Day: 16 February 2021

by Ramesh Thakur A 16 year-old's impression of the COVID-19 response in Alberta, Canada Unable to prosecute their case on data and logic, Zero Covid zealots have descended to discredit-by-labelling. One Australian columnist berated “commentators who often have more opinions than brains”. No, he wasn’t looking into a mirror but referring to ‘reactionary’ critics of Australia’s lockdown and financial profligacy. Another believes “the extreme right of the ‘give me liberty or give me death’ variety is taking its lead from… publications such as The Spectator’”with a ‘let it rip’ strategy. “Its commentary borders on the deluded.” Oh dear! An occasional Spectator Australia writer, I’m a centrist on some issues, right-of-centre on others and left-of-centre on still others. A popular witticism in Mao’s China defined a deviationist as someone who kept going straight after the Party veered sharply left or right. Once-progressive views – people should be judged on character and not skin colour, the only race that matters is the human race, the way to end racial discrimination is to stop discriminating on the basis of race, all lives matter equally – are now a reactionary credo of right-wing white supremacists. Being non-white is no defence. Human rights are under attack both from the right, fighting Islamist terrorism, and the left, promoting identity-based anti-discrimination. The rule of law, due process ...

by Dr. Graeme Munro-Hall and Dr. Lilian Munro-Hall We are retired general dental practitioners and former registrants of the GDC, Dr Graeme Munro-Hall (GDC 45121) and Dr Lilian Munro-Hall (82913). As avid cruisers and potential guests of Saga cruises we have written to Saga Cruises about their mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for their guests. No reply has been received yet. We, who have declined these vaccines, are being discriminated against by Saga Cruises on the basis of not wanting to participate in a particular form of experimental medical treatment. The FDA describes these vaccines as “Investigational” and “experimental”. Extracts of the letter are below. We are seeking advice as to whether it will be an appropriate course of action to request that the General Medical Council take action against Saga Cruises, and specifically Nigel Blanks, the Chief Executive Officer of Saga Cruises, for, in effect, practicing medicine without a licence while being unqualified and unregistered to do so thereby potentially endangering the health and wellbeing of UK citizens. The General Medical Council must take steps to instruct Saga Cruises and Nigel Blanks to cease and desist immediately from the Practice of Medicine . We feel this is putting undue pressure on people to undergo an experimental medical treatment. The Nuremberg Convention in article 1 states that any person involved in ...

Today's update on Lockdown Sceptics is here. Includes more on Gibraltar's surging Covid death toll – is it vaccine related? – a Postcard From London by a law prof and news of another victory for the Free Speech Union.

by Dr Alberto Giubilini I suspect Guy de la Bédoyère and I might be more in agreement than his reply might suggest. It would probably not be too helpful to engage in a point-by-point response to his criticism, pretty much for the same reason why he thinks my original article (in which I claimed that lockdown is unfair towards young generations) was not helpful: it creates an unnecessary contrast between groups – an indulgence in “competitive victimhood”, as he says – when in fact a strong case can be made that every age group has been negatively affected by lockdown. I agree it might not be helpful to create divisions across age groups when we all want the same, reasonable thing: a comprehensive argument as to why lockdown should be lifted. My aim was not to be helpful in this sense, to be honest. It was just to highlight one aspect around intergenerational justice that I think is too often overlooked: lockdown is unfair towards the young. What de la Bédoyère brings are additional reasons why lockdown should be lifted, but these are not related to unfairness. They are about the burdens on the elderly and how they have been denied their freedom. His points and my points are perfectly consistent, as I see it: that the young are unfairly ...