Hancock Refuses to Commit to Opening Up After the Most Vulnerable Have Been Vaccinated
Health Secretary Matt Hancock led yesterday’s Covid press conference from Downing Street and struck a non-committal note regarding any timetable for exit from restrictions. Katy Balls in the Spectator has more.
As ministers voice their hope that the country can start to lift restrictions from early March, questions are being asked as to when restrictions can go altogether and normal life resume. Members of the Tory Covid Recovery Group have argued that most restrictions should go as soon as the vulnerable are protected. While officials remain tight-lipped on the issue, Matt Hancock did offer an insight in today’s press conference as to the key factors the Government will consider when making that decision. Announcing that over four million people have now been vaccinated in the UK, the Health Secretary urged the public not to blow it as the route out was clear. In the Q&A, he pointed to the factors that will decide when restrictions can go.
The first clue came when Josh from Newcastle asked how much it would matter if there were a high surge of cases among young people once the vulnerable were vaccinated. This gets to the crux of the matter: once the most vulnerable are protected (the 20% of the population who account for 90% of Covid deaths) will the government be OK with the virus passing at a fast rate among younger age groups for whom the disease is a lot less serious?
If the answer is no then social distancing policies are likely to remain until every adult has been vaccinated, which the Government aims to do by September. The first four groups (14 million people) are due to be vaccinated by the middle of next month.
The Health Secretary said that while this is a very important question, as of yet there is no clear answer. Instead, Hancock described it as a “very careful” calibration, which rests on to what extent the vaccine protects the most vulnerable groups from serious disease, as well as the fact that younger people can sometimes need hospital treatment from Covid, even if they are very unlikely to die from the illness.
If the Health Secretary’s sense of the costs and benefits of the restrictions is so out of whack that the small number of young people requiring hospitalisation from Covid outweighs the damage done by the lockdown, what hope is there?
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: MailOnline reports on the Prime Minister’s even greater reluctance to commit to any escape route, amid a dropping infection rate:
Boris Johnson today defied fresh demands from Tory MPs for a ‘road map’ out of lockdown as coronavirus infections tumbled again.
The PM is under pressure to say how and when the brutal restrictions in England will ease after the UK recorded another 37,535 cases – down a fifth from last Monday.
Although deaths rose again to 599 there are increasing signs that the curve is flattening, as it lags weeks behind the new infections.
Conservatives this evening underlined calls from former Chief Whip Mark Harper, who heads the CRG group of lockdown sceptics, to say what will happen when the Government has vaccinated the four most vulnerable groups – meant to happen by mid-February. The number of people receiving their first jab topped four million today.
The Deputy Chair of the group, Steve Baker, said: “We locked down the country and shut down our schools on the basis of a forecast, so why can’t we open it up on the basis of one too? It is not sustainable to leave the public and British businesses languishing any longer.
“Businesses and individuals desperately need hope and the opportunity to plan our recovery, that’s why we need to know our road to recovery as soon as possible.”
Another Tory backbencher told MailOnline the Government should lay out its plans even if it is like “snakes and ladders” and the arrangements later have to change.
However, Mr Johnson poured cold water on the idea this afternoon, insisting that it will not be possible to set out the route for unwinding restrictions until February 15th.
Touring the Oxford Biomedica vaccine plant, the PM also warned when the loosening does come it will not be an “open sesame” moment.
“I understand completely that people want to get back to normal as fast as we possibly can. It does depend on things going well,” he said.
“It depends on the vaccination programme going well, it depends on there being no new variants that throw our plans out and we have to mitigate against, and it depends on everybody, all of us, remembering that we’re not out of the woods yet.”
He said: “We’re going as fast as we can but I stress we can do everything we can to open up but when we come to February 15th, and the moment when we have to take stock of what we’ve achieved, that’s the time to look at where the virus is, the extent of the infection and the success that we’ve had.
“It’s only really then that we can talk about the way ahead and what steps we can take to relax.
“I’m afraid I’ve got to warn people it will be gradual, you can’t just open up in a great open sesame, in a great bang, because I’m afraid the situation is still pretty precarious.”
Stop Press 2: The BBC reports that all travel corridors are confirmed as closed until February 15th at the earliest.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that Public Health England would be stepping up checks on travellers who must self-isolate.
He said enforcement checks at borders would also be “ramped up” and added that asking all arrivals to self-isolate in hotels was a “potential measure” the Government was keeping under review.
However, the Daily Mail reports that the outgoing President Trump is lifting the blanket ban on non-American citizens travelling to the USA from January 26th onwards:
Donald Trump will lift travel bans for most non-U.S. citizens flying from the UK, Brazil and much of Europe starting on January 26th, two officials said on Monday.
The restrictions are set to end under a new proclamation from the President the same day that new COVID-19 test requirements take effect requiring all international visitors to have a negative result. The White House has not commented.
It remains to be seen whether Joe Biden will simply re-impose these restrictions or even adds more when he takes office on Wednesday.
Stop Press 3: Schools could be closed until after Easter, reports MailOnline.
Steve Chalke, head of the Oasis academy chain, which runs 48 schools, said: “I don’t think schools will reopen until post Easter. I think they will miss the second half of term as well.”
He said many teachers are very worried about catching Covid in school and that they will feel “safer” and “more confident” when the weather warms up and they can take children out of the classroom more.
Stop Press 4: Annabel Fenwick-Elliott has written a good piece in the Telegraph bemoaning the folly of needless further destruction of the travel industry, with a strong dose of lockdown scepticism thrown in for good measure.
It is January 2021. A virus which spares the vast majority of victims it infects has been endemic across the world for the best part of a year. There have been many attempts to contain it; almost none have been satisfactory. Most strategies have caused immeasurably more harm than good.
It is a disease that rips through hospitals and care homes, claiming the lives of the elderly and infirm, no matter how many masks or disinfectants we throw at the situation. We accept this as being unavoidable. Like every virus, new strains regularly emerge; crossing borders faster that we can chase them. Inexplicably, this we can not condone.
Despite the fact that much of the world is under national lockdown and international travel has dwindled to a trickle, the crusade on a largely innocent industry continues. Regardless of the fact that between March and October of 2020, the International Air Travel Association traced just 44 cases of potential coronavirus infections back to flying, out of the 1.2 billion people who boarded planes in the same time period, our assault on free movement only intensifies.
This week, Germany is plotting to repurpose refugee camps to detain quarantine flouters. In Bali, foreigners found to be strolling the beaches without wearing masks are being punished with push-ups. And here in Britain, there is talk of forcing new arrivals into expensive hotel sentences, and checking up on people using GPS data and facial-recognition software.
I wish all this was, as it sounds, the compelling but implausible plot of a big-budget sci-fi movie. I take comfort only in the fact that given our government has just today, after much delay, finally managed to get its act together on testing overseas visitors upon entry, it will likely be years before our geo-surveillance tactics enter the realm of China’s; by which time, hopefully, COVID-19 will be a distant memory, right?
Don’t bet on it. By mid-March of this year, according to the UK Government’s targets, all over-60s and those with underlying health conditions will have been vaccinated. Of the remaining population, more people died in road accidents last year than of coronavirus.
Worth reading in full.
Is the Second Wave Overstated?
Sarah Knapton, Science Editor of the Telegraph, has produced an in-depth analysis of the statistics around the ‘second wave’. It shows that misunderstood and misrepresented data are leading people to exaggerate the scale of the winter resurgence compared to the first peak last year.
On January 13th, Dr Yvonne Doyle, the Medical Director at Public Health England (PHE), issued an alarming statement claiming that Britain had reported the highest number of coronavirus deaths on a single day since the pandemic began.
She also alleged that there have now been more deaths in the second wave than the first.
Both these statements were “technically” true. On that day, 1,564 people were added to official mortality figures, the highest number ever, while the 44,198 “second wave” coronavirus deaths passed the 40,563 recorded up to August 31st.
Yet dig a little deeper and the narrative that the second wave is more deadly than the first begins to unravel.
I make an early caveat here that I firmly believe we are having a deadly second wave, and thousands more people are dying than would be expected ordinarily at this time of year. But it is not the tens of thousands more PHE would have you believe.
According to some figures, the second wave is five times less deadly than the first wave. This is in spite of the fact we have a new variant which is between 50% and 74% more infectious.
To get a real feel for how the waves compare, it is necessary to look at excess deaths rather than crude reported deaths.
According to the Continuous Mortality Investigation (CMI), set up by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, there have been 72,900 excess deaths from the start of the pandemic in March to the end of December.
Some 60,800 of those occurred in the first wave, but just 12,100 in the second. It means that, unlike the first wave, huge numbers of people included in the coronavirus death figures would have been expected to die of other causes in the past few months.
Look at Office for National Statistics (ONS) graphs showing deaths over time and this becomes startlingly clear. While there is a mountainous peak in April as deaths soared over the average, now we are trending a little above the five-year average line. On some days towards the end of December, we were actually below it.
Dr Jason Oke, of the Centre of Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM) at the University of Oxford, said it was difficult to understand the pandemic from the graphs published on the Government’s daily coronavirus dashboard.
While the “deaths within 28 days” graph appears to show that the second wave is as bad as the first, the “weekly deaths by date registered” shows no such correlation.
“If you look at the 28-day graph and the hospital data you could well believe it is as bad as the first wave,” Dr Oke said. “The first graph suggests we are now at the same place as the first wave (and due for worse) whereas the second graph tells a different story – half the first wave currently and no increase in December.”
The CMI also reported that during week 53, from December 28th to January 3rd, there were 19% fewer deaths registered in England and Wales than would have been expected if Standardised Mortality Rates had been the same as in week one of 2020.
These December figures will undoubtedly rise as more deaths are registered, and have suffered from the Christmas and New Year holidays when fewer deaths than normal were recorded. But they are not likely to rise so significantly as to take us back to the extraordinary excess deaths of April.
This week’s Monthly Mortality Analysis from the ONS also makes this point very well. The report states: “Although mortality rates due to COVID-19 have increased between October and December 2020, these remain significantly lower than in April 2020.”
In fact, in England, age-standardised mortality rates (ASMR) were 62.5% lower in December than April. They have fallen from 623.2 per 100,000 people in April to 233.6 per 100,000 in December.
The same is true in Wales, although to a lesser extent. In April the ASMR was 495.1 deaths per 100,000 people, and it was 374.4 per 100,000 in December, a 24.4% decrease.
Worth reading in full.
Lord Sumption in the Dock
Lord Jonathan Sumption took to the airwaves to clarify and defend his comments made on the The Big Questions on Sunday, which we reported on yesterday.
He joined a panel on Good Morning Britain and, with considerable patience, faced a bellowing Piers Morgan who, along with co-presenter Susanna Reid, repeatedly refused to understand the perfectly plain meaning of his words even after several attempts to explain them, ending with Sumption declaring that he had said all he had to say on the matter and would either continue to speak on another topic or leave.
Worth watching in full.
Stop Press: The wilful misunderstanding continued in the Times yesterday courtesy of this piece by Melanie Phillips.
Stop Press 2: Michael Curzon, editor of Bournbrook Magazine and assistant editor of Conservative Woman, has penned this piece in defence of Sumption.
Stop Press 3: Julia Hartley-Brewer interviewed Lord Sumption on her talkRADIO show yesterday.
The Threat Lockdowns Pose to Human Rights
Adam Wagner, a legal expert and barrister focused on human rights, and a Visiting Professor at Goldsmiths University, was interviewed by Freddie Sayers for UnHerd‘s Lockdown TV. It’s a shame he joined in the mistaken pile-on against Lord Sumption, but if you can get past that he provided a wide-ranging expert perspective on the legal aspects of the lockdown debate.
Adam Wagner is one of the UK’s highest-profile legal experts on human rights, citing Shami Chakrabati as one of his main influences in the field. He strongly distances himself from “Covid deniers” whose attempt to minimise the threat of the virus he describes as “dangerous nonsense”, and expressed dismay at Lord Sumption’s insensitive phrasing about the value of lives on television yesterday. In other words, he’s about as far from an ideological right-winger as you’ll find in the British media.
So it was especially sobering to hear him set out some of the things he is worried about from a legal and human rights perspective since the pandemic started around 12 months ago. He wondered aloud on Twitter whether, had the virus not originated in China and had the response not been set by their invention of lockdowns, this approach would ever have become the accepted sensible response in liberal Western democracies?
He argues that, while he absolutely accepts that the virus constitutes a threat that justifies emergency action:
– Lockdowns have become a “received wisdom” and that, in due course, a proper inquiry into which components actually were effective, and whether each component passed the proportionality test, is essential.
– The emergency powers taken by the Government have been abused – they were not designed to be used over such a long period of time. He deplores the lack of oversight and due process for these measures that change everybody’s lives.
– The “Napoleonic” principle that everything is illegal unless you are explicitly allowed it is an inversion of the way the law has worked in this country throughout modern times. If you had told a human rights expert or public lawyer this would be the situation 12 months ago they would never have believed you.
– From a Human Rights perspective, balancing the right to life with the right to associate, and the right to a family life, is a precarious act and it is right to scrutinise every measure in that context and be sceptical of them to make sure they are not going too far
– Once restrictions are taken for temporary emergencies, a look at history shows that they tend to become permanent (he cites the terrorism measures in response to 9/11 as an example).
“I think with Covid, the danger is that if it never leaves us, or it mutates or a different virus arrives with a similar dynamic, we’ll be in a semi-permanent state of ‘this is what we do’ – when this happens, we have lockdowns, we have emergency laws, we take away parliamentary niceties like scrutiny, debates, votes, that sort of thing… And I think that is a danger that doesn’t come out of the fringes of the lockdown sceptic movement. That’s the real deal as a worry.”
Worth watching in full.
WHO Inspector Discussed Coronavirus Research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology Weeks Before Outbreak
Further to our headline piece in Lockdown Sceptics on January 17th on the U.S. State Department’s fact sheet about the possible origins of the virus, Taiwan News reports that a WHO Inspector discussed the research of modified coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in a video podcast called “This Week In Virology” shortly before the first cases of COVID-19 were declared in Wuhan.
In a video that was originally taken on December 9th, 2019, three weeks before the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission announced an outbreak of a new form of pneumonia, virologist Vincent Racaniello interviewed British zoologist and president of EcoHealth Alliance Peter Daszak about his work at the nonprofit to protect the world from the emergence of new diseases and predict pandemics. Since 2014, Daszak’s organization has received millions of dollars of funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), which it has funneled to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) to carry out research on bat coronaviruses.
In the first phase of research, which took place from 2014 to 2019, Daszak coordinated with Shi Zhengli, also known as “Bat Woman”, at the WIV on investigating and cataloging bat coronaviruses across China. EcoHealth Alliance received US$3.7 million in funding from the NIH for this research and 10% was channeled to the WIV, reported NPR.
The second, more dangerous phase, which started in 2019, involved gain-of-function (GoF) research on coronaviruses and chimeras in humanized mice from the lab of Ralph S. Baric of the University of North Carolina. Funding for the program was withdrawn by the NIH under the Trump administration on April 27th amid the pandemic.
At the 28:10 mark of the podcast interview, Daszak states that researchers found that SARS likely originated from bats and then set out to find more SARS-related coronaviruses, eventually finding over 100. He observed that some coronaviruses can “get into human cells in the lab,” and others can cause SARS disease in “humanized mouse models”.
He ominously warned that such coronaviruses are “untreatable with therapeutic monoclonals (antibodies) and you can’t vaccinate against them with a vaccine”. Ironically, he claims that his team’s goal was trying to find the next “spillover event” that could cause the next pandemic, mere weeks before cases of COVID-19 were beginning to be reported in Wuhan.
When Racaniello asks what can be done to deal with coronavirus given that there is no vaccine or therapeutic for them, Daszak at the 29:54 mark appears to reveal that the goal of the GoF experiments was to develop a pan-coronavirus vaccine for many different types of coronaviruses.
Based on his response, it is evident that just before the start of the pandemic, the WIV was modifying coronaviruses in the lab: “You can manipulate them in the lab pretty easily.” What he then mentioned has become the telltale trait of SARS-CoV-2, its spike protein: “Spike protein drives a lot of what happens with the coronavirus, zoonotic risk.”
Worth reading in full.
The full video podcast can be viewed here.
Julia Hartley-Brewer’s Appeal
Readers can either reply to Julia on Twitter or email us here if they want us to pass on their stories and contact details.
A Postcard from New York’s Orthodox Jewish Community
Frieda Vizel, a reader who is a member of the Hasidic community in Brooklyn, New York City, has sent us a description of life there at the moment:
I thought I would share my report of a day in the Jewish Hasidic community of Brooklyn, New York, where everything is completely open and no one is wearing masks. It has been interesting to see that the community can pull this off with the power of the collective. They are able to operate busy weddings and mass celebration of holidays because they have each other’s back. Whenever the media or government gets on their case, they form a network of sorts, sharing information on how to get around inspectors and when journalists are around. And although there have been two or so episodes of intense obsession with them (once in April and once in October), they have held on through it. Months go by where they mostly forget about Covid. By any measure, their death rate is no worse than the general death rate. They had higher case rate in October but the overall highest tallies of New York City deaths were not in the Orthodox sections. The worst affected areas were in the Bronx and Queens. The most interesting thing about all this is that the media here pays no attention to their success story, but the moment they have a blip in rates, they descend on the neighbourhood and twist it all into a tale of primitive idiots committing mass suicide. What a shame!
Frieda also has a longer piece about life in the city on her site here.
Round-up
- “The New Normal Documentary” – We linked to this on YouTube yesterday, but it has since been removed so here’s another link, this time to BitChute. It’s a documentary by happen.network setting out the Great Reset conspiracy theory in a way that doesn’t make it sound like a conspiracy theory
- “I’m not a Covid denier, but it’s time to end the lockdowns” – Excellent piece by Brian Monteith in the Scotsman
- “Lockdown is a luxury few can afford” – J.J. Charlesworth in spiked on the relative ease of lockdown for the laptop-wielding middle class worker
- “Arbitrarily detained in Danandrewstan” – An anonymous writer from the state of Victoria in Australia recounts the unpleasant experience of flying home from New South Wales
- “Nashville school board chair enjoyed St Lucia before closing schools” – One for the map of hypocritical American officials we linked to recently
- “California warns against using a batch of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines after allergic reactions” – Laura J. Nelson in the Los Angeles Times on more reports of allergic reactions
- “Hacked emails allegedly detail how EU drug regulator was pressured to approve Pfizer jab despite ‘problems’ with the vaccine” – RT‘s report won’t allay fears that the approval process has been rushed
- “US man hid in airport for three months due to Covid pandemic fear” – A strange story from the USA
- “Woman ‘ejected from Sainsbury’s by police for refusing to wear a face mask‘” – Heavy-handed policing in Kent after supermarkets upped the ante on mask enforcement. Is this legal?
- “Australian Open: Tennis stars hit out at Covid isolation measures as controversy mounts” – Euronews reports that tennis players are actually having to train within the confines of their hotel rooms
- “COVID-19: Basingstoke partygoers ‘hadn’t heard about pandemic‘” – A bold excuse to give to police officers with a straight face
- “Test and trace consultants are earning average of £1,000 a DAY as it emerges 3,000 have been hired at a cost to the taxpayer of at least £375m” – Nice work if you can get it, as reported in the Daily Mail
- “Police to drop most COVID-19 fines and hand out cautions” – Backtracking on swingeing fines in the Australian state with one of the most draconian Covid regimes in the Anglosphere
- “Germany to repurpose refugee camps to detain people who repeatedly flout Covid rules by going out when they should be quarantining” – No potential for disobliging historical comparisons here…
- “COVID-19: A realistic approach to community management” – A good technical piece by the Australian Emeritus Professor of Pathology, Robert Clancy
- Sucharit Bhakdi Interview on Planet Lockdown – Full-length interview on Vimeo with the dissenting Thai-German microbiologist
- Peter Hitchens’ weekly conversation with Mike Graham at talkRADIO
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Seven today: “Beat the Bastards” by The Exploited, “Keeping Two Chevrons Apart” by Half Man Half Biscuit, “The Lunatics (Have Taken Over the Asylum)” by Fun Boy Three, “If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next” by Manic Street Preachers, “What a Waste” by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, “One Day I’ll Fly Away” by Randy Crawford, “Count Me Out” by New Edition, and “It’s All Too Much” by The Beatles.
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 as well as post comments below the line, 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.
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.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
We’ve created a one-stop shop down here for people who want to obtain a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card – because wearing a mask causes them “severe distress”, for instance. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here and the Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. And 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.
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 and Prof Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson’s Spectator article about the Danish mask study here.
Stop Press: A reader has sent us the letter he has written to his local MP Geoffrey Cox, describing the daily ordeal he endures as a mask-exempt person due to his autism.
Dear Mr Cox,
I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing in the hope that you can help put an end to the madness and division caused by the Government’s un-nuanced public message and the ignorance of a sizeable portion of the public with regard to the face covering guidelines. The guidelines clearly state that there are “face covering exemptions”, and yet whenever I am in a shop unmasked (I am autistic and can experience severe anxiety) I am stared at by a good number of utterly ignorant shoppers, and indeed some staff members.
Why is this happening? Well, it seems to me that it is because the Government, while consistently emphasing the ‘need’ to wear face coverings, has utterly neglected to consistently stress the need to be mindful of those who for disability/health reasons cannot wear face coverings. The contrast between the message on the Government website – where it is clear about exemptions and on the public’s need “to be mindful of people who are exempt from wearing a face covering” – and the Government’s message in public: on the news, in briefings, etc. is striking. Does the Government, which constantly infantilises the public with its stupid slogans, expect this same public to read the website? This is not acceptable, and it is causing tensions between citizens.
This brings me to my latest visit to Tesco, Barnstaple. As I approached the store I was greeted by a big sign declaring :”No Mask, No Entry.” I’m a big man, and I am not easily intimidated, but I found this somewhat intimidating. Imagine how others will feel when facing this threatening sign knowing they are legally exempt and have done nothing wrong. Tucked away underneath the large, intimidating/threatening “No Mask, No Entry” sign, in very small letters, were words to the effect of: “See Government website for details on exemptions.” Astonishing. As soon as I walked in I was treated to the usual stares from a large and ignorant portion of shoppers and one or two staff members.
I have spoken to Tesco Customer Servive on the phone and suggested similar sized letters on the same sign or on a separate, equally ‘in your face’ sign asking people to be mindful of those with a disability/health issues who cannot wear a face covering. He seemed to be in agreement and said he will forward the message on, and hopefully Tesco stores everywhere will make this clear from now on. One truly hopes they do.
That’s Tesco. What about all the other shops? What about the inconsistency concerning the Government’s message on its website and its message in public, on the news, in briefings? Surely Government does not want citizens to be suspicious of other citizens. Surely Government does not want an atmosphere of open, self-righteous discrimination where ignorant, bone-idle citizens discriminate against their fellow citizens.
I hope you can see how dangerous this is, and the evil historical parallels it brings to mind.
I ask and urge you to do something about this, Mr Cox.
Stop Press 2: This is a recent notice sent out by the Royal Courts of Justice – a case of masks for thee, but not for me.
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. Sign up to the newsletter here.
Judicial Reviews Against the Government
There are now so many legal cases being brought against the Government and its ministers we thought we’d include them all in one place down here.
The Simon Dolan case has now reached the end of the road. The current lead case is the Robin Tilbrook case which challenges whether the Lockdown Regulations are constitutional. 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 and Runnymede Trust’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.
And last but not least there was the Free Speech Union‘s challenge to Ofcom over its ‘coronavirus guidance’. A High Court judge refused permission for the FSU’s judicial review on December 9th 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 [email protected] or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year, providing a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. Doing these daily updates is hard work (although we have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending us stories and links). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links we should include in future updates, email us here. (Don’t assume we’ll pick them up in the comments.)
And Finally…
In the latest episode of London Calling, James Delingpole asks Toby how he copes with all the attacks on him on Twitter. “I try not to look,” he says. In addition, they defend Lord Sumption, discuss the other attacks on lockdown sceptics, argue about whether they’re coordinated (James thinks they are, Toby doesn’t) and sing the praises of the novelist Bernard Cornwell.
Listen to the episode here and subscribe to London Calling on iTunes here.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Another Facebook ban for simply disagreeing with a zealot. I told her she had ‘blood on hands’ and she reported me. Snitching seems to be the name of the game. Report your neighbours, twitch those curtains, report people for their point of view. If this ever ends well, which I doubt, I shall continue to isolate from these horrendous, pathetic morons.
Oldie but goldie. Coincidence that there’s a growing sliver of deaths attributed to covid19 in 4Q20, precisely compensating for the rather surprising observation that deaths from all other causes falls by precisely that same amount, hence no excess deaths?
Frankly, that’s so unlikely that it can be dismissed. Why?
A population with restricted access to the NHS for up to 9mo, during which time there was a very large fall in referrals & completed consultant episodes for illnesses that lead to mortality, isn’t one where “fewer deaths” is a reasonable expectation.
Most people would say if asked “that’ll lead to increased deaths, if anything”. Mr Occam would probably pop his head round the door & wink.
A more plausible explanation, consistent with other datasets, is that London reached herd immunity during the spring pandemic, hence no excess deaths.
As to deaths attributed to covid19, that only requires that PCR mass testing yields a substantial fraction of positive results which are false. It’s noteworthy that in the Swansea study in late summer, somewhere between 80-90% of PCR positives turned out, upon retesting, to have been false. But I’m bored with pointing this out, so suit yourselves!
… Read more »
“Off with her head!” the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.
“Who cares for you?” said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) “You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”
“You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”
At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her: she gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face.
“Wake up, Alice dear!” said her sister; “Why, what a long sleep you’ve had!”
“Oh, I’ve had such a curious dream!” said Alice, and she told her sister, as well as she could remember them, all these strange Adventures of hers that you have just been reading about; and when she had finished, her sister kissed her, and said, “It was a curious dream, dear, certainly: but now run in to your tea; it’s getting late.”
Alice in Wonderland (excerpt) – Lewis Carroll.
(For the trolls).
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/get-used-to-life-in-devils-island-britain/
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on… Read more »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpnU-0PKGfMGovernment says no to JobKeeper extension for hospitality industryhttps://yt3.ggpht.com/ytc/AAUvwniDg5Lv0j7V89-rX2tyZqvJyAZW–DIydiVTdf3MA=s88-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj
Sky News Australia
A sign of things to come here in UK? Take away furlough?
Just to say. I have learned a lot over the months about communication while being here.
I do have personal issues. I live alone – I’ve always lived alone. I always wanted to be married but had terrible confidence problems regarding the opposite sex despite doing well at school.
I’m now in middle age and have worked from home for ten years. My only social contacts are my parents. I don’t have any friends these days outside of my immediate family.
I’ve had two mental breakdowns in my life and was “sectioned” on both occasions. Happily not since 2005. I regard myself as essentially healthy. I had hypnotherapy for a number of years and never take any form of medication. I have made use of the Samaritans as well on numerous occasions, though have never been suicidal.
But it’s clear though to me from my experiences here that I still find communications difficult. I can get triggered and lash out. People can take offence. But I have also learned not to bear grudges and know not to take things personally – though that I find difficult to achieve.
I think because of the way I communicate on here and because… Read more »
Nobody told you that you’re not allowed to comment on here John. If you insist on antagonising people then try not to get upset when they bite back.
You say you believe in free speech but get upset by the very thing you say you believe in.
We’re not friends and it’s highly unlikely we’ll ever meet but I will give you some friendly advice. Before you make a comment try and think how it might be taken by the person you’re responding to and even if it’s actually necessary to make that comment.
You do come out with some good stuff. I remember in particular your joke from months ago about how if Priti Patel married you she’d be Priti Pretty, but it’s often spoiled when you seem to just challenge people for no good reason.
I’m not going to apologise for being hard on you. Take this how you will.
If she married Mr Stick she would be Pritti Stick.
Stick with us John. Everyone is under a great deal of stress! So many of your contributions are helpful, thoughtful and always cogent. Keep calm, carry on, and try not to engage when you know it’s going to devolve. Free speech is everybody’s right and we, of all people, will always agree on that.
Best wishes John P.
Does anyone know of a site where I can find the number of ‘tests’ which are being done on a daily basis, and which also gives the percentage of tests which are positive?
Preferably for as many countries as possible.
Thanks.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/positive-rate-daily-smoothed
If you’re looking to analyse the figures you might also want to know what sort of tests are being used, and how carefully the tests are being conducted. For the PCR you would also need to know the number of cycles being used.
Personally speaking I think the whole thing is beyond a joke now. Test figures, “infection rates”, deaths … there are so many parameters that trying to make sense of it all seems to me now to be utterly pointless.
I doubt it will change anything anyway.
Joel Smalley seems to be one of the better analysts out there. He is on twitter.
Apparently things would have worked out much better if some people hadn’t dared to resist and fight back.
Yes I’m talking about the holocaust.
I don’t understand your comment.
Such a shame John.
I don’t see the point in most of yours.
It was a genuine comment.
How can things have worked out better regarding the holocaust if people hadn’t resisted?
If it was deep cynicism on your part then I’m not impressed.
You don’t do genuine John. You antagonise people and start crying and accusing them of bullying you when you get a taste of your own medicine.
Oh don’t I? I don’t think you know me at all.
I have just as much right to be here as you do.
You are everything you accuse me (falsely) of.
I don’t need this. Hopefully I will find a way to leave. I know I say I want to.
There are some really horrible people here.
But mostly good ones.
PPS: can you answer the question I asked please?
Well? Can you answer the comment?
You’re the one doing the bullying whoever you are.
Yes I can John but you’re not getting it.
PPPS
Who are you anyway? Who are you?
I don’t bear grudges. What have I said to upset you? What? Because I don’t know!
.
I don`t see the point in your attack.
John has history of rubbing people up the wrong way then playing the victim card when he’s called out on it.
It’s all there in black and white in the history if you really feel the need to see the evidence.
He was to start with but he`s a lot better now. Getting there. Your holocaust reference was rather stupid.
Thanks for letting me know. Should I start crying?
Somewhat off topic but tonight I watched two interviews on You Tube* . The first was with Montgomery of Alamein and the second was with Richard Burton (on the Dick Cheney
Show) . It’s almost impossible to see and hear those interviewes and relate them now to the shallow sheep society we seem to have created in the UK that runs scared from a virus that has killed virtually no healthy people at all.
* I need to find an alternative to You Tube but it’s just so good!
New Tube.
Will check it out! Thanks.
The real problem
Word has it the Amish and the Mennonites have the same issue!
And the Inuit in the far north of Canada.
A story shaking up the news and social media in Iceland, where the smugness of the authorities have been reaching great heights. If you come to Iceland these days you have to have a test and then isolate for 10 days.
A young family from Poland living in the North west of Iceland came back from Poland the day before yesterday after the Christmas holidays late in the evening and were ordered to drive straight home without making a stop in the darkness of the Arctic winter night. They asked for mercy to be allowed to sleep the night a hotel or a B&B in the airport area in order to drive home fit and fresh and in the light of day. The roads to the North West are very difficult at this time of year, both dark slippery and with a lot of bends and steep slopes looking directly into the sea. No, said the Police and you cannot stop on the way and you cannot talk to anyone.
Well, the young father in his thirties with his wife and son did not dare to disobey (being immigrants) and set off for home, which is a seven hour drive.… Read more »
Have you got a source please?
If you speak Polish
https://www.facebook.com/pliniceland/photos/a.157471257707469/3590379414416619/?type=3
And part of this in English
https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2021/01/18/woman_dies_after_car_lands_in_ocean_in_west_fjords/
Cheers
“The cause of the accident is investigated.” The cause is as clear as the water there. Just publish the names of the cops that denied the overnight stay of the family in Reykjavik. That’s manslaughter.
That’s so completely mad. I lived in Reykjavik for a time, I remember well how scary the roads would be in winter – when they were actually open at all :/ What a completely senseless and utterly predictable tragedy. But hey – at least the immigrants didn’t spread their nasty foreign germs to any Icelandic grannies running around the Blönduós petrol station in the dead of night.
Are you in Iceland? Is everything shut up there too? I have a really hard time picturing the place with the swimming pools shut.
I´m not in Iceland, but I was brought up there. I know that there is nothing shut there, neither restaurants nor swimming pools, but they are going in the direction of zero covid. Complete madness and as this story shows will lead to endless tragedies. Here in Lisbon they are going mad too, but the weather is good.
Plainly disgusting. The structural violence is despicable. And I thought of moving there when things looked brighter…
They are all in it together – Wales excels again sadly.
just found this Tom Newton Dunn tweet while looking at another linked posted earlier on this LD:
https://mobile.twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1350754818948788224
GPS tracking – “wouldn’t rule out” says Raab.
What an arrogant, disgusting, dissembling bunch. Just when you think they can’t get any worse…
Yikes, just look at the replies
Auditioning for new jobs as camp guards and boxcar cleaners, no doubt.
I think some people would actually eat a plate of manure if they were told to. First tweet reply I see in that thread:
There is a deadly virus.
You will all die.
Protect the NHS.
The vaccine is the answer.
You will be set free.
The cheque is in the post.
No, your bum looks fine.
Strong stuff, recommended.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/get-used-to-life-in-devils-island-britain/
How many anti-social people are loving this new life and want it to continue for personal reasons I wonder? (Not here obviously). I think these are the really enthusiastic pro-lockdowners. The illusion of safety and magic money tree economics will have appeal to some. Others will just hate socialising and dislike other people doing it. I would like some lockdown enthusiasts to drop the pretence that it has a societal purpose and just argue that they like things this way.
Update from family in Spain. 8pm curfew every day and all bars and restaurants to shut from Thursday. If I didn’t have responsibilities here I would have moved to Spain last March to sit this out in the sun. It’s been much more open most of the time and there have been proper protests too across the country. Aunque mucha gente se aman esas máscaras allí!
Very strong stuff indeed for the Conservative Woman website:
“What is coming next? If you’ve read this far you know as well as I do. A war on humanity that will simply go on and on with all the might and violence of the state. Forced incarceration. More censorship. More rules. Face-masks made compulsory outdoors. More ‘mutations’ and ‘waves’. More ‘pandemics’. Elections suspended. Forced or coercive ‘vaccination’. Martial law. Almost total unemployment. Mass homelessness. The end of money. The end of international travel. The disappearance of the High Street. The end of pubs and restaurants. Business, education and entertainment permanently relegated online. Finally, a population of robots who think they are free.“
Indeed – conservative women never used to be like this.
The James Delingpole with Laura Perrins podcasts have been great. (Co-editor of Conservative Women I believe).
Yes + Conservative Woman is better than Guido !
Constant catch up on the latest restraint after the latest ‘it will all be over soon’ doesn’t get you anywhere. Dismay is all very well. Maybe time to up the rhetoric. Call them out.
Frightening, but it is the trajectory that we’re on.
Excellent comments too, if you scroll down. Example –
Friend of my daughter is in the Royal Marines: he let slip to her at the end of 2019 that they’d been instructed to prepare for civil disorder in the U.K. in 2020. I think violence is inevitable. The question I’m asking at the moment is what propaganda will the state deploy to “other” the rioters? The answers I keep coming up with keep suggesting that if and when serious civil disturbance does break out, people like us, who hold opinions such as we tend to on TCW, will find ourselves othered, and will risk finding ourselves at the sharp end of both the State and the obedient, conformist, telly-addled Mob.
Good spot, I have been scrolling through these as well. Plenty of red- and black-pilled contributors to be found.
The 77th trolls get on there in force!
They certainly do. Thankfully you can spot them a mile off.
“let it slip?” Pity they were wrong about the civil disorder then. Maybe would have prevented this.
This anecdote is evidence this is all just one giant put up job!
The gallows. The gallows are missing – but they will come for sure.
Yes, those people who have never really understood other people are liking this.
Unable all their lives to click with other humans, and envious of the social pleasures others can find, they want to drag us all down to their level.
Well, Biden needs a crowd:
https://youtu.be/39BvPkn19SQ
Scotland has had 1,492,656 cases with 7,704 deaths.
But this is worse than any other European country with a population of 5 million
Denmark has had 189,000 cases and 1,775 deaths.
Slovakia has had 223,000 cases and 3,474 deaths.
Norway has had 58,651 cases and 517 deaths.
Finland has had 40,337 cases and 618 deaths.
Picked these figures from effideans blog – source not cited, spotted by me. She is a reliable writer although tying herself in unreadable knots of faux logic as a pro-union, pro-lockdown/vaccine* writer.
*not really vaccines but it is what they are calling them.
As long as they tell people they’re doing a good job and they’re believed then it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not.
Surely the common denominator here is vitamin D?
Finland have a high dose vit D national policy it is true. The rest I don’t know. It feels bureaucratic to my untrained eye.
The differences in numbers cannot be attributable to a viral effect on different populations. So testing and book keeping must account for the difference. Even so that is a huge casm between Scotland and the others.
She/he (effie) has screwed up somewhere; Scotland has only recorded 164,927 cases (positive tests) according to https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases?areaType=nation&areaName=Scotland
Thanks for this.
Error soon located
https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/
“A total of 1,492,656 people in Scotland have been tested at least once. Of these people: … 7,704 deaths have been registered in Scotland where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate up to 10 January; … Cases reported by universities and colleges will recommence later in January as term 2 gets underway.”
Tested at least once is a good catch all.
My error posting the numbers lazily without thinking. I was too quick to think of the murky book work we have been seeing covering numbers. Apologies LDs.
Call them “untested medical products” or gene vector technologies.???
Not really ”cases” either. Just false PCR stuff. It’s that emotive word again, being used to manipulate the Great Unwashed.
And of course there’s always the question of how they assess the cause of death. ”With”? ”From”? Apparently, every country does it differently, or so some do say….
These deaths figures are all meaningless.
But obviously very effective to the fearful ones.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned! Is this the opening salvo on unseating Doris before he gets to parade around as King of the World at the G7?
Theresa May blasts Boris Johnson and accuses him of failing to honour British values | Daily Mail Online
Loathe her almost as much as BlobJo. Loathe them all.
Ditto, but at the moment the only way I see lockdown ending is by getting rid of Doris. I’m not sure what the appetite in Parliament, let alone the country at large is for him and his Princess to be rubbing shoulders with anyone on the world stage, even the new hair-fettish senile POTUS.
She praises Joe Biden.
No more foreign travel for me, then. Although there will be ways around it I’m sure.
It is bizarre to see the lockdown fanatics claiming that every life matters, while simultaneously and selfishly assigning no value to my life. They have already taken a year of it (and I won’t get that back), probably at least 2 before any kind of quality of life is restored. All in the name of their futile quest for either their personal safety or to avoid personal emotional pain if they fear for their family members.
Any pain I may suffer is irrelevant. I care about other people’s suffering, they do not. I do not see how it can be considered moral to deliberately cause mass harm, even if that were to the benefit of some small group.
I would of course be upset if somebody I knew died of the virus, but I would not be so selfish as to think that making everybody else equally miserable would be a good thing. Collective suffering is not a recognised medical treatment.
For the sake of archiving covid84 life here is this from edinburghlive:
https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/edinburgh-msp-wins-new-laws-19660034
Propaganda and a new law that sets down attacking ‘shop keepers’ (already spralling to amazon delivery people) is now it’s own crime. Age IDing was the most common trigger point for attacks, tobbaco and off sales *until* the old covid struck.
Now shop keepers are being attacked and spat at daily when asking people to social distance. That is what endinburghtellingthetruthlive says so it must be.
Now a special crime to attack shop keepers. Why do we need such junk when simply recognisinng a shop keeper is a person and attacking a person is bad.
Half a million court cases waiting to be held in UK now. BasicsLive reporting that, not edinburghcinflatecovidtoeverythinglive.
FFS. They never stop do they. Anyway – will follow Stanley J and apply for French citizenship. Might make travel easier, in time. Have to swot for an exam or two it seems.
Did Trump ever do anything useful to counter the Covid narrative? Just a thought…if not what was the point of his Presidency? To drop us in it? Or am I missing something?
He did some yes – got HCQ on the agenda back in March (promptly ignored cos Orange Man Bad) , didn’t wear a mask much, held 10,000 strong rallies, got Covid and was seen a few days later saying it was just a scratch. A lot of the response was under the control of the federal states so out of his remit.
And he spoke against globalism at Davos.
In terms of healthcare he made some moves against big Pharma that were overall likely to be pretty helpful for the vast majority – apart from the aforementioned HcQ treatments, etc, he assisted in getting certain drugs imported from Canada which had the effect of decreasing prescription prices; he allowed comparison shopping for healthcare providers (previously many were allowed to withhold details of lots of their costs); ensured Hospitals now display more clarity with their pricing structures for things they charge for, inc. applicable discounts; assisted veterans with access to proper mental health care to help them return to civilian life; ensured 200,000 uninsured Americans will have free access to HIV drug treatments for 11 years….
Not much of this in the MSM but then they only selected the bad stuff
Of course he did. He recovered within 72 hours of contracting the virus and told the American nation they should not be frightened of the virus.
Trump was up against the social media monopolies, the mainstream media (turns out even Fox News was in with the gang), the FBI, CIA, DoJ, and worst of all the Supreme Court led by foul mouthed Chief Justice Roberts. He never had a chance.
What’s your agenda here?
I just hoped for more from Trump – is that an agenda? I had the virus and recovered. I do not wear a mask. Unlike Trump. I try to influence those around me. He had immense power so had hoped for more.
Why do you ask what is my agenda OKUK?
Because we get a lot of 77ers here who behave exactly like you do going after a target and putting in anecdotal stuff like you just did. They argue in disingenuous fashion.
Whenever I see the pattern I like to offer up a challenge.
How do you know that? You don’t know that. You are just suspicious of anyone who disagrees with you.
Rather than your snide suspicions why don’t you just properly argue the point against people who disagree with you?
He (or she) is suspicious of anyone who disagrees with him.
In his self-aggrandizing ways, he underestimated those who he was up against. If You engage the clinton network, You better know the ‘Art of War’ by SunTzu from front to back. Another example is Julian Assange. He, too engaged the darkest side America ever had.
Some things from Spiked Online in case nobody has posted yet
a. https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/01/19/the-witch-hunting-of-lockdown-sceptics/ – why we are being persecuted and why this is wrong
b. Interview with Hitchens – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUjQVcS9dG8
Our feeble human brains are no more developed now than centuries ago. I personally don’t think we deserve to survive as a species right now.
Homo lockdownscepticus perhaps.
More like Homo Commonsensus.
Speak for yourself.
I do thanks John. Didn’t think your permission was required.
Gwent police are getting desperate. Turned out of my street tonight on the way to work, following another vehicle and headed down the hill, when blues appeared in my rear view. I pulled over, as did the other vehicle, only for the cop car to pass me and stop alongside the other car blocking the road in both directions. WPC leaps out of car to speak to driver of other car, which I see is a taxi, then speaks to the passenger in the rear seat, before returning to her own vehicle.
Obviously, a passenger in a vehicle not wearing a face mask is now deemed an emergency justifying the use of blue lights.
Jesus wept -from the Telegraph “The public does not back a rapid easing of lockdown measures, ministers believe as they plan a cautious timetable for the lifting of restrictions.”
I can’t bloody wait.
The polls are either bullshit or we’re totally fucked.
Yougov? Or maybe just under Yougov’s guidance.
A certain Mr Zahawi would be able to throw some light on that, wouldn’t he?
Shoould be called-: “Wegov”
The job of published polls is not to reflect opinion, but to form it.
I suspect the polls are massaged if not totally falsified.
Both.
The polls are BS – always have been, always will be.
Equally, if people are that frightened why’s it so busy in the parks, on the roads etc despite Lockdown ‘regulations’? The 80% figure is complete bollocks.
The scale of propaganda flowing out now – you don’t think for one second they would publish an unfavourable pole do you?
They are keeping all humans separated to stop discussiin and chat… pubs, grouos, classes etc.
Our reality coming to us via tge screen is a woven tapestry of false reality. Fake news, spin, omissions. Anything coming out now is on brand or it does not come out. Including hancock mud and rugby ball.
See 46.30 mins in for the actual reality of how far gine the BBC/government has gone with its propaganda. To think they let a bkm off for attempting to set fire to the union flag at the cenotaph not long ago. Now this – 46.30mins in
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/richieallen/episodes/2021-01-18T11_09_03-08_00
Hope they are bullshit. We’re already fucked enough.
Mail article just posted even worse:
Lockdown could last BEYOND Easter: Good Friday ‘is earliest date for gradual easing of restrictions’ | Daily Mail Online
‘Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘Once the most vulnerable have been vaccinated there is no justification for keeping these restrictions.’
Well Sir Iain, get your letter into the 1922 and get Doris out
…because we are killing so many grannies with the vaccine who test positive for Covid, because the vaccine mimics Covid…
They all know they could be up on manslaughter charges if this ever gets out.
These aren’t my imaginings – search* on Norway and Ireland suspending vaccine for very elderly and frail.
* Use Duck Duck Go
There must be a load of people who will go over the edge if this lockdown goes on much longer. The fact that we suspect it will go on much longer than this, and quite possibly throughout 2021, cannot save them from a nervous breakdown.
Nervous breakdown doesn’t cut it. People commit suicide in never before seen numbers. Not even during the atrocious world wars has such a large number of folks pulled their plug. Considering that this has nothing to do with life any longer, it’s absolutely understandable. Each suicide goes on the account of the chupa penes.
not a surprise given they have slowed down the roll out of the vaccine this week. General consensus of people already done is to open up asap.
you can tell the paid-for propaganda pieces – they’re not paywalled.
Not really. There is chock paywalled propaganda.
Enough said!
Maybe this should be sent to the BBC?
They already know, Alice.
Oh, I know they know – it would be to show them that WE know they know.
I think they know we know. 😉
Not that they would care; he’s their favourite for Newsnight and R4.
Got this wrong. Bad person. They are all bad.
Apparently there was a Covid Recovery Group meeting tonight. Looking forward to the lily-livered statement that will be totally ignored by a laughing Pfeffel/Wanksock/SAGE.
“We want something done, or we’re going to be really cross. Do something or most of us will abstain… again!”
This just about sums it up, I’m afraid.
they want March 8th as date to open up-being 3 weeks after mid Feb when top 4 vulnerable groups are supposed to be vaccinated. Well, would have been until they slowed the jab this week.
This is the BBC response to my complaint. I had not mentioned Ferguson’s breach as it does not interest me. Perhaps one of you LS types would like to pursue this with the Beeb asking about Heneghan proving his figures out of date before he spoke. We could harass the Beeb for ages like this!
“Thank you for sharing your concerns with us about Professor Neil Ferguson appearing as a contributor during our coverage of coronavirus. We reported Professor Ferguson’s breach of lockdown when it happened and his subsequent resignation from his role as a government adviser. He was also closely questioned on the breach when he appeared on our output afterwards. As an eminent epidemiologist whose modelling of the virus was influential on the government’s lockdown policy at the start of the pandemic, we believe audiences appreciate Professor Ferguson’s expertise in this area and are able to assess his remarks fully in context when he is interviewed by BBC News.Throughout the pandemic we have featured a broad range of scientific and medical experts, and offered detailed analysis of their findings and proposals. As we do with all experts who appear, our presenters challenge views put forward by Prof Ferguson.… Read more »
Is he an epidemiologist? Really?
Supposedly a physicist who drifted into the world of epidemiology. What are his connections to Big Pharma? Who paid for his American tour last Spring?
“Throughout the pandemic we have featured a broad range of scientific and medical experts, and offered detailed analysis of their findings and proposals. As we do with all experts who appear, our presenters challenge views put forward by Prof Ferguson.”
ha ha bloody ha
Send them an FOI requesting evidence of that statement.
That such a dishonourable individual should even be given airtime is disgusting. As if there aren’t plenty more much better qualified than this oik.
But then – he knows that all this pantomime is just that – a pantomime.
What liars the BBC are. We aren’t stupid. They’ve been banging the drum for lockdowns – tighter, earlier, stronger – since the pandemic started and have formed a disturbing symbiotic relationship with Fearmonger-in-Chief Ferguson.
The “Is the BBC Biased?”* blogspot has a great item on nutjob BBC Reality-Twister Chris Morris tweeting about his recent bout of Covid (and a load of other non impartial themes, eg his hatred of Trump, Brexit, Boris etc etc)….I think Chris expects us to react to his tweets with Myrie-style ghoulish horror and waves of deep empathy. Actually I laughed when he told us he starts crying when he switches the TV on – a lot of us are like that Chris, when we tune into the BBC and see what they are doing to our lovely country.
People like Morris are destroying the UK.
* They should replace the question mark with an exclamation mark.
The BBC have an editorial policy whereby they don’t have to have anyone presenting an alternative view, this is why you’ll never see anyone opposing anthropogenic climate change for example.