Happy Boxing Day!
For the three days over Christmas – starting yesterday – we’re publishing a pared down version of Lockdown Sceptics so we can have a bit of time off over Christmas. Cartoonist Bob Moran has very kindly given us three original cartoons which we’re running on consecutive days and, below them, we’re including a round-up, as well as an And Finally…, but little else.
Happy Christmas to all our readers. Thanks for all your links, stories and suggestions, as well as your comments below the line and in the forums. Lockdown Sceptics is really a collaboration between our small team, the writers who contribute original material, and the readers who post comments or email us at lockdownsceptics@gmail.com. To date, we’ve had over 21,000 emails and we do our best to read them all.
Back in April, when I set up this blog, I imagined I’d be signing off about now. Turns out, that was a bit naive. God knows when this madness will end, but at least there are some comforts in this digital camaraderie. Readers often get in touch to say Lockdown Sceptics has kept them sane. The feeling’s mutual.
Trouble Down Lab
The Milton Keynes Lighthouse Lab has been hit by an outbreak of coronavirus, according to Sky News.
Positive cases have been reported in three of the four scientific teams at the Milton Keynes Lighthouse Laboratory, as well as among administrative and warehouse staff at the site.
It is not known how many people have been affected by the outbreak, but around 20 people in one 70-person lab team are currently isolating, according to a worker at the laboratory who asked to remain anonymous.
The outbreak has placed considerable strain on the lab, which has been asked to process 70,000 tests a day in order to keep up with rising demand.
The source said that 47,000 were processed on Tuesday, adding: “No chance we’ll ever hit 70,000 a day the way we’re going.”
The lab worker also raised concerns about the safety of the lab, saying that rules put in place to keep staff safe were being broken in order to meet targets – a claim the Department of Health and Social Care denied.
Sky News understands the Lighthouse Lab is supposed to have a bubble system in place in order to keep staff separate, following a recommendation from the Health and Safety Executive, which visited the site recently.
Yet according to the source, the bubble system is not being respected with workers at the short-staffed lab being moved between groups, risking further cross-contamination.
The lab worker said there had also been mixing in the building’s lobbies and at the canteen.
Staff at the laboratory have been offered an unlimited number of tests and new staff are tested when they arrive.
The lab worker said that new recruits had been sitting in the canteen while they waited for their test results.
According to the lab worker, one new warehouse staff member received a positive test result after they had sat in the canteen during a period when a whole lab team had been in there for a break.
“The whole thing’s a joke,” they said.
Worth reading in full.
This outbreak won’t come as news to readers of Lockdown Sceptics. Last month we ran a piece by Lighthouse Lab whistleblower Dr Julian Harris flagging up health and safety breaches at the Milton Keynes facility.
Read that piece again here.
The Queen Lifts Our Spirits
No, she didn’t say that. In fact, this year’s Christmas message from the Queen was another triumph. Robert Hardman in today’s Daily Mail has more.
Even for the most experienced monarch in history, this was a tall order: how do you sum up the worst year in living memory without leaving the nation in floods of tears or reaching for the Off switch?
The only solution, therefore, was to accentuate the positives. And that is what the Queen did yesterday in an exceptionally upbeat Christmas message – one which also turned out to be the most multicultural of all time.
From beginning to end, here was a montage of warm-hearted or inspirational scenes, many of them illustrated by images from the Duchess of Cambridge’s Hold Still photography campaign. The only mournful moment consisted of the Queen herself paying homage at the Grave of the Unknown Warrior.
What began with the magnificent sight of the Band of the Household Cavalry playing the National Anthem on horseback outside St George’s Chapel concluded with the Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Choir belting out one of the jauntiest numbers in their Christmas repertoire: “Joy To The World”.
Running through it all was the theme of selflessness, of what the Queen called ‘the kindness of strangers’.
Worth reading in full.
And in case you missed it, you can watch it again here.
A Hospital Worker Writes…
A hospital employee has sent us an email that contains an interesting detail about the PPE he and his colleagues are expected to wear.
I work at one of the main hospitals in Oxford, and the vast majority of the people that I work with just blindly believe everything they hear from the media. It’s so frustrating and annoying.
I along with everyone else who works at the hospital continued to work right through the peak of the pandemic (no social distancing, no face masks) with not so much as a sniffle.
I do know a couple of people who died during that time, whose deaths were almost certainly because of Covid. However, as you and others have pointed out, the vast majority of people either don’t know that they’ve had it, or, if they did have it, they lived to tell the tale. A few of my close work colleagues did have the virus, and the were knocked for six because of it, but they’re now back at work.
Anyway, aside from writing to you to say: thank you for all your hard work, I wanted to let you know if you didn’t already, that all of the masks, gloves and gowns that we are using and have been using for most of the pandemic come from… China
Just thought how crazy it is that the very country where the virus came from is where so many millions of pounds of tax payers money is going to pay for the PPE.
As one of my Northern colleagues (who is also a fellow no masker) said, “They’re really rubbing our faces in it. Literally.”
Round-up
- “A very Covid Christmas: Six million MORE people move into tough Tier 4 restrictions TODAY – bringing the total to 24million” – MailOnline reminds us of today’s bad news
- “Happy Christmas, the Brexit war is over!” – Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail on the good Brexit news
- “The music that makes Christmas” – Douglas Murray in UnHerd on why cancelled services, or services without carol signing, won’t take away the beauty of Christmas music
- “Why my church doors are staying open” – Giles Fraser says he won’t be closing his church this Christmas
- “CDC to Require Negative COVID-19 Test for Air Travellers from the United Kingdom to the U.S.” – The CDC has said travellers from the U.K. will need a certificate showing they’ve tested negative within 72 hours of departure. Without the documentary proof you won’t be allowed to board the plane
- “Covid kicked us all off the featherbed of civilisation” – William Boyd in the Times says we’ve gone through Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s five stages of grief in 2020, but in reverse
- “Reasons to be cheerful at the end of this bleakest year” – Gerard Baker is remarkably upbeat after the terrible year we’ve had
- “You’ve been spotted at Gran’s, go directly to jail” – Giles Coren and his family are so bored this Christmas they’ve created a Covid version of Monopoly
- “Professor Neil Ferguson: People don’t agree with lockdown and try to undermine the scientists” – Professor Lockdown continues his comeback tour with an interview in today’s Times
- “The economics of unused gift cards” – Interesting article in the Hustle about who benefits when Christmas gift cards go unredeemed
- “Spiked’s heroes of 2020” – Spiked‘s heroes include J.K. Rowling, Nick Cave and Lord Sumption
- “A beacon of light in the gloom” – Michael Fahey in the Conservative Woman looks at the few bright points in a dark year
- “17 Remedies for 2021” – Psychologist Dr Hugh Willbourn has 17 tips for how to convert lockdown believers to scepticism
- “The drug that gives ‘instant immunity’ to coronavirus?” – MailOnline reports on a new superdrug being trialled by the NHS
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Three today: “Sheep” by Pink Floyd, “Where’s the Revolution?” by Depeche Mode and “(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)” by the Beastie Boys.
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 so you can share it. To do that, click on the headline of a particular story and a link symbol will appear on the right-hand side of the headline. Click on the link and the URL of your page will switch to the URL of that particular story. You can then copy that URL and either email it to your friends or post it on social media. Please do share the stories.
Alternatively, you could just promote the site in the way this enterprising reader has done: a decal in his front window.
Social Media Accounts
You can follow Lockdown Sceptics on our social media accounts which are updated throughout the day. To follow us on Facebook, click here; to follow us on Twitter, click here; to follow us on Instagram, click here; to follow us on Parler, click here; and to follow us on MeWe, click here.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, it’s the turn of June Sarpong, the BBC’s Director of Creative Diversity, who is interviewed in the Telegraph.
From humble beginnings, and via a career as a TV presenter, Sarpong, 43, has earned a place on the BBC executive board and the power to ring-fence £100 million of licence fee money for “diverse and inclusive content”.
When she was appointed in October 2019, diversity was a buzzword. A year later, it’s at the centre of the culture wars. Ms Sarpong has just released her third book, The Power of Privilege: How White People Can Challenge Racism.
White privilege is a hot button issue recently, and the women and equalities minister, Kemi Badenoch, claimed it was a “dangerous trend” in race relations and said any school that teaches it as fact is breaking the law.
But Ms Sarpong is in no doubt that white privilege is a fact of life. “There is unfairness baked into our system,” she says, and while the “elite white male” is at the top of the tree, even the white working class has an advantage over people from black and Asian backgrounds.
To be fair to Sarpong, she says she supported the BBC’s reverse ferret on not singing “Rule Britannia” at this year’s Proms and claims not to know what the word “woke” means, which is quite endearing.
But there’s no getting around the fact that it’s a bit galling to be lectured on “privilege” by an ex-children’s television presenter who now earns £75,000 a year for working three days a week.
“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. Another reader has created an Android app which displays “I am exempt from wearing a face mask” on your phone. Only 99p, and he’s even said he’ll donate half the money to Lockdown Sceptics, so everyone wins.
If you’re a shop owner and you want to let your customers know you will not be insisting on face masks or asking them what their reasons for exemption are, you can download a friendly sign to stick in your window here.
And here’s an excellent piece about the ineffectiveness of masks by a Roger W. Koops, who has a doctorate in organic chemistry. See also the Swiss Doctor’s thorough review of the scientific evidence 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 in October and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it ever since. 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 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 Toby’s 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 three quarters of a million signatures.
Update: The authors of the GBD 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: You can watch Sunetra Gupta set out the case for “Focused Protection” here and Jay Bhattacharya make it here.
Update 4: The three GBD authors plus Prof Carl Heneghan of CEBM have launched a new website collateralglobal.org, “a global repository for research into the collateral effects of the COVID-19 lockdown measures”. Follow Collateral Global on Twitter here.
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. Alas, he’s now reached the end of the road, with the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear his appeal. Dolan has no regrets. “We forced SAGE to produce its minutes, got the Government to concede it had not lawfully shut schools, and lit the fire on scrutinizing data and information,” he says. “We also believe our findings and evidence, while not considered properly by the judges, will be of use in the inevitable public inquires which will follow and will help history judge the PM, Matt Hancock and their advisers in the light that they deserve.”
Then there’s the Robin Tilbrook case. You can read about that and contribute here.
Then there’s John’s Campaign which is focused specifically on care homes. Find out more about that here.
There’s the GoodLawProject’s Judicial Review of the Government’s award of lucrative PPE contracts to various private companies. You can find out more about that here and contribute to the crowdfunder here.
The Night Time Industries Association has instructed lawyers to JR any further restrictions on restaurants, pubs and bars.
And last but not least there’s the Free Speech Union‘s challenge to Ofcom over its ‘coronavirus guidance’. A High Court judge refused permission for the FSU’s judicial review in December and the FSU has decided not to appeal the decision because Ofcom has conceded most of the points it was making. Check here for details.
Samaritans
If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org 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.
Quotation Corner
We know they are lying. They know they are lying, They know that we know they are lying. We know that they know that we know they are lying. And still they continue to lie.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.
Mark Twain
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.
Charles Mackay
They who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
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.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
No lesson seems to be so deeply inculcated by the experience of life as that you never should trust experts. If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome: if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent: if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe. They all require to have their strong wine diluted by a very large admixture of insipid common sense.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Nothing would be more fatal than for the Government of States to get into the hands of experts. Expert knowledge is limited knowledge and the unlimited ignorance of the plain man, who knows where it hurts, is a safer guide than any rigorous direction of a specialist.
Sir Winston Churchill
If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science.
Richard Feynman
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
C.S. Lewis
The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.
Albert Camus
We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.
Carl Sagan
Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
George Orwell
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Marcus Aurelius
Necessity is the plea for every restriction of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
William Pitt the Younger
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.
Joseph Goebbels (attributed)
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.
H.L. Mencken
I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies to another this right, makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it.
Thomas Paine
Shameless Begging Bit
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And Finally…
You may have seen this already, but if not you’re in for a treat. Translator Peter Prowse created a very funny skit about more and more consonants being banned as the tiers ratcheted up, and in this version two American listeners have recorded their reactions. Top satire from Prowse.
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Sad? No, it’s monstrous.
And evil.
Brainwashed…
You do not know just how true that is.
There are protests but not enough. Now DeWaffle Johnson is spouting climate nonsense
You are being lied to! My son is dead, he took the vaccine.
The Vaccine give her son blood clots in the head
https://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell/9391
Upcoming peaceful anti lockdown events – and we mean peaceful
Wednesday 22nd September 5.30pm
A322 Downshire Way/Twin Bridges Roundabout
Bracknell RG12 7AA
Saturday 2nd October 2pm
GRAND STAND IN THE PARK BERKSHIRE
– with a couple of guest speakers and a stroll thought the town centre at the end
Reading River Promenade
Reading RG4 8BX
Saturday 16th October 1pm
Combined Berks/Bucks/Oxon/Surrey MEGA Yellow Board-Hold the Line
Stafferton Way
Maidenhead
SL6 1AY
Stand in the Park Make friends – keep sane – talk freedom and have a laugh
Reading River Promenade Sundays 10am
Join our Telegram group https://t.me/standindparkreading
Bracknell South Hill Park Sundays 10am & Wednesdays 2pm
Join our Telegram group http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
It is also deeply depressing, though.
Indeed
Sad is not the right word
This article is frankly pure BS, I was in Malta during the summer… yes mask were seen, but did I wear one… NO mostly not. Ditto in Sicily… and Crotone southern Italia… where the under 30s were full bore on “passeggiata” and were droves of them keeling over from the plague from these nightly super-spreader beach-side events… ergh? Nope.
Ditto Corfu and Greece… for sure in Athens more of the mask clad could be seen… if over 50s…but the vast majority of people know this is BS and act OLD NORMAL accordingly…
These current case number uplifts are vaxx related not wild variant whu-flu driven…
Watch and learn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obdI7tgKLtA
Meanwhile this weeks Kunstler is a must:
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/and-then-everything-happens-at-once/
No. On the whole it’s Not BS. I’m currently in southern Spain and when indoors in 98% of establishments you must wear a face mask. A few, very few, establishments are quietly ignoring it. Since june 23rd the spanish have not been required to wear masks outside. Yet, depressingly the majority still cling to wearing face masks outdoors. It will take a very long time for the insidious covid group think to loosen its hold over people’s psyche of fear.
They. Strap. Plasticised. Gags. To. Their. Faces. In. 90 degree Heat.
Morons.
It’s mainly the fear of social disapproval. Everybody knows there is no virus. But you must be seen to be doing your part.
It may well be the case where you are visiting in southern Spain Raquel, but rest assured the whole of Spain isn’t like that. I have been retired here on the Costa Azahar (Valencia region) for over 20 years, and yes, ‘covidiocy’ is amply demonstrated by dyed-in-the-wool mask wearers, proving the Abe Lincoln maxim to be true: “You can fool some of the people all of the time” (eg lone mask wearers driving their car).
Since the lifting of the alfresco mask mandate in june I am heartened to report that beaches here are virtually mask free zones. Bar terraces ditto. Yes, if you wish to drink inside, or visit the loo some establishments insist on masking, but most can’t be arsed imposing such nonsense. Long may it continue.
I am an unjabbed, healthy septugenarian and shall forgo my beloved globe-trotting, believing it a small price to pay to avoid becoming a lab-rat.
The experience from Spain is masks are warn indoors it is obligatory. Marks are warn where social distancing cannot be obtained. So the rules are there. It is simply not worth the effort to pull down your mask if and when you can keep a distance. Only to pull it up when you are approaching others.
It is not bullpoo.
Face masks everywhere in Finland. 99% compliance? Schoolkids aged 12 up have been getting the jabbings for the past 5 weeks. Everyone in Finland thinks the ‘vaccines’ are great and believe everything the government tells them.
Spain counted any death with a positive PCR at any time, i.e. no cut off, as a Covid death.
https://mobile.twitter.com/plaforscience/status/1438633874477682691
It’s in official documents.
That also explains wild regional variations as you’d expect viral spread to be largely uniform across a nation, and, if not, it points to data issues (or manipulation)
Unfortunately, the people of Italy and Spain, within living memory, have lived under totalitarian regimes – it’s something they have been conditioned to accept.
True. And so has most of Europe. But I see absolutely no fundamental difference here (pace the granting of (some) mask ‘freedom’). That is what is massively depressing – the ease with which totalitarian police states have emerged across the board with scarcely a murmur of protest.
I am preparing myself against the urge to vomit when I see the usual knee-jerk wearing of poppies in October (the competitive virtue-signalling gets earlier by the year) by the zombies who have absolutely no fucking idea what it’s all about. Watch the masked bands of hypocrites at the Cenotaph insulting the dead by tremulously wearing masks as wreaths are laid.
‘Land of the Free’ – be buggered.
It’s been hypocritical since March 2020. My two grandfathers who fought at the Somme must be turning in their graves.
I now understand vividly the US second amendment. The founding fathers were pretty alert to what might go wrong and what checks and balances it needed to reduce the risk.
I have to say that the Second Amendment has bugger all to do with anything relevant today – it’s a much misunderstood and abused provision from a different time and circumstance that has altered nothing in the US.
But the capitulation to totalitarianism is shameful – the equivalent, not of a remembrance of sacrifice for freedom from tyranny, but as the equivalent of handing out cups of tea to the Wehrmacht as they came ashore at Dover.
Unless there is a SIGNIFICANT change between now and November 11 I will NOT be attending a ‘Remembrance Day’ service. The stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming. I really feel for our Rector who fought in thje army and has done everything he can to defy the nonsense but he will be obliged to lead the Remembrance service.
Frankly, it will be sickening, particularly the sight of those despicable politicians who have caused this mess. It should be noted very clearly that it is NOT covid that has caused all this trouble; it is the RESPONSE to covid. Any politician, civil servant, clergyman (or woman) or television or newspaper reporter that attempts to blame ‘covid’ is lying.
I wonder if the Beeb will show the footage of Blow Job drunkenly swaying at the Cenotaph from a couple of years ago? It would be the most appropriate image for the times.
Spot on RH – re: 11am, 11.11.1918, could not have put it more cogently if I tried.
Lazy comment.
Spain has a constitution that has ultimately safeguarded people’s rights. After a constitutional court process, lockdowns have been declared unconstitutional and therefore illegal. They will no longer be allowed.
In Britain, Parliament can do what it wants and is. A legal challenge of lockdowns has been a complete failure. There may yet be another lockdown.
When are Brits going to get off their cultural high horse and stop resorting to tired old narratives?
“In Britain, Parliament can do what it wants …”
This should read :
“In Britain, the Executive can do what it wants …”
That is the crucial issue. Parliament is essentially irrelevant.
Actually, Parliament can literally enact any legislation with a simple majority.
The executive is doing what it wants because Parliament has allowed it to by enacting the Coronavirus Act.
Many of the worst excesses have used the public health act rather than the coronavirus act – in ways which the government which passed it clearly never envisaged, but unless the courts rein them in (and they show no sign of doing so), there’s nothing to stop them.
Yes…….the PHA 1984, allows the government to quarantine ‘infectious people’.
That is exactly what Hancock did……only he decided to call people with +ve PCR-tests, but no symptoms ‘infectious’…….so easily done eh?
I am pretty sure that when Thatcher’s government drafted the legislation, bu ‘infectious’ it meant TB, small-pox, plague etc. and wanted to enable forced quarantine of those carrying a really deadly disease.
Note too though that the PHA 1984 only allows the government to institute measures that are PROPORTIONATE to the the intended aim.
Note too that the PHA specifically DISALLOWS mandatory jabs.
You massively overestimate the independence of parliament.
Sorry – you’re just wrong.
Hey-up the finger Jerk’s out of the burrow again!
Amd Parliament has voted for its own demise. Ignorant and stupid MPs are nearly as guilty as traitorous government ministers.
Yeh …. but … What can be done to alter this?
Writing an e-mail to your MP or signing an on-line petition always work well.
Sorry EF, that is wholly dependant on the moral, ethical and independently minded calibre of one’s MP – sadly very wanting in my case – please see the reproduced response from my MP in the comment to the first article today – I suspect this is a Cabinet Office/CS penned round robin made available to MPs who are bombarded with constituents concerns and cannot be arsed to respond individually.
“Am I right, Sir?”
Take two reality tablets upon waking with a large glass of cynicism.
Spain has a constitution that has ultimately safeguarded people’s rights
Hmmm, is that why Madrid sent riot police from Seville to Barcelona to beat up people voting in an independence referendum?
Is that why a dozen or elected Catalan politicians were convicted of trumped up charges of sedition…….and handed incredibly long and disproportionate prison sentences?
Lazy thinking?
Why were the charges “trumped up”? It’s pretty clear they were guilty of exactly what they were accused of.
The issue of Catalan secession is not straightforward. There are arguments on both sides, as is often the case in such situations.
But I find it extremely difficult to take supposed “nationalists” seriously if their stated objective is merely to shift their nation’s external allegiance from an existing capital to Brussels, and submerge it in the emerging Euro superstate.
Fake nationalists, like the SNP jokers.
Nope, you are wrong……..it was not illegal to organise such a referendum.
They were charged, as I understand it, with “sedition”, “rebellion” and “misuse of public funds”.
On the face if it I’d say they appeared to have been arguably guilty of exactly those things (not saying that they were definitely guilty as a matter of law, just that the charges seem perfectly plausible based on their actions).
If they were real nationalists rather than Euro-apologists, they might have a moral leg to stand on, at least. But it’s apparent that their posturing as “nationalists” is purely for show.
A lazy comment? Does that make it any less true? And what does the mass wearing of masks indicate?
The court ruling that the state of alarm is unconstitutional was a play on words.
It concluded that the government should have resorted to a state of emergency, not a state of alarm.The court voted six against five and found that such a lockdown should have been imposed under the next level of emergency situation under Spanish law, the state of emergency. This would have required the prior approval of the lower house of parliament, the Congress of Deputies.
Article 116 of the Spanish Constitution describes three legal categories for emergency situations: state of alarm, state of emergency and state of siege.
The lockdown saw Spaniards confined to their homes apart from for essential activities such as buying food. A few were allowed to carry on working too.
The ruling was complicated but one point came out was of the serious drawbacks to a state of emergency would have been the more severe restrictions on fundamental rights that it would have brought with it.
A state of emergency is subject to less oversight, and allows the police to increase the time that they can detain people from three to 10 days with no judicial supervision. Police can also enter homes or establishments with the use of force – i.e. knocking down the door – when they deem it necessary, and also without any prior authorization from the courts. The authorities can also close down media outlets under a state of emergency, all in the name of maintaining public order.
Oddly the Constitutional Court ruled on the state of alarm due to an appeal filed by the far-right Vox party. “A political party thatvoted in favour of the state of alarm when it was presented for the first time in Congress.
Throughout the Franco era, Spain had a constitution which guaranteed fundamental freedoms.
On paper.
If you toed the line.
And didn’t ask what was going on in the cells under the police building.
And they, like us, have voted in a socialist regime.
Have they the same mentality as before WW11? Whereas the British were kicking against it. My son tells me masks are optional inside his large office block and he rarely sees them, the policy was to encourage people to come back into the office.
Wait till the end of October.
Yes, we are in the lull before the inevitable storm, that all thinkers know they plotting.
“Whereas the British were kicking against it”
No they weren’t. The official policy was in effect to tacitly support Franco by the tactic of saying nowt. A slice of the establishment at large didn’t much mind Hitler, either.
I’m afraid the history isn’t entirely glorious.
It was individuals who rallied to the cause of democratic freedom. See the extensive literature.
Not worth going to any of these backward places, until or if they get a grip of themselves and the same goes for the compliant airline industry.
Backward eh?
Spaniards have at no time been barred from leaving the country. In “advanced” Britain the government made foreign travel illegal.
Lazy article, lazy editorial work, lazy comments.
I didn’t say Britain is advanced, it isn’t. However for me, it is not worthwhile to jump through expensive and bodily invasive hoops just to go somewhere where masks are still the order of the day. If you think that’s okay, then fine go ahead and mask up.
Yes, I went to exchange some unused foreign currency the other day that I’ve had since 2019.
The woman asked when I’d fly again; I said there’s no way I’d voluntarily pay to sit on a plane wearing a mask. Ditto subways, cafes or airports.
Virgin Atlantic have been emailing me for most of the pandemic trying to encourage me to fly to the Caribbean. To calm my fears, they say they’ll give me a health pack containing hand gels, surface wipes and medical-grade masks “we will require you to wear yours at all times on the plane”.
They failed to persuade me.
Your facts are all wrong.
Spain doesn’t require more “bodily invasive hoops” to jump through than the UK. Actually, less. To leave, to arrive in and to live in.
No one living in Spain can be compelled to do a test or stay in their homes. The constitutional court has made it very clear.
Not the case in the UK. To not isolate is a criminal offense.
I’m afraid to say Brits are too often badly informed and arrogant with respect to other places, especially “southern Europe”
You may not have to do tests but in some areas you ahve to ahvea Covid passort to enter bars. No vaticination? that will mean a test.
Bloody auto spill cheque.
The only region that has tried to implement it is Galicia and it is being challenged in court.
Andalucia tried it and the courts struck it down.
Meanwhile in Britain, judges wave through every draconian government measure.
That’s just the facts, which to judge from some comments on here, some are finding hard to digest.
That just isn’t true. The regions that have tried it have been met with legal challenges and have either been struck down or are in the process of being struck down.
Which areas please?
This is the thing. We haven’t got mandated vaccine passports, the whole of the government is foregoing mask wearing in Parliament while the opposition signal their virtue. Schools are back, without masking and optional testing. I will grant you there is still a very insidious coercion around vaccines but it really is nothing like Europe, America, Israel, NZ, Aus etc etc. The bedwetters in government have been marginalised in favour of CRG sympathisers. And there is a drip drip of people realising that the vaccines inefficiency at preventing infection and transmission makes passports absurd. I am still extremely worried about ADE, not least because all my family and friends have fallen for the bollocks, but we are not in a bad place in England, relative to the rest of the world apart from Sweden and Denmark.
This is where I am. My view/fear though is that our betters in the state blob are regrouping and concocting ways to enforce on us the measures being seen in AU, Canada, France etc. I do hope I’m wrong but I just don’t see how we’ve had a pass from the latest nonsense seen elsewhere.
I think it is partly down to this forum which is read by the likes Of JHB, Pearson and others with a bit of backbone in the media, plus the likes of Fysh and Baker on the Tory back benches. The Lib Dems are late to the party whilst the Labour Party have backed the wrong horse again and are hiding behind their masks.
Agrred, IMO the current relaxation is just a temporary reprieve. Another few weeks and we’ll be back in lockdown and masks. And the passports will spread.
It seems to me the real rulers are dictating different restrictions in different countries to test what they can get away with, a social experiment which would make Stanley Milgram proud.
“I will grant you there is still a very insidious coercion around vaccines, but …”
Thank you Polyanna, for that reassurance from the La La Land Broadcasting Corporation. I’m glad you’ve pointed out the difference between being in shit up to the eyeballs from being in it up to the eyebrows.
Meanwhile … the coercion for the snake oil reaches 12-year olds, whilst the majority of the nation turns over and snores, and Blow Job prepares the ground for the Winter Campaign …
Need I go on?
Don’t get me wrong, I think the mass vaccination of healthy people with a leaky vaccine could turn out to be an even more stupid decision than lockdown, but we aren’t seeing coercion of kids to be vaccinated on anything like the level we did adults. It still isn’t great, by any stretch, but England is, at the moment, in a much better place, related to all this bollocks, than most of the rest of the world. There is still a long way to go to win this fight but scepticism is finally starting to get some proper traction in England, you only have to walk around Tesco’s to see that.
Depends what Tesco. Mask wearing inside all supermarkets in my area is still at an extremely high level. Granted, very slowly, more people are ditching their muzzles but I fear once autumn gets into full swing the government will ramp up the mask message again and we will very quickly reverse back to almost 100% compliance.
My local Tesco is now down to about a third wearing face nappies. M&S Food still at about 50%.
It’ll only take a bit of opening of the scaremonger tap to push those numbers well back up again,
Let them. We know that there never was and never will be any legal, moral or logical reason to wear one, so we’re eternally exempt and can forever feel the breeze against our chins!
I live in the most middle-class virtue-signalling Guardian-reading XR-supporting commuter town in northern England and have been in a minority of one throughout the so-called pandemic when in Tesco’s. But even here there’s been a distinct change over recent weeks. Thus spoiling my fun; I no longer look brave and defiant.. doh!
So here’s the odd thing. Last Friday evening, I spent a fabulous night at a bar in my home town where they had a live band on playing hits from the 80’s (it was my music era growing up so forgive me for enjoying it). It was hot, sweaty and crowded…people queuing three deep and shoulder to shoulder at the bar…people dancing like drunken lunatics (yes, I was one, so sue me) and not a f*cking mask in sight. Only two days later, in my local Waitrose I saw at least two people who had been at that bar and who danced all night with wild abandon dutifully wearing masks whilst shopping. What the f*ck is all that about? I despair.
People associate going into shops with wearing masks, ditto getting on trains. It’s habit now.
“we aren’t seeing coercion of kids to be vaccinated on anything like the level we did adults. “
Sorry – but the steps taken so far are massively coercive – and completely political, with no real medical cover.
I’ve been thinking that just this afternoon, whilst walking round Tesco’s in fact. Masks definitely on the decline and even older people, patronisingly referred to in the new paradigm as “vulnerable” seem to be forgoing them. Although I share the fear that the enemy will come back harder in the autumn, I can’t help feeling that some of the momentum has been lost. Any way never mind masks, the nation’s children are about to be poisoned; let’s concentrate on that for now.
“We” are about to have social credit score apps (“vaxxports”) imposed at the start of October.
Scotchland and Wales are just the dry runs for the imposition in England when they’ve decided which statistic to tweak next.
The vaxxport system is already in place and being used “voluntarily” by some venues.
They’re coming, and I’m surprised at anyone here being naïve enough to believe otherwise.
On the other hand, some Aussie testicular fortitude:
https://twitter.com/DifficultNerd/status/1440231179240697859
I’m not sure how this ever ends to be honest.
Why, of course it ends with your smart phone recording your CO2 emissions and awarding you social credit points that limit your life options accordingly.
“ big Covid numbers”
Yes – well – we all know about those! The winner of the medical Booker Prize two years running!
But, don’t celebrate the relative ‘freedom’ of this country. Those of us outside the monkey cage see a rather different picture.
True – there has been a dropping of mask compulsion here, and it is good to note the consequent freedom of masks in certain common settings. Bit this is but the exposed tip of an iceberg.
But, as I illustrated yesterday, the psychosis is still riding high in terms of it’s voluntary application in indoor settings under the umbrella of ‘safety’ measures. The majority of the population remain programmed to quite a profound level.
Never forget the temporary freedom has its purpose – to convince the majority that the few critics were “all wrong all along” and that they are following along voluntarily. With that accomplished the whipping will be resumed shortly.
But, but, but……..we were told, “Get jabbed and everything can go back to normal”.
But…they kind of forget to mention that you will NEVER be fully jabbed!
Always one more!
HotelHospital California.Not a very accurate picture.
Spain has no vaxx passports at all, of any kind. And masks now only required indoors, not outdoors. No temperature checks anywhere, never have been.
People do voluntarily wear masks in more instances than are required. That is for sure.
No Covid passports?
Read this.
https://spanishnewstoday.com/over-21-million-covid-passports-already-issued-in-spain_1638253-a.html
https://www.eleconomista.es/actualidad/noticias/11393868/09/21/Sera-obligatorio-presentar-el-pasaporte-Covid-para-entrar-en-los-bares-y-discotecas-de-Galicia.html
The Spanish have the EU Covid/Vaccine Passport. Been in use since June.
https://ec.europa.eu/info/live-work-travel-eu/coronavirus-response/safe-covid-19-vaccines-europeans/eu-digital-covid-certificate_en
It’s a certificate of vaccination. Britain has them too.
The constitution does not allow them to be used in the country in any way that limits people’s rights.
This does not mean that governments and officials have not tried. But unlike in Britain where the judiciary has just stood aside, in Spain the courts and most importantly the constitutional court which is the highest in the country, have stopped the violation of constitutionally granted rights.
This is perhaps what really distinguishes Spain from Britain and perhaps other countries. In Spain, there are a number of fundamental rights which are enshrined in a constitution that cannot be changed by a simple parliamentary majority.
I think most Brits simply don’t understand that and draw instead from obsolete, tired old narratives about plucky freedom loving Brits and downtrodden southern Europeans with longstanding illiberal tendencies.
It might be true of Italians, but it’s certainly not the case of Spain.
Absolutely agree.
Something is kicking off down under ….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCIWfRmZ-Ww
The bundling of Spain and Italy into one as if these two countries are doing the same things nd can be judged together does the Daily Sceptic very little credit.
Absolutely true.Spain,apart from masks,is a totally different country.No coercive vaccination,no Covidpassport and open and in practice no SD. Italy seems to be utterly different with no Constitutional Court protecting them as in Spain.
To further add to the depression is that Toby still refers to this scam as a pandemic. This despite countless articles produced and linked to by this site proving there was no such thing.
And what’s the situation with travelling to the likes of Spain these days? Is being double-jabbed a requirement?
Well … its a case of the ‘elastic dictionary’.
It is a ‘pandemic’ – by virtue of the WHO excluding an assessment of mortality as part of the definition.
Of course – this is now a strange circumstance, whereby a ‘pandemic’ doesn’t reach official levels defined as ‘epidemic’!
No. Spain does not mandate vaccines.
Based on a the comments and reactions on here, I’m a bit disappointed at how unwilling British people are to be corrected when their facts and judgements are way off.
Qué?
Hilarious. While you rely on a fictional character created by a British comic for your mockery, Spaniards who want to look down on Brits use the very real British drunken louts in Mallorca who from time to time fall off balconies trying stupid stunts.
“The Spanish government requires all arrivals to Spain from the UK to present on entry a pre-travel declaration form and one of the following: a negative COVID-19 test* or proof of vaccination.”
*free tests from the NHS not valid – only those you have to pay for. The NHS tests are obviously fake. Ali Baba’s PCR-test-for-£99-my-friend is the only thing that will see you right.
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.collinsongroup.com?stars=1
This would be England too, if Labour were in charge of Covid policy. A lot of people would be happy with it too. See their MPs in the House of Commons, and Sadiq Khan wanting it to be a criminal offence not to wear a mask on a bus again. Masks forever ‘To keep us all safe’.
Some real anger building up in Australia.
And rightly so, when a trade union, of all things, fails to stand firmly to protect its members against lockdowns and coerced injection with a dangerous, experimental treatment
The unions failed utterly in this country, largely captured by the panickers from the beginning, and it looks as though they failed as completely in Australia.
Hopefully these kinds of responses will force them to confront what is really going on.
https://twitter.com/InProportion2/status/1440251707020267520
Victorian construction industry shut down after tradies’ violent protest outside union
The union leadership smeared dissenters as extremists (doubtless some of them were, but extremism in defence of liberty is no vice), of course, and claimed to have been “blind-sided”:
“Mr Setka said he did not back vaccinations being mandated, despite protesters claiming the union was wrongfully supporting the government’s decision.
“We were blind-sighted by some of the Department of Health’s recommendations last week,” he said.
“How all of a sudden it’s our fault is beyond me.
“We’re virtually being blamed for everything.””
This is the one MELBOURNE PROTEST video they don’t want you to see
Great video report on the Melbourne construction workers’ protest yesterday (posted previously by AN other lockdown sceptic above).
“One thing I’ve gotta say is to the nation of Australia, as a union member, I’m so sorry that we didn’t stand up for all those shopkeepers and all those other people that’ve been trampled upon, and I feel disgusted that we were allowed to work during that time. .. But let’s stand up as a nation. This is bullshit what’s going on, and don’t be tricked by the media, by the lies and the deceit.”
99% of people will only care once it affects them. The vast majority on here are making their own lives miserable for those 99% and they could give a fuck most days.
“The unions failed utterly in this country, largely captured by the panickers from the beginning“
Actually this goes a little too far. While it’s correct I think to say that they failed utterly at the crucial time, when lockdowns were imposed, and most, like the teaching unions, were strongly on the wrong side of the issues, nevertheless I have seen some reports of them coming out against coerced vaccination.
Too little too late, but at least they are not all wholeheartedly pushing the evil.
The unions in this country have been a cowardly disgrace.
The leaders of the teaching unions have clearly been bought and have connived with the government in seeking to destroy the education system in this country along with the mental health of school children and students.
Union leaderships are stuffed full of Quislings and in many cases outright traitors.
The position of Trade Unions in this country throughout the Scam is indefensible. Quite simply they have failed their members and are guilty of dereliction of duty as a minimum.
“Union leader John Setka has been accused of assaulting his wife, Emma Walters, in an alleged incident this week which has left Ms Walters saying she has fears for her safety.”
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/john-setka-investigated-over-alleged-domestic-violence-assault-20210827-p58mdi.html
Nice guy.
“Union leader John Setka has been accused of assaulting his wife, Emma Walters, in an alleged incident this week which has left Ms Walters saying she has fears for her safety.
In a sworn statement to police, Ms Walters – a high-profile lawyer and mother of two — says that after an argument on Wednesday night, Mr Setka, the Victorian secretary of the CFMEU, became violent and repeatedly hit her head against a table leaving her with a bruised forehead.”
“John was out of control. He hit my head against the table about five times,” the statement said. “It was very painful. John is a lot bigger and stronger than me and he can totally physically control me. When he loses his temper, there isn’t anything I can do but submit to him”
“In 2019, Mr Setka was convicted of harassing Ms Walters and breaching court orders after more than 25 calls and 45 text messages in which he called her a “weak f—en piece of shit” and a “treacherous Aussie f—en c—” and a “f—en dog”.”
Yet here on the south coast of England the beach is one place I go for a walk to avoid seeing any muzzled zombies.
It has been rare all along during this insanity to see any muzzled here at the beach, with a very occasional exception, which is why I choose to seek sanctuary here from the muzzled.
Also now people usually manage to avoid the the “Scalded Cat Sidestep” dance routine when passing you too, which is gratifying.
And they smile at you when you walk past, saying hello. I watched the Australian press release yesterday where Gladys Berejiklian stood there wearing a mask as she blatantly lied on national TV about how the vaccine cuts transmission dramatically (maybe 7% as reported here). Behind her these faceless people all wearing masks. They think they are free?
Yes I do get a few smiles and even an occasional short chat.
I must admit that I find masks creepy – always have done.
When I see what is happening in Aus. I sometimes think I must be dreaming.
They certainly aren’t free.
Mask? More like tent! Have you seen the size of her conk!!
The Pinocchio Effect!
I read the article and already wondered why the author is making his children wear masks or does so himself.
I am also quite sure that children were not at school for a very long time, and even not allowed out for a long a long period of time.
Then I get to the end and the author is Toby Young. My heart sank. I am so glad he provided this platform last year, and for the swamp on reddit, but this site is loosing momentum each day.
“Then I get to the end and the author is Toby Young“
The byline on this site is usually just whoever posts the article up, not necessarily the writer.
They don’t give the author of this piece, but the text at the beginning indicates that it wasn’t written by Young. Says it’s a “guest post” by a Sceptic reader
Schools were indeed closed in Italy for a long time, and there is talking of them closing again.
This is not written from Toby’s experience. It is stated in the first line that it is a guest writer.
If it is law to wear a mask or the alternative is to get a huge fine. Then I think the way forward is to wear that mask. Or not to visit said location.
for the person who voted me down. It is a 100€ fine per person per event.
https://www.noticiastrabajo.es/fin-estado-alarma-multa-no-llevar-mascarilla/
That is on the street.
If you are in a vehicle with no cohabiting and not wearing a mask the fine increases. Plus you are limited to the number of no cohabiting persons in said vehicle unless it is public transport. Regulations on how to store masks too.
https://www.lasprovincias.es/sociedad/avisa-importante-multa-20210325085303-nt.html
Sorry folks you have to use your favourite translator for these links.
With these two examples you can see why the Spanish cower down and accpt things the way they are. Yes some are cheesed off. But being fined for a number, of some would say minor issues, added up in one stop-check does not make you want to be a hero.
Sainsbury’s just now, 80% masked zombies.
Well it was 98% a few months ago.
Other supermarkets are available where it’s down as low as 50-60%.
Unfortunately, just over the border, Wales remains a masked state.
Why don’t the Welsh just tell the government to fuck off? Or just ignore their government?
Unfortunately, this chimes with a friend of mine who has just returned from Spain saying she loved the ‘rules’ and that she felt considerably safer there than in the U.K. These people are still essentially calling the shots.
The desire to fit in is the main driver of all human behavior. The manipulators are fully aware of it, and that’s precisely what mandates are designed for – to reach a critical mass after which dissenting individuals start believing that they are the odd one out. That’s also why they have patriotic music played in public spaces every day in North Korea and the affirmations of love to dear leader. It looks silly and artificial, and outsiders cannot conceive how people can be so dumb to conform to such enforced rituals. But now you understand, it works.
By successfully applying peer pressure you can control people very effectively, the main difficulty is in the beginning to establish such as system – you need a catalyst – but when it’s online, it just keeps on rolling. Just like a ponzi scheme which recruits ever more participants based on its “success”.
What the Covid/Lockdown/Mask/’Vaccine’ era has shown is that there is nothing new under the psychological sun. The Covid mania is giving us a confirmation of three seminal psychology theories – B. F. Skinner on conditioning (see people still don the mask when and where they haven’t been ‘mandated’ to do so), Soloman Asch on conformity (do not stand out from the crowd) and, of course, Stanley Milgram on obedience to authority (people in white coats with Professor/Dr. in front of their name must be obeyed because of their medical ‘wisdom’). Our health overlords are working, consciously or otherwise, to this script.
And this it with there being no evidence that masks make much difference at all.
Science is dead. This is religion.
It’s fear of social disapproval.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1440216658245603336
Nice
Excellent.
“President of Croatia says they are done jabbing. They are not going to do it any more.”
Maybe it’s an example of politicians having gone mad in crowds, and recovering one by one…?
How long can it be before Croatia joins Syria, Iraq, Libya, and a host of others on the list of pariah states meriting US attack?
He pretty much anticipates it with his comment: they can close us with a wire.
What a legend.
When in Lanzarote earlier this year, masks were obligatory outside except in the country ( not defined). Now the obligation is removed. Restaurants and bars are fully open inside and out as its at the Canary Island level 1 restrictions. We are returning in the New Year so will report back, but I suspect the high Brit element on the island will ensure its returned more or less to normal with the exception of the masks in supermarkets. Given France restrictions this seems mild now.
Anyway later today we start the first leg of our ‘great escape’ to De Santis land. Just in time as it turns out, November would have seen our plans scuppered thanks to the Biden WH ‘vaccine’ push. First a quick jump to Madrid where we officially enter Spain for one night, only to reenter the airport tomorrow to fly to Panama. Antigens were negative, Spanish Health QR codes obtained, Panamanian Health QR codes obtained. Flights checked in online.
Then 14 days in Panama which will be fine, ‘masks are mandatory though, and it will be wet! Then another antigen test, and flight to Tampa. Then as soon as we leave the airport its masks in the bin, and making the most of 8 weeks of freedom.
The return to France is not something we look forward to. Antigen test before we leave, completion of French ‘honour’ form to say we will self-isolate for 7 days and then take a PCR test. We hope maybe, just maybe some of this will have been relaxed by December, but anyway its worth it! As we want to get away again in January we will have to make sure we do enough ‘conforming’ not to be put on some ‘no fly’ list that our new fascist government no doubt is creating.
We have had 2 parallel routes ‘in case’ these have now been closed. Its like planning D-Day. Stressful for absolutely no purpose, we are fit, healthy individuals who probably got this ‘cold’ in Bangkok January 2020 but we have no way of proving it.
We want to see our son who will join us from Denver over Thanksgiving. But we also want to do this just to put two fingers up at all the fascists, large and small.
Before you go back you can check on this website about what paperwork is need to fly into Spain. Plus you can read what regulations are in the area you wish to visit.
https://travelsafe.spain.info/en/
At the moment it states that in the CIs
From 26th June, the face mask will not be mandatory in outdoor spaces as long as you can respect social distancing. However, the face mask will be mandatory in indoor or closed spaces, including public transport.Social distancing is 1.5m.
There is all sort of other crap about capacities and that will depend on level alert and type of establishment.
As a Brit who has been living and working in Italy for over 10 years I feel reasonably qualified to comment on the current situation here, which is nothing less than a medical dictatorship. Some Brits may feel a certain sense of security or even pride in the fact that they suddenly seem rather “free” compared to some of their European neighbours. Alas anybody who has been paying even the slightest bit of attention throughout this show will surely realise that all will be leveled out sooner or later.
I would generally agree with the writer as far as Italy is concerned, there are still large swathes of people who choose to suffer a useless mask under the 35 degree sun while out in open air. Indoors they are still required in all situations, exceptions made for the covid safe actions of drinking at a bar or eating in a restaurant, but not strangely enough for any child above 5 years of age in a classroom. Apparently schooling isn’t a safe exercise unless everybody is masked and all staff have their “green pass”. The writer is far off the mark with their comment about children not missing school, as a matter of fact Italian students missed more in school teaching that any other country in Europe and I must add to devastating effects, I’m a teacher and saw them myself first hand.
Italy and Italians are on the forefront of the blind march into a technocratic medical dictatorship. You can no longer do anything of substance without your God forsaken “green pass” and the government has continuously talked about obligatory vaccination for all if not enough people fall in line. However, there has been little to no pushback here, actually on the contrary you will find many a fervent believer who has been subdued into believing that anybody who even questions all of this is what they call a “no vax” and the MSM has created the image of some sort of terrorist organisation which communicates through telegram, a dangerous group which must be ridiculed and squashed at all costs.
Why? I don’t know. The spectator had an interesting article regarding Italy’s situation the other day, I tend to agree with much that was written there but the true answer as to why a nation decides it is willing to give up a lot of its freedoms in the name of little more than witchcraft is a question for philosophers of which I am not. I will conclude this long, venting post by reiterating my initial observation, yes England may seem to the untrained eye to once again be a land of reason, choice and dare I say democracy but it’s all a chimera I feel and soon enough the scales will tip back in the other direction for it must be clear by know that this is not individual nations somehow bumbling along making similar errors of judgement but a clear globalist, organised frogmarch towards a very bleak future.
For a reason not yet clear, Italy has been the front runner in most of the draconian moves. The Spectator article seemed to capture the reason why its been used in this manner. As you rightly say, its been used, and others quickly follow when the trial has proved yet again ‘we didn’t realise we could get away with that’.
I think it’s related to the fact that it got the first scare, with the virus imported soon after Wuhan – and panicked, displaying wet pants on washing lines all over the place.
Saner analysis revealed that the initial mortality related to older people and (probably) – as in Spain, household composition.
But, as we know, the updating of intelligence just doesn’t happen when Covid stalks.
Good post! Thanks!
Excellent post thank you
Useful post, thank you.
I’m currently in southern Spain. Costa del Sol. No one is wearing masks on the beach. They’re warn inside in supermarkets etc. Waiters wear them but they don’t enforce diners to wear them. Some people do though
For anyone on here willing to be confronted by an honest comparison between Spain and the UK in its performance during this coronavirus horror show (that’s what this article is about, after all) here is the reality.
From the point of view of crazy out of proportion measures Spain has outdone the UK in only two things.
1. Masks. They continue to have them indoors. And had them outdoors when the UK never mandated outdoor masks.
2. The first lockdown. Spain went nuts and made it very difficult for people to go out for a period of 8 weeks.
In every other respect Spain has been an island of sanity where the UK has lost it’s mind.
Britain is a bastion of freedom compared to “southern Europeans” only in the badly informed minds of Brits.
“Most importantly, the draconian measures of the first lockdown were taken to court and ultimately declared anticonstitutional and so they cannot be repeated.”
This for me also is arguably the most important.
I accept your points but there is a concern (to me) that continued wearing of masks is the price Spaniards and Italians are prepared to pay for what they consider to be ‘normality’. There is nothing about the ‘pandemic’ that I would accept as a condition to normal living and social conditions. That is not say the U.K is any kind of superior example, as it isn’t, as virtually everywhere seems a long way off normal and with no encouraging signs that they ever will be.
I hate masks. I have little to no respect for those that wear them. My stomach turns at the thought that they will be with us for a long time in some for or other. No argument from me on the monstrosity that are masks.
Having said that, vaccine passports worry me much more. Vaccine passports cement the principle that you have to prove your health status to participate in society. They represent the end of the most basic freedom and mark our complete enslavement to the state. I don’t think I exaggerate one iota.
As horrible as masks are, I can see them gradually disappearing. Once we have health passports, they will be almost impossible to roll back.
In that respect Spain is ahead of most countries that I am aware of, at least for now, in that the constitution prohibits any such discrimination. The constitution could be changed, but that would not be easy. Conversely, I see the imposition of digital IDs in the UK within a trojan horse NHS app as a virtual certainty.
The first England lockdown was for ten weeks.
Read what you have written. You have just made a defence case for one set of violations on humans being better than another Governments set of violations. Its rather like saying the Robber who robbed me only broke my 2 Arms and blacked my eyes, the other Robber actually killed that person. So Iwas lucky.
There is no better in this situation, the principle of denying basic fundamental freedoms, and bodily rights is not for any Government to decide upon, it is all wrong, and saying oh well, its not as bad as what they are doing means you have already accepted that you are not a free human being, and what do we call someone who is not free? Its a Slave,
Well, both of these countries have form when it comes to fascism………….
As does the UK now!
Has Toby had the jab then?
This was most certainly not the case in Menorca in late July and late August
It seems to me that the cruelty inflicted on populations have been accepted because those populations have been slowly suppressed anyway. We all think we have freedom but how many cameras are there on the roads, in shopping centres etc. How many regulations do we abide by in form filling, name giving exercises for everything we do. How many taxes do we blindly pay. How many times do we stop and think about what we say, what we wear, where we walk. Indeed how many of us choose to holiday further afield than France, Italy or Spain.
Everything we do is controlled one way or another. Most of us never get the Government or the Council we vote for. Even Leavers haven’t seen the Brexit they voted for. Every single thing that was important in that vote has been ignored. Migration is at an all time high, we have not left the ECJ, the EAW, or indeed had VAT lowered because we want to rejoin the world in trade without the overseeing of Brussels. Populations have slowly walked into a Global communism. We haven’t noticed because we have still been ‘allowed’ to buy property or choose our child’s school. However, our jobs have stagnated and our wages but less than they did 40yrs ago. We live on debt and credit. We actually own nothing already.
Now the Globalists have stepped up the suppression with a pandemic, lockdowns and jabs. It’s just the end game to something started many moons ago. It’s blatant but so many are already mind controlled they just meekly comply with the next diktat. Over the next few years there will be horrendous culling of populations and those who do survive will have a struggle like nothing on earth before. This is not a war like any other. This is the war of worlds fighting for the soul of humanity.
I am working on a new mask for the Italians it has a zip in it such that they don’t ever have to take it off, and they can therefore eat with it on, I think it will be a best seller with some in the UK too. Anyone want to fund me?
There’s a few comments here from people with recent first hand experience of Spain. What’s the deal there with covid certification?
Having returned from the Peleopnnese and now being made to suffer for my non vaccinated status. I can report that the further down the peninsual I travelled the less attention was paid to the Greek Governments Covid pass.
The experiences of blatant discrimination which the poor beleagured and frankly government imposed impoverished Greeks have to impose were as follows.
Thos of us on arrival without the vaccine passports were pulled aside shoved into tented cubicles and made to take lateral flow tests, which the results would be then texted to us within the 24 hours. We were allowed to go about our normal travel plans whilst waiting for the results.
In Monemvasia, One night it poured with rain. The Restaurants and Bars would only allow the prrof of vaccination people inside. The “unclean” had to eat in the rain or just not eat.
We were not allowed on Public transport.
Shops you have to wear a mask, most had it slung under the nose.
In Hotels you don’t have to wear a mask the staff do, and you have to give permission for them to clean your room.
Apart from the rainy night when it was made blatantly clear what lies in store for the disobedient come winter, We had a good break. It was slightly spoiled again by an Aegean member of staff who when we were boarding the plane rechecked all documents, shouted very loudly my vaccination status in fron of the other passengers, took my PLF form and continued to question me loudly on testing etc in front of the other passengers.
As my vaccinated Brother said, “There are the few of you that haven’t taken it so what do you expect? they are going to come down on you”
In other words because I don;t want the experimental drug, because I am worried it will damage my body, I must be humiliated, and made an example of
Utterly bizarre. You were made to take a test but all the jabbed, who as we all know (although have to pretend otherwise) are just as likely to be infected as the unjabbed, were allowed to enter and visit restaurants at will, whereas you were not.
There is zero justification for this, at least with regard to public health. If Greece were covid free and if the injections conferred any sort of immunity, there might be a case for operating this kind of discriminatory apartheid. As it is, there is none.
I know its just good old discrimination because we haven’t done as we are told.
Further example of the madness, on return to the Uk I had to take a test to prove negative Covid before flying back, the vaccinated did not, On return to the Uk I have to isolate for 10 days thus far I have had visits to my remote home by both Test and trace and the Police (because clearly they have no real crimes to attend to). I have to pay in total one hundred and sixty pounds for day 2 and day 8 tests, and a day 5 if I went to get out of jail earlier. The vaccinated do not have to isolate and only have to take a day 2 test.
So as the SAGE people say the “vaccine” does not confer immunity and it does not stop the individual transmitting, so the only differnec between a vaccinated and an unvaccinated person is the mark given by the Government that you are an obedient citizen, you get a pat on the head and some treats. The disobedient unvaccinated person has to be punished because of their disobedience. Because as far as the virus is concerned both parties can catch it and both can transmit it.
“As my vaccinated Brother said, “There are the few of you that haven’t taken it so what do you expect? they are going to come down on you”“
This is why I blame those who have taken the “vaccine”, apart from the small minority for whom there might be a plausible medical reason to do so, more than some others here do.
As soon as state and media lies and coercion began to be used to coerce compliance, it became a moral duty to resist, imo. Those who did not resist made life harder for their betters, who did resist. Morally reprehensible.
I agree.
In the words of Labi Sithri (forgive spelling)
“The higher you build your barriers
The taller I become
The further you take my rights away
The faster I will run
You can deny me
You can decide to turn your face away
No matter, cos there’s
Something inside so strong
I know that I can make it
Tho’ you’re doing me wrong, so wrong
You thought that my pride was gone
Oh no, something inside so strong
Oh oh oh oh oh something inside so strong
The more you refuse to hear my voice
The louder I will sing
You hide behind walls of Jericho
Your lies will come tumbling
Deny my place in time
You squander wealth that’s mine
My light will shine so brightly
It will blind you
Cos there’s
Something inside so strong
I know that I can make it
Tho’ you’re doing me wrong, so wrong
You thought that my pride was gone
Oh no, something inside so strong
Oh oh oh oh oh something inside so strong
Brothers and sisters
When they insist we’re just not good enough
When we know better
Just look ’em in the eyes and say
We’re gonna do it anyway 2x
Something inside so strong
And I know that I can make it
Tho’ you’re doing me wrong, so wrong
You thought that my pride was gone
Oh no, something inside so strong
Oh oh oh oh oh something inside so strong
Masks are ineffective, pointless and harmful at the same time. It was known at the start of 2020 that masks are ineffective against respiratory viruses. No new high quality research has provided any evidence to the contrary since March 2020.
They are, quite obviously, a way to force people to be constantly conscious of a “threat” and to behave in all sorts of weird ways that are unnatural for humans. When people literally step off the pavement into the path of oncoming vehicles to avoid facing unmasked people, then you know that something is badly wrong with the concept.
It’s time to really follow the Science and drop the mask theatre entirely. If Susan Mitchie wants to wear a mask, she can go ahead and wear a mask, but as for coercing the rest of us into doing something that does nothing to reduce the transmission of the virus and creates vast quantities of unnecessary waste materials, forget it, evil commie bitch.
Generalisation is oftentimes dangerous and here is a post conflating personal experience with a perception of cause. In Spain the various areas had different rules but this year in the Alicante province masks were not worn on the beach and recent restrictions have been released in Murcia.
On point is of note is that whatever the percentage portions of society believes that masks make them safe and vaccination cures. Covid19 is no longer a disease : it is a religion the dress code is a mask and initiation is a vaccine and confirmation a vaccine certificate
Just back from Sicily (Yellow zone – heightened risk). Similar experience in restaurants (including ‘green pass’ requirement – UK vax doc accepted) and hotels. Good news is that on the streets, where theoretically masks are required, 80% are not wearing them – thank god for some common sense ! I guess that despite the threat of a hefty fine, with this level of civil disobedience it becomes unenforceable for the police. I also found that wearing it mouth only, allowing me to breathe and no glasses fog, met with no reproach. So some progress at last and had a wonderful hol regardless.
Wow, brainless people on the beach in hotter countries wearing masks? That’s one of the heights of dumbness.
Having a dive in the sea with mask?
These people are so ignorant and ridiculous that I cannot find the right term to described it…
WANKERS
Chosen not to be vaccinated makes it unlikely we’ll ever get away again.