NHS Refused to Treat Elderly Patients During Lockdown
A Sunday Times Insight investigation has revealed the extent to which the elderly were neglected by the NHS during the full lockdown.
As part of a three-month investigation into the Government’s handling of the crisis during the lockdown weeks, we have spoken to more than 50 witnesses, including doctors, paramedics, bereaved families, charities, care home workers, politicians and advisers to the government. Our inquiries have unearthed new documents and previously unpublished hospital data. Together, they show what happened while most of the country stayed at home.
There were 59,000 extra deaths in England and Wales compared with previous years during the first six months of the pandemic. This consisted of 26,000 excess fatalities in care homes and another 25,000 in people’s own homes.
Surprisingly, only 8,000 of those excess deaths were in hospital, even though 30,000 people died from the virus on the wards. This shows that many deaths that would normally have taken place in hospital had been displaced to people’s homes and the care homes.
This huge increase of deaths outside hospitals was a mixture of coronavirus cases – many of whom were never tested – and people who were not given treatment for other conditions that they would have had access to in normal times. Ambulance and admission teams were told to be more selective about who should be taken into hospital, with specific instructions to exclude many elderly people. GPs were asked to identify frail patients who were to be left at home even if they were seriously ill with the virus.
In some regions, care home residents dying of COVID-19 were denied access to hospitals even though their families believed their lives could have been saved.
The sheer scale of the resulting body count that piled up in the nation’s homes meant special body retrieval teams had to be formed by police and fire brigade to transfer corpses from houses to mortuaries. Some are said to have run out of body bags.
NHS data obtained by Insight shows that access to potentially life-saving intensive care was not made available to the vast majority of people who died with the virus. Only one in six COVID-19 patients who lost their lives in hospital during the first wave had been given intensive care. This suggests that of the 47,000 people who died of the virus inside and outside hospitals, just an estimated 5,000 – one in nine – received the highest critical care, despite the government claiming that intensive care capacity was never breached.
The Sunday Times points the finger at Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, as the architect of this policy.
The chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, commissioned an age-based frailty score system that was circulated for consultation in the health service as a potential “triage tool” at the beginning of the crisis. It was never formally published.
It gave instructions that in the event of the NHS being overwhelmed, patients over the age of 80 should be denied access to intensive care and in effect excluded many people over the age of 60 from life-saving treatment. Testimony by doctors has confirmed that the tool was used by medics to prevent elderly patients blocking up intensive care beds.
Indeed, new data from the NHS shows that the proportion of over-60s with the coronavirus who received intensive care halved between the middle of March and the end of April as the pressure weighed heavily on hospitals during the height of the pandemic. The proportion of the elderly being admitted then increased again when the pressure was lifted off the NHS as COVID-19 cases fell in the summer months.
Is this the Government’s version of “Focused Protection”? Instead of using our national health service to shield the elderly, it shielded the NHS from the elderly.
Worth reading in full.
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Professor Lockdown appeared on the Today Programme yesterday morning and was full of his usual good cheer. The MailOnline has more.
Professor Ferguson, whose modelling led to the original lockdown in March, said earlier today that schools may have to be closed to older pupils if restrictions on households mixing fail to stem the rise of infections, and that it will be a “political judgement” as to whether regulations are relaxed over the festive season.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme: “It risks some transmission and there will be consequences of that. Some people will die because of getting infected on that day.
“But if it is only one or two days the impact is likely to be limited. So that is really a political judgment about the cost versus the benefits.”
It follows the prospects for a family Christmas descending into further confusion yesterday, as Downing Street insisted that relatives should be able to gather – but a minister warned it will not be “normal”.
Professor Ferguson added: “That (banning households mixing) should have a significant effect but as yet we have been unable to see it definitively.
“If we go beyond that there is a limit to what we can do in terms of reducing contacts, short of starting to target, for instance, the older years in schools and sixth form colleges where we know older teenagers are able to transmit as adults.
“Of course nobody wants to start moving to virtual education and closing schools even partially. The challenge may be that we are not able to get on top of the transmission otherwise.”
So Christmas is cancelled and schools will have to close again if we want to “get on top” of transmission.
I guess no one has told Professor Ferguson that infections fell in almost half of England’s local authorities last week.
Meanwhile, Professor John Edmunds – the SAGE member who was passionately advocating for herd immunity back in March – has backed up Professor Lockdown.
The idea that “we can carry on as we are” and have a normal Christmas “is wishful thinking in the extreme”, a Government scientific adviser has said.
Professor John Edmunds, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), said “radical action” would be needed to stem the rise in coronavirus cases, particularly in regions with high incidence of the virus.
Prof Edmunds, who told MPs on Wednesday that tens of thousands of deaths could occur during this wave of the pandemic, said further measures are needed to bring cases down.
He said that a circuit-breaker is needed across the whole country or at least in areas where incidence is high.
“The only way that we can have a relatively safe and normal Christmas is if we take radical action now to reduce incidence – at the very least in high incidence areas – and keep the incidence low across the country by implementing a package of measures to reduce social contacts,” he said.
“The notion that we can carry on as we are and have a Christmas that we can celebrate normally with friends and family is wishful thinking in the extreme.”
Edmunds conforms to George Santayana’s definition of fanaticism – “redoubling your effort after you’ve forgotten your aim”.
Stop Press: Sweden’s state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell says it’s fine to make arrangements for Christmas celebrations with close family now that restrictions for the over-70s have been lifted. Answering a question on Swedish TV about recommendations for Christmas, he said: “A small family party with your children and grandchildren, especially if you can keep your distance from each other, won’t mean you’re taking much of a risk.”
Vaccine Guinea Pigs Revealed
According to the Mail on Sunday, NHS staff are due to start receiving a coronavirus vaccine within weeks.
An email sent by an NHS Trust chief to his staff, seen by the Mail on Sunday, reveals the Health Service is preparing for a national vaccination programme before Christmas.
It can also be disclosed that the Government has introduced new laws that would allow the UK to bypass the EU approval process if a safe and effective jab is ready before the end of the post-Brexit transition period on December 31st.
The move will boost optimism that a ‘game-changing’ vaccine will soon allow Boris Johnson to relax the social restrictions which have crippled the country since March.
In his memo to staff earlier this month, Glen Burley, chief executive of George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust in Warwickshire, wrote: “Our Trust, alongside NHS organisations nationally, has been told to be prepared to start a COVID-19 staff vaccine programme in early December.
“The latest intelligence states a coronavirus vaccine should be available this year with NHS staff prioritised prior to Christmas.”
So NHS staff will be given a vaccine that has bypassed the EU approval process and whose manufacturers will be exempt from any liability should there be any unforeseen side effects.
Let’s hope it’s not mandatory.
Riot Police Crush Anti-Lockdown Protest
The Territorial Support Group – the paramilitary wing of the Metropolitan Police – brutally dispersed a group of peaceful anti-lockdown protestors yesterday, much like they did in Trafalgar Square on September 26th. The MailOnline has more.
Armed police officers have dispersed large crowds of anti-lockdown protesters at Trafalgar Square following a march through central London on Saturday, which saw thousands gather against coronavirus restrictions.
Demonstrators called for an end to the ‘tyranny’ of pandemic restrictions and voiced their opposition to vaccines and paedophilia, playing Michael Jackson’s greatest hits via a PA system as they marched.
At least 10 people were led away in handcuffs by officers at Trafalgar Square, and Piers Corbyn, brother of former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, also attended the protest who once again joined demonstrators after appearing at court charged with flouting coronavirus rules.
Protesters refused to wear masks and wielded signs demanding an end to restrictions on personal freedom imposed as part of efforts to control COVID-19.
One banner being wielded by a protester on Oxford Street read: “Martial law coming, think it’s still about health?” while another depicted a mask with a cross through it alongside words which read, “love not fear” and “unite not divide”.
The anti-lockdown demonstrators also marched down Northumberland Avenue, while large crowds also gathered outside Buckingham Palace, prompting police to be deployed.
They should have worn BLM T-shirts.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: A reader has provided an eye-witness account of her encounter with TSG officers in Trafalgar Square yesterday.
At about 4.10 pm the Square was nearly empty of protestors, they having set off on another circuit of the streets about 15 minutes previously. The centre of the Square began to fill with uniformed people (all of them masked, not remotely social distancing) and I overheard a single voice set up a chant against the police – so I moved towards them but by the time I arrived the voice had already stopped.
Everything seemed very calm so I gently patted one of the flat capped men on the arm and said, “Hello.” He turned to me and I said, “I’m just saying a friendly hello.” Incomprehension on his face so I repeated myself. A couple of others were equally mystified by my words. The first drew over one of the others and we set up a conversation, but he spoke in very halting English, very heavily accented. I don’t remember what I said next but he didn’t understand me and in turn attracted the attention of a burly English policeman. He replied: “This isn’t the time for friendly hellos there’s an extremely dangerous global pandemic on and I can arrest you for not social distancing.” I replied: “That’s not true, there’s no dangerous pandemic.” He was thrusting his head towards me and repeating himself and I replied, “Please move further away from me. I don’t want your filthy air from your dirty disgusting mask all over me.” He said no he’s not moving away, and continued to threaten to arrest me for not social distancing and I continued to ask him to move further away until a calm bystander intervened.
I then surveyed the general scene, looking round at the uniformed people and realised that quite a few of the flat capped people were non-British. In Trafalgar Square. Against me. My head started to spin and I must have looked bad because I suddenly had three very concerned voices (proper British bobbies) all asking me if I was okay. I said I was having a panic attack, one of them asked if I’d like to be helped out of the square, so I thanked him and he gave me his arm and led me to safety in the most gentle and helpful way possible.
On the way, I tried to talk to him about the Common Law to no response – so then I said that if the British bobby and the British people find themselves on opposite sides then we are done for. At which point he looked round at me, eye to eye, and agreed.
Interesting about the TSG officers not being able to speak or understand English very well. Is the Met importing riot police from other countries? If anyone knows more about this, contact us here.
Two-Week ‘Circuit Breakers’ Don’t Work
Hugh Pennington, Emeritus Professor of Microbiology at Aberdeen University, says Scotland’s two-week ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown hasn’t worked, as is clear from Nicola Sturgeon’s plan to keep most of the ‘circuit breaker’ restrictions in place for the foreseeable future. The Telegraph has more.
Earlier this month Nicola Sturgeon promised her mini-circuit breaker would be a “short, sharp” shutdown of Scottish pubs and restaurants to bring coronavirus under control.
For only 16 days, the First Minister said, bars and restaurants would be restricted from serving alcohol inside and closed altogether across the country’s central belt, which includes Glasgow and Edinburgh and is home to 3.4 million people.
Little more than two weeks later, Ms Sturgeon announced a change of plan.
To the anger of the hospitality industry, she extended the restrictions for a further week. And on Thursday, she announced the measures would be replaced – rather than relaxed – with a new five-tier lockdown system under which thousands of pubs and restaurants face damaging restrictions for the foreseeable future.
The news was devastating for Scotland’s struggling pubs, already on their knees.
Emma McClarkin of the Scottish Beer & Pub Association, said: “We were told that these measures were to be ‘short’ and ‘sharp’ but now the Scottish Government have gone back on that, leaving operators feeling betrayed.
“Scotland’s pubs and bars have repeatedly been subject to some of the most penalising restrictions in the world, but without the evidence to back it up. The situation cannot continue.”
According to industry calculations, two-thirds of hospitality businesses could be mothballed or go under in the coming months, with more than 50 per cent of jobs lost…
Hugh Pennington, Emeritus Professor of Microbiology at Aberdeen University, said: “There’s the old argument that if we hadn’t done (the mini-circuit breaker), cases would have gone up faster. But that’s a guess, and the figures haven’t come tumbling down.
“They were always going to have difficulty in knowing how effective it was because the figures wouldn’t have come through to really give them an indication as to whether it was having any effect at all.”
Prof Pennington criticised Ms Sturgeon for claiming the restrictions would be in place for only 16 days, given the time-lag in recording positive cases, adding he suspected it had been cast as a short-term measure to avoid a major backlash from businesses.
“It’s got to be statistically significant, it’s the figures coming down that they’re looking for. To expect that would happen within 16 days was unrealistic. At a guess, I’d say her reason for saying that was so she could say ‘I’m going to make things tough, but it’s only for 16 days’, to get people to buy into it.
“If you close the pubs, you’re going to stop pub outbreaks. You’re addressing little bits of the transmission route, but not really getting at the fundamentals, which is making sure people who have the virus, and their contacts, are kept away from everybody else by self-isolating.
“They said it will be a couple of weeks and we’ll turn the corner. But many people have doubts about that, because as soon as you release from it, you go back to square one. There’s too much virus about for the effect to be so big that you really start driving the numbers down.”
Worth reading in full.
Public Confidence in Government at All Time Low
According to Opinium, approval of the Government’s handling of the pandemic has fallen to its lowest level since March. Half (50%) of UK adults now disapprove of the Government, while only 29% approve. The pollster went into more detail in an email:
The public are divided on the clarity of the new tier system. Only 50% think the system is clear and 44% think the measures are unclear. More significantly, a third (34%) of the UK aren’t confident that they know what the rules are in their area…
Half (50%) of those living in Greater Manchester approve of the way Andy Burnham is handling his job as Mayor. His net approval rating of +25% is significantly higher than Boris Johnson’s nationally at -14%.
Looking at how the various leaders have handled the crisis, 32% approve of how Boris Johnson has handled his role, 47% disapprove. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is seen more positively (46% approve, 26% disapprove) while Labour leader Keir Starmer is narrowly net positive with 35% approving and 29% disapproving. The worst marks are reserved for Health Secretary Matt Hancock, with only 26% approving of his performance through the crisis and 48% disapproving.
Hancock with an approval rating of -22%?
Who would have thunk it?
Dr John Lee Wins Lockdown Debate
Ivor Cummins has posted a video on his YouTube channel of Dr John Lee debating Dan O’Brien, an Irish journalist, and Tomas Ryan, a Professor of Neuroscience and advocate of ‘Covid Zero’, on RTE. Needless to say, Lee wins hands down. Cummins has provided some amusing subtitles when the neuroscientist is speaking.
Worth watching in full.
Stop Press: Another hero of lockdown, Dr Clare Craig, was on Julie Hartley-Brewer’s show on TalkRADIO on Friday. Also worth watching.
Postcard From Rhodes
Guy de la Bédoyère, a long-time contributor to Lockdown Sceptics, has sent us a “Postcard From Rhodes“, where he’s managed to get away for a week’s break. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Our hotel, picked at random from the tour company website, turned out to be largely filled with high-risk overweight Brits aged mainly 60 plus. Judging by their accents, I’d say most of them are Tier 2 and Tier 3 refugees who’ve clearly had enough of Covid misery. If they are going to die imminently as the tabloid apocalyptic-headline-competing members of SAGE keep telling us, they’re determined to expire in the sun, stuffed by the all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast and dinner. Loafing by the pool in 28 Celsius heat under a blazing sun, the sweat poured off them in rivulets. Three growing-old-disgracefully ladies in their late sixties went for a spot of topless sunbathing which must make quite a difference from the opportunities currently available in Liverpool or Cardiff.
Worth reading in full.
Round-Up
- “Public opinion is turning against lockdown and Labour’s cynical Covid opportunism” – Dan Hannan’s latest column in the Telegraph
- “Isolation for test and trace could be halved” – The 14-day isolation period for contacts of those infected with COVID-19 could be halved over fears about levels of compliance with the Test and Trace system
- “Seven-day Covid quarantine – and none for jet set” – According to the Sunday Times, if you arrive in the country by private jet and you’re a mover and a shaker in the business world, you won’t have to quarantine at all as part of plans to “promote global Britain”. That’ll go down well on the Labour benches
- “Government scientists have blown apart their own case for lockdown” – Janet Daley argues that the admission that even a vaccine won’t end this doom-loop ought to lead to a change of approach
- “Tory-backed group launches ‘Defund the BBC’ campaign” – A Tory-backed group has launched a campaign to ‘Defund the BBC’ by telling homeowners how to “legally cancel” their licence fee
- “Politicians’ reluctance to quantify Covid’s threat harms all” – Good piece in the FT by Graham Loomes, a Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School, suggesting that if you compare the quality-adjusted life years lost as a result of another lockdown with the quality-adjusted life years saved, the game isn’t worth the candle
- “Backlash over Wales’ ban on buying ‘non-essential items’ in supermarkets” – Euronews reports that the Welsh are furious about ‘non-essential’ items being taken off sale in supermarkets, including books, children’s toys and Christmas cards
- “Why so many believe in the Covid Cult” – Karen Harradine analyses the “mass delusional psychosis” that has gripped the nation since March
- “The Nine Errors of Thinking identified in Factfulness” – Dr Hugh Willbourn writes about the light Hans Rosling’s book can throw on the current Covid madness
- “To say there’s no trade-off between health and the economy during lockdown is a convenient delusion” – Good hard-headed piece in the Times by Philip Aldrick
- “How the MEAN psychologists got us to comply with coronavirus restrictions” – A deep dive into the techniques of the Behavioural Insights Team by Gary Sidley in Coronababble
- “The world needs Jordan Peterson more than ever” – Douglas Murray praises the Canadian psychology professor in UnHerd
- “What Mary Whitehouse got right” – Louise Perry praises the original conservative cultural warrior
- “The armed wing of cancel culture” – On the Spiked podcast, the team discusses the beheading of Samuel Paty, the northern lockdown and Critical Race Theory
- “Hippocrates cancelled” – Professor Ramesh Thakur in Spectator Australia on how health bureaucrats and complicit doctors are now guilty of crimes against humanity
- “To Save People From Covid, Puerto Rico Shuts down 911 call centers” – From the “you couldn’t make it up” department
- “Epidemiologists Stray From the Covid Herd” – Interview with Prof Martin Kulldorff and Prof Jay Bhattacharya by Tunku Varadarajan in the Wall St Journal
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Four today: “The Penny Has Dropped” by Wim Oudijk, “Open Your Eyes” by Goldfinger, “I Saw the Light” by Tod Rundgren and “I Aint Gonna Stand For It” by Stevie Wonder.
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 we thought we’d highlight Simon Heffer’s column in today’s Sunday Telegraph, which is about the capture of the National Trust by the woke cult.
It has seemed for some years as though the National Trust has a death wish, as it dumbs down its properties and uses them more and more for publicity-seeking stunts. The fact that it has compiled a dossier of properties linked to “colonialism and slavery” appears to confirm my fear.
Apparently, the Trust’s “experts” – few of whom, on the basis of what this says about their expertise, would deserve even the lowest class of history degree from the worst imaginable university – say that around a third of its properties are associated with the “sometimes-uncomfortable role that Britain, and Britons, have played in global history”.
Yes, the good old National Trust – once the haven of well-preserved stately homes, woodland walks, and tea, jam and scones – is now determined to become part of that noisy elite minority that can’t let a day go by without engaging in an act of self-flagellation, and reminding us what a shocking country, and people, we supposedly are.
The Trust seems not to understand that its role is to conserve our historic houses, artefacts and landscapes: it is not the administrator of some nationwide re-education programme. The “list of shame” about slavery and colonialism is a typical example of the ignorance of those in charge. First, there seems to be some confusion of the two terms. Most British colonies, and almost all of those in Africa, were established after slavery was abolished. Once definitions of iniquity become so loose, it is easy to shovel the reputations of almost any historical figure you like into them.
So visitors to Bateman’s, Rudyard Kipling’s house in Sussex, will need to brace themselves for a description of the wickedness of the man who gave us the phrase “the White Man’s Burden”. One would never have thought that a man who was the most popular writer of his age, revered by millions in this country and around the world – and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature – would have to be placed at a bargepole’s length from the present generation.
But, inevitably, the focus of the outrage has been Chartwell, Winston Churchill’s country house in north Kent. Churchill, whose minor achievement of managing our victory in the Second World War seems to count for nothing today, is condemned because while he was trying to stop Hitler’s programme of genocide and near-apocalyptic destruction, he failed to respond adequately to the Bengal famine.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The headmistress of Benenden has apologised for using an “offensive” word in a school assembly. That word was “negro” and she used it when explaining that Black History Month began life in 1926 as Negro History Month. Did she really need to apologise for that?
“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 my 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.
Stop Press: A piece in the Science and Technology section of the Economist tries to summarise the debate between the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration and the John Snow Memorandum. It’s biased towards the latter, of course, but less so than most pieces in the mainstream media. Worth a read.
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 [email protected] or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year, providing a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. Doing these daily updates is hard work (although we have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending us stories and links). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links we should include in future updates, email us here. (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…
Got a cracker for you today: Cassetteboy’s latest, a mash-up of Boris’s Covid nonsense set to the tune of “Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick”. Must be a huge amount of work to put these together, but, boy, is it worth it. Cheered me up no end.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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Can you tell me please why the gbdeclaration has been frozen for the last few days?
I’m so angry about what this psychological assault is doing to people.
https://www.facebook.com/crimewatch.co.uk/videos/685921365683132/
Yes, a cascade of social disintegration is getting going it seems,
We are under attack from our own government.
We know the UK media have played a key role in ramping up Covid hysteria.
The state-funded BBC is the prime source of news for about 25% of the population.
Can it be trusted?
I just had a look at their US Election section on their website. Not a single story about the Biden corruption scandal despite it being supported by e mail evidence, Biden’s own boastful claims and the recent statements by a business associate of Hunter Biden – Joe Biden’s son. And despite it being a main plank of the Trump campaign.
The BBC are partisan liars by omission.
they are getting worse and worse. They takes fudns from the Gates Foundation thorugh their ‘charitable arm’ BBC Media Action
No shit.
Must be getting late, OKUK. 🙂
Might be obvious to many here but the BBC benefits from a lot of residual trust in the wider population.
I think the Biden Corruption example shows in a clear way how far they are prepared to lie, censor and obfuscate.
I was appalled to read The Brexit Party’s Richard Tyce’s comments the other day indicating he thought that the BBC were basically fair and balanced – it was just a question of the licence fee system being no longer fit for purpose!!!
All of our institutions have failed us.
All of our democracy, tolerance, liberalism etc has been revealed as an ideological Potemkin Village.
Indeed! As Yeadon points out: where are the Royal medical societies in all this? They know that 90% of what we are being told about lockdowns, virus spread, mask efficacy and all the rest is rubbish. They avoid endorsing lies but they don’t come out and tell the truth.
Media, medics, academia, scientists, teachers, clerics, cultural icons, business leaders and do on have all failed us in large part, save a very small number.
As a leave voter, my trust in this vile organisation disappeared about 5 years ago (or probably more). They have, in effect, extorted my license fee money for all of the time since then, and abused their position of power as our national broadcaster, to slander and insult every leave voter, every day since the outset of the referendum campaign. They are every bit as much to blame in all of this as the Westminster mafia.
Usually talk on here about the most important issues such as mortality, job losses and mental health, but something else struck me today and really sad, albeit lesser.
My daughter was listening to some music from her favourite stage show, one that we took her to last year as a birthday treat.
She loves acting, and it occurred to me just how many kids involved in the arts have had this stripped away from them.
Take any of the big shows. A kid cast in that will be on cloud nine and their whole world will be the theatre. By the time theatres return (if ever) those kids will be too old for the parts. That ship will have sailed. Extend that across dance, musical instruments, even writing, and you have a whole new generation robbed of a moment
It’s occurred to me as well… think about all those acts – singers, groups and so on – that haven’t been able to launch their careers because they haven’t been able to perform live, make videos, appear at festivals or get on TV.
This is ruining talented people’s lives and also killing our culture. I caught a bit of the Olivier Awards programme. Just a thin shadow of what it ought to be. Theatre, music and film all dying!
Stop the madness! Lift the Lockdown!! Publish the Danish Mask Study!!!
The government don’t mind because they think those kids should all stop wasting their time anyway and become “cyber engineers” instead. In their future we don’t have the arts just science and data.
Has happened to a friend of mine… they’ve no idea when they’ll next be able to perform. No shows any time soon, sadly
I have also been very sad about this – the year my teens have had stolen from them. A friend of ours daughter plays in the National Youth Orchestra – a woodwind instrument, so not allowed to be played. She would normally be travelling the country and internationally, playing at a very high level.
Daughter 1 is a passionate dancer (and very good even though I say so myself) and also a member of a local youth theatre group, who do a show at the Edinburgh Fringe every year. She went last year and was so looking forward to going again this year. A week of full independence, selling the show out on streets of Edinburgh, the cameraderie of the group, who are like a family really. She gained so much more from it than just the confidence from the performing – she was buzzing for weeks last year after she came back.
We have missed being able to watch the dance shows she would normally do throughout the year. And like you, at least once a year, we would normally go to watch a musical in London, or more locally. The theatre is (was) one of the treats we… Read more »
To little surprise except to the faithful, Victoria has had no reduction in restrictions. There are people who are proud that Ireland copied the strategy here.
And I’m proud to be a Victorian
Because at least I know I’m not free…?
Clip 40sec. Look at a scene from 1930s nazi Germany played out in 2020 New York. DO NOT LET THIS NORMALISE.
Police in New York are now entering PRIVATE residential property to crackdown on Jewish gatherings.
Listen to the officer explain it’s a “problem” that he found 10 people in the house.
https://twitter.com/YALiberty/status/1319712874135195649?s=20
And yet Trump is supposed to be Literally Hitler. NY has gone insane.
Dear God. I cannot believe it.
Well… don’t ask this one for help either!
Shouldn’t that be Cravenheart?
At least in a kilt you can shit yourself without creating the need for too much laundry (so long as you do it standing up ).
Extraordinary video. Unmissable. R F Kennedy Jr. Released yesterday , I know you will share
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=828046961299342&t=8
It’s staggering what he manages to convey in 20 minutes. There’s one little bit in the middle I quibble with, but so what! Listen and spread.
Here’s the website https://childrenshealthdefense.org/
Wish I could thumbs up twice, well worth a watch, thanks!
(Ironic that it is on facebook)
Powerful stuff. Thank you for sharing.
Excellent!
So a 28 year old dies in Brazil from complications of covid19 and we’re supposed to believe it has nothing to do with him being on the Oxford/Astra Zenica vaccine trial. Heard about this the other morning when watched one of Alex Bellfield’s snippets and again today when I watched Ezra Levant at Rebel News – Canada. Is this what they plan on giving NHS and care sector front line staff before Christmas I wonder.
He supposedly had the placebo (the Men C vaccine). If he was on the trial, I assume he was checked beforehand to make sure he was fit, healthy and not CV positive. I think it is wise to be suspicious!
Agree cynicism is needed. But he was a hospital doctor working with covid patients, so potentially exposed to a higher viral load than the person on the street. I was the same age when I had flu that morphed into pneumonia and ended up in hospital – I was fit as a fiddle in every other respect. That’s why I have a flu jab now. Still wouldn’t go near a covid vaccine any time soon.
I think it raises several ethical issues at the very least. Given he was a doctor, should he have been on the trial at all? If yes, should he have been given the vaccine bearing in mind the whole point of the trial is to guage the efficacy when a participant comes into contact with the virus. I cannot square the circle on this.
No doubt. But many, many healthcare staff are recruited exactly because it is more likely that they will be exposed to the virus. Many other doctors and nurses will have received both options.
Ref OKUK’s comment there are trial participants all around the world, UK included. But somewhere with high purported infection rates, like Brazil would be preferable, I imagine.
They specifically wanted to recruit those considered at high risk of Covid infection, so they were looking for healthcare workers.
And that is why they went for Brazil and India, because the UK infections just weren’t happening.
The whole idea is to get a certain amount of subjects in each arm exposed so that they can make an arm by arm comparison on whether the AZD1222 arm experience less symptoms than the control arm.
One of the crazy things is that the trial subjects still have to self-isolate after infection.
So what you have is all the risk of a serious adverse reaction to the vaccination itself, which may be statistically small, but is apparently very real. And we only know about the shorter term risks. And then you have the additional possibility of vaccine-related disease enhancement when exposed to the virus, and then you have the risk of viral interference between different vaccinations and different respiratory illnesses!
And a vaccine that may be only 50% effective. Whatever that means…
It doesn’t mean anything to me.
What I do know is that one’s own immune system is probably 99% effective in preventing serious symptomatic illness.
So what possible benefit does… Read more »
I have had a propensity for seasonal flu which three winters on the trot morphed into pneumonia on top of bronchiectasis damaged lungs. AntiB sorted it when I could persuade the NHS-obsessed GP to give me some. The last two years I purposely didn’t have the flu jab which the GP warned me I HAD to have with my history. Best two illness-free winters ever. The Covid vaccine will take out the ones the flu one didn’t. This ain’t new, I reckon.
Having another vaccine is not a placebo! And why is it taking place in Brazil? Are the people of Brazil considered expendable by the Oxford elite? I think the horrible answer is yes.
I think that it is being done in Brazil because there is not enough Covid in the UK to do it here. I’m not joking.
If we had enough here then we wouldn’t need challenge trials.
I thought it was ‘triple blind’? So how do they know without destroying the trial?
Damn good reason to keep ‘squashing the sombrero’ – they’ve knocked off all the nurses.
Getting ready for for Christmas carols but run out of steam so any help to finish it
On the first tier of Christmas Boris sent to me, a virus and a face nappy…
On the second tier of Christmas Boris sent to me 2metre distance and a virus and a face nappy
On the 3rd tier of Christmas Boris sent to me 3 week Lockdown 2 metre distance and a virus and a face nappy
On the 4th tier of Christmas Boris sent to me 4 Profs a lying 3 week Lockdown 2 metre distance and a virus and a face nappy
On the 5th tier of Christmas Boris sent to me Matt Hancock 4 Profs a lying 3 week Lockdown 2 metre distance and a virus and a face nappy
On the 6th tier of Christmas Boris sent to me rule of 6 friends 5 Matt Hancock 4 Profs a lying 3 week Lockdown 2 metre distance and a virus and a face nappy
Great start. Hold that space ……
Johnson, please.
Got to be 10 PM curfews
9 covid marshals
8 nasal swabs
Well, there’s the 10 pm curfew.
Snap CB!
Great minds
I was going to suggest Handjob as a replacement for Hancock, but then I imagined kids singing “Boris gave to me 5 Handjobs” and it kind of lost the magic. 😉
LOL!
12 recurring lockdowns
11 welsh fire breaks
10 tiktok dances
9 essential purchases
8 Amazon deliveries
7 10 o’clock curfews
Feel free to swap as required.
7 Test-and-tracers?
At which point there’s a very long pause with nothing happening…
Excellent well played everyone 😂
Brilliant teamwork!
When you get to the 5 it should be “Five hun-dred thous-and fa-tal-i-ties… according to Fer-gus-on. “
these comments are a nightmare to navigate – any tips for how to keep track of particular threads, rather than having to keep scrolling through the whole damn thing all the time?
Depends if you’ve commented. You can use the function to revisit your activity.
You can scroll to the bottom of the page whereupon it downloads more comments. Do this until nothing happens i.e. all comments are on the current page, then you can user browser search/find tools.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/25/rule-six-curfews-probably-have-zero-effect-reducing-contacts/
“The ‘rule of six’ and 10pm curfew are likely to have had “zero effect” in reducing contacts, the first scientific study of the policies suggests.”
The article also says that local restrictions have had hardly any impact on number of contacts. Sadly it also claims that the full national lockdown in March reduced the average daily contacts from about 10.8 to 2.8.
Bad news for a Sunday night.
Good news in that cases are falling in many of the Northern cities now, and if lockdown hasn’t had any impact it must be herd immunity.
Optimum timing to claim success.
Yes, but hardly surprising, as schools and offices were almost totally shut the first time round. I would estimate that my own average close daily contacts went from something like 30 to less than 1 between 18th March and the end of June.
Also remember that there would be NOTHING LIKE the same degree of compliance with a national lockdown if they tried it again. The Government has itself admitted that it was surprised how compliant people were the first time round. Which has made them think they can get away with it.
Welsh police have stopped 87 vehicles making a break for the English border.
Only chance now is to take the gap for Penally camp, there to claim asylum and benefits.
Where? Not seen hide nor hair of a copper on the border yet.
I live just down the road from the Penally camp. You can stay with me instead. I am an asylum in myself.
BTW, funny how our Politburo can do what they like to us natives, but had no say whatsoever in the decision to dump 250 illegal immigrants in my backyard.
Next-door neighbours had been trying for two years to sell their house. Were about to sign the contract when the news of the dumping came out, and the buyer immediately did a runner. The same thing happened to at least one other home owner in the village.
Looks like the Tory backbenchers are starting to assert themselves. If they are joined by some of the backbench Labour members and the LibDems, this could get interesting:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/10/25/tory-mps-want-pandemic-equivalent-european-research-group/
‘Former ERG head Steve Baker is being urged by almost a hundred lawmakers to put the case for an alternative to perpetual Covid lockdowns’
Yes, something on the ERG model would be good,
Don’t hold your breath – no pun intended.
i would much rather he (or indeed anyone) put the case to the CPS for charges of gross negligence manslaughter to be brought against the relevant offenders…
something on the NurembERG model would be even better
Labour aren’t touching this with a bargepole.
Agree Labour won’t formally join a Tory ERG-equivalent group, but when there are votes, as per the Labour MPs who defied their front bench to sign the Brady amendment, they might vote with the Tory bloc.
Scots beware! Warning from the DT. The gates of hell open wider yet for you:
“Covid hotels needed to ensure Scots follow quarantine orders, says expertHugh Pennington becomes latest expert to call for quarantine hotels, amid fears of low compliance under soft touch system.”
Damn! Could be my fault. Maybe Pennington read my piece from the other day.
https://dailysceptic.org/2020/10/23/latest-news-171/#comment-203281
Straight to Coventry for you!! lol
Don’t get tested. Simples.
You know, I know that, but… the public, innit! 😉
and if the test never comes back negative??? This is appalling. Wake up Sceptics!
I thought Pennington was one of the good guys?
We’ve always reckoned the Wee Krank of Scots wants to be another Toothy Tyrant of Kiwis haven’t we?
Seen in the DM:
Mind boggles.
Some positives then
As long as they’re not false ones
I saw what you did there. 😉
that’s the spirit!
So women will become more promiscuous but much better at using contraception? Or will it all be cybersex?
Could of course be the men getting better with contraception
Back to Demolition Man again arent we.
Didn’t work in relation to the dicktator
There’s a logical fallacy in there somewhere…
Unless they are getting promiscuous with each other. I deployed some lateral thinking there…
My son and I were discussing zinc intake tonight. We both take zinc supplements. He was asking how much more zinc men need. Zinc is needed for sperm production.
Let’s just say the conversation went beyond what a mother and son conversation normally would!
Not impossible, pandemics in East Asia have coincided with a staggering drop in birthrates, and economic struggles may well reduce population growth worldwide.
I can remember when this all started, when someone talking about the labs in China where it came from and they said whenever they start messing around with virus’s they always develop the vaccine concurrently, in case it gets out and they are in deep (trouble) with the authorities.
Sounds good in theory, though the opposing view supported by some pretty esteemed folk it seems, is that if something is engineered a realistically effective vaccine is unlikely:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/renowned-european-scientist-covid-19-was-engineered-in-china-lab-effective-vaccine-unlikely
Someone on The Highwire said its effectively been a bioweapon response.
Too slow. High cost but poor effectiveness.
If we ever do get a dose of anthrax on toast, on performance this year, we’re done for.
Relevant background to Scotland’s care home scandal.
“The other part of her brief has been as Cabinet Secretary for Older People. While in charge Somerville oversaw the disastrous policy of shunting elderly hospital patients into care homes en masse without conducting adequate levels of COVID-19 testing on either patients or staff, leading to a large proportion of Scotland’s deaths. Dozens were even transferred despite having already tested positive for the virus.
“While that decision was in the first instance the responsibility of the health secretary, it was Somerville’s job to speak up for them. Her legacy as the inept cabinet voice of Scotland’s old folk will be the premature and avoidable deaths of thousands of them.”
From the pro indepedence website –
https://wingsoverscotland.com/soapbox-the-invisible-woman/
Worth reading to gain a sense of the contemptable goings on in the Scottish backwater.
More from same article.
“None of the other UK nations have had such a large share of their deaths from care homes. Figures to the end of August showed 47% of deaths in Scotland were from the sector, compared to 42% in Northern Ireland, 30% in England and just 28% in Wales.)
“Finally, Somerville has been one of the driving forces behind the massively unpopular proposals to introduce gender self-ID, promising to implement the legislation even as a consultation supposedly canvassed public opinion on whether it should go ahead.”
Excellent article. Depressing, but not surprising given that we have a Ceausescu tribute act running the country.
Ceausescu is alive and well and ru(i)ning Wales.
Heading for the same fate as the original Ceausescu.
Your lot must be clones.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=828046961299342&t=8
Argentina
Bolivia
Peru
Uruguay
Italy
Germany
Poland
Belgium
UK
Netherlands
Ireland
Sweden
Denmark
France
Austria
Apologies if already posted. Yesterday it seems there were rallies in 15 countries: :
and RF Kennedy Jr sent us a video message.
.. address all those people who have come out to protest this global coup d’etat, by Big Data, Big Tech, Big Oil, Bill Gates and the WHO, who already have $2 trillion and want more and to have power over our lives and our health and subvert nations and democracies.
We have nothing to fear but fear itself
I am beyond angry at Whitty for advocating the willful neglect of older people how DARE he!!!!!! He is a complete disgrace. Today listened to the legend Dr.Yeadon on James Delingpole’s podcast can only urge everyone to listen it’s ace! And as an NHS worker, they can keep their unsafe ineffective vaccine!
Yes, everyone should check out the Yeadon interview.
Haven’t seen you post before, welcome to the forum.
Thanks I post from time to time when my phone is behaving itself (the sheer number of comments have stopped showing on our pc!)
at what point point does wilful neglect become gross negligence i wonder…i think we ought to find out, don’t you, boys and girls?
Never. We are now living under tyrannical authoritarian rule, That is not an exaggeration for effect. It’s a cold fact.
MIL finally able to leave house arrest today; returned from Spain 2 weeks ago.
Not one call from Krankie’s T&T police during that time. World beating!
You mean she’s one of the 11% who do as they are told?
Nah! She’s been out everywhere as normal. 76 year old Scottish woman who refuses “to take any of their pish!” Her words. 🙂
Good to hear.
My friend’s sister had a call from someone in England T&T. She asked them if they could triangulate her phone, they said No. She asked them what happenef if she was not at home. They said We will warn you. That was it.
I never had any calls and I didn’t sit at home for 2 weeks.
Is ‘triangulate’ the mobile phone’s equivalent of ‘vaccinate’?
MIL didn’t either; see above. Scary woman, my MIL.
Outrageous! This video has been BANNED in Wales.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV1IP4N9ajg
Fell for it!
????
Oh, I get it now. Buying inessentials. Doh.
Big Ron would still be allowed the peas. 😉
Another senior doctor speaking out in the Telegraph.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/25/second-lockdown-spells-unprecedented-non-covid-health-crisis/#comment
‘State scientists tragically overlook the collateral deaths that will result from a tunnel-vision strategy’
Brilliant article!
It’s a monumental exercise in kicking the can down the road.
at what point does that become gross negligence?
It’s past that now. Like gamblers at the casino, one last roll hoping to get lucky. There will be a big reckoning, hopefully very soon.
but don’t forget that gross negligence manslaughter is a very serious crime. surely the virus hasn’t nullified the criminal law?
It has so far
They somehow just keep managing to score though…
Very interesting paper , shared by a friend Basically Longitude and Flu vaccine most associated with Covid mortality , really worth a read
https://peerj.com/articles/10112/?fbclid=IwAR1q1sVrrZbbykY3lg7HxOoWgbwGTkV5J8hycS2NBZLKqbYGn5_ZcJQLLUc
That’s one of the things the ACU hearings have found, that the people in Bergamo were vaccinated right at the start of the ‘covid’ epidemic
Yes , I watched the interview with the local Medic , he was saying there was a massive push on Flu vaccines in Bergamo and Lombardy as well I think
Why did they vaccinate them in February at the end of the winter? Or was it in the autumn?
Interesting correlation. Will be good to see further work around causation.
They’ll never be able to prove causation. Same with the fact that 48 people have now died in South Korea shortly after getting the flu vaccine — they are pushing ahead anyway as they cannot “prove” the vaccine caused the deaths. Perhaps they’ll take a pause if the number goes to 100?
Even before Covid there was plenty of evidence that the flu vaccine *may* confer some protection against the strains chosen for that year’s vaccine but that it increased one’s risk of getting other respiratory illnesses. This jives with the idea that last year’s flu vaccine made those who took it more susceptible to a bad Covid outcome.
Even if they can vaccine providers are free of all liability from any unwanted effects. All vaccines, not just the upcoming Covid death vaccine.
Is that statistically significant? i.e. if you track ~14 million people, how many of them would die in the next week in South Korea in normal times, ignoring the flu vaccine for a moment?
Apparently on average 621 people over 65 died in S Korea each day in 2019. Average age of the 48 dead reported as 74.
So it looks like ~27% of the population have had the vaccine. Amongst this 27% (14 million), I believe you’d expect around ~242 deaths per day and the reporting period (also not sure on this) is a week, so normal rate is ~1693 deaths total.
So even if 1693 people have died after getting this vaccine, we’d still have to see a pattern before saying there’s a link.
This is a simplification of course, because they probably wouldn’t give it to critically ill people etc., so the real expected number would be lower than 1693 – but still far more than the 36 / 48 deaths that have been reported.
I think there’s no link.
Interesting- especially as 98% of flu vaccination takes place in the places with the highest levels of Covid deaths.
What about Wuhan? How does that fit with the outbreak there?
Probably hard to accept anything coming from the CCP though.
Yesterday spent walking coastal path south of Whitby and also walking through the town centre. No mask-wearing walkers a long way from Whitby, but a few encountered on the cliff path closer to the town.
In town the narrow streets were packed with tourists – perhaps escaping from tier 2 Middlesbrough? Maybe 5% wearing face masks. A puzzle though as often only one person in a family group had a mask on and would presumably drive home with unmasked family members and presumably risk catching the dreaded virus from them – but perhaps thinking that is better than catching it directly from one of the unmasked crowd.
One elderly man with walking sticks got to the top of the 199 steps gasping through his mask – any subsequent heart attack might be well be a covid-related death, but at least the churchyard was the right place to be! One masked man, late 30s, with unmasked family, started up the steps but ripped his mask off after 15 or so steps saying he couldn’t breathe. Another elderly man had a mask which looked as though he used it to clean the car.
Interesting that the fearful mask-wearers (“My mask protects you”, which was nice of… Read more »
Lots of masks in the centre of the small county town I live in, I suspect mainly connected to shopping. On the way into and out of town, they disappear. Outside the centre, people walking their dogs or going for walks around the fields or around the block are almost never masked.
Muzzled vampires can be kept at a social distance using muzzled garlic.
If you rub garlic on your face nappy, it will help to disinfect it, as well as keeping vampires at bay.
It should certainly help with social distancing.
I saw a clip on Youtube of people in Wales being interviewed about their lockdown,I believe it was a bbc one so I knew what to expect but bloody hell the imbecility of some people just gets worse !,one chap,a cafe owner I think,said something along the lines of ‘I know some people are fed-up but I think a short sharp shock will help against the virus,it will help get us to next year when there might be something on the horizon,a vaccine‘,for fuck’s sake !,I am simply aghast at what a twat this bloke is,he went on to say ‘We’ve been working for five months so a two week break that fits in with the school holidays is quite good‘,I can’t remember all the expletives I used when I heard that bit,I know the types the bbc pick to interview but that chap really must have a screw loose.If millions of people think the same way as him,well I just don’t know anymore,they are not just brainwashed they are living in a different dimension to us.
It’s hard to acknowledge that they really believe it will only be for two weeks!
Sturgeon has already extended the Scottish one. Drakeford will do likewise.
Turkeys voting for Christmas
Yeah, it’s well saying they didn’t interview a publican. I reckon cafe’s have done okay so far with restrictions not affecting there business too much. He’s a typical “i’m alright jack”.
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
‘I know some people are fed-up but I think a short sharp shock will help against the virus,it will help get us to next year when there might be something on the horizon,a vaccine‘
He was literally parroting what Drakeford said at his press conference, when declaring the fire-breaker.
Four legs good, two legs baaaaad.
Thought that myself. The people are so trained in just telling others what they think they want to hear.
Please somebody put this fuckwit at the front of the queue for the vaccine.
A café owner eh?
What was the café called? The Cut Your Own Throat Corner? The Imbecile’s Rest?
Why watch the BBC even via youtube ?.I expect they will be careful to edit out any welsh Maureen from Barnsley types this time .
How on earth did Maureen from Barnsley slip through the net?!!!
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/belfast-barbers-threaten-legal-action-over-covid-19-restrictions-39665963.html
Barbers now.
Glad to see it. However, they need to see the bigger picture.
Good to see. The governments need to be taken to court to justify, in depth, their reasons for ruining people’s lives
Well, they’ve always been a fringe group.
Ahem.
Beware. I am bristling.I shall come and beard you in your den. If I don’t cut you dead you’ll know you’ve had a close shave.
erm, hair!
Did you write comedy scripts in a previous life Annie ?
Love it.
She is brilliant isnt she!
I quite agree. (Bows gracefully then exits, tripping over footlights.)
From the local rag
Edinburgh Fringe unlikely to return to normal next year, festival bosses reveal
It will never be normal ever again.
All the people wearing their masks for a quiet life are never getting their life back. They just don’t realise it yet.
Put on the mask, give your life away!
I keep telling pro lockdown people that this will carry on for a very long time, and they keep mumbling and shutting down. They are in denial.
Is that a river in……sorry couldn’t resist…….. Egypt…I’ll get my coat.
Hit de nial on de head!
Edinburgh fringe had become full of posers. One section of society where a reset would be welcomed.
an interesting read from just before lockdown – remember that?
https://www.continentaltelegraph.com/2020/03/what-if-coronavirus-is-just-the-old-mans-friend-pneumonia/
This is interesting. Seems the government had been planning for lockdown through a marketing campaign long before it was announced. So assume it was just waiting for Ferguson’s death model to appear on the scene to give lockdown the green light:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/10/25/government-struck-119m-covid-advertising-deal-weeks-first-lockdown/
FFS that’s £119m of our money
Of course, all the supermarket stickers, plastic shields, signage and tv adverts aren’t done overnight, funny how it all appeared within 24 hours.
If there was real danger supermarkets etc would scribble on a piece of A4 paper to tell us to keep safe.
I said this to my dad months ago. His reply…’what, you reckon it was all planned’
Thanks. Once you become attuned to the nudging you can spot things in advance like this, but it’s good to have proof.
Yes I agree. We need to see all email and text traffic from named individuals back to around 23/24 January. Things are starting to come out piece-by-piece, but we need it speeded up before it’s too late with the vaccine.
Hydroxychloroquine made prescription-only on France on 13th January 2020, after being available over the counter for more than sixty years.
Why?
French intelligence had the inside track on the Wuhan lab – likely before the CIA. The mysterious illness at the Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019 was also largely among the French athletes.
The UK Govt bought all the stock in the UK shortly afterwards.
They knew it could help, so it disappeared.
One can obtain it on the interweb. Allegedly.
Johnson gave his loved ones will die speech on March 13.They knew then they were putting us into lockdown.Fergusons model gave them the cover
The immunity plan seemed too good to be true given the international pressure to LD.