July was an unusual month, and it was almost as if the good times were rolling again. I took three flights within the calendar month, which would not have been unusual up to 2019. But the madness that has gripped the world since the emergence of a new, albeit relatively innocuous, virus from China in 2019 has grounded planes, closed airports, kept families apart and had people glued to computer screens for everything from online shopping to delivering keynotes at major international conference.
I had already taken a few flights this year to Slovenia and Italy which may be classified under different degrees of nightmare with Passenger Locator Forms, uploading Covid vaccination status or Covid test documents, having to wear masks for several hours on planes and then running the gauntlet of the mask police in various countries. Things have improved but vestiges of the Covid regime persist everywhere, either in relation to flying or within countries. The United Kingdom, apart from continued stupidity in hospitals over face masks, is an outlier with respect to Covid regulations along with Ireland, to which I have also flown.
Italy
July found me in Genoa, Lisbon and Nashville and each experience was different. Italy, with regard to flying, has seen the light and abandoned the necessity to prove Covid vaccination status, take a Covid test or—hallelujah—wear a face mask on planes, airports or in public buildings. But the traveller must be wary as masks are a requirement on public transport within Italy. My observation is that they are an absolute requirement on buses: no mask no ride. Taxi drivers wear them ubiquitously but never enforce wearing by passengers and on trains nobody seems to enforce them any longer as I went maskless between Turin and Genoa in both directions. However, masks remain very much in evidence as Italians love wearing them and students and staff nearly all continued to wear them at the university where I was teaching.
Portugal
Courtesy of Cathay Pacific and the environment-crushing number of One World airmiles (in the millions) I have accrued over the years, I booked a long weekend through British Airways in Lisbon with my wife. I was happy to note that Portugal had abandoned all Covid related requirements for flights and entry. But no sooner was the outward flight booked, and British Airways cancelled it and we were routed with Iberia through Madrid, which was extremely bad news. Spain does not allow the unvaccinated to enter but allows the unclean such as my wife and me (both now classified as ‘unvaccinated’ by the Spanish authorities) to transit without a test. But it is hard to describe our dismay at the fact – largely unknown – that the Spanish authorities mandate wearing face masks on all flights into and out of Spain.
At least we had a direct flight back to London from Lisbon. But British Airways also cancelled the return flight. A few frantic phone calls to Hong Kong later and we had flights back to London, but through Madrid with Iberia again. Nevertheless, if we stretched the Iberian hospitality in business class out long enough, we could spend most of the flight without a mask and on the flight from Madrid to London, once the pilot announced we were over Bilboa – and out of Spanish air space – I removed mine and was not asked to put it on again.
All was not well in Portugal, however. Despite some good sense over entry to the country, like Italy, it has retained mask-wearing on public transport. This included the famous elevator up to a viewing point. Approaching the elevator, the operator (let’s call him Adolf) made the irritating cupped hand over the mouth sign indicating that we should mask up. We continued to approach whilst fishing a couple of old masks out of our pockets. He started to shout at us to go away but calmed down once our masks were on. He continued ranting on the elevator about where to stand and where to sit and what not to touch. Once the elevator journey was over – bearing in mind that it takes approximately 15 seconds – my wife was less than impressed as I goose-stepped off saying “Heil Hitler”. Masks were also enforced on the famous trams but, incredibly, they had open windows and the wind blew through freely. Again, we found that even to approach the tram without a mask was to be shouted at by the operative, in this case a young woman (let’s call her Eva). This time it was my wife’s turn to get stroppy. Some expletives were exchanged, and we decided eventually just to get off and see Lisbon on foot.
United States
Finally, I visited Nashville for a conference. It was a joy to take a long-haul flight without the need for masks in-flight or at the airports. The United States does, however, require proof of vaccination status or proof of exemption which must be uploaded and approved prior to checking in online. You must also complete an attestation form to say you do not have Covid symptoms or have been in contact with anyone who has Covid (how would you know?). The remarkable thing is that while I am no longer considered vaccinated in Europe – I had two shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine early in 2021 – this was adequate proof that I had complied to allow me to enter the United States. Confused? I certainly was.
Dr. Roger Watson is Academic Dean of Nursing at Southwest Medical University, China. He has a PhD in biochemistry.
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The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
Perhaps if these moronic complainants had bombs dropping on their heads, or were trying to work out where their next meal was going to come from, they’d not be so concerned with being offended by someone’s words. Part of the reason we are where we are is that nobody has to endure hardship anymore, so they invent it. Put these tw*ts on the frontline somewhere and see if they’re still so preoccupied with being ‘misgendered’ as bullets whistle round their head.
They are not hurt by the words. They are weaponising them with their own hate
It isn’t a crime to hate something. Or it shouldn’t be anyway. Hatered is what you feel about something. If we start outlawing what we feel we are in real trouble.
But once again the population has been bamboozled and everyone speaks about “hate” as if it was the worst thing in the world and needs to be stopped.
It’s really very difficult sometimes to live in a world of lemmings.
Police Scotland agree that it’s not a crime, but nevertheless have recorded it as a ‘hate incident (non-crime)’
Why are the police recording things that aren’t crimes?
Because they’re utterly useless at dealing with real crimes.
They have nothing better to do.
I don’t think this a decision by Police Scotland. They are following instructions by the Government who wants to use this list in future to identify political enemies.
In that specific case. But there will be others where someone’s says or writes something which is considered a hate crime.
The term is what is especially dangerous. They’ve used a word that is about what you feel and stretched it to define certain types of actions derived from certain types thoughts. So they’ve blurred the between thought and action. Which opens the door to criminalising thought without any associated action. It’s just a question of time.
For anyone who doesn’t get it, you just replace ‘hate” with ‘thought’, as in ‘hate crime’ or “thought crime’ because hating something is just a certain type of thought.
Exactomundo, Stewart. Nail on head. You can’t legislate against being human and humans have feelings and not all of them are loving ones.
Marmite could well trigger a lot of hate crime.
There is no criminal offence of hatred in English law currently. However if a person is guilty of a criminal offence and the prosecution can prove there is an aspect of hatred on various grounds, the sentence can be enhanced.
My latest hit (with apologies to Free)
There she stood, in the street
Singing gospel music so sweet
I said, “Hey, what is this?
A free concert that I don’t want to miss!”
Just then arrived a gang of cops
Telling her that she had to stop.
There’s been complaints, dragged her away,
And banged her up in jail till the next day.
Far Right now, everybody’s Far Right now.
Far Right now, everybody’s Far Right Now.
I hurried home to my place
Told my wife it was a disgrace.
She said “Egad! Dad, that’s pretty bad –
She’d be better off proclaiming jihad.”
Just then the Law broke down the door,
And pinned the wife and me down on the floor.
“You’ll get a fine! Or maybe time!
You know Islamophobia’s a crime!”
Far Right now, everybody’s Far Right now.
(We’re all fascists together…)
Far Right now, Toby, Toby, Toby we’re Far Right!
Yep very funny. ——And Ironically by a group called FREE.
“All White Now”?
I well remember ‘boogieing’ to the original in 1970, Andy Fraser, co-founder of Free as a 15yr old in ’68 co-wrote ‘Alright Now’. An instant classic. Those were the days of sanity.
I don’t think people “boogied” in those days? ——-Wasn’t it not till disco that we “boogied”? I remember having purple bell bottoms and platforms, a Lilac shirt and flowery clip on tie,,,,,,my god I must have looked horrendous, but probably we all did back then.
Is it a hate crime to baselessly accuse someone of a hate crime?
Couldn’t this non-law be used against these people who use this to try to win an argument that they can’t otherwise succeed with.
This springs to mind:
Wasting police time is a criminal offence as outlined under section 5(2) of the Criminal Law Act 1967. Knowingly making false reports to the police is an offence, including verbal or written statements that:
True, however there is a pleasing irony in using their “law” against them.
I’ve already done that at work. A Muslim patient in an abaya made a complaint against me. She had wanted a Muslim doctor and became quite angry when she found it was me she was due to see.
In my response I used the phrase ‘perceived recism’, which I felt had been directed at me.
It went quiet after that.
As the song said “There may be trouble ahead”. —-When you give more and more power to government this is where you end up. I have for years listened to an endless stream of politicians decare how “Progressive” they are. And who could possibly have a problem with that, after all isn’t “progressive” a really good thing? Who could object to “progress? ————–Except when it comes to politics “progressive” means progressing bit by bit to more power in the hands of government, and we all should know by now that the bigger the government the less the freedom. I urge all Scots (and I am one) to seriously have a think to themselves that the proper role of government is not to be some kind of morality police that decides what opinions we are all allowed to have. Or as C.S Lewis put it———“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
‘Cancer is progressive,’ is my usual response to that.
I think we can foresee a predictable trend come April Fools ( how apt ) that there’ll be a significant hike in complaints from Transtifa and the Islamists ( sounds like a pub quiz team ), due to these two camps enjoying perma-victim status in society nowadays.
Shall we wait and see how long the queues get outside Ann Summers, Home Bargains, or wherever else has been registered as your ‘One stop grassing shop’ in Scotland, as snitches line up to whinge about being victims of ‘microaggressions’ or bent out of shape because a bloke in a dress was called “mister”.
Well we can be absolutely sure that plod will no longer have the
resourcespeople to deal with real crimes so that’s alright then.Note the MSM headlines today re “trolling” and the Royals, also blaming China and Russia, its always useful to bring “the enemy” in too. We must see this for what it is, Our Rulers want to bring in Censorship and woke blasphemy laws in the same vein as Canada, thus shutting down voices of dissent and of course the alternative media. The MSM are fully on board as theybelieve their power will be returned as the only voices of truth along with the edicts of our leaders.
Do not be fooled, recall the focus of the Billionaire boys club at DAVOS this year, and the biggest threat to humanity, not war, but disin/mal information as blabbed by Vond der Layen, Schwab etc. This is their play using the Royals, in a “look at these people they are kicking a Kitten, we must stop them” play. Do not be fooled resist and see it for what it is, the elites through the puppet politicians and secretarial MSM shutting up the proles.
The concept of “hate crimes” is nonsensical. The concept of a “non-crime hate incident” is off-the-scale bonkers.
We’re not just living in Clownworld, it’s the Stephen King version but with Brownshirts and Maoists.
Who determines if something is a ‘hate incident (non-crime)’ or not?
The complainant.
Humza is carrying out the same destructive policy’s as his ROP mucker Khant in Old London Town !
Also is Murdo related to Michael Portillo