Tory Rebellion Grows
It still isn’t clear whether the Speaker of the House of Commons will select Sir Graham Brady’s amendment to the Coronavirus Act, which is due to be renewed on Wednesday. But if he does, and Boris refuses to back down, it looks like the Government is facing defeat. Not only has the number of Conservative MPs prepared to vote for it grown from the 43 who originally signed the amendment to 81, according to Katy Balls in the Spectator, but the BBC reports that Labour MPs may join forces with the rebels. If the amendment passes it will mean that no additional Covid restrictions can be imposed by the Government without being approved by Parliament.
The House of Commons debated the coronavirus crisis yesterday and Conservative MPs lined up to urge the Government to allow Parliament to scrutinise and debate any further measures, including ex-Chief Whip Mark Harper and former Cabinet Minister Chris Grayling. But the stand out contribution to the debate was from Sir Desmond Swayne, a long-standing lockdown sceptic. The Daily Record has the details:
Speaking in the Commons, Sir Desmond said: “The purpose of politicians is to impose a measure of proportion, a sense of proportion on science, and not to be enthralled to it.
“Now I will make myself very unpopular, but I believe that the appearance of the chiefs (Chief Medical Officer Prof Chris Whitty and Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance) last week should have been a sacking offence.”
“When they presented that graph, with the caveat that it wasn’t a prediction, but nevertheless it was clear that they presented it as a plausible scenario, with its 50,000 cases per day by mid-October based on the doubling of infections by the week.
“Not once, not on one day since March, have there been infections on that day that were double that of the day of the week proceeding.
“Not once. Where did this doubling come from? What was their purpose in presenting such a graph?”
And he added: “It was project fear, it was an attempt to terrify the British people, as if they haven’t been terrified enough.”
Sir Desmond said he believed the Government’s policy has been “disproportionate”, adding: “By decree, it has interfered in our private lives, and our family lives, telling us who we may meet, when we may meet them and what we must wear when we meet them.
“We have the cruelty, the cruelty, of elderly people in care homes, disorientated, being unable to see the faces of their loved ones and to receive a hug.”
Sir Desmond isn’t wrong about the shortcomings of Witless and Unbalanced’s graph. Here it is, but updated to include the latest case data. Projections in red; actuals in blue. Today’s new cases – 4044, down from 5,692 yesterday – amount to 36% of their predicted number of 7,205. We will return to this…
Another Conservative MP who had some forceful words for the Government was Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire): “There are many pensioners who wish to see their family rather than live a long life. They would like to be able to make that choice. This Government have a responsibility to listen to those people, some of whom feel passionate because they fought in the war, or their parents fought in the war, for the freedoms that we want.”
Meanwhile, the Government’s handling of the crisis faced equally trenchant criticism in the Lords, with former Chancellor Lord Lamont comparing Witless and Unbalanced’s graph to Tony Blair’s “dodgy dossier”. (Has he been reading Lockdown Sceptics?)
Last night, Matt Hancock, Chief Whip Mark Spencer and Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg were engaged in a frantic round of talks to try and head off the rebellion.
I’m often asked what the most effective way to get the Government to change course is. Getting the sceptical case before the public? Mass demonstrations? Civil disobedience? The answer, I think, is to get Parliament to start doing its job again. Thanks to Sir Graham Brady, that may be about to happen.
Stop Press: Labour MP Daniel Zeichner joked about the closure of 29 branches of Pizza Hut yesterday, putting 450 jobs at risk.
A reader has emailed to say Zeichner has to bear some of the blame for these job losses. “He is my MP, and he has been utterly unresponsive and useless for the entire lockdown when I’ve tried to reason with him,” he says. “His replies could have been written by Matt Hancock.”
More Pointless Restrictions Imposed on Pubs, Bars and Restaurants
Among the new rules that came into force yesterday were those restricting noise levels in pubs, restaurants, bars and cafes to 85 decibels. Managers must now take “all reasonable measures” to stop customers from dancing and groups of six or more from singing. This, in spite of the fact that new cases originating in hospitality venues make up a tiny fraction of the whole (see above). The Mail has more.
They came as Government statistics revealed a tiny proportion of COVID-19 outbreaks have been linked to pubs and restaurants. Just 17 of 532 (3.2%) of England’s reported coronavirus clusters occurred in the hospitality sector last week – down from around 5% the week before the draconian restriction was imposed.
Meanwhile, the proportion linked to schools has doubled to more than 40 per cent after thousands more students flocked back to classrooms and universities, which is likely to have had a massive knock-on effect on care homes where the rate fell from 44 to 25%.
The Government is facing mounting criticism of its decision to impose a 10pm curfew, given that it has resulted in crowds thronging the streets in city centres shortly after closing time.
Downing Street today dismissed a barrage of condemnation of the 10pm curfew, despite Tory MPs branding it a “sick experiment” and the mayor of one of the UK’s biggest cities warning it is doing “more harm than good”.
The PM is facing a rising tide of anger over his handling of the crisis after Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham said the Government’s drinking deadline was merely shifting the partying into homes.
Scores of drinkers were spotted in trendy Moseley, Birmingham, on Saturday night twirling around to a brass bands, despite restrictions urging social distancing. Similar extraordinary scenes were witnessed in London and Manchester as the restrictions appeared to backfire spectacularly.
But the PM’s spokesman voiced defiance this afternoon, insisting there is no intention of changing the rules again – and even denying they had caused any serious problems.
What a shambles.
Police Warned Not to Download NHS COVID-19 App
Police officers have been advised not to download the NHS Test and Trace COVID-19 app on their smartphones, according to the BBC.
Some officers have also been told they may not need to obey self-isolate alerts generated by the app when downloaded to their personal phones.
Lancashire Constabulary has told staff to call the force’s own COVID-19 helpline instead.
The BBC contacted the North-West of England force after a source said the advice had been given because of “security reasons”.
The source also said officers had been told not to carry their personal phones while on duty if they had activated the app.
This applies to staff working in public-facing roles as well as those in back-office positions.
“The health and wellbeing of our officers, staff and the public remains our priority,” a Lancashire Constabulary spokeswoman subsequently told the BBC.
“Members of staff, like all members of the public, are personally able to download the Track and Trace application should they choose to do so. Guidance provided to staff within the workplace remains in line with the national NPCC position.”
The NPCC confirmed the work-phones policy was common to all forces, but said it was carrying out an urgent review of the matter.
“We have been taking time to review the specifications of the app to assess the implications for policing,” added a spokesman.
Presumably, the real reason Chief Constables have ordered their officers not to download the app is that they don’t want them being forced to self-isolate for 10 days after Matt Hancock’s random notice generator goes even more haywire.
Stop Press: The Government has been accused of a “massive state data grab” after millions of messages have started appearing on people’s phones urging them to download the NHS COVID-19 app. Has the Government harvested people’s mobile phone numbers from GPs in violation of GDPR? Christine Burns, a former NHS adviser who was awarded an MBE in 2005 for her work with transgender people, thinks so. She wrote on Twitter: “I read the privacy statement linked to by that message, which details a massive state data grab. I’m never trusting my GP with my data again.”
NHS Extra: A reader has submitted a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office about being spammed by his local GP. If any readers want to do likewise, the details of how to complain are here.
This is the wording of the text I received:
“This is a public health message from NHS Test & Trace. Please download the NHS Covid-19 app from the App Store/Google Play. More info at https://covid19.nhs.uk”
I don’t know if my complaint has any merit but I made four points to the ICO:
1) This is spam (although I am happy to receive information from my healthcare providers – e.g. GP etc; I wasn’t aware that I had agreed to receive this sort of promotional material).
2) It creates a significant opportunity for fraudsters to send out their own spam messages (pretending to be NHS modeled on this) tricking people into making an action that will lead to them being defrauded. (We already saw lots of this earlier in the ‘pandemic’).
3) (building on point 2) The text includes a link for people to click on (to: https://coivd19.nhs.uk) while this link is presumably trustworthy this is the classic modus operandi of fraudsters and they must be rubbing their hands with glee at the opportunity it creates for them to copy these tactics. Anti fraud professionals would usually put a stop to this sort of thing.
4) The text promotes two commercial websites – the App Store and Google Play. I wasn’t aware NHS did this sort of promotional activity?
Why Brendan O’Neill is Not A Conspiracy Theorist
Brendan O’Neill wrote an excellent editorial in Spiked yesterday, summing up everything that’s wrong with the Government’s – and the public’s – response to the crisis. He was particularly good on why he doesn’t have much time for conspiracy theories.
It is understandable that some people have weaved conspiracy theories to try to explain the current moment, insisting that dastardly figures like Bill Gates, Big Pharma and of course wicked governments are busily plotting the overthrow of human liberty on the back of a cooked-up virus crisis. After all, things are confusing. Extraordinary events have unfolded with very little clarity or explanation. In such circumstances people will create stories to try to make sense of the sudden diminution of their freedom and their lives. And yet, this conspiratorial bent among anti-lockdown protesters is a very serious problem. It ends up giving rise to a competition of narratives of powerlessness.
So on one side, we have officialdom’s lockdown myopia which disempowers communities by exaggerating the threat of COVID-19 and downplaying our capacity for dealing with risk and uncertainty. And on the other side we have a pushback against officialdom that says dark, evil forces beyond our control are puppeteering this crisis in order to achieve their malevolent ends. In both scenarios, the public is reduced to spectators. Spectators either to the fearful crisis-management of government officials and experts who insist we must follow the rules if we want to survive, or to an evil conspiracy of the usual suspects that we can hate and rage against but not really do much about. In both situations, the capacity of individuals and communities to understand this crisis and to start taking action to alleviate it, or live with it, are diminished. We need a better opposition.
Worth reading in full.
Postcard From University
A student has written to us, describing the horror of life on his university campus.
At my university, Estate Patrol are everywhere, ready to remorselessly disperse large groups, hand out hefty fines and other penalties in ways that make the Stasi look like friendly neighbourhood support officers. I have heard numerous horrific stories from my Russian family about life in the Soviet Union. How can we call ourselves an advanced free society when the same authoritarian measures are being forced upon us?
While our freedoms have been snatched away from us, we are still expected to pay full tuition and accommodation fees (by forcing us into one-sided accommodation contracts), compounding the disadvantages young people already face when it comes to debt and income. Now we face the possibility of being locked up in our halls of residence over Christmas.
We’ve published it in the “Postcard” section as a “Postcard From University”. Worth reading in full.
Dr John Lee: “Politicians Doing Amateur Science and Scientists Doing Amateur Politics – A Pretty Awful Brew”
Dr John Lee, one of the first senior doctors to raise the alarm about the lockdown, appeared on Julia Hartley-Brewer’s TalkRADIO show yesterday to warn of the dangers of a second lockdown. He told Julia the latest coronavirus measures are “completely disproportionate” because “we have politicians doing amateur science and scientists dong amateur politics. Mix the two together and it’s a pretty awful brew.”
New Poem From Bent Knee
Anti-Lockdown poet Bent Knee has sent us his latest.
Do not
Do not sing, do not dance
Forgo the joyful chanceDo not breathe, do not kiss
Intimacy is remissDo not embrace and kiss the bride
Love must never overrideDo not party, do not play
Limits are here to stayDo not mingle, do not mix
Follow the rule of sixDo not hug your grandparents
Love is literal violenceDo not believe that you can choose
You must obey the curfewsDo not plead for liberty
Forget your old humanity
Two-Thirds of Wales Locked Down
After a brief respite, lockdown has returned to Wales. The BBC has more.
Nearly two-thirds of Wales’ population will be under lockdown when new restrictions are imposed at 18:00 BST.
Neath Port Talbot (NPT), Torfaen and Vale of Glamorgan will join eight other areas in lockdown, affecting almost two million people in total.
The country’s two biggest cities – Cardiff and Swansea – had restrictions applied on Sunday evening.
The new rules mean no travel outside council boundaries other than for work, education or medical emergencies, with no indoor mixing allowed and no alcohol sales after 22:00.
Conwy, Denbighshire, Wrexham, Flintshire, Anglesey and Carmarthenshire are being “closely monitored” by Public Health Wales, meaning if cases continue to rise they could also face lockdowns.
Wedding planner Gail Windley says it’s an incredibly frustrating time for everyone.
“The rug is being pulled from under your feet constantly,” said Ms Windley, who lives in Neath Port Talbot.
She said one bride she was working with was “very stressed” and would be “glad to get it over with”.
“A wedding is a milestone in your life – that’s how your ancestors will trace you back – so it’s heart-breaking to be involved in that and see it.”
Preston’s Wild Boar Park Well Worth a Visit
We got an email from a reader who’s just spent a pleasant weekend at Bowland Wild Boar Park near Preston. Sounds great!
Myself and the family spent a lovely weekend at Bowland Wild Boar Park. It’s not our first visit, and having previously camped there in the pods before we were a little apprehensive as to the changes.
On arrival we were greeted by a staff member with the obligatory face mask, but no mention of me not wearing one. Once we’d checked in, we were able to enjoy what turned out to be a lovely weekend, with all the fellow pod campers and tenters turning out to be as sceptical as myself. Most had young kids and we all waxed lyrically on the damage done to kids, other health issue, etc.
The park had introduced some changes. No animal petting sessions for the kids, where normally they hand round various animals for the little ones to manhandle, and the barrel ride had set booking times and was disinfected between sessions. The cafe was take-out only, but it was refreshing that despite mask signs everywhere the visitors were mostly unmasked and the staff never challenged any non-maskers. The rest of the park was business as usual.
So if you find yourself near the Forest of Bowland, up t’ north, it is well worth a visit and giving them your support.
Round-Up
- “Covid, Vitamin D and what happens when statistics are revered, but not understood” – Excellent piece by Jon Moynihan in CapX on why it’s taken so long for the authorities to acknowledge the benefits of Vitamin D
- “Terrorist politicians at war with our way of life” – Strong piece in the Conservative Woman by Neil McCarthy
- “Neighbours urged to call police on Covid self-isolation cheats” – Government prepares the ground for The Lives of Others remake
- “Government warned football structure at risk of collapse” – Many EFL and National League clubs are on the verge of going into administration, according to a warning letter to the Government signed by former Football Association Chairmen Greg Dyke and Lord Triesman
- “Norwegian could be nationalised” – Will there be anything left of the airline industry when this is all over?
- “Crew on first post-lockdown Greek cruise contract coronavirus” – 12 crew members have tested positive on a cruise ship, all of them asymptomatic. But they’re retesting now and it looks as though they’re all false positives
- “Pastors demand liberty” – The letter from Christian ministers urging the Government not to close places of worship now has 700 signatures
- “A brief era of rationality is ending” – Good column from Dan Hannan in the Washington Examiner
- “Parliament bars exempt from 10pm curfew” – MPs caught taking the piss
- “I’M TOO SEXY FOR A MASK! Right Said Fred-om as PICS Emerge of 90s Pop Stars at Freedom Rally” – The 90s pop duo were at the Trafalgar Square anti-lockdown demo on Saturday
- “People are absolutely justified in mistrusting the elites” – Historian Thomas Frank talks to Brendan O’Neill in Spiked about his new book
- “The metrics of fear” – Laura Dodsworth’s latest in the Critic
- “Local lockdowns failing to slow the increase in coronavirus cases” – Sarah Knapton in the Telegraph explains why local lockdowns aren’t working. Meanwhile, Hancock has imposed further restrictions in the North-East
- “The Tories are fighting back in the culture war” – Tim Stanley sees a glimmer of light in the Telegraph
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Just one today: “Dido’s Lament” by Anna Dennis and Voices of Music.
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention. We have a team of moderators in place to remove spam and deal with the trolls, but sometimes it takes a little while so please bear with us. You have to register to use the Forums, but that should just be a one-time thing. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, we thought we’d flag up a piece in Spiked by Carrie Clark, the journalist who’s written the briefing paper about unconscious bias training for the Free Speech Union.
How would you react if your employer introduced mandatory astrology training at your workplace? What would you make of an organisation that spent thousands of pounds teaching its employees that their character is predetermined by the alignment of the stars and that, despite what they might consciously think or how they choose to behave, their actions are ultimately dictated by invisible cosmic forces? Now imagine that your employer claims to be fighting the scourge of racism by introducing this training.
Bizarre as it may seem, employers across the UK are dangerously close to doing just that. Workers up and down the country are finding themselves forced to undergo mandatory unconscious-bias training – ostensibly to make them less racist. But unconscious-bias training has, at its heart, a psychological test with barely more scientific credibility than astrology. In effect, employers are throwing vast sums of money at a discredited pseudoscientific method which will do nothing to tackle racism and discrimination in the workplace. Meanwhile, practical changes that might truly benefit black and minority-ethnic employees are ignored.
Unconscious-bias training is an outgrowth of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). When it was first introduced in 1998, the results claimed to show that 90 to 95% of IAT participants were implicitly racially prejudiced. While the test-takers might not have thought of themselves as racist, their responses on the test suggested that they were unconsciously biased against black people. This proved a seductive narrative for committed anti-racists, particularly those whose careers depended on portraying Britain and America as systemically racist. The test seemed to show that vast swathes of people were still ‘unconsciously’ racist, in spite of the dramatic decline in racist attitudes over the past 25 years.
The diversity industry has grown to be hugely profitable. It is now worth a cool $8 billion a year in the United States. Assisted by the IAT’s veneer of scientific respectability, unconscious-bias training has been marketed as an essential tool for any business serious about addressing racial inequality.
But reams and reams of research have discredited the IAT, undermining the entire premise of unconscious-bias training in the process. Time and again, meta-analysis has failed to find a correlation between a person’s score on the IAT and how discriminatory their behaviour is. Psychologists and neuroscientists, still puzzling over the complicated distinction between conscious and unconscious thought, are sceptical of the claim that the IAT measures something that can be defined as ‘implicit’. For instance, the propensity of IAT participants accurately to predict their score in advance suggests conscious awareness of something that the IAT’s creators describe as ‘unconscious’.
This is a fantastic article that’s well worth reading in full.
You can read a summary of Carrie’s briefing paper here, the full version here, and the Frequently Asked Questions the Free Speech Union has pulled together for people that want to opt out of diversity training here.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
We’ve created a one-stop shop down here for people who want to buy (or make) a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here and it has the advantage of not explicitly claiming you have a disability. But if you have no qualms about that (or you are disabled), you can buy a lanyard from Amazon saying you do have a disability/medical exemption here (takes a while to arrive). The Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. You can get a “Hidden Disability” tag from ebay here and an “exempt” card with lanyard for just £1.49 from Etsy here. And, finally, if you feel obliged to wear a mask but want to signal your disapproval of having to do so, you can get a “sexy world” mask with the Swedish flag on it here.
Don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face nappies in shops here.
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
And here’s a round-up of the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of mask (threadbare at best).
Stop Press: Some shops are employing mask recognition technology, according to BBC News, whereby customers have to stand in front of a scanner and are barred from entering if they’re not wearing a face nappy. I wonder if the patent-holder for this marvellous invention is Jeff Bezos, the multi-billionaire owner of Amazon?
Samaritans
If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email [email protected] or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year, providing a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. Doing these daily updates is hard work (although we have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending us stories and links). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links we should include in future updates, email us here.
And Finally…
In this week’s episode of London Calling, mine and James Delingpole’s podcast, we talk about James’s adventures at Saturday’s anti-lockdown protest in Trafalgar Square, the appalling treatment of students and Laurence Fox’s new political party. At one point, we try to imagine what Boris could do now to redeem himself. Secure a brilliant trade deal with the EU? Hardly. Restore the Britain’s overseas territories, so we once again have an Empire on which the sun never sets? Wouldn’t be enough. Lead Earth to victory in an intergalactic war? Maybe…
You can listen to the podcast here and subscribe to it on iTunes here.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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Lockdown theme tune : Behind the mask by Eric Clapton. I believe he is also a lockdown sceptic.
NEW PAGE IS NOW HERE . A LITTLE LATER THAN USUAL
https://dailysceptic.org/2020/09/30/latest-news-149/#comments
The rules could be easily simplified
1 You are allowed to do anything that raises taxes for the government
2 You are not allowed to have any fun
On the subject of Boris and his Rule of Six confusion, I think he’s at that place Diane Abbott found herself in: journalists at any time could now ask the PM questions about the arcane rules and catch him out. Even an intelligent, numerically-literate, hard working politician could be caught out, but Boris doesn’t have a clue. Only a gentleman’s agreement not to ask him this stuff can save him. OR – and this is a danger – the government simplifies the rules in favour of a draconian lockdown that even he can fully understand.
The only really important question at this point is why is this criminal still roaming free to destroy the nation and harm its people?
I am expecting an announcement soon about a two week lockdown over half term, (by which time we will all be able to see that this increase in “infections” has not resulted in increased hospitalisations or deaths.) Once the two weeks are over, Boris can announce that the second wave has been averted and we are all safe.
It would help divert attention away from the problems with testing that Handjob told us, a week or so ago, would need a few weeks to solve. Is there anything in the news about this or has the British public forgotten about it already?
Paul Daniels would have been proud of this government’s distraction methods!
They are making much of the 71 covid deaths announced yesterday. This is yet another example of an appaling misuse of figures as death data tends to come through in batches and you need to have a weeks figures to get any clear picture.
They know that people react with horror to the word ‘Death’ and so any announcement with death and a number creates hysteria, even though most people have no idea how any people die ordinarily. If you tell people that ordinarily around 10000 people a week die in the UK many are horrified.
The statistic for every other cause of death each day should be given to provide context. Covid would’ve been a mere 24th most common cause in August. I bet Sophie Raworth didn’t read that out on the 6pm news.
Even if this has been posted before …
https://www.facebook.com/AmberValleySpotted/photos/a.230947574240707/582592995742828/
Wait, I’ll get my helmet…
Wait, I’ll get my mask…
What’s the difference? Both improvised from ordinary household materials. Both designed to ward off invisible death particles. One regarded as the badge of a responsible member of society – or as the Guardian puts it “part of our shared reality”. The other is meant to represent a person with an irrational fear. They are obviously both the latter.
A tin foil hat also doesn’t compromise your health. Just might get a bit itchy.
Wales Online
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/
has a questionnaire for rating the performance of Quackerduck’s government in tackling the Covid bollox. Same questions as for the England version, so some questions loaded, but there is a space for free comment. Mine almost melted my iPad.
I may be imagining it, but us there a shift in emphasis on this formerly 100% Corona-crawler site?
Toby must be having a lye in
Thanks Annie. I will respond to the questionnaire later when I’m fully awake.
Ridiculous situation in Wales now where we absolutely don’t have a national lockdown according to Mr Gethling the health minister, but the majority of the population are in local lockdown. Where someone from a locally locked down area in England can drive to Snowdon for a lovely weekend but someone living in Wrexham can’t.
I’m I’m one of the six counties not yet locked down but even if we do get locked down I will continue about my daily business as before. Stupid rules are made to be broken.
I’ve got an important meeting at a border town at 5.15pm on Thursday. We should be finished just after 6pm – when the ‘restrictions’ start. I shall be going home via my usual route, crossing the English border twice, breaking their law as soon as it is in force. I’m half expecting armed Stazi manning the borders, but in all probability there will be nothing. Business as usual. Smoke and mirrors.
Writing to an MP is as useful as writing to member of the Reichstag after Hitler came to power
If every voter in Britian wrote, saying the same thing, do you think they would all ignore it? I don’t.
If every Briton took the streets, maskless, they’d be unable to ignore it.
When this turns, as I’m sure it will, they will be like the majority of the French, who cheered the liberating troops in 1944 and insinuated that they had always supported the Resistance.
The problem is that we have large numbers in a position analogous to that of the Vichy senior bureaucracy, or even the milice. University vice-chancellors have just been enlisted as active collaborators (and look very scared). This will end, but badly for those who have been suckered in by our nudgy friends.
Yes of course they would ignore it, there are not going to be anymore elections
You might be right but I don’t do defeatism. It’s very unBritish.
Not yet but at the rate we are going it will be.
Still worth doing.
UK spent £569m on 20,900 ventilators for Covid care but most remain unused
£569m of economic growth 😉
It wasn’t spent. It was invested
Ah, I have such fond memories of the halcyon days of the ventilator hysteria
Ah yes. Hancock begging private companies to make them at any price. And I was concerned about the cost of that particular boo boo. Haha.
Don’t forget that there will be ongoing ‘growth’ what with the storage, maintenance, modernisation and ultimate recycling of these devices.
Hehe – excellent post!
About £220-240m in England was spent building emergency hospitals (not exactly sure as I don’t know how much was spent on running costs). They treated about 150 patients. So that’s about £1.47m per patient.
Meanwhile wards were closed up and down the country.
Don’t every let the Conservative Party argue that we have to vote for them because only they can be trusted to run the economy.
How many ‘eat up to bloat up’ meals could that have bought?
But, don’t you see, it’s because the government built these hospitals that they kept the number of deaths low!? Don’t you see, they had good intentions!? It would have been 2 000 000 dead if they didn’t build the emergency hospitals! Don’t you see, the nurses needed that empty space to make viral tick-tok videos to buoy our spirits during these dark times!?
Perhap sthey could use the ventilators to power all the new windmills?
Just seen this on my Twitter thread referring to this publication:
Preparedness for a High-Impact Respiratory Pathogen Pandemic
https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/our-work/publications/preparedness-for-a-high-impact-respiratory-pathogen-pandemic
https://twitter.com/NickHudsonCT/status/1311023474354393088
Nick Hudson
@NickHudsonCT
You’re making this up. Aren’t you? The WHI talking sense? Can’t be true. Can it?
Brendan O’Neill saying that “conspiracy theorists” aren’t taking any action because they feel powerless…. he hasn’t interacted or spoken to any “conspiracy theorists” at all then. We’ve been extremely active, vocal and obsessed with preparation. It’s actually one of the most insulting things I have heard, because there are people who have been “in the trenches” so-to-speak fighting this shit for years despite being treated like lunatics.
It never ceases to amaze me…. Bill Gates predicts everything, and people think he’s god by virtue of being a rich motherfucker. The “conspiracy theorists” say exactly how shit is going to go down (because it’s all out there in black and white if you can suffer reading this boring shit), and TIN FOIL HAT… YOU’RE CRAZY!
Go watch some old Corbet Report…. he’s just an English teacher living in Japan. He has no money, no power… he’s just a relentless and thorough researcher, telling you what’s happening months and years before it actually happens.
When you use the word “conspiracy theorists” you are trying to separate yourself from – what you view as – deplorables. It’s its own form of virtue signalling. All you’re really achieving is informing people like myself that… Read more »
It’s dismissive to simply label someone a “conspiracy theorist” without, as you point out, doing your homework. As Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Bill Gates hasn’t hidden his agenda and when he smirks when stating that people will really pay attention when the NEXT pandemic comes, believe him. When he says his goal is to vaccinate the world, believe him. When he has captured world leaders and convinced them that we can’t go back to normal until everyone is vaccinated, believe him. Immunity passports? Believe him. The World Economic Forum has made no secret of their agenda either, whether it’s called The Great Reset, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Green Revolution, etc. It’s not a theory when it’s all laid out in black and white. And yes, it’s already happening.
I think the key point is whether you believe that the UK government is actively taking instructions from the groups and people you mention, or simply helping their cause largely unknowingly. The former, people would find generally harder to people, the latter seems much more plausible. But I think then any of this stuff is aired, people stop listening properly and assume you mean the former.
Taking instructions from the corrupt WHO and 95% of government “”””””advisors”””””” who owe some allegiance to BG?
UKIP members were considered “conspiracy theorists” when they began pointing out the intention to create a federal Europe. By June 2016 at least 17,410,742 British people were of similar mind.
I can smell their [psychopaths] fetid stench and bullshit from a mile away.
What do you make of Ferguson? To me there’s something very, very wrong about him, but I know nothing about psychiatry so I can’t say what.
When somebody accuses you of being a conspiracy theorist ask them to articulate precisely what the conspiracy is that they think you are concocting.
When they are forced to put into words, specifically what they mean they are typically either:
(a) building a straw man
(b) explaining something that isn’t a conspiracy theory at all but a valid explanation of how we have got here.
“Conspiracy theorist “…. is a term coined by Allen Dulles CIA the director in the 1960s to undermine those who questioned the findings of the Warren Commission
Bravo TyLean!
I couldn’t agree more if I tried!
The Corbett Report is highly recommended
No one should trust their GP. PERIOD. FULL STOP. END OF.
One of the most eye-opening (and/or soul destroying) things you can do: request your medical records.
I had several surgeries in my 20’s. This was before mobile phones were common and I was on the ward recovering feeling quite bored so started reading my medical notes at the end of my bed.
The nurse saw and was angry, snatched them off me and said these are not for you to read, I tried to protest that they were my own medical notes but she was already busy searching for a hiding place. I can only assume the urgent need to keep them hidden was communicated between staff as for the rest of my stay other patients notes were at the end of their bed and mine were kept in their new hiding place.
The country has been taken over by a madman who will kill each and every one of us given a chance
I done this one for free!
I just noticed the name of the file.
Sick of seeing that image every day.
Who are they?
One is Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition & Labour party. Not sure about the other one. Maybe his wife.
It’s Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. By all accounts she put him up to this stunt.
they clearly both identify as black footballers
Is this a wedding photo?
Basics, if you are still awake, I have found the post you wanted by kevin2
Their timing is slightly out of schedule. The idea was to coincide food shortages, with vaccine availability, with immunity passports giving access to essential services (and rationing?)
Despite ‘their’ best efforts, they know that they cannot roll out the vaccine until maybe Feb at the earliest. Food shortages will commence mid-December, as the world and his wife finally realise that Kent changes from the Garden of England to being a lorry park on Jan 1st.
Two things inevitably lead to rioting that cannot be contained; no money, and / or no food. The money issue will be mediated by extending a half-hearted furlough, and by making self-isolation payments. That will keep the masses quiescent on that front. But having created the circumstance for guaranteed food shortages, they’ve got a problem. There will be two months with no food and no vaccine availability. (Vaccine nationalism will come into play. In the US they are already coming out and saying that AZD1222 is not looking safe..)
When I talk about ‘them’, I’m talking about everyone behind the politicians, the politicians being merely puppets, stupid or not. The Jeffrey Epstein… Read more »
With you on this
Personally I rely on facts, not supposition or hypothesising. Best of luck.
Note todays date of 29th September:
Cancer referral decline during lockdown a ‘ticking time bomb’Cancer referrals for the first three full months of lockdown were almost a quarter lower than a year ago.
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/cancer-referral-decline-during-lockdown-a-ticking-time-bomb?top
On 7th May I wrote on BBC HYS:
Unfortunately I don’t have a link to where I got that information, 15% sounds and may be a bit low but nobody can say this wasn’t known months ago. I do believe Karol Sikora has been trying to get this message across for a while too.
How do I suggest a theme tune?
Alex Olivari Deutschland zeig Dein Gesicht Germany show your face
“Official” song of the sceptics in Germany.
email your suggestion to [email protected]
Furious to see North Wales is now locked down and no one can visit. I was hoping for a day out there with friends next month. It seems they are intent on taking everything enjoyable from our lives. I detest them.
There should be ways to sneak in… I have to start plotting routes to ferry my step-daughter across the border so she can spend time with her boyfriend.
I’ll stick my neck out. They can shove their lockdown where the sun don’t shine. I’ll be ignoring it.
Yes, as I just saw on Twitter: ‘In the UK, ‘innocent until proven guilty’ has largely been done away with and now added is ‘infected until proven uninfected’.
I’ve a feeling this will be a long one. Winter long. And as cases continue to rise, the restrictions will get tighter. Masks outdoors? I’ve a feeling Melbourne is the template for the Anglophone world. Found out today Canada also has a Rule of 6.
It’s Rule of 10 in Ontario for indoors and 25 outdoors; can’t speak to other provinces. However, Montreal is under partial lockdown again as of Thursday (bars and restaurants closed but not sure what else). Canadians are, unfortunately, fully on board for the most part which makes me sad and angry.
There are people from the DDR who would be able to help you.
Ha!
The NHS COVID-19 app source code is available:
‘We have made the source code available on Github.
https://faq.covid19.nhs.uk/article/KA-01157/en-us‘
https://github.com/nhsx/covid19-app-system-public
https://github.com/nhsx/covid-19-app-ios-ag-public
https://github.com/nhsx/covid-19-app-android-public
Perhaps our resident Sue Denims would like to critique it.
So Covid seems to have an unusual age profile – very much more likely to be serious in old people and harmless in younger people. The experts do seem to find it remarkable. The flu vaccine is given mainly to old people.
What are the chances the two things are related?
I see there’s a big push to get people to take the flu vaccine this year.
There has been some speculation/reporting that the flu vaccine was related to the deaths in Italy — apparently they got a very strong vaccine last year and had a worse outcome, as we know. There is evidence the flu vaccine increases susceptibility to other respiratory infections. Unfortunately, as we age our immune systems become less robust and, therefore, vaccines are less able to generate an immune response which is why seniors are being encouraged to get an extra strong flu vaccine this year or two injections. I think it’s another disaster waiting to happen, but that’s just my opinion. And if there is a Covid vaccine rolled out sometime soon I can guarantee there will have been no research on the effects of taking both the flu vaccine and the Covid vaccine, which is truly frightening.
Dolores Cahill explains the cytokine storm that can occur when a vaccine and virus are both present.
This has made me not want to get a flu shot. And of course obesity and smoking are factors.
This article looks at the possible link with flu vaccinations and Covid: https://homevaccineeducationnetwork.com/flu-vaccine-and-covid-19
I’ve had a really bad time coping today, been feeling quite murderous at times. Thanks for the kind messages earlier.
You were not alone.
It was ” in the air”
Here’s something to hopefully make you laugh Liam:
https://twitter.com/tompeck/status/1311020889421615105
A preview of tomorrow’s press conference, courtesy of John Cleese 🙂
Hoping tomorrow is better for you. We definitely all have those days and you’re definitely not alone.
Neat little piece by Jeremy R Hammond factchecking a factchecker that had falsely claimed Bill Gates and Fauci had no connections with Moderna.
https://www.jeremyrhammond.com/2020/09/16/fauci-gates-moderna/
I believe there is more to it than that… I have read that Moderna was a rebranding of the company IG Farben (manufacturers of Zyklon B), that Soros bought it and that Epstein was a major shareholder..
Carrie. Indeed yes. Nothing would surprise me though I hadn’t been aware of the connections you mention. Merck are also partnering with Moderna ostensibly to develop mRNA cancer vaccines.
And we had the revelation that several of the Moderna top execs dumped a load of their shares recently. Which may cast light on how their trial is going..
Regards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JAtAhHroFw&list=PLLqBo3UjMccAyAkJ9uiJkQpPjDYUoWlHp&index=1&ab_channel=Folkh%C3%A4lsomyndighetenSverige
“Random population based PCR testing in Sweden. Sample size ~2500/month. Percent positive, at end of each month: April 0.9% May 0.3% August 0.0% September 0.0%”
In this study it seems that the virus circulating is very low. But at the same time today in Stockholm, concern about increasing cases because of “unacceptable behaviour” that is young people, sports team partying. Sweden also have an increase in testing and in common with many other countries detecting more young people infected hence the rise in cases. So far not much impact on ICU or total hospitalisations but the authorities afraid that more cases will spill out into the older age groups. But this could be very localised small outbreaks in some cities as the study above is testing randomly over the whole Swedish territory. Some big geographical regions have very few cases. Sweden making the mistake as all others. Not stopping SD in June when the excess mortality disappeared and then had it run through the younger generation in the summer. Why did not we all, follow the flu pandemic guidelines from WHO Oct 2019 ?
“So far not much impact on ICU or total hospitalisations”
Why should there be, given the unreliability of PCR testing at this vanishingly small level of real infection.
Exactly, and if it was a worry, why would they have announced today the lifting of some restrictions?
At the Stockholm press conference today they urged people not to slack off (as regards social distancing, hand-washing etc) and came up with 5 recommendations, but made no completely new directives or rules..
The 5 recommendations to Stockholmers:
Work remotely if you can (ie from home)
Exercise outdoors or at times when not many others are exercising
Postpone parties
Spend time mainly with those who live in your household
Keep in touch with the elderly and risk groups by phone or digitally.
Which resrictions did they lift?
“Unacceptable behaviour” must be the latest lockstep mandate.
Great sarcasm from Politico
https://youtu.be/FWsEkWA54Zs
Brilliant
That was hilarious!
https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/09/29/we-are-living-under-covid-sharia/
Wancock seems to think it’s all rather funny….
Prick.
He’s an idiot. Just been reading Mark Harper’s very enlightening thread about new rules that came in last night (by SI I presume) and their implications:
https://twitter.com/Mark_J_Harper/status/1310960720826241025
Quite shocking.
As he points out, amongst other things, there is no appeals system for if you are incorrectly (or vindictively) reported to Track and Trace..
It is all incredibly poorly drafted and ill (or not at all) thought through. Is Hancock drafting this stuff himself? If not, who is drafting it? We should have the right to know…
There’s a certain scheudenfreude to Bedwetters calling for tighter restrictions that only they will adhere to.
Brilliant observation.
Are you sure that the bedwetters even adhere to them? In my experience people are most keen on restrictions that apply to other people.
This is true but there is also another type. The “if you’re not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about” brigade. These people don’t think the rules they want imposed will affect or be applied to them if they are broken for any reason.
https://nypost.com/2020/09/29/elon-musk-says-he-wont-take-coronavirus-vaccine/
Elon Musk is my favourite billionaire.
He’s rich enough and an ‘elite’ – he is in no danger of being forced to take it – only plebs will have to..
He’s also American where good doctors that treat you on a personal health basis go to the higest bidder
rubbish
About the Parliament vote – I think this sums up the situation neatly:
Sherelle Jacobs
@Sherelle_E_J
If rebels had the stomach they’d be willing to go nuclear & vote down the renewal of the entire Coronavirus Act, should the Speaker refuse to select Brady amendment. But they don’t have the stomach – which is exactly why the Speaker feels no compulsion to select Brady amendment!
Unfortunately I fear she’s right.
If they (the Tory rebels) did a “deal” they are cowards to a man / woman.
If the speaker does not select the amendment then he is just a stooge in the game, despite his bluster.
And what time tomorrow is (the alleged) Prime Minister, Whitless and Prof Vaccine going on TV to tell us that not only are we dead, but it’s time to throw our rotting corpse to the wolves – I plan to be out and give it a miss.
They already know the outcome of tomorrow otherwise they would not be so confident as to (again) go on TV AGAIN.
Likely just before the debate and vote..
I thought that.Our democracy is just a sham.It will take more than letters to MPs to change this
I don’t really understand the technicalities of the amendment, but tend to think that if you really want a say in the laws and you’re an MP, you must vote against renewal and force the govt to draft a new law that will pass. Anything else is just fiddling.
Only a week or so into mandatory mask wearing in Wales and I’ve already made the pleasant discovery that one of my regular local shops is what I call a ‘don’t give a fuck’ establishment. I drop in maskless and pay with cash, and they don’t give a fuck. Lovely!
There are a few dotted about.
Worthy of our support!
Are they independents or individual franchise/chain outlets out of interest?
Family run, but a franchise, if that makes sense. It has the feel of an independent. I don’t want to give too much away for obvious reasons.