I cannot be alone in noticing the huge gulf between the sympathetic coverage given to the Black Lives Matter protests in the mainstream media and the almost universally hostile coverage of the anti-lockdown protests. Celebrities who were encouraging everyone to remain in their homes until last week are now rushing out to join the protests, including Emily Ratajkowski, Jaz Sinclair, Paris Jackson and Billie Eilish. Not only is this virtue-signalling hypocritical – why is Covid likely to be spread at anti-lockdown protests, but not at Black Lives Matter protests? – it’s also irresponsible, given how many of those protests have spiralled out of control into fully-fledged riots in at least 25 cities across America, including Minneapolis, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Louisville, Columbia, Denver, Portland, Milwaukee and Columbus.
Those protests have now crossed the Atlantic, with a march through the streets of Peckham yesterday in which demonstrators held up placards reading “Abolish the Police” and “Riot is the language of the unheard”. That demo did not become violent or lead to rioting, but more protests are planned in London and other British cities over the coming days.
Today, Metro ran an article entitled: “Black Lives Matter: Are protests taking place in the UK and how can you donate?” It included a handy guide to people who want to join those protests, something I don’t recall Metro doing a couple of weeks ago when it wrote about the anti-lockdown protests across the country.
I’m all in favour of the right to protest. I think the suspension of that right is unlawful and it should be reinstated immediately. But the police need to make up their minds. Either it’s now permissible for groups of more than 100 people to stage a protest, or it isn’t.
It can’t be one rule for Black Lives Matter protestors and another for anti-lockdown protestors.
Was the Government Really Following “the Science”?
A few weeks ago I linked to an excellent Newsnight report by Hannah Cohen which asked whether the Government really was following “the science”? Now that the Government has released the minutes of the SAGE meetings in the period leading up to the lockdown announcement on March 23rd – this was on Friday as a direct result of Simon Dolan’s lawsuit – we can get closer to answering this question.
The former barrister Paul Chaplin has gone through the minutes in a lengthy blog post and concluded that placing the entire country under virtual house arrest was a political decision and not “based on the science”. His analysis is compelling.
Chaplin finds plenty of evidence in the minutes that various different containment measures were discussed by SAGE, but at no point before March 23rd did the group recommend the quarantining of the whole population. The measures SAGE considered were home isolation of symptomatic individuals, the isolation of everyone in a symptomatic individual’s household for 14 days and the cocooning of those over 70 and those with underlying health conditions – the three measures introduced by the Government on March 16th. But at no point did SAGE discuss anything resembling a full lockdown. Indeed, SAGE noted at a meeting on March 10th that banning public gatherings would have little effect since most viral transmission occurred in confined spaces, such as within households.
The last SAGE meeting before the lockdown was on March 18th where it was noted that the impact of the social distancing measures introduced thus far would not be known for two or three weeks. The attendees did not at that stage know whether those measures would be sufficient to prevent the NHS’s critical care capacity being overwhelmed and in the absence of more data could not offer any advice on whether additional measures – such as closing bars, restaurants and entertainment centres, and limiting use of indoor workplaces – would be necessary. The only further measure SAGE recommended at that meeting was closing schools.
SAGE advises that the measures already announced should have a significant effect, provided compliance rates are good and in line with the assumptions. Additional measures will be needed if compliance rates are low.
Minutes of the 17th SAGE meeting on COVID-19, March 18th 2020
The attendees discussed locking down London but no conclusion was reached. However, they did say that if additional measures were going to be necessary, it would be better to bring them in sooner rather than later. According to the minutes: “If the interventions are required, it would be better to act early.”
In other words, Boris Johnson and his advisors were not following “the science” when they took the decision to lock down the country on March 23rd – they weren’t acting on any specific recommendations by SAGE. Nor can the Government claim this is one of the options that was discussed at SAGE meetings and it was basing its decision, in part, on SAGE’s analysis of the impact of a full lockdown. That option was not discussed at any of the meetings before March 23rd. In this respect, it was a political decision.
This dovetails with Christopher Snowdon’s analysis of the decision-making in the period leading up to March 23rd published in the Critic last week, although Snowdon only had access to the broad summaries of the SAGE meetings that the Government has released, not the more detailed minutes released on Friday. Snowdon concluded that the Government’s scientific advisors never explicitly recommended a lockdown; on the contrary, at various stages they recommended against it.
Snowdon says that even Neil Ferguson’s March 16th paper, predicting 510,000 Covid deaths if the Government took no measures to stop the spread of the virus and 250,000 if it stuck with its “mitigation” strategy, stopped short of recommending a full lockdown:
Contrary to popular belief, the infamous study did not call for a full lockdown, nor did it model the effects of a full lockdown. It looked at school closures, social distancing and household quarantine for suspected cases and those living with them. It concluded that the greatest benefit would come from a combination of social distancing and household quarantine, with further benefits likely to come from closing schools, although it conceded that school closures would prevent many people from working.
There is no doubt that Ferguson’s model was impactful. It suggested that hundreds of thousands of people would die from COVID-19 if the Government continued to pursue a policy of mitigation. This put containment back on the table and gave legitimacy to more coercive action from Government, but the measures it recommended did not amount to a full lockdown. Its social distancing recommendations were far from trivial and yet they seem modest after nine weeks of genuine lockdown (the authors anticipated most people still going to work, for example). The only time Ferguson and colleagues use the word “lockdown” in the text is when they are making a distinction between their proposals and an actual lockdown. They implicitly dismiss a lockdown as being too extreme for the UK, saying that their favoured policies are “predicted to have the largest impact, short of a complete lockdown which additionally prevents people going to work”.
Snowdon’s conclusion is remarkably similar to Chaplin’s:
The founding myth of the lockdown is almost the opposite of the truth. Science did not triumph over politics on March 23rd. It would be more accurate to say that the strategy which preceded the lockdown, unpopular though it now is, was based on science whereas the decision to go into lockdown was political.
Snowdon’s article – and Chaplin’s analysis – is in some ways helpful to the Prime Minister since it debunks the myth that he was told to lock down the country by SAGE long before March 23rd and failed to act on that advice due to “dither and delay”. That was the story told by the Sunday Times in its May 23rd article entitled: “22 days of dither and delay on coronavirus that cost thousands of British lives.”
But if you’re a sceptic, this analysis isn’t helpful to the Prime Minister since it lays the blame for the lockdown squarely at the door of 10 Downing Street.
Stop Press: I emailed Christopher Snowdon to see if he’d had a chance to look at the SAGE minutes and he got back to me to say he had and they did indeed corroborate his analysis:
The minutes fully support what I wrote in the Critic. The social distancing measures discussed by SAGE – and modelled separately by Neil Ferguson et al. and John Edmunds et al. – are not well described in the documents, but it is clear that they are more moderate than the lockdown that was introduced on March 23rd. Even at the late stage of mid-March, SAGE was never seriously entertaining a full lockdown, nor did the attendees expect their more modest measures to be in place for more than 12 weeks. To claim otherwise is to rewrite history.
Norwegian Prime Minister Admits Lockdown Was Mistake, Says Sorry
Last Wednesday night, Norway’s prime minister Erna Solberg went on television to make a confession: she had panicked at the start of the pandemic. Most of the tough measures imposed in Norway’s lockdown were steps too far, she admitted. “Was it necessary to close schools?” she asked. “Perhaps not.”
She isn’t the first Norwegian official to acknowledge that the lockdown wasn’t necessary. On May 5th, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) published a briefing note reporting that when the lockdown was imposed on March 12th Norway’s R number had already fallen to 1.1. It slipped under 1 on March 19th.
“Our assessment now… is that we could possibly have achieved the same effects and avoided some of the unfortunate impacts by not locking down, but by instead keeping open but with infection control measures,” Camilla Stoltenberg, NIPH’s Director General said in a TV interview earlier this month.
An expert committee charged with carrying out a cost-benefit analysis into the lockdown measures in April estimated they had cost Norway 27 billion kroner (£2.3 billion) every month. The committee concluded last Friday that the country should avoid lockdown if there is a second wave of infections.
“We recommend a much lighter approach,” the committee’s head, Steinar Holden, an Oslo University Economics Professor, told the Sunday Telegraph. “We should start with measures at an individual level – which is what we have now – and if there’s a second wave, we should have measures in the local area where this occurs, and avoid measures at a national level if that is possible.”
“If it’s necessary to have very strict restrictions for a long time, then the costs are higher than letting the infection go through the population,” Holden told the Telegraph. “Because that would be immensely costly.”
In particular, Holden’s committee said schools should not be closed again if there is a second wave. It estimated in April that the measure had cost 6.7 billion kroner (£520 million) a month, while having “little impact” on the spread of infection. The NIPH has gone further and said that school closures may have even increased the spread.
Margrethe Greve-Isdahl, the doctor who is NIPH’s expert on infections in schools, tells the Telegraph that if schools hadn’t been closed they could have played a role in informing people in immigrant communities – which were hit disproportionately hard by the epidemic – of hygiene and social distancing rules.
“They can learn these measures in school and teach their parents and grandparents, so at least for some of these hard-to-reach minorities, there might be a positive effect from keeping kids in school,” she said. “There’s now a lot of information available on how it has impacted negatively on the economy and on vulnerable children.”
What refreshing candour from Norway’s Prime Minister and senior public health officials. I look forward to the press conference in which Boris Johnson, Sir Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty admit the lockdown was a mistake and apologise for it.
Was the Government’s Response Predicated on Coronavirus Behaving Like Influenza?
Guy de la Bédoyère has sent in a short piece based on the interview that Peter Openshaw, Professor of Experimental Medicine at Imperial College, gave on the Andrew Marr Show this morning. Guy’s conclusion is that many of the things the Government got wrong, such as closing schools, were dictated by the “UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy” published in 2011.
It’s easy to carp with the benefit of hindsight, but one theme came across painfully clearly from Professor Openshaw’s comments. Some of the scientists who exerted so much influence over the Government were operating like car mechanics who had no workshop manual for the model they’re trying to fix and instead just used the nearest one to hand, regardless of its relevance: in this case, the Influenza Workshop Manual, which looks as if it may have been the chocolate teapot of ways to deal with COVID-19.
As always, Guy’s piece, which I’ve published as a subpage of “How Have We Responded to Previous Pandemics?“, is worth reading in full.
Apocalypse Not
One overlooked success story in the coronavirus crisis is Vietnam. The country of 97 million people has not reported a single coronavirus-related death and on Saturday had just 328 confirmed cases, despite its long border with China and the millions of Chinese visitors it receives each year. That’s particularly remarkable when you factor in it’s a low-middle income country with only eight doctors for every 10,000 people. So what did Vietnam get right?
According to CNN, the key to Vietnam’s success was ignoring the WHO’s advice that there was “no clear evidence of human to human transmission” and introducing temperature screening for passengers arriving from Wuhan at Hanoi international airport in early January. Travelers found with a fever were isolated and closely monitored. By mid-January, the country had introduced medical quarantining at border gates, airports and seaports and on January 24th it cancelled all flights to and from Wuhan. On February 1st, all flights between Vietnam and China were halted, followed by the suspension of visas to Chinese citizens on February 2nd.
Readers of this site will recall my post on May 9th pointing out that the Newly Emerging Respiratory Virus Advisory Group (NERVTAG) considered screening passengers arriving from Wuhan at a meeting on January 13th chaired by Peter Horby, an Oxford professor with links to the World Health Organisation. This is the same Peter Horby who criticised the Government yesterday for easing the lockdown too soon. At this point, seven other countries had introduced temperature screening at airports for visitors from Wuhan. However, the NERVTAG recommendation was that there would be no point in doing this if exit screening at Wuhan airports was already taking place, although they had no evidence it was.
At the next NERVTAG meeting on January 21st, this one attended by Chris Witty and his deputy Jonathan Van-Tam, as well as Professor Neil Ferguson, the boffins were asked to reconsider the question. But again they passed the buck to the Chinese authorities. By now, human-to-human transmission had been confirmed. Nonetheless, NERVTAG’s response was the same.
Neil Ferguson noted that from the modelling perspective, with exit screening in place in China, effectiveness of port-of-entry screening in the UK would be low and potentially only detect those who were not sick before boarding but became sick during the flight. NERVTAG felt there was a lack of clarity on the exit screening process in Wuhan, although it was thought that this process would be robust, and statements had been released by Chinese authorities about stopping febrile passengers from travelling. However, as noted, there were no data on the implementation of this programme.
Minutes of the NERVTAG Wuhan Novel Coronavirus Second Meeting: January 21st 2020
So rather than recommend port-of-entry screening, the assembled brains at NERVTAG decided to trust to the Chinese authorities to screen people leaving the country. That may count as one of the biggest blunders the British Government and its scientific advisers made. Those countries that started screening airline passengers arriving from Wuhan in early January have some of the lowest Covid death tolls of anywhere in the world – Hong Kong (four deaths), Taiwan (7), Singapore (23), Malaysia (115), Thailand (57) and Vietnam (0).
Annie’s Little List
Annie, one of the wittiest commentators on this site, has composed a ditty based on “I’ve Got A Little List” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado which she posted in the comment thread beneath yesterday’s update. Great stuff, Annie.
When the world regains its senses and the reckoning begins,
I’ve got a little list, I’ve got a little list
Of thugs and wimps and bullies who must answer for their sins,
And they’ll none of ’em be missed, they’ll none of ‘em be missed.
There’s the fornicating expert who despises his own rules,
The SAGES who despise us all and take us all for fools;
The servile politicians, solid wood from ear to ear,
The BBC, dispensing the pornography of fear,
And the morons and bed-wetters who on cowardice insist:
They never would be missed, they never would be missed.
There’s the shutter-off of playgrounds, paths and parks and even trees,
The joyless pessimist, I’ve got him on my list;
The neighbour who reports each normal person that she sees,
She never would be missed, she never would be missed.
There’s the vicious teaching unions who, in cowardice and spite,
Inflict appalling tortures on each hapless little mite;
There’s the spineless crawling bishops whom we’d do well to ignore,
The twit who puts a mask on when he creeps out through his door,
And the silly clapping seals who just don’t know when to desist:
They never would be missed, they never would be missed.
My Sweet Lord
Nick Robinson interviewed Lord Sumption a few days ago for Political Thinking, his weekly politics podcast. Among other things, Sumption says it’s a sad reflection on our democracy that he should be the only major public figure opposing the lockdown.
I think that it would be very much more satisfactory if the sorts of points that I have been making had been made by professional politicians. But the amount of group think and collective hysteria, partly, I have to say, officially generated, has meant that nobody outside the press is actually making these points. Somebody has got to stand up for a sense of proportion, somebody has got to stand up for a measure of balance and somebody has got to stand up for the millions of people who are being propelled into misery and in many cases financial ruin by the lockdown. I’m really sorry that it should be me and I think that it’s a sad reflection on the quality of our democracy that it should be me. But if no one else is going to do it, then I am.
Preach brother. As one reader says,
It is a tragedy that there are so few people like Lord Sumption.
I also think that there is something seriously amiss with a culture that would choose to idolize a sulky child like Greta Thunberg rather than listen to a more traditional “wise old man” like Jonathan Sumption.
Boris: Less Like Churchill, More Like Eden?
A reader has sent me a link to an interesting article in the Oxford Journal of Medicine entitled: “The effect of Prime Minister Anthony Eden’s illness on his decision-making during the Suez crisis.” The article argues that Eden’s illness affected his judgment during the Suez crisis, leading to Britain’s biggest foreign policy blunder since the Second World War.
“I’m wondering whether Boris’s errors of judgement are due partly to his recent illness,” says the reader. “If that’s the case then he more closely resembles Eden than Churchill, and Lockdown will prove his Suez!”
Government Says Odds of Catching COVID-19 Fall From 1/40 to 1/1000
Boris issued a press release earlier today saying the odds of becoming infected have declined. “As the Government moves to the next phase of its response to the coronavirus crisis, the latest clinical advice shows a much lower incidence rate in the general population,” he said. “This means the average chance of catching the virus is now down from 1/40 to 1/1000…”
But how is he calculating those odds? After all, the latest ONS data suggests that about 8,000 new people are becoming infected every week. 67 million divided by 8,000 is not 1/1000 but 1/8375. And as number-cruncher Alistair Haimes pointed out on Twitter, if only ~0.25 of those who catch it will die, that means your odds of dying from coronavirus on any given day are about 1 in 3.4 million.
Round-Up
And on to the round-up of all the stories I’ve noticed, or which have been been brought to my attention, in the last 24 hours:
- ‘Sunday shows round-up: Sturgeon challenged over care home deaths‘ – Summary of what was said in this morning’s politics talk shows. Includes Sturgeon telling Sophy Ridge that she thinks Covid deaths in English care homes are being under-counted
- ‘Revealed: Test and trace was abandoned because system “could only cope with five coronavirus cases a week”‘ – The comedy gets richer
- ‘Dominic Cummings Must be Sacked‘ – This Change.org petition calling for Cummings to be sacked now has over a million signatures. I’m jealous. The Change.org petition calling for me to be sacked as a Government advisor in 2018 only attracted 220,000 signatures
- ‘Sack Dominic Cummings for his wild midnight ride to Durham? Only if you want a LONGER lockdown‘ – Peter Hitchens in the Mail on Sunday says he won’t be signing the sack-Dominic-Cummings petition (and nor will I)
- ‘James Ferguson: the virus, the lockdown, and what comes next‘ – Merryn Somerset Web interviews the financial guru for the MoneyWeek podcast
- ‘Covid Blinkered Syndrome‘ – Sam Case, an ex-policeman, criticises the response of various emergency services to the crisis in Hector Drummond Magazine
- ‘COVID-19: the ethics of clinical research in quarantine‘ – Interesting article in the BMJ that borders on saying the lockdowns have been unethical. Includes the line: “To be ethically justified, quarantine must be at minimum necessary and effective, a proportionate response to the risk of disease, and the least infringing measure available.”
- ‘UK announces 215 more COVID-19 deaths, the lowest Saturday total since lockdown began‘ – Good point made in Mail headline
- ‘ROBERT DINGWALL: Why are we the only country obsessed with the disastrous two-metre rule?‘ – NERVTAG professor criticises two-metre rule
- ‘Testing of NHS staff at Somerset hospital reportedly reveals “40 per cent as COVID-19 positive” as new admissions urgently halted‘ – More evidence that Covid is primarily a nosocomial disease
- ‘Leaked mails reveal battle over Denmark’s lockdown‘ – Emails reveal that Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen steamrollered her own health experts, who counselled against lockdown
- ‘We are sleepwalking from one denial of our liberties into an even more insidious phase‘ – Good Telegraph column by Janet Daley
- ‘Meet the people breaking lockdown rules to have sex‘ – It’s not just Rosie Duffield and Neil Ferguson who broke lockdown rules to have sex
Small Businesses That Have Reopened
A couple of weeks ago, Lockdown Sceptics launched a searchable directory of open businesses across the UK. The idea is to celebrate those retail and hospitality businesses that have reopened, as well as help people find out what has opened in their area. But we need your help to build it, so we’ve created a form you can fill out to tell us about those businesses that have opened near you. Please visit the page and let us know about those brave folk who are doing their bit to get our country back on its feet.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the last 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. It takes me about nine hours a day which doesn’t leave much time for other work. If you feel like donating, however paltry the amount, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in tomorrow’s update, email me here.
And Finally…
If you thought our own Government’s Covid propaganda was effective, just wait till you see these Japanese posters produced during the Spanish flu epidemic. You can see some of the others here.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
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Roundup item 1. UK Health Security Agency (who they?) Canvassing Local Authorities about implementing Plan B.
Passing the buck again, trying to blame local government for new lockdown measures. They tried that a year ago but Andy Burnham kicked up enough stink for it to fail.
Everybody knew it was Central government wot stole Xmas.
join the peaceful resistance …..
Wednesday 27th October 11:30am
Yellow Boards Event – Stand by the Road
(If we start at 11:30am some people might join on their lunch break.)
Tesco Superstore
17 County Ln, Warfield, Bracknell RG42 3JP
Saturday 30th October 2pm
SPECIAL STAND WINDSOR with Yellow Boards
Alexander Park (near Bandstand) Stand in the Park
Barry Rd/Goswell Rd
Windsor SL4 1QY
Meet in the Park 2pm followed by walk to
Stand in the Town Centre By the Castle
About 2 hours in total.
Stand in the Park WOKINGHAM Sundays 10am
Make friends – keep sane – talk freedom and have a laugh
Howard Palmer Gardens RG40 2HD
behind the Cockpit Path car park in the centre of the town
JOIN Telegram http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
It was in the Observer, so take it with a healthy pinch of salt.
I’ve just written to my MP, making no argument, but simply asking if she will support ‘Vaccine Passports’ if it comes to a vote in the Commons. Just a Yes/No.
I suggest everyone does this, with a follow-up depending on the answer (if you get one).
Rishi Sunak to spend billions to digitise NHS.
He needs to fix the last lot first.
Earlier this year the NHS rolled out its multi billion Mycare digital information portal. It is far from perfect. After 9 months I have been unable to get them to name my GP correctly and it took ages for it to update changes to my regular medication.
Earlier this year the whole system was down for several days with repeated phone calls getting the message ‘unable to answer your call because of staff training’.
After chasing one particular technical query a health care professional quipped ” ‘Mycare’ is not very user friendly”.
Being entirely digital it cannot be accessed within the Main Regional Hospital which is an internet not-space so it’s advisable to take screenshots before entry.
Last, but not least, yesterday I got the traditional letter telling me about a cancelled appointment the day after the appointment itself. Nothing changes.
The software that runs Mycare is called Epic which, as I warned in February, was begging for a fail.
“Epic.” Brings to mind sublime poetry, great journeys, heroic deeds.
It’s a software program that doesn’t work.
Our GP surgery had a new phone system installed recently. Patients were unable to get through for ten days, according to a story in the Biggleswade Chronicle.
The envy of the world?
A few years ago they tried to bring all NHS records into one national database. This was a massive failure as not all trusts use the same system, different systems are used within trusts, primary care uses at least two different systems, one of which can definitely have added on functionality, not sure about the other. Because these are all proprietary they are not designed to communicate with other systems, to enable this to happen another layer of new bespoke software was required. The timescales were far too short for this to ever work at the cost of billions.
Yes. It was a massive cock-up. IT projects often are (private and public) – with the added factor of the complexity here. You have a deadly combination of ignorant management (often seeking immediate savings) and nerds who haven’t nailed the practical issues. They don’t understand each other.
That said – a few years on, the communication between various arms of the Trust that serves me has been massively improved by a working system.
Private sector ones have a far lower failure rate, because they are generally better at clearly specifying what they actually want, and the financial imperative means that they aren’t going to accept repeated over-runs, massive cost increases and something which doesn’t work properly at the end of it.
The main problem stems from the ever increasing turnover of senior Whitehall staff each of whom seek to make their mark by making changes not caring how much money is being wasted because, by the time it comes to light, they will have moved on to somewhere completely different.
Also because such mandarins are increasingly young with less and less experience of how the world works
In the old days when I first started as a systems engineer, government contracts were cost plus, there was no incentive to complete projects within timescales.
Less if the past tense please, the y are still ploughing ahead with it.
Search NHS Digital
Many years ago I worked for a systems company that won a prestigious contract to design a system for a nationalised company, in the end it was never completed because the contracting company kept moving the goalposts.
They have been trying ever since before the start of Tony Blairs first government and still are.
John Prescott tried to cancel it but only as a photoshoot Bonfire of the Quangos.
He failed after it was pointed out that breast cancer screening would come to a halt and GPs would not get paid since those features, and others, were already embedded in the system.
At one time the head of the main Japanese software supplier (well known Corporate name that I can’t recall offhand) resigned saying it was never going to work because the Government were using a chestnut to crack an anvil or something like that.
It has existed under various names over the years, currently being known as NHS Digital which is fair enough.
Mycare is based on individusl patients interactions with NHS healthcare providers irrespective of what systems are already in use and so is much less ambitious.
Is it me or is it always The Guardian that are first with these “must do something nowwwww!” stories. Twice in a row lockdowns were the headline story on their website, and now this “leak”. If you listen closely, you can almost hear heads exploding in Guardian offices.
It’s not you it’s the Guardian, and they will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.
Teachers around the country will be spending the weekend worrying about how to pronounce Respiratory Syncitial Virus to scare the children and each other on Monday.
Is it ‘Sink-ity-al’ or ‘Sin-city-al’ as I need to know how to pronounce it when I’m not giving a fuck.
They’ve got a week to practice. It’s half term!
. . . and it’s now in RED – DANGER!!!!! THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO END! This is the top of their site now at 12:49pm. Despicable rag.
“Chancellor rejects”
That’s a very brave decision Minister, as Sir Humphrey would say .
They are by no means the only member of the MSM which does this – but I agree they are one of the worst for it.
The lockdowns here in NSW have been canned and the other NPIs (masks, distancing) are being phased out. By December 1 there will be no restrictions and no distinction between vaccinated and un-vaccinated (ie no ‘vaccine passports’). The new NSW Premier is basically Ron DeSantis. This has put pressure on the other states to follow, and even in Victoriastan, Dictator Dan Andrews has suddenly canned his world record holding lockdown (although he wants to keep vaccine passports – he’s the ultimate control freak).
I’m amazed. I’ve got the sense that vaccine certification bullshit is an inevitability everywhere. But keep being surprised as they are shelved in various places. As a former Australian resident I’ve been gobsmacked by the reports I’ve heard coming from over there. Maybe common sense is returning?
Most of the awful stuff reported overseas as “in Australia” is actually “in Victoriastan”. It’s a bit like on-line friends overseas saying “are you OK?” when a giant typhoon in Australia gets reported on the international news. I say “Dude, that’s in northern Queensland, it’s over a thousand miles from me”
Got you. I lived in Perth and hear very little about covid lunacy in WA although I know there is some.
I am probably in good company here saying that the whole response has been insane (except in Sweden, Florida and some other places). But there are levels of insanity.
The lockdown mania does appear to be passing – in NSW and even, to some extent, in Victoria under the evil gnome – but plenty of Covid rubbish litters the place – from masks in many states to vaccine passports and No Jab No Job in others.
Daniel Andrews has vowed to keep unvaxxed Victorians cut off from society until “well and truly into 2022” and the state borders wil not be opened until vaxx rates hit at least 90%. With the support of the ‘Liberal’ opposition, his state Labor government has locked out politicians who refuse to hand over their vaccination information. Four members of the Legislative Council (the state’s Senate) are now unable to vote on any bills.
In WA, the McGowan Labor government has introduced No Jab No Job mandates which will affect 75% of the workforce including workers in supermarkets, pubs, restaurants, post offices, hardware stores, childcare, schools, bars, cafes, restaurants, bakeries, hardware stores, banks, petrol stations, public and commercial facilities, accommodation and construction. Employers who do not comply, will cop a 100,000 fines while employees face a $20,000 hit. In the event of future lockdowns, this group will be expanded to workers in bottle shops, newsagents, pet stores, wholesalers, critical conveyancing agents, government or local government services, vehicle, mechanical repair services, roadside assistance, forestry, primary industries, factories, manufacturing, fabrication and production, media, and members of Parliament and their staff.
Meanwhile, the federal government is introducing booster shots in November for aged care and health care workers (and those who refuse will not be ‘fully vaccinated’ and thus denied employment), with a population rollout for the whole population by the end of the year.
It’s one halting step forward (less lockown) and two back (The Jab and its Passport) for most Australian authorities at the moment.
Phil
Adelaide
And then there’s Canberra’s plan for a digital identity system. They’ve pushed it as far as they can before making it public. Phase 3 closes 5pm next Wednesday and if you haven’t told them you’re out by then, you’re in.
The good news is that a lot of us have been in touch to tell ScoMo where he can shove his digital identity system.
Fucking bastards have basically used the state government’s covid BS to keep our attention off this scheme. The vaccination that distracts a nation.
For such evil shits as this, hell cannot be too hot.
Hello from Perth! Are you sure you want to know about covid lunacy in WA?
Here goes…
https://gregoryno6.wordpress.com/2021/10/21/theres-a-story-behind-last-nights-meme/
During the 1970s and 80s I met three of my Australian cousins (NSW, grandchildren of £10 Poms) as they each in turn did the ‘visit the old country’ thing aged about 20.
They all exhibited the get on and do it individual attitude that we expect from Australians, each of them finding jobs here and excuses to extend their stay before returning home.
I remember spending an afternoon in scrapyards looking for a carburetor for the old banger one of them bought, followed by an evening exploring his notion that ‘are all whiskies the same, like bourbon?’.
I find it hard to believe that they have fallen for all the BS.
Good to hear. Domestic vaccine passports are an awful idea, even if they sound nice and fluffy on paper. They should also scare the vaccinated, since it means the government have total say on what goes into your body at any time in the future. No Boswalox shot? No QR code.
But can I self certify a Boswalox exemption?
Sorry, no. There’s no exemption from Boswalox.
I’m a vegan?
After November private businesses can continue to discriminate against the unvaccinated if they wish. This is on top of the numerous vaccine mandates in the workplace. NSW is nothing like Florida.
Businesses still discriminate against the un-vaccinated in Florida through Federal and local government mandates. Hopefully DeSantis will win that battle.
Which Federal mandates apply in Florida (apart from for Federal employees/Agencies)?
You said it. And local governments in some areas are mandating vaccinations, probably looking at bypassing the state government and getting support from the Feds. Leftists hate state government.
Every one of them. However De Santis is trying very hard to counter most. But national chain shops/supermarkets insist on their staff being masked ( some offer masks at their entrance, offer not mandate). Some cities have masks as necessary to access public transport. Some upmarket restaurants/bars insist their staff are masked. All federal buildings insist on masks being worn by staff and public. The federal/media indoctrination is incessant. Some counties, Orange, Broward, Miami-Dade have mask policies in schools.
Its much better than most european countries, but far from ‘normal’. Its patchy, some towns like Bradenton where we are , are almost normal, but just travel 10 miles south to Sarasota ( another ‘red’ city) and its more like Spain for instance.
Everywhere the population is about 40/40/20. 40% dependant on the state and will do as they are told; 40% the worried well, the people with cushy jobs happy to work from home; 20% resistant to the indoctrination.
A lot of Florida’s midddle 40% are OK with living semi-normal, but in some red areas as well as blue they act more like the same group in the UK for instance. These are generalisations, it depends on individual mentality and motivation.
For instance we are definitely in the last 20%, but 30 years ago with a heavy mortgage, working my way up the slippery pole career wise with 3 kids in school, I would be lying if I didn’t admit I would be in the middle 40%. And I am by nature a definite ‘non-conformist’.
I would add that vaccine mandates are non-existent in Florida as far as I can tell. As are certificates. But that is just inside Florida. International boundaries are determined by the Feds, and the real battle will be faught over the state boundary. Will Biden go for certificates for internal flights? Its unlikely he won’t try.
However , to date, he actually has not signed any executive orders about certificates, relying on the media to do his work for him. As soon as he does , De Santis and half a dozen other Governors have the legal challenges ready.
Thank you for that. I was aware of the three levels of government, Federal, State and County/City in the US but understood that Public Health was a States Rights issue. In the UK central government has the final say on almost all matters.
How national chain stores behave is their own business, although I believe there are some rights of access to utility outlets like food stores, but can a County/City overrule their State when it comes to mask/vaccine mandates or lack thereof?
They can overrule, but then face stiff penalties, fines that could bankrupt them. But its a fine line between punishing the county and its inhabitants. In 50% of Florida counties De Santis has this problem.
Where do the the large numbers of retirees in Florida sit on your 40/40/20 breakdown?
Some report here at DS that people in their area are still wearing masks outdoors but in my SW England city that is a rarity, at the moment. There is a public park at the end of my cul de sac street so perhaps the people passing by have more faith in fresh air for good health rather than lard arses sat at home watching Netflix and government propaganda.
National supermarkets ‘strongly advised’ their staff to wear masks shortly after their customers were supposedly mandated to do so but more and more of them claimed exemption well before the rules were relaxed.
Average age in Florida is the same if slightly lower than UK. Its a myth that its full of retirees. There are a lot of snow birds on vacation from Feb-April from the frozen north, but a lot of these are actually workers and family on 2 week vacations.
The retirees will be spread across all the groups like everywhere else.
I didn’t say that Florida was perfect. But life will almost certainly not be as good in NSW as you depict it. In particular there will be ongoing distinctions between vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Are you really free? Really? If so, I’m so happy for you!
“The lockdowns here in NSW have been canned and the other NPIs (masks, distancing) are being phased out. By December 1 there will be no restrictions and no distinction between vaccinated and un-vaccinated (ie no ‘vaccine passports’). The new NSW Premier is basically Ron DeSantis. This has put pressure on the other states to follow, and even in Victoriastan, Dictator Dan Andrews has suddenly canned his world record holding lockdown (although he wants to keep vaccine passports – he’s the ultimate control freak).”
“Lockdowns have been canned” It would seem only for fully injected.
“ Masks, distancing are being phased out” It would seem only for fully injected.
“By December 1there will be no restrictions and no distinction between vaccinated and unvaccinated (ie no ‘vaccine passports).”
December the 1st is 37 days away, we all know from experience that these people change the rules at the drop of a hat, so it is nothing like Florida and it is discrimination of the people who have decided not to be poisoned.
In case anyone believes that anything or everything is normal in NSW here is the rules from the government of NSW website.
https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/stay-safe/rules/not-fully-vaccinated
You have to give them their due how they play with words “not fully vaccinated”
I am genuinely interested in what is happening around the world and I expect misinformation from mainstream media but I don’t expect supposed sceptics to misinform because that is what this person is doing as the rules for the people who do not get poisoned are NOT being allowed to participate in society today and are in the same position the French are in.
As I said December 1st is over a month away and everything can change.
Thank you for providing the real/correct information!
I’m sorry if this sounds uncharitable but I think we’ve reached a point whereby the only thing that will convince the coviet union members of the errors of their beliefs is something catastrophic involving the jabbed and the mask devotees. I sort of wish it’d hurry up, I’m tired of Sage and Spi-B and two faced politicians.
Also, as far as I can tell, the vast majority of public sector workers actually believe the BS they’re fed all day at work, and their employers are using them to spread the fear since they’ll be considered semi-experts by their family and friends.
It’s tempting in a schadenfreude type way isn’t it. But may be the only thing that can save the 14% of us who are capable of critical thinking…
Is Faith, Hope, and Charity.
If anything disastrous happens to the jabbed it might include my nearest and dearest. Sorry but, no way can I share that cold-bloodedness
In what way is it cold blooded? Either people wake the fuck up, or the world is doomed to a new and permanent Dark Ages.
Not uncharitable at all, see my reply on DS item 23/11 about masks in school (comment #3 below article)..
It points to a hugotalks video (link provided by another reader) in which children at a school with 1,250 pupils have been wearing masks for two weeks. 30 are at home for testing positive but, this part ignored by sky news interviewer, a further 14 are off sick with negative side effects from the vaccine (vaccine uptake just 30% btw).
I remember being a stroppy schoolboy and hometime chat/Monday morning rumour mill would be far more about the deadly side effects of so called ”vaccine” rather than using an iffy flu to bunk off school.
I know what you mean and agree. Itś like wishing ill on someone but, as you say, something drastic has to give because the failure of the jabs is just being used to embark on 2020 The Sequel, as far as a second winter goes, and theyĺl never admit outright that the precious injections have not lived up to expectations. People like Shirley in the video above have gotten wise and I hope thatś an indication that others are also waking up to the reality that this has nothing to do with a virus, thereś another agenda going on, and they´ve been played. Maybe an ´awakening´ may happen by a sufficiently large amount of people to make non-compliance with any further restrictions impactful and send a message to the government that they are done with being manipulated. Hopefully any further restrictions will be the straw that breaks the camelś back!
“Calls for more restrictions are all too often based on a flawed understanding of what is really happening,” says so-and-so in the something-newspaper.
The man doth protest too little, methinks.
Remember those odd days when you fancied hopping work because you felt rough, perhaps from a hangover? It was awkward. You had to make that phone call in to work and speak to someone, maybe even the boss or a supervisor. Your voice would sound phoney because you’d overdo it despite practising the blag. Then once the call was over you couldn’t really relax because you knew you’d probably get looks the next work day. It was torture
Anyway, I believe my blag went something like, ‘I think I’m coming down with something. It could be the flu or a 48 hour thing.’ You’d almost invariably get an attitude of disbelief on the other end of the line.
Well, nowadays the likelihood is they’d be struck dumb with terror, you’d be told to stay away for at least ten days, they’d do their best to keep you away from the gaff for as long as possible, and you’d be on full pay.
I wonder how many herberts have taken advantage of the mass hysteria in this fashion.
The opposite being the insufferable idiots who make martyrs of themselves by coming into work coughing and spluttering their germs over everyone else.
What have they been doing these past 18 months?
This must be living hell for those people!
Awesome. There is a silver lining!
Off-Guardian makes a point that re-defining “fully vaccinated” to mean “double-jabbed plus booster” is a way authorities can reduce the numbers of deaths and hospitalizations attributed to the vaccinated, making the vaccines appear more effective than they are.
https://off-guardian.org/2021/10/23/cdc-director-we-may-need-to-update-our-definition-of-fully-vaccinated/
I’m double jabbed and have to renew my QR code passport monthly. I’m waiting to see if declining to be boosted results in them disabling that renewal.
They are also – here and in the US, routinely calling deaths, AEs and infections within 14 days of a jab impacts on the unvaccinated, because they do not define vaccinated until J+14 days.
Hundreds of thousands of people are involved in this conspiracy.
From the Roundup, Matthew Crawford in UnHerd talks about ‘The New Public Health Despotism’ and questions why he goes along with it all, mask wearing in particular, when he knows it is all pointless at best.
He seems to conclude that it is through fear of public condemnation.
The othe day I was watching Michael Palins travelogue Pole to Pole; in episode 3 he is in Leningrad trying to buy some vodka. Someone explains that first he must obtain a ‘kiewpon’ from the Casa Kiosk (I had witnessed similar in restaurants in Kiev and Odessa a decade previously).
Fortunately for Michael a passerby sells him a coupon (in the way that someone might illegally pass you a parking permit with some time left on) and nobody else batted an eyelid.
This might seem like a minor transgression but it actually struck at the heart of the Soviet system in which full employment was achieved by having three people to do one persons job.
Clearly a sign that the Soviet Union was on its last legs, nobody cared anymore; by the time Michael reached Turkey Mr. Gorbachev was being kidnapped in Crimea and the rest is history.
Ever tried getting an appointment to see a GP? Vodka in Leningrad circa 1990 sounds easy by comparison!
‘Austria considers lockdown . . . for unjabbed only’ Daily Mail
Large number of intelligent sceptic comments by readers who clearly get their information from sources other than the MSM.
As usual overwhelmingly hostile to the idea, I read through sixty ‘newest comments’ before coming across a supportive one (greatly ‘disliked’).
Several used the words House Arrest but none went on to say that no (uncorrupted) Court would allow that to stand.
The attached was clearly written as irony, it’s very funny and I wasn’t sure whether to like or dislike it. AJmademedoit take a bow.
AJ= Alex Jones.
Hello
Professor Stephen Powis, National Medical Director of NHS England sticks his oar in. Essentially it’s blackmail to ‘save Christmas’ by getting a booster. Getting a right roasting in the comments sections. Sorry that it’s behind a paywall but I believe that there are ways round it.
Get the booster jab to save Christmas, Britons urged as country faces Covid ‘crunch point’
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/23/get-booster-jab-save-christmas-britons-urged-country-faces-covid/?WT.mc_id=e_DM1510730&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_FAM_New_ES_Sun&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Edi_FAM_New_ES_Sun20211024&utm_campaign=DM1510730
Getting a booster jab is the key to ensuring we can all enjoy Christmas
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/23/getting-booster-jab-key-ensuring-can-enjoy-christmas/?WT.mc_id=e_DM1510730&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_FAM_New_ES_Sun&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Edi_FAM_New_ES_Sun20211024&utm_campaign=DM1510730
United Non Compliance.
The only answer to whatever they come up with.
Dr. Starling’s and Will Jones piece are the must reads and shares of today!
So, the vax passports timetable ticks on as it has always been planned to do, Dec 17th is the date I hears some time ago. Not ONE WORD we have been told in the past 20 months has been true. Twenty months of coordinated lies, a society halfway through being entirely reshaped, and 90% of the population dutifully obeying.
The only people I hate more than those imposing this on us (if indeed they are people) are those who comply without a second’s thought.
Husband still refusing to discuss any of this creeping totalitarianism – because we end up arguing.
I say, if he won’t speak out against it (in which case there would be no dispute between us) then he must support it. His silence speaks of assent. But am I being unfair?
No.
The unfortunate reality is that it’s not possible to be ‘neutral’ on this issue now (if it ever was) – the Covidians have all the power and are using it, so anyone not objecting is in practice supporting it.
How would you describe someone who ignores one way Pedestrian systems on the High Street, likewise the now discreet sanitizer stations in big stores and who used to take short cuts to avoid going all around the shop just to get to the counter but ostentatiously wears their mask and scowls at those who do not.
I see this all the time, it combines virtue signalling with contempt for the system in place, a bit like those who pretend to wash their hands after going to the loo.
I would not risk my relationship over Covid bollox if both of you are so certain of your positions. One day we will all look back and laugh about this.
Argue with a third party would be my advice.
(Other more qualified Agony Aunts are available).
The COVID shots and the vaccine passports fit into the CCP agenda by making the whole world accept and adopt the CCP’s social control system
Vaccine Passports Will Usher in a Social Credit System
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/10/24/li-meng-yan-covid-origin.aspx
If you take the covid vax, you can NEVER achieve full immunity again – government stats unveil the horrifying truth
https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-10-24-take-covid-vax-never-full-immunity-again.html
.
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/urgent-covid-vaccines-will-keep-you/comments
Remember this interview?
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/video/dr-david-bauer-interview-francis-crick-institute-gvs-news-footage/1325046154
Why is Mr Bauer upset?
Here is the damage limitation piece.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/sep/07/virologist-work-anti-vaxxers-covid
Having a booster to save Christmas only applies to the already double jabbed, the unjabbed don’t need and aren’t eligible for a booster and intend to have Christmas as normal. The jabbistas would do well to remember that.
https://twitter.com/BernieSpofforth/status/1452185731204591619
Vaccination passport app shares personal data of users with Amazon and Royal Mail
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/vaccination-passport-app-shares-personal-25285887
Video clip
https://twitter.com/BernieSpofforth/status/1452015522405658633
https://twitter.com/3milyhill/status/1451165032771956745
Green might be good but it’s a ruinous scandal that Boris lets his Silicon valley chums tell him how to spend billions of British taxpayers money
https://www.mailplus.co.uk/edition/comment/117471/green-might-be-good-but-its-a-ruinous-scandal-that-boris-lets-his-silicon-valley-chums-tell-him-how-to-spend-billions-of-british-taxpayers-money
Just read a piece on the anti trust lawsuit against Microsoft and the Explorer search engine some circa 30 years ago; Gates’ behaviour then was essentially the same as the cartel billionaires in the US in the early 1900’s which caused the Sherman Act to reach the US statute. His current mindset and modus operandi clearly had its roots long ago.
Like it or lump it, I think our only hope against future lockdowns, mandatory mask wearing, social distancing, etc is this present government
Having listened to the Labour shadow minister, don’t know her name because they all look and sound the same, parroting the same old,”same old” support of plan B (see “above”), on the Andrew Marr show this morning, I’m afraid that there is no alternative but to support the present administration.
This comment is from a man in his early 70’s who not so long ago would have rather cut his boll×cks off with a rusty hacksaw than go anywhere near anything conservative.
This is well worth a listen. RFK Jr is a hero.