Government Was Warned About Looming Cancer Crisis Five Months Ago
Lockdown Sceptics has obtained a briefing note written by Professor Karol Sikora on May 18th warning the Government about the looming crisis in cancer care and making a series of recommendations about how to avoid it. Prof Sikora even flagged up the risk that GP referrals of suspected cancer patients would fall dramatically, which Cancer Research UK said yesterday meant that 350,000 people who would normally have been referred to hospital with suspected cancer in the past six months have still not been seen.
The briefing note was produced at the behest of Sir Simon Stevens, the NHS’s Chief Executive, but after submitting it to a civil servant in the DHSC Prof Sikora never heard anything more.
Not only did Prof Sikora identify all the risks that have subsequently materialised, he also suggested a solution: collaboration with the private sector. Here’s his conclusion:
The surge of cancer patients is expected by late summer 2020. The independent sector has huge resources to assist the NHS by working in partnership. Developing a plan centrally and authorising local coordination based on existing NHS cancer centres would provide the most effective structure for implementation. This will significantly mitigate against delay and strict rationing to ensure the best long-term outcomes for our patients.
When the official inquiry begins into the unending series of cock-ups by the Government and the Civil Service, this document will be a smoking gun.
Did Tony Blair Break Quarantine Rules?
You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s one set of lockdown rules for the political elite and another for the hoi polloi, given how many times members of the political class have been caught flouting the rules. The latest addition to this ignominious list is Tony Blair. The Sunday Telegraph has devoted its front page splash to the story.
Tony Blair was last night accused of a “flagrant” breach of COVID-19 restrictions, after failing to self-isolate for a fortnight after a two-day trip to the US on a private jet.
In pictures obtained by this newspaper, the former prime minister is seen leaving a restaurant in Mayfair 10 days after his return from Washington DC last month.
The Sunday Telegraph understands that Mr Blair appealed to Whitehall officials for special dispensation from the COVID-19 rules, but that he was not issued with the formal exemption letter he would have needed to avoid the 14-day isolation period.
The Telegraph is not aware of any other exemption for which Mr Blair could qualify. He claims he was advised to follow rules on attending “international conferences”, having travelled to the US for a ceremony at the White House at which Israel signed agreements establishing formal relations with Bahrain and the UAE.
But the “international conferences” exemption to the rules applies to diplomats, staff at international bodies such as the UN and formal representatives at international conferences who have been “granted privileges and immunities”.
Mr Blair is considered a private citizen, having stepped down from his post-No 10 role as Middle East envoy in 2015.
Those taking advantage of the exemption require “an exemption letter to show at the border”.
A spokesman for the former Prime Minister said he was invited by the US Government because of the role he played in the agreement between Israel and the UAE – describing the ceremony as a “diplomatic conference”.
The spokesman also insisted Mr Blair “posed no risk to anyone” as he was tested before his departure, on arrival at the White House, and again several times since returning to the UK.
Posed no risk to anyone?
Well, I’ve had the virus and recovered and have the antibodies to prove it, so I’m not a risk to anyone either. Does that mean I, too, can disregard the rules when they’re inconvenient?
Didn’t think so.
Stop Press: The Mail on Sunday has confirmed that MPs did flout the 10pm curfew in a House of Commons bar on October 5th. Matt Hancock has confirmed that he was in the bar on the night in question, but left to vote at 9.40pm and won’t disclose whether he returned afterwards in spite of being asked the question 30 times. Things are looking a bit sticky for the Health Secretary.
Tory Grandees Ask: “What’s the Exit Strategy?”
Also on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph is a story about how senior Tories, including Sir Graham Brady, Chair of the 1922 Committee, are demanding to know what the exit strategy is.
Senior Conservatives expressed growing anger at the Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, amid mounting concern that swathes of the country are heading for further restrictions this week.
On Saturday, Julian Jessop, an independent economist, said that another lockdown could result in a fresh hit to GDP of at least 5%.
Lord Lamont, the former Chancellor, warned that repeatedly imposing draconian restrictions and then lifting them is “deeply damaging to business and is not really a strategy”.
Sir Graham Brady, Chairman of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, whose Altringham and Sale West constituency in Manchester faces being placed in the highest tier of restrictions, said constant lockdowns or “circuit breakers” to suppress the virus would be “pointless”.
“If further restrictions on people’s lives are proposed, the Government has to set a clear end date and a strategy for returning life to normal,” Sir Graham said.
Amidst all these rumblings of discontent on the backbenches, a pollster with close links to Number 10 has warned that public opinion is turning.
James Frayne, who has previously carried out focus group research for the Government, warns of a looming shift in public opinion, against further lockdowns. He also accused the Government of “playing down the obvious economic risks associated with harsher measures”.
His warning came as a poll by ORB International found that just 10% of people believe the pandemic is under control in this country – a record low.
Mr Frayne, founding partner of the Public First policy research agency, states: “Opinion will shift fast with public realisation of the economic trauma set to befall us. Oddly, politicians have mostly kept this hidden from the public to date.
“But when Government reduces personal and business support – as they must – people will see the direct trade-offs being made: essentially, health versus living standards. In this new world, the key polling question will be: ‘are you happy to pay a lot more in tax and risk your job for a national lockdown?’ For most, the answer will be a resounding no.”
Mr Frayne suggests that Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, has identified a shift in public mood, which is leading him to resist No 10’s attempts to move the city into Tier 3.
“The fact he has highlighted the relatively low growth of Covid cases there, as well as talking in stark terms about the economic damage Tier 3 would bring about, is a major step… If the Labour Party follows Burnham’s lead – not imminently likely, granted – the Government would be in a very vulnerable position politically.”
He adds: “If they are not careful, they are going to look like they are blasé about the lives of ordinary people across the country.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: There’s a good piece in the Sunday Times documenting the deteriorating relationship between the Government and its scientific advisors.
“We’ve begun to hate the scientists,” said one Tory MP who has supported the Government on all the votes on restrictions. “You’ve got these guys on SAGE briefing journalists, going on the telly saying the PM must bring in a national lockdown. Why are they allowed to do that? You are either part of the team or you’re not. You can be an independent scientist and say what you like. You can’t be part of SAGE and go on telly saying they need to do this.”
Report From Yesterday’s Anti-Lockdown Protest
A reader has been in touch to tell us about his experiences on yesterday’s anti-lockdown demo in London. Not all “anti-vaxxers”, as the Evening Standard would have us believe.
I’d say around two to three thousand gathered at Speakers’ Corner. There was a bit of confusion initially between the two groups leading the event, with StandUpX wanting to head down Oxford Street, and Justice UK wanting to march directly to Downing Street. It had a bit of a Judean People’s Front vs the People’s Front of Judea feel about it. The two groups split, although the Oxford Street march probably attracted about 90% of us.
There were a lot of police and Community Liaison Officers on hand, but no sign of the more thuggish variety from the Territorial Support Group that brutalised the Trafalgar Square gathering. The police behaved very reasonably, walking us down Oxford Street and through Oxford Circus. The crowd, as with the Trafalgar Square rally, was peaceful and good natured. Several bus drivers obligingly sounded their horns in support. We got talking to various people as we walked along. One lady had lost her job recently and her savings were too big to get Universal Credit. Another said many of her neighbours had told her they would be at the march, but when she got to the station it was deserted.
Several marchers engaged with passers-by on Oxford Street, encouraging them to take off their masks. The numbers of – particularly younger – people wearing masks outside was thoroughly depressing. They stood, watched and photographed the protesters filing past. No doubt behind the masks they were open mouthed. We thought there was still quite a way to go to persuade people.
Eventually, the march turned up Rathbone Place and was stopped there by police. Lots of us wondered whether we were about to be kettled, so left. We popped in to a fairly busy pub and the remaining marchers passed by. There were some dismissive reactions from some in the pub. Three couples on the table next to us bellowed about the “nutters” and how there wasn’t “a mask among them”. It’s inconceivable that they were all part of one household, but will have lied about that. People pay lip service to the rules but don’t comply when it suits.
Later we came across a much depleted march near Covent Garden, which we re-joined for a short period before heading back to our hotel. Not sure where they ended up or whether they made it down Whitehall.
Who are the Real Heirs of John Snow in the Herd Immunity Debate?
The scientific Establishment has come up with an answer to the Great Barrington Declaration which it has called the John Snow Memorandum, named after the 19th Century public health scientists thought to be the founder of epidemiology. But as we pointed out on Lockdown Sceptics a couple of days ago, John Snow was a maverick who refused to believe the consensus among the scientists of his day about the causes of infectious diseases and instead set about gathering empirical evidence like a proper scientist. And when he discovered the real cause of the Soho Cholera outbreak, he came up with a targeted intervention that stopped it in its tracks. In short, John Snow has much more in common with Martin Kulldorff, Sunetra Gupta and Jay Bhattacharya – the original authors of the GBD – than he does with the Establishment toadies who’ve signed the Memorandum.
The same point is made by Robert E Wright in an excellent post for the American Institute for Economic Research.
What the signatories of the John Snow Memorandum want you to think is that they are the John Snows of 2020, bravely following “the” science. But the fact is, the Lancet and signatories like Chelsea Clinton represent the Establishment, hellbent on maintaining current policies regardless of the mounds of evidence that lockdowns do not work to stop the spread and increase other forms of mortality. They gloss over the fact that Snow searched for a targeted intervention, not the lockdown of London.
Worth reading in full.
NHS Test and Trace Hands Over Data to Police
Just when you thought public trust in the Government couldn’t sink any lower, the Department of Health and Social Care has said information obtained by NHS Test and Trace about which individuals should be self-isolating will be shared with the police so they can ensure people are complying. Sky News has more.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed it had “agreed a memorandum of understanding with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC)” to provide forces with the information on a “case-by-case basis”.
In a statement, a spokesman told Sky News: “It is a legal requirement for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and their close contacts to self-isolate when formally notified to do so.
“The DHSC has agreed a memorandum of understanding with the NPCC to enable police forces to have access on a case-by-case basis to information that enables them to know if a specific individual has been notified to self-isolate.
“The memorandum of understanding ensures that information is shared with appropriate safeguards and in accordance with the law. No testing or health data is shared in this process.”
I wonder how people will feel the next time they look at that NHS Covid app on their phones? As Alistair Haimes said on Twitter, the DHSC was very keen to tell us how many millions of people were downloading the app when it was rolled out a couple of weeks ago. Can they now start telling us how many millions have started deleting it?
Covid Cases in Manchester Not “Out of Control”
Prof Carl Heneghan and colleagues from the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine have taken a deep dive into Greater Manchester’s Covid data in the Telegraph to see whether the city really does need to go into a Tier 3 lockdown.
The question on everyone’s mind is whether Covid is out of control in Manchester, or has Burnham got it right, and the Government should hold off?
First, let’s look at cases, which don’t seem to be out of control, and are, if anything, declining. They peaked on the September 30th with 596 cases and a seven-day average of 461. As of October 9th, the seven-day average has fallen from the peak by nearly 20% to an average of 374.
Nine out of the 10 Greater Manchester’s boroughs report recent increases in their Covid rates whereas Manchester’s are on the wane. But this further underpins the need to understand the context of what is actually happening.
The sweeping term “cases” hides a diverse typology of reality, apart from false positives. The only critical cases are those with serious symptoms (who may go on and be admitted to hospital) and those who are contagious (who may transmit the disease to others).
Suppose the increase is due to healthy student-age people. In that case the increase is unlikely to be reflected in either admissions or deaths, especially in the student age group, who play no part in national mortality statistics.
Contagious youngsters are unlikely to pass the pathogen on after a week from symptoms onset and if they continue to test positive with few or no symptoms, it’s likely because they are shedding pieces of dead viruses which have little or no public health significance.
Manchester University’s figures can help as the university keeps data on known positive cases among its staff and students. It includes those on and off-campus but does not indicate where someone might have contracted the virus.
These data also do not support further measures: cases peaked on the October 2nd – a spike driven by the return of over 70,000 students to the city – and have fallen significantly since. They are 75% less than what they were at the peak.
Hospital admissions may shed some light on the need for lockdown. Data from NHS England show the current seven-day average for admissions from the community is 12 a day to NHS Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, up from an average of eight a day in the previous week.
But more telling are the data from weekly and monthly mandated Secondary Uses Service (SUS) repository for healthcare data in England.
These data show a dramatic reduction for respiratory condition admissions compared with what we would normally expect at this time of year.
In short, cases are falling and hospital admissions for respiratory conditions are falling.
Leave Andy Burnham alone, Prime Minister.
The Lost Children of Covid
IRINA POLONINA
According to the Sunday Times, 750,000 children were absent from school last week, giving an 89.9% attendance rate, compared with 95% last autumn. The truly alarming thing, however, is that many of these children will never return to school.
They are the lost children of Covid. Bright teenagers are dropping out of education to turn to crime, sometimes to feed their families. Teachers spend weeks waiting for promising pupils to return, only to realise they are not coming back.
Other children are being removed from school for home education or long stays abroad for fear of the virus.
Sophie, 16, one of four children in a single-parent family, lives in Walker, one of the most deprived parts of Newcastle upon Tyne. The teenager, whose mother was a nurse before having a family, won a scholarship to start this term at the Royal Grammar School, one of the city’s private schools. She is determined to go to university and become a doctor, but some of her friends from local schools are dropping out.
Boys she grew up with, “lads who dabbled in drugs before the pandemic”, are not in school. Some are drug dealers. “Kids my age feel helpless,” Sophie said. “Some of my friends went for the induction day at sixth-form college last month and never returned. The college is trying its hardest to get them back into class, but they are just like, ‘Nah, that’s it.’”
She added: “A lot of people I went to school with have got sucked into drug-dealing. I know of kids who did it slightly before the pandemic; now it’s all they do. So many people have been made redundant… their mums and dads… their least worry is whether their kid finishes a business course at college; they [the parents] are trying to get their own lives back on track.”
Yet more evidence of the terrible collateral damage done by the lockdown policy. Worth reading in full.
French Police Raid Homes of Government Ministers
Police in France have carried out dawn raids of the homes of the country’s former Prime Minister, current and former Health Ministers, and other senior officials, as part of an inquiry into the French Government’s cack-handed response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Independent has more.
COVID-19 patients, doctors, prison and police personnel and others in France have filed dozens of complaints in recent months, notably over shortages of masks and other equipment, prompting the Paris prosecutor to order an investigation.
The offices of Health Minister Olivier Veran, as well as the private addresses of former prime minister Edouard Philippe, Veran and his predecessor Agnès Buzyn, and Sibeth Ndiaye, ex-spokeswoman for President Emmanuel Macron, were searched on Thursday, the French health ministry has confirmed.
Geneviève Chêne, Director General of the French public health agency, as well as top health ministry official Jérôme Salomon, were also targeted in the police raids, which his department said were conducted “without any difficulties”.
A source close to Edouard Philippe, who remains Mayor of the port town of Le Havre in Normandy, told AFP that he “has always said that he was willing to put himself at the disposal of the authorities”. They said that the search was carried out “in a courteous manner and with the full cooperation of the mayor”.
Come on, Cressida Dick. What are you waiting for? Time to pay a visit to Matt Hancock’s London flat.
Round-Up
- “Diet of Worms” – Good piece by Niall McCrae about the left-wing conspiracy theories doing the rounds about the Great Barrington Declaration
- “The medical community’s revolt against lockdown” – Pro-GBD piece in the Critic by Rob Sutton
- “The Fact-Free COVID Dystopia” – Thomas E Woods Jr lays out the case against lockdowns with passion and authority
- “Governor Unveils Innovative 37-Step Plan To Reopen State Over The Next 10 Years” – Amusing piece of satire in the Babylon B. Or is it?
- “Transport Secretary admits new cycle lanes are leaving roads ‘backed up’ with traffic” – Ya think?!?
- “Herd immunity could now be our least bad option” – Juliet Samuel in the Telegraph says she was wrong in thinking the Virus could be contained and has come around to herd immunity
- “The fightback against these miserable new tiers has already begun” – Michael Deacon takes the side of the Northern gyms in their stand off with the Health Secretary
- “Jacinda Ardern is no hero” – Ross Clark says the toothy tyrant’s Covid policy has been a disaster
- “Bosses revolt over lockdowns” – The Sunday Times reports that thousands of businesses have warned Boris Johnson Britain faces “mass redundancies” unless more financial support is provided
- “Read all about it – as long as the news suits the purposes of the thought police in Big Tech” – Rod Liddle rails against Big Tech censorship in the Sunday Times
- “‘We are in a truly Orwellian culture’: Amazon yanks Covid-19 skeptic’s book for ominously vague ’content violations’” – And here’s an example of it
- “Doctors ask grieving families to confirm their relative’s deaths via ZOOM so doctors don’t have to make house calls during Covid pandemic” – God forbid doctors should have to make house calls
- “Teacher beheaded by Islamist terrorist for showing his class Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of Mohammed” – Terrible, terrible story about a Parisian teacher beheaded by an Islamist terrorist after trying to teach his class a lesson about freedom of expression
- “I’ve crunched the numbers and a herd immunity strategy would lead to a lot of deaths” – Breathtakingly feeble piece by Neil O’Brien MP. He doesn’t appear to have done even the most cursory research into this subject
- “Backing lockdown isn’t proof of caring more” – Janice Turner in the Times comes out as a lockdown sceptic
- The Price of Panic: How the Tyranny of Experts Turned a Pandemic into a Catastrophe – New book from Regnery Press condemning the lockdowns
- “David Starkey and the tyranny of the thought police” – The Spiked podcast this week touches on the police’s harassment of Dr David Starkey, as well as the Great Barrington Declaratiom
- Q&A Follow-Up to Prof Ramesh Thakur’s Presentation on Covid – The former UN panjandrum and lockdown sceptic answers questions about his masterly presentation of the case against lockdowns. He’s particularly scornful about the UK Government whom he describes as “bumbling blindly in the dark”
- “The BMJ Interview: Tim Spector on how data can arm us against COVID-19” – Good interview with Tim Spector in the increasingly sceptical BMJ
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “This is Only Making Things Worse” by the Crosstown Rivalry and “Revolution” by Spacemen 3.
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.
Sharing stories: Some of you have asked how to link to particular stories on Lockdown Sceptics. The answer used to be to first click on “Latest News”, then click on the links that came up beside the headline of each story. But we’ve changed that so the link now comes up beside the headline whether you’ve clicked on “Latest News” or you’re just on the Lockdown Sceptics home page. Please do share the stories with your friends and on social media.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today it’s the turn of the Cornell University English Faculty which has just voted to change its name from “the English Department” to something more… inclusive. The Washington Times has more.
The English Department at Cornell University has voted to change its name in an effort to distinguish English the language from English the nationality.
The department at the Ivy League university in New York voted to change its name to “the Department of Literatures in English” during its first faculty meeting of the fall semester earlier this month, the student-led Cornell Daily Sun reported Wednesday.
The change would help to eliminate the “conflation of English as a language and English as a nationality,” English professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Kate McCullough told the newspaper.
The proposal, co-written by English professor Carole Boyce-Davies, was spurred by the wave of racial and political unrest following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Ms. Boyce-Davies told the Daily Sun.
“Faculty around the country – not just faculty of color, but faculty in general – began to look at the institution to see how we can help advance a discourse that challenges structural forms of racism which get reproduced in students and in teaching over and over again,” Ms. Boyce-Davies said.
“What surprised us was the fact that so many of the White faculty of the English department signed on – we were amazed,” she added. “By the time we were ready to officially take it to the department as a whole, we had over 75% of the faculty signed on.”
Ms. Boyce-Davies said English Professor and Department Chair Caroline Levine signed the proposal without hesitation.
Stop Press: The Taxpayers’ Alliance has discovered that the Government spent £416,644 on face-to-face courses teaching civil servants about unconscious bias within the last two years. The Telegraph has the story.
“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 £1.99 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 masks 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: This is a very good critique of masks by Roger Koops on the American Institute for Economy Research blog.
Alarming Video: A reader sent this video, which he obtained form a source in the Irish police. It purports to show a group of Romanian riot police dragging passengers not wearing masks from an underground train and brutally assaulting them on the platform. Frightening stuff.
The Great Barrington Declaration
The Great Barrington Declaration, a petition started by Professor Martin Kulldorff, Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Jay Bhattacharya calling for a strategy of “Focused Protection” (protect the elderly and the vulnerable and let everyone else get on with life), was launched last week and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it. If you Google it, the top hits you get include two smear pieces from the obscure Leftist conspiracy website Byline Times, and one from the Guardian headlined: “Herd immunity letter signed by fake experts including ‘Dr Johnny Bananas’.” (Freddie Sayers at UnHerd warned us about this hit job the day before it appeared.) On the bright side, Google UK has stopped shadow banning it, so the actual Declaration now shows up in the search results – and my Spectator piece about the attempt to suppress it is the top hit – although discussion of it has been censored by Reddit. The reason the zealots hate it, of course, is that it gives the lie to their claim that “the science” only supports their strategy. These three scientists are every bit as eminent – more eminent – than the pro-lockdown fanatics so expect no let up in the attacks. (Wikipedia has also done a smear job.)
You can find it here. Please sign it. Now has over half-a-million signatures.
Stop Press: The GBD is provoking a lot of debate, most of it poor, but occasionally quite good. Here is Tyler Cowen’s critique in Bloomberg. And here is David Henderson’s reply for the American Institute for Economic Research.
Judicial Reviews Against the Government
There are now so many JRs being brought against the Government and its ministers, we thought we’d include them all in one place down here.
First, there’s the Simon Dolan case. You can see all the latest updates and contribute to that cause here.
Then there’s the Robin Tilbrook case. You can read about that and contribute here.
Then there’s John’s Campaign which is focused specifically on care homes. Find out more about that here.
And last but not least there’s the Free Speech Union‘s challenge to Ofcom over its ‘coronavirus guidance’. You can read about that and make a donation here.
Stop Press: A Berlin court has suspended an order for bars and restaurants to close from 11pm to 6am. The Mail has the story.
Samaritans
If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org 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. (Don’t assume we’ll pick them up in the comments.) Thanks to all those readers who wished me happy birthday yesterday.
Special thanks to graphic designer and Lockdown Sceptics reader Claire Whitten for designing our new logo. We think it’s ace. Find her work here.
And Finally…
Andy Shaw, one of the co-hosts of Comedy Unleashed, has written a short piece for Lockdown Sceptics about his heroic efforts to put on live comedy at a pub in Bethnal Green in spite of all the ludicrous restrictions. I went last Tuesday and it was bloody marvellous. Well done to Andy for not letting the ongoing lockdown madness defeat him.
On Monday October 12th we re-opened Comedy Unleashed at the Backyard Comedy Club, East London. We had three fantastic nights. We worked closely with the venue and it took an enormous amount of organisation. We split one gig over three nights, with 1/3 of the usual audience; implemented social distancing without killing the atmosphere; found a way for people not to wear masks during the performance; the venue introduced a plethora of processes, from instructions to be included with ticketing information and a limit on the number of comedians allowed in the green room; the venue stocked up on beer and pizzas and introduced table service. The staff had to get everyone served in record time and were amazing. We had to increase the ticket price and still lost money. But we were back and it worked. On Thursday morning, the Tier 2 Covid measures were announced for London, which means that the audience size would have to be halved. The venue is now scrambling to work out if they can keep things going and they may have to lay off their staff (again) and pour the beer down the drain (again). Anyway, we recorded one of the nights and the comics had lots to say about the lockdown madness. (See highlights of Geoff Norcott’s performance.)
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So, lockdown in case they have to lockdown.
Indeed – and the worst part of it is that most people will be unable to see just how ridiculous this sort of behaviour is.
I’m sorry; but “ridiculous” is not the appropriate adjective. Whatever else they might be, the authors of the transnational biomedical techno-fascist agenda are not “bungling”, they are not “incompetent” and they most certainly are not “stupid”. Those of us who oppose it must stop being incompetence-theorists.
It is fraudulent, in the same way but on a greater scale than the Piltdown man hoax.
I wasn’t referring to those behind the whole situation – and I don’t disagree with your theory on them.
I was referring to the behavioiur of these particular schools, and the moronic way in which they are buying into the whole narrative is definitely ridiculous.
Whether it’s pure incompetence, misguided concern or deliberate mendacity, it’s still ridiculous.
Everyone knows the goalpost is continuously moving away.
Next year when infection will be low: “Maybe comes a variant and maybe will be high we must act in advance so lockdown in the winter”
And these are people responsible for educating our children…
You have to admire the logic: the way to reassure ‘parents worried that schools will begin to close again before Christmas’ is to close again before Christmas.
If you weren’t worried about the quality of those educating your children up to now…
Can’t individual pupils and teachers stay in schools then, off their own bat? Anarchy looms.
I wish we did have anarchy. It’s a lot better than government.
I have been thinking this for a long time, long before the advent of Covidmadness. It has long been clear that politicians haven’t got a clue what they are doing and yet they presume to lord it over the rest of us. I am a rule-obeyer by instinct/upbringing but the rules that we are expected to abide by are becoming increasingly bizarre and unsupportable.
All part of the brainwashing plan, see the graphic posted by Anti_socialist the other day.
(Re-posted without kind permission below).
Where is that table from? Got a link?
You would have to ask Anti_socialist
I’ve seen a copy closer to the original but you could try searching
CIA analysis of N.Korean brainwashing techniques used to turn captured US Service Personnel.
Brainwashing is not the same as torture, it is intended to change the mind of the brainwashed to make them believe that giving away a couple of secrets will save the world, make them keen to becoming a spy.
One of the key elements is to get the victim to agree to about a petty but obvious mistruth like did you have sausages for breakfast? Then work your way up from there.
Another is supplying petty privileges like 2 cigarettes a day (iebnot enough for satisfaction) and then deny them for no reason.
Lastly appointing fellow inmates with no talent in positions of petty authority (smoking cessation Officers and Covid Marshals being perfect examples).
25/11/21
The politicians and members of SAGE and all of their bodyguards are far from not having a clue. They’re getting handsomely paid, aren’t they? Out of your money! Now, that’s what I call clever.
Septic scumbags wouldn’t know anarchy if it hit them in the face.
They have no idea what libertarian means
Carrie’s calling, Boris – time to change the bairn’s nappy!
Hi Fascist.
ScumTwatPrattSick – he/she/it only joined DS just over a week ago…?
Methinks as the clout of this forum ever expands, lackluster-subhuman trolling is inevitably going to increase too, that or have the 77th caved and recruited under-rock bottom-feeders to come have a go? PMSL
As you were…
They could, but the whole purpose of this exercise is for teachers to create an easier cosier situation for themselves.
Back in March 2020, they were all against online learning, because they thought it would make their jobs harder. When they discovered it means they actually work less because they don’t have to deal with behaviour issues, they have become converts to online learning.
Same thing with masks. They like them because it pacifies the students.
This is of course not true of all teachers but of enough. And the skivers use all the usual scummy arguments about safety first to brow beat the rest into accepting what they want.
“When they discovered it means they actually work less because they don’t have to deal with behaviour issues, they have become converts to online learning.”
Teachers are clever – who wants to deal with other people’s stroppy kids when you can get the same money ‘working’ from home? Also, not having to drive to school saves petrol money, and have you seen the price of petrol these days?
Anyway, if all the kids are going to be dead soon, of heart inflammations caused by the ‘vaccines’, what’s the point of educating them?
That an ‘educational’ establishment cannot understand that children are only very rarely affected (actually become ill) and that the teaching profession is way down in the noise of those affected by covid, is incredible. These actions are not for ‘safety’ or ‘health’ reasons.
How will teachers get to the shops for their present shopping otherwise?
Stop their pay
Outsource the remote teaching to Indian teachers in Hyderabad.
Surely only a racist would object.
This is not enough: People who are convinced that encountering unmasked pupils is too dangerous for them can’t be teachers as that’s an inherent part of the job and not something optional which might or might not be done, depending on how a so-called teacher feels today. Teachers are supposed to teach. Otherwise, they’d be youtubers.
That should have been done after the first couple of months. However, the teaching unions were cheaply bought and the result has been unrelenting pressure on our children in order to make them suitable slaves in adult life.
In case it’s escaped your notice… this RESET has been juggernaut like rolling along [unopposed on mass] for over 20 months now…
https://twitter.com/wakeupfromcovid/status/1369477708632236032?s=20
Destroying our kids futures, tragically is just all part of the ongoing grind…
Parent power has to be shaped, invested in and smartly coordinated, as these folk in California have done. Get creative…
P U S H B A C K
Well done in California.
Are the Headteachers going to pay for private childcare for parents who can’t get time off work at short notice?
Why are we still counting CASES?
Mostly because that’s all they can present by way of ‘alarming’ statistics, sadly endorsed by some articles posted here at DS.
Serious illness and mortality are all that matters.
Because mass-testing is still being done. These word-wars have presumably been ongoing ever since the great pandemic panto started, hence, it’s safe to say that they’re every bit as effective as mask mandates. It doesn’t matter what a positive test result is being called because positive tests results, unless used as diagnostic tools for an actual illness, don’t matter.
Because the numbers are bigger and therefore more impressive and most with short memories or problems with comprehension will merely remember that the paper/tv news said ‘big numbers’ so we’re not out of the woods yet.
To keep people in fear. And it’s working. Even this evening on the TV ‘News’ here in Finland the Government is recommending that people still wear face masks – I’ve just been to our local food shop and it’s 100% face masks.
The people running this scam must be laughing every day at how stupid the public really is. And there you have it – those running this show are getting away with it day after day after day. In some respects, you have to hand it to them, they have been very successful for almost 21 months. To add insult to injury they’ve ruined another Christmas. The Bishop of Durham has helped here with his very Christian attitude of ‘piss off if you’re not fully vaxxed’.
“We had to destroy the school in order to save it.”
And that Vietnam adage was apocryphal. This is for real.
Teachers are clearly not fit for purpose. The government should (but won’t) say that any that decline to teach face to face (and with no masks, etc.) are in breach of contract and will be fired. Would be an upheaval but no worse than what is happening at the moment.
I don’t know. It has been the Government spreading this scare about ‘Covid’ – why shouldn’t the teachers play them at their own game? In fact, the whole country should stay at home, nobody should be providing Parliament with food or drink, the bars of the Houses of Commons/Lords should be closed … because ‘Covid’.
But.. if schools are closed, how are the school nurses to carry on with their jabbing?
It’s funny how there is no pandemic when it’s time to go to the supermarket or buy a new smartphone or go to the pub/restaurant.
Teachers, like doctors, don’t want to work for the money us tax payers are lavishing them with.
But you can guarantee these lazy b`stards will be swinging their gates open when the nhs mobile “jabatoir” turns up !
I’m saddened to see campaign groups using the false covid narrative.
The schools are being closed due to ideology. At this point, there can be no doubt that the schools are working against the childrens’ best interests.
This has got nothing to do with a virus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1GF0H9V_1g
Miracle in Japan
Ivermectin
What’s wrong with the hardworking staff taking a few days off for pre-Crimbo shopping after all they have endured over these past 20 months?
Crimbo? Let us not forget Christ, on whom, even for those who are only culturally or derivationally affected, our more civilized habits are founded. When and if we become really post-Christian all the civilizational fruits that have attracted many, including non-Christians to our shores, will, ironically wither and die. Britain pre-Christianity was not an attractive place, even if my ancestors way back were most likely part of it! It is in danger of further reverting.
Actually, we became generally more civilized once god-bothering was put back in its box. Unless you had a weird cultish and sadistic attraction to auto-da-fé’s etc.
You haven’t studied much history or literature I assume.
Yes, once people stop believing in god, they believe ANYTHING, mostly marxism (political NPD) and boom 100 million killed.
But wasn’t Crimbo the 13th (and long lost) disciple?
I use Crimbo in a self mocking way as I believe it is used primarily in some working class households where they think that tacky consumerism really is what Christmas is all about. The whole tone of the post might have alerted you to that.
It’s likely that younger members of The Quality adopt it to show each other how up for the plebs they are.
Not my downtick btw, I don’t go in for them and what others choose to believe is none of my business unless it directly impacts on me personally. It seems that some people become outraged when others identify themselves as Chistians or devotees of Prince Philip’s Cargo Cult.
To be fair, they are teaching on line. And some will be against it. It’s the head Xmas shopping here.
All in preparation for Zuckerberg’s Metaverse.
It is desperately unfair to tar all teachers with the same brush. My OH works in a school, and they generally found it much harder during lockdown than during normal times. The staff were uniformly delighted to get rid of bubbles and all that nonsense too.
“It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.”
Molly Kingsley always shows such admirable restraint in her public utterances, yet privately she must rage at the stupidity, as so many parents must be.
AUSTRALIA: ORIGINAL SOVEREIGN TRIBAL FEDERATION ~ INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR ASSISTANCE
No words!
“Lord, you made blind eyes see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind.”
Brother Andrew’s prayer when smuggling bibles into Communist countries. This must become our plea to the Almighty too, for the evildoers are unaware of the power of the Almighty, and no weapon they attempt to form against Him can prosper.
Amen, brother!
Providence is absolute. We will win.
That video should be distributed as widely as possible. Only a matter of hours before the Welsh and Scottish rise up against their own dictators and regain their freedom!
You are having a laugh.
The question on everyone’s lips, apparently cannot be asked on air….
https://twitter.com/Justin187421/status/1463482192630329344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1463482192630329344%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2021%2F11%2Fsheffield-united-star-john-fleck-collapses-pitch-tuesday-match-rushed-hospital-tv-live-feed-cut-announcer-asks-covid-jab%2F
Latest VAERS data
If he hadn’t had it, they could just say “No”.
That they didn’t, speaks volumes.
Oh, well! They can always supply the children with suitable yellow cloth, thread, elastic and star templates to take home, to make “Unclean” badges and brassards. Should improve their sewing and self-sufficiency skills no end, and the schools can probably sell them at the online/remote Christmas fete.
Mr Perry please refrain from using THEIR terms. These are voluntary school shut down’s and Bunter should be acting to nip it in the bud.
You can see their thinking, though. “Circuit-breaker lockdowns” have been so successful whenever they’ve been used, that’s why we…er, still have positive tests today.
Keep accurate – it’s our weapon against misleading media:
“English Schools Stop In-Person Teaching …”
Not difficult to work out the slip-up in that headline.
Surely you don’t think that ‘Online Learning’ is utterly crap?!
I think you may have missed the point.
Dear Scumbags, THIS is what you are being distracted from today.
They sound like reasonable changes to deter fake protesting terrorists.
Why isn’t the Education Secretary telling them that they are not allowed to decide to close schools during what is supposed to be term time? It’s pathetic (but not, of course, surprising).
Probably too busy checking YouGov Plc share price.
Notice the media never report Sadlidieds anymore, only scornful stories against anyone who died with covid (positive test) who were not jabbed.
It’s incredibly jarring but the Infected (covidians) don’t see the propaganda. It’s astonishing the depths these gutter trash rags have stooped to. There was a time the public got angry at fake news, i.e., Piers Morgan’s Mirror falsifying claims against the British army.
These days, the idiots champion and applaud such manipulation. The papers are guilty of inciting hatred against a group in society, they break the law every single time they produce this filth.
Different subject but posting it here:
https://twitter.com/MaajidNawaz/status/1463311634072576010
Allegations for forced vaccinations of Aboriginal children in Australia.
These teachers are essentially saying they would prefer to be teaching pupils remotely or, perhaps, not at all, but still be paid the same.
What they haven’t quite thought through is that if they can teach pupils remotely, so can another teacher anywhere else in the world, and many of them are willing to do so for far less money.
They will wake up one day and find they are out of a well-paid job and it will be their own fault.
They might say that “you can’t possibly deliver the same quality of teaching remotely as I can face to face”
To which the answer is: “well get your arse back into the classroom then”.
Yes. It will suddenly occur to Miss Teacher that her cosy online teaching gigs have been outsourced overnight from Manchester to Madras. Slack-jawed with incomprehension and of course very emotional, she will then look in the general direction of her Trade Union for help. And some of us will then ask where they- both the Trade Unions and those who thought they’d always be spared, and found it expedient to look the other way- were, and what they were doing, when the combined Police, Military and so-called Security forces of the UK (and very likely the United States) performatively and sadistically crushed the mineworkers, razed their workplaces to ground level and built shopping centres over them to make sure they could never be reopened, as a warning to the rest of us. Unfortunately, these hard lessons seem to have to be re-learned every two or three centuries.
The Australian Army (ADF – where did they get that name from I wonder) is now carting healthy people off to concentration camps by force. Australia has a Union Jack on its flag. You awake people better get out there waking sleeping people up, while you still have the freedom to do that.
Wake up people, you have a treasonous government committing war crimes against its own people.
Australian Army Now Moving Australians into Concentration Camps
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2021/11/24/australian-army-now-moving-australians-into-concentration-camps/
“The BLM crowd are awful quiet…
What is happening in the NorthernTerritory!? Lockdowns WITHOUT the 5 reasons to leave home, $5,000 fines for breaches, ADF removing close contacts from their community to quarantine camps for an undisclosed amount of time…where are all the people who mocked freedom protestors, saying ‘you didn’t protest for black rights’?
“I’m seeing people on Twitter who claim to be Aussies saying shit like: It’s fine, they’re in super remote areas and it would be devastating if it hit their communities, and besides, the accommodations are much nicer than they have at home, they’re Aboriginal, so it’s okay, no one minds, etc etc.
Distill it down: They are dirty, ignorant, primitive brown people, disease vectors who shouldn’t be allowed to make their own decisions, so white people will protect them from themselves.
I too remember a time in America when we treated the native population as dirty brown people, disease vectors, and too ignorant to take care of themselves. We too rounded them up and put them in ‘camps’… we just called them reservations.”
“First they came for the unvaxxed Aborigines…”
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticismAU/comments/r113ru/the_blm_crowd_are_awful_quiet/
There was no such thing as a ‘circuit-breaker lockdown’ last year, there is no such thing as a ‘circuit breaker lockdown’ now.
This is fake science that surpasses the Piltdown Man hoax.
Pretty sure this is illegal. The school has a duty under the Education Act to educate. Unless it’s been instructed to close by the Public Health Department using powers under the public health act, then parents should still be taking the children to school.
Btw, I live in Hereford. Which one; there’s two St Mary’s Primaries; Credenhill or Fownhope?
Dear Mr. Taxpayer,
“Illegal” is what I and my former schoolfriends say it is.
I am,
Your Obedient Servant,
[Scrawl some unreadable hieroglyphs here, please, Bernard- thanks awfully; HA].
Hello – I live not too far from Hereford.
And my daughter goes to college there, so I visit Hereford quite regularly
Credenhill
https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/schools-education/school-closures
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-59400447
BBC News website
Covid in Wales: 2,000 patients die after catching virus in hospital – BBC News
‘More than 2,000 people in Wales, who probably caught Covid in hospital, went on to die within 28 days, data shows.
There have been at least 8,243 cases of patients probably or definitely catching Covid in Welsh hospitals since the start of the pandemic.
About 27% of those died within 28 days, though not necessarily of Covid, having been admitted for other reasons’.
They seem to want their cake and eat it
‘though not necessarily of Covid’
It’s not really a Covid death then if we our darling NHS causes it
The ‘more than 2,000’ is actually 2,225 (27%)
The 2,225 is 35% of all the recorded Covid deaths in Wales (6,361)
As the infection rates in pubs is 1% with an IFR of .3% wouldn’t it have been better to close the hospitals and keep the pubs open
Seen on another forum …
“Countries should consider mandatory Covid vaccination, says WHO Europe
Countries should consider implementing mandatory Covid vaccination, the director of World Health Organization (WHO) Europe said today.
Robb Butler said that although “mandatory vaccine can, but does not always, increase uptake”, he suggested countries should start thinking about the issue.
It comes after Germany’s tourism commissioner, Thomas Bareiss, said he expected vaccination to become mandatory in the country. Austria plans to make it compulsory from February.”
From the Guardian, I think … where else.
Fascists.
The UN has got to go.
And the WHO, WEF, UNESCO, WWFN, in fact ALL the totalitarian NGO’s.
but If you decide to take your child on holiday during term time you get a warning letter or a fine! I’d be using this against the school if they ever tried complaining about attendance.
SARS-CoV2 and the ‘common cold’ are going to be around forever, so might as well close all schools down tomorrow, and forever. Will make good accommodation for the 400-1,000 folk arriving from France every day.
hahahahahahaha. Locking down and creating emotional problems, just in case Government lockdown and cause emotional problems. You couldn’t make it up. I think we need to look at the intelligence levels of our educators.
I can’t have just read that can I?
I must book an eye test to check my reading specs are OK…
So they’ve disrupted in-person lessons “because of concerns that in-person lessons would be disrupted”! Right!
Despite every ounce of data from studies showing lockdowns simply do not work. I would get my kid out of that school ASAP. If the people who run those schools are this stupid what other kind of mistakes are they making with your child’s education?