Gyms Are Essential Services
A group of 100 gym owners from across Wales have got together to tell the Welsh Government that it is wrong and harmful to shut gyms during the so-called “fire break” lockdown. They told Lockdown Sceptics:
As of 18.00 Friday we enter a 17 day “fire break” period where all but non-essential businesses will close across the entire country.
As a collective, we strongly believe that gyms are an essential service, and scientific evidence shows that active participation in exercise through establishments such as gyms relieves the strain on the NHS through the promotion of physical and mental wellbeing. In forcing the closure of gyms, the Welsh Government will be harming a large proportion of the Welsh population and we cannot stand by and allow that to happen.
Just as the Liverpudlian gym community fought (and won) against gym closures in its city, we are now going to do the same for our country. However, we want to take it a step further in getting gyms officially recognised as an essential service by the Government, as they have in other countries across Europe.
– According to ukactive, there were 22 million gym visits in England between July 25th and September 13th and they resulted in just 78 confirmed Covid cases
– The number of cases per 100,000 gym visits in this period was 0.34It is widely accepted that suicide rates amongst gym-aged males increased during the first lockdown and subsequently. Although we are awaiting official Government data on this, some reports suggest a 40% increase, which if true is a national tragedy. Gyms are not only important for the physical wellbeing of their members but also their mental wellbeing which is just as important given the well-publicised (and significant) lack of funding in the NHS for mental health issues.
Finally, on top of the multiple billions in savings the fitness industry provides the NHS, gyms provide employment to tens of thousands of people.
The first lockdown put a great strain on gyms. When we were allowed to reopen, we each had to spend thousands on measures to make gyms “Covid safe”. The low transmission rates reported from gyms mentioned above are testament to the incredible job that gym owners have done.
It is no exaggeration to say that this further “fire-break” will put the Welsh gym industry in the most perilous position it has ever been in, threatening the employment of thousands of staff and self-employed personal trainers.
We are an industry that relies on our customers becoming members, and member confidence is at an all-time low as they are reluctant to join a gym when it may be forced to close at any point. We need certainty for ourselves and for our members, and being classed as an essential service will go a long way towards that.
Snap surveys across Welsh gyms have shown that gym members also fully support our request to remain open as an essential service and have given us their full backing.
We have a Welsh Assembly Member, Neil McEvoy, who is willing to fight alongside us and as a collective we directly represent tens of thousands of members.
Please consider supporting their campaign through their funding page.
Churches Are Essential Too
Church leaders have written to the Welsh Assembly seeking urgent review of the ‘firebreak’ lockdown measures introduced last night that will ban churches in Wales from opening for three Sundays. Christian Concern has the details.
The pre-action letter argues that blanket restrictions imposed on Welsh churches which began on Friday October 23rd at 6pm will be both unlawful and unnecessary.
Furthermore, the letter states that: “The forced closure of churches by the state is an extreme interference with Article 9 rights. Such a far-reaching and large-scale intervention may only be justified by the most compelling scientific evidence of a resulting benefit to public health.”
The church leaders, who work in some of the most deprived areas of Wales and are from a range of denominations, acknowledge the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic, but argue that the imposition of appropriate anti-pandemic measures should be a matter for church rather than secular authorities.
The group state that they are genuinely open to a constructive dialogue with the Welsh Assembly, but warn that if matters are not addressed urgently they will seek a judicial review of the ban.
Leaders of English churches have also signed the letter, concerned that the forced closure of churches in Wales would set a precedent that England would follow.
On October 19th, Wales’s First Minister, Mark Drakeford, announced, without any parliamentary debate or scrutiny, that Wales would enter a two-week ‘firebreak’ Covid lockdown.
He said the measures were needed to relieve pressure on the health service and slow the spread of the virus in the country.
As part of the measures, he announced church doors will close for public worship other than for funerals or wedding ceremonies for three Sundays, although wedding receptions will not be allowed.
The measures follow a similar blanket ban on church services from the UK Government during the first wave of the pandemic, which saw a series of claims brought to the High Court against the Government.
UK churches faced tough restrictions, which even involved closing for private prayer.
Courts repeatedly warned that the limitations imposed by the secular Government upon the ancient liberties of the Church were potentially unlawful.
In response, the Secretary of State amended the Regulations in July to lift the legally enforceable ‘lockdown’ on the places of worship, which rendered the claims obsolete.
Mr Justice Swift observed at the time that the claims against the Government decision to close churches “raises significant issues”.
In May, a French court ruled that the French Government’s closure of churches was unlawful and a “seriously and manifestly illegal infringement” of religious rights, and ordered the ban to be lifted.
Read more here.
Stop Press: The Critic has a piece by Revd Matthew Roberts on “Why we’re fighting the Welsh lockdown“.
The Sanity of Crowds
Christian minister and Lockdown Sceptics reader Jamie Franklin (who runs the Irreverend podcast) has penned a moving reflection on the many losses of lockdown and the miserable new normal.
I remember as a boy going to watch Spurs at the old White Hart Lane. The feeling of walking up the concrete steps and into the open, the atmosphere tangible, tens of thousands with me, anticipating, hoping, smiling, united. I remember the strange smell of cigarette smoke, the unknown, elaborate obscenities, the sudden silence of the crowd as a chance opened up, the sound of myriad upon myriad plastic seats flapping shut as the faithful arose, eyes focused, breath stopped… the eruption, the euphoria when the ball hit the back of the net. I jumped for joy.
I remember fireworks upon the River Thames at the Millennium. I remember travelling back to my grandparents’ house on the tube and strangers playing charades together.
I remember going to watch musicals and pantomimes with my family, lots of Andrew Lloyd Webber: Cats, Joseph, Whistle Down the Wind to name some.
I remember school assemblies and chapel, singing the hymns in a funny way, making up different words, laughing with my friends when the chaplain spoke of “coveting thy neighbour’s ass”.
I remember Christmas at my grandparents’ house, not being able to sleep Christmas Eve, waiting to go home for lunch and presents as I sat through church on the special morning.
I remember going to Greece with a close friend. Teenagers, we went with his mum who couldn’t control us. We stalked around the island with another couple of lads we met there. On the last night I accidentally got paralytic on Ouzo.
I remember going to Earl’s Court to see Metallica and Iron Maiden. Amazing.
I remember going to university for the first time, the uncertainty and enjoyment of meeting so many new people, the struggle to understand myself in this new environment.
I remember going to church by my own choice as an adult. I remember the feeling of joy as I sang God’s praises with a few hundred other people and really meant it…
I’m told that this is all over now. I’m told that none of it is safe. I’m told that the kindest thing to do is for us all to stay in our houses forever. In order for my children to be safe, they must never hug their grandparents. Old folks in hospital mustn’t see their kids before they die. I’m told by Tobias Ellwood MP that I will need to be vaccinated before I can return to normal life, and, even then, that I must carry a passport in order to go anywhere. I’m told by the Prime Minister that I will need to test myself for a virus every morning before I go outside. I’m told that I must allow the government to track my every movement and interaction.
Let’s hope they don’t make this stunted existence last too long. Worth reading in full.
New Study Claims Lockdowns Work
The Lancet has published a new study by Dr You Li and colleagues purporting to show that various non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) have a significant impact on reducing infections. From the conclusion:
To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to assess the temporal association between changing the status of a range of NPIs and the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, as measured by R, for all countries for which data were available. On the basis of the empirical data from 131 countries, we found that individual NPIs, including school closure, workplace closure, public events bans, requirements to stay at home, and internal movement limits, were associated with reductions in R of 3–24% on day 28 after their introduction, compared with the day before their introduction. Reopening schools, lifting bans on public events, lifting bans on public gatherings of more than 10 people, lifting requirements to stay at home, and lifting internal movement limits were associated with increases in R of 11–25% on day 28 after the relaxation. The effects of introducing and lifting NPIs were not immediate; it took around one week following the introduction of an NPI to observe 60% of the maximum reduction in R and even longer (almost three weeks) following the relaxation of an NPI to observe 60% of the maximum increase in R.
Our analysis suggests that, in the context of a resurgence of SARS-CoV-2, a control strategy of banning public events and public gatherings of more than 10 people would be associated with a reduction in R of 6% on day seven, 13% on day 14, and 29% on day 28; if this strategy also included closing workplaces, the overall reduction in R would be 16% on day seven, 22% on day 14, and 38% on day 28. These findings provide additional evidence that can inform policy makers’ decisions on the timing of introducing and lifting different NPIs.
The study has numerous problems, many of which the authors themselves list in the discussion. They claim, for instance, that closing schools and banning public events have the largest impact on infection rates. But they acknowledge that these were usually the first interventions brought in and that the large impact may just reflect that earliness. In terms of increases in infection after lifting restrictions, they acknowledge that they don’t allow for increases in testing, yet the early summer (when most of the restrictions were being lifted) was when testing was being ramped up worldwide, so much of the increase must be attributed to that. They admit they don’t take the seasonality of the virus into account, and appear to defend this by citing a model that claims to show that temperature and humidity don’t make any difference to transmission, despite it now being clear that the virus faded in many places partly due to the onset of summer and is seeing a seasonal resurgence in the autumn. They also claim schools are major drivers of infection, citing one study about the high viral load in five year-olds, but ignoring all the studies that show closing schools made little or no difference.
They acknowledge that there were varying delays in the interventions having an effect, with a median of eight days to reach 60% of the effect, which seems a very long delay for an impact that should really be immediate (their methodology takes into account the lag between infection and reporting tests results). They argue this is likely to be a result of behavioural inertia, which they say is backed up by Google mobility data, but don’t go into detail. It’s hard to see how behavioural inertia could explain a delay in the impact of the closure of schools, which is by nature an immediate and universal behavioural change. Likewise, if public events are banned then they are banned. Why then the delay and variation?
Crucially, there is no sign they have considered how much of the decline in R would have happened anyway, due to natural epidemic decline (herd immunity). As often happens with these studies, one gets a sense that they are assuming their conclusion (that NPIs work) and thus don’t give proper consideration to the possibility that the reduction in R is unrelated to the interventions.
In some ways, though, this study is welcome to sceptics because it concedes that most interventions have no clear impact, and even for those that do the effect is very limited. If lockdowns don’t really prevent transmission, and vaccines likewise, then what argument is left against the strategy of protecting vulnerable people as best we can while otherwise getting back to normal? None that I can see.
Is Public Opinion Turning?
There’s an encouraging piece in the Daily Mail today suggesting public opinion is beginning to shift.
Dramatic evidence of a growing revolt against the coronavirus lockdowns emerged last night.
The public think the rules won’t work, they will break the law if necessary to see their loved ones and believe it is time to “get Britain back to normal”.
These are among the key findings from focus groups that suggest traditional opinion polls have failed to spot a decisive change in attitudes toward the pandemic.
One leading pollster believes Britain could be witnessing a repeat of what happened in the 2015 election and the EU referendum.
Opinion polls forecast Labour’s Ed Miliband would be prime minister and that Brexit would be rejected: focus groups indicated the opposite and were proved right each time.
Since the start of the pandemic most polls have suggested voters support lockdowns and, if anything, want the Government to impose even more stringent curbs.
Some have argued this is because furloughed workers have been able to stay at home on 80 per cent of their normal wages thanks to taxpayer funds.
Many Tory MPs opposed to Boris Johnson’s three-tier lockdown system claim their stance is backed by many of their constituents.
The Daily Mail listened in to one of the focus groups, typical of several that have been conducted recently, and it echoed the MPs’ views.
Carried out last Friday, and comprising a cross-section of society, both Tory and Labour, in London, Birmingham and Liverpool, it appears to show voters have lost faith in lockdowns and are no longer prepared to obey all the rules.
They also think the second wave of the virus will be less dangerous, are increasingly worried about the damage to jobs and the economy.
Meanwhile many will refuse a coronavirus vaccine for fear of side effects and there is continuing fury over rule breakers such as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff Dominic Cummings.
The pollster who conducted these focus groups, James Johnson, has written up his findings for the paper.
Stop Press: Only one in 10 told to self-isolate remain at home for two weeks, according to SAGE document.
Lockdown Logic
We’re publishing today a piece by a philosopher who analyses the so-called logic of the lockdown zealots and finds it wanting. Here’s an excerpt.
What, then, is the status of SAGE’s (or the BBC’s, or the general public’s) conviction that a second COVID-19 wave is imminent or already under way? The belief that the NHS is under threat; the conviction that in the absence of further restrictions on personal liberties and economic activity, we risk hundreds of thousands of excess deaths? Clearly, it’s a blik: these are expressions of an unshakeable faith in the most pessimistic outcomes – one that is retained and allowed to govern argument, attitudes in social life, and decision-making, regardless of (almost) no matter what evidence to the contrary. The virus is out to get us; and any evidence that suggests otherwise just shows how cunning it is, and how cautious we need to be to protect ourselves against its malevolence. These articles of faith are ‘meaningful’ to those committed to them, in that they affect the way they live their lives; and they are retained regardless of all rational considerations that count against them.
Some may be inclined to the view that it is no real accident that belief in the ‘second wave’ (or, perhaps, second coming)’should resemble religious belief. They may suggest that it accords frighteningly well with certain other aspects of the phenomenon as we experience it: the cult of supposed experts – the scientifically-informed ‘priesthood’ controlling and interpreting the models, whose identities were kept secret for so long (as a guard, presumably, against some form of jealous magic that might undermine, them were their identities publicised). For me, that’s going a bit too far: my view is simply that these people can’t think straight.
Worth reading in full.
Maureen From Barnsley on Good Morning Britain
An 83 year-old woman from Barnsley has done more to rally support for the sceptics’ cause than six months of unrelenting toil on Lockdown Sceptics. But we love her. Here she is socking it to Dr Sarah Jarvis on Good Morning Britain.
Postcard From Albania
Lifestyle writer and Lockdown Sceptics reader Robert Jackman has sent us a postcard from Albania. Sounds like they’ve got the right idea.
There’s a depressing rule of thumb at the moment in Europe that it’s typically the countries on the other side of the Berlin Wall that are the freer ones these days. And a visit to Albania – once the last Communist dictatorship in Europe – proves no different.
Of course, Albania does have some coronavirus restrictions. Masks are compulsory in most indoor spaces (restaurants and bars excluded), but the take-up is far patchier than in Britain. The collective mentality seems to be that, whatever the law might say, masks remain a matter of personal choice.
In a short weekend break, I spot the occasional social distancing sign in a window but nothing more than that. There are no restrictions on how many people can enter a shop or sit on a bus. No martials policing the streets. No irritating one-way systems or taped-over seating.
I suspect there are several factors that contribute to the lack of suffocating restrictions we’ve become used to. As with most poorer countries in Europe, customer-facing businesses in Albania tend to be small and independent, often run directly by owners.
From serving customers to sweeping the floors at closing time, the average Alabanian coffee shop owner has enough to worry about without fussing about whether customers are wearing masks. They’re also much less likely to want to chase away custom. Nor do they receive orders from a nervous head office intent on minimising potential liability.
You get the sense that – even putting the virus aside – rules and regulations carry less weight here than they do in the more litigious and bureaucratic West. Cigarettes, for example, are available virtually everywhere and restaurants seem to have the automatic right to let customers smoke – even in a shopping mall. That lack of oversight might not always be a good thing, but I’d happily take it over armed-police shutting down gyms.
When chatting to a bar owner later, I find out there are some other rules in place. It’s just as well he mentions them, as I’d have never noticed otherwise. One of the new rules, he says, is that pubs and bars are banned from playing music after 8pm. Does he follow the rule I ask? Of course not, he laughs. In three months, he’s received the occasional ticking off from passing police officers, but even then probably only to cover their own backs. The idea that he could be fined or shut down seems alien to him.
Come midnight, the music is louder than when I arrived. At one point, I even hear the sweary refrains of Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing in the Name Of (‘F**k you I won’t do what you tell me!‘)”. I suspect it isn’t a deliberate act of defiance, but it’s music to the ears of a slightly tipsy lockdown sceptic.
So how is it all working out for Albania? Their daily coronavirus deaths are still in the single figures but have been steadily ticking away for months now. In typically Balkan style, they have effectively arrived at the Swedish model (well, plus masks) by default rather than design. If this is what ‘letting the virus rip’ looks like, we probably shouldn’t be too worried.
There is one final factor that I imagine contributes to the country’s aloofness in the face of the virus. As anyone who’s been to the Balkans knows, it’s common to see death notices printed on A4 paper and posted on special notice boards around town. While the aim is to let people know about upcoming funerals, seeing those black and white photos also reminds you that death is always out there. Perhaps it helps maintain perspective – and keep away the paralysing fear that has gripped so much of western Europe?
After all, I can’t help notice that, even in the grip of a pandemic, the wall of remembrance is hardly overcrowded. If Neil Ferguson was right, there would be paper blowing everywhere.
Round-Up
- “Are we really seeing a second wave?” – Dr Waqar Rashid in the Spectator points out there’s nothing unusual so far in terms of hospital admissions and deaths about the so-called second wave
- “Nicola Sturgeon warns Scotland her new FIVE Tier lockdown will see some pubs and businesses close permanently and could cost people their jobs – and warns her Government could run out of money unless Boris and Rishi Sunak hand over more Westminster cash” – Report in the Mail on Nic Sturge-On’s latest
viruseconomy destroying wheeze - “More proof Britain’s COVID-19 outbreak is slowing down? SAGE believes R rate has dropped slightly and ONS estimates 35,200 people in England got infected every day last week – meaning speed of growth has shrunk again” – The Mail mines the latest ONS survey data and finds further evidence of infection slowdown
- “Demonising of virus doctors who dare to tell the truth” – Kathy Gyngell in Conservative Woman on the plight of America’s Frontline Doctors and the severe censorship they have experienced
- “The slow media catch-up” – Michael Curzon in Bournbrook on how late much of the media are to the sceptic party
- “How the MEAN psychologists induced us to comply with coronavirus restrictions” – Psychologist Dr Gary Sidley on the insidious role played by Government psychologists in the Behavioural Information Team in deploying psychological techniques to induce compliance
- “Open Letter To the Irish Government” – A group of doctors in Ireland appeal to the Taoiseach to wake up to the folly of lockdowns with a good summary of the sceptical scientific case
- “Flu deaths fall as ONS says many who were vulnerable may have died in first Covid wave” – The Telegraph‘s Sarah Knapton on why flu deaths may be down, underlining once again the already short life expectancy of many Covid victims
- “Government fears working from home is hitting UK economy hard” – Turns out it’s not all so wonderful after all, from the Telegraph
- “Alberta to pilot COVID-19 testing at border that could shorten quarantine time” – Report from CBC on the introduction of airport testing in Canada
- “Mark Drakeford has declared war on the economy” – Matthew Lynn in the Spectator on the naked anti-free market agenda of the Welsh lockdown
- “If you’re pinning your hopes on a Covid vaccine, here’s a dose of realism” – David Salisbury in the Guardian delivers the truth that even a vaccine won’t allow a return to normal. But it’s the Guardian, so the conclusion is not ‘let’s learn from Sweden’ but ‘let’s lock down forever’
- “Reasons to believe COVID-19 pandemic will ease next spring, says health expert” – The Irish Times reports on the advice of Professor Devi Sridhar,
public healthsocial scientist at Edinburgh University, to a summer school that “if we can get to March” governments will have a chance of using a vaccine and rapid testing to “form a game plan with this virus” - “Why is coronavirus so deadly?” – Ridiculous piece of fear porn from James Gallagher on the BBC website, including the claim (from a seemingly uninformed immunologist) that “this is a new one, so we don’t think there’s much prior immunity there”. Eh?
- “Half a million Americans could die of Covid by end of February, study forecasts” – More doom-modelling from the University of Washington in the Guardian. That would make the “second wave” more than twice as big as the first, despite now widespread immunity. Maybe someone should tell New York, which is currently seeing no rise at all
- “Why I’m not surprised Gap is closing its UK stores” – The Telegraph‘s Fashion Editor says the store’s problems predate the pandemic. But even so… Gap?!?
- “A Nothingburger that Changed the World” – Good piece by Paul Collits for the Freedoms Project
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Wales themed today: “Fear Of A Welsh Planet” by Goldie Lookin Chain and “This Sullen Welsh Heart” by Manic Street Preachers.
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.
“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 an excellent piece about the ineffectiveness of masks by a Roger W. Koops, who has a doctorate in organic chemistry.
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 Googled it on Tuesday, the top hits were three smear pieces from the Guardian, including: “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 tops the search results – and Toby’s Spectator piece about the attempt to suppress it is among the top hits – 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 over 600,000 signatures.
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.
There’s the GoodLawProject’s Judicial Review of the Government’s award of lucrative PPE contracts to various private companies. You can find out more about that here and contribute to the crowdfunder here.
The Night Time Industries Association has instructed lawyers to JR any further restrictions on restaurants, pubs and bars.
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.
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.)
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…
This video about the Asch Conformity Experiment shows how easily people can be induced to go along with a group rather than trusting the evidence they can see with their own eyes, especially when the group is unanimous. Sometimes it is because they become convinced the group must be right because it sees or knows something they don’t. Sometimes it is because they don’t want to stand out or rock the boat. But the more people stand up against the consensus, the more others are willing to look again and decide for themselves. Highly recommended (and only four minutes long).
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#13 Team James or Team Tobes?
Are these problems all caused by a concatenation of poor decisions made by overpromoted and easily led oafs or is it a long planned project to ultimately enslave and destroy humanity by a shadowy Luciferian predator class?
Obviously not a conspiracy theory. The first statement is ridiculously true, but they don’t see how stupid they look! Talk about Kings new clothes…
Very well said! Great stuff! Thank you.
The response to covid, across large swathes of the world, has a name:
Socialist Fascism
‘And what of the English Bentham who considered that all industry asked of government was to be left alone, and of the German Humbolt who expressed the opinion that the best government was a lazy one?’
I stand with Bentham and Humbolt
‘The Fascist State organizes the nation, but it leaves the individual adequate elbow room. It has curtailed useless or harmful liberties while preserving those which are essential. In such matters the individual cannot be the judge, but the State only.’
https://sjsu.edu/faculty/wooda/2B-HUM/Readings/The-Doctrine-of-Fascism.pdf
Our government, governments, and their minions stand with Mussolini
‘“Those people nowadays who say they would have stood up against the Nazis – I believe they are sincere in meaning that, but believe me, most of them wouldn’t have.”
“the whole country was as if under a kind of a spell,”
Brunhilde Pomsel
Where do the great British public stand?
Fascism wants man to be active and to engage in action with all his energies; it wants him to be manfully aware of the difficulties besetting him and ready to face them. It conceives of life as a struggle in which it behooves a man to win for himself a really worthy place, first of all by fitting himself (physically, morally, intellectually) to become the implement required for winning it. As for the individual, so for the nation, and so for mankind. Hence the high value of culture in all its forms (artistic, religious, scientific) and the outstanding importance of education.
If that was one of the core values of the mad pandemistas, I must somehow have completely misunderstood it. It seemed more as if they didn’t value education at all, considered art and religion expendable (and very much expendable) luxuries in face of The Existential Global Danger Of Respiratory Infections and wanted man to be passive, docile and accepting of whatever fate international public health authorities threw at him.
There is a difference between high minded, insincere, platitudes and reality.
‘Mussolini’s ideological penetration of education was especially visible in primary schools. There, politically reliable instructors were ensuring that children were raised in fascist values. This included teaching the spirit of sacrifice and heroism, strict obedience to authority as well as the protection of the Italian nation.
In Fascist Italy, organizations assisted this process of ideological instruction also at university. Here youth had to participate in activities focused on pre-military training for boys and different forms of civic service for girls.’
‘The Blackshirts favored way to make people obey was to tie someone to a tree, force 1-2 pints of castor oil down his throat, and then force him to eat a live frog/toad. Usually, this punishment was enough to ensure that people kept their thoughts to themselves…..The motto of the Blackshirts was “Me ne frego” (‘I don’t give a flying fuck’)
Life in Italy under the dictatorship
‘The last thing any Education Secretary wants to do is announce that schools will close and this is not a decision that the government ever wanted to take.
I would like to reassure everyone that our schools have not suddenly become unsafe, but limiting the number of people who attend them is essential when the COVID rates are climbing as they are now.
We must curb the escalating cases of COVID throughout the country and prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed.
That is why today I am setting out the contingency plans I had prepared but had hoped to never have to implement.
I would like to thank all our teachers, all our education staff and social workers for all they have been doing to keep children and young people safe and learning.’
Gavin Williamson
‘You hear them shouting “Heil, Spode!” and you imagine it is the Voice of the People. That is where you make your bloomer. What the Voice of the People is saying is: “Look at that frightful ass Spode swanking about in footer bags! Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?”
Bertie Wooster
There is a difference between high minded, insincere, platitudes and reality.
There’s a much more important difference between I consider this opinion really deplorable! and It’s fascism!, no matter how convenient one believes this toughtersatz-label to be. That’s particularly true for pandemic policies which were all essentially based on the notion that people are cattle whose individual properties don’t matter and who have to be herded by their expert minders in the proper way to maximize their useful output and minimise the harm they accidentally do to themselves.
Another aspect would be that fascism is ultimatively military, ie, geared towards war and based on the presumption that the highest purpose people can serve is that of a soldier. In contrast to this, Corona-ism was/ is built and an almost pathological fear of people coming together for any reason and is thus inherently pacifist. It’s not possible to field an army without strangers coming together and living under very much improvised circumstance for prologned periods of time and there’s no way to erect hand sanitizer stations on all entries to a battlefield and make people use them every time before and after they touched something somebody else also touched.
Lastly, saucy eyewitness (always) stories people put into place after handing half of Europe over to a murderous communist dictator who killed people by the million but of whose feats we never really hear anything aren’t terribly credible. Especially not, if they obviously mirror American interrogation practices of not that long ago, cf Trump’s Torture works statement. The fascists also claimed they were the good guys and that whomever they were targetting was handled in the most appropriate way to achieve a generally desirable outcome.
The reality is that ‘The Doctrine of Fascism’ written by Mussolini was implemented violently.
‘The keystone of the Fascist doctrine is its conception of the State, of its essence, its functions, and its aims. For Fascism the State is absolute, individuals and groups relative. Individuals and groups are admissible in so far as they come within the State.’
‘We will fight both technical and spiritual rear-guardism…’
The Doctrine of Fascism – Benito Mussolini
‘During the Fascist takeover, many Italians lived in a state of terror. Black-shirted squadrists beat, shot, ritually humiliated, and destroyed the property of peasants, workers, politicians, journalists, and labor organizers. Although Socialists and the working classes were the primary victims, the Fascists also targeted Catholics, liberals, Masons, state authorities, and even dissident Fascists. This unprecedented campaign of political violence, most intense during the years between 1920 and 1922, culminated with the March on Rome and the appointment of Benito Mussolini as prime minister.’
Ordinary Violence in Mussolini’s Italy, Michael R. Ebner
‘….Italian atrocities committed in their Balkan and colonial territories, the more than fifty concentration camps throughout Italy that held Jews and foreigners during World War Two, the forced labor of Italian Jews in the cities and countryside…’
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, A Lesser Evil? Italian Fascism in/and the Totalitarian Equation
‘If we delve further back, the roll call gets longer: the living and recently deceased Italian soldiers under Mussolini whose atrocities against Greeks, Serbs, Ethiopians and Jews have been, with U.S. approval, largely ignored for more than 60 years. One of the most notorious, Giovanni Ravalli, died only in 1998, fully exposed but completely unpunished for crimes ranging from having a Greek policeman’s teeth pulled out with pliers to ordering boiling oil poured over 70 other prisoners.’
John MacArthur, Sorry About That War Crime,
A report of the NDH (Croatia) Consulate in Rijeka sent to the NDH’s Foreign Affairs Ministry on 20 December 1941 wrote that 800 people, including 60 women and 40 children, passed through Rijeka from Dalmatia in chains in four transports from 15 November to 20 November 1941.
‘“It is distressing to see our people with folded, cuffed hands, tied together with chains, going into the unknown, labouring while carrying their luggage, their faces distorted with pain caused by their shackles.”
British Police did not put people in chains, it is true, but measures implemented by the British government in response to a common cold coronavirus violated the human rights of millions and killed tens, maybe hundreds, of thousands before their time.
‘Between 2 March and 12 June 2020, 18,562 residents of care homes in England died with COVID-19, including 18,168 people aged 65 and over, representing almost 40% of all deaths involving COVID-19 in England during this period’
‘The UK government, national agencies, and local-level bodies have taken decisions and adopted policies during the COVID-19 pandemic that have directly violated the human rights of older residents of care homes in England—notably their right to life, their right to health, and their right to non-discrimination…….
Via its Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the government in mid-March adopted a policy, executed by NHS England and NHS Improvement, that led to 25,000 patients, including those infected or possibly infected with COVID-19 who had not been tested, being discharged from hospital into care homes between 17 March and 15 April—exponentially increasing the risk of transmission to the very population most at risk of severe illness and death from the disease……..
Although care home deaths were not even being counted in daily official figures of COVID-19 deaths until 29 April, some 4,300 care home deaths were reported in a single fortnight during this period.’
As If Expendable 04 Oct 20
There is no mention of the environment. It is a life threatening situation and unless we can control the green zealots our lives will be destroyed.
Mr Tucker – that is an amazingly thoughtful and insightful piece – thank you.
I’m not sure it is an omission as such, but you don’t mention the role of the mainstream legacy media in enabling the disaster of the last three years, or the need for a proper fourth estate media, acting on behalf of the People in exposing the truth and holding power to account.
If the MSM continue to suppress the truth and propagandise and thus enable the implementation of policies that are against the interests of the People, we are doomed.
It’s a dilemma, should we fight the globalists with our own globalist organisation? National level opposition such as the Dutch farmers & the Canadian Truckers achieved some cut-through but is it inevitable that opposition to globalism has to be, well, globalist?
Global, ideally yes, but not globalist. Namely, a global opposition (in the sense that it’s everwhere) to the notion that the world needs global decisionmaking to avoid catastrophe.
The current system has absolutely nothing in common with what Mussolini referred to as corporatism because he wasn’t thinking about multinational enterprises encorporated according to the laws of the state of Delarware. What this world urgently needs is either less clueless Americans talking ouf of their asses or less Americans in general, especially for the next so-called pandemic. Let germ hysteriacs and civil service would-be dictators create chaos, death and mayhem there, as they already managed in 1918 – 1920, while the rest of the world happily ignores them.
Where is the UK version of Jeffrey Tucker?
History will prove that Covid-19 was a flu varient (proven by the instant disappearance of seasonal flu) and the greatest ever hoax perpetrated on humanity. Governments and Health institutions will NEVER be trusted ever again.
While an elite class can steal money from the population at will – through inflation – there is no chance of reforming this system. As is usually the case, money is the key.
One of the best articles I’ve read about this whole shite show. I just love Jeffery A Tucker trouble is aren’t more like him. The British press have been abysmal as have the church, the police, the courts, doctors, the list goes on and on.
The problem missed here is the WHO which is trying to force the world to follow its health diktats and countries are lining up to agree to subverting their sovereignty to this body controlled by China and any billionaire who is mad for power (eg Bill Gates). There is no universal vote for this, but many countries are nodding this through, hoping we won’t notice.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFLPWWCAHfQ
Just watch some of this, it is long. But this EU sponsored conference, with MEPs present discloses it all. You will soon get the idea…
We have told God to butt out, and, as it has been said, He is gentlemanly enough to do so. But He has a competitor who is no gentleman.