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James Delingpole’s Report on Saturday’s Anti-Lockdown March

by Toby Young
22 March 2021 1:33 PM

There follows a guest post by James Delingpole, the Executive Editor of Breitbart London.

I don’t know how many people went on the Freedom March through London at the weekend, but it was definitely a lot more than the “hundreds” initially reported by the BBC and Sky [did they get Neil Ferguson to do their arithmetic?], and probably ran into the tens of thousands.

Professor Neil Ferguson estimated that their were 33 people at the protest march today in London 😂 pic.twitter.com/IZXYiTlx6m

— Sir Truth Seeker 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🚜🇳🇱🇵🇸 (@Truth_S_eeker) March 20, 2021

We gathered beforehand in small ‘bubble’-like groups in Hyde Park and tried to avoid the attentions of the large numbers of police who were trying to find an excuse to disperse us or arrest us. Someone said it felt like being in Occupied Europe during the war. Everyone was slightly tense, keyed up, knowing that the police have shown themselves to be much more brutal and unforgiving towards anti-lockdown protestors than they are with, say, Black Lives Matter or Extinction Rebellion mobs.

At a pre-arranged smoke signal – everything was organised on Telegram and announced at the last minute so as to keep the police guessing – we began to coalesce and marched out of the Marble Arch entrance, up Park Lane then right down Oxford Street.

It was, as always at these events, a good natured crowd. Only a minority, I’m guessing, had been ruined by a university education. These were people that we’d call ‘salt of the earth’ and Hillary Clinton would call ‘Deplorables’. There was a great deal more racial diversity than you’d find at a BLM or an XR rally.

As we weaved through the traffic on Park Lane which had been brought to a standstill I expected hostility from the trapped drivers. What we got, though, was solidarity – especially from the bus drivers. They beeped their horns and accepted fist bumps and flowers through the windows.

I joined London Mayoral candidate Laurence Fox, leader of the Reclaim Party, who got a lot of love from the crowd for his pro-freedom, anti-lockdown, open-up-London-immediately campaign ticket. We snaked with the long conga line the length of Oxford Street heading for Holborn, acutely conscious that any moment the Territorial Support Group vans circling us like hungry wolves could close off the side-streets and kettle us in for hours in order to inflict torture by boredom, claustrophobia and bursting bladder.

On this occasion, however, the police were mostly restrained. Some said it was because the crowd was simply too large to confront; others that the police were taking a softly-softly approach after criticisms that they had been too harsh at the previous weekend’s vigil for Sarah Everard. My own suspicion is that they would have welcomed some aggro in order to discredit the anti-lockdown cause (as the state is very keen to do) but that in the event they opted for the next best thing: denying it the oxygen of publicity.

The compliant media certainly helped here. How often do tens of thousands of people march through London’s main thoroughfares on a Saturday with barely a mention in the Sunday papers? I remember, for example, last year most of the Sundays devoting double-page spreads to the Black Lives Matter march – with huge photographs and swooning copy. But this march – in support of a far less politically tainted cause: quite simply an affirmation of people’s right to work and play free of government oppression – was ignored. Sad.

Stop Press: Read Laura Dodsworth’s account of being on the demo for Spiked.

Tags: Anti-Lockdown MarchLaurence FoxThe Right to Protest

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12 Comments
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Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
3 years ago

“If hospitals are ‘under pressure’, as was reported this week, then rather than telling sick people to stay away, promptly moving well people on would seem a good place to start.”

Probably, except that the government’s own definitions of what constitutes well and unwell mean that we are all unwell most of the time. And for the rest of the time we they demand that behave as if we are unwell. For the greater good.

Last edited 3 years ago by Boomer Bloke
29
0
Star
Star
3 years ago
Reply to  Boomer Bloke

It’s like an insane abusive marriage. They tell you to test, test, test until eventually you get a result that’s positive; to imagine that means you might have a killer illness; and then they tell you you’re an antisocial b***ard for doing exactly what you were told.

16
0
HelenaHancart
HelenaHancart
3 years ago

So, can’t get seen by a GP. Only go to A&E if you think you’re actually dying. MSM reporting record hospitalisations…of a lot of “well” people? So, why ARE they being retained in hospital? What is the real reason? My brain hurts too much these days to try to keep unravelling the lunacy of it all.

37
0
Liberty4UK
Liberty4UK
3 years ago
Reply to  HelenaHancart

Their messaging is so bad and fails to remember to speak to four groups of people:

  1. The worried well who think a minor graze is a death sentence
  2. The unworried extremely unwell whose motto is ‘soldier on till you drop.’ Also the head in the sand-ers.
  3. Those who don’t know whether or not they are dying.
  4. Those who have, or may have, broken bones, who are not at risk of dying, but should not be moved by any Tom, Dick, or Harry, lest they cause worse injury.
9
0
RW
RW
3 years ago
Reply to  HelenaHancart

That’s actually in even in excerpt: They’re COVID cases whose only health problem is a series of positive test results. Because of this, they probably can’t be discharged into care homes. Hence, a NHS boss has asked relatives if they might perhaps be willing to take them. Which they probably can’t because otherwise, they wouldn’t have been living in a care home prior to hospital admission.

The solution would seem to be stop treating Sars-CoV2 as the alien menace out of space, ie, stop general Sars-CoV2 testing.

7
0
caipirinha17
caipirinha17
3 years ago
Reply to  RW

Or those relatives are switched on enough to realise that if they take the person in after discharge, they’ll lose their care home place, funding, or both. Not to mention the issues they’ll have to deal with if they then test positive themselves, again preventing their elderly relative from going back to the care home.

3
0
MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago

Would the Government firing tens of thousands of people working in care homes for refusing to take the warp speed clot shot have anything to do with this?

The warp speed clot shot that is so effective that ‘Of the 87,775 patients in ward beds as of April 5th, around one in seven (16%, 14,487) had Covid, the highest proportion since February 17th.’

I would despair but I ran out of that emotion years ago.

31
0
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago

All the world is a hospital, and all the well and unwell merely players. They have their illnesses and their sicknesses, and one disease in its time plays many parts.

Sorry, Will.

Last edited 3 years ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
13
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Star
Star
3 years ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

“All the world is a hospital”…and look who works there (note for those who don’t already know: this is Nurse Ratched):

comment image

Last edited 3 years ago by Star
5
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GlassHalfFull
GlassHalfFull
3 years ago

The ward clerks who administer the discharges are probably at home because they tested positive but have no symptoms.

The NHS is a basket case.

24
-1
unmaskthetruth
unmaskthetruth
3 years ago

I think wearing masks all day has restricted oxygen to their brains and sent all the NHS staff loony tunes. Perhaps that was the intention after all.

18
-1
Francis64
Francis64
3 years ago
Reply to  unmaskthetruth

Family member continues to wear a mask even after three jabs – complains of headaches … I told them to ditch the mask but they won’t do it.

There is no helping some people.

23
0
caipirinha17
caipirinha17
3 years ago
Reply to  Francis64

Same here – ‘just in case’. It’s mostly a lucky talisman now.

3
0
DanClarke
DanClarke
3 years ago

Thought this was the plan, ‘hospital staff unable to cope, no beds available’

5
0
loopDloop
loopDloop
3 years ago

‘Act as if you have the virus’, said the government advertising billboards in 2020 and 2021. Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy right there. So the sick people are the ones walking around. Meanwhile the people in hospital are fit and healthy. Everyone down the supermarket: diseased, infectious, and riddled with sickness. Everyone in the wards: in tip-top health and on top of their game. Sounds about right. Bizarro world 2022.

Meanwhile the schools are designed to make our children stupid. The courts are designed to protect the guilty and blame the innocent. Slightly more pleasant weather is a catastrophe, and we need to embrace freezing winters without heating. Beautiful is ugly, ugly is beautiful, up is down and down is up.

28
0
DanClarke
DanClarke
3 years ago
Reply to  loopDloop

Makes a change from ‘Act as if you have a bad back’, I know 2 nurses who have done that for at least 4 years

3
0
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
3 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

I remember a policeman in his 20’s who was off work with a “bad back” for weeks and spent all that time working (underneath) on his caravan.

1
0
Star
Star
3 years ago

You know what it means when the authorities start declaring that hospitals are “clogged” with patients? That the idea has been put “out there”? Never mind that supposed “critics” can link it to completely accurate observations about the testdemic. That’s not the effing point.

A leading Scottish nurse back in March 2020 jumped for joy at the thought of a pandemic, saying it would kill loads of elderly bed blockers in care homes, not realising she was on tape. Murder, celebrated by “professionals” like herself, was apparently just like coming over all stern and ripping a plaster off. That’s what she said. Whoop whoop whoop. Watch the video.

Within a few weeks, tens of thousands of elderly people in care homes had been murdered.

This is not a joke. This is not a debating point. This is not graphs versus graphs.

This is how you change a culture – you turn the ratchet bit by bit, while introducing legislation to remove liability (also known as an “enabling” move) and telling local authorities to get ready for mass corpse disposal work (which puts them in the same seventh heaven as the aforementioned nursing professor).

Last edited 3 years ago by Star
14
0
Old Maid
Old Maid
3 years ago

What sort of ‘well’ person remains in hospital willingly?

This is a matter of definition. When the NHS says ‘well’ what they mean is there’s nothing more they can or want to do for them. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the person is able to go home and look after themselves.

12
0
Woodburner
Woodburner
3 years ago
Reply to  Old Maid

What sort of person remains in a hotbed of infection a minute longer than necessary?

5
0
caipirinha17
caipirinha17
3 years ago
Reply to  Woodburner

Someone who can’t afford to put the heating on at home or buy food. Also hospitals often won’t discharge unless the patient has someone to accompany them home, and many these days just don’t have anyone.

7
0
Lilacblue
Lilacblue
3 years ago

Significant numbers of patients coming into contact with covid +ve in hospital and then made to isolate there even though well.

5
0
oblong
oblong
3 years ago

Can’t people who are well just walk out. Why would anyone want to dwell in a hospital bed

6
0
John
John
3 years ago
Reply to  oblong

It’s not that simple, if a patient requires equipment at home or carers then that needs social services. If the patient was allowed to walk out and was readmitted within 48 hours then that is a failed discharge. The discharge destination has to be deemed safe. Technically any patient can leave at any time, particularly if they are to be discharged, and may suggest that relatives can look after them

9
0
John
John
3 years ago

This is not a new phenomenon. Bed blocking has always occurred during the winter. We regularly kept patients in A&E for hours waiting for beds.
When patients were ready to be discharged but required a care package in the community which was delayed there were specific regulations, cannot remember which exactly, we could invoke to push the process along, one was a section 5 which meant social services had 7 days to assess the patient and put any measures in place.

11
0
Effingham Hall
Effingham Hall
3 years ago

We can provide free accommodation to uninvited people who ferry themselves across the channel but can not for someone trapped in the hospitals.

12
-1
John
John
3 years ago

Patients may be medically fit for discharge. That is the medical view. However, physiotherapist and occupational therapist input is required, maybe requiring alterations to the house or the provision of a hospital bed at home. Then there’s community nursing involvement or hospice at home. Finally there’s the involvement of local authority or private arrangements to provide carers, up to four times a day.
Discharge is a multidisciplinary team effort.
Unless you’ve actually worked on a ward it is difficult to understand the actual complexities involved for what is apparently a simple process of Mrs Smith going home.

Last edited 3 years ago by John
7
0
MrTea
MrTea
3 years ago

If you are so decrepit and there is no one willing to look after you isn’t it time to stop coffin dodging?
I don’t want any money I have accrued during my life to be used up keeping me alive in some cabbagey smelling nursing home where I am surrounded by dementia patients.
I’d much rather have the option of punching out at the time of my choosing without it having to be a DIY job that may go hideously wrong.
The one thing the NHS is good at is killing people, why can’t this be a legitimate option?

10
-3
Lockdown Sceptic
Lockdown Sceptic
3 years ago

Global populist uprising is accelerating as people of the world reject tyranny
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by: Mike Adams

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Telegram http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell

3
0
Lister of Smeg
Lister of Smeg
3 years ago

According to one Telegraph reader (comment to be found on today’s [08/04/22] Letters Page in the BTL Comments area) it appears to becoming ‘standard practice’ for local authorities to null and void any OAP’s care plan as soon as they go into hospital for anything meaningful, and demand a ‘review’ to be held before they will ‘accept’ them ‘back’ and of course, delaying said review (the save money), hence the bed blocking.

Where is the outcry in the MSM? The only journo of note in the MSM I see picking this up is Alison Pearson of the DT, one of (sadly) a very small number of decent ones left at that paper.

Last edited 3 years ago by Lister of Smeg
8
0
NeilofWatford
NeilofWatford
3 years ago

Hattie Jaques would soon have this sorted.
Bring back matron.

7
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
3 years ago

Could it be that sacking all those care staff is having an effect on the amount who can go into care from a hospital?

6
0
Rogerborg
Rogerborg
3 years ago

Point of order.

“Only 5,178 of the 17,968 deemed medically fit on April 3rd were discharged.”

So, 12,790 fit people were not discharged, out of 87,775.

I make that 14.57%, not 16%.

0
0
Crissylis
Crissylis
3 years ago

Bed blocking? Never heard of it.

1
0
eyesee
eyesee
3 years ago

9 year old family member has very strange surges in heartbeat. Suddenly 180, then instantly dropped to 28. That kind of thing. Doctors want to capture an event on an ECG. Fair enough. Except they can’t find an ECG that he can wear constantly at home. So today, an ambulance was called after an event to see if they can capture the event. They want him admitted so that he can be put on an ECG.

That’s an ambulance deployed and a bed taken up, for diagnostic purposes only, because the NHS, despite even the John Radcliffe asking for one urgently, can’t find a portable ECG for a child with a heart issue.

5
0
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
3 years ago
Reply to  eyesee

Get a fitness watch with ECG next day delivery online.

It’s probably more accurate than NHS tat.

0
0
John
John
3 years ago
Reply to  TheyLiveAndWeLockdown

Probably doesn’t work on a paediatric patient. Is John Radcliffe a paediatric cardiac centre?
I know Birmingham childrens hospital covers the West Midlands and Leicester Royal Infirmary provides paediatric coronary services covers the East Midlands, Papworth for the Eastern region and Great Ormond Street in London. If the Radcliffe doesn’t provide paediatric services then they won’t have access to an appropriate cardiac monitor, but they could have contacted Birmingham or Leicester or one of the other centres that do provide childrens services.

3
0
Judy Watson
Judy Watson
3 years ago
Reply to  eyesee

That is disgraceful
When I was in general practice we had a 24hour ecg machine that the patient wore.

A valuble diagnostic tool. Note -I retired from general practice ten years ago so what the hell has happened?

1
0
Bobby Lobster
Bobby Lobster
3 years ago

They have finally got to the stage that OUR NHS wants more patients, to prove that they are useful.

Defund the NHS, covid was a lie!

3
0
James Kreis
James Kreis
3 years ago

If previous governments hadn’t closed all the convalescence homes then hospital wards would not be clogged up. In the early seventies I spent 5 days in hospital after an operation then a further 4 weeks in a convalescence home with daily physiotherapy and occupational therapy before being discharged. The system worked very well.

5
0
John
John
3 years ago
Reply to  James Kreis

The community hospitals which acted as step down facilities have been closed down as well. Our community hospital had three sub acute medical wards plus one psychiatric ward, we now have one ward.

6
0
cloud6
cloud6
3 years ago

This has been going on for yonks, nothing new here…

1
0
marebobowl
marebobowl
3 years ago

Why is every single person we know right now infected with covid? Why is taking up to 11days for them to test negative? Why just two weeks ago were 90% of pts in hospital and dying infected with covid. All either double or triple jabbed. Why has the UKHSA stopped their weekly counts. Simply because they know the vaccines do not work and they are causing serious adverse events and deaths. How horribly sad is this?

2
0

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