Rachel Reeves has demanded that pictures of men by male artists are removed from the state room in No. 11 Downing Street in the latest misandrist move from a so-called ‘progressive’ Government. The Telegraph has the story.
The Chancellor has reportedly imposed a new female-only rule on the decor, meaning that all artworks on display in the state room must be “of a woman or by a woman”.
The aim is to celebrate “amazing” female figures, but a Tory source branded the move “pathetic gesture politics”.
It comes just three weeks after Sir Keir Starmer had a portrait of Margaret Thatcher removed from her former study in No 10, sparking claims by the Conservative Party that he has “got a problem with women”.
He later said he took down the painting because he doesn’t like pictures of people staring down at him, and prefers landscapes.
According to reports in the Guardian and the Daily Mail, Ms Reeves told an all-female reception at No. 11 this week: “This is King James behind me, but next week the artwork in this room is going to change.
“Every picture in this room is either going to be of a woman or by a woman – and we’re also going to have a statue in this room of Millicent Fawcett, who did so much for the rights of women.”
Small in itself, it is nonetheless symbolic, telling us something worrying about the Chancellor’s idea of ‘equality’: away with the men, bring in the women.
Worth reading in full.
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Oh, P*ss Off, you old mare. I don’t need or want ANY reassurance about my safety!!!! I’LL decide if I’m safe or not!
Personally, I would like some “reassurance” that I’m not going to get endlessly hassled about face nappies (I have a genuine exemption, which was even confirmed in writing by my MP when I wrote to him last summer). Yes, I can stand up to them, and do, but it gets immensely dispiriting over time, as does having to wear the bloody lanyard (those don’t stop the challenges, but they do reduce them).
And all for a meeasure which cannot be shown to have any impact whatsoever on the spread of the virus…
Yep, I feel your pain but I’ve just learned to stand my ground, and be firm. Don’t get into any unnecessary con-flabs with anyone. Tell them to mind their own business and butt out. I don’t even wear a lanyard but I have (an utterly useless) one on me, to back up my exemption. Believe me you are braver and and stronger than you think. The napped are the truly scared because your naked face shines a light on their weakness. And if they are wearing it for their own reasons and firm in their decision, they won’t give a toss if you arent. It’s those that that confuse virtuosity with cowardice that are the problem.
My stock reply if I’m asked (rare, even with police)) is that I’m not a slave and I’m not a moron. That shuts them up because they have to think about it by which time I’ve gone.
If it’s anyone with a costume or hi-vis harassing you, please feel free to rinse their employer for £3K-£5K per incident.
you don’t have to wear the ‘bloody lanyard’. You have an exemption….end of. I had my first challenge in a small shop in Ruthin. The two jobsworths, one owner, one employe said – you must wear a mask; Me; I have an exemption. They; you have to wear your ‘badge’ Me: “No I don’t I am merely telling you that I am exempt under The Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) Regulations 2020 s20 (3) (b) and (d) “risk fo harm. I do not have to tell you this but I am in trying to help you” Owner loses it and flounces off into back room muttering that I’m not allowed to shop here. Me to remaining perplexed employee ” I have a bottle of milk that I’m not putting back – a) heres £1.20 or b) you can take it or gift me the milk.” She chose a)
Know your law !!
Well done! Everyone should use the same approach.
My stock answer when asked where is your mask…”I am exempt, unfortunately I was cursed at birth with a slightly above average IQ”!
Takes a moment or two for that to be dissembled in their heads, by which time I’m on my way, and they need to either drop it or actively pursue.
Disgusting people, don’t give them your wonga
I wear a lanyard and have not had much trouble generally. My big problem is the receptionist at our medical centre, who refused to let me in for my appointment even though I wore a shield which the hospital had given me to wear there instead. I needed to see the GP so after a huge argument with this botch I gave in and wore it, though I made sure she saw me repeatedly taking the thing from my face to breathe. I don’t know what to do about this. I have reduced lung capacity from covid and find breathing difficult in a mask. I’ve also been left with occasional arrhythmia and a mask can bring this on.
I wrote to the practice manager about this and didn’t even get the courtesy of a reply. Oddly enough, on entering the GP’s room he had no probklem with me removing the mask.
Sometimes I hate women. The woman in the pharmacy gives me grief too. They are like a pair of petty car-park attendants. Jobsworths, Little ‘itlers.
Yes exactly, the biggest cause of death last century was a metastatic state.
Lower the risk, Shrink the State.
“Sheadded that, when on public transport, wearing masks and seeing others wearing masks is “a source of great reassurance and people want to do it”.
I find it very distressing -it’s as if in a distopian nightmare where the muzzled sheep are going to their slaughter .
Yes I find it the same. I avoid all public places as much as possible. I don’t wear a mask but seeing people in them is just terrible.
Just think of them as NPCs.
I find seeing school kids in masks the most distressing. I don’t know whether to rage or cry.
You have to wonder to what extent politicians like this one are genuinely too stupid to understand that face mask mandates sustain and spread fear, versus how much they are dishonest and want masks for precisely that purpose (because as Johnny S noted below, this particular Labour politician is on the record as confirming what a good, useful crisis covid is).
And, in usual opposition politician fashion, they have to find something to disagree with the government about. And with Labour, that meens demanding even more oppressive measures.
Indeed. Though all the signs I’ve seen suggest their choice to oppose from the panicker side rather than from the side of grownup sanity is very much in line with their instincts.
In my youth there were quite strong socially conservative working class influences in Labour, as well as liberal influences.
Those seem both to have all but vanished from the political left during my lifetime, with the authoritarian fanatic radicals of pc identitarian globalism becoming completely dominant.
Cue the Welsh Government.
Freedom day is but as dream to us over here to the West as our ‘leader’ Drakeford had had his orders from London and we won’t be getting our freedom just yet.
In that article, Lisa Nandy’s response:
Well, it was clearly an utterly wretched thing for Kate Green to think or say. But, of course, her colleagues can’t actually just say that what she said was wrong – and so, wriggling, they instead say that she expressed it wrongly!
Don’t you just love it when people fashion their wording in an attempt to evade the reality. They really do take us for fools and don’t give a shit in the process. Makes me sick.
Don’t worry Kate: Benjamin Netanyahu, when saying that “9/11 was good for Israel”, was also just ‘imperfectly expressing’ himself.
[may contain traces of sarcasm]
I have been actively avoiding having to see people in masks since the beginning of this nonsense. If anything has caused me anxiety or affected my daily life it has been the wearing of masks by other people. I absolutely hate it. I can’t stand wearing the pointless things myself and don’t wear them, but I find seeing others with them nearly as bad. Why can’t these fucking virtue signallers understand there are to sides to the coin.
I posted this in the Other Place yesterday, but it seems to appropriate here.
Yesterday, being Sunday, I went to the nine am service which is a communion service. I was the only one without a face-nappy, which was depressing. So depressing that I did not take communion; I was so disgusted with the rest of the congregation being muzzled; so much for their virtue-signalling that this was being done for others. Some face-nappies came off, even inside the church, after the service but not many. One slightly good thing: there was a notice about ‘Being safe’, the usual drivel. Last week I turned it round so that it was not visible. No one had turned it back.
Today to the hospital for retinopathy. I went in without a face-nappy, no one challenged me and at least 45 minutes went by before I was asked. Then I said I was exempt (I don’t like to claim that because it gives some credence to their vile and idiotic roolz) and that was that. The nurse/doctor who asked was quite good about it; it was more a question of playing by the roolz. Still depressing that I was the only one without a face-nappy; I did have my ‘exemption’ printed on scrap A4, but it was not visible and I never showed it.
I don’t know how this is all going to work out after July 19th, assuming Johnson keeps his nerve. Sometimes I am very pessimistic and I think there will be insistence on face-nappies, anti-social distancing and all the rest of the nonsense. Other times I think this is all going to blow over and maybe quicker than we dare to hope.
Quite simply, I don’t know.
I should also add that the hospital, a large one on the outskirts of a large town in Buckinghamshire was NOT busy. The waiting area was barely one-sixth full if that. All this nonsense about the NHS being overwhelmed is rubbish. Maybe other hospitals are busy because things do vary from area to area, but my observation was that it was quiet. Also, it was very easy to park on the local housing estate; I refuse to use the rip-off NHS car parks.
I agree 100%. I should be able to claim compensation for a deterioration in my mental health from the government for putting me through the distress of being surrounded by masked up compliants!
Ditto. I HATE seeing muzzled up people. It sums up how completely compliant and unthinking most are. My h says it is down to the individual, and if they want to wear a muzzle, let them. I don’t see it that way at all. Compliance and stupidity.
Becasue masks protect you from everything from the common cold to an asteroid strike.
And an asteroid strike is more likely to kill you than covid…
Oh yes! Please god an asteroid strike. just a small one preferably centred on Westminster when parliament is in full session…
Fuck off you ugly cunt she needs a mask.
It should be compulsory for her, for life.
First, we need a definitive real world study showing the actual benefit from common masks, and then compare that to overall costs. Because we could just have everyone operating with their own bottle of oxygen. We don’t because it’s cost and operationally prohibitive. But it would “save lives.” Until we do that, masks are the ultimate Tiger Horn.
But second and more important, then would you please explain why Florida and Texas aren’t in the middle of the Black Death? Can you explain when you will be happy to remove masks? And can you give me one reason why someone double jabbed who had Covid like myself should still be wearing one? If it’s because there is a change I might carry his virus with an IFR of .2, then you have just explained why masks will never leave.
We don’t need a study. I don’t want to wear one even if it helps a bit. I prefer to take the risk and live free.
The fact that there isn’t a study which is remotely convincing shows fairly clearly that they don’t work – if the mask proponents could have produced such a study backing up thier argument, they would have done so.
They’ve purposelsy chosen a claim which cannot be proven (or disproven) so that they can endlessly play people’s uncertainties and fears (and can never be proven wrong).
I mean, say, someone publishes a paper starting with the claim that a Chinese guy named Wu found a mircale cure agains the plague in 1911/ 12 and it was “homemade cloth masks”, is this perhaps enough of an outlandish claim to make someone realize that this is all bullshit?
It’s not that they didn’t try this during the black death and the outcome is known. But I guess this must have happened because they weren’t called Wu.
[mind boggles]
It has been disproved – see the Danish Mask Study.
Please stop reaffirming this myth by treating it as “scientific”. It isn’t and wasn’t ever meant to be.
I think the rules about ‘face coverings’ are very revealing- if the govt. were at all convinced that they worked then the rules would be much clearer about which type, how to wear and handle them, how to dispose of them as a potential bio-hazard, etc. The fact that you can wear anything and do what the hell you like with it shows that they don’t consider them to be effective.
You need to find the Virus in the first bloody place before you study it’s transmissibility!!
Freedom Day, just like all the other shit days inflicted on us by our Govt & Media.
The 19th was never going to happen, we all knew the masks had to stay. Religions cannot survive without their trinkets & customs after all.
It’s almost got the point where reading Covid Restrictions related pieces are pointless as things always get rowed back. It’s called gas lighting.
I think the only way forward is to push for a mandatory maskless society. We should push for a complete ban on face coverings in all areas. Imagine the Leftards allowing us to impose on them that they mustn’t wear a mask. They couldn’t comprehend it but are happy to ask us sane people to play our part in their covid theatre.
Yes.
The “compromise” position must be that masks can only ever be at most voluntary and that any and all pressure to wear them is outlawed.
The only time anyone should be permitted to hide their face in such a fashion is if it was prescribed by a specialist. Though why any medical practitioner would ever want to prescribe such a dangerous and unhealthy medical appliance is a complete mystery.
They never did, before the bollox.
They know it’s bollox now.
Cowardly bastards.
“Do they want this to ever end?”
Doesn’t look like it.
Labour love it! It’s a great time for them and their supporters to show how morally superior they are…
You mean, just like Tories, their Party, Supporters and Government love it – to the point of actually devising it?
Please don’t get me wrong, I hold Boris and his government completely accountable for this shit. I live in a Labour dominated inner city though. I know many a Labour member. And each of them, every single one, are authoritarian nazi’s regarding this madness. Including my own brother.
If I see anyone not loving it, it’s mostly Tory/Lib voters. (Though even most of them are still on board.) Plus I see a lot of buyers remorse regarding Boris.
And for the record, I haven’t voted Tory since 2005 and I never will again.
Since 1987 for me!
Not exact,y been a vote winner for them, has it?
I didn’t say it was a vote winner! The make up of the typical Labour member suits this ‘society first’ authoritarian approach is all I mean. And I unfortunately include my own brother in that :/
They’re all loving every minute of it, Lib, Lab, Con, the lot of them. They’ve never felt so important before this.
Stupid cow! Let’s keep the people in fear forever, and crush the Tories for doing it for us.
From September 2020.
COVID APOLOGY
Labour apologise after frontbencher Kate Green said Covid-19 pandemic was a ‘good crisis’ to exploit.
From today.
The Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill.
Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green said: “It is shocking that the Conservatives are introducing a new law to give free rein to extremists, anti-vaxxers and people harmful to the public interest at our universities.
So exploit the crisis and crush any form of free speech that may oppose her agenda.
And as for anti vaxxers, if she had her way info like this would never get out.
https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/health/coronavirus/chief-nurse-of-york-and-scarborough-hospitals-warns-that-their-severely-ill-covid-19-patients-have-been-double-jabbed-3302725
“loads of people in hospital were double jabbed, but we know it’s working because it’s not as many as before”. Yeah…. Or, we are running out of people to infect and the dry tinder has gone.
And it’s summer.
Go get stuffed!
Crikey, an admission from a politician that masks (face coverings to state the law correctly) don’t work.
‘Education‘ Secretary????
An worthy idiot to match the Tories’ catalogue of disasters in that role.
The only vaccination needed is one to counter this sort of moronic rubbish.
I suppose the only consolation is that “Who???” is an immediate response from Labour supporters.
There’s nothing new here and I don’t think it merits reporting as a separate article on LS, which should IMO focus on repeating the basic truths about covid rather than being overly wrapped in largely irrelevant Westminster nonsense.
The position the govt should have adopted was that masks are voluntary, not advised, and that any mask mandate or coercion is illegal. That’s the only defensible position on masks, and it is not their position, so featuring some Labour loony advocating going one step further than the govt have done in a possible attempt to make it look like there is clear blue water between the parties on this is not going to work.
“featuring some Labour loony advocating going one step further than the govt have done in a possible attempt to make it look like there is clear blue water between the parties on this is not going to work”
The evidence is that there are still some here who think that scoring anti-Tory points in the hope of getting a Labour government in future is a legitimate sceptical position. That suggests that reminding them of the deep involvement of the political left (very much including the Corbynist wing of Labour) in this coronapanic is a necessary educational task.
I agree (and I am fairly left-wing). This should not be used as a left/right point-scoring issue, and where polticians are doing so it should be highlighted.
I don’t mind left/right point-scoring. What I object to is pretending that this is a “Conservative”/Labour/LibDem etc issue, when the problem is an entire political class that is fully on board with this lunacy and utterly unfit for purpose.
I agree, it’s not restricted to any single party – and if there was an election there is no party who who I would prepared to vote for.
That’s my position as well (apart from the couple of new startup parties who have come out anti-lockdown – Heritage, Reclaim, perhaps Reform iirc?)
I saw it more as an attempt by the LS team to whitewash the govt to an extent, but maybe I am reading too much into it. There have been a number of pieces from TY and others trying to portray the govt as hapless victims of horrid lockdown zealots, and that libertarian Boris will deliver the goods on “Freedom Day”. I guess my worry is that the important work – to fight and defeat the insane narrative and to continue to fight against the terrible drift towards safetyism and idiocy that has enabled it – will be forgotten. But to be fair to TY he’s already fighting that fight with the FSU.
I agree that there’s a bit of that about Toby’s positions and you are right to be suspicious. but imo we should be alert to two equivalent political dangers.
The first is that the “Conservative” government gets away with what it has done.
The second is that the “opposition” gains power on the back of (or despite) their enthusiastic enabling of the “Conservatives'” coronapanic evil by claiming they would have done better by being even worse.
We should be as alert to those who want the latter, as to those who want the former.
The second point nails it – has there been a commons vote relating to covid measures that any other party has voted against?
When the political winds change, you can bet the gas lightning will begin and Labour will be screeching on the airwaves about how they always thought lockdowns and restrictions were a bad idea.
When it comes to covid all parties must be seen with the same contempt, as they have been indistinguishable from each other.
“My freedom doesn’t end where your fear starts”. None of them want this madness to end.
So called ‘adults’ wearing ‘comfort blankets’ is so pathetic.
I can see that there’s a compelling case for ugly women to wear face masks.
Aw bless, so Kate you are confused are you? Let me help because it’s very easy…I will not wear a mask because bed wetting idiots like you are frightened of absolutely nothing and feel better wearing their comfy blanket masks. Clear enough?
“confused” is one of those euphemisms (“need clarity” is another one), which actually means “we demand that you impose / continue with legal restrictions”
I saw the BBC (sick bag) admitted yesterday that the masks won’t keep infections down and that they send a message out to remain scared (my words) and for the first time in MSM I saw them also admit it is not a harm free measure. Something anyone who has half a brain could understand. Ergo this old Hag does not have half a brain.
Link or other info? I’d love to follow up on that.
Me too!
Lockdown must be permanent though we pretend, for appearance’s sake, we want it to end sometime or other, according to these bozos.
Why not have a mandate that people have to wear a talisman of their choosing, to give them the psychological comfort they need.
For the religious it can be a cross, or a hijab, for the adherenst of scientism a mask, whatever superstitious amulet takes your fancy.
Well she would, thats why we did not vote labour.
Anyway, its too late I have never worn a muzzle and never will , they are for Sheeple
If people want a ‘sense of safety’ they should buy inward filtration masks or a hazmat suit.
Then they don’t have to demand everybody else in the world lives by their rules.
Indeed
I take it that this device has its own air supply? Otherwise some of the air exhaled by some passing filthy peasant might get in…
Vaccines! Vaccines! Come get your lollipops children…
She looks like she has communist tendencies, for some reason
Why does this lady believe she’s entitled to force to dress in a certain way because it makes her feel “safer” from her dreadful “invisible enemies”? Can’t she get a therapy instead?
If people want to wear a mask as reassurance, I don’t see how they could become confused about that. If they don’t like the fact that I am not wearing one they can stay as far away from me as they think is necessary. What is unreasonable is to expect other people to accommodate their feelings whilst at the same time being happy to ignore other people’s feelings.
That would be a woke, snowflake commie.
Kate Green, if the traffic lights are green should I move? Wouldn’t it be safer just to stay where I am?
This kind of “thinking” is how we’ve got compelled speech to protect the fee-fees of people with mental disorders.
Note that there’s not even a pretence that this is about health or infection control. It’s all about “reassuring” the terrorised, by which I mean keeping them petrified.
The English like to tell themselves that, having seen off Napoleon, Kaiser Bill, and the Wehrmacht, they are possessed of a unique levels of courage, determination, independence and a fundamental sense of freedom and individual rights. This was a banner waved fervently by the Brexiteers
The past year has shown how utterly deluded that notion was.
There is no freedom, there are no rights in the NHS-worshipping nanny-state.
In America I could walk around wearing a t-shirt, carrying a placard, or with a bumper-sticker on my car, all telling the mask-maggots right where they could stick their precious face-nappies, and the bogus (non-existent) science they use to justify them.
But here in good old Blighty? I’d end up in court, charged with anti-social behaviour or having “harassed or alarmed” the sensibilities of these precious imbeciles.
No, you would not end up in court. Many of us have not worn masks and no one says anything for the most part.
It’s not the lack of a mask.
It would be saying out loud that masks are useless and that people who wear them are stupid.
Under British law, the police can – and do – stop people from expressing opinions by saying they are doing so to “protect public health.” Thats why the cops busted up the anti-lockdown rallies in London. It’s why they busted up the Sarah Everard rally. Both peaceful demonstrations.
Seriously, if I walked around wearing a button that said “Masks are for Wankers” – someone could claim that it was causing them (as mask wearers) “distress”, or that I was harassing them. Or that by publicly disparaging masks that I was “endangering public health.”
Even if I was ultimately acquitted in court, with the ridiculous Legal system, and massive costs, I’d probably be bankrupted long before I got there.
Without a written Constitution, like they have in the US and pretty much every other country, there really is no guaranteed right to Free Speech. You can say anything you like. Just as long as you don’t run foul of the cops, or the Government, or the Security Services, or whoever decides their right to tell you how to live your life, is more important than my right to walk into Tesco without a stupid piece of cloth on my face.
Sadly written constitutions have not done much good anywhere. Some of the red US states resisted because an understanding of what freedom means and ideas about where state power should end are more firmly lodged in the psyche of people in those states.
Well I would disagree with that assessment. In countries where Constitutions haven’t worked, it is usually the lack of strong institutional support that does it in. Britain, by way of contrast, does have strong institutions (military, law enforcement, public servants, the Judiciary).
The problem with Britain’s lack of a written Constitution is that its principles are the result of thousands of Parliamentary acts, court decisions, and historical precedents. Most of which are unknown to the people who have to live under them.
The reason that lockdown never took hold in the United States (and is now pretty much completely over) is that the written Constitution places very strict limits on how much the Federal (or State) Government may restrict people’s freedoms. A Mayor or Governor can declare a curfew or stay-at-home order during a bona-fide emergency. But if it drags on too long (say eighteen months too long…) – then the politician has to go to court and explain, with evidence, why it needs to continue.
Not the other way around. Which is why we’ve got the disgraceful state of affairs we have in Britain today.
Plenty of US states had stay-at-home orders. Almost all of them, including I believe Texas and Florida. I think the only state that had almost no restrictions from the start was South Dakota. I don’t recall any high profile court cases where stay at home cases were declared unconstitutional. The trouble with accepting the exception of a bona-fide emergency is that if the govt is able to define what such an emergency consists of, and to lie about what’s happening so that people believe it is an emergency, and the courts go along with it, you’re stuffed. The use of the SIs attached to the Public Health Act 1984 was almost certainly against legal tradition in this country that laws restricting basic freedoms must be explicitly designed to do so, which the PHA 1984 was not, but the case was thrown out because no judge had the courage to go against the govt and they seemed mainly to believe the govt had no choice – they believed the lies too.
Name some other countries that didn’t restrict freedom, if you can. I can’t think of many. Belarus – possibly the leaders there just that it was all bollocks, not sure, Tanzania – again the leader had the balls to say it was all bollocks, just dumb luck really, Sweden for some bizarre reason decided to respect their constitution, and I think Japan. But Germany for example has a fabulous constitution. Didn’t do them much good.
It has to be culture and the people that defend liberty in the end. We didn’t want it enough. We’re majoritarians. You say we have strong institutions. They were all enthusiastic collaborators in the madness.
Operative phrase there: “plenty of US states had stay-at-home orders”
Look, in fairness, at the very beginnings of covid-19 there was lot that wasn’t known. We didn’t know how dangerous it was, and who the people most at-risk were. We didn’t have a vaccine. We didn’t know the main vectors of transmission. And we simply didn’t know if, or how much, it might affect the medical system.
Wisconsin, the US State where I used to live, had a Stay-at-Home order issued by its Governor in March 2020. And yet in April – less than a month after it was issued – it was repealed by the State Supreme Court. The “burden of proof” was on the politicians to explain why they needed the authority to restrict people’s rights. And they couldn’t do it. For all the very good reasons we’ve been talking about for the past sixteen months.
Not so in England. The Government passes the most draconian restriction of liberties in history, and there is pretty much nothing anyone can do about it. Whatever silly nonsense squeaks through Parliament is the law of the land. It’s left to multi-millionaires like Simon Dolan to (fruitlessly) challenge the Government’s ability to imprison us in our houses. The “burden of proof” is on the citizen to fight a silly law. And we have no fundamental and inviolable principles of freedoms that we can rely upon when making those challenges.
What’s worse, we can’t even take to the streets to publicly (and peacefully) voice our opposition known. Think long and hard about that.
If covid has taught us anything, its the fact that the UK needs a written Constitution.
I hadn’t realised Wisconsin repealed their law so soon. And certainly the US has come out of this and moved on to a much much greater extent than we have. I’d say that was a consequence of a culture, not a written constitution.
The link between Culture and Constitution is an interesting issue. Are Americans more likely to put a political bumper-sticker on their car because of the (US) First Amendment? Or are Brits less likely to publicly state their political opinions because of our “don’t grumble” culture? There are arguments either way.
But I don’t think modern Britain has been well-served by its present Constitutional, Legal, and Cultural frameworks. All of them are (literally) archaic.
I think the putting of bumper stickers on cars is a consequence of the culture, which has possibly/probably been reinforced by the constitution, framed not that long ago by very clever people. It’s a young country born specifically from the desire for the possibility for more individualism.
I have no idea whether having a constitution here would help us much at this stage, but I tend to think not. If we created one now it would most likely be a crock of shit and even if it weren’t it would not be worth much. It would have to go hand in hand with a cultural shift and I can see no plausible source for such a shift. Possibly a triggered by backlash when the extent of the Big Lie is understood, but I can’t see any prospect of that happening either.
I’m not optimistic for the short/medium term. This is a bad time.
I’m not optimistic for the short/medium term either. And this is a bad time.
Inevitably interwoven into British political and social life is the dreaded Class System. Which has been playing out in all sorts of unexpected ways during covid. A strict “stay at home” regime affects the upper middle-classes, with their extensive walled gardens somewhat differently than it does people penned up in high-rise flats. It’s easy for the middle-aged and elderly to decry the wanton behaviour of twenty-somethings who want to go clubbing and sing with their friends in the stands of the Emirates or Old Trafford.
But the class system is obviously a discussion for another day. An argument I’m unlikely to ever win, because so many people in Britain have got so much of their existence wrapped up in the whole rotten business.
Totally superfluous note, but one for which which I have literally no other outlet. So please forgive me.
A older lady friend was speaking ecstatically of the virtues of the traditional “English gentleman”. Like her two former husbands, members of the landed gentry and exclusive Army regiments. Members of Pall Mall clubs and fellows regularly dunned by their tailors.
I made the mistake of pointing out that these “English gentlemen” had, in both cases, all-but-literally stolen hundreds of thousands of pounds from her, leaving her nearly destitute, abandoning her to care for her children alone. And that, by my definition, being a “gentleman” had less to do with what sort of school tie a man wore than the way he treated his family.
Needless to say, I lost that argument. I’m not optimistic about the future of England either.
“If covid has taught us anything, its the fact that the UK needs a written Constitution.”
This is an interesting issue, that I’ve had had many lengthy discussions about, going back decades. In the past I tended to come down on the side Julian has taken here. More recently I’ve been more inclined to the side you have taken, in part because the 1st an 2nd Amendment protections have been less easily bypassed than our own basic liberties in those areas (though undoubtedly culture plays a part and in political terms you could view the UK as close to a NE US small state).
But my concern now is that it is way too late anyway. The people writing any constitution now would be the very people the constitution is needed to guard against. Instead of the wise heads of the US Framers protecting basic liberties and setting up sophisticated checks and balances, we would have vacuous self-serving power seekers and zealots, drafting in dogmas institutionalising anti-white, anti-male and anti-Christian hatred, and ensuring that all dissent from their own ideologies is criminalised.
Someone told me long ago – and I don’t know if it’s true – that we CANNOT have a written consitution as we are SUBJECTS of the Queen
Constitutions don’t guarantee anything. Throughout the Franco era, Spain’s constitution ‘guaranteed’ fundamental freedoms. And people lived under a Fascist dictatorship, and dissidents were beaten up in underground torture chambers.
France’s constitution ‘guarantees’ liberty, equality and fraternity. Tell that to a health worker being forced to submit to the snake oil.
When this all started, a couple of family members kept asking what was wrong with Americans and why they were so anti-lockdown, (there was a fair bit of coverage of people defying/protesting), and I kept pointing out that to them it’s unconstitutional – simple as that. It fell on confused ears…
I completely agree with your points.
We now have the situation here that intent is now meaningless under law. If offence is taken by anyone, that now supersedes it. That infamous case of the YouTube video of a dog doing a Nazi salute. It was a joke, designed to embarrass the fella’s gf. Instead the State took offence and decided he was spreading Nazi propaganda. And the court upheld the states charges and he was ordered to pay a fine.
I too am a victim of this new interpretation of the law. I fly the England flag at home. Next to it I did fly a relatively unknown and obscure liberty flag. A few months down the line, I have the police at my door insisting I take it down or face charges. An ‘anonymous person’ had decided that I was flying a KKK flag! I mean, seriously? My explanation of the meaning of the flag, backed up with evidence of the history of the flag was ignored. My intent meant nothing. The subjective reaction of somebody I never met overrode it.
Freedom of expression here has deteriorated so badly, it’s shameful.
I grew up grateful I didn’t live in America. The size of the federal govt scared the s**t out of me. However, in very recent times I look over the pond with eyes of envy at those red states sticking 2 fingers up at this insane mess, backed up by their simple but effective constitution.
Plus, in Texas they have now started kicking back at the ‘divesting’ nonsense- effectively telling people and companies that if they don’t like what Texas does they can do one…God I wish I lived there right now.
Has anyone seen any lists compiled of companies positions on face coverings from next week?
I’m keen to avoid using any business that will keep them mandated.
I know most of the supermarkets have said they aren’t going to mandate them, other than the airlines haven’t seen anyone else who are going to mandate them
I think the path of least resistance will generally be to keep them in place and then not do too much enforcement and see what happens. Apart from anything else, there’s a huge amount of signage and stuff on websites etc that would need to change, and they probably figure that the mandates will come back soon enough anyway.
Might be worth emailing the big ones (main supermarkets, big pub chains such as Wetherspoon), and then choose who to give business to accordingly. Of course the danger is that they will all comply with the govnerment bullying.
Sainsbury’s have said it will be shopper’s choice.
Asda, IIRC, are going to be asking for masks.
The others, I don’t know.
It could be down to individual store managers. We have 2 large Tesco in Hereford. In one I was challenged once in the early days last year, never since. In the other nearly every time I go in; the last time being a week ago.
I wish there was a Sainsbury’s near me. My local is Waitrose (which I have replaced with Ocado since July last year…), but, assuming the worst there, I’d be happy to drive a few minutes further to Tesco.
I’d agree with that, the Waitrose nearest to me is usually full of self righteous busy bodies.
If they mandate them, they must produce a risk assessment. Public sector bodies must also provide an Equality Impact Assessment. For hand sanitiser, they must provide a CoSSH assessment. They will no longer be covered by government dictat and indemnity so will need to protect themselves from action under Equality and Health and Safety law. Most won’t take the risk.
WHY??????
Did anyone watch The Handmaids Tale last week? June gets caught by the Eye’s and as she’s trapped, they put a mask on her to dehumanise and silence her.
A dystopian story on TV highlights exactly what masks are for. The scary thing is it feels like we’re living in the prequel to that series.
It’s why hooding of POWs is now outlawed amd not practised anymore by British forces.
And anyone remember the furore about the police deploying ‘spit hoods’?
African slaves.
Prisoners in Guantanamo.
British zombies.
Masks are touted as source control. If you need a mask, you must be unwell. If you are unwell, GO HOME!
If a mask is a workplace requirement, show the MHSWA Regs Risk Assessment that identifies a mask as a control against a hazard. Then start providing free as required by the PPE regs. However, be prepared to explain why you have decided to keep an infectious employee in the workplace rather than SEND THEM HOME!.
Borrowing from someone on the Telegraph comments yesterday, if anyone obstreperous challenges me I might say “it’s like wearing a condom made of wool or cotton and saying oooo, if it stops just one spermatazoon, it’s worth it!”
A variation on the theme: “A mask stops the virus as much as pants stops farts”!
They’ll test flatulence for the virus next, and mandate corks…
The “Maskateers” like to push the mantra that in the far East, people wear masks as a sign of good manners and hygiene.
I was always led to believe that the reason was protection from pollution.
Could sceptics who have spent time in the far East enlighten me to what is the truth.
some will wear them if they have symptoms. Not sure how that’s good manners. Would be better if they stayed at home.
Thanks for your reply, A H
I’d always assumed it was because of pollution too.
They wear them in the Far East for cultural reasons. For example, the Japanese have a cultural taboo against both blowing your nose in public, and for women, showing your teeth. The mask deals with both those issues.
All of what we have put up with over the last year is a bunch of people with beliefs seeing things in the world that apparently validated them. The very epitome of a lie getting around the world before the truth has its boots on.
Thank you for your reply, LG.
As you mention Japan, it’s worth noting what it can be like on some public transport there, such as crush-loaded Tokyo metro trains. Makes a bit of sense culturally, even it it’s useless in effect. We are witnessing a copy cat job, and that’s it, in effect. Oh, and of course there are plenty of negative problems as well.
Lots of reasons
https://qz.com/299003/a-quick-history-of-why-asians-wear-surgical-masks-in-public/
Thank you for that link, KF.
Kate Green, fuck off you stupid cunt.
So when does it end? if it doesn’t end now with record low deaths, when does it end?
“mandatory mask-wearing should stay in place after July 19th so as to keep the rules clear and to provide people with a sense of reassurance about their safety.”
And there we have it: to provide _reassurance_. If she thought they should remain – for protection – she could have used words to that effect, but didn’t.
It was admitted that the actual reason for being made to wear a face-covering (after initially being advised against), was to provide reassurance to people when out in the community.
Also: “to keep the rules clear”. What, eh, sorry, s’cuse me, say what, beg pardon?
This MP needs to get a brain (oh, and a soul wouldn’t go amiss).
Edit: ‘scuse me – not s’cuse me. Please excuse me
How come these brutes never think of the ‘inconvenience’ suffered by us humans when we are hassled, bullied and insulted by zombies?Aren’t we entitled to a little reassurance occasionally?
To be sure, humans are in the minority. But minorities have rights. At least, there was a time when they did.
In my opinion, she would say that because thats what her boss, Viceroy Von Starmer, wants. Why did Baron Von Starmer become the Labour Leader when he was already being groomed to be either the head of MI5 or GCHQ following his disasterous role as head of the CPS. Presumably his pals at the Trilateral Commission wanted someone to destroy Europes biggest political party whose leadership wasnt following the NWO agenda. …. Just saying
Labour wasn’t following the NWO agenda? That’s news to me
Maybe, under Corbyn they were not totally onboard the NWO ship, but they certainly are now.
“Shadow Education Secretary”. Well she should educate herself and provide evidence that facemasks are effective in the prevention of the transmission of respiratory viruses. If she likes I can send her a copy of the Danish RCT paper.
who does she think she is talking for a born and bred Londoner. No, masks should NOT be mandatory and NO other people wearing them merely makes me think how many idiots the city has, like her.
I have not worn any face covering since this whole farrago started in July last year. There was no scientific or medical reason why it was necessary to wear something covering your nose and mouth, as was admitted by the WHO and the UK government up to a few weeks before it suddenly became part of the rigmarole of getting outside your own house. As far as I can recall there are a few Cabinet Ministers who have publicly stated that they will be going out barefaced with effect from next Monday – unless those statements were barefaced lies and they have changed their minds.
I do not have a lanyard or a printed card – I have only had two instances when somebody said something, one was a PCSO who was totally ignorant of the law, the other was a similarly ignorant member of the public in my local Morrisons.
I have no problem breathing fresh air – I do have a problem breathing CO2 through a mask or bandana, which may be wet after some time of usage.
How have you been challenged so little, I wonder? I have also never worn a mask and have been using public transport and going into shops, museums, cinemas, galleries, GP surgeries etc etc throughout. I have been challenged literally hundreds of times: for example, today I was challenged in the cafe where I had lunch, in Hobbs, and in Seasalt – a very typical day out for me.
On Saturday I was challenged three times in one cafe – each time by a different member of staff. I have been challenged on three occasions by police officers. I have been challenged a couple of times at the university where I work.
I have come to hate my community.
I have never been challenged. Well, in the school playground, but that’s it. I know why – it’s because I look hard and mean, and not someone you would want to mess with. So no one says anything. I presume you look like someone who people think they can bully, so they try to.
Just ignore the next person who says anything to you. When I say ignore, I mean stare them cold in the eyes and ignore them until they walk away.
Yes, I think that’s absolutely true – most maskivists are grown-up playground bullies, and will only pick on people who they perceive as weaker than them.
You must be in absolute Covidian plague spot, Alethea. Few of us have experienced anything like that sort of hassle. Perhaps your face looks provokingly intelligent and alive, to a zombie?
I’ve probably not been challenged hundreds of times, but still quite a few – although I have had a bloody lanyard for quite a few months because I got so sick of the hassle and this reduces it a bit.
And has anyone else found that if someone employed by a large company says “we’ve been told to ask for proof”, and you put a complaint in, they say that no, it’s definitely not company policy – and yet it carries on happening? Either they have no control over rtheir staff, or they are lying because they know full well that no proof is required but want to make things difficult for the unmuzzled. I know which of those I think is most likely!
Wow, you’ve had it pretty rough. Like you I’ve never worn a mask (nor carried a lanyard/note from my mum), and I’ve quite rarely been asked, let alone had anything amounting to a real challenge. A couple of confrontations, a few discussions, and a few tentative queries breezed past without engaging.
Having thought about it I suspect two reasons for the difference. First, plenty of commenters here have suggested women tend to get challenged more frequently. Second, it’s probably largely just that you are in places to be challenged much more frequently than I am. Never using public transport helps.
Glad all this crap didn’t come up a few years sooner.
I think they must be intimidated by me because hardly anyone has ever said anything. I am a 61 year old woman but I am nearly six foot tall and I probably have a ‘don’t you dare’, school-mistress-y aura about me. They know that challenging me wouldn’t end well for them.
The only place that I have ever been challenged, ironically, was church. I was singing in an entirely unmasked choir practice when I left the group in the interval to walk, alone, up a flight of steps to go to the lavatory. A notorious busybody (the sort who loves herding people around before concerts) followed me and said, ‘You’re supposed to wear a mask’. I smiled, sweetly but icily, and said, ‘I don’t’. She backed off. The choirmaster, who is intensely frustrated by the whole business and very relaxed about the mask nonsense, said nothing. If he had asked the reason for my exemption, I would have told him in private, but it was none of her business and I didn’t intend to give her any credence. Busybodies like that need squashing.
What the fuck is confusing about “do whatever you want”. it’s possible the least confusing message there is.
Honestly, how do we even manage to get out of bed without the State helping us?
A lot of people don’t, evidently.
Another one of these idiots who qualifies for a well-considered, thorough, evidence-based response:
FUCK OFF KATE GREEN
I’d like to refer Kate Green to the reply given in Arkell v Pressdram
I suppose it’s because she thinks that some Labour supporters are as thick as she and her colleagues are, and thus need to be instructed or ordered about, in every aspect of human life. Just pipe down, dearie, and hide behind your settee while you fill out your extravagant expense chits.
We know where Robert Peston, political editor of ITV news, stands on mask wearing:
“If businesses or services impose a mask-wearing obligation, will they be vulnerable to legal challenge, when they exclude non mask wearers? Will the PM give his explicit support to those institutions which insist on mask wearing? Those are important questions for today.”
https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1414487809805758464
No attempt to hide it
Tweet back. Those who continue to be scared of their own shadow can invest in FFP3 masks. Since those are available why on earth do you need to inconvenience everybody?
I’m not on Twitter, I just look at it in a browser. I would disappear down too many rabbit holes if I had a Twitter account. I lack discipline.
I found his tweet instructive – it confirms that the media, or sections of it, will only support the govt as far as the narrative continues more or less intact. IMO thinking that the media are just govt mouthpieces is fanciful. If the PM came over all Donald Trump, or denounced the coronamadness for what it is, they would lay into him viciously and try to hound him out of office.
I see Labour continue the grand tradition of being utterly impervious to reason, logic and consequences.
One wonders why they are so keen to punish working class children.
https://swprs.org/face-masks-evidence/
A May 2020 meta-study on pandemic influenza published by the US CDC found that face masks had no effect, neither as personal protective equipment nor as a source control. (Source)
A Danish randomized controlled trial with 6000 participants, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in November 2020, found no statistically significant effect of high-quality medical face masks against SARS-CoV-2 infection in a community setting. (Source)
A large randomized controlled trial with close to 8000 participants, published in October 2020 in PLOS One, found that face masks “did not seem to be effective against laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections nor against clinical respiratory infection.” (Source)
A February 2021 review by the European CDC found no high-quality evidence supporting the effectiveness of non-medical and medical face masks in the community. Furthermore, the European CDC advised against the use of FFP2/N95 masks by the general public. (Source)
A July 2020 review by the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine found that there is no evidence for the effectiveness of face masks against virus infection or transmission. (Source)
A November 2020 Cochrane review found that face masks did not reduce influenza-like illness (ILI) cases, neither in the general population nor in health care workers. (Source)
An April 2020 review by two US professors in respiratory and infectious disease from the University of Illinois concluded that face masks have no effect in everyday life, neither as self-protection nor to protect third parties (so-called source control).
“I see Labour continue the grand tradition of being utterly impervious to reason, logic and consequences.” I agree and am no fan of theirs, but bear in mind the govt brought in the mask mandates, pushed them, and are really engineering their continuation by any other means – trying to look like freedom lovers while egging on transport providers, shops etc to bring in their own mandates, and saying people are “expected” to carry on wearing them. A truly conservative govt would never have brought them in, and if they’d done so in haste and now realise their mistake, they would be saying that masks are not needed. But they are very much not saying that.
S’funny, I thought the article was about Labours Kate Green, thats why i said “continue the grand tradition”
I didn’t include the UK or most other govts round the world indulging in sheep like behaviour.
The only ones not doing so appear to be Sweden and some Republican governed US states.
Everyone else seems to be indulging in how much damage can we cause / Hold my Beer.
I was making the point that the tradition is not exclusive to Labour
Yes, that’s why i said continue.
If it had been a Tory I would have said the tories continued.
If it had been the mad munchkin of Wales I would have said Labour.
If it had been demented Nicola Stalin of the Krankies I would have said the Natzis.
The main and most devastating evidence is that predictions from mask fanatics of explosions of infections and deaths if people stop wearing masks *never happens*.
So why do they cling to them? It’s like the mystic octopus that never predicts the lottery results yet people still quote the numbers.
Kate Green? Who are you? Do you have any qualifications? Do you know any science about masks? Do you have any experience in this field?
To me, this idea looks just like a whim of yours that finds no objective basis anywhere. You don’t get to tell me what I should and shouldn’t do according to your fancy.
You only have to look at this scruffy commie bitch to know the shite she is going to spout
Very similar to the shite being spouted by the govt – they are just being smarter about it, keeping masks by the back door
Because nothing spreads confusion like allowing people to make their own decisions.
https://www.minds.com/steveghostwords/
If Johnson proposed a plastic bag over your head mandate, Labour would say ‘Two bags’.
Of course she does.
The hard left, Communists want the State to possess absolute power. As do the unions, most doctors and the CCP owned media.
Just watching bombastic Dat to Day type autocue reader Bradby on ITV with his self regarding journos Including Peston. They argue that we need to implement the science of masks. It sounds like a Charlie Brooker script. We are all in this black mirror till we decide otherwise.
Here’s the question they never ask. ‘Why? Where’s your clinical evidence viz efficacy of masks?’
I see the wearing of masks as a major cause for concern for the mental health of the wearer and of the approving public at large. The likes of Kate Green need to wake up to reality.
Kate Green – Take some advice from Les Grossman: First, take a big step back… and literally, FUCK YOUR OWN FACE!
The elevation of Mask wearing in the General Public to cult status is terrifying! -much of the fault lies with scientists who publish experiments performed in Labs,conflate Covid19 with seasonal flu and avoid discussion of any deleterious aspect. Surgeons showed wearing them in the Operating Theatre does not reduce infection which is why in prosthetic surgery “space suits “ are used – Cambridge study showed in hospital masks don’t work an Respirators are needed. Infections went up after mask mandate. 1/3 infection resulting in death were in Hospital where masks are mandatory. We cannot permit the masks maniacs – to make the non wearing of mask “Blasphemy “.
F*ck off you stupid pea brained idiot…….with your complete lack of scientific knowledge a job on SAGE awaits with those useless, lying cretins!!
A Labour Shadow Education Secretary talking shit, no surprise there then. Most likely also supporting teaching unions telling their members not to do their jobs; but still claiming their full pay?
Ignorant bitch; who voted for her?
What has mandated mask wearing got to do with freedom to breathe oxygen? Why is breathing in your own filthy recycled carbon dioxide got anything do with freedom? Wake up and silence these communists.
This is the woman who said, at last year’s Labour Party Conference, ‘Don’t let a good crisis go to waste’.
This is about political advantage and pursuing an agenda that has nothing to do with a virus.
Dear Kate Green I’m old enough to make my own risk assessment I’ve had two jabs so the mask is off after next Monday please wear yours if you wish that is now your choice not the law but do not presume to tell me what you want my choice to be
these power hungry lefties & sell outs should all be fired . let her stay indoors forever with a mask on her brains.
I don’t wear a mask but had to when attending a hospital cataract pre-op procedure. The only thing that was upsetting me was having to wear a mask. The staff were horrified that my blood pressure had shot up to 207.
From Monday (weather permitting) I shall be wearing my home printed T shirt with a picture of a flock of sheep wearing face nappies.
I’m glad I left the Party, and one wonders how many others have done the same thing.
FO you old bag. We’ve had enough of this rubbish.
Yesterday I heard two locals talking in the road outside my house, they were saying how sick they are of the words ‘covid’ and lockdown’. One said “I dunno, I’m seriously beginning to wonder about all this. Well, I’ve had one vaccine but I’m not having any more”. The other said “yes, I feel the same way”.
This may not sound much, but the first person was a man who’d previously been a very serious and blunt advocate of both lockdown and vaccine.
If I was young I’d have got out my skipping rope and done five laps round my garden!
Unscientific nonsense.
Masks won’t achieve anything if we hermetically seal our mass transport systems and classrooms and workplaces.
Apart from anything else there is no protection for eyes, and that is even if you require FFP3/NP99 masks that can be worn for 2 hours max according to the manufacturers.
Money needs to be made available to drastically improve ventilation of mass transport and work/classroom spaces. Where this was done in Hong Kong, rather than shovelling money into the gaping maw of the useless ‘test and trace’, rates of community infection are far far less that that which we are enduring.
I consider myself to be moderately intelligent and am therefore able to make my own choice based on my assessment of risk. I certainly don’t need to be told how to run my life by any politician of any party.
I wish the whole 650 of them would bugger off and let the country return to how it was before their unprecedented assault on democracy and free speech.