BBC Radio 4’s Pick of the Year for 2023 features a caller to the programme Any Answers called Philippa. Unlike the majority of those baying for Boris Johnson’s blood at the Inquiry and still screaming for longer, harder and earlier lockdowns, Philippa’s tragic story epitomised what Mark Woolhouse, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh, called The Year The World Went Mad:
Philippa: Well, I believe that Boris Johnson should be held accountable for everything. Every single social media thing he has. Every diary.
Three years ago, when Covid first started – you’ll have to excuse me if I get upset because I am – we, my husband and I, my daughter was distressed. She lived [... line drops out …] in Worcestershire. So we rang; we thought we had to do everything right. We phoned [inaudible]; they said we couldn’t go – “it wasn’t an essential journey”. So they said they would make… the police in London would go and check she was okay.
We didn’t hear anything, so we waited all day. I rang the police again, and they said, “Just wait, we’ll get back to you.” So, at some point, later that day, they got back to us and our daughter had killed herself. And we couldn’t go there to see her [sobbing]. And then even on the day, only three of us could go to the funeral. We, the police told us, because we couldn’t make another visit, we had to empty her flat the same day as the funeral.
And then we came back, and we saw those people smirking, saying it wasn’t a party. We heard all the things that, him [BJ] saying “It wasn’t a party, we didn’t do this.” You are so accountable. My daughter was dead while they were doing their parties. And I would never, never ever forgive the Government for doing that. Never in my life.
And all those people who say “people need to move on”, how can we move on when we’re in hell every minute of our lives because we lost our daughter when we could have got there? It’s just wicked.
Philippa’s tale of lockdown culture speaks for itself. What’s really dispiriting is that nothing she had to say is likely to have the slightest impact on the significant proportion of this country that believes lockdowns should become part of our way of life in perpetuity, those who would actively and enthusiastically impose one on us again while no doubt taking more trouble to hide their parties next time, and those who eagerly enforced it whether in an official or unofficial capacity.
Those who think this is all ancient history are missing the point. The point is that, in 2020, a precedent was set in which one risk was prioritised at all costs, and to hell with the unintended consequences and fallout. What matters now to each and every one of us is what happens next time.
You can hear Philippa yourself on the Radio 4 website here. Spin through to about 26:30 in.
Sallust is a pseudonym.
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Devastating, even just to hear her. My heart goes out to her.
I hope this doesn’t sound cold, but if I thought my child was at risk, I wouldn’t ask for permission to go and check if they were okay.
I was trying to put some words together and couldn’t. You just did it for me. Thank you.
If I had my way there wouldn’t be enough rope in England to deal with those that deserve it.
“Pandemic my arse” as Jim Royle would put it and Bozo and the rest knew it.
Pure, pure unadulterated EVIL.
Never forgive. Never forget.
Retribution, restitution, resolution. In this world. Sod the next.
In the sorry case of Philippa and her daughter, that has to start with the policeman who used his authority to order her not to visit her daughter. Nuremberg, y’know? “Befehl ist Befehl” just doesn’t cut it.
I’ve been told I am an Old Testament kind of guy. I suppose that’s right. After all, if they know we’ll forgive them, it won’t stop them doing it again, will it?
Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
The barstewards who knew exactly what they were doing need to know that there is a big enough sector of the population which has the capacity to be dangerous. Very dangerous.
We see you.
PS Hux, how nice it is to have met the man to whom I am responding!
Your last comment I share completely. I have your image in my mind’s eye as I type. It’s sort of reassuring but I don’t know why.
We are creatures of the real world. All of us are, but some “humans” are trying to change the definition of that real world to be staring at little screens, disconnected from real, human interaction.
But we resist, because we know what real really is. Having met, we confirm that reality. That’s what’s reassuring, I think. And I’d like to get the chance to enjoy that reality even more by using that lovely walking stick of yours to shove hard up certain arses. I’d start with Hancock. A more miserable, snivelling, devious little shyster I have never seen.
Three cheers for the DS Christmas Party and Toby!
“Three cheers for the DS Christmas Party and Toby!”
Seconded
Walking stick up their arses? Don’t bother – they’d enjoy it!
Totally agree with all the sentiments expressed above. Once “authority” has over reached its remit, all those responsible must be removed, preferably locked away where they can do no more harm.
Too much “authority”, having to seek permission for normal activities, destroys self esteem, renders people helpless or cast aside. No wonder the country is in such a sh!te state a down trodden, demoralised population robbed blind by taxation. Modern slavery.
I cannot disagree.
Sorry for her for the loss of her daughter but we’re responsible for our actions AND MORE IMPORTANTLY inactions.
True, and it illustrates perfectly the extent to which people had their brains minced by the flood of propaganda that had people believing that it was so deadly that it would not be worth the risk of exposure even when their family desperately needed them! My heart goes out too, to this poor woman who along with millions of others, and quite understandably, fell victim to the barrage of misinformation and fear-peddling we were subjected to. It takes a steadfast independent thinker to get away from that kind of groupthink and herd mentality, even if such thinking flagrantly contradicts scientific reality, and most people did not. They stayed right there in the “herd”, where it felt safest.
It’s obviously a very sad story but I’m puzzled by references to the parties. Would it have been OK in their book if the PM and all the other were all good as gold and never broke any “covid” rules?
I never cared about the parties, only that the restrictions were wrong because there was no pandemic.
Thank you, tof. Saved me from repeating myself ad infinitum plus one.
Ah, sod it: THERE WAS NO GODDAMN PANDEMIC
It’s obviously a very sad story but I’m puzzled by references to the parties. Would it have been OK in their book if the PM and all the other were all good as gold and never broke any “covid” rules?
The PM didn’t break any COVID rules because social gatherings in ‘essential’ workplaces had always remained allowed. The parties are important because the epitomize an important distinction (also – and that’s worrisome – shared with the climate COPpers): We were the better cattle subject to experimential infection control measures by our duly appointed overvets — So your daughter’s distressed and you’re worried about her? Sorry, mam, neither of you is essential. — Boris & gang weren’t.
Obviously we have to feel deeply sorry for Philippa, but if she’d been given permission to visit her daughter and hopefully save her life would she be a lockdown sceptic? Nothing in the extract, I haven’t listened to the whole piece, suggests she would. It seems like she just wanted a ‘more compassionate’ lockdown without realising this is a contradiction.
Yes that is my worry with all of these pieces focusing on the collateral damage on certain groups or individuals.
Empathy is always somewhat rare among humans. They tend to wail about the lack of it whenever they happen to have fallen victim to something but if it just hit the next-door neighbour, well, they guy was always mostly a nuisance!
But tactical considerations should also come into play here: Assuming the lady’s not really a lockdown sceptic, she’s certainly a victim of the spurious lockdown although she may not have realized that yet. Telling her that her daughter was just really not essential is certainly not going to convince her to change sides openly. We’re the natural underdogs here and in order to win, we’ll have to be better than the others. Being just as bad won’t work. In this case, clout of authority, ie, Jelly Johnson could have helped me if he had only wanted to!, will decide the day.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12902407/How-did-Bill-Granger-die-chefs-cause-death-revealed.html
RIP Bill Granger.
He died on Christmas Day of cancer diagnosed a few months ago. Seems to be ‘turbo cancer.’
Similar view here. I’ve never been a violent man, suffered from depression or questioned authority. Now I’d be sorely tempt to lamp the politicians who prevented us spending time with mum in her last two weeks when she died scared and alone in November 2020. The Tory MP who came to my door during the elections this year got an earful. Not that I think Labour would have done any better.
I now often wake up in a sweat thinking we let mum down. And “we” did – as a nation we let a lot of people down. I should have ignored the restrictions and barged in. We missed her passing by 10 minutes when they finally deemed to let us in. So I’m not sure much glass half full these days. We’ve also lost three youngsters locally to suicide over the last 1-2 years. Never that number before. Two of them I knew. Horrible for all involved.
Which has led to a steady but marked decline in trusting authority esp. politicians but also healthcare and society in general. When I hear the bleating hearts to give the NHS more money, my response is very much it’s broken and the sooner it fails, the better as we can move on to a better system.
My granddaughter, 16 years old at the time (September 2020) and as a direct result of the personal impact of the measures, attempted to take her own life with an overdose of paracetamol.The family endured 2 days of agony until the hospital confirmed that she would survive. The ward nurse said that our granddaughter was not the only teenager they had similarly admitted.
I have no words to express my feelings towards those who perpetrated this.
Sorry for Philippa , ordinary people do follow the rules & HMG shat on that trust ! Let’s be clear TPTB have not given up on their quest to Jab & Tag us all in perpetuity ! The new WHO treaty if it goes through will allow them to make life like 2020 at any moment & for any reason they concoct !!..
The elite will NEVER be forgiven and they know it. Now is our time to destroy Parliament.
It’s because such a large proportion of the population revealed themselves, like Phillippa, to be cretinous, obedient, bed-wetting sheep that the imposition of tyranny was so easy.
I still remember the expression on the face of a man I met when he realised my dog walk must have taken over 90 minutes.
It is a tragic story and those who believed the Covid scam are falling for the Nut zero scam. If you tell the kids often enough that the world will end in 2030 why would they bother learning or even living their lives.
A horrible story, but as already said above, if I was genuinely concerned that my child was suicidal, I would go to them anyway. How more “essential” can you get?
Despite such a horrible experience it still sounds as though the caller wouldn’t be so upset if Boris hadn’t been having sandwiches and cake at the same time. Totally irrelevant – the “rules” that made good people feel too scared of their own government (or too scared of a not particularly fatal virus for their age group) to go and stop their own child from killing themselves – that’s what they need to focus on IMO.
And who are they claiming the phoned to ask permission? The police? Who would tell a parent not to visit in that situation?!
The trouble is, Philippa, you’d be equally angry with whoever told you the real truth: that the entire ‘pandemic’ was a lie and that Boris was probably the biggest dupe of anyone. I went through a period of hating him for a fool but realise now it was the clown circus advising him that were ultimately the biggest criminals.
I don’t want him back – but that’s because he’s a climate idiot, not because of COVID.
This was all so predictable. I hope Hallett and the KCs listened to that: they look like BBC types.
Advisors advise, ministers decide! The buck stopped with Bunter.
I don’t disagree. It occurs to me that Dominic Raab seems to be getting a free pass – has he been called yet to answer to the Inquiry?
Bojo was supposedly out of commission for a chunk of 2020 (and a bit spaced-out when he did get back in the saddle) How much of the ridiculous rule book came in when Raab was in charge?