A Lockdown Sceptics reader has emailed all the anti-lockdown candidates in the London mayoral election with a questionnaire, trying to work out just how “anti” they are. They all come out pretty well, although some are more sound than others. Here, for instance, are the answers of Steve Kelleher, the SDP candidate.
Should London be opening quicker than the current roadmap?
Yes. On the data there is no reason why we can’t open the economy and society in general immediately. This country has lent immense trust to the Government during this pandemic. That trust is beginning to fray.What changes would you like to see immediately?
London’s economic and social institutions should be reopened. The vaccine programme has successfully protected the overwhelming number of vulnerable citizens. If the Government genuinely backs the vaccine it should re-open society and the economy.What do you think have been the biggest mistakes of the lockdown?
A total failure by the Government to properly assess the social and economic costs of the suppression measures. From the start the Government has failed to acknowledge the cost-benefit trade-offs associated with its lockdown measures. Like Tony Blair and Iraq – this Government will never acknowledge its staggering mistake.Do you support vaccine passports for international travel?
The SDP is not keen on vaccine passports in principle. However, I believe the market will decide. Vaccine passports will emerge for international travel irrespective of UK public policy because airlines, some nation states and other organisations will mandate it. You can’t gain entry to Ghana without a yellow fever certificate.Do you support vaccine passports for domestic use?
In general, a strong no. The idea of having to produce a vaccine certificate to obtain goods and services or to enter public facilities is totally wrong, in principle, in a free society.When do you think Londoners should return to the office?
As soon as possible. Let’s get London buzzing again.When should international travel be restored?
The Government should be very careful in permitting unlimited travel to known pandemic hotspots this summer. Many states in continental Europe are suffering steepening viral curves and while that is the case the UK should act cautiously. It is far better to prioritise and re-open the domestic UK economy than to prioritise international travel.
Read the responses from Lawrence Fox (Reclaim), Dr Peter Gammons (UKIP), Piers Corbyn (Let London Live), Brian Rose (London Real Party) and David Kurten (Heritage) here.
Worth reading in full.
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Wow. 90% + links to Telegraph and Daily Mail.
Not sure how skeptical this is.
Plenty of meat for the neocon rightists to bite, not much on the power centres war against us.
You are free to send in your ideas if you see anything interesting
yep, and I often do.
Increasingly the Overton window of what skepticism is adhered to has been kept pretty tight. Off Guardian seems to be offering good thoughtful original material lately.
Like this:https://off-guardian.org/2024/01/18/understanding-power-dynamics-moving-beyond-divisions-covid19-ukraine-israel-palestine/
Understanding Power Dynamics & Moving Beyond Divisions: Covid19, Ukraine & Israel/PalestineDr Piers Robinson & Vanessa Beeley
Yes, I am a keen supporter of Off-G. There is always something interesting and with a different perspective.
For some contrast here is a link with regard to the effect of off-shore wind turbines on the marine ecology and commercial fishing;
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/01/28/offshore-wind-and-the-stress-on-commercial-fishermen/
I assume it’s part of the funding model.
There is so much Telegraph material every day, I’ll be really shocked if the DS doesn’t have some funding agreement with them.
I’m not sure the Telegraph would want to risk funding the DS.
I think it’s kept going by people working for nothing/not very much and the largesse of some wealthy backers.
A nice little informative 5min video, explaining how UNRWA are ensuring that Palestinians remain refugees ( and consequently become jihadis, in many cases ) forever;
”Instead of resettling its refugees, UNRWA forces them and all their descendants to be refugees forever. It indoctrinates kids to believe they must destroy Israel to ever have a home. This perpetual refugee status is unprecedented and different than how all other refugees are treated – including the 100 million aided by UNHCR, the UN’s main refugee agency.
In the past century, there were 1,000,000+ Jewish refugees from Arab countries. None are now seen as “refugees” or to have a “right to return”. They’ve all resettled in Israel or other countries. Israel grants all Jews a “Law of Return” to their indigenous homeland.
Most Arabs in Israeli territories came from Egypt or Jordan, which should offer them similar rights. Funding UNRWA destroys the lives of Arab children who become indoctrinated with hate and violence for life. It destroys the societies where it operates, and brings forever conflicts to the region.”
https://twitter.com/QuantumFlux36/status/1751797921035719129
Interesting to see the contrast between what constituted a ”refugee camp” in Gaza compared to refugee camps in Syria and Jordan;
”According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), as of 2023, the Gaza Strip includes eight refugee camps, the largest of which is Jabalia in the northern part of the Strip, where 116,000 Palestinians are registered as refugees.
Palestinian statistics show that prior to the current war, virtually nobody in any mukhayam – “refugee camp,” from kheyma, “tent” – in the Gaza Strip was actually living in a tent. Prior to October 7, the average housing density in Gaza was 1.7 persons per room; 21.2% of the population lived in a house or a villa while the rest (77.8%) lived in apartments. Most residents (78%) owned their homes or apartments.
In 2021, 100% of Gaza’s residents had access to electricity. Daily per capita consumption of water in Gaza was 86.6 liters per day – four liters more than average daily consumption in the West Bank, and in Jordan the average person has access to only 61 liters of water daily.”
https://www.memri.org/reports/palestinian-refugee-camps-gaza-strip-prior-october-7-%E2%80%93-part-i
“It destroys the societies where it operates, and brings forever conflicts to the region”
That explains why the US and Europe fund the UNRWA.
A bit misleading. She regrets using the word “elimination” but still thinks “maximum suppression” until the jab was available was the right approach. According to the article, anyway.
These people, btw, aren’t advisers. The idea that this sociology graduate was somehow shaping policy in Scotland is beyond comical.
Sturgeon like every national leader is a policy salesperson. She sells pre-determined policies to the public. And these little minions like Devi Sridhar who go out to the media as “advisers” are just part of the sales team.
The extent to which restrictions in Scotland were tighter than in England is simply that Sturgeon fancied she could flog the same policy being sold everywhere else that much harder to the obedient Scottish plebs. Double rations for the Scots because it seems they’ll take it. She used their national self identity against them. As did Drakeford in Wales.
Sturgeon must have screwed up on something else though because it doesn’t look like she’s getting her payoff, her nice position in the bureaucracy. At least not for now.
“Sturgeon must have screwed up on something else though because it doesn’t look like she’s getting her payoff”
She faltered on the question of whether a convicted rapist was a man or woman. Not able to follow-through on that agenda might not have helped.
So-called hate crime law ‘could be used to stop the display of the Union flag’ in Northern Ireland–
Northern Ireland must sometimes feel abandoned by the rest of the UK, so
“Well done” to founder Toby Young and his team for organising the meeting there, where they are threatened with the same outrageous “hate speech” laws as Scotland was under Justice Minister Humza.
“Hate speech” does not exist in the West. It is an entirely alien concept called “Lashon Hara”, being forced upon the West by a certain desert tribe, who originally used it to silence the parents of children abused by their “clergy”. It is similar to the codes of silence imposed by foreign criminal gangs upon their members, as well as within certain itinerant communities traditionally hostile to the sedentary inhabitants. We must reject the entire idea of “hate speech” and “hate crime” as an alien concept, and remove all references to it from our laws. We do not consent to it being forced upon our democratic societies.
Seconded
Substack by Prof Jo Phoenix on her court case with the OU
https://jophoenix.substack.com/p/what-a-week