Remembrance Sunday Cancelled
It’s Remembrance Sunday today, but Covid restrictions mean only 25 sailors and marines will be taking part in the Whitehall parade. The MailOnline has more.
Cancelled events and health fears mean many of those who served in the Armed Forces can’t mark Remembrance Sunday in their usual way, but veterans have urged the public to “take a few minutes” to pause and reflect. And Government officials have insisted plans to mark the Cenotaph’s centenary “will be announced in due course”.
The ex-head of the Royal Navy Lord West has told the Telegraph that war heroes face catching pneumonia if they’re forced to stand outside churches today and not allowed in.
Lord West of Spithead, the former First Sea Lord, said it was “extraordinary” that veterans were being made to commemorate fallen comrades “in the freezing cold” this Sunday after ministers made going to church a criminal offence with a minimum £200 fine.
Other military leaders also spoke out against the ban on Remembrance Sunday services.
Lord Dannatt, the former head of the Army, urged a rethink and called on the Government to make an exception for Remembrance Sunday.
Major General Julian Thompson, who was British land commander during the Falklands War, described the ban by “panicking” ministers as “absolutely ridiculous”.
Former Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon turned on the Government for refusing to trust veterans to keep their social distance inside a church having previously trusted them to fight in wars to protect the country.
And the Royal British Legion is set to lose out on millions of pounds in Poppy Appeal donations after coronavirus caused in-person collections to be halted for the first time in 99 years. The MailOnline has more on that story.
Charles Byrne, Director-General of the charity, said lockdown restrictions mean that for the first time in the organisation’s 99-year history, in-person fundraising has been cancelled on the streets.
The move came into effect on Thursday – the first day of the new corona rules – but poppies remain available at some supermarkets and donations can be made online.
Many poppy sellers for the Royal British Legion, which raises more than £50million a year during the three-week period of the appeal (Oct 22nd-Nov 11th), are elderly, and the charity is keen to ensure they are protected from the virus.
Mr Byrne said: “This will be the first time in the history of the Poppy Appeal that our volunteers will be unable to carry out face-to-face collections anywhere across the UK.
“The loss of that activity could run into millions of pounds in fundraising which means online donations are crucial, and so we’re asking people to support the Poppy Appeal by donating via the Legion’s website.
“Every poppy counts so whether you choose to print off a downloadable poppy from the Legion’s website or draw your own, we are calling on everyone across the nations to unite in a UK-wide show of support from home, display a poppy in their window in time for Remembrance Sunday and pay tribute to our Armed Forces community.”
You can donate to the Poppy Appeal here.
Is Biden’s Win Bad News For Sceptics?
My biggest worry in the run up to the Presidential election was that Trump would be punished by the American electorate for not doing more to prevent people dying of COVID-19. Had Biden won a resounding victory, as he was widely expected to do, it would have sent a message to democratically elected leaders across the world: If you don’t prioritise minimising Covid deaths, even if the measures you put in place end up causing a greater loss of life than they prevent, you will be slung out of office by the voters. But thankfully Biden won by a whisker, not a landslide. Given that this was in part a contest about how best to manage the pandemic, the result shows that the US electorate are split down the middle on the issue. Trump’s approach, which broadly reflects that set out in the Great Barrington Declaration, may not have won the day, but it wasn’t decisively rejected either. And it’s clear that the American people are much more sceptical now than they were back in March, when there was broad public support for the shut downs.
We’re winning the argument.
Is the NHS’s Lack of Capacity a Manpower Problem?
A reader has emailed me with an interesting question.
In keeping with your retweet of the thread by Ed Conway on transparency today I was struck by an email to Liam Halligan and Allison Pearson related on their Planet Normal podcast this week.
An NHS worker wrote in to Planet Normal to highlight the fact that the organisation has implemented a Covid risk profile tier system across its 1.4 million strong workforce whereby for instance an obese worker is classed as being in a high risk tier and is being allowed to stay at home on full pay (why not 80% as per furlough?). This policy puts pressure on the workers who are deemed low risk to carry the extra load as well as leading to lots of additional agency staff being employed at higher cost.
Furthermore, the implications of this policy are staggering – we have been locked down to protect the NHS again yet it seems privately the NHS is doing a very good job of protecting itself.
In terms of transparency, is the real reason for Lockdown 2.0 not the familiar bed capacity measure but rather the sheer number of staff classed as being too at risk on the NHS internal tier system? Do we have a Human Resources problem not a medical problem? Why is this not big news?
In addition, isn’t the NHS the perfect model to test the hypothesis of Dr Mike Yeadon on community immunity thresholds?
Given nurses and doctors have continued to provide care in the first instance with a highly publicised lack of PPE, shouldn’t we be allowed to see a detailed statistical analysis of outcomes? Under the notorious Ferguson model we would expect to have seen 12,600 deaths (1.4 million x an IFR of 0.9%) among health care workers since March. What are the actual figures for Covid deaths on the NHS payroll? (As of August 11th, 620 NHS staff and social care worker deaths had been linked to coronavirus.) How do Covid deaths of NHS workers compare with the wider working community, e.g. versus frontline workers in food supply chains and civil servants who have been able to work from the comfortable isolation of their own homes since March? Is this data even available and if so why not when so much of our tax money is swallowed by this institution, and once more we are all being asked to make the sacrifice of lockdown in the name of protecting this national treasure/religion! Clap for data?
I’m sure brighter minds are aware of these issues and asking the right questions. But having mentioned these ideas to a few friends, coworkers and family in the past 24 hours this seems to be a potential light bulb set of arguments.
SAGE Wants to Move Christmas to Next Summer
According to the Express, the Government’s team of scientific advisers want Britons to postpone their Christmas celebrations until the summer.
With just seven weeks to go until the festive season comes around, Sage wants millions of people to scrap plans for family gatherings – and instead arrange to see their loved ones next summer.
But they said if people do opt for a large celebration including extended family members they should be prepared to “self-quarantine” over the New Year period.
The advice was laid out in documents released on Friday, a day after England went into its second nationwide lockdown.
The documents, which were sent to Cabinet ministers, read: “Whenever announcing that a particular form of social interaction needs to be avoided, then actively propose and support less risky forms of mixing.
“These could include carrying out the activity at a later date e.g. planning a summer family get together to replace meeting at Christmas.
“If people find it emotionally or practically impossible to avoid making contact with someone outside their household then they should be encouraged to make meeting that person as safe as possible.
“For example, by self-quarantining before meeting (reducing contact with other people as far as possible for 14 days) and avoiding close and prolonged contact when meeting.”
The advice was contained in a document entitled “Positive strategies for sustaining adherence to infection control behaviours”.
Not really worth reading, let alone in full.
Does the Mink Outbreak Invalidate the Vaccine Strategy?
What follows is a guest post by Professor David Livermore, Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of East Anglia.
Yesterday’s papers carried the story of a new SARS-CoV2 variant circulating in Danish mink, which presumably caught it from their keepers. It has now spread back, in mutated form, to humans. Evidently this is causing concern, with a swift UK travel ban apropos Denmark, without the usual exemptions.
One can see why. From the Statens Serum Institut press release, via Google Translate:
A specific virus from cluster 5 has been detected with four simultaneous changes in the genes for the Spike protein in five North Jutland mink farms and in 12 patient samples. Of these, four people were directly connected to three of these farms.
To those skilled in the art, SSI may report that viruses have had the following changes in amino acids: H69del / V70del, Y453F, I692V and M1229I. Information on all variants will be uploaded in the international system GISAID.
Preliminary studies suggest that this virus from cluster 5 exhibits decreased susceptibility to antibodies from more individuals with past infection compared to non-mutated virus. This has been demonstrated in laboratory experiments, where it is seen that the particular mink virus is not inhibited to the same degree by antibodies from humans who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 compared to other non-mutated SARS-CoV-2 viruses. Studies are currently underway that will further uncover the issue.
This is important because practically all the vaccines in development, including the front-running Moderna, Pfizer, AZ and J&J candidates are directed against this Spike protein. Rare exceptions are a few whole-killed-virus vaccines being investigated in China and India.
The response to natural COVID-19 infection, including the more persistent T-cell response, on the other hand, is not purely directed against the Spike protein but also gives reactivity against other components, specifically the Nucleoprotein.
A fortnight ago I had a deal of flak, in media interviews, from those who said herd immunity wouldn’t work after an Imperial study reported circulating antibody levels dwindled over time. There were good arguments against that assertion at the time – that it’s what you expect circulating immunoglobulins to do post infection, that the T-cell response remained, and that the ‘immune memory’ persisted, enabling manufacture of more antibodies under challenge.
Harder to refute was the argument that the awaited vaccine would give a stronger immune response than natural infection, as shown in Phase I trials.
The mink results weaken this argument considerably. A weaker broad-based response from natural infection may be more protective than a strong response specifically to the Spike protein if virus with an altered Spike enters wide circulation.
With travel restrictions and mink culls, there clearly is a massive effort to stop this from happening. This effort may succeed or fail. What is however revealed is that the Spike protein is prone to consequential change. And if it has happened once, my experience (from a lifetime of working on antibiotic resistance in bacteria, which are far less mutable than RNA viruses) is that it’ll happen again, likely without mink as a vector.
For the absence of doubt: I am not anti-vaccine. I believe that vaccines will play a useful role in reducing the burden of COVID-19 and will almost certainly consent to being vaccinated, based upon a simple calculation of personal risk. I even volunteered for the AZ trial, but wasn’t ‘called-up’.
However, these findings make a further salutary point against the notion that a vaccine is going reliably to rescue us all and that we should wait, taking the massive collateral damage of repeated lockdowns, until one does. It is wiser to accept that we must face the long adaption to ‘living with this virus’, hoping that vaccines will give a boost to naturally acquired immunity, but not counting on them. Vaccine developers might also like to ponder whether putting all bets on one target is prudent…
I got back to Prof Livermore and asked him to clarify something for me. Why does the existence of this new mink strain, and the possibility of other mutations arising from human interaction with other species, invalidate the suppress-until-a-vaccine-is-available strategy but not the GDB strategy? The SSI press release he quotes suggests that antibodies in humans who’ve been infected with SARS-CoV-2 don’t provide much protection from the new strain. Yet Prof Livermore says the body’s response to natural COVID-19 infection would provide better all-round protection than a vaccine specifically designed to immunise people against the Spike protein. How does he reconcile those two things? He replied:
Anything that changes the virus so that it evades some component of the immune system isn’t good news. However:
Vaccines – almost all, except some Chinese & Indian candidates, seek to elicit a response solely to the Spike protein. If that target changes, as in the mink variant, they have a problem. They aren’t hitting anything else.
Natural infection, as will occur if following a GBD strategy – gives a range of differently-targeted antibodies and T-cells. Some recognise the Spike protein and some the nucleoprotein or membrane proteins. Those with other targets rather than the Spike protein will remain fully active against the mutant virus. Loss of the Spike as a target will, very likely, weaken the overall response but, unlike with the vaccine, some protection remains from antibodies and T-cells that target non-Spike components.
Only clinical experience will finally clarify the picture but this does argue that broader, infection-induced responses have a better chance of protecting against virus variants than an Spike-protein targeted vaccine. The SSI press release doesn’t give us enough information on just how the testing was done, and whether they were looking at total response or specifically at Spike-targeted antibodies. They certainly didn’t look at T-cell-mediated immunity.
Stop Press: Coronavirus has been found in mink populations in six other countries, so the Danish travel restrictions are unlikely to contain the new strain of the virus.
Vaccine Tsar’s £670,000 PR bill
The Sunday Times has a story on its front page today about Kate Bingham, the head of the UK’s vaccine task force, spending £670,000 of taxpayers’ money on a team of boutique public relations consultants.
Kate Bingham, a venture capitalist married to Jesse Norman, a Conservative Minister, was appointed to the role by Boris Johnson.
Since June she has used eight full-time consultants from Admiral Associates, a London PR agency, to oversee her media strategy.
According to leaked documents, she has already spent £500,000 on the team, which is contracted until the end of the year. It means each consultant is on the equivalent of £167,000 a year – more than the Prime Minister’s salary.
Bingham, 55, is said to have “insisted” on hiring them despite concerns they would duplicate the work of about 100 communications staff at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), in which her taskforce sits.
The decision was signed off by civil servants, not Alok Sharma, the business secretary.
This revelation follows last week’s story in the Sunday Times that Bingham had disclosed sensitive information about Britain’s vaccine efforts at a $200-a-head event for US venture capitalists.
During an hour-long talk to the financiers, she had given some of the most detailed insight to date about the UK’s immunisation programme, including confidential data about the government’s investment priorities.
But Bingham used her appearance before the Science and Health Select Committee at the House of Commons on Wednesday to deny any wrongdoing.
Asked whether she had disclosed anything that was not in the public domain, she said: “No. And there have been a lot of nonsense reports, and inaccurate, and I’m afraid to say irresponsible, reports suggesting that I did,” she told Greg Clark, the Tunbridge Wells MP. Her account is understood to have been met with scepticism in Downing Street.
Today, new evidence makes the questions more urgent still. In February, Bingham is due to appear at another elite function: a conference hosted by Biocom, a Californian biotech firm, charging $2,460 (£1,870) a ticket to bring together “executives, bankers [and] venture capitalists”. It promises networking that will “be fruitful for your business ventures this year and for many years to come”.
In brochures, Bingham is advertised solely as head of the UK vaccine taskforce and the literature says she will discuss her work “to find and manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine”.
During her talk to venture capitalists last month, Bingham showed guests a confidential list of 51 vaccines in development. Of these, Bingham told guests, officials had marked 14 as priority one, meaning they expect to place orders worth hundreds of millions of pounds. “We haven’t necessarily signed contracts with all of them so far, but they’re all in our sights,” she said, pointing to a slide in which the relevant treatments were split into blue, representing priority one, or purple, priority two.
For those present this was sensitive information they could use to make investments of their own. Bingham even showed the estimated price of vaccines per dose, based on an analysis prepared by Rx Securities, an investment bank.
It’s not looking good for Bingham.
Worth reading in full.
Teachers Disagree With Unions Over School Closures
According to Teacher Tapp, just 39% of teachers believe schools should close during the November lockdown, while 46% think they should remain open. The Telegraph has more.
Over 6,000 teachers were asked whether they agree with the Government’s plan to keep children in the classroom during the national shut down.
Headteachers were more likely to back schools staying open, with 69% in favour compared to 42% of classroom teachers.
The Prime Minister has insisted that schools will remain open throughout the November lockdown, saying: “We will not allow this virus to do any further damage to the future of our children.”
But the National Education Union (NEU) has demanded that schools close as they claim both staff and students are at risk.
The union is lobbying MPs for schools to be included in the lockdown, arguing that their analysis of data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) “confirms the role of schools in the transmission of the virus”.
The teaching unions have not had a good crisis. Let’s hope their members wake up to the fact that they care more about scoring political points than children’s welfare.
Worth reading in full.
Manchester Student Fence Was Erected to “Protect” Them
A reader has pointed out the remarkable similarity in the claim made by Manchester University’s Vice-Chancellor about the fence that was built around the Fallowfield halls of residence – it was built to “protect” students from non-university visitors – and the excuse made by the East German authorities for building the Berlin Wall.
The GDR authorities called the barrier the “Antifaschistischer Schutzwall” (“Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart”) and claimed that it served to keep fascists away from East Germany.
“No one should think we are in love with the Wall; that is by no means the case… The anti-fascist protective rampart was necessary to stand up to the military adventurers,” East German leader Walter Ulbrecht said in a speech shortly after the Wall’s erection.
Britain under Boris is becoming a Lidl version of the GDR.
Londoners Flout Lockdown
People weren’t paying much attention to the new lockdown restrictions yesterday. On the contrary, the capital looked much like it does on a normal Saturday. The MailOnline has more.
Britons flouted lockdown in their hundreds of thousands in London today as a market was packed with visitors helping themselves to takeaway beer on the first weekend of new coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
Londoners flocked to Broadway Market for drinks and food this afternoon, despite the new guidance to stay at home as much as possible.
People were pictured queuing up for pints outside street food restaurants and packing the streets, with many not wearing face masks.
Takeaway alcohol were originally going to be banned under the new lockdown restrictions but a Government U-turn allowed pubs, bars and hospitality venues to serve them.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The Sun says it was the same story in England’s parks, markets and seafronts, which were all packed on Saturday.
More on Army Testing at Liverpool School
A reader has got in touch to flag up some of the problems with the Army-administered, whole-school testing that’s due to take place at Broadgreen international School in Liverpool on Monday (see here for the letter parents received about this on Friday).
The letter from the school and the Army testing within school appears to breach child protection requirements.
A school cannot have outsiders working with children without school staff supervising unless the school has completed its own DBS checks on those coming in (even then, it is not good practice for outsiders to be given access to children without school staff supervision – this is to protect both the adult from unfounded allegations and the child). From the letter, it is not clear that this would be covered.
Broadgreen School is rated by Ofsted as inadequate, including inadequate leadership and management. It currently appears to be in special measures. See here for the latest full Ofsted report and here for a more recent monitoring letter.
It is disturbing that the Government feels it is acceptable to use a school in such dire straits to trial a test programme.
Hunt For Downing Street’s “Chatty Rat”
As Fraser Nelson reminded us in his Telegraph column on Friday, Boris was bounced into a second lockdown by a leak. He originally wanted to spend last weekend mulling over the decision about whether to impose a second lockdown, but was forced to adopt the policy after someone in Downing Street leaked the plan to the press. Now, according to today’s Mail on Sunday front page, the mole hunt is underway as security experts entered the homes of Cabinet Ministers to examine their personal mobile phones.
Senior figures, including Matt Hancock and Michael Gove, were told to surrender their phones as No 10 hunted for the mole whose secret briefings forced the Prime Minister to make an early announcement of the new lockdown.
In the bid to unmask the “chatty rat”, as Government sources have dubbed him in the Cabinet.
The Ministers’ personal messages were examined under the investigation, ordered by a furious Mr Johnson after he was rushed into announcing the English lockdown at a hastily convened press conference last Saturday.
Hawks believe that pro-lockdown ‘doves’ leaked details of the so-called ‘quad’ meeting of Johnson, Sunak, Gove and Hancock the previous day to stop the Prime Minister from watering down the shutdown plans.
It also led to the rushed presentation of dubious predictions, with the projection of up to 4,000 Covid deaths a day by Christmas comprehensively discredited in the days after it was revealed to millions of television viewers.
Last night, Health Secretary Mr Hancock categorically denied any involvement in the leak, but declined to comment on the investigation.
Mr Gove’s allies said the Cabinet Office Minister and his advisers were happy to hand over their phones because they had “nothing to hide”. Anti-lockdown Tory rebels, led by former party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, called for the mole to apologise personally to the Commons if caught.
Worth reading in full.
500 Scientists, Doctors and Academics Tell Boris Covid Risk Exaggerated
The children and parents’ campaign group UsForThem and the new anti-lockdown group Recovery organised a joint letter to the Prime Minister yesterday signed by a coalition of almost 500 senior doctors and scientists. The Telegraph has more.
In a joint letter to Boris Johnson, the medics and academics say the Government’s approach to the pandemic has become “disproportionate” and is “causing more harm than good”.
They warn that mass testing is “distorting the current risk” from the virus, with tests likely to be producing high numbers of “false positive” results and providing a poor indication of whether someone is infectious, and say the Government must do more to place increasing infection and deaths “in the context of the normal seasonal illness/death rate”.
The intervention comes as the Archbishop of York, the Rt Rev Stephen Cottrell, warned in the Telegraph that worship is not a “leisure pursuit”, urging the Government not to treat churches “like bingo halls and cinemas” amid criticism of the ban on congregational services brought in by lockdown.
Mr Johnson is understood to be considering plans pushed by Robert Jenrick, the Communities Secretary, for a “review point” next week after which places of worship could reopen for communal prayer if infection data suggests the move would not lead to a significant rise in Covid cases.
The open letter to the Prime Minister was signed by 469 medics and scientists including Ellen Townsend, a professor of psychology at Nottingham University, David Paton, an economics professor, and a series of senior medics including Anthony Hinton, Lasantha Wijesinghe, and Paul Sanderson, consultant surgeons in London, Dorset and Newcastle.
Worth reading in full.
Help Pay For Helene Guldberg’s Cancer Operation
Helene Guldberg requires surgery urgently to remove her bladder. Cancer was diagnosed two years ago but her doctors believed that chemotherapy would be sufficient. It wasn’t. In May of this year – during the lockdown – abnormal cells were again identified and Helene has had an agonising six months of delays in her cancer treatment. She has been advised that the NHS do not have the capacity to operate on her until January 2021 due to the coronavirus. Helene simply cannot wait that long. Every doctor Helene has consulted has said the same thing: “Time is of the essence.”
Even finding a private hospital which has the capacity to treat her has proved very difficult. But Helene has finally found one – The Royal Marsden in London. She is scheduled to undergo surgery on November 23rd.
Please contribute to this fundraiser to help her pay for the treatment the NHS can’t provide.
The Lockdown Archipelago
To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good, or else that it’s a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions…
Ideology – that is what gives the evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
Round-Up
- “Mr President, I have a Mr Johnson on the line… will you accept the call?” – The Sunday Times‘s Tim Shipman reveals that a member of Biden’s campaign team has accused Johnson of making “racist comments” in the past, compared Britain’s immigration policies to Trump’s and criticised British ministers’ stance towards Black Lives Matter
- Collateral Global – This is the website Lockdown Sceptics have been waiting for – an audit of all the collateral damage caused by the lockdowns
- “CRUCIAL Viral Update! *The Bottom Lines on this Issue* UK Revelations a Plenty!” – Latest update from Ivor Cummins
- “Liberté! An open letter by 200 French lawyers protesting against lockdown” – A heartfelt plea to President Macron to lift the lockdown in France
- “How a full-scale lockdown rebellion by Tory MPs was called off” – Good piece in the Guardian about the machinations Number 10 used to browbeat the new intake of Tory MPs into voting with the Government on Wednesday
- “Lockdown socialism has ushered in a dangerous new approach to the state” – Dan Hannan says the spiralling cost of the Covid response is inuring us to the true scale of what is happening
- Police Clamp Down on Million Mask March – Watch the TSG over-react to anti-lockdown protestors marching through London on Thursday night
- “We are being TERRIFIED into obeying by these Orwellian announcements” – Annabelle Sanderson in the Express on SAGE’s dodgy dossier
- “Lockdown sceptics give scepticism a bad name” – Dr Simon Clarke strikes again in the Spectator with his most infantile, personal attack yet. You know you’re over the target when you start taking flak.
- “The Mystery of Taiwan” – Amelia Janaskie on what Taiwan got right in the AIER blog
- “Thousands protest lockdown in Leipzig” – Thousands of people gathered in the German city of Lepizig to protest new lockdown restrictions
- “In pictures – Stroud Freedom Rally” – Gloucestershire Live has some pictures from yesterdays freedom rally in Stratford Park, Stroud
- “More experts say peak of second wave ‘has already PASSED’” – Professor Tim Spector, from King’s College London, said yesterday that the data suggested the second wave had ‘peaked’, while Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter said it was clear that the worst hit areas were seeing infections fall
- “Vitamin D to be delivered to millions of vulnerable people to help protect them from Covid” – Ministers are drawing up plans for four-month supplies to go to care home residents
- “I’m A Celebrity ‘thrown into chaos as A.J. Pritchard tests POSITIVE for COVID-19 eight days before the new series begins’” – The former Strictly star, 26, had a routine test along with the other contestants ahead of the new series, which stars on Sunday November 15th, and was found to be positive
- “We’re not going to take it any more” – Richard Littlejohn echoes Peter Finch in Network in the Mail
- “Nightingale hospitals grounded by staff shortage” – The Sunday Times reveals that England’s seven Nightingale hospitals cost £220 million to build and have so far only treated 200 people
- “Was the virus engineered?” – Peter Franklin in UnHerd says there no longer seems to be the same consensus within the scientific community that the virus wasn’t made in a lab
- “Helena Morrissey: A CEO Wouldn’t Get Away With This” – Helena Morrissey says a FTSE CEO announcing a major change in strategy would need better evidence than Boris produced last Saturday, as well as a full impact assessment
- “Coronavirus Fact-Check #8: ‘New daily cases’ and the second wave” – Off-Guardian is sceptical about the ‘second wave’
- “The revolt against lockdown” – The editors of Spiked take comfort from the fact that students and young people protested on the first night of Lockdown 2.0
- “The infantilism of locking down to ‘save Christmas’” – Rod Liddle doesn’t have much time for Lockdown 2.0 in the Spectator
- “Universities are a criminal enterprise” – Hard-hitting piece by Laura Perrins in the Conservative Woman
- “Covid has proved China right about the weakness of the West” – Iain Duncan Smith in the Telegraph says the failure of liberal democracies to cope with the virus is a gift to the Communist Party of China
- “The Autopsy Is on Life Support” – Slate reveals that the number of autopsies has declined dramatically over the past few years, but autopsies are crucial to understanding COVID-19
- Psychology Counts – Open letter written by a group of psychologists about the psychological harm caused by lockdowns. Anyone can sign
- “Smoking Gun: Fauci States COVID Test Has Fatal Flaw; Confession From the ‘Beloved’ Expert of Experts” – Jon Rapppoport writing on LeeRockwell.com has discovered a podcast in which Anthony Fauci says that the PRC test is useless and misleading when the test is run at “35 cycles or higher”. In the UK, it’s typically run at 45 cycles
- “Testing Slovakia” – Good blog post by Skepteco on the recent attempt to test the entire population of Slovakia in one weekend
- “NHS output stays low” – John Redwood, one of the Conservative MPs who voted against Lockdown 2.0, has written a blog post about the fact that the NHS is still not providing an adequate service to non-Covid patients
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Three today: “Moonshine Sally” by Mud, “Alive and Kicking” by Simple Minds and “Symphony of Destruction” by Megadeth.
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention. We have a team of moderators in place to remove spam and deal with the trolls, but sometimes it takes a little while so please bear with us. You have to register to use the Forums, but that should just be a one-time thing. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
Sharing stories: Some of you have asked how to link to particular stories on Lockdown Sceptics. The answer used to be to first click on “Latest News”, then click on the links that came up beside the headline of each story. But we’ve changed that so the link now comes up beside the headline whether you’ve clicked on “Latest News” or you’re just on the Lockdown Sceptics home page. Please do share the stories with your friends and on social media.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, it’s the turn of the Imperial War Museum which is reviewing Churchill’s legacy and his views on “sensitive topics” in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests. The Telegraph has more.
Internal documents, seen by the newspaper, reveal discussions are taking place at the institution, which is home to the Churchill War Rooms complex where Britain’s wartime leader directed our country’s fight against Nazi Germany.
Senior staff called for a fresh look at “Churchill’s views” in relation to “sensitive topics” as his usually revered reputation came under scrutiny this summer as marches on Parliament Square resulted in his statue being defaced with graffiti claiming he “was a racist”.
Last night the institution said that while it is always considering “complex subject matter”, it had no current plans to reinterpret his legacy. Work is ongoing, it is understood.
Curators began discussions in the days after Churchill’s statue on Parliament Square was defaced by protesters, which was sparked by Black Lives Matter supporters marching on London.
“We must continue to have conversations around sensitive and difficult issues,” Museum staff were told in an email. “We must have conversations in which we reflect upon and examine our own biases and preconceptions.”
Other emails, obtained under freedom of information laws, show staff explicitly discuss Churchill. One said: “We should chat further about how we can look at Churchill’s views re: tackling sensitive topics too.
“This is one I’m very keen to get ahead of.”
Campaigners have criticised Churchill on topics including racism, colonialism, and his handling of the Bengal Famine which left millions dead, much to the dismay of his supporters.
The debate over the former Prime Minister’s views comes amid widespread reappraisal of Britain’s revered historical figures, including Admiral Lord Nelson, after the statue of Edward Colston was toppled in Bristol.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Tim Parker, Chair of the National Trust, has praised Black Lives Matter as a “human rights movement with no party-political affiliations”. This was days before BLM applied to the Electoral Commission to register as a political party.
“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.
Mask Censorship: A group of American researchers have withdrawn their paper claiming mandatory masking reduces SARS-CoV-2 transmission after further research revealed that… it didn’t. Details here.
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 month and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it. If you Googled it a week after launch, 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 650,000 signatures.
Update: The authors of the GDB have expanded the FAQs to deal with some of the arguments and smears that have been made against their proposal. Worth reading in full.
Update 2: Many of the signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration are involved with new UK anti-lockdown campaign Recovery. Find out more and join here.
Update 3: Professor Sunetra Gupta sets out the case for “Focused Protection” in a YouTube video for Co-Immunity.
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.
Christian Concern is JR-ing the Government over its insistence on closing churches during the lockdowns. Read about it here.
And last but not least there’s the Free Speech Union‘s challenge to Ofcom over its ‘coronavirus guidance’. You can read about that and make a donation here.
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.)
And Finally…
A reader has kindly answered our call to create a Downfall parody of the pickle Boris has got himself into. Pretty darn good. More please.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
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The Simon Clarke Spectator piece is the most god-awful “Biblical pronouncement” type drivel. Take this:
“You should view the false positive as one in every 100 tests conducted, not one in every five positive results. So the only way the number of false positives can grow is by doing more tests, not finding more instances of coronavirus.”
But don’t we find “more instances of coronavirus” THROUGH the tests?
Then the last paragraph gives us the Book of Revelations:
“The pandemic will, unfortunately, be with us for some time…”
How do you know?
“…and will develop in ways we cannot yet know.”
So you know that the pandemic will be with us for “some time” but cannot know how it will develope?
“We are not going to find our way out of it by denying the scale of the problem because we may not like the solution; that way lies failure.”
The scale of the problem which you know but don’t know?
“Nobody will care about fancy models or the clever use of statistics when our hospitals are on the brink, stuffed full of patients choking to death.”
Biblical prophecy time!
“Make no mistake, a Covid… Read more »
https://leapsmag.com/disinfection-tunnels-are-popping-up-around-the-world-fueled-by-misinformation-and-fear/
Fancy being sprayed in an infection tunnel anyone? Face recognition, temperature taken – the whole works. In use in several countries. Sounds like something fanciful Boris might like for Christmas.
Biden doesn’t have the power to order a nationwide lockdown. He could tie any relief to individual states based on lockdowns but the Democrats won’t be holding a majority in the legislative branch in order to have that power either.
I’m no longer a lockdown sceptic, I am 357% dead against it.
I’m a little late to this party but from what I understand, one of the main issues encountered by my local trust (Doncaster and Bassetlaw) is staff absence due to the isolation requirements. Last weekend 700 members of staff were apparently off sick. In addition to those shielding this must be a massive percentage of the staff, many of whom are not actually poorly but have either “been in contact” with someone who has tested positive or are required to look after a child who has been.
Apparently they employ 6500 members of staff according to a quick Google.
Covid vaccines must be safe because Matt Hancock says so! Government concludes agreement with social media companies on Covid vaccine “mis-information” while GCHQ is to use “counter-terorism” measures
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/social-media-giants-agree-package-of-measures-with-uk-government-to-tackle-vaccine-disinformation
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8927865/GCHQ-spies-launch-cyber-counter-attack-against-anti-vaccine-propaganda-spread-Russia.html
We can trust what he says can’t we?
Yes -never been a vaccine ever that had side effects that didn’t manifest themselves a few years down the lines has there?
I read this message from the Guardian at the end of a comment by Thomas Frank yesterday:
The Guardian has no shareholders or billionaire owner, meaning our journalism is free from influence and vested interests – this makes us different. Our editorial independence and autonomy allows us to provide fearless investigations and analysis of those with political and commercial power. We can give a voice to the oppressed and neglected, and help bring about a brighter, fairer future.
Paramedic demonstrating how the test for coronavirus is performed…
using an apple juice sample.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueUCV3XY3l0&ab_channel=HelloIrlandia
The sample on the left came up positive, right?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8927413/Boris-Johnson-feels-bounced-second-coronavirus-lockdown-says-Cabinet-ally.html
but…
then…
but…
FFS!
Pack of lies from the Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/08/nhs-england-suspends-one-to-one-nursing-for-critically-ill-covid-patients
No, they aren’t very sick! Thousands aren’t even being treated for Covid.
No, they aren’t!
I like your style. 😉
it’s all over for the dictator, the people are taking to the streets and they will prevail
Local Live
‘Spooky pictures of City centre streets deserted during lockdown’.
Not what I’ve seen every day since Thursday but it is clear from the light and shadows that the one photo of an actual street was taken very early in the morning.
The others were taken within privately owned shopping centres which will have security barring access.
I saw this blurb in the Guardian at the end of an article written by Thomas Frank:
The Guardian has no shareholders or billionaire owner, meaning our journalism is free from influence and vested interests – this makes us different. Our editorial independence and autonomy allows us to provide fearless investigations and analysis of those with political and commercial power. We can give a voice to the oppressed and neglected, and help bring about a brighter, fairer future.
Somebody mentioned earlier the fall of the Communist regimes iin Eastern Europe in 1989.
Honecker, Ceaucescu and the others mist be kicking themselves in their graves that they never came up with the idea of declaring a pandemic in order to head off the demonstrations.
Dieter :”Hey, let’s go and break through he Berlin Wall”
Helmut: “No, stay home, stay safe”
The term ‘anti-vaxxer’ used to denote someone who was against all vaccinations.
Now, it is used to denote anybody who has any questions about any vaccine for any reason.
How did that happen?
Mission creep.
Discussions regarding the safety regarding the safety and efficacy of vaccines is not generally permitted. On that basis it is safe to assume that Big Pharma and the medical authorities are hiding something nasty, that they don’t want you to know. The vaccine tsar himself, Bill Gates pours many millions every year into the media and small wonder that reporting on vaccines is hardly ever objective.
The same way “racism” was changed to mean anyone white
Droves of people out today.
#mock the shamdemic
We the people outnumber the Police, Military, weak & cowardly MPs. Time to stand up to the bullies and CRUSH them.
Philosophical point.
My own view is more that humanity tends to suffer from collective delusions. And now we are in the midst of a particularly severe one. Rather than looking at this from the perspective of one “side” or another, I find it better to try to view it in an abstract way. It’s less personal that way.
I realised last night that the so-called “climate emergency” and the “covid pandemic” actually have a lot in common.
In both cases humanity has decided (collectively) that we are responsible (or guilty).
With “climate change” the idea goes that we are responsible for global warming and can control the weather and we must therefore suppress carbon to save the planet. If we do not then it is modelled that millions will die.
With the “covid pandemic” the idea goes that there is a global deadly plague – that may have been man-made – and that we can control this virus and we must therefore suppress the virus to save lives. If we do not then it is modelled that millions will die.
This is a big change from recent prior centuries. When most of the developed world believed in God (I am… Read more »
Theres certainly been elements of mass hysteria.
For many climate change is a religion.
Chesterton said that when men stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing they believe in everything.
I believe that this is indeed a conspiracy and it shares so many traits with the Covid scam.Dodgy computer models chief among them.It seems you are coming around to my point of view with your last paragraph
I too have noticed the similarities between Covid and the G. Warming debate.
In fact it was the way the BBC have uncritically presented the case for Authoritarian measures to ‘protect’ the people that made me question the similar way they present the GW issue.
Whilst the mad response to Covid is obviously bogus, I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that GW is equally questionable.
By that I mean the causes, rather than the fact.
The two issues are essentially a cut and paste job, then change a few words.
The temperature is not warming but drifting down since 2002, and the supposed cause is wholly bogus.
We’d better not have an economic recovery, otherwise we’ll die…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/09/revealed-covid-recovery-plans-threaten-global-climate-hopes
Scientific study of physical, chemical and biological processes can produce a deep level of understanding of those processes on their own. But it’s a different level of problem to try and predict the behaviour of a complex system in which many such processes are interacting. And how humans behave in various situations is even less amenable to scientific study.
Yes, I agree with both statements Edward.
How very easily this covid scam (and IMHO the GW and Natural Capital scams) have been pulled off ought to make everyone question the philosophy.
There is no such thing as philosophy-free science; there is only science whose philosophical baggage is taken on board without examination.
—
Daniel Dennett, Darwin’s Dangerous Idea, 1995
We are now being told on the front page of one of the newspapers that GCHQ is being given a role in stopping so- called “anti-vaxxer propaganda”. This gets more Orwellian by the moment. It’s not as though such propaganda has been stunningly successful to date is it? Standard vaccinations have climbed from about three to (might be wrong but I think it’s 82) over an average lifetime) over the last six decades.
What’s the point in an allegedly free society if you’re not allowed to discuss something as important to our health as vaccination?
Sorry, why do you refer to genuine concerns about vaccines as propoganda. Tried and tested is one thing, but why combine MMR, and make it so difficult for parents to obtain separate vaccines. There is a big issue at the moment about serious side affects from the polio vaccine in Africa, please refer to the UN for confirmation of this. If modern vaccines are so safe, why do the pharma companies all have indemnity. The government in the UK have even issued indemnity to those that administer the vaccine – so basically anyone can give it, even if their method is harmful.
I’m quoting the newspaper (admittedly from memory). I think we need a reasoned debate about vaccination especially as the stated aim of the Vaccine Centre supported by both Imperial College and LSHTM is to develop vaccines for every (!) disease…so we will administer hundreds of vaccines to children. I’d like to see a moratorium on new vaccines for a year during which we should consider removing some existing vaccines whilst putting in place new protocols for assessing whether to proceed with new vaccines. In many cases it might make sense to vaccinate those with a high risk profile, but not the general population.
Manchester protest – Cannot find a mention of it on the BBC website.
Very different perspective taken by different newspapers. Is the Daily Mail of all papers a member of this site?
I was on the Brighton March. The DM quotes one ‘George Taylor’, condemning the participants. He was taking pictures, I saw him. He’s a quite well known local self publicist (in certain circles), 21 very narcissistic years on this earth, and wants to be a LibDem councillor. Need I say more? BUT, the DM was trying to buy his photos off him on his Twitter feed, and therefore is complicit.
I have just watched the abuse by the police of the Scottish piper, and Speakers corner and I hate the way I now feel about our police force, being brought up on Dixon of Dock Green and a credible reassurance our police really were a force of consent. Added to this I have spent 30 years in so called authoritarian regimes or dictatorships,( including Iraq under Saddam), as the West would call them. Do you know what scares me most, in all those 30 years, I never felt the fear as I did when I returned from the ME for the first LD and my first trip out against the rules. Likewise today, I drove 100 miles to attend my parents grave and a village memorial which includes my great uncle who was in the RAF. No worries, I was ready for any plod attack. But what was so soul destroying was that a mile awsy from the village is a roadside veg market, it’s been there since I was a child, 50 years plus, so I intended to stop for some flowers and veg. As I indicated to go in, what was there but 2 cop cars. Once, I… Read more »
Both in the US and Europe the methods which have been used in places like Iraq for decades are now been brought home – see the increasing militarization of the police.
But my point being, that I never had a deep seated fear, or rather you expected a certain behaviour, but the difference being that the UK police have always been assumed as a benign force, that is to the law abiding. I knew in Baghdad and other countries what I was dealing with, but now I see my country’s police force as much worse, as they masquerade as one thing, but deliver something else. As I said, I never feared the authoritarian police, it was a known beast, but our police force are now beyond contempt.
My point was slightly different.
I meant that the methods employed by the US and UK military in Iraq and elsewhere will be increasingly focused on the civilian populations in the homelands as economic conditions worsen and discontent spreads.
From Fallujah to Felixstowe
rom Basra to Birmingham
We are seeing it already.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/08/ministers-warn-lockdown-flouters-police-preparing-escalate-response/ (paywall) but basically it says that despite the pubs, cafes and non essential (read small businesses) being forced to close, people were out in their droves . Reminds me of the fall of the Eastern Bloc.
Me too. I suspect just like when the Soviet bloc fell and you were hard pushed to find anyone who admitted to being a commie, you will be hard pushed to find very few hardcore bedwetters once things change with this nonsense.
As Simon Dolan keeps saying ‘Its all over when we decide it is’.
they’re going to have to escalate it a hell of a lot to make 126,000 police officers deal effectively with 52,000,000 adults
and it really is such good PR to threaten the people who pay your wages isn’t it…
….. and who live amongst us, and expect neighbourliness whist at the same time repressing us? I’m sorry, but that won’t float.
Indeed – that is one of the most effective methods of resistance- make the police feel shame individually outside of uniform.
Amazing how these spokespeople (unnamed of course) all trot out the same cliches as ‘keeping the R number down’ (meaningless, ask Yeadon) and ‘defeating the virus’ whilst ‘saving lives’ yawn yawn. How many cancer and heart disease lives have we saved?
This is going to end very badly for the Police. They are very quickly (if they have not already) lost the public.
Police bosses need to stop and have a real good think to themselves and realise they are being played by the Government.
Forgive me if you think I’m exagerrating. Off duty police are going to start getting attacked by gangs; police are going to start getting their windows put in.
I would not want to be a cop at the moment.
EScalation plans are good news. Escalations cause reactions amd then a cascade of events which become increasingly difficult to predict and control.
Loss of control is exactly what is required.
Yes it’s encouraging to hear Patel start threatening the public for what? Walking out in the sunshine.The fear propaganda has lost its potency.
It’s hard to run a police state without a police state apparatus.
Guys, you are on fire, here. Brilliant point, JP.
This is such a great point.
Doesn’t bode well:
“The Biden-Harris transition team hit the ground running Sunday, the day after media outlets projected him the winner of the presidential race, by launching its website and social media pages. The website, Buildbackbetter.com, lists the coronavirus pandemic, economic recovery, racial equity and climate change as its priority issues.”
Hmmm, where have I heard “build back better” before? A Republican senate is the only bulwark against the Great Reset.
wow so predictable. that’s incredible.
Trump is not beaten yet.
Depends if he can get the fraud proven and overturned.
going right off the deep end here – but anyway, i’m going to bed now:-
“6uild 6ack 6etter”
Lol! Well I hope it’s an lol after someone pointed out the meaning of Sunak’s finance company’s name…
It’s a bit like that old Hammer Horror film scene where someone finally works out that Alucard is Dracula written backwards.
Donald J Trump will be inaugurated on January 20th. Many of he Republican senators are never-Trumpers and are bought into the system.
Let’s hope he does pull through, he isn’t perfect but still infinitely more preferable.
Got to laugh at their front.
Masks everywhere. It’s definitely a tool of social conditioning
I just heard Sleepy Joe on the radio saying in a soapy voice that ‘we’ (the Americans) must all wear our masks.
Government knows what’s best for infants
Having a ‘discussion’ on another forum with a clever dick who reckons that the views of Gupta and the GBD have been trashed by everyone. Also says that the virus is 10 times more deadly than flu.
Can someone point me in the right direction to disprove these ‘facts’
He’s a right know all so would like to push back.
Ivor Cummings video in todays roundup
Beat me to it!
Thanks
Hmmmmm…odd sort of queries to bring here.
Yes – the others are spot on – Ivor and Ioannidis
But do these people look around them in real life – where are the piles of bodies?
10x more deadly than the flu, really? So I take it said clever dick hasn’t touched a chip & pin machine terminal in over 8+ months, lest he immediately fall ill due to the instant transmission from 50,100, whatever, infected fingers having been all over it?
Failing that: Bulletin of the W.H.O. Article ID: BLT.20.265892
John P. Loannidis – peer reviewed.
“In people <70 years, infection fatality rates ranged from 0.00% to 0.31% with crude and corrected medians of 0.05%”
An Ivor Cummings video would put him straight….but he is probably beyond hope
WHO have John Ioannodis paper on IFR and CEBM Carl Heneghan. For children and young people and working age people way less of a problem then flu. For older and sick people more of a problem than flu.
https://swprs.org/studies-on-covid-19-lethality/
Show him this: it’s the Radio 4 interview in which Vallance shows that, at the time (13th March), he agreed fully with the views of Gupta and the GBD.
https://twitter.com/bbcr4today/status/1238390547783528448?lang=en
or,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XRc389TvG8
“We want to suppress it, not get rid of it completely, which you can’t do anyway, not supress it so you get the 2nd peak, and also, allow enough of us, who are going to get mild illness to become immune to this to help with the whole population response which would protect everybody.”
Try this. Can’t really argue with the ONS
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending23october2020#deaths-by-region-in-england-and-wales
Click on deaths per region.
Did someone say we are in the midst of a second wave?
Just wait, two more weeks……
I found the section entitled The bogus narrative to be the most useful and persuasive section of Ivor latest video.
DM reporting on someone in Wigan getting a fine for having a cuppa with a friend. Two observations:
1. Neighbours clearly snitched and should burn in hell for their ignorance
2. He should not have let them in the door, they have no right of entry
Know the law folks…
With regard to this, do they have to catch you red-handed?
Or can they come for you later?
For a FPN they would have to catch you in the act.I couldn’t see witness statements and an interview leading to a trial for having someone around for a cup of tea.
Good Question…red handed I would say. Unless you got filmed by your neighbours/cctv/spy camera
Just refuse to pay it. I think some lawyers as advising this.
Is #2 the case in Scotland too? I read that it isn’t in Wales.
Set off some fireworks last night at 8pm with family in field near my sisters house. the baby wasn’t a fan and my mum took her home. On the way way back she heard a full street of hysterical neighbours complaining with one having called the cops.
Can only presume it was due to us not following the ‘rule’. This is what our society has become!
Fearful ignorant people
Must be utterly vile beings to be so full of spite. Have discovered an extended family member is snitching for all they’re worth. Sickened to share any genes with them.
Absolutely huge demo in Leipzig yesteday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe0KrrGJ8xE
In German – but skip through it to get an idea of how big it was.
The level of resistance here IN Northern Ireland is woeful. Many are going to monthly protests, but the numbers seem to already be dwindling. The number of police atStormont yesterday was sending a statement. The event had to be moved last minute. Those attending are heros.
What do you think the government’s next play is going to be? Their momentum is clearly dying by the day, so I’m wondering what they’re going to try next to drag this out. As it stands I don’t know how they’ll even reach December, let alone beyond that.
I think they’re hoping that their mass testing programs give them the infection numbers they need, but the one in Liverpool appears to have been roundly rejected. Will they make a push towards mandatory testing?
They can push.
We can push back.
Equal and opposite reaction ….
For me, they will maybe sack a big player. Would that do it? Blame Hancock for the leak, bring in a new voice from the rebel stock in the party? Would Hunt be back for it? He’s a shill for the Pharma industry but it could buy them time? Soften the rebeks with a little more the ‘living with the virus’ platitudes without really moving the dial very much. If not Hunt then maybe one of the rebels themselves.
As for Lockdown III. It simply isn’t feasible now youd think. Not in its current form anyway.
To be clear, I’m just throwing in Hunts name. He offers nothing but the Conservatives are on borrowed time within the Cabinet. They’ll have to do something
They’ll double down. They won’t be stopped.
They will be stopped.
Replace johnsons claque with a government led by Sir Charles Walker and the Tories might survive.
you’d have to replace all the MPs that voted for lockdown though…
Can’t see them sacking anyone because they would know where the bodies are buried.
Nothing short of Swayne for PM and Walker and all the other ‘Against’ voters for the rest of the cabinet, will make me vote for them ever again.
I am not keen on Hunt. Steve Baker would be better
Hunt? God, no!
Nobody believes them anymore, not even panic buying this time.
Covid 20? The set up is in with the mink stories and the endless scare stories about mutants from Spain etc. Otherwise they’re completely fucked.
Worrying because the leaked memo from Canada mentioned Covid mutating.They seem to pushing this narrative.Furlough until March, the government is not giving up anytime soon.
Canada? I live in the UK.
Oh I forgot there is no worldwide conson
Conspiracy
Believe that if you want Jonathan.
It’s not what I believe,it’s what the evidence is pointing to.Article in the Guardian regarding Johnson and Biden and the slogan build back better.Johnson believes it means a green industrial revolution.
Remember this is in response to a virus.
I thought they turned out in droves to be tested in Liverpool. Was that just all the idiots on the first day?
Think that might have been the MSM?
Logical you’d start with the 2000 Army personal. OK civvies for the testing lads and lasses!!
Not having a mandatory test or a vaccine.
The false positives rate will likely be used to bring in more and more testing and more and more testing will produce false positives and “cases” and you will never ever escape this. Getting the false positives out and in peoples heads is vital. No one else I know seems aware that it’s a reality. They think the test is bang on each and every time
Think it’s pretty obvious now that the tests are useless. Lots of YouTube videos about false positives.
Not sure I’d want to give them any ideas; they certainly read this forum.
Panscepticon now has overall user statistics, including a leaderboard for likes.
Will you be in the top 50? 😀
(Note: I’m having trouble with user accounts where the owner has changed the name over time. Currently, “Fred” and “fred” will be considered to be distinct users and so their likes and posts will be split across the accounts. I’m going to see if I can find a more robust identifier for users than the user name, but until then, some people’s stats will be under-reported.)
Awesome! 🙂
Like Trump and trump? Suddenly it all makes sense!
Quite funny that “Neil Ferguson” once posted on here.
Props to Mayo holding the top spot!
Poor Mayo – we don’t mind the occasional squirt on our chips!
Lots of demos this weekend I was at the manchester1 there were thousands there not hundreds which was reported in the MSM also lots of people out and about ignoring the stay at home order .think the government are rattled as they have told the police to clamp down more.
It’s the end of the beginning things are at last turning in our favour intersting times ahead
My thoughts and hopes entirely.
Loads of people in my small provincial city just milling about with no obvious ‘reasonable excuse’ for not self imprisoning.
Zero Police presence.
I actually think it is the beginning of the end, rather than the end of the beginning.
I am a bit (not much) more optimistic now.
I would also say, “beginning of the end”; once the people start turning against you, things change quickly.
The people in the German demonstration shown earlier know this; they remember ‘the wall’, and what the people behind it went through, and they don’t/won’t forget.
Don’t forget, according to Toby’s No. 10 ‘insider’, the Quad are supposedly ‘terrified’ that they (the Tories) will lose the people’s support.
They’ve lost it already! If Johnson wants to turn this round (so that he can stop being ‘terrified’), he needs to change NOW!
Climate change protesters strangely treated differently by the Police in Oz than lockdown protesters.
Very odd …. who’d have thought it!?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mmmDmIpWH8
Does anyone know who organised the Manchester protest? Fucktard police have issued with 10k fine. Wasn’t able to go due to kids but would like to put money towards helping whoever has been left with this from the same police force that is a OK with any antifa or blm protests.
His name is Paul Boys, and it looks as though he got around the fine issue by “going for a walk”! But absolutely shocking that permission was revoked so close to the start time. Here’s a link to an update he posted 4 hours ago. I went today along with some friends – there were a lot of people there, and it was a great atmosphere. We left before the police started to close it all down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGa9lG3tteo&t=9s
I left at 3 30 on the drive out noticed lots of riot Van’s heading towards the city centre . No need for it it was a very peaceful demoj
There was a lovely atmosphere, Nic, wasn’t there?! Yes, absolutely no need for the police to get heavy-handed – unless there was a desire to discourage future protests and/or incite a response so they can be even more heavy-handed…
I’m afraid the OTT response is par for the course in anti-lockdown demos. Other dirty tricks include declaring the gathering illegal just before it’s due to start (happened today), warning somebody on the demo that they weren’t social distancing/masking so should disperse, then using that as an excuse to wade in with batons, arresting organisers three or four days after the demo and issuing them with a 10k fine.
We will have our day however.
Thanks, just looking at the MEN which reported in prototypical wankerish way. I love the hysterical victorian lady style that “social distancing was not followed”
The comments were equally hysterical, sadly, Cotton – we are all just selfish and dangerous, and are prolonging this dreadful pandemic for everyone… I spoke to one police officer just as things were getting going. I wanted to get an idea of how “bought in” to the official narrative they are. Turns out he was a paid up member of the “I know people who have had it, and you should go visit an ICU” club.
I have to try and keep my rage in check with people like that. They can’t even engage when you say about the number of cancer patients who are going to die horrible deaths or any one of a myriad of other diseases will far outweigh any potential covid deaths. As soon as someone starts saying “you should go to the icu” or similar you know there is no arguing with them. They have swallowed the koolaid.
So wish they had said that to my partner who is a nurse, so could have informed the officer he does visit and ICU every working day and still thinks locking down health people and destroying the economy is bonkers.
“I know people who have had it, and you should go visit an ICU”
Most likely what they’ve been told to say.
Thanks for the post and link. That guy is a legend and watching his video has given me a lot of hope.
My pleasure 🙂 He’s pretty inspiring – I love that there are new leaders springing up all over the place, from unexpected places, to challenge the failing status quo 🙂 Gives me hope too 🙂
🙂
Awesome!
Here’s some useful advice for organisers, from the comments:
Well done keep it up! Hull went well no arrests, no fines.
My lay advise is describe the events as a petition and prayer. The English Constitution allows for this. If they ask for your name and address give it, then you will get a summons, the summons will ask whether you want a hearing, say yes. Then present your defence as Bill of Rights article 5, 10, 12. Article 1&2 is also a valid defence. If the court ignores this, it goes to appeal and the high court. Robin Tilbrook, Tilbrook solicitors will assist once the summons is sent back with hearing wanted. This is unlawful under our English Constitution. The British do not have a constitution. Contact me if you need more explanation.
Thanks for posting.
What a great video and what a great young man; very calm and level-headed.