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Declined: Chapter 17: Butterflies

by Molly Kingsley
27 April 2025 9:00 AM

This is the 17th chapter of a novel being published in serial form in the Daily Sceptic. It’s a dystopian satire about the emergence of a social credit system in the UK in the near future. Read previous chapters here.

He walked to his cubby hole at Reception, checking, as he did daily, for mail. There was an envelope, intricately decorated with flowers and butterflies; his name, handwritten. Libby. He smiled. Picking it up he opened it, careful not to damage its contents.

Inside, a typewritten letter. The typewriter. Her seventh birthday present. If he’d known then the use to which it would have been put…

Stopping such thoughts, he focused on the letter.

Dear Dada,

I am missing you an awful lot. Mum is being a bit of a brat. Poppy says its because she got stressed and to stop bugging her but I WISH you were here too. But I know your exams are important so it is ok you are not.

Last weekend there was a fare. Is that how you spell it? I miss asking you spelling questions and I miss playing Scrabble and Mum says she’s too busy and Poppy never wants to and I try playing with Ted but he can’t even spell him or boy and its really boring.

Anyway. At the fare we saw Sasha from scool she was having a picnic party but I wasn’t invited because I don’t have the speshal glasses and only the kids with the speshal glasses were but that’s ok because I think they are stupid even though its only me and Jemma and Isobel in our class who dont have them.  And Henry but he doesn’t count because hes a boy.

Tonight we saw something very wierd. It was this. Out the back window, the one by Teds room you know what I mean there was an amazing light in sky. It had pink and red and a bit purple and it made the hole sky look on fire.

Mum said it was the northern light which are these magical things near the North Pole where penguins live and I had a lot of other questions like do we get the north lights on other planets and can you see the north lights from portugal and do you think we might go to portugal again because it was very nice there and when you have done your exams do you think we might go on holiday. But Mum said she was too busy to think about that now and got all bossy with me for asking questions at bedtime and I wish you were here so I could ask you questions instead.

I know you always say it will be ok, I just wish you were here.

I have to go now.

Byyyyyyeeeeeee.

PS I forgot. At the fare there were solgers and Ted was playing machine guns and pranked Poppy and Mum got cross and now Ted says he wants to be a solger.

And then, scrawled, in warm, curling, deliberate, still just about little girl handwriting that made his heart bleed from its seams, “LIBBY  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX”, alongside a picture of a cat looking sad, with a speech bubble saying “Please come home”.

He read the letter again. Holding it, caressing it, kissing it.

How much he missed them.

He walked out onto his deck and looked out at the raised, slatted walkways.

His eyes followed the waterways of the camp.

There was a beauty in them, pathways stilted above what had been the canals and rivers of the fenlands, encased by high, silver reeds, slivering against the morning breeze. He could almost convince himself he was ‘just’ in nature. But, then, his eye would catch the glint of the almost imperceptible Perspex bordering the pathways, then he’d look to the waterways, wider than he could jump, and their glassed walls higher than he could reach and with a cold, maiming consciousness he’d  remember that, far from being a wonder of nature, the criss-crossed canals glinting in the morning sun were a cruel simulacrum, glistening guardrails gating any possibility of leaving.

“How deep do you reckon those are?” Jacqueline-call-me-Jacky had whispered to him on the first day’s tour, back before an automated voice from somewhere aside them had immediately bleated out “GUESTS ARE REMINDED THAT SILENCE IS ADVISED” and the awful realisation had dawned: that every independent thought, every illicit movement, every seditiously suggestive raise of the eyebrow, twitch of the mouth, turn of the head was tracked, recorded, reported: banked by the pernicious, omnipresent, omni-knowing Perspex.

“Modern technology,” the guide said, smiling. “It picks up everything. Isn’t it wonderful?” and then, seeing the alarm on their faces, “Don’t worry folks, it’s just to encourage mutual respect and reflection. No, Sir, you don’t have to be silent but of course we will take all behaviour into account in assessing your socialability score.”

He stared, expressionless, at the Perspex, imagining a world in which it wasn’t there. A photo flashed before him. A lifetime ago, cycling round the waterways of the fen, trailed by Libby – young enough to be on her toddler bike. He stopped thinking. Some thoughts were too painful to bear.

His fingers traced the letter. He would give anything to hear its owner’s voice, now; he’d give anything to hear all – any – of their voices.

It was a cruel irony that in an overbearingly digitised camp environment –lights that turned on and off to demand, doors that used voice instruction technology, and, of course, Jefferson, their ‘personalised’ comically impersonal AI butler – the one piece of technology that would have been invaluable, his battered old Nokia phone, had been confiscated on arrival.

“It’s for your own good, Sir, so that you can concentrate on your learnings. Oh no, Sir, you can write. There’s notepaper in every room. There’s no problem about writing. This isn’t a gulag! Just hand in what you want sending at Reception.”

His eye followed a butterfly flicking over the edge of his deck, its wings a vibrant colour pop against the grey-brown of the floor. A butterfly, a butterfly freer than me you shall fly. Words involuntarily wafted into the corner of his mind.

It was day 22 of his ‘21’ day stay. Three weeks; that’s what the first letter had said. Three weeks and he’d be out — all he needed to do was to pass the National Harmony Exam at the end. “A formality,” the coach had said.

He’d failed, and now, it was Day 22.

Yesterday, he’d seen Byron and Jacqueline-call-me-Jacky leave. He’d stood outside his bungalow and watched as they were ushered, suitcases and what looked like a branded goody bag, into the mini golf buggy, smiles beaming across their faces, presumably going home. He’d waved goodbye and had been surprised to realise he felt a not insignificant sense of loss. They were the closest he’d come to ‘friends’ these three weeks, well, in so far as a friendship could be formed without words and through silent nods and the most subtle of eye movements.

They’d got out. So why hadn’t he?

As far as he knew he’d played the exam to the best of his ability. Answering all questions in the way they needed to be answered. Deviating not at all, not even in thought. But that hadn’t been enough. Even for him, not one to become easily ungrounded, it was a dizzyingly terrifying thought.

The butterfly landed on his wrist. It paused for a second, then flickered its wings and took flight.

His mind turned to Ella. He worried about her. She didn’t have the option of not working. But juggling the treadmill of continuous cases with the three kids and the worry she must be feeling – that would be hard at the best of times.

Traipsing back inside, he picked up his laptop. Out of habit he thought about opening the file with the half-written spreadsheet of countries. Their chance for a better life. Perhaps, even, their chance to live.

But then, he thought better of it. It was too risky, too likely to be tracked. Besides, his eyes flitting, resentfully, to the search button on the corner of the keyboard, it was not like he could help. “No, Sir, we don’t have the internet or WIFI. It’s to allow you to focus and refresh. For your own good, Sir. Just think of it like a yoga retreat.”

Never had the imperative to leave been greater. Never had he been so handicapped.

Oh Ella, why didn’t we talk more about it?

He thought back to the list in his spreadsheet. Amsterdam. America. The Canadian Territories. They were the best bets, the remaining outposts of freedom.

America was impossible, entry visas ceased years back. Amsterdam had a crazily long wait list. The Canadian Territories, though. That was – well. Who knew if it would be possible. But it wasn’t impossible. Not yet, anyway.

He needed to get a message through to Ella.

He walked over to the notepaper lying on the desk, sat down, and, Libby’s message still pressed to his chest, started to write.

Look out for chapter 17 next week.

Molly Kingsley is a freelance journalist, lawyer and founder of parent campaign group UsForThem.

Tags: DeclinedDystopiaHealthSocial Credit System

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Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago

Governments ( aside from the Swedes and the odd few other exceptions ) and TPTB never and still do not give a stuff about kids’ welfare, development or education. This is evidenced due to school closures, urging to get a toxic jab they never needed and the sexually explicit and inappropriate material ( as well as woke tosh that states you can identify as anything you want ) being taught in class. Kids are being targeted on multiple levels and the buck stops with the parents because the threat is not going to go away any time soon and it is all under the guise of ”public health”.

”The World Health Organization’s broad definition of health embraces physical, mental and social well-being. Expressed in its 1946 constitution alongside concepts of community participation and national sovereignty, it reflected an understanding of a world emerging from centuries of colonialist oppression and the public health industry’s shameful facilitation of fascism. Health policy would be people-centered, closely tied to human rights and self-determination.

The COVID-19 response has demonstrated how these ideals have been undone. Decades of increasing funding within public-private partnerships have corroded the basis of global public health. The COVID-19 response, intended for a virus that overwhelmingly targeted the elderly, ignored norms of epidemic management and human rights to institute a regime of suppression, censorship, and coercion reminiscent of the power systems and governance that were previously condemned. Without pausing to examine the costs, the public health industry is developing international instruments and processes that will entrench these destructive practices in international law.

Public health, presented as a series of health emergencies, is being used once again to facilitate a fascist approach to societal management. The beneficiaries will be the corporations and investors whom the COVID-19 response served well. Human rights and individual freedom, as under previous fascist regimes, will lose. The public health industry must urgently awaken to the changing world in which it works, if it is to adopt a role in saving public health rather than contributing to its degradation.”

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajes.12531

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Jabba the Hut
Jabba the Hut
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

As I’ve said all along TPTB don’t give a shit about children, infact I think the whole idea is to damage children as much as possible. Any one with half a brain cell could see the negative impacts lockdowns would have on society and yet people still want to cannonise the evil or compromised or both Valance and Witty. This is just another study for the white wash enquiry to ignore.

38
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Jabba the Hut
Jabba the Hut
1 year ago
Reply to  Jabba the Hut

Another government created problem that the w**kers who promoted lockdowns now want money throwing at.

25
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago
Reply to  Jabba the Hut

Yep, ”we’re coming for your children”, well they did warn us. I say the buck stops with the parents but the problem is when the parents are fully paid up members of the Woke Brigade themselves.

”The city council is sponsoring a five day drag camp which offers 14-year-olds the opportunity to become “divas”.
Oxford City Council is supporting a week long “Drag Camp” which offers 14 to 18 year olds the chance to “create their own daring stage persona”.
The camp, which starts on Monday on Magdalen Road, will be run by T(ART) Productions, which is a queer not for profit community events company, alongside Pegasus theatre group and Doris Field Charitable Trust.

The company promises to help children find their “drag voice” and to introduce them to the “world of drag as a performance art”.
Stephanie Davies-Arai of Transgender Trend told the Daily Mail said: “Why is Oxford City Council encouraging children to participate in the world of adult entertainment?
“The aim of queer activists is clear in the blurb: to subvert and destabilise boundaries, under the guise of being empowering for children.
“Encouraging children to create a ‘daring’ stage persona means only one thing in the drag world: to push sexual boundaries.
“Blurring the boundaries between adult and child in this way is a safeguarding red flag.”

https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23692650.oxford-council-sponsors-week-long-drag-camp-children/?ref=socialflow&fbclid=IwAR28kUZ0biGeQcMUHpr921MJFyAVYRuz6kXN5a8a3afwkXeHOdQM3FttJZQ_aem_ARKgzhZudJp-IHuWWqlmq017KDJYXZphsVrcAiR8JW_RrLGWiROWEsS3ItThhpqDlh0

19
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Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Kids are doomed when the parents are woketards. Case in point. Presumably this is a boy;

https://twitter.com/againstgrmrs/status/1686372574467690496

13
0
lymeswold
lymeswold
1 year ago

Well, the report is here:

https://ifs.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-07/WP202321-parental-labour-market-instability-and-childrens-mental-health-during-the-pandemic_0.pdf

Not sure what to make if it. Much of the text is given over to explaining the statistical methods used to analyse the multiple choice questionnaire responses and compute the outcomes.

Children are very sensitive to their parents’ emotions. I don’t doubt many experienced an impact on their social and emotional wellbeing. But quantifying it like this … I’m not persuaded.

I fear for children growing up in modern Britain. The COVID debacle was only one of many factors deleterious to their mental wellbeing.

18
0
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
1 year ago

Stuck record, I know, but please:

“Just as the dust begins to settle from the fallout of the Government’s response to the Covid pandemic…”

There. Was. No. Pandemic!

England and Wales, 2020-2021:
Average age at death overall: 81
Average age at death “FROM COVID”: 82!

Imagine a vaccine so safe you must be threatened to take it, to protect you from a virus so deadly you need be tested to know you have it!

Last edited 1 year ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
47
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Jabba the Hut
Jabba the Hut
1 year ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

When I’m with my children and the “pandemic” gets mentioned on TV or the radio, I repeat ‘there was no pandemic’. The same goes for the so called “climate emergancy” I repeat ‘there is no climate crisis it’s a scam’. Three sets of ‘oh dad’and eye rolls. I’m not going to let the constant propaganda get to my family.

Last edited 1 year ago by Jabba the Hut
29
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DomH75
DomH75
1 year ago

I know how it’s affected me… and I’m in my late 40s. I can’t imagine the effect on youngsters. By using something so extreme on them so young, I guess it makes it easier to force ‘global boiling’, ‘climate catastrophe’ on them, because they’ve already been softened up by the powers that be.

28
0
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
1 year ago
Reply to  DomH75

Well they haven’t softened up our two. We are taking all of this abysmal episode in human history as a very valuable “teaching moment”.

20
0
crisisgarden
crisisgarden
1 year ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

With my 16yo (14 at the start of the plandemic) ’lockdown’ was very damaging to his development; although he was fully inoculated by his parents against bullshit and manipulation – and poisoning – it came at a point in his life when he needed routine and to knuckle down and work. Despite the fact I’m a teacher, I am well aware of the evils of state education, but the discipline and routine it brings are, I think, important, particularly for boys in their mid-teens. He struggles now to do anything reliably, and I put that down in part to the PTB shitting on his adolescent years.

25
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DomH75
DomH75
1 year ago
Reply to  crisisgarden

Yeah. I’m 48 and I’m not as good as I used to be. I used to be super-organised. Now I find I either go like the clappers to get things done or have no energy even to read – it’s one extreme or the other. I work from home now, living like a recluse, and haven’t even seen anyone I work for since the start of 2020.

15
0
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
1 year ago
Reply to  DomH75

Get to your local Wetherspoons mate

16
0
DomH75
DomH75
1 year ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

That’s because you’re ‘one of us.’ How many kids live in homes where parents say the ‘anti-vaxxers’ belong in jail?

14
0
crisisgarden
crisisgarden
1 year ago
Reply to  DomH75

Significantly fewer than one year ago. They’re more likely to live in households where you can’t even bring up Covid because everyone’s too embarrassed!

13
0
DomH75
DomH75
1 year ago
Reply to  crisisgarden

So true! The husband of my Mum’s best friend was saying a year ago that people who refused the vaccine should be locked up. That would include me, who has cooked for him and his wife in my home and has eaten with him and his wife at theirs. When people pontificate like that – as we saw through the scamdemic – they forget the individual human face, which might be one they know!

Now my Mum’s best friend believes the vaccines are killers, in no small part due the the fact that my Mum now has a defibrillator-pacemaker in her chest because she developed a serious heart condition following the third booster jab.

21
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago

I’ve got mixed feelings about all these impressive (and expensive) sounding studies.

I think they might serve to obscure rather than enlighten.

There was no pandemic. Respiratory viruses cannot be stopped by humans. We are social animals. Life must go on. Any extraordinary measures are harmful on their face – no complicated studies or cost benefit analysis required. To me this is orthodoxy – to most it’s now considered heresy, I think to this day.

18
0
DomH75
DomH75
1 year ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

Can you imagine if the human race behaved like this when TB was still an issue? We’d still be in the pre-industrial era!!

8
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  DomH75

Seems like some people want us to go back there…

9
0
Sforzesca
Sforzesca
1 year ago

Shock.
And all to protect the poor vastly underpaid bloody teachers. How many actually “caught covid” from kids and died.
Long gone are the days when they actually cared about kids.
Didn’t they realise all they had to do was chop 6″ off the bottom of the doors to Stay Safe.
Cowardly and selfish doesn’t even begin to describe the majority of them.
Supermarket workers, delivery men etc. kept working

17
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago
Reply to  Sforzesca

Ah yes, the vaccine that only works if others get vaxxed too. It’s always been the unjabbed people’s fault, the scapegoats of society, despite the fact if you had a vaccine that actually worked then why do you give a crap if anyone else is jabbed or not?? You’re allegedly ‘protected’ because Fauci, Biden et al said so, and they assured us repeatedly! Same non-logic can be applied to masks. And on and on the unfunny comedy sketches would go. My philosophy was always; my immune system is 100% effective with zero side-effects and it hasn’t got me killed or hospitalized yet. I’ll take my chances!

20
0
ebygum
ebygum
1 year ago

Very similar story in the Telegraph today….”Lockdown’s severe damage to children”..this is brilliant Bob’s reaction…

Bob Moran
@bobscartoons

Thank you, @telegraph
, for firing me when I tried to defend children against those who wished them harm through lockdowns.
Great to see such ethical consistency.

LOL! …..has anyone done any studies showing the way all the green zero zealots and their ideas will affect children?….thought not…..so no lessons learned then??

23
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago

This new pro-narrative, vax-pushing, fear-mongering paper is crap, and the fact it has passed peer-review makes it double crap. Not to worry. The HART team have done a stellar job of extensively taking it apart and highlighting its shortcomings;

”The usual covid high priests who have been wheeled out repeatedly in front of the television cameras to fear-monger about covid without any debate, are at it again. Several members of Independent SAGE and others have written a paper assessing the impact of covid on children over the course of the last three years. It is not the paper they wanted to write.
Imagine you were them and had got hold of the data ready to write your paper. What might you want to show? I would suggest their priorities would have been to show:

  1. Covid caused immense harm to children
  2. Vaccinated children did not get sick with covid
  3. Vaccinated children did not go on to get the post-covid immune syndrome PIMS
  4. Vaccinated children did not die with / of covid

They were unable to demonstrate any of those points using the actual data, as we shall see.
The paper was published in the BMJ but it seems the peer reviewers did not actually do much reviewing. Campaigners who have repeatedly demanded children be vaccinated and who even now are demanding boosters for vaccines (see figure 1) might not be in the best place to provide a dispassionate assessment of the evidence, and indeed they did not.”

https://www.hartgroup.org/yet-more-fear-mongering-over-covid-in-children/

7
0
zebedee
zebedee
1 year ago

My brother got a new dog during lockdown. It didn’t socialise properly as a puppy and is quite aggressive with other dogs.

9
0
JohnnyDollar
JohnnyDollar
1 year ago

The Conspiracy Against The Children , Was NOT a Theory. Do NOT be Fooled that They didn’t know, enough scientists spoke up ALL of whom were accused of being ignorant or censored . THEY KNEW Lockdowns were devastating. The EVIL thing about it is that they are getting away with it at the expense of your children

2
0

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