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The Daily Sceptic
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Declined: Chapter 16: The Last Cigarette

by Molly Kingsley
20 April 2025 9:00 AM

This is the 16th chapter of a novel being published in serial form in the Daily Sceptic. It’s a dystopian satire about the emergence of a social credit system in the UK in the near future. Read the first 15 chapters here.

Ella poked her head out of her study door, eyes darting. Checking the coast was clear, she tip-toed downstairs, quietly opened the back door, crept out to the bottom of the garden, pulled a cigarette out of her body-warmer pocket, looked round, furtively lit it, sucked unwisely hard, and exhaled deeply.

Her induction to the world of single parenting was not going well.

It was 5pm, the kind of time Theo would usually be doing dinner.

She had another – yet another – hearing at the Industrial Appeals Tribunal tomorrow. Details changed – one week synthetic nutrition, another bio-implants, this week back to Zeeta and its ATTENTIONLOCK™ for kids. But the themes remained constant. Lying. Denying. Justifying.  Always a public good, a perfectly legitimate, data-backed emergency, buttressing whatever mis-deeds the salesmen of deception had pushed this time.

Stressed, tired and pulled in a million different directions, she’d thought often about quitting. But then what? Leave them – the kids, the only ones who mattered – to what future, what unknown echelons of evil?

It had been hard with Theo around. Without him it was barely tenable.

Oh well. Cry a river. Build a bridge. Get over it, as Poppy used to say.

At least there was only one week to go.

It was Week Two of Theo’s stint at Ely, ‘National Harmony Centre of the East’. In another week, he’d take the exam. Then he’d be back. Wouldn’t he?

She leant against the old willow tree at the back of the garden and — cautiously and deliberately, using her left hand and keeping her body as still as she could (all the better to avoid BIM detection) — took another drag.

It was the last cigarette in the packet. She shot it a begrudging stare. Fucking cigarettes – she’d barely smoked in two decades and now, in the last fortnight, the second packet. Not for the first time, nor the last, she resolved, looking at the about-to-be stub, for it to be her last.

The back door opened.

“Mum??” a quizzical shout from inside. Poppy’s. “Mum?! Are you out here??”

Like one of the deers they occasionally glimpsed in the fields behind the house in the days before they’d been bulldozed over by concrete and tarmac, she froze.

“Mum?! What on earth are you doing out there?!” Poppy strode towards her at pace.

Damn. Caught. She needed to stub out the cigarette.

Discarding the butt into the dirt behind the tree, she pressed it into the ground. Priding herself on her sly, seamless execution, she turned around, tripped over a tree root, and fell, narrowly avoiding slamming her knee on the concrete slabs bordering the vegetable patch.

“Fuck,” she cried, to no one.

Standing up again she noticed the dry, barren furrows of the patch. We really need to water those. Instinctively she cursed Theo – it was his job, well, his to remind Libby at least, wasn’t it? And then she remembered.

“Mum!!” said Poppy, now only a few metres away. “Ted’s losing it. I think he’s hungry. Do you want me to feed him?”

Reaching her, Poppy looked. Why, Ella thought? To catch her out?

Seeing a hastily stubbed out butt in the flowerbed behind, she shot  Ella a withering look.

“It was my last one,” Ella held out, sheepishly.

“Seriously Mum. You said that last time.”

Ella paused. Poppy wasn’t wrong.

Her thoughts flitted back to an image from her youth, the ban on smoking in public places which quite possibly saved her life. The days when health had actually been about health. A flash of memories — a pile of ashtrays on the bedside table in her student digs, waking up with a throat as sore as if it had been sliced with a knife, a new year’s resolution about giving it up. She’d been doing her law degree at the time – a vivid and poignantly pleasant memory flashed through her mind of a red wine fuelled 2am debate about a long-forgotten dissertation. Sparta. That zenith of a society modelled on communitarian coercion.

She shook her head.

If only she’d known how grindingly relevant, how devastatingly prescient, all that intellectualism and theorising would be some 25 years later.

Well, communitarian coercion it was, but the foundations of public good undergirding such edicts had long since eroded. It was about them; a sham to allow them to reap the glitter for themselves, public affairs overwritten by the insatiable appetites of the gluttons amassing only profit for themselves. History doesn’t repeat, but it rhymes…

She looked at Poppy, wondering about the merits of explaining to a sanctimonious 12 year-old that it could have been much worse, but —

“Mum. Hello!! Ted. Do you actually want your child to starve to death?”

No, now probably wasn’t the moment for a lesson in political philosophy.

“No, of course not darling. Sorry. I’m just a bit stressed.” She shook her head, following her eldest back inside.

As they approached the house, Poppy stopped.

“Oh, also Mum. Robert dropped a bag of stuff off and a letter came. I think it’s from Dad.”

Later that evening, walking furiously away from the house, kids safely installed in front of the TV – Poppy with instructions ON NO ACCOUNT TO OPEN THE DOOR and the oven triple-checked and 100% completely, conclusively off.

There were tons of reasons she missed Theo, but high up there, at the very top, was being unable to walk. Or at least, to walk in a way that occasioned her the possibility of stringing more than a half-completed thought together at any one time – alone and in solitude and unfollowed by an entourage of children, grabby hands, sticky fingers and endless, endless questions.

Christ, she wished Theo was here.

But he wasn’t. Because, as his letter had just informed them, he was “perfectly happy to be ensconced for a further fortnight in the National Harmony Centre”. Ensconced. It struck her as a funny word for him to use. His language claiming the inversion of what it meant, intentionally she thought.

Feeling momentary guilt-struck about the three children alone in the house and the almost endless array of possibilities in which that might go wrong, she speeded up to something that was almost but not quite a jog.

She checked the BIM. Twenty-one minutes. Twenty-one minutes to get around the block. To think. To decide what – if anything – was to be done.

“Hello everyone, no need to worry,” his letter had started. Obviously she had immediately worried.

“I’ve decided to stay another two weeks at grown-up school,” he’d continued, before explaining in a way that sounded all very convincing and innocuous but which she understood to be absolutely the opposite, that because he hadn’t got the score he was hoping for in his exam he was going to retake it the following week.

“Kids, it’s important to try to do your best,” the letter had said. “Especially because if we get a better credit score Mummy will be able to take you for treats and ice-cream at the cake shop again.”

She’d looked hard at the handwritten letters. It was definitely his writing – definitely him – but really, promising the kids something he knew to be impossible. That wasn’t Theo, at least not the Theo she knew. She had squinted hard at the letter, trying to discern the unsaid, the unspoken, the unsayable in the smallest of gaps between his words, between the lines.

Inwardly and possibly also outwardly sweating, she’d tried to keep as calm a demeanour as possible, whilst internally wanting to scream and shout and cry.  She’d muttered something about wanting to get air, why didn’t they have a bit of chill time, and…

And, well, here she was.

She slowed, staring distantly along the dusk-lit road at nothing much in particular.

Fucking hell Theo. What have you done?

Whilst, for the majority, the re-education camps were just that – for the oppressed few, they…

Now at a standstill, her thoughts trailed off.

Theo was going to be at the camp for “at least” another fortnight. “At least.” What did that even mean? Did he know? Had they told him? Should she be contacting someone? Who? A lawyer? She was a lawyer. But there was no training for this. It was impossible not being next to him, not being able to text him, not being able to gently poke his ribs and to work out – together and as a team, like they were, like they’d always been – what was going on.

“But kids, I’ve got good news!” the letter had ended.

A happy, smiling hand-drawn emoji face, etched next to good.

“The food here is good and I’ve made some new friends. I’ll be back with you in another two weeks and will be able to tell you all about it then. I’m super excited to see you and love you all HUGELY.”

There had been another sketched cartoon, this one something that looked like a bear hugging some chickens, but the sentiment was clear at least.

She looked at her BIM. She’d used up 17 minutes of her precious 21 minutes.

She felt truly scared. No two ways about it.

The reality was that for the oppressed few for whom the applicable rules of civilised society had ceased to apply, no-one knew what the re-education camps were.

Detention centres?

Gulags?

Worse…?

There were rumours of people being held there for months, rumours of families broken up without warning. There had been one story reported a few months ago by a fringe online outlet, since shut down, of forced deportations, unclear to where. Citizens unwilling or unable to comply and no longer suited to the new paradigm of coercive cohesion simply shipped off to another time, another land, another place, evidence of their existence erased, denied, eradicated.

It was too much to contemplate, at least in the four minutes of quiet she had remaining. Telling herself it might be okay, she pushed the thought from her mind and walked on, back home, faintly wishing she had another cigarette to calm her nerves but just as quickly feeling grateful she didn’t.

Look out for chapter 16 next week.

Molly Kingsley is a freelance journalist, lawyer and founder of parent campaign group UsForThem.

Tags: DeclinedDystopiaHealthSocial Credit System

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0 Comments
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GlassHalfFull
GlassHalfFull
1 year ago

It’s probably better it was in written form as in person he would have been talked over and belittled by the KC’s to achieve their goal of a whitewash and the belief that the UK should have had lockdown sooner and a range of other draconian measures instead of the more sensible targeted approach like the Great Barrington Declaration.

184
-1
Sforzesca
Sforzesca
1 year ago
Reply to  GlassHalfFull

No doubt though that the Good Lady will take full note of all matters raised and adjudicate accordingly…..

70
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
1 year ago
Reply to  Sforzesca

Ha. Ha. Ha…

Ha.

35
0
Peter W
Peter W
1 year ago
Reply to  Sforzesca

Aren’t you supposed to add (sarcasm)!

4
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JayBee
JayBee
1 year ago
Reply to  GlassHalfFull

“I am not interested in contributions.”
Would probably be clueless Keith’s response to Tegnell’s last point.

79
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Grim Ace
Grim Ace
1 year ago
Reply to  GlassHalfFull

The whole enquiry is dripping with bien pensant, leftist arrogance. Shut it down and start again with a balanced panel of judges.

Last edited 1 year ago by Grim Ace
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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  Grim Ace

I don’t think we really want “judges”, do we? I think the public should judge. What we want is adversarial advocates who are batting for different teams, different points of view, able to call witnesses to testify under oath, treat them as hostile, subpoena evidence and largely set their own agenda – that might produce something worth paying attention to. The US Senate manages something similar.

22
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Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
1 year ago

It’s a paradox that will not sit well with many anti-lockdown

campaigners who see the evil technocracy as the problem, and want to

sweep away the ‘blob’.

There are technocrats and technocrats. Though to be more precise, there are technocrats, and people like Tegnell who are content to give expert advice.

Last edited 1 year ago by Jon Garvey
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Free Lemming
Free Lemming
1 year ago
Reply to  Jon Garvey

Sits perfectly well with me. Leave the people to decide and the people would have come to the same conclusion i.e. any natural threat will be handled in accordance with the level that threat naturally poses. A technocrat is simply the mouthpiece of one group. Tegnell spoke for the people. Bypass Tegnell and we’re back to the people.

23
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JeremyP99
JeremyP99
1 year ago
Reply to  Free Lemming

Sweden relied on a concept that seems to have disappeared here – personal responsibility. Our government no longer believes we can act responsibly without their direction. Well that may be some for some, but to impose that on all of us was appalling.

DO watch the YouTube videos of the WHO takeover debate in the House, with Andrew Bridgen, and one by John Campbell.

They are DAMNING. Bridgen nails what the WHO are up to. And if they get their way, mass non-compliance must be the order of the day.

Campbell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkhjH2ySMUw&pp=ygUSd2hvIHRyZWF0eSBkZWJhdGUg

Can’t find the other at the moment…

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JeremyP99
JeremyP99
1 year ago
Reply to  JeremyP99

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9rRbVycNQk

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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago

In other words, the real reason Sweden resisted the global rush to lockdowns in 2020 was that its technocrats (such as Tegnell) were all-powerful. … It’s a paradox that will not sit well with many anti-lockdown campaigners who see the evil technocracy as the problem, and want to sweep away the ‘blob’.

Not really. Technocrat or politician, theirs were a bit more honest and followed evidence, ours not at all. The decisions to be made should always have been taken by politicians who are accountable and consider the trade offs. Just that politicians everywhere cocked up in the same way at the same time.

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huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

“Just that politicians everywhere cocked up in the same way at the same time.”

You don’t believe that tof.

‘There was no pandemic.’ And so no cock-ups.

38
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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Indeed I do not believe that. I am not sure exactly what did happen and why, but I cannot believe that they all honestly thought that they were saving granny.

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GroundhogDayAgain
GroundhogDayAgain
1 year ago

People continue to characterise Sweden’s approach as no lockdown. This lets our opponents assume a massive free-for-all of recklessness.

The key distinction is that Sweden had no state-mandated lockdown. They treated their citizens like adults. Almost everyone dialed back their mingling, but people got on with their lives.

Some people wanted to isolate, the rest were respectful of this. There was no curtain twitching, no grassing on your neighbours, no calling people covidiots, no school closures, etc.

151
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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  GroundhogDayAgain

True though public gatherings with more than 50 (I think) people were banned and I think 16-18 year groups at school were sent home for a while

But certainly when we went in October 2020 the atmosphere felt normal albeit Stockholm was pretty quiet due to people working from home and not many tourists

49
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wokeman
wokeman
1 year ago
Reply to  GroundhogDayAgain

The Google earth data is pretty clear. Normal life persisted in Sweden, in total contrast to the rest of western Europe. This idea of a voluntary lock down is bs, ppl at risk and cautious probably mingled less but that’s about it. Ppl who could worked at home more often. Ppl met in homes, restaurants and bars stayed open as did schools. Ppl continued to go to the gym. I’d say the ban on mass gathering was still completely OTT but I don’t believe in any such restrictions under any circumstances. I think ppl have totally forgotten how bonkers it all was, particularly recall the council putting scaffolding around a childs slide.

Last edited 1 year ago by wokeman
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GroundhogDayAgain
GroundhogDayAgain
1 year ago
Reply to  wokeman

That’s what I meant. Common sense was allowed to prevail. Trust your population rather than smother them in nonsense rules.

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A. Contrarian
A. Contrarian
1 year ago
Reply to  GroundhogDayAgain

Well they either characterise it as being recklessly no-lockdown, or they say it did lock down really because there were a few rules, or they say that either way it didn’t need a lockdown because Swedes are such great people and no one lives within ten miles of another human being anyway (not sure why Ferguson’s model didn’t take that into account, and still predicted apocalypse if it didn’t lock down, but never mind).

Last edited 1 year ago by A. Contrarian
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wokeman
wokeman
1 year ago

And some fell on stony ground. …

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Monro
Monro
1 year ago

‘….the real reason Sweden resisted the global rush to lockdowns in 2020 was that its technocrats (such as Tegnell) were all-powerful. It’s a paradox that will not sit well with many anti-lockdown campaigners who see the evil technocracy as the problem, and want to sweep away the ‘blob’.’

Hmmm……didn’t Tegnell end up getting sidelined? But the citizenry listened to him because he radiated competence and integrity.

In fact it was our technocrats who were all powerful: ‘The Science’

Gumby Whitty bossed Bunter.

But ours were Vicars of Bray turning and twisting to the winds of the U.S., the EU and W.H.O., politicians themselves within a global cabal of internationalist health functionaries out of control, still out of democratic control.

We also have a systemic problem of culture in Whitehall. Independence of thought is deprecated instead of encouraged.

We really are going to need a better ‘blob’

Last edited 1 year ago by Monro
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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  Monro

“We also have a systemic problem of culture in Whitehall. Independence of thought is deprecated instead of encouraged.”

Yeah, well, here and it seems everywhere else, some places a bit better, some much worse. All at the same time, in very similar ways, using similar language. Blaming events here on figures and factors specific to the UK doesn’t make sense (though of course the ex-PM and others are culpable).

16
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Monro
Monro
1 year ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

Of course it makes sense, in a U.K. context.

We can’t fix the world, but we are entitled to debate how we might try to improve our own country, where we at least have a vote.

But yes, the World Health Organisation suffered, is suffering, a bad case of mission creep.

Similar actions took place in many developed countries very much due to a lack of capacity for, encouragement of, independent thought within the functionary class and society at large.

Socialist fascism.

Last edited 1 year ago by Monro
13
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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  Monro

“We can’t fix the world, but we are entitled to debate how we might try to improve our own country”

True but in doing that we need to recognise the global context. You say the WHO suffered from “mission creep” – this is doubtless true (and inevitable, that’s exactly what any body will do if allowed to) but how come almost every world government allowed it to suffer from mission creep?

9
0
Monro
Monro
1 year ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

Because they don’t control the W.H.O.

A lot of its funding is private.

3
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  Monro

Well some of it is private but it only has the power it’s given by members who choose to follow its directives and who are eager to sign up to its “treaties”

Last edited 1 year ago by transmissionofflame
2
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Monro
Monro
1 year ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

There is a great deal of control over the W.H.O.

‘…..over 80 per cent of WHO’s funding relies on “voluntary contributions,” meaning any amount of money given freely by donors, whether member states, NGOs, philanthropic organisations or other private entities.

These voluntary contributions are typically earmarked for specific projects or diseases,’

But not from those who should control it, our representatives:

‘….the sheer size of the funds from the Gates Foundation compromises WHO’s independence.’

Euronews.next 030223

Unfortunately the W.H.O. still thinks it is doing a great job.

Certainly, within the U.S. that opinion is not widely shared.

‘Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup opened today’s hearing by detailing four major examples of the WHO bowing to political pressure from the CCP: “We saw the WHO deny that COVID-19 was spread via human-to-human transmission, based entirely on the word of the Chinese government. The WHO delayed naming COVID-19 a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, a World Health Organization procedure that, amongst other things, would have allowed for the procurement and distribution of scarce supplies, all because the Chinese Communist Party told them the spread was under control. The WHO delayed serious measures to counter the global spread of COVID-19, because the CCP was only worried about their own bottom line. When the WHO produced a report evaluating the possible origins of COVID-19, it became unquestionably evident that the entire report was nothing but more Chinese propaganda.”

Dr. Atul Gawande, Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID, recognized the failures of the WHO during the COVID-19 pandemic

“We want respect for our sovereignty, and so we also limit how much WHO can control or demand things of us. And that is one of the challenges here, that we are protective of our own sovereignty and therefore do not want to have those tools challenged or potentially challenge us or other Member States.

14 Dec 2023 U.S. Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic hearing

It would be good to hear something similar from our own government, but Gumby Whitty is thick as thieves with Farrar, now Chief Scientist at W.H.O.

Both are also close to Pantsdown. They, together with the well named Hancock, Cummings, Gove all conspired together in the biggest health policy disaster this country has ever seen, which what passes for ‘the establishment’ today are now conspiring to cover up.

Last edited 1 year ago by Monro
1
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  Monro

Didn’t Trump withdraw the US from the WHO?

And yet:

WHO DECIDES WHAT IS IN THE PANDEMIC ACCORD?The pandemic accord is being determined by governmental leaders from 194 countries through an ongoing negotiation process, facilitated by the World Health Organization (WHO). Once the final agreement is decided, each country will choose whether to be a party to it.

The Pandemic Accord Explained: What Countries are Doing to Protect Against Future Global Health Emergencies (unfoundation.org)

I have yet to see compelling evidence that this was a “health policy disaster” which suggests sincere intentions. We shall never know for sure I suspect.

3
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Monro
Monro
1 year ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

Amnesty wrote a report on the health policy disaster:

‘…..the government must learn lessons from its disastrous decisions and not repeat the same mistakes.’

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/care-homes-report

Last edited 1 year ago by Monro
2
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  Monro

Sorry obviously missing the point but don’t see how what you’ve linked to is connected to what we’re discussing or this thread in general.

0
0
psychedelia smith
psychedelia smith
1 year ago

Yeah fair points but the whole crux of Tegnell’s argument and the whole inquiry pantomime must still revolve around Covid death figures which were, as we all know, made up entirely of globally synchronised lying.

As Normal Fenton points out, the UK government’s official Covid death figures between 2020 and 2021 were 137,000. The ONS death figures directly from Covid via a Fenton FOI for the same period are 6,183.

This was one giant globally synchronised exaggeration festival. Much like they tried with previous ‘pandemics’ like Swine flu, but this time they fist slammed all the right behavioural nudge buttons. So while it’s interesting to see Tegnell up there, it still doesn’t take a spade anywhere near the central pyramid of bullshit.

Last edited 1 year ago by Hardliner
99
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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  psychedelia smith

“ it still doesn’t take a spade anywhere near the central pyramid of bullshit.”

Very well put. There was no pandemic, no “emergency”, nothing that should have got close to the radar of the state looking to react in any unusual way.

64
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psychedelia smith
psychedelia smith
1 year ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

Absolutely.

34
0
EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
1 year ago

I do not see a paradox

the blob was frantic for more and sooner. There has been no persuasive evidence of calls for restraint by the blob, in which I include the academics they appointed and followed.

34
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David Stacey
David Stacey
1 year ago

Tegnell submitted his written evidence months ago. Having seen the way the inquiry is going he clearly decided he could stay silent no longer.

41
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True Spirit of America Party
True Spirit of America Party
1 year ago

Vindicated at last!

19
0
TheGreenAcres
TheGreenAcres
1 year ago

Tegnell was an expert in his field who also had the courage of his convictions to do what he knew was best.

Our hapless duo of Whitless and Unballanced where mediocrities who looked over the fence at China and Italy and copied what they where doing.

19
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  TheGreenAcres

Where’s your evidence that Whitty and Vallance are “mediocrities”? Funny that pretty much every other “public health” “expert” on the planet turned out to be equally “mediocre” at the same time. I keep banging on about this but I think the problem is to do with character, honesty, motivation, not with “competence”. To get to the top in any field connected to the state you need to be politically savvy.

11
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
1 year ago

Unlike in most parliamentary democracies including the U.K., Swedish politicians are forbidden from interfering in the work of the Government agencies, including the health agency.

Nah. They were definitely coming under pressure from the politicians, forbidden or not… The real difference is that the ‘technocrats’ knew that they would be held accountable for their decisions.

No opportunity to gaslight later with:

  1. ‘no, it wasn’t a “prediction”‘
  2. ‘I only recommended face masks, I didn’t mandate it’
  3. ‘it was a political decision to follow part of our advice’
  4. ‘I thought it was somebody else’s job to look at the impact on society’.
Last edited 1 year ago by soundofreason
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Grim Ace
Grim Ace
1 year ago

There are dangers when unelected officials get to decide what happens. The Swedish model is not necessarily good. If we had had that in the UK, the civil service would have had people in camps for breaching lockdown rules.

Last edited 1 year ago by Grim Ace
19
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soundofreason
soundofreason
1 year ago
Reply to  Grim Ace

But would whoever made such a decision be held accountable for it later? In terms of being fired from their jobs if they got it badly wrong? Or doing jail time if they went beyond their powers? Or being pilloried if found to be hypocrites?

8
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A. Contrarian
A. Contrarian
1 year ago
Reply to  soundofreason

But they wouldn’t ever be found to have got it badly wrong, other than not having put ENOUGH people in camps SOON and HARD and WIDELY enough of course.

4
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Covid-1984
Covid-1984
1 year ago

What got me was the labour opposition gleefully supporting every lockdown measure knowing that they would finally rid themselves of the fiscally Incompetent tag and now they’ve passed that tag to the Conservative Party. Poor Bojo couldn’t see it.

14
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soundofreason
soundofreason
1 year ago
Reply to  Covid-1984

I think Johnson saw it coming. The government was borrowing hand over fist and he knew it would have to be paid for/paid back.

I’m reminded of this brief scene from The Simpsons: That’s a problem for future Homer. Man I don’t envy that guy.

5
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Corky Ringspot
Corky Ringspot
1 year ago

Not sure where the words “came out better” are quoted from, as they don’t appear in Tegnell’s submission (although they are of course true!). Having read through his submission, I’d say that “devastating” is a slightly overblown description of it, at least in view of the likely effect it no doubt had on Hallett et al. A lot of the 91 answers he gives are of the “Don’t know/not enough information yet/not my area” type. A number of these answers convey important information, but I’d describe only one or two as fundamentally, crucially important: his answer to Q40, for instance:

“Sweden’s constitutional order does not allow for the declaration of a state
of emergency. Fundamental civil rights and freedoms can only be
suspended in the case of war. Public health emergencies are therefore
regulated by ordinary law, which allocates responsibilities. It is legally
impossible to enforce a General quarantine or ‘lockdown’ measures.”

Tegnell’s answers to Qs 43-72 can be summed up by saying that, given the legal impossibility of enforcing a ‘general quarantine’ (lockdown), there never was one. The population was ‘advised’ but only in extremely circumstances coerced – eg masking on trains and buses, briefly in 2021, ‘limited’ air travel restrictions etc – very little of which was legally binding. [All this should have applied in the UK too, of course]

(Q74) On ‘super-spreader’ events:
‘No increase in cases was seen after the event [Eurovision] so it cannot be called super
spreading. Actually the geographic area were the event took place had a
lower level of spread at that time than cities on the other side of the
border ie in Denmark.’

(Q84) On Swedish mortality (the last sentence of which is most significant):
“Death rates are higher in Sweden than our Nordic neighbours but lower
that the UK. Exact data can be taken from a number of sources, as I am
sure you are aware. Excess mortality differs slightly depending on the
method but Sweden is at the same level as the Nordic countries and
sometimes lower. UK has a considerable higher excess mortality.”

(Q85) Sweden, according to the Hallett Enquiry, has been criticised by other countries:
Tegnell’s response: ” In general, they have asked for stronger more legally enforced measures often due to a lack of understanding of the actual situation.”

Devasting stuff, if you’re prepared to be devastated. My suspicion is that the Hallett Enquiry is only too pleased to minimise Tegnell’s comments and not be remotely devastated. That’s the problem we’ve got.

11
0
VAX FREE IanC
VAX FREE IanC
1 year ago

Says it all for me! and I love the embedded video from Vaxi Taxi.
https://thewhiterose.uk/the-milgram-and-asch-experiments/

3
0
Peter W
Peter W
1 year ago

How about Anders replacing Hallett?
It would mean tearing up and wasting the pre-prepared report though – what a waste!

6
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago
Reply to  Peter W

😀😀😀

2
0

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