In the Telegraph, Daniel Hannan reminds us that, five years ago, Britain chose a path to financial ruin, crushed civil liberties and shattered public trust by succumbing to lockdown hysteria. Here’s how his piece begins:
What the hell were we thinking? Five years ago, we were sliding towards the most expensive mistake ever made by a British government, a mistake that led to our financial ruin, the annihilation of our basic freedoms and the obliteration of public trust.
Never before had our civil liberties been so blatantly disregarded. We were subjected to house arrest on the basis of unsupported conjecture, our property rights were violated, our freedom of expression repressed, even our ability to leave the country denied.
Where were all the human rights lawyers when they were needed? Where were the Doughty Street types, so vocal in their defence of illegal migrants, convicts and terrorists? The one time that there truly was a national human rights violation, they were cheering it on.
Meanwhile, the British state told lie after lie after lie. Just three weeks! Facemasks are dangerous! One more month! Facemasks are essential! Squash the sombrero! Young people are at risk! Just two more weeks! Wait for the vaccine! Wait for the second vaccine! Your jab protects others! It’s the third shot that really works! Dangerous new variant! One last lockdown! Just three more weeks!
As we approach the fifth anniversary, we don’t like to admit that we destroyed our economy, took away part of our kids’ childhoods, permanently aggrandised the state and indebted ourselves for a generation – all for nothing.
Because we don’t want to accept such horrifying truths, we reach for excuses. We could only work on the basis of best-guess models, we tell ourselves. We followed the science as it stood. Who knows how much worse things might have been had we not locked down?
I’m afraid these justifications are, as the saying goes, pure cope. The careful protocols of our own scientific advisers, as well as of the World Health Organisation (WHO), counted for nothing when set against hysterical newspaper headlines, panicky opinion polls and feverish rants by Piers Morgan. …
The tax hikes, the devaluation of our savings, the uncontrollable national debt – these things were inescapable consequences of paying people to stay home for the better part of two years. …
For years to come, Britain will be poor, indebted and repressive because, in early March 2020, no one (with the exception of one brave Sunday Telegraph columnist, modesty forbids, etc.) wanted to stand in the way of a stampede. We did this to ourselves.
Worth reading in full.
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“… five years ago, Britain chose a path to financial ruin, crushed civil liberties and shattered public trust…”
25 years ago with the advent of constitutional vandal and wrecking ball Tony Blair.
It doesn’t matter what goes wrong in this country nowadays Bliar is the source.
What a legacy.
From 1215, Magna Carta to 1996, a progress of some sorts, since then we are reduced to serfs/ slaves of state.
And also the slow totalitarian progression from 911 with the Patriot Act.
“25 years ago with the advent of constitutional vandal and wrecking ball Tony Blair.”
In fact, no. The single biggest factor leading to financial ruin has been the EU.
See:
EU’s Monsieur Bonkers of Brussels Caused UK’s Potholed Roads – [and more] Tuesday, 25 February 2025
EU Austerity, driven by the Germans has a long history of never working and instead of reducing borrowing and public expenditure it always does the opposite:
Chapter 7 of Professor Mark Blyth’s awesome work “Austerity The History of a Dangerous Idea“:
“In general, the deployment of austerity as economic policy has been as effective in us bringing peace, prosperity, and crucially, a sustained reduction of debt, as the Mongol Golden Horde was in furthering the development of Olympic dressage. It has instead brought us class politics, riots, political instability, more rather than less debt, assassinations, and war. It has never once “done what it says on the tin.”
Professor Florian Schui [University of St. Gallen] on the history of economic and political ideas and economic history in his 2014 “Austerity: the great failure” wrote:
“The conclusions of this survey of the last 2,500 years of debate about abstinence are sobering: there are no convincing economic arguments for austerity policies in their current form and there is no compelling moral or political case for them either. Austerity, in its current form, is simply a great failure.”
Under David Cameron and George Osborne the UK implemented Austerity when we did not need to. Instead of cutting government expenditure and borrowing this lead to an average borrowing of £128bn annually driving up New Labour’s bill post Blair and Brown from £900 Bn to £2.7 trillion in 14 years. A most dramatic example of the repeated failure of Austerity.
In 17 years compared to the US the value of the EU’s economy has fallen to 65% of that of the USA’s when it was previously 90%.
And the LibDims and Starmer’s Labour want us respectively to rejoin the single market and build closer ties to Europe. The Greens are the worst: “Full membership of the EU remains the best option for the UK, and we are in favour of pursuing a policy to re-join as soon as the political will is present.”
So these morons want to tie the UK’s wagon to a dying horse.
Woop de doo. Hip hip hooray, That’s the way to go UK!!
Did someone say “Telegraph”? I presume this is the new woke DT whose Global Health, funded by Bill and Melinda, terrorised its readership and reproduced loyally all Chris Whitty’s pseudo-science. It seems it has now stopped running with the hares and, instead, it is hunting with the hounds.Conrad Black and his wife Barbara Amiel would be deeply ashamed to see their once great newspaper’s decline.
State-sponsored madness…
…Fri 13 Mar 2020: Prof Medley of SAGE, speaking on Newsnight, “We’re going to have to generate herd immunity.”
Sat 14 Mar 2020: My fit and healthy teenage son played his last game of school football for 18 months, to protect him from catching a respiratory virus out in the fresh air.
Sun 15 Mar 2020: Media berate hillwalkers in Snowdonia at no risk of catching a respiratory virus out in the fresh air.
Mon 16 Mar 2020: The Imperial College epidemiological modelling paper is published, using the word “assume” (or derivative thereof) over 40 times, assuming viral transmission in workplaces, schools and homes, but not assuming transmission in hospitals and care homes.
Tue 17 Mar 2020 onwards: £400 Billion squandered on a respiratory virus with an age-fatality profile that paralleled general mortality.
Or even worse, was it the State that killed Granny all along?
It was hancock/Boris that killed my mother that’s for damn’ sure.
Ditto. My newly widowed mother who had a manageable cancer was effectively turfed out by the NHS in March 20 and not seen again until October (and only then at my angry insistence towards hospital departments) by which time, the cancer was terminal. She died a few months later. I tell this story to every lockdown fanatic – the whole ‘don’t kill granny’ mantra didn’t exactly work out for her, did it?? My anger at her treatment will never subside…
True. Two comments though:
1.) It wasn’t just Britain. The madness included most of the developed world.
2.) On a positive note, it was an eye opener. We are far more suspicious now. The idea of a “benevolent government protecting people” was always mostly an illusion but now we no longer have that illusion. Quite a few people have woken up to this fact.
Rona was a CIA-NATO planned project across the G20. The Africans en masse did not participate yet suffered no ‘ill effects’ from Rona. It was the G20 where the stabbinated died, or old people were murdered. Fake tests said ‘Rona’….it was a fascism on a global G20 scale. Some have woken up. Many are brain dead and still chatter about their fake virus fears.
I don’t recall Hannan being so outspoken in 2020, but never mind.
There is more joy in heaven etc ( whatever the equivalent expression is in the f##king koran which is obviously nowadays the religious book of choice amongst the PTB in our benighted country).
Any dissent in the Press was largely promulgated through a then-new web journal called ‘Lockdown Sceptic’, not in the Daily Telegraph. TY not DH………… but ‘modesty forbids etc’, so I’ll say it on Toby’s behalf
I really thought I was going mad in Covid times until I found the Sceptic, as there was no outlet for dissent even among friends and family.
Especially among friends and family in my case… It’s still a thorny subject with some of them.
same here , sceptic a lifesaver , thank you toby and all
Yes, the Lockdown Sceptic was significantly responsible for my self-education about the nonsense and in particular the dangers of the jabs when they came along. Not just the articles, but the many links which others posted under the articles which led me to Bhakdi, Mike Yeadon and many others.
Hopefully, most on here saw through all the lies, propaganda and omissions of the truth during the Covid scam.
And yet many still can’t see all the lies, propaganda and omissions of the truth from their governments and their “presstitutes” in the main stream media on all other issues.
There is always at least two sides to every argument.
Anyone with internet access and a VPN can find a wealth of information that counters the “establishment” view.
People, even on here, need to be more “sceptical”.
Lots of buyer’s remorse for people who took the death jab over here. I hope people are not just sceptical about vaccinations in general now but also will be less susceptible to other government PsyOps doing the rounds presently ( climate, gender ideology etc ) or in the future. If they try it on again with this whole virus mania I’m very confident most will see through it;
”Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, thousands of Dutch citizens report regretting their decision to get vaccinated. Surveys conducted by Panel Inzicht and media outlets affiliated with AD reveal that a small but significant portion of the population believes they were misled, pressured, or experienced adverse effects from the vaccine.
Two months after receiving his second AstraZeneca dose, Martin van Nispen contracted COVID-19. “It felt like a severe flu, but I clearly wasn’t protected. In hindsight, I regret exposing myself to an experimental vaccine under false pretenses,” he said.
Others reported more severe health complications. “Immediately after vaccination, I developed physical issues that led to hospitalization. I’m still undergoing treatment. Multiple doctors have said the vaccine had a negative impact on me,” said one respondent.
“I’ve had three COVID-19 shots and now suffer from hearing loss, nerve pain, and worsened tinnitus. The right side of my face is constantly in pain. My ENT specialist confirmed these symptoms,” said Monique, who declined to share her last name.
Vaccine skepticism appears to be growing, with potential implications for future public health initiatives. “I regret listening to people who didn’t provide honest information. We were given incomplete details, with a strong push to vaccinate,” said one survey participant.
Van Nispen added, “I now have a healthy dose of skepticism about government vaccination programs, especially vaccines developed in record time. I likely won’t participate in another large-scale vaccination campaign. My trust has been broken.”
https://nltimes.nl/2025/03/03/thousands-regret-covid-19-vaccine-citing-health-concerns-pressure
And from London today;
”I’ve just arrived in London, where a protest is underway in memory of those injured or bereaved due to the COVID vaccine.
Protesters are now sat in the streets of London and are refusing to move.”
https://x.com/sammywoodhouse1/status/1898736785359839637
‘Dissent is the very essence of science’
Jay Bhattacharya 2025
But his dissent was backed by two authoritative serial prevalence studies.
Much general ‘scepticism’ on here is backed only by silly wibbling ruminations on profoundly batty echo chamber websites; no evidence whatsoever
Who knows how much worse things might have been had we not locked down?
Well we could ask the Swedes how it worked out for them.
When faced with a problem involving humans, be it economic, political or medical ask this question:
“How does the microbiome contribute to the problem?” Because it always does.
Mice practice coprophagy to maintain their microbiome and reduce inflammation which contributes to almost all disease. We used to drink milk but in the 1960s we started to think that milk was bad and since then milk consumption has fallen, our microbiome is sub-optimal, inflammation has increased and the young in particular are suffering the consequences. The result is too many people of working age are not working, tax receipts fall and pressure on the NHS rises.
SARS-CoV-2 amplifies pre-existing inflammation caused by a sub-optimal microbiome. The old become very ill and die (the cytokine storm). But the young get all sorts of other problems because inflammation contributes to all disease both physical and mental.
Life is full of challenges, including lockdowns and social media and much more in the modern world. But those with an optimal microbiome are best able to cope. So remember the haiku: keep fit and healthy, drink a pint of milk a day, eat lots of yoghurt. Tell that to Wes Streeting and Rachel Reeves because all other plans to fix the economy and save the NHS are a waste of time.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360050608_SARS-CoV-2_interacts_with_mucosal_dysbiosis_to_cause_the_wide_range_of_disease_seen_in_Covid-19
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379311083_The_Microbiome_and_the_Entropy_Paradox_An_Evolutionary_Perspective_Food_Nutrition_Journal
Having the ability to laugh at oneself always helps too. If I ever struggle to raise a smile, I remind myself of that towering Scottish intellectual and Government Minister, Michael Gove, in late 2020 advising us all in solemn tones that ‘A Scotch egg is a substantial meal’
At that point my admiration for our government was complete……….
Irrelevant, stupid, self-important blowhards to a man/woman/choose your gender
I especially enjoyed the risk-reducing “performance” of removing a mask when you sat down in a pub, but the essential risk reducing act of re-donning it if you stood up.
Yep. The most surreal thing I recall from that period was being asked to wear latex gloves to play tennis. This was on the grounds that when we picked up a handful of balls to hand to our opponent at change of ends we might infect the poor chap/chapess…
Also we had to race yachts with only half the crew ’for social distancing’. Frankly, a boat needing a crew of 10 is dangerous to race with only 5, I presume the logic was that Covid would kill us before the main boom could knock our heads off.. To ensure that we got a full dose of the lethal virus, during the upwind legs the 5 of us would, as normal, sit cheek by jowl to get our body weights in the right place for maximum righting moment. Sadly we all survived?
We of course ignored all the petty diktats, but how anybody thought they could micromanage us in that way – Cowes Harbourmaster ”(Heil Hitler!”) included – is pure Monty Python
And we knew that we were safe, because we were sailing under the protection of a Scotch-egg, which Mr Gove had told us was ok..
“when we picked up a handful of balls to hand to our opponent at change of ends we might infect the poor chap/chapess…”
This is tennis you are discussing of course. Professor Niall Pantsdown’s balls were handed to or by someone not playing tennis.
I am fairly sure neither he nor the partner he was playing wore gloves or much else – or that is my understanding as I was not present.
You are right of course – the ability to laugh at oneself is important. But what is also important is to listen to and trust your instincts.
Between 1988 and 1995 the number of infants dying of sudden infant death syndrome in England and Wales fell from 1500 per annum to 500 per annum. It resulted form the realisation that putting infants to sleep on their front (standard medical advice) was dangerous and putting infants to sleep on their back (as practised by our grandparents) was much safer.
Since 1960 we have gradually decreased our intake of bacteria in milk. largely in response to medical advice linked to saturated fats in milk. But our grandparents thought that milk was good for you, and they were right. This is just another example of the medical profession (of which I am a proud member) getting it wrong. The result of falling milk consumption is a whole range of disease in those born since the 1960s, which were uncommon prior to the 1960s. All conditions in which inflammation plays a part.The list includes:
Asthma, eczema, hay fever, type 1 diabetes mellitus, multiple food allergies, acne, anxiety and depression at all ages, autoimmune conditions mainly in young and middle aged women (anorexia nervosa, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic fatigue syndrome, multipple sclerosis, primary biliary cirrhosis, increasing cancer in the under 50s, obesity, type diabetes mellitus.
How can any economy survive with such an unhealthy workforce?
So let us stop tryig to blamne this mess on politicians and get to grips with the microbiome and the prevention of inflammation. Not by visiting the doctor but by listening to our grandparents when it comes to nutrition.
The plandemic was orchestrated by ? Whenever did the world do things in snyc? Never. The plandemic was a cruel well thought out crime against humanity. Who would have done such a thing. The vaxxes brought in as the saviour, only turned out to be ineffective and extremely dangerous. Now we watch family and friend after friend, collapse with a cardiac, neurological disease, cancer, pulmonary disease. It wasn’t only britain that chose the collapse of their society/economy, it was the world. Why?
To be fair there were more than just a telegraph columnist speaking out on this. —–Beverly Turner on GB News was vociferous and stood firm against all the flak. She is still holding her position today and what she has been saying has turned out to be fairly accurate.
Mike Graham and J H-B on TalkRadio were also asking appropriate questions and speaking out.
Only because Hitchens talked some sense into him.
Hannan tells us nothing we don’t already know.
I also know that he remains a member of the Authoritarian Not-a-Conservative-Party which inflicted the Tyranny on us ….. and if he had an ounce of integrity he’d resign from the Party and become an Independent Peer.
We did this to ourselves.
We most definitely did not! This was organized globally, some say by CIA or DoD, some say by NATO (presumably all three), but it was definitely practised years beforehand and some disgusting person or body eventually gave the “Go” signal.
Four African leaders, if I remember correctly, had the common sense to say it was nonsense and all four mysteriously died and were replaced by leaders calling for lockdowns and their country to be vaccinated. What amazing coincidences!
And still today I see individuals walking around with masks on, and even a lone woman driving a car wearing a mask. So powerful was, and still is, the global propaganda machine.
Reportedly there were 31 million deaths excess deaths globally in the 3-year period 2020 to 2022. And the vaccines continue to kill. And who has been charged with any crime?
My wife of 57 years constantly reminds people that I wrote a long email to my Tory MP on 25th March 2020 castigating the Lockdown decision and then saying what would happen as a result. Her boast, on my behalf, is that pretty well everything I said came to pass even down to shutting schools and vaccinating everyone, including children. It was the start of ‘1984’ under a so called Conservative Party of which I had been a member for 40 years. I must admit I did not envisage £400b down the Swanee. I also, simultaneously, threw out the TV and it is still banished 5 years later.
I am not a scientist, just an ex dairy farmer, but then I have always maintained that dairy farmers should rule the world because they can always cope, when you have 250 cows to milk at 4.30 in the morning and something goes wrong – one has to get on with it!!
Who is his “we” that Hannan keeps on citing? Not all of us!
Well done Richard
Just what most people with common sense and one eye shut thought.