I recently noted that South Korea, poster child for the ‘contain and vaccinate’ strategy, had reached the same level of excess mortality as Sweden. Despite keeping infections to a minimum until after its vaccine rollout, the country has ended up with the same total death toll as Sweden – which took a famously relaxed approach to dealing with Covid.
South Korea sustained the vast majority of its excess mortality in one major post-vaccination wave during March of this year. Another country that’s seen a deadly post-vaccination is Singapore. In October of last year, excess mortality reached 30%, and didn’t fall back to zero until the end of January.
It now appears that Singapore has joined South Korea in the ranks of ‘contain and vaccinate’ countries to reach parity with Sweden. This March, the country experienced a second deadly post-vaccination wave, which took excess mortality back up above 30% – as shown in the chart below:
Note that, by the start of March, Singapore had administered enough booster doses to cover almost 70% of the population – far more than Britain or the United States (see below). So vaccinating almost 80% of over 80s and almost 90% of those aged 60–79, and then ‘boosting’ similar numbers, didn’t stop two deadly post-vaccination waves.
One caveat when comparing South Korea and Singapore with Sweden is that excess mortality in Sweden was mostly sustained in 2020 – as opposed to late 2021 or early 2022 in the other two countries. This means the people who died in South Korea and Singapore lived slightly longer than those Sweden.
As you may recall, Singapore isn’t the only country that’s on to its second, deadly post-vaccination wave.
Despite taking an early lead in the ‘vaccination race’ and getting 80% of over 60s double-vaccinated by mid-January, Israel has now seen two waves where excess mortality exceeded 30%. In fact, in the country’s latest wave, excess mortality topped 40% – something that didn’t happen in 2020:
Singapore and Israel’s numbers are very difficult to reconcile with commonly heard claims of 90% vaccine effectiveness against death. Indeed, they suggest that vaccine effectiveness against death could be less than 50%.
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The Tory’s demise has been telegraphed for a generation or more, probably since they knifed Thatcher and tried in the intervening years to accommodate the views of both extremes of the party rather than insist that they followed the common central line, or leave.
To blame Farage for precipitating their collapse is pointless, although thoroughly expected of a party that lacks the capacity for self-reflection. Reform has simply filled the void left by their implosion… it is a symptom, not a cause.
I do not recall much accommodation to Eurosceptic, freedom loving patriots. The running was by and for left wing globalists and deficit spending. Add in an enthusiasm for quangos and wokery with “vote blue get green”.
I think Brexit was the final straw. The one that broke the back of a party trying to maintain the fiction of unity when, at best, there were three or more factions tilting for supremacy.
Their eventual demise was inevitable, short of one side or other gaining sufficient dominance to expel the other. Which they were never actually going to do, in any case, as the trappings of power are too seductive.
Of course, Labour suffer from much the same issue, but possibly over an even wider spectrum, though they currently have both the MSM and Civil Service ‘on side’, for the time being.
Both of which are other factors in the equation, for the moment at least…
“If Farage succeeds in destroying the Tories,”
The Tories have done this to themselves.
“In the Telegraph, Annabel Denham argues that while Farage’s Reform is gaining momentum, his quest to obliterate the Tories might doom us to endless Left-wing rule.”
1) The Tories have obliterated themselves.
2) The Tories were and are left-wing.
3) Like any politician, Farage seeks to gain more support than rivals. Singling him out as being somehow to blame for “left wing rule” is a crock.
I think we have had left wing rule of various sorts for a very long time in the UK, with the occasional correction. A definition I like is to characterise the political left as having the “unconstrained vision” (see below for a summary of Thomas Sowell’s contrasting definitions) and the right as having the “constrained vision”. I think the unconstrained vision is what most people buy into and have done for a very long time, in most rich world “liberal democracies”.
In what he terms the “constrained vision,” man is by nature flawed, selfish, and limited. Under the constrained vision, man seeks to deal with his flaws and excesses by establishing institutions of restraint: the separation of powers, constitutions, etc. Those who employ the constrained vision see abuses of power by leaders like Napoleon Bonaparte as inevitable. For this reason, limitations must be placed on power and on the institutions themselves so that it is more difficult for any individual to abuse them. The idea is to decentralize power so that man’s flaws are not catastrophic.
The “unconstrained vision,” by contrast, sees abuses of power as being caused by not having chosen the right leaders or established the right kinds of institutions. “Implicit,” writes Sowell, “is the notion that the potential is very different from the actual, and that means exist to improve human nature toward its potential, or that such means can be evolved or discovered, so that man will do the right thing for the right reason rather than for ulterior psychic or economic rewards.” And central to the unconstrained vision is the notion that human beings are highly malleable; they can be trained in the service of some ideal.
That reminds me the so-called Tory Eurosceptic Tories said a Brexit referendum could not be won and dod their best to prove it.
I hope I am wrong about the voters
There’s a much better video of “my generation ” on the web:
https://youtu.be/qN5zw04WxCc?si=nqoDtBMBfFk1bbX-
A real time capsule of what we’ve lost.
Totally agree with June Slater’s comment here. Obviously I did not watch globalist King Charles’ speech but the sad reality is that Prince William is exactly the same.It’s evidently not just the cabinets that have been penetrated;
”Anyone using the word Diversity as a plus point in the description of anything and especially Christianity, shows which team they’re batting for, and it isn’t Britain, or our values, or Christianity.
The King’s speech was filled with references to diversity . His speech sent a shiver down my spine.
Sitting in a chapel, as a backdrop was a hopeful sign, alas it’s a ‘ former’ chapel, now as he describes it a vibrant community space.
Our churches aren’t supposed to be a vibrant community space. They’re supposed to be hallowed ground. The public have lost interest in the church because the church has lost interest in them . It’s a business and it’s spiritually no longer present.
It appears rotten from the head down.
I’m no Bible thumper, but it seems to me other religions are now promoted by The very head of our own. Do other faiths surrender their holy ground for vibrant community spaces?
Do the heads of other religions have leaders who sacrifice their system to incorporate others?
He inherited his job, he needs no tests to prove him worthy and it comes with abundant powers that need a hand with a light touch and a fair mind.
I see before me as a king, so far removed from the needs and concerns of his people he is merely an aloof presence, with a mind that can be easily manipulated by advisors in close proximity, whose goals are not a thriving British nation. You could be forgiven for thinking a very destructive force is at work that finds our needs and ambitions rather tiresome and tedious, and certainly no consideration of theirs.
We are merely a nuisanc, an obstacle, until enough people have been distracted whilst a massive influx of others are settled into place.
A new melee of individuals with no allegiance to anything we hold dear.
Their imported faith as alien to us as the languages they speak…
The King’s vocabulary would probably not be noticed in many households on a busy Christmas Day… His words rolled along his sanctimonious road with intervals of selfish concerns , interjected to display him as a warm being with problems similar to our own. It failed to warm me to him.
It simply filled my heart with foreboding.”
Joseph Robertson makes good comments and sound observations here. Yes it’s Cultural Marxism, and inconveniently for many here, neither Schwab nor Soros ( to name only two hugely powerful and destructive forces ) happen to be female ( 7mins );
”Patriots, a seismic shift has occurred!
Reform UK has now surpassed the Tories in membership. Is this the start of a peaceful revolution?
Watch this video to fully understand what we need to do in the battle for Britain’s soul.”
https://x.com/nero_returns/status/1872664143465267665
John O’Looney reiterating his theory about a ”standing army” being imported under the Trojan Horse guise of ”asylum seekers”;
”Your government is betraying you and mass importing UN troops.
This is Starmer’s already mentioned “standing army” ready for the next lockdown enforcement and any attempt to remove him from destroying this country from within.”
https://x.com/OlooneyJohn/status/1872691376661643724