The use of behavioural psychology in influencing public behaviour during the pandemic – a.k.a. Project Fear – must be part of the U.K. COVID-19 Inquiry, say 42% of the public, according to a new poll. A State of Fear author Laura Dodsworth has more.
An independent new survey by opinion experts Yonder for grassroots organisation Recovery has revealed that the terms of reference fail to address major public concerns. Although the draft terms bullet-point no less than 32 separate areas of focus for the Inquiry, key areas of concern are missing.
Recovery found that:
• 42% want the Inquiry to consider the use of behavioural psychology in influencing public behaviour during the pandemic.
• 40% want restrictions on the media examined, reflecting concern over whether the actions of Ofcom and the main broadcasters and social media platforms compromised freedom of speech.
• 60% want a specific focus on children to be included in the inquiry – there is currently no mention of impact of Covid measures on children.Jon Dobinson who heads up Recovery said:
“There are obvious dangers in the unchecked use of sophisticated psychological techniques by Government to alter people’s behaviour without their knowledge or consent. Behavioural psychologists were given free rein during the pandemic and their controversial use of fear in particular has had serious consequences for mental health. The Inquiry must bring some overdue scrutiny to the work of the nudge unit: controls on its techniques are vital.”
The Government’s unprecedented use of ‘nudge’ techniques to promote fear caused real harm to people, Laura says.
Behavioural science played an unprecedented role in the management of the pandemic – it’s why I wrote A State of Fear: How the U.K. Government weaponised fear during the COVID-19 pandemic. It must be considered as part of the Inquiry.
SPI-B shocked the world when it said in March 2020 that the public needed to be frightened so that they would comply with lockdown requirements, because “a substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened”, recommending that ministers increase “the perceived level of personal threat” posed by Covid, and to frighten the British public with “hard-hitting emotional messaging” to encourage adherence to the emergency lockdown regulations.
Whatever you think of lockdown and restrictions there has to be public accountability for the covert psychological techniques used to encourage adherence to the rules. They have caused collateral damage, made recovery harder and are anti-democratic.
In March 2021, Recovery commissioned an independent poll from Yonder and found that 15% of respondents reported depression, anxiety or fear as a direct result of Government pandemic advertising. A further 7% reported that the advertising made an existing mental health condition worse: that’s almost 12 million people around the country whose mental health was damaged by an unprecedented Government advertising campaign designed to create fear. And 3% said that the advertising had brought on an entirely new mental health condition requiring treatment.
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”…the nudge unit: controls on its techniques are vital.”
”Controls” instigated by whom, exactly? The government gave them the power in the first place – does anyone seriously think they’ll suddenly admit this ”unit” needs controlling?
The easy control & manipulation of people through propaganda was shocking to me and certainly explains peoples behavior in the 2nd WW. With total control of media they controlled the narrative and thus the mass of people. Many western governments are currently enacting laws to be able to censor social media. I think that it is obvious that with social media they have lost the ability to control the narrative. These censorship laws are being enacted with the guise of preventing hate speech and protecting the innocent. After 2 years of psyops terrifying innocent people, I think we need protection from our governments, not people on social media.
does Anyone know which article Mark Steyn was referring to on GB news which showed a graph of negative effectiveness of vax for different demographics please? I can’t find it yet. Thanks
I suspect the worst affected by the evil PsyOps campaign launched against the British people aren’t even aware that their mental health was deliberately damaged by SAGE and the authoritarians in Government.
Fear causes stress. Stress kills. The government knew this but used fear anyway. In my view that is tantamount to state murder. The government knew full well that the stress it caused would cause disease and in some cases death but decided that it would use this tactic anyway because clearly they believed the use of fear in this case was justified. This is a delibate act that caused suffering. It cannot be allowed to happen again and those responsbile must be punished accordingly.
Indeed there does need to be a rigorous inquiry but we also need penalties. Let us also not forget that government, especially Boris, acted in support of their globalist pals who seek absolute control over us in pursuit of their evil ends.
There will be no penalties. The inquiry will find that that “no individuals were responsible, it was a systemic failure and lessons will be learned”. Ho bloody ho ho.
It was terrible to use these methods to control the public, many of whom were already frightened. The propaganda still continues and many are still frightened.
The same tactics are being used to ‘nudge’ us on the ‘climate emergency’, but so many do not realise it and continue to believe the hype.
Indeed Jack. Perhaps the worst aspect of the so-called “climate emergency” is the indoctrination of our kids in schools which has been going on for far too long.
For my own part, I asked for actions by the police to be reviewed. It would appear that they arbitrarily chose what to enforce and who to enforce. They need a shot across their bows
I can’t even engage with the Covid-19 Inquiry. I remember being quite invested in the Hutton Inquiry, then the Iraq Inquiry. I’m not making that mistake again.
…..although it could be a good thing for the government to see just how many people feel sufficiently exercised by the past 2 years that they have taken the trouble to put their opinions/ feelings in print. The mistake is not to respond when given an opportunity. You are a regular contributer here with plenty to say and your experiences described to fellow posters…surely you could respond on behalf of those not aware of how to respond……those without a voice who would have plenty to say!
I entered all the points that HART were making. Retirement means your options for fun are somewhat reduced 🤣🤣
Three Legged Cross Warfield, Bracknell. Thanks to Graham for stopping off from his journey from Jersey to Manchester.
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Just get wise to it now because if you don’t then we are screwed. We can untie around this.
You just have to remember that when shit goes down then highly competent people get together or they don’t We are at that point where it isn’t a joke anymore. Our situation is going to deteriorate rapidly in the next few days economically and in every other way We have been lucky in that we have been able to piss about for years as an island. The best people need to get organised against the assault to come. In a sense it is too late once the hunger sets in.
Perhaps people will wake up when they get their end-of-year electricity and gas bills!
I feel sad about those still wearing face coverings. I saw a security guard standing outside doing some shitty job wearing a mask and can you imagine you go home every night fearful that you might catch a deadly disease.. Hopefully there will be enough elan vitae left in western countries to challenge this assault. Trump said a couple of years ago that the most pressing question of our time is, does the west have the will to survive or not.We are about to reach that point where the question will be asked in a very direct way.
China has been spreading woke ideology throughout our Universities and the Russians Climate non-science as well. We’ve been under a massive assault for decades, and all our government & “intelligence” services did was to embrace the woke and climate idiocy. They have literally been colluding with the enemy.
The cleaner at my gym, an African guy, wears one for work every night when I’m there. I always feel like encouraging him to take it off but he might have chosen to himself. Usually there’s no one else there, it’s so ridiculous. It makes me feel like those Davoscunts having their drinks served by masked waiters. Masks for the underclass. Disgusting.
I’m not holding my breath.
We seem to have moved on. Maybe we can thank, in some perverse fashion, Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine for this.
I still see a few benighted fools shuffling around wearing face-coverings. But these are, by now, a sad minority. Thank heavens for small mercies.
Does anyone really expect legal, moral, intellectual, economic, social, or spiritual resolution for the disaster that was the worldwide response to covid-19? I mean, personally, I think there’s an argument for the Chinese government to pay reparations on the order or twenty or thirty trillion dollars for the damage their atrocious approaches to food safety and animal welfare have caused. But I’m not waiting up nights for that to happen.
Did the UK government f-up in many of their responses to covid-19? Absolutely. There are more than a few Government ministers, senior police officers, respected public health mandarins, media editors, university professors, etc. with copious amounts of egg on their faces. Do I expect them ever to own up to these failures (let alone accept financial or legal responsibility for their panoply of errors)? No, I do not.
Are there lessons that can be learned from the pandemic response? Sure.… Read more »
As soon as they feel like it they will declare another pandemic and they will impose all the bowlocks over again only it will be faster,stricter and the punishments for wrong think will be worse.
Look at climategate … which revealed the academics were fudging the numbers and deliberately creating a trend where non existed … and what did the enquiry find: “nothing to see here” and far from learning the lessons … things just got worse and worse.
The covid “enquiry” (aka whitewash) will do the same. Nothing will come out from the British “enquiry” except for total idiocy like: “the public should have followed the rules better” … and “we need to learn lessons and lockup faster, harder and be more aggressive on useless muzzles and killer jabs”,
Just take one simple example. Fauci clearly authorised the gain of function research in Wuhan. So, what would have happened in a sane world? Immediately suspended from all public duties and the CIA/FBI immediately start investigating pending prosecution of him and everyone else involved. Instead … HE RAN US COVID RESPONSE … talk of putting the vampire in charge of the bloodbank.
“Did the UK government f-up in many of their responses to covid-19? “
Oh well maybe they did but the sad truth is that it’s much worse than that. They pretended it was an unprecedented deadly pandemic and a critical public health emergency, when it was clearly no such thing. I am convinced they lied, from very early on, maybe even the start. And they lied BIG. Folly and evil. Way more than a cock-up.
The Chinese are not solely responsible. Fauci is very much at the centre of all this with his outsourcing of gain of function research. If the CIA are not responsible I do not know who is.
There is also the suggestion that there is something new about this. For over a century, certainly since 1914, we in the Anglosphere have been living under an ever more refined scientifically crafted propaganda model. Especially in Britain: it was agreed that the Brits would stay in charge of the psy ops. Does anybody seriously believe that the coof was somehow an aberration and departure from the norm. But I suppose it has taught a lot of people that things aren’t what they seem and once you know that then you are spiritually compelled to investigate further.
Let’s not forget, that some care workers were so terrified by these evil lies from the Psyops nudge unit, that patients with dementia literally died of thirst because their carers were to scared to care for them, and the management were hiding away. What they did was literally terrorism. And, they should be prosecuted for manslaughter and terrorism.
I think the AIDS framework is a good way to understand this agenda. Or maybe look in your garden and see how few insects there are compared to just three years ago. At some point a critical mass of people will understand that we are living under a system of death. But of course before that we will have to undergo many trials and austerities. I don’t imagine that popular culture will survive the horror to come but you never know.
Everything in the garden’s just lurvely, and there’s no such thing as high levels of reported deaths and injuries:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-human-medicine-regulations-to-support-the-rollout-of-vaccines-one-year-review/regulations-174a-and-247a-one-year-review
Regulations 174A and 247A: one-year review2022-04-05
out of 28 “Stakeholders” asked for comments:
“Nine out of 10 respondents were not aware of any adverse consequences for patient safety as a consequence of the operation of R147A.”
(Only 28 people/organisations asked to comment – talk about an echo chamber)
“One respondent noted that without the ability to mobilise vaccine supply through a temporary authorisation, the vaccination programme would not have moved at the rapid pace at which R174A had enabled it to. They added that the very low number of adverse events occurring as a result of COVID-19 vaccination compared with very high number of successful COVID-19 vaccinations suggested that R174A has had a positive impact during this pandemic.”
You know what this is, of course, this is ‘Well, it worked so incredibly well this trial run we now have carte blanche to do it next time, and the time after that’
And, what does the phrase underlined even mean? How do you know a covid 19 vaccination is “successful”, what is your measure of success, since it doesn’t stop you getting it, passing it on etc and most of the re-infections have been in the vacinees?
Yes, it’s absolutely extraordinary, isn’t it? When I noticed it swan in on the RSS earlier today it took only a moment to know it just had to be linked here. And the reason was, it evoked a distant memory of Orwell/1984 and the passage on record production of boots – here lifted from
https://www.idpublications.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/THE-POLITICAL-ROLE-OF-MEMORY-AND-IDENTITY-IN-DYSTOPIAN-SOCIETIES.pdf
“Statistics were just as much a fantasy in their original version as in their rectified version. A great deal of the time you were expected to make them up out of your head. For example, the Ministry of Plenty’s forecast had estimated the output of boots for the quarter at 145 million pairs. The actual output was given as sixty-two millions. Winston, however, in rewriting the forecast, marked the figure down to fifty-seven millions, so as to allow for the usual claim that the quota had been overfulfilled. In any case, sixty-two millions was no nearer the truth than fifty-seven millions, or than 145 millions. Very likely no boots had been produced at all. Likelier still, nobody knew how many had been produced, much less cared. All one knew was that every quarter astronomical numbers of boots were produced on paper, while perhaps half the… Read more »
The MullenLowe Group were employed by the government at considerable cost to terrorise us, at no point did they or Parliament put a stop to it. At the same time they were ignoring all of it, knowing it was disproportionate
Obviously I share the sentiment but in a sense it is an admission of malleability. The absurdities weren’t very difficult to spot from the start. Nor was the clear evidence that those pushing this agenda didn’t believe in it themselves. These were huge stories even in the mainstream media. If you satisfy yourself by sucking on the tit of whatever gives you a feeling of emotional comfort then don’t complain afterwards that your free will was somehow drawn from you without your consent.
The psychological terror this government exerted on the public is unforgiveable! Was absolutely criminal – and they should not be allowed to get away with it.
100 percent. It is criminal to use fear on the population knowing that stress kills. They will get away with it though because they are the law! They gave themselves the power to kill their own people with fear and lockdowns supposedly to save more people from disease. Pure moral relativism the excuse for evil from countless historical monsters.
After waking op this morning to news of two dead children after vaccination in Lancashire, I end the day with news from my neighbour’s father of a man on a canal boat he met recently who told him that his wife had died straight after the injection – urged him to be thankful for every day.
My neighbour’s dad is triple jabbed – he now regrets it bitterly, has completly woken up and will have no more- his GP was ‘awake’ and told him not to be injected – he took no notice of her and now wishes he had.
So first hand reports of three deaths in one day- and they claim only 2,075 deaths since it all began….they really do think we are all totally stupid don’t they?
I’m changing to a GP who’s awake and said in March 2021 that she had no plans to be jabbed.
What stuns me about your sad report is that there is an ‘awake GP’ advising people against getting the jabs.
Despite Omicron “raging” throughout Australia, I don’t know anybody who has had it – for all the rampant “testing”.
I now know directly, or at second-hand (through a close friend or colleague), seven people who have experienced serious adverse events from the jabs.
Rather a shame that the Nudge Unit(s) couldn’t be nudged over a steep cliff (somewhere scenic of course).
No…into a burning pit!
The advantage of somewhere scenic is we could take nice photos of them as they go!
Look them in the eyes’ was a critical part of the Covid-19 campaign, which is estimated to have prevented between 1.5 – 1.8 million infections between April – December 2020, saving between 22,629 – 27,658 lives !!!!! WHAT
Simple…pure BS.
Sounds like a Neil Ferguson prediction.
Its on Gov. UK, so yes
It doesn’t matter what the public wants. The public will get what the control freaks want. Which is a whitewash.
Sadly, most people will just roll over and accept it, just as they have accepted all the authoritarianism that has built up over the last 30 odd years. I am still shocked at how little protest there was when they started rolling out CCTV in the streets.
The advertising company responsible is MullenLowe. Their executive partner Tom Knox was quoted as saying that “It’s certainly the biggest UK advertising campaign since World War Two”. He’s clearly proud of their work.
https://www.mullenlowegroupuk.com/case-studies/look-them-in-the-eyes
“It’s certainly the biggest UK advertising campaign since World War Two”
The country was put on a pretend war footing in many ways, especially rule by fiat and suspension of free speech and freedom of association and movement. But there was no war, other than the absurd “fight” against “the virus”.
It was not ‘advertising’ it was lying, black propaganda – let’s get something right shall we?
Just think of all that money Tom! Did you get a good price for your Granny as well?
Look that cancer sufferer in the eyes and tell him dying in the queue for treatment was worth it.
It’d be a terrible shame if some misfortune were to befall him.
Tom says: “The first was people management, involving persuasion and team leadership. My job is principally about getting people to do what, at first, they don’t necessarily want to.”
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tom-knox-67627864
https://www.mullenlowegroup.com/news/tom-knox-really-matters-advertising/
So Tom, how proud do you feel knowing that all your lies caused the deaths of untold thousands of people who were unable to access NHS treatment? I guess it was all worth it in the pursuit of the ‘Campaign of the year’ prize?
You should shut your anal sphincter and give your mouth a chance.
At the very least there should be Covid rackrenting tax, where the likes of MullenLowe are forced to hand over any profits they made from this deadly scam. And I mean at the very least.
On last night’s BBC news, there was an item about the high number of women waiting for treatment for gynaecological problems, caused by the ‘pandemic’. This was immediately followed by some ‘expert’ telling us of more COVID symptoms and then an item on the adverse effect the last two years have had on babies and toddlers. Joining up the dots is obviously far too difficult for news editors…….
Mrs FP has a very serious uterine prolapse and has an appointment with a gynaecologist on April 25th after a 12 week wait.
As they (Covidisters, maskateers and lockdown fanatics) say: “Watch this space” but at 73 along with many thousands of other women, younger and older, they haven’t got the time and resistance to pain to watch for ever.Still: “If it saves one life, etc,ad infinitum”
Sorry to hear this, I do hope Mrs FP goes on OK. I rang our surgery the other day to ask for a simple blood test (cancer related). All I was offered was a telephone consultation in 2 weeks. As you say time is in short supply when we reach our three score years and ten !
Thank you for your concern, Javy, it’s really appreciated.
Hope things go well with your own problems.
Unexpectedly, I’m thinking a lot today about how we left my mum to die alone in her care home (not that we had any say in the matter). It’s more than a year ago now, and I don’t think I’ll ever get over the guilt and anger at myself for not insisting on visiting her. I’d like everyone involved at government level in what’s happened for the past two years to feel “personally threatened” for the rest of their wretched lives.
Hello MDH, your comment has prompted me to log in and post a comment which I haven’t done for a very long time, I’ve been lurking and not feeling up to commenting, and the reason is the same as your anger. My father died at his care home in November last year. Once his doctor said he was dying my sister and I and Dad’s sister were allowed 24 hour access to him. He died 4 days after the doctor had seen him.
From March 20 we had been shut out of his life and limited to once a week phone conversations through locked double glazed doors. In the summer of 21 things did ease off and we were allowed as per government guidelines to take him out in his wheelchair. This was wonderful but cannot make up for all I missed and cannot rid me of my feelings of anger and failure. I don’t think that I can ever recover. I feel our government and health officials have no idea what they did to care home residents and their families (or anyone else for that matter). One day on a telephone conversation my father said to me he… Read more »
So sorry to hear this. It’s truly terrible. My condolences.
Thank you Hypatia. My own experience is just the tip of the iceberg. All those elderly people separated from life partners, not allowed to help them feed and drink, allowed only to be there in the hours before their death. Just terrible.
I am sorry for what both you and your Dad and other family members went through Wendy. I don’t know if it is of any comfort to you but I would imagine that there are a lot of other people up and down the country with similar stories of such loss and cruelty to tell.
I cannot imagine what it must have been like and realise how fortunate I was in that sense that my parents, while elderly, continue to live independently and so my family was spared that experience.
One of my relatives was diagnosed with terminal cancer during the lockdown and was finally transferred to a hospice. Their siblings were not permitted to visit and had to stand outside the hospice in the middle of winter saying “goodbye” through a window. They couldn’t even hear each other properly.
Some of the things which have been done during the ‘pandemic’ in the name of so-called “caring” are nothing short of barbaric.
Just terrible for your family saying goodbye through a hospice window. I am glad a plucked up courage to post today as it’s been a comfort and help reading everyone’s posts. It’s a feeling of being amongst people who understand and are applauded by the horror of what has been done.
Keep coming back wendy and post, who knows your posting could help other people and they likewise might not feel so alone and that no one understands what happened to them and what they are going throug.
I wasn’t ever going to post here again, because of all the Uke/Russian rubbish, but I can’t let this pass without mentioning that I’ e started a petition for a public inquiry into the care homes horror. Please sign:
Click this link to sign the petition:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/614106/sponsors/new?token=D624ChxKcq6ywxJhvn0m
My petition:
Call a public inquiry into treatment of care home residents in the ‘pandemic’
Over the last two years, care home residents have been locked up, isolated, denied contact with their loved ones, and stripped of all that made their life worth living – on a pretence of keeping them ‘safe’. We need to know who was responsible for these outrages and ensure they never happen again.
Remembering my father, in care with dementia and living only for his children’s visits, and on behalf of the victims and their loved ones throughout the UK, I call for justice and restitution. We need to know how this appalling cruelty was – and still is – allowed to happen, and make sure it never happens again. Care home managers should not be allowed to cover their dreadful behaviour in a false cloak of safetyism.
Click this link to sign the petition:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/614106/sponsors/new?token=D624ChxKcq6ywxJhvn0m
I’ve missed you, Annie. Please start posting here again.
God bless you, dear sister.
Danny
Thank you, Danny. God bless you too.
Seconded – we have been wondering where you were.
and signed
Signed. I had missed that one.
signed
Thank you Annie, I will sign it. Also glad you have posted, I missed you too.
Hello Wendy. Thanks for your reply – I’m glad I prompted you to share your experience, even though it’s obviously very painful. People in our situation must run into thousands – if not tens of thousands. What has happened to us and our loved ones is beyond retribution. We can’t let our anger and guilt consume us, but by God it’s hard.
It is!
Terrible, when I hear people say ‘allowed’ it makes me so angry, they don’t care what they have done
Dan I feel they don’t care what they have done because they don’t know how ordinary people live. And they were pushed into defence mode by folks like the Labour Party
I spent an hour on Saturday afternoon replying to the consultation.
I expect the whole thing will be a giant whitewash but if I don’t participate I can hardly complain after the event.
Most of the blame for our democracy falling apart lies with our politicians, media and civil servants, but some of it is down to us, because we don’t participate enough.
Yes I replied to it too, and feel the same as you about whitewash but still needing to try to participate.
I was so sorry to read about your experience above.
People in authority who were responsible for this need to be brought to account and punished.
I know realad but I doubt they will.
Like everything else to do with covid, the Insights teams, are now an actual global business, making profit, in this case by terrorising the public. Previously, government objective was to keep calm and carry on. Now it’s the opposite