Pubs to Reopen in April – But Can’t Serve Alcohol
No, you didn’t read that wrong. According to the Telegraph, the Government is considering a temporary “booze ban” as part of its reopening plans.
Pubs and restaurants could reopen as soon as April if they agree not to sell alcohol under options being discussed to allow the widespread relaxation of coronavirus restrictions after Easter.
The Telegraph can disclose that a temporary “booze ban” is being considered as part of the Government’s roadmap for lifting lockdown, which will be unveiled on Feb 22nd.
It is understood the move is being discussed to allay concerns from Prof Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, and others about the effect of drinking on social distancing.
Under the three-stage plan for lifting restrictions, some outdoor socialising is expected to be allowed in March and schools are set to return.
It is hoped that hospitality can then reopen in April and that all of the most vulnerable will be vaccinated by May, in time for the local elections.
Something tells me this won’t go down very well with publicans…
Worth reading in full.
Meanwhile, the Times is reporting that Boris has suddenly become one of the most fretful, cautious people in the Cabinet.
Any day now a folder will land on Boris Johnson’s desk. Inside will be longed-for data that will determine the nature of the next six months and very possibly his entire political legacy.
Public Health England’s best assessment of the effectiveness of the vaccination programme so far will in effect set the parameters for the nation’s exit from lockdown. The assessment shows the jabs are working as expected in protecting people from infection. It may also show encouraging signs on transmission as well as early real-world data on reduced mortality and hospital admissions. If so the prime minister can plot a spring unlocking and promise a glorious summer.
Insiders say he remains fretful. “He’s the person in the room saying, ‘Are you sure? I’m not as convinced as you are about this.’ It’s the scientists who are having to say, ‘It’s looking good.’” Critics would say his caution is overdue and there has been a tragic cost to his previous over-optimism but there is no denying his determination to avoid another false dawn.
Johnson met the executive of the 1922 Committee, a small group of the most senior Tory backbenchers, in his Commons office after PMQs on Wednesday. The group includes some of the most prominent lockdown sceptics in parliament, such as Sir Graham Brady and Steve Baker.
“He was very, very cautious,” a source said. “He described the road map as tentative and said that the NHS remains under severe pressure. He said above all that the government wants to avoid another lockdown.”
A Tory strategist puts it more bluntly. “The prime minister is acutely aware that there cannot be any reverse ferrets as the lockdown is eased, especially after the success of the vaccine programme. That would be a political catastrophe.”
Worth reading in full if you can stomach the bad news.
But there’s a glimmer of hope. According to MailOnline, a “battle royal” is about to commence as Tory MPs urge Boris to lift all restrictions by May 6th, when, according to Hancock, everyone over 50 will have been offered the vaccine.
The PM is under renewed pressure to step up the reopening of the country after the government accidentally revealed that the top nine groups – around 32million people – should be covered by the spring.
Ministers had previously refused to confirm a timetable, but the Cabinet Office cited it as a reason elections in England can take place on May 6th.
Senior Conservatives seized on the optimism to reiterate calls for a quick relaxation amid fears over the huge impact on education, the economy and other health issues. Mark Harper, who chairs the Tory MP lockdown-sceptic Covid Recovery Group (CRG), said: “These top nine groups account for around 99% of those that have died from Covid and about 80% of hospital admissions.
“It will be almost impossible to justify having any restrictions in place at all by that point.”
Mr Johnson is set to unveil his road map out of lockdown towards the end of the month, with hopes the return of schools from March 8th can be followed by allowing mixing outdoors, with bars and restaurants freed up over the summer.
There was a barrage of other good news today, with the R number dipping below the critical level of one, research showing the AstraZeneca jab seems effective against the Kent variant, and the UK regulator saying it was not detecting significant side-effects. Another 19,114 people were reported as testing positive, down a third on last Friday, and the grim daily death toll was down 18 per cent week on week at 1,014.
Another 484,596 vaccine doses were administered in 24 hours, maintaining the impressive pace – with just under 11million people now inoculated.
A flurry of good news, but before you start popping the champagne, be warned: Neil Ferguson is on the warpath.
The competing pulls that Mr Johnson faces were underlined this afternoon as the Government published stark modelling from Prof Neil Ferguson’s team at Imperial College.
Considered by SAGE on January 14th, the paper assumed that there will be a phased easing of lockdown between March and July, and warned that a “rapid ramp-up” of vaccinations to “at least” 3 million doses a week is “critical to avoid exceeding national hospital capacity after the current wave”.
The Government is currently maintaining around that level. But the report added: “This would still lead to an additional 130,800 (103,200 – 167,600) deaths between now and June 2022.”
The Imperial team suggested that its findings meant “a more cautious approach to gradually lifting (lockdown measures) may need to be considered than the ones modelled in this report”.
But Professor Lockdown’s modelling appears to be based on the assumption that about 50,000 Covid patients would be in hospital by mid-February, before dropping towards the end of the month. In reality, the figures never exceeded 40,000 and have now dropped to about 30,000 already.
Worth reading in full.
France Rejects Third Lockdown
France’s Prime Minister has said “Non” to another lockdown. Looks like it’s Boris who is the cheese-eating surrender monkey. MailOnine has more.
France has rejected a third lockdown because the “economic, social and human” costs can’t be justified, Prime Minister Jean Castex said.
During a press conference on Thursday, Castex said stabilising new infection rates and an impending vaccine roll-out means the Government can hold off from imposing new nationwide measures.
France’s daily infection rate is just marginally lower than the UK’s with the country reporting 316.47 cases of Covid per million people on Thursday compared to Britain’s 331.09.
But the UK’s infection rate is currently plummeting amid a rapid vaccination programme, while cases in France have been slowly trending up in recent weeks.
French virus experts have repeatedly warned that a third national lockdown is “inevitable” as new and more-infectious variants of the virus take hold – with the UK strain likely to become “dominant” by March.
That has led to fears that cases could suddenly and rapidly increase – as happened in Portugal where the health system has near-collapsed since the New Year.
But Castex said another lockdown could only be enacted “as a last resort”.
“The situation today does not justify such a move,” he added.
If, however, the health situation deteriorates, the government would “not hesitate to do what is necessary”, he said.
Worth reading in full.
Hancock to Seize Control of the NHS
Both the Times and the Telegraph are reporting that ministers are about to take control of the NHS – an odd story, given that I assumed the Government was in control of the NHS already. Is this an elaborate ruse so Hancock can avoid the blame for the NHS’s blunders, such as the still high rate of in-hospital infections? Here’s the Times‘s version of the story.
Ministers plan to take more control over the NHS with laws to block the closure of hospitals and overrule bosses in the biggest health reform for a decade.
Powers to put fluoride in water, impose health warnings on sausages and order the NHS to prevent obesity will be handed to the government under plans to be announced within weeks, The Times has been told.
At present only councils can add fluoride to water, with six million people in England drinking fluoridated water. Ministers want it extended nationwide, to cut tooth decay. They have become frustrated with local leaders who have little incentive to spend the money needed when they are not responsible for dental health.
The reforms will also scrap forced privatisation and competition within the NHS. Dozens of new management bodies will be given control over billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. The move is a reversal of 2012 reforms by Lord Lansley, then the Health Secretary.
NHS chiefs say that changes to allow GPs, hospitals and social care to work together will improve patient care. The Government is facing questions, however, about why it is embarking on a big reorganisation during a pandemic. A white paper will be published this month with plans to push the reforms through by April next year, in a drive that is alarming some on the NHS front line.
Worth reading in full.
Is the ONS’s Infection Survey Data Wholly Reliable?
There follows a guest post by Will Jones.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) released the latest of its weekly infection surveys yesterday.
Last week, the data had dismayed and surprised observers by concluding infections remained high despite NHS and ZOE data showing a steep decline.
This week, ONS data comes more into line with the other data sets.
However, there are some curious things about it that are worth flagging.
The first, as Dr Clare Craig points out in this tweet, is that the percentage modelled as testing positive for England overall is greater than the percentage testing positive in each age group.
On the face of it this isn’t mathematically possible and suggests there is something wrong with the way the percentages have been calculated.
The second question is why the ONS differs so hugely from ZOE when they are modelling essentially the same thing – namely, Covid infections in the community. Compare the above graph with the ZOE one below (taking note of the different time periods on the bottom – the ONS graph starts on December 20th, which is about halfway across the ZOE graph).
Two things jump out. First, why does the ONS have two humps with a larger one in late December, when ZOE has a single peak in mid-January and no December peak? The ZOE graph shape broadly matches the NHS test and trace cases shape, but the ONS one differs markedly.
Second, why do the estimates for the age groups differ so much between ONS and ZOE? ZOE shows clear age stratification, with older age groups showing lower infection levels and shallower curves. The exception is the youngest age group, the under-20s, which stays largely flat just above the over-60s since early December.
The ONS, on the other hand, shows the age groups all criss-crossing, and in particular the school-age lines surging, in mid-December, suggesting an epidemic in schools. This apparent epidemic among schoolchildren would have influenced the decision to close them at the start of the year.
Yet this school epidemic simply doesn’t exist in the ZOE data. Is it because ZOE data are based on symptoms, whereas the ONS data are based on positive PCR tests (with Ct cycles possibly up to 45) so will not exclude false positives or those no longer sick or infectious?
Whatever the explanation, there are clearly questions that need answering, particularly by the ONS. This is important because the ONS survey is treated by the Government and media as an accurate picture of the state of the epidemic. But what if that picture is more than a little bit wonky?
A Nurse Writes…
We’re publishing an original piece today by a woman who worked for four decades in the NHS as a nurse and midwife and now volunteers at a hospice. She thinks the coronavirus crisis has exposed our unwillingness to confront our own mortality. In particular, our obsession with extending people’s lives as long as we possibly can, regardless of whether they want to carry on living or not.
We are bombarded daily with carefully curated news reports that seem designed to induce fear and sentimentality often linked to the deaths of the frail and the elderly that exhort us to comply with the latest Government messages, one of which, trying to appeal to younger people, is “Don’t kill Granny”. Journalists delivering these reports appear to be looking over their shoulders to avoid censure by Ofcom. why else would they never challenge the received orthodoxies of the Government as they would if it were any other type of policy? Meanwhile, was anyone asking Granny what she wanted? These are taboo matters that cannot easily be aired in public as we live in a society of people who refuse to accept their own mortality until they might find themselves at this point and then wish that those around them would demonstrate more courage and compassion and wisdom in how they care for them. A recent episode of Hospital on BBC 2 featured Barnet General Hospital, which has been especially overwhelmed by COVID-19 as Barnet has the oldest demographic in London. It was difficult viewing but with a discerning eye I was fascinated to watch a lovely lady in her 80s, who had been found collapsed on the floor at home and had been diagnosed with a cardiac problem, not COVID-19. She said directly to camera she thought it was her time, that she was dying, that she believed in God and was essentially at peace with this. The young doctor treating this patient then speaks to camera after noticing how peaceful she is and interprets what she has said for the viewer: “She is in a delirium.” It seemed that the doctor could not accept what the patient had said and dismissed her ‘peace of mind’ as being ‘out of her mind’! This patient then spent the next few weeks in an acute bed being pushed to rehabilitate to a point when they realised that she would not be able to go home and live independently and so sent her off to a nursing home where no doubt currently she has become a prisoner of the state like so many others without being permitted to see loved ones. They call this a success story.
Worth reading in full.
Another Lockdown Tragedy
A reader has got in touch to tell us her elderly mother’s story. This is becoming a familiar refrain.
Firstly thank you for what you do – I have been reading since the beginning when, after the first few weeks of not knowing whether this really was a very bad virus, when we were all naturally cautious, it became clear that the collective marbles had been lost and the populace was being driven barmy.
One of those who bought into the narrative in its entirety was my 83 year-old mother who lived in Wales. Hers was a quiet life, she loved doing her jigsaws, seeing grandchildren and great grandchildren and popping into town on the bus with my father, 87, to do some shopping and have a coffee.
She was at that stage in reasonable shape for a woman her age although her lungs were slightly compromised from a bad bout of pneumonia many years before. In those halcyon days if either of my parents was ill and couldn’t get to the surgery, a doctor would visit their home.
The messages emerging from the press conferences of doom hit them hard. Contact with the GP became increasingly difficult, the surgery taking days to return calls, if they did at all. My mother became so frightened that she simply stopped going out in March 2020 and allowed no-one in the house. Her physical and mental health began to decline, quietly, behind those closed doors. Yes, parcels of food were being dropped off from the end of the garden path, so they were in no danger of starvation, but my parents live on a busy road and it is not possible to have a conversation and find out what is actually happening. No nice middle class garden to safely socially distance here, unlike most of those in the Westminster bubble who are calling the shots.
To cut a very long story short, in the beginning my mother would chat from the doorstep and then slowly she receded until she could just be spotted over my father’s shoulder in the distance at the foot of the stairs. It then transpired that her lungs had become very bad, the GPs had not seen her for months and months and she was having nightly panic attacks. Neither she nor my father were getting any sleep and the situation was deteriorating fast, culminating in an attack where the ambulance was called. The ambulance took many hours to arrive and she was whisked into hospital. This was November 2020.
That was the first hospital visit. When I called them and managed finally after many attempts to speak to the ward they informed me they had done a covid test. I laughed and said she hadn’t been out or let anyone into the house since March. If she got covid it would be the hospital that gave it to her. Little did I know how true that would be.
The hospital kept her in to stabilise her oxygen levels and was clearly in a big hurry to get her back home because of the risk of hospital acquired infection, as her pcr test was of course negative. As a result her discharge to home was chaotic, rushed and very badly managed indeed.
Unsurprisingly therefore it was only a matter of a short interval before another 999 call and another hospital admission, this time to a different hospital. This was where things became much worse. For several days at the beginning we had no idea where she was or even if she was still alive.
What ensued was a disgrace, she was moved to a total of four different wards, deteriorating all the time, with no continuity of care and very little access by us, her family, to information about her condition. Days would pass, particularly at the weekends, when the hospital simply didn’t pick up the phone. Or they transferred my call and the ward didn’t pick up or they cut off the call.
No-one was allowed to visit at any point. We were not allowed to speak to her as she didn’t have a mobile phone and the hospital had no facility to cater for such events. Indeed we were made to feel irresponsible for bothering the staff by calling to ask what was going on.
And then the inevitable happened and she and all the occupants of her ward tested positive for covid.
Still no visitors were allowed until they made the decision that she was in her last hours and a very very limited number of family members were allowed to say goodbye.
After my mother’s death I contacted the hospital trust involved to complain about everything they had done – and not done – but was told they would not investigate my concerns without my father’s consent, which I was not prepared to bother him with in his grief.
And my mother, who had various lung problems was of course put down as a covid death.
It is clear from your correspondence that this is happening all over the country. Yet another tragedy of inhumane treatment of an elderly person at the end of her life.
London Loses 10% of Population During Crisis
There’s a shocking story in the Telegraph claiming that almost 10% of Londoners have left the city since the start of the pandemic.
Even when the last Covid restrictions are lifted from London, there may be a little less bustle on its streets and elbow-jostling at its drinking dens.
One startling estimate that has caught the eye of economists warned the capital’s population may have plunged by 700,000 during the pandemic. That would equate to an 8% drop and be the first slump in London’s population in more than 30 years.
The capital has been the victim of decades-long migration trends suddenly reversing. But will that spell trouble for its economy?
London’s population has been hit by a double whammy of both native and foreign-born workers moving out as office work has shifted online and industries have been temporarily shuttered.
The home working revolution has tempted office workers out of London with many seeking cheaper rents.
Meanwhile, some foreign-born workers that are vital for industries shut down by the pandemic, such as hospitality and tourism, are believed to have moved back to their countries of birth. There are signs that populations in Eastern European countries, such as Romania and Bulgaria, have risen markedly during the crisis as their brain drains reverse.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: New York City has also experienced an exodus, with its population falling by 126,355 in 2020. The New York Post has more.
Postcard From Goa
We’re publishing another contribution to our series “Around the World in 80 Lockdowns” – this one a “Postcard From Goa” by Will Smith. Although there’s nothing resembling a lockdown in Goa. We’ll let Will explain.
India has almost no meaningful welfare state. It is true to say, your family is your welfare. In India, after a brief lockdown in March and April of last year, I believe the Modi government realised that such a strategy was untenable. People had to earn money to feed themselves. Putting it bluntly, people had to work in order not to starve. And therein lay the reality for India. However much you might want to signal to the people you were taking action and trying to protect them, the truth is you simply can’t lock down a nation like this for long without devastating consequences. In other words, India was trapped between crap and crapper in a way that richer nations weren’t. In such a situation, what is left but to not lock down? And if that is your only option, then you must deal with the fear of Covid in a different way. If you can’t persuade people you can keep them safe, better not to have them worrying too much that they’re not safe, right?
The result has been a lot of lip-service type rules. We all carry our raggedy old cloth masks in a back pocket, stick them on when we go in a shop where the owner is wearing one, don’t bother otherwise. Not too serious, right? But what about this one? If you get a cough or a fever, if you think you might have something, the reality is it’s best not to say anything. The default is to carry on and hope you get better. If you take the official government test and are positive, you’ll be moved to a quarantine hospital; 100 beds to a room, no medicine, no oxygen or any medical equipment really, a couple of floor standing fans if you’re lucky, and, well, fingers crossed. Meanwhile your family is placed in isolation. In India of course it’s not unusual for three or even four generations to be living in the same household. Think about it. That’s a lot of breadwinners out of action for a lot of dependents who rely on them. Rather than the official test, therefore, take the unofficial black-market test. If it’s positive they won’t inform anyone except you and then you can choose. In my experience most will be somewhat responsible and isolate at home. But everyone else in that household will go on as normal. And who are you to blame them? What would you do?
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: There’s an interesting article in the Washington Post asking why case numbers are plummeting in India.
Round-up
- “Do Lockdowns Work?” – Christopher Snowdon replies to my piece in Quillette responding to his piece in Quillette. This one will run and run
- “Covid Superstars #3 – Dr Susan Michie” – LeftLockdownSceptics profiles the Stalinist lockdown enforcer
- “How Ottawa utterly botched Canada’s COVID vaccine acquisition” – Despite spending more money on this pandemic than anyone else, Canada is lagging behind almost every other developed nation in vaccination numbers, according to the National Post
- “Are you ready for the climate lockdowns?” – Stephen L. Miller with a depressing prognosis in Spectator USA
- “When will it be the right time to ease lockdown?” – Ross Clark in the Express reveals that the Government consensus around when to lift lockdown (after the most vulnerable have been vaccinated) is beginning to break down
- “The Government should apply a greater sense of urgency to unwinding lockdown” – Good leader in the Telegraph, urging the Government to get on with it
- “The cost of being a lockdown sceptic” – Great piece in the Critic by Alexander Adams
- “To say going to school simply ‘benefits’ children is cruelly misleading” – Molly Kingsley in the Telegraph on the ongoing cruelty of school closures
- “Boris Johnson cannot afford to be overly cautious about lifting lockdown” – Patrick O’Flynn urges Boris to stiffen his backbone
- “Graham lands deal for £100m School of Public Health” – Story in Construction Inquirer revealing that Imperial College London is building a £100 million public health centre at its new campus in White City
- “Experts predict quarantine hotels could be with us ‘until next summer’” – Annabel Fenwick Elliott in the Telegraph says industry experts are pessimistic about the quarantine hotels being a short-term measure
- “Mother of boy filmed verbally abusing Chris Whitty confiscates his PlayStation” – The Guardian reports on the mother’s reaction to her son’s TikTok video of him calling Chris Whitty a liar. Contrary to the claims made by the lockdown fanatics – who blamed this bit of rudeness on sceptics – it doesn’t sound like the lad is a regular visitor to this site
- Lockdown Sceptics contributor Prof David Patton responded on Twitter to Snowdon’s response to my response to… well, you get the idea
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Four today: “How Soon” by Henry Mancini, “Alone Again” by the Damned, “Lonesome Town” by the Cramps and “Freedom” by David Gray.
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 Lockdown Sceptics 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.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, we bring you the story of the demise of Donald McNeil, the New York Times‘s star Covid reporter. He used the n-word on a 2019 educational trip with schoolchildren and, even though the New York Times investigated the incident after several complaints were made at the time – and reprimanded McNeil – the story resurfaced in the Daily Beast last week, an outrage mob formed up and McNeil has been forced to resign. In addition to stepping down, McNeil has issued a self-flagellating apology that – as Andrew Sullivan points out – reads like a confession procured by the Khmer Rouge. Fox News has the story.
Two days after the Beast reported on a letter written by more than 150 Times staffers expressing outrage at the paper’s handling of the McNeil claims, McNeil wrote a letter of his own to staff explaining what transpired on the 2019 educational trip and announcing his exit.
“On a 2019 New York Times trip to Peru for high school students, I was asked at dinner by a student whether I thought a classmate of hers should have been suspended for a video she made as a 12-year-old in which she used a racial slur,” McNeil began the letter, which was obtained by the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple. “To understand what was in the video, I asked if she had called someone else the slur or whether she was rapping or quoting a book title. In asking the question, I used the slur myself.
“I should not have done that. Originally, I thought the context in which I used this ugly word could be defended. I now realise that it cannot. It is deeply offensive and hurtful. The fact that I even thought I could defend it itself showed extraordinarily bad judgment. For that I apologise,” McNeil wrote.
After expressing an apology to the students on the trip, the 66-year-old reporter acknowledged that his “lapse of judgment” has hurt his colleagues and the institution itself, which “puts its confidence in me and expected better.”
“So for offending my colleagues – and for anything I’ve done to hurt the Times, which is an institution I love and whose mission I believe in and try to serve – I am sorry. I let you all down,” McNeil concluded.
The New York Times also has a version of the story.
Stop Press: I wrote a piece for yesterday’s Critic about the mistreatment of a 74 year-old man by a loneliness charity. His sin? Not finding Black Peter offensive.
“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.
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: We’ve been sent a report by Stephen Morris, the General Secretary of the Workers of England Union (WEU), about a recent case involving an NHS receptionist who was facing the sack because she refused to mask up.
An NHS receptionist joined the WEU as they were due to attend a third sickness absence interview, the letter stating they could be dismissed. The employee had medical conditions which meant they could not wear a mask or face shield and had been off work since the wearing of mask legislation came in.
During the meeting, the Manager and HR adviser went through the processes to justify the decision to terminate the member’s employment, unable to wear a face mask or shield, no reasonable adjustment could be made, no alternative roles available.
The WEU adviser raised the point that, neither the WEU or employee had seen a copy of the risk assessment on the employee to show what the risks were, what reasonable adjustments had been considered, or what other roles had been looked at, so they could not properly defend the member’s position. The NHS Manager and HR Adviser confirmed they do not usually give out risk assessments, and that none had been done in this case.
The WEU then pointed out that face screens create a greater risk of cross contamination due to droplets going from the mask to desks and keyboards, therefore transferring to door handles, light switches, and other equipment as the employee moves about, meaning a greater cleaning regime would be required, and without this risk assessment the employer was now failing every employee, even those who wore face screens and masks. This may also be a case of disability discrimination due to the failure of the employer to do proper assessments.
The Employee was not dismissed (or sanctioned), and the employer has had to go and do appropriate risk assessments!
The member was delighted with the outcome!
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.
Scottish Church leaders from a range of Christian denominations have launched legal action, supported by the Christian Legal Centre against the Scottish Government’s attempt to close churches in Scotland for the first time since the the Stuart kings in the 17th century. The church leaders emphasised it is a disproportionate step, and one which has serious implications for freedom of religion.” Further information available here.
There’s the class action lawsuit being brought by Dr Reiner Fuellmich and his team in various countries against “the manufacturers and sellers of the defective product, PCR tests”. Dr Fuellmich explains the lawsuit in this video. Dr Fuellmich has also served cease and desist papers on Professor Christian Drosten, co-author of the Corman-Drosten paper which was the first and WHO-recommended PCR protocol for detection of SARS-CoV-2. That paper, which was pivotal to the roll out of mass PCR testing, was submitted to the journal Eurosurveillance on January 21st and accepted following peer review on January 22nd. The paper has been critically reviewed here by Pieter Borger and colleagues, who also submitted a retraction request. UPDATE: The retraction request has been rejected.
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…
Sandstone, a Scottish publisher, is bringing out a collection of Nic Sturge-on’s speeches called… wait for it… Women Hold Up Half the Sky. Odd choice of words, given it was a phrase coined by Mao Zhedong, the 20th Century’s most murderous dictator, responsible for between 15 and 55 million deaths.
Why is Sandstone publishing this book, given that it’s unlikely to sell more than 100 copies? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that Sandstone has received large subsidies from Creative Scotland, a funding arm of the Scottish Government, amounting to a cumulative total of £410,029.
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.
Did the new page just appear and then disappear?
I cannot see any new page.
This snitch gave their name
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55965185
delete
“The hugest experiment in the history of medicine”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow_VmCjSAQQ
In Gemany a legal action by a group of lawyers has resulted in the release of Email correspondence, showing tht the government pressued scientists – in March – to produce modelling, which would deliver the justification for ‘preventative and repressive’ measures.
Link in German
https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article225864597/Interner-E-Mail-Verkehr-Innenministerium-spannte-Wissenschaftler-ein.html
I believe something similar happened here.Sage didn’t advocate lockdown so they sent for someone with a history of exaggerated models,Ferguson.Boris made his loved ones will die speech on March 13 so the decision was made by then.Ferguson arrived at Downing St on the 16 with his apocalyptic model.
Lockdown was always a political decision,Ferguson admitted as much when he saw Italy and said we can get away with it.
I’d like to know what people think – so I’ll repeat this tomorrow But just in case anyone’s still up and compos mentis….
Everyone who gets jabbed should be told about the ‘yellow card’ and that they MUST report adverse reactions. As it is, people ARE having these reactions but maybe taking to their bed for a few hours (my neighbour, a couple of rellies, and an elderly friend) and when they recover are relieved, and they don’t ”make a fuss”. So there won’t be many reports at the moment from those who just struggle on.
And how fiendishly clever to begin the experiment with the oldies, those less likely to report symptoms, so that by the time it reaches the younger ones, more likely to whinge about not feeling too good, the damage will be done.
My in laws and brother (NHS) have had the jab so far but knowing where I stand on matters I know they won’t report anything negative to me. However anecdotally so far I haven’t heard any bad experiences (70s & 50s) and loving them dearly I hope that remains the case. However I still won’t be having it and neither (to date) will my mum (82).
Yes very clever of them
Me mentis is just about compost but yes, I agree. Shout it out. I don’t think anyone here should worry about repeating stuff. What matters is the goal.
Agree. All adverse reactions must be reported
At 19 I remember being not just bereft but confused and saddened when my nana used to say ‘I’m glad I’ll be dead by then’ at whatever ‘new normal’ was being proposed. Also I remember seeing ‘A Man For All Seasons’ and wondering why he didn’t just ‘sign up’. Now I get it. Now I know what they both meant. Now ‘I hope I’m dead by then’ ‘cos I sure won’t accept the new normal/vaccine/bullshit.
Indeed. Richard Rich is alive and well, and working in the Cabinet Office.
Spoiler alert. lol. (I assume you are referring to Mantel’s fictionalised account.) I gobbled up Mantel’s first two but the doomladen final book has already stopped me twice. It feels to grim to read in these grim times. Just can’t read it.
But for as long as possible we’ve got to try to make a difference, no matter how small. There may be more of us than we think – and we may be needed.
I think there are many more of us than we think. The number of muzzle-wearers is misleading. I’m convinced that most of them just go along to get along, or to avoid fines.
I think we need to just reach some critical proportion.
Things are moving our way and I think that by late Spring the narrative will be under considerable pressure.
For sure. I’m a long way from giving up, it actually fires me to stand firm and fight for what I believe.
When I say to people ‘lockdown of healthy law abiding people is criminal. Denying children their education and freedom is criminal’ I feel empowered, because they either get it and I’m in the majority or they don’t and I’m in the minority but either way I know we’re right and I’ll go down fighting.
Same here.
I remember reading as a child about reincarnation. I wondered why Buddhists and Hindus wanted to escape the endless cycle of rebirth. Surely, I thought, isn’t it great to be reincarnated ….
Well, now..
In the o,ay, More says again and again that he fervently wishes he could sign, but he can’t, It isn’t just conscience, it’s because to sign would be a betrayal of his whole being, a total spiritual death. He can’t do it.
And we can’t yield to the coronabollox..
Covidians – Stepford version 1975
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPUgKWJi5xY
Even Stepford didn’t envisage masks.
I find the idea and reality of them abhorrent and sickening yet the majority of my circle aren’t bothered. I KNOW I’m right but it’s so difficult.
I can’t believe this has been printed in the DM:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9231773/Ex-MP-NORMAN-BAKER-reveals-day-anthrax-released-tunnel-Northern-Line.html
This was revealed in a recent report in Ireland. It had to be forced not to be sealed.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40206482.html
40,000 babies used in vaccine trials. The whole report is off the scale.
Sick motherfuckers
It’s insane. The idea of being patriotic to a state and its religious high priests that could engage in that is baffling to me.
Add to that the laundries, the pedophilia, it’s unreal the level of sickness now evident in that era
The regime that has been place in Ireland since 1921 is not “Ireland”. It was just that one ruling coterie was replaced by another… on reflection, it would probably have been better if the status quo has been maintained, by kidding the Irish into believing they were being ruled “by themselves” they let their guard down and now the whole country has gone to shit.
A friend of my father’s was given experimental LSD while in hospital in UK suffering a nervous breakdown after the sudden and tragic death of his son.
Ooh blimey. I bet that didn’t help much. Did it drive him insane? Medical grade LSD…OOOhhhh mamma. Terrifying
In defence of science, there is recent evidence of the efficacy of hallucinogens in careful amounts in certain mental conditions. Just sayin.
This is pretty funny, LSD being given to British Marines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWodyapGNxI
RAF Cloud Seeding Experiment caused 1952 flood in Lynmouth
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/aug/30/sillyseason.physicalsciences
Millions of UK citizens were used in secret Bio warfare trials
https://newspunch.com/millions-of-uk-citizens-were-used-in-secret-biowarfare-tests/
Timing of this vis vaccines? Are the DM trying to wake the public?
If I had taken the mRNA vaccine in good faith I would not be feeling too clever after reading this.
Judging from the comments, looks like a few more sleepy heads are beginning to awaken.
Police in Bacup have raided a speakeasy on an industrial estate. Along with A fully functioning bar it had snooker table, table football and a large tv. Apparently 10 people were fined for breaking covid rules but police were bewildered to find two sheep there also.
Anyone whose been to Bacup will wonder why there were only two.
Were the sheep the equivalent of a heating system?
Iowa clearly Covid deniers now
https://whoradio.iheart.com/content/2021-02-05-gov-reynolds-ends-mask-requirement-lifts-restrictions-on-businesses/
Take a look/listen. She could have recorded this yesterday – yet it’s from April 2020. She certainly got a handle on it early!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf6yBeXmzCo
Even today I had to explain to my wife that they made this shit up
Dead Kennedys
album: “Plastic Surgery Disasters” (1982)
Government Flu
We got a drug
we’re gonna try it out on you
won’t make you die
it’ll getcha just a little bit sick
got a head cold
got a chest cold
and it’s three days old
(goin’ on forever)
make you hazy
make you lazy
drive you crazy
for days and days and days and days and days
and years
Barely got the time now
to stay on the job
double up the dosage in your water supply
make you even sicker ’til you’re slippin’ away
Getting all depressed
it’s getting all your friends
you can’t get it up
for nothing that’ll rock the boat
The government flu
the government flu
the government flu
Slip it abroad
keep a-slowin’ down the ussr
but meanwhile
we’ll keep an eye
on what it’s doin’ to you
got a head cold
got a chest cold
and it’s three days old
(goin’ on forever)
make you hazy
make you lazy
drive you crazy
for days and days and days and days and days
and days and days and days and days and days
and days and days and days and days and days
and years
The government flu
… Read more »
One of my favourite tunes
The last 24 hours in France has seen new hospitalisations fall by 50% with more discharged than admitted, and new ICU patients also down by 50%. Continuing trend.
‘Cases’ still 20k because of mad ‘testing’, but almost all are asymptomatic.
School holidays started, so if this trend continues through them I think its likely some restrictions will ease later this month.
Its not a ‘lockdown’ at present but still curfew after 6pm and all bars/restaurants closed, and bloody masks in shops and some town centres.
Borders with EU/EEA open but need the dreaded PCR in 72 hrs negative; UK is a special hybrid case, not EU/EEA but not 3rd country either ( which are more or less closed except for 21 special reasons). Still no talk of idiotic ‘hotel quarantine’,thank god.
We will need PCRs now to return from Canaries, my route via Barcelona and train is now covered, so might as well fly back to Toulouse if nothing changes by end of March.
You are naive if you think this is ending. This is ten years long.
It is a lockdown. There is no “normal” life. Kids are force-masked in school. Going unmasked in the open air in any street or park in Paris or many other cities is illegal. Take the metro and there is endless public speaker Covid propaganda assaulting your ears without end. The atmosphere is oppressive, masked police snarling at you. You can’t board a plane to escape without showing a “covid-negative” test pass. Paris looks like a war-zone with ludicrous MASH-type tents erected outside every chemist shop for testing the sheeple.
It is illegal to leave your abode after sundown. No cafés, no restaurants, no pubs.
https://mobile.twitter.com/richardursomd/status/1353549102454337543
Vax, UAE??
https://mobile.twitter.com/RatesZero/status/1358066071702441991
Here is a series of testimonies from covid cult members before they take the vaccine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaImyktMkU4
Scary stuff
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoNewNormal/comments/lchxs8/was_greeted_with_a_pleasant_surprise_this_morning/
We all know that masks are not good enough.
I recently thought I’d try and give up smoking again. I went to the local vape shop to find a notice saying “Click and collect only”
I knocked on the door (whilst saying “click click click”) and the kind shopkeeper came to the door.
I explained that I had not ordered anything online and went on to ask if he could help fix my old vape that I had not used since before last March (for some reason I started smoking real cigarettes again after last March – can’t think why – it was just after I ran out of fingernails that I’d not been biting for a while)
He kindly explained that he might get fined £6,000 for doing this (as the covid police had threatened him with this before), but sorted out my vape and also let me buy some extra nic shots for it.
Anyway, after having a few puffs, I thought hat maybe everyone should be vaping in public. This way, other people would be able to see which bits of air they should avoid breathing in.
I tried to see if my “mask” (a tartan scarf)… Read more »
Sorry, I didn’t actually finish my rant…
WHY THE FUCK is it OK to go to the shop everyday and buy a newspaper, or a pack of fags, but not go into a vape shop to try and stop smoking??????
ON WHAT PLANET does this make sense?????????
AAARGGGHHH..
Thanks for reading, feel better now.
Try
makemyvape.co.uk
I have been mixing my own for a while. Its very affordable, unlike eliquid you buy in vape shops. VPZ do good mail order too and are a generally good company with lots of choice.
Given that Public Health England have stated that vaping is 95% less risky than smoking, the closure of Vape Shops is lunacy. We are governed by morons!
The Sun reporting yet another bad reaction to the vaccine. This time the first born son of Katie Price, and only 18 years old rushed to hospital…..time for some in the media to wake up this ongoing atrocity ?
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/13970539/katie-price-son-harvey-hospital-reaction-covid-vaccine/
That Harvey kid has a tough life. Poor bastard.
He is fucked already
Interesting that the 2nd half of the article is pointing to his underlying conditions… in case the worst happens.
And this, of course, is not true.
Wow I am surprised they were allowed to publish that!
Oooh deery me..this is going to twig out the normies….
“What do we call people who give us dodgey vaccines Harvey?”
“We call them C……”
**************zippp*************
“OK” lets go to the weather…
doctors are said to have confirmed his illness was a reaction to the vaccine.
Hmmm! Truth will out!
Meanwhile in Russia.
Streamed live on 5 Feb 2021
Friday Night with Anastasia. Jazz at “The Hat”. St Petersburg, Russia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo2E59DEQ3c&ab_channel=Baklykov.Live
Life, joy, sociability, happiness. Call me an eccentric but I kind of miss that.
This lady is calling for action.
Essential viewing
https://youtu.be/T3DNV7v5i74
Great video. Yes she is absolutely right.
Ties in with something Delores Cahill said – in one interview I believe she says they have evidence that some PCR tests are not sequencing covid RNA, but something related to the flu virus instead; and as she points out, if someone affected by this takes formal measures against an individual Dr (not necessarily an institution as a whole) it goes on their record & has to be investigated.. when it comes to things like looking at their medical licence, there are obvious repercussions. This is how change is instigated & addressed.
I think she said, correct me if I am wrong, that they have taken cases against Doctors in Northern Ireland who put Covid on a death cert on ‘suspicion’ or due to a + covid test?
She throws these anecdotes out but this should be more publicised. She is planning a Belfast appearance in March. I hope to attend
I think you’re correct, yes she makes ref to various goings on in videos & interviews but I too haven’t seen a lot of facts or figures. But yes, the idea & principle is solid I think – if someone thinks their own personal head is on the block, so to speak, chances are they will take notice!
Not just the medical profession who need a dressing down,- I happened in the room the other day when a relative was channel hopping and the One show was on in the background – absolute shamless use of Captain Sir Tom’s death, in a way it was a bit sickening; Michael Ball & Alex Jones saying: he was so desperate to have the vaccine but was denied the chance because of his illness (*there seems to be some debate, I realise MSM previously said he had it*) but anyway they said, the best thing, accordingly, would be for everyone else to get the vaccine…
Re the neo temperance approach. Scotland is the proving ground. We live in a public health police state. Many comfortably off middle class people in government and public health, think the rabble are drinking too much. Reams of health statistics which dispense altogether with the concept of causation, associate it with violence and poverty. They see an opportunity in Covid just as environmentalists who want to shut down flying do. We should also be aware that as long as politicians have a covid condom to protect them they can ride out everything from Brexit balls ups, to Sturgeon and her consort’s attempt to frame political opponents. This is an worrying time for democracy. We need vigilance and resistance. Sadly as a Scottish libertarian socialist I can only see that coming from a section of the Tories or Sadly for me a UKIP sequel.
Yes, Scotland is going down a dark path and I’m very worried. I was hoping Sturgeon might need to resign due to the Salmond affair, but the parliamentary committee is largely toothless and cannot seem to compel people to provide evidence. If the ‘Dear Leader’ skates through this, she’ll probably take the SNP to a majority of seats in May, facing an even futher fragmented opposition. What’s most worrying, though, is her Svengali effect on most Scots, who seem to think she is the messiah. I just don’t understand how people can be so gullible (but then I’ve been saying this for 11 months now).
We need resistance, but I’m not sure how this will happen. I think it will soon get to the point here where people who are able to leave Scotland will do so, in large numbers. Even with its problems, England is preferable.
Is it disappearing? See the Worldometers graphs of “cases” and deaths for the global data. Select the 7-day moving average option.
Coronavirus Update (Live): 106,273,662 Cases and 2,317,410 Deaths from COVID-19 Virus Pandemic – Worldometer (worldometers.info)
No because they are not going to let it disappear.
No, they’re just trying to make it look like the vaccine is making a huge difference.
In the official ‘covid death’ figures Sweden is falling and falling down the list.
“Let’s look at the siuation in one year”
Anders Tegnell in May 2020
https://www.reddit.com/r/NoNewNormal/comments/lbn5uk/masks_save_lives/
enjoy
Take your non-alcohol pubs and shove them up your arse Whitty et al. Where’s Al Capone when you need him?
Oh it’s-a lonesome away from your kindred and all
By the campfire at night we’ll hear the wild dingoes call
But there’s-a nothing so lonesome, morbid or drear
Than to stand in the bar of a pub with no beer
Now the publican’s anxious for the quota to come
And there’s a far away look on the face of the bum
The maid’s gone all cranky and the cook’s acting queer
Oh what a terrible place is a pub with no beer
Then the stockman rides up with his dry dusty throat
He breasts up to the bar and pulls a wad from his coat
But the smile on his face quickly turns to a sneer
As the barman says sadly the pub’s got no beer
Then the swaggie comes in smothered in dust and flies
He throws down his roll and rubs the sweat from his eyes
But when he is told, he says what’s this I hear
I’ve trudged fifty flamin’ miles to a pub with no beer
Now there’s a dog on the v’randa, for his master… Read more »
I don’t think the Guardianista like Billy Nomates but i fucking do, she cool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jm3UOef7o0
Yep, she’s great, love her colab with Sleaford Mods as well.
I’ve been thinking back of late to the pub smoking ban. I really think that was a warning, which to my shame I ignored as I’m not a smoker.
First, they came for the smokers.
Precisely. I watch a lot of old football on YouTube as well and the sanitisation of the whole experience is astounding.
Yeah – I like watching football from the 70s – muddy pitches and packed terraces.
Sanitization will perhaps be the end of our society, and we will deserve it quite honestly.
I’m only in my 40s and I can remember when you could make your mind up to go to an away game on the day it took place.
Kill spontaneity and you kill part of the experience.
Perhaps poverty will sort it out.
Regulation and santization cost resources.
And no, sorry, but muddy pitches are fine for rugby, but not the beautiful game.
And rugby real scrapping like when I played
Yes. There’s a direct connection. I don’t know how many times I tried to explain to people that the denial of property rights entailed by the smoking ban was unjustifiable in a free society and would open the door for untold future abuses. I’m not a smoker. And that makes no difference, or shouldn’t do. Also, the “science” behind “passive smoking” was totally fraudulent. And even if it wasn’t, in a free society people should be allowed to estimate risks for themselves.
I didn’t foresee “Covid”, I suspect the downward spiral could take many forms and this is the one we’re stuck with now.
The smoking ban and the seatbelt law were two of the most glaring warning signs of encroaching illiberal totalitarianism wrapped up in safetyism.
Correctly termed safety fascism by those few of us resisting them.
Lockdown was just the next step, and the passes had already been sold for any lines of defence against it.
The bit I don’t miss is going out to watch the second half so being in pub for about 1 hr 35 mins and coming back with clothes and hair stinking of smoke.
I didn’t like smelling of smoke but I think a greater principle was involved.
Yes – just like I felt when they stopped me pissing in someone’s beer and crapping on the floor. 🙂
A bit like with lockdown, the problem was with the coercion. If people wanted smoke-free pubs restaurants, nightclubs etc, they were free to set them up (and there were a few around).
Personally I never minded the smell of smoke much, but I was a smoker myself at school and gave up when I was at university.
… and if the minority wanted to smoke, they were free to stay at home and invite others round with some cans.
Twat.
Double twat.
You twat. And now all the pubs are shut because other people’s breath is bad for you.
At least my clothes didn’t stink well apart from piss and puke.
Looks like i’m gonna make myself unpopular here but seatbelt wearing, the pub smoking ban and reform of football terraces have all been progressive steps in my opinion.
I was no longer a smoker when the ban came in but still actually opposed it and favoured some sort of halfway house at the time. However, I would never reverse it back now. It’s not so much the passive smoking, but more the stink of my clothes and hair that I don’t miss.
Similarly, when I used to go to the football in the eighties as a kid, it was often ugly and occasionally terrifying. I’m not saying the modern day corporate-led experience is ideal, but I know which version I would prefer for my own kids.
As for the seatbelt-wearing, even if you want to argue it’s your own risk, RTAs involving fatalities actually take a serious amount of time to investigate, so reasonable measures that can minimize this have to be a good thing.
Evidence that seatbelts have reduced RTA’s is where?
They have reduced the risk of a collision to the cars occupants, but due to risk tolerance and compensatory behaviours they have made sharing the road with cars more dangerous for other road users, cyclists, pedestrians etc.
No, can’t agree with that. Compulsion may have been wrong, and I was affronted by it at the time, but not wearing a seatbelt is plain daft.
Anyone who thinks the wearing of seatbelts is a an infringement of liberty and comparable to what is happening now has really lost their sense of proportion, and probably their marbles.
… and whilst health fascism is a real problem, the smoking ban in pubs was totally reasonable. I was a smoker, but got to realize that the ban was necessary when it dawned on me what it inflicted on others.
We don’t care what “dawned on you”. Oppression is oppression. If you don’t like cigarette smoke, don’t go where smoke is.
Don’t argue with rick, he’s a 65 year old Billy Bragg fan i.e a total fanny
anyone who thinks like you is a fucking moron. A dull as fuck stupid motherfucker who has nothing but banal socialist pish to hide their miserable stupid fucking life behind. What a fucking rotter
Yes, I get that ” It’s common sense innit”.
Where is the actual evidence though?
As regards the smoking ban remember it was just one non smoking area in restaurants originally – remember.
Now its pubs in which drinking alcohol, smoking and conversations with other guests are banned.
Another click of the ratchet.
Deaths and injuries have plummeted since the 1980s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reported_Road_Casualties_Great_Britain
Obviously this isn’t all down to seatbelts, but given that the number of cars on the road has increased dramatically, we should actually be proud to have a world-class safety record on our roads.
Given what you have said, you have no grounds to object to any freedom killing measures which can be justified by “public health” or “public safety”. Weak-minded thinking like yours has brought us here.
You don’t like cigarette smoke? Don’t go to places where people smoke. Or create your own smoke-free zones.
Afraid of football stadiums? Watch TV instead. I’m afraid of sky-diving.
Seatbelts? That’s so obvious I’m not even going to comment.
On the contrary I have every right to judge each case on its own merits. And I’ve already argued that the 3 examples were logical and progressive.
Around the time of the smoking ban, I was vehemently against ID cards and stand by this.
Similarly mask wearing and lockdowns are neither logical nor progressive, hence why I oppose.
Sky diving is a poor comparison as it is an individual pursuit that affects you, and you only. All the other examples affect thousands of others, so policy has to be judged this way.
I think I may have found some kryptonite for this whole charade. Everytime I mention Ivermectin and HCD, Vit C&D I get jumped on, by what it seems the 77th. To me it looks like they know, if people find out there is a prevention/cure/treatment for this flu then people will be less scared, angry with leaders for denying these drugs and people will be less willing to take the experimental poison knowing that once they get the flu with special name they can be treated and then also have immunity. People need to know about these drugs, we have to put pressure on everybody, from those in health care to the political scum. Play them at their own game and accuse them of murder.
Remember folks: Look in their eyes and tell them why they are not been given effective, well known cheap, over the counter drugs that will make them better.
Exactly right. And now there are peer-reviewed studies supporting the use of these cheap, effective, and relatively safe medications. I keep thinking about Nick Rose and how he might have been treated when he first came down with symptoms. I think we should all have the following on hand: Vitamin D3 (4,000+ iu per day), Vitamin K2, Magnesium (theonate, malate or citrate), Zinc (8-30 mg), Vitamin C (500+ mg) and Quercetin. I take these every day, but it’s basically the at-home Zelenko protocol if you can’t access HCQ or Ivermectin. I implore everyone to have these easy-to-source supplements on hand and take them at the first sign of sickness or prophylactically. I don’t believe our doctors are treating with HCQ or Ivermectin here in Canada, so I’d rather prevent serious symptoms at home if possible. Nebulized hydrogen peroxide (food grade) can be administered at home as well (see link). We can’t trust the “experts” but my caveat is to do your own research if you’re on any medications such that any of these supplements could pose a problem.
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/08/30/how-to-nebulize-hydrogen-peroxide.aspx
Thanks Lisa, great info there. Was taking Vit D3 but only 1000 iu until yesterday when I heard you need at least 2500 iu. Generally taking these minerals and vitamins will keep many bugs away.
Thanks – I started taking D3+K a while back (inexpensive for 4000 iu online if you search a bit) and C+Zinc, plus a basic multivitamin. I’ve read a lot about D and took your advice about the added K (the tablets have both). Scotland is dark, even in the summer, and this could be one reason why we have the world’s highest rate of multiple sclerosis. I remember milk and some other food products being fortified with D and other vitamins growing up in the USA and this has been proposed here, but with no success. Amazing what we could do if the authorities had any common sense.
Really good website here, giving comparative numbers for Covid, HCQ, Inver mectin etc etc and a listing of all the trials that have taken place for each one.
Play around with it.
https://c19ivermectin.com
When posted elsewhere, it sends the govt loyalists and paid tr olls for big pharma into frothing denial & whataboutery.
They were over the counter in France until February 2020. Just a coincidence, I suppose.
Leaflets, stickers, pamphlets
HCQ not HCD
It may just be me but I feel they are really fucking with us now:
Two masks are better, three to be safe
Anal swabs from China
Fucking bastarding new variants, Kent, South African – what about fucking Angelonia, Venezuelan, Afghani, Marshan
No alcohol in pubs, I mean what the actual fuck?
“I wonder what these saps will swallow next? I know, we’ll give everyone an anal swab before they’re allowed to put their bins out! That’ll be a laugh!”
I am honestly thinking if someone from SAGE advised it, they probably would.
Well, in Austria from Monday hairdessers’ salons are open again, but you have to present a negative test from within the previous 48 hours in order to get your hair done.
Germany discussing sth like this, too.
Closure of salons has driven hairdressers and clients underground and the govt is afraid they will all get infected and pass it around.
Nothing about keeping a business going.
I’d love to find an underground hairdresser! My former stylist in Toronto will see me at his home but I live 2+ hours away now. If I get desperate I’ll stay with family and make a trip to the city for a day or two. If I were a hairdresser I’d go mobile for sure — government can’t shut you down that way.
Speakeasies, underground hairdressers.
Humanity routing around bureaucrats and regulations.
I think some places have seen underground church meetings too.
Glad to see it. They can get some business back and avoid paying tax. Governments deserve this.
Until cash is phased out.
Back to barter.
In a strict economic sense cash cannot be banned – merely ,ade less efficient.
Cash defined as the most marketable good.
Other goods/commodities take over the role.
I wish I knew of an underground vet. I fear my 21 yr old moggy will not recover from this stroke – practically paralysed and am hydrating her with a syringe. The bastards would expect me to hand her limp little body over to the assassin for lethal injection with me waiting out in the rain, and collect her corpse after paying for the deed. Far too unsafe to do it with her in my arms. God, I’m loathing people….
We had to have our mog put down in LD1. Found a mobile vet who agreed to do it in the garden, albeit masked and gloved. There’s no way I could have done it otherwise. Is that something you could investigate? Took us a while to find one who would do it. Actually found them online, Cloud Nine vets, not sure what areas they cover though.
I’ll enquire – thanks. I’ve been googling other vets and haven’t asked mine yet, but it’s Covid central round here so I fear the worst.
Covid central here as well but I was able to find a sceptic vet. But even the hysterical vets make an exception for end-of-life and allow one to go in with your pet. Many vets will come to the home as well. I’m so sorry you’re having to go through this at this insane time.
That’s so heartbreaking. But some vets do let you go in with your pet, so its worth asking around. I had to get my little cat put to sleep in the first lockdown and was terrified they wouldn’t let me in with her but although we had to wait in the car with her instead of waiting room, they let both me and my dad in with her and were able to hold and cuddle her to the end. It was a dreadful experience as she was only a baby but made bearable by being able to be with her. My thoughts are with you.
Sorry this happened to you. I couldn’t send her to die with a stranger – it would feel like a betrayal after all the years of love.
They will be worried too about people getting used to all the advantages od a black market economy.
Pehaps some people will prefer it that way.
Anyone know if William Shakespeare of Warwick had his second jab yet?
He has had it, no ill effects and expected to live for another 10 years. If he fails to reach the age of 120 it will be a ‘tragic death’.
His parents will be devastated.
Clever. 🤪 🤣
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
You that never done nothing
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it’s your little toy
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain
And I’ll dance on your grave til I’m sure that you’re dead. Love Dylan, his music never ages.
Yep the frog is being boiled, went shopping today, totally dismayed by the amount of muzzles worn outside. And for only the second time since this whole shit started I got challenged about not wearing the symbol of oppression, not once but twice.
My experience at Sainsburys earlier was OK. No challenge at the door and actually saw 2 – yes 2!! – other people without nappies. This is 2 more than i’ve seen for quite a while.
That said I boycotted one of the local Morrisons branches a couple of weeks ago after a security guard tried to insist I wore a lanyard. I berated him, got him to call his manager to put in a complaint, and the manager agreed to educate him. It was the same branch where I was challenged by the Met only a couple of weeks prior, so have opted to take my business elsewhere.