A senior research scientist for a pharmaceutical company (who wishes to remain anonymous) writes with his thoughts on where we are now.
1. Assumed solutions
As someone who has spent a career in drug R&D, the thing that led me to lockdown scepticism was the realisation that we had moved from evidence-based medicine to one of “assumed effectiveness”. This is where we are today. Lockdowns (and mask wearing) are assumed to work and all arguments as to the effectiveness start from this point. This means that the “evidence for” is constantly overplayed whilst any “evidence against” is dismissed or explained away. This is why the Swedish or Floridian approach needs to be better than lockdown, it is not simply good enough that it had similar outcomes for a lower price. From a medical intervention perspective this is simply lunacy; why would you give your patient a drug with more side effects than an equally effective one with fewer?
The most striking moment to me as a scientist was when Whitty and Vallance stood in front of a graph they knew to be wrong in order to justify going into the second lockdown. This was the point they lost any shred of credibility.
The real tragedy is that as a result of assumed effectiveness of lockdowns, Government thinking has never moved on and we have learned nothing. What is there to learn when you already have the best solution to the problem?
2. A disease with no symptoms
The dictionary definition of a disease is: a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that produces specific symptoms or that affects a specific location and is not simply a direct result of physical injury. To have a disease is to be ill, yet the most striking feature of COVID-19 is that apparently one in three people can have this disease but be perfectly healthy or, to use the new vernacular, asymptomatic. Perhaps most of us also have an asymptomatic broken leg too?
3. The Fallen
Lockdowns kill, hurt and maim people. This was captured brilliantly in the “For The Fallen” piece at the start of the year, as it brought home the human misery of lockdowns. The trouble is that none of our leaders seem to care; their world is Covid and Covid is their world. The collateral damage caused by lockdowns is huge both to our health and wealth, and the harm caused will almost certainly end up dwarfing any potential benefits the intervention had on Covid-related mortality. We will have killed the patient to save him.
4. Throwing our young people under the bus
What we have done to our young people in the name of saving lives is scandalous. This is a “trivial disease” to those under 25 and yet they have been asked to shoulder the biggest burden of lockdowns. They have also been shamefully scapegoated. How many lives has lockdown destroyed almost before they have even really started? I am surprised that they have been so tolerant of this (so far), but can only put it down to them being genuinely fearful. As a parent I have seen the impact of this first-hand and I will never forget or forgive the people who have done this.
5. Media sophistry
Because the damage caused by lockdowns is plainly evident to everyone, the only way we can live with it is by employing doublethink i.e., blame the misery on “the virus” or “the disease” or “the pandemic”. No, let’s be clear, the damage to society is due to policy, not a short strand of RNA covered in some proteins and lipids. Of course, the most vocal advocates of lockdowns are often those who are also crying into their decaf, soya lattes about the terrible cost of the “pandemic” to society and the vulnerable.
6. Life in the Virocracy
I’ve come to the opinion that life in the UK today must be a bit like life in Iran under the ayatollahs. We have the religious council (SAGE) who set policy and a compliant government who then enact it. The population is then divided into three basic groups: there are the heretics who need to be suppressed at all costs in case they undermine the authority of the religious council. Then there are the true believers who are given voice to continue to spread the “Good Word”. And finally, there is everyone else, who just do their best to muddle through the lunacy by paying lip service to the required strictures of life, but are quietly getting on with it. Lockdowns have turned many people into lawbreakers as the only real way to survive.
Stop Press: A Lockdown Sceptics reader came across the entry for totalitarianism in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is scarily apt for our new “virocracy”:
The totalitarian state pursues some special goal, such as industrialisation or conquest, to the exclusion of all others. All resources are directed toward its attainment, regardless of the cost. Whatever might further the goal is supported; whatever might foil the goal is rejected. This obsession spawns an ideology that explains everything in terms of the goal, rationalising all obstacles that may arise and all forces that may contend with the state. The resulting popular support permits the state the widest latitude of action of any form of government. Any dissent is branded evil, and internal political differences are not permitted. Because pursuit of the goal is the only ideological foundation for the totalitarian state, achievement of the goal can never be acknowledged.
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Worth remembering that China’s WHO have already changed their definition of a pandemic, without which the “covid ‘pandemic’ ” would never have qualified.
A bit worrying if Gates and the CCP have power to define something as a “pandemic” or “health emergency” whenever it suits them.
Guess what?
Monkeys; such selfish lovers.
From the WHO:
“Multi-country monkeypox outbreak in non-endemic countries“.
Comments
On 2), at the moment the WHO is only saying this:
That seems a bit “low tech”, no?
Then there is this:
Boris Johnson reveals No. 10 is ‘keeping an eye’ on monkeypox”
translation – lockdown in 6 months,
would not surprise me if these jabs are knackering the immune system and now its getting all sorts.
Skilled as he is in “monkey business”, especially in regard to simian-like copulation, Johnson is eminently qualified to “keep an eye on monkeypox”. Voyeurism in the Monkey House that is 10, Downing Street.
So no AdultPartygate likely, or…
Aljazeera 20 May 22
“I’m stunned by this,” said Oyewale Tomori, a virologist who formerly headed the Nigerian Academy of Science and who sits on several WHO advisory boards. “Every day I wake up and there are more countries infected. This is not the kind of spread we’ve seen in West Africa, so there may be something new happening in the West.”
Go figure, as they say.
Yes – the reported cases of monkeypox in multiple countries is reminiscent of what happened with reported SARSCoV2 cases. With SARSCoV2 it was as if somebody was trying to make the number of countries as large as possible, as fast as possible. Tiny territories such as San Marino and the Vatican got on the list very early on.
(Now there’s an interesting job for a keen statistician who is also a sceptic! What level of significance was reached?)
From that Daily Mail article::
Might the authorities make vaccination compulsory for contacts of known cases?
If that’s being planned for, then there may already be signs of it in the way monkeypox is being written about in the gay media and on the most important gay socialising sites online (where I’m sure the 77th are active, just as they are on Mumsnet etc.)
Let’s just remind ourselves here that this assertion, that Russia is blockading merchant ships in Ukrainian ports, is an outright, intentional black propaganda lie.
Russia has maintained a safe passage open for merchant ships, and it is the Ukrainians who have mined their own ports who have made it impossible for grain ships to leave:
No, The Ukraine War Has Not Stoked A Global Food Crisis.
Those among the anti-Russian warmongers here promoting confrontation of Russia (including the management) who are honestly just dupes who actually believe all the nonsense they’ve been told about Russia for decades in order to manipulate them into precisely the position they are in right now, of supporting a lunatic, self-destructive policy of all out confrontation, should contemplate the incontrovertible fact that this is a lie, and also how near universal it is in the US sphere mainstream media, and how many authority figures are repeating it.
That’s how you have been so successfully duped into believing falsehood.
As so often, it is not what you don’t know that gets you, but what “everyone knows” that is untrue.
I wonder what could have been done to reduce tensions after the events of 2014, and to prepare for the consequences of any possible escalation?
Certainly, far too little attention has been paid by the world’s media to the long-running war in the Donbass since 2014 (a war which rather gave the lie to the EU’s claim to be bringing peace to Europe in 2016). Do these Davos politicians really just assume that there won’t be any “black swan” events? Or do they even care?
“I wonder what could have been done to reduce tensions after the events of 2014“
It was easy, but it was impossible.
It was easy, because all that was needed was for the Ukrainian regime to treat its Russian-speaking population with basic decency, and accept reality over Crimea and NATO membership with good grace, and their whole future would have been immeasurably better, and there would have been no war.
Impossible, because it’s easy to whip up jingoistic fervour and provoke violence in a divided country, and it’s hard to resist those who do so. Outright impossible to resist them when they have the active interventionist backing of the world’s superpower and the greatest propaganda machine the world has ever seen.
Yes. I was thinking more of what EU and NATO countries may have done to make the situation worse since 2014. Was there ever any possibility that any of them could have done other than what they did? Some Trump supporters have suggested that the current escalation would not have happened with him as president. What about other leaders and their failures relating to this situation? Obviously the EU helped stir things up in 2014? What would have been the sensible thing for EU countries and the five EU presidents to have done when it became clear that people in the Donbass would not accept what the new regime was doing after the coup? How far was this new regime encouraged (or coerced) by some of these EU and NATO countries? How bad was the situation with bio-labs in the Ukraine?
The only reason the Poroshenko and Zelensky were able to enact the policies they did was active support from the US and from the EU. All the EU and US needed to do was make clear that economic support and cooperation would be withdrawn if the policies weren’t changed, and they would have been changed.
Blessed are the peacemakers, of which there are almost none at all in this corrupt old nation of ours.
I don’t go along with the Nazi Germany nuttiness of the left over flags fro the Jubilee, but I am sad that our nation has descended to such a level that it can promote a war that might end in the extinction of our species.
“a war that might end in the extinction of our species.”
“I’d like to share a revelation that I’ve had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you’re not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You’re a plague and we are the cure.”
Who are you quoting, some character from The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone or your mate, the would-be actor and barista, Korhonen?
That’s a line from the hugely overrated film The Matrix, which took the ancient science fiction trope of “could it be we are just living in a simulation of the world?” and reworked it to impress semi-bright people around the world who hadn’t encountered it before, or who were just easily impressed. Classic US film industry.
Thanks Mark.
380 trillion viruses are estimated to live in or on the human body. Mostly symbiotically. A few more than humans on Earth. Bad analogy from an overrated movie.
You know, you really shouldn’t have read that daft Dawkins book…
Sputnik News, Russia Today, and Pravda = ‘not’ propaganda.
I would say perhaps secession referendums under UN supervision. They would be insulting to Donbass residents insofar as they have already voted in legitimate referendums and the wishes of the large majority are very clear – but if such re-runs could have been promised and agreed as a condition for stopping the war at any time since 2014 then I doubt many would mind being slightly insulted in this way.
Important developments included:
Let’s just remind ourselves here that this assertion, that Russia is blockading merchant ships in Ukrainian ports, is an outright, intentional black propaganda lie.
Russia has maintained a safe passage open for merchant ships, and it is the Ukrainians who have mined their own ports who have made it impossible for grain ships to leave.
it’s a lie they keep repeating. I’ve seen lies – outright and intentional – repeated before, but nothing like what we’ve seen over the last couple of years. It’s on a scale to make Goebbels either blush or swell with pride.
And what the hell is Toby doing, with all due respect (I both respect and am grateful for his work), inviting Ian Rons to return with more of his demonstrable nonsense? Free speech for whom? Is Rons sceptical? No – he is a voice urging us not to be sceptical of official narratives that don’t even make sense on their own terms, but to swallow them: hook, line and sinker.
Do the exponents of wokery get invitations to spout their nonsense here, or are they rightly consigned to the news round-ups – which offer us both authorised versions and sceptical criticism?
“And what the hell is Toby doing, with all due respect (I both respect and am grateful for his work), inviting Ian Rons to return with more of his demonstrable nonsense? Free speech for whom? Is Rons sceptical? No – he is a voice urging us not to be sceptical of official narratives that don’t even make sense on their own terms, but to swallow them: hook, line and sinker.
Do the exponents of wokery get invitations to spout their nonsense here, or are they rightly consigned to the news round-ups – which offer us both authorised versions and sceptical criticism?”
Young and Rons are both (as far as I can tell) genuine dupes for the neocons and interventionists. Most likely because they are unable to separate today’s reality from that of the Cold War they grew up in, and the lies they’ve swallowed for decades have come from sources they can’t help but respect and trust, cloaked in seeming attitudes they can’t help but fall for (jingoism pretending to be patriotism, supposed support for liberty and democracy, robust “standing up to” supposed “bullies”, etc).
That’s why they push the anti-Russia Official Truth here (which they believe in), but don’t push the covid/climate alarmist/woke nonsense, that they are not personally duped by.
On balance it seems reasonable that they run the site that way, imo, so long as they stick to free speech principles btl and continue to post plenty of the sceptical stuff on the Ukraine issue as well.
There is a long tradition of regarding Russians as some sort of barbarians, corrupted by their interactions with Asia and threatening “real” Europeans.
Intelligent and well-read people need to have some awareness of that and bear it in mind when they consider their reactions to certain stories. The same is true of any story we’ve been encouraged to believe as children. Reasonable adults understand the potency and try to factor it into their analyses.
I know why they push the “anti-Russia Official Truth”. I’m disappointed that they don’t apply their scepticism to it with appropriate rigour. This is a story that has immense significance. It’s not a matter of which football team you support.
Anybody who has not availed themselves of some Russian literature – at least – should consider their education incomplete.
I think this was once widely understood. Something has gone very wrong in the US sphere (for want of a better term) in the last few decades: morally, culturally and intellectually.
We have stupid, vicious fights about pronouns and gender; and completely ignore huge political and economic issues before our very eyes.
I’ve been to the USA eight times and liked what I saw. I went to Russia once and have no desire to go back, ever. Awful – grey – dull – depressing – frightening – slums – and you don’t know if they will let you out again.
I bet most of the ‘Russian supporters’ on here have never been to Russia.
So there are no slums in the USA? Or inner city gangs? No drug addicts in tent cities (San Francisco for instance)? It makes you wonder why Julian Assange is so reluctant to be extradited to that sun-drenched land of the free.
Those of us who have been to both, and seen a bit of the world, know that you cannot get any honest impression of a significant country from the odd visit.
I remember travelling on the New York subway in the 1970s and being rather unimpressed, and I recall a trope a few years back showing pictures of Detroit and of third world African streets and asking people to try to say which looked worse.
And more recently:
PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN IN PHILADELPHIA
Russia at least has the excuse of its C20th experience to justify relative poverty. The US has been, potentially or actually, the richest nation in the world since the colonists took over an entire almost unexploited continent, and the world’s most powerful state by far for half a century.
What’s their excuse?
Where did you go? I’ve lived in St Petersburg, Moscow, Zelenograd and Yaroslavl and visited dozens of other places while I was there.
I came back in 2004, before the economic recovery had really taken off for a lot of the country, so when I was there, most places were still in need of a long overdue lick of paint. However, Novgorod on a bright winter’s day is one the most beautiful places I have ever been.
I felt an awful lot safer in Moscow than I would feel in London. I’m sorry you had such an unpleasant time there. It really isn’t that bad. Here’s a picture of a pond just round the corner from my old flat on Skolkovskoye Shosse in Moscow. Nice, isn’t it?
And their music…
Now explain how ‘communists’ turn into ‘oligarchs’ by ‘being nice to others and not barbarians at all’.
A few days down a Siberian lead mine would soon change attitudes on here!
A few years living under a downtown flyover because your house was repossessed after the 2008 subprime thing wouldn’t, though?
“Young and Rons are both (as far as I can tell) genuine dupes for the neocons and interventionists.”
It seems that even the quote from Goebbels (“If you tell a lie often enough people will believe it’s the truth”) is falsely attributed. Goebbels preferred to base his propaganda on truths, and accused the English of “telling a big lie and sticking to it.”
Plus ça change…
My first encounter with a primary source expressing the “big lie” theory as generally quoted was in Mein Kampf (1925), where Hitler said the following (as translated by James Murphy, who published the first English translation in 1939):
All this was inspired by the principle – which is quite true within itself – that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.
I thought it was a very shrewd observation – unpleasant but shrewd; and wondered (like many others) whether it was the result of discussions with the extremely shrewd Goebbels, whom he had met by then.
Like all clever propagandists, GoebbeIs used his version of the truth (factually correct, but highly selective) where it suited him.
Like all fervent ideologues, he was not above using outright falsehoods when he believed they would suit his purpose and he would get away with it. As more and more of his opponents ended up in concentration camps, that became easier.
Your argument seems no different to those of the campus bullies deplatforming invited speakers at university meetings.
If a collection of (presumed) sceptics need protection against other people’s pronouncements, what’s the point of being a sceptic?
As per the campus activity, surely the only way forward is to engage and argue, not to protest about the inclusion of alternative views?
In fairness to AE (and many others who’ve made the point), there is a valid argument that the whole point of a sceptical publication is to be sceptical of mainstream narratives that dominate the mainstream media, not to reinforce what is already constantly shouted at us in our daily life.
The place for engagement and argument is surely below the line, with robust free speech policies in place.
For what it’s worth, I agree with your implicit position here, that there’s a place for some exposition of the mainstream narratives, or critiques of sceptical positions, atl, but the other position is a valid argument and suggests such should be limited.
So you want to censor what I may read.
You assume I read/hear MSM or social media – I avoid it.
That’s a reasonable point. But the views espoused by Rons are not short of platforms, in universities or anywhere else.
I have no objection at all to his being invited to contribute. But I am asking questions about the fact that he has been invited to return, with more to say in support of an official narrative, when there are so many literate and well-informed sceptical voices who don’t get invited to a platform for “Daily Sceptics” at all.
Above-the-line articles are privileged positions on this platform. It would be interesting to see more of the sceptical views that are constantly de-platformed elsewhere.
I don’t think people here need protection against anybody’s view; and I meant what I said about my respect and gratitude for what is provided here.
On this occasion (the only one with which I have raised any issues), we have a set of views from someone who has not only already been included, but who is expressing opinions which have an immense variety of platforms from which they are espoused daily. I would like to see more alternative views included – of any description.
The way forward is not only to engage and argue – it’s to engage and argue with as wide a range of alternative views as possible.
So you only want your bias confirmed.
I think you miss the point, it is not the authors who are supposed to be sceptical, it is the readership.
If not, we would read only the views of or approved by the editorial team, so we would end up just like readers of the MSM, with not outside views, infirmation with which to compare.
The purpose of this site is to allow a variety of views and Toby et al do us the courtesy of giving us the opportunity to decide for ourselves, unlike in the MSM or social media.
Will you next complain that Toby should not allow comments from those who are not sceptical or sceptical enough?
Just as with the virus.
Why is Russia asking for a review of sanctions in return for lifting the blockade if there is no blockade?
How did 3 ships loaded in Crimea with a reported 0.5 million tons of grain become embroiled in a political theater, being turned away from multiple ports in the Med, if there is a blockade?
Could it be because Crimea is under Russian control?
so it’s not blockaded then
No Russia are not blockading their own ports!
Sensible!
Unlike the Ukrainians, apparently, who panicked and mined their own ports.
If you don’t have a navy, the enemy is blockading your merchant shipping, and there is a risk of sea-born invasion it is hardly panic to mine your ports.
It arguably is, if it halts your own exports. I doubt the Russians were going to sail straight in, in the teeth of modern anti-ship ordnance.
Regardless, justified or not that’s clearly what they did (blockaded their own ports).
As far as I can tell that ancillary lie comes from a clearly intentional misrepresentation of comments made by Russian authorities, who were talking about the contribution of the wider sanctions to the world hunger problems:
“Interfax quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko as saying: “You have to not only appeal to the Russian Federation but also look deeply at the whole complex of reasons that caused the current food crisis and, in the first instance, these are the sanctions that have been imposed against Russia by the U.S. and the EU that interfere with normal free trade, encompassing food products including wheat, fertilisers and others.””
Moscow says opening Ukraine ports would need review of sanctions on Russia – Interfax
Despite all the intentionally mendacious headlines and misleading stories, I haven’t been able to find any actual quoted example of a Russian government representative saying what is attributed to them.
But there are plenty of examples of them saying the exact opposite – that civilian merchant ships are and have always been free to leave Ukrainian ports as far as they are concerned:
“The Russian Embassy noted that its naval vessels are ensuring the commercial ships’ freedom of movement through a safe humanitarian corridor that has been operating daily since March 25, but it accused Ukrainian authorities of preventing ships from leaving the ports.”
Russia, Ukraine trade barbs over obstruction of wheat shipments to Egypt
This doesn’t make sense. I cannot believe that the UN secretary general is publicly calling on Russia to relax its blockade if the blockade doesn’t exist. It would be interesting to read an informed and detailed discussion of the issues. I suspect the Russia humanitarian corridor is only to do with allowing neutral merchant ships, that were stranded by the war in Ukrainian ports, to escape. I am not sure that large scale exporting of Ukrainian grain is included. Also, the Russian threat to Ukraine may mean that Ukraine dare not clear mines – either because they are essential for defence (not sure how effective group to ship missiles are – or how many they have left) or because the mine sweepers would be too much at risk.
Agreed. It is Ukraine that blocked the ports and mined the Black Sea.
The other distraction is that “the breadbasket of Europe” in reality includes Russia and some of its its allies, not just Ukraine – whiose exports have been blockaded by the West in the form of sanctions.
Not to mention that food shortages were in the pipeline from the combined effects of years of printing money catching up with the world economy, and the waste and disruption caused by COVID policies.
Sri Lanka, of course, the first really hard-hit nation, suffered also from ill-advised green policies. Ukraine has virtually nothing to do with that country’s severe food shortage.
“Not to mention that food shortages were in the pipeline from the combined effects of years of printing money catching up with the world economy, and the waste and disruption caused by COVID policies.”
Absolutely (though you missed out the contribution of green dogma):
Here’s the Dreizin Report last November/December pointing out that a famine year was already baked in for 2022:
The Famine Year Approaches
“(though you missed out the contribution of green dogma)“
My apologies, I missed that you’d covered that in relation to Ceylon’s policies.
And as someone has pointed out, those trains carrying weapons from Poland into the Ukraine could return loaded with grain instead of returning empty.
Can I add the prevention of the UK (and other countries) from becoming self-sufficient in food as a crime against humanity? Where is the modern equivalent of “dig for victory”? Is it true that some farmers are still being told to produce less food?
To be fair to the Telegraph, they did have a report on people going hungry in Kenya some while back, but there hasn’t bee nealy enough in the media about the suffering caused by lockdowns in places like Kenya and Madagascar (or Britain for that matter). The tragedy is that these things could easily have been avoided, and I hope that those responsible will eventually be held to account.
“Is it true that some farmers are still being told to produce less food?”
Yes. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/a-summary-of-the-sfi-in-2022
Can I add the prevention of the UK (and other countries) from becoming self-sufficient in food as a crime against humanity?
And I would like to point out that the EU as a whole is self-sufficient – shame we can’t benefit from that.
They refuse to sell food to non-EU members?
I know my Spanish lemons are old, but they’re not that old.
Of course the sell food to us – but if there is a severe shortage then they are going to be a lot better off than we are.
Perhaps we shouldn’t have had 25 years of mass immigration.
Would have kept our emissions down as well.
Except that the agriculture sector we do have is highly reliant on immigrant labour – particularly from the EU.
What proportion of the millions who have settled here over the past 25 years are agricultural workers?
And one huge effect I noticed after Poles were allowed to work here is that lots of Portuguese businesses in the Fens disappeared.
I should hope it is, we’ve certainly put enough into French farming…
I guess it just shows how effective fear propaganda can be. I wonder what will happen when it gets back to global cooling…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61537610
“Gene-edited tomatoes could soon be sold in England”
Would that perchance mean GMO?
In January a government consultation closed on “Applications for nine genetically modified organisms for food and feed uses”:
https://www.food.gov.uk/news-alerts/consultations/applications-for-nine-genetically-modified-organisms-for-food-and-feed-uses
The outcome can be viewed in a pdf at the above link. It seems “stakeholders'” reservations were not considered to raise issues of relevance or substance sufficient to be an impediment to implementation.
Can you still get non-GM humans for transfusions?
If they started mRNA-vaxxing our tomatoes, would they even tell us?
I was interested to hear, by chance, that GM food is apparently banned in Russia:
WHY Sanctions have FAILED against RUSSIA – Inside Russia Report
(Not the heavyweight analysis the title might suggest, just a bit of reportage chat, but interesting notwithstanding.
Yes – I found that interesting, too. It led me to this from TASS:
1 SEP 2021: Broad use of GM food in Russia premature, Putin says
Russian president stressed that there were no restrictions in working in this area for scientific purposes
VLADIVOSTOK, August 31. /TASS/. The widespread use of genetically modified (GM) food in Russia is still premature, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday at a meeting with schoolchildren during his trip to the Far East.
“We indeed have a law that limits the use of genetically modified food so that it does not appear on the table. At the same time, there are no restrictions in working in this area for scientific purposes,” the head of state said.
“The issue of using genetically modified food is indeed very complicated and specialists believe it is not yet ready for broad use, like in the United States, for example, where pulse crops, soybeans and corn are grown in huge quantities, then used to feed the cattle, and then meat enters sales channels,” Putin noted.
Russia banned the planting of genetically modified plants and the import of genetically modified seeds from July 4, 2016.
Woe betide the journalist who tries to interview Nick Clegg…
Though I must admit I’m rather keen on some dead white women. My favourite pem (The Old Armchair, by Eliza Cook) is by a woman. One of very few poems that have really moved me.
The Old Arm-Chair by Eliza Cook – Poems | Academy of American Poets
And to think what has been done to old people like the one in the poem these past two years…
“I’m rather keen on some dead white women“
I prefer them alive, myself, but de gustibus non est disputandum…
Drop Shakespeare from the curriculum – about bloody time. I was subjected to it at school over 50 years age and it was so bloody boring. I hated it.
Well, you don’t have to read it or go to the plays.
If we dropped something from the curriculum because somebody found it boring, we would have no science teaching at all.
Then we’d have even more people who are incapable of understanding what they are being told (and sold) about a virus or climate change, or any number of matters which affect our lives.
I disagree. What relevance does Shakespeare have in modern world?
Science history geography yes. Shakespeare no.
Btw I read extensively both fact and fiction. But Shakespeare absolutely not
Well reading Shakespeare might help you to improve your writing skills. As for the Bard’s relevance “in modern world” [sic] “Things deemed unlikely, e’en impossible, experience oft hath proved to be true.”
You don’t have to agree, of course (the down-tick is not mine) – but there are people who find Shakespeare illuminating with regard to human nature and the problems of being human, and who find his language immensely moving and inspiringly beautiful.
I didn’t make an argument with regard to relevance, by the way. My argument was that finding something boring does not constitute a good reason for deciding that it should be dropped from the curriculum.
Maybe they can just ban flirting and be done with it? I suppose it might help their depopulation agenda…
As does the transphilia insanity.
Pleased to report that wolf whistles were alive and well on Friday when we went swimming in the river here in North Yorkshire.
Needless to say, they were directed not at me, but at the better half. And she rather enjoyed it.
There’s no evidence Peking wants to use force against Taiwan, and plenty of evidence and reasons to believe it does not.
But China absolutely will use force if the US interferes in ways that change the status quo, by giving formal recognition to a separate Chinese state or by taking steps to make it potentially militarily or diplomatically capable of declaring itself such.
That’s a clear and stated red line for China, just as the NATO-isation of the Ukraine was a clear and stated red line for Russia, and recognised as such by most of the US’s most senior professionals.
There will be war in Taiwan if the US does ether of the aforementioned, have no doubt, just as NATO-isation of the Ukraine led to war with Russia.
Unlike Russia, modern China has few redeeming features as a state, and also unlike Russia it is sufficiently powerful to be a real threat and rival to the US sphere. Arguments can certainly be made for confrontation of China without being inherently juvenile, as they are when made in relation to Russia.
But make no mistake, war with China, win or lose, with or without a catastrophic escalation to nuclear exchanges, means the end of the economic and political world we have all grown up and lived our lives in.
Think long and hard about that, and then take your inner neocon behind the bar and introduce it to both barrels.
I’ve heard the recent speculation that the US is about to abandon the regime change project in Russia for the sake of a fight with China.
Those contemplating any such notion must be clinically insane.
Their absurd policies, with regard to foreign reserves for instance, are creating allies for Russia and China; their repeated and cynical abandonment of those they claim to support is arousing more and more suspicion – in peoples if not in their hireling leaders.
Pah, everyone wants to shift from Russia to China. Real men want to take both on at once.
“While still wrangling over how to overthrow Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration is already looking for other targets. President Bush has called for the ouster of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. Now some within the administration–and allies at D.C. think tanks–are eying Iran and even Saudi Arabia. As one senior British official put it: “Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran.““
[Bold added]
August 2002
https://www.newsweek.com/periscope-144087
Thanks for that – gave me my first good laugh for the evening (as it is here). What a bunch of wimps.
First piece on the Roundup –
“Speaking in London Monday”
Where’s London Monday?
Somewhere near Sheffield Wednesday?
You’ve just won the Internet, Hugh.
Off the posts?
“Is this Wembley?”
“No, it’s Thursday.”
“So am I – let’s have a pint.”
The punchline should be “let’s have another drink/pint” (suggesting that they were both inebriated to start with).
Quite right… but can you remember the comedy duo who originated the routine (I can’t – from my father’s time)?
Sounds like The Two Ronnies kind of thing to me.
Yep: they keep trying to preposition me, but I just won’t have it!
This government truly has an obsession with mass medicating the population and indeed seems to regard same as a suitable vehicle for animal trials.
In my separate post I’ve flagged up
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61537610?
and yes the resourceful BBC illustrates a “difference” between gene editing and gene modifacation. Maybe more concerningly the article states:
“Tomatoes that boost the body’s vitamin D could be among the first gene-edited crops allowed on sale in England.” [etc]
Yet isn’t it the case that excess vitamin D can itself be problematic e.g. in relation to the body’s utilisation of calcium? Regardless here we have another case of mass medication irrespective of suitable dosage / informed consent. Another animal test where the general public are the “animals”!?
Anyway the point of this separate post is just to remind that there is another government consultation closing soon on procedures to be adopted for future local consultations for water fluoridation schemes – the Secretary of State replacing local authorities as the implementor of water fluoridation schemes:
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/water-fluoridation-seeking-views-on-future-consultation-process/water-fluoridation-seeking-views-on-future-consultation-process
https://consultations.dhsc.gov.uk/en/624ab9aacfec175b10628637/fb6b9e17-376e-492a-88aa-d5a9cf6df4dc/start
Closes 3 June 2022.
https://www.ukfffa.org.uk
Fluoride Free Alliance UK (FFAUK)(formerly known as UK Freedom From Fluoride Alliance (UKFFFA)).
Joy Warren, joint coordinator guested on the Richie Allen Show 19 April 2022 (from approximately 25 minutes in).
https://pdcn.co/e/https://richieallen.podomatic.com/enclosure/2022-04-19T11_20_49-07_00.mp3?_=1650392616.16064983
She summarises some of the health issues including hypothyroidism risk and IQ reduction; and on procedural aspects decries the increased centralisation and resulting lack of accountability of Government and the barring of objectors in future scheme consultations who are not directly affected by the local schemes e.g. non-local residents. In her view water fluoridation has not been proven safe but objectors may face difficulties if they are unable to cite specific studies showing detrimental effects eg on lowered IQ.
I have not yet done the consultation response and may find time too tight individually to research and cite studies where applicable but the thought occurs to cite as incorporated in my response by reference the objections and studies cited in “The Case Against Fluoride:How Hazardous Waste Ended Up in Our Drinking Water and the Bad Science and Powerful Politics That Keep It There” (2010) by James BECK, Paul CONNETT and H.S. MICKLEM, and in particular Chapter 25: “A Response to Pro-Fluoridation Claims”(40 claims addressed).
Boris Johnson reveals No. 10 is ‘keeping an eye’ on monkeypox.
Bozo the chimp is under orders and those are to re-run the March 2020 playbook:
Tell the plebs there’s nothing to worry about. We’ll let you ramp it up later.
“OK Bill, will co.”
Bozo gets off on the military lingo. He’s already been down to Saville Row to be measured for his General, All Forces Commander, Darts and Crossbow uniform and is looking forward to taking his first inspection.
Laughter amid the ruins… you might want to lower your volume in advance.
A very sweary comment on Australia’s erec-sorry, ELection.
“Did monkeypox leak from Wuhan?”
No of course not – it came from a Ukraine lab.
FFS.
“Teach about dead white men or Shakespeare’s works will vanish from classrooms, schools warned.”
An unusually brave teacher.
P45 in the post.
She’ll be fine; Birbalsingh has a long and glorious history of irritating the right people, despite which she continues to succeed, as do the children under her charge.
“Now the Government wants to tag protestors.”
The birthplace of democracy. What did Bozo say about the Union Jack?
Must have slipped his mind. He’s definitely a warrior though. See you next Tuesday type.
Johnson’s “British values” always were a joke.
British in the sense of being a chav.
Since Shakespeare was key to the development of modern English, attacking his work attacks our culture at a fundamental level. And to understand Shakespeare, you have to understand the Bible. Jordan Peterson interviewed by Joe Rogan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt9K6kmpx44
The cultural barbarians responsible for these attacks seem to imagine (if they have an imagination) that certain works produce certain inevitable responses.
Even bad propaganda can’t be relied upon to do that (as the Nazis discovered). Great art never does.
People of all ethnicities, political colours and points of view, religious beliefs and backgrounds have loved and still love the works of Shakespeare – that sublime English gift to the world.
He can be read in countless different ways, as can the Bible.
Thanks for the link, Londo,
“CDC Now Recommends COVID-19 Testing for All Domestic Air Travel, Including the Vaccinated.”
Well that certainly puts the nail in the “vaccination” coffin.
Given that the CDC have admitted that the PCR test is useless what are they providing by way of a replacement?
Their narrative is falling apart and the more they try to maintain it by imposing more and more outrageous and ridiculous rules, the more we see the clown’s circus theatre for what it is.
“Meet the new thought police: the ‘Orwellian’ researchers working to pathologise dissent.”
Any restriction aimed at coercing thought is in itself a restriction on freedom of the individual; anathema to decent people.
Attempting to restrict freedom of thought can and will only have negative impacts.
Innovations, in any field, arise only from freedom of the mind. The greater good of humanity is not well served by restricting the freedom of ideas. Without freedom we will descend into a morass of banality.
While we exist on this planet free thought will persist. It may well be driven underground as in the Soviet era but some of us will remain free in spirit if not body.
I probably will not be alive to see it but Globocrap will be defeated.
Perhaps we’re already seeing the Twilight of the Gods.
There have always been greedy and ambitious elites. The ones who’ve revealed their outrageous hubris in the last couple of years are another breed entirely.
Saddle your horses over there in Saddleworth, hp – we could be in for one hell of a ride. They have made the mistake of showing us what they are.
Actually, ambitious elites are not the problem – on reflection. Ambition is usually a wonderful thing; driving people to do better.
If ambition is entirely directed towards subjugating others and aggrandising oneself, we have a problem. And we do.
Presumably, if there’s an election and the other party gains power, supporters of the previous government instantly turn into dangerous activists?
Nice to see you back, HP. I agree wholeheartedly with you and posted above about this. I may die in our cause for freedom but will definitely not live under this type of tyranny. Not on my watch anyway. Risings are happening in many places. I feel that when you fight (peacefully) for something good, wholesome and true, you can’t lose. Truth will prevail and so will we.
More strength and readiness to your arm, Aethelred!
The point about protests is that they often seem small, weak and ineffective – or large but futile – until, one day, they’re not.
The only guarantee of defeat is despair and the abandonment of hope. That’s why certain individuals work so hard to encourage precisely that: telling good and conscientious people trying to do something that they’re wasting their time.
Even prior to the Soviet era, Poland had “underground universities” in a previous era of Russian occupation. Looks like we will also have to have underground education for children to counter the thought police in schools.
“TrialSite News reports that the investigational team found that against Omicron BA.2, initiation of both Paxlovid and Molnupiravir were associated with lower risks of disease progression and all-cause mortality while also helping patients to achieve low viral load faster.”
Well that’s a result backed up with an ocean of facts and figures.
What a load of blatant carp.
Omicron BA.2?
Isn’t that variant virtually inert all by itself?
Does Paxlovid and Molnupiravir reduce your chance of death from one in a billion to one in one point one billion?
My thoughts exactly.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams isn’t just keen on censorship he’s till masking toddlers.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nyc-parents-want-person-meeting-mayor-over-toddler-mask-mandate-our-calls-have-gone
Why the bloody hell do the fool patents comply with this outrage?
Excuse the very sloppy headline: “College where teacher died of covid…”
The HSE is a heavy-handed organisation at the best of times, but a year, notwithstanding WFH, to pursue this matter is worrying…
While reading the article below, I think I had what is commonly called a eureka moment.
https://www.sciencealert.com/first-patient-injected-with-experimental-cancer-killing-virus-in-new-clinical-trial
Could the Gene Transfer Technology (rebranded by governments as a Covid vaccine, to allay public fears) actually have been designed to intentionally compromise everyone’s immune system? Is it too ridiculous to suppose that all governments were unaware of this possibility? Assuming this to be the case, then a chance exists of finally putting an end to this experiment.
Amazingly a monkepox vaccine was created in 2019.
But what use is a vaccine if there isn’t a pandemic of monkey pox?
In order to make some serious monkey back on the vaccine investment you either need a a global monkey pox outbreak or to be able to make people believe there is a global monkey pox outbreak.
I wonder if that nice Mr Gates has money invested in the monkey pox vax?
A belief travelling at almost the speed of light? It worked well enough with covid.
I think it was also developed against smallpox. There’s a lot of profit (not) in immunizing against extinct diseases and rare African zoonotic conditions.
I am not interested in or worried by the thought of monkeypox myself, but out of curiosity I wonder if those of us old enough to have been vaccinated against smallpox would be immune anyway. I must have been vaccinated as I was born in the 50s, and vaccination continued until 1971 in the UK apparently. However, you can bet that if they start pushing pox vacs they will say that previous smallpox vaccinations are useless and you simply must have a new one.
I was also born in the 1950’s and I wasn’t vaccinated against smallpox. Regular voluntary vaccination against smallpox was stopped in 1948 with the birth of the NHS, apparently in 1939 there was around a 30% uptake. There was a period in the 19th century when it was compulsory to have your child vaccinated.
Vaccination was stopped completely in 1971, between 1948 and 1971 I presume vaccination was targeted at contacts with an infected person, similar to the TB vaccination nowadays.
Also, according to https://www.historytoday.com/archive/end-smallpox the virus present in the U.K. was mainly a less virulent form, with a 1% case fatality rate, with episodes of the more virulent form.
Oh well, that’s interesting. I just assumed I had been, but probably not then. I know both my parents had scars on their arms which I am sure they said was from the smallpox vaccine, but they were children in the 20s/30s. However, I have definitely had the BCG and I have the scar to prove it. Wonderful vaccines – scarring and injuring people through the centuries!
“…it is a disease of the sodomite..” Interesting you use that old-fashioned word as opposed to “gay” or “homosexual”. And as far as I’m aware it’s not a disease exclusively affecting gay men, it’s merely that they’ve found it in mostly gay men thus far.
Susceptibility to infection may be related to (a) Number of partners (b) Broken skin (c) Excessive use of anti-biotics as a prophylactic.
These were all factors suggested by sceptics of the HIV/AIDS link.
how long has sondomy been exclusive to gay men?
I don’t think poor spelling is a sign of a disordered sexual preference.
Even more interesting, the comment I was replying to appears to have been deleted. Perhaps because it was recognised as sounding pretty homophobic, from my interpretation anyway.
That’s a bit concerning, if DS are applying political correctness standards for deletions. Of course, without being able to see the original post it’s impossible to judge the reasonableness of the censorship – always the problem with an anti-free speech censorship regime.
BBC NEWS APP:North Korea fights Covid with tea and salt water!
What a backward and undeveloped nation!
Meanwhile in the “civilised and highly technically developed West?
Wear bits of rag on your face and cover your hands with slime.
Altogether now: FF’S.
Almost every news item is a reflection of the clownworld we live in as a result of top down government creation.
If Lucy Easthope wants her book to be take seriously it’s probably a good idea not to giggle her way through an interview as she gaslights her way through it, she wants us to believe the lockdowns were all because of the “government machine” unable to row back from it’s own ramping up of the fear factor – I call BS on that.
And the Bourbank piece, pontificating about how “modern man…Deprived of his stimulants, forced into a situation of compulsory cold-turkey, he would be furious that his bread and circuses have been taken away from him.”
After 2 years of government SME crushing nonsense? Seriously what world do these people live in? Clearly not one in which their business was crushed by government dictat, they ate away their financial lifeboat to avoid losing their home, and had to live on less than £70 per week for two damn years.
I’m not likely to get out the torches and pitchforks because, without the threat of electronic tagging, I recognise the fultility of it. I’m more likely to plant a food garden, pull up the drawbridge, and paint in large letters on the outside of my house LEAVE ME ALONE.
The torches and pitchforks were deployed in Sri Lanka.
and the plebs are better off how?
Mr Kissinger is a legend.
The ongoing war in Ukraine solved with but a single stroke.
Simply hand over Crimea and all will be well.
Oh! Hang on…….
Does this mean they’re finally admitting that those expensive (and how!) vaxxes have been somewhat of a scam?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-england-london-61507125
How bloody ridiculous. TfL employee with half her face covered, to please Mayor Khant, no doubt. Not a single person muzzled on the trains, from what I can see.
“Now the Government wants to tag protestors” Further curbs on our freedoms to stop us or deter us from attending peaceful legitimate protests. I think I had had just about enough of this increasingly tyrannical government led by these corrupt and self-serving donkeys and Pound Shop politicians. I have heard that protest and rally numbers are dwindling. Whether this is because people can’t afford to take the time off, don’t hear about them or can’t be arsed is unclear. What is clear though is that we are facing the fight of our lives against this creeping tyranny. What can we do to push back since MPs seems to be so out of touch with actual real living and breathing people that they just vote for whatever bill will ensure they keep to keep their seats and salaries? And we can’t expect the media to take up our cause either. That bunch of cowardly so-called journalists are either told not to write about this or simply don’t care. I know there are some who are trying but they get drowned out by the others, the bullies, especially the ones on mainstream TV or radio whose ‘opinions’ seem to matter more than people’s liberties. So, is this really the darkest hour in our nation’s history when we seem to have absolutely no voice at all and if we try to express that voice, we get stamped on? Look at what is happening elsewhere – in NZ for instance – where they are attempting to outlaw or criminalise political dissent. It is absolutely disgraceful and, yes, evil! And all the sheep bleating away, completely ignorant of these things, watching the theatre on their big black screens that dominate their living rooms and hanging out Ukrainian flags and other nonsense, are the ones who will make it all possible. How can we wake these people up to the horrors? Virtually impossible I think. They are completely brainwashed and lost. What can we do?
I thought that this was a solid article, written by a retired neurosurgeon, discussing all
of the lies that we now know have been told around Covid, the treatment for it, and the vaccines:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9062939/
Esther Rantzen was on British government radio this morning. She was calling for the creation of a ministry for older people.
I’d like to say
but of course the commanding levers of the state are already in the cullers’ hands. No politician or civil servant will need to be threatened in such a way.
Soon there will probably be a ministry for children’s health too.
By the way, don’t laugh at Rantzen. She was vilifying elderly people who refused “vaccination” against SARSCoV2 and who then expected treatment on the NHS.
“Could the West handle true austerity?” – Deprived of his stimulants, forced into a situation of compulsory cold-turkey, modern man would be furious that…
i guess we are about to find out within the next 12 months.
With no slight intended towards ladies/women/birthing persons:
“They” have seen how to control plebs. The first attack did not succeed, now we are entering a new phase of the war, a second battle.
https://www.politico.eu/article/countries-urged-to-boost-monkeypox-preparedness-as-cases-rise-across-europe/
“Could the West handle true austerity?” – Deprived of his stimulants, forced into a situation of compulsory cold-turkey, modern man would be furious that his bread and circuses have been taken away from him, writes Luke Perry in Bournbrook.[/quote]
I’ve often speculated on the possibilities myself. In an age where entitlement is a demand and working it out for yourself is frowned on, ‘thinking’? Yes, nanny state does that, doesn’t she?
I would posit it, that postmodern man is the least capable generation in a Millennium and much of this sorry state of affairs can be laid at the door of a deliberate policy. In attempt to de evolve. To dumb down the population and make them more obedient, they had to stop teaching them how to think. Observe kids arrive in tertiary education (why?) unable to
writecommunicate unless with smart phone and ah read, innumerate and unable to look after themselves, can’t cook or won’t, feckless, all but locked up in safe space wokery stir.And of “true austerity” we’re about to find out and to visit the results, I am certainly not optimistic.
For connoisseurs of scientific twaddle:
from the Guardian:
Sure it wasn’t 25 times, or maybe 40 times? They are relying on their readers understanding little about probability and statistics – as well as not knowing the meaning of the word “crisis”.
The heatwave is something that has actually happened. Learn from it. By all means adjust your appraisal of the probabilities of various things happening in the future. It’s new information, right? But don’t talk about how “likely” it was, compared to if conditions were different.
”….plans to electronically tag innocent people for attending protests…”
That sounds like the call for a Spartacus mutiny. How many ‘tagged’ people could they cope with?