- “Five reasons why June 21st won’t be the return to normal we thought” – The Telegraph points out the “growing signs that COVID-19 restrictions will remain in place long after the summer solstice”
- “This summer we must be given true normality, not the ‘new normal’ of Covid bureaucracy” – There is no excuse for politicians to extend measures beyond June 21st, says Professor Karol Sikora, one of the signatories of the scientists’ letter, in the Telegraph
- “Lockdowns hurt child speech and language skills – report” – The BBC reports new research showing that an increased number of four and five year-olds need help with language skills following the lack of social contact during lockdown. Read the original research by the Education Endowment Foundation here
- “The Provision of Covid Marshalls” – A tender put out by Hertfordshire County Council for the provision of 60 Covid Marshalls, with the contract set to run from July 1st 2021 to January 31st, 2022
- “Vaccinating adolescents could help prevent third wave of Covid in UK – study” – The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change recommends vaccinating older children and slowing down the relaxation of Covid restrictions to prevent a third wave, the Guardian reports
- “One year of COVID-19: Facts and analyses” – Seven supposedly indisputable facts about COVID-19, compiled and analysed by Dr. Manfred Horst in the Conservative Woman
- “Sickening – this move to link the jab with patriotism” – “Attempting to turn the vaccine debate into one of ‘patriotism’ is sickening intellectual bastardisation,” writes Frederik Edward in the Conservative Woman. “Let’s not cheapen the idea of patriotic duty, debasing it with the base material of vulgar contemporary expediency”
- “Six-monthly reviews of our loss of freedom are not enough” – Rolf Norfolk’s letter to his MP Jess Phillips, calling for “much more frequent and thorough reviews” of the Government’s coronavirus strategy, published in the Conservative Woman
- “Debunking MSM lies about the Unite for Freedom protests” – Kit Knightly rounds up and debunks the four mainstream media claims about Saturday’s protests for Off-Guardian
- “Hypocrisy and hatred on display as ‘Inside the Tenters’ smear London anti-lockdown marchers” – “You really couldn’t have come across a more eclectic mix of people” than those on Saturday’s march, says Neil Clark in Sputnik, but it “attracted an extraordinarily venomous response from some quarters”
- “The 14-day isolation rule in care homes” – The Caring View podcast looks at the guidance for care homes which recommends residents isolate for 14 days if they venture outside
- “What’s stopping us from using this drug” – Dan Astin Gregory speaks to Dr. Pierre Kory, of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance about the potential benefits of Ivermectin for the Pandemic Podcast
- “Sketch notes on a pandemic – Prof Carl Heneghan” – Oxford’s Professor of Evidence Based Medicine talks to Sketch Notes about why the Government may be doing more harm than good in its failure to seek evidence for lockdown measures. Part 2 available here
- “‘No sign of contagion’ after 5,000-person rock concert in Barcelona” – Officials have said that there is no sign that the recent Barcelona rock concert led to any infections, Euronews reports. Concert goers had to produce a negative test result to get in and wear masks once inside, but they were not required to socially distance
- “Spaniards can start planning their vacations” – El Pais reports that Spain’s Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto has said that Spanish citizens “will be able to travel normally this Summer, at least within the country”
- “Ahead of Covid lockdown, chaos and panic buying in Karnataka” – There was a mad scramble at shops, markets and railway stations in the Indian state of Karnataka ahead of a stringent 14-day lockdown, according to the Deccan Herald
- “No surplus vaccine doses to send to India right now, says UK” – The UK is currently moving through its domestic priority list for COVID-19 vaccination and therefore has no surplus doses for countries in need, the Times of India reports
- “Canadian federal court rules Trudeau Covid hotels violate Charter protection against arbitrary detention” – According to the Post Millennial, the court denied an injunction which would have required nine Canadian citizens, who had tested negative for Covid, to isolate in a quarantine hotel
- “Are Covid Fatalities Comparable with the 1918 Spanish Flu?” – Writing for AIER, Ethan Yang provides context for the point made in the New York Times that “the total number of COVID-19 deaths so far is on track to surpass the toll of the 1918 pandemic”
- “West Virginia governor says he’ll pay young people $100 savings bonds for getting Covid vaccine” – Governor Jim Justice announced he’ll give $100 in bonds to 18-35 year-olds who get the jab and is being accused both of bribery and of not offering enough, RT reports
- “Eighteen Melbourne suburbs are on high alert after Covid fragments were found in waste water” – The warning was issued despite their being no new cases of the virus for 60 days, according to Daily Mail Australia
- “The Decades-Long Consequences Of COVID-19” – Dr. Martin Kulldorff and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya discuss vaccines, vaccine passports and the problems with mass lockdowns on the Ben Domenech Podcast
- ”Truth over Fear: COVID-19 and The Great Reset” – A three-day online summit running from April 30th to May 2nd and featuring the likes of Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, Dr. Tess Lawrie and Dr. Roger Hodkinson
- “Why Indian COVID-19 fears are ‘overblown’” – Dr Jeffrey Barrett director of the COVID-19 Genomics Initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute explains for SpectatorTV that the virus is “difficult to predict”, but that there is “no need to panic” about the Indian coronavirus variant
'It's really overblown. I don't think there's any need to panic, there is no clear evidence to suggest that the vaccines are less effective against the Indian variant.'
— The Spectator (@spectator) April 24, 2021Dr Jeffrey Barrett
Full Videohttps://t.co/cF50nfQ92Q pic.twitter.com/doV1DwLVhI
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One Wind Farm £1 Billion Subsidy – latest leaflet to print at home and deliver to neighbours or forward to politicians, your new MP, your local vicar, online media and friends online. Start a local campaign. We have over 200 leaflet ideas on the link on the leaflet.
Reform just six points off becoming biggest party, says election predictor
The state of British politics:
Reform:
Kemi Badenoch is horrid
Putin is admirable
Send in the Royal Navy
Labour Party:
Mission driven government: ‘Missions are designed to set bold visions for change, inspiring collaboration across the system and society to break down silos and work towards a common goal. They represent the ultimate purpose of the government, and the story it aims to tell by the end of the parliament.’ Eh?
Conservative Party:
Reform are cheating. Systemic reform is required. ‘Watch this space.’
Liberal Democrats: Whatever they didn’t say.
Green Party: Don’t light fires, ever
We are comprehensively fecked.
Starmer’s Britain is like North Korea if it was run by David Brent
Today’s ‘Let’s test the water’ popular poll. Which style of management is better?
Upvote:
Downvote:
1. Clarify vision and direction • Define the ambition and priority outcomes of each mission before the spending review: either by clarifying, building on or restating the specific goals in the manifesto. • Deliver some immediate, short-term confidence building measures – including Labour’s ‘First Steps’: the missions are a political project, and must start to make a tangible difference to peoples’ lives quickly. Unless they maintain the confidence of the public they will fail.
2. Establish strong political leadership • Appoint a lead cabinet minister for missions at the centre of government: providing the direction and challenge across government. • Appoint a lead secretary of state for each mission: with clear accountability for who is responsible for overseeing delivery. • Establish a mission leadership group for each mission: responsible for developing and enacting a shared strategy. • Create a Mission Strategy Board to oversee and broker between missions: and to act as the ultimate decision making forum for trade-offs within and between missions.
3. Develop a strategy – underpinned by the money needed to deliver • Undertake a series of ‘where are we now?’ reviews: to build the evidence base and set the baseline for where key priorities are starting from. • Develop five Mission Strategies: honing and iterating the approach. • Reform the spending review to budget for missions: putting cash behind the missions by funding a coherent strategy, not a series of disconnected initiatives.
4. Break down barriers to cross-government work • Build cross-cutting Mission Strategy Teams: to support each mission leadership group and owning the shared strategy. • Identify and dismantle barriers to working between departments: making it easier to work together on shared problems or priorities. • Reflect the missions in devolution deals, single settlements and intergovernmental relations: incentivising a shared approach between layers of government.
5. Open up more to partnership with the private sector, civil society and wider public sector • Create opportunities for the private sector and civil society to contribute to mission development: ensuring relevant leaders bring in delivery expertise and challenge for the government • Use a range of deliberative engagement methods to involve citizens early: supporting departments to try different approaches • Use red teams to test plans: facilitating learning and iterating on mission plans • Establish expert adviser networks: amplifying outside expertise • Introduce large-scale secondment programmes in each mission: building multidisciplinary teams across departments.
“Net Zero fines ‘set to drive up price of petrol cars’”
…All hail to the the Kommissars’ 5-year plan to outlaw private motoring and dismantle the auto industry. Just think how the Politburo Teslas will have the M25 all for themselves, while working parties of proles slave away emptying gullies and filling in potholes with their bare hands to the tune of the Internationale booming out from the PA system sponsored by Alphabet under license from Microsoft. Drones funded by Lords Alli, Gates and Schwab to provide air supremacy.
Meanwhile God-speed to Politburo private jets flying on aviation gasoline adulterated with cooking oil cast-offs.
The People’s flag is deepest rainbow.
Unfortunately, in the short term at least, it’s a win-win for the government. They put up the price of petrol cars, they slap extra taxes on flying, but people still pay. Because cars are so useful, because foreign holidays are so nice. The crunch will come when/if they actually follow through and make these things illegal. I wonder if they have actually made any plans for what happens then? (beyond their permanently relocating to the holiday home in Tuscany, that doesn’t count as a ‘plan’).
“Asylum seekers ‘drain money from Dutch state for generations’”
Pity the poor Dutch… they should take a leaf out of our book, where every immigrant adds immeasurably to the richness and culture of our nation, in so many ways, not least financially.
Or, so we’re told…
Well “diversity is our strength.” Apparently.
Whoever coined the phrase was being quite cute, the “our” being the establishment. “Our” was never intended to represent the masses but they attempted to con us this was so and quite successfully I believe.
The latest statement by the Dutch government is to cap the population at 20 million by 2030…. Current population 18.3. With current housing shortage, health care crisis, etc. etc….What could possibly go wrong?
“Why Britain could face ‘Babygeddon’: Experts’ warning over birth rates” – Britain is running out of babies, and this is predicted to lead to catastrophes, including the collapse of the NHS and pension system, and the atrophy of education, writes Christopher Stevens in the Mail.
The ‘problem’ is not so much a lack of babies, even though 2020 was a fairly slow year for the UK (most babies born in 2020 would have been conceived in 2019), 2002 and 1977 were ‘worse’. It’s also not that many more are dying.
It’s also not that we’ve got too few births per female of child-bearing age. The birth rate was lower in 2002 and nearly as low in 1977.
The ‘problem’ is that we’re living longer and spending longer in economically unproductive retirement. Society won’t accept that death is naturally inevitable. For example, if elderly people suffer heart attacks why in God’s name do we try to resuscitate? If I go through the pain and fear of dying why revive me and make me do it again later?
Of course this is easy to say when I’m not in the heat of the moment. I believe it was Bob Hope who overheard someone ask ‘Who wants to live to be 100?’. He replied ‘Someone who’s 99’.
The problem is partly that most of those that are born are called mohammed and will be brought up to hate Britain, britishness and the British.
If the working-age population is not generating wealth then it can’t be taken in taxes and used to look after the elderly. People on benefits who could be working and generating wealth are most of the problem. Also elderly folk who did not prepare for their retirement by building up capital – but it’s too late to fix that one – we were told the lie ‘don’t worry, the state will provide’, but it can’t unless there’s new wealth to tax.
Apparently, over 50% of the population are net receivers of money from the exchequer, in immigrant communities it’s even worse? Take out receipts from ‘London’ and we quickly slide down the wealth table, from fifth richest in the world to third world status. Unless they’re all bright-eyed, bushy-tailed entrepreneurs coming to build companies that will add significantly to the economy (which seems unlikely on current evidence) why would you want more? And, even if they were all medics, come to save the NHS, their contribution to the balance of payments is negligible, at best, since their pay comes from the public purse anyway…
My father worked until over 80 and I did until 70 or 73 depending how you judge it. He started at about 6 and I was working all the time not at school from 10.
after age 50 I found it difficult to get job interviews. My wife was thwarted by a Riyal Society that demanded a degree for an admin job she was ideal for – clearly their way of legalised age discrimination, perhaps also to filter out non lefties.
We need a better arrangement for employers and workers so work changes can be made later in life without the difficulties presented by employment law.
My dad worked until he was 89 and basically no longer able to work for health reasons. I think it kept him in good shape physically, mentally and emotionally. He “retired” at the “normal” retirement age and did part time jobs for the next 25 years. It worked for him. I don’t know what I will do – I have no firm plans other than to keep working for as long as I find it helpful. I am lucky in that I can work part time if I want to, which I have started doing. We have quite a few staff working part time – some seniors and others who have made a lifestyle choice for other reasons. It works for us – and we want to keep good people.
This always mystifies me…
First of all, why is it apparently such a shock that people born in the baby boom 60-80 years ago are just now reaching their 60s and 80s? If only there had been some way to know, so that we might have planned for it. A census every decade, or something, perhaps?
And then again, those in their 60s and 89s will be dead soon, mostly in the next 20 years, or sooner with a decent cold snap… releasing all that money they’re hoarding.
So, why do we need to relentlessly add to the population? Even yeast knows perpetual growth is not sustainable.
We seemed to do perfectly well with the population we had 50 years ago. Indeed going even further back, in Victorian era, with a population of just 18 million we conquered and held territory across the globe…
Why should such a piffling amount of snow make the news headlines? Its winter ffs!
I couldn’t agree more Dinger. Manchester Airport is shut apparently and I doubt there is more than a dust covering at Ringway. I suppose the fear factor has to be invoked at any and every opportunity.
Absolute Bollox.
Ah, well, you see, we weren’t expecting it because global boiling.