Wondering the same thing myself
I don’t recall anything specific in any of the SIs about foriegn travel, but in order to get to the airport you’d need to be outside your home, so you would need to have a reasonable excuse for that
Once upon a time I was worried about a virus and my husband being infected and dying. He had a heart attack at 40 years old. Now I’m no longer in afraid of my husband being infected with a virus. I am now living in fear of the police entering our home forcebly because a neighbour reported my daughter staying overnight. He would defend me as I would be the one doing the shouting with anger at the invasion, which would in all likely hood cause him to have another heart attack.
This is the world of nightmares and it happened in Scotland on Wednesday evening.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9123839/Coronavirus-Scotland-Three-people-charged-assaulting-police.html
This is the scariest part that is quoted in the Mail.
“Police officers are legally allowed to enter Britons’ homes if ‘that person reasonably suspects that an offence under regulation 5(1) is taking place on the premises,’ according to legislation.
Leaving the house in Scotland is now illegal after the country was thrown back into lockdown.
The hardline crackdown, announced by Nicola Sturgeon, includes the legally enforceable stay-at-home rule. “
Reasonably – their intelligence via the member of public report will be reviewed, was the report credible? Based on what we all saw it was incorrect. Why then did police act on that grassed tip off and not others?
Police Scotland have stated it was a member of the public that gave the police the suspicion.
Aberdeenshire does not have a record to envy regarding straight, honest policing.
I wrote to my MP Ian Blackford, previously regards concerns with police over reach & violence. That I was more concerned about being assaulted by out of control police than criminals and that I felt I couldn’t support or co-operate (snitch to) with police if this doesn’t stop
His reply was, “I am sorry that you feel the way you do”.
Last night I emailed him again asserting my distress over recent police conduct including highlighting the case you mention & several others over the past 48hrs. Again his reply.
“I neither agree with your interpretation or conclusions.” (he rarely replies in context to any correspondence sent.)
Unfortunately in my frustration I sent a rather satirical email back.
I don’t expect a reply. Maybe a visit from the police.
I applaud you for your effort, Blackford is pure fucking cringe.
Lockdown going well, isn’t it?
In what way ….?
No ways.
Just to be a pedant, the charge into the valley of death was by the Light Brigade during the Crimean War – your illustration at the top of today’s piece is Lady Butler’s painting of the Scots Grays (aka the Heavy Brigade) at the battle of Waterloo…
Field report – London
Today I cycled around central and north London and the City for a couple of hours around lunchtime.
General atmosphere was quiet, similar to an early Sunday morning before things open.
Lots of buses driving around empty. Very few taxi cabs. West end mostly seemed to be people out for their daily exercise. The City seemed to be mostly contractors – lots of building work and road works going on.
Rather worringly there was a sign in Moorgate saying ‘road layout changed for social distancing’.
More evidence than usual of homelessness – saw several tents on the Embankment.
Not much evidence of permanently closed shops/businesses. I only saw one shop that actually had a sign saying they had closed down. Of course it’s hard to tell when nearly all shops are closed and many have probably taken stock out of the window to more secure locations.
Police presence – minimal. Three PCs on point duty outside the Bank of England. Saw a car and a van on patrol; one van in north London was stopped and constables were talking to a woman in a visor. On the Embankment, I saw one policeman holding a clipboard wave down a van on the way into Parliament Square. No evidence of any checkpoints or anything like that. No police on the beat, even in areas where one normally sees them.
Outdoor mask compliance – depressingly high: I estimate around 25%, including several cyclists and even a jogger! However quite a few people were wearing ‘chin diapers’ so their compliance was presumably just for form’s sake.
Anyway, overall it was rather depressing. I don’t think I’ll be going back any time soon. I suspect this is the lowest London has been since the Blitz and back then at least there was an air of defiance instead of resignation.
And back then we were all on the same side. Not anymore
Not quite – until the Germans broke their pact with the Soviets in 1941, quite a few people on the British left opposed the war.
And I doubt we’ll ever know the extent to which significant parts of the Establishment were prepared to come to an accommodation with Hitler.
The Communist Resistance in France only got going after the invasion of Russia.
So is being homeless a valid exemption for not staying at home then? Wondering if I should rough up an old coat and stop shaving…
Hmm – pretty tricky to stay at home if homeless!
Have I missed something? Outdoor mask compliance? Has there been a change in the
lawguidance,directives???Not yet, just people either virtue signalling or adopting a comfort blanket.
Neil Ferguson compares covid debate with climate change debate #vaccine – YouTube
Sighhhh.
And he’s quite right to do so- but not in the way he thinks he is.
Yup, junk-pseudo-anti-science, in defiance of actual data (which IS science, if properly validated); endless virtue-signalling; persecution of contrary opinion as ‘dangerous’; circular reasoning; ad-hominem attacks; herd insanity; ‘cancel culture’ wrecking lives and careers; science by ‘concensus’; ruinous and counter-productive solutions to overstated (or non-existant in the case of HCCC) problems; insistence on ‘crisis’ and ’emergency’; all backed up by relentless propaganda and outright lies by MSM and the techno-elite.
He’s right, it’s the same thing.
Got to step up the conflation if they are going to get there by 2030.
Yep – both entirely based on ridiculously simplistic computer models!
I would literally do anything to shut that man up at this stage.
Do it then, I’ll hold your coat.
Called this months ago: climate science is the gateway drug to this idiocy.
Just remember his model for CJD is the same as saying in the next 10 years there will be between 3 and 3000 days of rain
I’m still fairly certain that some sort of modelled climate catastrophe is the leverage being used to coerce many officials worldwide into implementing and enforcing this travesty.
That cunt needs killing
How does he find time to do any of his “science” when he’s so busy courting the media at every opportunity?
Some of us still remember “Climategate”
Anyone know how much Neil Furguson receives in his role as Acting Director of the Secretariat, running the Vaccine Impact Modelling Consortium? I presume that it is paid position.
Strikes me as a huge conflict of interest if he is.
Lovely day yesterday. Asymptomatic sun was shining
Met a few asymptomatic mates. We went to an asymptomatic pub for lunch. Asymptomatic Thai curry (seeing as you ask)
Four of five asymptomatic pints of real ale
Met an asymptomatic cop on the way home, he issued me with an asymptomatic fixed penalty ticket. Paid it straight away over my asymptomatic internet using my asymptomatic credit card
Struck down with asymptomatic covid in the evening, went and had an asymptomatic PCR test, came back positive
Proof the system works
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-vaccine-benefits-may-be-outweighed-by-people-ignoring-restrictions-scientists-warn-12182363 well what is the point of the bloody vaccine then?
This makes no sense to me. I thought at least 5000% of the public supported the latest lockdown, so who are all these people supposedly ignoring the restrictions?
For lockdown read ‘furlogh’. People don’t love the restrictions but not working.
Grant shapps is giving his medical expertise an airing along with his words might & may be. Grant seems to say the mutant eats their billion pound vaccines for breakfast, then asks for more.
Apparently shapps has said new variant isn’t beaten by vaccine. Which is wiffle, but in the news.
Apparently this morning he was on Talk Radio saying that he would be fighting for our freedoms if they weren’t restored post vaccination of the vulnerable?!
I also saw something stating that both the UK and South African variants would definitely be covered by the vaccine, which seems to contradict your post?
Ha Ha Ha!! Saw two clients today who had respective workplaces closed down because someone had Covid. EVERYONE in those two businesses tested positive. Somehow they never question how they were all “infected” despite their masks, screens, asocial distancing and sanitizers.
A PCR test is a miraculous thing
At last, a small bit of good news: Clap for Carers: The Return has been a flop.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9122031/NHS-workers-criticise-return-Clap-Carers.html
Excellent news! I was listening out for it on my street yesterday evening, not a peep from anyone. Not even any mention on the local Arsebook community page (which was full of rightous clapping morons in the Spring).
I was interested to discover that the originator of the idea comes from the Netherlands. The idea is kind of un-British, when you think about it. Not that it did not have Brits enthusiastically following it.
Alien, as most of this lockdown (typed with an America drawl) is.
The little dictator witch here in Scotland has said at her daily live dictatorship speech this,
“they are considering further restricting non-essential click and collect services, such as takeaways” so basically, we won’t be allowed to eat soon.
& the dictator’s dentist mate has said
“Mr Leitch assured Scots that the NHS has capacity and hasn’t run out of beds but said that many health baords are now operating at a “very high level” of occupancy”
Oh well, that’s alright then, the NHS is not overwhelmed but it might get overwhelmed with starving people…
I am genuinely getting very very angry at this the more & more that it goes on & gets more out of hand.
Oh & as an aside, the dictator’s police force have also said this,
Chief Constable Iain Livingston says the policing presence will be “maximised” as officers continue to clamp down on those flouting the rules,
Almost 550 people have been arrested, with officers intervening at “over 350 different premises”.
The details were announced as Chief Constable Livingstone confirmed police presence would be “maximised” in communities and on roads in order to deter those who might be thinking of breaking the rules.
I really don’t know what to say or think about this anymore, the vast majority of the sheep here just buy into all of this.
All the stuff about increased policing is, IMO, a bluff. Unless and until they announce an increase in police recruitment or the setting up of some sort of emergency police auxiliary service (like the War Reserve Constabulary in WW2) I don’t see that they can do much more as they just don’t have the manpower. The much vaunted ‘Covid Wardens’ don’t seem to have come to much either.
Exactly. Calculated bluff and propaganda. We are many, they are few.
Exactly but more, the need people to police each other.
Because wee krankie gives a speech every day, she needs to fill the time!
Summary – So the nhs is doing what it is paid to do over winter? Don’t cry! Well I never. Otherwise, I’m enjoying the attention and power trip on the path to a brave new scotland. Oh dear.
JEEZ! Just saw the footage of Police breaking into a family’s house in Aberdeen on UK Column. This really is what we’re coming to, as I’m sure we have all feared from the start.
http://www.ukcolumn.org
Apparently several members of said family might be prosecuted for assaulting the Police (with Der FuehrerSturge’s backing, of course). I understand that their young daughter, who had just returned from hospital and was laying on the floor while the Police continued to harrass the family in their living room, won’t be charged.
It’ll be all over the BBC, of course.
Aye, I seen that this morning also, I meant to post about that aswell.
Shocking indeed.
Mr 12 bores are ready
it’s busy outside, plenty folk not giving two fucks what bullshit Sturgeon says never mind some twat who thinks he’s a cop.
It just gets me that the vast majority of sheep here seem to be lapping this shit up, I had a look at The wee dictator’s Twitter page & omg, it is the biggest arse sucking thing I’ve ever seen. Very very few are actually saying what a load of fucking shit this actually is, the vast majority are licking the wee dictator’s arsehole.
Licking her arse hole yuk
Non-essential is hard to define, as Duckegg Drakeford found in Wales. It’s always relative to the purchaser and the occasion.
So I suspect it’s more bluff and bluster from Comrade Krankiwitch.
We hear a lot about over zealous cops at the moment. I saw that the Met (In the DM a day ago) is issuing fines to non-maskurbators on first contact (on TFL), and putting the onus on the recipient to provide an exemption certificate within a narrow time window. Sounds like fake news. certainly sounds against the provisions put in place etc. Anybody got more details?
Also, I understand that if a cop approaches you, it’s within your right to ask whether it’s a consensual conversation (as opposed to an investigatory stop(?) or arrest). If so, you have the right to walk away, refuse to give details etc. In such a case, I’d be polite and maybe ask “am i free to leave” (not even sure about that, i might just say “ok, thanks, have.a nice day”, then walk).
can anyone here with knowledge help describe the parameters, rules? I’d be very grateful (most of what i see on the web is US-based, or out of date).
My expected scenario is a cop approaching me when I’m out walking my dog a few miles from home. I live in the middle of the countryside, no lights, very muddy…and like to go to the local town to walk with street lighting sometimes. Also keeps the dog socialised. Not that any of that should matter. I would like to know my ground, and having something sober and correct in mind may help me from telling them to go fuck themselves and stop behaving like the North Korean police-state scumbags they emulate.
I just pretend to be a dribbling mong and they leave me alone
You’d be surprised how well it works
Go full Rain Man
Great tactic. I just can’t pull it off. I’m too handsome and intelligent looking
This is my plan, not a good actor but could easily be overtaken by a terrible panic attack causing me to hyperventilate to the point of passing out. Muttering to oneself is always a good tactic too.
Good point! I’ll tone it down a bit.
You don’t want them to think you’re Boris though do you?
PS Not sure that’s the right link to DM…I can’t find the original article.
Sounds like a bit of the Freeman on the Land bullshit. The cops can and will do what the fuck they like to you. What you do with them is give your name and then if they want you to answer questions then you get a lawyer. Never say a word without a lawyers advice.
You’re under no obligation even to give your name. If you’re willing to spend a couple of nights in a cell and are able to resist a bit of Bullycop 101 routine, all you have to say is “No comment”- as the recent case of a South Wales publican who the filth didn’t realise was a former CID officer showed. But most won’t do what he did.
They have twenty-four hours unless they can get a Magistrate to extend. Get arrested on a Saturday afternoon and they can’t get a Magistrate before Monday. So they can hold you until Sunday afternoon.
The police can ask questions of anyone
The is no legal obligation to answer a question or remain with the officer unless
1 Driving a motor vehicle you are obliged to give your name address and date of birth
2 If the officer has reasonable grounds to suspect you have committed an offence and you refuse to give your name and address they have a power to arrest you
3 You must give your name and address if the officer has reasonable grounds to suspect that you are committing an offence of anti social behaviour within the meaning of the Crime and Disorder Act
4 On licensed premises you are required to give your name and address if asked, if you refuse you commit an offence then 2 kicks in
5 All the covid laws have a power of arrest
There is not such thing as ‘detaining’ someone. You have a right to go about your lawful business without hinderance. The only way they can stop you is to arrest you
A word of caution however. It is not unknown for officers to fabricate the circumstances of any stop and subsequent arrest.
It is then your word against theirs, and a court is unlikely to believe you
Important therefore to record every encounter from the start
Screen-capture, read, learn, print a copy off.
I thought that PCSOs had the right to detain someone for up to 30 minutes until a police constable can be called to make an arrest.
The guidelines have not changed – no requirement to provide an exemption certificate / reason. Sadly some officers pretend not to know the guidelines and then try to bait people into responding, if challenged afterwards then their media statement will be carefully worded.
If a person gets challenged, stay calm, do not provide answers – shoot yourself in the foot, if possible record the conversation and if it go as far as a penalty notice do not accept it.
A friend of mine speaks several languages fluently. When he was arrested at a Poll Tax protest he pretended to only speak French. The police had to find a French speaker to interpret.
When the interpreter arrived, he pretended he could only speak Dutch (which the local yokel police assumed was German) and when that interpreter arrived, he had switched to Portuguese.
They let him go.
Some of these may be produced by a nudge unit. Some may be training videos. Some may be genuine. All of them may be genuine.
But I won’t be trusting anybody in any position of “authority”. It’s the wisest and safest course of action right now.
Don’t you just love ’em?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-55560814
Beat me to it! What on earth is “classed as a picnic” supposed to mean? Is there any legal justification for this? The tone taken by the BBC seems almost supportive of the suggestion that exercise is now illegal if performed with a coffee and nobody should ever be allowed to exercise except within a few feet of their door.
The whole thing- both the the behaviour of the filth and the BBC reporting of it- is a co-ordinated pour-encourager-les-autres exercise. I’ve been out and about quite a bit on hospital visits for me and for members of the family in the last few days. One cop-car driving purposefully (not on recce), no pigs on the ground at all.
Would really encourage anyone living in Derbyshire to write to the Police and Crime Commissioner. The contact form is here and requires an address.
Yes, it’s ridiculous staged propaganda of the type Pravda would be proud of. See my earlier post – in a two hour bike ride around Westminster and the City of London today I saw a total of six police constables.
Don’t forget that a couple if days into the first incarceration, Loathsome Wankok threatened to take away our ‘privilege’ of going outside for half an hour a day.
Good analysis of NHS vs public. David Starkey-The Critic – June 2020
https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/june-2020/the-nhs-is-the-new-church-militant-and-triumphant/
I’m illegally staying with the parents in Dorset at the moment, although it will be less illegal to drive home than it was to drive down, since there are no Tier boundaries to cross any more.
They live in a small town nearish the coast. There is a constant stream of traffic passing along the main road for most of the day. Where are all these people going? I’m genuinely curious. The only venue options are the supermarket or the pharmacy, how many times per day does a sensible lockdown-supporting person need to visit one of those?
All dog walkers here behave normally as per usual. But the crazies seem crazier than they do back home, if that’s possible. Lots of masks in the open air in the middle of the deserted heath, refusal to pass others on a path that is 3m wide, etc.
Only one person on the road came out to clap last night, looked like a right twat.
I’m not a dog person but it’s always nice to see the many dog walkers out, maskless and often chatting to one another
Not sure I’ve ever met a petrified dog walker yet. Good job as my puppy wants to say hello to everyone…
Maybe next week the lone clapper should be showered with rotten fruit and veg.
I’ve just been out to the Post Office and indulged myself in a portion of chips on the way back. Only a 6 mile round trip, but passed dozens and dozens of other cars. It’s nothing like lockdown 1.
Being a dog owner hereabouts seems to be a pretty good guarantee of sanity. Though I except some poor zombie-owned pooches are being confined to the house, and sanitised three times a day.
Yes – doggy lockdown is a thing, I’m sure.
It was never illegal to cross Tier boundaries, only restrictions were on who you could meet up with once you’d done so.
“Comedy” sketch
Scene: It’s May 1943. Members of the RAF 617 division assemble to hear of a new mission they will be ordered to shortly carry out called “Operation Chastise”
COMMANDER: Right, listen up. A clever bloke called Barnes Wallis has developed a way for us to take out hydroelectric dams in Nazi occupied territory by using a new weapon called a “bouncing bomb”. We need you to fly to the dams armed with the bomb and drop it at exactly the right distance and height in order to hit the dams. They are heavily defended with anti-aircraft weapons.
BOMBER-PILOT-1: With all due respect Sir, doesn’t this sound a bit dangerous? It sounds very risky, people might die.
COMMANDER: Fair point. I’ll call Churchill and suggest we unconditionally surrender. Jenkins!
JENKINS: Yes Sir
COMMANDER: Assemble a crew and start building concentration camps
JENKINS: Yes Sir!
COMMANDER: Harris, start rounding up Jewish people, socialists or pretty much anyone else Hitler doesn’t like
HARRIS: But my wife is Jewish Sir
COMMANDER: THAT IS AN ORDER HARRIS! If just one life can be saved by us not bombing these dams, then so be it!
COMMANDER: I think Hitler will like our dog, I hear he likes animals, send it to him as a gift.
the aircrews would have been arrested by Derbyshire police for an unnecessary pleasure flight over Ladybower reservoir whilst practicing
One aspect that I was thinking is that the spike we had in deaths due to policy changes and NHS rearrangement caused a herding effect on deaths. But from the early flu of 2019/2020 and the weaker season between 2018/2019 those people appear to have got two more quality years hopefully with family and friends seeing them.
Those that are elderly and are still alive don’t appear to be getting that.
Is there any chance that London is seeing a vaxidemic? Dr John Lee ws suggesting those vs instead would trigger positive tests for Covid.
If London was first out of the starting blocks on the vaccine and the vaccine is making people ill as the manufacturers admit then might be the case.
Does anyone have the regional figures for numbers of vaccinations. ?
Government has promised to start a rolling tracker for the public.
Don’t know about a vaxdemic, but London’s PCR testing went through the roof first week of December.
Subsequently ‘cases’ did too. Seek and ye shall find!
In this case, a ‘casedemic’!
Tip of the hat to Russia for not invading UK at a time when they clearly could and would be most welcome. Goes to show not all enemies of the British Government (and the toy regional ones) are what we are told they are.
Recalling the moment in late Spring or early Summer when a Russian ship was ‘escorted’ past our green and pleasant land.
So, thanks very much Russia for not invading.
Don’t be too hasty, B; we’ve got another week till that happens. As I posted last night:
Newsnight Special: 16th January 2031
Emily Maitlis is interviewing Brigadier Woolfson Hardman-Blighty (retired) about his new bestseller Russia Invades, 2021, on the 10th anniversary of the sudden invasion of the UK by Putin’s Russia.
EM: “It’s a fascinating story, Brigadier. Tell me, where was the army?”
Brigadier: “Delivering Covid vaccines to old folks homes and testing schoolkids, m’dear.”
My hat correctly straightened i walk sharply away.
Interesting that I’m not the only person considering Putin invading a possiblity.
Or as Martin Luther is supposed to have said (though almost certainly didn’t): “Here I stand. I can do no other.”
I believe he is quoted as adding, ‘God help me’.
Finding all the police stuff interesting. Apparently the police have new ‘powers’ as of midnight last night here in N Ireland.
I am friendly with another Mum who I met in my eldests pre-natal classes. We meet up from time to time for play dates. She is in the police (the recruitment end of things) and her husband is a policeman on the ground. He had to go and break up university student parties back in September, she said he hated it. There were no arrests or ugliness, just had to break up the parties after neighbours complained.
Before Christmas even though you were only allowed to see whoever was in your bubble indoors, she asked a couple of us Mums round to her house for a playdate with th elittle ones and coffee for us, saying she wasnt worried about Covid. Only for one other Mum chin wobbling about it, it never happened.
She asked me and another Mum to meet up in a playpark tomorrow with the kids, so essentially, breaking the ‘rules’. She has made a few sceptical comments before and said she would rather her almost 3 year old get some social time with other children before anything.
Anyway, meeting her tomorrow afternoon. Yes, meeting a policewoman mother who will happily bend rules. I am tempted to pick her brain on a few matters.
Subterfuge is fun
But always take precautions!
Have a carer for my kid and she is a policeman’s wife. They are keeping things right but nothing over the top. Very relaxed about the whole thing. He’s had heart issues in tbe past too. NI as well.
“here in N Ireland.”
… and, of course, the thing about NI is that absolutely nothing is happening in terms of abnormal mortality. No area on the planet could scarcely be more uneventful.
I feel to zoom out from details and state that ‘narrative leverage’ is being given priority of attention, intention, funding and invested identity.
On one level this is as simple as ‘Simon Says’ and does so as a lockstepped authoritarianism masking as public concern. The lockstepping is the result of the setting up of drills under the aegis of a consortium of interests over many decades. The regulatory structures that are set in place were ostensibly for effective emergencies, with considerable funding from private public partnerships that constitute the capture of the public sector to financial and corporate entities and elitist private networks of active social engineering. The PR of such regulatory mission creep has been orchestrated via the use of the Media and key opinion leaders, to set up narratives that are similar to those of Banksters selling repackaged toxic debt in the guise of complex financial instruments posing as appreciable assets. This use of a manipulative narrative deceit is pervasive and endemic to corporate and captive political leverages as a captive revenue stream of a managed human ‘system’ or ‘stock’.
The pretext of a deadly virus threat is more of a novel than a real threat, but by leveraging fear and panic to preempt a grounded and considered response, a split off ‘dissociative’ identity is generated as an effectively hypnotised identity or personality disorder that has made the fear and threat real BY its emotionally invested reaction to some level of a complex narrative that is actively self-concealing and evasive of any real process of evaluation or communication.
While greed (itself an addictive disorder) can be seen as the never satiated drive for more and more control. this is associated with the most flagrant plunder and waste of resources, while the driving force for any addictive and manipulative lie is the underlying disconnection, lack and compulsive overriding of relational honesty to both get ‘fixed’ and to protect the complex of presentations and narratives by which to maintain a face or credibility, authority and social acceptability. It is this complex that can be represented as a corrupted system across such a wide and pervasive economic and social spectrum as to invoke ‘too big to fail’ in allowing almost ANY of its lack of true substance to be revealed – for the risk of exposing a ‘house of cards’ that can only ‘survive’ by being kept secret or under official narratives that are part of a ‘control state’ of always increasing denial of rights, responsibility and freedom for an opaque and authoritative ‘security state’ under global of ‘transhuman’ jurisdiction.
This post continues to completion at
https://willingness-to-listen.blogspot.com/2021/01/what-was-largely-hidden-is-now-open.html
Why do we never get results of hospital discharged. I was told a lot of the numbers are from certain hospitals and due to people panicking, going to hospital, being ‘admitted’ for a few hours, or an overnight then being discharged. Time has come when we need institutions for the HYSTERICS, and the rest of us can continue with our lives.
Being admitted with or without a PCR test? It’s a complete shambles, a large chunk of which is self fulfilling
We do, Dan. Those numbers are in a document that is released monthly, and can be found here:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-hospital-activity/
The latest iteration is the December version; look for the link called: December 2020 COVID Publication (XLSX, 10.8MB)
The January summary (should cover up to the first few days of 2021) is due out on January 14.
Thanks
So when the over 80’s continue to die after being vaccinated, as they will, what are they going to say killed them?
Definitely NOT the vaccine!
Can’t be Covid; they’ve been vaccinated!
Don’t tell me… they’ll say the flu is back; or worse…
Poor thing died of old age!
New strain morphing to ‘climate change’, lockdown forever.
Didn’t you know? Old people die all the time, it’s totally normal. They’ve had a great run if they get to 80+, we can’t live forever etc etc.
UNLESS COVID GETS THEM IN WHICH CASE THEIR LIVES HAVE BEEN CUT TRAGICALLY SHORT AND WE SHOULD BANKRUPT THE COUNTRY TO SAVE THEM!!!
It’s the difference between ‘die’ and ‘sadlidie’.
I would define a lockdown sceptic as a person who wants to live before they die.
People don’t die from Covid, they ‘tragically die’ or ‘sadly die’. It must be some higher form of death, like apotheosis or something.
Yup! Sounds about right.
BRAVE REPORTER GOES OFF SCRIPT ON AIR (rumble.com)
I watched that earlier and wasted almost 17 mins waiting for the, what turned out to be clickbait, headline to happen.
Stop getting it 100% right. Carl Vernon.
https://youtu.be/0x2yZCt5HR8
If Carl Vernon is 100% then what is the government percentage? Zero.
fantastic
My weekly local newspaper is just full of covid-hysteria today.
Two articles about different schools testing almost 100% of staff and pupils. One school, looking after vulnerable students, had “over 99% consent from the parents”. Firstly, what is over 99%? 99.1? How can a person be 0.1?
A local football club calling bored youths who vandalised buildings “covidiots”. Yes, vandalism is not the solution to being forced off school, but I think their anger should be towards the officials who close schools.
Notice displayed on the local bus stop
To whom it may concern
When East Germany fell all the Stasi records were thrown out in the street where they were blown around on the wind and available for all to read
The records included all the names and addresses of the informants and who they had informed on
Please Stay Safe
Calling all Lockdown zealots. Just pause for one second and look around you. Look at the world you’ve encouraged to create. You are cretins.
Zombies can’t see. anything that isn’t on a TV or computer screen.
MAJOR INCIDENT LONDON! COVID IS NOW OUT OF CONTROL! DON’T TELL THE FRENCH!
Dad’s Army: DON’T PANIC (supercut) – YouTube
First, the health service is under severe stress and unless we can reduce virus transmission over the next few weeks it’s at serious risk of being overwhelmed. That wasn’t true when the second national lockdown was imposed in November, he says, but it is today.
The NHS is always ‘overwhelmed’ at this time of year. It is a consequence of accountants/management maximising bed occupancy. If all beds are always occupied, there is no spare capacity when needed. The issue is also complicated by staff shortages, not aided by threats relating to ‘staying on message’.
Second, we now have two approved Covid vaccines, with more to follow, so any new restrictions will be short-lived.
The terget criteron for a ‘successful’ vaccine is slight reduction of some symptoms in mild cases of the disease. Their efficacy is based on unverified manafacturers data. The mRNA variants have never been used on humans before so there is zero knowledge of long term complications.
Third, there is a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 which is around 50% more transmissible than the pre-existing variants.
SARS-CoV-19 is a rapidly mutating RNA virus. It will gradually selectively adapt to co-existing with the host, becoming yet another seasonal respiratory disease, like that other coronavirus, the common cold. Figures from NERVTAG suggest this new variant (known since September) was associated with 4 out of 1000 deaths. The number of other variants is unknown 10? 100? 1000? 10000?
https://twitter.com/libertyhq/status/1347520075985793026
Working towards the Führer. Führer says he doesn’t like Jews, you kill six million of them.
So this is why we train and pay our Police Service ? Have they reverted to a Police Force? Who the fuck decided to assign these officers to this ridiculous task ? I’d like
to think the officers involved were as embarrassed as fuck.
Was delivering to a GP/pharmacy today.
Finished and was walking out with the staff holding the door open.
Obviously well to do, smart dressed, middle class 40ish sanctimonious wanker with a supercillious expression on his face waiting in the queue to go in says “Where’s your mask?” in a loud voice.
I turned round and said “See my exemption though it’s none of your fucking business”.
He looked down, apologised (I think, couldn’t hear him as I’m mostly deaf) and looked away.
Rest of the sheeple in the queue shut up, looked down. One guy came to the van to say he wasn’t the one who confronted me and thought I had answered him directly, he got short shrift and was told to fuck off when he threatened to punch my lights out. He scarpered when I went to open the door.
Staff looked delighted that someone had stood up.
Highlights of the week:
All in all a fun(ish) week.
“Rest of the sheeple in the queue shut up, looked down.”
Shutting up and looking down is what sheeple do.
It defines them.
Take Bozo with you next week.
Per point #3, we had Dr. Larry Palevsy (sceptic pediatrician in the US) as a guest for one of our Vaccine Choice Canada meetings and he made the same point. Swabs have always been taken from just inside the nose — never a swab that goes that far inside the nose. He doesn’t understand the need for this super invasive swab either.
Yes. I’ve not believed this from the beginning. As said – it makes no sense at all except in terms of a submission ritual.
I’ve refused several PCR nose swabs on this basis of unnecessary invasiveness (I do have a genuine problem with the extreme sensitivity of my nose, anyway). ‘Take a normal swab and use a <20-25 Ct and I won’t object’ is my position – it might yield some broadly reliable result.
I try not to get into confrontation – it’s not the poor buggers tasked with taking swabs who are to blame. It’s those who devised a meaningless ritual.
re Covid / Vaccine only NHS
1.Pam Julian
NO! Why should I when my young grandson needs a second liver transplant, his scan has been cancelled for the second time, he can’t have his blood tested at the moment, and the children’s ward is now for Covid patients!
https://twitter.com/PamJulian8/status/1347471965129498624
2.NZambra
https://twitter.com/NZambra43/status/1347525469516820486
2 years ago my wife and myself had really bad flu and we both lost half a stone and it took about 4 months to finally get over it.
I am sure that if it happened now, we would both be in hospital which would be and is, totally unnecessary.
I am sure that hundreds if not thousands of people,are in that situation now, when they could stop at home and self medicate and that would be that, instead of the whole country/world running around like headless chickens.
Oh I see Philip, you both had ‘Long Flu’ did you?
In future, you will be able to demand that your area be locked down for six months.
Don’t give them ideas!
Not as funny as you think. Handjob has already suggested such a plan for the future for all seasonal diseases, believe it, or not.
Jaroslav Hasek knew, in his book “The Good Soldier Svejk” … the German general said it, albeit about the Czechs at the time, but it now applies to the whole world …
“Das ganze Tschechishe Folk ist ein Simulantbande”… “The whole Czech nation is filled with those pretending to be ill.”
I and all of us WISH!
Such severe cases do happen with a variety of viruses every year. Some years, the intensity is worse than in others. I’ve had two bad ‘flu viruses in my lifetime, and wouldn’t wish such on anyone. But I haven’t spent every subsequent infection season committing social suicide as a preventative measure.
Glandular fever have repercussions 6 months – 2 years
most people get a swollen throat for a few days
Never heard it called “long glandular” before
long glandular – is that longer than, say, 7″?
For all we know, covid has been around before and this latest version of it is more virulent. For all we know, covid was identified years ago as a potential bio-weapon and, after years of testing, was found to produce just enough havoc that it decided that it was time to unleash its power on the world population.
Shame you couldn’t attend one of the 40 clinics which are being set up now for Long Covid Sufferers
Job well done there boys. Kerching!
Anti-vaxx sentiment declines as fears of overwhelming NHS sway public opinion (telegraph.co.uk)
Still don’t want or need the vaccine!
Stay the course.
Mmm why would anyone believe this article?
In Israel they seem to be getting the vaccine rolled out quickly, there has been a few deaths, they haven’t confirmed if there is any connection to the vaccine. They have also given quite a high number who have tested positive afterwards. We don’t get any information in UK, but the case numbers seem to have soared after the roll out of the vaccine in December. Just saying – makes you wonder if this is why they are expecting NHS to be overwhelmed
Positive tests skyrocketed in Portugal a few months ago I recall after they started the winter flu jab campaign.
Cause and effect?
Or just a coincidence?
I’ve stopped believing in coincidences. There is evidence that the flu vaccine increases susceptibility to other respiratory infections and speculation that the particular flu vaccine given to the elderly in Italy in 2019 had something to do with their high mortality rate.
daily cases have rocketed in Israel as well
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/israel/
Actually when Dr John Lee was interviewed by JHB about 3 days ago he said he expects the no of positive results to go u as the vaccine is rolled out. He didn’t expand in the short interview I watched. I don’t know whether he meant they will ramp up the testing even more (as he had been talking earlier about all the false positives) or whether if there’s something in the vaccine.. I suspect the former. I have also heard something about cases and deaths higher in areas where the flu jab has been rolled out… This was supposedly the case in Nrth Italy. People are definitely getting pestered more to have a flu jab. And yet they say flu has virtually disappeared…
Stay strong, Toby. Sadly the majority prefer notions of “safety” and “protection” over freedom. They only understand emotions, and have not the patience nor character to comprehend reason…
Just seen this on the Daily Mail:
So the scare mongering of the mutant virus has done wonders – more compliance and support in lockdown, police exercising their “new powers”, schools closed. It is a wonder that Johnson managed to pull the scare stunt again after it became known about widely from lockdown 1 – people have short memories.
Well if more people voluntarily take the vaccine then there will be less pressure on those who don’t want it… let the sheep line up first.
Quite. I’m perfectly relaxed about the masked wonders taking it, if that’s what they want. I’m finding I’m getting sociopathic, the more people jump out of my way or display wuss-like tendencies. Hopefully the health tzars will leave me and mine alone if they get enough sheep into the dip.
Yes, but this is the nightmare precedent for how future new viruses/mutations of existing viruses will be handled
Evil people everywhere will know that if they get control of the narrative they can manufacture fear and therefore control
never fear, they’ll come for you eventually. they’ll come for us all.
Indeed. They are our experimental animals.
No reason to believe it.
The job of published opinion polls is to form opinion, not reflect it.
Information is valuable.
Decison makers have access to their own private polls, which they need to be accurate, because they want to know what opinion actually is.
That stuff is far too sensitive to be made generally available.
Great comment.
The DM is a lot of the problem, they write irresponsible articles, not realising they are included in this promotion of evil
Oh I think they realise
You mean “Hitler – greatest living German”
That Daily Mail
Sceptics don’t take polls
25% of the covidians still won’t have the frankenjab
ha ha
A YouGov poll, no doubt.
These polls are specifically targeted at people who they know will vote for the agenda they’re pushing. If you signed up for a poll and said “I will never get the vaccine”, you’ll never be emailed to take another poll related to Coronavirus. If you signed up for a poll and said “I will gladly get the vaccine and these lockdown measures don’t go far enough”, you’ll be bombarded to take part.
Don’t get demoralised by this propaganda. They don’t reflect reality. I’d say take off 30 to 40 per cent and you’ll get the real numbers.
It seems to me people are either mindless zombies, unable to think for themselves or free thinking, liberty loving, independent minded, sceptics. Very few fall in the middle.
The New Urban Agenda, Habitat 3, presented by the United Nations around 2 and a half years ago. Sustainable Urbanization. 2018 to 2021. Their goal, end extreme poverty. Fail!
Ah, The Charge of the Light brigade.
Captured the Russian guns (which most people don’t know) so it was a success against all odds and incompetent leadership.
Unfortunately they couldn’t hold them as the heavy brigade turned back thinking they were all dead.
More soldiers died in hospital later than in the actual charge partly caused by how Florence Nightingale was such a crap nurse.
Really good book called Hell Riders about it by Terry Brighton.
Strange coincidence, apparently there were 666 (the 600 came from the poem written later by Tennyson as it sounded better) cavalrymen confirmed as charging the Russian guns.
No! The charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo 1815. Painting by Lady Butler. See earlier comments.
AG was probably referring to the caption.
Ah! Didn’t see that. Still the Crimean war was a monumental ballsup so I can see the correlation to what’s going on now.
Don’t know what that’s all about but very interesting non the less. Cheers.
Do they care how many die after the vaccine, is this the plan, will they cover that up too. People are just going blindly into a dangerous situation, like sheep to the slaughter.
Nope, never had. A vaccine death is normally for the greater good – very sad though if it is your family member
any deaths arising from the vaxx will be covered up you can be sure of that!
Vaxx deaths will be “Covid related”
same as suicides
cancers
heart disease
strokes
There won’t be any vaccine related deaths….
Yes, like the 56-year-old OB from Miami who died from the vaccine. Pfizer is “looking into it” but does not believe this perfectly healthy doctor’s death was related to the vaccine. His wife believes otherwise. At least this story has been attracting attention.
If someone dies, for whatever reasons, within 28 days of a positive test it is a Covid death. If a healthy person dies 1 or 2 days after being vaccinated it’s nothing more than a “coincidence”.
Re supermarket workers, pre masks I used to ask how many were off sick every time I visited, hardly anyone was the reply. As a regular at local Waitrose I know many of the staff, none of them. Dont bother with the vaccine get a job at a supermarket.
PS don’t go for a walk in Derbyshire with a coffee, they call that a picnic and will fine you £200 as it’s not exercise (BBC so must be true). Await reply from my MP about where it says this in legislation or indeed about staying local as it seems police just fine people with no basis in law, Napoleonic law has landed.
You can quote the law all you like but if you choose your day in court and something goes wrong (magistrates often side with the police) then you can end up with a career-ruining criminal conviction. It’s not as simple as the “this officer didn’t apply the legislation properly”, they have a lot of discretion on the ground.
I thought it was first parody and fake. Is this really true?
https://twitter.com/MarkDiStef/status/1347190962473345026
“BBC staff will be tested for the coronavirus twice a week, under new plans laid out in a memo today. They will also be given “Social Distance Proximity Devices” at the entrance, which you wear around your neck and apparently beep when you’re within 2m of each other.”
Unfortunately, …
I fear BBC journalists have a far more deadly infection than Corona virus – and its cultivated rather than treated.
Shame they can’t test them for Paedophilia
If they get too close to a child, an alarm sounds which plays the theme tune to Jim’ll Fix It.
It’s part of the application form. They ask do you fuck kids if they say yes they are hired if they say no they ask do you mind if others fuck kids if they say no they’re hired if they say yes they don’t get the job
Surely they mean bleat, not beep?
If I was working there I’d be offski
The next obvious question is which company manufactures the device and which one of Matt Hancocks family is on the board.
rather than a beep, how about an electric shock
A slip of the tongue here me thinks:
https://m.facebook.com/605242483/posts/10157325217642484?d=n&sfns=mo
https://www.climatedepot.com/2017/06/12/new-study-large-co2-emissions-from-batteries-of-electric-cars/
I’m so, so tired of this imbecilic “oh my god the NHS is overwhelmed!” argument. And to see a daily update saying “GUYS, GUYS, THIS IS REALLY, ACTUALLY, TOTALLY BAD NOW!” is just nauseating.
THE NHS IS AWFUL AND HAS BEEN AWFUL FOR MY ENTIRE LIFETIME!
EVERY YEAR IT IS OVERWHELMED!
THE NHS BED CAPACITY HAS DECREASED BY NEARLY 260,000 BEDS IN THE YEARS THAT THE POPULATION HAS GONE UP BY OVER 11 MILLION!
THE NHS REQUEST THAT THEIR STAFF TAKE 2 COVID TESTS A WEEK HENCE WHY THOUSANDS OF THEIR STAFF WHO AREN’T EVEN ILL ARE NOW OFF WORK!
I haven’t been on the site itself for a while, and I hadn’t read the daily updates for quite a while before that, but the daily update even entertaining this complete nonsense is making me feel ill.
UK Population 1974: 56.23 million
UK NHS Beds 1974: 400,000
UK Population 2020: 67.88 million
UK NHS Beds 2019/2020: 141,000
Source – NHS hospital bed numbers: past, present, future from kingsfund.org.uk.
And now for my regularly posted “the NHS is overwhelmed every single year at least twice a year (solely using the word ‘overwhelmed’)” image:
Hospital beds were reduced for good reason. Whether or not the cuts went too far is a matter for debate.
Modern surgical procedures and technology means that patients recover much quicker. The longer the hospital confinement the greater the chance of developing hospital-acquired infections. Staffing huge wards of patients diverted cash from improved treatments.
Lots of other reasons but this covers a few.
well they certainly need to re think the winter respiratory disease problem
“Hospital beds were reduced for good reason.”
You are confused in your contrary eagerness to justify.
There were/are good reasons for a reduction in hospital beds – partly for the reasons that you mention, and a strategic shift in the location of care.
However, the reductions were not driven by this. There was no considered strategy. Cutting resource was the prime objective, pre-empting any compensating measures as profit was sucked out – primarily through PFI.
Comparisons with other systems exposes the prime driving force. It wasn’t medical.
One of the major motivations behind the current hysteria is as a political arse-covering exercise to pretend that something unforeseeable is happening.
It isn’t.
Have you noticed how anyone you speak to always has an anecdotal story about people they know who had the Rona. Always goes something like this “Well I know 17 people from work who had Corona. Bob from up the road had it really bad.”
A little polite digging reveals the fact that 17 idiots tested positive but were ill in no way at all. And as to Bob who had it really bad? Did he need hospital? Always the answer is the same. “Well, nearly.”
So no. Rewind a year and call it the flu and nobody in their right mind would suggest that two awful weeks in bed with a fever and aches and pains was great. They wouldn’t suggest that flu could be deadly for the very sick or very old or even in a few cases somebody else. But neither would they claim to have almost died.
Really this whole thing can just be characterised as a huge rebrand of normal viral illness.
That’s been obvious since October and what is worrying is that it can now be used to justify permanent lockdowns and social distancing.
Yes – exactly.
You can come with whatever data you choose, and they come back at you with an ancedote – of their cousin’s hairdresser’s mother-in-law or what have you, and they think that their anecdote is as good as data covering a whole population.
Or the wheel tappers mate’s apprentice.
or not the pheasant plucker but the pheasant plucker’s son
State induced hysteria
They also have anecdotal stories of friends/relatives working in the NHS who are ‘overwhelmed’ etc. Yet the NHS is always ‘overwhelmed’ and ‘close to collapse’ every winter.
Sick of seeing crying ICU staff. I always think get another fucking job involving puppies or flower arranging but if you’re so much of a cry baby what the fuck are you doing working in a place where ill and dying people are. They all think they are so great but they look like something from a Hammer House of Horrors to me.
And, let’s face it, many in the NHS don’t know the meaning of ‘overwhelmed’. It means doing a full day’s work instead of sitting around chatting and stuffing your face with cream cakes [or making TikTok videos]. This may appear harsh but it is based on my own observations when my elderly mother was in hospital for eight weeks (would have been one week if she hadn’t contracted several successive nosocomial infections).
The most common made up stories where I live, are a young fit healthy runner/rugby player, cyclist etc, died at my local hospital with no pre-existing conditions after being ill only a few days, then there is the one about the young slim healthy mum who died never ill a day in her life, of course they dont know them personally, but a friend of a friends friends cousins uncles friend on facebook told them, so it must be true.
Most people I meet who had it, were asymptomatic, or were mildly ill for 3 days, I have met 2 people who were floored by it like the flu, but are now fine, just like I was when I had the flu a few years ago.
I’ve started telling anyone who says shit like that i don’t give a fuck.I don’t give a fuck who’s died, who’s in hospital, none of it. All i care about is how i’m doing and since we’re living under a tyrannical government aided and abetted by the likes of whomever it is i’m talking to that they are a threat to everyone. They have no right to expect the wholesale shut down of everything, no right at all and if they think they have then i’m afraid we shall no longer be friends and you are now my enemy. They don’t like that but i also add when the shit comes down and they’re coming for me i’ll be coming for them in retaliation. If they want to keep me down they’re gonna need some fucking balls to do it. off course the state can and will just shoot us protestors to death but you know you do what you can.
I just had an interesting conversation with a fellow customer in my local post office. There was a chap in front of us taking ages so we had a good chance to discuss what is going on. I wouldn’t say she was a lockdown sceptic but she was open-minded. She told me two things of particular interest. Someone she knows is doing an MSc in something medical and is classed as a frontline medic but she has said that she would not take the vaccine. And the sister of the woman I was chatting to is a nurse at Warrington General Hospital and has confirmed that they are very busy at the moment….but she is frustrated because it is largely people taking themselves to hospital with flu symptoms because they think they will die if they don’t seek emergency medical treatment. The nurse has said to her sister that these people should just stay home and treat it as a normal flu or cold.
Certainly, there is a ramping up of hysterical/hypochondriac demand.
Similar with long covid. You can guess which ones in the office will claim to have been suffering from long-covid by remembering their constant sickness absences prior to last year. All the usual suspects. Almost always female too – so much for man-flu.
Down at the coast today, lots of people around, children’s playground open, coffee vans doing a roaring trade, hardly a mask in sight.
Here in south west masks being worn outdoors, though hard to distinguish as many are just wearing scarves across face as normal in winter. I’ve tended to give them the benefit of the doubt. See what happens when temperatures rise later this week.
The problem of breathing in their own carbon dioxide should be explained so at least they are informed.
Dr. Mercola Defamed by Digital ‘Anti-Hate’ Group
‘Anti-Hate’ Group Defames Vaccine Safety Advocates
Vaccine Concerns Are Growing Rapidly
‘Anti-Vaxx Playbook’
Zero Solid Counterarguments Made
CCDH Promotes Draconian Censorship
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/01/08/ccdh-dr-mercola-censorship.aspx
———-
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: Int’l. Message for Freedom and Hopehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpMWDCX1yMI&feature=youtu.be
Why would anti-vaxxers bother organising, the authorities are doing their job for them, the more they try to censor & silence debate the more suspicious people become of the vaccine narrative.
I used to be fine with vaccines until the liberal left started calling people anti-vaxxers & trying to force it. Now I wonder what their hiding, fact is if get your vaccine your safe (their emphasis not mine) so why worry if others dont want it.
Just change the word vaccine to vaseline it slips thru the censorship much easier
Really interesting read a year or so back called (I think) When Paris went dark.
basically looking at the moment almost overnight when the country switched from French run to occupied. What I’m getting at is the police. Some of them quit. Some embraced the nazi ideology. But others including a senior officer faced a dilemma. He had spent his life in his view protecting the city, arresting criminals and following the law. That law changed, but the very next morning there was still crime, life went on, and so the issue was whether he continued under new paymasters in an increasingly repellent regime, or whether he quits. I do feel that a great many of the police must hate what they have become. Yes, for some it is dream come true. But for many, all they ever wanted to do was help people, and let’s be honest, if a guy with a knife is around and we all run the other way, it is the police that run towards the danger.
The police will probably turn away and turn a blind eye. The police have been politicised, just look at how our brave boys and girls in blue behaved towards the industrialised rape of girls in our cities. Now they have to be culturally aware before taking action, so in your scenario the police would only react depending if it was culturally aware and if it was an easy nick.
Don’t cover up for them.
Nothing wrong with running away, as long as you can run faster than the person next to you, its a good strategy.
The true picture
He’s right. There’s also no proof of the 1 in 30 crap; it’s just yet another estimate based on yet another model.
Termites produce more CO2 than combined human activity. Funny!
https://www.iceagenow.info/termites-produce-co2-year-living-combined/
The public has been led to believe that increased carbon dioxide from human activities is causing a greenhouse effect that is heating the planet. But carbon dioxide comprises only 0.035% of our atmosphere and is a very weak greenhouse gas.
http://iloveco2.com/termites-emit-ten-times-more-co2-than/
Brand New Anti-Vac Whopper, Almost Laughable
Zero Solid Counterarguments Made
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/01/08/ccdh-dr-mercola-censorship.aspx
If they have to sell it that much …….
Er, perhaps that’s because there aren’t any solid counter arguments? Hence why they feel the need to trot out the conspiracy theorist slur.
If there were counter arguments they wouldn’t be dicking about creating public profiles for the likes of marianna/claire spring and her little band of disinformationistas.
Makes one wonder where the elderly who have other serious conditions get their covid from. I remember when MRSA was raging in hospitals, now my 96 year old uncle who had some health problems at the weekend was told by his gp that he didnt want him to go into hospital as he was too vulnerable and would get a nurse to come out to him, he was safer at home.
Aerosol transmission over distance?
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344561555_Intercontinental_Spread_of_COVID-19_on_Global_Wind_Systems
To be fair it has been a policy for years to try to avoid unnecessary hospital admission for elderly frail patients. They do not do well in the hospital environment. Mobility declines and muscle wastage occurs very quickly, leads to difficulty being discharged. If if he can remain at home and receive community care it’s so much safer.
https://www.spreaker.com/user/markwindows/state-technocracy-and-its-civil-servants
Mark Windows and Piers Corbyn, 30 plus months ago.
The thing is, I have no problems with vaccines, if people want to take them, it’s their choice, same with masks, the problem is with the coercion.
I think that’s the case with most of us here, Dan.
The story of the angry Welsh nurse who caught Covid after being vaccinated has been rewitten.
It used to look like this: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xS0k41fRO_YJ:https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-wales-55579028+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
Headline was: Covid: Nurse ‘angry’ over positive test despite vaccination
It now looks like this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55579028
Headline is now: ‘Care needed’ after getting Covid vaccine
Ministry of Truth at work.
“Cases” skyrocketing since vaccine rollout Dec 8th. “Cases” skyrocketing inline with increased tests. Is it too early to say vaccines won’t stop PCR pos?
No mention of her family “dropping like flies” either. Worst form of so called journalism.
So, it’s not a vaccine then.
The country lockdowners and their apologists and sympathisers have created.
A country so scared that ordinary folk hide in their homes from a supposedly deadly disease.
A country so nasty and fearful that neighbours snitch on each other to the authorities, whether out of cowardice, busybodying self-aggrandisement, or falsely, with malice.
A country with authoritarian bullies in uniform for police, who take such nonsense seriously and believe (rightly or wrongly) that they are empowered to smash down doors to force their way into people’s homes to investigate for reported petty breaches of literally stupid rules.
Police break man’s front door in due to “suspicion of social gathering” – They were wrong! (Video)
Are you pleased, Alistair Hames? This is what you are supporting, and it’s no use saying you “don’t support this kind of stuff”. What the heck do you expect thugs empowered with totalitarian laws and boosted by hysterical fear propaganda to do? What did you think “lockdown” means, ffs!? Did you expect them not to enforce it?
What I’m still not clear on is, are the police now empowered to smash into people’s houses on suspicion of this kind of pettiest of petty offenses, or are they not?
I had assumed not, but some of them clearly think they are. Have they been manipulated to do that without lawful right to do so in order to create a few scare stories to frighten people? Are these just some overexcited idiots in uniform who are exceeding their powers because of stuff they’ve read in the newspapers or seen on the BBC? Or has the law actually been changed this dramatically?
It hasn’t been changed in England, at least.
Not so sure about north of the border
The police could always enter a property if they have evidence an active crime is taking place, as far as i’m aware
My understanding was that was only for specific categories of crimes authorised by law, not for any petty breach of any regulation.
Eg [from 2018]:
In general the police do not have the right to enter a person’s house or other private premises without their permission.
However, they can enter without a warrant:
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/your-rights-refusing-entry-police-14248283
Hmm
Thanks for info, i knew it was something like that, however the sad fact is police abuse & misinterpret the law on a daily basis, eg terrorism act etc. so i don’t think any magistrate would uphold any compliant during a pandemic. Even if they did what’s likely to happen to any offender?
We’ve moved a long way from the principles of magna carter & common law. Police simply don’t have respect for the law anymore.
Well these things have always been a little theoretical. If you are someone who lacks physical or popular or elite protection then the police know they can get away with a lot with you.
What might be the exit strategy out of this mess? Any ideas, please?
I wish I knew so I could plan accordingly
At best, mixed messages from govt and SAGE – govt slightly more hopeful than SAGE
The difference between the best (some kind of normal life by Easter) and worst (decades of this madness) case scenarios is vast but either seem equally plausible, or anything in between
Keep fighting and look after yourself
Economic collapse plunging vast numbers of people into poverty and desperation will probably do the trick.
The Cayman Islands?
They can declare it over when we are past the very normal winter pressure on the NHS. ie a few weeks.
But they could have declared it over last May and spent 6 moths preparing for what one would expect to be an under pressure winter NHS
Giant asteroid in the Yucatan penninsula?
Worth a look:
https://harteam.org/
“HART is a group of highly qualified UK doctors, scientists, economists and psychologists who use a strong and broad multidisciplinary evidence base to challenge the Government’s policies on tackling COVID-19.
We aim to provide a credible second opinion to politicians and the wider public.
We represent a broad range of disciplines with a wide range of individual evidence-based expert views.
Over time, as new evidence becomes available, our positions may adapt and change. We believe this is how science should work.
If you wish to be considered for Associate Membership of HART please complete our form attaching a copy of your CV.
Applications are open to all scientists, physicians, clinical psychologists, professional economists & lawyers and all other PhDs will be considered.
You can also be a general supporter if you are a member of the public for a £2 one off fee.”
Not much detail on the website yet but you can donate (sadly suggests there’s no billionaire behind them) and interestingly when you get a Paypal receipt it’s from something called “Yeadon campaign”.
https://twitter.com/harteam_org
Good evening Julian,
I think that they are linked to PCR Claims in some way (a lot of overlap) and maybe even PANDA the South African based group.
Definitely one to watch!
Best regards
Simon
Khan demands muzzles outside https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9126255/Mayor-Sadiq-Khan-declares-major-incident-London.html -how long before Bojo “with great regret” gives way?
He’s got to say no first, so he can do his usual u turn!
But no ones allowed outside.
Shhs -he’ll want them indoors next
Shit, the patronising and generally awful dr Sarah Jarvis is in talk radio in a bit. Retune now!
A game for the weekend
If Boris and Co dont have some kind of ulterior motive they’ve really dug themselves into a corner because they’ve set a precedent that we need to shut down the country every time the NHS is under pressure which is unfortunately every winter. By turning the NHS into a religion to get people to comply they’ve made it so sacred that the whole country has to stop working every winter. This was the predictable consequence so I find it hard to believe it was unintentional.
Sadly the MSM wont hold them to account over it.
If government were held to account their failure to provide appropriate health capacity creating a national scandal & would lead to resignations & new governance, instead we pay for their maladministration with our own house arrest.
They’ve had 10 months to fix this instead they’ve reduced capacity with mitigation measures.
Perhaps they don’t care, because it’s not actually about a virus and the well being of our people. Their own survival and comfort is far more important to them.
Depending on how much the globalist filth paid them
Indeed.
What’s the cost of lockown versus the cost of increasing the number of NHS beds by say – 25% in order to deal with occasionally greater pressure.
The NHS occasionally being very busy was not a big problem for society, provided we could avoid giving in to panic.
Now that it is clear we are no longer a country with sufficient maturity or moral fortitude to do that, it makes sense to waste more money every year providing a comfort buffer in that way..
NHS roughly £130billion a year.
Last time I looked the government had spent 3 times that already
Correct. The NHS and any SAGE type body will call for lockdowns or restrictions EVERY winter now. The die has been cast.
Ferguson clearly already thinks he has won and that is now the new normal:
“Nowadays, it is orthodoxy that lockdown was right. In the next pandemic, we won’t hesitate to use it.”
https://anti-empire.com/neil-ferguson-china-changed-what-was-possible/
I think he is going to end up being severely disabused of that notion. It is a measure of his arrogance that he thinks this battle is over, it isn’t even close.
Apart from anything else, a few scientists have questioned whether or not lockdown might have caused the virus to mutate to become more contagious.
We know that most SAG people are not kosher scientists. If we want to know more, we have to look further. Thank goodness for people like Dr Mike Y and the Great Barrington, even though the PTB are trying to rubbish it.
Remember: “You know you’re over the target when you start catching flak”
Could we not spend all the money pissed away on increasing NHS capacity to cope with Winter. Or am I missing something? Someone told be they are booked for elective orthopaedic surgery next week. How does that square with 10 days to save the NHS or whatever? How bout limiting elective surgery for a month around Christmas routinely? Flexing staff on a planned basis. Where’s the planning except lurching from crisis to crisis, year after year, Tory and Labour. All predictable.
If it was about a virus that is what a sensible government would do.
What gets me is that whereas these modellers continually predict the spread of the virus why could they not have predicted the effect on the NHS of the increasing testing,tracking and making people self isolate? I hear that one critical care nurse is now having to look after 3 patients instead of one. This is bad news for anyone including us if we get admitted.
This is from UK based Evidence based investigation just published.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348230894_Ivermectin_reduces_the_risk_of_death_from_COVID-19_-a_rapid_review_and_meta-analysis_in_support_of_the_recommendation_of_the_Front_Line_COVID-19_Critical_Care_Alliance
“This review and meta-analysis confirms that ivermectin substantially reduces the risk of a
person dying from COVID-19 by probably somewhere in the region of 65% to 92%. The only uncertainty in the evidence relates to the precise extent of the reduction, not in the
effectiveness of ivermectin itself. Similarly, when ivermectin is used as prophylaxis among
health care workers and contacts, it is clear that ivermectin substantially reduces COVID-19 infections, probably somewhere in the region of 88% (82% to 92%).”
I’m struggling to say “better late than never”, but can’t help think how different it would have been if this had been completed in May.
There was a study in Australia in the spring saying exactly this. Ivermectin is cheap, safe, off patent and easily available. Should have been used from months ago instead of waiting for vaccine.
Interesting the expression “blood on the hands” used for LD sceptics.Perhaps appropriate for others incl Fauci,UK establishment which from the beginning dismissed all cheap drugs on the market with suspected effect on C-19. Instead of a approach,vaccine AND possible cheap drugs available AND possible new experimental drugs. They chose mainly vaccine route and actively stopped the second route.Blood on their hands
Instead of trying to prove their critics wrong ( because they can’t ), they turn to baseless accusations.
It’s to divide society into a ‘good’ group and a ‘bad’ group. When a member of the ‘bad’ group gets told off for not wearing a mask, members of the ‘good’ group feel justified in standing around hissing their disapproval. When HMG finally gets competent enough to march the ‘bad’ group off to camps, the ‘good’ group will spit on us as we go by.
Exactly right. Dr. Zelenko, of the Zelenko protocol, calls the American Medical Association the American Murder Association for blocking the use of HCQ and Ivermectin and, therefore, killing tens of thousands of people who could have been saved. These vultures are the psychopaths with blood on their hands, not us.
No excuse for not getting all those nurses back to work then!
Like others who posted earlier today, I’m also pleased to report that not a single person in our street turned out to clap for the NHS last night. This is very different from what happened in the spring, and I take it to be a sign that people at large are fed with the restrictions and the diminution in the quality of life. I expect the MSM will now try even harder to turn the UK into North Korea.
Any Clapper would be a Collaborator. Tell them that and that they actively condone people dying due to not getting medical care from the Covid/Vaccine only NHS
Same in my street. Then again in the early hours of the morning I broke into their houses and stole all their spoons.
I’ve just read that Grant Shapps has said the vaccines won’t be much use because of mutation of the virus.
Is this the same Grant Shapps that didn’t have much success in the Real World and has no medical or scientific qualifications whatsoever (just an HND in business) and is now Transport Secretary? Oh, THAT Mr Shapps!
If this were someone like Dr Mike Yeadon (not many like him though) or Professor Gupta saying it, then perhaps we could listen with concern and interest. As it is we’ve got Hancock (again no scientific qualification or experience). And Johnson with his Classics degree. And then there’s the vaccine czar who’s got fingers in the Yougov pie and we’re told that most people (according to Yougov surveys) are FOR this lockdown and FOR this vaccine and FOR all the other punishments. Oh, of course, between them they are the fount of all knowledge!
How ever could we doubt it?
How are they “vaccines” ? They don’t prevent infection !
How is it a pandemic without being a pandemic or any other number of word meanings changed. Vaccines should innoculate shouldn’t they. MHRA has okayed these tube of medical treatment based on manufacturer data that the chemicals and materials they inject causes a reduction of symptoms.
Look it up if you’re a lurker reading this. It’s a snake oil scam.
Why is a minister of transport even discussing this – well off his radar surely!
Everylone else has gone home for the weekend?
If he has really said that then unless he has gone off narrative we know where we stand – there’s no end to this
Is anyone questioning why the U.K.’s figures are way out of kilter with the rest of Europe? There has to be something very fishy going on.
There has been huge amounts of testing, and quite a lot of backfill again today in the deaths figure.
The problem with that, is that when the numbers are rising like they are, the backfill will be less than the numbers unreported yet. Only when the numbers (in total) start to decline, do the backfill numbers usually start to exceed the numbers unreported.
I know keep a record of “cases” reported each day. Today they added another 8 who took their test on the 22nd December! (That’s the date I started recording).
Which sideboard did these test results fall behind and how did they find them?
What figures?
Not just Europe. We are being represented as The Plague Pit of the World. I’ve just heard from my Canadian friend, who expresses dismay and concern and sympathy with our desperate plight! (I’ve tried to put her right and will continue to drip feed). They think they’re desperate too, with only a few deaths or hospital admissions in their prairie towns. They’ve been primed with the woke agenda though, so I’m not surprised. Only surprised and dismayed by our well-educated and thoughtful friends who’ve actually fallen for their own political agenda.
My very elderly mother has just had a second stroke and, without giving her a covid test, they put covid positive on her notes ‘just in case’ the excuse being that any visiting nurse will have to wear full PPE – so that’s how they’re doing it – she has no symptoms of it at all
That’s disgraceful!
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/miami-doctor-dies-after-receiving-first-dose-pfizef
Time to start counting “deaths within 28 days of a covid vaccine”
All of a sudden all those “underlying health conditions” will be hauled out. Old age too!
Not sure if this has already been posted, via Simon Dolan’s Twitter:
Safe Neighbourhood Team for Broseley and Wenlock – therefore not the police, but some jumped up local that thinks this makes them sound important!
surely throwing snowballs is exercise
I understand there is a range limit in the new regulations, according to a reliable police spokesman.
The longer this goes on, the more people reveal their ugly authoritarian side. Sometimes I’m more frightened by what’s happening to civil society than the laws per se.
Meanwhile, in Sweden…
Sooo… everyone find the disgusting snitches and douse them with snowballs. Better yet, head first into the snow with them!
Apart from the valid exercise aspect, surely people throwing snowballs keep more than 2m apart?
What is going on with these numbers? They seem to be going off the chart. I wasn’t surprised before the vote as they always manipulate those at that time in some way, but this just seems astonishing. It cant be just ‘delayed reporting’ as that evens itself out. Is this actually real? It has to be at least in part, they can misattribute deaths, but they cant manipulate actual total deaths. What are those numbers like compared to normal, does anybody know?
What numbers?
1,400 deaths reported today, second highest ever.
Reported over December – when lots of people were using up Holiday.
The dates of death go back to December 15th – and all of this is updated instantly on the government’s website on their “by date of death” graph.
The actual report should be “bureaucrats get slower at getting their reports in”
Working from home… making tea… making toast… dog on lap… take dog for walk…
This graph was posted BTL on here a couple of days ago. It shows how what is being reported is a distortion of the truth. Unless there has literally been a dramatic change in the past couple of days, the highest daily tally to date in December is roughly 600 deaths in one day.
https://twitter.com/UKCovid19Stats/status/1346896341469900802
So the average deaths per day is now all Covid?
At least we’ve seen the cure of all other causes!
You seem to be determined to be misled by government statistics. The only figure that really counts will be the total death count for the year as a whole, as this will be difficult to fake, though I wouldn’t put it past them to try.
Daily reported deaths are neither here nor there. Just knicker-wetting material.
Looking at the ONS monthly death figures, the latest full month’s figures are for November. Northern Ireland and Scotland totals are kept separately, but adding them up I came up with 51,532 total UK deaths in November 2019 and 57,873 for the same month in 2020. Be at least a couple of weeks before the December stats are out.
These number very much disagree with Zoe numbers and Zoe are what I would regard as the most accurate.
New daily infections in society peaked yesterday – total infectious will peak in 5-10 days
I expect what you have is lots of covid going round the hospitals and lots of false positives. especially when you test dying patients over and over again. You might wave a swab in a hospital and get a positive result.
Evidence from last few weeks is that these are definitely dying ‘with’ covid and not ‘of’ because overall all cause mortality is within a normal winter range.
That is exactly why we need to see the ‘total deaths’ number and see how that compares to what we would normally see at this time of year. With Christmas distortions, lags, seasonality etc. Only then can we get a proper idea of what is actually going on.
Agreed. The only month which supported these sorts of figures being down to people dying “of” Covid was last April. There has been nothing hugely anomalous about monthly death totals since, though obviously this might change.
A lot of people died last April because they were denied medical treatment, no matter what they were suffering from.
yes. of course an alternative explanation is that the new mutant strain is much more infectious (higher PCR testing, more in hospital ‘with’ covid, more deaths ‘with’ covid) but less dangerous (Zoe shows symptomatic cases so would be lower)
so a very infectious new strain that was harmless would cause all numbers related to PCR testing to go through the roof but not the ZOE data which is what we have seen
The total death number will come and is hard to fake, but don’t put it past them to try. Those running the Covid event are desperate to keep up the hysteria until we are all vaccinated, after which nothing much will matter.
“all cause mortality is within a normal winter range.”
That’s the key, unassailable fact. Everything else is noise.
How are 68000 testing positive? They can’t all be going to lock ins, raves etc.
Viruses gonna virus.
Moreover, who are the prats getting tested? How dim do they have to be to not realise this is what the government wants…?
“Into the valley of death rode the 600”
Except that reference was in relation to the Light Brigade at the battle of Balaclava and the picture is of the Scots Greys part of the Heavy Brigade at Waterloo!
Table I have made up of UK all-cause death rates from 1950 to 2020. The figures for 2020 are now all up to date for the full year using official government data from England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Great data stoptheworld. Thanks.
Thanks for this. What happened after 2003 when death numbers visibly dropped? Is that when they introduced flu vaccines?
Possibly connected
Or general improved health
The fluctuations are not huge
We’ve gone back to 2003 levels, some of which is probably due to lockdowns
It has all happened with lockdowns, face nappies etc. Let’s see he the numbers in the UK compare to Sweden…
Total deaths in Sweden were 91,773 up to December 18th, up on last year but not extraordinary and still below 2018. They’ll climb to about 95,000 in the final reckoning. I believe Ferguson’s model suggested 60,000 extra deaths in Sweden? There’ll end up being about 3,000.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/525353/sweden-number-of-deaths/
Sweden’s long-term mortality closely echoes that of the UK.
Interesting question. But when you map it graphically, there is a notably cyclic pattern (a sine wave) – which becomes more pronounced if you look at the pattern of aggregated two-year data, which takes into account the interaction between years, as in the ‘dry tinder’ phenomenon.
I would not be surprised to see a return to higher mortality – a continuation of the trend-line.
… and all the useless NPIs will have no relevance at all in affecting any trend.
As well a growth in population, the ageing of the population also has to be adjusted for. I think with this there is hardly any difference to long term trend.
Excellent!! Thanks for this. I’ve shamelessly stolen it for future use! Utterly shamelessly.
No Problem Nick, I did a quick graph too if that’s of any use
This is really great. The graph in particular is striking in how mundane it makes this year look.
AT LAST! Somebody who understands how to present data.
Some of the crap data presentations we have had to endure on this site have been so unbearable that even I, as an absolute fanatic, couldn’t bring myself to read.
Your table should not only be on the front page of tomorrow’s LDS, it should be on the front page of the Gruniad and the BBC news as well, though I have no doubt it will not appear in any of those places.
I would award you a gold star, but in a few weeks time you will probably have to wear it on your arm every time you go out, so I will refrain.
Congratulation anyway.
I will donate £1 to the archewell foundation (lovely) for any of you who can spot the once in a life time health crisis and the difference with sweden who got it all wrong! But don’t tell the bbc, itv, channel 4, uk governments, nhs and the majority of cretins who now inhabit this island, as it will ruin the “shitshow” of 2020. Also don’t worry, it’s just about your freedom and liberty and what the next decade is going to be like. Calm down!
Yes – when you do this, you immediately blow the idea that 2020 was ‘unprecedented’ out of the water.
… how many journalists have highlighted these figures? A sad commentary.
We have just had a run of atypically low mortality.
The start of the downfall?
Jonathan Van Tam went out for a curry after Boris Johnson told Londoners to avoid restaurants | Daily Mail Online
Probably not unfortunately, it’s a rule for them & a different rule for us.
Wankers.
More Rogan Tosh from the DM.
He us very ill-bread.
Nothing story.It was from before lockdown.I would love for that sanctimonious prick to be caught breaking rules and god forbid anything should happen to his mum after she has the ‘vaccine’
Population of the UK – Ignore. Delele
Today’s 1325 reported deaths* (i.e. the propaganda figure the MSM will use).
Here’s when the deaths* actually occured. These are the deaths* by date of death* figures.
First column is date; second column is what was on the Gov site yesterday; third column is what was on the Gov site today; fourth column is what was added today. Hope that makes sense.
There are a few ‘minor’ adjustments on earlier days, but these are the main changes.
*As always, deaths are those within 28 days of a postive PCR test; there is no guarantee any of these people died OF Covid.
Cheers. Been trying to explain this to the missus. This’ll help.
Show her the 2 graphs from here, J; shows the difference between the reported figure and day of death* figure.
*Not necessarily from Covid; just died within 28 days of a postive PCR test.
Forgot the link, sorry.
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths
Site’s slowed to a crawl for me; everything else loading as fast as normal.
Anyone else?
Slow on my phone.
Thanks, Jo; not just me then.
Me too, keep getting a 502 bad gateway notice loading
Thanks, not just me then.
Snap.
Yes, I got that too, but I tried again, and it’s fine.
Yes.
Does seem sluggish, had gateway problem this morning.
It would indeed be very surprising, if Toby’s excellent site was not being interfered by traitors acting on behalf of Big Pharma and mega rich psychopaths, pretending to be philanthropists.
77B, GCHQ, NSA, CIA, etc. have plenty of tricks available besides mere paid trolls.
Notice how the emotional blackmail is being ramped up?
BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS, ETC.
Whew! Mad it into the comments section some hours late. I clicked on a link for an article and got a very odd page and not into it/unavailable. Saw a different link further on down re that article and clicked that too and nothing. At which my Internet connection went off and I couldnt get a single thing on the Internet. Spent hours battling to even get through to my provider and then battling again and I wonder if that link mucked up my router (which provider traced it back to – as having gone haywire). Back to normal at last – and wondering re the link….Shades of doomey music and wondering if someone mucked up this website and it mucked up my computer……
A very sad day, R.I.P to Lockdown Sceptics.
Toby’s last paragraph in todays “Last Supper Editorial” is:-
One of the most unpleasant aspects of this crisis is that it has brought out an ugly, authoritarian streak in so many people, particularly those in positions of authority. Before March of last year, I believed that totalitarianism could never take root in British soil because we are such a Rabelaisian, freedom-loving people, fiercely proud of our independence. Now, I’m not so sure.
This took me back some 35 Years, to a conversation I had with a very close Friend, now deceased. He was a keen follower of War drama and politics, not surprising as he was a refuge from WW2 Poland having entered the UK around 1944/5 aged 20. In his native Poland he had experience not only of the Nazi occupation, but also the impact of Stalin’s Soviet Union. He became a UK citizen and did National Service before qualifying as a Joiner and Cabinet maker. In spite of his traumatic war time experience in his home country of Poland he had no animosity to the German or Russian ‘foot’ soldiers, in fact I think the conversation I now remember was whilst we were ‘Analysing’ the German TV serial “Das Boot”. The conversation drifted to Democracy and Freedom when he sadly stated that his experience in late 1940’s Britain – (actually Wales) – was that there were plenty of likely candidates amongst us who would have been glad to be collaborators and join the SS if Hitler had invaded. So yes Toby’s last few words ring true, sadly.
RIP? We’re not dead yet!
I’m not dead, and I’m not going on the cart!
The ultrazombies I have met would have been denouncing Jews and cheering as they were loaded on to trains bound for Auschwitz.
Well we did have Moseley’s ‘Brownshirts”(?) goose stepping around in the 1930s. (Not sure whether both those ‘r’s are appropriate.)
This is not scaremongering and this data from 1st Jan from CDC.Unclear how many vaccinations maybe 4 millions.
This is clearly more dangerous than flu vaccine. But there are defined risk groups for severe C-19 outcome which this risk seems worth taking on an individual basis. For others outside the risk groups will depend on your attitude. If you believe in masks and 7% died in the UK of C-19 and you are a healthy 30 year, you have your own informed choice. Very difficult to see this as a mandatory vaccine, they haven’t even started the second dose.
https://twitter.com/AlexBerenson/status/1347582146819596290
11 deaths following Covid-19 vaccine administration have now been reported to the CDC as well as 38 life threatening responses, five cases of permanent disability, and more than 1,000 ER visits or hospitalizations.
The vaccine may well be a bigger risk than coronavirus for all of us, as nobody has a clue about the medium or long term risks. Why anyone, in any risk group, would take this shot in dark is beyond stupidity.
Agreed
I’ve been exercising the right that was generously granted to us by the government to go out and meet one other person for as long as we like in an outdoor public space.
The local playing park is one of the few places in town with a bench, so I usually meet a friend there. Beer is usually purchased from the nearby Co-op. I never thought at the age of 42 I’d be reduced to being a naughty teenager again.
Sometimes, other people may be passing (walking dogs etc) and stay for a chat. Criminal I know, but it has happened.
Over the past week or so, we’ve been getting more harassment from our local police force. Even a council car stops in the car park next to the park and sits spying on us.
One night last week, we had two police visits. “We get a lot of reports of anti-social behaviour around here, have you seen any kids hanging around?” that sort of thing. Sometimes they just park there to “remind us we should be at home” probably.
We stand our ground and often get remarks like “it is very cold out here” etc.
Next time I get that remark, I might tell the officer that if they are concerned about people being cold, then they might want to go round to the house I saw the other day on the high street that had all their windows open. I won’t say anything too sarcastic because once you rattle these people, they will make it their mission to screw your life up.
So far, they’ve behaved themselves. They are just becoming more intimidating. Maybe I should start filming them…
Yep, never thought it’d come to walking around the park with a can & a hip flask… and yet here we are!
Those chemical hand warmer things are a godsend…
peak deaths is 5th jan in normal years. I bet its the same this year
Well, the funeral place opposite me was out at 2am, 10am, 15.30.
Daytime ones could of course be bodies which were stored at local hospital, which had quite a large number of deaths since xmas, after our local area was very low numbers until mid december.
So this “Major Incident” declared in London. Is that like the “Major Incident” when people went to Bournemouth Beach? Political posturing, nothing more.
There was a major incident in Essex before Christmas too. I speculated it was due to lack of sunbeds.
There is an anti-lockdown protest in London tomorrow. Might have something to do with it.
More posturing from the Mayor.Also his call for face coverings in public spaces.
Why doesn’t he just concentrate on stopping violent knife crime and Transport for London
The only major incident was people shitting in the park and at the side of the road in some cases. Apart from that it was great
If these three statements are true then this does imply -as others have observed – that maybe police morale is falling. Despite the thuggish elements, many signed up for nobler reasons.
After working together in close proximity for ten months, they know there’s nothing in it.
But are they being made to undergo tests?
Only if they have symptoms but not on a regular basis. This from a police officer friend
What are the figures for our old friend Flu? Competing with Covid and the Mutant Ninja?
Aren’t you paying attention? The flu has been eradicated because of muzzling, anti-social distancing and lockdowns. Nobody can answer why the same measures don’t seem to be working for Covid, but the “logic” is that we should continue these measures every winter because, you know, “the science.”
I thought that was the case! Isn’t “science” wonderful.
Hi all,
Just tried to get onto this site through my address bar/firefox and got a blank page with “502 Bad Gateway” nginx. So I got here via duckduckgo instead. Is there any significance to this?
No idea but you are not the only one having problems.
Thanks.
It’s getting slow for me too. It’s probably just the government using our money to DDOS this site so we can’t read it. All for our own good of course.
Of course.
Just had acknowledgement from NMC about Laura Duffel, they have added my complaint to the others they have received. I complained as a member of the public rather than as a registered nurse, I don’t know whether it would have made a difference or not.
Thank you!
Despite falling “covid numbers” (down from 1:50 to 1:70) drakeford wants to make us queue to get into supermarkets (in the snow?) and follow one way systems, then queue again at the checkout.
He’s making the most of this before vaccines spoil his fun.
I’ve seen the arrows and the stand here spots and I blissfully ignore them. Right along with any mask mandates
I guess this may already have been posted, but I make no apologies for highlighting the egregious episode again:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-55560814
How do you describe the plod “officers” involved in this outrage?
“Malevolent thick bastards” is my take on it, but feel free to suggest alternatives.
School bullies who grew up to realise they could be paid for their sick fantasies. Not as bad as the thugs who burst into the house with the sick child in Aberdeen, however.
It’s a bit of a toss up between malevolent and thick.
The BBC quotes Derbyshire Police as saying:
“”Driving to a location – where exercise could easily have been taken closer to a person’s home – is clearly not in the spirit of the national effort to reduce our travel, reduce the possible spread of the disease and reduce the number of deaths.
“Each officer will use their professional judgement on a case-by-case basis, however, people should expect to be challenged and understand the clear reasons why they may be asked about their movements given the critical situation the NHS currently finds itself in.”
That a police spokesperson could say something so astonishingly stupid is worrying.
They seem to think you can be arrested for breaking the spirit of the law rather than the law itself
a poem posted on the local village FB group, for your delectation:
Not surprised it’s anonymous – who would want to own up to such shite:
They said the world was closed today
So I went to have a look,
I found it with the shutters down
And the phone was off the hook.
So I stood there for a little while
But no one was around,
Then silence came and startled me
With the most alarming sound.
I asked him where the others were,
And why the streets were bare,
He whispered ‘Life had ran away
While death was playing there’
‘Oh no’ I said ‘It can’t be true
For life is not afraid’
‘But no one ever goes’ he said
‘Where death has ever played.’
I understood and walked away
As Hope was standing there
With Courage in her afterglow
And the sunlight in her hair.
She said ‘Go home to those you love
This is no place to be,
For if we walk these streets today
Then no one shall be free’.
She threw her light to lead the way
And showed me where to go,
The very road that life had gone
Where the future flowers grow.
Then death showed me another way
But I didn’t want to look,
So I stumbled home in time for tea
And I read another book.
It was called The World is Closed Today
And the streets we shouldn’t roam,
The first line said ‘Just please be safe’
And the ending – ‘Stay at Home’
Author unknown
Stay safe. Keep others safe.
That’s put me off my dinner.
I should like to think this was ironic rather than moronic.
Definitely moronic!
These people really do think they are in a war don’t they?
Well here is one for the zealots to think about. London, Kent and Essex went into tier 4 in December, so pubs, restaurants gyms etc were closed, then schools went on holiday and then Christmas was cancelled and now it’s ‘full lockdown’ There was practically zero difference between tier 4 and full lockdown by the way (pubs could sell takeaway alcohol and schools were ‘open’, but as I say were on holiday so effectively closed. What has happened? Cases have ‘surged’, hospitals have become ‘overrun’, deaths are ‘catastrophic’.
Wait a minute, so the correlation is actually that closing schools, gyms and pubs leads to the spike! Making people spend time indoors is maybe not the best idea is it? Particularly as the people who are likely to need to go to hospital are already very old and/or sick so are indoors anyway. Forcing more people indoors with them is probably the stupidest idea I can think of. Lockdowns, do not only, not work, they make things worse for seasonal respiratory infections. Utter madness.
How can people not arrive at this, but instead blame all us selfish bastards? It’s completely nonsensical. There’s been nowhere open to go and create crowds!
Well it’s all so entirely predictable, isn’t it? The hysteria has been cranked up to eleven now that the lockdown zealots actually have some winter deaths to crow on about. Those idyllic summer days where we sceptics could laugh in the face of the casedemic by simply quoting the miniscule number of (regrettable) Covid casualties are long gone.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that due to the emergence of this mutant variant, we are now in the midst of The Great Plague – wall to wall shrieking from the complicit mainstream media, formerly sensible commentators like Haimes losing his marbles, police storming people’s homes without warrants “because of Covid.”
Yes, lockdown scepticism has taken a battering over the last couple of weeks, what with CRG MPs revealing themselves to be paper tigers, Big Tech ramping up the censorship and prominent dissenters facing an avalanche of abuse from the rabid Covidian cultists. Peter Hitchens called it perfectly. So where do we stand?
Well I’m not about to perform a volte-face anytime soon. There is no level of threat to the NHS that could ever force me to support the most sickening, inhumane theft of life and liberty as we have seen during these lockdowns. There is a reason the likes of the WHO never recommended them in 2019 BC (Before Covid) – the good science always showed that the policy of shutting down society to combat a flu-like virus was a catastrophic one that offered completely negligible benefit at a horrendous cost to people’s lives. We are living that nightmare now.
I cannot imagine for a second that people like Haimes (he isn’t the enemy here but I’m using him as an example) have been exposed to the true horrors of lockdown – I cannot imagine his family has been touched by destitution, depression, addiction, domestic abuse, destroyed educations, untreated cancers, death from other preventable illnesses and suicide. Fortunately neither have I – but I read the accounts of those who have, and my heart weeps for them.
How the rest of society can think this is an acceptable trade-off for a disease that 99.9% of healthy under 70’s survive, I will never understand.
“The lockdown zealots actually have some winter deaths to crow on about. Those idyllic summer days where we sceptics could laugh in the face of the casedemic by simply quoting the miniscule number of (regrettable) Covid casualties are long gone.”
Well, there are “winter deaths” every winter – but do we know how many are in any meaningful way covid-related? And while it’s true that covid casualties were miniscule in the summer, do we really know how much more than “miniscule” they are now?
‘Covid’ deaths are a fictional entity. They are unrecorded in any systematic way.
Thus we have to fall back on overall mortality showing a signal of something unusual.
… which it stubbornly refuses to do, with the figures reflecting average levels for the time if year.
Nailed it.
I heard a pathologist say the other day that covid was an “undiagnosable disease” (least i’m sure that’s what he said, i dont want to misquote him) – Dr Lee, he wasn’t implying it doesn’t exist he was just stating the symptoms were so similair to many other respiratory diseases, eg flu it almost impossible to clinically diagnose. Enter centre stage PCR!
The perfect fraud ; -)
PCR = Perfect Contrick Ratifier.
Thanks to Ceriain for posting today’s mortality figures below, by date of death.
What a pity that the PTB can’t also publish today’s all cause mortality figures so that we could see whether those who have sadlidied with Covid are included in the figure of 1600-1700 people who die on average each day in the U.K. or whether these are in addition to that number or form a large part of it.
I know that we will have to wait for the ONS to publish this figure, but by the time the information comes out, people will have forgotten the fear created when the 1325 deaths were announced.
“people will have forgotten the fear created when the 1325 deaths were announced.”
That’s the idea. From the start, the government could have chosen to present figures differently, to give a more realistic picture, but they didn’t.
All cause mortality England and Wales 1990 to 2020.. where’s the pandemic? Not only that but the population is greater now than ten years ago so the 2020 figure is less percentage wise..
Morrisons for shopping today. No challenges but 100% muzzled. How did we come to this?
I reckon 30% muzzled because they don’t want confrontation, 30% virtue signalling and 30% terrified as church mice!
It’s hard to know for sure but my guess is where I live the split is more like 70% don’t want confrontation, 10% virtue signalling and 20% worried
Impossible to be sure – but I reckon your 20% scared is on the low side.
I would love someone to do some really clever surveys that captured this more accurately. I am going by how close people get to others, whether they wear masks outside, how relaxed they look
Today I was walking along a canal towpath (where it’s physically impossible to be more than 6′ apart in many places).
Out of about 30 masked people I passed who were coming towards me, I would say only 2 moved out of the way as far as they could (and one of them did that stupid ‘pass wider’ hand signal like she was trying to flick a bogie).
The rest passed within inches. I think for many people the mask is a mixture of social conformity/virtue signalling/mental laziness. It’s basically just fashion, like wearing some stupid woolie hat because you saw Kim Kardashian wearing it.
If they really cared about transmission they wouldn’t be out at all, let alone on a canal towpath.
agree
Tesco, I was in a minority of one.
No challenge, and quite a nice conversation at the checkout.
Before going in I had psyched myself up to refuse the FPN and await my court date. How have we come to that?
Before going in I had psyched myself up to refuse the FPN and await my court date. How have we come to that?
Yes, I can relate to that.
Hi fellow contrarian, i have to say i don’t see the value in this kind of protest, i fully agree masks are worthless.
But theres no point looking for confrontation with police, they will win 99.9% of the time the odds are only slightly lower than dying of covid so it is really futile in my eyes.
If i were in an enclosed public place i’d probably nappy up, certainly for short periods, whys it worth the hassle, what’s to gain?
When at war you should only pick battles you can win, dissent is great to show government you wont be oppressed but fight smart, the more people they see not wearing face diapers the more draconian & despotic they become.
We have to think of the long game to win this war.
The counter argument is that seeing people in masks normalises them and normalises the idea that we’re under threat from a deadly plague, and seeing people with faces reminds others what it’s like to live in a world with people that have faces
I think that’s the clincher. How can anything be normal until people have faces?
I know what you’re saying but sometimes you have to retreat to regroup to fight another day.
At best you receive an FPN you have to dispute in court at a later date at its worst you encounter an absolute ass of cop & he wrestles you to the ground or electrocutes you into submission.
I just don’t see any value in it. And I take issue with your latter remark as a libertarian i feel its non of my business what others choose to do i.e. mask up or not mask up.
If people want to wear masks fine it just shouldn’t be mandatory!
At best you receive an FPN you have to dispute in court at a later date at its worst you encounter an absolute ass of cop & he wrestles you to the ground or electrocutes you into submission.
Have you personal experience of this or are you extrapolating from a couple of social media posts?
Is that strategy working for you?
I am not a contrarian. I do not oppose majority views for fun. Perhaps you do.
Nor do I agree with characterising this…whatever it is, as a war.
Mainly, I am living normally. The difference between me and others perhaps including yourself, is that I insist upon that right.
I am not ‘making a protest.’ I am asserting my autonomy over my own body. That is not a matter of indifference to me, though I accept that your bodily autonomy may be of no importance to you.
I am refusing to be actively complicit in spreading terror to others – which is what masks are for (they are not useless. You are entirely wrong about that). I am doing others the basic courtesy of showing my face as a human being. It may pain some of them that I do so. But it may give others a sense of connection. Certainly, the masks themselves are not neutral. To wear one is not the neutral position. The sight of them on others makes me feel ill. Invariably I have to take a few puffs to avoid an attack after a shopping trip because of the sight of those vile masks. But I accept the right of those who wish to wear them to do so.
I insist upon my right to do otherwise. If necessary, I will pay for it.
Yeah you took my comment out of context, clearly missed the point, for what its worth i respect your rights unfortunately the government doesn’t.
No, it was impossible for me to take your post out of context because it was a direct reply to my own. That was its context.
I did not miss your point; I answered it directly.
You say now that you respect my right not to wear a mask, but you attacked the value of my choice in your question-begging first sentence, in which you mischaracterised it as a protest.
Have you ever tried not wearing a mask? I don’t know where you’re getting this idea from that you’re likely to get into a confrontation with police for not wearing one. I have not worn a mask when shopping anytime since they were mandated. The only thing that has ever happened is some old guy on the door at Tescos asking me if I wanted one. When I replied that I was exempt he was fine with it. No confrontations with the police, no getting into arguments with zealots. I realise my experiences may not be typical but I think that actual confrontations with the police are extremely rare and most of them are probably defused if you know the law which, as it stands, is on our side.
I’ve never worn a mask & never social distanced but where I live there’s no need to, I rarely ever see anyone.
My original comment was in response to someone going out with expectation of being given a FPN, evidently he/she expected an exchange with police as they are the only people empowered to give them (i include PCSO’s)
Since when have police respected the law?
I can’t agree. It’s important to remind people of normality. I’ve never worn a face nappy and I’ve never had any hassle.
The more people are seen without muzzles, the more will be emboldened to remove theirs.
The behaviour of that police officer in Sainsbury’s Hereford last month, accosting a man shopping without a mask, broke 3-4 laws I think. Must be worth £1,000s in damages.
If they don’t have a leg to stand on, surely the police will settle out of court if a person stands up to them. Bad publicity is damaging to a force’s reputation.
Aldi and Lidl are fine on masks and I’ve never seen the police on patrol there. Small shops can be officious and aggressive.
P.S. I went to the post office today (v. small town). One customer had a mask on, none of the other six people there including two cashiers and a postman did.
LOL I see my post really triggered some, I address all, but reply to your post because we were conversing first.
I disagree with you & all replies to my comment. I actually think we all need to try & make this lockdown work to prove they don’t work.
If we don’t this will never end, they will always blame those “deniers” & dissenters for its failure. I reiterate I do not agree with any mandatory mitigation measures of any kind! Masks and mre than worthless, social distancing is pointless, lockdowns will never work because they aren’t & can never be strict enough.
But the time for protest, dissent & questioning ethicacy of lockdown is after lockdown ends not during, breaking their rules will only prolong the pain.
Like it or not the police are enforcing the governments diktat with increasing zeal. The longer it goes on the more aggressive they will become.
You recommending what we should all know by now is the road to Hell.
Compliance is the food of lockdown. The more you comply the more the regime will demand. This can never end except through non-compliance.
If we did as you suggest, when would the great ‘I told you so,’ moment come? Never. Instead there will only be more mutant variants and ever more extreme restrictions.
Has anyone noticed a change in the amount of supermarket staff masking up? The last couple of times I went to my local Tescos there was 100% mask compliance. Previously quite a few of the staff on checkouts were unmuzzled (they are behind plastic screens after all).
Yes. I think they must have been subjected to new instructions.
Opposite at Aldi. 4 out of 5 floor staff unmuzzled this week.
2 different people climbed on to the edge of the sea wall yesterday, as approached in the opposite direction. The fall would have put them in hospital.
I often see people running across a busy road on a red light – all wearing masks.
Judging by the outside mask wearers I think there are more scaredy-cats now, but your 30% could be about right. The other two categories probably overlap, showing what a good person they are and avoiding confrontation are both ways of seeking approval.
I thought “what the hell – Friday night, beer, pizza, letter to my MP” so here it is”
“Another month passes, another set of incarceration and restrictions, another lacklustre debate where Government treats Parliament with total contempt and disdain presenting lies as facts, when scary large numbers of deaths are quoted that miraculously and coincidentally appear at the same time when Parliament is meeting to debate them and apart from a few notable individuals who are few and far between (and abstentions do not count as that is a cowardly option) there is no challenge, no holding to account, no questioning of the difference between the numbers presented by Government and it’s advisors and what is being published on the Government’s own websites and I am struggling to understand why.
You are a lawyer so should be logically minded so maybe you can explain to me the following as I, as stated above, really struggling to understand how the following cannot be challenged to get a logical answer or reason for the differences or why it should be a rational basis for any restrictions on the economy or individuals.
Why are the numbers of deaths being quoted “with covid” and not “from covid” and are “within 28 days of a positive test for covid-19/coronavirus”?
There is a big difference between “with” and “from” and also the reason for the death could have been a car accident, cancer, dementia, heart failure, organ failure, suicide or any other reason and nothing to do with covid-19/coronavirus so why broadcast them as such unless it is to keep the scary numbers higher than they really are?
Would you report someone who died within 28 days of receiving a vaccine as a “vaccine death”?
Same logic.
Why are the death numbers are reported on MSM and aided and abetted by Government as happening the day they were reported when the more accurate way is to report numbers from the actual day of death and this is revised daily as the records are updated as the paperwork is processed?
There are big differences in the numbers between the 2 ways of reporting and these can easily be found in the public domain on websites such as the Office of National Statistics so why broadcast the deaths on the day they are reported unless it is to keep the scary numbers higher than they really are?
Why keep stressing “positive test” when it means nothing medically by itself as stated in FOI answers from the DHSC and in documents published by the Government on the gov.uk website and in the test kit manufacturer’s paperwork itself?
So again, why report “positive tests” to mean something they are not unless it is to keep the scary numbers higher than they really are?
Is the recent big rise in “positive tests” have anything to do with the recent influenza and covid-19 vaccination programmes?
Is anyone raising this point in Parliament? Is Government even researching this possibility? In the test kit manufacturer’s paperwork itself it states this is a definite possibility and has been observed in both Portugal and Israel recently so why continue with the “more are infected” when it could just be a reaction to the body’s immune response to the recently received vaccination unless it is to keep the scary numbers higher than they really are?
I look forward to your answer that show that you know more than me on this subject and you can put my mind at rest that the decision making actually makes some sort of logical sense rather than just a monumental cock-up based on deliberately misrepresented facts to cow the population and MPs into submission.”
Good letter that. My Con MP is so useless and just regurgitates govt advice so I feel it’s banging my head on a brick wall
same, well now he just ignores me completely, but I feel that getting an answer is not the point – a pat answer or no answer at all is itself an answer that speaks volumes- the point is to keep spamming them with protest. at some part of their dense psyches, this will register. without it, they can easily convince themselves that everyone’s on board, nobody minds
you should have just asked him it is money or kiddie fucking they’ve got you with
Ace!
You argue intelligently and cogently. This means that you do not fit the spec for the Great British Zombie.
Go away.
yuck, sacrilege – pineapple (and seafood) should never be on a pizza.
So happy for you that Pizza, beer and writing a letter to your MP is Good Times for you!
Here’s another annoying thing: gyms and such places with a notice in the window about their closure which starts with a cheery “See you soon!”
How do they know?
Currently it looks likely to be March at best, maybe April, or the twelfth of never.
Being positive is one thing, being in denial is something different.
I’ve lost a lot of sympathy for these places. They aren’t fighting back and just shut up when instructed and use all the genetic government language. I believe the only reason garden centres are still open is because after lockdown 1 they fought back, got together and started a case to prosecute the government for loss of earnings (hundreds of millions). You stand up to them they crumble. Same with any bully.
Everyone just needs to say FU we’re opening! There’s a CrossFit gym in our town that’s been open, no masks either and …no Covid hotspot
I’m on the committee of my local sports club and when I mentioned just ‘bending’ the guidelines a little to keep going, I was met with horror – ‘we can’t afford a £10,000 fine!’ etc. To be fair, one senior member did agree and we were able to find a legal loophole (specific to our club only, unfortunately) to carry on in a very limited way. But there was really no appetite to fight it – everyone just shrugs and says ‘what can you do?’
I’ve just received a bit more bullshit from the Nationwide building society,
If you’re thinking about coming into one of our branches Please bear in mind the government’s guidance during lockdown. The advice is to stay at home,protect the NHS and save lives.
Could your visit wait until Government restrictions relax? While infection rates are so high, we all need to stay safe and keep others safe too by minimising our contact with others.
So please consider if your visit is essential or if it could wait until after the lockdown lifts. For example, some things like getting a savings account passbook updated with interest could wait until later. If you use the Internet Bank or our Banking app, you can use those services to check how much interest you’ve received.
I would be changing bank.
They are all about the bloody same,full on virtue signallers.
Skipton are especially shit.
I have noticed when you get money from a cashpoint it is all brand new notes. Rishi must have a gnome printing them out behind each ATM.
I agree with Nationwide. Why bother having staff, when you don’t want customers.
Lloyds bank keep steering me to machines, not human beings.
Ditto HSBC, at this rate they will make their human staff redundant.
Got that too. Deleted it, have never read so much shite in my entire life!
The nationwide I use has been utterly bedwetting so I no longer go in. They hide in plastic boxes with gaps in so you can feed things through and its all gloves and sanitiser on the pen. Its worse than the dentist and utterly virtue signalling too. Makes me puke.
If you have symptoms and test “positive” then you have to self isolate for 10 days, then even if you’re still coughing your guts up you can go out again because you’re “not infectious”. So how the hell can somebody with absolutely no symptoms be infectious. They can’t, the blatant bullshit about asymptomatic transmission is the most irritating part of all this shit show.
Absolutely, it’s scandalous. I just don’t actually believe that you can have Covid 19 and have no symptoms. We don’t have asymptomatic cases of flu, do we?
the NHS information on flu page states that flu is asymptomatic. I remember checking it some weeks back.
You can certainly have the virus with no symptoms. Can you be a driver for an epidemic? Nope
The BMJ is far from convinced regarding asymptomatic transmission, at least for Covid:
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4851
Interestingly i saw a doctor asserting that there is a very small window that any test can verify influenza infection, rather like covid its very difficult to clinically diagnose because so many respiratory diseases share the same symptoms.
On the vaccination course that I started it suggested that a proportion of people have no symptoms of flu. What is not stated is whether such a person is infectious. You can be exposed to a pathogen but it doesn’t mean you’re infected.
Does anyone know what the procedure is if the police stop someone under 18 to demand why they are outside?
If a policeman stops me and asks me why I am outside, can I ask him why he is outside?
Since most transmissions occur inside, it makes sense if we all go outside
You’ll love this video – “Asking cops the same silly questions they ask us.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r55BFO9ZVaM
That’s strange, outside is the safest place to be? You don’t want to be near anyone with a germ ridden face nappy, you do not know where they have been !
Anybody stopped should just say they are out exercising.
I know that I’m 72 and I’m supposed to be doddery but the local pharmacist rang me this afternoon to “run through” my medication which I have been taking for over 20 years.
His first question was “Are you taking your medication?”
How I didn’t give him a “mouthful” I do not know.
But then again, we’re not supposed to think for ourselves, are we?
No wonder most people have been conned into believing the Covid hysteria.
They’ve ramped up the propaganda Philip. It’s the flu season.
Maybe they should put the entire population on benzodiazepines and have done with it. Mind you, a fair proportion seem to be taking them of their own accord, or perhaps it’s already in the water supply.
I take a statin and 2 hypertension tablets but I’ve never taken any “happy pills” in my life and these bastards won’t drive me to do so.
Very glad to hear it, me neither.
Good for you.
My local Pret hasn’t asked me to track and trace for months. I guess they’re grateful for the 1:1 staff, customer ratio in lockdown.
Track and trace seems to have disappeared off the radar as I’ve not been asked for months now. The staff seem to be happy to have at least an unmuzzled human being to talk to.
I actually wondered whether the full lockdown and the Tier 4 system was partly because they couldn’t get track and trace to work and they therefore needed a new form of control.
Retweeted by Laurence Fox – with a rebuke. Mr Neil O’Brien, MP. The Commons’ greatest lockdown zealot :
“On the day London hospitals declare a major incident because of the flood of Covid patients, @toadmeister ‘s ‘lockdown sceptics’ website is encouraging people to print out a stupid fake certificate that says they refuse to wear a mask. They need an “I’m a moron” certificate.”
I think perhaps it’s Mr O’Brien who needs the “I’m a moron” certificate. Perhaps someone here would be kind enough to send him one? (Harborough MP.)
But surely he (O’Brien) must realise that the Government actually provides an officially produced online exemption certificate that can be printed off by anyone – in terms of its value, that could be regarded as just as ‘fake’ as anything published by LS. In fact, it’s what I put in my lanyard. I take it he would be prepared to refer to the Government as ‘morons’!
I don’t think O’Brien has much interest in facts.
No, he doesn’t. He’s a Moron of Parliament (MP).
I do the same and in fact the result of wearing this is that I have so far never been challenged. I am aware of the argument for not wearing a lanyard but one of the reasons for wearing a lanyard/badge is for mental health reasons where it would be potentially damaging to question the non wearing of a mask, that’s me and to date – no problems.
I see that Genghis Khan, the Mayor of London now wants Londoners to wear face masks outdoors. This seems to have no basis in any sort of evidence or investigation, it is just on the ‘old wife’s tale’ thought that a bit of cloth is bound to catch all the covid isn’t it? Well no not at all likely, anyone involved in real health and safety will know only too well that preventing dust inhalation, let alone viruses, is very difficult.
O’Brien might be referring to the humorous version of the mask badge/lanyard that is on the main page above the line.
I did a straw-count of about 100 people in north-central London today and about 25% were wearing masks outdoors. Certainly more than last time I was up here. I suspect if this goes above 50% Khan will try to make them compulsory.
As predicted by me, and denied by you they are looking to close down the site.
Denied by me? (eh?)
I’m sure O’Brien would like to close down the site. Thankfully he’s not in the government.
I’m not sure what I said about the matter before, but I don’t think that zealots will be easily able to shut this site.
It has been up for nine months now and Toby and the team are very careful to only produce genuine facts.
Big tech tried to close down Talk Radio the other day.
Did they succeed? No. So they won’t succeed in shutting this site down either. In my opinion.
But despite the defence of talk Radio by this site, they have had the video removed from the bottom of the page due to a copyright claim!
Bloody hell, the wankers!
Well, I’ve no idea what you are referring to, but if they can only censor material via a copyright claim they will have a great deal of trouble silencing this site and Talk Radio!
It probably wasn’t an official TalkRadio video but someone who’s copied a segment. I think this is the same one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_8S74YRXL0
yes, checking above the line it is Talk Radio themselves who put in the copyright claim.
The next step is to close down dissenting voices.The MSM is controlled so without sites like this how could you refute government propaganda.
Can we not set ourselves up as a group on another platform before that could happen? Don’t know what I’d do without you lot.
A classic brainless remark which elides an ad hominem attack and emotional incontinence while avoiding the evidence which shows how ineffective and potentially dangerous they are. Much appreciated by the gallery, no doubt.
PS: Mr O’Brien has helpfully provided his constituency address for correspondence:
24 Nelson Street, Market Harborough LE16 9AY
Sent my earlier e-mail to my MP to him just now with the following at the beginning:
“I saw a tweet of yours that is a total misrepresentation of the lockdownsceptics ethos.
I sent the below e-mail to my MP but as you are such a lockdown zealot maybe you can answer me the following questions as you know so much:”
Wonder what he will answer.
Seen on FB:
Not sure about that, perhaps we should ask Rubber Johnny Johnson, he’s fucked the whole country after all.
That’s just put me off my dinner!
Sorry about that, when this is all over I’ll buy you another.
“Rubber Johnny Johnson”
The UK’s first prophylactic Prime Minister
I’d suggest we need a prophylactic against him.
To follow the analogy…the condom would have to be full of holes.
But it might make you slightly less pregnant, or less seriously pregnant, or less likely to actually give birth, or it might even prevent you from making other people pregnant even though you’re fully dressed and more than 2m away or something. SAVE THE MATERNITY UNITS THEY’RE OVERRUN!!
A very valid point. The fundamental issue is though, you do not take any medicine that is a priori known not to work and no doctor should be prescribing it.
Surely a medicine that doesn’t work isn’t a medicine at all?
The same could be said about the PCR test. If you were recommended a pregnancy test that might tell you that you were pregnant when you were not 30% of the time, and even if you subsequently showed no signs of being pregnant you still had to be considered pregnant, would you use it.
https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/coronavirus/nursing-leaders-denounce-covid-19-deniers-08-01-2021/ does that include Professors Craig, Gupta and Lee or Dr Kendrick or Mike Yeadon or any number of others. These leaders do not speak for me.
Has this been highlighted today?:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55548670
Covid: Swansea Uni develops ‘world’s first’ vaccine smart patch
Swansea Uni gave Hillary Clinton an honorary doctorate for her work on promoting women’s rights – just not any of Bill’s victims.
And the law school has been renamed the Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law
Hillary Rodham Clinton School of Law – Swansea University
It sounds almost like an oxymoron.
I can’t wait for Swansea Uni to declare bankruptcy.
Why have they named a Welsh university after an American? Especially one that smells of sulphur.
HRC supposedly has a Welsh connection, ancestrally speaking.
Interestingly, echoes of Theranos – some important people were involved there before it all went pear-shaped!:
Theranos – Wikipedia
https://twitter.com/STVNews/status/1347572108075921415?s=20
Police Scotland Chief orders ‘probe’ into the attack on the family in their home by his officers.
It is worth remarking that this man’s two predecessors resigned in unamibcable circumstances. The most recent went to town in a very strong resignation letter citing political interference making the job impossible.
If I had a ‘probe’, preferably 10 feet long with a tungsten carbide tip, those psychotic thugs would never walk again.
Its being whitewashed already, read his full statement.
https://news.stv.tv/north/chief-constable-orders-probe-into-viral-video-of-police-incident?top
nothing to see here…please move along .
That was absolutely disgusting behaviour. I fear we’ll see more of it though, as it looks like the police have been given a free hand to intimidate people over this covid nonsense. One only has to look at what was happening in Australia months back to know that sort of behaviour would soon arrive here..
And ZERO response by the usual human rights mob, when peoples basic rights are being trampled. I guess some people’s rights are more important than others
Big Brother Watch at least has highlighted it.
They have too much ‘privilege’ to be needing the help of human rights groups.
But the three people in the house – two women and a man have been charged with assualt on a police officer – the second woman after having had a seizure, presumably related to the fact that she had just returned from hospital.
That’s just how the police roll these days.
Subhumans
Rhetorical question really, but has anyone heard any more about Tiffany Dover, the US nurse who fainted after her first jab three weeks ago?? There were rumours circulating on social media that she had died. I read a few days ago that she would be due her second jab on 7 January and the assumption was that this would be more than likely to receive media attention, particularly in order to disprove the purported ‘disinformation’.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-nurse-covid-vaccine-dead/fact-check-nurse-who-fainted-after-covid-19-vaccine-did-not-die-idUSKBN29629G
Fact check: Nurse who fainted after COVID-19 vaccine did not die
You for real with a Reuters fact check?
I might have been convinced by the video proof of her survival produced by the hospital if the person they claimed to be her actually resembled her!
I’m pretty sure she’s dead. They would have had her back on TV pretty damn quick if she was alive. So, so, sad!
Agreed. That’s all it would take.
I’m looking forward to my escape from Tunbridge Wells,tomorrow, to travel to a City known as “1 in 30”
Got an FOI back from the Cabinet office about what they are seeing on media etc.
They sent this link:
https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/1fa38cfe-35a6-4787-9e35-57b739400572
£119 000 000 on that one contract alone.
Or you can root through here for a monthly breakdown:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-spend-data
I opened this at random, few covid-19 media payments made including:
CABINET OFFICE02 November 2020EXP – PURCHASE OF GOODS/SERVICES – MARKETING & MEDIA – ADVERTISINGCOVID-19MANNING GOTTLIEB OMD1037101441 £264,642.35
CABINET OFFICE02 November 2020EXP – PURCHASE OF GOODS/SERVICES – MARKETING & MEDIA – ADVERTISINGCOVID-19MANNING GOTTLIEB OMD1037101441 £202,335.41
CABCABINET OFFICE02 November 2020EXP – PURCHASE OF GOODS/SERVICES – MARKETING & MEDIA – ADVERTISINGCOVID-19MANNING GOTTLIEB OMD1037101441 £281,866.31
CABCABINET OFFICE02 November 2020EXP – PURCHASE OF GOODS/SERVICES – MARKETING & MEDIA – ADVERTISINGCOVID-19MANNING GOTTLIEB OMD1037101441 £46,746.48
But they say they have no money to help the 3 million people excluded from all support like me! they are spending money like it’s going out of fashion.
Spending is one way to describe it I guess.
A contract for 5 days? Doing what??
Matt Hancock. Adolf Hitler thought the Final Solution was the right thing to do.
Give me Adolf any day as opposed to the jumped up little tosser Hancock!
At least Hitler honestly thought he was doing the right thing.
And he didn’t delete the faces of the entire population.
The vaccine will not save you (report in The Week newspaper). Actually their journalism is quite good.
An unnamed nurse, who works for the Hywel Dda University Health Board area in west Wales, said she was told the vaccine would begin to offer some protection after ten days. But three weeks later, she began to feel unwell and had a test that confirmed she was infected.
The ministry of propaganda had “Bethan’s” story on its website last night, but since removed. She was angry at being infected and her children were dropping like flies. BBC ran it as nurses anger, rather than vaccine doesn’t work.
The BBC have now revised the story (although they do not say they have) and they have dropped the children dropping like flies bit and generally toned it down.
I think the BBC got egg on their face about that nurse who said hospitals were filling up with kiddies, only for Royal College of Paediatricians to issue a refutation.
The link to that article is still on my Fb page and it still works, so maybe just hidden.
See my post from earlier.
https://dailysceptic.org/2021/01/08/latest-news-248/#comment-343727
The last thing we need to hear is stories that vaccines don’t work – without the masses believing in the miracle placebo there will be no escape from this hell.
Well the likes of Dr Andrew Wakefield, Dr Carrie Madej, Dr David Martin, Dr Sucharit Bhakdi, Prof Delores Cahill etc tell me that its not a vaccine at all and to stay well away from it if you don’t want your DNA in the hands of patent holders.
Moderna have even come out and said its not a vaccine but a software system.
Everybody should watch this video by Dr Andrew Wakefield.. its more than a wakeup call..
http://tapnewswire.com/2021/01/dr-wakefield-this-is-not-a-vaccine-it-is-irreversible-genetic-modification/
I don’t know how anyone else is faring with their GP practices or hospitals, but MOH has been having some medical problems, including a moving, and painful kidney stone.
We’ve had an unrequested call from our GP as a follow-up to a blood test result which has some abnormal results. Our next week or so will be taken up with CV19 tests (for a third time), plus hospital-based tests.
In this current climate of an unavailable NHS, I have to say that I’m more than happy that we’re not being robbed off or unnecessarily delayed.
Some good news in amongst the usual bad news.
I hope it stays that way, and they don’t find anything serious.
I cannot understand why there has not been a concerted howl of protest from our GPs. If I’d dedicated my life to serving others, and suddenly a shallow, self-serving government had decreed that I should desert them all – then I certainly would have something to howl about.
Can ALL these people be so self-serving and cowardly, that they meekly bow their heads and submit, when they must KNOW how much they are needed, by people who, in some cases, they’ve served for years?
Homeopathics can help with kidney stones.
https://homeopathica.com/homeopathic-medicines-kidney-stones/
.
Also check diet and take supplements in citrate form to help remove oxalates.
Has anyone been getting emails from their banks, supermarkets about “keeping you safe”? I’m finding them tiresome and patronising, as soon as I see the subject, I simply delete them.
However, this one from Nationwide really takes the piss:
Are these companies idiots? Why do they need to keep me safe? I’m just buying my food or needing to pay in a cheque not dodging bullets at the Western Front.
I had that one from Nationwide along with many, many others. Never read beyond the first sentence before deleting!
Unsubscribe from the e-mails or block them.
You can also annoy them/waste their time by asking if they have done a risk assessment on the wearing of masks by their staff and customers, because otherwise you won’t fee safe in visiting.
Or ask them about their enhanced security measures since people have to wear masks now.
how about 0% interest on my overdraft for 3 months
Toby, for goodness sake get it right, that’s not the Charge of the Light Brigade, it’s Waterloo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland_Forever! – painted by Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler – Charge of the Scots Greys at Waterloo – they received very heavy casualties but did capture a French Eagle standard and relieved pressure at an important point in the battle
Ah yes, back in the days when Scotland was Brave…before it became frightened of its own shadow.
Well, it is a false pandemic, so why not a false illustration?!
here we go – daily UK all cause mortality
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/950424/Weekly_Flu_and_COVID-19_report_w1_FINAL.PDF
page 61
updated yesterday, data up til end Dec
Thanks for that. It looks like it is tipping down and it was all over in the spring!
It’s not “tipping down”. There will be a backlog of registrations.
Well it will tip down after mid January as it always does every year.
This year will be no different to all the others unless the lockdown itself begins to claim lives as it did in April.
Earlier this evening I was chatting with my g-daughter. Both her and her mother (my daughter) work for a large NHS Trust and, up to now, both have been pretty relaxed about the Covid situation. Tonight, though, she told me wards were filling up fast with Covid patients. Her job next week will be to draft in doctors from wherever she can find them.
They expect to be above capacity within a week.
Can you find out from this relation what proportions of these ‘Covid patients’:
a. were admitted with Covid symptoms and a positive test result
b. were admitted with some other ailment, and a positive test result (eg, had a heart attack a week after testing positive)
c. were admitted with some other ailment and tested positive after admission
Might help in making some kind of sense of what’s going on.
I will find out as much as possible over the coming days.
Hospitals in Northern Ireland have been above capacity since October. Still no excess mortality.
So what’s with all this capacity here?
Coronavirus: Belfast Trust cancels urgent cancer surgeries – BBC News
Maybe the normally expected 5,800 beds are now sitting at 2,800.
• Available hospital beds Northern Ireland 2009-2020 | Statista
Microsoft Power BI
And 15% staff absence to boot.
PCR and the fear of asymptomatic spread is driving so much of this it is criminal.
Funny you should mention NI. My Sister-in-law lives in Co. Down and, on Wednesday, told me her nephew (not our side of family) had gone in for Covid treatment (oxygen) but had been discharged after about 4 hours because of bed shortage.
He’s ok though – I think.
But very few lorry drivers from Kent.
Well Sweden’s definitely has. The Twatty Professor won’t like that.
Sweden has – but the UK hasn’t.
Thanks for that.
Yes, but why is that?
Have lockdowns and especially masks actually made things worse here?
If you’re coming down with covid the absolute last thing you want to be doing is to rebreathing your own exhaled breathe and virus.
The other two points you make in this thread seem fair. I don’t understand the downvotes.
Did I say lockdowns and masks worked?
No, I’m just asking your opinion. I’m trying to be civil and understand where you are on all this – just putting up an idea to garner someone else’s views.
Thousands and thousands of them
Has anyone been receiving emails from their banks or from supermarkets about “keeping you safe”? I find them rather irritating and patronising and as soon as I see the subject, I delete them.
Why do they need to keep me safe? I’m only in to buy food or pay in a cheque not dodging bullets at the Western Front!
The question should be, why are their premises unsafe???
Maybe I should write back to ask that. Are their premises falling apart? Will I get an electric shock when I visit?
I get angry when I get them, have had loads today so it’s not just you, I dont need anyone to “keep me safe”, I would happily go into a crowded supermarket or bank with no extra safety measures at all.
Yes a lot. At work, I also get daily reminder emails at work to keep safe. There is a sign in the gents on ‘how to wash your hands SAFELY”.
In the Covidian faith, stay safe in emails is the equivalent of “God Bless”.
Outside of my house, there is no escape from “Hands, face, space”. It is everywhere. It is like a creed, but for very simple people.
As somebody on here said, ‘Stay Safe’ is the new ‘Heil Hitler’.
Brilliant
I’ve long had the urge to reply “Sieg Heil” every time someone says “Stay Safe” to me.
I seem to have got myself on TFL’s mailing list. Another one just arrived telling me to stay at home and in effect go nowhere near their trains.
The TFL emails now irritate me so much now that they get deleted without being read. If I need info, I just go on to their website.
I only registered when I had to get a refund for an astronomical contactless charge (due to delays on their network). At least got my money back for that one but tempted to unsubscribe – not that I will be legally going into London on the train until lockdown ends.
Yeah I’m only interested in banks keeping my money safe.
No, but if they have you on their mailing list you can unsubscribe or even block their e-mails.
Banks never send anything important via e-mail so it could even be spammers.
I had one from Aldi noting that their usual covid-safe stuff is still in place. Nothing hystrionic.
I did notice this though:
Our colleagues wear face masks in store, unless they are behind screens at the checkout or are exempt for medical reasons.
Gives us all a nice get-out clause.
Might explain why 4 out of the 5 staff out on the floor weren’t wearing one. With the exception of the mad spraying checkout woman, the only muzzled one was someone I didn’t recognise, so maybe she’s new.
Asda sent a. omit-inducing message.Anything from Asda now goes straight into Junk.
Anything from Sainsbury’s and Waitrose now goes straight into the Delete folder.
Heard from a mate that the damp squib of Clapcrap 2 didn’t happen in his town either-
apparently a few neighbours looked outside to check the turnout but obviously nobody was bothering this time. One twat went out with a pan but went back in after a minute of silence, not even a party blower through a letterbox. Not much but proves herd mentality works both ways.
Sketch from Bob Moran:
He could do a sketch of the Thursday clap-in…tumbleweed.
That was one of the few highlights of this week.
I’d like to think it was like that moment in Timisoara when the crowds started booing Ceaucescu, but I don’t think we’re there yet.
Getting there though :o))
Luvving it!
I was just thinking about how questioning the orthodoxy is now akin to being a terrorist when this popped up in my Twitter thread.
Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
Replying to
@ggreenwald
It’s actually referring to how pro trump supporters will be treated but it could be applied equally to anyone who dares to question lockdowns or the powers being used to implement them.
By coincidence, I finished the below book today by Glenn Greenwald. The parallels between the abuse of state power justified by ‘the war on terror’ and this Coronacrap shitshow are very clear. Good book.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18213403-no-place-to-hide
Yes.. the new Bolsheviks are revolting!
Gushing love in from Tedros / W.H.O. with Santa Klaus praising W.E.F. for its help with tackling the pandemic – would that possibly include the mask mandate in the summer?
Prepare to own nothing and be happy.
https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1347561280115257352
”Own nothing”? That’s us, not them, I presume.
Of course! They must had a right old laugh over that one…Dr Evil style laughter of course.
Jeez.. he’s an ugly bleeder ain’t he!
I’ve been expecting you, Mr Bond.
Disgusting old men
The envelope with the money will be in the cistern, third cubicle along.
Down the cistern more like…
‘Devastated, Mr Bond.’
‘Heartbroken, Mr Schwab…’
London areas still look like 29th saw the peak.
I track numbers for my own region in Northern Ireland too and the cases had a very large peak on that exact same date. Been rocketing down since
Hancock has been quoted as saying that vaccines may need to be given yearly or even every six months. Why has MSM or anyone questioned how that is at all feasible? If its every six months then by the time this first round completes in the summer, then surely its potentially time to start again. The logical conclusion is that GPs will from now on be doing nothing else but a rolling vaccination programme, bit like painting the Forth Bridge.
Or the yearly flu round; sure sounds like the yearly flu round to me.
Yes, they already have the flu jab given out on an annual basis. Everything else is Hancock talking out of his arse as usual.
Yes, two industries only – manufacture/distribution of a vaccine and supply/processing of covid test kits. Two cycles of social activity – six months full lockdown to ‘save our NHS’ followed by six months ‘push to Zero Covid through NPIs’. Rinse and repeat. How many times before the country has to call in the IMF?
One?
That’s the plan all along.Debt forgiveness for governments and citizens alike.
That can be the only reason why the government have been allowed to spend like they have without punishment.
You won’t get away with that – not worldwide. It would trigger hyper-inflation and loss of currency confidence. Those who some claim have profited from this crisis will lose all their ill-gotten gains as a result.
Too risky.
Central bankers are already putting in place digital currencies
for that eventuality.Its in the public domain but the controlled media haven’t publicised it.Also It was announced today that a COVID test will be required to enter Britain;a massive step towards digital passports.
Painting the Forth Bridge is a purposeful and meaningful activity.
Ironically they’ve now applied paint to the Forth Bridge which should now last 30 years, so the delivery of pointless Covvy vaccines will need to become the new metaphor itself ha
Not too surprising really. Covid is now endemic and will in all likelihood become the dominant winter virus (where are the flu deaths this year?). If we need a vaccine for flu each year why would we not need one for covid?..
It’s the “need” that’s the question for me.
Apologies, my meaning was develop a new one due to new strains each year. Not that we have to have it.
The thing is.. we don’t need a flu vaccine every year.. I can’t remember ever having one and I’m touching 70. I certainly don’t intend starting anytime soon either..
All cause mortality England and Wales 1990 to 2020.. where’s the pandemic? Not only that but the population is greater now than ten years ago so the 2020 figure is less percentage wise..
Have you a link for that please?
May I commend you for posting that. And yes population has been rising at a fast rate for most of that period, usually running around 200k net inward migration pa, and there’s been a high birth rate sso we’ve probably increased our population by something like 10%. Just checked. Population has gone about about 11 million over the period. Probably something like an 11% increase.
I was going to ask did anyone have this information! So much thanks.
I note in half the years in the 1990s mortality was higher than last year. How do we account for this? People living longer it would seem.
How do mortality figures for the last four months of 2020 compare with the last four months of 2017 – when there was a major flu outbreak?
Good to see, but Covidians won’t give it the time of day while there’s an asterisk against the 2020 total.
I’m sure that asterisk can be more than compensated for by the increase in population from 1990. Of course, there are those who would still insist there’s a pandemic if not one person died during the whole of 2020.
When politicians talk about the worst crisis since the war, one look at that ONS chart above, asterisks included, just blows that lie straight out of the water.
You know that, I know that, but Covidians will take any exit from confronting reality.
Here it is just for England but age-standardised and adjusted for pop growth.
Good stuff.. thanks for that..
Haven’t posted for a while, but I have been reading every day. Just want to encourage everyone to stay strong. I believe the next 4-6 weeks will be the toughest time for us lockdown sceptics. Looking at ONS data over the past 10 year, it is clear that the highest number of deaths are always Jan and Feb. So if our theory is true – that there is a mass miss-attribution of death due to overuse of PCR tests – then we should expect that high numbers of ‘covid’ deaths will be reported over the next six weeks, before slowly declining in Feb-March. We need to closely monitor the ONS updates, to see how much excess death is appearing. And even if there is excess death, this still might not be a reason to panic – as any excess death may be a cause of lockdown measures over the past year, rather than COVID. In time, I am certain we shall be proven right. But the next few weeks will be tough. Keep questioning everything. The truth will emerge one day.
Putting aside the dubious nature of the death count, it simply proves what we’ve been saying from the start – you can’t control a virus and the measures are ineffective.
There are numerous other examples of this around the world.
What really scares me is that the truth is out there now, but it may be erased and censored out of existence. But I totally agree with your post and always knew this winter was going to be very difficult on so many levels.
It feels like a barrage from the government and their paid stooges in the media at the moment.
UK column had a good piece again today explaining there is nothing unusual happening with excess deaths or hospital admissions for this time of year.
Thanks Tommo. You’ve perfectly summed up where I am on all this. The truth will out.
Our wonderful NHS has just been given the green light to starve and dehydrate a recovering Polish man to death. https://christianconcern.com/ccpressreleases/hospital-withdraws-food-and-fluids-from-a-disabled-man-after-echr-green-light/
Very suspicious origin for this story.
Christian Concern is a suspicious source?
Indeed.It’s very reminiscent of the BBC pushing decontextualised horror stories.
I think Christian Concern site is a reliable source of information, generally. Their opinions (and world-view) are, obviously, Christian, so many people would disagree with their perspective.
All that Christian Concern is doing is highlighting the Liverpool pathway, which has been mentioned by others many times on this forum.
Had my first visitor of LD3 today, my neighbours have had cars coming and going too.
It’s a “Trip, trap, trip, trap!”
this might not be, tonally, quite the response you were expecting, but I have to say that goat is ADORABLE
Goats not Sheep.
I’ve been reading posts from several hours ago and have been quite dismayed by number of people who claim that the situation has changed because of the vaccine. Lockdowns don’t work but apparently we now have an exit strategem.
If we were injecting people with saline, I’d be completely up for it. But we aren’t and I don’t see how this can be viewed as an acceptable solution.
I want to see the mockdown scrapped because it’s harmful and ineffective against the virus. However, I certainly don’t want to have some untested experiment jabbed into my body in order to see the return of my freedom and I don’t see why this should have to apply to anyone else.
Well the likes of Dr Andrew Wakefield, Dr Carrie Madej, Dr David Martin, Dr Sucharit Bhakdi, Prof Delores Cahill etc tell me that its not a vaccine at all and to stay well away from it if you don’t want your DNA in the hands of patent holders
.
Moderna have even come out and said its not a vaccine but a software system.
Everybody should watch this video by Dr Andrew Wakefield.. its more than a wakeup call..
http://tapnewswire.com/2021/01/dr-wakefield-this-is-not-a-vaccine-it-is-irreversible-genetic-modification/
I still don’t want the vaccines, but I don’t think that the assertions made in this article are true.
All the time in your body DNA is transcribed to mRNA (the m is lower case and stands for “messenger”) the mRNA is then translated to protein.
That’s the normal biological process. It’s a one way process. You can’t make it go the other way without a reverse transcribing enzyme, which we don’t have in our bodies.
Those enzymes are found in retroviruses such as HIV, which is one reason why HIV is so hard to treat – it embeds it’s DNA into the DNA of the people it infects.
There is no possibility of mRNA vaccine being incorporated into your DNA without one of these enzymes also being present in the vaccine. Which they would tell you about. (And if they didn’t them an independent lab would soon be able to find out about it!)
Good point John. I see that counter being made in a number of articles and seems like a pretty good explanation. What about the priming of the immune system which is another big worry? That you body will be subject to a cytokine storm risk when it encounters the wild virus?
Well exactly. I just don’t trust the government and big pharma. These things are being rushed out much too quickly for my liking and for a virus which has a very high survival rate without any treatment.
Judy Mikovits says that retroviruses have been introduced into our bodies (accidentally or intentionally) with other vaccines.
Vaccine? Which one Cheezilla? They’ve got three available now.
The vaccines are making zero difference to the government, but I suspect that this ramping up of restrictions and fearmongering is in part intended to ensure maximal uptake.
I’m really quite wary of these vaccines despite my scientific training. I won’t tell anyone in my family whether or not they should have one of them. It’s up to them. But I myself have no intention of having one at this stage and I can’t see a circumstance in which I would want one either.
The scariest thing is these type of ‘vaccines’ have never passed the animal trials.
They have skipped those and gone straight for the human guinea pigs.
It’s all the shortcuts that bothers me too. As I say to those who are keen to take it: after you sir, after you…
I’ve tried to explain this in a level-headed way to normies and they look at me like they want to call me an anti-vaxxer.
It’s amazing how they are unable to make any distinction between this rush job and other successful vaccine.
95% efficacy, yet it doesn’t grant immunity, doesn’t reduce symptoms, and won’t work on mutant strains and these fools see no issue.
Fools rush in..
And previous attempts at coronavirus vaccines were stopped at the animal trial phase because the vaccines primed their immune systems for cytokine storm on encountering the wild virus
All of them John!
I have also been more than a little mystified by the recent favourable references to what are at best, hardly tested and highly experimental products. At worst the Covid “vaccines” will be the mainstay of the longstanding globalist plan for massive global depopulation.
We know that the government and others are trolling websites in an effort to drum up support government policies and it would be more than astounding if the comments section on LS wasn’t one of their prime targets.
The usual tactic of these phoney sceptics is to post something which is overall fairly sensible, but somewhere slip in a favourable reference to the ongoing vaccine agenda.
Presumably the plan is that this drip drip approach, repeated often enough, will lend some credibility to the sinister headlong rush to vaccinate the world with with hardly tested experimental products, that are free of all liability on the part of the manufacturer.
I’d still say that if the zombies want the stuff, then pump them full of it, if (1)it helps to set the human beings free, and (2)it means the zombies act as guinea pigs. Actual guinea pigs would be too intelligent to be ethically used in this mega-trial, but zombies have no human, or even natural animal, feelings, so no need to worry.
Since Israel has been leading the vaccination charge I thought that it would be interesting to see what the Jerusalem Post had to say about the safety of mRNA vaccines. You’ll be pleased to hear that the boffin they spoke to thought that the vaccine would be safe,
‘But when asked if she would take the vaccine right away, she responded: “I won’t be taking it immediately – probably not for at least the coming year,” she told the Post. “We have to wait and see whether it really works.’
It’s fine for everyone else to take it, though!
https://www.jpost.com/health-science/could-an-mrna-vaccine-be-dangerous-in-the-long-term-649253
She’s being honest. So many people don’t realise these are still technically trial phases.
I’d like to know how many doctors, nurses, etc. at the Miami hospital have taken the “vaccine” since their 56-year-old healthy colleague died from it.
I think for US hospital staff it is running at less than 50% take up for the Pfizer vaccine.
You’re right, its definitely not going well
Opinion | The vaccine rollout is flagging. It must be accelerated. – The Washington Post
Some observations on this week. There appear to be two groups more prone to outdoor mask wearing round here, the elderly and people in their twenties or thirties. The elderly mostly fall into the terrified group whilst the younger ones maybe just compliers except those who are getting off on it and strut round with the largest one they can find.
Round here it seems mainly the young – those who are supposed to be well educated with enquiring minds. Puh. A few really elderly ones too, who could do with lungfuls of good fresh air.
They can’t seem to see the contradiction between their mantra ”ventilate ventilate” and restricting their airways with these ugly pieces of unclean paper.
In my area its mostly those from BAME groups however in the areas where Mr Bart and I did our walks over the festive season, it seemed to be mostly Boomers wearing them as well as doing the bizarre swerves to avoid other people.
A good piece of work by Sky’s Ed Conway:
COVID-19: UK’s daily death figures are grim, but things are still not as bad last spring | UK News | Sky News
He’ll get a written warning for that.
Good to it in on the MSM, I have to say. Thanks, TT.
He’s been good with the stats throughout – he is an economist and pretty smart – and also the son of one/two doctors I recall.
Well placed to see it through it all then. Let’s hope he keeps it up. Thanks again.
It’s full of disclaimers etc but that’s as close to being realistic as Sky are going to allow him to get. Fair play to him for trying to put some perspective into the panic.
On another note, what’s up with that video of a new advert featuring Whitty half way through the article? He looks terrible.
Here’s an interesting one for you all to ponder. This is for England only.
We get told how many are dying each day; question is: where are they dying?
*The total number of people who have died in England – 69,670
Source: https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths?areaType=nation&areaName=England
*These are “Deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test”
———————————-
**The total number of people who have died in hospitals in England – 54,445
Source: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/01/COVID-19-total-announced-deaths-8-January-2021-1.xlsx
**These are “Deaths of patients who have died in hospitals in England and have tested positive for COVID-19.”
———————————–
That leaves 15,225 poor bastards who died elsewhere; presumably in their own home, or in a care home, or hospice.
AND IT’S STILL HAPPENING!
They can’t all be sudden deaths! Thousands not getting a chance of being saved by the great NHS.
I’ve posted a breakdown below.
How unusual is that? I can only really refer to experience with my grandparents. 1 died in hospital, one quite suddenly with a heart attack at home, 1 faded away in a care home with the help of a final dose of pneumonia and 1 had cancer but died in their own bed at home. Youngest 75.
I am certain than many people died through callous and indefensible neglect in care homes during the first lockdown, but should most people die in hospital? Think I’d rather avoid checking out in that environment, if I had any choice at all in the matter.
I totally agree, Charlie.
It’s possible many asked to be allowed home to die; others sent home to die.
I suspect, though, that a great many of that 15 thousand possibly didn’t get a chance to be saved, if there was a chance they could have been.
All of my grandparents died in hospital.
Thing is. I live alone, I am in my early fifties, and in good health so far as I am aware.
A few years ago a neighbor of mine in his mid sixties had a stroke. He was discovered lying semi-conscious on his landing by his lodger around ten hours later. He now walks with great difficulty using a zimmer frame. He has daily visits from carers.
While I do not expect anything to happen to me any time soon, I am now a little concerned as it would probably be at least a couple of days before the alarm was raised if anything happened to me.
So I would probably prefer to be in hospital if I had a stroke or a heart attack thanks!
It’s commonly said that married men live longer than unmarried men – drawing the conclusion that marriage in itself is good for men’s health – but it’s probably more likely to be just that a married man has a wife around to phone an ambulance when he has a stroke or heart attack.
married men dont live longer — it just seems longer .
coming from someone who was happily married for 2 years .
and unhappily married for a many more years
It’s also commonly said that unmarried women live longer than married ones …..
A couple of years ago my dad passed out in the garage and sustained a serious head injury. Had my mom not found him and called an ambulance he likely would have died. So yes, there is something to the idea that living with someone could save your life!
I live on my own, so this has crossed my mind too.
You could get one of those alarm buttons to wear around your neck ….
That is exactly the kind of on-narrative but hardball question that an MSM journalist should be asking the government. They don’t even do that. No wonder they see so many people not buying into their message, when they can’t even ask the simplest of questions
Hi ceriain.
I’ve posted before a link to a PHE report from 20th March up to 4th Dec showing over 26 thousand deaths at home not due to covid. Sorry don’t have the link at the mo. Interestingly this data has been omitted from the last two weeks reports.
From what I can see about 33000 excess deaths not due to covid and about 34500 due to testing positive.
Don’t have the time to really analyse it but is there any way I can send the link on Monday?
Jonny, you can always post a link to this site anytime, mate. Lots of good stats guys and analysts always ready to have a good look.
It’s not the first time Toby and Will have posted our stuff on the front page, above. I was the first to point out the ‘admissions’ numbers scam here: https://dailysceptic.org/2020/10/14/latest-news-162/#comment-186272
Toby’s NHS doctor picked this up and posted on the front page the following day, here: https://dailysceptic.org/2020/10/15/#how-many-hospital-cases-are-really-covid He’s also done a couple of follow ups on admissions since then. Our own NickR posts regular updates about the ‘admissions’ scam, too; look out for his posts.
BeBop makes a great point above. The point in me posting this info tonight was just to show how easy it is for us members of the public to work this stuff out from the Government/NHS data that’s available to all. BEBop is correct; the MSM should be all over this.
The ex-BBC presenter Sue Cook (total sceptic) is disgusted that her ex-colleagues at the Beeb are not all over this stuff. She says that, in her day, the investigative teams would be investigating every aspect of this scam: PCR tests, ‘Case’ numbers, Death numbers, the lot.
Changed days.
Yes the ONS weekly reports have been showing up to 800 excess deaths at home every week. Presumably older people dying alone, either too frightened or unable to seek help.
The forgotten ones, Ken; the ones the goverment don’t care about (nor tell the public about).
Yes I’m surprised this aspect hasn’t received more attention – even on this site.
Some-one needs a history lesson. That cracking picture of a the cavalry charge heading today’s update isn’t the Light Brigade in the Crimea, it’s the Royal Scots Greys partaking in a heavy cavalry charge at Waterloo, in which they rallied the Gordons and took the French 45th’s Eagle standard.
Although infact it was actually more a canter than a gallop, due to broken ground and the men of the 92nd on the field. Casualty rate just shy of 50%.
I suppose a more contemporary representation reflecting our national character today would have to show us galloping full tilt away from the threat, which would no doubt have exacted a heavy toll on the pathologically risk-averse British by inflicting a 0.25% covid-casualty rate.
You are not the first to point this out ! (I wouldn’t have known.)
Toby and James London Calling Podcast this week had a few interesting things to say about Waterloo.
For us Sceptics hopefully our Prussian cavalry is not too far away.
We are being fed a pack of lies – ‘ Deadliest Day so far’ my a$%e
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html
This whole shit&how is still, after all these months, being driven by dodgy PRC tests that are not fit for purpose. The government knows they are not fit for purpose so is migrating away from them steadily and with intent. In the meantime it serves their purpose to use it to cover up even more excess deaths caused by the lockdown and to make Boris look victorious in the end.
OK so we are supposed to believe the Positivity rate of combined Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 tests magically jumped from 7.6% to 15.9% in lovely Hampshire between w/c 17th Dec and w/c 24th Dec for kids aged 0 to 9 years. Kids hardly catch it so this is bolloc*s. Totally.
Even more fantastically, this jump in so called positivity rate was replicated (around uniform 8% – a doubling) for all age groups – 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and 70-79. This change is unprecedented. More evidence the change relates to the test, and not a virus. It could be a virus. It could even be a common cold. Who knows, we never used the test before. This is new territory and many scientists are being plucked from obscurity and becoming overnight multi millionaires.
Whatever, I am sure there is no biological way this sudden change is caused by SARS-COV-2 as we knew it, as that is now endemic. Even if related at all, the so called ‘new variant’ was invented by Neil Ferguson. Remember him? He is a crafty sod. Jeez I would love to fire him. Quite like to punch him.
IMO Gates funded Ferguson has erred/ lied again and this sudden positivity change can only be a feature of the PCR test. He must be laughing his head off.
In the unfortunately important group for ‘death’ figures, those in the 70-79 and 80-89 age groups, positivity in Hampshire went from 6.7-12.9%. A huge jump. If any of these people die withing 28 days of this test, death rates could double. Only very sick people in that age group would have been admitted to hospital over Xmas. Many were tested, came up positive, and they unfortunately then die of something else…the reason they were admitted. Hence the so called scary death stats we see today.
This change in PCR positivity is, in my view, why so called Covid death rates have gone up so dramatically. It was a driver for the 3rd lockdown.
But they probably would have done it anyway.
Either way, I feel more strongly than ever that we are being completely duped.
Great post! So good, you wrote it twice.
Edited to add:
Totally!
Amazingly, I used to feel UK politicians and Media had boundaries, no longer
I think that list needs to be expanded to include some doctors too. Academics cannot be trusted to not manipulate to the narrative of the funders of their research.
Utterly disgusted with doctors. Blair certainly captured them with that huge salary hike when he was in power. The Hippocratic Oath has gone right out of the window now.
It’s incredible we still persist with PCR.
https://twitter.com/SabinaWalker18/status/1310018728092811264
I think that is very likely, and it would be obvious if the ‘real’ minutes of SAGE/NERVTAG meetings were released (of course they won’t be under the 30 year or 100 year rule), and named individual’s email traffic, phone logs, texts were subject to subpoena from January 2020 to today.
Once you realise that we have experienced a coup and everything flows from that.
Lockdowns and social distancing measures are designed to divide the population and prevent people from meeting and talking.
Furlough and self employment grants are designed to placate the population.
The economy is being driven into the ground so they can rebuild.This is replicated across the world.
I think the plan was clear from the get go. Get from March to winter and then you can lockdown again. All the propaganda has led in this direction. From now we will be locked down until at least March – furlough payments are till April so this will probably extended all to get these vaccines into people. That part is still unclear but I think the wider context must not be ignored. This is a world wide take over of the west and the imposition of a technocratic top down system the end goal I think we can all guess….
Lockdown forever if these freaks get their way. With pauses in the summer to string people along.
ATL we are told “London Hospitals Really Are in Crisis”. A number of explanations are put forward for this situation, all are perfectly valid. However, the question arises as to why so many people reach the stage where they need A) hospitalisation B) ICU nursing C) Oxygen. There are over a hundred studies of treatments that dramatically reduce the severity of the disease if action is taken early enough. I refer, of course, to treatments using HCQ or Ivermectin in combination with (in particular) vitamin D and zinc.
Does anyone know whether these treatments are available in hospitals for treating the disease?
Strange. You’d think there’d be many GPs reading and researching sites like this – they must surely have time on their hands now that their surgeries are all but closed and they can no longer go into hospital for routine visits.
Perhaps, then, we might expect an answer to your question by someone who knows.
(I see the petition ”Nullify non-disclosure agreements” is still growing painfully slowly…
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/550598 )
I don’t think the govt and SAGE are overly interested in exploring anything to mitigate covid other than the vaccine.
One of the many points over which future generations will raise their eyebrows is that it took the greatest minds of medical science so many months to work out the obvious:
– if a patient is in need of oxygen, provide oxygen;
– if a patient is suffering from inflammation, give anti-inflammatories.
No doubt there’s a good reason it took so long, but it does look like the docs just got caught up in the media-political circus and forgot about treating the patients in front of them.
Yes! I notice that even Toby Young and friends seem to think that the vaccine is the only thing that’ll get us out of this (though it shouldn’t be compulsory) and don’t put enough emphasis on existing treatments. That is also a flaw of the Great Barrington Declaration, in my opinion. Another thing is that the British government hasn’t licensed HCQ as a treatment – why not? Advice on the government website is still to stay at home, drink lots of water and take paracetamol. Then, when you can’t breathe you rush to hospital and everybody panics. I don’t know what happens in hospital, but early treatment ideally by your own G.P. would help a lot.
Facts do t change, only our interpretation of them.
This is Nancy Pelosi explaining how they smear political opponents:
https://parler.com/post/39bb84172b6e43cf9c5e38fab210ef50
This is happening with anything and everything now.
Government leaks something that could well be a lie, press report it then it’s announced as a truth. People believe it must be true because it’s in the papers and then it’s validated when the government announce it.
I’ve lost count of how many government leaks there are on a daily or weekly basis these days.
I know shopping is awful these days but you can still have some fun (especially for OKUK).
Did GMB mention rewarding Covid snitches on TV or just on Twitter? Am thinking of complaining to Ofcom
This is the tweet:
https://twitter.com/GMB/status/1347443142308540416
New state of emergency and lockdown in Tokyo:
https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2021/01/07/japan-declares-coronavirus-state-of-emergency-locks-down-tokyo/
Beijing has suspended air travel in and out of the metro area.
Lockdown is illegal in Japan under the post-1945 constitution, I’m told.
They can only give advice and guidance although Japanese people are fairly likely to follow it.
No idea why the Japanese are getting so het up. 3857 deaths, 31/ million. In 2017, according to the worldlifeexpectancy site, they had over 141,000 deaths, 242/million from flu and pneumonia.
It’s probably been stated already on here multiple times today, but I am encouraged by the fact that sceptics in general, and this website in particular, are now being subjected to a sustained barrage of attacks.
No amount of flatulence from any of these terrified, spineless idiots will change the facts. Lockdowns don’t work. Distancing doesn’t work. Masks don’t work. I am looking forward to being able to say the same of the vaccine in a few short months.
If the virus really is changing and becoming more deadly, so be it. None of the measures are going to make a blind bit of difference and, as so many of you on here already know, they actually make things worse.
Anyone who remains in denial of these truths is in serious trouble. This is especially so for the Covid Cult followers, who will not relinquish their world view, even though it is killing them. The gap between their expectations and reality will keep growing. The world is going to keep beating them over the head with ever deteriorating conditions and ever greater suffering until they are forced to face up to what they have done to themselves. No one will escape this reckoning.
Great post Richard and I agree that being noticed by trolls is a good thing.
However, I don’t believe the virus is becoming more deadly. Dr John Lee said a very long time ago that the virus is likely to mutate, but into a less dangerous form.
I think what we are seeing now is just the normal flu season, which an underfunded/inefficient NHS always struggles to cope with.
I think it likely – though I cannot prove it directly – that seasonal flu victims are being misdiagnosed as covid victims. I think I’m also right in saying that this is Mike Yeadon’s opinion – and I agree with him.
Absolutely, this is nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year. Add the usual winter surge to reduced bed capacity and reduced nursing staff – both due to the ludicrous measures – and you have a recipe for disaster.
The fact that we are being blamed for all this by the supporters of government makes perfect sense to me. Lashing out at an easy target when the fault is really your own is something we have all done to a greater or lesser extent. There must be a psychological term for this phenomenon but its name currently escapes me.
Tell them to look at this one and explain it Richard..
Thanks, that’s very useful. I see you grabbed it from today’s UK Column News which has been a beacon throughout this. I presume their source for this data is unimpeachable.
All cause mortality over a 10+ year period is another statistic that really throws people.
Yes, I grabbed it today.
As for mortality of any sort, I actually think the fact that people die every day is just not on peoples radar. I know when I told my 30 year old daughter that approx 1700 people die everyday in the UK she looked at me in disbelief at first…
Yes “one death every minute” has quite an impact…
in a conversation the other day I asked the guy how many people die every day (not covid) – he said around 300… I told him to times by 5 or so and may be nearing the figure.
People don’t have a clue and to be fair, before this shitstorm i didn’t know howas it’s not the kind of info your average jo finds out/knows.
I believe the source is the governments own data,but the NHS are refusing to release their own data claiming they are too busy because of COVID.
Yeah.. its getting to the point you just can’t make this stuff up.. but they obviously do. Any residual respect I had for the NHS has gone now. They’re as corrupt as the BBC, and that’s going some..
I think the point where the government gave up even trying to sound truthful was the 4000 deaths a day prediction.
The psychological term I think you are looking for is defence mechanism.
Great post.
I believe the term you’re looking for is ‘blinkered cuntiness’ or ‘eggfaced cuntiness’. I can’t quite remember which but it definitely had cuntiness in it
My ex was a PHD microbiologist, and if there’s one thing I do remember from our many chats was the fact that when viruses mutate they invariably weaken.
Yes and that makes sense from the point of view of the virus – if you kill your host the moment you land, then you don’t get the chance to spread…
Many people, especially ignorant people, want to punish you for speaking the truth, for being correct, for being you. Never apologize for being correct, or for being years ahead of your time. If you’re right and you know it, speak your mind. Speak your mind. Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth.
Mahatma Gandhi
They attack the website we use but they do not attack the facts we post. Like arrows hitting stone. Like water off a duck’s arse. They are also low in numbers.
It would not surprise me if some are being instructed to attack us by their superiors (particularly if they are MPs). What’s the betting that some will have never read a single word on this website?
Terrific post Richard.
Sure you’ve already seen the bobbies caught bang to rights breaking the new Covid rules.
https://twitter.com/Holbornlolz/status/1347467599727222788
Doesn’t do any harm to see it again. Pity he couldn’t have done a citizen’s arrest and given them all fines.
and we all know “hot drinks” = picnics and picnics are also banned.
One last time!
“Video unavailable This video has been removed by the uploader” (Dr Clare Craig talks to Julia Hartley-Brewer). Who was the irresolute uploader?
I don’t know, but Talk Radio had youtube block it on copyright grounds.
The uploader must then have removed it.
Have held off linking this for a couple of days as I am more in the WTF are the government doing than the conspiacy theory camp.
However if you have 15mins well worth a read as it says to me why there has been such an overreaction all round the world.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/amp/article/coronavirus-lab-escape-theory.html?__twitter_impression=true
Toronto Sun 6-1-21
Was looking for a thumbs up emoji for this post but have just notices a masked emoji. FFS.
Maybe, but I think it’s going to be impossible to prove anyway; and doesn’t this theory lend weight to the assertion that this virus is something “special” and not just a relatively ordinary respiratory virus?
I think that’s what I’m trying to say, so maybe I am a conspiracy theorist.
15 minutes well spent.
I still have no idea if the Covid arrived accidentally, deliberately or naturally but every single person from lowly lab technicians to Fouci involved with mucking about with deadly pathogens need killing slowly on live TV since it serves no other purpose except harming people.
Even the producers of Xyclon B might have thought they were doing something useful but not that crowd.
In a society that isn’t populated by swivel eyed loons, the graph published today by among others Francis Hoare, would be the smoking gun that ended lockdown overnight.
Can you repost it? Just logged back on after trouble accessing site.
Edit: Never mind, just looked it up.
“COVID deaths have replaced non-COVID deaths. The pressures on hospitals may well result in regional excess deaths. However, there are no excess deaths overall to match the deaths being attributed to COVID which suggests misdiagnosis.”
– Dr Clare Craig, 8th January.
“I am simply looking at all-causes mortality in London. Thousands of people can see this, too. My interpretation is clearly that it’s misattribution; wholly attributable to bad testing.”
— Dr Mike Yeadon, 7th January.
They are both 100% Correct. Irrefutable fact. Ouch for some.
Totally agree. It’s bloody obvs
Some great posts from you lately John P. Thanks for this.
The authors of the Dorsten retraction letter are coming under quite disgusting attack. Phone calls in the night etc.
We are winning, but these guys are really in it
https://twitter.com/Bobby_Network/status/1347413475069468672
This is obscene, but sadly to be expected. Given what is at stake, these attacks are going to increase in their frequency and severity over the coming months. I can take (and dish out) verbal abuse, but once the Rubicon of physical assault is crossed, all bets are off.
2nd time I’ve quoted Ghandi today but very apt.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Mahatma Gandhi
Had my first (mumbled) challenge in my local corner shop today! I refrained from going medieval on them as the Sri Lankans that run the place have been good as gold all the way through and half their customers are maskless. Wouldn’t want to get them in bother. Just waited outside and loomed over the nosey parker and gave them a big smile.
Keep smiling with your naked face at all the peeps, massless or not. You will get more positive responses than negative ones. Keep the the energy up.
Bob Moran:
Lockdowns are immoral in any and all circumstances.
No matter what the virus is.
No matter how it spreads.
No matter how many people it kills.
No matter whether we can make a vaccine.
No matter how overwhelmed the NHS becomes.
Lockdowns are immoral in any and all circumstances.
https://twitter.com/bobscartoons/status/1347646741273841664
My sentiments exactly.If I believed there was a deadly virus out there you wouldn’t have to scare me to stay in.
ditto – if this was ebola i would be freaking out under my duvet!! Now that’s a real virus lurgy!!
That’s the call. Get behind it.
What a top bloke. Brave and principled.
Utterly nauseating stuff from Ocado:
We hope the changes to our service will make lockdown life a little easier so you can concentrate on home-schooling, unmuting before you speak on Zoom and perfecting that banana bread recipe.
Gosh yes, this whole lockdown thing is just one big jolly japing laugh, isn’t it? Who wouldn’t want the chance to do nothing but make banana bread for 12 months straight? It’s just so bloody great.
Added to the growing list of organisations with whom I will never do business again.
So many I’ve withdrawn my business from too, sod them.
Ocado email: “To protect our colleagues and customers, and to reduce the risk of inadvertently spreading the infection, drivers will not interact with you directly when they deliver. We ask you to remain inside your home. Our drivers will leave the shopping bags on your doorstep and will call you on the phone once the delivery has been made.” FFS, it’s not the bubonic plague. They’re in league with the cunt-ish government’s narrative that it is now more virulent than it was last spring which it is clearly fucking not. Fuck off Ocado.
That’s dreadful. What about the disabled and frail elderly? Some will be too scared to ask anyone to help them.
Oh dear, the burdens of privilege, eh? As the great John Junor used to say: pass the sick-bag, Alice.
Vomit vomit vomit!
The lockdown luvvies are utterly bloody clueless about anything outside their peripheral vision.
Yes, we are learning to love lockdown…
Makes me puke
I can’t give a link to the article but how is it possible for all staff and residents in one care home to test positive for covid 19 AFTER getting the vaccine for covid 19?
Because the PCR test is not fit for purpose. Only time will tell whether the same can be said of the vaccine.
The one and only correct answer. Go to the top of the class and hand out the pencils.
I haven’t used a pencil since the 1980s!
Is it just that? Or is it coincidence that an entire care home who all get vaccinated, all test positive after getting the vaccine?
I still can’t get my head around the extreme rise in positive numbers in Scotland in one day and now after vaccines were stopped the numbers are slowing down again.
I found out an area next to me will be getting the vaccines next week, I will watch for the numbers to rise over the next few weeks as like you what I have witnessed with the testing I agree the PCR test is not fit for purpose and I had thought that the extreme positive numbers was due to contamination somewhere, but after now reading of a few care homes where positive numbers have risen after the residents had a vaccine makes me start to look in the vaccines direction for the rise in positive numbers.
I think it’s too early to judge the vaccine. Also, there will be a big difference between the Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots.
Takers of the AstraZeneca vaccine may be susceptible to the ADE reaction. Once that rollout really gets going, we could see a tsunami of cytokine storms caused by a wild coronavirus that would ordinarily be a common cold. The NHS really would be in trouble then.
People have already forgotten that these vaccines are still undergoing clinical trials, and have only been granted emergency use authorisation. They are unlicensed products.
My mum gets hers (Pfizer) tomorrow. She had a TIA last year and I am genuinely worried but could not talk her out of it.
I feel for you. I think my idiot parents will be lining up for it as well. My dad is a former GP and believes everything he’s told by the “experts.” He’s not very healthy, but my mom is in really good shape and her mother just died at almost 101, so my mom could have another 20 years left. I despair.
Same here (with Dad).
I thought it doesn’t stop you getting infected -just not lethally
The area this is in had very few positive test before they started vaccinations. After vaccinations started this area +tests went sky high as well as the whole of Scotland. The same week and the higher positive test numbers trebled at or just before the 25th December.
But the BBC were reporting that a nurse who got the jab got the disease.
Residents and workers at a care home in Germany test positive a week after their first vaccine (article in German):
https://www.infranken.de/lk/kronach/corona-infektion-trotz-impfung-wieso-stecken-sich-geimpfte-mit-covid-19-an-art-5143423
The current hypothesis is that they were infected shortly before or shortly after receiving the vaccine.
Even a vaccine that actually works doesn’t offer protection immediately
Frontline health workers in the US are refusing to take the vaccine. https://www.brighteon.com/5766db6f-dea0-4d74-a682-cbe5dc3c3799
I had to go to a nearby town today. I’m pleased to report that the roads were nice and busy – plenty of traffic. I was asked if I had a mask with me at the place I visited. I waved my bag with it’s exemption tag and the man actually apologised to me for asking. All in all I’m not seeing much compliance beyond the usual corporate stuff.
Telegraph saying more restrictions, sick idiots
Yawn. This is getting very predictable indeed.
Masks everywhere must be on the cards. They’ll probably order anywhere that’s left open that isn’t a supermarket to shut. Curfew from 8.00pm to 6.00am. Roadblocks/checkpoints to prevent travelling perhaps?
They need to ramp up the fear to ensure vaccine take up.
If they try to push it too far they will fail because they haven’t got the numbers to institute a proper police state.Its a huge bluff and the moment they are called on it they will have to back down.
I don’t think they’ll be called on it. They’ll go for easy targets and report on the police activity everywhere. Most people will be scared into passivity- they won’t bother with enforcement if they think they’ll meet serious resistance. 10 months of conditioning goes a long way
The state has already have gone way too far, but clearly is now unable to stop itself. They are going for all the marbles here. A vaccine mandate, combined with criminalising any questioning of vaccines (which will be vague enough to encompass any kind of dissent), looks highly likely to me.
None of which will change my mind, or my course of action. I will become a serial criminal offender having been a law-abiding, tax-paying
citizenmug all my life.comments very encouraging
The witch from the north is threatening to close food takeaways, to make it delivery only. I swear she sits in bed dreaming up ways to make our lives more miserable every night.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/hiroshima-non-amour/
Takes me back to this, seems an age ago it was posted ABL but still so funny;
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=POBh4ErvOhY
.
So its ok for delivery people to be out
I swear they will never be satisfied.
Well they’d bartered my subs down to £4 per month but at this rate I’ll be cancelling anyway.
This should see the local cases plummet!
From tomorrow (Thursday 7 January 2021), Kirklees Council’s community testing sites will only be open to critical workers as the authority urges people to stay at home during the latest lockdown.
https://kirkleestogether.co.uk/2021/01/06/community-testing-for-critical-workers-during-lockdown/
I must add that this info came through in an email tonight (Jan 8th) at 7.30pm!
Thanks – I am sure you’ll keep us informed.
Good Night!
I think Toby should use that one tomorrow. Excellent!
Twitter are apparently purging all pro-Trump accounts . . Sidney Powell, Gen Flynn, codemonkeyZ . . . mmm . . what are they worried about? Another storming of the Capitol?
The all-out war on free speech has finally broken the surface after bubbling away quietly for 25 years.
Utterly depressing.
Very true. There was book called “The Closing of the American Mind” published in 1987 about how free speech was being suppressed on campus and I think it predicted this was going to spread out from academia and engulf America. It has. The last picture house has closed…no more American dream. No more bastion of free speech.
Yep, Tracy Beanz as well I just noticed.
I was going to say: “Welcome to the Biden Era.” Here it is.
Michelle Obama has called for Trump to be banned from all social media accounts. For the Obama-Clinton-Biden mafia clan it’s vital that Trump now be silenced. Maybe they’ll also try to buy his support by promising no prosecutions of him or his family. Trump might be tempted because if he doesn’t stay silent all kinds of hell are going to break loose over him and his family.
The political director of ABC News has called for the USA to be cleansed of Trump supporters.
CNN has gleefully reported that participants in the Capitol protest are being identified and sacked from their jobs.
Simon Shuster have cancelled publication of a book by Senator Hawsey (the first Senator to say he would oppose the fraud in Congress). The book was on the threat to freedom from Big Tech.
As for the anti-election fraud protests at the Capitol, video and info is now emerging which suggests there was something v odd going on, it looks almost like the protestors were invited into the building. The doors weren’t guarded, there were no barriers before the doors.The doors were either opened or gave way and the protestors quietly filed in. It wasn’t a baying mob,it was more like an orderly procession somewhat surprised that they had been able to enter.
Then there are odd aspects. The weird moose head guy sitting in the big seat is a climate change activist…bit odd to find him at a pro Trump protest. There are suggestion Antifa had infiltrated. The point blank shooting of a prtoestor by the Capitol Police was quite shocking, but I doubt it’s been shown on mainstream TV.
For anyone who disliked Trump and thought they coukd smugly enjoy his fall, I can assure you the electoral fraud will have huge reverberations for freedom in this country as well as the USA.
Well they need to strike back if they have anything, all those people who have supported Trump till now, listening to all these false dawns. They are being strung along and are paying a heavy price.
The most thoughtful post I’ve seen so far is by a retired American civil servant:
“The progs formed an alliance not unlike that of the original National Socialists between street thugs, public bureaucrats, racial-theory mountebanks, and the billionaire class. As I have written many times before, in their relentless pursuit of power, their basic strategy is to spread misery and hopelessness as far and wide as possible. Joy and fun were crushed; everything must be political. The middle class and the little enterprises must be crushed: the jobs exported, regulations of all sorts implemented to strangle what small businesses remained. The fake COVID-19 “pandemic” with its absurd lock-down provided a wonderful opportunity to reverse the gains made under Trump in restoring the economy and fomenting American independence. As part and parcel of their grand plan, of course, they would undertake massive electoral fraud of the type we have seen in the 2020 elections, and yesterday in the Georgia Senate run-offs.
Well, they succeeded.
They created “revolutionary conditions.” They, however, might have made one mistake. The revolution is not coming from their side. It’s coming from the “populist-right.” It’s coming from the MAGA crowd who are now fed-up, tired of having their livelihoods destroyed, their freedoms crushed, and watching the glue of the nation dissolved. The left justified violence. The left might come to regret that.
The actions today in DC will have many and unforeseen ramifications. In the short-run, I think they will almost ensure the defeat of the electoral challenge to the Biden theft. The mood in DC will shift against the MAGA crowd, and these events might give the cowards the cover they wanted not to resist the theft. In the long-run, however, I think something has changed in a fundamental way. I can’t yet describe it, but something is happening “out there” that will result in a very different America than what the progs were seeking.”
Excellent analysis. The anti-Trump alliance is a Federation of haters and they hate each other as much as they hate Trump.
It’s going to take a while to develop a popular resistance. Wasn’t a good start with Trump going Duke of York style, marching his men (and women, among them the fallen),to the top of the hill only to abandon them and begin querying what they were doing there.
There’s much talk of abandoning the Republicans and forming a Patriots Party. “Patriot” by the way sounds much more musical to American ears than our British ones, as we tend to look somewhat askance at flag wavers. It seems to me the American people can’t rely on the Republicans if half of them are RINOs in receipt of regular transfers from Beijing. I would see the foundation of such a party as very positive.
Its founding principles must include righting the wrong of the 2020 election and exoneration of those killed during the legitimate Capitol protest.
“CNN has gleefully reported that participants in the Capitol protest are being identified and sacked from their jobs…” Wonder if that will include this fella:
https://sharylattkisson.com/2021/01/black-lives-matter-activist-who-broke-into-capitol-previously-called-for-violent-coup-against-trump/
I’m thinking…not.
I see the Republican party are seeking feedback!
https://act.nrcc.org/american-priorities-survey/
BBC R4 news were reporting 4 deaths, later 5, but gave no details.
The BBC is deliberately anonymising the victims – so that we feel no sympathy for them as human beings (contrast with hownthe BBC treats other deaths of unarmed people at the hands of the Police in the US and making out they were part of a violent mob. Just the usual lies from the BBC lie machine.
The real issue here is “Was there massive electoral fraud?” If yes, then those protestors had very right to try and occupy the Capitol. If not, then no, it was wrong and Trump is a dangerous loon. So why do our MSM never examine the compelling evidence there was fraud? I’ve looked at it in detail, and without rehearsing everything here the mathematical analyses and statistical evidence is just overwhemingly suggestive of fraud. To put it another way, there has never been an election like this in the last 200 years. Somehow the USA has changed out of recognition in 4 years, so the winner no longer wins broad support across the country but just piles up an enormous stack of votes in just a few (not all) urban areas in key swing states that then deliver those states to the candidate. Believe me, it’s just not credible.
And remember the Covid Hoax was a great enabler for the fraud.
Trump hasn’t conceded and is currently staying at a military base in Texas. Just saying.
OGood. I don’t think he will concede but he may go quiet to protect himself and his family from the legal offensive that awaits them.
Allegedly #italydidit
https://lacrunadellago.net/2021/01/07/italygate-part-ii-obama-and-renzi-accused-of-being-the-masterminds-of-the-us-electoral-fraud/?lang=en
https://youtu.be/YwtbK5XXAMk
https://rumble.com/vcjcox-this-is-why-the-capitol-chaos-was-created.html
Is that how they elected a technocrat?
Dominion voting machines don’t count whole numbers. They count 1.0 and if you want 1.2 you can have it.
Its a cracking story at the very least. Check it out.
There is evidence buffalo head guy is a paid crisis actor.
Vaccine censorship on the up now too
James Todaro, MD
WOW, that was quick.
Apple and Google threaten to remove Parler from app stores unless Parler starts censoring content.
https://twitter.com/JamesTodaroMD/status/1347672976418877446
Wider than that, I suspect. Big tech left moving to suppress all platforms for potential dissent now that the US Executive is in their hands.
RIP THE KRANKIES
One down, one to go.
Salmond accuses Sturgeon of misleading parliament – BBC News
Here’s a fuller account from pro-indy Wings over Scotland. One question in my mind is whether a recognition by the public of the malevolent and likely unlawful behaviour of Mrs Sturgeon will provide some impetus to dispelling he lockdown mentality. As in, “If she could lei about Salmond, what else has she lied about?” https://wingsoverscotland.com/hiroshima-non-amour/
At least the scottish can see what an independent snp scotland will look like now thanks to covid! – a daily speech of dictates from a single party state. The best summary of the last ten years in scotland was done by andrew neil below:
Scotland is now one of the most over-governed, bureaucratised countries in the western world.
After 13 years in power the SNP has failed those who needed help the most | Daily Mail Online
I was hoping Alex would stick the knife in. Wee Nicola certainly tried to slip one in her “mentor”.
Yep – there have been rumours he might start a separate nationalist party. Would be brilliant if he took 15% off the SNP. Would eff ’em over good and proper, as we say in more southern parts .
Sturgeon’s a piranha.
I want to contact you at Lockdown Sceptics so that you can investigate a theory of mine. No contact page, so I’m hoping someone will read this. Background first; please stay with me! My 76 year old pretty robust mum has been fairly careful throughout the last year but has walked her dog daily with a pal, been shopping, been to the vets, I’ve seen her weekly etc. So not super careful but I am one of you – a lockdown sceptic – and I feel strongly that the elderly should choose what they want and how much risk to take and in her words, ‘being alive is not the same as living and what’s the point without my friends and family’. So, now she’s ill, been so for over a week and I have driven the 80 mile round trip several times to see her. Symptoms are simply ‘weak and weary, dry mouth, shaky’.
After a couple of visits I brought her to my house (yes, during lockdown – horror!) and it became apparent to me that she was weak through flu-like symptoms and hadn’t been eating more than around 400 calories a day and drinking very little. So, dehydrated and hypoglycaemic then. She is now rallying well from my feeding-and watering-bullying tactics and already feeling much better, sitting up, smiling, talking and no shaking. So…to my theory. I think that during the lockdowns where we are told to stay away at all costs and people are terrified that they will be catching it or passing it and therefore leave their elderly relatives well alone…that there have most likely been many, many deaths from dehydration.
Think about it – stay alone and isolate for 14 (now 10) days. Only takes three days without water to die from severe dehydration. I think this might have happened to many people – not dying of covid but because their relatives were too scared to go and suppor them in when they needed it. This is horrific to me but I am convinced of the truth of it after seeing my mum’s response. I am waiting for her covid result but whatever it was, thank god I don’t have a fear of it any more than a fear of flu because I think she’d have been a gonna if I’d listened to mainstream media and stayed away… I want this to go to the guys running this site for their thoughts but not sure how to get it to there attention. Anyone who can, please do.
DM reporting that 150000 are catching the virus daily. Call it 1m per week or 4m per month. Add to that the number who have already tested positive 3m per world covometer plus the mumber who either immune or have had it but never were tested and herd immunity must be with us quite soon.
How long before the number of cases exceeds the population? No one (except us) will notice.
That is a actually scaryily possible.
A similar dilemma to what happened with votes in the US.
Oh but indeed.
That’s when they’ll discover the threat of reinfection, possibly due to a new strain to make it more plausible.
For all the slurs directed by certain ministers (Hancock and Whately) at the proponents of the Great Barrington, in ‘let it rip’, perversely, that is exactly what Doris and Co have done through the failed lockdown strategy.
Local Live online excitedly reports tomorrow morning.
‘More than 5,000 new Coronovirus cases have been reported in the region within the past seven days with rises everywhere.’
(Regional population 1.8m)
This bit gets a bit tricky.
‘Cases have risen in every single area of the region but despite the rises (area) at upper tier level has the three lowest infection rate, while at the lower tier level all 10 areas of (region) are in the bottom 15 of the 315 nationwide’.
I have no idea what this means and doubt if the journo does either.
Meanwhile a concerned resident writes
‘377 people under 60 died from covid’
Yes but we have three things going on: a real pandemic, a casedemic and a vaxidemic.
Who are the people being hospitalised now, this winter? Are they still the very elderly and people with serious comorbidities? Surely by now a large proportion of those will have been vaccinated. We are told about 1.5 million people in the UK have been vaccinated. These will be front line care and health workers and the most vulnerable (elderly and people with serious health issues).
Unless the virus has mutated into attacking the healthy (I’ve seen no evidence) , I think there is every chance the people being hospitalised have the same profile. So a lot will already have been vaccinated and as Dr John Lee suggested, if recwntly vaccinated they will likely test positive for Covid.
The mRNA vaccine manufacturers admit taking the vaccine is no “walk on the park” and also that people can experience Covid like symptoms. Think what that could mean for very elderly and sick people.
Alarmingly, 700 people have caught it in my house and there’s only myself and my daughter living here.
LOL
An acquaintance of mine just got tested positive, informed by post. Interesting since she walked out of the test centre because of delays….before ever having taken the test.
Or already as its been around over a year already
We seem to be getting defensive, I can’t see any reason to. The disease appears to be taking off a bit, even if that is true it in no way undermines our position. Lockdowns are wrong pure and simple. It is the government that is being selfish and irresponsible still pursuing a mad and failed experiment proven to destroy lives and livelihoods.
Can’t recall if this has been raised here before, but Bjorn Andreas Bull-Hansen gets it:
“Where is your breaking point? Where is your line in the sand?”
Richie Allen tweets
Pathological liar Sadiq Khan, London’s Mayor, has called for masks to be worn outdoors. He said 1 in 30 Londoners have Covid. Really? London has a population of 8.9 million. Where are the bodies? Do we need to wheel a cart through the streets crying “bring out your dead?” Liars!!
https://twitter.com/1RichieAllen/status/1347567026869575681?s=20
Some astonishing virtue-signalling Covid Cult members on that thread. I really must avoid Twitter. If masks worked, why are infections going through the roof? SAGE themselves admitted in their own minutes back in September that transmission outdoors is virtually non-existent.
As for Khan, he was baying for masks everywhere a few months back but it didn’t fly. He will probably get his wish this time. This fucker was instrumental in lobbying for the mandate to be extended to shops.
No change of plan for me. I only go outside to smoke a cigarette. Not left my close for 3 months.
Khan will have advisors judging that his call might get favourable support otherwise he ends up looking foolish. No idea how london as a whole might react to the idea myself.
This is a call for a national mandate. He has no power to impose this independently in London.
If I were paranoid I would link this with the pro-mask, or at least pro-mask-compliance posts we have been seeing here recently.
Obviously, I am not paranoid.
Well if people want to engage in a humiliation and submission ritual that has absolutely no impact on viral transmission, they are welcome to do so. Just don’t expect me to comply, ever.
Nor me.
Who has been advocating that?
Early post yesterday attracted much discussion. Also an exchange below with ‘Anti-socialist.’ Those are two examples that caught my eye.
In neither case am I suggesting ‘the 77th.’ But there is something in the air, a repeated suggestion that we should just knuckle under on the mask thing. That compliance with mask mandates will be rewarded with glorious victory later. That’s suggestion being made. A catastrophically mistaken belief.
Each to their own, I’ve been out and about every single day since March, usually for several hours with many personal interactions all bare faced on my part.
I particularly enjoy saying ‘excuse me ?’ to people who mumble at me through their face panties.
Me too.
The Mayor of London is a sadique. That’s French for sadist.
Multi millionaire Kirsty Wark makes an appeal on Newsnight for the lockdown to be made much tighter. Here’s a suggestion: let’s remove the special privileges of journalists to go wherever they please and form non socially distanced reporter-mobs as they see fit.
Better idea, let’s just defund the BBC.
Dangerous to just defund it. A PC trillionaire might decide to fund it. You have to take away its charter, nationalise it and ensure all trademarks and archive etc go to the state who can then decide how they are used.
Not going to argue that!
Perhaps I should have said defunct the BBC.
Is that the same wark who made such a bad hash of the salmond trial documentary that bbc iplayer pulled it within days? Containing content that was imflamatory and outside good journalistic standards. Basically the witches bit from macbeth except instead of a cauldron it was a cafe table opposite the court where the verdict had not yet been read. That wark is ugly.
Sarah Smith’s contribution was just as reprehensible as Wark’s.
Yes, if it’s that serious an infection all journalists should be locked in their homes.
Maybe the ankle tag is getting uncomfortable.
Questions for Mayo:
Hi Mayo, don’t know if you’re still up, but you were kind enough to reply to a post of mine about six hours ago, and I have a couple of questions arising from that, but I don’t expect many of us are obsessively scrolling all evening so thought I’d post at the top.
1) You think Covid spread very unevenly by region in the Spring, and where you are is getting it now, even though where I am (going by anecdote) isn’t. How does that square with Covid being highly contagious? If it’s that contagious, wouldn’t regional variations disappear very rapidly?
2) More important question: you have said repeatedly that you don’t support lockdown. I am genuinely interested: what do you want? If Mayo had the ear of Bojo, what would your policy be?
Didn’t have much of a first wave in the S/W, not getting much of a second.
See my post a few minutes ago, each of the 10 Areas in the Region are in the lowest 15 by cases of 315 nationwide.
I’m confused about the use of the word ‘novel’ in relation to this alleged coronavirus which nobody seems to be able to isolate a viable example of. It could be an adjective as in ‘of a new and unusual kind; different from anything seen or known before: a novel idea’ but it’s named after a similar virus which emerged some 17 years ago so it can’t be that. Or maybe a noun as in ‘a fictitious prose narrative of book length, typically representing character and action with some degree of realism’. Hmm, not sure about the ‘some degree of realism’ but otherwise it’s a good fit. Noun it is then!
‘Novel’
-because their story is fiction
What astonishes me is how people keep obeying amen trusting these frauds.
So first it was Ferguson and his affairs, then Cummins and his glasses, Sturgeon and her lack of a mask, and now Van Tam and his trip to a restaurant.
It’s not the hypocrisy that bothers me. Public figures have always done that.
It’s that nobody seems to notice what breaches like these mean.
Nobody is suggesting that any of the above are psychopaths, plotting to kill their own families. So that only leaves the option that they do not believe these actions to be dangerous. Or they wouldn’t do them. Simple. Yet if Van Tam stood up tomorrow and told people to stand on one leg, millions would.
The mere fact that the people creating and propagandising for restrictions are continually breaking them with impunity, and in full public view, is very telling. They all know there is absolutely nothing to be afraid of.
I’m not disagreeing with your post, but can we try to get the names correct:
Cummin.
Cummins-Ivor, expert polymath.
Cumming.
Cummings- ex SPAD/adviser.
Hadn’t heard ahour the fascist son’s restaurant trip. Do you have a link ?
Daily Mail has the story but it goes back to March 2020
I remember once reading about the cult of breatharianism. They claimed that they could live without consuming food.
This may well be an urban myth but there was outrage when one of the cult leaders was found to have been cheating and actually ate food.
Breaking: I just looked it up and it’s not an urban myth. See the case of Wiley Brooks…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inedia
Anyone else working on their submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights?
I’m toying with a few approaches. One of these is the concise, acerbic, cynical type:
“The rule of law and all human rights were rescinded in the UK on 23rd March 2020. Please disband this committee with immediate effect as it no longer serves any purpose.“
It’s all our fault.
The Telegraph (paywall):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/01/08/crackdown-planned-covid-deaths-hit-record-high/
Extract:
Ministers are considering a “tough crackdown” to pressure more Britons to stay at home after the daily coronavirus death toll hit a record high.
There is growing concern in Government over compliance with the latest lockdown after Covid cases continued to rise sharply, with one in 15 people now estimated to be infected in some parts of London. Rates in Liverpool and some other areas have almost quadrupled in a week.
A new hard-hitting Government advertising campaign, unveiled on Friday night, warned the public that if they leave their homes “people will die”.
In a new television advertisement, Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, says: “Covid-19, especially the new variant, is spreading quickly across the country. This puts many people at risk of serious disease and is placing a lot of pressure on our NHS. Once more, we must all stay home.”
Edit: And I just saw the post by Danny, below. It just beggars belief!
Might it be that despite 90% say they want lockdowns, they have in fact had enough of them.
Or that 90 percent say no such thing, and private polling is telling the regime just how little support it really has.
Sounds like that poll was designed to shape public opinion rather than measure it.
That is what polls are for.
What will they do? £20,000 fines? I can’t pay £20. And I suspect I’m not the only one. If they introduce a curfew I will rediscover my love of stargazing.
Dust off that telescope.
Yes, the reason the tractor factory failed to meet its monthly production quota is because of saboteurs.
My reaction when they said ‘1 in 30’ was bad, according to my wife.
She’s just descibed my reaction to reading the above as, “Well, that was… actually, I’m not sure what that was.” LOL!
What a complete load of shite!
I think the key word is estimated
Yeah, I know. I made a rather scathing attack on their ‘estimates’ from ‘models’ earlier today, or yesterday, or the day before, or on all of them.
Alright for Whitty to continue to bleat this conformist crap. He’ll still have a job at the WHO at the end of this. Alas, millions won’t be quite so fortunate, as a result of said conformist crap.
Yet again, this sums it up.
“People will die” – At least nobody is killing granny now. Must have been a passing fad.
They have already run out of grannies.
Sounds like a govt threat to me, not a warning.
As I’m now 50+, I got a threatening letter yesterday from the NHS clearly telling me that I’m a granny killer if I don’t take a flu vaccination. Filed it in the bin.
They know they can do whatever they want because people have accepted everything else up till now.
Imagine that you’re given a plate of shit to eat and told that by eating it you will save countless lives. Once you take that first bite you can’t then turn around and say I’m not eating another plate because you’ve shown that you’re quite capable of eating one and besides you can’t now change your mind because it’s been made mandatory.
Number 6 : Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment, and will die here like rotten cabbages.
I was looking for that audio/visual excerpt from The Prisoner several days ago.
OK lets’ go – final push today when a key member of my family has sadly passed away (not covi) – happy clappy golden teeth royal family Duke William and what’s her face Katy and their three happy clappy children-like creatures say they think about the NHS staff every day – that’s great when you don’t have to go anywhere near the plebs’ nhs services being a rich royal. Brill. I just love this site – you can say total shit and do it again tomorrow.
“Catherine and I and all the children talk about all of you guys every day, so we’re making sure the children understand all of the sacrifices that all of you are making,” he said.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-55591527
Who the fuck is Catherine? I thought he married Kate?
She’s had a promotion.
Bollocks they do!
Upper Class Twit.
Polls show that 200% of the population never want to leave their homes again. NHS statistics show that 120,000,000 people are testing positive every day, clearly showing that the virus is out of control, so the government today ordered that your must wear a hazmat suit for the rest of your life. Your monthly vaccine will be delivered by drone, and will be injectable via hazmat hole 4 as shown in the the government guidelines.
Bugger, I thought hole 4 was for removal of solid waste.
Holes 1 and 2 are self-explanatory. Hole 3 is for air. Stands to reason that vaccines would be next in sequence.
We’re allowed to have air? Hold on, it’s upside down and back to front. I thought hole 3 was for scratching your bollocks.
Looking on the bright side then I must be twice the man I used to be? That’s something to celebrate surely?
I’ll drink to that.
Also that the public supports spending 200% of GDP on OURNHS.
Nearly a year has passed and people are still using the reported numbers of dead rather than the date of death figures.
If we were to take 1500 as an average daily death toll then over a month this would total 45k deaths.
Split the numbers how you like but let’s say deaths are reported on day 30 every month. We don’t say there were no deaths over 29 days and then on the last day 45k people died.
Fuck it – it’s done = Donald Trump no longer exists – all cancelled. Amazing.
Twitter permanently suspends Trump’s accounthttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55597840
Parler appears to have crashed too ….
Comment ?
Sorry, not sure what the question is. Parler.com is running very slow.
Surely all a coincidence ….
https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-apple-considers-removing-parler-from-its-app-store
Comment’s no longer allowed, haven’t you noticed? Ah….desole, je vous comprends maintenant!
Bloody scousers …
Are youse sayin’ I’m thicccckkkk?
Only us Wes Darby kids is bright like …
Youse are from Calderstones, yer posh get…..
No no, Eaton Road, Next to where some footie players used to train ages ago.
Edit: I live in Sussex now like.
Know it well! I originate Utting Ave/Townsend Ave area…..bin livin’ wid deh woollybacks for a bit now, like. Used to work in a practice on Broadway, know where I mean? Good times…..went out to get some lunch one day, found a dead heroin addict in the stairwell- not making this up. Good times…..
Shouldn’t that be Wesh Darby?
Dunno, I wasn’t a ‘1st language english’ child.
So a sitting President of the USA has gone the same way as Alex Jones, David Icke et al. Strange times we live in folks.
bleak times richard – prepare the barricades
It’s strange, the more surreal and absurd it becomes, the less fearful I am. We are living in a black comedy. My survival is only important insofar as I can bear witness to as much of this nonsense as possible, for learning purposes, before I am relieved of sentry duties.
Let’s hope the black comedy is not Dr Strangelove.
Racccccccist !
Oh dear, I might be suspended from Twitter and Facebook. Except that I do not use either.
You have five minutes to take the knee before being unpersoned . Your choice,
Same! Saw social media for the scourge it is right from the beginning. That and I’m 56 so couldn’t give a rat’s ass about keeping up with my “friends” on FB, tweeting bullshit and putting a picture of what I ate for dinner on Instagram. Can’t cancel me, motherfu*kers.
Damn right. Like its cousin distancing, social media is the absolute antithesis of social. Invert the words to find the true meaning.
We’re living in a combination of the Book of Revelation and Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.
Russians have a strong sense of the surreal. Only a Russian could write an opera about a nose. Probably helped them live through 7 decades and a bit of Bolshevism. Of course the Russians had been serfs for many centuries.
Will be interesting to see how Americans with a constitutional right to oppose tyranny, a strong tradition of liberty and 300 million firearms react.
How we British fare under this onslaught fascinates me. Dry humour and piss-taking used to be our speciality. Very little of that going around these days. But then there always were a large number of humourless, miserable pricks around, it’s just that they are now in the ascendant.
Yes – they were always there: cf Dad’s Army…the ARP warden and the Church warden.
He retains the honorific title Mr President for life I believe.
Which will not be for long if Pelsoi gets her way.
Mad bitch, she’s the one who needs removing from office.
Clinton was impeached and he is still “Mr President”.
Trump sends US Marine Corps to arrest entire Twitter board and senior management. Only one winner there.
Should have done that a year ago. Waaay too late now.
Moot. Depends what one would be trying to achieve.
Sadly, Trump is a businessman, not a warrior, like Douglas MacArthur, who was correct about the Chicoms.
They just waited until he was (almost) out of the door. They’ve wanted to do it for four years.
Now the US Executive is secured they know they will face no pushback. Expect an all out assault on dissent. The only delay will be while they satisfy their vicious personal hatred of Trump and his associates.
Something is definitely up – Twitter has permanently banned President Trump.
And Flynn and Wood. I think Powell too. Total purge.
Standard commie operating procedure.
Yep! Hitler/Mao/Stalin would be proud.
Lots of others too, even small scale individuals who posted occasional useful [not anti-Trump] stuff, gone also.
Presumably because now they think that he won’t be able to get back at them.
Apparently in 2018 Trump initiated a check of the National Emergency Broadcast system. Enables communication in the event of media cutoffs or blackouts.
Its begun, night of the long knives, the clinton mafia are making their move, a conservative purge, trumps finished so are we.
Recently lockdown sceptics have discussed why hasn’t our views prevailed stating that instead of using emotional language we’ve relied too much on facts and graphs. This maybe true but I believe we haven’t put forward a clear alternative and like the lockdown zealots we too quickly answer our own questions, without asking are we actually asking the right questions. For example does face masks reduce the transmission of covid ? Depending on which studies you look at there’s no clear answer so we end up arguing with each other. The government says wear a mask and prevent infecting others but it won’t prevent you getting infected. To me this nonsense could be corrected if we simply asked the right question. Do face masks reduce the severity of covid? This is harder to answer but I suggest that masks reduce viral load so there’s less virus around to breathe and everyone doesn’t get a fatal dose. A good example is Japan no lockdown but everyone wears masks and low deaths. I am aware there’s other factors to explain Japan but masks are having some effect. Likewise if we sort to ask the right question about lockdown instead of is it right or wrong we may breakout of the logjam and find better solutions to covid. For example after ten months the UK has no proper quarantine so if one person in a house becomes ill he or she infects the whole family. Now surely we could use all the empty hotels to quarantine the infected thus avoiding the need to lockdown the country. I am putting forward these ideas because I believe the politicians and media have really let down the country and are not interested in what happens in the future.
Everyone does not wear face masks in Japan, Derek.
Everything you are asserting here is your opinion. Not fact.
Face masks? To be quite honest, even if they did do all the things they were supposed to do (which I very strongly doubt) I wouldn’t care. I’ve lived half a century without a nappy on my mouth and I’m not going to start wearing one now. It’s ridiculous!
Hello John I work for the nhs and must wear a mask I also have asthma and have had many attacks. I’ve also discovered I now have high blood pressure as a consequence of masks so you’d think I would be anti mask. When out shopping I don’t wear masks so you could say I am a hypocrite but I feel very safe. But I’ve noticed no one is getting colds or flu, in March I got some cold remedies because I thought my family would get this covid. None of us have got ill so I believe right or wrong masks must be doing something. I believe masks reduce viral load and why I and many other asthmatics have remained well. Lastly my whole comment was about why we’ve lost the argument over lockdown not if masks work or not. Personally I believe the whole edifice of lies which is sustaining lockdown will come crashing down and in time our views will prevail.
All your assertions fall at the starting line, because you assume that “something must be done” because there is some kind of national level emergency. But there is no need to do anything except wait until the new cold has worked its way through and numbers have settled down.
On the national level, there is no emergency except the one we create by panicking.
And another pro-mask-compliance post. Something in the air.
So, let me get this right: We’re annihilating countless lives and livelihoods because somebody with no clinical experience or training, not even O Level Biology, has assembled an Airfix kit of a Reliant Robin with no glue or instructions and has managed to come up with something that vaguely resembles the stern of a Type 42 Destroyer. As if that wasn’t sufficiently inept, this fool actually launched the bloody thing and instead of accepting that it sank immediately he runs around pretending to see it sailing magnificently, malevolently even, in all directions.
I see no ships, only hardships..!
Bravo !
Don’t you realise that a Reliant Robin in working order is a much sought after classic car?
I heard there’s a guy at Imperial College who’s collected dozens of them. He earns a fortune though..
Are they real plastic cars or just – er- imaginary?
He says they’re real to him but, between you and me, the silly bastard doesn’t know how to drive and hates cars anyway. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s made things up.
But surely everyone will have to go round a corner eventually … ?
No probs as long as you do it s-l-o-w-l-y
Mange’ tout, mange tout
Bonnet de douche!
Not by me. I prefer a Mini Cooper S. Or a 1964 Lotus Elite.
I’m at the stage now where I think we deserve what is coming.Even people I know who during the summer could see the scam for what it was are succumbing to the government propaganda.Hysteria is across the board.if they have cold or flu symptoms they are getting themselves tested.A close friend just had his second test and this time he’s positive.I tried to explain the futility of a test.It just means he has to isolate by law.but he went ahead and got tested anyway.He posted on a shared what’s app group like it’s a badge of honour.
There is no hope.If we were in the US I’d say buy a gun and food and get ready but we can’t even do that.
I’m at a loss tonight
“I’m at the stage now where I think we deserve what is coming.”
Which is what Jonathan?
Get a grip. Hold your nerve FGS.
“Please stand firm against the nasty McCarthyite wave of spite, abuse and plain lies now being directed against dissent. Even if you utterly disagree with me and other sceptics (which is a legitimate and well-intentioned position) these Red Guards threaten us all in the end.” – Peter Hitchens.
I’m holding firm but the majority are bringing us down.Vaccine,digital passport ,economic collapse is what is coming.I can’t believe that so many of my fellow countrymen are so stupid.Lockdowns are having the desired effect.Separation from each other so the propaganda can be beamed in unfiltered.
This person is someone I’ve spoken to at length over the past few months.I feel I’m in a invasion of the body snatchers scenario
Just look at the Sweden graph. Looks like they played it right.
It’s true many slaves love their chains.
100 pounds of storable food with a 25 year shelf life is still easy to obtain in the US.
Sorry to report that guns and ammo are nearly unavailable at this time.
Heck, the materials to handload one’s own ammo are rare as hen’s teeth.
We knew this was coming.
We’ll be fighting house-to-house with the Chicom troops Xiden invites in as UN peacekeepers.
God bless, goosey.
I think all the recently employed, self employed and others who do not get mega generous public sector wages are well aware of the need not to get tested.
Large sections of the populace – the working class in the hand to mouth minimum wage jobs- are well aware of the need to dodge testing.
They can’t afford to lose a wage for 2 weeks.
Get tested – get a lockdown, as the saying goes.
I’d say the tension among the fearful has risen, but that there are every day fewer of them. Partly thanks to our smart/brave/hard working/funny colleagues on here.
The Universe ensures we always deserve what is coming. Or that that which is coming is deserved. I forget which … my great grandchildren would say it’s old age, but they’re a bloody bunch of liars !
I meant as a country.We don’t deserve the inheritance of freedom we were given
I blame the television.
The government announced 3 months of lockdown and only 16 MPs opposed it.There was more opposition in the Kroll Opera house
Paranoid Friday night thought-
Look for apps like Waze to remove the ability to report police activity.
This will be the tipoff for vax/lockdown/health passport checkpoints.
I’m not paranoid but all my friends think I am.
but are they really your friends?
well, they’re always talking about me..
Conversation outside the co-op with longstanding acquaintance
Me ‘hi johno, what are you up to?”
Johno “going to see me mate then probably another mate later, ain’t fuck all else to do . . .”
And bozo wonders why there is less compliance than in lockdown .1
Tosser
Around here are two blokes that hang around on the park bench outside the village store. I think they are the resident alcoholics. Low level stuff but never seen without a can of something. They are quite amiable and we often have a chat as I walk past with the dogs. They have remained impervious to all the corona claptrap, just carrying on as normal. It is a joy to see.
There’s definitely something in the idea that material poverty can actually be liberating. I fear that many of us- including many who presently think it won’t happen to them- will soon have the opportunity to test that hypothesis, though.
Well I’ve already got the alcoholism sorted. All I need now is to lose my job and become unemployable. As a result of the prevailing insanity, I’m staring that eventuality in the face before the end of this year. The homeless night end up being the only genuinely free people left in our society.
Don´t worry. Fighting for freedom is fun.
I’m on the wrong side of 40.
That’s not good for light infantry work!
My husband nearly got into it with a maskhole tonight. One of our local restaurants has been doing an amazing takeout business since the beginning of this nonsense and we order meals nearly every week. OH was just mentioning that he never wears a mask to pick up the food and nobody has ever challenged him. Of course, tonight’s pickup went a little differently. The restaurant is using the covered, screened porch (with door) as the pickup place and there’s only room for one person to wait. OH was inside paying and waiting for our dinner and some moron — who was standing outside — challenged him on not having a mask on. OH said he’s exempt and the maskhole pushed him further and OH said it’s none of your business why I’m exempt and the maskhole called him a fucking idiot, but left it at that. OH said one more word out of that cretin and he would have ended up in hospital, and not due to Covid. FFS, the dude was outdoors and not sharing space with my husband. If he truly thinks that my husband, by merely standing and waiting for his order, has contaminated the area with Covid then surely this creature should not be leaving the house. I’m afraid we’re in for a lot more of these altercations in the months to come.
Masks are POISON. As the fear ramps up so does the maskhole’s fervent belief that they work somehow
In their warped minds a non masker is pumping out viral clouds contaminating everything around. Apart from that the sheer non compliance of it is akin to being a criminal. Face nappy fascists.
People are going to start hurting each other over this in huge numbers if they keep on with masking. Personally I just cannot safely interact with maskoids.
Bastards.
Canada and the UK are on very similar trajectories. The footage of the Xmas Day house arrests due to snitches (I presume in Quebec because they were alternating between French and English) was unsettling to say the least.
Nearly all of the former colonies of the British Empire are suffering inordinate levels of oppression. Maybe it’s simply that we had the most to lose, so the shift into an authoritarian model of governance is much more painful and noticeable. The economic shift into widespread destitution and dependence will be even more painful.
Don’t know what it is with former Commonwealth countries. Not having fought a war of independence made us not only soft, but not very covetous of rights and freedoms. I had some hope that our neighbours to the south would lead the way out of this, but with the Biden win and Dem control of all branches of government, I fear the worst.
We call it the Biden steal. He won nothing!
NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL SCEPTICAL:-
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nearly-half-us-voters-believe-health-officials-have-been-misleading-covid-data
The sheer meanness of those baying for more restrictions is limitless. We gave them an inch, they took a mile. What we see all around us now is the result of handing over the keys to the most selfish, toxic, deluded and dangerous elements in our society.
The great news is that they will defeat themselves. Imposing this level of misery for no reason other than making them feel better is unsustainable. The rest of their lives will be hell. It is our job to hold the line, and I am confident that we can do this. Individually we will not be defeated. My hope is that this will ultimately translate into collective victory. If it doesn’t, then we will be the ones who had a go that history will honour. Nobody will remember the collaborators.
Well said, we stand or perish here.
That’s why I say: “Yes, close the schools, close the offices, close public transport, close the whole damned show”
If a society insists on being reduced to rags and a diet of bread and water before it comes to its senses, then so be it.
The sad reality is so many of these sanctimonious, virtue signalling pillocks would happily lose everything they have ever worked for to protect their precious NHS. They have been conditioned to believe it is the only thing that matters in this country and the overwhelming majority of sheep who live here are stupid enough to play along.
Sheep are very fond of sacred cows.
No bread either if bakers can’t work!
We will hold the line. No doubt about it.
Here is one example from the State of Michigan of the coup d’état that just took place in the United States of America:
https://madworldnews.com/whitmer-state-troopers-electors/
Coup d‘etat indeed. We are way past disgusted here.
handy tip if you fancy a day out somewhere nice and feel the need for a “reasonable excuse”; just ring up a local estate agent and arrange to view a property – job done!
Yes, I saw an apparently functioning EA today, hadn’t realised they were allowed to remain open. Some friends are completing next week and moving from one country to another within the UK, could be interesting.
it’s all perfectly legit and covered in MHCLG guidance:-
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/government-advice-on-home-moving-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak
Thanks, was wondering.
Nothing more important than large amounts of money changing hands, after all. Far more important than a silly virus at any rate.
How about saying this is an opportunity rather than a conspiracy?
Mike Yeadon describes it as ‘convergent opportunism’ (I think that’s right) which is similarly nuanced. Conspiracy is a dirty, dirty word. It’s even worse than f*ck for fuck’s sake.
I’m going to call the rest of the brain-washed populace ‘GONZOID’s from now on:
Gullibly
Optimistic,
Non-thinking,
Drone-like
Zombies
Or
In
Denial
Hunter S Thompson would probably have liked that.
Continuing my belief that the NHS and SAGE committee run the country, the Prohibitionist angle of lockdowns is becoming clear, even to the simplest of minds.
Not allowing pubs, cafes etc to do takeaway booze is utterly nonsensical and will drive many out of business. These places being allowed to has allowed many folks a semblance of normality over the miserable last 10 months we have had to endure, so of course they took it away.
In less than a year, a human being has become a faceless potential vector of disease to be avoided wherever and whenever possible, by default.
Way to go maskholes. Unquestionably a basis for a happy, healthy, balanced and productive society.
Up until a relatively short time ago I wanted to ‘save others’.
Now, my only goal is my personal survival and that of a couple of people I love.
Our job is to stay out of the path of these Gadarene swine as they rush for the cliff.
I want nothing to do with them.
I think life in a poorer Third World places is much more likely to be human. I am actively looking to emigrate.
Very well said. Tonight I turned down my third consecutive offer of a Skype call with old friends (each of more than 40 years standing). The last few calls degenerated into bitter arguments over Covid. Like a broken record. They were receptive to scepticism a few months back but have gone full-on cult recently. I’d rather drink in the company of the fine souls on here.
Avoid those who get all their information from mainstream media, particularly the BBC and Grauniad, for they are vexations to the spirit.
Yes, very well said and you echo my sentiments exactly. I’m just trying to survive and ensure my immediate family is OK; I don’t have the time or patience to care about others any longer. I’m getting to the point where you’re either with me or against me, particularly with respect to the vaccine issue and whether people think it’s OK that I shouldn’t have a life if I choose not to be injected with who the hell knows what. I will reject my own family members if they think this is OK.
You’re right about the developing world. They’re on to the nonsense as they can recognize actual killer diseases vs. a virus with a 99.75% survival rate. They’ve got way bigger challenges, particularly given the west’s hysteria which has and will continue to make their lives more difficult.
Seems like we’ve all reached the same point at roughly the same time. Hubby today mentioned someone he knows who has had the vaccine, to which I retorted something about not minding about a few sacrificial lambs if (and as we know that is a big if) that is what it takes to end the nonsense.
I’m trying to figure out my strategy for the next couple of months.
Should I lay low, get on with my life, and let the masses take their vaccines, in the hope that they will be back to normal by Spring?
Or, should I try to dissuade them from taking it?
Or, should I advise them that it has been said that even if they take it, more restrictions are already being discussed for next winter?
Which is the most effective strategy? It seems that we lockdown sceptics are divided between these options.
I am laying low.
They will have to find out for themselves.
Either the vaccines are ok and nothing happens, or they are not.
Most people think the vaccine is the route back to normality.
I think not, but am happy to be proven wrong.
After a brief tirade post announcement of the most recent “lockdown”, I’m currently minded to do the same on social media.
In person, I think it’s best judged on a case by case basis.
Lay low and get on with your life as best you can. If you are in conversation with someone who is open to discussion then by all means discuss but you can’t tell people things they don’t want to hear and they won’t thank you for trying. All will be revealed to them in due course, or not. Lead by example.
Yes, you can gauge someone’s receptiveness to sceptical ideas in less than a minute. If they are not receptive, go the through the motions of whatever reason you are engaging with them in a perfunctory manner and move on. If they are receptive, find their boundaries of acceptable thinking, then feed them nuggets of information accordingly. Using this method I have had a measure of success, but my audience requires constant refreshers due to the barrage of state propaganda they subject themselves to every day. All of my interactions are remote; I have chosen to pitch my tent in the digital arena of conflict. This can be an advantage. It is much easier to persuade someone when you are not distracted by external stimuli.
Very much agree. I find it all too easy to give too much information when speaking to those who are nervous or opposed to hearing alternative views. Keep it simple and as uncontentious as possible.
I’ve decided to lay low and only preach to my nearest and dearest. I used to be a nice person who cared about others, but this insanity has turned me into a person who cares only for my immediate family and the close friends who will listen. I will happily engage with anyone who is truly interested and isn’t coming from a place of irrationality and fear, but there aren’t too many undecideds left. I tried hitting people with data and the actual science, but to no avail. At this point, if someone isn’t willing to do their own research and trusts the “experts,” they will reap what they sow.
This is pretty much where I’m at now. I’ve “converted” one person and another has “come out” (sounds so wrong!) to me as a sceptic after going along at first. I’m also lucky to have quite a few sceptical friends and family.
Everyone else needs to find out for themselves now, unless a conversation suggests that somebody is open to alternative views. I’m done with posting decent stats on FB etc. It’s now at a stage where everyone I know is aware of my views on this, and they either agree or they don’t. If they change their minds they’ll let me know I’m sure.
I’ll keep breaking every Corona rule in the book though.
That’s pretty much where we are right now.
“I used to be a nice person who cared about others”
Being a cynic and a misanthrope, I can’t even claim this. In the old normal I expended an enormous amount of energy avoiding people. My objections to this egregious assault on our humanity are primarily philosophical.
I’ll 2nd that.
There’s never going to be a normal! They’re stabbing people with pseudo-vaccines that dont stop infection, making everyone wear masks to increase the risk of infection, carrying out mass testing that insures the lurgy will never go away & are going to carry on locking down until we’re either all dead of starvation or it bloody works & the latter will never happen.
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/childrens-hospitals-grapple-wave-mental-illness
“Efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in the United States have led to drastic changes in the way children and teens learn, play and socialize.Tens of millions of students are attending school through some form of distance learning. Many extracurricular activities have been canceled. Playgrounds, zoos and other recreational spaces have closed. Kids like Krissy have struggled to cope and the toll is becoming evident.”
It is fucking criminal what is happening.
Lay low and let Truth do the heavy lifting. It is all a lie.
Saudi Arabia rolling out health passports tied to vax:
https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2021/01/07/saudi-arabia-track-citizens-coronavirus-vaccine-health-passport/
British police commissioner calls for Gestapo/Stasi powers of entry to homes harboring lockdown violators:
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/01/07/britains-covid-cops-call-right-invade-private-homes-break-up-illegal-gatherings-again/
The harder the state pushes, the more people will snap out of their slumber. The authorities are treading a fine line here. It seems that the incremental approach has been abandoned. I thought the speed of transformation in 2020 was unsurpassable, but I was wrong. The pressure is being increased every day with extraordinary aggression and zeal. These guys are playing for keeps, and their greed for power and control is insatiable. Horrifying and ugly, yet totally fascinating.
I don’t know, Richard. I sincerely hope you are right, but for the moment, it seems to me people are just rolling over more and more. It’s as if the population have just surrendered to the relentless propaganda.
I’m sick of hearing crap like, “Ah, what can you do?” or, “I suppose it’s for the best.” Like was discussed earlier, I simply refuse to talk to these people anymore; I don’t see the point.
Maybe I am fortunate to have some decent colleagues who can see the bigger picture here (including my boss thank fuck). I’ve been working on them for months, and once you can coax them past a certain threshold the propaganda spell is broken. They in turn can influence their social circle.
Don’t get me wrong though, if we are destined for the abyss then my nihilistic tendencies will kick in and I will go out with a bang. This place is not so important to me that everything must be sacrificed for survival.
No, it isn’t!
Reminds me of Solzhenitsyn’s musings. “And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If…if…We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”
They’ve gone off the rails insane
We are told that Krankie is now considering banning takeaways; Bojo will obviously follow.
Next thing we know the BBC is running this: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52040138
Coronavirus: How safe are takeaways and supermarket deliveries?
Not planned! My fucking arse!!
Off the charts. How can a home delivery of any kind be more of a risk than congregating in a supermarket? And if supermarket and takeaway deliveries are banned, by the same rationale all home deliveries of any kind have to be banned. Including Royal Mail and Amazon.
My shopping has been 100% online since 24th July. If this is implemented, then I will go on hunger strike. Bobby Sands lasted 66 days.
“Delivery slots permitting, a home food drop is less risky than a trip to a supermarket as you will avoid other shoppers.”
Not as bad as you suggested thank goodness. This is the first BBC article I have opened for around 6 months. I feel defiled. The look and feel of the website has considerably degraded since my last visit. Default fonts, clumsy page layout, all very amateurish. This is supposed to be the omnipotent purveyor of state orthodoxy. Looks like they are hiring web designers who went into a coma in 2005 and have only just regained consciousness.
Just mention of the phrase BBC makes me feel violated.
My main point was actually the title of the article. That’s as much as a lot of people will read.
Nancy Pelosi is the Godmother.
https://whereisnikki.co.uk/2019/05/15/guide-moving-to-tanzania-africa/ Tanzania looks like a nice place to live – the country where the president tested a goat and a papaya and they came back positive, perhaps we should get out of here while there’s still time
My submission to the UK Joint Committee on Human Rights (I’ll probably post it again tomorrow providing I can still see straight):
“The rule of law and all human rights in the UK were effectively rescinded on 23rd March 2020. This brief submission is therefore not an appeal for restitution, but a testimony to the irreparable damage that has been inflicted upon this nation.
Our proud tradition of civil liberties, established incrementally over 800 years since Magna Carta, has been desecrated in less than one year. We have utterly betrayed all our ancestors who fought so bravely and bitterly against forces inimical to these principles.
The UK is now an authoritarian state. Those with more than a passing interest in history will be all too familiar with the bestial and sadistic excesses that all such systems of governance have inflicted upon their citizenry. Our collective indolence, apathy and ignorance over many decades has reached its apotheosis. Complete subservience to the state, however petty or absurd might its orders be, is considered to be a virtue.
The abandonment of the principles of individual liberty and responsibility will not be without consequence. We face years, if not decades, of interminable torment as a result of our catastrophic errors of judgement. All those who believe that by following the orders of the state without question they are attaining utilitarian ends are sorely mistaken. The excruciating agonies that await them and their descendants are unfathomable.
Freedom is more important than life itself, because life without freedom is slavery, and is not worth living.“
.
World leaders condemn ‘disgraceful’ scenes at US Capitol
The same world leaders who are installing Totalitarianism across the Earth? Those World Leaders? F them!
Yes, the same world leaders. They want to be allowed to get on with locking us up, without interruptions. Incidentallly, video footage from the Capitol area show the protestors to be very well behaved on the whole.