Apologies for the lateness of today’s update. I’ve been busy setting up a GoFundMe page for the Free Speech Union’s new litigation fund.
In the current climate of Maoist intolerance, the Free Speech Union is being deluged with requests for help from people all over the country. As I’ve been documenting in this twitter thread, dozens of people have suffered catastrophic career damage for criticising the activities of the Black Lives Matter movement, or because they haven’t genuflected before it with sufficient piety, or because they’re linked to someone who’s criticised it.
But it isn’t just BLM.
The public shaming of people who challenged the official Covid narrative in the first three months of the pandemic has now been extended to anyone who expresses the slightest dissent from progressive dogma – and people on the Left are as vulnerable as people on the Right, as we’ve seen with the recent mobbing of JK Rowling. It’s as if the line you’re expected to remain on the right side of has suddenly lurched violently to the left, with people finding themselves being cancelled for saying something that would have been perfectly fine two weeks ago.
We need to put a stop to this madness.
Freedom of expression is legally protected in Britain, but that’s often forgotten by private companies and public organisations when they come under pressure to get rid of someone who’s said something people don’t want to hear. Faced with an angry mob on social media, the directors and trustees nearly always cave in, firing the heretic in question or forcing them to resign. Due process is forgotten and people’s careers and reputations are destroyed.
One of the best ways to protect people from mob justice is to let their bosses know that there is an organisation out there that will stand up for people’s speech rights in the courts. That’s where the FSU litigation fund comes in.
We are currently engaged in legal battles on a number of fronts:
- We’ve sent a Letter Before Action to Ofcom, telling the broadcast watchdog we will apply for a Judicial Review of its coronavirus guidance unless it withdraws it. That was the document it invoked when it reprimanded ITV and London Live for broadcasting comments by Eamonn Holmes and David Icke that challenged the Government’s official narrative about COVID-19. This is a particularly egregious violation of free speech, given that the official narrative has often proved to be wrong, such as the advice issued to hospitals by Public Health England on February 25 that it was safe to discharge elderly patients into care homes without testing them first to make sure they didn’t have COVID-19. According to the latest report, hospitals discharged 25,000 patients to care homes without testing them for COVID-19 at the peak of Britain’s epidemic in March and April.
- We’ve written to the Isle of Man’s Communications Commission demanding it drops its investigation of Stu Peters, a Manx Radio host who was suspended when a local advertiser pulled its sponsorship after he challenged the concept of “White Privilege”.
- We’ve said to Change.org that unless it reinstates a petition by the feminist campaigner Posie Parker, urging the Oxford English Dictionary not to change its definition of “Woman”, we will take it to court.
That’s just a handful of the cases we are fighting and over the coming weeks and months we expect to be involved in many more. The FSU has a Legal Advisory Council that includes many prominent barristers who donate their time for free, but going to court is expensive and we can’t afford to continue entering the fray without additional funds.
Our work ranges from defending individuals who have been hung out to dry after expressing a controversial opinion, to scrutinising state institutions that disregard their own rules and their duty to the public. Any donations we receive will be ring-fenced for the sole purpose of paying our legal costs.
As George Orwell said, “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people things they do not want to hear.”
It’s more important now than ever to stand up for that right. If you’d like to donate, you can do so by clicking here.
Latest on Simon Dolan’s Legal Challenge
The Government responded to Simon Dolan’s Judicial Review of its decision to lock the country down on March 23rd with a 58-page defence today.
The government has instructed their top lawyer to fight this tooth and nail in the courts – Sir James Eadie QC – who helped the Government in its fight against ISIS bride Shamima Begum. He is joined in this fight by some of the finest young lawyers in the UK.
Simon Dolan says:
The Government’s response is to call the claims we are making absurd claims. It has taken the instruction of one of the top QCs in the land and three barristers to come up with this response.
It says it is nonsensical for us to say that schools were closed, because they remained open for key workers and there had only been a “request” that schools should shut their doors to other pupils, yet the PM and Williamson both announced on March 18th that “schools will remain closed until further notice”.
They have also tried to convince themselves that closing schools is not a breach of the human right to education. They should try telling that to the families left high and dry and the pupils who won’t have seen a teacher for at least six months by the time they return next year.
Boris Johnson and his blundering bunch are firmly locked into this mode that it has been a success and done everything right.
As always, you can donate to Simon Dolan’s crowdfunder here. Now up to around £175,000. And check out Dolan’s embryonic political campaign organisation, Keep Britain Free. Looks promising…
Staggers In-House Doctor On the Money
Interesting piece in the latest New Statesman by its resident doctor, Phil Whitaker. It discusses the emerging evidence for pre-existing immunity to COVID-19 thanks to past exposure to other coronavirus infections (e.g. colds). Of course, like any self-respecting Staggers writer he manages to end on a gloomy note, despite the fact that he’s hit on one of SAGE’s fallacious assumptions, viz. that there was “no immunity in the population”. Worth remembering that around 1,200 of those on the Diamond Princess were infected but only a sixth were symptomatic.
Here’s a key quote from the article:
Initially, modelling of the pandemic assumed no immunity in the population: were that to be the case, the tens of millions of infections needed to achieve herd immunity would be unconscionable given an infection fatality rate (IFR) of 0.5 to 1%. But if a substantial bulk of the public has cross-immunity, we may already be near the point at which COVID-19 will lose its sting.
Okay, he’s over-estimated the IFR – it’s 0.25%, doc – but worth reading in full nevertheless.
Magical Thinking
I got an email from an economist making a good point:
The lockdown zealots’ lack of causal logic drives me nuts. The world is doomed so we must lock down; the only reason the world didn’t end was because we locked down; so therefore we must lock down forever. Magic without causal inference.
One of the reasons that modern medicine began to pull away from magic and superstition was because it came to understand the importance of establishing causality. Just because Y happens after X does not mean that X causes Y.
Why Mass Gatherings Won’t Spread the Virus – if the Cause is Progressive
This spoof YouTube video featuring “global scientist” Mark Diamond, explaining why he was shaming people for leaving their homes last month but is now chastising people for not participating in mass protests, is very funny.
Incidentally, the arguments Diamond makes sound exaggerated, but some of them are uncannily similar to the arguments made by these woke epidemiologists and public health experts in the Guardian.
New Passport? Forget About It
I got an email from a reader yesterday about the difficulties of applying for a passport in contemporary Britain. Forget about getting a nice new blue one. You just can’t get one.
Anyone whose passport is about to expire, has expired recently, or one of their children’s, is trying to get a first passport or needs their existing details changed will have noticed the plethora of exhortations on the HM Passport Office website not to apply. It says:
Do not apply unless you need a passport urgently for compassionate reasons, for example if a family member has died, or for government business.*
The reason is that the passport offices are operating on skeleton staffing. Mine didn’t expire till Easter 2021 but would have been useless for many destinations from September on. We have family stuck in Vietnam and a grandson there we’ve never met so we hope to go by the end of the year to help them pack up and leave. I decided to send it off, a passport officer on their advice line saying plenty of people were applying anyway but it would take ages. Since no-one’s going anywhere for the moment it didn’t matter. After entering limbo for over 5 weeks, my new passport was suddenly approved, printed and sent, and it arrived just under 6 weeks after applying.
Turns out there’s been a sudden resumption in the online renewals service, with a dramatic acceleration in turn-around, presumably because staff have started to go back to work and facing a mounting backlog of applications no doubt as a result of frustrated would-be travellers determined to have up to date documents in place.
That’s the good news. The bad news is that it seems anyone applying for a first passport for themselves, or a child, or any renewal that requires human intervention is still much slower or even not happening at all. The same goes for anyone stuck abroad with an expiring passport – all the visa application centres that process UK passport applications abroad are all closed. People with expiring passports and working abroad who need to renew work permits and the like may find the UK government has made an arrangement with the country concerned to accept expired passports up to the end of 2021 as acceptable evidence of identity.
As for my grandson in Vietnam, his first passport application was suspended in March. The Passport Office has all his birth evidence documents which have been gathering dust since then. Thanks to the lockdown there must be thousands of other UK citizen children abroad like him without travel documents or any immediate prospect at the moment of getting them.
No “Second Wave” in the US
PHOTO: EVE EDELHEIT/BLOOMBERG NEWS
There’s a good piece in the Wall St Journal about why stock market anxiety over a “second wave” in the United States is misplaced.
Democrats cite a spike in cases in Florida, Arizona and Texas as evidence of a virus resurgence. But more testing, especially in vulnerable communities, is naturally turning up more cases. Cases in Texas have increased by about a third in the last two weeks, but so have tests. About a quarter of the new cases are in counties with large prisons and meatpacking plants that were never forced to shut down.
Tests have increased by about 37% in Florida in two weeks, but confirmed cases have risen 28%. Cases were rising at a faster clip during the last two weeks of April (47%) when much of the state remained locked down. Now restaurants, malls, barbershops and gyms are open if they follow social-distancing guidelines.
In Arizona, cases have increased by 73% in the last two weeks though tests have increased by just 53%. But a quarter of all cases in the state are on Indian reservations, which have especially high-risk populations. The rate of diabetes is twice as high among Native Americans as whites and the rate of obesity is 50% higher.
The Journal points out that a better metric is the number of new hospital admissions for COVID-19, as well as the weekly death toll. And these data tell a different story:
- In Arizona the weekly rolling average for new COVID-19 hospitalisations has been flat for a month.
- In Texas, COVID-19 hospitalisations are up about 20% since the state began to reopen, but Gov. Greg Abbott says hospitals aren’t overwhelmed and much of the increase is tied to nursing homes. Texas has recorded 151 deaths this past week versus 221 in the last week of April.
- Florida has reported 239 deaths in the past week, 72 fewer than in the last week of April.
The Journal concludes:
More infections are inevitable as states reopen, and there will be much trial and error. States need to be vigilant for outbreaks and protect high-risk areas and the vulnerable. But the costs of shutting down the economy are so great, in damage to lives and livelihoods, that there is no alternative to opening for the broader public good.
Open Letter From Academics Calling For Schools to Reopen
Professor Ellen Townsend, who runs the self-harm research group at Nottingham University, has written an “open letter” to the Government demanding that schools reopen and is currently trying to attract as many signatures as possible before she sends it. Some media coverage is expected, so it’s important that it should attract hundreds of signatories to keep the pressure up. If you are an academic or a teacher or an educationalist, please contact her at [email protected].
The Cultural Revolution
An anonymous reader sent me a poem which I’m betting the Poetry Foundation of America won’t be publishing in its in-house magazine. It’s called “Viral (or Defund the Thought Police)”.
Don’t call me till your lips are blue
I can’t breathe, I can’t hear youLives before economy, home is where your safest
Statues are not history, Churchill is a racist
White Boris is a wasteman
School is just a waste of timeTake the knee, show solidarity
Bend your knee, bend your mind, dismantle the family
SubmitWear the mask, think of your elders
Don’t argue, don’t speak, don’t smile
SilenceWuhan, Lombardy, Madrid, New York, London
Minneapolis, Berlin, Paris and back to bloody London
Viruses travel economy class by air
Twitter sneezes ideas faster, share, share, shareTake the knee, submit to the BBC
Bend your knee, bend your mind, lose your impartiality
SubmitWear the mask, think of the vulnerable
Don’t argue, don’t speak, don’t smile
SilencePolice on the streets are overrated
Police your thoughts or you’ll be hated
Educate yourself, don’t like the wrong tweet
Don’t laugh at little jokes, BritainTake the knee, submit to ideology
Bend your knee, bend your mind, ignore your morality
SubmitWear the mask, think of the f***ing fines
Don’t argue, don’t speak, don’t smile
SilenceProtect the NHS, it is not here to protect you,
We’ll do the counting, have we ever let you down?
Fields lie unharvested, pubs are contagious
Feed the mob, it’s hungry, and that is very dangerousTake the knee, bend your democracy
Bend your knee, bend your mind, laugh at your weak-kneed MP
SubmitWear the mask, think of…no, don’t think
Don’t argue, don’t speak, don’t smile
SilenceDon’t call me till your lips are blue
I can’t breathe, I can’t hear youI can’t think
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:
- ‘How Anti Racism Hurts Black People‘ – John McWhorter on how anti-racist hysteria often ends up harming African-Americans
- ‘Black Lives Matter – are the stats accurate? | Interview with Associate Prof. Wilfred Reilly‘ – Another YouTube video, this one an interview with Wilfred Reilly, African-American Professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University
- ‘Alex Berenson Discusses Best-Selling Book, Tells Tucker Why Lockdowns Did “Not Seem To Make Much Difference At All”‘ – Alex Berenson interviewed by Tucker Carlson
- ‘Orwell’s 1984. How police state Britain makes fact of fiction‘ – Alarming blog post by Andrew Mahon for Conservatives Global
- ‘Former Dutch Scientist Willem Engel Speaks Up – A Crisis In Science, Lockdown Is A Disgrace‘ – Good critique of the lockdowns by a former Dutch scientist
- ‘Australia did “absolutely not” have to lockdown‘ – Another Dr Michael Levitt has materialised and he, too, is as sound as a pound. Watch him being interviewed on Sky Australian’s The Outsiders
- ‘Episode 3 Comedy Unleashed: QUARANTINED‘ – Latest offering from those talented folks at Comedy Unleashed
- ‘Would the UK have half the Covid deaths if Boris had “followed the science”‘? – I turned yesterday’s update into a blog post for The Critic
- ‘“Tucker Carlson Tonight” loses Disney, T-Mobile ads after host’s Black Lives Matter comments‘ – Stay strong, Fox News
- ‘WHO’s deadly incompetence‘ – Hard-hitting critique of the WHO in a Washington Examiner editorial
- ‘Over 95% of UK “Covid19” deaths had “pre-existing condition”‘ – Good summary of what we know about those who died with COVID-19 in England and Wales in Off-Guardian
- ‘Why UK GDP may have fallen by more than a fifth‘ – Ross Clark in the Spectator on the ONS data that shows Britain’s GDP fell by 20.4% in April
- ‘Scottish Secretary wants one-metre distance rule‘ – Cabinet minister calls for the two-metre rule to be relaxed
- ‘We should leave the anti-Semites standing‘ – Zoe Stempel says we should stop pulling down statues
- ‘Preliminary analysis of SARS-CoV-2 importation & establishment of UK transmission lineages‘ – Preprint showing that the virus entered the UK via international arrivals. If only we’d introduced port-of-entry screening back in January!
- ‘Questions over virus models that prompted lockdowns‘ – Jean-Francois Toussaint, Director of France’s Irmes Medical Research Centre, tells AFP that the computer models that governments around the world based the lockdowns on aren’t reliable
- ‘The lessons from Wisconsin’s lockdown lifting‘ – Alarming piece in the Spectator saying that even after lockdown was lifted in Wisconsin, following a successful legal challenge, people were reluctant to resume their pre-lockdown lives
- ‘Revealed: SAGE minutes show advisers were not calling for an early lockdown‘ – The Government has released another tranche of SAGE minutes. (How many are there?) More confirmation if it was needed that the scientists were not calling for an earlier lockdown
- ‘Britain is a ship of fools heading for the rocks‘ – The Telegraph‘s Jeremy Warner is unimpressed by the Government’s leadership skills
Theme Tune Suggestions From Readers
I got one new suggestion for a theme song from a reader: “Self-Isolation” by Beepfrog. It’s not bad.
Small Businesses That Have Reopened
A few 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 many hours every day, which doesn’t leave much time for other work. If you feel like donating, however small the amount, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here.
And Finally…
In my latest Spectator column I thank the BLM protestors for doing more to advance the cause of lockdown scepticism than I’ve been able to do in the past two months. I’ve been blogging away here like a demon, pointing out that the public health argument for suspending our liberties just doesn’t stack up. But the case against lockdowns is often quite technical and so doesn’t have much cut-through with the general public. But the protests could change that.
I’ve written thousands of words on why I think the infection fatality rate of Sars-CoV-2 has been over-estimated and the virus is likely to kill fewer people worldwide than seasonal flu did in 2017-18. I’ve published an article by an ex-Google software engineer criticising the code used in the apocalyptic Imperial College computer model that spooked Boris Johnson into imposing a full lockdown. I’ve even published two lengthy papers by Mikko Paunio, an adjunct professor in general epidemiology at the University of Helsinki, pouring scorn on the World Health Organisation’s dire warnings about the disease and claiming that the populations of many large cities, including London, are close to herd immunity.
But while some of these arguments have been taken up by other journalists, none of them has moved the dial. The British public have remained stubbornly attached to their own confinement. Until now, that is. Many of the same politicians, public health panjandrums and celebrities who’ve been telling us that if we emerge from under our beds we risk a “second spike” and “all our sacrifices will have been for nothing” are now enthusiastically endorsing the protests. That’s quite incredible, given that almost 150,000 people across the UK have participated in them so far and that number will probably swell by tens of thousands by the end of the weekend.
How can it be that the virus poses such a grave threat to public health that we’re not allowed to hold weddings, attend funerals or send our kids to school, but it’s perfectly acceptable to attend mass rallies to protest about the killing of a man 4,000 miles away? Why are the same progressive journalists who were so indignant about Dominic Cummings driving 260 miles to Durham with his sick wife and child now publishing handy guides to attending the nearest demo?
I think the public will smell a rat.
Worth reading in full.
Discussion
Comments
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https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending12june2020
Latest ONS figures.
Time for the media to stop the plague propaganda. Covid deaths running at same level as flu/pneumonia and both are well below the 5 year average. Looks like 40% or more Covid deaths might be misascribed if we are running below the average. Anyone’s guess. Epidemiologists could argue about that forever.
An IFR rate of 0.25% you say. I suggest that that is wildly over stating the truth for it is only necessary for to be recorded as a Covid death requires only suspicion of presence rather than diagnosis of cause.
Since it is irrefutable that the majority of persons of ANY age who contract the disease survive it is irrational to assume that all those who have died with it would not have died but for it. That is absurd to say the very least. Up until 17:30 on 2nd June, the total number of Covid deaths was 27,045 in England and Wales, 53% of whom were over 80. Yet only 1318 were not suffering from a pre-diagnosed comorbidity. That does not mean that the actual cause of death was Covid, it could have been unconnected heart failure of been run over my a bus, the point is that there was no pre-diagnosed chronic ailment.
The idea that even the majority of the fatalities that make up the 0.25% IFR were actually killed by Covid rather than the pre-existing condition or any other cause is patently absurd. The actual IFR is very likely 0.07% or even less.
Breaking news, the government never ‘forced’ schools to close, it was ‘up to them’ – Simon Nolan’s twitter heating up.
Oh and Google “War leaders WWII” and check out the photos along the top, seems Churchill is supporting BLM and blacking out his profile picture. No idea what’s going on there.
Toby, it would be great if you could ask J.K Rowling to make a sizeable contribution to a good cause, the Free Speech Union. It might be to her benefit and all of us.
Deconstructing Bill Gates’ Agenda https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/06/13/bill-gates-agenda.aspx
Gates has used his staggering wealth to buy control, and he’s done it under the cloak of “charity.” A significant piece of that control is the control over population growth. Gates’ family also has a long history of supporting eugenics According to Gates, the global population could be lowered by 10% to 15% if we “do a really great job on new vaccines, health care [and] reproductive health services.” His theory is that as health improves, families opt to have fewer children In 2017, Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance — founded by the Gates Foundation in partnership with the WHO, the World Bank and vaccine manufacturers — decided to provide every child with a digital biometric identity to ensure 100% vaccine coverage Gates has also invested in the development and implementation of biometric identification programs tied in with digital currencies Ultimately, the plan is to connect everything together — our identity, finances, medical data, vaccine records and more — at which point we will be 100% enslaved
It’s Time to See the Global Agenda for What It Is
“We cannot expect an answer about Bill Gates true motives to come from Gates himself. By… Read more »
James Corbett has compiled a brilliant – and chilling – analysis (warning: 4 1/2-hour parts)
corbettreport.com/gates
I’m curious as to what, if any, aspects of a “new normal” people would consider acceptable/welcome/useful.
I tend to think that the starting position needs to be that we just get back to normal and that’s it, because doing anything more than that perpetuates the idea that coronavirus requires some unprecedented measures beyond those taken by individuals and public authorities as a matter of course.
But there may be changes that are proportionate, and either actually make a difference or reassure people or allow the government a way out.
I wouldn’t object to more reminders about handwashing. I think reminding people that feverish symptoms may mean you ought to stay at home, if at all possible, until you feel better, is probably a good idea. Certainly improving hygiene procedures in care homes and hospitals seems reasonable, as does possibly some more awareness/screeening for patients, residents and staff for flu-like illnesses.
Beyond that, what else? A national agreement that some people want to stay distant, and can signal this by wearing masks, and we’ll stay out of their way if we can? A special hour in shops for vulnerable or concerned people, who want to distance? Maybe… Read more »
I think the government should not be involved in micromanaging our lives and individuals and organisations can retain whatever they feel is helpful.
Back to normal pretty much all round, nothing less. Although I wouldn’t mind hand sanitizer being available in shops as that would help generally against cold viruses too. Feverish symptoms or a cold – yes, stay at home. But often bosses won’t allow that. Absolutely no to distancing in any form.
In case people haven’t seen it . Piers Morgan, the ar*e of the media body and general idiot when it comes to lockdown is now in trouble.
Please refer to Guido
https://order-order.com/2020/06/13/ss-nazi-uniform-shame-of-piers-morgan/
as the sh1t is about to hit the fan and we can all have a good laugh
People in glass houses…..
I am not sure where the idea that the government should have the power to impose ‘lockdown’ on the people ever came from to begin with. It’s like the concept has already become normalised. Who cares what the R number for such a virus is anyway. The reality is we cannot accurately calculate this.
To state it another way his statement suggests it is acceptable to impose lockdown on the population because someones guess at the R value of a particular in this case mild viral disease is above some largely arbitrary value. I don’t think lockdown should ever have been imposed and so should be lifted regardless of what the latest guess at the R value is.
I understand your outlook – well as much as you have presented here. Just giving my opinion on the doctors statement not your relaying of it. It frustrates me how we seem to be accepting the idea that the government can lock us down at all.
Apologises if it came across as if my statement was directed at you rather then what the doctor had said – if I was near Cambridge I would seek out your shop for a coffee. It does boggle the mind as to why we don’t see more pushback from the medical profession in general against the whole idea of imposing lockdown, a very harmful measure in itself. If I can see how disproportionate and damaging this is for what is for the vast majority a mild virus then surely it should be obvious to a doctor.
Now we also see all NHS staff forced to wear masks after another government diktat – again where is the outrage? Surely NHS staff are quite capable of deciding when its appropriate to use PPE and what PPE to use.
Covid 19 gives the government the opportunity to move towards zero carbon according to an article in the DTin the business section and that is why we are deliberately being put through this Orwellian nightmare This is what it is really about!
Is that why they are seemingly trying to destroy the airlines with this quarantine nonsense, do you think?
In all seriousness, I find it hard to imagine a scenario where, within the next many years, air travel looks at all similar to the way it looked a few months ago. Even assuming most airlines can stop themselves from going under, they will be much smaller operations than they have been, Able to operate fewer planes and offer fewer routes. And on balance, I suspect that all but the biggest airlines with decent cash reserves are going to go under – not just UK-based, but (virtually?) everywhere.
Unless and until the panic subsides, people are going to be more reluctant to fly anyway and if social distancing rules are kept in place for any length of time, the whole process of getting from landside to the plane is going to be even more miserable than it has been, which is going to put people off. And the experience of being on the plane is going to be pretty unpleasant too.
Less capacity and lack of demand will have to drive prices up, just for the airlines to keep operating profitably at all. And more expensive flights will mean fewer people able even to think about flying off… Read more »
I love travelling abroad and I would be gutted if I could not do this again or could do it less often.
I have a small village house on a Greek island which I use a lot in the summer and did have plans to move out there permanently. My only surviving family are out there and I cannot wait to fly to get back to see them, hopefully next month. Perhaps with air fares going through the roof next year, I need to bring forward those plans, leave Britain behind now.
*Paywall* – Interesting insight into New York response to the virus.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-new-yorks-coronavirus-response-made-the-pandemic-worse-11591908426?mod=e2tw
(if above link doesn’t work try this one: https://on.wsj.com/2B7vd0h)
Maybe the Isle of Ely should get their independence back.
Tucker Carson has been good on the coronapanic and fantastic on the BLM nonsense, so it’s no surprise that there is a renewed push to silence him. Of course, the businesses involved will claim they are genuinely socially concerned, or if they are feeling more honest, that they are just “protecting their brands”, but in reality decisions like this are made by individuals or pushed on corporate boards by groups of individuals, and these companies are either influenced by individuals within them who dislike Carlson’s political positions or kowtowing to threats of campaigns against them.
These kinds of things become tests of strength, and if Carson were to be quieted that would be another disastrous sign of weakness in the face of the menace of the race-baiting ideologues. That said, they’ve been after him for a while and haven’t got him yet.
Fox News Host Tucker Carlson Loses More Advertisers
Disney, Papa John’s, Poshmark and T-Mobile backed away from “Tucker Carlson Tonight” after the host’s comments about Black Lives Matter protests.
Tucker Carlson ad boycott causes headaches for Fox News
Media Matters, an advocacy group that opposes Fox, re-shared a list it keeps of Carlson’s sponsors.… Read more »
I’m not a big Murdoch fan, and to be honest Fox isn’t my ideal source of news, but given what’s happened and happening in mainstream media, I’m glad they are there and giving a voice to other points of view.
It makes me wonder what the future holds for us – it’s a world increasingly dominated by large corporations that seem desperate to appear virtuous. Is our only hope businesses like Fox that are controlled by private individuals who don’t greatly care what people think of them?
I doubt I’ve looked at a Fox News page in years, until this coronapanic. But I’m very glad it was there when the need for diversity of opinion and political stance suddenly became critical.
Getting rid of the BBC’s privileged position would be a good start over here.
Getting rid of the BBC’s privileged position might be as hard as Brexit was.
Well pre-coronapanic the “Conservative” Party was at least planning to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee. Which is not much, but a start.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-shops-lockdown-uk-update-deaths-face-masks/
Health chiefs have written to every hospital and GP practice, urging them to make changes to reduce levels of transmission of coronavirus within clinical settings.
There is growing concern that NHS trusts have become a major source of coronavirus “re-seeding” into communities.
Government scientific advisers are worried that, while medics are keeping their distance from patients, their “backstage” behaviour is allowing the virus to circulate.
NHS England medical director, Professor Stephen Powis, has instructed hospitals to “minimise” close contacts between staff. Workers have been told to “avoid congregating at central work stations” and take staggered staff breaks.
Congregating at central work stations? Also known as “doing your job”. How, pray tell, do they expect us to discuss patients and come up with management plans, then communicate this to the nursing/medical/physio/pharmacy staff? Shout it across the corridors? Text it to them? Get an couple of old cans with some string in between?
There are a finite number of computers and much of the work we do is electronic- blood results, scan results, previous hospital letters, booking new scans and requesting new tests. People will tend to congregate around computers simply because of the minimal resources we have.… Read more »
Well the insanity just gets worse. I thought after 3 months we might be relaxing the rules but no the very weird Whittey and Vallance have decided to double down.
The reason that Covid19 is nosocomial is the same reason that MRSA is nosocomial. In hospitals and care homes you have many sick frail people crowded together near the end of life with weakened immune systems . The virus transmits easily in this setting . Closing the doctors mess will not stop this.
Exactly. Instead we’re having one way systems implemented in our hospital, enforced social distancing, masks in all areas- though kindly we’ve been told that we don’t need to wear the masks when we eat, so that’s nice of them.
The hospital is getting busier and certainly I’m seeing more and more people come in with illnesses that have been left and with more developed pathologies.
This sort of nonsense might have worked when everyone was doing nothing for the past 2 months, but now when things are busy, I don’t see how we can possibly have time for it. The most important thing I learned in medical school was the importance of communication. More important than any anatomy or pathology or treatment. The vast majority of errors and mistakes that I’ve seen are secondary to a failure to communicate. It’s fundamental to my job. All these changes impact on our ability to communicate and discuss with others.
I suppose I should not be surprised. Given the vague and nonsensical instructions during all of this, it appears nobody in any position of power learned the same lessons I learned at medical school. Clear, coherent communication appears to be… Read more »
Communication is so essential in hospital medicine and has become even more important since the abandonment of the ” firm ” and the implementation of the European working time directive.
The pathologies I am seeing resulting from the closure of the NHS secondary care since March in the community are fascinationg from a medical and psychological view point …..they will be flooding your way in the hospitals in the next months and years.
“Texas has recorded 151 deaths in the past week” from covid19. In 2018 there were roughly 3,600 deaths per week in Texas. Not to mention nearly 190,000 deaths over the whole year. Just for a bit of perspective on dying Texans.
They will have no shoppers on rainy days if they limit the numbers allowed in – no one in their right mind will just stand and get drenched, because they will also have no way of knowing how long it will be before they get let in.. People do not want to spend their lives queuing..
Listening to “Come in from the Cold” by Joni Mitchell:
Back in 1957
We had to dance a foot apart
And they hawk-eyed us from the sidelines
Holding their rulers without a heart
And so with just a touch of our fingers
I could make our circuitry explode
All we ever wanted
Was just to come in from the cold
Jasa here has raised a good point about the wearing of muzzles and the face screens making it hard for people with hearing difficulties and those who are hearing impaired. This got me thinking and this is something my husband raised, has no-one ever thought that face masks could also pose a security risk?
I say this because my husband was nearly mugged a few years ago and unsurprisingly the police could not help because he couldn’t describe the perpetrators as they were all masked!
In addition, I also came across a comment somewhere that this is partly the reason why they have those women only carriages in Japanese trains. Their conviction rates for sexual assault and harassment on public transport is laughably low as the victims and police can’t identify who did it because surprise, surprise – they were masked.
This is why in some places masks are banned (before all this started). It’s also why you can’t go into a bank wearing a crash helmet.
Hence why I think that transport mandating face coverings is ludricous. Apart from the health hazards associated with them, what will happen if there’s an attempted robbery, assault or heaven forbid another terrorist attack? Will they God forbid, seal off the train or bus or station to search everyone?
This site is about the ridiculous Covid-19 lockdown. Why do we need links to articles about Black Lives Matter and talk of JK Rowling/transgender issues etc?
It looks like economic suicide. Our local small town has taped the benches off in the mall in the last few days so now anyone needing to rest, can’t. I had a conversation with the manager about it but apparently I was the only person to complain. I told him I thought that most people are too demoralised to complain and he agreed. To be fair to him, he could see the damage this stuff is doing but, of course, his hands are tied.
My husband sat on the floor next to a bench while he was waiting for me to do the ‘life-enhancing’ shop at Waitrose and he got a lot of support from passers-by. For my part I got in an argument with a terrified woman in the queue who would not accept that the lockdown was actually killing people and needed to stop. She held her hand up to show she wanted to block me out – depressing!
We cheered ourselves up by cutting down the new anti-social distancing notices which have appeared on the bus shelter and chucking them in the bin. An (even more) elderly lady came to wait and we told her… Read more »
Well done you and I’m glad that you complained. I think that’s what we need to do now – complain and vote with our feet and wallets.
Judging people of the past for their mistakes in the present day is a mistake. We should be celebrating our ancestors decision to end slavery not demonising them. This cycle of blaming people of the past for the problems of today doesn’t set minority groups free its more likely to do the opposite and makes them victims.
And where will it end, for example lets imagine they decide to ban eating meat in the future will everyone who’s eaten meat up until then be consider a criminal for doing so.
This modern day obsession to punish people retrospectively will do more to hinder progress than advance us.
When the toll of this global lockdown becomes part of history, our ancestors in a couple of centuries time will look back on the people of today with disgust. They’ll be ashamed of us for what we’ve allowed to happen: famine, disease, death, economic destruction.
I think your missing my point Mark. I personally would like to think people of the future will look back on us and be grateful for our mistakes so that they can learn from them instead being ashamed of who we are, in the same way we view great civilisations of the past such as the Egyptians, Romans and Greeks.
Famine, disease, death and economic destruction is more likely to be eradicated if we heal our past instead guilt tripping present generations.
At this rate they wont be looking back at it and seeing it as a mistake – but as a glorious achievement that helped save the human race and set and example for the behaviour of all humans that followed – masked, socially distanced, obeying the dear leaders every command, rolling up the sleeve for the next injection that is deemed necessary, reporting any unacceptable language thoughts or feelings, saving all the resources for the important few that command us, etc.
Maybe. I think the few in command have less authority over us now because they have lost people’s trust with the hypocritical rules.
To me it seems they have somehow gained the almost unquestioning obedience of the most people despite the hypocritical rules. I think there are more people seeing through the lies but I don’t think its near a majority yet. It probably varies somewhat by area but around here only a minority seem to behave normally.
Your second paragraph about the meat is interesting – there’s a mockumentary on the BBC called ‘Carnage’ set several decades in the future when eating all animal products is outlawed, and those who ate animal products in the past when it was allowed now feel so guilty that they have to ‘atone’ for their ‘sins’ in therapy.
Thank you, that made me laugh. life imitates art as they say.
And note that it is always white folk that end up criticised: no mention in the MSM about the african chiefs who sold the slaves to white traders now about slavery outside the British empire!
Edit : ‘NOR about slavery …’.
Jesus wept. Looks like this council has found the perfect recipe for economic and commercial hara-kiri.
My town seems generally normal so far – a few signs up, one street closed but other than that people almost none of whom wearing face coverings were using the market stalls, chatting, no swerving going on, cafes open for takeaway. It might get more regimented, but so far so good.
I shared this yesterday with a shoutout to kh1485 and am putting this again for those who are debating with lockdownistas and masketeers on why muzzles are ineffective and a health hazard:
https://twitter.com/DouglasCarswell/status/1270746347638046721
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CAGKK3EgK5r/
Great links thanks.
Lets get this ‘picture’ out to all we can. Open in browser and do a print screen.
On a mobile device tap and hold the image, “save”
My only problem with that poster is that I think it over-eggs the pudding a bit. What that means is that it would be easy for mask proponents to attack it. I’d reword it to make it a little less assertive on some points.
In particular point 5 is obviously vulnerable It’s a clever criticism, but it obviously misses the point that the theory behind mask operation is trapping droplets, not viruses.
And to make my position clear here, I am absolutely against mask wearing and will not do so myself. I think the poster is a great idea and looks great overall, I’d just word it a little more carefully if I were going to display it publicly in my own business.
I found this on twitter and I daresay someone with better writing skills than me or the OP can reword this.
That’s what I would do if I were going to use it (but I don’t have a public-facing place for it atm). Great idea, just the execution could be improved a little here and there. Imo, obviously.
I have a severe hearing loss and struggle to hear conversations properly at the best of times and wear hearing aids, but these screens that are being put up at counters (and they are pretty thick some of them) together with the face masks means that I can’t hear anything. I either have to stick my ear in the little hole at the bottom to have any chance of hearing, meaning that I can’t see their face, which I need for lip reading cues or stand on my tip toes so that my head is above the screen. In addition to reducing the amount and quality of sound leaving the speaker’s mouth and reaching my ears, the masks prevent any lip reading at all. So in addition to be unhealthy and unnecessary, these measures are discriminatory on physical disability grounds.
Hi JASA, sorry to hear this. I suggest you contact Simon Dolan via his Twitter account to let him know. It will help strengthen his legal case. I have a feeling it might be in breach of the Equality Act 2010.
https://twitter.com/simondolan
Also the lawyer pursuing the case, Francis Hoar from Wedlake Bell LLP.
https://twitter.com/francis_hoar
Good luck.
Hi RDawg, thank you for your response. I might well do that, although I have vowed never to have a Twitter or Facebook account. However, times are desperate at the moment. I am so glad that Simon is bringing this case. I wrote to three Human Rights law firms in April about the restrictions and the suspension of all Outpatient and other medical appointments, as I had (until they were all stopped) regular and frequent appointments, but got no where. I can’t access what little support there is out there because it is all done by telephone and my hearing problems and severe anxiety make the telephone virtually impossible. I wrote to my MP, Toby Perkins, a few times. I got a reply saying that the measures wouldn’t be in place for long (Hmmm) and that if I needed anything to contact him again. Errr, I needed his help then.
On a separate note, how are your petitions proceeding?
Hi JASA,
I’m not much of a fan of social media, but if you message Simon Dolan on Twitter he does respond. Unfortunately I don’t know of any other way to contact him.
Re Francis Hoar at Wedlake Bell, you could try contacting the firm directly? https://wedlakebell.com/contact/
As for the petitions, much credit should go to Adam Dixon who has set up a number of petitions currently awaiting approval. I know that his end social distancing one is currently live on the Parliament website:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/320079
Hi again. I sent an e-mail to Mr Gardner at Wedlakebell since I couldn’t find an e-mail address on their website and his address is on some of the correspondence on the Dolan case fund page.
100 % agree. I think up to 5% of population has a severe hearing loss and/or very dependent on lip reading. Considering the many lawsuits coming up against the government I am surprised that there has not been a lawsuit (can’t think of anything worthier) against the Government for this grave and inhumane discrimination about a severely affected segment of the population.
Yes, that’s right and 1 in 6 people in the UK have some form of hearing impairment. The government just haven’t got a clue how these restrictions are affecting people.
Even people who don’t have hearing difficulties struggle with them as well because the mask muffles conversation and you can’t see their face. But I do feel sorry for those with hearing difficulties and those with hearing impairments and definitely I am of the opinion that this is in breach of anti-disability discrimination.
No one seems to want to take this on. I have e-mailed Toby to see if he can raise the issue.
Maybe try Iain Duncan Smith as well – I know he’s not a local MP but he’s been campaigning for the end of antisocial distancing. And Liz Truss who is the Equalities minister as IMO you have a strong case.
Sorry to hear that, must be really tricky and even more socially isolating that we already are. I saw a news piece about blind and partially sighted people too having tremendous difficulty with social distancing, and often getting berated in public for getting too close to people, and how they relied on kind citizens with things like getting on and off trains, and navigating busy thoroughfares and how they felt abandoned. People haven’t really thought this thing through at all, or given much consideration to people who struggle.
This is one of the most criminal aspects of the lockdown and anti-social distancing that apart from other illnesses being forgotten due to this virus those with mental health issues and disabilities have been thrown to the scrapheap as well. It’s a disgrace!
Thank you. Yes, nothing has been thought through at all. I am very glad for the existence of this site. I don’t post often, but I have been here since the beginning of April. I have been really struggling and it helps a lot.
I have to lip read too much of the time. Masks mean I don’t get to communicate very well.
https://pagetwo.completecolorado.com/2020/06/11/dierenbach-the-coronavirus-response-has-been-deadly/
This is a useful link with many cross references. It discusses the excess deaths due to the lockdown and Colorado one of the few US states with correct reporting of Covid-19 death as below
“They are finding that 17% of deaths where coronavirus is present are not “due to COVID-19.” Applying the 17% to 90,000 results in 15,000 U.S. deaths “with” coronavirus but not “from” coronavirus. Interestingly, if the 15,000 is added to the CDC’s 17,000 non-coronavirus excess deaths, the total ends up being about a third of the total deaths of Covid-19”
I’ll just post this graphic up from the other day showing deaths in Hospital, Care Home and At Home (England & Wales). The article mirrors what I suggested the other day that people may have died because of how the world reacted.
The public guardian are not just winning; they control most of our public institutions, the broadcast media, and governance of most large organisations. I doubt it is safe even to express support for the FSU. Depressing, but nevertheless true.
However there are other ways to support them
I think people need to stop worrying about ‘safe’. It’s never safe to resist, but if you want safe then live under their oppressive measures. There’s a price for resistance but, to paraphrase Franklin, those who want ‘safe’ deserve neither safety nor liberty.
https://twitter.com/NahasNewman/status/1271676196208680964/photo/1
About the second wave
523 of 537 Covid-cases reported 10th June from a part of Texas was from a prison.
One comment “Why are we testing asymptomatic prisoners?”
Even more strange thing in Texas. Serology testing positive could be included in the total cases.This is happening much more than we are aware about. Including persons testing positive for Covid-19 in serology samples indicating a past infection and group them together with active cases will distort everything. If you see Spain’s actual Covid cases daily now include serology positive persons!
It’s clear this is how they’ll control the majority until Gates’s vaccine and microchip can be injected into us.
Stupid bubbles start today. The bbc site says: ‘The new measures open up the possibility for grandparents who live alone to visit and hug their grandchildren for the first time since lockdown began.’ Yet presumably if you have both grandparents they can’t hug their grandchildren. Why? What’s the difference if you live alone or if you live as a couple? Wake up Britain and see this for the absurd circus show that it is. Since when should a government legislate when I can hug someone? I’m sick of being treated like a naughty child.
Well you can hug them, its called ignoring inhumane laws and its what any humane person should do. Then we need to hold the people creating these inhumane laws to account and lock them down or up.
Three months of insanity with more to come .The measures are similar to those imposed by an occupying foreign power on a subjugated population ; actually they are worse. Mass house arrest , effective curfews,closure of shops, businesses, theatres,,pubs , cinemas : all these only occurred for only a month in Berlin even under the Red army in 1945.
And in Palestine on a regular basis even today. We’ve witnessed it but it rarely gets reported in the MSM.
Just ignore this bullshit I have done from the start.
If you can hug someone then why the antisocial distancing? Does this government have no joined up brain cells?
Just like to mention local sport and corona
I k now its low down on the list but media rarely mention it.
I played football and cricket at local level when I was younger.and like to watch now.
There are many local leagues that have been shut down by this .
What will happen next season football wise with all the stupid distancing rules etc there ls no way the season can start again at local level
Many young people will miss playing ,and will loose physical and mental health because of this
In my opinion team sport is finished at a local level possibly for good.
What a soulless depressing existence we have to look forward to I’m really down today .
But there seems no end to this madness
Couldn’t agree with you more Nic. Looks like no football in Scotland at grass roots/junior level next season. Absolute disgrace that sports and team events are being curtailed for this nonsense, when we know the health and wellbeing of those taking part is improved immensely.
Sorry I can’t offer any support to how you are feeling today….we can only keep at this with the view that common sense and the truth will eventually come through.
They are deliberately seeing how far they can go with a communist like existence being pushed at us, it’s a form of bullying and the way to deter bullies is to hit back. They must be rubbing theur hands with glee at how easy it’s been to control us.
They only have a compliant population because the vast majority believe the lies and are still overwhelmed with fear for their own health and the health of their loved ones. Once the truth is out, the anger will be unleashed against the politicians, public health authorities and MSM. The next pandemic to come along, even if a real one, won’t be believed.
The truth is out, your never going to hear it on the MSM but it is out none the less. People just don’t care, it is will full ignorance.
That’s right. Rise up!
Yes, sport and team sport are massively important. It’s being severely hampered. Maybe it will need to go partly underground – meet up in the park with your mates. The urge is strong. I heard from someone yesterday that certain pubs in my area have been opening to regulars.
I’m already training underground
Hopefully this is the letter from the professor at UC Berkeley before it disappears forever:
UC Berkeley History Professor’s Open Letter Against BLM, Police Brutality and Cultural Orthodoxy via Tracy Beanz on TwitterDear profs X, Y, ZI am one of your colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley. I have met you both personally but do not know you closely, and am contacting you anonymously, with apologies. I am worried that writing this email publicly might lead to me losing my job, and likely all future jobs in my field.
In your recent departmental emails you mentioned our pledge to diversity, but I am increasingly alarmed by the absence of diversity of opinion on the topic of the recent protests and our community response to them.
In the extended links and resources you provided, I could not find a single instance of substantial counter-argument or alternative narrative to explain the under-representation of black individuals in academia or their over-representation in the criminal justice system. The explanation provided in your documentation, to the near exclusion of all others, is univariate: the problems of the black community are caused by whites, or, when whites are not physically present, by the infiltration… Read more »
Bloody brilliant. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much! I should have known better, and saved the letter straight away. But I didn’t expect it to disappear – naive? I lived in an Easter Bloc country under communism, where books were banned, and you had to say the right thing in public to survive. I escaped, but now it seems there’s no escape any more…
BLM complain about white on black oppression but as the letter points out rightly BLM are quiet about black on black oppression. Many black African countries were run by brutal dictators eg Idi Amin but for some reason BLM are quiet about this.