Lionel Shriver’s column in the Spectator this week is a searing critique of the West’s pandemic response and the mockery it made of our supposedly ‘inalienable’ rights. Here’s an excerpt.
We are forever changed. The British people, along with the populations of many American states such as New York and California, have henceforth to live with the fact that civil liberties we Yanks call ‘inalienable’ can be cancelled at a moment’s notice for years on end. Our ‘rights’ are alienable as can be. We’re often warned that democracy is fragile. Lo, that turns out to be horribly true.
Which is why indulging our aversion to all things Covid with a wilful amnesia – blanking out two years of our lives as if redacting the calendar with black marker – is a mistake. The pols, media shills and limelight-basking scientists-for-hire complicit in grievously wounding our lives and countries have good reason to hope that we forget all about that little unpleasantness. But I need to remember, if only to understand myself – why post-pandemic I’m so much more cynical, misanthropic and pessimistic about the future.
Given the perfect absence of any correlation whatsoever between the severity of restrictions and Covid mortality rates, even when comparing like regions with like, it’s probable that this plethora of ‘interventions’ that made our lives hell while making a mockery of representative government – all those ludicrous ‘tiers’, the Harry Potter-ish ‘rule of six’ – made not the slightest difference to the death toll. Waves of variants came and went, oblivious of state diktats. Nature prevailed, as nature is wont to. We’d have been far better off if governments had done absolutely nothing.
This perspective has gained in currency. Some longstanding lockdown critics are resentful that many former establishment cheerleaders are now pretending they also opposed these failed and disastrous policies at the time. I’m not resentful. If you’re late to the party, welcome to the party. For the threat far greater than a handful of recent converts lying to themselves about their previous bovine compliance is the state’s self-interested company line surviving intact.
Most ordinary people still believe that lockdowns, and the accompanying bramble of insensible, ever-changing and medically illiterate Covid restrictions, saved hundreds of thousands of lives in the UK, millions in the US, and tens if not hundreds of millions worldwide. The ‘narrative’ may have bent ever so slightly, but it’s holding up. To my utter astonishment, when a new YouGov poll asked Britons how they assess their government’s handling of Covid-19 in hindsight, 34% said ‘About right’ and 37% said ‘Not strict enough’ (incredulous italics added). A mere 19% said ‘Too strict’. A full 54% of Labour voters still think the ‘measures’ (a word I’ve come to hate) should have been even more brutal.
This matters. True, last week, numerous journalists joined the chorus of ‘never again’. Yet meanwhile the WHO is contriving two agreements whereby countries will “undertake to follow” this unaccountable supranational organisation’s “recommendations”, including imposing lockdowns, vaccine mandates and passports, border closures, mask-wearing (never mind how ineffective) and whatever else these bureaucrats might dream up – all over the heads of nation states.
As currently conceived, these agreements would make WHO edicts not merely advisory but compulsory. Tucked in China’s pocket and dependent on Big Pharma, the organisation that during Covid promoted both a string of falsehoods and the ghastliest of policies would arrogate to itself a budget of up to 10 times its current one. It’s seeking the power to repeat its mistakes not only when confronting a verifiably lethal organism, but when confronting an organism that might prove deadly in future. Thus the WHO could soon be able to shut down the whole world over a pathogen that turns out to be as dangerous as cheese mould – just in case.
Worth reading in full.
The Telegraph wit Michael Deacon is most aghast at the poll’s findings about 18-24 year-olds, who he says by their extraordinary support for the lockdowns that ruined their young lives appear to be afflicted by some form of Stockholm syndrome.
Their education was disrupted. Their love lives were suspended. The best days of their lives were ruined. We already knew all that. It seems, however, that lockdown harmed the young in another way – one which I would never have foreseen.
It left them suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
In other words: they’ve actively grown to love captivity. That’s the only conclusion I can draw from a startling new YouGov poll – which reports that over half of those aged 18-24 think that the lockdown rules weren’t strict enough.
No other age group takes anywhere near such a hardline stance. Not even the elderly, who had the greatest reason to want transmission of the virus halted by whatever means necessary. Yet only a third of those aged 65+ agree that the rules weren’t strict enough. And almost a fifth of them think the rules were too strict.
The young, meanwhile, had the least to fear from Covid, and the most to lose from lockdowns. Yet they, according to this extraordinary poll, are the ones who supported lockdown the most fervently. Not only that, they wish it had been tougher. A mere 13% of them think the rules were too strict.
A charitable reading of the poll would be that the young people of today are just heroically self-sacrificing. I’d like to think so. But I’m afraid I’m not convinced. Self-sacrifice, by definition, was always in their own hands. These young people could have locked themselves in their bedrooms for the entire pandemic if they’d wished. They didn’t need the Government to make them do that. This poll, therefore, suggests that they simply have an alarming enthusiasm for draconian rules. An authoritarian impulse. A love of all-powerful government.
Is this yet another baleful consequence of their woke education, that accustoms them to love an all-powerful paternalistic authority that wraps them up in their ‘safe space’?
Deacon recalls an equally disturbing poll from around the time of ‘Freedom Day’ in July 2021, where over a third of respondents said that the Government should keep hotel quarantine “permanently, regardless of the risk of COVID-19”, over a quarter said that all nightclubs should be permanently forced to close, and almost a fifth said there should be a permanent curfew “against leaving home after 10pm without a good reason”.
At least they had the excuse then of still being in the middle of the pandemic (Delta had just arrived) and subject to Project Fear propaganda. What’s their excuse now?
Also worth reading in full.
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Surprise, surprise; one of the members of the General Medical Council is deputy chairman of the JCVI (a clear conflict of interest in regard to Dr Malhotra’s case):
‘Professor Anthony Harnden,Registrant member, England, GMC ref. no. 2807869, is currently the Deputy Chairman of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) which advises the UK government on vaccine policy. He is currently advising government on the optimal Covid-19 vaccination strategy.’
https://www.gmc-uk.org/about/who-we-are/our-council
He is a paediatrician.
None of the members of the council are cardiologists
No wonder, then, that the GMC statement said of renowned cardiologist Dr Malhotra:
‘….there is a question around the accuracy of his statements.’
Dr Malhotra’s stance threatens the reputation of one of the GMC’s councillors and none of them have a clue about cardiology.
If you have a state run health service and that state is a ‘democratic’ socialist fascist state, this is the kind of overmighty behaviour that the state’s various panjandrums, in this case within the nationalised state health establishment, get up to:
Arrogant bigotry
Vote this government out, annihilate it at the polls, and then do the same for the next government.
Only by rocking the worlds of these dreadful people on a regular basis is there any chance of them getting the message.
Good analysis. Similar to the MHRA. The Light has analysis of the MHRA board. It is a clown show like the GMC or JCVI. The MHRA holds a lot of power -but how many know anything about them?
On the 15 member MHRA, 7 are purported to be Doctors all linked to Pharma, one tested for quacksine ‘quality’. 5 or so are from Pharma, either paid currently as employees or ex- including the Chair who ran GE Pharma. None are virologists. One is a paid Gates Institute employee. One is an IT guy with zero med credentials. One is an ex Parliamentary accountant, zero med knowldge. There are others who are not doctors as well. Yet these idiots are the ones assessing if the quackines are safe for children and pregnant moms. What clown world do we live in?
The sainted June Raine decided that the role of the MHRA was to expedite the approval of the toxic jabs, not regulate the pharmaceutical industry.
Because 86% of her salary and pension come from pharma
Is there any public body in the UK that is free of conflicts of interest, venality and hypocrisy?
I agree with annihilating the current ruling party at the next general election but the lot who would take over are no better. They will annihilate the country and in a further 5 years leave a note saying “tee hee, we’ve spent all the money”. A plague on all their houses
Hello….is anyone in Westminster/Whitehall listening?
‘Japan’s health ministry has approved lump-sum payments for the deaths of five people after they received coronavirus vaccinations. The ministry determined that a causal link between the vaccinations and the deaths of the recipients cannot be ruled out.
The ministry made the decision on Thursday based on the country’s immunization law. Such payments have already been approved for the deaths of 15 people in their 20s to 90s.
The latest decision follows the deaths of five people aged 36 to 96. They died of acute heart failure, hemorrhagic shock and other causes after their immunizations.
Four of them reportedly had underlying conditions such as high blood pressure. The ministry says it could not deny a causal link between their deaths and the vaccinations, given the contents of their death certificates and clinical records.’
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230113_01/
I suspect they do not fancy arguing the case for vaccines in open court.
Call me old fashioned, but what really grates in this article and therefore diminishes it, is the constant reference to Dr Malhotra as the untitled ‘Malhotra’. I find it dreadfully discourteous to a medical professional who has earned and therefore, should be shown respect. It’s akin to scribblers who deride Baroness Thatcher, referring to her disparagingly as ‘Thatcher’, when in terms of personal qualities, they’re not in the same universe.
Quality is the sum of our character! Please don’t use Thatcher and Maholtra in the same sentence! There are vast differences.
To some people Thatcher is a hate figure, necessary at the time,but not a hero, Maholtra is a hero!
Regarding unsolicited advice. I’d be grateful if you’d stop proffering it to me.
Margaret Thatcher did not get everything right but at her finest she would have run rings round the garbage politicians we have had inflicted on us since she left office.
A hero would have spoken out against the jabs when they started.
If I knew the virus posed a trivial threat to the vast majority and that the gunks couldn’t possibly have been properly tested, so did Malhotra.
Margaret Thatcher is only a hate figure to those who believe that unelected trades union leaders should run the country into the ground rather than the elected government try to improve matters. For a current example see Mr Lynch.
A damn fine point but by the same token the likes of Whitty, Valance, Fraudci and that television doctor and the rest have trashed their professions and so are equally not entitled to their prefixes.
I would never dream of referring to Whitty and the like as Doctor, or Professor or whatever.
A good generic term for them would be arseholes
The GMC are of course not unaware of the masses of scientific data and real world evidence to support it ( e.g the increase in cardiac-related admissions ) and they know that if they suspended Malhotra or took away his license they wouldn’t have a leg to stand on in court because he’s very careful to always back up anything he says by citing the study to support his statement. You can’t cry ”conspiracy theorist” or ”anti-vaxxer” when somebody is actually demonstrating an evidence-based approach and quoting scientific data. The GMC would not be able to justify investigating Malhotra on that basis. They also won’t be blind to what happened with Andrew Bridgen. The mafia government attempted to silence him by removing him and look what happened. Complete own goal!
Yes, it’s an astute move by the GMC.
Ivor Cummins is using the same approach in his podcasts. He only references official documents so he can’t be censured by the YouTube cancellers.
You make your bed, lie in it!
It’s called a rock and a hard place!
Be careful, because history will tell!
“The GMC’s decision not to act against Malhotra is a victory for science, ethics and common sense”
Not sure about that. It’s a victory for our side in that they obviously didn’t feel they could push this one without big risk to themselves. It’s a tactical retreat. A victory for science, ethics and common sense would be the utter destruction of the leadership tier of the entire medical establishment – doctors, public health, government, civil servants, regulators, big pharma, unions, medical journalists.
In some ways a better result for us would have been for them to pursue the Dr flagrantly and expose themselves more fully as the evil bunch that we know they are.
Anyway, why doesn’t the bbc stick to what it’s good at, transgender box ticking, blm, climate change etc? What on earth is it doing trying to report the news?
Spot on
The BBC doesn’t try to report the news. The BBC tries to spin the news.
According to their statement (see below) they are scared witless (sic) and are terrified of what evidence a hearing, ie the disinfectant of sunlight, might expose.
Ba boom:
“a forum for further scepticism to be heard.”
Actually Dr Malhorta would be right to challenge that statement implying as it does that his scientifically supported views are not entirely accurate.
The tone of these statements by these official bodies is quite chilling.
They have an air of the menace of a gangster that will not tolerate being challenged.
On this occasion they’re indicating Malhotra is a worthless little fly not even worth reprimanding.
What a world this has become.
Right about the unwanted publicity. People like the GMC and their patsies are in too deep now and a full reverse ferret would be catastrophic. But as long as William Gates keeps filling their pockets, they’ll be perfectly happy to keep lying – no matter how many people it kills.
The GMC (and whoever is controlling them) has obviously decided it is safer to, effectively, ignore Malhotra’s apostasy rather than challenge it.
In other words, they’re running scared.
This is the link to the outcome of Dr Sam’s court case, which has been sent to the oubliette…. Why??
iamdrsamwhite
But of course, it’s not just Twitter. This is the link to my win one year ago on the national judiciary website: (check the link)
https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/White-v-GMC-judgment-031221.pdf
Get the torpedoes in the water and let them run. All of these organisations are past their sell-by date, they’re not there for any reason other than to perpetuate their power.
I went to the rally in London yesterday, highlighting the plight of the vaccine injured, Lack of acknowledgment and lack of help. There was also emphasis on the need to stop mRNA vaccines.
We started at the BBC headquarters with speeches. Matt Letissier’s was very powerful as was Andrew Bridgen’s, who went for a walk-about after his speech.
This was followed by a ‘silent’ March to Downing Street.
A reasonable turnout, but far fewer people than for the lockdown protests.
Interestingly there was more positive interaction with people watching the protest. Thumbs up, asking questions.
Maybe people are waking up to the reality of these ‘vaccines’. In a previous life this vaccine campaign would have been halted 2 years ago.
From your own correspondent ;).
All that the GMC is concerned about is that Malhotra didn’t impede the ‘vaccine’ rollout! They’ve let him off the hook because he woke up late.