I
It is obvious that there are two major strategies being adopted by our enemies at this moment in the Covid saga. One is DOUBLE DOWN; the other is REVERSE FERRET.
Both of these phrases have been heard a lot in the last decade or so, and since I am interested in language I have looked into them a bit.
‘Double down’, v., was originally a gambling term, derived from blackjack, when one increased one’s stake on one’s cards. At first the phrase was used by analogy for similar adventures, involving risk or hope, but in the last ten years or so it has been used as a synonym for reaffirmation or confirmation of something to which one is committed: hence not frivolous but serious. The phrase has become bureaucratised. On the one hand, it means “taking a risk for the sake of a possibly good outcome”, and, on the other, it means “publicly reaffirming one’s commitment to an apparently worthy cause”. In practice, the bureaucratic meaning also conceals, sometimes only barely, the fact that what we have before us is someone “publicly reaffirming their commitment to an actually unworthy cause”.
‘Reverse ferret’, n., is a term which is attributed to Kelvin MacKenzie: deriving, apparently, from an original instruction by MacKenzie, then editor of The Sun, to place a ferret in a politician’s trousers, as it were (meaning to disconcert a politician with an awkward line of questioning). A ‘reverse ferret’ was announced the moment a particular ferreting strategy no longer worked, and so another editorial line had to be adopted. The phrase soon came to mean ‘a sudden reversal in an established political line’, and has presumably survived because of the suggestion that there is something shameful about the reversal. It may also help that the origin of the word ‘ferret’ is furittus, Latin for ‘little thief’.
So on the one hand we have the apparently strong (and foolish) figure, who ‘doubles down’; and on the other we have the actually shrewd (and shameful) figure, who has to engage in the ‘reverse ferret’. Here we have Machiavelli’s lion and fox all over again, those exponents of the political methods of force and fraud, now involved in completely up-to-date political tactics. But our lion is a cowardly lion, stupidly holding onto his position, hence, in fact, an ox or donkey. Our fox is, alas, a ferret.
The Spectator in its issues of August 27th and September 3rd has supplied us with some remarkable evidence of these rival tactics. It is worth preserving some of that evidence in amber. For doubling down we have Lee Cain, Dominic Cummings and Michael Gove. For the reverse ferret we have Rishi Sunak. But the ferret moved first, and provoked the donkeys to bray.
II
Rishi Sunak engaged in his reverse ferret shortly before it was confirmed that he would not be Prime Minister. Fraser Nelson, who interviewed him for the Spectator, engaged in a certain amount of paraphrase: which is a mercy for the reader, since Nelson’s prose is better than Sunak’s speech. But this means that some of Sunak’s own words at important points are lost. For instance the important answer to Nelson’s question about whether Sunak should have resigned if he disapproved of pandemic protocols is given in paraphrase rather than quotation: “To quit in that way during a pandemic, he says, would have been irresponsible.” It would be interesting to know exactly what he said and not have it paraphrased.
However, he did say:
I wasn’t allowed to talk about the trade-off… The script was not to ever acknowledge them. The script was: oh, there’s no trade-off, because doing this for our health is good for the economy… I felt like no one talked. We didn’t talk at all about missed doctors’ appointments, or the backlog building in the NHS in a massive way. That was never part of it… Those meetings were literally me around that table, just fighting. It was incredibly uncomfortable every single time…
[At one point, on the subject of education]: I was very emotional about it. I was like: “Forget about the economy. Surely we can all agree that kids not being in school is a major nightmare” or something like that. There was a big silence afterwards. It was the first time someone had said it. I was so furious… In every brief, we tried to say: let’s stop the ‘fear’ narrative. It was always wrong from the beginning. I constantly said it was wrong… I was like: “Summarise for me the key assumptions, on one page, with a bunch of sensitivities and rationale for each one.” In the first year I could never get this.[In December 2021 Sunak spoke to Johnson]: I just told him it’s not right: we shouldn’t do this… I used the closest formulation of words that I could [to imply the threat of resignation – without actually resigning]… We shouldn’t have empowered the scientists in the way we did. And you have to acknowledge trade-offs from the beginning. If we’d done all of that, we could be in a very different place… We helped shape [events]: with the fear messaging, empowering the scientists and not talking about the trade-offs…[If he had been Prime Minister] I would just have had a more grown-up conversation with the country.
What do we have here? Remorse and regret: remorse for what was done, regret for what was not done. But also rectitude, and a sketchy repetition of things which sceptics were saying right at the start – though without conceding that lockdowns were actually a mistake. The tone is weaselly, indeed, almost adolescent: and this is because Sunak is engaging in the reverse ferret: always a tricky art, and especially tricky if one is one of the first to do so – thus drawing upon oneself all of the opprobrium of the double-downers.
III
Double-downers don’t like reverse-ferreters. So just as Cain struck down Abel, so Lee Cain (Director of Communications at No. 10 Downing Street at the start of the pandemic) came to the Spectator a week later in order to strike down Rishi Sunak.
Cain wrote:
Rishi Sunak presents an alarming picture of what happened during lockdown – and one echoed by lockdown sceptics who claim that Covid policy was a disaster, stoked by fear and based on questionable scientific advice. Worst of all, they cry, the trade-offs were not even discussed. But none of this is true. I know because I sat around the cabinet table as politicians, scientists, economists and epidemiologists agonised over the extent to which lockdown would devastate lives and livelihoods. It was not an easy decision for anyone. Looking back, it’s clear that the biggest mistake we made wasn’t locking down, but doing so too late…
The initial modelling used for crucial decisions, we found out, was very wrong. A review by data experts recruited by Dominic Cummings had uncovered that, unless we changed course immediately, the NHS would be overwhelmed within three weeks… [Johnson was told of the Cummings model]: But not until a week later did the PM declare a national lockdown: one that saved tens of thousands of lives…
What I don’t recognise is the idea that, as Mr Sunak suggests, lockdown’s trade-offs were never properly discussed. They were highlighted daily by Chris Whitty in our Covid meetings. They weighed heavily on everyone involved. But we believed that – morally, politically and practically – lockdown was the right thing to do. Yes, it was a flawed, blunt tool, but it was the best one we had in a limited toolbox. We desperately needed time to improve NHS capacity, buy more ventilators, develop drugs, purchase PPE, and of course create a vaccine. Lockdown gave us that time… It wasn’t these actions we should regret, it was weeks wasted by a government too pusillanimous to act. The truth is that we locked down late because we had become paralysed by the fear of the trade-offs.
What do we have here? A different sort of rectitude, a firm rebuttal of any sceptical challenge to the established line, and the assertion of something which has become a standard ‘critical’ (though not actually very critical) position that the mistake was not in locking down but in not locking down early enough. Cain’s rebuttal of Sunak’s point about ‘trade-offs’ is of course weak. No doubt everyone ‘agonised’ over how lockdown would ‘devastate’ lives – but agonising is not considering costs and benefits, agonising is not reasoning or reflecting, and in fact agonising sounds very much as if the decision had already been made and so whatever agonising there was was in fact anguished anticipation of the difficulty of getting the public to accept the decision which had already been made: by Neil Ferguson, Dominic Cummings and others.
IV
Cain also expresses loyalty to Cummings, so we should perhaps hear Cummings, courtesy of Twitter:
The Sunak interview is dangerous rubbish, reads like a man whose epicly bad campaign has melted his brain & he’s about to quit politics. Also pins blame unfairly on [image of a trolley, Cumming’s whimsical symbol for Johnson] & others. Will blog later.
He seems to be suffering Johnson-like from rewrite-history-syndrome.
What have we here? Well, evidently a far more formidable double-downer than Cain: one far too busy to check the spelling of ‘epically’. One of the aptest jokes in The Private Eye Annual 2020 – and one that Private Eye itself has signally failed to reflect on seriously enough in the pages of the magazine as events have proceeded – is that the year 2020 can be divided into B.C., Before Covid, and A.D., Anno Dominici.
Anno Dominici should be title of Cumming’s eventual book, should he be courageous enough to come out of the cellar of his Substack pages and write one. I am surprised that the phrase ‘Anno Dominici’ has not been taken up generally as a very good joke: the sort of joke which has a streak of truth in it. Of course, there are good reasons why the Guardian and the BBC would be reluctant to acknowledge that they were ‘cummingsed’ in 2020. But Ian Hislop should certainly ask himself why Private Eye was so willing to adopt Cummings’s new calendrical system without criticism.
We certainly need a good book about Dominic Cummings. There is a good article in the Guardian about his Substack scriptures by a Professor of Politics at Cambridge, David Runciman, but not much else. Tim Shipman of the Times, in his books on Brexit, was clearly entranced. The evidence is that Michael Gove was also entranced. But at some point someone needs to write a study of how such a brutal and brilliant Rationalist as Cummings achieved so much influence in Westminster in 2020 (and how his impact, as a wrecking ball in politics, was so much at odds with his impact in 2016). A ‘Rationalist’ is someone who thinks that political problems are problems to be solved, like problems in physics, rather than settled. The year 2020 should be considered ‘The Year of the Rationalists’.
The singular truth about COVID-19 is that while the illness may have posed a problem, this was not a problem (if it was ever a single problem) which could be solved by politics – since, by its nature, politics is not a sphere of solution but a sphere of settlement. The major failing of Dominic Cummings’s entire intellect is in his refusal, or inability, to admit this simple and fundamental fact. The failing is an important one: since in the West it is the figures who do not recognise this fact who are the greatest threat to our liberty and law: and who become bewildering enlightened versions of the despotic figures of the East like Xi and Putin.
V
From the sublime to the ridiculous: I have mentioned Michael Gove, so let us have his cardboard box of tuppenny bits on the subject, also supplied to the Spectator. Read it in the tone of Kipling’s ‘If’:
The accumulating crises – in energy, the public finances, the cost of living, the labour market and Ukraine – will test governments across the globe. Reflecting on how to deal with these challenges, I am sure the right approach is Marxist – specifically the path charted by the Italian communist thinker Antonio Gramsci, who enjoined on his followers “pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will”. Be illusionless about the scale of the problems you face, assume the worst absolutely will happen, prepare for troubles to come not single spies but in battalions. But at the same time believe that honesty about those challenges will inspire confidence in your team that they can bring you bad news early and in full. Reassure them that it is better to have dreadful worst-case scenarios tested properly in advance, even if they are leaked to the media, rather than have them manifest in reality because no one was prepared to speak the bleak truth. And through honesty about difficulty, and immersion in the detail of what can be fixed and how quickly, progress is made. Solutions are tested, rejected, refined and then fixed. Trust is established, a sense of shared purpose instilled, difficulties are overcome. And what cannot be fixed can be faced with a fortitude strengthened in the common struggle. That was the approach taken in preparation for a no-deal Brexit and during the Covid crisis. Of course, mistakes were made. Many. They always are when dealing with the complexities of government when all the choices are bad and the available information is limited. But it is to Boris Johnson’s great credit that he recognised that at times of crisis, radical candour is required if radical solutions are to work.
What do we have here? More doubling down. But the tone here is not aggrieved, like Cain, or full of resistance and mechanised conviction, like Cummings, but full of what we should probably call ‘pomp and circumstance’. Put a pompous man, like Gove, in a difficult circumstance, like a pandemic, and the result seems to be a Conservative mind in a state of chaos without being aware of it. The most important word in the passage above is ‘Gramsci’. Gramsci, the Marxist: Gramsci, now famous for the phrase “the long march through the institutions”. But the imprisoned, agitated, resentful, intellectual Gramsci is hardly a poster boy for Gove. And everything else Gove says is bilge: Harley Street bilge, Reform Club bilge, Broad Waistcoat bilge: but it is, above all, doubling down bilge, and shows that Gove is actually a more alarming figure than either Cain or Cummings, since they are in earnest. Gove is not in earnest: not in the slightest.
Perhaps Gove was a trolley, too, like Johnson: and the vacuity evident here was a space into which Cummings over the years could pour his rationalism. But for that we also need a book about Gove.
VI
I suppose that there is a logic to the arguments surrounding events of great political moment like COVID-19.
• First, there is confusion.
• Second, there is an established line.
• Third, there is scepticism about this line: which is suppressed or ignored. (Only sceptics care about realities; the exponents of the established line concern themselves with all the politics and propaganda made necessary by an unpolitical policy.)
• Fourth, there is the established line coming into all too evident conflict with realities – this is the moment of vindication of the sceptics, who, however, receive no credit for it. (They have to settle for being praiseworthy rather than being praised, as Adam Smith might have put it.)
• Fifth, there is the breaking up of the established line, first announced by the reverse ferrets: as those who formerly defended the established line abandon it.
• Sixth, the stauncher souls double down on their bet, and cry shame on the reverse ferrets.
• Seventh, the reverse ferrets are not only vindicated by events but begin to dominate the narrative, since the established line has almost entirely broken up, and only the most stubborn double-downer in his attic can hold onto his former, though always flawed, idea.
We have reached the fifth and sixth stage. The question is how long Gove on the pompous side and Cummings on the mechanised side will hold (or, in the case of Gove, pretend to hold) onto what was always a flawed idea.
It is likely that the narrative in the future will be controlled by the reverse ferrets. They of course will want to pretend that nothing happened and there is nothing to see here.
Dr. James Alexander is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Bilkent University in Turkey.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
More idiotic knee jerking…
This seems more of a plan, unfortunately. How long before ‘Alas, we didn’t want to bring in vaccine passports but …’?
Nothing knee-jerk about it. Children are also victims of this terror campaign. Those responsible were never going to leave them out of it. This is war.
Governments have always oppressed their own citizens but Johnson and his gang are taking things to a new level.
Exempt your children.
I will not be wearing a mask.
I have an exemption lanyard for emergencies to avoid abuse.
It is certainly an “omnicon”
Take your lanyard off. It’s an acceptance of their rules.
Pick your battles.
I have never worn and won’t wear a lanyard.
But if someone asked for the exempt card, I’ll just show it.
Nah. Exempt is the word Juliet Bravo.
Using their hexes plays to their strategy. Don’t play.
If someone asks, you tell them to mind their own bloody business. If they are deputed to ask under rules made by Johnson’s criminal government then simply tell them you are exempt. That’s all they are entitled to know.
screw the fines, I wont pay they will have to jail me, oh I forgot I am very much used to it after 2 years.
BTW isn’t the injection mandatory for all prisoners and visitors? perhaps thats their plan to stick the tracker into all of us
If they ask, say that you are exempt. If they ask for ‘proof’ or demand to know why you are exempt, tell them that you are under no obligation to tell them, they should not be asking, and that you will complain to their employer (and do so).
What seemed to be happening last time was that if you complained the company would say that it wasn’t their policy and it wouldn’t happen again – but of course it did. So either they have no control over their staff (which seems unlikely), or it was a case of maintaining deniability – which frankly seems much more likely.
I gave in and got a lanyard after a few months of it last time, but not wearning it again. If they want an argument they can have one!
I don’t wear it. I have it in my pocket.
A woman in my town was assaulted for being mask-less in the co-op.
I don’t want to have a bottle smashed in my face and will wave a lanyard to avoid that(!)
That’s awful, but if they try and assault me it will end very badly for them. I refuse to comply with this bs
Will they face a backlash? 😊
Anyone prepared to assault a woman for being ‘maskless’ is unlikely to be able to read a lanyard.
I suspect the sort of tossers who behave like that wouldn’t try it with someone who was bigger than them – most bullies are cowards.
Completely agree. Never worn a mask, never worn a lanyard.
Well said.
I agree, but are you the parent of teenagers? Their biggest fear is to stand out. My children know masks are nonsense. They hate them. I never wear one and try to model logical thought and freedom from fear.
Yet they wear them at school and will not agree to be exempted (I’ve offered to write to the head teachers)
Do the decent thing and withdraw them from such a hostile environment.
It’s not that simple.
Nothing worth doing ever is.
Our son of 15 took some real convincing as he also didn’t want to stand out. But he eventually agreed and I exempted him without even dignifying their request to know why. What sad and outrageous times we live in.
How did you exempt him? Just curious as, without any actual medical conditions or special needs, is it not difficult to get a doctor to agree to that?
You do not need a Doctor to exempt you. YOu simply have to state you have an exemption. The Law states that an exemption is a reasonable reason not to wear a mask and that may be something like wearing them makes you stressful or whatever. Nobody has the right under the Law to ask what your exemption is. You need carry no proof of an exemption.
Ah ok. It’s different here in the Netherlands. I’m chasing doctors to exempt my daughter. One’s on holiday and I’m waiting on the other to return my call. We can’t just go ahead and exempt them here ourselves. It’s the same strictness for adults. You need a legit medical reason.
Where do you get a doctor to consult these days? Aren’t they all too busy saving the NHS?
Throw the lanyard away, it is a form of compliance and completely unnecessary. You cannot be asked what your exemption is. The Law states you have to have a reasonable excuse. Illegal, unjust, unproven, undemocratic, obscene, human rights breaking Laws seems good enough to me. I have been asked about a mask twice in total and simply said “I have an exemption”. Simply be polite.
No, in short. Never know when it might come in useful. I got asked to show it on a bus once and did so, whilst explaining that legally I don’t have to show it (I’m not sure he was convinced). No guarantee I’d have been allowed on the bus without it, whatever the rights and wrongs of it.
Agree with you. One problem, for at least 20 months now, what is legal, illegal makes not the slightest difference to those currently enforcing their diktats on the masses. The Law as the last resort and safety net has, the only safe haven remaining has also been corrupted beyond all recognition.
The law belongs to whoever holds the key to the door, has the loudest voice, and biggest guns.
I think this one is a tough concept for people to accept. Our laws are supposed to protect us. It can be a very helpless feeling, indeed. But you are correct, and I don’t think TPTB would launch this operation if they didn’t have control of the legal systems of the world.
Already done. Hopefully lots more will do the same this time.
Uber super variant “omnicon”
Behind this is obviously that the BoJo non-government again uses the general public as pawn which can readily be sacrificed in order to pacify union officials. A Tory non-government, mind you.
The (and I hate myself for thinking it) optimistic interpretation is that they want to be seen to be doing something for the bedwetters, whilst not really doing anything.
Unfortunately for them, the bed wetters already vote for the opposition and those they are imposing any ridiculous restrictions on will likely never vote for them again after these past 2 years.
All he needed was a backbone and some honest science. Unless it’s not a cock up I guess Toby?
The problem with this calculation is that it doesn’t work out: The people who are in favour of this will pressure for it to be extendend to the maximum amount possible step by step. Just as they’ve been doing all the time.
So? Fuck them.
Get a spine.
Get a grip on reading comprehension.
Do not insult Tories by claiming this non-Government is Tory – in no way, shape or form is it Tory. It is Fascist. It is Communistic. It has elements of Marxism. There is no Tory in it.
The “not the Conservative party”, as Christopher Booker said years ago (and that was before they abandoned fiscal conservatism). Far removed from their base. I can see either a new party challenging or some Tory equivalent to Corbyn if they go on like this.
Reform will be making massive head roads into their vote in my view. Richard Tice is standing at the forthcoming by-election and he is reporting very favourable responses from people on the doorstep (a Tory area) who are mostly saying they are not happy at all with this non-Government. It should be an interesting result and Farage is talking about making a comeback to the front line as well.
Sounds like he has good reason to, the Channel’s a disgrace, and vaxports are beyond the pale for him. However, for him – and for me – GB News is important. People can say there’s only Neil Oliver who criticises the “vaccines” – even if this is true, it’s probably one more than many media outlets. Definitely a step in the right direction. Mark Steyn, who I remember from years ago, is also good (he once quipped that in his gun owning part of the States, he always left his car keys in the ignition at night so that he’d know w here to find them – apparently thieves would travel to areas without many guns)..
I’m hoping reform get a decent percentage of the vote. If so people may see them as a viable party to vote for.
It’s what they call themselves
When was there ever a real Conservative party? Long ago someone (Evelyn Waugh, I think) complained that for all the talk of the Tories putting the clock back, they had never managed to put it back a single second, or even hold it still.
An occupying power, not a government.
Americans bear arms to protect themselves against each other but mainly against their own government.
I wish we had them.
I’m going with the ex coppers advice in the Tele comments. Refuse to say anything if actually unlucky enough to get stopped by the police.
I’m only carrying cash and my phone (pin code lock only) and in the extremely unlikely event will not identify myself. Work know if I don’t show up for 48 hours not to call looking for me. Refuse to answer questions in the station, court, and pay no fines. Time to gum up the system, enough is enough.
“” Under what authority do you stop me”
“Do you have a warrant”
Am I under arrest?
Am I free to leave?
Rinse and repeat
“As a parent of three children who will have to wear masks in school tomorrow, I am livid.”
OK. well at the very least, demand a copy of their risk assessment – the judgement regarding Child AB vs Tapton School last year quite clearly stated:
“The Court also noted that the school had not provided enough evidence to find it had conducted a full risk assessment or that it was sufficient. Neither the government nor the school has assessed the risk of physical or psychological harms from wearing masks throughout almost all the school day (in classrooms, in corridors and on public transport) and the Court acknowledged the detailed evidence of those harms by Chartered Health and Safety Practitioner, Ms Simone Plaut and Clinical Psychologist, Dr Zenobia Storah.”
https://fos-sa.org/?p=4477
The same could be said for the entire government approach to Covid since day one. No risk assessment ever.
That decision re. Tapton Trust is fascinating – simply because it has received so little publicity.
Sorry Toby, if you don’t tell your children to exempt themselves, you’re a spineless person, and very much complicit in this child abuse.
That’s below the belt considering how much Toby has put himself in the firing line over the last 18 months.
Sorry but what he does or doesn’t tell his children is neither yours or my business.
Seconded. We are all under pressure and comments like that do not help.
Thirded! A house divided against itself cannot stand and that’s why we should pull together rather than apart.
I’m just glad to see Toby expressing some anger over what this government are doing to our children. Although we shouldn’t be telling the children to self-exempt, I think every parent should have the conversation with their school aged offspring that self-exemption is an option for them, and explain why.
Endorsed by me 100%
All in favour? Passed at time of typing Ayes 89, downticks 3 – the ayes have it, the ayes have it
We are pulling together? By saying none of our children will be wearing the dirty rags
Yes. I agree too. We can’t beat up people because they don’t agree entirely.
Given the age of his children, I don’t think they will listen to him anyway. They will just want to fit in with their friends, unless they are extraordinarily independent minded.
Even I would have acquiesced at school, I suspect despite being in constant low level trouble for attitude etc.
You are incredibly naive if you think that this is easy for children or parents. And I write as one who is horrified by the child abuse it implies. Windy virtue-signalling solves nothing.
Masks are so 2020. I never wore one then, I won’t wear one now. Especially not for a Moronic virus.
Ditto!
I agree. I’m now going to try the “I’m exempt “ strategy.
Ill report back how that goes down.
This is really stressing me out. I thought we’d escaped most of this madness and now they’re re-introducing it. So much for the ‘irreversible’ pledge. Now they’ve re-introduced masks they’ll just keep extending them to more situations.
Ironically all these mandates and restrictions have actually given me a valid reason not to mask up as the thought of having to wear one literally freaks me out!
But the fines are the last straw. I have an exemption lanyard but I won’t be getting much use out of it as I’ll just have to stop going shopping until the mandates are removed. It’s just not worth the stress and hassle. I did it before, so I’ll do it again.
I have an eye test next week but I’ll probably cancel that as I won’t wear a mask, and I’ll tell them exactly why I’m cancelling. They’ll lose several hundred pounds of business from me due to these mandates.
You won’t make a difference by sitting at home cowed.
Hit the shops and trains just as normal, thereby, rub it in their face, stand out.
THAT will make a difference.
You have nothing to fear but that fear itself, especially so as any Brit has this get-out-of-jail-free card in the form of the self-exemption.
I have never had an unpleasant encounter doing so, just a lot of satisfaction.
The best one was in Bicester Village, where me and Mrs Bee were the only unmasked, free people out of thousands.
I’ll probably go there again now, just to upset them.
My thoughts exactly. I’m at the point where I actually want to be seen maskless, smiling and unafraid, even when it’s ‘mandatory’
Chill SJR, remember the Nudge….
They do it when you’re least suspecting.
Oh yeah, I forgot all about it being irreversible.
@SJR – Pick your battles carefully. Don’t let the enemy pick them for you.
Of course you’re right. Nihil Illigitemi Carborundum!
The really courageous ones could refuse to wear a mask and also cough a lot. 😀👍
Shall simply dust off the ‘exempt’ schtick.
It has been quite clear for weeks that the muzzle mandarins were itching like crazy to reintroduce masks. The moronic variant gave them the ideal opportunity despite no logical reason.
Unfortunately the ‘Michie Magic’ seems to have worked.
Michiemania..?
Some people need little incentive to demean themselves. In the crowded pub this lunch time, a middle aged woman was sat in the corner with a floral face covering, which she lowered only to sip her drink. She was with three others, all were unmasked. People like her are the hopeless cases that may literally be the death of all of us.
They created the ‘new variant’ just as they will the next time they want to keep us in our hutches.
Yet again the fine threat is brandished. Just as last time, it won’t happen.
Yes, it’s smoke and mirrors, isn’t it? The “exemption” exists because they can’t legally force it yet. They try to make us think they can.
From Robin Monotti:
Children and masks. I don’t think that debating the science works. The three paths in my view are:
1. Asserting your child’s human right to refuse consent to a preventive medical intervention such as a mask under Article 6 of the UNESCO Universal Declaration of Bioethics & Human Rights 2005:
https://t.me/robinmg/12001
2. Claiming medical exemption.
3. Quoting the previous UK court decision that ruled a school can’t unconditionally request a child to wear a face mask, the condition is always that the child needs to consent to the request, if they don’t consent the school can’t do anything about it legally:
https://t.me/robinmg/2986
The Telegraph article already says in the headline that they expect huge non-compliance this time.
Let’s prove them right.
Observing what’s happened in London buses and the tube over the last few months, at least half the people know the spiel by now and are aware of the self-exemption option.
There is therefore ZERO reason or justification for them to now change their habit in that regard again.
The fine size repetition and the omission of the exemption option in the media is just a nudge and shall also deliberately create even more division.
F*ck them.
So an “individual” travelled to Westminster who is “no longer in the country”. Why would the particular borough of London be mentioned unless someone is hinting at something?
Would they say “An individual travelled to Merton” or “An individual travelled to Wandsworth”? Of course they wouldn’t.
Got tested and then scooted to an airport, did the “individual”? Are any of the person’s contacts under quarantine yet?
Legal eagles may be aware that certain “individuals” who hang out a lot in Westminster cannot be made subject to mandatory quarantine, although they can be required to leave the country.
I also noted that. Ha.
“As a parent of three children who will have to wear masks in school tomorrow, I am livid.”
Alternatively you could write them letters of exemption and teach them the value of standing up for their freedoms.
I live in Scotland, where the mask mandate in shops etc. was never lifted. Although I don’t keep a record I always look at how many people are unmasked in supermarkets, and my impression is that until a week ago up to 25% of people would be unmasked. However in the last few days it has been very hard to spot another unmasked person. Admittedly this isn’t a all scientific, and may just be random variation, but does seem to suggest that a lot of people are still scared of covid and it only takes a couple of headlines to get them to change their behaviour. Clearly it will take a long time to undo the effects of 20 months, and counting, of project fear which I expect will continue for another year or more to nudge people into getting 2nd/3rd/4th etc. doses of the vaccine.
I don’t think you can really tell who wears a mask not to stand out and who is scared of covid (and indeed for whom it is a bit of both). I think there is a world of difference between those who actively comply and those who just do it to get along. I’m sure there will be more of the latter this time round.
My hope is that fewer people comply.
I challenge these morons a lot, and I think the vast majority are genuinely terrified. Some seem to have been recently snapping out of it and it will be interesting to see how this feeble moronic variant propaganda affects them. You know, I used to be a relatively timid person. Now that I’ve seen what utter cowards the public are, I walk taller and (I know this isn’t healthy) I feel superior to them. I want to help them but I am never again going to be able to look at them with respect. I had previously thought that the people around me were fellow intelligent beings, but now I know that they are mostly just like animals, controlled by primal instincts. I know the powers that be are responsible for the brain washing, but still it is shocking to see how instincts override higher-thought in these husks of people. Was this always the way or have their brains been damaged over the past couple of decades by mindless TV, anti-logic wokeness, and arsebook?
Just need to say I fully understand where you’re coming from. It’s extremely demoralizing to know so many are just unthinking, reactive sheep.
You guys don’t need that poison dwarf as Prime Minister, you need Mel Gibson.
I’m always staggered by how many brain-dead zombies I see wearing them outdoors here! I mean, the mandate applies to indoors which means so many are actually *choosing* to wear them outdoors, signalling just how deranged and anti-science they are! I actually find it triggering now when I go to the city centre. I find myself giving them filthy looks. And if I see kids masked up outside I don’t think I’ll be able to restrain myself! It’s not even majority oldies but very much younger people too. The psy-op was a big success clearly! 🙁 Today my daughter wanted to go to KFC, where I knew we wouldn’t be allowed to sit in due to me not having a vax pass. The counter is 3 steps from the entrance and the person on the door is scanning people’s passes in a very quiet restaurant and she tells me I can’t come in to accompany my 10yr old so she can choose some food to take away. I have to give my bank card to my kid to pay for her food herself. Told the woman how bloody stupid this all is but behind her mask it was hard to make out the muffled response and unreadable expression. The world’s fecking mad and I hate it.
BBC look east asking are these restrictions going to be enough to save Christmas.
What is the matter with these people?
Following orders..
Agreed.
Id love a whistleblower to emerge with the truth.
With the situation as it is at the moment, they wouldn’t be heard. That’s the level of corruption we’re facing, cowardice too..
And give up the six-figure salary, expenses and pension, as well as a sinecure where you don’t have to think?
Get real.
Am I alone in thinking that the new mask mandates might have a special restriction as concerns the ‘unjabbed’ Nothing would surprise me from this evil government, who obviously have their strings pulled by the globalists.
Not heard of it.
I did hear the language regarding masks in schools was “strongly encouraged” as opposed to required.
I work in a school. I am a Grandparent. These people in charge are NOT hapless Are NOT bungling Are Not making accidental mistakes as lockdown sceptics describe. This is in fact criminal negligence and worse because they know masks don’t work.
So please call it accurately… criminal !
Damn right.. and anyone, especially children with their developing brains, are being harmed. Those pushing this once again know it too.
We’ll said
Children wearing masks damages their socialization and will psychologically scar them for life. In all the insanity in Australia (mostly just in Victoria) one positive thing is that children have never been required to wear masks (except in Victoria).
While the MSM condemns the use of ivermectin, the most populated state in India just declared they are officially COVID free after promoting widespread use of the safe, proven medicine. In addition to this, Ivermectin attaches to covid spikes and prevents them from binding to ACE2. Get your Ivermectin today while you still can! https://ivmpharmacy.com
I got mine from IndiaMart. 30c a 12mg tablet. As Brett Weinstein has said, the virus could have been wiped out with the use of Ivermectin. Instead we have the leaky vaccines breeding variants.
Point or order, the muzzle penalties are not “fines”. Fines are issued by a court.
These are fixed penalties, which are blackmail demands that you can pay to admit guilt, but avoid a day in court and potentially higher actual fines.
Don’t grant the Corona Cops more power than they actually have. We don’t (quite, yet) have Judge Dredd stalking around handing out Iso-Cube sentences without appeal.
“As a parent of three children who will have to wear masks in school tomorrow, I am livid.” Just email the school Toby, tell them they’re all exempt. NO MASKS, NO TESTS, NO ‘VACCINES’. NON-COMPLIANCE FROM NOW ON!
Needless to say, it makes zero sense.
Making sense over Covid has never really concerned Johnson and the other criminals in his wretched government.
This is a natural experiment though. The data for secondary school children is available. There needs to be a material deviation in the rate of change from Tuesday onwards.
So let’s look for it. And then write it up properly if and when it arrives.
But most particularly if it doesn’t.
Straight for the child abuse again
Comments section on The Telegraph site is awash with “No way am I wearing a mask Peppa!”. Is sanity finally reasserting itself? I read two comments out of maybe a hundred which were in favour and they got shot to bits in seconds.
I fully expect “People aren’t complying so we have to bring in vaccine passports, so sad, blah blah, didn’t want to, lie, lie”. Followed by a xmas Eve announcement of a lockdown. Thinking about it, they’ll announce the lockdown 2 days after Xmas recess of Parliament.
(They won’t be allowed to refer to “Christmas” if they do. 🙂 )
Once the non compliance starts it will snowball. The government have made a huge mistake and I thing they will realise that very quickly. They’ll then have a choice between backing down and doubling down. Both will lead to their demise.
According to the bbc it is advised https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-59452502
Ordinarily I’m sure parents wouldn’t permit their children to go anywhere near a school practicing any kind of abuse, yet I’m equally sure many will go along with this sort, despite it being completely omicrom. Mass disobedience is the only way now…….across the board.
This is all because the government is expecting a huge raft of ADE fatalities and ICU cases from late-December and January.
The ‘Moronic’ is harmless – just as was the original – but those who have been jabbed are potentially facing a serious threat to their health through being jabbed.
The jab will have procured it…..but the government, HKSA and NHS are covering their backsides by introducing measures now, so that they can say they ‘did something’. Then, if the ADE scourge does materialise, then they will then blame the ‘new variant’ – and of course the unjabbed.
Make no mistake at all, this is all to cover-up the huge (or was it deliberate) error they made in forcing useless and dangerous jabs on the population.
There is every chance that this could occur throughout the northern hemisphere this winter.
I actually think that it might be tactically valuable for the unjabbed to go along with the measures in December/January…..if people start dying in droves, things could turn very, very ugly.
I’m now a bad person. I actually hope those fuckers die in droves. They are the same people who YouGov tell me want to hold me down and rape my body with their unholy concoction.
WTF Toby, “Is it because the Government knew it would play badly in the Sunday newspapers and on the Sunday morning talk shows?”
What makes you think that the MSM you describe would say anything that would make it uncomfortable for the tyrant puppets in charge?
Mask sales were dropping quite quickly, they knew they only had to pull out the ‘old’ super mutant variant scam and the morons would start hand wringing once more.
The best thing any parent can do for their children in these evil times would be to take them out of the malevolent sick establishment that seeks to jab and mask them while teaching them that Shakespeare was an evil sexist racist who never actually existed.
These kids are the future of the Human Race for heaven’s sake and they should be able to count on their parents for protection from evil and all the other shite that is floating around the sewage system that we call the world today, the society of the 2020’s.
The lies just have to keep getting bigger and bigger to keep the moronic masses cowed.
https://vaccineimpact.com/2021/the-new-covid-variant-scam-was-simulated-in-israel-weeks-before-it-was-discovered/
Remember in the Summer the scrofulous Whitty and co were murmering that masking may always be needed in the winter, well seems once again they got their way.
up tick for usage of the word “scrofulous” !
It fits so well in this case too!
“scrofulous” my new favourite word.
OK I know I can be a bit thick at times but——–
Schools are there to educate, teachers have all been to uni and should be classed as ‘well educated?
So why haven’t these numpties researched the uselessness of masks and the harms they cause?
We, the tax-payers are paying them to inform, educate and learn how to research things yet they don’t seem to be able to do the same.
What am I missing?
PS Toby I can understand if kids don’t want to appear different to heir peers, but maybe a stiff letter to the schools head and board of governors may have an impact? – or is that wishful thinking on my part
There’s no correlation between intelligence / education level and resistance to Coronabollox. I work with people who would generally be regarded as intelligent – most have degrees, a few have PhDs, but the level of bedwetting and compliance is off the scale.
This is part of the “health terror” that the philosopher Giorgio Agamben rails against – an overreach of the state on invented health grounds.
By obeying social distancing, masking etc we are condoning the destruction of the foundations of community – looking at the human face is how we perceive the world. Do not comply! I’ve not worn a mask at all in any setting and certainly won’t now!
For goodness sake, we WANT it to spread through children because it doesn’t harm them and they build up a useful and natural immunity to the disease
Absolutely and we also want the Moronic variant for similar reasons
“Needless to say, it makes zero sense. After all, if the Omicron variant is actually less dangerous than the Delta variant – and all the evidence we’ve amassed about it so far suggests it is – then shouldn’t we be encouraging schoolchildren to catch it so they can then experience a mild, cold-like illness and thereafter enjoy better protection against COVID-19 than if they’d been vaccinated?”
Well of course!! If this had been about the virus then yes but it’s not – it’s part of the cycles of fear mongering in the gaslighting process of descent into a totalitarian society, where our bank accounts will be controlled and we will be released funds only if we are good little sheeple doing what we are told..
The usd is going to implode so they have to create a new currency, a digital currency. Which requires what?? A digital ID. How does everyone get a digital ID??? Well now you know.
‘I’m exempt’ is all that is needed re face rags (if it comes to that).
If the crooks and Quisling shills in the ‘govt.’ gave a toss about limiting transmission of Moronic it would reanimate its ‘Shop Alone’ brand of idiocy. If this Omnimoron variant was actually even remotely dangerous. You remember: the Go alone, don’t take the kids, and certainly not your elderly wife/husband. Hunter gatherer suicide missions to Aldi from which few would return – remember those?
Why not do that, return to one person shopping trips? Masks don’t work natch, but fewer people rubbing shoulders in Tesco Extra on Dec 20th just might do ‘something’. But that might impinge on Corporatist Xmas profits, globalist Corporatist Xmas profits.
BUT they won’t do it because:
a It might severely screw the bottom line if we just send Dad in his Batman bandana out to buy all the trimmings and prezzies. He will cock it up for sure, lose the list. No pester power brats pointing at Oculus headsets. Etc.
b It’s all fearporn theatre anyway. The more who see other shuffling zombies in masks the better. And masks make one more item in the shopping basket. Especially those with the Svarovski Crystals sewn on.
c Their pals at Sainsbury’s etc told them not to.
d It might spoil the ‘Let’s save the world with this Nazi Pass’ app big reveal in Jan/Feb.
e They think no one will think about it rationally.
f The new Moronic variant is mild, a storm in a teacup, and would actually improve our health were it to spread.
g They’ve got time. All the time in the world. One stupid step at a time. The frogs are boiling nicely.
Profit before death. Clearly.
As for the way they are screwing over South Africa, its economy and tourism, it’s a total and utter disgrace.
Reason is dead. God is real. Happy Christmas.
Don’t comply. Obvs.
No rational analysis of data can support “mask wearing’ : are all the scientific mask supporting lobby devoid of rational thought or part of some greater conspiracy? The global diktats on non pharmaceutical interventions are akin to faith belief not medicine or science. Highlighting hypocrisy and inconsistencies in data is of no avail because they truly believe. It will only be by a Ghandi style public refusal to be oppressed by autocratic rules that society will flourish Remember you are exempt from mask wearing if they make you anxious- you don’t need to prove it .
Forgive me if this sounds naive but ITV lives mainly on advertising. Would it not be possible to crowdfund an advert saying that the Covid narrative may be flawed and asking for a debate between government scientists and the usual Skeptic experts. It could be carefully worded so it couldn’t be labelled as a conspiracy theory.
If it was ignored or refused follow up adverts could point this out. Until people see with their own eyes that the alternative side of the story is not being broadcast they will never believe.
What’s going on? If what’s happening on this site is even the slightest measurement of the real world the anger has increased exponentially. The average up and downticks for a post seem to have tripled.
I seem to recall that someone (might have been a well-qualified academic?) tried to do this with some media (don’t recall which) and they refused to run what was being requested.
Does anyone know if there’s a way to get a mask exemption on your phone screen kind of like a vaccine passport in reverse. 😀
Ok daft question. I’ve screenshot an exemption and its now my wallpaper. 🤣🤣
My phone doesn’t do wallpaper or apps, it’s a 15+-year-old NOKIA 1112. Doesn’t even have a camera. If asked for an app or paxport, I will ask the asker to show me how to find it on my phone which is probably older than they are. Could be fun.
That is if I haven’t already punched them in the face by then!
Does it say ‘I am exempt – now fuck off and mind your own business’?
I usually just say “I’m not sick” over my shoulder and keep walking. Briskly. If I’m stationary I say I’m exempt. I’m thinking of saying ‘I identify as exempt’ or even ‘I identify as wearing a mask’ next time I’m challenged and have time for an argument.
Try I’m exempt and non binary. That will both scare and confuse.
The last couple of times I had get togethers with old friends with children (I don’t) they were full of how responsible their children had been in following the directives. It was nauseating, but I bit my tongue. But it’s all part of the strategy. Parents pressurise children to conform. Children conform. And before you know it, everyone is emotionally invested in conforming and there is no going back.
Why wouldn’t they be able to say they’re ‘exempt’, since no proof is (reportedly) required?
Kids don’t like to stand out from the crowd, in most cases.
Weren’t all those fines thrown out of court last time?
https://twitter.com/UsforThemUK/status/1465029150914355209
https://usforthem.co.uk/resources/template-letters/
————-
Dear
Re: Face coverings. NAME AND FORM
I am writing to let you know that my child NAME is not able to wear a face covering. Therefore as stated in the most recent government guidance on face coverings (20th July 2021) is not required to wear one. There are a wide variety of reasons people are exempt from wearing face coverings and it is unlawful to request proof of exemptions. This means that NAME will not be required, or able, to wear a face covering at school, at any time.
I would appreciate it if you and other staff could ensure they are not made to feel uncomfortable or singled out because they are unable to wear a face covering.
Kind regards