- “Peter Murrell’s re-arrest has plunged the SNP into crisis” – There is what can only be described as a mood of despair in SNP circles after the re-arrest of former party chief executive Peter Murrell, says Iain Macwhirter in the Spectator.
- “The SNP faces an electoral calamity” – According to polling guru John Curtice, the SNP may be wiped out at the next election, says the Telegraph.
- “BBC Scotland slammed for ‘sinister’ interview with father of transgender child” – Murdo Fraser MSP has condemned BBC Scotland for being too sympathetic towards the father of a trans child who was critical of the Cass Review, says the Express.
- “Radical LGBT charity encourages teachers not to tell parents their children are trans” – LGBT Youth Scotland, which receives nearly £1 million a year in public funding, has been advising schools not to tell parents if their children are trans, reports the Telegraph.
- “My daughter was ‘radicalised’ by Scottish LGBT club in school” – A Scottish mother was forced to pull her child out of school after uncovering ‘cult-like’ materials shared between members, according to the Telegraph.
- “Anxiety may not qualify for disability benefits in Rishi Sunak’s reforms” – The PM has set out his “moral mission” to end Britain’s “sick note culture”, says the Times.
- “Sunak: Everyday problems are no excuse not to find work” – The P.M. says people with mild mental health conditions should be given help to stay in employment, reports the Telegraph.
- “GPs dishing out sick notes to patients they haven‘t even seen” – GPs are routinely writing sick notes for patients they have not seen, according to the Mail. Doctors admit 95% of requests are waved through without assessing the patient first.
- “5.4 million Brits could be on health-related benefits by 2029” – As Rishi Sunak launches a “moral mission” to help more people into work, the IFS has released estimates underlining the mounting scale of the problem, says the Mail.
- “Fourteen years of Tory rule have left Britain a lazy, dangerous, Left-wing mess” – It hardly matters that Labour will be worse, when voters feel so betrayed by the Tories, says Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph.
- “Campaigner says Met Police are ‘making no-go areas for Jews’” – Gideon Falter, the chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, was pulled aside by an officer who said he was “breaching the peace” after he tried to cross the road in the middle of a pro-Palestinian protest march because he was “quite openly Jewish”, reports the Mail.
- “Met Police apologises again after apology over Jewish arrest threat” – London’s police service issued a statement on Friday afternoon apologising for its poorly-worded apology to Gideon Falter after he was stopped from walking through a pro-Palestine march on Saturday, reports the Mail.
- “Islamists and the woke Left are uniting to topple the West” – In his Telegraph column, David Frost says the same forces that tried to shut down NatCon4 are marching through our major city every Saturday – a toxic cocktail of Islamists, the far Left and the Woke.
- “How NatCon was saved” – In the Critic, Freddie Attenborough takes us through the story of how NatCon4 was saved from the Brussels mayors determined to shut it down.
- “How Israel launched a ‘birthday surprise’ attack against Iran’s nuclear defences” – Israel launched a surprise attack yesterday on an Iranian missile production complex, reports the Telegraph.
- “Labour MP: U.K. should have followed Sweden on Covid” – Graham Stringer MP has praised Sweden’s pandemic response, saying Britain should have looked to the Nordic country as it “came out the best of the countries in Europe in terms of deaths”, according to UnHerd.
- “Italian study calculates Covid-19 vaccine reduces average life expectancy by four months” – In Where are the Numbers, Martin Neil and Norman Fenton write about a new Italian study that suggests the Covid vaccines reduce life expectancy
- “Kemi Badenoch: ‘U.K.’s wealth isn’t from white privilege and colonialism’” – The Business Secretary tells TheCityUK’s international conference that that Glorious Revolution of 1688 is what paved the way for Britain’s economic success, not slavery and colonialism, reports the Guardian.
- “I’m a woman of colour. DEI is just woke indoctrination” – The pitfalls of diversity and inclusion drives are not theoretical to me, says Raquel Rosario Sanchez in the Telegraph.
- “J.P. Morgan Warns of Delay to Global Energy Transition” – According to a J.P. Morgan report, the global energy transition may be delayed quite a long time due to inflation, high interest rates, and geopolitical uncertainty.
- “Climate: The Article” – Doomberg gives his thoughts on the new climate documentary you’re not supposed to watch.
- “An unaccountable Net Zero elite has seized control of Britain” – The zealous drive to net neutrality is making business less competitive, hitting taxpayers, and acting as a drag on economic growth, says Liz Truss in the Telegraph.
- “Hate speech bill needs ‘radical surgery’, warns Charlie Flanagan” – The Irish hate crime bill has become a “runaway train” that needs to be stopped, says the former minister who first instigated the proposed reforms, reports the Times.
- “Cambridge in free-speech row over researcher’s ‘race realism’ blog” – Emmanuel College has terminated Nathan Cofnas’s fellowship after he published a controversial, race realist blog post, but Peter Singer, Steven Pinker and the Free Speech Union have come to his defence, says the Times.
- “Quarter of parents would quit private schools if VAT added to fees” – A new survey indicates 26% of parents with kids at independent schools would send them to state schools instead if Labour slaps VAT on school fees, casting doubt on Labour’s claim that policy will raise £1.6 billion, according to the Times.
- “King’s College London bars staff from promotion unless they support pro-trans diversity policy” – King’s College London has breached equality law, a top barrister says, by insisting that a candidate for an internal promotion endorse its EDI policy, reports the Times.
- “Queen Charlotte was ‘person of colour’, museum claims in LGBT guide” – Royal Museums Greenwich tells visitors that despite what “insecure white boys” say, George III’s wife was from a non-white background (even though she wasn’t), says the Telegraph.
- “Birbalsingh tells Braverman to ‘take a hike’ for using her school as a ‘political football’” – The Headteacher of Michaela Community School has lashed out at the former Home Secretary after she claimed the school wouldn’t exist without the Conservative Party’s free schools policy, according to the Telegraph.
- “‘Endless tech’ at schools has been a failure, says Sophie Winkleman” – The actress and campaigner wants the millions spent on education technology to be invested in teachers instead, reports the Telegraph.
- “Spies must stop displaying ‘alpha behaviours’ such as ‘strength’, according to leaked intelligence diversity plans” – Diversitycrats have told Britain’s spies to use gender neutral language, spend an hour a week on diversity and celebrate Black History Month, reports Steven Edgington for GB News.
- “More CO2 is good for the planet” – Professor William Happer Tells Sky News Australia’s Outsiders that far from suffering from too much CO2, the planet actually needs more.
If you have any tips for inclusion in the round-up, email us here.
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.
I think a fair few people were worried personally about the “virus”, others were worried about the impact it might have on the vulnerable and/or health services, and either way were “happy” to have a “lockdown” for a short period, hoping that would as it were “flatten the curve” and enable things to return to normal. My gut feel is that after the first month or so, many fewer people were worried about either of the things I have mentioned but were stuck in some kind of rut where they couldn’t bring themselves to rebel or speak against “lockdowns” for fear of being fined, thought of as granny killers etc. This was helped by the weather and furlough payments.
It is definitely the case that people thought it would be a couple of weeks at home, and many welcomed it as two weeks off work. Few anticipated what lockdowns would become.
The fear itself was amplified from nervousness to panic by the lockdowns themselves.
It was the extreme response of governments that led people to think: my god, if governments around the world are doing this, this disease must be incredibly dangerous.
Also, being locked up and glued to the TV and Internet, people became obsessed and were terrorised by the news and the government that had to justify locking everyone up.
The day before lockdowns, some people were frightened, some people were nervous, most people were just getting on with life. Once lockdown started, that’s when the real fear kicked in.
I never really picked up much of a sense of fear, neither from people out and about nor from colleagues, friends, family and acquaintances. Mainly resignation or a sense that it was all necessary to protect granny. But it’s not a representative sample.
I think a powerful element was the ‘daily body count’ which, as we learned later could have been a number produced by a squirrel running across a calculator pad, but when the MSM was so doom focussed, it set the tone in which the politicians could have a free run without interference from scrutiny. Everything from the opposition benches was all about further, faster, with no actual reference to anything that would improve anything, like Hancocks 100,000 tests per day, and the Turkish PPE Saga. Everything was couched in jeopardy, uncertainty and doubt. A lot of people can see this was all ‘nudged’, but the majority still think it was for real.
Maybe I am projecting my own indifference onto everyone I was in contact with, but I never got the impression that people were that worried.
For me the moment it triggered my concern was the footage of army lorries trundling into Lombardy full of coffins. Deep in my psyche, are the memories of watching Terry Nation’s TV series ‘Survivors’ in 1975, when a (guess what) virus accidentally released by a Chinese Scientist goes on to kill 99.98% of the global population, and the Survivors struggle to survive. I was at an impressionable age, and Lucy Fleming was very pretty.
There was footage of China building gigantic hospitals in two weeks, and like I say the whole message was far from the typical Britishness of ‘Keep calm and carry on’. Covid very quickly lost that initial ‘wtf is this?’, but I do find that many sceptics rewrite their initial reactions and play it all down, as if they never got fooled by any of it, when I suspect many were for a time.
I was getting multiple complaints on a forum I was subscribed to for saying it was all overblown doom mongering when China locked down Wuhan. It was not a popular opinion.
I enjoyed the first two series of Survivors when they were broadcast but missed the third series due to being otherwise occupied in getting to know the future Mrs SoR. Somehow when they released the series on DVD I only bought the first two series which then languished on my shelves until just recently when my daughter bought me a second-hand set of the third series.
I’ve now re-watched the first two series at one episode a week and am just about to start on the third series – so no spoilers please!
It was concerning for a very short time for me, until I did some research. But yes I think there is some truth in what you are saying.
Lucy Fleming, yes.
My initial reaction was that I was immensely glad that the broken tooth which had been giving me hell since February courtesy due to NHS procedures involved when getting an appointment with a private dentist¹ was finally pulled on the very day before government Covimania broke out. By that time, the MSM were already running in full CoviPanic® mode. A final delay for the procedure occurred because the dentist had just come back from a holiday in Italy and took a few days off because he felt unwell. The significance of this should be obvious to anyone who lived through the Horrible Events In Italy™ reporting. Needless to say, I absolutely didn’t care if only to f***ing tooth got pulled.
I admit that I was scared of the virus due to all I had read about it after Covimania had broken out. OTOH, I was aware that Horrible Events In Italy™ was a headline phenomenon with no significance in the real world as this was plainy obvious from the published statistics about COVID. I was scared nevertheless because humans aren’t really rational beings. OTOH, the idea that I could hide in my cupboard from an airborne virus which was likely everywhere around me was obviously ridiculous. Hence, I pulled myself together and decided on “Carry on and chance it” as only realistic option. COVID fear then quickly faded.
¹ I was insisting on oral sedation. This meant I had to get one of those ultra-prohibited benzodiazepin pills. A very special NHS form was needed for private doctors to prescribe these. And the only very special guy authorized to hand out this very special special form had just gone on holiday for a fortnight when I initially contacted a dentist.
Securing a black market supply of pretty much any prohibited common recreational drug had certainly been a lot easier.
You know you’re probably right.
Proof of it that every measure thereafter: confinements, masks, jabs, spacing etc.. had to be forced and coerced.
Without it being forced they would have fallen by the wayside almost immediately.
Perhaps the main fear all along was of the state and its enforcers (and the inner Gestapo officers of many a private citizen who were only to happy to act as unofficial police).
I think so. Look at how most people as soon as they were “allowed” went back to doing things that had been deemed dangerous the week before. I know people are often dim, but if you were really scared you wouldn’t believe the government when they told you it was safe all of a sudden.
Of course many were scared, and some still are.
The threat of a £10,000 fine does focus the mind.
Yeah OK. £10,000 would have been the fine for organising a large event.
I am on first name terms with our chemist (pharmacist as they have poshly been retitled) and as this crime of the century was putting it’s boots on I remember chatting with him in the shop. He had been called to attend some talks about the coming Apocalypse and clearly nothing had got in the way of the doom mongers giving said talks. The chemist had been told that thousands were going to get sick and thousands would end up in hospital and as no treatments were available those becoming too sick “would be sent home to die” – his exact words.
After that fateful March lockdown I became ever vigilant and on daily lookout for the expected funeral motorcades. For some reason they just did not appear. By about the second week I knew something wasn’t right and my hours and hours of Sceptic research began. I was certainly not feared of any “virus” and ignored lockdown, largely carrying on as before where possible.
Those who realised we were being lied to either through instinct or research or both as in my case were never feared of any of the shit show that was unfolding. Fear was the lot of those who couldn’t keep their faces away from the telebox or the crummy newspapers. I well remember the toilet paper fuss but I genuinely couldn’t get my head round it.
The empty streets and town centres were slightly frightening but in a sort of John Wyndham Day of the Triffids’ way. Yes, there was very much a science fiction feel to those early days but fear?
Absolutely NO.
The toilet paper shortage was created by the media.
Early March 2020 there were endless photos of empty shelves in the media, but whenever I went to supermarkets the shelves were filled with toilet paper as normal.
Eventually, of course, the photos of empty shelves induced panic buying.
I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger coming out of our local Aldi carrying an enormous pack of toilet rolls on his shoulder. ‘Hey Arnie! Where did you find those?’, I asked.
‘Aisle B, back’.
I gave you the -1: what an awful joke! But thanks for the laugh!
At this point would it be appropriate to refer me to the DS article about plagiarism?
I saw this one as an edited photograph of The Terminator with the caption added – but I can’t remember where.
Aisle B, back. Groan. I am still laughing!
The toilet paper shortage was created by the media.
Early March 2020 there were endless photos of empty shelves in the media, but whenever I went to supermarkets the shelves were filled with toilet paper as normal.
By that time, they even admitted that they were doing a copycat of a well-known hoax on US 1970s TV where some popular guy had announced an imminent toilet paper shortage for piss taking. People then duly rushed into supermarkets and emptied the shelves and it took over a month for things to get back to normal.
OTOH, it wasn’t solely panic buying. During this period, toilet paper could be sold on E-Bay for much more than its supermarket prices and this caused gangs of gypsies to go to supermarkets to buy everything they could carry for later resale (per-person limits for # of toilet paper packs one may buy are completely useless when a large ‘extended family’ goes shopping as inidividuals). I know this because I’ve observed them in operation a few times.
I won’t be able to survive much past the zombie apocalypse once the tinned and packaged food runs out, due to non-existent hunting skills ( too emotionally attached to kill small furries too, though I could perhaps clobber a fish if my life depended on it ), but mostly I don’t think I’d survive long once the loo roll all runs out. There is no way I’m going full-on primal ( or even medieval, tbh ) with my toilet hygiene.
Just putting that out there.. But when you stop and think about it, people must’ve really stank for most of human history. There’s a lot to be grateful for nowadays and I for one am extremely grateful for the personal hygiene revolution.
But how did our ancestors live in a world without these basic products…? I mean, women didn’t even have tampons but nor did they have Vanish!!
More to the point, could you clobber a zombie? This is important as we wouldn’t want them to be well-fed. I imagine there’s a distinct lack of nutritional value in most other people’s brains.
All-purpose cloth and running water will do, although that’s somewhat uncomfortable. And many people do still really stink nowadays. We’re all just routinely drilled into ignoring our sense of smell. For some reason, this has stopped working for me about twenty years ago.
It was the accusations of selfish food hoarding that got my goat. You could be quarantined for a fortnight with zero notice or planning, and they tried to say it was wrong to keep a stock of food in the house? Were parents supposed to starve their children for a fortnight?
A distant relative couple (actually, in-laws of a cousin) really went to town over the lockdown. They’re considerably older than me and, I guess, frail. He had a boiler suit which he would wear to go to the supermarket for shopping; he would take it off and keep it hanging in the garage. He would wash the products he bought with a disinfectant solution and keep most of it in a fridge in the garage. This went on for months until they could get supermarket home deliveries – and the washing of products and storing in the garage went on for a year or more.
Some people were definitely scared of the bug.