The Covid Inquiry is like a poem by Wordsworth. One wanders lonely as an aerosol for pages and pages, drearily marching through miles of marsh, and then one spies a lovely daffodil: a little phrase which offers some amusement or opportunity for reflection. I have noticed two of these already. Both were references to philosophers. You may recall that Vallance got into a tangle about whether Boris Johnson was reflecting on ‘Humeric’ or ‘Homeric’ logic in October 2020. Second, Johnson himself, in his witness statement, claimed that his thinking was what we might call ‘Millian’. Interestingly, both David Hume and John Stuart Mill were of Scottish ancestry and both had names – originally Home and Milne – that had been anglicised for the sake of English pronunciation.
My third finding is another philosopher, but this time without a name adjusted for the English and without any Scottish origins, except in so far as, on this occasion, it was a Scottish lawyer who mentioned Hegel.
On December 13th Claire Mitchell KC spoke in a public hearing on behalf of the Scottish Covid Bereaved. Lady Hallett must have been bored, though gratified, since she could spend the entire day listening to lawyers repeat the standard line over and over again. (There was a pandemic: the people suffered, the Government did not suffer; there were necessary rules: the people obeyed them, the Government did not obey them.) However, this Scottish KC came armed with something a bit unusual. First of all, she used the word harmatia in a sentence. I have never come across that word outside of theology. It is the Greek word for ‘sin’ in the New Testament. A bit further on she used another Greek word, hubris, admittedly a bit less impressive than hamartia, but still fairly recondite: the word for the sin of pride, often contrasted with nemesis. Not content with two remarkable h-words, she went for a third. And this was where Hegel came in.
The transcript has the following:
Post facto suggestions that Hegelian decision-making was employed is laughable in the face of the evidence of the most senior civil servants in this country.
I couldn’t believe my eyes, so went to check the film of the public hearing to make sure she had actually said ’Hegelian’ and not another word (say ‘Hibernian’ or ‘Arcadian’) rendered incomprehensible by a Scottish accent. Well she did say it, though the stenographers botched it a bit. At 1:02:32 in the video on Youtube, one can find her saying, “Post facto suggestions that a Hegelian method of decision making was employed is laughable in the face of the evidence of the most senior s-servants in this country.” The typists were not infallible. But they got the word ‘Hegelian’ right. Of course Mitchell is not infallible either. Not only did she run aground on the sibilance of ‘senior civil servants’ but also forgot the ex of ‘ex post facto’.
Now, I rather like Hegel. In my office I have about 15 volumes of his original writings – the Logic, the Encylopaedia, the Philosophy of History, the History of Philosophy, the Lectures on Religion, the Aesthetics, etc. – all bound in the same shade of blue. But I have no idea what ‘Hegelian decision-making’ is. And, as usual when someone in this inquiry mentions something philosophical, there is no explanation. Hume, Mill and Hegel enter like strange phantoms and leave without having brought anything to proceedings except the brief hope that something profound might have been said: followed by the depressing realisation that nothing profound will ever be said.
I googled ‘Hegelian decision-making’ and found only one website had ever mentioned it, except the one featuring the public hearing. That website features an incomprehensible commentary by Dr. Price from the University of Houston. It sheds no light on what Hegelian decision-making is, or, in Mitchell’s version, “a Hegelian method of decision-making”. We know that Descartes had a method, but Hegel only had a logic.
This logic is dialectical. Hegel scholars hate it when anyone mentions the ‘logic of thesis, antithesis and synthesis’: though this is because Hegel scholars dislike seeing their hero simplified. And the simplification is useful. (Like simplifying Shakespeare by saying ‘ti-tum ti-tum ti-tum ti-tum ti-tum’). Hegel suggested that at every stage of thought one finds that anything one posits can be complicated or divided or added to by another element, some sort of opposite or contrary, which in turn requires that some sort of further understanding be made – whether in the form of reconciliation, or advancement or even the simple introduction of something else not yet mentioned. Hegel’s Logic is marvellous: it is like a myriad of wheels within wheels, like a thousand penny farthings of different sizes chained together in a Heath Robinson construction coming clatteringly down the cobbled road of reason. Formally, it is philosophy in the form of a waltz: ONE, two, three; ONE, two, three… But it is more hectic than Tchaikovsky or Johann Strauss. It is Carmina Burana or the Ride of the Valkyries transposed into thought.
Lord knows how the Scottish KC could extract a method of decision-making out of this. Perhaps she supposed that in government, 1. a Prime Minister sagely offers a thesis, whereupon 2. SAGE sagely offers a counter-thesis, after which 3. Dominic Cummings, Michal Gove and Simon Case, with the help of Nicola Sturgeon, who is not to be excluded from the logic, formulate a policy.
It does not sound like Hegel to me.
Hegel in the 1820s called America “the land of the future”: so perhaps ‘Hegelian decision-making’ means: ‘Let’s wait to see what the Americans do, and then do that.’ But Mitchell says that the Government did not engage in Hegelian decision-making. So what could she mean? I am fairly sure she means nothing at all. But it could, I suppose, mean decision making in relation to every possible relevant concern. And if so, it would mean relating one’s decision not to this or that supposed crisis, but to everything that has ever happened in the history of the world.
So perhaps she is right. For what we know is that the Government did not relate its decision to everything that ever happened in the history of the world. They didn’t even relate it to every matter of contemporary relevance in March 2020. The Government responded with panic and uncertainty.
It is odd, however, that Mitchell complains about a lack of Hegelian decision-making when it is obvious that her idea of a good decision is simply one which responds with panic and out of uncertainty but also with absolute puritanical consistency and totalitarian thoroughness. She complains that the decisions the Government involved itself in took the form of “Potemkin meetings”, with “breezy optimism” in the background and “a disgusting orgy of narcissism” in the foreground. This is grand Calvinist denunciation. But as far as I can see, such pretence, optimism and narcissism are at least signs of some limited humanity on the part of our rulers. But I do not expect the inquiry to understand this.
In fact, I do not expect much of the inquiry. But it is pleasant to see the occasional mention of words which come out of a great civilisational past, even if it is not clear that our lawyers know how to use these words.
Hume, Mill and Hegel would all have thought that this episode was a sorry one.
Dr. James Alexander is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Bilkent University in Turkey.
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Didn’t they have some riot police beefed up by foreign thugs when they wanted to duff up peaceful anti-lockdown protesters?
A different story though when they’re told to enforce actual laws South of the river. Crooks.
No longer called the Boy Scouts as it is now open to girls (though the ‘Girl’ Guides seems to have survived). Oh well, there’s always the Boys’ Brigade.
I wonder what these groups will have to do about the “trans” business…
Brown Owl becomes Rainbow Owl?
They already have Rainbows…. then Brownies…. Wonder how long Brownies will last before they are accused of being wascist??
The Scout group in the village has had a long history of taking girls as there wasn’t & still isn’t a guide pack within walking or short driving distance.
This was instigated to meet a need for the children of the village. Met & still meets the need for children to make bangs, dirty, learn critical thinking skills & enjoy being children.
“The CDC is pushing it [child ‘vaccination’] much more strongly [than ‘JVC’ (sic) ]”.
The CDC that is in bed with big pharma. They’re all following “the science” though…
I spoke with Dr Kat Lindley last night, a press release has already gone out re this yet the meeting to make the decision is later today. She’s speaking against this & presenting evidence to support this position.
It’s to tag every man, woman & child in preparation for the control grid & to reduce the population to their desirable level. Plus there will be no control group if every child is tagged.
This article just published today makes one weep for the innocent children & the utter depravity of the parents who allowed their babies to be trial participants.
https://www.conservativereview.com/horowitz-pfizer-data-shots-2657512798.html
Ooh, Whitby has voted to limit second homes (Patrick Chrystis, GB News)!
I seem to remember that this has been done in other places (the Yorkshire Dales?). Whilst the libertarian in me does balk somewhat at this (the same as with restrictions on what country people can live in), the trouble is that people sometimes buy a second home but only visit occasionally, thus not contributing much to the local economy, and also forcing housing costs up to unacceptable levels if too many people do it. Thus I have been moving towards the position that these rights must necessarily be conditional, rather like with Gordon Brown’s five tests for joining the Euro. Thus if you want to have a lot of second home owners coming into a certain area, take measures to ensure that housing is still available to local people below a certain price – and if it threatens to go above this price it has to be suspended. Obviously things will be different for different areas, but in general, there should be a principle of consent from the majority of people affected so far as possible. Likewise with immigration, it should both be beneficial and be seen to be beneficial. And if it is a matter of saving people from persecution, it should be proven that this is indeed necessary to save people from persecution (thus it might be reasonable for us to take in a certain amount of people from Hong Kong or the Ukraine)
In a similar vein, the UK should be free to deal with people entering the country illegally in a way that it sees fit (eg Kigali). If the ECHR wants to stop this, perhaps they can arrange for them to go to a processing centre in Strassburg? No? I thought not…
Mmmmm, I think the devil is in the detail. The non-binding vote in Whitby relates only to new-builds. 2nd home owners are not known for buying new homes on new estates. I doubt there is competition between 2nd home owners & locals for the properties covered by this vote.
On the BBC yesterday they interviewed a 19 year old hairdresser who seemed to be blaming 2nd home owners for her inability to buy locally, I’m not sure I’d agree.
Inevitably 2nd home owners push up prices but I doubt that this vote does anything to address the problem.
Whitby is the nearest town to me…about 3-4 miles away. I assure you people do buy second homes here, even ones on estates..usually because they are small estates, or in town, or near the sea/beach. I don’t have strong feelings one way or another to be honest, but I do know that one of the effects people don’t mention is that some smaller schools have had to close, over the years, and children have to be bussed to central schools…because obviously the people who buy second homes are often retired with no young children….……
……my friend lives on the West Cliff, and it’s like a ghost town in the winter when people don’t visit their houses as often…but I don’t know if you can do much about it.
I buy all my meat and veg locally, we have fantastic butchers near us…so I’m not sure what that’s about…in my village we have an ‘award-winning’ butcher…people travel for miles to go there….
…..but I think this a problem everywhere isn’t it…young people unable to get on the housing ladder? What can be done about it I’m not sure…
Lucky you living where you do!
The village where I live doesn’t have a second home problem, second homes tend to be moored in the Marina, but house prices are obscene which is a barrier for people wanting to stay in the village as it’s a lovely place to live & raise children – why I moved here. The solution to this agreed on by consultation with all the village residents was to identify a part of the village where housing could be built purely for folk with a connection to the village to rent or to part own. The prices are about 2/3rds of other comparable property in the village would go for. It has bungalows, 2, 3 & 4 bed houses. The plan was such that the area could be extended for more houses to meet future needs. It is in one of the best spots on the edge of the village & is a lovely community in itself. Children playing out etc.
Local solutions required for what is a local problem.
All beautiful rural areas are plagued by this; it’s not helped either by useless Housing Associations, which seemed to have changed their role from Social Housing agents to Property companies. We live in a gorgeous village in Somerset, with the usual number of – as they are known here – “Down from Londoners” who contribute nothing to the village. We have quite a lot of social housing, controlled by Aster. When a lease ends or a tenant moves, they almost always flog the property. claiming it would not be worth doing it up for rentals. Why? Because they do next to no maintenance unless you are a mardy tenant, like our lovely neighbour, a Yorkie, who doesn’t take no for an answer.
Result? No housing for young villagers. Nice AirBnB properties for people who don’t live here to rent.
As for Cornwall.
It can be dreadful living next to an airb&b or a holiday rental. Relatives who live and work in Cornwall decided to move when the house next door became a holiday let, and they had to put up with constant noisy bbqs and parties every week from the different holidaying residents.
“We have quite a lot of social housing, controlled by Aster. When a lease ends or a tenant moves, they almost always flog the property.”
The original purpose was always to sell. To get to that point they serve a limited time as rentals – “Well we tried -” and then the profits come in.
In reality this is building private property by the back door. Difficult to argue against social housing developments for fear of the ‘nimby’ label.
When you see that photo of Blair talking to Soros in 1996 it looks like he’s selling his soul to become Prime Minister.
**
Nearly everything Boris Johnson wrote before was a complete lie to make Telegraph readers think he was Conservative. Instead we have the most left wing, spineless. globalist Prime Minister in history. His only priory is to destroy Britain as part of a Grand Plan to destroy the West.
**
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He’s his father’s son
The Covid jab has been quietly added to the list of childhood vaccines. Along with an annual flu jab “if necessary.”
They are creating children who effectively have no immune system and will be vulnerable to every germ they come into contact with.
Apologies, have linked this before and most on here must have seen it, but it’s so close to the truth it’s scary.
Imagine anyone nowadays letting their children “swim in the Hudson River”, (obviously the local alternative applies), the phone to the do-gooders at SS (Social Services), would be red hot.
BTW, this is in direct comparison to my generation….outside all day playing in the dirt, no real handwashing culture at home, weekly bath at my grans as we didn’t have one, use of filthy communal outside toilet in early childhood, and hardly a days illness in my life!**
** No, you’re not reading the MP “lived in a shoe sketch”!
Today’s kids are having their immune systems destroyed; and hardly anyone gives a fig.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X29lF43mUlo
Childhood autism has gone from around 1 in 150 in 2000
to 1 in 44 in 2018…according to the CDC
But it is not…most definitely not to do with vaccination……
In 1962 children got five vaccinations, by 1983 it had risen to 24, by 2018 it was 72 doses by the time you are 18!…I think they get around 22 before they are 12 months old…..
I’d upload a graphic but just realised that the app isn’t there!!
“They are creating children who effectively have no immune system and will be vulnerable to every germ they come into contact with.”
And probably sterile.
The flu jab is also mRNA based now!
This generation’s Thalidomide
As was frequently posted on this site by many “it’s not over.“
We have got at least one and possibly more very sick downtickers on the site.
Every comment deploring the addition of a C1984 injection to childhood vaccines has received at least one downtick.
Very sad that individuals with no empathy, obviously no children and not a warm nerve in their bodies can condone such a move.
Ordinarily I would wish them a Foxtrot Oscar but they are not even worth that they are simply first class rubbish.
A cracking piece in TCW by Frank Wright:
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/were-the-losers-in-this-global-game-of-charades/
Basically we are in a state of chaos that is out of control.
I don’t know if I agree or not. Chaos for sure but whether it is now out of control I’m not yet convinced. The situation is certainly going to escalate before Christmas and probably dangerously.
If civil unrest breaks out who knows where we end up.
Have the Davos mob lost it? Possibly. Russia is digging in and I don’t mean militarily. China, as ever is going its own way and India is flexing its muscles – understandably. Brazil and 42 African nations won’t bend the knee, rightly.
The dollar’s collapse is inevitable and probably will take the pound with it. The US and Europe appear to be turning themselves in to a Third World hell hole.
It’s going to get very bloody nasty.
It is. There is some hope in the UK though. A very high ranking army officer has served notice on every MP & every servant of the Crown who heads up a department. They have excuse that they don’t know.
The government & army are surprised that things haven’t kicked off sooner, which they’re prepared for. There is a network of veterans who are prepared to uphold their oath to the Queen to protect her subjects.
With normal folk in our communities, dealing with them with kindness, calmness & compassion works as it defuses volatility. The psycho & sociopaths need to be treated with the same type of behaviour as they’re dishing out.
Yesterday evening’s zoom meeting & then a smaller discussion was very interesting! Dr Tau Braun is an expert in counter terrorism & the cabal are frightened of him as he has more knowledge than they on countering their terrorist acts.
The following Biblical passage seems to be a good place to seek inspiration from, if not religious, think of it as a metaphor for what & who we’re battling & what you can do to strengthen your resolve & the tools to use in this war.
Ephesians 6:10-18 KJV
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints
Out of interest, where did you hear this? Who is it?
Thanks
I didn’t make a note of his name & it has been consigned to my forgettory but I heard it from a credible legal source who helped with the drafting of the notice. It was in a discussion yesterday evening.
I’m not going to put my source’s name out there as it isn’t my place to do so.
The guy who’s served notice has no fear.
Can anyone point me in the direction of data showing sea level rises around the coast of Britain since 1980 or so? My understanding is that it’s 1.4mm/year, but has that actually happened?
The reason I mention this is due to a report the BBC are bigging up about 200,000 being abandoned by 2050. They did a piece from Norfolk about homes being abandoned, of course the reason is coastal erosion not sea level rises, but I’m struggling to get decent data on actual sea level rises. By my estimate, by 2050 sea levels may be just over an inch higher than they are now, not enough to cause widespread panic I would have thought?
I don’t know where to direct you for that information. Sorry.
I vaguely recall watching a programme aeons ago when the BBC had credibility about the British Isles & how coastal towns, villages etc had suffered from the sea. One point they made was that it wasn’t the sea levels that were rising in the south but the land mass was pivoting in the middle of the British mainland with the south sinking & the north rising.
I may be wrong & if any of you can support or challenge this, I’d appreciate it!
Browsing for the term “mean sea level changes” came up with this entry: https://academic.oup.com/gji/article/176/1/19/2019967?login=false It contains a lot of historic records over the last century. If you just read it’s summary, you will see that they were (in 2009) sceotical about the accuracy, and interpretation of the results obtained.
Don’t know if you can access Twitter, but I like Latimer Alder for his climate sanity…·
From my postbag: June 10th.
‘Dear Latimer
I’m in UK and can’t swim. I’m terrified that the sea will rise because of Climate Change and drown me.
How many people have drowned around the world because of climate change?’
A: None.. Sea’s rising at only 1 foot (34 cms) per 100 years.
LOL!
That report on the BBC was almost criminal in the way it was presented.
It suggested that coastal erosion was due to climate change and rising sea levels.
I come from the East Coast of Yorkshire where there are houses falling into the sea and further south there is a lighthouse almost a mile away from the receding sea. The sand has simply moved over the years. Nothing to do with the sea level.
What was irritating was the way the presenter kept saying, time after time, that the sea level was the cause of the problem.
Yes, I saw an article in the Telegraph recently about a woman who’s house is getting ever nearer to falling into the sea in Happisburgh, Norfolk. All caused by climate change…..As I know the area I know this isn’t a recent thing, but when I looked it up I found it had been going on since the 1800’s, so what did they blame it on then?
1845 A twelve-acre field at Happisburgh was drilled with wheat. A north-west gale raged all night, and by new morning the field had disappeared.
1854 White’s Directory for this year reported that the sea had encroached 250 yards in the last 70 years at Happisburgh.
1855 Doggett’s Farm -the house. a large barn and the premises – were lost to the sea.
1883 The Low Lighthouse was threatened with erosion. It was withdrawn from service and demolished.
and on and on…..!
How I hate these fuc****s….
Today, the Biden Administration is announcing an operational plan that will ensure that vaccines—if authorized by FDA and recommended by CDC—are readily available for our youngest kids and that we continue the critical work of ensuring that all families know the benefits of getting their children vaccinated against COVID-19.
re the story ATL about baby vaccination in the US…
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/urgent-omg-the-pfizer-data-for-kids/comments?s=
Urgent:OMG the Pfizer data for kids under five….
Alex Berenson
June14
That 80 percent figure for efficacy you’ve seen reported is worse than a joke, it’s essentially a fabrication.
Here’s what the Food and Drug Administration and Pfizer did; they only counted cases after the THIRD mRNA dose.
But of the 375 Sars-Cov-2 infections in the trial, 365 occurred before the third dose. Only 10 occurred after the third dose.
Yes, you are reading that right. The efficacy figure is based on 3 PERCENT OF ALL THE INFECTIONS IN THE TRIAL. (Which is why the confidence intervals are so large.)
Count the other 97 percent of the infections, and the vaccine was roughly 20 percent effective over the entire trial – far, far below what the FDA said was approvable in 2020. The confidence intervals went below zero for kids under two, meaning the possibility that the vaccine increased the risk of infection cannot be excluded. And cases of severe Covid – including one two-year-old who was hospitalized – were mostly in the mRNA group.
Great interview with Naomi Wolf (on the Pfizer papers)…On The War Room,
don’t watch it if you don’t like hearing about deaths and injuries to babies by the vaccine death dealers….
https://rumble.com/v18dfcj-dr.-naomi-wolf-on-infertility-and-the-who-and-dealing-with-censorship.html
Brilliant article explaining how the Pfizer trial was gamed to get approval. All fraudulent. If fraud is upheld by a court, then it renders the bioweapon injection manufacturer liable for any harms caused by their toxin.
Evil barstewards springs to mind.
https://doctors4covidethics.org/did-pfizer-perform-adequate-safety-testing-for-its-covid-19-mrna-vaccine-in-preclinical-studies-evidence-of-scientific-and-regulatory-fraud/
First I’ve heard of the Sainted Jacinda’s father sanctioning house arrest for inhabitants of an island in the Pacific for asserting their bodily sovereignty to not be injected with the toxic bioweapon. Seven months of house arrest!!!
https://www.thedailyexaminer.co.nz/new-zealand-citizens-under-house-arrest-for-pfizer-non-compliance-ross-ardern-suddenly-resigns/
This generation’s Thalidomide.
Any other suggestions for yet to be written investigative journalism?