Graham Brady, the former leading Tory backbencher, has revealed that Boris Johnson asked him “How many people would you let die?” when he said Lord Sumption was right to challenge lockdown. It shows how deeply Boris had been taken in by his Government’s own fearmongering about the virus, particularly after being hospitalised with it himself. Here’s an excerpt from Brady’s memoir, published in the Telegraph.
I watched much of the Government’s early handling of the COVID-19 pandemic unfold with deep concern. On Thursday March 19th 2020, the Government pushed emergency legislation through the House of Commons without a vote. The legislation would give the Government sweeping powers, especially to spend taxpayers’ money. David Davis had the presence of mind to table an amendment to require six-monthly renewal, which a number of us supported. This was the first of many moments during the pandemic when the complete absence of a functioning Opposition was felt. Surely Sir Keir Starmer should have wanted to ensure Parliamentary oversight of the Government during a crisis?
In the middle of May 2020, I secured an in-person meeting with Johnson, the first since December. He looked weary, certainly not back to full strength after contracting Covid himself. He seemed oblivious to the massive economic, social and non-Covid health costs that the lockdown would cause.
He readily agreed with me that the evidence suggested that the important interventions were hand hygiene and disinfection of surfaces, but when I suggested that the two-metre ‘social distancing’ rule should be reduced, he recoiled with horror.
“It’s people like us who get it really bad!” he exclaimed, looking at me. “Not athletic… I was a fatty… 17 and a half stone when I went into hospital.”
That same month, after stories emerged about the PM’s Chief Adviser, Dominic Cummings, having broken lockdown rules by driving from London to his parents’ home in Durham, with a side trip to Barnard Castle, I saw Boris again. He opened the door to his office looking like shit: frizzy hair and black rings around his eyes. I was astonished to see that on this occasion, his chaperone was the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak.
I started with substantive points about the restrictions, reminding him of the impact on the aviation sector, which threw him a bit. Rishi said nothing but was obviously enjoying seeing someone else try to make the case for more nuanced restrictions that would do less collateral damage. I then launched into Cummings. “This is damaging the party, the Government and damaging you personally. Colleagues are really angry.”
Boris spat back: “I think backbench MPs have been contemptible! They have been spineless chickenshit. They need to develop some backbone. The 2019 guys need to understand that they wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Dom.”
I said that I had no personal animus against Cummings but that the row was hugely damaging and most of us thought he should resign.
“But don’t you believe his account? I believe it!”
“The Barnard Castle story is obvious bullshit – no sane person would drive his wife and small child 30 miles to test his eyesight!”
Boris looked totally perplexed at this. “HE’S NOT SANE!” he replied, as though that should have been obvious.
I briefly wondered whether Boris was also losing it.
As I left, Rishi left with me and invited me into his office to discuss the two-metre rule further. “You’re right, of course; it’s all going wrong because it was a mistake to put the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Scientific Officer in the press conference every day,” he said. “We thought it would give us cover, but now we can’t do anything sensible without them denouncing it as a risk.”
Days later, I requested a meeting with Boris about another matter but he phoned me first. “First, can I apologise for being intemperate with you when we met… it’s not your fault, you’re just doing your job, and you do it brilliantly… And I do understand the frustration of colleagues. I responded like that because I was so f—— angry myself. The f—— Barnard Castle optician trip for Christ’s sake!”
On schools, Boris said he agreed. “It’s this stupid f—–g two-metre rule, we’re going to review it – we’ll sort it. It’s these f—–g scientists!” It seemed he was being hoist by his own petard.
I bumped into Sir Robert Syms in the corridor. “There’s no leadership, no direction!”
In mid-June, I finally got a slot for the whole executive committee to meet with Boris. I started by asking the PM to talk us through the balance of risks between COVID-19, non-Covid health, economic cost and civil liberties. He vomited forth a torrent of words. One of his favourite tactics is talking rapidly while not leaving space for anyone to interject.
About 10 minutes in, I tried to push him on getting Britain back to work and ending the 14-day quarantine period. This merely triggered more waffle. “Moving as fast as we can! It’s the bloody scientists! It’s like that terrible Freudian dream where your feet are moving rapidly – but you don’t go anywhere.” Looking vaguely shifty, he asked me, “Do you have that?”
“No,” I replied. “Thankfully not.” I was tempted to add that it might be because my conscience was clear.
Long after the easing of restrictions and the introduction of the ‘Rule of Six’, I was invited to meet Boris for a drink in his Commons office, after having had no contact through the summer. I assumed that I would, at least, find him well briefed.
I tried to have a rational conversation with him about how the earlier link between infection rates and hospitalisation had been broken. He looked desperate to prove me wrong. “Hospital numbers are rising! It’s 192 this week, last week it was 100, the future looks grim.” He told me why Lord Sumption was wrong to make the case that people should be trusted to manage their own risk. “What about the people you infect?”
I replied that I was with Jonathan Sumption. People can also take responsibility for those around them. He gave me a frightened look. “How many people would you let die?”
We had already looked at the figures showing that hospital admissions and transfer to ICU were no longer tracking infection rates. I added that quality of life matters too. I asked him when the ‘Rule of Six’ would end and by what criteria. He gave me a bewildered look, as though it was a crazy question.
Worth reading in full.
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O, blast!
Good story bro
Apartheid AND prohibition.
What could possibly go right?
Starts in Russia – soon finds its way to UK.
I think that at most recent G20 mtg [where the discrimination against the unvaxxed must have been very high up the agenda] they took the decision to make it all look a lot less lock-step, so that they could trial one draconian measure [to nudge the unvaxxed] in one country and another draconian measure in another country. And then those draconian measures could, over time, migrate to other countries.
The way that Austria proposes to lockdown only the unvaxxed and Russia now posits the possibility that the unvaxxed cannot purchase alcohol. There is no “science” to support any of this – it is pure coercion – everywhere.
I think that you are correct. Foot off the gas in terms of blanket restriction, introduce focussed restrictions and then promulgate and introduce them one by one. In other words the ‘bacon slicer’ approach!
People on here need to prepare themselves mentally to engage in civil disobedience. It may be either that or just go quietly to our deaths.
I believe you are correct.
What do you mean ‘prepare to’? Just had a meet-up meal with a couple who’ve been ‘ordered’ to isolate and do the fairy dance because of the vague, symptom-less ‘Test & Trace’ nonsense.
We offered a collective V-sign in response and carried on regardless..
Spot on. There are cleverly staged experiments of what appear to be specific local restrictions being undertaken in different countries, in order to fool people that there is some organic national/regional thinking but all of which arrive at the end goal which is the elimination of the unjabbed, by directly or indirectly (by forcing them into financial hardship and homelessness) to have jabs or rounding them up and puting them in concentration camps (what is about to happen in Australia) and the introduction of their freedom licences.
The Nazis never really went away they just carried on developing technology to enslave and punish their enemies.
The great pity is the (currently defined as) jabbed think it’s all about others, not realising they are walking off a cliff themselves.
Ok, and when everyone is jabbed and keeps being jabbed, what happens then? Because it seems that the answer is “nothing” (based on several billions of people who are already well past it).
What happens is anybody’s guess… they find another thing for you to have to conform to, and again until you have nothing left. Maybe they ‘tweak’ the vaccines to have some intended effect…
Tell that to the millions already dead from vaccine damage. I’m keeping my fingers crossed my fingers crossed for you.
Coercion and science aren’t poles apart.
Can you believe the hypocrisy of the Austrian government? Two days ago, on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, they officially opened a commemoration wall in Vienna to remember the Jewish people from Austria who were murdered by the Nazis. Then today the filthy chancellor, Count (I didn’t make that title up – can anyone think of a suitable variation?) Alexander Schallenberg says he wants a lockdown against the unvaccinated FROM MONDAY.
Unbelievable, the hypocrisy is mind blowing. But no doubt coming our way in the UK soon.For those who are not double jabbed and bostered, welcome to the ‘untermenshen’
Do I hear the sound of illicit vodka stills being dusted off? LOL
The oblast dutifully prepares to treat more blind methyl alcohol drinkers… No, wait, it’s Russia, they will not need any treatment, they can wrestle polar bears there.
Indeed, if you know anything of Russia you’ll realise this is just another obstacle to be gotten around; more of an inconvenience than an incentive.
Amazon.Ru?
Make the unvaccinated’s life so miserable they succumb. It’s so fuckin’ obvious now I laugh at peoples stupidity and hope the human race gets what it deserves. The majority of us are a bunch of clowns.
But will we succumb or just take every new squeeze as a resilience training exercise? Poor vaxxed have worse to look forward to because they think they’re safe…
An untimely death being the obvious one
Quite.
The vaxxed are effectively already dead meat.
Sometimes I wonder whether you believe all the bs you post, Rowan. But then I remember the humanity is a very “diverse” bunch.
A paid troll, like your 77th Brigade self, isn’t part of humanity.
And they don’t know it.
Until they link the bank cards to NHS r3cords we can buy online. Stock up now!
But I thought vodka cures COVID?
Technically it increases bullshit!
The German christmas markets will have separate, fenced off areas for drinking alcohol and only injected and recovered will be allowed. The rest of the market can be visited by tested people as well.
People not taking part in any of this farce, will not have the pleasure of spend their hard earned money on overpriced rubbish.
Although Hamburg is not charging fees for stall holders this year, as they did not have any markets last year and it helps the poor traders, they still have to pay for electricity, I guess that’s very expensive this year.
Wouldn’t it be horrid to put this up outside them?
I think only the most naive and loyal subjects will congregate in such places.
I wonder if they’ll pay a vaccinated person to buy it for them? Hmmm
Just get a fourteen year old to go in and buy for you, seems to work round here
I seriously do not see a way out for humanity in the developed world the way things are going. The situation deteriorates by the day.
If there is no serious civil uprising in Europe or the USA we are finished.
Deaths are going to explode in number and societies can therefore only implode.
Globocap have let loose a monster which will rapidly spin out of ALL control.
God help us.
Nah, it will fizzle out like every other pandemic has. Except all the morons will be attributing “victory” to their “measures” so as to justify all the wasted resources and avoid due punishment for what they have done. And certainly, they are going to get away with it. That’s the most frustrating part.
Whatever Covid really was, apart from the bullshit, it had fizzled out by May 2020. Funnily enough though, it came back with a vengeance along with the “vaccines”, but you know that already don’t you Corporal.
I don’t know, but the fact that the Jabmeister Bill Gates has admitted that the ‘vaccines’ are not good at stopping transmission and that new approaches might be needed suggests to me that he thinks that the shit is about to hit the fan big time when it comes to side effects and he is trying to extricate himself from this.
I’m predicting a war starting in 2023. Perfect opportunity for those in power to flatten their countries and wipe out any memory of this utter debacle. Oh and achieve all those COP 26 commitments of course.
Ted Kaczynski was right, wasn’t he!
I can’t condone his solutions, but I can’t condemn his manifesto.
Yes, it’s frightening how spot-on his essay is. Could have been written today, bar some dated language.
Yet another miss, I haven’t touched alcohol for 30 years, so keep trying motherfuckers, you ain’t going to coerce me into injecting the poison into my body.
Home brewing is very easy and can be a pleasant hobby.
Maybe. But – believe it or not – some people on this planet are actually singles and don’t meet other people unless they go out. And for this, home brewing is not a solution.
Build up sceptical networks now. There must be scope for a non vaxxed dating or supper club website or similar even if SITP doesn’t do it for everyone.
This is vital.
And why, pray tell, would you want to go out and risk meeting morons who believe in this “measures” bs?
If I was planning to object to any piece of random bullshit many people believe in, I wouldn’t have much time for something else.
I think you’ll find a lot of alcoholics are singles.
One of the most obvious signs that the people who claim to be motivated by fighting a dangerous pandemic are really utilizing a pretty harmless virus in order to get some traction for entirely unrelated (so-called) public health policies they already desired to implement ten years ago but couldn’t at that time.
Also in Scotland, BTW: A stated health goal of the Scottish government is to reduce consumption of alcoholic drinks by making them more expensive and less accessible. Enter the vaxx pass as requirement for entering venues selling drinks which accomplishes exactly that (and absolutely nothing wrt COVID).
I thought that many Russians brewed their own fairly lethal concoctions from potatoes or cabbage or something?
They’ll brew their own, I hope.
The vax manufacturers will eventually be regarded as we regard IG Farben: active enablers of evil..
Eventually?
Ekaterinburg was where the Tsar and his family were murdered.
That sort of place.
Nuremberg 2 is taking shale daily before our eyes.
No hiding the evidence.
52 year old New Brunswick doctor says he won’t cry at the funerals of the unvaccinated. Gets 3rd shot. Dies in his sleep two weeks later.
https://realclimatescience.com/2021/11/doctor-tells-the-truth/
The New Brunswick heart Centre is now looking for another heartless cardiologist. God moves in mysterious ways.
Ain’t that a shame?
One less to worry about.
Instant Karma
It’s probably not to my credit, but I LOLed at that.
So did I. Marvellous.
I have absolutely NO compassion for people such as this. A doctor? In that case it is a blessing to his patients that he has gone.
A GP who has had even one jab is a risk to their patients and therefore needs to be removed.
Thick, stupid idiot.
I was talking to one of my neighbours today over the fence, he said better not come too close as he and his wife had covid which they caught at the village carnival at the weekend. Was he ill? no was he bothered? no he looked and sounded fit, well and bright as a button. Which does rather beg the question, what the hell is all this about? I guess some might say that fact that he had covid but was perfectly fit and well is an indication that the vaccines work. But they clearly only work to, possibly, protect the individual from serious disease, they clearly have no impact on transmission.
In which case there is no logical justification for any of the vaccine pass mandates. Either the powers that be are stupid and ascribing powers to the vaccines that they cannot deliver or this is all about something far worse and far more sinister than that?
I suspect he had received a positive PCR and nothing more.
The current justification is that they need to force-protect the unvaccinated because the unvaccinated clog hospitals.
The stupid b*stard obviously doesn’t know what “Covid” means.
Be fair – the vast majority haven’t a f.ing clue.
The Russian people will just ignore the restrictions. It’s what they’ve done throughout. They have little respect for officialdom.
In Austria however…
https://www.rt.com/news/540099-austria-lockdown-for-unvaxxed/
Wasn’t it in the news a few years ago that there was a trend in Russia where they were drinking some kind of bath oil and a few people died? I don’t think this ban on the unvaccinated is going to help reduce alcohol consumption.
I think that they were also drinking antifreeze.
Ironic you linked to a Russia Today article.
RT is in general very fond of showing Russian people how bad the world outside Russia is. While they keep dying (unvaccinated) in droves in their own country.
Should be good business for the vendors of ethylene glycol, meths, moonshine and similar products.
This is what economic subventions look like in Mother Russia.
Things like this are what sometimes trigger revolutions.
Russia appears to be on the verge of going full-on Mark of the Beast.
https://www.rt.com/russia/540138-qr-code-mandate-draft-law/
Why am I not surprised?
Don’t forget, this is all unplanned and coincidental that countries around the world are gradually implementing vaxxpasses and QR codes. Nobody could have foretold all of this…
P.S. I’d give you an extra thumbs up if I could, for the screen name. It’s all going B5, ain’t it
South Africa did this and also banned the sale of cigarettes. The black market exploded as did the number of deaths caused by drinking illicit home-stilled alcohol.The government attempted to justify the restrictions by saying they would reduce domestic violence and therefore take the load off the health services. I am told the opposite happened. I think, but can’t be sure, that the bans have been rescinded now.
Scotland put up the price of alcohol, and the poor sods in dead end lives in the inner city swamps swapped to drugs. Massive drug problems in places like Dundee now. Law of unintended consequences.
Absolutely a classic case, as you point out, of the law of unintended consequence as a result of not doing a proper impact assessment.
No assessment needed. It was a consequence that was obvious to anyone with a brain. Entirely foreseeable.
“Impact assessment?”
Yawn.
Sorry.
Who says it was unintended?
No.
The rule of stupidity.
Same success story as US “war on drugs”.
The “war on drugs” was never meant to be won. Drugs make money, wars on drugs make even more money. CIA deals in drugs.
Nice source of unattributal funding.
Yeah, still not getting the vaxx. I even predicted this – purchased a book on making your own wine a year or so ago.
It seems to be all mights and maybes. Not worth bothering with.
…
Communists behaving like communists. Michie (Stalin’s Nanny) will be getting tyranny envy.
There is a method to this madness – not drinking alcohol would probably save more lives than all the corona measures taken together.
Oh, it probably would – if it were not a 100% certainty that people will simply brew and sell their own, much of which will probably cause even more damage than booze bought in a shop. I vaguely remember some place trying this before – didn’t that lead to a significant rise in organised crime or some such?
If not booze, then drugs, prescription meds, etc. People are people.
Yeah, catch-22.
”All I can say is that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me.” Winston Churchill.
It won’t save a single life as everybody’s going to die. It would just cause people to die for different reasons.
“Restaurateur asks govt to introduce restrictions to stop him selling so much alcohol and so he can make less profit”.
I have heard it all now. Maybe the reduced profit has been balanced put by a nice injection of capital from the WEF?
The mafia loved prohibition in the US.
Today, they attend the WEF and COP26.
The Clintons will be overjoyed then.
Goodness knows where the Heil found that Sverdlovsk-specific story. A proposed law in Russia would require QR-code Covid passes across the entire country for entry into shops, cultural venues, cafes, and public transport until 1 June 2022 – with other types of place addable to the list by local administrations. Until the end of January, a negative PCR test would be sufficient. (Source: Russia Today.)
The one thing I don’t understand about all the corona bollocks, is why the Russians are playing along with it?
Maybe Putin’s a globalist puppet afterall. Won’t be the first time he was accused of it…
Could be. World politics is just one big pantomime, unless you’re a victim of one of the globalists wars.
Remember Remdesivir? Used extensively to treat Covid patients in US hospitals. Those of us that research already knew this.
A must watch!
https://youtu.be/xr60TFVxmOM
Sadly my lovely Dad died today but he taught me how to grow, dry and store tobacco and how to brew beer and make your own wine. He always insisted on being as independent as possible and keeping ones business away from prying eyes as much as possible!!!
A wise & sensible man, my condolences.
My condolences also <3
Thank you oliveTrees and anti socialist. I have a lot to be grateful to him! So glad he didn’t want his children to be reliant on anyone – it’s going to be needed in these current covid and climate madness times.
Very sad to hear.
Condolences.
Hospitals in USA and in first world countries are refusing life-saving Ivermectin treatment even with court orders. Big Pharma doing everything they can to jab us no matter what, while alternative COVID cures EXIST! There happens to be heavy censorship who are looking for these treatments. The Research Is Clear: Ivermectin Is a Safe, Effective Treatment for COVID. Get your Ivermectin today while you still can! https://ivmpharmacy.com
I had lost interest in Vern, he started sounding like David Icke, but he’s making sense again Vernon Coleman’s Wednesday Review – episode one
I had an interesting email swap with a MasterCard outlet today, which shows you where the digital pass/currency is going. I received an email telling me that the financial services regulator has made 2-step verification via a mobile phone notification compulsory for all online purchases.
I emailed back informing them I don’t have a mobile phone, so does this mean I can’t use my card, because MasterCard are discriminating against people without mobile phones?
As per usual with corporate support, the script doesn’t allow for tailored responses. The reply I got was, “you can still use your card, you only need phone verification for online purchases”.
I replied, so I can’t use my card online, if I don’t have a phone or a signal?
The response was, “if you don’t have a phone, you can make your online purchase, then phone us to verify it for you”
WHAT PART OF NO PHONE CONFUSES MasterCard?
It’s the future!
Wow. Who’d have thought the Russian state could be authoritarian?
The irony is, they’ll be lagging behind “freedom loving” places like Australia. I actually thought Russia was going to be an outlier in all this nonsense. I guess not.
How did they buy Putin, I thought he had some balls?
A few cheery songs to lift our spirits.
“Silent War” by Five Times August (Lyric Video) 2021
“I Will Not Be Leaving Quietly” by Five Times August (Music & Lyric Video) 2021
For all those Jordan Peterson followers, The Sad Truth I’ve Learned About COVID Policy (Pt. 1) | Jordan Peterson | POLITICS | Rubin Report I’m still not his biggest fan but.
Somebody’s obviously told Vlad and Co that alcohol kills germs.
How to create a black market in alcohol in one easy step.
Completely absurd! There’s no other words for it.
People, this is Russia, think like the worst parts of Mexico or Colombia in terms of respecting laws and compliance. I would really like to see Siberian police enforcing QR codes on vodka bottles while people are stealing 1000s of tonnes of oil from pipelines and operating illegal gold mines… without anybody even noticing. I mean there is no limit what one Russian super-policeman on 50 square miles can do! The law is a joke and it will fall apart like the best achievements of Soviet socialism. Russia already has the biggest grey economy in the world, of similar size as Mexico. With such silly ideas from the government it will just grow bigger. Even if they adopt QR codes, they are completely useless without ID, and so people will queue up with their IDs and QR codes to go to the mall? How about ordering all the stuff on WIldberies (Russian version of Amazon) instead? Unhackable system? For Russian hackers? Give me a break! And imagine the incredible misfortune of being caught by police… and paying a 50 dollar bribe.
Last winter, Russia had all kinds of silly restrictions such as masks, restaurant curfews blablabla… and after a month nobody gave a damn in my city, even the police didn’t bother. Russian people will figure out how to get around this new idiocy and government will face new humiliation, ending being despized even more.
Great!
Unvaccinated for now. Soon to be anyone who wants to buy alcohol. “You’ve exceeded your monthly allowance so we can’t serve you”. Soon to be in a Scotland near you!
People, this is Russia so it should be taken with a grain of salt. My wife in Siberia has been so far able to go anywhere without showing QR code to anybody, it is simply not enforced in spite of all the pompous arrogant government declarations. As with masks and lockdowns last winter there might be some enforcement enthusiasm in the coming weeks while unintended consequences (black market, boycott of shops and diminishing profits, public resentment, pensioners beating up security guards etc.) slowly pile up and then the good ol’ Russian inertia will simply prevail.
Russia is not Europe, Russia is more like the worst parts of Mexico (think Matamoros in Tamaulipas) and Central America in terms of respecting laws. The country has the biggest grey economy in the world. Criminal gangs are stealing 1000s of tonnes from oil pipelines and operating their own unlicensed goldmines… without anyone even noticing. Illegal logging is happening on such an industrial scale that it can be seen from space. Russian police cannot even detect and prevent these crimes and they will now miraculously enforce QR codes… of vodka buyers??
Non-hackable QR codes (in a country, notorious for hackers)… certificates of having a disease (in a country where doctors are routinely bribed to give fake psychiatric diagnoses to young draft dodgers)… oh well, this is going to be one fun winter.