- “Matt Hancock’s affair footage was from his office CCTV” – Glen Owen at the Mail On Sunday looks into how the story broke. Apparently, it was a whistle-blower in the Department of Health who contacted opponents of the former Health Secretary’s stance on lockdowns
- “Thousands of anti-lockdown protesters descend on central London” – The Telegraph’s report on yesterday’s anti-lockdown march in London
- “Entire schools closed owing to Delta variant” – A number of schools in the North of England have closed completely in response to rising numbers of Delta cases, the Telegraph reports
- “Covid quarantine hotels: Women say they were sexually harassed by guards” – Four women who stayed at UK quarantine hotels have told the BBC that they were sexually harassed by guards working for G4S, according to the BBC
- “Almost 600m NHS home Covid tests unaccounted for, auditors reveal” – Almost 600 million of the 691 million lateral flow tests given to the public in England may not yet have been used, the Guardian reports
- “Health crisis is receding but economy is hurting. Show some guts PM and open up” – Ross Clark issues a clarion call to the Prime Minister in the Sun
- “Perhaps the Great British public aren’t terrified, quivering supplicants after all” – The British people’s acquiescence to lockdowns was a result not of fear, Janet Daley suggests in the Telegraph, but of their sense of social responsibility. And Matt Hancock “betrayed the sacred moral trust that the nation had accepted as its duty”
- “Matt Hancock’s behaviour was an insult to all of us who made sacrifices during lockdown: He had to go” – “This was not about him deciding to have an affair,” writes Stephen Pollard, a supporter of lockdowns, in the Telegraph. “It was, rather, about the purest form of political hypocrisy that exists – the idea that there is one rule for the oiks, and another for the privileged”
- “Famous journal accused of doing China’s dirty work ” – In the Mail on Sunday, Ian Birrell writes about how the Lancet denounced the lab leak theory as a conspiracy without evidence and praised the Chinese response to COVID-19
- “The Government’s travel quarantine plans don’t make sense” – Writing for UnHerd, George Peretz warns the Government that their current, nonsensical rules on travel are vulnerable to judicial review
- “Is Government ever justified in the weaponisation of fear?” – Sean Walsh sings the praises of Laura Dodsworth’s book, A State of Fear. It is, he says, “part history, part data scrutiny, and part moral warning”
- “Canadian surgeon fired for voicing safety concerns over Covid jabs for children” – Off-Guardian covers the story of Dr Francis Christian, the Clinical Professor of General Surgery at the University of Saskatchewan who was fired after he cautioned against giving children the Covid vaccine
- “Hey, Hancock, leave those kids alone” – Gillian Dymond at the Conservative Woman with a message for Matt Hancock who, as Health Secretary, looked favourably on plans to vaccinate children
- “Ivan Dennison, Covid Marshal, visits the Hall of Fame” – The Conservative Woman publishes the latest instalment of John Ellwood’s series on the life and times of Ivan Dennison, Covid Marshal Grade 2
- “The real crisis will begin when lockdown ends” – “History will show that it was lockdown – rather than Covid – which snapped the NHS’s, and Britain’s, spine,” writes Luke Perry in Bournbrook Magazine
- “The Sun newspaper caught me red-handed” – An entertaining parody of the Matt Hancock affair based on Shaggy’s It Wasn’t Me
- “Borders, Boats and Buffoons” – The Bournbrook contributors – Michael Curzon, S.D. Wickett, and Luke Perry – take stock of the latest border restrictions and, of course, the Matt Hancock affair in the latest episode of the Week in Review
- “Freedom March in London” – Dan Astin Gregory reports live from yesterday’s march in London for his Pandemic Podcast. Further coverage is available on his YouTube channel here
- “Good attendance, great atmosphere” – Footage from yesterday’s Freedom March in Belfast
- “Has lockdown changed us forever?” – Aris Roussinos, Helen Thompson, Maurice Glasman and Mary Harrington joined Freddie Sayers on UnLocked TV to discuss how lockdown has changed society
- “Mallorca probes COVID-19 outbreak among hundreds of partying students” – Authorities in Mallorca are investigating a coronavirus outbreak involving more than 600 students celebrating the end of term, Reuters reports. At least 1,000 students are reportedly in isolation, and some are showing mild symptoms of COVID-19
- “Delta variant ‘spreading rapidly’ from Lisbon to rest of Portugal” – According to Portugal’s National Health Institute, the Delta variant represents 51% of cases in the country’s mainland, Reuters reports, showing the variant is “spreading rapidly” as it happened in Britain
- “Health Ministry mulling outdoor mask recommendation, restrictions on gatherings” – Faced with increasing numbers of Covid cases, Israeli health officials are considering re-imposing the requirement to wear masks outdoors, according to the Times of Israel, and requiring non-vaccinated people to provide a negative test result before entering certain venues
- “Russia reports highest COVID-19 death toll this year” – Yesterday Russia reported that 619 people died due to COVID-19 within the previous 24 hours, which is, says Euronews, the highest Russian toll since December
- “Re-Evaluating Mask Mandates Part II: Exposing the ‘Assumption-Led Claim’” – In the second part of C2C Journal’s re-evaluation of mask mandates, Masha Krylova takes a critical look at the evidence for their effectiveness and for their adverse effects, concluding that it is “time to unmask”
- “Canadian Forces have right to know if they got Covid at the 2019 Military World Games in Wuhan” – Two members of Canada’s armed forces have told the Financial Post that they became ill when taking part in the Military World Games in Wuhan in October 2019
- “Weighing myocarditis cases, ACIP failed to balance the harms vs benefits of 2nd doses” – Professor Wesley Pegden explains the flaws in the presentation that the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices was given when it was weighing up the potential harms and benefits associated with second doses of mRNA vaccines
- “Fauci and the Biden Admin are purposely deceiving us about the ‘Delta variant’ threat” – “There never was a legitimate reason for a single restriction on our liberties,” says Jordan Schachtel. “The ‘delta variant’ argument to curb our rights and transform our society is more baseless than ever before”
- “What We Know About the Origins of COVID-19” – A summary of the ongoing work to identify the origins of SARS-CoV-2 from the Wall Street Journal
- “China rewrites the history of COVID-19” – The Los Angeles Times reports on how the Chinese Government is punishing those who sought to document what really happened in the early days of COVID-19
- “What’s Going On Under the Masks?” – Writing for AIER, Robert E. Wright considers the impact of dental care missed as a result of lockdowns
- “Sydney begins two-week lockdown as Delta variant surges through city” – Australia’s largest city, Sydney, has plunged into a two-week lockdown, the Times reports, in response to an increases in positive test results
- “When can conservatives disobey the law?” – “The time has come,” writes Dr. Rocco Loiacono in the Spectator Australia, “to let our parliamentarians know we as conservatives will no longer tolerate being taken for granted”
- “No more one rule for them, one rule for us” – Lawrence Fox enjoyed the march yesterday
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“Thousands of anti-lockdown protesters”.
I’ll say it again, On the first time I’ve made it to a protest, what struck me was the diversity of people represented there, which I see as a strength. From my own point of view, there were pro-lifers marching alongside socialist workers; there were Palestinians – and possibly Jews; Americans, Cubans, people against Communism; English, Scots, Welsh, British (and Cornish);many races and nationalities, all ages, all politics, all brought together by the crimes that have been committed against us, in a happy, peaceful throng, just glad to be alongside other people in an “old normal” setting. It was ridiculously diverse, and it was actually quite thrilling.
Good onya’ mate! Reps from Oz.
The govt though will just ignore the protests. The MSM barely reports it, yesterday I found it on the BBC website under the England news section and there they tried to frame the Freedom March was just one of many across the capital, ie Climate Change, ER, etc rather than acknowledge that 99% had come for the Freedom March. On Radio 4 this morning nothing.
I’m afraid that for this to change then the protests must become “mostly peaceful” BLM style ones.
I think we all know that the BBC news output is a busted flush – to a greater extent than ever before, under the aegis of a Tory Party shill as DG.
I would be against ‘defunding’ the Beeb. That would be a baby and bathwater job in the midst of commercial mediocrity But I would close down its remit to provide what is laughingly called ‘news’ and let it concentrate on what it’s genuinely good at.
Then – if the government wants a propaganda channel, let it have one that clearly identifies itself as such.
“ It was ridiculously diverse”
I know a simplistic take on appearances can be deceptive, but he footage I’ve seen confirms that. The same sort of diversity that one saw on the big Iraq demonstration.
As the Left and labor unions go, so goes the nation.
That Sun News link goes to a brilliant little rap video:
“Though she hadn’t had her vaccination
She got a little prick from me”.
Bwahaha!
One down, many more to go.
Which revolting corrupt globalist weasel should be next? lots in Parliament and sage to choose from.
Guy Fawkes had the right idea. Deliver in bulk.
The unelected ones will be impossible to shift
“One down, many more to go.”
It’ll make f. all difference.
So, knee-jerk down-voter – why will this parade of a sexual peccadillo – make a difference when all it means currently is a substitution for the leading team on the field, getting any red card out of the way quickly?
Actual argument argument seems beyond this sort of finger-twitching.
Snogging in front of a camera is what brings down a puppet and not what should have viz the lies and manipulation of stats and absurd draconian recommendations and the deaths by default?! FFS!
They got Al Capone for tax evasion.
Pragmatics.
I don’t think anyone’s been ‘got’ here…in front of an obvious camera would point to all part of the plan… in line with Gates’ divorce and Fauci’s emails.
The article regarding the military games in Wuhan in 2019 is interesting. 9000 athletes, from many many countries apart from the UK. Couple of Canadians speaking out.
Whatever got out of the lab, accidently or deliberately, seeded throughout the world. Was the subsequent profiteering opportunistic or planned? Lockdown was too late to achieve anything other than trash the economy.
More reports from personnel who attended, or their relatives and friends if they are unable to speak, would be useful.
Yes, I wanted to comment on this with the same conclusions.
It’s another in line of evidence that the virus was in Wuhan and around the world much earlier (causing no excess deaths btw).
The dogs still bark but the caravan moved on some time ago.
Statist governments, big state, the public sector are always way behind the curve.
A new health secretary brings an opportunity for some novel strategic planning. The current health system in this country was badly found out many years past and we pay a higher price year on year for its systemic and managerial ineptitude, culminating in this latest murderous, likely actionable, shambles.
Influenza, the common cold including common cold coronavirus epidemics, are greatly exacerbated by pre-symptomatic nosocomial infection in healthcare settings.
Nosocomial infection is at its worst in massive centralised hospital complexes, as we have clearly seen over the last 15 months
The health systems that have excelled in this latest epidemic have been dispersed localised systems, Norway, Germany etc with many and smaller hospitals, care homes.
The fastest way to the reformed, dispersed, localised health system (which we once had…..cottage hospitals!) that we now need in this country will be a strategic cultural shift in thinking at Healthcare HQ from socialist state handout ‘big is best’ to a mixed funding social healthcare system similar to best practice within the developed nations of Europe.
‘In international comparisons of health system performance, the NHS almost always ranks in the bottom third, on a par with the Czech Republic and Slovenia. In a ‘blind test’, in which we look at health outcome data, and guess which data point represents which country, the UK could easily be mistaken for an Eastern European country.’
‘It would be far more insightful to benchmark the NHS against social health insurance (SHI) systems, the model of healthcare adopted by Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Israel. Like the NHS, SHI systems also achieve universal access to healthcare, albeit in a different way, namely through a combination of means-tested insurance premium subsidies, community rating and risk structure compensation. Unlike in the US, there is therefore no uninsured population (even homeless people have health insurance), and there is no such thing as a ‘medical bankruptcy’. When it comes to providing high-quality healthcare to the poor, these systems are second to none: in this respect, there is nothing the NHS has achieved which the SHI systems have not also achieved.’
https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Niemietz-NHS-Interactive.pdf
Mr Javid…..you have a chance to make history. The fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square beckons……if you have what it takes?
Agreed, the NHS needs to be broken up an a new model introduced, but it will be a brave UK Gov that tackles this issue.
It’s not the essential structure of the NHS that is the problem – that notion is just political opportunism riding on the back of Covid. It’s the particular nature of the government and the (non) framework of the constitution that has undermined it.
Spot on. We could do with a real constitution as well, rather than a bag of legal precedents etc.
It would be nice if we could have some actual rights like Sweden, Eire, the USA etc.
Some hopes, with Rabid Jabbud.
No one “needs” a state medical record, very very few benefit from cradle to grave records, and it is a menace to the individual with regards to privacy. So the massive, massive cost of the IT infrastructure could be slashed for a start. The expectation that we all have to be registered like cattle and be grateful for it needs to go.
Insurance won’t work in the UK because the insurance companies are sharks themselves. In Europe, you insure your car and anyone can drive it. In the UK they can get out of paying out a claim for things like you were using your car for delivering charitable donations on behalf of your club, stuff the individual would never know to even think about.
Masha Krylova’s piece on masks is very good, but she makes the mistake to assume that policy makers and doctors do not know all this.
They do know it, but pursue mask mandates deliberately and for other purposes, whilst even the better doctors are now so corrupted and invested in it, that they just have no other choice anymore than to stick with it.
Andrew Marr had Covid last week and back at work this week.
SERIOUS ILLNESS, THEN?
Working from under the bed?
Some work,some bed!
Re: Dr Christian
I was unhappy to say the least, after reading the initial account here of the treatment of Dr Christian.
Following the link this morning, to the Off Guardian article, and listening to the audio clip of the ‘meeting’, I am sick to my stomach. My vocabulary is out of the window; I am just in overriding, pure emotional mode – I am left only with … Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuukkkk.
Let me say, even if SARS-CoV-2 were so deadly that it pretty much wiped out the human race, I sincerely believe that the deranged thinking/behaviour infecting humanity – as demonstrated in the example of the attitude towards, and treatment of, Dr Christian – is actually pure malevolence (unlike a virus). If left unchecked, the potential ruin of humanity from this derangement would be infinitely more of a loss than the ruination of humanity by any virus.
“… infinitely more of a loss …”. By that, I mean in terms of regret/waste/disappointment etc.
Havin listened to the audio I completely agree with your sentiments, wouldn’t Dr Christian make a great leader of the WHO?
It is a masterclass in how to get your point of view over while retaining your dignity and integrity.
I wish I had an ounce of Dr Christians self control.
“Faced with increasing numbers of Covid cases, Israeli health officials are considering re-imposing the requirement to wear masks outdoors, according to the Times of Israel, and requiring non-vaccinated people to provide a negative test result before entering certain venues”
The interesting aspect of this is the confirmation that ‘vaccinations’ are useless, given the disaster that is Israel’s manic deployment of them.
I don’t know what the latest ‘science’ is, but they only claim the vaccines reduce symptoms a bit. So if you concentrate on cases, vaccines have no effect – apart from making ill people go out and about rather than lying in bed.
And your last point suggests that it could have a negative effect, if ill people don’t realise the risk to a third party being out and about before they recover.
I can’t work out whether the “vaccines” don’t work or whether the “cases” data is rubbish. Probably both. The Zoe data, admittedly based on self-reporting and now quoting sneezing and runny nose as symptoms of covid, shows more “cases” now than at the same point last year – and last year we had no vaccines and year’s less immunity through exposure. A cynic might conclude that the intention was to have such unclear data as to enable this madness to continue forever simply by manipulating the data used as an excuse for whatever stupid measures they feel like implementing.
Both you and Steve highlight valid aspects of this.
My interpretation is that the vaccines don’t work, other than having some short-term ameliorative effect – which was never the boast. And Ivermectin seems a safer bet at doing that job.
The incidence of adverse events was more than even I expected, although direct comparison is difficult because of the massive number of jabs is so high. But just personal knowledge puts it way above most vaccines. Even though the majority of these may disappear in the short term, the number and relative severity suggest reactions that are well beyond the norm.
Then there’s the odd post-introduction climb in mortality amongst the vulnerable.
… and there’s the killer data. Although absolute risk reduction is but one measure, it is a very important omission from most reporting – an omission that usually betrays double-dealing.
And that ‘hidden’ data is very telling : ~1% ARR. – minute real world effectiveness.
Indeed
When vaccines were first mooted I was open to having one if it looked worthwhile but with every passing day I am less convinced rather than more
Glad my immediate family have chosen to wait too
You’re right. I took the same view when it was offered, and am glad I said no, for the time being – back in March.
I would have expected the vaccines to increase transmission by suppressing symptoms
not sure how they work for preventing deaths and hospitalisations. it gets confused with newer less dangerous strains at the same time. as we have discussed before, the delta variant seems almost completely benign based on Indian stats where there have been few vaccinations.
Presumably there is something to the varients being a bit more transmissable – and possibly adaption of the indian varient to heat?
I doubt the rule of 6 is actually doing anything to slow it down though, after all it did nothing in September.
In any case, either a) the vaccinations work to a degree, and the people who are going to die from this have already had their best shot (so to speak) and waiting another 3 weeks will do absolutly nothing, because healthy 50-65 year olds are not going to fill up hospitals. Or. b) the vaccinations don’t work well. In which case what is waiting to vaccinate people actually achieving?
Indeed. And the actions of our government and other bodies do nothing to remove the confusion, in fact quite the opposite.
I would expect a virus to evolve to make you sneeze and cough in humid temperate climates. The aerosols will hang around in the damp. They won’t in hot sunny countries. I would expect a succesfull variant in a hot country to make your nose run – so you wipe it and pass it to other people by shaking hands (which there is a lot of in India!)
I think you’re right about the local environment, But I don’t think we can be infected by shaking hands directly; mainly by breathing contaminated air. I don’t there are any cells in our hands that the virus can invade.
There is a concern that the mutations in some of the variants are concentrated around the spike protein which may make the vaccines less effective.
Luc Montagnier (Nobel Laureate for HIV discovery) and others claim that the vaccines are driving the variants.
“Almost 600m NHS home Covid tests unaccounted for, auditors reveal”
If they’re scratching their heads wondering why so few results have been recorded, I’d recommend they look at the design of their website.
My body has been fighting some sort of bug for the past two weeks, with mild symptoms, so I ordered a test kit. Their response was fast and efficient (the kit arrived the next day), but their website for reporting the results is a mess.
If I had designed it, one of the first questions I’d ask would be: ‘What was the result of your test?’. But they never got round to asking that one. I had to answer lots of others included ‘what is your mobile phone number?’. I have a mobile phone, but I don’t use it for comms so the site wouldn’t let me continue.
I continue to do the tests though. Seemingly the kit has a reputation for false negatives, but after four negatives in two weeks I’m beginning to think maybe it’s not Covid.
Also, as I recall, I didn’t immediately report the first result because I didn’t realise that negatives have to be reported. If they were to state that explicitly in the step-by-step guide that comes with the kit, I’m sure they’d get a greater response.
The cited articles in Round Up have been a bit thin in content over the last week (a bit too much blather about Handoncock), but this one is worth a read :
It doesn’t cover anything new, but is a good, thorough, summary re.the effects of masks, and, in particular, their detrimental effects.
Stephen Pollard is disgusting, fully approving of totalitarianism.
Hancockwomble’s totalitarianism is why he had to go.
The Times article declaring Matt Hancock was dealing only with a gmail account not the secure DHSC account is damning, can see this having legs if the right prosecutors get hold of it. He should be forced out of office as an MP and tried under the law.
Isn’t this basically what they complained about Hillary Clinton doing?
Janet Daley’s article points to something I’ve noticed: lockdown filled a void, the void being a lack of community. Even though people are physically apart in lockdown, mentally they were brought together. Covid fear brought a kind of group bonding that’s lacking in modern countries. Small tribes and closed religious communities have that sense of everyone being together, and life has meaning in the community – meaning which is harder to find in individualist societies.
You find a brief period of bonding in big events like the World Cup or a Royal wedding – everyone comes together to celebrate. With covid everyone came together in a way they hadn’t in many countries since WW2 (and perhaps last did in Britain during the Falklands War). A return to normal to some people means a return to anonymity, with no cause to get behind.
Rituals like hand-washing, mask-wearing, staying 2m apart, are similar to rules in traditional communities like Haredi Jews. Those rituals for ultra-Orthodox communities give life a sacred meaning: I’m not just having a lazy Saturday, I’m honouring the Sabbath just as the Creator did in the beginning. That sense of sacredness and life having a purpose is very difficult to produce in modern capitalist societies.
Covid became like a religion for people. Us sceptics might laugh at all this but we need to understand its psychological appeal. By talking about freedom we’re advocating a return to the old normal which was lonely and bereft of meaning for a lot of people. We need to understand and think about what lockdown gave people and how we might advocate reopening in a way that acknowledges people’s need for community.