Day: 22 February 2021

by Rosie Langridge Sunday being warm and sunny, we set off for the park. Not sure if that was a reasonable excuse or if we were indulging in a criminal activity. There were crowds of people looking relaxed. Lulled – almost – into a parallel universe where life is as it should be. I wandered through a wide open door into a spacious café and looked around at the piled up tables and chairs, the barricaded display of artwork for sale, and the paintings on the wall. I just ignored the ‘people’ lined up in their masks. The ethical case for expecting me to overcome my aversion is slim. They choose to do it, not me. I’d entirely forgotten about the one-way system business, and was unaware that I’d come in at the ‘wrong door’. I made my way backwards up the queue until a big burly man moved to block my way and towered over me saying, “There’s a one-way system for a reason,” and then blamed me for having "forced" him to speak to me. His muzzle was bizarrely emblazoned with “Lest we forget”. I nearly managed to remain polite. But standing there I realised what we lockdown sceptics need to be doing now – our civic duty is to go into public places and behave in an ...

By Kyle Helke In January of 2020 I took a job in Manila, Philippines, where I now live as an expat with my family. Originally we were supposed to relocate in July of last year, but when the so-called pandemic began the Philippines initiated a hard lockdown and closed its borders in March, which have remained so to foreigners ever since, save those with special permission. It took my employer four months of lobbying the immigration bureau before we were granted a special visa and allowed into the country in October.  We spent most of last year in flux between jobs and moving house again and again, a five month state of limbo waiting for my visa to come through. Having lived in both New York and Italy during this time, I thought I had seen it all when it came to lockdown absurdity, but the Philippines are on a whole different level. Upon arrival, you are subjected to a PCR test and then sent to a hotel to quarantine (both at your expense). When we arrived, you were able to leave the hotel and go home to do your mandatory two-week quarantine after receiving your negative test result, but now they don't even let you do that anymore; you have to remain at the hotel for the two-week duration. We were lucky ...

Today's update on Lockdown Sceptics is here. Includes the lowdown on Boris's 'roadmap', a Postcard from Bali and a further exchange of emails between an angry reader and Professor Neil Ferguson.

A reader sent Derek Winton’s article in Lockdown Sceptics criticising Imperial College's modelling to Professor Neil Ferguson. His remarkable response in turn prompted a lot of responses from our readers. One, a regular contributor to the site, produced a line-by-line analysis which we're publishing below. I was interested to see Professor Neil Ferguson’s reply to one of your readers. I was surprised he had replied, but no less surprised that anyone had bothered to write to him. Now, I think it’s a bit unfair to write to someone and then publish that person’s reply, especially if it hadn’t been made clear the reply would be published. However, it has been, and I suppose anyone in public life would have to be naïve to believe that anything they say is immune to being disseminated more widely. I thought it would be interesting therefore to analyse the reply. I presume you sent me this because you feel upset, angry, that no-one is listening, want to hurt me or change my mind. Or all of the above. Here we have an assumption of motive. The writer, who is a woman, is depicted as having become emotional ("angry, upset"), seeing herself as a frustrated victim ("no-one is listening"), aggressive ("want to hurt me") and manipulative ("want… to change my mind"). Therefore, the original email is ...